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.
§ Via Crunchyroll, Silent Hill f is getting a manga adaptation, courtesy of the horror game’s original writer, Ryukishi07, and artist Ame Gokin. It will be serialized on Kadokawa Shoten’s Young Ace UP platform at a some point in the near future. Released last year, Silent Hill f followed a Japanese schoolgirl in the 1960s, who struggles to survive after the series’ signature mist descends on her rural town, and unleashes all manner of grotesque monsters. The manga version will feature a new ending, adding to the five that can already be unlocked in the game.
§ Dark Horse will release The Complete Assassin’s Apprentice, a 432-page paperback edition of all three series based on Robin Hobb‘s fantasy novel, on October 27. The comics, by Hobb, Jody Houser, Ryan Kelly, Jordie Bellaire, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, ran from 2022 to 2025, and retold the story of a prince’s illegitimate son, who is secretly mentored by the Royal Assassin. The original book itself was the first in 1995-97’s Farseer trilogy, and the start of Hobb’s wider Elderlings universe.
§ Publishers Weekly reports Tokyopop is launching an educational imprint, named TokyoPop Learning, in collaboration with Japanese educational company Gakken. It will include learning materials for readers aged 10 and up. You can check out the titles, which have kicked off with the Manga Quest line of science, history, and maths books, currently on offer at the official page.
§ Netflix announced City Hunter 2 will be released in 2027. The first movie, released on the streamer in 2024, marked the first live-action Japanese film version of Tsukasa Hojo‘s ’80s manga, and told the story of how detective Ryo Saeba met his partner Kaori Makimura. Ryohei Suzuki and Misato Morita will reprise the lead roles, alongside Fumino Kimura as Saeko Nogami, while Keiichiro Shiraki will take over as director from Yûichi Satô. It will mark the first sequel to any Japanese Netflix film.
§ In other Netflix news, the streamer dropped a second trailer for Stranger Things: Tales From ’85, the animated series set between seasons two and three, releasing Thursday, April 23.
More of the voice cast were also revealed, namely Janeane Garofalo as Anna Baxter, a biology teacher and mother of new girl Nikki; Lou Diamond Phillips as Food Mart clerk Daniel Fischer; Robert Englund (who played Victor Creel on the main show) as Cosmo; Alysia Reiner as Karen Wheeler; Alessandra Antonelli as Nancy Wheeler; Valeria Rodriguez as Rosario; and Jack Griffo as Jeff.
§ Variety shares School Spirits will return for a fourth season. The third season of the supernatural Paramount+ series, starring Peyton Roi List, concluded on March 4. The show, based on an unreleased graphic novel by series creators Nate & Megan Trinrud (as well as artist Maria Nguyen), originally followed the ghost of a girl investigating her own demise, and escalated from there.
§ Via The Hollywood Reporter, Disney+ revealed its upcoming slate of German original series. They include City of Blood, a vampire series based on Reinhard Kleist and Tobias O. Meißner’s graphic novels Berlinoir. The books, published by Edition 52 from 2003 to 2008, take place in a version of Berlin ruled by vampires, and follows the human uprising against them. The show will premiere on September 16, and its cast includes Lea Drinda (We Children from Bahnhof Zoo), Lars Eidinger (Man of Tomorrow‘s Brainiac), and Jördis Triebel (Dark).
§ Finally, Beckett will close down its comic book grading company CBCS, effective immediately on April 17. They explain they wanted to focus on their core “trading card and autograph authentication services,” but that “all existing orders, and any submissions received by that date, will continue through the grading process as normal.” Additionally, “the CBCS Population Report will remain available, allowing collectors to continue researching graded comic data and census information. Previously graded CBCS comics will remain fully documented within the database.” CBCS was founded in 2014.
