The Cleveland Arts Prize organization, which celebrates “creative promise and accomplishment in Northeast Ohio,” has named Harvey Pekar as a recipient of its Lifetime Achievement award.

Pekar, a Cleveland native, has been called the “Lenny Bruce of comix.” While he’s best known for American Splendor – the comic and the movie — he also was a music and book critic, contributing reviews to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Down Beat and Jazz.

The winners of the Arts Prize will be honored July 7 at a ceremony in Cleveland.

ChessBase.com showcases the Spider-Man chess set from SOTA Toys, which features Spider-Man and Green Goblin as the kings, Symbiote Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus as the queens, Punisher, Moon Knight, Scorpion and Sandman as knights, and so on. The price: $499.99! Hey, the pieces are pewter. And it’s a limited edition.

Tangonat also points out the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Library Playset, which is kind of neat — and only $51.

It seems like every actress in Hollywood has been rumored to be attached to the role of Wonder Woman … which is why we’re now importing Bollywood actresses to start rumors about.

Cinematical brings us the latest Wonder Woman casting rumor — Priyanka Chopra, co-star of the big hit Bollywood movie Krrish. Per the site:

Apparently, Miss Chopra is popularity incarnate in Bollywood right now, and Whedon thinks her charm might play just as well in the West. This does some pretty serious damage to browncoat hopefuls who have been pulling for Morena Baccarin, as Baccarin was leading the popular rumor races of late. Some thoughts suggest Baccarin’s newly accepted regular guest role on TV’s Stargate might have resulted in conflicting schedules, but I have trouble believing she’d opt for a few TV guest spots over a major motion picture. If she’s out, it’s most likely because the Powers That Be have rejected her for some reason. Or possibly even Joss himself …

In the comments section, a reader points out that the rumor comes from the Wonder Woman page on the Internet Movie Database, which he points out is “highly unreliable when it comes to casting for upcoming movies.” So take it for what it’s worth.

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This has probably been floating around for ages, but I’ve not seen it until today. So I’ll pretend you haven’t either: Thanks to the wonders of YouTube, we’re treated to this hilarious fan film that purports to be the “lost trailer” to Roger Corman’s infamous 1994 Fantastic Four movie.

Witness Galactus, devourer of worlds! See the shirtless Ben Grimm pilot the space shuttle! Watch as The Avengers battle Dr. Doom! Duck as Captain America throws his Frisbee shield!

Curiously, I think The Thing effects in this short look just as good as the ones in the 2005 film.

(Via Cinematical)

Each Wednesday, one of the Blog@Newsarama contributors discusses the things we love about comics in a feature we like to call, “I ♥ Comics”!

Whenever someone asks me what my first comic was, I have no idea, I’ve been reading them since I could remember. I know for sure it was the late seventies, I wasn’t even in school yet, and was partial to the female characters. Of course, I loved Wonder Woman, and I used to dress up like her, with my little Wonder Woman bathing suit, a home made tiara, and my little red booties. Then at some point, I started to get DCs Adventure Digest and the star spangled panties weren’t cool anymore. I wanted to wear all black! I wanted a black swimsuit, a black jacket, black buccaneer boots, and fishnet stockings. I don’t know why, but Alex Toth’s Black Canary absolutely captured me.

I wonder how many mothers hear those immortal words “mom, I want fishnet stockings.” Especially at a time when fishnets were associated to street walkers, not super-heroes. My mom would tell me those were adult clothes. Now, my mom is fairly cool, and reads comics herself, and has every issue of Mad Magazine to date so maybe that’s why it wasn’t a big deal to her that I was asking for such things. I have no idea if she thought I was serious or not, or if she would have let me, but it didn’t matter. Good luck being a child under five years old wanting black clothes. The availability of an item like that was next to none. The closest I could find to black in my size was brown or navy blue corduroy pants.

I believe it was in Blue Ribbon Digest that I discovered another fishnet clad heroine. Top hat, tails, fishnets! Oh my gosh, she was soooo cool! I told my mom I wanted to wear that to an upcoming wedding. I ended up settling with a mesh hat, a Barbie pink dress, and white panty hose with a frilly lacy bum. Okay, so it wasn’t quite the same…

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Tom Spurgeon points out a worrying trend in mainstream media comics reporting:

Is it just me, or is this the summer of comics stories with semi-creepy slightly homophobic subtexts? Maybe I’m wrong, but it seems to me that the stories about DC’s new Batwoman, the thrust of the movie Superman’s story and the character’s ongoing appeal, the controversy over sexualized kid-lit characters in Lost Girls and questions about the shelving of certain kinds of manga all have kind of unspoken, little-articulated darker sides, including but not limited to accusations of ruining “pure” creations for the sake of some abstract idea of political correctness, the notion that gay creators are out of control and unable to make art from a hetero point of view, the noxious and false notion that pedophilia is a mostly gay phenomenon, and that objections to depictions of sexuality are more justified if the sexuality in question is same-sex… I could just be paranoid, I don’t know, or I could be picking up on the inarticulate way all of us, including me, tend to talk about such material. It just seems to me that there’s a lot of agenda-making and masked dialogue going on here, and maybe it’s just more apparent in comics because the conservative nature usually on display in the funnybook world tends to be Warren G. Harding old.

Tom isn’t alone in this feeling. Shannon Garrity:

I’ve noticed this subtext, too, especially as regards gay issues. I think it stems from the still-common underlying assumptions that a) comic books are for children, and b) homosexuality doesn’t belong in children’s entertainment, no matter what the context… Coverage of manga often dabbles in both homophobia and cultural jingoism, with the underlying message that of course you can’t trust those freaky foreign types not to fill your children’s innocent American heads with gay smut. This is, of course, entirely true, but I’m all for gay smut.

Steve MacIsaac:

I don’t think you’re being paranoid, either, though as a gay creator I admit to being so used to that kind of thing that it just sort of whizzes past. I don’t think it’s a culture war so much as the status quo; bubbles of tolerance aside, America’s not really that down with queer folks. I don’t know that comics industry coverage is particularly worse than anything else in that regard; I remember plenty of moral panic coverage around the time BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN was coming out, as well as some vaguely patronizing stuff around THE SOPRANOS gay mobster storyline this season… Be that as it may, I do think it’s only fair to note that Alison Bechdel’s FUN HOME is probably the most favorably reviewed graphic novel of the year.

There’s a brief-but-interesting Q&A at Playthings with Liza Coppola, Viz Media‘s senior vice president of marketing, in which she talks about promoting popular manga like Fullmetal Alchemist, Death Note, Naruto and Rurouni Kenshin. That’s pretty standard territory, of course, for the person in charge of marketing.

But Coppola’s first response, to a question about what fuels the popularity of those titles, made me reconsider something about American superhero comics:

I believe [these] properties are very popular due to [their] rich storylines. They are stories that have rich, complex main characters that all have a vision—whether it’s becoming the ultimate ninja, discovering the master alchemy formula or being suddenly given the power of life and death. They’re ordinary characters that have some form of a “gift” that they’ve discovered within themselves and they must learn to live with all the complexities that come with that talent or power.

I think those aspects are every kid’s aspirational dreams—to wake up and suddenly become something you weren’t before, but your essence remains the same. You are still the same nervous, geeky kid but now you have discovered a hidden talent. With manga, the storylines are deeper and more involved. Characters have motives that are slowly revealed as the story progresses and they have secondary characters that are just as rich and fleshed out as the main characters.”

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Wasting absolutely no time, Fox announced yesterday that it’s keeping Hugh Jackman busy in the wake of X3: The Last Stand:

“20th Century Fox announced at Cinema Expo International that a Wolverine movie spinned off the ‘X-Men’ film franchise will be ready for release sometime in 2007, according to The Hollywood Reporter…  The movie plans to delve into Wolverine’s quest to discover more about his past, which he cannot fully remember. David Benioff (‘Troy’) is working on the script. A director has not been chosen yet, but Jackman and veteran ‘X-Men’ movie exec Lauren Shuler-Donner are producing.”

Ready for release sometime next year? Meeting demand or hoping to cash in before the bubble bursts – You be the judge.

The US Postal Service yesterday announced that they’re putting their own stamp on the fight against crime:

“The U.S. Postal Service immortalizes 10 comic book heroes Thursday, July 20 at the San Diego Convention Center when it dedicates the DC Comics Super Heroes commemorative stamps and stamped postal cards. The 10:30 a.m. PT ceremony will take place in Room 5AB to launch the world’s largest comic book and pop culture show—Comic-Con International 2006.”

Taking a licking and keeping on ticking will be Aquaman, Batman,The Flash, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Plastic Man, Supergirl, Superman and Wonder Woman. When reached for comment, J’Onn J’Onzz wept at his lack of recognition, and mumbled something about the fact that being a founder member of the Justice League obviously not amounting to anything these days.

First Second has posted covers and previews from their fall catalog, which features graphic novels by Gene Yang, Joann Sfar, Leland Myrick, George O’Connor and Lat. Here’s the lowdown on each project:

1. American Born Chinese by Gene Yang — This is the one I’m most looking forward to, after reading the preview pages First Second has up on their site. It collects three seemingly unrelated tales that somehow tie together in the end. You can find out more about Yang on his Humble Comics website.

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Following up on our interview last week with Villains artist Ryan Cody, this week we chat with Villains writer, Adam Cogan, about what makes Villains tick, how writing comics compares to his day job (making video games) and what comes next.

Adam: I guess I’ve always been captivated by the “bad guy” of the story. Not only do they feel empowered to break the rules with impunity, but they also tend to think outside the box–they’re criminally creative. They’re the most flamboyant and memorable element of any good story, and I really wanted to tap into that.

I decided to approach a book from the supercriminal’s point of view, make them the protagonists. I also happen to be a big fan of caper movies and hardboiled crime novels, so I threw those ingredients into the mix, and that’s how Villains took shape.

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Blade: The Series — the television adaptation of the movies, which were adaptations of the Marvel comics — debuts tonight at 10 Eastern on Spike TV.

TV Guide.com talks with comics scribe and screenwriter David S. Goyer about the network, casting and, perhaps inevitably, where the series fits in continuity:

Nominally, it takes place after the third film, but we constructed it so viewers don’t have to have any previous knowledge. We will also be exploring Blade’s origins and delving into the past of many of the characters. One of the fun things about vampires is that they’re very long-lived, so we can have flashback episodes going back hundreds of years. Here’s a scoop: We’ve added to the mythology in that vampires have racial or genetic memory of the vampire who has bitten them, and have some of their memories. If the biter is 500 years old, you might have memories from 500 years ago.

Related: Interview with Blade star Kirk “Sticky Fingaz” Jones

The gaming blog of Australia’s The Age marks the 15th birthday of Sonic the Hedgehog, the blue insectivorous mammal introduced by Sega in 1991.

Since then, Sega has sold more than 44 million Sonic games.

“In his heyday,” blogger Jason Hill writes, “Sonic was more recognisable to American children than Mickey Mouse and Sega estimates that gamers have spent over 500 million hours playing Sonic titles.”

Two years after his video-game debut, the spiny creature spawned an Archie Comics series and a short-lived TV cartoon.

Sonic has had his share of problems, though. Namely, dwindling popularity and a rival, Nintendo’s Mario, who’s as crowd-pleasing today as he was 20 years ago.

For most Superman fans, today is The Day: Superman Returns opens in theaters nationwide. I’m exhausted, and I haven’t even seen the movie; following the media coverage wore me out about a week ago.

Religious symbolism. Cultural significance. Sexual identity. It makes me tired. And that’s why I’m happy that today — S-Day, if you will — some of the stories have turned delightfully silly.

First up, the Onion’s A.V. Club, which sifts through the Man of Steel’s 68-year history to find a handful of foes who aren’t likely to crop up in future Superman films. Take, for instance:

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The Canadian Press profiles Superman co-creator Joe Shuster, who with Jerry Siegel “managed to direct the history of comics in North America,” according to Scott McCloud.

“(Shuster and Siegel) created a character that really spawned an entire genre,” McCloud tells the wire service.

The article focuses on Shuster’s Canadian roots — he moved to Cleveland at age 10 — and the influence his memories of Toronto had on his vision of Metropolis.

“Cleveland was not nearly as metropolitan as Toronto was, and it was not as big or as beautiful,” the artist said in a 1992 interview, believed to be his last. “Whatever buildings I saw in Toronto remained in my mind and came out in the form of Metropolis.”

The story also makes brief mention of his and Siegel’s legal and financial battles with DC Comics, but nothing of the more recent fight over the rights to Superboy.

If anyone stumbles across the head to a Philip K. Dick android, you may want to give David Hanson a call. Hanson, who created an animatronic version of the famous author, spoke to the New York Times about how he misplaced the head on a flight last December:

What happened to the android is a mystery, one that is more than mildly intriguing to fans who knew Mr. Dick as a futurist who advocated freedom and compassion for robots in an evolving world, and that has been debated in the technology press.

Less intrigued, rather more like depressed, is Mr. Hanson, the robot maker who left the head on an America West flight from Dallas to Las Vegas in December. En route to San Francisco, Mr. Hanson, 36, had to change planes in Las Vegas, something he hadn’t expected.

He had been traveling for weeks, pulling all-nighters in a race between his work as a roboticist (he also made a much-discussed robotic head of Einstein); as the founder of a fledgling company, Hanson Robotics; and his doctoral work. But unlike his creation, Mr. Hanson is, apparently, distressingly human.

“They woke me up, I got my laptop from under my seat, and being dazed, I just forgot that I had the robot in there,” said Mr. Hanson, referring to the head in a black, American Tourister roller bag, left in the overhead compartment.

Hanson was hoping to use the robot for a press junket for the film A Scanner Darkly, which opens July 7 and is based on a story by Dick. The Times calls the film “a graphic novel come to life,” features live-action photography with an animation overlay. MTV.com has scenes from the film and interviews with the director up on their site.

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Activision, having found a Bruce Banner for its Ultimate Alliance game, is now looking for the voice of Namor:

In a surprise addition to the Marvel™: Ultimate Alliance Voiceover Promotion, Activision announced today that enthusiasts/fans can now audition to be the voice of Namor (aka Sub-Mariner.) – the King of Atlantis himself! Activision has already received so many great entries for Bruce Banner so they have decided to close that casting call and add a new character. Auditions for Namor and Jean Grey are going on now, so please keep those entries coming!

As a reminder, our Grand Prize winners will get an Xbox 360, a copy of the Marvel: Ultimate Alliance game, a poster signed by Stan Lee, a pack of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance playing cards and a trip to Los Angeles to record their lines and meet the producers.

Auditions end July 23. Imperious Rex!

The first trailer for Spider-Man 3 is now available at Apple.com. The film premieres May 4, 2007.

The comic blogosphere seems to grow larger every day and just like comics, sometimes it’s pretty easy to get a little lost. “Meanwhile…” will act as your map pointing out what interesting discussions are happening out there while you’re reading Blog@Newsarama.

No more flu for me. I’m all better now and coming at you with more links than you can handle this week. Lets see what we have in store for you this time. How about a Q and A Session, Dates with Imaginary People, Kate Kane Reactions, Icing, Male Pattern Baldness and a ton of Quick Hits? Sound good? Then lets gets started.

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If pirates are the new zombies robots monkeys, where does that leave ape men and jungle boys? They’re things of an absurd past, apparently.

At Slate.com, Stanley Crouch watches the six films in The Tarzan Collection, and finds Edgar Rice Burroughs’ creation lacking:

Tarzan has no codes and understands none. He doesn’t comprehend money or safaris intent on bringing back riches. As Jane says of him, “You see, Tarzan has no objectives; he just goes somewhere because he wants to.” He has an unpolluted consciousness in which everything is upfront and clear as the summer sun. Underneath it all, of course, is a sense of sex and love that cannot exist in Europe with the same kind of freedom. That might well have been the attraction of the series for adults: Jane and her guy were making the beast with two backs unencumbered by the vestiges of the Victorian age. Always seeming fresh from an assignation, they were close to nude, they lived off the land, and the animals loved and obeyed Tarzan—especially herds of elephants and gaggles of chimps—stopping whatever they were doing to run off and arrive at the command of his yodel. If not, they were dispatched by Tarzan in hand-to-claw combat.

Meanwhile, at Ye Olde Comick Booke Blogge, Jake turns a discerning eye toward Jimmy Olsen’s jungle escapade in Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #10:

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