Tagged: comics

Platinum Studios’ Financial Struggles

  • News
  • July 16, 2008

herobynightcover1-series-3205402

A lot of questions have been thrown around of late regarding the financial status of comics publisher Platinum Studios, especially after Hero by Night creator D.J. Coffman went public with news that he hadn’t been paid for work and was facing foreclosure.

I spent the past several weeks investigating Platinum’s finances and interviewing Coffman, Platinum President Brian Altounian and other sources.

What came up is that Platinum is in a precarious financial situation, in the red by more than $10 million. An independent auditor warned that the company is a serious threat to go under. You can read the article at Publishers Weekly right here.

Platinum indicated to me that they wouldn’t be giving any more interviews regarding the company’s finances or the situation with Coffman.

Platinum has created a blog, where they give the unedited transcript of my interview with Altounian. You can read that right here. I haven’t had a chance yet to check it against my record of the interview.

 

Catch ‘The Spirit’ Trailer While You Can

  • News
  • July 15, 2008

spiritposter-9585227The trailer to the upcoming The Spirit movie is set to debut at Comic-Con, but earlier today it leaked out early.

While it’s been taken down just about everywhere (including one of its last homes right here at Film School Rejects), reviews of the trailer are, well…

I am not sold on this movie just yet. I dig the concept, I loved the comic and I am also a fan of Frank Miller’s work, at least the kind he does on paper. This however, isn’t doing it for me. The dialog sounds awkward, the effects seem forced and over-the-top and I don’t know if it is going to be anything but another excuse to go heavy on the use of green screen to make a “innovative” comic book flick. I am wondering whether this will end up on the Sin City side of the spectrum or the Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow side. At this point, it is still too early to tell for sure.

What he said.

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San Diego Comic-Con: Everything You Need To Know And Then Some

  • News
  • July 15, 2008

comic_con_logo-6878829We’ve already posted several round-ups of where you can find information about tickets, programming and other concerns related to this year’s Comic-Con International in San Diego next weekend, and while I’ve been considering the idea of some sort of official guide to the show, I might be better off just directing you to the exhaustive "Guide to Visiting and Enjoying Comic-Con International" posted by Tom Spurgeon in May.

Sure, the article was published more than a month ago, but much of what it details holds true now — and if you’re like me, you’ve avoided thinking about anything related to "Nerd Prom" until you absoluely have to do so. It’s well worth the time it takes to read through the article, and offers up the sort of wisdom that only years upon years of attending the show tend to produce.

Among the topics Spurgeon addresses in his guide are "What to Prepare in Advance" and "Ways to Maximize Your Hotel Experience," as well as tips about the local transit service, notable sights and services, and a metric crap-ton of other helpful hints.

From "Eighteen Random Observations About San Diego Hotels":

The trend downtown is towards 1) boutique hotels that cost an arm and a leg with features to match, and 2) big-name luxury hotels that can ramp up their room prices to those levels. Soon, no one without a major film development deal will be able to afford a downtown hotel, and all the comics people will stay in a tent city north of the zoo, burning old copies of Star Comics to keep warm at night and staging gladiator-style fights between inkers vs. colorists for entertainment.

If you’re headed to San Diego, this is pretty much required reading, folks. Do yourself a favor and give it a read.

Viz Looking for New Properties

  • News
  • July 15, 2008

12901vizmedia_logo-lg-1795549Manga publisher Viz Media will be looking to take on new projects, and even possibly some non-Manga content, according to ICv2.

In a Q&A with Marc Weidenbaum and Eric Searleman, editor in chief and vice president respectively, ICv2 finds out more detail about these changes, and how they tie into Viz’s announced talent search at the San Diego Comic-Con.

Are you looking for manga-style properties?

If by "manga" you mean what is generally considered manga in the United States (fantasy and romance aimed at teenagers), then no. If by "manga" you mean what is meant by manga in Japan (a broad range of comics that emphasize serial storytelling, cliffhangers, reader feedback, a supportive editorial process, and a rich creator voice), then yes we are.

The story also addresses the difficulty in selling any non-Japanese content in the Japanese comics market:

Japan remains the toughest market for material from other countries to crack. But even that may be changing, as the U.S. subsidiary of the two largest manga companies in Japan begins its search for original comics. Viz Media’s Marc Weidenbaum, VP Original Publishing, and Eric Searleman, Senior Editor, the execs handling the search for original content answered in the affirmative when we asked whether there is American material that would sell well in Japan. “Certainly,” they said. “Both countries have their own rich, indigenous graphic-storytelling cultures. There are bridges yet to be built.”

(via Blog@)

SLG Editor: Enough Women in Refrigerators

  • News
  • July 14, 2008

slave-labor-graphics-logo-p-2430465For all the discussion about the role of women in comics — as creators and characters — apparently more needs to be said, at least judging from the submissions that come in to publisher Slave Labor Graphics.

SLG editor Jennifer de Guzman goes off in a new journal entry, deriding the material she’s seeing cross her desk.

Indie and alt comics are still much-dominated by male creators, and in these men’s minds, women serve as plot devices that aid in a male development’s character. The women are damaged and victimized and usually odd — like that hot, fucked-up chick in Fight Club, brah! — and I’m tired of them. Just in this month, only a week old now, I have seen women who have been lured into porn, women who are hookers who teach young men lessons about life, women who were raped by stepfathers, women who are bi-polar and suicidal, women who are naive and long-suffering girlfriends of scumbags, and women who seem pretty cool and normal and then get kidnapped in order for the male protagonists to have something to do by saving her. Women who are never the protagonist.

Guys, STOP IT. The cumulative effect of these crazy/victimized/damaged women submissions — almost every other envelope I’ve opened — has got me wanting to punch someone. And you know where that will lead me: In trouble with the law, I’ll slip into the underbelly of society, start a nasty meth habit, turn to prostitution and then have to be saved by the man who has always loved me. Don’t let it happen to me. You can be a hero.

(via Journalista)

‘X-Files’ Comic Preview at EW

  • News
  • July 14, 2008

9999_400x600-6040641The new X-Files movie comes out July 25, and that week also sees the debut of a tie-in comic book series from WildStorm.

Entertainment Weekly has a preview of X-Files #0, from series co-producer and co-writer Frank Spotnitz. Check that out right here.

The truth? It’ll be out there in theaters when The X-Files: I Want to Believe opens July 25. But thanks to Frank Spotnitz, the franchise’s coproducer and cowriter, it’ll also be available in comic-book form two days earlier, when DC’s The X-Files #0 hits stores. While the film takes place after the TV series’ end, Spotnitz’s title (illustrated by Iron Man: Hypervelocity‘s Brian Denham) is fully ensconced in buzzy season 5, with Special Agent Dana Scully’s cancer in attack mode, and her FBI partner, Fox Mulder, initially on the lam, probing Scully’s illness as well as surreptitious alien types.

Issue #0 is a story Spotnitz always wanted to tell, but never had a chance to. And it will, in fact, springboard into a few original comics miniseries set throughout seasons 2 and 5 of the show. Also, these tales will feature a familiar evil force. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. To jump-start the X-Files’ long-awaited resurrection, DC and Spotnitz have given EW.com this exclusive first look at pages from The X-Files #0.

A funny little side note: DC posted a news item about this on its home page, right here. But if you click the link, you’re taken to this wholly unrelated site.

Looks like Grant Morrison’s insiduous usurpation of DC is much farther along than we’d thought.

Animated ‘Invincible’ on the Way, Sort Of

  • News
  • July 14, 2008

While Robert Kirkman is still working away on the screenplay for the movie adaptation of Invincible, his superhero is headed toward screens in another way. Very small screens, that is.

According to a story in the New York Times, David Gale, the executive VP of MTV New Media, is developing along with Gain Enterprises a somewhat animated version of Invincible. It’ll appear on iTunes, cell phones and MTV2.

The process starts with digital scans of the actual comic book pages. They are turned into an audio-visual experience through a process called Bomb-xx developed by Gain. In the end, the formerly two-dimensional comic book suddenly pulses with music, while word balloons pop up and fill in as actors recite the dialogue and panels zoom in and out and pivot in all directions. The frenetic energy is not unlike that of an MTV video.

Of all the comics to “animate,” why start with Invincible? “When you’re looking for a movie property or television property, first and foremost you look for a great story,” Mr. Gale said. “It’s a single creator following a great story arc.”

First six episodes will be previewed at Comic-Con International.

Could Gisele and Friends Make Comics Too Cool?

  • News
  • July 14, 2008

Writing in the Scotsman (which has become one heck of a paper for comics coverage, if only for regular appearances of Mark Millar’s nonsense), Stephen McGinty reflects on more than 20 years of buying comics in Glasgow, and he looks forward to the medium’s potential oversaturation.

Flicking through this month’s edition of Vogue (the American edition, much classier), I came upon the pictures from a recent fashion bash in New York which was styled on a superhero theme and had supermodels and fashion writers extolling the virtues of their favourite comic-book character. When Anna Wintour starts regaling us about superheroes it’s time for the backlash to begin. The comic book should never be too cool. It’s at its best when mocked and derided and will only topple off any pedestal on to which it is raised. The brilliance of the spotlight focused on comics will lead to burn-out. Comics thrive best in the shadows to which, I hope, they will soon return.

In case you’re curious about the event, which was a superhero-themed ball at the Met, the New York Times covered it well. Here’s a classic exchange (and one that makes me think supermodels being interested in superheroes isn’t all bad:

Then Gisele Bündchen (in Versace), passed by, saying, “I want to take that Wonder Woman costume down and wear it right now, but it would probably be too revealing.” Her escort, Tom Brady (in Tom Ford), quickly commented, “I want her to wear the Wonder Woman outfit.”

Zombie: ‘Werewolf Women of the SS’ Comic Coming

  • News
  • July 14, 2008

l_f7d551d6b0f7c0cdf13985b802522f07-1546089After the Grindhouse doubleheader films came out in theater, one of the big questions was whether any of the movie trailers for fake films would lead to real movies.

There’s no Machete on the way yet, but at least one of the properties will be expanded. Just not into a movie.

Cinematical reports that Werewolf Women of the SS, Rob Zombie’s contributed trailer, will be made into a comic book series. Zombie broke the news himself on his MySpace page:

Werewolf Women of the SS is back! This time it’s back as a comic book series! The wacky exploits of Commandant Hess, Lt. Boorman, Von Strasser Eva and Gretchen Krupp, Fu Manchu and even Hiltler will be coming you way. Everything you ever wanted to know about Project Pure Wolf but were afraid to ask!

No word on a publisher yet. Zombie previously worked with Dark Horse on The Nail and IDW on Bigfoot.

Review: ‘The ACME Novelty Date Book, Vol. 2’ by Chris Ware

The ACME Novelty Date Book, Vol. 2: 1995-2002
By Chris Ware
Drawn & Quarterly, December 2007, $39.95

In typical Chris Ware fashion, this is an attractively (and extensively) packaged book – so much so, in fact, that what this book precisely is isn’t immediately clear. Is it some kind of notebook, journal, or calendar, perhaps? No, it’s Ware’s sketchbook, or perhaps selected pages from that sketchbook, from the years in the title.

Drawn & Quarterly published the first volume of the “[[[ACME Novelty Date Book]]]” in 2003, which included sketchbook pages from 1986 through 1995. That book covered most of Ware’s twenties, starting when he was in college in Austin, Texas and following him forward as he developed the early ACME characters and themes. That first book also had a wide variety of materials; Ware was young and trying out different art styles, but he’d mostly settled down into his current mode by 1995.

So Vol. 2, as Ware mentions himself partway through it, is mostly made up of three kinds of entries: drawings from life, journal entries, and some short comics strips (mostly autobiographical). There are also some sketches and ideas for [[[ACME Novelty Library]]], and the occasional joke or reference to older comics, but, mostly, it’s those big three.

(more…)

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