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, it was San Diego Comic-Con, so we had additional Rundowns on Saturday and Sunday covering all the news from the convention.
– Writer Mark Russell and artist Mico Suayan will set Blade and Dracula toward the same goal in a newly announced one-shot, “Blade: Vampire Nation.” The same goal will be for Blade to uncover an assassination plot in Dracula’s Vampire Nation, with Dracula himself employing the vampire hunter to complete the job. The Vampire Nation is only in its infancy, having been recently established in the Marvel Universe in “Avengers,” and the assassination plot threatens to not only derail the country, but expand beyond its borders and around the world. The one-shot, which will feature cover artwork by Valerio Giangiordano, is due to be released in November.
– Publishers Weekly reported on five graphic novel deals this week, including First Second’s acquisition of Pénélope Bagieu’s upcoming graphic memoir, “Overlays.” Bagieu is best known for “Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World,” a translated collection of her French comic blog entries, “Les Culottées.” “Overlays” will collect stories of times from her childhood and teenage years that were the most influential in shaping her. Montana Kane is set to serve as the translator of “Overlays,” whilst Robyn Chapman will serve as the editor. “Overlays” is currently scheduled for release in the fall of 2023.
– September will see the return of the Infinity Comic, “It’s Jeff,” by writer Kelly Thompson, artist Gurihiru, and editor Sarah Brunstad, to Marvel Unlimited. Dubbed as ‘Season 2,’ the comic will continue to tell the stories of fan-favorite character, Jeff the Land Shark, who was created by Thompson and artist Daniele Di Nicuolo during their tenure on “West Coast Avengers.” You can check out the promotional artwork for the returning series here.
– Netflix’s The Sandman received an official trailer, giving audiences the clearest look at the upcoming adaptation of Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth, and Mike Dringenberg’s comic yet. The trailer shows Dream (Tom Sturridge) enlisting the help of Joanna Constantine (Jenna Coleman) to ensure that dreams stop escaping the Dreaming, and prevent the fall of humanity. One of the escaped dreams is Boyd Holbrook’s Corinthian, whom is featured prominently in the trailer; also showcased is Gwendoline Christie’s Lucifer Morningstar and her domain, Hell, and Mason Alexander Park’s Desire, and their domain, the Threshold. As part of the show’s panel at SDCC, Gaiman revealed that Dave McKean has provided the show with its end credits titles. You can check out the trailer here, and then watch Neil Gaiman’s breakdown at Vanity Fair.
– Nickelodeon revealed the voice cast for the upcoming animated series Transformers: EarthSpark. The series will follow the lives of the first generation of Transformers born on Earth alongside their human family, primarily 13-year-old Robby Malto (Sydney Mikayla) and his 9-year-old younger sister, Morgan ‘Mo’ Malto (Zion Broadnax). The Malto family also includes two Transformers, Twitch (Kathreen Khavari) and Thrash (Zeno Robinson). The new generation of Transformers will be joined by franchise mainstays, Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, and Megatron, who are set to be voiced by Alan Tudyk, Danny Pudi, and Rory McCann, respectively. Transformers: EarthSpark is scheduled to debut in November on Paramount+ or Nickelodeon in select territories. You can see the full voice cast and watch the trailer here.
– The first teaser for Batwheels, the upcoming preschool animated series, was released. The series will follow Bam, Bibi, Redbird, Batwing, and Buff, all sentient versions of the Bat-family’s vehicles, as they fight against the villains of Gotham with their human counterparts. Jacob Bertrand leads the voice cast as Bam the Batmobile, while Ethan Hawke will voice Batman, and Madigan Kacmar will voice Bibi, Batgirl’s motorcyle. The series is set to launch with an origin special on Batman Day, September 17, exclusively on Cartoonito on HBO Max, with a Cartoon Network airing to follow at an unconfirmed date. The teaser can be found over at THR.
– Finally, Fullmetal Alchemist: The Revenge of Scar will be arriving on Netflix in the US on August 20, the streaming service announced. The film is a sequel to the 2017 release Fullmetal Alchemist, whose lead, Ryōsuke Yamada, returned to the role of Alphonse Elric. Mackenyu Arata joined the cast of the film as Scar, described in the film’s trailer as a “serial murderer of State Alchemists,” who is fueled by his distrust of alchemy after it “[destroyed] his body.” A third live-action Fullmetal Alchemist film, Final Transmutation was released in Japan in June, but does not yet have a US release date at this time. The Fullmetal Alchemist series is based on the manga by Hiromu Arakawa.
