Welcome back to The Rundown, our daily breakdown on comic news stories we missed from the previous day. Have a link to share? Email our team at rundown@multiversitycomics.com.
– This weekend is the nexus of so many different national pastimes: Free Comic Book Day, the start of the summer movie blockbuster season with “Avengers: Age of Ultron”, and a bunch of dudes in suits picking their teams for the next batch of football games (aka The NFL draft). We here at Multiversity hope that all of our readers are able to enjoy as many different aspects of this entertainment trifecta as humanly, or Inhuman-ly, possible. Later today we’ll be posting our special “Comics Should be Free” report for some of the FBCD releases you don’t want to miss. You can read our own Alice W. Castle’s SPOILER-FREE take on “Avengers: Age of Ultron” if you haven’t already done so. And I’m sure our own Vince Ostrowski would love to discuss the finer points of his Green Bay Packers’ draft strategies in relation to their convergence with the West Coast offense that is the newly relocated DC Entertainment.
– And BTW, we can all thank Johnathan Hickman’s Twitter feed for that shocking revelation that Ultron’s strategy for defeating the Avengers involved close observation and studying under a true evil mastermind: Dan Synder, owner of the Washington Redskins. I would have said Roger Goddell, but Ultron probably found Goddell an inappropriate role model, what with all the NFL owners pulling his strings.
– Comic-Con International has announced the 2015 nominees for the Russ Manning Promising Newcomer Award. Past winners have included Dave Stevens, Steve Rude, Art Adams, Eleanor Davis, Marian Churchland, Jeff Smith, Alex Maleev, and many many more names you would recognize. Our congratulations to all the nominees; this year’s crop is filled with names I think could fit right into that pedigree.
– Will Smith has been spotted filming his upcoming role as Deadshot for the “Suicide Squad” film. While not shown in his combat suit, Smith is certainly in costume. Personally, I think he could be good in the role, as long as he can tap into the “I do not give a f#^k”/thousand-yard-stare aspect of Floyd Lawton without being too…dead.
– “COPRA” creator Michel Fiffe announced he was writing AND drawing a story in the upcoming Marvel anthology “Secret Love”. Fiffe’s tale, harkening back to the twisted romance of Daredevil & Typhoid Mary from the Nocenti/Romita Jr./Williamson run on “Daredevil”, will be sharing the one-shot with a story by Felipe Smith about Robbie Reyes meeting Kamala Khan. Check out the link for some sweet art love.
– Zainab Akhtar wrote a nice review over at her Comics & Cola blog of another mashup between comics & movie blockbusters: a 2004 retelling of “King Kong” by Christophe Blaine and Michel Piquemal. The book itself is geared more towards a younger audience, and is probably more akin to a picture book than comix, but the illustrations she showcases in her piece are worth a look regardless; lots of timeless pencil-shaded figures and evocative mood capturing.
– It’s not nearly long enough, IMO, but ColumbusAlive.com has a quick interview with The Comics Reporter’s Tom Spurgeon. Tom recently moved from New Mexico to Ohio to be the director of Cartoon Crossroads Columbus, a multi-day city-wide comics arts festival launching two years from now, and this interview catches him at the start of his Columbus residency.
– Ever notice how the trailers for all these different blockbuster action/sci-fi/superhero movies tend to be the same? The cryptic, inspiring dialogue snippets? The fade-to-black before explosive action? The THWAAAAAAM? You’re not the only one. Red Letter Media, people who eviscerated the Star Wars prequels with dissertation-level dissection, turn their critical eye to how trailers have been boiled down to the same specific bells & whistles to get fandom salivating for more. This has all happened before, and it will all happen again.
