Welcome back to The Rundown, our daily breakdown of 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 interviewed Mark London of Mad Cave Studios, and had an exclusive look at tomorrow’s “Punk’s Not Dead: London Calling” #1.
– DC Comics’ co-publisher Dan DiDio has announced that the publisher’s 100-page Giant issues will no longer be exclusively available at Wal-Mart Superstores. In a Facebook post, DiDio said, “…these books are doing well, so well that we are looking to expand the number of original pages in each book and include distribution to the direct market.” DiDio did not specify whether the books would see a digital release.
– “Planetoid” creator Ken Garing will launch a new fantasy series at Image titled “Gogor” this May. The series follows a young student named Armano who must awaken the mythical Gogor in order to protect his land of Altara. You can read the rest of Image’s May 2019 solicitations here.
– Marvel Comics’ team-up comedy series, “Spider-Man/Deadpool” will come to an end this May with issue #50. Cover artist Dave Johnson confirmed the imminent end of the series in a Twitter post, saying, “My last ‘Spider-Man/Deadpool’ cover because the book is ending. Seemed fitting.” The accompanying image shows the titular characters being stalked by the Grim Reaper.
– Sonny Liew’s “The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye” will have an opportunity to be developed into a fully-fledged animated feature. An animated adaptation of the 2015 graphic novel nabbed the first-place spot in Asia’s Animation Du Monde workshop, allowing its creators to pitch the film to the Annecy International Animation Film Market in front of potential co-producers and international investors.
– MCU veteran Cobie Smulders (Agents of SHIELD) has been cast in the leading role of ABC’s upcoming drama Stumptown. Based on the comic series “Stumptown” by Greg Rucka and Matthew Southworth, the new show follows army-veteran-turned-private-investigator Dex Parios (Smulders) as she finds herself back in Portland, Oregon, and tries to put her life together.
– Speaking of Portland, comic book writer and pop culture historian Andy Mangels (“Wonder Woman ’77 Meets The Bionic Woman”) was subject of a New York Times story about the city’s housing problems. Mangels and his husband have been forced to live the apartment they’ve lived in since 1987, after their rent was increased by 113 percent last year. Mangels and his husband have until April 12 to find a new home.
– Rotten Tomatoes has shut down the pre-release ‘Want to See’ questions from its film pages after right-wingers targeted the Captain Marvel and Star Wars: Episode IX pages. In an editorial, the site acknowledged “we have seen an uptick in non-constructive input, sometimes bordering on trolling, which we believe is a disservice to our general readership. We have decided that turning off this feature for now is the best course of action. Don’t worry though, fans will still get to have their say: Once a movie is released, audiences can leave a user rating and comments as they always have.”
– The Australian Press Council has ruled that Mark Knight’s controversial cartoon regarding tennis professional Serena Williams did not breach media standards, the BBC reports. Knight’s cartoon went viral last September after Williams lost to Naomi Osaka and accused the umpire of sexism. The cartoon drew criticism for allegedly depicting racist and sexist stereotypes about African-American people, as well as for depicting Osaka as white. The Australian Press Council said that, while some may have found the image offensive, Knight and the Herald Sun newspaper had “sufficient public interest in commenting on behavior and sportsmanship.”
– Meanwhile, San Diego Union-Tribune cartoonist Steve Breen has apologized after criticism of his cartoon of actor Jussie Smollet. Smollett, who was accused of orchestrating a hate crime against himself, was depicted with writers Toni Morrison and James Baldwin, and a caption reading “Famous African-American Storytellers.” Breen told News 8, “I should have reconstructed the cartoon differently. It read like I was putting them on the same plane – like I was denigrating these two great figures when that was not my intent.” He has met with several African-American activists to apologize, and that “going forward what we are going to do is we are going to show the cartoons to more people. The cartoons specifically on race so that we can get other perspectives.”
– Finally, Don Asmussen, a cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle, has announced via his Twitter that he has been diagnosed with cancer. While he did not specify what specific type of cancer he is suffering from, he did confirm that it has spread to his brain and other organs. We here at Multiversity Comics wish Asmussen a speedy recovery and the best of luck going forward.
