CBR senior staff writer Brian Cronin has been writing professionally about comic books for over fifteen years now at CBR (primarily with his “Comics Should Be Good” series of columns, including Comic Book Legends Revealed). He has written two books about comics for Penguin-Random House – Was Superman a Spy? And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed and Why Does Batman Carry Shark Repellent? And Other Amazing Comic Book Trivia! and one book, 100 Things X-Men Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die, from Triumph Books. His writing has been featured at ESPN.com, the Los Angeles Times, About.com, the Huffington Post, Vulture and Gizmodo. He features legends about entertainment and sports at his website, Legends Revealed and other pop culture features at Pop Culture References. Follow him on Twitter at @Brian_Cronin and feel free to e-mail him suggestions for stories about comic books that you'd like to see featured at brianc@cbr.com!
2026 is a big year for Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez, as his hit superhero character, La Borinqueña, is celebrating her 10th anniversary, and the character will be celebrated as part of a new Smithsonian Institution collection. Plus, Miranda-Rodriguez's comic book company, Somos Arte Studios, Inc., is launching a new manga series, V★G1GANTE
Written by Miranda-Rodriguez, with art by Hernán Castellanos, and colors by Eliana Falcón, CBR has a few preview pages of V★G1GANTE, along with the covers by Castellanos and the variant cover by Raúl Treviño.
What is the solicitation for V★G1GANTE?
V★G1GANTE is the story about a giant robot created and piloted by Brismar Besosa Crúz, a computer science undergraduate at the University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras. In her first solo adventure she balances life as a college student struggling with affordability while facing the catastrophic threat of a Kaiju that has emerged from the Puerto Rico Trench! Interior art is provided by Hernán Castellanos and colors by Emmy award-winning artist Eliana Falcón with a variant cover by Raúl Treviño. V★G1GANTE will also be available in a limited-edition gigante tabloid format at 11” x 17” with a variant cover by international Japanese mural artist Shinn Uchida.
As Miranda-Rodriguez notes in the press release for the project, "V★G1GANTE is inspired by the vejigante folkloric papier mache masks of Ponce, Puerto Rico and the Japanese giant mechas, bringing together for the first time a sancocho of Latiné and Asian art mediums and genres. This new book also continues to expand the decade long overarching La Borinqueña story first introduced in 2016 that already has expanded its universe to include a crossover with DC Comics, a team-up with actor/activist Rosario Dawson, and two new spin-off superhero books Oro El Coqui Dorado and Lúz La Luminosa."
What is the Promise of a Nation?
Image via Smithsonian InstitutionThe Smithsonian Institution is celebrating the United States' 250th anniversary with a collection celebrating the U.S's history a collected by the Smithsonian....
The Promise of a Nation: Commemorating 250 Years of Patriotism, Resilience, and Aspirations from the National Collection
Celebrate 250 years of American history—and witness the nation’s decade-by-decade evolution—in this gorgeously illustrated volume featuring 700 Smithsonian objects.
The 250th anniversary of the United States marks a major milestone, representing two-and-a-half centuries of upholding democracy, building communities, defining freedom, and working to become a more perfect union. In The Promise of Our Nation, Smithsonian curators share aspirational stories that have shaped the nation in chapters representing each decade from the 1770s to the 2020s. Smithsonian objects help bring each decade to life and personalize the history, from George Washington’s sword (1770s) to an African American volunteer fire company badge (1860s) to Marian Anderson’s attire worn at her Lincoln Memorial concert (1930s) to Space Shuttle Discovery (1990s).
Each chapter begins with a timeline of major events and census data, followed by an essay that considers American history through a meaningful and often unexpected lens. Gorgeous full spreads feature spotlight objects that tell decade-specific stories and offer important insight into each decade and the American story.
The nation’s semiquincentennial is an opportunity to reflect on the past with care and curiousity. The scope of American history is vast, but The Promise of Our Nation distills it into compelling narratives that speak to the strength and aspirations of the American people and inspire optimism for what comes next.
La Borinqueña #1 has been part of the Smithsonian Institution's collection since 2019, and its inclusion will be covered in the above book.
Source: Somos Arte Studios, Inc
English (US) · 