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.
– DC Comics unveiled a new YA graphic novel called “Mister Miracle: The Great Escape,” by writer Varian Johnson (“Twins”) and artist Daniel Isles. The graphic novel will see Scott Free aka Mister Miracle plotting to escape Darkseid’s world, Apokolips, and contending with a trio of complexities; making sense of his identity, navigating his PTSD from being raised in the fire pits of the planet, and his love for his enemy Big Barda. “Mister Miracle: The Great Escape” is scheduled for release on January 18, 2022. In the meantime you can take a look at a host of preview pages over at DC’s website.
– The anthropomorphic noir series, “Blacksad,” by writer Juan Díaz Canales and artist Juanjo Guarnido, was confirmed to be returning this October. The new volume, titled “They All Fall Down,” will tell the first half of the story that will see Blacksad navigating through the upper and lower classes of New York City under the looming shadow of the construction tycoon called Solomon. This will be the sixth volume in the series. Europe Comics will publish “Blacksad: They All Fall Down – Part 1” digitally on October 1, with Dark Horse set to publish the volume in print in the U.S. in the summer of 2022. Release dates for the seventh volume have not been revealed.
– Weekly Shonen Jump revealed that they will publish a new 73-page chapter of Tite Kubo’s manga “Bleach,” in the magazine’s combined 36th and 37th issue on August 10. The story will mark the 20th anniversary of the comic, which originally ran from August 7, 2001, until August 22, 2016, and see protagonist Ichigo Kurosaki being invited by the Soul Society to a “certain” ceremony. “Bleach” was adapted into a hit anime that ran for 366 episodes from 2004 to 2012, as well as four animated films, a live-action film, ten stage musicals, and numerous video games. A new anime of the manga’s final arc is currently in the works.
– The Washington Post released the digital comic, “Chasing Gold,” by writers Rick Maese and Adam Kilgore, artists Andy Belanger and Cary Nord, colorist Tatto Caballero, and Launcher director Joe Moore. The comic collates Maese and Kilgore’s interviews with Olympian Noah Lyles and those connected to him to chronicle his life and career, starting with how his parents met, through to his qualification for the Tokyo Olympic Games earlier this year. Lyles won the 200 meters race at the World Championships in 2019, and is the favorite for the competition at the Olympics; the heats begin tonight, with the final on Tuesday, August 3. “Chasing Gold” is available via the paper’s website now.
– Behemoth Comics editorial director and writer Steve Ekstrom revealed that he, along with artists Rob G., António Brandão, and Kate Frizzell, worked on two comics series based off the hit show Peaky Blinders. Ekstrom detailed that he wanted to elaborate on different stories that hadn’t been fully explored in the series, such as “what happened at the Soam and Verdun (and how the British were never at Verdun but the Shelby boys accidentally fell into a situation nearby) and what happened to Alfie after he was shot in the face.” He also pitched an “Old Man Shelby” series which would have “connected to the scene where Tommy made it forbidden for another Shelby to be named Arthur.” Ekstrom attached character designs along with covers for the pitched series called “Peaky Blinders: The Bleakest Winter” to the post, which you can see here. The BBC/Netflix series’ sixth season currently in production, with an air date yet to be scheduled.
– Netflix announced a live-action short series that will act as an “extra” to The Way of the Househusband. The series will see voice actor Kenjiro Tsuda, who voices Tatsu in the anime, trying to master various household skills. The Way of the Househusband premiered on April 8, and was an adaptation of Kousuke Oono’s manga of the same name (lit. “Gokushufudō“), which sees a retired yazuka member named Tatsu working in the role of househusband. The series is set to debut on Netflix on August 29, and air alongside the anime in Japan on Tokyo MX on August 30.
– Producer John Davis revealed that the upcoming animated Flash Gordon film being written by Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok) is now set to be a live-action production instead. Davis made the announcement in an interview about the recently released Jungle Cruise, explaining that Waititi, for whom the 1980 film adaptation had a “huge influence on… growing up,” initially wanted the film to be animated, but then decided “‘let’s do it live-action'” as progress on the film furthered. The film will “[harken] in a very interesting way to the original conception from the [comic strip]” by Alex Raymond which debuted in the 1930s. Dates relating to the Waititi-written Flash Gordon‘s production and eventual release are currently under wraps.
– Finally, the organizations Women in Film, ReFrame, and Time’s Up released a joint statement regarding the Walt Disney Company’s response to Scarlett Johansson’s legal filing, which claimed the company is in breach of her contract as a result of the simultaneous theatrical and Disney+ release of Black Widow. In the statement, the organizations declared that they “stand firmly against Disney’s recent statement which attempts to characterize Johansson as insensitive or selfish for defending her contractual business rights,” adding “This gendered character attack has no place in a business dispute and contributes to an environment in which women and girls are perceived as less able than men to protect their own interests without facing ad hominem criticism.” The statement that prompted this response was given by a spokesperson for the company, stating “There is no merit whatsoever to this filing. The lawsuit is especially sad and distressing in its callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.” The organizations clarified that they “take no position on the business issues in the litigation” between Johansson and the company.
