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 Stuart Moore and Chris Wildgoose on their new novel “Batman: Nightwalker.”
– Marvel’s “Incoming” #1 has added 13 new artists to its solicitation. Previously announced artists Humberto Ramos and Jim Cheung will be joined by Aaron Kuder, Andrea Sorrentino, Annie Wu, Carlos Pacheco, Carmen Carnero, Francesco Manna, Javier Garron, Joe Bennett, Jorge Fornes, Kim Jacinto, Luciano Vecchio, Mattia De Iulis, and R.B. Silva. The 96-page epic will bring the ’80 Years of Marvel’ celebration to an end and teases the future of the universe going forward. The one-shot is penned by 14 different writers including Jonathan Hickman, Donny Cates, Eve L. Ewing and more. It releases on Christmas Day, December 25th.
– Comics collector Peter Hansen held Comics Jam – Preserving British Comics History, an event in conjuction with the British Cartoon Museum, the University of Dundee’s Scottish Centre for Comics Studies, and the University of the Arts London’s Comics Research Hub over the weekend. The event aimed to raise funds for the preservation and cataloguing of the Cartoon Museum’s vast collection of at risk comics and artworks. Dave Gibbons, Posy Simmonds and Jonathan Ross spoke at the event this weekend. Hansen said that “A national strategy is urgently required to catalogue and map existing collections and archives, and to develop the resources required to ensure that comics, original comic art, and the ephemera that surrounds the comics such as free gifts, advertising and information on fan clubs is not lost,” adding that, “so much of that long history is at risk of disappearing, and not enough is being done to preserve the work being done right now.”
– The BBC have concluded the long-running radio sitcom Clare In the Community. The series adapts the comic strip of the same name and has aired since 2004 on BBC Radio 4. The show’s twelve-season run technically makes it the longest running comic adaptation of any medium. The comic strip by Harry Venning follows Clare, a self-obsessed social worker who’s played by Sally Phillips in the radio show. Rounding out the cast are Clare’s husband Brian (Alex Lowe) and fellow social workers Ray (Richard Lumsden) and Megan (Nina Conti). The comic strip began in the late 1990s and is still running weekly to this day.
– Stephen Amell took to Twitter to announce the return of Emily Bett Rickards as Felicity Smoak. She will be guest-starring in the finale of Arrow season 8, having left the show at the end of season 7. Arrow was Rickards’s breakthrough role, with her initially making a small appearance in the show’s first season, before waves of positive reception resulted in her joining the show’s full-time cast. Since then she has appeared in a slew of other Arrowverse shows including The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow and Supergirl. Season 8’s finale will mark the final episode in the series following January’s “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover. Arrow season 8, episode 10, airs January 28th.
– The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Ant-Man 3 is officially in the works with Peyton Reed returning to direct. While plot details are still under wraps, Michael Douglas revealed he is set to return as Dr. Hank Pym, and begin production in January 2021. With Black Panther II set for a May 6 2022 release date, Ant-Man 3 could release on February 18 or July 29, 2022, which are the reported release dates for two as-of-yet unconfirmed Marvel movies. Peyton Reed originally directed Ant-Man, following Edgar Wright’s depature, and Ant-Man and the Wasp in 2018.
– The comic “Dampyr” by Mauro Boselli and Maurizio Colombo is getting adapted to film. The comic, published by Italy’s Sergio Bonelli Editore, follows Harlan, a man who pretends to be half-man, half-vampire, while preying off of the superstitions of those who believe themselves to be haunted. But when he’s contracted by the army, Harlan finds out he really is a dampyr and has to help deal with an infestation of real vampires. The film will be produced by Eagle Pictures on a $12 million budget. The film is set to be the first in a Bonelli Cinematic Universe and will star Stuart Martin, Frida Gustavasson, David Morrissey, Sebastian Croft and Luke Roberts. The film has begun production and will continue filming for the next 11 weeks.
– Finally the official Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Twitter account have announced an April 8, 2022 release date for the sequel to the film. The original film won an Oscar for Best Animated Feature and was widely praised as one of the best films of the year due to its pioneering animation style, star-studded voice acting and tactful handling of the Spider-Man mythos. The teaser video includes Miles Morales’s spray-painted Spider-Man logo glitching out in the same way as the inter-dimensional interlopers of the first film, perhaps suggesting that it’s Miles’s turn to travel the multiverse.
