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 have a cover reveal for “Devil’s Reign: X-Men” #2, and an interview with Francis Manapul on his New 52 “Flash” run.
– In a fairly historic move, a collective of workers at Image Comics are unionizing, forming Comic Book Workers United. The group are looking to ensure better rights for workers in the comics industry and prevent exploitation in an “overtaxed and undervalued” industry. “This should not be radical or revolutionary, and is, in fact, a natural development for a company that started the way Image Comics did,” reads the press release for the union. “We are honored to grow [its] legacy by taking this step to give all comic book industry professionals, regardless of title, the same rights, guarantees, security, and protections which the founders sought when they broke away from the big two to start their own company. In fact, several months into our organizing efforts, Jim Valentino made a comment on social media celebrating union accomplishments. That was the moment we knew this could work.” The CBWU has a list of nine goals available, and a letter of support that has already been signed by hundreds, including Image Comics creators like Mike Deodato Jr., Chip Zdarsky and Joe Henderson. Comic Book Workers United is repped by the CWA.
– Marvel’s latest Infinity Comic is the four-issue series “Hulking & Wiccan: Possibilities,” by writer Josh Trujillo, artist Jodi Nishijima and colorist Matt Milla. The infinite-scroll comic follows the newly crowned Emperor and Court Wizard of the Kree/Skrull Empire after they discover an artifact that shows them their lives if they never met, and puts them on a mission to reunite all over again. Newsarama reports that Agatha Harkness is the main villain of the series. The first issue is available now on Marvel Unlimited; for a short video preview, check here.
– Larry Shell, a former writer/editor, publishing consultant and original art rep, needs support to pay his overdue property taxes. Shell is at risk of losing the home he and his brother have lived in for over 40 years, with the pair suffering from diabetes, glaucoma, arthritis and a range of other conditions. This isn’t the first time Shell has had to look for help from the comics community, facing similarly overwhelming taxes in 2017. Shell has to raise US$8000 by November 10, and is looking for any help people can spare.
– Dark Horse Comics will be releasing The Art of Masters of the Universe: Revelation on April 6, 2022, a hardcover artbook containing interviews, sketches and concept art from Kevin Smith’s Netflix animated series. The artbook will retail for $49.99 and releases after Part 2 of the series, which goes live on November 23. Dark Horse are also currently releasing the comic series “Masters of the Universe: Revelation,” a prequel to the TV series by Kevin Smith, Rob David, Tim Sheridan and Mindy Lee, which will be collected in February of next year.
– Paul Hudson will be releasing his book The A to Z of British Newspaper Strips through the independent publisher Book Palace in early 2022, chronicling over 680 comic strips in its 320 pages. Hudson ran the now-defunct Comic Showcase, a popular London comic shop, and helped with the previous Book Palace art collection Brian Bolland (illustrators Special) in 2019. The book is described as a “reference resource about a rich field of comics history that we really need, a definitive guide to the long and distinguished career of the British Newspaper Strip, listing every newspaper strip printed in Britain.” The title can be purchased here once it is made available.
– Alejandro Jodorowsky has teased an “Incal” film adaptation, with the creative behind the new adaptation set to be announced soon. Jodorowsky and Moebius created “The Incal” a little over 40 years ago, depicting a dystopic sci-fi society where detective John DiFool is pursued by the villainous Metabaron and Technopope after coming into possession of the eponymous Incal. Jean Giraud (known as Moebius) passed away in 2012, but is still known as one of the most prolific sci-fi artists, and a defining force in European comics who was a critical inspiration for seminal sci-fi works like Neuromancer, The Fifth Element, Alien and Tron. Jodorowsky is a writer and filmmaker who is known for his films El Topo and The Holy Mountain; he was also in the process of developing a Dune film set to star artist Salvador Dali in the 1970s which was scrapped, and that Moebius was involved in. Fans of “The Incal” can sign up here to be alerted when announcements for the project are made.
Continued below– In more adaptation news, director Julius Avery (Overlord, Son of a Gun) will be adapting Hiroya Oku’s massively popular Manga series “Gantz” into an English-language live-action movie for Sony, based on a script by Marc Guggenheim. The series follows two friends who are conscripted into a war against aliens after dying in a train crash. It ran from 2000 to 2013, and has previously been adapted into an anime, a live-action series and a CG film. No actors are attached to the project as of yet, as the project is still early in pre-production.
– Chris Pratt will star in an animated Garfield movie, voicing the lazy, lasagne-loving cat himself. The Sony Pictures film is written by David Reynolds and directed by Mark Dindal, a pair of collaborators who have created some of the most iconic animated films of the last 30 years, including Finding Nemo, Chicken Little and The Emperor’s New Groove. Pratt follows in the footsteps of Bill Murray, who previously voiced the character in the mid-2000s; this also comes after the contentious announcement that Pratt will be voicing Mario in the Universal Studios animated movie Super Mario Bros. “Garfield” was created by Jim Davis in 1978, and is the most syndicated comic strip in history.
– Finally, Disney have released the first trailer for the Disney+ Star Wars series The Book of Boba Fett, starring Temuera Morrison and Ming-Na Wen. The eight-part series begins on December 29, and features Boba Fett after his ascendancy to head of the Tatooine criminal empire previously led by Jabba the Hutt and Bib Fortuna. The trailer shows Morrison’s Boba and Wen’s Fennec Shand trying to wrangle the various clans once more, fighting for criminal collaboration rather than conflict. The show will have episodes directed by Robert Rodriguez, Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni and Bryce Dallas Howard among others, and is produced by John Bartnicki alongside a swathe of executive producers. The series is set during the same period as The Mandalorian, following 1983’s Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. It is part of a growing slate of Disney+ Star Wars series including Ahsoka, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Lando, Andor and The Acolyte.
