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, Vault Comics announced their second ‘Cult Classic’ title, “Cult Classic: Creature Feature.” We also have an exclusive preview of tomorrow’s “Wonder Woman” #74, and a creators’ commentary on the 2000 AD strip “Thistlebone.”
– Image Comics announced “Sonata” writer/artist Brian Haberlin and co-writer David Hine are reteaming for “The Marked,” a new ongoing series about an order of young people with magical tattoos. “‘The Marked’ use their tattooed powers solely for the pursuit of pleasure until a young woman called Liza creates a dangerous new form of Hybrid Sorcery,” reads the press release. “The party is over for ‘The Marked.’ You’ll believe in magic—terrifying, soul-destroying magic.” Issue #1 is out October 16.
– Jeff Lemire gave an update on his blog about his and Phil Hester (“Shipwreck”)’s long-delayed Image series “Family Tree,” which he revealed is now set to begin in November. Announced back in 2017, “Family Tree” follows a family trying to stop their young girl’s transformation into a literal tree.
– Writer David Lapham has released a PDF of artist Bill Sienkiewicz’s unpublished version of “Detective Comics” #801. The comic from 2005 was the first part of the 12-issue arc ‘City of Crime,’ which was originally intended to be drawn entirely by Sienkiewicz until he had to back out; deeming the prospect of following Sienkiewicz too intimidating for any artist, then-Batman editor Bob Shreck had Ramon Bachs and Lapham start over the storyline from scratch. You can download the original comic here.
– Per The Beat, former Lion Forge VP and Editor-in-Chief Andrea Colvin has joined Little Brown Young Readers as Editorial Director. A statement read, “This addition to our editorial leadership team enhances our publishing efforts in the growing area of graphic novels and graphic nonfiction. LBYR has recently had success in this market with the bestseller ‘Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy: A Modern Retelling of Little Women’ and ‘Middle School Misadventures,’ and we look forward to building on these successes with Andrea’s passion, vision, and category expertise.” Colvin left Lion Forge following the company’s merger with Oni Press in May.
– The Beat also reports non-profit group Green Card Voices, an organization dedicated to amplifying the voices of immigrants and refugees, is calling for artists looking to contribute to an upcoming anthology graphic novel. The book, titled “Immigrant Voices,” will feature 12 stories written by immigrants and refugees, and is planned for a fall 2020 release. Submissions, which can be made here, are open until July 15.
– The National Football Museum in Manchester, England, is hosting an exhibition to mark the 65th anniversary of “Roy of the Rovers,” the iconic football comic strip created by Frank S. Pepper in 1954. The exhibition will be held from July 19, to November 3, 2019, and has been organized in conjunction with Rebellion Publishing, who rebooted the comic last year as an original graphic novel series by writer Rob Williams and artist Ben Willsher.
– Gou Tanabe’s manga adaptation “H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness Manga” has won the ACBD (Association of Critics and Journalists of Comics) Award at the Japan Expo in France, which honors the best Japanese comic released in the country in the past year. The first half of Tanabe’s “At the Mountains of Madness” is currently available to read in English, with Dark Horse set to release the second collection on October 16.
– Over in China, Lo Ching, the founder and chairwoman of Camsing International, the Hong Kong firm that owns Stan Lee’s former company POW! Entertainment, has been arrested and detained. No reason was given for her incarceration, which caused the company’s shares to crash by 90 percent on Monday; POW! responded with a statement saying, “We have been and will continue to be an independent operating unit with a separate and autonomous US-based management team.” Meanwhile, in the Philippines, a man behind the piracy site Manga-Mura has also been arrested and is expected to be deported to Japan.
– Finally, several Jewish organizations have hit out at the Trump White House for inviting cartoonist Ben Garrison to a summit on social media this week, describing several of his cartoons as anti-Semitic; the Anti-Defamation League’s CEO and national director Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted, “Cartoonists who produce such hate shouldn’t be invited to the White House. We call on WH to rescind invite.” Garrison has previously depicted former National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster and former CIA Director David Petraeus as puppets of the Jewish billionaire George Soros, and the Rothschild family, both popular targets for anti-Semitic canards. You can read the Jewish News Syndicate’s full report here.
