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, BOOM! Studios announced “The Expanse” miniseries, and Jim Janes, the comic book and storyboard artist, died.
– Artist J.G. Jones (“Wanted”) has created a series of paintings, titled Rare Reflections: MPNs Unmasked, to raise awareness about rare blood cancers called myeloproliferative neoplasms, or MPNs. Jones was diagnosed with an MPN ten years ago, which is what led to his departure on “Final Crisis.” Whilst Jones has been able to continue working throughout the last decade, he recently took a break following his stem cell transplant, and the project has been allowing him to get back to his craft.
In an interview with Newsarama, Jones detailed how the project first came about due to the pharmaceutical company Incyte contacting him after learning about his story, before he decided to “talk to other MPN patients and illustrate their stories and interview them, and sort of get to know them and bring their stories to the rest of the world to read.” In addition to this project, when Jones’s hands are too shaky to draw, he has been writing a new graphic novel. You can read the full interview which details Jones’s diagnosis and journey over at Newsarama, while Rare Reflections: MPNs Unmasked is available here.
– At the Dragon Awards (held this year during Virtual Dragon Con), Jason Aaron and Ed McGuinness’s “Avengers” was voted Best Comic Book, John Jackson Miller and Daniel HDR’s “Battlestar Galactica: Counterstrike” won Best Graphic Novel, and Star Wars won Best Science Fiction or Fantasy TV Series, Movie, and PC / Console Game respectively for The Mandalorian, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. According to the press release, this year’s awards were voted for by 8000 fans. You can read the full list of this year’s winners here.
– Writer Darcy Van Poelgeest revealed “Precious Metal,” a prequel to “Little Bird,” will be releasing in 2021, with artist Ian Bertram, colorist Matt Hollingsworth, and letterer Aditya Bidikar all returning. The poster for the series details that “Precious Metal” will be set 35 years before the events of “Little Bird,” and follow one man as he is tasked with making sure a missing child stays that way. You can check out the poster here.
– Hachette Children’s Group announced plans to publish “The Sad Ghost Club” by Lize Meddings, after commissioning editor Lily Morgan acquired a world rights deal for two books by Meddings. “The Sad Ghost Club” will focus on mental health, and tell the story of a sad ghost who is lost and alone at a party, only to spot another lonely ghost there too. Together, the ghosts start the Sad Ghost Club, “a secret society for the anxious and alone, a club for people who think they don’t belong.” Lize started the Sad Ghost Club as a creative project to spread positive awareness of mental health through comics, apparel, and merchandise. The first volume of “The Sad Ghost Club” is scheduled for release in January 2021, with a second to follow in January 2022, via the Hodder Children’s Books imprint.
– CD Projekt Red revealed a three-part digital exclusive comic series, “Cyberpunk 2077: Where’s Johnny?,” from writer Bartosz Sztybor, artist Giannis Milonogiannis, colorist Roman Titov, and letterer Aditya Bidikar, as part of a collaboration with Rockstar Energy Drink. Sean Phillips will provide the cover art for all three issues. Details about the content of the comic were kept to a minimum, with the title likely referring to Keanu Reeves’s character, Johnny Silverhand. The digital comic series can be obtained by redeeming codes included with special edition cans of Rockstar Energy Drink starting on October 1. For more details on the rest of the sweepstakes, head over to Netrunner 2077.
– DC Comics revealed the first look at “Dear Super-Villains,” the sequel to “Dear Justice League.” The sequel, by writer Michael Northrop and artist Gustavo Duarte, will answer children’s questions about DC’s Legion of Doom, such as “How did Gorilla Grodd get so smart?,” and “Did Harley Quinn ever try a career in comedy?,” with each chapter in the series focusing on a different character. Alongside this reveal, DC detailed that “Dear Justice League” will be available in its entirety for 24 hours during DC Kids FanDome on September 12, starting at 10:00 PDT. A release date for “Dear Super-Villains” has not yet been scheduled.
Continued below– Via press release, Warner Bros. Television and The Creative Coalition announced that they will be releasing a series of re-enactments of the 1940s Superman Radio series at DC FanDome: Explore the Multiverse. The re-enactments will be produced using the original scripts from the series, with Wilson Cruz (Star Trek: Discovery), Tim Daly (Superman: The Animated Series), and Daniel Dae Kim (Hawaii Five-0) as Superman, with other cast members, including Giancarlo Esposito (Better Call Saul), Troian Bellisario (Pretty Little Liars), and Sean Giambrone (The Goldbergs). The 1-hour long event will be released on September 12 at 10:00 am PDT, and be available on demand for 24 hours.
– AMC revealed that the season 10 finale of The Walking Dead and the premiere of The Walking Dead: The World Beyond will be available via their streaming service, AMC Premiere, on October 1, ahead of their television debuts on October 4. The episodes of each series were set to be aired in April, but due to coronavirus impacting the post-production of The Walking Dead finale, it was delayed, causing The World Beyond to also be postponed.
– Finally, following last month’s allegations of a toxic environment on the Justice League set, and the start of WarnerMedia’s subsequent investigation, actor Ray Fisher, who played Cyborg in the film, took to Twitter to state that, after he had made the allegations, “President of DC Films” Walter Hamada made a phone call to him, “wherein he attempted to throw Joss Whedon and Jon Berg under the bus in hopes that I would relent on Geoff Johns,” something that Fisher said he “will not” do. On Friday night, Warner Bros. released a statement in which they accused Fisher of “[declining] to speak to the investigator,” which Fisher denied on Saturday, claiming that he spoke to the investigator via Zoom on August 26th, alongside a screenshot of an email which he sent to his team immediately after. Warner Bros. have yet to respond again. You can read Warner Bros.’s full statement at THR.
