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, yesterday we interviewed Rob Guillory about his book “Farmhand.” We also took a look at some of June’s best comic book covers.
– HBO’s Watchmen TV series has landed another actor for Damon Lindelof’s take on Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ classic graphic novel. According to Deadline, Jeremy Irons (The Lion King, Justice League) will have a lead role in the series. Irons will join Regina King, Don Johnson, Tim Blake Nelson, Louis Gossett Jr., Adelaide Clemens and Andrew Howard in roles, not yet specified. As we previously reported, HBO’s show will not be a straight adaptation, rather a present day original story using familiar themes and settings from the comic to explore new territory in the “Watchmen” universe.
– According to ICv2, publisher Humanoids will be reshaping their Humanoids Kids line of comics into a new imprint entitled Big, providing a range of all-ages material for readers. The publisher will offer books in three different age levels with slight variants of the ‘Big’ logo: 6+, 10+, and Young Adult, respectfully. According to the announcement, pre-existing titles like “Gregory and the Gargoyles” have been placed in the 10+ level, while others like “The Ring of the Seven Worlds” were categorized at the YA level of the Big imprint. Along with announcing this reshaped imprint, Humanoids also announced a new title, “Bigby Bear,” by Philippe Coudray. This book, which follows a bear looking to discover the wonders of his environment, falls under the 6+ age group, and will be released as a hardcover graphic novel on February 5, 2019.
– The official opening sequence and theme song for Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles television series has been released via Twitter. Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will debut in September 2018 on Nickelodeon.
– According to Screen Daily, Monica Dolan (Pride), Rob Brydon (The Trip) and Alice Lowe (Sightseers) have joined the cast of film adaptation of Joff Winterhart’s graphic novel “Days Of The Bagnold Summer.” The movie, Simon Bird’s (The Inbetweeners) directorial debut, follows 15-year old heavy metal fan Daniel Bagnold, as he must spend his summer vacation with his mom instead of heading of to Florida. The cast also includes Tamsin Greig (Episodes), Earl Cave (The End Of The F***ing World), and Elliot Speller-Gillot (Uncle).
– Bleeding Cool reports that Korean Publisher LINE Webtoon will launch a “Discover Creator” contest, its fourth, with an $80,000 Grand Prize for the winner. The contest is open to creators around the globe and LINE Webtoons will be accepting submissions until September 13, 2018. The publisher has assembled a group of editors to pick the best eight stories to advance to the second round, announced on September 21, 2018. From there, each quarter-finalist will be awarded $5,000 and invited to Webtoon’s exclusive Green Room Party at New York Comic Con. Next, the contest will be broken up by genre, and by November 5, 2018, those winners will be awarded an additional $25,000. Finally, the contest will end on November 12, 2018, giving the grand prize winner an addtional $50,000. Their submission will also become a featured title on LINE Webtoon. Click here to see the official rules.
– According to Gematsu, publisher Microids and developers Pendulo Studios and YS Interactive have announced that Blacksad: Under the Skin, based on the comic “Blacksad,” will launch for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, and Mac in 2019. It was originally announced last June for a 2018 release. The game, based on the Dargaud comic by Juan Diaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido, follows John Blacksad, a black cat detective in a world of anthropomorphic animals resembling late ’50s America.
– And speaking of games, as we previously reported, GameStop will attempt to join the comic book business via the direct market. io9 recently interviewed Clint Walker, director of consumer products to find out exactly how and why GameStop will be entering the world of comic books. Walker states “We define consumer products as toys and collectibles.” He also says “we’re going to align with Diamond…But truly, our biggest opportunity is around Marvel. Marvel is one of our largest fandoms, but also one of the fastest-growing fandoms.” He says Marvel is so popular in GameStop stores it’s outselling Star Wars products. Walker assured io9 that comics would be available in stores nationwide and would not be centralized to one area. Between this and the Walmart news, there will be plenty of options for finding your comic books.
– Finally, Jazmyn Simon (Ballers) is set to star as a series regular in Netlix’s Raising Dion according to Deadline. The direct to Netflix hour-long drama will also star Jason Ritter and Michael B. Jordan. The show, based on director Dennis Liu’s and artist Jason Piperberg’s short film/comic book, is about Nicole Reese, an African-American single mother, who discovers her young son, Dion, has several superhero-like abilities. Simon will play Kat, a surgical resident and Nicole’s sister who has her life together, unlike Nicole.
