Cover: Alessio Zonno

I Heart Skull-Crusher! #1

Mar 2024 · Boom! Studios · 4.99 USD

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About this Issue

I Heart Skull-Crusher! #1 marks a notable convergence of two ascendant forces in mid-2020s American comics: the manga-and-anime-influenced visual language championed by the BOOM! Box imprint, and the growing critical push for casually queer YA storytelling in periodical comic form. The debut issue introduces protagonist Trini — an 18-year-old queer girl whose romantic and athletic aspirations are inseparable — alongside the title character Skull-Crusher, a celebrated female Screaming Pain Ball player who functions simultaneously as idol, rival, and love interest, a dual role seldom structured so explicitly in a first issue. Its sell-out-and-second-printing trajectory demonstrated that the BOOM! Box model of creator-driven, genre-hybrid YA comics could still generate genuine first-issue momentum in an era of retail consolidation. The series also represents a deliberate bridge between readers of shōnen sports manga and the direct-market periodical audience, a crossover that critics and publishers had long discussed but rarely executed with this degree of formal commitment.

artist, inker, colorist Alessio Zonno · cover Alessio Zonno

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History

Writer Josie Campbell — whose prior comics work was exclusively work-for-hire at DC (Amazons Attack, The New Champion of Shazam!) and whose television credits include Head Writer on She-Ra and the Princesses of Power and co-showrunner on My Adventures With Superman — described the series as the first wholly original property she had ever written, and one she had wanted to tell for years, inspired by a personal love of Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome and sports anime such as Haikyuu!! and Prince of Tennis. Artist Alessio Zonno, who came to the project fresh from the BOOM!/IDW Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossover, likewise noted it was his first creator-owned American series. The book was edited by Dafna Pleban and published under the BOOM! Box imprint — BOOM! Studios' award-winning YA-focused line — with colors by Angel De Santiago and letters by Jim Campbell; the first issue shipped March 13, 2024, and sold out at the distributor level quickly enough to prompt a second printing, featuring a Trini character-design cover by Zonno, released April 10, 2024.

Trivia · 8 facts

First appearances of Trini, Skull-Crusher, and Queen Mob — all original characters created by Josie Campbell and Alessio Zonno, debuting here with no prior existence in any other media.
Written by Josie Campbell (TV credits: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Head Writer; My Adventures With Superman, co-showrunner) with art by Alessio Zonno (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossover); colors by Angel De Santiago; letters by Jim Campbell; edited by Dafna Pleban.
Published under BOOM! Studios' BOOM! Box imprint on March 13, 2024 — the imprint's dedicated YA line, home to Lumberjanes, Giant Days, and Fence.
Issue #1 sold out at the distributor level; a second printing with a Trini character-design cover by Alessio Zonno was announced and released April 10, 2024.
The series represents Campbell's first fully original comic creation; all prior comic work was work-for-hire at DC Comics.
Protagonist Trini is explicitly coded as queer (bisexual), and her romantic pursuit of Skull-Crusher is a central narrative engine from the first issue — a relatively uncommon structural choice for a #1 in the YA action genre.
The fictional sport 'Screaming Pain Ball' — described in reviews as resembling gladiatorial lacrosse or Thunderdome-meets-soccer — is the world-building engine of the series, deliberately drawing on both shōnen sports manga conventions and post-apocalyptic action cinema.
A trade paperback collecting issues #1–5 (Vol. 1) was published, followed by a second arc extending the series further; the series ran from March 2024 through at least mid-2025 per Comic Book RoundUp's series listing.