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Baobab Studios lands Naver Ventures backing, sets SHINE as flagship title

Taco Bell has partnered with Salt & Straw just in time to bring you a brand-new reason to keep breathing: a churro ice cream taco!

The Northwest Portland house where Ursula K. Le Guin wrote nearly six decades' worth of genre-defining fiction has officially joined the National Register of Historic Places.

Kawaii metal meets the undead (again) as the band's latest comics tie-in goes up for pre-order. BABYMETAL is crossing over into Marvel's zombie-verse. The band announced on Wednesday, September 2, 2026, that it will appear on an exclusive variant cover for Marvel Zombies: War Zone (2026) #1, marking its latest — and highest-profile — foray into comics. The cover, illustrated by veteran Marvel artist Phil Noto, is limited to a 3,500-copy print run. General pre-orders opened S

Marshmallows, get your wallets ready — there's a new Veronica Mars project to back, and this one's a book. Film critic Jen Johans, known online as @filmintuition, has launched The Veronica Mars Book Project on Kickstarter, a "lovingly researched, behind-the-scenes oral history and companion" to the show that turned a canceled teen-noir into a fandom-powered franchise. The campaign went live this week at www.kickstarter.com/projects/watchwithjen/veronica-mars-book-project. Joh

You can soon own your own pocket-sized Hellmouth, thanks to Mattel Creations. Via Nerdist, the toy giant unveiled a Buffy the Vampire Slayer Polly Pocket compact, mashing up two of the '90s and early '00s most enduring pieces of pop culture into one collectible. The set includes micro figures of Buffy, Willow, and Angel, plus a mini stake and a tiny Vampyr book for the figures to hold. The compact itself opens into two scenes ripped straight from Sunnydale: the top half recre

Dolly Parton, the country music icon and philanthropist who died Tuesday, August 25, 2026, at 80, following a brief battle with cancer. She leaves behind a legacy that reaches well beyond Nashville and into the rural hills of San Diego County's backcountry (my home), where her Imagination Library has quietly reshaped early childhood literacy for six years. Parton died surrounded by family in Nashville, according to a family statement, after a brief battle with cancer. She wa

Review: In a world of dead-end trauma narratives, CAMP MIASMA OFFERS a way forward

The gothic horror cult classic is riding a fresh wave of momentum — a Dark Horse comic, new manga, and now a full theatrical rollout. GKIDS announced Saturday at Anime NYC 2026 that it has acquired the North American theatrical and home video rights to Yoshiaki Kawajiri’s Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, with a full theatrical release set for 2027. The 2000 dark fantasy film, animated at Madhouse and based on Hideyuki Kikuchi‘s long-running novel series, has spent over two decade

General Mills and Netflix announced the team up of the century (at least for your nostalgic belly) giving KPop Demon Hunters fans a reason to hit the cereal aisle — or, more accurately, to skip it entirely and head straight to Walmart.com. The retailer is now the exclusive home of a limited-edition HUNTR/X Lucky Charms bundle, announced via Instagram by @luckycharms. The set centers on an 18.6 oz box of Peach Mango–flavored Lucky Charms wrapped in HUNTR/X cover art — Rumi fro

Dark Horse Comics used its Anime NYC 2026 panel at the Javits Center on Friday, August 21, 2026, to unveil three new titles for manga fans—two manga volumes and, notably, the publisher's first-ever original comic series set in the Vampire Hunter D universe. The headliner is Vampire Hunter D: Fortress of Blood, a four-issue miniseries breaking from the franchise's usual manga-adaptation format to tell an original story in single-issue comic form. Alongside it, Dark Horse confi

Manga Mavericks Books used its panel at Anime NYC 2026 to unveil two new manga licenses, plus a restoration project digging up lost color art from a decades-old shoujo classic. During its panel, Manga Mavericks announced Midnight Robot, an alt-sci-fi action series from Yohei Sajita, and Arai-kun & Haruma-senpai, a boys' love slice-of-life romance from Akahachi. The publisher also revealed it's restoring never-before-collected color pages from The Sword of Paros for the series

Manga platform and publisher Omoi used their industry panel at Anime NYC 2026 to unveil a trio of catalog updates—one new digital license, one print debut, and a wave of additions to their Premium subscription tier. The company announced it has licensed Love Is the Sweetest Journey, a travel-themed romantic comedy from Momoshiro and Tomoko Mitsuki, for exclusive digital distribution. Omoi also revealed that A Snow Fox at the Northern Fort—already available digitally on the pl

Tilly Bridges, the trans screenwriter and Matrix historian behind Begin Transmission: The Trans Allegories of the Matrix, is teasing something new, and this time she's got some extra exciting backup.

Texas has added a new wave of comics and graphic novels to its state-level book-restriction apparatus, and the titles caught in the net this time include a middle-grade graphic novel about a non-binary kid and a squad of magical dog superheroes.

BAD IDEA has landed a genuine coup for its horror-comic-meets-vinyl experiment: Krysten Ritter is joining the all-star voice cast of IT Demands Sacrifice: Record Read-A-Long, the limited-edition 7" vinyl companion to the publisher's upcoming horror series IT Demands Sacrifice from Philip Gelatt and David Yarovesky.

Calling all Mofusand fans! Random House Worlds is officially bringing the viral Japanese kawaii cats, known collectively as Mofusand, to shelves this fall, with a trio of licensed books arriving September 1, 2026. Fans of the adorable cats will be able to preview the book series RHW’s booth (#1540) at Anime NYC 2026, taking place this weekend, August 20th to 23rd. For anyone just catching on, Mofusand first debuted in 2017 as illustrations posted online by Japanese artist Jun

San Diego FC is doing something no other MLS club has done: teaming up with VIZ Media to celebrate Captain Tsubasa, written and illustrated by Yōichi Takahashi, the manga about a FIFA player that convinced an entire generation soccer balls could defy physics. The partnership lands on September 16, 2026, when SDFC takes on Club Tijuana in the 2026 Baja Cup, a match that now doubles as a Tsubasa tribute, scarf included. Fans can grab a Captain Tsubasa Ticket Package: one match

This one’s personal. Repeat after me: Don’t use AI for nutrition, fitness, and wellbeing advice. Eating-disorder therapists are raising alarm over a pattern showing up in their sessions: patients uploading photos of themselves to AI chatbots and asking for weight-loss or muscle-building tips, and then returning to therapy with extreme, bot-generated meal plans (that fall way under the body’s nutritional needs) or excessive fitness routines (that overtax an already undernouri

Russo Brothers stay coy on Scarlet Witch, Captain Marvel, Storm & Jean Grey absences from AVENGERS: DOOMSDAY at San Diego Comic-Con 2026.