Comic Books

Superheroes dominated the comic industry for decades, and while DC and Marvel remain the two biggest comic publishers in the world, reader interests have shifted. Creators are branching off to tell their own kinds of stories beyond heroes and villains in capes. Fans need only look past DC and Marvel to comic publishers such as Image and BOOM! Studios.

Fans of the Walking Dead TV series should check out the comic it was based on. DC's Vertigo imprint may publish Sandman, but it's closer to mythology than superheroes. Comics like Black Science, Saga and Descender are all sci-fi epics. Comic books are so much more than superheroes and superpowers; these comics prove that good sequential stories exist in any genre.

They are:

1. Saga
2. Something is Killing the Children
3. Descender
4. East of West
5. The Wicked + The Divine
6. Black Science
7. Criminal
8. Once & Future
9. Sandman (vol. 2)
10. The Walking Dead

Dark Horse Comics will publish acclaimed Spanish comic book creator Alex Vede's original graphic novel, Riptide, in English for the first time. The book will arrive on August 20, three months after Vede's first graphic novel with the publisher, Yucatan 1512, debuts in May.

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Dark Horse Comics' Riptide synopsis reads, "The secretive NARWAL organization is hiding powerful secrets during the most contentious point of the Cold War. One marine biologist, Max, is drawn into the mysteries surrounding whale communications that mention the legendary Ceto—an advanced underwater civilization believed to be a myth. If Max is forced to choose between his loyalty to humanity and the opportunity to bring about peace with the last inhabitants of the lost city of Atlantis, will he risk everything and save both species?"

Broken Frontier strives to be an inclusive platform reflecting and celebrating the diversity of the form and its practitioners. Our internal coverage policies are designed to prioritise diverse voices and work that spotlights marginalised communities wherever possible. You can read our team statement on this here. To that end we are also building up relevant resource lists of comics that communicate those stories.

This is a work-in-progress so rest assured that there are a number of other resource lists currently being worked on to be added here at a later date. Click on each title below to access the relevant list.

Our resource lists are part of our #BrokenFrontierConnects initiative.

Categories include:

• Black History and Black Lives
• Climate Change and the Environment Comics and Islam
• Disability – Physical, Developmental and Dementia
• Jewish Lives
• LGBTQ+ Comics
• Mental Health Awareness
• Pandemic Comics
• The Refugee Crisis
• Social Reform
• Trans and Non-Binary Stories

Last year IGN broke the news that actor Thomas Jane is making the jump to comics with the horror series The Lycan. With that series about to debut on the Comixology Originals platform, we can now debut an exclusive preview of the first chapter.

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The Lycan is based on a story by Jane and screenwriter David James Kelly (Logan), with a script by Mike Carey (Lucifer, The Unwritten), art by artist Diego Yapur, coloring by D.C. Alonso, and lettering by AndWorld Design. Tim Bradstreet (Punisher MAX, Hellblazer) will provide covers for the series.

Here's Comixology's official description for The Lycan #1:

Year of Our Lord 1777: A hardened band of international big game hunters returning from Africa are shipwrecked off a small British island.

In exchange for new supplies and the repairing of their good ship The Calydonian, Lord Ludgate engages the men for a task they are particularly well suited for: find the Berserking Beasts that have been eating his subjects, including a group of young Benedictine Nuns, and destroy them.

Free Comic Book Day is owned and run by Diamond Comic Distributors. The company has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and has seen a number of publishers pull out of Diamond completely as a result. With tariffs threatened on comics published in Canada – which is most of the Free Comic Book Day titles – how will all this affect Free Comic Book Day on Saturday, the 3rd of May? Well, first, the comics have all been printed by now and have been shipped across the border for the USA. That is not an issue, this year around at least. And Diamond Comic Distributors is fully stocked with them, ready to send out to stores if they are still operating as they intended. Copies are meant to arrive in stores in the middle of April before the bankruptcy period is over. Some sites have reported the 1st of April as the bankruptcy cut-off date, but that is wrong. However, some titles available in bundles of ten, twenty, twenty-five or fifty will only be available from Penguin Random House or Lunar Distribution, with singles through Diamond, especially from publishers such as Mad Cave Studios and Vault Comics that recently left Diamond in toto. And DC titles will only be available through Lunar. Here's looking at how and where comic book retailers will have been ordering them;

And anything with multiverses and parallel worlds, reading tom strong made me feel some chidlike wonder. Enjoyed the dark undertones.

Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld has cut ties with Marvel after expressing disappointment with his alleged treatment at the premiere of the latest film.

The artist and writer is the brains behind the foul-mouthed anti-hero, and has a working relationship with the comic book publishers lasting more than 30 years.

But he felt sidelined at the New York premiere of Deadpool & Wolverine, the first Deadpool film to be released since Disney acquired Fox, and has opened up about his perceived experience.

According to Liefeld, he felt ignored by Disney bosses, including Marvel Studios head Kevin Fiege, at the July 2024 event and was upset to discover he and his family had not been invited to the premiere afterparty.

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Liefeld, who receives large revenue streams for the character he created in 1991, revealed that, one month before the film’s release, he requested more involvement with the marketing and promotion.

He also wanted a special credit different to the standard one given to comic book creators at the end of the film – noting that his request stemmed from Marvel’s decision to give Roy Thomas a Wolverine co-creator status alongside Len Wein and John Romita, Sr.

He wrote in the email: “Marvel’s treatment of creators has never been their strength. Without the worlds, the characters and the concepts that we create – and in this specific case, the world of Deadpool – there are no films to shoot. No blockbusters to distribute. … I am not the easy button at Staples. I am the human imagination behind it all.”

Liefeld claimed that his response did not get received in the way he was after, tweeting: “My reps were screamed at today ‘We are NOT Fox!’ Tell me about it. Also hung up on.”

I've previously posted a comic here where I asked who signed it. I'd like to know where you guys buy or sell comics? The local shop who sold them to a fair price recently closed down.

I mean, yeah, just because it's Myanmar doesn't mean the person has to be Burmese... but sheesh.

(I'm biased, my daughter in law is Burmese.)

Google translate:

"--AND A SECONDARY ATTACK TEAM AIMING FOR GOTHAM AFTER TWO CONFIRMED SIGHTINGS OF THE CHOSEN ONE. SHE IS BACK WITH THE CANARY IN GOTHAM, WE'RE SURE. THIS IS OUR BEST CHANCE--KRRRRKKKTE"

What a fantastic read, and really wanted to share it with someone. It got on my radar via some 2024 recommendation lists. I went in fully blind, not knowing what to expect.

The book had me hooked since page 1. It is intruiging, well written, and full of twists and turns. The way that Ram V and Dan Watters have woven their story is amazing. Same for the art, really captivating, props to Campbell and Kumar.

If you like thrillers and mysteries, or just want a good read, then please give it a go!

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/23687492

A woman from New Zealand has filed a civil lawsuit against bestselling British author Neil Gaiman and his estranged wife, musician Amanda Palmer, accusing Gaiman of repeatedly sexually assaulting her while she was working as the couple’s babysitter and nanny.

Scarlett Pavlovich filed the lawsuit in federal court in Wisconsin, Massachusetts and New York on Monday. Pavlovich previously publicly identified herself in an interview with New York magazine, which published an article in January detailing allegations of assault, abuse and coercion levelled at Gaiman by multiple women.

Pavlovich’s lawsuit also accuses Gaiman of rape, coercion and human trafficking, and Palmer of “procuring and presenting” her to Gaiman “for such abuse”.

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Pavlovich’s lawsuit states that she filed a police report in New Zealand, accusing Gaiman of sexual assault, but she alleges “the police took no action because Palmer refused to talk to them”.

Gaiman has worked with numerous publishers over the years. Two of them, HarperCollins and WW Norton, have said they have no plans to release his books in the future. Others, including Bloomsbury, have so far declined to comment.

Dark Horse Comics announced in January that it would no longer release its illustrated series based on Gaiman’s novel Anansi Boys. The seventh of eight editions was released earlier that month.

A production of Coraline has been cancelled, while Disney has paused a planned adaptation of Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book. Netflix is still scheduled to release a second season based on The Sandman, but announced last week it would be the last, in a statement that did not acknowledge the allegations against Gaiman.

New list is up!

Frankenstein New World The Sea Of Forever #1 - Anything Mike Mignola I'm down for

Batman Off-World #6 - Wait this is still running? Ok I'm already down for it.

Sacrificers #14 - This series still rules

Cruel Kingdom #2 - Shit I still haven't read the last one.

Short one for me but that's ok because I had to grab 3 weeks worth at once last week since my shop has had issues with Diamond (I think.) What're you pulling?

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/23650167

Marvel Comics recently told the New York Times that they have "no new books forthcoming" from Neil Gaiman. Gaiman had written a number of comic book series for Marvel over the years, including Eternals and 1602. But most recently, that was just the republication, recreation and continuance of the series he had written for Eclipse Comics back in the nineties, Miracleman, and which had been tied up in legal problems for thirty years. After first republishing Alan Moore's original run, Marvel Comics then published Miracleman The Golden Age by Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham, as they had originally created it back then, followed by The Silver Age, which had been partially completed. Only for artist Mark Buckingham to radically redraw the entire arc from scratch, and take over more of the writing duties for its conclusion, to much acclaim. This was then to have been followed by the unpublished The Dark Age. Mark Buckingham would take the creative lead on the project, though based on discussions, deliberation and collaboration with Gaiman. But that seems no longer to be the case. I understand Buckingham ceased work on The Dark Age last summer and asked to be reassigned. He has recently been working on Amazing Spider-Man at Marvel Comics instead.

In his new Substack newsletter, Marvel's X-Men Group Editor, Executive Editor and Senior Vice President Tom Brevoort, when asked by Bleeding Cool regular Ray Cornwall, "What is the status of Miracleman: The Dark Age? Has the script been delivered? If so, is Mark currently working on it?" replied "At the moment, Ray, nothing is going on with THE DARK AGE. If something changes in that regard, I'm sure you'll hear about it." But that seems very unlikely right now.

The decision by the US government to make their tariffs against Canada, Mexico and China kick in this Tuesday means that comic books already printed in Canada and going through shipping processes are about to rocket in price. Not for this Wednesday; the comics have already left Canada for the USA, and plenty of them are already in store. But next week? Those comics, just in time for Valentine's Day, may be the first to get caught up in the new 25% tariffs being imposed by the USA. Remember, comic book stores are not obliged to charge the cover price for their comics, and if they have to pay 25% more, then you will pay 25% more. With Marvel, DC, Image, Dark Horse, IDW, Dynamite, and Boom, most publishers printing their monthly comics in Canada expect a four-dollar comic to be a five-dollar comic overnight. And we can say goodbye to Todd McFarlane's $2.99 Spawn line. Expect that to be the case going forward unless a) savings can be made and b) US printers can be found. The latter are generally more expensive than those in Canada, don't have the comic book experience of Canadian printers, and demand for their services will be going up as well, so their prices will, too… Bad Idea Comics is already feeling the $200,000 pain.

There is now a follow-up: Valiant Comics says the $4.99 comic is over because of tariffs

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/23611563

Autistic comic book fans are being invited to participate in a Cambridge University study looking at how best to support neurodivergent people to enjoy cartoons.

The project, led by academics at Cambridge’s Faculty of Education, aims to develop guidance to help make comic communities as inclusive and accessible as possible for autistic people.

Autistic people who enjoy comics, who are aged 18 and over and in the UK, are being invited to complete an online survey as the first part of the study.

Research by the Comics Cultural Impact Collective (CCIC) indicates that hundreds of young people self-identifying as neurodivergent are involved in Britain’s comics community, either as fans or creators.

It suggests that neurodivergent comic enthusiasts often find spaces like fan conventions, comic book stores, online communities and the comics industry less than welcoming, and frequently feel “siloed”.

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“Comics seem to have massive appeal for a surprising number of autistic people, and many of them are not just fans but enormously talented cartoonists, artists and illustrators,” she said.

“This is something the comics community is increasingly aware of, and there is a lot of enthusiasm for becoming better allies for autistic people.

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The project, called The Collaboration For Comics And Autism, will work with partners including the CCIC and the Lakes International Comic Art Festival.

It will also work with specialist publisher Dekko Comics which supports neurodivergent learners, the Association of Illustrators, the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration and autistic cartoonists Bex Ollerton and Eliza Fricker.

To complete the survey, see: https://cambridge.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6F5yYUIr3AQzBky

it appears that Penguin Random House intends to pass on any unpaid debt they have from Diamond to IDW and, possibly, the other publishers as well. Penguin Random House is the biggest creditor for Diamond, to the tune of nine million dollars. And it seems that they may want IDW and the other publishers to make up these losses out of future earnings. Which may explain Marvel's interest. In the audit section of the report, prepared by an independent auditor, it is noted that there is "Substantial Doubt About the Entity's Ability to Continue as a Going Concern," the entity being IDW, and stating;

"the accompanying financial statements have been prepared assuming that the Company will continue as a going concern. As discussed in Note 19 to the financial statements, the collectability of certain receivables sold by the Company's distributor are in question and the dollar amount of the receivable in question cannot be estimated at this time and has stated that substantial doubt exists about the Company's ability to continue as a going concern."

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/23567563

The Good Omens Kickstarter was set up to fund the creation of a graphic novel adaptation by Colleen Doran of the Good Omens novel by Sir Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. A remarkably successful crowdfunding scheme, it raised £2,419,973 from 36,867 backers. The Terry Pratchett Estate, which runs the Good Omens Kickstarter, had offered refunds to donors after the original Tortoise Media allegations until last November. However, the estate now says that it "will no longer maintain this freeze in light of new articles and allegations. While we cannot speak further on the subject at present, we have chosen to reopen a short refund window for those who would no longer like to support the graphic novel until Friday, 7th February 2025."

They also state that "It has also been agreed that Neil Gaiman will not receive any proceeds from the graphic novel Kickstarter. Given the project management, production and all communication has always been under the jurisdiction of the Estate on behalf of Good Omens at large, this will not fundamentally change the project itself, however we can confirm the Kickstarter and PledgeManager will now fully be an entity run by, and financially connected to, the Terry Pratchett Estate only."

And for those who still want the book but might want to change the donor rewards, they say, "a number of tiers also come with author merchandise and books; we have been working on a system in the back end to remove or swap out particular rewards from tiers, should you wish to continue with the project, but not receive these specific items" and donors are encouraged to contact the Estate with their wishes. However, they state that those who received cameo appearances in the project cannot have them removed at this stage of the production process.

Writer & Monster Forge founder Shannon Eric Denton (Spider-Man, League of Legends), and artist David Hartman (Phantasm: Ravager, Transformers Prime) team up for an electrifying new adventure in Kraken, a brand-new original graphic novel which publishes in September 2025, from Titan Comics…

Set in alternate 1930s filled with dark magic, ancient horrors, and occult powers, Kraken will captivate fans of historical and supernatural thrillers. The graphic novel has been praised by high-profile talents including Rob Zombie (Halloween, The Devil’s Rejects) who calls Kraken “an insane ripping yarn”, and acclaimed creator Phil Hester (Green Arrow) who says Kraken “packs action, romance, high adventure, horror, and just straight up weirdness into every moment.”.

After disappearing for three years, esteemed adventurer Kraken returns to reality in search of allies to stop an evil sorceress from unleashing a horde of eldritch monsters on the world. Armed with a pistol and supernatural tentacles, the Kraken is loose!

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Artist David Hartman expressed his excitement working on the project, “When Shannon showed me the script for Kraken, I was hooked immediately! It’s a wild blend of pulp adventure, cosmic horror, and action-packed characters—everything I love to draw. This is just the beginning of an epic series we’re creating together, and I can’t wait for you to dive into the first book and everything else we have in store!”

DC started running in-house ads for a re-launch of the Elseworlds line with Greg Smallwood's Barbarian Batman back in August... and... well... Nothin'. Pulled a month before release.

The Elseworlds re-launched with a new Gotham By Gaslight six issue mini instead, a pre-lude to a Gaslight Justice League this year.

But not all is lost, best anyone can say is that Barbarian Batman starts its six issue run this May.

The series featuring Batman beating up aliens in spaaaaaace got off to a good start, but it's been a long time since #5 came out and the final issue hasn't been seen.

It's currently slated for Feb. 5th, but given the delays, it could be pushed out as far as April.

With two new Lex books out this week, it made me stop and go... Wait, what about that other one? When was it? 2023????!

Well... it turns out DC was maybe a little premature getting #1 out the door as #2 and #3 hadn't even entered production yet.

Good news though! Bryan Hitch and Mark Waid have wrapped it up, a 2nd printing of #1 is due for February to refresh everyones memory, hopefully followed by #2 and #3 in March and April!

New list is up! Good one this week.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles The Last Ronin II Re-Evolution #4 - Need more Turtles For Adults!

Ice Cream Man #43 - This issue is a series of one page horror vignettes by guest authors (all drawn/colored by Morazzo/O'Hallorhan iirc) of course with at least one being by W. Maxwell Prince (I think..), and including one by another favorite of mine, Patton Oswalt! Still one of my favorite comics out right now.

Seasons #1 - A horror story involving anthropomorphic seasons (winter, spring, summer, and autumn)? Ok sure I'll try it. Remender can go both ways for me, couldn't get into Low but love Sacrificers, so I'll at least look at a few issues.

Also add to that everything from last week, since my shop had none of it in stock. Idk what the hell is going on. Well, that's it for me, assuming my shop has any of it in stock.. What're you pulling?