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, Jules Feiffer is releasing his first children’s graphic novel, “Amazing Grapes,” later this year.
– During C2E2, Black Market Narrative and Image Comics revealed various upcoming Massive-Verse projects, including “C.O.W.L. 1964,” a three-issue miniseries that will conclude the story of the original 2014 comic. Creators Kyle Higgins, Alec Siegel, and Rod Reis will reunite on the miniseries, which begins in August. It will be compiled alongside the original comic (including its previously uncollected sixth issue) in “The C.O.W.L. Compendium,” due out in early 2025. They also announced a vinyl release of the comic’s soundtrack, The C.O.W.L. Sessions. Furthermore, “Radiant Black” will receive an audiobook, starring Rider Strong as Nathan Burnett, and Will Friedle as Marshall Ward. The first volume, covering issues #1-6, will be released later this year, and you can subscribe for updates here.
– Fantagraphics released their Fall 2024 catalog, which includes Tell Me A Story Where The Bad Girl Wins: The Life and Art of Barbara Shermund, a biography of the pioneering cartoonist by Caitlin McGurk, an associate curator of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum, due out November 19. Other titles listed include a sadly timely reissue of Joe Sacco’s “Palestine,” Carol Lay’s new sci-fi satire “My Time Machine,” Laura Pérez’s supernatural anthology “Ocultos,” and Vol. 1 of Milo Manara’s biography “Caravaggio: The Palette and the Sword,” to name a few.
– BOOM! Studios will publish “Firefly: ‘Verses,” a one-shot by writer Ryan Parrott and artist Lalit Kumar Sharma (“The Vigil”), exploring an alternate universe where the Independent Planets won the Unification War, and Mal Reynolds and Zoe Washburne never went on to captain the Serenity. However, the destinies of the ship’s crew will “continue to intertwine in strange and surprising ways, because while the Alliance was defeated in this universe… the ‘verse remains a dangerous and mysterious place.” The special will be released on July 31, with a main cover by Miguel Mercado, and variants by Suspiria Vilchez and Vincenzo Riccardi.
– Also at C2E2, “Something is Killing the Children” writer James Tynion IV revealed the series will mark its fifth anniversary in September with an issue #0, set before the first issue. It will tie into the ‘Erica Slaughter: Year Zero’ arc that began in April, revealing “where she earned her teeth.” A third one-shot, “Book of Cutter,” starring Erica’s nemesis, was also announced for December. Further details, including updates on the previously disclosed “Silver” spin-off, will be revealed closer to the time of publication.
The news comes after BOOM! Studios revealed Tynion and Werther Dell’Edera will craft a six-part Slaughterverse arc in the upcoming anthology series “Hello Darkness,” starting July 24. Furthermore, the company announced they will celebrate a decade of all the Tynion comics they’ve published, from “The Woods” and “Memetic” (both 2014) to “SIKTC,” with limited edition comics, hardcover deluxe editions, and exclusive collectibles. A pre-order campaign will begin on BackerKit on May 14.
– Marvel have recalled the print version of last week’s “Daredevil” #8, after an error caused the oversized 60th anniversary issue to ship with 16 missing pages. The company is making all copies returnable until the end of May, and a corrected reprint will arrive in comic book stores on May 22. Marvel noted in a statement, “The missing 16 pages of ‘Daredevil’ #8 do not affect the main series story by Saladin Ahmed, and keeps this primary story in continuity with ‘Daredevil’ #7 and ‘Daredevil’ #9.”
– Sony have delayed the Kraven the Hunter movie again to December 13, 2024, following the decision to move a new Karate Kid movie from that date to May 30, 2025. It marks the second delay for the Aaron Taylor-Johnson vehicle after the release of its trailer, when it was originally set for October 6, 2023; until now, it had been set to arrive on August 30, 2024. It will now hit theaters after Venom: The Last Dance, releasing October 25, and a full two years after it was shot.
Continued below– The 1990 Flash series starring John Wesley Shipp is getting a Blu-ray release on June 14, Warner Archive announced. The series, which only ran for a single, 22-episode season, will receive a new 1080p restoration from 4K scans of the original film negatives. It marks the first remaster of the show since it was released on DVD in 2006. Pre-orders will go live soon. Intentionally or not, its HD release will help mark ten years since the premiere of the second Flash TV show, which helped eventually close the book on its predecessor by having Shipp return as this version in “Elseworlds” and “Crisis on Infinite Earths.”
– The first official “One Piece” cafe in the States has received a “soft opening” in Las Vegas, ahead of its official grand opening on May 11. Located at 5600 Spring Mountain Rd, the cafe offers food based on recipes from the manga and anime, and official merchandise like plushies, keychains, lanyards, mug & coaster sets, and replicas of Luffy’s straw hat. It will be open seven days a week, from 11 am to 11 pm. You can learn more about the cafe at the official website. Its launch comes ahead of the 25th anniversary of the anime, which premiered in Japan on October 20, 1999, and the 20th of the English dub, which began September 18, 2004.
– Finally, the 25th anniversary of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace will also mark 25 years of official LEGO Star Wars toys, and to celebrate, LEGO and Lucasfilm released a commemorative three-minute short film, LEGO Star Wars – 25 Years. The short features characters from across the saga — namely the leads of The Phantom Menace, the original trilogy, The Force Awakens, The Clone Wars & Ahsoka, The Mandalorian, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Young Jedi Adventures, Andor, the Jedi games, and Saw Gerrera (as he appears in Rogue One) — heading to the Great Temple on Yavin 4 for a group photo. Watch the video to check out Yoda and Grogu meeting, the first look at Cal Kestis and more’s first minifigures, and much more.
