Author: Luana Haygen

Presented for your approval are these, the stories we didn’t get to yesterday.

• This year’s Animation Supercon in Miami has announced it will host reunions of the voice cast for two of our favorite shows: Futurama and Pinky and the Brain.
• In today’s inevitable Archie Comics news, Dark Horse has announced it will be publishing archive edition hardcovers of every appearance of the Eternal Teenager in chronological order, starting with 1941’s Pep Comics #22, his first appearance.
• We got confirmation that Jack Kirby’s heirs are also looking for a piece of the Spider-Man pie in their recent lawsuit against Marvel, despite the strong possibility that the King’s involvement in Ol’ Webhead’s creation was tangential at best.
• An interview with Lauren Shuler Donner, producer of the X-Men movies, revealed that a) X-Men First Class will NOT be filming soon, as rumored, and b) she’s cooking up several other movies starring Marvel’s band of Merry Mutants, including X4 and a New Mutants adaptation, among others. This doesn’t mean they’ll all get made, obviously, but it’s nice to know that they’re working on it.
• And sadly, legendary illustrator Bernie Fuchs, known for his nontraditional and inventive compositions and striking color palette, passed away last week.

What else did we miss? Consider this an open thread.

With the Chicago Comic-Con and WorldCon both around the bend, you may be tempted to waste your days away at the panels off the main floor. But I say, gentle geeks… NAY! Why waste your precious con time in stuffy rooms with stale ice water and tons of other mouth-breeders, when you can peruse the artist alley (where local, hip and trendy comic creators like to be… ahem…), grab schwag at the big booths (or not if YOUR local con has no big booths this year… epic fail…) or spend all of your inheritance on the dealer floor!

But Marc, you plead, I’m tired! I want to make my voice heard! I need to learn hot new tips and skills on how to make my portfolio Marvel worthy! Well, I said it once, and yes… I say it again: NAY. Why, you ask? Because ALL panels at comic conventions break down into one of these top 6 over-done panels:

1. “Mondo-Nation-Neighborhood-Universal-Pow-Wow”
Yup, this is the stalwart gotta-go-to panel they hype and hype and hype. Hey! Do you want HOT, never-seen-before, uber-rare, special sneak previews of all the things to come?! Well cart your XXL self on down to Hall H for a sensational panel that’s sure to knock your sock and sandals combo clear off! Drooling yet? Well, sop it up, fanboy. Thanks to the interwebs, all you’re gonna get is a rehash of the solicits you read about months ago on ComicMix, IGN, Newsarama, Comic Book Resources, CSN, or a hundred other places. And those special sneak peaks you’re just vibrating to see? Yup… posted on the artist’s message boards about the same time you were reading those months-old solicits! And you were counting on some tantalizing rumors about all your favorite characters? Well Bucko, are you in for a treat! Turns out the big boys can’t tell you anything you can’t (and most likely DID) read in Wizard itself, last month. Sounds fun? Sounds to me like 2 hours of time you could have spent waiting in line to get that Red Hulk Sketch Holofoil Variant Cover 17B signed, kiddo.

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If you’re like us, you couldn’t possibly have seen everything going on at the San Diego Comic-Con– but luckily, enough people with cameras did see everything (almost) and are willing to share.Here are the must-see videos from last week:

Kevin Smith on Twilight fans: You may have heard it got a bit ugly at the Convention this year with all the Twilight girls and Twilight moms. Kevin Smith puts it all in perspective as only he can… (dear god no, of course it’s not safe for work, it’s Kevin Smith on a convention stage.)

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It’s #followfriday on Twitter, and these are some of the comics folks you should be following if you aren’t already doing so…

1. Warren Ellis – If you’ve ever read anything by him, especially The Authority, Planetary, or Transmetropolitan, it probably won’t surprise you
   to learn how angry he can get on his Twitter. What will surprise you—and
   probably make you laugh–is how flowery his language can get when he’s on a
   tirade. Oh, and he also has a lot of really interesting links to share and
   interesting insights on the medium to discuss. Besides, who else do you know
   that’ll greet you every morning with “Good morning, sinners?” http://www.twitter.com/WarrenEllis

2. Ben Templesmith – Possibly the handsomest man in comics, Ben
   Templesmith is the Australian-born artist behind Fell (with Warren Ellis) and
   several Steve Niles projects, most famously 30 Days Of Night. His Twitter feed
   is chock-full of goodies, including insights as to the life of a professional
   artist, many interesting links, and a healthy dose of political opinion, if
   that’s your thing. He’s still one of the friendliest folks around, too—almost
   seven thousand followers, and he’ll often still take the time to answer a quick
   question from you here and there. http://www.twitter.com/Templesmith

3. Bryan Lee O’Malley – The mastermind behind the Scott Pilgrim
   series hates just about everything on the Internet and doesn’t mind saying so.
   That said, following him is really the best way to get news about the upcoming
   Edgar Wright-helmed movie adaptation. Basically, if BLO doesn’t say it, it’s
   not official—regardless of what Matt Fraction (www.twitter.com/MattFraction)
   might suggest. http://www.twitter.com/Radiomaru

4. Brian Michael Bendis – His Twitter feed might be the only
   thing the New Avengers scribe has written in the last five years that didn’t
   somehow involve Luke Cage or Spider-Woman. What it does include is Bendis’s
   take on just about everything going on in the comic book world, along with
   reposted links to just about everything Bendis-related going on in the world.
   As an added bonus, you’ll get a new appreciation for comic book editors once
   you see how bad his grammar and punctuation is. http://www.twitter.com/BRIANMBENDIS

5. Gail Simone — If Twitter gave out a prize for “crazy
   mysterious,” this Wonder Woman writer would surely win it several times over.
   Until recently, apart from the occasional fake flamewar with Mark Waid (http://www.twitter.com/MarkWaid),
   she mostly appeared, gave an assignment—for example, “TODAY’S ASSIGNMENT:  Fictional convention panels that SHOULD
   exist, but never, EVER EVER EVER will” or 
   “Today’s Assignment: Tweets as sent by participants during epic comic
   stories. What did they twitter to friends as it all went down?” —and then vanish
   again until the next time. Now, she tweets more regularly, if only to tease Geoff
   Johns about Blackest Night. http://www.twitter.com/GailSimone

6. ComicMix — Okay, seriously, if you’re not
   reading our Twitter feed, what the heck are you waiting for? http://www.twitter.com/ComicMix

So, you want to be a superhero? Not a problem. Oh… you’re not a billionaire orphan with years to dedicate to the martial arts? Don’t fret! I’m sure you can play in a lake of toxic ooze, or get bit by a genetically unstable super-wombat, right? Well… even if you don’t have powers, don’t feel bad. Cause there are some folks out there in comic-book-land that would have been better off as bartenders or stock-boys than crime-fighters or super-heroes. Don’t believe me? Well kind citizen, scope this list of lameoids out, and see sometimes it’s no so bad being normal after all*.

Night Man – Johnny Domino was just your run-of-the-mill jazz musician with those totally hip round sunglasses (Superboy anyone?) and that always fashionable accessory… the dangely cross earring in one ear! Too cool for school you say? Well, without warning, an alien bolt of lightening hit a cable car, which in turn hit Johnny’s convertible, and a piece of shrapnel wound up in his head. Talk about a crappy Monday! Well, lucky for Domino, the shrapnel caused him to gain super human abilities! These powers combined with a kevlar vest and a grappling gun allowed Domino to take to the night and don a name shared by his underpaid jelly doughnut eating brothers-in-arms! Johnny Domino is the man who need not sleep… He is the man who can sorta hear your dirty thoughts… He’s the man who doesn’t need night vision goggles to see in the night. Johnny Domino is Night Man!

Mr. Brownstone – That’s right kiddos… Not everyone gets a superpower and decides to become a hero. Sometimes they decide to become a minor villain! Garrison Klum was born one of those despicable mutants you’ve heard of. When puberty hit, did Klum gain eye lasers capable of destroying mountains? No. Did he gain a flexible metallic shell allowing him to become invulnerable and superhumanly strong? Nuh-uh. Did he gain the power to teleport? Yes! But… not himself mind you. Garrison only gained the mutant ability to teleport small amounts of liquid! Now, give the guy some credit… he renamed himself after a slang term for heroin, and teleported a few ounces of the good stuff right into Spider-man’s heart! Sure he ended dying from his own teleporting brother literally teleporting inside him and exploding out of him (ew.)… But give him credit. The world gave him a lemon of a power, and hey, he made lemonade.
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This week Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely have brought us the new Batman and Robin #1, featuring the brand new partnership of Dick Grayson as Batman and Damian Wayne as Robin.

But did you know this isn’t the first time someone has stepped in as the Dark Knight or attempted to replace Bruce Wayne? Here is a list of six other blokes who have donned the famous cape and cowl.

SUPERMAN – Ever since the 1950s, there have been times where Superman and Batman have had to impersonate each other in order to protect their secret identities or to fool criminals. This also happened in the Batman/Superman animated series from the 90s in the episode “Knight Time”. With Batman missing, Superman donned the cowl and surprised several Gotham criminals who concluded that the Dark Knight must have somehow gained supernatural powers.

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A weekend window-closing wrap-up:

• The hardest core Wolverine fan you’ve ever seen… unless someone’s actually gotten their skeleton laced with adamantium.
• The Seven Stages of the Comics Critic – comiXology

• Interview: Heroes artist Tim Sale on the true colour of Batman and Spider-Man

• The Comics Reporter: More staffers leaving Wizard?

• Warren Ellis on the genesis of Global Frequency:

  I defined GLOBAL FREQUENCY from the start as Rescue Fiction. if not
  explicitly Post-9/11 Rescue Fiction. Because Thunderbirds is the
  anti-Superman. Now, I just woke up, so it’s okay if that doesn’t make
  sense. But immediately after 9/11 I found people on message boards
  ACTUALLY SAYING OUT LOUD that they wished Superman were real because he
  would have saved the WTC. And that is an anti-evolutionary wish. What
  you say is, I wish the dozen or so people who knew this was going to
  happen could have informed someone who’d actually listen and that we
  had had the sense/madness to engineer a mechanical response to someone
  attacking NYC with flying death tubes.

• Hooray, hooray, the first of May. And you know what that means– it’s time for The Wicker Man: May Day Mayhem Onscreen!

• If Destroyed, Still True: Remarkable coincidence alert!: Jonathan Maberry writes a Wolverine story and gets caught creating sockpuppets defending it. I tell people they’ll get caught if they write something under a different name, or if they hire someone to write under their name, but do they listen? Noooo…

Anything else? Consider this an open thread.

A case of synchronicity in comics stories:

First, a quote from Mark Waid’s monster interview on AintItCoolNews:

BM: The Million Dollar Question: How did Mark Waid make his break into comics?

MW:The Million Word Answer: Writer Devin Grayson had a great quote. Shesaid, “Breaking into comics is like breaking into a high-tech militarycompound. The first thing they do after discovering you got in is goseal up your entrance so no one can ever break in that way again.”

Then over at Blog@Newsarama, they talk about the 2009 DC Bullets softball season.

Yep… that’s (part of) how I got in.

I’m just amazed– spring training? For the DC Comics team? Since when?