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 Jose Villarrubia on the Robots From Tomorrow podcast.
– Deena Mohamed’s “Shubeik Lubeik” (aka “Your Wish is Your Command”) has been awarded the 2023 Warwick Prize for Women in Translation. The graphic novel, set in Mohamed’s native Egypt, follows three people in a world where wishes can be bought or sold. It was originally published in Arabic in 2017, 2019 and 2021, before being released in English by Pantheon and Granta this year. Sponsored by the University of Warwick, the annual £1,000 Warwick Prize has honored women’s books translated into English by a UK-based or Irish publisher since 2017. The judges called “Shubeik Lubeik” a “spellbinding narrative, a visual tour de force and as a unified work of art,” and an “exuberant satirical fantasia.”
– In more news from the UK, English comedian Rufus Hound will make his comic book debut with a story in “2000 AD” Prog 2362, a 100-page holiday special releasing December 13. He has penned a Strontium Dog story, ‘Alpha,’ featuring art by Dan Cornwell, which will see Johnny Alpha stop a domestic incident. “When the son gives Johnny an alien delicacy as a thank you gift, things go south and psychedelic in equal amounts!” Hound describes the story as an opportunity to peel away Johnny’s tough exterior, jokingly describing it as akin to letting fans read the character’s diary.
– Model Tyra Banks is planning a graphic novel series from her newly renamed production company SMiZE Productions. It will be based on characters from her ice cream brand, SMiZE & DREAM, who were in turn inspired by her family. Banks will write the books with Sabrina Besla, SMiZE’s vice president of development, and they will be unveiled at L.A. Comic Con during the weekend of December 1, where fans will be given the chance to provide input on the cast, and even become a character in the series.
– Legendary voice actor Peter Cullen will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the second annual Children’s and Family Emmy Awards on December 17. Cullen, 82, is best known for originating the role of Optimus Prime in the Transformers cartoons, voicing Eyeore in Winnie the Pooh since 1988, and for providing the Predator’s vocal effects in the 1987 film. He joked in a statement, “Are you sure they have the right Cullen? I spell it C-u-l-l-E-n. Seriously though, I am humbled to be recognized by the Academy with this great honor.”
– Could Nimona receive a sequel? Earlier this month at England’s Thought Bubble festival, creator N.D. Stevenson was quoted as saying, “I want to do a sequel [to ‘Nimona’] just because I love the character so much, but I also love how the comic ends. The movie, though, I’ve been pitching all these sequel ideas.” He added, “When it comes to the characters in the movie, I see so many possibilities for them.” If it transpires, it would mark only the second sequel to a Netflix original animated film, after the currently in-development follow-up to The Sea Beast.
– Speaking of animated Netflix films based on comics, the streamer’s take on Nidhi Chanani’s “Pashmina” has been canceled. In an interview we missed late last year, director Gurinder Chadha confirmed the film was no longer going ahead; although she did not state why, it’s likely it was canceled as part of the downsizing Netflix Animation faced in 2022. Published in 2017, “Pashmina” tells the story of an Indian American girl who discovers her family history through a magical shawl. Chadha became attached to the film version, which would’ve been a CG musical, shortly after in 2019.
– Finally, Stranger Things and Dark Knight Rises star Matthew Modine will be voting against SAG-AFTRA’s new contract with the Hollywood studios, citing loopholes in the language regarding AI. In a statement, Modine explained, “If ratified, SAG-AFTRA members who consent will be digitally exploited in ways not clearly defined and are currently beyond our individual abilities to control. The US Government, with all its resources, doesn’t know how to create AI guardrails to provide protections for citizens. SAG-AFTRA certainly doesn’t have the financial resources or technology to navigate the AI tsunami crashing upon the shores of the entertainment industry.” Ratification of the agreement, which will be revealed in full today, will end in December.
