I’m worn out from Comic-Con, and I wasn’t even there. Had I been, I likely would’ve been the guy sitting in the middle of the aisle, rocking and sobbing. Well, one of the guys.
Unlike the past couple of years, this Comic-Con wasn’t marked by the frenzy of creator-exclusive announcements — most of the “marquee names” at Marvel and DC are already under contract. And with 52 and Civil War only really beginning, and Infinite Crisis and House of M still in our rearview mirrors, there wasn’t talk of The Next Crossover That Will Change Everything.
Still, there were a couple of “big” announcements from the Big Two: from Marvel, the “lost” original version of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s Fantastic Four #102; and from DC, confirmation of a new line of direct-to-DVD animated projects, featuring The New Frontier, plus Superman/Doomsday and New Teen Titans: The Judas Contract.
Most of the weekend’s news was of a smaller, quieter, and sometimes quirkier, nature: talk from Oni Press of a comic with Stephen Colbert; official word of Richard Donner’s stint on Action Comics; Dark Horse’s slate for 2006-2007; several new titles from Image; Marvel and Bungie expanding Halo to an ongoing series; Wildstorm’s horror-movie line; IDW’s remastered Dick Tracy collections; Paul Dini and Amanda Conner’s Black Canary/Zatanna graphic novel; Marvel’s second Avengers title; and Adam Hughes drawing and writing DC’s All-Star Wonder Woman.
That, of course, just scratches the surface of what was announced at the publisher panels. A few items were revealed elsewhere, a Terra limited series for DC, by Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray and Conner, and a mysterious 120-page graphic novel (scroll down) for Vertigo from Steven T. Seagle and Tara McPherson.
Oh, and don’t forget the 2006 Eisner Awards.
MangaCast has terrific coverage of convention manga news and panels, complete with podcasts.
The next few days will likely see more news that slipped through the cracks of the hustle and bustle of Comic-Con.
Beyond this, the comics Internet, The Hollywood Reporter has a few more details about the DC animated projects, including a reference to it as the “DC Universe” line, and word that the films will be rated PG-13.
And, finally, Wired News checks in on the Comic Arts Conference, where some fans thought scholarly analysis of the medium was, well, a little much.
“It seems like you guys are making this too complicated for a simple art form that’s escapism for most of us,” one fan told the panel.
