ted brandt

With Civil War II done and dusted, Marvel has its eyes on the next big event to change everything forever. The publisher has shared teasers for an upcoming storyline titled "Secret Empire," but no further information has been revealed. Given the current storyline in Captain America: Steve Rogers, in which Rogers has been rewritten as a secret fascist, and the events of the original "Secret Empire" story, in which the US government was infiltrated by extremists at the highest levels, it seems likely that the new "Secret Empire" story will see Rogers' HYDRA insinuate its way further into the Marvel Universe --- and the groundwork has been laid with the appointment of a new director of SHIELD in this week's Marvel comics.

For just over five years, Action Lab Comics has been one of the key indie publishers leading the trend towards diverse storytelling, and one of the biggest feathers in its cap, alongside series like Voracious, Nutmeg, and Molly Danger, is the Eisner-nominated, Glyph-winning, all-ages fantasy series Princeless, an empowering take on fairytale princess tropes.

Marvel's Monster's Unleashed still has the tie-ins we've come to expect from event comics, but rather than taking up space and derailing the ongoing creative team's story, Marvel is publishing one-shots, giving other creators a chance to pit Marvel heroes against classic Marvel monsters. Today, the publisher announced four more one-shots as part of the event, as the war against the monsters goes global.

With the release of Princeless: The Pirate Princess, creator Jeremy Whitley really started to take his all-ages princess-power series and boost it deep into the consciousness of the comics community. Following Raven, the aforementioned Princess of the High Seas, as she gangs up forces with two other princesses, the third volume of the story was drawn by the team of Rosy Higgins and Ted Brandt in their first ever published work. That's a hugely impressive feat, especially given that they had to jump straight in on a continuing series after two volumes, and keep pace with a world of dragons, swashbuckling and piracy. They don't have a simple artist-colorist sort of arrangement, either --- both of them alternate back and forth throughout the creative process. With Princeless proving to be one of the breakout books from Action Lab of the last few years (as well as one of our most-recommended comics for kids on this very site), ComicsAlliance spoke to Higgins and Brandt about their artistic process.

The holiday season is upon us, and with that comes gifts! It’s always lovely to receive something special from someone you love, but there’s also a particular pleasure that comes in giving a really well chosen gift and knowing that it’s truly appreciated. Sometimes it really is better to give than to receive! In that spirit, ComicsAlliance is here to inspire you with some great ideas for gifts to buy for your friends and family. Each gift guide is tailored to a particular personality type or special interests, and today we’re picking out comics gifts for the biggest, most important group of all; kids!