Author: Glenn Hauman

Brian Alvey spoiled the news, but now we can finally make the announcement:

In the wake of the recent landmark ruling returning 50-percent copyright ownership of Superman to the estate of Jerry Siegel, the Siegel estate has announced their first deal to publish Superman — and we’re proud to say, it’s with us. Starting in time for the San Diego Comic-Con, we will be publishing new Superman stories.

Mike Grell, fresh off of drawing Supes for Action Comics #861 (pictured here) will be drawing the new series, making this the first time in 25 years that he will be drawing a series that he hasn’t written himself. He will be starting as soon as he’s done with his current commitment to Jon Sable Freelance. Dick Giordano is coming out of retirement to ink the series, alongside veteran inker Frank McLaughlin.

John Ostrander will be writing the initial debut of Superman, detailing how he fell through an interdimensional portal and ended up in Cynosure and Munden’s Bar, where the usual confusion reigns until GrimJack intervenes to set things right. From there, he will be crossing over into various other universes (and series) all in an attempt to find his way back to his prime universe.

Mike Gold, ComicMix editor-in-chief, notes: "This will allow Clark to appear in all of our series– Demons of Sherwood, EZ Street, The Adventures of Simone and Ajax, our recently relaunched Black Ice— we can even work him into Trevor Von Eeden’s upcoming biography of Jack Johnson."

Other talent connected to the ongoing stories will be announced in time for the New York Comic Con, although you’ll hear about if first here on ComicMix. And of course, these will be free comics, just like all the rest of our series.

How does DC feel about this? Well, they really can’t do anything as long as the Siegel estate pays 50-percent of the revenue earned to DC. Of course, we expect that the Siegel estate may take a few decades splitting the revenues and making sure DC gets its fair share. Turnabout is fair play, after all.

Fifteen years ago today, while filming the adaptation of James O’Barr’s comic The Crow, the film crew filmed a scene in which Brandon Lee’s character walked into his apartment and discovered his girlfriend being raped by thugs. Actor Michael Massee, who played one of the film’s villains, was supposed to fire a gun at Lee as he walked into his apartment with groceries.

Because the movie’s second unit team were running behind schedule, it was decided that dummy cartridges (cartridges that outwardly appear to be functional, but contain no gunpowder) would be made from real cartridges. A cartridge with only a primer and a bullet was fired in the pistol prior to the scene. It caused a squib load, in which the primer provided enough force to push the bullet out of the cartridge and into the barrel of the revolver, where it became stuck.

The malfunction went unnoticed by the crew, and the same gun was used again later to shoot the death scene, having been re-loaded with blanks. Nevertheless, the squib load was still lodged in the barrel, and was propelled by the blank cartridge’s explosion out of the barrel and into Lee’s body. Although the bullet was traveling much slower than a normally fired bullet would be, the bullet’s large size and the extremely short firing distance made it powerful enough to fatally wound Lee.

When the blank was fired, the bullet shot out and hit Lee in the abdomen. He fell down instantly and the director shouted "Cut!", but Lee did not respond. The cast and crew filming rushed to him and noticed he was wounded. He was immediately rushed to the hospital where the doctors tried to revive him. It was too late however, and he was pronounced dead at 1:03 PM.

With the upcoming release of Fallen Angel #25, Peter David’s series featuring a mysterious, celestial heroine becomes the longest-running title in IDW Publishing history. To celebrate hitting this mark, IDW is giving away original pages of J.K. Woodward’s series artwork at a pair of events.

According to David, there are big things in store for the landmark issue:

The great thing about a creator-owned series such as Fallen Angel is that I can unilaterally kick over the apple cart without having to run it by a plethora of Powers That Be, and that’s what’s happening. The great thing about working with (artist) J.K. Woodward is knowing that he’s able to take whatever I throw at him and knock it out of the park.

According to Woodward, "loyal readers will be rewarded with bonus features in this issue, including a double cover and character gallery, but that the extra content also makes it a great time for new readers to jump in."

A page of Woodward’s art will be given to each of the first 10 people in attendance at the following events, with the following stipulations:

Wed March 26, from 5-8pm: The Comic Bug 1807 Manhattan Beach Blvd Manhattan Beach, 90266 www.thecomicbug.com

Wed April 2, from 7-9pm: Golden Apple Comics 7018 Melrose Ave, LA 90038 www.goldenapplecomics.com

Artist J.K. Woodward will be on hand to sign his pages, copies of the comic or pretty much anything the fans want to stick under his sharpie. Pages will be given away in order, so the first person at Comic Bug will get the splash page, etc.

Artwork from the issue is posted after the jump. (more…)