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 interviewed webcomics creator Mari Costa, and “Batman: The Dark Knight” editor Mike Marts as part of our New 52 retrospective 520 Weeks.
– Editor Scott Dunbier has coordinated with artists Tommy Lee Edwards & Bernard Chang on an artist’s edition of “The Winter Men,” the premier creator-owned work of the late John Paul Leon, with all proceeds from the book going towards supporting his wife and daughter. “The Winter Men” was created with writer Brett Lewis and featured art, story and covers by Leon. It follows a Russian police officer, who becomes part of a Soviet super soldier program in the Wildstorm Universe. The project was scanned and collated by Edwards and Chang, who were studio mates with Leon for over 30 years; they will also be providing additional art prints in the book and for purchase separately, alongside Sean Phillips, Bill Sienkiewicz, Lee Weeks, Duncan Fegredo, Kim Jung Gi, Denys Cowan, Walter Simonson and Joe Quesada. The project was funded within five hours and copies of the book are available for US$150 here.
– Z2 have announced their latest band collaboration graphic novel is “Cheech & Chong’s Chronicles: A Brief History of Weed.” The OGN will help commemorate the pair’s 50th anniversary performing together, and will be written by them alongside writer Eliot Rahal (“Knock ‘Em Dead,” “Bleed Them Dry”) and artists Noah Van Scriver (“Grateful Dead: Origins,” “Fante Bukowski”), Rick Veitch (“The Maximortal”), Bob Fingerman (“Pariah”), Jim Mahfood (“Pop Up Funk”) and Josan Gonzalez (“The Future is Now”). The book follows the pair on tour as they recount a fictional history of weed. It will release on April 20 in softcover for $24.99, and hardcover for $39.99. A $99.99 deluxe edition is also available which comes with a hardcover copy, five art prints, and an enamel pin. A $299.99 platinum deluxe edition has all that, but the hardcover is signed by Cheech and Chong, and it comes with an embroidered patch and a vinyl slipmat.
– Publishing company The Quarto Group are officially collaborating with the online manga anthology “Saturday AM,” the flagship release of the BIPOC manga company MyFutprint Entertainment, with stories from the series now getting a collected print release through Rockport Publishers. “Saturday AM” features artists Jey Odin, Odunze Oguguo, Seny, Pap Souleye Fall, Tony Dawkins, Oscar Fong and Geoffrey Jean-Louis. The first three series set to be collected are “Apple Black,” “Hammer,” and “Saigami,” which will all release on June 7, 2022, with each featuring a ‘post-credits’ sequence exclusive to the collected edition. “Saturday AM” titles are set within a shared Shonen universe. Also set for release are the second volume of “Apple Black” in November 2022, “Oblivion Rouge” in July 2022, and the art guide Saturday AM Presents How to Draw Diverse Manga, also on June 7.
– The Japanese stage play adaptation of Batman: Ninja has revealed its cast and costumes. The play features three different actors for Batman: Takurō Sawada, Shōta Takasawa and Renya Yamakawa, sporting a yellow, black and blue samurai-inspired Batsuit. Alongside him will be two Robins Kei Nakamura and Kazuto, three Jokers (not those Three Jokers though) Kō Hosokawa, Takuma Zaiki and Asuka, and three Catwomen, Akaneko Hirano, Ayami Suzuki and Saaya Suzuka. There will also be Emi Fujita, Minami Tsukui and Sakura Andō as Harley Quinn, Taka Sakurai and Sasuke Yaen as Red Hood, Katsunobu Katō as Nightwing, and finally Ryūhei Nishihara as Red Robin. Batman Ninja: The Show will run at Tokyo’s Theater Mixa from November 6 to November 30.
– HBO has announced the next addition to the cast of Batgirl after its showcase at DC FanDome, with Jacob Scipio set to appear alongside Leslie Grace’s Barbara Gordon/Batgirl and J.K Simmons’s Commissioner Jim Gordon. Scipio previously worked alongside the directors of Batgirl, Adil El Arbi & Bilall Fallah, as the main antagonist in Bad Boys For Life. The film will debut exclusively on HBO Max, and features work from screenwriter Christina Hodson with producer Kristin Burr. Scipio’s role in the film, which is currently in pre-production, has not been announced as of yet.
– Disney has announced delays for ten of its upcoming films including all the Marvel features following Spider-Man: No Way Home. The films are seemingly all bumped back by one release slot, with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness moving from March 25, 2022 to May 6, followed by Thor: Love and Thunder going from May 6 to July 8, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever from July 8 to November 11, The Marvels moving to February 17, 2023, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania shifting from there to July 17. (Only Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3‘s May 5, 2023 release date remains unchanged.) In addition, the untitled fifth Indiana Jones movie has gone from July 29, 2022 to June 30, 2023.
Finally, four untitled Disney features in 2023 have been delayed indefinitely and one untitled Marvel project is set to release one week earlier, going from November 10, 2023 to November 3. Disney has cited the delays due to production issues rather than box office earnings. While not cited by Disney, the ongoing IATSE strikes have interrupted filming for a vast section of their projects, as the film crews’ union campaigns for more reasonable working conditions, pay and benefits. The union body was split ideologically this week after a settlement was met, which some see as the most generous contract in the union’s history, while others believe it does not go far enough.
