This week in comics! These comics are available! Probably!

American Vampire: Survival of the Fittest #1: Joe The Barbarian artist Sean Murphy joins writer Scott Snyder for a five-issue spinoff miniseries. Set during World War II, Survival features vampire hunters Delicia Book and Cash McCogan.

Booster Gold #45: As one of the only regular DCU titles tying directly into Flashpoint, Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapumund’s book is positioned to benefit quite nicely from the big crossover event. It’s also just one of plenty of Flashpoint comics coming out this week, as four more three-issue miniseries launch: Flashpoint: Citizen Cold, Flashpoint: Deathstroke and The Curse of the Ravager, Flashpoint: Emperor Aquaman and Flashpoint: Frankenstein and the Creatures of the Unknown. That’s five books, for $15, and just this week, completists!

Captain America: American Nightmare: Excited for the upcoming Captain America movie, and looking to read about his comic adventures first? Great, Marvel’s got plenty of them to choose from. So many, in fact, that the main problem is probably figuring out where to start. Just this week, there’s the above hardcover collection, by Mark Waid, Kurt Busiek, Roger Stern, Andy Kubert and others (250-pages/$25), Captain America By Dan Jurgens Vol. 1, collecting the beginning of the Jurgens-written run from the late nineties (260/$30), Captain America: The Fighting Avenger, which collects four all-ages stories from the likes of Brian Clevinger, Paul Tobin, Jeff Parker, Gurihiu, David Baldeon and others (120/$15) and Captain America: No Escape, which collects a five-issue portion of Ed Brubaker’s run on the monthly, penciled by Butch Guice (120/$16).

Congress of the Animals: New Jim Woodring! This 100-page, $20 hardcover is Woodring’s second graphic novel, and the first to star his Frank character. Check out a preview here.

DC Comics Presents: Impulse #1: Before Geoff Johns aged him, matured him and changed his superhero identity in Flash and Teen Titans, Bart Allen went by the name Impulse and had funnier more fun adventures than one finds in the DCU of today. This $8, 95-page almost-trade includes four issues from writer Todd DeZago’s run, including art by pre-Rebirth Ethan Van Sciver, Angel Unzueta and Walter Simonson and featuring guest-stars like Batman, The Joker, Kalibak and Impulse’s archenemy, Inertia.

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I’m torn about the rumor that DC has told all creators that they have to have three issues of their new post-reboot titles finished by August 31st or else (Heidi has the scoop over at The Beat, including part of the internal memo, which states “If that criterion cannot be met, we’ve instructed Editorial to begin work at that time on material that will be able to meet the deadlines for the series,” even though some artists have apparently just gotten scripts for #1). On the one hand, that’s an interesting – and potentially dangerous – line to take when your creators include Jim Lee and David Finch. On the other: Yet again, we’re seeing DC’s PTB try to address an issue that fans always, always complain about. If nothing else, they should be praised for their proactiveness on this… but I can’t help but feel that it’s going to hurt the books in the longterm.

Still: Guess we’ll see in a few months who can’t do 20 pages a month when their names start disappearing from the solicits…

Page 3 tomorrow!

Wondering why Marvel would announce a new line of adaptations of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter novels even though Dynamite Entertainment launched their own Warlord of Mars franchise last year? Or how it’s even possible that Dynamite’s Nick Barrucci can say that their books won’t be affected by the news? Two words: Public domain. Oh, and one more: Synergy. (more…)

With the announcement of the new Voodoo title today, it’s finally confirmed that the Wildstorm characters are officially part of DC Universe continuity now… which means that that imprint/publisher joins the Red Circle line and the Milestone line as characters who have ended up being retconned into the DCU. Clearly, DC is the Galactus of comics, absorbing the energies and properties of other publishers; in addition to those three lines, they’ve also absorbed the Charlton characters, the Fawcett characters and the Quality characters, some of whom have become mainstays of the DCU since. The moral for other comic publishers who aren’t Disney subsidiaries is obvious: At some point you will probably be purchased and folded into DC Comics. You may as well just give up now.

Randy Mayor, you mad genius, you. I don’t know why no one else hadn’t thought to mix Glee and the Green Lantern Corps, but this is probably the best thing I will see all day. Go check out the rest of the DC Comics colorist’s art here.

[Hat-tip to Mike McCallister]

Jeff Lemire’s acclaimed Essex County trilogy, published by Top Shelf, is currently in development as a feature film. Variety had the news Monday, but no one would blame if you missed it, given the inscrutable headline “Helming bow for f/x whiz Dykstra.”

What that means is that veteran visual effects supervisor John Dykstra is making his directorial debut with Super Zero, based on the first part of the Essex trilogy, Tales From the Farm. The movie is slated to be live action with, naturally, heavy visual effects.

Dykstra resume includes shared Oscar wins for obscure art films Star Wars and Spider-Man 2, and has recently worked on Inglorious Basterds and this weekend’s X-Men: First Class.

Meanwhile, Lemire — currently working on Vertigo’s Sweet Tooth and Superboy for DC proper — is being reported by Bleeding Cool as writing an Animal Man series starting in September, post-Flashpoint. And he’s not exactly discouraging those rumors.

It’s safe to say DC’s news of turning Barbara Gordon’s Oracle back into her previous persona of Batgirl has rattled a few cages. Mine for one. But the great thing coming out of this distressing turn of events is the visibility it’s giving to the physically challenged. Now one artist is calling you to arms to help keep that exposure going.

Much like the Adam Hughes commission above which shows Oracle in all her glory, artist Elena Barbarich, known as Yamino online, is suggesting any and all artists get their preferred tools out to illustrate Ms. Gordon in her chair. Yamino writes on her Tumblr, “I think we should do a big Oracle Draw-a-thon, to support visibility for disabled characters in mainstream comics, and comics in general.  Heck, it doesn’t have to be just visual art. How about an Oracle Create-a-Thon? Whatever it is you do, fanart, fanfic, music, sculpture, cakes…. let’s do it!”

Yamino, creator of the webcomics Sister Claire and Nightingale, wants some help reaching out and organizing and since I know a few people who know a few people, I figured I could help out a bit. Feel free to send your creativity to me to post on my Tumblr (EDIT: The official Oracle Create-a-Thon Tumblr has been made!) and spread the word to artists everywhere. Show Oracle being blocked by obstacles or overcoming them but most importantly, show her as the strong, capable character she is.

File this under “Surprising, and potentially very interesting” – Brian Wood updates his career plans via his blog:

So late 2011 and onwards, you will see a lot more company-owned work from me.  More than you might guess.  That might seem odd coming from me – and it feels odd TO me – but it is all part of A Plan.

I took the slow, difficult way in comics, stubbornly choosing to try and build a sustainable career doing creator-owned work only.  These days the trend seems to be to put out a well-received indie book, rapidly move to Marvel, or DC, and get on a big name title.  I understand the appeal of that on several levels, but like I said, I was stubborn.  I’ve also described myself in the past as “superhero illiterate”, and so that sort of work was never my #1 goal.

But I went fulltime in comics in 2003, by 2004-5 when I started writing DMZ, I was paying the bills off comics alone, and I felt by the time Northlanders launched in 2007 that I had that career I was aiming for.  Now, with DMZ hitting 72 issues and North at 41 and counting, I feel like I proved it, I reached that goal.  If only to myself, I proved that you can have a career doing creator-owned work.  I have two kids, I bought a house, etc etc.  And so now I feel freer to experiment and take on some company books and see what that’s all about and reap whatever benefits may come my way.  Its certainly a very different sort of work.  It exercises different creative muscles.

I’ll still do creator-owned work… I have two projects planned, one at least should be announced in the next couple months.  Northlanders will keep running for while, but the company-owned work news will start dropping between now and the fall, so heads-up.

After all of that, the last line is the kicker:

I will also say that I am no longer DC exclusive.

Wood on some Marvel book in the future, then? That could be interesting – Wood has really proven himself to be a writer worth paying attention with DMZ, New York Four/Five and Local amongst many others, and he’s one of the few creators who’ve carved themselves a niche at either DC or Marvel in the last few years without a stint on a high-profile superhero book (Wood did do a DV8 series for Wildstorm last year, and had a short run on X-Force back in the late 1990s, but that’s about it). I admit, I’m hoping that the no longer DC exclusive line means more indie work from Oni or someone similar, too, but… place your bets for where Wood’s work-for-hire will be appearing soon.
Is an announcement in a couple of months too late for all of the new DC line…?

With DC proudly announcing that the relaunched Batman titles (So far Batman, Detective, Batman and Robin and Batman: The Dark Knight) will feature Bruce Wayne as “the one true Batman,” it’s certainly looking like Grant Morrison’s Batman, Incorporated has been dumped in favor of a new back-to-basics status quo. But, according to IGN, Morrison is “involved in the September relaunch, and an announcement will be coming later this week,” which means… something, right? (more…)

I think the latest announcement makes it official: DC Comics has gone and went insane. (Quick, see if you can spot the typo in that Source blog post before they fix it!) As the main page reports, DC is relaunching both Batman and Detective Comics with new #1′s, and trading creative teams, with Greg Capullo taking over for Jock as Scott Snyder’s collaborator. I have more frightened and confused thoughts on the subject here.

And on the subject of DC relaunches: Bully, The Little Stuffed Bull proves once again why he should be in charge of the comics industry, naming his 52 tiles, which include the likes of Batgirl, Inc. starring Barbara Gordon, Stephanie Brown, and Cassandra Cain and Anyone Else You Want; Are You Happy Now? #1; Tom Spurgeon offers his own wish-list, five titles strong and, finally, Ty Templeton follows DC’s lead and launches his own 52 new versions of his Bun Toons.

Oracle no more?: While some fans are having fun with DC’s announcement, others are pretty concerned about what it means for some of the characters, including the most prominent person in a wheelchair in all of superhero comics (Professor X doesn’t count, because he’s always standing up, and also is also a mutant). Here are two posts expressing concern that Barbara Gordon will quit being the center of the DC heroes’ information and intelligence universe and one of their greatest leaders just so she can go back to her Bronze Age status quo, on DC Women Kicking Ass and Irrelevant Comics.

I want all of these: Check out Seth’s roller derby team logos. Then buy shirts of each. And give them to me. Please.

Anders Nilsen looks like this: Only hotter, I’m told.

“Just how many times can Hollywood insult Scotland?”: The Herald isn’t happy with a change X-Men: First Class made to one of its characters. Comics writer Alan Grant is quoted in the article.

So what’s Bryan Lee O’Malley up to?: Apparently, his fourth outline of a new project. He offers evidence via Twitter.

by Manning-Ross-McKinley-Reddington

Sunday Update: Box Office Mojo is reporting a $56 million opening weekend for X-Men: First Class.

With a reported $160 million budget, the film needs strong word-of-mouth in subsequent weeks — which seems definitely possible given the positive reviews, but still difficult to navigate in a crowded summer movie landscape, with Super 8 opening next Friday and Green Lantern on June 17.

Attendance-wise, it’s the lowest opening weekend for an X-Men movie yet. $56m is a bit of a bump from the original X-Men‘s $54.5m open back in 2000, but the escalating cost of movie tickets means a lot less people saw First Class this weekend.

Similarly performing comic book movies include 2008′s The Incredible Hulk ($55.4m opening weekend) and 2005′s Fantastic Four ($56m).

Original Story: Reviews for X-Men: First Class have been very, very positive, and that translated to a solid, but not overwhelming, opening day at the box office.

First Class pulled in an estimated $21 million on Friday according to Box Office Mojo, which puts it below last month’s $25.5 million debut day for Thor (though First Class had a higher midnight gross, $3.3m over $3.25m). Which means it’s also below Iron Man, Iron Man 2 and X-Men: Origins Wolverine, and just slightly under the $21.5 million 2008′s The Incredible Hulk notched on its first day. That’s narrowly higher than the first day of the original X-Men ($20.8m and considered an impressive box office success at the time), though you’re looking at 11 years of inflation between now and then.

Perhaps a more apt comparison is with Batman Begins, a somewhat thematically similar, early days/”reboot” film that opened in June 2005 with a $15m Friday and held on for a $48.7m opening weekend. That movie went on to take home $205m domestic with a worldwide total of $372m, plus inspired 2008′s $1 billion-worldwide juggernaut The Dark Knight. The less optimistic flipside of that would be Watchmen, which premiered in March 2009 to a $24.5m Friday and $55m opening weekend, yet petered out to only a $107.5m domestic total.

X-Men: First Class is on track to make around $53m this weekend, which according to a Fox exec quoted by Deadline, is right around studio expectations.

Now, that’s what I call service. Or coincidence. Either way, last week I wondered aloud whatever happened to Marvel’s plans for Marvelman, and this week, Tom Brevoort answers:

It should come as no surprise that while we have overcome 80 to 90% of all the loop closing that we have to do, there’s still more to be done. Everybody’s ready and lined up, and now the book’s been announced for two years. But we’ve spoken to Neil [Gaiman]. We’ve spoken to Mark Buckingham. Eventually, once every single thing is lined up, we’ll get to a point where they can come back, finish “The Silver Age” and do the “Dark Age” story they always had planned, and we’ll get the earlier four collections in some way, shape or form back into the marketplace. It should come as no shock to you that Marvelman has been screwed up in terms of one issue or another legally for decades now. So while we have gone over most of it, we really want to make sure that we have every hatch battened down before we try to roll any of this stuff out. We’re getting there.

He’s not answering me, of course; he’s answering retailer Jud Meyers in this week’s Talk To The Hat over at CBR, but I’ll take my answers where I can get them, especially when Brevoort goes on to say this:

I’m sorry it’s taken so long since we announced the whole thing — we were excited about it! And we thought other people would be too, but we didn’t anticipate it would take this long. Things move slowly, particularly because we’re trying to make sure everything is done right and above board and everyone involved is satisfied. So have patience. We’re getting to it. It is coming. We will get there. We’re trying to do that thing that fans talk about every once in a while where they say, “Rather than having this come out haphazardly, couldn’t you just get the whole project done and then release it?” We’re not quite doing that, but we’re doing that sort of thing. We’re making sure everything is as it should be before we start to roll these out so we don’t have an enormous problem after we’ve put two issues out and then everything is jammed up again.

I’m going back to just plain looking forward to this again, in that case. Whenever it gets around to happening.

After much concern from fans, visual effects for the Green Lantern film are finally complete. How do we know? Geoff Johns posted this picture from the SFX wrap party last night.

Pretty….cool, huh? Sorry, I had to.

Back in early April, Green Lantern producer Donald De Line spoke about the rush to finish the film in time for its June 17th release date. “We’ve had a very tight post- production schedule. We have over 1500 visual effects shots in this movie, which is a lot,” he said. “And we have to convert to 3D. That pushes your schedule up even tighter so they can go through this painstaking conversion process. You want to do it with the right quality so you need a lot of lead time. Those things conspired to make what seemed like a decent amount of post feel like incredibly pressured.”

De Line also said their visual effects houses were working non-stop, 24 hours a day, seven days a week but that he’s excited about what they have to offer.

It’s good to know that although it was cutting it extremely close, the hard work paid off and the movie is completed. Johns also mentioned something he heard at the wrap party that I found interesting considering the location and company they were in. “Just overheard two drunk people arguing whether or not Green Lantern’s weakness is the color yellow,” he wrote on Twitter. I’d assume those people worked on the film so now I’m wondering whether that particular aspect of the mythos is included in this version.

Well, now we’re beginning to see what the non-rebooted side of the DCU looks like, with today’s release of the Green Lantern solicits: Not only do the creative pairings stay solid (even if the Emerald Warriors team take over Green Lantern Corps, and the former GLC team gets a new book), but as Geoff Johns told the AP,

It’s building off the Green Lantern stories I’ve done since ‘Rebirth,’ taking it in a very new direction that we’ve never seen in ‘Green Lantern’ before.

Whatever else in the DCU that is getting an overhaul, it’s looking very much like the Green Lantern continuity will remain pretty intact from the last few years, with the Red Lanterns title and The New Guardians‘ mention of the “power of Rage, Avarice, Fear, Will, Hope, Compassion and Love” combining. Suddenly, people who have been worrying that all of Grant Morrison’s Batman, Incorporated plans will have been undone in the light of the relaunch may have reason to breathe a little easier. After all, if one franchise can emerge unscathed, what’s to say two can’t…? So much for no DC Comics “counting” until the relaunch…

Matt Fraction on why Fear Itself #4 will be special:

The scene next month plays out kind of odd, because it’s that moment where everybody comes together to pay their respects, but it’s also kind of the band getting back together, because it’s the first time that Iron Man and Steve Rogers and Thor have been in the same room in the series.

From Fear Itself #1:

Wait. Who’s that standing right next to each other in the large panel?

In Fraction’s defense, they’re not actually in a room.

The three actually appear together in two other scenes in that issue – one of which is actually in a room, if you want to be incredibly semantic – but, you know, how can we expect Fraction to know this? He only wrote it.

“We have a larger global footprint … than all of the major museums in the world combined”: That’s DeviantArt co-founder Angelo Sotira talking about the site in this USA Today feature.

Thomas Zahler’s weirdest commission?: The Love and Capes artist shares an unusual commission request for an image featuring both Power Girl and Ms. Marvel, and reveals a line he just wouldn’t cross. (By the way, if you haven’t ever seen it before, Zahler’s commissions page is a great way to waste time on the Internet).

Fearpoint and Flash Itself: Tim O’Neil on the latest chapters of the two big publisher’s two big series. (I think…it’s a creative piece, as far as comics reviews go).

I don’t know, would my blog post make a good rap song?: “Could My Screenplay Make a Good Graphic Novel?”

Amidst the mass of DC publishing news the last two days, two of their creators have just inked a deal to bring their creator-owned comic to life on the big screen. Peter Tomasi and Keith Champagne’s The Mighty has just been picked up by Paramount.

Deadline reported the news but there’s not much else to tell except to say, “Mary Parent’s Paramount-based Disruption Entertainment will produce. Parent and Cale Boyter will produce with Benderspink’s JC Spink.”

Not connected to the heroes in the DCU, The Mighty was a maxi-series from 2009 that tells the story of Alpha One, the world’s only superhero. He’s supported by a police organization called Section Omega. At Section Omega, Lt. Gabriel Cole has a personal history with the hero who once saved his life as a child. But when a murder happens within Section Omega, Cole does some detective work that leads him in a direction he wasn’t expecting.

I actually really enjoyed The Mighty. With Tomasi and Champagne writing and Peter Snejbjerg on art, it was a nice detour from DC’s usual hero fair. I’d recommend picking up the trade. Congrats to them on selling the property.

And the DC news keeps coming: Not only has DC confirmed that digital pricing for its DCU books will be $2.99 for the first four weeks of release before dropping to $1.99 thereafter, but it’s also announced the first combo pack for print and digital comics:

Those who want a physical copy of JUSTICE LEAGUE to read and collect, as well as the ability to download it onto their favorite device for easy transport, get ready. Each print edition of the comic book and an individual code for digital download will be wrapped in a poly bag and available for $4.99. Separately, the standard version will retail for $3.99 and the digital version will retail for $3.99.

“As we continue to expand our readership and make our titles more accessible to readers everywhere, we’re excited to provide our comic shop retail partners and their consumers with multiple formats of JUSTICE LEAGUE in one convenient place,” said John Rood, EVP Sales, Marketing and Business Development.

Combo packs have become increasingly popular for DVD/Blu-Ray releases in the past couple of years, and the idea has been raised by comic publishers before, but I’m pretty sure that DC is correct in claiming that this is a “historic first” for comics. The question now is, whether the same will be true of every DCU book going forward, and if so, whether the combos will outsell the “regular” print versions.

UPDATE: DC’s Bob Wayne has sent an email to retailers that explains, in part,

To clarify from my last note, we will be at “price-parity” for same-day digital.  No DC digital comic will be cheaper than its physical counterpart at launch.  Same-day (a.k.a. “Day/ Date”) parity pricing is for the first four weeks of release; thereafter, the digital titles will follow our standard pricing, with $2.99 comics dropping in price to $1.99, $3.99 comics dropping in price to $2.99, and so forth.  Keep in mind that our goal with our 52 new #1s will be to ensure that the physical comic book is more compelling than ever!

The email also announces a series of retailer meetings DC will be holding across America in the next month, leading up to the release of the next Previews catalog, and includes this fascinating tease:

And by the way, let me just reiterate this point:  this is the launch of the New DCU.  It is not a “reboot.”  I think you will soon discover why that is.

Not a reboot, but a new DC Universe? Let the (even greater) speculation begin…