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New heights in the Rob Liefeld swipe file

  • News
  • January 6, 2009

Okay, let me see if I have this straight. From Rich Johnston:

Rob Liefeld will be putting out a "SMASH! Extreme!" #0 re-printing of Smash’s previous appearances by Jeph Loeb and Liefeld from Image in April.

Rob says, "This will contain a new story which frees Smash! from his bonds and lead into the multi-part SMASH! storyline told in a series of specials pitting SMASH! against the Extreme universe. Then in May, we get ‘Smash! Brigade’ from Marat Mychaels and ‘Smash! Youngblood,’ ‘Smash! Prophet’ and ‘Smash! Supreme’ to follow through the year."

Smash! apparently is this big, shall we say, hulking individual pictured to the right who has been in exile for a good long time after stealing Elliot S. Maggin’s exclamation point, but he returns to wreak havoc on the entire universe in a company-wide crossover– waging war on the world, as it were.

Psst. Rob. The pants are what’s supposed to be purple, not the skin.

Oh, and eventually, it’ll end in a book called SMASH ASSEMBLED! where presumably an SOS goes out to Doom’s 4, but some mischevous individual reroutes the call to a bunch of other heroes who band together and fight him.

And some other even more mischevous individual reroutes the call to Marvel’s legal department. Which won’t be a problem because as we all know, Rob Liefeld is a stickler for credit.

 

Are comics really recession proof?

  • News
  • January 6, 2009

The general consensus is that during hard times, people stay at home and turn to cheap entertainment to save money. And various and sundry players across the net have claimed that comics always do well in recessionary times.

Except, it turns out, those two widely held beliefs are in direct conflict.

Aaron Albert at About.com (you can tell he’s in comics with alliteration like that) runs the numbers on entertainment bang for the buck per minute, and comics are the worst deal of the bunch:

If we suppose that it takes 15 minutes to read a standard comic book what kind of deal are we getting?

 

  • $3.99 Comic – ECPM’s – 27 cents
  • $2.99 Comic – ECPM’s – 20 cents
  • Movie – $10 (Average running time lets say 1hr 30 min.) – ECPM’s – 11 cents
  • Rental Movie – $5 (Same time as above) – ECPM’s – 5.5 cents
  • DVD – $20 (Typical 2 disc with, say, 2 hrs bonus material) – ECPM’s – 7 cents
  • Video Game – $60 (Average length, around 15-20 hrs to complete) – ECPM’s – 5-7 cents
  • MMORPG – (A game like WOW costs $15 a month with the average player putting 22 hrs a week…its scientific, I Googled it) – ECPM’s – 2/10 cents (yes that’s two tenths of a cent per minute)

The conclusion is obvious, particularly when you see how many people will read free comics available online.

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‘Shazam’ movie ‘deader than a doornail’

  • Uncategorized
  • January 6, 2009

shazamalexrossblack300px-3049175Screenwriter John August describes the sequence of events that led up to, shall we say, the death of Captain Marvel the movie:

I took them at their (written) word and delivered what they said they wanted: a much harder movie, with a lot more Black Adam. This wasn’t “Big, with super powers” anymore. It was Black Adam versus Captain Marvel, with a considerable push into dark territory and liminal badlands like Nanda Parbat. It wasn’t the action-comedy I’d signed on to write, but it was a movie I could envision getting made. The producer and director liked it, and turned it in to the studio while I was in France.

By the time I got back, the project was dead.

By “dead,” I mean that it won’t be happening. I don’t think it’s on the studio’s radar at all. It may come back in another incarnation, with another writer, but I can say with considerable certainty that it won’t be the version I developed.

Whether this is from the internal shake-ups at New Line, or residual inertia from the writers’ strike, or just Hollywood silliness, is hard to gauge.

‘Jonah Hex’ movie gets a new director

  • News
  • January 6, 2009

The Jonah Hex movie is getting a new director, according to The Hollywood Reporter.  Jimmy Hayward, who directed Horton Hears a Who, has been signed to direct Hex as his second feature, and his first in live action.  Prior to directing Horton, Hayward started as an animator for Reboot and then went on to Pixar.

Josh Brolin is still attached to star in the film– because after playing an ornery cuss from the south who goes in guns blazing in W., this was a natural.

Hat tip: ICV2.

Wolverine and the X-Men premiering January 23 on Nicktoons

  • News
  • January 6, 2009

The half-hour series Wolverine and the X-Men will finally make its US premiere on Nicktoons Network with back-to-back episodes on Friday, January 23, 8-9 pm.  Produced by Marvel Animation, Wolverine and the X-Men will air regularly Fridays at 8p.  The network also launches the new tie-in website, areyouamutant.com, on Tuesday, January 20, where fans can check their DNA for mutant genes, which will let them into the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters where they can visit various rooms, watch replays of the series, and play a game called Wolverine and the X-Men: Sentinel Slash.

Get those kids exposed to slash fiction while they’re young, I always say– then we can move them up to Hellfire Club costumes and really have some fun.

Additionally, content from the series will be available on TurboNick and via Nickelodeon’s wireless platforms.  The series will also have a dedicated category in Nick’s VOD offering from January 19.

SciFiWire splits off from SciFi.com

  • News
  • January 6, 2009

Sci Fi Channel’s SciFi.com has spun off its daily entertainment news section into a standalone site SciFiWire.com. The news blog will continue to focus on pop cultural news related to the Sci Fi and fantasy genres, covering movies, books, television shows, comics, in what appears to be a much more navigable site, although their RSS feed was down at the time I looked. A few familiar names have popped up here and there in the early posts, most notably Scott Edelman, Craig Engler, and Adam Troy-Castro.

If memory serves, SciFiWire was originally the email newsletter published by Engler back in the 90’s, when SciFi bought him out and put him in charge of the digital division. Now they’re spinning it back out again. You explain it.

The satellite site is the third new launch by SciFi.com during the past year, following the debuts of gadget blog Dvice.com and gaming site Fidgit.com. So it’s trying to be Obsessable, Joystiq,  and… well, us.

ComicMix QuickPicks – January 5, 2009

Today’s installment of comic-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest…

* Missed this one in the holiday wackiness: A federal appeals panel said that child pornography is illegal even if the pictures are drawn, affirming the nation’s first conviction under a 2003 federal law against such cartoons. Even though there are no actual children involved. So Dwight Whorley of Richmond is serving 20 years in prison on an anime charge, even though he could just be in jail on the photographs. Time to donate to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund…

* Washington, D.C., library officials have proposed a ban on sleeping at public libraries. Our solution? More graphic novels! No one will sleep through those thrill-packed extravagnz– oops. Too much Stan Lee there.

* Recession? How can there be a recession when you can pre-order Captain Kirk’s chair for $2200 retail?

* That’s Sir Terry Pratchett to you, buddy.

Anything else? Consider this an open thread.

Relativity Media buys Rogue Pictures

  • Uncategorized
  • January 5, 2009

Via Deadline Hollywood: Relativity Media, LLC has purchased Rogue Pictures from Universal Pictures and acquired Rogue’s entire library, its more than 30 projects in development and ownership of its producing deals, including the deal with Wes Craven.
 
The first picture set for release under this new deal is writer/director David S. Goyer’s (The Dark Knight) new horror film, The Unborn, produced by Michael Bay and his Platinum Dunes production company. The Unborn is a supernatural thriller that follows Casey (Odette Yustman) a young woman pulled into a world of nightmares when a demonic spirit haunts her and threatens everyone she loves. Plagued by merciless dreams and a tortured ghost that haunts her waking hours, Casey learns that the spirit may be the soul of her unborn twin brother and must turn to the only person who can make it stop– Rabbi Sendak (Gary Oldman). The Unborn opens Friday.

Blog@Newsarama checked in with Hack/Slash creator Tim Seeley, since the film version of that comic was in development at Rogue. "Seeley confirmed that his book is still in the Rogue pipeline.  He also indicated that there may be more information in the offing." Between that and Devil’s Due getting back up to speed, those are good signs.

The Point – January 5th, 2009

We jump into the New Year with our first regular broadcast, covering that New Doctor (“Doctor Twilight”?), What went wrong with The Spirit (Frank Miller liked the voices), What we guarantee will be hot in ’09 and Five cool things in your comic store this week. And that’s just the start!

PRESS THE BUTTON and you’ll Get The Point! 

And be sure to stay on The Point via badgeitunes61x15dark-6409796 or RSS!

 

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