LEGENDARY COMICS GODZILLA AND KING KONG COVERS

King Kong and Godzilla will be rampaging on movie screens and streaming on HBO Max beginning March 31, 2021 but fans of these monster movies will also want to keep an eye out for some comic books that will be coming out soon. Legendary Entertainment, the production company behind this year's GODZILLA VS KONG blockbuster is also releasing a number of graphic novels featuring the movie monsters. The three books (Kingdom Kong, Godzilla Dominion, and Monsterverse Titanthology Volume 1) will all feature covers by acclaimed artist Arthur Adams.

KINGDOM KONG 

 A sequel to the graphic novel Skull Island: Birth of Kong and a prelude to the film Godzilla vs. Kong, the upcoming prequel graphic novel, Kingdom Kong, will follow a group of highly skilled military pilots gathered together on Skull Island to see who has ‘the right stuff’ to take on a dangerous mission into the hollow earth. One of the pilots, Audrey, is haunted by the memories of a monstrous clash with one of Godzilla’s titanic rivals that left deep scars. When Skull Island is attacked by Camazotz, a bat-like Titan, Audrey must come to terms with her inner demons, and finding his home newly threatened, Kong must rise to face this usurper that would plunge the world into perpetual night. Kingdom Kong is written by Marie Anello (Shout Out) with art by ZID (Legendary Comics’ Skull Island: The Birth of Kong; Trick ‘r Treat: Days of the Dead; Spectral: Ghosts of War).

GODZILLA DOMINION 

Godzilla Dominion—the prequel graphic novel written by Greg Keyes (the Age of Unreason trilogy; three New York Times bestselling Star Wars novels in the New Jedi Order series) with art by Drew Edward Johnson (DC’s Wonder Woman, Supergirl; Legendary Comics’ Godzilla Aftershock)—will feature a unique story that picks up after the events of the film Godzilla: King of the Monsters, where the Titans have risen and the reign of Godzilla has begun. As told entirely from Godzilla’s point of view, the graphic novel brings new insights into the King of Monsters: his habitats, ancient rivalries, encounters with new Titans, and other challenges. As his new era of dominance is tested, a coming confrontation with another King looms.

MONSTERVERSE TITANTHOLOGY VOL 1

For new readers wanting to discover the backstories of Godzilla and Kong for the first time or fans revisiting their favorite adventures, the Monsterverse Titanthology Vol 1 brings the previously released graphic novels, Skull Island: The Birth of Kong (2017) and Godzilla: Aftershock (2019), together in one legendary volume for the first time ever.

Kingdom Kong and Godzilla Dominion can be purchased from book stores and comic shops beginning March 30th and Monsterverse Titanthology will be out on May 11, 2021. For more information go to www.legendary.com/comics/

Free book of Marvel comic art paying tribute to classic Hip-Hop album covers being distributed in January

As part of its effort to appeal to a younger and more diverse audience of readers, when Marvel relaunched its comic book universe with an all new lineup of titles this fall it included in its branding efforts a series of variant covers that pay homage to classic hip-hop albums for all of its #1 issue releases. In the comic book industry, a variant cover is when an issue is distributed with multiple covers each featuring unique art for consumers to choose from but the same story inside. There will be a primary cover which has artwork that relates to the story of the issue and than variant covers that may be based on a special theme  or highlighting work by various artists which are meant to either gain the attention of potential new readers who may be more interested in the subject on the cover than the story inside (but once they read the story may want to pick up the next issue) or be a more exclusive item for collectors than the main run of the comic book.  Variant covers are nice in that they really focus on the art aspect of the comic book genre and that they often have some really cool images that are great for framing to decorate a room or for enhancing a collection to make it a bit more interesting and unique.  Some recent variant cover themes by various publishers have included replicating action figure toy packaging covers, classic movie posters, monsters to tie-in with Halloween, 1980s Saturday morning cartoon characters, and WWII recruitment posters.

Marvel's most recent variant campaign takes the album artwork from artists like Dr. Dre, De La Soul, Lauryn Hill and Vanesa Del Rey and re-envisions it portrayed by characters from its comic book universe.  For example 50 Cent's "Get Rich or Die Trying" is remixed and featured on the hip-hop variant cover of Invincible Iron Man #1.

For those people interested in viewing and collecting Marvel's run of hip-hop inspired variant covers and didn't get around to picking up the individual issues featuring the art work you will want to swing by your local comic book store in January.  Participating retailers will be giving away a FREE 32-page comic book that will feature 14 of these hip-hop inspired variant covers on January 6, 2016.  The artwork in the book will include:

Invincible Iron Man / 50 Cent's "Get Rich or Die Trying"

Doctor Strange / Dr. Dre's "The Chronic"

Ms. Marvel / Lauryn Hill's "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill"

Extraordinary X-Men / De La Soul's "3 Feet High and Rising"

Amazing Spider Man / Tribe Called Quest's "Midnight Maruaders"

Web-Warriors /  Clipse's "Lord Willin"

Captain America - Sam Wilson / A$AP Rocky's "Long Live A$AP

Marvel Provides a Sneak Peek @ New Star Wars Comic Book Series

Comic books featuring the cast of characters and story lines revolving around the original trilogy of Star Wars movies aren't anything new as Marvel Comics had a monthly series in print during the time these films were released which was published between 1977 and 1986.  Dark Horse Comics followed that with a monthly series called Empire that had a variety of story lines tied to the movie Star Wars: A New Hope, including how Luke Skywalker's best friend Biggs Darklighter defected from the Imperial Navy to join the Rebels, that ran from 2002 through 2006.  More recently Dark Horse published a monthly series titled STAR WARS that was focused on the time period directly after the events in Star Wars Episode IV that ran from 2013 into 2014.

Marvel Comics is regaining the license rights for Star Wars comics in 2015 and is debuting a series titled STAR WARS with brand new stories focused on the time period between the movies A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back.  While this isn't exactly new territory to explore in the world of comic books, what is new about what Marvel is doing that will set these stories apart from previous ones is that they will now be part of the recognized canon for the Star Wars story.  This means they will be considered officially as much a valid part of the Star Wars universe and its over all tale as the movies.  In the past novels and comic books were treated more like fan fiction than an extension of the movies - as past published works are now known as the Legends Collection - so including these new stories as an official part of the Star Wars saga is really a brand new arc for comics.

With excitement for the upcoming Star Wars Episode VII The Force Awakens blockbuster that is arriving in theaters in December of 2015 joined with the fan and critical praise for the new Star Wars: Rebels animated television series there is a lot of excitement and renewed interest in the franchise that Disney acquired from George Lucas in 2012.  Marvel Entertainment, which was also acquired by Disney in 2009, is adding to this hype with its renewed publishing of Star Wars comic books.  In fact ComicBook.com is reporting that Star Wars #1 has collectively received more then a million orders from comic book stores for the series' January 14, 2015 debut issue.  Putting that into perspective, the last comic book issue to print and sell a million copies was the milestone 500th issue of BATMAN in 1993.

For all the fans counting down the days until January 14th, Marvel just released a sneak peek of the upcoming Star Wars #1:

 

So here is the synopsis from Marvel for the upcoming #StarWars #comicbook series:

Luke Skywalker and the ragtag band of rebels fighting against the Galactic Empire are fresh off their biggest victory yet—the destruction of the massive battle station known as the Death Star. But the Empire's not toppled yet! Join Luke along with Princess Leia, smugglers Han Solo and Chewbacca, droids C-3PO and R2-D2 and the rest of the Rebel Alliance as they strike out for freedom against the evil forces of Darth Vader and his master, the Emperor. Written by Jason Aaron (Original Sin, Thor: God of Thunder) and with art by John Cassaday (Astonishing X-Men, Uncanny Avengers), this is the Star Wars saga as only Marvel Comics could make it!

Another angle that Marvel is using to drum up sales and to also cater to its collector markets is that there will be a variety of variant covers, at least 13 of them, that will be printed in quantities significantly lower than the main release version of the comic book.  One will be my favorite comic book artist Alex Ross that will pay tribute to the original cover of Star Wars #1 published by Marvel Comics in April 1977.   Another variant will interlock with the first issue covers of the upcoming Darth Vader series and Princess Leia min-series to create a poster when all three are combined together.  The one I like the best though is a reproduction of the Kenner package for their Luke Skywalker action figure which is the first Star Wars toy I ever owned as a kid and which the artwork I find to be just really impressive.  

So what do you think of Star Wars #1 ... are you going to be picking up a copy from your local comic book shop?

Iconic Comic Book Character is Killed Off

For the last few years Archie Comics has been chronicling the grown-up years of Archie Andrews and his gang of high school buddies from the town of Riverdale as they take on the challenges of marriage, careers, and other difficulties that go with being an "adult" in a monthly comic book series titled LIFE WITH ARCHIE.  People have been following the fictional adventures of Archie and his teenage friends (Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Reggie Mantle, and Jughead Jones) since their first story was printed in 1941's Pep Comics #22 and continued throughout the last 73 years in a variety of publications.  This Wednesday, Archie Comics will be wrapping up the run of its LIFE WITH ARCHIE series in a dramatic way by killing off one of its iconic characters.  In the July 16, 2014 edition of LIFE WITH ARCHIE, Archie Andrews is killed off!

When Archie Andrews intervenes in an assassination attempt against his politician friend Kevin Keller, Archie Comics' first openly gay character, in LIFE WITH ARCHIE #36 the famous freckle faced red headed character who inspired the creation of Richie Cunningham on "Happy Days" and has been entertaining fans for decades in his own comic book publications meets his demise marking the conclusion of a series which focused on a grown-up rendition of the gang from Riverdale taking place in today's modern times.

In the LIFE WITH ARCHIE series, Kevin Keller is a married military veteran and newly elected senator who is pushing for gun control after his husband becomes involved in a shooting.  The openly gay character first appeared in the Archie Comics series VERONICA in 2010. In addition to appearing in LIFE WITH ARCHIE, the character also has his own self titled comic book and appears in the horror series AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE.

Archie's final moments will be the focus of LIFE WITH ARCHIE #36 and the series will conclude in August with LIFE OF ARCHIE #37 which will take place a year after the iconic comic book character's death with his friends gathering to reflect on and honor Andrews' legacy.  So who shot Archie?  You'll have to pick up the comic book to find out!

There will a few different variant covers to choose from for both LIFE WITH ARCHIE #36 and #37 retailing for $4.99 each.  There will also be a double-sized issue that combines both #36 & #37 selling for $9.99.

LIFE WITH ARCHIE #36

 

 

LIFE WITH ARCHIE #37

 

 

 

 

Archie Comics has gone on the record to say that Archie's death is not meant as a publicity stunt but rather meant to be a lesson on gun violence and a demonstration of the publisher's commitment to diversity in its publications' characters.  Archie Andrews will continue to live on in other Archie Comic series that focus more on the teenage Riverdale cast of characters now and in the future.

You can pick up these comic books at your local comic book store or online directly from the Archie Comics by CLICKING HERE.