Kaptara

Pokémon Go is the biggest phenomenon of 2016, and everyone is getting up and going out and about in search of a Pikachu --- and likely coming home with armfuls of Drowzee and Ratatta. Niantic Labs have perfectly replicated the wishes of every child of the early 2000s and reminded us all why the world went crazy for Pokémon. If you love Pokémon Go and want to read some comics in a similar vein, we've assembled a list of five of the best comics to read while you're sat at a Pokestop waiting for your phone to buzz. Love that? Try this!

Deadpool is already the first big blockbuster of 2016, and its combination of over-the-top violence and irreverent humor has proved a hit with audiences. The film hits you hard and fast with joke after joke, and has some of the best fight scene choreography in superhero films to date. If Deadpool left you wanting more, and you’re looking for comics in a similar vein beyond the big two and the rather obvious choice of more Deadpool, there’s a wealth of choices out there. Whether it be indie, self-published or webcomics, we’re living in a golden age for comedy-action comics and we’ve selected five of the very best to scratch that particular itch.

I've been keeping my eye on the Humble Bundle for a long time now to find good deals on cheap comics, and one of the things that still surprises me every time there's a new one is that there's always something brand new in there. Take, for instance, the current bundle, which focuses on creator-owned comics from Image. Not only does it have Image mainstays like Invincible, Phonogram, and Saga, but it also includes the first volume of Chip Zdarsky and Kagan McLeod's Kaptara, collecting the first five issues of the series. Folks. Kaptara vol. 1 came out less than a month ago. #6 isn't even out yet. So on the off chance that you need an economic justification to get a whole bunch of comic books and support the Human Rights Campaign, just imagine that you're paying full price for Kaptara, Bitch Planet, and Just The Tips, and getting 47 issues of Invincible for free.

Today is Black Friday across America, where the world of retail becomes a living nightmare not unlike the Hunger Games. If, however, you're holed up in a bunker waiting for things to blow over, you can still get in on some pretty great deals. Today at Comixology, Image has launched a gigantic 50% off sale with a ton of great single issues and collections that you can pick up now to read while you stand in line trying to buy a six-dollar BluRay player or make conversation with your relatives. It should be noted that it's not on everything --- there are a couple of notable absences, including Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting's Velvet, for instance --- but there's more than enough there to get going, and as always, we've got some recommendations!

Over the course of its first five issues, Chip Zdarsky and Kagan McLeod's Kaptara introduced readers to an alien world where science, sorcery and barbarians collide for one of the year's weirdest adventures. What you might not realize, though, is how much the journey across the strange planet owes to General Hospital. Fortunately, Zdarsky is here to explain. With the book on the verge of closing out its first arc with this week's fifth issue, I spoke to Zdarsky about the origins of the project, how he and McLeod fleshed out the increasingly bizarre world in the story, the complicated storylines he'd play out with his action figures that formed the basis of the project and, of course, the time he went to a mall to see his favorite soap opera star and was laughed at by "a room full of housewives."

Sex Criminals co-creator Chip Zdarsky and Infinite Kung Fu author Kagan McLeod plan to take readers to colorful, strange, and rather gay new worlds with their new Image ongoing title Kaptara this April. Announced by Zdarsky himself and Image publisher Eric Stephenson at the one-day Image Expo in San Francisco on Thursday, the book sees a waylaid earthman sent on an odyssey through peculiar worlds inspired by the action figures of the 1980s, on a mission to save his home planet. The two Toronto-based writer-artists have known each other for years, and as they told ComicsAlliance, the roots of this collaboration go back to the studio they once shared. Kaptara is written by Zdarsky and illustrated in full color by McLeod, an acclaimed magazine illustrator making his return to comics. The story offers echoes of Flash Gordon and John Carter, and of Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples' Saga, only... gayer. More gay. ComicsAlliance met with the team to find out just how gay, and to get the ball rolling on Motivational Orb mania.