Comic News

Next week Dark Horse Comics will release The Roadie #1. The first issue of the four-issue heavy metal horror miniseries comes from the creative team of writer Tim Seeley, artist Fran Galán, and letterer El Torres. Today The Beat is pleased to present an exclusive preview of the series’ debut issue. Here’s how Dark Horse describes The Roadie #1: More

Welcome to Minis of X, a new feature within our Heroes of X/History of X X-Men column that X-amines the miniseries of the X Universe! While I was working my way through X-Men Omnibuses (Omnibi?), I realized it was difficult to fit miniseries into my coverage of the larger X-story arcs, so rather than omit

Welcome to our guide to Rings of Power as seen through the lens of an amateur Tolkien scholar. While I’m trying to remain true to the canon, I’m also throwing in some interpretations of Tolkien’s work based on my own readings and thinkings. Sorry I fell so far behind but believe it or not, these

Vault Comics unveiled another first-look preview for Nightfall: Double Feature #1, showcasing Denizen, the second of the series’ two feature stories. Written by Tim Daniel (The Plot, End After End) and David Andry (Resonant, End After End), the tale is drawn by Chris Shehan (House of Slaughter, The Autumnal), colored by Jason Wordie (Wasted Space), and lettered by Jim Campbell. The synopsis is

Harley Quinn is back in Gotham for good! No, literally, she’s leaving the Joker and her old life behind and trying to do good. “Trying” being the operative word. Her ongoing solo series relaunched in 2021 after the events of “The Joker War,” which left Gotham City feeling more unstable than ever. Can Harley Quinn

If you’ve been enjoying my cartoons, join me on Patreon, where you can get prints, exclusive videos and other goodies — all while you help support my work! Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has achieved a new low by using people seeking asylum as a political prop. Of course he didn’t invent the idea (xenophobic hat

Everyday Hero Machine Boy hit this month, marking the latest release from Skybound Comet, that publisher’s YA imprint. The first release from Skybound Comet was the absolutely excellent Clementine by Tillie Walden, which came out in June. While Clementine had a large, well-known, and beloved mound of IP to launch from — it is set in The Walking Dead

Any disciple of the martial arts will tell you that while great warriors can win many battles, they do not become great until they know how to lose. Knowing the price of failure, and how to recover when failure comes for you, is as fundamental to victory as winning itself, especially in a long campaign.

It’s the 30th anniversary of the breakout character from the seminal Batman: The Animated Series, Harley Quinn. To celebrate the Harley Quinn 30th anniversary, DC Comics has announced announced a whole host of activities taking place in two weeks at NYCC. Moreover, the publisher announced writer Tini Howard and artist Sweeney Boo as the new

Celebrating Thirty Years of Mayhem with Harley Quinn Clown Princess of Crime All month DC is celebrating thirty years of the Clown Princess of Crime, the one and only Harley Quinn! The fan-favorite Super-Villain made her debut in Batman: The Animated Series in 1992, and has been back-flipping into fan’s hearts since, from animation, to

THIS WEEK: Harley Quinn makes it to the BIG THREE OH in Harley Quinn: 30th Anniversary Special. Note: the review below contains spoilers.  If you want a quick, spoiler-free buy/pass recommendation on the comics in question, check out the bottom of the article for our final verdicts. Harley Quinn: 30th Anniversary Special Writers: Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti,

Welcome back to the Marvel Rundown! This week, Stately Beat Manor dives headfirst into the action-packed slugfest that is X-Terminators. What do you get when you mix the X-Men, slashers, and a healthy serving of parental advisory? Find out in our SPOILER-LITE review! Don’t wanna spoil the fun? Jump below the break for spoiler-free mini-reviews for

Next week, Random House Books for Young Readers will release The BIG Adventures of Babymouse: Once Upon a Messy Whisker. The first volume of the new middle grade graphic novel series comes from the Eisner Award-winning brother-and-sister team of writer Jennifer L. Holm and artist Matthew Holm. Today The Beat is delighted to present an exclusive preview

ANNOUNCING VOLUME 4 IN THE COMPLETE TOM THE DANCING BUG PROGRAM: TOM THE DANCING BUG: ALL-MIGHTY COMICS! Due to be released in late October — pre-order your copy now!  Information here. “This fine collection of work by Mr. Bolling provides ample evidence as to why he is unanimously considered one of the greatest cartoonists in the

A little surprise this morning as Dark Horse announced they would be moving to PRH (Penguin Random House) for periodical distribution to the direct market, joining IDW and Marvel. As soon as the story broke, Diamond Comics president Steve Geppi released his own statement, pointing out that Diamond would continue to be the distributor for

Over the weekend of September 9 through 11, 2022, Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ returned to D23 Expo: The Ultimate Fan Experience to showcase their streaming lineup at the Disney Bundle Pavilion Stage. More than once, I stopped by the Pavilion Stage to see what the heck was happening because: (a) it was fun to chat with the

SPX 2022 was back – how many “[blank] is back!” stories have I written this year – but I mean it was really back. Taking the bus down, I fretted a bit over whether there would be a lot of changes to the hotel or the setting but I honestly shouldn’t have worried. The big

Sylvester Pemberton is kind of a mess, isn’t he? It’s hard to come to any other conclusion after watching him destroy a grocery store as he impulsively attacked Sportsmaster and Tigress. This is more than Starman being a spoiled rich boy turned superhero. The guy is going through a lot, and not just because last

We may have to wait until next year for the release of the Ahsoka series as well as the third season of The Mandalorian but perhaps the latest Star Wars toy reveals can sate fans. Today, Hasbro announced a new 3-pack in its fan-favorite Star Wars: The Black Series line. The pack includes The Mandalorian,

Today’s Small Press Spotlight offers a preview of Loner, the new graphic novel from Z2 Comics and singer/songwriter/producer Alison Wonderland. Z2 Comics co-founder Sridhar Reddy is co-writing the book with Wonderland while Minomiyabi, Alex Heywood, Kelsey Ramsay, BRÄO, and Taylan Kurtulus all provide interior art. Alex Heywood takes on the cover art. Wonderland, an acclaimed, Billboard-peaking music artist,

Batman – One Bad Day: Two-Face has been out for two days now. (See what we did there?) Written by Mariko Tamaki, who’s taking on a villain she never got to while writing Detective Comics, and drawn by Javier Fernandez, it offers a chance to get to know the D.A.-turned crimelord in a way you

Dark Horse Comics has announced that they have entered an exclusive agreement with Penguin Random House to distribute single-issue comics, graphic novels, and manga to the direct market. The multi-year agreement, which expands an existing deal that has had PRH distribute Dark Horse graphic novels and manga since 2013, kicks off on June 1st, 2023.

Republican MAGA governors like Greg Abbott of Texas and Ron Desantis of Florida are actual Human Traffickers, aka coyotes. They mislead legal migrants applying for asylum in the US, many times fleeing left-wing governments, the kind these MAGAts supposedly hate.

Vault Comics has shared a first-look preview for Nightfall: Double Feature #1, showcasing The Cemeterians. The story written by New York Times Best-Selling author Daniel Kraus (The Autumnal, The Shape of Water) is drawn by Ringo Award nominee Maan House, colored by Kurt Michael Russell (The Plot, The Blue Flame), and lettered by Andworld Design.  This brand new series of double-sized

Back in 2019, comic creator Eric Powell brought his best known creation The Goon back to his publishing company, Albatross Funnybooks, after publishing the character through Dark Horse for almost two decades. However, it looks like The Goon is going back to its roots so to speak, as it was announced today that Powell’s Albatross

There’s a thing that has happened lately that complicated this week’s Top Comics to Buy for September 21, namely that some of my favorite series have bunched up their release dates, leading to absolutely packed third weeks of late. Yes, books like Pearl, Shaolin Cowboy, Ice Cream Man, Black Adam, and more are all hitting at the

Batman: The Long Halloween – Deluxe Edition, the complete intense thriller with added mature content, is available TODAY in 4K for the very first time! Based on the acclaimed storyline by writer Jeph Loeb and the late Tim Sale and produced by Warner Bros. Animation and DC, the R-rated Long Halloween animated film is being distributed by

      Celebrate MAD Magazine’s 70th Anniversary! More Original Content, Including Contributions from ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic and Jordan Peele, a Unique MAD ‘Fold-In,’ and More from ‘The Usual Gang of Idiots’ Available at Participating Comic Book Stores, Barnes & Noble Bookstores, and to Subscribers on October 4 MAD Magazine, one of the longest-running humor

There’s one very good reason why of all the characters in the DC Universe, Batman has the greatest number of fans. It’s not necessarily his backstory, or his personality, or even his iconography. No. The secret sauce of Batman is his versatility. Whether you want a mind-twisting detective story or a deep exploration of the

Victory for Ukraine, a new comics anthology due out in print on Sept. 27, seeks to humanize the ongoing war in the country, doing so via nine stories from Ukrainian creators. Published by Tokyo Pop, the anthology is available now digitally. Today, The Beat has a 4-page excerpt from of one of the book’s stories, Ghost of