Sunday Comics | Read these Eisner nominees online

Check out webcomics by Jimmy Stamp, Débora Santos, Michael Adam Lengyel, Joshua Barkman and more.

With the Eisner Award nominations still fresh on everyone’s minds, I thought I’d take a look this time at some of the nominees you can read for free online, starting with one of the nominations for “Best Short Story.”

The Beekeeper’s Due by Jimmy Stamp and Débora Santos originally appeared in Scott Snyder Presents: Tales from the Cloakroom, a collection of stories by students in Snyder’s Substack writing course. The anthology was crowdfunded, so it might not be as easy to find as the other stories it is competing against from Marvel, DC and Z2, which could hurt its chances.

But the creators have a remedy for that — put it out on the web for free.

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The Nib will shut down after August

Editor Matt Bors announced the decision today, noting ‘The math isn’t working anymore.’

The Nib, the award-winning, critically acclaimed and much-needed political comics website and publisher, will shut down at the end of the summer.

Editor and publisher Matt Bors announced the decision on the site, noting the decision was “incredibly hard,” but “the math isn’t working anymore.”

“This was an incredibly hard decision to make and there’s no one factor involved,” Bors said. “Rather it involves, well, everything. The rising costs of paper and postage, the changing landscape of social media, subscription exhaustion, inflation, and the simple difficulty of keeping a small independent publishing project alive with relatively few resources—though we did a lot with them. The math isn’t working anymore.”

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Image Comics will release a big helping of ‘Octopus Pie’

The publisher will collect Meredith Gran’s entire webcomic into a five-volume box set this fall.

Meredith Gran’s Octopus Pie ended in 2017 after a 10-year run, and now Image Comics will collect the entirety of the strip in Octopus Pie: The Complete Series Box Set.

“I’m so glad to finally present these books as a set,” said Gran. “Like the series itself, each printed volume—born from chaos—has now found beauty and cohesion.”

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Smash Pages Q&A | Hannah Templer on ‘Cosmoknights, Book Two’

The creator of the science fiction graphic novel series discusses the changing dynamics of the team, maintaining a sense of fun and why she launched it as a webcomic first.

Known for her work on G.L.O.W., Flung Out of Space, The Vampire Slayer and many other titles, Hannah Templer‘s most ambitious work has been the critically acclaimed Cosmoknights, an original graphic novel series that first debuted as a webcomic back in 2019.

The first volume introduced a universe where “mech-suited warriors duel over the daughters of the aristocracy, and a fledgling resistance of lady knights aim to bring down the system from within.” While the first volume brought the crew together, the second volume focuses on how they come together as a team, exploring their relationships and the drama that entails, while still bringing the same sense of adventure that made the first volume so much fun.

Top Shelf will publish Cosmoknights Volume Two in June, and Templer was kind enough to answer my questions about it.

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John Allison’s X-Men fan comic debuts on his website

‘Kit & the Wolf’ features Kitty Pryde looking for a concert buddy — and Wolverine’s the only one home.

It’s a big week for John Allison fans; not only is his new comic from Dark Horse, The Great British Bump-Off, debuting in shops tomorrow, but he has also launched an X-Men fan comic on his website and Patreon. The first comic debuted this week.

“I had to move house recently, there were weeks of stress and upheaval, and I didn’t have anything on the slate that I wanted to work on in tricky circumstances – no scripts for Steeple (which was meant to be next up), no fill-in Solver story, or anything else,” he wrote. “So I made the default comic I might have made as a child – an X-Men comic. If it hadn’t worked, you’d have been reading here that I am currently taking ‘a much needed break.’ It’s not a crossover, and it’s not a joke – I tried really hard! If I make an X-Men comic, it’s not going to be a ‘the guys hang out and have breakfast’ comic. There has to be pulse-pounding† action and mutant danger. The things I couldn’t write or draw when I was 13 years old.”

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Sunday Comics | ‘Heartstopper’ will return in April

Plus: Get Dinosaur Comics texted to you! And check out some recent award nominees.

Here’s a round-up of some of the best webcomics we’ve seen online recently — and news about them as well. If we missed something, let us know in the comments below.

Heartstopper, the mega-popular webcomic by Alice Oseman that’s been adapted into a series on Netflix, will return from hiatus in April. The announcement came on Twitter from Oseman’s official account.

“The Heartstopper webcomic returns to Tapas, Webtoon, and Tumblr on the 1st April 2023! (I promise this isn’t an April Fool’s joke lol),” the tweet read.

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DC’s Webtoon series will come to print later this year

DC and Webtoon have announced collections of ‘Wayne Family Adventures,’ ‘Vixen’ and ‘Zatanna & the Ripper.’

The three webcomics series produced by DC Comics and Webtoon will come to print later this year, starting with Batman: Wayne Family Adventures in August.

The webcomic by writer CRC Payne, lead artist StarBite, storyboard artist Maria Li, background artist Lan Ma, letterer Kielamel Sibal, and colorists C.M. Cameron, Camille Cruz and Jean Kim debuted on the platform back in 2021 and is still going; it’s up to 76 episodes now. It was followed by Vixen: NYC by Jasmine Walls and Maniu Azumi, which is up to episode 44, and Zatanna & The Ripper by Sarah Dealy and Syro, which is up to episode 38.

“Fans can’t get enough of our DC and Webtoon content, and expanding DC’s creative partnership with Webtoon into print with books like Batman: Wayne Family Adventures reflects this demand,” said Anne DePies, DC’s senior vice president and general manager. “Each page of these new volumes is meticulously reproduced to be read seamlessly in book narrative format. DC’s continuing partnership with Webtoon combines legendary franchises with new technologies and global fandoms, and we can’t wait to get these new print editions into your hands.”

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Sunday Comics | New Emily Carroll comics debut on the web

Check out new comics by Skottie Young, Aaron Conley, Kagan Mcleod, J Bone and more.

Here’s a round up of some of the best comics we’ve seen online recently. If we missed something, let us know in the comments below.

Emily Carroll’s new graphic novel won’t arrive until August, but you can tide yourself over with two new comics on the creator’s website.

The first, A Pretty Place, is likely one you won’t see in print, or if you do, it won’t be the same experience. It’s an interactive comic about someone “visiting their lady,” and you can click around a map of the house to see what happens. If you’re familiar with Carroll’s work, then you can guess this is less of a romance and more of a horror comic.

Speaking of which, Carroll has also posted a fan comic for the game Bloodborne by FromSoftware.

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Sunday Comics | Several Tapas series will come to print via Dark Horse

Plus webcomics by Reimena Yee, Kazu Kibuishi and more.

Here’s a round up of some of the best comics we’ve seen online recently. If we missed something, let us know in the comments below.

Dark Horse Comics and Tapas Entertainment have announced a new partnership that will see the longtime independent comics company bring the webcomics platform’s comics to print.

Much like their deal with Comxiology, Dark Horse will collect titles like Animalheads, Signals, The Flying Ship and Tomahawk Angel, with the first collections due out in October.

“We couldn’t be more excited about this partnership,” said Alex R. Carr with Tapas Entertainment. “Seeing these creators and their stories in the Dark Horse pantheon is a dream come true for all involved.”

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House of Slay returns with a new story by Cherish Chen + Ashley Liu next week

Check out an exclusive preview of the story “The Remarkable Helen Huynh” before it lands on Webtoon and Tapas on March 7.

House of Slay, the webcomic created by and starring fashion icons Prabal Gurung, Phillip Lim, Laura Kim, Tina Leung and Ezra Williams, returns next week with a new episode written by Cherish Chen (Radiant Red) and drawn by Ashley Liu. Today we’re pleased to present a sneak preview of their short story, which will debut on both Tapas and Webtoon on March 7.

House of Slay debuted back in 2021, with the first season chronicling the fictional story of how the five fashion icons became superheroes. Season two, which debuted at the end of last year, will include in total five different short stories by different creative teams, with key art and character designs by Kevin Wada.

“While Season 1 of House of Slay was a story about five friends who come together to overpower hate, Season 2 is much wider in scope, taking us all over the world to meet fascinating new additions to the team. What’s so special about this concept is how it serves to remind us what we can do when we organize and empower ourselves,” Lim said.

Gurung sets up Chen and Liu’s story:

“In Cherish Chen’s and Ashley Liu’s story we get to meet Helen Huynh, one of the most memorable new cast members of the House of Slay universe. She’s so relatable!” Gurung said. “We are all in a constant crush of responsibilities and duties and if we don’t take time out to breathe and notice the world we’re in we can’t have a positive impact on it. Even though she’s a professional photographer, Helen’s learning how to see for the first time, and the first thing she observes is the kind of just-barely hidden injustice that’s so challenging to overcome in our society. But it’s never impossible, and that’s what House of Slay is all about.”

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TinyView is raising money to offer more webcomics

The site that carries comics by Matt Bors, Brian Gordon, Jimmy Craig and more could use your help.

TinyView, the aggregated webcomics site that features comics by Rob Rogers, Brian Gordon, Matt Bors, Gemma Correll, Jimmy Craig and more, is currently running a fundraiser campaign to “reach sustainability and offer more comics.”

While social media can help creators build an audience, they typically don’t provide any payment when people read their content. That’s where a site like TinyView can come in. The site isn’t looking for direct donations, but rather is asking readers to become paid subscribers.

“Artists and creators are often forced to post work for free on the main social media platforms to gain a following. Tinyview enables artists to be paid for the work they post, while bringing lovers of classic funny-page comics together,” said Raj Lalwani, CEO of Tinyview. “Our current fundraising campaign will allow Tinyview to generate revenue from readers which will support artists they love and help usher in a stronger creator economy.”

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Dark Horse will publish Sierra Barnes’ ‘Hans Vogel is Dead’

The webcomic comes to print in the U.S. later this year.

Dark Horse has announced plans to publish Hans Vogel is Dead, the webcomic by cartoonist and painter Sierra Barnes, as a trilogy of graphic novels.

Described as “anti-fascist fairytale about a World War II fighter pilot navigating the afterlife,” Hans Vogel is Dead debuted on the web in 2015. Cast Iron Books funded a previously printing through Kickstarter and published the first volume in the UK. The first paperback volume from Dark Horse will feature new cover art as well as an expanded sketchbook section.

Hans Vogel is a passion project that I’ve poured so much love, research, and work into over the last few years, and I can hardly believe how lucky I am to see this weird little webcomic get set loose on the world,” Barnes said. “I’m so thankful to everyone who read and supported Hans and Reineke in their journey over the years, and I hope you’re as excited as I am to see them continue to grow and their adventure keep going. Thank you, thank you all!”

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