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.
– Former Vertigo Executive Editor Shelly Bond has announced the first book that will be published by her new Black Crown imprint with IDW. Peter Milligan and Tess Fowler will kick off the imprint with “Kid Lobotomy.” The series will be extensively previewed at Comic-Con International in July and will launch later in October of this year.
– Vice President and Executive Editor of Marvel Comics Ryan Penagos announced via twitter that Marvel comics is reinstating its policy to include digital download codes with its print issues. This does not effect the inclusion of bonus comics. This begins the week of May 3 to coincide with the release of “Secret Empire” #1.
– Gabriel Rodriguez, co-creator of “Locke & Key” will write and draw a new creator owned series, called “Sword of Ages” for IDW. It’s a five-issue reimagining of the Excalibur story within a space fantasy. “The everlasting legend of the Sacred Sword is born through young warrior Avalon’s clashes with rising tyrants in a world of fantastic creatures, ancient civilizations, alien forces, and true magic” said Rodriguez.
– David Gabriel, Marvel’s Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, has issued a statement clarifying earlier remarks he had made about the end of Marvel’s push for diversity. Gabriel’s original comments were made at a Marvel Retailer Summit in which ICv2 was allowed to attend, who’ve now reported many other alarming things.
– Hulu has scheduled May 6 as its debut date for Batman & Bill, its documentary about Batman co-creator Bill Finger.
– Amid reports that “Doom Patrol” had been canceled, series writer Gerard Way appeared at this weekend’s Fan Expo in Dallas to clarify. “Doom Patrol” is continuing with issue #7 being re-solicited for July and sporting pencils from guest-artist Mike Allred. Way claimed the delay was to retain book quality.
– Justin Eisinger and Steven Scott are bringing the story of actor and author George Takei to life in a biographical graphic novel to be published by IDW. The book is said to focus on his time in American Internment camps as a child, his time on Star Trek, and his activist roles.
– R. Crumb: From the Underground to GENESIS is set to take the recent Crumb Retrospective Exhibit from Paris’s Modern Art Museum and put it into the form of a hardcover collection.
– Stan Takai will write and illustrate a crossover between Usagi Yojimbo and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which will be their first in two decades.
– The screen rights for Emil Ferris’s graphic novel “My Favorite Thing is Monsters” were won by Sony in a “four studio bidding battle.”
