Oni Press

I know we've all been waiting very patiently, but the day is finally upon us. Comics based on James Cameron's Avatar are finally coming next year on Free Comic Book Day! The comic book adaptation of the smash-hit blockbuster that everyone loves and remembers is just one of twelve Gold Titles as part of FCBD's 2017 celebration, which also includes Rick & Morty, Doctor Who and X-O Manowar. Announced today, Free Comic Book Day 2017 will be celebrated across the world on May 6th, and as usual the big name publishers, including Image, IDW, Boom, Oni and Titan, all have offerings as part of next year's crop of Gold Sponsor titles.

Friedrich Nietzsche once had a famous quote about gazing into the abyss and the abyss gazing unto you in return. I don't know Nietzsche, but I can only assume he actually meant that if you gaze into the abyss (space), the gays will gaze back at you — because space is filled with gays and they don't appreciate your rude staring. If you know someone who is all about gays in space (cue the Saturday Night Live theme song, though maybe not the rest of the skit) or cosmic queer folk, from #Stormpilot to Mass Effect, consider these holiday gifts. Retrograde Earthen ideas of love and gender most certainly not included.

John Allison's teen detective/coming-of-age series Bad Machinery balances supernatural mysteries with the ever shifting landscape of teenage friendships, and is a hit both online as webcomic and in print as collections. Next year, Oni Press a reprinting the first Bad Machinery story "The Case of the Teen Spirit" in a new pocket edition, and ComicsAlliance caught up with Allison about mysteries, slang and very British stories.

Greg Rucka was born on this day in 1969, and over the course of his career in comics and novels he's made his name as one of the go-to authors for gripping and tense thriller stories, as well as bold statements on the nature of superheroes, and careful and nuanced examinations of iconic characters.

Before her Eisner-winning work on Bandette, cartoonist Colleen Coover was best known for a lighthearted queer erotica comic called Small Favors. For years now, Small Favors has been discussed as a classic of comics erotica, and a rare book about sex by a women, aimed at women, about women who love women (but of course people who aren't women can enjoy it too). And for years, it's been out of print. But Limerence Press, the recently established Oni Comics imprint that focuses on erotica and sex education, is changing that. Coming in April 2017, Small Favors will be available in a new hardback collection, which includes both volumes of the black and white comic, plus the color special.

Whether it's to a Lisa Frank-ian medieval fantasy dimension or a dish-or-die intergalactic cooking competition, artist and writer Natalie Riess knows a thing or two about sending unwitting Earthlings to dangerous and dazzling new locales. Riess herself is the first person (Earthling or otherwise) to have a project greenlit through 2015's Oni Press open submissions program, where she landed Space Battle Lunchtime, an eight-issue miniseries about an Earthen pastry chef brought to compete for her life in not one, but two cooking competitions. Riess is also known for Snarlbear, her four-year-old comic about a monster slayer in the violent yet vibrant Rainbow Dimension. ComicsAlliance sat down with Riess at the Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo where, minutes before the interview, she had just won the day's Iron Cartoonist competition. It turns out creating comics about cooking-themed competitions prepares you to compete in them too.

When people get intensely into a fandom, they often develop strong feelings about characters. That emotional involvement can turn into shipping: "supporting or wishing for a particular romantic relationship" between characters, according to the ultimate fandom wiki Fanlore. This gift guide provides ideas for gifts for the shipper in your life across various fandoms. Of course, you may want to casually check who they ship before you buy anything!

Erika Moen's popular webcomic Oh Joy Sex Toy has been going strong since 2013, but there's still so much to be learned about sex, bodies, and of course the titular sex toys. For the sake of all of our continuing educations, Oh Joy Sex Toy, Vol. 3 is out in print next week, from Oni Comics' Limerence Press imprint. Co-written by Moen's husband Matthew Nolan, this 312-page book discusses sex from all angles, covering swinging, foreskins, queer porn production and more, in addition to the sex toy reviews that give the comic its name. In fact, this 13-page preview has a lot to teach you about UTIs, HPV, and vaginismus. And they really display how much fun Moen and Nolan can make even the most uncomfortable of topics.

Writer and artist Sophie Campbell became a fan-favorite through her work on creator-owned titles such as Wet Moon and Shadoweyes, and she's continued to grow her audience with amazing art for licensed properties at IDW, including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and a concept-redefining run on Jem And The Holograms with writer Kelly Thompson. ComicsAlliance sat down with Campbell at Flame Con in Brooklyn last month to talk about body diversity, her design process, and queer talent outreach.

Who’d have thought in a world where we have Chopped and Cutthroat Kitchen that one of the most popular cooking shows is about a group of British people being nice to each other in a tent? Great British Bake Off --- or The Great British Baking Show if you’re watching PBS --- has proved to be an international hit and people around the world are enthralled with the competition to find Britain’s next best baker. It may surprise you that there are actually a host of great cooking and baking based comic books, and the genre seems to be, excuse me, on the rise. If you love GBBO or baking and cooking in general, we’ve got a list of five great independent comics that might whet your appetite.