Well, at least we now know when DC is planning to release info about the big changes expected to their DC Universe line following the conclusion of Flashpoint. The LA Times has announced that both Geoff Johns and Jim Lee will be appearing at its “Hero Complex Film Festival” on June 11th to drop “bombshell announcements about the future of Superman and the entire DC Universe.” Tickets for the event, which also includes a double feature of Superman The Movie and Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut, along with a Q&A with Donner, cost $45, meaning that – let’s face it – most of us will be following along on the internet.

What, none of Bluewater bio-comics made the list?: Here are CNN’s “top five political comic books.” Number two on the list is probably particularly relevant right now, given the news of the later part of last week.

2011 Glyph Awards Winners: I don’t always list award winners here, because there are so many awards, but then I feel like I probably should list the Glyph Awards winners, since I was one of the judges this year, but then I think maybe I shouldn’t because it’s gauche to do so given my involvment, and then I think it’s not about me so I why am I overthinking it and anyway, here’s who won what. Congratulations to all of the winners; and to all of the losers, I hope you realize I was totally susceptible to bribes, so if you didn’t win, you have no one to blame but yourself for not offering me large sums of money. (Legal disclaimer: I’m totally kidding)

Rapturetoons: In light of recent predictions that didn’t quite go off (Guys, Jesus said “of that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone” right there in the gospel of Matthew!), Sequential rounded up some Rapture-related comics on the Internet, while Daryl Cagle did the same with political cartoons on the subject.

“We can all agree now that it was crap, right?”: Writing for Mightygodking.com, John Seavey examines the impact of Marvel’s Civil War series five years later, specifically looking at what changes the series wrought that Marvel embraced and which they ran away screaming from at first opportunity. It really does seem like a lot of the latter, and not so much of the former, huh?

And you say the sky is what color, exactly?: “‘Beetle Bailey’ set bad example”

I always enjoy reading stories like this: At Sequential Tart, Anita Olin talks about how she got into comic books. (Via The Beat)

Mike Sterling apologizes: But sometimes, when you’ve been thinking about some small aspect of a 1974 Swamp Thing comic book for years, it’s best to just put it on your blog and get it off your chest.

The Wonder Woman TV pilot has long (more than a week!) been officially dead, so now it’s time for the well-kept secrets of the show to be revealed, such as what the old-school hot pants costume looked like. Turns out, pretty consistent with the classic star-spangled underwear look of the character, as seen in this picture from WonderWoman.tv (a site surely as bummed as anyone that the show wasn’t picked up), depicting Adrianne Palicki posing with what appears to be either a wax dummy or Bond movie henchman:

Yep. It’s definitely a Wonder Woman costume. Better/worse than the other looks? Comment away!

If you haven’t seen Thor yet, or don’t want to be spoiled about the post-credit scene, click away now.

In an interview with Empire Magazine, Thor actor Stellan Skarsgård revealed that Kenneth Branagh wasn’t the only director on set. Joss Whedon in fact, director of the upcoming Avengers film from Marvel, did a scene of his own for the film – the post-credits scene.

“That was just a couple of months ago. I was happy to meet Sam[uel L. Jackson] again,” Skarsgård said. “I flew over there and went down into a basement, talked to Sam a couple of minutes and then went back home.”

Nothing really of note there, right? Until the interviewer asked, “Was that with Ken Branagh?” And Skarsgård replied, ”No that was with a director Joss Whedon, who’s doing The Avengers.”

Very interesting. So it looks as if Whedon got his trial run with Marvel shooting part of Thor. It could also be proof that the cosmic cube we saw in the post-credit scene will be a plot device in Whedon’s film and not a sequel to Thor or any of the other Marvel films coming out before then.

Skarsgård also mentioned he’d start filming on The Avengers very soon. “I know what’s going to happen to my character in that film but I’m not allowed to say anything because then I’ll have to sell my house to pay the fines.”

Look for The Avengers in theaters May 4, 2012.

We’ve got another new Green Lantern trailer, and this one is in 3D. Not that you can tell that from viewing it on a computer, but it’s running in all of its depth-rich glory in theaters before the just-opened Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, which probably explains the heavy use of Geoffrey Rush narration (he’s voicing Corps member Tomar Re, and plays Barbossa in the Pirates films — between that and all the awards for The King’s Speech, dude is having a big 2011). This one plays it totally straight, with none of the comedy that concerned some fans following early footage released for the film. And, hey, here it is:

Green Lantern is scheduled for theaters June 17, 2011.

For decades now, fans have been reading comics featuring the X-Men. These heroes, “sworn to protect a world that hates and fears them,” have been translated to various media and have spawned many spin-off titles: New Mutants, X-Force, X-Factor, Excalibur, and others. Soon, we’ll be getting the new live-action movie X-MEN: First Class in theaters. But what about the true first class of Charles Xavier?

In the continuity of Marvel Comics, Charles Xavier was a mutant with telepathy. Unlike other superhumans who get abilities from biological alteration or fantastic outside factors, a mutant is a human being born with a genetic bonus known as the X-gene. When activated, usually during puberty, the X-gene gives this person strange traits or abilities. As more and more mutants became known to the public, many people feared that humanity was being replaced by a new race: homo superior. Many people began to lash out at mutants, out of fear and hatred. Some mutants abused their abilities for profit or simple amusement. And some mutants felt that they had been chosen by evolution to take charge of the Earth.

Xavier decided to create a school where new mutant teenagers would be able to spend time with each other and learn how to temper and hone their abilities. He also decided that these students would work as a strike force to take down those mutants who chose to be criminals and terrorists, showing the public that they were all cut from the same cloth and that they could all benefit from co-existence. In reference to the X-gene they all carried, his called his team the X-Men. His first class included: Scott Summers (Cyclops), Warren Worthington III (Angel, later called Archangel), Hank McCoy (Beast) and, the youngest, Bobby Drake (Iceman). Weeks after his class was assembled, the team was joined by Xavier’s very first student, Jean Grey (who used the codename Marvel Girl).

Each of these heroes has worn a variety of costumes over the years. But for the purposes of this column, we’ll be focusing on the outfits they wore when they were still the first class to attend Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngers in Westchester County. Let’s begin, eh?

THE ORIGINAL UNIFORMS

The original X-Men class was introduced in X-Men #1 (later on, retroactively referred to as Uncanny X-Men #1), published in 1963. They were brought to life by the magic of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Kirby had previously worked on The Fantastic Four and Challengers of the Unknown, two teams of heroic adventurers who wore jumpsuits rather than flashy superhero costumes. With the original X-Men team, the same strategy is used.

Marvel had only begun producing superhero comics again two years earlier. The Fantastic Four was a family and the Avengers team was basically a club where loners occasionally joined forces. But the X-Men was a school. All five members were teenagers who were under the leadership and instruction of Charles Xavier, whom they lovingly called Professor X. (more…)

It isn’t the first time that I’ve said this, but this month’s “Tilting at Windmills” column by retailer Brian Hibbs is a must-read for everyone interested in the comics industry, as he looks at the ways in which product oversaturation is slowly killing the direct market:

It kills me, it literally kills me as I watch publisher after publisher, time and time again, walk up to their customers and say to their face, “Please stop buying my comics!”. Whether that’s feast-or-famine shipping, completely blowing the scheduling on new lines, not balancing a production schedule over the month, whatever. Behavior that we tolerate in the DM would never ever fly in any other medium. Can you imagine a TV show succeeding with the kind of stop-and-start, constant change-in-scheduling kind of production that we have in comics? No, the mass audience wouldn’t be interested in those kinds of shenanigans.

Again, it would be one thing if we were dealing with a market of big hits, in a healthy economy, where the losses from the dumb stuff could be ameliorated. But we’re not in a market of big hits any longer. We’ve lost most of our buffer.

So, so much more at the link. Seriously: This is something that everyone should read. Even if you don’t agree with what he’s saying – although, really, I’d be surprised if that was the case and curious to hear why – these are issues that need to be addressed, and sooner rather than later.

And here it is! (Click on the image for a way bigger version.)

So, unsurprisingly, it’s pretty different from Bane the comic book character, but definitely retains enough elements to keep it familiar. And it looks like those reports of Tom Hardy beefing up for the role were no joke.

The picture was released through a viral campaign started on the @TheFireRises Twitter account, which leads to the film’s site. It was announced just yesterday that filming had started on The Dark Knight Rises, so we can surely look forward to plenty of leaked set photos, news, rumors, script details and assorted other fun in the next 14 months or so. (Image via Huffington Post and Dark Horizons).

The funniest part of DC’s Flashpoint map for me?

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According to TMZ, pro wrestler Macho Man Randy Savage is dead at 58, following a heart attack that caused him to lose control of his vehicle.

Savage, born Randall Poffo, notably appeared in 2002′s Spider-Man as Bonesaw McGraw — the movie’s equivalent of Amazing Fantasy #15‘s Crusher Hogan — the pro wrestler who Spider-Man faces during his pre-great power comes great responsibility days.

Ron Marz explains why he’s writing the DC Retroactive: Green Lantern – The ’90s oneshot that’s coming out in August:

Number one: if there was going to be a Green Lantern story set in that era, I wanted it to be mine. I do feel a certain, I dunno, paternal interest, I guess, in Kyle. That’s not logical, certainly. Kyle isn’t “mine,” in any real sense. Neither Darryl nor I were awarded any creator stake in Kyle, as we were with some other characters we created, like Effigy and Fatality. Despite that, I’ll admit to having an emotional attachment to Kyle that I simply don’t have for other work-for-hire characters. He didn’t exist before we built him from the ground up. There’s always going to be an allure, like an old girlfriend you never quite forget.

Number two: if Darryl was coming back to comics, I wanted to be the guy who got to work with him. Darryl hasn’t done much comic work for a while, concentrating more on commercial-art jobs (that, frankly, pay better than the monthly comics grind). But he’s one of my favorite collaborators, and the chance to work together again was too much to pass up.

Marz addressing the issue – and also explaining what other series he’d return to, and why – made me think about the whole Retroactive thing a little bit more than I had. I admit, I’d not given the various oneshots more thought beyond “That seems like a weird idea, but I’ll probably end up buying most of them,” but now I’m stuck wondering how each creator involved feels about doing them – Does it feel like a celebration of their legacy, or more like a resignation that they’re seen as part of the past by TPTB at DC these days? I almost feel guilty for being so excited to read a new Justice League Detroit story by Gerry Conway now (Yes, I genuinely am excited about that. Don’t judge me), just because I doubt that he’d be thrilled that that’s the part of his genuinely impressive JLA legacy they’ve chosen to spotlight…

Approximate Continuum Comics
Written & Illustrated by Lewis Trondheim

Translated by Kim Thompson
Lettered by Stephanie Noell & Priscilla Miller
Published by Fantagraphics

Lewis Trondheim is one of Europe’s best cartoonists.

Let me revise that: Lewis Trondheim is one of the world’ best cartoonists. He happens to be French, however, and not all of his books are available in English, so it’s always exciting when something new comes to the States. (In the interests of complete documentation, the first half of Approximate Continuum Comics was previously serialized in English, but the latter portion was not – and I didn’t know Trondheim’s work at the time and missed the first half its first time around. So it’s all new to me.)

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What comics publishers talk about when they talk about selling out: I imagine most of you have heard some version of this before, but Jason Wood does a nice job of explaining what exactly it means when a publisher announces that a comic book has sold out in this piece for iFanboy. I suppose it varies from publisher to publisher, but personally when I hear one of the bigger publisher’s announce a comic book selling out, it  usually just confuses me, since comics are ordered far in advance and are unreturnable, making direct market publishing awfully close to printing-to-order. So sometimes when I read some announcements of sell-outs, I can’t help but translate them into “We messed up pretty badly” in my head. Anyway, the info Wood presents is always worth keeping in mind when parsing publisher PR.

Nice @#$%ing cover: Fantagraphics’ Flog blog shares word that Paul Hornschemeier is providing the cover for Dan Sinker’s The F***ing Epic Twitter Quest of @MayorEmanuel, a fake twitter account attributed to the notoriously foul-mouthed Obama chief-of-staff turned Chicago mayor that rapidly evolved into a fantasy novel of sorts. From what I’ve read of it, the book should be really funny, and that’s a damn fine cover image.

If so, it’s probably Circe’s doing: “Is ‘Wonder Woman’ Cursed?”

Superhero comics won’t truly be mainstream until newspapers care enough to Google the correct spelling of  “Spider-Man”: That personal pet peeve aside, this Ottawa Citizen feature on Dale Eaglesham, premised on his upcoming Alpha Flight comic, is a nice spotlight of a deserving talent.

“Life After ‘Walking Dead’”: This Fear.net article, sub-titled “Five Horror Graphic Novels You Need to Read,” has a very broad definition of horror, and I’m not sure those five works would necessarily appeal to someone who liked Walking Dead (It’s not like it has much in common with Jill Thompson’s Scary Godmother comics, for example), but no one can ever go wrong with Jill Thompson, Rick Geary, Richard Sala, Thomas Ott and Lorenzo Mattotti.

“After all, if you’re going to ogle a drawing, it would be nice if it appeared to be human”: Good point, Matthew J. Brady.

IDW’s TMNT creative team is…: Comics Alliance put the word “exclusive” in brackets after their “IDW Announces ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ Creative Team” headline, so I’ll link to their peice. That’s news I’ve been waiting to hear announced for quite some time now, and I’ll admit that it was pretty shocking news. There are three names attached, two of them belong to people whom I had never heard of, and the third of which is literally the last person I ever would have expected to hear as being attached to this project. Well, literally the last comics person—my grandfather is probbly the last person in general I would have expected to hear is attached to this project.

Can you feel that excitement? Hear the slightest hints of Christian Bale’s guttural delivery? The Dark Knight Rises commenced principal photography today, with shoots scheduled for Pittsburgh, New York and Los Angeles in the states, plus India, England and Scotland.

The official press release states that director Christopher Nolan is using IMAX cameras “even more extensively” for this one than he did with 2008′s The Dark Knight, which shot four sequences in the format.

The press release follows in full after the jump — nothing else too noteworthy to pass along at this point, other than Anne Hathaway’s role is still carefully stated as “Selina Kyle,” not Catwoman. The Dark Knight Rises is scheduled for theaters July 20, 2012.

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Zack Snyder’s new Man of Steel, Henry Cavill, will star in Relativity’s Immortals come November but a few months earlier you can check out Immortals: Gods and Heroes, the companion graphic novel from Archaia. In celebration of both, Relativity, Archaia and Fandango are holding a contest that will send two lucky people to San Diego Comic-Con this year. But that’s not all. You’ll also be immortalized in the comic.

From the producers of 300, the film, directed by Tarsem Singh (The Cell, The Fall) also stars Mickey Rourke, Luke Evans and Freida Pinto. The graphic novel includes work from creators Ben Templesmith, Dennis Calero, David Mack and Ron Marz among others.

Do you have what it takes to be a Greek God or Goddess? If so, then Relativity Media – the studio behind the visually spectacular 3D action adventure Immortals – wants you to sign up right away! Exclusively offered via Facebook today, the Relativity-Archaia Immortals promotion sponsored by Fandango, the nation’s leading moviegoer destination, will crown the winners on July 1 with a king’s ransom-worth of prizes, including a grand prize where contest winners will be immortalized as graphic novel characters with the “reveal” taking place at the Archaia panel during Comic-Con in a special photo-op ceremony. Winners will also receive an all-expenses-paid trip to San Diego to attend the 2011 Comic-Con International. The package includes airfare, hotel accommodations, and exclusive access to special Immortals events throughout the convention.

Entrants will share their reasons why they are the perfect candidate to become the Greek God (Apollo) or Goddess (Artemis) via the Facebook application form. The top-10 entries (five women and five men) with the most “Likes” at the end of the contest period will be asked to submit “authentic” audition tapes for the roles to Relativity Media. The film’s celebrated Director Tarsem Singh will select his two favorites (one man, one woman) and they will be crowned the winners.

A pretty cool spin on the usual boring contest, right? Try your hand now at the Immortals Facebook page. You can also watch the trailer that premiered at WonderCon last month and read the interview I did with the cast and creators.

I’ll admit, since the creative team for Marvel’s Daredevil relaunch was announced, I’ve been tempted but cautious. I love Mark Waid’s writing, and also Paulo Rivera and Marcos Martin’s artwork – Seriously, the two of them trading off arcs every three issues? How can that not be one of the best-looking books on the stands? – but Daredevil is a character I’ve had a lot of problems with. The relentless grimness of the book, pretty much since Frank Miller’s day, has never sat well with me – it drove me away from Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark’s run, and I really enjoy both of those creators’ work – but, despite that, the idea of the bright-and-breezy tone that’s been teased for the relaunch didn’t seem particularly right either. And then I listened to Waid’s explanation of the book on the Mighty Marvel podcast. (more…)

Someone needs to pull the brakes on widescale destruction. I’ll explain why (with spoilers, hence the “More” button) under the jump. (more…)

Steph Cherrywell’s Pepper Penwell and the Land Creature of Monster Lake is perfectly entitled—not simply because it’s a rather funny title, but also because it indicates the extent and nature of the silliness of her pitch-perfect teen sleuth parody.

When we meet the British school girl detective, she has just cracked the case of how her classmate cheated to win a cross-country race (like many of Pepper’s cases, it involved ice), and it’s one case cracked too many. Because of the chaos she’s caused, her headmaster expels her.

“And just like that, the story of Pepper Penwell, Girl Detective, was at an end!” Pepper narrates. “The story of Pepper Penwell, Girl Spunky Adventurer With Detective Elements, on the other hand—that was just beginning!”

That story sends Pepper to the remote English village of Monster Lake, so named because, as the new head of the town chamber of commerce explains, “the monster lives near it, not in it.”

Pepper is looking for a missing drum majorette, who accepted a free ticket to visit the village—which the suspicious chamber of commerce lady has transformed into a sort of Disney World of monster toursim—and then promptly disappeared.
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Now that we’re more than halfway in, is it fair to call Death of Spider-Man the worst crossover since the “red skies” Crisis books? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining about the stories told in either Ultimate Spider-Man and Ultimate Comics Ultimate Avengers vs. New Ultimates (I love that title), just the “crossover” part of the proceedings. Spoilers for people who didn’t pick up the latest issues under the jump. (more…)

It seems a lot of comic creators are having tough times these days when it comes to healthcare and related issues. Colorist Moose Baumann is the latest on the list.

Baumann, colorist on covers of Green Lantern, 52, Flash Rebirth and more, is looking for help to get himself and his wife out of an extraordinary $90,000 in debt from medical expenses. Baumann recently spoke with Newsarama about his plight. Here’s what he told us:

A few years back my wife had breast cancer. She had chemo and a partial mastectomy, and we thought things were good. A year later we found out that it had spread, and she went in for more chemo and surgery. Several months prior she had lost her job and her insurance, and because of her “prior condition” she no one else would insure her. So we’ve been working on paying off the full cost of her medical bills for the past two years, just north of $90 grand.

Right now work is scarce and money is super tight, and on June 1st it looks like we may lose our home because of all of this. I’m trying to sell some prints of my work online to make some quick cash, and hopefully keep my home. I’m reluctant to ask for help, it’s embarrassing, but I’m at the end of my rope.

Baumann is currently selling prints of his work which you can preview here. People can email the artist at moosebaumann [at] mediacombb [dot] net to place orders. He’s accepting both Paypal and money orders. If you’ve enjoyed any of his work, please consider helping the guy out.