As comic writer/B@N alumni Neil Kleid pointed out in the comments section of Kevin’s post from earlier today, Wizard isn’t wasting time in looking to fill Pat McCallum’s shoes, having already posted a job ad on mediabistro (registration required):

SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES INCLUDE:
• Acting as a Brand Manager for Wizard Entertainment’s publications to all aspects of the company, as well as with all partners and stakeholders, with an empathetic knowledge of editorial’s role in helping each area to reach its individual and collective goals
• Consistently position Wizard Entertainment as a thought leader in its respective marketplaces, within its diverse communities as well as to outside media
• Facilitate/moderate public events that Wizard Entertainment sponsors and/or hosts in conjunction with other sponsors or content providers
• Proactively represent Wizard Entertainment at events/forums to ascertain trends, develop content ideas
• Insure the editorial mission and distinct messages of the various publications are achieved
• Oversee the entire online and print editorial process, ensuring that all publications are produced within budget and timelines
• Strategize, develop and manage all content creation for print, web and other rich media
• Proactively engage and manage both internal and external writing and journalism staff
• Draw positive attention to the publication through excellence in journalism, editorial content, print quality and overall media

Additional requirements are listed over at mediabistro –none of which say anything about knowing something about comics.

You only live twice:

Once when you’re born

And once when you look death in the face.

– Epigraph from You Only Live Twice (1964), by Ian Fleming 

The new James Bond has me thinking about an old Flash.  (It always comes back to the Flash, somehow….)  SPOILERS for Casino Royale and other Bond adventures after the jump.

(more…)

Over at Wizard’s website, Kaare Andrews talks about his upcoming Spider-Man: Reign series, where he does Dark Knight for a more friendly, neighborhood superhero:

Using a combination of digital colors, 3-D models and inking with a nib, Andrews aimed for a unique design for Reign which he describes as “that ‘80s kind of dirty, ‘ugly art’ style.”

“I remember when my cover was leaked to the Internet a couple people on message boards were like, ‘Who is this?’” jokes Andrews. “One guy was like, ‘Man, that’s just some crappy fan art’ [Laughs]. Maybe, but that’s the style of the book.”

For those who don’t think that it’s going to be Dark Knight enough, look at the narration on one of the preview pages: “I look into those eyes and all I see is myself. Old. Weak. Beaten. My cupboards are bare.” Good soldier. Brave soldier.

Marvel Comics wants to know what Matt Fraction listens to, while blowing your mind on books like Iron Fist, Punisher War Journal and Casanova:

“King of Carrot Flowers, Part 1,” Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea

This record. My god, this record. This record is… it’s like a singularity in space-time. Light bends around its edges. Essential in the wooing of my wife, before she was my wife. I sang this song into her answering machine one night because when you’re in love you do doofy s— like that. Anyway, woman wooed, and song hereby immortalized in our legend. At our wedding we made CDs for the guests, and this was the lead track. Well, after the answering machine message from THE ROCKFORD FILES. Can you imagine what it felt like to have made this album? I wanted to write a story about this guy, Jeff Mangum. And how he must’ve realized when they were done with this that that was it for him– he’s said what he had to say, and he’d never say it any better, and rather than diminish what he had accomplished he’d just sit down and stay quiet. Can you imagine? You’re, what, 26 years old and you’ve made one of the most important and meaningful records of your era. Where do you find the strength of character to not keep going? How do you walk away from that? It staggers me. Both his decision and his work. I’ve listened to this album ten million times and I get goose-bumps every single time.

Paul O’Brien and Marc-Oliver Frisch are looking at the October sales figures again. Marvel sales are pretty much as you’d expect, although Fabian Nicieza is having a good month:

Now here’s something unusual - CABLE & DEADPOOL returns to its regular stories after three CIVIL WAR crossover issues, and actually holds on to a chunk of its audience gain. Okay, most of the extra readers left as soon as the crossover finished. But an improvement from 25K to 30K is worth having. The book must have done something to hook the readers - most of the crossover titles have just gone straight back to normal afterwards… Hmm. [Thunderbolts is a]nother CIVIL WAR tie-in book which returns to normal and holds on to a big chunk of the audience, jumping from 23K to 29K. The common factor with these two books is writer Fabian Nicieza - does he have a knack for holding on to crossover audiences? If so, it’s arguably somewhat ironic that Marvel are giving the book an overhaul and a relaunch with Warren Ellis at the helm. Then again, chances are Marvel will still end up with a higher selling book by taking this route, so it probably makes sense at the end of the day. Issue #104, now in its second printing, picks up 9,758 extra sales.

Meanwhile, over at DC:

The relaunch of the WildStorm Universe flagship title by the creative team of writer Grant Morrison and artist Jim Lee finally showed up on October 18, having missed its initial shipping date on September 6. It’s the highest-selling WildStorm issue by a wide margin since ICv2.com launched their current system of estimates back in March 2003, and probably then some… That the resulting boost to Wildcats sales is enormous compared to the book’s other recent incarnations doesn’t come as a great surprise. Morrison and Lee’s “superstar” status in the industry aside, the creators and the publisher made it plain that the new title was going to take its cue from the book’s colorful and commercially highly successful early-nineties roots as WildC.A.T.s rather than from the more experimental tone of Wildcats Volume 2 and Wildcats Version 3.0. The intention behind the revamp, evidently, is to pull out all the stops and restore the flagging WildStorm line to commercial health.

While sales in excess of 80K are certainly a solid foundation to that end, it should be pointed out that a limited variant edition scheme was attached to Wildcats #1, so as to motivate retailers to order the book more generously than they might have done otherwise. This practice can currently be relied upon to yield higher numbers early on, but it usually also means that the sales of subsequent issues — no matter if supported by further variant cover editions or not — decline all the more sharply. Wetworks, for instance, which debuted last month and was supported with the same gimmick, saw a rather drastic second-issue drop in October… Further, it’s emphatically unclear at present whether Wildcats will come out with any regularity. Morrison, who is one of the architects of the logistically daunting weekly title 52, recently had some trouble finishing Seven Soldiers, resulting in a six-month delay for the final issue. And Lee is already hopelessly and embarrassingly behind on his other current assignment, All-Star Batman, the most recent issue of which shipped in May 2006. Wildcats #2, initially scheduled for November 2006, was recently resolicited for a March 2007 release. Now, according to Lee, that’s merely a hypothetical date resulting from Diamond’s solicitation deadlines, which allowed for no earlier placement: The book will actually come out earlier than that, Lee says. But, really, I’m not tempted to hold my breath.

Wildcats is off to a strong start, but there’s ample reason to be skeptical about its future.

Much more in the links.

Mark Millar wants you to know that he’s happy:

Okay, I’m writing Kick-Ass right now …and, I kid you not, this is the most fun I’ve maybe ever had writing a comic. I’m wrapping up for the night in two mins and I honestly can’t wait to get back to the computer tomorrow. This is all the coolest bits of Ultimate Cap, Enemy of the State and The Midnighter distilled into a single serum and injected straight into your eyeball. JRJR will knock this out of the park and the main female superhero is the best character I’ve ever done.

You guys are going to LOVE this.

Spring cannot get here fast enough!

Kick-Ass is, depending on how you look at it, the last of the first wave of Mark Millar’s creator-owned Millarworld books, or the first in a second wave. Either way, it’s going to be an Icon book over at Marvel, illustrated by John Romita Jr., so it’ll look good if nothing else.

At Scryptic Studios, writer-artist Phil Hester discusses crafting short stories, and what makes a good anthology:

Talent and variety. I love getting a new vision every five pages, even when the material is uneven. When all the talent is great, then seeing a new vision every five pages is absolutely exhilarating.

I’d love to see an anthology that had straight science fiction, super heroes, horror, art house, and humor material together. In my world those forms are not in competition with one another, they may be in the real marketplace, but not in my library. Not to get all Disney on you, but I think Iron Man and Acme Novelty and Flaming Carrot are part of the same tapestry, not disparate threads pulling away from one another. It would do a D&Q reader good to see a really kick-ass barbarian story, just as it would do a Witchblade reader good to see James Kochalka work his magic. I’m dreaming.

There’s more good stuff at the link.

USA Today has the first look at the Fantasticar from Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.

Comic Book Resources is reporting that Wizard Entertainment Group has fired Senior Vice President/Editor-in-Chief Pat McCallum. An official announcement is expected later today.

McCallum, who oversaw all the company’s publications, was one of the original staff members of Wizard magazine.

As the CBR story notes, it’s been a bumpy year for Wizard Entertainment Group, on both the publishing and convention fronts.

In May, Wizard laid off seven employees from its various magazines, including Anime Insider and Inquest. According to Newsarama, a source said staff members were told the lay-offs were based on “revenue issues.”

Then in August, less than a week after Wizard World Chicago, the company fired its senior convention staffers, Stewart Morales and Gabe Fieramosco.

Update: Wizard has issued a press release that lists McCallum’s firing among “several staffing changes,” that include new hires in the publishing and convention divisions.

The release limits mention of McCallum to one sentence: “Additionally, Wizard announced that Editor-in-Chief Pat McCallum and Wizard Entertainment have parted ways.”

Isn’t it amazing to see so many comic book movies available?  Not too long ago, we had Dolph Lundgren’s Punisher or the bad taste of Schumacher Batman films making comics look bad.  Now it seems like every year there’s a new flick taken from the pages of our favorite funny books.  Some of them are gold, others totally miss the mark, but it still gets unknown characters out into the public consciousness.

That doesn’t mean people are reading the books.

(more…)

Via The Comics Reporter comes news that Scott McCloud has posted chapter “5 and a half” of his recent book Making Comics. The additional chapter expands on making web comics.

Go check it out.

Jimmie Robinson wants you to know - You’re really not helping:

Creators, like myself, demand more from you than cover price. If you read my books, whether from Image, Marvel, or DC, then I expect you to share the love. Why keep it a secret? Why not tell others outside the “cottage”? … [W]e need to support comics. No, not support selected titles. I’m talking comics… the art form. Share the love. Give comics as gifts, use comics in education, break the stereotypes of, “Biff, Bam, Boom!” newspaper reporting. Introduce kids to comics, buy comics in all forms, zines, self-published, web comics, strips, Independent, mainstream, all-ages, adult, trades and single issues. If you’re only shelling out for Civil War then you’re not helping. In short, supporting yourself - not the medium as a whole. I’m not advocating you purchase everything in the store – nobody is that rich, nor have the time to read it. But when I read that retailers speak of their customers “by the numbers” it worries me that too many are walking lock-step to select titles and not taking advantage of everything comics has to offer. Retailers listen to their customers, but most readers hardly talk to the storeowners, or clerks. Today’s retailer has hundreds, if not thousands, of titles to sell, but without your help that stock will tilt one way, or another. Retailers can’t read your mind, but they will try when they have no option. No help. What can you expect when so many are making a beeline to a book, to the register, and out the door? Stop, smell the roses. Show interest in books that you like, and let retailers know. Don’t merely hope it will show up on the shelf, ask for it by name.

A lot more at the link, but let’s just say that his words haven’t met a receptive audience:

(more…)

Tom Beland, of True Story Swear To God fame, asks the Bendis Board a question:

Every time I pick up an Alan Moore book, I feel like I was given a test in high school and, instead of studying, I played Playstation all week. His work, most of all, PROMETHIA, goes right over my head.

But y’know what..? I still buy it. I buy everything the man puts out because he makes me WANT to figure it out, even if it’s baby steps. I think there should be books out there that challenge you in a way you’ve never been challenged as a comics reader.

So, in a way, I support Moore’s quest to make me feel like an idiot.

Who out there writes over YOUR head and do you buy their work?

The response is kind of overwhelming:

(more…)

Publishers Weekly looks at WW Norton’s new editions of the work of Will Eisner:

[Eisner] proposed that Norton purchase the rights to the Will Eisner library from DC Comics in 2004 while working with [WW Norton editor, Robert] Weil on [Eisner's last graphic novel] The Plot, while making it clear his groundbreaking comic The Spirit should remain at DC. In an interview with PW Comics Week, Weil stressed that Eisner “loved DC and had great relations with them to the end. What he did was separate The Spirit from his literary works—he wanted a separation of the two, to get his books into bookstores. He wanted his novels with a literary house.”

To market the paperbacks, Norton will give out samples to reps and to literature, history and graphics teachers. Weil also explained, “We have developed the best galley list: people who venerate Will Eisner, people who love Will and write about Will.” The company will send the initial three paperbacks from the Contract with God Trilogy to the approximately 125 people on that list. Libraries have been a strong market for Eisner, although there is no plan to market specifically to them beyond featuring the books in the Norton catalogue. “[Librarians] come to our catalogue because they know about us,” Weil said.

Also included in the line will be Eisner’s previously unpublished final book, an illustration tutorial called Will Eisner’s Expressive Anatomy.

Mark Millar turns Roger Ebert as he reviews the new Superman DVD box set that just appeared this past week:

My God… eight hours and I’ve merely skimmed the surface. Watched the Donner cut [of Superman II] last night and was strangely moved. So much so I watched all the appropriate extras and then watched the movie again with Donner and Tom M’s commentary (which was great). Lots of friends are judging this against the Lester version which is unfair because this isn’t Donner’s cut. It’s 70% of the footage he wanted and even then it’s unedited, the score is off and the effects aren’t perfect. They also have to do their best with screen tests and bits of Lester footage so it’s much too choppy to judge as a movie… I won’t say it was a triumph, but may Allah forgive me, in the parallel world where Donner got to make this I really do think it would have been better than Superman The Movie. The Lois scene at the start is priceless and so charming and genuinely quite funny that my daughter was transfixed. Like Russell’s Doctor Who, this stuff is funny without being goofy and really lures kids in. I love Batman Begins more than any movie this decade (besides The Departed), but kids hate it. Donner really captured something that appealed to kids and adults. It’s sometimes a little TOO broad, but this was one of the best DVDs ever.

Also watched the extras on Superman 3 and 4. The Superman 3 stuff is weird because even the extras are all about Pryor and you realize those Newman pricks and Lester just wanted to make a bad, non-sweary Richard Pryor movie. I loathe that film more than I could ever loathe 4 which, deep down, was actually trying.

Much more in the link, including Mark’s next starring role:

This week’s a bit mental as I had physio yesterday (still building up after being sick at Easter), out with pals today and doing the other half of a short documentary with some media studies students tomorrow. A really nice bunch from Uni have foolishly chosen me as the subject for their degree show and last week we were at my old school, the house I was born, the chapel where I was an altar boy, etc. Tomorrow they’re here in the house and we’ll get a look around everything from the Superman cape in the hall to my crappy comic collection to the dog doing a jobbie in the garden.

I’ve repeatedly expressed my love for Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson’s stories in The Dark Horse Book of … series about a group of talking dogs and a cat who battle supernatural forces. So I’m a little sad that The Dark Horse Book of Monsters, due in stores today, is the last of the anthologies.

However, I was cheered up by Dorkin’s latest Livejournal entry, in which he writes: “Unfortunately, as I said, this is the last book in the series — but the good news is that Jill and I are in discussions with Dark Horse about continuing our animal stories. So stay tuned.”

At Wired News, Lore Sjoberg from silly superheroes to badly named characters.

If Terra-Man and the U-Foes are the worst Sjoberg can come up with, I suggest he track down some old copies of Who’s Who and The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. No Balbo the Boy Magician or Polka-Dot Archer? What about In-Betweener or Mongoose?

Ah, well. Of She-Hulk, Sjoberg writes: “I guess I should be glad they didn’t call her ‘Hulk Woman,’ or worse yet, ‘Hulk Girl.’ Still, female comic book characters deserve more than a half-assedly feminized version of another hero’s name. They have to put up with those bust-lifting outfits, fighting in high heels, and that painful-looking pose where their lower spine forms a perfect ‘J,’ at the least they should get a name of their own.”

He has a point there. I’ll fight him about Robin, though.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, HBO is developing Vertigo’s Preacher as a one-hour series — welcome news to fans who’ve seen previous attempts to adapt the comic go nowhere.

Mark Steven Johnson (Ghost Rider, Daredevil) will write the pilot, while Howard Deutch (Grumpier Old Men, Pretty in Pink) is set to direct. They’ll serve as executive producers, along with George Agusto, Chris Bender, Michael De Luca and JC Spink.

Preacher creators Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, and their representative Ken Levin, will be co-executive producers.

The article doesn’t mention a timeline for the series.

As The Hollywood Reporter notes, Preacher, which ran for 66 issues from 1995 to 2000, helped to define DC’s Vertigo imprint.