– The Hero Initiative has another round of Hulk covers up for auction.

–ComicsPro has launched a site dedicated to 24-Hour Comics Day, with information on how to host an event, who is participating and other information. 24 Hour Comics Day is scheduled for Oct. 18.

– Steven Grant and Scott Beiser are working on a new webcomic over at Big Head Press called Odysseus the Rebel.

– Virgin is giving away some of their Comic-Con exclusives on their website.

– io9.com has an interview up with Middleman creator Javier Grillo-Marxuach.

– Bam! Pow! Ouch!

–Racked.com has posted the Jack Spade “Breaking and Entering” Comic Book, which details a weird break-in at the Jack Spade store in New York. (Via)

After several significant publishing announcements right out of the gate on Wednesday — among them, the Vertigo Crime imprint, Darwyn Cooke’s Parker adaptations and the BOOM! deal with Disney/Pixar — the first official day of Comic-Con seemed, well, subdued. At least as far as new projects go.

The biggest news on Thursday probably came from the “DC Nation” panel, where it was revealed that Kevin Smith will write a three-issue Batman miniseries called Cacophony, which features the villain Onomatopoeia from Smith’s 2000 run on Green Arrow. If you were planning some jokes about whether the miniseries will be late, or never finish, save them: Smith beat you to it.

And, surprising no one, Barry Allen will return in The Flash: Rebirth, by Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver.

The “Mondo Marvel” panel introduced a handful of new titles, including an ongoing Agents of Atlas, Greg Pak and Leonardo Manco’s War Machine as a replacement for Iron Man: Director of SHIELD, the return of Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon for a weekly Punisher: War Zone miniseries, and … an adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s short story “The Electric Ant” by David Mack, with covers by Paul Pope.

Yeah, that last one seemed to surprise, or puzzle, a lot of folks.

At the X-Men panel, the next big X-event was revealed: X Infernus, a sequel, of sorts, to 1989’s Inferno crossover.

Other convention-related announcements:

• Virgin Comics and Perspective Studios rolled out their collaboration with writer Grant Morrison, MBX. It’s an animation franchise based on the ancient Indian epic the Mahabharata.

• Devil’s Due Publishing announced its new online initiative with Kevin Spacey’s talent-scouting website TriggerStreet.com.

• Wildstorm continued its licensing frenzy with a six-issue miniseries based on Electronic Arts’ upcoming video game Mirror’s Edge.

• And then there was the now-usual run of movie news: Bryan Singer’s Bad Hat Harry and Radical Pictures adapting Radical Publishing’s Freedom Formula miniseries; Landscape Entertainment picking up the rights to the Image miniseries Pretty, Baby, Machine, by Clark Westerman and Kody Chamberlain; and Disney renewing its first-look deal with Stan Lee’s POW Entertainment.

You can follow our complete Comic-Con coverage here.

Virgin Comics and Perspective Studios at Comic-Con today announced a collaboration with writer Grant Morrison called MBX, an animation franchise based on the ancient Indian epic the Mahabharata.

The re-imagining of the epic tale of two families at war is the flagship title of the joint venture between Virgin Comics and Perspective, a producer of digital animation. The two companies plan to develop several MBX animated projects, including a feature film and video games.

The animation for MBX will receive its public unveiling later today at the convention.

The press release can be found after the break.

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Summit Entertainment has acquired the film rights to Virgin Comics’ one-shot The Leaves, by Kevin J. Walsh and Ashwin Chikerur.

Walsh will write the screenplay.

The comic, released earlier this month, centers on New York surgeon Max Mellick, who travels to Bombay to attend a friend’s funeral. There, a fortuneteller informs him he’ll bring about the apocalypse. So Max flees the country to save himself and preserve his destiny.

Gotham Chopra, Virgin’s founder, COO and editor-in-chief, will produce the movie along with CEO Sharad Devarajan.

We’re just a little more than a week away from the San Diego Comic-Con. Last night the meters measuring how many badges they had left were getting dangerously close to being sold out, so I imagine they’ll be gone soon.

Also, the official signing schedule is up … these are the signings that the con arranges and puts in the special autograph area, so it doesn’t include all the signings they’ll be having at booths on the floor.

If you’re a creator, publisher, company or any other entity that’s exhibiting at the San Diego Comic-Con, there’s still time to send in your update. I’ll likely be doing these reports right up until the show starts. So send’em on over.

*****

Mattel will have several folks signing at their booth during the convention, including Keith Giffen, who will be signing the exclusive Lobo figure they’ll have at the show:

–Four Horsemen (Jim Preziosi, Eric “Cornboy” Mayse, Eric Treadaway and Chris Dahlberg) - Famous action figure sculptors, responsible for Mattel’s DC Universe Classics and Masters of the Universe action figures (Thursday – Saturday, 1 p.m.)
–Keith Giffen - Appearing courtesy of DC Comics, creator of “Lobo” (Thursday and Friday, 2 p.m.)
–Frank Varela – Mattel Graphic/Concept artist (Thursday and Saturday, 11 a.m.)
–Emiliano Santalucia - Cover artist on the recent Masters of the Universe animated series (Thursday and Saturday, 3 p.m.)
–Brandt Peters and Kathie Olivias - Husband/Wife team, VW Bus Artists (Friday, 3 p.m.)
–Greg Smikins - VW Bus Artist (Saturday, 2 p.m.)
–Mattel Executives - Available for interviews regarding Hot Wheels® and much more (throughout show)

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Astro Boy adds Cage, Sutherland and others to all-star voice cast

IMAGI Studios has announced an all-star voice lineup for its big-screen adaptation of Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy: Nicolas Cage, Donald Sutherland, Nathan Lane, Bill Nighy and Eugene Levy.

They join Freddie Highmore (August Rush), who was cast as the voice of Astro Boy back in February.

David Bowers (Flushed Away) is directing the $50 million CG-animated production, which is set for release next year.

IMAGI also announced it has partnered with Summit Entertainment to distribute the film worldwide, except for IMAGI’s reserved territories of Japan, Hong Kong and China.

The Ticker

• After the smoke cleared on Monday, The Incredible Hulk had added another $1 million to its weekend take. That brings its opening-weekend total to $55.4 million. [Reuters]

• Len Wiseman (Underworld, Live Free or Die Hard) will direct the big-screen adaptation of the Gears of War video game for New Line, from a script by Chris Morgan (Wanted, The Fast and the Furious 4). [The Hollywood Reporter]

• Thanks largely to the performances of Iron Man and Indiana Jones, Paramount has passed $1 billion in international box office grosses this year — six weeks earlier than in 2007. [Variety]

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The next title from Sci Fi/Virgin Comics, the nearly year-old imprint from the Sci Fi Channel and Virgin Comics, will be Superbia, described as “the Justice League meets Wisteria Lane.”

Yes, that’s a Desperate Housewives reference.

The comic, written by Lisa Klink and Jordan Gorfinkle, centers on Woodshire Village, a planned community for superheroes and their families. It’s expected to be released this summer, with a television pilot in development.

“When the newest residents of Woodshire Village, a pair of young newlyweds, moved to the quaint cul-de-sac, they expected life to be strange,” the official description reads. “But ’strange’ doesn’t quite cover it. A residential community for superheroes, Woodshire Village boasts affordable housing and easy commutes to all major crime scenes. And when the heroes are away, the spouses play.”

It reminds me of Meadowlands, for some reason.

The Sci Fi/Virgin Comics partnership was announced in July 2007. The imprint’s first title, The Stranded, is being developed as a series for the Sci Fi Channel.

Who could’ve guessed that retailer Gordon Lee, comics legend Stan Lee, DC’s Wildstorm imprint and Virgin Comics would be the big newsmakers on the first day of New York Comic Con?

The big story, without a doubt, was the announcement Friday evening by Neil Gaiman that charges against Rome, Ga., retailer Gordon Lee have been dropped.

Lee’s legal battle stemmed from a Halloween 2004 giveaway during which one of his employees mistakenly handed a copy of the Alternative Comics #2 Free Comic Book Day sampler to a boy. The issue depicts a naked Pablo Picasso. After several false starts, the case finally went to court in October, only to end in mistrial during the prosecutor’s opening statement.

Gaiman said Friday the case has cost the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which represented Lee, more than $100,000.

But Gordon wasn’t the only Lee in the spotlight: Stan Lee (no relation) kicked off the convention in fine form Thursday night when he was presented with the inaugural New York Comics Legend award. The event, held at the Virgin Megastore in Times Square, drew countless creators and media-types, including Comic Foundry’s Laura Hudson, who had an interesting encounter with the folks from Virgin Comics.

The Stan Lee juggernaut continued on Friday during the invitation-only event for Ultimo, his collaboration with Shaman King creator Hiroyuki Takei for Shueisha’s Jump SQ.II spin-off magazine. As expected, Viz Media’s “exciting news” is that Ultimo will be released in North America shortly.

But wait! The Man isn’t finished: He’ll oversee a line of superhero comics for Virgin Comics, which also announced that writer Grant Morrison and filmmaker Shekhar Kapur are collaborating on an animated series to be delivered via the Internet and mobile phone. The series, titled MBX, is a futuristic retelling of the Mahabharata epic poem.

DC’s Wildstorm imprint, meanwhile, continued efforts to rebrand itself — or, perhaps, simply brand – with the announcement of three license acquisitions: Prototype, Gears of War, and The X-Files. That last property is expected to be officially announced today. However, X-Files creator Chris Carter let the information slip last night.

More coverage of New York Comic Con:

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The L.A. Times has the scoop on a deal that’ll be formally announced at the New York Comic Con — Virgin Comics is teaming with Stan Lee to create a line of superhero comics. The Times reports:

The new venture will have Lee as the editor overseeing a line of superhero comics that will launch next year with a tentpole title he is writing himself. That project — the title of which remains under wraps — will center on a superhero team that sounds similar to his classic work on the Avengers at Marvel. (Lee ended his exclusive relationship with Marvel in the 1990s but still has ties to the company and even has cameo roles in the upcoming Marvel films “Iron Man” and “The Incredible Hulk.”)

“It will be a team of 10 heroes and they will be dealing with personality conflicts, personal problems and chemistry within the team,” Lee said in an interview this week. “I’m going to get started working on it right away and I’m very excited about doing something that will be fresh and breaking new ground. I can’t give away the details or the names yet, but I have some exciting things in mind.”

It’s been a good week for Stan Lee; on Thursday he received the New York Comics Legend award, and on Wednesday, it was announced he was helping to launch a series of animated films. Virgin’s New York Comic Con experience hasn’t been too bad either; they announced Friday that Grant Morrison was creating an online animated series for them.

– Wil Moss talks with Matthew Loux about his graphic novel Salt Water Taffy.

– Doug Wolk has questions for Ten-Cent Plague author David Hajdu.

– Tim O’Shea interviews Funeral of the Heart author Leah Hayes.

– A career guide goes the graphic novel route.

– This book looks interesting.

– Cartoon Brew lists Disney and Pixar films coming out between now and 2012. Cars 2 comes out in 2012, meaning my nephew who went crazy over the first one will be a teenager when it comes out.

– When Archie switched genders.

– Brian Wood says though nothing is official, an oversized Local hardcover could be out this summer, followed by a trade in September.

– The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC presents Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy starting May 7, featuring movie costumes, “avant-garde haute couture, and high-performance sportswear.”

– Speaking of events, Dan Dare takes over the Science Museum in London beginning April 29.

– Todd Klein looks at DC’s fanzine from the 1970s, The Amazing World of DC Comics.

Compiled by Chris and JK.

Ian Brill talks with the writer for the Virgin Comics series Stranded, which should soon be a series on the Sci-Fi Channel:

PWCW: Since this is also a book about people with special powers “walking among us,” do you see it in relationship to your work on X-Men?

MC: There are similarities, yeah—some of which will only show themselves in the longer term. We’ve usually tended to meet the X-Men at the point where they come in out of the cold; where they realize that there is a home for them, a tribe to which they belong. One of the reasons why the X-Men franchise has been so durable is because of the emotional appeal of that situation. The world hates you, fears you; even your family, the people who used to be your loved ones, hate you, but now you’ve got a new family and here they are.

The Stranded takes one step back from that, initially. What kick-starts our drama is the moment of alienation: of bereavement, almost, because our characters are having their lives taken away from them and what’s being offered to fill that void is frightening and alien. Comfort is still a long way away.

Actor Hugh Jackman is teaming with television and comics writer Marc Guggenheim to create Nowhere Man, a Virgin Comics series designed to be adapted into a movie — for Jackman, of course.

The title will be published as part of the company’s Virgin Voices imprint, which includes comics co-created by Nicolas Cage and Dave Stewart.

According to Variety, Nowhere Man is set in a futuristic world “where mankind has traded privacy for safety.”

John Palermo, Jackman’s partner in Seed Productions, told the trade paper could first be a video game before being made into a movie.

– Both Occasional Superheroine and Don MacPherson compare Marvel’s The Twelve and Watchmen.

– Jenny of The Blackwing Diaries travels to the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco to report on the Mary Blair Exhibit there.

– Bart Beaty looks at this year’s crop of Angouleme nominees.

– The Colorado Springs Independent profiles Walt and Louise Simonson.

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Fantasy publisher Tor has dabbled in the graphic novel market before, but according to this article by Calvin Reid, they’re delving into the manga pool big time by joining forces with Seven Seas:

Tor will provide capital for acquiring new manga and prose licenses and take over Seven Seas distribution to the book trade. Tor will also take over and distribute Seven Seas’ backlist of about 20 titles. And while the deal will bring a broad range of licensed and original manga publishing to the science fiction house, Kleckner and DeAngelis emphasized that the Tor/Seven Seas imprint will also publish illustrated children’s prose books in addition to introducing new formats, such as Japanese light novels, prose novel series in a smaller trim size that feature manga-style illustrations throughout. And DeAngelis emphasized that light novels will be published in their original format and most will be based on manga licenses.

Manga fans should also take not of Kai Ming Cha and Ed Chavez’s interview with Genshiken manga-ka Kio Shimoku:

PWCW: How significant is otaku culture, or modern visual culture (gendai shikaku bunka) today?

KS: You’re asking me a difficult question from the start. This is actually a topic I’d rather not think about. For me, otaku culture, as I think you can re-phrase “modern visual culture,” is a purely personal pleasure. This isn’t something that you can really share with anyone; the experience belongs only to yourself. Unlike sex, you don’t even need to think of the other person or communicate, and I actually feel that one should be ashamed to actively push a set of titles that in a way offer the viewer a facile kind of gratification.

Also in this week’s Publishers Weekly Comic Week: a feature on Ed Burns and Jimmy Palmiotti’s upcoming series Dock Walloper; a look at the upcoming Haunted Mansion collection; a profile of retail outlet Big Monkey Comics; and the monthly best-seller list.

–Grady Klein tells you how to survive writing a graphic novel.

–Sean Phillips shares a painted cover he’s working on for Criminal.

–Dan Dare is coming to CD in May.

–Congrats to Midnight Sun’s Ben Towle, who welcomed a new member to the family on the last day of 2007.

–Apropos of the Ted Rall’s recent article, check out this NY Times review of the Chris Ware-edited Best American Comics 2007:

It would be wrong to expect comics to provide the highly constructed, didactic narratives that are supplied in abundance by other art forms, like, say, television. But reading through this book, you see how autobiography becomes a trap, a limit on creativity. Readers have their own existential torpor to sort through; they don’t necessarily need someone else’s.

–Mike Manley has a new comic strip, the Creepertins, in the Delaware County Times starting this month.

Compiled by Chris Mautner, Kevin Melrose and JK Parkin.

NPR’s Laura Sydell takes a look at Virgin Comics in a series on culture in India:

To many Americans, the name evokes call centers and colorless office parks, anonymous places to which U.S. companies export work. But in a building on a quiet residential street downtown, an army of Indian animators is working to export their culture to the rest of the world. Their source material: The elaborate pantheon of Hindu mythology.

“In every state of India we’ve got, like, about a hundred different gods,” says Neha Bajaj, an editor at the fledgling Virgin Comics. “‘Cause everybody believes in a different god; they’ve got their own idol, and every idol is given its own name in every village. It’s vast — and it’s amazing!”

Less than two years old, Virgin Comics has already published dozens of titles, with names like Sadhu, Ramayan, Uma and Kali. All of them are classic figures, and the staff here knows these stories from childhood.

Listen or read at NPR’s site.