Evan Narcisse

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The Superstar Artist of The Wicked + The Divine Soars into Deep Space With The Killing Horizon

Jamie McKelvie is one of those guys. Your favorite comics artist’s favorite comics artist, a status cemented by the just-ended five-year marathon spent as the draftsman on award-winning pop music super-drama The Wicked + The Divine. For his next trick, he’s going full cartoonist, writing and drawing an all-new sci-fi series and he told io9 … Continued

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Ta-Nehisi Coates’ New Novel Crafts a Fresh Mythology from Slavery, Sci-Fi, and Hip-Hop

Last week, Ta-Nehisi Coates was in his kitchen, peeling and cutting carrots that his wife had brought from the farmer’s market. This week, he’s putting The Water Dancer—the novel that marks his literary fiction debut—out into the world. One of those things makes him very nervous. [Disclosure: I’ve known Ta-Nehisi for years and he was … Continued

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The Wicked & The Divine’s Creators Look Back at 5 Years of Excellence and Exhaustion

One of the best comics series in the last decade came to an end last week. As you’d expect, writer Kieron Gillen and artist Jamie McKelvie have a lot of thoughts about saying goodbye to The Wicked & The Divine. Way back in January 2014, hot off a well-regarded Young Avengers run, Gillen and McKelvie … Continued

io9ComicsDC Comics

Ambush Bug Is the Super-Fool the DC Comics Universe Needs Right Now

Ambush Bug needs to be in comics. Ambush Bug needs to be in movies. Ambush Bug needs to be part of TV shows. Who is Ambush Bug? Why, only the greatest character to sing karaoke with Darkseid. https://gizmodo.com/all-the-cozy-new-comics-series-to-settle-in-with-this-f-1837566893 A teleporting nuisance reminiscent of Bugs Bunny, Ambush Bug was created by Keith Giffen and first appeared … Continued

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14 Years Ago, Matador Painted a Surprising Serial Killer Story in a Rainbow of Color

Whether it’s superheroes, historical fiction, or survival horror, you can tell any kind of story in comics. More importantly, because comics require freezing specific instances in time, creators can play with expectations from moment to moment. Matador—by Devin Grayson and Brian Stelfreeze—does that exceedingly well, focusing on a police detective whose world turns inside out … Continued

io9Comic Book Shows

The Boys’ Showrunner Wants It to Be ‘the Most Brutally Realistic Depiction of Superheroes’

When the upcoming adaptation of The Boys hits Amazon Prime this week, showrunner Eric Kripke says that the series’ main aim is to show “superheroes as insecure, fucked-up, self-serving, and selfish as real humans really would be if given super powers.” How does that feel? According to Jack Quaid, who plays main character Hughie: “gooey.” … Continued

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Bad Weekend Delivers a Heartbroken Love Letter to the Legendary Creators of Comics’ Past

Immortal tiger-force-at-the-core-of-all-things Jack Kirby famously said that “comics will break your heart.” Drawing its inspiration from the indignities suffered by past generations of comics creators, Bad Weekend delineates what that heartbreak looks like. It seems like a film featuring characters created by Kirby, Stan Lee, Bob Kane, or Steve Ditko soars across screens every month. … Continued

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Graphic Novel BTTM FDRS Digs Into the Horrors of Gentrification

Because they play host to millions of living, breathing things, cities become living, breathing things themselves. Some parts of a city can wither away to almost nothing, only to get revived when new blood pumps into it. The uncomfortable truth of where that blood comes from, and what it sustains, lies at the heart of … Continued

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The Incredible Stories of Africans Who Fought Against Brazil’s Slave Trade

Lots of clichés abound in modern-day takes on the resistance that happened during the Transatlantic Slave Trade. All too often, the focus is narrowly cast on individuals and small groups who managed to break their chains and find some sort of freedom. But what happened after that? One of history’s answers can be found in … Continued

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More Than a Decade Ago, Checkmate Gave Readers a Brilliant Fusion of Politics and Superheroes

In most mainstream superhero fiction, the United States of America has superheroes. Lots of them. When France, England, China, and other countries also have their own metahumans, things can get…tense. Over the decades, many comics projects have explored what it might look like for powerful nations and superpowered people to secretly work with and against … Continued

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Good Talk Uses a Masterful Mix of Pictures and Words to Speak on Life’s Most Uncomfortable Conversations

Becoming a parent means that you have to explain things you already know to a hungry, developing mind. Kids build a frame of reference off your every word, with parents hoping all the while they can shape someone who’ll add good to the world. That endeavor gets tricky when the world already has certain ideas … Continued

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A New Graphic Novel Explores How Racism Made Weed Illegal

For the last few years, a wave of legislation has been decriminalizing the recreational use of marijuana all across the United States. Cannabis advocates have long said that it should never have been illegal. The story of how the substance became outlawed in the first place combines willful ignorance, petty careerism, and good old-fashioned racial … Continued

io9Comic Book Shows

The Tick TV Show Doesn’t Give a Damn About Your Cynicism

Two years ago, a new version of The Tick premiered during Amazon’s Pilot Season promotion with a first episode that felt queasy, paranoid, and claustrophobic. It definitely wasn’t The Tick of years past. But, for the most part, any worries about Ben Edlund’s big, lovable crimefighter melted away as that first season spooled out in … Continued

io9Fantasy

What It’s Like to Turn Good Omens Into a TV Show, According to Neil Gaiman, a Guy Who Would Know

Neil Gaiman is no stranger to having his fantastical literary works adapted to other media. Whether it’s Coraline, American Gods, or Neverwhere, his writing has mutated into successful movies, TV shows, and radio dramas. But when it came time to work on Good Omens—the upcoming Amazon series based on the 1990 novel he wrote with … Continued

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Neil Gaiman and the Cast of American Gods Talk About Belief, Happy Endings, and Going to War

In the second season of Starz’ American Gods TV series, the motley deities and celestial beings dotting the landscape of the United States are getting ready for war. It’s a conflict that will change what we know about them and how Shadow and the show’s other characters perceive themselves. Last summer, at a set visit … Continued

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Jordan Peele Reflects on the Cultural Relevancy of Us, The Twilight Zone, and Candyman

The Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke-starring Us had its worldwide premiere at SXSW in Austin, Texas and early reactions have been extremely positive. It’s safe to say that Jordan Peele’s next film is one that will have people talking. If they’re brave enough to see it, that is. io9 had the chance to briefly talk with … Continued

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Little Monsters Is a Skeevy-Cute Parade of Zombie Comedy Clichés That Works Despite Itself

Almost nothing that happens in Little Monsters will surprise you. People die comically horrible deaths, kids say and do cute things, characters become better versions of themselves by the end. It’s a greasy cheeseburger of a movie, utterly predictable in every way. But, hey, sometimes you want a greasy cheeseburger. Little Monsters feels like a … Continued

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Jordan Peele’s Us Goes Deeper and Darker Into America’s Collective Psyche

In his new movie Us, Jordan Peele shows the distance between everyday ordinary folks, and the dangerous fringe-dwellers who can upend their lives, can be as slim as a mirrored pane of glass. When the world became obsessed with his feature film debut two years ago, Peele often referred to Get Out as a work … Continued

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David Walker Is Betting on the Power of Black History and a Bold New Self-Publishing Gamble

David Walker is busy. He’s co-writing Naomi, a new high-profile series from DC Comics, along with Brian Michael Bendis and artist Jamal Campbell. He’s also working on Image Comics’ enthusiastically received Bitter Root with co-writer Chuck Brown and artist Sanford Greene. But, despite the fact that the veteran writer has worked with one of the … Continued

io9ComicsMarvel

There Will Never Be Another George Perez

If superhero comics have anything like Michaelangelo’s painting in the Sistine Chapel—awe-inspiring work that communicates celestial grandeur and human drama on a grand scale—it’s probably something drawn by George Perez. When George Perez announced his retirement a few weeks ago, the unanimous consensus was that the light across multiple fictional universes got significantly dimmer. Perez’s … Continued