So this week I found this really great opportunity with Tokyopop, all I have to do is… what’s that? Read the fine print, you say? Oh never mind. Seriously though, look anywhere else in blogland for opinions on the latest Tokyopop fallout/spin, as I only briefly touch upon the subject here. And I mainly did that because Waid drops an f-bomb modifying a noun. If you’re looking to appear in Quote, Unquote either drop an f-bomb in a fun way or inject the term fluffer in the discussion, and you’re almost assuredly getting quoted. Honestly, if I miss something you find quote worthy, feel free to add a link in the comments section. Extra points if you can find a quote that incorporates apes or talking animals with Frederick Wertham.

“What Schulz is is one of the two or three greatest artists of the twentieth century, who also happens to be one of the most popular creators of the last fifty years. His work is going to be around for generations. There are going to be lots more biographies over the years, and lots more poetasters who’ll hitch their wagon to his star by saying dumb things about him. You might as well let them; it’s not going to hurt Schulz any. If you’re going to have faith in any art at all, Peanuts is the thing to have faith in. It’s indestructible. Ultimately, Michaelis just made an ass of himself; Schulz and his work will be fine.”
- Noah Berlatsky, placing a certain amount of perspective on the work/reputation of Charles Schulz in the wake of the recent David Michaelis’ Schulz biography

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If you don’t want to wait until tomorrow night to see the premiere of the third season of The Venture Bros., you can find it in full over on the Adult Swim website.

Via

Also at the Cup o’ Joe panel, Marvel confirmed The Stand comic book that author Stephen King announced on NPR back in March.

According to Marvel.com, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa will script the book, with art by Mike Perkins. Colorist Laura Martin, letterer Chris Eliopolus and cover artist Lee Berjemo round out the team.

During the panel, Quesada said this first mini-series is titled Captain Tripps, the name of the apocalyptic virus in the story. Quesada said that King will be fully involved with the adaptation, and that they knew how many parts the full adaptation of the 1000+ page novel will run, but aren’t saying it publicly just yet.

Live from Cup o’ Joe at Wizard World Philadelphia comes the news that the Marvel Zombies will return in time for Halloween with a new mini-series by Fred Van Lente and Kev Walker.

I would have thought people were a little zombie’d out by now, but if they’re going do a third series, bringing them into the regular MU for a big zombie war could be a fun way to wrap it up. Too bad Kirkman and Phillips aren’t involved, though.

Update: Wizard chats with Fred Van Lente about the series

Dean, Chris and the gang over at Project Rooftop have another contest up — this one challenging artists to redesign Superman:

Ready to tug on Superman’s cape? Heck, tear it off and take the tights back to the drawing board! Project: Rooftop is teaming up with Pulp Secret and Jim Hanley’s Universe for a new drawing contest that breaks even our own guidelines. That’s right, Jimmy Olsen, in honor of the 70th anniversary of Superman’s first appearance in Action Comics #1 way back in 1938, P:R, P.S., and JHU are putting out the call for redesigns of the first superhero with Superman: Man of Style! Jim Hanley’s Universe has provided these incredible prizes:

Grand Prize (1) – The Superman No. 14 statue, Superman: Birthright TPB signed by writer Mark Waid, and Superman #676 signed by our own Vito Delsante, who wrote the issue!

Second Prize (1) – Justice League Animated Superman mini maquette and a signed copy of Superman #676.

Third Prize (1) – Superman #676 signed by Vito!

The deadline for submissions is June 15.

Miller addresses The Spirit’s suit, and those comparisons to Sin City

We’ve all seen Frank Miller’s upcoming adaptation of The Spirit compared, unflatteringly, to Sin City, right? Well, so has Frank Miller.

And in the latest entry for the movie’s production blog, he addresses concerns about the look and feel of the production — “The Spirit is, and will always be, Eisner’s Spirit” — and, yes, the disappearance of The Spirit’s trademark blue suit.

After a brief overview of the comic-book printing limitations that traditionally meant everything intended to be black had to appear as blue, Miller gets down to brass tacks.

“In tests — and we did several — the blue made the Spirit look like an unfortunate guest at a Halloween party,” he writes. “Going to black brings back his essential mystery, his Zorro-like sexiness. It also makes that red tie of his look very, very cool. So I made the call, with all respect to Eisner’s creation, and most importantly, to what I perceived as his underlying intention. It was an easy call for me to make. The Spirit dresses in black, and looks much the better for it. As I said, my desire was never to slavishly follow the rules of ’40s printing into campy oblivion, but to reintroduce Eisner’s creation, via modern technology, to our brave new world.”

He also notes that, despite the impression given by the movie’s teaser trailer, The Spirit is in full color.

The Spirit opens on Christmas.

The Ticker

• Dominic Wells sums up the big-screen rivalry between DC and Marvel: “Where DC is Coke, Marvel is Pepsi; where DC is Hillary Clinton, Marvel is Barack Obama; where DC is McDonald’s, Microsoft and the Beatles, Marvel is Burger King, Apple and the Rolling Stones.” [Times Online]

• What can audiences expect from The Incredible Hulk? Apparently “the other 99 percent” of the mythos Ang Lee didn’t explore in the first film — including “Hulk smash!” as voiced by Lou Ferrigno. [Variety]

• Lionsgate has released another still from Punisher: War Zone, and it looks pretty much like all the other images. [IESB]

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Tucker Stone will be liveblogging as makes his way through Uncanny X-Men Omnibus Vol. 1:

This Saturday, May 31st, The Factual Opinion’s Head Comics Writer will tackle the Uncanny X-Men Omnibus Vol 1, live-blogging his way through this Highly Esteemed! And Oh So Important! volume of comic book literature. Published in 2006, the Omnibus contains Giant Size X-Men # 1, Uncanny X-Men #94-131 and Uncanny X-Men Annual # 3, which is somewhere around 2000 years worth of comic books, all in an impossible to carry for very far hardcover tome. Art and writing details by Chris Claremont, John Byrne & Dave Cockrum, these are the comics known around the world as “comics that a decent portion of people like.”

Tucker Stone, a regular comics blogger and columnist for Comixology.com is not well known for being a very astute, nor intelligent, critic, but he does have spell check and enjoy using convoluted metaphors and foul language, both of which are sure to make for an exciting day or so of reading all of these comics, none of which he has read before, and all of which he assumes he will probably hate. So, again: this Saturday, starting around 10 AM and continuing until this thing is done, all in one sitting! (Someone will be cooking him food.)

To get in the mood, please rent and watch “Where The Heart Is,” the one from 1990 featuring Dabney Coleman.

As readers of the first Sentry event might remember, the character was an active part of Marvel’s Silver Age until he erased the entire world’s memories of his career to save us all from the Void.

As announced at the Mondo Marvel panel today at Wizard World Philadelphia, writers Jeff Parker and Paul Tobin will explore the Sentry’s early career in the pages of Age of the Sentry, a new mini-series coming from Marvel. Each of the six issues will feature two stories — one by Parker and artist Nick Dragotta, and one by Tobin and a different artist each issue — except for the last one, which will feature a full-length story by Parker and Dragotta. The first issue comes out in September.

Quesada called it a fun look at the Sentry, which makes sense, since Parker has become their go-to guy for fun as well as accessible stories.

Marvel.com has some more info on the series up on their site.

Update: The mothership talks to the book’s editor, Mark Paniccia

Kevin showed you the trailer for the Prince of Persia graphic novel earlier today, and to complement that Gina at First Second was kind enough to send over a nice-sized image of the cover. The book is due this fall.

This morning’s Good Morning America shared two “alternate” endings to last night’s Lost season finale. Check out a clip after the jump (where there be SPOILERS) …

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First Second’s Prince of Persia website now features a trailer for the upcoming graphic novel. The 208-page book, by video-game creator Jordan Mechner, A.B. Sina, LeUyen Pham and Alex Puvilland, is set for release in September.

Tonoharu Part One by Lars Martinson, Pliant Press (but distributed by Top Shelf), 128 pages, $19.95.

Travel abroad is supposed to provide a life-changing, mind-broadening experience. It’s an notion that Lars Martinson craftily subverts in the first volume of his ongoing, Xeric-award winning “innocents abroad” story, Tonoharu. (more…)

BBC has unveiled the artwork, designed by the Gorillaz team of Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, that will used in the opening sequence of its coverage of the Beijing Olympics.

Based on the 16th-century Chinese tale Journey to the West, the characters are the Monkey King, Sandy the Sand Monk and Pigsy. You can see image details, and learn more about the characters, here.

(Via the Forbidden Planet International blog)

Almost missed this last night … I need to remember to watch the commercials during Lost, esp. the season finale.

They’ll be in San Diego this year “recruiting” for unpaid positions.

So what did you think of the finale? Let us know in the comments section (SPOILERS, in case anyone hasn’t seen it yet).

Also — Jeremy Bentham was a real person. His dead body is currently on display at University College London; I remember learning about him in a History of England class in college. The professor said that if we remembered anything from the class after it was over, it would be that Bentham had his body preserved and displayed. I want to say that his preserved body has his skull at his feet, but wikipedia doesn’t mention that … just that his head has been stolen so many times that they’ve replaced it with a wax one.

Ah, it is there; a picture of it can be found here. What does this have to do with Lost? You tell me …

BBC News spotlights Glaswegian creators working on American superhero comics, focusing on the All-Star Superman team of Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely and Jamie Grant, and Alan Grant.

I like Bob Schreck’s characterization of Morrison: “He’s like a cat. He hears things which the average person just can’t hear and sees things the average person can’t see.”

Julian Fong, a software engineer for Pixar, recreates the cover of Action Comics #1 using Lego.

“The biggest headache with this wasn’t finding all the green pieces to build the Studebaker (although that was quite a pain),” Fong writes. “Nor was it finding the right facial expressions on the minifigs. It’s the fact that minifigs can’t raise their hands above their heads, so Superman doesn’t quite have the classic pose. Sigh.”

(Via Super Punch)

Dark Horse to produce Emily the Strange movie

Counterculture icon, and merchandising powerhouse, Emily the Strange is heading to the big screen, courtesy of Dark Horse Entertainment President Mike Richardson.

The movie will detail the origin of 13-year-old goth and her four cats Sabbath, Nee-Chee, Miles and Mystery. It also will introduce 13 new characters in a story that will form the basis of an Emily young-adult novel set to be published next year by HarperCollins.

Skateboarder Rob Reger created Emily in 1991 to appear on stickers, T-shirts and skateboards. The character and designs took hold, turning Reger’s Cosmic Debris into a multimillion-dollar business. Emily now appears on everything from school supplies and clothing to playing cards and comic books. Dark Horse began publishing Emily the Strange comics in 2005.

Although the film isn’t set up with a studio, Universal seems a likely choice because of its first-look deal with Dark Horse.

The Ticker

• Wanted gets a boost Sunday with an exclusive clip airing during the MTV Movie Awards preshow. Do people still watch the MTV Movie Awards? [MTV Movies Blog]

• Speaking of Wanted, I think I like the Russian posters better than the ones released in the United States. At least there’s no weird E.T. arm. [IMP Awards]

• Rumor mill: That Spider-Man 4 casting rumor apparently didn’t hold up, so how about this one? James McAvoy — see how I’m keeping that Wanted thread going? — is said to be a favorite to play Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit. [Contactmusic.com]

• Those images for Star Wars: The Clone Wars keep a-comin’. [ENewsI.com]

Bizarro creator Dan Piraro talks to the Houston Chronicle about all the “secret symbols” that pop up in his comic strip, like the stick of dynamite next to Batman’s cape in the cartoon above. According to Piraro, “It refers to my wife, who changed almost everything about my life instantaneously, like an explosion. Not just in sappy, sentimental ways, but philosophically. She made me aware of the plight of animals and the environment at the hands of our rabid consumerism, and I’ve not seen the world the same since.”

Find out more about the symbols at the link.

Earlier this month it was announced that Eisner nominee Joe Infurnari was joining the ACT-I-VATE web comics collective. Now on his blog, Joe reveals the comic he’ll be working on for the site — The Transmigration of Ultra-Lad:

Well, it’s finally official. My none too subtle hints and news leaks have been pretty transparent but here’s the official announcement. Look to the Act-i-vate site for my upcoming webcomic, “The Transmigration of Ultra-Lad” in early June. I’ll have more exact information as we approach launch so please stay tuned.

This story is a future chapter of the Process is a standalone story told out of sequence. It’s comprised of scans of a long lost comic from early in the last century so the print quality and pages are a little worn and deteriorated with age. The comic title is “The New Adventures of Ultra-Lad” and this issue’s story is entitled, “The Transmigration of Ultra-Lad”.

Writing for New York Magazine’s Vulture blog, Heidi MacDonald chats with Jackson Publick, creator of the Venture Bros., about the show:

It does tie in with the whole theme of the show the way it’s evolved. It started out as a parody of Jonny Quest, and now it’s become this meditation on failure.
I probably wouldn’t have put it into those words or thought about it philosophically, but I guess it always was. The main character for me has always been Dr. Venture, and his story is one of a failed boy adventurer. Plus, I was always interested in the rust that’s accumulated on the Space Age.

Do you ever have a hard time not letting Brock take over, since he’s the only person who is competent?
Actually we have a harder time remembering to write cool shit for him. A lot of fans, particularly younger ones, were upset that in season two every episode didn’t have Brock seeing red and flipping out and tearing people in two. It became more fun to play him against type and put him in nanny predicaments. But we remember to make him kill stuff or fuck stuff every once in a while.

Related: The Onion’s A.V. Club also talks with Publick