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.
Marvel Zombies: Red Band #1 cover by Greg Land§ Marvel Zombies is returning in Marvel Zombies: Red Band, a five-issue series written by Ethan S. Parker and Griffin Sheridan (Kill Your Darlings), with art by Jan Bazaldua. Debuting September 17, the mature series will reimagine the Marvel Universe’s history from almost the beginning, with the Fantastic Four returning from their fateful voyage as zombies instead of superheroes. It will mark Parker and Sheridan’s second Marvel comic, after next week’s Bring on the Bad Guys: Green Goblin, and arrive ahead of Disney+’s Marvel Zombies cartoon, premiering October 3; it’ll also coincide with the 20th anniversary of the Marvel Zombieverse’s introduction, in 2005’s Ultimate Fantastic Four #21.
§ In much more kid-friendly Marvel news, preschool series Iron Man and his Awesome Friends will premiere on Disney Jr. on Monday, August 11, and be released on Disney+ the following day. The show will be preceded by Meet Iron Man and his Awesome Friends, a 10-part series of shorts releasing on Disney Jr. and YouTube on Monday, July 14, and on Disney+ the next day. Iron Man, starring child actors as Tony Stark, Riri Williams/Ironheart, and Amadeus Cho/Iron Hulk, will also feature a “Totally Awesome” theme song by blink-182 bassist Mark Hoppus, out now on all music platforms.
§ BOOM! Studios will release The Expanse: A Little Death, a series from creator James S.A. Corey, writer Andy Diggle, actor/co-writer Wes Chatham (who plays Amos Burton on the show), and artist Francesco Pisa (The Expanse: Dragon Tooth). Starting September 3, Little Death picks up after Dragon Tooth and the show itself, and sees the Rocinante crew get plunged into a conspiracy when an old friend of Amos Burton reconnects with him. The book, which was originally crowdfunded on Kickstarter, marks Chatham’s first comics credit, and his second one as a writer, after the online series of shorts The Expanse: One Ship.
§ 20 years after his appearance on the big screen in Revenge of the Sith, General Grievous will star in Star Wars: Hyperspace Stories — Grievous, a new graphic novel in Dark Horse’s all-ages line, by writer Michael Moreci and artist Caio Filipe. Releasing January 14, 2026, the book will follow Grievous on a mission to prove himself to Count Dooku on the jungle world of Katou. It will become the second Hyperspace Stories OGN to be released, following this year’s Qui-Gon (by George Mann and Andrea Mutti), with other books in the works starring characters like Obi-Wan Kenobi still unscheduled at the time of writing.
§ Bandai Namco announced puzzle-platform horror game Little Nightmares III will be released on all platforms on October 10, and that Titan’s comic Little Nightmares: Descent to Nowhere will also begin that month. The four-issue series, which was announced last year, was written by Lonnie Nadler with art by Dennis Menheere (Beyond Real), and features parallel stories, respectively following a detective investigating missing children’s cases, and a pair of kids trying to escape a dungeon. It marks Nadler’s second foray into Little Nightmares, following 2023’s audio drama The Sounds of Nightmares.
§ The U.S. Postal Service unveiled new stamps, designed by Chris Ware and Antonio Alcalá, to celebrate the 250th anniversary of its founding. Ware’s artwork, titled 250 Years of Delivering, is “a meticulously illustrated pane of 20 interconnected stamps that offers a bird’s-eye view of a bustling town,” following a postwoman’s daily journey across the four seasons. You can order the stamps, which will be available on July 23, at the link here.
250 Years of Delivering, by Chris Ware§ Via Variety, Netflix has renewed BET, the live-action, English-language series based on Homura Kawamoto and Tōru Naomura‘s gambling manga Kakegurui, for a second season. The show, created by Simon Barry (Warrior Nun), and starring Miku Martineau, premiered on May 15 to mixed reviews, but managed to spend three weeks in the streamer’s global Top 10 for English-language shows. Barry said in a statement he was happy for the fans who would be getting another season, and for the cast and crew who’ll get to continue working on it.
§ Deadline reports Steven Caple Jr. (Creed II, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts) will direct a film version of Donny Cates and Daniel Warren Johnson‘s Ghost Fleet for Paramount. The comic, published by Dark Horse in 2015, follows an elite group of truckers who deal in transporting occult cargo. The movie, which is being scripted by Blue Beetle‘s Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, is being set under a new first-look deal for Caple at Paramount, and his new production company, Grey Skies. It was not said if Cates or Johnson will be credited as executive producers.
§ Speaking of Transformers, Puck News reports Michael Bay is plotting to direct another film in the series, with Jordan VanDina (Animaniacs) attached to write. It’s purportedly only one of five “or so” Transformers projects in development at Paramount, including the G.I. Joe crossover teased in Rise of the Beasts, and a live-action film from Transformers One director Josh Cooley, but the studio is said to be high on the idea, believing Bay’s return will bring back audiences who ignored the films he didn’t direct (even though his increasingly poorly-received quintet likely contributed to them becoming burned out on the franchise.)
§ Finally, in health news, Curse Words artist Ryan Browne shared in an interview with SKTCHD that he suffered a stroke earlier this year, which is why the next issue of his latest series, The Lucky Devils #4, was delayed until August 6. (The third issue, which was completed after Browne’s stroke, was released on April 2.) Meanwhile, alternative cartoonist Ron Regé Jr. has launched a GoFundMe to cover the cost of a severe leg injury, which at the time of writing, has raised $9,072 of a $15,000 target. The Beat wishes Browne and Regé all the best.
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