The weekend is almost here! There’s some new movies hitting theaters and at home. Any of you going to see New Mutants? Tenet? Bill & Ted 3? Sound off in the comments below. While you wait for the weekday to end and the weekend to begin, here’s some comic news and reviews from around the web.
Smash Pages – New York Times pulls Ronald Wimberly comic – Sigh.
Reviews
Talking Comics – Batman: Three Jokers #1
CBR – Fantastic Four: Antithesis #1
The Hollywood Reporter has the scoop that iconic director Spike Lee will be directing Prince of Cats. The film is based on the graphic novel by Ron Wimberly and is a riff on Romeo & Juliet set in the 1980s hip-hop scene.
Lee will rewrite the script working with Wimberly and writer Selwyn Seyfu Hinds. Hinds wrote the initial script for the adaptation.
In August 2018 the film landed with Legendary and was being developed as a vehicle for Lakeith Stanfield. It’s unknown if Stanfield is still attached to the movie.
The story’s spin on the classic tale by the Bard is that it’s seen through the eyes of Tybalt, Juliet’s angry and duel-loving cousin. The film follows Tybalt and his Capulet brothers who live in Da People’s Republic of Brooklyn, a world of sword dueling, DJing, emceeing, breakdancing, and graffiti.
The graphic novel was originally released through DC Comics’ Vertigo imprint and was recently re-released through Image Comics.
The story is a return to Brooklyn for Lee, a favorite setting of his films and has been featured in his She’s Gotta Have It, Do the Right Thing, Jungle Fever, Crooklyn, Clockers, He Got Game and Red Hook Summer.
Legendary has won the feature rights to Prince of Cats, the graphic novel by Ron Wimberly. It’s being developed as a vehicle for Lakeith Stanfield. The graphic novel was originally published by DC Comics’ Vertigo imprint and is now published by Image Comics. Selwyn Sefyu Hinds is attached to adapt.
The graphic novel is a retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet with an 80s hip-hop spin. It takes place in an alt-universe, mid-eighties New York where dueling with live blades evolved as a cultural phenomenon alongside New York’s other street cultures; it eschews the story of the titular star-crossed lovers to follow the tragic story of Tybalt, the Prince of Cats.
Small Press Expo has announced the first group of Special Guests for SPX 2018. The festival takes place on Saturday and Sunday, September 15-16, at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center and will have over 650 creators, 280 exhibitor tables and 22 programming slots to introduce attendees to the amazing world of independent and small press comics. Additional Special Guests will be announced shortly.
SPX 2018 will have the following creators as Special Guests to this year’s show:
Roz Chast
Roz Chast is a long time cartoonist for The New Yorker who wrote and illustrated the #1 New York Times bestselling graphic novel, Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? from Bloomsbury. It won a National Book Critics Circle Award, a Kirkus Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Award. Her most recent book is GOING INTO TOWN: A Love Letter to New York. She has published eight collections of her cartoons, illustrated several children’s books and received honorary doctorates from the Pratt Institute and Dartmouth College. Photo courtesy of Bill Hayes.
Derf
Derf is the author of My Friend Dahmer (Abrams Comicarts, 2012), the haunting account of his teenage friendship at Revere High School with the future serial killer. It has been hailed as one of the finest graphic novels in recent memory by Slate, The Plain Dealer, Publishers Weekly, USA Today, Kirkus Reviews, Le Monde, El Mundo, The Guardian and many more. The film adaptation of My Friend Dahmer premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and played in cinemas in the US and abroad throughout 2017 and 2018.
SPX is honored to show a screening of My Friend Dahmer, after which Derf will talk about the book and movie.
Ellen Forney
Ellen Forney authored her 2012 graphic memoir, Marbles for which she was the 2012 recipient of The Stranger Genius Award for Literature as well as the winner of the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis 2013 Gradiva Award.
Rock Steady: Brilliant Advice from My Bipolar Life is the eagerly awaited companion book to Forney’s 2012 best-selling graphic memoir, Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me.
Ron Wimberly
Ronald Wimberly is a cartoonist/designer. He’s worked with The New Yorker, Dargaud, DC, Marvel, Image, Darkhorse and many others. He’s exhibited his comics in New York, Tokyo, and Paris. Ronald was the 2016 Columbus Comics resident and two time resident cartoonist at Angoulême Maison des Auteurs.
Anders Nilsen
Anders Nilsen is the author of nine books including Big Questions, Don’t Go Where I Can’t Follow, Poetry is Useless and the forthcoming Tongues. His work has appeared in Kramer’s Ergot, Mome, the New York Times and elsewhere and been translated widely overseas. Nilsen has garnered three Ignatz Awards and the Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize.
Anders will be debuting the latest volume of his acclaimed series Tongues at SPX 2018.
Rina Ayuyang (Saturday Only)
Rina Ayuyang has been nominated for the Ignatz and Eisner Awards, and she was honored with a MoCCA Arts Festival Awards of Excellencez Silver Medal. Her comics have appeared in Mutha Magazine and The Comics Journal. She is also the publisher of the micro-comics imprint Yam Books. Her first book was Whirlwind Wonderland.
Rina Ayuyang’s latest from Drawn & Quarterly, Blame This on the Boogie, is the true story of how Hollywood musicals got one person through school, depression, and the challenges of parenthood.
Joshua Cotter
Joshua W. Cotter is the author of Skyscrapers of the Midwest, Driven by Lemons and the Nod Away series. He lives in rural northwest Missouri with his wife, children, cats and an acute sense of impending mortality. They keep him making comics.
Joshua will be at SPX 2018 to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the release of Skyscrapers of the Midwest from Adhouse Books.
Lawrence Lindell
Lawrence Lindell is a cartoonist, author and teacher from California. He created From Black Boy With Love, Hey, People of Color, Couldn’t Afford Therapy, So I Made This and the webcomic The Section. When he’s not drawing/writing comics, he is usually buying/reading them.
Small Press Expo (SPX) is the preeminent showcase for the exhibition of independent comics, graphic novels, and alternative political cartoons. SPX is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit that brings together more than 650 artists and publishers to meet their readers, booksellers, and distributors each year. Graphic novels, mini comics, and alternative comics will all be on display and for sale by their authors and illustrators. The expo includes a series of panel discussions and interviews with this year’s guests.
The Ignatz Award is a festival prize held every year at SPX recognizing outstanding achievement in comics and cartooning, with the winners chosen by attendees at the show.
As in previous years, profits from the SPX will go to support the SPX Graphic Novel Gift Program, which funds graphic novel purchases for public and academic libraries, as well as the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF), which protects the First Amendment rights of comic book readers and professionals. For more information on the CBLDF.
Image Comics has announced Black History in Its Own Words by Ronald Wimberly which will hit stores this February 2017—just in time to celebrate Black History Month.
A look at Black History framed by those who made it, Black History in Its Own Words presents quotes of dozens of black luminaries with portraits & illustrations by Ronald Wimberly. Featuring the memorable words and depictions of Angela Davis, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kanye West, Zadie Smith, Ice Cube, Dave Chappelle, James Baldwin, Spike Lee, and more.
The book has been a long time coming with Wimberly’s mission for the project aimed at shining a light on black people’s stories and their woeful underrepresentation.
Wimberly took a unique approach to the project and opted for people based not only on historical precedence but on their punk spirit and existential bravery; people whose words and lives spoke to him personally.
Black History in Its Own Words, 8 x 8 inch trim size hardcover for $16.99 hits stores on Wednesday, February 8th.
Magnetic Press has partnered with 2016 Eisner Award Nominee & Harvard Fellow John Jennings (The Blacker the Ink, Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred), and Glyph Comics Award winner Dr. Damian Duffy (Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred, Other Heroes) to co-present the San Diego 2016’s panel, BLACK COMIX: AFRICAN AMERICAN INDEPENDENT COMICS PUBLISHING. The panel features an all-star lineup of comic creator heavy weights, including Ron Wimberly, David Walker, Ashley A. Woods, Jeremy Love, & Robert Love.
Magnetic Press, Jennings & Duffy will be making more official announcements at the panel, where they will reveal more about their partnership. The panel will be held on Saturday, July 23rd from 8:00-9:00pm in Room 28 DE, and will be will be co-moderated by Jennings & Duffy. Magnetic Press teased the title image by Ashley A. Woods, which hints at announcements to be made during the panel.
This marks Magnetic Press’ 3rd consecutive appearance at San Diego Comic-Con since the publisher’s debut three years ago at SDCC 2014. Magnetic Press can be found at booth #5534.
Black Comix Returns: African American Independent Comic Publishing
Saturday July 23, 2016 8:00pm – 9:00pm
Room 28DE
Join 2016 Eisner nominee & Harvard University Fellow John Jennings (The Blacker the Ink) and Damian Duffy (Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred), as they offer real talk about race and representation in independent comics publishing with the likes of 2016 Eisner nominee Ron Wimberly (Slave Punk, Prince of Cats), David Walker (Power Man & Iron Fist, Shaft), Ashley A. Woods (Niobe), Robert Love (Alpha Girl, S.P.O.O.K.S.), and Jeremy Love (Bayou, Fierce).
Valiant is supporting the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF) with the Faith #1 SDCC Liberty Variant – a limited edition release of the FIRST ISSUE of Faith “Zephyr” Herbert’s history-making ongoing series! Featuring a brand-new cover by Glyph Comics Award-winning artist Ronald Wimberly, the Faith #1 SDCC Liberty Variant will debut on Wednesday, July 20th exclusively at San Diego Comic-Con and will be limited to 1,000 copies.
Written by rising star Jody Houser with artwork by Harvey Award nominee Pere Perez and Russ Manning Award nominee Marguerite Sauvage – plus a special guest appearance by Eisner Award winner and comics icon Colleen Doran – this exclusive edition of Faith #1‘s much-anticipated 48-page debut features Wimberly’s first-ever cover artwork for Valiant Entertainment and continues the ascendent hero’s adventures from the pages of her five-time sold-out limited series and into a much anticipated monthly series. From The New York Times and The Atlantic to The Guardian and The Huffington Post to Today and People, find out why Faith is the singular hero grabbing the spotlight worldwide – and why her first ongoing series is already making waves as the most successful superhero debut of 2016 from any independent publisher in comics today!
In a city under siege by robots, aliens, monsters and, even worse, celebrities, there is only one woman the people of Los Angeles can count on: the stratospheric superhero called Faith! Aspiring reporter by day and dedicated crime-fighter by night, Faith has tackled every obstacle in her path with confidence – like those crushing deadlines at work, the long-distance boyfriend half a world away, and the missing back issues that plague her comics collection! But, unbeknownst to her, Faith is about to collide with the one force she never saw coming: an up-and-coming super-villain bent on snuffing her out once and for all! But who is lurking behind the mask of her new foe…and could they be the one person capable of rendering Faith powerless?
Series writer Jody Houser will appear at the CBLDF’s booth (#1918) for two signings during Comic-Con International 2016. The first, on Thursday, July 21st, will begin at 12:30 pm PT sharp; the second, on Saturday, July 23rd, will begin at 1 pm PT sharp.
It’s new comic book day! What’s everyone looking forward to? Sound off in the comments below!
While you wait for your shop to open, here’s some comic news and reviews from around the web.
Around the Tubes
Medium – A Short Guide to Trans Representation in Media – How should writers who aren’t trans tell stories that have trans characters without messing up? An important read for all of us by Thursday’s podcast guest, trans comic writer Magdalene Visaggio.
The Beat – Ronald Wimberly on asking artists for sample pages for free – A very interesting read. Where do you all stand?
iO9 – DC’s New KFC Comic Turns Colonel Sanders Into Fried Chicken Jesus – Well ok then.
UN Dispatch – How Zimbabwe Became a Great Comic Book Incubator – Very interesting. We’ll have to check these out.
Around the Tubes Reviews
Newsarama – Predator vs. Judge Dredd. vs. Aliens #1
Today at the Showbox Market Theater in Seattle, Washington, Image Comics kicked-off Emerald City Comicon with Image Expo and a slew of exciting creator-owned announcements.
They also announced a new initiative Creators for Creators as well.
Image Comics revealed the following creator-owned projects set to launch in the coming year and beyond.
AFAR by Leila del Duca & Kit Seaton
Critically-acclaimed, Russ Manning nominated SHUTTER artist Leila Del Duca teams up as co-creator and writer alongside artist, colorist, and letterer Kit Seaton (THE BLACK BULL OF NORROWAY, EVE OF ALL SAINTS) for an original graphic novel, AFAR.
In AFAR, Boetema suddenly develops the ability to astrally project to other worlds, unintentionally possessing the bodies of people light years away. Inotu, her inquisitive brother with a pension for trouble, finds himself on the run after he’s caught eavesdropping on an illegal business deal between small town business tycoons and their cyborg bodyguard. When Boetema accidentally gets someone hurt while in another girl’s body, the siblings are forced to work together to solve the problems they’ve created on their planet and others.
AFAR hits shelves this Fall 2016.
BLACK CLOUD by Jason Latour, Ivan Brandon, Greg Hinkle, Matt Wilson, Aditya Bidikar, Tom Muller, edited by Maria Ludwig
Co-creators Jason Latour (SOUTHERN BASTARDS, Spider-Gwen), Ivan Brandon (DRIFTER, VIKING) and Greg Hinkle (AIRBOY, THE RATTLER), team up with colorist Matt Wilson (THE WICKED + THE DIVINE), letterer Aditya Bidikar, designer Tom Muller, and editor Maria Ludwig for an all-new series called, BLACK CLOUD.
Once upon a time…They built a world where dreams come true… And those dreams went to war. In BLACK CLOUD, we meet Zelda: exiled to Earth, her dreams of revolution are gone, but she still holds the key to the world she left behind. And it’s for sale.
BLACK CLOUD is set to launch in Fall 2016.
THE BLACK MONDAY MURDERS by Jonathan Hickman & Tomm Coker
All hail god money! From Jonathan Hickman (EAST OF WEST, Secret Wars, Avengers) and Tomm Coker (Undying Love) comes a mythical reinterpretation of modern global economics.
THE BLACK MONDAY MURDERS is classic occult indoctrination where the secret schools of magic are actually clandestine banking cartels who control all of society—a hidden world where vampire Russian oligarchs, Black Popes, enchanted American aristocrats, and hitmen from the International Monetary Fund work together to keep ALL OF US in our rightful place.
Each issue contains world-expanding bonus content like maps, corporate organization charts, decoded apocrypha, and stock tips to die for.
THE BLACK MONDAY MURDERS is a brand new, crypto-noir series about dirty, filthy, money… and what kind of people you can buy with it. Set to launch in Fall 2016.
THE DIVIDED STATES OF HYSTERIA by Howard Chaykin
Howard Chaykin (SATELLITE SAM, BLACK KISS, AMERICAN FLAGG!) with the able assistance of Jesus Aburto on coloring, and Ken Bruzenak on lettering, unleashes THE DIVIDED STATES OF HYSTERIA.
THE DIVIDED STATES OF HYSTERIA is set in the aftermath of a dirty bomb that wipes New York City off the map, as what will come to be known as the Second American Civil War shatters the domestic landscape in isolated pustules of violence…and a team of five private contractors is charged with stemming this tide of rage and bringing the bombers to justice.
THE DIVIDED STATES OF HYSTERIA launches in Winter 2016.
GLITTERBOMB by Jim Zub & Djibril Morissette-Phan & K. Michael Russell & Marshall Dillon
Fan-favorite writer Jim Zub and newcomer Djibril Morissette-Phan come together with colorist K. Michael Russell and letterer Marshall Dillon for GLITTERBOMB.
“Probably the only thing I love more than comics is cinema,” said Morissette-Phan. “Which makes Glitterbomb a dream project since it’s a perfect blend of both.”
Set in Hollywood, GLITTERBOMB is a horror story about failed fame and blood-soaked revenge.
GLITTERBOMB is set to launch in late Summer 2016.
HORIZON, by Brandon Thomas, Juan Gedeon & Frank Martin (Skybound)
Writer Brandon Thomas, artist Juan Gedeon, and colorist Frank Martin team up for an all-new series from Image/Skybound titled, HORIZON.
In HORIZON, Zhia Malen thought she’d fought her very last war, until she learned her planet was targeted for occupation…by a desperate world called Earth. The people of Earth will be told that her arrival on our planet means invasion. These are lies. This is retaliation, and Horizon explores what happens when our planet finally runs out of second chances. And when we meet an alien race just as committed to survival as we are…
HORIZON is set to launch from Image/Skybound in July 13, 2016.
THE HUNT by Colin Lorimer, Jim Campbell, and Joana Lafuente (Shadowline Comics)
Critically acclaimed writer/artist Colin Lorimer (Harvest) teams up with letterer Jim Campbell and colorist Joana Lafuente for THE HUNT.
At her father’s deathbed, Orlaigh Roche came face to face with the age-old myth of The Slaugh; a group of soul-stealing spirits so evil that not even hell would take them. Years later, and with the belief that her father’s soul is still trapped in some form of the netherworld, she goes looking for answers—beginning a journey that leads her down a path to discover what really happens to us after we die.
THE HUNT begins in 2016 from Image/Shadowline Comics.
ISOLA by Brenden Fletcher & Karl Kerschl
Bestselling creators Brenden Fletcher (Batgirl of Burnside, Gotham Academy) and Karl Kerschl (Gotham Academy, The Abominable Charles Christopher) re-team for ISOLA—an epic fantasy adventure series with the scope of Game of Thrones and the spirit of Princess Mononoke.
ISOLA is set in a mystical land where the queen’s brother enacts a treacherous plot to transform her into a tiger. The captain of the guard, a woman of great skill, brings swift and lethal vengeance, unaware the wicked prince alone has the power to reverse the spell. The two women—one on two legs, one on four—must undertake a perilous journey halfway across the globe to the fabled island of ISOLA, gateway to the underworld, where they hope to find the spirit of the queen’s late brother and return her to human form.
ISOLA is set to launch in Spring 2017.
KILL OR BE KILLED by Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, Elizabeth Breitweiser
Bestselling writer Ed Brubaker (THE FADE OUT, FATALE), artist Sean Phillips (THE FADE OUT, FATALE), and colorist Elizabeth Breitweiser (THE FADE OUT, FATALE, OUTCAST BY KIRKMAN & AZACETA) reunite for KILL OR BE KILLED, the ultimate pulp crime comic.
KILL OR BE KILLED is the story of a troubled young man who is compelled to kill bad people, and how he struggles to keep his secret, as it slowly begins to ruin his life and the lives of his friends and loved ones.
Both a thriller and a deconstruction of vigilantism, KILL OR BE KILLED is unlike anything Brubaker and Phillips have done together in their long partnership.
KILL OR BE KILLED is set to launch in Summer 2016.
LAKE OF FIRE by Nathan Fairbairn & Matt Smith
Co-creators Nathan Fairbairn (Scott Pilgrim, Batman Incorporated) and Matt Smith (Barbarian Lord) come together for an all-new series titled LAKE OF FIRE.
In LAKE OF FIRE it is 1220 AD, and the gears of the Albigensian Crusade grind on. When an alien mining craft infested with legions of bloodthirsty predators crash-lands in the remote wilderness of the French Pyrenees, a small band of crusaders and a Cathar heretic are all that stands between God’s Kingdom and Hell on Earth.
LAKE OF FIRE is set to launch in Summer 2016.
MOONSHINE by Brian Azzarello & Eduardo Risso, edited by Will Dennis
From Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso—the Eisner award-winning creative team behind the crime classic, 100 Bullets—comes the brutal new series, MOONSHINE.
MOONSHINE is set during the Prohibition Era, deep in the backwoods of Appalachia and tells the story of Lou Pirlo, a city-slick “torpedo” sent from New York City to negotiate a deal with the best moonshiner in West Virginia, one Hiram Holt. Lou figures it for milk run—how hard could it be to set-up moonshine shipments from a few ass-backward hillbillies? What Lou doesn’t figure on is that Holt is just as cunning as ruthless as any NYC crime boss and Lou is in way over his pin-striped head. Because not only will Holt do anything to protect his illicit booze operation, he’ll stop at nothing to protect a much darker family secret…a bloody, supernatural secret that must never see the light of day… or better still, the light of the full moon.
MOONSHINE #1 will hit stores in Fall 2016 and marks the first time Azzarello and Risso have worked together with Image Comics and reunites the acclaimed creative team that defined modern crime comics with 100 Bullets… and now puts a horror-twist on a classic gangster tale.
MOTOR CRUSH by Brenden Fletcher, Cameron Stewart, & Babs Tarr
From the creative team behind the popular, New York Times bestselling Batgirl of Burnside—Brenden Fletcher, Cameron Stewart, and Babs Tarr—comes MOTOR CRUSH—is a stylish, neon-soaked, revved up science-fiction action series.
By day, a Domino Swift competes for fame and fortune in a worldwide motorcycle racing league. By night, she cracks helmets of rival gangs in brutal, illegal bike wars on the city streets to gain possession of a rare and valuable contraband: an engine-boosting “machine narcotic” known as MOTOR CRUSH. But the origins—and ultimate purpose—of this mysterious substance are unknown, and could put her on a collision course with danger…
MOTOR CRUSH rides into town this December 2016.
PRIMA by Jen Van Meter, Rick Burchett, Eric Newsom, edited by Jeanine Schaefer
Spies.
Thieves.
Ballerinas.
PRIMA.
You don’t always see who’s standing in the spotlight.
Creators Jen Van Meter and artist Rick Burchett team up to tell an all-new story about a dance company—comprised entirely of former spies—righting the wrongs of the Cold War in a series called, PRIMA.
PRIMA follows Sophia Forais and Pauline French are the soloist and Managing Director of a dance company that once served as a front for a Resistance cell in France. Engaged for a long run in New York, the dancers have turned their attention and unique skills to aiding a veteran of the Romanian underground now being blackmailed by her American husband. The small operation should prove simple, but Sophia, Paulina and their colleagues will quickly learn that the war has not really ended, and the world is no less ruthless than it was when they were smuggling information and refugees during the Occupation.
An espionage/romance adventure set in the arts world just after WWII, PRIMA is a warm-hearted series of intrigues: To Catch a Thief goes to the ballet.
On stands in FALL 2016.
PRINCE OF CATS by Ron Wimberly
PRINCE OF CATS written and drawn by Ron Wimberly, lettered by Jarred Fisher, and featuring design by Jorden Haley returns to print from Image Comics.
PRINCE OF CATS was first released from Vertigo to critical acclaim in the summer 2012. It was out of print before the following summer. After three years, it will be returning to print through Image Comics.
PRINCE OF CATS is Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead meets The Warriors meets Sword of Doom. PRINCE OF CATS sets Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in an alt-universe, mid-eighties New York where dueling with live blades evolved as a cultural phenomenon alongside New York’s other street cultures; it eschews the story of the titular star-crossed lovers to follow the tragic story of Tybalt, the Prince of Cats.
PRINCE OF CATS, the definitive remastered author’s edition, is set to release in Fall 2016.
ROCKSTARS by Joe Harris & Megan Hutchison
Fan-favorite Joe Harris (THE X-FILES, SNOWFALL) teams up with artist Megan Hutchison for an all-new, ongoing series a la Almost Famous meets Supernatural called, ROCKSTARS.
ROCKSTARS follows a pair of young, rock ‘n roll investigators as they uncover a mystery involving a legendary band, dead groupies, human sacrifice and a supernatural undercurrent connecting so many famous—and even more undiscovered—secrets, myths and conspiracies peppering rock music throughout the ages.
When a pattern of unsolved ‘groupie’ murders dating back to the 1970s resumes in present-day Los Angeles, nobody makes the connection except for Jackie Mayer, a young rock nerd who not only knows everything about music history, trivia and its myriad secrets and factoids, but also harbors a mysterious, almost magical ability to ‘see’ what most people miss, and determine and divine what’s going unreported.
Joined by a music writer and aspiring investigative reporter named Dorothy Buell, and his loyal cat, Skydog, they soon uncover a vast mystery involving a legendary band’s exploits, their mercurial guitarist’s occult associations, demonic possession, and sacrifices to the dark gods of rock.
Each story arc will feature a case sprung from a different rock n’ roll era—British Invasion, Punk, 80s Heavy Metal, etc.—and draw on Jackie’s unique connection, knowledge, and darkly magical associations to crack them.
The series will launch in Fall 2016.
ROMULUS by Bryan Hill & Nelson Blake II (Top Cow Productions)
Fan-favorite writer Bryan Hill (POSTAL) and Nelson Blake II come together for an all-new Image/Top Cow series in ROMULUS.
Set in the near future, ROMULUS follows the last in a line of near-mystical martial artists wages a revolutionary war against The Order of Romulus, the ancient secret society that trained her—a global organization, hidden in plain sight, that’s controlled the world since the days of Ancient Rome.
Their plan? Cull the population with genocide and rule a New World Order. Her plan? Kill them all or die angry.
Romulus launches from Top Cow/Image in Fall 2016.
SEVEN TO ETERNITY by Rick Remender & Jerome Opeña
Writer Rick Remender reteams with collaborators Jerome Opeña (Uncanny X-Force, Fear Agent) and Matt Hollingsworth (TOKYO GHOST, WYTCHES) to bring readers a modern fantasy series following Adam Osidis, a dying knight from a disgraced house, on a mission to rid his world of an insidious God who ensnared him in a Faustian deal.
Gharils Sulm, The God of Whispers is a Machiavellian warlord who holds sway everywhere in the world of Zhal. He’s spread an omnipresent paranoia to every corner of the kingdoms; one of his spies hides in every house, every family, every hall, spreading mistrust and fear.
Adam must choose between joining a hopeless band of magic users in their desperate bid to free their world of the evil God’s burden or give in to the The God of Whispers’ promises of salvation and safety.
The series is set to launch in the Fall of 2016.
SURGEON X by Sara Kenney & John Watkiss, James Devlin, & Jared K. Fletcher, edited by Karen Berger
Writer Sara Kenney and artist John Watkiss come together for an all new series, SURGEON X, and join forces with the award-winning Karen Berger, founding editor of DC’s Vertigo imprint.
Set against the backdrop of an antibiotic apocalypse in near future London. Rosa Scott, a brilliant and obsessive surgeon becomes Surgeon X, a vigilante doctor who uses experimental surgery and black market drugs to treat patients. But as Surgeon X, Rosa soon develops a godlike-complex, deciding who will live and who will die. Ultimately, she believes that to survive in this compromised world her own warped moral code is the one she must follow—even if it endangers those closest to her.
The comic is informed by hundreds of conversations with scientists, physicians, historians, economists, ethicists & philosophers to create this deeply disturbing, yet authentic future world.
SURGEON X was funded by a Society Award from Wellcome Trust, an independent global charitable foundation dedicated to improving health. They support bright minds in science, the humanities and the social sciences, as well as education, public engagement and the application of research to medicine.
SURGEON X will launch in Fall 2016.
VS by Ivan Brandon, Esad Ribić, Ive Svorcina, Aditya Bidikar, Tom Muller, edited by Sebastian Girner
Writer Ivan Brandon (DRIFTER) and Esad Ribić (Secret Wars) team up with colorist Ive Svorcina, letterer Aditya Bidikar, designer Tom Muller, and editor Sebastian Girner for a futurist drama in, VS.
VS follows the rise and fall of Satta Flynn, a wildly popular soldier in a time when War has been privatized and is a form of entertainment.
Armies financed and equipped by super-corporations. War medics that double as Pit Mechanics. Satta’s every move is LIVE on TV. And for the first time, Satta finds out what it’s like to lose.
VS is set to launch in Fall 2016.
WINNEBAGO GRAVEYARD by Steve Niles & Alison Sampson
Writer Steve Niles teams up with artist Alison Sampson, colorist Stéphane Paitreau, and letterer Clem Robins in WINNEBAGO GRAVEYARD.
Sampson used 1970s horror films for inspiration on the artwork and described the book’s overall look as: “about 70% Americana, slightly heightened, like True Blood, and about 30% ripping off of heads.”
A horror-adventure story, WINNEBAGO GRAVEYARD follows a family with a teenage son and what happens when their road-trip goes wrong and they find themselves stuck in a town full of satanists.
WINNEBAGO GRAVEYARD is set to launch in Fall 2017.
There’s been a lot of recent news about digital comics, and one of the more interesting (and unexpected) is the announcement of the launch of a new mobile comics platform in 2016.
Stela is the “premiere mobile comics platform” designed from the ground up with original content by award-winning writers and illustrators. Whether at home or on the go, Stela is the only app that delivers comics designed and optimized for your smartphone, all in the palm of your hand with new content every weekday.
The Stela library includes work from acclaimed creators including Evan Dorkin, Sarah Dyer, Joe Casey, Irene Koh, Brian Wood, Ron Wimberly, Stuart Moore, and many more.
The app promises new content every day optimized for the mobile platform. More interesting, the app also mentions the focus on community whether it’s interacting with authors, illustrators, or fellow readers. You’ll be able to post your reactions and comments in real-time, and discuss the latest chapters in the Stela library.
This is one to watch for in 2016.
Skip to content