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, we have an exclusive preview of “The House of Lost Horizons: A Sarah Jewell Mystery” #4, and James Tynion IV announced the end of his time at DC Comics as he begins a new publishing line at Substack, starting with “Blue Book” from Tynion and Michael Avon Oeming.
– In lieu of James Tynion IV’s unprecedented Substack announcement, a wide array of creators announced their newsletters, digital comics and expanded material with an announcement in The New York Times. The publishing deal was originally conceived by writer Nick Spencer (“The Amazing Spider-Man,” “Archie”) in 2020, and allows creators to retain both full creative rights and print publishing rights after an initial syndication on the digital media and newsletter platform Substack.
In addition to Tynion’s six upcoming titles, Scott Snyder (“Batman,” “Nocterra”) announced his new online course ‘Scott Snyder’s Comic Writing 101!,’ with monthly lectures aimed at both beginner and professional writers featuring special guest lecturers, exclusive looks at the construction of upcoming series like “Clear” and “We Have Demons,” and an array of tips and Q&As.
Jonathan Hickman (“House of X,” “East of West”), Mike Del Mundo (“Thor,” “Weirdworld”) and Mike Huddleston (“The Strain,” “Decorum”) are collaborating on the ‘concept universe’ “Three Worlds Three Moons,” which will feature a mix of contextual material for worldbuilding and sequential comic stories from the trio. In addition, “Three Worlds Three Moons” will feature an occasionally rotating roster of writers filling in the world, like a religious system produced by Al Ewing, a magic system by Tini Howard, and an economic system by Ram V.
Molly Knox Ostertag (“The Girl From the Sea,” “The Witch Boy”) will be producing ‘In The Telling,‘ a twice-weekly newsletter on her creative process, artistic output and storytelling tips. She will also be serializing an as-of-yet unannounced graphic novel through the newsletter, with all profits from her newsletter going to the Trans Lifeline’s Microgrant program.
Finally, writer Saladin Ahmed (“Black Bolt,” “Abbott”) will be writing ‘The Copper Bottle,’ where all his upcoming creator-owned works will debut, beginning with “Terrorwar” from himself and artist Dave Acosta. The series will follow a futuristic war against a species of aliens who can transform into the thing their enemy fears the most. All titles and newsletter will be releasing through Substack behind a paywall of US$5 to $8 a month.
– Jed MacKay (“Man Without Fear,” “Moon Knight”) and co.’s “Black Cat” run is officially coming to an end this November with “Giant-Size Black Cat” #1, which concludes the ‘Infinite Destinies’ crossover and ‘Infinity Score’ story arc of “Black Cat.” “Giant-Size Black Cat,” with artist C.F. Villa (“Shatterstar,” “Uncanny X-Men”), features Black Cat on ‘one last job,’ as she rounds up the last three Infinity Stones she needs to complete the Infinity Gauntlet, and give herself a level of power only ever matched by the likes of Thanos or Doctor Doom. The run, featuring artists C.F. Villa, Michael Dowling, Travel Foreman, Kris Anka and more, will total 25 issues across two series, two annuals and this special issue. “Giant-Size Black Cat” #1 releases November 24 with a cover by Pepe Larraz.
– Marvel Games have announced that LEGO Marvel Super Heroes will release on Switch this October 5. The title originally released in 2013, and features roughly 180 playable characters including Spider-Man, the Avengers, Fantastic Four and X-Men. It features similar mechanics around puzzle solving, unique character interactions, and construction as other iconic LEGO video games like LEGO Star Wars or LEGO Harry Potter.
– After a string of collaborations, Crunchyroll has officially been acquired by Funimation, a subsidiary of Sony Entertainment, from its previous owners AT&T. The acquisition cost Sony $1.175 billion, and the studio is also reportedly expected to invest another $957 million into Crunchyroll and its media content. Crunchyroll launched as an unauthorized anime streaming site in 2006, and went on to become one of the biggest licensed producers of anime in the 2010s. In 2017, it became the majority owner of Viz Media Europe, and it currently sits at over five million subscribers. Crunchyroll is the latest Sony/Funimation acquistion, following Wakanim, Madman Anime Group, and AnimeLab.
Continued below– Warner Bros. are pursuing legal action against television writer/showrunner Jed Mercurio over his upcoming graphic novel “Sleeper” due to its use of the name after Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’s trademarked WildStorm series “Sleeper.” Mercurio is best known for his police procedural Line of Duty, and is writing “Sleeper” with one of its stars, Prasanna Puwanarajah. The pair originally pitched their “Sleeper” as a TV series before it was rejected, and artist Coke Navarro was hired to illustrate the series as a comic. Mercurio and Puwanarajah’s “Sleeper” is a sci-fi western centered on a genetically enhanced marshal on the hunt for a mad scientist. Brubaker and Phillips’s “Sleeper” was an espionage thriller sent in the Wildstorm Universe about Holden Carver, a man with enhanced strength whose nerve endings made him essentially immune to pain and all other sensations, as his loyalties wavers between the spy agency International Operations, and the criminal syndicate led by mastermind TAO. The series was a hit and went on to spark the 18-year ongoing collaborative creations of Brubaker and Phillips. Mercurio has said nothing as of yet about the allegations by Warner Bros., DC Comics or Ed Brubaker.
– Discussion around character rights in work-for-hire comics has also re-emerged with Ed Brubaker at the center as Marvel was revealed to reportedly pay its creators $5000 for using their material on screen, even in multi-billion dollar projects. “For the most part all Steve Epting and I have gotten for creating the Winter Soldier and his storyline is a ‘thanks’ here or there,” said Brubaker in a newsletter. “And over the years that’s become harder and harder to live with.” Marvel’s current policy has been a flat $5000 check for the creators’ adapted source material, a thanks in the credits, and applicable film premiere invites. However, this has no variation based on the creator’s degree of influence on the adaptation and occasionally, as is the case with Brubaker, is never offered at all. Marvel have offered ‘special character contracts’ in the past that gave work-for-hire creators greater degrees of monetary return for the adaptation of characters they created, but the acquisition of these is always placed on the creator themselves, with Marvel under very little obligation to agree to it. While the policy at DC/Warner Bros. is reportedly better to a degree, it has lapsed just as often in its treatment of creators, making this an ongoing industry issue.
– Catherine Zeta-Jones (Chicago, The Mask of Zorro) has joined the cast of Tim Burton’s Wednesday, an eight-part Netflix adaptation of The Addams Family as Morticia Addams, the mother of the eponymous Wednesday Addams. The series looks at Wednesday’s introduction to the mysterious school of Nevermore Academy, drawing on juvenile detective stories like “Nancy Drew” and “Encyclopaedia Brown.” The series will be fully directed and executive produced by Tim Burton with Jenna Ortega (The Babysitter: Killer Queen, You) as Wednesday, and Luis Guzmán as Gomez.
– Finally, Doom Patrol Season 3 has announced a premiere date with the help of a teaser trailer, giving viewers their first look at the new season. Things are already starting off tough for the Doom Patrol as they wake up realizing they are all dead, and the trailer descends into psychedelia from there, showcasing an array of characters and creatures from the upcoming season, as well as dialogue hinting at the previously confirmed Dead Boy Detectives and Sisterhood of Dada. Doom Patrol features Brendan Fraser as Robotman/Cliff Steele, Matt Bomer as Negative Man/Larry Trainor, Timothy Dalton as The Chief/Niles Caulder, Joivan Wade as Cyborg/Victor Stone, Diane Guerrero as Crazy Jane and April Bowlby as Elasti-Woman/Rita Farr. This season will release weekly on HBO Max, with the first three episodes arriving simultaneously on September 23.
