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.
§ Ziggurat Interactive and Roditeli Productions announced a Kickstarter for a new BloodRayne comics series, to mark the 25th anniversary of the video game franchise. Written by Kevin Roditeli with art by BRÄO (The Crow), the comic will follow the half-vampire heroine Rayne after the events of 2004’s BloodRayne 2. The book will also feature additional stories by writer Felipe Cagno (The Few and Cursed), Andy Lanning (who contributed to the original franchise), and Ant Williams. The first BloodRayne game was released in 2002, and the Kickstarter will launch in early 2027.
§ Speaking of vampires, Image announced a revival of Impaler, by writer William Harms, artist Christian DiBari, and colorist Lee Loughridge. The six-issue series, starting February 3, follows a group of survivors in a world overrun by vampires, whose “only hope for survival rests in the resurrection of Vlad the Impaler. But is he their savior, or their destroyer?” The original Impaler comic, by Harms and Nick Postic, debuted at Image in 2006, and received a follow-up (with Matt Timson) in 2008, as well as a free, digital-only Epilogue (with Edward Pun) in 2015.
Image also unveiled Electric Smoke, a sci-fi murder mystery by Mugshots creators Jordan Thomas and Chris Matthews. Set in 1930s New York, the book follows a detective investigating the death of an Austrian robotics expert, as tensions across the city begin to grow with the Nazi German American Bund. It’s “a world of trouble full of Nazis, shady US military types, dangerous dames and revelations that could rock the wider world.” Issue #1 (of 4) will be released on February 10.
§ Via Variety, Paramount has set Danny McBride‘s G.I. Joe movie for a release on October 20, 2028. The reboot will star Bradley Cooper as Duke, and take a grounded and suspenseful approach to the team, with a premise involving the infiltration of the secretly Cobra-controlled town of Springfield. In the meantime, Paramount will release the similarly militaristic Call of Duty movie, directed by Peter Berg from a script by Taylor Sheridan, on June 30, 2028.
§ Variety also shares Ben Leonberg (Good Boy) will direct a film version of Look Out, the illustrated novella published by AWA Studios in association with Vertigo Entertainment last year. The book, written by Dan Baillie with art by Tim Bradstreet, follows a newly recruited fire lookout at a remote outpost, “where he discovers a paper inscribed with a strange set of rules that promise to keep him safe during his watch.” AWA and Vertigo will produce the film, and Leonberg will reunite with Good Boy co-writer Alex Cannon on the film’s script.
§ Deadline reports horror manga Noah of the Blood Sea will receive an American film adaptation, produced by Michael Zelman (The Devil’s Hand) and Hamid Mokhneche. No writer or director is attached, but it is planned to go into production in 2027. The five-volume comic, created by Yu Satomi in 2018, revolves around a luxury cruise ship, whose passengers begin disappearing. The book hasn’t been localized yet, although Deadline says an English release is planned.
§ Finally, Netflix revealed Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventure, the first live-action spin-off for the hit series, coming sometime in 2028. Kate Trefry, who wrote several episodes of the show and the play Stranger Things: The First Shadow, will serve as showrunner on the prequel, which will take place in Nevada in 1955 (presumably revealing the origin of the rock Henry Creel came into contact with as a child). Joe Wright (Hanna) will direct the first three episodes, and the Duffer brothers will continue to executive produce. The graphic novelization of The First Shadow will drop in the meantime on January 19.
