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, DC announced Milestone’s “Blood Syndicate: Season One,” and BOOM! Studios announced “Grim.” We also had an exclusive preview of “Marvel’s Voices: Legacy” #1.
– io9 has the first look at the return of Geof Darrow’s cult classic series “Shaolin Cowboy.” “Shaolin Cowboy: Cruel to Be Kin” finds Darrow partnering with colorist Dave Stewart for the next entry in the martial arts adventure series, which features the titular hero finding “his parenting skills being tested when he is forced to homeschool during a pandemic of unparalleled violence, in a story torn from yesterday’s viral Twitter feeds.” The return of the series was previously reported back in January, but io9’s first look offers both a confirmed release date and the reveal of variant covers from Mike Mignola, and Geof’s daughter Alice Darrow. “Shaolin Cowboy: Cruel to Be Kin” #1 hits shelves on May 18.
– The comiXology Original “Virtually Yours” is the latest digital comic from the company to get a physical release courtesy of Dark Horse Comics. Via The Beat, “Virtually Yours” comes to comic shops on September 6. The comic from writer Jeremy Holt, artist Elizabeth Beals, and letterer Adam Wollet was originally released on comiXology back in 2020, and follows a career-minded young woman named Eva who, in order to get her family off her back, joins a dating app that provides the user with proof of being in a relationship. Her story converges with Max, a former child star who takes a gig creating a profile that becomes one of the top performers on the app.
– Polygon has the news that writer Brad Meltzer and cartoonist Chris Eliopoulos are bringing the style of their Ordinary People Change the World books to the world of DC Comics. A partnership between DC Comics and Penguin Random House will produce Stories Change the World, a series of picture books based on the lives of DC superheroes. “My life was changed by Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman,” Meltzer said in a statement. “They’re part of the American mythology — and like Abraham Lincoln, Amelia Earhart, Muhammad Ali, or any other hero we’ve featured, their stories persist because they reveal something about us.” The first heroes in the series will be the DC Trinity of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. I Am Batman and I Am Superman will be available this September, with I Am Wonder Woman publishing sometime in 2023.
– Seven Seas Entertainment has picked up the license to the manga adaptation of Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables by Takahiro Arai. Via ICv2, the manga adapts Hugo’s classic novel, which follows the life of several characters in France through a period of political and economic turmoil that culminates in the 1832 June Rebellion in Paris. Originally published in eight volumes, the North American release will see the manga compiled into four large-trim omnibus editions. Volumes one and two of the “Les Miserables” omnibus will be released for the first time in North America in December 2022.
– Buried in the story of a new animation company from Greg Daniels and Mike Judge were the details of an animated adaptation of a cult classic comic strip. Via The Hollywood Reporter, the newly formed Bandera Entertainment is in development on an adaptation of Alison Bechdel’s “Dykes to Watch Out For” with musician, actress and writer Carrie Brownstein. Bechdel’s strip, which ran continuously in syndication from 1983 to 2008, followed a diverse group of characters, most of them lesbians, in real time as they lived their lives in an unnamed U.S. city. Known for being one of the longest-running queer comic strips, “Dykes to Watch Out For” is perhaps best known for introducing the Bechdel test, a simple set of criteria meant to evaluate the representation of women in a piece of fiction. Bandera Entertainment is keeping further details on the adaptation under wraps for now.
– South by Southwest (SXSW) has revealed the lineup of titles making their premiere at the Austin festival. Via Collider, the upcoming HBO Max miniseries DMZ will be among the episodic premieres. Produced by Ava DuVernay and directed by DuVernay and Ernest Dickerson, DMZ is an adaptation of the dystopian Vertigo series by Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli that is set in the near future following a Second American Civil War. The miniseries stars Rosario Dawson as a mother searching for her lost son in the demilitarized zone of Manhattan, with the rest of the ensemble including Benjamin Bratt, Mamie Gummer, Nora Dunn, Agam Darshi, and Juani Feliz. A release date for DMZ has yet to be announced.
Continued below– Cartoon Network is teaming up with the NBA for a special edition of the NBA All-Star Slam Dunk Contest hosted by the animated heroes of Teen Titans Go! Via CBR, the 30-minute special Cartoon Network Special Edition: NBA All-Star Slam Dunk Contest Presented by Nike will air the day after the slam dunk contest airs on TNT, with the Teen Titans on hand to provide “their comedic brand of sports analysis direct from TNT’s Inside the NBA studios.” The new special airs on Sunday, February 20 at 5 pm.
– Marvel is celebrating the 30th anniversary of Jim Lee’s “Uncanny X-Men” trading cards with a new collection of the 1992 set. The Uncanny X-Men Trading Cards: The Complete Series is an annotated, digest-size collection that features the front and backs of each collectible card in the set, alongside scans of some of Lee’s original art. The collection is rounded out with interviews conducted by writer and set editor Bob Budiansky with the Marvel staff that contributed to the production and design of the cards. The Uncanny X-Men Trading Cards: The Complete Series will be available on July 5.
– Finally, The Guardian’s UK Technology Editor Alex Hern noted on Twitter that Amazon’s restructuring of comiXology has created a headache for some users outside of the U.S. Per the company’s FAQ, as the functions of the comiXology website are being moved to Amazon’s main site, series subscriptions will now only be available on Amazon.com. However, Amazon.com will only allow subscriptions for customers within the U.S. In addition, certain series will not be available for series subscriptions at all; although Amazon does not identify which series on their FAQ, an email to Hern identified multiple series written by Kieron Gillen and Si Spurrier, including “The Dreaming,” “Die,” “Alienated,” and “Eternals.” Bleeding Cool also reports users are unhappy with the Kindle desktop app replacing comiXology on PCs, which sometimes deprives them of the option to even zoom in.
