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.
– Dark Horse announced a 30th anniversary rerelease of David Mack’s “Kabuki,” titled “The Complete Kabuki: 30th Anniversary Edition.” The series, which ran until 2009, followed a disfigured Japanese government agent (codename Kabuki) in the near future, as she contemplates her past and identity after her agency is compromised. The oversized, 1280-page hardcover volume will feature a new cover by Mack, who comments, “‘Kabuki’ is the foundation of my work in comics. Both as a writer and as an artist. ‘Kabuki’ is what got me the offer to write ‘Daredevil’ at Marvel, and to create Echo. All of my work in comics began from this story and this art. It was my Senior Thesis in Literature.” It will be released in bookstores on December 10, 2024, as well as comics shops the following day, and retail for $149.99.
– Abrams ComicArts had two announcements yesterday: firstly, the imprint has agreed to be the bookstore publisher for select titles from Frank Miller Presents. Among the first titles they will collect this fall are Miller’s “Ronin Rising,” and Anthony Maranville, Chris Silvestri, and Emma Kubert’s YA fantasy series “Pandora.” Secondly, they unveiled a manga imprint, Kana, whose titles will include a manga format edition of “Ronin Rising.” The imprint will publish 40-60 titles a year, composed primarily of manga aimed at adults, plus some books originally released in French. It shares its name with the manga imprint of the French publisher Les Éditions Dargaud, also owned by Abrams’s parent company Média-Participations.
– Over in Japan, Mari Yamazaki and Miki Tori have won this year’s Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize for “PLINIVS,” their historical manga about the Roman commander and philosopher Pliny the Elder. They will receive the Grand Prize, consisting of a bronze statue and 2 million yen, at a ceremony on June 6. In further historical manga news, Shueisha announced an update of “Gakushu Manga: Sekai no Rekishi (Educational Manga: World History),” the 1986 educational manga about, well, world history, and revealed the covers by an all-star line-up of artists, including “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure” creator Hirohiko Araki (who draws Napoleon), and Kōhei Horikoshi (“My Hero Academia”), who renders Caesar and Cleopatra; hit the link to check out all the unexpected artwork from your favorite mangaka.
– Johnnie Christmas has a new graphic novel releasing on July 16, titled “Gamerville.” The middle-grade book, published by HarperAlley, follows Max Lightning, a boy planning to compete in a video game championship, until his parents send him to a camp where electronics are not allowed. “Stuck in Camp Reset, Max is forced to spend time outside in nature with other people, and longs to escape and level up once again.” Christmas promises it will be far from a Luddite comic though, commenting in a statement, “‘Gamerville’ is ultimately a book about balance, friendship, the joys of the natural world, and yes, the joys of video games too!”
– Netflix released a trailer for Golden Kamuy, the live-action film based on the manga by Satoru Noda, revealing the film will be added to the streamer on May 19. Set in early 20th century Japan, Golden Kamuy tells the story of a Russo-Japanese War veteran who teams up with an Ainu girl while looking for Ainu gold in Hokkaido. The film was released in Japan at the start of the year, and will receive a follow-up in the form of a live-action TV series this fall (although whether that will also come to Netflix is unknown at this point.) It marks the second screen iteration of the story, following an anime that began in 2018.
– In more Netflix news, Penguin Random House announced a line of tie-in books for Wednesday, which will include a novelization of the first season by Tehlor Kay Mejia (out September 3), plus an official cookbook, and a Nightshade Society journal. It will kick off with a coloring book and the Little Golden Book I Am Wednesday on July 2. The line launches nearly two years after the first season of the hit reimagining of the Addams Family, starring Jenna Ortega, and will pave the way for season two, which is finally set to begin filming before the end of the month.
– Finally, Ray Chan, an art director and production designer on multiple Marvel Studios projects, passed away this week. A prolific art department crew member since 1993, Chan joined the MCU as supervising art director on Thor: The Dark World, and served in this role on Guardians of the Galaxy, the second to fourth Avengers films, and Doctor Strange, as well as art director on Spider-Man: Far From Home, and production designer on Endgame, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and Deadpool & Wolverine.
His work on Guardians and Endgame in particular earned him two Excellence in Production Design Awards for Fantasy Films from the Art Directors Guild. He is survived by his wife and two children. Kevin Feige and Louis D’Esposito paid tribute, saying Chan “was the nicest human being and was such a pleasure to work with, hugely generous, and the kind of person who could take the seed of an idea and turn it into something beautiful. We are devastated by his passing. He will be missed by everyone at Marvel, and our sincerest condolences go out to his family and friends.”
