No, don’t worry, the villain of Avatar is getting his own late night program. (Is that too soon?)

But Latino Review has reported that Stephen Lang has been offered the role of Khalar Singh, the villain of the upcoming Conan film.

Here’s part of the casting call for the character:

[C]ommanding in size and manner, a warlord and formidable warrior, brilliant, cruel, weathered and tanned by the many campaigns he has waged and won. He is driven in his quest to find the Queen of Acheron and has been building an empire to do so. His goal is to find the Queen whose blood will bring life to the demonic minions of Acheron while making himself king of this hellish power. With this power, Khalar will protect his legacy against the onslaught of master sorcerer, Thoth-Amon so that his weak son, Fariq may rule after his death.

Lang was pretty hard-core over in Avatar, especially during the final fight sequence. Do you think he can hold his own against that most powerful of barbarians? And am I the only one who thinks he looks just like Cable from the X-Men? Sound off!

I know it’s early to be talking about casting rumors for the Captain America movie (although not too early — we’re going to have to start hearing things sometime soon if this movie is going to make its deadline), but Comic Book Movie has a post up that I certainly could see happening.

According to them, Lipstick Jungle’s Robert Buckley has been in the running either for Bucky Barnes or for Steve Rogers himself. (Although Comic Book Movie has amended their post, leaning more for Bucky than for the original Sentinel of Liberty himself.) Now, Buckley wasn’t on the list with the rest of the five “other” Caps — including John Krasinski from the Office — but already I could see the resemblance.

With the Avengers “Trinity” really holding up the franchise, we know we’ve got a winner in Robert Downey Jr., but if Thor and Cap don’t measure up to the high bar he set, the movie may very well be sunk. What say you, Rama readers? Does Buckley make the cut?

[Image via Comic Book Movie]

The Comics Journal provides a valuable inside look at the reason behind Christopher Handley’s guilty plea in the controversial manga obscenity case, straight from Eric Chase, Handley’s own oft-but-unjustly criticized attorney.

In his must-read reflection, Chase underscores a couple of points previously made here–the risk calculus in facing a local jury and the pervasive misunderstanding of the Ashcroft child porn case within the comics community. I strongly recommend that folks interested in the Handley case read Chase’s explanation, if not my own lengthier explanations of the law, to see how ideals of free speech play out in the rough and tumble of arrest and trial–particularly if you are a reader or retailer of sexually explicit manga.

Beyond the Chase article, I want to add my own brief reflection on the significance of the Handley sentencing. While I understand the round condemnation Handley’s six-month sentence and probation has received, the fact is the U.S. Attorney could have recommended–and the U.S. Probation Office did indeed recommend–a far more harsh punishment under the plea.

In addition to recommending a relatively light sentence (coupled with a token $200 punitive fine), the U.S. Attorney’s sentencing brief went out of its way to underscore the uniqueness of the Handley case, most notably with the Chandleresque opening, “This is an unusual case, involving an unusual man.” Equally noteworthy is the fact that the sentencing brief went out of its way to distinguish Handley’s manga from such works as Alan Moore’s Lost Girls, which the prosecution expressly linked with Nabakov’s Lolita as a non-obscene literary work with “arguable scientific, literary, artistic, or political value.”

That the the U.S. Attorney’s office shifted so dramatically from breathless condemnation to careful caveats may very well reflect a signficant shift within the Justice Department office itself. The Handley prosecution and plea were conducted by a Bush appointee. Handley’s sentencing, however, was overseen by a different prosecutor–Nicholas Klinefeldt, President Obama’s appointee as the new U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa.

The aggressive use of child porn prosecutions to curb all forms of sexually explicit material was a priority for the Department of Justice under President Bush. Now, as Obama appointees replace the old guard, we may be seeing the previous administration’s evangelical zeal replaced with a more nuanced approach. Simply dismissing existing cases and guilty pleas would be political suicide–clear fodder for opponents to accuse the Administration of condoning child porn–but the Handley sentencing could be a sign that the Obama administration is subtly scaling back the government’s anti-obscenity offensive.

Oh, so that’s why they’re called “Top Shelf”: Top Shelf has released some of their plans for 2010 and beyond on their brand-spanking new website, and there is a ton of great stuff to look forward to. New work from Alan Moore, Jeff Lemire, Nate Powell, Craig Thompson, James Kochalka and Jeffrey Brown. All-ages books, and stuff just for grown-ups. More Super Spy, more Korgi and and more Incredible Change-Bots. New printings of old stuff. New printings of new stuff. Kochalka’s Dragon Puncher, which has the above image as its cover.  Here are their 2010 plans, and here are their future plans.

“Except it turns out it’s very hard to make a lot of money off comics, unless they are mint-condition books from the ’50s, ’40s or even earlier”: In the wake of the million dollar Action Comics sale, Michigan writer Nancy Crawley brings a handful of her son’s old comic books to a local shop for a feature story on the current back-issue market.

“If they made him black, they really wouldn’t have to say much else”: Ta-Nehisi Coates of The Atlantic responds to the latest Captain America casting rumor, and uses that as a springboard to chat about the possibility of a black Cap and how well John Stewart’s race was handled in the Justice League cartoons. (Here’s a thought: Why not cast a Japanese actor as Captain America, and really blow everyone’s minds?)

Spoiler—James Kochalka is not really an elf: I really enjoyed this feature on the way some cartoonists draw themselves and the way they look in real life. (Via Comics Reporter, via Comixtalk)

This isn’t quite as awesome as the ad I imagined in my head while clicking on the link: Check out this Frank Miller-drawn Hostess ad at Brian Hughes’Again with the Comics.

Thank God for that…what if he didn’t?!!!: “EXCLUSIVE: Mark Millar gives Goyer/Nolan SUPERMAN reboot blessing!”

D+Q’s FCBD offering to feature Tubby: Um, maybe that’s not a bit of news that excites you as much as it does me, on account of the inordinate amount of affection I have for Little Lulu’s overweight, master-of-disguise foil. Tubby is my Batman and my Iron Man, my Hellboy and Love and Rockets, all rolled into one. Anyway, check out this swell cover for Drawn and Quarterly’s Free Comic Book Day comic book—Yow!, and anthology of John Stanley comics—and then click over to the FCBD site to read a preview, the epic story of that one time Tubby totally grew a real handlebar mustache over night.

God bless Michael Kupperman: Oh, and God, please let this be a new ongoing series from Kupperman…pretty please? (Via Flog!)

I may just be an easy mark for a silly high concept…: But this looks awesome. (Via Comics Worth Reading).

Attention Project: Rooftop: Please design Luke Cage some new threads. Marvel’s got the poor guy running around fighting crime half-naked these days, apparently. He wouldn’t even be able to get service in a convenient store dressed like that.

Huzzah!: I’ve been rather irritated with the fluctuating page counts on DC’s main Blackest Night series, as I miserishly refuse to buy 22-page comics for $3.99, and BN would sometimes skirt awfully close to the 22-page mark. So I’m heartened to see that the final issue will feature ten extra pages for $3.99. I’ll have to break out my calculator and back issues to count pages and do some arithmitec to make sure it all adds up to about 13.5-cents a page (the average cost of a page in a 22-page, $2.99 comic book), but ten extra pages sure beats no extra pages.

Just a few months ago, Archie Comics Publications signed with storied talent agency CAA to spearhead the company’s strategy for developing new opportunities beyond print. However, Deadline Hollywood Daily has the scoop on a stunning turnaround, as Archie Comics has reportedly left CAA for William Morris Endeavor–whose CEO, Ari Emanuel, is the inspiration for Entourage super-agent Ari Gold.

Forbidden Worlds
Illustrated by Al Williamson
With Frank Frazetta, Roy Krenkel, Angelo Torres, John Severin, Reed Crandall
Published by Pure Imagination

It’s great, really it is, that Greg Theakston dedicates so much of his time to cleaning up and preserving old comics work by classic illustrators. He’s published volumes of “minor” work by Jack Kirby, Alex Toth and Williamson (among many others) in the past, and it’s always great to see their work preserved.

Without knowing the quality of the source material, it’s hard to guess how difficult the task was for Theakston. Most of the art looks quite good, clear and sharp, though a few pages are blurred or appear to have lines dropped out. It’s understandable; some artistic flaws were noticeable in Dark Horse’s Al Williamson Hidden Lands as well. (ISG’s Al Williamson Adventures and Flesk’s Al Williamson’s Flash Gordon both offered higher quality work, but had original art or higher quality proofs to work from). The painstaking reproduction isn’t matched, however, by the mediocre production of the book itself.

The stories, by uncredited writers (a small disappointment), are a mishmash of genre mediocrity, but Williamson makes the pages shine with fluid layouts and detailed illustrations. Light and shadow dance gracefully through the pages, mostly westerns, but with a few science-fiction yarns thrown in to unleash Williamson’s Alex Raymondesque sense of design.

Most perplexing to me, because frankly I’ll take any Al Williamson artwork I can get my hands on, is Theakston’s choice to include Cheyenne Kid #10 in Forbidden Worlds after he’d already included the exact same story (with better clean-up, actually – an early page is pixelated in Worlds) in Al Williamson Reader the year prior. It’s not a particularly good script, and the reproduction in neither volume is particular outstanding.

Forbidden Worlds has its pleasures – any book of Al Williamson artwork does, especially when he’s abetted by talents like Frazetta, Krenkel, Torres, Severin and Crandall – and kudos to Theakston for putting in the work to restore and save all this wonderful artwork. Regardless, this particular collection is mostly for hardcore fans only.

Amazing Spider-Man #623: Based on the “Villain Variant” of this issue, I would have guessed that this part of “The Gauntlet” storyline was introducing a new Spider-Man villain called The Lobster…

…but apparently that’s the new Vulture…? Mark Waid and Tom Peyer write this ish, Paul Azaceta pencils it.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 #33: Brad Meltzer, Georges Jeanty and Andy Owens continue their “Twilight” arc of Buffy’s never-ending eighth season-as-a-monthly-comic-series, this issue “setting the stage for Twilight’s unmasking in Buffy #34!” Who is this mysterious adversary? I don’t know, but his identity is so shocking that just a glimpse of the back of his head is causing Buffy, Willow and Xander to completely freak out on the cover!

What’s that? You’re trade-waiting the series? Well then Dark Horse has some new Buffy for you this week too, in the form of the $16, 170-page Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 Volume 6: Retreat. Previews of each here and here.

(more…)

WORLD OF HURT – The Thrill-Seekers – Episode 34: “Revival Tent”

Love, love, love the dialogue in this episode!  When I was working up the concept for WORLD OF HURT, I decided to thumbnail a few scenes, completely devoid of context, just to get a handle on the characters.  I also didn’t think about where, or if, they would fit into any larger story, it was just a writing exercise.  Next,  just to get a feel for the voices, particularly Pastor’s, I scripted some dialogue for what I had thumbnailed.  This was one of those scenes that I thumbnailed: it featured a lovely blonde sitting by the pool, amused and intrigued by Pastor forcing his way into a large, private estate.  However, when I decided on my basic plot for The Thrill-Seekers, that scene was nowhere to be found.  Once I decided that Ned Belmont would be the first to face Pastor’s wrath, I pulled the scene out of mothballs and tweaked it a little for The Thrill-Seekers.  So, largely what you see here is the first thing that I ever wrote for WORLD OF HURT. 

Pastor’s rap is disarming in its down home folksiness, but just dripping with raw innuendo, and bordering on sacrilege.  I ran the risk that the moment might turn into a real groaner, but I thought it turned out both sexy and funny as hell.

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

- JEP

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!

I’m going to bypass my own rule of thumb of not taking anyone who spells Peter Parker’s superheroic identity as “Spiderman” too seriously in this instance, since Robin S. Rosenberg is a clinical psychologist blogger and not a comics blogger or media reporter of some kind.

Rosenberg’s Psychablog blog has a post devoted to the question in the headline there, kicked off thusly:

When talking about superheroes, I sometimes get asked why I think that superheroes have become so popular and part of the mainstream culture. As part of my answer, I list the impact of 9/11 on the American psyche—and perhaps on the psyche of people in other countries: That 9/11 led Americans to feel acutely vulnerable—on our soil—in a way we hadn’t before.

Is there anything to that? I’m not sure, but if you click through to Rosenberg’s post, you can see the reasoning offered. It seems to me that there are so many other more likely factors involved in the rise of the superhero as a mass-media phenomenon outside of the confines of the comics shop that there’s little reason to look for important real-world events as an explanation.

For example, there’s the fact that so many superheroes offer decades-tested successful IPs with large built-in audiences, or the fact that movie and TV-making technology has advanced to the point where making people fly or shoot lasers beams and exhibit other fantastic superpowers is a lot easier and cheaper to make look convincing than in the ’90s, ’80s or ’70s. There’s the enormous merchandising potential (beyond toys and videogames, you can slap a Bat-symbol or Superman S-shield on pretty much anything), and the fact that serial comic books make the establishment of movie franchises easier than gambling on something new and hoping it catches on. I imagine the rise of the Internet and social networking, and the fact that the people who spend an awful lot of time overlap with the people who dig superheroes, and thus can help market superhero films and TV shows, is also a factor.

At any rate, Rosenberg offers an interesting subject of conversation. Give it a read, and let us know why you think superheroes have been so popular in pop culture the past decade versus decades previous.

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

Heidi MacDonald & Graeme MacMillan have raised the pertinent question of what role DC’s new executive team might have played in replacing the company’s outside counsel.

As any number of folks have observed, Time Warner’s decision to reorganize DC under the leadership Diane Nelson–who had a proven track of developing another literary property, Harry Potter, into a multimedia juggernaut–reflects a broader interest in maximizing the exploitation of DC’s intellectual property. It’s only natural that the corporate eye should turn to the seemingly intractable dispute with the Siegel family over Superman and Superboy.

Superman, of course, has long been vulnerable to magic, so the possibility that Harry Potter’s best friend at Warner Bros. may have placed an avada kadavra spell on Superman’s lawyers only seems fitting. In this regard, the mere fact of a legal change accompanying regime change is, for me, less interesting than the specific form the change takes. Time Warner could have easily chosen a lawyer known for resolving disputes through negotiation–after all, the Los Angeles area’s federal courts are national leaders in alternative dispute resolution, which has given rise to an equally vibrant marketplace for business lawyers adept at negotiating favorable settlements. Instead, the company went for a nationally known aggressive litigator.

I don’t have any inside information as to why Time Warner et al. chose Petrocelli in particular, though I look forward to posting any that may become available. It is true that new DC president Diane Nelson came to Time Warner from Disney–in particular, Walt Disney Records–but that hire seems to have taken place before Petrocelli became Disney counsel in the Winnie the Pooh case and at a time when Nelson would have been relatively siloed from legal in PR.

More tantalizing hints can be found in Time Warner’s connections to the firm in which Petrocelli is a partner, biglaw stalwart O’Melveny and Myers. Not only is Warner Bros. General Counsel John Rogovin a former O’Melveny partner, but Time Warner has engaged O’Melveny as counsel in several high-profile intellectual property & other disputes outside DC.

Perhaps not coincidentally, an important case for which Warner Bros. engaged O’Melveny was a copyright action involving one of the company’s most lucrative licensed film properties: Harry Potter.

For all you fans of the Big Bang Theory, be prepared to geek out, as the show has an extra-special guest tonight.

Via Stan Lee’s Twitter feed:

If you have the time and inclination, I suggest you tune in to The Big Bang Theory this very night! Emmy Award judges, take note! Excelsior!

Apparently, according to TV Guide, Wil Wheaton will also be onboard for this episode, titled “The Excelsior Acquisition”…

It looks like you don’t need Hercules or Amadeus Cho to see Reilly Brown make magic.

Check out the Harry Potter drawing by the Prince of Power artist, over on his DeviantArt blog. Paging Warner Bros. and Scholastic — can this guy draw the HP comic for real?

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Written by L. Frank Baum
Comic script by Eric Shanower
Illustrated by Skottie Young

Colored by Jean-Francois Beaulieu
Lettered by Jeff Eckleberry
Published by Marvel

Superb. Really, it’s just superb.

I mean, that’s really no surprise. The source material’s strong; I didn’t read it until my mid-20s, so it never had a chance to impact on my life as it did on Eric Shanower’s, but L. Frank Baum’s novel is still a whimsical treat. And having Shanower handle the script? Brilliant move. He’s not only a first-rate cartoonist (his Age of Bronze is arguably the best comic being published today), but he’s also an Oz connoisseur of the highest order (check out his Adventures in Oz). He understands the material and treasures it, and he knows how to tell a story in comics.

When the book was first announced, the choice of Skottie Young as illustrator concerned me, but I see now that Young is an ideal choice to capture the light-hearted absurdity of Oz. I love being proven wrong. Young’s loose line work and bigheaded exaggeration breathe charming life into all the characters, filling each with expressiveness and cuteness rarely seen in mainstream comics.

Young’s storytelling, moving from panel to panel, is basic and clear, opening the story up for casual readers, and his use of splash pages to drive home the big moments – the first appearance of Oz’s forms, for example – makes for several powerful moments. The sketchbook section at the end of the book shows that the creators considered many models for each character, and they chose well in every case. The pussycat Lion, the straw-stuffed, slightly askew Scarecrow, the mustachioed woodsman, and the innocent youth of Dorothy Gale, each is designed to create immediate empathy and allow for maximum expressiveness.

Colorist Jean-Francois Beaulieu adds a fairy tale softness to the entire book, though in certain sequences, notably within the Emerald City where greens run amok, the coloring threatens to overwhelm Young’s line art. On other pages, the soft palette lends an ethereal quality to the Kansas prairies and forests of Oz, and the muted aesthetic adds a creeping dread to the Wicked Witch’s domain.

By hewing to Baum’s novel, readers are treated to a much more involved and detailed journey than they’ve experienced in any screen version. Each of Dorothy’s companions receive ample opportunity to exhibit the very trait they claim to lack; the Lion in particular received short shrift in the 1938 film, and his bravado after being captured by the Wicked Witch is a great moment for the character. Small touches about Ozian life and big, fun, childish ideas – such as the Emerald City being green only because everyone wears green goggles! – are retained. The result is a strong reminder just why The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is considered a classic, and proof that Shanower and Young made the correct choices in being as true to the source material as possible.

Garnering critical accolades and bestselling status, Shanower and Young’s take on L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz deserves every scrap of praise it’s received.  The creators honor Baum’s work, with Young making the characters his own without going too far from W.W. Denslow’s original illustrations. Whimsical, adventurous and just a hair creepy, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz remains a true classic.

“I think ‘Space Cadet’ is really talking about how under it all, everyone’s kind of going through the same stuff…without getting too sappy or new age-y though”: DJ/cartoonist Kid Koala talks to Spinner about his sophomore graphic novel.

Garry Trudeau has been doing Doonesbury for a very long time now: “Garry Trudeau to release 40th-anniversary retrospective”

Head of the table: The Hooded Utilitarian blog wraps up its roundtable on Ariel Schrag’s Likewise by having Schrag herself weigh in. You can read the whole thing here.

It’s been a couple weeks since I’ve covered Covered: Check out artist Robt Seda-Schreiber’s idiosyncratic take on John Romita’s cover for Amazing Spider-Man #122, and Steve LeCouilliard’s cartoonification of Marck Schultz’s Xenozoic Tales #13 cover.

“As in, ‘I’m strong as a mothersquiggle,’ and ‘I’m standing up to your bullsquiggle’”: That’s Christopher Allen talking about the way swear words are handled in the Milestone Universe, in his review of Milestone Forever #1. I think I like seeing the word “squiggle” spelled out like that even more than the little black squiggly line the Milestone books used to conceal swear words. Kind of like how in Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, the animals used the verb “cuss” whenever they were cussing…? Man, I thought that was brilliant…

“It’s not alarmist to state that we have now entered the realm of prosecuting people for thought crimes”: Charles Brownstein, Carl Horn and Jason Thompson on the Christopher Handley case. (Via The Beat)

Folks who’ve read the court documents linked in my previous post may have noticed that in addition to replacing Weissmann Wolff, Time Warner also dismissed another firm, Fross Zelnick, as outside co-counsel.

This too was a rather interesting decision, especially given Fross Zelnick’s prior dealing with the law of copyright termination, the very legal principle at the heart of the Siegel lawsuit. As the firm’s website notes, Fross Zelnick was counsel in a case that marked “the first judicial treatment of Section 304(d) of the U.S. Copyright Act, which was enacted as part of the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998. Section 304(d) gives authors and their heirs the opportunity to recapture the authors’ copyrights by permitting them to terminate pre-1978 copyright transfers in the authors’ works.”

Why might Time Warner no longer want to be associated with a firm with experience in fighting a copyright termination claim?

Perhaps this summary of the case provides a clue:

After over three years of court challenges at every level, including before the U.S. Supreme Court, Fross Zelnick successfully represented Stephen Slesinger, Inc. in preserving royalty rights, estimated in the press as exceeding $50 million, related to the exploitation of Winnie-the-Pooh and related characters. These court victories thwarted an attempt by Disney and author A.A. Milne’s granddaughter to terminate Slesinger’s right to receive royalties from merchandising rights that were granted by the author in 1930.

In short, Fross Zelnick opposed Disney in the Winnie the Pooh litigation, and as I noted yesterday, Disney’s legal team in that case included none other than DC’s new outside counsel, Daniel Petrocelli.

This makes for a rather interesting game of legal connect-the-dots. Petrocelli has a direct line to Disney, which recently acquired Marvel, a company fighting a termination claim by the family of Jack Kirby. Now the same lawyer is representing Time Warner/Warner Bros./DC in its own fight against a termination claim by the family of Jerry Siegel, and the firm that crossed Disney is out.

It’s a small world after all.