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.
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– ComiXology will release five graphic biographies from Italian publisher BeccoGiallo in English on Tuesday, March 28. The books (and subjects) are “Mary Shelly: The Eternal Dream,” by writer Alessandro Di Virgilio and artist Manuela Santoni; “Socrates” by Francesco Barilli and Alessandro Ranghiasci; “Nikola Tesla” by Sergio Rossi and Giovanni Scarduelli; “Vincent Van Gogh: Sadness Will Last Forever” by Francesco Barilli and Sakka (aka Roberta Sacchi); and “Virginia Woolf,” by Liuba Gabriele. All of them were translated by Luci Lenzi. Like all comiXology Originals, the books will available to buy, or free to anyone with an Amazon subscription.
– “Heartstopper” creator Alice Oseman announced the webcomic will resume on Saturday, April 1. The comic has been on hiatus since May 26, 2022 (about a month after the Netflix series premiered), as a result of Oseman suffering from severe burnout. The webcomic will return ahead of the fifth and final volume of the print version, due out (at least in the UK) on November 9, 2023. “Heartstopper” is available to read on Tapas, Webtoon, and Tumblr.
– Speaking of Tapas, Popverse shares that its parent company, Kakao Entertainment, has closed the South Korean branch, laying off about 20 employees. Kakao will manage the Korean platform and marketing directly. The news emerged two months after founder and CEO Chang Kim left the company, roughly 18 months after selling it to Kakao. Kakao previously laid off much of Tapas’s San Francisco-based executive team, after merging it with two other assets, Radish Media and Wuxiaworld, last summer.
– James Gunn confirmed rumors he will direct — as well as write — the Superman reboot Superman: Legacy, releasing in theaters on July 11, 2025. The co-chairman and CEO of DC Studios said on social media, “I was hesitant to direct, despite the constant pestering by Peter Safran and others to commit (sorry, Peter). Just because I write something doesn’t mean I feel it in my bones, visually and emotionally, enough to spend over two years directing it, especially not something of this magnitude. But, the long and the short of it is, I love this script, and I’m incredibly excited as we begin this journey. #UpUpandAway.” Gunn also pointed out, poignantly, that the movie will be released on the birthday of his father, James Gunn Sr., who passed away in 2019.
– A seven-and-a-half-foot tall statue of Wonder Woman was installed yesterday at Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank. The 600-pound bronze statue is based on a design by Jenny Frison, and was forged by Burbank’s American Fine Arts Foundry and Fabrication to help mark Warner Bros.’s 100th anniversary. It was unveiled during a ceremony attended by Jim Lee, Patty Jenkins, Pam Lifford (Warner Bros.’s President of Global Brands, Franchises and Experiences), and Burbank Mayor Konstantine Anthony. Visit Burbank will mark the statue’s creation with a reissue of Amanda Diebert and Aaron Lopresti’s 2020 comic “Wonder Woman: Agent of Peace” #14 (chosen because it features Amelia Earhart), with Frison’s design on the cover.
– Via Deadline, Sony will release Knights of the Zodiac — the live-action, English language film based on Masami Kurumada’s manga “Saint Seiya” — in US theaters on May 12. The film, starring Mackenyu, Famke Janssen, Madison Iseman, Diego Tinoco, Mark Dacascos, Nick Stahl and Sean Bean, will open first in Japan (under the name Saint Seiya: The Beginning) on April 28, and in the UK last on July 28.
– Finally, Mike Mignola and Dave Stewart’s illustrated edition of the original Adventures of Pinocchio book has a new contributor on board: Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket, who will provide annotations as his alter-ego from A Series of Unfortunate Events. Snicket will bring “the reader along with him for his own first experience of the story in all of its bubbling stew of anarchic madness, surreal symbolism and social commentary. Snicket’s annotations are presented as removable typewritten sheets, complete with all the tell-tale revisions and ink-stains of an incipient authorial madness.” The “Illuminated Edition,” which has been successfully crowdfunded, was first announced in 2021, and will be released by Beehive Books.
