Comic Books

Writer & Monster Forge founder Shannon Eric Denton (Spider-Man, League of Legends), and artist David Hartman (Phantasm: Ravager, Transformers Prime) team up for an electrifying new adventure in Kraken, a brand-new original graphic novel which publishes in September 2025, from Titan Comics…

Set in alternate 1930s filled with dark magic, ancient horrors, and occult powers, Kraken will captivate fans of historical and supernatural thrillers. The graphic novel has been praised by high-profile talents including Rob Zombie (Halloween, The Devil’s Rejects) who calls Kraken “an insane ripping yarn”, and acclaimed creator Phil Hester (Green Arrow) who says Kraken “packs action, romance, high adventure, horror, and just straight up weirdness into every moment.”.

After disappearing for three years, esteemed adventurer Kraken returns to reality in search of allies to stop an evil sorceress from unleashing a horde of eldritch monsters on the world. Armed with a pistol and supernatural tentacles, the Kraken is loose!

...

Artist David Hartman expressed his excitement working on the project, “When Shannon showed me the script for Kraken, I was hooked immediately! It’s a wild blend of pulp adventure, cosmic horror, and action-packed characters—everything I love to draw. This is just the beginning of an epic series we’re creating together, and I can’t wait for you to dive into the first book and everything else we have in store!”

DC started running in-house ads for a re-launch of the Elseworlds line with Greg Smallwood's Barbarian Batman back in August... and... well... Nothin'. Pulled a month before release.

The Elseworlds re-launched with a new Gotham By Gaslight six issue mini instead, a pre-lude to a Gaslight Justice League this year.

But not all is lost, best anyone can say is that Barbarian Batman starts its six issue run this May.

The series featuring Batman beating up aliens in spaaaaaace got off to a good start, but it's been a long time since #5 came out and the final issue hasn't been seen.

It's currently slated for Feb. 5th, but given the delays, it could be pushed out as far as April.

With two new Lex books out this week, it made me stop and go... Wait, what about that other one? When was it? 2023????!

Well... it turns out DC was maybe a little premature getting #1 out the door as #2 and #3 hadn't even entered production yet.

Good news though! Bryan Hitch and Mark Waid have wrapped it up, a 2nd printing of #1 is due for February to refresh everyones memory, hopefully followed by #2 and #3 in March and April!

Comic book writer and producer Marc Bernardin has posted on Blue Sky about the future of the comic book adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys. Bernadin adapted the series from Neil Gaiman's original novel, drawn by Shaun Martinborough, and published by Dark Horse Comics. It is one of a number of such titles from the publisher that have adapted some of Neil Gaiman's adult fantasy works, including American Gods and Norse Mythology.

The last page of Anansi Boys #7 advertised a new issue #8 for February, but this will no longer be published. In recent months, Tortoise Media, NY Magazine, and Vulture have reported detailed allegations of abuse by a number of women against Gaiman. Gaiman has denied anything non-consensual.

Bernadin wrote with the accompanying visual from above, "Last week, Anansi Boys 7 hit stands. It will be the last issue. Dark Horse will not release a trade. I am incredibly proud of the work we did on the book. @smartinbrough.bsky.social 's lines were fantastic, @sotocolor.bsky.social 's hues were extraordinary, @david-mack.bsky.social slayed the covers. But all of that pales. Anansi Boys is about two brothers, twins. One is meek, timid, like a flopsy, set-upon puppy. The other brother is narcissistic, hedonistic, governed by nothing other than his own pursuit of sensation and pleasure. They seem so different, but they are very much flip sides of the same coin. Literally. I never gave too much thought about that. Until now. My heart breaks for the survivors and any pain seeing these books on the shelves might have caused."

I wish the Valiant universe rights weren't all over the place, the reboot would make an amazing cinematic universe.

Always wanted to see a black mirror like anthology for Dial H for Hero, and after reading Astro City, it could definitely also be an amazing anthology series. (if it had the budget)

I asked live action specifically, since I genuinely believe any comic could be great animated. (if it had the time and budget lol)

Mike Mignola redefined how comics can be made, what they should look like and what they can be with Hellboy. Now, 30 years on the artist's new shared universe, Bowling With Corpses and Other Strange Tales From Lands Unknown, is set to shake things up all over again.

"It is entirely made of the stuff I love about old stories—myths and folklore," says Mike about the new folklore-inspired fantasy anthology, written by Ben Stenbeck and illustrated with Mike Mignola's trademark bold, minimalist and atmospheric art style.

Published by Dark Horse, Bowling With Corpses will be the first book from Mike Mignola's new Curious Objects imprint, and launches the new Lands Unknown universe. This first book, Bowling With Corpses, features a boy who wins a prize from a corpse king, a pirate girl who strikes a deal with the devil and a vampire girl who, well… you get the idea.

Found this at my local comic shop today, Billi 99 was originally a 4 issue book published by Dark Horse Comics in 1991, back when Y2K and 9/11 and the Patriot Act seemed oh, man, so far away!

"Set in 1999, Billi 99 embodies a cautionary tale in which corporate greed and corrupt government affected an America very much like our own today. With that, they posed the question, what is power when everything has been taken away?"

Nominated for 3 Eisner awards, the book is written by Sarah Byam and illustrated by Tim Sale...

Yes, THAT Tim Sale. Spider-Man: Blue, Batman: The Long Halloween, Superman: For All Seasons, Daredevil Yellow Tim Sale.

At that time though, he was relatively unknown, having done a very good graphic novel adaptation of the Thieves World books.

Now with brand new color artwork by José Villarrubia.

Diamond Comics Distributors, one of the biggest companies involved in getting graphic novels into physical retailers for purchase, is filing for bankruptcy and scaling its business back as the industry braces itself for a new wave of economic challenges.

In a letter sent to comics retailers and publishers today, Diamond president Chuck Parker announced that the company has filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy and plans to sell off its Alliance Game Distributors arm to Universal in order to “protect the most vital aspects of our business.”

“This decision was not made lightly, and I understand that this news may be as difficult to hear as it is for me to share,” Parker explained. “The Diamond leadership team and I have worked tirelessly to avoid this outcome but the financial challenges we face have left us with no other viable option.”

...

In recent years, many of Diamond’s bigger name publishing partners have dropped them as the company failed to meet expected delivery deadlines to retailers, which left stores struggling to meet customer demand. Given the tough time Diamond has been having as of late, the announcement that it’s filing for bankruptcy isn’t entirely surprising. It sounds like the company’s leadership very much wants to stay in the comics game as long as possible, but as it stands now, it seems like all Diamond can really do is to staunch the bleeding as much as it can.

2025 is here, and for comic book fans, that means a whole new year of major releases from publishers of all types. And it’s shaping up to be a huge one for the industry. Marvel will soon be launching the One World Under Doom crossover and expanding its massively popular Ultimate Universe line. Not to be outdone, DC will be adding several books to its Absolute Universe line and kicking off the sequel to the iconic Batman: Hush storyline. And there’s plenty to look forward to from smaller publishers as well, including Image Comics’ Bug Wars, Dark Horse’s Bowling With Corpses, and IDW’s Star Trek: Lore War crossover.

They are:

• One World Under Doom
• Batman: Hush 2
• Mike Mignola’s Bowling with Corpses
• The Ultimate Universe Expands
• The Return of Vertigo
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
• Deadpool/Wolverine
• The Absolute Universe: Wave 2
• Bug Wars
• Star Wars: Legacy of Vader
• New Gods
• You Must Take Part in Revolution
• The Future of Venom and Carnage
• Zatanna
• Star Trek: Lore War
• The Amazing Spider-Man Relaunch
• Invincible: Battle Beast
• More DC Compact Comics
• Death of Copra

A new announcement is coming soon that will clarify matters.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/24135976

~~> Communities should not be overly moderated in order to enforce a specific narrative. Respectful disagreement should be allowed in a smaller proportion to the established narrative.~~

~~> Humans are naturally inclined to believe a single narrative when they're only presented with a single narrative. That's the basis of how fiction works. You can't tell someone a story if they're questioning every paragraph. However, a well placed sentence questioning that narrative gives the reader the option to chose. They're no longer in a story being told by one author, and they're free to choose the narrative that makes sense to them, even if one narrative is being pushed much more heavily than the other.~~

~~> Unfortunately, some malicious actors are hijacking this natural tendency to be invested in fiction, and they're using it to create absurd, cult-like trends in non-fiction. They're using this for various nefarious ends, to turn us against each other, to generate profit, and to affect politics both domestically and internationally.~~

~~> In a fully anonymous social media platform, we can't counter this fully. But we can prune some of the most egregious echo chambers.~~

~~> We're aware that this policy is going to be subjective. It won't be popular in all instances. We're going to allow some "flat earth" comments. We're going to force some moderators to accept some "flat earth" comments. The point of this is that you should be able to counter those comments with words, and not need moderation/admin tools to do so. One sentence that doesn't jive with the overall narrative should be easily countered or ignored.~~

~~> It's harder to just dismiss that comment if it's interrupting your fictional story that's pretending to be real. "The moon is upside down in Australia" does a whole lot more damage to the flat earth argument than "Nobody has crossed the ice wall" does to the truth. The purpose of allowing both of these is to help everyone get a little closer to reality and avoid incubating extreme cult-like behavior online.~~

~~> A user should be able to (respectfully, infrequently) post/comment about a study showing marijuana is a gateway drug to !marijuana without moderation tools being used to censor that content.~~

~~> Of course this isn't about marijuana. There's a small handful of self-selected moderators who are very transparently looking to push their particular narrative. And they don't want to allow discussion. They want to function as propaganda and an incubator. Our goal is to allow a few pinholes of light into the Truman show they wish to create. When those users' pinholes are systematically shut down, we as admins can directly fix the issue.~~

~~> We don't expect this policy to be perfect. Admins are not aware of everything that happens on our instances and don't expect to be. This is a tool that allows us to trim the most extreme of our communities and guide them to something more reasonable. This policy is the board that we point to when we see something obscene on [email protected] so that we can actually do something about it without being too authoritarian ourselves. We want to enable our users to counter the absolute BS, and be able to step in when self-selected moderators silence those reasonable people.~~

~~> Some communities will receive an immediate notice with a link to this new policy. The most egregious communities will comply, or their moderators will be removed from those communities.~~

~~> Moderators, if someone is responding to many root comments in every thread, that's not "in a smaller proportion" and you're free to do what you like about that. If their "counter" narrative posts are making up half of the posts to your community, you're free to address that. If they're belligerent or rude, of course you know what to do. If they're just saying something you don't like, respectfully, and they're not spamming it, use your words instead of your moderation abilities.~~

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/22518637

A new thriller from Mad Cave Studios this March will delve into a world of "ancient conspiracies, monstrous horrors, and the ultimate fight for truth." Dark Pyramid is a five-issue limited series from the creative team of Eisner Award-winning writer Paul Tobin and 2000 AD artist P.J. Holden.

"Hooky Hidalgo, adventurist and popular live streamer, has gone missing while climbing Mt. Denali in Alaska!" reads the synopsis for the first issue. "When his girlfriend, Becca, arrives at the base of the mountain to retrace his steps, she soon discovers something beyond the dreamy and impressive landscape. There's a conspiracy deep within the heart of Denali itself – a dark pyramid, silent, waiting. Becca – and the scores of Hooky fans determined to either find him or find some fun – will face death, avalanches... and monsters to find the truth."

Back when the X-Men movies were coming out, I had an idea. Instead of the 5 or so X-Men movies we got, I thought it would have been cooler to shoot 1 massive movie, that is released over multiple movies. If you don't think that's doable, I'll remind you that all 3 Back to the Future movies originally were supposed to be one movie. Then they realized it was waaaaay too long, and chopped it up into 3 movies, and added some padding on the 3rd movie.

But my idea is first you see X-Men. And it's a stand alone movie, but the individual X-Men kind of rotate in and out until the final battle of the movie. Only thing is, the final battle doesn't happen in this movie. Instead, the big finale is Morph of the X-men dies. He would be heavily featured in the main movie. As basically the "main character", since the other X-Men are tagging in and out so rapidly.

Then, 3 months later, we get "X-Men: Prof X". It's a back story of Charles Xavior, and how he started the X-Men. And it shows his lifes work leading up to, and including the events of X-Men. You even see every time Xavior was onscreen in X-Men, that footage is reused in "X-Men: Prof X" as part of the story. But this movie expands on his personal role in the main movie. And this movie would only be in theaters a short time. Maybe a month.

Then X-Men: Wolferine would come out. And again, his backstory, and the events leading up to, and including the footage from X-Men.

And you begin to see why the main movie the X-Men cycle in and out. Each individual X-men will get a brief run movie, and each movie will include footage from the original movie.

I figure Cyclops and Jean Grey would be bundled together for their backstory movie, and their scenes in the main movie would be bundled.

And each one would get these full movies, but they're like side piece movies. Thats why they get limited runs.

And remember when I said the final battle doesn't happen? Well, I lied. The final battle just doesn't happen in the FIRST movie. The second movie X-Men 2 picks up immediately after the first one ends. And by that, I mean even in shooting it's shot as just one continuous scene so the second one picks up IMMEDIATELY after Morphs death.

Then they spend the first third of the second movie regrouping, and making sure they're well prepared for the battle. And the middle third is fighting big fights, but not the final battle.

Then the final third is the big epic battle everything has been brewing towards. And it comes to a finale.

And then they judge audience engagement. If the audience just wants X3, thats where they go. But, if they want more Morph, they can do a Morph backstories movie. He doesn't get one with the rest, because he's already the main character of the first movie.

Oh......and by the way.......MY version would have had Wolferine WEAR THE GOD DAMN YELLOW SUIT!!!

But here's the cool thing about all of this. Both X-Men, X-Men 2, and all of the backstory movies (with the exception of Morph) would all be shot at the same time.

And the entirety of X-Men can be seen in the backstory movies if you watch all of them. However in each individual backstory movie, only maybe 15 minutes of the original movie is present, because each one only shows the footage reletive to that movie.

So anytime Wolferine is on screen in X-Men, that same footage will be used in X-Men: Wolferine. But you won't see Cyclops in X-Men: Wolferine unless he shared screen time with Wolferine in X-Men.

I'm fairly new to collecting comics and picked up this comic since I am a big Cyclops fan. The comic shop which I bought it from said that it's signed (as you can see in the photo). Who actually signed the comic and is it worth more because of it?

Comic books and bandes dessinées (graphic novels), have a respected heritage in France, and are celebrated as le neuvième art (the ninth art) along with poetry, architecture, painting, and sculpture.

But one city is particularly passionate about them. Angoulême in Charente is France’s undisputed capital of comics – home to the internationally renowned Festival International de la Bande Dessinée d'Angoulême (FIBD) and the Cité internationale de la bande dessinée et de l’image (CIBDI), a museum dedicated to the art.

...

The festival was inspired by a 1972 exhibition dedicated to the art form in Angoulême. The first edition took place on January 25, 1974 over two days, in a disused wing of the Musée d'Angoulême, attracting 10,000 visitors.

“In the 1970s, comics underwent a veritable renaissance, with the emergence of more mature comics aimed at an adult audience,” said Mr Martin.

“The festival came at just the right time to capitalise on this. The FIBD has rapidly become a meeting place for authors, publishers and the general public. It offers a space for discussions, conferences, exhibitions and signings, encouraging exchanges between the various stakeholders in the industry.”

Its success continued to grow and during the 1984 festival the then culture minister Jack Lang announced a plan for Angoulême that included the development of the National Comics Center into the Cité internationale de la bande dessinée et de l’image (CIBDI).

“Visitors to the Cité will find a unique setting on the banks of the Charente, with its comic strip museum, open all year round, its specialist bookshop with over 20,000 items, and its library,” said Marina Sichantho, assistant general manager at the CIBDI.

“The Cité also has a research centre, an arthouse cinema, an author residency facility called the Maison des auteurs, where more than 60 authors are welcomed every year, and a programme of meetings with authors, educational workshops and tours.”

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/22263288

Assuming you choose to believe Adolf Hitler's sister-in-law, then apparently the Fuhrer really did live in Liverpool between 1912 and 1913, staying with his half-brother Alois and family in an attempt to avoid conscription. Comics writer Grant Morrison took that basic premise and ran wild with it, producing a 48-page fantasia on Hitler's life that he gave to regular collaborator Steve Yeowell to draw. In 1989 it was serialised in a Scottish magazine called Cut, where it incurred the wrath of co-editor and Hue and Cry vocalist Pat Kane, who insisted the comic promoted fascism. The following year it had a UK-wide outing in Crisis, the lefty adult spinoff from 2000AD, only for the controversy to crank up all over again with accusations of Morrison actually being a Nazi. In the subsequent decade and a half, all attempts to republish the strip have failed, and these days Yeowell suspects that the original colour artwork doesn't even exist any more.

...

Yeowell's black and white drawings show his usual skill at storytelling, even when depicting Morrison's wildest flights of fancy. But the art escalated to a whole other level in its Crisis reprint. A team of colourists led by another wildly talented artist - Nick Abadzis, whose beautifully observed Hugo Tate must be due for reappraisal by now - avoided the obvious approach of simply colouring in Yeowell's pictures, and used the emerging computer technologies to layer berserk collages of imagery on top of them. The fragmented mindscape of Hitler is even more vividly depicted in this version, as the disconnect between colour and linework becomes more and more extreme until, by the end, the final page's panels have images from the first page bleeding through them. Colourists rarely get the respect they deserve in comics reviews, and the work of Abadzis and crew deserves more respect than most.

The New Adventures Of Hitler may have a jokey title, and there are certainly laughs aplenty to be had from it: both in the bathetic portrayal of the young Hitler as just another one of Morrison's Neurotic Boy Outsiders, and in the satirical extremes of the depiction of his descent into insanity. But it still manages to send chills down your spine at all the right moments, culminating in the revelation that it's more the story of England than it is of Hitler.

Spank the Monkey

Wikipedia

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/22144519

2000 AD and publisher Rebellion had a bumper year on the comics front – a successful Kickstarter for romance anthology Roxy; a Gail Simone-led supernatural Misty special; a third series for Garth Ennis‘ war comic revival Battle Action; and celebrating 40 years of cult kids horror anthology Scream! with a hot-selling Archival Collection compiling every single issue of the beloved but short-lived British weekly plus an anniversary special of new material. 2000 AD also got some ‘special’ treatment – with a mashup themed Scifi Special – and the return of the 2000 AD Annual after 35 years. Plus the surprise news that a certain long-gestating movie adaptation had wrapped filming.

2024 was also a special one on another front — as The Beat’s own reviews editor Zack Quaintance took the plunge and became a regular reader, with weekly Prog Report instalments joining Wednesday Comics Reviews column. To also mark a year of Prog Report, Beat contributor and veteran reader (or “Squaxx dek Thargo”) Dean Simons discusses with Zack the Report’s genesis and the new reader experience, before they each select their highlights from the year.

Read on!

Batman has seen enough not to get complacent.

My old dog used to love the Superman theme song. He got so used to it we would make it an XMAS tradition to watch all Superman films. My new dog doesn't seem to care for the Superman song. Maybe he is a Batman fan or is there any other songs and shows of super heroes that have their own song specifically known just for them?

With a new year comes a new crop of books, films, music, and other works falling into the public domain. For 2025, that includes works that were originally published in 1929.

According to the Duke University School of Law's Center for the Study of the Public Domain, that list includes a number of iconic characters.

At the top of the list is Popeye, but before you crack open your celebratory can of spinach, it's important to note the version of the sailor entering the public domain is the version that appeared in the "Thimble Theatre" comic strip, first appearing as a minor character in the strip "Gobs of Work", published on January 17, 1929.

While this version of the character does have superhuman capabilities, key details such as him deriving strength from spinach weren't introduced into the comics until 1932. Furthermore, trademarks regarding Popeye still belong to Hearst Holdings, Inc. Unlike copyright, trademarks only expire when they cease being used.

Another character in a similar copyright quagmire is the intrepid reporter Tintin, who first made his appearance in 1929 with "Tintin in the Land of the Soviets," created for the Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle by George Prosper Remi, under the pen name Hergé.

Like 'Popeye,' it is only the initial version of the character that appears in the series of newspaper comic strips, which comprise the first volume of "The Adventures of Tintin." That means that other beloved characters, such as his best friend Captain Haddock and the bumbling detectives Thomson and Thompson, remain under copyright.

One character that does not have nearly as many snags is the classic sci-fi hero, Buck Rogers, as the first comic strip, "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century A.D." was first published in January 7, 1929.

However, he had technically already been in the public domain for a number of decades, as the copyright protection for the strip had lapsed before copyright protections were extended under the 1976 Copyright Act. Furthermore, the original version of the character, first introduced in 1928 in the novella "Armageddon 2419" as Anthony Rogers, had already fallen into the public domain as well.

Over in the Connecting Comic Book Writers and Artists open Facebook group, people were asked about pitching to Image Comics, the publisher best known for creator-owned work without taking any IP ownership, publishing titles such as Spawn, The Walking Dead, Youngblood, Saga, Savage Dragon, The Wicked + The Divine, Witchblade and Wanted. There were a lot of false assumptions lifted until Massive-Verse founder Kyle Higgins popped up with a list of responses

They include:

1. You do not need to be previously published in order to get a book at Image. Yes, the odds are against your favor, but Image is one of the few legitimate publishers (maybe the only one) who accept unsolicited pitches. Follow the guidelines on the submission site: https://imagecomics.com/submissions.
2. You do not need a fully finished book. You need exactly what is listed on the submissions site.

Absolute Batman #1 First Printing was the best-selling comic book in comic book stores in 2024, according to the Bleeding Cool Annual Bestseller List, followed by Ultimate Spider-Man #1 First Printing. DC's Absolute books get four places in the top nine, while Marvel gets three Ultimate titles. The other two are Marvel's X-Men #1 and Uncanny X-Men #1. Missing is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1, despite selling more than all the others, as that was skewed to specific stores that ordered a huge amount of retailer-exclusive variants – including one store ordering over 60 exclusive variants to sell on WhatNot. Also, it is worth knowing that Ultimate Spider-Man has been through seven printings, and Absolute Batman has had four… but only the first printings make it onto the chart. Last year's chart was almost entirely the Batman and Amazing Spider-Man ongoing comics… and not a single issue of either made it onto this chart. That won't be the case next year. And why nine instead of ten? That was a quirk of getting the top ten data from ComicHub this year, as a non-eligible item was in the chart and couldn't be removed…

The list:

1. Absolute Batman #1
2. Ultimate Spider-Man #1
3. Absolute Superman #1
4. Absolute Batman #2
5. Absolute Wonder Woman #1
6. X-Men #1
7. Ultimate Spider-Man #2
8. Uncanny X-Men #1
9. Ultimate Spider-Man #3