Indie

Jade Street Protection Services is an upcoming new series from Black Mask Studios that's billed as a mash-up between The Breakfast Club and Sailor Moon; the story of the delinquent students at an elite private school for magical girls. The release of the neon-pink-tinged cover by artist Annie Wu on social media was enough to create a surge of excitement --- What is it? Who is it? When is it? --- so we caught up with the creative team of newcomers Katy Rex and Fabian Lelay to find out more. The team also shared a preview of June's issue #1!

Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is one of the great inexplicable pop phenomenons of our time, a creation that began as a one-note joke between friends, and went on to conquer the world. It's a franchise that's proven to be endlessly adaptable, appearing in endless variations in numerous media, with an appeal that spans generations and a fanbase that continues to expand with each passing year.

I honestly can't think of another comic that's as universally beloved as Jeff Smith's Bone. Originally serialized as a 55-issue comic published over the course of 1991 and 2004, it told the story of a trio of cartoon characters ousted from their hometown and into a world of epic fantasy, a blending of genres and themes that made it incredibly compelling --- and once the whole thing was released in a massive paperback that collected the entire series, it became the kind of must-read title that's only seen its fame grow over the course of the past decade. In July, Smith is returning to Bone for the first time in a while with Bone: Coda, a new book that includes The Bone Companion by Steve Weiner and an all-new 32-page story about Fone Bone, Smiley Bone and Phoney Bone trying to return to their hometown --- and now you can read a preview of that tale!

It's been 25 years since Jeff Smith's Bone began, and more than a decade since the last book was published, but today we're met with the exciting news that more Bone is coming! Specifically Bone: Coda, a new graphic novel by Jeff Smith, arrives this July according to an announcement on the official Bone Tumblr.

Game of Thrones has returned, and though now in its sixth season, it remains one of the most riveting and talked about shows on television. Even after all this time and all this death, we’re still tuning in, hoping against hope that our faves don’t get brutally murdered, and maybe that someone rides on a dragon. Fantasy stories have been appearing in comics since near the very beginning of the medium, and there are so many great stories and series to choose from for fans looking for more of a fantasy fix. We’ve picked out five of the best independent and creator-owned comics to keep you going through the week as you wait for more episodes of Game of Thrones.

There are a lot of reasons to be excited about the upcoming Voltron: Legendary Defender show that DreamWorks is producing for Netflix. There's the nostalgia factor, of course, but there's also the fact that the showrunners, Joaquim Dos Santos and Lauren Montgomery, are two of the people who brought us The Legend of Korra. But more than that, though, there's the very basic idea in play here. After all, Voltron is still the story of five robot lions that become a giant robot that has robot lions for hands and feet. That, friends and neighbors, is a pretty weird premise, so if someone tells you that they're about to show you a story that was "too outlandish" for a series where that is the starting point, they're setting the bar pretty high. And that's exactly what Lion Forge is doing with the announcement of a five-issue series in continuity with the show, set to make its debut in July.

From Parts Unknown is a comics anthology about pro wrestling, which is being funded by a newly-launched Kickstarter campaign. The project is the brainchild of writer G. Brett Williams and former Marvel editor Lauren Sankovitch, and features work by professional wrestler Christopher Daniels, filmmakers Jen and Sylvia Soska, and comics creators including Joe Keatinge, Ed Luce, and Jason Latour. The cover features a painting by WWE's favorite artist Rob Schamberger.

Originally released in 2007, the first volume of Headlocked told the story of a college theater major who fell in love with pro wrestling and encountered the darker side of the business, and it immediately gained a following through not just wrestling fans, but pro wrestlers themselves. Now, writer/creator Mike Kingston has launched a Kickstarter to remaster that story for a new version. ComicsAlliance spoke to him about the challenge of selling comics at wrestling shows after being rejected by publishers, the audience that he's been able to build, and the pro wrestlers --- including MVP, Samoa Joe, and the Young Bucks --- who are contributing new stories to the latest volume.

The Walking Dead has become a titan of independent comics since its debut in 2003, and despite the television shows, novels and video games, the actual comic franchise has been heavily guarded by its co-creator Robert Kirkman. Very few people can say that they’ve worked on Walking Dead comics, but as of today Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martin can be counted among that select group thanks to the release of the digital one-shot The Walking Dead: The Alien, available now via Panel Snydicate.

If you were a super nerdy teen in the late '90s, there's a pretty good chance that you encountered Apollo Smile in some form or another, whether it was through her career as a voice actress in stuff like the Sega Dreamcast's Space Channel 5 or in her role as the "Live Action Anime Girl" who welcomed viewers to the Sci-Fi Channel's first-ever showing of Galaxy Express 999. If you somehow missed out, I've always thought of her as a mascot of that very particular time right before the death of the VHS tape, when Japanese animation was on the verge of breaking through into mainstream pop culture. She's the feeling of digging through the shelves at Suncoast Video and paying $35 for a VHS tape of Sailor Moon that had two episodes on it given human form. As you might expect, I feel squarely into Smile's target demographic, but somehow, some way, I managed to miss the fact that she had a short-lived comic book series in which she starred as herself. Well, an idealized version of herself, anyway --- I'm not sure if the real life version could control a starship through the power of interpretive dance.