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.
§ GKIDS released a new trailer for Look Back, Hirokazu Kore-eda‘s live-action film version of the manga by Tatsuki Fujimoto, confirming the film will be released in select theaters on December 30, and then in theaters nationwide on January 15. The poignant drama, which was previously adapted into an anime in 2024, follows the lifelong friendship between two women who bonded as girls over their love of creating comics.
§ Oni Press unveiled Tortured Hearts 2, a second installment of the now annual EC Comics Valentine’s Day specials. The 56-page book will feature stories by Michael W. Conrad, Melissa Flores, Sarah Gailey, Malachi Ward, Ryan Kelly, Sami Kivelä, Jenna Cha, and more, as well as covers by Dustin Weaver, Reiko Murakami, Shawn McManus, and Patricia Martín. It will be released on January 27.
§ Image announced Gehenna: Lust for Conquest, a new, four-issue installment of the series by writers Patrick Kindlon & Marco Ferrari, and artist Maurizio Rosenzweig. The book, debuting January 20, sees Gehenna head to Los Angeles to end the contract on her life. Kindlon worked with Rosenzweig on the first Gehenna series, Naked Aggression, which was originally serialized in Image! in 2022, while he and Ferrari co-wrote this year’s one-shot Gehenna in Tokyo, and the previous titles Antioch and Frontiersman.
§ Via ICv2, IDW Publishing revealed the trade paperback of Hello Kitty and Friends: Hello World! will receive a mystery box release, featuring a unique cover, trading cards, keychain figurine, and sticker sheet. It marks IDW’s first blind box release. Both the regular edition and box release will arrive on June 16, 2027, and retail respectively for $9.99, and $29.99. Issue #3 (of 4) of the series, by Mariko Tamaki and Cody Lemieux, will hit comic book stores beforehand on October 28.
§ Deadline reports Marvel’s Zodiac will be written by Amit Cohen and Ron Leshem. The Disney+ series, which was announced at New York Comic Con, will follow a pair of spies pursuing targets with special abilities, and be released in 2028. Cohen and Leshem are Israeli TV veterans, whose credits include creating the original Euphoria, and the Hulu series No Man’s Land. And before you ask: Leshem has written about being from a left-wing kibbutz that was devastated on October 7, 2023, and how “we should call for Palestinian independence, but not under Hamas or Jihad in any way.”
§ Penguin Random House will release a new memoir from former Disney CEO Bob Iger, titled One Last Time, on March 2, 2027. A follow-up to his first memoir, The Ride of a Lifetime, the book will cover Iger’s second time as CEO of the Mouse from 2022 to 2026, including his proxy battles with Ike Perlmutter, his account of the 2023 Hollywood strikes, and last year’s suspension of Jimmy Kimmel. An audio version read by Iger will also be released. In the meantime, interim CEO Bob Chapek‘s memoir Behind the Castle Walls is available now.
§ Finally, actor Tom Skerritt died of natural causes on Wednesday, October 21. He was 93 years old. Skerritt is perhaps best-known to The Beat‘s readers for playing Captain Dallas in Alien (1979), but his work also included the original MAS*H movie, The Dead Zone, Top Gun, Steel Magnolias, Contact, Smoke Signals, Whiteout, Ted, Picket Fences, Cheers, and Brothers & Sisters. He is survived by his third wife Julie Tokashiki, whom he married in 1998, and three sons and a daughter from his previous marriages.
