movies
Steve Murray takes a look at the weapons of The Avengers
We’re in the middle of a massive build-up to the May 4 opening of Marvel’s The Avengers, and The National Post‘s resident cartoonist Steve Murray has focused his trained eye on the tools of the hero trade. Published earlier this week, his illustration catalogs the weapons of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes with nerd acumen intact and not without some humor.
From his description of Thor’s hammer: “Forged from the core of a dying star, Mjolnir is Thor’s very multi-purpose hammer. It can control the weather, open inter-dimensional portals and turn Thor into a weak human by tapping its handle on the ground. When this happens the hammer turns into a pretty boring stick. Also, the hammer returns to you when you throw it, like a Home Depot boomerang. Only people who are worthy may lift the hammer, which is a great way to test out a blind date.”
Click on the image at the right to see the entire infographic.
Murray, who sometimes goes by the nom de guerre of Chip Zdarsky, is a cartoonist with an uncommonly sharp wit. In addition to his gig as columnist/cartoonist/illustrator for The National Post, he’s also created some comics worth tracking down, like the print series Prison Funnies and the very-much-missed Zdarskyverse webcomic he did for Act-I-Vate which is now archived on his website.
- April 25, 2012 @ 01:00 PM by Chris Arrant
Mondo reveals Captain America, Hullk prints for Avengers series
Captain America, by Phantom City Creative
Following last week’s Black Widow and Hawkeye prints, Mondo two more limited-edition prints in honor of Marvel’s The Avengers: Captain America, by Phantom City Creative, and Bruce Banner/the Incredible Hulk (with Leviathan in the background), by Ken Taylor. The two posters will go on sale Thursday for $45 each. Sale times will be announced via Mondo’s Twitter account.
- April 25, 2012 @ 12:00 PM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | Ali Ferzat named one of Time’s Most Influential People
Matt Wuerker's cartoon in support of Ali Ferzat
Creators | Ali Ferzat, the Syrian cartoonist who was abducted and beaten last year because of his criticisms of the government, was named one of Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in the World.” “Tyrants often don’t get the jokes, but their people do,” Pulitzer Prize-winning Politico cartoonist Matt Wuerker writes in his tribute to Ferzat. “So when the iron fist comes down, it often comes down on cartoonists.” [Time]
Publishing | In one of its wide-ranging interviews with comics publishers, the retail news and analysis site ICv2 talks with Dark Horse CEO Mike Richardson about the state of the market, the loss of Borders, his company’s 2011 layoffs, webcomics, and some early missteps with its digital program: “Quite honestly we’ve run into a few issues because the programs that we’ve done haven’t worked as well as we wished. We created some exclusive material and got less participation than we had hoped for. [...] We gave codes out to retail stores to drive customers into their stores. They could pick up the exclusive content by going to their participating comic shop. Evidently we didn’t do a good enough job getting the word out, so we’re retooling that.” [ICv2.com]
- April 19, 2012 @ 07:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Mondo unveils Black Widow, Hawkeye posters from Avengers series
Hawkeye, by Tom Whalen
Mondo, Alamo Drafthouse’s collectible art boutique, has revealed the first two of the seven posters commissioned in honor of Marvel’s The Avengers. For his limited-edition Black Widow print, Olly Moss took a minimalist approach to the super-spy turned superhero, with a red gun in place of her lips and “From Russia With Gun,” a nod to James Bond, beneath. Meanwhile, Tom Whalen, who’s no stranger to comic books or costumed heroes, tackled Hawkeye with his trademark sense of graphic design.
The Black Widow and Hawkeye prints will gone on sale Thursday and Friday, respectively, for $45 each. Sale times will be announced via Mondo’s Twitter account.
- April 18, 2012 @ 01:00 PM by Kevin Melrose
National Cartoonists Society announces Divisional Awards nominees
From "Hellboy: The Fury" #3, by Duncan Fegredo
The National Cartoonists Society has announced the nominees for its 2012 NCS Divisional Awards, which will be presented May 26 during the 66th annual NCS Reuben Awards in Las Vegas.
TELEVISION ANIMATION
• Ben Bocquelet and Antoine Perez, production design on The Wonderful World of Gumball (Cartoon Network)
• Penn Ward, character design on Adventure Time (Cartoon Network)
• Erik Wiese, production design on The Mighty B (Nickelodeon)
FEATURE ANIMATION
• Mark McCreery, character design: Rango
• Carlos Saldanha, director: Rio
• Jennifer Yuh-Nelson, director: Kung Fu Panda: The Kaboom of Doom
- March 26, 2012 @ 09:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
What Are You Reading? with Jamaica Dyer
Conan #1
Hello and welcome to What Are You Reading?, our weekly look at what the Robot 6 crew has been reading lately. Today our special guest is Jamaica Dyer, creator of Weird Fishes and Fox Head Stew, which can be read over at MTV Geek. She also recently did a concert report in comic form from San Francisco’s Noisepop for Spin Magazine.
To see what Jamaica and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below.
- March 11, 2012 @ 02:00 PM by JK Parkin
Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope documentary trailer debuts
Apple.com has premiered the first trailer for Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope, the film by Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) examining the cultural phenomenon that is Comic-Con International by following the lives of five attendees.
As you can see from the cosplay-heavy trailer below, the documentary also boasts plenty of familiar faces, including Kevin Smith, Seth Rogen, Eli Roth and Stan Lee (who, along with Joss Whedon, is one of the executive producers.
Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope opens April 6.
- February 23, 2012 @ 10:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Watch the trailer for the Static Shock: Blackout short film
To mark what would have been the 50th birthday of Dwayne McDuffie, who passed away a year ago Tuesday, actor-director Stefan Dezil is circulating the trailer for Static Shock: Blackout, a 12-minute short based on the late writer’s best-known creation. Shot on RED for $5,000, the short centers on Daisy Watkins, a New York City reporter who travels to Dakota City to discover the identity of the teenage vigilante.
Static Shock: Blackout, which stars Dezil as Virgil Hawkins and Nadine Malouf as Daisy Watkins, will debut online in mid-March.
- February 20, 2012 @ 01:00 PM by Kevin Melrose
This weekend, it’s MegaCon
MeganCon 2012 kicks off in a matter of hours in Orlando, Florida, drawing thousands of comic book, science fiction and fantasy fans to the Orange County Convention Center over the next three days.
Comic guests include Tony Bedard, Dennis Calero, J. Scott Campbell, Greg Capullo, Nick Cardy, Frank Cho, Brian Clevinger, Amanda Conner, Darwyn Cooke, Dan DiDio, Chuck Dixon, Nathan Edmondson, David Finch, Cully Hamner, Phil Hester, Greg Horn, Dan Jurgens, Barbara Kesel, Stan Lee, Laura Martin, Phil Noto, Jimmy Palmiotti, Dan Parent, George Perez, Mike Perkins, Don Rosa, Tim Sale, Bill Sienkiewicz, Mark Texeira, Billy Tucci and Tom Zahler.
Media guests include Bruce Boxleitner, Nicholas Brendon, Charisma Carpenter, Tom Felton, Peter Mayhew, Eddie McClintock, Valerie Perrine, David Prowse, Tim Russ and Brent Spiner.
MeganCon begins today at 1 p.m. ET, and continues through Sunday at 5 p.m.
- February 17, 2012 @ 08:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | Matt Groening donates $500,000 for UCLA chair
Matt Groening, by Matt Groening
Creators | The Simpsons creator Matt Groening has given $500,000 toward the creation of a chair in animation at the University of California, Los Angeles. The Matt Groening Chair in Animation at UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television will “allow visiting master artists to teach classes” and “bring working professionals with wide-ranging expertise” to work with students. The cartoonist, a graduate of Evergreen State College in Washington, makes an annual $50,000 donation to UCLA to help students who create socially conscious animated shorts. [The New York Times]
Legal | Attorneys for comics retailer and convention organizer Michael George, who’s serving a life sentence for the 1990 murder of his first wife Barbara, made arguments Monday on a motion for acquittal or a new trial — that would make George’s third — on the basis that there was insufficient evidence for conviction, and that the prosecutor raised a new issue in closing arguments. [Detroit Free Press]
- February 14, 2012 @ 07:00 AM by Brigid Alverson and JK Parkin
Stan Lee Media loses fight for Conan the Barbarian rights
A federal judge has dismissed a bid by Stan Lee Media Inc. to reclaim the rights to Conan the Barbarian, which the failed dot-com briefly held before going into bankruptcy in 2001. However, a bigger legal brawl still lies ahead, when the company appears before the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals on March 8 to argue it should be allowed to pursue the rights to Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, The Avengers and other lucrative Marvel properties.
Stan Lee Media, which operates independently of its namesake and co-founder — in fact, it’s suing Stan Lee — has struggled since emerging from bankruptcy in November 2006 to regain some of the money and glory from the heyday of the Internet bubble, primarily through lawsuits claiming the improper transfer of intellectual properties.
In the Conan lawsuit, filed in August even as Conan the Barbarian 3D arrived in theaters, the company claimed, in part, that when Conan Sales Co. bought back the rights to the Robert E. Howard characters in 2002, shareholders weren’t notified, and SLM’s interests weren’t properly represented. The complaint also alleged that Arthur Lieberman, Lee’s longtime attorney, committed fraud during the proceedings, and failed to report conflicts of interest. As a result, SLM argued, the transfer of the rights to Conan Sales Co., which subsequently sold them to Paradox Entertainment, should be annulled.
- February 14, 2012 @ 06:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Arcana and Benderspink team for film-ready comics line
Langley High
Arcana is partnering with Benderspink, the production company behind planned adaptations of Y: The Last Man and The Mighty, for a line of comics that can be developed for film and television.
Called, appropriately enough, ArcanaBenderspink Comics, Deadline reports the label will launch with 20 titles, including Dime Detectives, which recasts authors Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler as real-life crime solvers, Untouchable, which pits the descendents of Al Capone and Elliott Ness against each other, and Langley High, the upcoming conspiracy thriller by Tomm Coker and Daniel Friedman that’s already set up with producer Atlas Entertainment.
Benderspink, which produced the 2005 adaptation of A History of Violence, last year acquired the film rights to Coker and Friedman’s Undying Love and put DC’s The Mighty into motion at Paramount Pictures.
Founded in 2004 by Sean O’Reilly, Arcana has published such titles as Kade, Clockwork Girl, Helen Killer and Gearhead.
- February 10, 2012 @ 09:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | James Sturm on why he’s boycotting The Avengers
Artwork by James Sturm
Creators | Market Day creator James Sturm explains he’ll be boycotting The Avengers movie because he believes Jack Kirby, co-creator of many of Marvel’s longest-lasting characters, “got a raw deal”: “What makes this situation especially hard to stomach is that Marvel’s media empire was built on the backs of characters whose defining trait as superheroes is the willingness to fight for what is right. It takes a lot of corporate moxie to put Thor and Captain America on the big screen and have them battle for honor and justice when behind the scenes the parent company acts like a cold-blooded supervillain. As Stan Lee famously wrote, ‘With great power comes great responsibility.’” Tom Spurgeon notes the position seems to mark a shift for Sturm, who wrote the Eisner-winning 2003 miniseries Fantastic Four: Unstable Molecules for Marvel. [Slate, The Comics Reporter]
- February 8, 2012 @ 07:55 AM by Brigid Alverson and JK Parkin
Chronicle’s Max Landis takes on the death and return of Superman
Screenwriter Max Landis, whose found-footage superpowers movie Chronicle topped the weekend box office, has released an entertaining 17-minute rant about, and recreation of, the death and return of Superman, featuring appearances by Elijah Wood and Mandy Moore, among others. The original version apparently was 45 minutes long, so what we get here are the highlights — along with a sly plug for Chronicle.
- February 6, 2012 @ 08:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Keron Grant shares exclusive art inspired by movie Chronicle
From "Heist," by Keron Grant
Superhero movies are certainly nothing new, but director Josh Trank and screenwriter Max Landis are taking a different approach to the genre. Described by some as “Paranormal Activity meets superpowers,” the “found footage” film Chronicle follows three high school friends who gain superhuman powers only to find their lives spinning out of control.
In anticipation of Chronicle‘s limited release on Feb. 3, the filmmakers asked several artists to interpret the movie’s central question: What would you do if you had superpowers?
Artist Keron Grant (Iron Man, Fantastic Four) was one of those asked, and he shared one of his illustrations exclusively with ROBOT 6. Titled “Heist,” it came about from Grant dreaming up a bank robbery if he had those powers. “Wonder what that says about me?” he said with a laugh.
Grant created several illustrations for Chronicle that will be released shortly, adding they will be “a bit more noble.” Some of the other commissioned art also cropped up recently on Bleeding Cool.
Check out Grant’s “Heist,” and the film’s trailer, below.
- January 13, 2012 @ 04:00 PM by Chris Arrant