Monday, May 12, 2025

New Comics For Week Of Thursday 15th May

 

Blind Bags, a small town filled to the brim with psycho killers and a new Supergirl series.
Add last week's Diamond shipment showing up at some point, some might say...

  IT'S A BIG WEEK IN COMICS!

If there is something extra you are after make sure to get your requests to us before 5pm Monday to give us the best chance to secure you what you are after as we'll have limited shelf stock available.

Until we next see or hear from you, stay safe, live life and read comics

SPOTLIGHT LIST

HUCK BIG BAD WORLD #1

BATMAN LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT HALLOWEEN SPECIAL FACSIMILE EDITION #1

SUPERGIRL #1

GODZILLA: HERE THERE BE ALIENS #1

COLD WITCH A TALE OF THE SHROUDED COLLEGE #1 (OF 5)

ENERGON UNIVERSE SPECIAL 2025 (ONE SHOT)

EXQUISITE CORPSES #1

INVINCIBLE UNIVERSE BATTLE BEAST #1

FANTASTIC FOUR #5 FACSIMILE EDITION

GODZILLA VS. X-MEN #1

GWENPOOL #1

SPIDER-VERSE VS. VENOMVERSE #1

DARK REGARDS #1 (OF 4)

MONEY SHOT BIG BANG #1 (OF 5)

A VICIOUS CIRCLE

ADVENTURES OF SPAWN COMPLETE COLLECTION TP

AVENGERS ASSEMBLE THE SERPENT SCENARIO

BATMAN FULL MOON HC (MR)

DAY OF THE DEAD GIRL TP VOL 01 (MR)

DC FINEST SUPERBOY THE SUPER-DOG FROM KRYPTON TP

HEX VETS THE NIGHT TUNNELS

KAIJUMAX TP VOL 02 COMPLETE COLLECTION (MR)

KNIGHT TERRORS OMNIBUS HC

MILES MORALES SPIDER-MAN BY CODY ZIGLAR VOL 6 WEBS OF WAKANDA

MY LITTLE PONY THE STORM OF ZEPHYR HEIGHTS

NEW AVENGERS MODERN ERA EPIC COLLECTION THE INITIATIVE

NIGHT OF THE SLASHERS TP VOL 01 (MR)

NIGHTWING TP VOL 01 BLUDHAVEN (2025 EDITION)

PAGEANT TP (MR)

PREPARING TO BITE TP (MR)

RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS THE NEW 52 OMNIBUS HC VOL 01 (2025 EDITION)

RICK AND MORTY YOUTH IN RICKVOLT TP (MR)

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG SONIC PRIME  VOL 1

SUPERMAN UP IN THE SKY THE DELUXE EDITION HC

TRANSFORMERS TP VOL 03 COMBINER CHAOS

BEYBLADE X GN VOL 02

CLIMBER GN VOL 01

DANDADAN GN VOL 12

DESTROY ALL HUMANS CANT BE REGENERATED MTG MANGA GN VOL 03

LITTLE WITCHER HC

NEMESIS ROGUES GALLERY TP

PINK CANDY KISS GN VOL 01

RED RIVER 3-IN-1 ED GN VOL 03

TOKYO ALIEN BROS GN VOL 02

VAGABOND DEFINITIVE ED HC VOL 02

VERSUS GN VOL 03

 

BOOM

I HEART SKULL-CRUSHER! #9

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

WHEN I LAY MY VENGEANCE UPON THEE #4

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)


 

DARK HORSE

HUCK: BIG BAD WORLD #1

SISTER IMPERATOR #3

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

USAGI YOJIMBO: TEN THOUSAND PLUMS #3

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

 

DC COMICS

ABSOLUTE BATMAN #8

ACTION COMICS #1086

AQUAMAN #5

BATMAN AND ROBIN #21

BATMAN DARK PATTERNS #6 (OF 12)

BATMAN LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT HALLOWEEN SPECIAL FACSIMILE EDITION #1

DC VS VAMPIRES WORLD WAR V #9 (OF 12)

FIRE & ICE WHEN HELL FREEZES OVER #2 (OF 6)

GREEN LANTERN CORPS #4

SUPERGIRL #1

 

 

IDW

GODZILLA: HERE THERE BE ALIENS #1

STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS #7

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: MUTANT NATION #6

 

IMAGE

ASSORTED CRISIS EVENTS #1 3RD PTG (MR)

COLD WITCH A TALE OF THE SHROUDED COLLEGE #1 (OF 5)

ENERGON UNIVERSE SPECIAL 2025 (ONE SHOT)

EXQUISITE CORPSES #1

GEIGER #14

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

GOLDEN RAGE MOTHER KNOWS BEST #2 (OF 5)

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

HIVE #4 (MR)

I WAS A FASHION SCHOOL SERIAL KILLER #2 (OF 5)

INVINCIBLE UNIVERSE BATTLE BEAST #1

KING SPAWN #45

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

PHANTOM ROAD #12 (MR)

SPAWN #364

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

SPAWN BLACK RITUAL THE BOOK OF NYX #2 (OF 7)

TRANSFORMERS #20

W0RLDTR33 #14

WITCHBLADE #11 (2024)

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

 

MARVEL

DAREDEVIL #21

DOCTOR STRANGE OF ASGARD #3 [DOOM]

FANTASTIC FOUR #5 FACSIMILE EDITION

GODZILLA VS. X-MEN #1

GWENPOOL #1

HELLVERINE #6

IMMORTAL THOR #23

MILES MORALES: SPIDER-MAN #33

ONE WORLD UNDER DOOM #4

PHOENIX #11

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

RED HULK #4 [DOOM]

SPIDER-VERSE VS. VENOMVERSE #1

STAR WARS: JEDI KNIGHTS #3

THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MEN #15

THUNDERBOLTS: DOOMSTRIKE #4 [DOOM]

ULTIMATE BLACK PANTHER #16

ULTIMATE X-MEN #15

UNCANNY X-MEN #14

WOLVERINE #9

X-FACTOR #10

 

MISC

ARCHIE MILESTONES JUMBO COMICS DIGEST #29 JUGHEADS SUPERHERO SPECIAL

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

BETTY & VERONICA FRIENDS FOREVER SPY GIRLS (ONE SHOT)

DARK REGARDS #1 (OF 4)

DICK TRACY #10

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

FLASH GORDON #9

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

GATCHAMAN ONLY ONE EARTH #4 (OF 4)

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

MARK SPEARS MONSTERS #4

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

MINE IS A LONG LONESOME GRAVE #4 (OF 4)

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

MONEY SHOT BIG BANG #1 (OF 5)

PAST TIME #2 (OF 5)

PINUPOCALYPSE #2 (OF 6)

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

SICKNESS #7 (OF 14)

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

 

MAGAZINES

2000 AD NOV 2024 PROGS (FEB 2024 SHIPPING) PROGS 2418-2421

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

2000 AD NOV 2024 PROGS (JAN 2024 SHIPPING) PROGS 2414-2417 

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

ZDARSKY COMICS NEWS #11 

 

NEW TRADES

A VICIOUS CIRCLE

ADVENTURES OF SPAWN COMPLETE COLLECTION TP

AKANE BANASHI GN VOL 11

AMAZONIA GN VOL 03 EPISODE 3

AVENGERS ASSEMBLE THE SERPENT SCENARIO

BARBARELLA WOMAN UNTAMED TP VOL 03

BATMAN FULL MOON HC (MR)

BEST OF TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES COLLECTION  VOL 5

BEYBLADE X GN VOL 02

BIRDS OF PREY HERO HUNTERS TP (2025 EDITION)

CLIMBER GN VOL 01

DANDADAN GN VOL 12

DAY OF THE DEAD GIRL TP VOL 01 (MR)

DC FINEST SUPERBOY THE SUPER-DOG FROM KRYPTON TP

DEMON SLAYER KIMETSU ACADEMY GN VOL 05

DESTROY ALL HUMANS CANT BE REGENERATED MTG MANGA GN VOL 03

DISNEY TWISTED WONDERLAND MANGA SAVANACLAW GN VOL 01

DUNE HOUSE CORRINO VOL 2

FANTASTIC FOUR EPIC COLLECTION THE MORE THINGS CHANGE NEW PRINTING

GARFIELD FAMILY STYLE

HEX VETS THE NIGHT TUNNELS

I WANNA DO BAD THINGS WITH YOU GN VOL 05

IM THE GRIM REAPER GN VOL 03

JENNIFER BLOOD BATTLE DIARY TP VOL 01 (MR)

JOJOS BIZARRE ADV SHINING DIAMONDS HEARTBREAK GN VOL 03

KAIJU NO 8 B-SIDE GN VOL 01

KAIJUMAX TP VOL 02 COMPLETE COLLECTION (MR)

KNIGHT TERRORS OMNIBUS HC

LITTLE WITCHER HC

MAGILUMIERE MAGICAL GIRLS INC GN VOL 07

MARRIAGE TOXIN GN VOL 06

MILES MORALES SPIDER-MAN BY CODY ZIGLAR VOL 6 WEBS OF WAKANDA

MISSION YOZAKURA FAMILY GN VOL 16

MORIARTY THE PATRIOT GN VOL 19

MY LITTLE PONY THE STORM OF ZEPHYR HEIGHTS

NEMESIS ROGUES GALLERY TP

NEW AVENGERS MODERN ERA EPIC COLLECTION THE INITIATIVE

NIGHT OF THE SLASHERS TP VOL 01 (MR)

NIGHTWING TP VOL 01 BLUDHAVEN (2025 EDITION)

OTAKU VAMPIRES LOVE BITE GN VOL 03

PAGEANT TP (MR)

PINK CANDY KISS GN VOL 01

POKEMON SWORD & SHIELD GN VOL 12

PREPARING TO BITE TP (MR)

RAINBOWS AFTER STORMS GN VOL 03

RECORD OF RAGNAROK GN VOL 14

RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS THE NEW 52 OMNIBUS HC VOL 01 (2025 EDITION)

RED RIVER 3-IN-1 ED GN VOL 03

RED SONJA TP VOL 02 THE MASTERS RETURN

RICK AND MORTY YOUTH IN RICKVOLT TP (MR)

SILVER SURFER OMNIBUS HC VOL 01 JOHN BUSCEMA FIRST ISSUE CVR

SNOWBALL EARTH GN VOL 05

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG SONIC PRIME  VOL 1

SPLATOON 3 SPLATLANDS GN VOL 04

STAR WARS THE HIGH REPUBLIC EDGE OF BALANCE PREMONITION GN

SUPERMAN UP IN THE SKY THE DELUXE EDITION HC

TAMONS B-SIDE GN VOL 07

TERRY MOORE COVERS SC

TOKYO ALIEN BROS GN VOL 02

TRANSFORMERS TP VOL 03 COMBINER CHAOS DANIEL WARREN JOHNSON & MIKE SPICER CVR

TRANSFORMERS TP VOL 03 COMBINER CHAOS DIRECT MARKET EXCLUSIVE DANIEL WARREN JOHNSON & MIKE SPICER CVR

UNDEAD UNLUCK GN VOL 19

VAGABOND DEFINITIVE ED HC VOL 02

VERSUS GN VOL 03

 


Monday, May 5, 2025

New Comics For Week Of Thursday 8th May




WOAH!
What a weekend!!!
Thanks to everyone that made it along on Saturday for FCBD.
It was a wild time and we had a blast...
but now we return to our normal programming
of 
THIS WEEK'S NEW COMICS LIST!!!
Really, that's not that bad a come down after FCBD.
Still a bunch of great comics, you just gotta pay for them. ;)
So I wonder...is it still
 A BIG WEEK IN COMICS?

If there is something extra you are after make sure to get your requests to us before 5pm Monday to give us the best chance to secure you what you are after as we'll have limited shelf stock available.

Until we next see or hear from you, stay safe, live life and read comics

HIGHLIGHT LIST

MOUSE GUARD FACSIMILE EDITION #1

LADY BALTIMORE: THE DAUGHTERS OF MEDUSA #1

LOS MONSTRUOS #1

BATMAN #616 FACSIMILE EDITION

BRAVE AND THE BOLD #57 FACSIMILE EDITION

CAPTAIN PLANET #1

BLOOD & THUNDER #1

FREE PLANET #1

AMADEUS CHO 20TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL #1

FANTASTIC FOUR FANFARE #1

IT'S JEFF JEFF WEEK #1

STAR WARS #1

LOOK OUT (ONE SHOT) (MR)

VANISHING POINT #1 (OF 6)

HEAVY METAL MAGAZINE #1 

BATMAN (2022) HC VOL 05 THE DYING CITY

BATMAN (2022) TP VOL 05 THE DYING CITY

BODY TRADE TP

DC FINEST EVENTS ZERO HOUR CRISIS IN TIME TP PART 02

DCS MISFITS OF MAGIC TP

DUCKS TWO YEARS IN THE OIL SANDS TP (MR)

EC EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS TP VOL 01

ESPADA THE WILL OF THE BLADE TP

GODZILLA RIVALS: ROUND FOUR

INVINCIBLE TP VOL 09 NEW EDITION

KINGDOM COME TP (DC COMPACT COMICS EDITION)

LEGO NINJAGO SHATTERSPIN TP

LOVE LANGUAGES

MONSTER HIGH: NEW SCAREMESTER  VOL. 1

NIGHTWING THE PRINCE OF GOTHAM OMNIBUS HC (2025 EDITION)

OUTSIDERS (2023) TP VOL 02 NEVER THE END

SACRIFICERS TP VOL 03

SUICIDE SQUAD THE NEW 52 OMNIBUS HC

SUPERMAN ACTION COMICS (2024) TP VOL 01 SUPERSTARS

SUPERMAN FINAL CRISIS LEGION OF THREE WORLDS THE DELUXE EDITION HC

TRINITY GENERATION S TP

ANNIHILATION OMNIBUS HC GABRIELE DELLOTTO CVR

AVENGERS BY JED MACKAY TP VOL 04 STORM

AVENGERS EPIC COLLECT TP VOL 12 COURT-MARTIAL

BOCCHI THE ROCK SIDE STORY HEAVY DRINKING DIARY GN VOL 01

CORMAC MCCARTHY THE ROAD GN ADAPTATION

DEADPOOL MODERN ERA EPIC COLLECT TP VOL 05 IN WADE WE TRUST

DRAGON BALL SUPER GN VOL 23

EXCEPTIONAL X-MEN BY EVE L EWING TP VOL 01 DUTY CALLS

FIREFLY WEDDING GN VOL 02

FRANK MILLERS RONIN RISING COLL ED

GRAND SLAM ROMANCE SC GN VOL 01

GUY SHE WAS INTERESTED IN WASNT A GUY AT ALL GN VOL 01

KILL ALL IMMORTALS TP

LORE OLYMPUS GN VOL 08

MOONSHADOW DEFINITIVE ED EXPANDED GN

MYTHMAKERS REMARKABLE FELLOWSHIP OF CS LEWIS & JRR TOLKIEN

PHASES OF THE MOON KNIGHT TP

STAR WARS AHSOKA SEASON ONE TP

STAR WARS DARTH MAUL BW & RED TREASURY ED TP

VINLAND SAGA DLX HC VOL 07 (MR)


BOOM

HELLO DARKNESS #10

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

IN BLOOM #4

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

JIM HENSON'S LABYRINTH #7

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

MOUSE GUARD FACSIMILE EDITION #1

MOUSE GUARD: DAWN OF THE BLACK AXE #2

THE CREEPING BELOW #3

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

UNCANNY VALLEY #9

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

 

DARK HORSE 

ASSASSIN'S APPRENTICE III #5

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

ASSASSIN'S CREED MIRAGE: A SOAR OF EAGLES #2

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

BORDERLANDS: MOXXI'S MYSTERIOUS MEMENTO #4

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

JUMPSCARE #3

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

LADY BALTIMORE: THE DAUGHTERS OF MEDUSA #1

LET THIS ONE BE A DEVIL #3

LOS MONSTRUOS #1

RIPPERLAND #4

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

 

DC COMICS

ABSOLUTE GREEN LANTERN #2

ABSOLUTE SUPERMAN #7

BATGIRL #7

BATMAN #616 FACSIMILE EDITION

BIRDS OF PREY #21

BLACK CANARY BEST OF THE BEST #6 (OF 6)

BRAVE AND THE BOLD #57 FACSIMILE EDITION

JSA #7

JUSTICE LEAGUE THE ATOM PROJECT #5 (OF 6)

POISON IVY #33

RESURRECTION MAN QUANTUM KARMA #2 (OF 6)

SECRET SIX #3 (OF 6)

TEEN TITANS GO #3

TWO-FACE #6 (OF 6)

 

DYNAMITE

CAPTAIN PLANET #1

RED SONJA ATTACKS MARS #2

 

IDW

GODZILLA: HEIST #3

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #78

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: BEST OF OLD HOB

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

 

IMAGE

ADVENTUREMAN FAMILY TREE #2 (OF 3)

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

BLOOD & THUNDER #1 

BLOOD SQUAD SEVEN #8 

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

FARMHAND #21 (MR)

FREE PLANET #1

GI JOE A REAL AMERICAN HERO #316

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

GROMMETS #7 (OF 7)

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

KAYA #26

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

MONKEY MEAT THE SUMMER BATCH #3 (OF 5)

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

SPAWN SAM AND TWITCH CASE FILES #13

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

SPAWN SCORCHED #40

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

THE MOON IS FOLLOWING US #9 (OF 10)

WALKING DEAD DELUXE #112

 

MARVEL 

ALL-NEW VENOM #6

AMADEUS CHO 20TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL #1

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #3

DEADPOOL #14

DEADPOOL KILLS THE MARVEL UNIVERSE ONE LAST TIME #2

FANTASTIC FOUR FANFARE #1

IT'S JEFF: JEFF WEEK #1

LAURA KINNEY: WOLVERINE #6

PSYLOCKE #7

SAM WILSON  CAPTAIN AMERICA #5

SPIDER-GWEN: THE GHOST-SPIDER #13

STAR WARS #1

STORM #8

ULTIMATE WOLVERINE #5

WEST COAST AVENGERS #7

X-MEN #16

 

MISC

ADVENTURE TIME (2025) #2

ARCHIE FACSIMILE #4 BETTY & VERONICA #320

BETTY & VERONICA JUMBO COMICS DIGEST #334

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

DONT RUN WITH SCISSORS #1

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

FAR DOWN BELOW #2 (OF 6)

GALAXY OF MADNESS #9 (OF 10)

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

GATCHAMAN #9

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

LOOK OUT (ONE SHOT) (MR)

PLAGUE HOUSE #2 (OF 4)

POP KILL #3 (OF 4)

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

QUARREL #1 (ONE SHOT)

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

ROBOT + GIRL #7

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

VAMPIRESS CARMILLA 2026 ANNUAL

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

VANISHING POINT #1 (OF 6)

WORLD OF ARCHIE JUMBO COMICS DIGEST #150

(PRE-ORDER ONLY. ASK ABOUT RE-ORDER)

 

MAGAZINES

HEAVY METAL MAGAZINE #1

 

NEW TRADES

ANNIHILATION OMNIBUS HC GABRIELE DELLOTTO CVR

AVENGERS BY JED MACKAY TP VOL 04 STORM

AVENGERS EPIC COLLECT TP VOL 12 COURT-MARTIAL

BATMAN (2022) HC VOL 05 THE DYING CITY

BATMAN (2022) TP VOL 05 THE DYING CITY

BOCCHI THE ROCK SIDE STORY HEAVY DRINKING DIARY GN VOL 01

BODY TRADE TP

BOYS ABYSS GN VOL 09

BRUNHILD THE DRAGONSLAYER GN VOL 02

CORMAC MCCARTHY THE ROAD GN ADAPTATION

DC FINEST EVENTS ZERO HOUR CRISIS IN TIME TP PART 02

DCS MISFITS OF MAGIC TP

DEADPOOL MODERN ERA EPIC COLLECT TP VOL 05 IN WADE WE TRUST

DRAGON BALL SUPER GN VOL 23

DUCKS TWO YEARS IN THE OIL SANDS TP (MR)

EC EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS TP VOL 01

ESPADA THE WILL OF THE BLADE TP

EXCEPTIONAL X-MEN BY EVE L EWING TP VOL 01 DUTY CALLS

FIREFLY WEDDING GN VOL 02

FRANK MILLERS RONIN RISING COLL ED

FRANK MILLERS RONIN RISING MANGA ED

GODZILLA RIVALS: ROUND FOUR

GRAND SLAM ROMANCE SC GN VOL 01

GRAVITY FALLS: DON'T COLOR THIS BOOK!

GUY SHE WAS INTERESTED IN WASNT A GUY AT ALL GN VOL 01

INVINCIBLE TP VOL 09 NEW EDITION

KILL ALL IMMORTALS TP

KINGDOM COME TP (DC COMPACT COMICS EDITION)

LORE OLYMPUS GN VOL 08

LOVE LANGUAGES

MEDALIST GN VOL 08

MONO GN VOL 02

MONSTER HIGH: NEW SCAREMESTER  VOL. 1

MOONSHADOW DEFINITIVE ED EXPANDED GN

MYTHMAKERS REMARKABLE FELLOWSHIP OF CS LEWIS & JRR TOLKIEN

NIGHTWING THE PRINCE OF GOTHAM OMNIBUS HC (2025 EDITION)

OUTSIDERS (2023) TP VOL 02 NEVER THE END

PHASES OF THE MOON KNIGHT TP

SACRIFICERS TP VOL 03

STAR WARS AHSOKA SEASON ONE TP

STAR WARS DARTH MAUL BW & RED TREASURY ED TP

STAR WARS HIGH REPUBLIC EDGE OF BALANCE GN VOL 04

SUICIDE SQUAD THE NEW 52 OMNIBUS HC

SUPERMAN ACTION COMICS (2024) TP VOL 01 SUPERSTARS

SUPERMAN FINAL CRISIS LEGION OF THREE WORLDS THE DELUXE EDITION HC

TEEN EXORCIST GN VOL 02

THUNDER 3 GN VOL 04

TRINITY GENERATION S TP

VINLAND SAGA DLX HC VOL 07 (MR)


Friday, May 2, 2025

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY AT ALL STAR COMICS MELBOURNE DAY DETAILS 2025

 



We've said it before and we'll say it again,
the biggest and best day on the comic book calendar is nearly here.


This Saturday, May 3rd is FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2024.

We were pretty happy with how last year’s event ran, hoping for it to go smoothly again we are basically doing that same all over again!

As always we still believe that the more information you have, the better chance you’ll have of planning your day and getting the most out of this event.

So here are the details for the day to help make it as fun and enjoyable time out as possible while giving you an idea of what to expect.


OPENING HOURS:

Each year we try to make a focus on introducing younger readers into the world of comics.

However we’ve found that the hectic nature of the day wasn't always perfectly suited to younger fans and for some can be overwhelming.

So to help with this we’ll be continuing our:

FAMILY HOUR: 10AM-11AM

The idea is families with kids under 12, will get the chance to get in early while the store is still somewhat more relaxed.

Hopefully this we will make younger fans more comfortable, while parents can also grab some free books for themselves.


REGULAR TRADING HOURS: 11AM-5PM

After the Family Hour, the store will be open for regular trading to the general public 11am-5pm.


At this time we will have representatives downstairs to let a limited amount of people into the store via the building's foyer as a way to control the crowds so it makes for an easier browsing experience.



FREE COMIC BOOK STOCK AND STORE LAYOUT:

Our Free Comic Selection will again be on display and available in the foyer of 53 Queen Street.


Our hope here is that we will be able to control the line more directly, while thinning the crowd upstairs on the shop floor from folks that are only looking to pick up the Free Comics on the day, hopefully providing a better shopping experience for those looking to actual browse our shelves and perhaps buy something (Please buy something).

Anyone keen on shopping in store on the day will enter via the lift in the foyer as usual but will exit via the fire escape stairs when leaving the store, again to help the flow of foot traffic on the day.

Of course people with prams or access ability requirements will be able to use the lift to exit.



ALL STAR FCBD CHECKLIST

Like previous years to help more people get the Free Comics they want faster we'll also be handing out a Title Checklist this year's selection to those waiting in line.

While waiting you will have the chance to look over list and mark off the ones you want.

This will save a massive amount of time when it comes time to get your picks.

It will be literally as easy as handing the Title Checklist over and you'll have your books in moments.

The lines can be long earlier in the day, yes but this will keep them moving faster, getting you your FCBD picks quicker!

We hope you won’t be waiting in line too long but the only way it will move faster is with your help!

If you haven't we invite you to check out our
ALL STAR COMICS RECOMMENDS: FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2025 REVIEW BONANZA
from All Star columnist, Cameron Ashley that will give you the most in depth reviews of this year's selection of Free Books anywhere in the WORLD!
Just click right HERE.




OUR FCBD SELECTION OF TITLES

The GENERAL READERS SELECTION
 

FCBD 2025 ARCHIES COMIC SPECTACULAR

FCBD 2025 BEST OF 2000 AD

FCBD 2025 BLACK MIRROR #1

FCBD 2025 BOOM STUDIOS 20TH ANNIVERSARY

FCBD 2025 CONAN THE BARBARIAN

FCBD 2025 CRITICAL ROLE BLACK HAMMER

FCBD 2025 DC ALL IN ABSOLUTE UNIVERSE 2025

FCBD 2025 DIABLO

FCBD 2025 EC COMICS PRESENTS BLOOD TYPE #0

FCBD 2025 ENERGON UNIVERSE SPECIAL

FCBD 2025 FANTASTIC FOUR/X-MEN #1

FCBD 2025 GODZILLA NEW HEROES

FCBD 2025 I HATE FAIRYLAND ONCE UPON A TIME SPECIAL

FCBD 2025 IDW DARK FIND YOUR NEW FEAR

FCBD 2025 IRONHEART/MARVELS VOICES #1

FCBD 2025 KAGURABACHI & BARUTO TWO BLUE VORTEX

FCBD 2025 KANGA-U TESTS AND TOURNAMENTS 2025

FCBD 2025 KEENSPOT MARK SPEARS MONSTER

FCBD 2025 MEGAMAN #0

FCBD 2025 PHANTOM #0 

FCBD 2025 POST MALONES BIG RIG #1

FCBD 2025 POWER RANGERS VR TROOPERS

FCBD 2025 SPEED RACER #0

FCBD 2025 SPIDER-MAN/ULTIMATE UNIVERSE

FCBD 2025 STAR WARS #1

FCBD 2025 STREET FIGHTER VS RIVALS SCHOOLS #1

FCBD 2025 TOWER DUNGEON & ISSAK

FCBD 2025 TRANSFORMERS WORST BOT EVER SPECIAL

FCBD 2025 WILL EISNER COMIC BIOGRAPHY



NUMBER OF BOOKS YOU CAN PICK:

We hope to give everyone at least the choice of 5 titles.

This will change during the day pending stock levels.

Due to all stock being limited title availability can not be guaranteed throughout the day.



THE ALL STAR KIDS SHOWBAG

FCBD 2025 IRON MAN & FRIENDS/SPIDEY & FRIENDS

FCBD 2025 MINECRAFT THE MANGA & BEYBLADE X

FCBD 2025 STAR WARS YOUNG JEDI AVATAR

FCBD 2025 SUPERMANS GOOD GUY GANG




The All Star Kids Showbag is limited to one per family with kids under 12.

The Showbag contains the listed above 5 TITLES!

Since we only have a limited number of the showbags, to be fair to those kids that attend the event on the day it will only be available to families with kids under 12 in attendance at the event with a limit of one showbag per family.

Limited quantities of these titles are available individually outside of the Kids Showbag while stock last.


STORE REPRESENTATIVES

Store representatives will be recognisable on the day as anyone sporting store lanyards and they will be able to help you with any questions you may have.





FREE COMIC BOOK DAY ALL STAR COSTUME CONTEST

This year photos for the costume contest will be taken at the photo area set up at the back of the ground floor foyer, just after the lifts.

Look for the All Star standing banners

and seek out our photographer and get your photo taken.

If there isn't available just speak to someone in store at the counter.






FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 10% OFF EVERYTHING* INSTORE SALE

And for those kind enough to want to make a purchase on the day, we are offering EVERYONE our regular/ standing order discount of 10% OFF nearly* everything in store.


GENERAL QUESTIONS

WHERE DO I VOTE?

With little concern from Comic Book Stores the Federal Government nominated Saturday May 3rd to be the date of our next Federal Election.

We hope you will have yourself sorted voting wise before heading out for FCBD but if you don't and need to find a voting location close to the store, here are your best bets on the day.

-Drill Hall
26 Therry St, Melbourne VIC 3000

-St Peter's Eastern Hill (Church Hall)
15 Gisborne St, East Melbourne VIC 3002

-Zinc at Fed Square
Cnr Princes Walk & Russell St Ext, Melbourne VIC 3000



WHAT ABOUT THE ALL STAR FREE COMIC BOOK DAY ARTIST ALLEY ?

While this has been aspect of our event has been a stable since our very first FCBD event, it will sadly be missing this year.

Again as part of our revaluating of this event in our new setting and taking into account the current financial climate, we were not in the position to host this most incredible line up of local talent.


Hopefully that will change for future events but we are still super thankful for the generosity of all the artists who have ever lent us their skills for our past FCBD’s.



CAN I RESERVE MY FREE COMIC BEFORE THE EVENT?

The simple answer here is no.

This is not something we have ever done as the event's sole reason for existing is to get people into comic book stores or interacting with them on that day.

If this was something we offered there would be little chance we've have any free comics to give away on the day!

Please also remember, these comics are NOT FREE TO US. They are valued at around a $1 a comics. Stores are literally giving money away to hold the event.

Our first thought is to the folks that make it out to our event on the day.

While we appreciate that might not work for everyone's schedule, we do hope you understand that it is truly in the spirit and reasoning for the day existing in the first place.



MY "INSERT HERE" COULDN'T MAKE IT TODAY. CAN I GET SOMETHING FOR THEM TOO?

See above.
Also perhaps sacrifice a couple of your picks to something your "insert here" might like and you'll be their real life hero!



WILL FREE COMICS BE AVAILABLE ONLINE VIA YOUR WEBSTORE ON THE DAY LIKE PREVIOUS YEARS?

Sadly due to the logistics of running an event of this size, we are able to only run it in one format, either in store or online but sadly not both at the same time.

Again we appreciate that this is not perfect but hope folks can understand our situation.

Our hope is that whatever we have left over from the Saturday, we will make available on our webstore on the Sunday.


If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact the store, please be aware that there will likely be some lining up outside at certain points of the day.

Please keep in mind that this is Melbourne and cover is limited so we recommend umbrellas just in case, we'll keep our fingers crossed for sunshine.



Most important of all,

HAVE AN AWESOME FREE COMIC BOOK DAY!!

THE ALL STAR CREW




Wednesday, April 30, 2025

ALL STAR COMICS RECOMMENDS: FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2025 REVIEW BONANZA




ALL STAR COMICS RECOMMENDS: FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2025 REVIEW BONANZA

By Cameron Ashley

Hello! Welcome to Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) week!


My name is Cam. I write overly long columns for the wonderful people at All Star Comics with sadly increasing infrequency (tiiiimmmeeee!!) but always with the message that comics are the goddamn greatest.

 

First: as you probably know, it is election day in Australia the very day of FCBD and we face the very real possibility of having a horrible ex-cop who cozies up to mining billionaires desperately trying to inflame a culture war in order to become Prime Minister. 

Please go and vote accordingly. 

But Cam, someone says, I didn't come here for politics! 

 

Well too bad, buster, because comics have always been political. Marvel comics was built on the pencil of a man who literally fought nazis and spent most of his career exploring the struggle of evil against fascist forces. DC has a character literally named Uncle Sam, the personification of the country, who led a super team against the Axis. In Japan, Osamu Tezuka, the god of manga, railed against tyranny and imperialism in the wake of post-war Japan and loaded his work with environmental concern.

 

Comics fought censorship and senate enquiries. Comics have always rebelled, always been the artform of outcasts. This is the medium of diversity, and it always has been.

 

Comics are punk, comics will form your moral core.  Comics will make you a better, kinder, more empathetic person.

 

As Richard Metzger said about Grant Morrison’s comics, they are the “candy-coated bullet”. He was right, but more broadly, I think comics are a pop art empathy bomb.

 

Comics will open your mind. They will change your life. They will teach you a new way of reading and seeing. They will teach you new cultures. They will expose you to endless heroism, kindness and goodness. They will expose you to the horrors of the world and smarten you up about people you should avoid.

 

So yes. Hello. Welcome to FCBD 2025. Woo. Because, above all, comics are fun.

 

The bad: There's not much indie or arthouse content this year. Not healthy for the medium, in my opinion. You can largely thank tariff flip-flopping and Diamond distribution going bust for that.

 

The good: there is still a real murderer's row of titles on offer - I honestly can't recall a time where I have been more glowing, and I've written this thing for…I don't even know how many years. There's, like, only one or two things I almost actively dislike.


So please go and vote early and then come in to All Star Comics and enjoy Free Comic Book Day 2025. You totally earned it.


A quick note on ratings:

 

(A) All Ages

(T) Teen

(T+) Teen +

(M) Mature

 

Pretty simple right?

 

Also, quickly before we move on. Three titles unfortunately did not arrive in time for me to ramble on about. I did my best when including them below, using solicitations and promotional material. Clearly, I cannot weigh in critically with these, but I did my best.

 

Everything is here alphabetically. If a title has “The” or “A” or whatever, I choose to ignore it, so The Amazing Spider-Man, for example, is here under A for Amazing. Cleaner than writing Amazing Spider-Man, The, I think.

 

Okay. Here you go. Please enjoy the day, enjoy your comics and read as widely as you can. This is a good opportunity to take some chances as a reader and possibly fall in love with a title you would otherwise possibly have actively avoided. Thanks for your time, I hope this helps!


 

ALL IN 2025 SPECIAL

Written by Dan Slott / Jeff Lemire, Illustrated by Rafael Alberqueque / Guiseppe Camuncoli and Stefano Nesi

DC (Teen)

 

There’s an energy and spark around not just a few DC titles right now but virtually the entire line of comics, with writers and artists seemingly let off the chain and given immense creative freedom. I don’t know the internal machinations of the company, obviously, but that’s certainly how things feel.

 

It’s no exaggeration to say that DC’s All In initiative has completely reframed the way I consume comics books - I’ve not collected ongoing, monthly periodical comics since 2003. I’ve bought a few here and there, sure, but it’s been exclusively trade paperbacks, OGNs and omnibuses for me for over two decades.  All In changed that, reintroducing the floppy comic back into my life in a big way. With no sign of this creative energy stopping any time soon, regular and curious readers both will want to get their hands on the All In 2025 Special - a flipbook, like the one-shot that launched it all back in October.

 

Writer Dan Slott’s upcoming Superman Unlimited ongoing series gets an exclusive prologue. It’s a series that’s coming with quite a bit of hype from the publisher regarding its status quo-shifting status for the Superman titles so I imagine there’s quite a bit of interest for this. It’s really the climax of the story that sets this huge shift in motion, but readers curious about Slott’s take on Superman will find the character in fairly good hands, even if there’s a lean into perhaps being a little too campy with some dialogue. Lines such as, “Intergang is slicing into us with its sci-fi ray guns!” don’t overly inspire much confidence, but Slott has a solid handle on Superman’s characterisation and a great deal of this story is Superman just being Superman, i.e. helping people.

 

Albuquerque was originally the artist attached to Absolute Superman but this change might actually be for the best. He’s a solid fit for mainline DC’s Metropolis and Slott gives him some great Superman action to depict to showcase his talents.

 

Superman Unlimited is good, but it is “Mirror, Mirror,” the Absolute Universe story forming the other half of this flipbook, that's a must-read for fans. Writer Jeff Lemire gives a good overview of the Absolute versions of characters currently in play, as seen through the voyeuristic narration of none other than Absolute Mirror Master. Lemire packs in Easter eggs and conspiratorial clues as to what’s to come for the Absolute titles and the final moment here paves the way for the two universes to actually meet. Does this feel a little early? Perhaps, but DC has built up enough goodwill with the patient, thoughtful, creator-first construction of the Absolute Universe that some trust is earned. 

 

Guiseppe Camuncoli is an artist I’ve not seen for a while and he’s a welcome addition to this comic, providing layouts finished by Stefano Nesi who adds a tonne of complementary polish to Camuncoli’s work. It’s a great looking superhero comic.

 

In short, the All In Special 2025 builds on the momentum that DC has created and is filled with the most overt teasing of future events that we’ve seen since the initiative began. Highly recommended.


 

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN / ULTIMATE UNIVERSE

Written by Joe Kelly / Deniz Camp and Cody Ziglar / Joe Kelly, Al Ewing and Charles Soule

Illustrated by John Romita Jr and Scott Hanna / Jonas Scharf / Cafu

 

Exciting times for Spidey fans as Marvel drops an Amazing Spider-Man, Ultimate Spider-Man and Venom triple-header for FCBD 2025.

 

This is the one hardcore Marvel fans should probably be the most excited for, as not only do readers get a new short Spidey story by new ongoing writer Joe Kelly and artists John Romita Jr and Scott Hanna, but also the launching point for Ultimate Incursion, which will see Miles Morales tangling with the new Ultimate Universe.

 

Kelly and JR Jr turn in a nice showcase for the Amazing Spider-Man title, with Kelly dialling up the quips and Romita Jr providing his typically excellent work with the character. Not a whole lot happens in “When Death Strikes,” the short story we’re given here, but it’s a solid taster for the creators’ ongoing work with this beloved character.

 

Writers Cody Ziglar and Deniz Camp, very much the writer of the moment, script the subsequent Ultimate Incursion prologue, which, much like the Spider-Man story that precedes it, is much more focused on establishing the character of Miles Morales and just how at home he has come to be in “our” world than trying to blow minds with unexpected plot twists or cliffhangers. It’s a quiet opening to the Ultimate Incursion story, yes, but it’s a good one and invested readers should find much to be pleased with here. Artist Jonas Scharf is a good choice, balancing the “real”, grounded NYC in which Miles exists with some colourful superhero action.

 

Extra surprise bonus! Writers Joe Kelly, Al Ewing and Charles Soule jam on a short little teaser of forthcoming Venom shenanigans, illustrated by Cafu. The fates of Spider-Man, Venom and Carnage remain intertwined despite various status quo shifts for the characters, and Venomites will find this probably the most intriguing tease presented in this comic. Solid stuff all round.


 

ARCHIE’S COMICS SPECTACULAR

Written by Various, Illustrated by Various

Archie Comics (A)

 

Designed to give any reviewer conniptions with its list of creators running 14 deep (and that’s excluding colourist and letterer - sorry guys), readers are nonetheless invited to celebrate 80 years (!) of Archie with this year’s jam-packed FCBD issue.

 

We open with “Riverdale Jones and the Burger of Destiny” by writer Adrian Ropp and artists Bill and Ben Galvan, an Indiana Jones-pastiche featuring none other than Jughead on the hunt for the legendary Burger of Destiny. Surely I am not spoiling anything here by mentioning that this is a burger-induced dream Jughead has, with Betty and Archie desperately trying to rouse their passed-out pal. Ketchup traps and ice cream floods try to take out the intrepid Riverdale Jones and his faithful dog Hot Dog in this fun little number from the creators.

 

Next up is the Deadpool-spoofing “Poolnoodle The Backstroke”, with various Archie characters recast as superheroes and featuring cameos from Archie’s actual superhero characters including The Fox, The Shield and others. This one gets a bit too meta for me with its commentary on bloated big budget superhero movies feeling a little passé at this point, but the kids might get a kick out of this one, continuing the dream-theme of the preceding tale.

 

Betty and Veronica take the spotlight next in “Babbi’s Riverdale Beach Party,” by writer Jamie L. Rotante and artists Holly G! and Jim Amash. Yep, “Babbi” is obviously “Barbie”, and the girls are throwing a beach party for everyone to come dressed as their favourite character. Oof. It's getting a bit much now.

 

Dr. Masters follows, with “All About Meme,” by writer Timmy Heague and the Galvans back on the art.  By this point I’m actually getting a little tired of all the puns and spoofing in this comic, with Doctor Masters remaking meme after meme but putting his own spin on them by including the Archie cast. Eh.

 

Don't despair Archie fans, for the legendary writer/artist Dan Parent is up next with a Sabrina the Teenage Witch tale, “Do You Believe in Magic?” Thankfully largely free of film reference and puns (until the very end), this enjoyable little, short sees Archie and Sabrina looking for hidden treasure on a magical beach treasure hunt. I found this one to be a nice palate cleanser.

 

Closing us out is Young Dr. Masters (yes, he’s back) with “The Doctor Does Dating” by writer Goldie Chan and artists Holly G! and Jim Amash. It’s probably just me, but I also found this one a bit of a turn-off, with Doctor Masters starting a dating advice app and discovering there are fancams about himself. Ugh.

 

Look, it's probably me, I get it. I am old and grizzled and clearly all the social media and Hollywood satire in Archie’s Comics Spectacular is aimed at readers way younger than this old fart, but this actually feels a little desperate to me, with jokes not landing pretty much anywhere. I’m glad the Riverdale crew is moving with the times, but this one’s downhill from the quite amusing Jughead opener and, hey, Dan Parent everybody. Archie fans do not be discouraged but how flat I am on this, you’ll likely get quite a bit out of it.


 

BEST OF 2000AD

Written by John Wagner / Peter Milligan / Ian Edginton / Alex Di Campi, Illustrated by Jock / Jose Ortiz / D’Isreali / Silvia Califano

Rebellion (T)

 

Look, if I didn't have enormo boxes full of decades of 2000AD back issues in the garage, not to mention collected editions aplenty on my rapidly bowing shelves, I would be all over Rebellion’s Best of 2000AD collections and, who knows, maybe I still will be. I practically defy All Star customers to not get swept up in this FCBD showcase giveaway issue which is chock full of not only cracking material, but excellent presentation and editorial smarts, with an excellent back cover overview of just what readers new and old will find in these collections - a brand new Judge Dredd story and an “incendiary mixture of hidden gems” from the past by some sure-fire comics A-listers like Moore, Quitely, Hewlett and many, many more.

 

Readers who wade through this ridiculously long column in total may note some apparent hypocrisy on my part - “But Cam,” you say, “You appear to hate it when publishers jam in too much stuff into a FCBD comic. What’s the difference here?”  The difference here, my friends, is that each issue 2000AD is comprised of either self-contained stories or serials with chapters of six pages. These comics were built for this format.

 

“Crossing Ken Dodd”, a Judge Dredd story by co-creator John Wagner (about to pen his final ever Dredd story this year) and famed artist Jock launches us off. How I want to spoil this action-packed little number, which packs its famed politics into a final reveal panel I’ll not ruin. Dredd is arguably the most relevant comic on the shelves (no really) and the retiring Wagner loses none of his angry, punk attitude here, with some truly biting satire that sums up just what future lawman Judge Dredd’s world of Mega City One is really all about. Outside of the Mouse Guard story listed in the Boom special below, this is the single best short story on offer this FCBD - unmissable stuff.

 

A classic slice of Rogue Trooper follows Dredd, by the legendary Peter Milligan and artist 2000AD veteran Jose Ortiz. The Rogue Trooper character is another heavy hitter from the pages of 2000AD - the “last genetic infantryman” has gone rogue, with biochips imprinted with the personalities of his dead friends embedded in his weapons, as he crosses the wasteland of Nu-Earth hunting down the Traitor General, who betrayed his men. Some readers might find this little classic a bit too old-fashioned, but it does an amazing job setting up character and also somehow finds room for Milligan to go off about war, fascism, and who exactly the enemy is. I’m a sucker for Ortiz’s classic, realistic grey wash art and hopefully you will be too as this is an utterly killer little short.

 

Not sold yet? Fine, up next is a slice of Ian Edginton and the amazing D’Isreali’s War of the Worlds riffing Scarlet Traces. Nineteenth Century Britain is “a bridgehead” to a Martian invasion, but following the Martians’ defeat, the city is rebuilt with added alien technology, but a conspiracy beats at the heart of the new Empire and it’s up to Captain Robert Autumn and manservant Archie Currie, to get to the bottom of it. In many ways, this is unfortunately the least effective comic here in terms of instant appeal, but D’Isreali’s art is always welcome and ever-so-stylish and Edginton sets things up well in the four short pages we are given.

 

Alex De Campi and Silvia Califano’s “The Seer”, a Judge Anderson story, reaches for the trippy heights of Alan Grant and Arthur Ranson’s classic work on the character but doesn’t get there. This is not to say “The Seer” is a bad story, far from it, but the bar is incredibly high on stories featuring the pre-cognitive, astral plane-travelling Judge. Anderson is after an unregistered precog, a psychic the lawmakers of Mega-City One are unaware of. What turns out to be a simple case is complicated when Anderson discovers there’s more than meets the eye to Mandy Jones’ abilities. A decent little short.

 

Armed with an excellent cover by none other than the wonderful Hayden Sherman, you should ensure Best of 2000AD finds a home in your picks this year. Highly recommended: this is a terrific little package with two of the three best complete shorts on offer contained within.


 

BLACK MIRROR

Written by Neil Gibson (from a teleplay by Charlie Brooker), Illustrated by Samantha Dodge and Flavio Soares

Twisted Comics (M)

 

Well. This is…curious.

 

You would think that with Netflix’s Black Mirror and its techno-dystopias being something of a global phenomenon that a comic book spinoff would be a fairly natural extension with new stories, maybe tight 40 pagers, rotating creators, that would be the way to go, right? Apparently not, as Twisted Comics’ looks to adapt some of the more popular episodes from the series.

 

‘San Junipero’ (S03E04, for fans) is the launch title with writer Neil Gibson adapting Charlie Brooker’s teleplay. This one, according to IMDB at least, is the fourth most popular episode of the series as a whole, and its central romance and its 80s setting make it a logical choice for adaptation.

 

Readers looking for a complete package will be disappointed by what’s presented here - a handful of inked pages that descend into pencils and rough layouts. It’s an odd way to present such a top-shelf property. This is not a shot at artists Samantha Dodge and Flavio Soares, whose pages are attractive and realistic but there’s a real sense that this was a rushed product - emphasised by Gibson’s afterword, which highlights that the deadlines were so tight, there was no time to secure the likenesses of the episode’s cast.

 

Having said that, though, process nerds and readers interested in craft will likely find much to enjoy here watching how these pages come together and the storytelling is always clear throughout. Gibson, an engineer by trade, appears to write his scripts on an excel sheet, with columns broken down into page, number of panels, art description, dialogue, scene/location codes and more. It’s an interesting approach.

 

Ultimately, this one is recommended for fellow comic craft freaks and Black Mirror obsessives. The rest of you may prefer to wait until the finished, coloured, package arrives later this year.


 

BLOOD TYPE

Written by Corinna Bechko / Matt Kindt / Chris Condon

Illustrated by Jonathan Case / Kano / Charlie Adlard

EC Comics/Oni Press (T)

 

If you, like me, have held off sampling any of Oni Press’ relaunch titles for EC Comics, now is the time!  Blood Type FCBD features three complete tales, each drawn from the opening salvo of titles Epitaphs from the Abyss (horror), Cruel Universe (SF) and Cruel Kingdom (Fantasy).

 

Corinna Bechko and Jonathan Case kick us off with the titular ‘Blood Type’ a vampire character who finds herself stuck on a luxury yacht in the middle of the ocean, lucky for her she brought food...

 

Case’s expressive, attractive art has echoes of Jaime Hernandez and really elevates a story in which, honestly, not very much happens, odd for an EC story - so famed for twist endings. This short feels like the set-up for something more, and lo and behold it is, with the character returning in her own miniseries later this year, in what seems to be the first of many planned spin-offs.

 

The stand-out story “The Champion” follows by Matt Kindt and Kano. It's tough to put a new spin on the well-trod ground of intergalactic gladiators, but Kindt adds elements of commodification, commercialism and celebrity worship, making things feel pretty fresh. There is a twist ending here and it's a clever one, but as with “Blood Type”, the artist steals the show, with Kano turning in some truly lovely work well worth your eyeballs' time.

 

Rounding things out is “Death and Pickaxes” from Cruel Kingdom. Written by Chris Condon, who's really turning in some interesting work at the moment, and drawn by The Walking Dead’s Charlie Adlard, this little number puts a grisly, obsessive spin on the story of Snow White.

 

It's hard to say too much more without completely ruining things, but I will add It is worth mentioning the lettering, by Richard Starkings and Tyler Smith, which mimics that old EC typeface beautifully, giving this entire comic a nice dose of added nostalgia for old EC heads.

 

While I'm not quite as high on this as I hoped I would be, Blood Type FCBD is a solid sampling of what Oni has planned for the new EC line, and with three complete, beautifully illustrated stories, horror heads should put this one on their lists.


 

BOOM! STUDIOS 20TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL

Written by Various, Illustrated by Various

Boom (T)

 

Okay, let me please get this particular gripe out of the way early because there is a lot to like here – it is crazy to me that this Boom Studios 20th Anniversary Special does not shout this incredibly significant milestone in the company’s history from the rooftops. Yes, it has a massive “20” on the cover, but the only place in this entire comic that the word “anniversary” is mentioned is in the indicia in about, what, three-point type?  There is no editorial talking about the slew of hits the company has published over the years. No history of Boom. No introduction to any of the comics presented here. Nothing.

 

I get the idea of an “All Killer-No Filler” approach, but if you’ve read my columns before you’d know there’s nothing I dislike more in an FCBD book than stuff just jammed in; everything can easily end up feeling disposable when in fact it's the opposite - publishers want you to read this stuff and love it and (in this case) you should, because so much of it is good.

 

Added to this problem - the excerpts from the five comics presented here are from some of Boom’s biggest hits…so regular Boom readers get nothing, and new readers get a bunch of contextless scenes and a couple of shorts they’ve likely read sandwiched together that serve nobody particularly well at the end of the day. TWENTY years, man, for what is still considered an INDIE.  I am making a bigger deal of this than this comic or its publisher. It’s bizarre. Do you know the number of companies that never made it to twenty years? No? Neither do I because there are too many of them to count…

 

Anyway, on to the good. Sorry about that. Yes, Boom! Gone are the days when the company’s collected editions would practically explode in your hands when you opened them for the first time (damn you, Tag!), and here we are in 2025, with the company able to boast about being home to a bunch of sure-fire hits and to many creators you would imagine could find a secure home at other, previously more prestigious, places such as Image. Again: Boom’s rise is legitimately remarkable, really, I’ll tell you again since they won’t. Ahhh sorry again, I promised the good. We’ll get there - there’s quite a bit of it.

 

BRZRKR by writers Keanu Reeves (yeah, him, that awesome Hollywood guy) and Matt Kindt along with veteran artist Ron Garney kicks us off. BRZRKR is legitimately a pretty big hit, and the marquee name of Reeves clearly makes this a solid choice for an opener - except the scene presented here tells us nothing. You may well disagree; Garney ups the grit in his always excellent artwork and the promise of the titular Keanu-esque character leaping out of a helicopter may be enough to get you onboard. I actually have not read BRZRKR and here’s the thing - I’ve always wanted to. If anything though, this excerpt has cooled that. I’m not really sure why I should care? Who is this? Why is he sitting in the rain and then leaping out of a helicopter?

 

Mark Waid and Peter Krause’s superhero-gone-bad story, Irredeemable, is excerpted next. It’s an older title, running from 2009-2012, and as such is an interesting inclusion here. I’m guessing it’s here to show that, hey, Boom does capes too. Or perhaps it’s here as an anniversary nod to Mark Waid, who was actually Boom’s editor-in-chief back in the day when their collections exploded on you. Not his fault, I’m sure. Mark Waid loves comics. He doesn’t want them to explode. Whatever the reason, Irredeemable is, in this post-The Boys world, a logical inclusion and this excerpt works a lot more strongly in isolation than that which preceded it.

 

In Irredeemable, Bad-Superman - The Plutonian - hunts down hero The Hornet and his family. Striking in its cruelty, Krause’s work has a nice Bronze Age vibe to twist the nostalgia knife a little more than Waid’s script already does. It’s not Waid’s strongest work, not up to his classics or his current resurgence at DC, which is really impressive (right?), but if you are still up for more hero-breaks-bad comics, you could do quite a lot worse than this.

 

The Many Deaths of Laila Starr is up next, by writer Ram V (of the astounding current New Gods series from DC) and artist Filipe Andrade. Another I’ve not read in full, sorry, but I adore the team’s follow up, Rare Flavours, and I highly recommend you pick that up while you’re in store. Anyway, thanks to some handy exposition on Ram’s part we get a decent sense of what Laila Starr is actually about - she’s the former Goddess of Death, fired thanks to some godly bureaucratic downsizing, and now lives as a mortal. We find her meeting a funeral crow, Kah, and the two appear to form a bond. Clearly, I like this creative pair’s work and the scene we get here works well as a set-up. Andrade is a wonderful artist - figures long-limbed and lithe, able to create a wonderful sense of place - and Ram V, ever-philosophical, fond of epic mythological structures and archetypes, it’s hard to go wrong here, at least with what we are presented with.

 

We close Boom Studios 20th Anniversary Special with two actual complete tales, yay. And the first one comes from David Petersen’s remarkable Mouse Guard.

 

Petersen’s incredible 2022 short, “The Tale of King, Knight, Fool, Villain” is, in my eyes anyway, a stone-cold classic. Beautiful, poignant stuff. What Petersen manages to do here in six pages should probably be studied. Working perfectly as a slice of a much larger tapestry, new readers will have absolutely no issue tumbling headlong into the world of Mouse Guard.  Featuring a slice of some of the mouse Midnight’s backstory, “The Tale of King, Knight, Fool, Villain” sees the character, believing himself cursed by his dark fur, visiting a soothsayer for a fortune telling. What follows is just absolutely exemplary comics storytelling as the origins of mouse tarot are explored. Honestly, if you have not read this before, it is an absolute must-have. I’ll say no more - newcomers are to consider this essential.

 

Artist Chloe Brailsford is the star of our final tale, “Afters,” from Boom’s current ongoing horror anthology book, Hello Darkness. A comic that features a rotating line-up of very impressive creators, Hello Darkness is kind of Boom’s answer to EC’s old horror titles, launching at the same time as Oni’s own actual EC revival (see Blood Type above). If anything, both these experiments, as presented in isolation for FCBD 2025, prove just how impressive those old EC books - and their virtually unmatched level of creative talent - really were.

 

This is fine stuff from writer Tini Howard; a group of friends hanging out discussing their dreams leading to a kind of are-we-dreaming-or-not climax, but it’s Brailsford who absolutely soars here with chunky, charcoal-like lines and shading and really gorgeous colours. Worth a look for the art alone. Look, I’ve gone way overtime here so, why not, I’m smuggling in a little secret. This story is about lucid dreaming. I actually could lucid dream, regularly. I stopped because it’s too much effort and possibly unhealthy, but do you want to know the secret? It works, I swear.

 

What you need to do is train yourself to write down your dreams the very second you wake up. Keep a pen and notepad by your bed and do it - be serious about it. Soon, you’ll be writing all sorts of things down at all hours of the night, begin to notice patterns in your dreaming (I was a big 2:00am guy) and then your subconscious begins to know it's being recorded. The next thing you know, weird things start to happen in your dreams (I had dreams tell me they were there solely to make sure I woke up and wrote down previous dreams I didn't wake up at the end of) and then…you begin to take control, then more control, then you’re in control. Try it. It works, takes a while, but works, I swear. I stole this from Rick Veitch and his Roarin’ Rick’s Rare Bit Fiends dream diary comic decades ago. It’s tried and true.

 

Anyway - get this for Mouse Guard! Best thing you will read all day. Let me know if my lucid dreaming technique works too…it will if you stick at it, I promise! and…err…happy anniversary, Boom! 


CONAN: SCOURGE OF THE SERPENT

Written by Jim Zub, Illustrated by Ivan Gil

Titan Comics (M)

 

By Crom! Another Conan event story looms and fans of the days of high adventure will want to get their mitts on this prequel tale kicking the whole shebang off by regular Conan writer Jim Zub and artist Ivan Gil.

 

Titan Comics and the creators deliver another solid FCBD Conan offering (the third in a row, I believe) and why Scourge of the Serpent doesn’t quite reach the heights of prior giveaways, this one is still very much worth your time. This is a full comic’s worth of Conan goodness, with our young Cimmerian (he’s 17 here) just beginning his early career as a thief. Conan breaks into the luxurious home of a young nepo baby aristocrat seeking riches to pilfer and ends up on the hunt for a piece of treasure that will lead him straight into conflict with a foe who will be very familiar to fans…

 

As with the prior Conan event, “Battle for the Black Stone”, Zub ripples his story back and forth in time, with a number of other Rober E. Howard creations making cameos, surely leading to fuller appearances during the event itself, and despite how convoluted this may seem, the writer does a typically solid job of keeping things clear and accessible for interested newbies.

 

Ivan Gil is a bit of a step-down from the amazing, John Buscema-influenced work of Rob De La Torre, who made Titan’s initial acquiring of the Conan license such a head-turner, but he’s still a solid choice bringing to life the city of Numalia without an artistic corner cut. An editorial by editor Jeffrey Shanks and some process pages round out this pretty impressive freebie. Once again, for the third year straight, Conan impresses this FCBD. Recommended.

 

 

DIABLO: DAWN OF HATRED

Written by Cullen Bunn, Illustrated by Daniele Serra

Titan Comics (M)

 

Ah yes, from the video game I know absolutely nothing about comes Diablo: Dawn of Hatred.

 

What I do know a bit about is workhorse comics writer Cullen Bunn, who seems able to dig his teeth into and leave his mark on pretty much anything he touches, so we’re in capable hands here.

 

The seemingly Christ-like ascetic Akarat has returned from the dead, a religion called Zakarum has sprung from his teachings and spreads across the land of Sanctuary. Many want Akarat and his followers dead, however, and what of the tribe of demon-fighting warriors whose ancestors fought wars with Zakarum devotees of the past, but now need Akarat to save one of their own?

 

As you can see, there’s actually quite a bit going on in Diablo: Dawn of Hatred. I’m not sure that this is the most compelling sequence from the comic that Titan could have included, but it sets the series up well enough. Serra works in black and white with an ink wash, which adds great mood to rolling clouds and extra grime to city streets.

 

Again, process nerds take note as Titan loads this up with character designs and page process by Serra as well as script pages by Bunn. That’s some Easter Egg goodness right there.

 

All in all, some nice intrigue is built in Diablo: Dawn of Hatred. Check it out if you're a fan of Cullen Bunn’s work, some grimdark fantasy or, obviously, the source material.


 

ENERGON UNIVERSE 2025 SPECIAL

Written by Joshua Williamson / Daniel Warren Johnson / Robert Kirkman, Illustrated by Andrea Milana / Daniel Warren Johnson / Conor Hughes

Image (T)

 

Dang, this Energon line is making some pretty good-looking comics. All three of the short stories we get here, unique to this FCBD special issue, are not just super-attractive but incredibly fun. Also, this 2025 Special underscores an FCBD truism - three stories is the sweet spot.

 

While regular readers of GI Joe, Transformers and Void Rivals will find much to enjoy here, I’m the kind of reader this thing was built for - I am the rare Gen X kid with no attachment to these Hasbro properties. I read comics instead of watching GI Joe and Transformers and, as fondly remembered as the old Marvel comics are, they never really clicked with me. So, I come to this a relatively blank slate - I can’t pretend to understand everything happening here, but with just three stories, there’s room for each to breathe and really give new readers a flavour of how each series functions.

 

Joshua Williamson and Andrea Milana open things up with a GI Joe story that’s actually a straight-up crossover with Transformers. I don’t know how much I should say as I might blow things for regular readers, so I’ll just say that this is good fun, with a solid cliffhanger that regular readers will really dig, great action and just excellent art on every page. This short directly follows events of GI Joe #6 apparently, so fans be forewarned!

 

Daniel Warren Johnson fans please be advised that he returns to art duties, as well as continuing scripter, on the Transformers short presented next. This one’s a complete little short, with no real prior knowledge needed at all to enjoy. Johnson’s art is typically effervescent, heightened by some vivid colours by Mike Spicer. Focussed solely on autobot Jazz and his love of music, this is again another really fun ride. Light on plot, but big on character, this is really good stuff - unsurprising given the creator.

 

Finally, Void Rivals brings us home with a story that’s the most confusing of the three for newer readers, but writer Robert Kirkman brings the intrigue and the Sharkticons (!), all brought to excellent life by artist Conor Hughes. This one leads directly into the next arc of the series, and as such should probably be considered unmissable by Void Rivals fans, as the entire package should be, really, for those following this little shared universe.

 

I thought this was excellent and may very well be the tipping point to finally getting me onboard these titles. Can’t recommend things much more highly than that. Great stuff, don’t miss it.


 

FANTASTIC FOUR / GIANT-SIZE X-MEN

Written by Ryan North / Jackson Lanzig & Collin Kelly / Chip Zdarsky

Illustrated by Humberto Ramos /  Iban Coello / Chip Zdarsky

Marvel (T)

 

Writer Ryan North has been doing terrific work on Fantastic Four, turning in single-issue story after single-issue story month after month, each overflowing with ideas. North, who has very quickly made FF one of Marvel’s stand-out titles, sees his pretty amazing effort on Marvel’s First Family get a big upgrade just in time for the arrival of the Fantastic Four feature film, with a new #1 coming in July and the arrival of A-list artist Humberto Ramos.

 

Ramos’ work on “Strange New World,” the stand-alone FF short we are given here, is typically excellent - his lithe figures and bouncy characterisation (Johnny Storm hasn’t looked this good in ages) and this introduction to the new creative pair is a winner. When the FF arrive somewhere they are not supposed to be following a teleporter test gone awry, they find themselves in the company of some alien kids playing with the occult and who have accidentally opened a portal to all sorts of beings from all sorts of worlds, and not just the friendly foursome freshly arrived.

 

This is a great little short, with North packing in the characterisation and Ramos getting the chance to flex his artistic chops on these classic characters - he nails them all perfectly too. Here’s hoping for a run on the title as long as Kirby and Lee for these two. Good stuff.

 

North’s former artistic partner on Fantastic Four, Iban Coello, looks a lot more at home illustrating the X-Men than the FF, and in a prologue to Giant Size X-Men, writers Lanzig and Kelly give him all the flashy mutant action he can handle.  We’re back in the past with this story, “The General”, right around the time the All-New, All-Different X-Men first formed and Cyclops is pushing his new team of very familiar faces through some intense…uh…sparring…

 

The hook at the end of this I’ll not spoil, but it’s one that may polarise readers. However, if you’re looking for a handful of splashy X-Men pages where powers are well and truly shown-off, this will be for you.

 

“Popularity Contest,” written and drawn by Chip Zdarsky rounds this FCBD issue off. It’s honestly a bit of an odd inclusion, but as Marvel have listed it as a “surprise” let’s just keep it that way for now and I’ll stop typing.

 

In summary: for Fantastic Four alone, this one’s a winner. If you’re a new or lapsed FF reader, or a regular reader keen to see what the team of North and his cracking new artist are cooking up for the title, this is an easy pick-up for you.


 

GODZILLA: THE NEW HEROES

Written by Tim Seeley / Ethan S. Parker & Griffin Sheridan / Chris Gooch

Illustrated by Nikola Cizmesija / Pablo Tunica / Oliver Ono

 

Kaiju fans rejoice! Not only is IDW relaunching a whole slate of Godzilla comics, we are generously allowed to sample all three of them in this solid FCBD offering.

 

Tim Seeley and Nikola Cizmesija kick us off with a look at their new ongoing Godzilla series that sees the super-powered Jacen, determined to kill Godzilla, join an American version of G-Force that also includes a perhaps a surprising Godzilla character who dates all the way back to 1973 (!). Seeley gets readers up to speed quickly with this new kaiju-infested world, with “the walled city of Manhattan” as this story’s central location. There’s a lot packed in here, but it's a good set-up for the new series and Seeley gives Cizmesija a lot of room for some monster-sized action which the artist handles stylishly, depicting the immensity of Godzilla a clear focus of the work.

 

A preview of Godzilla: Escape the Deadzone is next, set in the now-ruined and kaiju and mutant -infested former Pacific Northwest. Featuring a mutant character named The Wanderer, readers get a glimpse of the dangers lurking in the Deadzone. It’s a few short pages, not much to get a real sense of how the series will unfold, but the highlight here is the art by Pablo Tunica, who clearly enjoys drawing a monster or two. An intriguing start with some really eye-catching art.

 

Finally, it’s just tremendous to see Melbourne’s own Chris Gooch in these pages as he’s landed the writing gig on Starship Godzilla - may he have all the success in the world as this absolute standout of the Australian indie scene transitions into work-for-hire assignments. Readers find themselves on an alien world in the middle of a kaiju egg heist by a crew of intergalactic mercenaries who also happen to be piloting Mechagodzilla. That’s a synopsis I never thought I would write.

 

Ono’s energetic, manga-inspired art is a great choice for this space romp and it will be fascinating to see how Gooch, usually quite restrained in the character-focussed storytelling of his wonderful indie work, brings the over-the-top action and (surely) inevitable space kaiju fights to Starship Godzilla. Judging by the splash page we get here, he’s going to be more than fine as the real pilot of this oddball title.

 

I appreciate a good editorial in FCBD books, I think they add extra context and clarity to the work presented, especially when sandwiching in three separate tastes from three wildly different books.  Godzilla editor Jake Williams provides a good one here, giving tight synopses of his three Godzilla titles and managing to whet the appetites of readers with genuine enthusiasm. Recommended.


 

HULK TEACH

Written and Illustrated by Jeffrey Brown

Marvel/Graphix (A)

 

When Bruce Banner’s alter-ego causes a little too much damage on his well-intentioned rampages, Banner finds himself saddled with community service, teaching maths and science at Lowell Middle School.

 

Featuring a cast of Avengers, an unreliable Watcher as narrator, She-Hulk being not particularly great as Bruce’s lawyer, an obnoxious Tony Stark, and the most hilariously tweaked-origin of the Jade Giant that you’re likely to find, Jeffrey Brown’s latest, Hulk Teach, looks great. This is a generous preview of the forthcoming graphic novel from Scholastic’s Graphix imprint (why does Marvel continually outsource all of this stuff? It’s befuddling), showcasing Brown’s fun artwork - in black and white and grey tones, with the only colour being the green of the Hulk - and his genuinely amusing dialogue as poor Bruce just tries to do his best.

 

There are some really good gags here, particularly for longtime Hulk fans and hopefully we get more of the bickering pair of Watchers, Uanu and Edmu, who act as our guides through this…unique…Hulk adventure. The school staff, including the officious Stan Museler (“Educator and adventurer”) seem poised for some hilarious interactions with Bruce. Can Hulk control his anger in middle school of all places? Unlikely!

 

Hulk Teach is terrific fun for all ages - grab this one.


 

I HATE FAIRYLAND

Written by Illustrated by Skottie Young with special guest artist Derek Laufman

Image (M)

 

Skottie Young fans rejoice for I Hate Fairyland returns soon, with this handy FCBD issue recapping the entire series to date and hinting at what’s to come for this wild, wild series. Readers curious about Young’s cult hit (as I have been) are given more than enough to make their minds up about in this generous issue detailing everything we need to know to get us up to speed.

 

Gertrude, once a “normal little girl” achieves her wish of being taken away to another world, ending up in Fairyland, a magical place overseen by Queen Cloudia. The Queen informs Gertrude that kids who find their way to Fairyland must go on a quest to find a hidden key, a map and a guide (in Gertrude’s case Larry the fly). The hidden key will unlock a magical door and send the children home.

 

Young spitfires the madness of the series at readers, with sentient moons, barbarian assassins, big-nippled giants, zombie fauns, and more, so much more.

 

This is an absurdly energetic comic, packed with a Looney Tunes sense of humour and a Lobo-esque zest for cartoonish violence.  Regular readers may be disappointed to not get a brand-new story, but don’t despair as Young lets the series’ new artist, Derek Laufman, loose towards the end of this on a pair of double-page spreads that tease future events. Laufman’s a perfect fit for the title and its mash-all-the-genres together approach, and fans of the title have much to look forward to with his arrival and the return of the series.


 

IDW: FIND YOUR NEW FEAR

Written by Patrick Horvath / Rodney Barnes / Gavin Fullerton and Sean Peacock, Illustrated by Patrick Horvath / Chris Shehan / Gavin Fullerton / Sean Peacock

IDW (not rated but let’s go with M)


Time moves so weirdly at the moment (right??) that it feels like forever ago that IDW unveiled its awful, widely ridiculed new logo and announced plans to put a special focus on horror titles. Whenever that was, we have arrived at the impending debut of IDW Dark and there’s quite the variety of scares on offer.



We open up with the return of Patrick Horvath’s fantastic ‘What If Richard Scarry Books Had a Serial Killer Bear?’ comic, Beneath The Trees Where Nobody Sees. Round two of this excellent book is titled “Rites of Spring.” I’m not sure that “Cozy Horror” is the right way to describe this comic, but whatever, Horvath’s work looks as strong as ever here, with a relative of one of the aforementioned murder bear, Samantha Strong’s victims, desperately seeking answers to her brother’s disappearance eight years earlier.



For her part, Samantha appears to have settled back into her regular life following the conclusion of the original series, if choosing victims more carefully, but, clearly, her peace is about to be shattered by the arrival of this armchair sleuth, desperate for clues and hunting for closure. Horvath’s water colours remain as striking as always, and he has a real gift in depicting the emotional range of his menagerie of anthropomorphic characters, each of whom takes things deadly seriously.



I’m sure there’s quite the sense of anticipation for the title’s return and fans of the origins will not be disappointed. If you’ve not read the first series, I heartily encourage you to pick up the first volume of Beneath The Trees Where Nobody Sees while you're in-store for FCBD. You won’t regret it.



Steve Niles’ vampire hit, 30 Days of Night returns in a new series titled “Falling Sun.” Rodney Barnes scripts this one, with Niles acting a story consultant, and Chris Shehan provides some atmospheric but overly murky artwork. Our presumed protagonist, unnamed in this preview, arrives in the remote Alaskan town of Barrow, apparently on the run and desperate to leave his home of Los Angeles. Meanwhile, in Romania, a cabal of vampires prepares to resurrect a face very familiar to fans of the original series.



“Falling Sun” is the fourth in the 30 Days of Night series, and one has to wonder how much juice there is left to squeeze out of this. I encourage readers to be curious about this return, but have expectations tempered, particularly with an overwhelming amount of top shelf material to choose from this year.



Writer-artist Gavin Fullerton presents the debut of his Tuatha next. We get a fairly rollicking battle scene from this dark fantasy series, but here is where a little bit of written context would assist mightily as, curious as to what this actually about, I looked Tuatha up. Here’s a very brief description which I stole from the always trusty Comic Beat:



Tuatha “follows a princess who is on a journey throughout the land with her king’s head, braving warring clans and forgotten gods that cross her path.” If that’s not enough, we meet our princess (and her wolf companion) as she battles the tribesmen of a warlord riding a gigantic moose whose massive antlers are festooned with dangling skulls. I mean, that’s pretty awesome.



Tuatha is quite the curiosity and grimdark fans take note. I doubt Fullerton will be your favourite artist, but there’s real energy here and, clearly, some mad creativity powering Tuatha. Absolutely worth a look.



Finishing things off is Sean Peacock’s Blood Honey, unfortunately the weakest entry here. Thanks once again to The Beat, here’s a description - Blood Honey “centers on school sweethearts at a gothic prep school navigating betrayal and murder plots to avoid breakups.” What we get here is some set up featuring deadly fencer Edgar St Claire and the cheerleaders vying for his affections. Perhaps with more room to breathe, Blood Honey might shape up to be something special as the murderous intrigue sets in, but Peacock’s unpolished art combined with a lack of context as to what this is actually about make this probably the least appealing preview here.



Still, IDW: Find Your New Fear, especially with its headline act of the returning Beneath The Trees Where Nobody Sees is absolutely worth a look.


 

IRON MAN AND HIS AWESOME FRIENDS/SPIDEY AND HIS AMAZING FRIENDS

Written by James Eason-Garcia / Steve Behling, Illustrated by Alberto Alberquerque / Roberto Poggi & Craig Yeung / Giovanni Ragano, Antonello Dalena, Cristina Girogilli and Cristina Stella

Marvel/Disney Jr (A)

 

Ahhh lucky kids! Once again they get to pick up another super sweet, smartly packaged, well-made comic featuring the crew from the Spidey and his Amazing Friends TV show, with the bonus inclusion this time around of Iron Man and his Awesome Friends, featuring Iron Man, Ironheart and Iron Hulk.

 

Iron Man and His Awesome Friends kicks this double-header off in “Enter The Iron Pup,” after an opening page teaching kids new to comics how the heck they read these things and another introducing the characters, who they are and what they do.  It’s this kind of clarity and clever thinking that often gets lost in FCBD comics and it's always appreciated - kudos to editors Lauren Bisom, Nick Lowe and Tom Groneman.

 

Eason-Garcia scripts a fun little number that sees Iron Man, Ironheart and Hulk adopt a stray dog and then end up fighting Ultron. That’s a lot to jam into ten pages, but artist Alberto Albuquerque and his inkers are given plenty of room to deliver some really attractive pages of fun superhero action and the Iron Pup reveal is pretty great.

 

Two Spidey and His Amazing Friends stories, “Looking for Clues!” and the two-page “Popcorn Problem” finish off the comics section of this great little package. “Looking for Clues!” sees Spidey and Spin (Miles Morales), following a trail of clues left by Ghost-Spider (Gwen Stacey) that lead to a fun day out. In “Popcorn Problem”, Ant-Man and Wasp visit the crew to watch a movie, but the gang has run out of popcorn. Thankfully, Ant-Man is there to devise a solution only he could pull off. Both stories are bright, lively and easy to read for younger readers.

 

But that’s not all! “Let’s Sizzle Electro!” is a mini board game readers can play over a double-page spread. All you need is a die and something to use as counters. My son absolutely went nuts for this and we played it multiple times every evening for like a week straight, making this comic easily the most revisited by him of the bunch. A colouring activity finishes us off, challenging readers to make Sidey, Spin and Ghost-Spider’s costumes as bright as your kid’s imagination and pencil sets can make them. Great stuff.

 

Highest possible recommendation for wee ones!


 

KAGURABACHI / BORUTO: TWO BLUE VORTEX

Written by Takeru Hokazono / Mashashi Kishimoto (listed as ‘creator/supervisor”), Illustrated by Takeru Hokazono / Mikio Ikemoto

VIZ (T)

 

Takeru Hokazono’s Kagurabachi gets an intriguing excerpt from Viz this FCBD and it’s not hard to see why the publisher is giving this particular property a big push. Takeri Hokazono isn't the best artist on the block, you can see him reaching for the heights of Chainsaw Man’s Tatsuki Fujimoto’s work and while he’s not there yet, the promise is very much in the premise of his Kagurabachi and the action and over-the-top violence of this revenge epic should make many take notice. I certainly have after this. Sigh. Like I don’t have enough manga to read…

 

Chihiro Rokuhira wields one of seven magic swords made by his father, “the most famous swordsmith in the land.” The are six have been stolen, his father killed. Chirhiro, proudly wearing a gnarly facial scar left in the wake of the theft of the swords and assassination of his dad, hunts down those responsible. In this preview, we arrive in a city ruled by the cruel yakuza gang, the Korogumi. This gang is connected to the death of Chihiro’s father and, well let’s just say the katana comes out of its scabbard pretty quickly, extensively and bloodily. I don’t know about you, but I am a total sucker for a revenge epic and this one might have to go on my own personal pull-list. Pick this up, and you may well agree: Kagurabachi’s tagline of “Six stolen swords, one final blade, and a relentless quest for vengeance,” sums it all up really.

 

Boruto, son of Naruto, returns to shelves everywhere with Boruto: Two Blue Vortex. I have easily read a read a hundred thousand pages of manga, but have never touched Boruto, or the adventures of his father, Naruto by creator Masashi Kishimoto (the extent of whose involvement seems a little suspect here with no writer credit for anyone) and artist of the original Boruto spinoff Mikio Ikemoto. There’s simply too much of it. However, Ikemoto delivers an interesting and energetic clean line to this tale of young superpowered next-generation ninja and there’s a really nice flow to these pages. I’ll not say too much about the plot as, 1. There’s not much of it and 2. I’ll not risk spoilers for fans, but if you dig Naruto and family, you probably don’t need me to tell you to get this.

 

In short: If you’re looking for a new action-packed manga to pick up, come for Kagurabachi. Boruto: Two Blue Vortex is a nice little bonus. Recommended.


 

KANGA-U / DC’S MISFITS OF MAGIC

Written by Sholly Fisch / Matthew Dow Smith, Illustrated by Yancey Labat / Matthew Dow Smith

DC (8+)

 

Really, it’s about time the kangas of Paradise Island got a little time to shine. In Kanga-U by Sholly Fisch and Yancey Labat, we finally do, as we learn all about Kanga culture, how they hold showcase tournaments just like the Amazons, how they bond with a single Amazon for their lifespan, and just how special the relationship is between steed and rider.

 

There’s a tonne of world-building underpinning this story and Fisch weaves it in very well, never losing focus on his target audience of younger readers and ensuring that this stays fun and fully engaging at all times. Labat does an excellent job here with not just creating a large cast of distinct kanga characters, but also with the depiction of a very young Princess Diana, future Wonder Woman.  Honestly, I thought this was excellent and it also gets the thumbs-up from my son who will surely be after the full graphic novel come July.

 

Bonus! We get a few pages of writer/artist Matthew Dow Smith’s DC’s Misfits of Magic. As I am on record multiple times over multiple years of doing this column, throwing three pages of any comic into the back of one of these FCBD titles is mostly an overwhelmingly terrible idea. There are happy exceptions to this, however, and man is this one of them. I haven’t seen any work by Dow Smith in years and his wonderfully angular art has grown even more so, with even more detail stripped out, leaving his cartooning wonderfully spare. I can see how many will actively dislike this art style, but I find it tremendously appealing and certainly suited to its desired base of younger readers.

 

Anyway, DC’s Misfits of Magic sees the young trio of Blue Devil, Zatanna and Deadman…err…Dead Kid exploring the potentially haunted library basement, ending on a great little cliffhanger given how short this sample is. As I said, this is a very rare case of less-is-more in an FCBD book, showcasing Dow Smith’s work wonderfully.

 

Compelling, fun and attractive comics all round here - highly recommended.


 

MARK SPEARS MONSTERS #0 / KIDS THESE DAYS

Written by Mark Spears / Ethan Page, Illustrated by Mark Speers / Brett Murphy and Wilson Gandolpho

Keenspot (T)

 

I was not aware that Mark Spears Monsters was something of a cult hit, with the first issue about to enter a fifth printing. Fans of the series will clearly want to get their hands on this special #0 issue that stars ‘Creepy cannibal carnival clown.’ Mr Fun E. Bones (think Pennywise from It) attempting to take a little girl to Clown Town, which does turn out to be as horrifying as it sounds.

 

I’m not sure that this issue does a great job of outlining exactly what this series is, but as a showcase for Spears’ art it's a success…assuming you like highly computer-generated art that has the unfortunate whiff of AI about it. I’m no expert on that subject, but Spears’ work is certainly not for me, which makes this an honestly difficult comic to be objective about. Spears (I looked this up) says he paints over 3D models he creates based on sketches he initially makes, but the overall result is figures that look artificial and overly posed - fumetti with an overly slick computery sheen - and a bilious colour palette.

 

So, not for me, but possibly for you? If you like creepy clowns, this is your jam. Oh, and the cover, with its menagerie of retro monsters looming over the reader is admittedly pretty cool - easily the artistic highlight of the book, shame none of them are found between the covers.

 

If you do pick this up and are curious about the series, Keenspot has included QR code that enables you to download the first issue - that’s a savvy move more publishers should employ.

 

Finally, wrestling fans take note (or not) - ‘All Ego’ Ethan Page, along with co-creators Brett Murphy and Wilson Gandolpho give us three pages of Kids These Days, their comic about “aliens versus robots shit.” Yep. Keenspot may have been better off leaving this out and making this an all-Spears affair for FCBD. I can’t imagine there will be a tonne of crossover appeal between these two properties, but, hey, another QR code is here for a full issue, so please enjoy and prove me wrong!


 

MARVEL VOICES

Written by Various, Illustrated by Various

Marvel (T)

 

Five diverse stories from across the Marvel Universe are crammed between the covers of this year’s Marvel Voices FCBD issue, led by a brand-new Ironheart tale, “Hot Cha”, by writer Justina Ireland and featuring the striking artwork of Julian Shaw.

 

Ironheart faces off against Wormhole, a villain who opens portals to “anywhere and anywhen”. Ironheart, hot on Wormhole's heels, finds herself sucked through one of these portals to late 1800s Chicago in a fun little showcase for both character and, especially, artist.

 

Next, we visit a future Wakanda in “The World is Not Ready” taken from the pages of the Marvel Voices Legends anthology. Sheree Renee Thomas scripts and, lucky us, it’s more Julian Shaw art, who is as at home in future Wakanda as in nineteenth century Chicago. In this future, T’Challa and Storm are grandparents to a pair of super-powered five-year-old twins. T’Challa playing grandpa is a great set up for a short story, particularly as grandfather to a pair of overly rambunctious superpowered kids. A fun little short.

 

The wedding sequence from X-Men: The Wedding Special is up next, featuring the nuptials of Mystique and Destiny by writer Keiron Gillen and Rachael Stott. Free Keiron Gillen is never a bad thing, and legendary X-Men scribe Chris Claremont is seated in attendance at the ceremony (a great little nod of respect and appreciation) for yet another comics wedding gone awry. Perhaps only in professional wrestling do more weddings go awry than in comics, but with Gillen and the great art provided by Stott, readers are in good hands…even if the X-Books have been completely relaunched since this story took place…

 

It’s here that things begin to slide a little, not through quality of material but due to the simple fact that there are only so many pages for so much material. This problem is inevitable for a comic that tries way too hard to cram in as much as it can and it’s a shame as our remaining two excerpts seem, based on what’s here, solid.

 

A handful of pages from Ghost Rider: Robbie Reyes Special by writer Melissa Flores and artist Juan Bazaldua are next, giving us some demon-dog fighting action. Hard to say much more than that, but the action looks decent.

 

A final three-page excerpt wraps us up here, this time from Kahhori: Reshaper of Worlds, by writers Ryan Little and Arihhonn David and art by Todd Harris and David Cutler. If you’re unfamiliar with Kahhori, she’s apparently originally from the What If…? Animated series. We find ourselves in Sky World, “Mohawk place of power outside time and space” and Loki has come to steal an object of particular power. Kahhori, attempting to stop him, gets sucked into “our” Marvel Universe, the 616 Earth. Three pages is nowhere near enough to properly hook a reader, but this sequence does a decent job.

 

Marvel Voices FCBD is solid stuff overall and Marvel readers looking for something a little different should take note.


 

MEGA MAN #0

Written by Travis Maiden, Illustrated by Andrew Dickman, Kenny Ruiz, Edwin Huang and Jeffrey “Chamba” Cruz

Udon (A)

 

Capcom fans! If your annual free Street Fighter comic isn't enough (see below for that), you are spoiled this year as publisher Udon drops a special zero issue for battlin’ robot Mega Man. First things first: this is a very flashy-looking comic book, with all four artists turning in some slick, highly-polished work. Scripter Travis Maiden turns in a fun little story about former foes of Mega Man, Wind Man, Cold Man and Skull Man who now operate food trucks at Boing-Boing Amusement Park and reminisce about the times they got “this close” to besting our hero in battle.

 

This is surprisingly charming stuff, ramen and ice cream and...whatever Skull Man serves up, if anything, almost as important to the story as the energetic battles with Mega Man. Honestly, this is some really lively comics, filled with action aplenty all energetically delivered by the artists each of whom (no offense) I am surprised is not working on something more higher profile than this.

 

While a little bit of history about this enduring character placed somewhere would really help newcomers, Udon at least wisely lay out its Mega Man publishing plans for 2025, with no less than five Mega Man one-shots, each detailing a different era of this fighting robot,  launching between now and September. That’s a lot of Mega Man to come in a pretty short space, but if those titles are half as good as this, fans are in good hands. Quite the surprise package, this one - a solid little actioner for younger readers.


 

THE MIGHTY NEIN: ORIGINS / BLACK HAMMER: TO TOMORROW!

Written by Sam Maggs / Jeff Lemire, Illustrated by Leonardo Cino / Letizia Cadonici

Dark Horse (T)

 

By now, you really would think I would have a solid handle on Critical Role, which is apparently “a multiplatform entertainment phenomenon.”  But hey, there are only so many hours in the day and I am not much of a gamer (sorry!).  I understand that it’s pretty big in the gaming world, has an animated series that people seem to dig (again: no time), and also this comics spin-off The Mighty Nein. Pretty impressive for something that started as a bunch of voice actors playing Dungeons & Dragons on the internet…

 

As one might expect for something that spins out of gameplay, there is quite a bit of complexity to the world of The Mighty Nein, a group of adventurers. Thankfully, writer Sam Maggs refuses to bog readers down in any of that, preferring instead to throw newbies into the deep end. This is all well and good, but I’m pretty sure neither of our protagonists is named at any point during this story - just as well that artist Leonardo Cino is more than up to the task of keeping everything visually clear and distinct throughout. Given that we have a male and female lead, this actually isn’t the biggest accomplishment ever, but Cino deserves some praise for the work on display here.

 

Much of this story is played totally for laughs. With our intrepid pair arriving at, of all places, a Theatre Restaurant to meet a contact who will lead them to an excavation site of some sort.  Much fun is had at the expense of the Theatre Restaurant experience, relatable to us all I’m sure, and with many surely familiar characters being played by stage actors, regular readers are sure to get a chuckle or two out of this. Again: I know nothing and thought that this was fun and really well drawn, so fans should get a kick out of this.

 

Our Dark Horse double-header concludes with Jeff Lemire’s Black Hammer: To Tomorrow!, the continuation of this long-running creator-owned superhero work. I am extraordinarily behind on Black Hammer which, combined with my total lack of Critical Role knowledge, makes me the worst reviewer possible for this entire comic. Thankfully Lemire and artist Letizia Cadonici have my back, presenting a great little retelling of the Black Hammer world. Colonel Weird recalls his time spent tumbling through various ages, beginning with the first age of heroes, The Pulp Age, quickly working his way through The Golden, Silver, Grim and Lost Ages, before teasing readers with what’s yet to come for this love letter to superheroes. Newcomers should find themselves intrigued by Lemire’s clever, very quick, recapping of events - giving glimpses of just enough to intrigue but not enough to spoil - and Cadonici’s art has echoes of the series’ first artist, Dean Ormston, to it creating a great sense of continuity. Recommended for fans of either title.


 

MINECRAFT: THE MANGA / BEYBLADE X

Written by Kazuyoshi Seto / Homura Kawamoto & Hikaru Muno, Illustrated by Kazuyoshi Seto / Posuka Demizu

VIZ (A)

 

Let’s preface this by saying that I have very little knowledge of Minecraft. My kid occasionally plays a really old version of it and I dig its ambient vibe, but other than that - clueless. I’ve not seen the movie, nothing. What’s interesting to me in reading this free sample of writer/artist Kauyoshi Seto’s Minecraft: The Manga is just how different it feels from the chill, settle-in-relax-and-build mindfulness of the game (at least the ancient one we have). Clearly Jack Black and Jason Momoa aren’t chilling out and having a stress-free time in the film, but Seto’s energetic, fast-paced manga is yet another thing entirely.

 

Also: it is pretty fun stuff. Seto’s blocky characters are packed with chibi-style expressiveness, all big rectangular eyes and mouths extending and contorting crazily to achieve maximum expressiveness. The plot is pretty solid too, building in the classic adventure trope so relatable to youngsters…or anybody truthfully: the boredom and stagnation of routine shattered by the call to adventure. 

 

Nico White has adventuring in his blood - his dad, Icco, is an adventurer, exploring the world beyond the confines of the walled village in which the family live. Nico’s been exploring the outside since he was five, riding creatures that explode called Creepers and basically doing anything remotely dangerous that he possibly can, giving his parents conniptions. Nico says, “Adventures are the greatest!” and, not only is he right, he is marked by a family rune that not only gives him special powers, but forces him to answer the call of adventure whenever he hears it. The problem is, he’s only 10 years old…

 

Minecraft: The Manga is surprisingly good stuff. Everything is set up perfectly in this opening slice of the manga for readers to grab onto as we prepare to join Nico, armed with his “expert crafting skills” when he inevitably leaves the village to face the outside world.

 

I found crumbs in the creases of the pages of Beyblade X, which clearly means that a seven-year-old who lives in this house has been at this comic. Sure enough, over he wandered ad i was reading this, staring at a page of this manga about dueling Bladers, he pointed at main character Robin Kazami and said “I felt bad for that kid because his broke.”

 

It must be a week since Edgar got his toast-filled mitts on this comic and his immediate recall of events in this means he did much more than a cursory flip through. Anyone as clueless about the Beyblade franchise as I am and potentially worried that this thing involves knife-fighting multicultural youths straight out of a Peter Dutton wet dream (again, happy election 2025 - vote wisely!) can relax.

 

Beyblades, from what I can tell, are like spinning tops with bladed edges. I probably sound like I’m a hundred years old right now and you’re all laughing going, “Grandpa doesn’t know what a Beyblade is,” so I’ll shut up about the “sport” itself and focus on the story. The aforementioned Robin is an amateur Blader, determined to turn pro. Yes, his blade gets destroyed in a battle with a ten-year veteran, and things get worse when his team disbands (you need a team of three to fight Beyblade battles). 

 

Like Minecraft before it, Beyblade X has a nice call to adventure, a real Hero’s Journey vibe about it thanks to the story by Komura Kawato and Hikaru Muno and some really lively artwork by Posuka Demizu. Salvation comes in the form of a mystery new teammate and the duo prepare to climb the ranks in the Amateur Arena and go pro. It’s good stuff.

 

This Minecraft and Beyblade team-up totally over-delivers. I feared some of the laziness we have seen in various Pokémon titles from Viz, creators and publishers clearly artistically coasting on the fame of the property, but this is not the case here. Recommended - especially for young adventurers.


 

PHANTOM #0

Written by Ray Fawkes, Illustrated by Russell Olson

Mad Cave (T)

DID NOT ARRIVE IN TIME FOR REVIEW



There’s a really nice (of course) Greg Smallwood cover to this, the kick-off to Mad Cave’s rebooting of classic pulp hero, The Phantom. This one did not show up in time for review, so here’s Mad Cave publicity copy to pump you up!

The Phantom, Lee Falk's highly influential superhero, is back in an all-new adventure series!

The first story in an exciting publishing plan that is sure to satisfy both new and returning "Phans" of comics’ beloved Ghost Who Walks. In true Phantom fashion, look forward to pulpy storytelling focused on justice, honor, mystery, and mythology—all told with heaps of action!

 


POST MALONE’S BIG RIG #0

Written by Adrian Wassell, Illustrated by Nathan Gooden

Vault Comics (M)

DID NOT ARRIVE IN TIME FOR REVIEW

Man, I actually kind of wanted to check this out. Our pal (his words) Posty has (sort of) made a comic because….hey, why not right? He seems pretty pumped about it too, look!



What on Earth is this, I hear you ask. Well, this did not arrive in time for review (boo), but here’s some Vault Comics hype WITH CAPPPSSSS:



THEY PRAYED FOR A MIRACLE. THEY GOT 25 TONS AND 18 WHEELS OF HOLY WEAPON. BIG RIG, created by Post Malone. The Dark Ages…Demon hordes plague Europe as Hell invades Earth. The Six Petals, a secret sect of The Knights Templar, are in desperate need of a means to drive back the scourge and turn the tide of the onslaught. What crashes to earth is The Rig, a fully loaded tractor trailer. In the aftermath of its arrival, the only man left standing is an enigmatic former priest excommunicated from The Six Petals. He will become Trucker and lead the fight against Hell behind the wheel of a demon-slaying machine.



Sounds bonkers. Admit it, you’re curious too…

 

POWER RANGERS PRIME / VR TROOPERS

Written by Melissa Flores / Mairghread Scott, Illustrated by Trish Forstner / Sebastian Piriz

Boom Studios (A)

 

Boom Studios revives the old Power Rangers/ VR Troopers flipbook format for FCBD 2025, something that I didn't even know existed back in the heady funnybook days of 1995. Fans of the prolific Dan Mora should take note that this one not only provides a Power Rangers cover by the artist, but also updated character designs for both properties, which are included here.

 

We’ll kick off with Power Rangers Prime by writer Melissa Flores and artist Trish Forstner. Essentially told from the perspective of an abandoned puppy, Doobie, adopted by (I assume) a pair of Power Rangers,  “Be Brave” is a pretty polished piece of work from the creators that will, unfortunately, confuse any reader new to the title (about to release its seventh issue) - myself included. This is a cute and well-drawn story, but it’s a pretty terrible onboarding point for new readers. I cannot explain what’s happening here at all. For the faithful and lovers of cute puppies.

 

Writer Mairghread Scott does a much better job introducing readers to the world of VR Troopers in “Blindspot.”  Sure, it’s a bit of a paint-by-numbers intro - good guys show up, banter a bit, foil some bad guys and drop some exposition to explain just enough to get readers on board - but it’s effective especially considering the page count restraints.

 

Artist Sebastian Piriz (who I believe was drawing Jonny Quest this time last year?) turns in some solid action. A good taste of what’s to come this June.

 

A final note: an editorial here spills the beans that our new Power Rangers are going to come into conflict with the VR Troopers at some point soon, so crossover fans be alerted.


 

SPEED RACER #0

Written by David Pepose / Mark Russell, Illustrated by David Tinto / Chris Batista

Mad Cave (T)

DID NOT ARRIVE IN TIME FOR REVIEW


Mad Cave has the keys to Speed Racer’s car. I would have like to review this, but alas. Here’s some publisher hype:



David Pepose and David Tinto have the storytelling keys to the featured story in issue #0, which ignites Mad Cave's ongoing Speed Racer series. Meanwhile, Mark Russell and Chris Batista drive a backup tale that leads directly into a Racer X spin-off series.



One part Drive, another part Baby Driver, and another part Fast and Furious—with classic anime/manga inspiration throughout—fans new and old are given a front-row seat to exciting tales of action, adventure, overcoming challenges, and family.

 

STAR WARS

Written by Alex Segura / Charles Soule /Mark Guggenheim, Illustrated by Phil Noto / Stefano Raffaele / Madibek Musabekov

Marvel (T)

 

According to the cover, it’s been 10 years since Marvel gained back the rights to publish Star Wars comics, and the House of Ideas celebrates with a FCBD book with three stories - the first of which previews a new #1 set after the fall of the Empire with the pretty cracking creative team of writer Alex Segura and artist (and recent All-Star visitor!) Phil Noto. Noto’s painted cover gives readers a glimpse of what they will find inside, with a post-Jedi Luke Skywalker, Qui-Gon Jinn, Darth Vader and Kylo Ren all featured. Marvel is clearly keen to explore various Star Wars time periods and when you assemble this much talent to lead the comics, why not?

 

“Past is Prologue” by the aforementioned new creative team kicks us off, with Luke Skywalker freshly arrived on a former Imperial space station, on the hunt for a murderous crime syndicate raiding New Republic vessels, destroying ships and killing “innocent traders.”  Noto’s a great pick for Star Wars. He nails Mark Hamill’s likeness perfectly and this new series is off to an intriguing start under Segura’s solid scripting.

 

Things get even better in Charles Soule and Stefano Raffale’s “Legacy of Vanee,” which follows former Vader bootlicker/servant Vanee, mourning the loss of both Vader and the emperor and who, aging, rebuilds himself into…something pretty bizarre actually…as he searches for a potential successor. He finds one, one readers will be very familiar with, and so begins Legacy of Vader. The reveal will surprise no-one (I’ve already kind of ruined it), but this is executed really well, with Soule building immense intrigue into a short space and Raffaele’s inky work bringing some real SF noirishness to this short story that hypes up the Legacy of Vader series. Interesting stuff.

 

“The Moon of Death,” previewing Jedi Knights #3, is the last comic here. Qui-Gon Jinn and “Padawan learner” Tensu Run find themselves on the Moon of K’shar - a place filled with innumerable criminals and cutthroats - on the trail of someone called Corlis Rath, who is fated to kill Qui-Gon. I enjoyed this quite a bit, actually, Marc Guggenheim scripts a place of real criminal grom for artist Madibek Musabekov (who I am completely unfamiliar with) to depict and Musabekov clearly has some fun bringing these dingy back alleys to life. Intriguing stuff once again, perhaps only marred by the talented Padawan, Tensu’s unfortunate resemblance to a young Annikin Skywalker. I do appreciate the diversity found in the Star Wars universe, but surely we have had enough young blonde male Jedi? This gripe aside, this is pretty strong Star Wars stuff.

 

Marvel’s Star Wars titles have been a bit hit-and-miss over the past decade, but when they hit, they are really strong. Arriving at the tenth anniversary of the return to the publisher, the Star Wars comics appear to be in very sure hands across the board. The real surprise is perhaps just how good the titles you could easily perceive as being a bit “B-List”, Legacy of Vader and Jedi Knights, are - giving the main title a real run for its money. I never thought I would be intrigued to read a Qui-Gon Jinn comic, for example, but I very much am now.

 

In short: really good comics for Star Wars fans.


 


STAR WARS: YOUNG JEDI ADVENTURES / AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER

Written by Dave Scheidt / Brandon Hoang, Illustrated by Andy Duggan / Bellbessa

Dark Horse Comics (A)

 

Wholesome padawan adventures await readers in Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures, with the cast of Yoda’s “younglings” on a quest from the Jedi master to find, “something sweet, something that connects, something that shines and something that sings.”  Off on the hunt in the swamps of Tenoo go Nubs, Lys and Kai in this colourful little adventure for little Star Wars fans.

 

Artist Andy Duggan is the show-stealer here, nailing the likenesses of the cartoon’s characters and imbuing this little story with a real spirit of adventure as readers see weird fruit, alien turtles, explore hidden caves and meet all manner of weird creatures. A fun little story.

 

But that’s not all! Stick around for the amazing artwork of Bellbessa in “Ramen Rumble”, an adventure from the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender. I apologise in advance, as I know absolutely nothing about the world of Avatar.  However, I did enjoy this short featuring Samurai Appa and Ronin Momo (quite beloved characters, I’m to understand) quite a bit, thanks largely to Bellbessa’s immersive work. 

 

Appa and Momo are practically starving when they come across a ramen house in the forest. Sadly, they have no coin, but when the owner of the restaurant is about to get shaken down for free food by Fire Nation Officers, a full-on brawl with our heroes ensues and cleverly paves the way for some full bellies by story’s end.

 

This is overall a good pick up for younger readers, but don’t be heartbroken if you miss out, unless, of course, you’re a big fan of either property. Good stuff.


 

STREET FIGHTER VS. RIVAL SCHOOLS

Written by David Lunsden, Illustrated by Tovio Rogers / Royce Southerland

Udon (T)

 

Ahhh, it wouldn't really be April without reading a free Street Fighter comic and the tradition continues with Street Fighter vs Rival Schools for 2025. Props to the team at Udon comics for somehow managing to seemingly reinvent the video game property to keep things fresh, with de-aged versions of the characters placed in feuding high school clans.

 

Featuring everything from fist fights to chopstick battles, this is a colourful and lively entry in the Street Fighter franchise, thanks largely to the vivid colours and art supplied by Tovio Rogers.

 

All the best of these comics seem to revolve around Blanka, that’s my experience anyway, and this story continues the streak for all you Blanka-heads out there.

 

Backing up the main Street Fighter vs Rival Schools story is a short story, “A Shot at Freedom” scripted again by Lunsden with art by Royce Southerland. This one’s Chun-Li focussed, set in Hong Kong’s “Interpol Headquarters”. It’s a short one, and has a bit of a twist ending, so I'll just shush myself and say that this is fine stuff all round  for Street Fighter fans, and in my opinion is perfectly fine for an audience a bit younger than labelled, should any parents be on the fence about this.


 

SUPERMAN’S GOOD GUY GANG / AQUAMANATEE

Written by Rob Justus / Ben Clanton, Illustrated by Rob Justus / Cassandra Federman

DC (A)

 

More Superman fun this FCBD, with a great preview of Superman’s Good Guy Gang by writer/artist Ron Justus.  Designed for readers 5-7 years of age (good job, DC!), this got some good chuckles from my seven-year-old, which is a much more solid recommendation than anything I will offer here.

 

Superman and, of all companions, Guy Gardner, are attempting to stop what they believe to be a new villain, but who actually turns out to be Hawkgirl just trying to rescue some dogs. Justus’ art is fun and lively, his pages open and uncramped, his storytelling crystal clear for the desired age range. This is good, amusing stuff which, again, cracked my kid up quite a bit with a very silly action sequence involving Superman getting a butt injury. Yep, that might increase interest a bit.

 

As a bonus, we get a few pages of Aquamanatee, in which Marlow the manatee becomes an underwater superhero. Written by Ben Clanton and with art by Cassandra Federman, there’s sadly not too much here to actively critique, but it’s suitably cute stuff. Recommended.


 

TOWER DUNGEON / ISSAK

Written by Tsutomu Nihei /Shinji Makari, Illustrated by Tsutomu Nihei / Double S

Kodansha (T+)

 

I don't know how this will go down with many, but I'm of the opinion that Tsutomu Nihei's work isn't what it used to be. The insane, intricate world-building, the obsessive level of detail seems long gone and I have struggled to find my way into his last few works. Having said that, Tower Dungeon may finally mark my return to his bizarre worlds.

 

With Tower Dungeon, Nihei turns his attention to dark fantasy, this time morphing his endless, labyrinthine urban nightmares and ecological ruins into a single titanic space: an enormous, multi-level Tower, filled with monsters, evil sorcerers and ‘malformed creatures.’ A princess is locked somewhere within, and a young farmhand named Yuva, along with a small army, are tasked with her rescue. In this preview, we see levels 60 and 80 of this endless Dungeon Tower and, while Nihei’s art is not what it once was…damn, this has quite the hook to it. Sigh. See you in July I guess, Nihei…

 

On to what, judging by the cover, Kodansha would have us believe to be the main event of this double-feature with Shinji Makari and Double-S’ Issak.  It's 1620, we’re in Europe with Protestants and Catholics slaughtering each other all over the place (yay, religion!). In wanders a lone Japanese warrior, on a mission to kill the man who murdered his master.

 

I cribbed most of that from a short blurb on the front cover. Thankfully Kodansha put that there or I would have no idea what this is about. To be fair, I could mostly say the same for Tower Dungeon, but that managed to get its hooks in me through a clear demonstration of Nihei’s insane concept and boy, does the man like to draw weird buildings.

 

From what we can see here, Issak will be violent and decently constructed. It does feature a sexual assault as a catalyst for its hero to get involved, however, and I can't help but think that the publisher may have been better off showcasing a different scene for its massive give-away book? However, Issak was quite the digital hit apparently. It has awards nominations behind it, and an effusive quote from manga legend Ryoichi Ikegami, so there may be quite a bit more here than initially meets the eye. Don't write this off because of my grumblings.

 

Despite what the cover may look like, let's invert it: come for Tower Dungeon stay for Issak. Oh, Tsutomu, just when I think I’m out, you pull me back into your…uh…dungeon. Ew. I should probably go to bed at this point.


 

TRANSFORMERS: WORST BOT EVER / FAMILY FORCE V

Written by Brian “Smitty” Smith / Matt Braly, Illustrated by Marz Jr. / Ainsworth Lin

Skybound/Image (T)

 

New from Robert Kirkman’s Comet imprint of his Image imprint Skybound (that's a lotta imprints), comes this extended preview of Transformers: Worst Bot Ever, backed up by a short little shot of Family Force V.

 

Transformers: Worst Bot Ever features Ballpoint, easily the most annoying and useless Decepticon to ever transform into anything. As his name suggests, Ballpoint is a pen. He can write and…..that’s about it.  Hero in his own mind, Ballpoint believes himself to be super-important to the Decepticon’s ongoing war with the Autobots, but given his best friend is an actual blender he thinks is a fellow Decepticon, he’s clearly not the most reliable of narrators.

 

Brian “Smitty” Smith and Marz Jr. chart Ballpoint’s journey. I didn’t find any of this particularly funny or amusing, and Marz Jr. is certainly no Daniel Warren Johnson, but hopefully the gags ramp up in the final product, available in July, as a comedic Transformers book for younger readers is a really good idea.

 

Family Force V packs family drama into its Power Ranger-infused action. In short: aliens called Mazoku attack Earth, five Japanese siblings are given special powers and go by the name Moon Troopers. Years pass and with the spread of alien attacks now global, descendants of the Moon Troopers (each located in a different part of the world) continue the fight. In this short little segment, we meet Maise, a young artist in LA balancing her personal life with her secret alter ego. It’s a solid set up for a YA actioner and artist Ainsworth Lin seems more than capable of handling the personal moments as well as the alien battles.


 

WILL EISNER: A COMICS BIOGRAPHY

Written and Illustrated by Stephen Weiner and Dan Mazur

NBM (A?)

 

Oh, what a nice surprise this is! NBM gifts us a preview of the forthcoming Will Eisner: A Comics Biography, and check your skepticism at the door, because this is immersive and compelling stuff for fans of not just Eisner but the history of comics itself.

 

Weiner and Mazur (no division of creative labour is given by publisher here, so I will refer to the duo in all aspects of the work) take readers back to New York in 1936, with young artist and future comics icon, Will Eisner, pounding the streets with a portfolio and a dream of illustrating comics strips for a living. Very quickly encountering knockbacks and antisemitism, Eisner’s hardscrabble early career is brought to vivid life by the creators, who get readers very quickly up to speed on the realities of early 20th century publishing.

 

There’s tonnes to soak in across these breezy, brisk, scratchily-cartooned pages, from production schedules to a breakdown of the printing process for comics in the 1930s and some clever little visual Easter eggs for fans of Eisner’s work. It feels like a missed opportunity to not include an editorial here somewhere to add some context about the project and its subject for those unfamiliar with Eisner and his legendary body of work, but this otherwise exceeded expectations all across the board.

 

This is highly recommended and I for one am curious to see the finished product come July.