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, AfterShock announced the Dionysian horror series “The Vineyard,” and we spoke to Lucy Knisley about her upcoming book “Apple Crush.”
– The Eisner Awards announced this year’s Hall of Fame inductees will consist of P. Craig Russell; Filipino American artist Alex Niño; the late Marvel editor/writer Mark Gruenwald; EC founder/publisher Max Gaines; 19th century cartoonist Marie Duval; and Rose O’Neill (1874-1944), the creator of the Kewpie dolls. Eisner voters will also be able to induct four additional comics creators, from a range of 17 nominees that include Howard Chaykin, Gerry Conway, Kevin Eastman, Steve Englehart, Larry Hama, David Mazzucchelli, Jean-Claude Mézières, Grant Morrison, Jim Shooter, Garry Trudeau, and Mark Waid. Voting will end on May 11, and the trophies will be presented during San Diego Comic-Con on the evening of July 22.
– Facebook owner Meta, EIB Network and Comic Republic have launched a digital comic in Ghana, to educate readers about identifying and stopping the spread of online misinformation. Titled “#NoFalseNewsZone,” the book follows an experienced nurse, an intern journalist, and a university student as they fight the scourge of fake news. It was created by writer Oluwasola Obagbemi, with “collaborators” Phil Oduor, Ebuka Ogbodo, and Adaora Ikenze. You can read the comic, which is in English, for free here.
– Students at the University of Sheffield have translated the educational Dutch graphic novel “Quaco: My Life in Slavery” into English for the first time. The book, by author Ineke Mok and cartoonist Eric Heuvel, tells the true story of the 18th century boy Quaco, who was enslaved by the Dutch, and taken to the Caribbean to serve John Gabriel Stedman (the Dutch-born Scottish soldier who hunted escaped slaves in Surinam.) Dutch Studies students worked to translate the graphic novel with Mok as part of their undergraduate programme. You can order a copy of the book here.
– Per NHK, Japan’s Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA) have launched the International Anti-Piracy Organization, which is intended to combat the spread of manga and anime piracy. Copyright protection groups and government agencies from the United States and Southeast Asian countries were among the attendees for the organization’s first online meeting on Tuesday, with CODA planning to urge more countries to help investigate sites based outside Japan. The new organization will prioritze providing authorities with evidence of piracy sites based in their countries, and petition them to investigate.
– Netflix have canceled Raising Dion, the family superhero show based on the comic by Dennis Liu and (an uncredited) Jason Piperberg. Lead actress Alisha Wainwright stated, “I’m heartbroken that our show isn’t moving forward with another season, not only because I won’t get to work with my amazing cast and crew in the same way again, but because I feel Raising Dion did so much for little black and brown children and children with disabilities. I wish we could give them more stories in our wonderful Dion world. My heart aches for the little ones. I hope you enjoyed what we put out there, and I look forward to seeing my peers create other projects that touch the lives of our community.” Raising Dion premiered in 2019, and ran for two seasons; the second was released on February 1.
– At CinemaCon, Warner Bros. confirmed a sequel to The Batman is happening, with Robert Pattinson and writer/director Matt Reeves both returning. A release date was not revealed however. Footage was also shown from Black Adam, The Flash, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, and many more upcoming Warner Bros. productions, which you can read a full-write up of at The Hollywood Reporter here.
– Reina Hardesty has become the third cast member to exit the untitled Boys spin-off on Amazon. She joins Aimee Carrero and Shane Paul McGhie, who were also cast as leads on the project before new showrunners Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters began retooling it. The role will be reportedly recast. The untitled Boys spin-off was greenlit in September, and will follow students at a superhero college run by Vought International; it does not have a release date at the time of writing.
– Finally, Hawkeye series co-director Rhys Thomas will helm a Robotech feature film for Sony Pictures. The movie, penned by Art Marcum and Matt Holloway with Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka, is based on the classic 1980s anime series, which imagines a world where humans have developed pilotable mecha from crashed alien technology, technology that the aliens now want to reclaim. The live-action take has been in development at Sony (and previously Warner Bros.) since 2007, with James Wan and Andy Muschietti both previously attached to direct.
