The Rundown: IDW Acquires Top Shelf, “Uncanny Inhumans” Coming in April, and more

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 either david@multiversitycomics.com or brian@multiversitycomics.com.

– IDW has acquired Top Shelf Productions, one of the best and brightest of (former) independent graphic novel production, and Tom Spurgeon provides his reaction to the whole thing. My takeaway? It’s a big deal, as Top Shelf is a big name that produces great stuff in its own right, and it’s sad as part of the deal Brett Warnock – who has long been the co-lead at Top Shelf with Chris Staros – is retiring. But this could be good for all parties and for comic readers themselves. It gives Top Shelf a lot of infrastructure and (probably) money to work with to do their work better and for a bigger audience. Very interesting, indeed.

– April will see the launch of a new ongoing at Marvel called “Uncanny Inhumans” from Charles Soule and Steve McNiven, and…it might be good but I have to admit, I don’t really care. The shoehorning in of the Inhumans into being a regular part of the Marvel universe is getting a bit out of control. Come on now. We get it. You’re mad at Fox and Inhumans are the new mutants. That’s great. As characters, I much preferred them as occasional curiosities. This push to make them a flagship character group is over the top.

– More from Spurgeon, as he breaks down the Angouleme Grand Prix candidate list, and it’s a hell of a list that notably features seven English speaking/writing creators and only one woman. It’s a virtual who’s who of relevancy for the past 30+ years of comics though, and I do not envy the people who have to decide which of them is most worthy.

– Entertainment Weekly gives you a first look at Paul Rudd as “Ant-Man”, and it looks like a tiny Paul Rudd in an Ant-Man suit that we had already seen!

– Speaking of Marvel movies, Jeremy Renner is doing something secret as Hawkeye for something we don’t know, but I like Jeremy Renner and I like Hawkeye!

– Mark Brooks has provided the cover for Emerald City ComiCon 2015’s “Monsters & Dames” charity art book, and it’s a beauty. This is one of my favorite books every year, and if you get the chance, you should certainly buy a copy.

– Star Wars has over 100 variant covers, and I’m looking forward to buying zero of them!

– It’s a very Comics Reporter heavy day here in the Rundown, but Tom had a lot of great stuff yesterday. I love this article he did suggesting comic fans write six fan letters this year to creators/comics they adore. It’s an increasingly negative world, and you could really cheer someone up by letting them know how much you dig their work. I know I aim to follow through on this, personally.