Author: matthewephotography@yahoo.com
As previously reported, the traditional Free Comic Book Day will be a joint venture between Universal Distribution (which owns FCBD), Lunar, and Diamond UK, while Penguin Random House will be doing its own thing with a variety of other comics publishers for the first Comics Giveaway Day. For DC, leading up to FCBD on Saturday, May 2nd, the publisher will be offering free comics showcasing three DC Next Level titles, DC’s early reader graphic novel Aquamanatee, the fan-favorite crossover comic series DC x Sonic the Hedgehog, and DC’s award-winning horror comic House on the Lake, available exclusively at participating local…
Newly launched French publisher Morgaine has already signed major graphic novel deals with some of the industry’s biggest creators, The Beat can exclusively reveal the details. Acclaimed author Ram V, artists Anand Radhakrishnan and Evan Cagle, letterer Aditya Vidhikaru, and editor Eric Habern will create a multi-volume graphic novel series to be published by Morgen over three years, with Image Comics as the English-speaking publishing partner. As of now, the series doesn’t have a name or a plot, but with these creators at the helm, it’s sure to make waves. From the creator’s comments below, the scale of the work…
Berkeley Breathed’s Bloom County was one of Physical Newspaper’s last blockbuster comics, running daily from 1980 to 1989 and then sporadically in newspapers in various spin-offs and formats until 2009. The original comic, which satirically combined politics and small-town humor, ended with a story in which Donald Trump’s brain was implanted in a cat. Has foresight. The strip won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartoon in 1987. In 2015, Breathed digitally relaunched the strip as “Bloom County Continues” on Facebook and Instagram, with occasional but regular content featuring Bill the Cat, Milo the Penguin, Steve Dallas, and the rest of…
Desperado Books and series curator Joe Pruett today announced plans to revive the Eisner, Harvey, Gem, and Eagle-nominated Negative Burn on comics crowdfunding platform Zoop. First launched in 1993, Negative Burn describes itself as “a creative testing ground where legendary and emerging voices collide – an experimental, creator-driven laboratory that challenges the norm and moves the medium forward.” This new Negative Burn is packed with big-time talent including Mike Allred, Margaret Bennett, Brian Bolland, Mike Carey, JM DeMatteis, Francesco Francavilla, Phil Hester, Joe Jusko, Sam Keith, Joe Linsner, Ron Mertz, Peter Milligan, Steve Niles, Dan Panosian, Paul Pope, Joe Pruett,…
Oni Press and EC Comics enter 2026 tomorrow with a new issue of the Cruel Universe. Today, The Beat has an exclusive sneak peek at the anthology series of short stories written by Greg Pak and illustrated by Sebastian Cabrol. Here’s the synopsis for all issues of EC Comics’ Cruel Universe 2 #6: You have just landed in a barren, alien world. . . It’s cold, isolated, and devoid of any signs of life. . . Except for the eerie, pulsing hum from the planet’s core that sends messages directly to the synapses of the human nervous system: a new…
It’s no exaggeration to say that comic creator Phillip Kennedy Johnson is one of the most acclaimed and popular writers in the industry at the moment. Among his many career highlights in recent years is his integral role in helping to revitalizing Superman and the Super Family with the epic “Warworld Saga,” a storyline that saw the Man of Steel travel to the eponymous slave planet to overthrow the tyrant Mongul and free its enslaved denizens. With the Adventures of Superman: Book of El limited series, Kennedy will not only be closing a chapter with the Superman character but also…
As we near the end of the winter break for 2000 AD, we take a look at what we can expect from the British weekly anthology and its sister magazine, the monthly magazine Judge Dredd, over the coming year. (Be sure to check out our 2025 review) Judge Dredd’s important events Three major storylines for Judge Dredd are on the horizon, starting right away in January with the return of Dredd co-creator John Wagner in “Death of a Judge,” co-starring Mike Perkins, starting with Prog 2464. Rumors have been swirling for months that Wagner might actually kill Dredd. No matter…
Image credit: Valiant Comics XO Manowar completely passed me by when this character and the series debuted in the early 90’s. I had already moved away from comics. Part of the reason was that the manga was already becoming gimmick-heavy, and that it was becoming overly mature and edgy, emphasizing style over content. However, Valiant Comics, which I rejected at the time, seemed to be going completely against industry trends. Sure, their works could sometimes turn into something edgy and needlessly violent, but for the most part they were well written and good looking from an artwork standpoint. Of course…
Jim Starlin is one of my favorite comic book creators. Dreadstar was probably my first exposure to his work (and I bought back issues of Epic Illustrated when I finally had my own comic shop), but I quickly became familiar with his Batman and Cosmic I really grew attached to his work as he continued to weave a tapestry of Marvel cosmic characters from The Silver Surfer to The Infinity Gauntlet. At the time of The Infinity Gauntlet, I didn’t know that he had actually begun that story almost 20 years earlier. Thanos’ first appearance was not in Iron Man…
Welcome to the 2025 edition of our 2000 AD Year in Review. This time round, yours truly -longtime subscriber and Beat contributor Dean Simons – gives an overview of the year that was. We then have a quick check in on The Beat’s reviews editor Zack Quaintance on his second full year as a weekly reader of the 48-year-old British anthology. 2000 AD’s 2025 – DEAN’s PERSPECTIVE Following a weekly anthology like 2000 AD, it is pretty much expected that there will be some things that resonated more than others over the course of a year. 2025 started off pretty…