Welcome 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.
– DC’s adding four new Walmart-exclusive titles over the course of the end of the year: two one-shot holiday specials and two new ongoings. The Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette revealed that one of the ongoings will feature the Flash, while the Halloween holiday special will feature Swamp Thing. Both titles will be priced at $4.99.
– The Beat reports the International Spotlight Award at this year’s Harvey Awards will go to mangaka Harold Sakuishi (“BECK”), and editor Jackie Estrada will receive the inaugural Comics Industry Pioneer Award. They will join Dave Gibbons and The New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast – who will be the first woman inducted into the Harveys’ newly revamped Hall of Fame – during a New York Comic Con-based reception on October 5.
– First Second revealed the covers to two new “Science Comics” titles, “Science Comics: Cats” and “Science Comics: Cars,” via their Twitter. The two new books, which continue the “Science Comics” series’s introductions to basic science topics, will release in August 2019 and May 2019, respectively.
– Alterna Comics’s Publisher, Peter Simeti, published a response to allegations that he pushed for a creator to step off a book due to Twitter block chain usage. Among other things, block chain applications allow creators to automatically block users who may be part of targeted harassment campaigns. You can read both the original allegation and Simeti’s response on Comic Book Resources.
– Valiant is promoting their next “Bloodshot” ongoing, “Bloodshot: Rising Spirit,” by providing retailers with a special “Bloodspot: Rising Spirit” nanite prevention kit. The kit includes a number of real first-aid supplies, as well as a fold-out poster detailing proper nanite prevention techniques, written by Daniel Kibblesmith and illustrated by Jeff Piña. To learn how your store can receive a kit, click over to Newsarama.
– In other promotional news, comiXology announced they’ll be showcasing their print-on-demand capabilities by distributing a Print-on-Demand edition of “Hit Reblog: Comics That Caught Fire” at this weekend’s Small Press Expo. Fans not in attendance can order the Print-on-Demand edition over at Amazon.com, according to the press release published at The Beat.
– Over on Twitter, Jeff Lemire teased a new “Black Hammer” universe project with “Plutona” artist Emi Lenox, promising details soon. You can bet that when those details drop, we’ll talk about them over at our Lemire-focused column, Lemire County.
– Marvel announced a one-shot special examining the fallout of (spoilers ahead) Cable’s death in “X-Men: Extermination.” The special, titled “X-Men: The Exterminated,” will feature stories from “Cable” team Zac Thompson and Lonnie Nadler, as well as a story from legendary “X-Men” scribe Chris Claremont, reports Newsarama.
– Actor Shane West (Nikita, Salem) is set to join the fifth and final season of FOX’s Gotham, reports Deadline. He will play Eduardo Dorrance, a friend of Jim Gordon from his Army days, who comes to Gotham to help his restore order to No Man’s Land. As Deadline notes, West’s character name resembles that of DC Comics supervillain Sir Edmund Dorrance, aka King Snake, the father of Bane.
– Finally, “Nightwing” writer Ben Percy has revealed on Twitter that October’s #50 will be his last on the series. The decision comes in the wake of the film rights being acquired for Percy’s upcoming prose series The Comet Cycle, which meant Percy had to concentrate on finishing that instead. “I really wish I could have told the [Nightwing] story I planned to tell… but I promise I’m leaving you on a high note,” he tweeted. Percy was solicited as the writer for the subsequent issues in October and November.
