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Marvel Lets Japan Recreate Its Heroes

  • News
  • August 25, 2008







circle-01-3037080Marvel Comics announced a deal with Japan’s Madhouse that will have their core super-heroes reimagined for Japanese audiences.  Originally designed as animated fare, the long-range plans call for the Marvel Japanese Universe to be found on mobile devices and comic books.

Essentially, the heroes will experience new origins taking into account Japanese culture and society.  Their problems, foibles ands villains will all reflect the country of origin, using “something that is part of the fabric of society” according to Jungo Maruta, the president and chief executive of Madhouse. He told the New York Times, “Marvel gives creators freedom to fly.”

The first characters to undergo transformation will be Iron Man and Wolverine in thirty-minute anime intended for Japanese television in 2010. “Although they say, ‘I want Japanese anime,’ it’s not what they actually want. They want a hybrid between Japanese and Western animation,” Alex Yeh, the chief operating officer of the studio, told the Times.

“Marvel has continuously looked to push the boundaries with the Marvel Universe and seek new mediums for our characters. Madhouse is helping us expand the Marvel brand with a truly global vision tailored to themes and artistic styles popular in Japan, creating a uniquely localized and cross-cultural adaptation of the Marvel Universe,” said Simon Philips, President, International & Worldwide Head of Animation, Wireless & Gaming for Marvel Entertainment in a release.

Marvel previously attempted this concept with an India-inspired Spider-Man which was a commercial and critical flop from Gotham Entertainment Group in 2004.

Madhouse was founded in 1972 and is seen as a creative powerhouse in Asia, perhaps best known for its Vampire Hunter D.

 

Interview: Elizabeth Genco of ‘Comic Book Tattoo’ and ‘Blue’

  • News
  • August 25, 2008

cbt_coverjasonlevesque-3160861The past few months have brought a swell of attention to indie comics writer Elizabeth Genco, who scored a coup by having a story included in the Tori Amos Comic Book Tattoo collection from Image Comics, and then her graphic novel Blue — a modernization of the Bluebeard legend — sold well in part thanks to a plug from Brian Wood.

Genco took the time out of her busy schedule to chat with ComicMix about her music-infused projects and what it was like to work with an idol in Amos.

ComicMix: Let’s talk about the Tori Amos project first, since it’s the book of the moment. How did you get connected to that gig? Were you a fan of Amos previously?

Elizabeth Genco: I’ve been a fan of Tori’s for almost 15 years. Both she and her music have been hugely influential, especially in my creative life. Tori is very smart about how to create a creative career while staying true to your vision, and I learn from her. Of course, like many of her fans, her music has helped me through some dark times.

As for how I got involved, a few years ago, editor Rantz Hoseley and I got acquainted via Warren Ellis’ old board, The Enginge; he and I have been pals ever since. When he extended the invitation, I jumped onboard immediately.

CMix: How did you approach the assignment? Comics is such a visual medium, it’s not that common to hear creators be inspired by sound.

EG: I want to say that I’m not inspired by sound so much as I am by words — that is, lyrics. But the interesting thing about lyrics, of course, is that they take on a completely different meaning when you add the music. I would even go as far to say that 99 percent of the time, song lyrics are incomplete without the music. (Music is a huge influence on me, and I’ve aspired to be professional musician at several points in my life, especially when I was very young. So I’ve thought about this a lot, actually.)

Music inspires my writing quite often, and the process is usually the same. A line will capture my attention, and I’ll start noodling — following the thread, seeing where it goes. In this case, I decidedon the song and then went looking for that line.

As for the song itself ("Here. In My Head"), well, I spent all this time going through Tori’s catalog trying to find the right one before going, "Duh!" It’s been my favorite Tori song for years, so it wasthe obvious choice.

(more…)

Let’s Go Raise Us Some Dumb Kids, by Mike Gold

  • News
  • August 25, 2008

Lately, my wife Linda and I have been watching the Maverick reruns on one of the many Starz channels IDW’s owners foists upon our cable system. Maverick was one of the very few live-action teevee shows I enjoyed as a kid, and I’m amazed to discover that it is actually even better than I remembered it. The writing, in particular, was amazing – a standard rarely reached by broadcast television today.

Then Linda noticed something. The show was rated TV-14.

The television ratings system was proposed by Congress 12 years ago, caving in to a bunch of professional busybodies who firmly believe that we, unlike our parents and their parents, are too stupid to raise our own children without their blue-nosed “guidance.” I don’t know if it preceded the V-chip or not and I do not care to look it up: the V-chip allows parents to completely avoid the bother of being involved in their children’s television experience by having a slide of silicon do their thinking for them.

The idea behind the TV-14 rating was not that parents shouldn’t let their kids watch these shows. According to the guidelines, “Programs issued the TV-14 rating are usually unsuitable for children under the age of 14 without the guidance of a parent or guardian.” Please note that last phrase: “without the guidance of a parent or guardian.” Since it has been proven that today’s parents are too lazy or too stupid or too “busy” to provide such guidance, they can fire up their V-chip and let the teevee do all the heavy lifting, thereby denying their children such fine writing and acting on shows from 1957 such as Maverick. (more…)

ComicMix Columns & Features for the Week Ending August 24, 2008

  • News
  • August 24, 2008

The traditional summer vacation week has begun, with most family-types heading to familiar retreats and time shares before the kids return to school, while politicos gear up for their quadrennial conventions with pundits in tow. Gonna be a weird week, I’m thinking. But we’ll still be here, bringing you our regular columns and features. Here’s the roundup from this past week:

Loads and loads of hugs to our newly-hired news editor, Bob Greenberger! Want my old ComicMix business cards?

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Paul Levitz on Comics, DC and the State of the Industry

  • News
  • August 24, 2008

dclogo-00-5982662During San Diego Comic-Con, ICv2 conducted a fairly comprehensive interview with DC president/publisher Paul Levitz to chat about the state of the comics industry and the recent past, present and potential future. The interview was broken down into three parts, and each of them has some worthwhile questions and answers from DC’s head honcho.

From Part One, some frame of reference for the decision-making process when it comes to which characters/titles to put the spotlight on:

Some people think that Watchmen is a risky movie for presenting comics to a broad audience because it’s so dark. What are your thoughts on that?

The great successes are always the things that you can’t prove in advance will work or will not work. You get a Superman because it’s a departure from what was there before. There were ancestors of him in the creative process, but it represented a leap forward. And the same reason that my predecessors were nervous about putting him on the cover of every issue of Action Comics for the first few until they got the sales figures in, were the things that in part created the potential for him to be the breakaway at this time. I don’t think there’s a lot of mid-ground for Watchmen. I think it will either be very successful or it will be a passionate cult favorite. Everything we’re seeing so far indicates to me that we have a good shot at it being a breakaway.

From Part Two, an interesting observation of the economic status of what DC believes to be the typical comics buyer:

Do you predict any differences in how sales in the different channels will respond to the economic conditions?

The comic shop owners are still more vulnerable to the high intensity-high value customer. Luckily a high proportion of our customers are in industries that have been doing relatively well—high technology kinds of things tends to pop up fairly frequently in the descriptions of jobs in our field, so hopefully that’ll be sustaining. The bookstore side of the world, I think, is just vulnerable to all of the challenges that book publishing is having now. Even if the graphic novels are a very bright spot in their world, and they seem to be, book publishing is not having an easy time right now.

From Part Three, some insight regarding DC’s plans for webcomics and their Zuda program:

The screen is a powerful method of delivery for a younger generation and it’s going to be part of our business one way or another, hopefully in a very complementary fashion. I think we start doing print stuff on Zuda in early ‘09 in the current schedule. And that will be an interesting test to see how that translates over.

 

Review: ‘The Dead Boy Detectives’ by Bryan Talbot and Ed Brubaker

deadboy-3368922By my count, there are four good reasons to buy [[[The Sandman Presents: The Dead Boy Detectives]]], now out from Vertigo.

First, it’s cheap, at a slight $12.99 for some 100 pages of comics.

Second, it’s a heckuva good mystery yarn with plenty of occult elements.

Third, it’s part of The Sandman world, and there are plenty of readers who snap up anything associated with Neil Gaiman’s creation.

But the last — and, for me, best — reason to pick up the book is that it further illustrates Ed Brubaker’s dexterity as a writer. I’ve long said that the thing that makes him so talented is that if his name wasn’t on the cover of his comics, you wouldn’t be able to recognize him as the author (also, his books are all quite good).

Unlike a Grant Morrison, Warren Ellis or Brian Michael Bendis, Brubaker writes comics without stamping his voice all over them. And, in [[[The Dead Boy Detectives]]], he shows off a wholly new voice, slipping seamlessly into the world of the ghostly boy sleuths and their London setting.

Like all great P.I. stories, this one begins with a girl, then gets all weird with shriveled dead bodies, witches and immortal creeps. It’s not quite unpredictable yet manages to be surprising.

But, mostly, the great characterization of ghosts Charles and Edwin and their childish interplay is what makes this one a winner. Well, that and the other reasons listed above.

Van Jensen is a former crime reporter turned comic book journalist. Every Wednesday, he braves Atlanta traffic to visit Oxford Comics, where he reads a whole mess of books for his weekly Reviews. Van’s blog can be found at graphicfiction.wordpress.com.

Publishers who would like their books to be reviewed at ComicMix should contact ComicMix through the usual channels or email Van Jensen directly at van (dot) jensen (at) comicmix (dot) com.

‘Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe’ Joker: “Want to see a magic trick?”

  • News
  • August 23, 2008

At the Liepzig Games Convention, Midway had revealed the latest characters to appear in Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe. And is cool as it was to hear that Deathstroke the Terminator will be getting his videogame debut (we’re not counting the animated Teen Titans game), nothing beats game producer Hector Sanchez demonstrating the Joker’s fighting moves for the Game Trailers television show.

Proving once and for all that some DC characters will have finishing moves, the Joker shows how to end a fight with style. See for yourself below. (Warning: It’s rated “M” for a reason.)
 
 

‘Sandman’ Celebrating 20th

  • Uncategorized
  • August 23, 2008

This year marks the 20th anniversary for The Sandman, Neil Gaiman’s famed comic book series from Vertigo. And, no surprise, the DC imprint is putting out a bunch of Sandman material to celebrate.

We’ve already seen the anniversary poster (see below), and a few other projects and events were just announced.

The fourth volume of The Absolute Sandman, collecting the last 19 issues, comes out in November. The Sandman: Dream Hunters also comes out that moth, a four-part mini series with art from P. Craig Russell. And Vertigo is releasing a tarot deck set featuring Dave McKean’s covers from the series.

There will also be a CBLDF and DC Comics tribute and auction in New York on Nov. 8 at an undetermined location, and Chip Kidd of Pantheon will interview Gaiman at the 92nd Street Y in New York City on Nov. 9.

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For a list of characters in the poster, check out New York magazine’s Vulture blog, which originally posted the image.

ComicMix Radio: Why Is This Comic So Cool?

  • News
  • August 23, 2008

This is just one of the secrets we uncover as we talk to the people who move the coolest things on the planet, Heritage Auctions, plus:

  • The latest on the Watchmen battle
  • More Secret Invasion blow outs
  • Stargate:Atlantis goodbye and hello

So dig in your closet, find some old comics you want to sell and then Press the Button to hear from the experts!

And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via badgeitunes61x15dark-8086622 or RSS!

 

 

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Garth Ennis on “Battlefields”

  • News
  • August 23, 2008

bf-nightwitches01-cov-00-5127467Over at CBR, Kiel Phegley has provided the highlights of a nice conversation with writer Garth Ennis (Preacher, The Boys) about Dynamite Entertainment’s upcoming "Garth Ennis Month," which will feature the debut issue of a nine-part limited series titled Garth Ennis’ Battlefields. The World War II-themed series will unfold in three connected stories this October, the first of which will be titled The Night Witches and feature art by Russ Braun.

Here, Ennis explains the ties that bind the three stories together:

“If there is an element that unites the three stories — this is something I like to leave up to the reader, so I’ll keep it vague — it might be a look at various ways of approaching conflict, depending on who you are, where you come from, what you’re up against,” Ennis said. “How the Russians fought the Germans was not quite like how the British fought them, for instance, and how the British in turn fought the Japanese was different again.”

It would seem that the subject is a near and dear one to Ennis, as the writer offers up quite a few thoughts about his plans for the series, his creative process with regard to the each story’s schedule and the artists with whom he’ll share creative credit. He also gives credit where it’s due with respect to the subjects of the stories.

“If nothing else, the stories in Battlefields highlight the courage of people whose time has almost passed and whose stories are fading. ‘The Night Witches,’ for instance: young women in their teens and early twenties, flying obsolete biplanes at night against the most lethal military machine in the world, facing potentially catastrophic consequences should they be captured alive. Or ‘The Tankies,’ men going into battle against heavy odds, knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that the enemy has them outmatched and outgunned on every level, but doing it anyway. That, to me, is heroism, and that deserves to be acknowledged.”

For more on Battlefields, including some art from the series and the cover to issue #1 of Night Witches (a small version of which is posted here), head over to CBR.

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