The Charlottesville, Va., Daily Progress reports that Golden Age artist Hardin “Jack” Burnley, co-creator of Starman, died Tuesday of complications due to a broken hip. He was 95.

Burnley was a syndicated sports cartoonist who illustrated for Damon Runyon before being hired by DC Comics. He drew the cover for New York World’s Fair Comics #2 (1940), which marked the first time Superman, Batman and Robin were depicted together. He’s noted as the first artist other than their creators to draw the characters.

Later that year, Burnley took over as artist on Action Comics until moving to Adventure Comics in 1941, where he created Starman with Gardner Fox.

He also drew several Batman covers, penciled the daily Superman comic strip and the Batman Sunday strip. Briefly in 1944, Burnley handled the Sunday installments of both Superman and Batman.

In 1947, he returned to newspaper illustration, working for the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph and then the San Francisco News, from which he retired in 1976. He and his wife, the late Dolores Farris, moved to Charlottesville in 1981.

Famke Janssen, a.k.a. the X-Men’s Jean Grey, is appearing in an ad for PETA … where she appears as Angel rather than Phoenix. Heh.

USA Today talks about the upcoming computer-animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie:

First-time feature writer/director Kevin Munroe, who has worked previously in video games, comics and TV animation, says he wanted to do total animation instead of simply inserting digital characters in a real world. He said it’s easier for the audience to suspend disbelief for such an offbeat story.

“This way there’s no break in the reality between CG and live-action,” Munroe says. “With (total) animation, there’s a continuous reality that exists for the whole thing. Your mind opens up a little bit more.”

Of course, another element that can help make or break an animated film is the voice talent involved, and the new TMNT is bringing a decent set of credentials to the film. Heck, it’s almost like the San Diego Comicon exploded, and the turtles picked up the pieces. Patrick Stewart (X-Men, Star Trek) and Zhang Ziyi (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) will voice villains in the film, while Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and Chris Evans (Fantastic Four) will voice April and Casey Jones, respectively. Kevin Smith (Daredevil:The Target #1) will have a small part as a chef. The turtles, however, will not have celebrity voices.

The Austin Chronicle assembles five local comics artists — Nick Derington, Tim Doyle, Rivkah Greulich, David Marquez and Mack White — to talk about the industry and breaking in.

Derington, Doyle, Marquez and Greulich also collaborated on the cover. (You can see a breakdown of who did what at Rivkah’s Livejournal.)

Jennifer de Guzman, editor-in-chief of Slave Labor Graphics, kicks off her new monthly column at Comic World News with a look at the recruitment of indie artists by DC Comics for its recently announced Minx imprint:

If you’re a follower of independent comics, you might have noticed some familiar names on the list of artists who are doing books for Minx: Andi Watson (lotsa stuff for SLG and Oni), Jim Rugg (Street Angel), Aaron Alexovich (Serenity Rose). There are other indie comics folks, too — Ross Campbell (Wet Moon), Derek Kirk Kim (Same Difference and Other Stories) and Josh Howard (Dead@17). This is because, as Aaron put it at the bulletin board The Engine, “when [Minx editor] Shelly [Bond] was building the line, she specifically sought out people who were doing work that ALREADY appealed to girls.” The result of this savvy head-hunting is sort of a mini-migration of promising young artists out of independent comics.

[snip]

This produces an unsettling feeling — in me, in any case. Independent publishers have taken the risks and done the work associated with introducing new talent, and in the end that work has amounted, in some cases, to us being a feeder for the “Big Two.” The consolation prize in all of this is something I’ve heard a few times already: If the Minx line does well, it can only mean better sales for these artists’ other work, right? Well, we certainly hope so, but we’re not counting on it. Independent artists working on DC or Marvel’s superhero comics, in my experience, almost never translates into sales for their indie work. There’s just no crossover audience there. However, the Minx line is targeted at teenage girls and in that market there is crossover appeal, just not with an audience particularly known for seeking out graphic novels that aren’t already stocked in the manga sections of big bookstores. So even if there are thousands of teenage girls who would love Serenity Rose or Wet Moon or Street Angel (and I’m sure there are), there is still the matter of reaching them.

More from de Guzman at the link. (She scores extra points for The Smiths-inspired column title.)

If you haven’t been reading Paul Pope’s blog, you’re really missing out. In his latest entry, Pope discusses the inspiration for, and evolution of, the logo for Batman: Year 100:

For the BATMAN YEAR 100 trade dressing, given that the tone of the story has more than a little bit of Orwell’s 1984, I wanted to find something which felt like a logo you’d see on an old heavy metal album–like an Iron Maiden or Motorhead record cover from the ’80s. Those album cover designs always lean toward upsetting, oppressive imagery (especially if the guys in the band aren’t particularly good looking)– crude symbols of militarism and decay, images of Kaiser’s ridiculous, pointy-tip helmet, rows of yellowed skulls under frayed national flags, crumbling Egyptian pyramids, jagged mountain peaks under lightning-scarred skies, gleaming motorcycle chromes belching great bursts of red flames and smoke–etc. etc.

If these designs had a scent, they’d smell like brimstone and sulphur and gunpowder and rotting flesh. This stuff is like catnip to upset, oppressed adolescent boys.

More typography talk at the link, of course.

Holiday-themed comics seem to have made a comeback of sorts in recent years, with books like Franklin Richards: Happy Franksgiving, the DCU Infinite Holiday Special and the Marvel Holiday Special. But from the 1940s through the 1980s, and trickling into the early ’90s, the holiday comic — specifically, Christmas-themed — was a regular event.

Annual, even.

Special issues of regular series, standalone one-shots, reprints and collected digests — they all celebrated that most wonderful time of the year.

My first Christmas comic was the one pictured at the right: a 1972 issue of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, which the fine folks at Comics.org label as “Limited Collectors’ Edition #C-50.” It was a holiday fixture at my grandparents’ house, brought out each year along with the artificial tree, stockings, and the lump of coal that taunted me from atop the enormous floor-model TV.

The cover date leads me to think it was originally bought for my older brother; I couldn’t have done much more than spit up on the comic when it was new.

To be honest, I don’t remember much about the stories themselves, beyond what’s shown on the cover: Something about Rudolph, the elves Winky and Blinky and a hot-air balloon. I recall a scene at the reindeer stables, which Little Kevin drew again and again in a spiral-bound notebook, and that the cover and many of the pages were so tattered and frail that flipping through the book was like handling the Dead Sea Scrolls.

I imagine Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer played a healthy role in the development of my love for comics. It was certainly among the first I saw as a child, even if it was for only a short time each year.

In the tradition of the Halloween and Thanksgiving installments of “Comics, Covered,” I’ve put together a gallery of Christmas-themed covers. Some of them are great, some of them are just funny. But they all say, “Merry Christmas” (or “Happy Holidays”):

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We all know who he is. Artist of Nightwing, Sojourn, X-Men Phoenix Warsong, Ultimate Fantastic Four and now Ultimate Power. And we all know what he does. TRACING. Or lightboxing if you prefer. Greg Land’s art, if you can call it that, is blatantly sourced from assorted sources that many of us have tracked down since this trend was first noticed. So after some slight hesitation and quite a bit of prodding I’ve elected to be the one to post this thread.

This will be the place to piss and moan about his deceitfull body of work as well as the place to defend his past work where he didn’t trace so much, before this horrible digital inking he’s using now

For those who want the ultimate Greg Land swipe “resource”: Something Awful’s forums have done the work for you.

(Via Ryan Higgins).

Steven Grant looks to Bob Dylan for guidance for new creators:

New artists (and writers, but successfully emulating other writers is a trickier business and takes a whole different skill set altogether) try to enter the field every day, many of them drawn in by - and emulating - a specific artist whose work grabbed them. You can do traces easily enough if you know where to look; the original Image group is a case in point… The survivors of the “post-Image” movement were those who brought something else to the table. Otherwise it’s really just a degeneration of comics art: part of the appeal of comics art for budding artists is that not only is formal training not required, the absence of formal training is often held up as a badge of honor. Stories of aspiring comics artists teaching themselves by mimicking the work of their favorite artists are legion, and the easiest aspects of art to imitate are the surface elements. But, as in Dylan’s rockabilly-big band example, you don’t get to be Jim Lee by paying attention only to Jim Lee’s work. Jim Lee, all the Image guys, were looking at all kinds of things. To understand their work, you have to understand their influences as well.

Alternatively, don’t follow leaders, watch the parking meters.

The Bendis Board asks: What comic was the biggest disappointment of 2006?:

“for me, gotta say infinite crisis. i bought in, y’know. i truly bought in and i felt let down in almost every way. deaths that weren’t deaths(nightwing), incomplete and rushed art, story edits and fixes in a hardback money grab, the culmination and resolution of major plot points (the minis) in books (the mini specials) other than the one book (ic) we were promised they would culminate and resolve in, a battle of metropolis with every major super goodie and baddie involved over in less than half an issue, 12 issues of sprawling story crammed into 7 and pouring out the overstuffed sides… it was a fine read. entertaining enough, i guess. but i bought in. thought it was going to be epic. all the build-up, the minis, prelude, geoff johns! i believed, and in the end, it just didn’t work for me.”

“The first four issues of Civil War… Clor. That says enough by itself on that issue. Iron Man finally offers Cap a chance to talk things out, explain some of his ideas, you know, just be rational adults instead of destroying NYC every time some of them go outside, and when he offers a friendly handshake? Cap sucker punches him. Completely out of character.”

“Grant Morrison’s Batman. I was expecting so much, like Batman’s New X-Men. Plus, how can you go wrong with 50 ninja man-bats? Somehow he found a way. And I was so looking forward to it. I guess there is still the hope that it could get better… hey, it could… maybe.”

“I’m gonna say Black Panther. I love the character, but his book this year has been nothing but one big money-grubbing, publicity-grabbing event that was hastily executed without any thought on what it would do for the characters involved, other than their public profile. But I love the character, so I keep buying and I feel like a tool.”

“[Civil War] has had its delays, and ,for me at least, those delays are just now starting to piss me off. an event that was supposed to pop has instead been on a slow simmer for 4 months. but the story has stayed true throughout and looks to be something that may indeed actually reimagine the marvel universe, something that respects the past and looks to the future. i mean, there’s still a chance, a damn good chance having read lots of millar, that civil war’s payoff is gonna be as big as its promise.
and one thing we know for certain, marvel is going to be a different place post-cw, characters are going to be forever (5 years at least) changed.”

I love the “forever (5 years at least)” bit. But now it’s your turn, Newsablogreaders. What was your most disappointing book of the year?

As Marvel’s Christmas present to you, why not read the first issue of Ed Brubaker and Sean Philips’ Criminal for free online?

Mark Millar blesses the internet:

A-List artist urgently needed!, Earn more than anyone at Marvel or DC… That’s right. This is FUNNY MONEY… and you will also get half of the TV rights for a big show going into production next year. I’ve got a 96 page graphic novel coming out with a strict late summer deadline and the publishers (from the book world) are giving this both a huge push and budget.

What’s the catch? There isn’t one. What happened is that the artist I was hoping to use wasn’t able to work at such short notice and now this thing is up for grabs. Ideally, I’d like to see this painted, but priority for the publishers is that the artist is a big name and preferably with a couple of awards under their belt. Sorry, this ain’t open to even the most talented of newcomers as the situation is quite unique. If you have any top ten experience, any awards and are just so damn good then please contact a mod for the opportunity of a lifetime.

Yep, you can earn more than Hitchy at Marvel or the Kuberts at DC… AND half the rights. It’s insane. But the deadline is fierce. We’re talking finished art for this project needed by July. And it’s 96 pages, preferably painted.

Don’t delay. I need my artist by Friday.

You may ask yourself, is a post on Millarworld really the best way to find an A-list artist like that with a hole in his schedule? And even if you won’t, a Millarworld poster will:

“Pardon me for being confused by this thread but wouldn’t every major artist in the industry have Mark’s number and vice versa? I mean this is Mark Millar were talking about (no sarcasm in that sentence ok I mean what I just typed) if he has a major project they should be chomping at the bit to work with him.”

Luckily, another Millarworld poster will give you and he the answer:

“Yeah but Mark’s desperate and the old interweb can spread the word to many places in seconds. Oh and of course it also manages to inform us that Mark will have an OGN out with a major a-list artist next year. See the method in the madness?”

Slow news days and creators trying to hype themselves: A match made in heaven.

On his Bad Signal email list, Warren Ellis reflects on the previous year and discusses what to expect from him in 2007:

End of the year show: taking stock of 2006 and looking ahead. In 14 months I will be 40 years old. At 20, no-one expected me to make it to 30, and here I am looking at 40.

2006 was a full-tilt year. Finished a novel, wrote a tv pilot and a videogame, sold another novel, sold out of every issue of FELL at least once, sold out of the first NEXTWAVE and completed that as a 12-issue series, sold out of the first NEWUNIVERSAL, wrote what felt like a ton of comics.

Next year’s an important year for me. I have an absolute ton of new projects on the slate. With, I think, two exceptions, they’re all original projects. I just need to summon up one more sustained burst of energy.

By summer, I will have finished LISTENER, and CROOKED LITTLE VEIN will be out. Everyone is telling me that everything will change for me when VEIN comes out. VEIN will be released a little before San Diego, roughly around the time that IGNITION CITY launches. Millar reckons IGNITION is the best thing I’ve written in the last 5 years. This time next year I’ll either be looking back at an incredibly successful year, or an absolute disaster zone: I doubt there’ll be a middle distance. Start saving your money for VEIN, please. (I got a shot of its page in the William Morrow catalogue the other day, and was surprised to find a very kind quote from Neil
Gaiman atop it. Wherever you are, Neil, thank you.)

Forgot: there’s another big comics project set for the summer. The last of the three bets William at Avatar made me. This one just about killed me. It’s also one of the few purebred “high concept” ideas I’ve ever had.

More Red Bull, nurse.

Bahlactus wishes DC would try a “What if?” line like Marvel, and he has an idea for the first issue:

If Comics are a reflection of the time they are created, what would the mode be for a dark skinned Kryptonian crash-landed on the third rock from the sun? Would he still stand for truth, justice and the American Way? Would he fight for the rights of others while striving to integrate himself into the human race? Would the challenges faced by Blacks during that era force his strengths and will down another path? What would Superman do?

Today’s holiday greeting comes from the webcomic-creating folks over at ACT-I-VATE.

Speaking of which, ACT-I-VATE guru Dean Haspiel recently wrapped up his weekly strip Immortal, which concludes here. A sequel is planned to start in late January.

On his blog, writer Brian K. Vaughan reveals some big news: He’s been hired as an executive story editor for ABC’s Lost. “As I’m neither an executive nor an editor, this is really just a fancy Hollywood way of saying that I’ve joined the writing staff,” he writes.

You have questions? Well, too bad:

I can’t talk about much more than that, so I implore you to please stop asking me what the island is, who the Others are, how Matthew Fox smells, etc. Still, I will say that I’m insanely honored to join such an amazing group of writers (some of their new scripts I’ve been lucky enough to read are destined to become the best episodes of the series), and I’m very grateful to Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse for having so much faith in me.

And no, I’m absolutely not leaving comics. There are a lot of Y: The Last Man and Ex Machina fans at the show, so everyone has been great about leaving me just enough time to work on those books, and even some new ones, including an upcoming four-issue stint on that Runaways guy Joss Whedon’s “eighth season” of Buffy the Vampire Slayer over at Dark Horse. Stay tuned for news on the all-important creator-owned front, as well.

Lost is on mid-season hiatus, but returns Feb. 7.

I’m sure in the midst of your holiday shopping, at one time or another you’ve turned to yourself (a trick in and of itself) and asked, “Where are those March Solicit Reviews from The Fifth Color? How am I going to plan my Women’s History Month without them? Or do my St. Patrick’s Day shopping?”

Or maybe you haven’t. But in either case, a week late and about $3.22 short (more in Canada), the Fifth Color proudly presents a look into the new year. Spider-Man 3 will be on the horizon, the Dark Tower mini-series will have started and maybe, just maybe, we’ll see Ultimate Hulk vs. Wolverine.

Or maybe not.

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Am I the only person who’d missed the line-up of writers for Dark Horse’s new Buffy series until now? It’s not just Joss Whedon, as Wizard explains:

Whedon says he’ll write several of the book’s arcs, including the first, “The Long Way Home” with art by Georges Jeanty. For the rest, Whedon has assembled a veritable who’s who of comic book writing talent that includes Brian K. Vaughan (Ex Machina), Brad Meltzer (Justice League of America) and Jeph Loeb (Onslaught Reborn), along with former “Buffy” TV writers Jane Espenson, Drew Goddard, Drew Greenberg and Steven DeKnight.

“I have some extremely powerhouse comic book people who surprisingly threw their hats in, and then some of my best show writers,” says Whedon. “I approached the guys I did because I knew they could bring something—not just get it done, but really bring something to the party.”