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 Animation Magazine, a film version of Kid Koala‘s 2011 graphic novel Space Cadet will be released in select theaters on November 13. Directed by Koala himself, the dialogue-free movie, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2025, tells the story of the astronaut Celeste, and the Robot who raised her, as he becomes an empty nester while she embarks on her first mission. It features music by Koala, Karen O, Emilìana Torrini, and many more.
§ Dark Horse will release Joe Bob Fights for the Drive-In, a hardcover artbook collecting various columns and reviews by film critic Joe Bob Briggs. Due out July 20, 2027, the oversized book features new illustrations by Mike Norton, cover art by Eric Powell, and an introduction by singer/actor Wayne Newton. Dark Horse previously reprinted Briggs’s Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In, which this book will include material from. It will retail at 240 pages for $54.99.
§ 2000 AD announced it will celebrate its 50th anniversary with a two-day event at Protein Studios in Shoreditch, London, on the weekend of March 6-7. Full details and guests will be announced later, but it will include “original programming, world exclusive merchandise, and one-of-a-kind spectacles befitting the legacy of the finest comic book export the UK has ever produced.” Tickets for subscribers are available now, with passes going on general sale on Thursday, November 5. 2000 AD, published by Rebellion, launched on February 26, 1977.
§ Via AIPT, Curt Pires revealed Creature Corps, his upcoming series with Jok, will feature back-ups expanding on its world, by creators like Timmy Heague, Fred Kennedy, and Franklin Jonas. Pires has worked with Heague and Jonas before on books like Lost Fantasy and Fireborn. Issue #1 of the series, which can be described as a darker take on the concept of Pokémon, Digimon etc., will be released by Image on December 2, and retail at 60 pages for $4.99.
§ Complex shares Sanford Greene has teamed up with the estate of MF Doom to mark the sixth anniversary of the rapper’s passing, with posters, trading cards, skateboard decks, and apparel designed by the artist. The collection, appropriately titled Doomsday 2026, is available now from GasDrawls.com and Collectionzz.com. Doom (real name Dumile Daniel Thompson), who took his stage name from the Marvel villain, died of an adverse reaction to blood pressure medication on October 31, 2020, aged just 49.
§ BBC News reports the personal archive of The Snowman author Raymond Briggs has been entrusted to the historical resource center known as The Keep in Brighton, Sussex. The collection contains sketchbooks, notebooks, photographs, diaries, newspaper clippings, and letters to and from the children’s cartoonist, who lived in East Sussex, and died in 2022, aged 88. You can learn more about the archive on the Keep’s official website.
§ Finally, artist Al Davison (The Dreaming, Doctor Who) is crowdfunding for an electric attachment for his wheelchair, to help him travel more independently. Davison, who has spinal bifida and chronic fatigue syndrome, developed long COVID-19, and is now unable to leave his home without the aid of his wife or a support worker as a result. At the time of writing, he has raised £4,325 of his £5000 goal.
