I usually frown on just passing along people’s press releases without commentary, but this one’s a little different.

From Newsarama’s brand-spankin’ new exclusive preview of September’s Superman family titles:

SUPERMAN: SECRET ORIGIN #1
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Gary Frank & Jon Sibal
Covers by Gary Frank
Hot on the heels of their acclaimed run on ACTION COMICS, superstars Geoff Johns and Gary Frank reunite to present a 6-issue event that spells out the definitive origin of Superman for the 21st century – and it all starts with a gigantic 48-page issue! Chronicling Clark Kent’s journey from the cornfields of Smallville to the skyscrapers of Metropolis, you’ll witness a whole new look at the beginnings of Lex Luthor, the Legion of Super-Heroes, Lois Lane, Metallo, Jimmy Olsen, the Parasite and more! It’s a look at the mythic past of the Man of Steel with an eye toward the future!
Retailers please note: This issue will ship with two covers. For every 10 copies of the Standard Edition (with a cover by Gary Frank), retailers may order one copy of the Variant Edition (with a cover by Gary Frank). Please see the Previews Order Form for more information.
On sale September 23 • 1 of 6 • 48 pg, FC, $3.99 US

It’s got a great writer/artist team, so it’ll definitely be worth a look. But now what am I supposed to do with my copies of John Byrne’s The Man of Steel, Mark Waid’s Superman: Birthright, and that one story with the shiny cover where Jeph Loeb decided life on Krypton really was like the Silver Age Krypton?

TONIGHT: Kevin O’Neill at Forbidden Planet New York at 6:00. The artist behind The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, among many other books, will be appearing and signing books. Get in line!

Joelle Jones has some more of her gorgeous Endless drawings on her blog. Someone hire this girl to do a Delirium comic, stat. She also has a Blankets tribute and a gorgeous bit of Craig Thompson’s art as well.

Splash Page has more on Ryan Reynolds’ work on the upcoming Deadpool movie. Alas, no pictures…

You’ll probably want to skip straight to this one, because Warren Ellis has a color page from Planetary #27. Yes, it’s really going to happen.

Finally, I bring you a thought-provoking essay on the lack of black supervillains, at Comics Waiting Room. (via When Fangirls Attack)

One of my favorite super-comics this week was the cumbersomely titled Miss America Comics 70th Anniversary Special #1, one of those one-shots Marvel’s been putting out fairly frequently this spring in which a brand-new 22-page story featuring a Golden Age character is paired with some reprints of actual Golden Age material.

Captain America, Namor and The Human Torch have all had their turn in the spotlight, and the previous issue featured a Namor/Torch/Toro/Electro/Angel/Ferret team-up. All of these were characters I was fairly familiar with, with the exception of The Ferret (who was in the Marvel Mystery Comics 70th Anniversary Special #1, maybe the best of the lot), but Miss America was a character I was completely unfamiliar with.

Well, it turned out her comic was pretty great too; Jen Van Meter wrote the story and Andy MacDonald drew it, and like each of the previous ones it featured some of the strongest super-art on display that particular Wednesday. Curious about Timely/Marvel’s Miss America, I poked around The Grand Comics Database to learn a little more about her, and I saw that she had her own single-issue long comic book in 1944, and her costume appeared on the cover of a Miss America Magazine, which appears to have been a romance comic.

And then I realized I actually had read a Miss America story before, and just a few years ago—I just didn’t realize that the Miss America in the 70th Anniversary Special was the same heroine was the same Miss America who appeared in X-Statix Presents: Dead Girl, a 2006 Marvel Knights series by Peter Milligan, Nick Dragotta and Mike Allred.

Let’s take a closer look, after the jump!

(more…)

RIGHT FOR WRITING! JUNE B:DC CHALLENGE

by: Kyle Latino

All right, race fans, this week is about writing, specifically writing full scripts. When I’m is making a comic by myself, it would be easier to just write as I go, keeping the general direction in mind. I have found that writing full scripts yields numerous benefits, though it does add more to the process of comic making. Now, I have no particular expertise in writing, or talent for it, and really I’m technically pretty bad at it; but I do it. I’m in the midst of some more hardcore writing now, so it’s on my mind. This isn’t going to give any tips or lessons on the mechanics of writing (for which I would check HERE), just some observations from an amateur’s perspective. Primarily, if you write scri pts, you will learn story problem solving skills you wouldn’t have picked up just by drawing or working from an outline. Say you write 6 issues worth from beginning to end. Now, before you commit any lines to paper, you know where characters need to end up in their dynamic journey and where they need to be in any given panel. Instead of sprinkling in character moments whenever it occurs to you, you can really take control and intentionally drive the story. Secondly, writing is SO much faster! Yes, it slows down my one-man-show, but writing is much faster than drawing. This is why writers can do multiple books artist only do one. Imagine just taking an hour and a half to write two pages a day and build onto an outline, you are creating so much more material than a page a day of drawing (if you can even draw that often). I’m not saying that writing WELL is EASIER than drawing; just that writing can produce more material in the long run. I’ve been trying to write way out ahead of myself, so I can have confidence that the ending with be worth it when I get there (when I’m an old man…). Lastly, and this is more a fringe benefit, writing teaches you respect for writers. It is a discipline, and one that takes more time than I’ve put into it to truly develop. You may not always agree with people who manage to get a writing gig on a comic or show you wish you could do, but that isn’t a valid critical response. Sit down and do what they do, and you may find yourself reaching for the same cliché’s and plot devices just because, folks, creativity is hard sometimes! Okay, I couldn’t resist giving one tip, here it is: Write with joy. You can have form, theme, dialogue, and whatever else in your script, but have not any joy; you limit your abilities to communicate the energy you have for your project through to the reader. Art ALWAYS has a loss in communication, no one will ever be able to experience your thoughts as purely as a first-person encounter. It is therefore the DUTY of an artist to put as much into the art as possible so that the audience can get the most out of the diminished signal. I’ve been sent sample scripts before, some were even about stuff I would ordinarily want to draw, but the writing was dry and joyless. I’m not working with those people now, nor will too many other people be likely to. Maybe I’ll do an article about contacting an artist next week… OH and don’t forget about the B:DC June Challenge Agree, disagree? Questions, comments? Love poems, hate lymerics? Want me to change the logo t o something with 99% more ME? Email: latino.kyle (at) gmail (dot) com. -Kyle Latino

Everyone knows what happens next.

With the aggressive ad campaign that Image has mounted over the course of the past month or more, every reader with an even passing interest in Erik Larsen’s long-running, creator-owned series Savage Dragon knows that his most feared, powerful and long-dead villain, Overlord, will return in some form in Savage Dragon #150. Recent interviews by Larsen have suggested that the new Overlord will be much more powerful, unstable and generally dangerous than the old one was, and that there were no guarantees that Savage Dragon himself will walk out alive by the time the story arc was finished. So what do you, as a creator, do to set yourself up for the most highly-anticipated issue in some time (with the possible exception of the Obama issue, of course, but that was its own special circumstance)?

Well, it helps that in last month’s issue, the Free Comic Book Day special Savage Dragon #148, it was revealed that Dragon’s kidnapped children had been abducted by their former babysitter, and the granddaughter of Sgt. Marvel, Alison “Dart II” Summers. This issue, “Dart Attack,” puts her craziness in perspective and gives a long and disturbing backstory to how this seemingly-innocuous young girl has distinguished herself as one of Dragon’s more formidable recent villains. By the end of the issue, the threat of this new Dart is somewhat neutralized, but it’s certainly clear that she won’t stay down for long.

Erik Larsen talked to Blog@Newsarama about this month’s issue. (more…)

Scarlett Takes Manhattan

by Molly Crabapple and John Leavitt

48 pages, trade paperback, $12.95 US

Published by Fugu Press

Due out in July, Pre-Order thru Amazon

Sweet and naughty, Scarlett Takes Manhattan is an assured sexy romp through Victorian New York with the beautiful Scarlett on a journey of self-discovery. Warren Ellis calls it, “disgustingly wonderful.” Coming from the creator of some pretty sexy stuff, like Anna Mercury, you have to wonder what he means. Well, this book is absolutely erotically charged and delightfully so. Molly Crabapple has a deep love for her subject matter, vaudeville, erotica, comics, and it shows. Her evolution as an artist, with her illustration work and with Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School Cabaret, leads her to a successful first graphic novel. 

Two glasses of cocktails with cherries looking very much like boobs on page one prepares us for what lies ahead. We next find Scarlett in bed with her lover as she tells the story of her life. It all begins quite innocently enough as a girl from the slums, Shifra Helfgott, eighteen and sexually curious, goes to the city to see a circus parade. She witnesses two elephants copulating which foretells her life’s path mixing sex with show business.

This is the 1880s and so opportunities are slim to none for Shifra, poor, uneducated and orphaned. As a charwoman, she learns that providing sexual favors can help ease her life. It’s then that she crosses paths with theatre impressario, Daniel D’Lovely. She discovers her sexual appeal on stage and Daniel’s secret once they become lovers. In time, she realizes she’ll need to develop a talent in order to remain relevant in vaudeville. This leads to her becoming the star fire-eater, Scarlett O’Herring. 

Shifra’s transformation into Scarlett is handled with sensitivity. As the character gains more control over her life, she becomes more complex as well as more conniving. She reahes a point where she must choose between her friends and betraying them for even greater power and wealth. Here is where the story tackles a little politics and gives us a taste of the corruption of the times with a hint at how little has changed. We also further explore the unique relationship between Daniel and Scarlett and whether they can remain loyal to each other no matter how their lives evolve.

In the end, Scarlett Takes Manhattan maintains a nice head of steam. Nothing too heavy here. What is remarkable is Molly Crabapple’s approach. Considering how sex is portrayed in comics, let alone all media, it is refreshing how Crabapple maintains our interest by celebrating sex rather than exploiting it. What else would you expect from a cartoonist who appreciates toasted marshmallow milkshakes?

When DC first announced that they were going to “kill” Bruce Wayne and that, while he was “dead,” someone new would take over as Batman, I wasn’t exactly excited about the prospect. In fact, I was…well, what’s the opposite of excited? “Apathetic” doesn’t really cover it, as it’s too neutral, and yet I wasn’t really anxious either. My exact emotional state was akin to excitement, only a bad kind of excitement. Like, excitement with a black goatee. Excitement that, if it touched the normal kind, would cause a huge explosion.

The reason for this was that I had already read a very long story about Bruce Wayne being forced to quit being Batman, and another, different character given the role for a while. As did many of you who were reading Batman comics in the last decade of the twentieth century.

It was called “KnightQuest: The Crusade,” and it was about a younger, edgier, more “now” version of Batman taking over, to remind readers just how cool and irreplaceable Batman really is. On that level, it worked pretty well, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy large swathes of it at the time, but it’s hardly a comic story I find myself wanting to reread, or loaning to friends who want to know what I see in these here comic books as a medium.

When Battle For the Cowl began, it seemed an awful lot like “KnightsEnd,” in which Dick Grayson and Tim Drake tried to wrest the Batman costume after a maniac former Bat-protegee who was going too far (with plenty of “War Games” and a touch of “Knight Fall” mixed it). And whoever ended up being Batman, it seemed like it would end up being a new version of a story I had already read or experienced.

The outside candidates were Jason Todd, who was the “bad” Batman unworthy of the name and costume, which would have been a repeat of “The Crusade,” and Tim Drake, who would have made for a teenage Batman, something we haven’t really seen in comics that don’t involve the words “Super Sons,” but was the premise of the popular Batman Beyond TV cartoon.

The most obvious candidate was, of course, Robin-turned-Nightwing Dick Grayson, and DC sure telegraphed that he’d be the last sidekick standing (Battle For the Cowl’s logo was in Nightwing’s colors, the first issue featured a cover of a figure that was Nightwing on one side and Batman on the other, dccomics.com ran Nightwing’s origin on the day the first issue was released, Nightwing was the only of the three not wearing a Batman costume by the time the first issue ended, etc.)

That too was something we had already seen, in another ‘90s Bat-event story, “Prodigal.” Why would DC want to just re-do “Prodigal,” which wasn’t actually any good (Unlike many of the other events of that period, Teenage Caleb didn’t care for this one at all, and sat out a great deal of it).

(After the jump, rambling about how I wrong I was!)

(more…)

Latino Review (and, after that, several other outlets) reported this morning that Stephen Sommers, director of the Brendan Fraser Mummy franchise, had been fired from G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra after the film reportedly received the lowest test-audience scores in the history of Paramount.

The original story was sourced on a message board post, and the studio (via producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura) has completely denied every aspect of the claim. Still, with less-than-promising Internet buzz surrounding the trailers, this story seems likely to resurface if the film turns out to be a bomb. The Latino Review story, updated to reflect di Bonaventura’s comments, points out that rumors like these can cause palpable harm to a film, and to the director’s long-term career prospects. In both cases, though, I’d say G.I. Joe and Sommers are too big and established to be hurt if these reports turn out to be false.

Amber Benson, best known for her portrayal of Tara in Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, will be signing copies of her new book “Death’s Daughter,” over at Challenger Comics + Conversation.

In addition to her signing this book, a limited edition “Death’s Daughter” art print will be available for purchase. Furthermore, 20 lucky readers who buy the book from Challengers before the event will be selected to meet with Benson after the signing!

The book, according to Amazon, follows Calliope Reaper-Jones, a mostly ordinary girl except for the fact her father is Death himself. When good old Pops gets kidnapped, its up to Calliope to take over the family business and thwart the hostile takeover of the Devil’s Protege.

The event will take place June 22 at 4:30 pm, and you can find out more about Challengers by clicking here.

The following is a new animated video by Takashi Murakami for Louis Vuitton. Besides the LV logomania, the cartoon is rife with interesting visual references, from Yellow Submarine and Alice in Wonderland to Doctor Who, Pulp Fiction and C.S. Lewis.

The scenario: a meet cute involving a girl who goes back in time to the 1897 workroom of 14-year-old Gaston Louis Vuitton. How the events in this video affect the timestream is unclear–clearly this calls for a sequel.

After a lackluster Batman issue and a flat-out frustrating turn as the douchey adult to a modern-day Legionnaire in the first issue of Red Robin, Dick Grayson’s second week as Batman is off to a somewhat shaky start.

Swinging in to the rescue (and being mistaken for Green Lantern and Superman in the act of doing it) is Booster Gold, the greatest hero the world will never know, as Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapmund return to Booster Gold and a new story arc—“Day of Death”—that kicks off with Rip and Booster deciding to hide the truth of Booster’s time-saving mission from whoever might find their way into the Batcave and ends with Booster saving Dick Grayson’s life in the present, only to inadvertently cause his death in the past.

With some of the strongest characterization we’ve seen in Booster Gold yet, this issue explored a number of dangling issues from the series’ first year—including Booster’s hesitation to be Rip’s “time monkey” (a subplot that had vanished out of necessity as developments in the main plot needed constant attention), a return to his more glory-seeking and commercial roots and a genuine, human need for someone who understands him. It seems that all of this story really flowed from the second consecutive hard-luck experience with having a “best friend” in the superhero community for Booster. Bruce Wayne, after all, had told him just a little while ago that while he “might not be Ted Kord,” he’d always be there when Booster needed him.

Oops. (more…)

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!

Is this town really big enough for another webslinger?

While I was checking out Marvel’s interview with card-carrying Spider-Man brain trust member Marc Guggenheim about Amazing Spider-Man #600, one thing really stuck out at me:

“Who says it’s just one thing?” queries Guggenheim in return. “How about reintroducing a character whose last name is ‘Reilly’? How about the introduction of a new villain who will play a pivotal role in the upcoming series arc, ‘Who Is Ben Reilly?’”

Forget Bucky and forget Barry Allen: Ben Reilly is like a can of worms stuck inside a barrel of gunpowder. Or worse yet: a clone of Peter Parker.

Ben (who took his uncle’s first name and his aunt’s maiden name) represented the Clone Saga, and the outrage that many Spider-fans felt when it was revealed (and later retconned) that the Peter Parker we had been following for decades was really a clone. Following this revelation — and the fact that Mary Jane was pregnant with a baby — Peter was swiftly depowered and had to make way for a newer, blonder Spider-Man.

Now, this story could mean many things — it could mean he is returning, or that another character is acting out in his name. Or it could simply mean that someone has remembered Ben even existed (something that Marvel had previously avoided, even going so far as to making “clones suck” jokes for much of this decade) — in this case, it could be Norman Osborn, whose return was punctuated by impaling Ben on his Goblin Glider in Spider-Man: Revelations. Thoughts?

Can’t get enough of Big Red? Well, DC has the answer for you: a new Red Tornado mini-series.

The onetime member of the Justice League will be examining his origins in this series by Kevin VanHook and artist Jose Luis, teasing the idea of Reddy’s “android family,” which may come into tension with his wife and adopted daughter. And if you click the above link, you’ll also get a J.G. Jones image of a character known as the Red Volcano…

Hot stuff? Or is this series just going to be blowing in the wind? We’ll find out in September.

With all the content that their blog the Source puts out, it’s perhaps no surprise that DC Comics would expand their online exposure for their other brands.

So you should take a look at Graphic Content, their new blog for Vertigo, as well as their Wildstorm blog, the Bleed.

Already announced on Vertigo’s end is that not only will Bill Willingham create a prose novel for Fables called Peter & Max, but Grant Morrison (of Batman and Seaguy fame) is hard at work on a title called Joe the Barbarian with artist Sean Murphy. Meanwhile, the Bleed has confirmed that Planetary #27 will ship in October, complete with a color page as proof.

Via Comics Worth Reading, apparently IGN is running a contest to win a trip to San Diego Comic Con to participate in an “Assignment.” Cool, right?

Unless you, like me, are a female over the age of 24. Though we too might like to meet District 9 director (and, um, Lord of the Rings director) Peter Jackson, we are apparently excluded. As Johanna notes, the rules of the contest state:

This sweepstakes is open only to males who are both legal residents of the fifty (50) United States and Washington D.C. and who are at least between 18-24 years of age as of July 23, 2009

I can almost understand trying to restrict the contest to younger people–almost. But why on earth would this contest be restricted only to “males”?

Like there aren’t enough men in the comics/film/sci-fi fields already, we need to make sure that only boys get to participate in these type of contests? Like comic conventions don’t have enough guys at them, you need to import extras?

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.

Batman: Going Sane collects two separate storylines that appeared in the anthology series Legends of the Dark Knight, a pseudo-continuity comic series that allowed creators to play around in the Batman mythos without burdening them with the day-to-day restrictions of the DC Universe. The title arc, “Going Sane,” was written by J.M. DeMatteis, noted for his psychological storytelling, and penciled by Joe Staton. The second, shorter story features the words of From Hell and Fate of the Artist author Eddie Campbell and his co-writer Daren White, with art by Bart Sears.

“Going Sane” has a elegantly simple plot: the Joker believes that he’s killed Batman, so what’s left for him without his muse? Turns out that without a focus for his insane plots, the Joker opts to go sane. A day job, a fiancée, and a love of old movies keep him satisfied, despite those terrible nightmares that plague his sleep. Meanwhile, Batman, who fears that he’s losing his sanity as part of his ongoing battle against crime, recovers from the Joker’s assault in an idyllic upstate location, tended to be a lovely young female doctor. It’s an interesting idea, a touch over-written by today’s standards, but DeMatteis does a good job exploring the differing psyches of the two characters, particularly via their relations with the women they each share their time with. Staton’s art isn’t one of the story’s highlights, unfortunately, as his storytelling is difficult in places and the characters inconsistent from panel to panel.

Campbell and White’s script is entirely from the point of view of a young doctor working her first shift in the emergency ward, as the hospital gets far more than expected. The Joker’s planted three bombs throughout Gotham. The first one sends dozens to the ER, overwhelming the staff, testing the young doctor’s resolve. Batman defuses the second explosive, but during the battle, the Joker’s exposed to his own nerve toxin. Thus, Batman comes to the ER searching for an antidote so that he can learn the location of the third. Campbell and White do a fine job capturing the pace and technicals of the emergency room setting, and there’s a nice bit of detective work by Batman in deducing the third bomb’s location. It’s a bit predictable, but solidly entertaining.

Nothing in Batman: Going Sane is worth going out of your way for, but if you want a solid psychological Batman yarn, it’s worth a look if you can find it in your local library.

I’ll be honest here and say that when the Final Crisis comic book miniseries was released, I didn’t get it.

No, not “I didn’t get it” in terms of I couldn’t comprehend what was going on—although there were elements of that at times, too—but I didn’t get what Morrison was trying to DO, exactly.

Having read the upcoming hardcover release, though, I get it completely: Final Crisis is Grant Morrison’s answer to a generation of fans whose favorite writers are Alan Moore and Garth Ennis–twenty-odd years of readers who believe Watchmen to be the best superhero story ever told and who have bought into the myth that the only “smart” superhero stories are the ones written by guys who clearly hate superheroes. And the answer is, in the words of Final Crisis‘ unlikely hero The Tattooed Man, “Here’s where we all say ‘no’ to that.” (more…)

Apparently in the latest Wizard magazine, Shia LeBouf says he doesn’t want to play Yorick in the upcoming Y: The Last Man movie:

“You take Sam and you put a monkey on his shoulder,” said LaBeouf of Yorick’s sidekick Ampersand. “I don’t know if it’s that big a differential. It seems like he’s the ordinary guy in an extraordinary situation again.”

That’s Shia LeBouf, saying that Sam from the Transformers movie is the same character as Yorick. Please, please, please let this be the end of any talk of him playing Yorick. It all stemmed from director D.J. Caruso, who had a firm movie relationship with LeBouf, making the suggestion years ago. This quote right here should say all anyone needs to about why he’s wrong for the role. To think that any of the nuance, emotion, and growth that ‘Rick displays throughout the story of Y could be portrayed by someone who thinks he’s the same character as “human 1″ in a robot action movie is quite simply nonsense.

So, that’s that. Shia LeBouf is not going to be Yorick (hooray!). So, who SHOULD be Yorick? I’d like to officially throw my hat in the ring, despite not having acted in about 9 years (call me!). Anyone else you’d like to see be the last man on earth?

[via Coming Soon]