Comic artist to TV director might not seem like the most obvious jump, but it makes sense if you think about it a bit, I suppose. Anyway, according to Splash Page, John Cassaday is set to direct an episode of Dollhouse this season.

“He’s going to f— up so much,” joked Whedon of the fan-favorite artist’s “Dollhouse” debut behind the camera.

“He’s a storyteller,” said Whedon of Cassaday. “I gave him shorter scripts than any other artist I’ve worked with because he has an extraordinary visual sense and it very much matches my own. … I know him as a person, his sensibility, the way he is with other people and I just feel that this step is logical for him, it’s something he’s been pursuing for a while.”

While the celebrated “Planetary” artist will be flexing slightly different muscles to direct the “Dollhouse” episode, he’s still looking to contribute in the area of production he knows best, too.

“The only problem we have is he wants to storyboard his episode, and I’m like, ‘You do know that it’s a script that will be late, right?’” said Whedon.

We’ve already seen the awesome that was Whedon/Cassaday in comic form; what will they dream up for live action?

Like every month, Dan Jurgens joined us here on Blog@ to discuss the most recent issue of Booster Gold. This month’s issue, #24, featured the “rise of the Black Beetle,” and saw resolution to the apparent premature deaths of the Teen Titans at the hands of Deathstroke and the original Ravager way back in Deathstroke’s first appearance.

Building toward the battle in the Batcave next month that will start to put things into motion implicating the man behind the Black Beetle mask (and scarabs), Booster Gold #24 was an action-packed issue filled with dramatic images and a few nice twists, including a great moment for Kyle Rayner fans.

Join us back here in three short weeks, as The Gold Exchange gets back on schedule!

Blog@Newsarama: Is Booster just like everyone else, where in all of these variant timelines there are variant Boosters? Or is our guy more insulated from chronal change? I ask because often, everyone thinks he’s dead in these situations and part of me wonders if maybe he is.

Dan Jurgens: I think it depends on the timeline. The closer the timeline to our own reality, the more likely it is to have its own version of Booster. We have seen other Boosters in various timelines. My general take on this particular timeline is that it developed without its own Booster Gold because he would have been gone from “the departure point.” (more…)

The internet loves you, and it brings you fun things. Today:

Twilight-haters will no doubt have even more to complain about, but I don’t care: Stephenie Meyer’s The Host to be made into a movie.

From Wired: Get to know the Surrogates comic before the movie hits.

Fun little comic page by Matthew Sheret and Julia Scheele.

Jason Aaron has some thoughts on Scalped. You know, the best comic that comes out each month. (He didn’t say that. I did.)

Another story from Wired. I don’t know why I’m linking it, really. Those illustrations are sort of cool, I guess. Who’s the artist? Oh, some guy named Ryan Kelly…

One of the only reviews of Jennifer’s Body that I’ve seen that doesn’t spend half its time complaining about Diablo Cody (see comments on Stephenie Meyer).

I’ll repost this under events, but I found it interesting: from Johanna Draper Carlson, a lecture by Noah Berlatsky, whose blog examines classic Wonder Woman comics.

He is the night — he is Batman! Kevin Conroy has been the voice of the Bat for nearly two decades, spanning from a TV series to the recently released Batman: Arkham Asylum video game. Warner Home Video talked with Conroy about assuming the Mantle of the Bat once more in the upcoming animated feature Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, due out September 29th.

QUESTION: You’ve been doing this role for nearly 19 years. Are there still challenges to doing the voice of Batman?

KEVIN CONROY: I guess the biggest challenge to doing any kind of animation voice work is that you only have your voice to tell the story. And you want to keep it real and you don’t want to get cartoony, especially now because the audiences are much more sophisticated. Anything over the top is going to read over the top. So it’s a very fine line that people walk. For Batman, I think the biggest challenge is the timber of the voice that I established early on. I just kind of improvised it and it stuck. It’s very deep in my register – very throaty – and whenever it gets emotional, it’s a difficult sound to create with a lot of volume technically without blowing your chords out. So there’s all kinds of tricks you learn along the way of how to produce a sound, how to produce it without injuring yourself, and how to juice it enough. It’s a delicate, funny balancing act.

Recording Superman/Batman: Public Enemies was actually easy because of the cast that Andrea (Romano) put together. Tim (Daly) and Clancy (Brown) – all of us have worked together a lot over the years, and there’s a real shorthand when you’re dealing with people who have done a lot of it and know what they’re doing. Which is really a pleasure. Andrea doesn’t have to say very much for me to know what she wants.

QUESTION: What do Tim Daly and Clancy Brown bring to their respective roles?

KEVIN CONROY: Tim brings to Superman that strong voice, but there’s also a real humanity to Tim as an actor and that really comes through. So there’s strength but there’s a great sensitivity, and that’s unique about his take on Superman.

Clancy is great at being crazy. He’s a very talented actor. He’s got that great sound, that resonate voice. And yet when you’ve got that kind of power under you, you can afford to be very casual with it. It makes his sinister quality so much more frightening when this guy with this voice is just being very debonair.

QUESTION: What can people expect to find different about Superman/Batman: Public Enemies than most crossover stories?

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Our little Archie is growing up.

First, he got married. Now, he’s thinking about the future — and he’s got himself some representation.

Variety reports that Riverdale’s favorite redheaded playa, along with the rest of his supporting cast, has been picked up by CAA.

Considering Disney has bought up Marvel and Warner Bros. has taken a stronger rein over DC Comics, apparently Archie Comics wants a similar sort of Hollywood interest. CAA has also helped out with Tom Hanks’ action figure spinoff film “Major Matt Mason.”

The webcomics collective ACT-I-VATE has their own documentary!

Seth Kushner and Carlos Molina announced that they are almost finished their film on the group called “The ACT-I-VATE Experience,” and will premiere it at the Baltimore Comic-Con on October 11th. It will also be shown at Brooklyn’s King Con on November 6th.

All right, Bat-fans, make sure you’ve got your insulin ready, because the wooby factor is about the skyrocket.

The Source has announced that next month’s Batman and Detective Comics has a little something extra — and by that, I mean a second feature by Derek Fridolfs and artist Dustin Nguyen called “Lil’ Gotham,” which basically crams all the humor and cuteness they can into their tiny little frames.

Batman Annual #27, which is due out October 7, will have “Off Rogue Racing,” while October 14th’s Detective Comics Annual #11 will have “Question & Answer.”

FX! debuted a new show the other week, Archer. Created by Adult Swim’s Frisky Dingo and Sealab 2021 team, Archer tells the story of Sterling Archer, whose less-than-masculine code name is “Duchess” and the world of the International Secret Intelligence Service (ISIS). It has a pretty stellar cast consisting of H. Jon Benjamin as Archer, Jessica Walter as his domineering mother and boss, Malory; Aisha Tyler as his ex-girlfriend, Agent Lana Kane; George Coe as his aging-but-loyal butler, Woodhouse; Chris Parnell as ISIS comptroller and Lana’s new love interest, Cyril Figgis; and Judy Greer as Malory’s lovesick secretary, Cheryl.

I caught this by accident, since I had no idea what it was and was at first a bit confused since the animation made me think it was, indeed, new episodes of Frisky Dingo. I quickly learned otherwise.

The show displayed promise, but I wasn’t immediately blown away. While it does make sense to pair this up with Always Sunny in Philadelphia, it makes me just want Killface back.

For those of you who caught it, what do you think?

It’s sports metaphor time again!: In a Slog blog post, Paul Constant notes a similarity between certain comics fans and the tendency of some sports fans “to rage against high player salaries when the team owners, who make exponentially more than even the highest-paid player, get away virtually unscathed.” The observation was brought on by some of the embarrassing reactions to the news of the Kirby kids’ recent legal action and the less-than-warm response to Alan Moore’s criticism of modern super-comics.

The problem with Norman Osborn ruling the Marvel Universe: Comics Reporter Tom Spurgeon has been thinking about what makes Norman Osborn such a great Spider-Man villain, and why the same things mean he doesn’t 100% work in the context of the “Dark Reign” status of the Marvel Universe. Christopher Bird doesn’t buy Osborn-as-Lex-Luthor either, and details how forcing that that square peg into a round hole isn’t making for good comics (Bird is even less enchanted with Blackest Night, though, as he explains in the same post).

Speaking of Blackest Night…: I enjoyed this post at The Groovy Age of Horror, about the way readers can interact with big, huge multi-title event stories. One thing serial comics do quite well, something that can’t quite be replicated when reading trade collections, is allow readers to pick their own way through events. (Link stolen from Dirk Deppey)

The silent issue that spoke to a generation: In this already widely-linked to piece on Comixology, Shaenon K. Garrity wrote eloquently about the incredible influence of an unlikely comic—G.I. Joe #21. If you haven’t already, give it a read.

Part seven of Jaia’s debut. This is basically a new scene featuring Jaia chopping out a pit to lie in. Fun! And I got to draw a fish!

Find out more about her adventures here on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays or at ComicsByEgg.com.

Nic Cage, one-time Ghost Rider and star of the Wicker Man remake, once asked “how’d it get burned??” Well, this is the answer.

That’s right, a costume test of a bemulleted Cage wearing a shiny Superman suit, presumably from the aborted Tim Burton reboot of the series. Cinematical inflicted this upon us, but you want to see more, check it out at the source at TimBurton.jp. There are sketches there, too. I feel bad, since it’s not really Cage’s fault — and I’ll bet that if you had the chance to be Superman, you’d probably rub the Vasoline on yourself.

But seriously, you’ve been warned. I feel like Nic Cage at the end of the Wicker Man.

The release of Young Liars #18 a couple of weeks ago was bittersweet–a terrific issue that put an unfortunate and premature punctuation at the end of a brilliant, creative and daring young series by one of the premiere creators of comics-for-grown-ups in America. When this column goes live at Comic Related, there’ll be more room for consideration of what the series’ end means–but for now, Blog@Newsarama presents the final conversation with David Lapham about the monthly ins and outs of the series. Apologies to Lapham and the readers that this has taken so long to post, but I’ve spent the last ten days completely incommunicado due to a family trip to Alaska, where the Internet is decidedly rarer than it is in Upstate New York.

Blog@Newsarama: So we’ve talked a little bit before about the need (or not) to establish a timeline for the title by using “real” dates or at least dates that can be tied together. Was there a reason for placing the climax in the future?

David Lapham: The climax is not in the future. Looking at it again I can see how that may have been confusing. The opening was set at an incident in the past, when Danny wakes up in the hospital we’re on the same timeline as everything that’s been happening along for the arc. When he comes out of the dream there’s a caption you could miss in the lower right corner that reestablishes that we’re days from the Anniversary Spectacular. (more…)

Marvel sure does publish a lot of comics, don’t they? This is one of those weeks where they unleash a deluge of new releases, so many that they seem to drown the direct market. The disparity between Marvel’s output and everyone else’s looked so significant this week that I counted the items on Diamond’s shipping list.

Unless I miscounted, it looks like Marvel will have 53 new comics and graphic novels on shelves this week, almost twice as many books as their nearest competitor DC Comics, which will have 28 books to sell. Heck, it’s almost as many books as Diamonds general, “everyone else” category of “comics.” There are 63 books in that category, which consists of all the publishers with direct market releases this week that aren’t Marvel, DC, Dark Horse or Image Comics.

Wow.

Anyway, enough counting and sadly shaking my head for now. Let’s look at what Marvel and the rest of the market have in store for us this week, after the jump…

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

Tommy Lee Edwards, artist of Marvel 1985, will be paying homage to the King.

Stephen King, that is.

Del Rey has announced that Edwards will draw the variant cover to the second issue of the Talisman, by King and Peter Straub.

This is a comics adaptation of the 1984 book, in which Jack Sawyer must cross into a “twinner” dimension to retrieve a talisman to save his dying mother. Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy are developing a possible television outlet for the series.

So I’m a little slow on the draw for this particular post — I’ve been meaning to write something about it, and other news got in the way — but I was interested to see Tom Brevoort talk about something that’s been on the minds of a lot of Avengers fans: will the classic lineup return?

We’ll use any and all of the classic Avengers characters as the situation demands it, of course, but those folks who are hoping for a full-blown reversal of the last ten years and a complete return to the Avengers of a decade ago are sadly in for a disappointment. And the reason for this should be obvious: in the last decade, AVENGERS has become the leading franchise in comics, and that’s in large part due to the alterations we made in the basic formula. I love the classic Avengers as much as the next person-and I edited them for a good, long time-but there are clearly so many more readers who are interested in the team and the book since we turned over the apple cart that there really isn’t any good reason to go back, other than nostalgia.

I’ll be honest, I was really sad to read this — even though I completely understand his point. It took me awhile to figure it out, but once I did, it was crystal clear: as someone who has been reading comics for the past decade and a half, I’ve always liked the Avengers more as an idea than in execution. (The one time that hasn’t been the case was the brief Geoff Johns run on the book — and even then, I didn’t really dig the book until he teamed up with Oliver Coipel for the Red Zone arc.) Because despite the archetypes being used in this book — which really do rival the Big Seven JLA in a lot of ways — a lot of times the book felt jumbled. Cramped. Suffocated by continuity and story arcs that just felt inconsequential.

In response to that, Marvel decided to do their own take on the Justice League model — ie, assemble their most popular characters for a team. Now, as someone who has been reading the current Avengers books, they aren’t series that leap off the shelves and mug me for my hard-earned dollars — for me, the tone doesn’t quite float my boat, even despite Brian Michael Bendis’ talents with Luke Cage and Ultimate Comics Spider-Man. (Which I adore.) But for a lot of people, it makes sense — it’s Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, and Wolverine teaming up, it sets the tone for crossovers for the rest of the Marvel Universe, and they dig Brian Michael Bendis’ dialogue, and that’s enough for them. It’s SOMETHING in the Avengers’ favor, when for so long it was hampered by continuity and Z-list characters. (Gilgamesh, I’m looking at you!)

But the question I have it this: when Hollywood — and thus, the general non-comics-reading public — see the Avengers, they will see something closer to the classic mold, with Cap, Iron Man, Thor, The Black Widow, The Hulk, and maybe Hawkeye or Ant-Man or the Wasp in the mix as well. Will Marvel rework the Avengers to fit that mold, as they gave Spidey his black costume back when Spider-Man 3 hit theatres? Or is the classic lineup now more Mark Millar’s domain, with the Ultimate Avengers? In Marvel’s defense, one could easily say that if you want your classic Avengers, look no further than that.

I don’t know for certain. I know that Brian Michael Bendis has done a lot to bring in the bajillion new readers to the Avengers books, which puts them higher up on the Top 300 comics lists month after month than they probably ever were. But, to play Devil’s Advocate, I also feel like comics writing has really ramped up its standards of quality in the past 10 years — taking more of a page from blockbuster cinema as opposed to soap opera — and I wonder if a classic Avengers lineup written under those conditions, with an Ed Brubaker or Matt Fraction playing up the archetypes’ potential, wouldn’t do well enough to make it worth Marvel’s while. What do you think? Are the New Avengers more archetypal than the Avengers Classic? If you wanted a return to the classic line, who do you think would be able to pull it off? Sound off!

So it’s well known in sports — prep, collegiate and professional — that the rookies get hazed. From taping football players to the goalposts, to freshmen carrying the game film and projector on the road (scroll down toward to item #10b & c to read which Hall of Famer had to do that, AFTER winning a national championship!).

But New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi may have to answer the question “How is this punishment?”
Pictured with the skipper are some of the rookies currently wearing Yankees jerseys in their day jobs. This year the theme was clearly Batman, and a couple years ago it was apparently Wizard of Oz. That time I can see how dressing up as Dorothy was the unfortunate assignment. I guess this year the raw deal went to the players suited up as Catwoman and Robin.

My biggest question was this:
That guy dressed up as the Penguin is a Major League Baseball player??

Slashfilm has an interesting interview up with Lauren Shuler Donner, the producer who has backed the X-Men movies since the first film with Bryan Singer.

According to the post, Donner took a moment to dismiss rumors about X-Men: First Class being filmed anytime soon — despite a tweet from Tim Pocock, who played the Young Cyclops in the Wolverine film, who said the film would start shooting by March of next year — but said that the two properties that were being kicked around at this point were X-Men 4 as well as the New Mutants.

And I say, awesome.

Reuniting the X-Men — preferably without the increasingly manic cameos that I think diluted the second two films — would be a no-brainer cash-cow, considering how popular the franchise has become, and the fallout from the third film with Phoenix and Charles Xavier. Maybe we’d get to see a return of Cyclops, and Matt Fraction’s move to San Francisco?

The New Mutants, in a lot of ways, were the X-Men’s version of the Teen Titans. Cannonball, Sunspot, Moonstar, Wolfsbane, Karma, Warlock, Magik, and Cypher were the newest recruits of Charles Xavier’s School, and for me one of their most interesting elements was the fact that these kids became brothers-at-arms, training under Xavier, Magneto, and eventually Cable himself. If told with the same sort of heart that Singer gave the first film, this could be one hot property. Which would you rather see?

…cause it looks like it might actually be good. By Pitchfork standards, which are of course “If you’ve heard of it, it’s not cool anymore.” Well, not all the time, but often enough. While the blogger has to obnoxiously make sure that we know that he doesn’t know any of the character names in New Moon (yet of course he knows that it sucks–but I digress), he is shocked–shocked!–that artists like Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, Grizzly Bear and Bon Iver are contributing tracks.

I shatter all my hipster cred constantly, so it will be no surprise to regular readers here that I like New Moon. Furthermore, I don’t like Radiohead. I find Thom Yorke’s voice far more grating than Stephenie Meyer’s dialogue, and I find pretentious indie rock bloggers more grating than either one.

Whatever, I’m just a nerd girl. But if you’re interested in the tracks on the soundtrack, here they are:

Twilight: New Moon Soundtrack:

01 Death Cab for Cutie: “Meet Me on the Equinox”
02 Band of Skulls: “Friends”
03 Thom Yorke: “Hearing Damage”
04 Lykke Li: “Possibility”
05 The Killers: “A White Demon Love Song”
06 Anya Marina: “Satellite Heart”
07 Muse: “I Belong to You (New Moon Remix)”
08 Bon Iver and St. Vincent: “Rosyln”
09 Black Rebel Motorcycle Club: “Done All Wrong”
10 Hurricane Bells: “Monsters”
11 Sea Wolf: “The Violet Hour”
12 OK Go: “Shooting the Moon”
13 Grizzly Bear: “Slow Life”
14 Editors: “No Sound But the Wind”
15 Alexandre Desplat: “New Moon (The Meadow)”

Marvel just posted an image, which looks like it will herald the return of Wendell Vaughn:

As the image above notes, Quasar’s return will be touched upon in November, in Realm of Kings, written by space maestros Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning.

DnA killed off the wielder of the Quantum Bands a few years back in Annihilation, but he has since had some play in the pages of Nova.