Oni Press Loves the 80s.  It’s the 1980s all over again in Pizzasaurus Rex, a new original graphic novel written and illustrated by Justin Wagner, storyboard artist for the FX show Archer.  The all-ages tale is designed to evoke 80s nostalgia in grownups while entertaining kids with the wild antics of a guitar-shredding, pizza-delivering dinosaur who is unleashed on an unsuspecting world by the brilliant but dorky Jeremy Duderman.  Just as in the movie Footloose, there are villains who are out to wreck the fun: Emperor Buzzkill and his minions are threatening pizza parties everywhere, and only Rex and Jeremy can make their neon-colored world safe again for the art of the ‘za.  Oni Press will publish Pizzasaurus Rex as a 168-page trade paperback on July 25, 2018.

BOOM! Studios Adds Three New Titles.  It’s been a busy week for BOOM! Studios, with announcements of three new original graphic novels in three different imprints.  Felipe Nunes’s Dodo is the story of a girl dealing with the emotional fallout of her parents’ breakup as well as the havoc wreaked by her new friend, a dodo bird.  Nunes is from Brazil, where the book was originally published, and is a protégé of the comics creators Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá.  Dodo will be published under the KaBOOM! imprint in May 2018.  You can see a preview and an interview with Nunes at Good Comics for Kids.

Persephone, by Loïc Locatelli-Kournwsky, draws on Greek mythology to create a modern-day fantasy-adventure story about a mother and daughter.  In Locatelli-Kournwsky’s tale, Persephone is the adopted daughter of a magician, Demeter, and her search for the truth about her birth leads her on a trip to the Underworld.  Persephone will be published under the Archaia imprint in May 2018.

The four-issue miniseries Dodge City is a teen-friendly tale about adult dodgeball.  Written by Josh Trujillo and illustrated by Cara McGee, it will debut in March 2018, as part of the BOOM! Box imprint.  CBR has a look at the cover art and an interview with Trujillo.

Veronica Goes Bad in Vampironica.  Archie Comics will continue their run of horror series with Vampironica, in which a vampire’s bite turns Veronica Lodge from spoiled rich girl to fearsome vampire.  But she’ll still be Veronica, according to Greg Smallwood, who is co-writing the series with Megan Smallwood and is also the artist.  "It was very important to Megan and I that Vampironica be the same Veronica that we all know and love, only now with fangs," he said.  Vampironica #1 will launch on March 14, 2018, with variant covers by Francesco Francavilla, Audrey Mok, Djibril Morrissette-Phan and Marguerite Sauvage.

Regal Academy Opens Its Doors.  In January, Papercutz will release two graphic novels based on the Nickelodeon series Regal Academy.  The stories feature the grandchildren of familiar fairy tale characters—Rose Cinderalla, Travis Beast, Astoria Rapunzel, and Joy LeFrog—at a school set up by their better-known grandparents to carry on their heritage.  The books are available in hardcover and paperback format, and the first two will be released on January 16, 2018, with the third volume slated for July 2018.

Scales & Scoundrels Goes to Trade.  Image Comics will release the first trade of the all-ages fantasy-adventure series Scales & Scoundrels in February 2018, and on the same day it will launch the second story arc with issue #6.  Written by Sebastian Girner (Shirtless Bear-Fighter) and illustrated by Galaad, the series follows the adventures of a treasure-hunter whose visit to a dungeon in search of gold leads her on an epic journey.

Best of the Year.  As 2017 draws to a close, children’s and YA graphic novels are making it onto best-of-the-year lists—or getting their own.  Both School Library Journal and the Chicago Public Library published dedicated lists of the best graphic novels for kids and teens, and Liniers’s Good Night, Planet and Victoria Jamieson’s All’s Faire in Middle School both made the New York Times list of Notable Children’s Books of 2017.

Click Gallery below for full size images of all covers!