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, BOOM! Studios announced “Rare Flavours” and “Coda” Vol. 2, while Mignolaversity discussed the work of Peter Bergting with artist Matt Smith, and Webcomics Weekly interviewed “Ava’s Demon” creator Michelle Fus.
– Marvel will publish a six-part adaptation of the Obi-Wan Kenobi series, starting in September. Adapted by writer Jody Houser and artist Salvador Larocca, each issue will retell an episode of the show, which took place nine years before the events of the original Star Wars film, and saw Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan leave Tatooine to rescue Princess Leia from kidnappers hired by the Inquisitorius. The book’s announcement coincided with the first issue of Marvel’s Mandalorian season two adaptation, released today.
– DC released their September solicits, and revealed a variant cover by Dan Mora for that month’s “Batman/Superman: World’s Finest” #19, that depicts once and future Superman Nicolas Cage in a costume inspired by both heroes. The publisher also shared more of this year’s Batman Day (September 16) releases, which includes “Batman/Catwoman: Prelude to Gotham War Batman Day Special Edition,” that will feature an original 10-page story for the crossover by Chip Zdarsky, Tini Howard, and Mike Hawthorne.
– Dark Horse revealed “Usagi Yojimbo: Ice and Snow,” a new five-issue series by Stan Sakai starting on September 27. It marks the first solo Usagi Yojimbo series at the publisher since 2018, and after Sakai renewed his relationship with them late last year. (A crossover, published by Dark Horse and IDW, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Usagi Yojimbo: WhereWhen,” started in the meantime in April.) The new series will pick up with Usagi and Yukichi in Northern Japan, where they shelter from a snowstorm at the home of a strange hermit. “Meanwhile, the maniacal Jei and his familiar, Keiko, are on Usagi’s trail when they stumble upon a bandit lair and subdue a band of cutthroats and thieves.”
– Dark Horse also announced “Tear Us Apart,” a four-issue series written by Jay Baruchel and Van Jensen, with art by Alessandro Micelli, and lettering by Taylor Esposito. Set in the Canadian wilderness, the comic follows two teenage assassins, who’ve been trained by a cult to kill since birth, who fall in love. Van Jensen says, “This comic is a love letter to the 1990s. A story we can all relate to: a boy and a girl meet and fall in love, and the only thing between them and a happy ending is a horde of the world’s best killers.” The first issue will be released on September 6.
– Via Bleeding Cool, IDW announced “Kill More,” a serial killer comic by writer/letterer Scott Bryan Wilson (“Trve Kvlt”), artist Max Alan Fuchs (“Altered Carbon”), and colorist Valentina Briŝki (“Astronaut Down”). The book takes place in the decaying city of Colonia, where a pair of detectives discover the rising homicide rate is the result of serial killers moving there to take advantage of its economic collapse. The first issue will be released on September 13.
– IDW also revealed they will release “Star Trek: Picard’s Academy,” a book set during Admiral Jean-Luc Picard’s time at Starfleet Academy by writer Sam Maggs, artist Ornella Greco, and colorist Charlie Kirchoff. Starting in September, the comic will follow a teenage Picard as he embarks on his Evasive Maneuvers exam. “But there’s a detail Cadet Picard hadn’t factored into his plan: the exam was a group project and he’d need to make friends with, ugh, people if he stood a chance at passing. Federation starships aren’t run by a party of one, after all.”
– Humanoids will publish “The Golden Voice: The Ballad of Cambodian Rock’s Lost Queen,” a graphic biography of Cambodian singer Ros Serey Sothea (c. 1948 – c. 1977). Created by writer Gregory Cahill and artist Kat Baumann with designer Cindy Sous, and music archivist Rotanak Oum, the book chronicles Sothea’s life from her rise to stardom in the 1960s, until her disappearance during the Khmer Rouge regime. It has received the blessing of Ros Saboeun, Sothea’s oldest sister, and will be released in bookstores on October 10, as well as comic book stores the following day.
– Paramount+ have renewed School Spirits, the supernatural teen drama series, for a second season. The show, based on an upcoming graphic novel by siblings Megan & Nate Trinrud and Maria Nguyen, premiered earlier this year, and stars Cobra Kai‘s Peyton List as a school ghost investigating her own murder. Production will begin next year, with the book version currently set for release from Clarion Books and HarperAlley on November 14, 2023.
– Finally, Jarrett J. Krosoczka’s graphic memoir “Sunshine” was awarded the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award for best non-fiction book of the year. The book, published by Scholastic Graphix earlier this year, recounts Krosoczka’s time as a counselor at a camp for seriously ill children. The awards, presented annually by The Boston Globe and The Horn Book Magazine since 1967, honor the year’s best books for children and young adults, and you can head to the link to see the rest of this year’s winners.
