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, the 2020 Eisner nominees were announced.
– Brandon Sanderson’s Vault Comics original graphic novel “Dark One” just released its first chapter free online. The chapter was originally set to be unvelied as a part of Free Comic Book Day, which was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The comic is written by Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing and based on a story by Sanderson, with art from Nathan Gooden, colorist Kurt Michael Russell and letterer Deron Bennett. Sanderson said, “Many years ago I had an idea for a story. Now, ideas aren’t precious things as a writer — you tend to have far more ideas than you can actually write. Some ideas, however, are special. These are the ideas that stay with you, haunt you, refuse to let you leave them alone. This was one such idea. What if you discovered that you were a figure from the prophecy of a fantasy world? Only, unlike Harry Potter or any number of mythical heroes from books in the past, what if you found out the prophecy had identified you as the destroyer. Evil in embryo. The Dark One.”
– The first ever AI-generated manga hit the web this week. The Kioxia Corporation announced that the manga “PHAEDO” would be getting an English translation; the manga was created and designed by a human/AI partnership and is built from the work of Osamu Tezuka. An AI generated the characters and setting of “PHAEDO” by analysing over 130 episodes of Tezuka’s manga, including “Astro Boy” and “Black Jack.” “PHAEDO” follows a homeless philosopher and his pet robotic bird, Apollo, on their mission to solve the crimes of Tokyo in 2030.
– Hi De Ho Comics in Santa Monica launched a GoFundMe page to help itself recover from a recent looting. “Our store was broken into on May 31st by thieves using the peaceful [Black Lives Matter] protest of the day as cover. Our door was literally drilled into until the lock fell off,” said owner Geoffrey Patterson. “Our store is a small business trying to survive in an area of Santa Monica priced up for global mega-brands. We have been making our way, but not many small stores can handle the loss of over $40,000 in product anywhere, let alone here. The money from this go fund me will not only to replace our lost product and paying all of our employees, as we have been waiting for our approved PPP loan to clear for over a month now. We will also put funds towards replacing and refurbishing parts of our building.” As the time of writing, the campaign has garnered $38,435 of its $43,000 target.
– The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF) unveiled its Summer Reading Challenge. Participants are expected to read a new graphic novel each week, working off a prompt like ‘part of a series’ or ‘takes place in a school.’
– Mark Waid and Kev Walker’s “Doctor Strange: Surgeon Supreme” #6 is back on Marvel’s August 2020 solicitations. The issue was originally absent from the solicits after initially being set for a May release date. The issue will now be releasing August 5. “Doctor Strange is hot on the trail of the magical thief infiltrating the Sanctum Machina,” reads the issue’s solicitation. “But as his investigation leads him deeper into a magical black arms-dealing market, the danger of being discovered mounts higher and higher… and what he discovers will leave him reeling!”
– The BAFTA 2020 TV Nominations were released: comic book show The End of the F***ing World received nominations for Best Drama Series, Best Supporting Actress thanks to Naomi Ackie’s performance, and Best Drama Writer for Charlie Covell’s script. HBO’s Chernobyl however was the clear frontrunner with 14 nominations, followed by The Crown at seven, and Fleabag and Giri/Haji at six each.
