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.
In case you missed it, Dynamite Entertainment and IDW Publishing announced the crossover series “Army of Darkness/Bubba Ho-Tep,” and our NYCC ’18 coverage continued with interviews with Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon, and “Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor” #0 artists Claudia Ianniciello and Mariano LaClaustra: we also spoke to Tim Seeley about the upcoming “Hack/Slash vs. Chaos!”
– BHP Comics have been shortlisted for the Saltire Society’s Publisher of the Year award, and their Marketing and PR Officer, Heather Palmer, has been nominated for Emerging Publisher of the Year. BHP Comics are a publishing house based in Glasgow, Scotland, that release a host of genre comics and art books including “Rok of the Reds” by John Wagner (co-creator of Judge Dredd) and Alan Grant (“Batman: Shadow of the Bat”), as well as hosting comic book events across Scotland. The Saltire Society is a Scottish organisation designed to preserve the Scottish tradition and promote important Scottish cultural contributors.
– Legendary Pictures have acquired the live-action film rights to Kōhei Horikoshi’s superhero manga “My Hero Academia.” The comic tells the story of Izuku Midoriya, a boy who is bestowed superpowers (or a “Quirk” in the series’ vernacular) by All Might, the world’s greatest Hero, and then is enrolled at the Hero’s school to become his successor. The project will be a joint venture with the manga’s publisher Shueisha, with Toho receiving the distribution rights for Japan. An animated film spin-off of the TV series, My Hero Academia: Two Heroes, was released earlier this year.
– Warner Bros. announced details for Reign of the Supermen, which included a trailer and release dates for both the digital and Ultra HD Blu-ray editions. Reign of the Supermen is the second part of the DC Animated Movie Universe adaptation of “The Death of Superman” and follows from August’s first part, The Death of Superman. The film welcomes additional cast members Cameron Monaghan (Gotham), Tony Todd (Candyman) and Cress Williams (Black Lightning) as Superboy, Darkseid and Steel, respectively, alongside returning members Jerry O’Connell (Stand By Me) as Superman and Rebecca Romijn (X-Men) as Lois Lane. Reign of the Supermen will be released digitally on January 15, 2019, with the UHD Blu-Ray package edition being released two weeks later on January 29, 2019. You can watch the trailer for the film and see the list of special features included with the releases here.
– John Williams, legendary music composer, was hospitalized with illness. The illness, which Williams is recovering from, has forced the composer to pull out from a concert with the London Symphony Orchestra due to take place at the Royal Albert Hall this Friday. Williams is best known for his music in the Star Wars saga, Jaws and the Indiana Jones franchise. We wish him well in his recovery.
– As part of the 10th anniversary celebrations for NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, NASA named one of the twenty-one newly discovered Gamma-Ray constellations “Hulk,” after Marvel Comics’ the Incredible Hulk. They explained that “both Banner and the Hulk would certainly appreciate” the transformation that gamma rays are capable of: turning light into matter. In addition to Hulk, they named constellations after Mjolnir (Thor’s hammer), Godzilla and the TARDIS from Doctor Who.
– A pilot for a Stan Lee talk show was commissioned in 1968 and it has resurfaced via the Beat and writer J.M. DeMatteis. In the episode, Lee is joined by college newspaper editors Skip Weiss and Chuck Skoro and underground newspaper editor Jeff Shero as they set out to discuss the “subjects” that were in the minds of the contemporary young people such as “Vietnam, rebellion,” and what young people really want.
– It was announced that three comic book movie adaptations, MFKZ, Teen Titans Go! to the Movies and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse have been submitted to the long-list of films considered for the Animated Feature Film category at the 91st Oscars. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is yet to be released and therefore currently ineligible for nomination, although given it’s release date of December 14, it will be able to qualify ahead of the nominees being announced on January 22. The Oscars Awards Ceremony will be held on February 24. The full long-list is available to read here.
– Keeping with the comic book nominations, Marvel’s first scripted podcast, “Marvel’s Wolverine: The Long Night” has been nominated for the Best Scripted Podcast category at the first iHeartRadio Podcast Awards. The podcast series, produced by Marvel New Media and Stitcher, first aired on Stitcher Premium earlier this year and told the story of two federal agents investigating a serial murder case with Logan as the main suspect. The series starred Richard Armitage (The Hobbit trilogy) as Wolverine, with Celia Keenan-Bolger voicing Agent Sally Pierce and Ato Essandoh voicing Agent Tad Marshall. Voting for the awards is open until January 6, with the award winners being announced on January 18. The nominated podcast was revealed to be getting a comic book adaptation at NYCC ’18.
– Finally, having joined Valiant Entertainment as an intern earlier this year, Oliver Taylor has been hired as the company’s International Licensing Coordinator, which will see him working to “expand Valiant’s reach in the global marketplace” by assisting on expanding the relationship the company has with agents, publishing partners and licensees.
