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, IDW announced the graphic novel “Redbone: The True Story of a Native American Rock Band,” and we spoke with Scott Snyder about the first issue of “Dark Nights: Death Metal” (text version here). And on a much more serious note, artist/writer Cameron Stewart was accused of grooming aspiring teenage artists.
– WarnerMedia announced an online event for August 22 called DC FanDome, which will feature announcements from DC Comics, Warner Bros., the CW, DC Universe, WB Games, and more. The event, which will last for 24 hours, starts on the day at 10 am Pacific Daylight Time, and will have five additional channels of virtual panels and programming for younger and older fans. Expected guests include the cast and creators of practically every current/upcoming DC film and television project.
– Newsarama reports this year’s Emerald City Comic Con, Keystone Comic Con, and PAX West conventions have all been officially canceled by organizer ReedPOP as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. All ECCC tickets will be refunded, and the next time that convention will be held will be on March 4-7, 2021.
– Marvel made several reveals about their September releases, including word of an “Immortal She-Hulk” one-shot from writer Al Ewing and artist Jon Davis-Hunt tying into ‘Empyre,’ and confirmation that the delayed first issues of the new “Black Widow,” “Shang-Chi,” “Marvel Zombies,” and “Juggernaut” titles will debut then. They also revealed “The Rise of Ultraman” will start that month, and a checklist for the X-Men event ‘X of Swords,’ which will now consist of 24 issues, including two new one-shots, “X of Swords: Stasis,” and (the finale) “X of Swords: Destruction.”
– Canadian production company (and NBCUniversal division) Lark Productions have acquired the TV rights to Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen’s Image series “Descender” and “Ascender.” Published from 2015 to 2018, “Descender” tells the story of robotic boy Tim-21, who struggles to survive in a universe where androids have been outlawed, while the in-progress sequel “Ascender” follows a girl who embarks on the search for Tim-21 a decade later. Lemire and Nguyen will serve as executive producers on the project, which was previously in development as a film at Sony.
– At the Annecy International Animated Film Festival, it was announced director Elio Quiroga (The Cold Hour) will helm Winnipeg, the Seed of Hope, a Spanish-language adaptation of the graphic novel by Laura Martel. Due out in 2023, it will tell the story of 2200 refugees who fled to Chile aboard the SS Winnipeg after the end of the Spanish Civil War.
A French film adaptation of Jiro Taniguchi’s manga “The Summit of the Gods,” directed by Patrick Imbert (The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales), was also announced at the festival; the comic, itself based on a novel by Baku Yumemakura, tells the story of a young Japanese photo journalist, Fukamachi, who joins a legendary climber, Habu Jouji, on a climb up the southwest face of Mount Everest. Both Winnipeg, the Seed of Hope and The Summit of the Gods will have a 2D aesthetic.
– Agence France-Presse reports the next installment of the Franco-Belgian western series “Lucky Luke” will put the spotlight on African-Americans. The 81st album, “A Cowboy in the Cotton (Un cow-boy dans le coton),” will see the titular gunslinger team up with Bass Reeves, Cajuns, and more to defend a Louisiana plantation from the Ku Klux Klan. Jul, the current writer of the series, said “Lucky Luke’s stories are supposed to take place during the Civil War and beyond, yet African-Americans are never represented in the albums, except in a marginal way,” before adding “it was conceived well before the death of George Floyd.” The book is due out October 23.
– According to the Associated Press, political cartoonists across Brazil have rallied to the defense of artist Renato Aroeira, who is facing a probe from the Bolsonaro administration over a cartoon he drew depicting the President as a Nazi. Aroeira, a veteran satirist, said this is the first time he has felt nervous about opposition to his work, but added in a video interview, “The attempt is futile. They aren’t going to shut me up or intimidate me.”
– Finally, in memory of the late Dennis O’Neil, DC have made 1970’s “Green Lantern/Green Arrow” #76 free to download and read on all digital platforms until June 23, 2020. The issue, penciled by Neal Adams, marked the start of seminal ‘Hard Traveling Heroes’ arc, where Hal Jordan (and the Guardian of the Universe Appa Ali Apsa) join Oliver Queen for a road trip across America, having realized they were out-of-touch with the people they protect.
