Tagged: X-Men

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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20th Recruits ‘X-Men: First Class’

  • News
  • November 19, 2008

Back in July, Production Weekly listed X-Men: First Class on their charts and visitors to www.x-menfirstclass.com were taken to 20th Century-Fox’s website.  Finally, the trades this morning confirm that Fox is looking to reboot the mutant franchise.

Gossip Girl’s Josh Schwartz has been signed to write X-Men: First Class which is perfect casting given his experience writing younger characters. Schwartz has also worked on The OC and Chuck so gets not only teen angst but can write for the geek audience.

Variety notes that Schwartz’s deal includes an option for him to direct.

The title comes from the Marvel comic of the same name which began a new brand for the company, using modern day storytelling sensibilities to retell or add to the original tales. X-Men First Class has focused on the original quintet of mutants – Cyclops, Angel, Ice Man, Beast, and Marvel Girl – all training under Professor Charles Xavier’s tutelage at his school for gifted students in Westchester, New York.  The recently canceled title was supplemented by Wolverine: First Class and the current Weapon X: First Class miniseries.

Lauren Shuler Donner, caretaker of the mutants in Hollywood, will return to produce. Previously she handled the first three X-films plus next May’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Simon Kinberg (Mr. and Mrs. Smith) will co-produce. Shuler is also developing David Goyer’s X-Men Origins: Magneto film. Possibly spinning out of Wolverine could be Deadpool, played by Ryan Reynolds, who appears in the story.

Since Brett Ratner wrapped what was considered a trilogy, the studio has been seeking ways to reinvent the story of people discovering their mutant abilities set against a world that deeply fears those that are different.
 

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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HBO Orders ‘Game of Thrones’ Pilot

  • News
  • November 12, 2008

The trades are reporting that HBO has finally given a pilot order to A Game of Thrones, the first in George R.R. Martin’s bestselling A Song of Fire & Ice series. The television version will be executive produced by David Benioff (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) and D.B. Weiss (Halo).

HBO picked up the rights on January 17, 2007 with Variety describing the series as "an epic struggle for power set in a vast and violent fantasy kingdom." Which is putting things mildly. Martin, called by Time as an American Tolkien, has created a sprawling saga with dozens of characters currently projected to be seven volumes long and is a modern day epic fantasy which would be challenging for even premium cable to adapt.

 “Fantasy is the most successful genre in terms of feature films given the incredible popularity of Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter movies,” Benioff told The Hollywood Reporter. “High fantasy has never been done on TV before and if anybody can do it, it’s HBO. They’ve taken tired genres and reinvented them — mobsters in The Sopranos and Westerns with Deadwood.

“It’s not a story with a million Orcs charging across the plains,” Weiss said. “The most expensive effects are creature effects and there’s not much of that.”

Ever since the option was announced, the producers have insisted that each season would adapt just one of the thick novels.  Martin was also committed to writing at least one episode per season.  He began working on the pilot in 2007, completing a first draft in August.  A second draft was announced as being completed in June 2008. HBO exercised their option on the series in September before yesterday’s announcement.

A Game of Thrones was released in 1996 and won critical acclaim, earning the Locus Award for Best Novel (Fantasy) while earning nominations at the World Fantasy and Nebula Awards.

The other books in the series are A Clash of Kings (1998), A Storm of Swords (2000), and A Feast for Crows (2005). Announced but not yet delivered, written or scheduled are A Dance with Dragons, The Winds of Winter, and A Dream of Spring.  The saga has also led to three novella and act as prequels to the first novel.

Martin actually was at work on Dragons when he realized things were not working and he tossed out much of the work and announced at the Millennium Philcon in 2001 that he was writing a different book to continue the story before resuming Dragons. That became Crows which tightened its focus on a handful of characters while the next book would shift the spotlight to others. An anticipated 2008 publication date came and went and Bantam is hopeful it will receive the manuscript in time for a spring 2009 release.

The one obstacle left is being better than the ten other projects in development at the cable network. Although six are expected to get the series go-ahead, HBO can be choosy under its new regime which jettisoned several other projects already, including Preacher.

Martin plans seven books in the series. The producers intend for each season to span one novel.

THR notes, “Combined with True Blood, this also suggests an interesting, AintItCoolNews-targeted direction for the network. Less edgy-PBS, more R-rated Comic Con.”
 

Revised ‘Magneto’ Plot Revealed

  • News
  • November 12, 2008

Production Weekly printed a revised plot synopsis for David Goyer’s X-Men Origins: Magneto film. Goyer is slated to write and direct the project for 20th Century Fox.

“The original X-Men film began with a prologue that showed the character as a child being led to a concentration camp by Nazis and that is the period in which the Magneto film will take place. This setup will allow a future villain to at least flirt with the designation of protagonist since the character will be seen almost exclusively in his formative years. The storyline will heavily involve Professor X, the wheelchair-using X-Men leader. That character was a soldier in the allied force that liberated the concentration camps. The professor meets Magneto after the war and while they bond over the realization that they are alike in their special powers, their differences soon turn them into enemies.”

While Sir Ian McKellen has indicated a desire to participate in the film, the light has yet to go green so there’s no casting, production or release date as yet. While the plot involves Xavier, there’s been no word either about Patrick Stewart’s participation.

McKellen and Stewart, though, will reunite in March for a British production of Waiting for Godot.

Sneal Peeks: ‘Black Terror’ #1, ‘Lone Ranger’ #15

  • News
  • November 12, 2008

Here are sneak peeks at Dynamite Comics’ The Lone Ranger #15 and Black Terror #1, both hitting shops tomorrow.

The Lone Ranger presents "Scorched Earth" Part Four, from writer Brett Matthews and artist Sergio Cariello cover artist John Cassaday. The Lone Ranger and Tonto are hot on the heels of a serial killer. Plus: Cavendish continues to fall back into old habits as his quest for The Lone Ranger and his revenge continues.

The Black Terror continues Alex Ross and Jim Kreuger’s reimagining of the Golden Age heroes.  They cowrote the story with art from Mike Lilly and Vinicius Andrade. Spinning out of Project SUPERPOWERS, this will be the first new ongoing series -opening with this four-part story.

Each issue will feature a cardstock cover and the first issue also features a 50/50 cover split — one by Alex Ross and the other by Greg Land (Uncanny X-Men).  This new series is the foundation to the storylines spinning out of Project SUPERPOWERS 0-7 (the opening chapter), and will lead directly in to Project SUPERPOWERS Chapter Two.
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‘X-Men’ Are ‘Waiting For Godot’

  • News
  • November 3, 2008

patrick-stewart-ian-mckellen-x-men-001-5823444If you’re not based in England but need a reason to travel to London, well, here you go. Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen are about to share the stage together.

That’s right, homeboys! Magneto and Professor Xavier have mutually knocked over their respective king pieces, deciding on a "gray" middle ground over a "black" or "white" dominant party, and are starring alongside one another for an on-stage production of Waiting For Godot.

Okay, yeah, before you leave, we’re talking about theater. No major shifts in the sociopolitical dynamics between mankind and mutantkind, but, hey, this is pretty close.

The two well known thespians, who shared the silver screen with each other as Erik Lansherr and Charles Xavier in the X-Men trilogy, will star alongside each other in Waiting For Godot on The West End, according to Variety.

The trade reports, "Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart will topline a Brit production of Waiting for Godot that will launch a U.K. tour in March ahead of an April bow at the Theater Royal Haymarket."

American audiences will recognize the actors as having shared the screen as nemeses in X-Men, but Stewart and McKellen had previously costarred in Every Good Boy Deserves Favour in 1977.

Waiting For Godot focuses on two men waiting for a man whom they’ve never laid eyes upon before, but know that his presence is incredibly important to their own self-worth. McKellen and Stewart play the two men, Estragon and Vladimir, respectively. The play is written by Samuel Beckett, and despite multiple attempts, has never seen a film adaptation. Waiting for Guffman, filmed and written by Christopher Guest, plays on Godot‘s themes without being a direct knock-off.

If anyone has tickets to London, please direct yourself to ComicMix. We’ll trade you in beets and other various candies.

Interview: Todd McFarlane on the State of Comics

  • News
  • October 21, 2008

Yesterday, the first part of my interview with Spawn creator Todd McFarlane focused on issue 185 of the long-running comic and the changes in store for readers as he returns to active creative duty with Whilce Portacio and Brian Holguin.

Since part one ran, it has been announced that the shipping date has slipped a week and the issue, complete with previously unannounced variant covers, will now be in stores on October 29.

In the second part of our discussion, we chatted about approaching the big 200 mark, the comics landscape overall today and what it might look like in the future, as well as a few Spawn-related surprises.

ComicMix: With issue 200 on the horizon and the “end of Spawn” being teased, will Spawn continue past issue 200?

Todd McFarlane: Yeah, [Issue] 200 we’re already planning for. We’ve thrown enough ripples out already and that people will sort of go ‘whoa’ and have to pay attention to keep pace with it. And 200 will allow us to get to one of the big notes and it’s all sort of a Pandora’s Box; you close one door and another one opens. We’ll have a nice compelling story for 200.

CMix: The comic landscape has changed and continues to change in a lot of ways with all kinds of different formats on the shelves and walking into bookstores now with full sections devoted to trades and original graphic novels, as well as the rise of webcomics and digital formats on the Internet. What are your thoughts in general on these trends and new directions in comics as a medium?

TM: The medium of comic books, which is a combination of words and pictures, I don’t think that medium is ever going to go away. I believe what will evolve over our lifetimes and it’s been a slow evolution, is the delivery mechanism. Is it possible that some day everybody who reads a comic book will turn on a computer? I guess, but it’ll still be words and pictures, it just happens to be in digital form. The basic form of what a comic is will never die. The delivery mechanism, to me, is less important. If people want them in trade paperback, in book form, on their computers, on the back of cereal boxes, I mean, whatever, but it’d still be a comic book. So I’ll let the consumer tell us where they want to get their fix on this medium and then we’ll hopefully not be too far behind the curve and we can give it to them.

CMix: Do you see the monthly pamphlet format headed for extinction at some point as some people have suggested?

TM: It’s possible as long as someone can offset it with another business model that gets it to the consumer. Again, as long as you give people an option as to where they can get it. Change for change’s sake doesn’t make much sense. At some point, there might be an economic tipping point where you look at sales and see you’re selling 51% or more doing something a new way rather than the old way so you start putting all of your resources behind the new way like the transition from VHS to DVD at Blockbuster where [DVD] was 5% and then 10% and then it took over. If we’re going to go in that direction, I sort of see it being the same as other business models where it’ll simply be a slow transition. (more…)

Comic Mix Six – The Six Worst Comic Book Video Games

  • Uncategorized
  • October 18, 2008

xmennesbox-9758167Comic books, admittedly, don’t have a great history when itcomes to video game adaptations.  Hell,most games based on licensed properties have a certain stigma about them.  It probably stems from the fact that theyfeel like a cheap cash-in…a way to make a quick buck on a popular fad such asmovies, TV shows, and yes, comics.  Now,that’s not to say ALL comic book games are bad, no; but the genre does have itsshare of stinkers.  Out of all thepossible crap-fests out there, these are the top six games that should never beallowed near your console of choice…EVER.

Marvel’s Uncanny X-Men– 1989: NES

Back in the heyday of the Nintendo Entertainment System,they were making games for EVERYTHING. At the time, publisher LJN held the rights to the Marvel license, andsadly, churned out turd after turd.  Oneof their biggest steaming piles was this mess, based on Marvel’s MightyMutants.  What made this game sobad?  Well, sadly, the technology of theday seems to be the biggest culprit.  Thegame took a top-down view of the action, and since there was only so much youcould show in 8-bit, character details were pretty much non-existent.  That, combined with the muddy, dirty colorsof the backgrounds and you were lucky you could see anything at all, let alonewhich character you had selected. Nothing was recognizable, despite the fact that it had a decent sized rosterselected from the books.  Thankfully, it’sone of the few bad marks on an otherwise mostly successful game franchise.

Fantastic Four – 1997:Playstation

Ugh.  When you talkabout ugly games, two system generations ago, we had some DOGS.  3D graphics were all the rage, and polygoncounts were climbing higher and higher. Sadly, they still couldn’t figure out that muddy background thing, andso stuff tended to blend together – badly. At least this time you could see what was happening…but it wasn’tpretty.  Take a tried and true gameplaystyle, affectionately known as the “beat ‘em up”, and add comic’s firstfamily.  What could go wrong?  Well, how about poor control, terrible plotand just plain shoddy gameplay?  First,the game is about the Fantastic FOUR…so you have Mr. Fantastic, InvisibleWoman, Human Torch, The Thing and…She-Hulk? Wouldn’t that be FIVE?  Then, you have repetitive, lazy combat (anormal pitfall for the “beat ‘em up”) of miscellaneous enemies that are largein number and small in variety.  Add to thatthe poor hit detection, lousy control response and just a general sense of “whybother?” and you fantfour-screen002-7432099have this mighty gem.  Fantastic,indeed.

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ABC Picks Up More ‘Eli Stone’

  • News
  • October 16, 2008

eli-stone-l-4913226It’s a good year for Marc Guggenheim. He’s got a brand new comic series at Marvel with Young X-Men and he’s one of three co-writers for the upcoming Green Lantern film at Warner Bros. Now comes word from The Hollywood Reporter that television series Eli Stone, which Guggenheim executive produces, is getting four extra scripts.

Stone, on its second season, received the order on the evening before its premiere on Tuesday night. The trade indicates that such a move shows confidence in the season’s new creative direction. We Alias fans know better: Victor Garber likely held the studio at gunpoint and forced the pick up. Gotta love Jack Bristow.

"It’s an incredible vote of confidence," Guggenheim tells EW.com. "I had told [ABC] that in order to keep production rolling [beyong Eli‘s initial 13-episode order], I would need to know by Wednesday [if they wanted more]. I figured at the very least that would give them a day’s worth of ratings to analyze. And they were like, ‘Nope, we’ll just order them now.’"

The show centers on lawyer Eli Stone who becomes a modern-day prophet after receiving precognitive visions. Jonny Lee Miller, Natasha Henstridge, Loretta Devine, and Victor Garber star. Former Dawson’s Creek and Batman Begins star Katie Holmes will guest star on next Tuesday’s episode.

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