Judging from response to Chris’ post last week on Batman: The Brave and the Bold, there’s a lot of interest in the new animated series, which debuts Nov. 14 on Cartoon Network. So, here’s a little more from the show: 11 character images of Aquaman, Batman, Blue Beetle, Green Arrow, Plastic Man and Red Tornado, and character descriptions of the same.

The latter will put to rest any questions as to whether Blue Beetle is Jaime Reyes, or simply one of the former versions in the new costume:

El Paso, Texas native Jaime Reyes thought the closest he would ever get to Batman was the posters adorning his walls, but when a mysterious alien technology turned him into the hero Blue Beetle, the fanboy’s wildest dreams became a reality. Jaime can’t help but tackle every mission with wide-eyed wonder and brings a youthful buoyancy to even the toughest fights.

And Aquaman? “The barrel-chested King of Atlantis.” I’m not sure that anyone’s been described as “barrel-chested” since the heyday of Gentleman Jim Corbett.

Geekanerd rolls out its list of the “Top Ten Rogues Galleries in All of Geekdom” — TV cartoons and superhero comics, in any case — and, perhaps unsurprisingly, bestows the highest honors on Batman’s villains.

What may come as a surprise, however, is the blow delivered to Spider-Man’s foes. Blogger Degan swears this isn’t “just nerd-baiting”:

He’s one of the best and most unique superheroes in comics-so why doesn’t he have any unique villains? The Vulture, The Rhino, Dr. Octopus, The Lizard, The Scorpion, The Chameleon, (you see the pattern?) I get it… he’s a spider-does that mean he has to fight every member of the damned animal kingdom? Sure sure, there are others, Green Goblin, Hobgoblin, Mysterio, Sandman, Electro… but really are any of them that unique?

The tenure of new Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso has been dealt its first political casualty: his comics-reading time.

The self-professed otaku, elected last month after the surprise resignation of Yasuo Fukuda, complained Sunday in a stump speech that, “It’s hard to read comic books as my time is now restricted.”

“This is already Sunday this week,” Aso told a crowd in Tokyo’s famed Akihabara district. “I’ve read Sunday and Magazine of the last week but haven’t got to Jump and Morning.” (He was referring to three major manga anthologies for boys, and one for men.)

It’s no coincidence that Aso chose the pop-culture paradise as the backdrop for his first street speech since taking office on Sept. 24. He used it as a platform from which to hail manga and anime as key exports.

“Japan’s subculture of animation has been overwhelmingly accepted in the world,” he said. “Japan’s culture is not only kabuki or no play. Comic books, our subculture power, have been widely read in not only Asia but Europe, the United States, Latin America.”

Marvel.com shares a trailer for the upcoming Hulk vs. animated DVD, featuring the Hulik smashing his way through Thor and the rest of Asgard:

The DVD comes out in Jan. 2009.

So we got a big package from Cartoon Network at work yesterday and waddya think was inside?

Yes, it was indeed the press kit for their newest show, Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Enclosed were not only an episode screener and CD of press materials but four snazzy notecards (envelopes included) to send to friends and relatives, no doubt as to ensure that they’re made aware of the show’s arrival as well.

Anyway, I thought I’d take the liberty of posting the card covers here for everyone to enjoy. Hit the link to see the other three.

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– The marketing juggernaut continues: Sam Thielman talks with Art Spiegelman about the latter’s new book, Breakdowns.

– The comic strip Rhymes With Orange has a new Web site.

– Chris Arrant profiles Faith Erin Hicks and her new comic The War at Ellsmere.

– Eddie Campbell guides you through Comic Book Morality 101.

– Todd Allen looks at some of the new Webcomic offerings from Shadowline, Liquid and Marvel, and smells trouble … for them.

– Chip Zdarsky shares his ideas for Marvel Comics and it’s totally NSFW (hat tip: Heidi).

– Brigid Alverson writes about plans for the upcoming Haruhi Suzumiya manga.

– Spurious has an interesting essay on Charles Crumb, Robert’s late, tragic older brother.

– Erin Finnegan looks at Tokyopop’s release of Otsuichi’s Goth novel and manga.

– Richard O’Connor blogs about working on an animated They Might Be Giants video with Kim Deitch.

Warner Bros. picks up film rights to second Nolent comic

Comic creator Alexis Nolent’s Headshot has been snatched up by Warner Bros. Headshot, or Du plomb dans la tête in French, is a graphic novel series that was published in France by Casterman and drawn by Colin Wilson.

As we mentioned back in March, Nolent’s Cyclopes is also being adapted into film by Warner Bros. Meanwhile, Nolent’s The Killer is being adapted at Paramount.

The Ticker

• The big Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe game hits North American stores on Nov. 16 and European stores on Nov. 21, just in time for the holidays.

• If you live in Canada, you can watch for several of the upcoming Marvel Comics animated shows, like Iron Man, Avengers and Wolverine, on Teletoons next year. [Variety]

• An animated Hot Wheels show will rev its engines on the Cartoon Network next year. [Variety]

Rumor No. 1: No country for old gunslingers

First, a word of caution: If your name is Thomas Jane, you probably shouldn’t read this.

Now that that’s out of the way, Jeffrey Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere reports that Josh Brolin (W., No Country for Old Men) has signed on to star in Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor’s Jonah Hex film.

Wells follows that with a denial from Brolin’s representative; still, he insists he was told “the deal was locked down last night.” So, make of that what you will.

The Warner Bros. adaptation of the DC Comics Western anti-hero was announced in July 2007. In March, producer Andrew Lazar said he wants to film Jonah Hex in New Orleans, for a potential 2010 release.

Brolin has appeared in at least three Westerns: the TV series The Young Riders, the miniseries Into the West, and the Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men (a modern Western).

Rumor No. 2: With this ring …

He’s no David Boreanaz, but the latest rumor is that Oscar nominee Ryan Gosling is a Warner Bros. favorite to play Hal Jordan in the Green Lantern movie.

That’s the word from Latino Review, at any rate.

Gosling, 27 — the same age as Hal Jordan in the film — is probably best known for his roles in Fracture, Half Nelson, The Notebookand … TV’s Young Hercules.

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Marvel Entertainment is bringing an animated Avengers series to television in 2011, in time for Captain America and Earth’s Mightest Heroes to make their big-screen debuts.

The 26-episode cartoon, called The Avengers: Earth’s Mightest Heroes, is being produced by Film Roman, the company behind The Simpsons and King of the Hill. Ciro Nieli (Teen Titans) will produce the series; Christopher Yost (X-Men: Evolution, Fantastic Four) will serve as story editor.

This is part of Marvel Animation’s big push into television, which has been dominated in recent years by Warner Bros./DC Comics. Wolverine and the X-Men and Iron Man: Armored Adventures debut next year on Nicktoons, and Black Panther on BET. Marvel Super Hero Squad also is in the works.

Update: Marvel’s official press release

Ramayan 3392 AD coming to the big screen

Liquid Comics, which bought out Virgin Comics last month, has struck a deal with Mandalay Pictures to bring Liquid’s graphic novel Ramayan 3392 AD to the big screen.

Per the Hollywood Reporter, John Collee has been tapped to adapt the story about a legendary blue-skinned warrior who in mythology is an incarnation of the god Vishnu fighting to save his love from demonic forces.

The trade also reports that the comic also is being developed as a multiplayer online game by Sony Online Entertainment.

The Ticker

• Splash Page talks to Die Hard scribe Steven de Souza about Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.

• Scifi.com is hosting the latest Watchmen production journal — this one’s about Dr. Manhattan. [Scifi.com]

• Zap2It observes that sophomore TV shows that didn’t come back from hiatus after the Writer’s Strike ended — shows like Chuck and Pushing Daisies — are having a tougher time in the ratings than shows that did. [Zap2It]

• Clone Wars, meanwhile, is doing pretty well in the ratings. [Variety]

• Marvel promoted Simon Philips to president, worldwide consumer products. [Variety]

• Yogi Bear is coming to the big screen. [MTV Movies Blog]

• Tarantino Babies make our dreams come true … or shoot us. (via Rick Marshall … I also have a T-shirt addiction, Rick).

• Spike TV has announced the line-up for their Scream Awards, which air on the cable network Oct. 21. [press release]

Just in time for tonight’s debut of Star Wars: The Clone Wars on Cartoon Network, Lucasfilm has launched a webcomic series that will lead into each weekly episode. This week’s installment is written by Pablo Hidalgo and illustrated by Tom Hodges.

In a post on Digital Webbing, Hodges says the comics will be drawn by a rotating stable of artists: Katie Cook, Jeff Carlisle, Grant Gould and himself.

Artist Lou Romano shares a bunch of early development artwork from the Disney/Pixar film The Incredibles. I wonder if the image posted above, which Romano calls a “gag drawing,” hints at a possible, darker future for the shape-changing Jack-Jack …

Via Super Punch

The Dark Knight swings onto DVD Dec. 9

This year’s No. 1 movie and the second-highest grossing film in the United States ever will be released on DVD just in time for the holiday season, as The Dark Knight will be released on DVD Dec. 9. Per the Hollywood Reporter, it will include the six IMAX-filmed sequences, a production documentary and no doubt a lot of other special features that we’ll hear about between now and then.

Kung Fu Panda sequel due in 2011

Jack Black and Angelina Jolie have signed on for Pandamonium, the sequel to the summer hit Kung Fu Panda. Per Variety, the film will be released June 3, 2011.

The original film, which came out a few short months ago, made more than $626 million worldwide, “making it DreamWorks Animation’s most successful non-sequel film ever,” the trade reports. Kung Fu Panda comes out on DVD Nov. 9.

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The second episode of Warner Bros.’ Watchmen motion comic will debut next Tuesday on iTunes, followed by the third chapter on Oct. 20. The first installment launched in July.

Future episodes will debut every two weeks.

Announced during Comic-Con International, the motion comic is part of a larger initiative by Warner Bros. to deliver DC Comics properties via the Internet, mobile phones and video on demand. Of course releasing Watchmen, chapter by chapter, in hybrid comic-animation form also helps to create buzz for Zack Snyder’s movie adaptation, which is set to open in March.

Reginald Hudlin has left BET Networks after three years as president of entertainment.

Hudlin, who directed such films as House Party and The Great White Hype and served as executive producer of The Boondocks cartoon, helped to relaunch Marvel’s Black Panther title in 2005.

At BET he greenlit the upcoming animated series based on the comic, and serves as an executive producer. The first six episodes are adapted from his “Who Is The Black Panther?” story arc.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, will return to his work as an independent producer.

• Imagi International has released the first footage from Gatchaman, the big-screen adaptation of the influential 1970s anime TV series (also known in the United States as G-Force and Battle of the Planets). The Imagi website is painfully slow, and the clip is blink-and-you’ll-miss-it short, so your best bet is to go to Collider or Coming Soon to view it. Gatchaman is set to be released in 2010. [Collider, ComingSoon.net]

• A rumor made the rounds last week of another live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. Apparently, it’s “complete nonsense and entirely untrue.” [The Movie Blog]

• The latest-behind-the-scenes video for Watchmen focuses on the look of the movie. [IGN.com]

• Rumor mill: Russell Crowe may play Moriarty to Robert Downey Jr.’s Sherlock Holmes in the Guy Ritchie movie. [Latino Review]

• Speaking of Guy Ritchie, the director says he’s still itching to take a crack at an adaptation of DC’s Sgt. Rock, which got bumped on his schedule by Sherlock Holmes. [Splash Page]

• For some reason, these character posters for Heroes Season 3 remind me of the ones for Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. [ComingSoon.net]

Famed animator and director of all those great Peanuts TV specials passed away yesterday. He was 91. Cartoon Brew has a short remembrance and a link to a YouTube interview.

Guess who won’t be playing Catwoman and Jonah Hex

It should come as no surprise that a Warner Bros. representative has shot down the rumor that Cher will play an aging Catwoman in the sequel to The Dark Knight.

I’m a little disappointed, though. Oh, not that it’s untrue — really, did anyone think it was for real? — but that it was shot down so quickly. Four days is an awfully short life span for a casting rumor.

But another, longer-lived rumor also has bitten the bullet: Thomas Jane won’t be playing Jonah Hex in Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor’s upcoming adaptation.

That’s despite Jane’s Sean Young-like effort to convince the filmmakers he’s right for the role.

“He’s a great guy,” the directors said in a video interview with The Movie Blog. “But we don’t see the guy as Jonah Hex, to be quite honest with you. But we like him.”

The Ticker

• Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea has grossed $109.6 million in Japan since its July 19 opening, setting it up to become one of the biggest box-office hits of all time in that country. The Dark Knight isn’t faring quite as well there. [Variety, Slashfilm]

• Sony Pictures is auctioning a Spider-Man 4 “VIP experience,” which includes a set visit, walk-on role, meet-and-greet with cast, and a trip to the premiere. Proceeds to benefit Stand Up to Cancer. Bidding started at $5,000. [Sci Fi Wire]

• Relative unknown Max Makowski reportedly will direct Relativity’s adaptation of Voltron. [Latino Review]

• Robert Downey Jr. is in negotiations to voice a character in DreamWorks Animation’s superhero send-up Master Mind, produced by Ben Stiller’s Red Hour Films. Tina Fey also is expected to join the cast. [Hollywood Insider]

• Shots of a fully rendered CGI Astro Boy and concept art have leaked out from Imagi’s upcoming movie. [Astroboy Online, via First Showing]

A 20-minute LEGO Batman cartoon is being developed using the same engine as the upcoming video game.

Although details are sketchy, a producer for U.K.-based developer Traveller’s Tales tells GameIndustry.biz the cartoon will be a one-shot, at least initially, created “by a separate studio in the States.”

Warner Bros. bought Traveller’s Tales late last year.

“My understanding is that they will use the engine, the Maya files where the characters come to life, but they’ll be creating animated … I think it’s a 20-minute cartoon,” Rich Earl tells the website. “I’m personally quite intrigued to see how it comes out. Lego, every time they’ve had a new brand out, they’ve done some CGI stuff as well, but I think this will be quite different.”

Earlier this month Traveller’s Tales President Jon Burton hinted to Variety that children’s TV shows could be in his company’s future, now that it’s part of Warner Bros.

LEGO Batman: The Videogame is due in stores on Sept. 23.

The Los Angeles Times takes a look at the copyright issues surrounding the cartoon Steamboat Willie and Mickey Mouse, in particular recent allegations of an “imprecision” in copyright claims dating back to the character’s first appearance:

Film credits from the 1920s revealed imprecision in copyright claims that some experts say could invalidate Disney’s long-held copyright, though a Disney lawyer dismissed that idea as “frivolous.”

So does this mean I can finally publish my Steamboat Willie II: Electric Bugaloo comic? Not so fast, says one legal expert:

No one expects Disney, which declined interview requests, to surrender Mickey without an all-out legal brawl. And the cost of what has been an academic exercise would soar if moved into a federal courtroom.

“Law and equity might line up on the side of forfeiture,” said Michael J. Madison, associate dean of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. But “Disney has enough ammunition on its side to dissuade all but the most well-financed competitor, or any but the most committed public-interest advocates, from challenging Mickey.”

Also keep in mind that there’s a difference between copyright and trademark … Jeff Trexler talked a little bit about the differences between the two when discussing the Siegel/Superman case here. You can read the government’s definitions of both, as well as patents, here.

Via.