Author: Trafficblast

The winners of the 2020 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards have been revealed. Essentially the comic book industry equivalent of the Oscars, the ceremony was again held (albeit virtually) during Comic-Con, this year hosted by actor Phil LaMarr.

G. Willow Wilson and Christian Ward’s Invisible Kingdom was among the big winners this year, taking home awards for Best New Series and Best Painter. Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O’Connell’s graphic novel Laura Dean Is Breaking Up with Me also won big, taking home the awards for Best Publication for Teens, Best Writer (with Tamaki also being recognized for her work on Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass and Archie) and Best Penciller/Inker.

David Walker, Chuck Brown, and Sanford Greene won Best Continuing Series. George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steve Scott and Harmony Becker’s graphic novel They Called Us Enemy won Best Reality-Based Work (it also won IGN’s Best Original Graphic Novel of 2019). And the massively popular Guts by Raina Telgemeier won Best Publication for Kids and Best Writer/Artist.

It was also a very noteworthy year in terms of creators being inducted into the Eisners Hall of Fame. Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson was among those honored, along with Nell Brinkley (The Brinkley Girls), E. Simms Campbell (Cuties), Alison Bechdel (Fun Home), Howard Cruse (Stuck Rubber Baby), Louise Simonson (X-Factor), Stan Sakai (Usagi Yojimbo) and Comics Buyer’s Guide creators Don and Maggie Thompson.

Scroll down to see the full list of nominees, with the winners bolded. And be sure to check out the full Comic-Con@Home schedule and find out the biggest announcements from the show so far.

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Best Short Story

• “Hot Comb,” by Ebony Flowers, in Hot Comb (Drawn & Quarterly)
• “How to Draw a Horse,” by Emma Hunsinger, The New Yorker, https://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/how-to-draw-a-horse
• “The Menopause,” by Mira Jacob, The Believer, https://believermag.com/the-menopause/
• “Who Gets Called an ‘Unfit’ Mother?” by Miriam Libicki, The Nib, https://thenib.com/who-gets-called-an-unfit-mother/
• “You’re Not Going to Believe What I’m About to Tell You,” by Matthew Inman, The Oatmeal, https://theoatmeal.com/comics/believe

Best Single Issue/One-Shot

• Coin-Op No. 8: Infatuation, by Peter and Maria Hoey (Coin-Op Books)
• The Freak, by Matt Lesniewski (AdHouse)
• Minotäar, by Lissa Treiman (Shortbox)
• Our Favorite Thing Is My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, by Emil Ferris (Fantagraphics)
• Sobek, by James Stokoe (Shortbox)

Best Continuing Series

• Bitter Root, by David Walker, Chuck Brown, and Sanford Greene (Image)
• Criminal, by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips (Image)
• Crowded, by Christopher Sebela, Ro Stein, and Ted Brandt (Image)
• Daredevil, by Chip Zdarsky and Marco Checchetto (Marvel)
• The Dreaming, by Simon Spurrier, Bilquis Evely et al. (DC)
• Immortal Hulk, by Al Ewing, Joe Bennett, and Ruy José et al. (Marvel)

Best Limited Series

• Ascender, by Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen (Image)
• Ghost Tree, by Bobby Curnow and Simon Gane (IDW)
• Little Bird by Darcy Van Poelgeest and Ian Bertram (Image)
• Naomi by Brian Michael Bendis, David Walker, and Jamal Campbell (DC)
• Sentient, by Jeff Lemire and Gabriel Walta (TKO)

Best New Series

• Doctor Doom, by Christopher Cantwell and Salvador Larocca (Marvel)
• Invisible Kingdom, by G. Willow Wilson and Christian Ward (Berger Books/Dark Horse)
• Once & Future, by Kieron Gillen and Dan Mora (BOOM! Studios)
• Something Is Killing the Children, by James Tynion IV and Werther Dell’Edera (BOOM! Studios)
• Undiscovered Country, by Scott Snyder, Charles Soule, Giuseppe Camuncoli, and Daniele Orlandini (Image)

Best Publication for Early Readers

• Comics: Easy as ABC, by Ivan Brunetti (TOON)
• Kitten Construction Company: A Bridge Too Fur, by John Patrick Green (First Second/Macmillan)
• The Pigeon HAS to Go to School! by Mo Willems (Hyperion Books)
• A Trip to the Top of the Volcano with Mouse, by Frank Viva (TOON)
• ¡Vamos! Let’s Go to the Market, by Raúl the Third (Versify/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• Who Wet My Pants? by Bob Shea and Zachariah Ohora (Little, Brown)

Best Publication for Kids

• Akissi: More Tales of Mischief, by Marguerite Abouet and Mathieu Sapin (Flying Eye/Nobrow)
• Dog Man: For Whom the Ball Rolls, by Dav Pilkey (Scholastic Graphix)
• Guts, by Raina Telgemeier (Scholastic Graphix)
• New Kid, by Jerry Craft (Quill Tree/HarperCollins)
• This Was Our Pact, by Ryan Andrews (First Second/Macmillan)
• The Wolf in Underpants, by Wilfrid Lupano, Mayana Itoïz, and Paul Cauuet (Graphic Universe/Lerner Publishing Group)

Best Publication for Teens

• Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass, by Mariko Tamaki and Steve Pugh (DC)
• Hot Comb, by Ebony Flowers (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Kiss Number 8, by Colleen AF Venable and Ellen T. Crenshaw (First Second/Macmillan)
• Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me, by Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O’Connell (First Second/Macmillan)
• Penny Nichols, by MK Reed, Greg Means, and Matt Wiegle (Top Shelf)

Best Humor Publication

• Anatomy of Authors, by Dave Kellett (SheldonComics.com)
• Death Wins a Goldfish, by Brian Rea (Chronicle Books)
• Minotäar, by Lissa Treiman (Shortbox)
• Sobek, by James Stokoe (Shortbox)
• The Way of the Househusband, vol. 1, by Kousuke Oono, translation by Sheldon Drzka (VIZ Media)
• Wondermark: Friends You Can Ride On, by David Malki (Wondermark)

Best Anthology

• ABC of Typography, by David Rault (SelfMade Hero)
• Baltic Comics Anthology š! #34-37, edited by David Schilter, Sanita Muižniece et al. (kuš!)
• Drawing Power: Women’s Stories of Sexual Violence, Harassment, and Survival, edited by Diane Noomin (Abrams)
• Kramer’s Ergot #10, edited by Sammy Harkham (Fantagraphics)
• The Nib #2–4, edited by Matt Bors (Nib)

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Best Reality-Based Work

• Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations, by Mira Jacob (One World/Random House)
• Grass, by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim, translation by Janet Hong (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Kid Gloves: Nine Months of Careful Chaos, by Lucy Knisley (First Second/Macmillan)
• Moonbound: Apollo 11 and the Dream of Spaceflight, by Jonathan Fetter-Vorm (Hill & Wang)
• My Solo Exchange Diary, vol. 2 (sequel to My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness), by Nagata Kabi, translation by Jocelyne Allen (Seven Seas)
• They Called Us Enemy, by George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott, and Harmony Becker (Top Shelf)

Best Graphic Album—New

• Are You Listening? by Tillie Walden (First Second/Macmillan)
• Bezimena, by Nina Bunjevac (Fantagraphics)
• BTTM FDRS, by Ezra Claytan Daniels and Ben Passmore (Fantagraphics)
• Life on the Moon, by Robert Grossman (Yoe Books/IDW)
• New World, by David Jesus Vignolli (Archaia/BOOM!)
• Reincarnation Stories, by Kim Deitch (Fantagraphics)

Best Graphic Album—Reprint

• Bad Weekend by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips (Image)
• Clyde Fans, by Seth (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Cover, vol. 1, by Brian Michael Bendis and David Mack (DC/Jinxworld)
• Glenn Ganges: The River at Night, by Kevin Huizenga (Drawn & Quarterly)
• LaGuardia, by Nnedi Okorafor and Tana Ford (Berger Books/Dark Horse)
• Rusty Brown, by Chris Ware (Pantheon)

Best Adaptation from Another Medium

• Giraffes on Horseback Salad: Salvador Dali, the Marx Brothers, and the Strangest Movie Never Made, by Josh Frank, Tim Hedecker, and Manuela Pertega (Quirk Books)
• The Giver, by Lois Lowry and P. Craig Russell, (HMH Books for Young Readers)
• The Handmaid’s Tale: The Graphic Novel, by Margaret Atwood, adapted by Renee Nault (Nan A. Talese)
• HP Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness, vols. 1–2, adapted by Gou Tanabe, translation by Zack Davisson (Dark Horse Manga)
• The Seventh Voyage, by Stanislaw Lem, adapted by Jon Muth, translation by Michael Kandel (Scholastic Graphix)
• Snow, Glass, Apples, by Neil Gaiman and Colleen Doran (Dark Horse Books)

Best U.S. Edition of International Material

• Diabolical Summer, by Thierry Smolderen and Alexandre Clerisse, translation by Edward Gauvin (IDW)
• Gramercy Park, by Timothée de Fombelle and Christian Cailleaux, translation by Edward Gauvin (EuroComics/IDW)
• The House, by Paco Roca, translation by Andrea Rosenberg (Fantagraphics)
• Maggy Garrisson, by Lewis Trondheim and Stéphane Oiry, translation by Emma Wilson (SelfMadeHero)
• Stay, by Lewis Trondheim and Hubert Chevillard, translation by Mike Kennedy (Magnetic Press)
• Wrath of Fantômas, by Olivier Bouquet and Julie Rocheleau, translation by Edward Gauvin (Titan)

Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia (tie)

• BEASTARS, by Paru Itagaki, translation by Tomo Kimura (VIZ Media)
• Cats of the Louvre, by Taiyo Matsumoto, translation by Michael Arias (VIZ Media)
• Grass, by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim, translation by Janet Hong (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Magic Knight Rayearth 25th Anniversary Edition, by CLAMP, translation by Melissa Tanaka (Kodansha)
• The Poe Clan, by Moto Hagio, translation by Rachel Thorn (Fantagraphics)
• Witch Hat Atelier, by Kamome Shirahama, translation by Stephen Kohler (Kodansha)

Best Archival Collection/Project—Strips

• Cham: The Best Comic Strips and Graphic Novelettes, 1839–1862, by David Kunzle (University Press of Mississippi)
• Ed Leffingwell’s Little Joe, by Harold Gray, edited by Peter Maresca and Sammy Harkham (Sunday Press Books)
• The George Herriman Library: Krazy & Ignatz 1916–1918, edited by R.J. Casey (Fantagraphics)
• Krazy Kat: The Complete Color Sundays, by George Herriman, edited by Alexander Braun (TASCHEN)
• Madness in Crowds: The Teeming Mind of Harrison Cady, by Violet and Denis Kitchen (Beehive Books)
• Pogo, Vol. 6: Clean as a Weasel, by Walt Kelly, edited by Mark Evanier and Eric Reynolds (Fantagraphics)

Best Archival Collection/Project—Comic Books

• Alay-Oop, by William Gropper (New York Review Comics)
• The Complete Crepax, vol. 5: American Stories, edited by Kristy Valenti (Fantagraphics)
• Jack Kirby’s Dingbat Love, edited by John Morrow (TwoMorrows)
• Moonshadow: The Definitive Edition, by J. M. DeMatteis, Jon J Muth, George Pratt, Kent Williams, and others (Dark Horse Books)
• Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo: The Complete Grasscutter Artist Select, by Stan Sakai, edited by Scott Dunbier (IDW)
• That Miyoko Asagaya Feeling, by Shinichi Abe, translation by Ryan Holmberg, edited by Mitsuhiro Asakawa (Black Hook Press)

Best Writer

• Bobby Curnow, Ghost Tree (IDW)
• MK Reed and Greg Means, Penny Nichols (Top Shelf)
• Mariko Tamaki, Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass (DC); Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me (First Second/Macmillan); Archie (Archie)
• Lewis Trondheim, Stay (Magnetic Press); Maggy Garrisson (SelfMadeHero)
• G. Willow Wilson, Invisible Kingdom (Berger Books/Dark Horse); Ms. Marvel (Marvel)
• Chip Zdarsky, White Trees (Image); Daredevil, Spider-Man: Life Story (Marvel); Afterlift (comiXology Originals)

Best Writer/Artist

• Nina Bunjevac, Bezimena (Fantagraphics)
• Mira Jacob, Good Talk (Random House); “The Menopause” in The Believer (June 1, 2019)
• Keum Suk Gendry-Kim, Grass (Drawn & Quarterly)
• James Stokoe, Sobek (Shortbox)
• Raina Telgemeier, Guts (Scholastic Graphix)
• Tillie Walden, Are You Listening? (First Second/Macmillan)

Best Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team

• Ian Bertram, Little Bird (Image)
• Colleen Doran, Snow, Glass, Apples (Dark Horse)
• Bilquis Evely, The Dreaming (DC)
• Simon Gane, Ghost Tree (IDW)
• Steve Pugh, Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass (DC)
• Rosemary Valero-O’Connell, Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me (First Second/Macmillan)

Best Painter/Digital Artist

• Didier Cassegrain, Black Water Lilies (Europe Comics)
• Alexandre Clarisse, Diabolical Summer (IDW)
• David Mack, Cover (DC)
• Léa Mazé, Elma, A Bear’s Life, vol. 1: The Great Journey (Europe Comics)
• Julie Rocheleau, Wrath of Fantômas (Titan)
• Christian Ward, Invisible Kingdom (Berger Books/Dark Horse)

Best Cover Artist

• Jen Bartel, Blackbird (Image Comics)
• Francesco Francavilla, Archie, Archie 1955, Archie Vs. Predator II, Cosmo (Archie)
• David Mack, American Gods, Fight Club 3 (Dark Horse); Cover (DC)
• Emma Rios, Pretty Deadly (Image)
• Julian Totino Tedesco, Daredevil (Marvel)
• Christian Ward, Machine Gun Wizards (Dark Horse), Invisible Kingdom (Berger Books/Dark Horse)

Best Coloring

• Lorena Alvarez, Hicotea (Nobrow)
• Jean-Francois Beaulieu, Middlewest, Outpost Zero (Image)
• Matt Hollingsworth, Batman: Curse of the White Knight, Batman White Knight Presents Von Freeze (DC); Little Bird, November (Image)
• Molly Mendoza, Skip (Nobrow)
• Dave Stewart, Black Hammer, B.P.R.D.: The Devil You Know, Hellboy and the BPRD (Dark Horse); Gideon Falls (Image); Silver Surfer Black, Spider-Man (Marvel)

Best Lettering

• Deron Bennett, Batgirl, Green Arrow, Justice League, Martian Manhunter (DC); Canto (IDW); Assassin Nation, Excellence (Skybound/Image); To Drink and To Eat, vol. 1 (Lion Forge); Resonant (Vault)
• Jim Campbell, Black Badge, Coda (BOOM Studios); Giant Days, Lumberjanes: The Shape of Friendship (BOOM Box!); Rocko’s Modern Afterlife (KaBOOM!); At the End of Your Tether (Lion Forge); Blade Runner 2019 (Titan); Mall, The Plot, Wasted Space (Vault)
• Clayton Cowles, Aquaman, Batman, Batman and the Outsiders, Heroes in Crisis, Superman: Up in the Sky, Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen (DC); Bitter Root, Pretty Deadly, Moonstruck, Redlands, The Wicked + The Divine (Image); Reaver (Skybound/Image); Daredevil, Ghost-Spider, Silver Surfer Black, Superior Spider-Man, Venom (Marvel)
• Emilie Plateau, Colored: The Unsung Life of Claudette Colvin (Europe Comics)
• Stan Sakai, Usagi Yojimbo (IDW)
• Tillie Walden, Are You Listening? (First Second/Macmillan)

Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism

• Comic Riffs blog, by Michael Cavna, www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/comics/
• The Comics Journal, edited by Gary Groth, RJ Casey, and Kristy Valenti (Fantagraphics)
• Hogan’s Alley, edited by Tom Heintjes (Hogan’s Alley)
• Inks: The Journal of the Comics Studies Society, edited by Qiana Whitted (Ohio State University Press)
• LAAB Magazine, vol. 4: This Was Your Life, edited by Ronald Wimberly and Josh O’Neill (Beehive Books)
• Women Write About Comics, edited by Nola Pfau and Wendy Browne, www.WomenWriteAboutComics.com

Best Comics-Related Book

• The Art of Nothing: 25 Years of Mutts and the Art of Patrick McDonnell (Abrams)
• The Book of Weirdo, by Jon B. Cooke (Last Gasp)
• Grunt: The Art and Unpublished Comics of James Stokoe (Dark Horse)
• Logo a Gogo: Branding Pop Culture, by Rian Hughes (Korero Press)
• Making Comics, by Lynda Barry (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Screwball! The Cartoonists Who Made the Funnies Funny, by Paul Tumey (Library of American Comics/IDW)

Best Academic/Scholarly Work

• The Art of Pere Joan: Space, Landscape, and Comics Form, by Benjamin Fraser (University of Texas Press)
• The Comics of Rutu Modan: War, Love, and Secrets, by Kevin Haworth (University Press of Mississippi)
• EC Comics: Race, Shock, and Social Protest, by Qiana Whitted (Rutgers University Press)
• The Peanuts Papers: Writers and Cartoonists on Charlie Brown, Snoopy & the Gang, and the Meaning of Life, edited by Andrew Blauner (Library of America)
• Producing Mass Entertainment: The Serial Life of the Yellow Kid, by Christina Meyer (Ohio State University Press)
• Women’s Manga in Asia and Beyond: Uniting Different Cultures and Identities, edited by Fusami Ogi et al. (Palgrave Macmillan)

Best Publication Design

• Grunt: The Art and Unpublished Comics of James Stokoe, designed by Ethan Kimberling (Dark Horse)
• Krazy Kat: The Complete Color Sundays, by George Herriman, designed by Anna-Tina Kessler (TASCHEN)
• Logo a Gogo, designed by Rian Hughes (Korero Press)
• Madness in Crowds: The Teeming Mind of Harrison Cady, designed by Paul Kopple and Alex Bruce (Beehive Books)
• Making Comics, designed by Lynda Barry (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Rusty Brown, designed by Chris Ware (Pantheon)

Best Digital Comic

• Afterlift, by Chip Zdarsky and Jason Loo (comiXology Originals)
• Black Water Lilies, by Michel Bussi, adapted by Frédéric Duval and Didier Cassegrain, translated by Edward Gauvin (Europe Comics)
• Colored: The Unsung Life of Claudette Colvin, by Tania de Montaigne, adapted by Emilie Plateau, translated by Montana Kane (Europe Comics)
• Elma, A Bear’s Life, vol. 1: The Great Journey, by Ingrid Chabbert and Léa Mazé, translated by Jenny Aufiery (Europe Comics)
• Mare Internum, by Der-shing Helmer (comiXology; gumroad.com/l/MIPDF)
• Tales from Behind the Window, by Edanur Kuntman, translated by Cem Ulgen (Europe Comics)

Best Webcomic

• Cabramatta, by Matt Huynh, http://believermag.com/cabramatta/
• Chuckwagon at the End of the World, by Erik Lundy, https://hollowlegcomics.tumblr.com/chuckwagon
• The Eyes, by Javi de Castro, https://www.javidecastro.com/theeyes
• Fried Rice Comic, by Erica Eng, https://friedricecomic.tumblr.com
• reMIND, by Jason Brubaker, https://is.gd/T7rafM
• Third Shift Society, by Meredith Moriarty, https://www.webtoons.com/en/supernatural/third-shift-society/list?title_no=1703

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Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

Welcome to the weekend! Kick back, relax and enjoy some deals. We’ve got some big ones today, thanks to Best Buy and their awesome Summer Savings event. You can grab a pair of AirPods plus 4 Months of Apple Music at a great price, or hop over to Amazon to save on Witcher 3 for the Nintendo Switch. Those deals and more are available for your browsing pleasure, so take a peak below to start saving!

Deals for July 25

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More Video Game Deals

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Adult Swim Con’s Rick and Morty panel (titled “How Do They Do It: Rick and Morty”) — featuring co-creator Dan Harmon and cast members Sarah Chalke, Chris Parnell, and Spencer Grammer, and moderated by IGN’s own Terri Schwartz — gave fans a cool sneak peek from Season 5 in the form of an awesome animatic.

The few minutes of footage shown hit the floor running, dropping us into a storm of interdimensional chaos and calamity as Morty carries a mortally injured Rick in an attempt to reach their ship and escape back to Earth. Along the way, they see a reality where they’re both “Blade” versions of themselves. “That f***in’ tight,” Rick remarks.

The footage ends with Rick and Morty inadvertently angering Rick’s pretentious seafaring nemesis, Mr. Nimbus: an arch-enemy Rick apparently never told Morty about because – well – he’s kind of embarrassed by him. Check it out!

“f**k death, I wanna live!”

Morty decides he has something to live for in this animatic sneak peek at Rick and Morty Season 5, straight out of Comic-Con@home. #IGNComicCon pic.twitter.com/WsgYWlcsYR

— IGN (@IGN) July 25, 2020

As for series updates, Harmon remarked that, despite the pandemic, they were in the midst of both “finalizing the [Season 5] finale” and “almost done writing” Season 6. Even though quarantine Zoom meetings have meant the writers have had to curb their looser, improvisational spitballing methods of story development, Harmon said the “material coming out of it is just as good if not better” than previous seasons.

A Season 5 premiere date wasn’t revealed, though Harmon did mention Season 5 would not feature the unnamed cat voiced by Matthew Broderick, The Vindicators, the Cronenbergs, or Morty’s Mind Blowers.

Harmon also mentioned that “there are some Clone Beth fireworks” coming, but not until Season 6.

For more on the series, here’s our look at how Season 4’s big Beth twist could impact the story going forward as well as our full review of Rick and Morty Season 4.

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Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.

As if Batman doesn’t have enough to deal with in 2020, DC is about to introduce a new villain to his iconic rogues gallery, and he may just be the most twisted member yet.

The DC Comics panel on IGN’s Comic-Con@Home livestream offered fans a closer look at Dark Nights: Death Metal, with writer Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo appearing to tease what’s still to come in the remaining five issues of the series. Death Metal #3 will shine a spotlight on Batman’s newest nemesis, a villain known as The Robin King.

Warning: this article contains spoilers for Dark Nights: Death Metal #1 and 2!

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Watch the DC Comics Comic-Con panel below:

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As the first two chapters of Death Metal have shown, The Batman Who Laughs has only grown more powerful and dangerous in the Death Metal era. Though this twisted, Joker-ized version of Batman was killed by Wonder Woman in issue #1, his brain was transplanted into the body of another evil Batman in issue #2. In his new body, the Batman Who Laughs has the reality-altering powers of Watchmen’s Doctor Manhattan. He even has a new name to befit his boosted power level – The Darkest Knight.

Issue #3 will introduce The Darkest Knight’s new sidekick, The Robin King. Formerly one of the demonic Robins The Batman Who Laughs keeps chained by his side, this ex-Boy Wonder may just be the most demented and terrifying foe Batman has ever grappled with.

“I’m just writing his dialogue now,” said Snyder. “His whole history you’ll learn – what his secret is, who he is, all of that stuff. Because I’ve seen a lot of speculation about who he is.”

Snyder then teased a majorly disturbing encounter between The Robin King and the JSA, As Snyder describes the character, The Robin King seems to have the personality of Burt Ward’s Robin mixed with a love of violence and sadism to rival his master’s. As he encounters these stately older heroes, The Robin King reveals he dug up the corpse of Barry Allen’s mother and stuffed her into a Flash ring, and then murdered Alan Scott’s children, mixed their ashes and created a ring capable of canceling out the Green Lantern.

“He’s this ten-year-old kid, but he’s definitely one of our darkest creations,” said Snyder. “But I love him, because… what I want the heroes to go up against here is something that says ‘Everything you believe people to be, everything you hope we are, we aren’t.’ And you want representations of that. With The Batman Who Laughs and with The Robin King, the eviler and darker the villain, the more the heroes are challenged by what they see in human nature. It becomes harder and harder to be hopeful.”

Snyder continued, “He’s not evil just to make something incredibly fun and dark. He is those things, but it’s also meant to be something you read and hits you in a way that’s poignant. Because he says, ‘All these different hopes and aspirations for us are nothing, and I’ll show you why.’ So he’s a very spooky kid.”

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Dark Nights: Death Metal #3 will debut on August 12. For more on the new series, find out how Death Metal ties together 80 years of DC history. Then check out IGN’s picks for the Top 25 Batman graphic novels of all time and our Comic-Con 2020 panel schedule.

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Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

SYFY’s newest profile documentary, Todd McFarlane: Like Hell I Won’t, centers on the iconic comic book creator, who co-founded Image Comics and is the mastermind behind the Spawn character and McFarlane Toys.

The documentary, which premieres on SYFY on Saturday, July 25, “gives viewers a peek behind the curtain into Todd’s creative process of bringing Spider-Man & Spawn to life. Revealing his motivations & inspirations, it illustrates his struggle to navigate and upend the status quo in the comics & toy industries,” according to SYFY. IGN can officially reveal a clip where McFarlane shares a personal story about how Spawn’s origin story is influenced by his own life experiences.

Watch the revealing clip in the video below or at the top of the page:

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While McFarlane has seen his Spawn creation on the big screen in New Line Cinema’s live-action adaptation starring Michael Jai White in the titular role, McFarlane has promised another Spawn film is in the works. In more recent news, the comic book mogul mentioned that a 90-minute Spawn animated project is “ready to go.”

For more comic book news, be sure to check out IGN’s Comic-Con@Home livestream, the full Comic-Con@Home schedule, or watch the entire The Boys Season 2 panel right here. And watch Todd McFarlane: Like Hell I Won’t on SYFY on July 25, at 11 pm ET.

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David Griffin still watches DuckTales in his pajamas with a cereal bowl in hand. He’s also the TV Editor for IGN. Say hi on Twitter.

Halo Infinite is being marketed as a “spiritual reboot” for the series, continuing the story from Halo 5 but centering the action on a mysterious ring world like in the original game. Such a big change could have resulted in other major departures, such as recasting voice roles, but that won’t be the case for the series’ two biggest characters.

The Master Chief will once again be played by Steve Downes, an actor whose low, measured tone has defined the hero since his first appearance nearly 20 years ago. He’s joined by Jen Taylor, who voices both Cortana and Dr. Catherine Halsey, the researcher who lent her voice to Cortana when she was “born.” Given the dark path Cortana traveled down in Halo 5, we expect to hear a lot of Taylor in Halo Infinite.

There are a few newcomers that 343 Industries has revealed thus far, as well. “The Pilot,” who does have a name that has not been officially revealed yet, will be played by Nicolas Roye. He has appeared in several other video games such as Resident Evil: Resistance earlier this year and Apex Legends. War Chief Escahrum, who is the Brute featured at the end of the campaign teaser, is played by Darin de Paul. He plays Reinhardt in Overwatch and also voiced the legendary J. Jonah Jameson in Marvel’s Spider-Man.

We’ll see how the new characters pan out when Halo Infinite launches this holiday season. The game will be a launch title for Xbox Series X and will also come to Xbox One and PC.

Spider-Man: Miles Morales’ motion capture actor has shared a brief behind-the-scenes glimpse at the motion capture process for the upcoming PlayStation 5 game, which will feature the young hero following in the footsteps of 2018’s Marvel’s Spider-Man. “To become a character so impactful means the world to me,” tweeted Nadji Jeter.

“The story of Miles is what this generation & the next need! I just thank the heavens above for blessing me with the opportunity & responsibility to bring him to Life!! “

In the images, Jeter can be seen donning a motion capture suit, with dozens of extra markers applied to his face so that every nuance of his acting can be captured by developer Insomniac Games. Due for release at the end of the year, Spider-Man: Miles Morales will feature both a quality and a performance mode, with the latter allowing players to web-sling across New York City at a a stable 60 fps at 4K resolution.

While Spider-Man: Miles Morales won’t be a fully-fledged sequel to Marvel’s Spider-Man, it will feature a new campaign starring Peter Parker’s protege as he defends Manhattan in an adventure that is comparable to previous PlayStation 4 standalone games such as Uncharted: The Lost Legacy.