I think we can all agree that there are few things in this world as cool as comic books, and that one of those things is probably dinosaurs. This explains why comic books about dinosaurs tend to be fairly awesome, and Hitoshi Shioya’s Dinosaur Hour, a recent offering from the Viz Kids line, is no exception.

Yes, it’s a kids book (recommended for kids ages 9-12 on Amazon), and yes, it’s educational, but don’t hold any of that against it. It’s also a pretty funny sketch comedy starring various dinosaurs from various periods of prehistoric history. The comedy is all physical or character driven, to the extent that the dinosaurs are able to develop personalities in their few page appearances, and is otherwise pretty much realistic and naturalistic.

Basically, it’s a slice of life comedy starring a bunch of dinosaurs.

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For the last couple of months, I’ve been getting confused and irate readers correcting me whenever Dan Jurgens or I cite the “mystery of the Black Beetle,” pointing out that Hector, a member of Jaime Reyes’ popular supporting cast in the Blue Beetle monthly comic, was in fact implied to be the Black Beetle and that there IS no mystery.

While Booster Gold writer (and the character’s co-creator) Dan Jurgens has never denied that Hector is the Black Beetle, he has made several statements intimating that when the villain’s identity is revealed, it will be someone that Booster (and his fans) will recognized and be shocked by. Frankly, Hector doesn’t seem to fit that bill to me.

Still, nobody had ever really talked to Matt Sturges about what it is he intended for Hector, and for the Black Beetle character, when he wrote that loaded sequence last year at the end of Blue Beetle. But now that Blue Beetle has returned as a second feature behind Booster Gold, and both titles are featuring Black Beetle as the villain in current or upcoming stories, I thought it was time to catch up with Sturges (and Dan Jurgens) about the past and future (no pun intended) of the character.

Blog@Newsarama: OK – So I can see this being a bone of contention with our new friends in the back half of the book, and I’m just going to get it out there right away: The Black Beetle. At what point was his identity decided? Is it something you, Jeff and Geoff always knew or is it something that came in later?

Dan Jurgens: My general impression is that Geoff and Jeff did not have a definite plan in mind for the Black Beetle. Whatever it is, we started making some plans that work in with what we want to accomplish on the book.

BLOG@: More to the point, I guess – are you familiar with the plot developments in Blue Beetle that led many of that book’s fans to assume that they know who Black Beetle is?

DJ: I am now. We’ve made it quite clear that the Black Beetle is playing a game of misdirection, however.

BLOG@: Matt, They’ve solicited the Black Beetle as an upcoming villain in the Blue Beetle stories; is that going to be a single-issue or multipart thing?

Matt Sturges: Black Beetle and his shadowy master are going to cause both Booster and Blue Beetle a lot of hurt in the near future. Blue Beetle’s first encounter with the Black Beetle will take two issues to tell. It makes writing the scripts a pain, because I usually just type BB when I mean Blue Beetle, but obviously I can’t do that when the other one is around. God, he’s a pain.

BLOG@: Are you watching/reading Booster Gold to see where the unfolding “mystery of the Black Beetle” goes in that title?

MS: I get to read the scripts beforehand so I know what they’ve got planned. It’s extremely handy having the same editor, the estimable Mike Siglain, making sure that everything lines up properly. If we both came up with entirely different resolutions for the Black Beetle mystery, that would be pretty awkward.

BLOG@: A lot of readers think it’s pretty clear what your plans were for the character based on Hector’s actions in the final issue of the Blue Beetle monthly comic…meanwhile, in Booster Gold, the character has always been shrouded in mystery. How straight are you going to play him?

MS: The ending of the Blue Beetle monthly plays directly into the ongoing story of the Black Beetle, let’s put it that way. The way Blue Beetle #36 ended with regards to Hector was intended to cause speculation, which it has, which is good. And we’ll get some more information about Hector very soon.

As far as how I play the Black Beetle, I’m following how he’s been portrayed in Booster Gold, in terms of how he talks, how he behaves, that sort of thing. The character’s evolved a bit since his first appearance, so I’m rolling with that.

BLOG@: I’ll admit to having been an intermittent reader of the old Blue Beetle series, especially its second half. Had this character ever appeared as a Blue Beetle villain before, or had Jaime only dealt with him in Booster Gold?

MS: No, he’s an entirely new character the Geoff Johns created for Booster Gold, so he has no legacy. He’s very much about the future, and what’s GOING to happen. That’s something I really like about him. So much of the Blue Beetle ethos is anchored in the past, it’s nice to see a new piece of it evolving from the other direction.

It just goes to show that complaining about things on the Internet can lead to fame and fortune: Particularly if you’ve written and published a book featuring special effects-ready monsters prior to complaining about something on the Internet.

Zhang Ziyi to play cartoonist in new movie: A fictional cartoonist, but I think that’s close enough to excuse linking to a story about Zhang Ziyi, and thus justify the half hour I then spent looking at pictures of her on the Internet.

Cartooning for The New Yorker is a lot like cooking potatoes: So says Prisna Boonsinsukh, who doesn’t draw cartoons for the New Yorker, but does cook potatoes.

Best headline about Natalie Portman getting a role in a Marvel movie?: I think so.

“In the simplest terms, Wonderland is Alice in Wonderland without Alice”: The Girls Entertainment Network reviews Tommy Kovac and Sonny Liew’s Wonderland graphic novel. Quite positively, as it turns out.

“What truly galls, though, is recent news that two of our brightest exports, Ryan Reynolds and Seth Rogen, are set to play the dullest of Yankee super dudes”: Canadian Peter Howell decides that there’s “something slightly more worthy of getting our red-and-white knickers knotted over” than the fact that the movie opening the Toronto International Film Festival isn’t a Canadian film. The slightly more worthy issue? The  “second-class status that our Canuck superheroes have been relegated to by Hollywood’s imperialist Americans.”

Wednesday evening, the DC Comics staff was treated to an office-side concert by Sir Paul McCartney. Apparently the man who sang of being a Paperback Writer gave the Bullet softball team a charge, as they came out swinging against Random House at Thursday evening’s softball game.

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Having worked out all the bugs, and gotten some answers from the man himself, we continue our discussion with writer/artist Erik Larsen about the gargantuan (and potentially most important issue of the series) Savage Dragon #150. Our last story looked at the main feature, telling the story of Savage Dragon’s first brutal encounter with the new Overlord. There were LOTS of backup stories in the issue’s 100 pages, though, and here’s where Larsen gets to dish on those a bit.

Without further ado…! (more…)

Via Warren Ellis, click for full size. By John Cassaday, natch.

The New York Times has a new preview up for Image United, the ambitious crossover that’s scheduled for later this year!

In a brief interview with Robert Kirkman, the NYT discusses how this crossover is not like the rest: not only are company icons Spawn, the Savage Dragon, Shadowhawk, and Youngblood appearing in this book, but they will each be drawn by their respective artists!

In short, these pages are going around the country, hitting Todd McFarlane, Rob Liefeld, Marc Silvestri, Whilce Portacio, and more, as each of the Image partners puts their stamp on the project. Kirkman, who is writing the project, was mum about whether or not his character Invincible would appear.

While the above image is an early preview from last year, you can see a new page at the New York Times web site, by clicking here.

And now, here’s my long distance dedication to my pal, Matt Brady, who departs for new adventures.

Bravo, m’man. Bravo.

Did you have your fill from yesterday’s news of the first look at Scarlett Johanssen as the Black Widow?

Well, Paul Cornell of Captain Britain fame, along with Dark Avengers: Hawkeye artist Tom Raney, have some news that’ll make die-hard fans of the Soviet spymistress up a wall — Black Widow: Deadly Origin.

Cornell told the LA Times that his take on the character is that she is the world’s most experienced spy, honing her martial arts skills while having her body in prime condition for more than 50 years.

Yet the hook of this book will be that every man that Natasha has ever kissed — be it Iron Man, Hercules, or Daredevil — is now vulnerable to a “technological curse” which only she can foil. The four-issue miniseries is due out this November.

Forces of Geek has reported that while Fox may be resurrecting Futurama in 2010, the fate of the voice talent behind the show may still be in question:

According to no less than cast members John DiMaggio, Phil LaMarr, and Maurice LaMarche on their Facebook pages, a casting notice has gone out to replace actors DiMaggio, LaMarche, Billy West and Katy Sagal.

Now, while I wouldn’t go so far as to call this “callous,” like Forces of Geek does, this could have some major reprecussions on the show, considering Fry, Leela, and Bender are all potentially on the chopping block. What say you, Rama readers?

Posy Simmonds’s critically-acclaimed, Eisner-nominated comic Tamara Drewe will be turned into a movie by director Stephen Frears, The Guardian reports.

The director of The Queen and The Grifters is reported to have cast former Bond girl and St Trinian’s graduate Gemma Arterton as the title character, a newspaper columnist whose recent nose job transforms her into a seductive flirt, to the chagrin of the quiet village’s womenfolk. Tamsin Greig and Roger Allam are also said to be attached to the project.

Simmonds’s strip ran in the Guardian’s Review section between September 2005 and October 2007 before being collected in a graphic novel. The tragicomic story was inspired by a piece of classic fiction – Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd; likewise her earlier serialised cartoon, Gemma Bovery, took Flaubert’s Madame Bovary as its template.

Frears’ most recent project was also based on a popular work of French literature: Colette’s Chéri novels, which he turned into a film starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Rupert Friend.

Frears was nominated for an Oscar for The Queen and The Grifters and has shown admirable range as a director. Just another indication, I suppose, that the words “comic book movie” don’t have to be synonymous with “big dumb blockbuster,” but can also be linked to “serious film with art-house creds.” If The Dark Knight didn’t completely kill those stereotypes, perhaps a Tamara Drewe movie will put another nail in their coffin.

G4′s Attack of the Show has announced that Wolverine: Weapon X’s Jason Aaron, along with Preacher artist Steve Dillon, will be taking on Punisher MAX.

According to G4, Aaron says they will be on for at least four story arcs, which will introduce the Kingpin and Bullseye to the Marvel MAX Universe. The first arc will show Kingpin’s rise to power, and how Frank Castle helped get him there.

I’ll be honest, with Aaron’s rising reputation as the king of gristly violence at Marvel with his work on Wolverine and Ghost Rider (and I don’t mean that as a bad thing — they’re some of the best books Marvel’s printing) and Dillon’s strong track record with Frank Castle, this pick seems like a no-brainer.

Well I sure hope not, because here’s another post on the subject (albeit one small aspect of it).

While I found little to be surprised or overly excited about in the first issue, given the fact that writer Geoff Johns was dealing with various story elements from throughout most of his time writing for DC Comics, and while it was pretty much exactly what I was expecting, it did seem like Johns would eventually get around to discussing the role of death in the DC Universe in general. The series may therefore have a lot more to say beyond “Wouldn’t it be cool if all the dead DC characters came to life to brutally murder the living ones?” by the time it really gets rolling.

It occurred to me while reading this issue that the scheduling difficulties involved with many of DC’s various events may end up hurting the way that whatever Johns might be trying to say ultimately gets received. Or, at the very least, that the big, event comics of the DCU line—particularly those written by Johns himself—really seem to be sucking the suspense away from one another.

If you’re not reading Blackest Night, the basic plot is that some characters from Green Lantern‘s cast have started a Black Lantern Corps in which the dead are given magic rings and matching costumes and then sicced on the living—characters who have escaped death seem to be special targets. The first issue is set during a national day of mourning in the DCU, a sort of Memorial Day for superheroes (and the normal folks that tend to die around them), allowing Johns to check in with a huge cast of characters.

Among these are a couple who are still in the process of being brought back to life in other books. Other books that should have wrapped up by now but haven’t, making aspects of the conclusions of those series somewhat foregone conclusions. I wouldn’t say that Blackest Night #1 ruins those stories, but they certainly change the way we’ll read them, essentially making us all read a bit more like editors and a lot less like excited fans (as well as encouraging a great deal of cynicism among the readership).

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Studio 407 Comics has announced that it will begin hosting three webcomics on its website.

The three free stories are Night and Fog Noir, Forgotten 22, and Night Projectionist Noir. Halfway through the stories, the print versions will be released.

In addition, during the fall, two new webcomics will be released. You can check more of the comics here.

Devil’s Due President Josh Blaylock and Kingdom Comics mastermind Christian Beranek, along with a bevy of talent ranging from hip hop to game design, have formed a league of their own, establishing a “ComiCulture” company called PopCult.

“Anyone who has been in comics for the past decade can see how the love for the medium has grown and expanded into other media,” Blaylock said in a written statement. “But it’s more than just that – it’s a lifestyle that affects fashion, music, films – it’s a culture all its own now, and unlike a decade ago, it’s suddenly ‘cool.’”

Current PopCult members are: Devil’s Due president Josh Blaylock, Chicago-based toy guru Shawnimal, author and game writer R.H. Stavis, hip hop artist Murs, and film producer/comic creator Christian Beranek.

PopCult’s philosophy talks about tying together hip-hop, design, and art within the context of comics. According to a release from the new company, PopCult will be working to guide businesses toward capitalizing on the comic demographic, while simultaneously orchestrating in-store events by day and performances by night in its PopCultour. (Get it?)

According to a press release from Radical Publishing, Ain’t-It-Cool-News honcho Harry Knowles will be at the San DIego Comic Con to moderate Radical’s panel. The panel appears to focus on genre stories outside of the superhero, given the inclusion of members best known for horror and sci-fi comics, as well as Jonah Hex and Last Resort writer Jimmy Palmiotti. Says the release:

At SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON INTERNATIONAL 2009, Radical Publishing will be featuring an all-star panel with top talent from both the comic and entertainment industry. Hosted by Ain’t It Cool News’ founder and head geek, Harry Knowles, the Radical Creators Panel will treat fans to a preview of upcoming Radical projects as well as the opportunity to hear some exclusive announcements on Friday, July 24th from 12:00 P.M. to 1:00 P.M. in Room 4. Guests who arrive at the panel will receive a raffle ticket for a chance to win a pair of passes to the Radical Event at the Hard Rock Hotel. The lucky winner will be announced at the end of the panel.

Those attending the upcoming San Diego Comic-Con would serve themselves well to check out a party happening over that weekend. Fresh off a website overhaul, pop culture headmistress (and longtime Newsarama supporter) Whitney Matheson is hosting her Pop Candy Comic-Con Meetup. Held poolside at the Hilton San Diego Bayside (next to the convention center), most anything Ms. Matheson arranges promises to be a fun, sexy time.

Go to this link for details on this gathering Saturday, July 25th!

We’ve got some news of an interesting story via our very own Lan Pitts:

Apparently, a Bradenton, Fla., figurine maker is hitting some trouble with DC Comics. DC has claimed that it has told John Stacks to cease and desist creating resin figurines of the old Adam West Batman TV series for years. According to the Bradenton Herald, the lawsuit could reach up to $7.5 million.

Yet Stacks has claimed, both in person and on his website, that he is not creating figures of DC Comics characters, but figures of the actors while they were wearing costumes designed by Jan Jemp, while employed by William Dozier.

Stacks also claims that he was hardly making any money from the operation, and that he was doing it with the actors’ permission. Yet Burt Ward’s lawyer says there is no connection between Ward and Stacks.

“I don’t have the money to fight this, so I don’t know where I’m going to go with it,” Stacks said.

Boy, on the one hand, he seems like an easy retailer to buy out and incorporate for your own mass production ends, but on the other hand, that is a slippery slope if you allow someone to consistently violate your copyright, even for a small amount of money. What say you, Rama readers?

The question: Can you really enjoy Blackest Night if you’re outside the fanbase?

I think so.

While I don’t see myself as part of the base, I feel that I’ve thrown myself into a different orbit than I’m used to and I’m not sure where I’ll end up. I’ll explain and I will offer up some other questions to which you, my friends, are welcome to offer back whatever insight you like.

The first thing that strikes me about Blackest Night #1 is how smooth it is. The story does not feel like it is trying too hard to explain itself which is a blessing if you’re coming to this, shall we say, cold and in the dark.

I felt welcome right from the start. Even more than I did by Green Lantern: Rebirth or The Sinestro Corps War. Maybe that has to do with the sense of urgency coming from all the talent involved, especially Geoff Johns, to finally deliver the goods. And yet it didn’t feel so much like a comics event as it felt like something that was working the way it should.

It didn’t matter to me anymore if I didn’t know every last detail and reference. It can be fun to go into this without any prior knowledge at all. But, I admit, the more you know, the more you’ll enjoy it. Just being able to refer back to the last issue of GL and reread the rise of Black Hand added something. And the same is true for going back to the now famous Free Comic Book Day Blackest Night #0. That special issue offered some interesting clues, I think, about how Bruce Wayne could hold the key to returning back to the light. This isn’t a spoiler, just my guess. Does that sound right?

I have to say that a little of the space opera aspect of GL goes a long way for my taste. I prefer character development, conversation and understanding motives. Growing up, I found the action scenes in Superman and Spider-Man to be cool but understanding what made them tick to be even cooler. Blackest Night is sensitive to this. For instance, I think the scenes with Hawkman are intriguing like when he goes into a rage over the phone with The Atom as he is attempting to shield him from harm. He tries to explain to Kendra why he must refuse The Atom’s wishes as we cut to a panel of a tiny speck of a superhero sitting on the edge of a gigantic desk, relative to his size, waiting by the giant phone. Hawkman saying, “She made The Atom feel small,” is corny and perfect in the spirit of Alan Moore.

Little moments like that add up nicely. But what about little continuity issues and the like? I just wonder what you all think about the many layers to the GL universe. On the one hand, I think it is fun to be challenged to follow the many paths in this narrative. On the other, this goes back to an older way of reading comics when you needed a program to follow the action not to mention a number of tie-in comics. Maybe it’s the best of all possible worlds since the flagship title is so strong you could do just fine to focus on it but, if you’re so inclined, you could also buy all the other related comics too.

So, why isn’t GL more popular? I mean, believe it or not, there are plenty of people inside the comics community who are not even dimly aware of what’s going on in the GL universe. When you have something as special as Blackest Night, people should pay more attention. I wonder if the problem with GL’s overall low profile goes back to its rather creaky origins. It’s only been after decades of development, that we find ourselves with something cool. GL simply does not resonate with people in the same way that Batman and Superman do. That may change. A major motion picture is no guarantee but we’ll have to wait and see.

Ironically, reading the retro version of GL in Wednesday Comics, all New Frontier style, was very refreshing to me. And I wouldn’t be surprised if something like that is what gets presented to the general public when the movie comes out.

Getting back to Blackest Night, the bottom line is that this series moves the ball forward considerably. In fact, if you really want to stir things up, forget about going back to Abin Sur, just make this into a movie and, if it’s done right, this would be your summer blockbuster.

This Emmy season was a particularly dry spell for genre shows and geek offerings, but one old and one (relatively) new show made for us did get a tip of the hat!

Lost was nominated as best drama, with Michael Emerson (aka Ben Linus) picking up a Best Supporting Actor in a Drama nod, while the Big Bang Theory’s Jim Parsons and Christine Baranski got nominations for Best Actor and Guest Actress in a Comedy Series.

This is some sad news for Battlestar Galactica fans, who were pushing for the series to get some sort of major recognition by the Academy. Curious about the rest of the list? Click here.