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 had an exclusive first look at the variant covers for Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso’s “The Blood Brothers Mother” #1, while Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows are reteaming yet again to parody barbarians with “Babs” at AHOY. We also paid tribute to veteran British artist John M. Burns, who passed away at the end of 2023.
– Mad Cave announced “A Phone Call Away,” a mystery graphic novel by writer Rich Douek and artist Russell Mark Olson (“2000 AD”). The book follows Emma and Andrew Walker, whose 6-year old daughter disappears 14 years to the day their first child, also 6, was kidnapped and murdered. Douek and Olson state the OGN is a non-genre crime story, where the horror is a sadly all-too-real possibility for any parent. Olson also describes the book as “sit[ting] within the tradition of the Golden Age of Crime Comics but with a distinctly contemporary set-up,” two sensibilities reflected respectively by its line art and coloring. It will be released August 13, 2024.
– Image announced the Image Select Retailer Award, a quarterly prize intended to recognize comic book stores “that are going above and beyond to serve their customers, expand readership, and grow a healthier marketplace.” The inaugural winner will be announced during the Lunar Distribution retailer event at Seattle’s Emerald City Comic Con on Friday, March 1. Readers interested in nominating a store for the award can fill out the Google form provided here.
– Steve Orlando’s “Scarlet Witch” run will be relaunched with artist Jacopo Camagni (“X-Men Red”) in tow this June. The second run will see Wanda face “a primal force unlike anything she’s ever faced before,” one that “won’t stop until it razes [her] world to the ground.” Orlando’s initial Wanda Maximoff series (drawn by Sara Pichelli) ended after issue #10 in November 2023, with the newly begun four-parter “Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver” (featuring art by Lorenzo Tammetta) currently bridging the gap in the meantime. Issue #1 will be released on June 12.
– Marvel also announced four X-Men ‘Blood Hunt’ tie-in one-shots for June and July. In order of release, they consist of “X-Men: Blood Hunt – Jubilee,” by Preeti Chhibber and Enid Balám; “Magik,” by Milestone Initiative graduate Ashley Allen, and Jesús Hervás; “Psylocke” by Steve Foxe and Lynne Yoshii (“Gotham City Garage”); and “Laura Kinney the Wolverine,” by Stephanie Phillips and Robert Gill. The four comics mark the penultimate announcement for the crossover (set to run from May to July), with the final tie-ins set to be revealed today.
– “Hotel REM” creators Zack Keller, Gabriele Bagnoli, Valerio Alloro, and Frank Cvetkovic are reteaming at Dark Horse Comics for another all-ages graphic novel, “Small Town Spirits.” Set in Ireland, “Small Town Spirits” follows a boy who becomes fed up with his family losing an annual Halloween sporting competition, and tricks the Spirit of a Celtic hero into helping them – unfortunately, this opens a “supernatural floodgate of mischief, magic, and monsters that threatens to destroy his town.” The 88-page graphic novel will retail in paperback for $19.99 on October 29, 2024.
– Following a successful crowdfunding campaign, Skybound will release a second collection of J.L. Westover (aka Mr. Lovenstein)’s cartoons, “Mr. Lovenstein Presents: Feelings.” The hardcover book will feature over 200 pages of Lovenstein’s more touchy-feely comics, as well as new exclusive ones, exploring emotions like joy, sadness, rage, love, anxiety, and lust, as well as new emotions (as Westover puts it) like being “horngry.” It will retail for $14.99 on September 17, 2024. The first collection of Westover’s cartoons by Skybound, “Mr. Lovenstein Presents: Failure,” is available now.
– Warner Bros. released a trailer for Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part Two, and announced the film will be released digitally on April 23, 2024. (A physical release date was not confirmed, although some retailers have listed a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release for the same day.) The trailer for the second animated adaptation of Marv Wolfman and George Pérez’s comic reveals the Tomorrowverse’s take on Batman Beyond, as well as Bruce Wayne and Robin coming to blows, and teases the coming of the Anti-Monitor. You can also watch an extended clip from the film, introduced by Batman voice actor Jensen Ackles, here.
Continued below– Speaking of Terry McGinnis, My Dad the Bounty Hunter co-creator Patrick Harpin and Spider-Verse movies production designer Yuhki Demers revealed they have been pitching an animated Batman Beyond film to Warner Bros. The pair have pitching the idea since September, hoping to eventually meet James Gunn, but in any case, they decided to publicly share artwork from the project. Batman Beyond has been the subject of constant movie rumors (live-action or animated) since it aired from 1999 to 2001; it goes without saying it spawned one movie, 2000’s Return of the Joker, which was so controversial that it scuppered plans for a sequel featuring Catwoman (which were partly folded into the Justice League Unlimited episode “Epilogue”).
– In other home media news, The Crow will receive a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release in time for its 30th anniversary on May 7. The film, which was released by Miramax on May 13, 1994, receives its 4K release courtesy of Paramount Home Media. Based on James O’Barr’s cult comic, The Crow starred Brandon Lee as murdered musician Eric Draven, who returns from the dead to avenge his late fiancée. The film marked Lee’s last, as his life was cut tragically short after an accident on the set of the film. The anniversary and rerelease comes ahead of the remake starring Bill Skarsgård as Eric, set to be released by Lionsgate sometime later this year.
– Finally, Kenny Meyers, the co-founder and lead software engineer of comics-reading app Omnibus, left the company in December. In a LinkedIn post (via Popverse), Meyers said the decision to leave was not a mutual decision, although he still has “tremendous pride in the many contributions [he] made to Omnibus in every aspect of the business.” Co-founder Travis Schmeisser remains CEO of the company, which was founded in 2022, while a new senior software engineer has been hired to replace Meyers. Omnibus is available to use on browsers and iOS systems, with an Android app still in the works.
