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.
– Image unveiled a first look at Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino’s upcoming horror graphic novel “The Passageway,” due out in comic shops on June 15, and bookstores on June 21. The book follows a geologist “who is sent to a remote lighthouse to investigate strange phenomena,” and “finds a seemingly endless pit in the rocks. What lurks within — and how will he escape its pull?” It will be the first full entry in Lemire and Sorrentino’s ‘Bone Orchard Mythos,’ which kicks off with a Free Comic Book Day prelude on May 7.
– Via Screen Rant, Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos are reteaming for a new, six-issue “Pearl” series at Dark Horse. The follow-up to the 2018-19 maxiseries will find the tattoo artist/yakuza assassin Pearl Tanaka seeking to uncover the identity of “the Ghost Dragon of San Francisco.” The original “Pearl” series ran for 12 issues during Bendis’s exclusivity period at DC, and will be reprinted by Dark Horse in two volumes this April. The new “Pearl” series (also referred to as “Pearl III”) will begin on May 22.
– Skybound Comet unveiled “Sea Serpent’s Heir, Book One: Pirate’s Daughter,” a YA graphic novel by writer Mairghread Scott and artist Pablo Tunica. The book, which will be the first in a trilogy, tells the story of Aella, a fisher girl who lives a boring life on Kinamen Isle, until she discovers she is the reincarnation of Xir, a sea serpent who almost destroyed the world. It will be released in comic book stores on October 12, and bookstores on October 18, 2022.
– Publishers Weekly reports Sterling imprint Union Square Kids will publish “Alterations,” a coming-of-age graphic novel by storyboard artist Raymond Xu (The Mitchells vs. the Machines). The book, due out next year, tells the story of “middle-schooler Kevin Lee, who feels invisible in two different cultures.” You can check out more of last week’s children’s/YA book acquisitions, including middle-grade graphic novel debuts by Cai Tse and Sarah Burgess, here.
– DC Comics revealed two more of its 2022 Free Comic Book Day titles: “Galaxy: The Prettiest Star FCBD Special Edition,” and “DC League of Super-Pets FCBD Special Edition 2022,” which will respectively offer a preview of Jadzia Axelrod & Jess Taylor’s upcoming YA graphic novel, and Heath Corson & Bobby Timony’s movie tie-in book “The Great Mxy-Up.” They join the previously announced “Dark Crisis” #0 at participating retailers on Saturday, May 7.
– DC also announced art by the late singer-songwriter and visual artist Daniel Johnston will be featured across a series of variant covers for “Batman” #121. The variants will be released by retailer Austin Books & Comics on March 1, ahead of a museum retrospective of his work at The Contemporary Austin in Texas, starting March 20. Johnston, a lifelong comic book fan, passed away in 2019, aged 58.
– Via The Beat, the animated crossover film Teen Titans Go! & DC Super Hero Girls: Mayhem in the Multiverse will be released on Blu-ray, DVD and digitally on May 24. The movie will see the DC Super Hero Girls crossing dimensions to enlist the aid of the Teen Titans, after the Legion of Doom captures every other hero on their world. It was directed by Matt Peters (Injustice) and Katie Rice (Animaniacs) from a script by Jase Ricci (Tangled: The Series). The movie will also air on Cartoon Network on May 28, and be added to HBO Max on June 28.
– Per The Hollywood Reporter, Black Adam screenwriter Adam Sztykiel will write and direct a Wonder Twins movie for HBO Max. The Wonder Twins, aka Zan and Jayna, are shapeshifting twins from the planet Exxor, who can respectively turn into any form of water, and any kind of animal. (They also have a pet monkey named Gleek.) They were created by Norman Maurer, William Hanna, and Joseph Barbera for the 1977 cartoon Super Friends, and were subsequently ported over to DC Comics in 1995. Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey of Temple Hill Productions (The Twilight Saga, The Maze Runner) will produce the project, which will mark Sztykiel’s directorial debut.
– Via ICv2, Viz Media announced several new manga licenses, including “Black Paradox” by Junji Ito; “Beyond The Promised Neverland” by Kaiu Shirai & Posuka Demizu; Hirohiko Araki’s “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure” spin-off “Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan;” “Drip Drip” by Paru Itagaki (“Beastars”); and “Look Back” by Tatsuki Fujimoto (“Chainsaw Man”). Other books being translated into English will include two Jujutsu Kaisen prose novels (Summer of Ashes and Autumn of Dust), and three Demon Slayer novels (The Flower of Happiness, One-Winged Butterfly, and Signs from the Wind.)
– Finally, Entertainment Weekly ranked the 100 best TV romances of all time to mark Valentine’s Day. Among the shows and couples included were Adora and Catra from She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (#24); The Flash‘s Barry and Iris (#43); Arrow‘s Oliver and Felicity (#55) Watchmen‘s Angela and Cal Abar (#59); The Walking Dead‘s Glenn and Maggie (#67); Wynonna Earp‘s Waverly and Nicole (#69); and Legends of Tomorrow‘s Sara and Ava (#87). You can read the full list (which was topped by LOST) here.
