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.
— Oni Press announced two new “Rick and Morty” projects, beginning this April 15 with “Rick and Morty: Council of Ricks,” a one-shot written by Jake Goldman and illustrated by Philip Murphy. Next, the first issue of “Rick and Morty: Go to Hell,” a five-issue miniseries written by Ryan Ferrier and illustrated by Constanza Oroza, will hit shelves April 29. SYFY WIRE has all the details, including some exclusive looks at the artwork.
— Ablaze Publishing will release US editions of “The Cimmerian,” according to ICv2, which describes the comic as an “uncensored” Conan the Barbarian adaptation. Distribution by Diamond Comic Distributors stopped in August after a cease-and-desist was issued by Conan Properties. Under the new agreement, Diamond will distribute two issues of “The Cimmerian: Queen of the Black Coast,” with “The Cimmerian: Red Nails” launching in April.
— Poppy has a new graphic novel titled “Damnation: Poppy’s Inferno,” following her 2019 debut “Genesis 1.” The internet phenom will team up with Ryan Cady, Amilcar Pinna, and Zoe Thorogood on the project.
— Lionsgate has bought the rights to a feature film version of BOOM!’s horror comic “Memetic,” according to Deadline. Created by James Tynion IV and Eryk Donovan, “Memetic” features a world in which chaos breaks out after a viral meme turns a college campus obsessive and violent. Mattson Tomlin, who co-wrote The Batman, will pen the script.
— Dewey Cassell and Jeff Messer are working on a Marshall Rogers retrospective to be published by TwoMorrows. According to Cassell, the book will include background on Rogers’s life and projects, as well as insight from his family and industry peers. It will also focus heavily on Rogers’s “Batman” work with rare photos and never-before-seen artwork.
— The Chinese Embassy in Copenhagen is demanding Jyllands-Posten, a Danish newspaper, apologize after publishing a cartoon about the recent coronavirus outbreak. According to The Washington Post, the cartoon shows a Chinese flag with the stars replaced by what appears to be viral particles. Readers might remember Jyllands-Posten as the newspaper that infamously received outrage from Muslims for depicting the Prophet Muhammad in 2005.
— Finally, the 2020 Sundance Film Festival is underway, and this year’s entries include a documentary about the internet’s most controversial meme, Pepe the Frog. Titled Feels Good Man, the film by Arthur Jones follows the decade-plus journey of the frog and his creator, indie cartoonist Matt Furie.
