The Mothership reported today about the latest news regarding the official summer release date of Green Lantern: First Flight on blu-ray and DVD.

Yahoo! Movies now has the first trailer for the animated film, I think it bodes well for the 2010 live-action film.

UPDATE:

Our home base at Newsarama has since added the First Flight trailer.

So Troy passed this article on to me about artist Rufus Seder and his Lifetiles murals, which appear to animate as viewers walk past. The article actually doesn’t do the story justice–it’s something you have to see to really understand. Luckily, there’s video.

The tiles were inspired by Seder’s children’s books, which use a similar technique to make the pictures move on the pages.

If the technology you see in Lifetiles looks familiar, you might have caught something similar at a local bookstore. The popular children’s books “Gallop!” and “Swing!” were also written and illustrated by Seder. With a technique he calls scanimation, pictures in the books come alive as you flip the page.

It’s a kids’ favorite that quite a few parents enjoy, too, based on sales numbers. “Swing!” and “Gallop!” are currently on The New York Times bestseller list.

Seder originally used scanimation in greeting cards he sold at trade shows around the country. Then Workman Publishing came calling, asking Seder to develop a book based on the eye-catching technique.

That’s when Seder caught lightning in a bottle. After several decades as a somewhat unknown artist, he found himself flying to China to teach the scanimation technique to book makers. Just a few years later, there are over 2 million copies of “Gallop!” in print in more than 13 languages.

The similarities to motion comics aren’t many, but they’re there. Static images made to move a bit, with simple techniques? It’s pretty cool, either way.

South Park tackled the comic book superhero genre with mixed results on their March 18th episode. Simultaneously taking digs at The Dark Knight, The Spirit, and the up-to-the-minute Watchmen, the concept of a city’s masked hero fighting injustice with an Atlas-like sense of self-importance was mocked rather well despite a rather unsatisfying ending.

Click the link to get the episode in full, and swing back by here to let us know what you thought of “The Coon.”

Do you like Snood? Do you like Iron Man? Are you excited about the upcoming Iron Man animated series? Do you like free web based games? Do you think I could write this entire post using nothing but questions? If you answered yes to all of those questions, you were wrong. If you answered yes to all but the final one, Marvel has a fun little treat in store for you, by the name of Iron Man Armored Popper.

The game, surprisingly, has nothing to do with popping corn for Rhodey and Pepper. Instead, it’s a matching game, where you fire one of the icons at the ones above you, the goal being to match 3 or more and remove all of them from the screen. If it sound familiar, well, that’s because there’ve been about 30,000 of this type of game out there. This is the first one thats linked with ‘ole (er… young…) Shellhead, though, and it’s free, so the price is right; it does also increase Marvel’s already massive web presence. Sure it’s on the Marvel Kids site, but fun is allowed to be had by all ages, so give it a click, and brag about your high score here.

Tintin in 2011. It sounds like one of the boy reporter’s biggest adventures. That’s when we can expect the first in a trilogy of movies by Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson of the landmark comics character by the Belgian cartoonist, Hergé. It’s a project that’s been in the works for years but it is finally off the ground.

The claim is that only now has the technology caught up with what’s required to properly bring this comic to the screen. Don’t tell Windsor McCay that. Apparently, “performance capture” special effects is so complex that it is utterly indescribable, at least for those with the most to lose from not finding the words.

Washington City Paper Drops Syndicated Comics. All of them. This is the alt-weekly, which one would hope would be maintaining its interest in alternative and creative viewpoints like those brought by comics.

I hate to brag, but one of my local alt-weeklies here in Philly has a cover story about comics this week, and it’s a good one, gorgeously illustrated with art from Duane Swierczynski’s run on The Punisher. Swierczynski himself was the former editor of the other Philly alt-weekly, the City Paper, and the article is excellent even if, like me, you’re not a regular Punisher reader.

Swierczynski is as big as a Budweiser Clydesdale but not quite as pretty. And while he could crush your skull like an eggshell with his mighty fists, he almost certainly won’t. He lives with his wife, 6-year-old-son and 5-year-old daughter in a perfectly normal house in a perfectly respectable part of Northeast Philadelphia. His first job every morning is to make his kids breakfast (Coco Puffs, Special K and/or yogurt and frozen pancakes).

Finally, in case you thought I was just stuck on alt-weeklies, my friend just showed me this trailer and it kind of made my mind explode. So of course I had to post it here for you.

This title may be a bit confusing, but I assure you, there is a point.

When hitting the Black Panther panel with my awesome colleague Sarah Jaffe, Black Panther writer Reginald Hudlin gave us a preview of the Black Panther animated series for BET. (While you won’t the see the trailer I saw, there’s another one right here.)

While I know that Hudlin said this was a rough cut, I left the panel feeling more than a little conflicted about the series. The voice actors seemed enthused about their experience, and having top-tier talent like Djimon Hounsou (from Gladiator and Blood Diamond) on-board really lends a sense of legitimacy to the show. It’s clear that Hudlin and BET care about this show.

But the animation really took me aback. With Marvel coming out with slick animation like Hulk Vs. and Next Avengers, seeing this choppy style didn’t feel like an artistic choice — it felt as though BET couldn’t decide whether to commit to static John Romita Jr. art or traditional animation.

The preview stuck with me for the rest of the day, nagging at me. There was clearly something deeper here than my own personal aesthetic sensibilities at play — but it didn’t hit me until I passed by the DC Comics booth.

The Black Panther’s weaknesses as a cartoon would be its strengths in another medium. This may be what animation does wrong, but it has everything that would make a motion comic right.

Motion comics, as seen by Brian Michael Bendis and Mr. Sequential, are a new beast in this rapidly diversifying media world. It’s too soon to say whether or not they will stick around, but they incorporate comics, animation, voice acting, special effects–even music. It’s a book-on-tape meets TV trailer, all based on the foundations of the comics we love so much. But as seen above, there are so many different elements of the motion comic that can be neglected or forgotten that the whole enterprise can crash and burn.

Not so with the Black Panther. The animation might be clunky, but it is due to an unyielding dedication to the source material — in this case, John Romita Jr.’s art. But at the same time, there is a vibrancy to the sound — watching the trailer, you could see Hounsou really getting into his role. The enthusiasm was contagious, and everyone in the room was hooked — whether they liked it or not — when they heard the voice of Stan Lee as a villainous general. So I’m thinking that maybe this is just the wrong venue: Black Panther may not be everything I’d hoped for in a cartoon, but it could be the next big thing as a motion comic.

Warner Home Movies has released a new interview with Bruce Timm for the Wonder Woman animated movie, due to be premiered at the New York Comic Con February 6, and distributed on March 3, 2009.

QUESTION: What progression have you seen through the first four films in the DC Universe animated original movies series?

BRUCE TIMM: The thing I like most about this whole ongoing project is that each of these movies really does have a different, unique feel. It would have been very, very easy and frankly a lot simpler and cost effective to stay in that TV series design style and world view. But each of these movies really does have a unique feel – in the design, the score, the cast, even the title sequences. We’ve been able to expand creatively and that makes these productions fun. 

QUESTION:  You’re known for revolutionizing the animated look of DC characters in several landmark TV series. What was the thought process behind the character design in this film?

BRUCE TIMM: We didn’t want to do anything that even remotely looked like what we have done with Wonder Woman on Justice League. She presents a challenge because she needs to be drop-dead gorgeous, but also very, very strong both physically and emotionally. She’s a powerful presence and we had to find that balance between athleticism and glamour.

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The latest online episode of Naruto Shippuden has hit the web!

You can see the latest from Japan here. Viz is now offering the latest episodes of the sequel series featuring a slightly-older Naruto on their site in partnership with Hulu.com.

Currently, episodes 1 through 16 and the 3 most recent (80-91) are available to watch. In addition to putting up the newest episodes, they’ll be filling in the backmatter 8 episodes each week.

This is an interesting move, likely being done specifically to combat piracy and the “fansub” crowd, which features high quality rips of anime shown in Japan, complete with English (and many other languages) translations as little as 24 hours after it first airs. It will be interesting to see how well this attempt to instantly monetize their show internationally works.

Warner Home Video has released an interview with the Academy Award-nominated actress Virginia Madsen, who will play Hippolyta in the upcoming Wonder Woman animated film set to be released March 3, 2009.

QUESTION: Did you prepare for voicing the Queen of the Amazons in any special way?

VIRGINIA MADSEN:  Well, I prepared this morning by writing several edicts for my son (laughs). Honestly, I love when I get to play these characters that are bigger than life. There are roles in animation that I never get to do in real life – and it appeals to my ego as an actor to play the Queen of Everything (laughs) Hey, I’m honest. I admit it.

Hippolyta has a really wide range – I use a lot of notes when I play her. She has a larger, more regal voice. I liked the range we use to create her vocally, and the way that she was written. It’s not that she’s over the top, but she’s just a very, very big character.  And I don’t usually get to do that on onscreen.

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Legendary anime director Hayao Miyazaki’s latest film, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, will be released in North America sometime this summer, according to the Anime News Network.

Disney will release the film, and Pixar’s John Lasseter will produce. Lasseter has had a long relationship with Miyazaki, having produced Howl’s Moving Castle and Spirited Away.

The unfinished voice casting list includes Matt Damon, Tina Fey, Cate Blanchett, Liam Neeson, Lily Tomlin, Betty White, Frankie Jonas, Noah Cyrus, and Cloris Leachman.

Ain’t It Cool News is reporting that Hideaki Anno’s Evangelion 1.0: You are (Not) Alone, a remake of his highly popular Neon Genesis Evangelion anime series, may be coming to the U.S. courtesy of distributor FUNimation. A U.S. release has not been officially announced, but according to the series’ Wikipedia page, FUNimation has sent out cease and desist orders to fansubbers. Speaking from experience (I worked in the marketing department at ADV Films for three years), I can tell you that that pretty much guarantees that FUNimation has licensed the rights to the property. Otherwise, they wouldn’t legally have the rights to issue cease and desist orders. (Of course, the wiki page could just be a load of crap. We all know how reliable Wikipedia can be.)

I haven’t watched much anime in the four years since I stopped working at ADV. Spending forty hours a week surrounded by pissy otakus and being forced to watch a seemingly endless stream of poorly-animated, hackneyed shows starring robot maids and the pre-pubescent perverts who love them will not only kill all your interest in anime, it will destroy your soul. However, I would be interested in watching an Eva remake, since I’ve always thought it was a cool concept. I hated the original series though. It starts out strong, with lots of big robots killing lots of ugly monsters, but eventually devolves into a plodding, pretentious mess. And I seriously wanted to reach into my TV screen and punch Shinji every time he showed up and started endlessly whining. Dude was an annoying little punk. Hopefully, the new series is more palatable.

There’s been drama in the blogosphere over a recent decision ruling that a sexual Simpsons cartoon is child pornography and therefore illegal. It’s even spread into areas of the blog-world not normally known to discuss CBLDF issues.

I know Jeff plans to do a breakdown of the legal issues on this case, and so I’m not going to mess with that. My thought process is a little different, here. I know this will be a thorny issue, and I hope that if there’s discussion it can remain civil. There are very good arguments on all sides.

Ready? Then read on.

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ToonZone.net breaks it down in terms of the bonus features anticipated to be present when the Wonder Woman direct-to-DVD animated feature streets in March. There’s a range of purchase options, including single and double-DVD packages, and Blu-Ray. There are commentaries, a sneak at the next DC DVD, and three featurettes that deal with Wonder Woman’s historical import.

I wonder if any of them answer my biggest question about the trailer: why does it have such a chuckleheaded tagline? “Some heroes are made. This one was born.” Excuse me, but isn’t part of the point of Wonder Woman is that she was made? Out of clay? That’s like tagging a Batman film with “Bruce Wayne had one tragic night . . . then got to grow up in a mansion with no parents! And the party never stops!”

Imagi has released the first teaser for its computer-animated adaptation of Astro Boy, based on the classic manga and anime series by Osamu Tezuka. You can watch the trailer after the break.

Directed by David Bowers, the movie features the voices of Freddie Highmore, Nicolas Cage, Kristen Bell, Nathan Lane, Matt Lucas, Bill Nighy, Eugene Levy, Donald Sutherland and Scarlett Johansson. Astro Boy opens on Oct. 23, 2009.

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Marvel has released what I believe is the third trailer for Wolverine and the X-Men, the animated series set to debut Jan. 23 on Nicktoons.

It looks surprisingly good — good enough that those tired of seeing Wolverine everywhere may overlook his front-and-center role in the cartoon. Hey, how else are they to capitalize on that Wolverine movie?

You can watch the trailer after the break. Marvel’s website also offers a brief behind-the-scenes video with some of the voice cast.

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Marvel’s god of thunder is hitting the big screen and the TV set.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Marvel Animation is developing a 26-episode Thor series that will launch in fall 2010, a few months after the debut of the live-action film in theaters.

The trade paper reports the cartoon “will take place in various worlds — from mountainous landscapes to places of icy mists and fiery voids — and will include many of the comic’s supporting cast, including Balder the Brave, the Warriors Three and Thor’s evil adopted brother, Loki.”

Thor will join an animated Marvel roster that includes The Black Panther,  Wolverine and the X-Men, Iron Man: Armored Adventures, Marvel Super Hero Squad and, in 2011, The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

Plot synopsis released for X-Men Origins: Magneto

The latest issue of Production Weekly includes a plot synopsis for David Goyer’s planned X-Men Origins: Magneto — one that includes an altered role for a certain bald telepath:

“The original X-Men film began with a prologue that showed the character as a child being led to a concentration camp by Nazis and that is the period in which the Magneto film will take place. This setup will allow a future villain to at least flirt with the designation of protagonist since the character will be seen almost exclusively in his formative years. The storyline will heavily involve Professor X, the wheelchair-using X-Men leader. That character was a soldier in the Allied force that liberated the concentration camps. The professor meets Magneto after the war and while they bond over the realization that they are alike in their special powers, their differences soon turn them into enemies.”

According to David Bentley of the Coventry Telegraph, an early draft of the script featured Charles Xavier as a staff member at an Israeli hospital, not as an Allied soldier.

It’s unclear when Magneto will begin production. In August, Goyer said he hadn’t decided whether to tackle this project or The Invisible Man next.

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The Daily Cross Hatch offers the first of a three-part interview with the Black Hole creator about that seminal book and also his contribution to the new animated film, Fear(s) of the Dark:

In its most elementary sense, sequential art can almost be seen as a storyboard for animation. It seems like a fairly logical step to make.

Well, it was funny—at this point, I feel secure about writing comics. I’ve been writing comics long enough. It’s not easy, but it’s a domain I understand and feel comfortable with. So, when I started out, I came up with a storyline and wrote that out and broke it down into storyboards. All of that felt comfortable and familiar. But the minute we moved onto the next step, I felt like I was in deep trouble, because there’s an absolutely different sense about how a story is told when it’s moving. This is a very different process, which I quickly found out. That’s what was interesting too, was that there was an understanding that myself and other artists involved hadn’t done animation before. We hadn’t directed before.

• Entertainment Weekly’s Popwatch blog shares the Dr. Manhattan character banner from the Watchmen movie.

• In his weekly Q&A column on MySpace, Joe Quesada spends the entire column answering fan questions, as his regualr partner in crime, Jim McLauchlin, just had a new baby. Congrats to the McLauchlin family and their new son, Logan.

• Johanna Draper Carlson shares the process she went through in judging the Isotope Award For Excellence in Mini-Comics, and lists five other contenders she liked.

• SLG shares progress on the creation of their new retail store.

• This list of 50 facts about Barack Obama says the U.S.’s new president is a fan of Conan the Barbarian and Spider-Man.

• Early Star Wars storyboards. Via.

• 14 movies have been submitted for the Oscar’s best animated feature category, including Wall-E, Kung Fu Panda and the unreleased Bolt.

• Season premiere updates … Lost returns Jan. 21, and 24 returns Jan. 11.