2010 July
SDCC ’10 | Vertical to bring Felipe Smith and cute cat
Felipe Smith's Peepo Choo
The manga publisher Vertical, Inc., is bringing Felipe Smith, the creator of Peepo Choo, to SDCC and Otakon this year. Smith, an American, started out drawing global manga (MBQ) for Tokyopop. He moved to Japan after winning the top prize the Morning International Manga Competition, being offered the opportunity to draw a manga for Kodansha’s manga magazine Morning 2.* The result is Peepo Choo, the three-volume story of a foreigner’s adventures in Japan, and Vertical is closing the circle by publishing Peepo Choo in English—the first volume is due out this week. The press release (full text below the cut) notes in passing that Smith is developing a new manga for Kodansha, so the relationship must be working out.
As if that weren’t incentive enough to visit Vertical’s booth, they will also be announcing their new licenses at SDCC, although they don’t have a panel. I chat with Vertical’s marketing director Ed Chavez fairly often—I have known him since he was blogging at MangaCast—and I’m quite sure that whatever he has to announce, it will be remarkable. And for those who prefer the cute, they will have some adorable Chi’s Sweet Home swag, tying in with their new all-ages book about a lost cat adopted by a family in a pet-free apartment complex.
- July 15, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Read the UDON-illustrated comic prequel to Nolan’s Inception
Inception: The Cobol Job
Warner Bros. has released an online comic prequel to Inception, the highly anticipated sci-fill thriller from The Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan. Called “The Cobol Job,” the prequel is written by the film’s co-producer Jordan Goldberg (Batman: Gotham Knight) and illustrated by UDON Entertainment‘s Long Vo, Joe Ng and Crystal Reid.
Although it’s called a prequel, I’ve seen warnings that the comic is somewhat spoiler-ish, and will make more sense after a viewing of the movie. So, you may want to wait until you’ve returned from Inception‘s midnight debut to give “The Cobol Job” a read.
- July 15, 2010 @ 10:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
Morrison, Finch, Cornell, Paquette, Snyder, Daniel, Tomasi, Gleason, Scott…Larroca?: A Batman news round-up
Batman and Batman and Robin by Frank Quitely
Not since Bane broke all the lunatics out of Arkham Asylum has Batman had this eventful a week. Perhaps to avoid the avalanche of news coming out of San Diego next week, DC has spent the past few days announcing a slew of new Batman projects and creative teams. And heck, even Marvel got in on the act, sorta…
- July 15, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by Sean T. Collins
Talking Comics with Tim: James Smith
Gang of Fools
Today James Smith‘s Gang of Fools makes its ACT-I-VATE debut. To mark the debut, he and I did a brief email interview. I apologize to Smith for perceiving the tale as being set in the future, but rather than edit my mistaken perceptions out, I leave them intact to avoid further confusion. Here’s the official description of the story: “Aditi’s got one week to come up with ten grand for rent. Diane needs a cool condo in a hot neighborhood to boost her Q rating. Paul simply cannot keep it in his pants. Ishmael’s keeping a secret from his own dancehall revolutionaries. Laila’s autobiographical porno has attracted the Russian mob, and Mr Chips hates you. Yes, yes he does.” As part of the run-up to today’s debut, Smith collaborated with animator Daniel J. Kramer on this animated clip. And I’m really grateful that Smith was willing to discuss important trends like pants.
Tim O’Shea: In reading this brief reaction to your work by comicsgirl in which she characterizes it as ” futurist urban paranoia”. Would that be an apt description or would you go about describing it differently?
James Smith: Probably would take issue with the “paranoia” bit, as I don’t think the comic betrays any sort of fear or discomfort at all the admittedly horrible social conditions it portrays. And if I’m feeling particularly bloody-minded, maybe I’d whine about the “futurist” part too. All the fancy, sci-fi stuff in Gang of Fools is only a slight embellishment on what our most precious natural resources– drug-addled MIT engineers– are working on as I type this. “Urban” works, though.
At MoCCA the tagline I used was “sci-fi action hipsters and the people who hate them.” I consider it slice-of-life with a sprinkling of autobiographical porn and floating robot cops. You know, like how we live today.
- July 15, 2010 @ 09:30 AM by Tim O'Shea
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
reMIND
Awards | The Xeric Foundation has announced its grant recipients for spring 2010: Margaret Ashford-Trotter, Thunder in the Building #2; Jason Brubaker, reMIND; Jonathon Dalton, Lords of Life and Death; Wei Li, Lotus Root Children; Jed McGowan, Lone Pine; Ansis Purins, Zombre #2: The Magic Forest; and Brittney Sabo and Anna Bratton, Francis Sharp in the Grip of the Uncanny! Book 1. A total of $32,761 was awarded for the seven projects. The next deadline for comic-book grants is Sept. 30. [via The Beat]
Retailing | Bookstore sales in May slipped 2.6 percent to $1.09 billion, while e-book sales rose 163 percent to $29.3 million. [Publishers Weekly]
Creators | The Washington Post has named Olivia Walch, a 21-year-old rising senior at the College of William and Mary, as the winner of the America’s Next Great Cartoonist contest. [Comic Riffs]
- July 15, 2010 @ 08:58 AM by Kevin Melrose
Get a first look at Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern [Updated]
Entertainment Weekly
The cover for this week’s San Diego Comic-Con-themed issue of Entertainment Weekly shines a light on something fans have wanted to see for a while now: Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan in his full (CGI) Green Lantern costume. Ribbed for her pleasure!
According to the teaser on EW’s website, the cover story takes you behind the scenes for the making of Green Lantern movie. “We need a circus of Timothy Learys to think of things Hal would invent with his ring,” Reynolds says. Tune in, turn on, power up.
See the full cover, in all its high-res emerald splendor, after the break.
- July 15, 2010 @ 07:19 AM by Sean T. Collins
Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs | Atomic Robo vs. the X-Men in… “The Time Topic”
X-Men: Days of Future Past
I have a confession. I don’t usually like time-travel comics. Or time-travel stories in any medium really.
You’d think I would. I love awesome things and what’s more awesome than going back to dinosaur times or trying to assassinate baby Hitler? But I tend not to like messy stories and time travel is so freaking messy.
Take the X-Men for instance. How many alternate futures do those guys have? Someone’s always coming back from the future to change something in our present. They say that they’re doing it to make the future a better place, but it never really works out that way, does it? In X-Men comics, when you change something in the past, it doesn’t do a damn thing to your version of the future. It just creates a divergent timeline so that, yes, a better future does exist somewhere, but it’s still possible to visit the nasty, Sentinel–filled future that you came from. The result is infinite possible futures with infinite possible versions of yourself and your friends. That makes for some okay Events for a while until there are so many futures to keep track of that it becomes more migrainoid than amusing. That’s what I mean by messy.
There’s another way of doing it though. Time-travel will always be complex. Should always be complex. That’s part of its fun. But it doesn’t have to barf a zillion different futures all over you in the process.
An atomic example, after the break.
- July 14, 2010 @ 10:24 PM by Michael May
Pinocchio sequel gets punchy with Punchinello
And finally, the entire cast stands revealed … above is the last teaser image before Comic-Con for Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer and the Great Puppet Theater by Van Jensen and Dusty Higgins, introducing Punchinello to the team of undead-fighting puppets.
The first preview of Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer and the Great Puppet Theater will be revealed at Comic-Con during a spotlight panel on Higgins and Jensen. The duo will show off pages and the cover of the sequel to their 2009 graphic novel on Thursday, July 22 at 1:30 p.m. in Room 3. Higgins and Jensen (and Pinocchio himself) also will be set up at the SLG Publishing booth throughout the show to do signings and sketches. And on Friday, July 23, at 4:50 p.m., Jensen will be on the Indy Writers Unite! panel (also featuring Larry Marder, Terry Moore, Carla Speed McNeil and James Sturm) in Room 3.
And a big thanks to Van and Dusty for letting us roll these out!
- July 14, 2010 @ 04:00 PM by JK Parkin
SDCC ’10 | AiT’s Elvis Van Helsing pits slackers vs. vampires
Elvis Van Helsing
Elvis Yang’s life couldn’t be lamer. He’s in his sixth year of college, doesn’t have a girlfriend, lives in his parents’ basement, he’s flat broke and worst of all, his best friend Randy just kicked his ass in Wii Bowling. But everything for Elvis is about to change, including his last name.
Debuting at Comic-Con International next week is Elvis Van Helsing, written by Steve Kriozere and Mark A. Altman, with art by Jason Baroody and Zach Matheny. You can check out a trailer here. The book will hit comic shops later this fall.
Kriozere and Altman have previously worked together on a comic called The Unknowns and the television show Castle. Between them they’ve also worked on several other TV shows and movies, including Sliders, V.I.P., NCIS, DOA: Dead or Alive, The Specials and the William Shatner comedy Free Enterprise. Both were kind enough to share some more details on the book with me.
In addition, you can meet them next week at the AiT/PlanetLar booth (#2001) in San Diego to sign the book at the following times:
- Thursday 1-2 p.m.
- Friday 1-2 p.m.
- Saturday 11 a.m.-noon
- Sunday 1-2 p.m.
My thanks for their time, and to Larry Young for setting it up.
JK: When I first heard the title Elvis Van Helsing, the image that immediately sprang to mind was one of Elvis Presley fighting vampires. Can you talk a little bit about your “Elvis,” who he is and how he ends up fighting creatures of the night?
Steve: Our Elvis is a clueless slacker who’s decided to stay in college well past his graduation expiration date. He’s not dumb, he’s actually very, very smart, he just hasn’t found his true calling in life and finds things easier if he just stays in college to avoid taking on any sort of responsibility. So when Elvis finally does find out his true calling and secret family lineage — that he’s the sole surviving heir to the Van Helsing monster hunting family and, like it or not, must battle creatures of the night — it’s a bit much for him.
Mark: What he said…
- July 14, 2010 @ 02:53 PM by JK Parkin
Send Us Your Shelf Porn!
Welcome once again to Send Us Your Shelf Porn, the column that allows you to show off your shelves. Today’s Shelf Porn comes from Hugues Charron, who shares his collection of poster, action figures and other fun stuff.
“The Flash painting was done by my good friend Todd Lauzon, who knew how much I liked the Flash and Marvel Zombies, and decided to make me a zombie Flash airbrush painting,” he said. “The Clerks action figures are the full Chasing Amy set.”
If you’d like to share your Shelf Porn with the world — or at least our viewing audience — send your write-up and pictures to jkparkin@yahoo.com. And now on to the pictures …
- July 14, 2010 @ 12:30 PM by JK Parkin
SDCC ’10 | Dark Horse reveals details of #NotAtComicCon
#NotAtComicCon
Dark Horse’s cryptic but wonderfully photographed #NotAtComicCon teaser campaign paid off this morning with the announcement that the publisher has teamed with Red Bull’s ChinaShop Magazine to celebrate comics during the weekend of Comic-Con International at 55 stores across the country.
For those unable to attend Comic-Con, the participating stores will “create a fun and creative atmosphere” with free drinks and more than $200 worth of Dark Horse prizes. Between 3 and p.m. EST — on July 24, presumably — Dark Horse will make an announcement to fans at participating stores before releasing information to attendees in San Diego.
You can read the full press release after the break. The list of participating stores can be found on the Dark Horse website.
- July 14, 2010 @ 11:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
Return to Labyrinth: The Plushies
Toby, Moulin, and Jareth, in plushie form
Jake Forbes, the writer of the Return to Labyrinth manga series, wanted to see his characters come to life as plushies, but the Jim Henson company, which owns the rights, hasn’t made any moves in that direction. So Jake commissioned his own from Jennifer Lin, a.k.a. Meowchee. These little guys are one of a kind and very detailed; Moulin even comes with her own raincloud. You can see the plushies in real life if you’re going to SDCC, as Jake will have them at his booth (Booth O-09 in the small press pavilion), and then he is going to give them away as gifts.
- July 14, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
SDCC ’10 | Don’t miss out on Brightest Day tote bags
WB's "Brightest Day" tote bag design
After four years of first-come, first-served free-for-alls for giant totes at the Warner Bros. booth, the entertainment company has teamed with Comic-Con International to give bags to attendees as they check in to the convention. More than 125,000 bags have been produced.
This year WB is releasing a whopping 11 separate designs promoting the following properties: The Big Bang Theory, Chuck, Fringe, Human Target, Nikita, The Vampire Diaries, Batman: The Brave and the Bold — The Videogame, The Looney Tunes Show, Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, Clash of the Titans (for its DVD release) and, get this, Brightest Day.
Yeah, I figured that last one would get your attention. There’s a catch, though: Attendees get just one bag, and they’re handed out randomly. So while you may be in line eyeing that David Finch image, there’s a chance you’ll walk away with Scooby-Doo! instead. If you’re lucky, or willing to fork over a little cash, maybe someone will trade with you.
The image at the right is, of course, the Brightest Day design (click to enlarge). After the break you can check out the art for The Brave and the Bold, as well as what appears on the other side of the bags.
- July 14, 2010 @ 10:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
TV stars invade Marvel Super Hero Squad
The Cartoon Network’s Marvel Super Hero Squad is about to get an influx of voice talent, as several television actors are set to “guest-voice” on the show during its second season. TV Guide Magazine reports that Modern Family‘s Ty Burrell, The Big Bang Theory‘s Jim Parsons, Glee‘s Jane Lynch, Batman‘s Adam West and Battlestar Galactica‘s Katee Sackhoff will respectively voice Captain Marvel, Nightmare, Nebula, Nighthawk and She-Hulk.
West as Nighthawk is inspired casting, while Lynch as Nebula is almost in the genius category … that’s how Nebula “C”‘s it.
“We explore what happens in the Marvel Universe outside of Earth — different dimensions, outer space and all these crazy places,” says Cort Lane, Marvel’s VP for animation. “So we took the opportunity to feature guest stars to explore those more sci-fi characters.”
Additional guest stars next season include Star Trek‘s George Takei, returning as Galactus, as well as Star Wars‘ Mark Hamill, Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s Jonathan Frakes and Michael Dorn, Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s James Marsters, Torchwood‘s John Barrowman, Hercules star Kevin Sorbo and The Vampire Diaries‘ Nina Dobrev. It’s like genre television was having a sale, and Super Hero Squad got there early.
- July 14, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by JK Parkin
Nikki Cook goes hi-tech
Nikki Cook visualizes audio technology
Comics artist Nikki Cook is going to be the guest artist this month at Gizmodo, which does for technology and cool gadgets what Gawker does for gossip and io9 does for science fiction (they’re all part of the same blog family). Cook is a member of the Act-I-Vate webcomics collective and has worked on a number of different comics; she is currently collaborating with Ben McCool on the graphic novel Memoir, and it looks like her work will be a departure from the usual photos of sleek but mostly rectangular objects on Gizmodo.
And because she’s an attractive comics artist living in Brooklyn, Seth Kushner has photographed her on a fire escape against a luminescent gray sky. Click to see:
Continue Reading »
- July 14, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by Brigid Alverson