In a year of comic market volatility and uncertainty, IDW is pledging its support for Direct Market comic retailers by extending full returnability on all new releases through at least the end of July, and removing all associated fees for the foreseeable future. These moves help to provide comic specialty shops a risk-free opportunity to stock new launches and other key IDW releases — allowing retailers to order with confidence and effectively gauge customer demand.
Brazilian/Dutch death metal alliance CRYPTA have officially signed with Napalm Records and Napalm Events. Formed in June 2019, the four-piece line up consists of Fernanda Lira and Luana Dametto, both former members of Brazilian thrash metal force NERVOSA, plus the talented Sonia Anubis (Cobra Spell, ex-Burning Witches) and Tainá Bergamaschi (ex-Hagbard).
Rage are back from the Corona crisis with a double bang: as had already been rumoured behind the scenes, guitarist Marcos Rodriguez has left the band. To replace him, vocalist/bassist Peavy Wagner has welcomed two new stringsmen to the Rage fold. New addition Stefan Weber (ex-Axxis) was introduced to the public at the METAL HAMMER online show in early May, now the band has presented its second new member, Jean Bormann (formerly Angelic, Rage & Ruins).
Thrash metal is the common ancestor of all extreme metal in that we wouldn’t have death metal, grindcore, or black metal without it. Back when Venom came on the scene and influenced the likes of Metallica in the early 80’s, everything changed from what the 70’s had worked up, and henceforth did metal become less of a fad and more of a movement that we all identify with today. Bands like Metallica and Slayer are the crème de la crème of the genre, but what about the smaller bands from the second wave that emerged? I took it upon myself to explore the debut albums from bands I’ve enjoyed but never listened to. It’s here I confess that I never gave these albums the time of day because...
“Dragons and fairy tales are only cool if Ronnie James Dio is signing it,” is something you’d probably hear some boomer metalhead say in a bar while bashing everything post-1989. Granted, let’s be honest: rock and nerd-fantasy culture have been crossing over for a while, so that statement would be ignorant. You’re just too closed-minded to accept it. Power metal still gets a bad rap, and its safe-natured approach and anthemic, four-course meal of cheese and tropes can be silly at times no matter how fun it is. But you know what makes the genre cooler and much more fascinating? Throwing some prog into the mix.
In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ice Cream Man creators W. Maxwell Prince and Martín Morazzo launched an online-only series of mini-comics set in the ICM universe. The collection of these stories, Ice Cream Man Presents: Quarantine Comix #1, will be available in print for the first time from Image Comics this September.
