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.
– BOOM! Studios announced “Abbott: 1979,” the final series in writer Saladin Ahmed and artist Sami Kivelä’s supernatural detective trilogy. The comic will pick up with Detroit reporter Elena Abbott on the eve of the Reagan administration, several years after the second series, “Abbott: 1973,” left her in a dark place. “Things have only gotten worse since — for her and her beloved city,” Ahmed says. “Now Detroit itself is being consumed — eaten alive by the Umbra. And it will take all Elena’s got to keep her own spark from being snuffed out.” Issue #1 will be released in October.
– Image will publish “Nights,” an ongoing urban fantasy comic by writer Wyatt Kennedy (“Bolero”) and artist Luigi Formisano. Set in an alternate version of 2003 where supernatural creatures live side-by-side with humans, the book follows a boy who’s recently lost his parents, and moves in “with his secret mercenary cousin, his video game-making roommate, and befriends ‘the greatest vampire who’s ever lived.'” Issue #1 releases October 11. The publisher also announced Ethan & Naomi Sacks and Marco Lorenzana’s horror miniseries “A Haunted Girl” will launch on the same day.
– Oni Press announced “Invasive,” a four-part horror comic that will reunite “The Empty Man” writer Cullen Bunn and artist Jesús Hervás. Set in an underground hospital, where “a radical new addiction takes hold of its inhabitants,” the book’s protagonists must survive “no rules, oaths, or taboos too deep to not be broken,” and a surgeon “bent on piercing the final threshold of accepted medical orthodoxy, one incision at a time.” Issue #1 will be released in December, while those who back the Kickstarter for “The Sixth Gun” omnibus will receive an ashcan copy beforehand. You can check out the character designs at Daily Dead.
– In further Oni news, the publisher are teaming up with the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund for a new initiative, Fight Censorship, Read Comics!, to help combat book bans across the country. The program will begin with a fundraiser party on Thursday, July 20 in San Diego, where Oni will auction new artwork by creators like Maia Kobabe, Matt Kindt, Gabriel Bá, and Fábio Moon, as well as work from other publishers and creators. A San Diego Comic-Con badge will not be required to attend the party, which will be held at the Westgate Hotel’s Terrace Under the Stars from 8 pm to 12 midnight PT.
– IDW announced “Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees,” a serial killer comic by filmmaker/storyboard artist Patrick Horvath (Southbound), with a twist: the book is set in a world “full of cutesy, anthropomorphic animals.” Lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, the definitely not kid-friendly comic follows a hardware store-owning bear, who uses his job to lure unsuspecting victims. Horvath describes it as a “cute, fun, dark, and disturbing” tale, where “you can’t help but want to see how the events play out issue-by-issue, watching the horror unfold in this adorable community.” Issue #1 releases October 18.
– Mad Cave’s YA imprint Maverick will publish “Voyage de Gourmet,” a graphic novel by writer Paul Tobin, artist Jem Milton (“The Flying Ship”), and letterer Micah Myers on December 12. The book follows Jiang-Mi and Layne, two young cooks who used to be friends, until a social media incident. When Jiang-Mi lands a spot on a cooking competition/travel show, she learns “the catch is that Layne has to be her partner. The story follows the two as they try to tolerate each other in order to grab the opportunity of a lifetime.”
– In awards news, the nominees for this year’s Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards, or Ringo Awards, were announced, as were the nominees for the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards. Succession earned the most Emmy nominations with 27, but Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi and The Mandalorian earned 20 nominations between them, and Wednesday‘s Jenna Ortega became the second youngest ever nominee for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. The Ringo winners will be announced at Baltimore Comic-Con on September 9, while the Primetime Emmys will air on September 18.
Continued below– Incidentally, Disney+ marked the first anniversary of the Ms. Marvel series (which earned three Emmy nominations, including two for Laura Karpman’s score), by releasing six deleted scenes. Available via the extras section on the show’s page, each scene corresponds to each episode, and includes alternate versions of the first episode’s ending, Kamala Khan’s meeting with her great-grandmother Aisha, and the third episode’s conclusion, where Bruno and Kamala get into a fight over her risky behavior. A second season is currently unconfirmed, although Iman Vellani will return as Kamala in The Marvels on November 10.
– Hot on the heels of Nathan Fillion, Isabela Merced and Edi Gathegi’s casting, Barry‘s Anthony Carrigan has joined Superman: Legacy‘s ensemble as Rex Mason/Metamorpho. Like the other newly announced members of James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DC Universe, the film will mark the live-action movie debut of the character, who was created by Bob Haney and Ramona Fradon in 1965. It will also be Carrigan’s third turn as a DC character, following Zsasz in Gotham, and Mist on The Flash. Superman: Legacy is expected to roll cameras in January for a July 11, 2025 release.
– Finally, in Marvel news, the publisher released an additional page for yesterday’s “Fallen Friend: The Death of Ms. Marvel,” all but confirming she’ll be resurrected on Krakoa; a line of ‘New Champions’ variant covers, imagining Spider-Boyesque secret sidekicks for various characters, was unveiled for October; and Bob Iger has extended his contract as CEO of parent company Disney to until 2026. Iger, 72, had previously stated that he would only remain in the position until 2024, in the hopes a new successor would be found by then. He had previously served as CEO from 2005 to 2020, before returning after his initial successor, Bob Chapek, was dismissed in November 2022.
