Slugfest | Superman’s ‘House of Brainiac’ begins + more new comics coming from DC in April

Read about DC’s Free Comic Book Day plans, the 300th issue of Nightwing, DC’s Spring Breakout and more.

Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you. This edition focuses on DC’s April 2024 announcements. Hit the links for more information.

DC’s solicitations for April 2024 arrived this past week — you can find them on The Beat or on Newsarama — and I thought I’d pull out some of the highlights. There aren’t many new first issues, but there is a big Superman-themed crossover event launching, several annuals, some graphic novels and listings for three of their four Free Comic Book Day titles for this year.

So let’s begin …

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DC’s going to the dogs in ‘Barkham Asylum’

The all-ages graphic novel will feature the pets of some of Batman’s greatest villains.

DC Comics has announced a new young adult graphic novel about Batman’s villains’ pets — the cleverly titled Barkham Asylum. Yehudi Mercado, creator of the recent Shazam! Thundercrack, is writing and drawing this one as well.

“When crafting this graphic novel, I pulled some inspiration from my own experience growing up,” said Mercado. “I was a class clown in school and as a result of that, I spent a lot of time in detention. So I can kind of relate to the lead dog, Jester, in my own way.”

In addition to Jester, the book will also feature “a tough-talking stray cat named Penny.”

“All Jester wants is to make people laugh, so in his mind, his master isn’t such a bad guy. Locked up with him is an innocent stray cat named Penny, a loner who rejects Jester’s request to join his pack. But if they’re going to get out of this mess, they will have to team up. And if a stray cat and The Joker’s dog can get along, then maybe there’s hope for all of us,” Mercado said.

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DC announces ‘Shazam! Thundercrack’ by Yehudi Mercado

The new graphic novel is set during the ‘Shazam!’ movie timeline.

Yehudi Mercado will write and draw Shazam! Thundercrack, a new graphic novel aimed at younger readers that will arrive in June 2022.

The graphic novel is set during the timeline of the Shazam! movie, as Billy Batson joins the Fawcett Tigers’ football team and learns to be a team player, while continuing his superhero training.

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