It looks like yesterday was only the beginning of the Y Farewell Tour, as today folks still have more to say about Brian K. Vaughan and the finale of Y: The Last Man:

• CNN talks with Vaughan about the genesis of the series, his work on TV’s Lost, and saying good-bye to Yorick Brown: “I guess I’ve moved into acceptance but that doesn’t mean that I’m not still depressed about it. … It’s been weird because it’s a gradual [form of] saying good-bye. First, you finish the script, but then it still has to be penciled and inked, and there’s so many stages in comics that it’s sort of been like the stages of death.”

There’s also a gallery of “the worlds of Brian K. Vaughan,” and a video of the writer discussing his influences.

• EW.com has a longish Q&A with Vaughan that touches upon his inspiration for the series, his collaboration with artist Pia Guerra, the true name of Agent 355, and the approaching end of Ex Machina.

• Heidi MacDonald, the original editor of Y, recalls some memories of the series’ early days.

• At MTV.com, Kurt Loder wraps up the 60-issue run.

• At Newsarama, Zack Smith wraps up his two-part interview with Vaughan.

• USA Today’s Whitney Matheson chats with director D.J. Caruso (Disturbia) about the Y film adaptation.

• And blogger David Allen Jones looks back at his reviews of early issues of the series, and recalls that he “just got bored with it pretty fast.”

Brian Wood (DMZ, Northlanders, Demo) has announced the full reversion of publishing and other media rights for Public Domain, the Channel Zero design book originally released in 2002 by AiT/Planet Lar.

The book, which consists of unused pages from Channel Zero, character designs, short stories and other material, is now available as a free PDF download on Wood’s website. Channel Zero was Wood’s first graphic novel.

In September, Wood and artist Becky Cloonan announced the rights reversion for their critically acclaimed 2003 series Demo.

Vertigo will release a new collected edition of that comic this spring.

The full text of the Public Domain press release can be found below:

(more…)

Lexi Alexander, the director of the upcoming Punisher: War Zone film, shares photos and commentary from the set on her blog:

My team and I spent a lot of time researching the comic books, Tim Bradstreet’s art and all the reference films we decided upon. I think we watched one of those films at least 25 times during prep. Thank God Montreal has an endless supply of excellent wine and cheese, which made those sessions much more enjoyable.

Tim Bradstreet was especially helpful to us during prep and we were lucky enough to get him on the phone a couple of times to pick his brain. So you can imagine how stoked I am to get Tim’s first reaction to what he had seen of the film so far. Here is an excerpt from his email: “I had an opportunity to see a ton of stills from the film and it looks sensational. The Jigsaw makeup is top. LOVED seeing Doug Hutchinson look like such a hard assed nut, and of course, Ray Stevenson looks AWESOME. They lit a lot of it like I light and [they] did a great job.”

As Captain America #34 hits shelves today, writer Ed Brubaker talks with NPR’s Morning Edition about the new Sentinel of Liberty. You can listen to the interview here. Needless to say, there are spoilers.

At io9.com, Annalee Newitz considers five ways that 9/11 changed science fiction, with categories like “The Surveillance State is Watching You” and “The Terrorists Are Everywhere!”:

Australian Max Barry published Jennifer Government in 2003, a novel where corporations stage fake terrorist attacks to get publicity for their new shoes. But other tales were less satirical. Mark Millar’s Civil War comic book series (2006-7) dealt with what happens to the superheroes of the Marvel universe when Congress passes the “superhero registration act” and forces all heroes to be tracked in the name of fighting terror. Hero fights hero in this response to the Bush Administration’s efforts to track Muslims and other “undesirables.” Battlestar Galactica dug deep into politically incendiary terroritory in 2006 when some of the humans become suicide bombers in order to fight the Cylon in occupied New Caprica. Even Star Trek: Enterprise had a terrorist plot arc with the Xindi in 2003. In books, Ken MacLeod’s The Execution Channel (2007) dealt with high-tech terrorists in a surveillance state.

There’s some interesting discussion in the comments section, too.

This week’s edition of Publisher’s Weekly Comics Week continues Van Jensen’s interview with Jeff Smith about his upcoming RASL series:

PWCW: While RASL is a darker story, do you see any similarities between it and your other books? Are there universal themes or ideas that carry through all your work?

Jeff Smith: That’s actually a very good question. On a very general level, something that underlies all my work is that there’s more to life than we can see or touch with our eyes. There’s something just beyond our sense’s ability to detect. I think that’s in Bone. That’s in Shazam!. That’s in RASL in a fairly obvious way. But that’s just something that fires me up.

On a more surface level, they’re not very similar. The way I write and draw comics, the way I do panel transitions, that should be all very similar. I have my way of telling a comic book story, the way you can tell a Steven Spielberg movie. But the actual subject matter has been different. Bone was a comedy, but it was also a fantasy. And Shazam! was kind of an adventure of wonderment. And this is going to be pretty dark and world-weary and full of danger, which is very different from anything I’ve done before.

Also in this week’s edition: a look at the newly announced Marvel/Soleil deal; Abrams plans to publish a collected edition of Jon J. Muth’s M adaptation (will the tear-out record be included?); Carla Speed McNeil will adapt D.J. MacHale’s bestselling fantasy series Pendragon, the first in a new line of kids’ graphic novels from Simon & Schuster; and Dark Horse will release a number of manga and prose books based off of the Blood: The Last Vampire series.

A series of strips from a failed attempt by Walter Lantz (of Woody Woodpecker fame) to create an Oswald the Rabbit strip recently went up on Ebay. You can see scanned in copies over on the Classic Cartoons blog.

Of course, Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks were the original creators of Oswald, though this rabbit bears as much resemblance to those early cartoons an issue of Acme Novelty Library does to World War Hulk.
Hat tip: Cartoon Brew

I thought Bully’s post on the top ten memorials Batman does have in the Batcave was spot on hilarious. Especially No. 2 and No. 7.

Yes, yes, you all know by now that Fantagraphics has updated their site and it looks nifty and full of coolio stuff like wallpapers and avatars and a refurbished blog. But it’s worth noting that they’ve posted a number of classic Comics Journal interviews, including ones with Peter Bagge, Jim Woodring and the Hernandez brothers. These are some pretty seminal interviews with major creators, so do yourself a favor and download the .pdfs tout suite

Dan Taylor offers a free sample of his comic Ninja Bandito on his website.

U.S. special operations forces are using a comic book called Barbargsa — Blood of the Honorable to spread counter terrorism messages in the Philippines:

The plot follows several basic comic book storyline conventions — most notably the battle between good and evil.

The comic book focuses on Ameer, who left his home island to work overseas, but returns to find it racked with violence. Ameer is a practitioner of kuntao, which is a local form of martial arts. Like Zorro or Batman, he dons a mask and vows to protect the downtrodden and innocent victims of terrorists.

The Philippines military are also portrayed in a positive and heroic light while the villains are the terrorists or “bandits.” The creators were careful to accurately illustrate the Sulu region, and use character names, clothing and mannerisms that reflect the culture of the Tausug ethnic group. There are versions in English and in the local dialect.

Maj. Edward Lopacienski and Master Sgt. Russell Snyder came up with the initial idea, while a Manila-based marketing firm actually created the 10-issue comic. Unauthorized T-shirts featuring Ameer have started to pop up in local stores.

–The folks at Disney are quite upset about this Winnie the Pooh parody that ran on the cover of Humo magazine in Belgium.

–Evan Dorkin reminisces about working for DC.

–Because you demanded it: Kazuo Umezu singing You Are My Destiny. In silver pants.

–Jeff Smith will be at Symphony Space in New York City Feb. 10.

–A new Chris Ware exhibit, Drawings For New York Periodicals, starts Feb. 1 at the Adam Baumgold Gallery in New York.

–Becky Cloonan is making plans for WonderCon:

I’ve got a few pieces of big news also but I’m going to wait until things get smoothed out a bit to announce them. One will be announced at Wondercon. I love announcing things.

She and Brian Wood have a panel together at the show. Hmmm…

(more…)

Variety reports that Dennis Quaid will play General Hawk and Channing Tatum will play Duke in the upcoming G.I. Joe film. IESB.com, meanwhile, reports that theater actor David Murray will play Destro and Arnold Vosloo will play Zartan.

Quaid has appeared in many a film, including The Rookie, Innerspace and Jaws 3-D. Tatum appeared in Step Up, She’s the Man and Coach Carter, while Vosloo was in The Mummy and played Habib Marwan on 24.

They join Sienna Miller, Ray Park, Rachel Nichols, Marlon Wayans and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje in the movie based on the Hasbro toy line.

The movie will be released in August of 2009.

The dispute over Red Sonja ended this afternoon as Paradox Entertainment and Red Sonja LLC reached an agreement on the second day of the trademark-infringement trial.

Red Sonja LLC, which owns the rights to Red Sonja — with a “j” — had filed a $5 million lawsuit in April 2006 accusing Paradox Entertainment of infringing on its trademark and attempting to create confusion in the marketplace. Paradox, which bought Conan and the entire Robert E. Howard library in 2006, owns the rights to Red Sonya — with a “y” — a character created by Howard in the 1930s.

Red Sonja is a character created in 1973 by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith for use in the Conan comics then published by Marvel. Red Sonya is Howard’s lesser-known pistol-packing Russian warrior from the 16th century.

According to the Wilmington, Del., News-Journal, Red Sonja LLC paid Paradox $1 for all rights to Red Sonya, so that now the company owns both characters — no matter how you spell the name. In return, Paradox paid Red Sonja LLC $1 for the exclusive print-publication rights to “The Shadow of the Vulture,” the single Howard short story in which Sonya appears.

The agreement also clarifies that Paradox owns the rights to the “Age of Hyboria,” the fictional era for the Conan stories. However, Red Sonja LLC may place their character in that setting.

Update: Paradox Entertainment’s official statement

There’s little denying the week’s big releases are Captain America #34, which sees the debut of the new Sentinel of Liberty, and Y: The Last Man #60, which marks the end of Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra’s critically acclaimed Vertigo series.

But tomorrow also brings the much-anticipated first volume of Kazu Kibuishi’s new graphic novel series, Amulet, collections of two dearly missed recent superhero comics, Manhunter and Young Avengers, the debut of Jamie Delano’s sci-fi series, and the first trade paperback of Matt Fraction and Gabriel Ba’s trippy Casanova.

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.

(more…)

–Cine21.com has images of Will Smith in his Hancock costume, from the new superhero movie coming out this summer:

Someone raided the X-Men’s closet …

(more…)

Like many media outlets are doing this week, The Wall Street Journal turns their attention to Super Bowl advertising, providing details on where and when you can see the Iron Man commercial:

Paramount Pictures is using its ad spending to promote the May release of superhero film “Iron Man.” People who watch the game on TV will see a commercial for the movie. People who visit any of the major online Super Bowl ad polls will also see the spot. Visitors to MySpace can see an Iron Man profile on the site. And if people search for terms related to Iron Man on Google, it will turn up there as well. On ESPN.com, ads will show the TV spot and prompt visitors to go to the “Iron Man” Web site to register for downloads and giveaways.

“Online can extend the 30-second spot into a five- to 10-minute experience and make it have much more impact,” said Amy Powell, senior vice president of interactive marketing at Paramount Pictures.

Via

Some new photos from The Dark Knight have hit the web:

Go check’em out.

At BlazedEnt, artist Takeshi Miyazawa (Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane) talks about moving from Canada to Japan, and the differences between the U.S. and Japanese comics industries:

BE: How are editorial standards/rules different in the US and Japan? How have you changed your style / storytelling? I always thought your art had enough of a manga-esque sensibility to it that you didn’t need to change it up for Japanese readers

TM: From what I’ve seen, they are much more hands-on in terms of story direction and artwork here in Japan. They prefer that creators live in Tokyo in order to have face-to-face meetings once in a while to discuss plot points as well as directly picking up pages from you as you complete them. It’s a big change compared to working via e-mail and FedEx back home.

As for the actual drawing, I’ve never had complaints about how I draw but, rather, the rendering, like showing motion and using bigger and wider panels. I’ve been told to think in terms of spreads instead of individual pages numerous times and it was a real eye opener to hear that. I’ve also learned that fine-tuning art to your audience is a must. You can’t just draw thinking everyone will like it. There are certain visuals every age groups requires to keep them flipping through your story.

More at the link.