Boom Studios

As another Steven Bomb ends, we once again enter that dark purgatory in between regular Steven Universe episodes. However, thanks to Kaboom's new Steven Universe ongoing by Melanie Gillman and Katy Farina, we don't have to go entirely Steven-less, as the series launches next week with a story all about Steven, Peridot and Lapis Lazuli discovering an injured baby bird while none of the other, more responsible Crystal Gems are around.

We're pretty high on comics about cooking and baking here at ComicsAlliance, which means Sam Sykes, Selina Espiritu and Sarah Stern's Brave Chef Brianna is one of our most anticipated new series of the year. Ahead of its release in March, Boom Studios has provided us with an exclusive first look at colored pages from the first issue, as well as the first-ever chalkboard back cover in comics!

The GLAAD Media Awards have always provided an interesting marker for the progress of queer representation in mainstream comics. While in the past many comics received nominations and accolades for achieving minimal levels of inclusion, the industry is now bustling with competition for the award, which celebrates LGBTQ characters and themes in comics. This year's shortlist is the biggest one yet, and the field is wide open for anyone to take home the coveted award.

Two great sci-fi properties come together next week with Planet of the Apes/Green Lantern #1. Written by Justin Jordan from a story by Robbie Thompson, with art by Barnaby Bagenda, this is the beginning of a six-issue miniseries that connects character from the Planet of the Apes movies to DC's Green Lantern mythology.

As Ladycastle #1 begins, Aeve is a princess in the grand Disney-esque tradition, singing a song to welcome in the day and introduce us to her world. But from the very beginning of this comic, things are a little off-kilter. Aeve's song is about the terrible cabin fever that she feels from being trapped in a tower, and her pet is a two-headed snake. Even at this point, before the narrative turns fairy tropes on their head as we know it will, it's clear that this world is different, and so is this princess.

Today is Inauguration Day, and Donald Trump is the 45th president of the United States. And really, it's obvious why he won. After eight years with one of the most qualified and accomplished presidents in generations, what America really needed was a vain, egotistical, thin-skinned braggart with a long history of bullying and abusive statements, absolutely no experience in public service, and a track record of astonishing failure. If you voted to Make America Great Again, here are some comics to dig into while you wait for all those manufacturing jobs to come back, and for those pesky SJWs to finally be put in their place.

Imagine a world where every person has their own god. Not just their own view or idea of god (that would be our world), but their own personal diety, visible and following them around and helping them exert influence over the world. Now imagine you lived in the world and didn't have a god of your own. That's the plight facing Ennay, the protagonist of Godshaper, a new ongoing comic written by Si Spurrier with art by Jonas Goonface. Ennay isn't just a man with no god. He has powers over the gods of others. He's also found a friend, in a small god with no accompanying human named Bud. But gods aren't supposed to exist without their humans, so what's Bud's deal? That's only one part of the story that Godshaper will be telling. As part of our exclusive reveal of this exciting project, we had a chat with Spurrier and Goonface about what makes a god, what makes a world, and what it means to have a world with so many gods running loose in it.

While there have been many attempts to adapt the world of WWE, no-one has tried to fill in the gaps between weekly episodes of Raw and SmackDown, a gap in the market now filled by Dennis Hopeless and Serg Acuña's new WWE title at Boom Studios. With the first issue of the ongoing on sale today, ComicsAlliance chatted with Hopeless about adapting wrestling into comics, finding his place in established continuity and his relationship with WWE corporate.

The question most often asked of the ComicsAlliance staff is a variation of, “Which comic books should I be reading?” or, “I’m new to comics, what’s a good place to start?” The Wednesday deluge of new comic books, graphic novels and collected editions can be daunting even for the longtime reader, much less for those totally unfamiliar with creators, characters and publishers, and the dark mysteries of comic book shopping like variants, pre-ordering, and formats. It’s with these challenges in mind that we’ve created Best Comic Books Ever (This Week), an ongoing guide curated by the ComicsAlliance staff. This is where new comics readers and seasoned Wednesday shoppers alike can find our picks of the best books the medium has to offer.

The question most often asked of the ComicsAlliance staff is a variation of, “Which comic books should I be reading?” or, “I’m new to comics, what’s a good place to start?” The Wednesday deluge of new comic books, graphic novels and collected editions can be daunting even for the longtime reader, much less for those totally unfamiliar with creators, characters and publishers, and the dark mysteries of comic book shopping like variants, pre-ordering, and formats. It’s with these challenges in mind that we’ve created Best Comic Books Ever (This Week), an ongoing guide curated by the ComicsAlliance staff. This is where new comics readers and seasoned Wednesday shoppers alike can find our picks of the best books the medium has to offer.