Gail Simone’s new Uncanny X-Men title will release 18 issues in the first year. An Ed Piskor exhibit has been postponed after accusations of misconduct and grooming. Jim Lee promises to draw one last Batman story. All on Comic Book Club News for April 1, 2024.
SUBSCRIBE ON RSS, APPLE, ANDROID, SPOTIFY, OR THE APP OF YOUR CHOICE. FOLLOW US ON TWITTER, INSTAGRAM, TIKTOK, AND FACEBOOK. SUPPORT OUR SHOWS ON PATREON.
Powered by RedCircle
Episode Transcript:
Gail Simone’s X-Men releasing 18 issues.
Ed Piskor exhibit postponed.
Jim Lee to draw one last Batman story.
This is Comic Book Club News for April 1, 2024.
Gail Simone’s Uncanny X-Men Title Releasing 18 Issues:
Today is April Fools’ Day. Or is it? No, it is. And in honor of this special, terrible day, we’ve got two true stories for you, and one is a lie. See if you can guess which is which!
Let’s kick it off with some news reported by Popverse directly from Gail Simone’s spotlight panel at Wondercon 2024. According to Simone, her new Uncanny X-Men title will release 18 issues in its first year. This means you’ll get a new issue of Uncanny every two to three weeks.
While we don’t know if artist David Marquez will be drawing all those issues, or if fellow launch titles X-Men and Exceptional X-Men will be running on the same schedule, Simone did drop some more details about her book. Specifically, she noted that the book will be a Southern Gothic tale set in Louisiana, set in a house obtained by Gambit for the team. They’ll be introducing four, new young mutants in the title, who have powers based on “hidden disabilities” versus things like “popping claws.” And all the X-Men books will have their own continuity — you don’t need to read one to enjoy the other.
Oh, and Simone joked that she picked the “most kissable ones” for her X-Men team. Yeah, Gail. “Joked.”
Ed Piskor Exhibit Postponed After Allegations Of Grooming:
An upcoming exhibit of cartoonist Ed Piskor’s art has been postponed indefinitely after allegations of misconduct and grooming came to light, as previously reported here on the podcast.
As reported on March 25 by the Pittsburgh City Paper, the planned exhibition was scuttled after a social media user posted years of sexually tinged messages that were sent to her by Piskor from age 17 on. Others have posted similar accounts of behavior from Piskor, leading to the Hip Hop Family Tree and X-Men: Grand Design creator deleting his social media accounts, and briefly taking his YouTube channel offline.
A spokesperson for the Trust told Pittsburgh City Paper by email: “The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust learned yesterday of allegations of misconduct made by an individual against artist Ed Piskor, whose work was scheduled to be on exhibition at 707 Penn Gallery starting April 6, 2024. The Trust takes the allegations very seriously and has decided to postpone the exhibition indefinitely.”
Local ABC affiliate WTAE also reported on the exhibition’s cancellation, adding a statement from Piskor’s defense attorney, Phil DiLucente. “The age of consent in Pennsylvania, notwithstanding corruption of a minor, is 16 years old. This is really one of those situations that in this cancel culture, what happens is you’re canceled before the insinuations are determined as fact or fiction.”
Respectfully: shut up, DiLucente. This is not the fault of cancel culture or whatever, it’s the fault of Piskor, and Piskor alone. It is misconduct, grooming, it is wrong, and it happens far too often in the comic book industry — and society at large. Piskor has clearly pulled this sort of thing with multiple women, and I would guess more women than have come out publicly.
All editorializing aside, as of this recording Piskor has yet to make a statement. SKTCHD reports that publisher Fantagraphics “has no future projects in the works with him,” but also notes they may just not be working on any projects with Piskor. More on this as it develops.
Jim Lee To Draw One Last Batman Story:
Jim Lee is promising he will draw one last Batman story. The news comes via French YouTuber Thomas Riviere, who asked Lee if he’ll come back to Batman during a signing in — get this — France.
Said Jim Lee, as reported by Bleeding Cool: “I can promise you one more story. I don’t know if it’ll be cool but you can determine that.”
The current Chief Creative Officer of DC, Lee has drawn Batman multiple times before in Batman: Hush, All-Star Batman & Robin: The Boy Wonder, and Batman: Europa, among others. As for what this upcoming Batman story could be — and whether it will be cool — that’s TBD.
For Comic Book Club News, I’m Alex Zalben. And none of these stories were fake! Got you! April Fools!
Got tips or stories you’d like us to cover? Email us at comicbookclublive@gmail.com.
For more comic book news, reviews, and interviews, check out comicbookclublive.com.
Listen early and ad-free on Patreon.com/comicbookclub.
