I’m becoming more and more convinced that Tom Brevoort writes his blog so that I’ll have something to link to here on Newsarama. This time, he’s talking about creators who miss deadlines:

“[I]f a given creator can’t get a book done in thirty days, what would you have us do? Because all of the evidence I have indicates that, while people say that they want he books more frequently, what they really want is the books more frequently by the same creators, and at the same level of quality. And that’s just not going to happen in most cases. And in those cases where it’s not possible, it’s in the best interests of the project long term to hold the line, rather than rushing in a fill-in or bringing in half-a-dozen pencilers to hack out your crossover.”

That sound you just heard, by the way, was Dan Didio shouting “Hey!” in an overly comedic manner as he realized that was a dig at Infinite Crisis. It’s not the only cheap shot Tom makes at DC, though:
“It should be noted that late shipping is not a Marvel-exclusive problem. In point of fact, we have fewer late-shipping titles than our largest competitor at the moment. But you readers tend to notice ours more–I’m guessing because you’re more interested in what we’ve got going on.”

(more…)

UPDATED June 28: More links

Don’t you wish a group of comic artists did their own rendition of you? I do! I knew I should have become a movie star, dammit!

Today, the not-so critically acclaimed movie Ultraviolet comes out on DVD, UMD (Sony PSP), and Blu-Ray and stars Milla Jovovich. If you saw this flick in the theatres, you might have noticed the display of comic covers in the beginning credits. Several artists were asked to create these images which turned out really cool.

Here is a closer look at a few of them:

• Dustin Nguyen
• Ed McGuinness, Dexter Vines & Brian Reber
• Jeff Parker
• LeSean Thomas & Stuart Ng
• Rick Remender
• Eric Canete (Thanks, Jon!)
• Phil Noto (Thanks Eddy!)

If you have seen other comic cover images from Ultraviolet, please share the links with us and I’ll update this entry. One of our readers, Eddy, submitted a list of artists which included the following:

Jeff Parker
Lee Bermejo
Kieron Dwyer
Sanford Greene
Ed McGuinness
Phil Noto
Eric Canete
Keron Grant
Tony Harris
Dustin Nguyen
Jason Pearson
Lesean Thomas
Howard Chaykin
Randy Green
JJ Kirby
Dan Norton
Rick Remender

I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I’ll get a copy of it soon enough. And before you feel like telling me how bad it was, I’m a big Milla Jovovich fan so I’m going to buy it anyway.

I’m sure somewhere there’s a line forming for tonight’s 10 o’clock premiere of Superman Returns (at select theaters, naturally). For the less eager among you, I’ll wade through some of the media coverage …

Bad adaptations are no match for Superman

MTV.com finally wraps up its “Fanboy Dilemma” series with a little hand-wringing: “What if the movie stinks?” Don’t worry, writer Karl Heitmueller assures us, bad adaptations bounce off the Man of Steel like so many bullets:

Consider that right now, there are four different versions of Superman in popular culture: The comic book Superman, the Kal-El of Superman Returns, the young Clark Kent of Smallville and the animated hero of the new Brainiac Attacks direct-to-DVD movie and the recently canceled Justice League Unlimited. All of those Supermen differ from each other — and, in fact, DC publishes more than one version of Superman, further complicating the matter. So why isn’t anyone confused? It’s because Superman is so ingrained in our collective consciousness that everyone already has a slightly different idea of who Superman is — and they’re all right.

… All these different takes on the Superman story can coexist because the character has become so iconic. The nutshell is solid and perfect: The sole survivor of an advanced alien civilization, raised in bucolic small-town America with ironclad values, decides to use his incredible powers to help mankind (rather than rule it) while masquerading as a powerless Everyman. It’s a story endlessly adaptable to changing times.

(more…)

Here’s my upbeat message for you today - Comics are great:

“I just don’t get these woe-is-me threads about how terrible the comics scene is. I’ve been reading comics since the late seventies, and from this fan’s perspective, things have never been so fucking good.Five to ten years ago, you’d maybe see a handful of at-least-passable graphic novels published in a year. Publishers were pulling their hair trying to woo the comics fan base to try something, anything besides superheroes. Today, the likes of ‘Fun Home’, ‘La Perdida’, ‘Fate of the Artist’, ‘Billy Hazelnuts’, ‘Castle Waiting’, ‘Ego & Hubris: The Michael Malice Story’, not to mention ‘My Most Secret Desire’ are reaching the shelves every month - to say nothing of the fact that newspapers, magazines, museum curators, librarians and mainstream book publishers are more and more recognizing the medium’s value. From where I’m sitting, comics are hitting their stride. What’s with all the negativity?”

The rest of The Comics Journal board are willing to suggest some possibilities, after the jump:

(more…)

This demands to be made into a comic book: The Charlotte Observer reports on the strangely fascinating case of David Race Bannon (aka David Wayne Dilley), who claimed to have been an Interpol agent and presented himself to police and TV networks as an expert on human trafficking.

Bannon even wrote a book, Race Against Evil: The Secret Missions of the Interpol Agent Who Tracked the World’s Most Sinister Criminals, which the agency calls “deceptive and irresponsible fantasy.”

Bannon, who took his pseudonym from the family bodyguard on Jonny Quest, was arrested in January on charges of criminal impersonation, computer crime and attempted theft. In April, he pleaded guilty to one count of criminal impersonation. Prosecutors say they’re not looking for jail time; instead, they want Bannon fined based on income from his book.

To say Bannon led a double life is a bit of an understatement.

“He said he got the scar on his back from being stabbed in a Korean riot,” The Observer’s Tommy Tomlinson writes. “His ex-wife says he got it from a kidney operation.

“He said he led a 1998 raid on the Florida branch of a worldwide child-prostitution ring, rescuing an 8-year-old girl and killing one of her kidnappers with a knife to the throat.

“Investigators say he was teaching computer classes at a community college in Raleigh.”

Intrigue, espionage … and community college. That’s the stuff of a John LeCarre novel.

There’s much more at the link. Plus, there’s a Wikipedia entry devoted to Bannon, with links to other articles.

The Toronto Metro reports that the Max the Mutt Animation School has added a new diploma program focused on comic illustration and art. Ty Templeton, a professor at the school, talks about the program:

“You have to love what you do,” says Ty Templeton, a professor of comic book production, writing, and illustration at Max the Mutt. “Comics are a viable career and it’s a fun industry to work in.”

Max the Mutt Animation School has created a new diploma program focused on comic illustration and art. They have been pushing the idea of a comic illustration diploma program since they founded the school in 1999. This May, they finally got the ball rolling.

With the help of well-known Canadian comic artists like Templeton, who has worked on DC Comics’ Batman Adventures and has illustrated many other titles, including the Justice League, the course is slated to create the comic artists of the future.

“There’s no such thing as talent. Talent is taught, and that’s what we’re teaching the students here,” Templeton says.

Classes in the program include everything from anatomy, penciling and inking to coloring, lettering and drawing backgrounds. For more information on the school and program, or if you just want to look at the artwork students are producing, check out their website.

Although May wasn’t so kind to Aquaman — that’s when The CW unceremoniously dumped the TV series from its fall lineup — summer is shaping up for Arthur Curry.

Yesterday, we reported on the character’s improving public image. Now comes word that last week’s joke ad in Variety promoting HBO’s Entourage may have had an unintended effect: People are buzzing about a real Aquaman movie from director James Cameron — and not as a punchline. Here’s Variety:

Not only did HBO’s marketing ploy generate scads of publicity for the show — prompting write-ups in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times — but it even fooled some of the director’s friends into thinking they had missed the premiere of his latest film starring “Vincent Chase,” the show’s fictional star.

Moreover, the ad has lit a flame under Cameron fans, who are hoping the director will actually make the pic. Even some industry watchers are saying it might not be a bad idea to make the fictional blockbuster Aquaman his follow-up to Titanic, and Aquaman’s comicbook scribe Peter David wrote on his Web site: “Now all we need is for Cameron to really make an Aquaman film and we’re good to go.”

How likely is it? Probably not very. Still, it’s fun to follow the chatter.

I love the headline for this profile of comics writer Roger Stern: “Meet the man who helped kill Superman.”

Looking for a local angle for Superman Returns, the Elmira, N.Y., Star-Gazette turns to Ithaca resident Stern, who recounts the feeding frenzy sparked by the 1993 “Death of Superman.”

“I’ve pointed out to many people that with the death of Superman, we really benefited from a slow news week,” he tells the newspaper. “If something big had happened in the world, if President Bush … had barricaded himself in the White House and said he wasn’t coming out, then we would have had one inch on page 7. But nothing happened that week, and Superman died. Everyone just went nuts. … I was sort of encouraged by the reaction. I thought, ‘Everyone cares.’ When my barber and the guy at the hardware store started asking me what was going to happen, I knew we were on to something.”

ICv2.com reports that a Japanese group led by the Sojitz Corporation has made a “substantial investment” in A.D. Vision, the Houston-based anime distributor and manga publisher.

A.D. Vision’s ADV Films division distributes anime like Battle Angel, Full Metal Panic, Macross and Samurai X. Its manga division, which publishes Cromartie High School, Full Metal Panic, Gunslinger Girl and other titles, has been criticized for its release record.

According to ICv2, ADV founder John Ledford will remain majority stockholder and CEO under the investment deal. The infusion will allow the company to expand in North America, Europe and Japan, and increase its anime output.

The website also reports that ADV has “big plans” for its manga division.

Related: Trading firms hope to cash in on anime boom

Get stepped on by a Decepticon
Cinematical posts about an open casting call for Michael Bay’s Transformers movie. If you live near Burbank, look like you’re in high school and long to be eaten by robot dinosaurs, this could be the role of a lifetime.

“Oh God, I’d love to do that one.”
More Joker rumors abound … IGN FilmForce spoke with Robin Williams about the possibility of playing the Joker in the sequel to Batman Begins.

“Well, you want to do a different Joker. You know, if they do Arkham Asylum, it would be amazing. Arkham Asylum is one of the greatest, nastiest comic books ever. It’s truly, it’s like the Marquee de Sade on that level, and wonderfully damaged and quite tragic, in terms of when you realize [what happened to] create these characters…”

Punisher marries Medium
Actor and comic writer Thomas Jane married his longtime girlfriend Patricia Arquette last weekend. Congrats to the happy couple.

JK Parkin, Stephanie Chan, and I have put together our survey of DC’s latest solicitations, and while it doesn’t look quite like a September to remember, we still found plenty to discuss.

(more…)

It looks like DC Comics is offering the deal of the week, as for $1, Brave New World will allow you to sample the upcoming OMAC, Creeper, Martain Manhunter, Atom, Shazam! and Freedom Fighters titles. Amazing Spider-Man continues the story started in the second issue of Civil War, while Image kicks off a new mini-series called Sidekicks. Oni, meanwhile, offers up the first issue of B. Clay Moore’s Leading Man, which is giving me the same vibe as last week’s Casanova … so check it out if you get a chance.

(more…)

Hey, look! Image solicitations for September are out! What do you think about that, Michael May and Kevin Melrose?

Well, since you asked…

TRUE STORY, SWEAR TO GOD #1

Michael: I haven’t followed this in its other incarnations as faithfully as I’d like to have, but what I’ve read of it has always been sweet and genuinely funny. Nice to see it find a new home at Image.

THE CROSS BRONX #1

Michael: I’m not sure who I’m supposed to be rooting for in this mini-series, but right now I’m behind the assassin who’s targeting gang-bangers. Even if I’m pulling for the wrong guy though, the premise sounds interesting with the comatose girl being the primary lead. And I’m a big fan of Michael Avon Oeming’s art, so that seals the deal.

Kevin: It’s nice to see Oeming writing and penciling again; we haven’t seen him doing both since Hammer of the Gods. I love the blending of supernatural and crime fiction, and the preview pages look fantastic. If we were doing “Picks of the Month,” The Cross Bronx would be mine. Easily.

(more…)

With Ultimates 2 not yet finished and Ultimates 3 not even scheduled, who was expecting the announcement of Ultimates 4? Wizard Universe has a preview of the skinny, as writer Jeph Loeb explains:

“It’s not a follow-up [to Ultimates 3]. We use the same model as Superman/Batman in that each artist has their own story with the same writer, and if someone joins the team or dies in Joe’s story [Joe Madureira, artist of U3], it’ll be reflected in [artist of U4] Ed [McGuinness]’s story. But you shouldn’t feel as though you have to read Joe’s story in order to understand Ed’s story. You should be able to hop on, and that’s that. There would be elements and mentions of things, as with any good storytelling, but it wouldn’t be all that different, given the number of characters that we have to service in Ultimates and given who’s going to be on the team.”

Well, glad that’s all cleared up, then.

The webzine PopMatters launched its PopComix comics section today, featuring “classic panels” from popular webcomics Diesel Sweeties, Boy on a Stick and Slither, Out of My Head, Scary Go Round, and Wigu.

“Classic panels,” of course, means older strips; today’s installment of Wigu, for example, dates back to 2002. According to PopMatters, “The strips featured here are classic panels and story arcs intended as an introduction to each of our individual webcomics features.”

The webzine’s looking to expand PopComix soon, too: “While we are generally looking for humorous features of the ‘gag-a-day’ or serial storyline variety with a pop culture angle, we’re certainly interested in all quality features, including editorial cartoons.” No pay, but lots of potential viewers.

To coincide with the debut of comics section, PopMatters talks with Scott McCloud about the growth of online comics, micropayments and the state of newspaper comics.

It isn’t too late to enter our “Who the F@#$ is Johnny Repeat?” contest. Go check out the original post for complete details on how you could win a signed copy of the book. The deadline is July 5.

Civil War and Batwoman are far from the first comics to deal with social issues, according to the Daily Record in Morris County, N.J. In an article this weekend, they talked to John Ostrander, writer of Batman: The Seduction of a Gun, about how the former governor of Virginia used the book to push a gun-rationing law:

Former Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder used the graphic novel “Batman: The Seduction of a Gun,” to push a gun-rationing law in the state Legislature.

The story was based on research conducted by writer John Ostrander of Roxbury, who discovered that Virginia had become a gun-buying destination for street gangs from New York and other states.

Ostrander said one of Wilder’s aides pointed out the story to the then-governor, who sent copies of the novel to other legislators, saying, “Look, even Batman is saying it.”

Ostrander said he was pleasantly surprised, and that the novel had achieved its purpose.

“In that case, we were writing something to express concern about the proliferation of handguns, and you like to think your writing has some significance,”Ostrander said.

(more…)

Writing for the Newark, N.J., Star-Ledger, Joyce Kaffel recalls her childhood with her father, legendary comics writer and editor Mort Weisinger:

I would eagerly listen as my dad plotted stories about zany, menacing stunts for Bizarro, the super-oaf from planet Htrae where everything worked backwards by Earth’s standards.

We worried about what would happen to Superman if Lex Luthor exposed him to red kryptonite. Uncontrollable hair and nail growth were two of the more unpleasant effects. It always amused my dad and me that Clark Kent kept his identity secret from Lois Lane simply by wearing a pair of horn-rimmed glasses.

I learned how our family life influenced my dad’s creative decisions by the way he used his everyday observations in comics. Sometimes his choices were based on sentiment. When Supergirl’s character was being developed for her first appearance in 1959, my father asked me to help select the color of her hair. We chose blonde to match my shade — at least, that’s the way the story went. I was thrilled that a super-heroine was modeled after me.

Weisinger, who died in 1978, is credited with co-creating Aquaman, Green Arrow, and some of the more memorable Silver Age elements of the Superman comics, including Supergirl, Krypto, the Phantom Zone and the Legion of Super-Heroes.

Amid all the hoopla for Superman Returns, California’s Contra Costa Times bemoans the lack of female superheroes on the big screen.

Don’t even think about bringing up Supergirl, Catwoman or Elektra — “disasters,” the newspaper calls them:

The only time we see female superheroes truly living up to their potential is when they’re lumped into a ensemble cast. The X-Men and The Fantastic Four are prime examples, with women matching brains and brawn with their male counterparts.

But sadly, superhero movies are mostly a men’s-only club. In an age where the Episcopal Church has selected a female to be its national leader and an upcoming presidential election might feature a woman candidate, you’d think Hollywood could at least produce one decent female superhero movie.

However, the writer is hopeful Joss Whedon’s Wonder Woman can fill the cinematic void: “If there’s anyone who can do the genre justice, he would be the guy.”

Related: Top 10 comic-book heroes appearing in film