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.
– Dynamite got SDCC started early with a few announcements. First off, writer Shawn Aldridge and artist Ralpha Lobosco will be doing a “Hack/Slash” and Vampirella crossover for Dynamite, called “Hack/Slash vs. Vampirella.” “Hack/Slash” centers around Cassie Hack and her protector Vlad, as they hunt down horror movie cliché type slashers. The mini-series will follow them as they run into “original horror exploitation heroine” Vampirella while on the trail of their latest target. The project has Tim Seeley’s blessing and will even tie into the new “Hack/Slash” series from Image. In another horror-exploitation-heroine announcement, Elvira will be making a return with the publisher. It’s not clear what form it will take, but the press release promises that they will be producing “a wide variety of product categories including comic books, trading cards, posters, lithographs, card games, and board games.” And to round out the horror-themed news, they also announced that the 1980s horror movie franchise Pumpkinhead will have a new series as well. No details or creators were revealed.
– DC has released a logo and details for “Harley Quinn 25th Anniversary Special” #1, which will be released nearly 25 years to the day after her debut in the Batman: The Animated Series episode, “Joker’s Favor.” The issue will feature contributions from regular creative team Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti, and Chad Hardin, as well as a story from her co-creator Paul Dini, and one from Chip Zdarsky and Joe Quinones, which will be Zdarsky’s first work for DC. Jim Lee and Harley Quinn’s other co-creator, Bruce Timm, will illustrate variant covers for the special. After seeing the logo, I was hoping it would herald the return of something more akin to the classic costume, but looks like I’ll be disappointed if the preview art is any indication. “Harley Quinn 25th Anniversary Special” #1 will be released on September 6.
– Archie Comics abruptly canceled all Sonic the Hedgehog titles back in April, remaining silent about the move until now. They finally released a statement addressing the cancellations saying, “We are in communication with SEGA regarding Sonic and will provide an update when we have one to share. We thank the fans for their patience.” So not much better than remaining silent. The publisher has been releasing Sonic the Hedgehog comics since 1992, and accumulated 290 issues before the stoppage, which even garnered them a Guinness World Record for longest running comic book title based on a video game.
– The film side of DC Entertainment had their own pre-SDCC announcement, with release dates for two untitled projects in 2020: February 14 and June 5. This announcement will probably be useless by next year’s SDCC after those dates change a couple more times. One of those films may be the solo Shazam film that Dwayne Johnson/The Rock can’t stop talking about (and apparently is no longer in), which is rumored to begin production in February of next year.
– It’s still unclear whether Uncle Ben even exists in the current MCU/Spider-man: Homecoming universe, but Tom Holland has an idea of who he’d like to see fill the role: previous Spider-Man actor Toby Maguire. If that somehow does end up happening, it would add another fun element to the new Spider-Man films. DC has had great success in their TV shows casting actors from older incarnations, and it could definitely work for Spider-Man as well.
– Jeff Lemire is teasing what’s coming up next for his and Dustin Ngyuen’s “Descender,” after the current ‘Rise of the Robots’ event. In the original pitch, the series would have ended after the current story, but now they are taking it in a new direction. The next arc will also feature the first artwork collaboration between Lemire and Ngyuen on the series, with the pair collaborating on connecting covers for all five issues.
– Universal Cable Productions is really taking advantage of their first look deal with Dark Horse. An adaptation of “Umbrella Academy” was just announced, and now “Mind MGMT” and “Flutter” have been optioned for TV shows as well. The “Mind MGMT” adaptation is being developed by The Blacklist‘s Dan Cerone, and “Fluttter” by Sense8‘s Katherine Lindberg and Marc Rosen.
Continued below– All 20 films from Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli will be rereleased in North America on Blu-ray/DVD after a new distribution deal with GKIDS. The rereleases will also coincide with theater screenings of the films nationwide. Studio Ghibli is known for its fantastical worlds and hand-drawn cel animation in classics like Castle in the Sky, Kiki’s Delivery Service, and Princess Mononoke.
– Hip hop duo Rae Sremmurd are teaming up with Valiant for their first comic project, titled “Shadowman/Rae Sremmurd” #1. The artwork was done by Renato Guedes. The issue will see the duo going down to New Orleans for a duel against Shadowman, and will release in October.
– Dan Panosian, artist for “Daredevil: Back in Black” and “Conan/Red Sonja,” will be writing and drawing a new series titled “Slots,” from Image Comics and Skybound Entertainment. The series offers “a bold new take on Las Vegas, where everything old can become new, and superstition influences how the chips fall.” “Slots” #1 will be released on October 4.
– Elongated Man will make his first live action appearance as a major recurring guest star in season four of The Flash. No one has been cast in the role yet, but they are looking for someone in the vein of Ryan Reynolds or Chris Pratt.
– And finally, if you need a soundtrack for SDCC this week, Scott Snyder has created a Spotify playlist to accompany his and Greg Capullo’s upcoming “Dark Nights: Metal” event. The list includes tracks from Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, System of a Down, and Danzig, along with many others.
