2010 July
SDCC ’10 | Marc Guggenheim launches Collider Entertainment
Utopian #1
Comics, film and television writer Marc Guggenheim has partnered with producer Alisa Tager to launch Collider Entertainment, a company designed to created properties for comics that will then be developed for other media.
Deadline reports Collider will debut with two titles released through a deal with Image Comics: Utopian, penned by Guggenheim and his screenwriter wife Tara Butters (Dollhouse, Reaper), and The Mission, by screenwriters Jon Hoeber and Erich Hoeber (Red, Whiteout).
Debuting in November, Utopian is a five-issue miniseries set in a world where superheroes are made obsolete after war, famine and crime disappear. One hero seeks to discover the cause of the new utopia, but his efforts to return the world to its previous state are opposed by his colleagues. The art is by Ryan Bodenheim and Mark Englert.
The Mission, meanwhile, is described as a supernatural thriller about a man who apparently receives orders from the archangel Gabriel to commit murders.
Best known to comics fans for his work on titles like The Amazing Spider-Man, The Flash, War of the Superman and Resurrection, Guggenheim is the co-writer of Warner Bros.’ upcoming Green Lantern movie, and a consulting producer for NBC’s No Ordinary Family. Tager was executive producer of Enemy at the Gates and Serenity.
Related: Comic Book Resources talks with Guggenheim, Tager and Erich Hoeber about Collider.
- July 23, 2010 @ 02:30 PM by Kevin Melrose
SDCC ’10 | A womanly chat with Vanessa Davis
Make Me A Woman
One of the more notable indie books debuting at the San Diego show this week is Vanessa Davis‘ latest book, Make Me A Woman, published by Drawn & Quarterly.
Ever since she made made her debut in anthologies like True Porn and Kramer’s Ergot, Davis’ work has exuded a warmth, humor, and sense of style that few of her compatriots can match, a fact only underscored by her 2005 book, Spaniel Rage, published by the late, lamented Buenaventura Press.
It’s been far too long since we’ve had a new book from her, but Make Me A Woman is thankfully worth the wait. Lest the title fool you into thinking the book is some saucy romp, let me be quick to dash some cold water on your overheated imagination. Mostly containing stories originally serialized in Tablet magazine, as well as some sketchbook strips and other material, the book explores how her relationship towards her family, friends, religion and self-image has changed as she’s matured. Along the way she talks about her experiences at fat camp, her feelings towards Robert Crumb’s Genesis adaptation and why she’d still like a present for Hanukkah.
I chatted with Davis over email last week about her new book and how she broke into comics. It was a genuine pleasure and I hope I don’t have to wait another five years for the opportunity to talk about her work with her again.
- July 23, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by Chris Mautner
The Fifth Color | Omit Everything
sing it, Whitney!
I guess it’s all we could talk about. Over and over and over, Joe Quesada had to bear the unbelievable weight of his “One More Day” storyline. Fans would not stop their onslaught of questions and demands at each and every convention since, shaking their fists and arming themselves with pitchforks and torches at panels and demanding to know the whole story.
Just imagine how the editor-in-chief would toss and turn at night, staring up at the ceiling as sad indie rock would play, the camera panning away from him. What can I do, he might think to himself. How can I lay my burden down?
And here is that burden: The Nixon Tapes of Amazing Spider-Man as released this week in The Amazing Spider-Man #638, starting the storyline “One Moment in Time.” And while you may think this is only the humble chart-topping hit of Whitney Houston for the 1988 Summer Olympics, you’d be right. AND WRONG! For “One Moment in Time” takes us back to that fateful day where Mephisto got up all in Spidey’s business and destroyed the one thing that was holding his life together — what might seem like, in the aftermath of its destruction, the holiest of holy bonds.
Peter Parker’s marriage to Mary Jane.
I know! I can almost hear the teeth grind at the very sight of those words, the fury unleashed at remembering that infamous “deal with the Devil.” Oh, sweet merciful God, why hast thou taken away my hot red-headed wife?
Quesada has finally had enough of the hiding and evasion. He wants “One Moment in Time” — when I’m more than I thought I could be — to explain the truth behind what happened to MJ and Peter so we might be let in on the secrets of an audacious editorial stunt.
No one needs to read this. Some secrets are better taken to the grave, and just because “we demand it” doesn’t mean you should print it.
This can only end in tears.
WARNING: Spoilers for “One More Day,” Redwing’s secret past and how many lumps of super Peter Parker takes in his coffee. SHOCK!
- July 23, 2010 @ 01:15 PM by Carla Hoffman
SDCC ’10 | Wes Craven to create miniseries for Liquid Comics
Wes Craven
Legendary horror director Wes Craven and producer Arnold Rifkin have formed a partnership with Liquid Comics for the filmmaker to create a four-issue miniseries set to debut early next year. The plan is, of course, for the project to move beyond comics to mobile and gaming devices and film.
“I’m thrilled to be working with Liquid Comics and Cheyenne Enterprises on the development of an original idea for both a comic book and for a subsequent film based on it,” Craven said in a statement. “It’s an idea I’ve been dying to get out there, and working in collaboration with Sharad Devarajan and Arnold Rifkin will be the ideal win/win way to do it.”
No collaborators have been announced, but the press release states the publisher is “engaged in dialogues with leading creators in the comic book industry.”
Craven, 70, is best known for such films as The Last House on the Left, The Hills Have Eyes, A Nightmare on Elm Street and the Scream series.
Read the press release after the break:
- July 23, 2010 @ 12:01 PM by Kevin Melrose
SDCC ’10 | All hail Stan Lee, lord of Asgard!
Stan Lee, surveying his domain
Of the many wonderful Stan Lee photos that have surfaced over the years — draped in a cape, (unintentionally) flipping us off, lying in bed, laughing with President Bush — this one, from UGO.com, of the Man himself frowning from Odin’s golden throne is by far my favorite. In case you don’t recognize the setting, it’s the Asgardian throne room from Thor reconstructed for the Marvel booth at Comic-Con International.
- July 23, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
SDCC ’10 | Dark Horse teams with TNT for Falling Skies prequel
Noah Wyle in "Falling Skies"
Dark Horse announced it’s creating for comic-book and webcomic prequel to Falling Skies, the upcoming TNT alien-invasion drama from DreamWorks Television and executive producer Steven Spielberg.
TNT and Dark Horse distribute a special-edition 12- to 14-page comic at New York Comic Con in October. Beginning Nov. 1, fans will be able to download an extended webcomic version from the TNT and Dark Horse websites and Apple’s iTunes store. New installments will be posted each week.
Stars Noah Wyle and Moon Bloodgood and co-executive producer Mark Verheiden will sign convention-exclusive posters this afternoon at Dark Horse’s Comic-Con International booth before the Falling Skies panel. The series premieres in summer 2011 on TNT.
You can read the press release after the break:
- July 23, 2010 @ 10:25 AM by Kevin Melrose
SDCC’10 | Bandai announces Kannagi manga
Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens
Bandai Entertainment is chiefly known as an anime publisher, but it also produces a very nice line of manga, mostly related to their anime properties. Its big manga announcement at Comic-Con International is Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens, which inspired the anime of the same name (which is also, conveniently, published by Bandai).
“The manga tells the story of Nagi, a goddess who is accidentally awakened with a mission to cleanse the world of impurities,” the official press release says, and that sounds pretty standard-issue for seinen (young men’s) manga, but there was a curious controversy about the latest volume: Some fans became outraged because Nagi, the main character, mentioned an ex-boyfriend, which suggests that she is not a virgin. (Here’s a detailed but decidedly NSFW account of the whole, er, affair from Sankaku Complex.) The series is on hiatus in Japan because creator Eri Takenashi is ill, although her younger brother recently launched a Kannagi spinoff in the same magazine that carries the original series.
- July 23, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
SDCC ’10 | Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters video game announced
Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters
The Green Lantern video game greenlit in July 2009 by Warner Bros. now has a title — Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters.
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and DC Entertainment confirmed this morning that the game, inspired by the upcoming feature film, is being developed for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii by Double Helix Games and for Nintendo DS by Griptonite Games. It’s set to be released along with the film, which premieres on June 17, 2011.
According to the announcement, players “will utilize over a dozen constructs and take flight across the deepest parts of the universe to restore intergalactic order by wielding the ultimate weapon: the Green Lantern power ring.”
DC Entertainment President Diane Nelson told Hero Complex earlier this week that Rise of the Manhunters is part of a push to put more DC characters in Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment titles. The studio’s video-game publishing unit has undergone dramatic expansion over the past few years, acquiring developers TT Games, Snowblind Studios, Rocksteady Studios and Turbine Inc. In March WB announced plans for a new game-development studio in downtown Montreal that’s expected to focus largely on DC Comics properties.
Just yesterday at Comic-Con International, DC Entertainment Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns announced work has begun on a Suicide Squad video game.
Read the press release for Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters after the break:
- July 23, 2010 @ 08:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Ulysses ‘Seen’ goes to print
Ulysses "Seen"
It has been quite an odyssey, so to speak, for Rob Berry, Mike Barsanti, Josh Levitas and Chad Rutkowski, the partners in Throwaway Horse and the creators, in one sense or another, of the webcomic Ulysses “Seen.” Berry and Levitas started out doing a fairly straightfoward adaptation of James Joyce’s Ulysses, with extensive notes and translations by Mike Barsanti just a click away from each page. Then the iTunes store picked up their comic for the iPad, but Apple asked them to censor some of the content (ironic, in light of the novel’s history) and then reversed itself after the issue drew public attention. And now the creators are closing the circle by bringing the comic into print: They have signed a deal with independent publisher Atlas & Co. to bring out a print edition of Ulysses “Seen,” which will hopefully be on bookstores shelves by BloomsDay (June 16) 2011.
I talked to Berry, Atlas and Rutkowski about the new project and the challenges involved in bringing an interactive webcomic into print.
- July 23, 2010 @ 07:30 AM by Brigid Alverson
SDCC ’10 | A roundup of Thursday’s news
The Westboro Baptist Church counter-protest (photo by Mike Dougherty)
The first official day of Comic-Con International in San Diego was dominated by excitement over Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, confirmation (at last) that Joss Whedon is directing The Avengers, and nerd response to the feeble Westboro Baptist Church protest. Yet still there was plenty of comics news.
• At its “Mondo Marvel” panel, the publisher revealed the October debut of a sequel to its acclaimed Strange Tales anthology, this time featuring an impressive roster of indie/alternative creators that includes Harvey Pekar, Alex Robinson, Dash Shaw, Dean Haspiel, Jaime Hernandez, Jeff Lemire, Jeffrey Brown, Jhonen Vasquez, Jillian Tamaki, Kate Beaton, Nick Gurewitch and many more.
- July 23, 2010 @ 06:38 AM by Kevin Melrose
SDCC ’10 | Bill Sienkiewicz illustrates Dexter webseries
Dexter Morgan, by Bill Sienkiewicz
Award-winning illustrator Bill Sienkiewicz, best known for comics like New Mutants, Elektra: Assassin and Stray Toasters, will take a stab at serial killer Dexter Morgan with an animated webseries — or is it a motion comic? — based on the acclaimed Showtime drama.
Debuting online in October, Dexter Early Cuts: Dark Echo will follow the character as he’s challenged by a copy-cat killer who doesn’t follow a code. The six chapters are written by Tim Schlattmann, Dexter co-executive producer and staff writer, and voiced by series star Michael C. Hall.
According to IGN.com, Dark Echo opens immediately after the death of Dexter’s father Harry, with a young Dexter enrolled in medical school, studying to improve his craft. During a kill, he realizes another student has been spying on him, leading to a clash between the two.
Based on a series of novels by Jeff Lindsay, Dexter premiered on Showtime in October 2006. The fifth season begins on Sept. 26. The show was featured this afternoon in two panels at Comic-Con International.
Watch the trailer for Dark Echo after the break.
- July 22, 2010 @ 07:59 PM by Kevin Melrose
SDCC ’10 | Read DC’s Comic-Con sampler online
Batman and Robin #1 (from DC's Comic-Con sampler)
For those DC Comics fans who can’t make it to Comic-Con International, comiXology has made the publisher’s convention sampler available for free online — but for one week only. The 241-page comic features excerpts from the first issues of Astro City, The Authority, Batman and Robin, Hellblazer, Jack of Fables, Scalped and more.
(via Ron Perazza)
- July 22, 2010 @ 06:24 PM by Kevin Melrose
SDCC ’10 | Vampire slaying is a team sport in Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer and the Great Puppet Theater
Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer and the Great Puppet Theater
Last year’s Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer by writer Van Jensen and artist Dusty Higgins saw the creative duo re-imagine the famous little wooden boy as a vampire-killing machine; each lie he told gave him one more weapon to use against the undead. As we’ve teased over the last few weeks, Pinocchio is coming back this October in the sequel to the hit graphic novel, and he’s bringing some friends.
Higgins and Jensen are the subject of a spotlight panel today at Comic-Con International in San Diego, but I caught up with them before the show to find out more about Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer and the Great Puppet Theater. Click below to also see 11 pages from the new book.
JK: We teased Pinocchio’s buddies in the new book on Robot 6 earlier this summer. What was the inspiration for this “team” of puppets who will be joining him in his battle?
Van: The new puppets continue what we tried to do with the first book: Remain faithful to Collodi’s original story while expanding it into our new story. The original has Pinocchio encounter The Great Puppet Theater, which turns out to be a traveling group of living puppets that perform theater. They refer to Pinocchio as their brother before eventually parting ways. It seemed like an obvious direction to explore, because these other puppets presumably would be able to kill vampires, just as Pinocchio does. And the big underlying question of this story is: Where did Pinocchio come from, and how is he connected to the vampires? So, again, it seemed natural that Pinocchio’s past would intertwine with the past of these puppets.
Also, it seemed really cool to have a big team of living, fighting puppets!
- July 22, 2010 @ 05:00 PM by JK Parkin
A teaser trailer for a teaser trailer for DC Universe Online
The PlayStation blog says that Spike TV will air a new trailer for DC Universe Online called “Blur,” plus a behind-the-scenes look at the multiplayer role-playing game, this Friday night. They also posted the above teaser for the trailer, which features Wonder Woman, Batman, Flash, Joker and Cyborg, among others.
Watch for the full trailer tomorrow night on GameTrailers TV.
- July 22, 2010 @ 04:30 PM by JK Parkin
SDCC ’10 | WB developing ‘hardcore violent’ Suicide Squad video game
Suicide Squad #1
In this afternoon’s “DC Focus: Geoff Johns” panel at Comic-Con International, DC Entertainment’s chief creative officer revealed that work has begun on a Suicide Squad video game.
Johns said the game, which is being developed by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, will be “hardcore violent.”
The studio’s video-game publishing unit has undergone dramatic expansion over the past few years, acquiring developers TT Games, Snowblind Studios, Rocksteady Studios and Turbine Inc., and in March announcing plans for a new game-development studio in downtown Montreal.
Following the critical and commercial success of last year’s Batman: Arkham Asylum, which sold a reported 2 million copies in its first three weeks of success, Warner Bros. announced it’s developing a sequel. It’s also working with Double Helix on a Green Lantern game that will be released along with next summer’s film.
DC Entertainment President Diane Nelson told Hero Complex it’s part of a push to put more DC characters in WBIE titles. (The new WB Games Montreal is expected to focus largely on the company’s comics properties.)
Although Nelson says that not all of the games will tie in to movies — for instance, Arkham Asylum had nothing to do with The Dark Knight — it seems likely that Suicide Squad title will be connected to the big-screen adaptation announced in February 2009.
- July 22, 2010 @ 04:00 PM by Kevin Melrose