DID YOU GET OUR MAGAZINE??
Well. Half of you did. Walt’s Up is now in circulation and will be expanding to every customer with issue #1 next month.
The reason I’m mentioning it here is: if you are a single-issue fan, I think you should particularly look forward to it. Issue #0 covered the new Sabrina and Archie series (that is getting a reprint on FOC this week) with a cool interview with Corrina Becko, and we're following it next month with a big piece on a certain A-Title. We might have even spoken with some Canadian guy, I don’t know, I'm not allowed to say.
So please, send your feedback. In particular, I would love to know what YOU single-issue collectors would love to see monthly.
THIS WEEK ON DC NEXT LEVEL.
The other big article in issue #0 was all about The Demon.
The long-awaited return of Etrigan is here, written and drawn by James Harren. You might recognize him from Ultramega and Rumble or the “Sanctuary” story in the awesome Absolute Batman 2025 Annual #1 last year. James' art feels like taking a punch in the best sense of the word, trip-inducing and punk to the extreme. For fans of Daniel Warren Johnson, James will be your new obsession.
The book will follow our rhyming Demon while making Jason Blood the center of the story once again. The character was made iconic by names like Jack Kirby, Garth Ennis and John McCrea (also in Walt’s Up issue #0), and Alan Moore. Big shoes to fill, but I got the feeling James has the perfect metric.
Let’s stay with the horror because also releasing this month is Jonah Hex and the Shadow of Death #1. If you never ventured into the western side of DC, this is the perfect place to start. There’s also plenty of supernatural and magic to go around.
The new title is helmed by Michael Walsh, who co-created Exquisite Corpses with James Tynion IV last year. That series had a beautiful balance between action and horror, with an acute sense for contemporary commentary and actual genre exploration. DC’s gunslinger is the perfect fit. I’m excited to see Jonah Hex be a big seller once again so we never not have a western book in the catalogue.
HORROR WITH ANIMALS? GOOD IDEA.
Well, Bad Idea.
We at Walt’s have been very vocal about our love for Bad Idea. Not only are they publishing the best books in the market, all releases are insanely creative, so you never know what you're gonna get. Actually, you do know what you're gonna get: excellence all around. The only publisher I simply get everything from blindly.
For the other two people who LOVED The Sheep Detective Hugh Jackman movie (it’s so underrated!!!), how about we make it bloodier and meaner? Here comes It Demands Sacrifice #1 by Philip Gelatt, David Yarovesky, and Adam Pollina. Philip is a screenwriter from Netflix’s Love, Death & Robots, and David wrote Brightburn (the horror-Superboy movie).
It’s George Orwell’s Animal Farm if you are severely high on mushrooms. It’s about goats dealing with a “drug-fueled, sex-obsessed satanic hippie murder cult”.
Murder Goats vs. Sheep Detectives Avengers crossover movie when?
THIS WEEK IN MARVEL.
Charles Soule and Tommaso Bianchi are relaunching Venom #1. Eddie Brock is back with the symbiote after a tour that included Mary Jane Watson (“What? How long have I been asleep?” says you). Although I like most of the things Al Ewing did with the character, the Venom franchise has been all over the place for a while, so here’s to a fresh voice and a new jumping-in point.
My beloved Sam Alexander is back in Nova: Return of the Rings #1, a one-shot for now, but I beg you to buy it so we can have more. Oh, the good ol’ days when Miles, Sam, and Kamala had books on stands
Amazing Spider-Man: Amazing Visions #1 is releasing a compilation of variant covers by Lee Bermejo, promising to tell the story of Spider-Man through the lens of just one (incredible and revolutionary) artist.
Everything on FOC...
can be found here. I’m sneaking in a Three Worlds / Three Moons: Arrivals #1 recommendation in the goodbyes (who can stop me?) as the next chapter of the Jonathan Hickman, Nick Spencer, etc. shared-world, audience-involved experiment. Be sure to lock those orders by Saturday at 4pm, and you can email Heiko with any questions. If you, like I, missed Heiko’s takes on the newsletter this week, get ready because we have something in the works with all the Heiko you can eat.
See you,
Math
