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.
– AWA Studios signed a deal with International Literary Properties for the rights to adapt various authors’ works into comics. Writers AWA have gained access to include Brideshead Revisited author Evelyn Waugh, Harlem Renaissance era luminary Langston Hughes, true crime writer Ann Rule, and James M. Cain, the novelist behind The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity, and Mildred Pierce. The deal was made in the wake of AWA’s successful “Gatsby” reimagining by Jeremy Holt and Felipe Cunha; it also gives them the film and TV rights for their production arm, founded in 2021.
– Marvel have launched Marvel Beginnings, a line of board books aimed at children aged 0-3. The first two books, Marvel Beginnings: First Shapes, Colors, Numbers and Spider-Man’s Spooky Halloween, are available now, while the next two, Hulk’s Big Feelings and I Love You, 3000, will drop in September and December. For more on the series, illustrated by Jay Fosgitt (“Bode Troll,” “Rocket Raccoon and Groot”), head to Penguin Random House.
– Publishers Weekly reports Holiday House will release author/illustrator Kelly Mangan‘s debut novel Cheer Up, Maeve Mulvaney. The book follows an eighth-grade comic book artist, who “starts a feminist superhero club at school in response to fatphobic bullying and her family’s toxic positivity, and learns that her greatest superpower is her own voice.” It will be published in Spring 2025.
– Netflix dropped the trailer for season two of Heartstopper, the queer British romance series based on Alice Oseman’s comic. As well as a school trip to Paris, the season promises new steps in Nick and Charlie’s relationship, bumps in the road ahead for Tara and Darcy, Tao and Elle’s dilemma over becoming lovers, and even a possible love interest for the stoic Isaac. The show, which has already been renewed for a third season, returns Thursday, August 3.
– Speaking of Netflix, David Fincher’s The Killer will premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival in September. The film, based on the comic by Alexis Nolent and Luc Jacamon, stars Michael Fassbender as an assassin who goes on the run “after a fateful near miss.” The Venice Film Festival — which we feel obligated to point out has caused controversy over the decision to screen new films by Roman Polanski, Woody Allen, and Luc Besson — will be held from August 30 to September 9, while The Killer will be released on Netflix on November 10.
– Apple released the trailer for Strange Planet, the animated series based on Nathan W. Pyle’s cartoons, created by Pyle and Dan Harmon. Like the comics, it follows the day-to-day moments in the lives of blue aliens on a world similar to ours, reflecting “the absurdity of everyday human traditions.” The show features the voices of Hannah Einbinder, Tunde Adebimpe, Demi Adejuyigbe, Lori Tan Chinn, and Danny Pudi, and will premiere on Apple TV+ on Wednesday, August 9.
– Finally, Warner Bros. announced Batman: Mask of the Phantasm will be released on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on September 12. The remaster, intended to mark the 30th anniversary of the film (released December 25, 1993), will include new cover art, and a featurette, Kevin Conroy: I Am the Knight, paying tribute to the late Batman voice actor. The news coincides with Conroy’s posthumous Eisner win last week for ‘Finding Batman,’ his 2022 “DC Pride” memoir with J. Bone, which was named Best Short Story.
