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, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG) acquired two middle-grade graphic novels by the grouping of Tegan and Sara, with Tillie Walden.
– DC Comics announced it would be celebrating George Pérez’s 68th birthday across all of its monthly releases in June. The celebration will consist of a double-page spread featuring characters that he is most associated with, drawn by artists such as Alex Ross, Joëlle Jones, Adam Hughes, and many more on a layout by Dan Jurgens and colored by Hi-Fi. The tribute is also set to be a variant for the seventh issue of the upcoming “Dark Crisis” event series. Head over to DC Comics.com to see the list of contributors in full.
– Titan Comics revealed the synopsis for writer Cullen Bunn and artist Piotr Kowalski’s new series, “Bloodborne: Lady Of The Lanterns,” as well as all four of the first issue’s variants. The series will be based on FromSoftware’s video game of the same name, but rather than further explore the perspective of a Hunter, as the game does, the city of Yharnam will be viewed “through the eyes of its citizens;” the synopsis teases that “families and faith will be tested,” as the city is thrown into turmoil after the outbreak of a “cruel and unusual epidemic.” This will be Bunn’s first arc on the series, taking over from Ales Kot, who wrote the previous four volumes. “Bloodborne: Lady of the Lanterns” #1 is scheduled for release on July 27th. You can see all of the covers, which includes a primary cover by Junggeun Yoon, here.
– Z2 Comics are set to expand on Angels & Airwaves’s 2021 album, Lifeforms, with “Lifeform: Vivian,” which will be by the creative combination of the founder of the band, Tom DeLonge, writer Helen Mullane, artist Amilcar Pinna, and letterer Ed Dukeshire, IGN reported. Tension Division will provide the cover artwork. The graphic novel will focus on a couple, Vivian and Victor, who become targets of the US government. DeLonge stated that “the story behind Lifeforms is so big and colorful that it begged to be explored further,” and that he was “delighted to see Vivian and Victor shift media into this gorgeous comic.” “Lifeform: Vivian” is scheduled for release in Fall 2022, with a host of editions available via Z2’s website.
– Cass Clarke, a former editor at Comic Book Resources, revealed that part of the reason they left the website is because “a section I helped build from scratch with [Meagan Damore] & have been leading for the past 3 months” was, as Damore put it, taken away from them, “a woman and a non-binary editor,” and given to “a dude who just showed up.” Damore expressed further disillusionment with the website’s owners, Valnet, stating that they “didn’t even weigh in with the people that were already there before they dropped this news on them,” and discouraged people from working for them because “they’ll sidle up and smile and act like they’re doing you a favor even when they’re taking all your resources away.”
– Image Comics has faced backlash following the release of a limited print variant cover for “The Secret History of the War on Weed” #1, that featured artwork from a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT. Some of the backlash turned out to be misguided, with people initially believing Image Comics to be selling NFTs, whilst other readers remain angered by the publisher’s association with NFTs, given the latter’s widely reported impact on the environment, and usage in art theft, scams, and money laundering. Looking further into the situation, Bleeding Cool confirmed that Jeff Boison, Image’s Director of Sales and Publishing Planning, is the owner of the NFT artwork that is featured on the variant cover, although the report stated that Boison “didn’t personally profit from the venture,” with it only being used as a “way to try and draw attention to the comic book.” The one-shot, by Brian Posehn, Gerry Duggan, Scott Koblish, Hi-Fi, and Clayton Cowles, is available now.
Continued below– “Bone” creator Jeff Smith shared a new cartoon responding to the recent news that Netflix have cancelled the planned animated series adaptation of the comic. “Bone” has been the subject of previous adaptation development processes, and Smith reflected on this in the new cartoon by homaging a classic “Peanuts” strip, with the opportunities offered by Nickelodeon, Warner Bros. and Netflix all being snatched away at the last second, leaving Fone Bone to lament ‘Never again.’ You can check out the cartoon for yourself here.
– Middle Eastern countries started to reveal that the upcoming Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will not be shown in their cinemas, reportedly due to the inclusion of an LGBTQ+ character in the shape of newcomer America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez); bans have specifically been confirmed for Saudi Arabia and Egypt, with Kuwait currently unconfirmed. Last year’s Eternals was also banned in many countries due to its inclusion of a gay character, though some countries, such as the United Arab Emirates, did show an edited version of the film. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will release in the U.S. on May 6.
– Natalie Holt confirmed she is the composer for the upcoming Disney+ Obi-Wan Kenobi series, with John Williams set to join her on the show and provide the series with its theme. Both inclusions mark significant moments in the history of the sound of Star Wars, with Holt becoming the first woman to score a live-action entry in the franchise, whilst Williams’s theme will be his first involvement in a live-action TV show under the Star Wars umbrella. Holt will be bringing a self-described “new and fresh” sound to the canon, but utilize Williams’s iconic music as “tentpoles” in her composition. Obi-Wan Kenobi is set to debut on Disney+ on May 27.
– In further John Williams news, the composer is reportedly involved with upcoming anime series Blue Orchestra. According to Shogakukan editor-in-chief Sho Kobayashi, “I am working on the project with John Williams, the master composer behind Star Wars and Jurassic Park. I wish I could tell my younger self in high school orchestra club who used to play John’s theme for E.T. that I’d be working with him in the future.” Blue Orchestra, or Ao no Orchestra, is based on a manga that was created by Makoto Akui in 2017, and does not have a release date yet.
