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, colorist and educator Ellen Vartanoff passed away, aged 67.
– Kicking off, the creator-owned work of the late Steve Ditko (co-creator of Spider-Man and Doctor Strange among other characters), and collaborator Robin Snyder are being collected in a five-volume set to be available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the wider book market. The volumes will be collected as “The 32 Series” with Snyder and editor Rodney Schroeter putting together the collections. “The 32 Series Vol. II: Opening Acts” is the first of the volumes to be collected and will be on sale March 30th, with the hope that the volumes will collected the work chronologically, hence the odd numbering.
– The comic book series “The Ride” is celebrating its 15th anniversary over at Image Comics with “The Ride: Burning Desire,” a five-issue sequel from creative team Doug Wagner and Daniel Hillyard. Adam Hughes will also be providing covers and a back-up story for each issue. This new miniseres will follow “former Atlanta P.D. detective Samantha Vega, [who] now makes her living as a bouncer at an exotic dance club. But life on the outside isn’t easy, especially when enemies have scores to settle…” #1 hits shelves June 12th.
– IDW Media Holdings chairman and CEO Howard Jonas announced that the company is seeking “to realize the full potential of its vast content library and pipeline,” and has hired investment bank J.P. Morgan to oversee a possible sale of the company. This announcements comes on the heels of a letter the company received from one of its largest shareholders, ADW Capital Partners, which encouraged the company to take advantage of the growing market for content by transplanting more of their properties into the film and television world.
– IDW has also officially cancelled all orders for the remaining issues of “Antar: The Black Knight” from writer Nnedi Okorafor and artist Eric Battle. The first issue was published in April 2018, and then no details were heard about the project.
– Ahead of the release of the first DC Ink and Zoom titles next week, DC has announced that the writers of the first two graphic novels coming out under those imprints will be going on tour. Danielle Page (“Mera: Tidebreaker”) and Ridley Pearson (“Super Sons: The Polarshield Project”) will be making stops in Denver, New York, and Chicago, among a handful of other places during the next few weeks for events and signings. You can check out Page’s schedule here and Pearson’s here.
– The Riverdale spin-off Katy Keene over at CW has added two more people to its cast. Zane Holtz (Hunter Killer) has been cast as Ko Kelly, “a boxer with two goals in life: to fight a welterweight championship in Madison Square Garden and to marry his longtime girlfriend, Katy Keene” (played by Lucy Hale). Actress Katherine LaNasa (Satisfaction) will play Gloria Grandbilt “a legendary personal shopper at the luxury department store Lacy’s, which caters to the rich and famous.”
– Ahead of the release of the first issue of their event comic “War of the Realms” from Jason Aaron, Russell Dauterman, and Matt Wilson, Marvel has released an official theme track for the event. Revealed on the This Week in Marvel podcast, the track was recorded by Jimmy Urine of electropunk band Mindless Self Indulgence with input from Aaron. You can listen to the track here.
– Ahead of the final issue of the Kelly Thompson-written series “West Coast Avengers,” Marvel revealed that a new artist would be taking over for the finale. Artist Gang Hyuk Lim is being replaced by Moy R. for issue #10 of the book, which comes out April 17th. Lim will be drawing “War of the Realms: Agents of Atlas,” written by Greg Pak, which hits shelves in May.
– Finally, The Washington Post and cartoonist Mike Lester are under fire for a transphobic cartoon that was published in the aftermath of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s submission of his report to Attorney General William Barr. The cartoon depicts a cake labelled, “The Mueller Report,” with a woman popping out, men gawking at her, and waiters in the background saying. “Wait til they find out that’s a dude.” You can find the cartoon and read more about the response here.
