Printing mistakes and distribution snafus have plagued us all comic-wise the past few weeks. We help you catch up on what you should and will be seeing in the comic stores, plus:
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Bluewater Productions has added William Shatner to their growing line of celebrity endorsed comic books. Following in the footsteps of Ray Harryhausen, Vincent Price and Roger Corman, Shatner will have comics based on his novels including Man O’ War and Quest for Tomorrow. These will be published as miniseries, continuing the stories with talent yet to be announced.
His TekWar, written with Ron Goulart and an unnamed fourth title round out the commitment between the actor and the publisher. TekWar will also be a continuation. All four are scheduled to come out in the first quarter of 2009, available in comic shops as the hoopla surrounding the reboot of Star Trek edges towards its May 8 release.
The TekWar universe was adapted previously by Marvel Comics in the early 1990s and ran for 24 issues, written solely by Goulart. Darren G. Davis, president of Bluewater, has promised the ongoing series will be more faithful to the source material which ran in nine novels. It was also adapted as four telefilms and a one-season syndicated series starring Greg Evigan.
Bluewater’s publisher Darren Davis said in a release, “Mr. Shatner is a savvy businessman and a creative mastermind. We’re honored to be partnering with him and are confident our efforts will create comic books both his fans and ours will embrace.”
“With all of these comics, I have final approval," Shatner told the Los Angeles Times. "This is not a licensing arrangement; this will be me involved very directly throughout the process. They are going to do adaptations of my ideas and also sequels; they will be in the stores in March of 2009. I loved comics as a kid. I used to sit under the sheets with a flashlight and read Superman when I was six in Montreal and now, with the comics as they are today, it’s thrilling, really.”
Of the old Gold Key comic adaptations of Star Trek, Shatner enthused, "Oh, they were great. They always made me look so skinny."
Each year, Spike TV airs the Scream Awards, sort of what would happen if the Oscars and the MTV Movie Awards had a baby, and that baby grew up and is now in it’s rebellious teenage phase. The award categories started off in 2006 mostly covering the horror genre, but they now cater too all things film, TV and the ever-growing categories pertaining to comic books. While there is no “Academy” per se, they are all up online for the fans to vote for their favorites here. Catch the ceremony and see if your vote counts on October 21 at 9 p.m. on Spike TV, but for now, you can check out the complete list of nominees after the jump, and remember to vote for Dark Knight as much as possible, because with 21 nominations, that movie needs as much help as it can get.
This is how a rumor starts. A star visits a studio and is spotted leaving, carrying something that might be indicative of something new. In this case, someone spotted Eva Longoria visiting the offices of Marvel Studios and was seen walking out with a stack of comics. Suddenly, the spies at Film School Rejects has concluded she had a preliminary meeting to discuss her participation as Janet Van Dyne, a.k.a. the Wasp, in the planned 2011 Avengers film.
Could they be right? Sure. Could she have been paying a social call about any number of things? More than likely.
Is this newsworthy? You decide.
Of course, it does give us an excuse to run a picture of her in a wasp-like outfit.
Previous Action:
Following a car explosion, femme fatale-a-bot Cameron goes haywire and tries to kill her sworn protectorate, John Connor. John spends the next forty some-odd minutes on the run with his mother Sarah while Cameron pursues vigilantly. Eventually, her programming is restored to normal. On the other side of town, the lead singer from Garbage a ruthless CEO named Catherine Weaver gains possession of super-computer The Turk and reveals herself to be a T-1000 variant.
Mission Briefing:
Sarah and company move to a new home. As it so often happens, a naked man from the future shows up with a gunshot wound and warns about something bad in two days at a power plant called Serano Point. The man dies, and Sarah decides it’s time to investigate.
The power plant turns out to be a resistance stronghold in the future. Sarah and Cameron manage to get jobs as temps at the power plant. There, Sarah meets Carl Greenway, the paranoid employee in charge of taking the plant online in 36 hours. He confides to Sarah that he has reason to suspect that there are problems with the reactor, but a pullout would lead to the project being shutdown.
On the day of the supposed "bad thing," Sarah notices Greenway acting rigidly. Derek Reese goes to Greenway’s house and discovers the man hanging from the ceiling, meaning the Greenway with Sarah is a Terminator. He initializes a meltdown, but is ultimately issued a smackdown courtesy of Cameron. In the process, Sarah exposes herself to some radiation, but Cameron clears her of poisoning. Later, Sarah discovers a slew of cryptic bloody messages in the basement written by the naked future guy before he died.
At the plant, an executive announces that this and six other plants will enter a partnership vowing to use advanced technology preventing human error. Later, the executive shape-shifts into T-1000 superchick Catherine Weaver.
Further Damages:
Following John’s decision to trust Cameron despite trying to (wait for it) terminate him, Cameron warns the young leader that he can no longer be trusted. A series of brooding montages follow, resulting in John hooking up with fellow teenage outcast Riley. John invites her to his new house, where she meets Sarah and the gang to much disapproval. Riley spends the night, though all signs indicate that the no-pants dance did not occur. John gives her his cell phone number, but when she calls, she has to start the conversation by saying the current date. For some reason, Riley isn’t weirded out, and she calls him later under this protocol. (more…)
Way back in the late 80s, or maybe early 90s, an inker working on one of DC’s superhero comics rendered a female form rather more like the Lord made female forms than the mores of the time allowed. The editor dealt with the problem by putting a color hold – a purple one, I think – over what some would have deemed offensive nudity. Sex always wins. The lady’s charms shone clearly though the purple haze and a fuss ensued.
I remembered this anecdote when I saw, in the New York Times, an item about a Batman comic describing “a two page action sequence that is filled with foul language…uttered by (a) heroine…
“A black bar covered the blue words, but it was too transparent and allowed the text to be read.” Sex always wins and maybe “foul language” at least doesn’t fight fair.
According to the Times, the print run was destroyed. Having made more than my share of blunders when I sat in an editor’s chair, I know how easily goofs like this can occur and I hope the ensuing fuss doesn’t devolve on the editor, whoever he or she may be. As a certain Secretary of Defense said, stuff happens.
But I’m curious. Did the creative folk always intend the offensive language to be covered? Surely not. Why go to the bother and expense of lettering copy that no one will read? Easier, one imagines, to simply do the black bars in the first place, though as a storytelling strategy, that would be questionable; why pull the reader out of the story while they puzzle over the meaning of the black bars?
Okay, the copy was meant to be seen? Didn’t somebody wonder if such language could cause trouble and…I dunno – ask around?
Maybe someone saw it as a free speech issue. If so, I’d demur.
I think the First Amendment is the crown jewel of the Constitution, and, personally, I can be a potty mouth. Much of my choirboy vocabulary was left on an aircraft carrier and much of whatever was left in the gutters of the East Village, pre-gentrification. But I think the way things are marketed creates expectations, and it’s not playing fair with the customers to thwart those expectations. Anything – and I do mean anything – should be allowed in the public arena, but if one buys a book bylined Henry James, one should not be subjected to a story by Mickey Spillane.
Comics have come a considerable distance in the few years since I left editing. Hell and damn, once verboten seem okay both in comics and on TV, and a few gamier locutions are beginning to pop up. But I don’t believe the medium – comics – has evolved to the point where authentic street lingo is expected.
A final consideration: The question in matters like this is always a simple one. Does it help the narrative? Is the vocabulary the writer is using his way of showing off, or does it serve a larger purpose? Any vocabulary that tells the story is almost certainly the right vocabulary, though I’d expect to get argument on this. In the case of the Batman comic we’ve been discussing, I don’t know, and probably never will.
RECOMMENDED READING: Redemolished, by Alfred Bester
Dennis O’Neil is an award-winning editor and writer of Batman, The Question, Iron Man, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, and The Shadow– among others – as well as many novels, stories and articles. The Question: Epitaph For A Hero, reprinting the third six issues of his classic series with artists Denys Cowan and Rick Magyar, will be on sale in September, and his novelization of the movie The Dark Knight is on sale right now. He’ll be taking another shot at the ol’ Bat in an upcoming story-arc, too.
Veteran actor and host Trey Farley (Bend it Like Beckham) will host Sci Fi Chanel’s latest reality show, Chase.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Chase will be an hour-long show following contestants playing laser tag against one another for prizes. Each week will pit contestants against one another in landmarks around Los Angeles.
The channel has ordered six episodes and the series will debut November 11 in the 10 p.m. slot.
"I actually like where [the writers have] taken the whole storyline this year for everybody, including Elle," Kristin Bell told Sci Fi Wire about her participation Heroes season three.
Her character, the electrically-charged psycho Elle Bishop, will be seen in some 13 episodes this season. Her connections to the other characters will be explored showing she is more than just the daughter of Robert Bishop (Stephen Tobolowsky), one of the earlier generation of powered people.
"They’re showing more of her human side," Bell told the site. "She’s this vaguely barbaric, unfeeling, antisocial adaptive killer who’s coy. However, she’s had some tough decisions to make [over the years, and the writers are] giving her more depth. There are flashback scenes showing that she’s intricately woven into people’s lives before you met her. She met a lot of [the characters] before she was introduced on the show."
Season three, entitled, Villains, kicks off one week from tonight at 9 p.m. on NBC.
Kung Fu Panda was a critical and box office surprise hit when it opened in late June. Now, it is surprising people again as Paramount Home Video has announced that the November 9 DVD release will come bundled with an original tale. The Sunday release comes two days ahead of the traditional street date for books, CDs and DVDs.
The double pack of Kung Fu Panda and Secrets of the Furious Five will retail for under $25 according to Hollywood Reporter. The single disc version of the feature film is expected to retail for under $20 in a standard edition. A Blu-ray version is also anticipated for the same date.
The new story, will explore the established characters’ backgrounds with Jack Black and Dustin Hoffman lending their voices once more as Po and Master Shifu respectively.
The DreamWorks Animation film grossed $213.8 million during the summer, making it a hugely profitable CG-animated hit.
Ever think you’d hear the words "Buffy has been nominated for an Emmy"? Well, that day has come as Buffy The Vampire Slayer has made it into round two of "TV’s Most Memorable Moments (Drama Series)". The moment in question, which you can watch and vote for here, is from the season 5 finale entitled "The Gift" where Buffy takes what would seem to be her last leap and sacrifices herself. This also marks the final episode of the series that aired on the WB before ultimately getting picked by UPN…which then ended up merging with the WB to become the CW. Confused? You should be.
The scene is currently up against nine others in the category including a scene from Star Trek’s "City on the Edge of Forever" and Lost‘s "Live Together, Die Alone" (The scene where the island explodes). You can vote online, and the top five will then be in the ceremony live for the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards this Sunday on ABC at 8/7c.
It should also be noted that this year’s Emmys will be hosted by each of the five nominees of the Outstanding Reality/Competition Host category. This means Tom Bergeron, Heidi Klum, Howie Mandel, Jeff Probst And Ryan Seacrest will each be hosting this year’s awards, which would mark the first time that the Emmy Awards are being hosted by four people who will probably never get an Emmy Award. Seacrest Out.
Columns / Glenn Hauman / News
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