Wrestlemania 34 takes place in the SUPERdome this weekend, and Funko has gotten in on the fun by announcing a new wave of WWE Pop Tees and Pops figures. There are some really sweet figures in this assortment, both classic and new Superstars. All of these products will come out in the summer, but the Pop Tees are available in limited quantities at the Wrestlemania Superstore this weekend in New Orleans.
Said Pop Tees are above. All three technically are Wrestlemania related, although they got the gear wrong for the Wrestlemania 7 match. They nailed the Rock vs Stone Cold old school fight card poster look for the Wrestlemania 17 one, and Shawn Michaels zip-lining into the ring at Wrestlemania 12. Someone in New Orleans wanna pick that one up for me?
All of the Pops are must-buys. That entrance gear for Triple H is my all-time favorite, from Wrestlemania 27. So iconic and badass, I hate the the masked version is a chase, but I get it. The Hardy Boyz merch blitz continues since they rejoined the company at last years show of shows. At least they come in a two-pack. The Kurt Angle and Sgt. Slaughter figures look exceptional as well. Sarge needs a more pointy chin if we are going to split hairs here, but he still looks incredible. And finally a Vince McMahon!
Now THIS is where I get upset. Asuka is one of the most-popular wrestlers on the roster. She has such a different look and many, many fans are going to want to add her to their collections. Too bad they will never see it. She is a Target exclusive. There is even a chase version with a mask, and a Walmart exclusive with her more recent mask as well. Target Funko exclusives might as well not even exist. The store never stocks them, the website exclusives sell out in 5 minutes or less most times, and they never release on time. Target is the worst store to partner with and Funko does not understand this. It is frustrating for fans and collectors, and after many snafus with releases (Yondu? Sexy Goldblum?) you would think they would stop. Nope, and with Toys R Us no longer an option, they will continue to get exclusives. They should have made it a WWE Shop exclusive! But that doesn’t make sense apparently. maybe someday they will overprint the Target figures but until that day comes the scalpers shall have their field day.
Happy anniversary to our friends at Entertainment Earth! It’s their 22nd birthday, but you get the presents. For just a few days, they are offering buy one and get a 2nd for 60% off on over 100 Entertainment Earth Exclusives. They’ve got the Hulk, the Joker, Funko figures, Mezco toys, robots in disguises, and so much more. Don’t waste another moment reading this message. Click here to see all the goodies before they’re gone, and get your order in right away!
In an effort to recognize our most special accounts and loyal retailers, F unko is continuing our Specialty Series. Every month, we’ll be announcingtwo major exclusives – this month includes a Dorbz 2-pack and Rock Candy!
Why is it so special? You’ll only be able to find these Specialty Series exclusives in boutique retail, specialty stores, local comic book shops andfrom qualified online retailers. This is your chance to help support local businessesand smaller retailers, and you’ll pick up an amazing exclusive item in the process!
Our latest exclusives are a Rick and Morty Dorbz 2-Pack and Evil-Lyn Rock Candy!
Remember, these two fantastic pieces are exclusive to the Specialty Series.
So pay a visit to your favorite specialty store or your local c omic bookshop and let them know to order the Specialty Series from Funko.
Keep following Funko and subscribe to our newsl etter to find outabout next month’s Specialty Series exclusives!
Dorbz: Rick and Morty – Police Rick and Morty (2-pack)
The Straw Hat Crew and other members of the Japanese manga series One Piece are now Funko Mystery Minis!
Collect Monkey. D. Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Tonytony. Chopper and many more!
At Hot Topic look for Monkey. D. Luf fy utilizing Gear Fourth,Corazón and Trafagar. Law as a child.
Pop Roc is the name of a new comic shop opening on 337 East Ave, Rochester, New York, previously a Magic Wings. But it’s also a coffee shop. And a cereal bar. And, frankly, a brand-new type of comic shop.
And it’s co-owned by former WWE Crash Test Dummy Colin Delaney, alongside Jason Hilton, Nick Andolina, and Liz Andolina.
Opening on Friday, they will have original coffees from local roasters Fifth Frame and CanalTown, Death Wish coffee (which contains the highest amount of caffeine allowed), and a wall of energy drinks — as well as mocktinis formed from them.
Hilton’s collection of toys will be repurposed as décor, and Pop Roc will offer a comic discovery program that offers some comics for free to anyone and others to those who pay $20 a month. The program allows you to read what you want in store from 20 chosen titles a week, and eventually those comics will be donated. Seriously. They say:
Our “Comic Discovery Program” will let you read brand new books, the day they come out, before you buy them. Try that at any other comic shop at your own risk.
This allows you to read books you may have never gotten a chance to read. Maybe you never even thought you wanted to read but suddenly find yourself unable to put it down. Maybe you just couldn’t afford to read those title and now you can.
That’s pretty cool if you ask me.
We will offer around 20 new titles a week in the program. That’s up to 80 titles a month. If you’re doing the math, that’s well over a $300 a month value.
Hopefully people will sit and drink some coffee, energy drinks or even have a bowl of cereal. You could also grab one of the latest Funko Pops, an old school G1 Transformer or one of our exclusive fanny packs. All while being able to just sit, read or watch some cool cartoons.
Which means the famous cry from comic shop owners, “hey, this isn’t a lending library,” can now be countered with the riposte, “kinda is.”
The reprint effort leads off with Two Little Nuns, the first of Bill O’Malley’s four books of nun cartoons. Originally published in 1950 by the Catholic magazine Extension, the book was an immediate smash, going through six printings in under a year. It launched long-time cartoonist O’Malley’s book career, and he would go on to do books of original cartoons about a range of topics – parenthood, medical care, golf, and more. But with all his success, the nun cartoons were always what he was best known for.
Along with that comes reprints of five books of nun cartoons by Joe Lane, a pre-Golden Age comic book artist and World War II Navy veteran who became Extension‘s main nun guy in the wake of O’Malley’s departure. These books – More Little Nuns, Our Little Nuns, Nuns So Lovely, Vale of Dears, and Yes, Sister! No, Sister! – were all originally published during the 1950s.
The seventh book is a new collection of old cartoons. Nun Funnies! has hundreds of cartoons by Joe Lane, one for every day of the year, including most of the cartoons from the five smaller Lane collections as well as additional cartoons not found in any of the other books. Lane’s work used African and Native American caricatures that are properly understood to be inappropriate today. To maintain the reprints of the original collections, these cartoons are included in the smaller books. However, the Nun Funnies! collection skips these cartoons.
If this is successful, AboutComics already has plans for further books of nun cartoons. The books now available through Amazon and wholesale:
Two Little Nuns by Bill O’Malley (ISBN 978-1936404766), 5.25″x8″, 76 pages, black and white, cover price $7.99. Original edition issued 1950.
Nun Funnies!by Joe Lane (ISBN 978-1936404773), 8.5″x11″, 136 pages, black and white, cover price $14.99.
The following books by Joe Lane are each 5.25″x8″, 76 pages, black and white, cover price $7.99:
More Little Nuns (ISBN 978-1936404780), original edition issued 1950.
Our Little Nuns (ISBN 978-1936404803), original edition issued 1954.
Bleeding Cool hasn’t run any April Fools this year again — but others weren’t so reticent.
Alice’s copy of Britain’s best ongoing comic book by far, The Phoenix, came through the post on Friday with its most recent weekly issue with a brand-new format for this week… and a big change.
The all-colour comic was going all black-and-white. Britain’s weekly comic books have traditionally been black-and-white affairs, but they at least had colour covers…
…and it seemed that would be the way it was. Quite a surprise for little Alice, who started wondering if she would have to colour each page in, in order to retain her usual reading experience. But one page turn later…
…the truth was revealed. She was thoroughly April Fooled.
DC Comics announced a new Trunks Initiative.
Since the arrival of Superman in ACTION COMICS #1, trunks have been an essential element of Super Hero design. With the Man of Steel returning to his classic look in this spring’s ACTION COMICS #1000, DC is proud to announce a line-wide initiative that returns its characters to their classic trunks look. Even characters whose original designs never included the iconic outerwear will receive a pants-lift, with bespoke trunks designed by some of DC’s top artists.
Batman? His trunks are back. Wonder Woman? Trunks. Lex Luthor? That guy’s got a whole designer closet full of them (they go over his three-piece suits). Now fans everywhere can rejoice that, indeed, the trunks are back—all of them.
These inspired trunks designs come from some of comics’ most acclaimed creators who spent a painstaking three-month creative retreat making sure each and every pair had its own unique design and rich backstory. While the core designs will start to appear shortly after ACTION COMICS #1000, DC’s tireless artists have created trunks for a variety of future storylines, including Mecha-Trunks and Omega Beam Trunks.
The character redesigns will be an integral component in a special one-shot, DC UNIVERSE: INFINITE TRUNKS #1, following the April 18 release of ACTION COMICS #1000. The must-read issue will introduce the reworked costumes, which tie into a larger mystery involving the Multiverse that will be explored in JUSTICE LEAGUE: NO JUSTICE, a special JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK storyline titled “Unite the Trunks,” and the JUSTICE LEAGUE ODYSSEY crossover “A Lot More Trunks.”
For additional info on the line-wide trunks expansion, please follow us on social media at @DCComics, hashtag #AprilFools
They had to literally give it away at the end though. Poor show. Other notable April Fool’s this year includes Nat Gertler’s About Comics announcing a change of direction.
Everyone knows what holiday it is – it’s Easter! Tiny/mighty comics publisher About Comics is taking advantage of the most joyful holiday on the Roman Catholic calendar to announce its joyful and oh so Catholic change of direction. After two decades of publishing not just comics but an ever-widening array of comics creation guides and tools, novels, audiobooks, and items of historical interest, About Comics has decided to focus on becoming America’s preeminent publisher of books of cartoons about nuns.
“Nun humor has been a staple for a long time, whether it’s Sister Act, Nunsense, Sister Mary Elephant, or The Flying Nun. But for some reason, culture has chosen to forget what presaged all of those – the classic single-panel nun cartoons from 1950s Catholic publications,” explained About Comics founder and head nun cartoon expert Nat Gertler. “Now, we’re going to put all the company’s energy into reviving these lost works.”
The publisher is immediately releasing reprints of classic nun cartoon collections, featuring such diverse little titles as Two Little Nuns, More Little Nuns, and Our Little Nuns. For the sake of representation, these will be accompanied with some little books of non-sized-limited nuns – specifically Nuns So Lovable, Vale of Dears, and Yes, Sister! No, Sister!
And for those customers who are just not interested in little books of nun cartoons, About Comics is proud to offer Nun Funnies!, a full 8.5″x11″ paperback with a life-time supply of nun cartoons. There’s more than one cartoon for every day of the year, even Lent, and you can read it again and again.
“We’re ready for the inevitable nun cartoon explosion,” explains Gertler, “and we’re not stopping here. In the future, nun cartoon aficionados can look for such great About Comics titles as Kids’ Sisters, Nice Habits, and All For Nun.”
The first seven titles in the About Comics new nun direction are available through Amazon and for wholesale order as of April 1. Happy holiday, everyone!
There were lost of genre-April Fools abounding. Director David F Sandberg‘s Shazam teaser…
San Antonio is thrilled to announce its newest Sister City relationship with the country of Wakanda!
We look forward to future cultural, economic, and educational exchange – specifically relating to the use of the newly discovered material ‘Vibranium’! pic.twitter.com/RnCV9pJUdu
Archaeologists from @ArcDurham@durhamuni make important announcement about their recent work on Holy Island – First discovery of porg bones in a secure archaeological content pic.twitter.com/fCB07Mjwaa
The 501st Legion introduced cosplay standards for a topless Kylo Ren costume, requiring that “shredded arms and chest match the costumer’s natural skin tone.”
Jeff Vandermeer announced his books were being rewritten for kids…
Happy to announce this new project I've been working on: Rewritten kids' versions of Southern Reach Trilogy = emphasize environmental message for a new generation! Out later this year from kids' book divisions of my adult publishers @fsgbooks@tenno@4thEstateBooks@CookeMcDermidpic.twitter.com/PtOyCn8zaW
You’ve been scared of love and what it did to you, but you don’t have to run ’cause I know what you’ve been through. Just a simple touch and it can set you free, so we don’t have to rush when you’re alone with… The Weekly Static!
With much love and respect to The Weeknd (who just released a new EP)…I’ll put it to you, Greg: isn’t this an indictment of our entire American society? Well, you can do what you you want to us, but we’re not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of…
The Weekly Static is our look at the past week in the land of the networks, cable, streaming, smoke signals, cloud formations, and shadow puppets from an interesting and entertaining perspective. So The Weekly Static’s “Justice League” (myself, Rocky, Trejo, Bat-Murr and Margo Staten) makes you these three promises… because we’re good like that:
● Offer blunt, honest perspectives on five TV topics from the past week covered by Bleeding Cool’s team of news-thirsty writers. Just to be clear? My views are my views and don’t reflect on the writers. We own what we say 110%.
● Spotlight a news item that we missed when it first hit, but we’re pretty sure you’ll want to know about.
● Feed my insatiable-yet-fragile ego with buckets of praise, adulation, social media shares, pizza, Superman Funkos, Eisner Awards, write-in votes for the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election (now more than ever) and my own private island-nation.
“If NBC were looking for a higher-stakes musical to broadcast live on TV, it’s hard to imagine the Peacock landing a bigger fish than “Jesus Christ Superstar.” The rock opera musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice has been revered and reviled over the course of its 47-year history, and the network’s faith in being able to pull off a one-time-only performance at the Brooklyn Armory on April 1 is tantamount to suggesting it can turn water into wine.
Fortunately, “Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert” is riding on more than faith. Producers Neil Meron and Craig Zadan (“Hairspray Live,” “The Sound of Music Live,” three Oscar telecasts) are in charge of their fifth such Broadway-to-TV production, and by bringing on board below-the-line artisans with both stage and screen expertise, what could have been a tricky gamble is likely to pay off big… {more}”
and Omega Beam Trunks
(@COSAIRO) 
