XtremeMac.com has introduced their “Iconz” line of iPod cases, which feature pop icons like Speed Racer, Darth Vader, Homer Simpson and a pair that should be familiar to comic fans:

The L.A. Times reports on rumors that life may imitate art, as Warner Bros. may actually be looking at making a real Aquaman movie (as opposed to the fake Aquaman movie that’s been seen on HBO’s Entourage):

“Aquaman,” one of Hollywood’s hottest inside jokes, might make the move from fiction to reality. As a key plot line in HBO’s “Entourage,” the “movie” directed by James Cameron shattered box-office records (a feat that got it a real ad in Variety), turned an unknown actor into a $20-million movie star and sparked a fight over a sequel.

But now, informal talks have been launched about the feasibility of making a real Warner Bros. “Aquaman” movie. In one of the strangest twists of this life-imitating-art tale, the talent agent at the center of the emerging “Aquaman” deal is Ari Emanuel, the brassy Endeavor partner on whom “Entourage” agent Ari Gold is based.

Warner Bros. said they are not currently developing an Aquaman film, even though one director’s name has already been mentioned as a possibility — not James Cameron, but Charlie’s Angels director McG. If that ends up being the case, I think I’ll stick with the fantasy …

Related: Aquaman TV pilot on iTunes

Iron Man game up in the air
GameSpot.com reports that Activision, which has published games based on Spider-Man 2, X-Men: The Last Stand and Fantastic Four over the last few years, no longer has the rights to do games based on the Iron Man movie:

“We did have the rights to make an Iron Man game, but no longer retain said rights,” a rep told GameSpot. “So I cannot comment on the status of any game project related to the film.” The rep did not say why Activision had let the rights lapse, or which publisher had acquired the rights.

So who is publishing Iron Man? That information remains elusive. THQ reps contacted by GameSpot claimed ignorance of any such project, as did Electronic Arts and Midway spokespersons. Take-Two Interactive declined to “comment on rumors.”

But while the Iron Man publisher is currently a mystery, it won’t be forever. “Expect an announcement this fall,” a Marvel Entertainment rep told GameSpot before declining further comment.

Snyder talks Watchmen
SciFi.com chats with Zack Snyder about his upcoming Watchmen adaptation:

“What will happen?” Snyder said. “I don’t know. I can tell you this: As far as I’m concerned, … the Watchmen movie needs to frickin’ be hard and challenge everybody. … The awesome thing about it is that Warner Brothers has it, and in some way it’s incredibly poetic that they do. Because they have Superman and Batman, and I always go, ‘Do you guys realize what Watchmen is? … Do you really want me to make this movie?’ And, you know what, I think to their credit, they’re like, ‘Yeah, we think we do.’ Because I think they know.”

(more…)

Good news hidden in a post from Warren Ellis on his Engine messageboard yesterday:

“I guess, somewhere along the last couple of months, I decided to keep The Engine running for another year, to see where it goes…”

In the middle of a comicsinternet where messageboards tend to concentrate on mainstream superhero fare - not that that’s a bad thing, I hasten to add - the Engine has been an ideosyncratic mix of insider creator chat, webcomic- and indie-centric discussion and Warren Ellis Forum-style oddness. It may not be a necessary voice, but it’s definitely a nice one to have around.

Of all the news coming out of San Diego over the weekend, perhaps the most curious was the animated “Judas Contract,” to be adapted by writers Marv Wolfman and Tom DeSanto (with some help from George Perez) from the classic New Teen Titans arc by Wolfman and Perez.

MAJOR SPOILERS FOLLOW for those of you who are just now discovering DC Comics and/or the New Teen Titans.

(more…)

Continuing our series of posts checking back in with various creators we spoke with or posted about before the San Diego Comic-Con, today we chat with D.J. Coffman, winner of Platinum Studios’ Comic Book Challenge. “But waitaminute,” you might be saying, “are you trying to pull the wool over our eyes? You didn’t post anything about D.J. before the con!” Well, no, you’re right; since the contest was held in San Diego and the winner was chosen by comic fans who voted all weekend, we wouldn’t have known to interview Coffman about winning the contest before the con, unless we were Dream Girl or Destiny or Johnny Carson.

But we did post about the contest, and you might have noticed the ads we’ve been running for a webcomic Coffman does called Yirmumah, so he’s kind of like extended family (if extended family paid rent). And we’re pleased to be able to talk to Coffman about his big win at the con, his webcomic and the money he owes us.

Blog@Newsarama: Let’s start with the obvious–tell us how excited you are about your big win.

D.J. Coffman: I’m stoked. It feels like I’ve been given a unique opportunity to do something with this.

(more…)

I don’t know whether it’s due to the brief, but awkward lull between Comic-Con and Wizard World Chicago, or because I’m pressed on some other projects, but I’m not seeing many items that grab me for full-fledged posts. So, here are some brief items, or “Small Bites,” as we like to call them:

Marvel’s Kyle talks animated Doctor Strange

It’s been known since last year that the Sorcerer Supreme would be Marvel’s fourth animated direct-to-DVD project, but details have been pretty scarce.

But at Comic-Con, Now Playing talked to Craig Kyle, Marvel’s vice president of animation, who discusses some of the challenges of bringing Doctor Strange to life.

“The credit goes to [writer] Greg Johnson,” Kyle tells the website, “and the beautiful job he did taking what was already there and finding a way to really make a wonderful story and figure out the laws of magic, so it’s not just, ‘A magic word can do anything I want.’ Because it’s really tricky. You’ve got a guy who can say and do anything he wants with a wave of his hand. What are you going to put him up against?”

Headline of the day

From TrekWeb: “Manga Artist Fearful of Star Trek Fans.”

The horrors of Comic-Con

Writing for Stanford University’s campus newspaper, Lisa Kerner relives the nightmare of attending Comic-Con solely to see the Veronica Mars panel, only to come face-to-face with, well … Comic-Con.

“My frustration increased when I scoured the autograph line after the panel,” Kerner writes. “Whereas the 4,500-seat auditorium was filled with teens and young adults, this line revealed mostly middle-aged men and women with the intense look in their eyes characteristic of outsiders anxious to sell their not-so-prized autograph on eBay the next day. Meanwhile, I couldn’t even catch a glimpse of the actors, as security was intently herding us away.

“At Comic-Con, I was suffocated by the sweaty throngs of people, aggravated by the incompetence of the staff and security and appalled by the lack of organization and the illogical approach to planning, but what perplexed me the most was fact that no other convention-goers seemed to care.”

Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada will appear tonight on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report at 11:30 p.m. ET. Per Marvel’s press release, “Colbert will grill Joe Q. on everything from Civil War to his career as an artist. And if they have time, maybe even a moment to reflect on Stephen’s intense dislike of grizzly bears.”

Quesada spoke to Matt Brady about his appearance in the weekly New Joe Fridays feature a couple of weeks ago:

NRAMA: Joe, something that’s going around the Internet - are you really going to be a guest on the Colbert Report on July 27th?

JQ: Yup, seems Marvel Civil War is everywhere these days!

NRAMA: You a fan of the show?

JQ: I’m a huge fan of the show, both Colbert and John Stewart are brilliant, I watch them both religiously. It’s the best stuff on TV. I can’t wait to be “nailed” by Colbert! Hmmm, that didn’t come out sounding right did it?

NRAMA: No, it did not…

How did that get set up, and what in the world are you going to talk about?

JQ: They contacted me directly and I believe they want to talk comics and Civil War.

NRAMA: How much will it cost us for you to wear your Newsarama t-shirt?

JQ: It’s free but I doubt anyone will see it under my “READ COMICS,” t-shirt.

It ought to be a fun show.

The Sci Fi Channel and Stan Lee present Who Wants to Be a Superhero? at 9 p.m. ET tonight. Reuters provides a taste of what to expect:

One sure thing you can say about Sci Fi Channel’s new six-episode reality series is that the judge, famed sci-fi writer Stan Lee, is really, really nice to the contestants. And they can use it.

Lee never prods, criticizes or attempts to destroy the odd bunch of people who show up hoping to become the world’s next great, or maybe famous, superhero. This is an odd series at best — the kind we’d expect when the name of the game is to make yourself look ridiculous at times just for a chance at fame at its quirkiest. But there’s no shortage of fun.

The show features superhero wannabes with names like Cell Phone Girl, the Iron Enforcer and Fat Momma competing to win the chance to appear in their own Sci Fi Channel movie and a comic series developed with Stan Lee. For more information, check out the official Superhero mini-site on the Sci Fi Channel website.

The first ten minutes of the second Ultimate Avengers animated movie are now available on Habbo.com:

The Avengers are back in a new Marvel animated feature. Faced with an alien invasion of epic proportions, the Black Panther must call on the world’s mightiest super heroes to reunite to save mankind from certain destruction. Starring Captain America, The Hulk, Thor, Wasp, Giant-Man, Black Widow and Iron-Man.

In addition, Habbo users can interact with the cast of Ultimate Avengers beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET (or in less than 10 minutes).

If you aren’t familiar with Habbo, it is a virtual “five-star hotel” where kids can “chill with your friends, meet new ones or take part in a wide variety of activities and competitions.” You don’t have to sign up for Habbo to view the preview footage. Go check it out.

This past weekend in San Diego, Mazda, Top Cow and Spacedog (a “branded entertainment and interactive marketing agency”) announced Revved, a series of graphic novels and a Fox television series that Mazda is hoping will sell cars. MotorTrend reports:

Revved, to be published by Top Cow Productions and developed into a television series by Fox Television Studios, is truly ground-breaking due to the level of integration and collaboration from concept to execution between Spacedog, Top Cow and Mazda.

The series of Revved graphic novels “stars” four special vehicles, all of which are made with a piece of the same magical metal found in the Holy Grail, Joan of Arc’s armor and King Arthur’s Excalibur, among other legendary icons. Imbued with the same powers as those great symbols, the cars’ drivers embark on a series of dangerous missions.

The Mazda RX-8 four-door sports car will serve as the hero car in Revved and will be driven by the main character, Jack James. With its edgy styling, precise handling and 232-horsepower RENESIS rotary engine, the RX-8 complement’s Jack James’ personality and perfectly integrates itself into the story line.

Cars made from the Holy Grail and Excalibur? That’s actually kind of a cool idea, especially for a comic that’s a marketing vehicle. You can check out a preview on the Mazda site, where you can also find details on how to win a Mazda RX-8 from Top Cow.

Mazda, of course, isn’t the first car company to use comics for marketing; DC released Pontiac’s Rush City last Wednesday, while Dark Horse published BMW’s The Hire in 2004.

Before the San Diego Comic-Con, we spoke with or posted about several different creators related to their San Diego activities. Over the next couple of days, we’ll be catching up with them to see how things went and if they accomplished everything they were hoping to at the convention.

Up first is Larry Young, AiT/Planet Lar publisher, who offered up the opportunity for 16 hopefuls to meet with him one-on-one and pitch their projects.

Blog@Newsarama: Before the con you invited potential creators to schedule time with you to pitch their story ideas. What was the response like? How many people actually showed up to talk to you in San Diego?

Larry Young: Holy crap, I couldn’t even tell you. We were trying to control the flow a little with scheduling the 16 spots thing you helped us out with by getting the word out before the show, but I spoke to easily 100 people, after the 16 “official” pitches. We returned with two full large FedEx boxes absolutely crammed with takeaways people gave us. And that doesn’t even count the stuff pros pitched me. Maybe 125-150 different projects, call it. I’m going to spend the next two weeks, easy, going through it and responding to everyone.

(more…)

It’s Best of The Bay time again here in old San Francisco town, and repeating last year’s success, San Francisco’s Isotope won the readers’ poll for Best Comic Store, and Larry Young’s AiT/Planet Lar won the same poll for Best Local Publishing House. Al’s Comics won the Editor’s Choice for Best Comics Store:

It’s a familiar Mission District tale: Ratty, rundown, beloved vestige of the old hood gets its rent jacked. Pissed-off patrons sigh and gripe wistfully about the days before the bubble. Beloved vestige has a going-out-of-business sale. But in the case of Al’s Comics — until recently a hole-in-the-wall on Guerrero, tucked away between the whine of the tattoo needle (Sacred Rose) and the hiss of the espresso machine (Cafe Petra) — things may have worked out all right. After a rental-market roller-coaster ride, proprietor Al Kizziah has settled into a nice, roomy spot on the newly hopping stretch of Upper Market across from the Octavia Boulevard crawl, in good company alongside hipster spots like National Product and Grooves. More square footage means more elbow room to peruse Al’s expansive inventory of comics, graphic novels, posters, T-shirts, and collectible goodies, and there’s even enough room to hold the occasional author event. Voilà: a Mission tale with a happy ending.

Congratulations to all involved and, if you’re in the Bay Area, pick up the print version for a great photo of the Isotope staff.

Heidi MacDonald wasn’t the only blogger doing video reports from San Diego, as Comic Foundry’s Tim Leong explains:

“The video age is upon us, my friends, and Comic Foundry plans to be at the front. That’s why we’re launching a brand new video blog function. We, along with the entire world, went to Comic-Con last weekend and shot a metric ton of video that we’ve been sorting through since we got back. Our pal Heidi did a bunch through Divx, but ours are homegrown, very Robert Rodriguez. Shot, scored, cut and written by Comic Foundry. Note that we’ll be doing video blogs on a consistent basis — this was not just a con exclusive.”

(Tim Leong, by the way, is a dapper fellow, as Kevin Church has pointed out, at the same time as capturing my unique unphotogenic qualities.)

Dallas-Fort Worth’s Quick spotlights local Eisner winners Zeus Comics and Scott Kurtz, and features an illustration of retailer Richard Neal on the cover.

Kurt’s popular PVP won the Eisner for Best Digital Comic, while Neal’s store received the Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailing Award.

Stores are nominated by their customers. Neal credited Zeus’ nomination to David Hopkins, the Arlington-based writer of Emily Edison, a graphic novel published this month by Irving’s Viper Comics.

“That was an honor in itself, that some of the small-press people in town nominated us,” Neal said.

Hopkins said Neal, 36, has always supported local creators. Last year, Zeus bought 200 copies of his Karma Incorporated and gave them away.

“It’s just the sort of things that Richard does that are beyond the call of duty and rationale that make [Zeus] one of those stores you want to stand behind,” Hopkins said.

Related: Pittsburgh paper on DJ Coffman, winner of “Comic Book Challenge”

Movies Online has the first look at the new poster for Paramount’s Iron Man movie, scheduled for a May 2008 release. The artwork looks like Adi Granov’s, but I don’t know for certain.

According to this press release, Pendragon Pictures “has given formal legal notice” to Dark Horse Comics, alleging the publisher’s The War of the Worlds graphic novel contains “innumerable replications of images” from the studio’s 2005 direct-to-DVD adaptation of H.G. Wells’ classic novel.

“Both productions are based on the public domain 1898 H. G. Wells novel,” the press release notes, “but Pendragon alleges that Dark Horse has played foul in replicating camera angles, designs, character likenesses and a myriad of artistic choices for their comic.”

The 72-page graphic novel, by Ian Edginton and D’Israeli, was released in April 2006.

In an attempt to support its claims, Pendragon has created a website on which it compares panels from the graphic novel with frames from the movie. What’s more, the site includes a poll, asking visitors whether they see “significant similarities” between the two works.

I don’t really know what to make of all of this, because it feels more like marketing than legal maneuvering (you can follow a link from the press release to purchase the DVD).

To be honest, I’m not sure what “formal legal notice” means. Did Pendragon file a lawsuit? If so, when and where? And the tenor of the press release, combined with the comparison website and poll, strikes me as … strange.

I’ve contacted Dark Horse for comment, and Pendragon for clarification. It’s still early on the West Coast, but I’ll update if they have statements.

Update: A spokeswoman for Dark Horse responded to say the publisher doesn’t comment on legal matters.

–I wanted to throw out a big Blog@Newsarama welcome to Stacie Ponder, who is working with Kevin Melrose on a new webcomic that begins this weekend on this very site. If you aren’t familiar with Stacie’s “Stick-o-vision” work, check it out on her blog. Welcome, Stacie!

–In case you haven’t checked out Newsarama’s new Comics@Newsarama feature, which brings you pages of Powers on a daily basis, here’s another reason to check it out: the Comics@Newsarama logo was designed by our web and graphic guru, Stephanie Chan. Nice work, Steph!

–And speaking of Newsarama, Graeme McMillan shared his experiences at the San Diego Comic-Con last Friday in an article over on the mothership. Go check it out.

–And finally, we say goodbye today to one of our contributors, Shane Bailey. If you read Meanwhile … earlier today, then you know he’s heading off into the sunset. It’s not going to be the same around here without him; I’ve enjoyed not only his weekly tour of the blogosphere, but his input and assistance in other areas as well. Take care and best of luck, Shane!

The CW’s last-minute decision to pull Aquaman from its fall lineup left many fans wondering whether they’d ever see more than the trailer shown during the network’s upfront presentation.

Well, now they can stop wondering: The unaired TV pilot is available for download on iTunes for $1.99.

(Thanks, Matt Rower.)