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Troy Little’s ‘Angora Napkin’ Headed for Animation

  • Uncategorized
  • December 3, 2008

13835angoranapkinlg-4746538Troy Little’s graphic novel Angora Napkin is being adapted as an animated project to air on Canada’s Teletoon in March of 2009. 

IDW will publish the book as a 152-page hardcover in January and the publisher describes the book as “an adult comedy about a girl band pop trio.”
 
Little (Chiaroscuro) is involved in all aspects of the production of the Angora Napkin animated pilot.

Teletoon, in a Canada wide search for new and original adult animation ideas, selected Angora Napkin to be developed as an animated pilot. “The idea of Angora Napkin was originally developed by Nick Cross and me as an animated series so it’s really interesting to see the project come full circle” Little said in a release.  “We’ve teamed up with Mugisha Enterprises to produce the cartoon.  Both Nick and I are putting many hours into the cartoon and are involved in all aspects of production to ensure the unique look of the show remains fresh and creator driven”.

Troy believes the timing of the book and cartoon will do much to compliment one another and help draw attention to the product. “Angora Napkin is one of those quirky little concepts that could potentially draw a cult status. It’s very subversive humor coupled with a healthy dose of sex and violence”.

Angora Napkin graphic novel synopsis:

Halloween is upon us! Historically this ancient event has been identified as the day in which the boundary between the living and the dead becomes unstable. It is on this fateful night that we find Beatrice, Molly, and Mallory, the pop music group known as Angora Napkin, running behind schedule for their performance at the big Halloween bash. Taking a short cut on a dark, twisting mountain road, the girls cross paths with one of the wandering dead. Undaunted by such an unusual encounter, they offer him a lift to a secret underground party. It is here that they are introduced to a lonely, misunderstood zombie boy named Dennis who they unwittingly convince to eradicate life on Earth in order to keep the party of the undead going for all eternity! Will Angora Napkin be able to set right the horror they’ve unleashed upon humanity and still make the show on time, or will we all become worm food in the wake of the zombie apocalypse?

ComicMix Radio: The Best Place To Buy!

  • News
  • December 2, 2008

After Black Friday and even Cyber Monday, there is still a lot of us with a number of names on that Christmas list. When you are racking your brains for the unique gifts, keep in mind the cool stuff tucked away at your local comic store. Beyond the weekly fix, there are plenty of things there not found anywhere else and this week we start to point them out, plus:

  • Batman #681 gone gone gone
  • A pair of Santa Hulks
  • IDW brings more comics to ITunes

The shopping starts when you Press the Button!
 

 

And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via badgeitunes61x15dark-7979962 or RSS!

 

Devil’s Due Restructures

  • Uncategorized
  • December 2, 2008

devils-due-publishing-logo-5538662Devil’s Due Publishing has restructured their staff, with CEO PJ Bickett stepping down and two other staffers being laid off.

Bickett told Comic Book Resources, " I have officially separated from Devil’s Due." Replacing him on an interim basis will be DDP’s founder Josh Blaylock.

The lay offs include Editor Cody DeMatteis and Marketing Manager Brian Warmoth with Blaylock telling CBR, that their layoffs were “absolutely no fault of their own.”

"I have really enjoyed being a part of the DDP family for the past several years, and now it is time for me to move on to new challenges," Bickett said. "It was an honor working with such talented people, and I look forward to watching the company evolve."

Blaylock said in a release, "Coming from a strategic planning background, PJ was able to bring a fresh set of eyes to Devil’s Due. It has given us a unique perspective on the industry and where it’s going in years to come, and helped better prepare us for that."

Blaylock helped found the creative services outfit Kunoichi, Inc..and has been concentrating on that in lieu of DDP.  Now, Bickett will be spending most of his time on Kunoichi’s operations.  They recently entered into an agreement to purchase Arachia Comics.

Kunoichi and DDP have shared lineage and even shared Chicago offices blurring the line between the two. DDP currently works out of Los Angeles offices.

DDP has made its name with licensed properties, notably G.I. Joe and Halloween but lost the former to IDW and has suffered financially for it.  Their best known original title is Hack/Slash, which has been optioned by Rogue Pictures, a division of Universal Studios that just happens to be up for sale itself.
 

‘Green Lantern’ Completes Third Draft Script

  • News
  • December 2, 2008

Yesterday, we speculated that Green Lantern was the DC hero next going before the cameras and MTV’s Splash Page then ran an interview with co-screenwriter Marc Guggenheim that confirms this projection.

“This morning, we sat down to talk Green Lantern,” Guggenheim told MTV, “and we ended up riffing for an hour and a half on another, much more obscure character. Sometimes, you just have to roll with it when inspiration strikes, you know? I’m sure the studio wouldn’t be happy about it, but we’re not going to blow the deadline. We’ll get it in.”

The screenplay was written by Guggenheim, Michael Green (Superman/Batman) and Greg Berlanti (Eli Stone) and after three drafts, they think it’s about ready for Berlanti to direct. Locations have been scouted and production designs have been crafted by Aaron Sims, who is also working on X-Men Origins: Magneto for director David S. Goyer.

“[The changes are] nothing that’s affecting the storyline, really,” he said. “It’s pretty well set. But sometimes we’ll move a scene to a different location for budget purposes, perhaps in an already established location instead of a new one. It’s a question of, which locations can we live without? It’s a constant process to streamline what you’re going through, even after the film is shot, when you’re cutting things in the edit. That’s what the rewrite process is like, how you sand down the roughness of the a movie to its smoothest.”

Guggenheim also noted that a cameo for reporter Clark Kent appears in the script leading to speculation if Warner would go with Tom Welling (Smallville) or Brandon Routh (Superman Returns) for the wink to the greater DC Universe.

“There were rumors that Tom Welling would have a cameo in Batman Begins as a young Clark Kent, to meet up with a young Bruce Wayne,” Guggenheim said. “But you have to be careful when you do things like that, because it sounds great in concept, but when you sit down to watch it, it poses the danger of pulling you out of the film.”

He refused to talk about the current rumor of Ryan Gosling being eyed to play test pilot Hal Jordan.

best-american-comics-20082-7286167

Review: ‘The Best American Comics: 2008’ edited by Lynda Barry

  • Uncategorized
  • December 2, 2008

best-american-comics-20082-7286167

The Best American Comics: 2008
Series editors: Jessica Abel and Matt Madden; edited by Lynda Barry
Houghton Mifflin, October 2008, $22.00

The “Best American” series has been around for decades, starting with the acclaimed annual collection of short stories and expanding in recent years to such newer emanations as [[[Best American Nonrequired Reading]]], [[[Best American Spiritual Writing]]], …[[[Travel Writing]]] and, of course, [[[Comics]]]. This is the third year for this particular Best American series, and it sees the cast of editors completely change over.

The way the “Best American” books seem to work – as much as they are explained to us mere mortals – each series has a “series editor,” who takes on the tough work of reading or looking at everything eligible in the given year, and culling down that list to something manageable for the marquee-name “editor” to select the final contents from. (For example, for the most recent annual editions, the series editor of [[[Short Stories]]] is Heidi Pitlor and the editor is Salman Rushdie. Similarly, Adam Gopnik edits Essays this year, Anthony Bourdain Travel and George Pelecanos Mystery Stories.) For the first two years of Comics’s existence, the series editor was Anne Elizabeth Moore, who was somewhat controversial for reasons that always remained murky to me. She’s been replaced this year by the team of Jessica Abel and Matt Madden, for no stated reason – though it does seem unusual for that to happen so soon.

The big-name editor this time out is Lynda Barry, following Chris Ware last year and Harvey Pekar in 2006. And, again, the editor profoundly affects the content of the book. Pekar leaned towards long, autobiographical stories, often with a political slant. Ware continued the trend towards autobiography and memoir – it would be hard to avoid that tide in comics, this decade – but he also brought in the expected formalist streak. And now Barry changes the mix again, with more comic strips (Matt Groening’s [[[Life in Hell]]], Derf’s [[[The City]]], Kaz’s [[[Underworld]]], and Alison Bechdel’s [[[Dykes to Watch Out For]]]) and many excerpts from longer works (Nick Bertozzi’s [[[The Salon]]], Cathy Malkasian’s [[[Percy Gloom]]], Gene Luen Yang’s [[[American Born Chinese]]], and Seth’s [[[George Sprott]]]).

(more…)

Sci Fi Finally Green Lights ‘Caprica’

  • News
  • December 2, 2008

In an overdue announcement, Sci Fi Channel has formally picked up Caprica as an ongoing series.  The show, a prequel to Battlestar Galactica, will star Eric Stoltz, Esai Morales, Paula Malcomson and Polly Walker in a story set fifty years prior to BSG.

Variety describes Caprica as a “Family-drama-themed series will focus on the Earthlike planet of Caprica as two rival families deal with, among other topical issues, the broader implications of their society’s emerging artificial intelligence technology sector.”

Ronald D. Moore and David Eick, along with Remi Aubuchon (24) will executive produce as they have on BSG. Caprica‘s pilot was co-written by Aubuchon and Moore and directed by Jeffrey Reiner (Friday Night Lights).

A promo for the series can be found at the Sci Fi website with a “Coming Soon” despite the trades saying it won’t air before 2010. Production will begin in the summer of 2009 while BSG will begin airing its final ten episodes in January.

"Battlestar Galactica was absolutely our flagship show. It put us on the map and helped transform the perception of the network," Sci Fi president Dave Howe told Variety. "We want people to come to this who have never heard of Battlestar Galactica. I think, because (Galactica‘s) backdrop was space and spaceships, there was a barrier to entry for some viewers. Caprica has none of that. It’s an intense family drama set on an Earthlike planet, in the near future, speaking to a lot of the ethical dilemmas that we as a human race are going to have to face very shortly." (more…)

International Animation Award Nominees Named

  • News
  • December 2, 2008

The International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood, announced nominations for its 36th Annual Annie Awards, recognizing the year’s best animated features, TV productions, commercials, video games and short subjects and a host of individual achievements.  DreamWorks Animation leads the way with a total of 27 feature nods, including 17 for Kung Fu Panda, followed by Walt Disney Animation Studios, which received 9 nominations, and Pixar with 8. 

Nickelodeon leads the way with 12 television nominations. 

The Annie Awards will be handed out at a ceremony on Friday, January 30, 2009, at UCLA’s Royce Hall in LA. 

http://www.annieawards.org

Animated Feature

Bolt – Walt Disney Animation Studios
Kung Fu Panda – DreamWorks Animation
$9.99 – Sherman Pictures/Lama Films
Wall-E – Pixar Animation Studios
Waltz With Bashir – Sony Pictures Classics/Bridgit Folman, Les Films D’ici, Razor Films

Animated Home Entertainment Production

Batman: Gotham Knight – Warner Bros. Animation
Christmas Is Here Again – Easy To Dream Entertainment
Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs – The Curiosity Company in association with 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Justice League: The New Frontier – Warner Bros. Animation
The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning – DisneyToon Studios (more…)

‘Ghost Whisperer’ Comic now goes Mobile

  • News
  • December 2, 2008

IDW Publishing has licensed their Ghost Whisperer comic book for repurposing on mobile phone to  iVerse Media. Ghost Whisperer: The Haunted #1 is now available at the iTunes App Store. 

The high profile title is based on the hit CBS series featuring Jennifer Love Hewitt as Melinda Gordon, the medium who helps ghosts cross over.  The five-issue miniseries is written by series writers Carrie Smith and Becca Smith, with art by Elena Casagrande.

The story in the comic fits in between Seasons 2 and 3 of the show, and follows Melinda as she spends her days and nights helping earthbound spirits cross over into the Light.  In the comic series, however, Melinda gets more than she bargained for when she comes face-to-face with Osiris, Egyptian God of the Dead, who wants the souls for himself.

The comic follows the same format as the show, with a ghost that needs to cross over in each issue.  Unlike the show, however, another ghost – Osiris – appears in each issue, tying the miniseries together and keeping the tension on the rise from one issue to the next.

The digital version of the comic was adapted to the iPhone and iPod touch by iVerse Media. A new issue of the series will be released every few weeks until all five issues of the series have been adapted digitally.

“Many fans of the Ghost Whisperer TV show may not even realize that the comic book exists so this presents an excellent opportunity to reach out to both existing and new readers. The digital format is a no-brainer for this type of content,” IDW’s CEO Ted Adams said in a release.

"We’re very excited to be making Ghost Whisperer available to iPhone and iPod Touch owners," said Michael Murphey, owner of iVerse Media. "IDW has created a fantastic comic book that is true to the television series, and a great gateway into digital comic books for new readers of the format."

Ghost Whisperer: The Haunted #1 is available in the iTunes App Store now for $0.99:

Marvel Announces Second Digital Wave

  • News
  • December 2, 2008

Marvel Comics has announced a second wave of original digital comic titles exclusively for Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited subscribers. The Marvel Digital Holiday Special — debuting on Wednesday, December 17—highlights this second wave of online-first titles at Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited [www.marvel.com/digitalcomics].

Here’s what’s coming:

Astonishing Tales: Wolverine/Punisher

C.B. Cebulski (X-Infernus) and newcomer Kenneth Rocafort (Madame Mirage) get gritty with a no-holds-barred Wolverine/Punisher tale you have to see to believe! Wolverine and Punisher go head-to-head on the streets of Madripoor, but can they stop fighting each other long enough to take down a certain green-haired femme fatale for good?!

Written by: C.B. Cebulski
Art by: Kenneth Rocafort
Debuts: Wednesday, December 10

Holiday Special Issue

The X-Men celebrate their first holiday in their new home of San Francisco — and their first without Kitty Pryde among them in “X-Men: Blue Christmas” by Jim McCann and Todd Nauck. Meanwhile, in the days before Secret Invasion, one family finds even the most humble of holiday celebrations can be infiltrated by the Skrulls in a tale of holiday horror by Ryan Penagos and Juan Doe. Jack Russell, Werewolf by Night, stars in “Werewolf by Eve!” by Marvel.com’s own Ben Morse with art by Stephanie Buscema. Writer Brian Reed and artist Val Semeiks will provide the final tale:”Santa Claus vs. The Illuminati?!”

Debuts: Wednesday, December 17

Astonishing Tales: Iron Man 2020

In a not so distant tomorrow, Arno Stark, the Iron Man of the year 2020, prepares to launch the new heliliner, the Spirit of Free Enterprise…But Commodore Q wants to stop it. Who is he…And what are the Endless Stolen Skies?

Written by: Daniel Merlin Goodbrey
Art by: Lou Kang
Debuts: Wednesday, December 24

Astonishing Tales: Mojoworld

Jonathan Hickman (Secret Warriors) and newcomer Nick Pitarra roll the cameras as Cannonball and Sunspot (of the New Mutants) get sucked into the wildest adventure of their short lives when they spend their summer vacation in…MOJOWORLD!

Written by: Jonathan Hickman
Art by: Nick Pitarra and Jonathon Hickman
Debuts: Wednesday, December 31

Wolverine: Agent of Atlas

The jungles of Cuba, 1958: revolutionary forces work their way to overthrowing the government, while even stranger forces are at large. The FBI has sent Jimmy Woo’s secret team of paranormals, the Agents of Atlas, to investigate. The crack team gets more than they bargained for when they cross paths with the mysterious operative known only as "Logan!" This three part series debuts with a FREE first issue—available to subscribers and non-subscribers to Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited!

Written by: Jeff Parker
Art by: Benton Jew
Debuts: Wednesday, December 31 (Issue #1: FREE for all!)

‘Tron’ Sequel Getting a New Name?

  • News
  • December 2, 2008

Slash Film is reporting that Disney continues to toy with the name for their sequel to Tron.  For months now, the project has been known not as Tron 2 or Tron 2.0 but as Tr2n.  Now, defying all reason, it may be altered to TRZ.

The news comes from Production Weekly although the studio has yet to officially name the project or provide a release date despite teaser images being made available since the summer.

The industry newsletter has the following synopsis “After being transported into the surreal landscape of a mainframe computer to destroy an intruder, a programmer finds himself allied with the leader of a rebellion against a corrupt cyber-entity.”

Jeff Bridges reprises his role as a programmer named Flynn with Karl Urban and John Hurt also said to be part of the cast. The new film has been written by Adam Horowitz (Lost) and Edward Kitsis (Lost) with Joseph Kosinski making his directorial debut. A 2011 release date is anticipated given the effects-heavy work required.

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