2009 September
The Iceman Cometh to Marvel Ultimate Alliances 2
Iceman
Last week Activision announced another playable character, Iceman, for its Marvel Ultimate Alliances 2 game. Iceman is no stranger to the video game world, as he appeared in the first game as well as the two X-Men Legends games before it. Click the link to read more from the designer and the art director of the game on Iceman’s powers and visuals.
It looks like Iceman will be the last character revealed before the game hits stores, if the now-full “classified” roster scorecard on the game’s website is any indication. But in San Diego it was revealed that at least one other playable character wouldn’t be announced in advance, and it sounds like the Wii version of the game may be getting some additional exclusive characters … Blade, Cyclops and Psylocke. I wouldn’t be surprised if those characters (and others) were released as downloadable content for the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions down the line, though.
The game comes out next Tuesday.
- September 8, 2009 @ 09:31 AM by JK Parkin
Hello, new Batgirl; good-bye, creepy fetish mask
Batgirl costume sketch, by Lee Garbett
As DC Comics’ blog reveals Phil Noto’s full cover for November’s Batgirl #4, series artist Lee Garbett posts his designs for Stephanie Brown’s new costume — one that’s more Barbara Gordon than Cassandra Cain, with Spoiler-purple and ’90s-style leg pouches tossed in for good measure.
Thankfully, the sensory-deprivation mask was among the elements discarded for the new look.
- September 8, 2009 @ 08:40 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Marvel
Legal | A Marvel Entertainment shareholder last week sued to block Disney’s announced $4-billion purchase of the company. Christine Vlatos claims Marvel’s board of directors failed to conduct an appropriate sales process, and that the proposed transaction “does not appear to adequately value Marvel’s shares.” However, one expert says plaintiffs rarely win this kind of lawsuit. Meanwhile, Shareholders Foundation Inc. is trolling for Marvel investors to become party to a class-action lawsuit.
In related news, papers filed Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission reveal the agreement with Disney includes a hefty termination fee: Although Marvel has agreed not to pursue other offers, if it were to stop the merger to pursue a “superior deal,” it would have to pay Disney $140 million. [Bloomberg]
- September 8, 2009 @ 08:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Strangeways: The Thirsty – Page 083
We’re back! Get yer fresh pages right here!
Written by Matt Maxwell. Art by Gervasio and Jok.
You just can’t trust a vampire, can you?
Back on Wednesday with the return of the MURDER MOON giveaway. See you all then.
- September 7, 2009 @ 01:00 PM by Matt Maxwell
Talking Comics with Tim: Joshua Hale Fialkov
Tumor
This interview with Joshua Hale Fialkov (creator of the acclaimed Elk’s Run from a few years ago and current noir work at Archaia, Tumor [which reunites Fialkov with his Elk's Run artist Noel Tuazon]) took an interesting route before finally getting here. The initial interview started as a suggestion from Johanna Draper Carlson back in October 2008 (thanks, Johanna) and was intended for my pop culture blog, Talking with Tim. Fialkov was more than game to do the interview and we completed the initial interview in late 2008, right around the time I signed on to contribute my comics interviews to Robot 6. So, savvy, yet disorganized guy that I am, I set the interview aside–and promptly misplaced it. When news of Fialkov’s Tumor (available here for Kindle and here for free for those of without Kindles) started making the rounds, I realized my mistake and tracked the emails down. I contacted Fialkov (offering my sincere apologies) and he was kind enough to entertain new questions about Tumor. So please note, after the initial Tumor discussion, the interview moves on to the initial 2008 interview, which while it is understandably dated in some aspects, much of it is still quite engaging and relevant. My thanks to Fialkov for his understanding and for his time both in 2008 and 2009.
Tim O’Shea: How pleased have you been with Tumor’s Kindle sales? How much has the story’s word-of-mouth been boosted thanks to the website?
Joshua Hale Fialkov: Well, just using our placement in the ranks on Amazon, the fact that a Kindle only comic book can get up to be the 8th most ordered graphic novel on all of Amazon, including print, is pretty damn amazing. I think there’s a lot of reasons that we’re up there, including that we’re giving the first chapter away for free, but, still, that says to me that there’s an audience for comics on the device, and it’s one that in some ways may soon rival the audience for print comics. At least, for those readers who use Amazon to get their fix. My whole career has been built on a lot of goodwill, and from the support of friends and fans with big mouths and wide audiences, and, frankly, in a niche business like comics, that’s really how the whole thing works. What I hope to do is go the extra mile to really reward my readers, first with what I hope is excellent content, but secondly by giving them access to the stuff over on the website, including behind the scenes material, and special features that not only enhance their enjoyment of the book, but hopefully show them a side of the process they haven’t considered. To that end, there’s a healthy amount of traffic who make it over to the site every time we release an issue, so, I know that in some respects, it’s working.
- September 7, 2009 @ 10:30 AM by Tim O'Shea
What Are You Reading?
Ninja
Welcome to What Are You Reading. Our guest this week is Sean T. Collins, who should be no stranger to most of you as he’s been guestblogging with us all week while JK Parkin was on vacation.
To find out what Sean and the rest of us have been reading this week, just click on the link below …
- September 6, 2009 @ 02:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Your Mileage May Vary: More on the Marvel/Disney Deal
The Disney-buying-Marvel announcement was the biggest news this week, and it’s been discussed pretty much everywhere. Which means that naturally, it’s being featured in this column too.
Blogger Nicki Marvel examines what she percieves as the pros and cons of the deal:
Disney-Marvel
# Pro #1 – Disney will probably let Marvel be the brains behind their movies and animation industry, a la Pixar/Disney, since they know that the experts are the better movie makers. The success of “Iron Man” certainly proved that Marvel could handle its own characters well, and although “The Incredible Hulk” did not perform to ridiculous numbers, it did alright.
# Con to #1 – On the other hand… there is the possibility that one wrong move on Marvel’s part, if a movie fails rather than surprisingly succeeds like “Iron Man,” that Disney will step in and sell the soul of the comic in order to make the money back. Just look at FOX to see something like that in motion, and can we say “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” and leave it at that? Sure they might be given freedom … at first, but Disney is a smart studio and it will take control if things aren’t working out. Thus sending millions of fanboys crying to bed.
- September 5, 2009 @ 02:01 PM by Melissa Krause
The Fifth Color – Marvel Queens
Oh man, I have never been so glad I do this on Friday. Hopefully, Dear Reader, we’re far enough from Monday and the hyperventilating, bad joke-cracking, internet outrage over the Big Announcement has passed the majority of us by. Either you’ve read or listened a little more to those on the inside, fears, doubts and flailing have been soothed or at least put to bed for now as the fallout of this 4 billion dollar purchase of the House of Ideas is going to take years to have any sort of crazy effect on the brand we love.
Then again, some fans may still be unsoothed and are continuing to photoshop Mickey’s head on Marvelman in milking out that one last drop of sneering humor.
We here at the Fifth Color have decided to eschew all ribbing and ranting at the House of Mouse… except for one thing.
- September 4, 2009 @ 03:30 PM by Carla Hoffman
Robot Reviews: From Wonderland With Love and Why I Killed Peter
From Wonderland With Love
From Wonderland With Love: Danish Comics in the Third Millennium
Edited by Steffen P. Maarup
Fantagraphics Books, 176 pages, $29.99.
Why I Killed Peter
by Alfred and Olivier Ka
NBM, 112 pages, $18.95.
Sexual abuse, particularly pedophilia, is a tough subject to handle in any medium, let alone comics. It requires a delicate touch, a sympathy for the victim and the supporting cast (though not necessarily the perpetrator), an understanding of all the conflicting emotions involved and a willingness to go for broke — to express the sheer horror of being violated both mentally and physically at such a young age in as honest and unflinching a manner as possible.
Two recent (or relatively recent at any rate) comics attempt to broach the unbroachable, but in wildly different ways. That both are successful has less to do with the grave severity of the subject matter than the particular talent involved and the unique perspectives they bring to their stories.
- September 4, 2009 @ 02:30 PM by Chris Mautner
Strangeways: The Thirsty – Chapter 3 Recap
Written by Matt Maxwell. Art by Gervasio and Jok.
And now it’s just like you’ve been reading along from the start!
See you all next week.
- September 4, 2009 @ 01:25 PM by Matt Maxwell
The Cold Heat Universe continues to expand
"Cold Heat" art by Jon Vermilyea, from Mome Vol. 16
For a title that was originally rejected for inclusion in the Previews catalog by Diamond on the grounds that its format was “unpopular with collectors and retailers,” Frank Santoro and Ben Jones’s psychedelic sci-fi action-adventure teen-angst punk-rock extravaganza Cold Heat sure is generating enough prequels, sequels and spin-offs to satisfy even the most dedicated fan of front-of-Previews mega-events.
At the Cold Heat Comics blog, co-creator Frank Santoro reveals that the upcoming Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Maryland, will see the release of three new CH titles, featuring the continuing adventures of sword-wielding teenage heroine Castle, resurrected rock god Joel Cannon, and their cosmic alien allies and evil government enemies. First up is Cold Heat 7/8, an omnibus edition of the PictureBox-published series’ next two issues. Next is Fantagraphics’ ongoing anthology series Mome Vol. 16, which like Vol. 14 will include a Cold Heat prequel story — two, actually, one of them featuring art by Jon Vermilyea. (A preview of the Santoro/BJ contribution, and the rest of the issue, can be found here.) And finally, another Cold Heat Special is on the way, the latest in a series of limited-run comics made by Santoro in collaboration with such artists as Dash Shaw, Jim Rugg, Lane Milburn, and Ryan Cecil Smith.
Cold Heat has been at the crest a new wave of unabashed alternative genre comics, including C.F.’s Powr Mastrs, Kazimir Strzepek’s The Mourning Star, Brian Ralph’s Daybreak, and Johnny Ryan’s Prison Pit. Readers who like their science-fiction slugfests thought-provoking as well as pulse-pounding would do well to check it out.
- September 4, 2009 @ 11:22 AM by Sean T. Collins
Show us your shelf porn, Neil Gaiman!
my god it's full of stars
Neil Gaiman can claim many honorifics: acclaimed comics writer, bestselling novelist, Newbery Award-winning children’s author, dater of rock stars. To this list we can now add “owner of an intimidatingly awesome book collection.” Shelfari, the online social networking site for book lovers, has posted an astonishing photo gallery of Gaiman’s wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling personal library; if possible, it’s even more impressive than you might have imagined the Sandman scribe’s bookshelves to be. As a person who actually purchased a house in part to have more shelf space, I can only say that the creator of Dream is living the dream.
(Via Tom Spurgeon, whose headline for the link is so good that you really ought to click over there and reward him with your traffic just to see it)
- September 4, 2009 @ 10:19 AM by Sean T. Collins
Alan Moore gives blessing to Miracleman reprints
In an interview with Kurt Amacker for Mania, Alan Moore discussed in detail his feelings towards Marvel’s purchase of the Marvelman character and the chance of ever seeing his own version of the character in print again. In a nutshell: He’s fine with it all as long as his name is kept off the credits and the character’s original creator, Mick Anglo, gets to keep all the money:
Alan Moore
After being initially informed by Neil’s lawyer, I had to think about it for a couple of days. I decided that while I’m very happy for this book to get published—because that means money will finally go to Marvelman’s creator, Mick Anglo, and to his wife. Mick is very, very old, and his wife, I believe, is suffering from Alzheimer’s. The actual Marvelman story is such a grim and ugly one that I would probably rather that the work was published without my name on it, and that all of the money went to Mick. The decision about my name was largely based upon my history with Marvel—my desire to really have nothing to do with them, and my increasing desire to have nothing to do with the American comics industry. I mean, they’re probably are enough books out there with my name on them to keep the comics industry afloat for a little bit longer. I left a message to that effect with Neil. I’ve since heard back from the lawyer upon another issue, and he said that he was certain that would be the case—that Marvel would accede to my request. That looks like the way it will be emerging. And, Neil will be able to finish his Marvelman story because he has a completely different relationship with Marvel than I have with them—or rather, don’t have. The main thing is that I will feel happy to know that Mick Anglo is finally getting the recompense he so richly deserves. And, I will have distanced myself from a lot of the deceit and ugliness that surrounded the relaunching of Marvelman as a character.
Moore also has a few nasty words for former Warrior editor Dez Skinn and Eclipse Comics, and goes into great detail about how he came up with his own unique take on the character. Go read the whole thing.
- September 4, 2009 @ 09:30 AM by Chris Mautner
Wizard, then and now
Wizard's Class of 2006
According to an email sent to various industry contacts, Wizard Associate Editor Jim Gibbons was let go by Wizard Entertainment after work hours last night. Meanwhile, ToyFare Associate Editor TJ Dietsch indicates on his blog that he was let go as well. The pair are the latest in a long list of staffers (myself included) hemorrhaged without replacement by Gareb Shamus’s publishing, convention and online-retail enterprise — a list long enough, frankly, to defy the bite-sized blogging format. But sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.
This photo of Wizard’s creative staff — editors, designers, researchers and staff writers — was taken in the summer of 2006 to celebrate the completion of a ToyFare reader scavenger hunt (hence the 3-D glasses, corncob pipes, and Burger King crowns, all mailed in by contestants). Of the 34 employees pictured here, only two — Wizard Features Editor Andy Serwin and ToyFare Editor Justin Aclin, plus the absent Wizard Editor Mike Cotton and the shot’s photographer, Research Director Dan Reilly — remain with the company. Today, including subsequent hires not seen in this photo, Wizard’s total full-time creative staff for its three magazines — Wizard, ToyFare and FunFare — numbers in the single digits.
As one of the many, many people in that picture who’ve since parted ways with the company (that’s me throwing metal in the front row), I hope you’ll indulge me when I say that whatever the company’s problems — and those of us who’ve worked there are more cognizant of them than you probably think — the personal and professional caliber of the vast majority of its creative staff is higher than that of any other place I’ve worked. And judging from the number of people in that picture who’ve since landed at DC, Marvel, Archaia, MTV News, Television Without Pity, Maxim and other industry publishers and news outlets, including here at CBR, I don’t think I’m alone in that assessment. Here’s hoping that my friends Jim and T.J. have similar luck.
- September 4, 2009 @ 08:19 AM by Sean T. Collins
Straight for the art | The cutest Batgirl and Robin ever
"Batkids," by Jen Zee
The always-worth-reading Super Punch points to Jen Zee’s adorable take on Robin and Batgirl (Cassandra Cain).
“I really hope DC has something great in mind for Cassandra Cain,” Zee writes, “because she’s been through the poop-blender a hundred times in the last two years or so. I know I’m just being nostalgic, but I loved the dynamic between Cass and Robin back during her Batgirl series (and none of this League of Assassins/drugs/etc bull existed).”
You can see much more of Zee’s work on her sketchblog and website.
- September 4, 2009 @ 07:57 AM by Kevin Melrose