Comics Lowdown | A look back at this weekend’s big comics events

Check out the news from both DC FanDome and NCS Fest, both of which had sessions you can still watch online.

This past weekend was filled with comics events of all shapes and sizes, from DC FanDome — which was about way more than comics, but they still had a strong presence — to the annual NCS Fest, which again went virtual and incorporated content from both the National Cartoonists Society and the Lakes International Comic Arts Festival in the UK.

In case you missed any of it, here’s the lowdown …

DC FanDome

This year’s FanDome was much shorter than last year’s, as DC opted for one day of livestreaming content rather than two. And it was better for it. The production was very tight, and I haven’t seen any issues raised about connection issues or the sorts of problems that can plague events like this.

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Yang + Chang bring the Monkey Prince back to comics next year

Gene Luen Yang and Bernard Chang reunite for a story featuring the character they introduced earlier this year.

Following his debut in the pages of DC Festival of Heroes: The Asian Superhero Celebration earlier this year, the Monkey Prince will leap into his own maxi-series next year from Gene Luen Yang, Bernard Chang and Sebastian Chen.

The shape-shifting superhero and his friends are inspired by the 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West, which is considered one of the “four classic novels” of Chinese literature.

The first issue will arrive on Feb. 1, which is Lunar New Year.

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Superman will fight for ‘a better tomorrow’

Superman’s new motto drops ‘the American Way’ in favor of a phrase that ‘will better reflect global storylines.’

DC’s Jim Lee introduced an “evolved” motto for its most icon superhero during DC FanDome today.

The publisher and chief creative officer said Superman would now be fighting for “truth, justice and a better tomorrow,” a tweak to the “truth, justice and the American way” big blue has been fighting for for, well, ages.

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DC + Milestone announce ‘Blood Syndicate,’ Black History Month anthology

During DC FanDome, Reggie Hudlin and Denys Cowan shared several updates on upcoming projects.

During DC FanDome today, Milestone Media’s Denys Cowan and Reggie Hudlin gave several updates on projects coming from the publisher.

Fans who have been waiting for the return of Blood Syndicate will be happy to know that Milestone is planning not only additional seasons of the revived Icon and Rocket, Static and Hardware, but they plan to add Blood Syndicate to the mix in 2022. The creative team for Blood Syndicate was not announced.

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DC FanDome begins today at 10 a.m. Pacific

The event will stream live on DcFanDome.com and other WB social channels.

DC FanDome, the streaming event featuring all things DC superheroes that debuted in 2020, returns today with more teasers, previews, celebrities and more. You can watch it starting at 10 a.m. Pacific.

Last year’s event was very successful for Warner Bros., as they rolled out DC movie trailers, tidbits on TV shows and games, and some comics news. It came at just the right time, as the COVID pandemic continued to keep people from attending events and conventions.

While last year’s event occurred across two different days, this year’s event is slimmed down in comparison, with a single day of content — but it should still have plenty to offer. DC has trickled out a few announcements leading up to the event, and I’m sure you can expect to here more about the next Batman/Fortnite crossover, the Milestone Initiative and maybe something called Aquamen. Plus, the Rock!

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DC FanDome returns Oct. 16

The event will once again showcase DC’s comics, movies, TV series and more.

As announced back in May, DC FanDome will return on Oct. 16 with another day filled with movie trailers, TV previews, video game reveals, comic panels and more

Last year’s event was spread across two days, but this year so far DC has only announced content for Oct. 16. Last year’s event was also a lot of fun, bringing announcements and teasers about the Milestone relaunch, The Next Batman, the Rorschach series and more. This year’s agenda looks to be equally as packed.

On the comics side, DC will spotlight their plans for Wonder Woman, specifically the upcoming titles Wonder Woman Historia, Nubia and the Amazons and Wonderful Women of the World. They also will share more details on the Batman/Fortnite comic crossover sequel, and talk about the upcoming Batman: Fear State, Black Manta, the Milestone Universe and more.

Take a look below for the full line-up of what’s announced; no doubt there will be some surprises and breaking news as well:

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Comics Lowdown | Zunar is in trouble again

Plus: A new graphic novel looks at Japanese Americans who resisted internment.

Zunar’s cartoon critiquing the minster of the state of Kedah, who canceled the festival of Thaipusam. The cleaver says “No Thaipusam” and the caption on the right reads “Kedah’s inhabitants lived in peace until he came.”

The Malaysian political cartoonist Zunar is in trouble with the law again. Police in the state of Kedah have summoned him to appear before them on May 7 (the original date, given in the linked article, was May 2 but it was rescheduled) for violating the country’s sedition law, a much-criticized relic of its colonial past, with a cartoon criticizing the Kedah state minister’s decision to cancel the traditional Tamil Hindu festival of Thaipusam.

Zunar got into lots of trouble during the tenure of Prime Minister Najib Razak, whom he mocked endlessly for his corruption; Razak was not amused and his government repeatedly raided Zunar’s studio, confiscated his books, banned him from traveling, and brought charges against him that could have led to lengthy prison sentences. The pressure eased once Najib was voted out.

Ironically, Zunar’s latest skirmish coincides with World Press Freedom Day, which was Monday; several national and international groups have criticized the Malaysian government for its repressive stance.

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DC FanDome: Reaction + news round-up

Although there weren’t any big comics announcements during the second day of DC FanDome, the company did reveal a few small tidbits.

This weekend DC presented the second round of their DC FanDome event, which featured pre-recorded virtual panels on their comics, movies, TV shows, video games and much more.

Although some viewers complained of technical issues when everything went online on Saturday morning, the event this time was much smoother and easier to absorb than the first day of the event, which took place back in August. For that one, everything was streamed on a continuous loop, which made it difficult to figure out when certain panels were going live — and if you didn’t have eight hours to dedicate to watching it, you were going to miss something.

This time around everything was posted on-demand style, so you could easily pick and choose what you wanted to see. If you just wanted to see the comics panels, you could pull those up and watch them without having to sit through a panel on the Flash TV show, for instance. Across five different channels, they had a LOT of content, and like before, it was only up for 24 hours. Which is a bummer — if you missed it, it’s gone, which doesn’t make a lot of sense. They could easily put at least some of it up on their YouTube channel.

If you did miss FanDome, here’s a round-up of some of the comic news that came out of the event.

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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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DC reveals some of their Milestone plans at FanDome

New comics featuring Static, Icon, Rocket and more return next year.

During today’s FanDome event, DC’s “surprise” comics panel focused on Milestone Media, as Denys Cowan, Reggie Hudlin, Phil LaMarr, Jim Lee and moderator Marc Bernardin discussed the imprint’s past and future.

At the panel, they confirmed:

  • A new Static Shock original graphic novel by Hudlin and artist Kyle Baker.
  • A new Static Digital First series by an unnamed creative team.
  • New Icon and Rocket by Hudlin and Cowan.
  • The re-release of classic Milestone comics on comiXology and other digital platforms, starting in September.
  • On day two of FanDome, coming up in September, they will release Milestone Returns #0, a 17-page sampler, that you can read for 24 hours online. Written by Hudlin with Greg Pak and cover by Denys Cowan and Chris Sotomayor, the sampler will introduce and re-introduce fans to Milestone characters such as Static Shock, Icon, Rocket, Duo and others. The sampler features art by Cowan, Jim Lee, Ryan Benjamin, Khoi Pham, Scott Hanna, Bill Sienkiewicz, Don Ho, Alex Sinclair and Deron Bennett.
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DC announces new Batman miniseries by Ridley + Derington

New series kicks off in January.

At the big DC FanDome online event today, DC officially announced a new Batman miniseries by 12 Years a Slave screenwriter John Ridley and Doom Patrol artist Nick Derington. The four-issue miniseries will debut in January 2021.

According to the panel, the series will feature a version of the Caped Crusader different from what many fans know.

“I think it’s a pretty safe bet that if I’m writing Batman, it’s probably a little better than a 47% chance he’s going to be a person of color,” Ridley said during the Legacy of the Bat panel.

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DC splits ‘FanDome’ event in two

Much of the planned content has moved to Sept. 12.

DC’s upcoming FanDome virtual event will now take place over two separate days, the publisher announced.

The bigger panels for upcoming movies and other properties, which are billed as “Hall of Heroes” panels, will take place this Saturday as planned. They will encompass eight hours of content and include the Wonder Woman 1984 movie panel, the Jim Lee portfolio review and the video game announcement that Montreal Games has planned, among others. Each panel will be replayed three times during the 24-hour period.

All of the other content, which will be “100 hours of on-demand content,” will now take place Sept. 12.

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