In today’s brand new episode of White Viper, by Erin Holroyd, Dick Giordano and Frank McLaughlin, the bandits return to town, and Ta Moa must decide how to deal with them. Will he be able to defend the girl he rescued? Does she need defending? What can one man do against a violent gang?
Credits: Erin Holroyd (Writer), Dick Giordano (Penciller), Frank McLaughlin (Inker), Lovern Kindzierski (Colorist), John Workman (Letterer), Mike Gold (Editor)
ICv2 reports that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull will be released on DVD the second week of October. Much like Iron Man, which hits shelves on September 30, the quick turnaround time on the Indiana Jones DVD is part of an effort to generate long-term sales in a crowded DVD market this fall. The fourth Indiana Jones film was the highest-grossing film in the franchise, earning $770 million worldwide.
According to ICv2, the DVD will find its way to shelves in three versions:
The Single-Disc version comes with two extras, "The Return of a Legend,” a feature about the evolution of the new film, and “Pre-Production,” a mini-documentary that follows director Steven Spielberg as he creates animatronic sequences and Shia LeBoeuf as he learns to swordfight. The 2-disc Special Edition contains a host of additional extras created with the collector and the serious fan in mind including “Production Diary: Making Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” a major behind-the-scenes look at all facets of the production, plus seven additional featurettes about various aspects of the filming process (special effects, action sequences, etc.), a special feature about Stan Winston Studio’s contribution to the film, plus galleries galore, production photographs, portraits, storyboards, set sketches and more.
ICv2 also points out that the trio of recent Indiana Jones-themed comics published by Dark Horse in recent months (the adaptation of Crystal Skull and two Indiana Jones omnibus projects) have been selling well, and the DVD release might mean good things for the publisher in October.
Imagine if comic books had trailers like movies and TV shows to build up buzz and get mainstream audiences excited. Now imagine no more! DC Comics released a movie-style trailer for the new weekly comic Trinity. Starring Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, the series is being written by Kurt Busiek and drawn by Mark Bagley. Check out the video for yourself below.
Over at MTV’s new comics blog Splash Page, Grant Morrison, Mark Waid, Brad Meltzer and other comic professionals have provided some thoughts on how they think the Superman film franchise should be handled. For some, it’s simply a matter of treaing Superman Returns like Ang Lee’s Hulk opus and moving on to the next reboot.
According to the article, Morrison and another creator well-known for his Superman savvy, Geoff Johns, have already pitched DC/Warner Bros. on how to get the franchise up, up and away:
“I told them, it’s not that bad,” Morrison said. “Just treat ‘Superman Returns’ as the Ang Lee ‘Hulk.’”
“‘The Hulk’ has proven the audience will forgive you and let you redo the franchise,” Waid said. “You can reboot from scratch.”
Morrison’s idea was a more “tight and concise” take on his “All-Star Superman,” so you’d see Superman address his mortality.
My favorite part of the article, however, had to Morrison’s take on why Superman Returns failed to make the franchise, well… return.
“The idea was to make an American Christ figure, but what they centered on was his weakness,” Morrison said. “They made him more a lamb of God, rather than give us a real powerful Superman. They had too many scenes where he’s being kicked to the floor, and that’s not Superman. Superman would get up and fight.”
Head over to Splash Page for more thoughts from Morrison, Waid, Meltzer and other creators on the best way to get ol’ spitcurl back on the big screen.
A few years back, Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón came up with the novel idea of retelling the 9/11 Commission Report
Now they’re back with something of a sequel, After 9/11: America’s War on Terror
I really only have one criticism. The book is labeled “graphic journalism,” which is a bit of a misnomer. The creators did no original reporting, as far as I can tell, instead researching media reports for their information.
It’s really an illustrated work of history, an encompassing paper-bound documentary of the past seven years in American foreign policy. Which is to say it’s a pretty depressing read.
The creators organize their collection of news reports and government documents in chronological form, as the U.S. launches its invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, the latter through no small part of deception.
Last weekend, New York City had its annual Del Close marathon. I’m sure our esteemed editor Mike Gold and my fellow columnist John Ostrander were somewhere about, if only in spirit. I was home doing housework, lounging about and occasionally glancing at the Olympics. Which can be tough, by the way, if you’ve got a female gaze. I do wish the men’s and women’s sports getups bore a bit more resemblance to each other, kinda like the outfits most of the countries wore during the Parade of Nations.
But instead we have women’s volleyball team uniforms, for both the indoor and beach variety, that consist of either porn-movie short-shorts or bikini bottoms, while the guys get to wear nice loose regulation exercise-type shorts. I cry unfair! Butt shot after butt shot, and the only time my prurient interest is slightly catered to is when it rains and the boys’ clothes start to lovingly cling to them… er. Ahem. Where was I? Oh yeah, and what’s with the creepy male coaches for all the women’s teams? In this day and age that’s as unseemly as me drooling over young nubile volleyball-playing boys… Uh. Well.
So, I’ve been sitting here improv’ing on my computer keyboard. I do that a lot. Maybe it’s the writer’s version of riffing on a jazz tune. Or was that reefering? I’m so not hep. Robin says our marriage sometimes feels like a never-ending improv routine. I think the best marriages ought to be like that, with two well-matched partners constantly playing off each other. Of course, as accident-prone as I am, I could wish my particular situation involved more wit and less slapstick, but there you are. (more…)
Kurt Busiek’s brain is about average-sized, I assume. And yet it contains this entire city, detailed down to every last resident’s personality and scrap of trash in the street.
His mastery of [[[Astro City]]] is on full display in the latest collection of the WildStorm series, The Dark Age
We’ve seen plenty of examples of superhero stories told in a down-to-earth way, or viewed from the average man’s perspective, maybe most notably in Busiek’s acclaimed [[[Marvels]]] with Alex Ross (who provides the killer cover at right). Neither of those elements is what sets Astro City apart, though they fuel its success.
Rather, its the depth to which Busiek explores the brothers’ lives (and those of everyone else). Charles and Royal Williams go through childhood tragedy and end up on opposite ends of the law.
Each is plagued in his own way by the super-powered element, with the bombastic battles tearing Astro City apart.
This is pretty much the contest that defines the term "revamp," folks. Harris Comics and the Project: Rooftop crew are looking for aspiring artists to redesign the buxom bombshell Vampirella and win a variety of prizes provided by the Vampirella publisher. Vampirella is celebrating her 40th anniversary next year (not bad for a 40-something, eh?) and interested artists can win the following:
Grand Prize (1) –
The winning entry will appear as a pinup in a future issue of Vampirella, and receive two comics signed respectively by Joe Jusko and Dan Brereton.Second Prize (1) –
A Vampirella wall poster illustrated by Jose Gonzalez, and receive two comics signed respectively by Joe Jusko and Dan Brereton.Third Prize (1) –
A Vampirella T-shirt illustrated by Stephen Segovia, and receive two comics signed respectively by Joe Jusko and Dan Brereton.In addition to these prizes, the finalists selected by the judges will also be up on a fan poll at Vampirella.com for the "Fan Selection" prize of a limited edition Vampirella print.
The judges for the contest are a trio of notable Vampirella names, including original Vampirella costume designer Trina Robbins, frequent series artist Joe Jusko and upcoming Vampirella Quarterly artist Dan Brereton. Send in your submissions to projectrooftop@gmail.com, with the subject line: "ReVamp" — and keep your fingers crossed.
Look for the adventures of Max, Angel, Fang, Iggy and the rest of the flock to hit the big screen in 2010 as Columbia Pictures acquires the rights to James Patterson wildy successful young adult series, Maximum Ride. Steering the transition is producer Avi Arad, no stranger to the genre coming off Marvel films such as Spider-Man, X-Men and Iron Man.
The Maximum Ride stories are spun-off from characters from two of James Patterson’s successful his adult novels, When the Wind Blows and The Lakehouse. These human/avian hybrids, which have been genetically engineered are all close to their teens, and not too dissimilar from the basic elements that are the core of the original X-Men. There are currently four Maximum Ride titles in print: The Angel Experiment, School’s Out Forever, Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports and The Final Warning. Book Five, Waterwings, is scheduled to hit shelves in March 2009.
Starting next year, there will also be a series of Maximum Ride graphic novels in manga form from Yen Press. A 22 page preview was released earlier this year on Free Comic Book Day.
When ComicMix met James Patterson in 2007, we asked him how long he planned for the series to last, Patterson told us that he would "keep going (with series) until (the characters) don’t have anything else to do." Patterson is also strongly involved in efforts to get children reading; you can see his latest efforts here.
The controversy over just who should see The Dark Knight heats up in the UK, while over here we hide out at the comic shop among a stack of great new trades out this week, plus:
And here at ComicMix Radio we believe if you are old enough to Press the Button then you are old enough to listen!
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Columns / Glenn Hauman / News
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