Friends of Lulu announced last week the winners of the 2009 Lulu Awards!

These awards go to recognize and celebrate people who have “helped to open eyes and minds to the amazing comic and cartooning work by and/or about women.”

Want to know who won? Check it out, right here:

Kim Yale Award For Best New Talent: Kate Beaton for Hark, a Vagrant

Lulu of the Year: Danielle Corsetto for Girls with Slingshots

Woman of Distinction: Joanne Carter Siegel

Leah Adezio Award for Best Kid-Friendly Work: Rapunzel’s Revenge, by Shannon Hale, Dean Hale, and Nathan Hale

Female Comic Creator’s Hall of Fame: Gail Simone

Best Female Character: Monica Villarreal, from Wapsi Square by Paul Taylor

Volunteer of The Year: Marion Vitus

For profiles of all the winners, you should give Friends of Lulu a look, by clicking here.

TV Guide has an image of Michael Shanks as Hawkman, from the upcoming Smallville episodes “Society” and “Legends,” due out in January.

The jury’s still out on how exactly the Winged Wonder will translate onto screen — especially since the classic DC costumes (with maybe Green Arrow and Cyborg as exceptions) have been mostly danced around for years — but I will say that Topless Robot has a pretty funny write-up of all this.

“When we first see him, he is a shell of his former self with [an air] of cynicism,” Shanks told TV Guide. “He wears a lot of grief and guilt and pain over what happened to his friends and the society as a whole and his failures in letting that happen.”

What do you think, Rama readers? You dig Hawkman’s duds?

If you consider yourself any kind of loyal fan of Aquaman, Rob Kelly is the most important person to know, next to Arthur Curry. And if you know what F.O.A.M. stands for, well, you’ve come to the right place. Rob is the host and caretaker of the Aquaman Shrine, the most endearingly exhaustive website devoted to the Sea King and founding father of the Justice League of America. Rob, like myself, hasn’t had a whole lot to look forward to on a monthly basis in terms of Aquaman material since his dubious passing in his own title (one I personally gave up on post-”Sub Diego” when the character arguably got the short shrift “One Year Later” following Infinite Crisis). And while Rob and I may not totally see eye to eye on the bigger story, I was personally enthused as to the use of Aquaman and his immediate supporting cast in Blackest Night#2.

My biggest hope is that someone on the creative side of DC has some exciting plans for the woefully underused Aquaman, and one thing that could help send a clear message to their editorial is an effort spearheaded by Mr. Kelly. As you may have seen this week in DC’s solicitations for February 2010, Brave and the Bold #32 will be starring none other than Aquaman and Etrigan the Demon!

Written by J. Michael Straczynski; Art and cover by Jesus Saiz
Terrors of the deep! A horrifying lost city has risen at the bottom of the ocean, and Aquaman must call on the supernatural might of Etrigan, the Demon to stand between humanity and the dark menace that lurks inside that forgotten realm! It’s an undersea chiller like no other!
32pg. Color $2.99 US; On Sale February 17, 2010

In the weeks and months between now and the release of this issue, Rob is going to give extensive coverage to this event, starting now as he’s already published an interview with series writer J. Michael Straczynski! If you or anyone you know supports Aquaman, now’s the time to be heard!

UPDATE, 7:57AM: Marvel.com now has the official word. As readers speculated below, David’s casting ideas were utterly ridiculous. From Marvel:

Fandral will be played by Stuart Townsend. The job of Hogun goes to Tadanobu Asano. And Volstagg will be portrayed Ray Stevenson.

Now read on, and everyone point and laugh at David. Go on, it’s okay this time. -The Management

UPDATE, 11:48PM: Variety has since taken down the link to the story — no word yet as to the reasons why. It could be incorrect, or it could be simply because it was posted prematurely. Until they repost the article, I’d take this all with a grain of salt. That said, this is Variety we’re talking about here, so if anyone’s to be believed at this point, it’s them.

11:24PM: Wow, that was some quick turnaround — while Chuck’s Zachary Levi was reported today to have backed out of playing Fandral the Dashing, Variety seems to have announced that Kenneth Branagh has found his Warriors Three!

According to Variety (from left to right), Stuart Townsend (from the Anne Rice film Queen of the Damned), Ray Stevenson (from Punisher: War Zone), and Tadanobu Asano (from Mongol) have been cast as the Warriors Three. The film is due out May 2011.

I could certainly see Townsend and Stevenson as Fandral the Dashing and Hogun the Grim, but that leaves me wondering where Asano would fit — he certainly isn’t as massive as Volstagg the Voluminous, but perhaps they’re toning down the humorous aspect of the character? That said, this could also be a slip on Variety’s part as well — this comic book continuity stuff is hard work! But what say you, Rama readers? You ready to ride into battle with the Warriors Three?

Sorry, Felicia — you just didn’t hit the jackpot.

Entertainment Weekly has reported that Rachel McAdams — heavily rumored last week to be in the running for the role of the Black Cat in the upcoming Spider-Man 4 film — is most definitely not going to be stealing any scenes as the black-leather-clad cat thief anytime soon.

“That’s a total rumor, I have to say,” McAdams said to EW. “I was hanging out in Toronto the other day and someone came up to me and said, ‘I just heard you’re doing Spider-Man 4.‘ And I said, ‘Really? No one told me!’ It’s not true.”

With that rumor out of the way, the question remains — who would you want to see as the Black Cat? Sound off!

Che: A Graphic Biography
Written by Sid Jacobson
Illustrated by Ernie Colon
Published by Hill & Wang

Che Guevara…, the dude seems to be stalking my comic book reading lately. Considering I’ve never had any interest at all, it’s a little surprising. First, I had interest in discovering the comics of underground legend Spain Rodriguez, which led me to borrow his book Che from the library. Now, I find a review copy of Hill & Wang’s new book, Che: A Graphic Biography in my mailbox.

While Spain opted for a more jingoistic approach, celebrating Che’s ideals and message, pushing adulation over journalism, Jacobson and Colon show respect for the man’s ideals, but balance their approach with frank comments about the assassination of Cuban dissidents overseen by Guevara and his later inability to stir Congolese and Bolivian revolutionaries. Of course, Jacobson and Colon are the duo who successfully adapted the 9/11 Commission Report to comics, so their balanced approach isn’t terribly surprising.

The book opens with the famed “motorcycle diaries” days and follows Guevara through his meetings with the Castro brothers, extensively details his role in the Cuban revolution, and then devotes two additional chapters to his life in African and South America, trying to again sow the seeds of revolution. While there will undoubtedly be far more detailed biographies (only so much can be said in 110 pages, no matter how talented the teller), Jacobson and Colon provide a compelling overview through the high points of Che’s career.

That said, a couple chapters run aground fairly heavily. The second, for example, details the political circumstances in Central and Latin America during Guevara’s coming of age. Certainly those respective histories are compelling unto themselves, but reducing the saga of each country to half a page, and compounding the problem by failing to tie any of those events firmly to Guevara’s life, doesn’t provide justice to the situation or its impact on the man.

Ernie Colon, a wonderful draftsman, does strong work throughout Che: A Graphic Biography. His likenesses are strong, without being stiff photographic tracings, and he does a professional job with backgrounds and locations. Occasionally, as with past Jacobson/Colon journalism collaborations, the order of captions and balloons is difficult to follow, however.

Che: A Graphic Biograpy continues Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon’s streak of solid and effective comic book journalism projects.  I hope to see them tackle more current events, but their talents are put to good use here chronicling the life of one of the twentieth century’s most influential and controversial figures.

MTV has an interesting interview up with Wes Anderson, who seems to have been bit by the comic book bug while working on his computer animated feature, the Fantastic Mr. Fox:

Could there be a comic book spin-off for White Cape anytime soon? More importantly, could there be enough longing pauses, indie tracks, and Jason Schwartzman to satisfy Anderson’s jonesing? Either which way, the Fantastic Mr. Fox — starring George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, and the Anderson mainstay Schwartzman — will be hitting theatres this Thanksgiving.

Those of you who have been fans of Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, this might be some great news for you!

According to Shock ‘Til You Drop, the prolific author said a a book signing that he had “one more Dark Tower book to write.”

The Liljas-Library site also issued the following note, allegedly from Stephen King’s message board — that said, I’m taking this one with a grain of salt, as I have not been able to find a direct link yet:

“Stephen has given me permission to pass along that he has an idea for a new Dark Tower book, the working title of which will be The Wind Through The Keyhole. He has not yet started this book and anticipates that it will be a minimum of eight months before he is able to begin writing it.”

Considering the Dark Tower series has been lovingly rendered by Marvel, with creators such as Peter David, Robin Furth, Richard Isanove, and Jae Lee, this could be some welcome news for comics fans. It may not focus specifically on the Gunslinger himself — according to Zach Dionne at GQ, this will likely focus on supporting characters, especially dealing with events from Wizard and Glass and Wolves of the Calla — but this may definitely tie up some loose ends. Thoughts?

Ouch. This one’s going to be a talker, I’d imagine.

Mad Magazine is bringing up its annual “MAD 20″ list, and the number one dumbest thing of the year? According to them, it’s the beatification of the late King of Pop, who died in June allegedly due to the sleeping medication in his system.

If you check out Comics Alliance, where we found this story from, you’ll see the page in question, a stained-glass image of Jackson with some llamas, a monkey, and some crotch-grabbing. I can’t look at it without a weird mix of horror, awe, and laughter.

Considering how divided people have been over Michael Jackson’s death — one half cracking jokes, the other half mourning over his death, and another half more or less wishing him a not-so-happy afterlife — I’m curious to see how Mad’s issue will play out. There’s certainly a line between hilarious humor and poor taste: has Mad moonwalked over it?

Either which way, the book — which also has Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Kanye West, and Michael Jackson’s doctor on the list — comes out tomorrow. What say you, Rama readers?

Ready to see an awesome vision of Terry McGinnis? Check out The Mighty artist Chris Samnee’s sketch of Batman Beyond:

That image, which Samnee posted on his blog earlier today, is just totally hard core. I would pay to see an ongoing or a mini with Samnee behind the wheel — maybe this’ll convince DC?

For those of you still smarting over the news of Dollhouse’s cancellation, this may be a (slight) silver lining for you.

Sci Fi Wire has posted a casting call for what seems to be an online Buffy the Vampire Slayer Motion Comic, produced by MAXX INITIATIVE, and based on the Season Eight comic by Dark Horse. Here’s just a snippet:

[ FAITH (V.O.) ]
Co-Star / Female / Caucasian / 20 - 25 years
Description: MAXX INITIATIVE is now casting voice over talent for the Buffy the Vampire Motion Comic, upcoming web series. Seeking the role of FAITH - female, early 20’s, a slayer, displays a much darker, dangerously, fun-seeking, approach to both slaying and murder, she is the dark side of a slayer’s personality. Voice to match Eliza Dushku. Send voiceover links/ reels (if possible). Pay provided. Nonunion.

There’s no sign of Buffy anywhere in this casting call — although that may mean she’s already been cast. Interesting note, however, is there is a call for someone to match the voice of actor Daniel Craig. I don’t know what kind of role he might have, but that’s kinda cool.

Bloody Disgusting reports that the film adaptation of the Devil’s Due comic Hack/Slash is getting a new writer.

According to their announcement, Stephen Susco, writer of the Grudge, has been signed on to write the adaptation.

This is a new development, apparently marking the departure of Justin Marks, whose biggest (and only) feature film thus far was the disappointing Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li.

Susco’s signing also marks a brand new creative team, as Fredrik Bond joined the production as a director back in July. What about casting? Currently there’s no word on any of it, although Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist (boy, that says something about my viewing habits when I confuse that movie with Zombieland) actresss Kat Denning expressed her interest in the property to MTV.

Even as his new comic on singing supervillain Dr. Horrible comes out this week, Zack Whedon is showing that he has a lot of range — even up to the horrors of 2029.

Indeed, the brother of Joss Whedon announced on Techland last night that he would be taking on a Terminator comic for Dark Horse.

Read on for the goods:

I am currently working on a six issue Terminator series for Dark Horse. I just turned in the first script and I’m very excited about it. I love Terminator. I think that movie is so good. Holy Toledo is it good. Now I get to play in that universe and make up Terminator stories of my own that people will get to read. I am not a big-time, famous dude and yet now I am choreographing action sequences set in a post-apocalyptic future overrun by evil cybernetic organisms hell bent on destroying the human race. How is that possible?! I’ll answer your question, Made-Up Person. It’s possible because in comics it doesn’t cost 150 million dollars to tell that story. They can put an idiot like me in charge!

No word yet over whether or not it’s set in the future, the present, or the past — or how John Connor, his mother Sarah, and his Resistance will play into this. What do you think, Rama readers?

Editor’s Note: Stay tuned to the mothership for our EXCLUSIVE Interview with Zack on the new series, later today!

Usually the “almost-cast-but-didn’t” kind of news doesn’t really stir our fancy, but USA Weekend has a post up that makes me almost mournful regarding the upcoming Thor film.

According to their interview, Chuck star Zachary Levi was apparently cast in the Kenneth Branagh-directed film to play Fandral the Dashing. He also said that at one point he had been considered for the main role of Thor himself, having even begun an exercise regimen to bulk up.

(Un)Fortunately, Levi had to back out of the production in order to film six more episodes of Chuck that NBC had ordered. At the very least, however, this means that the Warriors Three have to be in the film — who would you cast as Fandral, Hogun, and Volstagg? Sound off!

One year later…

While the Catwoman title may have been cancelled last Fall, Adam Hughes’ covers are hardly forgettable. He continues to exhibit the talent for which he is most known for. Newsarama briefly spoke to Adam Hughes on what it was like, literally, going back to the drawing board.

Blog@: So what was it like drawing Ms. Selina Kyle on her “resurrected” book? Bring back some fond memories?

AH: Yeah, and some regrets. I felt like I was finding my ‘zone’ in that last year on CATWOMAN; I was having ideas that were outside my usual box. Doing this cover reminded me of them. But it’s always great drawing Selina; she’s one of my favorite characters to draw. T’ain’t nothing like a bad girl gone good!

Blog@: How many drafts did you have before this particular one was selected?

AH: Just the one. I have an extremely subtle and streamlined work process with DC Comics Art Director Mark Chiarello, thanks to my years of doing covers for him. He said to me “Dan (DiDio) wants this certain vibe to the piece…” and explained the vibe, and I knew exactly what they wanted. It’s like an old-marriage where you can finish each others’ sentences. And eat their leftovers from the fridge.

Blog@: I guess you can’t give away any specific plot points, but what exactly is going on here on the cover?

AH: That’s OK: I don’t KNOW any specific plot points…! Basically, the feeling that DC wanted was akin to that moment in the 1925 Phantom of the Opera when the girl takes the mask from Lon Chaney’s head, and reveals his gruesome face. I didn’t want to ape that shot exactly, so I switched it so that the girl is in the front. Selina is finding a bloody face and is holding it up in a WTF?!? moment of dawning horror and the owner of the face is grasping at her from the shadows. Spooky stuff! Also, it’s my first zombie I’ve ever gotten to draw. Thanks, DC Comics, whee!!

You can get your paws on Catwoman #83 this January, ‘Rama readers.

It was Joe McCulloch who really sold me on the idea of DC’s First Wave series. In his regular preview of the week’s releases, he wrote of Batman/Doc Savage Special #1:

[W]riter/mastermind Brian Azzarello seems to have a pretty great concept brewing: a matured, shared universe of pulp magazine fixtures, upset by the arrival of the gun-toting early Batman cast as the young hotshot in town, thus neatly linking the early notion of the superhero to the costumed magazine characters that certainly provided some of the concept’s lineage.

That does sound like a pretty great idea for a series, huh? Something in the tradition of past DC epics hinging on the change of publishing eras. Think The Golden Age, The New Frontier or Kingdom Come, applied to the dawning of superhero comics as the adventure pulps began to fade. And if someone could do a kick-ass version of such a series, it would almost have to be Brian Azzarello, who has more great crime comics on his resume than just about anyone, and showed a great aptitude for metafictional fun in his Dr. 13 story.

Unfortunately, McCulloch wasn’t speaking for Azzarello or DC Comics, and this first book of the First Wave series/event isn’t anywhere near as clever. Instead it’s a 38-page, $4.99 comic book in which the two leads have a misunderstanding, get in a fight, realize their conflict is premised on a mistake, and decide to team up (Or as Graeme McMillian succintly put it in his Savage Critics review,  it’s “a standard Marvel Team-Up plot without much flair”). It even lacks what little punch that old superhero team-up formula has left, as it’s stretched out past the 22-page mark, but never actually gets around to the teaming-up. That’s something that will presumably happen at a later date, most likely sometime next spring, based on the back matter.

That back matter consists of eight pages of sketch art and character designs by Rags Morales, with a few paragraphs about a variety of characters playing a part in the First Wave to come by Azzarello. The characters are a pretty eclectic mix, so eclectic that it’s hard to find a pattern. There are a few standard DCU characters—new versions of Batman, Black Canary and the Blackhawks. There’s Will Eisner’s Spirit character, who also seems to be a distinctly new take (His Ebony White, for example, is a “brash girl.” Not even Frank Miller thought of doing that!). There’s Justice Inc, an old pulp franchise which became a DC comic briefly in the ’70s. Also from the pulps is Doc Savage, who also did time as a DC Comics-published character. And then there’s Rima, the mysterious jungle girl character from William  Henry Hudson’s 1904 romance Green Mansions, who also did time in the ’70s as a DC character, albeit in a jungle adventure mode.

Is there a logic to the character’s chosen? It’s difficult to say. It seems like they are among the less fantastic characters DC own or has the right to publish comics featuring—none are as hard to imagine existing in the real world as, say, Superman or Space Ghost—but there’s still a sense of the random about them, like they were chosen out of a hat and handed as an assignement to Azzarello, along with the instructions to “Try and make something out of all these guys, huh? We’ll let you know if we can get The Shadow or decide to throw in The Sandman or Crimson Avenger.”

(more…)

 

You could argue that the sewer-trolling, wall-shimmying, supernaturally powered protagonist of China Mieville’s King Rat is not really a superhero. He doesn’t wear a crazy costume, he doesn’t really fight crime, and since he counts garbage-eating as one of his powers, maybe there’s good reason to distance him from the likes of Superman and Spider-Man. Still, King Rat, with its cast of supernaturally powered characters and clashes, reads like a fugitive from the comics page, like something escaped from the Vertigo roster back in the 90’s and re-captured in prose. (more…)

 

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Permalink [November 14, 2009 @ 19:41:13 EST]