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.
– Representative John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell can add another award to their collection. ‘March: Book Three’ won the Robert F. Sibert Medal at the 2017 ALSC (Association for Library Service to Children) Awards. The Sibert Medal is awarded to “the most distinguished informational book published in the United States in English during the preceding year.” Sibert Medal Committee Chair Caitlin D. Jacobson said of the book, “The skillful work of Lewis, Aydin and Powell invites readers to walk in Lewis’s shoes, calling them to reflect on his experiences and to see his story of courage and resistance as America’s own.”
– Pepe the Frog creator Matt Furie is featured on Time’s third annual “25 Most Influential People on the Internet” list. Furie’s creation has become an unwilling mascot for the alt-right, and Furie made headlines by killing the character off in an FCBD issue this year. He joins a list of notable people like J.K. Rowling and Donald Trump on the list, as well as being the first comic creator to be featured. Furie is currently trying to Kickstart a new Pepe the Frog comic, “celebrating a resurrected Pepe, one that shall shine a light in all this darkness and feel good again.”
– Looks like Phil Lord and Chris Miller weren’t the only ones involved with the upcoming Han Solo film that Lucasfilm wasn’t happy with. As more details emerge surrounding the firing, it was revealed that Lord and Miller were asked to hire an acting coach for Alden Ehrenreich, the actor playing Solo. Like the change in directors, hiring an acting coach happens all the time, just not this late in production. It sounds like replacement director Ron Howard has his work cut out for him.
– In happier Star Wars news, IDW is expanding their own younger reader Star Wars line with a Star Wars: The Force Awakens graphic novel adaptation. The book will be written by Alessandro Ferrari with art from a group of Disney artists to help it look like traditional Disney animation. The film was previously adapted at Marvel proper in a disappointing six-issue mini-series by Aftermath trilogy writer Chuck Wendig and artist Luke Ross. IDW’s new take on the adaptation will clock in at 80 pages and be released sometime in August.
– Bongo comics co-founder Bill Morrison was named executive editor of Mad Magazine as they make the move from New York to Burbank, CA, joining the rest of DC Entertainment. Current editor John Ficarra, who has been with the publication since 1984, will stay until the end of the year as a consultant assisting with the transition. Morrison will oversee a “re-jiggering” of the magazine, to stand out in an era that features so many other outlets for satire, including many popular late night cable shows.
– The first photos from the upcoming film, I Kill Giants, have been released. The movie is an adaptation of the 2008 Image Comics series, by Joe Kelly (who also wrote the screenplay) and J.M. Ken Niimura. The story centers around a Dungeons & Dragons obsessed fifth-grader that discovers some giants that need fighting, although it’s uncertain if they are actually real, or just a coping mechanism. The film stars Zoe Saldana and is being directed by Anders Walter, in his feature debut.
– Tom Holland just confirmed a fun fact from Iron Man 2. The kid in an Iron Man mask that stands up to the Hammer drone at the Stark Expo is a young Peter Parker. It’s a convenient retcon that happens to work with the timeline. While not included in any canon material yet, it was also confirmed that Parker was in New York during the events in The Avengers. So we may get more Spidey connections to the wider MCU in the future.
– It turns out that there was another mythological deity besides Diana running around in Wonder Woman. In Chief’s non-subtitled exchange with Diana the first time they meet, he introduces himself as Napi, a Blackfoot tribe demi-god known for being a trickster and storyteller. Chief actor Eugene Black Rock confirmed that the title wasn’t just an Easter egg, but an intended inclusion in the story.
Continued below– To combat recent losses, IDW has announced that it is planning to raise an additional $10 million in funding from existing shareowners. Current Chairmen of the Board Howard Jones has committed to purchasing the bulk of that funding at $5.4 million in shares. I would think those new Star Wars books will help their bottom line a little as well.
– A new poster for Marvel’s Inhumans has been released, and Medusa’s horrendous wig continues to be the most prominent feature in the marketing. Along with the poster, comes the news that its broadcast debut has shifted from the previously announced September 26, to September 29.
– Chip Kidd will be doing some sort of Batman project for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Not much is known at this time, but September’s issue of CBLDF Defender will contain a sneak peek.
