#this is my favorite dc superhero so b prepared to see more of him

[amagicdoctor]

Stephen has a lot of adopted family members and I’ve been hinting at these relationships in older posts.

SPOTLIGHT: BILLY BATSON

[DISCLAIMER: a lot of the information here is just accumulation of moments I’ve taken from roleplays and personal headcanons so they may not exactly line up with canon. Canon wise I’ve watched all his animated series and movies as well as read a couple of his comics, even the ones from way back in the silver age.] 

Sometime after Stephen became the Sorcerer Supreme, the Wizard Shazam started actively looking for his champion again. It was only fairly recently that the Wizard had concluded that the new champion would be found in Billy Batson. When the power exchange occurred, Stephen felt a power shift in the field of magic. Days later, (after diving into some deep research about what may have occurred), Stephen approached Billy in the streets of Philadelphia. Obviously Billy was still so new to this magic (and eventually being a superhero) business that he had absolutely no idea who this floating old dude was. Of course Stephen went ahead and introduced himself and stated why he had suddenly approached Billy. Stephen wanted to prove his theories true, and if the boy had any answers, he’d like to hear his story. Billy explained as well as he could and for now, that satisfied Stephen. Later he looked deeper into this “Shazam” mystery (Billy told him that was the trigger word for his powers). He asked the Ancient One about it and he actually clarified it a bit more. While Stephen spent a small amount of his time proving these stories to be true*, Billy, as Shazam, actually grew quite a reputation for himself. His heroic feats eventually earned him a spot in the Justice League.

Every time Black Adam crawled out of whatever hole he dug himself into and fought Shazam, Stephen felt their powerful magic at his core. Everytime the seven deadly sins were reawakened from their slumber, he felt a nasty rise in dark magic. Dr. Sivana was trouble too. He kept his files on hand in case the man ever wanted to steal something from his sanctum and use it. Since Billy was technically already a protege of another wizard, Stephen didn’t try to intervene with his life and recruit him for training, though he really wished he could. Shazam’s villain gallery was very troubling to Stephen. Shazam has only been a superhero for a few years now but the man is a novice. Magic and the evil people that wield it cannot be taken so lightly. As Sorcerer Supreme he wanted to be reassured that Shazam was properly handling his side of the issue. Stephen asked nothing more of Billy than just keeping in touch. 

One day, Billy decided to come in person. He met with Stephen at the sorcerer’s sanctum and this was the first time they talked like this in years. Unlike his master, Billy was no wizard. He was like Superman if he ran on magic, but he didn’t have to rely on as many spells as a normal sorcerer would. He learned about Billy’s superhero life and what his life at home was like. Billy asked some general questions about magic and Stephen answered in turn. Billy truly was just a  curious young boy. He was barely even a teenager, and yet his powers caused him to transform into a physically mature man. Apparently with the Wizard being gone, and Superman not having much experience with magic, Billy went without having someone to talk to about mystical and magical things. Fortunately for him, Stephen was here.

Shazam is surprisingly an independent worker. While Shazam barely reaches out to Stephen for any type of help, Billy comes by the sanctum just to hang out. As he’s gone down his superhero career, Billy’s becoming more and more interested in the concept of magic. It’s crazy but fun and it’s great that he even knows the Sorcerer Supreme personally. Plus, he gets to see superheroes everyday because of the Justice League, but when he’s at the sanctum he gets to meet Avengers and X-Men like Wanda and Kurt. He even gets to see other Leaguers like Zatanna. Due to Stephen’s influence, Billy has shown more appreciation for magic. He’s young, so getting any kind of experience now is good. Stephen has always been a strong contender in supporting the next generation of heroes, especially those who are magic users. Whenever Billy’s ready to start learning some protection spells, he’ll be here. But for now, Stephen will humor him as Billy teaches him about the world of video games, memes, and pizza rolls.

[If you have any questions about anything discussed here (especially words marked with an asterisk) please send in an ask!]

#amagicdoctor #doctor strange #Stephen Strange #Billy Batson #Shazam #DC comics #Marvel Comics #Earth 616 #stephen's strange family #this is my favorite dc superhero so b prepared to see more of him #blog art

[simpcitybaby]

Where is my supersuit?

Tom Holland x Reader (Soulmate au) A/N: The whole Comic-Con part will not be entirely accurate because irl they do panels before the movie comes out but in order for this au to work, this is what had to happen. I tried to write it so that anyone could read it and this is my first time doing so. With that being said, I hope you enjoy!

(Y/C) = Your city (B/F/N) = Best friends name (Y/F/N) = Full Name (F/S) = Favorite superhero

“Let’s go watch that new movie with Tom Holland in it!” Your best friend squealed as you widened your eyes in surprise. That bitch was loud as fuck. “Do we really have to go to the movies? Can’t we just chill here?” You asked as you gestured to your comfy couch. (B/F/N) shook their head and grabbed you by the arm. “Maybe you’ll find your soulmate! I’ve also been dying to see this movie so you’re coming with me.” With that, we were on our way to the movie theater. You see, (B/F/N) had found their soulmate and you had yet to be that lucky. Your mind wandered as you thought of (B/F/N) and their soulmate, your friend said that it had burned for a minute before each of their words faded. You had to admit, they were a cute couple. “I’m nothing without this suit!” That is what was written on your arm. It was odd really, this person could mean a suit that they’d wear to a wedding, a swim suit or even one of those morph suits that you see on Halloween! It would suck if your words didn’t sting and disappear because then you could end up with almost anyone who said the phrase on your forearm. “We’re here!” (B/F/N) screamed as she stopped the car. Tom Holland was a catch and you were so excited to see Spider-Man: Homecoming even though you didn’t show it. You guys grabbed your snacks and headed to your seats. As the movie began your forearm started feeling fuzzy, a tingling sensation occurring. (B/F/N) kept glancing at you to check if you were okay to which you kept brushing off. All of a sudden it happened. The stinging and the disappearance of the sentence. Tom Holland said those 5 words. All of a sudden you bursted out with a, “HOW THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO FIND TOM HOLLAND?” Everyone in the theater took a second to glance at you before shushing you. (B/F/N) grabbed your arm and pulled you out of the theater while whisper-yelling, “What the fuck was that?” With wide eyes you showed your best friend your blank forearm. “The words are gone. Peter Parker said those 5 words on my arm. Tom Holland plays Peter Parker. That cute ass British fucker is my soulmate. All that aside, how the fuck am I supposed to find Tom Holland?” You puffed out your cheeks and ran a hand through your hair. After a brief moment of silence you were being dragged out of the cinema. “Where are we going?” You asked although you had a hunch. “We’re going home and we are going to find Tom Holland.” You had no faith. It wouldn’t be as easy as calling a number and setting up a date. You were just an average person living an everyday life and your soulmate was an actor that everyone in the world seemed to be obsessed with. “Take out your phone and start doing your research while I drive us home.” You whipped out your phone and typed “How to get in touch with Tom Holland” Hitting the backspace you typed in, “Tom Holland press dates” You highly doubted that you could even catch a glimpse of him at a press date. So you retyped “Comic-Con tickets for (Y/C)” into the search engine. Next thing you know, you purchased tickets for you and your best friend to go to Comic-Con. Tom Holland was hosting a panel with the rest of the Spider-Man cast. You and (B/F/N) formulated a plan to catch him after the panel. You were going to yell whatever popped into your head at that moment and if his forearm stung and the words were gone, he was yours. Once you got home you had an idea, “If were going to Comic-Con, we’re dressing up!” (B/F/N) agreed and with that you made another purchase. You bought a (F/S) cosplay outfit and you were ready to go. Hopefully Tom would reimburse you for all of the trouble that you were going through to bring the two of you together. You laughed at the thought. “Rest up, Comic-Con is in a couple of weeks!” You scrunched your face up at (B/F/N)’s remark before hitting them back with a, “Did you just hear yourself? A couple of weeks! I have time to prepare.” Weeks passed and you were anything but prepared. Saying that you were nervous would be an understatement, you were 100% sure that you would vomit your heart up at any second. What if you were his soulmate but he wasn’t yours? That happens frequently. You let out a frustrated sigh as you thought about all the money that would be going down the drain if this didn’t work. You shook all of your nerves away and got dressed. “You ready to go?” With a curt nod you guys were on your way. ~ Time Skip ~ You and (B/F/N) made your way into Comic-Con and it was like a wonderland. There were stands everywhere with people dressed as Marvel characters and DC characters and everything in between. “You ready to find the love of your life?” (B/F/N) asked as they wrapped an arm around your shoulder. You wanted the attention on anything but you because you were already hyperventilating. “How is your soulmate? How about that?” You giggled as you nudged your best friend, evident that you didn’t want the spotlight on you. “The love of my life is doing good, thank you very much.” (B/F/N) sighed and said, “We have about 10 minutes before the panel starts and then we have to rush out to meet Mr. Tom Holland himself.” You smiled and gripped you best friend’s hand, dragging them in the direction of the panel. You let out a breath that you didn’t even know you were holding in when you saw him. Of course he was an attractive guy, with an amazing personality. You only knew as much as the interviews showed which also scared you a bit. What if he was mean or was in love with somebody else? What if he was reckless with your heart and didn’t believe in soulmates? You felt a hand on your thigh and you heard a reassuring, “It’s going to be okay.” You nodded and sat through the panel with your best friend. Originally you had just come to find Tom but you were bombarded with all of the comic book characters that you grew up with as a kid and you felt as if you were in a candy store. The topic of soulmates came up and it made you were now more attentive. You glanced over at a girl who was dressed up as Poison Ivy who asked the question. “Did you guys happen to find your soulmates on set? Are any of you each soulmates?” You let your eyes wander back to Tom and it seemed as if he was staring straight at you. Then again, he was probably looking at someone behind you, everyone wants to believe that he’s staring at them. Zendaya brought the microphone to her lips and giggled before answering the question, “Personally, I didn’t find my soulmate on set. Tomdaya is far from real, unless you believe in platonic soulmates. I’d say that Tom is my platonic soulmate. I found my man off set and I’d like to keep us personal for now.” A smile graced her lips as she eyed the others who had their own responses. Suddenly, you could hear Tom say, “I have yet to find my soulmate. He or she is probably a really amazing person. I know that fate put us together and that we’re going to be meant to be. I’ll wait however long it takes to find someone who’s mine and only mine.” He chuckled and the subject was changed. The panel approached its end and you grabbed (B/F/N) as you rushed to the exit. You guys waited for the cast to leave and then you were pushed forward. That was the signal. (B/F/N) distracted some of the bodyguards and you yelled, “SPIDER-MAN, YOU’RE MY SOULMATE!” The cast looked directly at you and then back at Tom, he was wincing. “My arm is stinging.” Laura and Jacob smiled before pushing Tom towards you. His face flushed as he scratched the back of his neck. You tilted your head as you heard a British accent say, “You’re pretty cute. I’m Tom Holland but you probably already knew that.” He chuckled a bit before following up with a, “I’ve never dated anyone before because I wanted to wait for you and um I don’t really know how this goes.” He rambled on and on before realizing that your hand was in his. “I’m so sorry, what’s your name?” You bit back a smile before saying, “I’m (Y/F/N) and I came all this way to find you and make your like 1000x better so you should reimburse me.” The two of you as well as the cast and (B/F/N) laughed before the two of you hugged. “I’m in town for the next two days, we should meet up while I’m here. Then again, you don’t really have a choice because you’re stuck with me.” You moved in a little closer and said, “I know of a really cute restaurant with great food, I’d love to take you there. If you aren’t booked or anything for the next day, maybe we could have a sleepover and get to know one another.” Tom’s arms instinctively wrapped around your waist and he whispered, “I’d give anything to see you again. Also your costume is amazing. I’ll see you tomorrow.” In the corner of your eye you could see (B/F/N) and Zendaya exchanging both of your numbers while you guys were tangled together. “I know this seems a bit rushed but can I kiss you?” It took less than a second for you two to meet in the middle. He kissed you softly and it was sweet enough to make you want more. You wrapped one arm around his neck while the other one rested on his chest. The kiss deepened a bit more before the two of you pulled away. You bid him a goodbye with a hug and a quick, “I’ll see you tomorrow.” As soon as you disappeared from eyesight Tom threw back his head and looked at the cast with a love struck daze. “I cannot wait to spend the rest of my life with (Y/N).”

A/N: While writing this all I could think of was when Frozone and his wife were arguing about his supersuit. This was you looking for the man in the supersuit and boom, a title. I apologize if this sucks ass but I’ve been so into soulmate au’s lately that I decided to write one. I just love Tom Holland and I thought this would be kinda funny to write down.

#tom holland x reader #tom holland imagine #superhero #spider man: homecoming #spiderman #spider man x reader #tom holland #spider man imagine

[daleisgreat]

2016-17 TV Season Recap, Part 1

Previous TV Season Recaps – (2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16) 2016-17 TV Season Recap, Part 2 (Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Legion, Riverdale) 2016-17 TV Season Recap, Part 3 (24: Legacy, South Park, Horace & Pete, Stranger Things)

It is time for my annual TV season recap blog. Check out the links above to previous seasons in case you missed them. Like last year I wound up keeping up with a few too many TV shows so I will split this up into a few parts and link them above. For part one, I am going to focus on the four TV shows I followed based on DC Comics properties. Gotham - If you thought last season of Gotham was off-the-rails, then be prepared for a whole new level of craziness for season three. I do not know where to start. How about with my only real qualm being, like in actual comics is that no one stays dead. Thanks to the science experiments of Hugo Strange (BD Wong), he keeps finding ways to bring back past fallen villains of the show, for better or worse. Yup, the writers found another way to bring back Fish Mooney (Jada Smith) for a few more episodes this season, and she is just as dreadful to endure as past seasons. We do have a few new villains join the fray this season, and if you grew up with the classic animated Batman TV show you will be delighted to see Mad Hatter (Benedict Samuel), Poison Ivy (Maggie Geha) and Mr. Freeze (Nathan Darrow) join the mix of the ever-growing list of Gotham antagonists. The big foil this season is a blood virus that Mad Hatter unleashes upon the city of Gotham that turns people into blood-lusting lunatics. It affects a number of major and minor players on the show this season and watching them succumb/overcome the disease lead to some compelling television.

Other favorite parts of this season for me are the constant love/hate/love relationship between Penguin (Robin Taylor) and Riddler (Corey Smith). Both wind up playing the political field this season before declaring war on each other to amusing results. Another constant dynamic I enjoyed playing out through the season was Barb (Erin Richards) getting more twisted each episode as she bosses around Tabitha (Jessica Lucas) and Butch (Drew Powell) to do her bidding to middling results. Once again, Ben McKenzie and Donal Logue nail the roles of the two primary detectives Jim Gordon and Harvey Bullock. Bullock is now the head of Gotham PD and Gordon starts out as a private detective hauling in baddies on his own terms. His season arc is unbelievable if I lay it all out for you now so you just have to tune in to see it. Finally, David Mazouz is really coming into his own this season as Bruce Wayne. He spends most of the season feuding with the underground Gotham society, the Court of Owls. I loved that comic arc from a few years ago and really dug Gotham’s take on that faction. There is so much more that happened this season and other major characters I have not even touched on yet. It does get to be a bit much to keep track of, but last season I just said “screw it” and rolled with whatever Gotham threw in my face and let the recaps starting off each episode serve as a much-needed refresher. I very much enjoyed this season, and my only takeaways are Fish Mooney and a couple other minor villains that did not hit the mark of the many they introduced this season. Also, if you were following week-to-week like me then it got to be a bit difficult to keep tabs on everything since Gotham took two extended midseason breaks this season and I had trouble recalling if certain events transpired in specific seasons. Grade: A

The Flash - This is difficult to admit, but The Flash lost its way for its third season. Last season introduced Wally West (Keiynan Lonsdale) into the mix, and he just never clicked with the rest of the Star Labs crew. The writers of The Flash took this criticism to heart and doubled down on Wally this season by having him mope around the first several episodes about not having superpowers like the rest of the team. Then he finally gets powers and redubs himself Kid Flash and instantly becomes annoyingly arrogant. He is scripted to be as gut-wrenching as Spider-Man was in the disastrous Amazing Spider-Man 2 from a few years back. Wally West sir, you hereby are the runaway winner for my ‘dopiest character’ of all of TV this past year. The third season of The Flash also doubles down into exploring the 52 Earths of the DC-Multiverse. If you do no recall from my recap from last season, there are 52 Earths/alternate realities where each one has its own version of Team Flash members. It seems now the writers are getting into a new comfort zone where if they need to write off a certain character they will bring in a new multi-verse doppelganger to take their place. Each season has had a different version of Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanagh), with season three’s being a very lighthearted, coffee addicted version who calls himself ‘HR.’ HR is a fun addition to the team, but by the end of season three there were so many different multi-verse versions of each character introduced that it got to be groan-inducing whenever they time jumped to a new multi-verse.

The primary villain for season three is the mysterious Savitar. An early season episode shows a flash-forward of Barry’s love of his life, Iris West (Candice Patton) meeting her demise at the hands of Savitar so Barry (Grant Gustin) and the rest of Team Flash spend the bulk of the season trying to prevent that from happening. How they get there and what they wind up doing to try and save Iris is an interesting journey, but it has severe consequences that wound up being a big turnoff and does not have me anticipating season four whatsoever since the ending (light spoilers ahead) essentially implies that the cringe-worthy Kid Flash will be taking over as the new protagonist. There are still a fair amount of decent episodes this season (the annual Christmas party is a feel-good scene that delivers again this season), but I could not help but shake this season as a real letdown. Grade: C Arrow - This is a big redemption season of Arrow after a couple of good, but not great seasons. Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) starts the season as the new mayor of Star City and he still somehow manages to moonlight as The Green Arrow in his downtime. With season four leaving the old Team Arrow in disarray, Oliver recruits several new vigilantes to take under his wing for season five. This reminded me of the not-so-desirable new recruits Gordon was in charge of in season two of Gotham as most of these new characters just did not cut it and they become early cannon fodder for season five’s primary antagonist, Prometheus (Josh Segarra). There was one likeable new recruit though that stayed on board the entire season with the codename Wild Dog (Rick Gonzalez), and I dug his story arc as he wound up teaming with Quentin Lance (Paul Blackthorne) for most of the season and the two meshed well together so much that I was always glued to my device whenever the two were onscreen.

Prometheus proves to be one of the major villains that Ollie has ever encountered as the two have several impactful moments throughout the season. They manage to outdo themselves in their final confrontation in a pivotal showdown between the two that had me in goosebumps throughout. Fans that follow Arrow every year know that each episode has flashbacks that lay out what happen each year that Oliver was away for the five years before returning to town in Arrow’s first episode. For the fifth year of Arrow flashbacks Ollie is in Russia teaming up with the Russian gang known as Bratva and his antics there all tie in to how he winds up back at Star City at the very beginning of Arrow. The final flashback scene is another powerful moment that combined with Green Arrow and Prometheus’s final showdown as one of the best season finales in the history of a TV superhero show and capped off one of the best seasons of Arrow yet. Grade: A Legends of Tomorrow - The show featuring the castoffs from Arrow and Flash returns for a slightly more streamlined second season. Instead of focusing on a huge superhero roster of 10, they slimmed the team down to seven Legends this season due to how the first season wrapped up. The season starts off with team captain, Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill) lost in time and Sarah Lance (Caity Lotz) taking over the captain’s chair to lead the Legends to track Rip down.

Season two has a new team of former Flash and Arrow villains dubbed the Legion of Doom (Whaaaaaaaat a rush!) consisting of Eobard Thawne (Matt Letscher), Damien Darhk (Neal McDonough) and Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman). I was a fan of these guys before, so seeing them team up and intentionally ham up the evil villain factor made them the perfect foils for the lighthearted Legends. This was a much improved season that stayed on point better, did not feature love triangle plots that overstayed their welcome and a better group of antagonists. The Civil War zombies episode I imagine will be a hit with a certain audience. Even though they improved a lot this season I would still state Legends of Tomorrow is not a top tier superhero show, as even with a slimmed down roster, there was still a lot to keep track of, and new Legend member Steel (Nick Zano) is a little too cheesy and requires a high tolerance level. Grade: B Past TV/Web Series Blogs 2013-14 TV Season Recap 2014-15 TV Season Recap 2015-16 TV Season Recap Adventures of Briscoe County Jr: The Complete Series Angry Videogame Nerd Volumes 7-9 Mortal Kombat: Legacy - Season 1 OJ: Made in America: 30 for 30 RedvsBlue - Seasons 1-13 Roseanne – Seasons 1-9 Seinfeld Final Season Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle Superheroes: Pioneers of Television

#TV/Web Series #Gotham #arrow #Flash #legends of tomorrow #stephen amell #grant gustin #caity lotz #robin taylor #keiyan lonsdale #bd wong #benedict samuel #nathan darrow #david mazouz #corey smith

[comicsbeat]

And let’s wrap things up! This may not have been the biggest survey ever, but it had perhaps the widest participation ever, and I’m very proud to showcase so many people from so many levels of the comcis industry from creators to retailers to journalists to publishers. 2018 has already been wild but it’s going to be another banner year for comics.

To read the first four parts of this survey go here. 

J.T. Yost, publisher Birdcage Bottom Books

2018 Projects: We’re gearing up for a Kickstarter campaign in January to fund all of the stupendous comics we’ve got planned through 2018. We’re focusing on artists flying under the radar that we feel are deserving of a wider audience.

We will be publishing:

“In The Future, We Are Dead”, a graphic novel by Eva Müllerthat focuses on her obsession with death

“The Complete Matinee Junkie”by Jordan Jeffries, a book collecting his previous four years of matinee attending comics diaries along with the current year (in progress) along with lots of bonus material

“Goat Song”, a bizarre piece of fiction about an unexpected infection by Larkin Ford

“Thonger Dongers” by T. Yost, a third collection of short comics drawn for various anthologies

“Nate The Nonconformist Has A Rival!” details high school rivalry at its worst and most immature by Stephanie Mannheim

“A Lone Dear At The End Of The World” by  Bradford Gambles alternates between the hush of an abandoned mall reclaimed by nature and loud, crass consumerism

“Pictures of Bananas and Funny Bugs”collects more truly unique work by New Yorker cartoonist Sara Lautman

What was the biggest story in comics in 2017? For me, the biggest story was the depressing realization that the #metoo movement extended to what I’d previously considered a welcoming and non-threatening comics community. What will be the biggest story in comics in 2018? In an echo of editorial cartoonist Thomas Nast’s takedown of Boss Tweed, comics will be the undoing of Trump and his entire administration (a man can dream).

Guilty Pleasure: I don’t feel guilty about my pleasures (I’ll readily admit to my love of Degrassi Jr. High), so I’ll just say the comics related project I’m most looking forward to is the collection of Laura Park’s work.

Who or what inspires you? Josh Bayer is an inspiration in that his need to draw seems compulsory, his knowledge of comics history is extensive, and his ability to share through teaching is admirable.

Sue, journalist, DC Women Kicking Ass

2018 Projects: 2018 mid-terms

What was the biggest story in comics in 2017? A tie! The meltdown of Marvel – sales wise, creative wise (bye Bendis), executive-wise ( Bye Axel, hello Akira Yoshida (oh sorry CB Cebulski) and the #metwo movement hitting comics and Eddie Berganza finally getting what he deserved 5 years ago.

Guilty Pleasure: Infinity War – how can Marvel get their movies (mostly) so good and their comics struggle.

Who or what inspires you? Wonder Woman! The comic is suffering from a writer who shouldn’t be writing it, but it was great under Rucka/Scott/Sharpe (also the movie was great).

 Martha Thomases, writer

2018 Projects: Second Hand Rose, with Richard Case.

What was the biggest story of 2017? #MeToo, Eddie Berganza

What will be the biggest story of 2018? #MeToo spreads to include the people who covered for Eddie and others.

Guilty Pleasure of 2018: Black Panther! Also, being seen as a writer more than a journalist.

Who or what inspires you? Irmina, by Barbara Yelin. I’m not prepared to see it’s the best book, but it provoked me to think of history in new ways.

 Charles Vess, cartoonist

2018 Projects: For the past four years I’ve been illustrating the first ever collected edition of Ursula K. Le Guin’s six multiple award winning Earthsea novels with direct consultation from the writer. ‘The Books of Earthsea’ from Saga Press (a division of Simon & Schuster) will be published in October of 2018, the 50th anniversary of the publication of ‘A Wizard of Earthsea’, the first book in the series. The collection will feature some 60 color and black and white illustrations that will depict her world, its characters and her dragons as close to the way Ursula has always seen them as possible. What a journey it’s been!

Guilty Pleasure of 2018: Reading as much of Luke Pearson’s Hildafolk and Anti Watson’ Glister as they’ll give me.

Who or what inspires you? Mike Mignola, Michael Wm. Kaluta and Jill Thompson

Mairghread Scott, writer

2018 Projects: I have two new graphic novels coming out from First Second in March and April. City on the Other Side with artist Robin Robinson, a YA fantasy adventure that follows a young girl trying to stop a war between the after, and Science Comics: Robots and Drones with Jacob Chabot, a look at the history of robots and Drones and how they work. I also have written an animated feature called Marvel Rising: Secret Warriors featuring, Ms. Marvel, Squirrel Girl, Patriot, America Chavez, Inferno and Captain Marvel that I am really excited to share with everyone.

What was the biggest story of 2017? The women who came forward about Eddie Berganza and that DC finally did something about it.

What will be the biggest story of 2018? Probably all the other companies being forced to clean house of their Berganza and the female talent that will finally start feeling safe to pitch at those comic companies.

Guilty Pleasure of 2018: Watching Great British BakeOff and eating cake.

Who or what inspires you? Alex De Campi, that woman is just so damn fearless.

 Larry Marder, cartoonist

2018 Projects: Beanworld Omnibus :summer 2018. Beanworld Book Five: 2019.

What was the biggest story of 2017? Robert Kirkman’s Secret History of Comics.

What will be the biggest story of 2018? Some sort of inevitable crash.

Guilty Pleasure of 2018: B-movies on TCM.

Who or what inspires you? Jack Kirby. It’s always Kirby.

Henry Barajas, writer

2018 Projects: I’m working LA VOZ DE MAYO with Jason Gonzalez and contributing to JH Williams’ III anthology WHERE WE LIVE.

What was the biggest story of 2017? Men harassing women in comics. The comic book industry has had to deal with some persons that overstayed his welcome after numerous allegations. It’s interesting how the events and victims became whispers and shy “con-versations” until Buzzfeed took it public. It doesn’t stop with that one. When you find one roach, you probably haven’t seen them all. Thankfully, women have been speaking out and exposing the bad eggs.

What will be the biggest story of 2018? Betty and Veronica will get married.

Guilty Pleasure of 2018: Line Webtoons. I love their drive. They’re hungry and taking chances.

Who or what inspires you? David and Maria Lapham. They’re making the best noir comic that everyone should be talking about.

Christian Beranek, writer

2018 Projects: Kelci Crawford and I will be launching the Tiny Unicorn ongoing webcomic and prepping a YA GN series. In addition, Tony DiGerolamo and I have some new stuff in the works at The Webcomic Factory.

What was the biggest story of 2017? The #MeToo movement and the diversity in comics debate leading to editorial shake-ups at the highest levels.

What will be the biggest story of 2018? Re-invention.

Guilty Pleasure of 2018: It’s been 15 years since I’ve played a video game. Maybe I should give one a go!

Who or what inspires you? Kelci Crawford, my partner on Validation, continues to get better and better with her work, which in turns makes me better.

Kat Kan, librarian

2018 Projects: In addition to my work as a school librarian and as the Graphic Novel Specialist for Brodart Books & Library Services, I write the Graphically Speaking column for Voice of Youth Advocates. The February 2018 column will mark my 24th anniversary of writing about graphic novels and comicbooks for libraries serving teens.

What was the biggest story of 2017? The failure of the Big 2 to truly invest in diverse characters and comics; many series were cancelled in late 2017, usually citing low sales. The publishers have ignored the fact that the target audience tends to buy trades, and that libraries constitute one of the important markets for such books.

What will be the biggest story of 2018? The Excellence in Graphic Literature Award is a new initiative of the Pop Culture Classroom – the awards for various age levels and an overall award will be given at the Denver Comic Con. Among the awards is the Mosaic Award, which will celebrate diversity in comics. I’m on the Advisory Board; the EGLs are juried awards. Also, indie publishers such as Lion Forge will continue to grow. Lion Forge has learned lots of lessons from the past, mostly due to its staff – most of whom have worked in the comics industry for years.

Guilty Pleasure of 2018: Possible travel to professional conferences, particularly the American Library Association Annual Conference in New Orleans. Also, helping my middle school Library Book Club students create their own STEAM-based comics characters and stories during the second semester.

Who or what inspires you? Jim McClain – I mentioned him last year as well, I think. Despite many personal and professional challenges, he continues to hone his craft in his “spare” time. He ran a successful Kickstarter campaign for SOLUTION SQUAD – a superhero comicbook that makes learning math FUN! Jim continues to work on creating marvelous lesson plans – including the STEAM-based comics characters project I plan to use with my students. He does all this while teaching math full-time and being one of the best people I know.

Peter Kuper, cartoonist

2018 Projects: Kafkaesque a collection of 14 adaptations of Franz Kafka short stories, including ‘In The Penal Colony’, ‘The Burrow’ and ‘Before The Law’ to be published by W.W. Norton , Fall 2018

What was the biggest story of 2017? English edition of Alack Sinner: the Age of Innocence by José Antonio Muñoz and Carlos Sampayo

What will be the biggest story of 2018? Emil Ferris My Favorite Thing Is Monsters 2 (Vol. 2)

Guilty Pleasure of 2018: Binge watching

Who or what inspires you? Jose Muñoz

Kyle Pinion, journalist

What was the biggest story of 2017? Marvel’s no good, horrible, very bad year. It’s been a long time since I can remember a comics publisher flailing this badly over the course of 12 months – be it creatively, in terms of overall leadership, the PR gaffes, you name it, Marvel somehow found a way to screw it up. Their ongoing rudderless nature is something everyone in the industry should probably be worried about. The original Marvel Now!, with all its energy and critical acclaim, feels like it was a decade ago.

What will be the biggest story of 2018? To be honest, see above. Can the Cebulski era of Marvel right the ship? What can be done differently? Unlike DC, Marvel still hasn’t bothered to make amends with the retailers, whose trust they’re blowing to smithereens, and if they were to relaunch/reboot, what shape will that take exactly? The Legacy launch was a complete bust; so what’s the next step? Do they have the talent in place to get readers excited for whatever it is? Will the long dormant Fantastic Four finally re-emerge thanks the Disney-Fox deal?

A second story worth keeping an eye on is just how big Brian Michael Bendis’ presence will be at DC. I’m sure he’ll wind up with a number of big name titles, but what of Jinxworld? Could that potentially be another pop-up imprint at the publisher? And perhaps even more pressingly, will he join Geoff Johns on the movie/tv side of things in some advisory capacity?

Guilty Pleasure of 2018: The return of the Legion of Super-Heroes. In whatever form it takes. It HAS. TO. HAPPEN….(I hope). It’s not even a guilty pleasure, I just wanted to mention it somewhere in here.

Todd Allen, analyst

What was the biggest story of 2017? What did Marvel go and do this time? (Seems like every other week there was a problem.)

What will be the biggest story of 2018? Depends on whether the whispers of mass shop closing are well founded or not. If so, that could be it. Other obvious possibility is whatever Marvel does for a relaunch/reboot.

Guilty Pleasure of 2018: Akira Yoshida returning to write Milli Vanilli comics.

Lara Antal, cartoonist

2018 Projects: Two graphic novels – Adult Memoir about Parenting and Loss, written by Rick Louis (see except below)

Middle Grade about an all-girl punk band and their ghost guitarist

What was the biggest story of 2017? Middle Grade graphic novel market is booming.

What will be the biggest story of 2018? Graphic novels are up – mini comics are down.

Guilty Pleasure of 2018: More magical middle grade graphic novels! These are the comics I dreamed of as a kid and I’m glad they finally exist.

Who or what inspires you? Ghosts by Raina Telgemeier — I’m sure I’m not the only one going to mention Telgemeier but I really appreciated the simplicity and solid storytelling. It’s not going to change your life, but it’s very GOOD, and that’s a feat in itself. I find in comics especially the basics of good story telling can easily be obscured by artwork, and popular characters/properties, and popular creators.

The Beat’s Annual Creator Survey, 2018 Edition, Part Five: chock full of preview art And let's wrap things up! This may not have been the biggest survey ever, but it had perhaps the widest participation ever, and I'm very proud to showcase so many people from so many levels of the comcis industry from creators to retailers to journalists to publishers.

#2018 creator survey #birdcage bttom books #Charles Vess #Christian Beranek #DC Women Kicking Ass #Henry Barajas #kat kan #kyle pinion #Lara Antal #larry marder #Mairghread Scott #martha thomases #Peter Kuper #Todd Allen