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 over the weekend, DC Black Label announced a new 12-issue fantasy series, “The Last God,” from Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Riccardo Federici, and Dean White.
– Kicking off, writer Sina Grace opened up about his experience writing “Iceman” over at Marvel on his Tumblr account. Grace wrote Bobby Drake, one of Marvel’s most high-profile gay characters, in two different volumes of “Iceman,” the character’s first solo series after he came out. Grace speaks candidly about his experience with trolls and harassment, and Marvel’s lack of support for him through the process. You can find the entirety of his comments here.
– Independent publisher SelfMadeHero has announced the entirety of their fall 2019 lineup of books, which includes seven new graphic novels and a new edition of Glyn Dillon’s “The Nao of Brown.” Other books include H.P. Lovecraft’s “At the Mountains of Madness,” adapted by I.N.J. Culbard, “Isadora,” by Julie Birmant, illustrated by Clement Oubrerie, and “Mikel,” by Mark Bellido, illustrated by Judith Vanistendael. You can find the full lineup here.
– In more Marvel news, the upcoming “Agents of Atlas” miniseries has changed artists for the first issue. Artist Nico Leon is replacing artist Gang Hyuk Lim for the first issue, while Lim still remains attached to the second. Lim was originally solicited for both issues, though, it should be noted that Marvel’s original announcement for this book at the Associated Press includes Leon’s name. Leon has just finished “Spider-Man & the League of Realms,” while Lim wrapped “New Agents of Atlas” with writer Greg Pak.
– Marvel also announced a trade paperback called “Write Your Own Marvel,” which will feature pages by various comic artists with the word balloons left blank for the reader to craft their own stories. The trade goes on sale this October and features a cover by John Romita, Sr.
– A school district in Idaho has banned Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard’s Image/Skybound series “The Walking Dead” from its school library. The decision came after Wallace Junior/Senior High School in Wallace, Idaho, formed a committee made up of students, educators and parents, to decide if the book could stay. That committee voted 7-4 in favor of allowing the series to remain in the library, so many parents ignored them and went straight to the superintendent of the school district, who banned the series. The books were donated to the Wallace Public Library, whose books can still be requested by the students via the school’s Interlibrary Loan Network.
– San Diego Comic-Con is just around the corner in a few weeks on July 18-21, which means details for the event will begin to be revealed more frequently. We have news of two announcements for the event. First IDW Publishing will be hosting two exclusive dinners, one with Stan Sakai (“Usagi Yojimbo”), and the other with Walt Simonson (“The Mighty Thor,” “Manhunter”). LEGO also unveiled an exclusive minifigure of Spider-Man as he appears in the PlayStation 4 game Marvel’s Spider-Man, which will be given out to lucky attendees of SDCC.
– “The Nib,” a comics publication running daily political cartoons, journalism, essays and memoir, has announced that after three and half years, First Look Media will no longer fund the publication beginning at the end of this month. The fourth issue of their magazine will still ship at the end of the month, with the fifth being printed independently. Editor Matt Bors promised more information in the weeks ahead, and you can find his letter here.
– Freelance Canadian political cartoonist Michael de Adder revealed that he was let go by major newspapers in New Brunswick, a province in southeast Canada. The announcement follows Adder’s latest cartoon, which depicts Donald Trump standing over the bodies of Salvadorean migrant Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his daughter Valeria, their faces in the ground on a golf course, asking: “Do you mind if I play through?” You can read the full story here.
– Toei ended the weekend on a lighter note, announcing at the Usagi Special Birthday Party 2019 event that Naoko Takeuchi’s manga “Sailor Moon” will be released digitally today in ten different languages (although they did not specify which platforms the series would debut on). They also confirmed the two-part Sailor Moon Crystal film, which is now titled Sailor Moon Eternal, will be released sometime next year.
– The Hollywood Reporter, meanwhile, revealed Netflix and Warner Bros. Television are in negotiations to adapt Neil Gaiman’s “The Sandman” into a series. Allan Heinberg (Wonder Woman) is set to become showrunner, while Gaiman and David S. Goyer (who co-wrote the most recent attempt to turn “The Sandman” into a film) will serve as executive producers. Netflix and Warners declined to comment to the Reporter, which states the show will be the most expensive DC TV series to date.
