2010 March
Gurewitch working on new Perry Bible Fellowship comics, Galactus strip
Nick Gurewitch
This interview with Perry Bible Fellowship creator and Strange Tales contributor Nick Gurewitch by our own Sean T. Collins is a fun read for many reasons, one of which is the fact that Gurewitch has a couple pieces of news for fans of his work.
First, he reveals that despite a long delay since we last saw one, he has more PBF strips in the works. “And for the record, I haven’t put PBF to bed–I just haven’t had time to do any more comics. I’ve got some that I’ve got poised and ready to go,” he told Collins.
Second, he’s also working on some additional strips for Marvel. “I wanted to do a Galactus strip, but I think I’m a little behind schedule. I have to give Jody a call and see if it’s okay if I get an extension,” he said, later adding, “I’m gonna have Galactus recruit Magneto for what appears to be a heraldship, but I think it might end with Magneto being placed on a fridge, maybe holding up Galactus’s kid’s report card. I gotta finish it.”
He also talks about working with the BBC on an animated project, Bono and more. Go check it out.
- March 4, 2010 @ 09:30 AM by JK Parkin
Avengers animated series to debut this fall on Disney XD
The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes
As I mentioned earlier this morning, Disney confirmed this week during upfront presentations that The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes animated series will debut this fall on Disney XD, the successor of sorts to Toon Disney.
Announced in October 2008, the 52-episode series from Marvel Animation targets viewers ages 9 to 14, and will help in the marketing buildup to The First Avenger: Captain America and Thor feature films in 2011 and The Avengers in 2012.
According to a Disney press release, a 20-part “micro-series” will focus on the back story of each Avenger — Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, Giant Man and Wasp — followed immediately by the series premiere.
The trailer and series description for The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes can be found after the break.
- March 4, 2010 @ 08:57 AM by Kevin Melrose
Mercury rising: Hope Larson on the perils of making comics for teens
At CBR, cartoonist Hope Larson talks to Kiel Phegley about her new graphic novel Mercury, hitting stores April 6. Mercury tells the parallel stories of two teenage girls living 150 years apart in the same Nova Scotia town, and the very different paths their young lives end up taking. And to hear Hope tell it, creating a graphic novel targeted to teens opens up a whole host of headaches that even prose writers dedicated to that demographic don’t have to face:
The problems I’ve run into being a cartoonist in book publishing have usually been with things like swearing or anything that’s kind of ‘racy.’ [...] They crack down way harder on that kind of stuff, because if you open the book and there’s a naked breast – if a parent opens that up and sees it, you’re automatically not selling the book to them. You have to be a lot more careful. It’s the same thing with dialogue. If a parent opens a [comic] and there’s ‘Shit,’ it can’t hide behind those other words….I don’t feel like I’ve had to compromise or make changes I really didn’t want to make in terms of content. I had to make changes to make sure my book got into school libraries and libraries in general, but my editors definitely let me know when something was going to be an issue. And most of the time, I figure it’s less important for me to have ‘Fuck’ in my story than for the story to be in a library where kids can get at it.
PG-rated language notwithstanding, if you tend to think of YA books and comics as rather gutless affairs, Mercury will set you straight — this book’s got an edge. In addition to Larson’s trademark hints of the supernatural, there’s a tinge of darkness that really flourishes by the book’s climax. I was really impressed by it — you can check out my review of the book to see how much.
- March 4, 2010 @ 08:17 AM by Sean T. Collins
Marvel’s character library: 7,000 strong … and growing?
Marvel Universe
When newly appointed DC Entertainment President Diane Nelson first made the interview rounds in September, she said she believed her company’s character library was “even bigger” than its competitor’s.
At the time, Marvel boasted “a proven library of over 5,000 characters,” a figure long touted at the bottom of press releases and repeated in news coverage of the company’s acquisition by Disney. That’s a slight increase from the previous tally of 4,000 or so (“nearly,” “over” or “more than,” depending on the source).
But this week that number seems to have risen again.
At an upfront presentation on Tuesday for media buyers and clients, Disney Channels Worldwide’s new president of entertainment confirmed that The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes animated series will air this fall on Disney XD.
In doing so, Gary Marsh teased the likelihood of more Marvel cartoons while ratcheting up the size of the character catalog: “We’ve been pouring through the library of 7,000 Marvel characters looking for the next Spider-Man.”
Seven thousand, huh? I wouldn’t know; I stopped counting at Phineas T. Coroner.
- March 4, 2010 @ 06:05 AM by Kevin Melrose
Happy birthday, Ronald Searle!
The renowned cartoonist, illustrator and author turns 90 today. Drawn, from where I ganked the above video, has links to more interviews and a short collection of art. Cul de Sac creator Richard Thompson also pays tribute to the artist over here.
- March 3, 2010 @ 03:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Send Us Your Shelf Porn!
Welcome to another edition of Shelf Porn, where we can’t get enough photos of full bookcases. Today’s shelf porn entry comes all the way from Cardiff, Wales, in the UK via Mr. Norman Heffernan. Norman’s got quite an extensive collection of (mostly DC-focused) material to share with you, so I’ll spare you the usual spiel and cut straight to the chase …
- March 3, 2010 @ 02:30 PM by Chris Mautner
Preview: ‘The Book of Grickle’
Sequence from 'The Book of Grickle'
One of the most prolific – and perhaps severely underrated – cartoonists to crop up over the past decade or so is Graham Annable, who, when not indulging in his penchant for animation, delves into darkly comic tales of stick-figure like average Joes doing unsavory and unethical (and sometimes illegal) things.
Dark Horse is collecting a number of his early short stories in The Book of Grickle, which will be out in early April. Over on the main page, our parent company CBR has a preview of one of the short stories contained in the upcoming graphic novel.
I’m in the midst of conducting an interview with Annable about the book, so Grickle fans should keep an eye peeled at this blog for more details and previews over the next couple of days.
- March 3, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Wolverine sequel, set in Japan, to start production in January
Wolverine #1
A Wolverine movie sequel based on the 1982 miniseries by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller reportedly will begin production in January.
The Hollywood Reporter‘s Roger Friedman confirms earlier reports that the follow-up to 2009′s X-Men Origins: Wolverine will be a tale of martial arts and romance set in Japan.
The script is by Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects, Valkyrie). No director has been signed.
Claremont and Miller’s four-issue series — Wolverine’s first solo comic — is a story of love, honor and revenge, with Logan battling ninjas and the politics of the criminal underworld for the heart of his ex-lover, the daughter of a Japanese crime lord. Just to make life more complicated, as assassin hired to kill Logan ends up falling for him. Star Hugh Jackman has called the miniseries his favorite Wolverine story.
The $150-million X-Men Origins: Wolverine, from 20th Century Fox, grossed $373 million worldwide.
- March 3, 2010 @ 01:30 PM by Kevin Melrose
Strangeways: The Thirsty – page 120
Art by Gervasio and Jok. Written by Matt Maxwell.
Uh-oh. That can’t be the way they planned all that.
See you all next week.
- March 3, 2010 @ 01:00 PM by Matt Maxwell
Straight for the art | WhiteChapel reimagines Superman #1‘s cover
Superman #1 cover treatment by Paul Sizer
On his Whitechapel message board, Warren Ellis has a fun exercise where he typically asks artists to redesign a character of his choice. This time around, however, he threw out the challenge of creating a cover for a new comic called Superman:
You have been told that Superman is a man who dresses predominantly in a shade of blue, and wears a red S symbol. You know nothing else about the character.
The cover must include a logo and the text THE COMPLETE STORY OF THE DARING EXPLOITS OF THE ONE AND ONLY SUPERMAN.
And that’s it.
It’s up to you what kind of company you’re at. What kind of comics you make. How you translate that description of Superman. What era you’re in. Who you are, even. Go nuts with it.
You have one week. Go.
Some of the resulting artwork is pretty impressive; go check it out on WhiteChapel.
- March 3, 2010 @ 12:30 PM by JK Parkin
Comics cavalcade: Vietnamese Batman, dance crazes and Garrison Keillor
Every day, people post comics on the Internet. Three times a week, we try to link to the ones that catch our eyes.
The Symbiote’s Effect on the Mind
Summertime by Frank Santoro
- March 3, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Straight for the art | Super Punch’s tarot deck
Devil Tarot by Dan Hipp
Congrats to one of our favorite blogs, Super Punch, on their third anniversary. To celebrate, Super Punch blogger John Struan has enlisted several of his favorite artists to create an official Super Punch tarot deck.
“So, about this project. I wanted to do something special for the third anniversary of Super Punch, and three weeks or so ago, the idea popped into my head of inviting my favorite artists to create tarot cards. Other than reading Promethea, I knew very little about tarot cards, so I got up to speed courtesy of Wikipedia. I then went about contacting artists and matching them to cards,” Struan writes.
As you can see above, Gyakushu! creator Dan Hipp provided the Devil. See more of the cards here and here.
- March 3, 2010 @ 10:30 AM by JK Parkin
Straight for the art | Damian-Robin, by Polly Guo
Robin (aka Damian Wayne), by Polly Guo
Dear DC Comics: Please hire Polly Guo to create a Damian Wayne solo comic. An ongoing series would be swell, but I’ll settle for a mini — or even a one-shot. You can see more of Guo’s work, including additional Damian-Robin illustrations, here.
- March 3, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Story time with Jim Lee, Geoff Johns and First Wave #1 on Twitter today
First Wave #1
Newly appointed DC Co-Publisher Jim Lee and Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns are taking to Twitter today to talk about First Wave #1, the new “pulp universe” comic by Brian Azzarello and Rags Morales featuring Doc Savage, the Spirit and Bat-Man, among others.
If you’d like to read along with the duo and the rest of the Twitter-verse, you can follow the hashtag #DCreader.
In other DC-related Twitter news, the DC Nation Twitter account is holding a trivia contest where you can win a copy of the upcoming Flash #1 signed by the creative team. Details here.
- March 3, 2010 @ 09:30 AM by JK Parkin
Wrestler Jerry Lawler to provide cover for upcoming issue of Green Hornet
Green Hornet by Jerry Lawler
WWE.com reports that Dynamite Entertainment has enlisted wrestler and Monday Night Raw commentator Jerry “The King” Lawler to provide the cover to an upcoming issue of the Kevin Smith-written Green Hornet comic. Which issue he’d provide the cover for wasn’t specified.
“Not only is The Green Hornet one of the most important characters in American pop culture history… not only is this going to be one of the biggest launched comics of the year,” Lawler told WWE.com, “but I am also going to have cover art featured in an upcoming issue of The Green Hornet!”
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard word of Lawler’s involvement with comics. Back in 2006, we learned he was a huge Superman buff on WWE.com, and in 2007, the site had a brief item on a Superman project that Lawler was going to draw that I don’t think we’ve ever heard about since.
He also provided artwork for a WWE-themed children’s book, Mick Foley’s Christmas Chaos, written by fellow wrestler Mick Foley. You can also see some of his artwork from 1970s Memphis Wrestling programs here.
The first issue of Smith’s Green Hornet comic arrives in shops today.
- March 3, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by JK Parkin