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.
– DC Entertainment has reached an agreement with artist Viktor Bogdanovic (“New Super-Man,” “Batman: Arkham Knight”) to create content solely for the company’s DC and Vertigo imprints. Since the launch of DC’s ‘Rebirth,’ Bogdanovic has teamed up with Gene Luen Yang on “New Super-Man,” and willl next move to “Action Comics” come July. The designation of ‘solely’ versus ‘exclusively’ is a bit unclear, but we presume that ‘solely’ is more inclusive of a term than ‘exclusive,’ which tends to just mean ‘doesn’t work for Marvel.’ The belief is that ‘solely’ means that all non-DC publishers are off-limits.
– Cullen Bunn (“X-Men Blue,” “Harrow County”) and Jimmy Z Johnston (“Micronauts”) will be writing an an all new ongoing installment of “The Tick” for New England Comics. Art will be provided by Douglas Paszkiewicz (“Arsenic Lullaby”) and, according to New England Comics, the release of the comic should come in August to coincide with the release of the new live action series on Amazon.
– Tribune Media, owner of WGN America, Food Network, and, relevant to us, the rights to classic characters like Dick Tracy, Little Orphan Annie, and more, is potentially going to be sold to Twenty-First Century Fox. Whether or not Fox would have major plans for those characters – or if this would put the Scalped TV series in development at WGN America in danger – remains to be seen.
– “Short Order Cooks” is now live on Kickstarter. The project was initially conceived with Kelly Sue DeConnick (“Bitch Planet,” “Pretty Deadly”) as part of the creative team back in 2010, but will be carried on without her by writer Christopher Sebela(“High Crimes,” “Heartthrob”), artist by George Kambadais (“Grave Lilies,” “The Double Life of Miranda Turner”) and colorist Lesley Atlansky (“Kid Sherlock,” “High Crimes”). “Short Order Cooks” is a five issue comic about cooking, crime, food carts and bad decisions. The first issue is due out in June.
– Following up on the unnamed X-Men TV series pilot directed by Bryan Singer(Superman Returns, X-Men)and written by Matt Nix (Burn Notice), The Hollywood Reporterclaims the X-Men based show is the most likely to be picked up for a series order from Fox. The pilot, referred to as Gifted during its production, would be set in the main continuity of X-Men films, unlike Legion, which carved out its own space to exist in.
– According to the aforementioned The Hollywood Reporter article, Black Lightning is likely to be picked up as a midseason replacement during the 2017-2018 television season. The show would join Supergirl, Arrow, The Flash, and Legends of Tomorrow on the network.
– Marvel has confirmed that Ghost Rider will return to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. for the season four finale. Ghost Rider first appeared on the show at the beginning of this season, leaving a mark with audiences before disappearing in December, ending that arc and clearing the way for the drama to eventually explore a new arc. However, those two disparate storylines will converge in the season finale episode “World’s End,” airing May 16.
– Gordon McAlpin’s webcomic “Multiplex” has ended but is now staging itself for a prequel – as an animated short, done by McAlpin. Multiplex 10 is currently seeking donations on Kickstarter for an animated short intended as a standalone film and a proof of concept for a larger animated series.
– Darby Pop Publishing (“Bruce Lee: The Dragon Rises,” “7th Sword”) has departed from its previous publishing partners, IDW Publishing and Magnetic Press, to be its own free-standing comic publisher. The imprint was founded in 2012 by Jeff Kline, whose previous work included serving as a writer/producer on such Hollywood projects as Transformers: Prime, G.I. Joe: Renegades, and Jackie Chan Adventures. Darby Pop now has a direct deal with Diamond Comics Distributors for the direct market and book tradem and will kick off it’s independence in July with deluxe editions of two out-of-print collections from its library: “Indestructible: Not So Much” and “Side-Kicked”
– Valiant Entertainment has announced that it will further it’s involvement with the Vans Warped Tour by adding “a full-scale convention set-up” at five Warped Tour stops. These stops include Seattle, WA ,Wantagh, NY, Hartford, CT, San Diego, CA and Pomona, CA. Earlier this year, the Vans Warped Tour announced that it had brought Valiant Entertainment on board to design artwork for all of the tour’s key art including posters,newspaper ads,web content and assorted merchandise. The artwork is set to include Valiant Entertainment heroes Faith, Livewire, Punk Mambo, X-O Manowar, and Bloodshot. Valiant Entertainment’s initial involvement aimed to increase awareness of the companies comic properties to a new set of fans while these more in depth convention setups will have dedicated areas that will focus specifically on the Valiant Entertainment properties.
