2009 July
Yoe’s Secret Identity optioned for period film
Secret Identity
Straight out of left field comes word that a book dedicated to Joe Shuster’s 1950s fetish art has been optioned for a film.
Variety reports the Gotham Group has picked up the rights to Craig Yoe’s Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman’s Co-Creator Joe Shuster, published earlier this year by Abrams ComicArts.
The book identifies Shuster as the anonymous creator behind largely unknown S&M illustrations that appeared in The Nights of Horror booklets in the early ’50s. The books, which were sold under the counter in Times Square shops, helped to fuel the comics-censorship movement of the era — and were even linked to a brutal crime spree by a group called the Brooklyn Thrill Killers.
According to the trade paper, the film will use the crime spree and Shuster “to paint a period drama.”
- July 14, 2009 @ 10:45 AM by Kevin Melrose
Straight for the art | Tony Millionaire’s Iron Man
"The Invincible Iron Man," by Tony Millionaire
Eric Reynolds provides us with a peek at Tony Millionaire‘s “The Invincible Iron Man” from Marvel’s upcoming Strange Tales MAX miniseries.
“Figures Tony would pick the alcoholic superhero,” Reynolds writes.
The three-issue series, which debuts in September, features work by such creators as Peter Bagge, Nick Bertozzi, Molly Crabapple and John Leavitt, Jason, Junko Mizuno, Paul Pope, Johnny Ryan and Dash Shaw.
- July 14, 2009 @ 10:15 AM by Kevin Melrose
Robot reviews: Everybody Is Stupid Except for Me
Everybody Is Stupid Except Me
Everybody Is Stupid Except for Me and Other Astute Observations
by Peter Bagge
Fantagraphics Books, 120 pages, $16.99.
Peter Bagge’s seminal work in the 1980s and 90s (Hate, Neat Stuff) always featured characters going off on extended rants about one subject or another, so it’s no real surprise to find that the author has managed to transition himself into something of a reporter/editorial pundit.
Nor is it any real surprise that the pieces collected in awesomely-named Everyone Is Stupid Except for Me — all of which were done for Reason magazine over the past nine years or so — are wonderfully entertaining and often fall-on-the-floor funny, even when you find yourself at odds with Bagge’s viewpoint.
- July 14, 2009 @ 09:28 AM by Chris Mautner
Straight for the art | Rafael Grampá draws Madman
Madman
So, honestly, I try not to focus too much on the same artists in these posts, and we just had two posts featuring Rafael Grampá’s art … but this one I just couldn’t pass up.
- July 14, 2009 @ 08:28 AM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Comic-Con
Conventions | The fight for Comic-Con International is heating up as representatives from Anaheim, Las Vegas and Los Angeles confirm they’re trying to convince convention organizers to leave San Diego for greener — or at least bigger — pastures. The event, which generates some $16 million in direct spending annually, is under contract with the San Diego Convention Center through 2012. [San Diego News Network]
Publishing | BOOM! Studios has signed agreements with Simon & Schuster and HarperCollinsCanada to distribute the publisher’s graphic novels to bookstores in the United States and Canada, respectively. [press release, press release]
The Art of Ditko
Publishing | Although it was mentioned in passing last week, IDW Publishing now has officially announced its new imprint Yoe! Books, which will release books by author and editor Craig Yoe (Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman’s Co-Creator Joe Shuster). The first titles, The Art of Ditko and The Complete Milt Gross Life Story and Comic Books, will debut this fall. [press release]
Crime | Remember that story last week about New York City police officers taking down Superman and Batman in Times Square? Well, there’s video. Naturally. [New York Post]
- July 14, 2009 @ 07:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
Is a Green Lantern video game in the works?
Green Lantern
It looks as if Green Lantern may hit game consoles around the same time he soars into theaters in June 2011.
VentureBeat reports that Warner Bros. has partnered with developer Double Helix Games to create an action-based game for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
On Friday it was announced that Ryan Reynolds will star as Hal Jordan in the big-budget film, directed by Martin Campbell (Casino Royale) and written by Greg Berlanti with Marc Guggenheim and Michael Green. Production is set to begin in January 2010.
The Irvine, Calif.-based Double Helix has worked on such video games as Silent Hill: Homecoming, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.
- July 14, 2009 @ 05:58 AM by Kevin Melrose
Translate this now! La Revolte d’Hop-Frog
La Revolte d'Hop-Frog
Every so often I like to use this column to focus not just on the various American comics that have languished in uncollected obscurity for far too long, but to also examine great works found in other comics-loving countries like France and Japan that for reasons both frustrating and inscrutable have yet to arrive on our shores.
So this week I’m looking across the Atlantic to a 1997 graphic novel written by David B and drawn by Chris Blain, both French. Both names should at least ring a bell with the discerning indie reader, David B. having won well-deserved plaudits for his extraordinarily haunting memoir Epileptic, while Blain found his name on a number of top ten lists last year with First Second’s release of his revisionist Western Gus and His Gang.
La Revolte d’Hop-Frog is a Western as well, though it bears little resemblance to Gus, however, or to any Western I’ve ever seen or read. It’s more like The X-Files set in 19th Century Texas. Oh, it has plenty of gunfights for sure. And cowboys. And tons of Indians. The central plot, however, revolves around a number of talking teapots, guns, lamps,stoves and other inanimate objects gaining sentience and declaring all-out war on their previous owners.
Panel from 'Hop-Frog'
- July 13, 2009 @ 03:20 PM by Chris Mautner
Vertigo announces I, Zombie + Halloween annual
House of Mystery
Vertigo today announced a new series called I, Zombie by author Chris Roberson and Mike Allred.
Although a link between the two isn’t mentioned, I’m guessing the title is a subtle homage to the J.M. DeMatteis-written I … Vampire series that ran in House of Mystery back in the 1980s.
So what better place to kick it off than in the current House of Mystery — or, rather in a Halloween annual that will include a House of Mystery framing sequence and new Hellblazer, Madame Xanadu, Merv Pumpkinhead and I, Zombie stories.
- July 13, 2009 @ 02:18 PM by JK Parkin
SDCC ’09 | Exclusive comic stuff to buy, plus some creator schedules
The San Diego Comic-Con kicks off with Preview Night a week from this Wednesday. If you are a publisher, creator, retailer or any other kind of exhibitor who would like to let folks know about any special plans you have for the show (panels, signing schedules, exclusives, debuts, etc.) drop me an email and I’ll run it here.
Also, a reminder: the programming schedule is out, so you can start putting together your to do list. This post at the Daily Cross Hatch, which includes a rundown of what various indie comic creators will be doing at the show, might also be helpful.
Creators | Remember those Colleen Coover Clue drawings Kevin linked to in May? Turns out she’s turned them into blank cards and will have them at the show. She’ll also have some new buttons.
Creators | Joëlle Jones will have a new sketchbook featuring the seven deadly sins at the show.
Comics | Wildstorm will distribute a free primer on their universe of characters — Authority, Gen13, etc. — at the con. Titled This Is WildStorm Universe #0, the book will lay out “where each WildStorm Universe team began, where they are now… and offering a few hints about their future.”
- July 13, 2009 @ 01:29 PM by JK Parkin
Strangeways: Murder Moon – Page 10
Written by Matt Maxwell. Art by Luis Guragna
Commentary after the jump.
- July 13, 2009 @ 01:00 PM by Matt Maxwell
Talking Comics with Tim: Roger Langridge
The Muppet Show #4
Given today’s announcement that Roger Langridge will be appearing at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, it seemed like the ideal time to run my email interview with him regarding his Muppets work at BOOM! Langridge’s industry profile has been elevated by his recent Muppet work, and it was my pleasure to interview him about it. His grasp of the Muppets characters is amazing and given that I’m a longtime fan of the Muppets, I’m truly enthused when he says some of the characters have “hidden depths you could spend a lifetime mining.” I could spend a lifetime reading what Langridge mines, honestly.
Tim O’Shea: Your Muppet work for BOOM! Studios was the first time I saw you work in the Muppet-verse. But you worked with the Muppets back with the Disney Adventures magazine. How much has your Muppet style changed (if at all) between the Disney era work and now?
Roger Langridge: The Disney Adventures stuff was a bit less on-model; they’d been running some Mickey Mouse cartoons by Glenn McCoy that were drawn in a raggedy, undergroundish sort of style and they were popular enough that they were looking for something similar with the Muppets, so I was encouraged to just go with my own style entirely. The BOOM! material, being more in the nature of a piece of official merchandise, is stylistically somewhere between that and the official models: not entirely my own take, although still recognisably “me.”
O’Shea: How did the Muppet assignment come about–did you contact BOOM! or did they seek you out?
Langridge: They found me! I guess the unpublished Disney Adventures material had been circulating behind the scenes, and I suppose somebody liked it well enough to track me down.
- July 13, 2009 @ 12:14 PM by Tim O'Shea
Bid today on lettered edition of Strangers in Paradise Omnibus
Terry Moore has teamed up with the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab on a limited edition “lettered” version of the Strangers in Paradise Omnibus. Now I know some smart ass out there (other than me) is thinking: “Aren’t all comic books lettered? How else would we read them?” In this case, lettered means it’s limited to 26 copies — A through Z — and it includes the following:
- One set of the strictly limited three-volume hardcover SiP Omnibus edition
- An original drawing by Terry Moore
- A bottle of “Parker Lily,” a fragrance based on Terry Moore’s beloved epic created by Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, and strictly limited to 26 bottles.
All sets can be available for pick up at Comic-Con in San Diego, or will be mailed in the first week of August … except for the “A” edition, which is up on eBay right now. The auction, which is currently over $1,000, ends tomorrow. The set costs $500 on the CBLDF site.
- July 13, 2009 @ 11:39 AM by JK Parkin
Straight for the art | Stan Lee draws Usagi Yojimbo
Stan Lee's Usagi
Every year the San Diego Comic-Con puts together a souvenir book that spotlights various anniversaries, such as the 50th anniversary of Green Lantern or 25th anniversary of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The book features artwork from professionals and fans celebrating these anniversaries.
Well, this year is the 25th anniversary of Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo, and he’s posted artwork by none other than Stan Lee featuring everyone’s favorite ronin rabbit wearing everyone’s favorite webslinger’s mask. “Other contributors include Sergio Aragones, Dan Spiegle, Dean Yeagle, Kazu Kibiushi, Bill Morrison, Mell Lazarus (Mama as Usagi), and Scott Shaw!” Sakai said on his blog.
- July 13, 2009 @ 11:13 AM by JK Parkin
A visit to the 10 greatest urban spaces in comics
From "The Long Tomorrow," by Moebius
I enjoyed The Architects’ Journal’s list of the 10 “greatest illustrated urban spaces” for several reasons, not the least of which is that it strays from the usual comic-book suspects. Sure, Gotham City and Metropolis are included — how could they not be? — but so are Radiant City from Dean Motter’s Mister X, the city from Moebius’ The Long Tomorrow and London from Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell’s From Hell.
(I can’t remember where I found this link; sorry.)
- July 13, 2009 @ 10:35 AM by Kevin Melrose
Auction to benefit comics legend John Ostrander
Suicide Squad #1
Comics veteran John Ostrander, who over his 27-year career has written everything from Batman to GrimJack to Suicide Squad, has been battling glaucoma for years. He’s undergone a series of operations to try to save his eyesight, but unfortunately his health insurance doesn’t cover the costs.
To try to help with medical expenses, Mike Gold, Adriane Nash and Mike Raub, along with Peter Katz and Wizard Entertainment, have organized a benefit auction to be held Aug. 8 during Chicago Comic-Con.
Original art, signed books and scripts and other merchandise already have been donated by such creators as Mark Badger, Norm Breyfogle, Howard Chaykin, Dick Giordano, Paul Gulacy, Joe Lansdale, David Lloyd, Dennis O’Neil and Dave Sim.
Gold and Nash have set up a website, comix4sight.com, to accept monetary contributions and to sell any items donated after the Aug. 8 event.
If the money raised should exceed Ostrander’s expenses, that amount will be donated to The Hero Initiative (which was the subject a nice Los Angeles Times profile over the weekend).
Ostrander, 60, co-created GrimJack with Truman, and went on to work with him on such titles as DC’s Hawkworld and Marvel’s Apache Skies. With his late wife Kim Yale, Ostrander wrote DC’s Manhunter in the late ’80s and transformed former Batgirl Barbara Gordon into Oracle. His lengthy run on Suicide Squad — much of it co-written with Yale — is considered by many fans to be the definitive take on the property.
- July 13, 2009 @ 10:00 AM by Kevin Melrose