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, Robert Pattinson was confirmed as the new big screen Batman, while DC Comics announced the Ink graphic novel “Teen Titans: Beast Boy,” and the Black Label series “Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity.” Also, “Dragon Ball” creator Akira Toriyama received a French knighthood, the 2019 EGL Awards were held in Denver, and we marked the beginning of our 2019 Summer TV Binge.
– Warren Ellis announced in his newsletter (via Newsarama) that he and artist Jason Howard’s sci-fi comic “Trees” will resume with “Tree: Three Fates,” a five-issue series starting this September. Set in a world where alien trees landed on Earth eleven years ago, the new book takes place “in the remote Russian village of Toska, [where] there’s a dead body by the leg of the Tree that landed eleven years ago. Police sergeant Klara Voranova, still haunted by that day, has no idea how this murder will change everything – nor what awaits her in the Tree’s shadow.” The first issue will be released on September 11, 2019.
– Writer/artist Joshua Luna (the co-creator of “Girls” and more), took to Twitter, alleging Image Comics had backtracked from an agreement to published “Americanizasian,” a collection of his online comic strips about Filipino American and Asian American identity. He is currently searching for another publisher, but “in the meantime, I need your support. I’ve been putting out these strips for free for 3 years, and was counting on book sales as a source of income. Speaking out about this is risky & terrifying, but silence would only add to the pain this has caused. So if you’ve enjoyed my comics, please pledge to my Patreon and/or donate via PayPal so that I can continue making them.”
– Muslim lifestyle website My Salaam has a report on how comics are providing art therapy for children in Syrian refugee camps. The comics, created by the Comics for Youth Refugees Incorporated Collective (CYRIC), are aimed at children aged 6-12 (who make up half of Syrian refugees worldwide), and retell traditional Syrian stories to help them cope with being displaced from their homeland. CYRIC board member Hussein Rashid was quoted as saying, “It helps the children, and hopefully will aid in making sure some part of Syrian story culture persists.”
– Marvel editor-in-chief C.B. Cebulski stated at a Swedish comics convention this weekend that the company will no longer kill off characters to drum up sales. “I don’t want death to be used to boost sales or to use as a shock value so people go ‘Oh my God, Johnny Storm is dead!’ or ‘Wolverine is dead!’ knowing that they’re going to be coming back,” he said. “If we choose to do it now, we’re going to add a little more weight and permanence to the situation.”
– The Hollywood Reporter announced actors Matthias Schoenaerts (Rust and Bone) and Luca Marinelli (They Call Me Jeeg) have joined the cast of the Netflix feature film The Old Guard. The film, which will also star Charlize Theron, KiKi Layne, and Marwan Kenzari, is based on Greg Rucka and Leandro Fernandez’s comic about a group of immortal mercenaries, and was co-written by Rucka with director Gina Prince-Bythewood.
– Meanwhile, Netflix released the first photo of Katherine Langford in the TV series Cursed, based on the forthcoming illustrated novel by Frank Miller and Tom Wheeler. The show, which is a reimagining of Arthurian legend starring Langford as Nimue, the Lady of the Lake, will premiere in 2020.
– Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment revealed Spawn will be a playable character in Mortal Kombat 11’s DLC, and that voice actor Keith David will reprise the role. David previously played the character in Spawn: The Animated Series. It is unknown when the DLC will be released.
– Per ICv2, IDW Games will release a Men in Black board game, Men in Black: Undercover. A social deduction game inspired by Men in Black: International (out June 14), Men in Black: Undercover will allow three to six players to choose between joining the MIB, the Shadow Government that wants to weaponize aliens, or the conspiracy theorists attempting to expose them. The game will be released in August.
– According to Variety, Studio Ghibli will build their first theme park near Nagoya in central Japan. The park, which is expected to open in fall 2022, will feature five-themed areas, including ones based on the Hayao Miyazaki films Howl’s Moving Castle and Princess Mononoke.
– Finally, to mark the premiere of DC Universe’s Swamp Thing, we asked you to name your favorite run on the comic. Alan Moore, Stephen Bissette, and Rich Veitch’s run won with 72.5 percent of your votes, followed by the Charles Soule/Jesus Saiz run at 9.9 percent, and the Scott Snyder/Yanick Paquette run at 8.8 percent. Thank you for voting, and stay tuned for our next Reader Poll on Friday.
