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, DC announced “Batman – Santa Claus: Silent Knight” and more; James Tynion IV and Joshua Hixson are also getting into the holiday spirit with “The Deviant“; and the creators of Festival are reteaming for “Mortal Terror.”
– BOOM! Studios announced “Zawa + The Belly of the Beast,” an eco-fable written and drawn by “Wynd” co-creator Michael Dialynas. The series tells the story of an angry guardian spirit trapped inside her mountain by factories, with only industrial run-off to eat. “When two siblings from a nearby village, Bandit and Thatcher, help her escape, they’ll quickly learn that the way to calm Zawa’s heart is through a well nourished stomach!” The first issue will be released by BOOM!’s young adult imprint BOOM! Box on November 8.
– Image will rererelease Joe Casey and Nathan Fox’s Dutch story from the “Image!” anthology as a standalone issue. Dutch (Jake Holland), who was created by Chap Yaep, is a cyborg agent, who first appeared in 1993’s “Team Youngblood” #1. The anthology story saw Dutch come out of retirement to face an old enemy, and will lead into a three-issue series from the same creative team next year. “Dutch” #0 will be released in the meantime on November 15.
– In awards news, Tom Taylor and Jon Sommariva’s Peter Pan sequel “Neverlanders” won the CBCA (Children’s Book Council of Australia)’s Children’s Book of the Year Award for Older Readers. It is the first graphic novel to win the prize in the awards’ 77-year history. Meanwhile, over in London, “Heartstopper” won an award from the first ever TikTok Book Awards UK and Ireland, voted for by users of the app; the series was named Best Book I Wish I Could Read Again For The First Time.
– Disney+ moved up the premiere of Ahsoka several hours early, with the first two episodes releasing tomorrow, August 22, at 6 p.m. Pacific Time. Subsequent episodes will also be released at the same time every Tuesday, with the finale (episode eight) dropping October 3 (a few days before Loki season two begins Friday, October 6.)
– Blue Beetle opened at number one, ending Barbie‘s month-long reign at the box office, although it grossed less than expected, making $25.4 million. Warner Bros. noted the film’s launch was affected by Hurricane Hilary; regardless, it had the second lowest domestic opening for a DCEU movie, after Wonder Woman 1984. It earned an additional $18 million overseas, leading to a total of $43.4 million, against a $104 million production budget.
– Popverse shares Amazon have launched a webcomics platform in Japan, called Amazon Fliptoon. The platform, which was launched earlier this year, was presumably named as such thanks to dominance of Naver’s Webtoon, despite webtoon being a common term for South Korean webcomics. It is unknown when, or if Fliptoon will launch Stateside.
– Meanwhile, TorrentFreak reports manga publisher Kadokawa has filed requests in court to ask Apple and Google to disclose the identities, and personal details of the developers behind several piracy apps. The requests were made after both companies ignored takedown notices from the publisher in June. It is estimated manga piracy was responsible for a 2 trillion yen ($15 billion USD) loss in revenue for the Japanese entertainment industry in 2021, five times the amount in 2019.
– “Bone” creator Jeff Smith is recovering from cardiac arrest, his publishing company Cartoon Books announced. The 63-year old cartoonist suffered from the infarction last Sunday, August 13, and has consequently canceled any upcoming convention appearances. Multiversity wishes Smith a long, and easygoing recovery. In the meantime, you can support him by preordering a copy of his latest book, “Bone: More Tall Tales,” due out September 5.
– Finally, actor Ron Cephas Jones has died, aged 66, following a lengthy battle with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (which he had undergone a double lung transplant for in 2020.) Best known for his Emmy Award-winning performance on This is Us, Jones’s other roles included Bobby Fish, Luke Cage’s mentor on the character’s Netflix series. According to showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker, Jones was originally set to play the villain Cottonmouth, before the decision was made to skew younger, and Mahershala Ali was cast instead. Additionally, Jones was cast as the Wizard in Shazam!, before scheduling conflicts led Djimon Hounsou to take over the role, and had an uncredited cameo in Venom. He is survived by his daughter, actress Jasmine Cephas Jones.
