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.
– Conan is back and not just at Marvel, European publisher Glénat will be publishing adaptations of 12 of the original Conan stories from author Robert E. Howard, as they are all in the public domain over there. Each adaptation will feature a different creative team tackling one of Howard’s early Conan stories, which have been the public domain in Europe since 2006 (conversely those rights won’t be available in the United States till 2031). “The Black Colossus,” the first of these adaptations by writer Vincent Brugeas and artist Ronan Toulhoat (“Block 109”) will be out in Europe in May, however, these books won’t be published in the U.S. anytime soon without the permission of Dark Horse (who still holds the rights until the end of 2018) or Marvel next year.
– Amazon has cast five of the seven members of the Seven, the antagonistic superhero team in The Boys. Antony Starr (American Gothic, The World’s Fastest Indian), Dominique McElligott (The Last Tycoon, House of Cards), Chace Crawford (Blood & Oil, Gossip Girl), Jessie T. Usher (Independence Day: Resurgence, Level Up) and Nathan Mitchell (iZombie, Supernatural) join The Boys as homicidal morally derelict superheroes Homelander, Queen Maeve, The Deep, A-Train, and Black Noir respectively join Erin Moriarty (Jessica Jones, Captain Fantastic)’s Annie January aka Starlight, who joins The Seven after they offer up the Lamplighter to the Boys to avoid the consequences of a mission gone bad. “The Boys” was created by Garth Ennis (“Punisher MAX,” “Preacher”) and Darick Robertson (“Happy!,” “Transmetropolitan”) and followed the expoilts of the Boys, a goverment sanctioned black ops team designed explicitly to police the superhero community. The first season of The Boys is slated for release in 2019 on Amazon Prime.
– Speaking of Amazon superhero television, The Tick has been renewed for a second season on the streaming service. The show is the Tick’s third television iteration, the second live-action show, and adapts Ben Edlund (The Venture Bros., Firefly)’s comic of the same name which follows Arthur, an ex-accountant turned sidekick to the oblivious dimwitted superhero the Tick. The second half of season 1 of The Tick debuts February 23 on Amazon Prime.
– BOOM! Studios announced their “Rugrats” comic will expand in April with “Rugrats: R is for Reptar,” a one-shot revolving around Tommy Pickles’s favorite Godzilla stand-in. The book will consist of short stories told by Grandpa Lou, Phil & Lil, Angelica Pickles, Susie Carmichael and Tommy Pickles, each starring their personal version of Reptar. The book is written by Nicole Andelfinger (“Munchkin”), and the artists will include Edras Cristóbal (“Marvel Adventures”), Sarah Webb (“Kochab”), Brittney Williams (“Goldie Vance”) and Ilaria Catalani (the Italian series “Hadez”).
– TV host Andy Cohen (Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, Then and Now with Andy Cohen) has been cast as a guest star for this season of the CW’s Riverdale. Cohen will be playing himself in the sophomore season of the CW’s “Archie”-based series, where he is apparently an old friend of the Lodges, the wealthy family that arrived in Riverdale last season after Hiram Lodge and Hermonie Lodge divorced. Riverdale airs Wednesday nights at 8 pm on The CW.
– Richard Corben (“Cage,” “Vampirella”), Emmanuel Guibert (“Ariol,” “Sardine”) and Chris Ware (“Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth,” “Floyd Farland: Citizen of the Future”) have been nominated for the prestigious Franco-Belgian Angoulême Grand Prix Award 2018. The award has found itself in a downturn as of late, being turned down by several creators over the past few years because of the perception that the awards judges are rife with corruption and sexism: only one woman has ever won the award, Florence Cestac (“Futuropolis,” “The Demon Stirs”) in 2000. This led to the festival’s withdrawal of the longlist voting system, just allowing eligible creators to vote for whoever they liked. The second round of voting will take place through Sunday, with any comic creator whose work has been published in France able to participate.
Continued below– “Venom” will be shifting artists for the ‘Poison X’ crossover which begins later this month. Edgar Salazar (“Constantine,” “Uncanny X-Men”) will be taking over from Will Robson (“Great Lake Avengers,” “Secret Warriors”) for issues #162 and #163, as the series moves to twice-monthly to keep up with “X-Men Blue,” which is also part of the ‘Poison X’ crossover. “X-Men Blue” Annual #1, the first part of the ‘Poison X’ crossover, hits comic shelves January 24.
– Dark Horse Comics has announced a return to the Aliens franchise this spring in the form of “Aliens: Dust to Dust,” written and illustrated by Gabriel Hardman (“Invisible Republic,” “Red Hulk”). The four-issue mini-series following a young boy named Maxxon and his mother attempting to make it to a spaceport off a colony planet swarming with Xenomorphs. The first issue of “Aliens: Dust to Dust” hits comic shelves April 24.
– “Ludocrats” the Image series from writer Kieron Gillen (“The Wicked + The Divine”, Phonogram) and artist David Lafuente (“All-New Doop,” “Ultimate Comics: Spider-man”) will in fact be released… sometime soon. The series, which was originally announced at the Image Expo in 2015 with a very lively introduction by Gillen on stage shouting quite a bit of nonsense strung together to form what could be a sales pitch for a comic of some sort, a personal favorite of which read, “Imagine all of Ibiza captured by William Burroughs-trained extraterrestrials, transported to a distant world to spend all eternity throwing impossible shapes to Baron Münchhaus Music!” The project about the last two defenders of a ridiculous aristocracy was shelved for a while due to “boring stuff” getting in the way according to a recent newsletter from Gillen, who says that he and Lafuente are now at work once again on the ludicrous new series which they will be releasing sometime this year.
– DC has announced two thirty second advertisements spotlighting their “New Age of Heroes” line. The ads which highlight the eight artists focused “New Age of Heroes” titles (formerly announced as the “Dark Matter” line) will be airing on TBS, El Rey, Syfy, Adult Swim, TruTV and TNT among others. The ad campaign represents the first major ad buy by a major publisher, if memory serves, since the New 52, which hopefully means new readers will be once again flocking into comic shops to read all or some of these titles. The first of the new line’s books, “Damage” #1 by storytellers Tony S. Daniel (“Battle for the Cowl,” “Suicide Squad”) and Robert Venditti (“Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps,” “X-O Manowar”), was released yesterday and can be found wherever comics are sold.
