Happy Halloween, everyone!  Today, the internet will be chock full of spooky posts and ghoulish lists of particularly scary or horror themed comics.  Draculas, Man-Bats, Frankensteins and Sons of Satan will be plentiful and we’ll all take a look at the fun that can be had with things that go bump in the night.

But here at the Fifth Color, we’re going to take a different route!  No no, no real monsters will be ventured, but what I like to hope are the more theoretical ones.  Monsters that still lurk in the shadows!

Do you dare venture back in time, eight months back to some of the biggest news Marvel still has yet to give peep one about?  Especially with this week’s release of Annihilation Conquest: Quasar #4?  True Believers, the most dangerous items to cross the Marvel Universe are in the hands of th five most powerful men possibly on the planet.  And right now?  They are in a whole mess of trouble.

(NOTE: Big Spoiler for Annihilation Conquest inside!  Read at your own peril.)
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The Millarworld board responds to the Wanted trailer. Watch the trend…:

“Grats Mark. There’ll be no living with you after this…”

“Looked good. Then again, so did Nightwatch, and that was a train-wreck of a film, hope Wanted turns out much, much better.”

“Looks like a nice action flick. One of the few movies where it pays off to be unfaithful to the source material.”
“Wow! That trailer was terribly underwhelming. It left me with absolutely no feeling of ‘I GOTTA SEE THIS!!!’ In fact, (to me) it looked like any other genre film of it’s ilk. Fish out of water now Bad Ass Super Killer. If I hadn’t read (and loved) the mini-series, I would have passed on this based on the trailer alone.”
“Wanted the comic was about a bunch of powerful psychopaths gleefully having their way with the world. It’s hard to tell, but Wanted the movie seems to be about a bunch of powerful, responsible people trying to protect the world by killing people. Taking a nasty, subversive piece of work and turning it (as others have pointed out) into a typical action movie.”

“Sorry, nothing about that trailer made me want to see the movie. It looks like all the interesting parts of the comics have been stripped away, leaving a very generic gun-fu flick. More than happy to be wrong though.”

“You know, that trailer made me want to see the movie. But that movie didn’t seem like an adaption of Wanted. Wanted for me was fun because it was basically ‘What if the super-villians won?’ The result was a war over how much bad was too much, with some wanting to generate a good profit off of their antics and others just wanting to go hog-wild. But none of the characters talked about how they were killing one to save many…it was all about what you did when you had the power. So I’ll go see it, mostly because of the creators of the source material. But I think Hollywood missed a great chance to satire all the super-hero films that have come out lately… to walk on the wild side.”
“I’m dissappointed. It looks like just another action flick….when it could have been so much more. I wanted to see Wesley falling from the sky capping superheroes and Fox flying an F-16. I hope it makes buttloads of money for you, Mark, and maybe it’ll come to the local theater where my friends work so that I can see it for free. I just wish we couldn’ve gotten all of the super-action and tongue-in-cheek nods to Adam West and Christopher Reeve….”

A week late, but still worth reading: Marvel editor Nate Crosby interviews colorist Christina Strain:

I’m not the biggest super hero fan, which probably sounds strange since I’m working in a super hero saturated industry, but it’s just not what I grew up with and love. My heart really belongs to comics like RUNAWAYS and SPIDER-MAN LOVES MARY JANE, books that have more to do with social interaction between the characters than saving the world. If I had the choice, all I would color would be younger girl’s high school romance comics. I mean, that’s the reason I’ve been on both of them for about 4 years apiece, I genuinely love them.

On top of that, there’s something really satisfying about hearing younger girls and kids in general get into RUNAWAYS and MARY JANE. I feel like I have a small part introducing comics to a new audience, and that makes me all warm and fuzzy.

Also revealed: Christina convinces people to play video games.

The newly-independent Broken Frontier makes the most of the holiday, with Andy Oliver running down just how insane Marvel’s 1970s horror output could be (in two parts; part two is here):

Controlled by the mystic Amulet of Damballah, the Zombie mindlessly shuffled around New Orleans for nine issues, stumbling into other people’s lives in a very Man-Thing-esque kind of way. In a touching final issue Garth was given 24 hours in human form once again to put right his life and make peace with those he had known when he was alive. Sadly, Marvel being Marvel, his story could never really end, and rather than being left to rest in pieces, he was “revived” in his undead form some years later.

Meanwhile, Jason Burns writes about his own adventures in costume, in an article with the worst title (“Whoreoween Isn’t Just For Girls Anymore.” Yes, really) and opening imaginable:

I’m sure I’m not the only warm-blooded, slightly perverted American dude to notice that Halloween has become a great time of year to see women of all shapes and sizes embrace their inner sexy. You have to admit, the days of hitting a party and seeing female costumes hanging down to the ground with excessive fabric are long gone, and in their place is a seemingly new and overly abundant supply of “hot” and “erotic” outfits ranging the gamut from everything to whorish cats to flirtatious superheroes.

To try and make up for two whore references that early, the rest of the article does feature a picture of Jason dressed up as Prince.

In our second Halloween post of the day, my fellow Blog@ ghouls and I share some of the comics we found particularly scary …

Michael May: Hellboy

As much as I love horror comics, they don’t really scare me. I guess I enjoy them more for the fantasy elements than the feeling of actually being frightened. That said, there are two moments in comics that genuinely creeped me out. Both of which were — not at all coincidentally — written and drawn by Mike Mignola. And with pictures being worth lots of words and all… here they are.

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For the past couple weeks I’ve been collecting creepy, kooky, mysterious and yes, even spooky links to share with you on Halloween. Consider this post one big candy apple, presented to you by Blog@Newsarama, costume optional. Now let’s get to it …

Over on his blog, Jeff Parker shares a two-page X-Men: First Class story he did with Colleen Coover, featuring the original team and a ouija board. Go check it out.

Other creators have gotten into the spirit of the season as well; Todd Dezago has been sharing scary stories from his readers, while Skottie Yougn shows off the variant cover he did for Cable & Deadpool, featuring — you guessed it — a zombie.

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Publisher’s Weekly Comics Week broke the news recently that Vertical, publisher of such Osamu Tezuka books as Buddha and the in-stores-today MW, will publisher the master’s classic series Black Jack, in its entirety, beginning in fall of next year:

The series stars title character Black Jack, an unlicensed but gifted surgeon who saves peoples lives, often against all odds. The series is a childhood favorite of Vertical editorial director Ioannis Mentzas. “[Black Jack] is probably the most influential book of my early years,” explained Mentzas, “and I’ve heard that sentiment from many Japanese.” Mentzas added that the character’s appeal lies in its psychology. “Black Jack reflects the glory and squalor of early adulthood,” he said. Mentzas believes that the series will draw an audience in the late teens to early 20s. “I think any high school or 20-something person of the slightest intellectual bent will identify with BJ.”

According to Palmer, founder of the Web site Tezuka in English, which is devoted to introducing Tezuka to an English speaking audience, Black Jack is the second most popular character in Japan. “Black Jack is Tezuka’s most exciting adult character,” Palmer said, citing the Japanese medical and technology company Hitachi, which recently licensed the Black Jack character to be the spokesman for its medical equipment.

This is fantastic news for long-time Tezuka fans like me, and certainly suggests that Vertical has seen success with the manga they’ve published so far to attempt to publish a lengthy series like this.

Also in this week’s PWCW: A Yaoi-Con report; an interview with Suburban Glamour creator Jamie McKelvie; a look at the CBLDF’s upcoming plans; a Uclick profile; and an interview with the author of Spider-Man: The Icon, Steve Saffel.

I don’t link to the main site that often, but I wanted to let folks know in case you haven’t heard the news yet that the Gordon Lee trial is set to begin on Monday. Full press release is right here.

Meanwhile, remember that it’s never too late to join the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

The University of Alberta’s student newspaper talks with cartoonist Faith Erin Hicks about Zombies Calling, her upcoming graphic novel from SLG Publishing.

You can read a 15-page preview here.

Awhile back ago I noted the upcoming animated anthology horror film Fear(s) of the Dark, which features work by such folks as Charles Burns and Richard McGuire. Though no North American release date has been set yet, the film apparently will open in France on Feb. 13. All is not lost for us Westerners though, as there is a new English trailer available. Cross your fingers that it comes across the Atlantic sometime soon.

Hat tip: Cartoon Brew

The Ohio State University’s Festival of Cartoon Art was held last weekend. Mike Rhode has a report, as well as photos. Mark Anderson also has a report (in two parts no less) and photos.

Meanwhile, the Burlington Free Press has a story up on Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau’s recent visit to the Center for Cartoon Studies.

Tom broke the news yesterday that IDW plans to collect and publish Noel Sickles’ hugely influential comic strip Scorchy Smith next summer. Dean Mullaney’s announcement can be found here:

On the subject of future projects, since we’ve already sent the solicitation info to our book distributor, I can announce that in June 2008, I will release an oversized, 11″ x 11″ hardcover: SCORCHY SMITH AND THE ART OF NOEL SICKLES through IDW. It will contain the complete Sickles Scorchy for the first time ever, plus about 60 pages of Sickles’s magazine and other illustrations.

IDW is already publishing collections of Dick Tracy and Terry and the Pirates, and plans on releasing Harold Gray’s Little Orphan Annie in February.

Jonathan Rhys Meyers to play Mandrake the Magician

In an interesting bit of casting, Jonathan Rhys Meyers (The Tudors) will star in Omega Entertainment and Baldwin Entertainment Group’s Mandrake, based on the comic strip created by Lee Falk.

Chuck Russell (The Scorpion King, The Mask) will direct the film, which is set to shoot next year in China and the United States. Criss Angel reportedly has a role in the picture.

Mandrake the Magician debuted in newspapers 1934, and stars a tuxedo-clad stage illusionist who battles crime with his hypnotic abilities. The strip spawned comic books, radio and movie serials, a TV movie, and a co-starring role in an animated series.

Although nowhere near as popular as it was in the 1930s and ’40s, the King Features strip still appears in newspapers.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film will update the comic and feature a Mandrake who is “an extreme escape artist embroiled in international espionage.”

Spider-Man 4 gets a new screenwriter

EW.com’s Hollywood Insider blog reports that James Vanderbilt, the writer behind David Fincher’s Zodiac and the upcoming adaptation of The Losers, has been hired to pen Spider-Man 4.

It’s not known whether Sam Raimi will return to direct the fourth installment, which is set for release in 2009.

The trailer for Wanted, based on the miniseries by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones, is now online at Yahoo! Movies. The film is directed by Timur Bekmambetov (Night Watch) and stars James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie and Terence Stamp. It’s set to open on March 28, 2008.

As World War Hulk heads toward the finish line and Countdown – excuse me, Countdown to Final Crisis – reaches the halfway mark, Marvel and DC kick off their fourth-quarter crossovers this week with X-Men: Messiah Complex #1 and Batman #670 (“The Resurrection of Ra’s Al Ghul”).

Not big on “event” comics? There’s plenty more from which to choose: Hardcover Masterworks editions of Strange Tales and Fantastic Four, Evan Dorkin and Sarah Dyer’s long-awaited Biff Bam Pow, The Complete Persepolis trade paperback, and — at last — the collected El Cazador.

And that’s only for starters.

To see what other titles Chris Mautner and I think are worth mentioning, just keep reading. As always, let us know your choices in the comments below.

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End Times: Bloody Demon Guts
Written and Illustrated by Sam Hiti
Published by La Luz Comics
$10.00

Continuing our perusal of older books that deserve another look… 

The first time I ever heard of Sam Hiti, he was this quiet guy on a convention panel I attended about indie creators and small-publishers. After the panel, I wandered by his table and looked over what he was selling: a one-shot comic called End Times. It was about a monster hunter, and I generally like monster hunters, but what got me to fork out the moolah for it was Hiti’s art. At the time, I thought of it as sort of a Latin version of Mike Mignola’s work with its abundance of black ink, simple, but intriguing designs, and uniquely creepy monsters.

Since then I’ve followed Hiti’s work pretty closely. The first interview I ever conducted was with Hiti right after he won the Xeric grant for a sequel to the End Times one-shot. Three years later, that sequel came out.

I tell you all that so that you can get a sense of the anticipation and expectation with which I finally read End Times: Bloody Demon Guts (the English translation of its actual, much-cooler-in-Spanish title: Tiempos Finales: Tripas Sangrientas de los Demonios). It was everything I’d hoped it would be, yet nothing like what I expected.

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Last week I posted about the assets of Silver Bullet Comics being sold at auction by the state of North Carolina. Today SBC owner Alan Davis addresses the auction, unfulfilled customer orders and other problems they’ve experienced recently in a statement on their site.

In terms of the auction:

Yes, we did auction off all of our excess fixtures and convention stock on October 8th to help pay off our final tax bill for the Winston Salem location, but only after talking with the state for options (a private buyer they had connected us with could not come up with the total, after agreeing to the buy, at the last minute, so we went with their second option). The total was only for the last few months before we closed, and if not for our closing, and wanting to clear that record, anything we’d have had to address in this way (beyond the interest and such).

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The Daily Cross Hatch’s Brian Heater chats with Laika creator Nick Abadzis:

The primary female character, Yelena—is she based on a real person?

She isn’t—or she is…This is an interesting story. When I first read up on the Institute of Aviation Medicine, where she was supposed to have worked, I was aware that there would be female character there at the time, but there was no record of a female dog carer, until years later—’60, ’61.

That particular lady worked in the Moscow Space Service, and she trained dogs as part of the experimental animal program that continued after Sputnik 2. But around ’55 or ’57, I wasn’t aware of anyone like that existing. So, as far as I was concerned, when I was writing the book, she was a figment of my imagination.

But after I had finished the book, I was speaking with another author who had written a factual book about space—Chris Dobbs. I got ahold of his book, and there was this remarkable picture of this one woman, dated from around 1957, which looks exactly like the character that I had drawn. So it was a case of one of those bizarre coincidences, where truth is stranger than fiction.

According to Flog, Panter‘s book Jimbo’s Inferno has garnered an American Book Award.

This is the second Fantagraphics book to garner an ABA, as Joe Sacco won for Palestine in 1996.

Todd Allen takes a look at the backgrounds of the Zuda creators, and isn’t sure he likes what he sees:

First off, the vast majority of the creators here have already done print comics. Multiple print comics for the most part, and the majority go back a few years. This does not look like ushering in a new generation, at first glance… How many of these strips were solicited prior to the contest announcement? Are there two submission piles, one for established talent, and one for the “new generation?” Based on this first round, that’s a legitimate question. How many of the first round live in the NYC metro area and handed in the submissions in person is another question that comes to mind?

Regular readers may recall my posing the question of how professional cartoonists would feel about Zuda paying professional rates for what looked to be a talent search site. Well, now we know that at least some creators are looking at this as regular gig. Is this just a way of processing proposals done on speculation?