Catwoman
Eric Canete responds to Catwoman sex scene with post-coital comic
Some fans and comics pundits have been up in arms over the past few days about the sexual depictions of two of DC’s characters in the New 52. In this week’s Catwoman #1, we saw some heated foreplay between Batman and Catwoman that’s raised eyebrows and, perhaps, the profile of the relaunched title. Artist Eric Canete has responded to the fervor with a comic. Instead of trying to explain it further, just read:
This brings up a lot of questions that I’ll leave to the comments section below. But mine is this: When do we get to see Eric Canete do some more comics?
- September 23, 2011 @ 04:00 PM by Chris Arrant
Mike Hawthorne should be writing Catwoman
Just sayin. Check out Comic Twart for the rest of the er … strip.
- September 23, 2011 @ 02:30 PM by Michael May
DC’s push for the New 52: ‘This is a Catwoman for 2011′
From Catwoman #1, by Judd Winick and Guillem March
In a week in which the debuts of Batman and Wonder Woman fired on all cylinders, you have to think DC Comics didn’t expect the spotlight to be stolen by the first issues of Catwoman and Red Hood and the Outlaws. Alas, online discussion over the past 48 hours hasn’t been focused on the accessibility of the former or the potential of the latter (if indeed either demonstrates accessibility or potential). Instead, it’s centered on a bra-flashing Selina Kyle engaging in aggressive costumed sex with Batman, and a semi-amnesiac Starfire who’s become little more than an emotionless sex mannequin.
I feel as if I should be worked up by the depictions but, to be honest, I’m just deflated by the whole thing. The best I can muster is, “Sigh … again?” and maybe, “This is the kind of storytelling and characterization you relaunched your entire line for?” But here are some of the highlights of what others are saying on the subject:
• Winick’s statement to Newsarama about the response to Catwoman #1: “This is a Catwoman for 2011, and my approach to her character and actions reflect someone who lives in our times. And wears a cat suit. And steals. It’s a tale that is part crime story, part mystery and part romance. In that, you will find action, suspense and passion. Each of those qualities, at times, play to their extremes. Catwoman is a character with a rich comic book history, and my hope is that readers will continue to join us as the adventure continues.”
- September 23, 2011 @ 10:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
Grumpy Old Fan | New 52 Week 3: I’m every woman…?
The new Blue Beetle #1
Whether by accident or design, this week was dominated by female leads (four, not including Starfire in Red Hood) and Bat-titles (four including RH; five if you count Birds Of Prey). It is tempting to say the woman-led titles ran the gamut of experiences from A to D, but thankfully it is a little more complicated than that. As you might expect, the week produced issues of varying quality, although I found something to like about each one. Sometimes it was harder to find that one thing, though….
Naturally, SPOILERS FOLLOW.
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In theory, the DC Universe Presents anthology has a longer lease on life because its sales can’t be judged fairly on the basis of only one arc. I suppose that, given Deadman’s relationship with one of Hawk & Dove’s headliners, that book’s readers might be interested in this one. By and large, though, the audience for this title is made up either of DC stalwarts waiting for a good Obscure Character X story, or (less likely, I’d say) impulse buyers. Such an approach might have been a great way to introduce a totally new character within the context of the New 52, and piggyback that feature on the rest of the relaunch’s popularity — but I’m not surprised DC chose Deadman, fresh off Brightest Day.
- September 22, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by Tom Bondurant
Warner Bros. to debut Catwoman animated short, Justice League: Doom footage at NYCC
Catwoman
The New York Comic-Con is coming up Oct. 13-16, and Warner Bros. has revealed some animated plans for the show.
Warner Home Video, Warner Premiere, DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation will present “an action-packed hour of first looks” at DC Universe Animated Original Movies that Friday from 3 to 4 p.m., which will include the premiere of the animated short Catwoman, starring Eliza Dushku as the voice of title character. The 15-minute short will be included on the release of Batman: Year One, which arrives Oct. 18 on Blu-ray, DVD, for Download and On Demand.
The panel will also include the first footage to be seen from Justice League: Doom, the next entry in the ongoing series of DC Universe Animated Original Movies.
Panelists will include the voice of Batman, Kevin Conroy, DCU executive producer Bruce Timm and casting/dialogue director Andrea Romano … and quite possibly welcome a few surprise guests to the stage. An autograph session with the panelists will immediately follow the panel.
- September 20, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by JK Parkin
DC Comics teases Guillem March’s cover for Catwoman #4
Catwoman #4, by Guillem March
Taking over the DC Comics Twitter account today, editor Rachel Gluckstern revealed Guillem March’s cover for Catwoman #4, teasing, “What business could Catwoman possibly have at Stately Wayne Manor?”
The relaunched Catwoman, by March and writer Judd Winick, debuts next week. The fourth issue arrives in December.
- September 15, 2011 @ 01:00 PM by Kevin Melrose
DC’s mainstream push for New 52: ‘Even the haters are curious’
DC Comics: The New 52
Ahead of the release on Wednesday of Flashpoint #5 and Justice League #1, signaling the beginning of its line-wide relaunch, DC Comics has kicked off a promotional assault in the mainstream press to sell “The New 52″ to a broader audience. While USA Today, with a circulation of 1.8 million the second-largest newspaper in the United States, looks to be the hub for coverage, DC has also reached out to publications like the New York Daily News, the New York Post and the Boston Herald. Here are the highlights so far from the 11th-hour push:
• A spoiler-heavy preview of Flashpoint #5 in USA Today lays out how the dystopic, casualty-strewn world depicted in the crossover got that way.
• USA Today takes a broad overview of the relaunch, talking with DC Co-Publishers Dan DiDio and Jim Lee, Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns, and a couple of retailers. “There are plenty of angry customers over this,” says John Robinson, co-owner of Graham Crackers Comics chain in Illinois. “I’ve heard the usual ‘I can’t believe they’re doing this,’ ‘They’ve betrayed us,’ etc. I’d say about 60% to 70% of those protesting the loudest will still end up buying the stuff. There’s just too much hype and interest — even the haters are curious.”
• The newspaper also hones in on the publisher’s new same-day digital strategy, which debuts Wednesday at 2 p.m. ET when Justice League #1 will be available for purchase digitally. Hank Kanalz, senior vice president for digital at DC Entertainment, acknowledges the challenges of getting the initiative off the ground: “Some books are working really far ahead of schedule, some are down to the wire, and it’s just a matter of coordinating and about overcommunicating. We have to make sure it goes off without a hitch, which is why we’re not sleeping right now. We’re going much wider to a mass audience than ever before, so it’s a matter of making sure we have everything ready to go.”
- August 29, 2011 @ 08:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | CCS’s Schulz Library damaged in flood; when Marvel almost licensed Superman
Schulz Library
Education | The Center For Cartoon Studies’ Schulz Library in White River Junction, Vermont, was damaged over the weekend in flooding caused by torrential rains from Hurricane Irene. According to CCS Director James Sturm, volunteers called in Sunday night were able to remove about 70 percent of the library’s collection and move the remaining materials to higher shelves. However, he indicated to Tom Spurgeon that the building itself may be a loss. [The Comics Reporter]
Publishing | Jim Shooter, former editor-in-chief for Marvel Comics, shares the story of how DC Comics almost licensed the publishing rights to their characters to Marvel in the mid-1980s. Obviously the deal never happened, which Shooter said was due to a lawsuit by First Comics alleging anti-trust violations. [Jim Shooter]
Creators | Gail Simone discusses her upcoming work on Batgirl and Fury of Firestorm. [TFAW]
- August 29, 2011 @ 06:55 AM by Brigid Alverson and JK Parkin
DC relaunch scorecard: DCnU or DC No?
Green Lantern #1, by Dave Johnson
Although it seems like DC’s big relaunch announcement came out an eternity ago, it actually took the publisher less than two weeks to roll out the 52 titles and their creative teams for the big relaunch/reboot/overhaul coming in September. Now that the cats are out of their respective bags, I thought I’d see where various creators and characters will land after the reboot.
So I went back through DC’s August solicitations to see who was writing or drawing what, and tried to map everyone to their post-relaunch project — if they had one. However, looking at DC’s August solicitations, there seem to be several fill-in issues, so where appropriate I tried to map the most recent ongoing creative teams to their new projects (for instance, I consider Gail Simone and Jesus Saiz the regular creative team for Birds of Prey, even if they aren’t doing the last two issues before September hits). Keep in mind that I just went through the ongoing series and skipped over all the miniseries … of which there are a lot, what with Flashpoint winding up in August.
It’s also worth noting that although several creators didn’t appear in the “big 52″ announcements, that doesn’t mean their tenure with DC is necessarily over — some, like Frazer Irving, have said they have future projects that haven’t been announced. So I tried to note where creators have talked publicly about their post-relaunch plans with DC (or lack thereof, as the case may be). The same could probably be said for some of DC’s characters as well. Or, as Gail Simone said on Twitter: “Again, September is NOT THE END. There’s still plans for characters that we haven’t seen yet.”
So let’s get to it ….
- June 12, 2011 @ 04:14 AM by JK Parkin
I’m not just pussyfooting around this time, Batman!
I like to imagine that “Love Signal“, Mike Maihack’s contribution to this year’s HeroesCon art auction is a prequel to that Morning After drawing by Natalie Nourigat.
- May 27, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by Michael May
Natalie Nourigat catches Catwoman and Batman the morning after
Cartoonist Natalie Nourigat has captured Selina Kyle and Bruce Wayne in an awkward moment the morning after…well, we can only speculate what last night was all about, but it’s sure got someone nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.
Totally love that Bruce Wayne wears Batman PJs and slippers to the grocery store as he groggily shops for melons.
- April 26, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by Michael May
Grumpy Old Fan | Going on about ongoing series, Part 3
Jonah Hex, stability's poster boy?
The first two parts of this little exploration looked at DC’s attempts to launch ongoing series in the ‘80s and ‘90s, when line-wide events became regular occurrences in the superhero line. However, as those surveys made abundantly clear, said events didn’t seem to relate much either to concurrently-launched ongoing series or to the relative success of said series.
Instead, the number of new ongoing series debuting in a particular calendar year looks somewhat cyclical. There were five new ongoings in 1985 (the year of Crisis On Infinite Earths), up to 14 in 1988 and 17 in 1992, then easing down to 15 in 1994, 13 in 1996, and 10 in 1997. In 1998 and 2000, DC launched only four new ongoing series; in 1999, six; and in 2001, seven. At the risk of exciting you too quickly with more numbers, a later year will have sixteen.
For now, though, we pick up in 2002, at the beginning of a quieter time.
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Continue Reading »
- March 24, 2011 @ 04:00 PM by Tom Bondurant
Selina’s not-so-big score — caught on tape!
Catwoman: Wanted
We noted on Tuesday that New York City police are on the hunt for, well, Catwoman — or at least a brazen criminal who’s robbed shoe and beauty stores while wearing a cat mask.
The woman, who was described by the New York Post a “lithe 5-foot-6, 115 pound thief,” wore blacking clothing, a black scarf and that trademark mask to stick up two stores last week in the East Village and Forest Hills, Queens. In broad daylight, no less.
Now police have released a video of the suspect, whom you can see glide into the high-end Arche shoe store, where she reportedly browsed for 45 minutes — the tape is edited, thankfully — before donning the mask and telling the sales clerk, “Give me the money. I have a gun.” (Note the customers who mill around while the robbery takes place.)
What was Selina’s big score? A whopping $86 from the shoe store. She made out better the next day at The Body Shop, where she slunk away with $500.
(video via The Village Voice)
- June 30, 2010 @ 06:59 PM by Kevin Melrose
Finally, Ace the Bat Hound gets his own T-shirt
Lanvin’s Dog Batman T-shirt
Well, not really. According to WWD Fashion, in honor of DC’s 75th anniversary, French clothing retailer Colette has asked several clothing designers to create DC character-themed clothing for its latest window display. The limited edition items include the above Dog Batman T-shirt by Lanvin men’s wear designer Lucas Ossendrijver, whiskered Catwoman thigh boots by Roger Vivier, a Green Lantern glove by Karl Lagerfeld and Plastic Man shades by Thierry Lasry. You can see pictures of them here.
- May 28, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by JK Parkin
Straight for the art | 2010 Doug Wright Awards art auction
Catwoman by Jillian Tamaki
Since my repertoire of Canada-based witticisms is entirely derived from half-remembered viewings of Strange Brew, I’m just gonna skip the clever opening and point you straight to this rather amazing gallery of (mostly) DC Comics superheroes drawn by (mostly) alternative comics artists (entirely) from Canada. It’s The Doug Wright Awards 2010 All-Star All-Canadian Art Auction, in which these pieces are being sold on eBay to help fund the annual award program. That’s Jillian Tamaki’s gorgeous take on Catwoman above (DC editors, are you paying attention?); click here to see Kate Beaton’s Wonder Woman, Chester Brown’s Batman, Jeff Lemire’s Hawkman & Atom, Matt Forsythe’s Hawkman, Marc Bell’s Iron Man (guess he didn’t get the “DC Comics characters” memo), original art from Bryan Lee O’Malley and more, and click here to start bidding.
(via Tom Spurgeon)
- May 6, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by Sean T. Collins