Comics Lowdown | Warner Bros. shares details on DC FanDome’s reach

Plus: News on Image Comics, IDW, Si Spurrier and more.

The first day of DC Comics’ FanDome event, which was held this past Saturday, garnered 22 million global views from more than 220 countries and territories, according to The Wrap.

The publication spoke with Lisa Gregorian, Warner Bros. Television Group chief marketing officer, and Blair Rich, president of worldwide marketing at Warner Bros., who came up with the idea for the event.

“We had a couple of sort of mission things in mind as we built it that were our North Stars that we never wavered from,” said Rich. “Number one, it had to be for the fans, by the fans, about the fans, and be completely fan-centric, and anything that wavered from that was not allowed. We wanted it to be accessible. That’s why it was free. It was a global event translated into nine languages and we wanted it to feel like a major moment.”

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Mail Call | Wolverine, Ninja Turtles, Star Trek and more

A round-up of news from DC, Marvel, Dark Horse and more.

Mail Call is a roundup of the announcements we’ve received from comics publishers in our mailboxes recently. Hit the links for more information.

Marvel has announced Wolverine: Black, White & Blood, a second series starring Marvel’s favorite mutant.

“I can’t stress how exciting it is getting all of these pages from the absolutely killer level of talent assembled for this book,” said series editor Mark Basso. “It’s become a hype cliché, but you’ve really never seen anything quite like this from Marvel Comics. And you’ve only seen a fraction of the first issue…”

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IDW details their ‘Locke & Key’ plans through the winter

IDW reopens the doors on the Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodríguez series with miniseries, crossovers and more.

Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodríguez’s Locke & Key series has proven popular not just for publisher IDW, but also for Netflix, which streams the TV series. With a second season the way from the streaming giant, IDW has outlined their publishing plans over the next seven months.

“I always wanted to have my own series character, like Philip Marlowe, Jack Reacher, or Sherlock Holmes. I just somehow never imagined my series character would be… a house. But that house is a home — my creative home,” Hill said in a press release. “I’ve spent some of the happiest hours of my life knocking around Keyhouse’s closets, cabinets, and odd corners, hanging there with my artistic compadres, Gabriel Rodríguez, Chris Ryall and Jay Fotos. We’ve never stopped having fun and I couldn’t be more excited about the stories we’ve got ahead of us. We’re going to do our very best to unlock some good things in 2020.”

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Comics Lowdown | IDW ‘has parted ways’ with Publisher Jud Meyers

Plus: How the pandemic has impacted Scholastic and VIZ Media, the ‘Thundarr the Barbarian’ comic that almost was and more!

IDW Publishing has “parted ways” with Jud Meyers, who they had named as their new publisher on July 22.

“IDW Publishing has parted ways with Jud Meyers and would like to thank everyone for their discretion,” the company said in a short statement. Meyers was named publisher after longtime publisher Chris Ryall departed the company, but was then placed on administrative leave a few days after the announcement.

Publishing: Publisher’s Weekly looks at Scholastic’s fourth-quarter and full year results for fiscal year 2020, which ended May 31 for the company. Not surprisingly, given the COVID-19 pandemic, they were down significantly compared to last year. Revenue was down $187 million, or almost 40%, leading to a 10% drop in their full-year revenue for FY20.

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Comics Lowdown | Jud Meyers placed on administrative leave at IDW

Plus: News on SDCC, DC’s writing workshop and the winner of the 2020 Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award.

Publishers: Jud Meyers, who was named publisher at IDW last week, has already been placed on administrative leave, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Jerry Bennington, who was named president of IDW last week, will assume Meyer’s duties in the interim. No reason was given for why Meyers was placed on leave. The Beat has more background, including information on a past lawsuit against Meyers by his former business partner, comics retailer Carr D’Angelo.

Conventions: The local San Diego news station KUSI looks at the loss of revenue to the city of San Diego due to the cancellation of the San Diego Comic Con. Clifford “Rip” Rippetoe, the president and CEO of the San Diego Convention Center, says the cancellation of the event meant a potential loss of $166 million to the local San Diego economy across restaurants, retail and taxes. He notes the convention center has had to cancel about 100 shows this year so far due to COVID-19.

Speaking of Comic-Con, Variety is calling the virtual convention “a bust,” based on the amount of activity on Twitter about the convention being down compared to last year, as well as the YouTube views of panels. The Beat points out that from a comic perspective, the YouTube numbers for “comics-based panels are way way above what they would have reached in person.” Also, almost a week later, those panels are still available for people who want to view them.

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IDW announces ‘Marvel Action: Chillers’ for October

The miniseries written by Jeremy Whitley will feature Ironheart, Doctor Strange and more.

IDW’s Marvel Action line, which stars Marvel characters in comics aimed at younger readers, will launch a biweekly Halloween-themed miniseries in October.

Written by former Unstoppable Wasp writer Jeremy Whitley, each issue will feature a framing story starring Doctor Strange and Ironheart, with a second “spooky adventures” tale starring Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Elsa Bloodstone and more.

“Marvel characters have an incredibly long and colorful history in horror stories, from the traditional Marvel Monsters, to Werewolf By Night, to Tomb of Dracula. Those were all titles that I loved growing up, and getting to introduce young readers to the world of spooky Marvel characters is an honor and a privilege. I can’t wait for everyone to see what we’re cooking up,” Whitley said.

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Transformers head ‘Back to the Future’ in a new crossover miniseries

IDW will debut the first issue in October.

Great Scott! Marty and Doc Brown will meet the Transformers in an upcoming crossover miniseries from IDW Publishing.

“When I was asked to write the official crossover comic, I could only shout ‘Great Scott’ and dive in,” said writer Cavan Scott. “It’s the perfect fit. Both Transformers and Back to the Future are packed with adventure, humor, and (most importantly) heart. Plus, it gave me a chance to play with multiple Transformers timelines, harkening back to some of my favorite Transformers storylines of the ‘80s, while also bringing in elements of all three Back to the Future movies. Look out for classic characters, both human and Cybertronian, and a few surprises along the way!”

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IDW promotes three following Ryall’s departure

Jerry Bennington, Jud Meyers and Rebekah Cahalin all move into new roles at the company.

In the wake of yesterday’s announcement that Chris Ryall is leaving IDW to pursue a new publishing venture, IDW has announced a new president and a new publisher, as well as one more promotion.

Ryall served as president, publisher and chief creative officer of IDW up until yesterday, but today’s announcement notes that the president and publisher roles will no longer fall under one person.

Jerry Bennington, who currently serves as IDW Publishing’s EVP of product management, has been named president of IDW. Jud Meyers, who is currently IDW Publishing’s sales director, will move into the publisher position. A new chief creative officer has not been named.

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Chris Ryall to step down at IDW and start a new publishing venture

Ryall will leave to start World of Syzygy with Ashley Wood as IDW restructures.

Chris Ryall and IDW have jointly announced that Ryall will step down from his role as president, publisher and chief creative officer in order to launch “a new storytelling venture focused on the disparate worlds and characters that he brought to life at IDW Publishing.”

The new venture will be called World of Syzygy and is a partnership with Ashley Wood, who Ryall worked with on Zombies vs Robots, and other creators he has worked with at IDW.

“Change is often hard, and I will miss this extended family I have worked with for more than 15 years,” said Ryall. “In the past year alone, we brought on some amazing hires, expanded the scope of many of the departments, and re-focused the foundation of the business to best support the integrated multi-media company that IDW has become. Our collective success with the entertainment team on ‘Locke & Key’ has been a crowning moment for the entire company.  I’m so proud of this special place and the incredible people who work here. I know that I leave IDW perfectly poised for continued success.”

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What’s scarier: demons or parenthood? IDW announces ‘Scarenthood’

Nick Roche, Chris O’Halleran and Shawn Lee kick off a new horror title in October.

Writer and artist Nick Roche is teaming up with colorist Chris O’Halloran and letterer Shawn Lee to bring some bumps in the night to the local neighborhood in Scarenthood, a four-issue miniseries debuting from IDW in October.

“My generation grew up in what seemed like a haunted Ireland: superstition still abounded, and everyone had seen moving holy statues, or lived near a stately home that had been burnt to the ground in a Satanic visitation, or knew someone who chopped down a Faerie bush and lived to regret it,” Roche said in the press release. “Scarenthood is about realizing that some of those horrors from childhood are real, but nothing is more terrifying than ruining your own kid’s life. Also: there are funny bits.”

On Twitter, Roche added: “… it’s about some parents who go ghosthunting while their kids are in preschool, but have to be back by lunchtime to collect them. It’s The Goonies, grown-up and with mortgages. Or: Catastrophe meets Stranger Things. In Ireland.”

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Mail Call | Grifter coming to ‘Batman’ following the Joker War

Rounding up news from DC, IDW, Humble Bundle and more.

Mail Call is a roundup of the announcements we’ve received from comics publishers in our mailboxes recently. Hit the links for more information.

Trick or treat: DC Comics will release not one but two Halloween specials this October, the equivalent of getting a full-sized candy bar instead of those fun-sized ones.

The first one features Swamp Thing with stories by James Tynion IV, Tom King, Tradd Moore, Emma Rios and more. The second, titled DC: The Doomed and the Damned, will feature stories by Marv Wolfman, Ken Porter, John Arcudi, Saladin Ahmed, Riley Rossmo, Travis Moore and more. It’ll feature short stories starring Batman, Madame Xanadu, Man-Bat, Green Lantern, Etrigan and more.

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The Mandalorian is coming to comics

We have spoken.

Starwars.com has shared a new publishing program centered on the Disney+ show The Mandalorian, and while it mostly centers on books and novels, it does confirm that the popular bounty hunter and The Child — aka Baby Yoda — are coming to comics.

According to the post, “The Mandalorian-inspired comics are coming from Marvel and IDW Publishing,” both of whom have licenses to create comics based on the Star Wars properties.

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