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.
– Iranian artist and activist Atena Farghadani (left) has been sentenced to 12 years, 9 months in prison for satirizing her country’s parliament’s vote to restrict contraception and ban types of birth control by depicting them as animals considered stupid and sycophantic in Iranian culture. This verdict comes after the 28-year-old had already been arrested twice (the second time for speaking out about how badly she was treated during her first arrest), and had both gone on a hunger strike and reportedly suffered a heart attack during that second incarceration. You can read Michael Cavna’s Washington Post story, as well as see the offending image, here.
– WB President of Creative Development and Worldwide Production Greg Silverman talks to the Hollywood Reporter about, among other things, the upcoming slate of DCU films.
– DC Entertainment has put out a 6-minute video interview with DC co-publisher Dan DiDio about the company’s June relaunch initiative. I remember wondering, 12 or 13 years ago, why corporate synergy never resulted in TV ads for comics. With the answer undoubtably being cost, these YouTube/social media pitches are the next (or even better) thing. Hearing DiDio speak certainly left me with a better feeling about DC properties than reading the previous item’s interview. As a site We’re keeping tabs on how these books are stacking up against expectations, but I’ve gotta say I’m liking what I’m seeing so far.
– The Wall Street Journal has a succinct article on the process of mainstream comics coloring over the past 50 years up on their Speakeasy blog. Always nice to see non-comics-focused media sources presenting factually correct process information, as it happens surprisingly infrequently.
– Ron Perlman as Hellboy ranks up there with Christopher Reeve as Superman and Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark as spot-on comic-to-film casting. I know it, you know it, he knows it. But the studio doesn’t seem to want to keep that Perlman/Hellboy streak going as long as the other two, so Perlman is taking matters into his red right hand of doom and tweeting his case to the fans like so:
Anybody out there wanna see #HellboyIII as much as I do? Let's get this muthafucka trending, y'all!
Let's end the trilogy; we earned it!
— Ron Perlman (@perlmutations) June 3, 2015
Are YOU going to tell that man he can’t have what he wants? I wouldn’t advise it, because as we all know, Ron Perlman is not the man with whom to fuck.
– In probably the only way Robert Kirkman would sign an exclusive with any company other than Image Comics, the writer has been tapped by AMC as one of their franchise players to “develop new projects” and “continue to serve as executive producer” on The Walking Dead in a “multiyear” deal.
– Cartoon Crossroads Columbus (CXC), the 2016 four-day comics festival holding a three-day preview this October, now has a website! Already posted are a first round of special guests (including Kate Beaton, Jeff Smith, Francoise Mouly, Craig Thompson, and more), preliminary schedule of events, and the vendor application form.
– Speaking to CXC Executive Director Tom Spurgeon, here’s his list of notable reads for this past week (just in case Bleeding Cool made anyone think Tom posted that blank list to The Comics Reporter in high dudgeon, feeling offended and deeply resentful of a perceived lack of quality).
– If you’re already following Multiversity Comics and somehow have time for even more thoughts about comics, I have excellent news. Colin Smith will begin posting regular updates again to his excellent blog Too Busy Thinking About My Comics(/em>! Smith has already been slowly posting small updates over the last few days, including this chat between him and critic Daniel Elkin of Comics Bulletin that gives, among other things, a nice recap of his and the blog’s MO. Nice to have you back, Colin!
