Welcome back to The Beat Digest, a twice-weekly round-up of the biggest comics-related news stories we’ve missed every Tuesday and Friday. Is there a story out there you think we should cover? Be sure to let us know in the comments.
Flash Gordon #0 cover A, by Joe Quinones
§ Mad Cave announced the Flash Gordon series is getting a new creative team with Dan Abnett and Manuel Garcia, whose run will begin with an issue #0, releasing April 8, and then continue with issue #16 of the main series in May. The prelude comic will see Gordon land the role of training a group of human space explorers, only for their “quick trip” to the moons of Neptune to become “a deadly alien hunt,” where “one of the new recruits thinks they can save the day without the dusty instructor.” Jeremy Adams‘s run will wrap up in the meantime next week, with issue #15 on February 4.
Meanwhile, Mad Cave’s children’s imprint Papercutz revealed The Stone of Shiro: The Fall of Shiro, a fantasy OGN by writer Sue Ruffle, and artist Stefano Spaziani (various LEGO releases). Due out June 30, the book follows Cale, a Mushling (as in mushroom) boy from the world of Shiro, who must become the hero his people need when aliens steal their protective magic stone. It marks the debut of Ruffle, an Australia-based marketing director who’s worked in the animation industry, and children’s advertising.
Furthermore, international imprint Nakama Press will release Aperture, a YA fantasy romance by writer Kirsten Thompson (I Am Hexed) and Brazilian artist Huenito (Teeth of God). The OGN follows Sage, a college student who discovers an old camera that links her to August, “who walked the same halls more than a century earlier. What begins as a miraculous connection soon deepens into something neither of them expected. But history has a way of pulling people apart — and as WWI looms for August, the closer they grow, the more impossible it seems to hold on.” It will be released on August 25.
The Objectivist cover by Jae Lee
§ Via ComicBook.com, Curt Pires, Alex Diotto and Luca Casalanguida unveiled The Objectivist, a crowdfunded OGN about a violent vigilante launching March 17. Pires says, “This is both an embrace of the shadow-drenched noir I was raised on and an autopsy of the social conclusions those books subtly endorsed.” Steve Ditko‘s Mr. A, the character heavily inspired by his Randian beliefs, and who in turn inspired the Question and Watchmen‘s Rorschach, is acknowledged as being one of the book’s influences in the press release. You can sign up to its Kickstarter page here; the book will also be released digitally on Neon Ichiban.
§ Speaking of crowdfunding, over at IGN, Iron Circus revealed six graphic novels heading to Kickstarter later this year. They include The Goblin Throne, a “bloody adult fairy tale about divorced moms and craven lesbian desire” by Melanie Gillman, that revolves around a goblin queen offering a Faustian bargain for her victims — her hand in marriage. It will launch in June. For updates, stay tuned to Iron Circus’s Kickstarter profile.
§ Dynamite had another Vampirella annnouncement for April, namely The Art of Vampirella: The Dynamite Years Volume 2. A follow-up to 2014’s showcase of the publisher’s comics with the character, the 200-page artbook will feature covers and more by Terry Dodson, Jenny Frison, Art Adams, Jay Anacleto, Joe Jusko, Mike Mayhew, Joseph Michael Linsner, Philip Tan, Billy Tucci, Chrissie Zullo, Robert Hack, Jimmy Broxton, Stephanie Buscema, Sergio Davila, Johnny Desjardins, and David Roach.
§ Tribute Games announced Scott Pilgrim EX will be released on Tuesday, March 3. The new co-op brawling game features an original story by creator Bryan Lee O’Malley, set after the anime Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, and features Scott, Ramona, Lucas Lee, and Roxie Richter as playable characters, as well as the newly announced Matthew Patel and Robot-01. It will be available on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch.
§ BroadwayWorld reports are you listening?, a play based on the graphic novel of the same name by Tillie Walden, will be performed at The Makers’ Space theater in Brooklyn, New York, for a limited engagement on February 4-8. Like the 2019 book, the play follows a recently bereaved woman taking a lengthy road trip to visit her family out west, who picks up a 17-year old girl running away from home. It was scripted by Noma Mirny, and directed by Ciera Miller.
§ Finally, a pair of notices from the world of international voice acting. Kozo Shioya, the Japanese voice of Majin Buu in the Dragon Ball franchise, died on January 20, aged 71, after a cerebral hemorrhage. Mexican actor Alexis Ortega subsequently died on January 27, aged only 38. He was best known for dubbing Tom Holland as Spider-Man in the Latin American releases of Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and Avengers: Infinity War, as well as Daniel Henney in Big Hero 6. A cause of death was not provided.
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