Welcome back to The Rundown, our daily breakdown of comic news stories we missed from the previous day. Have a link to share? Email our team at rundown@multiversitycomics.com.
In case you missed it, DC announced Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen ongoings will be spinning out of the upcoming “Superman: Leviathan Rising Special” #1, and full details on “DCeased.” Also, AfterShock announced “Descendent” by Stephanie Phillips and Evgeniy Bornyakov, Terry Moore announced a ‘Terryverse’ crossover called “Five Years,” and Ev Shipard was named winner of this year’s ‘2000 AD Art Stars’ competition.
– Titan Comics and Hard Case Crime are releasing a complete collection of “Ms. Tree” comics. The early “noir-ish crime fiction” character, created by “Road to Perdition” co-creator Max Allan Collins and “Wild Dog” co-creator Terry Beatty, was originally part of 1981’s Eclipse Magazine before getting her own series through multiple publishers. All the series have been out of print since the early ’90s, however. The new collection will be released in July 2019, according to Amazon.
– New details have emerged about the recent cancellation of Mark Russell and Richard Pace’s (former) DC Comics/Vertigo series, “Second Coming.” The creators asked for the rights to the book back after DC had requested significant changes (with a promise of more to come), like removing some profanity and covering up a nude Adam in a Garden of Eden scene. Russell also said that the request for changes came before the comic was featured on Fox News and the petition against it gained steam. Russell and Pace are currently looking for a new publisher for the book.
– Brian Michael Bendis revealed more information about the upcoming ‘Leviathan Rising’ arc in the Superman books, and the new “Jimmy Olsen” and “Lois Lane” series in a Reddit AMA. Some tidbits include Clark’s beard returning, Adam Strange’s involvement with Rogol Zaar, Jon and Connor Kent meeting, and many more.
– The creator behind the @alPantuni Instagram account has spoken out after it was suspected that Instagram had deleted the account at the request of Indonesia’s Communications and Information Ministry. It turns out that Instagram deleted some of the posts for “hate speech,” but the creator deleted the actual account out of fear for their family and friends’ wellbeing. The account has since been reinstated.
– Scottish actor Dougray Scott has joined the cast of the CW’s Batwoman as Col. Jacob Kane, the father of Kate Kane (Ruby Rose). The character will be portrayed as the head of a Gotham private security firm called The Crows, and as having made it his mission to protect his city better than Batman ever could, leading him to clash with his daughter, Batwoman. It was also announced Marcos Siega (God Friended Me) will also replace David Nutter as director on the pilot, after Nutter had to leave for personal reasons.
– Walmart and DC Comics are expanding their partnership with the release of mini-figure variants of DC’s Batman: Black & White statues. The 4-inch recreations will start appearing in Walmart stores as blind bag items this month at a price of $5. A total of six mini-figures will be released every other month through August. Comic shops will get a boxed set of the mini-figures with an exclusive seventh figure in May.
– Fremantle has announced that they are reviving the Jim Henson’s The Storyteller for television. The reimagining will be written and executive produced by Nail Gaiman (although one would assume showrunning duties would go to someone else). The new series promises to “create a mystical world combining various fairy tales and folklore that have been passed down from generation to generation.” The original ’80s anthology series providing re-tellings of European folk tales with the signature Jim Henson creatures. It has lived on in comic book form over at BOOM! Studios.
– A Turkish appeals court has upheld the jail sentences against opposition journalists, including political cartoonist Musa Kart, in a long-running court battle. The journalists from the Cumhuriyet newspaper were charged with “aiding and abetting terror groups without being a member” last year.
– A new San Fransisco-based company called ComicFlix is employing software and algorithms to programmatically convert video content into comic books. The company has focused on popular Indian films so far, releasing versions of movies like Rajinikanth’s Muthu, Rana Daggubati’s Nene Raju Nene Mantri, and Ramesh Sippy’s Sholay, but the technology can be used for any type of video content.
