DC Entertainment
Quote of the day | ‘Amethyst has been through a wringer’
“I had no idea it [Amethyst] was being animated. You know, when you create something, it isn’t unreasonable to imagine it belongs to you. That whoever is in charge in the corporate structure, they’ll want to consult you as to where your character is headed. Not DC Comics. Maybe not any corporation. Maybe we could have been better business people, better negotiators. Amethyst has been through a wringer, twisted by lesser lights than the guys who created her — Dan Mishkin, Gary Cohn and — if you’ll permit me — me.”
– veteran artist Ernie Colón, lamenting to Comic Book Resources the treatment of Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld, the DC Comics fantasy property he created with writers Dan Mishkin and Gary Cohn
- December 21, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
‘Forget the movies,’ WB Montreal is focused on DC Comics games
Following the runaway success of Batman: Arkham Asylum and its sequel Arkham City, don’t look for Warner Bros. Interactive to return to movie tie-ins anytime soon.
Instead, the new Warner Bros. Games Montreal has been given a mandate: to just make good video games. Specifically, good games based on DC Comics properties. “It’s really about make the game what it needs to be and forget the movies,” Reid Schneider, the studio’s head of production, told Canadian Business.
“If you look over the past decade of superhero games, there were two. The first one was when Neversoft made Spider-Man — I think it was back on the PS1. People were like, ‘Wow, this is really good,’ and then a couple of things came out that were okay,” he said. “Then Rocksteady came out with Arkham Asylum and that again changed the expectations. If you look at the similarities between the two, they weren’t based on movies per se. They were just taking that really rich fiction from the comic books and exploring the characters. It’s not about hitting the movie date or some arbitrary date — it was giving the game the time it needs to be successful and really just concentrating on the quality of it.”
- December 12, 2011 @ 08:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Commissioner Gordon can’t shake Batman in SNL short
Emmy nominee Steve Buscemi has played a corrupt politician on Boardwalk Empire, a small-time crook in Fargo, a naive bowler in The Big Lebowski, and an offbeat private investigator on 30 Rock. Now add to that Gotham City police commissioner.
Hosting Saturday Night Live over the weekend, Buscemi starred as James Gordon opposite Andy Samberg’s Batman in a digital short about a lurky Caped Crusader with serious boundary issues. Check out the video, complete with a cameo by Aquaman, below.
- December 5, 2011 @ 10:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
DC Nation commercial reveals return of Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld
Last Friday’s broadcast of the DC Nation trailer on Cartoon Network got a lot of fans buzzing about the future of this renewed partnership between the network and its sister company DC Comics. And one of the animators behind the work reveals that one of the scenes glimpsed in the 1:35 commercial is leading up to an animated short featuring DC’s Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld. First off, here’s the excerpt from the trailer:
“To clear up the confusion over this part of the DC Nation commercial, she is getting a short,” said animator Brianne Drouhard. ” I am working with a group of fantastic people to put this together.”
Drouhard, who is also working on the upcoming Teen Titans shorts, was given the task of doing the Amethyst part of the DC Nation trailer on short notice, and was assisted by Claire Lenth on color help and video composite work from Will Feng.
“It’s been rewarding and a lot of fun to work with such a great team,” Drouhard continued. “Later in 2012 you’ll get to see our efforts!”
- November 16, 2011 @ 08:46 AM by Chris Arrant
Comic Industry Job Board – November 2011
In the wide world of comics there’s always a need for talented people — and not just for creating the comics. The books you read every day are supported by an immense infrastructure of editors, publishers, designers, distributors and retailers that make American comics what it is today. And despite the frail economy, the comics industry is looking for employees.
We’ve compiled a list of all the openings in the comics industry for non-creative office positions and put it all into one place. It’s a good resource if you’re looking to work in comics, and also for armchair speculators seeing what companies are looking to do by seeing what positions they’re hiring for. We accumulated these by looking on publisher websites and job boards — if you know of a job not listed here, let us know!
- November 3, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by Chris Arrant
Jim Lee asks fans ‘to have a little patience’ with DC’s Amazon deal
Jim Lee
In the nearly two weeks since Barnes & Noble drew a line in the sand, pulling 100 of DC Comics’ top-selling graphic novels from its shelves to protest the publisher’s exclusive agreement with Amazon’s new Kindle Fire, there’s been little visible change in the tablet wars. That is, unless you count the decision by Books-A-Million to follow the chain’s lead.
Both sides appear to have dug in, with Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million insisting that books be available in all formats to all customers — specifically, their customers and their e-reader — and DC and parent company Warner Bros. insisting they’re misunderstood, and more than a little disappointed.
There are hints, however, that behind the scenes things may be a bit less … concrete.
Although there’s been some indication that DC’s exclusive arrangement with Amazon will last just four months, meaning graphic novels like Watchmen, Fables, Y: The Last Man and The Sandman could be available digitally for other platforms by mid-March, the publisher has yet to say so, much to the frustration of some fans (and, I would imagine, certain retailers).
In its overview of the dispute, The New York Times notes the DC website trumpets the books are available “exclusively to Amazon’s newly announced Kindle Fire,” period. No qualifiers. But comments for DC Co-Publisher Jim Lee lend credence to reports that the Amazon exclusivity is for a limited time.
Although he cited a nondisclosure agreement with the online retail giant, Lee still told the newspaper that, “Just because we’re starting with Amazon, this is not the be-all and end-all of our digital strategy and distribution.”
And to DC readers frustrated by the deal? “We say to our fans, have a little patience.”
- October 19, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
What’s the mystery DC Comics video game coming next year?
In a Los Angeles Times profile pegged to today’s launch of Batman: Arkham City, Warner Bros. Interactive President Martin Tremblay drops an enticing crumb: In addition to a new Lord of the Rings video game and a sequel to LEGO Batman, next year the studio will release an adaptation of a DC Comics superhero he wouldn’t name.
That Warner Bros. is looking to develop more DC properties for its rapidly expanding games division is no secret — a new studio in Montreal is being set up specifically for that task. But what could this mysterious title be?
Kotaku notes that while a Superman game may be the obvious guess, given the release of Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel in June 2013, it hardly requires a veil of secrecy. After all, movie tie-ins are par for the course.
- October 18, 2011 @ 08:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
NYCC | DC’s New 52 sells 5 million comics in just six weeks
DC Comics has sold more than 5 million comics in the first six weeks of its line-wide relaunch, the publisher trumpeted this morning, saying the company “is experiencing its best comic books sales in more than 20 years.”
That figure includes more than 250,000 copies of Justice League #1, whose debut on Aug. 31 kicked off the New 52. According to DC, Action Comics #1 and Batman #1 — the top-selling comics in the direct market in September — have each moved more than 200,000 copies, while the first issues of Detective Comics, The Flash, Green Lantern and Superman have all sold more than 150,000.
In addition, the debuts of Aquaman, Batgirl, Batman and Robin, Batman: The Dark Knight, Green Lantern Corps, Green Lantern: New Guardians and Wonder Woman have all surpassed 100,000 copies.
“We are thrilled by the overwhelmingly positive response from retailers, fans and the creative community to DC Comics — The New 52,” DC Entertainment President Diane Nelson said in the press release. “This was a bold publishing initiative that is reinvigorating and growing the industry and medium we love.”
“People are buying, reading and talking about a line of comic books in a way they haven’t in years,” added Co-Publisher Dan DiDio. “We’re thrilled to see the passionate response fans have had, but this is just Step One for us. Now our plan is to keep the momentum and enthusiasm going.”
Read the full announcement below:
- October 13, 2011 @ 04:23 AM by Kevin Melrose
Books-A-Million also pulls DC graphic novels over Kindle Fire deal
"Superman: Earth One" on the Kindle Fire
Retail chain Books-A-Million has followed the lead of Barnes & Noble, pulling from its shelves the 100 graphic novels DC Comics plans to sell exclusively on Amazon’s new Kindle Fire.
Barnes & Noble, the largest bookstore chain in the United States, removed the top-selling titles late last week — they include The Sandman, Fables, Watchmen and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns — citing a policy “that unless we receive all formats of a title to make available to our customers, we will not sell those physical titles in our stores.”
Publishers Weekly reports that Books-A-Million, which operates 211 stores in 23 states, has taken the same position, with CEO Terrance Finley saying in a press release that supporting a publisher that “selectively limits distribution of their content” isn’t in the best interest of the store’s customers.
“We will not promote titles in our stores showrooms if publishers choose to pursue these exclusive arrangements that create an uneven playing field in the marketplace,” he continued.
DC’s deal with Amazon apparently only lasts for four months, beginning Nov. 15, so it remains to be seen whether Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million will return the graphic novels to their shelves when the exclusive arrangement lapses in mid-March.
- October 12, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
NYCC | Vertigo to adapt Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy
Ahead of New York Comic Con, DC Entertainment announced this morning it will adapt Stieg Larsson’s bestselling Millennium trilogy — The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest — as a series of graphic novels.
DC’s Vertigo imprint will work with Larsson’s estate and the Hedlund Literary Agency to adapt the acclaimed mystery series, with each book presented in two graphic novel volumes that will be available in print and digital formats. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo will debut in 2012, on the heels of director David Fincher’s big-screen adaptation, which arrives in theaters Dec. 21.
The Millennium trilogy, which has sold more than 60 million copies worldwide since the release of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in 2005 in Sweden, centers on Lisbeth Salander, and eccentric computer hacker, and Mikael Blomkvist, and investigative journalist and magazine editor. They’re brought together in the first novel to solve a 40-year-old missing person’s case.
Larsson, a Swedish journalist and author, passed away in 2004 at age 50, leaving the completed manuscripts for the first three novels in what was intended as a 10-book series.
“Stieg always liked comics and it will be exciting to see the unforgettable characters he created come to life on the comics page,” his younger brother Joakim Larsson said in a statement.
Expect more details to emerge this week at New York Comic Con.
- October 11, 2011 @ 06:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comic Industry Job Board – October 2011
In the wide world of comics there’s always a need for talented people — and not just for creating the comics. The comics you read every day are supported by an immense infrastructure of editors, publishers, designers, distributors and retailers that make American comics what it is today. And despite the frail economy, the comics industry is looking for employees.
We’ve compiled a list of all the openings in the comics industry for non-creative office positions and put it all into one place. It’s a good resource if you’re looking to work in comics, and also for armchair speculators seeing what companies are looking to do by seeing what positions they’re hiring for. We accumulated these by looking on publisher websites and job boards — if you know of a job not listed here, let us know!
- October 5, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by Chris Arrant
Comics A.M. | Stan Lee’s Guardian Project target of lawsuit
Stan Lee
Legal | Stan Lee’s Guardian Project, introduced last year at New York Comic Con, has sparked a lawsuit from a Hollywood manager who claims he was cut out of the venture, which transformed National Hockey League mascots into superheroes.
In the lawsuit, filed last week in Los Angeles Superior Court, Adam Asherson contends the project, now co-owned by NBC Universal, dates back to 2003, when he was introduced to the idea by fellow manager Anthony Chargin and Chargin’s client Jake Shapiro. Asherson, who had a relationship with Lee, says he suggested the legendary comics writer would be the “perfect” partner for the endeavor. They pitched Lee on the project, called Defenders, which focused on the National Football League, with plans to expand to Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association and the NHL. For unspecified reasons, the NFL deal never came together. However, six years later The Guardian Project emerged with the involvement of Chargin, Shapiro and Lee — but without Asherson.
Asherson claims Guardian Media Entertainment, SLG Entertainment, Chargin and Shapiro have breach an oral joint-venture agreement, committed promissory estoppel and fraud, and breach fiduciary duties by leaving him out of the NHL agreement. [Hollywood, Esq.]
- September 30, 2011 @ 06:55 AM 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
New image of Two-Face from Batman: Arkham City
Two-Face from "Batman: Arkham City"
London’s Metro has unveiled a new render of Two-Face from Batman: Arkham City, the eagerly anticipated sequel to Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment’s bestselling 2009 video game Batman: Arkham Asylum.
Developed by Rocksteady Studios, Arkham City is set inside the newly constructed fortified walls that have transformed part of Gotham’s slums into a sprawling maximum-security prison for the city’s gangsters, thugs and criminally insane. As earlier screenshots suggest, and Metro confirms, the disfigured Harvey Dent holds Catwoman hostage in Arkham City, and is prepared to execute her — something that players, as Batman, must stop.
Arkham City will be released Oct. 18 in North America and Oct. 21 in Europe.
- July 14, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Justice League among Warner Bros.’ official Comic-Con bag designs
Justice League
Warner Bros. has unveiled the 10 designs for the official Comic-Con International bags, which this year include promotional art for DC Comics’ relaunched Justice League, Cartoon Network’s Green Lantern: The Animated Series and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment’s Batman: Arkham City.
More than 130,000 of the oversized bags, described by Entertainment Weekly as the San Diego convention’s “ubiquitous accessory,” will be available to those attending the July 20-24 event. This year, for the first time, the 24-inch by 28-inch bags convert into backpacks. Other designs include The Big Bang Theory, Fringe, Supernatural, The Vampire Diaries, The Looney Tunes Show, ThunderCats and LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7.
Check out the designs for Green Lantern: The Animated Series and Batman: Arkham City after the break, and visit TheWB.com to see the rest.
- July 12, 2011 @ 01:00 PM by Kevin Melrose