Tag Archives: Leonardo Ito

Get a First Look at Batman ’89 #1 out on August 10

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Step back into the Gotham of Tim Burton’s seminal classic Batman movies on August 10! Batman ’89 by screenwriter Sam Hamm and artist Joe Quinones will pull on a number of threads left dangling by the prolific director in an incredible new six-issue comic book miniseries!

Gotham City is being torn in two as citizens dressed as Batman and The Joker duke it out in the streets! As D.A. Harvey Dent tries to keep the city together, he targets the one problem tearing it apart: BATMAN! And he’ll get Bruce Wayne’s help in taking down the Dark Knight!

DC has released a first look at the series including some of the variant covers coming and a look at some of the upcoming covers too!

Batman ’89 #1 by Sam Hamm, Joe Quinones, Leonardo Ito, and Clayton Cowles arrives on August 10 with a cover by Quinones, plus variant covers by Jerry Ordway (open to order) and Quinones (1:25):

Several comic shops will also be offering either a Batman ‘89 #1 team variant by Ken Taylor and Taurin Clarke, or their own shop-specific cover alongside the standard Batman ‘89 covers and variants:

Batman ’89 #1 variant cover by Francesco Mattina, available from Comic Kingdom of Canada

Batman ’89 #1 variant cover by Mico Suayan, available from Big Time Collectibles

Batman ’89 #1 variant cover by Mico Suayan, available from Big Time Collectibles

Batman ’89 #1 variant cover by Carla Cohen, available from Comics Elite

Batman ’89 #1 variant cover by Carla Cohen, available from Comics Elite

Coming up in the Batman ’89 run:

  • Batman ’89 #2, with a cover by Joe Quinones, arrives in comic shops on September 14
  • Batman ’89 #2, with a variant cover by Mitch Gerads, arrives in comic shops on September 14
  • Batman ’89 #3, with a cover by Joe Quinones, arrives in comic shops on October 12
  • Batman ’89 #3 variant cover by Lee Weeks arrives in comic shops on October 12

Grab Your Bag of Holding for the Rick and Morty vs Dungeons & Dragons: Deluxe Edition

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The Oni-Lion Forge Publishing Group and IDW Publishing bring back Adult Swim’s cult-favorite Rick and Morty: Dungeons & Dragons in an all-new hardcover deluxe edition, including a specially created Mr. Meeseeks story and featuring new cover art from Troy Little coming August 2021. Grab your dice, pencils, and spellbooks as Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons returns in a complete collected adventure from the creative forces of writers Patrick Rothfuss and Jim Zub, illustrator Troy Little, colorist Leonardo Ito, with lettering by Crank! and Robbie Robbins, and a foreword from Jim Zub.

The deluxe edition will feature a brand-new cover, as well as all eight issues of the hit series, include backmatter from the Oni Press and IDW single issues, and an all-new story from Jim Zub and Troy Little featuring Mr. Meeseeks conquering the Forgotten Realms!

When Morty asks Rick for help learning how to play the classic role-playing game because he has a crush on a girl, it ends up drawing the entire family into a D&D world, where they inadvertently help the “bad guys” win but eventually make it right in the end. And in the hit series Painscape, when magical D&D adventures come to Earth, no one will survive the Painscape! The world’s greatest role-playing game returns to plague the world’s most dysfunctional animated family, and this time Rick knows they can’t just rest on brand-name recognition and curiosity. But even Rick Sanchez can’t predict what will happen when long-abandoned characters come back for revenge.

The new, complete deluxe edition includes over 250 pages of monsters, mayhem, and a bag of holding-worth of bonus materials—including the all-new story from Jim Zub and Troy Little. Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons: Deluxe Edition will be available online and in stores on August 4, 2021. IDW Publishing will simultaneously release a 750 copy limited run of Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons: Deluxe Edition, featuring an exclusive cover by Max Dunbar and signed by Patrick Rothfuss and Jim Zub.

Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons: Deluxe Edition

Travel to Hotel Immortal with Rick and Morty in July

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Coming soon from the Oni-Lion Forge Publishing Group and Adult Swim, a brand-new Rick and Morty comic crashes into comic book shops in July 2021 with Rick and Morty Presents: Hotel Immortal from the creative team of writer Alejandro Arbona, illustrator Marc Ellerby, and colorist Leonardo Ito, with lettering by Crank!. The next installment of the Rick and Morty Presents series kicks off with a whodunnit in Rick and Morty Presents: Hotel Immortal. When Cornvelious Daniels checks in for some R&R at the Hotel Immortal, bodies start dropping—and accusations start flying!

Rick and Morty Presents: Hotel Immortal will be available online and in stores on July 14, 2021. 

Rick and Morty

Rick and Morty are Worlds Apart in 2021

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Oni Press and Lion Forge have announced a brand-new Rick and Morty comic miniseries— Rick and Morty: Worlds Apart, coming February 2021. 

Based on the hit series and Emmy-winning fourth season of Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty™, it’s going to get crazy for the Smiths and Rick Sanchez as new favorite characters collide in Rick and Morty: Worlds Apart. Catch the outrageous Balthromaw and his band of dragon adventurers in an all-new, tantalizing adventure where only Morty can save them. And when Teddy Rick shows up and ruins Rick’s ultimate vacation plan, no one is safe! 

The four-part miniseries will feature the creative team of Josh Trujillo, Tony Fleecs, Jarrett Williams, Leonardo Ito, and Crank! They’ll bring to life, including perhaps the kinkiest team of super-villains to ever grace a comic-book page!

Rick and Morty: Worlds Apart joins other Rick and Morty comics as they hit the shelves in 2021, including new issues in the Rick and Morty Presents series, Rick and Morty: Ever After, and more.

Rick and Morty: Worlds Apart is slated to launch February 3, 2021. 

Rick and Morty: Worlds Apart

Preview: Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons #1

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Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons #1

(W) Patrick Rothfuss, Jim Zub
(A) Troy Little
(C) Leonardo Ito
(CA) Troy Little with Leonardo Ito
Age Rating: Teen, 16+
Genre: Sci-Fi, Humor, Fantasy
Price: $3.99
Page Count: 32

When Morty needs to learn how to play D&D to keep up with the cool kids, his hard-drinking, old school-gaming, mad science-making grandpa is happy to teach him how to roll the dice, but neither of them is prepared for the saving throws they’re about to fail or the true quest yet to come. Strap on a +1 longsword and grab your 10-foot pole, because this is going to be a gaming gauntlet like no other!

Star Trek and Transformers Collide in a New Crossover

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The starship Enterprise finds there’s more to the final frontier when Kirk and his crew come face-to-face with the strangest life forms of all: the shape-changing robots of Cybertron! Prepare to beam up and roll out this September with Star Trek vs. Transformers, a four-issue comic book crossover that is more than meets the eye and is inspired by the continuities of two iconic cartoon shows: Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973) and The Transformers (1984).

Two of the most prolific Transformers and Star Trek comic book writers — John Barber and Mike Johnson — team with artist Philip Murphy and colorist Leonardo Ito to tell the story that fans have demanded for decades. At the edge of Klingon space, the Enterprise​ answers a distress call, discovering a dilithium mine under siege by jets and helicopters of vintage 20th Century design. When a red, flat-nosed truck rolls in to save the day, the no-holds barred Saturday morning mash-up truly begins!

Review: Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures #1

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batmantmntcoverIn a disappointing turn of events, reading Batman/TMNT Adventures #1 is like watching one of your favorite bands as a kid or teenager come back together for a half-hearted reunion because they have bills to pay or something. (And maybe it’s a completely new band lineup.) In IDW’s latest intercompany crossover with DC Comics, writer Matthew K Manning, artists Jon Sammariva and Sean Parsons, and colorist Leonardo Ito kind of , sort of mash together Batman and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles using the designs from the classic Batman the Animated Series and not as famous 2003 TMNT cartoon. There are plenty of silly jokes, some creative drawing of Clayface, and even Alfred snark, but these good bits seem thrown together in a kind of heterogenous crossover mixture if you remember high school chemistry.

Manning does a decent job writing banter for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles relying on bad puns and sight gags from Sammariva and Parsons for most of his humor. They are the entertaining part of the crossover with a small skirmish against Clayface, who has randomly crossed a portal into the TMNT universe that was opened by Two-Face that Manning struggles to explain before moving onto the next average gag. Batman and company get completely neglected by the crossover with the Dark Knight doing a tiny bit of detective work and just posing around the whole issue. Sammariva brings some slapdash energy to Clayface’s transformation into Michelangelo, and Ito pours on the brown, but there is none of the psychological depth that Batman: The Animated Series brought to them as they are just jokes and gimmicks. (And Sammariva draws Harley Quinn with no spine.)

There is already a pretty good Batman/TMNT crossover that came out earlier this year from James Tynion and Freddie Williams as they juxtaposed the Turtles’ relentless love of fun with Batman’s no nonsense attitude for great comedic effect and even one powerful dramatic moment when Batman showed Raphael his parents’ graves. Manning uses this juxtaposition in Batman/TMNT Adventures #1 for weak sight gags as Michelangelo quotes dialogue from Batman: The Animated Series and asks a criminal where the best place to get pizza is. There is a slight attempt at showing how the Turtles are trying to be legit superheroes, but it falls by the wayside for the Clayface battle and having the Joker and Harley Quinn as the plot turns into a flurry of cameos and what was meant to be a cliffhanger reveal.

The iconic Bruce Timm Batman: The Animated Series and the ridiculously delightful 2003-2009 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series designs are on model, but lack the motion and kinetic feeling of the source material. I would really love to see what an artist like Michael Avon Oeming or Ian McGinty would have done with these characters. Batman/TMNT Adventures #1 may appeal to young readers, who didn’t grow up on these two cartoons or who enjoy the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but it falls short of being a true “all ages” book despite its nods to nostalgia.

Story: Matthew K. Manning Penciler: Jon Sammariva
Inker: Sean Parsons Colors: Leonardo Ito
Story: 5 Art: 6 Overall: 5.5 Recommendation: Pass

IDW provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

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