This trailer for the upcoming Batman: Arkham Asylum game gives a virtual tour of the Asylum’s facility. Sorry, no actual gameplay in this footage since it’s only a teaser.

Quotes that caught my eye this week.

“She loves comics and loves sharing that passion.””
- John Givetz conveying the passion of Carla Hoffman, who along with her husband Lance, is recovering after suffering serious burns in the Tea Fire. To echo the sentiments of many, here’s hoping we’re all as passionate and dedicated in supporting the Hoffmans, through prayer or fiscal or whatever means we can spare.

“…if the last few years of DC’s publishing moves have taught us anything, it’s that they rarely do anything that makes sense anymore.”
- Stephen Gerding questioning the wisdom of cancelling the Blue Beetle comic with one corporate arm (DC) while raising the character’s profile by using him in the launch of the Batman: The Brave and The Bold show with another corporate arm (Cartoon Network)

“So many people have invested in me getting back on my feet; it’d be a betrayal of them if I didn’t keep going.”
- Bill Messner-Loebs explaining how much he respects the level of support he received from the industry and fans several years ago.

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After a lengthly hiatus, the sci-fi comedy show Galacticast came blazing back with this catchy and hilarious little commercial for artist Tony Moore. Here is Tony’s reaction from his blog:

So Casey and Rudy from Galacticast (and A ComicBook Orange) have taken it upon themselves to put together a commercial to promote my work. Probably one of the coolest things anyone’s ever done for me. Thanks a trillion, guys. I’m glad you enjoy my stuff enough to spread the word!

Yes, I’m late.  Sorry, boss.  Next time I’ll have the post-o-matic 9000 queue it up ahead of time.  I done learned my lesson.

It’s been a while since we’ve seen anything about Dominic Sena’s adaptation of Whiteout, based on the 1998 Oni Press miniseries by Greg Rucka and Steve Lieber. The shifting release date has made it slip off the radar, I guess.

But now ShockTillYouDrop.com has the movie’s international poster, which apparently popped up at Comic-Con. Now Warner Bros. has released it officially, and I like it. Well, except for the font.

Whiteout, which stars Kate Beckinsale and Gabriel Macht, is set to open on Sept. 11, 2009.

In the wake of the cancellations by DC Comics of Birds of Prey, Blue Beetle, Checkmate, Legion of Super-Heroes and Manhunter, Marc-Oliver Frisch spies two more titles that seem to have crossed the line of death: Jonah Hex and Simon Dark.

They’re the only remaining DC Universe ongoing series that sell below 24,000, at least according to ICv2.com sales estimates for October. Actually, they’re well below: Jonah Hex #36 moved an estimated 12,629 copies, while Simon Dark #13 sold an estimated 10,404.

“Given that both titles are selling significantly below that marker,” Frisch writes, “there’s probably not much rope left for them, either.”

It seems like not that long ago, 20,000 was that magical point of no return for most books at DC and Marvel (not that a 4,000-copy shift would move either book back over the line). But the newly canceled She-Hulk supposedly sold nearly 23,000 copies in October; likewise, Legion and Birds of Prey were above that 20,000 mark.

I guess times change … quickly.

Imagi has released the first teaser for its computer-animated adaptation of Astro Boy, based on the classic manga and anime series by Osamu Tezuka. You can watch the trailer after the break.

Directed by David Bowers, the movie features the voices of Freddie Highmore, Nicolas Cage, Kristen Bell, Nathan Lane, Matt Lucas, Bill Nighy, Eugene Levy, Donald Sutherland and Scarlett Johansson. Astro Boy opens on Oct. 23, 2009.

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This issue is all about getting together the groups which will carry the fight to the Troika. Some of them even start to remember the Trinity. You might say they’re … what’s the word? … avenging the Trinity’s displacement.  First, though, they have to assemble….

Okay, that was a long way to go for a lame punchline. At least now it’s out of my system.

In other news, I am now a happy owner of Jack Kirby’s The Demon! Wish it had come out 25 weeks ago, when I needed it more; but better late than never.

On to the issue at hand!

SPOILERS FOLLOW

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This is pretty cool … Rob at the Aquaman Shrine shares a page from DC’s official style guide that shows the Pantone color swatches used for several of their characters:

“I love how distinctive those poses by Jose Luis Garcia Lopez are–Green Arrow with his bow, Plastic Man being goofy, Batman a bit stand-offish,” Rob writes. He also notes the colors used to create Aquaman’s uniform, in case you were wondering what my title was referring to.

(Thanks Michael!)

I’ve read enough bad or lackluster anthologies over the years to know it’s not something you can just slap together. It takes real editorial vision and guidance to put together a solid collection of work, whether you’re talking about new material or older reprints.

Which is my roundabout way of saying just how impressed I am with Ivan Brunetti’s two Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons and True Stories. I had already known Brunetti was a first-rate cartoonist (Schizo, Misery Loves Comedy), but these books, taken together, show him to have a considerable sensitivity and thoughtfulness towards the medium, not just in his choices, but in their arrangement and layout.

While the first volume provided a strong art-comics overview for the uninitiated, the sequel casts a somewhat wider, though no less fascinating net. I was pleased, for example, to discover there were a few artists new to me, while the stories I was familiar came with a slightly new perspective due to their juxtoposition with other works.

I talked to Brunetti recently over the phone about the new collections, the challenges of putting together these anthologies in general, and the chance that we’ll see a new issue of Schizo in 2009 (sadly, probably not likely).

Q: What made you decide to do a second volume?

A: Besides insanity? At the time I put together the first book, my list of stuff I wanted to put in there got so huge I had 800 pages at one point. Actually the first book was supposed to be no more than 300 pages but I convinced Yale to let me do 400. And at some point I was thinking “500 pages would be good.” (more…)

If IMDB is to be believed, we now know the identities of Smallville‘s teen-agers from the future.

The Kryptonsite fan site points out that the entry for the Geoff Johns-written “Legion” episode has been updated with 25-year-old Ryan Kennedy as Cosmic Boy, and 17-year-old Calum Worthy as Lightning Lad. They join 22-year-old Canadian actress/pop singer Alexz Johnson, who was confirmed as Saturn Girl earlier this month.

The trio are the founding members of DC’s Legion of Super-Heroes, who first appeared in Adventure Comics #247 (April 1958).

The episode apparently is set to air in January, the same month that sees the end of the Legion of Super-Heroes comic series.

(Via The Legion Omnicom)

Update (Friday, Nov. 21): As a reader points out in the comments, Kryptonsite now has a screencap from the “Legion” episode that features all three Legionnaires — in outfits that give a nod to their comic-book costumes. Also: The above photo of Calum Worthy apparently is a few years old.

You’ll forgive me if I include some of the news from Dan DiDio’s LA Times interview in this little roundup. Between that article and these solicits, there’s a lot to sort through … and, obviously, not all of it good. Cancellations, character shuffling, and general restructuring seem to be the order of business for the first part of 2009.

Any more of this and DC may need its own bailout–!

Wow, that’s a dark sentiment, isn’t it? Well, the days are getting shorter….

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Jonah Hex has survived the Civil War, countless gunfights and a trip into the far-flung future. But can he endure that dreaded Hollywood menace known as “creative differences”?

Variety reports the Crank team of Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor have dropped out as directors of the Warner Bros. adaptation, which was announced in July 2007.

The reason for their departure? “Creative differences.”

According to the trade paper, Warner Bros. is moving quickly to find a new director and nail down actor Josh Brolin in time to begin production in the spring.

It’s Wednesday, which would typically mean Carla Hoffman’s The Fifth Color column would have been posted today if last week’s tragedy hadn’t occurred. Carla and her husband Lance suffered severe burns in the Tea Fire in the Santa Barbara, Calif. area last week.

I want to say thanks to everyone who has commented on our previous threads, commented on their own blogs or emailed me directly about Carla and Lance, whether it was to check on their condition or to offer to donate something to help them out. I’ve compiled a few more updates below, and will share any additional ones I receive:

• Here’s a follow-up story to the one I posted earlier this week, which includes more quotes from Lance’s grandfather on their condition. They are both still unconscious, in critical but stable condition, but doctors have said Lance’s lungs and eyes were not damaged, which was something they were worried about.

Update, 11/20: The Santa Barbara Independent has a nice story about Carla and Lance.

• More information: If you’re on Facebook, you can join the Tea Fire Survivors group, where people are giving updates on and talking about ways to help Lance and Carla.

• There is also a Yahoo Group that has been set up that you can join as well.

• Donations: You can mail a donation to the fund that the Montecito Fire Department set up for them:

The Lance and Carla Burn Fund
Santa Barbara Bank and Trust
1483 East Valley Road
Montecito, CA 93108-1248

• In addition, The SB Academy of Martial Arts, where Lance is a student, has a page set up where you can donate to Lance and Carla via PayPal.

• And the Blog@ crew is working on a charity auction of our own to help out Lance and Carla. I’ll share the details once we get them sorted out.

There appears to be some sort of competition between Warner Bros. and Lionsgate to see which studio can churn out the most posters for one movie. Warner Bros. is winning with Watchmen, but it’s not for lack of trying on Lionsgate’s part.

Anyway, Cinematical has the roughly 173rd, and supposedly final, poster for Frank Miller’s adaptation of The Spirit. The movie opens on Dec. 25.

Marvel has released what I believe is the third trailer for Wolverine and the X-Men, the animated series set to debut Jan. 23 on Nicktoons.

It looks surprisingly good — good enough that those tired of seeing Wolverine everywhere may overlook his front-and-center role in the cartoon. Hey, how else are they to capitalize on that Wolverine movie?

You can watch the trailer after the break. Marvel’s website also offers a brief behind-the-scenes video with some of the voice cast.

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Despite claims to the contrary, writer James Robinson apparently hasn’t quit DC Comics’ Superman books.

On Monday Rich Johnston reported that he understood Robinson had left the titles, “and the DCU in general,” after an argument with Executive Editor Dan DiDio.

But yesterday editor Matt Idelson told the Superman Homepage fan site that Robinson has not quit.

I guess that’s what you get with an amber traffic light which, in “Lying in the Gutters” parlance, means “there is a heavy bias involved here, or it just seems a little dodgy.”

Robinson, who’s probably best known for his Eisner Award-winning work on Starman and Leave It To Chance, and his recent stints on Batman and Detective Comics, was announced as the new writer of Superman in February. His first issue was June’s #676.

Last week Executive Editor Dan DiDio revealed that DC Comics is canceling Blue Beetle, a move made official on Monday with the release of February solicitations.

Not to be outdone, Marvel on Tuesday announced the cancellation of She-Hulk. Again. But at least the publisher did so with humor: “She’s been savage. She’s been sensational. She’s been an avenger. She’s been a lawyer. She’s been a bounty-hunter. But there’s one thing She-Hulk has always been, in all of her many series … cancelled. But it hasn’t stopped her yet!”

On his blog, She-Hulk writer Peter David responded to the news in similar fashion:

I’ve known about it for a couple months but didn’t say anything because I’m not big on making with the bad news.

I have to admit, I’m shocked. Shocked. The market has always been so supportive of books with female leads, and She-Hulk has never had a title canceled out from under her before, so I could never have seen this coming.

Writer John Rogers, who co-created Jaime Reyes, had a more … pointed … reaction to the cancellation of Blue Beetle:

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Strangeways: The Thirsty rolls along every Monday, Wednesday and Friday here at Blog@Newsarama.com.  Almost a month into things now, can you believe it?

Yeah, me neither.

And while we’re here, let me echo the recent congratulations going out to the guys at High Moon and Bayou over on Zuda comics with the recent announcement of forthcoming print collections for both series.

Apart they’ve been content to merely make fun of Nightwing and Eduardo Risso (sorry, I mean Dave Johnson) … but what happens when they join forces?! That’s the stirring question that will be answered this week as Tucker Stone and Noah Berlatsky have joined forces to take on the black and white phonebook collection known as Showcase Presents: The Brave and the Bold Batman Team-Ups 2.

The pair will trade off reviewing three issues (or chapters if you prefer) at a time. Stone covered #88-90 yesterday, Berlatsky will examine issues #91-93 today and so on. It should make for some fun reading. Here, for example, is what Tucker had to say about issue #89:

Look, you either ride this bull because you fucking like this bull or you don’t.  It’s a metaphor!  It’s an allegory!  It’s all rife with the meaning of the Heroic Saga, as written by Joseph Campbell “The Dumbest Literary Philosopher In The Bargain Bin Of Literary Philosophy” and popularized by George Lucas, the patron saint of “If something has a double meaning, it’s clearly, oh so clearly, better then Tolstoy.”  No.  Don’t get your pretension in here.  Take it and shove it up your ass, and take Mallard Fillmore with you: those are your comics.  Not for us, for us, it’s Bob Fucking Haney, and Haney understands you, 1970.  Haney is going to teach you that when it wears spandex, and when it punches shit, that it is to scream like a housewife, worry about Dick Grayson, and entertain.  This is entertainment, it’s pure.  If Stan Lee knew that a bunch of people with way more time on their hands then they had sense were going to write terrible books about how Spider-man defined a culture, he would’ve jumped out a window and shot up the floors he passed on the way down.  And we would be a better race of knuckle-draggers for it.