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.
DC released its April solicitations yesterday, and while we will cover those in our Soliciting Multiversity column, a couple of announcements came with information for beyond that month:
– ”Doomsday Clock” will be moving to a bi-monthly shipping schedule. This announcement comes after issue #5 was not part of the March or April solcititations. Issues #3 and #4 are still scheduled to be released on January 24, and February 28. Artist Gary Frank optimistically tweeted, “I’m hoping that we can use this to get enough of a cushion to switch back to monthly at some point.” Here’s hoping the two month delay doesn’t detract from the story.
– Kurt Busiek took to Twitter to announce the end of his current run on “Astro City” with issue #52. Although he said it would be the final issue, he reassured fans that “Astro City” would continue in a new graphic novel format. Busiek states that after 23 years of doing the series, he is still stunned by the reception. “Astro City” first launched in 1995 and continues to generate much acclaim. Busiek told fans to look for details on the forthcoming OGN.
– To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the cult classic show The Prisoner, Titan Comics will be releasing a new series, as well as a previously unpublished adaptation of the show’s pilot by Jack Kirby and Steve Englehart. During this time Marvel had the rights to the adaptation, but “never published anything. The Prisoner would later make its comic debut more than a decade later when DC published a sequel, ‘The Prisoner: Shattered Visage.’” The Prisoner is a 1967 British television show which lasted for 17 episodes and aired in the United States in 1968.
– IDW’s “Sonic the Hedgehog” series will debut in April with 4 issues coming out that month, and the publisher announced the artist for issue #1 will be Tracy Yardley. The other three issues will be drawn by different artists, yet to be revealed. With the rights to “Sonic the Hedgehog” changing from Archie to IDW, fans of the character have been without him in the comics medium for quite some time. Now with four issues on the way in April, fans will have plenty of Sonic to go around.
– Graphic novel sales were down by 5% in bookstores to end 2017, according to a Bookscan report. While 2015 and 2016 both had a boost in sales for graphic novels, 2017 saw a slight drop off. This can be the result of many different factors, including “lack of interest in Marvel collections, and DC’s soft GN sales for ‘Rebirth’ titles.” While graphic novel sales are down, Bookscan reported that juvenile fiction was up by 8%, and juvenile non-fiction was up by 2%. Adult fiction was also up by 3%, though it should be noted that Bookscan does not separate graphic novels into a children’s, YA, or adult categories. Speculating, Heidi MacDonald says “All it would take is a new adult hit book – a new ‘Walking Dead,’ new ‘Saga,’ new ‘Killing Joke’ – and things will bounce right back.” According to Bookscan, the number one best selling book this year was Diary of a Wimpy Kid #12: The Getaway, with 992,000 copies being sold in 2017.
– Rosario Dawson will collaborate with Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez, David Atchison, and Gustavo Vazquez, her uncle, for a project involving La Borinqueña, a Puerto Rican superhero created by Rodriguez. In a series of tweets, the actress announced the project, saying “More details coming soon.” La Borinqueña was created by Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez and self published under his personal studio, Somos Arte. Under the hashtag #Ricanstruction, Rodriguez took to Twitter and said “we will no longer stand for Puerto Ricans being treated as second class citizens.” “La Borinqueña” #2 is available for pre-order and will be released on June 10, 2018.
– “Khai Maew,” a popular Thailand-based online political comic strip, may be gone for good after the official Facebook page disappeared. The online comic was first launched on April 21, 2016 and quickly grew its fanbase, gaining more than 100,000 followers in its first two months. The anonymous cartoonist said he had many strips banned already, and the last strip published featured one of his characters leaving for France. “This was seen by some followers as a symbolic warning of the cartoonist’s intent to leave the scene,” according to bangkokpost.com. Because of strict media laws, “sharing the cartoon is a safer option to convey the message. In this way, the cartoons became a political mouthpiece.” The page was the number one ranked fan page in Thailand in 2017 and the held the number 2 position in 2016.
Continued below– Charles Soule’s prose novel, The Oracle Year, has had a TV adaptation licensed before its April release. Tomorrow Studios’ president Becky Clements said “the series would have unexpected twists and turns that will hopefully yield incredible global appeal.” Charles Soule has written titles for both Marvel and DC, including “Swamp Thing” and the current run of “Daredevil” and “Darth Vader.” Soule will serve as an executive producer on the show. The Oracle Year, which “centers on a twentysomething New Yorker who wakes to 108 visions of specific predictions of the future, and monetizes those predictions to become the most famous person in the world,” is set to be published by HarperCollins on April 3, 2018.
– Christopher Priest (“Black Panther,” “Power Man and Iron Fist,” “Justice League”) discussed his endeavors at Marvel, DC and Valiant at Vulture. Priest recalled, “What’s the point? Everything I do gets canceled, and I’m never gonna be put on a top-tier book,” until he began his defining story on “Black Panther,” which began in 1998 and ran for 62 issues. Priest reminisces on his youth, growing up in Queens as a “dweeb” and being bullied. Priest, who has been in the industry on and off since 1982, laments “I stopped being a writer, or being thought of as a writer and started being thought of as a black writer.” Priest’s lack of historical recognition is troubling especially when inclusion in the comics industry has never been so important. Christopher Priest is currently writing “Justice League” for DC Comics.
– Watching all nine of the Star Wars films is part of the curriculum at the University of Akron in Ohio. Juan Contreras, a professor for the University, says that students will “learn some insights that can help them become more effective storytellers.” The course is set to explore the roles of women and minorities in the films and their overall importance in the world at large.
