Rompepistas, Hell's Half Acre, Navigating With You, Alpha Gods: Bloodline & Kid Maroon
Ablaze Publishing, Magma Comix, Maverick, Markosia & Vault Comics
The latest comics news and previews including:
A new graphic novel - Rompepistas.
A new series from Magma Comix.
Out now - Navigating With You.
A new release from Markosia.
And a new deal for Vault Comics.
Ablaze Publishing has announced a new graphic novel - Rompepistas - which looks to be an excellent read and well-suited for me!
A punk rock tale about music, adolescence, and finding one’s tribe in the graphic novel debut by Spanish creator Rosa Codina
The debut graphic novel by creator Rosa Codina adapts author Kiko Amat's coming-of-age novel about the wild years of adolescence into a celebration of an era when music meant everything and when one’s look and beliefs defined one’s tribe.
A must read for “old school” punks as well as today’s generation of rebels and anyone who ever listened to the words of Joe Strummer, pogo’d to The Ramones, and lived their life to an alternative beat. This isn’t a story to miss.
Rompepistas is seventeen years old. He's a punk, he lives on the outskirts of Barcelona, and he does everything for the music he loves: Generation X, The Clash, The Jam, Las Duelistas... That last one's his own group, where he plays the guitar and bellows into the microphone. It's all about playing to keep the sadness at bay and to never cry again. When you start playing, everything changes. All the shit clears up.
ROMPEPISTAS, story and art by Rosa Codina · SRP: $24.99 · 232 Pages · ISBN: 9781684972401 ·
Available September 24, 2024
Magma Comix has a new series coming soon - Hell's Half Acre - check out the details and a preview below.
In partnership with Ruptura Estudios, Magma Comix is proud to present this inaugural imprint release from Denton J. Tipton and Jack Jadson
Magma Comix, in partnership with Ruptura Estudios, invites readers to a first-look at the thrilling western noir, HELL'S HALF ACRE #1.
Hell’s Half Acre, written by Magma founder and New York Times Best-selling author, Denton J. Tipton (Cobra Kai, G.I. Joe) with art by Jack Jadson (Thor, Captain America) and Cover A by Ramon Bunge (Legacy of Mandrake the Magician), the exciting new series features special character variant covers by Chris Evenhuis (Wynonna Earp, Sister Crash) and the first issue has a variant cover by Eduardo Risso (Batman, 100 Bullets)
Life is changing fast in 1904 Nashville but the sins of the past live free in a place called Hell’s Half Acre—where you can find gambling, sex and most any other debauchery ever dreamed. None do it better than Miss Marion’s, where a mysterious gambler named Britt sets in motion a chain of events that will have lawmen and outlaws alike aiming to put him six feet under. Will the woman that Britt scorned be his downfall or salvation when Hell comes calling?
Ruptura Estudios was originally founded in the 1990s amid the burgeoning scene of the so-called “new Mexican comic.” Over time, it has stepped in and out of the spotlight, changing its form and finding different ways to collaborate with other publishing houses. Now, nearly 30 years since its inception, it returns with its core mission intact: help creators and readers on journeys throughout different realities.
The imprint will publish works of fiction with Hispanic appeal by creators from around the world, and will release two titles in 2024.
For fans of Cullen Bunn’s The Sixth Gun and Jonah Hex, Hell’s Half Acre #1 drops in shops Sept. 11th.
I’ve always been a big fan of Jeremy Whitley - my daughter loved his Princeless books - and I’m pleased to announce his latest title, Navigating With You, from Maverick.
Mad Cave’s YA Imprint MAVERICK is pleased to announce NAVIGATING WITH YOU, out August 6, 2024. Navigating with You is a charming POC-led WLW romance where two new friends hit the road in search of the missing volumes of their favorite manga.
Neesha Sparks is a disabled, vocal community activist with a passion for costume design. Gabby Graciana is an optimistic surfer - and, like Neesha, a new kid at school. When the two girls discover that they like the same manga series, Super Navigator Nozomi, they become more than just fellow new kids. But it was more than just having read the same book series--neither of them had finished it! Soon, they become new friends on a mission - to track down the remaining Super Navigator Nozomi books. This slice-of-life romance follows the two girls as they adventure across North Carolina to find each book, with their story intercut with the tales of Super Navigator Nozomi. Neesha and Gabby find more than just the books though—they find acceptance, friendship, understanding, and love.
Writer Jeremy Whitley said, "Navigating with You has been a passion project for me. It's the kind of book I've always wanted to write and Maverick gave me the chance to do it. My goal was to create a beautiful story of friendship and romance with a side of fandom and how our loves - both romantic and fandom - help us find ourselves and work through trauma. Navigating with You is a story inspired by and dedicated to all of the amazing people who have come to my table at comic conventions over the last twelve years."
Artist Cassio Ribeiro said, “As a fan of slice of life stories and manga, it was amazing to draw these two things together. I hope this book can connect people, just like the characters in this story."
NAVIGATING WITH YOU (9781952303609; Trade Paperback; $14.99); is available for preorder now, and on-sale wherever books are sold on August 6, 2024.
Adding to the Alpha Gods series, now available is the latest part to the story with Alpha Gods: Bloodlines #1 from Markosia.
Markosia are pleased to announce the release of the long-awaited latest addition to the Alpha Gods saga, Alpha Gods: Bloodline #1. Alpha Gods: Bloodline follows on from 2018’s Alpha Gods: Revelation. Set five years on from those events, in a world that’s gone to hell, Bloodline will appeal to existing fans while providing a jumping on point for new readers.
Five years after the events of Alpha Gods: Revelation, no longer being manipulated and controlled by the Nephilim, the world’s government has collapsed. In the midst of the chaos Lamia, daughter of Lilit, mother of vampires, has seized power, backed up by her Empusae, the vampire army who serve as her secret police. She has declared herself Empress of the first Terran Empire. Decadence and evil reign. The time has come for Impact to form a new team of Alpha Gods and free the world from her vile clutches.
Written by Ian Sharman and illustrated by Mattia Ferrari, Alpha Gods: Bloodline #1 is available to download on DriveThruComics now!
Alpha Gods: Bloodline #1 is the first part of the fourth volume of Alpha Gods released by Markosia so far, following Alpha Gods: Emergence, Alpha Gods, Betrayal and Alpha Gods: Revelation.
Vault Comics has announced a new licencing agreement - after some teases online - with the Pep Shepard Estate to bring us Kid Maroon.
Vault is thrilled to announce they have acquired the licensing rights for Kid Maroon, the legendary 1940’s boy detective comic strip created and drawn by bizarre comics genius, Pep Shepard.
The fascinating history of Kid Maroon and his creator, Pep Shepard, is one of legend in comic book circles. While the details are often debated, one thing is certain: Kid Maroon is one of the most influential cartoon characters of all time, inspiring underground and independent comics for decades.
Pep Shepard began his comics career as an apprentice with newspaper strip legend Irvin Batch in Pittsburgh, guest inking on several Sunday strips in the final years of Batch’s famed “How ‘Bout That?” But once “How ‘Bout That?” was canceled (after the apocryphal “Let’s poison Tommy” story), Shepard found himself without work and enlisted in the Merchant Marines. A dishonorable discharge in ‘39 for public intoxication left Pep out of active service during the war effort and without a job. Shepard soon found himself working for the printing press of the Baltimore Companion in the early 40’s. There in the later hours before the morning edition ran off the slate, Pep began crafting a child detective character loosely inspired by his memories of his brother Alva, but also informed by his growing bitterness toward government services, urban planning in general, and the entire American Idea itself, but also paradoxically, his own paranoid delusions regarding communism.
Shortly after, Shepard was made an assistant in the Funnies Department of the Companion, working under Hal Furtcher and Matthias Lieb as they labored over such forgettable works as “Corn in the Morning” and “Two Way Meat.”
During this period in 1944, Shepard first began exploratory artwork and sketches for what would eventually become "Kid Maroon," the most well known (and notorious) comic strip associated with his name.
Finally in 1948, after Furtcher & Lieb’s partnership ended when Furtcher shot Lieb in the face (by accident) during a card game, Shepard was given rush approval for his own strip, “Kid Maroon,” which drew on Shepard’s nihilistic outlook, failures as a father (two sons born in '45 and '46, Grover and Tris), and his obsessive need to prove that a slingshot could be a lethal weapon in the wrong (or right) hands.
Shepard introduced a slew of iconic villains in his six month run, including Blockhead, Ratfuck (printed as Ratfink at the time), Shit Cop (printed as Crap Cop at the time), Egghead, Woody Gunk, Freddie Flames, and the less-used Mister Kill. Perhaps most famous of them all is the one character created to reflect Pep himself—that of Billy Beans, the hapless but guileless orphan who saw the world in an almost beatific way, much like how Pep aspired to be, despite his growing addiction to codeine and what he referred to as “bathtub laudanum.”
The Kid Maroon strip ran daily. Written, drawn, and lettered (with copy corrections) by Pep, who took to working six days a week at his drawing board, further neglecting his family, which they would later argue was better for them in the long run, given his predilections for loud opera records, corporal punishment, and sudden outbursts of tears. All in all, this incessant work totaled 216 Kid Maroon strips printed in the Baltimore Companion from the spring to fall of 1948.
Kid Maroon became a cult hit, though it was largely ignored by the broader readership at the time — save for reader complaints about its depictions of violence. This perception worsened when it was made public that Shepard kept detailed anatomy books by his work desk to make sure injuries were correctly depicted down to the organs, viscera and muscular tissue shown.
The backlash and lack of broader attention caused Shepard to grow disenchanted with the work quickly. Fortunes went from bad to worse when a cola factory next to the Companion printing press exploded. The cola damage to the archives of primary print work along with the subsequent fire meant that nearly all of Shepard’s printed works were ruined. Only 12 printed strips remain.
But Shepard held onto his own original art. His wife famously pleaded for him to sell the original work, but he would not, as he expected they would not have garnered much money due to the rising tides of the Comics Code and public backlash against the medium. Eventually, Shepard was believed to have buried all his original art boards in a field in South Dakota, location unknown, somewhere around 1951 or 1952. Shortly after, he disappeared.
One- to two-panel fragments of Baltimore Companion strips of Kid Maroon have been known to fetch up to 275,000 dollars in recent auctions. A complete (albeit color-stained and burned) strip was auctioned off in 2006 for 1.4 million. Unauthorized digital scans of this strip can be found on the web. No original art exists. A map to the burial location of the art is thought to reside in a safety deposit box in Livingston, Montana, but this has not been confirmed.
Pep Shepard is believed to have died of exposure somewhere in Northern New Mexico, perhaps near Taos, in the early 70’s, but this remains unconfirmed.
Vault will announce more information on their Kid Maroon offerings later this month.