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WORLD OF HURT – The Thrill-Seekers – Episode 42:  “He’s One Man”

Pastor’s basic fighting strategy is to go for the soft parts and the parts that bend.  If it bends one way, make it bend the other way.  To work out Charles’ dialogue here, I spent a fair amount of time at my desk, reciting dialogue like I had the worst headcold ever.

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

- JEP

Fresh from getting his ass kicked on Kick-Ass, is Matthew Vaughn going back to the down-and-dirty schoolyard of comic book adaptations? It sure looks that way, as Deadline has stated that the Layer Cake helmer is looking to join the Xavier Institute as the director of X-Men: First Class.

According to Mike Fleming, Vaughn is looking pretty close to sealing a deal, which would have him team up with producers Bryan Singer (who also directed the first two X-flicks), Lauren Shuler Donner and Simon Kinberg, while Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz gave the script a late polish similar to the one they gave Thor. Fox may ramp up production by “late summer or early fall” of this year.

By The Bagman

After playing a very competitive Inter-squad slugfest (22-18 was the final!) to start their year a couple of weeks back, DC Comics’ softball team took on Random House in their first official game of 2010 last Thursday on their home turf of Central Park’s North Meadow (Field #2 for fans that want to come down to cheer). The Bullet bats looked a tad sleepier than the week prior, though, and started the game with lots of pop-ups and groundouts but managed two runs, one on a solo homer by Captain Adam Schlagman (2-2, HR, 2 R, 2 RBI).

Coming into the third inning, the score was 2-1, but Random House turned on the juice to score four runs off of pitcher Larry Ganem (1-1, W) in the Bullet defense’s only bad inning. An inning later, though, DC turned their Blackest Night into the Brightest Day putting up a five-spot highlighted by a bases clearing triple by Batman and Robin letterer Pat Brosseau (1-2, R, 3 RBI).

Leading by two, the Bullets turned to Joel Press (0-2, S) for a 3 inning save attempt. The Press-man, who pitched very well overall, gave back one, making the game tight heading into the bottom of the 5th. With one out, though, Hellblazer letterer and new team co-manager Sal Cipriano (1-2, R) fired a single to left. Another single by Adam Staffaroni (2-2, RBI) got him to third, and when Editor Brian Cunningham (0-2, RBI) grounded to third Cipriano made a head’s up run to the plate on the force play to second for what would end up being the winning run!

Random House scored one more in the top of the 7th, but Press shut the door to ensure the Bullets first win of the year! The two teams continued on to play a friendly full nine innings to knock any additional rust off.

This week, the Bullets play two with a Thursday home match-up with the Paris Review, a team DC will be looking to exact some revenge upon from last season, and then on Saturday they face-off against the ‘09 NYMSL champion Wall St. Journal on their home turf. Ganem and Press are scheduled to start the two games respectively.

Bullet Notes: The Bullets have started the season hitting some long balls. Captain Schlagman hit another homer in extra innings, and he was joined by Andrew Arnold in that regard. In the previous week’s inter-squad the letterers smacked a home run each as did the Captain and L.P. Vollano. Can this be a sign of things to come or just some early adrenaline? We’ll start finding out this week!

The History Channel is getting even more genre-friendly, as they’ve commissioned two new shows with Stan Lee and Brad Meltzer.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Stan Lee will be co-hosting “Stan Lee’s Superhumans,” which looks at people who have “remarkable abilities because of being genetically different.” Daniel Browning Smith, who is apparently the world’s most flexible man, will act as Lee’s co-host.

Furthermore, the channel has also ordered 10 episodes of “Brad Meltzer’s Decoded,” which will focus on Meltzer “decoding familiar symbols.” Considering his novel The Book of Fate is centered on decoding and puzzles, this might be an interesting show. Both shows are due for the third quarter of this year.

[Via Brad Meltzer]

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

Straight out of  JoeCon 2010, guests were treated to info on the new joe Series, G.I.Joe Renegades.

According to HissTank.com, the animation is similar to how G.I.Joe Resolute looked. It was also announced G.I.Joe Renegades toy line will launch in Fall of next year. The line will be a follow up to G.I.Joe Pursuit of Cobra which will end after next Spring.

Renegades acts as a relaunch with the G.I.Joe Team on the run. You know, being renegade. It will start with a two-part pilot, and continue with twenty-six episodes.

Two stills were shown, but there was no actual footage or sound. Though I can still hear all the original voices in my mind.

The good thing is  there will be no “dumbed down” stories as the writing in the series has both young and old fans alike in mind. I’m actually a fan of the movie that came out last year, because it wasn’t dumbed down, and at the same time, aimed at fans and made it okay for young kids. There was no awkward masturbation references I had to explain to later, like there was in “Tranformers”.

Every so often, the JOE franchise has to reinvent itself for a new generation, but Resolute did a great job at not deviating too far from the characters I grew up with, and at the end of the day, that’s all I really ask for.

Hey, at least we’re finally past GI JOE Extreme.

By Christian Beranek

This Wednesday May 5th the Contropussy team of co-creators Emma Caulfield and Camilla Rantsen, artist Christian Meesey and myself will be signing at Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles from 6 – 8pm You can view full details here.

A lot of the focus has been on the two lovely and talented ladies who script Contro’s adventures, but who is the mysterious man sitting at the drawing board — the aforementioned Meesey himself? Well my trusted readers, let’s find out…

Christian Beranek: You’re the artist on the popular web comic Contropussy. Can you tell us how that project came to be?

Christian Meesey: It was a dark and stormy night…actually, it was a typically gorgeous Los Angeles morning. The lovely and talented Emma (Caulfield) and Camilla (Rantsen) had created Contropussy. They had written and produced some test animations, but were looking for an artist to re-design and illustrate it as a web-comic. I was brought in and introduced by a mutual friend (Christian Beranek), and we hit it off. From initial introduction, to actual production, it’s been one of the smoothest creative experiences I’ve been lucky to be a part of.

Beranek: Can you tell us about MOTLEY and other creator owned projects?

Meesey: After graduating from Art school in Miami, Florida, I was lucky enough to immediately exhibit and publish two MOTLEY graphic novels, thanks to the endlessly generous Brook Dorsch( http://dorschgallery.com/past/ ). I’m currently working on new MOTLEY material, possibly to take the form of a web-comic later this year or next. NUCLEAR NEAL is a super hero parody book published through lulu.com and also available on AmazonJ.

Beranek: Who are some of your influences?

Meesey: A few notable mentors and influences (though it’s impossible to name every awesome and inspiring artist) are Tom Richmond, Ed Steckley, Jordan Massengale, Stephen Silver, Peter deSeve, Kyle Baker, Jack Davis, Mort Drucker, Alex Toth, T.S.Sullivant, Travis Charest, Claire Wendling, John K., Chris Ware, David Mazzuchelli, Carter Goodrich, Carlos Nine, Chris Sanders, Frazetta, Will Eisner, Frank Stockton, Sterling Hundley, Wolfgang Reitherman, Frank Miller, Paul Pope, Dave Mckean, Arthur Adams…and a few thousand others.

Beranek: What is your work process — can you take us through the steps of making a webcomic strip?

Meesey: First, I go through the script and figure out and track down any research needed. Second, I fill up a few sketchbook pages with layouts and character drawings. Third, the strip is penciled and inked onto 40lb paper stock. Fourth, I scan and color it in Adobe Photoshop. Then, I down a bottle of Dewar’s scotch. By the time I wake up two days later, the strip has been masterfully lettered by Thomas Mauer, and uploaded to the internets by the gentlemanly Nick Beranek!

Beranek: You have 20% coming out soon, a webcomic about a restaurant in Hell. What can you tell us about it?

Meesey: 20% is a blast to work on, and I can’t wait for it to launch. It gives a chance to draw regular folks in wild yet relatable scenarios, as well as crazy-ass demons and various creatures. Not to mention psychotic, cleaver-wielding chickens. It’s good times. In Hell!

Beranek: What are some comics you’re reading these days?

Meesey: Comic Book Mafia and other goodies at The Webcomic Factory, of course. Morrison and Murphy’s Joe the Barbarian is a lot of fun, Brubaker’s Criminal and Incognito…Anything by Darwyn Cooke, David Mazzuchelli, Herman Mejia, Cyril Pedrosa, Mike Mignola, Chris Moreno, Jeffrey Brown…and whatever else that looks compelling at my local library.

Beranek: Anything else you’d care to share with our readers?

Meesey: Sometimes when drawing, it’s great to listen to cool podcasts like Dwa and Swa at Sidebar.typepad.com, or Bobby Chiu’s words of artistic inspiration and wisdom…But mostly I just hum the theme song from Xanadu. Thanks for having me!

Christian Meesey’s blog:
http://meesimo.blogspot.com/

Contropussy website:
http://www.contropussy.com

Christian Beranek is a writer, musician, actor, film/tv producer and webcomic entrepreneur. He co-runs The Webcomic Factory with Tony DiGerolamo and is hard at work on several original graphic novels. He is also co-starring in High School Sucks The Musical 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.

With the masterminds behind LOST unable to do Stephen King’s stories justice, will it take A Beautiful Mind to see the Gunslinger Born?

/Film has an interesting post up, stating that director Ron Howard, along with producer Brian Glazer and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman, are teaming up to take on a live-action version of the Dark Tower series. Here’s the catch — there are conflicting reports over whether or not there would be one film, or a trilogy, which would then lead on to a TV series.

Bad Robot’s J.J. Abrams had previously told MTV in November that his company wouldn’t be handling the Dark Tower, “I’m such a massive Stephen King fan that I’m terrified of screwing it up.”

When it comes to breaking into the comics industry, competition can be fierce — it’s not an exaggeration when they say that more people play in the NBA than work on comics at the professional level.

But nowhere was that competition more out in the open than with Zuda, DC’s online comics initiative.For more than two years, every month had creators submit the opening pages of their stories, with voters deciding which comic would stay. Yet on the Zuda blog, Ron Perazza announced last week that the competitions would be no more.

“The format absolutely has merits; engaging the community and giving them real decision making power, giving creators a level of exposure that they might not have otherwise had and encouraging an ongoing dialogue about storytelling, quality and what makes good comics,” Perazza said. “However it’s also had its shortcomings; accusations of cheating, confusion about the process, spamming in the the name of promotion and argumentative, dismissive or even aggressive behavior. Is there a better way to achieve the former without having to endure or encourage the latter? I think so.”

It’s interesting to think of the implications of this call — although I can agree with Perazza that it will certainly raise the civility of it all, at any rate. Comics are hard enough to get into without trashing other people — but at the same time, I can also see the argument that even with spamming and promotions and ultimately the ones with the best connections/best pro credentials arguably getting the best platforms, this was still a democratic choice. What say you, Rama readers? What do you want to see for Zuda 2.0?

[Image by the Herald Sun]

Again, the irony sells itself. Over at the Herald Sun, there’s an interesting story about a comic book store clerk who stops a potential thief this past Free Comic Book Day. The thing is, the owner was dressed as your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Michael Baulderstone, aka, the REAL Spider-Man, wasn’t alone either. He had help from the Flash and a few Jedis.

“One of the funniest things about the incident was that I called for people to stand near the door and it just so happened we had people dressed as Jedi knights there blocking the exit, the Flash was there at some point too,” said Baulderstone.

I can only imagine what people thought. Maybe some sort of performance for the kids, or something of that nature. I just can’t believe somebody would steal from a store on a day celebrating the business like this guy would.

How about a round of applause for this Mr. Baulderstone?

Does Marvel bring out the best in Sean McKeever, or did DC just bring out the worst in him?: David Brothers considers the writer’s career, and notes a pattern. His Waiting Place and G.I. Joe comics were good! I think he wrote some Vampirella ones too…how did those turn out?

“Comics aren’t just for kids”: I’m trying to steer clear of posting Free Comic Book Day-related stories here, simply because there have been tons of ‘em in the mainstream, non-comics media since my last installment of this link round-up on Friday, but I can’t resist this one. In order to talk up the 2010 FCBD, an annual celebration that started just eight years ago, The Standard seems to have plugged some new info into a 15-year-old article about comics. In addition to that catchy headline, Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize is mentioned, and the word “graphic novel” is used in quotes.

“If you can’t join them, make fun of them”: That’s Andy McGinn on how he and co-creator David Neitzke turned their failure to break into the funnies with their comic strip into the inspiration for a graphic novel, The Legacy, in this profile in The Springfield News-Sun. Sounds interesting.

“Is ‘Iron Man 2′ ‘unwatchable’?”: I haven’t seen it yet, but I’m going to guess no, no it is not. People will watch anything.

“I am not sure I’m ready for the graphic novel version of A Wrinkle in Time. Frankly, I don’t even like seeing it with different cover art than the particular paperback I treasured as a kid”: Writing for Slate.com’s XX Factor blog, KJ Dell’Antonia discusses news that Hope Larson is adapting Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time into a graphic novel. She says she’s a fan of the medium, but has reservations about this particular work. I probably wouldn’t be excited about the project myself, if it weren’t Hope Larson doing it. That’s a particular creator whose take on a particular work I find myself really excited to see. Would it be “better” for Larson to continue producing her own great work, rather than spending time on an adaptation? Maybe. But that’s really up to Larson, and I can’t wait to see her take on the L’Engle’s characters.

I think these are really neat: “9 Miniamalist Superhero Alternative Film Posters.” Spider-Man is hyphenated though, goddamit.

Batman and Robin v.1: Batman Reborn
Written by Grant Morrison
Illustrated by Frank Quitely and Phillip Tan & Jonathan Glapion
Colored by Alex Sinclair and Pete Pantazis
Lettered by Patrick Brosseau
Original Covers by Quitely, Tan & Glapion, J.G. Jones, Andy Kubert and Tony S. Daniel

Batman’s an oddity.  I like the character, always have, yet I rarely have ever read Batman comics, and even more rarely have truly cared much for them.  There’s a quality about them, one good days I call it comfort, on bad predictability.  I love Superman, and appreciate the comfort of a well-crafted Superman comic.  I dig Batman, but not enough to crave the comfort of yet another Joker story or second-rate Mafioso riff.

Batman and Robin, the new series by the very talented writer Grant Morrison and various artistic collaborators, supports my long-standing stance.  I enjoy it well enough, but don’t feel compelled to read more.  This book does have an interested spin on the legend, I must admit.  Bruce Wayne, you see, died in Morrison’s Batman: RIP arc.  Oh, sure, he’ll come back somehow.  They always do.  But for now, the conceit is that Dick Grayson, the original Robin, has taken the cowl and become the new Batman.  Damian Wayne, Bruce’s recently discovered ten-year-old son from a dalliance with the daughter of eco-terrorist Ra’s al Ghul, has decided to follow his father’s footsteps, leading him to become the new Robin.  Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne, the new Batman and Robin.

Morrison provides a nice balance in his portrayal of Grayson as Batman.  He’s been trained by the best, and it shows.  Dick knows his job, he knows how to intimidate, he’s a detective, he’s intelligent and dedicated.  In his quiet hours, however, he’s still standing in his “father”’s shoes and not entirely comfortable with that.  Raised by a clan of assassins, Damian Wayne’s cocksure arrogance suits his youth.  He’s more than capable physically, having been trained from nearly birth, but he’s headstrong, overconfident, a danger to himself.

The two adventures in this book work as a piece. In the first, a loosely circus-themed cast of criminals with slight motivations echo Dick Grayson’s origin as a trapeze artist.  The second finds Batman and Robin caught in a war between the mafia and homicidal vigilante The Red Hood, a.k.a. Jason Todd, who was once Dick Grayson’s successor as Robin (when Grayson grew up and took on his adult superheroic identity as Nightwing).  Morrison contrasts the two former Robins effectively, if not deeply, creating sympathy for Jason who could never live up to Dick’s standard, yet refusing to let the reader forget that Jason is now in the wrong.

Frank Quitely, a frequent collaborator of Morrison’s, handles the artwork in the first half of the book.  Comics fans seem to have polar reactions to his work.  On one hand, the tiny lines he uses to give depth give a thick edge to the characters, creating a sense of heaviness.  I guess I can see where that creates a sense of “unattractiveness” to his figures.  And sometimes he overuses those small lines in Batman and Robin, adding too much clutter to a few faces here or there.  But Quitely’s page layouts are so creative and imaginative, shifting back and forth as Batman acrobatically moves through low-rent thugs.  Other pages, his standard use of page-wide panels, and the staging of characters within, creates strong horizontal movement.  Few comics artists capture an illusion of motion as effectively.  His strong designs (the new Robin costume, the three conjoined martial artists, the new flying (!) Batmobile, Mr. Toad) also add to the entertainment, and though he doesn’t dip heavily into using shadows, the use of swathes of black ink is noticeably more pronounced (and very well spotted) here than in Quitely’s day-glo All Star Superman pages.

Also, I love the display lettering used in the sound effects.  Great touch there.

By comparison, Phillip Tan’s pages muster a more pedestrian post-Image Comics superhero grandeur.  Which isn’t to say it’s bad work; it simply doesn’t stand out in the way that Quitely’s does.  No images from it burn themselves into your brain as does Batman’s battle with Pyg’s henchmen or the tiered image of Wayne Tower.  Tan’s layouts are, with few exceptions, mostly clear, and his designs effective.

In the end, I enjoyed Batman and Robin v.1: Batman Reborn.  Morrison isn’t reinventing the wheel really, but he probably shouldn’t with characters this familiar.  In the end, there’s a certain comfort that comes with the name, and you can’t fully escape it.  You probably shouldn’t try to.  Here, he’s exploring a new dynamic between the mentor and the protégée, exploring perhaps a kinder Batman, giving a different zest to a comfortable, old standard.  In the end, Batman and Robin is a fun comic.  That’s all I really ask of it.