Stan Berkowitz, writer of the animated adaptation of DC: The New Frontier, talked to Warner Home Video about adapting Jeph Loeb’s Superman/Batman: Public Enemies. The animated feature is due out September 29.

QUESTION: Why was this story right for you?

STAN BERKOWITZ: I love the political aspect of it. In the comic book that Jeph Loeb wrote, it was assumed that everyone knew the backstory to how Luthor got elected President. But we needed the movie to show an audience, who might not be familiar with the comics, exactly what would have to happen for Luthor to be elected. I sort of envisioned Luthor ascending to the Presidency somewhere around 2012. I didn’t quite predict the catastrophe we’d be seeing in 2008. But I figured that something bad would happen, and then Democrats would be elected in 2008, they wouldn’t be able to solve the problem and, in 2012, a tough, Ross Perot-style third party bid would be the one who’d be elected.

It was kind of fun for me to envision the political atmosphere that would have to take place in order for that to happen. And I also had a wonderful time going with Jeph’s depiction of Luthor’s descent into insanity – always keeping in mind that Clancy Brown would be enacting the dialogue. It was just great to write that.

QUESTION: Superman/Batman: Pubic Enemies follows Justice League: The New Frontier as your second DC Universe film adaptation of a classic DC Comics graphic novel/com series. Are there specific challenges to adapting a well-known story?

STAN BERKOWITZ: Each adaptation is different, and presents different challenges. In New Frontier, the challenge was compressing all the material into a coherent 75-minute story. In Public Enemies, the challenge was making the thematic concerns concrete because the comic author had the luxury of a narrator to talk about the themes. And when we did the screenplay, we had to show the themes in action, having things happen to illustrate those themes.

For Public Enemies, there was also the issue of credibility. We were concerned that if a person who vaguely knows Superman and Batman grabs this off the shelf and sees Lex Luthor as President, he might think, “hey, what’s going on here?” It might just put them off, or make them think this was an alternate world story. And that’s not how it’s advertised.  The other credibility issue is that in the comic, Luthor believes that the meteor is coming to Earth because of Superman. As a reader, I could not get past the fact that the public buys Luthor’s explanation. I didn’t believe an audience watching this as an animated production would buy Luthor’s explanation. So Alan (Burnett) and Bruce (Timm) and I had to figure out an alternate way for Luthor to frame Superman. I think it worked very well.

QUESTION: What makes Lex Luthor such a great villain?

STAN BERKOWITZ: I think anytime you do a story, you have to ask yourself, “What does the villain want?” And the more complex the villain, the more unusual a thing it is that he wants – and, thus, the better the story will be. In Luthor’s case, he’s like Salieri to Superman’s Mozart. Salieri would have been the era’s greatest composer had it not been for Mozart, and Salieri knows this. In the same vein, Luthor would have been the leading light of our generation except for Superman, and there’s nothing that he can do about it. He’s cast into the shadows, and that’s why he has that pathological hatred of Superman.

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Okay.

Now this is funny.  It’s a generator for “tweets” that sound like comic scribe Warren Ellis.

My favorite so far has been “Good afternoon, you beautiful and terrifying evil love wolves of the twitternet.”

Give it a try, post what you get.

As titles go, it’s not quite as grabby as Pirates vs. Ninjas, Yeti vs. Vampire or Superman and Batman vs. Predator and Alien, but Ducks Vs. Chickens has a much stronger message to it than any of the above.

Whether or not you agree with that message, however, likely depends on whether you’re a member of Germany’s far-right Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands/National Democratic Party (acronym-ed as NPD), and/or how vitriolic you are in you opposition to immigration and embrace of racial/ethnic/societal purity.

The group’s Junge Nationaldemokraten (Young National Democrats, or JD) are releasing what they’re calling the first “100% politisch unkorrekte Comicheft,” and what Google translation calls “the first 100% politically incorrect comic book.”

According to pieces critical of the book (like this one from Deutsche Welle), it’s a fable about a peaceful land of ducks which naively opens its borders to chickens. The chickens claim to be seeking sanctuary from the persecution of a fox, but they quickly become poor guests, taking advantage of the ducks and making life miserable for them.

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According to this, Brandon Routh (Superman Returns and the upcoming Scott Pilgrim vs. The World), has been added to the cast of Chuck for a multi-episode arc.

Routh’s character, Shaw, is a mysterious new spy who takes control as the new leader of Operation Bartwoski, becoming a mentor to Chuck and a rival in his affections for Sarah. He first appears in this season’s fourth episode.

This is awesome news to any fan of the show. I just got into this show and I think he’ll make a good addition. He certainly has the looks for a spy and he has the acting chops to match.

Now, I may not be as die-hard, but curious to know what you readers think about this addition. I think the Goofus/Gallant sort of thing would be enjoyable.

I just don’t want to have to wait until March to see this come to fruition.

Megan Fox, yes THAT Megan Fox, will be on Xbox LIVE this Saturday, August 29 at 3:00 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time to challenge fans in matches featuring new characters and maps from the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Character and Map Pack Plus.

She will be playing the new DLC content during her Game with Fame session.  Her gamertag will be “Megan Fox 2009” and interested fans can visit here for more info.

It should also be noted that old school fans of the classic Transformers television series can rollout down memory lane, as the new downloadable content includes G1 Transformers characters along with additional fan-favorites from summer movie, new multiplayer maps, a new “Expert” difficultly level and new Xbox 360 Achievements and PLAYSTATION 3 Trophies. This new DLC package will be available on Xbox LIVE Marketplace for the Xbox 360 for 800 Microsoft Points and in the PlayStationStore for the PS3for $9.99 on Thursday, August 27.

Pretty surreal, huh?

The CW is starting off its new Vampire Diaries series with a very appropriate marketing campaign: a blood drive! According to the CW, the initiative, which began Aug. 25 and runs for five weeks, will hit up more than 230 high schools and college campuses across the country.

Each blood drive location will feature The Vampire Diaries-themed refreshment areas in addition to exclusive footage that will be featured on monitors. Participants will also receive customized shirts and various swag.

Seems like a pretty cool idea. I’ve heard of similar events around Halloween and the people behind the Saw franchise has an annual on as well.

According to EW, Whedon alumni, Summer Glau is joining Dollhouse this season as Bennett, a Dollhouse employee who shares a past with Eliza Dushku’s character Echo. Personally, we all knew this was just a matter of time.

Dollhouse is the story of Echo, a member of a group of people known as “Actives” or “Dolls”. The Dolls are people whose personalities and existence in the outside world have been wiped clean so they can be imprinted with any number of new personas

Despite its low-ratings, it was renewed for a second season. The series will continue in its 9–10 pm Friday timeslot, with the season premiere scheduled for this Fall.

Monte Schulz is hitting the West Coast for the next two months running to promote his graphic novel from Fantagraphics, This Side of Jordan!

Here’s the current itinerary:

Fri., Sept. 25, 8PM • Southern California Writers Conf., Irvine, CA
Mon., Sept. 28, 7PM • Chaucer’s Books, Santa Barbara, CA
Wed., Sept. 30, 7PM • Mysterious Galaxy Books, San Diego, CA
Thurs., Oct. 1, 6PM • Laguna Beach Books, Laguna Beach, CA
Sat., Oct. 3, 5PM • Skylight Books, Los Angeles, CA
Sun., Oct. 11, 11AM • Wordstock Festival, Portland, OR
Tues., Oct. 13, 7PM • Third Place Books, Seattle, WA
Wed., Oct. 14, 7:30PM • Tsunami Books, Eugene, OR
Tues., Oct. 20, 7PM • Modern Times Bookstore, San Francisco, CA
Wed., Oct. 21, 7PM • Copperfield’s Books, Santa Rosa, CA
Thurs., Oct. 22, 7PM • Book Passage, Corte Madera, CA
Sat., Oct. 24, 2PM • The Bookseller, Mill Valley, CA
Wed., Oct. 28, 7PM • Time Tested Books, Sacramento, CA

All these destinations might be fitting, considering the road trip elements of the story. This Side of Jordan follows Depression era farmboy Alvin as he follows the sociopathic gangster Chester across the Mississippi, as he hopes to escape the throes of tuberculosis.

Via press release, NBM Publishing is proud to announce partnering with Panelfly, the newly launched iPhone app that can bring you comics on your iPhone instantly.

Panelfly allows you to read with full-page views, automatic panel navigation and more. You can purchase your comics using your iTunes account. Pretty simple.

NBM titles now available include Brownsville by Neil Kleid, Jesse Lonergan’s powerful romantic drama Flower and Fade, Swedish sensation Naomi Nowak’s Unholy Kinship, Rick Geary’s award-winning Lindberg Child and Shane White’s North Country. More titles will be added throughout the fall.

The application costs $1.99 to download, with single-issue comics costing 99 cents and each of NBM’s graphic novels is also available for $6.95 to $9.95, which are less than the trades.

“It’s clear this is the future where readers increasingly have a choice as to how they want to read their comics,” said NBM publisher Terry Nantier, “and we consider ourselves purveyors of graphic novels, not pushers of print publications. Any way you want a quality, engrossing novel-length comic, we’ll make that available, whether print or electronic.”

If I didn’t know any better, I’d say the Sun coughed up a news hairball.

The same people who swore that Eddie Murphy would play the Riddler said today that Megan Fox was cast as Catwoman for the third film in the Batman Begins franchise.

Now, on the one hand, I’m taking this with pretty much an entire packet of salt, but at the same time, it would certainly play up the sexy factor (even if a lot of people would say she’s too young for Christian Bale). Even though a third film isn’t even confirmed yet, what do you think? Who would be the best Catwoman for today’s filmgoing audience?

[Photoshopping via Cittadini per Batman]

Not too many emails this week, so I tried to round up a few more on my own…

California

Comics on Comics will be taping a new episode on Saturday August 29 with comic creator Jonathan Hickman along with comedians Ed Salazar and Paul Cibis as well as Geekscape.net founder, Jonathan London at Collector’s Paradise in Winnetka, CA (part of the greater Los Angeles county). The show starts at 1pm and admission is free!
After the taping, Hickman will be signing autographs from 3pm to 6pm. Info HERE.

New York

(Fake) Art Therapy Night
Suggested Donation $5
Friday, August 28, 2009 at 9:00pm
HiChristina! 632 Grand Street, Brooklyn, NY

Why let artists have all the fun? Tonight you have a signed permission ship to let your long-slumbering creativity come out and play! Come join our sexy art scientists (Laura Lee Gulledge and Diana Arge) as they lead activities such as scribble therapy, glitter expressionism, body outline portraiture, and finger painting twister. No prior artistic talent necessary! You’ll leave feeling fitter, happier, messier. Wear your play clothes (we have some too).

And tonight you will catch our special-one-week-only ART SHOW featuring Laura Lee’s trademark introspective illustrations, Bishop203′s candy-colored paintings, and Diana’s timeless polaroid transfers. We’ll have special prizes from our artists!

This week might be a bit skimpy, but keep ‘em coming! newsaramaevents [at] gmail [dot] com.

Note: This is about events that you can attend, not releases of new comics.

Ah, there’s nothing quite like a Bronze Age DC comic to explain the generation gap circa the mid-seventies to you. In addition to the awkward homoeroticism of Batman, Jr. sitting on Superman, Jr.’s palm while the young half-Kryptonian swims them across a swamp, there’s nothing more awkward than writer Bob Haney’s hip lingo.  See their frequent references to each other as “baby” or Clark Jr.’s claim that “guess we both had the same need” when they meet up in the initial installment.

The stories themselves are a mix of standard mid-70s DC adventure fare (with Bob Haney’s snappy dialogue and solid Dick Dillin artwork) and unnerving generation gap conflicts between the parental heroes and the young, coming-of-age heroes – typically the young heroes impetuousness loses out to their fathers’ smarmy know-it-allness. Honestly, these are the sort of comic you either like, despite their flaws, or despise despite their off-beat charms. Me, I kinda like them, but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend them to anybody.

Dick Dillon handles most of the art with a solid professionalism, while Curt Swan, Rich Buckler and Kieron Dwyer fill in ably when called on. Denny O’Neil scripts one story, and can’t resist turning in a real downer of a yarn that completely misses the silly fun of the Super Sons. Fortunately, Haney got back in the saddle to ignore Denny’s story for a short story from the controversial Elseworld’s 80-Page Giant #1.

All together, it’s a strange ride, and not something I’d suggest hunting down if you’re not a fan of this type of superheroic nonsense, but if you’re looking for something a little offbeat and bizarre, you can possibly find Superman / Batman: Saga of the Super Sons at your local library.

No, really. OK, well I do plan on reading some other books this week. Like Unknown Soldier, Gotham City Sirens, and…that’s it.

As usual, though, I’m open to suggestions. I feel like I should be reading some of these new DC books with a female lead (Batwoman? Batgirl? So many options…) and I’m tempted by all sorts of other things.

The Hollywood Reporter has announced that Fox is saluting Queen & Country!

Ryan Condal, writer of Black List, has been hired to write up a draft of the Greg Rucka Oni Press comic, which Hollywood execs are describing as “as a female version of ‘The Bourne Identity.’”

The Eisner-winning series focuses on Tara Chace, as she deals with the murky world of government ops. Indeed, as PopWatch notes, Rucka is great about creating strong female protagonists for an industry that rarely looks beyond Ellen Ripley and Sarah Conner. Of course, they’d also like Naomi Watts to play the part — what say you?

A few hours before the ailing senator’s death, Bluewater Productions announced that the next of its “Political Power” biocomics would be of Ted Kennedy.

Love him or hate him, I’m curious how they’re going to get Kennedy’s long career — which is also invariably tied to the complicated history of his family — into the span of 23 pages. The book will be written by Brent Sprecher and illustrated by Alejandro Figueroa.

By Christian Beranek

Welcome my faithful readers to another installment of The Life of High Adventure. This time out I interview frequent collaborator, instigator and Super Frat creator Tony DiGerolamo about the future of publishing. Tony D (as fans like to call him) has done it all in the comic book world: He’s been a publisher, a creator, worked on big name projects such as The Simpsons, been a panelist at conventions, written comic book reviews and been reviewed and won acclaim for his webcomic Super Frat (online at http://www.superfrat.com). Knowing Tony D has this vast experience, and in light of the ever changing landscape of comic publishing, I sat down with him to get his take on the industry in terms of past, present and future.

BERANEK: Why did you get into publishing?

DIGEROLAMO: First I got into comics because all the other media rejected me.  Film, TV, even *shudder* radio.  I published my own comics because I’m a writer and most comic book publisher wouldn’t read a script if you put a Lex Luthor death ray to their head.  It was a way to get a chip in the Comic Book Industry poker game.

BERANEK: What were some of the hurdles when your ran your own company?

DIGEROLAMO: The three main hurdles are money, money and money.  Unlike a lot of newbies, I had at least done my research: talked to other publishers, gone to conventions and seriously examined the market and what I was up against.  I got some great advice from Will Eisner, who taught me pragmatic things like logo design and how to publish within my means.  Still, I made some mistakes.

Probably the biggest hurdle was dealing with artists.  They can be very sensitive and insensitive depending on their volatility.  Artists (and most comic book publishers) aren’t very good business people.  They tend to let their emotions sweep them into a project and then get angry when they perceive the project as having failed.  Even worse was when they thought a project succeeded.  I have a short list of angry artists that are convinced I ran away with bags of cash.  The truth is, there just isn’t a lot of money in comics unless you really hit it big.  And even then, the money is in almost everything else, not the actual comic book.

BERANEK: What advice would you give someone wanting to run their own operation today?

DIGEROLAMO: Forget print.  It’s dead.  You can do print comics as a sideline, as part of your merchandise, but don’t design your business plan around it.  Today, webcomics are the future.  Unlike print where you have to constantly publish just to stay in the public eye, webcomics get you a great flexibility and exposure without putting out a tremendous amount of money for overhead.

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“What makes her qualified? All I can tell is that she’s got the costume and some kind of CB radio”: Comic Book Virgin Nina Stone picks up the first issue of the new Batgirl comic book and she does not care for it. As usual, it’s interesting reading a smart, eloquent and, most importantly, completely-open-to-being-entertained-by-and-sold-on-a-comic person like Stone responding to a book like this. That is, she’s more than willing to meet Batgirl #1 halfway there—heck, three-quarters of the way there—can it manage to cover the rest of the distance? I particularly liked the reading of the scene where it appears one Batgirl has committed suicide. What seems odd to me personally about the first issue is that it seems to be setting up the exact same character dynamic and premise of the last (canceled) volume of Batgirl, which someone at DC apparently had decided didn’t work just a few short years ago.

“I figured I’m in great company with van Gogh, Andy Warhol, Edward Hopper”: That’s long-time Dick Tracy cartoonist Dave Locher responding to being painted into a mural of famous artists in his home town. Here’s a nice little local feature on the mural project.

Tony DePaul seems pretty confident that the American newspaper industry will survive at least another year and a half: According to The Daily Cartoonist, DePaul, who currently writes The Phantom strip, is planning a 20-month storyline instead of the regular 17-week one.

This looks neat: It’s a collectible card set featuring “New York superheroes,” although the term “superhero” seems used rather loosely. Still, even if it was called “various general New York stereotypes,” it would still be pretty neat. (Via here and here).

Completely anonymous lady to cosplayers: Don’t cosplay if you want to seduce your favorite comic book creator and/or become friends with them while at a convention. What’s that? Everyone on earth who cosplays cosplays because they like cosplaying, and not to seduce/befriend creators at conventions? Oh, disregard everything I just said then.

While it may not be as sexy for the average fan as the “Who is the Blackest Night Big Bad?” question I posed a while back, there’s another mystery out there that’s nearer and dearer to my Booster Gold-loving heart; namely “Who is the Black Beetle?”

Back when it was solicited, Booster Gold #24 promised to answer the question—but according to a recent Gold Exchange interview with Dan Jurgens, that issue and the one that follows it will now just have some movement in the direction of answering the question, not an answer unto itself. He did, however, promise that #25 would have at least one major revelation: the identity of The Black Beetle’s mysterious ally, a lab-coated stranger who remains locked up in a high-tech facility in the side of a snow-covered mountain while Black Beetle does all the dirty work. Whether this man is Black Beetle’s boss, or the other way around, is unknown at this point (when I referred to him as Black Beetle’s “puppet master” once, Jurgens was quick to point out we didn’t know who was really in charge there), but he seems like a good place to start for speculation’s sake. So: Who is he? I’ve got some ideas—and then next week I’ll look into who might be The Black Beetle himself. As with the Blackest Night story, I’ll start with the guy who’s my odds-on favorite…but the rest of the list has no particular order. (more…)

Continuing to show resilience after Friday’s lopsided defeat at the hands of Wall St. Journal, the DC Bullets once again rebounded Monday evening to secure their second playoff berth in the three-year history of the New York Media Softball League. Monday’s 6-1 triumph over The Daily Beast has the comic-makers in the fourth and final playoff spot, and they’re in striking distance of the three seed.

SS and team captain Adam Schlagman (1-2, run) and 3B Mike Lorah (2-2, 2 runs) got the offense started with back-to-back singles in the bottom of the first. An RBI groundout by LF Jay Kogan (1-2, run, RBI) brought Schlagman home, and Lorah crossed the plate after two more base hits by RF Brian Cunningham (2-2, run) and DH Larry LP Vollano (2-2, double, run, 4 RBI).

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From CNN, officials in Colorado say they have broken up a massive meth ring in the Denver area that distributed pounds of the dangerous drug every week and laundered the profits using collectible comics.

“To launder the money you have to use something that is quick and convenient,” Colorado Attorney General John Suthers said at a news conference Monday. “And in this case, they used classic comic books.”

I’m not talking about old issues of Brigade or anything, I’m talking about Silver Age Batman and Superman titles. Apparently, law enforcement officers seized about 100 boxes of first-edition collectible comic books. Investigators say one title alone is worth $3,500 and the total collection of comics is “worth half a million dollars”.

Of the 41 defendants, 40 are in custody. The ringleaders of the operation are currently being held in the Adams County in jail on $1 million bail each.