Aspen Comics will be debuting at Calgary Expo: Comics and Entertainment 2018 with an exclusive JIRNI variant. Image Comics release a new print of graphic novel GEAR in time for the books 20 year anniversary and also announces a cyberpunk one shot take on RAT QUEENS. We look at what EISNER awards IDW Publishing is nominated for and the up coming BIG HERO 6 comic as well as the Darkhorse release of a new ALIENS essential comics collection and we get a look at the Hellboy board game who’s kickstarter campaign has kicked off to a flying start
We catch you up on the latest from the world of indie comics you may have missed this week
Aspen Comics debuts Calgary Expo 2018 exclusive and creator appearances
Aspen Comics has revealed their creator appearances and exclusives for this weekend’s Calgary Expo: Comics and Entertainment 2018. The publisher is continuing their 15-Year Anniversary with an ambitious con tour schedule, with this upcoming stop marking their first appearance in Canada this year. Aspen creators Frank Mastromauro (Shrugged, Overtaken) and J.T. Krul (Michael Turner’s Soulfire, Jirni) will be appearing at the Aspen Comics Booth #1831 all weekend long to meet with fans and sign autographs.
The publisher will be offering a Jirni Volume 3 #2 Calgary Expo variant cover at the show by Randy Green, limited to 200 copies. Jirni creator J.T. Krul will all be appearing at the Aspen Comics Booth #1831 all weekend long. Solicitation for Jirni #2 reads:
Aspen’s popular fantasy adventure series, JIRNI, returns for an epic third volume! While Ara shares her story with the young D’jinn she discovered lost in captivity, the mother she is searching forgets to know the other D’jinn trapped under Torinthal’s control, as they share their own tragic tales. The Fall of the D’jinn continues!
Aspen Comics will also have limited copies of their recent con-exclusive variant covers including Jirni #1, Portal Bound #1, Shrugged #1 and Charismagic #1 available at the Aspen Comics Booth as well. Aspen will also be offering prints, merchandise and more.
All ages graphic novel GEAR celebrates a milestone with a new printing
Writer/artist Doug TenNapel (CREATURE TECH, Ghostopolis, Cardboard) and colorist Katherine Garner (Ghostopolis, Nnewts, Tommysaurus Rex) will release a new printing of the full-color graphic novel GEAR this July—just in time for its 20th anniversary.
Four incompetent cats hijack a giant killer robot to change the course of a war between cats, dogs, and insects. But while these three species fight for control of the world, a powerful mechanical being named GEAR arrives to risk his own life to save the lives of good cats.
“GEAR was the first graphic novel I ever made, and it’s why I fell in love with the medium,” said TenNapel. “Now with 17 graphic novels under my belt, I’ve yet to capture the raw energy of GEAR in another title. I was on fire back then, and GEAR is still on fire!”
“GEAR was the first of Doug’s comic books I read, back when it was published in black and white,” said Garner. “I became a fan of his comic books because of it and never expected to be coloring them in.”
This 20th-anniversary edition has it all: an action-packed story with robots, harpoon guns, talking cats, mantis kung fu—plus pin-up art by Rob Schrab and Mike Mignola!
GEAR (Diamond code: APR180538, ISBN: 978-1-5343-0917-3) hits comic book shops Wednesday, July 11th and bookstores Tuesday, July 17th. It can be preordered via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Indiebound, and Indigo.
Select praise for GEAR:“Reading GEAR is like seeing Coconino County in George Herriman’s Krazy Kat be invaded by giant robots and bugs at war, written and drawn by Doug TenNapel in an expressive and highly kinetic style. Basically, it is everything my teenage self wanted to read in a comic.” —Kazu Kibuishi (Amulet)
“GEAR is pure energy and imagination on paper. I spent a lot of time reading this book over and over trying to soak up all the inky goodness Doug put in.” —Skottie Young (I HATE FAIRYLAND, Deadpool)
“TenNapel is a master of his craft, and his love of the medium is on full display here. Doug plays with the comic page like a cat with so much yarn. GEAR is sheer delight.” —Rob Guillory (CHEW, FARMHAND)
IDW Publishing Honored with Eight Eisner Award Nominations for 2018
The 2018 Eisner Award nominations recognized IDW Publishing and its imprints, Top Shelf, The Library of American Comics, EuroComics, and Yoe! Books, with a combined eight nods (seven nominations and one shared nomination) this year, with books being represented in multiple categories including Best Publication for Kids, Best Reality-Based Work, Best Archival Collection/Project—Strips, and more. The prestigious award ceremony, held annually at San Diego Comic-Con International, honors exemplary work from the past year in comics.
The 2018 Eisner Nominees include:
- Best Publication for Kids:Home Time Book One: Under the River, by Campbell Whyte (Top Shelf/IDW)
- Best Reality-Based Work:Calamity Jane: The Calamitous Life of Martha Jane Cannary, 1852–1903, by Christian Perrissin and Matthieu Blanchin, translated by Diana Schutz and Branden Kandor (IDW)
- Best Reality-Based Work:Lennon: The New York Years, by David Foenkinos, Corbeyran, and Horne, translated by Ivanka Hahnenberger (IDW)
- Best U.S. Edition of International Material: Flight of the Raven, by Jean-Pierre Gilbert, translated by Diana Schutz and Branden Kander (EuroComics/IDW)
- Best Archival Collection/Project-Strips:Star Wars: The Classic Newspaper Strips, Vol. 1, by Russ Manning et al., edited by Dean Mullaney (LOAC/IDW)
- Best Archival Collection/Project-Comic Books:Behaving MADly, written and compiled by Ger Alpeldoorn and Craig Yoe, produced by Clizia Gussoni (Yoe Books/IDW)
- Best Painter / Multimedia Artist (Interior Art): Jean-Pierre Gilbert, Flight of the Raven(EuroComics/IDW)
- Best Lettering: John Workman, Mother Panic (DC Young Animal); Ragnarok (IDW)
“It’s really nice to see the comics community recognize the amazing level of craftsmanship and skill in Campbell Whyte’s Home Time. I’m overwhelmed by it every time I open it myself,” says Chris Staros, Editor-in-Chief of Top Shelf Productions.
“What a pleasure it was to edit another book by Russ Manning… and on Star Wars, no less. This is a great bookend to our Complete Tarzan Newspaper Strips by Russ that won the Eisner a few years back,” says Dean Mullaney, Editor of The Library of American Comics.
“Who knew that Behaving MADly might garner my co-author, Ger Apeldoorn, and myself the tremendous honor to receive an Eisner nomination,” says Yoe! Books Editor Craig Yoe. “Behaving MADly has been one of our most popular books. Now, we have our fingers, toes, eyes, and ears crossed that the voting fans, like the esteemed Eisner judges, behave madly, too!”
Justin Eisinger, Senior Editor for IDW, reflects on the reality-based works, Calamity Jane and Lennon, saying, “These nominations are a testament to the real-life characters that inhabit these tales, as well as the creative forces that put their stories down on paper. Thanks to their efforts, we can all have a further understanding and appreciation of a hard-charging female American legend like the incomparable Calamity Jane, or crawl inside the mind of John Lennon to inhabit pop music’s most influential personality. Both tales work so perfectly in graphic novel form. I am thrilled that the teams behind these books have earned additional recognition for their contribution to our medium.”
“Diverse storytelling is at the heart of IDW, a founding principle expanded continuously through our many imprints,” says Greg Goldstein, President, and Publisher of IDW Publishing. “We’re proud of all the writers, artists, and editors who invested so much of themselves into this year’s nominated projects, the talented people who pour pure passion into their work.”
Voting has begun on the 2018 nominees for the Will Eisner Awards and you can register to vote here.
“This one-shot is an opportunity to take the Rat Queens to a space that we’ve never been before,” said Wiebe. “With Will Kirkby, the Neon Static issue is unlike anything we’ve ever done before, and his artistic style is the perfect opportunity to experiment with any wild ideas that come to mind. It’s all the personality you’d expect in a setting you’d never expect. Cyberpunk sass and sorcery.”
Readers will need to strap themselves in for a ride to an alternate and futuristic world, where the Rat Queens take to the neon streets of Palisade as an elite team of shadow operatives. An anonymous fiend creeps through the dark web, stealing identities and blackmailing innocent civilians for cold, hard Goldyen—and only the Queens can stop him!
RAT QUEENS SPECIAL: NEON STATIC one-shot (Diamond Code MAY180047) hits stores on Wednesday, July 18th.
Darkhorse Announces new ALIENS Essential Collections
Since 1988, Dark Horse Comics has delivered the Aliens scares that audiences have demanded! For those thirty years, these stories have expanded the Aliens mythos and taken it to new heights with terrifying adventures spanning the depths of space and strange alien worlds. Now, Dark Horse is proud to present a value-priced paperback collection Aliens Essential Comics Volume 1.
Aliens Essential Comics Volume 1 collects the first Dark Horse Comics Aliens trilogy – Outbreak, Nightmare Asylum, and Earth War, which follows Hicks and Newt—and eventually Ripley—as they join forces to battle an infestation of Aliens. Written by Mark Verheiden (The Mask, Timecop, Battlestar Galactica, Daredevil), and beautifully illustrated by Mark A. Nelson, Den Beauvais, and Sam Kieth, these are the essential Aliens comics that have stood the test of time . . . and kept readers awake at night!
Aliens Essential Comics Volume 1 TPB goes on sale October 24, 2018, and is available for preorder at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and your local comic shop. This monstrous 368-page volume retails for only $24.99. Look for other Aliens Essentials collections and Predator Essentials collections in the months in 2019!
The announcement comes in time for this week’s ALIEN DAY — which was this week on April 26, 2018, for an epic third annual global celebration of the iconic sci-fi franchise.
Hellboy: The Board Game Kickstarter Campaign goes Live
Mantic Games, in partnership with Dark Horse Comics, is pleased to announce that the Hellboy: The Board Game Kickstarter campaign is now live. After launching, the campaign reached its $140,000 goal within 18 minutes and more than 7,000 Hellboy fans around the globe have now backed the campaign.
Inspired by Mike Mignola’s Hellboy comic book universe, the game is a co-operative experience in which players face off against some of the comic’s most famous foes. Up to four people take control of iconic BRPD members, such as Hellboy, Abe Sapien, and Roger the Homunculus, before exploring gothic locations and uncovering ancient artifacts.
Featuring stunning, pre-assembled plastic miniatures, Mantic Games has worked closely with Dark Horse Comics and Mike Mignola to ensure the gaming pieces accurately capture the look and feel of the source material. What’s more, top games designer James M. Hewitt – who has previously worked on Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower, Necromunda: Underhive and Blood Bowl 2016 – has been drafted in to create a compelling game experience.
“We have been overwhelmed by the incredible support of Hellboy fans,” said Ronnie Renton, CEO of Mantic Games. “This is already shaping up to be one of our most successful Kickstarter campaigns ever and we’ve still got several weeks to go. We’re planning to add more infamous adversaries and iconic agents as the funding continues to rise!”
“Congratulations Mantic Games,” said Mike Mignola. “Clearly the fans have spoken!”
Hellboy has appeared in graphic novels and comic books, prose novels and short story collections, two animated features, two live-action films, toy lines and all manner of merchandise.
You can check out the Kickstarter campaign here:
Big Hero 6 Comics Coming from IDW this Summer
Debuting on Disney Channel on Saturday June 9, Big Hero 6 The Series will usher in new adventures of legendary superhero team Big Hero 6 — Hiro, Wasabi, Fred, Go Go, Honey Lemon and Baymax — for viewers. To coincide, IDW will be bringing even more excitement to readers in an all-ages comic book series! The fun kicks off this July with the first issue of an ongoing series.
Protecting San Fransokyo is no easy feat, but Hiro and the team are up to the challenge. “Big Hero 6 The Series features an amazing cast of characters. I couldn’t love them more, and I couldn’t be happier to be working on this book,” said Editor Joe Hughes.
Catching attention with her online comics and zines, burgeoning writer Hannah Blumenreich will lead the new comic series, writing the debut issue with Nicoletta Baldari (Star Wars: Forces of Destiny) providing stylish artwork to bring the characters to life. The first issue will also feature covers by Gurihiru (Gwenpool) and Sophie Campbell (Jem and the Holograms, TMNT).
“I am so excited to write this comic series,” exclaimed Hannah Blumenreich. “I know these characters are near and dear to a lot of people and I hope to do right by them.”
Look for the action-packed first issue available wherever comic books are sold this July and don’t miss Big Hero 6 The Series this summer beginning Saturday, June 9 on Disney Channel.
Debuting on Disney Channel on Saturday, June 9, Big Hero 6 The Series will usher in new adventures of legendary superhero team Big Hero 6 — Hiro, Wasabi, Fred, Go Go, Honey Lemon and Baymax — for viewers. To coincide, IDW will be bringing even more excitement to readers in an all-ages comic book series! The fun kicks off this July with the first issue of an ongoing series.
Protecting San Fransokyo is no easy feat, but Hiro and the team are up to the challenge. “Big Hero 6 The Series features an amazing cast of characters. I couldn’t love them more, and I couldn’t be happier to be working on this book,” said Editor Joe Hughes.
Catching attention with her online comics and zines, burgeoning writer Hannah Blumenreich will lead the new comic series, writing the debut issue with Nicoletta Baldari (Star Wars: Forces of Destiny) providing stylish artwork to bring the characters to life. The first issue will also feature covers by Gurihiru (Gwenpool) and Sophie Campbell (Jem and the Holograms, TMNT).
“I am so excited to write this comic series,” exclaimed Hannah Blumenreich. “I know these characters are near and dear to a lot of people and I hope to do right by them.”
Look for the action-packed first issue available wherever comic books are sold this July and don’t miss Big Hero 6 The Series this summer beginning Saturday, June 9 on Disney Channel.
Until the next installment of ICYMI,
WE’LL BE WATCHING!
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