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, artist and DC Comics Editor Ernie Colón passed away at the age of 88. Also, we have an exclusive look at BOOM! Studios’ “All My Friends Are Ghosts” by S.M. Vidaurri and Hannah Krieger.
— BOOM! Studios announced a new graphic novel from Eisner-nominated cartoonist Emei Burell set to debut in April 2020. “We Served the People: My Mother’s Stories” shares the experiences of Burell’s mother, Yuan Ye Ping, who grew up in Communist China during the mid-1960s, where she served as one of the few women truck drivers during the Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside Movement, part of Mao’s Great Leap Forward.
— Artist Greg Capullo announced on Twitter that he has signed a new contract with DC. He will be teaming up with writer and frequent collaborator Scott Snyder on the as-yet-unnamed project, described as the pair’s “biggest adventure yet.”
— Kelly Sue DeConnick shared a trailer for her and artist Emma Ríos’s upcoming “Pretty Deadly: The Rat,” which debuts from Image Comics on September 4, 2019. Set in the Golden Age of Hollywood in the 1930s, the five-issue series focuses on the death of Clara Fields, a pretty young filmmaker who has apparently died of suicide. Her uncle, The Conjure-Man, enlists the help of Deathface Ginny from across the veil to investigate what really happened.
— Lion Forge and Sony Pictures Animation will release Hair Love, an animated short film about an African American father learning to do his daughter’s hair for the first time, on August 14, 2019. The project originally launched in 2017 as a Kickstarter campaign, where overwhelming support led to it becoming the most highly-funded short film campaign in the platform’s history. This past May, the picture book “Hair Love” was released by Kokila Books/Penguin Random House and quickly became a bestseller.
— Paramount and Hasbro are working on a new “G.I. Joe” spinoff movie, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec are currently working on the script for what is being described as “an ensemble piece” that reportedly might include the character of Chuckles, who was first introduced in issue #60 of the Marvel comic.
— Instagram is facing scrutiny after removing a comic by satirical cartoonist and editor of The Nib, Matt Bors. The comic depicts an anti-facist protestor being arrested by police after throwing a milkshake in the face of a mass shooter, who the police subsequently apologize to for the “attack” on himself. The comic was intended to satirize right-wing rhetoric that blames radical left-wing protestors for violence and mass shootings while ignoring the evidence that white supremacist-motivated violence is on the rise. According to Bors, Instagram removed the comic for supposedly promoting violence and dangerous organizations.
— Dog Man: The Musical, based on the bestselling book series by Dav Pilkey, is heading to the studio to record an album featuring the original Off-Broadway cast. The New York Times Critic’s Pick began performances on June 28 and extended its run through August 11, 2019.
— At the Teen Choice Awards last night, Avengers: Endgame won Choice Action Movie, Spider-Man: Far From Home won Choice Summer Movie, and Riverdale received Choice Drama TV Show. Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Josh Brolin, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Cole Sprouse, and Lili Reinhart all won for their roles in these projects, while Stephen Amell also won Choice Action TV Actor for Arrow. You can read the full list of this year’s winners here.
— Novelist Catherine Webb expressed concern “House of X” creator Jonathan Hickman plagiarized her book, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, which she published under the pen name Claire North. Webb pointed to several similarities in the Moira-centric issue of “House of X,” as well as Hickman’s praise of her novel in a previous interview with The Beat in 2016. Hickman has since released a statement, arguing that the plot devices used aren’t unique to either “House of X” or The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August. Indeed, as ComicBook.com points out, stories like Groundhog Day, Edge of Tomorrow, Russian Doll, and Happy Death Day have used the same plot device to further their different narratives. Still, time will tell once more issues of “House of X” are released if Webb’s accusations have any further basis.
— Finally, the latest name to be linked to Jeffrey Epstein is none other than The Simpsons creator Matt Groening, according to an observant Twitter user. On page 723 of the court documentation, Virginia Roberts Giuffre alleges that she gave Groening a foot massage at the insistence of Epstein during a short flight on the multimillionaire’s private jet. The story isn’t very incriminating for Groening and does not point to any wrongdoing on his part; still, it’s not a great look for anyone in Hollywood to have connections to the financier, who died by suicide this past weekend while in jail awaiting trial on federal charges of running a sex trafficking ring of underage girls.
