Comic Book Resources

Disney announces Destination D event, confirms date for next D23 Expo

Destination D: Disneyland '55

Disney officially announced today that its D23 Expo will be a biennial event, alternating years with Destination D, a smaller event exclusively for members of the D23 fan community.

News that the second D23 Expo won't be held until 2011 leaked out last week, but it wasn't known until today what, if anything, Disney had planned for this year.

The inaugural Destination D, with a theme of "Disneyland '55," will be held Sept. 24-25 in the Grand Ballroom of the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim. Presentations and screenings will center on the 55th anniversary of the theme park.

Disney also set Aug. 19-21, 2011, as the dates for the next D23 Expo, viewed as Comic-Con for Disney fans. Tickets go on sale Aug. 19, 2010. The debut event drew a reported 40,000 fans to Anaheim for presentations on Disney's film slates, appearances by stars like Johnny Depp and John Travolta, and displays by Disney divisions and licensees.

Does Disney really know what boys like?

Disney's "Tangled"

Disney's effort to broaden its appeal with boys -- a drive that fueled its $4.3-billion purchase of Marvel -- is behind the media giant's decision to rename its next animated film.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Rapunzel was too "girl-centric" for a studio wincing from The Princess and the Frog, which performed well for a December opening but fell short of the '90s heyday of Disney animation. The blame for the film's $222 million worldwide gross fell on its inability to attract boys, who apparently won't come near anything with "princess" in the title.

So last month, the studio replaced the name Rapunzel with Tangled, which executives felt was less gender-specific. But they didn't stop there: The marketing campaign leading up to the Nov. 24 opening plays up the "Errol Flynn-styled" male lead, voiced by Chuck's Zachary Levi, with an emphasis on the movie's swashbuckling elements.

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Straight for the art | 365 Days of Lost

LOST 365 #4: "John" by Jared Stumpenhorst

I think this is my favorite artistic tribute to Lost yet: Artist Jared Stumpenhorst's LOST 365 is a daily project in which Stumpenhorst will create one Lost-related work of art every day for a year. The pieces so far boast a strong sense of design and lack the usual cutesiness you tend to see with such projects -- and, dare I say it, they're occasionally rather haunting. Warning: vague, artistically rendered spoilers ahoy.

(Via Whitney Matheson)

Quote of the day | Dwayne McDuffie on race and writing

Dwayne McDuffie

"I'm conscious of race whenever I'm writing, just as I'm conscious of class, religion, human psychology, politics — everything that makes up the human experience. I don't think I can do a good job if I'm not paying attention to what's meaningful to people, and in American culture, there isn't anything that informs human interaction more than the idea of race."

-- Dwayne McDuffie, addressing how conscious of race he was while working as a writer, story editor and producer on the Justice League and Justice League Unlimited television series

Avengers animated series to debut this fall on Disney XD

The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes

As I mentioned earlier this morning, Disney confirmed this week during upfront presentations that The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes animated series will debut this fall on Disney XD, the successor of sorts to Toon Disney.

Announced in October 2008, the 52-episode series from Marvel Animation targets viewers ages 9 to 14, and will help in the marketing buildup to The First Avenger: Captain America and Thor feature films in 2011 and The Avengers in 2012.

According to a Disney press release, a 20-part "micro-series" will focus on the back story of each Avenger -- Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, Giant Man and Wasp -- followed immediately by the series premiere.

The trailer and series description for The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes can be found after the break.

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Marvel's character library: 7,000 strong ... and growing?

Marvel Universe

When newly appointed DC Entertainment President Diane Nelson first made the interview rounds in September, she said she believed her company's character library was "even bigger" than its competitor's.

At the time, Marvel boasted "a proven library of over 5,000 characters," a figure long touted at the bottom of press releases and repeated in news coverage of the company's acquisition by Disney. That's a slight increase from the previous tally of 4,000 or so ("nearly," "over" or "more than," depending on the source).

But this week that number seems to have risen again.

At an upfront presentation on Tuesday for media buyers and clients, Disney Channels Worldwide's new president of entertainment confirmed that The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes animated series will air this fall on Disney XD.

In doing so, Gary Marsh teased the likelihood of more Marvel cartoons while ratcheting up the size of the character catalog: "We've been pouring through the library of 7,000 Marvel characters looking for the next Spider-Man."

Seven thousand, huh? I  wouldn't know; I stopped counting at Phineas T. Coroner.

Off-topic: HBO greenlights Game of Thrones series

First production photo from HBO's "Game of Thrones"

HBO has ordered the pilot plus nine episodes of Game of Thrones, the highly anticipated television series based on George R.R. Martin's bestselling A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy novels.

Production begins in June in Belfast, with the series set to debut on the cable network in spring 2011.

From the moment the rights to the novels were sold to HBO in January 2007, many doubted whether a sprawling fantasy could ever make it to television. As recently as Monday, Martin himself expressed doubts as to whether the network would greenlight the show.

"From the start of this, I've told myself, 'Don't get too emotionally invested in this, or you will be devastated if it doesn't go'," Martin wrote on his blog. "Wise words, those. I'm a smart guy. But easier said than done. I've failed. I am totally emotionally invested, and if HBO does indeed decide to pass, for whatever reason, I will be gutted."

Debuting in 1996, A Song of Ice and Fire is set in mythical, medieval Westeros, a continent torn between a dynastic civil war, a threat of invasion from the north and the impending return of the rightful heir to the throne. Four of the planned seven books have been released. The Hedge Knight and The Sworn Sword, two of three novellas set in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire, were adapted as comics by Dabel Brothers Productions.

The HBO series takes its name from the first novel, A Game of Thrones. The cast includes Sean Bean, Peter Dinklage and Lena Headey.

Marvel characters coming to TV ... but not like you'd expect

Marvel TV

Marvel has teamed up with a company called Roundtable Concepts to create branded television sets, featuring characters like the Fantastic Four, Captain America, Iron Man, Ghost Rider and more. Yes, you too can own an LED television set that not only features Marvel characters around the edges, "but when powered on the individual Marvel character will appear on the screen for approximately 8 seconds!" according to the site.

Check out their store to see all your possible Marvel TV options.

Disney's D23 Expo to return in 2011, not this year

D23 Expo

Following Disney's inaugural D23 Expo in September, many wondered what the next installment might look like now that Marvel is part of the House of Mouse. It turns out we'll have to wait another year to find out.

Geoff Boucher reports that Disney plans to stage the D23 Expo as a biennial event, which means the second convention won't be held until sometime in 2011.

"I'm not sure when this decision was made or how the expo was viewed in the new regime at Disney," Boucher writes on The Los Angeles Times' Hero Complex blog, "but I'll try to find out."

Last year's event, held in Anaheim, featured presentations on Disney's upcoming film slate and appearances by several stars, booths by BOOM! Studios and other licensees, displays for Disney divisions like ABC and Pixar, and more. As JK Parkin noted in his coverage for Robot 6, attendance for the first two days -- a Thursday and Friday -- was light, but picked up considerably on the weekend.

Warner Bros. announces Batman: The Brave and the Bold video game

Batman: The Brave and the Bold the Videogame

On the heels of this morning's announcement of Warner Bros.' majority acquisition of Rocksteady Studios comes word of a new Batman video game for kids and families.

Based on the animated television series, Batman: The Brave and the Bold the Videogame is being developed by WayForward Technologies for release this fall on Nintendo DS and the Wii.

According to a statement from Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, the game "fully immerses fans into the animated world" of the TV series, and allows players to control such characters as Batman, Robin, The Flash, Green Lantern, Blue Beetle and Aquaman. Linking the DS and Wii will unlock Bat-Mite.

Some thoughts on DC's new 'executive management team' [Updated]

The new Warner Bros. mural (photo by Jonah Weiland)

Like virtually every other comics blogger and fan, I've been mulling over DC Entertainment's big announcement this morning of an executive management team to replace President and Publisher Paul Levitz.

As you can read at Comic Book Resources, the new team is: Dan DiDio and Jim Lee, co-publishers of DC Comics; Geoff Johns, chief creative officer of DC Entertainment; John Rood, executive vice president-sales, marketing and business development; and Patrick Caldon, executive vice president-finance and administration.

First, congratulations to all five. And now, some thoughts:

• Nobody won the DC Publisher Betting Pool -- although, as Sean Collins points out, Variety alum Tom McLean, with his much-derided list of candidates, certainly came closest. Still, in all of the prognostication that's gone on since September, when Diane Nelson was named as president of a newly formed DC Entertainment, no one predicted that the departing Levitz would be replaced by a five-person "executive management team."

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Keith Olbermann spotlights dispute over Captain America #602

Last night on MSNBC's Countdown, Keith Olbermann returned to the Captain America-Tea Party controversy, airing the full six-minute-plus segment cut short Thursday by breaking news. For the piece, Olbermann chatted with Washington Independent reporter and comics fan David Weigel, who took the photo on which the "tea bag" sign from Captain America #602 was based.

Plus, this time around Olbermann properly credited Comic Book Resources as the origin of the quote from Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada.

Stan Lee partners with Archie, A Squared for Super Seven [Updated]

Strong Arm, from "Super Seven"

Archie Comics and A Squared Entertainment are partnering with comics legend Stan Lee on a multimedia property called Super Seven, which will feature the Man himself.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lee's comic centers on seven aliens whose spaceship crashes on Earth, where they're befriended by the Marvel icon and resume their lives as superheroes.

"Nothing is more exciting to me, as a writer, than creating a new type of story or introducing a new theme," Lee said in a statement. "Although I've briefly appeared in other comics, Super Seven is the first time that I'll actually be a continuing character in a far-out, original superhero series."

Archie Comics will publish the Super Seven comic, while A Squared will develop the property for television and online ventures and oversee licensing and merchandising. The projects are expected to launch in the fall.

It's been a busy year for Lee, whose POW! Entertainment has a first-look deal with The Walt Disney Company. In December, Disney strengthened those ties by purchasing a 10-percent equity stake in the company. Super Seven isn't part of the Disney agreement.

Update: The Archie Comics press release can be found after the break.

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Your Mileage May Vary: Smallville: Absolute Justice

Smallville event "Absolute Justice" hit this week, and the long-awaited appearance of the Justice Society definitely got people talking.

It probably goes without saying that this post contains episode spoilers.

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Lawyers attempt to stop Olivia Munn comic

Flip cover for "Celebrity Showdown," by Cat Staggs

Online retailer Heavy Ink has been targeted by attorneys seeking to stop the release of a comic book starring model/actress Olivia Munn.

As Boing Boing noted on Thursday, the cease-and-desist letter demands that all advertising, distribution and production stop on Antarctic Press' Celebrity Showdown Olivia Munn One Shot #1, a "hilarious spoof" that finds the Attack of the Show co-host swarmed by fans at Comic-Con International.

"Unable to escape," the solicitation text reads, "her gamma-irradiated cells explode and unleash the fury of The 50-Foot Womunn. It's the showdown of the century! Geeks vs Munn!"

The letter states that Munn did not grant permission for her image to be used or exploited, and seeks the destruction of all copies of the comic, which is due for release in April.

Heavy Ink President Travis Corcoran has brushed off the legal threats, clarifying that Celebrity Showdown isn't the retailer's comic -- it's written and drawn by Brian Denham for Antarctic -- and arguing that Munn is a public figure and fair game for parody.

However, as intellectual-property attorney Geoff Gerber points out, this isn't an issue of copyright but of right of publicity, which involves an individual's right to control and profit from the commercial use of her name and likeness.

"There is no absolute defense to a right of publicity claim based upon parody," Gerber writes. "Instead, parody is part of the general defense based upon First Amendment free-speech rights. ... It should also be noted that it is not clear that Celebrity Showdown would be considered a parody."

I've contacted Antarctic Press for comment, and I'll update the post when they reply.