We’ve never had a “theme-week” here at The Splintering, but now that we’re a fully-ripe one year old, let’s change that! Starting Monday, 20 May, we’ll be launching SEGA Week! We’ll be posting reflections, features and other SEGA-themed content covering all eras of the gaming giant’s history from Master System to modern era! (It won’t be all Sonic the Hedgehog
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Comic book artist Brian Shearer has been teasing quite a bit of his upcoming bot-centric project Gunship Thunderpunch. Clearly inspired by his own previous work on The Transformers, Shearer’s Gunship Thunderpunch so far looks like a fun, colorful sci-fi adventure. Gunship Thunderpunch is set to begin crowdfunding on Indiegogo Monday, 27 May,* so set your calendar reminders or sign up
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On Wednesday, Coffin Comics launched a crowdfunding campaign for La Muerta: Ascension via Kickstarter. Much like the last Coffin Comics crowdfunding project’s, Ascension became an overnight success reaching more than 500% of its original goal at the time of this writing. This marks yet another strong showing for Coffin Comics, having conducted several other wildly successful campaigns including Brian Pulido’s
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On Wednesday, Doug Garrett launched a crowdfunding campaign for Legends of the Lone Wolf, an all-new comic anthology featuring the titular Native American hunter of the undead. Here’s a summary of the project taken from the Indiegogo campaign page. “This full color 80 page anthology was handcrafted by a series of different teams. As the character’s creator, I joined with artists Marshall Lee
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Arc System Works has announced the first batch of four new characters coming to BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle as part of season 2 DLC. “Update 1.5” will include BlazBlue series veteran Naoto Kurogane, Teddie from Persona 4, Seth the Assassin from Under Night In-Birth, and Heart Aino from Arcana Hearts, which represents a completely new franchise added to the crossover
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One of the more objective & insightful voices commenting on the comic book industry is Perch, an anonymous comic book shop owner who has appeared on several social media channels including the Larry King and Alterna Comics YouTube channels. Below are Perch’s thoughts on Marvel’s cancellation of The Unstoppable Wasp, and what major comic book publishers could learn about marketing
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On Monday, 2923 Comics launched a crowdfunding campaign for the second issue of The Scarlet Knight: Defender of the Block via Indiegogo. The Scarlet Knight is planned as a ten-issue series created by Juaquan Herron. There’s no shortage of horror and fantasy tales featuring monsters wreaking havoc in the countryside and the suburbs, and there are plenty of sci-fi and
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Over the weekend, the Indiegogo campaign for the second printing of Jawbreakers: Lost Souls ended successfully, raising 374% of its original goal for a total of more than $56 thousand. Titled Jawbreakers – Lost Souls Remastered, the graphic novel is a superhero action/adventure story written by Richard C. Meyer (Iron Sights) and featuring illustrations by Jon Malin (Thunderbolts, Graveyard Shift)
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Comic creator Ethan Wylie has been teasing some character concepts for a future project titled Quincy: Into the Fray. The project is still rather early in development, as Wylie has not yet started drawing pages and is still fleshing out concept art. Wylie intends to launch a crowdfunding campaign to fund Quincy Into the Fray in 2020 or 2021, but
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Described as a “masturbating chaos” game, Wanking Simulator is a first-person comedy game in which players control Winston Gay, a man out for revenge on his girlfriend Alyssa Milano neighbors after being kicked from his home. How does Winston exact his vengeance? By running around the town, masturbating like mad in front of everyone you can find! Wanking Simulator is
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On Monday, comic book creator Doug TenNapel launched an Indiegogo campaign for a book he’s waited over two decades to create: the origin of his most famous creation: Earthworm Jim. Titled Earthworm Jim: Launch the Cow, the 160-page graphic novel with finally tell the story of Jim, Psycrow, Princess What’s-Her-Name, and the many unique worlds they inhabit. Oh, and at
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Overnight, the crowdfunding campaign for The Case of the Littlest Umbrella ended successfully, raising more than 768% of its original goal for a total of over $75 thousand. With those numbers, the project met several of its stretch goals including signed books, cover art colored by Kyle Ritter, extra pages added to the premium perk ashcan book The Story of
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The same week that comic book publishers Oni Press and Lion Forge Comics revealed that they are merging, the inevitable announcement of layoffs followed. With dozens now out of work looking for employment in a struggling comic book industry, the prospects of a lifeline may seem bleak. As it turns out, Splatto Comics founder Ya’ boi Zack (aka Richard C.
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SNK has revealed another trailer featuring one of Samurai Shodown‘s 16 playable characters, this time highlighting series veteran Charlotte. You can watch Charlotte’s character trailer below. Samurai Shodown is published by Athlon Games and is scheduled for release this June on PS4 and Xbox One. A version for Nintendo Switch is expected in Q4 2019 while the Windows PC version does
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Rob Liefeld’s latest book Major X has been quite a shot in the arm for the comic book industry. Issue 3 of Major X just hit comic store shelves, and like the issues before it, it’s frequently selling out and destined for a second printing. With the direct market struggling, comic book stores closing, and comic industry reports tagging in
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U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) will propose legislation banning “pay to win” features and in-game “loot boxes” in games for children under 18 and games with a wide user base but “whose developers knowingly allow minor players to engage in microtransactions.” The proposed legislation empowers the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state attorneys general to treat pay-to-win features and loot
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The Chinese version of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) has been removed by the game’s publisher Tencent and replaced with Game for Peace, which is essentially a mod of the original PUBG altered to provide “healthy, positive cultural and value guidance” for Chinese players. Tencent agreed to tone down some of the more mature themes of PUBG in 2017, but even after
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*Update! Late on Wednesday, Facebook restored the Bounding Into Comics page without any changes, nor any explanation regarding why it was removed. On Sunday, the Bounding Into Comics Facebook page was a popular entertainment-themed outlet with 250+ thousand followers featuring content from the Bounding Into Comics website. On Monday morning, the page was simply gone. So what happened? According to
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Over the weekend, comic book and video game creator Doug TenNapel (Bigfoot Bill, Earthworm Jim) visited Beale Air Force Base as an honored guest of the 940th Refueling Wing. The occasion? The Air Force was commissioning a new KC-135 plane, and members of the wing had selected a piece of TenNapel’s artwork to adorn the plane’s nose. The design for
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NGDEV recently announced that their “Eurostyle platformer” Gunlord X is coming to the Nintendo Switch eShop on 22 May. Originally released as Gunlord for both the SEGA Dreamcast and Neo Geo in 2012, Gunlord X an enhanced port of the original featuring quite a few tweaks and updates to round out the package. The game looks to take significant inspiration
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On Tuesday, aspiring comic book creator Ryan Cardinal launched a crowdfunding campaign for KAYAS: a Story of Blood and Stone via Indiegogo. KAYAS is a 48-page, manga-inspired black and white action/fantasy graphic novel intended as the first part of a massive (over one thousand pages) series filled with “high-impact action, martial arts mayhem, swords, sorcery, monsters and the spirit of
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Capcom recently announced that the original Devil May Cry is coming this summer to the Nintendo Switch. It’s difficult to gauge the impact of this announcement as details are scant at the moment. After all, it’s quite possible that the Nintendo Switch version of DMC will be little more than a simple standalone port of the game included in the
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On Monday, Alterna Comics founder Peter Simeti announced that the independent comic book publisher will introduce a new line of 80-page giant books for just $4.99. This would be in addition to the company’s line of standard-sized “cat-spanker” comics which run between 99 cents and $1.99. There are no details on the titles or genres that will be a part
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Over the weekend, the crowdfunding campaign for Clint Stoker’s graphic novel Downcast ended successfully on Indiegogo, raising more than $26 thousand. By reaching that total, the Downcast project met every one of its stretch goals, included extra story pages, a sketch and development section, and a foil-stamped cover. But what’s Downcast all about? Downcast is a 52-page science fiction graphic
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According to a recent interview with Platinum Games studio head Atushi Inaba, the development approach to Bayonetta 3 is very different than previous installments of the series. Inaba noted that the Bayonetta development team has learned enough from their experience creating the first two games to improve its approach, and that Platinum is not following “an orthodox development process.” “With
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Overnight, the crowdfunding campaign for historical graphic novel Tokyo Rose: Zero Hour ended successfully, raising more than $8 thousand. Tokyo Rose: Zero Hour is a one-shot graphic novel written by Andre Frattino and featuring illustrations by Kate Kasenow which retells the story of Iva Toguri, a Japanese American who was torn between two hemispheres and loyalties during World War II.
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There’s plenty of room for more than one frog on the indie comics scene. At least, that’s what Oddity creator Sean Sweeney is banking on. He’s been teasing his upcoming project Oddity on social media for weeks, though the launch date for his Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign isn’t set in stone. Responding to our inquiry, Sweeney noted, “I want to make
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It’s a great month for Earthworm Jim fans. Hot off the heels of the release of his Bigfoot Bill graphic novel, comic book author and Earthworm Jim creator Doug TenNapel has revealed that an Earthworm Jim comic book is in the works. This news comes just days after Intellivision announced that a new Earthworm Jim video game is in development
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According to ArtPlay and 505 Games, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night will release on 18 June for PS4, Xbox One and PC, while the Nintendo Switch version will arrive on 25 June. Bloodstained‘s release marks the end of a storied development. Spearheaded by Castlevania producer Koji Igarashi, the game set new records on Kickstarter in 2015, becoming the short-lived most
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Comic book writer J. Ishiro Finney (Casefile: Arkham) has been shopping around for an artist to illustrate his sci-fi series Bombshell, but his search has come to an end. Finney announced on social media that artist Joseph White has agreed to lend his Illustrating talents to the project. While the hunt for a colorist is still ongoing, Bombshell is at
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