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Marketing The Dark Knight After Heath Ledger’s Death

  • News
  • January 25, 2008

There’s been a lot of talk about how the death of Heath Ledger will affect The Dark Knight, but there hasn’t been much response from the studios or producers thus far. Will million-dollar plans get scrapped? Will posters featuring The Joker be removed and/or discontinued? Will they scrap the entire film and just start all over again from scratch??

Okay, so the last question was never really an issue, but you get the idea.

Well, we wish we had all of the answers for you, but we don’t. Instead, we have this article from The Wall Street Journal that manages to get a few quotes from powerful people about the marketing plans for The Dark Knight. However, what really caught our eye about this article was the comprehensive look it provides at the marketing timeline for the film and how all of the bits and pieces fit into a much grander puzzle.

At the defaced Harvey Dent Web page, fans could get a code that allowed them to remove a piece of the overlying image. As more fans participated, Mr. Dent disappeared pixel by pixel, displaying the first official photo of Mr. Ledger’s Joker: a grim white face appearing out of the darkness with dead eyes and an erratic, ruby smile carved into his cheeks.

Not only does it have a long list of sites you can visit for all of the film’s viral-marketed fun, but it also places the information in semi-chronological order – so you can trace the course of the viral campaign at your own pace.

Conan Continues On

  • News
  • January 25, 2008

Conan the Barbarian may be 75 years old, but he can still kick the butts of comics’ youngsters all over town.

From a new coffee-table book and a growing interest in his 1970s stories to the possibility of a new feature film and an upcoming series relaunch, Publishers Weekly provides a nice look at the goings-on in the world of Conan with this recent article.

Among the notable Conan-conscious events set to take place in ’08 is the aforementioned relaunch of Dark Horse Comics’ Conan series, with the current series ending in March at issue #50 and then a new series, Conan the Cimmerian, beginning in June. The new series will be written by ComicMix’s own Timothy Truman and illustrated by Tomas Giorelloand and Richard Corben. It will be edited by Philip Simon.

“With Conan 47–50, readers will see Conan has come to the end of his carefree years as a thief. He’s about to enter the mercenary years. But first, he decides to take a trip back to his homeland, Cimmeria,” Truman said. “His first wanderings into the lands south and east of Cimmeria have been filled with all sorts of nastiness and betrayal and have left a sour taste in his craw. So, he decides to pay a visit back home—just like most teenagers after they take their first stab at the world. (No pun intended, of course.) When he gets there, he finds that he views the place with different eyes, and that people are the same all over.”

The PW crew also chats with Paul Sammon, the writer of the recently released Conan the Phenomenon, a coffee-table hardcover compendium of all things Conan, and investigates the possibility of another Conan feature film.

Marvel Studios Settles with WGA

  • News
  • January 25, 2008

United Hollywood, the news blog founded by a group of Writers Guild of America strike captains, is reporting that the WGA has signed an interim agreement with Marvel Studios " that will put writers immediately back to work on the Marvel Studios development slate."

Marvel Studios chairman David Maisel said that they "look forward to resuming work with writers on our future projects including Captain America, Thor, Ant-Man, and The Avengers."

Ant-Man?  Seriously?

The WGA also signed an interim agreement with independent film studio Lionsgate, whose upcoming work includes Rambo,  Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns, Forbidden Kingdom, Punisher 2, and The Spirit.

This Is Not My Column, by John Ostrander

  • News
  • January 25, 2008

Editor’s note: Due to a completely unrelated attack from the Ether Bunny, this column was supposed to run yesterday. It’s just as swell today, but if you’re looking for Michael Davis’s column, well, it was run yesterday. However, when you’re done reading this, go read Michael by clicking here. Thank you.
 
There are days when I hate writing, just hate it, and this day and this moment is one of them.
 
Why? Because nothing is working. Absolutely nothing. I have, as of this moment, five different versions of this column in the works including this one. I don’t like any of them. I’m presently reduced to writing about how the writing is not going well. Sad, Isn’t it? Not something in which I’m likely to get a lot of sympathy for, though. I mean, a lot of people have to get up and go into jobs that they may not care for. They do it day in, day out, week in, week out, month in, month out and so on. Maybe they don’t ever get to love their job. I mean, I make my living writing comics. That should be fun, right?
 
Not today. Today I’m in hell.
 
Most days I really do love what I do. I get paid pretty nice for it. I have a really quick commute, from the kitchen into the back bedroom, which serves as the office. We had friends who lived with us for awhile and, in the morning, I’d wave to them as they went to work and announce I was beginning my commute, too. And then I amble away. They recently allowed how they wanted to kill me at those moments. I knew that. It was part of the smug job satisfaction.
 

(more…)

Lost TV Meets Marvel Comics

  • News
  • January 24, 2008

The new season of Lost begins January 31, but leave it to the creators behind one of the most successfully marketed shows on television to find yet another way to cross-pollinate its addictive mysteries.

Beginning with issues shipping yesterday, January 23, references to the hit TV series will be popping up in the pages of Marvel comics such as Uncanny X-Men, Incredible Hercules, Thunderbolts and Wolverine: Origins. The references will continue with issues shipping January 30.

Among the things to look out for, Marvel has indicated that a Lost poster and the phrase "Find yourself" will pop up here and there throughout the issues.

We’re just hoping that Nikki and Paolo don’t start making cameos in Marvel comics, too. shudder

(Don’t get the joke? Watch the show, dangit!)

 

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Jamal Igle Talks Teen Titans

  • News
  • January 24, 2008

55tt2x-4292109No stranger to drawing the up-and-coming among DC’s superheroes, Jamal Igle takes a turn on the publisher’s premiere teen team with Teen Titans #55.

In this interview with The Pulse, Igle discusses how to avoid playing favorites when you’re working on an ensemble book, but still names the characters he looks forward to drawing and the characters he’s, well… "still getting a handle on."

He also provides some insight about the ways in which the characters resemble ladies he once dated.

I have to admit out of the current roster my two favorite characters to draw are Ravager and Kid Devil. KD has a great visual look but as far as character traits, Rose Wilson is such a wild card type character. She reminds me of girls I dated in the past, someone who is searching for her place in the world. She was raised in a brothel until Slade Wilson found her, and then he used her and abandoned her. So she tries to hard to be difficult and provocative. I’ve seen it so many times.

Seriously, though… Who hasn’t dated a girl or two who grew up in a brothel, was rescued by a deadly mercenary, trained to become his heir, gouged out her own eye as a form of tribute and eventually decided to reform and become one of the good (albeit somewhat psychopathic) guys?

New Iron Man Movie Photo, Toys Debut

  • News
  • January 24, 2008

Marvel Studios has released yet another teaser shot (seen here) from the Iron Man film set to hit theaters May 2, but they’re not the only ones riding the Iron Man promotional bandwagon this week.

Hasbro recently launched a new "Iron Man’s Hall of Armor" website that will debut a new figure from the upcoming Iron Man movie toy line each week. The first two figures, "Iron Man Mark III" and "Iron Man Mark I," are already on display.

The Hasbro site also features links to animated "webisodes" featuring Iron Man.

 

The Dark Knight – Go or No? ComicMix Radio Has the Story

The untimely death of actor Heath Ledger has put the future of Warner Brother’s Batman sequel, The Dark Knight, in question. ComicMix Radio has the latest on this growing story.

Plus:
• You know him from Power Pack and Franklin Richards – now find out what writer Marc Summerac is reading these days
• Start the search: there are two rare variants coming from Marvel, including one for X-Force
• Image goes for round two with Frank Frazetta
 
On Saturday, catch ComicMix Radio for our exclusive interview with the late Heath Ledger, where just weeks ago, in his own words, he explains his reasons for taking on the role of The Joker -–a part that some Hollywood insiders feel was just too dark. 
 
Meantime, just Press The Button and we’ll hit your speakers!

 

Or subscribe to our podcasts via iTunes or RSS!

 

Y: The Last Man Concludes

  • News
  • January 24, 2008

It’s been difficult to ignore all of the hub-bub concerning Brian K. Vaughan’s long-running series Y: The Last Man drawing to a close this week. But seriously, why would you want to?

Of course, "Y: The Last Party" on February 8 will no doubt provide the best seat in the house for celebrating the end of such a great series – and the fact that the event is raising funds for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, well, that’s just a little good-karma bonus. Heck, even Joss Whedon will be there!

However, if you’re like me and can’t get a ticket (or a flight) to the big blast, you’ve had to make do with reading all of the great coverage the conclusion of Y is receiving. Take, for instance, this piece from The Portland Mercury that includes all sorts of fun comments from Vaughan about his work on Y, as well as other projects.

Chances are Y‘s audience never knew they wanted a genre-defying book that’d somehow blend Star Trek references with socio-sexual politics. Y‘s disparate but graceful mix is echoed in another of Vaughan’s books, Ex Machina, about a superhero mayor of New York. "Ex Machina was probably born out of watching the political debates and thinking, ‘This would be so much better if someone just had a jetpack!’" Vaughan says. "I guess I have always [balanced] being intellectually curious and just a dumb kid who just wants to see ray guns and ninjas and pirates. It’s never been like, ‘Oh, I’ll be able to sneak in something really smart if I hide it behind pirates and these other trappings!’ That’s just who I am. I like that balance of both the profound and the profoundly ridiculous."

I guess the owner of my local comic book shop was on to something when, six years ago, I asked for a recommendation to fill out my weekly stack and he tossed me a copy of Y: The Last Man #1.

 

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