While it seems impossible that there’s yet another way to bastardize the Star Wars franchise for a few more bucks, they have indeed found one!
Star Wars^TM: In Concert, a unique multi-media event featuring music from all six of John Williams’ epic Star Wars scores, begins its worldwide arena tour on October 1, 2009 at Honda Center in Anaheim, California.
Narrated live by Anthony Daniels (the actor who portrayed C-3PO in all six films), the production features a full symphony orchestra and choir, accompanied by specially edited footage from the films displayed on a three-story-tall, high-definition LED super-screen – one of the largest ever put on tour.  The live music and film elements are synchronized in order to create a full multi-media, one-of-kind Star Wars experience.

That’s the first couple of paragraphs of the press release. More information can be found on the project here.

Given that DC Comics Executive Editor Dan DiDio has expressed hesitation to fill the market with Absolute Editions, and then backed up those comments by substantially cutting the number of such publications to come out in the last few years as opposed to the first days of the program, it’s always news when a new one is announced. Any comic reissued in the format–which sees best-selling (and usually critically-acclaimed) comics reissued in an oversized hardcover format to present the pages in the same size as the original comics art–usually costs $75 or more and comes in a slipcase.

If there was going to be a new one announced this weekend at San Diego, though, is it surprising that it would be Green Lantern: Rebirth by Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver? The announcement was made at today’s Geoff Johns Spotlight panel when a fan asked about the possibility of an Absolute Sinestro Corps War (something I’d far rather see). Green Lantern: Rebirth, of course, touched off a renaissance age for the character, and its success along with the regular creative team of Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis has lifted the comic to sales and critical success it’s rarely seen before. It featured the return to action of Silver Age Green Lantern Hal Jordan, and is currently being followed up by the return of Silver Age Flash Barry Allen in Flash: Rebirth by the same creative team. It seems like every convention sees Johns asked by some fan or another whether Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, The Atom, Blue Beetle or some other floundering character will be brought back to (or beyond) his former glory in a “Rebirth” miniseries; I almost wonder if one such announcement might be forthcoming this weekend, with Flash: Rebirth almost over, Van Sciver hinting at a new project on the horizon and the Absolute Edition being announced today.

As it builds to its conclusion next month, J.M. DeMatteis and Mike Cavallaro have crafted one of the finest superhero stories of the decade in The Life and Times of Savior 28. This book is, as far as I’m concerned, a freight train of quality, barreling through an industry beset with pseudo-significant “events” and showing everybody how it’s supposed to be done. There won’t just be a hole in my pull list after this miniseries is over—there will be a smoking crater where a little piece of the Master Stone was shot into my pull list.

This month, Blog@Newsarama talked with DeMatteis and Cavallaro about starting to really wrap up the story, crafting the backstory that informed #4 and whether or not we can expect to see more from the Savior 28 universe. (more…)

As part of the mainstream media’s focus on San Diego this week, the Los Angeles Times ran a story asking some of their “burning questions” about the show, comics and “geek culture” in general. The “article,” actually a photo slideshow with extensive captions, is pretty insipid and betrays a lot of the same ignorance of and assumptions about comics culture that is present in the mainstream media stories about Art Spiegelman that say “Pow! Bop! Biff!” in them. But a few of their questions were either clever enough or preposterous enough to rate a little discussion, and so here goes… (more…)

On Wednesday, I was fortunate to catch the tail end of the ICv2 conference as well as take a first look at the convention floor. As they say, it’s all about the fans. And that often means it’s all about the money. Seeing so many people at Comic-Con with giant bags of swag, standing in so many lines, desperation in the eyes of some, waiting for a chance to win something or buy something, I could clearly see money as the dominant theme: those who make it and those who spend it.

So, before being part of the human comedy that is SDCC, it was nice to listen to a few elite voices plot out what they think will motivate the fans. ICv2 is a consulting firm in the service of those trying to sell something to the fans. The conference was meant to tell it like it is about market trends. For my money, the star of the last panel was Jeff Katz, a Hollywood exec (Snakes On A Plane) turned comics writer (DC Comics’ Booster Gold) who led off with a two guns firing declaration that Hollywood is no fool and it knows how to chase down money and the money is in comics. Katz, looking like a hyperactive Kevin Smith, went on to rally for all those good-natured, well-meaning, creators who feel powerless in dealing with corporate interests. “The secret is that they need us more than we need them. The corporate balls are exposed and you should feel free to squeeze!”

Katz, who runs his own company, American Original, was beside himself in forecasting further profit in comics in a big way. He didn’t say exactly how a lone creator overcomes and succeeds but the general idea was to control what is yours. This is where Top Cow‘s Matt Hawkins stepped in with more straight talk, “Don’t take the money. Don’t sell you soul for $25,000 when your title could make millions over time.”

Once I was out on the convention floor, observing the fans, as a mass of humanity, out for the next shiny bauble, they seemed totally at the mercy of the various corporate interests, utterly powerless. Of course, they really are not. Just like those good-natured, well-meaning, creators, the fans have more power than they probably realize. As Jeff Katz would advise, if the corporate balls are hanging, the fan should not hesitate to squeeze.

Since it’s San Diego Comic-Con week, and so much big, exciting news is pouring out of reports from people there, I figured I’d try and attract attention to my post about nothing with a grabby headline.

I don’t think Barry Allen is really a middle-aged Hitler. Well, he may be middle-aged, I try not to think about it myself, but Geoff Johns implied he was getting on in years. And as for his Hitlerhood, I’m positive he’s no Hitler, but Johns also said he’s a geek and Grant Morrison said geeks with power lead to Hitler, so a geek with superpowers? Why, that could lead to Super-Hitler!

First, Barry’s age. Quick, how old is Barry Allen?

I suppose somewhere in his thirties is the correct answer, but I noticed a line or two of dialogue in this week’s Green Lantern #44 which seems to date him.

And when anything dates these superhero characters, get ready for bigger and worse waves of ever- increasing cognitive dissonance, the longer and harder you think about.

Anyway, here are Green Lantern Hal Jordan and Flash Barry Allen, as penciled by Doug Mahnke, exchanging lines written by Geoff Johns:

So Barry Allen died before the Internet, huh?

(more…)

MTV has announced that Tim Burton’s trippy-looking Alice in Wonderland film will also be hitting the Nintendo Wii and DS. In a surprising move, the game is passing over the XBox360 and the Playstation 3.

Etranges Libelluges, the producers of Spyro the Dragon, will make the Wii version a third person adventure game, while the DS will be more of a puzzle game. DSi owners will be able to unlock new content with the system’s camera feature.

The game should be out around the film’s release in March 2010.

[Image via MTV]

CNN has an interesting behind the scenes look at the San Diego Comic Con:

I was particularly interested by Steve Johnson, the vice president of the Convention Center, as he discussed the San Diego Comic Con’s impact on the local economy, as well as the local transportation authority’s long-term preparation for SDCC… 36,000 extra riders, just for this event!

While the morning started off with some rough news for publisher Radical Comics, there’s also some good Comic Con announcements in the mix as well — in this case, having a director for the film adaptation of their 18-issue series Shrapnel!

Radical reports that Len Wiseman, director of Live Free or Die Hard as well as co-creator to the genre trilogy Underworld, will be taking the reins of the film.

“Shrapnel is a story about making choices and rising to the occasion,” Radical’s Publisher Barry Levine said in a statement. “I enjoyed it so much that I made this Radical’s biggest commitment to date. Len was my top choice for adapting this perfect balance of action and drama and I’m glad to have him on board.”

The series is about a dystopian future where war rages across the solar system. Samantha Vijaya, a former soldier, must decide whether or not to risk her well-being by jumping back into the fray, or let an entire colony be destroyed.

The first trade of the series, Shrapnel: Artesia Rising, will be on sale August 19th.

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 writer Jeff Parker has announced on his blog that while Agents of Atlas is safe for now, his other new series — Exiles — will be ending with Issue #6.

As for EXILES… well, as they say, you can’t save every patient. The best we did was a momentary blip with issue one of the relaunch, and sales went right back to where they were previously. In hindsight, maybe we should have waited a year or two before trying it. It was a blow to me, I was having a great time working with Salva Espin and Casey Jones, and felt I was getting into a good groove with issues that you’ll never see. At least Marvel did me a solid and gave me a double sized issue in 6 to wrap things up. Curious to see what you think of how it… choke… ends.

Parker also discusses in this blog post that the upcoming X-Men vs. Atlas is not a death knell for the series, but that Marvel is trying different ways to convert its critical acclaim into sales. “I can’t give too much away right now,” he wrote, “but you’ll see that you’re going to have quite a bit of Atlas action coming up.”

As a fan of the original Judd Winick run of the series, it’s a shame that this iteration of Exiles is ending. The series followed an ever-changing cast of characters from the Marvel multiverse, as they were guided from one parallel universe to the next, righting wrongs and generally having fun with “What If?” continuity — and you could tell Parker was having a lot of fun with it. What say you, Rama readers?

For all you folks who haven’t been able to attend the San Diego Comic Con, I’m sure you’ve been hitting your search engines with a vengeance to keep up with all the announcements — and Google knows it.

In honor of the San Diego Comic Con, the computer giant has gotten its geek on, with a customized Justice League Google icon drawn by the one, the only, Jim Lee:

But if that isn’t enough comic-related Google goodness, there’s more — iGoogle has also released more than 50 personalized backgrounds, ranging from Batman Reborn and Iron Man to TMNT and Oni Press.

Furthermore, Comic Con fever has also hit Twitter, suddenly blasting up the trending topics list, taking the Number One position from Taco Bell (whose chihuahua mascot died at the age of 15 yesterday), Jay-Z, Harry Potter, and perhaps most embarrassingly, #iranelection.

Would the sequel to Frank Miller’s 300 be called 301? 302? 600? 300 II? 3,000? 300: Three Harder?

Either which way, the Hollywood Reporter has stated that Frank Miller has recently polished off the first draft of his comic book sequel to 300, which smashed through audience expectations in a live-action film adaptation directed by Zack Snyder.

This follow-up will be published by Dark Horse, who printed the initial book. THR also asks some interesting questions regarding casting: Miller and company would be doubly hard-pressed to recruit original star Gerard Butler, considering (A) this role made him really famous, and (B) well, if you’ve read the book (or know anything about how the Battle of Thermopylae ended) he’s not in a position to do sequels.

Either which way, while the comics portion of the project is chugging along, the Hollywood Reporter has also stated that neither director Zack Snyder or writer Kurt Johnstad have been hired yet for work on the film.

Good morning, ‘rama readers. For those of you, like me, stuck at home while your friends and colleagues get into trouble at enjoy Comic-Con, I bring you a whole bunch of linkage that has nothing to do with Comic-Con! Well, mostly.

From the New York Times, a piece on India’s sliding comics industry, and its turn to animation to save its fortunes.

Inside Out, at Girl-Wonder.org, wants Marvel to can the lip gloss and make real products for women.

Via Comics Worth Reading, Classics Rock!, a blog about songs based on books, is focusing on comics this week. So far we have Green Lantern, Ghost Rider, Magneto, and more.

Blog@’s own David Pepose sent me this to giggle at, and I’m sharing it with you: Twilight-themed tattoos. Actually, some of them aren’t bad, but I feel for the person living their life with a portrait of Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen inked on their arm. But hey, some people I’m sure think my tattoos are ridiculous too…

NPR’s Marketplace interviews Joshua Dysart about comics.

Finally, in case you are going to SDCC, Racialicious has some recommendations for panels to hit, and will no doubt have some thoughtful coverage of the whole shebang once it’s over.

Want to catch up on your favorite books on your iPhone? Well, you’re in luck — IDW announced yesterday that it would be expanding its digital publishing operations.

The company, which released its first Transformers comics to iTunes in May, said it would be releasing the Transformers: Rise of the Fallen prequel and adaptation graphic novels starting yesterday. In addition, the G.I. JOE: Rise of Cobra prequel comic is also up, as did G.I. JOE: Origins and CSI.

Furthermore, IDW has promised that J. Scott Campbell’s Danger Girl will be the next comic to be hitting the web, as well as — wait for it — the 1980s classic Transformers comics! By supplementing and bypassing the traditional distribution routes by going to a device as ubiquitous as an iPod (the newer versions being able to download anything via WiFi anyway), this is a really smart move for IDW, and will really help get their catalog out to not just people far away from a comic shop, but to iTunes shoppers who might not ordinarily consider looking to buy a comic in the first place.

“The digital medium represents a huge opportunity for the comics industry, and we’re proud to be leading the way,” IDW’s CEO Ted Adams said in a statement. “Through epublishing, we can introduce an entire new audience to comics and the joys of comic books.”

In a surprising move just days before the San Diego Comic Con, David Elliot, the former editor in chief of Radical Comics, has sued parent company Blatant Entertainment.

The co-founder of the Radical Comics, Elliot said that he was terminated in April, and alleges he was not given his full salary from Blatant.

Elliot also claims that he was not credited some Radical Comics finds such as Aladdin, City of Dust, Caliber, and Hercules; that he was not compensated for acquiring Hotwire, Cholly & Flytrap, and Lords of Misture; and that other projects that he owns part of the copyrights have been exploited by the company without his consent. You can read the complaint in full here.

Another interesting quote, from THREsq.com: “Blatant’s management failed to have any of its employees sign work-for-hire agreements and/or assignments of copyrights, thereby clouding title to all of Blatant’s projects, and making it impossible for Blatant to provide proper chain of title documents and guarantees to investors, production companies, studios, and insurers, to the detriment of its shareholders.” If this is true, this a whole new can of worms for the comics-to-film venture company.

Radical Comics, which hit the scenes last year, has teamed up with figures ranging from Jim Steranko to Steve Niles to Nick Simmons.

Steve Lieber has announced that Warner Bros. has launched its web site for the upcoming film adaptation of the Greg Rucka/Steve Lieber graphic novel from Oni Press, Whiteout. IGN has posted the following trailer:

The film, which stars Kate Beckinsale and is due September 2009, follows a U.S. marshal as she investigates a series of brutal murders throughout the Antarctic science stations placed along the continent. Meanwhile, if you’re already at the San Diego Comic Con, you should hit up Steve at Artist’s Alley at table FF16!

Project Superpowers or bust? Why not Project Superpowers AND bust?

Dynamite Entertainment has announced that Alex Ross will be directing Joy & Tom Studio’s 6 3/8 inch tall sculpture of the Black Terror himself!

This statue is due out in the Fall of 2009, and will cost $59.99. In addition, a Limited Artist Proof edition, with certificate of authenticity from Alex Ross himself, will be available for $99.99.

Heeeeeeere’s Freddy!

Fangoria has posted the first shadowy image of Jackie Earle Haley (better known by some as Rorschach in this year’s Watchmen film) as the new Freddy Krueger, taking over for horror legend Robert Englund.

The film is due out in April 2010. Fangoria also promises a second image out later today.

Robot 6 has an excellent roundtable up about girls and fandom and the drama over Twilight “invading” comic-con. I’m posting a few excerpts here, with my thoughts, but you really should read the whole thing.

Robin Brenner: I find it especially distressing that the SDCC crowd, made up of fans who have been typically dismissed and marginalized by the larger culture including comics fans, fantasy fans, and sci-fi fans, seem to think it’s perfectly warranted to dump on fans who you would think they have a lot more in common with than traits to divide them.

I’ve seen this over and over again, though, in groups gathered around everything from punk rock to politics. When you’re marginalized from the larger culture, in part by choice but in a much larger part than we’d like to admit, not by choice, it’s easy to try to police your boundaries. Maybe it even gives you a better sense that you ARE different because you choose to be and not because your peers don’t understand your passion for the Misfits/Dennis Kucinich/Superman/Twilight. In other words, maybe enforcing the “no girls allowed” clubhousey nature of certain parts of comic fandom makes comic fans feel more special. Groups often define themselves by what they aren’t, after all.

Kate Dacey: The other thing that bothers me about these statements is that many of the folks dissing Twilight have never read it or watched the movie, yet they feel perfectly qualified to assess its merits solely on the basis of who likes it. Teen girls love it, ergo it must be junk.

I’ve taken this on myself, and I still believe it’s true. Listen, ain’t no one arguing you have to like Twilight. But if you haven’t read the damn thing, how do you know it’s crap? It sounds entirely too much like the people who go “You read COMIC BOOKS?” at my day job(s).

Eva Volin: The librarian half of my brain wants to sit the fanboys down and explain to them about the birds and the bees, about brain development, and the statistics on reading patterns and buying habits of girls vs. boys. To remind them that teenage girls have expendable incomes, too, and ask if they’d really rather the girls spend that money somewhere else, like at a chain bookstore, or Hot Topic, or on eBay. Or at the booths in the dealers rooms where they sell cell phone charms of Naruto characters or the twins from Ouran High School Host Club. The librarian half of my brain wants to reason with people who would rather stomp their feet than get with the program and embrace this new generation of fan—a generation who, if encouraged, could save the comics industry.

Um, what she said.

Volin, cont’d: That because I have two X chromosomes I need to have sequential art explained to me in small words and if I’m in a comic book shop it must be because I’m there to buy books for my son or nephew. And to all of that I say, “Bite. Me.”

I’m going to SDCC. I’m going to line up to see the panels I’m interested in. I’m going to cheer for the artists whose work I enjoy. I’m going to ask questions and get autographs and maybe even do a little cosplaying. And I’m going to spend money at booths that have the merchandise I’m interested in. Lots of money. And if you don’t want my business, don’t worry. Call it women’s intuition, but I’ll be able to tell. And I’ll remember. And I’ll take my business, as well as my nieces’ and their friends’ business, to someone else’s booth.

Exactly this. Over the years, I’ve grown exceptionally good at navigating comic shops and the varied reactions of the employees/owners. And I remember each clerk who was condescending, who was rude, and I took my money elsewhere. I’m still here, reading and writing about comics, because I love them and I believe in the medium AND the industry. I am quite certain there’s a place for me in this world. But I’d be lying if I didn’t say that some of the most overt sexism I’ve ever dealt with in my life has come my way through comics. And I don’t mean Wonder Woman’s costume.

So, con-goers and fans, think about all of this when you’re at SDCC and you roll your eyes at the squealing teenage girls (and trust me, I don’t like listening to squealing either). Those girls have money and just as much right to be there as you do. And it couldn’t hurt to be nice to them.