You may have read yesterday about the confusion regarding Warren Ellis and Wizard World Toronto Comic Con — where the Planetary writer was a bit surprised at a ToyFare ad that seemed to heavily imply that he would be attending the convention, when in fact he was not sure he would be attending ANY conventions in 2010.

Yet reader Christian A. Dumais took this ball and ran with it, inspiring another post, showing the other event that Warren Ellis will NOT be attending. Although I’m sure he could “l’chaim” with the best of us.

Warren Ellis, of course, is a busy man — and there are plenty of other (fake Photoshopped) events that he will certainly NOT be attending. To disclaim: NOT attending. Because it’s a joke. Some are goofy, others are NSFW. You’ve been warned.

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Back in May, I brought up the story on how popular media outlets that cover the toys & collectibles trade were no longer getting advance notice from DC Direct on store releases like action figures, statues and other such items. Gone were the days for action figure fans like myself to get an appropriate heads up on product delays (still waiting for Series 1 of Blackest Night figures, by the way) and when items would possibly move up in the schedule. This has been an invaluable tool for me when keeping a monthly budget on the collectibles that are on my radar. And you know, it’s especially useful when the holidays are approaching.

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It seems that there’s a Captain America costume for everyone this Halloween at The Marvel Shop. I managed to catch up with the recently returned Steve Rogers (who was on his way to “put his red, white and blue, well, techinically just red, boot into Norman Osborn’s ass”) for a few thoughts on the marketing of his image.

Cap: That’s downright adorable. What a great way to begin building a fine, upstanding citizen. Good work, Mom and Dad!

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I couldn’t make this up if I tried.

Usually, former heads of state spend their retirement years creating foundations and libraries, knocking a few holes back on the golf course, or, depending on the country of course, occasionally getting trussed up for war crimes. But Junichiro Koizumi — the former prime minister of Japan from 2001 to 2006 — has a different gig lined up.

He’s going to be Ultraman King.

Time reports that Koizumi will be lending his voice to the upcoming Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legend, the Movie. Ultraman King is seen as the elder “god” of all the Ultra heroes. In this film, King will give a rousing speech to the heroes, urging them to press on.

According to Time, representatives from the producers have said “Koizumi, as a former national leader, is the only person who has the presence to deliver such a pivotal address in the film.” Koizumi apparently first turned down the role, only to have his 28-year-old son Shinjiro convince him to take the part.  “[The role] is not related to politics, so it should be okay,” he told the former statesman.

Back in the ‘80s, the first time he had an ongoing series, Booster Gold—DC’s hero from the 25th Century—was canceled at his 25th issue.
Granted, this week’s Booster Gold #25 was technically the 27th issue of the comic’s relaunch (counting #0 and #1,000,000, both of which came out during the comic’s first year in print while it was being written by superstar Geoff Johns and film executive Jeff Katz), but it’s still a boon for fans and creators; I’ve always thought of #25 as being a kind of landmark issue. If you make it there and aren’t canceled, then your odds of long-term survival are decent.
Rip Hunter discovered who was working with the Black Beetle this issue, and Skeets found some new information that will eventually lead him to realize who the Black Beetle himself is. All the while, Booster was fighting Damien, having tea with Alfred and discussing the DC Universe’s greatest secret with the new Batman. All in all, a pretty typical month for our time-jumping hero.
But not for the Gold Exchange, where we’ve got Eddie Argos, the singer from Art Brut, to kick off our monthly Q&A session with Dan Jurgens. In recognition of Booster Gold reaching #25—the same number at which the series was canceled last time around—Eddie went back in time to the period just after the Millennium crossover had rocked the DC Universe and dug out a question from Booster Gold (Volume 1) #25 for us. Dig it, and check out Art Brut Vs. Satan, the most recent record from the group, which features a song called “DC Comics and Chocolate Milkshakes,” which Argos told me “was originally called ‘Boosterrific!’ and was inspired by Geoff Johns’ and Jeff Katz’s work on Booster Gold.” (more…)

Noted on Brian Michael Bendis’ twitter, the Spider-Woman motion comic is now available on HULU. So those of you who missed it, or didn’t buy it on iTunes…can now see every episode for free.

Very strange that this is now free considering the last episode just went on sale and that only the first issue of the actual comic has come out. Perhaps, this is a mistake. The way Bendis has worded it on message boards and on his twitter makes me wonder. However, many TV shows are successfully sold on iTunes and streamed free with ads on Hulu, so this is likely just an expanded distribution method.

Variety is reporting that Rashida Jones, formerly of The Office and currently starring on NBC’s Parks and Recreation, has sold the rights to her upcoming Oni Press miniseries Frenemy of the State to Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment.

Based on the story of a young, wealthy heiress who works covertly for the CIA and is constantly, according to Jones, in over her head as “this girl who is so conscious of social standing and wearing the right shoes, suddenly becoming responsible for these dangerous, life-threatening missions.”

Sounds like something that might pair well with another bit of news that came across my desk last night: Entertainment Weekly‘s Brian Ausiello is reporting that NBC’s fish-out-of-water spy-comedy Chuck, which had suffered from mediocre ratings and was picked up for just 13 episodes of a third season and scheduled to begin airing again in March, may be moved up substantially following a number of disappointing premieres for the Peacock, and the bizarre cancellation of Southland before the second season even started.

Chuck, which has regular nods to comics (particularly those by Brian K. Vaughn, with a Y: The Last Man poster and supercomputer blueprints hidden inside of a copy of Ex Machina last season), was also adapted into a six-issue miniseries in 2008 by WildStorm. Frenemy of the State will be published sometime in 2010 from Oni Press.

Earlier this month, I mentioned how internet “celebrity” and mascot Domo has invaded 7-Elevens. This is the second part to the three-part webisodes about Domo’s adventure (or misadventure on how you look at it) and experience with his first Slurpee.

What we get is an animated sequence that is quite trippy. There’s punk-rock penguins, a wooly mammoth, a group of seals, all taking place in some sort of Slurpee arctic ocean.

Author’s note: Previously I had mentioned about going back to my 7-Eleven to see if any new merchandise was available. I picked up some Halloween Domos (they were available at Target’s last year) and a DVD of Domo short films.

Remember, for all things Domo, check out the Domonation.

Readers of Warren Ellis’s Bad Signal Mailing List have given us a heads-up about a somewhat misleading ad from Wizard Entertainment about Wizard World Toronto Comic Con.

Ellis himself has put an image of the ad up on his web site, apparently from the latest issue of ToyFare:

Unfortunately, this ad is more than a little off the mark, as Ellis said that this is the first he’s heard of the convention, and that he isn’t sure he will be hitting ANY conventions in 2010, let alone Toronto.

“I’m presuming this is some kind of impossibly convoluted but innocent mistake, as opposed to ‘well, if we just SAY Warren Ellis is showing up, then he’ll HAVE to,’” Ellis said on his blog. “But I’ve had no contact from Wizard World about this or any other show, so, god knows what actually happened for this to have somehow gotten printed…”

Things obviously happen in the world of publishing, but no lie, it’s kind of a weird occurrence in any event. (Unless a tiny Warren Ellis has somehow joined the Astonishing X-Men team. That’s actually something I wouldn’t mind reading.)

You’d be surprised at how manga works — while it may be new to a lot of U.S. readers, it’s actually old news to Japan, who see the original printings long before we do. (Kind of like astrology and stars, no?)

Well, Viz Media is making a quantum shift with Rin-Ne, the first manga to come out in the U.S. through www.TheRumicWorld.com, at the same time as Japan, through Weekly Shonen Sunday. The book is due out October 20th.

The book, by Rumiko Takahashi, follows student Sakura, who has long had the ability to see ghosts. Her sixth sense takes her on an adventure, however, when a long-absent classmate is much more than they seem.

Scott McCloud, author of Understanding Comics and Zot!, has written an interesting post up on comics criticism — specifically, looking at negative reviews.

For myself, I always consider reviews useful—even the hatchet jobs. It makes my heart sink a little when I hear other artists dismiss all reviews as irrelevant to their process. A common claim is that reviews tell us “only about the reviewer” and tell us “nothing about the work,” but I disagree. Yes, reviewers have biases. Yes, they miss the point sometimes. But there’s always some kind of information embedded in any reaction to any creative effort.

As someone who writes reviews on a fairly regular basis, I think the idea of how the industry sees these things is really important. The best reviews — the way they should work, or at least the way I hope they work — is not only to give notice to like-minded consumers of whether or not it’s a praiseworthy effort, but to also be an advocate for readers, to respectfully let creators know what works and doesn’t work for us. In a perfect world, reviewers’ reactions to the work — even if they’re off the mark — give everyone some perspective.

But it doesn’t always work that way. Are there some reviewers with an axe to grind out there? Oh, yeah, I’d believe it — I’ve seen plenty of industry folks I know and respect have calls to be fired, have streams of invective sent their way because someone didn’t like — or worse yet, didn’t get — the work in question. Sometimes, nostalgia wins out — I’m sure you can think of status quo changes that are more controversial than others. Other times, things are lost in translation. Sometimes that’s the reviewers’ fault — other times, it’s a question of clarity on the creators’ part.

But, similar to what McCloud says at the end of his post, the most important thing — the only important thing — that a reviewer needs to have is that regardless of who you’re reviewing, regardless the character or status quo, the thing that’s most important is that a reviewer should want the industry to succeed and keep moving onwards. The story and its presentation — not the politics or inside baseball — is all that matters in comics criticism. What do you think? Fans, industry people, let us know what you think!

After returning from the sunny Midwest for a little R&R with the rest of Team Pepose, I’ve had some interesting stories popping up in my Inbox — especially with some news honoring one of the architects of the House of Ideas.

And lo, there came… STAN LEE DAY! The Hero Initiative has posted a copy of the actual citation given to Stan from the city of Los Angeles, where the creator of Spider-Man, the X-Men, and Fing Fang Foom was honored with his very own holiday!

I don’t know about you guys, but the idea of the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors even thinking about “the development of flawed, complex and naturalistic superhero personalities into what had previously been largely a childish and simplistic universal of one-dimensional characters” in an official capacity kind of makes me laugh a little. Congratulations, Stan!

Out of curiosity, do any of our Blog@ readers here use their library to borrow comics from?

Because I love doing so. Sure, a big part is that I live in a metro-sized condo and have finite storage space, and I’m planning for a spring wedding and have a finite budget, but even without those limitations, there are a lot of books that I appreciate reading but simply won’t ever read again. So why bother keeping a copy, or using the resources to print and ship a book that’ll lie in a box or on a shelf, unread, for the rest of its existence?

Anyway, I was just wondering if anybody else enjoyed discovering comics for free like I do.

Now, as I said, I love being able to read comics that I don’t particularly want to keep or reread, but I do sometimes find at the library comics that I’d read again and again. Continuing my recent obsession with Norwegian cartoonist Jason, I borrowed Fantagraphics’ translation of The Iron Wagon. Based on Stein Riverton’s same-titled Norwegian mystery novel from 1909, Jason’s version is described as a loose adaptation.  And it’s great.

The plot revolves around a writer tagging along with a detective to solve the mystery of the murder of an upper crust woman’s suitor in an idyllic rural community.

The tenor of the dialogue and the methodical pacing are evidence of the story’s early 20^th century origins, yet Jason still makes the story entirely his own. As with other comics of his that I’ve read, Jason’s The Iron Wagon moves very quickly, remains slightly absurd in even the most dire of situations – largely due to Jason’s peculiar anthropomorphic characters and deadpan delivery – and simply doesn’t take itself so damn seriously.

The ending, though predictable on a plot level if you’ve read this type of story, achieves a wonderful absurdity due to Jason’s downbeat pacing. Jason’s comics are driven by plot, with character registering as an afterthought. By keeping the narratives short and the pace quick, with quiet, somber beats punctuating, Jason creates filled with eccentric worlds where anything goes. Even when he’s recreating a piece of period storytelling, his voice adds a freshness and lightness that makes even a haunting mystery tale seem entirely new and upbeat. In fact, there’s a downright comical element to the “haunting” scenes in this book.

All of which is to say that Jason’s The Iron Wagon is a rollicking good time, and exactly the sort of escapist adventure comics that I wish there were more of. I’m glad I can find them in the library, but Jason’s work is among the few borrowed comics that would’ve been worth the purchase price and required shelf space. It’s available at my library, and hopefully at yours too. If you haven’t read Jason, you really should check his work out.

More snow. More Keesa. It’s what we do here.

Page 08 of Getting a Piece of Asp is up at David Rodriguez and Dave Reynolds’ ShadowGirls site. [Link to cover and Page 01] ShadowGirls: Getting a Piece of Asp Cover / Page 01

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

School Library Journal on that Dragon Ball thing: Brigid Alverson puts together a little roundtable regarding a Wicomico County councilman bringing up the contents of Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball at his Maryland county’s council meeting after a nine-year-old borrowed a volume of the series from his grade school library.

Meanwhile, in Alaska…: Should sexually-explicit drawings or computer-generated images of children be treated the same as actually child pornography, created by abusing real children? It’s a question apparently being considered by some in Alaska state government, according to this piece in the Anchorage Daily News (A piece which, by the way, mentions “anime” four times and “cartoons” four times, but never mentions manga or comics at all.) Simon Jones of Icarus Publishing, which specializes in erotic manga, has some thoughts. (Link swiped from Dirk Deppey)

“Lynda Barry injects some ‘Kapow!’ into comic book talk”: I read this entire article looking for the part where Barry says “Kapow!” And she never does. She does say “Goddam” once though, and in a positive reference to Family Circus, no less.

Here’s something you don’t see every day…: A feature story profiling Berkeley Breathed. Oh wait, you do see this every day now, don’t you? Well here, look at another one.

“Are Comics Like Reading with Training Wheels?”: No, no they are not.

“He was a creative talent that did a great deal in moving the Marvel Universe forward over a number of years”: Who was Marvel’s fourth most prominent superstar creator of the 1980s, following Chris Claremont, Frank Miller and John Byrne? Marc Mason makes the case that it was Al Milgrom.

Blackest Night certainly stands out as the biggest DC storyline of the year, so it makes sense that DC Direct would strike while the iron is hot. They’ve lined up four assortments based on the characters involved in the big event, and the first drops on October 21st. We’ve gotten an advance look at the figures, and it’s safe to say that there’s a lot of bright spots in this dark night.

Let’s start with a quick overview. Your first four are Alpha Lantern Boodikka, Red Lantern Atrocitus, Blue Lantern Saint Walker, and Black Lantern Earth-2 Superman. These are all appropriate choices, and they’re all figures that haven’t been made previously. Sure, there was a regular Earth-2 Superman, but not in this form (new to the story, of course). It also makes sense to get some of the other Corps memberships represented quickly; I have a feeling that there will be many that might skip completism and grab a figure from a Corps for which they feel some affinity.

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Thanks to The Rev. OJ Flow for putting me onto Brian Ausiello’s Entertainment Weekly story that indicates “a male series regular on a one-hour drama — a onetime ratings powerhouse — learned that he was out of a job only after reading his character’s death scene in the script!”

According to Ausiello, his source was speaking on condition of total anonymity–so much so that he couldn’t actually name the series about which the information was being leaked. There were a series of scathing critiques of the show’s producers, though, and a few quotes from insiders about how the blindsided actor was hurt by the showrunners’ unwillingness to discuss it with him first.

While Ausiello wouldn’t confirm or deny it (and promises more hints in the coming week), E! News is reporting that Heroes will be losing a male lead–one of the original cast members–in the coming weeks. Put two and two together (along with the fact that most observers would agree the producers of Heroes haven’t known what they were doing for the last two and a half seasons) and that seems pretty damning. The question, then, is which character is likely to get the ax? I’m thinking HIro–all season, he’s been living on the edge, with his anonymous condition killing him. I, like most viewers, just figured they’d find a way around it–but in a show that steals most of its plots from ’70s Marvel books, would it be surprising to see a Death of Captain Marvel-type story where having powers doesn’t save him? Going against that, though, is the idea that if they’re actually writing him OUT of the show, Hiro would be the hardest to do it with–he could return at any time, given the nature of time-travel.

The most likely seems to be Nathan Petrelli, especially since he’s effectively dead now anyway after this week’s episode, but that seems like it would be pretty unsurprising. Peter would be an enormous shock, so he almost seems like the most likely candidate here–but the whole first part of the season has revolved around him so it seems like they’d be pretty hard-pressed to REALLY get rid of the guy. Ando and Suresh may ironically be safe because of the fact that they’ve been so sidelined this year. Noah Bennett is always a hair’s breadth away from getting killed, being the only one without powers.

I’d love to see it be Sylar–no offense to Zachary Quinto, but the character really has been pretty redundant. I think that’s virtually impossible from a practical sense, though, becuase unless they can come up with another villain who can actually instill some kind of interest in the viewers, Sylar’s here to stay.

What say you, ‘Rama readers?

So, kids, it’s that time of the year! We’ve got incriminating pictures of this writer, adorable pictures of Troy’s kids, and a solicitation for your comics or pop-culture Halloween costumes going out!

That’s right – we here at Blog@Newsarama want to see what you’ve got going on for Halloween this year. Who are you going as? And if it’s someone we might like to see, send a link along so folks can see your picture.

For our part? Well, the 2006, 2007 and 2008 winners of Project Rooftop’s Flights and Tights contest are at their respective links there. The picture to the left is of Kyle and Connor, Troy Brownfield’s sons, who are Batman and Robin, respectively. This year, I’m going to be Barney Stinson, Neil Patrick Harris’ character from the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother (because my Savior 28 costume is taking way too long to be counted on) and below the jump I’ll share a montage of (mostly humiliating) comics-and-pop-culture costumes I’ve worn over the years.

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What’s that? Mephisto Vs. Premiere Hardcover doesn’t deal with Marvel’s most diabolical character fighting their Premiere Hardcover format? Instead it collects a four-issue miniseries from the 1980s by Al Milgrom and John Buscema called Mephisto Vs., in which the marriage-eating villain fights the Avengers, the FF, and two X-Men teams?

Oh.

Well, that will probably be a better fight then. It’s a $20, 144-page collection.

What else is due out in shops this week? You won’t have to sell your soul and/or marriage and twenty years worth of continuity to find out. Just join me after the jump.

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There are some people for whom “the movie made money” is some twisted counter-argument to “the movie was awful.” Let me be clear that as far as I’m concerned, the two are not mutually exclusive, but apparently Brett Ratner thinks so.

In an interview this week at Starpulse, Ratner (director of X-Men: The Last Stand) attempts to rebut critics of his terrible, terrible film on the grounds that it made buckets of money. “Mine outgrossed the other two by far. Mine was the one that made the most narrative sense,” he told the interviewer, all the while pointing out that comic book fans who hated the movie from the outset and complain about it to this day were the ones lined up outside of cinemas on opening weekend.

It may be a fair point–and he makes a fair and hilarious point about fans who complained he had killed Professor X (“He died in five different comic books!” Ratner says)–but this is what I have to say about the next cinematic travesty that comes down the pipes: Don’t go see it.

If you have people like this, who are going not only to bastardize the source material but who are then going to rationalize that by saying, “hey, look, it made money,” what you have to do it STOP GIVING THEM MONEY. When something comes along that will CLEARLY suck (and it was clear from the trailer that X-Men: The Last Stand would), just don’t go see the stupid thing. I know there’s a certain school of thought that “other, better comic book movies won’t get made if we don’t support the big-budget travesties like this one,” but isn’t it better to have fewer, better films than more, shabbier ones?