Ah, the promotional tour for the last project. Is there any better time to start dropping hints about the next project in order to let fans know that stars are still working?

Nope.

The latest case in point, while promoting the DVD release of Cadillac Records, Columbus Short told Blackfilm.com that he will be playing the role of Pooch in the film adaptation of Vertigo’s The Losers. Jeffrey Dean Morgan (he of Watchmen Comedian fame) will be playing Clay.

Sylvain White is directing the film based on a script by James Vanderbilt (after a first pass by Peter Berg). Joel Silver’s Dark Castle Entertainment is financing the film, with Silver, Akiva Goldsman and Kerry Foster named as producers. Given the story, the film will be an ensemble piece.

An acclaimed series, The Losers was published under DC’s vertigo imprint and told the story of an elite CIA black ops team that is set up and marked for death by its handlers. The team barely survives the attack, and set out to get even against those who wished them dead. Clay is the leader of the team, with the other members going by the names Roque, Jensen, Cougar, Aisha and Pooch.

One Sikh cartoonist: New York-based political cartoonist Vishavjit Singh’s work tackles American turbanaphobia, prejudice against Sikhs, Indian politics and more. (Via Dallas Morning News‘ religion blog)

“Look! In the Shadows! It’s Sadomasochisticman!”: This Globe and Mail feature about Joe Shuster, prompted by the new book Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman’s Creator Joe Shuster, includes a lot of good information about Shuster and his work, and an interview with the book’s editor Craig Yoe. It’s framed kind of lamely though, asking if the discovery of Shuster drew things other than Superman might cause the members of Toronto’s city council to reconsider plans to name a street Joe Shuster Way.

This is a pretty nice GLC drawing: While DC’s GL franchise is probably in its best shape ever, I kinda liked the Real World: GLC era too. Anyway GL fans, go look.

Frank Miller’s Knight Rider? Johnny Ryan’s Saved By The Bell?: Do your imagination a favor and check out the latest Five For Fridays feature on Comicsreporter.com. The instructions were “Name Five Specific Favorite Live Action TV Show Episodes And What Cartoonist(s), In The Best Of All Possible Worlds, You’d Like To See Adapt Them,” and the results should lead to extremely wonderful mental images. My list would have just been various episodes of Beverley Hills 90210 containing big sex scenes by Japanese manga artists, like the spring dance episode where Brenda loses her virginity by Yuu Watase, or the college graduation episode where Donna loses hers by CLAMP.

New When Fangirls Attack imminent: Lisa “Ragnell” Fortuner has announced that the venerable linkblog focusing on women and feminism in comics and online geek culture has found a new crew.

“In 1986, a reader couldn’t just turn the page of Alan Moore’s hit comic book and see what happened next”: A lot of this Port Huron, Michigan Times Herald article might summon some no duhs (and/or question marks) from comics readers, but it’s aimed at non-comics readers, and tackles the tricky issue of the difference between a comic book series and a graphic novel fairly well for such a basic article. It also slings some ink at Taurus Comics owner Jason Sawyer.

 And of course, there’s nothing geeky about using a homophone (words spelled differently, but sound the same – yes, your English teacher is ashamed you forgot) to “re-name” your brand…

In a move that will further embolden its critics who claim that Sci Fi is far more “Fi” than “Sci,” and sometimes not “Sci Fi” at all, the network has announced that it will be changing its official name from “Sci Fi” to SyFy – in order not to seem so geek-oriented. David Howe will make the announcement at a network upfront today in New York.

From TV Week:

“The name Sci Fi has been associated with geeks and dysfunctional, antisocial boys in their basements with video games and stuff like that, as opposed to the general public and the female audience in particular,” said TV historian Tim Brooks, who helped launch Sci Fi Channel when he worked at USA Network.

Mr. Brooks said that when people who say they don’t like science fiction enjoy a film like “Star Wars,” they don’t think it’s science fiction; they think it’s a good movie.

“We spent a lot of time in the ’90s trying to distance the network from science fiction, which is largely why it’s called Sci Fi,” Mr. Brooks said. “It’s somewhat cooler and better than the name ‘Science Fiction.’ But even the name Sci Fi is limiting.”

Mr. Howe said going to Syfy will make a difference.

Though 2008 was the network’s best year ever, the network’s management had the feeling that the name was holding it back. 300 possibilities were considered before “SyFy” was selected. The changeover to the new name is slated to take place July 7th, in conjunction with the debut of the network’s new series, Warehouse 13.

Looking to spin off his success with genre films into something bigger and longer lasting, Variety has announced that Watchmen co-writer David Hayter has joined forced with producer Benedict Carver to form Dark Hero Studios, “a company that will generate film, TV, Internet and vidgame projects in the action, sci-fi and horror genres” – this last according to the trade.

While Hayter will be making his directorial debut shortly with the werewolf film, Slaughter’s Road through Carver’s Crystal Sky Productions, the Dark Hero slate willkick off with Demonology, written by Hayter. Later projects will focus on graphic novel, comic book, and videogame properties, as well as original scripts for film treatment. Sarah Freudeman will be Dark Hero’s director of development.

Hayter described Demonology (based on his experiences at an international high school in Japan) as “It’s about an American kid who goes to one of these schools in Belgium, but it brings my own horrible experiences of school to life.”

Hayter also has writing credits for X-Men, X2, and The Scorpion King.

via: Variety

Wired has a list of 10 annoying habits of a geeky spouse and it made me giggle, so I thought I’d share.

My favorite from this list?

7. Geeky toys and decorations can be hard to explain to kids – Long has my plush vorpal bunny languished atop a tall bookcase, waiting for the day when my kids are old enough not to be scared by its huge bloody fangs. And how to properly explain my model of Minas Tirith to kids not quite old enough for The Lord of the Rings? I mean, if we say “You remember The Hobbit? Well, it’s in the same world, but a country not mentioned in that book, and it figures heavily in a later story,” that will only prompt a thousand questions about it. That’s not a bad thing, of course, but it can get a bit tiresome. At least the Warner Brothers cartoon sericels hanging on the walls are easily explained by simply putting in a DVD.

Yeah, I have toy collections too. And my comics are overflowing the bookshelf and competing with far weightier tomes on political science, classic literature (and, um, fashion magazines).

My own annoying geek habit that doesn’t make the list? When I lived in South Carolina, I would drag my then-fiance all the way to Savannah every Wednesday to buy comics.  He’d flip through the same few horror comics while I poked around the selection at the shop, and he’d quickly get bored and end up waiting outside. Any time we went out of town? I had to find the comic shop, ASAP. Then I’d make him drive home so that I could promptly ignore him to devour my new DMZ, Fables or Nextwave.

What habit do you guys have that drives your significant other up a wall? Or have you been lucky enough to find someone who’s as geeky as you are?

Cast-A-Way Toys has announced it will be debuting a new line of Retro-style action figures at the FX International Toy Show (April 17-19th) based on Lee Falk’s THE PHANTOM!

According to the toy maker, the show’s 20th anniversary will be commemorated by a special edition “Gray Ghost” variant of the Phantom figure. In addition, this limited edition figure will come with a Skull Cave setting, complete with Skull brasiers and the Phantom Throne.

There are additional figures in the mix as well: in addition to the Phantom, there will be figures of Captain Action and Dr. Eville. Convention attendees can get a special “stealth” Captain — but beware, as Cast-A-Way warns Dr. Eville will be using his hypnotic eye on showgoers disguised as Dr. Ling.

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, at least according to Harry Knowles and Aint It Cool News. AICN has a logo AND a plot description posted that sees President Lex Luthor using the approach of an incoming Kryptonite asteroid to frame Superman and declare a $1 billion bounty on the heads of Superman and Bataman. Loads of heroes, villains, and fighting ensue.

If that subtitle sounds familiar, it’s because it was the first arc of the actual Superman/Batman comic series. Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness’s tale resolved the long-standing “President Luthor” progression by pitting Superman, Batman, and their respective families against enemies and allies alike. We’ll have more as official confirmation is achieved.

Perhaps because of the circuitous creation process of Dark Horse’s The Mask—created as a concept by one guy, developed by another guy and then redesigned by another before John Arcudi and Doug Mahnke gave us the final form we’re now familiar with—at some point it became more of a premise than a particular character or storyline.

That’s not exactly problematic, particularly for a publisher like Dark Horse, which has had such great success with series of miniseries offering riffs on concepts that are merely starting points for comic stories (See Predator, Aliens, et cetera). The premise for The Mask comics is simple: A character comes into possession of a magical mask which, when they put it on, transforms them into living cartoon character imbued with cartoon character “powers” (invulnerability and immortality, the ability to pull mallets, anvils, disguises and whatever might be funny out of thin air, etc) and they then use these new powers to wreak havoc. The particular brand of havoc often has to do with some form of revenge, which will exceed the wearer’s will, since the mask has a mind of its own.

As with some of the other Ominbus..es…es…es (…? Let’s just skip it) the publisher has offered in the past, the quality of the contents of The Mask Omnibus Vol. 2 is therefore held somewhat captive by the individual creators.

In a sense, it’s a little like someone telling “A guy walks into a bar joke…” joke. How good it ends up being depends on where they go with it and how good they are at telling the joke. While the first volume collected the bulk of the Arcudi/Mahnke work, this one collects stories from a few years after the 1994 Jim Carrey/Cameron Diaz movie, around about the point where the joke started getting tired.

Luckily, there are some good joke-tellers involved.

(more…)

Metropolis Collectibles and ComicConnect.com’s auction of a copy of Action Comics #1 pulled in $317,200, according to the AP. Though the price turned out to slightly less than some expected, MC/CC.com co-owner Stephen Fishler was pleased.

“Maybe in a booming economy, it would have done a hundred grand more, but in this economy, I think the price is great,” Fishler said.

The book was purchased on behalf of “an unidentified client”.

So here’s my reader question: what’s the most that you ever paid for a comic, and what’s the most you’ve ever paid for a non-comics collectible?

The buyer has been identified, and he is John Dolmayan, drummer for System of a Down. Dolmayan is a dealer of rare comics, and reportedly bought the book on behalf of an unidentified client.

There are – reportedly – only 100 copies of Action Comics #1 in existence.

Korea exporting comics to North Africa and Hollywood: Here’s a pretty nicely done “state of manwha” sort of story from JoongAng Daily.

If the Spider-Man Broadway musical is a hit, maybe there will also be a fourth option: “Watchmen Movie vs. Graphic Novel: Is There A Third Option?”

When this list is longer than the list of cartoonists with jobs, panic: Daryl Cagle starts putting all of the newspaper cartoonists who have lost their jobs in the same place at the same time. Read it and weep.

Paul Levitz’s people should call Mark Waid’s people about doing a comic crossover: “‘Watchmen’ vs. ‘Incredibles’: no contest”

Kate Beaton is one of history’s greatest cartoonists: Here’s a nice profile of Beaton, an incredible cartoonist whose work often looks to history for inspiration.

Wait, I thought they were all golf strips now…?: “Universal Press Syndicate is launching a new comic strip called In the Sticks by Nathan Cooper. The strip centers on an ex-golf professional who inherits a nearly bankrupt golf club that is populated by three very odd animals who help him (more or less) keep the club running…”

From the DC Nation Facebook group…

Red Robin. By Francis Manapul.

Now discuss.

The wonderful linkblog, When Fangirls Attack, needs your help to stay in existence. Fangirls, check this out.

The truth is that real life got in the way and got in the way hard, and we’ve come to some unpleasant truths. There’s no way we can keep this linkblog going.

We’re sentimental types though, and we like to think that WFA serves a purpose in the fan community. We’d like to see it continue and regain some of the relevance it had previously.

That’s why I’m posting. We’re looking for someone/some people who are interested in taking over WFA.

Go there and let ‘em know if you’re interested.

So as you might have seen yesterday, Marvel announced a shuffling of its Avengers film lineup, which has been scheduled to put geeks on life support from 2010 to 2011.

For those needing a score card, the original Marvel schedule:

IRON MAN 2 – May 7, 2010
THOR – July 16, 2010
THE FIRST AVENGER: CAPTAIN AMERICA – May 6, 2011
THE AVENGERS – July 15, 2011

And now, the revised schedule as it currently stands…

IRON MAN 2 – May 7, 2010
SPIDER-MAN 4 – May 6, 2011
THOR – June 17, 2011
THE FIRST AVENGER: CAPTAIN AMERICA – July 22, 2011
THE AVENGERS – May 4, 2012

Now you might be asking — what does that all mean? Well, I’m glad you asked, Gentle Reader! I think a major part of all this is the fact that one of Marvel Studios’ flagship franchises is not like the others: Spider-Man. While the Avengers flicks are all nestled in with Marvel Studios and Paramount, lonely Spider-Man (as always) is an outsider, as Sony will let the rights for the seminal superheroic cash cow revert only after hell freezes over.

For those of you who don’t remember, superhero movies have also seemed to dominate the summer schedules (see Lionsgate’s Christmas time Hail Mary with the Spirit if you don’t believe me). The original Spider-Man came out May 3, 2002, and Spider-Man 3 hit theaters almost five years to the day after the first film came out, on May 4, 2007. Iron Man staked out that same weekend turf a year later on May 2, 2008, utterly destroying its only competitor, Made of Honor. (Sorry about that, McDreamy.)

Well, here’s the problem. With Marvel and Paramount calling the shots for all the movies, the initial schedule seemed fine. But Sony has a little bit of leverage to mess with things: (A) Spider-Man is the biggest superhero film franchise of all time, with the trilogy totaling nearly $2.5 billion in sales worldwide, (B) the three pillars of the franchise — Sam Raimi, Tobey Maguire, and Kirsten Dunst — have been notoriously finicky about doing a fourth film (especially after the disappointingly-reviewed third film), and both Sony and Marvel doesn’t want to screw around with a winning formula.

So with Spider-Man now shoehorned into the schedule, Captain America has been — wait for it — put on ice until July 22, 2011. Curiouser and curiouser — isn’t Captain America a shoe-in for a July 4th opening?

There’s a reason for that, as well. His name is Harry Potter.

Now, would you rather get completely flat-tired by a movie that comes right after you, or would you like a chance to do the flat-tiring? The original schedule placed Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two and Avengers on the same weekend, and this reshuffling certainly had something to do with this. I think Marvel knows that out of all its films, Captain America is the biggest gamble: by operating as a World War II-era prequel, this has few of the familiar hallmarks of a superhero film, and currently doesn’t have big names like Kenneth Branaugh attached.

Indeed, the fact that this movie is meant to be a prequel to a bigger film already shows that out of all the Avengers slate, this is the most expendable. Of course, the further you push back these summer blockbuster films, the less and less likely you’re going to strike gold — so in this case, I think Marvel is making an effort to take the bull by the horns by putting Captain America one week after Harry Potter, but still saving its nest egg for a clearer, franchise-free season. (That said, it could also get murdered the same way that Speed Racer did, coming one week after Iron Man.)

There’s another misconception here, as well — the 4th of July weekend. As I mentioned earlier, most superhero movies have actually taken the early May slot as opposed to the 4th. That said, genre films have had the largest draws when they do come out: Spider-Man 2 still holds the highest 4th of July grosses in history, and Will Smith vehicles like Independence Day and Hancock did quite well for themselves. (Terminator 2 even came out on a 4th of July weekend.) While it’s unclear what will come out that weekend, it’s obvious the studios are circling around something. Whether it’s a Transformers or Pirates of the Caribbean-style franchise remains to be seen. (UPDATE: 3/17/09: Yep, I called it. Paramount just announced that the third Transformers movie is coming out on July 4th weekend 2011.)

Something else to consider, though, is the Iron Man-Dark Knight Effect. What does that mean? Iron Man was a comparatively lighter, more simplistic kind of blockbuster. It came into theaters about two months before the Dark Knight, which gave it a good eight or so weeks to clean up before getting siphoned by the Dark Knight hype. There is a strong chance that Thor — which, based on Marvel’s comments, seems to be the Next Big Thing for the Marvel movie machine — will do the same, being an underdog to Harry Potter’s obvious commercial appeal. (That said, look at split films like the Matrix or Pirates of the Caribbean — the third films were panned after audience momentum plummeted with a crummy first act.) I think in this case, Marvel is trying to use Spider-Man to alley-oop with Thor before Harry Potter comes out, and then to have Captain America make a token effort to stop the beast before it gets too strong.

(Wow, fantasy novel analogies mixed with sports. I confess, I am a geek!)

So the real questions still remain: is Marvel trying to shoehorn in too much into one summer? Will the time they allot to each of these films give them a chance to shine, or will each film get run over by the one following it? Will Harry Potter pull a rabbit out of his hat and destroy his numerous genre foes? We’ll have to wait and see.

First off, a note: I had promised a couple of readers after my early reviews of The Life and Times of Savior 28 #1 by J.M. DeMatteis (he of Giffen and… and substantial Booster Gold love fame) and Mike Cavallaro that I would mention on the blog once it had actually been released, as I had an early copy but could not find any release date on the IDW website. The comic, which I think may be the best new superhero book of the year, was released on Wednesday, along with another great indie-superhero book you should check out, Super Human Resources #1 from Ape Entertainment. In the archives, you’ll see I’ve done interviews pertaining to both of these…you should buy them.

Because I’ve had so many questions, and the comments thread is not really a place where the Blog@ contributors are encouraged to go into lengthy diatribes, I’ve decided to address a few of the GOLD EXCHANGE feedback comments from this month in a second article. Thanks to everyone for engaging in the conversation and for some great questions–some of you who asked them early on may have noticed that I wove your feedback into the fabric of the conversation. I’m not going to keep doing that now, as Dan Jurgens shouldn’t be forced to take questions from me all week long, but keep asking if you’re interested and I’ll credit you and use some of your questions on next month’s Exchange.

PyroTwilight: So Rex Hunter is now living despite his apparent death as a child thanks to having been tortured by Rip and turned into chronal energy? I’m a bit lost on that.

I’m not certain, but I imagine that it has something to do with where he physically was (Vanishing Point), and with the fact that they were obviously using whatever device it was that Black Beetle was using to stabilize time around the changed events, so that killing Jason didn’t screw with all of history. Also, you sometimes have to take a leap of faith and understand that the science of resurrecting the (apparently) dead is somewhat unclear to humankind at this point, and so it won’t always make perfect logical sense. I see what happened to Rex Hunter as being fairly similar in nature to what happened to another of Jurgens’ most famous creations–a scientist called Hank Henshaw.

Jack Soo: If this is a regular feature now, this kicks major azz. Thanks to everyone, especially Mr. Dan Jurgens! I’m unsure about the price hike & adding Blue Beetle to this title. I’d rather DC launch a smaller paged “DC Spotlight”/”Teen Titans Spotlight” than shoehorn New Beetle into this title. My question is will this change take away any pages from Booster’s story? I also want to say the colors on Booster & Michelle’s hair looks much better. At one point they were looking more strawberry blonde/orange than blonde. I know that’s the improvement of color in the last 20 years, but I thought the coloring has improved. Thank you.

Jack (great name! I hope we see him at some point…), this is not only a regular feature, but has been for quite some time over at Comic Related, another site where I’m the News Administrator. You can check out my column history (which goes back farther than I’ve been working for Blog@) here. Every month now, what happens is that I release the Q&A-format interview, essentially unedited, here to Blog@ as quickly as I can after it’s finished and then I polish it for a day or so to bring it to Comic Related as a news-and-review feature. Hi-Fi’s coloring has been one of the things Dan and I have spent a lot of time praising; the reality of it is, it’s easy to overlook the colorist when everything else on a book is strong, too, and that’s just one more thing–but with so many metal and laser effects in this book, and having to differentiate between a lot of people who look a lot alike (fathers and sons, brothers and sisters, time-based duplicates), big kudos go to Hi-Fi for making it easy (and to Dan and Norm as well, of course).

As far as the backup feature–I’m cautiously optimistic. Blue Beetle is a character who has about 10,000 diehard fans, and Booster Gold is a book where those fans would probably feel fairly at home if they gave us a chance. I suspect we’ll lose around 1,000 people who just aren’t willing to pay the extra buck, but I’m hoping that’s offset by 4,000 or more BB fans jumping on board. As a former Manhunter reader, I can promise you that if they added a Manhunter backup story to a book, I’d buy it for four bucks. And no–according to DC’s initial release and from what I understand from Dan (who hasn’t said anything on the record about the backup features at all yet–see next month’s column), it will not diminish Booster’s page count. I suspect that it’ll be 22 pages of Booster as usual and than something like 8 pages of Blue Beetle–that makes sense based on some of what they’ve done before and based on the price difference.

Brainstorming: Digital Comics Link Friday

Kyle’s Pick: White Ninja

Some comics use all the tools available to the modern comic creator, slap on some slick colors, agonize over every line and word and still can’t accomplish what Earle and Scott Bevan can do on a bad day with White Ninja. I’ve been following the comic for years now, the longest I’ve followed any comic on the internet, and I’ve never been disappointed. With an unassuming art style, and unconventional punchlines how could it disappoint?

&l t;a href=”http://www.whiteninjacomics.com/comics/crieswolf.shtml”>

They faithfully update with new comics four days a week, and with years of back-stock, you can never see enough. There is no continuity, sense of time or purpose. It just is. Nab them onto you hard drive and make a screensaver with them, you’ll never go a day without laughing again. And hey, if you don’t like it, it’s not because you don’t get it, it’s because you get it.

Lee’s Pick: Kukuburi

Of course, we’re not suggesting that slick colors, deft lines and a polished script are at all overdone. One of my favorites in this category is the webcomic Kukuburi, which is the work of Ramón Pérez of Butternut Squash fame. Kukuburi is a visual carnival, it basically defines the word fantasy. Ramón is a master of composition and produces a beautiful, whimsical world I just can’t get enough of. I’ve been a fan of Ramón’s work since the early days of the Squash and was hooked instantly when he posted the first 4 or 5 pages of Kuku in late ’07. Now on hiatus=2 0due to the need to have a roof and a paycheck, this weekly comic looks set to return in May according to the site’s blog. Which is awesome because I need my Kuku fix.

So while I await the return of Kukuburi I’m reading the comic adaptation of the videogame Resistance put out by Wildstorm and featuring, yes, artwork from Kukuburi creator Ramón Pérez. I’m also enjoying Ramón’s blog; She’s My Kind of Girl (very NSFW) which is a shameless celebration of the female form in quick pinups and illustrations from Ramón and his artist buddies. See more of Ramón’s work here.

I’ve gotten a couple of these forwards in the last two days; video website FunnyOrDie.com is heavy on the comics stuff! First off, there’s a video starring Mad Man alum John Hamm as Lex Luthor, going to Obama to bail out LexCorp; and then a short featuring Malin Akerman (of Watchmen fame) as herself, having a little good-natured fun with the fan community. Both plenty of fun; check them out:

Bailout for LexCorp

Watchmen Tour

MTV has the exclusive on the new trailer, but with the help of handy dandy embed code, we get to share it with you! Unfortunately, since it’s from MTV, it is not viewable outside the US. As soon as the trailer is available to the general press, we’ll get it up in our video section here so the whole world can see. Until then, enjoy the trailer focused on just one part of the gameplay, “Invisible Predator”, America!

If you like what’s you’ve read so far totally check out more super cute comics at:www.sosuperduper.com!

Sharis Van Sciver, wife of Flash: Rebirth artist Ethan, has been all over their local news today after drawing a feral and badly abused Rottweiler away from a group of school children. After the dog attacked Van Sciver, the local police shot and killed it. According to a report from WCNC in North Carolina, she reacted to being bitten on the hand by expressing sorrow for the mistreated dog and saying she would bake cookies for the cop once she recovered. I didn’t think there actually were people that nice. Ethan’s Facebook status as of this writing was assuring fans and friends that Sharis would be fine: “Ethan enjoyed seeing his wife all over the local news this evening. Sharis is a hero! And her hand will be fine.”