Author: Rick Marshall

More Awards For Jeff Lemire’s “Essex County” Trilogy

  • News
  • August 14, 2008

With final third of his "Essex County" trilogy of graphic novels set to hit shelves later this year, creator Jeff Lemire has already had a pretty good 2008. The first two projects in the trilogy, Tales From the Farm and Ghost Stories, have been celebrated by critics and nominated for multiple awards (and won quite a few of ’em, too). On Friday, Lemire added another award to his list of accolades, taking home the Doug Wright Award for "Best Emerging Talent," a prestigious Canadian cartooning award.

The last graphic novel in the trilogy, The Country Nurse, is scheduled for release in October from Top Shelf Productions. The trilogy is described as follows:

Lemire’s ESSEX COUNTY trilogy is an intimate portrait of one small-town community through the years, charged with themes of family, memory, grief, secrets, and reconciliation.

You can find out more about Lemire’s "Essex County" trilogy on the Top Shelf website. You can also read a review of Ghost Stories here on ComicMix, as well as an early review of The Country Nurse.

 

New “Conan” Film Fast-Tracked By Lionsgate

  • News
  • August 14, 2008

The Hollywood Reporter notes that Lionsgate is so keen on pushing a new Conan film into production that they’ve hired two sets of writers to draft parallel scripts for the film. No director has been attached to the film at this point, but sources close to the project have said that the intent is to reinvent the franchise based on Robert E. Howard’s stories of the famed barbarian.

Currently, Dirk Blackman and Howard McCain are writing one script for the project, while Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer (Sahara) have been writing another script.

THR reports that Paradox Entertainment president and CEO Fredrik Malmberg, who is producing the Conan film along with Boaz Davidson, Joe Gatta and Avi Lerner of Millennium FilmsMalmberg, recently explained that the project is a "fast-tracked movie" and that "Lionsgate felt the process was enhanced by having a second team come in and do a script."

As for the decision to return to the film franchise that began with 1982’s Arnold Schwarzenegger portrayal of the character:

"Fans expect (these types of movies) to be more true to the source material," Malmberg said. "There’s no reason there couldn’t be a Conan movie every two years. He’s almost like Batman: He’s a dark hero. He’s a hard hero. He has to be badass, but we also have to like him."

(via ICv2)

Indiana Jones Opts For October DVD Release

  • News
  • August 13, 2008

ICv2 reports that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull will be released on DVD the second week of October. Much like Iron Man, which hits shelves on September 30, the quick turnaround time on the Indiana Jones DVD is part of an effort to generate long-term sales in a crowded DVD market this fall. The fourth Indiana Jones film was the highest-grossing film in the franchise, earning $770 million worldwide.

According to ICv2, the DVD will find its way to shelves in three versions:

The Single-Disc version comes with two extras, "The Return of a Legend,” a feature about the evolution of the new film, and “Pre-Production,” a mini-documentary that follows director Steven Spielberg as he creates animatronic sequences and Shia LeBoeuf as he learns to swordfight. The 2-disc Special Edition contains a host of additional extras created with the collector and the serious fan in mind including “Production Diary: Making Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” a major behind-the-scenes look at all facets of the production, plus seven additional featurettes about various aspects of the filming process (special effects, action sequences, etc.), a special feature about Stan Winston Studio’s contribution to the film, plus galleries galore, production photographs, portraits, storyboards, set sketches and more.

ICv2 also points out that the trio of recent Indiana Jones-themed comics published by Dark Horse in recent months (the adaptation of Crystal Skull and two Indiana Jones omnibus projects) have been selling well, and the DVD release might mean good things for the publisher in October.

How to Make Superman Movies Fly Again

  • News
  • August 13, 2008

Over at MTV’s new comics blog Splash Page, Grant Morrison, Mark Waid, Brad Meltzer and other comic professionals have provided some thoughts on how they think the Superman film franchise should be handled. For some, it’s simply a matter of treaing Superman Returns like Ang Lee’s Hulk opus and moving on to the next reboot.

According to the article, Morrison and another creator well-known for his Superman savvy, Geoff Johns, have already pitched DC/Warner Bros. on how to get the franchise up, up and away:

“I told them, it’s not that bad,” Morrison said. “Just treat ‘Superman Returns’ as the Ang Lee ‘Hulk.’”

“‘The Hulk’ has proven the audience will forgive you and let you redo the franchise,” Waid said. “You can reboot from scratch.”

Morrison’s idea was a more “tight and concise” take on his “All-Star Superman,” so you’d see Superman address his mortality.

My favorite part of the article, however, had to Morrison’s take on why Superman Returns failed to make the franchise, well… return.

“The idea was to make an American Christ figure, but what they centered on was his weakness,” Morrison said. “They made him more a lamb of God, rather than give us a real powerful Superman. They had too many scenes where he’s being kicked to the floor, and that’s not Superman. Superman would get up and fight.”

Head over to Splash Page for more thoughts from Morrison, Waid, Meltzer and other creators on the best way to get ol’ spitcurl back on the big screen.

ReVamp Vampirella and Win!

  • News
  • August 12, 2008

vampirella19zx0-00-3204157This is pretty much the contest that defines the term "revamp," folks. Harris Comics and the Project: Rooftop crew are looking for aspiring artists to redesign the buxom bombshell Vampirella and win a variety of prizes provided by the Vampirella publisher. Vampirella is celebrating her 40th anniversary next year (not bad for a 40-something, eh?) and interested artists can win the following:

Grand Prize (1) –
The winning entry will appear as a pinup in a future issue of Vampirella, and receive two comics signed respectively by Joe Jusko and Dan Brereton.

Second Prize (1) –
A Vampirella wall poster illustrated by Jose Gonzalez, and receive two comics signed respectively by Joe Jusko and Dan Brereton.

Third Prize (1) –
A Vampirella T-shirt illustrated by Stephen Segovia, and receive two comics signed respectively by Joe Jusko and Dan Brereton.

In addition to these prizes, the finalists selected by the judges will also be up on a fan poll at Vampirella.com for the "Fan Selection" prize of a limited edition Vampirella print.

The judges for the contest are a trio of notable Vampirella names, including original Vampirella costume designer Trina Robbins, frequent series artist Joe Jusko and upcoming Vampirella Quarterly artist Dan Brereton. Send in your submissions to projectrooftop@gmail.com, with the subject line: "ReVamp" — and keep your fingers crossed.

Webcomic News Roundup: Japanese Bikers and More

  • Uncategorized
  • August 9, 2008

Ugly Hill‘s Paul Southworth kicked off his comic-within-a-comic SasqWatch 2813 this week, and as Gary Tyrrell points out over at Fleen, this sort of storyline/plot point has spawned a successful spin-off or two in the past. Now’s your chance to read it before it got too big for its own good.

Owch! Just in case you missed it, Jeffrey Rowland (Overcompensating, Wigu) appears seems to have some fond memories of Connecticon — specifically, the Ctrl+Alt+Del crew.

For this week’s webcomic creator interview, I spoke with Moresukine‘s Dirk Schwieger about Japanese biker gangs, swordsmithing and invisible people in Iceland. Now that is a pitch!

If you’re hanging around the Beverly Hills area this weekend (and really, who isn’t doing that these days), Sheldon creator Dave Kellett will be holding court at a local lounge in honor of the release of his latest print collection, Pugs: God’s Little Weirdos. The book will feature a collection of pug-themed strips from Kellett’s popular webcomic, and the event kicks off at 7 PM on August 10. But wait, there’s more!

I’ll be putting free, personalized sketches in pug books all night long…and handin’ out high-fives at near rock-bottom prices. This is the night for such things, my friends.

And because this book is so specifically themed around pugs, we’re giving 10% of all the night’s sales to the LA Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. They’ll be on-hand that night, so feel free to give them a high-five as well — they deserve it.

 

No Shortage of “Watchmen” Books Planned For January

  • News
  • August 6, 2008

With the much-anticipated release date of the Watchmen feature film still 7 months away, there’s still plenty of time for everyone to cash in on the buzz. ICv2 reports that Titan Books will have not one, not two, but four books hitting shelves between now and the film’s March 9 release next year.

Among the books scheduled for January release are Watchmen: The Art of the Film, a hardcover collection of images from conceptual and pre-production periods of the project, and Watchmen: The Official Film Companion, a collection of exclusive interviews with various members of the cast and crew discussing the project and story from which it’s adapted.

However, with all of the amazing visual elements we’ve been shown thus far, it was the third January-scheduled release that caught my eye:

Watchmen: The Film Portraits, a hardcover, will feature the b/w photos of Clay Enos, the official photographer on the set of Watchmen. Enos spent some of his time on the set shooting black and white portrait photographs of the lead and supporting characters, and even extras from the crowd.

Titan will also be publishing original Watchmen artist and co-creator Dave Gibbons’ reflections on the project, Watching the Watchmen, in October.

“Justice League” Filming to Move Offshore and Resume?

  • News
  • August 6, 2008

In an interview for Australian news outlet The Courier Mail, Justice League live-action film director George Miller recently reported that production of the troubled project will move offshore, and that filming will begin anew in 2009.

This information comes at the very end of the article, which mainly focuses on Aussie model Megan Gale’s "blitz" of the competition when she read for the role of Wonder Woman in the film.

Miller said Gale had only a few hours of acting training with famed NIDA acting coach Nico Lathouras before her audition. "I told him to spend a couple of days with her but he spent three hours with her and came to me and said, ‘look, she is a natural’.

"It’s one of those things – some people can run fast without any training and acting is the same. And Megan is one of those people who can just act."

 

(via io9)

Stan Lee and Hioryuki Takei’s “ULTIMO” Manga

  • News
  • August 6, 2008

Attention, true believers! Next month’s issue of manga magazine Shonen Jump will feature the premiere of Stan Lee and Hioryuki Takei’s Ultimo, which was announced back in April during New York Comic Con.

While the series is old news for readers in Japan (the issue has already been out for a few months over there), North American readers will get their chance to pick up a copy of the debut story in September.

Here’s what to expect from the series, according to the press release (which is posted after the jump):

High above Farmless City, citizens are stunned by the sudden appearance of two floating figures. Are they human boys, monolithic robots, or something much more strange? As the battle ensues between them, destruction and devastation falls on the hapless city. One figure is Vice, and seems to be as evil as his name implies. The other is Ultimo, intent on trying to stop Vice from wreaking more havoc. But who are Vice and Ultimo really? Where did they come from? A new mystery begins with the fate of the world possibly hanging in the balance!

My favorite part of the PR? The quote from Stan Lee about the project that is so very, well… Stan Lee. Check it out:

“Wow! This is just what I’ve been waiting for!” says an excited Stan Lee. “For the very first time I’m able to create superheroes in the fantastic Japanese manga style thanks to my lucky partnership with the great Hiroyuki Takei. What a kick it’ll be to join Hiroyuki-san in offering brand new, action packed stories to an army of readers in both the Eastern and Western worlds!”

Can’t you just hear him saying it in your head? Keep an eye out for the September 2008 issue of Shonen Jump for the first chapter of Ultimo. (more…)

San Francisco Media Examines the New X-Men HQ

  • News
  • August 6, 2008

SFGate, the website for the San Francisco Chronicle, has put together a pretty interesting analysis of the recent relocation of the X-Men from Westchester County, NY, all the way out to the West Coast in X-Men #500.

According to X-Men Editor (and Bay Area native) Axel Alonso, San Francisco’s often controversial status as a "sanctuary city" made the move long overdue for Marvel’s most persecuted superteam.

"Anyone who looks at the X-Men, the analogy is right there: If you’re different in any way due to race or sexual orientation or just being nerdy, there’s an X-Men character for you. They’re about being different and finding strength in that weakened position."

In order to get accustomed to basing the team’s adventures in the new city, Marvel staffers will be brushing up on their West Coast savvy in the coming months.

Marvel Comics artists will be visiting San Francisco frequently to get a feel for the fashion, architecture and even the way residents walk and talk. There are no cable cars in the first issue, but the artists did include a KRON TV news truck and a panel where the iconic mutant Wolverine walks through Noe Valley. The heroes make their base in the concrete bunkers beneath the Marin Headlands and join the protest of a controversial art installation at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

While Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada hesitated to comment on the permanency of the X-Men’s new home, the article goes on to provide a nice roundup of parallels between the mutant superteam and the real-life groups that have found sanctuary in San Francisco over the years.

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