Well hello, comic book fans, it’s Rosie here to collect up all the most important and up-to-date Dynamite Entertainment comics news. We here at Women Write About Comics are dedicated to unpacking the complex parts of the industry and unwrapping the underwhelming gift that is comics so that we can all enjoy/despair about it together. From this month forward I’ll be rounding up all of the Dynamite news, announcements, and disappointingly gross “sexy” covers right here.
Welcome to Rosie’s Dynamite Round Up????
Diamond’s solicitations for August/October 2017 are the usual bag of licensed books and–you guessed it–some more licensed books. Headlining this set is the first issue of Steve Orlando and Giovanni Timpano’s The Shadow/Batman, an alleged “thematic sequel to DC’s smash-hit mini-series, Batman/Shadow!” Orlando being on this book is a big score for Dynamite, what with him being one of DC’s most celebrated writers. But as it’s a DC/Dynamite collaboration, it makes sense that they’d put one of their most trusted people on their beloved Bat Boy.
Also the copy from this solicit is fucking incredible. “The World’s Greatest Mystery. The World’s Greatest Detective. They can barely stand each other, so how will they possibly deal with the World’s Greatest Evil?” Hyperbolic much? Does anyone other than my friend Dave Baker know or care who the Shadow is anymore? [I do! Kind of –Editor] We’ll never find out because getting discernible sales statistics from Diamond is like getting blood from a stone.
Co-headlining this month’s solicits is Tim Seely’s long-running upskirt shot Hack/Slash (Also, I’ve always wondered, is the title pronounced “Hack Slash Slash,” because it has a slash in it? The people need to know), which is crossing over with Dynamite’s most wasted and most wanked over property, Vampirella. Hack/Slash Vs. Vampirella is a “sexy variant scheme” wet dream, though the solicited cover by Jenny Frison is actually pretty cool. Written by Shawn Aldridge and with art from Rapha Lobosco, the biggest take away here is why can’t Dynamite hire a woman to write or draw interiors of this, a book about two women? Anyway, we can only forecast that these two hot chicks will be sexily fighting each other in lingerie for reasons only known to the men who write and draw them.
The only other number one this month is the vastly underwhelming prospect of Hitman 47 #1, that’s left it’s previous home at BOOM! It’s a comic based on a movie franchise based on a video game based on a man who kills people. It’s written by Chris Sebela, who’s done some really stellar work on incredible books like Heartthrob (and is pretty cool on Twitter), so who knows; maybe it’ll be secretly great? With art by Jonathan Lau and according to the solicit a cool teen girl heroine, could this be a surprising addition to Dynamite’s licensed fodder? We’ll have to wait and see, whilst hoping they don’t do a sexy 14-year-old schoolgirl cover next month.
Dynamite’s continuing series solicits are a choice selection of cool creators on books you’re surprised they’ve picked up. But that definitely does NOT describe John Wick #2 by Greg Pak and Giovanni Valleta, an INCREDIBLE LOOKING book which honestly couldn’t be more aimed at me if it tried. Comic Keanu is already looking super sexy on this neon hued cover. We’ll have to wait until October to find out if it lives up to the hype, but until then let’s enjoy the pretty covers and unexplored potential! Dynamite also has Sheena #2, a book which despite having DC darling and general all round queer comics superstar Marguerite Bennett on board still has covers which put a terrifying amount of focus onto the titular heroine’s tiny waist and ribs, making it almost impossible for me to care about this book.
We also have Ash Vs. The Army of the Darkness #4. Gotta love Sam Raimi’s never ending hustle, though I’ll never forgive him for what he did to Venom (RIP BB). With an all male creative team, this book really seems to have nothing to offer other than a hunky half naked Ash on the front cover, so thanks Brent Schoonover. Ash writers Chad Bower and Chris Sims seem to have some kind of deal with Dynamite post their disappointing X-Men 92 run as they’re also on one of Dynamite’s many Atari tie-ins, Swordquest #5 with art by Ghostwriter X. It’s basically Ready Player One, but with nice art, from the guy who drew Batman ’66.
Sadly, not every comic can go on forever, especially not at a publisher which trades predominantly in miniseries. So this month we say goodbye to a bunch of books including Kiss/Vampirella. It feels like only yesterday I was looking at the gross cover for issue #1 and lamenting it, because comics are weird and you have to order the last issue before you’ve read the first. But hey, maybe they can go back to making cool KISS comics about kids saving the world or whatever [Stay tuned for that feature! –Editor]. Also over is Grumpy Cat/Garfield, a book you never knew you needed to hate until it was too late.
In other Dynamite news, world renowned Vampira impersonator Elvira will be getting a new series at the publisher along with undisclosed merchandising possibilities, so maybe we’ll be getting some Elvira licensed Beanie Babies or something from Dynamite very soon. Another sexy 20th century siren will be joining the ranks of house artist drawn lingerie covers with the announcement of a Barbarella comic that was also announced at SDCC. But a comics publisher would be nothing without some good licensed horror movie fodder to sit alongside its giant boob variants, so we’ll also be seeing a Pumpkinhead comic coming to your local comic shop shelves at some point this year.
I can’t simply allow this column to be a basic roundup so I’ll also be collating exactly how many credited female creators Dynamite has in each solicit cycle. *Spoiler alert* It’s almost none. This month I’ll be displaying my findings in a lovely chart.
Thanks for joining me for this month’s Dynamite Round Up! See you next time for more objectionable objectification variant covers, licensed tie-ins, and occasional pleasant surprises.
