Category: News

Riding high at the box office

  • News
  • February 19, 2007

ghost-rider_0-4683685Ghost Rider, based on the Marvel Comics series, dominated the box office this holiday weekend, opening at $44.5 million according to studio estimates.  The movie took in over twice as much as its nearest competitor, the Disney movie Bridge to Terabithia, based on the Newberry-award winning book by Katherine Paterson. 

This was Hollywood’s biggest opening so far this year, and the best opening weekend ever for comics super-fan Cage, beating his previous $35.1 million debut for National Treasure.  This showing bodes well for the movies’ continued association with comic book properties, which are still pleasing audiences despite critics’ misgivings that "the genre" is on the way out. 

Someond tell them comics isn’t a genre, it’s a format!  Sheesh.

The Sunday News, Mainstream style

  • News
  • February 19, 2007

Time once again to check in on what mainstream news sources are saying about comics:

  • It was only a matter of time before I came across another "Comics are not just for kids" header, but it’s a bit unexpected in a college paper.  The Cornell Daily Sun‘s Sammy Perlmutter discovers and reviews the Fantagraphics MOME anthology in the CDS blog.  Hey, he’s one up on me, I didn’t even know college papers had blogs…
  • The Washington Times profiles Bernie Wrightson.
  • Also iin the US capital city, the Washington City Paper takes a look at a shoujo manga exhibition running at the Japanese Information and Culture Center.
  • Lastly, down in Mississippi, the Joplin Independent’s Mark Allen reviews The Damaged by A-10 Comics.

 

Hollywood does comics

  • News
  • February 18, 2007

bobgreenberger200-9748229There was a great deal of hand-wringing and gnashing of teeth when word leaked out of Hollywood that Joss Whedon had left the Wonder Woman film project and David Goyer would no longer write and direct a Flash film. Similarly, people reacted in horror at the notion of Joel Schumacher having anything to do with a Sandman movie.

Here’s the thing: none of this is shocking. Disappointing, yes, but we long time fans have gotten our hopes raised and dashed countless times through the years.

For those less familiar with Hollywood’s inner workings, the studios are always looking for the next great thing, uncertain of what it might be and where they may find it. So, in addition to buying original stories from screenwriters or ideas from producers and stars then assigning the stories to screenwriters, Hollywood goes shopping. They will receive yet-to-be-published books in galley form, they will scour the news for stories to dramatize, and they will see what their kids are listening to, and so on.

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Wright makes might

  • News
  • February 18, 2007

According to Cinematical, writer-director Edgar Wright  is currently working on two comic book adaptations on his plate: Ant Man appears to be based on the Marvel title "about a biochemist who develops an instrument that allows him to communicate with and control insects."  The other project, Scott Pilgrim‘s Precious Little Life based on the series by Bryan Lee O’Malley, concerns a man named Pilgrim who starts dating a new girl and must battle her seven evil exes, and is described "in the early idea stage."  As O’Malley and Hope Larson seem like such a nice normal comics couple, it’s hoped that "seven evil exes" bit is fictional all the way…

UPDATE: Typo corrected in headline.

Galacti-can!

  • News
  • February 18, 2007

To nobody’s surprise, the SciFi Channel has renewed Battlestar Galactica for a fourth season.  The series has garnered plenty of critical acclaim since its debut, winning a Peabody award for its high-quality scripting (including that of Superman/Batman writer and comic book veteran Mark Verheiden, who is also an executive producer of BSG) and making the American Film Institute’s top 10 outstanding TV programs two years in a row, and the ratings shot up even more with the show’s recent move to Sunday nights.

Another major factor in the no-brainer decision had to do with new viewing habits.  On the one hand, more than a million BSG DVDs have been sold, offsetting production costs considerably (SciFi admits BSG is its most expensive original series).  On the other hand, SciFi’s Mark Stern told the LA Times that 510,000 additional viewers in the 18-to-49 demographic are watching the show on DVRs, for which advertisers don’t yet pay (on the general assumption is that viewers fast-forward through ads during playback).  The Times’ Denise Martin says this "could be a crucial point for the channel, and Stern is hopeful that the business model is shifting."  The renewal could also give a greater boost to plans involving a direct-to-DVD BSG movie.

What’s Mike Baron doing?

  • News
  • February 18, 2007

Nexus, Badger and Punisher writer Mike Baron has organized The Fort Collins (Colorado) Comics Collective with writers Pete Brandvold and artists Nick Runge, Gabe Eltaeb, and Kevin Caron — plus Scott Bieser, who lives in nearby Cheyenne and doesn’t know he’s a member.

"Nick Runge had two paintings of undersea creatures in a downtown gallery," Mike Baron noted. "They popped. The color, the line reminded me of Frazetta. I sought Nick out. He was working in the kitchen of an institutional facility washing dishes. He’d never thought about drawing comics. He went home from our initial meeting and threw together a comic page based on The Last Samurai.

"Nick and I are about to dive into Black Ice, a heroic fantasy I created with Nick in mind. The publisher will be announcing its release shortly," Baron stated.

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Mighty manga mania!

  • News
  • February 17, 2007

VIZ and Del Ray Manga are both pulling out all the stops for next weekend’s New York Comic Con.  Del Ray (Booths 458-459) will have numerous author autographing sessions, giveaways and special guests, who will also participate in panels such as Breaking into SF/Fantasy Publishing (Friday at 7), Future Shocks (Saturday at 11), Star Wars: Beyond 30 (Saturday at 4) and of course The Making of a Del Rey Manga (Sunday at noon). 

VIZ, which is joining Del Rey and others in the Manga: What’s Hot panel during Friday’s trade-only hours, will be making available cell phone downloads of  promotional trailers for their popular Death Note anime series on a one-time-only basis for cell phone downloads exclusively during the show at their booth (619).   The first trailer will be available Saturday and the second on Sunday. This marks the first time this well-known Japanese anime property is being made legally available to U.S. audiences for download. 

And of course the first annual American Anime Awards will be held at the con on Saturday night.  Hope there’s cosplay involved!

John M. Ford Memorial Auction tonight in Boston

  • News
  • February 17, 2007

180px-johnmford_2001_ddb-7444471As part of Boskone 44 this weekend, The New England Science Fiction Association is holding the Mike Ford Memorial Auction & Extravaganza at 8 PM tonight. All proceeds of the auction will be donated to the John M. Ford Memorial Book Endowment, a special fund of the Friends of the Minneapolis Public Library.

According to Linda K. Merritt of the Friends of the Minneapolis Public Library, "For every $500 dollars deposited in the endowment funds, the Friends purchase a book for the library system annually with the interest earned on the endowment. This really is the gift that keeps on giving. You can specify what genre or library location/branch the books are intended for. Some people just specify ‘where most needed.’ We prepare bookplates and have them inserted in each book before they are shelved. Patrons will see Mike’s name each time the book is opened! I think it is important for people to know that these funds are ‘permanently restricted’ to the annual purchase of books. The money will never be diverted to other use."

Although his only comics credit was for Captain Confederacy, John M. Ford was the man Neil Gaiman credited as "the best writer he knew" at his eulogy.

UPDATE 12:36 AM: Due to the large number of items received, there will be a silent auction for the remainder of donated items this weekend throughout the convention.

Astronaut farmers go to Salvador

  • News
  • February 17, 2007

Boom! Studios has announced that the writer/director/producer team behind the Warner Brothers film The Astronaut Farmer, set to open on February 23 will be following up by launching a project called Salvador "in the world of comic books."  The teaser gave no further information, but they could be talking about this offering found on the Forbidden Planet international site, and an interview with artist Sebastian Jones seems to confirm it.

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