Mark Evanier points out an amazing streak of accomplishment — Dick DeBartolo wrote continuously for MAD magazine from 1966 until, well, now. He first contributed in 1962, so his experience with them is even longer, but the streak of unbroken contributions began in summer 1966. Dick had a piece in every issue after these of the old MAD, the one that ended recently with #550 … the last issue to be produced out of New York. MAD then began to […]

As one might expect when there’s a TV series on the way, Dark Horse has announced an easy way to get started with the comic book series by Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse that was the source material. Resident Alien Omnibus Volume 1 is due out August 18, 2020. It’s called Volume 1 because it reprints the first three volumes (out of five): Welcome to Earth!, The Suicide Blonde, and The Sam Hain Mystery. Presumably a second omnibus will be […]

Katie O’Neill’s beautiful world-building has been on impressive display with her Tea Dragon series. It began in 2017 with The Tea Dragon Society, where friends find each other through taking care of the unusual creatures. The Tea Dragon Festival came out last fall, with new characters in a companion story. Now publisher Oni Press has announced that The Tea Dragon Tapestry, third and final in the series, will come out September 1, 2020. Good Comics for Kids has posted preview […]

I’m a huge fan of just about everything Thom Zahler has done, because he’s put out a number of entertaining romance comics with fantasy overtones, including Love and Capes (a superhero sitcom where someone-like-Superman marries and settles down with his girlfriend), Warning Label (a game developer finds love in spite of being cursed), and my favorite, Time and Vine (a winery can send you back in time). So I was thrilled to hear that his webcomic, Cupid’s Arrows, has returned […]

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 […]