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, BOOM! Studios imprint Archaia announced “Big Black: Stand at Attica” by Jared Reinmuth and Améziane.
The Kansas City Star.
– Comic book writer Jai Nitz has been banned from the University of Kansas after being accused of sexual assault by four women. Four women filed reports to the police accusing Nitz of sex crimes in April, after the allegations around him first broke, leading to Dark Horse cancelling his series “Astro Hustle,” and Nitz withdrawing from public life and his comic book career. At this time, Nitz has not been arrested or charged in any criminal case. Nitz had been at the University of Kansas many times in recent years as a lecturer for creative writing and graphic novels. Since 2014, he had shown a “pattern of predatory behavior towards female students,” with him being banned from the journalism school in 2017, but no large scale action was taken against the writer until now. The Kansas City Star spoke to three of the women about their experiences, which you can read in full here, although their content may be uncomfortable for some readers.
– Model and TV personality Tyra Banks revealed that she is casting for her debut graphic novel. The graphic novel will be based on her young adult novel Modelland, and feature a combination of photographs and drawings, with real people being cast in the roles. She invited fans to post their full face, profile, and full body shots on Instagram with the hashtag #Modelland as well as the character they want to be cast as to be scouted for auditions. The graphic novel is set to launch alongside Banks’s multi-level space, also called Modelland, which will feature shops, restaurants and interactive entertainment, later this year.
– Last week we reported that “Wildcats” by Warren Ellis, Ramon Villalobos and Tamra Bonvillain had been cancelled, but Jim Lee, Publisher at DC Comics, stated that the series had only been postponed due to “kinks in the schedules w/the artists,” comments echoed by Villalobos, who said that some of his deadlines had been missed. Yesterday, Ellis released his mailing newsletter, clarifying that the series had been cancelled, but there was some hope of it being resolicited later and acknowledged Lee’s post, writing that there was “hope for the future of the title. Maybe someone will want to draw my tired old man shit, who knows.” The series had originally been scheduled for release later this month.
– Kohei Horikoshi’s “My Hero Academia” celebrated its 5th anniversary and marked the occasion with the Japanese release of volume 24 of the series, as well as a series of music videos. The music videos highlight pairs of characters and revisit the key moments in their stories so far. Masaki Suda’s “Long Hope Philia” is the song that the videos are set to, which was the theme for the first feature film, as well as the second ending theme for the third series of its anime adaptation. In addition to this, select bookstores in Japan have sets of film strip style bookmarks based on the music videos to give away with purchases of the manga series. The 20th volume of the manga series is scheduled for release in the USA tomorrow.
– AHOY Comics opened their submissions for short stories to be published in their magazine. They are looking for stories consisting of between 500 and 1,500 words and can be about anything, although they specified they have a “soft spot for submissions with a dash of humor.” Any writers whose work is selected for publishing will be paid $200. There is no set close date for the submissions, although it will close “at times,” with people considering submitting being encouraged to check the submissions page “regularly.” You can check out the full details, and submit your work, here.
– DC Comics and non-profit organization WriteGirl teamed up to host a comic book writing session for forty girls from underserved communities. Hosted at DC’s headquarters, the forty girls were able to discuss and develop their ideas with Mariko Tamaki (“Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass”) and Cecil Castellucci (“Batgirl”). The workshop session was intended to encourage the girls to find their voices, with WriteGirl Executive Director Keren Taylor describing how lots of the girls they work with “just need some encouragement, that they’re worth something, that their ideas matter.” DC’s Executive Editor Michele Wells hopes that the workshop will help the girls to a “viable career path” in the comic book industry in the future.
– The CW revealed that the stars of Black Lightning will be making appearances in the upcoming ‘Crisis of Infinite Earths’ crossover event. This will be the first time that the CW show has interacted with the rest of the Arrowverse shows. In addition to this, Kevin Conroy, who voices Bruce Wayne in Batman: The Animated Series, will be making a special appearance in the event. Finally, the CW revealed that the Black Lightning season 3 premiere will be two weeks earlier, moving from October 21 to October 7. The ‘Crisis of Infinite Earth’ will take place across five episodes of the Arrowverse series, starting with Supergirl on December 8, followed by Batwoman on December 9 and The Flash on December 10, and the final two parts coming in episodes of Arrow and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow on January 14.
– Empire magazine announced their 30th anniversary collection of covers for their September issue which include several comic book adaptations, such as Batman, Blade, The Dark Knight, The Avengers (or Avengers Assemble as it’s called in the UK) and Black Panther. The issue will be released on August 8. You can see all of the covers here.
