2009 February
NYCC | Bendis confirms Powers TV series headed to FX
"Powers," by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming
We typically leave Hollywood news to CBR’s “Comics Reel,” but this tidbit seems worth including in our coverage of New York Comic Con: Writer Brian Michael Bendis has confirmed that the Powers television series is in active development as a pilot for FX.
Bendis had teased in September that the adaptation might be bound for the cable network, home to such dramas as The Shield, Rescue Me and Damages.
“I just handed in a draft to the network and we’re getting our notes from the network as soon as this thing is over,” Bendis told MTV’s Splash Page today. “So next week I’ll get the notes, and as long as they don’t involve sock puppets and some sort of orgy scene that I’m not interested in, then hopefully it will go in the right direction.”
Created by Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming, Powers was published by Image Comics from 2000 until the creators moved the superhero police procedural to Marvel’s Icon imprint in 2004. The series previously had been optioned as a movie by Sony Pictures.
- February 6, 2009 @ 01:41 PM by Kevin Melrose
Your Mileage May Vary
Vixen: Return of the Lion #4
I think I’ve mentioned before that part of the new deal with this column, aside from the name change, is that once a month or so I actually get to post my own opinion. Same rules for commenting apply though. Agree, disagree, feel free to pipe up in the comments.
I wasn’t really sure what to make my first opinion column about until I went to the comic shop today. After claiming my pull list, I went over to the shelves and notices something interesting. The Vixen miniseries was already on issue 4.
I’d bought issue #1 when it came out and enjoyed it a lot (I have a thing for female characters beating the crap out of a group of bad guys while wearing a pretty dress) but somehow I’d forgotten about the series by the time the next one had come out. It never got added to my pull list and, well, fast forward a few months, and I’m suddenly THREE issues behind!
At least I got to spend an afternoon playing catch up!
I think I managed to forget about this comic because I rarely see anyone online talk about it. Which is a damn shame, because honestly, I think it’s really good! Actually, I think it might be the most fun mini-series I’ve read in quite a while.
- February 6, 2009 @ 01:28 PM by Melissa Krause
NYCC | Tokyopop says ‘hello’ to Domo manga
Domo and friends
Domo, the fuzzy Japanese TV mascot turned merchandising phenomenon, will star in his own Tokyopop manga in September.
American audiences probably recognize Domo from a series of shorts on the Nicktoons Network, or from the Target Halloween promotions.
Oh, all right. You know him from an Internet meme: “Every time you masturbate … God kills a kitten.”
Yeah, that Domo.
He first appeared in 1998 in a series of stop-motion sketches shown as station identification for Japan’s NHK. And now the flatulent-yet-adorable creature is everywhere: There are Domo T-shirts, Domo dolls, Domo key chains, Domo playing cards … and now Domo manga.
- February 6, 2009 @ 12:53 PM by Kevin Melrose
NYCC | Twitter feeds to follow
While websites and blogs (like this one) will let you know about all the various announcements coming out of New York Comic Con, subscribing to a few Twitter feeds will give you an unfiltered feel for what’s going on directly on the show floor … or outside the doors, or down the street at the local bar.
So, who’s Twittering from the con? Here are a few that I’ve noticed; feel free to share some of your favorites as well …
• Who? Ryan Penagos, editor of Marvel.com and probably Marvel’s most talkative Twitter fiend.
• What to expect: Very friendly tweets mostly about Marvel, with some personal commentary thrown in as well. He’ll likely share tidbits of news and tease future announcements in between updates about where to get the best tacos in the area. Mmmm … tacos.
• Recent tweet: “http://twitpic.com/1ctpo – My first purchase of NYCC: Jack Kirby FTW!”
- February 6, 2009 @ 10:49 AM by JK Parkin
Strangeways: The Thirsty – 035
Written by Matt Maxwell. Art by Gervasio and Jok
I do kinda wish that I was going to NYC for the big shoe, as Ed Sullivan used to say. But I’m passing this year. Happily, Wonder-Con is just a few weeks away, and I’ve found that I’ve been upgraded from a regular old artist’s alley space to an actual exhibitor space, which is kinda neat. Though I suspect I’ll have to stand all day, since that’s what publishers seem to do at shows and the talent gets to sit themselves down and take it relatively easy. We’ll see if that remains to be true when the dates actually roll around.
Hmm. I’m forgetting something here. Oh, right. Go to the archives page to catch the whole story from the beginning.
See all of you on Monday.
- February 6, 2009 @ 10:20 AM by Matt Maxwell
Robot Reviews: Air Fighters Classics
Air Fighters Classics, Volume 1
Air Fighters Classics, Volume 1
Written by Charles Biro, Nathaniel Nitkin, and possibly others.
Illustrated by Harry Sahle, Bob Fujitani, and others.
Eclipse (1987)
I watched an old Robert Mitchum movie a couple of weeks ago. It was a war film called Gung Ho! about the formation of the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion and its first mission against a Japanese garrison on Makin Island. I’ve seen a lot of war films in my life and many of them have disturbed me, but something about this one was especially unsettling. It felt real, and not just because of the excellent use of the stock footage. (I assume it was stock footage, but it was so well edited that it looks like it could have been shot especially for the movie.) It was the emotions that felt so genuine. Especially the anger and the hatred towards the Japanese.
A lot of the war movies I’ve seen were filmed years if not decades after the wars they depict were already over. Gung Ho! was filmed a year or so after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The hurt and the fear and the anger were all fresh and those feelings overshadow the entire movie. Watched today, you can either dismiss it as racist garbage or you can be powerfully impacted by it as an historical document; a time-capsule of what it was like to be a (non-Japanese) US citizen in the early ‘40s. I shouldn’t have to say – but I will – that none of what I’m talking about here is meant to excuse racism in general or the horrible atrocities inflicted on Japanese Americans during that period. Obviously I don’t approve of the way this country handled its feelings, but for the first time in my life I understand the feelings themselves.
Continue Reading »
- February 6, 2009 @ 09:47 AM by Michael May
Food or Comics | Did Twilight put a stake in manga’s growth?
Twilight
• The big news coming out of yesterday’s ICv2 Graphic Novel Conference in New York City is that graphic-novel sales rose by $20 million in 2008 to $395 million, driven largely by interest in the movies The Dark Knight and Watchmen.
Sales of manga, however, dropped from $210 million in 2007 to $175 million last year — roughly 2005 numbers. ICv2′s white paper attributes the decline to less exposure to manga-related anime on Cartoon Network, the worsening economy and, curiously enough, increased interest among female teens in Stephenie Meyers’ popular Twilight series.
Periodical comics also saw a slight decline, from $330 million in 2007 to $320 million in 2008.
• Heidi MacDonald notes a tweet from the conference in which Paul Levitz mentions DC Comics has printed another 200,000 copies of Watchmen. Tom Spurgeon isn’t amused: “… I want to say for the record it annoys the shit out of me to hear DC executives bragging about their Watchmen print runs when they’ve been hiding their print runs on almost everything for years and years and years, for no discernible reason but to be able to press the advantage of not having their crappier sales runs exposed when they get asses kicked by their competition, which is a lot.”
• Amid all the recent reports of comic shop and bookstore closings comes some good news: A new store opened in Salisbury, N.C., and another will debut next month in Springfield, Ohio. And Seattle’s Comic Stop chain appears to be thriving.
- February 6, 2009 @ 08:36 AM by Kevin Melrose
It’s Kiel Phegley’s internet, he just lets us browse
Writing for Comic Book Resources, MTV’s Splash Page, The Cool Kid’s Table and 10,000 other comics websites just wasn’t enough for Kiel Phegley, so he went and launched a new blog just in time for the New York Comic Con, where he’s reporting from this weekend. It’s called Four Color Forum, and he’s populated it with a bunch of past interviews and even a new interview with himself:
Four Color Forum: Kiel, I thought I’d kick things off today with some big, broad existential questions. What are we doing here? What is this place? Who am I?
Kiel Phegley: This is Four Color Forum, my new home on the web. Or “newish” I should say. As you can see, there are quite a few posts below that link to stories I’ve written across the web over the past six months or so, and if you’ve got a lot of time on your hands, I hope they can help you kill it. But starting today and moving forward, the occasional linkage will be joined by original interviews to this site focusing on comics, graphic novels and anything that fits under the general comic arts umbrella.
No doubt it’ll be loaded with NYCC information by this time tomorrow, so check back over the weekend.
- February 6, 2009 @ 07:12 AM by JK Parkin
Scott Pilgrim vs. high demand
Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 5
As the minutes tick down to the start of New York Comic Con, cartoonist Bryan Lee O’Malley appears to be the man of the hour.
The much-anticipated fifth installment of his popular Scott Pilgrim series, Scott Pilgrim vs. the Universe, debuted this week to positive reviews, and a string of release parties in New York City.
As Heidi MacDonald pointed out yesterday, demand for the new volume is so high that some retailers, and fans, are coming up short.
Twitter is, well, atwitter with praise for the book, reports of quick sellouts, and concerns about locating a copy. Rogues Gallery owner Randy Lander ended up without a copy for himself, while Isotope Lounge‘s James Sime jokingly considered renaming his email in-box as, “Save Me Scott Pilgrim.” He teased: “What is going to happen when Obama is on the cover of volume 6?”
Although Amazon.com lists the release date for Scott Pilgrim vs. the Universe as Feb. 18, the title already is No. 296 on its bestselling books list, and No. 5 in graphic novels (behind Watchmen and three volumes of Diary of a Wimpy Kid).
To top is all off, this morning’s New York Times features a profile of O’Malley, who tells George Gene Gustines that he’s looking forward to see what kind of reception awaits him at Comic Con.
If the response so far is any indication, convention-goers should expect long lines at the Oni Press booth, and a sea of shiny covers and “I (Scott) NY” T-shirts.
- February 6, 2009 @ 06:26 AM by Kevin Melrose
What if you changed your convention’s name and nobody noticed?
WizardWorld Chicago Comic-Con
A Wizard Entertainment press release announcing a convention guest of honor is turning a few heads, not for the name of the creator — Mark Millar — but for the name of the event: Chicago Comic-Con.
That, of course, was the name of the Chicago-area convention before it was purchased in 1997 by Wizard and rebranded WizardWorld Chicago.
The change would seem like fairly significant news, bigger even than the announcement of a headliner.
But a quick search of Wizard’s message board reveals the return to the former name — the debranding? — took place, quietly, as early as mid-October. At least that’s when one forum member noticed the appearance of “Chicago Comic-Con” on the company’s website. The change was reinforced in late November when advanced tickets went on sale.
A modified logo on the tickets page reads “WizardWorld Chicago Comic-Con”; however, the Millar press release refers to the event simply as “Chicago Comic-Con.”
- February 6, 2009 @ 05:13 AM by Kevin Melrose
NYCC | Counting Down
Here’s one last pre-con post as folks start making their way to the Jacob Javits Center for the New York Comic Con tomorrow. If you’re heading that direction, enjoy the show; otherwise check back here, on the CBR home page and over at Comics Should Be Good for news and commentary on any announcements coming out of the show.
General information: Ticket info | Panels | Autographs | 2009 ICv2 Graphic Novel Conference | Blog | Guide
• Marvel already has pictures up from earlier today, of construction at the Javits Center:
Marvel booth
If you want to make yours Marvel at the show, check out their panel schedule, their signing and events schedule, and their live blogging central page.
- February 5, 2009 @ 10:20 PM by JK Parkin
Send us your shelf porn!
As I mentioned earlier today, Chris is taking some time off this week, so I’m filling in for him on his weekly Shelf Porn post.
To recap: We want to see what your comic collection looks like. Send photos of your shelves and long boxes to Chris at cmautnerATcomcastDOTnet and we’ll post it here every week for everyone to check out. I know Chris has a decent backlog to feature in the coming weeks, so please be patient … we’ll get to them all eventually.
This week’s shelves were sent in by Sean T. Collins, who writes for various comics websites and blogs at Attentiondeficitdisorderly Too Flat. He also has a webcomic up at the Top Shelf site.
Without further ado, let’s check out Sean’s stuff …
*****
Main shelves west
- February 5, 2009 @ 12:49 PM by JK Parkin
Annotations for Trinity issue #36
Trinity #36
While there’s no clean break between Acts Two and Three like there was between Acts One and Two, there’s definitely a shift in the series’ focus. The two stories in this issue catch up with characters who got moved to Act Two’s background; and they lay the groundwork for a couple of Act Three’s subplots.
SPOILERS FOLLOW
* * *
LEAD STORY
“God War” was written by Kurt Busiek, pencilled by Mark Bagley, inked by Art Thibert, colored by Pete Pantazis, and lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.
Continue Reading »
- February 5, 2009 @ 11:52 AM by Tom Bondurant
Popgun preview: Japanese Wasp
The third Popgun anthology from Image Comics is due in March, but you can check out previews of some of the stories at the Popgun site … including the full 30-page story “Japanese Wasp” by Mark Andrew Smith and Johann Leroux.
(Via Jamie Rich)
- February 5, 2009 @ 10:54 AM by JK Parkin
Moore on Century: ‘For my money, it’s the best one yet’
LOEG -- Century: 1910
Diamond’s PreviewsWorld website kicks off a multi-part interview with Alan Moore, who discusses The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen — Century, new publisher Top Shelf Productions, working with artist Kevin O’Neill, and how this volume differs from Black Dossier:
My mood has lifted a bit since for the 1968 section, so it’s not always sort of a period diatribe, but the way we were feeling seemed to go quite well with the angry and sardonic aspects of Bertolt Brecht’s storylines for the 1910 section. There’s a double-page spread — there’s only one in the book, so the readers will know which one it is when they get to it — that I know, based on how Kevin was working… Kevin works a page at a time, he does page one, he does page two, he does them in order, he doesn’t jump ahead and do his favorite bits, but he was about eight or nine pages away from this double-page spread, and this was on the day that he found out the record with The Black Dossier wasn’t going to be included, and he jumped ahead to this double-page spread, and his feelings about that just flowed out through his pen, through his brush and I was, I have to say, quite startled, quite impressed, when I looked at it, and I just, “Jesus…and I thought I was crushed.” Kevin, he’s quite fiery, and the readers should perhaps look out for that spread and see if they can capture some of the flavor of what we were feeling at the time when we were creating those pages because it’s pretty evident.
Diamond also has a five-page preview of the first issue, which will be released in April.
(Thanks, Chip)
- February 5, 2009 @ 09:45 AM by Kevin Melrose