Mae is dealing with the loss of her mom and discovers she’s been left a horse with a secret.
Story: Don Handfield, Joshua Malkin
Art: Rafael Loureiro
Color: Dijjo Lima
Letterer: DC Hopkins
Get your copy now! To find a comic shop near you, visit http://www.comicshoplocator.com or call 1-888-comicbook or digitally and online with the links below.
DARK AGE #6
APR211882
(W) Don Handfield (A) Leonardo Rodrigues (CA) Nicholas Ely
Riker and his band learn why metal disappeared and uncover an even darker, more incredible secret, one that can either save or damn humankind forever.
FC · 32 page · $3.95
Available June 23, 2021
WHITE LILY #5
APR211883
(W) Preston Poulter (A) Jake Bilbao (CA) Jake Bilbao
Riker and his band learn why metal disappeared and uncover an even darker, more incredible secret, one that can either save or damn humankind forever.
FC · 32 page · $3.95
Available June 30, 2021
Fan favorite series The Dark Age reaches its long-awaited conclusion this summer.
The surprise smash hit of 2020, The Dark Age introduced audiences to the world of Ethen and his children Jonnie and Jonah. A world where all metal on earth suddenly turned to worthless piles of rust and dust. With no technology, no guns, no computers, humanity reverted to a violent feudal system, each pocket of civilization ruled by knights of wood and glass and concrete. The new Dark Age.
Writer Don Handfield teams with superstar artist Pop Mahn to return us to the world of The Dark Age as the Empire of America and The United States of Canada confront the strangers from the sky who were behind the fall of human civilization in the startling conclusion of The Dark Age.
Red 5 will also be releasing The Dark Age #6 in June and The Dark Age #7 in July, 2021, to be followed by a collection of all seven issues later in the year.
Scout Comics & Entertainment, Inc. proudly announces the launch of Scoot!, an imprint devoted to young readers ages four to twelve in January 2021. Richard Rivera, writer/creator of Stabbity Bunny, Shadow Play, and Storm Pirates, has come aboard as Associate Publisher with Wayne Hall serving as Editorial Director. Scoot! will present an international collection of titles aimed at entertaining young readers by celebrating the fun, excitement, and pure joy that can thrive in comics. With a focus on diversity and educational value, the imprint will appeal to parents as well as kids.
Scoot!’s initial launch titles will include: Unikorn by Don Handfield and Joshua Malkin; Sengi and Tembo by Guiseppe Falco; Soulstream by sixteen-year-old Saida Woolf; and Mapmaker by Ben Slabak and Francesca Carita. Richard Rivera‘s and Dwayne Biddix‘s Wild Bull and Chipper will also be joining the lineup. Several other titles are currently being negotiated, and the imprint is aiming to grow quickly.
These titles are already getting attention as Scout Comics has shared that Armory Films is gearing up to produce Unikorn. Creators Don Handfield and Joshua Malkin are adapting their graphic novel to the big screen, and the film will mark celebrated, in-demand editor Debbie Berman’s first effort behind the camera.
Rising independent production company Armory Films is gearing up to produce Unikorn, a feature adaptation of Don Handfield and Joshua Malkin’s original graphic novel which Armory developed and financed with Handfield and that Scout Comics is publishing in early 2021.
The film will mark celebrated, in-demand editor Debbie Berman’s (Black Panther, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Captain Marvel) first effort behind the camera.
In Unikorn, Maeve “Mae” Everhart inherits Percy, an old horse with a strange nub in the center of his forehead that makes her believe it’s a unikorn – a unicorn with a broken horn. Mae soon discovers the horn was removed for a reason – to keep Percy safe from those would exploit or harm him. Mae must find the unicorn’s broken horn and prove to her skeptical father that her horse really is magical before everything she cares about is lost forever
Unikorn is based on the graphic novel by Handfield and Joshua Malkin, which they have adapted for the screen, and will be produced by Armory’s Lemole and Zajaros, and Handfield.
Debbie Berman is most well known for her work as an Editor on Black Panther, which is the first superhero film ever to be nominated for several Academy Awards® (including Best Picture), and winner of 3.
Debbie is one of the very few women working on big-budget features and has had a meteoric career rise over the last couple of years. This began with her first foray into Marvel Studios editing Spider-Man: Homecoming. This film was critically and commercially acclaimed and reinvigorated the franchise to become 2017’s top-grossing superhero film.
She then worked on Black Panther, which is nothing less than a cultural and film phenomenon. It received a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes (Marvel Studio’s highest-scoring film), made $1.2 billion worldwide, and is one of the top-grossing films of all time. Using her unique life experience of being born and raised in Africa, Debbie was able to help ensure the authenticity of Marvel’s first film set on the continent. One of her major contributions was to guide the narrative and the performances in a way that accentuated a multitude of powerful, interesting and inspiring female characters.
Debbie’s third film in a row at Marvel Studios was Captain Marvel. It is the first female led film in their cinematic universe. It grossed over a billion dollars within its first month of release, had the biggest worldwide opening weekend for a female led film, set the worldwide opening weekend record for a solo superhero film, and is the highest grossing female superhero film of all time.
Debbie was selected as one of Variety’s ‘Artisans Elite’ in 2018, and is now in high demand as one of the most exciting new talents in Hollywood.
Don Handfield is the co-creator of the History Channel drama series Knightfall. This is the fourth comic series he has sold or optioned to television. His first comic series THE RIFT was picked up by Steven Spielberg and Amblin Entertainment, and lensed as the season finale of the recent Amazing Stories anthology reboot on Apple +, for which he also co-wrote the teleplay. Handfield has several other properties in active development at various companies including the upcoming YA graphic novel Loot, The Mall also from Scout Comics and The Dark Age published by Red 5 comics.
Handfield developed and produced The Founder starring Michael Keaton and Kill the Messenger starring two-time Academy Award® nominated actor Jeremy Renner, with whom Handfield co-founded their production company The Combine.
Joshua Malkin (Cabin Fever 2) has written feature projects for Sony, Fox, Cross Creek, Warner Brothers and Universal Pictures and is repped by Echo Lake Entertainment. Together, Malkin & Handfield co-wrote the top-selling comic series The Source, also for Scout Comics.
Scout Comics is launching SCOOT!, their new Kids & Teens division with the publication of Unikorn.
Scout Comics & Entertainment Inc. has announced that David Byrne and Charlie Stickney have been promoted to Co-Publishers as the company continues to expand its publishing program and multi-media presence.
James Pruett has shifted his focus to concentrate on his role as Chief Creative Officer and will work closely with CEO Brendan Deneen to expand the company’s presence in the bookstore market and to further exploit Scout’s foreign language, multimedia, and merchandising opportunities.
David Byrne began his Scout career as a production designer in 2019, bringing his film and business education and experience as an editor, writer, and retailer to the team. He has spent the better part of two decades in sales, and owned and operated independent publisher W.i.N. Pictures, producing the hit comic Stake and such well-received titles as Color Me Yellow, Daisy Gets a Brother, Shady Place, and The Couch.
As Co-Publisher, Charlie Stickney emphasizes a creator-first approach, designed to empower writers and artists to help bring their vision to the marketplace. Stickney is the writer/co-creator of the comic book series White Ash, The Game, Glarien and The Adept. In addition, Charlie has spent the last twenty-plus years writing and producing animation, film and television. After interning at Marvel Comics, Stickney moved to Los Angeles where he developed and ran the animated series Horrible Histories for Scholastic Entertainment, and Cosmic Quantum Ray for Mike Young Productions. Charlie has also produced content for Sony Pictures, ITV, Universal Pictures, Revolution Studios, and Hulu.
David and Charlie join Deneen and Pruett, as well as the rest of the Scout executive team, including James Haick (President), Tennessee Edwards (Chief Strategy Officer), and Don Handfield (Chief Media Officer), in expanding the publishing and multimedia company.
Scout Comics & Entertainment Inc. has announced that it’s expanding its operations in 2020. Producer and writer Don Handfield has joined Scout as a partner, co-owner, and board member. He will also serve as Chief Media Officer, helping the company further expand into new media, film, and television. Additionally, Scout is launching six new specialty imprints as it seeks to bolster its presence in the direct comic market as well as diving full force into the brick & mortar bookstore and e-retailer markets.
Handfield is the co-creator and Executive Producer of History Channel’s drama series Knightfall, one of the top cable drama launches of 2017. He also produced The Founder starring Michael Keaton. Handfield’s first comic series The Rift, was picked up by Steven Spielberg and Amblin; and his second series The Mall, published by Scout, was picked up by Ivan Reitman. Handfield is also behind The Source from Scout, and The Dark Age at Red 5 Comics, which was optioned by Armory Films (Mudbound, Peanut Butter Falcon). On the film side, Handfield is currently producing along with Marc Platt (LA LA LAND) the adaptation of Switched On, the critically-acclaimed book from John Elder Robison at Focus Features with Emma Frost (The White Queen) adapting. Handfield is also producing the US-remake of top grossing Vietnamese horror film Housemaid alongside CJ Entertainment from a script that was adapted for the US market by Academy-Award winning writer Geoffrey Fletcher.
The six new Scout imprints include:
OUTSIDER
Outsider Comics began as a physical retail space in Seattle, committed to showing that comics are for everyone. Run by Jill Taplin, the Outsider imprint will focus on celebrating creators and stories that are underrepresented in sequential storytelling today.
We’re excited to play a part in sharing these perspectives and helping to make comics more inclusive
-Jill Taplin
BLACK CARAVAN
Black Caravan will explore the darker side of creator-owned comics, high end art books, and collectibles. The horror imprint’s co-Publishers, Joseph Schmalke, and Rich Woodall, are both veterans of independent publishing, including their current Scout book THE ELECTRIC BLACK.
SCOOT
Scoot will be Scout’s all ages line that is launching in conjunction with Free Comic Book Day via the $1 Scoot Preview book. This preview will feature multiple Scoot launch titles.
LIT
Scout will delve into the young adult space with Lit, graphic novels that will appeal to teens of all interests and backgrounds.
ONE-SHOT
The One-Shot imprint will publish approximately half a dozen self-contained one-shot comics by some of today’s most talented creators each year. At the beginning of each subsequent year, Scout will collect all of these one-shots into a single trade paperback anthology.
NONSTOP!
Scout’s Nonstop! imprint caters to readers, collectors and retailers alike. First, a Nonstop! world premiere issue #1 is released to give fans a taste of the story, and then a few months later, the full story is released in full as a trade paperback.
Scout Comics and Entertainment has announced that The Source #1 by Don Handfield, Joshua Malkin, and Leno Carrvalho has completely sold out and has gone back to a second printing.
The Source is the story of Bennett Miller, a high school teacher in East St Louis who still lives with his grandmother. One day, Bennett is approached after his class by a mysterious old woman, Ms. Putnam, who tells him that magic is real… and he’s the one prophesied to return it to humanity. The only problem…it’s been outlawed for thousands of years by the ancient Few, a powerful sect who hoard it to prolong their own lives…and will stop at nothing to keep it secret. The Source is based on true history, real legends, actual folklore and myths.
Please use Diamond code SEP188132 to order The Source #1 2nd printing coming to stores December 2018.
Ivan Reitman’s Montecito Pictures has picked up Don Handfield and James Haick III’s critically acclaimed comic series The Mall, published by Scout Comics. Handfield, the co-creator of History Channel’s Knightfall will adapt for the small screen through his Motor Television banner.
Set in the golden age of kiosks, arcades and food courts,The Mall tells the story of three teenagers — the QUARTERBACK, the PRINCESS and the GEEK, who all find out they’re related when their real father, a mid-level crime boss, dies and leaves them each a store inside the local mall. The catch is, the stores are fronts for the mob, and the teens must decide whether to break bad or go legit, all while trying to navigate the high stakes John Hughes type drama that is high school in the 1980s. Finding a date for the prom is one thing, doing it with the Columbian drug cartel out to kill you is another.
Handfield’s first comic series The Rift was also optioned for television and his upcoming new comic series The Source, also from Scout Comics, co-created with Joshua Malkin launches at New York Comic-Con 2018 with a limited edition glow-in-the-dark variant cover.
Haick is the creator of another successful ongoing Scout series Solar Flare, about mankind’s quest to survive after a x-class solar flare wipes out the world’s electrical infrastructure, along with the upcoming Long Live Pro Wrestling series.
To put things simply, Scout Comics’ The Mall #1 is The Breakfast Club meets Goodfellas complete with three very different teenagers going not to Saturday detention, but meeting with Lenny, the brother of dead crime boss, Gino Cardini and each of their fathers. Except with some shared characters and the concept of the children of a dead crime boss running his mall mob fronts, The Mall #1 doesn’t line up plotwise with the Free Comic Book Day issue. However, writers Don Handfield and James Haick III, artist Rafael Loureiro, and colorist Dijjo Lima make a solid effort at combining the worlds of the crime saga and coming of age story with more than a little darkness along the way.
In the three protagonists Diego, Lena, and Dallas, Handfield and Haick riff off the archetypes of Brain, Rich Girl, and Jock, but The Mall #1 doesn’t fall into the lily white John Hughes movie trap and features a diverse cast of characters. Handfield and Haick also use the archetypes as a foundation to build on instead of leaning into stereotypes. For example, Lena might live in a huge mansion, but wants to have a job (Even if it’s selling hot dogs at the mall food court.) so she can build a life for her and her mother apart from her stepfather, who sexually abuses her. She is fiercely independent and has a soft spot for animals, which is why Lenny gives her the pet store to manage. The panels of her holding cute puppies are a nice relief from the violence, bullying, and racism and homophobia that pervade The Mall #1 because, hey, people are pretty terrible.
Diego is the “geek” of the unlikely trio, but has poor grades because he works at his dad’s window washing business to help ends meet, which cuts into his studying time and also causes his peers to bully him. He daydreams about a better life where kids don’t make fun of him and hurl racist slurs at him, and this causes him to lash out at his hardworking father. With a talent for music, Diego has potential, but his family doesn’t have money to send him to a more advanced school for more opportunities. This whole idea of class and opportunity is at the core of Dallas’ character, who is a football playing “jock”, but he is a backup for now and can’t afford expensive cleats without shoplifting them. He is transferring to another school to have a bigger shot at getting a college scholarship, but the kids in his neighborhood resent this and beat him up giving him bruises in a punishing sequence from Rafael Loureiro.
Don Handfield and James Haick imbue these pretty one dimensional high school movie stereotype with an awareness of class and race in The Mall #1 and then add the mob elements. Unlike the Free Comic Book Day issue, Handfield and Haick almost immediately throw Diego, Lena, and Dallas into a world of guns and rivalries as Lenny is threatened by a homophobic member of another rival gang. In some of Handfield and Haick’s harshest writing, he basically uses Reagan era AIDS rhetoric against his opponent, but before the teens can settle into setting up their mall stores, they are drawn into a fire fight. Loureiro’s panels tilt, his art is more stylized, and Dijjo Lima’s color palette is more intense to show the brave new world that these teens are in. This isn’t an after school job or scholarship program; this is war.
In The Mall #1, Handfield, Haick, and Loureiro do a good job introducing its three main characters, its high concept coming of age meets mob movie premise, and then throws everyone into the deep end after taking its time getting to the gangster stuff. It will be interesting to see each protagonist’s reaction to the violent world that they have been thrown into, and the best part of this book is the three distinct viewpoints on the world given to Diego, Lena, and Dallas. They certainly have plenty of problems, and even before the crime family angle is introduced, The Mall #1 has an ugly, harsh take on the world with cheerleaders forced to give oral sex in return for shopping sprees, friends beating up friends because they are betraying the neighborhood, and Lena getting sexually assaulted by her stepfather.
Story: Don Handfield and James Haick III Art: Rafael Loureiro
Colors: Dijjo Lima Letters: DC Hopkins
Story: 7.5 Art: 8 Overall: 7.7 Recommendation: Read
Scout Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review
