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, the delayed mini-series “Luke Cage: City of Fire” from Ho Che Anderson and a trio of artists has been cancelled one month before its release, with no reason given for this by Marvel or Anderson. Plus, Marvel launched “Lucky the Pizza Dog,” and provided us with an exclusive preview of “Phoenix Song: Echo” #2.
– Image Comics has announced it will serialize curator and writer James Tynion IV’s short stories from “Razorblades: The Horror Magazine” in the single-issue special “Razorblades: Small Cuts,” alongside the larger hardcover release of “Razorblades” Vol. 1, both on April 27. The collection of short stories features Tynion alongside “Department of Truth” co-creator Martin Simmonds, artist Josh Hixson, and the short stories starring original character Killboy, created for the magazine with artist Ricardo Lopez Ortiz. The issue will features a cover by Ortiz. “Razorblades” is released primarily online in a pay-what-you-want format, with exclusive single-issue releases also available.
– Judas Priest are officially releasing a graphic novel through Z2 Comics for the 40th anniversary of their album Screaming for Vengeance next year. The OGN by writers Rantz Hoseley and Neil Kleid will feature art from Christopher Mitten, and interviews with Doug Johnson, the artist for the original Screaming for Vengeance album cover. No story details have been provided as of yet, but the comic goes on sale in softcover and hardcover next July, with a deluxe edition available that includes art prints and a vinyl copy of the album.
– A special report by the LA Times has analyzed the steep decline in comic book sellers at this week’s San Diego Comic-Con Special Edition. “It’s not convenient,” said veteran back-issue seller Jamie Newbold. “It’s terribly expensive when you go for a week, but it’s practical because it takes a week to make the kind of money doing what we do in that show. There’s no way to justify dragging the material, say from New York, for a two-and-a-half-day convention where they charge so much for a booth.” Despite this, the Times reports that LA comic stores are still turning a familiar profit as the direct market improves, following the Diamond ransomware attack. “Even without the convention, everybody had a sense that the show would be happening that week, so everybody was still in the Comic-Con spirit,” said Aaron Trites, owner of Now or Never Comics. “It’s really nice to see how ingrained in the city the convention is, it’s not just this traveling circus that rolls through town once a year and then disappears. It’s part of the city’s DNA.” SDCC Special Edition runs from November 26-28.
– Following the announcement of Image Comics’ CBWU union, ex-Marvel editor Alejandro Arbona spoke to The Hollywood Reporter on his failed efforts to form a similar union at Marvel just ten years ago. “For us, it was just idle speculation and wishful thinking,” said Arbona. “Unfortunately, we always came to the same self-defeating conclusions about who’d join us, who wouldn’t, and how the company would respond.” The CBWU has received massive public support, but little recognition or acknowledgement from Image Comics itself, who have opted to vote on the CWA’s level of representation for the company through secret ballot. The CBWU is arguably the first comic book workers union in history, and looks to help improve conditions in an industry that is infamously unreliable in terms of long-term employment and health support.
– Star Trek: Discovery, previously streamed internationally through Netflix, will officially release on Pluto TV in countries like the UK, where Paramount+ has not launched yet. Episodes of Discovery season 4 will air on the ad-based streaming service in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria, and Switzerland, at 9pm local time on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, beginning with the first two episodes tomorrow. Episodes will also be available for individual purchase on certain digital platforms in the UK, France, Germany, Russia, South Korea, and additional select countries from November 26. Star Trek: Discovery was pulled from Netflix last week, only two days before the fourth season premiered in the US, prompting widespread disappointment from the cast as well as the fans; in a statement, ViacomCBS responded, “We hear you.”
– Netflix’s animated feature The Summit of Gods, the adaptation of the manga of the same name by Jirô Taniguchi, has announced the actors in its key roles for the English-language dub. The film follows one journalist’s investigation into the mountaineers who have attempted to scale Everest, working to find out if George Mallory and Andrew Irvine really were the first men to reach the peak of the world’s highest mountain. It will feature Darren Barnet (Never Have I Ever) as reporter Fukamachi Makoto, who investigates Habu Joji’s journey up Everest, with Rich Ting (Warrior) as Joji. The film also features Gedde Watanabe (Mulan), Clyde Kusatsu (All in the Family), Chris Naoki Lee (The Terror, Mythic Quest), Paul Nakauchi (Carmen Sandiego), and Keiko Agena (Prodigal Son). The Summit of the Gods released theatrically yesterday, and comes to streaming on November 30.
– Director and mangaka Hayao Miyazaki spoke with NYT Style Magazine this week, as he prepares to come out of retirement for one last animated feature through Studio Ghibli. The interview, his first English-language press event since 2014, spoke about his fascination with flight, the influence of national post-war anxiety, his studio, his place in Studio Ghibli, and of course his final film How Do You Live? “In the town that I live in, I have precious friends, but I also have people I detest, that is what human society is all about.” Said Miyazaki. “It’s a mirror of who I am.” Little is known about the film, other than that it adapts the 1937 novel of the same name; when asked if Miyazaki had an answer to the titular question, all he said was “I am making this movie because I do not have the answer.” How Do You Live? has no set release as of yet, but has an estimated 125 minute runtime. For a look at the full interview and some exclusive watercolors by Miyazaki, check here.
