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.
– “Guardians Inferno,” the David Hasselhoff led disco ballad that played over the end credits of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, will get an official music video when the film releases on home video. Director James Gunn teased the video with a glorious poster featuring Hasselhoff and members of the cast dressed in the appropriate attire (and yes, this is the lead story because of that poster). The song was written by Gunn and Tyler Bates, and performed by Hasselhoff and The Sneepers. The film and music video will see a digital release on August 8 and Blu-ray/DVD on August 22.
– The winners of the inaugural Prism Awards were announced this past weekend. The awards aim to highlight “diverse, powerful, innovative, positive or challenging representations of LGBTQAI+ characters in fiction and nonfiction comics.” ‘Nothing Wrong With Me’ by Dylan Edwards, “Villainette” by Scout Tran-Caffee, “Short Gay Stories” by H-P Lehkonen, “The Backstagers” #1 by James Tynion IV, and Rian Sygh, and ‘Power & Magic: The Queer Witch Comics Anthology’ edited by Joamette Gil, all took home prizes.
– In other award news, the 2017 nominees for the Joe Shuster awards have been announced, Canada’s national awards that “honours and raises the awareness of Canadians that create, self-publish and sell comics books, graphic novels and webcomics.” The list contains well known Canadian creators like Jeff Lemire, Bryan Lee O’Malley, and Fiona Staples, along with many other lesser known creators. The awards also include a special category called the Gene Day Award for self-published comics not distributed by Diamond.
– Marvel and Freeform’s upcoming New Warriors TV show has found its cast, including Milana Vayntrub (This Is Us), who will headline the series as Squirrel Girl with Derek Theler (Baby Daddy) as Mister Immortal. Rounding out the cast will be Jeremy Tardy as Night Thrasher, Calum Worthy as Speedball, Matthew Moy as Microbe, and Kate Comer as Debrii. While Marvel has comedic elements in almost all of their TV and film properties, this will be the first true comedic series. Hopefully they borrow a bit of the hilarious take on Squirrel Girl seen in Ryan North and Erica Henderson’s current ongoing comic. The TV show will launch in 2018.
– Marvel Legacy may be just more of the same, but it sure has turned the solicit reveals into an event. Details for “Iceman,” “Royals,” and “Jean Grey” we’re released yesterday, and all three are reaching back to their characters’ pasts in some form. Iceman is heading to Los Angeles to reunite with his former 1970’s era Champions teammates, Hercules, Ghost Rider, Black Widow, Darkstar, and Angel. Black Bolt, Medusa, and company will be exploring their Kree origins, and Jean Grey will be going up against her (future?) constant rival Emma Frost. At least one group of people should be happy with all this Legacy news: Marvel’s marketing team.
– Speaking of Marvel’s marketing team, another member is leaving. Joe Taraborrelli will be joining Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Playstation division. Taraborrelli was the Senior Communications Manager and responsible for all of Marvel’s marketing campaigns. Chris D’Lando, formerly their Sales & Communications Administrator, left in May to join ReedPOP.
– Comixology will release its third and final set of “Comic Book All-Stars” cards at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con. In addition to the normal comic creator cards, there will be six new “Heavy Hitters” cards for Laura Allred, Becky Cloonan, Geoff Johns, Jim Lee, Emma Ríos, and Bruce Timm. The special cards were picked by Kevin Smith and will feature trivia about each creator, like how Lee was studying to be a doctor at Princeton before transitioning to comic book art.
– DC is enlisting a host of horror novelists for a special Halloween one-shot, titled ‘DC House of Horrors.’ The 80-page issue will include stories from Brian Keene, Weston Ochse, Edward Lee, Mary SanGiovanni, Wrath James White, Nick Cutter, Ronald Malfi, and Bryan Smith. Rags Morales, Bilquis Evely, Howard Porter, Scott Kolins, and Dale Eaglesham will be contributing art, and Keith Giffen is also credited, but it’s not clear if that’s on art or other duties.
