Action Comics #844 arrived yesterday [unlike Seven Soldiers #1 -- I'm in the Memphis service area, apparently], but does it signal the start of the “Donner Superman?”

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Via Newsday comes the story about the rise of Principal Poopypants, arch enemy of the popular children’s book hero Captain Underpants:

If the captain’s creator, author Dav Pilkey, were to write the story of the conflict Wednesday at Long Beach High School, it might open like this: The evil school principal went insane with horror when he saw three girls strolling brazenly through hallways looking like caped crusaders. Naked caped crusaders.

But in reality, principal Nicholas Restivo is simply an administrator who, on Superhero Day, had a problem with the way the three seniors were dressed. He issued them an ultimatum: Change clothes, cover up or leave school.

At the root of the clash was Captain Underpants, chubby superhero star of popular children’s books in which he battles talking toilets and foes such as Professor Poopypants.

Peter David comments on his blog (and gives the principal his new nickname):

What the hell was he TALKING about? They were wearing capes, so seen from the back, they wouldn’t appear topless. Seen from the front, they would only appear naked if the biology teachers at Long Beach failed to teach the kids that girls have breasts. Nevertheless, the mere suggestion was enough to make Principal Poopypants issue an ultimatum that the clever teens cover up. Having no clothes to change into, the girls had to go home.

The Principal (real name Nicholas Restivo) stated he didn’t know the character, “not that it mattered.” Talk about having your underpants in a bunch. Someone should send Principal Poopypants a collection of the series.

Two things … first, Superhero Day is an awesome idea; I wish they had it when I was in school. Second, “The outfits looked so much like nude skin that they caused a commotion among students, Restivo said.” I’m sure the subsequent media coverage hasn’t done anything to cause a commotion … nice work, principal!

Mike Miller: He’s not all about Christianity anymore:

Five secular comic book series that were left out in the cold when Alias Comics decided to concentrate on the Christian bookstore market (see “Alias Refocuses Efforts“) have found a new home at Abacus Comics, a new company headed by Alias Comics’ Executive Director Mike S. Miller.  Three of Miller’s own titles, Imaginaries, Lullaby, and Sixgun Samurai will move to Abacus along with two Mortal World Entertainment books, Kord and Harley, and Soulless.

Abacus already has a website, with some interesting ground rules for what they’ll publish:

Comics have to be ongoing series. Mini-series come and go, and no-one cares a year later. With our ‘ongoing only’ policy, we give fans time to care about the characters we create.

“Mini-series come and go, and no-one cares a year later”? Isn’t that almost as if they’re admitting that they can’t do good mini-series? I mean, if the mini is good, people will still care a year later…

If it’s Thursday, then Andy Diggle is revisiting past successes:

I’ve been so wrapped up in all these new projects, I almost lost sight of the fact that the final LOSERS graphic novel has just been published – so if you missed out on the series first time round, now’s the perfect time to jump on board and find out what you’ve been missing.

You can read THE LOSERS from start to finish in five graphic novels.

It’s a contemporary action-thriller about a U.S. Special Forces team who are betrayed by their CIA handler. Targeted for assasination after they learn too much about one of the Agency’s dirtier operations, they decide to fight back the only way they know how – by declaring war on the CIA itself – and in doing so, find themselves embroiled in a top-level conspiracy using falsified intelligence to seize control of the Middle East’s oil supply.

Thing is, I started writing THE LOSERS over a year before we even invaded Iraq. Funny how things turn out, ennit… ?

THE LOSERS won the 2004 National Comics Award for Best New Comic, and was nominated for the 2004 Eisner Award for Best New Series.

Warner Bros are turning it into a movie.

Now if you only want to read comics about grown men in tights agonizing about relationship issues and bemoaning their burden of responsibility, then THE LOSERS probably isn’t for you. But if you want some ballsy entertainment that doesn’t treat you like a fucking idiot, you could do worse than start here.

(There’s an identical posting at The Engine, so it looks like Diggle’s wanting everyone to remember the series that made his name in the US…)

Steven Grant is looking for a few good men. Who don’t want paid:

Anyone interested in giving me a hand for absolutely no money and probably not even much respect or fame?

I want to do a column on working plot to art to script style and am looking for five artists to each draw the same page of plot I come up with – it’ll be something not very complicated – so I can discuss the differences of approach toward the same material and highlight just what a weird crapshoot working “Marvel” style is. It’ll cost you a page of pencils, but you can keep the page; I just need a scan. Unless it also becomes an article for JUST WRITE!, but Danny can work out those details if it happens. Thanks.

Later, he goes into more detail about what he’s looking for:

I’m not planning to get into the “right” or “wrong” way to do things. It’s just a demonstration, because I don’t think a lot of people quite get how much room for variation there is in the Marvel method, and how much any apparently transparent description of desired/necessary visuals can be interpreted by different artists. If possible I’m going to do a thumbnail of what I saw in my head when generating the page, which will be a fairly simple scenario, nothing spectacular or especially noteworthy.

It’s something I can talk about all I want but that won’t have the same impact or information value as showing what I’m talking about. I wish in retrospect I’d been able to do that with my chat about timing a few weeks back.

I’m figuring running this in a couple of weeks.

He doesn’t say for sure, but I’m guessing this would run in his Permanent Damage column at CBR.

Hellboy: Sword of Storms, the first of the animated Hellboy movies, debuts Saturday at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT on Cartoon Network.

In Sword of Storms, “a professor of folklore opens a forbidden scroll and becomes possessed by the ancient Japanese demons of Thunder and Lightning, who seek to return and dominate our world. The Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense sends Hellboy and a team of agents to investigate, but when Hellboy picks up a samurai sword, he literally disappears into a weird wonderland of Japanese legends, ghosts and monsters.”

The movie will be available on DVD beginning Feb. 6.

Related: The Hellboy Animated production diary

The relatively recent debut of a post-Crisis Kara Zor-El has been generating a lot of controversy and discussion for the past year.

From her build and costume to her attitude and demeanor, this current Supergirl is very different from any of her predecessors and everyone has an opinion about it.

Today’s topic centers around a young artist’s redesign of the character, with a more realistic build and a more conservative costume.

Point

Dawn at “My OTHER Comic Book Blog” is showcasing the re-design in her post, this is how to draw Supergirl:

Excerpt:

Aren’t those just exactly what Supergirl should be? She’s strong, confident and standing in a classic and powerful pose. She’s wearing a uniform instead of a stripper costume and those gloves…I love that. Gloves mean business.

Counterpoint

Not everyone agrees, however, Shelly of “Shelly’s Comic Book Shelf” posts why it doesn’t work for her.

Excerpt:

Kara is striving to carve her niche, find her identity, and a costume that mimics Superman’s so strongly negates that for me. Keep the S somewhere, keep the colors, but she needs a unique look. Like it or hate it, what she has now doesn’t make me think about Superman at all.

What do you think?

Over at Ain’t It Cool News, Squashua makes a pitch to promote literacy, rather than tooth decay, next Tuesday:

I have given out comics from my house for the last 4 years, and only once has a child complained. Most of the time I get happy kids who start requesting certain heroes like the X-Men or Batman or Spider-Man. Once I handed a kid a recent, slightly-bent, issue of JLA and his eyes lit up and he proclaimed, “Cool! Old-fashioned comic books!” I didn’t know whether to smile or take it back and kick him off of my porch. I let him keep it. You’ll get that sometimes. Don’t let them make you feel too old.

“I got a Sgt. Rock.” Ha!

Meanwhile, Comic Coverage needs your help in putting together a “Bizarro Justice League” made up of “poorly-costumed contestants gathered from the dregs of internet photo galleries.” This week you can vote on Batman.

Wired has asked numerous writers – including such comics luminaries as Frank Miller and Stan Lee – to write short stories that last exactly six words. Alan Moore’s contribution is by far my favorite:

Machine. Unexpectedly, I’d invented a time

The marketing-industry trade publication Brandweek cuts to the chase in its coverage of the Marvel Comics-Guiding Light crossover:

Marvel Comics, like the stereotypical buyer of its products, is trying to figure out how to meet women. Tired of waiting for members of the opposite sex to wander in to the comic book store, the company is going where the women are by teaming up with CBS’ long-running soap opera Guiding Light. The comic book publisher this week began placing a special insert into some of its titles that has superhero group the New Avengers visiting Springfield, which is home to the Guiding Light’s characters. Next Monday Guiding Light returns the favor with an episode titled “She’s a Marvel,” in which one of the show’s characters gains superpowers.

“We were really attracted to this as a way to get access to a new audience,” said David Gabriel, Marvel Publishing’s vp-sales and marketing. “The soaps’ audience is all women and ours is all men.”

Sure, the lead is a little pointed, but the article goes on to chronicle Marvel’s recent attempts to woo female readers with titles like Runaways and Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane:

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There is something about over sexualized art for a moderate story that is jarring to my eyeballs.  When the plot is just as ridiculous as the breast sizes (a la Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose), I can let it go.  It’s as if a comic that understands its place in the universe should be respected, whether it’s your cup of tea or not.  If that copy of Genus Male isn’t trying to be some Hugo Award winning novel or treatise on socio-political philosophy, there’s no reason to get on its case for being the best little gay adult furry anthology it can be.  But when a book takes itself pretty seriously and it’s dressing up in tacky cheesecake artwork, I tend to stop reading the book and start asking myself, “Why is this panel directing me to look at her crotch?”
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Kevin Cannon is taking 24-Hour Comics Day to the extreme:

Hello, Friends. As millions of you already know, I have accepted a challenge from Steve Stwalley to produce a graphic novel in 288 hours. It’s like the 24 Hour Comic Day event, but hurts more. I completed the first chapter over the weekend, from 7pm on Friday, October 20 to 7pm on Saturday, October 21. If all goes according to plan, look for a new chapter around the end of each month. And if all REALLY goes according to plan, I’ll draw the final chapter during the 2007 24 Hour comics day event in Minneapolis, shoulder to shoulder with the evil mastermind who concocted this scheme: yes, once again, Steve Stwalley.

Follow his progress over at the Big Time Attic blog.

Publishers Weekly reports back from Yaoi-con 2006:

Although there is a clash between fans’ desire for more explicit yaoi titles and the concerns publishers have about publishing and distributing explicit material, at least one bookstore buyer found that embracing yaoi has paid off. Felicia Lam is a buyer for a Borders Express store in downtown Portland, Ore. A yaoi fan herself, Lam began ordering from small yaoi publishers like DramaQueen and Be Beautiful and now stocks a full line of yaoi titles. Lam said she hasn’t witnessed any negative reactions; in fact, the yaoi fans in her area have expressed gratitude by becoming loyal customers. “My manager [told me], ‘If you were on commission, you’d be a millionaire,’ ” Lam said.

Meanwhile, if hot boy-on-boy action doesn’t do it for you but you like the laydeez, then don’t worry. Yuri is coming:

Seven Seas Entertainment has announced a new imprint, Strawberry, which will publish a slate of yuri (girl-on-girl) romantic manga… In 2007 Seven Seas will release the first titles under its Strawberry imprint in a new 5-7/8″ x 8-1/4″ format.  The initial titles will include Sakurako Kimino’s Strawberry Panic (the manga), which will act as a sister release to the previously announced Strawberry Panic light novels; Mera Hakamada’s popular series Saigo no Seifuku (“The Last Uniform”), about the crushes and heartbreaks at a girls’ boarding school; and the yuri-flavored occult fantasy series Tetragrammaton Labyrinth.

Michigan has less than two weeks to prepare:

SNAP! The Comic Arts Festival 2006 is less than two weeks away! …The goal of SNAP! is to showcase local, self-published and small press comic creators. And for the first time, there will be a live music halftime to help create a unique and inviting ambience… Small press gatherings like SNAP! are gaining attention around the country for their focus on the art of graphic storytelling. These events give the creators unfettered access to the multitude of fans hungry for new ideas and stories in a more intimate setting. “The small press and self-publishing comic book scene is increasingly thought of as the way to make a name for yourself in this business.” says event coordinator Dan Merritt “And the success of SNAP! last year proved that the media savy people in the metro Detroit market know that this is the place to discover a new favorite or catch up with the works of an established veteran.”

In his syndicated column, Andrew Smith plays the matching game with NBC’s Heroes, trying to pair the show’s characters with their closest comic-book counterparts. Here are a couple:

Isaac Mendez (Santiago Cabrera): New York artist Isaac can paint the future — but only when he’s high on heroin. How sucky is that for a power? And his paintings (actually created by comic-book artist Tim Sale) predict a deadly future that it’s hoped our “Heroes” can prevent … if anyone will take the ravings of a junkie seriously.

In the comics: Larry Trask (X-Men) and Madame Web (Spider-Man), among others, can see the future in bits and pieces.

Niki Sanders (Ali Larter): A single mom who puts her kid through private school by stripping on the Internet and borrowing from the wrong people, Niki seems to have a murderous doppelganger in the mirror who replaces her in times of danger, with fatal results for the bad guys. How this works exactly — and whether Niki and her secret sharer are one person or two — is unclear.

In the comics: In DC’s Rose & Thorn, gentle Rose Forrest had a split personality, becoming the violent Thorn in times of stress. DC’s Enchantress had an almost identical schizophrenia. And speaking of people you don’t want to see angry, how about the incredible Hulk?

Related: Wired News profiles Masi “Hiro” Oka

The fine folks at Project Rooftop are sponsoring a Halloween-costume contest called “Fights, Flights and Tights”:

As usual, all you have to do is wow us with a cool redesign of a classic superhero, only this time it has to be a physical costume. Take some killer photos and send them to tights@projectrooftop.com! We’ll feature the best entries here on the site, and the best of the best will get original art of their design by our own Dean Trippe! The deadline for entries is November 5th, so there’s enough time to process your trick-or-treating shots.

With the contest announcement comes word that last year’s legendary Batgirl meme is back! For reals.

Frank Miller chats with MTV.com about the movie verison of 300:

“Heroes aren’t necessarily the people who get the medal at the end of the story, like Luke Skywalker does. Or get the woman, or get cheered at the end of every story or come back to school like Harry Potter,” Miller declared. “Heroes are the people who do things that are right.”

For the Spartans, doing what was right meant holding off the mammoth Persian invasion for as long as they could while Athenian fleets amassed offshore. They made it three spectacular days before finally getting slaughtered, and March 2007′s “300″ will depict all the drama, action and heroism as vividly as possible on film.

“There are a lot of good [scenes like] the first shot of the Spartan phalanx charging,” Miller enthused. “But one that is really startling and original is when the Spartans push a pile of corpses the size of a three-story building over on the enemy. It’s pretty startling.”

The Forbidden Planet blog talks to artist Sean Phillips about his early work, Marvel Zombies and his current collaboration with Ed Brubaker, Criminal:

With Criminal we get to decide everything from the logo to the story to the character designs to what back-up features we want. Because the book is published through Marvel’s Icon imprint, we have to turn in a complete book ready to print, and along with Val Staples on colour and general production duties we do that every month. As Ed and I own Criminal we feel that we have to get everything just right and are happy to do that to get the best book out there that we can. With the other books we did together we were playing with other people’s toys and as fun as that is, you have to give them back sometime. Ed and I both plan on producing Criminal as long as possible for years to come. Hopefully within two years Criminal will be all I’m doing in comics, leaving me some time to do more painting.

Phillips maintains a regularly updated blog that’s always worth checking out.

Marvel nudges Moon Knight toward TV

Variety reports that Marvel has partnered with No Equal Entertainment to produce a live-action TV series based on Moon Knight, the mercenary / superhero created in 1975 by Doug Moench and Don Perlin.

No production timeline is mentioned.

No Equal is the Vancouver-based production company of Larry Sugar, who has produced TV shows like The Collector, First Wave and Dead Man’s Gun.

A new Moon Knight monthly series, by Charlie Huston and David Finch, was launched in June.

Universal picks up Cobalt 60

Universal Pictures has acquired the film rights to Cobalt 60, the late Vaughn Bode’s ultra-violent underground comic set in a postapocalyptic world.

Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen) is set to direct.

Bode published just one story starring the masked Cobalt 60 in 1968. Bode’s son, Mark, revived the characters with Larry Todd in 1984 for Epic Illustrated.

SF Gate talks to Gene Yang, creator of American Born Chinese, about his work, and about being nominated for the 2006 National Book Award.