Category: News

Wizard World Chicago 2008: Marvel Ultimates Panel

  • News
  • June 28, 2008

capsbutt1-6166324Friday, Day One at Wizard World Chicago and it’s the Marvel Ultimates Panel featuring Brian Bendis, C.B. Cebulski, editor Bill Rosemann and moderator Jim McCann. As Rick Marshall previously reported about the "Mondo Marvel" panel, this particular panel was also relatively light on earth-shattering announcements. It also had some technical problems at the beginning which prevented the slideshow from working. So, to start the panel off, Jim McCann dove right into it with a couple of announcements and then some Q&A while they waited for the slides.

First up, Rosemann announced, "No, we do not know when Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk will come out." Bendis also announced that Ultimate Spider-Man is "not cancelled," that "everything is connected" and that there will be an Ultimate Spider-Man Annual which will focus on Peter and MJ’s "physical relationship."

According to Bendis, "It was the hardest sell I ever had. I just thought that remembering my glory years of 15 and 16 that it’s an important issue. Not having dealt with it felt false to me. It’s gonna be drawn by David La Fuente."  The book is double-sized and will be out in October.

At that point, the kinks were finally worked out and the slides started. Fans of Marvel’s Ultimate Universe were then treated to several slides featuring, among other things, upcoming covers for issues of Ultimate Origins featuring Captain America, Magneto and Hulk as well as a few pages of the actual Cap origins issue itself. There was also an alternative Origins cover featuring "Cap’s butt" as drawn by Gabriel del Otto.

Also, slides from Ultimatum showing the Fantastic Four, Dr. Doom, Namor, and the Ultimates 3 cast of the Ultimates featuring Black Panther and Captain America next to each other on the slide. This slide highlights, according to Bendis, an "organic but massive disaster" which happens to the Ultimate Universe. The disaster will be seen in Ultimate Spider-Man.

Then, once the slides were done (which took about five minutes) it was back to the Q&A which, as you may expect, pretty much became the Brian Bendis show as the vast majority of the questions were directed to him. Some of the highlights of the Q&A follow but it started off with Bendis’s explanation of his thought process when the Ultimates universe was being created. (more…)

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Editing Challenges Trouble ‘Watchmen’ and Other Movie News

  • News
  • June 27, 2008

watchmen-cover-9841292Fans have long wondered how any director could condense Watchmen into a feature-length film (I always liked the suggestion of doing it as an HBO miniseries), and now director Zack Snyder is feeling that pinch.

The Geek Files blog has a comprehensive entry about Snyder’s difficult editing task. The current length sits at an epic three hours, and this is already after the Black Freighter storyline and other material has been excised into a wholly separate film that will come out as a companion DVD.

[Snyder] added: “I’ve lost perspective on that now, because to me, the honest truth is I geek out on little stuff now as much as anybody. Like, people will go, ‘We’ve got to cut. You don’t need that shot of Hollis Mason’s garage sign.’ And I’m like, ‘What are you talking about? Of course you do. Are you crazy? How will people enjoy the movie without s**t like that in it?’

“And we had Dave Gibbons in there, too, and he would draw on our books, and it was just sick cool.

“And so then you come back from that experience, and you go to the studio, and the studio’s cool, don’t get me wrong, but they don’t love it like we do. Right? It’s like just a movie, like, ‘Oh, we have this movie, Watchmen, and it’s ****ing long.’ Like, ‘What are these superheroes? They look crazy.’ So you have that experience. So for me, right now, I’m in the middle of that.”

Snyder has already said he is planning a 4hrs 30mins Director’s Cut DVD edition of the movie. There will also be a companion DVD called Tales of the Black Freighter, based on a background story depicted within the panels of Watchmen.

There’s also some other comics movie news:

The New Jersey Star-Ledger reports some anecdotal evidence that successful films are boosting sales of actual comics at shops.

And the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette offers an early look at Wanted and another article on the best and worst comic-to-film adaptations.

Webcomic News Roundup: Love, Life and Poop

  • News
  • June 27, 2008

Marriage proposals happen a lot of ways these days, but leave it to Ian McConville of gaming webcomic Three Panel Soul to present the big question in the form of an 8-bit videogame he created on the sly. McConville offered up a few screenshots from the game, but won’t be posting a playable version online, because "it was made for an audience of one."

Congratulations to McConville and his special Player 2. (via Fleen)

One of the biggest news items of the week was the announcement by Diesel Sweeties creator Rich Stevens that he would be returning to web-only publication of his popular comic, ending print syndication of the series in mid-August. (more…)

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ComicMix Radio: Direct From Chicago – Marvel Exclusives and Sneak Peeks

  • News
  • June 27, 2008
ross_00-6808814It’s the first of our special broadcasts from the floor at Wizard World Chicago, and Marvel began the day with a few announcements, which we detail here. Also be sure to check out our ComicMix report on the “Mondo Marvel” panel posted earlier today.

Can’t be here? Just press the button!

 
 
And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via badgeitunes61x15dark-4985240 or RSS!

Happy Birthday: Butch Guice

  • News
  • June 27, 2008

Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1961, Jackson “Butch” Guice started out drawing for fanzines and designing patches and emblems for a company in North Carolina.

In 1982 he ghosted some artwork for Pat Broderick on the Rom annual, and drew the first two issues of the independent comic book Southern Knights. Then Marvel editor Al Milgrom offered him a chance to draw Micronauts #48. Guice penciled Micronauts until its cancellation with #58 and did other titles for Marvel as well, including work on X-Men, Dazzler, The New Mutants, and X-Factor.

In 1987 Guice teamed with Mike Baron on several projects for First Comics (Badger, Nexus, and The Chronicles of Corum) and DC (including the second Flash series). Guce has continued to work for both Marvel and DC since, and also did books for Dark Horse, Valiant, CrossGen, and Acclaim.

In July 2007 he signed an exclusive contract with Marvel, where he is currently drawing Captain America and Ultimate Origins.

 

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Manga Friday: Girls and Boys, Boys and Boys

  • News
  • June 27, 2008

 love-for-dessert-9719626This week’s “Manga Friday” features titles from two Aurora imprints that are for adults only. I’ll try to keep the review itself safe for somewhat younger readers, but, if you’re twelve or so, picture me shaking my finger sternly at you and saying you should move on to something more age-appropriate.

Next week should see Manga Friday return to a variety mix, so you kids can come back then.

Most of the manga that get translated for the US market are either shonen (boys’ comics, like Naruto and Bleach) or shojo (girls’ comics, like Fruits Basket) – stories for tweens and young teens, mostly. (That’s the biggest audience for manga in Japan, too, so there’s more of those kinds of stories to translate to begin with.)

But there are also seinen (stories for “men” – mostly in their twenties – like Lone Wolf and Cub) and, the smallest subset, josei (stories for adult women). The books this week are all josei, roughly the Japanese comics equivalent of American romance novels.

(My initial plan was to review two redikomi – books about boy-girl romances, with some tasteful sex – and then two yaoi – boy-boy romance stories for a female audience. But I only managed to get through one yaoi book, so there are only three reviews here this week.)

Love for Dessert
By Hana Aoi
Aurora/Luv Luv, May 2008, $10.95

Love for Dessert has six stories, all with a (sometimes very loose) food theme – the title story sets the tone. Koyama is a young woman who’s just gotten a full-time job at a big ad agency, working for a tough young boss, Kuze.

She’s also been befriended by “Morimoto from Sales,” who indulges her sweet tooth, and eventually (once the big rush job, which has been causing agida and getting Koyama behind, even after lots and lots of overtime, is done) gets her drunk and tries to seduce her. (more…)

12 Overlooked Comics in 12 Years

  • News
  • June 27, 2008

Tom Spurgeon of The Comics Reporter has always been great at introducing me to comics I might never have been aware of were it not for his recommendation, so I was particularly intrigued by his recent list of the "Twelve Mostly Overlooked Comics Published In The Last Twelve Or So Years."

While the list includes quite a few small-press titles that flew under my radar and seem well worth the time to hunt down, Spurgeon also has some kind words for a title with ties to a certain comics-to-film blockbuster:

Maybe the craziest Marvel book ever, US War Machine is emblematic of that brief time in mainstream American comics when it seemed like a terrific idea for the major property-owning players to mess around with its second-tier characters by marching them through the violence, language and sexual implication wringer common to a TV show on HBO or Showtime.

But the title that really caught my eye was the Motofumi Kobayashi manga Apocalypse Meow:

It’s like The Boys From Company C as played by the Muppets, only you keep waiting for a musical number that never arrives and Fozzy Bear gets capped before they get off the boat. Apocalypse Meow (its original title was the even better Cat Shit One) exudes loopy qualities from every pore in a way that makes it a time capsule of its historical moment, when translated manga seemed poised to take over the comics world no matter what the hell might be happening on the page.

Consider me sold.

Head over to The Comics Reporter for the rest of Spurgeon’s list.

MTV Spotlights Comics Based on Videogames

  • News
  • June 27, 2008

Once or twice I’ve written about all the comics that were based on videogames. But I’m relieved to find I’m not the nerdiest comic gamer out there. Tracey John at the MTV Multiplayer blog has posted an amazingly comprehensive list of every videogame that has been ported over to comic books.

There’s the sweet kids’ comics from our youths, like Sonic the Hedgehog, as well as upcoming ones like Gears of War. There’s even the ridiculously infamous Doom comic.

But wait! They left off Mercenaries (with a Mike Turner cover, no less) from Dynamite Entertainment and the upcoming Brothers in Arms. Also conspicuously absent are the Capcom comics Bionic Commando and Lost Planet from Devil’s Due Publishing that were announced here on ComicMix.

I guess my nerd crown is safe… for now.

Free Incredible Hulk/Wanted DVD at Best Buy

  • News
  • June 27, 2008

If seeing The Incredible Hulk movie made you nostalgic for the old television series and you can barely contain your excitement about today’s premiere of Wanted, then rush on down to Best Buy retail stores for a free promotional DVD tied to the two films. Sure, it’s a bunch of trailers and commercials, but there is also some neat behind-the-scenes stuff — as well as a special bonus for older Hulk fans.

And did we mention it’s free?

For Wanted you get:

  • Teaser Trailer
  • Theatrical Trailer
  • "Behind the Scenes of the Viper Chase"
  • A Set Tour Featuring Common

The Incredible Hulk promos are:

  • "A Look Inside"
  • Teaser Trailer
  • Exclusive Teaser Trailer "Awaken"
  • "The Beast Within: The Making of The Incredible Hulk Video Game"
  • The Making of the Hulk Smash! Toy Commercial
  • The Incredible Hulk: Season 5 Premiere "The Phenom"

Yes, it’s that last one that’s truly incredible: a full episode of the classic TV show! And the episode is a hoot, believe me. After hitching a ride with a promising baseball pitcher, David Banner (Bill Bixby) has to save him from unscrupulous baseball managers. Lou Ferrigno hulks out on a baseball field. The startled players pelt him with baseballs. What does the Hulk do in response? He picks up a baseball bat and starts knocking them out of the park!

Oh, and The Hulk also battles a man in a chicken outfit. The ’70s were awesome.

What Happens In Vegas… Sucks, by Michael Davis

  • News
  • June 27, 2008

What many of my readers don’t know is – I’m an artist, trained at some of the finest art schools in the country. I’m also an educator, having written curricula for an art school and created reading programs for high interest low-level students grades four to six. I have quite a few proclamations from various cities for my educational work and my mentor program. I even have part of a school campus named after me.

I’m not telling you this to impress you, but to impress upon you that I know a wee bit about the arts.

Education and training aside, I belong to the “I know what I like club.” I truly believe that art is in the eye of the beholder. I don’t care how big the artist is, I’m not jumping on the bandwagon because his or her last painting sold for a zillion dollars. As an example, take the artist David Hockney. I don’t like his work but I respect the career he has built for himself.

I also think that Thomas Kinkade is the luckiest man on earth. I much prefer and miss Bob Ross and his “happy little trees.” For my money, his “happy little trees” pimp slap anything done by either Hockney or Kinkade. That may be because I just liked him as a man and that translated into why I like his work so much. Truth be told, his work was more of a gimmick – but I don’t care: I like what I like. Hockney or Kinkade are huge successes and deserve to be. They create the art and let it speak for itself. Critics love it or hate it, people buy it or they don’t. (more…)

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