Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you that we haven’t otherwise covered. Hit the links for more information.
McFarlane Productions has been on a roll introducing Spawn into various genres, and this summer they’ll return to the world of humor and satire with Spawn Kills Every Spawn . Like the previous Spawn Kills Everyone and Spawn Kills Everyone Too , this comic features the tiniest Spawn, Spawny, deciding to kill another set of comic characters — the Spawn universe.
Written by John Layman and illustrated by Rob “Sketchcraft” Duenas and colorist Robert Nugent, the five-issue miniseries sees Spawny arrive at a Spawn convention filled with Spawns from around the multiverse, all of whom are more popular than him. So he decides to become the most popular by eliminating the competition.
“From the very outset of our first miniseries starring our adorable little maniac, fans have been bugging me to bring him back once again for another series of mayhem,” McFarlane said. “This time around, the wonderful art by Rob puts so much detail into the pages, I think readers will be going back through each book to find all the visual Easter Eggs he has planted within the story. And Jon Layman has brought his own sense of absurd cuteness to this story so that you are both shocked and smiling at what is unfolding in front of you. The overwhelming support for this tiny, little character has been quite surprising to me.”
Spawn Kills Every Spawn #1 arrives in stores July 24.
Marvel has revealed the cover and more details about the first issue of this August’s new Uncanny X-Men title by Gail Simone and David Marquez.
Part of the From the Ashes publishing initiative that follows the end of Krakoa, Uncanny X-Men will feature Rogue setting up a new base of operations for Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Gambit and Jubilee in New Orleans. Providing a “light in the darkness” for their kind, the team will face a “fearless, malignant power” that’s hunting mutants.
“Most of my time lately has been spent trying to keep my brain from exploding right out of my skull from this book,” Simone said. “It’s either the fun of all my favorite mutants acting in surprising and wonderful ways, the impossibly brilliant work of the art team, or the thrilling collaboration with all the other writers, but somehow every DAY is just filled with some kind of manic joy. Ever since I took the book, I’ve been scribbling notes and plots and bits of dialogue day and night. I feel like a kid at a carnival.”
Uncanny X-Men #1 arrives Aug. 7.
Matt Kindt will team up with his mom for a new miniseries coming Dark Horse Comics and Flux House imprint. Gilt Frame is described as “an eccentric and electrifying crime thriller starring the most unlikely detective duo in the history of murder mysteries.”
“Although it is a privilege and thrill to collaborate with someone of Matthew’s caliber and of his generation, the real joy and value is personal,” said Margie Kraft Kindt. “What a bonus at this time of life, the gift and pleasure of so many hours and days in the company of a grown-up son, sitting across from each other at our partner table, settling into our chairs as we brainstorm plot twists. Each of us takes on the roles of our characters. I develop the energetic persona of the star of Gilt Frame , the take-charge Meredith Pearson — Aunt Merry to her beloved nephew and best buddy, Sammy — while Matt shoots out dialogue for him. We toss around how they would play off each other — so completely immersed in the exhilarating work we are both passionate about, that every once in a while, we stop and ask each other, ‘Are you getting this down?’”
The 64-page Gilt Frame #1 is due in comic shops on Aug. 7. You can see the covers for all three issues above.
Chris Claremont and Edgar Salazar will revisit the X-Men’s time in the Australian Outback in Wolverine: Deep Cuts. If you were reading the Uncanny X-Men back then, you might remember that Wolverine wasn’t around when the Reavers showed up to attack the X-Men. This new miniseries will detail the secret mission he was on before everything went to hell for the X-Men.
The Powerpuff Girls will return to comics courtesy of Dynamite Entertainment, Kelly Thompson and Paulina Ganucheau.
“I have to say, I am a very big fan of The Powerpuff Girls ,” said Thompson. “So much so that when I was young — just out of art school — I even wrote a few short stories and began to storyboard them in hopes I could get a job on the show! So this just feels… exactly right. I was over the moon to get the offer.”
Look for the first issue to arrive in July, featuring a cover by Ganucheau and variants by Leonardo Romero, Karen S. Darboe and Nicoletta Baldari.
Writer Ryan Parrott and artist Lalit Kumar Sharma will take a “What if?” approach to the Firefly universe in Firefly: ‘Verses . The one-shot answers the question, “What if the Browncoats had won?” and comes out from BOOM! Studios on July 31.
Scarlet Witch #3, which arrives in August, will feature the return of Lore . If you don’t remember Lore, she was Wanda’s demonic counterpart from 1994 Scarlet Witch miniseries by Andy Lanning, Dan Abnett and John Higgins. Check out her redesigned look by Russell Dauterman, along with his cover for the issue and a variant by Joelle Jones, above.
Dynamite is following up the big launch of their ThunderCats series with Cheetara , a new solo series focused on the heroine. It’ll be written and drawn by Soo Lee.
“There are some very cool things about Cheetara that have been overlooked in the original cartoon, things that I really want to make the center of her story,” Lee said. “She’s also iconic and very strong, it makes sense she gets her own series. It’s a look into one of the most important supporting characters.”
You can see the main cover by Lee up above, along with some concept art and variant covers for the first issue by Sozomaika, Lesley “Leirix” Li, Rebeca Puebla and Edwin Galmon.
Graphic novels
The Die team of Kieron Gillen, Stephanie Hans and Clayton Cowles will reunite for a new graphic novel titled We Called Them Giants . It’s about a girl named Lori who wakes up to find the streets empty and nearly everyone gone — until something new arrives. Image Comics will publish it in October.
IDW will publish Godzilla: Monster Island Summer Camp by writer Rosie Knight and artist Oliver Ono this summer. The graphic novel is about a young girl who discovers her art camp has been transformed into an “extreme sports nightmare,” and her wanderings away from it lead her to a portal that takes her to the world of monsters, where she befriends Minilla, the Son of Godzilla.
Look for it to arrive in stores Aug. 12.
Dark Horse Comics will release Small Town Spirits by Zack Keller, Gabriele Bagnoli, Valerio Alloro and Frank Cvetkovic on Oct. 29. The graphic novel is about a small town in Ireland that annually hosts the Spirit Games at Halloween, and how a rivalry between two if the town’s families leads to “a supernatural floodgate of mischief, magic and monsters that threatens to destroy his town.”
“When I found out that Halloween came from Ireland — just like my family, the Fitzgeralds — I jumped at the opportunity to get reacquainted with my roots by writing this book full of charm, cheer and maximum spooky chaos,” Keller said.
Also coming from Dark Horse in October is Eric Drooker’s third original graphic novel, Naked City: A Graphic Novel . Described as a comedy, the new graphic novel by the creator of Flood asks the question: “Is it possible for an artist to survive in the 21st Century?” As a young singer poses for a painter who has shifted from landscapes to nudes, both of them learn about the purpose of art and the meaning of success.
Juan Díaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido’s Blacksad will return in November with a new graphic novel, Blacksad: They All Fall Down, Part Two , which of course follows the previous volume with a similar title. The English-language edition is translated by Diana Schutz and Brandon Kander, and newly lettered by Tom Orzechowski and Lois Athena Buhalis.
The new volume continues the story of private investigator John Blacksad as he tries to save a friend from the electric chair.
“Juan and Juanjo have created a quintessentially American hero, letting him—and his impeccable moral compass—loose in a 1950s noirish New York City, but remember that all of this is originally conceived and written in Spanish,” Schutz said. “So, Dark Horse’s English-lan
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