Kevin Melrose
Rob Liefeld looks to revive ‘Brigade,’ with help from Kickstarter
Borrowing a page from Top Cow’s 2012 resurrection of Cyber Force, Rob Liefeld has turned to Kickstarter to help relaunch his 1990s Image Comics series Brigade. His goal is to raise $17,500 in order to offer the first issue for free; in less than 24 hours, he’s already generated $6,775 in pledges.
Debuting in 1992, Brigade was a spinoff of the bestselling Youngblood, featuring a rogue mercenary team led by Battlestone. Following the initial miniseries, it continued as an ongoing for 24 issues, ending in 1995. The property was last resurrected in 2010 as “a complete re-imagining of the original smash series” by the original team of Liefeld and Marat Mychaels, but only one issue was released.
‘Our name is bronies, for we are many’
It’s somehow appropriate, given the news earlier this week that Hasbro is expanding its My Little Pony brand with Equestria Girls, that ICv2 should draw attention to the 2013 Brony Herd Census, which is exactly what it sounds like: a tally of how many male devotees there are of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.
So, just how many bronies are there in the United States? As many as 12.4 million, if we go by this survey. Or, in the words of the website, “Thus, we can state with a 95% confidence that between 4.0% and 6.8% of the internet-using US population strongly identify as bronies, or approximately 7 to 12.4 million people.”
… and I’ll look down and whisper, ‘Before Skullkickers’
After sending up recent superhero-comics trends with The Uncanny Skullkickers, Savage Skullkickers, Mighty Skullkickers, The All-New Secret Skullkickers and Dark Skullkickers — all pokes at Marvel titles — Jim Zubkavich and Edwin Huang set their sights on DC in August with “Before Skullkickers.” (You can see Image’s August solicitations at Comic Book Resources.)
Returning the series to its original numbering after a succession of No. 1 issues, Skullkickers #24 features four “Tavern Tales,” by Ron Marz, Lee Moder, Adam Warren, Tom Raney, Todd DeZago, Stjepan Seji, Zubkavich and Huang, that recount the early adventures of the books’ heroes. Hence, “Before Skullkickers.”Skullkickers #24 arrives Aug. 14.
BOOM! Studios takes aim at ’2 Guns’ sequel
Timed to coincide with the August premiere of Universal Pictures’ 2 Guns, starring Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg, BOOM! Studios has announced a sequel to the 2007 crime comic by Steven Grant and Mataes Santolouco.
Grant and cover artist Rafael Albuquerque will return for the new six-issue miniseries, appropriately titled 3 Guns, joined by Hack/Slash artist Emilio Laiso.
The original comic followed a DEA agent and an undercover Naval Intelligence officer who, after unwittingly investigating each other, team up to seal money from the mob — only to learn to late that the $50 million actually belongs to the CIA. This time they’re brokering weapons deals from opposite sides, but little do they know there’s a third gun in the mix.
“The guys haven’t seen each other and are on the outs with their agencies,” Grant tells The Hollywood Reporter. “They both independently end up on opposite sides of a deal going down with Russian weapons manufacturers and anti-government revolutionaries.”
Directed by Batlasar Kormakur, Universal’s 2 Guns opens Aug. 2.
‘Sexy’ ‘Hawken’ prank shifts focus to gender in comics, games
While an anonymous employee of Hawken video game developer Meteor Entertainment acknowledges she has a pretty amazing job — great product, “top notch” gender awareness — one thing got under her skin: a poster-sized piece of comic art for the game outside the office of CEO Mark Long featuring a scantily clad female mechanic she dubbed “Ruby Underboob” (above left).
As she relates on The Hawkeye Initiative, after “grinding my teeth into tiny shards,” she turned to co-worker Sam Kirk to create a second image, this one featuring a scantily clad male mechanic named Brosie the Riveter. On April Fool’s Day, they sneaked into the CEO’s office, switched the posters and waited for a reaction.
Facebook puts Frank Cho through ’14 hours of hell’
Although Frank Cho has earned acclaim for work ranging from Liberty Meadows to Shanna the She-Devil to Mighty Avengers, his often-racy pinups frequently garner the most notice.
However, that attention isn’t always positive. Such is the case on Facebook, which apparently blocked Cho’s account for about half of Tuesday.
Artist Gene Ha passed along the news last night from Cho, who wrote, “Someone took offense to my artwork and got me BANNED from Facebook. My account is completely locked out. This is my third offense. The first two times, I was suspended. But this time I can’t even login. The screen goes white. At this point, I just want to know which image got me banned.”
But shortly thereafter, the matter appeared to have been resolved, with Cho again having access to his Facebook account.
After 14 hours of hell, my Facebook account is working again with no explanation,” the artist wrote. “Every time I login, my screen went completely white. I tried login on 3 separate computers and all 3 went blank. My tech buddy, Brandon Peterson, figured out that it was not a physical problem but someone from Facebook admin just put a block on my account. Now they just lifted my block without a reason or explanation.”
While Cho is back on Facebook, for now, which image triggered the apparent ban remains a mystery.
Hasbro takes bizarre turn with ‘My Little Pony: Equestria Girls’
If you can’t quite fathom the renewed popularity of Hasbro’s 30-year-old My Little Pony franchise — in animation, comics and merchandising — and the accompanying “bronies” phenomenon, you may not be ready for what comes next.
According to The New York Times, the toymaker is extending its brand with Equestria Girls, which recasts the characters from the animated My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic as human teenagers. It will launch with My Little Pony: Equestria Girls, a full-length animated movie premiering in June at the Los Angeles Film Festival before being released in 200 theaters nationwide. Naturally, a DVD will follow.
New ‘Axe Cop’ trailer delivers words to live by
As part of its upfront presentations Monday in New York City, Fox screened a new trailer for Axe Cop, an adaptation of the hit webcomic by brothers Malachai Nicolle and Ethan Nicolle premiering July 27 as part of the network’s new late-night animated programming block.
If you’ve read the source material, or watched any of the previous teasers, you pretty much know what you’re in for with Axe Cop, although this trailer features Parks and Recreation‘s Nick Offerman offering some wisdom for the ages: “I want you to listen very carefully: There is something even better than friends — killing the guy who killed your friends.”
Part of Animation Domination High-Def, Axe Cop also features the voice talents of Megan Mullally, Patton Oswalt, Ken Marino and Peter Serafinowicz. ADHD premieres Saturday, July 27 at 11 p.m. ET/PT.
’2001: A Space Odyssey’ explained in 1960s children’s menu
How many parents over the past 45 years have lamented they can’t enjoy Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey with the family because the ambiguous imagery and complex themes fly over the heads of their woefully unsophisticated children?
We may never know the answer, but the question clearly was on the minds of Howard Johnson’s executives, who not only landed a bit of product placement in the now-classic sci-film but also produced a tie-in children’s menu that provides a strange — and not entirely on-point — comic-book introduction to the story.
Joe Quesada learns you don’t mess with Agent Coulson
Marvel’s Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada tweeted the above photo of himself taking a punch to the jaw from Phil Coulson himself, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. star Phil Coulson, writing, “Reminder to self, don’t touch Lola … ever again!”
That’s a reference to a scene from the first trailer for the upcoming ABC action drama in which Coulson cautions a member of the Helicarrier hangar deck crew, “Don’t touch Lola,” his shiny red convertible.
Created by Joss Whedon with Dollhouse veterans Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. also stars Ming-Na as Agent Melina May, Elizabeth Henstridge as Agent Gemma Simmons, Iain De Caestecker as Agent Leo Fitz, Brett Dalton as Agent Grant Ward and Chloe Bennett as Skye. The series will air Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.
Nebraska library refuses to pull ‘Batman: The Killing Joke’
A Nebraska public library has rejected a request to either remove Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s Batman: The Killing Joke from shelves or move the 1988 DC Comics one-shot out of the young-adult area.
“I don’t find it worthy of being removed from the shelf,” the Columbus Telegram quotes Columbus Public Library board member Carol Keller as saying at last week’s meeting.
Cheat Sheet | From ‘Galactica’ to Dallas to the Motor City
Welcome to “Cheat Sheet,” ROBOT 6′s guide to the week ahead. Although this installment is a little late — curse you, technical problems! — we’re still left with plenty of time to prepare for this weekend’s Motor City Comic Con, Dallas Comic Con and the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention.
What’s more, our contributors have cast their eyes over Wednesday’s releases, singling out such favorites as Battlestar Galactica #1, Betelgeuse, Vol. 1, and The New Warriors Omnibus.
‘The most important thing is the long, involved soap operas’
“They’re missing the full spectrum of these character’s emotional lives. The most important thing is the long, involved soap operas. It’s a type of narrative that you don’t get anywhere else except on very long-running soap operas, where characters can go into depth. 20 pages every month going into these characters lives over decades give you a lot more insight and a lot more involvement than say a two hour movie, even with Robert Downey Jr.”
– Grant Morrison, explaining what fans of superhero movies are missing if they don’t read the comic books
It’s a Gotham City wedding for two Nightwing and Batgirl fans
What happens when a Nightwing fan and a Batgirl devotee meet and fall in love? They have a Batman-themed wedding, naturally.
“This guy stopped to help me hang up a poster and three years later he proposed after jumping out of a plane,” user “babsgordon” writes on imgur. “Our relationship bonded over our superhero obsessions, so why not have a Batman wedding?”
This Dynamic Duo didn’t skimp on the details: As you can see from the photos here an on imgur, they wore Nightwing and Batgirl T-shirts in their engagement photos, sent invitations designed to look like tickets to Haly’s Circus, displayed a Gotham City cake, and the bride sported Bat-Signal earrings, custom-made garters, and even a utility belt (for her bridal shoot, at least)!
And the wedding party? Nightwing-blue for the groomsmen and groomswoman, and Batgirl-yellow for the bridesmaids and “bridesdudes” — complete with the appropriate insignia for the boutonnieres.
‘Kevin Keller’ wins GLAAD Media Award
Dan Parent, backstage at the 24th annual GLAAD Media Awards (courtesy of GLAAD)
Kevin Keller cartoonist Dan Parent accepted the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation’s 24th annual Media Award for outstanding comic book, presented Saturday in San Francisco. The awards honor outstanding portrayals of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities.
This was the second nomination and first win for the Archie Comics series, which beat out Astonishing X-Men, Batwoman, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Earth 2. Introduced in 2010 in Veronica #202, Kevin was the publisher’s first gay character. After a four-issue miniseries, the character received debuted in his own ongoing series in February 2012.