Jim Shooter on visual storytelling:

Let me tell you the secrets of visual storytelling. Again, we’re in the business of storytelling—that’s our number one priority. We’re here to tell a story. What is storytelling? As I was telling you writers, it’s conveying information. CONVEYING INFO. As Frank Miller once said, when he had the epiphany and went from being a talented young artist/writer to being a genius, “I get it. We know the story and they (the readers) don’t, and we’re telling them the story!”

I hear a lot of you thinking, “duh, no kidding.” Listen to me. How many comics have you read in which the artist is more concerned with drawing lots of pin-up shots so he can sell the pages for more money at conventions than getting across what’s happening? How many have you read where the writer is so busy showing how cleverly he or she can do snappy patter that they fail to convey who these people are and why we should care about them?

When you get it into your head that you need a good story to tell, and that telling it—well—is the mission, you’re making the same jump to lightspeed that Miller made that one fine day.

File under: He may be wrong a lot of the time (See Gary Groth’s response to Shooter’s explanation of what happened between Jack Kirby and Marvel in the ’70s and 80s: “Has anyone falsified a moment in comics history more persistently than Jim Shooter?” he asks), but when he’s right…

So basically Thing doesn’t need to wear his XXXL raincoat and Carmen Sandiego hat get-up anymore, right?: I enjoyed this really smart piece by Colin Smith about how Ben Grimm’s transformation into The Thing and the tragic nature of his appearance as originally conceived no longer means the same thing that it once did, in the Marvel Universe or our universe. (Via Comics Reporter)

“It’s all fiction. None of this happened”: That’s Gary Groth vs. Jim Shooter’s recent blog posts on one of the more important/touchy issues in the last few decades of the American comic book industry—Marvel vs. Jack Kirby over Jack Kirby’s art. It’s a great read. Plus, I learned two new words while reading it.

Okay, Swamp Thing can return to the DC Universe: But Josh Bayer gets to do the covers. Deal?

The tradition of casting black folks in viking movies: Writing for Salon, Bob Calhoun examines the tempest in a teapot that was casting Idris Elba as a pseudo-Norse space-god in the upcoming Thor movie, and notes its hardly the first time a black guy has appeared in a viking movie.

Someday someone will mount a full production (I hope): This sounds kind of neat. Apparently a theater company that does Shakespeare is performing a reading of Anthony del Col and Conor McCreery’s Secret Wars-starring-Shakespeare’s characters comic Kill Shakespeare. That’s obviously a comic with a lot of dramatic potential, and I figure it’s only a matter of time before it gets full-on adapted. I wonder if it will make it to the stage or to the silver screen first though…?

Rob Williams is a very busy guy these days — he’s writing Ghost Rider, Skaar: King of the Savage Land, Daken: Dark Wolverine and Fear Itself: Uncanny X-Force for Marvel and Terminator/Robocop: Kill Human for Dynamite — and last month at C2e2 he was announced as the anchor of The Iron Age, a story where Iron Man travels through time to stop Dark Phoenix from destroying all of existence.

Newsarama talked with Williams (and series artist Rebekah Isaacs) a bit about the project when it was first announced, and are poised to learn more today, in Marvel’s latest “Next Big Thing” conference call with the comic book press. Williams and series editor Tom Brennan will be on the line, and so will we, so if you have any questions about The Iron Age you’d like us to ask, let us know in the comments! And to learn a lot more about the story, check out our original article here. For live coverage of the call, check the main page right around 3 p.m. eastern time today.

The Weinsten Company is suing Relativity Media over the rights to remake the 1994 film, The Crow. Meanwhile, people everywhere else wonder why more than one person wants to remake The Crow.

It was just a few weeks ago entertainment sites started reporting The Crow was on its way to being remade. Based on the comic book series by James O’Barr, Relativity already had a director on board with Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later) and was looking at Hangover star Bradley Cooper to take on the lead role. The Hollywood Reporter even said singer/songwriter Nick Cave had written the most recent draft of the script.

Not so fast says The Weinstein Co.

THR says that in the lawsuit, “TWC claims that Relativity, the Ryan Kavanaugh studio, has breached a 2009 distribution agreement that allegedly gives TWC the right to release the movie globally. Harvey Weinstein and gang claim Kavanaugh has now been shopping distribution rights elsewhere in violation of the deal.”

If you like legal speak, you can read the entire lawsuit here but basically, the Weinstein Co.’s lawyer says they had a contract and they aren’t going to let anyone sell the distribution rights to the film.

Relativity has responded to the suit with this statement:

This is yet another typical litigation stunt from the Weinsteins, who have a long history of threatening lawsuits with the sole purpose of intimidation. If served, Relativity will seek immediate dismissal. While we expect these types of antics from the Weinsteins, we are shocked that a lawyer of Mr. Fields’ caliber would make such false, reckless and intentionally harmful statements to the press about Relativity and Mr. Kavanaugh. We intend to seek appropriate remedies for this misconduct. Clearly, this is a feeble attempt to create a press stir and a malicious effort to interfere with Relativity’s development of the project.

Relativity has hired lawyer Carol Genis to represent them and has since fired back with their own allegations in a letter to the Weinsteins. From THR, “Genis blames TWC for failing to meet obligations on the 2009 musical Nine, which was financed in part by Relativity but released by TWC. ‘It takes gall for your client to make demands upon Relativity about The Crow, which has not even been greenlit, when TWC’s failure to properly distribute Nine demonstrated that it will disregard and breach any and all of its distribution, marketing and financial obligations.’ the letter states.”

Genis also says in the letter, “Your client is forewarned and proceeds at its own peril.” Yikes.

I have no window into the company’s legal issues but it is important to note that The Crow was originally released under the Miramax Films Dimension imprint which The Weinstein Co. took with them when they left Disney. No idea how this one will shake out but it will probably get even nastier before the end.

Dear Fox,

This is how you sell your 1960s retro X-Men movie:

Love, Phil Noto and everyone in the world who has seen this.

If this mini-interview (two questions!) with Black Panther: The Man Without Fear writer David Liss and editor Bill Rosemann is anything to go by, it looks like the Black Panther hasn’t just moved to Hell’s Kitchen, he’s also decided to become an American citizen. Liss is quoted as saying:

We’ve been very cautious from the beginning about revealing what the American Panther is going to mean to our book or our characters. That said, I don’t think there is any way to tell a story about immigration without it functioning, at least one some level, as a microcosm of the American immigration experience. To say more than that would be to reveal too much about the story, but one thing we wanted to focus on here is the tension between native-born Americans and the people who come here from other countries. It was a complicated and emotional subject before the American Revolution, and it remains complicated and emotional now.

I’ve not been paying attention to the Black Panther book, but has T’Challa’s immigration status been addressed so far? I’d just assumed that the “American Panther” would turn out to be a different character altogether, considering the seeming importance of T’Challa’s African roots and Wakanda in general to the Marvel Universe. I mean, doesn’t he lose something if he decides to become a US citizen? And not just in the financial sense, says the man scarred by how much it cost for him to become a citizen. I have to admit, the idea of “a story about immigration” being told as part of the Fear Itself event – wherein real world politics are brought into the Marvel Universe to… stick out like a sore thumb and make you feel kind of awkward (“Watch out, Sharon – People are protesting, so this is going to become a… riot!” “Why don’t the Avengers build me a house. You know, so I can not afford to pay for it, like I can’t afford to pay for the one I have now, which is why I’m moving in the first place.” etc.) – makes me very nervous indeed. I can already imagine some kind of ridiculous metaphor for the birther movement being created to question the origins of the “American Panther…”

I don’t know whose idea it was to parody the hysterical Star Wars Volkswagon commercial from the Superbowl this year but I now bow down before them. Introducing, Little Thor.

This is one of the best pieces of marketing I’ve ever seen. Besides the fact that the ending of the commercial is 10 billion times funnier than the Star Wars one, fans can also dissect the entire thing for Marvel related Easter Eggs. How many can you find?

I don’t know about anyone else, but I’d love to see a short film on the Thor DVD with this kid.

Huh. Didn’t see this coming: Marvel’s movie summer has already started in Australia, with Thor opening Thursday… and coming in second behind the fifth movie in the Fast and Furious franchise. Odder still when you consider that Thor has the advantage of higher ticket prices – it’s in 3D, as opposed to Fast Five‘s 2D-only status – and a hometown hero, with lead Chris Helmsworth being Australian. And yet, on its first day of release, Thor made $1.5 million US against Fast Five‘s $2.02 million US (Fast Five wasn’t even in its own first day, having debuted the day before, when it made $2.4 million US.

Am I the only one surprised by this? Is Australia that different a market that Thor gets outdone by the fifth installment of The Fast and The Furious, and it’s not a big deal? At least in the US, the two are opening a week apart (Thor is two weeks away, Fast Five opens a week tomorrow) to avoid the chance of a similar showdown, but… Wasn’t Thor supposed to be one of the big summer movies this year? This must be making some people at Disney and Marvel a little bit nervous right now.

The title of Daniel Clowes’ latest book refers to Marshall, a 38-year-old, balding divorce attempting to stave off his loneliness by going on a blind date his last remaining friend arranged for him.

It’s partly ironic, as Marshall himself notes he’s not exactly a great catch, although as the story progresses he gets the opportunity to act like—or at least attempt to act like—a knight in shining armor a few times

The title could just as easily refer to Clowes himself though. As should come as no surprise at this point in the cartoonist’s career, the book is wonderful.

Originally created for The New York Times Magazine, where it ran serially, the expanded and modified Mister Wonderful shares the horizontal, comic strip-novel appearance of the earlier Pantheon-published Ice Haven, although Mister Wonderful is much more straightforward and focused on a single character with a single story.

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Correct me if I’m wrong but putting on a cape doesn’t actually *make* you a superhero, right? Well, Florida officials are now investigating why one unemployment agency in the state spent $14,000 to buy red capes for 6000 unemployed citizens. Yes, this actually happened.

The agency, Workforce Central Florida, had an idea to start a campaign called ”Cape-a-Bility Challenge.” It gave both job seekers and employers the chance to win $1000 prize packs. In order to do so, WCF asked them to participate in various activities like taking a Facebook quiz titled, “Which superhero are you?” liking the WCF Facebook page, reccomending someone on LinkedIn using the word “super,” tweet a job opening from their website or take a photo with Dr. Evil Unemployment. Yes, they even made up their own supervillain.  (more…)

Perhaps the studio felt they needed to apologize for yet another horrific promotional shot they released earlier this week because we’ve got a brand new trailer for X-Men: First Class.

We’ve seen a chunk of this before but there’s definitely a lot more Magneto action this time around, including footage of his childhood. There’s also a fantastic (albeit quick) shot of Azazel getting to attack someone with his tail and Banshee getting some sky-diving practice.

Michael Fassbender’s Magneto gets to show off much more use of his powers than he has in previous X-Men films and that seems to be an important plot point. ”There’s good in you too and you can harness all that. You possess a power no one can match. Not even me,” says James McAvoy’s Xavier.

So are the pictures putting you off or does the actual footage still have you excited for X-Men: First Class? (If you were ever excited about it to begin with.)

Thor needs a better PR guy. Here’s Invincible Iron Man editor Alejandro Arbona talking about what Tony Stark brings to Fear Itself:

Iron Man, Steve Rogers and Thor, the figureheads of the Avengers, each exert different positive influences on the people of the Marvel Universe. All three of them will be instrumental in projecting those examples if the Marvel Universe is ever going to overcome “Fear Itself.” Thor represents unparalleled strength and power, applied in the spirit of benevolence, to defend those who aren’t as strong. Steve Rogers embodies strategy, cunning and an ideal of leadership that inspires everyone he commands. And Iron Man? In “Fear Itself” #1, Tony asked Steve Rogers to remember how his generation dealt with the Great Depression: “You built.” Tony Stark invents and creates. Maybe Steve can come up with a plan and Thor can put his muscle behind it, but without Tony, the Marvel Universe won’t have the tools to pull itself through and to build itself up.

So, Tony is the creative one and Steve is the strategic one, I get that. But Thor pretty much gets stuck with “he’s strong”? Really? Doesn’t he bring something more to the table than that? There’s something about Arbona’s explanation that made me think about Wonder Woman, and her difficult place in DC’s similar trinity of heroes; Superman and Batman, you can easily sum up their positions in the DC pantheon: Superman is the optimist who inspires everyone around him to be their best, Batman is the World’s Greatest Detective (and, yes, strategist) who plans for the worst in everyone… but Wonder Woman? She, like Thor, is more difficult to pigeonhole (They actually share a lot in common: Mythical figures, the whole regal warrior thing…), and have struggled to achieve the same level of… what, fanboy respect? popularity? as their peers.

This isn’t to say that they’re lesser characters – I think Thor might be my favorite out of that particular Marvel trio, and I have such a fondness for Wonder Woman that I endured the Jodi Picoult run a few years back – but they may be more difficult characters to pull off successfully, more complex characters that require more work from both creators and readers to fully appreciate. Their appeal isn’t easily summed up in soundbites (Sure, you can say “God of Thunder” or “Warrior Amazon Princess,” but that doesn’t really explain why they’re interesting), and so, in descriptions like the above, they always seem kind of… disappointing.

Is it just me? Do both Marvel and DC’s trinities seem perfectly balanced to everyone else? And if not, how can that be fixed?

Thanks to The Hollywood Reporter, we’ve got a ton of more details on the upcoming Batman: Year One direct-to-DVD animated feature. Along with the screenshot above, the bulk of the voice cast was announced, with The O.C. alum/current Southland actor Ben McKenzie starring as the young Bruce Wayne/Batman. And from one critically acclaimed show to another, Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston (also known as Malcolm in the Middle’s dad) is James Gordon, and genre faves Katee Sachkoff (Battlestar Galactica‘s Starbuck, duh) and Eliza Dushku (Dollhouse, Buffy the Vampire Slayer voice Detective Sarah Essen and Catwoman, respectively. Mobster Carmine Falcone is played by no less of an authority than Alex Rocco, who portrayed The Godfather‘s Moe Greene.

DC Animation regulars Lauren Montgomery and Sam Liu co-direct, and Tab Murphy, who wrote last year’s Superman/Batman: Apocalypse, penned the screenplay. 1987′s Batman: Year One, written by Frank Miller and illustrated by David Mazzucchelli, is one of the most revered stories published by DC Comics, telling the early days of Batman’s crimefighting career in Gotham. The story has influenced several film and TV versions of the character, but this is the first straight adaptation — though several others have been in development in one stage or another over the years.

Batman: Year One is slated for release in the fall, with a premiere screening slated for this July’s Comic-Con International: San Diego. Another screenshot is after the jump.

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Well, this is interesting: Rich Johnston, over at Bleeding Cool, reports on the formation of something called DC Entertainment Creative Affairs, a group within DC Entertainment – the umbrella title for Warner Bros’ new multimedia wing based around DC Comics properties – that he describes as “basically a Bullpen for a different multi-media world and a veritable West Coast Justice League Of DC Comics.” Headed by Geoff Johns and Mike Carlin – who quietly exited DC Comics proper at the start of the year to move west – the team includes former Vertigo editor Pornsak Pichetshote and former DC Universe editor Adam Schlagman (Eagle-eyed readers may recognize all four of those names from Flashpoint-related comic solicitations), as well as other names that might be familiar to industry watchers. Is this the DC version of Marvel’s “brain trust” (including Joe Quesada and Brian Michael Bendis) that consults on Marvel Studios and Marvel Television projects, I wonder, or something else?

Is there a font called “Spirit Title” yet?: Imprint magazine has a downright astonishing article on Will Eisner’s usage of three-dimensional looking, “stone type” in his Spirit features, and some of the comics covers his signature technique inspired over the years (Via The Source). Comics Alliance has a similarly-themed post, which includes a swell Gotham Adventures cover.

Oh yeah, Wizard was good for something: Bully posts Ben Grimm’s Passover adventure from Twisted Toyfare Theater.

“Surprise Penis!”: Ty Templeton carefully defines and explains Surprise Penis, and counts down the top-ten best examples from toys, cartoons and comics. Probably NSFW.

Because you worry about really weird things…?: “Why Wonder Woman’s Costume Really Worries Me”

He’s not writing Detective Comics for nothing: Scott Snyder unravels an extremely pervasive mystery plaguing superhero comics, and takes to Twitter to reveal it; iFanboy captured the results.

From the Hollywood Reporter. And the verdict seems to be “another weird Photoshop job.”

As ComicsAlliance points out, it definitely appears to be an Astonishing X-Men homage. (That trademark slant!) But why UK only? It’s not like the X-Men are drinking tea or putting u’s between o’s and r’s.

X-Men: First Class is scheduled for release on June 3.

Bad news for fans of lame jokes and lamer colored pencil-on-index card art fans. I haven’t been able to connect to the place on the Internet where my computer sends scanned images into Blog@, either because something’s wrong with my computer, or something’s wrong with Blog@, or my computer and Blog@ are fighting, so this week’s installment is nothing but words, words and more words.  On the plus side, there’s a lot more words devoted to more books.

Let’s take a look, shall we?

Astro City: Shining Stars: Here’s the latest chunk of Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson’s superhero comics, including miniseries Astra, Silver Agent and one-shot Beautie. It’s a $25, 210-page hardcover.

Dark Horse Presents #1: After a stint online, the venerable Dark Horse anthology returns to print, now in the form of an $8, 80-page, full-color, ad-free, bound format. This first issue will include work from (deep breath) Frank Miller, Harlan Ellison, Howard Chaykin, Neal Adams, Richard Corben, Carla Speed McNeil, Michael T. Gilbert, Paul Chadwick, Randy Stradley, David Chelsea and others. In other words, not something you wouldn’t want to take a look at. Preview here.

DC Comics Presents: Ninja Boy #1: DC’s line of $8, almost-trades saves another property from the back-issue bins. This was a one-time WildStorm property, written and drawn by Ale Garza, with co-writer Allen Warner and co-artist Dan Norton. The 2001, six-issue miniseries was remarkably manga-inspired,not simply in the accents of Garza’s art-work, but in the premise and characters as well. That premise? Cheeky ninja kid has action-comedy adventures. I remember trying and not really liking the book much, but it’s certainly interesting in it’s attempt to process familiar elements from Japanese pop culture into something American, regardless of how successful it was. This book will include the first four issues. For a more traditional offering from DC in the same format, this week also sees the release of DC Comics Presents: Legion of Super Heroes—Legion of the Damned.That was a millennial storyline by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, who have since gone on to become fairly synonymous with space-faring superhero adventures, and Olivier Coipel. The solicitation on dccomics.com is rather forthcoming about why this one’s being published like this now: “With the hardcover collection of LEGION LOST coming in June, DC Comics collects the tale that led into that space-spanning epic”

Dungeons & Dragons Classics Vol. 1: I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this on Blog@ before, although I know I’ve discussed it repeatedly on my own blog, Every Day Is Like Wednesday, but the old DC/TSR Advanced Dungons & Dragons comic book was the one that got me into comics, setting me on a slippery slope that—greased with Eastman and Laird’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Neil Gaiman and company’s Sandman and a few Alan Grant/Norm Breyfogle Bat-comics— led me to become the well-adjusted, comic book-obsessed, destitute blogger and mini-comic maker I am today. IDW has repackaged and republished it, along with the previously released DC/TSR Forgotten Realms. This first volume of AD&D comics will collect the first eight issues of the series, all drawn by Jan Duursema (she drew every issue of the series, save two fill-ins from Tom Mandrake), and written by first Michael Fleisher and then Dan Mishkin. Fleisher’s arc, comprising the first four issues, is rather unremarkably straightforward, but starting with Mishkin’s first arc, the book improves greatly, moving away from strict adherence to sword and sorcery business into something a bit more interesting. The second half of this book, for example, is the story “The Spirit of Myrrth,” in which our heroes are hired by the ghost of a dead jester to secure a powerful magical joke scroll before the city’s Jester’s Guild gets it and creates a giant jester skeleton to—well, it’s pleasingly strange, is what I’m trying to say.  The trade is a $20, 200-page trade paperback.  For IDW’s original exploitation of the D&D license, you can check out the publisher’s Dungeons and Dragons: Dark Sun #4 and Dungeons and Dragons #6, also on sale this week. Those are both $4 books.

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Dark Horse Comics president Mike Richardson has broken his – and the company’s – silence over the recent layoffs in an interview with Comics Alliance’s Laura Hudson, and explains the reasoning behind last week’s sad news:

We made some very hard choices and did the best we could over that. Rather than considering wage freezes and passing on more health care costs, I made a decision to do it a different way. One element of that cost-cutting was reducing our payroll and staff. On a personal level, it’s horrible. On a company level, it’s something you have to do from time to time.

He also addresses former employee Aaron Colter’s assertion that mismanagement and projects like Troubleshooter and Jim Shooter’s Gold Key books were to blame:

If you want to call [Troublemaker] a failure – it sold nearly 40,000 books, and for us that’s a pretty good number. On the dark side we could have sold 15,000. Who knows? We did not know. The 100,000 print run was to try and make sure we reached all of Janet [Evanovich, writer of the series of novels the book spins out of]‘s market, and that’s what it took so that’s what we contracted. We’re happy and we’re doing another one, and we’ll do it with more information. And inside the direct market, we had a nice sale there; it did better than we expected… [T]o blame that for layoffs is silly. It’s part of a larger program and we’re on our way. The article also pointed at the Doctor Solar and Magnus [Gold Key] books, saying the characters are basically old and worn-out. Well, I guess that’s the writer’s opinion. What would say about characters like Superman or Batman who were created 30 years before those [Gold Key] characters? Characters are as worn out as their creative teams… The problems we have with that series are more about the untimeliness of the books. If the books are continually late, superhero book sales will drop in the direct sales where these were intended. It’s a fact of life in the comics market. We’re aware of it, and we’ve talked to retailers. We have changes coming down the line. To blame the Shooter books for the layoffs is not right. It’s part of a larger deal where we’ve made quite a lot of money. So to pick one part of the deal and say that’s the reason for our layoffs is silly.

Lots of silly going on, apparently. Richardson goes on to say suggest that Dark Horse’s books are, on average, higher sellers than those of Image or IDW, and claims responsibility for Portland, OR being so popular with the comics community: “There was no comics community when I started Dark Horse and the comics community has grown out of Dark Horse’s presence. That’s just a fact.” Well, it’s certainly one reading of some facts… Go check out the entire interview, it makes for an interesting read.

Kenshin fanart by “Tsuyoshi13″

Anime News Network and others are reporting that this week’s issue of Jump Square magazine holds a special announcement for the 15th anniversary of Rurouni Kenshin – a new anime has been greenlit! No word yet whether this will be a new series, OVA, or film, but any new Kenshin will certainly be welcomed by fans.

In addition, if the older material is more your speed, you’ll have a new higher-quality way to watch it soon as well. With Japanese release dates of late August, September, and October (no official word on US release yet), the two Kenshin OVAs and the full length feature will be hitting blu-ray, watchable in high definition glory.

The Kenshin manga spanned 255 chapters, and the original anime series had 95 episodes.

After much speculation and some initial confusion, Marion Cotillard and Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Roles in 2012 Batman threequel The Dark Knight Rises are public knowledge thanks to official word from Warner Bros., as reported on Deadline and the other usual sources.

Cotillard is playing Miranda Tate, described in the press release as “a Wayne Enterprises board member eager to help a still-grieving Bruce Wayne resume his father’s philanthropic endeavors for Gotham.” Gordon-Levitt is John Blake, “a Gotham City beat cop assigned to special duty under the command of Commissioner Gordon.” Both characters appear to be original to the movie, and not adapted from the comic books. Last month, reports circulated that Gordon-Levitt would be playing mobster offspring Alberto Falcone, from Batman: The Long Halloween.

Both Cotillard and Gordon-Levitt worked with The Dark Knight Rises director Christopher Nolan in last year’s Inception; today’s casting news also served as official confirmation that they both will be appearing in the film, following weeks of widespread rumors. The Dark Knight Rises is scheduled for release on July 20, 2012.