2009 July
Straight for the art | To be precise, this is not a pipe
My dear Thompson!
The Ephemerist found this charming Magritte/Herge mash-up created by Karl Meersman to celebrate the recent openings of two new museums in Belgium that honor each artist.
- July 24, 2009 @ 12:00 PM by Chris Mautner
SDCC ’09 | Quote of the day
Joe Quesada
“When I took over as editor-in-chief, Tom DeFalco, who was the editor-in-chief before Bob Harras, who I took over the job from, he came into my office, smacked me on the back — Tom’s a friend — and said, ‘I’m gonna give you some advice. From this point on, you have a very big target on your back. You’re going to have to have very broad shoulders. If you’re not going to do that, you’re not going to like this job.’ And at the end of the day, I’m making comic books. So I have some comic book fans that’re making fun of me. I’m not trying to resolve the economy, I’m not trying to solve things between Palestine and Israel, you know, it’s comic books and the worst thing we do is we kill off some trees and we piss off some fanboys. But as long as we do our jobs right, at the end of the day, I want to be able to look back when I either get shown the door or I walk out of it myself, I want to be able to look back and say, we gave everybody a great ride. The story’s really good. It’s all about story.”
– Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada, on dealing with a vocal fanbase
- July 24, 2009 @ 11:13 AM by Kevin Melrose
Spurgeon to Hollywood: Hurry up and make that Dr. Strange movie already
Doctor Strange: The Oath
No doubt inspired by his arrival to Comic-Con, Tom Spurgeon has made up a list of what he feels are 10 properties that should be fast-tracked into movies or TV shows. No. 1 on the list is Dr. Strange, and Tom has an interesting suggestion as to who should don the Eye of Agamotto:
While some folks reading that original post thought I was hinting at Johnny Depp being best suited for the role, the actor I was thinking of was actually Leonardo DiCaprio. A number of you probably just vomited, but DiCaprio is already 34, he can act, he’s as believable as Downey Jr. — albeit in a different way — as someone who once had a glamorous career, lost it and has seen tough times since, he’s a major motion picture star, he has considerable onscreen charisma it’s fun to see him embrace rather than flee and he’s adept at playing romance. But so many actors would do.
Go check out the whole list. There are some interesting and eclectic choices found there.
- July 24, 2009 @ 10:30 AM by Chris Mautner
SDCC ’09 | Rafael Grampá’s Furry Water poster is just … wow
"Furry Water" poster, by Rafael Grampá
Rafael Grampá has revealed this stunning Comic-Con-exclusive poster for Furry Water, his six-issue postapocalyptic action series that Dark Horse will release next year.
Somebody in San Diego had better grab me one of those. Seriously.
- July 24, 2009 @ 09:27 AM by Kevin Melrose
SDCC ’09 | Jaime King at tomorrow’s Emo Boy panel
Jaime King
I heard from SLG Publishing’s Dan Vado this morning that Jaime King will be at the Emo Boy movie panel in San Diego tomorrow. As Kevin mentioned earlier, it was announced yesterday that King would star in the film.
I believe this is King’s fourth comic-related movie; she was also in The Spirit, Sin City and Bulletproof Monk.
Here’s the panel description:
4:30-5:30 Vanguard Films: Emo Boy— Vanguard Films will announce its slate of new projects including Emo Boy, the big screen adaptation of Stephen Emond’s SLG graphic novel, with a special Q&A with the movie’s director, Kyle Newman (Fanboys). Other projects to be announced include Illegal Aliens, a new graphic novel/movie franchise being produced by Vanguard and Platinum Comics, and Alien Band, an animated feature set to go into production in the fall of 2009. A preview will also be shown from Vanguard’s upcoming film Space Chimps 3D. Room 10
- July 24, 2009 @ 09:10 AM by JK Parkin
SDCC ’09 | Quote of the day
Thursday's line
“… Maybe the most prevalent initial issue with Comic-Con is how long it actually takes one to get into the San Diego Convention Center. I arrived at 8:00 a.m. and spent the next hour in a mass of people that reminded me more of the Jewish diaspora than just your average queue, provided the diaspora featured thousands of Harry Potters and Slut Aliens (this is not a real character, just a personal fashion choice) and men unironically wearing porkpie hats. The line stretched around the block, through the marina, across the Hoth planet, over Tatooine and then dead-ended next to a spot that smelled a lot like urine. Lovely.”
– author Tod Goldberg, attending Comic-Con for the first time
- July 24, 2009 @ 08:38 AM by Kevin Melrose
SDCC ’09 | Titan to publish Simon/Kirby omnibus
Splash page from Fighting American story
According to the Jack Kirby Museum blog, Titan Books, publishers of the recent Best of Simon and Kirby, is going to be releasing a comprehensive, 480-page omnibus of every single superhero comic Jack Kirby and Joe Simon worked together on — that didn’t involve DC or Marvel properties of course.
The Simon and Kirby Superheroes will be released in summer 2010 in the special 11″ x 7-1/2″ oversized format, making it possible to reproduce the comic book pages in their original printed size. “Comics were larger in the Golden Age of the medium,” explained series editor Steve Saffel, “and we wanted to be able to give readers the full experience of these brilliant stories.” As with The Best of Simon and Kirby, the stories will be fully restored by Kirby historian Harry Mendryk, presented on quality matte stock paper in vivid color.
Included in the book will be such colorful characters as the Fighting American, Lancelot Strong, The Fly and the Stuntman, which, I’m sure, bears no relation to the Peter O’Toole movie.
Need more info? Titan has a special site already set up, where they hint at plans to release separate collections of the detective, horror and romance stories the celebrated duo worked down the road.
- July 24, 2009 @ 08:00 AM by Chris Mautner
SDCC ’09 | Comic-Con Notes
Comic-Con
• This year’s convention has been surprisingly (refreshingly?) light on movie announcements. However, one comics-related item reported last night is that Lucas Cruikshank and Jaime King have been cast to star in Emo Boy, the Vanguard Films adaptation of the SLG Publishing series by Stephen Emond.
• The Hollywood Reporter wonders how much Comic-Con actually benefits movie studios.
• Tom Spurgeon files a report from Wednesday’s Comics and Media Conference, sponsored by ICv2.com.
• The San Diego Union-Tribune’s coverage of yesterday’s “Mondo Marvel” panel focuses on the question of whether superheroes should be married.
• Wired.com’s Underwire blog chats with cartoonist Jeff Lemire about his Vertigo graphic novel The Nobody.
• The A.V. Club spotlights Love and Rockets as a “Gateway to Geekery,” and recommends first comics and graphic novels for new readers.
• Scott Robins has a Thursday photo parade at Good Comics For Kids.
• USA Today’s Whitney Matheson posts a video-blog recap from Day One.
- July 24, 2009 @ 07:19 AM by Kevin Melrose
SDCC ’09 | Quote of the day
Lev Grossman
“Spend any time at all at Comic-Con and it’s hard not to go all Hunter Thompson. There’s just so many damn people. Nerd culture has gorged and gorged, and then bloated, then collapsed under the weight of its own flesh. The excess flesh has turned septic and begun to necrotize, and that is the stench in the air in San Diego. This isn’t nerd Woodstock, it’s nerd Altamont.”
– author Lev Grossman, writing from Day One of the convention
- July 24, 2009 @ 06:46 AM by Kevin Melrose
SDCC ’09 | Day One
Comic-Con
After a bevy of announcements earlier in the week about movie deals and video-game adaptations, Comic-Con International officially kicked off Thursday with news of the hiring of an industry veteran, and three significant book acquisitions.
IDW Publishing revealed that Bob Schreck, a longtime senior group editor at DC Comics, will join the company as senior editor in October. He’ll focus on developing new projects and new talent.
An editor at Comico and Dark Horse, Schreck co-founded Oni Press with Joe Nozemack in 1996. Three years later he joined DC Comics, where he oversaw the Batman line and, eventually, edited the All-Star titles and developed new projects for Vertigo. He was laid off in January during a wave of major cutbacks by Warner Bros.
Day One’s major publishing news came from Scholastic, Drawn & Quarterly and Dark Horse.
Scholastic announced that Jeff Smith will release new Bone titles with co-writer Tom Sniegoski, beginning in summer 2010 with Bone: Tall Tales. The fall will see the expansion of the Bone world with the first book in the Quest for the Spark trilogy, overseen and illustrated by Smith and written by Sniegoski.
Drawn & Quarterly acquired the rights to Daniel Clowes’ new graphic novel Wilson, the cartoonist’s first book not to be originally serialized in Eightball. The title, described as a “portrait of the modern egoist,” will debut in May 2010.
Dark Horse, meanwhile, rolled out an overview of its convention announcements, which include plans to release all three volumes of the popular European noir series Blacksad.
In other Thursday highlights:
- July 24, 2009 @ 04:57 AM by Kevin Melrose
SDCC ’09 | Phil Gelatt talks Petrograd
Petrograd
At their panel at the San Diego Comic-Con today, Oni Press announced a new project today called Petrograd, by Labor Days writer Philip Gelatt and newcomer Tyler Crook. The book will explore the death of Grigori Rasputin, or the Mad Monk, from Russian history. I spoke with Phil about what his plans are for the graphic novel.
JK: So you’re doing a book about the Mad Monk, Rasputin. Where did the idea come from, and what was the appeal of tackling his story?
Phil: The root of the idea came from some reading I was doing, a few years ago at this point, about the Russian revolution. And I encountered this strange rumor that has been floating around since Rasputin’s death that there were British spies involved in the assassination and that the British government had a stake in this man’s death for various reasons. It’s a rumor that’s been around since 1917 but more recently some forensic evidence has made it seem that this might actually be what happened. So the potential in that idea really grabbed me and stuck with me. What the hell were the British doing assassinating a Russian holy man? Who was this British agent charged with this monumental task? How the hell would any of that actually work?
So my initial idea was to take this notion, this rumor with some fact to it and do it like a proto-James Bond story or a WWI era Le Carre novel: lone British assassin takes on the secret ruler of Tsarist Russia, with the Russian Revolution as backdrop.
As for the appeal in tackling this story, as long as I can remember, Rasputin has been a historical figure that I found fascinating. Not just because of the salacious stories or the bizarre mysticism but because the details of his murder are so outlandish, so over the top, so much like something out of a gothic horror story. Poisoned, beaten, stabbed, shot and finally drown, it’s really incredible. So when I stumbled on this new angle to that murder, and it suddenly clicked into the espionage genre, I knew it was a story that I would love to take a crack at.
It’s really an historical spy epic with a particularly brutal assassination as its center piece.
- July 23, 2009 @ 05:58 PM by JK Parkin
SDCC ’09 | Quick notes on Thursday
Iron Man armor
• I’m currently sitting in the Image “breaking in/how to be a creator” panel, where Joe Keatinge is facilitating a discussion/Q&A session with Richard Starkings, Jimmie Robinson, Joe Kelly, Steve Seagle and John Layman (Jim Valentino had to leave early). I’m covering the Jeff Smith/Terry Moore panel that comes after it; I heard there was going to be a big announcement from Smith, and I’m hoping maybe it’s something else besides the news that broke earlier today. Which is good news indeed, but I’m wondering if that was the announcement hyped in the program or if there’s something else.
• The other panel I covered today was the Longbox panel. Man, Longbox looks AWESOME. Seriously, the demo is super slick. Rantz Hoseley also announced additional publishers for the initiative: NBM, Shadowline and their all-ages imprint Silverline, Dabel Brothers, NBM and Archaia. Also several Image creators will have their creator-owned stuff out there. Watch for a full write-up on CBR. Oh, and I got a code for the Longbox beta, for whenever it starts.
• Spoke with a lot of folks at the DC booth, including road warrior Johnny Zito, who drove here from Philly. David Gallaher, who introduced me to a lot of Zuda folks. Jeremy Love, whose Bayou is a beautiful book. Ben Caldwell showed me artwork from his Wonder Woman story in Wednesday Comics. I talked to him and Steve Ellis about how the differences in formatting affects their approach … like how drawing High Moon for Zuda is different from Ellis’s approach to his Marvel work, or how something like Wednesday Comics gives you a whole lot more space to play with, in Caldwell’s case.
• I hit the media room earlier to work on my Longbox story, and they were having a press conference in there. I wasn’t really paying attention, because there were a ton of cameras filming it so I really couldn’t see who it was. Then I realized that John Lithgow was talking, and that it was the cast of Dexter. One of the cameras moved and yeah, it was him. Then I realized I was geeking out about John Lithgow at Comic-Con, which is kind of cool.
• Oh, and lines … there are tons of lines. Did I mention the lines? Did I mention the long cattle call lines of people waiting to get into Psych and Dexter and Burn Notice panels? I waited ten minutes to cross the hallway because they had it blocked off for the Dexter line to pass. So yeah, lines, but probably not any worse than previous years.
- July 23, 2009 @ 05:14 PM by JK Parkin
SDCC ’09 | Dark Horse to publish all three volumes of Blacksad
From "Blacksad," by Juan Díaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido
Dark Horse has rolled out the highlights of its Comic-Con announcements, including plans to release all three volumes of the award-winning European comics series Blacksad.
The comic, by Juan Díaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido, is a noirish crime series set in 1950s America and starring an anthropomorphic-animal cast. It centers on private investigator John Blacksad, a black cat who occasionally works as a bodyguard.
Of the three volumes — Somewhere Within the Shadows, Arctic Nation and Red Soul — only the first two previously have been translated into English.
As expected, Dark Horse confirmed it has acquired Rafael Grampá and Daniel Pellizzari’s six-issue Furry Water. But it also revealed it will re-release Grampá’s Mesmo Delivery, which was previously published by AdHouse Books.
Expect more details Saturday at the “Dark Horse: We Love Comics, Too!” panel.
The full press release, which includes such highlights as Devil, by Torajiro Kishi and Madhouse Studios, and the Final Fantasy Boxed Set, by Yoshitaka Amano, can be found after the break.
- July 23, 2009 @ 04:48 PM by Kevin Melrose
SDCC ’09 | Bachalo and Jock enlist in EA’s Army of Two
Art from "Army of Two: The 40th Day," by Chris Bachalo
Electronic Arts is at Comic-Con promoting, among other video games, Army of Two: The 40th Day, in which much rides on the moral choices made by the two players.
To help illustrate the long-term impact of those decisions, the developers brought in artists Chris Bachalo and Jock to provide sequences of still images that show how those actions play out.
Destructoid has a slick promotional video for The 40th Day, plus a couple of illustrations by the artists. The game’s website also has a press release about Bachalo and Jock.
- July 23, 2009 @ 03:07 PM by Kevin Melrose
SDCC ’09 | Bat Boy and his freakish friends head to comics
Weekly World News comic
Well, this is certainly unexpected: IDW Publishing is partnering with Weekly World News to bring some of the bizarre characters of the supermarket tabloid to comics.
A four-issue miniseries called The Irredemption of Ed Anger will debut in January and feature a who’s who of WWN‘s denizens: the “half-human and half-bat” Bat Boy, far right-wing columnist Ed Anger, simian psychologist to the stars PhD Ape, political pundit UFO Alien, reptilian good ol’ boy Manigator, and others — including Chaos Cloud, the unpredictable weather front with the face of François Mitterand.
The series will be written by IDW Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Chris Ryall and illustrated by Alan Robinson.
Weekly World News launched in 1979, introducing its readers to sensational stories under the banner of “The World’s Only Reliable News.” Human-animal hybrids, extraterrestrial trysts and Bigfoot sightings all found a place in its black-and-white pages.
Although the tabloid reached a peak circulation of 1.2 million in the ’80s, that number had dropped to just 83,000 by 2006. WWN ended in print form in 2007 but continues as a website.
- July 23, 2009 @ 02:31 PM by Kevin Melrose