Welcome back to The Rundown, our daily breakdown on comic news stories we missed from the weekend. Have a link to share? Email our team at rundown@multiversitycomics.com.
– The latest release in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Captain America: Civil War dropped this weekend, to an estimated $181.79 million. And that’s before the final numbers have been counted, meaning it very well likely will top $200 million. Captain America: Civil War opened in international markets a week ago, and, added with the receipts from the rest of this weekend, it looks like Disney’s bringing in about $675 million. In fact, they owned about 88% of the total box office, with Jungle Book (which, seriously, is great) and Zootopia still charting high. With such a strong presence on the box office charts, Disney will be the fastest studio to cross the $1 billion point in domestic earnings, taking only 128 days to do so. And they still have their Alice in Wonderland sequel: Alice Through the Looking-Glass, the animated Moana, another Marvel movie: Doctor Strange, and a new Star Wars movie coming out later this year. We’re going to be seeing a lot of Disney, yo.
– Although Zainab Akhtar has closed down Comics & Cola, it’s not like she’s completely abandoning the scene. She’s teamed up with Clark Burscough (an assistant director of Thought Bubble) to create a curated box of comics, called ShortBox. This will be a quarterly box of five comics, with one extra item, and “some sweets” and focus on the “self-published, small press, and independent comics that continue to invigorate the medium.” “It feels like a natural extension to go from spotlighting and recommending that work, to putting it directly into people’s hands,” Akhtar says. Personally, I’m going to have to start a saving account just to be sure I can give Akhtar all my money.
– Over at The Comics Reporter, Tom Spurgeon asked his readers to “Rank from one to five their five most preferred formats in which to read comics.” Spurgeon posted the results Sunday, and there’s such a wide spectrum to read these things. Graphic albums and slightly-larger-than normal single issues have a lot of representation, but there’s also the web, treasury editions, zines, and bathroom graffiti.
I put the same question forward to you readers: what’s your favorite format to read comics? Sound off in the comments below. Me? I like the First Second-sized graphic novels for trades and OGNS and the like. And maybe I’m just used to the standard-sized comic for single issues and floppies and whatnot.
– Ken Parille offers up 31 thoughts on the latest “Black Panther” series by Ta-Nehisi Coates and Brian Stelfreeze. I don’t know if I agree 100% with Parille’s comments, but I’m putting this up here because it offers an interesting look at the history of the character, and the history of non-comics or non-mainstream-corporately-owned-superhero-comics creators working on these sorts of books.
– Lucy Knisley has a new book out — “Something New: Tales from a Makeshift Bride” — and a new interview with Zachary Clemente to go along with it. Knisley has some fascinating insights, including into Rothko and autobiographical comics and weddings altogether.
– Despite our modern technologies for “documenting and representing reality”, drawings remain one of the “most powerful and compelling.” This is none more evident, Hans Rollman points out, when it comes to disasters and depicting disasters. Using Hillary Chute’s Disaster Drawn: Visual Witness, Comics, and Documentary Form as a launching point, Rollman tries to figure out what makes this medium so powerful.
– On Friday, we asked what Free Comic Book Day Book you were most excited for, and the results are in!
Most voters were planning to grab Dark Horse’s “Serenity, Aliens, Hellboy” Special, though a lot of people were still stoked for “We Can Never Go Home/Young Terrorists” from Black Mask and “Love and Rockets Sampler” from Fantagraphics. The “Civil War II Teaser” also received some traction, as did IDW’s “Rom/Action Man” and the “2000 AD Special.” A couple people even grabbed “Hilda” from Nobrow — which you should read and give to every kid in your life as soon as you can.
Anyway, now that FCBD has come and gone, hopefully you were able to grab what you were after (I missed “Legend of Korra”) and, more importantly, introduced the medium to newer readers. Tell us how your FCBD went in the comments! And be sure to check back Friday for the next Weekly Readers’ Poll!
