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 shared a preview from Mark Russell and Yanick Paquette’s new release, “The Incal: Psychoverse.”
– King Features announced the first Popeye manga, “Eye Lie Popeye.” Created by Marcus Williams (“Tuskegee Heirs”), the comic will reveal how the Sailor Man lost his right eye. Starting from today, the first arc will be released on ComicBook.com “over a period of five weeks,” with each page available to read for 24 hours. You can read the first two pages right now at the links, and check out Williams’s cover art here.
– Cartoonist Rebecca Jones won this year’s Observer/Faber graphic short story prize, for her comic strip “Midnight Feast.” The comic, which marked Jones’s seventh submission and first win, tells the story of three girls camping in their garden at night. The runner ups were Michael Lightfoot’s “Autumn 2014,” and Ed Firth’s “The Lift,” both stories dealing with what might’ve been in the authors’ lives.
– Image put out a press release for Brian Haberlin and Geirrod Van Dyke’s new fantasy series, “The Last Barbarians.” Announced as part of the publisher’s February solicits, the ongoing comic follows Sylv, a fighter, thief, and mage, who is also caretaker for her disabled seven-foot-tall brother. As she is not a member of a guild, she is unable to land jobs, and “now her only hope is a quest from a sketchy cleric who promises only a true hero can save the day.” Tonally, Haberlin compared the comic to Terry Pratchett’s work. The first issue releases February 15.
– “Hulk” artist Ryan Ottley confirmed writer Donny Cates is no longer involved with the series, stating “he moved on.” The pair relaunched the series last year, with Ottley taking over as writer with January’s forthcoming issue #11; he also confirmed he will depart the series with issue #14. It is unknown who will succeed the pair on the title, or if Marvel will launch another Hulk title instead. Cates, in the meantime, has launched “Vanish” with Ryan Stegman on Substack and at Image.
– Yann Demange (’71, Lovecraft Country) will direct Marvel Studios’ Blade reboot, taking over from Bassam Tariq, who departed the project earlier this year. Michael Starrbury (When They See Us) has also come aboard the film as its new screenwriter. The movie, starring Mahershala Ali as the Daywalker, will go into production next year for a September 6, 2024 release date.
– Crystal Dynamics released a motion comic for the Avengers game’s Winter Soldier DLC, narrated by Scott Porter as Bucky Barnes. The footage reveals the game will retain Bucky and Natasha Romanoff’s forbidden romance from the comics, and that Bucky was made to round up Inhumans for AIM until Black Widow found him. The DLC will be added for free on Tuesday, November 29.
– In further Avengers news, Brian Waggoner, the game’s Gameplay and Systems Design Lead, has apologized for resurfaced old tweets, in which he was seen criticizing Colin Kaepernick, and others for condemning police who shoot Black people as “guilty.” He stated, “I apologize and take full accountability for the hurt they caused to my followers, the community, and those I work with. Since that time, I have learned and grown and the content I posted doesn’t reflect who I am today. I understand if you cannot accept my apology because of the pain I have caused. I will continue to listen, learn, and work to improve myself.”
– Finally, AWA Studios have formed a brain trust known as the Creative Council, to “help the company nurture original ideas across a range of platforms.” It consists of AWA veterans J. Michael Straczynski, Gregg Hurwitz, and Al Madrigal, plus Reginald Hudlin, Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski, and Avatar executive producer Laeta Kalogridis. AWA states they will help writers and artists “unleash the full potential of their characters and stories, providing a diversity of contemporary storytelling perspectives and putting projects in the best position to be scaled across the entertainment ecosystem.”
