Hero of the Week:Bernie Wrightson for committing to an ongoing series. And with Steve Niles, no less. Dark Horse’s City of Others about a sociopathic murderer who has to be transformed into a monster in order to learn what it means to be human sounds like the perfect project for both of these guys.
Hero: DreamlandChronicles.com for finally posting new material. When Scott Christian Sava decided to take his excellent, CGI comic online, it was understandable that he wanted to start over from the beginning and attract new readers. But longtime fans of the series have had a long wait for the story to move forward. As of last week, the wait’s over.
Villain: Fangoria Comics for concentrating on future movie properties instead of just making good comics. Their display at San Diego used disappointing phrases like, “Reel horror comics by real horror moviemakers,” “You won’t find them in any theater… yet,” and “These are the horror films of tomorrow.”
Hero: DC for knowing that some things are made for each other. It was all good that they hired Brian Bolland to draw the two-page origin stories for Animal Man and the Joker in the back-up feature for 52, but hiring him to also illustrate the Zatanna story is a sign of excellent sense. Now, if only they could work out an ongoing…
Hero: Marvel for bringing back Thor.
Hero: Marvel Studios for not only planning the Hulk sequel for the big screen (as opposed to the rumored direct-to-DVD release), but for hiring action director Louis (The Transporter) Leterrier to direct. Now we’re gonna get to see Hulk SMASH!
Villain: Pendragon Pictures for drumming up free publicity by accusing Dark Horse of copying images from its movie version of War of the Worlds. There are a couple of interesing coincidences (like a man wearing a hat with a purple ribbon), but most of the similarities (like camera angles and direction of explosions) are laughable.
Hero: Dark Horse for it’s appreciation of Jason (Damn Nation) Alexander. I saw some of Alexander’s stuff for upcoming Dark Horse projects at San Diego and his brushwork is amazing. I saw stuff from Escapists and The Secret, not to mention the recent announcement that he’s illustrating Mike Mignola’s Abe Sapien solo mini-series. There are also rumors of a possible Steve Niles project.
Hero: Stephen Colbert for hosting Joe Quesada for a night. Is it just me or is Civil War the first book by one of Colbert’s guests that he’s actually read prior to the interview?
Hero: DC for Adam Hughes on All-Star Wonder Woman.
July 30th, 2006 at 1:24 am
Berni Wrightsons back! Berni!? That made my day!
July 30th, 2006 at 3:41 am
Bolland on an ongoing? Are you insane?
Bolland is a master of sequentials, and that the guy has been stuck on cover illustrations for so long is a tragedy. We all wish someone was out there hunting for the perfect script for him to make a big return to interiors on. But an ongoing? Dream on.
July 31st, 2006 at 7:25 pm
Frankly, I’m disappointed that you’re calling us (Fangoria) villains because of a couple of lines from a promo card. You can bet that we’ll be focused on making good comics.
The rest of it comes from the simple fact that we’ll have comics from filmmakers and BY filmmakers. Some will be original comics properties, some will tie into future films, and some will be extensions of familiar brands, like “Strangeland”. In practice, it is no different than DC publishing movie-linked specials for “Superman” in addition to the regular books.
We’re working with film talent, comics talent, and novelists. There will novel adaptions, movie tie-ins, AND original material. As a fellow Newsarama writer, it’s especially distressing to see that the only other villain is Pendragon Pictures for their pretty obvious stunt. We’re compared to that because we’ve got ties to Hollywood?
I hope that past the button-pushing of this piece, you’ll check out my and the rest of Fangoria’s work. We definitely care about making the best comics we can.
August 5th, 2006 at 11:11 pm
I’m a HERO! Thanks!
What a wonderful thing to say.