(Click the image above for a larger version of the strip.)

Hello Blog@teers!

Welcome to the lastest webcomic addition to Blog@Newsarama, WORLD OF HURT - The Internet’s #1 Blaxploitation Webcomic! This is the first episode of The Thrill-Seekers, WORLD OF HURT’s first story arc.  WORLD OF HURT is updated weekly, and the most recent adventures may be found at my website, www.WorldOfHurtOnline.com.

What is WORLD OF HURT? It is a black and white serial adventure webcomic inspired by the Black action movies of the 1970s and the classic newspaper adventure strips.  WORLD OF HURT focuses more on Blaxploitation’s potential for raw, urban crime stories and drama than the campier aspects of the film movement.  It follows the exploits of a Black trouble-shooter named Isaiah “Pastor” Hurt as he dispenses street justice in the city of Pointe Blanc.  The Thrill-Seekers involves Pastor’s investigation into the disappearance of a young co-ed named Alicia Patterson.

It is a distinct honor to be join the Blog@Newsarama family.  I will be posting strips every Tuesday and Thursday.  I hope you return, and I look forward to hearing from you.

- Jay Potts

It may have been short-lived, but the 13-episode run of the Ruby-Spears Superman animated series is getting another lease on life, as it is being rereleased on DVD today. Warner Home Video sat down and talked with the animators on their experience working with the larger-than-life battles of the Man of Steel.

QUESTION: Why were there only 13 episodes to the entire series?

JOE RUBY: “I think the problem for us was our timeslot. It turned out 8:30 in the morning was a killer for Superman. Only the little kids were up, and they don’t understand Superman as well as the older kids. It wasn’t for 4- to 5-year-olds”

QUESTION: Was there a guiding theme to the series?

KEN SPEARS: “I think we were true to Superman to begin with –  we produced a show that the audience expected Superman to be. He was the tried and true Superman, That’s who they wanted to see – that’s the feedback that we continue to get today.”

Read the rest of this entry »

With the new V kicking off tonight on ABC, it’s worth taking a look at the original. The first V mini-series aired in 1983; the two-parter did big ratings, and was followed by V: The Final Battle. Apparently, there was wasn’t much finality, as that mini segued into a regular series. It was short-lived, but for a while, there was nothing quite like it on American TV.

Here’s a look at the intro to the first regular series episode, which picks up literally seconds after the conclusion of “Final Battle”. And, in the interest of fairness, I decided to skip showing THE BIG MOMENT to avoid potential spoilers for unsuspecting viewers of the new version.

This just in, via Marvel, with the ominous phrase, “What price victory?”

Considering the last time Steve and Tony met, it wasn’t the best of meetings — but with Tony struggling with the aftermath of World’s Most Wanted, could these one-time friends reunite? Let us know what you think!

Cash for a clunker? Joss Whedon seems to think so.

With tongue obviously in cheek, Whedon drafted an open letter to… well, the Terminator owners, offering $10,000 — that’s right $10,000 — to buy the franchise and, well, bring it up to snuff. Here’s some highlights from Whedonesque:

1) Terminator… of the Rings! Yeah, what if he time-travelled TOO far… back to when there was dragons and wizards? (I think it was the Dark Ages.) Hasta La Vista, Boramir! Cool, huh? “Now you gonna be Gandalf the Red!” RRRRIP! But then he totally helps, because he’s a cyborg and he doesn’t give a s#&% about the ring — it has no power over him! And he can carry it AND Frodo AND Sam AND f@%& up some orcs while he’s doing it. This stuff just comes to me. I mean it. (I will also offer $10,000 for the Lord of the Rings franchise).

2) More Glau. Hey. There’s a reason they’re called “Summer” movies.

3) Can you say… musical? Well don’t. Even I know that’s an awful idea.

4) Christian Bale’s John Connor will get a throat lozenge. This will also help his Batwork (ten grand for that franchise too, btw.)

Of course, this is definitely a gag — Whedon told Entertainment Weekly “mostly, it’s just me being a dumb-ass, because that seems to be what I do best — I’m not even very good at that. So, no, I do not think they’re going to call me and say ‘Congratulations! We’ll have that $10,000 now.’” But still — what do you think a Joss Whedon Terminator franchise would look like? What do you want to see changed in the films and television shows? Let us know!

[Too much time Photoshopping done by yours truly]

Image Comics has announced that for Spawn #196, it’s going to be an old-school Image team taking on that warrior from Hell.

In addition to series creator Todd McFarlane handling inks and second series artist Greg Capullo handling layouts, Image partner Rob Liefeld will be handling the pencil work for this issue! With the conclusion of ENDGAME, this year’s worth of storylines will tie together Detectives Sam and Twitch, Bill Winston’s suicide, with the mystery of new Hellspawn Jim Downing’s awakening.

“I was looking for good artistic help, and remembered inking over Rob on his New Mutant covers back in the Marvel days, and most recently a little bit of IMAGE UNITED,” McFarlane said in a press statement. “I thought it would be a fun experiment to see what Capullo layouts, Liefeld pencils and my inks looked like together on a handful of pages.”

The book is due out November 25th, and will cost $2.95.

Vote for Petrelli? Looks like he’s gotten a recall.

Nikki Finke has announced that Adrian Pasdar, who played Nathan Petrelli the first few seasons of Heroes, has been let go from the show.

One the one hand, Pasdar’s power set was among the most visually interesting of the show’s first season. That said, considering his increasingly dark characterization — as well as his character eventually being completely annexed by that of Sylar — it’s not too surprising he’s been cut.

Via the Hollywood Reporter, Fox 21 and Platinum Studios are prepping Jorge Vega’s horror/western comic for a television series. Glen Morgan (writer/producer of “Final Destination”) is adapting Vega’s story and script.

For those of you readers unfamiliar with the story, it centers around a man, Abner Meeks, who is cursed with this revolver that severely tortures Meeks if he doesn’t kill once a day.

“Gunplay is one of those rare combinations of fantastically created characters and wonderfully told narrative, which creates an inventive canvas from which to play,” Platinum Studios chairman and CEO Scott Mitchell Rosenberg said. Fox21 President Chris Carlisle added, “It is a unique story of an ordinary man who must live with an extraordinary curse.”

Gunplay was the winner of the 2007 Platinum Comic Book Challenge, beating over two-million entries.

No date has been set for the show’s release.

Steve Ditko, co-creator of Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, and Hawk and Dove, turned 82 today. Congratulations, Steve!

[Via HiFi]

Just to be clear, folks — I’m not saying that England has banned a graphic novel. No, it’s a lot worse — the actual graphic novelist himself is no longer allowed in the county.

London resident Nikil Singh, author of Salem Brownstone: All Along the Watchtowers, has been held in his birth country South Africa for the past five months, due to new immigration rules.

According to Vicious Imagery, Singh’s problem stems from the fact that he doesn’t hold a degree, making him “underqualified” for a Tier One Highly Skilled Visa — despite the fact that, as a former British journalist, he clearly knows English, and the fact that his book has sold out its previous runs. Singh has lost his home in London due to his effective deportation, and is still fighting.

“The refusal of Nikhil Singh’s application for a Highly Skilled Worker Visa … is short-sighted and prejudiced towards the graphic novel medium, and plainly ignores his exceptional merits,” said the director of Comica Festival, Paul Gravett. “One look at the extraordinary craftsmanship of his contributions to the Salem Brownstone graphic novel would convince anyone Nikhil is not only ‘highly skilled’ but a visionary artist of international standing.”

Karl Kerschl has posted up an awesome sketch this weekend of that fiercest of X-Men, Wolverine, and with this image — forgive the pun — you better believe he tore up from the floor up:

Kerschl quipped that this image is probably of Logan frustrated that he lost his keys, but I say if that would mean we could see this guy take on Wolverine more often, I’d probably toss those keys down the sewer drain myself. What do you think, Rama readers?

Variety has announced that the newly-formed Vigilante Entertainment will be developing Warren Ellis’ Black Summer.

The book, published by Avatar Press, chronicles the struggle of the Seven Guns, a team of scientists who transformed their bodies into weapons to battle back the police.

Vigilante, meanwhile, is a new group founded by Hichram Benkirane, formerly of the French comics publisher Les Humanoides Associes. Benkirane still holds control of the properties he created at Humanoides, including Fragile, Miss: Better Living Through Crime, and The Book of Jack.

According to Variety, Knowing’s Ryne Pearson is slated to write the adaptation. This is yet another bit of good news for Ellis, as his series Red was recently optioned, and is slated to have Morgan Freeman and Bruce Willis attached.

Dark Corners
Written & Illustrated by Caitlin Plovnick, Jeff Lok, Mario Van Buren and Denis St. John, with Steve Bissette and John Nicoll
Published by I Know Joe Kimpel

The crew at I Know Joe Kimpel has been pushing out their four-square anthology books for a while now, and I’ve enjoyed every one of them. Minicomics aren’t exactly my forte, because I just don’t have the time to pursue them like I should (and because many I’ve sampled have been amateur in too many respects), but I’ve reached the point where I’m honestly looking forward to their latest anthology offering.

The most recent, Dark Corners, marks the group’s first major foray into horror comics, and the first of their four-square books wrapped around a single theme. Of course, not being a horror fan, per se, I came to the book with a little trepidation.

Well, the Joe Kimpel crew hasn’t completely turned me around on horror, but they’ve at least acquitted themselves professionally. Caitlin Plovnik’s strip deals with an imaginary friend and a twist ending that I’m not sure how to read. One reading doesn’t work for me at all, but the other kind of does. The story’s a little under-drawn, but not to the point that it’s distracting. Solid piece, if I’m reading the ending correctly.

Mario Van Buren follows with the second installment of “Jenny, the Marsh.” Of course, I haven’t read part one, so take anything I say with a grain of salt. Mario’s strip is the best drawn strip in the book, employing an open, bigfoot style for the characters. However, Van Buren layers on the shadows to amp up the atmosphere for Jenny’s cornfield encounter, and the dreamy, reality-challenged nature of the vision adds a haunting element.

“Of the Matters that Occurred on the Road to Carlyle County,” by Jeff Lok, is a peculiar beast. The art is cartoony, with large areas of cross-hatching to add depth and shadow, and the character designs are great, totally adorable and a nice contrast to the story’s dark tone. That said, the story meanders too much, using five panels where two would suffice. Rather than building the moment, I found myself struggling to keep my attention on the pages.

The final piece, Dennis St. John’s, is the most traditionally horror-oriented. Losing teeth, fangs, vomit, creepy sexual encounters, etc., not really my thing, but I can see where others might find it creepier than I do. The art’s pretty solid, a little loose and sloppy, but much better than most other minicomics.

Steve Bissette, the Swamp Thing and Tyrant dude, provides interior illustrations between each of the stories, and those are really cool.

Find out more about Global Freezing here on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays or at ComicsByEgg.com.

How Seth writes: Geoff Pevere interviews the George Sprott author about his writing process for The Star.

Your anniversary-inspired Asterix overview of the day: Ben East writes about “good old Asterix and his fulsome friend Obelix” in this column for The National.

Basketball guy married to famous-for-being-famous lady didn’t work too hard on his Batman costume: I still like it better than the ones Christian Bale and the other movie Batmen have worn though

“Millar to direct superhero movie”: I hope it’s better received than Frank Miller’s was…

The single scariest image the comics blogosphere came up with this Haloween weekend: Mike Sterling had it.

I had read all 44 pages of FVZA: Federal Vampire and Zombie Agency #1 (Radical Comics) before I began to understand why the comic book existed at all and why it felt like a very solid premise from which a story was being reverse engineered, rather than a story that needed to be told.

That realization didn’t come from the comic book itself sadly, but from an interview with writer David Hine, printed after this first third of the story ends—he was apparently brought in to turn the website fvza.org into a comic book. (This also explains the wonky credits. David Hine and Roy Allan Martinez are the only creators with their names on the cover; on the title page the former is credited as “writer” and the latter as “illustrator,” but there are also two people given a “conceived by” credit and two more people given a “painted by” credit).

The premise is an alternate history of the United States, in which both vampires and zombies are real, and have posed existential threats to the nation since at least the time of the Civil War. Eventually, a federal organization was formed to protect the country from these two supernatural menaces. At present, they’ve both been seemingly stamped out, and the agency is in decline, the way that perhaps the Department of Homeland Security would be if the threat of terrorism were somehow almost completely erased.

Read the rest of this entry »

So there will be comics in 2010, which means that the comics industry has officially lasted about forty years longer than expected. Lucas has party favors. Here’s a look at some of the comics that will kick off the end of the century’s first decade, courtesy of Diamond’s Previews catalog.

Ever since it was announced that BOOM! obtained the Disney license, I’ve been hoping for some Carl Barks-centric trade paperbacks. Well, I kind of got what I wanted. Donald Duck Classics vol. 1: Quack Up is credited to Barks, and certainly will merit a flip-through. But let me clarify: I’m hoping for 100% Barks-created Uncle Scrooge collections!

I’ve been digging on Jason’s comics a lot lately, as anybody who reads my “It Came From the NYPL” series should know. Almost Silent is nearly 300 pages, in hardcover, of Jason’s superb comics, compiling four classics (none of which I’ve read yet) into one convenient volume. More pages, better price, I’m going to finally buy a Jason comic!

Read the rest of this entry »

Pinocchio: Vampire Slayer

Written by Van Jensen

Drawn by Dustin Higgins

Published by Slave Labor Graphics

Who knew Pinocchio was such a badass? Well, he is in this 128 page graphic novel. Just released in time for Halloween, “Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer” is a treat combining horror and humor. This isn’t coming from the Disney “Pinocchio” either but a far more earthy version in keeping with the original 1883 tale by Carlo Collodi.

This Pinocchio has a sort of Scott Pilgrim energy to it. When his father/maker, Geppetto, is killed by vampires, that seals the deal: a wooden puppet vampire slayer is born. All he has to do is tell some lies, watch his nose grow and then snap it off to instantly dispatch any blood sucker. And if he needs back up, there’s always his faithful surrogate dad, the other carpenter, Master Cherry. With his own modified machine gun, “The Monsterminator,” he’ll get anything that might try to get away. And no cute cricket in a top hat here. This cricket gets routinely stomped on within an inch of its life.

Dustin Higgins sure knows how to create a world. His live wire brush work is crooked, jaggy and sharp. The buildings themselves have character. And he is certainly in tune with Van Jensen’s writing as each balances the laughs with the spooky stuff. Within this world, tension mounts and the vampires do feel like a real threat.

Speaking of Scott Pilgrim, there are hints that we may see more of a growing boy’s life in future installments. In this first book, Pinocchio is caught in a bashful moment as he chats it up with a girl he is sweet on. But, of course, he is mostly concerned with killing vampires.

By the end of the book, there have been a whole lot of changes and a whole lot of issues dealt with so it will be interesting to see what happens next. “P:VS”  began as a one panel gag by Higgins and was transformed by Jensen into a full-fledged serious, yet funny, work.  One thing is for sure, the creative team of Van Jensen and Dustin Higgins are two to keep an eye on. You can pick up a copy here.

It’s been a couple of weeks now since The Perhapanauts Halloween Spooktacular #1 hit the stands, and while the Blog@Newsarama already reviewed the book, along with a handful of other Halloween books, just after its release, my regular commentary feature with writer Todd Dezago had to wait while I tracked a copy down. You see, here in the Great White North of Upstate New York, it’s often impossible to find books that are doing well, even if they haven’t technically sold completely out in the rest of the country.

Anyway, enjoy some questions with Todd Dezago. It’s Halloween, and this book (which he implies might become a Perhapanauts yearly thing) is akin to the “Perhapanauts Treehouse of Horror,” with guest artists and at least one story that has such a different tone that while it’s technically in-continuity, it feels very standalone. There’s also, in the spirit of the holiday, a rather ominous little hint that Todd leaves out there for regular readers to ponder…!

Blog@Newsarama: So…Big’s on Facebook? Does the Chief have a problem with that?

Todd Dezago: Big’s got a private account, so I think it’s okay. Also he’s got another one listed under a pseudonym so that he can really surf around. I don’t think they ever worry too much about what Big does anymore–not with Choopie around.

Blog@: What’s his profile picture look like?

TD: The picture on his private account looks just like him. The fake one has a picture that looks a lot like Walter Cronkite.

Blog@: So do you know what the plans are for the next year or so? Should we look forward to another Spooktacular issue, whether or not the next arc is completed by then?

TD: We hadn’t really planned on making the Halloween Spooktacular an annual tradition, but we received a lot of nice reviews on it and readers seemed to like it, so…

Blog@: What’s the deal with everyone trying to eat Choopie this month? Two of the stories have something trying to chase and eat him!

TD: Chupacabras are, apparently, very tasty! I can’t say from experience though. I’ve eaten lots of things, but never a chupacabra.

Blog@: And at the risk of deteriorating into Seinfeld: What’s the deal with the second story?–they’re worried about Big’s footprints attracting attention even in the mounting snow, but Choopie’s aren’t suspect?

TD: I think by the time they called Choopie in, they were a bit exasperated and needed a new game plan. Also, Choopie’s feet in snowshoes would/could look like a little kids. Big’s snowshoes would need to be about three feet long/wide each!

Blog@: It’s interesting–I don’t know that we’ve seen that kind of weakness in Arisa before, and Hamerskold stepped right up. Was that just him being in his element a little, or is he learning to be more of a team player?

TD: Hammerskold’s motivations for helping out are all about his secret attraction to Arisa. (you DO remember his finding feelings for her when he ‘felt’ her kiss back in the Annual, right?) He’s actually been doing a lot of things that seem out of character because of this. He doesn’t know what to do with it.

Blog@: So–Hembeck is awesome. How’d that happen?

TD: Fred and I are old friends–from away back! I love Fred and loved his work long before I knew him! For years we played volleyball together on a mostly comic guys volleyball night in Woodstock. That guy has a killer serve!

Blog@: Is it bad that I still prefer Craig’s interpretation of the characters?

TD: Well, they are Craig’s characters…Though Craig and I are always so excited whenever somebody–ANYBODY–does their version of the Haps! We love to see new interpretations and styles! And that we are so lucky to have such talented friends helping us out is just awesome!

Blog@: Clearly some of the script was done with Fred in mind–the Fred-pop. But the whole tone was pretty all-ages friendly. Was it all written for him?

TD: All three stories for Fred, you mean? No, they were stories that I’d been dreaming up for a while and just handed them to the artists I felt fit the mood of the story best! And then they bring their own mood and it all falls into place perfectly!

Blog@: When will we see the ‘Haps on iTunes? I see the first two issues of Tellos so far (and the first one’s free, people!), but no ‘Haps yet.

TD: It’s not? Hmmm…I’m sure it’ll be up there soon. It’s s’posed to be. Being that I don’t have an iphone, I really haven’t been following the releases of these apps and downloads. I guess I’d better get one and get on-board, huh?

Blog@: Is there a timeline for this issue? Obviously it happens either before the events of “Triangle” or after the next arc, since the gang’s all here…!

TD: Here’s the thing…Going all the way back to “First Blood,” I’ve tried to have the main stories go by in a continuous stream, each arc picking up the moment that the last one ended. That has turned into a monster now that it constantly biting me in the ass! You ask–and I do too–where do these other stories fit in? If Arisa is lost in limbo somewhere, how is she in the opening to Choopie’s Halloween story? Or the Tatzelwurm story? So here’s the deal–they all happened “before”. Sometime earlier when things were good and everyone was around and no one was dead yet.

Qops.

Blog@: Will we get to see a little more of the boss-man in the next arc? With the bald head and the glasses, he reminds me of Skinner from The X-Files.

TD: The Chief? Oh, yeah, there’s a lot more to the Chief that we haven’t even touched on yet…

Blog@: How many friends has Big got out there in the world? He’s got his Shaman, and Nessie, so far…!

TD: Big has a few notable friends out there in the real world and you’ll see more of them pop up as time goes on. He may not be able to stroll around in public, but the internet affords him a wide range of contact out there in the intellectual world! Stay tuned!

Marvel Masterworks: Fantastic Four vol. 3
Written & Illustrated by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Published by Marvel Comics

Man, I really appreciate that Marvel’s putting these old classic Marvel titles in affordable, quality editions. I appreciate why people like getting a giant chunk of story in the Essential or Showcase format, but I strongly prefer a color edition that represents the work as it was intended to be seen (“intended to be seen” is a loaded phrase, I admit, but the approach to the line work does change when the artist expects the work to be seen in black and white). So to my mind, Essential equals unacceptable, and the traditional hardcover Marvel Masterworks/Archive is, with very, very few exceptions (see Eisner, Will’s The Spirit), beyond what I’m willing to spend. But $25 for eleven issues of classic Stan n’ Jack, that’s a good deal and as long as Marvel has Stan n’ Jack Fantastic Four or Thor issues to publish, or Stan n’ Steve Spideys, I’m aboard.

As for this, the collected edition of the second ten regular issues and the first annual, Marvel Masterworks: Fantastic Four vol. 2 is – summing this up is harder than I expected; let’s say – intriguing. If you’ve read any amount of Silver Age comics, particularly DC stuff, you can really see why these issues blew people’s minds. The taunting between Ben and Johnny is extremely subversive in comparison to anything that had been done before, and the characters’ ability to exhibit less-than-heroic traits gave them a palpable humanity rarely shown before in adventure comics.

Read the rest of this entry »