2010 July
SDCC ’10 | Marvel announces Strange Tales II [UPDATED]
Strange Tales II #1 by Rafael Grampa
Strange days indeed! At today’s Mondo Marvel panel at the San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel officially announced the October launch Strange Tales II. Like the original Strange Tales anthology, the sequel will be three giant-sized issues’ worth of alternative, underground, indie, and web cartoonists putting their stamp on Marvel’s characters. The line-up this time around includes Alex Robinson, Dash Shaw, David Heatley, Dean Haspiel, Edu Medeiros, Farel Dalrymple, Frank Santoro, Gene Yang, Gilbert Hernandez, Harvey Pekar, Jaime Hernandez, Jeff Lemire, Jeffrey Brown, Jhonen Vasquez, Jillian Tamaki, Jon Vermilyea, Kate Beaton, Nick Gurewitch, Paul Hornschemeier, Paul Maybury, Rafael Grampa (that’s his cover above), Shannon Wheeler, Terry Moore, Tim Hamilton, Tony Millionaire, and the proverbial “and more.”
UPDATE: Just added to the roster: Benjamin Marra, Sheldon Vella, and Ty Templeton. Dang!
- July 22, 2010 @ 03:31 PM by Sean T. Collins
SDCC ’10 | Charmed is back, and Zenescope’s got it
![Charmed01A[1]](http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Charmed01A1.jpg "Charmed01A[1]")
Zenescope is best known for horror/cheesecake combos like Grimm Fairy Tales and Return to Wonderland, but their latest property should have much wider appeal: Charmed, a comic based on the TV show about three sisters who must balance jobs, family and the demands of being the most powerful witches in the world. The show ran for eight seasons on The WB network, from 1998 to 2006, and the characters went through a number of changes during that time, including the death of one of the sisters and the appearance of a new half-sister.
Issue #1 is being launched at San Diego Comic-Con this weekend, and writers Paul Ruditis and Raven Gregory are there to do signings and a panel. I talked to them beforehand about their plans for the series.
Brigid: How did this property come to you? Did you have a prior relationship with the producers?
Paul Ruditis: For a brief time I oversaw the Charmed publishing program for the studio producing the show. Then, later on, I wrote for the licensed book line that Simon Spotlight published. When Zenescope was looking for someone to write for the series, my name came up because I had a history with the show. That’s really helpful when you’re about to take on a mythology built off eight years worth of television episodes.
- July 22, 2010 @ 03:30 PM by Brigid Alverson
SDCC ’10 | Top Shelf unveils Cigarette Girl
In their Manga for Grown-Ups panel at SDCC, Top Shelf announced they have licensed the manga Cigarette Girl, by gekiga (alternative) manga creator Masahiko Matsumoto, an early colleage and rival of Yoshihiro Tatsumi (The Push Man, A Drifting Life). This is the first Matsumoto manga to be published in English, and it’s an interesting move for the indie publisher, which recently published the alt-manga anthology Ax. Click for a sample page from Cigarette Girl.
- July 22, 2010 @ 03:11 PM by Brigid Alverson
Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Soundtrack
Is Scott Pilgrim the king of all media? Consider the launch of the character’s sixth and final comic from Bryan Lee O’Malley, Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour, which drew literally thousands of fans to midnight release parties Monday night. Consider the San Diego Comic-Conslaught of publicity for Edgar Wright’s Michael Cera-starring movie adaptation Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, hitting theaters in just a few short weeks. And finally, consider the multiple albums on the way containing all the music recorded for the movie. The much-ballyhooed soundtrack contains songs from alt-rock heroes Beck, Broken Social Scene, and Metric, performing in-character as bands from the story, plus tracks from T.Rex, the Rolling Stones, Frank Black, and of course Plumtree, whose song “Scott Pilgrim” gave our hero his name.
Now comes word via The Playlist that an extended edition of the soundtrack will feature alternate versions of Beck’s contributions, with the Loser himself on vocals this time around. Also headed our way is the original score album, featuring music by Beck and Radiohead superproducer Nigel Godrich, Handsome Boy Modeling School and Gorillaz knob-twiddler Dan the Automator, Japanese art-pop weirdo Cornelius, longtime Wright collaborator Osymyso and more. Rock out with your Scott out, people.
- July 22, 2010 @ 02:30 PM by Sean T. Collins
SDCC ’10 | Scott Pilgrim vs. the Eisner Awards
Cast members of "Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World"
Scott Pilgrim‘s conquest of Comic-Con International will expand Friday night to the Eisner Awards ceremony, where the film’s cast will be on hand to announce the winners in the first three categories.
According to an announcement made this afternoon, the cast members expected to appear include Michael Cera, Aubrey Plaza, Anna Kendrick, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Mark Webber, Ellen Wong, Jason Schwartzman, Alison Pill, Satya Bhabha, Brandon Routh and Mae Whitman. They will join such other presenters as actors Ben Garant, Thomas Jane and Phil LaMarr, and creators Peter Bagge, Berkeley Breathed, Chris Claremont, Dave Gibbons and C. Tyler.
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, which opens on Aug. 13, is (of course) based on Bryan Lee O’Malley’s acclaimed series of graphic novels. The fifth volume is nominated for an Eisner Award for best humor publication.
The Eisner Awards ceremony begins at 8:30 p.m. Friday in the Indigo Room of the Hilton San Diego Bayfront.
- July 22, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by Kevin Melrose
SDCC ’10 | Threadless unveils shirts by Thompson, Chiang, Moore and Baltazar
The T-shirt site Threadless has unveiled four new shirts by comic artists Jill Thompson, Cliff Chiang, Tony Moore and Art Baltazar just in time for San Diego. The shirts can be purchased separately for $20 each or as a collector’s set for $70. You can read more about how the artists became involved here.
In addition, the site has announced a new design challenge, where they ask artists to design a shirt based on a particular theme. This time around the theme is comics, and the shirt will be worn by a character in an upcoming issue of John Layman and Rob Guillory’s Chew.
- July 22, 2010 @ 01:15 PM by JK Parkin
SDCC ’10 | Didio: Johnny DC titles ‘really not cancelled’
Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam #21
Despite what DC’s October solicitations might say, DC Comics co-publisher Dan Didio said at today’s DC Nation panel in San Diego that the books are “really not cancelled.”
When a fan asked about the fate of the Johnny DC line, Didio teased that a Young Justice comic would be on the way, along with the new TV series. He also said that “There are [kids] books in the works….they’re really not cancelled. A bunch of stuff is coming your way.”
As Kevin pointed out earlier this week, both Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam and Batman: The Brave and the Bold‘s October issues are marked as the final issues of those titles. The final issue of their all-ages Super Friends title came out last week.
But it sounds like they’re just being replaced with something different, which I’m sure we’ll hear more about on Sunday at the “DC Kids: Aww Yeah!” panel.
- July 22, 2010 @ 12:44 PM by JK Parkin
Grumpy Old Fan | Too much information: DC Comics solicitations for October 2010
DCU Halloween Special 2010
This unfortunate confluence of monthly solicitations and Comic-Con must be unavoidable. For the past week or so we DC fans have been bombarded with announcements which have little to do with October’s comics. Here’s a new Static series, there’s David Finch’s new Dark Knight series, peeking out over here is the new THUNDER Agents series, and to top things off, have a clue-filled Brightest Day poster.
Now here are the October solicits … but by the time you read this, DC may well have started rolling out the stuff it had been holding for Comic-Con.
But hey — on to the task at hand!
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Continue Reading »
- July 22, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by Tom Bondurant
SDCC ’10 | DC moving to L.A.?
Diane Nelson and Geoff Johns by Liz O. Baylen/Los Angeles Times
Long has this rumor bedeviled industry watchers and anxious DC employees alike, and now it’s getting its first quasi-official airing in the mainstream press: An L.A. Times profile of DC Entertainment President and Chief Creative Officer (and superstar writer) Geoff Johns by writers Geoff Boucher and and Ben Fritz notes that DC may move its publishing wing, long a fixture in New York City’s comics scene, to Los Angeles.
The bomb is dropped almost in passing: “The biggest challenge for Nelson and Johns may be merging the cultures of the Warner lot in Burbank and the offices of DC, which are in Manhattan but may soon move to L.A.,” write Boucher and Fritz. If so, this would be the biggest fallout yet from the structural reshuffling at the top of DC that took place late last year following Publisher Paul Levitz’s retirement, and a sign that parent company Warner Bros. is deadly serious about integrating the publishing/idea-factory side of DC with its movie-making and entertainment empire.
To be clear, no official announcement has been made, despite expectations that Nelson and company would address the move — potentially life-altering as it is for the DC staff — sooner rather than later. And I’d guess that if an announcement’s in the offing, it’ll wait until the San Diego dust settles. But a transition from Gotham to Hollywood may well be in the works.
(Via Heidi MacDonald)
- July 22, 2010 @ 11:30 AM by Sean T. Collins
SDCC ’10 | Activision confirms final ‘Shattered’ dimension is Ultimate Spider-Man
Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions
IGN and joystiq are both reporting that Activision has confirmed the final “dimension” that players can take Spider-Man through in the upcoming Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions game — the Ultimate Universe, where he will, indeed, wear the black suit found on the box cover. Spidey will take on both Carnage and Deadpool in the Ultimate level; click on the links for more info.
The game arrives Sept. 7.
- July 22, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by JK Parkin
SDCC ’10 | Rob Lowe to voice Captain Marvel on Young Justice cartoon
The Magic of Shazam!
Rich Sands from TV Guide Magazine is reporting that actor Rob Lowe will be yelling “Shazam!” on the Cartoon Network’s upcoming animated series Young Justice. The star of such films as St. Elmo’s Fire and, more recently, TV shows The West Wing and Brothers & Sisters, will play the role of Captain Marvel on the new series.
Sands notes that because he’s really a kid, Captain Marvel “will bond more easily with the younger heroes.” Producer Greg Weisman says that Shazam will be an important recurring character in the series, so this could ultimately involve multiple episodes for Lowe.
Sands also reports that the Young Justice cartoon will get a sneak preview during the Batman: The Brave and the Bold tomorrow morning in San Diego. I thought it was kind of odd that there was no Young Justice panel at the show.
- July 22, 2010 @ 10:30 AM by JK Parkin
SDCC ’10 | Video from BOOM!’s Stan Lee press conference
SFGate.com’s Zennie62 has posted video from yesterday’s press conference with BOOM! Studios and Stan Lee, where they announced the three titles and creative teams that’ll work with Stan. It’s not the entire press conference, but there is some fun footage of Stan talking about his new relationship with BOOM!, and a nice bit where Stan gives advice on writing comics.
- July 22, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by JK Parkin
SDCC ’10 | Marvel Super Hero Squad searches for Infinity Gauntlet in new game
Marvel Super Hero Squad: The Infinity Gauntlet
THQ today announced a sequel to 2009′s Marvel Super Hero Squad video game. Titled Marvel Super Hero Squad: The Infinity Gauntlet the game will have players “using their super powers and super smarts to battle Doctor Doom’s Lethal Legion and search out the locations of the six lost Infinity Stones.” And hey, is that Thanos I see on the cover? Why yes it is.
The press release promises an “even larger” team of heroes. “We are excited to announce the next game in our Marvel Super Hero Squad franchise to an eager fan base,” said Martin Good, Executive Vice President, Kids, Family, Casual Games, and Global Online Services. “The new co-op Challenge Mode, super-powered action-combat and integrated puzzles truly elevate the series and further broaden the audience.”
The game will be available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, and the Nintendo DSi and Nintendo DS systems. More info and pics after the jump …
- July 22, 2010 @ 09:30 AM by JK Parkin
SDCC ’10 | Vertical announces Lychee Light Club manga
Vertical, Inc., is probably the smallest manga publisher in North America right now, but it’s also the most interesting, with a smart, quirky line that encompasses titles as diverse as Felipe Smith’s Peepo Choo, the cute cat manga Chi’s Sweet Home, Keiko Takemiya’s science fiction classic To Terra, and Osamu Tezuka’s Buddha. They had just one license to announce at Comic-Con International, but it’s an intriguing one: Lychee Light Club (Litchi Hikari Club) by Usamaru Furuya. Viz had announced another Furuya title, Genkaku Picasso, at Anime Expo on July 3. CMX Manga had planned to publish Furuya’s 51 Ways to Save Her but the imprint was shut down by parent company DC Comics before the book was released. Viz published his two-volume gag manga Short Cuts, and his work ran in the early manga magazine Pulp and the anthology Secret Comics Japan, according to Baka-Updates.
The plot of Lychee Light Club sounds like a mashup of manga elements with a few twists thrown in: The students at an all-boys school create a robot to track down beautiful women, a robot that for some reason runs on lychee fruits. Everything gets complicated when the machine develops self-awareness, however, and stops being quite so compliant.
- July 22, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
SDCC ’10 | Get your Buffy the Vampire Slayer soda
Jones Soda's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" bottles
Thirsty Comic-Con attendees and die-hard Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans take note: Beginning today, a Jones Soda truck will be driving around the San Diego Convention Center and the Gaslamp Quarter dispensing collector’s edition bottles sporting Season Eight art by Georges Jeanty and such themed flavors as “Dawn’s a Centaur Root Beer,” “Giles’s Grape Potion” and “Willow’s Green Apple Witch’s Brew.” There are six in all.
If you miss the truck, or aren’t in San Diego this week, don’t worry: You’ll apparently be able to order the Buffy line from the Jones Soda website beginning later today.
- July 22, 2010 @ 07:00 AM by Kevin Melrose