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.
– From Newsarama, Diamond Distributors’s founder and CEO, Steve Geppi, is spearheading a campaign ahead of the tentative May 20th re-opening of its distribution to retailers. The campaign, Back the Comeback, is intended to generate excitement for the restart, with t-shirt sales and auctions in July and August, and proceeds directed towards the Book Industry Charitable Fund (BINC), the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF) and the Jack Vasel Memorial Fund. Geppi said, “When the boxes arrive for the May 20 books, I don’t want it to be ‘just another’ box. I want it to be an event. The boxes will have a big label for Back the Comeback, and inside there will be a letter from me to excite them. I’m going to be encouraging them to take pictures of the box, the unpacking, and the re-opening.” The promotion has commitments from BOOM! Studios, Dark Horse Comics, and Dynamite Entertainment.
– Newsarama also wrote that the Art Students of New York are organizing a comic book anthology entitled “This Quarantine Life: A COVID-19 Era Comics Anthology.” Instructors Steven Walker and Greg Follender are producing the anthology collecting one-page stories “for artists to share their experiences during this unprecedented time through the language of comics.” Submissions are currently opened until May 31st. The organizers plan to release the anthology for free digitally on comiXology and iBooks.
– SYFY announced “Alter Nation: They Hide Hybrids,” a new 50-page graphic novel published by Dark Horse set after the events of the animated all-ages web series Alter Nation. Written by Tim Seeley with art by Mike Norton, colors by Allen Passalaqua, and letters by Crank!, the comic follows mutant human-monster hybrids created in a secret lab who are committed to protecting humanity. The Alter Nation characters originated as action figures created by Panda Mony Toys in 2018, and have crossed over into web television and now comics. The graphic novel will be available October 2020.
– From Polygon, the cast for the Audible original drama adaptation of “The Sandman” was revealed, with James McAvoy set to lead as the titular character (Morpheus), Kat Dennings as Death, Taron Egerton as John Constantine, Riz Ahmed as the Corinthian, Samantha Morton as Urania Blackwell, Andy Serkis as Matthew the Raven, and Michael Sheen as Lucifer. It also includes Arthur Darvill, Mathew Horne, Paterson Joseph, Joanna Lumley, Miriam Margoyles, and Neil Gaiman as the narrator. The audio program will debut July 15th, and will adapt the first three volumes of “The Sandman.” You can preorder it here.
– Per Comicbook.com, Marvel’s third audio drama series on the platform Serial Box, Marvel’s Jessica Jones: Playing With Fire, will debut May 28 with three episodes out of sixteen available at launch, and new installments released every week. The audio program is written by novelist Lauren Beukes, Elsa Sjunneson, Zoe Quinn, Vita Ayala, and television writer Sam Beckbessinger, and narrated by voice actor Fryda Wolff.
– From Twitter, The New Mutants account revealed a new theatrical release date of August 28th, 2020. The X-Men movie spin-off has faced several release delays following Disney’s acquisition of Fox, and was last set to release on April 3, two years after its originally intended release date of April 13, 2018.
– TV Line announced that the second season of Doom Patrol will debut on June 25th, running concurrently on DC Universe and HBO Max (the expanded streaming service for HBO). New episodes will continue to be posted every Thursday.
– Deadline reports that Inde Navarrette (Wander Darkly) has been cast as Sarah Cushing in Superman & Lois on the CW. Sarah is the daughter of Kyle Cushing and Lana Lang (played by Erik Valdez and Emmanuelle Chriqui) and is described as “a whip-smart, supercool wild child with some demons in her past who becomes friends with the Kent boys, Jonathan and Jordan.” The TV show was slated to film its pilot in the summer, but production was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
