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, Yen Press will publish a new “Big Hero Six: The Series” comic book, and we have an exclusive preview of October’s graphic novel “Better Angels: A Kate Warne Adventure.”
– DC’s FanDome will return on October 16, 2021. The publisher did not announce any other details about the online fan convention’s return, other than a video asking fans to “save the date.”
– Bryan Talbot’s “Luther Arkwright” graphic novels have been optioned as a live-action TV series by Three River Studios. Talbot, who wrote and drew the mature readers’ sci-fi during the ’70s and ’80s, is attached as an executive producer. “Luther’s unique status as a traveller between parallel realities and his saviour-like qualities might liken him to Doctor Who,” Three River CEO Jonathan Drake says of the title character, “but an R-rated version, that doesn’t shy away from sex, politics and the grim realities of violence.” The graphic novels were previously adapted as an audio drama with former Doctor Who star David Tennant.
– Dark Horse Comics signed a multi-year deal with audio drama producers Graphic Audio and Recorded Books to adapt several of the publisher’s comics and prose novels. The first batch of audio adaptations, “The Mask: I Pledge Allegiance To The Mask” and “X,” are scheduled for this September. These will be followed by “Ghost: In the Smoke and Din” and “Living with the Dead: A Zombie Bromance” in November.
– Mad Men and Angel star Vincent Kartheiser will be joining the cast of DC’s Titans on HBO Max, according to the show’s official Twitter. Katheiser joins the show as Batman villain Jonathan Crane, a.k.a. the Scarecrow. Titans season 3 is set to debut sometime later this year.
– Montreal-based Horizon Comics are suing Marvel Entertainment and Disney over alleged stolen designs in the Avengers films. The lawsuit, filed by Horizon founders Ben and Raymond Lai, claims the MCU interpretations of Iron Man and Ant-Man used designs and motifs from their “Radix” series without permission. Horizon previously filed a suit in 2013 after the release of Iron Man 3 for similar reasons, though Marvel would eventually win that battle in 2019.
– Brooklyn Nine-Nine actor Dirk Blocker revealed that he screen tested for a potential ”Far Side” live-action adaptation several years ago. Blocker posted photos of the screen test on his Twitter and Instagram, though with little information outside of it being “many moons ago.”
– Lionsgate has announced the release date for the upcoming adaptation of R.J. Palacio’s “White Bird: A Wonder Story.” The World War II-set coming of age story will be directed by Marc Foster, with a cast that includes Gillian Anderson and Helen Mirren. “White Bird” was the debut graphic novel of Palacio, but featured characters from her novel Wonder. The film is slated to hit theaters September 16, 2022.
– The cast of Stranger Things will guest star in a new update for the mobile game The Seven Deadly Sins: Grand Cross. The Seven Deadly Sins: Grand Cross x Stranger Things is set to launch on April 27. The game is based on the “The Seven Deadly Sins” manga, which wrapped up its nearly eight-year run in Weekly Shōnen Magazine last March.
– Dragon Ball and Kamen Rider composer Shunsuke Kikuchi passed away on Saturday. Kikuchi received multiple awards over his nearly 60 year career, including Best Music at the 6th Japan Academy Prize ceremony in 1983, and the lifetime achievement award at the 57th Japan Record Awards in 2015. He was 89.
– Finally, Malaysian cartoonist Zulkifli Anwar Ulhaque (a.k.a. Zunar), faces a police probe over a cartoon satirizing the majority Muslim government’s decision to cancel a Hindu holiday. The cartoon depicted a Kedah state politician smashing a table with a meat cleaver, with members of various ethnic groups sitting around the now destroyed table. The probe into Zunar comes just after the arrest of artist Fahmi Reza over a Spotify playlist that allegedly insulted Queen Tunku Azizah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah. Zunar was previously arrested in 2016 for cartoons mocking then-Prime Minister Najib Razak.
