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.
– Karl Kerschl has announced that he will be leaving “Gotham Academy” with issue #12 as his last effort as the series artist. Newsarama speculates that Adam Archer will be taking over the art duties following the “Gotham Academy: Yearbook” arc that starts after this “Robin War” event. “Gotham Academy” is written by Becky Cloonan and Brenden Fletcher, and focuses on the titular boarding school. Kerschl’s work was imperative to the aesthetic and charm of this series and definitely stood out amidst the usual muddy look DC tends to favor for some reason. Hopefully this doesn’t spell the end for the series, though it would be nice to see Kerschl return to his “Abominable Charles Christoper.”
– ComiXology has been a part of the Amazon Empire for over a year already. In that time, users have no longer been able to purchase comics from the app itself, though a wider range of material has been made available. With their latest update, ComiXology has made it so you can merge your comic libraries from your Kindle to ComiXology itself. The Kindle library has an even wider breadth of comics and materials (probably because Amazon doesn’t have to deal with Diamond), so that’s pretty cool for those who like having all your books in one convenient place.
– The DC Super Hero Girls line of toys and cartoons has been all about reaching to an audience that might not necessarily find what they’re looking for in the average weekly poll. DC hopes to amend that: they’ve announced the first DC Super Hero Girls graphic novel, written by Shea Fountana, with art by Yancey Labat and Monica Kubina, slated for July 2016. I think these superhero companies need to be reaching out to a younger audience on a more regular basis, so I’m all about the concept behind this book.
– Have you finished watching Jessica Jones yet? If so and if you wanted to take a peek behind the scenes, check out this VFX reel from VFX Compositing Tuts. There’s some fairly clever use of 3D rendering and animation, employed mostly to enhance a scene instead of completely generating it. Make sure you follow along with Jess Camacho as she goes through Jessica Jones every week, right here on MultiversityComics.com.
– Take some time to read this: Zainab Akhtar’s thoughtful piece about how Bill Sienkiewicz uses Wilson Fisk’s clothes and outfits in “Daredevil: Love and War” to get to the center of the character. It’s a nice, deep look at storytelling techniques and how the comics medium is able to convey information other mediums couldn’t hope to broach.
– It’s December and festivity is in the air, most of it having to do with Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It’s also time for the the Best Of Year End lists to really kick it into gear. We at Multiversity will start our own lists this week, but while you’re waiting, check out this list of the Best Comics as Chosen by the Artists. It’s from the Tech Times, so you might have to mute the stupid ads along the side, but there are definitely some gems offered up.
– “Vader Down” sports one of the most rare variant covers ever, a 1:5000 copy black-and-white version of Chip Zdarsky’s cover featuring Darth Vader facing off against Jaxxon. A copy of it on eBay sold for like $3700. Seeing this, Zdarsky decided to take his copy and auction it off to charity, hoping to help Syrian refugee families relocate to Canada.
– On Friday, we asked you what you thought was 2015’s most underrated (or under-appreciated) book.
THE RESULTS ARE IN:
- 28% of you (51 voters) said it was “Lazarus,” the Image book from Greg Rucka and Michael Lark. Commentators seemed to agree, with Jace Baker saying “more people need to read it” and eyeball & ears claiming they had voted for it before even they even finished reading our list and they have “no idea how this book is not talked about as much as other titles.” Continued below
- Next, 14% of the votes (25 voters) mentioned “Shutter” from Joe Keatinge and Leila del Duca, which is one of my favorite ongoing series at the moment. You should check it out.
- 23 voters didn’t think we talked enough about “Gotham by Midnight” and 20 felt “Usagi Yojimbo” always could use more representation. (Same could be said for “Love & Rockets”).
- Six people chose a write-in title with commenter Asa Giannini saying: “I would actually say ‘Injection.’ Everyone seemed to give up on it after three issues, but the final two made [it] into one of Ellis’s best books.” Shane Gerfach also spoke about their love for “Rachel Rising.”
Make sure you check back Friday for our next Weekly Readers’ Poll!
– Finally, in Webcomics Worth Clicking: as Karl Kerschl’s departs from “Gotham Academy,” it seems like the perfect time to go look at his lovely comic, “The Abominable Charles Christopher.” An adventure strip blending long form storytelling with a daily strip format, this comic is a wonder to look at. Exciting, funny, and at times heartbreaking, this is a true comic gem.
If you have any webcomics you’d recommend, please leave the titles in the comments! Or shoot us an email.
