2010 January
John Malkovich says he’s the Vulture in Spider-Man 4
John Malkovich
And he said so in Italian, or at least on an Italian sports show, of all places. Various sites are reporting that Malkovich spilled the beans about his role — for which he says he is anxiously awaiting the script, which has caused the film some problems recently — as the winged villain the Vulture in Sam Raimi’s fourth Spider-Man film.
Click over to Erik Amaya’s piece on Comic Book Resources for the full scoop, such as it is at the moment.
Update: And it looks like he’s also going to be in the movie Red, an adaptation of the Warren Ellis/Cully Hamner comic published by Wildstorm.
Update 2: And it looks like this is all kinds of moot, now that Sony has announced they’re rebooting the franchise and Raimi, Toby Maguire and everyone else involved with the last three films are out.
- January 11, 2010 @ 07:45 AM by Sean T. Collins
A roundup of end-of-the-year (and decade) pieces
Dark Reign: Zodiac #1
• Chad Nevett selects the best comics of 2009, including Joe Casey and Nathan Fox’s Dark Reign: Zodiac and David Lapham’s Young Liars. Nevett also looks at a handful of titles that didn’t make the cut.
• At the Forbidden Planet International blog, Richard Bruton lists the year’s best comics, including Roger Gibson and Vince Danks’ Harker, Andi Watson’s Glister and Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie’s Phonogram: The Singles Club.
• At PopImage, Brian Domingos breaks down the best of 2009 — and a few from the decade — by category, from miniseries (Dark Reign: Zodiac) to anthology (Wednesday Comics) to new ongoing series (The Unwritten).
• At Random House’s Suvudu website, Dallas Middaugh names the 10 best graphic novels of the year. (One of his selections, Dash Shaw’s Bottomless Belly Button, was actually released in 2008.)
• Tom Spurgeon wraps up his holiday-interview series with critics discussing comics emblematic of the decade: Johanna Draper Carlson on Fun Home; Bill Kartalopoulos on Kramers Ergot, Vol. 4.
• Likewise, Heidi MacDonald winds down her year-end survey of industry professionals here and here.
• Christopher Butcher continues his look at 10 manga milestones of the past decade that changed comics with an entry on the short-lived Raijin Comics.
• David Ferraro runs down the most-anticipated comics of 2010.
• Marc Sobel reflects on the 15 best back issues he read in 2009.
- January 11, 2010 @ 07:03 AM by Kevin Melrose
DC announces Blackest Night follow-up: Brightest Day [Updated]
"Brightest Day" teaser
“DC Comics this morning announced Brightest Day, the long-rumored follow-up to its bestselling Blackest Night crossover event.
On the DC Universe blog, Executive Editor Dan DiDio described Brightest Day as a 26-issue biweekly series that will debut in April with an Issue 0. The comic will be written by Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi.
The title, like Blackest Night, is derived, of course, from the first line of the Green Lantern oath: “In brightest day, in blackest night …”
Fernando Pasarin (The Outsiders, Justice Society of America) will pencil Brightest Day #0. However, no artists were announced for the rest of the series. More details are promised later this morning.
Update (12:27 p.m. PST): This afternoon, DiDio announced that newly DC-exclusive artist David Finch will provide the covers for Brightest Day.
And in an interview with IGN.com, Johns revealed that some of the central characters from Blackest Night, such as the Atom and Mera, will be seen in Brightest Day.
“We’re introducing new characters, rebuilding some classic DC heroes and villains, and at the same time bringing in new concepts and ideas,” he said. It’s a lot like what we’ve done with Green Lantern. … That’s what I’m hoping Brightest Day accomplishes in the DCU – taking characters and concepts that have been around for a long time and reintroducing them in big ways and with new elements. That’s a lot of why, in Blackest Night, you’ll see a lot of characters confronting the past, because it’s time for us and them to put the past to bed so characters like Ray Palmer can move on to the next adventure and next step.”
- January 11, 2010 @ 06:16 AM by Kevin Melrose
What Are You Reading?
This Year's Work in Lebowski Studies
Welcome to another round of What Are You Reading. Our guest this week is scholar, author and Comics Reporter columnist Bart Beaty, whose translation (along with Nick Nguyen) of Of Comics and Men: A Cultural History of American Comic Books by Jean-Paul Gabilliet of the University of Bordeaux just came out this week via the University Press of Mississippi.
Click on the link to find out what Mr. Beaty and the rest of us are reading this week, and then let us know what’s on your plate in the comments section.
- January 10, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Your Mileage May Vary – Blake Lively as Carol Ferris
Some recent big news is that Blake Lively has been cast as Carol Ferris in the Green Lantern movie. Naturally this has been getting a lot of reaction among fans and bloggers.
Valerie D’Orazio points out the issue of Ms. Lively’s age:
I’ll be honest, I saw more a brunette like Anne Hathaway, or perhaps even Jennifer Connelly playing the role. And yeah, I think age is a factor here as well as overall “look” – Lively being 22 and my conception of Ferris being somewhere in her late 20s/early 30s. Ryan Reynolds, who is playing Green Lantern, is 33. According to Hollywood, guys in their 3os & 40s are still vital and sexy, while there’s a preference for their female counterparts to be in their 20s. I’m not complaining, I’m just saying that’s the way it is – and this is why so many actresses, as they approach 30, drive themselves crazy and get plastic surgery and develop eating disorders, etc; it’s a business decision.
- January 9, 2010 @ 09:42 PM by Melissa Krause
Black Widow ongoing kicks off in April
Black Widow #1
Just in time for her appearance in this summer’s Iron Man 2, everyone’s favorite Russian spy is getting her own series, courtesy of writer Marjorie Liu and Daniel Acuna. Marvel announced yesterday that a new Black Widow ongoing series will kick off in April.
“I want to establish Black Widow as her own character, not as someone’s girlfriend or the member of a team,” Liu told Marvel.com. “Which isn’t to say that Black Widow’s relationships won’t be explored, but she’s a cunning, ruthless woman whose physical prowess would be nothing without her staggering intelligence. She’s a force to be reckoned with, in every possible way.”
IGN.com also has an interview up with Liu about the book. Unless I’m forgetting something from the 1990s, I believe this is the first time the Black Widow has had her own ongoing, thought she has appeared in several mini-series, graphic novels, team books and of course countless guest appearances.
- January 9, 2010 @ 09:18 AM by JK Parkin
Kirby family attorneys respond to Marvel lawsuit
Fantastic Four #1
Attorneys for the heirs of Jack Kirby call Marvel’s assertion that the late artist’s contributions were work made for hire “a standard claim predictably made by comic book companies to deprive artists, writers and other talent of all rights in their work.”
The statement comes in response to a lawsuit filed Friday by Marvel asking for a judge to invalidate 45 copyright-termination notices issued in September related to such creations as the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, Thor, The Avengers, the X-Men and Spider-Man.
Marvel maintains that Kirby’s work for the company was “for hire,” invalidating the claims of his four children.
However, a press release issued late Friday by Kirby attorneys Toberoff & Associates points out that Marvel was unsuccessful when it made a similar argument in its legal battle with Joe Simon concerning Captain America.
“The truth is that Jack Kirby was his own man,” the release states. “Like so many artists in the fledgling comic book industry of the late 1950′s/early 1960′s, Kirby worked with Marvel out of his own house as a free-lancer with no employment contract, no financial or other security, nor any other indicia of employment. … Kirby’s wonderful creations, which leapt from the page, were not Marvel’s ‘assignments,’ but were instead authored by Kirby under his own steam and then published by Marvel. It was not until 1972 that Kirby by contract granted Marvel the copyrights to his works. It is to this grant that the Kirby family’s statutory notices of termination apply.”
According to Toberoff & Associates, the Kirby terminations would become effective beginning in 2014. However, it’s unclear to which property that date refers. (What notable Kirby co-creations debuted at Marvel in 1958?)
When Congress increased the duration of copyright, lawmakers included a provision that, after a lengthy waiting period, permits authors or their heirs or estates to terminate the grant of rights. However, if the property is determined to be “work made for hire,” the copyright would belong to the company that commissioned it.
- January 9, 2010 @ 07:34 AM by Kevin Melrose
The Fifth Color – Encounter at Siege Point
Gentle Reader, in the afterglow of the fallen year that lies some days past behind us, and the all new, all different decade we have taken our first few steps with, isn’t it appropriate that Marvel has escorted us into 2010 with an Event book and her banner book spawn? This is it, it’s a new year preparing for a new way of looking at the Marvel Universe, the branding of what’s to come as the Heroic Age, an epic tale that’s been (*gulp*) seven years in the making. All of the last decade? Tiddly-winks to what’s coming up next.
It’s incomparable, inconceivable that you could read the first issue of this mega event and know what is to come. The first piece of the puzzle isn’t going to tell you what the picture’s looks like, even if it’s a corner piece. So what do we do, friends? Do we read Siege #1 and give it a value judgment, based on what we know and have heard? Or do we sit back, bag it up, place the issue into the long or short box and wait for #2 the way hard men swallow their emotions only to find themselves teary-eyed at a championship sports event?
Or do we compare it to Star Trek?
(WARNING: … actually no spoilers for Siege below, but some for first season TNG’s Encounter at Farpoint. Awkward. If you hate Star Trek, you’d probably want to turn back now.)
- January 8, 2010 @ 03:11 PM by Carla Hoffman
Marvel sues to invalidate copyright claims by Jack Kirby’s heirs
The Avengers #4
Marvel struck back today at the heirs of Jack Kirby, asking a judge to invalidate notices sent in September to terminate the copyrights to such characters as the Fantastic Four, the X-Men and Spider-Man.
In a lawsuit filed today in New York City, lawyers for Marvel assert that Kirby’s work for the company was “for hire,” invalidating the claims of the heirs.
“The notices filed by the heirs are an attempt to rewrite the history of Kirby’s relationship with Marvel,” John Turitzin, Marvel’s general counsel, said in a press release. “Everything about Kirby’s relationship with Marvel shows that his contributions were works made for hire and that all the copyright interests in them belong to Marvel.”
The heirs, represented by Marc Toberoff — he’s the attorney who helped the wife and daughter of Jerry Siegel regain a share of Superman — issued 45 copyright-termination notices to Marvel, Disney, Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures and others who have made films and other forms of entertainment based on characters that Kirby co-created.
Under U.S. copyright law, authors or their heirs and estates may file to regain copyrights, or partial copyrights, at a certain period of time after the original transfer of rights. However, if the property is determined to be “work made for hire,” the copyright would belong to the company that commissioned it.
Marvel argues that the company’s editors determined which titles Kirby and other creators worked on, “and always retained full editorial control.”
“If, for example, Marvel gave a writer or artist an assignment to create a comic book story populated with new characters or to illustrate a comic book story with depictions of its characters — and paid the writer or artist for carrying out the assignment — the publisher, not the writer or artist, would own the copyright,” the press release asserts. “All of Kirby’s contributions to Marvel comic books the heirs are claiming for themselves fall into this category.”
If the Kirby children are successful, they would reclaim their father’s portion of the copyright to key characters and concepts from the Marvel Universe as early as 2017 for the Fantastic Four. In most cases, that would seem to mean co-ownership with Marvel, as Stan Lee agreed to waive claim to any of the characters. With Spider-Man, one-third ownership could be possible if the Kirbys were to prevail yet the judge recognized Steve Ditko’s interests.
- January 8, 2010 @ 12:19 PM by Kevin Melrose
Straight for the art | Jim Rugg’s Afrodisiac dust jacket
Afrodisiac deluxe limited edition
Artist Jim Rugg shares the dust jacket that will wrap around the deluxe limited edition of Afrodisiac, his upcoming release from AdHouse Books. Smokin’!
- January 8, 2010 @ 11:15 AM by JK Parkin
So what do you think will emerge from the cocoon in Guardians of the Galaxy #24?
Guardians of the Galaxy #24
So if you take a look at the cover to issue #24 of the Guardians of the Galaxy, you’ve got a hand emerging out of some sort of muck. So whose hand is that? Who or what’s going to emerge from the cocoon?
Here’s the solicitation text:
A REALM OF KINGS ISSUE! The universe faces one of its greatest evils—and no one can see it coming! The Magus, the necromantic shadow-half of Adam Warlock, is not dead after all…and only a small and hapless band of heroes—heroes who should be dead, too—can stop him! Are they back from the grave permanently, and what will we finally see emerge from the enigmatic coccoon?
The color scheme seems to denote that maybe it’s Magus popping out, but that seems too obvious. So who or what else could it be?
- January 8, 2010 @ 10:30 AM by JK Parkin
A roundup of end-of-the-year (and decade) pieces
Y: The Last Man Deluxe Edition, Book 1
• Matthew Price, features editor and comics blogger for The Oklahoman, declares Y: The Last Man, by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra, the best periodical comic book of the decade. Other titles in his Top 10 include Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan’s Demo and Greg Rucka & Co.’s Queen and Country.
• At iFanboy, Josh Flanagan selects his best comics of the decade, including Ed Brubaker, Steve Epting & Co.’s Captain America and Darwyn Cooke’s DC: The New Frontier.
• Tom Spurgeon talks with Dan Nadel about Boys as a comic emblematic of the past decade.
• Heidi MacDonald continues her year-end survey of industry professional.
• Matt Blind counts down his Top 10 industry distractions of 2009, from the financial struggles of the Borders chain to movements in the digital arenas to Disney’s purchase of Marvel.
• Lori Henderson examines the past decade in manga.
• At the Forbidden Planet International blog, reviewer/podcaster Chris Marshall runs down his favorite comics of 2009.
• Chad Nevett looks at titles that were on his Top 10 list last year but didn’t make the cut this time around.
- January 8, 2010 @ 09:45 AM by Kevin Melrose
The Venture Bros. toyline to roll out later this year
Go Team Venture!
The Cartoon Network Enterprises, which is the licensing and merchandising arm of Adult Swim, announced yesterday that the toy/collectible Bif Bang Pow! are working on a new line of The Venture Bros. toys. The line will include articulated action figures, bobble heads and vehicles.
According to the press release, a series of 7-inch scale resin bobble heads are targeted for spring 2010, followed by action figures in the summer of 2010. These fully-articulated figures will include Dr. Venture, The Monarch, Brock Samson, Hank and Dean Venture, and more. Several exclusives are also in the works. More detailed information about the products will be made available in the coming weeks.
“We’ve been courting The Venture Brothers for quite some time now, and we’re beyond excited to finally bring fans what they want: a range of fully articulated action figures and bobble heads,” said Jason Lenzi, CEO of Bif Bang Pow! “With the ever-expanding cast of characters in the Venture universe, the possibilities are endless. And, as always with Bif Bang Pow!, expect the unexpected!”
“A toy line based on The Venture Bros. has been a long time coming but we now have the ideal partner on board to bring these characters to life,” said Christina Miller, senior vice president, CNE. “With their distinct style and love for the series, the team at Bif Bang Pow! has created an impressive line that will excite our fans and meet their discerning tastes.”
The Venture Bros. creator Jackson Publick, who has been working closely with Bif Bang Pow! on the planning and creation of the toy line, adds, “Finally. It’s about time someone made some action figures based on the show. This is going to be great!”
- January 8, 2010 @ 09:03 AM by JK Parkin
Geoff Johns: King of all media, or superhero starmaker?
Blackest Night #7
On The New York Times’ T Magazine blog, George Gene Gustines briefly profiles writer Geoff Johns as part of a series on “America’s up-and-coming talent”:
Johns seems to have a golden touch with heroes in need of new life (sometimes literally) or just some TLC. Last year, he pulled off the resurrection of Flash, who died in 1985, and in Blackest Night, he’s shining the spotlight on Mera, the wife of Aquaman, which has fans rabid with delight. It’s all part of his belief that any character can be a star if given the right stage.
The article also touches upon moves into other areas by Johns, who turns 37 later this month: his partnership in the Earth 2 comic store, his episodes of Smallville and his work as a consultant on the Green Lantern film and other upcoming Warner Bros. adaptations of DC Comics properties.
- January 8, 2010 @ 08:20 AM by Kevin Melrose
Marvel unveils Iron Man’s new armor
Iron Man's new armor
Marvel is giving one of its core heroes a makeover. A new suit of Iron Man armor, set to debut following the conclusion of the “Stark Disassembled” arc in Matt Fraction & Salvador Larroca’s Invincible Iron Man, was revealed late last night at Marvel.com.
Billed as the brainchild of writer Fraction and Iron Man and Thor movie designer Ryan Meinerding, the new armor is a sleeker, slicker affair, which Fraction argues is a reflection of the ever-simplifying and streamlining nature of technology. “We were looking for something that felt as sleek and glossy as a sports car Tony Stark would covet,” he told the site.
Ol’ Shellhead takes his new look out for a spin beginning in April’s Invincible Iron Man #25.
- January 8, 2010 @ 07:49 AM by Sean T. Collins