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 [email protected].
In case you missed it, Comic Book Workers United have filed charges of labor violations against Image Comics. We also have an exclusive preview of next week’s “Star Wars” #35.
Art by George Williams
– Oni Press will publish “Let Me Out,” a queer graphic horror novel by writer Emmett Nahil (“Leatherwood”) and artist George Williams (“Croc and Roll”). Set in 1979, the book follows a group of queer and trans misfits who are falsely accused of devil worship and murder. “With few options and no one to turn to, they decide that the best way to get revenge might just be to embrace the devil after all.” Nahil describes the comic as a subversion of classic horror tropes, where the marginalized “are given the supernatural means to fight back.” Originally crowdfunded on Kickstarter, “Let Me Out” will be released in paperback and digitally everywhere on October 3, 2023.
– Meanwhile, Vault teased “Sainted Love,” a queer time travel story by writer Steve Orlando and Italian artist Giopota (“Mothersea”). Nothing else was said about the comic, although it will see a standard release, and one through a Kickstarter campaign, which starts on Tuesday, June 13. Similarly, Marvel released a teaser stating July’s “Moon Knight” #25 will mark the beginning of ‘Knight’s End,’ implying Jed MacKay’s run on the title will begin wrapping up, although nothing was specifically said.
– Webtoon announced “Love Stories,” a three-part LGBTQ+ anthology, inspired by the music of Hayley Kiyoko, Ava Max, and MAY-A. The first installment, an adaptation of Kiyoko’s “forever (feat. Johnny Rain)” by Color_LES and Galatea, will be released on Monday, June 12, with Ava Max’s “Sleepwalker” (by Hannah Pattern), and MAY-A’s “Something Familiar” (by Mai Hirschfeld) arriving the subsequent Mondays. Webtoon’s VP of Content, David Lee, said, “We’re incredibly proud to have our creators collaborate with these iconic recording artists to celebrate and elevate the LGBTQ+ community in a new medium during Pride Month.”
– Veteran artist Frank Teran is asking for help. Teran, who worked on books like “The Punisher,” “Batman,” and “Aliens” in the 1990s before going on to concentrate on video game concept art, said he was at risk of losing his home/work studio of 21 years. He did not specify why, but in any case, you can donate to his PayPal here, before the apparent deadline of Wednesday, June 7.
– Dark Horse revealed a slipcase hardcover edition of Neil Gaiman, P. Craig Russell, and co.’s series “Norse Mythology,” reprinting every issue in a single volume for the first time. The series, which ran from 2020 to 2022, saw various artists adapt Gaiman’s 2017 retelling of the original Norse myths across 18 issues. The 448-page edition will retail for $124.99 on November 21. Additionally, they announced the third and fourth volumes of Wataru Nadatani’s manga “Cat + Gamer” (translated by Zack Davisson, and lettered by Susie Lee) will be released respectively on October 10 and February 27.
– ICv2 shares Abrams will publish “The Little Kid with the Big Green Hand,” the first graphic novel by actor Matthew Gray Gubler (Criminal Minds). A 224-page children’s book, it centers around two friends “who learn to see the world through others’ eyes.” It marks second book written and drawn by Gubler, following 2019’s picture book Rumple Buttercup, and will be released in hardcover this September. Head to the link to check out more on Abrams’s Fall 2023 catalog, including the previously announced “Super Boba Café” by Nidhi Chanani, two Marvel releases, and the Are You Afraid of the Dark? spin-off “The Witch’s Wings and Other Terrifying Tales.”
– Via The Direct, a legal document by Disney has revealed who the new cast members of the X-Men: The Animated Series continuation X-Men ’97 will be playing. Ray Chase (Final Fantasy XV) and Matthew Waterson (Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham) will respectively succeed the late Norm Spencer and David Hemblen as Cyclops and Magneto, while Jennifer Hale (Mass Effect) will take over from Catherine Disher as Jean Grey. Holly Chou (The Big Sick) will replace Alyson Court as Jubilee, A.J. LoCascio (the Back to the Future video game) will be the new voice of Gambit, and Gui Agustini (Spidey and His Amazing Friends) will voice Sunspot in his first appearance on the series. X-Men ’97 will premiere sometime on Disney+ later in 2023, or early 2024.
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– Variety shares a documentary called Chasing Chasing Amy will premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 8. The film, directed by Sav Rodgers, explores the impact Kevin Smith’s 1997 comedy drama — which starred Ben Affleck as a comic book artist who falls in love with Joey Lauren Adams’s lesbian cartoonist — had on LGBTQ+ viewers (including Rodgers himself.) Interviewees include Smith, Adams, Scott Mosier, Guinevere Turner, and Fire Island director Andrew Ahn. You can watch a brief clip here.
– The video for “On My Soul,” Tobe Nwigwe, Nas and Jacob Banks’s track for Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, was released. The video, directed by Nwigwe (who also appears in the film as Reek, an associate of Anthony Ramos’s human Noah Diaz), features the movie’s Autobot cast (Mirage, Bumblebee, Optimus Prime, and Arcee) in vehicle mode. You can also listen to Nwigwe in a new video featurette about Jongnic Bontemps’s score for the film, as well as a promo interview with Peter Cullen about voicing Prime. Rise of the Beasts releases in theaters next Friday, June 9.
– Finally, several new VR games were revealed at a presentation unveiling the new headset Meta Quest 3, such as Attack on Titan VR: Unbreakable, a Meta Quest 2/3/Pro title that will allow players to experience the terror of being a Scout Regiment recruit sometime this winter. Other titles included Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord, and Stranger Things VR, which will let you play as Vecna, beginning with his banishment to the Upside Down in 1979, through to the events of the first three seasons, and then finally as yourself against him.