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.
In case you missed it, Image released their April solicits, revealing “Drawing Blood,” the Ghost Machine imprint’s first three series, and more.
– Posy Simmonds (“Cassandra Darke,” “Tamara Drewe”) has been awarded the 2024 Grand Prix at the Angoulême International Comics Festival. Simmonds, 78, is the first British comics creator to win the French lifetime achievement award, and only the fourth woman. “I was gobsmacked – époustouflée, as you would say in French,” she remarked in an interview. “It’s extraordinary because if you’re writing or drawing, you work in a room on your own, and it’s then very extraordinary when the book, or your work, or you are given a lot of exposure.”
Simmonds is something of a Francophile, having studied French at Sorbonne University in Paris, and adapted Gustave Flaubert’s classic novel Madame Bovary into the 1990s serial “Gemma Bovery” – her prize also comes while an exhibition of her work is being held in Paris’s Public Information Library. Daniel Clowes and Catherine Meurisse were also shortlisted for this year’s prize. The 51st Angoulême International Comics Festival is now underway until Sunday, January 28, and you can find out more (in French and English) at the official website.
– Marvel will publish “Star Wars: Darth Maul – Black, White & Red,” a four-part anthology centered on Sidious’s first apprentice, just in time for the 25th anniversary of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. Like last year’s “Star Wars: Darth Vader – Black, White & Red,” the comic will only feature those colors. The first issue, written by Benjamin Percy with art by Stefano Raffaele, will follow Maul before Episode I, as his master dispatches him to investigate a group called the Final Occultation. It will be released on April 25.
– Magma Comix announced “Principles of Necromancy,” a fantasy horror series by Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, and Eamon Winkle. Starting April 3, the comic tells the story of Doctor Jakob Eyes, who seeks to bring civilization to the pagans living outside the dominion of the City King, and in the process becomes the world’s first necromancer. It marks the first series from Magma since they separated from (the MIA) Heavy Metal last year, as well as Kelly and Lanzing’s first creator-owned series since 2016’s “Joyride.” The publisher also teased creator-owned series from Jason Starr, Dalibor Talajić, Steve Orlando, and Megan Huang in the works.
– Dark Horse unveiled “Heartpiercer,” a dark four-part fantasy series by writer Rich Douek and artist Gavin Smith. The book tells the story of Atala, a hunter tricked into killing the great supernatural beasts who maintained the world. Betrayed and left for dead, she “awakens in a dark world overrun by nightmares. Broken and ashamed, now Atala seeks revenge, and rises to save the world from darkness.” Douek says, “‘Heartpiercer’ is a return to my roots as a writer; an epic, dark fantasy about love, vengeance, and coming to terms with the sins of your past. I can’t wait for readers to see the world we’ve built.” Issue #1 will be released on May 15, 2024.
– AWA will crowdfund an “Expanded Director’s Cut” of Garth Ennis and Goran Sudžuka’s sci-fi comedy “Marjorie Finnegan, Temporal Criminal.” The new edition will include 20 additional pages, and a wraparound cover by Amanda Conner. Ennis says, “Goran and I had such a blast with Marj and the gang; the character became an instant favorite of mine. There are many, many more Marj stories left to tell, and we’re looking forward to working with AWA to bring readers another slice of this particularly insane pie.” Head to Kickstarter to be notified of when the project launches.
– Via IGN, voice actor Josh Keaton revealed during a Twitch stream that he was cast as Damian Wayne in a canceled Warner Bros. Games Montréal project around 2016. Leaked concept art for the game, which was eventually scrapped in favor of 2022’s Gotham Knights, showed it would’ve followed an adult Damian taking up his father’s mantle as Batman in a dystopian future Gotham. Keaton previously voiced Robin/Dick Grayson in the multiplayer for 2013’s Batman: Arkham Origins, also developed by WB Games Montréal.
– Finally, Emmy Award-winning producer John Bush died on November 23, 2023, following a battle with B-cell lymphoma of the brain stem. He was 69 years old. Bush’s credits were primarily in animation, and included projects like the two Brave Little Toaster sequels, the first season of Family Guy, The Simpsons seasons 12-14, the entire run of X-Men: Evolution, and New Looney Tunes. He was also a theater actor, and gay rights activist. He is survived by two siblings, and a niece. A memorial service will be held in Los Angeles this Sunday.
