TimeOut New York talks with David Heatley about his new book My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down and explains something I had been wondering about, namely why he censored all the naughty bits out of his “Sex History” strip:

Heatley’s “Sex History”—early childhood fumblings, polymorphous couplings at Oberlin College, dating in mid-’90s New York, compulsive masturbation—originally appeared in his self-published comic Deadpan. For the version that appears in My Brain, however, he’s placed tiny fluorescent triangles and rectangles over his characters’ genitals—an act of concealment after so much confession. “I was getting fan mail from a couple twentysomething boys, saying, ‘Oh, your strip gave me a boner,’ and I thought, This isn’t what I had in mind. It’s really about longing and bad sex and lack of connection.” The bleep-outs “almost draw attention to it, but it’s like another layer of the narrative—me kind of covering up a little bit before publication.”

David Heatley: Preventing twentysomething boners since 2008.

• Invincible Iron Man writer Matt Fraction contrasts the love lives of Tony Stark and … Captain America? “… I would love to write a story about Tony Stark’s complicated love life. It’s an aspect of his character, that’s for sure. [It's like] in the movie, when he goes to bed with the angry reporter from Berkeley; you can imagine that same reporter with a similar line of questioning with Captain America, but you can’t imagine Captain America seducing her later. But with Tony, you can, so we should absolutely take advantage of it.” [The Washington Post]

• Cartoonist Bill Griffith discusses Zippy the Pinhead as a cottage industry, and the financial impact of his website: “Over the years, income from the Zippy website has gone from about a third of my annual income to about a half — in other words, the website has doubled my income. Most of my Web income is from sales of Zippy originals — the original artwork of the daily strips — as well as signed prints of strips and original art from my underground days.” [The Hartford Courant]

• Ignatz nominee MK Reed talks about the collaboration process: “It’s been very different from working on my own, and there was definitely a learning curve figuring out how Jonathan [Hill] was most likely to work out different parts. I’ve been working with him for over a year now, so we’ve kind of gotten things together by this point, and there’s a lot less arguing about how certain things should look or what needs to be corrected. Jonathan is insanely talented and I know he car handle pretty much anything I throw at him. Because he’s a more talented artist than I am, I can actually make up completely crazy detailed things like crowd scenes in a supermarket, and know they’ll look awesome.” [New York Daily News]

• Alex Irvine, author of The Vertigo Encyclopedia, considers the influence of the DC Comics imprint: “… I think it’s probably safe to say that the success of Vertigo had a lot to do with DC and Marvel being willing to take their regular universe books in more mature directions. Also, the Sandman phenomenon brought so much attention to comics in general that it created a huge new appetite for comics with a certain kind of attitude. This in turn meant that people who had worked primarily in indie and underground comics — David Lapham comes to mind, or Paul Pope — had a chance to put their work in front of new audiences.” [Omnivoracious]

Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie offer a glimpse at the first five pages of Phonogram: The Singles Club #1, plus samples of the “B-Sides” — back-up stories featuring work by creators such as Marc Ellerby, PJ Holden and Emma Vieceli.

The Singles Club, a follow-up to the 2006-2007 miniseries Rue Britannia, debuts in December from Image Comics.

Comics writer J. Torres unveils a new project on his blog called Lola: A Ghost Story:

“Lola” is the Tagalog (Filipino) word for grandmother and this story is loosely based on some tall tales about my own maternal grandmother’s childhood, some other family “history,” as well as some folklore and mythology from the Philippines.

Torres said the project, which is drawn by Elbert Or and will be published by Oni, should be out next year.

Director Zack Snyder finally has provided some details of the long-rumored, and previously reported, sequel to 300. Yes, the movie where they all die in the end.

At last night’s Watchmen media event, IESB sidled up to Snyder, who confirmed he’s waiting for Frank Miller to finish the graphic novel on which the movie will be based.

Snyder said the sequel will take place between the Battle of Thermopylae and the Battle of Plataea, the final major conflict in the Greco-Persian Wars. (Spoiler alert: The Greeks won.) There’s about a one-year gap between the two battles.

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.

(more…)

… who stole this art work by Seth, then shame on you. Give it back right now.

Update: Canada’s National Post talks with Seth, who says, “I was disappointed, but mostly because I wanted to sell it. I’ve had artwork disappear before — comic art gets stolen all the time.”

USA Today spotlights the reissue of art spiegelman’s Breakdowns: Portrait of the Artist as a Young%@&*!, which “deals with his boyhood obsession with MAD comics, his mother’s suicide and an early prototype for Maus, his Pulitzer-winning 1986 graphic novel about his family and the Holocaust in which Nazis are cats and Jews are mice.”

While the collection originally came out in 1978, it’ll include some new pages. “I’m doing an introduction to the book in comics format that’s about as long as the book itself,” spiegelman joked at last year’s Alternative Press Expo. spiegleman will also tour to support the book; check out the list of dates and locations after the jump.

(more…)

• Ben Templesmith is working on a book about the Presidents of the United States … the actual presidents, not the 1990s novelty band of the same name. (My apologies to anyone who has “Lump” stuck in their head as a result of the previous sentence).

“A portrait each, plus some facts,” Templesmith says about the format of the book. “Especially about some of the lesser known ones. Damn some were sick/quirky/weird bastards.” Yep, those are our presidents, God bless’em.

• Tickets for the 2009 New York Comic Con are now available.

• Peter David has been banned from prisons. Which I guess sounds a lot better than it is.

• Dean Haspiel provided the cover art for novelist Tim Hall’s Full of It.

• You can read Paul Cornell’s entire short story “Catherine Drewe” here.

• Robert Kirkman vs. Brian Bendis, the video.

• And finally, Jeffrey Brown predicts the future.

Despite some reports saying it has died a quiet death, the Orphan Works bill Jeff Trexler talked about yesterday is still alive – stalled, but alive. Per Wired’s Threat Level blog: “Lost in the House of Representatives’ push to pass $700 billion bailout legislation is the so-called Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008.”

Jeff, Blog@’s resident Matt Murdock, is unavailable today to put some thoughts together (he says he’s getting ready for one of his classes, as he teaches law at Pace University, but I think that’s actually code for preparing to fight Bullseye), but he dropped me a note to say that it isn’t dead, that it’s “more complex procedurally than that, as the comments illustrate” in the Wired.com report.

As someone points out in the comments section to the Wired story:

“The House has agreed to drop THEIR bill, but they agreed to take up the Senate bill (which passed this week) and substitute it for theirs. There is a high probability that the House will pass it this week when they come back, under suspension rules that allow them to Hotline the bill and pass bills by default.”

And then on her own blog, Colleen Doran, who has been following it closely, adds, “A little birdy tells me that Senator Leahy fully intends to get right back on his high horse in January 2009.”

Watch for more from Trexler soon.

Devil’s Due Publishing, Hypergraphia, the Hero Initiative and the American Cancer Society are teaming up for a benefit to help artist Josh Medors, who is currently battling cancer. The event will be held in Brooklyn next Saturday, Oct. 4. More details can be found here.

• At UGO.com, Vito Delsante counts down the “Top 50 WTF Moments in Comics,” from the story of Bill Finger to the marriage of Aunt May and Dr. Octopus to the Batman back-breaking stunt. Don’t worry, there are some good WTF moments, too.

• The recently launched all-ages blog Good Comics for Kids has found a new home on the School Library Journal’s website. I’ll miss Dan Hess’ banner, but I love his chibi renditions of the blog’s contributors.

• Cartoonist Sergio Aragones talks about becoming one of Mad’s legendary Usual Gang of Idiots: “I had just arrived [in New York] from Mexico in 1962. And every magazine I went to, everybody rejected me because I had been doing pantomime cartoons. Everybody said, “These things are crazy, you should go to Mad.” So I went to Mad. And they were right.”

• Examiner.com spotlights the best comic shops in Los Angeles, but somehow overlooks Secret Headquarters.

• Hellboy creator Mike Mignola explains to Williamette Week why he left Portland, Ore., for New York City: “My wife hated it! She hated almost every second of living there. I loved it. It is a little rainy and dreary.”

Ger Apeldoorn posts a classic Harvey Kurtzman comic about Marlon Brando that originally ran in Esquire magazine.

Sharp-eyed viewers of HBO’s True Blood may have noticed a famous — or is that infamous? — Alex Ross illustration lurking in the background of one scene in this week’s episode.

On a wall at Fangtasia, the vampire bar in Shreveport, La., hangs Ross’ depiction of President Bush draining blood from the neck of the Statue of Liberty. The image caused a bit of a stir when it first appeared as the cover of The Village Voice on Oct. 26, 2004.

I’d meant to post something about this yesterday, but I have a mind like a sieve. Luckily, The New York Observer jogged my memory.

True Blood, Alan Ball’s follow-up to Six Feet Under, is based on Charlaine Harris’ popular series of “Southern Vampire” novels. You can read the show’s online comic, The Great Revelation, at the HBO website.

The artistic community is buzzing over news that the Senate has passed its version of the orphan works bill.

And for good reason. The legislation will significantly change the incentive structure in copyright enforcement.

As I discussed in a previous post, the legislation’s stated aim is to clarify the status of so-called orphan works–old copyrighted material whose rights owners cannot be located. The typical example cited to justify the bill is something old with a personal or educational value, such as a family photograph or a historic archive.

But what matters most is not the ideal application but the actual language, and this is what has so many people concerned.

(more…)

For fans of DC’s Legion of Super-Heroes, 2008 started out promising.

It was the 50th anniversary of those teenagers from the future — they first appeared in April 1958’s Adventure Comics #247 — and classic writer Jim Shooter had returned to the title. On television, a Legion Saturday-morning cartoon was in its second season, and the all-ages comic adaptation seemed to be well-received.

What’s more, Legionnaires played prominent roles in the popular “Lightning Saga” crossover in Justice League of America and Justice Society of America, and in the “Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes” story arc in Action Comics. And then there was the promise of the Final Crisis tie-in, Legion of 3 Worlds (it kicked off just last month).

It all combined for one shiny anniversary present, topped with a futuristic-looking bow.

But then Warner Bros. Animation announced the end of the Legion TV series. DC followed that with the cancellation, in November, of the cartoon’s Johnny DC counterpart.

Finally, over the weekend, the publisher confirmed an earlier report that it will cancel the remaining Legion title — referred to as the “Threeboot” by fans — with January’s Issue 50.

“What fun! Sure makes me look forward to my 50th wedding anniversary,” said Matthew Elmslie, who operates the Legion Abstract blog.

(more…)

Ger Apeldoorn shares a funny animal story by Walt Kelly, as well as some other delights.

DKNY Jeans has launched a sub-site for the line of clothing comics creator Paul Pope designed for them, DKNY 2089. It includes some of his sketchbook as well as an “inspiration” section with art by Moebius and Jack Kirby, among others.

Pope talks about the clothes on his blog:

The 2089 line has hit the stores and is now available anyplace DKNY and DKNY Jeans clothing are sold. Internationally, an alternate 2089 line is available through Club 21 and features additional style and prints not seen in the North American 2089 line, including a pair of black jeans with a silkscreened grasshopper print. I did four window displays for four separate Asian markets (Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul, and Macau), as well as a lot of press here in the US.

Don’t forget to enter the sweepstakes while checking out the site.

I’m as guilty as the next blogger of occasionally misinterpreting a quote or unintentionally taking one out of context. But this may take the cake.

Yesterday I linked to a brief interview with Stan Lee in which the comics legend was asked about the now-debunked rumor that Will Smith had been offered the role of Captain America in the upcoming Marvel Studios movie. Here’s the entire exchange, as published, just to make sure we’re all on the same page:

5. There was a rumor going around that Will Smith would be cast as Captain America. Any truth to that?

I would love us to do something with Will Smith, but I don’t know that he’s Captain America. That would be a long shot. It would be a real leap to make Captain America black … then again, I don’t know. It might be a really smart thing. If Barack Obama becomes President who knows … suddenly a lot of our characters will be black!

I thought the last sentence was a bit kooky, but otherwise, not much to report, right? Wrong.

“Stan Lee Wants To Make Will Smith A Black Captain America,” states the headline on Contactmusic.com:

(more…)