Irene Adler, the only woman to outwit Sherlock Holmes, appeared in one 1891 story, “A Scandal in Bohemia”. She’s been a favorite ever since, particularly with people who want to pair Holmes up romantically in a traditional fashion. Now, Titan Comics is taking a different direction with the character. Adler will be a five-issue miniseries starting in February 2020 in which she’s an action hero, teaming up with “famous Victorian heroines from science, history, and literature… such as Jane Eyre, […]

DC is promoting the start of a new title, Harley Quinn and the Birds of Prey, which launches February 12. (It’s a four-issue miniseries.) They’ve given it the cover of their ordering catalog, as shown here, as well as a short interview with writer/artist Amanda Conner and co-writer Jimmy Palmiotti inside. It sounds interesting, and it’s well-timed, with a movie coming and a new animated series on the DC Universe streaming service. However, as a potential new(ish) reader, I found […]

While flipping through the latest Diamond Previews catalog to see what comics will be coming out next year, I noticed something strange in the Sterling Publishing listings. The first thing that caught my eye was the contrast of titling a comic All Action Classics: Tom Sawyer and then putting this incredibly relaxed cover on it: I know it’s one of the most famous incidents from the Mark Twain novel, but visually, it’s the opposite of “all action”. Then I got […]

Heavy Vinyl continues the trend of realizing comics for younger readers are better as graphic novels. The first miniseries (which was titled Hi-Fi Fight Club for its first issue) was collected last year as Heavy Vinyl: Riot on the Radio. It’s written by Carly Usdin and illustrated by Nina Vakueva. In it, Chris has just started her dream job at the local record store, only to discover that her co-workers fight for justice. Now the sequel, Heavy Vinyl: Y2K-O!, by […]

Dynamite Entertainment, four years ago, announced a licensing deal with Atari that included art books and comic reprints. Art of Atari came out in 2016. The Swordquest pack-in mini comics were reprinted as Atari Classics: Swordquest in 2017. But the book I really wanted, the Atari Classics: Atari Force, never arrived. It was due in January 2019. A book catalog website lists it as Cancelled. Here’s the original description: A compilation of the extremely rare comics originally given away in […]

Are we seeing the end of the comic book miniseries (at least, outside of the corporate superhero)? Two enjoyable comic series have recently had issues cancelled with the plan of releasing paperback collections instead. It makes a lot of sense to me — who needs the slippery short comics to store, when it’s a much better experience to get the whole story at once? It’s better for the publisher, as well, to avoid having to manage four or five months […]

As the comic market continues to change and mature, creators and publishers are experimenting with various ways to make comic production financially viable. Thom Zahler, the creator of the superhero romantic comedy Love and Capes, began in traditional print self-publishing in 2006, putting out issues that were then collected into book formats. There are four out so far, with the most recent coming out in 2013. The last two were published by IDW, which also took over the print serialization. […]

Oni Press, which has had great success with licensed publications, has announced a new deal. They will be working with Sanrio (home of Hello Kitty and many other merchandise characters) to put out a series of comic books featuring Gudetama, the “lazy egg”. (I discovered the character at this year’s TCAF, and I found him adorable, particularly when napping on a bed of rice as sushi. You more often see him uncooked, though, as a yolk.) Oni will put out […]