Category: News
Richard Curtis (‘Blackadder’) writing ‘Doctor Who’ episode
Proving that everybody knows everybody in the British entertainment system, Richard Curtis, well known for writing Blackadder, Mr. Bean, Notting Hill, Love Actually, and the Bridget Jones screenplays, will be writing an episode of Doctor Who for the upcoming season, according to the BBC.
Considering Curtis’s long association with Rowan Atkinson, we feel we must show you Doctor Who: The Curse Of Fatal Death, starring Atkinson as the Doctor. Curtis didn’t write this, it was written by… new showrunner Steven Moffat. Hmmm…
‘GrimJack: The Manx Cat’ #2 in stores now
How backed up have things been here? I didn’t even get a chance to note that GrimJack: The Manx Cat #2 is already in stores. Silly me, I thought this was coming out this week.
Since new books aren’t shipping until Thursday this week, if you find yourself in a store on Wednesday, go pick this up along with issue #1. Ostrander and Truman at their bestest. IDW at their publishiest. And us, as always, at our busiest.
DragonCon Weekend!
Who said convention season was slowing down? Dragon*Con is this weekend in Atlanta, Pittsburgh is next weekend, Mid-Ohio, Baltimore, and Wizard Big Apple are next month… this is going to get exhausting.
Our favorite photo so far from the convention is from the lovely Felicia Day above: “Me and zombie Lincoln and zombie John Wilkes Booth at the zombie ball.”
Not sure how much news we’re going to get out of the convention, or whether this is just going to be a sultry summer con to wind down the season. Depends on what Marvney has to say…
Disney Kiddy Ride Fail
Since we haven’t picked on Disney in hours, and since we’ve heard people wondering if Disney is going to have trouble with potentially adult situations coming from Marvel, we’d just like to refresh people’s memory of the Disney character from the 90’s, Marsupalami…
Don’t ask where the rest of his tail is, either.
Meanwhile, in ‘Superman’ movie news…
If you ever wonder why DC can’t catch a break in movies while Marvel’s going gangbusters, consider this piece from the New York Post about the producers of Superman:
MOVIE mogul Jon Peters has been ordered to stay 100 yards away from his “Superman: Man of Steel” co-producer, Brian Quintana — for allegedly threatening to kapow! him.
The battle between the producers flared up on Aug. 12 when Peters
was giving a deposition at a Los Angeles law office for a sexual
harassment lawsuit Quintana filed against him. According to a
transcript of the deposition, Peters shouted, “I am going to cross this
table and beat the [bleep]ing [bleep] out of you. I am going to kick
your ass.”Quintana, 41, told Page Six that Peters lunged at him during the session, adding, “His lawyer had to hold him back.”
A police report Quintana filed Aug. 14 reads: “Mr. Peters
threatened to break my legs. I am afraid, nervous and anxious that Jon
Peters is going to hurt or kill me.”Then, on Aug. 19, Quintana got a court order forbidding Peters from
threatening, assaulting or harassing him. A hearing is set for Sept. 9
to decide how long the order remains in effect.Relations between the co-producers have been more charged than
kryptonite. As we first reported last year, Quintana filed a suit
claiming Peters sexually roughed him up and subjected him to
“continuous and pervasive sexual harassment,” including “multiple
instances where he was physically [and] sexually harassed by Peters.”Peters’ lawyer, Joe Yanny, told us, “This
restraining order is ridiculous. Mr. Peters did not threaten Mr.
Quintana. He is trying to manipulate the system.” He said Peters “lost
his temper” at the deposition because Quintana was throwing kisses at
him. He also said Peters obtained a restraining order to prevent
Quintana from saying he was an “employee” of Peters.
Remember, if there isn’t a Superman theatrical movie in production by 2011, the Siegel estate gets millions. I wonder if DC can take it out of Peters’s scalp.
‘Lobo’ goes to Hollywood (really!)
Heidi has the goods:
Manly director Guy Ritchie is set to direct the LOBO movie… let’s start the campaign to cast defining artist Simon Bisley in a supporting role NOW! There’s gonna be so much bonus testosterone on this project that Megan Fox is gonna turn into a sprint champion. Warner Bros. has locked Guy Ritchie to direct “Lobo,” the live action adaptation of the DC Comics drama about an alien interstellar bounty hunter. Don Payne wrote the most recent script draft, and Joel Silver, Akiva Goldsman and Andrew Rona will produce.
In the meantime, expect a price bump in back issues of the book to the right.
Does Disney buying Marvel mean ‘Spider-Man: Turn On The Dark’ is back to Broadway?
The Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark may not be as dead as previously thought.
According to a report in Variety, the rumor mill is spinning with word that the financially troubled production will resume production this week or maybe next, with at least some folks being called back to work. The production stalled earlier last month due to “cash-flow” issues. There is no official word as of yet.
They’re saying there is no connection to production on the musical picking up again and Disney acquiring Marvel, but I don’t believe that for a minute. Disney has tremendous experience working on Broadway, including Julie Taymor’s previous adaption of The Lion King for Broadway.
No word yet on if the musical will open on time… it had been set to begin previews on February 25, 2010, and officially open in March.
50 comics facts about the Class of 2013
Every year, Beloit College puts together a list of facts regarding the mindset of the class entering college this Fall—the Class of 2013. Their list, as always, is well worth a read, but this is ComicMix, and we’re here to talk about comics, by gum.
So as we get ready to send them off to college, we wondered: what constitutes the comics status quo for them? What’s normal to these kids born in 1991 (he asks, knowing that being born in 1986 puts him in largely the same boat)? So glad you asked.
- The guy who did the above strip had already ended his daily strip and retired by the time these freshmen started reading newspapers.
- There has never been a Miracleman (or Marvelman) comic published in their lifetime.
- They have no idea who Don Thompson or Carol Kalish were.
- Gambit has always been on the X-Men.
- Spider-Man was always married to Mary Jane… until One More Day.
- There wasn’t a DC multiverse until the end of Infinite Crisis.
- Wally West was always the Flash, and his first sidekick was Impulse.
- Adam West has never been Batman—he’s best known as the mayor on Family Guy.
- Wolverine never wore a brown costume, and has always had a solo book.
- Barbara Gordon has always been in a wheelchair.
- Sandman has always been that pale-skinned goth guy with the hair.
- Batman has had three Robins: Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown, and Damian Wayne.
- Lex Luthor has always been a businessman.
- Image Comics has always existed.
- So has Wizard Magazine.
- New Mutants was a short-lived series from 2003-2004, until the recent relaunch.
- Hank McCoy’s always been blue and furry.
- Elektra has always been dead.
- Frank Miller is the guy who did Sin City, and he never worked with Klaus Janson.
- There’s never been a character named “Streaky the Supercat.”
- The only composite Batman-Superman was a giant robot.
- The original Dove has always been dead.
- Thanos has always been searching for the Infinity Gems, so he can impress Death.
- Death has always been a goth chick.
- Jim “Rhodey” Rhodes has always been War Machine.
- S.H.I.E.L.D. has always stood for Strategic Hazard Intervention, Espionage Logistics Directorate.
- Kyle Rayner has always been a Green Lantern.
- Starman has always worn goggles and a leather jacket.
- John Romita. Jr. has always been known as a regular penciller for Amazing Spider-Man. John Romita, Sr. never was.
- Ghost Rider was Danny Ketch.
- Jean-Luc Picard was the first captain of the Enterprise.
- Cerebus the Aardvark was always a classic.
- Grendel has always been a Dark Horse title, except for that DC crossover.
- Cassie Sandsmark was the first Wonder Girl.
- Roy Harper was only known as Arsenal up until the current volume of Justice League of America.
- There’s never been a First or Eclipse Comics. Comico only did some of those soft-core Elementals books.
- There were originally four Justice League titles on the stands.
- The original Teen Titans were comprised of a de-aged Atom (Ray Palmer), Risk, Argent, Captain Marvel, Jr., Omen, Prysm, Fringe, Arsenal, and Joto.
- Julia Carpenter was the original Spider-Woman.
- The two Avengers teams were the East Coast and West Coast branches. None of this New, Mighty, Dark, Pet, and Caramel Covered.
- There’s always been a comic called Love and Rockets.
- The superhero cartoons of choice were Darkwing Duck and Fox’s X-Men. For live action, it was all about the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers.
- Kraven the Hunter has always been dead.
- Northstar has always been out of the closet.
- Kevin Conroy has always been the animated voice of Batman.
- Jim Shooter was the guy behind Valiant, then Defiant, and then he wrote the Legion for a while. Wait, he was at Marvel, too?
- Phoenix is Rachel Summers, not Jean Grey.
- Karate Kid was Ralph Macchio, and Ralph Macchio was the guy editing X-Men.
- There have always been Pulitzer Prize winning graphic novels.
- Disney never had a major successful comic book franchise.
What’s yours?
(Alan Kistler and Glenn Hauman contributed to this list.)
Who makes money when Disney buys Marvel?
Well, if I’m reading these stock forms correctly, Avi Arad’s stock holdings jumped about $10 million dollars yesterday with the stock bump.
And Issac Perlmutter’s stock holdings went up about $282 million, with his total holdings worth about $1,391,049,355. Put another way, when they say that Disney bought Marvel for four billion dollars, over a third of it goes to Issac. And since this is a 60% cash/40% stock deal, Issac pulls in $830 million in cash.
Yowza. That’s a lot of variant covers.
