The Comical Life of Troy Hickman #1

So when it came time to write my first blog piece for Newsarama, I asked myself what I could bring to the table that was uniquely my own. Could it be the perspective of a bearded, overweight comics fan? Wow, that’s like carrying coals to Newcastle, or trying to sell Lemmy Kilmister on the benefits of facial wens. Perhaps I could talk about what it’s like to walk into a convention with a pro badge, and proudly notice everyone I pass eyeing it, right before they murmur “who the @#$% is Troy Hickman?” Nah, a column on that would serve only to make me long for the sweet release that oblivion will bring. I guess the obvious choice would be to use it to hype my upcoming Twilight Guardian mini-series, but hey, if I spent a lot of time trying to convince strangers to embrace something of mine, it’d be like dating again.

I suppose it would be best to start this blog by simply telling you that I love comics. Yes, I realize that all of us here can say that, but I don’t think I can make clear to you the EXTENT of that love. I eat, sleep, and breathe comics. I walk through my day seeing the events around me in panel form. If I could, I would elope with a comic and make our own little love-nest on Fire Island, if only our culture would could see the beauty of the bond between man and funnybook.
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Kieran Culkin, last seen in Igby Goes Down, will be playing Wallace Wells in the film adaptation of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, according to HitFlix.

Wallace, Scott’s roommate, acts a responsible foil for the titular character during his quest for battle seven evil ex-boyfriends for the heart of his lady love.

While there is no set date for the adaptation of the Bryan Lee O’Malley book yet, it has been confirmed that the role of Scott will be played by Superbad’s Michael Cera.

While the speculation over in the Bat-Books is rising to a fever pitch after the events of Final Crisis, Batman R.I.P., and the upcoming Battle for the Cowl, it looks like Project Rooftop is thinking more pragmatically:

What will this new Batman look like?

Over at their web site, they have a competition going on for a “Dynamic Do-Over” for Dick Grayson, who they peg as the likely successor for the cape and cowl.

Prizes for the competition include the Matt Wagner Batman: Black & White statue, the Batman Black Glove HC, a DC Direct Batman figure, and a copy of Detective Comics #849 signed by Dustin Nguyen. The prizes have been sponsored by Rogues Gallery in Round Rock, Texas.

Entries are due February 4. It’ll be interesting to see how the winners match up with Battle for the Cowl writer-artist Tony Daniel’s announced redesign of the Batman uniform…

The latest online episode of Naruto Shippuden has hit the web!

You can see the latest from Japan here. Viz is now offering the latest episodes of the sequel series featuring a slightly-older Naruto on their site in partnership with Hulu.com.

Currently, episodes 1 through 16 and the 3 most recent (80-91) are available to watch. In addition to putting up the newest episodes, they’ll be filling in the backmatter 8 episodes each week.

This is an interesting move, likely being done specifically to combat piracy and the “fansub” crowd, which features high quality rips of anime shown in Japan, complete with English (and many other languages) translations as little as 24 hours after it first airs. It will be interesting to see how well this attempt to instantly monetize their show internationally works.

By Jimmy Palmiotti
Been a busy week here working on my full time job and haven’t had a lot of time to run around and be crazy and gather crap for the blog, but I am going to give it my best.

A FEW FILMS:

SLUMDOG MILLIONARE earned their Golden Globes the hard way, by being one of the best movies of the year. Loved it and the energy on screen. Truly wonderful and made for all audiences. It’s a shame its rated R.

Saw REVOLUTIONARY ROAD as well this week and had a really hard time dealing with all the self –pitying of the two characters, and call it bad timing as well when people are losing their jobs and homes, we have to watch a movie about a couple that has both and still can’t act like grown-ups.  The screenplay was, I thought, weak in that it never fully introduced these two people as a family since the kids were really never in more than two quick scenes and the interaction was nil. The biggest problem I had was that I just didn’t get the feeling these two people really loved each other. That alone made it hard to follow them till the end.

Also checked out GRAN TORINO. It’s no secret I am a big fan of Clint Eastwood and this film once again proves how talented this man is. I thought it was funny and sweet and had some really great life lessons. It was a win-win for me.

Last, caught THE UNBORN, which was wonderful fun for the most part till the last 20 minutes when I figured out that they didn’t have all the details worked out where the film was going. It felt like a wish list of a lot of cool things and scenes and then they figured out a way to string them all together… except the end. I was hoping for a bit more from David Goyer since I am a fan and hoping for an R-rated horror show as well.  Don’t get me wrong, it was entertaining and fun, but I think next time he should hit me up and let me look over the script. I think I can help… lol.

CONVENTION TIME:

Yeah, New York and Megacon are coming in a few weeks, and how we prepare around here is Amanda starts working till 4am every day to make up for the lost time and money the cons cost us and I just try to make her life easier by booking flights and hotels. We both love the cons for the same reasons… we get to meet and talk to the fans. Sometimes we make some cash selling prints, but usually it just about covers our expenses. Not a problem with Megacon really since they are taking good care of us. The N.Y. con this year was cool enough to give us a table and admission, but since we are not special guests, coming from Florida and staying near in a hotel, its going to cost us a bit to break even this year. This is true for most of the people in Artists’ Alley folks… remember, only a few people actually walk away with a profit and especially the case with the lesser-known pros and the people introducing their creator-owned books. As a rule I try to support them whenever possible.

BLAIR BUTLER:

For those of you that watch G4, you already know why I consider Blair one of the coolest people inside and outside of comics. Enough cant be said about her, so give her a watch here.

Thanks again for the props, Blair.

VOTE:

Go to the CBG Fan Awards page and vote. Vote for your favorites and while I am here with you, don’t forget everyone’s favorite scarred western star. I know it’s a shameless plug, but think of it as a reminder while all you are thinking about are men in tights. Jonah Hex would shoot them all given the chance.

PLUG FOR A GOOD CAUSE:

The Hero Initiative has announced that annual memberships for the organization are now available for purchase. There are four levels of membership: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Excelsior!

A Bronze membership costs $29 and includes: a personalized membership card, a quarterly newsletter, and a Hero Initiative sketch card from a randomly selected artist.

A Silver membership costs $99 and includes: all of the Bronze perks, plus a Hero Initiative T-shirt (your choice of Dawn or Hero Hand), a copy of the Marvel Then and Now DVD, and a copy of The Unusual Suspects graphic novel.

A Gold membership costs $250 and includes: all of the Silver perks, plus invitations to Hero Initiative VIP Members-Only parties at 2009′s Wizard World Los Angeles and Wizard World Chicago.

An Excelsior! membership costs $500 and includes: all of the Gold perks, plus your flat item (maximum size 11” x 17”), signed and personalized by the one and only Stan Lee.

To become a member of The Hero Initiative, fans can click here or sign up on-site at The Hero Initiative booth at the following upcoming comic book conventions: Phoenix Cactus Comic-Con, Jan. 23-25; New York Comic Con, Feb. 6-8; WonderCon, Feb. 27 – March 1; Orlando MegaCon, Feb. 27 – March 1; and Wizard World Los Angeles, March 13-15.

SETH KUSHNER AND CHRISTOPHER IRVING:

I thank God Amanda thinks I am attractive, but honestly I don’t feel like a prince away from her, but I got to hand it to a photographer friend of mine named Seth Kushner. Check out his work and the cool photos he has taken of a lot of the N.Y. area creators. The man is brilliant at his craft and a super nice guy. Seth has a skill that I think people seem to take for granted these days and it’s on display on his NYC GRAPHIC blog site.

Go take a look here.

See Paul Pope taking it easy at a burlesque show, marvel at Howard Chaykin’s stern expression… and enjoy a well-written blog by Christopher Irving.

THE GOLDEN GLOBES:

I watched them and it was OK. a lot of the usual B.S. and ass-kissing like all award shows and that’s cool as well. Glad Slumdog, Mickey Rourke, and a few others won, as well as Kate Winslet for THE READER. The thing that really got my attention was Salma Hayek.

I actually met Mickey for a minute in a club in New York in the early nineties and he was pretty cool. He was decked out all in white and so was his lady. I was a huge fan of his YEAR OF THE DRAGON, ANGEL HEART, POPE OF GREENICH VILLAGE, and NINE AND A HALF WEEKS.  Something stuck in my brain about Year of the Dragon back then… the movie focused on a guy that everyone hated and I found it left a lasting impression on me. Anyway, back to Salma… Amanda and I actually had the pleasure of meeting her years ago on Kevin Smith’s set while he was filming DOGMA in Jersey. We took some photos with her and hung around the set and we did what you usually do around Kevin… listen to him talk. Anyway, she was super cool and beautiful and I wanted to post a picture of her NOT from the Golden Globes because we all have seen that this week. I found this photo online and figured I would share.

LINKS OF THE WEEK:

Well, the first is to another comic site… and it features a review of a book I co-write. Still… he makes some good points, lol…

The next link is something you will thank me for. It’s the mother of all links to everything you will ever need. Don’t believe me? Then click here.

At last , an excellent “how to” site for illustrators created by Von. R. Glitschka… check it out. I learned a lot on this and you will too.

That’s it for now folks, more to come next week.

JIMMY P

It’s always interesting the see sort of resonance a character like Batman has (especially with yesterday’s change of the status quo) around the world.

That said, I’m not quite sure how I felt when I read that Benicio del Toro, talking with ANI about his starring role in Che, suddenly said:

“We tell stories about Batman, and [Che] was a type of Batman. No one can deny that he was trying to stop man exploiting man. Whether he was successful or not…”

While I feel that Batman and Che would probably have been at each other’s throats (since Bruce is rich and vehemently against killing of any kind — can you imagine Che in Batman’s Rogue’s Gallery?), you can read more about it here.

The Watchmen case is not the only comics-related lawsuit that has been heating up. Lawyers on both sides of the Siegel case have also been filing a number of documents, although without a settlement in sight.

The primary focus of attention for the past few weeks has been the relationship between DC and Warner Bros. In a nutshell, the Siegels allege that the various deals between DC and Warner Bros. do not represent fair market value. Rather, the Siegels claim, because of the close corporate relationship between the two companies DC received substantially less than an unrelated company would have paid–which could affect the amount the Siegels might receive from the apportionment of profits derived from their copyright interest in Superman.

We’ll be covering the specifics in more detail as the case unfolds. For now, for those of who don’t want to wade through several thousand pages of depositions and corporate documents, here’s one interesting bit of history entered into evidence as part of the dispute: unproduced scripts written over the course of developing the latest Superman movie.

Marvel and DC Comics, the undisputed champs of direct market super-comics, both had fairly huge books come out this week. For Marvel, it was Amazing Spider-Man #583, the guest-star of which helped garner the company a huge media splash, inside the comics industry and outside. For DC, it was the penultimate chapter of their years-in-the-making (and marketing) crossover series Final Crisis #6, which contained what would, in different circumstances, have seemed like a pretty huge development.

As topics of conversation, they were both certainly successes. And I imagine in terms of sales, they’ll also be pretty big sucesses for the two companies. But how are the comics as, you know, comics, to be read and enjoyed?

Well, they’re both fairly terrible.

Super-long, spoiler-packed reviews of each, after the jump.

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Fox and Warner Bros. have asked for a hearing later today to report on a final settlement or to discuss how to proceed in the hearing scheduled for January 20. The filing, available on FilmEsq.com, notes that the studios “are continuing to address a few remaining settlement issues.” It also confirms that settlement negotiations began in late December, a few days after the judge’s decisive December 24 ruling in favor of Fox.

Variety sure seems to think that it’s possible. The trade reports that Blunt is “rumored” to be the frontrunner for the role of Russian superspy Natasha Romanoff in the sequel to last year’s Iron Man. The British actress, probably best known for her role as Anne Hathaway’s nemesis, Emily, in The Devil Wears Prada will next appear in the Joe Johnston-directed The Wolf Man.

The past week or so has been a hotbed of Iron Man 2 news, given the rumors of Mickey Rourke and Sam Rockwell circling parts that may include the Crimson Dynamo and Whiplash, as well as the discussion of whether or not Sam Jackson will be reprising the Nick Fury role.

Personally, I’m a little more curious about the story itself. We’ve heard that there will be more on Tony’s alcoholism, War Machine (now played by Don Cheadle), and maybe a different version of The Mandarin.

With all the casting rumors so far, this is sounding like a David Micheline/Bob Layton comic come to big-screen life.

What should this be to hit another home run, shellheads?

OK, technically I’m not re-watching it, because I’ve never seen it before.

Now that the collective gasps have subsided, I must assure you that indeed, I love it. I love musicals in general. I used to be in theater in school, have gleefully bought the soundtracks to pretty much every movie musical of the past ten years, as well as the ones I’ve actually seen live (Les Miserables, Rent, Cabaret). I sing along, too, but that’s only in the car. Trust me, you don’t want to hear me sing.

Buffy was the perfect TV show to do as a musical. It was both deadly serious and constantly winking at itself, full of cheesy special effects yet able to grab you by the heartstrings and twist. Musicals require a similar suspension of disbelief–of course people don’t walk down the street singing and dancing. Done badly, they’re utterly cringe-inducing. Done well, bliss.

(if you haven’t seen this yet, please, do yourself a favor. otherwise, read on.)

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Asylum Press has released its first trailer for its Tuesday Trailer series! This trailer is for their series The Bomb, illustrated by the inimitable Steve Mannion!

If the above link doesn’t work, you can check out the trailer here.

Earlier today, Newsarama had a chance to speak with Christian Beranek about the Max Payne animated graphic novel Michelle Payne, which is on the Max Payne Blu-Ray DVD set to be released on Tuesday. We’ve now spoken with his co-writer, Raven Gregory, on his take on the project.

NEWSARAMA: How’d you get involved with this project?

RAVEN GREGORY: Well, me and CB go back a while.  We both came up together in the business (me on THE GIFT and at Zenescope Entertainment, and him at Silent Devil and then Kingdom Comics at Disney) and our personalities just clicked with each other.  So Christian called me up one night and asked me if I had ever played the game Max Payne.  I told him I was a huge fan and still had my Playstation 2 copy of the game.  He filled me in on the idea of telling a prequel to the Max Payne film and I just fell in love with it.  We brainstormed a bit together and pitched some ideas to Rick Karo at Comflix and they really dug what we presented to them.  During the movie, very little is revealed about Max’s wife so it freed us up to really flesh out the character and bring her to life.  As much as I love Max Payne’s story, Michelle’s story just blew me away.

NEWSARAMA: What’s your take on Max Payne, and how did this inform your approach to the project?

RG: What I like most about Max and his story is this could have been anybody.  As I get older you really begin to understand that no one is promised tomorrow and seeing the effects Michelle death has on Max and the path it puts him on is easy to relate to.  I’m not saying if the same thing happened to me that I’d go gun toting and blowing up corruption on every corner but the theme of depression and lack of control and trying to find that balance again, to answer the question of why bad things happen, is something that everyone feels.  The guy just wants answers.  He knows in his heart it won’t make anything better but we as humans need an answer to get the closure needed to move on.

NEWSARAMA: Can you give a little summary of the story? Where’s it fit in the Max Payne mythos?

RG: In short, it fully reveals the tragic event that made Max into the person he is at the beginning of the movie.  In the movie, you know Max lost his wife and he’s searching for answers.  Here you get to see the story of what really happened.  It’s some pretty heart-wrenching stuff but given that the ending was already established we still had a lot of free reign in fleshing out the characters in a way you never see them before in any of the previous installments.  Seeing Max before all the pain went down only makes knowing what is coming that much more tragic.

NEWSARAMA: Anything cool you’re looking forward to that you can allude to?

RG: Possibly more goodness from Comflix.  Maybe some Raven Gregory creator owned madness at that.

NEWSARAMA: This is an animated project — how has that differed from your typical comic  gigs? Any skills you have to unlearn?

RG: Not really.  We approached it as a comic.  We knew it was going to be animated but never over thought that aspect of it.  At the end of the day, you try to tell the best story you can, and if you do your job well it all works out.  Hearing the actors voices, the words sound even better than they did in my head, so it’s a lot like the comic making process in that you ask for one thing, and at times get back something that is even better than you could have ever imagine.

NEWSARAMA: Collaborating with Christian — can you describe it?

RG: I just love the guy.  Besides being one of my best friends in and out of this business he’s the kind of writer that you can go to with a story and say, “Hey, this isn’t working.  This part, it’s bland, the rest is good, but this is suck at it’s most suckness,” and he’ll take that and breathe such life and energy into and suddenly it works and it not only works… it kicks ass.

NEWSRAMA: Last, but not least — is there anything you think we should know about this project that I haven’t already asked?

RG: I just hope people enjoy it as much as we enjoyed writing it.   For a sneak peek check out the teaser trailer up on http://www.maxpaynethemovie.com/michellepayne/

The legendary slasher of Camp Crystal Lake strikes again in the all new Friday the 13th film. The newest Friday The 13th film is a terrifying revision of the iconic horror franchise. The Jason Voorhees figure is crafted with incredible detail and comes with an array of weapons used in the film. Each figure stands over 7 inches tall and is fully articulated.

Expect Jason to slash his way onto stores shelves around February 13th.

It’s a tough week to be a legend, apparently.  Ricardo Montalban, Star Trek’s Khan and Fantasy Island’s Mr. Roarke, has died at 88.  We’ll update this story, and discuss the actor’s work, later this evening.

The library is a great place for readers to discover comics, and it’s a great place for comics readers to check out things that they want to try without spending their hard-earned cash. I’m looking at comics that I find in the New York Public Library system.

This week, rather than wait in line in the brutal cold (which, personally, I love), you could go the library and check out Charles Hatfield’s academic study of comics, specifically alternative comics including Gilbert Hernandez’s Palomar and Poison River, Spiegelman’s Maus, R. Crumb’s revolutionary work, and Harvey Pekar’s subtle recognition of daily turmoils.  Technically, yeah, it’s not a comic, but it is heavily illustrated with plenty of examples from the relevant works.

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The Associated Press and other outlets report that legendary actor Patrick McGoohan has died.  McGoohan, who was 80, passed away yesterday in L.A. after a brief illness.  Though he won two Emmys for his work on Columbo, and had high profile roles like the King of England in Braveheart, he was absolutely beloved in genre circles for two things: Secret Agent (aka Danger Man and Secret Agent Man), and, of course, The Prisoner.  He will be sorely missed.

As you know, Amazing Spider-Man #583 streets today. And how is the nation reacting to their President-Elect appearing with the Wall-Crawler? If Indianapolis is any indication, with wallets open, apparently. I talked to one of my boys at the west-side Comic Carnival location in Indy, and it’s defnitely been busy.

“We had a line outside before we even opened this morning,” he explained. More than that, they received “20 calls” before opening time, all asking about the Spidey-Obama book. We expect this scene to be mirrored across the country today as shops continue to open out to the West Coast.

The question now: with LCSs getting a nice boost of attention and a likely boost in sales this week, how does the industry continue to capitalize on this moment?

Update, New York City, 11:42am EST: Blog@Newsarama’s own David Pepose just dropped us this bit: “I just made it to Midtown Comics… and the line is a block long.” David shot the photo below from his location in line.

Via David, 11:56am EST: Overheard in crowd: “Either Obama or Spider-Man or both better be signing this.”

eBay, 12:08pm EST: Checking in on eBay, there are nearly 800 listings for the issue. After you wade through horrifically priced “Buy it Now” listings for as high as $500, and a couple of CGC-grade pre-sells, you find variant covers from sellers already netting bids in the $90 region.

Update 12:30pm EST – Winston-Salem, NC: (via Matt Brady) The local shop here in Winston, Ssalefish Comics and Toys was sold out by the time I hit the store at 11:45, or rather, was able to get in the store at 11:45 (it opened at 11:30). According to the staff, there were people waiting outside at 9:30 am, and by 11:30 am, a line of twenty or so folks stretched down the sidewalk, waiting. As folks came in after the copies were gone, names were placed on a list for second print copies, due in stores next week.

Update 1:11pm EST - College Park, GA and Chicago, IL: (via Newsarama contributor Lan Pitts) I woke up today with a cold, so after a cup of tea I check my usual websites and email. Though today a very special issue of Amazing Spider-Man came out feature President-Elect Barack Obama came out. I had completely forgotten! Rushing to my phone, I call my usual comic dealer Chuck, over at Titan Comics in College Park, GA. “All sold out”. While he did mention he will be receiving a second printing of the book NEXT week. So I thank him and call my local dealer, which really isn’t a “comic shop”, more like a book store with a comic section. So I call the Book Nook, and gentleman by the name of Ron answers the phone and explains that they just order 20 copies, as per usual. They didn’t know it was going to be such a huge deal and have been dealing with over 200 calls this morning about it. Once again, I am out of luck, though inform me that another local store is already selling them for almost $40.

Ridiculous. So, at this point in time I call a dealer in Chicago I know: Keith Anderson, from Keith’s Comics. And once again I am told they are sold out. To out there who got your copies, you are some lucky, LUCKY, people.

Update: 1:24pm EST – New York, NY: David Pepose here! I’m looking at eBay right now, and it’s getting pretty crazy on here. Prices for the Obama variant are running from $7.90 to $73.00.

Update: 4:45pm EST, via Atomic Comics’ Mike Malve: Well like we all expected there where small crowds of people waiting for us to open today… It was new ComicBook Day.. So that was not too unusual. But everybody was talking about the book and most picked up a copy even though they did not pick up the Spidey book.

We had already pre-sold our copies of the alt cover( we had just under100 copies) at $10 a pop. We started a pre-pay of the new second print and those are flying to all the customers coming in at this point. Seem to have to open the standard first print book and show Obama inside to help sell the book.

From Comic Book Ink’s John Munn:

People started lining up at 5:50am this morning for an opportunity to get a copy of the rare AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #583 (Barack Obama Issue).

An hour before delivery time we walked the line giving out numbered coupons for the number of Regular and Variant covers we were receiving of this special issue.

We told folks that they could only purchase one of either the Regular Cover or the Variant Cover, but please not both.  That way there would be more opportunities for others later in the day!

While the final variant (of over 30) sold out at 1:15pm, we still have copies of the regular cover in stock.

We are also reminding everyone that a second printing of the Barack Obama cover is coming soon and they can even use their coupon to help purchase that equally collectible issue!

We are going to continue to give out coupons all day, with an OB symbol on them to track folks that might visit us again.  This has been an incredible event and we are proud to be part of the excitement of this Historic Event!!

We’re looking to keep this update rolling – so what’s your story at your shop today?

Arriving in stores next Tuesday on the Max Payne Blu-Ray DVD comes a really interesting addition: the animated graphic novel. Newsarama asked our own Christian Beranek, who is one half of the writing team of Michelle Payne, about his project.

NEWSARAMA: How’d you get involved with this project?

CHRISTIAN BERANEK: I first hooked up with Comflix Studios a few years back via my good friend Larry Shuman. He introduced me to Scott Schneider who wanted to do something in what is now called the “motion comic” space. Now, we see a lot of that stuff these days, particularly with Watchmen being available on ITunes. Comflix, however, was ahead of the curve back then and I wanted to be a part of it. Scott and company quickly got to work adapting Dracula vs. King Arthur, the graphic novel I co-created with my brother Adam and Chris Moreno.

Flash forward to 2008. Scott and his partner Rick Karo told me there was some stuff they were working on with Fox. First up was Babylon AD. They needed a 5 minute long prequel piece to include on the special edition DVD. I wrote the story and suggested Dennis Calero as the artist. The end result was very satisfying.

So, when they said they needed to do a longer project for Max Payne I couldn’t say no. It sounded like too much fun.

NEWSARAMA: What’s your take on Max Payne, and how did this inform your approach to the project?

CB: Look, Max Payne is one of the most popular video game franchises of all time. The only thing I could do was pay respect to the character and enhance certain elements of the story in relation to the film. That’s all I set out to do and hopefully the goal was achieved.

You see, when millions of people play a video game like this… Well, they are Max Payne for those hours they spend shooting up bad guys. They have their own take on who Max is. You have to honor that interactive spirit and not take away from it.

NEWSARAMA: Can you give a little summary of the story? Where’s it fit in the Max Payne mythos?

CB: This a prequel. We show Michelle (Max’s wife) Payne’s back story and how it leads into the movie. It’s an actual extension of the film.

NEWSARAMA: This is an animated project — how has that differed from your typical comic gigs? Any skills you have to unlearn?

CB: Well, we (co-writer Raven Gregory and I) wrote the story as a 48 page comic that was translated into a Comflix animated short. We knew there was a set amount of minutes alloted, so we paced the story out accordingly. I think that by having worked in comics, being constrained to page counts for certain issues, prepares you to be economical in terms of storytelling.

Now, there are certain skills you have to unlearn. For instance, voice over becomes very important. You can have more dialogue in some scenes than you would normally do, less in others. There is  a learning curve, to be sure, but the mediums work well with one another.

NEWSARAMA: Collaborating with Raven — can you describe it?

CB: It’s like being in a hurricane! Seriously, Raven is one of my best friends. He is also a true lover of comics. This guy lives, breathes and eats the medium. He is also a huge Max Payne fan and when I got the gig I called him up to co-write.

He’s a great collaborator and had a ton of awesome ideas. Very easy to work with and I can’t wait to do something with him again. Just keep him away from my nachos!

NEWSARAMA: Anything cool you’re looking forward to that you can allude to?

CB: Well, my main gig is with Disney. They were very gracious to allow me to work on the Fox projects as I have an exclusive with them for comics. This falls in that realm.

Right now Ahmet Zappa and I are in the lab cooking up a lot of stuff under the Disney’s Kingdom Comics banner — expect news on that soon!

Beside comics, I have several screenplays in development with some producers and directors I like and admire. In addition, I’m working on some TV stuff, my first novel and an album. Lots going on and it’s good to be this busy.

NEWSARAMA: Last but not least… anything you think I should know about this project that I haven’t already asked?

CB: The DVD comes out next Tuesday and I hope you’ll check it out. The trailer can be viewed here: http://www.maxpaynethemovie.com/michellepayne/

Keep reading Blog@, readers, where we hope to chat with Beranek’s co-writer, Raven Gregory, for his take on the project!

Today’s Variety has the nominations for the Costume Designers Guild Awards, and as you may have guessed, the two superhero box office titans are on the exclusive list.

Iron Man, designed by Laura Jean Shannon and Rebecca Bentjen, have received a nomination for Excellence in Contemporary Film — meanwhile, the Dark Knight, designed by Lindy Hemming, receieved a nomination for Excellence in Fantasy Film.

While the distinction between the two categories does feel a bit dubious, they still have to compete with big-name films like The Wrestler, Slumdog Millionaire, Sex and the City, Mamma Mia!, The Mummy, and Prince Caspian.