The website Topless Robot (*hee hee hee*) along with Dragonball The Movie are both reporting that James Marsters has confirmed that he will begin filming a sequel to Dragonball Evolution as early as late this year.

Wait a second… James Marsters was in the Dragonball movie? James Marsters, the guy whose presence saved the last couple of seasons of Buffy from completely jumping the shark after the Scooby Gang left for college? The same James Marsters that kicked ass as Braniac on Smallville? This James Marsters?

Come on, dude. You’ve built up enough geek credibility between Buffy, Angel, and Torchwood to get roles in better movies than that. How about lobbying for the role of Hawkeye in the upcoming Avengers movie? Or maybe you can get your old pal Joss Whedon to talk Time-Warner into making a Starman movie? You’d be great as Jack Knight.

And another thing: A Dragonball sequel? Sure, why not? Don’t let the fact that Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 13% fresh rating, or the fact that it only made $54.7 million worldwide, despite having a budget of allegedly $100 million, stop you from making what will likely be a horrible film that even the makers of Ishtar will laugh at.

Your ever-lovin’, blue-eyed Peter David has been busy, according to his blog.

Working with Ben 10, David has not only written an episode titled “In Charm’s Way,” but has also a Ben 10: Alien Force manga with Del Ray called “Ben Folds Four.” Which will be Rockin’ the Suburbs, for all you music fans out there…

Meanwhile, some big news is that David has been asked to get snikt-snikt-bub on with some additional issues of Wolverine: First Class. And finally, he teases that another limited series will be announced at NYCC…

The Korean production company SSD has signed an agreement with Fox TV Studios to produce a live-action version of the manga City Hunter, ICv2 has reported.

The adaptation of the Tsukasa Hojo manga, which will star Korean actor Chung Woo-sung, will be filmed in English and distributed worldwide. According to SSD, the 13-episode order will be the first U.S. TV drama to be headlined by an Asian actor.

The series, which follows “sweeper” Ryo Saeba as he cleans up his city from crime, has inspired four animated series, several television specials, as well as a 1993 live-action film starring Jackie Chan. Yet the current backers, Fox TV Studios, are no slouches, either, having produced acclaimed series such as Burn Notice and The Shield.

One day cute high school girl Rui’s father brings home a friend from work, the dreamy young marketing statistician Igarashi. Instantly smitten, Rui soon launches a plan to get close to Igarashi: The next day she asks her father if he can hire a statistics tutor for her, so she can learn more about his job.

“The tutor could be one of your workers,” she helpfully suggests. Tears of pride running down his face, her father skips off to make it so.

On the first day of her lessons, however, she runs down the stairs to meet Mamoru Yamamoto, who lives closer than Igarashi and is also good at teaching. But not only is he not Igarashi, he’s a hopeless geek: His hair is messy, his glasses make his eyes look huge and bug-like, he is more interested in shojo than Rui is, and he even absent-mindedly wears one shoe and one sandal on one occasion.

Oh, the irony! Rui soldiers on though, thinking that if she masters statistics she can impress her true love later, and she is slowly won over by the young teacher’s knowledge of statistics, his growing indifference to her school girl charms (playing hard to get—works every time, guys!) and the fact that he looks pretty hot without his glasses.

It’s hardly the most original or compelling storyline really, but given that it occurs in The Manga Guide To Statistics (No Starch Press), which is, for all intents and purposes a math text book, well, it’s certainly the best romantic dramedy I’ve ever read in a math text book (Although, come to think of it, some of the word problems I encountered in school involving trains speeding in different directions did have a certain air of mystery about them…)
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Hey all!

Do you have one of those annoying friends who likes to e-mail you played-out Chuck Norris jokes?

If so, have them check out this video of Bruce Lee playing ping-pong with nunchucks.

No, it’s not real footage (thank you, CGI technology!), but they don’t need to know that, do they?

Comics readers will find several things to be thankful for this week, including the debut of the new Umbrella Academy miniseries, the end of the “R.I.P” storyline in Batman, and the long-awaited Body Bags one-shot.

(Yes, I know Thursday is Thanksgiving only in the United States, but you can still be thankful for something — like, say, the arrival of Mesmo Delivery in comics shops.)

If you’re looking for more books to keep you entertained between parade viewings, food courses and football games, Wednesday also sees an American Elf collection, another Captain America Premiere Hardcover, Scott Morse’s Tiger Tiger Tiger, and … Tijuana Bibles.

To see what other titles Chris Mautner and I think are worth mentioning, just keep reading. As always, let us know your choices in the comments below.

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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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– Alison Bechdel and Harvey Pekar, together at last.

– Steve Duin has some good news about underground cartoonist S. Clay Wilson, who has been in ICU for the past several days.

– Ada Price talks to Dave Gibbons about his new book, Watching the Watchmen.

– Looks like it’s official: Naruto Nation 2009 is totally a go.

– Sam Thielman looks at the significance of Alan Moore’s run on Swamp Thing in light of the new super-fancy collection coming out soon.

– Over at Stars and Stripes, Gary Trudeau answers some of his critics.

– Van Jensen talks to Mike Allred about the revamped Red Rocket collection.

– Here’s my idea of a fun time: Dan Nadel, Gary Panter and CF sitting around, talking about art and comics.

– Did you know About Comics is 10 years old this year? I didn’t. Chris Murphy has a recollection.

– Sandy Bilus is giving away a copy of Alan’s War over at his blog.

– Oscar Pedro Musibay looks at the Comics Galaxy event that was held at last weekend’s Miami Book Fair.

– Frank Santoro considers the new Popeye collection.

If I’m running a little late this week, blame it on the winter weather. Or, at the very least, the avalanche of comics based on movies, television shows and video games.

Angel, Battlestar Galactica, Dead Space, Doctor Who, Halloween, Heroes, Star Trek, Star Wars, Street Fighter II, Transformers, The X-Files, World of Warcraft — they’re all represented on shelves this week.

If those aren’t your thing, there’s also an omnibus edition of Jack Kirby’s The Demon, a Walking Dead oversized hardcover, a collection of Stan Lee’s old monthly columns, Mark Waid’s debut on the Brand New Day-era Amazing Spider-Man, and yetis. Well, at least one yeti.

To see what other titles Chris Mautner and I think are worth mentioning, just keep reading. As always, let us know your choices in the comments below.

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– Harry N. Abrams plans to publish Barry Deutsch’s acclaimed Webcomic Hereville in book form. Brigid Alverson has details.

– Steve Duin provides an update on S. Clay Wilson’s health. Short answer: “His condition has not improved significantly.”

– “There’s an exotica Americans find in my stories that’s lost on Israeli readers:” Nisha Gopalan interviews Israeli cartoonist Rutu Modan about her new book Jamilti.

– Colleen Doran is looking for a few good cartoonists to help her review data for the Graphic Artists Guild Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines.

– Kai-Ming Cha has a great interview with editor Sean Michael Wilson about Top Shelf’s upcoming AX anthology. “We’re selecting it from the 10 year archive so we’re talking about some 20,000 pages. That’s a lot of stuff to choose from.”

– Peter Sanderson celebrates the 20th anniversary of Sandman with a look back.

– Sanderson also looks at the new Vertigo Encyclopedia.

– The Daily Cartoonist reports that editorial cartoonists Steve Greenberg and Lee Judge are being laid off from their respective newspapers.

– Things to do: David B and Igort will be at the Beguiling in Toronto this Saturday.

– Other things to do: Kim Deitch will be doing a Q&A event with Bill Kartalopoulos at MoCCA tomorrow night. From the pr: “In a unique and wide-ranging conversation, the two will discuss Deitch’s work and
career to date.  Deitch will preview images from his current works in progress and field questions from the audience.”

– Joe Sacco offers an insightful review of Guy Delisle’s Burma Chronicles.

If you’re a fan of comics with spines, this is a good week for you.

Image Comics brings out the first volume of the Ted McKeever Library and a new printing of Bill Sienkiewicz’s Stray Toasters, while Dark Horse collects the “Wolves at the Gate” storyline from Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight. Marvel returns to Civil War with a 512-page hardcover, and gives Hulk the premiere treatment.

DC Comics, meanwhile, releases the much anticipated collection of James Jean’s Fables covers titled, appropriately enough, Fables: Covers by James Jean.

On top of that, there’s another volume of CF’s Powr Mastrs, the beginning of Kevin Smith’s Batman: Cocophony, and a complete set of Kia Asamiya’s Junk.

To see what other titles Chris Mautner and I think are worth mentioning, just keep reading. As always, let us know your choices in the comments below.

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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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Pink Tentacle has an array of images of contemporary Japanese artists riffing on some classic Osamu Tezuka characters.

Our post last Friday on the controversy surrounding Chip Kidd’s Bat-Manga! and the question of whether or not manga-ka Jiro Kuwata should have gotten received a lot of attention over the weekend. I think the horse has been beaten pretty heavily into the ground by this point, but I thought a final run-down of who said what in response to Kidd’s statement might be in order.  Tom Spurgeon’s post was by far the most amusing response if you’re keeping score, but assuming you’re not, here’s a look at what the rest of the blogosphere had to say:

Laura Hudson:

I do understand Kidd’s argument and the distinction he’s making, but to me, the issue of how to classify the book has more to do with content than intent. As a reader, I didn’t experience Bat-Manga as a book of material about Batman in Japan; Kuwata wasn’t just example C in the context of a broader theme. His work is the book, the heart and meat and soul and sun of it, and everything else is just supplementary gravy. Maybe that wasn’t Kidd’s intention, but that’s how it turned out.

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Remember late last year, when Viz besieged book stores and comic shops with a blizzard of Naruto volumes (three a month)? Well, apparently that may be happening all over again. The Anime News Network is reporting that 11 volumes of the uber-popular shonen manga series by Masashi Kishimoto will be released in stores between February and April of 2009. That’s according to reports by both Amazon and Simon and Schuster (who is one of Viz’s book distributors):

Naruto volume 33 is scheduled to ship on December 23. However, the next four volumes (#34-37) are all listed for February 3. Volumes 38 to 41 will then follow on March 3. Volumes 42 to 44 will end the accelerated schedule on April 7. The next volume, #45, is slated for July 7. The Amazon online retailer also lists the same dates.

There was some suggestion last time around that the reason Viz was doing this was to a) catch up on the Japanese audiences and cut down on some of the scantillations; and b) speed through one of the drier parts of the lengthy epic. What’s the reasoning this time? Are they still that far behind Japanese readers? Was the initial Naruto Nation that popular? Apparently so.

– Over at his blog, Scott Saavedra notes that he is rather ill and could use financial help, either via donations or by purchasing his some of his art work. (hat tip: Tom Spurgeon)

– Bloggers Paul O’Brian and Alistair Kennedy have started a new podcast, titled House to Astonish. It’s going to be an every-other-week affair, and focus on comics news and reviews. The premiere episode looks at recent Batman books, Dark Horse’s Gigantic and other books.

– Chris Butcher has more to say on the Bat-Manga! controversy.

– Tom Spurgeon tells us what comics he’s reading online these days.

– David Baille emailed us to let us know what a busy beaver he is these days. He’s got his first ever story in 2000AD this week, animator David Hailwood has animated a couple of his Zombies Interviews strips, and, perhaps most significantly, he’s started a new Webcomic, the Belly Button Bubble Chronicles.

– The work of cartoonists Josh Neufeld and David Rees can currently be seen at the Brooklyn Public Library’s Central Library through January 10, 2009. From the press release: “Neufeld will show material from his true-life graphic novel A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, and Rees will exhibit a collection of his “Clip-Art Comics.” Neufeld will be showing original pages, oversized giclée prints, and an example of the creative process from script to final art.”

– The Windy City Times talks to Alison Bechdel about the release of the new Dykes to Watch Out For collection.

– A quick reminder: Quentin Blake is awesome.

– For your Monday enjoyment: Ten years of New Yorker covers.

While the release of the new Bat-Manga! book has largely met with strong publicity and good reviews, there’s been a bit of controversy recently, as some reviewers and bloggers have noted that manga-ka Jiro Kuwata, whose Batman stories make up the bulk of the book, is not credited on the cover or title page of the book. His name only appears on the inside flap initially, though Kidd does credit him in the introduction, includes a one-page interview with him and dedicates the book to him as well. Laura Hudson has a round-up of comments and offers her own thoughts on the matter:

even if we accept that Kidd et al. played a very important role in designing and presenting this book to an American audience, I’m not sure how that justifies the de facto usurping of authorship here, or the diminishment of the role played by the actual creator of these materials, without whom Kidd and friends would have had nothing to compile, edit, and claim as their own.

I had interviewed Kidd last week about the new book and decided to email him to see if he had anything to say about the controversy. Here is his response:

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The judges have been announced for the 2009 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards. The five-person panel selects the nominees, who are then voted on by eligible members of the comics industry.

The 2009 judges are:

• Amanda Emmert, owner of Muse Comics & Games in Missoula, Mont., and communications coordinator for ComicsPRO

• Mike Pawuk, teen-services public librarian for the Cuyahoga County Public Library in Parma, Ohio

• John Shableski, a sales manager for Diamond Book Distributors

• Ben Towle, cartoonist, educator and creator of Midnight Sun

• Andrew Wheeler, comics reviewer, blogger and former senior editor of the Science Fiction Book Club

Steven Spielberg and Will Smith are in early negotiations to remake Park Chan-wook’s 2003 revenge film Oldboy, based on the manga series by Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi.

Variety reports the movie will be produced by DreamWorks and distributed by Universal Pictures.

In the award-winning South Korean film, and the source manga, a man is kidnapped and held in prison for years with only a television and the voices of his jailers for company. One day he’s sedated, stuffed into a trunk and then dumped in a park. When he awakes he sets out to discover who destroyed his life so he can take revenge.

If negotiations work out, Smith would play the kidnapped man.

The original manga was serialized from 1996 to 1998 in Japan’s Weekly Manga Action. All eight volumes have been released in North America by Dark Horse.

– Van Jensen hangs out with Paul Pope to find out about the new reprint edition of Heavy Liquid, which Pope initiated when he discovered out of print copies selling on eBay for as much as $200: ” ‘That was disgusting to me,’ he said. ‘That was money those fans could’ve spent on other books.’ ”

– Kai-Ming Cha talks to Yen Press’ Kurt Hassler about the imprint’s absorption into Hachette’s Orbit imprint.

– Tom Richmond looks at how Mad Magazine has covered close elections in the past.

– Alan Gardner critiques the revamped Comics.com site.

– Erin Finnegan reports on the MangaNext show in Somerset, NJ.

– Apparently Famous Monsters of Filmland‘s Forrest J. Ackerman is not doing well.

– Doug Wolk reports on last weekend’s APE convention.

– Noah Berlatsky doesn’t care for S. Clay Wilson’s work.

– Jen de Guzman wonders why Slave Labor isn’t getting that many submissions anymore and decides to blame the Internet.

– Because you don’t have enough to read: Here’s Graphic Novel Reporter.