So far, we’ve looked at upcoming 2021 releases from DC, Marvel, Image, and manga publishers. Now here’s some highlights from publishers indie, alternative, small press, and otherwise.
10. Rev Those Engines
Spy cars. This comic is about spy cars. And it seems like the right levels of goofy and ridiculous to be completely entertaining.
Chariot #1
Written by Bryan Hill
Illustrated by Priscilla Petraites
Published by Artists, Writers & Artisans, IncThe Chariot was a Cold War-era secret government project to provide its star agent with a weapon unlike any other in the form of a supercharged muscle car. It sank into the ocean decades ago, and the agent along with it. Now, a petty criminal looking to reform his life has stumbled upon the Chariot, and he’s about to find out that the agent’s consciousness is still controlling it in this synthwave thriller.
9. Legends of the Magic Kingdom
Disney lets Jeff Harvey go off-model in this wacky adventure. The usual slew of Disney cartoon classics are here, participating in something that sounds like Legends of the Hidden Temple, but in an escape room. Everything about this title seems like it will be a brisk, fun read.
Disney’s Doorways to Danger
Written by Tom Angleberger
Illustrated by Jeff Harvey
Published by IDW PublishingFrom the bestselling author of The Strange Case of Origami Yoda comes an original graphic novel adventure featuring all of your favorite Disney characters!
Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Uncle Scrooge, and all their friends are contestants on a reality TV game show called Doorways to Danger! As they scramble to be the first to collect the magical keys that lead them to their prizes, their grinning game show host might have plans of his own! And what are Pete and Trudy up to?!
8. Close Out
We’ve reached the conclusion of Alexander Freed’s fighter pilot story. They’re ready to go up against the big bad, ready to press forward against insurmountable odds. Of course, Star Wars doesn’t always have the best track record of wrapping up their trilogies, do they Rise of Skywalker?
Star Wars Alphabet Squadron: Victory’s Price
Written by Alexander Freed
Published by Del ReyThe aces of the New Republic have one final chance to defeat the darkness of Shadow Wing in this thrilling conclusion to the Star Wars: Alphabet Squadron trilogy! In the wake of one of the fiercest battles of their lives, the remnants of Alphabet Squadron seek answers and closure across a galaxy whose old war scars are threatening to reopen. Meanwhile, Soran Keize’s Shadow Wing is no longer wounded prey fleeing the hunters of the New Republic. Alphabet Squadron’s ships are as ramshackle and damaged as their spirits, but they’ve always had each other. Now, as they face the might of Keize’s reborn juggernaut, they aren’t even sure they have that. How do you catch a shadow? How do you kill it? And when you’re finally victorious, who pays the price?
7. Fantasy Land Chicago
This sounds like a Dungeons & Dragons campaign that got significantly out of hand. Seeley’s work is generally solid, filled with charisma and a sense of humor. Williams has toiled away under mainstream superheroes since forever, so it might be interesting to see what he pulls off when he has a chance to run wild.
Continued belowBequest #1
Written by Tim Seeley
Illustrated by Freddie Williams II
Published by AfterShock ComicsWelcome to the high fantasy world of Tangea! A land where wizards and warriors battle
dragons in dark dank dungeons! Where thieves pillage ancient ruins and priests answer the au-dible words of their great gods!Welcome to Chicago, Illinois! Where the magical items from Tangea are being traded on the black market and are messing everything up.
Now, a group of Tangea adventurers must go undercover in our modern world to stop artifacts and monsters from falling into the wrong hands. But how will they fare in a world without
wizards and warriors? A world without heroes?From Tim Seeley (DARK RED, BRILLIANT TRASH) and Freddie E. Williams II (HeMan/Thundercats, Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) comes BEQUEST, a real-world fantasy tale.
6. The Worst Kind of Allergies
Legit tho, what a horrible situation to be in, not being able to love dogs because you’re so allergic to them. Expect this to be filled with morals and life lessons, expect it to be illustrated with deceptively simple cartooning, and expect it to be a moving tribute to our favorite animals, past and present.
Allergic
Written by Megan Wagner Lloyd
Illustrated by Michelle Mee Nutter
Published by GraphixAt home, Maggie is the odd one out. Her parents are preoccupied with the new baby they’re expecting, and her younger brothers are twins and always in their own world. Maggie thinks a new puppy is the answer, but when she goes to select one on her birthday, she breaks out in hives and rashes. She’s severely allergic to anything with fur! Can Maggie outsmart her allergies and find the perfect pet?
5. Into the Unknown
A fantasy adventure story using a cultural sect we don’t often get to see in fantasy adventures.
Wahcommo
Written and Illustrated by Luis Nct
Published by Magnetic Press, Inc.Every generation, the bravest son of the tribe is tasked to venture north to the Lost Kingdom to retrieve a portion of the treasure their ancestors had left behind. The trials are hard and many, but this time the chosen one is a woman named Kaya. Forced to be accompanied by the male runner-up, an eager boy named Fox, the two set off on a journey filled with orcs, goblins, giants, and ghosts in a fantastic adventure that could rewrite their people’s history.
4. Youth After Youth
This choice is here all for Dan Berry, who hosts one of the best comics podcasts out there.
Rivers
Written by David Gaffney
Illustrated by Dan Berry
Published by Top ShelfThree ordinary weirdos, one recurring dream. The acclaimed minds behind The Three Rooms in Valerie’s Head return with a whimsical and ambitious portrait of human connection in the age of digital fragmentation.
You meet the strangest people on the internet.
Gideon is a lonely I.T. developer, obsessed by a comic book from childhood called Revenge of the Ghoulors, and secretly in love with his co-worker Lisa. Heidi works at home in her pyjamas, makes a lot of soup, and wishes she had time for friends. Peter is a 56-year-old divorcee who delivers classic cars, has a built-in toaster, and thinks a lot about the past.
These three people seem unconnected, yet they share something-they each have the same recurring dream. And when a new web service is introduced that helps people share their dreams, what will happen when the three of them find out about each other? Just what is it that links these three lonely souls?
Nimbly weaving together multiple storylines (including extracts from Gideon’s comic book, Revenge of the Ghoulors), Dan Berry and David Gaffney present Rivers: a quirky examination of how events from the past can bind people together forever, and a surprising reunion between people who’ve never met.
3. All the Hues and Shades
If for nothing else, take a look at this book for Shira Spector’s wonderful color designs. They look like watercolors to me, gently layered, full of brilliant hues and shades, as intoxicating as a kaleidoscope. From the sounds of it, this is one where you can experience the story one during one read through, or just immerse yourself in the images on the next.
Continued belowRed Rock Baby Candy
Written and Illustrated by Shira Spector
Published by FantagraphicsShira Spector literally paints a vivid portrait of the most eventful 10 years of her life, encompassing her tenacious struggle to get pregnant, the emotional turmoil of her father’s cancer diagnosis and eventual death, and her recollections of past relationships with her parents and her partner. Set in a kaleidoscope of Montreal and Toronto, Red Rock Baby Candy unfolds as one of the most formally inventive comics in the history of the medium. It begins in subtle, tonal shades of black ink, introduces color slowly over the next 50 pages until it explodes into a glorious full color palette. The irreverent characters begin to bloom and to live life fully, resurrecting the dead in order to map the geography among infertility, sexuality, choice, and mortality. The drawing is visceral, symbolic, and naturalistic. The visual storytelling eschews traditional comics panels in favor of a series of unique page compositions that convey both a stream of consciousness and the tactile reality of life, both the subjective impressions of the author at each moment of her life and the objective series of events that shape her narrative. It is the most formally revolutionary visual storytelling since Emil Ferris’s My Favorite Thing is Monsters.
2. Life is a Storm
Ibrahim Moustafa delivers the cyberpunk version of Count of Monte Cristo. Moustafa’s work bears that pulpy, serial style, that somewhat dangerous and seedy sort of energy that could make this adaptation very well work.
Count
Written and Illustrated by Ibrahim Moustafa
Published by Humanoids, IncA sci-fi reimagining of the greatest revenge story of all time: The Count of Monte Cristo.
Framed for treason and wrongfully imprisoned at the hands of a jealous rival and a corrupt magistrate, Redxan Samud escapes his hovering prison colony hell-bent on retribution. Given a map from his dying jail companion to the location of a stolen cache of Union Credits large enough to make him wealthy beyond imagination, Samud concocts a plan to exact revenge on those who conspired to let him rot in a cell.
1. Kung Fu Masters
No wonder it takes James Stokoe so long to do these things. His art is hyper-detailed and dynamic, his tone balancing between goofy and horrifying. Over the last several years, he’s been dabbling in the licensed realm, with Godzilla and xenomorphs and the Avengers. Now, he finally turns in a new original comic, about kung fu. (Even though we’d all kind of like him to at least finish that arc in “Orc Stain.”) Chances are this miniseries is going to be a trip and a half.
Orphan and the Five Beasts #1
Written and Illustrated by James Stokoe
Published by Dark HorseA brand-new kung-fu epic from James Stokoe, the creator behind Orc Stain and Aliens: Dead Orbit!
Spurred on by her master’s dying words, the adopted warrior “Orphan Mo” seeks to find and kill five former disciples who now threaten the land with corruption from their demonic powers. Part Five Deadly Venoms and part surreal grindhouse, James Stokoe brings his knack for ultra-detailed fantasy imagery and over-the-top violence to this classic tale of revenge.
Well, that was fun. Let us know what you’re excited for in the comments.
