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.
Walking Dead premiere
– AMC once again finds itself in the midst of a legal dispute with Walking Dead creator and former showrunner Frank Darabont (The Green Mile, Shawshank Redemption). The lawsuit alleges that due to new information regarding executive producer and “Walking Dead” creator Robert Kirkman (“Invincible,” “Marvel Zombies”)’s more favorable distribution deal with AMC, information which was made available due to a lawsuit filed by Kirkman and his fellow producers last year against AMC, Darabont is entitled to additional compensation amounting to tens of millions of dollars. A statement from AMC’s attorney posits that the suit is simply an attempt by Darabont’s talent agency CAA to take “every dollar for themselves, with total disregard for contracts, clients, fairness or even basic decency.”
– Cullen Bunn (“X-Men Blue,” “The Sixth Gun”) confirmed via Twitter that his Dark Horse series “Harrow County” only has one more arc left before it ends. The series, which Bunn created with artist Tyler Crook (“Petrograd,” “B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth”) in 2015, is a southern gothic horror series revolving around Emmy Crawford, whose life in the small county of Harrow is linked to an evil witch who was burned alive by the people of Harrow, whom she cursed with her dying breath. “Harrow County” #30, the beginning of the final arc of the series, will be available in stores April 25.
– Speaking of finales, BOOM! Studios has announced the release of the final installment of the “Wild’s End” trilogy, from writer Dan Abnett (“Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Aquaman”) and artist I.N.J. Culbard (“Brass Sun: The Wheel of Worlds,” “Doctor Who”). “Wild’s End: Journey’s End” will see the return of the lamppost headed aliens which invaded the English town of Crowchurch in the first installment of the series, and will require the anthropomorphic protagonists of the series to align themselves with the same military leaders who attempted to cover up the invasion in the series’ second installment. You can get a first look at “Wild’s End: Journey’s End” here and can pick up the OGN in June at your local comic shop.
– On Friday morning GLAAD announced its 29th annual Media Award nominees, including those for Oustanding Comic Book Series. The GLAAD Media Awards aim to recognize fair, accurate, and inclusive portrayals of the LGBTQ community in a wide variety of mediums including film, literature, and comics. Among the nominees for 2018 are DC’s “Batwoman” and “Deadman: Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love,” not to mention offerings like “Quantum Teens are Go,” “Goldie Vance,” “Lumberjanes” and others from BOOM!, Black Mask and other publishers. The standout writer of the group would have to be James Tyrion IV (“Detective Comics,” “Memetic”) who earned himself 3 different nominations for his work on “The Woods,” “Batwoman,” and “The Backstagers.” More embarrassingly, was the widespread realization across media that all three of Marvel’s nominations – “America,” “World of Wakanda” and “Iceman” – have been canceled.
– Diamond Comics Distributors has announced the winners of its annual retailer-voted Gem Awards. Among the winners, DC dominated with nine overall wins including “Comic Book of the Year – $3.99 or Under” for “Batman” #24 and “Comic Book of the Year – Over $3.99” for “Doomsday Clock” #1, Marvel on the other hand only racked in three wins, two of which where not decided on by retailers but solely based on their share of the overall comics market. Image and IDW both earned three awards as well and Viz Media was awarded two.
– The powers that be have issued a new statement concerning the seemingly abrupt end to Dragon Ball Super in March. The statement says that despite the show’s cancellation, the Dragon Ball series will continue on, in addition to urging fans to continue watching through to the climax of the series’ Universe Survival Saga, and to be on the lookout for the Dragon Ball Super movie due out in December. You can catch new episodes of Dragon Ball Super on Saturday on Adult Swim at 9:30 pm.
Continued below– SelfMadeHero has announced its list of spring books for 2018. A graphic adaptation of The Communist Manifesto, the third installment of Jean-Pierre Filiu and David B.’s “Best of Enemies” – an illustrated history of U.S. and Middle Eastern relations – and a thriller set in the midst of a house party, are just a few samplings of the great new graphic novels coming out of SelfMadeHero this spring.
– Netflix has announced the dates for the world premiere of Hilda at the New York International Children’s Film Festival. The show adapts Luke Pearson’s series of graphic novels of the same name, which follow a young girl named Hilda as she explores the mystical Blue Forrest, magical fjords and enchanted mountains surrounding her birthplace. The screening is set to take place February 25 at 2:50 pm, with the show debuting worldwide sometime in the fall.
– On Friday the Producers Guild of America released a list of guidelines to prevent and deal with sexual harassment on sets and announced that the first film that will be implementing these guidelines would be Wonder Woman 2. The news comes after November’s announcement that the film would be parting ways with producer and financier Brett Ratner (X-Men: Last Stand, Rush Hour) after numerous accusations of sexual harassment surfaced against him. It seems only fitting that these rules should go into effect on the set of a movie so intrinsically tied to the empowerment of women everywhere.
– Vincent Paronnaud (“Wizz et Buzz,” “Smart Monkey”) has announced plans, alongside Denis Walgenwitz (The Death, Dad & Son, Un amour de télés), for an animated film based on his graphic story “In the Dark and Mysterious Forest.” According to Paronnaud, who also goes by the pseudonym Winshluss, the film will be geared towards children and aims to illustrate how fear helps us learn. Paronnaud was co-director of 2007’s Persepolis along with Marjane Satrapi (“The Sigh,” “Monsters Are Afraid of the Moon”) who wrote and illustrated the graphic novel which it was based on; the film won the coveted Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize that year and if you haven’t seen it yet you are hereby tasked with doing so right this moment.
