Tagged: Dark Horse

‘Suicide Squad’ coming to the silver screen

  • News
  • February 26, 2009

DC Comics’ Suicide Squad is on its way to the most dangerous mission yet– to Hollywood. Warner Bros. has hired screenwriter Justin Marks to adapt the property for the movies. (Does that make the contract he signed a Suicide pact?)

The current version of the Squad was created by ComicMix contributors John Ostrander and editor Robert Greenberger, introduced in the 1986 Legends miniseries, edited by Mike Gold. The revolutionary concept was to mix super villains and fallen heroes, giving them one last shot at redemption by the government by undertaking missions that will most likely kill them. Spinning off from Legends, the series lasted for 66 issues, and spurred a 12-issue maxiseries in 2000 and Ostrander returned for an eight issue mini-series in 2007. The particular characters involved have yet to be determined, but strong candidates include Amanda Waller, Rick Flag, Bronze Tiger (who just appeared in an episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold) and Deadshot.

Marks, who is doing a rewrite of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea for Disney, also wrote the Green Arrow comic-book movie project Supermax, which could conceivably connect with Suicide Squad as they both take place at Belle Reve prison. John Ostrander is currently writing Star Wars: Legacy for Dark Horse and GrimJack and Munden’s Bar for ComicMix.

I just got off the phone with John Ostrander, who had just heard about the project this morning. He’s looking forward to seeing what happens next.

Me, I’m looking forward to DC reconsidering whether or not to put out those Suicide Squad reprint collections now. Hint hint.

‘Ultimatum’ #1 #1 in November

  • News
  • December 16, 2008

ultimatum1-2-3640885The November numbers are in and ICv2 notes that sales of the top 300 titles fell 11% compared with a year ago.  They note that with DC Comics and Marvel Comics skipping issues of Secret Invasion, Final Crisis, New Avengers, Mighty Avengers, Astonishing X-Men, and Justice League of America, there’s little wonder.

Only two titles — Marvel’s Ultimatum #1 and DC’s Batman #681 – cracked the 100,000 unit marks based on numbers provided by Diamond Comics Distributors, the fewest since March.

Marvel had 14 of the top 25 titles, DC 10, and Dark Horse one. 

Looking over the list, it’s interesting to note that beyond events and new titles, several mainline books continue to bring in readers because the content seems to be consistently entertaining month after month as exemplified by Amazing Spider-Man and Captain America being in the Top 10. The most popular creators do seem to translate to best sales making it all the more important for creative team consistency month to month.

Here are ICv2’s estimates of the sales by Diamond Comic Distributors to comic stores on the top 25 comic titles in November:

114,230           Ultimatum #1
103,151           Batman #681 (RIP)
  90,776           Hulk #8
  88,910           Wolverine #69
  77,773           Uncanny X-Men #504
  76,625           Amazing Spider-Man #577
  75,493           Captain America #44
  74,202           Buffy the Vampire Slayer #19
  72,862           JSA: Kingdom Come Special Superman #1
  71,355           Justice Society of America #20
  69,522           Batman: Cacophony #1
  68,956           Amazing Spider-Man #576
  66,564           Amazing Spider-Man #578
  64,196           Detective Comics #850 (RIP)
  63,512           X-Men Legacy #218
  61,331           Fantastic Four #561
  58,547           Action Comics #871
  58,279           Dark Tower: Treachery #3
  57,241           X-Force #9
  57,205           JSA: Kingdom Come Special Kingdom #1
  56,931           Final Crisis: Resist #1
  56,224           Avengers / Invaders #6
  55,560           JSA: Kingdom Come Special Magog #1

Review: ‘Abe Sapien: The Drowning’ and ‘B.P.R.D.: 1946’

abe-sapien-drowning12-5691492

It’s always a bit sad when someone quits a job, especially a well-loved and -trusted colleague who did a huge amount of the work. Sure, you’ll all take him out to lunch on his last day (or as close to it as you can manage), but that’s for his benefit. The next Monday, you all have to go back to work, and try to make up for what he used to do as well as you can.

Hellboy has been gone from the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Development for a while, now – since 2001, though the stories take place in various eras and times – and they’re still trying to make up for the loss. In an office, that would just entail some cursing, some longer hours, and a lot of questions about how to fill out the TPS forms. But for the B.P.R.D., there’s the little matter of saving the world without a nearly indestructible red guy with a sledgehammer for a right hand leading the way.

Since [[[Hellbo]]]y left the B.P.R.D., Dark Horse has published an increasingly proliferating array of stories set in the same world: an ongoing sequence of B.P.R.D. miniseries, and then short series about Lobster Johnson and Abe Sapien.

This year has already seen the Lobster Johnson trade paperback, and eighth volumes of both Hellboy and B.P.R.D. (which I reviewed together back in June), and now there are two more Hellboy-universe books to keep us busy.

[[[Abe Sapien: The Drowning]]]
Story by Mike Mignola; Art by Jason Shawn Alexander
Dark Horse, September 2008, $17.95

Abe has been at the center of several B.P.R.D. stories before, but this was the first time he got his name in the title – it’s a flashback story, set in 1981, when Hellboy was on an extended leave from the B.P.R.D. but supernatural mysteries still needed investigating.

B.P.R.D. head Trevor Bruttenholm had recently discovered that a British supernatural agent had used a rare and powerful Lipu Dagger to kill the evil Dutch warlock Epke Vrooman in 1884, near the Atlantic coast of France. Vrooman’s remains and the dagger are at the bottom of the sea, in a shipwreck. But surely an amphibious man wouldn’t have any trouble in diving down and retrieving the dagger?

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Jane Espenson Tries Her Hand at Comic Book Scripting

  • News
  • November 28, 2008

Jane Espenson has written comedy and drama, science fiction and horror, and blogs regularly about the script writing process.  Having just written for Dark Horse’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic, she wrote about the process and does a nice job summarizing it for the curious.

Summing up the experience, she wrote, “I got to weigh in on preliminary drawings and even colors during the latest issue I wrote, and it’s fascinating, seeing it all come together. Comic books feel both very autonomous and very collaborative at the same time — it begins entirely under your control, without the limitations of a filmed production, and it ends entirely in the hands of others. It’s one of the most satisfying final products, too, for a TV writer, since it’s both a physical object and a lot faster than a novel.”

Espenson recently left the completed Battlestar Galactica for Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse.
 

Scott Allie Talks ‘Buffy’

  • News
  • November 27, 2008

Scott Allie, Dark Horse’s editor charged with the Buffyverse, spoke with Fantasy News about his work on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The comic is essentially season eight of the WB/UPN series, continuing the storyline of Buffy Summers and her pals.

“Well, the advantage of the comic is that there’s less interference between Joss and the reader.,” Allie noted. “Less for him to overcome to get his vision across. The advantage of the show is that you have the actors, who the fans love as much or more than they love Joss, and you have the infinitely popular medium of television to deliver the Buffy preview stories. That’s speaking in terms of clear pluses or minuses. The differences, I guess, are extraordinary. Sound and motion exist in one, a near total freedom from the dull constraints of reality in the other. The two artforms have so little in common, it’s hard to move from one to the other. I think the writers who worked on the Buffy show — and I said this before Season Eight — have an incredible capacity to switch over. I said that before Season Eight, because I was doing everything I could to work with those writers, including on other properties. Doug Petrie wrote Star Wars for me, and Jane Espenson wrote The Lone Gunmen, the X-Files spinoff. Because they’re just great visual writers.”

Whedon has written stories but then brought in other writers of his choosing and oversees everything that happens while prepping the February 13 debut of Dollhouse on Fox. “His role as Exec Producer seems to fit,” Allie said. “He did have a hard time finding time to write the end of the Fray arc, but he’s been holding down the fort on supervising the other writers and artists pretty well.”

Allie went on to reveal that Faith and Giles, last seen in Brian Vaughn’s story arc, will be seen in Buffy #24, written by Jim Krueger (Avengers/Invaders).

Elsewhere in the Whedonverse, Allie said, “More Firefly comics are in the works — hopefully two different minis over the next year or so. Dollhouse, we’re still discussing with Joss. And by still discussing, I mean waiting until the time is right. No immediate plans there.”
 

October Comics Sales Soften

  • News
  • November 20, 2008

secret-invasion-7-2-6303333As the economy went into free fall, ICv2 notes that October sales have shown some slippage. From their just released list of the top 25 titles, just two showed signs of improvement over September sales. One was Amazing Spider-Man #573 which featured the faux-Stephen Colbert for President cover while the other was Batman #680, the penultimate chapter to Batman RIP.

Despite somewhat stagnant sales, the dollars sold in to comic stores were up a “robust” 9% compared with a year ago, according to the industry watchdog. September and October were the first positive months for comic sales since January.  Of course, more titles were retailing last month at $3.99, rapidly becoming a standard, as opposed to last October. ICv2 did note that the unit sales for the title charting in the 300th position was 4200 compared with 3000 just twelve months ago which they interpret as a sign of overall industry strength.

Graphic novel sales showed an increase of just 5% compared with last October.  Combined with comic book sales, that creates an 8% total increase.

The site notes that the company crossovers, Secret Invasion #7 (154,675 copies) and Final Crisis #4 (115,666 copies) took the first two spots on the list. Marvel had seven of the top 10 and 17 of the first 25 with DC taking the balance. IDW’s G.I. Joe relaunch  and Angel: After the Fall were the first non-Top Two titles to crack the top 100 list coming in at 65th and 66th place. This further cements IDW’s fourth place standing among comic book publishers, after Dark Horse and now ahead of Image.

In graphic novels, DC’s Joker by Brian Azzarello, took first place with an estimated 17,000 copies sold, also nabbing the top spot for dollars earned. Marvel’s best seller for the month was the Marvel Zombies trade paperback, which likely hit the top Marvel spot given its three variant covers. Wile Watchmen slipped from first place to sixth, its 6000 copies remains impressive given its age.
 

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George Perez, Geoff Johns, Jim Lee Added as NY Comic-Con Guests of Honor

  • News
  • November 16, 2008

nycc09-logo-ff-7082884Two more notable comic book celebrities will be joining the festivities at New York Comic Con (NYCC) this year as Guests of Honor. Affording thousands of fans the opportunity to meet them in person, Geoff Johns, who is well-known as a comic book writer of a number of DC Comics characters, including Superman, Green  Lantern and the Flash as well as for his work as a screenwriter; and superstar artist Jim Lee, known for his acclaimed artistic runs on titles including BATMAN, ALL STAR BATMAN and WILDCATS, will be attending NYCC to help launch the new Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing game, DC Universe Online (DCUO), produced by Sony Online Entertainment for PLAYSTATION 3 in collaboration with DC Comics and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. 

Both Johns and Lee will be signing autographs and they will conduct a large DC Universe Online event on Saturday, February 7, 2009.  New York Comic Con will take place at the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York City, February 6 – 8, 2009.  

“Having both Jim Lee and Geoff Johns at our show is a great ‘get’ under any circumstance, but it’s especially cool to have them here to as part of DC Universe Online,” notes Lance Fensterman, Vice President and Con Manager for NYCC. “They will do a fabulous job entertaining our fans and I know that they will attract huge crowds, not only for autographs but also for their demonstration.  I am enormously grateful to them for participating in New York Comic Con and we’re pleased to have them as Guests of Honor.” 

“Jim and Geoff represent two of the top talents in comics, so it only makes sense that they’d transfer those skills to the gaming world,” said Dan DiDio, SVP and Executive Editor for DC Comics. “It’s a perfect fit to have them named Guests of Honor at New York Comic Con.”

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IDW to Adapt ‘Astro Boy’

  • News
  • November 13, 2008

astroboy-cgi-1-5644041IDW Comics has announced it has obtained the license for comics based on the Astro Boy movie. They intend to publish two comic miniseries tied to the film, according to IDW Editor in Chief Chris Ryall.  The CGI-animated movie will be opening next October in a release said to be planned for 3000 screens and the comics are currently envisioned as a four-part prequel and a four-part adaptation of the film.  The first issue of the prequel would be out in May, so a collection could be released with the film in the fall.

Imagi Studios also announced that Jazwares will be the master toy licensee for the film, along with licensees American Greetings for greeting cards, stationery, gift wrap, and party goods; Penguin for books; and D3Publisher for game software.  Mass market products will focus on six to 14-year-olds.

Dark Horse will continue to offer the classic Manga and Right Stuf has the classic anime on home video.

The new film, directed by David Bowers (Flushed Away) from a screenplay by Timothy Harris (Places), features Freddie Highmore (Finding Neverland) as the voice of Astro Boy, along with Kristin Bell, Nathan Lane, Bill Nighy, Eugene Levy, Nicolas Cage, and Donald Sutherland.
 

Colan: Visions of a Man without Fear Opens in San Francisco

  • News
  • November 11, 2008

Gene Colan’s artistic career will receive the retrospective treatment as San Francisco’s Cartoon Art Museum presents Colan: Visions of a Man without Fear, opening November 15 and running through March 15, 2009.

On December 4, there will be a special opening reception with Gene and Adrienne Colan in attendance.

The exhibition will include over 40 examples from Colan’s long creative career, from his one and only story illustrated for legendary publisher EC Comics in 1952, through his career-defining work for Marvel Comics from the 1960s and 1970s on titles as diverse as Iron Man, Tomb of Dracula and Howard The Duck, to his notable run on DC Comics’ Batman in the 1980s, to his more recent efforts, including illustrations commissioned by his fans and his beautiful pencil artwork on titles such as Michael Chabon’s The Escapist, published by Dark Horse Comics.

Guest Curator Glen David Gold, author of the novel, Carter Beats the Devil, put the museum show together.  An exhibition catalog featuring high-quality reproductions of Colan’s artwork and essays from many of his most notable collaborators, including writers Stan Lee, Marv Wolfman, Roy Thomas and Steve Englehart, will be available at the Cartoon Art Museum prior to the exhibition’s opening reception on December 4.

For those unfamiliar with Gene “The Dean”, he was born in New York in 1926 and studied at the Art Students League of New York under illustrator Frank Riley and surrealistic Japanese painter Kuniashi. After a stint in the army, Colan’s official career in comics began in 1944 at Fiction House and Timely.

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Review: ‘Hellboy II: The Golden Army’

This is a first.  I’ve been living with the story for [[[Hellboy II: The Golden Army]]] since last Thanksgiving, when I accepted the assignment to write the novelization. However, given personal circumstances, I missed its release and am only now finally seeing it, nearly a year later, on DVD.   As a result, I’m looking at the film from some fairly unique angles.

That the entire production team and cast has returned is asset to film, out on standard disc and Blu-ray today. It looks good and clearly, there’s an ease and comfort between the principal players and their director, Guillermo del Toro.

Del Toro’s [[[Hellboy]]] is somewhat different in tone and certainly in story direction from what Mike Mignola has been chronicling in his Dark Horse comics.  And that’s fine, that’s part of the adaptation process.  That Mignola remains involved and is credited as a producer and for helping del Toro craft the story shows his willingness to see others play with his characters.

Since the first film, del Toro captured the world’s attention with Pan’s Labyrinth, and this follow-up film seemed to indicate a willingness to show he was not a one-trick pony. The film is therefore a visual treat. In terms of the story, we’re some months after the first film so Hellboy and Liz Sherman are now romantically involved and living together at BPRD HQ.  Beyond that, the other characters are somewhat static.

The story of an exiled elfin prince returning from exile to break an ages-old truce with Man is a strong one, especially given a world Hellboy knows is filled with freaks of all kinds.  We follow Prince Nuada’s efforts to assemble the crown that would given him command over the Golden Army, 70 times 70 mechanical soldiers built by the goblin forges. With them at his command, all humanity would be wiped out and the elves can regain control of the planet.

Mixed in with that is the stresses between Liz and Hellboy living together, Abe Sapien falling in love with the Princess Nuala, who opposes her brother’s jihad, and the exposure of the [[[BPRD]]] to the general public.  This necessitates Washington sending a new field leader, Dr. Johann Krauss, who happens to be an ectoplasmic being living in a containment suit.

There’s plenty of story and threads and everyone has something to do and people to play off one another.  Add in deadly Tooth Fairies, the last Elemental, a Troll Market, an Angel of Death, and the revived Army, and you have plenty to deal with.

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