Comic Book Resources

Spider-Man musical gets new producers -- and a Peter Parker

Reeve Carney

The creative team behind Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark emerged from today's meeting with an announcement about new producers and official word on the musical's lead actor.

What they didn't reveal, however, was a specific date for the troubled Broadway musical, only saying that it will open in 2010 at the Hilton Theatre in Manhattan. The show, whose proposed budget has ballooned to $52 million, initially was set to bow in late March, but the most recent rumors had it opening past April 29 -- the cutoff for Tony Award nominations.

The creative team confirmed relative newcomer Reeve Carney, long rumored for the role, has been cast as Peter Parker/Spider-Man. The casting initially had been reported this morning in the Los Angeles Times. The 26-year-old Carney, lead singer of the rock band of the same name, also will appear in Spider-Man director Julie Taymor's big-screen adaptation of The Tempest.

In Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, Carney joins Evan Rachel Wood as Mary Jane and Alan Cumming as Green Goblin in a production scored by Bono and the Edge.

This afternoon's press release also included the announcement that Michael Cohl has replaced Chicago lawyer David Garfinkle as lead producer, with Jeremiah J. Harris becoming second producer. The full producing team is Cohl, Harris, Hello Entertainment/Garfinkle, Marvel Entertainment/David Maisel, and Sony Pictures Entertainment.

The Fifth Color - What About Bob?

The Sentry has come a long way, baby.  Bob Reynolds's story is no longer a man struggling with an addiction who was close to his dog, he's just about as far from that as possible.  The original April Fool's Prank for The Golden Guardian of Good turned out to be a larger tale of a man with the greatest amount of power having the greatest amount of responsibility.  That when you create the equal and opposite reaction to the power of a thousand exploding suns, the only way to win was to do nothing at all.  At his first introduction, we are left with a very quiet and beautiful study of the greatest good and the worst evil residing in an everyday man and the world that had forgotten him.

When Bendis puled him out of the Vault for his New Avengers, the stakes had already been changed.  The balance of good an evil was gone, just an implanted a virus from Mastermind and possible delusion villain The General that created psychological problems and the existence of the Void, which was just another extension of Reynolds himself.  We lost our philosophical battle and our more peacable idea of wrong and right to be able to tear Carnage in half in space.

Okay, there's nothing wrong with that.  Bendis even brought in Paul Jenkins as a character in the book to explain everything, kind of having him sign off on the project.  Despite his immense power and complexity, the Sentry was going to be an Avenger.  Hey, they've worked with gods and demi-gods before, what's the difference?

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Huizenga does Holmes

Elementary, my dear Ganges! Wildly acclaimed, prodigiously talented cartoonist Kevin Huizenga has taken a break from chronicling the vagaries of our daily existence in his series Ganges and (the late, lamented) Or Else to take on the greatest detective in literary history and his arch-nemesis. (No, not Batman and the Joker, but I like the way you think.)

At his blog, Huizenga has posted a two-page comic featuring the first and final face-to-face confrontations between none other than Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty. The strip is part of the Famous Fictional Villains show at St. Louis's Mad Art Gallery, curated by Huizenga's friend, fellow cartoonist, and occasional collaborator Dan Zettwoch. The opening reception for the show -- which features baddies ranging from Macbeth's witches to Alien's facehugger, interpreted by Zettwoch, Huizenga and over a dozen other artists -- takes place tonight from 7pm to 11pm.

Robot reviews: Another kids' comics round-up

Nancy Vol. 1

Nancy Vol. One
by John Stanley
Drawn and Quarterly, 128 pages, $24.95.

When faced with the challenge of adapting Ernie Bushmiller's classic comic strip to longer comic book format, John Stanley's response was simple and economical: Turn her into Little Lulu.

That's the only conclusion I can come to after reading this collection of stories in D&Q's ongoing "John Stanley Library" project. Nancy is pretty much Lulu with frizzier hair, Sluggo is a thinner and slightly more benign Tubby. There's even a snotty rich kid and bratty little boy similar to Wilbur and Alvin. Stanley even repeats one of his Tubby stories involving a burglar almost note for note.

That doesn't make Nancy a bad book by any stretch of the imagination. Mediocre Stanley is still miles above most people's best work. The best stories here though are the ones involving Oona Goosepimple, an odd, Wednesday Addams-type girl who supernatural antics cause no end of anxiety for poor Nancy. It's those stories where Stanley -- freed of the Bushmiller formula -- really gets inventive and inspired. If the ratio of Oona stories increases as the volumes do, then I'll keep buying these books as long as D&Q are able to get them out.

Reviews of Moomin, Amulet and more can be found after the jump ...

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Adam Prosser's Kirby-meets-Archie mash-up

The Archon by Adam Prosser

Johanna Draper Carlson points out that Adam Prosser has posted his 24-Hour Comics Day comic on the web. It's one part Kirby's New Gods, one part Archie Comics and all parts awesome -- heck, it's likely the coolest thing you'll see today.

Straight for the art | Cuaderno de Frases Encontradas

From Berrio's 'Conversations'

Even if you can't read Spanish (and I totally can't) this sketchblog by Juan Berrio, based on snatches of overheard conversations is still worth checking out. (via)

Skottie Young guest draws The Abominable Charles Christopher

The Abominable Charles Christopher

Earlier this week artist Skottie Young filled in for his friend Karl Kerschl on The Abominable Charles Christopher, Kerschl's webcomic about a a sweet but somewhat dim sasquatch-like creature and his forest friends.

This is the second time Young has filled in for his friend, as he explained on his own blog:

Karl reached out and asked me to do a guest strip for his webcomic while he was out on some giant world tour where people are worshiping him and what not. I was flattered and agreed instantly. Then I realized that his wasn't the first time I would be there to help save Karl in a rough spot. (just kidding, he needed no saving, and i'm convinced he actually had enough strips to cover his time away and just posted my out of pitty...haha) Eons ago, when I was waiting tables at Ed Debevics in Chicago, I got my first phone call from Marvel asking me if I could do a fill in issue in the ICEMAN mini series. And artist named... you guessed it, Karl Kerschl had some life things going on and they needed someone to fill in. I had never drawn a comic book in my life and was about to do my first for Marvel. And the rest is history...or still happening, or something like that.

After seeing the strip, now I really just want to see Young doing a webcomic of his own.

Straight for the art | Jon Vermilyea's He-Man

from Jon Vermilyea's He-Man and the 13 Trials of Eternia

He's done comics with Frank Santoro, made videos with Animal Collective, and forever redefined the way we look at Kool-Aid and breakfast foods in his buoyantly bizarre comics for MOME, but now cartoonist Jon Vermilyea is tackling something near and dear to the hearts of nerds everywhere: The Masters of the Universe!

Behold He-Man and the 13 Trials of Eternia, a gorgeous silkscreened 11" X 8" booklet featuring the Herculean labors of the hero also known as Prince Adam and illustrated in Vermilyea's inimitable day-glo style. Only 21 copies of the book were produced, and by god I'm getting my hands on one of them if I have to sell my soul to Skeletor.

(Via Sean Belcher.)

Straight for the art | Allan Sanders' superheroes

Sanders' Superheroes

Get your weekend off to the right start by checking out this collage of superheroes by illustrator and animator Allan Sanders. (via)

Future of troubled Spider-Man musical could be set today

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

The fate of the financially troubled Spider-Man Broadway musical could be decided today.

According to published reports, producers of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, whose budget has soared to $52 million, are meeting in Manhattan with director Julie Taymor and other members of the creative team to discuss the cash-flow problems that stalled production for nearly a month and cast doubt on the future of the production.

The musical had been set to preview in late February at a renovated Hilton Theatre, and then open sometime in March. But Patrick Healy of The New York Times writes that Taymor is expected to say rehearsals for the technically complex show won't be able to begin before January, which could push the opening past April 29 -- the cutoff date for Tony Award nominations.

Perhaps of more pressing concern is the $24 million needed to cover a proposed budget that ballooned to $52 million from an estimated $35 million, in part due to theater renovations and restorations. According to the Los Angeles Times, Spider-Man will cost about $1 million a week to produce -- "hundreds of thousands dollars more than what some elaborate shows such as Mary Poppins or West Side Story cost -- and require the 1,700-seat theater to sell out for every show for four years just to break even.

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, which boasts a musical score by Bono and the Edge, has cast Evan Rachel Wood as Mary Jane, Alan Cumming as Green Goblin and, apparently, relative newcomer Reeve Carney as Peter Parker/Spider-Man. (Carney, who will appear in Taymor's big-screen adaptation of The Tempest, long had been rumored for the role of Spider-Man but never confirmed.)

However, as the LA Times notes, with production delays the musical risks losing the cast to other projects. Cumming, for instance, was just added to the cast of Burlesque, which begins filming next week.

NOTE: A post detailing the announcements made after the meeting can be found here.

Buenaventura does The Believer

He's the man who helped bring us the sublime Kramers Ergot 7 and the ridiculous Boys Club. Now publisher Alvin Buenaventura is lending his Midas touch to stalwart literary magazine The Believer for its annual Art Issue.

At his Blog Flume group blog, Buenaventura reveals that In addition to an Acme Novelty Library/Jack Surives "crossover cover" by regular cover artist Charles Burns, the issue features an interview between Acme's Chris Ware and Jack's Jerry Moriarty, other interviews with Aline Kominsky-Crumb and Peter Blegvad, and a poster by Moriarty.

Finally, the issue sees the launch of a new monthly feature: a comics spread featuring new strips from Burns, Al Columbia, Matt Furie, Tom Gauld, Lisa Hanawalt, Tim Hensley and more, edited by Buenaventura himself.

Click over to Buenaventura's blog for sample art, click the individual links for the respective features, and get ready to gorge on some great comics content.

Wow -- between this and issue #33 of The Believer's sister publication McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, dubbed The San Francisco Panorama and featuring comics by Art Spiegelman, Chris Ware, Dan Clowes, Erik Larsen (!) and more, it's a good time to be a fan of comics in high-end literary periodicals.

Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

Green Lantern Corps #41

Publishing | Buoyed by its Blackest Night miniseries and tie-in books, DC Comics claimed the first six slots on Diamond Comic Distributors' Top 300 list of books sold to the direct market in October.

It's a rare occurrence, to be sure, but just how rare? Charts-watcher John Jackson Miller contends we have to travel back more than 40 years, to a time well before the direct market, to find when DC last had the six best-selling comics (as sold to retailers). Yes, 1968. The closest DC came in the direct-market era, according to Miller, was in April 1993, when the publisher held the top five positions.

But back to October 2009, when DC also narrowed the market gap with Marvel to the closest margin in some time: The competitors were separated by just 2.43 percent in unit share, and 2.68 percent in dollar share. [Diamond Comic Distributors, The Comics Chronicles]

Retailing | Borders Group announced Thursday it will close about 200 of its Waldenbooks, Borders Express and Borders Outlet stores in January. The retail chain has been steadily closing mall-based stores in its Waldenbooks Specialty Retail division since 2001. About 130 mall stores will remain once the downsizing is complete. [Publishers Weekly]

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Ellis releases Shivering Sands as a print-on-demand book

Shivering Sands

Writer Warren Ellis has released a new book called Shivering Sands -- "a book containing a selection of essays, articles, columns, rambles and jabberings that were written in various places on the internet over the last seven years or so" -- as a print-on-demand book through Lulu.com.

"I’ve been talking about POD for months, and I thought it was time to try it out," he wrote on his blog. "This work has not been collected in one place before, and I think pretty much none of it has ever been on paper." You can check out a preview over on the Lulu.com site.

Magneto rounds out new Ultimate Alliance 2 content, which is available now

Magneto

Downloadable content for Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 became available in respective stores for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 today, allowing fans of the game to purchase five new playable characters and other content. Joining the previously announced Black Panther, Psylocke, Carnage and Cable is Magneto.

The download pack costs $9.99 on PS3 or 800 Microsoft points on Xbox 360. And don't forget you can now get the Juggernaut for $1.99; he was previously only available if you preordered the game from Gamestop.

Memento mori: An interview with Eddie Campbell

Sometime soon (hopefully next week) Diamond will be releasing Eddie Campbell's Alec: The Years Have Pants to a comic book store near you. In a year chock full of great, original work and important re-releases and rediscoveries, this has to be one of the most important books of 2009. I know that statement might come off to some as shallow hyperbole, but it's a risk worth taking.

For the the unfamiliar, Pants collects all of Campbell's autobiographical Alec stories (except for The Fate of the Artist, which was published by First Second) in one big (hardcover or softcover) volume. Since the early 1980s, the artist and writer has been chronicling his life's adventures through his barely disguised alter ego, starting as a feckless young man in the King Canute Crowd to the successful cartoonist and family man in After the Snooter. It's saying something to call these stories his most significant and stellar work, considering he also collaborated with Alan Moore on From Hell and created the elegant Bacchus series. One hopes this new collection (and the new material found therein) provides the opportunity for a re-examination and analysis of this impressive body of work.

I had the opportunity to talk with Campbell late last August over email about the book. This was my second time talking to him and he proved to be as gracious and thoughtful over the computer as the phone, if not more so.

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