Superstar Artists Join TMNT Relaunch, Marvel’s Blood Hunt To Release Adults-Only Editions, Thundercats Hits 170,000 Orders | Comic Book Club News For January 23, 2024

Four superstar artists are joining Jason Aaron on IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles relaunch. Marvel’s upcoming Blood Hunt will release special adults-only red band editions. ThunderCats hits 170,000 orders. All on Comic Book Club News for January 23, 2024.

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Episode Transcript:

Superstar artists joining TMNT.

Marvel’s Blood Hunt getting adults-only editions.

ThunderCats hits 170,000 orders.

This is Comic Book Club News for January 23, 2024.

Four Superstar Artists Join IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Relaunch:

Last week, IDW announced that Jason Aaron would be taking over the relaunched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles title in July. And now, the publisher has revealed the wildly talented roster of artists joining him on the series: Rafael Albuquerque, Joëlle Jones, Cliff Chiang, and Chris Burnham.

Each of the first four issues of the series will feature a different artist, and focus on their personal favorite member of the Turtles. Jones will kick things off with issue #1 in July, which focuses on Raphael. Issue #2 will bring on Albuquerque, with Michaelangelo taking the lead in August. September’s Issue #3 is drawn by Chiang and stars Leonardo. And last but not least is Burnham on issue #4 in October, as the team takes on Caravaggio. Just kidding, it’s Donatello.

Offered Chiang via press release provided to Comic Book Club News:  “I still remember the thrill of reading those early black-and-white issues and how they ushered in a new wave of independent comics, and I’m incredibly excited to be a part of this next chapter for the Turtles. Even better, Jason and I have been friends for a long time but haven’t yet worked together, so I get to kill two Mousers with one sword.”

A 10 page long prelude story written by Aaron and drawn by a TBD artist will premiere in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Alpha in June, followed by the new-ish series in July.

Marvel’s Blood Hunt Releasing Adults-Only Red Band Editions:

Marvel’s vampire-themed Blood Hunt is about to get a whole lot bloodier, as the publisher has announced they’ll be releasing special, mature audiences-only Red Band Editions.

Written by Jed MacKay with art by Pepe Larraz, the expanded issues will include additional pages and more graphic art, in a story about vampires taking over the Marvel Universe. They’ll also sport an “explicit content” red band on the cover and will be released the same day as the regular, all-ages issues, and come in a polybag to “keep those weak of heart from experiencing its intensity,” according to Marvel.

Said Larraz via press release: “The most appealing part of drawing BLOOD HUNT, apart from the chance to work with Jed for the first time (who I kept hearing the best of things from all my colleagues and fans), was the chance to go full TERROR mode in a vampire story. The Red Band pages are really interesting to me. They allow me to convey the dark, violent, bloody tone of this particular story, and flex new muscles that I don’t usually get to use in a superhero comic. And, I’m not going to lie, they’re so fun!”

The Blood Hunt event will run over five issues of the main series, as well as tie-in issues, and spinoff limited series. However, at this time the Red Band Editions will only be for the main series, so be sure to pick those up if you want to see Doctor Strange save Spider-Man while Captain America helps Blade in the kitchen with Tigra’s cake. This will make more sense if you listen to the podcast version instead of just reading it here. Sorry, readers.

ThunderCats Hits 170,000 Orders For Dynamite:

And one more quick hit for today: after Dynamite Entertainment reported that they had clocked over 100,000 orders from comic book stores for ThunderCats #1, the publisher now has revealed that they are over 170,000 orders for the issue, making it one of the biggest new releases of the year.

Written by Declan Shalvey with art by Drew Moss, the issue was already doing gangbusters. But clearly, Dynamite pulled out all the stops to promote the issue before Final Order Cutoff, adding a last-second cover by Rob Liefeld and jacking up the pre-orders another 70,000 copies. As usual, we’ll add our caveat here: these are orders from comic book shops which may include requests or pre-orders from patrons. But between multiple variant covers, and some heat on ’80s nostalgia, these are what comic book shops are betting on will sell… The proof will come later in any reprints, as well as second-issue sales.

And on the whole, ’80s cartoon nostalgia is huge for comics right now. Check out our first item on TMNT, or the blockbuster Energon Universe that includes Transformers and G.I. Joe. Can a Smurfs and Heathcliff interconnected universe of titles be far behind?

For Comic Book Club News, I’m Alex Zalben. And thanks for listening to this smurfy podcast.

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