With the animated Hellboy DVD movie coming later this year comes a line of animated Hellboy products:

Inspired by Tad Stones and Jeff Matsuda, the look of the Hellboy Animated is quite different from the Mignola comics with its contemporary, stylistic feel. Taking a cue from that look, Dark Horse Deluxe will release two full-size limited-edition statues, both sculpted by Tony Cipriano, that will appear on store shelves just before the holidays. The first of these, Hellboy, features the muscular red demon in his billowing trench coat, posed with his gun ready to fire. Hellboy’s amphibious confidant, Abe Sapien, is posed and ready for action as the second statue.

The Hellboy Animated line continues in full-force in early 2007, with the release of an original digest-size comic drawn in the animated style, a boxed set of three four-inch PVC figures, the first in a series of mini-busts, and sculptural refrigerator magnets.

The busts are sculpted by top talent Tim Bruckner, and represent his first work for Dark Horse.

“We are delighted to have Tim on board as we’ve been fans of his work for years,” David Scroggy, Dark Horse’s Vice President of Product Development, noted. “He really captured the new look of these characters, and was very successful in breathing life into them.”

DC sent out a release today to remind people that Bill Willingham will be answering your “Burning Questions” about Fables in issue #59 of the title, due in March. As reported in San Diego, Willingham will answer these questions in the form of short stories.

“It’s rare that any magazine would ever let the readers call the shots for an issue,” says Willingham in the press release. “Some have advised us that we’re insane for trying this, but they don’t know what we know: FABLES readers are the creme de la creme, the elite of all funnybook fans. In short, you’re smarter than the average bear. More to the point, you have questions that demand answers, and none of us here in Fabletown are foolhardy enough to risk ignoring your needs.”

DC Comics has a form set up on their Fables mini-site where readers can submit questions.

Sporting a sweet Art Adams cover, Manhunter returns in December from the brink of cancellation in a story featuring Wonder Woman. Go check out the sneak preview for #26 on the DC Comics site.

Tuesday Morning Quarterback, to our knowledge the only online football column written by a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, wonders about the physiology of superheroes (look for the photo of Halle Berry):

Where are the body organs that support their powers? I’m willing to believe a superhero can fly, but where is the organ that provides propulsion? Supposedly Earth’s yellow star activated in Kal-El powers that he would not have had under the red sun of Krypton. But still, some internal organ must produce the energy for his heat vision and the thrust for his flying and so on. In “Superman Returns,” Supe can even fly faster than light, a power he lacked in the comics; apparently some organ too small to even bulge under his skin propels him to warp speed. Really, there must be some physical point of origin for a superhero’s power. Storm must have a body organ that projects force fields that control weather. Iceman must have a body organ that can reduce temperature very rapidly, plus shed heat so Bobby doesn’t boil. Where in their physiques are these organs?

He goes on to wonder about the precise nature of the X-gene, upon which I believe The Roar Of Comics recently opined.  Yes, fans have beaten these topics into the ground; but TMQ (a/k/a Gregg Easterbrook) thought Superman’s flying faster than light was exclusive to the movies.  Really, how does one get to be part of the Brookings Institution, not to mention a contributing editor at the Atlantic Monthly and the New Republic, without being clear on the Silver Age Superman’s nigh-omnipotence? 

He invites readers to respond, and devotes a Wednesday column to e-mail.  I wonder how many helpful bloggers will contribute….

Variety is reporting that last night’s debut of Heroes performed very well for NBC:

NBC drama “Heroes” opened to strong numbers on Monday, dominating its broadcast rivals and looking like the first breakout performer of the fall season. The Peacock captured the night in 18-49, with CBS on top in 25-54 and total viewers.

According to preliminary nationals from Nielsen, “Heroes” (5.9 rating/11 share in adults 18-49, 14.3 million viewers overall) topped CBS’ second-place comedy block of “Two and a Half Men” (5/12 in 18-49, 15.7 million viewers overall) and “Old Christine” (4/10, 12.6 million viewers overall) by a hefty 31% in adults 18-49 and also led in total viewers. This is the best fall premiere for an NBC drama since “Crossing Jordan” five years ago.

This October brings the release of Telltale’s Sam & Max video game, which follows the “episodic” content model of their Bone game (kind of like a comic series you play on your computer). Joystiq recently chatted with a couple of the folks from Telltale about the release, as well as how well the Bone game has been doing:

With Bone, you’ve been at the forefront of episodic content. How has the release of multiple episodes of that game met and differed from your expectations?

Dan Connors: One [thing we anticipated] with episodic gaming — but didn’t really have any hard evidence to back it up — was that every new release would drive interest in the franchise and give you a new launch of the previous version. So when we released Boneville, it kind of had a little bit of a life cycle, a three-month life-cycle where it was at top-of-mind and had a nice sales curve to it. It kind of died down after about three or four months.

When Cow Race came back, though, the Cow Race sales were at launch level and then the Boneville sales actually equaled the Cow Race sales as well, so we saw the rejuvenation of the previous episode. So the idea that every time you’re launching an episode, it’s bringing value to the franchise and increasing the franchise presence is great. You know, if you look at Harry Potter, the first book has sold the most because every time a new one comes out, the franchise gets lifted up. So it’s nice because you can spread out your marketing effort over six different episodes and continue to always be raising the level of the franchise as a result, increasing sales on six products instead of one.

The first Sam & Max episode is Due Oct. 17.

The Salt Lake Tribune takes a look at Archie and the gang’s upcoming visit to the Salt Lake City library:

Library Director Nancy Tessman is quoted and the library’s anti-shh buttons are given play.
The writer of the six-page story, George Gladir said in a Monday interview from his Carlsbad, Calif., home that he chose the library after reading about it in USA Today.
“It intrigued me. It’s tremendous. The design of the library, the facilities,” said the 80-year-old, who has written some 40,000 pages of script in 47 years for Archie Comics. “Archie - they’re always interested in promoting libraries and promoting reading.”
Gladir sketched thumbnails for the story with help from Mimi Cruz, manager of Night Flight Comics. She knows Gladir from comic-book conventions and sent him dozens of photos of the building after getting clearance from Tessman.
Cruz is featured prominently in the story. Her character leads a tour of the library to help the teens find ways to improve their fictitious Riverdale branch. The fictional characters are awed by the actual library - its architecture, fun atmosphere and emphasis on all arts.
“We are thrilled beyond belief that we are featured in an Archie comic. We’re just giddy with delight,” Cruz said.

Photographer Dulce Pinzón pays homage to Mexican immigrants who support their loved ones back in Mexico by working in the United States:

The principal objective of this series is to pay homage to these brave and determined men and women that somehow manage, without the help of any supernatural power, to withstand extreme conditions of labor in order to help their families and communities survive and prosper.

This project will consist of 12 color photographs of Mexican immigrants dressed in the costumes of popular American and Mexican superheroes. Each photo will picture the worker/superhero in their work environment, and will be accompanied by a short text including the worker’s name, their hometown in Mexico, the number of years they have been working in New York, and the amount of money they send to Mexico each week.

Go check it out.

Link via Tegan.

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.

Hi guys! This is Kalinara here, as usual! Do I have some interesting stuff for you today. Some of it’s fun, some of it’s very serious, but all of it is definitely worth a look!

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With Graeme off gallivanting around the globe and Kevin in recovery, I bet you were thinking you’d be stuck with me doing the daily linkblogging shuffle. Lucky for you, I’m not that mean.

Instead, we’re bringing in some special guests to pitch in. Joining us for the next few weeks is Rich Watson, who generously agreed to help us out in our time of need. You might know Rich from his blog, Glyphs, or his columns at Comic World News and PopCultureShock. Welcome aboard, Rich!

Dark Horse brings us a menagerie this week that includes a sock monkey and a chickenhare, Tom Beland brings romance to Image and Marvel gets its MAX undead groove on with Zombie. Yep, ladies and gents, that means it is once again time for Can’t Wait for Wednesday! While fans are still shaking their heads over last week’s Civil War (Clor — It’s What’s for Breakfast! Clor — The Other White Meat!), let’s hear from the Blog@ gang on this coming Wednesday’s comics …

Chris Hunter’s Pick of the Week

Without a doubt, it’s The Ultimates #12. Millar and Hitch have done it again (both in terms of a great story and taking forever to complete it) and I’m anxiously awaiting the conclusion of this volume to see what’s being set up for Loeb and MAD in Vol. 3.

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Mad props to our resident Fenton & Fenton artist and all-around cool person Stacie Ponder, who today takes her brand of stick-figure madness to Webcomics Nation:

What exactly does this mean? Well, for one thing, at the launch Toosday Toons will become a daily webstrip! Yes, yes…something called Toosday Toons will be appearing Monday through Friday now. I realize that’s strange and makes no sense, but I think it’s my way of being funny. Or my way of being drunk…meh, whatevs.

What else does this mean? I’ll be running multiple strips under the Stick-o-Vision banner, that’s what. In other words, there will be LOTS more stick stuff going on in the coming weeks at Webcomics Nation than my meager offerings here.

Go check her stuff out at Webcomics Nation. And if you’re wondering about Fenton & Fenton, it is on hiatus for a bit while writer Kevin Melrose recovers from Bell’s palsy, but will be back soon. Stay tuned!

Several papers over the weekend, including USA Today, had reviews of Heroes, the new super hero drama that premieres on NBC tonight:

Dense, dark, a little dreary and yet oddly intriguing, Heroes seems destined to attract an audience that is more loyal than large. A distinctive, dark-knight comic book brought to life, Heroes clearly isn’t for everyone, but that’s all right: Every show doesn’t have to be for everyone. What matters is that Heroes is likely to please viewers who like genre series, even when those series take themselves a tad too seriously.

They will, however, have to get past a pilot that is so devoted to setting a tone that it ignores the need to establish its characters or move along its story. And the pretentious twang to that tone is set by the opening credits, with their Star Wars-type graphic crawl and the promise that we are entering Chapter One, Volume One of an “epic tale.” It’s hard enough to get people to take high-concept shows seriously; there’s no need to actually invite derisive laughter.

And if you don’t want to wait until tonight to check it out, the first episode is also up on Yahoo.com.

Related: Heroes webisodes

The New York Times was comic-happy this weekend … in addition to the Platinum Studios article this weekend, their Religion section posted a story about the book Up,Up and Oy Vey!, , which takes a look at the crossroads of comic books and Judaism:

That insight, among others drawn from Rabbi Weinstein’s study of the classic superhero comics, infuses a new book, “Up, Up and Oy Vey!” The volume, which has nearly sold out its first run of 5,000 copies, contends that writer-artists of the classic comics, many of them Jewish, were influenced by their religious heritage in devising characters and plots.

“I feel queasy when I read people who use pop culture to try to proselytize,” said Rabbi Weinstein, a member of the Lubavitcher Hasidic sect who is the campus rabbi at Pratt Institute. “And I didn’t want to enforce my own fantasy.

“But I knew the writers were Jewish. That’s a historical fact. And when I bought all the comics, and gave them my rabbi’s reading, I saw something there. Judaism is filled with superheroes and villains — Samson, Pharaoh. And it’s a religion rich in storytelling and in themes of being moral, ethical, spiritual.”

The New York Times took a look at webcomics this weekend, in particular Platinum Studios and their recent purchase of drunkduck.com:

Platinum, a relative newcomer in an industry dominated by Marvel and DC Comics, took the first step last month when it bought DrunkDuck.com, a popular Webcomics site, for an undisclosed sum. It is opening the revamped site today at the same Web address as DrunkDuck 2.0.

Mr. Rosenberg plans to begin publishing Platinum’s comic books online before they go to press for traditional distribution through stores and newsstands.

“We’re tearing down the wall” that has separated traditional printed comic books from those emerging online, he said. “We completely believe in this model.”

But will the model pay off? Rosenberg talks about the business potential as well:

But a crucial difference, he said, will be in how Platinum plans to use the site to create a broad mix of revenue streams, “full-circle commercialization,” for the company and its content contributors.

For example, Mr. Rosenberg said he planned aggressive marketing of the site — which already receives a million unique viewers a month, mostly drawn by word of mouth — coupled with advertising sales. While the advertising revenue would not be shared with the comic creators, artists would share in the revenue from downloadable comics for cellphones and mobile media devices like iPods, comics-related ring tones, wallpaper and items like T-shirts or plastic scale models of comic book characters.

Marc Mason at Comics Waiting Room has a report up on this past weekend’s Phoenix Cactus Comicon:

This year’s show displayed its ambition not only in becoming a two-day con, but also in its guest list. The previous one-offs had a small, but solid, list of pros on the bill, but 2006 promised far grander things. Arizona fans weren’t just getting one or two out of town guys and all the locals (like Mike Bullock and Raven Gregory); instead, folks like Mike Mayhew, Billy Tan, Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Conner, and Josh Blaylock were going to show. That not only enhanced the con as a destination for future guests, but should also serve to draw a solid attendance number when badges are counted after Sunday closes

That isn’t to say, however, that all things were pulled off smoothly.

He talks about about the pros and cons, then focuses in on some interesting quotes from Jimmy Palmiotti:

- Palmiotti on why write with a partner: “It’s always more fun to do something with someone else… masturbation included.”
- Jimmy on his former partners Joe Quesada and Dan Didio becoming Editors-in-Chief: “It was a rough period, because neither of them wanted to look like they were being preferential to me. I had to re ‘break in’ in some ways.”
- Gray on pitching and getting rejected and how to improve your chances: “Ask why it sucks.”
- The duo discussed why team writers aren’t as prevalent in comics. One reason: they’re difficult to market.
- When taking over a title, they use peoples’ research about characters that they find on the internet, as long as it’s solidly and smartly done.
- Jimmy on not finding sales success every time: “It doesn’t matter if you fail; it’s still better than nothing happening. Do not be afraid to fail.”
- How does the duo resolve creative differences? “Talk it out- like a courtroom drama.” Palmiotti added, “Ego is not good,” and described previous battles about the location of names in the credit box.
- The pair works far in advance, as not to leave artists begging for scripts. They are currently scripting HEROES FOR HIRE #8, and only issue one has shipped.
- Start your guesses: responding to a question about their exclusive contract with DC, Palmiotti noted that DC knew that some artists who liked the duo would likely follow them in order to work with them again. The name Khary Evans wasn’t spoken, but ya gotta figure…

From the Fantagraphics blog:

Next Thursday, Sept. 28 is the GALA opening of “FANTAGRAPHICS 1976 - 2006″ at the Society of Illustrators in New York. This massive art exhibition features over 100 original pieces by dozens of authors published by Fantagraphics over the last 30 years, including Daniel Clowes, Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez, Chris Ware, Peter Bagge, Jim Woodring, Joe Sacco, Carol Tyler, Ivan Brunetti, Tony Millionaire, Roberta Gregory, Bill Griffith, Richard Sala, Bob Fingerman, Steve Brodner, David B., Kim Deitch, Al Columbia, Drew Friedman, Kaz, Frank Frazetta (!) and many others. It will be an amazing show, with many iconic pieces from Fantagraphics’ history.

OPENING RECEPTION: Thursday, September 28th, 5:30 - 8:00PM

EXHIBITION: September 27th through October 21, 2006

WHERE: Museum of American Illustration at the Society of Illustrators
128 East 63rd Street, New York, NY 10021
Tuesday 10 - 8, Wed-Fri 10 - 5, Sat 12 - 4

ISEB reports that Spider-Man director Sam Raimi will be producing the mini-series ArchEnemies for the silver screen:

IESB can exclusively report that Sam Raimi has just penned a deal with Dark Horse Entertaiment and Josh Donen to produce ArchEnemies, a Dark Horse Comics release based on two roommates who as their costumed alter egos are mortal enemies.

Sam Raimi, Josh Donen and Mike Richardson will all be serving as producers. No writer or director have been decided on as of yet.

The book was created by Drew Melbourne and Yvel Guichet, and was published earlier this year by Dark Horse.

The largest female superhero fan community I’ve been able to find is on livejournal, happily writing fanfiction and discussing their favorite creators. They tend to avoid male-dominated message boards, blogs, and even reading overwhelmingly masculine publications such as Wizard. While there is an argument that the very comics they read are just as male-dominated, this is normally filed away as ambiguous or unintentional enough not to disturb their reading habits. There are letters written, and rants posted, but very little actual malice is ascribed to the creators (and when it is ascribed, it’s usually ascribed to repeat offenders). Avoiding the rest of fandom seems to make this possible.

However, this community of aspiring and casual writers contains no small number of ambitious artists. It was inevitable that one of them would buy Wizard’s “How to Draw” series to see what sort of secrets they could glean from it. Possibly enough to crack the glass ceiling and finally show the comics community how women actually stand. It was also inevitable that they’d share with the rest of the community, particularly when discussing how female characters are currently portrayed.

For those of you who can’t imagine the kind of reaction finding out what was actually going through the minds of male artists as they drew female bodies would cause, here’s some of the better ones: (more…)

Clor! It’s a new bussword on the internet!

Clor! It’s the truely terrifying return of the God of Thunder for Marvel Comics!

Clor! It’s a weird turn of events in an epic storyline for an entire universe!

Clor! … Can they really do that?
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