Sidewise, an online comic by Dwight MacPherson and Igor Noronha which is in this month’s Zuda competition, has unveiled this new trailer for the comic:

All I can say is, while I’m pretty new to the webcomic, that’s a pretty slick trailer from a motion comics standpoint. Is it weird that I think this looks more put together than the BET Black Panther cartoon? What do you think, Rama readers? While I can’t endorse the comic over its competition (there’s so many to choose from!), you can read more about this time-traveling steampunk comic here.

[Tip of the hat to Steve Ekstrom for showing me this]

Marvel has announced that Activision has released a fun online minigame for those who just can’t wait to get your Civil War on!

With Civil War Online, you can put together teams of four heroes, to play on an online board, with the outcome of these individual battles being tallied out for a global count. Based on my current count, it’s looking like the Anti-Registration heroes are enjoying a lead of about 23.

This will reflect at least some of the storyline for the upcoming game Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2: Fusion, which will chronicle the struggle between Captain America and Iron Man over the Superhuman Registration Act. This next-gen systems game is due out in the fall.

Marvel is getting the sound and the Fury out about their Digital Comics program.

According to the publisher, new and renewing subscribers to the program will receive an exclusive Nick Fury action figure from Hasbro, inspired by his return from isolation at the climax of Secret Invasion. The figure costs $4.99 for shipping and handling.

“Hasbro is very excited to be teaming up with Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited for this exclusive giveaway,” Billy Lagor, Senior Director of Hasbro’s Global Brand Strategy & Marketing, Marvel, said in a press release.  “We truly value and appreciate the connection that we have with our Marvel fans and hope that shows in our action figures.”

On the web site, you can either get a yearly plan for $4.99/month, or a three-month plan for $8.33/month. You can click here to find out more.

After Rich Johnston surprised (or didn’t) the comics community yesterday with his announcement that Lying in the Gutters was ended at CBR and his own comics blog would be taking its place, it seems Warren Ellis just has to one up him.

At which point, I may as well confess that I’ll be returning to writing weekly about comics and things at bleedingcool.com.

At his blog, he posted the news today. This isn’t a first for Ellis, as he has previously held several internet columns about comics and otherwise. The prolific writer maintains a massive internet presence already, with the aforementioned blog, his ever-hilarious twitter stream, a highly successful webcomic that blends traditional style comic pages with a free weekly delivery called FreakAngels, his own message board that has a mostly non-comics focus and boasts several industry members (check out the remake/remodel threads for a real treat), and that’s just his core set of sites. So if all that, plus the Bad Signal mailing list wasn’t quite enough Ellis for you, well, you have less than a week to add another place.

As a small aside, congrats to Rich and best of luck on your new endeavor with BleedingCool.com

A lot of fans out there have been campaigning for genre superstar Nathan Fillion to fill the emerald boots of Green Lantern.

Well, Youtube wunderkind Jaron Pitts has taken one step further, with a truly awesome fan trailer, incorporating the Firefly alumnus as well as Kilowog, Tomar-Re, and the Guardians of Oa:

Now according to Pitts’ notes, he’s used clips from more than two dozen propertes, ranging from the Fountain to Iron Man to G.I. Joe, to make this awesome trailer. Talk about some awesome work, right? If you dig it, click the link above and rank him high!

[Link found at Loyal K*N*G]

Obama Depressed, Distant Since ‘Battlestar Galactica’ Series Finale

Courtesy of The Onion HERE…

Wolverine may be the best at what he does, but can even his beserker rage take on cyber piracy? EW has gotten a news tip that may be a grave misfortune for Fox:According to them, a workprint version of the upcoming May film X-Men Origins: Wolverine has allegedly been leaked, and is making the rounds on some pirating sites.

The story has since been confirmed via a number of sources, and the copy of the film has reportedly been downloaded over 75,000 times.

While many bootleg copies are from earlier editions, and are marred with timecode, studio watermark, and other defects, this copy apparently is a bit more advanced, lacking only a few of the film’s final special effects. Reportedly, the copy of the film has an identifying mark of Rising Sun Pictures, an Australian visual effects company. Whether this means the copy of the film leaked through Rising Sun is not clear.

The problem with this scenario is twofold: (A) it shows there is possibly a large breach in security at Fox, if this DVD-quality bootleg came from them or someone working with the studio on the film, and (B) it could certainly hurt the film if word of mouth starts before the film is even released. (Conversely, if the pirate crowd eats it all up, it’s just going to encourage more pirates to do the same.)

The film is scheduled to be released to the public - in theaters- on May 1.

Those in large cities - give a holler when you see it show up as part of the offerings from the sidewalk vendors.

As you may have read on the Mothership today, there’s an awful lot of discussion regarding digital comics and alternative distribution.  And what you might have already read in the past few weeks is that struggling series — like Spider-Girl or Blue Beetle — are bravely trailblazing new means of reaching out to new readers and retaining the die-hards.

The question is — is it viable?

Let’s look at Exhibit A: Going digital. You probably saw the article which says that, according to an open poll by the Mothership, there’s a great many people out there who are willing — nay, anticipating — making the shift to digital comics. And it’s clear that Marvel is making some progress towards getting that growing demographic. The online debut of Spider-Girl is a great example of all this: this is a title that has been saved several times from cancellation. But of course, resources are limited, and if a book doesn’t work and isn’t tied within the framework of your larger universe, you gotta try something new (even if that something new doesn’t necessarily work). Innovation is the name of the game!

But that said — why lose the obvious zeal of the readership of a Spider-Girl or a Blue Beetle? So you take that character, keep aboard the best of the creative talent associated with the character — and you put a series up with a far cheaper platform. Printing ain’t cheap, and putting books online cuts out the middleman of publishing and distribution, so to speak. If they love the title enough — and, more importantly, you can’t get it anywhere else (so Wolverine, arguably not as great an investment unless done by a top-tier creator) — wouldn’t people flock to the product, no matter what the format?

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The wonderful linkblog, When Fangirls Attack, needs your help to stay in existence. Fangirls, check this out.

The truth is that real life got in the way and got in the way hard, and we’ve come to some unpleasant truths. There’s no way we can keep this linkblog going.

We’re sentimental types though, and we like to think that WFA serves a purpose in the fan community. We’d like to see it continue and regain some of the relevance it had previously.

That’s why I’m posting. We’re looking for someone/some people who are interested in taking over WFA.

Go there and let ‘em know if you’re interested.

Yea-yea-yeaaaaa-wow!!!

Marvel has announced that it will be streaming episodes of the Japanese live-action “Spider-Man” show from the late ’70s.

For those who haven’t seen it, well…it’s pretty unique. While the best Peter Parker could come up with is a motorcycle (and a short-lived Spider-Buggy), Takuya Yamashiro has a motorcycle… and a Mega Zord. Hm. And awesome.

Marvel will post a new episode up every Thursday.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what are the most important comics of the past two decades. There are a lot of great books to choose from, and each one has its own reason why it made an impact on the industry. I narrowed my list down to a few select choices that I think have done more to shape the comic book industry as we know it. Without any of these issues, the comic book landscape would look vastly different from what it looks like today. Let’s take a look, shall we?

1. Bone #1 by Jeff Smith (1991)

Jeff Smith’s delightful all-ages fantasy series was one of the most acclaimed and successful titles of the past two decades. It’s also one of the most widely read series in recent times, with thousands of copies of the title’s collections appearing in libraries and schools all around the world. With that kind of exposure, I’d say that Bone has done more to hook young kids on comics than any other series.

2. Youngblood #1 by Rob Liefeld(1992)

The formation of Image Comics was a groundbreaking moment for the comic book industry for several reasons, not the least of which for what the company did to advance the cause of creator rights. It also proved that Marvel and DC didn’t have a complete stranglehold on the superhero genre, and that their dominance of the comic book marketplace could be challenged. Liefeld’s Youngblood #1 was the first comic released under the Image banner; and with nearly one million copies sold, it proved that the risks the Image founders took by breaking away from Marvel would pay off in major ways. (more…)

Newsarama’s own poster Sevedris has created a great Quizzila quiz to go with DC’s War of Light over-arc that is kicking ass and taking names in the Green Lantern books. The Quiz asks a series of questions with somewhat ambiguous answers designed to let you know which of the Corps you belong in. It’s pretty fun, and the subtle nuances he used based on what we know of the Corps so far are pretty sweet. Whether you’re full of Rage or have the Hope to save the universe, it’s a fun little diversion. So, which Ring are you expecting after taking this quiz?

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.

Asylum Press has released its first trailer for its Tuesday Trailer series! This trailer is for their series The Bomb, illustrated by the inimitable Steve Mannion!

If the above link doesn’t work, you can check out the trailer here.

Lurid Media’s PCR TV has launched a new web series discussing graphic storytelling with illustrator P. Craig Russell! In this first installment, Russell goes through his comics adaptation of Pelleas & Melisande.

This is really cool for anyone who wants to learn the nuts and bolts of pacing sequential art. Giant freaking embedded video window after the jump.

[Via Lurid Media.]

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SCI FI Wire, SCI FI’s news division, has created an expanded expanded news site outside of SCI Fi’s main page called scifiwire.com. Here’s what the SCI FI Wire staff has said about the new site:

SCI FI Wire is hot news about movies, TV, games, books, top celebrities and more. Red-carpet photos. The newest movie trailers. Sneak peeks at upcoming TV shows and seasons. Exclusive on-set interviews. And with the team behind SCI FI Weekly, we’re about to add all sorts of new content: Top 10 lists, exclusive Q&As, satire, dispatches from the front lines of science fiction, fantasy and the supernatural, funny stuff and a lot more.

I found this via a tweet from Felicia Day, and Im just sad that I’m coming into it so late. Essentially, at Paul and Storm they have a March Madness NCAA Basketball style tournament going for the great and geeky. The end result will name a champion the Secretary of Geek Affairs. Sometimes, you see something of sheer genius that you just wish you could’ve thought up yourself.

Some of the contenders are a bit obscure, but most are simply inspired. Personally, I’m cheering for Felicia Day herself, MC Frontalot, Gabe and Tycho from Penny Arcade, and Steve Jobs as my final four. The 2nd Round match up of Wil Wheaton vs. Wesley Crusher is pretty great, though. Check out the full bracket, make your predictions here, and vote in the current round.

As the year comes to a close, it’s become clear that in the Marvel Universe, there has been major upheaval from within the company’s heroic pantheon. With a new Captain America leading a band of Secret Avengers, what’s old is new again, with the concept of the legacy hero getting a set of legs at the House of Ideas.

But what is a legacy hero, you might ask? For those needing a refresher in comic book geekspeak, a legacy hero is typically an associate, lover, or sidekick of a fallen hero who assumes their friend’s mantle if he has retired or fallen in battle. DC Comics has made this concept into one of the company’s key pillars, beginning all the way with Barry Allen as the Flash in 1961. The idea of the legacy hero is that it gives a franchise an epic, generational feel, while allowing each generation of readers to adopt their “own” hero to match their own values and storytelling standards. But as 2008 and 2009 — as well as several earlier attempts — show us, Marvel isn’t above adopting a good idea when it sees one.

As if I needed to warn you, there be spoilers up ahead…

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So I’ve been thinking about doing a weekly webcomic column here, but it occurred to me that I’m not actually that up on the webcomic scene. That said, I’ve got a few thoughts on the whole concept, as well as a couple of favorites.

I wrote below that print is dying, and I’m sticking by that assertion. However, to clarify, I would like to note that newspapers will be the first to go, and that magazines and books will be sticking around far longer. It just isn’t pleasant to read long articles or books on a computer screen, and I’ve only met one person who owned a Kindle–and that guy also had three cell phones and two laptops just in his bag.

Comics, I think, will maintain a print following for quite a while. The art looks better on paper, and comics fans tend to be the type of people who like the tangible items to collect. We’re pack rats. We see nothing wrong with buying all the single issues of a book, the trades, and then the fancy reissues when those come out, too.

Still, the Web has a place in the comics community, and not just as a place for talking about comics.

Webcomics seem to come in a couple of varieties (bear in mind that, as I noted above, I’m not really up on the webcomics world, and I’d love your input). There’s the comic strip, which seems to be taking over for newspaper comic strips the way Web sites are taking over for newspapers. Most of you are probably familiar with them, and some of your favorite print comic creators do webcomic strips too–I happen to love Becky Cloonan’s Comic Attacks.

These are bite-size comics that don’t tie into a longer narrative, and can be consumed quickly, like an mp3 or a blog post. Many media critics, Warren Ellis among them, have noted that the Web is a place for short bits of information. Ellis called it “burst culture.” Webcomics like this fit perfectly into that picture. (more…)

Yahoo.com just released a list of its 10 most popular superheroes of the year. The rankings are based on the number of hits through their search engine. You can probably guess most of the names on the list:

1. Batman

2. Iron Man

3. Spider-Man

4. Hulk

5. Superman

6. X-Men

7. Hellboy

8. Wolverine

9. Wonder Woman

10. Ghost Rider

If anyone has any credible theories as to why Ghost Rider made the list, I’d love to hear them. That just seems like a totally random name.