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Hello! Welcome to the second Wednesday Waffle of the new era! A couple of quick apologies - first, sorry that there was no "What's on the Rack?" last week. The delivery being as late as it was caused all kinds of problems and we just didn't get chance. Expect this week's "What's on the Rack?" later today. (If you're reading this on Wednesday 22nd July...)
Don't forget we're open this afternoon between 4pm and 6pm - and again on Saturday between 1pm and 5.30pm. We are also continuing our free delivery service in Harrogate and Knaresborough.
And now - the news!
USAGI YOJIMBO ANIMATED SERIES IN THE WORKS
If you've paid attention to "What's on the Rack?" in recent years you'll already know what fans of Usagi Yojimbo we are. Stan Sakai's epic anthropomorphic saga of the Ronin Miamoto Usagi's travels through Shogun era Japan.
Many people are put off by the art - all the characters are humanised animals - and assume that it's a comic "for kids" (as though that would be a bad thing) but in fact Usagi is an immensely sophisticated book - deeply rooted in Sakai's obvious interest in, and knowledge of, Japanese culture.
If you're unfamiliar with the comic, it's worth checking out.
THAT WHOLE DYNAMITE/COMICSGATE THING
Dynamite has been a bold publisher for some time.
When Vertigo bailed on the original series of The Boys because it was concerned that the content might be too offensive, Dynamite stepped in. And although it's most successful titles have featured characters traditionally thought of as "cheesecake" - women of unlikely proportion wearing not very much, such as Vampirella and Red Sonja, they've done it in intelligent ways not just avoided the kind of casual sexism that has been associated with that style of comics in the past, but actually attracted a strong female readership.
I've often held them up as an example of how such things should be done.
Which makes the current situation so disappointing.
After Dynamite tweeted support for projects and creators associated with the infamous Comicsgate movement, which is widely regarded in the comics community as a hate group, and which has been involved in the targeted harassment of many creators it's adherents brand as "too woke", a slew of creators have moved to sever all ties with the company.
Gail Simone, whose writing on Red Sonja was one of the foundations upon which the early success of Dynamite was based, artist Christian Ward, writer Mark Russell, and many more have walked away and made it clear that they will not return unless there are some major changes.
Dynamite seem to have mis-understood the severity and nature of the problem, issuing a tweet stating that they hadn't appreciated that the variant cover announcement that triggered the exodus would be "so polarising" and that they'd decided against publishing it.
Some of the talent involved in the walk out responded that the cover was not the issue, it was Dynamite's apparent support for Comicsgate they were objecting to, and that they would not associate themselves or their work with companies who associated with hate groups. It seems that the Dynamite management's failure to comprehend why their creators would object to such association so strongly is a large part of the problem.
In the meantime there is a lot of quality content from other publishers.
Read more at Screen rant HERE.
X-STATIX SPIN-OFF STILL COMING
It was always a "Marmite" book, but Peter Milligan and Mike Allred's run on X-Force, which very quickly became X-Statix has long been our favourite of all the X books.
It disappeared from the rack many years ago, but returned with a one-shot last year and promised that a spin-off series X-Cellent was on the way. Then, tumbleweed.
But now, in response to a question online, writer Peter Milligan confirmed that the project is still very much still happening.
More at CBR HERE.
KEANU REEVES TO WRITE COMICS!
Whoah! Nerdist reports that Keanu Reeves is to write a hyper violent action comic called BRZRKR (which we're guessing they're pronouncing "berserker") for BOOM! Studios.
We pronounce this to be "Most Excellent!"
More HERE.
MARK HAMILL AND A WEALTH OF OTHER GREAT TALENT TO VOICE INVINCIBLE ANIMATED SERIES
When people think about writer, producer and all-round good egg Robert Kirkman they tend to think of The Walking Dead. Which is fair enough - that's the book that made Kirkman's name in the wider community.
But the long running zombie strip is far from the only thing he's done, and it's a crying shame that his innovative Superhero epic Invincible isn't better known.
Well, now it's getting an animated series, featuring some mega voice talent. Although he's obviously best known as Luke Skywalker, Mark Hamill has been the definitive voice of The Joker since the early nineties, and his attachment to this project bodes very well. The rest of the cast is pretty cool too, including as it does Star Trek's Zachary Quinto, Sandra Oh from Killing Eve and Brooklyn Nine Nine and The Good Place's Jason Mantzoukas.
No release date yet, but the first eight episode run should be available on a streaming service near you before the end of this year. We'll keep you posted.
That's it for this week. Don't forget we're open this afternoon and Saturday Afternoon under the stairs at the Everyman Harrogate. See you there, or see you back here next week!