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.
– Writer Ram V and artist Anand RK’s “Radio Apocalypse” will be going on “indefinite hiatus,” according to a statement released by the writer. “I will allow everyone including myself some privacy,” the statement reads, “but suffice to say health issues, bouts of COVID and some difficult family emergencies on my end have meant that we have been unable to work on this book with the care and attention it deserves.” Released by Vault, “Radio Apocalypse” tells the story of the last radio station on the planet after a devastating extinction event. Issue #2 was released back in February, with the next originally solicited for September 28.
– Just as they did with “Spectacular Spider-Man,” Panini will publish “Hero Time Presents: Batman,” a magazine aimed at 8–12-year-olds featuring an exclusive young readers “Batman” strip (the only Batman comic targeted at that age group). The strip will be written by Jason Quick with Russ Leach providing art. It will be exclusive to Europe (UK, France, Italy and Germany specifically), and feature games, activities, quizzes and puzzles. It’s due out September 14, 2022.
– Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and Shazam!: Fury of the Gods have been delayed until 2023. The Shazam sequel has been bumped to March 17, 2023, with The Lost Kingdom moving to December 25, 2023, over a year after its original December 16, 2022 release date. This is the latest in a series of reshufflings on the end of Warner Bros., following the cancellation of Batgirl and the latest installments of the Evil Dead and House Party franchises getting theatrical releases (after being announced as HBO Max exclusives).
– In more Jason Momoa news, Netflix released a trailer for Slumberland, director Francis Lawrence’s new take on Winsor McCay’s “Little Nemo.” The family film follows a young girl named Nemo (Marlow Barkley) searching for her father (Kyle Chandler) in the titular dreamworld, with the help of an “eccentric outlaw” called Flip (Momoa). The movie will release shortly before Thanksgiving on November 18, and you can find out more about it in a first look at People magazine.
– “Earthdivers” is set to become a TV show from 20th Television (the Disney company formerly known as 20th Century Fox Television). The series, from horror author Stephen Graham Jones, follows four Indigenous survivors of a post-apocalyptic future, as they travel back in time to kill Christopher Columbus. The comic is drawn by Davide Gianfelice, and is due out from IDW on October 5, 2022.
– “Parasyte: The Grey” will also be adapted into a South Korean TV series. Netflix are producing the series, based on Hitoshi Iwaaki’s sci-fi manga of the same name, which follows a group of humans battling parasitic lifeforms. Train to Busan director Yeon Sang-ho will direct and co-write the series, which will be the latest adaptation of the comic, following an anime and two live-action Japanese films. No release date has been announced.
– Spanish adventure game developer Pendulo Studios have released the first screens of Tintin Reporter – Cigars of the Pharaoh, based on the fourth volume of Hergé’s “Adventures of Tintin” series. Players will be able to follow the plot of the comic, exploring Pharaoh Kih-Oskh’s tomb on the trail of narcotics traffickers. The game will be available on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC in 2023.
– Finally, British-Canadian animator Gerald Potterton, who directed the 1981 film version of Heavy Metal, has passed away at the age of 91. He died at the Brome-Missisquoi-Perkins Hospital in Quebec on Tuesday, August 23, the National Film Board of Canada announced. As well as Heavy Metal, Potterton worked on Animal Farm and the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine, and was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. You can read more about his life and career in a Cartoon Brew retrospective published only last month.
