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.
§ Image revealed James Tynion IV and Martin Simmonds‘s conspiracy thriller The Department of Truth will receive an issue #0 to mark its fifth anniversary on September 10. The comic will feature the first in a three-part back-up story by Scott Snyder and Joshua Hixson, revealing what “really happened” to none other than Elvis Presley. For what it’s worth, Snyder describes himself as a “avid and non-ironic fan of Elvis,” and has joked about conspiracy theories regarding the King still being alive: should be fun!
Speaking of Tynion, Image revealed Everything Dead & Dying, a poignant, five-part zombie western by Tate Brombal and Jacob Phillips, published in collaboration with Tynion’s imprint Tiny Onion. The book follows a farmer, who manages to maintain some semblance of normality after the apocalypse, choosing to live with his infected husband and daughter (and other undead) instead of killing them — a status quo he’ll do anything to preserve. It marks Brombal’s first Image comic, and will begin on September 3.
Furthermore, Image announced Artificial, a four-part, erotic sci-fi thriller by Maria Llovet, billed as Fatal Attraction meets The Terminator, starting September 3; Closer, a one-shot collecting Kieron Gillen and Steve Lieber‘s cosmic horror story from the Image! anthology, due out the same day; and Viking Moon, a five-part horror series by Joe Pruett and Marcelo Frusin pitting Vikings against werewolves in Newfoundland, beginning September 17. For more of Image’s September releases, click here.
§ Dark Horse will publish Avatar: The Gap Year — Tipping Point, a six-issue series by writer Ethan Sacks and artist Salvatore Porcaro, exploring the period during the one-year time jump at the start of the second film, The Way of Water, when the RDA returned to wage war on Pandora. Issue #1 will be released on October 22, two months before the third movie, Avatar: Fire and Ash, hits theaters. It marks the first American credit for Porcaro, whose work includes Sergio Bonelli’s Dragonero, and the second occasion this time jump has been explored, after the graphic novel trilogy Avatar: The High Ground (which is getting an omnibus release on September 30.)
Dark Horse also revealed The Guy in the Chair, a romantic spy thriller by actors-turned-writers Hannah Rose May (Rogues’ Gallery, The Exorcism at 1600 Penn) & Utkarsh Ambudkar (Ghosts), and artist Guillermo Sanna (X-Men Unlimited). The book follows a tactical analyst at a private military company, who goes on the run when the field agent he supports (and has feelings for) is betrayed by their employer. Issue #1 (of 4) goes on sale October 8. It will mark Ambudkar’s second comics credit, following 2023’s Marvel’s Voices: Avengers.
§ Via AIPT, Vault announced Athanasia, a superhero-themed horror OGN by Daniel Kraus (The Shape of Water, The Autumnal) and Dani (Arkham City, The Invisible Man). Due out this October, the book follows a young woman struggling with alcoholism, who lands a job as a groundskeeper at a superhero cemetery. But when she discovers a substance that grants superpowers in the interred bodies, “her battle with addiction is reignited in horrifying new ways.” You can check out an unlettered preview on Vault’s official blog.
§ AMC dropped a teaser for The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season three, revealing it will premiere on Sunday, September 7, at 9 pm ET/PT. The new season will see Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Carol (Melissa McBride) relocate from post-apocalyptic France to Spain.
§ TVLine reports Marvel Studios has no plans to continue its behind-the-scenes documentary series Assembled. The Disney+ series, which began with “The Making of WandaVision” in 2021, had chronicled the creation of every Multiverse Saga film and show (except Werewolf by Night and the Guardians Holiday Special), as well as X-Men ’97, until this year. Ironically, Marvel had uploaded some episodes on YouTube, like the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever special before the release of Ironheart, raising the question of what they’ll do in future when, for instance, characters from Thunderbolts* return in Avengers: Doomsday.
§ LEGO confirmed they will produce the first official set ever based on The Adventures of Tintin. The set, featuring the rocket from the 1953 and 1954 volumes Destination Moon and Explorers on the Moon, was designed by Alexis Dos Santos, and reached the required threshold of 10,000 supporters on the LEGO Ideas website to be considered by the company last year. (LEGO presumably had to get the approval of the Hergé Foundation, run by the Tintin creator’s estate, first.) For more, including the first official Godzilla set, head to the link.
§ Finally, actor Jack Betts died on Thursday, June 19, aged 96. A prolific actor whose roles ranged from spaghetti westerns to soap operas and sitcoms, Betts will be best known to The Beat readers for playing Norman Osborn’s boardroom nemesis (and subsequent victim) Henry Balkan in 2002’s Spider-Man, and Boris Karloff in 1998’s Gods and Monsters, as well as Councilor Brody in Power Rangers Lost Galaxy, and his cameos in Batman Forever and Batman & Robin; he also played the golfer in Joel Schumacher‘s Falling Down, and the judge in Office Space. He is survived by his nephew, two nieces, and his sister Joan, who’ll turn 100 in November.
