The many virtues of one-named Norwegian cartoonist Jason’s work are well documented, but one of the less talked-about pleasures of Fantagraphics’ publication of it is how nice the books themselves look as objects.

Individually, the slim, 10-by-7-inch-ish volumes are all well designed and attractive looking, but all lined up next to one another on a shelf? Oh boy, that makes for a fine looking half-a-foot or so on one’s book shelf! So uniform, so orderly, so…perfect!

And then Low Moon came along, and while it’s contents were rock solid, Grade A, tip-top, master-level cartooning, the format itself broke the streak—it was shorter, squatter and much thicker. It was still a beautifully designed book, radiating that pleasant sense of positive aesthetics that comforts a bibliophile’s heart just know it’s around, but it broke the harmony of the Jason section of my book shelf.

Thank God then for Almost Silent, a new collection repackaging some of Fanta’s older Jason books—some of which are no longer in print in their original format—as an anthology the same size, shape and design as Low Moon. Problem solved!

(And yes, I realize I’m using a pretty broad, silly definition of the word “problem” here, and that I’m lucky that something like how graphic novels look lined up on a bookshelf is one of my worse problems on any given day).

(more…)

UPDATE (2/28): Superman, Marvel and Winnie the Pooh

UPDATE (3/1): Did Hermione curse Superman’s lawyers?

In a move that could indicate DC is moving toward a courtroom showdown in the Siegel lawsuits, the company has replaced its local outside counsel with Los Angeles “Super Lawyer” Daniel Petrocelli.

Petrocelli is perhaps best known for his work in several high-profile trials, including a major intellectual property case involving a cartoon character. Besides defending Enron CEO Jeff Skilling in a case that has reached the Supreme Court and helping the Goldman family win a multimillion dollar judgment against OJ Simpson, Petrocelli successfully defended the Walt Disney Company in a long-running dispute over the royalties from Winnie the Pooh.

Time Warner’s decision to bring on such a high-profile litigator as its new outside counsel would seem to signal that the company does not expect a settlement with the Siegel family in the foreseeable future. It’s equally possible that the hire is itself a negotiation tactic, as it’s not unusual for a party in a lawsuit to bring in big name counsel in an attempt to intimidate a seemingly intractable opponent.

Whatever its effect on the Siegels and their own high-powered counsel, the move to Petrocelli is a serious loss for DC’s previous outside counsel, Weissmann Wolff Bergman. The firm had previously succeeded in defending the company in Winter v. DC Comics, a right of publicity action in which the California Supreme Court ruled that a Jonah Hex parody of celebrity musicians was protected by the First Amendment.

A direct-to-video movie hit the market a couple of weeks ago that shows exactly why Hollywood has been trying to get away from putting numbers on sequels (see: The Dark Knight, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps): Scooby-Doo: Abracadabra-Doo, which is about the 4,000^th Scooby-Doo adventure and probably at least the 300^th to be a direct-to-video, feature-length animated movie.

That it’s actually pretty good is preposterously impressive.

This movie has shunned a few of the trappings of the franchise; it’s got a style of animation that reminds the viewer of the Scooby Gang’s better days, in that it’s very stylized and seems…simpler, but at the same time less “clean” than the more recent iterations of the characters, which have kind of lost a lot of the fun that’s inherent to the notion of a gang of teenagers and their dog solving mysteries that almost always follow the “It seems haunted, but it’s not” formula. This movie is, in that case, not much different—except that it’s set in a world where magic, while it might not be the bad guy, is at least marginally accepted as reality.

Another element of the classic Scooby formula that’s been shaken up a bit is Casey Casem, who presumably retired when he realized that at around 80 years old, he can’t convincingly sound like a teenager forever, no matter how talented he might be. Matthew Lillard’s great in the role as Shaggy, but I miss Casem and wish that the first full-length movie without him would have seen him make a guest appearance somewhere. Especially in a story where there were a handful of adults who weren’t inherently “bad guys,” and didn’t get much screentime.

The music is, to me, the movie’s weak spot, from the irritating credits song (which runs over an opening credits that looks like a low-rent version of what Pixar did with something recently—I’ll be darned if I can remember what) to the arbitrary musical montage in the middle. Really—the unnecessary musical training montage of “Magic in the Air” feels like something out of an ‘80s movie. It’s fun, but it’s just another couple of minutes where you get no plot and placeholder, generic animation.

Industrial espionage seems to be the name of the game in this film—the capture we see briefly at the beginning is doing it, and it’s the subplot of the central story, with the Tim Gunn-looking next-door neighbor and the groundskeeper at the Hogwarts-like School of Stage Magic that Velma’s sister attends. The problem in the film is that the School of Stage Magic is being invaded by a gryphon, and Velma’s mother seeks her out to help her sister—basically just Velma’s head on Daphne’s body, but with a crush on Shaggy. It’s a fun little plot, and not as predictable as it seems at first, because there are multiple people who want to take over the school for multiple reasons, and they aren’t all working in tandem.

When did Fred’s ascot become such a thing? I remember it being a running joke in the movies, and obviously they brought Lillard over from that franchise; is this just one of those things that they’ve decided to carry over since kids have to start wondering at one point why he’s always wearing a badly-fitting tie?

I also don’t remember the romantic tension being so explicit between Fred and Daphne the last time the characters looked like this; the good-natured ribbing that Velma gives Daphne seems a bit out of place, although this is a pretty reasonable interpretation of the old episodes and probably a good evolution for them. When Daphne finds herself jealous of the magician’s “lovely assistant,” an assistant who obviously has no interest in Fred, the fix is easy, obvious…and a little fun. Which, I guess, is the best way to describe any Scooby-Doo story.

Scooby-Doo: Abracadabra-Doo was released on DVD on February 16 and is available now through Warner Brothers’ home page or just about any retailer who carries DVD.

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

A post on the Bleachness Livejournal Community has exploded in ways only an Internet Flame War could — in this case, allegations that Nick Simmons plagiarized numerous images in his Radical Comics debut Incarnate from famous, famous manga like Bleach and Hellsing to obscure items like someone’s DeviantArt page.

With the heat coming fast and furious from the more vocal sides of the online community, Radical has halted production of the comic, issuing the following statement:

We at Radical Publishing, Inc. and Radical Comics, Inc. are quite concerned to hear the news surrounding Nick Simmons’s Incarnate Comic Book. We are taking this matter seriously and making efforts now to contact the publishers of the works in question in an effort to resolve this matter.  We have halted further production and distribution of the “Incarnate” comic book and trade paperback until the matter is resolved to the satisfaction of all parties.  Rest assured that Radical is taking swift action regarding this matter and will continue in its efforts to maintain the integrity and protect the intellectual property of artists throughout the world whose creative works are the bedrock of our Company and the comic book industry.

That said, while a lot of these images are pretty tough to ignore — and even more hard to ignore when you take into consideration the sheer number of “assisting artists” that Simmons had for this book — there has been a little bit of blowback on the Internet. One instance that seemed too-crazy-to-be-true was a post on Topless Robot, which had the following post from “Nick Simmons” on Facebook:

“Okay.. now looking at some of these photo comparisons, I can see why a few people are up-in-arms. I can tell you right now these are all purely coincidences. I never even heard of Bleach! Who would name a comic after laundry detergent? When I channel my energy when drawing my book sometimes I can pull stuff in that I never seen before. It’s like i’m possessed when I start thinking and drawing. Perhaps I just got on the same wave length that all artists share. My dad just called and said I have a real case against all this slander. If Facebook doesn’t give into my demands soon there’s going to be hell to pay. Now, I have to damage control on another site – more people being mislead. Now I have to deal with this and my book’s deadline. I’m not sure how I can think and draw under all this pressure.”

The only problem? That ain’t Simmons. According to the organizers of the group, even they admit that this so-called “Nick Simmons” was an online troll who just wanted to stir things up. Indeed, if you click on this guy’s profile, it’s got only one photo, not much in the way of real information, and has joined the group “I [Heart] Bleach” and “Calling for legal action against Nick Simmons for plagiarism of other works.” So here’s where we open up the discussion to you — what’s your thoughts on this? Does this comic cross a line? Does any of the comments made against the author? Speak out!

Normally, we probably would have let this sad news pass us by, since there’s no obvious comics connection here — but thanks to Topless Robot, there actually is:

Andrew Koenig, who played the Joker in the above fan film “Batman: Dead End” as well as the son of Star Trek’s Walter “Chekov” Koenig, was found dead in a marsh in Vancouver late Wednesday night, as an apparent suicide. Andrew was apparently extremely depressed prior to this. “If you are one of those people who can’t handle it any more, know people are out there who really care before you make that final decision,” Walter Koenig told the Telegraph afterwards. “Talk to somebody.”

[Via Press Release]

As comic universes enter their own brightest days and heroic ages, the superhero fashion site Project: Rooftop returns in the new year with new work, a new site design, and new contributors.

Earlier this week, P:R posted a collection of artwork by artist Cory Walker (Invincible) showcasing various interpretations of DC’s Supergirl character. Through several original illustrations and numerous sketches, Walker explores different costume possibilities for Supergirl. This will be a regular feature, with upcoming collections of different characters by other superstar artists in the comics field.

In addition to these collections, P:R is encouraging artists to submit their own redesigns of their favorite characters. Past contributions include Black Widow by Stuart Immonen (New Avengers), Wonder Woman by Jamie McKelvie (Phonogram) and the Spectre by Dean Trippe.

“Our concerted calls for redesigns of specific characters will return,” said P:R editor Chris Arrant,” but those will be on a limited basis. We’re open to submissions year-around from artists redesigning characters of their own choosing.”

Joining the eclectric crew than runs P:R are three new contributors who will help judge and discuss entries. Joining the fold are writers Andy Khouri, Tim Callahan and Jessi Reid.

I love this site and have been a fan for quite some time. I’ve had friends submit designs in various contests, with my bud Avi actually being a finalist in the Superman: Man of Style contest. The idea that there is a place that promotes superhero costume redesigning as well as give the spotlight to up-and-coming creators is pretty incredible.

Be sure to stop on by soon when they spotlight a Black Canary redesign.

It’s no secret that one of the main draws for the Wanted film was Angelina Jolie — but /Film is reporting that that’s no longer in the cards.

According to them, Jolie left the project to work with Children of Men’s Alfonso Cuarón on his upcoming space film, Gravity. Jolie will play the only survivor of an ill-fated space mission, as she tries to make her way home. Yet Jolie will also somehow play her own daughter as well.

Personally, I wasn’t sure how a Wanted sequel was going to work, anyway — Jolie herself made sure her character was not in any position to be in another movie. What say you, Rama readers?

With the first appearances of Batman and Superman selling for epic proportions this past week, hardcore fans are taking sides with a “who’s more lucrative” fight — the Dark Knight, or the Man of Steel?

Well, it depends on how you look at it. (At least I didn’t say “depends on if Batman has prep time.”)

Many news outlets have reported that Action Comics #1 was sold for a cool $1 million, while Detective Comics #27 netted $1.075 million. So in terms of money spent, Batman still beats out Superman.

But our very own Jeff Marsick made some phone calls to the respective auction houses, and got some interesting, clarifying information: Comics Connect, which sold the issue Action Comics, doesn’t charge a house fee — which means it’s straight-up $1 million. Meanwhile, Heritage, which handled the Detective Comics issue, charges a 19.5% buyer’s premium.

Sooooooo what does that mean? Batman may be more expensive, but don’t think that’s because the bids made it that way. The winning bid for Detective was $900,000 — which then cracked the million-dollar ceiling with the buyer’s premium — while the Last Son of Krypton hit a million all on his own steam. So which one is more lucrative? Let the debate commence!

[Source: IESB]

DC Entertainment, even though still in it’s infancy, is on a roll as of late with the Batman moving forward, Green Lantern about to start filming, and Superman rumors abound, it was only a matter of time before the Scarlet Speedster some of his own publicity concerning his major motion picture.

IESB reports that Greg Berlanti may be the front-runner to take on the Flash’s move to the silver screen. Now, you may not be familiar with Berlanti now, but he has plenty of nerd cred, including one of the producers for the upcoming Green Lantern as well as co-wrote the screenplay with Marc Guggenheim. He also helped create the short-lived, but critical hit, Eli Stone.

Now, that trailer has been around for a while, but I wonder if it was created for the sole purpose of to see the level of interest in a lesser-known character to non-comic fans. I’m not a person the film industry, so I couldn’t even fathom the idea of creating a teaser trailer for a movie that might not even be made. It’s still pretty cool regardless.

Also it makes me wonder if they’re going to go with a movie about Wally or Barry.

So what say you, Rama readers? Do you think it’s about time the Flash deserves a major motion picture of his own? How would you envision it?

The Splendid Magic of Penny Arcade: The 11 ½ Anniversary Edition
Written & Illustrated by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins
Published by Del Rey

Admission: I don’t enjoy Penny Arcade, so I was a little bit surprised and concerned when this book showed up in my mailbox. As I find video games to be (largely, there are exceptions) interminably boring, Penny Arcade might as well be in Latin for all the sense it makes to me. The less game-oriented strips sometimes entertain, but still, there’s a divide, a sense of the world through a zombies-are-cool prism that I just don’t possess. And that’s fine; I’ve often said that if every comic appeals to me, somebody’s doing something wrong. I still recognize the quality of the artwork and the skillful pacing of the jokes that aren’t very funny to me. Fact is, Penny Arcade is a monster hit, and deservedly so.

To celebrate its success and give fans a peek behind the curtain, Del Rey has worked closely with its creators Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik to create The Splendid Magic of Penny Arcade: The 11 ½ Anniversary Edition. Now, with an anniversary book of this nature, it’s clearly a product for fans, but credit must be given to the careful and fun-loving job done assembling the book.

Each creator is treated to a light-hearted biographical treatment, including comments from their parents and wives. Character overviews are provided, explaining how intended throw-away characters evolved into recurring tangents. A large section explains how Krahulik and Holkins created the Child’s Play charity to raise money for children’s hospitals (and provide some entertainment for the kids!), and time and pages are also given to the duo’s PAX gaming convention. There’s even a section wherein they describe feuds with various persons, and yeah, it’s a little self-congratulatory.

In the book’s final section, Holkins and Krahulik offer some of their favorite strips up, sometimes briefly touching on the personal reasons that make it stand out to them, other times just pointing and laughing. Each offers remarks on the strips via their Penny Arcade avatar, which for non-readers such as me, is baffling and impossible to keep straight; fortunately, longtime fans will certainly enjoy the banter and insights.

If you’re a fan of Penny Arcade, The Splendid Magic of Penny Arcade will be a great supplement to your experience with the strip.  The book has a strong design and packaging, and all the sections – even when a bit self-serving (but really, isn’t that what this sort of project is all about) – are treated with a good sense of humor and affection.  It’s a book for the fans, and it’s something I suspect most of them will enjoy very much.

I can’t wait to get a look at this: Here are some details on IDW’s upcoming comics adaption of Peter S. Beagle’s fantasy novel The Last Unicorn, which was the basis of one of Young Caleb’s favorite childhood movie-going experiences.

I hope they’re better than the Anita Blake comics: Here’s Heidi MacDonald on Charlaine Harris, the author whose popular novels about Sookie Stackhouse was the basis for the True Blood television series, joining Dynamite in a comics-making endeavor. All successful prose authors are currently required by law to sign some sort of licensing agreement with comics companies to produce comics based on their work.

I would have guessed some sort of moonshine: The contents of Drinky Crow’s dook-dook-dook jug….revealed! (Via Flog!)

“It’s a little-known real-world scientific fact that massively traumatic injuries actually leave you stronger and more physically capable than you were before!”: Writing for Comics Alliance, Chris Sims counts down the “The Six Realest Moments in ‘Kick-Ass,’” the comic that writer Mark Millar recently told The Independent was the first superhero comic set in the real world.

Now I really want to see Mindless Ones in a live-action movie: Tom Spurgeon lists 21 things he likes about Dr. Strange, in honor of Ur-comics blogger Neilalien’s tenth blogiversarry. (Tenth!)

Uncle Traveling Matt’s mustache still freaks me out after all these years: Check out Jeffrey Brown’s cover for Archaia’s upcoming Fraggle Rock comic on MTV’s Splash Page.

Well for God’s sake, don’t wait another 20 years to do it again!: Check out this picture of Spider-Man, drawn by an artist who is hopefully currently on the phone talking to Stephen Wacker, who called to ask him to draw an Amazing Spider-Man arc.

I thought it would be smaller: “World’s First Commercial Jetpack To Be Sold For $75,000″

“Unfortunately, being a woman in society means that sometimes you have to sort of quell what is instinctually broad and magnificent and magical about you”: Wait, women are magic? Aha, I knew it! That explains so much! Er, anyway, here’s Gina Torres talking to Wired about playing Superwoman in the latest direct-to-DVD DC cartoon. Speaking of Wired, here are the comics their website’s readers consider “Must-Read;” it’s very superhero-heavy, and just about everything on it has either been made into a movie or is being made into a movie (or TV show).

This may not be a popular opinion, but…: After reading Blackest Night: The Flash and Flash: Rebirth in the same afternoon, I’ve realized that Barry Allen looks much better in blue than he does in red.

Your favorite CB runs Lead Pipe Entertainment, a production company that is working on projects for Disney, PopCult and other luminaries. In addition to creating content via comics, books and movies, Lead Pipe is launching a new YouTube channel with original videos. It will feature reality and sketch comedy shows run in 7 – 10 episode seasons.

First up is Drunk Counter Drunk, a debate show hosted by Super Frat creator Tony DiGerolamo. As each episode progresses the guests continue to drink and defend their positions on a variety of topics, including such hotbeds as The Iraq War and Net Neutrality.

Debuting soon after that will be Lunch Hour, featuring yours truly and Ben Meares as a pair of temp workers who comment on pop culture and current events during their lunch breaks.

The immediacy of the web is very rewarding in many aspects. The challenge of creating content that is entertaining in bite sized chunks has proven formidable, but we’re excited about the result. We hope you will be too.

Please subscribe to Lead Pipe’s YouTube channel for updates: http://www.youtube.com/leadpipeent

Christian Beranek is a writer, producer, actor and musician. Beranek is working with Disney on several projects and is also co-starring in an upcoming feature for Lakeshore Entertainment and PDFlo Films. He is never late for dinner and invites you to add him on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/beranek

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!

WORLD OF HURT – The Thrill-Seekers – Episode 33: “Inside Scoop”

The night before I posted it, I completely redid the first panel of this strip.  I came over to my fiance’s for dinner that night, and as she was preparing a lovely repast, I was furiously drawing a new panel on a scrap of copy paper to ink.  I thought I did a pretty good job with the fish, especially the scales, but if you look closely, I think I left off its pectoral fin.  Oops!

New strips of WORLD OF HURT – The Internet’s #1 Blaxploitation Webcomic are posted every Wednesday at www.worldofhurtonline.com.

- JEP

Mike Luoma has sent an email our way about a charity auction this weekend for the Boom Effect!

The Boom Effect, for those who don’t know, is a site that raises funds for the Morris family. Tee Morris (also known as Sonic Boom), described as one of the “founding fathers” of podcasters, is currently raising his daughter alone, after the sudden passing of his wife Natalie.

At the auction this weekend, there will be items from Luoma, including the graphic novels Alibi Jones and Vatican Assassin, as well as his book doodle-rama. The auction starts at 10am Saturday, and proxy bids can be filed until 10am tomorrow — you can watch the proceedings here.

As reported on MTV’s Splashpage, among other places, animation artist Phil Bourassa posted some character designs for Marvel’s upcoming Thor: Tales of Asgard direct-to-video movie to his DeviantArt page yesterday. Bourassa, who worked on the recent Planet Hulk and Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths movies, posted several designs (plus commentary) to the site, making this a pretty Thor-centric month; this week’s issue of Thor ties directly into Marvel’s current line-wide crossover story, Siege.

Yesterday DC released Blackest Night #7, the plot developments of which freed the publisher up to make an announcement regarding another plastic ring promotion and start promoting the final issue of the miniseries, the precise contents of which were “classified” to protect one of those plot developments until now.

First, that ring promotion. Click here to read about what it is and some of the details on how retailers (and thus readers) can get their hands on one—or one on their hands?—and some info on a more fancy, schmancy light-up version of the set (Another of the many, many DC Direct offerings I think would be kind of cool to have in my castle if I were a billionaire who had already spent and invested my money on everything more worthwhile, and had thousands left over to spend on neat prop replicas…today it’s just about possible to build your own version of the JLA trophy room in your den!). It’s worth noting that DC more or less spoiled the nature of this particular ring, and hinted at the promotion already, when annoucning Brightest Day, but I doubt it will dampen any excitement over the promotion—especially for DC, who sure sold a lot of comics using those rings the last time around.

Second, did you guys read Blackest Night #7 yesterday? As jaded and cynical as I am regarding super-comics these days, I have to applaud a neat little switcheroo at the end there. The fact that someone would be doing that thing at the climax of the series/event is something fans have been predicting since the Blackest Night was first teased, but I don’t think anyone expected it to happen like that. The more predictable and expected thing may happen—there’s still a whole issue to go—but damn, it’s exciting when something like Blackest Night manages to surprise, isn’t it? Sorry to be so vague; DC’s The Source blog isn’t, if you wanna know what I’m talking about but haven’t read the issue/don’t intend to/don’t care about spoilers.

Finally, what I found most intriguing about the issue was the other suprise development, Nekron raising that…entity he did, from where he did and the breif explanation of what it is and where it came from. That’s a pretty bold story move, I think. Geoff Johns has hinted at the light vs. dark, nothingness vs. creation conflict behind the serires all along, but this makes it awfuly literal, and links DC Comics’ cosmology to a vague version of the creation myth of the Bible (and, perhaps, other modern religions) in a rather direct fashion. I suppose that’s not all that new for DC—The Spectre has been running around their universe for decades, and angels and demons have always been commonplace—but it seems refreshing ambitious for a Geoff Johns story, for a Green Lantern story and for a big DCU crossover story instead of, say, Sandman or Swamp Thing or The Demon or The Spectre.

Er, sorry to be so vague, but I don’t want to spoil it. It’s awfully exciting to see something in a big Green Lantern crossover story, one being crossing over to pretty much the whole DC line (even Tiny Titans! Sort of!) and promoted with plastic rings in comic shops using a trippy, New Age, Jesus-was-a-spaceman sort of event that seems more Neon Genesis Evangelion than Crisis on Infinite Earths. And I mean awfully exciting in a good way.

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

[Source: Heat Vision and pretty much the entire internet]

Reports are coming in about the possible contenders for the role of Captain American in Marvel Studios’ The First Avenger: Captain America. Apparently screen tests took place this past weekend and some interesting names came up. Of course Joe Johnson has said he had wanted to work with a relative unknown since the beginning.

Check these names out: John Krasinski, Michael Cassidy, Patrick Flueger, Scott Porter, Mike Vogel and Chace Crawford. Sure, you might know John Krasinski as Jim from NBC’s The Office, and perhaps Mike Vogel, who was in Cloverfield.

Now there is no guarantee that any of these guys will strap up Cap’s boots (and it’s weird to think most of them are my age), but I’m sure with Marvel holding the reins, they are sure to pick a winner and someone who will carry the character well.

So, Rama readers, of the suspects, who do you think (if any) will be the one to carry the shield?