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 next week’s “Ghost Rider/Wolverine: Weapons of Vengeance Omega” #1.
– Ringo Award-nominated writers Kevin Cuffe and Bob Frantz are teaming up with artist Kelly Williams for Mad Cave Studios’s upcoming horror-comedy “Skeeters.” Chas! Pangburn is on board as well to edit and letter. “Skeeters” follows a small town sheriff (and two “eccentric” exterminators) as they attempt to defend their peaceful beach community from “otherworldly mosquito-like creatures.” Issue #1 will be available in shops on December 6, but can be preordered today from Mad Cave’s website.
– According to a Publishers Weekly rights report, “Gender Queer” creator Maia Kobabe and University of Michigan professor Sarah Peitzmeier’s “Breathe: Journeys to Healthy Binding” has been acquired by Dutton. The book is a graphic gender-affirming care guide based in part on on Peitzmeier’s own research, and is set for publication in 2024. Also, First Second picked up Stephanie Evangelista and Daigo Fukuda’s “President of the Anime Club,” a graphic novel about a girl navigating her first year of high school with the help of fellow anime lovers (due out 2027), while Aladdin picked up Amy Brown and Kennedy Tarrell’s “Earth… Every Other Wednesday,” about a girl from Planet Meow coming to Earth for a year (due out Fall 2025).
– Netflix released the trailer for Bodies, the multi-generational crime thriller about four detectives discovering the same body in London’s Whitechapel district over the span of 150 years. The eight-part miniseries is based on the eight-issue Vertigo series of the same name, written by Si Spencer, with art from Dean Ormston, Phil Winslade, Tula Lotay, Meghan Hetrick and Lee Loughridge. Each of these artists drew one of the four eras the story weaves through (1890s, 1940s, present day, 2050s). The series debuts October 19, exclusively on Netflix.
– Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is now available for digital download. The animated feature (according to The Numbers) grossed over $138 million at the box office, making $101 mil. domestically and $36 mil. internationally (largely as a result of it still having not opened in markets like Australia.) You can order now through Paramount on multiple platforms.
– Walking Dead spinoffs Daryl Dixon and The Ones Who Live (along with Anne Rice adaptation Interview with the Vampire) will resume production thanks to a deal between AMC and SAG-AFTRA. The Norman Reedus-led Daryl Dixon is set to film its second season in Europe, while Ones Who Live (starring Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira) will finish post-production and ADR.
The first season of Daryl Dixon premieres September 10, but fans in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Austin can catch the first two episodes early at special early screening events on the 5th and 6th (in partnership with BeyondFest, Alamo Drafthouse and Rooftop Films). AMC also announced a French Tour sweepstakes, where five lucky TWD fans can travel the same countryside Reedus will in the series thanks to Condé Nast Traveler. Ones Who Live is slated to debut in 2024.
– The WNBA’s Chicago Sky will host the first Marvel Super Hero Day on September 3. The game will be held against the New York Liberty at Wintrust Arena at 2pm, and will be broadcast on ESPN2. The first 3,000 fans in attendance will receive an exclusive Shuri bobblehead, and the first 10,000 will receive a souvenir poster of the team with the heroes of the Marvel Universe.
– DC’s head of YA and middle-grade comics (and one of its longest serving employees) Jim Chadwick is retiring from his position after 18 years. Chadwick originally started working for DC in 1990, getting hired on as design services director. After jumping to Malibu three years later, he would rejoin the company in 2005, editing the CMX lines. He became a group editor of the YA and middle-grade line in 2019.
– Finally, legendary writer Gerry Conway has disclosed that he is recovering from a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was diagnosed in October 2022, and has been cancer-free since January, but also had to fight complications stemming from surgery. He concludes saying, “Fingers crossed, I believe I’m well on the road to recovery. I’ve been in a dark place and I’ve come out. My heart is filled with gratitude. There’s a ways to go still but the bottom line is I’m back, baby, ready to take names and kick ass.”
