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.
– Entertainment Weekly has a sneak preview of writer Marjorie Liu and artist Sana Takeda’s “The Night Eaters: Her Little Reapers.” The preview for the second volume of the planned “Night Eaters” trilogy sees Milly, who in the first chapter learned the demonic origins of her Chinese-American immigrant family, struggling with that knowledge. In a previous interview, Liu had teased the central idea of the second novel as being “the question of, what happens when you experience a life-changing event, and you don’t want to change? You’re like, ‘You know what? My life was fine.’” The book is due in stores on October 3 of this year. Check out our review of the first volume, “The Night Eaters: She Eats the Night,” here.
– Dark Horse announced “The World of Black Hammer Omnibus Volume 2,” releasing in bookstores November 7, and in comics shops November 8, 2023. The paperback will collect 2018’s “The Quantum Age” (by writer Jeff Lemire, artist Wilfredo Torres, colorist Dave Stewart, and letterer Nate Piekos), and 2019’s “Black Hammer ’45” (by Lemire, Ray Fawkes, Matt Kindt, Sharlene Kindt, and Marie Enger.) They also confirmed the print edition of James Tynion IV, Tate Brombal, and Isaac Goodhart’s Substack series “The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos” will begin on June 21. The series, which also features Miquel Muerto on colors and Aditya Bidikar on letters, follows a teenage mad scientist, who discovers a boy he likes is actually a monster.
– It’s the King of the Monsters vs. Sir Francis Drake in “Godzilla: Here There Be Dragons,” the latest Godzilla miniseries from IDW. Frank Tieri writes this tale of pirates and kaiju, with Inaki Miranda on art. Tieri explains that “‘Here There Be Dragons’ is a lost voyage of Sir Francis Drake, told through the eyes of a crewman facing execution. The question is, is he telling the truth? Is there really a conspiracy to cover up what happened to Drake on that island and the existence of Godzilla? Or is this merely another pirate’s tall tale?” Issue #1 (of 5) will be available in shops this June.
– In more IDW news, the publisher’s hit “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” miniseries “The Last Ronin” is getting a video game adaptation. The game will adapt the post-apocalyptic comic, which follow the last Ninja Turtle on a quest to avenge his fallen brothers, into a God of War-style third person RPG, according to Paramount Global senior vice president for games and emerging media Doug Rosen. The studio developing the game has yet to be announced, although Rosen promises they’ve found the right partner to adapt the grim story into a triple-A experience.
– BOOM! Studios announced the four-part miniseries “Fence: Redemption,” from writer C.S. Pacat and artist Johanna the Mad. Picking up where 2017’s GLAAD Media Award-nominated “Fence” left off, “Redemption” takes us back to the Halverton fencing training camp. “Are Seiji and Jesse really through?” asks the official synopsis. “The rumors around Halverton have spread like wildfire, but it’s not long before a mysterious new fencer arrives – one who may finally pose a threat to the #1 spot in the prestigious fencing training camp.” The series will be released through BOOM!’s BOOM! Box imprint. It will be available in shops June 2023.
– Archie and friends will discover the horrible curse behind Riverdale’s go-to summer destination in Chilling Adventures Presents… Camp Pickens.” The one-shot horror anthology will feature three tales of terror starring the Archie cast, with Jordan Morris and Diana Cameron’s ‘Bug Juice’ (following Jughead as he seeks out a drink which wards off evil spirits) framing the book. ‘The Curse of Camp Pickens’ (by Blake Howard and Carola Borelli) and ‘Down and Out and Death Cursed’ (by Tim Seeley and Mike Norton) round out the book, which see Betty and Veronica (respectively) encounter the undead. The official synopsis calls it “equal parts Sleepaway Camp and American Horror Story: 1984.” It’s due out June 21, 2023.
Continued below– Industry veteran Adam Philips has been hired by AWA as their new Director of Sales & Trade Marketing. AWA Executive Editor and Head of Publishing Operations Michael Cotton said Philips was hired to “upgrade” the company’s retail sales and marketing strategies, both domestic and international. He will also oversee all communication with retailers. Philips was first hired as an Assistant Editor by Marvel in 1985, spent 17 years at DC until 2021, and recently served as Dynamite’s Marketing Director.
– Tracy Butler’s Eisner-nominated “Lackadaisy” is getting an animated adaptation. The 27-minute Lackadaisy: The Animated Short Film will premiere on YouTube Wednesday, March 29, at 2pm EST. Midnight Gospel‘s Fable Siegel directs. The short is the first ever multimedia project from Iron Circus Studios/Comics, who helped crowdfund the project with a total of $330,000 from approximately 6000 backers. The short, like the webcomic, will be set in Prohibition era St. Louis, and follow the exploits of the literal jazz cats around the title speakeasy. You can watch the trailer here.
– Finally, Marvel announced they will mark what would’ve been George Pérez’s 69th birthday with a line of variant covers this June. “Working with his estate, Marvel Comics has collected rare drawings from George’s archives and starting in June, these pieces will beautifully restored, colored, and showcased on the covers of select Marvel releases.” These will be featured on “Fantastic Four” #8, “Avengers” #2, “Scarlet Witch Annual,” and “Incredible Hulk” #1. Pérez passed away last year on May 6, a month before he would’ve turned 68.
