Author: Rick Marshall

What Makes a Successful Character?

  • News
  • February 7, 2008

Stan Lee and Marvel Comics Senior VP of Sales and Marketing David Gabriel weigh in on why certain characters succeed and others don’t in a recent article on Forbes.com.

After taking a few undeserved jabs at Quasar, the space-faring Marvel hero created in 1978 and recently rejuvenated by a new miniseries, the article gets down to brass tacks and talks to Lee about what makes a superpower success story.

"I’m not sure I have the full answer, but my guess would be in many cases it’s just the quality of the writing, or the artwork or whatever," Lee said.

"For example, take Sherlock Holmes. There have been millions of detective stories over the years. Many of them are forgettable. Somehow Sherlock Holmes has endured, mainly because no one could write a detective story as brilliantly as (Arthur) Conan Doyle, and nobody could come up with a character as interesting and flawed as Sherlock Holmes."

And what did Gabriel, one of the marketing gurus behind all of the recent Captain America hub-bub, have to say?

Gabriel said it’s tough pushing some books on a consistent basis. People in his business have the blockbuster movies and videogames to thank for bolstering demand. With the exception of the diehard fans, this is what gets people into the 3,500 or so comic book shops nationwide these days. Slap the death and resurrection of a flagship character in there, and you’ve got a surge in the franchise.

Well, there you go. If they just killed off Quasar, Marvel would have a hit on their hands… right?

 

Scott Allie on ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight’

  • News
  • February 7, 2008

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" fan site SlayAlive.com recently called upon its members to submit questions about the ongoing Dark Horse Comics series Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight, which picks up where the uber-popular television series left off.

After sending everything over to Dark Horse, Editor Scott Allie provided 30 occasionally spoiler-ific answers about Buffy: Season Eight, including this tease of a continuity-establishing connection between Buffy and Fray, Joss Whedon’s 2001 miniseries that fast-forwards the Buffy into the future:

12) How close is the link between ‘season eight’ of Buffy and the Fray comics? Also, how certain is a Fray follow up? Are they closely related?

Ever since the Scythe showed up in Buffy Season Seven, there’s been an undeniable connection between Fray and Buffy, and Season Eight definitely continues down that road. And as I’ve said before, Joss and I always talk about doing another Fray series, but we can’t do it anytime soon. He’s too busy.

 

(via whedonesque)

 

 

 

Christian Bookstores to Market ‘Mecha Manga Bible Heroes’

  • News
  • February 7, 2008

Yes, you read that headline correctly. Sure, I chuckled a bit at yesterday’s announcement regarding the upcoming Manga Bible, but I’m still cleaning tuna salad off the desk after reading about Mecha Manga Bible Heroes.

It wasn’t so much the development of such a series by JMG Comics that set me off. In fact, it makes perfect sense to combine religious education with something as popular as manga. What really caused me to laugh up my lunch was this line from the description of the first issue, Mecha Manga Bible Heroes #1: David vs. Goliath:

“David is a young kid who has to go toe-to-toe with a giant super robot covered in every conceivable type of weapon,” said Hall. “Other than that, everything is what the Bible describes, down to the small details that most versions of the tale gloss over.”

Is it me, or is that a pretty wide "other than that"? But I digress…

Another interesting aspect of the announcement is that Diamond won’t be handling distribution of Mecha Manga Bible Heroes – which could necessitate a minor mecha-miracle if JMG wants to get copies of the issue to readers.

 

Catching Up With DC’s Lesbian Superheroes

  • Uncategorized
  • February 7, 2008

crime_bible-4317876Advocate.com recently posted this online-exclusive look at the lesbian superheroes of the DC Universe, specifically The Question and Batwoman, which features some thoughts on the subject from DC Executive Editor Dan DiDio and Crime Bible: The Five Lessons of Blood writer Greg Rucka, among others.

"When we introduced Batwoman we wanted to make the readers very aware of the fact she was gay, but more importantly that she was a strong superhero in her own right. The stories and the characters always come first." says DiDio. "We don’t make decisions like, ‘Let’s tackle racism or homophobia in the next issue of Superman.’ Gay and lesbian heroes — and villains — are a part of the DC Universe, and their stories are just as interesting as the straight ones."

 

(via blog@)

 

Studio Tour: Jay Fotos of ‘Frank Frazetta’s Death Dealer’

  • News
  • February 7, 2008

The latest installment in CBR’s tours of comic artists’ studios is a fun one. This time around, they take you through the workspace of Jay Fotos, one of the co-writers and artists behind the surprisingly good Image Comics miniseries Frank Frazetta’s Death Dealer.

Sure, Fotos’ studio is nothing out of the ordinary when it comes to research material, artist’s equipment and knick-knack geekery, but then you come upon his desk:

I’m also including a nice “clean” picture of my desk. People freak when they see past all the crap on it and really notice it. This is a solid one piece 8ft long table top with 10 skulls, bones, chains, rivets all over it giving it a look of a giant hunk of wrought iron metal, even though it’s MDO board, bondo and model kits of human skulls.

Me, I’ve got action figures of Hourman and The Question on my desk. He’s got human freakin’ skulls.

Fotos wins. Fatality.

 

Finding a Hotel for San Diego Comic-Con International

  • News
  • February 7, 2008

 

The news feeds are buzzing today with countless horror stories about creators, media and exhibitors trying to find lodging for this year’s Comic-Con International. Apparently, the only way you’re going to get a room near the convention center this year is to shack up with a lonely furry. Seriously.

Over at The Beat, Heidi MacDonald weaves a tapestry of epic victories and crushing defeats in the quest for San Diego room reservations:

Just like when you’re hunting for an apartment in New York City, at moments like these you have to make a snap judgement. There’s no “think about it”. There is only “do”. We hit our sentimental favorite hotel, The Horton Grand, which is sort of out of date and yes, the staff is cranky, but, hell the toilets have pull chains. Old skool. We hit it again. Rooms available. Name, address, credit card…we kept forgetting to check the boxes to approve everything, so had a nerve wracking wait. A bad feeling crept over us. The blue bar moved so slowwwwwly. Would THIS be the year? Could this be the disaster we’ve avoided for so long?

She also checks in with a few big-name creators about their search for rooms, and examines some questionable factoids being thrown around by San Diego’s local officials. Yes, it seems that Comic-Con isn’t nearly as much of a boon for the local economy as a convention for "geographic information system software."

… Or is it?

 

‘Doctor Who’ Season 4, Digital Audio Downloads Announced

  • News
  • February 6, 2008

A variety of "Doctor Who" news hit the ‘Net recently, so here’s a quick wrap-up of some stories "Who" fans might want to keep on their radar:

  • SCI FI Channel has confirmed that Season 4 of "Doctor Who" will begin this April on the network, with Catherine Tate replacing Freema Agyeman as the Doctor’s companion. Tate appeared in an earlier episode of the series titled "The Runaway Bride." Agyeman will appear in the series again midway through the season.
  • SCI Fi Channel also confirmed that the youth-targeted "Who" spin-off series "The Sarah Jane Chronicles" will also begin airing in April.
  • And if you’re the sort who wants to reconnect with some of your favorite Doctors of the past, Big Finish has annoucned that they’ll begin supplying the "Doctor Who" audio plays they’ve been producing since 1999 on CD in a download-friendly MP3 format.

The plays feature popular "Doctor Who" writers such as Paul Cornell and Mark Gatiss, as well as writers familiar to the comics crowd, including Dan Abnett (Nova) and Simon Furman (Transformers). Former "Doctor Who" actors lending their talents to the plays include Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann.

(Hat-Tip to io9)

LEGO Version of ‘The Dark Knight’ Trailer

  • News
  • February 6, 2008

Ahh, the art some people will create, given enough time – and LEGOs.

Here’s the trailer for "The Dark Knight" rendered entirely out of LEGOs. Yes, LEGOs. It’s really impressive in that "I would never have the patience to do this myself" way:

 

 

George Romero on ‘Diary of the Dead’

  • News
  • February 6, 2008

The ShockTillYouDrop crew has posted an interview with legendary "Living Dead" filmmaker George Romero about his upcoming film "Diary of the Dead."

The film, which chronicles a movie crew’s escape from zombies on the day the dead returned to life, hits theaters Feb. 15. With movies like "Cloverfield" proving that there’s still interest in the homemade-style horror that first popped up with "The Blair Witch Project," Romero is going a similar route with the latest installment of the "Living Dead" franchise – and taking a back-to-basics approach both in style of filmmaking and setting for the film, which takes place on the same night as the original "Night of the Living Dead":

We were shooting shots that were eight pages long. There were a couple of days when we did nothing but set the shot up and then shoot only one shot that day, but it’d be eight pages. So, I think this cast, if I asked them, ‘We’re gonna do the whole movie in a single shot,’ they would’ve done it. Never was a shot blown because an actor blew their line. It completely reminded me of the days on Night of the Living Dead where it was just friends coming together to make a movie with no interference.

 

Peter David on ‘Dark Tower: The Long Road Home’

  • News
  • February 6, 2008

The subject of Marvel.com’s weekly interview this time around is Peter David, co-writer of last year’s Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born and its upcoming sequel, Dark Tower: The Long Road Home.

According to the Long Road Home interview, the sequel picks up where its predecessor left off… with a slight twist: Roland, the main character, is effectively out of commission:

Marvel.com: Roland’s in a coma—how are Alain and Cuthbert, the other members of the Ka-Tet, responding to the Big Coffin Hunters chasing them while they’re trying to get Roland’s body safely back to Gilead?

Peter David: Well, not to sound flip, but they’re responding in the way that one would expect: They’re running like hell. Their job at this point is to survive and return home to tell of everything and everyone they’ve encountered. Goals don’t get much simpler than that.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the series is worth buying simply for the beautiful work of artists Jae Lee and Richard Isanove – the great story is just a bonus. Marvel.com has posted some of the art from Long Road Home with the interview

The first issue of the five-issue miniseries hits shelves Feb. 27.

 

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