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 these stories before the weekend, Aspen Comics unveiled several new series celebrating their 15th anniversary, and “Life is Strange” gets a comic adaptation via Titan Comics.
– The finalists ballot for the 2018 Hugo Awards have been announced. The graphic novel category includes “Black Bolt Vol #1: Hard Time,” “Bitch Planet Vol #2: President Bitch”, “Monstress Vol #2: The Blood,” “My Favorite Thing is Monsters,” “Paper Girls Vol #3,” and “Saga Vol #7.” Sana Takeda, the artist of “Monstress” also was nominated in the Best Artist category. Among the movie nominations are Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Thor: Ragnarok and Wonder Woman. In addition, Nnedi Okorafor, who wrote both “Black Panther: Long Live the King” and a ‘Venomverse’ story for Marvel, has a novel and a novela among the nominations.
– Slate announced the two winners of the Sixth Cartoonist Studio Prize on Friday morning. Keren Katz won Best Print Comic for “The Academic Hour,” and Michael DeForge won Best Web Comic for “Leaving Richard’s Valley” from the respective deserving shortlists in each category. The winners were chosen by Slate’s Jacob Brogan, faculty and students of Center for Cartoon Studies (represented by Kevin Czap), and this year’s guest judge, Andrew Farago of San Francisco’s Cartoon Art Museum. They join the growing list of previous winners Eleanor Davis and Christina Tran; Carol Tyler and Boulet; Richard McGuire and Winston Rowntree; Taiyo Matsumoto and Emily Carroll; and Noelle Stevenson and Chris Ware.
– Gary Frank revealed that before working on “Doomsday Clock” he had finished two thirds of the upcoming “Batman: Earth One Volume 3.” It will also be the next project to get finished before something he can’t talk about yet.
– Test footage for the canceled Donald Glover Deadpool animated series from FX and Marvel has surfaced online. The footage posted by was the test clip created by the production house Titmouse, who pitched but did not get the contract for the show.
– MovieWeb reports Doctor Strange co-writer C. Robert Cargill confirmed plans to use Nightmare as the big bad for the (undated) sequel, as well as the long term plans for Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Karl Mordo. Nightmare, the ruler of the Dream Dimension, first appeared with Strange in July 1963’s “Strange Tales” #110.
– Telltale Games released a teaser image from the upcoming final season of The Walking Dead game. The image of Clementine holding an axe protecting her son from the walkers mirrors the promo image of the first season that featured the hero Lee.
– Pre-orders for “Noble” #10 have been canceled by Lion Forge but it does not mean the end of the Catalyst Prime line’s first title. The issue is being re-solicited for release in August with a new artistic team including Manuel Garcia, inker Lebeau L. Underwood, and colorist Chris Sotomayor.
– After three years at Marvel Comics Christina Harrington is moving on from the House of Ideas and starting something new today. Harringtion was assistant editor in the X-Men office overseeing “All-New Wolverine,” “Old Man Wolverine,” and “X-Men Red.” She gave no hint of where the move takes her but she did tweet her last editorial note was to shrink the size of a codpiece.
– Lance Fensterman has been promoted to President of Global ReedPop, the pop culture division of Reed Exhibitions. ReedPop is a leading cultural events company who’s portfolio includes New York Comic Con, Penny Arcade Expo, Emerald City Comic Con and Star Wars Celebration among many others.
-At their panel at Anime Boston, Viz Media announced a number of new planned reprint series and new US licenses they acquired. Their six new licensed properties include “Dragon Ball: That Time I Got Reincarnated as Yamcha!,” “Ao Haru Ride,” “Record of Grancrest War,” “Abara,” “Ran and the Gray World,” and “Radiant.”
