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.
– St. Louis-based cartoonist Christina “Steenz” Stewart is inheriting the daily comic strip “Heart of the City” from creator Mark Tatulli. This change makes Stewart one of the few African American women ever to appear on mainstream comic strips, following Bianca Xunise, who became the first black woman to join the long-running strip, “Six Chix.” Stewart won the Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity in Comics last year for her work on “Archival Quality.”
– DC have announced an expansion of their DC Digital First program. Among the titles of the new expansion are “Superman: The Man of Tomorrow,” “Batman: Gotham Nights,” “Wonder Woman: Agent of Peace,” and “Aquaman: Deep Dives,” each one debuting as individual books that were previously serialized in mass-market DC 100-Page Giant series. Regularly scheduled print comics usually available on Wednesdays will continue to be available digitally on Tuesdays, while DC Digital First Comics will be released seven days a week. DC have also launched DC Essential Reads, a digital promotion where first issues of certain best-selling series will be available for free for a limited time. Some titles included are “Watchmen” #1, “The Sandman” #1, and “Doomsday Clock” #1.
– Writer Tom King (“Strange Adventures,” “Mister Miracle”) has revealed that he has started working on the final issue of an “insanely ambitious” unannounced limited series with artist Jorge Fornes. King has revealed the series to be a maxi-series, a 12-issue or more limited series. On top of the unannounced series, King is also currently working on two other 12-issue series for DC, “Strange Adventures,” and the upcoming “Batman/Catwoman.”
– Casper Wijngaard (“Angelic,” “Paradiso”) and Dan Watters (“Coffin Bound”) are teaming up for what seems to be a sequel to their 2015 series, “Limbo.” Wijngaard tweeted out a two-panel teaser, explaining that he and Watters are back to work during the lockdown.
– As of Friday, April 17, the Book Industry Charitable Foundation (Binc) has distributed $350,027 in coronavirus relief to 352 comic retailers and booksellers. Major comic creators have been helping with their auctions under the hashtag #Creators4Comics, with the proceeds directed to Binc for comic store support. Binc executive director Pamela French said that the additional fundraising and donations is raising the visibility of Binc, which is helping in bringing awareness of the foundation to retailers in need of support.
– A new initiative to help Canadian comic book stores was launched this past weekend by the Comic Legends Legal Defense Fund, a Canadian non-profit. CLLFD have launched a rental relief program and have contributed $10,000 themselves to begin the program. CLLFD has also launched #Canucks4Comics for auctions with 100% of the proceeds going to brick and mortar comic shops in Canada, similar to #Creators4Comics in the US.
– Comic creator Scott R. Kurtz has announced a new “Table Titans” webcomic story titled “School Days,” and is inviting fans to watch his entire process of creating the story in real-time. Supporters of the “Table Titans” Patreon will have access to the writing and drawing process, development sketches, and the final pages as Kurtz completes them. Kurtz will also post videos of his process, answering any questions along the way. “School Days” will be posted on Kurtz’s “PvP” website at a later date, and it will also be collected into a book.
– Award-winning UK comics creator Hannah Berry (“Livestock”) has announced an anonymous UK Comics Creator Survey that is designed to gather information about comic producers of all levels, which will be used as a foundation for a discussion on how to move forward as an industry and community. The survey is for UK-based comic creators only and only takes 15 minutes to complete. There is also a chance to enter a prize draw for a £50 comic shop voucher.
– The Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation have announced that Anime Expo 2020 has been canceled. The expo was originally set for 4th of July weekend at the Los Angeles Convention Center, and is the third major California convention to be canceled after San Diego Comic-Con and WonderCon. The 29th Anime Expo will now take place on the 4th of July weekend in 2021. Badge holders for the expo have the choice to request a refund or to roll over their badges for the 2021 show.
– Finally, Warner Bros. is pushing back a number of their releases due to the ongoing pandemic. The Batman, originally set to release June 2021, has been pushed back to October 2021. Wonder Woman 1984 is still set to release on August 14, having already being pushed back from its June release. Tenet is still set to release this July. The Flash has been moved up from July 1, 2022 to June 3, 2022, and Shazam! 2 was delayed from April 1, 2022 to November 4, 2022. More immediately, the Sopranos prequel, The Many Saints of Newark is being pushed from September 25 of this year to March 12, 2021.
