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, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg will have her life chronicled in a new graphic novel, “Becoming RBG: Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Journey to Justice,” written by Debbie Levy with art by Whitney Gardner; James Lee Rochelle, a comic book colorist and video game artist who worked at WildStorm and CrossGen, died on Saturday, February 2, 2019 at the age of 48; and production company Hivemind have announced a TV and film partnership with EC Comics.
– Tony Award-winning actor James Monroe Iglehart, of Broadway’s Aladdin and Hamilton, will be writing a Spider-Man story in March’s “Marvel Comics Presents” #3 with art by Ray-Anthony Height. The comic also features Charles Soule and Paulo Siqueira’s continuing Wolverine arc, and a Captain America segment by Andrew Aydin drawn by Daniel Acuna. To check out the new solicitation for “Marvel Comics Presents” #3, head on over to Bleeding Cool.
– Dan Brereton has launched a Kickstarter to collect “Giantkiller,” his 1999 monster invasion story in a deluxe hardcover edition. Inspired by Kaiju movies like Godzilla and Samurai films, Brereton’s “Giantkiller” was “something that made [Brereton] ridiculously happy while I was working on it for two years.” Not only will “Giantkiller” be reformatted into a hardcover, it’s an 8 1/2 x 12 1/2 inch volume. The new book boasts 240 pages and includes additional story art in the form of a new epilogue, and includes a big concept gallery of sketches, reports Newsarama. The “Giantkiller” 20th Anniversary Edition will be published by Big Wow Art later this year.
– According to an exclusive for The Hollywood Reporter, Danai Gurira will exit The Walking Dead. Gurira, who starred in Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War, was cast as Michonne in season 3 of the AMC series. Gurira has signed a deal to return for a “handful of episodes” in her final season of the drama series. AMC and representatives for Gurira declined comment.
– In another Hollywood Reporter exclusive, it was reported that due to Aquaman‘s worldwide success, Warner Bros. has hired Noah Gardner and Aidan Fitzgerald to write a horror styled spin-off, rather than a sequel, centered on the Trench, the deadly amphibious creatures that dwell deep in the ocean and attack Arthur and Mera in the movie. Aquaman director James Wan will serve as a producer for the film, simply titled The Trench, and the film will have a more modest budget than other DC films. Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis introduced the Trench in the New 52 relaunch of “Aquaman” in 2011.
– BOOM! Studios, Peter Dinklage, and Matt Reeves will team up to adapt Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Matthew Dow Smith’s post-apocalyptic graphic novel “Last Sons of America” into a feature film for Netflix. Set in a future where Americans are no longer able to conceive and children have become a valuable commodity around the globe, Dinklage will play Julian, an adoption agent in Colombia that arranges deals with families for children. Reeves will help produce the film, reports Deadline.
– Deadline also reports director Matthew Vaughn has confirmed the cast of the Kingsman prequel Kingsman: The Great Game. It includes Harris Dickinson (Trust) in the lead role, as well as Vaughn’s Kick-Ass lead Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Gemma Arterton, Ralph Fiennes, Rhys Ifans, Matthew Goode, Charles Dance, Stanley Tucci, Daniel Bruhl, Tom Hollander, Robert Aramayo and Djimon Hounsou. Kingsman: The Great Game, which depicts the origins of the Kingsmen before before World War One, will be released November 9, 2019.
– With award season upon us, Kohei Horikoshi, creator of “My hero Academia” has been awarded with the “2018 Manga Creator Award” in South Korea. The award is given to the most active creators of the year, and according to Comicbook.com, Horikoshi is the first creator outside of the country to win the award. At the Grammys, Black Panther won the award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media, and Best Rap Performance for “King’s Dead.” Black Panther also won reportsthe BAFTA for Best Visual Effects, while Letitia Wright won the EE Rising Star award for her role in the film. Spider-Man:Into the Spider-Verse also won the award for Best Animated Film.
Continued below– The L.A. Times reports that students at Fountain Valley High School have petitioned to remove Marjane Satrapi’s autobiographical graphic novel “Persepolis” from their school curriculum. Orignally published in French, “Persepolis” depicts Satrapi’s childhood up to her early adult years in Iran during and after the Islamic Revolution. Then-sophomores Yara Mansour and Haneen Bany-Mohammed created the petition in May 2018, explaining that “Satrapi constantly paints Islam as the oppressor, when in reality all those cruel things were from Iran itself.” Bany-Mohammed said, “Although I understand that this was the author’s story and her experience, I did not think that it is just for students to be studying this perspective in a time where Islamophobia is at its greatest.” The school board decided to keep the novel as a part of the curriculum, but assured the students supplementary materials will be taught by teachers.
– Yeni Asya journalists Kazım Güleçyüz and İbrahim Özdabak will stand trial in Turkey for terrorism charges based on their social media posts and cartoons. Stockholm Center for Freedom reports that more than 17,000 women have been jailed on terrorism charges since the 2016 coup attempt, and around 750 children are currently accompanying their mothers in prison. In one cartoon, Özdabak depicts a mother who lost her twins in a prison in the Sinop province where she was jailed. According to the website, Turkey is the biggest jailer of journalists in the world.
– Finally, in this week’s Reader Poll, we asked what your favorite sports comic was. Well the results are in and the winner is “Southern Bastards” with 60 percent of the vote. Tied for second are “Yu-Gi-Oh” and “Fence,” with 10 percent of the vote. And rounding things out at third place is “NFL Super Pro” with 6.7 percent. Make sure to join us for next week’s Reader Poll.
