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 revealed Nick Cagnetti’s cover for the upcoming Kickstarter anthology “Death of Comics Bookcase,” and interviewed “A Tale as Tall as Jacob” author Samantha Edwards. We also updated our report on Ed Piskor’s alleged misconduct with a brief statement from Fantagraphics, courtesy of Smash Pages.
– DC announced “Joker: The World,” a 184-page hardcover anthology releasing Tuesday, September 17. A follow-up to 2021’s “Batman: The World,” the book similarly features stories from creative teams across the globe, which follow the Joker as he unleashes chaos in their respective countries. Confirmed contributors include Geoff Johns, Satoshi Miyagawa (“One Operation Joker”), David Rubin, German Peralta, Alvaro Fong Varela, and Jason Fabok, who also provides cover art for the book. It will be released simultaneously in Spain, Germany, Italy, Brazil, Mexico, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Japan, South Korea, Cameroon, Poland, and Argentina, shortly before Joker: Folie à Deux hits theaters on October 4.
– Dark Horse revealed print release dates for three recent comiXology series. “Ask for Mercy Vol. 2,” collecting seasons 3-4 of Richard Starkings and Abigail Jill Harding’s fantasy horror series, will hit bookstores on September 17, and comic book stores the following day. Stephanie Phillips and Conor Boyle’s Cold War era thriller “Black Sight” will follow on December 3/4, and “The All Nighter Vol. 3,” the conclusion of Chip Zdarsky and Jason Loo’s vampire superhero series, will arrive on January 21/22, 2025. The publisher also announced a print edition of the supernatural Webtoon series “Ruthless Render” by cartoonist dd markk, starting September 17/18. The manga-style comic follows a murdered high schooler, who’s resurrected by a mysterious force to battle demons.
– The Bad Guys is getting a feature-length sequel, The Bad Guys 2, releasing August 1, 2025. The sequel to the 2022 DreamWorks Animation film, based on the graphic novel series by Aaron Blabey, will see the titular gang of animal thieves get forced out of retirement for “one last job” by an all-female gang of criminals. Original cast members Sam Rockwell, Marc Maron, Craig Robinson, Anthony Ramos, Awkwafina, Zazie Beetz, Richard Ayoade, Alex Borstein, and Lilly Singh will return, along with director Pierre Perifel, while JP Sans, the first film’s head of character animation, will co-direct. Composer Daniel Pemberton will also return to score the picture.
– The Nacelle Company have acquired the rights to the documentary film Mike Mignola: Drawing Monsters. The movie, originally released through Kickstarter in 2022, features interviews with the Hellboy creator, as well as Guillermo del Toro, Neil Gaiman, Patton Oswalt, Ron Perlman, Victor LaValle, Rebecca Sugar, Chris Roberson, Jorge Gutierrez, Adam Savage, Steve Purcell, Doug Jones, and many more. Specifics on the wide release were not given at the time of writing.
– Speaking of home video, Barb Wire has landed a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release, courtesy of German distributor Turbine. The 1996 cult “classic,” starring Pamela Anderson as Chris Warner and Dark Horse Comics’ bounty hunter from a dystopian sci-fi world, has received a full restoration from the original film negative, although the unrated version had to be upscaled from standard definition as the original footage was destroyed in a fire. The region-free release also features new interviews with producer Todd Moyer, costume designer Rosanna Norton, and VFX supervisor Chris Brown. It is available to order now.
– Avatar: The Last Airbender‘s hapless Cabbage Merchant is getting his own picture book, Avatar: The Last Airbender: My Cabbages! Illustrated by Bonnie Peng, the 40-page hardcover book retells all of the merchant’s encounters with Team Avatar, who accidentally and repeatedly smashed up his cart throughout the series. It will be released by Quirk Books on August 27, 2024, and mark the second picture book in the series, following last month’s Avatar: The Last Airbender: Heart of a Hero.
– Finally, “Batman: The Killing Joke” artist Brian Bolland appeared in BBC News, after giving a talk at his former school, and donating artwork to inspire the children there. Bolland, 73, grew up in Butterwick, near Boston, Lincolnshire (in the East Midlands), and studied at Boston Grammar School (a school for boys age 11-18) in the 1960s. He drew portraits of the Joker and the Penguin with marker pens for the students present. You can hear more about Bolland’s visit in a three-minute report from BBC Radio Lincolnshire.
