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 “Maniac of New York,” IDW announced “Voyage to the Stars,”, and Kodansha revealed its 44th Annual Manga Award winners. Plus, we had an exclusive look at Jim Lee’s latest charity sketch. We were also sad to report that Martin Pasko has died at the age of 65.
— The Slate Book Review and the Center for Cartoon Studies revealed the winners of the eighth annual Cartoonist Studio Prize. “Grass” by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim and translated by Janet Hong was awarded Best Print Comic, while “Eat Street Diners Club” by Will Dinski won Best Web Comic.
— Rose City Comic Con has been canceled, according to a statement from LeftField Media. The con was scheduled to take place September 11-13 at the Portland Convention Center in Portland, Oregon. LeftField Media’s AwesomeCon is still set to take place in Washington, D.C. in December.
— Tapas Media is suspending all publishing support fees indefinitely to help creators maximize income during the pandemic. The webcomic platform revealed that the decision was born out of feedback received during its monthlong “InThisTogether” program. The fees are typically around 15 percent of a creator’s income from the site.
— Dark Horse will publish Will Destroy the Galaxy for Cash, a sci-fi comedy by Yahtzee Croshaw. The follow-up to 2017’s Will Save the Galaxy for Food follows the “increasingly unfortunate” story of Pierce, a former star pilot left trying to make a living after the era of heroes, villains, and grand space battles has ended. It will release on September 29.
— “Batman: Three Jokers” #1 will now debut on August 25. According to DC’s Senior VP/Editor-in-Chief Bob Harras, this is to allow stores more time to order and sell the comic as they grapple with operating during the COVID-19 pandemic. The three-issue series is created by writer Geoff Johns and artist Jason Fabok.
— Long-running manga series “Golgo 13” will go on hiatus for the first time in 51 years due to the pandemic. The series will begin its hiatus after the May 25 edition of Big Comic, the semimonthly magazine in which its published. The decision was made in order to protect the health of the people involved in the manga’s production, including 83-year-old creator Takao Saito.
— DC says that digital comic readership on its DC Universe platform has increased 35% between February and April. This is a big change from last August when DC’s Jim Lee described the digital market as “disheartening.” It’s likely that the growth is led partially by people stuck at home during the pandemic, as well as the lack of physical comic book releases last month. As of May 12, DC Universe is home to 23,000 digital comic books spanning numerous eras of DC.
— PlayStation announced the Iron Man VR game will released on July 3. The game, originally intended for release in February, was pushed back to May, and then delayed indefinitely because of the global pandemic until yesterday.
— Finally, in casting news, Wolé Parks will star in The CW’s Superman & Lois as The Stranger, a mysterious villain out to prove that the world doesn’t need Superman; Katee Sackhoff, the voice of Bo-Katan Kryze on Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, is bringing her character to life in season 2 of The Mandalorian; and finally, Patton Oswalt is returning to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D for the show’s seventh and final season.
