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, we have an exclusive preview of next week’s “King in Black: Marauders” #1.
– Robin will have to learn how to play nice in “Batman and Robin and Howard,” a new graphic novel coming to DC’s middle-grade line of books this fall. The book will be written and drawn by Jeffrey Brown, best known for his NY Times-bestselling Jedi Academy and Darth Vader and Son titles. In this new story, young Robin is benched by Batman after a night on patrol goes wrong. Now, Damian Wayne has to make friends and start over at Gotham Metro Academy, where he meets Howard – the smartest and most athletic kid in school. Will the two be bitter rivals or will they become best friends? The book will be available on November 9 for $9.99.
– Speaking of Robin, Jay Lycurgo (I May Destroy You) has been cast as Tim Drake on season 3 of Titans. This version of Drake is described as a “streetwise kid who’s managed to grow up on the toughest streets without losing his indelible belief in heroism.” Lycurgo also has a role in the upcoming movie The Batman, although it does not seem likely he is playing Drake in that. Titans season 3 will premiere on HBO Max at some point in the near future.
– Netflix announced the cast for their upcoming adaptation of famed comic book series “The Sandman.” The series, which does not currently have a release date, will star Tom Sturridge as Dream, Lord of the Dreaming. Joining Sturridge is Vivienne Acheampong as Lucienne, Charles Dance as Roderick Burgess, Boyd Holbrook as the Corinthian, and Sanjeev Bhaskar and Asim Chaudhry as Cain and Abel, respectively. Game of Thrones and Star Wars alum Gwendoline Christie has also signed on as Lucifer. “The Sandman” series creator Neil Gaiman is set to produce alongside David S. Goyer and Allan Heinberg.
– In related news, Audible has greenlit two more seasons of The Sandman audio drama. The comic book was adapted into an audiobook last year, and quickly rose to become the bestselling original series produced by Audible to date. No release date was given for when fans can expect The Sandman: Act II and The Sandman: Act III, but it was confirmed that the new seasons will once again be adapted by Dirk Maggs and narrated by Neil Gaiman.
– The 32nd annual GLAAD Media Award nominees were announced, and they include some of the biggest properties in comics. The GLAAD Media Awards celebrate films, TV shows, comic books, and more media that depict inclusive and accurate representations of the LGBTQ+ community. Amongst the nominees are The Old Guard from Netflix, the Harley Quinn animated series, Supergirl on the CW, and She-Ra & The Princesses of Power from Netflix. “Empyre,” “Far Sector,” “Suicide Squad,” and “X-Factor” and more headlined the Outstanding Comic Book category.
– Warner Bros. Home Entertainment announced four new animated shorts based on DC Comics’s library of characters. Kamandi, The Losers, Blue Beetle, and Constantine will all have shorts released across 2021 and 2022. Kamadi: The Last Boy on Earth! will be the first of these shorts to come out, alongside the forthcoming Justice Society: World War II animated film due this spring. It was also stated that there will be a compilation released in 2022 that features multiple shorts, anchored by the Constantine story.
– Netflix will be adapting “The Witch Boy,” a Scholastic graphic novel from creator Molly Knox Ostertag, into an animated musical film. The story focuses on “a secret, magical community where girls are born to be witches and boys grow into shapeshifters.” Things become complicated when young Aster finds himself developing powers as a witch. The book is known for its use of LGBTQ+ themes. Along with this announcement, Netflix unveiled the first piece of concept art. The movie is set to be directed by Minkyu Lee with a screenplay by Maria Melnik, and will feature a soundtrack by Haim.
Continued below– Oni-Lion Forge have announced a new original graphic novel titled “Cheer Up!: Love and Pom Poms” from Crystal Frasier and Val Wise. The book is set to come out on August 11, and focuses on two young cheerleaders who fall in love. When Annie joins the cheerleading squad to round out her extracurricular activities for college applications, she reconnects with her former friend Bebe, a trans girl who is trying to please everybody around her. Frasier said in the press release that she wrote the book to be the story she needed when she was a “scared little trans girl in high school.”
– Dan Berry and David Gaffney will reunite on “Rivers,” a new graphic novel coming out from Top Shelf Productions later this year. The book focuses on three different people who are brought together through the same recurring dream. When the trio begin posting about their dreams online, they find out more about the connections between them. The pair previously published “The Three Rooms in Valerie’s Head” through Top Shelf in 2018.
– Finally, per Publishers Weekly, First Second has bought the rights to “The 12th House,” a forthcoming YA graphic novel by Rosemary Valero-O’Connell that tells the story of Camille, a young woman haunted by a mysterious creature after the death of her grandmother; HarperCollins/Tegen has bought the rights to a new graphic novel series called “The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza” by Mac Barnett and Shawn Harris; and Scholastic Graphix has acquired the rights to “Sugar Coated,” the debut graphic novel of #OwnVoices creator Amber Padilla, which focuses on an awkward new girl named Annabelle Romo, who tries to make friends at her new school using the sugar-coated treats she bakes.
