Some pretty cool news from IGN:

Apparently Sons of Anarchy actor Charlie Hunnam has made it far enough in the lengthy casting crucible to have gotten a screen test to play Thor, the awesome Asgardian, in Marvel’s upcoming 2011 film. A highlight:

Hunnam confirmed that he has indeed screen-tested for the role of the god of thunder. He has only shot one screen test so far, and when asked if it involved running around with a helmet and a hammer, he replied with a smile, “Something like that.”

I’m looking at this guy, and I think Hunnam at the very least looks the part for the Kenneth Branagh-directed film, as well as the following Avengers film. (And credits like Children of Men and Cold Mountain certainly are nothing to sneeze at, either.) What say you, Rama readers?

…And really, that matters! No, really, we promise!

I can’t help it; Marvel’s press release announcing a new 8-page story by Claremont in X-Men Forever Alpha #1, and trumpeted with the headline “Chris Claremont Returns to the X-Men!” just brings out the cynic in me. How many times has Claremont dramatically returned to the creation that made him a household name? I can think of at least three. And how many times has it been worth reading? I’ll let you judge that for yourselves, but I’ve got my own opinion on the matter and I’m sure you can read between the lines.

At any rate, according to Marvel, the new book (besides the new, 8-page story) is a reprint of Claremont and Jim Lee’s best-selling X-Men #1-3 from the early ’90s, and the 8-page story will “bridge the gap” between X-Men #3 and the upcoming X-Men Forever books by Claremont and Tom Grummett, an artist who surely deserves better than to be known as “not Jim Lee” on this project.

Anyway, try to contain your excitement for these eight new pages in a reprint digest, which will hit on April 30 and cost you five bucks. I’m sure that Claremont’s most recent return to the X-Men will be history making, genre-defining, thrill-packed comic books.

Something’s spreading on Deviant Art, and it seems to be catching.

It started on the pages of comic artists like Francis Manapul (whose work is pictured at right), Dustin Nguyen, and colorist Christina Strain. A symbol with a cross bordered by four “E” shaped ends showed up on the Deviant Art pages of several comic book artists with the tagline, “It’s Spreading.”

But then the idea caught on, and the symbol started showing up all over the Deviant Art website, represented in a wide variety of artwork — and accompanied by the tagline, “It’s Spreading.”

What exactly is spreading remains to be seen, but it’s got people talking. New Ultimate Comics Spider-Man artist David LaFuente, who doesn’t have a page on Deviant Art but obviously visits the site enough to notice the phenomenon, posted on his Twitter page this morning, “the IT’S SPREADING thing has my attention.”

At left, I’ve shared a few of my “It’s Spreading” favorites that will give you an idea of how the symbol is being used by Deviant Artists. The images pictured are by Bill Reinhold (the hillside), Ben Kodjak (the shoes) and Kiora Keller (the self-portrait).

To see some of the “It’s Spreading” art yourself, you can check out this collection.

This whole “It’s Spreading” trend is most likely a viral marketing campaign by a clever comics publisher. Then again, it could just be some leftover April Fools joke or the result of a bar room dare. No matter what it is, it’s kind of fun to see how creative these artists are getting as they “spread” this funky little symbol.

First Second’s editorial director, Mark Siegel, has drawn a pretty witty graphic review of Scott Pilgrim vs. the Universe for the webcomic Unshelved, which has been linked over on the company’s web site.

I’d show more on this post, but your head might explode because of how fun this review is, especially as it is in the style of Bryan Lee O’Malley himself. But click here to see what Siegel and the First Second crew had to say.

[Image and permission courtesy of Mark Siegel]

With its sixtieth issue on the racks last week, The Walking Dead has delivered every 2009 issue on time (after an admittedly shaky 2008 for Kirkman and company), and this issue saw something that we haven’t in a while-a whole LOT of zombie-fighting (or at least zombie-avoiding) action. While Rick, Carl and Abraham tried to avoid bringing a horde of zombies back to camp with them, the rest of the group seems to be descending into varying degrees of urgent psychiatric need. With Dale finally ready to settle down and make a home, Maggie avoiding all discussion of her suicide attempt and the kids-well, they’re kids raised in the world of the zombie apocalypse…they’re bound to be a little off.

Blog@Newsarama: It’s funny–much has been made of how credible your non-zombie threats are in The Walking Dead. Do you ever catch flak from zombie fans who feel like issues that actually focus on the living dead are few and far between? I don’t remember, before this issue, the last time I was legitimately concerned about a zombie attack for more than a page or two!

Robert Kirkman: Yeah, in the early days I heard a few complaints that there weren’t enough zombies in the book. I recently went a year–two entire trade paperbacks’ worth of issues without them killing any characters from the book (issues 49-60/Volumes 9 & 10) and thus far, nobody has noticed. Eventually I foresee being able to go an entire block of issues without a zombie appearing. I think it’s important to the book that they’re not the focus. If it makes sense for them to appear–like currently in the series, they’ll be there…but if it ever doesn’t, I’m not going to shoehorn them in just to have them there.

BLOG@: Rick seems to be stepping back into his role as “leader” here, whether he wants to or not–he took charge of the strategic maneuvers, even if they didn’t succeed, to try and keep the zed-heads away from the camp.

RK: I’m trying to show that it’s something he can’t really control. We’ve seen since the tragic events of issue 48 that he very much doesn’t want the responsibility of calling the shots…any of them, but he just can’t control who he is.

BLOG@: There’s something a little eerie about how easily Carl takes to all of this–is his mental health a long-term story? I thought for a while it was going to be something that developed quickly.

RK: I prefer to think of it as changes he’s been going through for the entire length of the series–but it’s things we’re just now noticing, or being shown. Carl has certainly grown up fast, whether that’s a good thing, or a bad thing…remains to be seen.

BLOG@: Speaking of mental health–even if she isn’t a threat to herself anymore, does Maggie’s new outlook put her in a position to be a threat to others? Loss of faith is a powerful thing…!

RK: There’s a lot more to Maggie, as we’ll be seeing very soon in future issues.

BLOG@: How long can we reasonably expect to see Morgan around? He seems to be having a really hard time keeping up with everyone. Or am I looking too deeply and this is just an attempt to honestly depict that not everyone would be up to Rick’s level of zombie evasion skills after only a year or so?

RK: Maybe reading into things a bit. Morgan’s not a runner…hasn’t really strayed from his house very much. He could be around for years–or he could die next issue…I’ll never tell.

BLOG@: Speaking of the timeline–how long has this family been dead? They seem very well-maintained given how much damage was done to the heads of the parents and such. With no security measures to speak of, can we figure that this community had been relatively safe from infestation?

RK: Well, the children were poisoned and then their brains were drilled into by their parents…then the father shot the mother in the head–and then blew his own head off…so that’s why they’re in much worse shape than the kids. I imagine they lived for a good long while in that house, rationing food…and when it became clear that they’d have to hit the road to survive…they decided that was too dangerous. They were already miserable…so they decided to end it. Whether the father or mother were in agreement or if one killed the kids without the other knowing…we’ll never really know. There’s a lot of fun speculation to be had about how things went down exactly.

BLOG@: Are the twins torturing/killing that barn cat, or just playing with a corpse? I ask to clarify, as it seems like the two are both disturbing, but one FAR more than the other.

RK: One definitely killed that cat, Ben…and the other, Billy, is finding him in the act. More on that next issue.

BLOG@: What is it about Morgan that Dale finds “crazy?” After only about three seconds with the guy, to come to that conclusion makes me wonder if–even in this brave new, zombie-filled world–maybe race plays a part.

RK: Morgan looks crazy. He’s wearing dirty clothes, he has wild hair…he looks like a homeless person. The idea is that he let himself go after his son died…sort of became a wild man. It has nothing to do with race.

BLOG@: …And did Dale just plain snap? It seems like he’s done a quick 180, and while he’s not the first one to do so in this series–he’s had a long history of being very close to Rick and the gang. His change of heart seems like a huge shot to the crew’s morale might be coming.

RK: Dale has had a lot of good ideas that have been ignored or steam-rolled over by Rick. That would get to anyone eventually. He hasn’t snapped so much as he just can’t ignore how much trouble Rick’s been causing lately. We’ll see where things go with that.

NYT on TMNT B-Day: Jennifer 8. Lee writes about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, who are turning 25, in this New York Times piece, focusing on the comic book characters’ relationship with the city whose sewer system spawned them. Hmm, I guess it’s about time they started calling themselves Twenty-something Mutant Ninja Turtles, huh?

Speaking of birthdays: The TMNT aren’t the only anthropomorphic animals who wield Japanese weapons who are turning 25 this year. So is Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo.

“In fact, there are waaayyyyy more bad comics about Wolverine in print than enjoyable ones”: Carlton Hargro writes about anticipation for the new Wolverine film for Creative Loafing, and in the process offers up a suggested “Greatest Hits” list of Wolverine comics.

Maybe Batman or Oracle could figure this one out: Is Huntress: Year One suddenly a huge gigantic hit for some reason? Amazon says so. But then, Amazon says a lot of funny things lately, don’t they? (Mystery posed by Heidi MacDonald).

Not shield-shaped enough: Yesterday David linked to one of DC’s “The Source” posts, which unveiled the design for the new version of The Shield that generated a lot of conversation about the character and his character design.

I only have one complaint.

This guy?

Just not shield-shaped enough.

Now that’s a Shield. He looks just like a shield with arms, legs and a head. I do wonder how he bends over to put on his boots though…

A big question that’s been kicked around the blogosphere for the past few weeks has been whether or not Arnold Schwarzenegger will be returning to the Terminator franchise.

The Governator’s answer? A resounding… maybe.

“I made it very clear that I don’t have the time to do the movie,” Schwarzennegger told the Los Angeles Times. “I said that I would be willing to be in the movie if they get the technology together, and so they are working on that right now.”

In other words, Arnie is referring to using footage from the previous three Terminator films to cobble together a nice cameo of the T-800 cybernetic organism. Considering the film is set to come out May 21st, I’m feeling a little skeptical about the time frame.

But the use of CGI and previously shot footage is not unprecedented: when Oliver Reed passed away during the filming of Gladiator, director Ridley Scott managed to use a body double, CGI, and earlier footage to give his character a proper send-off.

Looking for your Salt Water Taffy fix? Oni says: look to the web.

While creator Matthew Loux is hard at work on the third print volume of Salt Water Taffy, Jack and Benny will have a new home on the World Wide Web. The creator plans to write a new online strip every other week until the third volume is released.

“When I was working on The Truth About Dr. True, Salt Water Taffy v3, Jack and Benny kept wanting to go on side trips, and I realized they would make great comic strip characters,” said Loux in a written statement. “The Salt Water Taffy website creates a place for me to tell more of their adventures in a new format.”

You can check out the comic’s web site by clicking here.

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.

With Jeff Lemire’s profile rising higher on a seeming daily basis – his soon-to-be-released Vertigo graphic novel The Nobody and his recently announced Vertigo series Sweet Tooth – I found myself pressed to finally check out the acclaimed and popular Essex County trilogy of books that Lemire authored through Top Shelf Books during 2007-2008. Fortunately, I was able to get all three books from the library: today, Vol. 1, Tales From the Farm.

Young Lester lives on a farm in rural Essex County, a fictional setting somewhere in Ontario, Canada, with his Uncle Ken. Orphaned, emotionally disconnected, lost in fantasy, Lester wears a domino superhero mask and a red cape wherever he goes. Ken, well-meaning but unable to connect with the dreamer boy, struggles to find ways to relate to his only nephew, the son of his only sister. Lester’s closest friend is Jimmy, the slow moving and thinking owner of the local gas station and garage.

Subtle and quiet, Tales From the Farm explores the tension between dreamer and a pragmatist, from the perspective of both surrogate son and surrogate father. Casting no blame, Lemire allows both Ken and Lester’s vantage points to express themselves to readers, suggesting familial tragedies and secrets that underscore their tenuous relationship.

The artwork, powerfully chiaroscuro, has a sloppy, loose energy, yet a delineated clarity of strong page composition and character design. Lemire’s use of blacks and whites would be impressive coming from a 20-year veteran of the medium. Tales From the Farm is definitely one of the best comics I’ve read recently.

Next week, I’ll discuss the second book in the series, Ghost Stories.  But a tease: it’s better.  If you find any of Jeff Lemire’s Essex County books at your local library, definitely pick it up. Like me, you’ll probably decide that they belong in your personal library.

Disclaimer: None of what I post here is in any way the views of Blog@, Newsarama, or Imaginova Networks or anyone associated with them. These are my own opinions, and I speak only for myself. And they’re right.

There has been a bit of an uproar on Twitter in the last 24 hours, primarily instigated by three big names at Marvel Comics complaining about tweets, posts on the microblogging social network, being reposted on websites such as this one, CBR, and many others. The contention by Tom Brevoort, Brian Michael Bendis, and Joe Quesada is that this shouldn’t be done without permission or even payment to the person who made the original 140 character or less post.

…them as articles without any permission or payment to CB. Yeah, I’m looking at you, Newsarama Blog.about 8 hours ago from web

TomBrevoort

Tom Brevoort

This brings to light something that bugged me for the four years that I covered comic books, and one of the big reasons that my focus is on video games nowadays. Press coverage of comics is so reliant on being buddy buddy with the various companies that are being covered, the majority of comic book press has become nothing but a glorified PR stream. But let’s get to the point of contention first: Twitter. (more…)

DC has been on fire with their latest post on their blog, the Source:

That’s right. The Archie Comics superhero, Inferno, designed by J.G. Jones. Wait — you still want more? Click here to see a cover of the hero by Jesus Saiz.

The original Inferno, created by Archie Comics in 1941, was a circus fire-eater whose breath became hot enough to melt bullets in their tracks. There’s no word yet on how the new-and-improved Inferno will evolve from there.

Inferno will share the spotlight with the Shield, the Web, and Hangman in a four-issue Red Circle miniseries by J. Michael Straczynski scheduled for later this summer.

[Old school learnin' via International Hero]

By your Love Counselors, Christian Beranek and Tony DiGerolamo

Christian Beranek and Tony DiGerolamo have dated women so you don’t have to. Just like the avatar you use in your World of Warcraft online adventures, let CB and Tony D take the hits for you in the ever dangerous world of mingling with the opposite sex. And don’t worry, if you can’t tell the difference these days, CB sometimes can’t either.

Dear Web of Love:

My boyfriend of six months is dumping me because I made out with my ex-boyfriend.  I want to win my boyfriend back, but he’s hurt and I don’t blame him.  But this was a one time thing.  I was feeling vulnerable and my ex took advantage.  I told my boyfriend right after it happened.  Shouldn’t he take me back because of my honesty?  Isn’t that what Superman would do?

Signed,
Lois with no Clark

(Editor’s Note: Some slightly NSFW hijinks after the cut!)

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I’m still not finished working my way through the Buffy and Angel TV series on DVD, so I have yet to read the Buffy and Angel comics, though I bought them for my sister for her birthday. So I was surprised to hear that James Marsters (Spike from the show, for the uninitiated) had guest-written an issue of the Dark Horse Buffy comics.

Splash Page had a story earlier today with Marsters’s comments on writing the comic, which included:

“I thought that if I wrote a comic, I’d have ultimate power over everything,” said Marsters. “It was a rude awakening to find out how little power writers have.”

Dark Horse gave Splash Page a statement in response to Marsters’s comments, which included criticisms of artist Ryan Sook.

“The artist James was referring to was Ryan Sook, and he was someone Joss really liked,” explained Dark Horse Senior Managing Editor Scott Allie… “When James expressed his concerns about Ryan, Joss talked to James for me, and told him this was how he wanted the book handled. I talked to Juliet about this recently, and she had no problem with any of it — she’d seen the book and thought it was fine.”

This all may have been blown out of proportion just a bit, though. After all, the original article ended with Marsters joking that all of the portrayals of his character in the subsequent comics have been “overly handsome.”

According to this week’s Diamond shipping list, DC Comics will have 24 releases in stores this week, from all of their various imprints put together. Marvel, meanwhile, will have 47. I don’t generally pay that close attention, I just noticed that the Marvel list looked much, much longer than the DC than usual—is that an unusually dramatic discrepancy between the two companies?

What are some of the highlights and lowlights among those 71 Big Two comic books, and will there be room left on the shelves for anything else? Let’s take a look!

Avengers: The Initiative #23: Hey, it’s one of those weeks where every Avengers title ships! In addition to my favorite non-Marvel Adventures Avengers book, The Initiative, it looks like both Mighty and New will also have new issues out. The only ones not making it to the party are Marvel Adventures and Dark, but at least Dark will be represented by some reprints.

The Beats: A Graphic History: The latest in Hill and Wang’s “A Graphic History” series features 200 pages of pieces about Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and company from writers Harvey Pekar, Joyce Brabner, Trina Robbins, Ed Piskor, Peter Kuper, Summer McClinton and others. It’ll cost you $22.

Buck Rogers #0: Dynamite Entertainment shows off their latest with a specially priced twenty-five cent issue. Writer Scott Beatty and artist Carlos Rafael are in the pilot’s seat for this one, as they will be when the series kicks off with a proper #1. I like Buck’s space age jodhpurs.

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If you like what you’ve read so far (c’mon, how can you not?) totally check out more super cute comics at:www.sosuperduper.com!

Marvel has released a preview to MTV on the upcoming Spider-Man book by SNL comedians Bill Hader and Seth Meyers called the Short Halloween.

The duo announced the one-shot at this year’s New York Comic Con, making a surprise appearance at the Mondo Marvel panel. “This [a comic book convention] is the only place where that would get a laugh,” Meyers said of the book’s title.

You can read the preview (even if it doesn’t have any words) in its entirety here.

You may have seen the movie — but before the movie, there was the hubbub.

For those who don’t remember, there was a huge legal fracas over the summer regarding the Watchmen film, and which studio — DC Comics parent Warner Bros. or original rights holder Fox — held the rights to the film.

As fans grew concerned that the film might be delayed — or not released at all — the studios came to an agreement in January, with Fox retaining up to 8.5% of the film’s profits. But as you may recall, the film had a pretty rough go in the box office, only earning $180 million (after a $138 million budget as well as a heavy marketing campaign).

Now lawyers on both sides will meet on May 13 to discuss the fallout, and what piece of the pie Fox will receive. They will also determine how much of that the architect of this legal snafu, producer Larry Gordon, will pay. Considering the film’s lackluster performance, however, Gordon may be in the clear with the $15 million insurance policy to pay off the entirety of the settlement.

[Via Hollywood Reporter.]

By Jimmy Palmiotti

Right off the bat I want to thank my SUPER talented buddy Darwyn Cooke for filling in for me last week. He did a great job and really, I would read a blog of his weekly as well, but he has better things to do and honestly, I would rather see his work then listen to him go on and on about what is wrong with the country and it’s cheese fascination. I owe you one, buddy!

Been a weird week and a half, lots of ups and downs but this up made my day.  I read a single headline in the paper and it made me as happy as a clam. Let me explain.

Amanda and I went to the Emerald Con in Seattle and it was a total blast. Great crowds, fantastic fans and I got to spend some quality time with a bunch of people I haven’t seen in a while.

A shout out goes to Dave Johnson, Joe Jusko, Mike Mignola, Joanne, Mark, Lara, Derrick and all the rest for making it a really fun weekend in spite of all the stop-overs and air time to and from the show. Back into the week I had to play catch up with work, see a close friend leave town after many months here in my life daily [Hey, Marsha… I got your crap celebrity magazines waiting for you, little sister] and also got to celebrate Amanda’s birthday twice, then bash one of my fingers pretty good. Actually I jammed a finger in my left hand and I am still going for X-rays, an MRI, and consultations… but the good news that made my day was this headline…

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In the July solicitations, an answer to a couple of the nagging questions of the post-Johns/Katz era. Apparently, they won’t be collecting BOOSTER GOLD in hardcovers anymore, which is a damned shame…when, then, will the first two volumes hit trade paperback? Anyway, the third volume hits and Remender’s lackluster and continuity-incongruous arc is left out. When/if will it see print? Still nothing on that.

BOOSTER GOLD: REALITY LOST TP
Written by Chuck Dixon and Dan Jurgens
Art and cover by Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapmund
In this new volume, longtime BATMAN writer Chuck Dixon pens a story in which a time-traveling villain attempts to destroy Gotham City. And in a story written and drawn by Dan Jurgens, Booster discovers the timestream has been inexplicably altered, unleashing all types of anomalies only he can put back in order. Featuring BOOSTER GOLD #11-12 and #15-19!
Advance-solicited; on sale August 5 • 168 pg, FC, $14.99 US

Last summer, DC Comics announced that it had acquired the rights to the Archie Comics superhero line, now called Red Circle. With J. Michael Straczynski taking the helm of the characters, the schedule has been in limbo…

Until now.

The Shield, by Jesus Saiz, courtesy of the Source.

As DC’s Dan DiDio has revealed to the mothership earlier this month, Straczynski will bring the characters back in a four-part series. DiDio said: “He’s doing a four-part series called The Red Circle, which features four of the prime characters from those series of books: The Shield, The Web, Hangman and the Inferno. He’ll be writing this four part story that introduces them, which will also include a semi, soft link of their four origins, and more importantly, setting a direction for each of these characters, and the series will follow after that. We’re looking for that to start in late summer.”