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, the 2020 Harvey Award winners were revealed, and Valiant announced a relaunch of “The Harbinger.”
– Marvel Comics revealed their Stormbreakers Artist Program. The publisher selected eight artists currently working in the industry to highlight and showcase, to distinguish them as the next generation of talent. As part of the program, the artists will be pushed to the forefront of Marvel’s roster over the next two years, predicting and facilitating them as the new superstar artists in comics. Those chosen for the program include R.B. Silva (“Fantastic Four” and “Powers of X”), Pat Gleason (“Amazing Spider-Man”), and Natacha Bustos (“Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur”). More artwork, interviews and news about the program and selected artists can be found here.
– BOOM! Studios’s upcoming graphic novel “The Last Witch” will now be released as a miniseries. The Beat reported that the young adult fantasy book by Conor McCreery and V.V. Glass, originally announced for a December release, will now be released in a single-issue format from January 2021. The series features a young girl called Saoirse, who discovers she can control dark magick, while on the run, with her brother and nan, from the evil which destroyed their village. James Tynion IV and Michael Dialynas’s graphic novel series “Wynd” went through a similar transition from OGN to miniseries earlier this year, also published by BOOM!, suggesting a publisher-wide decision in support of direct market comic book shops. Covers for the first issue are available to see at The Beat’s announcement.
– Asif Kapadia was announced as director of new graphic novel adaption Laika, to be made in XR (cross reality). Best known for his work on documentaries like 2010’s Senna and 2015’s Amy, Kapadia will adapt the 2007 graphic novel “Laika” by Nick Abadzis, based on the story of the first dog in space. The movie will utilise animated VR, with more information to be revealed at The Expanse, the London Film Festival’s dedicated XR program, on October 8. The film is expected to be completed in 2021.
– AfterShock Comics announced a merger with Rive Gauche, to expand more into the world of TV and film, as AfterShock Media. Rive Gauche is mostly known for their reality TV shows, but will likely be moving into scripted media, through potential adaptations of AfterShock comic book properties. The move was announced by Rive Gauche CEO Jon Kramer, who has also been involved with AfterShock since its inception, having co-founded the comic book publisher.
– The trailer for The Show, a new film written by Alan Moore, was released – check it out on Empire Online here. Starring Tom Burke and directed by Mitch Jenkins, the film depicts Burke’s Fletcher Dennis as a man on a search for a missing artifact, in a supernatural version of Moore’s own Northampton. The English town where Moore grew up and has lived his whole life heavily inspired many of his other works, most recently his psychogeographical novel Jerusalem. The Show will premiere at the Sitges Film Festival on October 12, and be released in UK cinemas in 2021.
– Respected voice actor Kosei Tomita passed away on September 27, at the age of 84. Tomita’s worked spanned decades, starting with Astro Boy in 1963, all the way up to Detective Conan in 2014. Most famous for his work as the title character in the original Doraemon series, Tomita appeared in over fifty other animes, as well as Japanese dubs of Western movies such as 1963’s Casino Royale, and The Bourne Identity.
– Lastly, Warner Bros. announced that Dune’s release date will slip into next year, causing a ripple effect on their other upcoming films. Dune took the October 1, 2021, release date formerly held by Matt Reeves’s The Batman, which will now release on March 4, 2022; The Flash was delayed to November 4, 2022, and Shazam: Fury of the Gods has been postponed to June 2, 2023. Black Adam, previously set for December 22, 2021, is now undated, while The Matrix 4 will now be released on that day. Wonder Woman 1984 is still set to release on December 25, 2020.
