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, Marvel has announced a brand new series starring Maya Lopez aka Echo. The book, titled “Phoenix Song: Echo,” will be created by Hugo Award-winning novelist Rebecca Roanhorse and artist Luca Maresca, and begin October 6.
– Marvel released an update for the third installment of Avengers Assembly, by writer Preeti Chhibber and artist James Lancett. The book, titled Avengers Assembly: X-Change Students 101, will focus on Ms. Marvel, Squirrel Girl, Reptil, and Miles Morales as they head upstate to Charles Xavier’s Academy to learn from the finest mutants on the X-Men team. X-Change is set to be released on January 4, 2022.
– According to ICv2, the combined sales of graphic novels and comic books soared during 2020. Despite being in lockdown, the comic book industry found a way to break new sales records, and readers found new ways to get their comics fix as digital sales also surged to record-breaking heights. As a result, the total sales number for comic books/graphic novels in both the US and Canada were approximately $1.28 billion, a 6% uptick from 2019’s total sales amount.
– Deadline reports that a Marvel-themed Simpsons short will premiere on Disney+ Wednesday, July 7. The short, titled “The Good, the Bart, and the Loki,” will star Tom Hiddleston as the titular character, and pay homage to the superheroes and events of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
– Curiosity Ink Media will be launching a brand new IP called Thunderous. The franchise will center around a “young Indigenous-American’s journey to appreciate her family’s prized heritage.” Thunderous will debut in the form of a graphic novel aimed at young readers in the hopes that, if proven successful, it will make way for an extension of the Thunderous brand, which includes but is not limited to a movie, TV show, and home products and goods.
– Writing for Polygon, American cartoonist and writer Molly Ostertag shared a glorious, thought-provoking piece on the queer subtext within The Lord of the Rings. The article is part of the site’s ongoing celebration of the 20th anniversary of the movies, which began on December 19, 2001.
– Charlize Theron has confirmed the script for The Old Guard 2 is done, and that filming will begin in the first quarter of 2022. The first film, which was released on Netflix last year, was based on the comic by Greg Rucka and Leandro Fernández, and was directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, with a script by Rucka himself.
– Finally, per AP News, Smallville actress Allison Mack has been sentenced to three years in prison due to her role in the cult-like group NXIVM. Mack pled guilty to the charges that she “manipulated women into becoming sex slaves for the group’s spiritual leader.”
