‘Tales of the Walking Dead’ is a Welcome Addition to the Franchise

I’m not gonna lie. I fell off The Walking Dead wagon years ago. Like a lot of fans, I checked out when Steven Yeun’s Glenn was killed off. And while the series, and its subsequent spinoffs, continued on, I never returned to the franchise. Until now.

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Bestselling Writer and Producer Mark Millar to Release ‘The Magic Order’ Sequel

Bestselling writer and producer Mark Millar (Jupiter’s Legacy, Kingsman: The Secret Service) makes a triumphant return with The Magic Order 2, expanding on the the magical world he created as a live-action Netflix series in this second volume of the comic book adaptation. Olivier Coipel (Amazing Spider-Man, Thor) was recruited to draw the first volume and delivered some of the best work of his career. This time around, legendary artist Stuart Immonen (Empress, Star Wars, New Avengers) will be in the chair of the highly-anticipated sequel. The Magic Order 2 #1 will launch this October from Image Comics. 

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Warren Ellis and the Lack of Accountability, aka Comics Culture Needs to Be Safer

Our public discourse has been overrun with the phantoms of “Critical Race Theory” and “Cancel Culture.” These ideas are like energon cubes for a section of white people. It has become their raison d’etre. They have become empowered by their imagining of a thing, instead of the thing itself because, in the case of the former, they have absolutely no idea what it is.

ā€˜Home’ Comics Creator, Julio Anta

Yo! Yo! Yo! It’s Kuya P back again with anotherĀ interview for my friends here at the NOC!Ā I recently sat down for a conversation with Comics Creator,Ā Julio AntaĀ to discuss his project with Image Comics’ Home which I’ve previously highlighted here on The NOC as a series that you should be picking up! Check out our conversation and then head over to your LCS so that you can give it a read!

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‘Made In Korea’ Review: Parents By Proxy

Every so often there comes a comic that manages to pique my interest almost instantly. A book that catches my eye before I’m even finished with the first panel, let alone the first page.

That’s the case with Made in Korea, a new six-issue limited series written by Jeremy Holt and George Shall.

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ā€˜La Mano del Destino’ Creates a Vivid, Action-packed Luchaverse

Ā”Mira! El Luchador is coming — and not just any luchador — La Mano del Destino, the champion with a mission, the fighter bent on reclaiming his rightful place in the ring, the man with the weight of revolutionary history upon him.

In La Mano del Destino, a new release from Top Cow and Image Comics, J. Gonzo creates a vivid, action-packed Luchaverse for us — an alternate 1960s Mexico that takes us into the Mexican sport lucha libre (literally ā€œfree wrestlingā€) and the home and memories of our hero, La Mano del Destino.

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Image Comics Goes Way Down to Hadestown with ‘Punderworld’ Graphic Novel

One of my favorite parts of the Tony-Award winning Broadway musical Hadestown is the story of Patrick Page’s Hades and Amber Gray’s Persephone. Also, I’m always down for interesting reinterpretations of Greek myths. Now, one of the biggest webcomics on the internet, Punderworld, is coming to comic shops from fan-favorite creator Linda Å ejić. Think of it as a kind of prequel to Hadestown.

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‘Time Before Time’ Review: Leave Your Troubles Behind

What would you do if you could leave all your troubles in the past, literally? If starting over again was as easy as hopping in a rickety metal box, pressing a few buttons, and starting life anew in a completely different century? That’s the question posed in Time Before Time, a brand new series written by Declan Shalvey and Rory McConville with art by Joe Palmer.

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ā€˜Box of Bones,’ An Endorsement

I am a new convert to horror. I was firmly in my comics, SF, SpecFic, fantasy bag for decades until I read Tananarive Due’s My Soul to Keep. After that, I was all in… on horror literature. However, so-called ‘horror comics’ weren’t scary to me. Not even a little. And as a comic fan, it was disappointing. That was then. Now, there are tons of wonderful horror books that speak to my cultural and aesthetic specificity. There’s Image’s Killadelphia and Bitter Root, which just had a huge announcement. And Vault Comics is doing it big.

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Hard NOC Life 215: How to Be ‘The Good Asian’ with Pornsak Pichetshote

For AAPI Heritage Month, Dominic and Keith are joined by writer Pornsak Pichetshote to talk about his new book, The Good Asian!

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The Official Trailer for Netflix’s ‘Jupiter’s Legacy’ Has Us Hyped

Netflix’s new original series, Jupiter’s Legacy, premieres globally on May 7. The cast includes Josh Duhamel, Ben Daniels, Leslie Bibb, Elena Kampouris, Andrew Horton, Mike Wade, Matt Lanter, and Ian Quinlan. The season will be a total of eight episodes, each lasting one hour.

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Image and Skybound Announce Charity Variant Covers For AAPI Heritage Month

PORTLAND, Ore. 04/08/2021 — Skybound Entertainment announced today that many of their comic book releases in May will feature new variant covers honoring Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month. Each of these covers will be penciled by creators of Asian or AAPI heritage.

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Review: ‘Shadecraft #1’ Brings Some Light to the Darkness

As a teenager, it’s hard living underneath your popular siblings shadow. Zadie Lu knows quite well. She’s the little sister of the most popular kid in school who, after an accident, left him in a coma. It’s already hard being a teenager, but now be known as the girl with the brother who is in a coma. Despite the trauma of her brother’s condition, Zadie wants some normalcy in her life, but supernatural forces get in her way in the form of evil shadows.

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Image’s Forthcoming ‘Home’ Comic to Feature Special Series of Jacoby Salcedo Variant Covers

PORTLAND, Ore. 02/18/2021 — The upcoming series Home by writer Julio Anta (Frontera) and artist Anna Wieszczyk will boast a special, collectible series of variant covers featuring artwork by the lauded Jacoby Salcedo.

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Image’s ‘Home’ to Explore U.S. Immigration Policy and Border Patrol Through Superhuman Lens

PORTLAND, Ore. 01/22/2021 — Debut creators Julio Anta (Frontera, forthcoming HarperCollins 2023) and Anna Wieszczyk weave a deeply grounded and heartfelt story in the forthcoming comic bookĀ Home. This five-issue miniseries will explore the real-world implications of a migrant with extraordinary powers, and will launch from Image Comics in April.

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‘Bitter Root’ #1: An Endorsement

The Harlem Renaissance. Black life. Root work. Jazz. Diesel Funk (shout out to Tim Fielder) Monsters and monster hunting. Family. Action. Challenging of gender stereotypes. Camaraderie. Mysterious villains. A world adjacent to the world of the normals. Bitter Root delivers all this, and more. It also asks some very good questions.

One of the problems I’ve always had with horror and horror-adjacent material is that very few things are more frightening than being Black in the world. If we can’t be safe in Kroger’s, in church, being stopped by police, walking with our loved ones, going to school, where can we be safe? This book tackles this head on, without flinching, without apology.

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How AMC Ruined ‘The Walking Dead’ (In Five Simple Steps)

I used to go hard for TheWalking Dead. I joined the party in early Season 2 after binge watching all of Season 1 on a rainy weekend.Ā I was obsessed. Not only did I buy Season 1 almost immediately, I demanded everyone I know and love watch it too. It was that good.Ā 

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Shawn Martinbrough’s TED Talk on Superpowers

Late last year, TEDxMidAtlantic held an event in Washington, D.C. themed around the “unique insights and talents,” both discovered and undiscovered, that are possessed by everyone. Titled “SUPERPOWERS,” the TED event featured politicians, activists, scientists, journalists, and more as speakers during the two-day event. Of course, what would a Superpowers-themed TED Talk be without a contribution from a comic book creator? Fortunately, D.C.-based artist, and Official Friend of the NOC, Shawn Martinbrough was on hand to tell his story of becoming an artist and the importance of media representation through his work. See the talk in its entirety below!

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