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, Ben Reilly is heading ‘Beyond’ on a thrice-monthly schedule starting with “Amazing Spider-Man” #75; Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman unveiled their new imprint KLC Press and their first title “Vanish;” Eisner-winner Tillie Walden is crafting three-part graphic novel series “Clementine” for Skybound, based on the Walking Dead games from Telltale; and the “Gideon Falls” team Jeff Lemire, Andrea Sorrentino, and Dave Stewart are reteaming for “Primordial.” We also have an exclusive preview of next week’s “Eternals” #5.
– Titan Comics are set to wrap up the comic books focusing on the characters of Max and Chloe from the original Life is Strange video game. Via Newsarama, “Life is Strange: Settling Dust” features what the publisher calls “the heart-wrenching conclusion to Max and Chloe’s epic comics journey.” Originally planned as a four-issue limited series back in 2018, overwhelming demand led Titan Comics to bring the series back for four additional volumes. Though this fifth volume will be the last to focus on Max and Chloe, Newsarama reports that more Life is Strange comics are on the way. “Life is Strange: Settling Dust” #1 hits shelves on September 15, five days after the release of the next game, Life is Strange: True Colors.
– Vault Comics has announced “Rockstars: The Complete Series,” a collection of the hit Image Comics series about the secret histories of rock and roll. Via The Beat, “Rockstars” came from writer Joe Harris, artist Megan Hutchinson-Cates, colorist Kelly Fitzpatrick, and letterer Michael David Thomas, with designs by Tom Muller and Tim Daniel. The book follows Jackie Mayer, a rock fan who uses his knowledge of the music world’s secrets to uncover the conspiracies behind the music scene murders. “Rockstars: The Complete Series” is set for October 17.
– Marvel Studios has dropped the second trailer for their upcoming film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. The trailer offers a look at some exciting martial arts action, as well as featuring additional footage of the films villains: the Mandarin, Razor Fist, and Abomination, returning to the franchise for the first time since The Incredible Hulk way back in 2008. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and stars Simu Liu, Tony Leung, Michelle Yeoh, Awkwafina, Ronny Chieng, and Meng’er Zhang. It’s scheduled to hit theaters on September 3.
– Pop Culture Classroom, a Colorado-based education and community nonprofit, has announced the winners of its 2021 Excellence in Graphic Literature Awards. BOOM! Studios’ “Bear” won in Children’s Fiction, while “Black Heroes of the Wild West” from writer and artist James Otis Smith took the prize for Children’s Non-Fiction. Among the other winners were “Displacement” for Young Adult Fiction, “Snapdragon” for Middle Grade Fiction, and the pair of winners “Phoolan Devi: Rebel Queen” and “Year of the Rabbit” for Adult Non-Fiction. You can find a full list of winners at Pop Culture Classroom’s website. A couple of prizes still remain to be awarded: the winners for Book of the Year and the Mosaic Prize for inclusive storytelling will be announced next week.
– Netflix is flipping the typical anime pipeline, announcing that their anime series Yasuke will be getting a manga adaptation. Via AnimeNewsNetwork, Yasuke, which brings some fantasy elements to the real-life story of the first Black samurai, will be adapted by Satoshi Okunishi, and debut in the publisher Shogakukan’s magazine Monthly Spirits. The manga will appear in the magazine’s next issue on July 27.
– After the long-awaited Snyder Cut took HBO Max (and social media) by storm, Warner Bros. has revealed that Zack Snyder’s Justice League will be getting a physical release on both Blu-ray and DVD this year. No details have come through on the release’s special or bonus features, but ComicBook.com has a first look at the cover. The physical release will be available on September 7.
– Smallville star Tom Welling says an animated sequel series is in the works featuring himself and co-star Michael Rosenbaum. CBR has the story that Welling, who played Clark Kent on the CW drama from 2001-2011, shared the news via a Cameo message that he and the Lex Luthor actor were working on the project. The story from the series was continued in a comic series, “Smallville Season 11,” but this would be the first on-screen revival of the long-running series. This won’t be Welling’s first time revisiting the character, however, as he and co-star Erica Durance (Lois Lane) guest starred on the Arrowverse crossover ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’ back in 2019.
– The video game based on the hit anime series Demon Slayer has been confirmed for a release in the West. Via ComicBook.com, Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles was previously announced, but details about its region availability were still left as question marks. A new story trailer for the game provided the news that a western release was in the cards, with Sega handling the publishing in North America and Europe. The game appears to stick fairly close to the plot told in the anime, although the report notes that the trailer doesn’t go too far into the anime’s events. Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles will launch on October 15 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
– Finally, Ishmael Ahmed, the father of comics creator Saladin Ahmed, has been nominated for the National Council of the Arts. “[My] pops is in his 70s and has been cultivating music and arts in Detroit, working to connect communities via grassroots for generations,” Saladin Ahmed said of his father on Twitter, “from my obviously biased POV [he] is exactly the kind of person who should be on a National Arts Council.” In addition to serving as Associate Provost for Metropolitan Impact at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, Ishmael Ahmed co-founded the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS) in 1971. Among other accomplishments, he is the co-founder of the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, MI, and has led Detroit’s Concert of Colors, one of the largest music festivals in the country, since 1984.
