I Heart Skull-Crusher! #2

History

The series was announced in December 2023 and launched in March 2024, conceived by Campbell as a personal passion project blending her love of Mad Max: Thunderdome with sports anime such as Prince of Tennis and Haikyuu!!; she has cited those twin inspirations explicitly in creator interviews. Alessio Zonno, an Italian artist who trained at the International School of Comics in Turin and previously worked on European sports comics before crossing over to American publishing via the BOOM!/IDW Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossover, described I Heart Skull-Crusher! as his first US creator series, bringing a distinctly manga-inflected dynamism — he cited Gurren Lagann and Inazuma Eleven as visual touchstones — to the book's kinetic action sequences. The series is edited by Dafna Pleban and published under BOOM! Box, the BOOM! Studios imprint whose catalogue includes Lumberjanes, Giant Days, and Fence.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Written by Josie Campbell (DC's Amazons Attack, The New Champion of Shazam!, head writer of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, writer/producer on My Adventures With Superman) with art by Alessio Zonno, colors by Angel De Santiago, and letters by Jim Campbell.
• Published April 17, 2024 by BOOM! Studios under the BOOM! Box young-adult imprint; this is the second issue of the series, which launched March 13, 2024.
• Issue #2 sold out at the distributor level, leading BOOM! Studios to announce a second printing (cover code FEB249172) featuring the line-art version of Simone di Meo's variant cover, available May 15, 2024.
• The first printing of #2 featured four cover editions: a main cover by Alessio Zonno, a variant by Natacha Bustos, a 1:10 retailer incentive virgin variant by Zonno, a 1:20 retailer incentive variant by Rian Gonzales, and a variant by Simone di Meo.
• The issue advances Trini and the Twins' attempt to assemble a full Screaming Pain Ball team for the qualifying match, complicated by a mutant attack and an underfunded roster problem.
• Campbell has identified the series as her first chance to write a wholly original story — not a licensed or work-for-hire project — explicitly built around queer characters, anime influences, and post-apocalyptic sports action.
• The series' creative inspirations, per Campbell and Zonno in official interviews, include Mad Max: Thunderdome, Haikyuu!!, Prince of Tennis (Campbell), and Gurren Lagann and Inazuma Eleven (Zonno).
• A collected trade paperback edition gathering the first five-issue arc was published in comic shops December 25, 2024 and in bookstores December 31, 2024; the series subsequently continued as an ongoing with issue #6 beginning a second arc in October 2024.