Marvel & DC Comics Do The Monster Mash For Halloween

Showing their Halloween spirit, Marvel and DC Comics will be publishing some fun variant comic books throughout this month that mash together some of their most popular super heroes with a monster theme.  25 titles from DC Comics ranging from Batman to Wonder Woman will have variant covers with a spooky monster twist to them.  2015 is the second year in a row that DC has celebrated the Halloween season with a month long monster theme for variant covers.  Marvel is also joining in on the monster theme this year with some special variant covers of their own which will celebrate some of the great creations by renowned comic book artist Jack Kirby.

Stan Lee is popularly associated with creating many of Marvel's super heroes, but less known outside of the comic book culture of die-hard fans was that a gentleman named Jack Kirby illustrated Lee's ideas collaborating in bringing them to life in the pages of comic books.  Kirby helped create The Fantastic Four, Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, the original X-Men, and a host of other characters for Marvel.  In addition to drawing super heroes, Jack Kirby also had a passion for creating monsters like Devil Dinosaur, Fin Fang Foom, and Rommbu who served as the villains to Lee and Kirby's super hero creations.  Not all of his monsters turned out to be bad guys though as Groot who originally appeared in Tales to Astonish 13 eventually became one of the most popular heroes of Guardians of the Galaxy.  Marvel will be paying homage to Jack, who passed away in 1994, by publishing 26 variant Kirby Monster comic book covers in October.

Here are a few of the Marvel Kirby Monster covers:

Amazing Spider-Man #2 /  Infant Terrible

Guardians of the Galaxy #1 / Groot

Civil War # 5 / Lo-Karr, Bringer of Doom

Here are a few of the DC Comics monster covers:

Aquaman

Green Lantern

Batman Beyond

If you enjoy the monsters and creepy things that slither out around Halloween, keep an eye out for these comics appearing on store shelves between now and October 31st.

DC Comics is going Looney in November

Comic book cover artwork is the big differentiator between print and digital publications. Collectors and hobbyists really want standout art that can be displayed or pulled out and shown off in a collection. Knowing that these covers play a big part in drawing customers into comic book stores and sustaining the market for traditional print comic books, publishers are commissioning more and more artwork for variant covers for their titles to keep fans satisfied and encourage them to buy multiple copies of the same issue just for the cover art. That's why you are starting to see issues more regularly with multiple covers and comic book publishers creating specialized marketing campaigns to promote the sale of variant covers. DC Comics for example likes to regularly have monthly themes where all their issues will have a corresponding variant covers featuring artwork tied to it.

For example in 2015, March was "Movie Poster" month with each title having a variant cover that was tied to a memorable movie. Aquaman was based off of "Free Willy", Batman & Robin was inspired by "Harry Potter", Green Lantern had a "2001: Space Odyssey" vibe to it and Justice League played off the popularity of "Magic Mike." In July all the variant covers had promotional artwork tied to the Cartoon Network's animated television series Teen Titans Go! which features youthful versions of DC Comics superheroes. August's theme is "Bombshells" which transformed DC Comics  characters into WWII pinup-inspired creations that grace the covers of 21 of its most popular titles throughout the month.  They'll continue their popular Halloween inspired Monster Mashups in October.

Fans of Bugs Bunny and his friends will want to pay special attention to the month of November as DC Comics variant comic theme is Looney Tunes.  Looney Tunes, like DC Comics, is owned by Warner Brothers so there is some corporate cross-promotion going on here but I don't care because I like both of these brands and the pairing make for some wacky fun. There will be over two dozen hilarious variant covers that pair up DC Comics super heroes like Superman, Batman, The Flash, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman with the likes of the Tasmanian Devil, Wile E Coyote, Sylvester the Cat, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, and numerous other Looney Tunes characters.  For non-regular comic book readers, just note that the art and script for the stories inside are the regular continuance of that title's story line and doesn't feature a special adventure tied to the cover artwork.  I've heard of parents picking up comic books with variant covers that would appeal to their kids only to get home and find out the story and cover didn't correlate.  These monthly themed covers are fun for displaying or for sprucing up a collection, but they most often don't relate to the stories inside.

Here are a few of my favorite Looney Tunes covers that are coming out in November 2015:

CLICK HERE for a gallery of all the variant Looney Tunes covers being published by DC Comics this November.

Mickey Mouse & Friends Returning to Pages of Comic Books in 2015

There has been a lapse in comic books featuring Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and their friends since BOOM STUDIOS released its last Walt Disney character based issue in 2011.  Good news for Disney fans, and parents who want to let younger children enjoy comic books that aren't violent or have a graphic nature to them, the adventures of Mickey and his friends will be returning to the printed page in 2015! IDW PUBLISHING has announced that beginning in April new monthly Walt Disney character based series will begin starting with UNCLE SCROOGE #1 which will feature tales of the iconic tycoon adventurer and uncle to the international celebrity known as Donald Duck (who will also be getting his own monthly series).

Other monthly comic book serials from IDW will include DONALD DUCK launching in May, followed by MICKEY MOUSE #1 in June, and WALT DISNEY'S COMICS & STORIES hits store shelves in July.  UNCLE SCROOGE #1, DONALD DUCK #1, MICKEY MOUSE NUMBER #1, and WALT DISNEY'S COMICS & STORIES #721 (this series will maintain the continuity of past publishers over the decades) will all be special premiere issues with 48 pages of content for $3.99.  Subsequent issues will be 40 pages for the same cover price as the #1 editions and shall feature a combination of reprints of classic comic book stories from previous publishers and brand new tales from the creative team at IDW.  Throughout 2015 there will also be a special variant cover published for each comic book based upon a monthly theme promoting a different section of the Disney theme parks including Epcot, FantasyLand, The Haunted Mansion, and TomorrowLand, among others.

It is interesting that Disney decided to license these comic books to a third-party publisher versus what was popularly assumed would happen and bring the titles in-house to Marvel.  IDW though has an excellent track record for producing quality publications and should do a fine job with these new comic books(with the one exception of TRANSFORMERS VS GI JOE which is one of the worst comic books I've ever read with both horrible art and writing) .  I am currently reading their STAR TREK/PLANET OF THE APES cross-over mini-series and FALL OF GI JOE monthly series, which is scripted by acclaimed military and science fiction author Karen Traviss, and have found both titles to be impressive.  So I'm looking forwarding to picking up some of these new Disney comic books for my six year old twins so they can practice their reading skills while enjoying adventures about these beloved Disney characters.  So which classic Walt Disney character is your favorite?  I'm a Goofy guy myself, while it is Mickey Mouse for my son, Minnie for my daughter, and my wife has an affection for Pluto.

Marvel to Continue Kenner Toys Inspired Variant Covers for Star Wars Comic Books

When I swung by my local comic book shop last month to pick up the first issue of Marvel's new STAR WARS comic book series this Luke Skywalker variant cover inspired by the original Kenner Toys action figure packaging caught my eye.  While I hadn't planned on buying up any of the over-hyped, over-priced variant covers that flooded stores and the Internet with this comic book's release this one was priced at the regular price for the issue and I just thought it was very nicely done.  The Luke Skywalker action figure on the cover was the very first Star Wars toy I ever received as a kid and the image on this comic book cover brought back some nice memories.  So I was nostalgic and picked it up.

While I thought this action figure design for the comic book cover was just another of the nearly hundred one and done variant covers released to promote this inaugural issue of the Star Wars brands return to the Marvel banner, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it appears there will be a few more of these covers being printed at least in the near future for upcoming issues.  Star Wars #2 which will be released on February 4, 2015 will have a Kenner Toys' Han Solo variant cover and Darth Vader #1 coming out on February 11, 2014 will also have one.  Additionally the upcoming Princess Leia mini-series will have an action figure variant cover for its first issue as will March's Star Wars #3 with a Ben Kenobi version.

I was somewhat worried before the first comic book was published that Marvel was just going to sketch up a comic without a lot of effort because they knew Star Wars fans would be digging into their pocketbooks no matter the quality of the product.  Fortunately, that hasn't been the case, the script and artwork in Star Wars #1 was exceptionally well done. In fact Star Wars #1 was one of my favorite comic books reads in the last few years...it really was that good.  As long as they continue the quality level demonstrated in this first issue I'm hooked on reading these comic books each month.  The continuation of these variant covers is just icing on the case, but also a sign that Marvel really is interested in providing Star Wars fans with a quality product.  So A Geek Daddy blog gives the new Marvel Star Wars comic books its nod of approval! 

UPDATE:  I just read Star Wars #2 and it was to quote Tony the Tiger "GREAT!!! "  I can't wait to get my hands on Star Wars #3 next month which is probably the first time I've felt that excited  about a comic book issue since I was 8 years old.

MARVEL SUPERHEROES LOOK TO STOMP OUT BULLYING

The INCREDIBLE HULK will be stomping out bullying in a special comic book cover of HULK #7 meant to promote the topic of addressing bullying prevention in our schools and highlighting that October is National Bullying Prevention Month.  Marvel Entertainment at the urging of STOMP Out Bullying, a bullying and cyberbullying prevention organization for kids and teens in the U.S., is publishing several special comic book variant edition covers on some of its most popular selling youth titles to bring added awareness of the problems of bullying during the month of October. 

 "The center of Marvel's storytelling history is the eternal struggle between good and evil, with many of its greatest super heroes having to contend with – and rise above – bullying, in all its forms," said Axel Alonso, Editor in Chief of Marvel Comics. "We are proud to join forces with STOMP Out Bullying on its important bullying prevention awareness mission. We hope that all our fans take a moment this month to educate themselves on the need to stop bullying among our youth by checking out the free resources STOMP Out Bullying has to offer."

The following comic books will feature special STOMP Out Bullying variant covers:

• ROCKET RACCOON #4
• GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #20
• AVENGERS#36
• INHUMAN#7
• HULK #7
• CAPTAIN AMERICA #25
• LEGENDARY STAR-LORD #4

These anti-bullying covers will  be exclusive to print editions that will only be available through comic book stores. Here are a few of the other covers that will be included in this awareness campaign:

CLICK HERE for more information about STOMP Out Bullying.