– The Independent has a profile on Jack Kirby.

– Check out the trailer for Dollhouse.

– Mort Walker’s International Museum of Cartoon Art now has a home at Ohio State University.

– Cameron Stewart shares more Seaguy character art.

–The Daily Cross Hatch interviews Gerard Way.

– Tom Spurgeon talks to the Aqua Leung guys.

– The first Scott Pilgrim page ever drawn.

– Forces of Good interviews Gerry Conway.

– Stan Sakai shares his Hulk cover for the Hero Initiative Hulk project.

– Craig Thompson likes to doodle.

Compiled by JK and Chris.

• As you’ve likely already read, Iron Man grossed an estimated $104.2 million domestically and $201 million worldwide in its first five days. That makes it the second-best opening for a non-sequel, behind 2002’s Spider-Man. It also gives Iron Man the 10th-best opening of all time.

At this moment, in Hollywood, a Warner Bros. executive is wondering whether they can just forget about Justice League and the Superman sequel and take another run at Steel. Or maybe a Cyborg feature leading into that Teen Titans movie. Hell, what about the Rocket Red Brigade? A bunch of men in flying armor beats just one guy, right? Right?

• You’ve probably also seen that the sequel is scheduled to open on April 30, 2010, kicking off a summer that will include a Thor movie.

• What does the $100 million milestone mean for Iron Man and the blockbuster? [PopMatters]

• “Why Iron Man is like Steve Jobs.” [Slate]

• Iron Man and (probably) The Dark Knight are Oscar-worthy. [EW.com]

• Stan Lee talks about his Iron Man cameo. [Wired.com]

• Sabbath rules! The movie soundtrack hits stores on Tuesday. [Wired.com]

– Rapper Method Man has a graphic novel coming out in July.

– Here’s an abstract comic by Raymond Pettibon.

– Eric Reynolds has been sharing pages from his sketchbook.

– David Peterson blogs about giving a lecture on Mouse Guard at the Flint Institute of the Arts.

– The Boston Herald covers DC’s Final Crisis.

– Nick Abadzis has set up a mini-site on how he created his graphic novel Laika.

– Optimus Prime, made from cans.

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National Public Radio’s Morning Edition looks at the move into comic books by rapper Percy Carey, novelist Jodi Picoult and TV and movie producer Joss Whedon:

… As Picoult learned, writing in the sequential art form required a different set of skills from the ones she had honed as a novelist.

“I almost have to [write] more like I imagine a director would than a novelist,” says Picoult. “That visualization of how the words are going to play out on the page and where … the camera angle would swoop in to the scene. That was really foreign to me.”

Despite the differences in the writing process, Picoult sees a direct parallel between the graphic novel and other forms of literature:

“In all the years that I’ve been writing — 15 years now — there’s only one genre that’s really debuted in The New York Times Book Review, and that’s the graphic novel,” says Picoult. “And that tells me that someone’s taking them really seriously as a form of literature.”

The website includes John Ridley’s audio story, and excerpts from Buffy the Vampire Slayer #11 and Sentences: The Life of MF Grimm.

NBC has released some more details on the Heroes soundtrack, which comes out March 18. The packaging will include artwork by Steven Parke of each of the bands on the soundtrack, as well as some of Tim Sale’s art used in season two. They also released the complete track listing:

1. Heroes Theme - Wendy & Lisa
2. Fire and Regeneration - Wendy & Lisa (*new release)
3. He’s Frank - Brighton Port Authority featuring Iggy Pop (*new release)
4. All For Swinging You Around - New Pornographers
5. Glad It’s Over - Wilco (*new release)
6. Weightless - Nada Surf (new release)
7. Nine In The Afternoon - Panic! At The Disco (new release)
8. Chills - My Morning Jacket (*new release)
9. Natural Selection - Wendy & Lisa
10. ABoneCroneDrone 3 - Shelia Chandra
11. Not Now But Soon - Imogen Heap (*new release)
12. Jealously Rides With Me - Death Cab For Cutie (*new U.S. release)
13. All Things Must Pass - The Jesus and Mary Chain (*new release)
14. Homecoming - Wendy & Lisa
15. Man In The Long Black Coat - Bob Dylan
16. Maya’s Theme - Yerba Buena (*new release)
17. Keep My Composure - The Chemical Brothers featuring Spank Rock (*new release)
18. Heroes - David Bowie

* Denotes an exclusive new release on the “Heroes” soundtrack album.

Wow, two pop diva stories in one day. Avril Lavigne, who already has some manga experience, is selling an exclusive comic based on her song, “Girlfriend,” at concerts and on her website.

The story, per her website, is about “a girl who wants a boy who’s too good for the girlfriend he’s got.” Kind of like the song, if you’ve heard it.

And if you aren’t a pre-teen girl, there’s another reason this might be worth checking out … per the website, the 92-page, $12.99 comic was written by Gail Simone.

Britney Spears … super hero?

Reuters reports that the pop diva/paparazzi bait’s video for “Break the Ice,” which debuts on a dedicated website next Wednesday, features the singer as “an animated superhero in a futuristic world.” Per Reuters:

The release of the video, along with an upcoming acting role on U.S. television comedy “How I Met Your Mother,” marks something of a comeback for Spears, 26, whose career has been sidelined by psychiatric problems and months of bitter child custody battles.

Spears’ Jive record company said the video was made in South Korea in Japanese anime style. Spears last year released two singles from the “Blackout” album which has sold more than 2 million copies worldwide but whose commercial success pales in comparison to the singer’s heyday six years ago.

Variety reports that Fugees member Pras Michel has optioned film and TV rights to Dark Oz, originally published by Caliber Comics and Arrow Comics:

Screenplay was adapted from the work of original comic creators Aaron Denenberg, Ralph Griffith and Stuart Kerr with plans to begin production at the end of 2008. Pic will be a live-action version of the comic trilogy, which Michel intends to produce as three separate films. In addition to producing duties, Michel plans to star as the Scarecrow.

I’m not familiar with the comic, but there was more about it online than I thought there would be. You can see some pages from the series here and read about it on Wikipedia here.

NBC is releasing a soundtrack for Heroes on March 18 that will feature a mix of new and old songs:

The NBC Universal Television, DVD, Music & Consumer Products Group has set a March 18 release for the album, which will feature exclusive new singles from artists including Wilco (”Glad It’s Over”), Panic! at the Disco (”Nine in the Afternoon”), Imogen Heap (”Not Now But Soon”) and Brighton Port Authority featuring Iggy Pop (”He’s Frank”) as well as classic tracks from Bob Dylan (”Man in the Long Black Coat”) and David Bowie (”Heroes,” as one might have guessed).

It also will include the “Heroes” theme and three other songs by former Prince collaborators Wendy & Lisa as well as Jesus and Mary Chain’s first new studio recording (”All Things Must Pass”) in a decade.

And apparently NBC’s tension with Apple is a plus for Microsoft’s Zune, which has a big Heroes ad on their home page right now:

In addition, “Heroes” executive producer/director Allan Arkush has crafted five music video montage podcasts — featuring “Heroes” footage set to select tracks from the album — that will be exclusively available for free download on the Zune Marketplace online store and for streaming at MSN. Nada Surf’s “Weightless” will be the first available, starting Feb. 29.

The soundtrack, being released through NBC Records, will be available in CD format at Best Buy stores and digitally at Zune and other digital service providers. It is executive produced by music industry veteran Errol Kolosine in collaboration with “Heroes” creator/executive producer Tim Kring and Arkush.

Lucas over at Shotgun Reviews sent me a link to this on Friday, but with WonderCon going on I didn’t have time to follow it. In a post titled “This Lie’s Been Bothering Me…” on his LiveJournal, Hart D. Fisher of Boneyard Press says he published Gerard Way’s first comic:

The most troubling side of this lie is the collusion of the comics industry at large. Boneyard Press was not a small time publisher that was a flavor of the month that got flushed after one year. We published regularly for over 13 years. Boneyard Press was a unique publishing house and held it’s own place in the comics industry, one that has not been filled while I’ve been active in movies. I was listed two years in a fucking row on the Top One Hundred Most Important People In the Comics Industry, and that shit happened a couple years AFTER the Dahmer affair began.

So why was it so easy to pull one over on the public and hoodwink everyone in the comics world that good ol boy Gerard was doing his first published work at Dark Horse?

–snip–

So did a big company like Dark Horse knowingly commit fraud on the public in their advertisements touting these books by Gerard as his first foray into comics, or were they unknowing dupes. How many kids bought this comic book, The Umbrella Academy, because it was the FIRST. It’s a well known fact that the first issue of any new series is the best selling, or the first issue of a celebrity’s FIRST comic ever published. You see where I’m going with this? Sales for a book like that are going to be much higher than for a an old comics pro coming back to the fold now that he’s famous. You think Dark Horse had any part in this, I’ve already shown motive.

Shotgun Reviews contacted Scott Allie at Dark Horse and Gerard Way. Allie said he doesn’t think they ever billed The Umbrella Academy as Way’s first published work, noting that he did something for DC when he interned there. Way said:

I sent [Hart] an email years ago, before we finished ‘Revenge,’ thanking him for believing in me, and never got a response. I think I emailed him once again as well…never heard anything back. I’m not ashamed of what I did for him, and wanted to see him in person and thank him. I’ve never had the chance.

Rolling Stone reports that the Foo Fighters are suing Marvel Entertainment, First Serve International, Toonz Animation India and First Serve Toonz for copyright infringement:

The band alleges that Marvel used “substantial excerpts” of their songs “Best of You” and “Free Me” as the music for the trailer of the new animated series Wolverine and the X-Men. You can watch the trailer here, and it’s pretty obvious that the Foos are used to soundtrack the cartoon’s preview.

The trailer hit the ‘net back at the beginning of February and has since been pulled from YouTube.

E! Online has a few more details:

Per the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, “substantial excerpts” of the tunes “Best of You” and “Free Me,” both off the 2005 album In Your Honor, were used in a teaser for the upcoming animated series Wolverine and the X-Men.

The song samples “were copied directly from the Foo Fighters’ sound recordings of those two songs” and people can watch the trailer online, the suit alleges.

The suit was also filed on behalf of Roswell Records Inc., owners of the master recordings.

(Thanks, James!)

I’ve never been into Transformers, but this IDW Publishing promo is kind of funny.

Leslie Nielsen makes everything better.

Superhero Movie. The question is: did they clear the name “superhero” with Marvel and DC?

Indy’s hat and jacket

IndianaJones.com has a new featurette about Indy’s iconic look and trying to recreate it for the new movie.

Indy’s trailer

Apparently, the teaser trailer for Indy and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull will be attached to The Spiderwick Chronicles when it hits theaters on Thursday. You can catch it earlier than that though on Thursday’s Good Morning America, sometime between 8-9 am. After that, it’ll be available on IndianaJones.com and Yahoo! Movies.

(more…)

On Jason Aaron’s blog, Scalped artist R.M. Guéra discusses the music that influences his work on the Vertigo crime series: Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Tom Waits, Nina Simone, Johnny Cash and more.

Who the heck is Lou Dernow? The alter-ego of Marcus Henderson, who recorded many of the tracks you can hear in Activision’s Guitar Hero games. Marvel.com has a Q&A up with him about a variety of topics, including 80s comics:

Henderson: And you know, I’ve always dreamt that if I ever had the chance to be part of a comic book…I have my alter-ego: Lou Dernow. You know, “louder now” [chuckles]. It’s a lot like music. It takes a fertile imagination and a lot of creativity. And the link between music, video games and comic books is the imagination. It’s influenced everything for me.

Marvel.com: What books are you into now?
Henderson: I’m kinda one of those guys who is still into the old stuff, and it’s not because I’m sitting at home reading POWER PACK or anything. I enjoy finding old THOR comics. I really dig rereading SECRET WARS.

A Danish court has ordered one of that country’s largest Internet service providers to block users from accessing The Pirate Bay, the embattled BitTorrent tracker.

DMT2-Tele2 was ordered shut down access last week after the court ruled that The Pirate Bay, whose servers were based in Sweden, facilitates the “unauthorized distribution of copyright protected works.” The ISP is expected to decide next week whether to challenge the ruling.

In response to the decision, The Pirate Bay has set up another site that can be accessed by Tele2 customers.

Last week Swedish authorities charged four operators of The Pirate Bay with “promoting other people’s infringements of copyright laws.” After the police raid, the site’s servers reportedly were moved out of the country.

(Some links via Dirk Deppey)

In what could be a major blow to illegal downloading, Swedish authorities today charged four operators of The Pirate Bay, the world’s largest BitTorrent tracker, with “promoting other people’s infringements of copyright laws.”

If found guilty, the four men — Hans Fredrik Neij, Per Svartholm Warg, Peter Kolmisoppi and Carl Lundstroem — face a year in jail.

Sweden, which has some of the loosest copyright protections in Europe, has been considered a haven for torrent trackers. (When ComicSearch ran afoul of Marvel in December, the site’s administrator pledged, “I’m now looking at moving my hosting to Sweden.”)

Prosecutors say The Pirate Bay generates about $4.5 million in annual revenue through advertising.

–Secret Headquarters in L.A. is now offering their very cool “God Save Stan Lee” T-shirts online.

–Metro Pulse has a story on the late illustrator, children’s author Jim Flora.

–Steve Ellis walks us through the process of creating High Moon, their webcomic on Zuda.

–Florida Today offers literary alternatives to reruns and reality TV, such as the Heroes graphic novel for fans of Heroes and Fables for fans of Pushing Daisies.

–Eighth grader Morghen Philippi writes about Martin Luther King’s “Justice League.”

(more…)

–This isn’t quite the new Indiana Jones poster:

It’s actually for Morgan Spurlock’s new film, Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden? Spurlock, of course, is the mad genius behind Super Size Me and FX’s 30 Days.

–IESB asks Jason Statham what comic character he’d like to play:

IESB: Anyone in particular?

Statham: Let me think… It’s funny, I took a meeting for Sub-Mariner. I don’t know if I’d look right running around in a tight speedo with wings on my ankles but there’s so many cool fucking characters. The Hulk, I’ve always been a big fan of but Ed Norton’s doing that. And rightly so. He’s fucking amazing. And he’s working with Louis Leterrier, believer it or not who did The Transporter. I’m trying to think of what would be a good comic book character for me to play. You know, there’s talk of them redoing The Crow. That was a good movie with Brandon Lee, although that was years ago. So if that one comes my way, bang! You know, there’s so many comic book movies out there and most of the time there’s only a handful of people who can do them any justice. Hopefully, they’ll come my way for one of them.

I don’t really see him as either the Sub-Mariner or The Crow … who do you think he should play?

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On his blog, Sean Phillips posts his artwork for The Criterion Collection edition of Blast of Silence, Allen Baron’s 1961 noir thriller. Phillips also previews the first pages of a four-page comic adaptation included with the DVD. Beautiful stuff.

Darwyn Cooke and Danijel Zezelj illustrated covers for Criterion in 2006.