In his newest MyCup o’ Joe column, Marvel chief Joe Quesada introduces a new project coming out in January called Dr. Doom and the Masters of Evil (above), pimps upcoming changes to the Ultimate Universe and talks about Marvel’s recent digital comics announcements (which you can get up to speed on here, here and here):

I know some may look at the digital world with fear, but I always go back to this one place: When collected editions started to really become commercially significant, everyone and their mother was claiming this the end of the monthly comic with complete certainty. Perhaps these are the same folks who thought the Ultimate Universe a dumb idea? Anyway, I kept telling folks that I believed that both trades and monthly comics will thrive, and that one would help the other. I feel the exact same way about the world of digital comics. I think it will help monthly comic sales as well as trade sales. There will be people who will like one form over another and there will be those who will like multiple formats.

One of the stories I’m looking forward to checking out is the Frankenstein/Werewolf by Night meetup, which will feature artwork by longtime webcomics creators Dean Haspiel and Joe Infurnari.

Editor’s Note: Paul Levitz returns to Blog@Newsarama to talk about a variety of recent topics.

by Paul Levitz

Sorry for having been absent from this space for the past two months, but family matters dwarfed my ability to balance life, work, and incidental pleasures like writing. My dad passed away after a merciful short battle with cancer at age 88, and that started a chain reaction of family travails, still ongoing, but mercifully slowing in their ability to consume my life.

I’m not going to go back and try to hit on the various DC activities and controversies of the ‘missing’ weeks, because I’ve been viewing them through a very different lens than my usual, and I’m not sure how much that’s been the wiser perspective that a touch of mortality provides (always loved the Samuel Johnson quote, “Nothing so concentrates the mind as knowledge that one is to be hanged in a fortnight”) or the fuzzy judgment of someone stepping off a roller coaster and trying to decide where to throw up. So let me warm up with a few small bits from the recent calendar.

* * *

Anyone who’s seen me knows I’m far from a native of the fashion world, to the extent that my longtime assistant Linda Fields years ago suggested I try an adult version of the Garanimals system for getting dressed. My only affectation is a leaning towards wearing ties of our characters, or similar such visual theme pieces (e.g., a NYC subway map tie for events for my old high school, Stuyvesant, to which nearly all of us commuted by train). Other than that I stick with very standard business gear for the office, and basic jeans and a shirt when I have a choice. All of which is a roundabout segue to point out that it was odd to find myself at Diane von Furstenberg’s signature store in Manhattan’s meatpacking district last week, for a special event to kick off her new line inspired by Wonder Woman. The project was spearheaded by a team from Warner Bros. Consumer Products and our own Cheryl Rubin, and as part of it we produced a unique tabloid comic including some classic WW material and an original story by Diane von Furstenberg and artist Konstantin Kakanias. Not sure how easy it is to track down, but I have confidence that Andy Mangels has already found one for his WW collection. The dresses, tops, tote bag and journal are available at the high end retailers who carry the DVF line, for those so inclined.

(more…)

Project Rooftop has kicked off their third annual costume contest, “Fights, Flights and Tights 3.” This year’s winner gets a sketch of their costume by artist Dean Trippe. More details here.

Hack/Slash fans may be interested to know that Tim Seeley has a new T-shirt available called “Goldie” at Sketch86.com. It’s the first of three he created for the site.

Joshua Middleton shares the upcoming cover for Supergirl #37, “which actually features Superwoman,” the artist writes. Hmm …

Over at the Top Shelf Productions blog, Hey Bartender!, Brett Warnock shares some unused Creature Tech pin-ups by The Goon creator Eric Powell (above) and Street Angel/Plain Janes artist Jim Rugg.

The pin-ups were supposed to be used in a reprint of the book before Creature Tech creator Doug TenNapel moved the book to Image Comics. “Oh, but wait, Doug took it away from Top Shelf, in spite of the fact that Chris did a mighty tight job story-editing the book into the kick-ass version it ended up being,” Warnock says. “Sadly, these images will now never see print.”

I got a little dizzy watching this, but it still looks like a lot of fun … courtesy of G4, here’s another Spider-Man: Web of Shadows video, featuring gameplay and some commentary from Activision Senior Executive Producer Graham Fuchs:

The game comes out on Tuesday.

Spike TV’s Scream Awards won’t air until Tuesday at 9 p.m. Eastern, but the event was filmed on Saturday … meaning the list of winners, which were voted on by folks at their website, are popping up on the ‘net. Not surprisingly, The Dark Knight really cleaned up in the movie categories, while Y: The Last Man, Grant Morrison, Gabriel Ba and Bishop’s gun rounded out the comic book awards that were presented.

The full list of winners is available after the break.

(more…)

I hope he wears this to APE in a couple of weeks …

Universal Home Entertainment sent over a few more links to extra footage that’ll appear on the Incredible Hulk DVD, which comes out this Tuesday. Here’s another deleted scene featuring Bruce and Betty:

(more…)

Comics retailer and future wrestling superstar James Sime dropped us a reminder about the deadline for entries for the Isotope Award for Excellence in Mini-Comics — entries are due on Oct. 24. Check out the complete press release after the jump.

(more…)

While Alan Moore’s current disdain for Hollywood’s treatment of his comics is well-documented, Daniel Manu at Television Without Pity points out that hasn’t always been the case. Manu goes all the way back to an interview in the now-defunct Comics Interview magazine from 1987; here’s an excerpt:

Alan: I have got as much confidence as it is possible to have in the people who are handling the Watchmen film. Sam Hamm is an excellent screenwriter, he’s been signed to write the Watchmen film. I think that it’s got, therefore, as good a chance as any of being a good film [snip]

Darrel: I hadn’t known there was a film in the works.

Alan: Yeah, 20th Century Fox have optioned Watchmen as a film. The producers are Joel Silver and Larry Gordon, who were the producers of 48 Hours. [snip] I’ve spoken to Joel Silver, he seems very enthusiastic and has a good track record of getting films actually made. That said, of course, we’ve been hearing about Silver Surfer and X-Men films for the past 200 years to my certain knowledge. (Laughter.) Whether the film is actually made or not is completely in the air, and how it turns out is beyond my control. But, you know, they’ve got Sam Hamm as writer of it, who is a very good, promising, new screenwriter, and has also got a good background and interest in comics and is the screenwriter, I believe, upon [sic] the new Batman film, as well. [snip] I’ve spoken to Sam, I went out to lunch with him — he came to Northampton and had lunch with me — and I’ve got complete faith in him. I believe that he will try his best to make the film as faithful to the experience of reading Watchmen as he can. I believe he’s got a lot of respect for the material, and that’s all that I can ask for, really, and I’m prepared to sort of stand by what he does.

“What did Moore’s sincerely expressed faith in Hamm get him?” Manu asks. “A screenplay that systematically removed all of the poetry, complexity and beauty of the graphic novel and replaced it with a dumbed-down plot, execrable ’80s action-movie dialogue and a radically different ending that makes little logical sense and negates the dreadful power of the original.”

That script — which ends with Dr. Manhattan saving himself from the radiation blast that created him, thereby changing history and the story into something stupid — is available on the internet.

Marvel.com has five new images from the upcoming Punisher: No Mercy game, which will be a PlayStation Network-exclusive.

The artwork, which the site says will “help drive the downloadable title’s story mode,” is by Mike Deodato. And while I chose the one piece of art that doesn’t feature the Punisher, opting for a Silver Sable shot instead, rest assured that he’s in the other four.

In their latest email newsletter, AdHouse Books announces they’ve launched AdGallery, a new division that will sell “original art and prints from creators with whom we have relationships.” Currently their site is featuring art by Doug Fraser, Joshua Cotter and J Chris Campbell.

• If you’re a fan of The Amazing Race, check out Batton Lash’s illustration of Mark and Bill, the pair of comic fans on the current season of the show.

• Act-i-vate has a preview of Michel Fiffe’s upcoming graphic novel Cuba.

• Thought Balloonist Craig Fischer interviewed cartoonist Ben Towle for Stay Tooned! magazine, then posted the leftovers that didn’t make it into the interview on his site.

• Brendan Wright reports on a recent appearance by “The Un-understandable Understanding Comics” creator, Art Spiegelman, who is making the rounds to promote his new book Breakdowns.

• Jake Parker, who is working on a new book starring his Missile Mouse character from Flight Explorer, shares a lot of early sketches from the past 15 years or so of the character.

• And finally, SLG Publishing is holding a contest related to their upcoming graphic novel, The War at Ellesmere by Faith Erin Hicks:

Illustrate a moment from school that you find particularly memorable, and email it to me at slgchief@slgpubs.com. Please include your name. Faith will choose three winners of The War at Ellsmere School Memories Contest –

1. An all-around winner, based on artwork and originality
2. An originality award, based on the concept of the illustration
3. An artwork award, based on those fancy drawing skills.

You can read my interview with Faith here.

The webcomic Halloween Man crosses over with Devil’s Due Comics’ Hack/Slash in part one of Hack/Slash vs Halloween Man. And it’s free; you can either check out the jpg’s or download it as a PDF.

BOOM! E-i-C and comics writer Mark Waid will appear on the cable program LA Ink tonight, which airs on The Learning Channel. Here’s the full episode info:

LA Ink
Comic Relief
TV-PG (DL)
Oct 16, 10:00 pm (60 minutes)
Hannah attempts to transform the crew at the shop into larger than life comic book characters and meets with comics guru Mark Waid. Naheed has her work cut out for her with the serious business of managing the shop while trying to bond with the crew at the same time.

Writer Neil Gaiman, whose new children’s book The Graveyard Book is doing quite well, recently spoke with MTV’s Splash Page about his upcoming “Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader” two-parter that’s due early next year:

A few minutes after I finished posting that old Batman clip in my previous post, Jeff Trexler emailed me to let me know that Neal Hefti, who wrote the theme to the 1960s Batman song, died on Saturday.

The New York Times reports that the 85-year-old composer died “suddenly from an undetermined cause.” In addition to his work for Hollywood on shows like Batman and The Odd Couple, he was also a noted jazz trumpeter, arranger, conductor and record producer who worked with Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, Mel Tormé and Tony Bennett.

“He told me he tore up more paper on Batmanthan on any other work he ever did,” his son Paul told the Times. “He had to find something that worked with the lowest common denominator, so it would appeal to kids, yet wouldn’t sound stupid. What he came up with was a 12-bar blues with a guitar hook and one word.”

Tonight’s the final presidential debate before the big U.S. presidential election next month, and here’s a fun clip to help get you in the mood for it:

(Thanks Rich!)