Fanboy Rampage!!!

Making comics better, and making getting into comics better as well, now. Larry Young launches Proof of Concept:

"Nobody wants to do something for nothing, and I get that. And it's real hard for an unknown to just flat-out break into comics, cold, with an assignment for a monthly book or a 96 page graphic novel. So every two weeks, you can read a twelve page script here, on Comic World News, by me. You have fourteen days to draw the script. Pencil layouts, inks, paintings, charcoal marks on grocery bags, I don't care. Just twelve finished pages, ready to be published. I'll critique ‘em, give some dos and don'ts, tell you what I like and don't like. I'll pick the best one, and publish it. We'll go until June or July or so, and we'll collect ‘em all in December, so you've got copies for Christmas."

Fuck, yes:

"Comics need more fun, dammit. Sometimes it's easy to forget that comics are fun. There's a seemingly endless amount of white noise dedicated to attempting to suck all the enjoyment out of the comic industry. 'The direct market is dying,' 'The artform is ignored,' 'The speculators are returning,' 'Manga rules the world and no one seems to care,' 'The publishers are flooding the market,' 'Wolverine's back in his yellow spandex suit,' are all great topics of discussion and worth putting thought into. But this industry was built on the backs of enjoyment, entertainment and good old-fashioned fun. In the world of meaningful discussion, analytic analysis and complex discourse, it's easy to forget that the reason that we care so much about the funny books is because reading comic books is fun. Emphasis on that 'fun' word (my other favorite 'f' word)."

Rob Liefeld remembers the good old days of Heroes Reborn:

"People often comment about the poor quality of the back 6 issues of Cap and the Avengers produced by Wildstorm, and frankly, it's a point I can't argue. They represented a serious drop in quality from the Loeb/Churchill, Loeb-Platt-Liefeld issues that were scheduled from my studio. Funny enough, Lee attempted to hire all of them away to continue the vision we had established at Extreme, but they resented the behind the scenes shenanigans and jumped on board to launch Awesome, which even if it only lasted a year was a more profitable venture for each of the aforementioned gents..."

(and in a later post:)

"Heroes Reborn had a year 2 planned, both Extreme and Wildstorm had options on expanding with more titles but hats off to the savvy editorial brass who figured out (brilliantly) that the best way to put the kibosh on the entire "west coast outsourcing" was to try and renegotiate my contract, knowing full well I'd walk away. My people had already signed on for significant page rates and reducing them would be equal to firing them in this instance because all parties would have pursued other gigs for high rates rather than stay on at lower rates. Once I was gone, they gave the books to Wildstorm, informing me all along that Jim would take the reduced deal and fill up the books with lesser talent if I opted not to comply, and the entire line went to hell in a handbasket and editorial argued that the whole thing was shoddy and cited the dramatic sales decrease therefore nixing year 2 and creating a situation that found Jim looking to sell his company in order to subsidize the lost income. Jim and I shared the same agent in Hollywood during this period so I was privvy to all sorts of candid details. Divide and conquer works every time out...

"Bottom line, while I compensated with selling a million dollar screenplay, The Mark, and starting up Awesome, the fans got shafted. Despite anything you ever hear about Heroes Reborn, it was politics from start to finish and Bob Harras played his cards out wonderfully in the end eliminating outsourcing from his tenure."

Millarworld discuss Bryan Singer Presents Ultimate X-Men:

"[T]alk about pandering to Hollywood."

"What's wrong with it? Singer presents it and sales will come in. Do we want sales to rise in the comics industry or not?"

I can see the scene in the bookstore now:

"Ultimate X-Men? Nah, I don't like superheroes... Wait, Bryan Singer Presents Ultimate X-Men? The director of The Usual Suspects, Apt Pupil and... well, the X-Men movies? That changes everything! I'll have five!"

More on the big Hollywood names Marvel are hiring:

"Singer, who helmed the two X-Men movies, is teaming up with X2 writers Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris to write for an existing title, Ultimate X-Men, the trade paper reported. Singer's role will be more as an overseer, though he will write some issues, and the title of the book will include the words 'Bryan Singer Presents.'"

So the book is going to become Bryan Singer Presents Ultimate X-Men? Um. Wow.

The Pulse continues to crunch numbers. This time, DC's and some indies.

Found via The Comics Journal message boards: Cutie: Comics For Girls. Check out the Joan and Jackie strip in the monthly section.

Newsarama's story about Slave Labor's future plans surprisingly got the nostalgia going in me with this line:

"[W]e have a suspicious number of the Bill and Ted comics that Evan wrote and drew for Marvel in the early nineties in the office right now. Dorkin fans can expect an announcement about a Bill and Ted trade paperback in the coming months."

You don't need to read Chuck Austen's Avengers. Nick Locking has done it for you:

"Here's another piece of classic dialogue - remember, this is from an English girl of about six or seven whose mother has just died and whose brother seems a bit more interested in meeting Cap than grieving:

"Girl: I hate you! I hate you, Martin! You think this is all GRINS AND GIGGLES! You don't care! You don't even care that Mum's dead!

"Grins and giggles! Nice! And then they all cry."

John Byrne's "Title Withheld" possibly the Doom Patrol?:

"I was just looking through that new issue of Previews when I noticed the censored covers for JLA 98 and 99. There are these panels covering parts of both covers that say "top secret", but one can still make out the charaters. That's the Doom Patrol! IT HAS TO BE!! It looks like Rita Farr is there to!"

Le sigh.

Comic-related cartoon madness: Krypto the Superdog gets his own (Paul Dini-written) series possibly for Cartoon Network, and Kids WB announce the new Batman series (which has lovely promo artwork, see below) is scheduled for the fall.

The Pulse offers Paul O'Brien's analysis of Marvel sales, which make for interesting (and probably somewhat depressing, for Marvel) reading.

Lion's Gate are making more Marvel movies:

"Lions Gate Entertainment, the premier independent filmed entertainment studio, and Marvel Enterprises, Inc. announced today that Lions Gate has been granted licenses to develop, produce and distribute theatrical film releases based upon two popular Marvel(R) properties -- Iron Fist(R) and Black Widow(R). The announcement was made by Lions Gate Chief Executive Officer Jon Feltheimer and Avi Arad, Chairman and CEO, Marvel Studios. The new agreements expand the pre-existing relationship between Marvel and Artisan Entertainment, acquired by Lions Gate in December 2003, which allowed Artisan to produce and distribute feature films based upon The Punisher(R) character."

What's that, you say? Iron Fist and Black Widow are fairly minor characters? Not at all! As the press release continues, "Iron Fist has been a major force in the Marvel Universe for 30 years, combining the action and adventure of a Marvel Super Hero(R) with the skill and grace of a martial artist" while Black Widow is described as "[o]ne of Marvel's most prominent female characters". Who knew?

Marvel has stopped doing proper press. Ellis on Ultimate Fantastic Four? The only official word from Marvel came on their website. And now, the same has happened for Bryan Singer on Ultimate X-Men:

"Singer - one of Hollywood’s hottest talents - first became involved with the world’s best-known super team as director of the X-Men movie franchise, thrilling everyone from hardcore comic fans to general moviegoers. He and his team are now bringing their cinematic sense of action and drama to Marvel’s top-selling ULTIMATE X-MEN comic book for a 12-issue run. Details for this story arc will be announced over the coming months but all parties are genuinely X-cited by the possibilities springing from telling a tale unfettered by the restrictions of a real-world special effects budget.

"Marvel Studios CEO Avi Arad added, 'Bryan’s vision for the X-Men franchise has already changed the way the world looks at these amazing characters. It’s an absolute joy to have him now take his vision from the big screen and adapt it to the comic book format. It will be interesting to see how Bryan approaches the X-Men within this no-holds-barred medium. No matter what, he’s sure to entertain.'"

I love the mention of Bryan's vision having "changed the way the world looks at these amazing characters" quote. Sadly, there's no mention of the Reload relaunch doing its best to try and change that back to the way the world looked at them in 1994.

"More Mickey Eye right after this shocking interlude from News Of The Sea!"

Millarworld's Mostly Wanted webzine increases its comics coverage (which may give a needed focus to the zine), but needs someone to fact-check:

"To be caught reading a comic is going to be the next big fashion statement. Since fanboys, such as Kevin Smith and Quentin Tarantino, made it big and Hollywood discovered in comic books a goldmine of original storylines and characters they had not yet plundered, comics are becoming more and more mainstream. Hulk may want Freddy Prinze Jr., but Freddy Prinze Jr. and other, much better known, actors want Hulk and any other comic based film they can get their thespian hands on. It started simply enough with the Superman films -- nice films, entertaining, a box office success, etc. Then nothing really happened for a few years until somebody decided to make a few movies about Batman, which we won't talk about. And then the floodgates opened: X-men, Hulk, Daredevil, Spiderman, Hellboy, Superman again (some day), Wonder Woman; comic writers writing scripts, scriptwriters writing comics... It's reached a point where even films not based on comics, such as Underworld, will print one along with the film (Just in case?)."

Because comic book adaptations of movies (and radio shows, TV shows, toy lines, etc.) definitely haven't been happening for years, obviously (Those links courtesy of my nostalgia). And it started with the Superman movies? I could've sworn there was a weird-ass pop phenomenon in the 60s based around a TV series and movie that were adapted from a comic starring a crime-fighting millionaire and his young ward that made said characters into some of the most recognised fictional characters of the 20th Century. Maybe I dreamt that.

Heidi McDonald is still talking with Paul Levitz:

"THE PULSE: Marvel, on a corporate level, makes is very clear that they're a licensing company. Publishing is one of the things they do, but that’s really what they're in the business of now. Do you think DC will ever go in that direction?

LEVITZ: I hope not. I think we believe, and I don't know if it's right for anyone else in the world, but we believe that the creative skills that exist and the talent pool in the comic book business are tremendous. They're in tune with the times. They've often been prescient of the times, and to sit there and say all we will ever have to sell is what existed in the past would be a very limiting way to think of ourselves."

The perils of trying to interview Dave Sim:

"Got a faxed response today, mocking my questions and answering some of them. In a couple of cases, he said 'Is this really the question you want to ask?' implying that I was wasting his time and our space with trivialities, and in a couple more cases, he said I was a typical leftist/feminist, circling around the real issues instead of coming to grips with them, and that the question I clearly wanted to ask was this specific other thing, which he answered instead. The last two pages of the fax are a fictional transcript of a Jeopardy! game, with Dave Sim hosting and The Onion playing. I think he's making a point about the shallowness of the questions and possibly the predictability of the format. Next step: Transcribe what we have and see how much space is left for follow-ups such as 'Yes, that is the question I wanted to ask, that's why I asked it' and 'No, that's not the question I really wanted to ask, or I would have asked it.'"

Well, this is interesting:

"I used to think that McFarlane actually had some rights in Miracleman. He told me he had, after all -- he'd bought what was left of Eclipse from a bankruptcy court -- and that he very much wanted to swap those rights for my rights in Cogliostro and Medieval Spawn. He never sent me any of the papers, though, after I agreed to the 97 character swap, although he sent me the film for several issues of Miracleman. Then, a month after sending me the film, and having told me that he had transferred his rights in Miracleman to me, he sneakily filed an application for the trademark on Miracleman. Then a year or so later, he abandoned that trademark application. (This was something I didn't know, but that came out in the run-up to the court case.) ...As part of the court case, we finally got to see the Miracleman paperwork. It turned out the entire paperwork that Todd hadn't sent me consisted of an expired Eclipse Trademark registration for the MM logo. From another source I also got to see the original contract, under which Eclipse had obtained their license to a part share in the Miracleman character, and it was explicit in saying that in case of Eclipse folding, or even substantially changing directors, that Eclipse's share in the rights to Miracleman would revert.

"So one thing that the court case did establish was that Todd obviously didn't, as he had been claiming, own all of Miracleman. As far as I can tell, or any of the lawyers working with us on the case could tell, Todd probably doesn't actually own any share of Miracleman. He certainly has no copyright in any of the existing work."

"Animenation reported today on its news site that author Ken Akamatsu was shocked by changes made to the English edition of his Negima manga, the first manga title announced by the Del Rey imprint of Random House, the first major U.S. book house to enter the manga market. According to Animenation, underwear was drawn in to cover some exposed posteriors and strategically placed towels obscure breasts bared in the Japanese version."

An interesting (somewhat car-crash of a) thread over at Millarworld, about Igor Kordey. From the Marvel defenders - "All through the interview a 3-word-thought kept running in my head 'Come-fucking-on!' I mean, yeah, they fired him in a bad, bad way. Not cool. But they're paying him for the work he did, so it's not like they stole from him. The main beef I have with what he says is about how they abandoned him and how he has kids and how he fought the popy spandax and tried to make a diffrence and all that. Well, let's get real for a moment. Mavel is a company. It publishs books. Kordey has a certine style. If it fits and Marvel wants him, good. If not, it's their choice. No need to go ballistic and attack Marvel, comics readers, and the entire United States." - to Ethan Van Sciver's insight as another NewXMen artist Marvel fucked around with - "At the end of the day, Marvel is about exploitation, no matter what they tell the audience. Igor was exploited while his employers worked out a way to get rid of him legally and with as little mess as possible. I understand his rage at this, and can relate somewhat." - to Kordey's own postings (including attacking Van Sciver, despite Van Sciver defending him: "I'd yust like to remind you that it was me, saving your ass (not once) three years ago, 'cause you'd be always so damn late, spending too much time in front of the mirror,worshiping yourself, instead of working on your storytelling"), the whole thing is fascinating.

Greg Rucka talks about his upcoming collaboration with Scott Morse:

"It was a no brainer. Scott is just so staggeringly talented. Normally for projects like this, the hunt for an artist is really, really arduous, but in this case it was really, really easy. Scott isn't just the artist on this, he's the other 50%. We're absolutely co-collaborating. I figure, in large part, my job is to get out of Scott Morse's way, which is not a bad place to be."

As Top Shelf celebrates their 100th publication (Be A Man by Jeffrey Brown), they provide a potted history of the publisher.

More Igor Kordey, at Newsarama:

"Newsarama: Speaking of the corporate, you’ve mentioned that you were asked to take a lower page rate than what you originally agreed upon in your exclusive contract. Was any reason given? Was the offer made as a 'take it or leave it,' that is, if you turned it down, you would be leaving Marvel?

"IK: It was clearly 'take it or leave it'. There were no other options. My demand to respect the contract was followed by comment "that contract is a piece of toilet paper anyway". I accepted this "offer" which I call blackmail, 'cause they knew that I didn’t have any other choice. From that moment my loyalty stopped to make sense. I did my job professionally, but gave myself right to be loud on public sites and express myself, feeling betrayed and backstabbed."

Robert Rodriguez to adapt Frank Miller's Sin City for the big screen. Film and comic geeks rejoice:

"This is the first time a graphic novel will be treated with absolute respect in how it is brought to the life. My pitch to Frank was that I didn’t want to adapt Sin City, but rather translate it to the screen."

Wasn't that the kind of thing the Hellboy director said about his movie, as well? Maybe it's just Dark Horse movies.

Aquaman #15 sells out. Pulse readers aren't convinced:

"how about a number for this sold-out issue? is announcing a sell-out, DC's new thing?"

"Holy $#!t More than ten people besides me read this!!!!"

"According to Diamond's number, the previous issue (14) sold a bit more than 24000 copies... If they kept the same numbers for issue 15, no wornder they sold out. It doesn't mean of course, that this is a success, just that people were curious enough about the book to buy it..."

Rafer Roberts writes about APE for The Pulse:

"The no belt thing. So, I had the idea to dress up nice for the show. Khaki pants, button down shirt, the whole thing. However, since I had neglected to pack a belt, and my khakis were a waist size too big (I've been working out. Oh, you could tell? Thanks!) I had to resort to twine. That's right, I wore a belt made from twine. I would have worn cardboard if I had any, but I didn't, so I used twine. It made peeing interesting as I refused to untie the twine, so I guess I'm lucky that I didn't have to poop. So... Yeah, let's talk about the show and drop some names. Just pretend like you missed that part about the pooping."

Chris Claremont in political allegory shocker:

"To me, a critical function of an escapist medium is not to mirror the life in which we live but present a brighter, more hopeful, dare I say more ultimately enjoyable alternative that possibly enables us to cope just a little bit better with all the crap. Here, in Excalibur, we start on the day after Armageddon — and the struggle here will be between those whose response is that of anger and retribution (yes, my friends, 16 Million has a critical place in the first year arc — the blonde from X-Treme #30 has a name and a purpose and pals) and those who want to try and build something better from the ruins. Not that much different from the struggle we see being played out in the Middle East."

Frank Hampson's Dan Dare: Pilot Of The Future to be collected in hardcover by Titan. Somewhere, my dad (who grew up with this strip) is very happy.

San Francisco's SF Weekly wasn't that impressed with APE:

"...I went to the show with cash to burn, thinking I'd find all kinds of clever, gorgeous titles, and ended up bringing home very little. Sure, I could have bought a cool hat or covered my tote bag with humorous buttons, but that's not why I was there. I admit I was hoping to discover a new Maus, Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel from 1986, something that I'd feel compelled to pass around. Maybe that was asking too much."

Igor Kordey unbound, over at Waiting for Tommy:

"Ex-president of Marvel, a man with two children, was so eager to fire me a year ago if I didn't accept having an inker, knowing full well that I have three children. But I was an obstacle in HIS way to profit and prosperity... and so on and so forth... The [Excalibur] cover assignment was taken from me last Monday, that's how it all started. And they won't get rid of me totally - they still owe me royalties for upcoming X-Treme books and trade collections. Unless they decide not to publish them, but then that's not a profitable decision... It was goin' on for some time - this cover is good example: I got a notice about their 'sudden' decision on Monday, and saw the new, painted cover on Wednesday on Newsarama - got the point? They like to keep people in the dark..."

Dirk Deppey updates the status of Journalista:

"Some permutation of Journalista will likely return to the site within the next 2-3 months, and I'll probably bite the bullet and install some form of software to do the job -- if for no other reason than that it'd be impossible for me to do the same amount of work on it as I did before becoming managing editor of the Journal, which means recruiting co-bloggers to help pick up the slack. (No, I'm not taking applications right now, so don't ask.) That said, there's no way I ccould afford to spare the time for the legwork necessary to do any of this right now, thus the current hiatus."

Brian Michael Bendis writes:

"i totally intended to stay on UFF for the duration and we gave a lot of work and thought to the future of the book, but what we have planned on the new books is so shit crazy exciting that it was worth bailing on the number one book in the country. and for the record, we bailed on the number one book in the country to do this. so next time you think i am hyping, i did put my money where my mouth is. you will hear my announcements first, the big story is in issue 151 of wizard but parts of it may break earlier or at wiz la. i would come by my panel on saturday if you are there. and i never leave books so you know this is big."

As big as whatever you left Elektra for (What was that, anyway? Alias?)?

(And is it just me, or does anyone saying that they "bailed on the number one book in the country to do this", especially when they follow up with "so next time you think i am hyping, i did put my money where my mouth is" just bring to mind Todd McFarlane talking about leaving Marvel? He'll be suing Neil Gaiman next, take my word for it...)

The greatest message on Chris Claremont's message board on Comix-Fan:

"Seasons come seasons change, and so do creative teams on the X-books. X-treme X-men, a title shunned by some, loved by others, but always at the centre of some sort of heated debate or discussion when it came to the three core titles.

"Casey fell away and was replaced by Austen, Morrison stayed and was as controversial as Claremont, when it came to the fans. Some loved him, regardless of what he wrote or how he wrote it, others would be more harsh in their approach to his work and his person. But through it all, through some turbulent years, the title, and the writer, who had to struggle most for recognition, now has the last laugh.

"So how does it feel, to know that you've survived the writers, Casey and Morrison, who were presented with much hype, hot air, and tons of promotion and coverage in different media?
How does it feel to have the last laugh?"

Sadly, Claremont does not reply.

Newsarama poster Youdon'tlikeme (No, really, that's his name) puts forward his message for creators:

"If you are being paid to do something than you should have the maturity to do it on time and to the best of your ability. A comicbook artist has the responsibility to tell a story, usually someone elses.I dont care what your particular art style is, that must be sacrificed for the sake of the story.Pin ups and abstract expressionism is find for a portfolio, but horrible for a comicbook.If you decide to take on a monthly book that many people's livelihood depend on, not just yours. Then have the decency to put it out on time. You are not more important then the countless people who depend on you.

"Why do I constantly hear writers bitch about continuity. You are writing about a character that existed before you got the job.Why in the blue hell would you decide not to read the source material for said character.Would you start a business without knowing how it operates. The best way to start a new business is by studying the business practice of others especially those who are in the same business yoy are going into, it keeps you from repeating their mistakes and build upon their successes. The same is true for a new writer. You must study the source material,if you plan on writing a book.If you dont want to put in the work of a professional, maybe you shouldnt be a professional."

Holy Deja Vu: The Marvel Solicits are finally officially released. And look! Joss Whedon is doing a brand new X-Men book! How did Marvel keep THAT one to themselves?

(That said, I didn't notice when they were leaked that Iron Man has three issues shipping in May. What's going on there? And Igor Kordey is still listed as Excalibur artist, meaning that the books are returnable if they ship without his work...)

Millarworld has a preview of Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men script. The reaction is mixed:

"Wow I really enjoyed that, good to see the costumes not mysteriously appearing! I can't wait to read more Whedon Emma"

"Fuck what I said before. I'm picking this up. Wolverine and Emma are spot on."

"I appreciate that now that Scott is in charge, we're seeing his ideals, his thinking, his take. We're see that there is a reason for things. A natural evolution, if you will. Scott was always supposed to be the superhero. Jean said she was his favorite superhero, and now with him completely in charge, that is the direction they're going to go in."

"The dialogue does come off as very contrived and I agree with J Brian that the justification for the reintroduction of the clown costumes sounds rather retarded. 'Superheroes wear costumes, and we're superheroes so we're gonna wear costumes. Durr!!!' Fuck the X-Men."

I'm mentioned twice in the new edition of The Beat, which is nice, but not enough reason to read it. That said, Heidi McDonald's writing about releasing comics news via Wizard, is:

"Print has all the advantages of beautiful layouts, time to think about what you are writing, input from a staff, and so on. All of this makes Wizard a lively, thick magazine that is very much in touch with its audience, and takes a whole month to put together. But that doesn't mean it's timely. Throw in the little fact that Wizard subscribers get their copies before newsstands – the newsstand release date is the theoretical embargo date. Come on! You would have to be played by Tom Hanks in the movie version to ignore something you got in the mail.

"But Wizard itself seems to be aware that this gentleman's agreement is held together by a lick and a promise. It was their own website which actually, officially broke the news about Whedon and Cassaday we'd known all along."

Neil Gaiman beats Todd McFarlane for the copyright of his Spawn creations. Or, as he puts it:

"You know, if I were Todd McFarlane, I would simply have apologised a long time ago. Instead, Todd threw a lot of money at lawyers, and lost the legal case in every way he could lose it, and then threw a lot more money at lawyers to appeal and just lost it again, for good."

Wildstorm? Feh. Old news. Someone else is making a(nother) claim to the title of HBO of comics:

"At San Diego this year, I kept hearing from agents and producers that AiT is 'the HBO of comics,' and I have to say I kick myself for not having come up with that one myself because it's so nail-meet-head. So while we have all ages appropriate stuff like Electric Girl and Colonia like HBO's morning programming, and comedy stuff like Sky Ape and Mantooth! and drama and action like Last Of The Independents and The Couriers that echoes HBO's prime-time offerings, Codeflesh fits right in to what we're doing like that after 11 pm slot where you can get your thrillers and slam-bang with your mature audience advisory. A little something for everyone."

Igor Kordey, fired from Excalibur?

"In a startling announcement following the details surrounding May's 'Reload' events at Marvel's x-office, ComiX-Fan has been told that artist Igor Kordey has been let go from the Chris Claremont-penned series Excalibur and from Marvel in general. 'Here's the news,' Kordey said. 'I'm fired.' For fans wondering, Marvel has not reassign Kordey to any other projects and has been asked to cease all current work on Excalibur. 'I'm fired completely- no replacement books for me,' Kordey said."

Newsarama also reports that his previously-drawn cover for the first issue has been replaced.

Christopher Butcher, I love you:

"Wildstorm does not have the potential to be the HBO of comics. I mean, I’m trying not to make the definitive statements or whatever, but Wildstorm is superhero trademark characters who say fuck. It isn’t Sex and the City, it isn’t The Sopranos. There are no tits, no dicks, no diversity of genre, no creator ownership, very limited creator participation, no ‘free reign’, none of the prestige that accompanies an HBO series, and %90 of what they publish are owned wholesale by Time/Warner or are licensed from Cartoons. It'd be like 'What if HBO only did gangster series, but took out the violence and sex?' They do Sopranos, yeah, and do it well. It's a mature take on gangsters (although we gotta cut-away on all that violence and fucking-the-therapist on the desk!). But then they do Sex and the City, but Mr. Big is a gang boss, Carrie's constantly in danger, and it's just called ...and the City. And Six Feet Under, but the family is in debt to the mob so they're always having to do funerals for goodfellas for free, and all of the drama is gangster-related (David is still Gay, but really camp and stupid)."

The San Francisco Chronicle profiles Adrian Tomine:

"The recent success of the movie versions of American Splendor and Clowes' Ghost World have brought the inevitable prospectors to Tomine's door. 'I don't get too heavily involved,' he says with a sigh. 'There's always some offer, and it usually fizzles. I'm not financially obligated to make that leap yet. Hopefully, I can hold out long enough until the thing seems right.' With sales of 'best-selling' alternative titles in the decidedly modest 10,000-20,000 range, Tomine is both mystified and amused by the Hollywood interest. 'Clearly, they have a skewed perspective about how lucrative an Optic Nerve movie would be. For all I know, some of them could think Optic Nerve is the name of a character with super vision.'"

Peter Tomasi talks up his seemingly-under-advertised new series, Light Brigade:

"I made sure the objectives of the series were clearly laid out in the proposal so Paul Levitz wouldn't be surprised at the twelfth hour. And I don't think DC has trouble tackling religious issues, just look at the output over the years be it DC or Vertigo, regarding religious themes. Sure, there's been a hiccup or two, but in the scheme of things, there's no other mainstream comic book publisher that has taken the risks that DC has with subject matter... At first I had thought about exploring other religions through different soldier's belief systems, but it became unwieldy and felt forced, It started to come across like a thesis paper instead of a story, so I jettisoned it all and narrowed my focus to one soldier who had a crisis of faith."

Heidi McDonald interviews Paul Levitz:

"As long as we have a significant portion of our readership going in weekly wanting fresh entertainment, I'd be shocked if we didn't have a periodical form where we were able to deliver them fresh hits every week. I think you will see more difference over time in the kinds of stories that are told in different formats. There are things that have been published in periodical format only because you couldn't put them out in book format. Ten years from now when we're sitting here looking at this, I think you'll be able to do those in book format so you won't have a first serial run of it, but you'll have it come out first in the book format."

The Joe Quesada board wonders how to improve itself:

"how about this...a little respect for fellow posters? i dont mean you cant argue with them but just think before you post. i have posted things and started threads on here about my love for the comics marvel produced in the 70s and 80s and people will inevitably post things which demean my love for these things or even worse...statements which have absolutely NO bearing on my thread to start with. the one that peeved me the most was from groble. i started a thread after valentines day telling everyone that my wife was cool, kind and wonderful enough to track down and spend $100 on a hardcover limited edition copy of neal adams green lantern/green arrow run. grobles response...'err, to each their own.' now usually, things like that dont peeve me off and i just let them slide off my back, but that kinda irked me. i was sharing how wonderful my wife is and that's all he has to say? just dont say anything!"

"The thing about moderators is that it always starts out as a well meaning thing but it never stays that way. Mod's get power hungry, and if they post regularly they hold grudges and abuse power. It's inevitable. Ask Warren Ellis, he was well meaning with his moderation."

"Heres a great Idea. Why dont all of Us take responsibility for our own words and actions.. If you make a mistake, fess up, and try to never let it happen again..Pointing fingers, Banning people or I.p's isnt going to solve anything. Also The old outage of 'This is Just a Message Board' wont help either, because if that was the case we wouldnt be trying to fix the problems with it.."

Peter David mentions, in passing, a recent meeting of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund:

"With various states stepping up various laws ostensibly designed to 'protect the children,' but which can be used to cripple comic book stores (not just comic book stores, but book stores, magazines, even 7-11s), we're thinking that the next year (or four, if Ashcroft remains around) could potentially be a horror show of litigation. Check in with the CBLDF site for details, and watch for announcements as to future activities."

Mike Netzer has an... interesting take on Marvel's relationship with Dave Cockrum:

"Last week, Clifford Meth said he'll wait to see if Neal's diplomatic efforts would show a sign that Marvel's becoming inclined to do the right thing with Dave Cockrum. This week Neal told us that no such signs are coming from the corporate comic book giant: 'I have extended my hand in friendship RE Dave to Marvel and I have been ignored.' ...The Marvel echelon has learnt an important lesson from the DC/Warners affair of a quarter of a century ago [about Siegel and Shuster recieving credit and compensation for the creation of Superman]. Marvel will give Dave Cockrum part of what he has rightfully coming to him - but they're about to make our team work very hard for every penny they give.
Marvel wants the publicity from this story. They're hoping we'll put up a good and loud fight for Dave Cockrum. The publicity Marvel will get out of this - especially when they finally settle with Dave - will be worth exponentially more than what they'll pay out in any settlement. Marvel Comics has taken the lead in this campaign. That's fine. We're also just getting started."

One of the most low-key Marvel announcements ever:

"Last evening on Fanboy Radio, Marvel Editor in Chief Joe Quesada confirmed that Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen will be the new team on Ulimtate Fantastic Four, replacing Mark Millar, Brian Bendis, and Adam Kubert. According to Quesada, Ellis will remain on the title for at least two arcs."

On Marvel's website, Ellis makes it look like an act of charity:

"Mark and Brian were in a hole. I've known them both for years. You don't leave your mates in the lurch. Simple as that."

Mark Millar explains:

"I'm way ahead on Spidey and Ultimates and so I pitched Marvel another series. This was accepted in early December and everything was ticking along nicely. Ultimate FF was just a plotting gig and not a huge amount of time, the Millarworld books were all done and, like I said, Spidey and Ultimates were doing great.

"My huge mistake, of course, was heading to the Marvel editorial summit with Bendis and we both got talked into taking over two new books which were just too bloody interesting to pass up. We were also both handed two of our favourite artists and the decision was really horrible. A new book each meant we had to drop something, but UFF had launched as Marvel's #1 title and the second issue was still sitting at the number one spot in January's sales charts. If we left after our first arc, we'd be seriously fucking letting everyone down and so we vowed that we would only go if we found a replacement who was actually better at this stuff than we were. Cue Ellis.

"I called him up, explained the situation, told him we were in a wonderful, but nightmarish position and asked if he'd help. He thought about it, asked a lot of questions and then agreed to save our arses and our reps. He's a lovely man and my favourite writer and I obviously don't need to tell anyone to pick this up. This book is about to go through the fucking roof."

Mark Millar is feeling optimistic:

"The Ultimate Vol 2 is going to stock-pile loads of issues from Bryan so we don't get any more daft delays and this is set after EVERYTHING with completely new looks and situations for many of the characters."

Stockpiling issues? As in holding them back until you have enough to publish at a regular rate? Does that mean Ultimates Volume 2 won't appear until 2006 or something (How late is Ultimates #13 now? Four months?)?

Michael Deeley, whose 52 Wednesdays column at Silver Bullet Comic Books was a favourite of this parish, resurfaces to protest the cancellation of the Epic Anthology:

"Marvel Comics’ 'Epic Anthology' has been cancelled after one issue. THIS IS CRAP!!! From the start, the Epic project has been sabotaged by internal politics at Marvel. What started as a new comics imprint was whittled down to a few mini-series, then an anthology series. When the book was solicited with an incorrect, higher price, Marvel did not make strong moves to tell retailers about the mistake. As a result, shops ordered few or no copies of the book. These actions by Marvel are nothing less than a crime. A crime against the creators, a crime against us readers, and a crime against the medium. When a publisher releases the first issue in a series, it is committed to completing that series. A story begun must be finished. I appeal to anyone at Marvel Comics who maybe reading this to please publish the complete stories begun in 'Epic Anthology' #1. I liked the comic. I liked the stories and artwork. I want to see the stories told, eitheras a continuation of the “Epic Anthology”, or as individual mini-series.

"I, Michael Deeley, would buy more issues of the 'Epic Anthology', or mini-series based on the stories it featured."

He's wants other people to email Marvel alongside him to continue the protest: "If we all work together, if we repeat our message often enough and loud enough, we will get their attention. We will make a difference."

Rich Johnston reports:

"Expect some major changes for Marvel in the months to come. Cancellations of books you wouldn't expect. The word I hear is that if there isn't a film deal in the offing for a title, then it had better have something bloody good going for it (basically high sales or an outreach publishing plan) to survive. If you're in the Top Twenty, fine. If you're not, and you're not a Spidey, X title of something being pitched to Hollywood… well then… What future has 'Avengers?' 'Iron Man?' 'Thor?' 'Captain Marvel?' And I hear a Spidey book might be for the chop, too."

That will be Spectacular Spider-Man, then...

Mike "S" Miller has shown up in the Newsarama thread about the changes at Image. As usual, he's not letting his previous dealings with the company colour his opinions of what Valentino may have done wrong (Scroll down):

"Not accepting the adaptation of the NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLING DRAGONLANCE: THE LEGEND OF HUMA was just stupid. As was not accepting THE HEDGE KNIGHT. Both these books will, in the words of DIAMOND BOOK DISTRIBUTING 'Break sales records' in trade. (Image takes 25% of trade revenue, so that would be a good chunk of change for the company to work with) Bookstores are already chomping at the bit for both trade paperbacks.

"I'm sure someone wised Jim up about THK in time to publish it, but accepting LEGACY, a no-name writer, no-name artist, no-name studio book OVER an adaptation of a NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLING AUTHOR, by a known and capable artist... Well, it wasn't genius.

"And if he had the forsight or common sense to accept Dragonlance, we would be publishing it through Image right now."

(Elsewhere on the same story, Top Cow's Matt Hawkins sets the record straight regarding Top Cow's role in the changes: "Just an FYI but Top Cow is 'not waiting in the wings' to take over Image Central. We will be working very hard with Erik Larsen to build a bigger and better Image.")

A return to variant covers at Marvel? Newsarama shows some more X-Men Reload covers, including this one for Astonishing X-Men #1:



But, if that's the cover for Astonishing X-Men #1, then why was this originally released as the cover image?:



Wasn't Joe Quesada complaining about DC using variant covers recently?

Have you heard about The Great Marvel Comics Cover-Up?:

"So why are generic 'iconic' covers bad? Let's consider a shelf full of comics, somewhere on the order of fifty to a hundred and fifty depending on the degree to which small press books are represented at your local comic shop (at bookstores there are usually none). Now imagine that every single book on that shelf has a cover image of some character or characters who may or may not actually play a role in the issue in question, just standing around posing, as if on the cover of the latest issue of Maxim. Well at this point there's pretty much no way to distinguish one title from another. If one is to take the covers at face value, apparently every book on the market would be about someone posing. Obviously this is not the case, yet one can see how these kinds of covers can have a negative effect on sales. The cover of a comic tells you what to expect inside; good covers tease you with info and make you curious to experience the tales within. This sells comics, pure and simple. If you're not interesting people in what your book has to offer you're not selling comics, and are contributing to the future collapse of the industry, especially if you're the #1 publisher in the biz... Now I could be blowing things all out of proportion, but I sincerely believe that in a time where more than ever we need to attract new readers or wither and die, the industry leader needs to be taking every opportunity to attract new readers. This is far from what Marvel is doing in this instance. Joe Quesada has done a lot of great things and I love the guy for it, but we need to make it clear in no uncertain terms that this policy needs to die!"

John Byrne tells his fans the good news:

"Mike Carlin informs me initial orders on JLA 94 are nearly 50% higher than previous issues and will very likely get into the Jim Lee BATMAN zone by the time all the counting is done."

Not that this stops the traditional complaining ("Of course the nay-sayers will be pouring over the figures like flies over shit." "What happened to all those Doom Merchants on DC's JLA board who were going to skip the run then?") or delusion ("Here's the intersting question .... will there be a drop-off between 94 and 95. I don't think so. This isn't a new series launch where everyone grabs the first issue." "I don't anticipate any considerable drop-off by most retailers."), mind you.

The Pulse talks to creators about Jack Kirby, a decade after his death. Gail Simone:

"Jack invented Capepunk. He was perfectly happy doing comics that poked you directly in the eye, brain and heart. It takes courage to write and draw like that, which is why his best stuff cuts so deeply while so many stories of his time barely register at all. I like working in his industry."

Jimmy Palmiotti (and co-writer Justin Gray) on taking over Hawkman and working with Ryan Sook:

"Being a fan of Ryan's work, the first time we actually spoke was on speaker phone and it reminded me of the scenes in Charlie's angels where Charlie talks to the girls."

A day in the life of James Sime:

"Next up on my day's agenda was a trip to the dry cleaners to pick up a huge stack of my suits. When you wear a suit every day of your life, even to dive bars and filthy rock and roll concerts, you get to be fast friends with your dry cleaner. My guy's name is Thomas, pronounced 'toe-mas.' He's a fun guy who loves his work, and as much as I l appreciate this fine gentleman who keeps my suits fully pressed and lightly starched, every day I leave that place I thank the gods above that I get to pimp comics for a living. Sure, Thomas gets to watch E! True Hollywood Story all day long, but I'm happy to give up a little bit of knowledge about Carmen Electra's marriage with Dennis Rodman if it means I get to hang out at a cool comic shop and talk about the fine ladies that Wally Wood drew and the cool comics Greg Rucka writes all day long."

Good Lord, but Kevin's on fire today with the linkage.

Mark Millar explains why he hyped up a Marvel Press Conference on Wednesday that turned out not to exist:

"Yeah, I read it here [on Millarworld] too and assumed someone else know what was going on. Apologies for any confusion.

"(actually, I quite like causing confusion so I retract that apology)."

So he didn't know anything about it, and yet still felt the need to comment that it was going to reveal " a few interesting tidbits"? Interesting. Maybe the hype thing is involuntary?

DC's war heroes, recently revisited in projects like DC: The New Frontier and the Sgt. Rock hardcover, now find themselves in the middle of another terrible situation... being made into action figures.

Jim Valentino replaced as Image Publisher by Erik Larsen, who promises a return to mainstream "good" books:

"Jim came from very much the alternative camp of the world of comics and I'm much more from the mainstream, funny book, end of things. The thought was that if I was in charge and running the ship that perhaps some of those avenues can be opened up a bit more. That's kind of what I'm looking at, to be able to say that we've got different types of creators coming in and kind of rebuild some of the luster that Image has had in the past and more of the kind of books that excite me as a reader. In the meantime, we're still going to be publishing a number of books that would have been considered alternative comics back in the day. That's not going to change. The idea here is that we'll do more of the good books, less of the bad books and trim the fat where it needs to be trimmed."

JP Dorigo talks to Craig Thompson, despite phone difficulties:

"[JP]: It seems like everyday I’m reading that Blankets won another award, and folks are already talking Eisner, so did you ever think Blankets was going to be as huge as it is?
CT: Oh I’m definitely surprised. You know I was hoping, well, I was hoping it would offend any of my existing fans. I was hoping it would be as good as Chunky Rice or at bet as popular as Chunky Rice. And it was far better. Do you hear that beeping?"

Larry Young talks to Rich Johnston:

"We have to turn down DEMO because it's not an OGN? I mean, it's a comic book; it's not like I'm asking people to buy cuts of meat or something from us all of a sudden. I have to say that if I have some sort of Jedi marketing powers and have mass-hypnotized our audience into buying our books, well, then, sure, I can see where someone might feel badly upon awakening to see that all of a sudden they've purchased a bunch of comics they didn't want. But of course that's not the case at all. So, someone thinks I'm the champion of the book format? Leaving alone whether or not I agree with that characterization, does that mean we can't do a project or two in a format we're not known for? How does a company grow, if not by challenging their own status quo?"

Whatever happened to yesterday's Marvel press conference, which (according to Mark Millar) promised "a few interesting tidbits"? The one that Marvel didn't seem to have told any journalists about? That's what Millarworld is asking itself:

"Maybe Quesada is too busy scrubbing egg off his face right now."

"Was there even a press conference? Marvel didn't say anything about it all month, let alone this week."

"You would think Marvel would like to make the big announcements instead of having them leaked out by the Diamond info. They definitly need a PR guy to handle press releases. This is ridiculous."

Aside to Mark Peyton:

"Please tell me where I said these were facts and not my opinions?"

That would be when you said "It's a sad fact that for someone who rails against the genre so much, does his best work in it."

And it's a blog, not a column... *sigh*

To everyone else: Good morning. It's a bit dull today after all the Marvel leaks recently, isn't it?

Fun with expectations. A few days ago, Kirk Boxleitner wrote the following post on Micah Wright's forum:

"I can't help but believe that, if all the newcomers who jumped onboard the X-Men when Morrison took over really did care about the stories and the writers as much as they say they did, then The Filth would have done a lot better business on the market than it did, or at the very least, Morrison's JLA run would have sold much closer to what the X-Men's numbers were at that exact same time, when he was competing against writers on the X-Men who were not only NOT Morrison, but not even HALF as popular as Morrison was, among either the auteurs, as you call them, OR the superhero fanboys...
[W]hat's going to be interesting about this will be when we see just how many of the aspiring auteurs aren't just a more snobbish breed of superhero fanboys, deep down inside.

"As for the following quote... 'Anyone reading the title for Morrison really wouldn't care that Joss Whedon is going back to Jean-Scott (if in fact that's the case) or what ever else they're undoing.' ...I'd be VERY interested to see what the reaction would be, if someone were to post this assertion on, say, MillarWorld."

With the release of the preview images for Astonishing X-Men, we can see that very theory being tested. On Millarworld, as requested:

"FUCKIN' YELLOW SPANDEX. FUCK. <_< There is no need for Wolverine to be in a yellow body-suit and mask. And Cyclops got that old do-rag on again. It's nice art. But a leap backwards, IMO."

"i guess my brief return to x-books is over. i love whedon. i love cassaday. and it seems a crappy reason to drop a book, but its just my cup of tea. later guys."

"what the ? No , no spandex is a thing from the past when it comes to the X-men , please don't make it so . I sincerely hope this is some sort of "flashback" issue , because Wolverine in bright colored tights , it does not fit his character any more !"

"I was planning to add the book to my pull list but after seeing the cover, am having doubts....i guess i'll have to wait and see..."

"Morrison wrote the costumes out in his first issue. I can understand Shadowcat wearing a suit, if that's her. I can almost understand Beast wearing one (I think it fits his personality), and I cannot CANNOT stand him in trunks (which, unless he's naked, he's back to wearing that stupid jockey). The man is the smartest most highly evolved creature on the planet, period. And he wears a wrestling suit to a fight? Nope. The cover alone ensures that I won't be picking this up. Thank God Marvel keeps giving me reasons not to pick up their books anymore."

"never, in my wildest nightmare would I expect such a tragedy t show up on a cover of an X-men comic anymore. The covers actually are a 'midpoint' - between crap and sh*t, that is...THIS is what's suppose to lure the video game fans, the manga fans, the moviegoers to comic books?!?! After seeing the two movies, you think anybody would give a sack of wet crap to spend over two bucks on this printed tragedy?!I am left speechless..."

Newsarama has cover images to Astonishing X-Men and Uncanny X-Men. In Matt Brady's own words:

"Houston, we’ve got spandex."

Newsarama reports the Ellis/Immonen Ultimate Fantastic Four team rumours. The response is positive, shall we say:

"Whoa, talk about a jaw dropping announcement. That hasn't happened to me in awhile. But with this, Joss and John's Astonishing X-Men, and Bryan Singer on Ultimate X-men, it is making Marvel look really damn appealing."

"If Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen are doing UFF, I'm totally there. The ONLY thing that could beat that team combo would be Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. But that dream, for now, would only be a cloud in my coffee."

"Warren Ellis AND Stuart Immonen on Ultimate FF?? Exscuse why I fall of the floor giggling like a school girl! Ellis was made for this book and Immonen draws on of the BEST Ben Grimm's I've ever seen. Dear lord this is so friggin cool..."

The John Byrne board discuss X-Men Reload, and it's exactly what you'd expect:

"Unfortunately Joss says he has really liked the past couple of years of the New X-Men, which means Grant Morrison's view. Too bad, if Joss feels that Grant's take on the X-Men is really cool, I don't hold out much hope for his run on the X-Men."

"With no disrespect intended towards Whedon's talent, I can't help thinking ~ every time yet another "media star" is hired ~ that there's an ACTUAL COMIC BOOK WRITER out there who could use the work. Not to mention the shitload of lifelong readers who are waiting to get into the business, and aren't Johnny-Come-Lately hipsters who first discovered the X-Men (or whatever characters) in a movie theatre."

"Isn't the completely CRAP comic writing of Kevin Smith enough? Jeeze! If the Star of the minute is M****l's NU gimmick then count me out! I like stories written by writers not celebrities of the minute."

"Well, I will give the new X-books a chance. I will wait till I see them to judge them. Who knows ..they might be good. And as for 'the book formerly known as New' X-Men.... hopefully Austen will keep the Juggernaut around and give Cyclops his gonads back. I like some of Austen's work. If Juggernaut is around I will probably end up buying it. I did not like Morrison's New X-Men work at all, so Austen is an improvement in my opinion. However---it DOES bother me that a 'cool Nu-Marvel author' could write an X-book and to hell with streamlining the total number of X-men books, but XMHY gets cancelled! If I didn't know the REAL reason XMHY got cancelled I would be confused. Now I am just disgusted."

"joss doesnt appeal to me as a comic writer unlike Smith who has a deep love of comics and is a very good writer, Joss seems to be far from that. And as said he seems to love the current new x-men which is not a good sign at all."

"Ok, so when does JB get his own TV show? I mean this is quid pro quo, right? If a TV writer gets work that would normally go to a comic writer, shouldn't it go the other way, too? I can't wait to read David E. Kelley's Avengers or Aaron Sorkin's Superman. I'd just like to be able to watch a cool sci-fi show from Walt Simonson or something with a horror theme from JB once in a while in return. But since that ain't gonna happen, how about we let actual comic book writers write the friggin' comic books?"

When internet rumourmongers get defensive... Jeez, Millarworld is just the hive of activity today, ain't it? When one MW poster gets called on his "rumored" future X-Men projects, he 'fesses up:

"I pulled all of that crap out the air, just for my own amusement. Imagine my surprise when a couple of days later Markisan is reporting the story - WHICH I MADE UP - as having multiple sources. Not only that, I have him and Rich contacting me for info, like i'm some kind of Marvel mole. Some guy even though I was Bill Jemas! Oh well, fun for a while. I would have got away with it too if it wasn't for you pesky kids. But is internet comic journalism really that sloppy?"

Markisan, never one to back down from... well, anything, really, responds:

"You give yourself way too much credit. The Mack rumor did come from several sources and not you. Not only that but I speculated from actual conversations I had with David. I did contact you the other day after I saw all the stuff you were posting (after Rage went up). It was worth exploring the possibility that you were on the level. Maybe you noticed, but I didn't write you back. I had a feeling you were full of shit. And even if I didn't think that I would have looked into your claims before running them in my column. And lastly, a rumor column should not be considered journalism. If you believe it is, you don't know what you are talking about. I don't post this news as fact, which is required of journalists. Journalism: Writing characterized by a direct presentation of facts or description of events without an attempt at interpretation.

"By all means continue trying to trick me, Rich and your peers. But don't think for a second we aren't looking out for people like you. When I first started doing Rage Warren Ellis told me that people will try to play with me. I haven't forgotten that."

He then continues:

"So, just to clarify for everyone else who isn't a dick.. I believe David Mack will be doing something X-related."

Which is somewhat more vague than what he wrote last Sunday ("There's a rumor going around that David Mack will be writing New X-Men instead of taking on the previously announced Ultimate X-Men assignment... Some of you may think this Mack on New rumor is steaming pile of midget shit, but I have to tell you I think it’s a real possibility. I recently interviewed Mack about his creator-owned series, Kabuki and about his then upcoming run on Ultimate X-Men. A couple days later, after learning that Brian Vaughan (Runaways) will be writing an arc for the title, I emailed David two or three times to try and verify his start date on the Ultimate X book. He never replied to my inquiries. Now David is a nice guy, so I originally assumed the lack of response was due to a heavy workload. I didn’t think anything of it until this new rumor surfaced.."), which didn't seem to be working from a position of "Mack on New X-Men is a pile of shit..."

A packed, and interesting Permanent Damage this week. Bits about dialogue on covers, the rise and fall of self-publishing, and Julie Schwartz:

"Julie Schwartz was the Silver Age, but the Silver Age died long before he did, and it's time to close the book on it once and for all. The world's a worse place for Julie no longer being in it, but there's no reason the spirit of his work can't live on, in new forms more appropriate to the age, while the body of that work is finally laid to rest. Julie was that era, but the era's over."

Go read.

Bill Oakley, letterer, died recently. Chris Eliopolous remembers him:

"I came to discover that Bill was as nice a guy as he was a great letterer. I would talk to him on and off over the years, keeping in touch. Then we learned he had cancer. Went through the usual treatments and thought he was better, but a couple years later discovered it had spread. He had no medical coverage because he had a previous medical condition and the insurance companies refused to cover him. So all the time he was getting treatment for his cancer, Bill would letter comics to help pay the costs-- many comics you have in your collection were lettered in a hospital room. But Bill was proud and never asked for anything from anyone."

Reaction to Warren Ellis confirming that he's written an episode of the Justice League cartoon:

"Isn't this the same man that hates superheroes and berates others for working on them?"

"Nope, he does seem to like ranting about the follies of a market aimed at aging men who like superheroes though. What a fool! Anyway, writing cartoon - whatever, writing Ultimate Fantastic Four - big old dolop of hypocrisy."

"He's actually gone further than that in the old days of the WEF. Huge diatribes, usually in the weekly picks lists, about crappy characters."

Also on Millarworld, the Grand Poobah himself appeared to say:

"Today's Marvel press conference sounds like it might have a few interesting tidbits. Otherwise, I can say now more...

Lotsa l,
MM"

Positive spin against the leaking of the Reload details, Variety reporting Bryan Singer doing an X-title and news of Warren Ellis doing Ultimate FF leaking out early? Or is there more coming?

X-Fan also picked up the Marvel leaks (to a much more happy reaction, but that's to be expected: "OMG!! WHEDONOMG *gasp for air*"). Millarworld, where the leaks originated, weren't too happy about other people stealing their thunder:

"I just removed the link in my previous post, as I put in there for MWers, not for all newsarama readers. If you want the link, PM me. edit: nm, they chose Elias's server instead of mine. edit again: apparently they DID link to me, they're getting an email."

"Relevant parties should email Newsarama to remove the links from their article, as they linked to a private server."

"Isn't it great we're the center of the comic news universe most of the time, we're being reference everywhere. ;) We rule!!"

"X fan should remove the text and post a link back to here. It's only fair given they've asked us to do the same in the past."

"I'm editing the document now. Any suggestions as to what offensive phrases I should include?"

"This is what they are linking to now."

"HA! WE are the future"

Newsarama picks up the Marvel Solicits. The fans are less excited than Marvel would have hoped about the X-relaunch:

"What happened to the idea of paring down the plethora of X-books? Remember that was their stated reason for cancelling X-Men: The Hidden Years. So I guess thia means they will attempt to get John Byrne to resume the series? Looks like there are now almost double the amount of books that existed before May 2001."

"Wow, I'm excited about the Whedon/Cassaday Astonishing X-Men, but wow there are a lot of other books. I'm praying that they don't plan a big event requiring the purchase of every title to follow the story. Except for Astonishing, I really can't work up much enthusiasm. Perhaps the sheer volume of titles is just too overwhelming."

"I kinda lost focus since there were so many titles listed, but overall this just means more to buy and more to be disappointed by. Did New Mutants really need to become New X-Men? Is any of this gonna matter a year down the road? I bet a big no-prize that Randy Green doesn't make it past the issue 8 mark on New X-Men. I like his work, but his name is synonymous with delays. And Excalibur... Whose idea was that? I just hope that they don't try to do all of these grandiose things just to repair the void left by Morrison. What he did on these books was as close to genius as anything in recent memory (X-books only), and I'd hate to see Genosha suddenly be rebuilt and everything he did for naught. Time will tell."

"Isn't Cassady notorious for lateness? While his art is pretty, I would not be picking up any seriously late books or crappy fill-ins. I quit buying x-books over a year ago after almost 20 years straight, and so far I see no incentive to return."

"This Reload of the X-Universe is about as disappointing as the Reload of the Matrix. This new, conservative sales approach/risk-averse corporate strategy makes me long for the days of Jemas' Ultimate, Epic and Tsunami lines -- certainly more interesting in their mixed successes than this stale, tired cloning of the X-books."

"Well this isn't quite the news I was expecting. Not that I"m disappointed...well not completely...but I was expecting something more momentous than this."

Millarworld's leaking of the solicits gets an interesting reaction, too:

"Ohhhh....somebody's gonna get in trouble......"

"Ha ha ha, I love it when an embargo gets broken. Seriously, Marvels solicits have been later and later each month for no reason I can see other than to bitchslap the fans around a little bit. DC's are consistently posted around the third Tuesday of the month, maybe this leak will teach Marvel not to get all Richard Nixon on keeping theirs secret..."

"I thibk it's quite funny that this info leaked so soon after Joe Quesada went online and blatantly lied to people, saying the rumours of Joss Whedon and John Cassaday on X-men were untrue. I know he said 'they're not on New X-men', which was his cover-up, but it's still a lie. This info leaking out is a bit of karma for Mr Q! Hopefully next time a rumour leaks, he'll just keep mum on the subject rather than trying to cover it up by lying to the fans!"

Oh, look: The Epic Anthology has been cancelled. That is such a big, big surprise.

No, really.

More on Whedon/Cassaday's Astonishing X-Men from Wizard:

"While Whedon’s team members are still top secret and he’s wary of releasing too many details about his upcoming 12-issue run, Cassaday did mention that it was a hard deal to turn down after the artist heard about the cast of characters he’d be allowed to draw."

12-issue run? Remember when those would just be mini-series, instead of ongoing launches that would be taken over by Chuck Austen after those 12 issues are done?

Leaked Marvel solicits (text only) here (via Millarworld) [EDIT: That first link may no longer be worksafe, as MWers have been editing the original lists because other sites have linked them. Be warned]:

* Astonishing X-Men by Whedon/Cassaday leads the Reload event. Elsewhere, Morrison gets revamped:

"The children at the X-Mansion thought they had it tough when Professor X was running things – but now that X-Men Cyclops and Emma Frost have taken over the reins of the school, they're wishing for the simpler times of yesterday! Codenames, school-issued uniforms and mandatory training sessions in the Danger Room are just a few of the changes being implemented around the Institute..."

...making it just like the olden days of Generation X or New Mutants (This from the solicit of the relaunched with a new title - Academy X - New Mutants title, by the way).

* Mystique's writer Brian Vaughan gets congratulated for making it one of the few non-cancelled Tsunami titles by being replaced (He gets a fill-in run on Ultimate X-Men to make up for it, though).

* Mark Millar's new Spider-Man title has a big spoiler in the solicit for its second issue. And not for something that happens in the first, either.

* Runaways and Spider-Girl are officially swallowed up into the Marvel Age imprint.

Drew Geraci shares his Steve Ditko story (because, really, don't we all have one?):

"Remember when Crossgen press released that it was going to hire veteran Marvel artists from the 60's bullpen for some special projects? Well, this random phone call was the closest thing to it having happened."

(Via Tim O'Neill)

John Byrne invites his message board to pre-empt criticism of his upcoming JLA run by guessing at what "trolls" (ie, anyone who doesn't love his work) will be saying. Wouldn't it be great if some of them correctly guess at the plot of the arc?

Matt Maxwell: I know you were looking for something like this a couple of days ago...

Mark Millar wants your vote:

"I don't care WHO you vote for as long as Wanted gets best new comic, Planetary gets best monthly comic, Millarworld gets best site, Ultimate Cap gets best character and one of my hareem gets best artist. Oh, and Switchblade Honey should get best original graphic novel if there's any justice in the world and X2 for best movie/ TV. However, don't let me influence you... EXCEPT WANTED AS BEST NEW COMIC!!!!"

(If you're not British, Mark Peyton wants you to help ballotstuff anyway: "And for those foreign posters who want their votes to count list your address as somewhere in Britain." Naughty...)

They're talking about this:

"The 7th [British] National Comics Awards (2004)... The Best Comic? Best Character? Best Artist? Best Writer? - Only YOU can decide! From The Beano to Batman, from 2000AD to Warhammer, from Spider-Man to Striker, any comic is eligible. You are invited to vote for any comic, of any nationality published since May 2003."

Personally, I think all British people should vote for The X-Axis to win best speciality magazine or website, just because Paul deserves awards.

Looking over DC's May solicitations, with the usual coo-ing at nice covers:

* Bizarre reprint of the month: DC 100 Page Super Spectacular. Now, I love that DC are reprinting old stuff on a fairly regular basis, but still, this was a surprise to see...

* Pretty:


* The Filth! In one volume, despite the fact it's thirteen issues long!

* Seaguy! With the amusingly named sidekick, Chubby Da Choona! Brand New Grant Morrison madness, with art by Cameron Stewart, which could easily make it the greatest series released this year.

It's ridiculously anal, but I can't help but agree with Augie's one complaint about Sleeper:

"The only jarring thing in the series is the sudden shift to computer lettering in the final quarter. The slick ultra-round font used in Carver's narration doesn't fit properly in the caption boxes, and the whole package loses part of its organic feel."

Marvel's Warren Ellis on Ultimate FF rumour breaks. Millarworldians aren't convinced:

"Two words that sound like more: No way in hell."

"This is bullshit. First of all, Ellis hates superheroes, and has no desire to write them, and secondly he has said on more than one occasion that he has no desire to write for Marvel again any time soon. Not necessarily because there's any bad blood between him and the 'House of Ideas', but because there's nothing there that interests him. And Ellis isn't one to go back on his word the moment a big, fat cheque is waved in his face either."

"No bloody chance. Which is a good thing, as it's sad enough to see talented writers like Bendis wasting his time on a boring old concept like the Fantastic Four without Ellis following suit."

"The smell of horseshit coming off this rumor is overpowering. I repeat Richard's two words- No fucking way in hell. Edit: Although, if we're being honest, if this happened I would blow ten loads into my pants."

Stuart Moore tackles the idea that All They Care About Is Making Money:

"A related complaint is this: Why Don’t Publishers Stick With a Book Long Enough for It to Find Its Audience? The answer is that, in the direct market, very few books launch low and then trend upward significantly. In the past ten years, I can name these: Preacher, Bone, Stray Bullets, Y The Last Man. Maybe Fables. Possibly Astro City, though I think its numbers were pretty healthy to start with... If you like Sleeper or Spider-Girl, the best thing to do is to tell people how great it is and why -- not to try and trick the company into thinking it can make a fortune off the book if only it would publish the thing in manga-size paperbacks. The company knows whether it’s making money or not, and in this changing market, any book with buzz is a good candidate for a trade paperback or an experimental format anyway."

For those likely to attend, a map and list of exhibitors for APE this weekend.

DC's corporate synergy strikes again. As the publishing company gears up to release a series based on the revamped Firestorm, now black and with a revised costume, DC Direct announces that they're going to be releasing an action figure of the character... in his original, white with puffy sleeves, incarnation.

Brandon Thomas on Rob Liefeld's publishing ventures:

"The second issue of Youngblood: Genesis should be out in March, I think, and I’m assuming Brigade will follow shortly, but that’s all I can comment on. There is a very logical and interesting explanation for the extended delay between issues 1 and 2 of both Genesis and Youngblood: Bloodsport, but if I say why, it’ll ruin the surprise."

Now I want it to be a good reason, not just "Rob ran out of money/couldn't be bothered/spent the year in Hollywood meetings" like usual. Something like "Rob was abducted by aliens and has been returned with six arms and the ghost of Jack Kirby in a jar, giving him instructions."

Markisan of All The Rage on Kevin Smith's announcement that he's going to finish his Marvel mini-series:

"I’ve really enjoyed your comics. Green Arrow should have actually used his bow, but I still enjoyed them. What bothers me is that you committed to a job and failed to follow through in a reasonable amount of time. Not only did you cause ridiculous delays, you made up lame excuses about having no time to write because of your Jersey Girl film. Um, you had enough extra time to suck up to Jay Leno, film commentary for DVDs and make 2000 stops at the local White Castle, but you couldn’t write 22 pages of frickin’ script for Spidey/Black Cat? For fuck’s sake, drop the sack of chicken rings and open up a word document, Silent Bob."

It writes its own punchline, doesn't it?

Mike San Giacomo turns his critical eye and razor-sharp gaze onto Wonder Woman:

"When you start peeling back the layers of Wonder Woman, and looking at her as more than a two-dimensional cardboard character, one with feelings, personal motivations, and one who responds to the world around her in her own unique manner, one elephant tends to remain in the room: what’s going on with Wonder Woman’s sex life? After all, Superman has Lois Lane, Batman can have any woman he wants as Bruce Wayne, and Spider-Man has Mary Jane Watson. Does Wonder Woman have a special man...or...? Let's just point to the fact that many of Wonder Woman's lesbian fans were heartened when she cut her hair nice and short a few issues back."

To celebrate President's Day, Rich Johnston remembers Marvel's onetime President, William Jemas:

"This week, Marvel editorial was having a 'fun' time presenting Bill Jemas co-replacement Gui Kayro a year-long publishing plan to show the rest of the Marvel board of executives. With the 'non-controversial' edict coming down how Marvel Publishing reconciles past and current publishing plans with the current wishes of their masters will be seen in the coming months. Bill Jemas' contract reportedly ran out in early February. But he's still there… New contract? Part time contract? Something else? Business as usual, just with different faces up front?"

Brian Hibbs returns with a look at how graphic novels and trades sell in the Direct and mainstream bookstore markets:

"The Direct Market’s buying power is clearly the engine driving the bus – those firm, non-returnable, sales are absolutely essential to the production of comics in America, and if the DM were to “go away” tomorrow, I think that it is clear that the bookstores would not be able to pick up the slack.

"One thing when looking at the Diamond numbers – there are a tremendous number of sales that simply don’t show up at all. For a really good example of this phenomenon, look at the Diamond Year-End report for TP/GNs: Watchmen comes in at #23 for the year over all. The item at #22 on the year-end is Trigun vol 1. ICv2 estimates sales as 6889 in October, 2981 in November, and 1691 in December – that’s 11,561 copies cumulative. This means that it’s safe to say that Watchmen almost certainly sold at least 11,000 copies in the Direct Market despite never once showing up on any monthly Top 50 list!

"Think about that one for a moment, eh?

"So to bottom line this discussion: most of the data we have is flawed or faulty, and generally speaking, we’re comparing one very flawed reporting method to a second very flawed reporting method. While I believe that some general shapes can be discerned, I am very mindful of the perversity that I’m comparing apples to sardines, and I don’t even know what an apple looks like, really."

"Ultimate Content—Ultimate Covers! Starting in April 2004 the world's ultimate comic book line -- that's every title in Marvel's best-selling Ultimate imprint -- will be upgraded to include a new and improved cover stock. Designed to better display the ultimate in cover art, the new 100# UV-coated cover stock brings the highest of quality to this powerhouse line."

Because, obviously, that warranted a press release.

James Sime writes a Valentine to romance comics of different stripes:

"Now I know this one might be tough to find, but if you liked 'Heathers,' 'True Romance,' or 'Natural Born Killers,' you'll love Grant Morrison and Philip Bond's 'Kill Your Boyfriend.' It's a classic tale of boy meets girl, boy and girl go on a roadtrip killing spree, boy and girl fall in love. It drives me crazy that this book is currently out of print! I wish I had a fat stack of these to sell over the Valentines' Day weekend. I shouldn't have to get this on eBay just to get my customers the good stuff. It's my hope that Vertigo will realize how much this lost treasure needs to be put back in print. And while we are talking about it, Vertigo should reprint that Peter Milligan and Duncan Fregredo mini-series 'Girl,' which would have made a nice addition to this list."

To which I add: Get the other Milligan/Fegredo book from that time, Face, back into print as well.

Scott Grunewald on The Unfunnies:

"In fact, the only thing funny about THE UNFUNNIES is the utter gall that Millar has in comparing the book to movies like Magnolia or Happiness and his claims that the book is shocking and uncompromising. You wanna shock me Mark? Write an anal rape joke that's actually funny."

Matt Maxwell is, again, a Guy Who Gets It:

"Personally, I don’t really care about most continuity issues. I did at one time. I was personally incensed that Marvel chose to bring back Jean Grey and make her sacrifice as the Phoenix in Uncanny #137 meaningless. That was a long, long time ago. At this point, I see her in New X-Men and don’t really even think about all the ridiculous backstory, that if you stopped to consider it would not only break the character’s metaphoric spine, but cause it to implode into a black hole due to the density of personal history packed in over the last thirty years.

"You’d go nuts thinking about it. All you need to know about the character can be summed up neatly. Troubled relationship with borderline psychotic loner husband, potential to tap into more power than humans should ever have access to, caring mother figure to her students. Trying to tie everything back to the days of Marvel Girl and the time that everyone up to, and including, Professor X was harboring a secret love for her is nothing short of a short path to madness."

Journalista goes on temporary hiatus as Dirk becomes the managing editor of The Comics Journal. It'll be much missed, and hopefully will return soon.

Jim Lee talks about Superman, Batman and other important subjects over at The Pulse:

"THE PULSE: Speaking of publicity seeking prosecutors, what's your favorite vegetable?

LEE: A good ripe roma tomato. Tomatoes are great on their own … or with salt or oil and basalmic vinegar. Or even with a pinch of sugar. Tomatoes … hands down."

Someone should tell Matt Brady that Ed Brubaker currently writes two books set in the DC Universe:

"Trading the WildStorm U for the DC U, Ed Brubaker heads over to Hawkman in April for a one-shot, 'Lives Past' story of a pre-winged Hawkman... Did this get your DCU jones out of your system, or do you see yourself coming back in to the world where Superman flies and Batman prowls?"

Avi Arad talks about Marvel movies and Marvel comics...:

"IGNFF: Were you hearing feedback about the lack of kid-friendly books?

ARAD: Absolutely! Listen, my day job is also Chief Creative Officer for Marvel, and it's a very painful job because we publish a lot of books, and there are things I see where I can punch people out. Therefore, we have some new people now, and the kids are going to read our books.

IGNFF: But the previous editorial regime you speak of was in place for a several years, and they were years when there was virtually no consideration given to bringing new readers in… And that just leaves a diminishing reader base of established older fans.

ARAD: We are doing actually good stuff now. Listen, people like Brian Bendis did great things for comic readers, great things for comic readers.

IGNFF: But are those comics that a 6- or 7-year-old can come in and read?

ARAD: Not yet. Bu they are coming. I can promise you that. Let's have a follow-up just on comics. It's a fair issue that, trust me – it upsets me. Because there's no reason for kids not to read it. I am from the school, having not grown up here, that reading is fundamental. Kids go to college, they do well, they don't do well – it's all bulls***. I think well-read people – the world is open to them.

IGNFF: And there's an entire generation of adults that owe a large part of their vocabulary to reading comics as kids…

ARAD: Absolutely. So I… Listen, we are now working very, very hard to get our books into mass market, and we are successful. We are not ready to show it, but it's coming, and you'll see an incredible effort.

IGNFF: And no other company is actively pursuing it, which disappoints me.

ARAD: No one is doing it. I can tell you, no one is doing it because there will always be the fear – to be honest about it – that, 'Ah, if I do the books for the younger kids, are the older kids going to walk away from it?''"

Completely uncomfirmed post about the state of the X-Books from a source with unknown credentials:

"Okay lets end all speculation right now.

"Singer and co are moving onto Ultimate after Vaughn finishes his run. The plan is for this book to move into movie continuity, distinct from the mainstream X-verse.

"Mack will be going in on New. The idea is to continue along the lines set by Morrisson, moving into Marvel Knightsish territory.

"This would leave the other (Claremont led) X-books as old school super-hero stuff.

"The process will be roling out over the course of the year, with reload as a starting point.

"Something for everyone, covering all bases. This is the culture at Marvel right now."

Bullshit or truth? The decision is yours (but it's probably the former)...

Certain Millarworlders seems to be close to deciding to set up a new HEAT-style team for Tim Drake as Robin. Discussion of Drake's replacement as the Teen Wonder starts simply enough:

"I hope this is just a stunt, I like the Tim Drake character, and don't want to see him dumped."

Before moving onto stronger thoughts:

"This is the craziest shit i ever heard, i swear if Tim becomes another character with a bird of the night name which is most likely gonna happen i'm quitting his comic. I've been reading Robin and Nightwing for a while now and have been unusually 'drawn' to Birds of Prey ever since Ed Benes took over. Hopefully it's not Spoiler because she sucks as a character and she's also Tim's girlfriend. Which makes me think that somehow she learns quickly that she can't fill his shoes and he comes running back to papa Bruce and the Robin costume. This all sounds like a gay ass drama series to me and they are better off just leaving things as they are."

"Man.. DC sucks. Tim Drake was very good as Robin and should stay as robin. Guess I shall be dropping Robin."

"TIM DRAKE IS ROBIN. THATS FINAL. A BIG FUCKING MISTAKE IF THEY GET RID OF HIM IN ANY CAPACITY......THE FUCK UPS AT DC SURE KNOW HOW TO SCREW UP GOOD THINGS"

TIM DRAKE IS ROBIN. I WILL WRITE IN ALL CAPS TO SHOW HOW PISSED OFF I AM THAT SOMEONE IS THINKING OF REPLACING THE FOURTH VERSION OF A CONCEPT THAT'S BEEN AROUND FOR OVER 60 YEARS. ARGH. THE FUCK UPS AT DC SUCK. WHY DOES EVERYTHING HAVE TO CHANGE? *sob*

Tom Brevoort writes a short but nice article on his history with the X-Men:

"Shortly thereafter, buoyed by the thoroughly-excellent limited series he’d done with Frank Miller, Chris started pushing Wolverine to the center of the series. I had liked Wolverine an awful lot in the early All-New X-Men days, as the spoiler character, the Hawkeye, the guy who causes friction. But once you made him the center, the whole paradigm turned on its head for me. I couldn’t, for example, accept the notion that Wolverine was somehow a better representative of the philosophies of the X-Men than Cyclops, who was now, by default, cast into the role of jerk, of stiff. The Cyclops-Wolverine rivalry worked for me when Logan was the ornery outside, but failed when he became the X-Men’s moral compass... X-Men by this point had become just as calcified as Spidey or the FF had been in 1978, a well-crafted series in which the boundaries are well-known and immutable, a series that had to work extra hard to convince you that something significant was about to happen, rather than just having it occur."

Stormwatch: Team Achilles is getting a cover makeover... complete with the return of dialogue balloons. Micah Wright explains:

"My theory is this: a cover is your advertisement. In the 1970's, covers served as the movie trailers for comics. What's in this Sgt. Rock comic this month? I guess it's a story about Nazis shooting Sgt. Rock but rock can't fire back because each of the Nazis have 5 orphans tied to themselves like orphan armor! WHAT WILL ROCK DO?

"In the 1980s, we moved away from this. We started having Posters for covers. Pin-ups of Namor stroking his pitchfork or Spiderman swinging from building to building. No story is implied. 'Cover text is too kiddie,' say many people. Those people are wrong. Without insinuation of a story, the only thing you have to sell your comic is the stunning art, and walking into a comic shop today is like being hit across the face with a 2x4 in the shape of 500 comic covers, most of which look identical.

"So here's my solution: I'm bringing back the mini-story on the cover. Note... this scene does NOT happen like this in the comic... but WHO CARES? It gets the point of the comic across in a big way."

Superman: Red Son is the number one trade for last month. Writer Mark Millar's reaction?:

"Who's yo Daddy???!?!?! Can't wait to see Johnny DC sign me that royalty cheque through gritted teeth."

When a brave poster points out that "Dude, that schtik is getting oooollllddd. Evil DC might even have some nice foreign royalties for you too," Millar elaborates:

"Man, DC-bashing NEVER gets old ;)

"BTW, let me give you a glimpse into that foreign royalties pot, Alex: I've had three Authority trades out there and an Authority hardcover. You know how much they made me in royalties in the last three years combined with all the royalties from the single issues? International combined with domestic?

"Less than two thousand bucks.

"And they sold really, really well.

"One single issue of a Marvel book selling 100K makes a writer more than this in royalties in a single month and their trade deal is a million times better too. My combined foreign royalties for all my DC Universe work in the past comes to less than five hundred bucks, some editions just paying out two or three cents in my royalty statements. Bear in mind that these things sell hundreds of thousands of copies all around the world and you'll see how weak this foreign royalty argument they always make is.

"Sure, Marvel should be paying this out. It's unreasonable that they don't, but they definitely give you a much better deal on the American end of things."

So, once again: Marvel don't pay foreign royalties, DC do, but DC are evil. Everyone got that?

Meanwhile, the Superman books sell out and go back to press before the April relaunch. Who knew?

Dan DiDio and Bob Wayne talk about the last year for DC:

"We're more than just superheroes; the fact that we had two other imprints that could siphon off some of those categories is good, but what we're trying to do is offer as many different types of product as possible by working with the best creators possible. The bottom line is this: originally, what we did is that a number of the DC editors went out and sought creators to do the best variety of books possible. In hindsight, though, we might have done better to have asked, 'Will those books do the best possible under the DC bullet?'"

I like Kyle Baker's press releases:

"The current issue of FLAUNT magazine, #51, boasts a lovely two-page spread created by Kyle Baker, cartoonist of 'Cartoonist', and cartoonist's cartoonist. The feature is titled 'The Compendium Of All Essential Male Knowledge; A Complete List Of Everything A Young Man Needs To Know! Ever!' # 51 is FLAUNT's annual 'Man's Best' issue.

"'It's just about the best printing job I've ever seen on one of my cartoons,' says Baker of the full-color extravaganza. 'Excellent paper stock. That might sound goofy, but it's always a joy when the printing does one's artwork justice.' Baker also admitted off the record that he thinks the piece, which he wrote as well as illustrated, is very funny, but he doesn't like to brag."

That said, I mention this just so that it gives me an excuse to tell all of you that Baker's Plastic Man #3 has the greatest Batman sequence I've read in years.

Is Uncanny X-men going to be relaunched with a new #1? Newsarama discusses:

"Ok what I want to know is why the freak isn't Marvel making some kind of concrete announcement as to what the hell is going on with all the Reload stuff!! I mean we the fans are the ones that keep them employeed and all we keep getting are rumor this and rumor that, it's bullshit!!! I thought that they would be slimming the X-Universe down some, I mean right now it seems that there are more mutants than humans in the Marvel Universe. All I keep hearing about are some new/old creators coming back and a few name changes, not much of a Reload if you ask me!"

"Anything can happen, but I don't foresee Marvel restarted Uncanny, only because if you look at what they did in the past few months, restoring AMAZING SPIDER-MAN and FANTASTIC FOUR to their original numbering, why would they put themselves in a position to have to do that again down the road with UNCANNY X-MEN? I know they restarted series like WOLVERINE last year, but let's face facts: WOLVERINE isn't as important to the legacy of Marvel, as a monthly comic book series, as books like UNCANNY and AMAZING and FANTASTIC FOUR are. So, I doubt we'll see a renumbering."

Of course, if they do restart with a new #1, then they get that sales boost and then, not too long afterwards, they can revert to the original numbering and get another sales boost with an anniversary issue... But Marvel would never do that, would they?

Tail wagging dog? The new Batman cartoon coming on the WB and Cartoon Network, is to feature a new Batgimmick called The Batwave, which - from all publicity I've seen, at least - seems to be nothing so much as the Bat-Remote Control. The whole thing seemed to make little sense until the announcement of the Batwave toy tie-in cleared things up...:

"'The Batwave line is an extraordinary and sophisticated new way for kids to watch and play with their favorite characters -- whether the TV is on or off,' said Matt Bousquette, President, Mattel, Inc. 'This is the kind of toy that really satisfies today's kid because it not only enhances the viewing experience of the show, it actually pulls the child into the storyline in an imaginative as well as interactive way. It's the next generation toy for a new generation kid.'"

Christopher Butcher rocks my world (Scroll down to Tuesday's entry about Wanted, permalinks aren't working...).

Matt Brady reads about CMX, DC's new Manga imprint, in Time Magazine and gets analytical:

"Going back to the bookstore market and DC working to establish a beachhead there with CMX…there are already whispers among some pundits of 2004 being the year of the manga bloodbath. In 2001, there were roughly 200 individual volumes of manga released. In 2002, it was roughly 400; and in 2003, 600 volumes. Already in 2004, there are plans for over 1000 manga books coming – with over half of those coming from Tokyopop.

"While a quick trip to any Borders or Barnes and Noble will tell you, shelf space for manga has increased tremendously for manga in the past year (usually at the expense of American trades – which, interestingly opens the door to the argument that DC could be seen as eating its own tail), but it’s a tough argument to make that the shelf space will nearly double again to accommodate all the new manga coming in this year. Again, Tokyopop is the king in terms of shelf space and sales in many bookstores, so it’s a safe bet that much of the Tokyopop expansion will be greeted with (albeit conservatively) open arms in bookstores.

"As for the rest, it’s going to get bloody. Most likely, lower sellers will drop out of stores entirely, as they won’t pay for their shelf space, middle sellers will sell less, while big titles will sell more. With that scenario starting to play out at bookstores, CMX, like the upcoming introduction to the market by Del Rey, will most likely have to play a conservative and savvy game, picking titles that will sit at the top of the charts from the outset."

Elektra cancelled:

"Marvel has informed retailers that its current Elektra series will end with issue #36, which ships in April. The solicitation for the issue (written by Robert Rodi, with art by Joe Bennett) refers to it as Part 1 of a new story arc, guest starring Daredevil. The final issue for which an estimate os sales to retailers was available was December's #30, which saw an estimated 23,578 copies ship to retailers."

The full solicitation reads:

"In part 1 of a new story arc, a mysterious figure from Elektra's past arrives in NYC, seeking Matt Murdock's help in finding her. But what Matt doesn’t realize is he may be unwittingly helping Elektra back to the grave. New story arc! Two issues!!"

Back to the grave, indeed.

Now, I'm not the biggest fan of Paul Gulacy's art on Catwoman these days. I liked the style that Darwyn Cooke established, which was built upon by Cameron Stewart. I miss the more simple art style, and feel disappointed by the two-dimensionality of the way the book looks now, not to mention the loss of energy the series has suffered because of the change.

But obviously, I'm understating the importance of my complaint. Luckily, others don't have that problem:

"i absolutely hate gulacy on catwoman. it almost ruins the book for me. i was reading it the other day and the whole time i kept grunting audibly, so much so that my wife thought i was sick. he's just terrible and whoever thought his art(?) was a good fit for this book is a moron. they should get genital herpes and be forced to watch endless episodes of "hope & faith," featuring the inimitable comedic stylings of miss kelly ripa.

"seriously, is there someone i can email with this complaint? i'm pretty sure i'm not the only one out there who thinks this art has got to go. i'm dyin' here. seriously, i think that gulacy's art is giving me lukemia or something. you could save a life... "

Peter Milligan on Kid Amazo, his JLA graphic novel:

"In many ways, the fact that it’s not something that I would normally do holds the interest for me... On first look, it might seem like something that’s pretty mainstream, but then I think what’s interesting is how you can play around with the expectations readers have. It’s not a straightforward JLA book, by any means. What I’m trying to do is have all the usual stuff that people who like the JLA in it, but also to play around in other things and explore other things that perhaps your average JLA book doesn’t explore... The question of whether or not [the title character] will become Kid Amazon is an externalized way of dealing with the whole issue of free will and predestination... So in a sense, that’s what the story is about – his character exploring whether or not he is in fact, predestined to do certain things, or if he has free will."

All that, and nice art by Rob Haynes makes the project sound enticing, no? Well, not if you're a Newsarama poster:

"Didn't like Haynes on Daredevil: Ninja and I don't like his stuff here. Count me out."

"They should have just made this the next JLA story arc. Anything would be better than Chuck Austen on the book. As is, I won't buy this as a standalone mini-series. Just not enough appeal to earn my money."

"Even in a world of spandex wearing people with capes, this seems too out there for me. A growing cyborg? Wouldn't parts need to be enlarged & such? Just not getting into it...and the art doesn't do it for me eaither. I pass."

"Let's see, artwork from the guy who did those horrible covers for Supergirl which, while they may not have contributed to her cancellation, they certainly didn't help things. Nope, not interested."

The V offers two possible silver linings for Rich Johnston's announcement that Chuck Austen is taking over NewXMen fulltime:

"Well, maybe it's a kind of balance thing. First you have arguably the best writer in comics for an extended run, and then you have worst. Good job, New Old Marvel. I pray the sales on this tank so Marvel actually notices that, you know, Austen can't write to save his life."

"Seriously - look on the bright side. Maybe it's a different Chuck Austen."

You know what's sad? The news that Adam in Smallville isn't Batman. This means that my wife can't make each episode of the show better by adding "...because I'm going to grow up to become Batman!" onto the end of every sentence he says (For those that watch the show, try it at home. It's very amusing).

Jesse Baker, nerd God of Delphi forums, strikes again, expounding on the new Firestorm book:

"This book is doomed. Doomed. Doomed. Doomed. Worse than that, they don't even have an A-List writer to bring in new readers to offset the numbers of old fans who DC has just told to fuck-off. And as we saw with Titans and Outsiders, so long as you have a hot writer on a book you can count on said writer's fanboys to keep a shit book afloat.

"The fact of the matter is, that it's been these die-hard Firestorm fans pressuring DC to bring the character back. And now they have been told to fuck-off because DC would rather target new readers who have no clue who Firestorm is save for his appearances in Kelly's JLA and even they will probably go 'what the fuck?' and ignore the book when they see that it's not even same guy and they will be even more confused. And let's not ignore the new character, who's two, count 'em TWO cookie cutter cliches in one. He's an inner-city black kid who breaks the law and has daddy issues! He's a nerdy geek! Sure Ronnie was a preppy jock but at least in today's comic enviroment that could make for some interesting stories given how the geeky outcast cliche has been beaten to death."

Millarworld responds to the new Ultimate X-Men news:

"If this is true... this is LARGE."

"Wow!Cool, Singer is a good writer/Director so if this sucks, it won't be his fualt!"

"This is exciting news! Who knows if it'll be any good or not but at least Marvel's doing something exciting again."

Thankfully, Ethan Van Sciver is on hand to be sarcastic:

"They should let Ben Affleck take over Daredevil."

Bryan Singer to write Ultimate X-Men for a year, according to Variety, according to Newsarama. Newsarama fans are thrilled:

"With a news like that, I don`t even care about the new New X-Men writer. Singer writing X-Men makes my day."

"WoW. That certainly is newsworthy! I'm already very intrested in his take on the mutants in this medium."

"I don't see how it can NOT attract new fans. I know I'll be picking up the book for the first time when Singer's stint on the book begins."

Note to Marvel: Don't fuck this up, for your own sakes.

(Also: What if Variety got confused, and Singer is due to take over New X-Men?)

Is Connor Hawke, the one-time Green Arrow, now... whatever he is (Green Arrow supporting character, I guess?), gay? Sk8Jesus discusses. Well, really, most people take one position, but one disagrees:

"Connor Hawke manages to be cool (since all I've read him in is the Morrison JLA), while at the same time overcoming a disability much more traumatic - his sexual identity is in a constant state of flux, being yanked around by Chuck Dixon on one end and, well, normal writers on the other. He's bipolarsexual."

"It was Ron Marz and Kevin Dooley who were messing with his sexuality. This does mean that Chuck Dixon was on the normal writer's side of things, which can't be right..."

"I think Bryan means that having a homophobic view of sexuality, as per Chuck Dixon, is the side that isn't 'normal' in this instance, and writers who are willing to conceive of gay superheroes without shitting their britches are the normal ones."

"It was an editor who dictated the homosexuality of Connor. It was imposed on a character who wasn't gay, had never been conceived as a gay character, and no one else portrayed him as such."

"So? Characters change, just like people."

"And regress as soon as a specific writer is not writing them? Connor was only speculated to be gay when Ron Marz wrote him in piss poor Green Lantern/Green Arrow crossovers, because Kevin Dooley told him he should write him like that."

"Oh no! Continuity has been disrupted! Reality will commence to unravel now! Damn you Ron Marz, your feeble minded attempt to be inclusive to a group of very loyal comic fans and bring interest to a boring character have doomed existence as we know it!"

"Don't try and make this into something it's not. It was crap writing and EVERY OTHER CREATOR who has touched the character wrote him as someone who was shy rather than being the slut his father is."

"[S]eriously, it's a comic book character. It's time to move on."

Dan Jolley talks about his new Firestorm series:

"[The hardcore Firestorm fans] know I’m sympathetic, so even if they don’t support what I’m doing for DC, they’ve still been very cool to me. So no, to answer your question, I’m not very worried about the negative responses I’ve seen. What I am though, is extremely confident in this series. I think it’s going to appeal to a very broad base of readers, and even to a lot of the skeptics, once they actually see what we’re doing. Plus I think things are sufficiently different, circumstantially and otherwise, that Ron Marz doesn’t have to worry that I’m trying to swipe his identity."

What's happened to Previewreview.com? Does anyone know?

The greatest fucking X-Men review ever. You know it's good when it starts like this:

"But soft! What shite through yonder window breaks?
A new Uncanny X-Men, for my sins."

Rich Johnston pulls LITG for today, as a mark of respect on the day of Julie Schwartz's funeral:

"I just thought DC could do with a day off right now."

Mark Evanier explains why Julie Schwartz was so important, and tells stories about how well-loved he was:

"In later years whenever I went back to Manhattan, I'd always make time to visit the DC offices and go out to lunch with Julie. This meant he would take me to some nearby restaurant where the food was terrible but a lot of good-looking waitresses knew him and would flirt unmercifully. Usually, it was the Star Diner on 54th and 7th, but the last time I was back, I experienced a truly impressive example of the old Schwartz Magic. He was having trouble walking and felt he shouldn't leave the office so I said, 'Okay, I'll go out and get us lunch.' I hiked over to the Carnegie Deli on 7th and got us chicken soup, potato salad, soft drinks and a couple of corned beef sandwiches the size of Pontiacs. While waiting for the order, I ran into another DC editor and we got to talking. A very attractive hostess overheard me say, 'I'm taking lunch back to Julie Schwartz' and she asked, "Is that the cute bald man who gives out the Superman pins all the time?" I told her it was and she said, 'Give him a big kiss from me, smack on the lips.'

"I did not do this. I loved the guy but not that much."

Newsarama interviews the new artists on Gotham Knights, and the mixture of possible difficulties in translations and bizarre senses of humour make it an interesting read:

"I was born some time ago. It was in the last century, I think, but I don’t remember very well the moment I did it, but based on what they’ve told me, it was in Barcelona where I grew up and I´m still living… and this is something I don’t understand because I don’t like towns."

"I was born in La Plata, Argentina, and two weeks ago a beautiful lil' white mouse was living with me, but he disappeared without warning. I hope he didn’t get offended by the trap, the poison and the glued-paper I gave him as a gift! Aaaand... Lemon and 'Dulce de leche'."

There then follows an explanation of what Dulce de Leche is, which is of course unnecessary to everyone who's ever seen Guys and Dolls.

Mark Millar also announces:

"I felt as if my X-gene kicked on somewhere around the Fall of last year and, for the first time ever, am really, really into everything I'm working on. I can't stop writing Spidey. It's written up to issue eight at the moment, believe it or not. It's probably the best thing I've done and I've really made the most of my first shot at the Marvel Universe."

For the first time ever, he's really into everything he's working on? Is this like the time when "Name Withheld" said that, up until Image Comics, all the Image artists had been "holding back"?

Millarworld fans react to news of the cancellation of Run, Mark Millar's Image book with Ashley Wood:

"How is it not Wood's fault? Who else's fault is it that there's no art and the artist hasn't been in touch? Everyone who has to self-publish through Image, from the single issue double-jobbing amateurs to the multi-series 'newcomers' with no fanbase or hype like Kirkman has to fund their own series with no safety net. How can this be a problem for Millar and Wood? I don't see how you can be so confident that 'Run' (which it now seems will hold up the other one shots due this year) will be out in a few months Mark, if your artist hasn't produced any art 2 months after the book was due to go to print and he's not communicating with you? Out of Wood, Cassady and Quitely, Woods should have been the most likely to finish the book on schedule and already it's fubar? Surely this is bad news (aside from the fact that Run is now delaying the other books) for the remaining titles given that the other artists are in the same boat that Wood's is, if not more committed to other projects or even notoriously bad at fulfilling professional deadlines! If it's a money issue, why not advance the guy with some of the additional funds your creator-owned stuff is bringing in that you hadn't expected?"

"I have to say that I think it's really unprofessional to solicit a book that isn't going to ship anywhere near it's ship date if at all. If everyone involved new that the book wasn't going to come out, why wait until Feb. to cancel it? How much lead time did Ash have? I remember in an earlier post Mark had said that Ash was behind but no big deal because he wasn't getting paid for the work. That should have sent everyone's warning bells going off."

"Shit happens but I'm still baffled that Image, Mark or whomever let it go so long before announcing that Run was going to be put on the long finger."

Silver Bullet Comicbooks plays Good Cop, Slightly Less Good Cop with Joe Quesada. On the one hand, Jason Brice writes an open letter complaining about Marvel's ambivalent attitude towards providing adequate publicity material to websites like SBC:

"I know you have a tough job, and make decisions that affect people's livelihoods and careers. I respect that. I respect that a great deal. I'm not sure I'd do well with that much pressure, expectation, and responsibility. But I have a tough job too. I run a website with dozens of volunteer staff who need motivation and encouragement. They may be fans, but they're also people with outside jobs and family responsibilities that take time out of their busy days to help nurture the medium that we all love. They're terrific people! All I need is for your people to talk to my people.

"It's saddening that you've let some negative experiences with the online press color your opinion of us. It's great when you do interviews with Brandon and the other SBC staffers, as you've done over the last few years. Despite your stated disappointment in us, the corporate culture at Marvel Comics has made it tough for us to celebrate you and your colleagues' creativity. Please address the concerns I have raised and keep us informed of your decisions and policies."

But at the same time, Brandon Thomas provides the set-up lines for Quesada's usual punchlines over at this week's Ambidextrous (It's supposed to be an interview, but I'm sure that'd require some kind of follow-up to some of Quesada's more interesting statements at least...). For example:

"Honestly, I don't know much about the business behind Epic. It was its own thing separate from Marvel Editorial."

"Well, if they were doing New X-Men it would probably break all sales records, but I hate to break it to you, Brandon, and I hate to break it to the fans, but this stuff about Whedon and Cassaday doing New X-Men is just a nasty rumor. I know, I know, I can hear the people groaning all the way over here where I’m sitting. I just figured it was time to set the record straight so that there wouldn’t be any disappointment later on. I’ve heard everything from Whedon to Gaiman to Vaughan on New X-Men and none of it is true in the slightest." (Note that he didn't say they weren't doing an X-Book at all...)

Or my favourite, Quesada listing what Marvel offers compared to DC:
"JUST TO NAME A FEW- Creative freedom like no other work for hire company can offer. Better selling books. Better characters, fresher characters. A better marketing machine! Want to make a name for yourself as a creator, come to Marvel! You get to work with the best writers or the best artist. Say it with me, TOP 25 BOOKS! We have the best editors in the business. Dan Buckley’s headwear. We’re a lot more fun! We’re a hell of a lot cuter! There’s actually a lot more stuff, but why brag? [winks]"

Aw, fuck. Julius Schwartz, possibly the man responsible for modern mainstream comics, dies. Even before I knew who he was properly, his cameos in Giffen and Fleming's Ambush Bug were always one of my favourite parts of the series...

Annoyingly, Justin Grey stops the first installment of his new column just as it's getting interesting:

"So if we agree that the very nature of media is stampeding innocence where do comics stand? Comics have always included tales of morality, justice, humanity, and compassion, but all of those ideals have been altered dramatically in a world where the bombing of a city is reduced to spectacular prime time TV. Comics contain noble qualities that should be encouraged but are in need of modernization faced with the cynical attitudes that are so prevalent on TV... Children are savvier, more technologically aware and have already processed a great deal of information before they even enter high school. What you may deem as adult material pales in comparison to what a majority of kids have been exposed to already. Publishing material that reaches them directly in a form that isn’t transparent or old fashioned and has a visceral connection to their life experiences is a monumental task."

Nonetheless, he does namecheck Ruby Vroom, my favourite Soul Coughing album, so he's fine with me...

A happy ending of sorts to Fanboy Radio's recent troubles.

Alisdair Watson is optimistic but realistic about the idea of the X-Franchise dropping the soap operatics:

"The commercial reality is that no-one in their right mind would suddenly shift gears on the biggest cash-cow franchise the industry has got, and chance that size of audience on an unproven idea. But still, the X-Men have been used as a metaphor for any minority or disaffected group you'd care to name, and it's been a soap opera for as long as I've been alive, which is a horrific thought, now I come to it. But still, wouldn't it be interesting to see what else could be done with them?"

Marvel and Electronic Arts partner to produce video games using Marvel superheroes (who, interestingly, will fight new heroes created by EA instead of existing Marvel villains). Going by the quotes from the Presidents of both companies, this is all about EA creating characters that Marvel can license out instead of Marvel getting their characters into another medium:

"'This is a tremendous opportunity for EA to create new characters for fighting games that can be exploited through our global merchandise licensing machine to fuel sales in many other product categories,' said Allen Lipson, President and CEO of Marvel Enterprises in a press release. 'It's a unique opportunity, partnering with Marvel to bring their renowned Super Heroes into original videogame environments, as well as providing us an opportunity to create new heroes that will live in games, comic books and other licensing or media opportunities that Marvel presents,' said John Riccitiello, President and COO for Electronic Arts."

The John Byrne board doesn't like Mark Waid's Fantastic Four:

"I really love the FF, just wish someone would write them again."

"I've always thought Waid was the most overrated writer ever to work in comics...."

"Just can't buy that Reed 'made' the FF into superstars to insure they had good pr and didn't fall out of public favor. Even if Reed was capable of thinking that way ... what kind of wacky thinking is that?"

Wasn't the point of that story that Reed made the FF into superstars because he felt guilty about being responsible for the accident that had given them powers in the first place, and wanted them to be distracted by attention, adventure and adulation instead of being reflecting on the fact that they were now, more or less, monsters? It's not as if he wanted them to be superstars so that they just had good PR...

Sharp Shootin' Ken Kneisel on the differences between the Big Two as he sees them:

"It occurred to me earlier that if DC were Marvel, they'd probably pair Grant Morrison with Richard Case on a Doom Patrol relaunch. (X-Treme Doom-Force does have kind of a ring to it, doesn't it?) They'd probably also get Chuck Austen to write a new Flex Mentallo miniseries with beefcake covers by Greg Horn."

Over at Millarworld, new Flash cover artist Ethan Van Sciver explains why he'd rather Make His DC:

"I've graduated to the classic DC characters, which seem more important now. They're gods, striving to be examples, whereas Marvel's characters are retards that became heroes because they ran under a detonating atomic bomb, or played with poisonous insects, and now are underfoot of society. I've always thought that if the DC heroes were around, they would have prevented each and every one of the Marvel 'heroes' origins. Picture Superman in outer space, catching Reed Richard's spaceship before it leaves Earth's atmosphere. 'It's dangerous up here, professor. Ah, what, you brought your wife with you? You thoughtless bastard. Back to Earth with you.'

"Grim and gritty mostly feels silly to me now. It's why I don't like Korn or Limp Biskit. I sense that behind the loud noise and boasting, there's a wormish little pussy with a pathetic drug problem. Flash is cool, because he's got the responsibility of being JLA, the ultimate political power. He's got to be an American, and yet a positive example to the rest of the world. He protects his hometown, where he's a local hero, and his villains have depth. They're colorful, psychotic, dangerous, and fun. It's why I love superHEROES."

(My favourite response was this one, which sounded to me like nothing so much as a defensive Marvel fan:

"It's not just Marvel heroes who were retards. Barry Allen and Wally West - idiots who left the windows open when lightning was about. Bruce Wayne - Rich but not rich enough to get a cab? Jay Garrick - he smelled gas. Oliver Queen - Rich but still ended up doing Castaway without either the beachball or Amanda Donohoe.")

Dark Horse buys Studio Proteus, sticks tongue out at Marvel and DC and says "Nyah Nyah, we own our own manga studio":

"Dark Horse Comics has announced it will purchase manga publishing and production house Studio Proteus under a pending agreement. Dark Horse has worked with Studio Proteus co-publishing manga since the publication of Dark Horse’s Outlanders in 1988, and together they have produced nearly 60,000 pages of material. The acquisition will also include all Studio Proteus manga previously published with Eclipse and Innovation. Studio Proteus’s Toren Smith will retain the company’s name. 'We have had a fantastic run with Toren Smith and Studio Proteus,' commented Dark Horse President Mike Richardson."

Apparently, he went on to say that he liked them so much, he bought the company.

Gail Simone asks her board posters to name the worst thing that happened in comics last year. The winner, so far, seems to either be Grant Morrison's NewXMen, or the "neolithic monkey porn" issue of Powers...

The V always do polls worth reporting. Currently, they're tackling Mixed-Case Lettering In Comics (Nick Locking: "I'm wildly in favour of it and assumed everyone else was as well, but Antony Pissing Johnston shocked me by being massively against it, so I'd like to poll the populace as I have to letter something of my own shortly." Antony "Pissing" Johnston: "I'm only 'massively against it' in *most* instances. If you're hand-lettering, or using a font based on your own mixed-case handwriting, then it can look perfectly fine (cf FROM HELL, most of Todd Klein's work). I have a book myself coming out this month that's done entirely in mixed case, but it's hand-lettered and suits the book, so looks good. It's mainly That Bloody Marvel Font I don't like, if I'm honest.") and the much more pressing question "Is Chuck Austen Better Than Alan Moore?"

American Express co-opt an American Icon for its advertising. And Superman, as well:

"American Express now is preparing to launch 'Seinfeld Webisodes,' a series of five-minute video programs viewable exclusively on AmericanExpress.com, Mr. Hayes said. The series will feature Mr. Seinfeld in live action and Superman as an animated character."

I want this to lead to Jerry guesting on Cartoon Network's Justice League.

From Joe Casey on Micah Wright's board:

"Not that DC will make a big stink of this (although I hope they do)... but I've recently found out that there's going to be an overship on all the [Wildstorm Eye of The Storm] titles in the month of March (the post-COUP month, basically).

"Of course, that overship just applies to those retailers who order the EOTS books in the first place... but maybe if DC gets the word out, some of those stores who never ordered them before might order them now, just to get the free shit."

For those who don't read any of the EOTS titles: Pick up Coup D'Etat#1 this week and see what you think. Written by Ed Brubaker, drawn by Jim Lee (and looking miles better than his Batman work, if you ask me... maybe it's his own inking that makes the difference, but there are nice Miller/Janson-esque moments in there to my eyes), it's a nice set-up to the whole series, which acts as an introduction to/redefinition of the EOTS line...

David Seidman stands up for the little guy:

"I'm not saying that we should love everything that a printing press spits out. We need critics with high standards, not to mention readers and fans who risk angering the crowd by saying, 'You know that comic book you love? I think it reeks!' We need these folks to keep the rest of us alert.

"On the other hand, we don't need bullies or snobs. Speak up against them. Don't be mean, don't tell them not to express themselves. If you do, you risk being as rude as they are. They've got the right to say everything that they want, and sometimes they present very interesting points. When they get nasty, though, tell them so. If they persist, ignore them. Above all, don't let them tamp down your joy."

(Tamp?)

Mark Waid discusses the Fantastic Four... including the infamous Jemas suburbs plot:

"Losing their fortune wasn't the part I found problematic, particularly since it can be rebuilt in about two panels. We'd always talked about tearing the FF's public image down so we could rebuild it even stronger than before--whoops! Just gave away the coming year!--and this was our attempt to try to give Marvel what they (then) wanted.

"We even figured out a way and a good reason to get them into the suburbs for a little while, "undercover." But doing it organically, consistently with what we'd already set up over the past two years in terms of who these characters are and what they do, wasn't an option offered to us, which is why I was booted. The conflict was never about the concept as much as it was the execution, so once re-hired, we elected to stay on course."

Erick Hogan writes an (at times, extremely) optimistic piece on black characters in mainstream comics at CBR:

"Today, comics mirror the multi-ethnic state of the world. A character is just as likely to be African American as he is to be a mutant or from Krypton."

In contrast, Chris Allen interviews Tony Isabella in his Breakdowns column:

"I believe that what we have been seeing is an ingrained and unintentional insensitivity to racial issues. The folks at DC Comics...and at most other comics publishers...really don’t get it. I don’t necessarily think I get it entirely, but at least I’m asking the questions and seem to have picked up enough clues for my work to be generally well received by the black community."

Just when I thought I'd have nothing to link today, Matt Maxwell comes up with a great essay in defence of the superhero genre:

"Yes, there’s a whole lot of schlock out there. There’s also a whole lot of books just taking up space, keeping franchises warm for the next movie or license. And yes, there’s fewer books out there that understand (yes, in my humble opinion) the use of allegory (instead of hamhanded satire). And yes, a thousand times yes, there’s superhero books out there that have no business being out on the stands, but that doesn’t mean that the whole genre should be abandoned wholesale, or that nothing of further good can come of it."

Ethan Van Sciver sheds a light over the... um, surreal editorial practises he experienced at Marvel:

"Within the first few weeks at Marvel, I was dealt a devastating, ugly and underhanded blow when I was shown the private email of Grant Morrison to X-Men editorial regarding my work thus far on the series, over the charade of being taken to lunch. I had been told that the work I was doing was 'lovely, and Grant was very impressed by it'. They didn't have the balls to tell me what was really going on, and so they sat me in front of a computer to read 'Grant's brilliant plans for Cyclops', which turned out to be something completely different. I learned through the email that no less than three other artists were chosen by Marvel Comics to fill in on the title, without Grant's consent. I was the fourth, and he was very unhappy.

"You've got to understand, this sort of tactic was utterly ALIEN to me. I wasn't prepared too be lied to by my bosses like that. I wasn't used to being kept that much in the dark about how my writer was feeling. Usually, I correspond with them. And here I was, three weeks into a two year exclusive contract and this sort of sh*t was what I had to look forward to."

Geoff Johns puts things in perspective:

"TLB: It was only a matter of time before they found out. So, how does it feel to be DC’s bitch?

Johns: Feels good. It’s nice to have dental. Plus, I had a pretty bad cold last week, and I actually got to go to the doctor. "

Wizard lets slip a spoiler about DC's Robin, and shows that Superman cries when he's drawn badly.

Retailers at ICv2 discuss age-appropriate comics:

"Now, I admit that I do not read every copy of every comic that comes into my store - BUT I DO READ over 80 percent of all those books. I read every Marvel and DC comic, I read every Image and Dark Horse book we carry and I read all the Indy's. I do NOT read all the Tokyopop because they TELL me who to sell to and what they are about. The secret to being a successful comic retailer is knowing what you sell. You have to know what type of comics you carry in case you are asked to suggest a title to a new reader. How many of you get asked every week to recommend a new comic to someone? Kind of hard to do if the last comic you read was MAUS!"

As above, Tokyopop end up getting the props in the second article as well:

"The adoption of Tokyopop's age number system would address this problem in an important way, but it would not address that larger issue--that comics across the spectrum are growing more brutal and thereby less appropriate for kids. Even so, I would expect something so simple as Tokyopop's number system to be avoided by most publishers. I salute Tokyopop for having the guts to go on the line and say, 'This is a comic likely not suitable for ages 12 and under.' Considering the content of some comics promoted as all ages, I'd like to see their publishers look retailers and parents in the eye and say, through their labeling, 'Yep, we believe our cutting edge, pushing-the-envelope comic with the graphic bondage scene is just the thing for a six-year-old.'"

Which reminds me: Are the Ultimate books rated as PSA yet?

Aaaaaand the origin of the Marvel/Pixar rumours is... Marvel itself:

"Speaking at an Investment Forum in Philadelphia yesterday, Marvel’s vice chairman Peter Cuneo said that is has met with Pixar (and nearly every other producer) in regard to turning its characters into films, this according to The Hollywood Reporter. The news has some buzzing due to the animation studio’s recent break with Disney, although Cuneo downplayed the possibility of any immediate deal between the companies, saying that to date, Pixar has had success with creating and producing movies based on its own properties, and a teaming with Marvel would represent a change in their business plan to date. Cuneo said that is is too early to tell if Pixar would be willing to deal with Marvel."

Or, in other words, Cuneo wanted to get a piece of the Pixar buzz at the moment, and this seemed like the easiest way to do it.

Also, Marvel wants to have 15 "James Bond type" franchises on the go at any one time, apparently. Meanwhile, I want someone to pay me millions of dollars for no good reason. If wishes were horses...

Millarworld indulges in what seems like wishful thinking:

"I read over at Superherohype that there's a possibility of Pixar working on MArvel properties......how awesome is that?.........Imagine Spiderman or the X-men done in glorious Pixar quality!!!.......thats gotta be good for everyone!!"

"The companies merging would make sense -- Pixar loses the rights to a lot of their key properties when they break away from Disney, and Marvel has a ready-to-go intellectual property lineup... And remember it takes months/years for Pixar to fully 'birth' a property, and Marvel has an awesome stockpile of supposedly 5000. Pixar gets, what, acouple dozen characters per movie? Pixar is almost exactly 2x Marvel's ashare price, right?"

"That would actually be VERY cool. Could you imagine an Pixar Silver Surfer film?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?"

"A Pixar FF would be awesome. Wonder if they could copy UDON's style?"

Considering that Pixar have always created their own concepts, characters and all, and are currently working on their own superhero movie, somehow I can't see such a deal benefiting Pixar at all... Still, maybe that's just me...

Matt Wagner does covers for DC's Big Three; Newsarama aren't impressed:

"Batman has a wacky spine and Wonder Woman looks anemic."

"Haven't read Trinity yet (waiting for the trade) but I haven't been impressed by Wagner's covers for a long time. I'm glad to finally see him off of Green Arrow, and don't see much in these to change my opinion."

"how Batman can even stand up this is beyond me.
His pelvis can't be this much in front of the head. Basic anatomy here"

Somewhere between the "This could be funny if handled well" and the "Oh shit, that sounds like the worst idea ever" zones, there is Queer Eye On Comics:

"In the well-worn comics industry tradition of latching onto the end of a popular fad -- and here I'm talking about Disco Dazzler and Vibe the Puerto Rican break-dancer -- Prism thought it was high-time to apply our much-vaunted 'gay sensibility' to some of our favorite past and current comic books... We'll be looking into mysteries of the past, such as the 'special friendship' between Green Lantern Hal Jordan and his male confidante, whom he affectionately called 'Pie'. And why Jimmy Olsen only wore a pretty stewardess on his arm during those brief periods when he wasn't wearing a dress and a wig... We'll also be addressing some of the trends in current comics, like the 'lesbian cop' and the 'gay best friend'.'"

For those who enjoyed DC: The New Frontier, but didn't buy Hal Jordan as someone who refused to kill, Darwyn Cooke seeks to enlighten:

"He ends up in Ace Morgan's squadron, as Ace's wingman. He doesn't tell people he's not going to kill...he just doesn't. It's his personal moral code, even if it is built on a shaky foundation. But then again, most youthful idealism is. Don't think the fact that he is party to this madness doesn't affect him. His primary role is as Ace's lookout, but he is party to much death and destruction. So like a lot of young people, he is caught in a flux of what he thinks and feels, and what reality hands him."

(Much more in link; Cooke also discusses continuity as well as other issues elsewhere on that forum...)

Stuart Moore shows his good taste in comics when picking some of his favourite moments, especially with his commentary about an old Justice League comic book:

"A guy with arrows vs. a giant telepathic alien starfish -- kind of a mismatch, right? Well, Green Arrow thinks so too -- so while the heroes are all fighting in cramped quarters, practically bumping into each other, he reaches into his quiver and declares: “Only a desperate situation like this would bring me to fire an atomic-warhead arrow -- !” And when he fires it, you can see he ain’t kiddin’! It’s got a big fat head with force lines coming out of it!

"Starro eats the arrow, rendering it harmless and defeating Green Arrow’s gambit -- not to mention saving the life of everyone in the room and, presumably, the state of Rhode Island. There’s other fun stuff in the issue, like a giant evil sun that’s supposed to start a war between Earths One and Two, a weird sequence where the Leaguers’ wives have to kiss them to wake them up from comas, and T.O. Morrow’s wacky computer, which always tells him just enough (in block capital letters) to move the plot along.

"But nothing stacks up to the atomic-warhead arrow. Did that lunatic carry it around in his quiver all the time?"

Okay, now I want to read '80s Motorcycle comic Team America, if only for the text piece mentioned here:

"You see, the team members were mutants - all five of them. By some remarkable coincidence their powers collectively made another person. And all of them motorcycle racers; imagine that!?! I also love that in the last issue, an editorial in the letters page basically came out and admitted that the book had been an embarrassing piece of shit. They put it in some diplomatic way - something like 'The creative team wasn't able to pull this together.' I think it's the most humble Marvel has ever been. Hey, I miss Jim Shooter."

Okay, this just makes my head spin:

"As the associate managing editor of Weekly World News and a longtime fan of Peter Bagge, it gives me great pleasure to announce that he will be doing a new comic strip, 'The Adventures of Bat Boy,' which will appear in Weekly World News starting with the issue dated March 2, 2004, which should be out the week of Feb. 24. Peter says he sees the strip as an opportunity for some 'Lil' Abner-style topical satire.'"

Because, at no point in Baker_Baker's head, did this seem like a bad idea, the Most Worthless Comic On the Rack Today poll. The explanation behind the poll is great:

"I make some fresh points of discussions (such as why did DC steal Geoff from Marvel to write what is essentially a retitled Young Justice book when they already had PAD writing Young Justice book, the quality of the RM Authority run, and how the devil does Claremont keep getting Marvel work despite only writing two worthwhile arcs since returning to Marvel seven years ago) that I thought could be discussed like adult on this board..."

Evan Dorkin on Wizard news breaking:

"So, as Matt pointed out, the latest issue of Wizard Magazine ran a piece on the DC project that I've been working on (the one I've been asked to keep quiet about, fat lot of good that did.) So, yeah, I'm writing a Metal Men limited series for DC and Mike Allred is pencilling it. It's six issues, and it involves the Metal Men, and that's pretty much all I'm gonna say about it right now other than I've finished two scripts, it's not on schedule as far as I know, and it should be a lot of fun.

"This isn't a really big deal, but I'm already pissed at Wizard for ignoring World's Funnest, and using my name in an ad for Wizard Edge in Previews, which said they were running an interview with me in the magazine when I was never approached about. And of course the magazine didn't even mention me or anything I was working on (The similarly advertised Jhonen Vasquez interview also never appeared). Anyway, I was being a good soldier and keeping my yap shut about the Metal Men, and I personally like keeping things quiet until they're ready to be announced, so I wish they kept their big "coup" to themselves. Whatever. At least now I don't have to keep it a secret. We're doing a Metal Men series, huzzah."

Huzzah indeed, for it means more Dorkin goodness...

Silver Bullet's The Panel column goes under new ownership this week, who should realize that the phrase "Love is..." isn't really a question at all.

Someone at the Joe Quesada board is concerned with DC's recent decisions:

"They are making some really bad choices recently. The Bat books for example have unknowns or writers that failed to mak a splash writing them. I think the choices for the Superma books are pretty poor. Azzarello and Rucka write so many Dc books these days it loses isnt anything exciting. I also feel they are pretty mismatched for Superman. Austen of course was a big mistake. Ben Raab on Gl is a major no no. Ben Raab had his chance and blew it. Dan Joley on Firestorm seems a bit week too. The guy who wroite Aquaman is now going to be on the question. Aquaman sucked big time despite the recognition this guy got as an indie writer. Grayson on Nightwing is week too. The JLA rotating team thing sucks. It means i cant put it on my pull list indef. Not sure i like Winnik on GA either even though i lvoe his Outsiders. Brubraker on Catwoman is boring."

The vague idea of "conflict of interest" has kept me from mentioning that Broken Frontier are running a donation drive for a new server up until now, but thankfully James Sime's ridiculously kind offer (scroll down the page) gives me an excuse to bring it up, anyway. Thanks, James!

Marvel do the only positive PR they could, after cancelling the ACTOR charity book... Pay up anyway:

"While the rain must fall from time to time, there’s always a bright side. Difficulties over timing and production have forced the cancellation of ACTOR PRESENTS: SPIDER-MAN AND THE INCREDIBLE HULK #1. The Marvel Comics one-shot was scheduled to benefit A Commitment To Our Roots (ACTOR) Comic Fund, the nonprofit organization that aids older comic creators in financial or medical need. What is the bright side? Despite these unforeseen problems, Marvel Comics will still show its support of ACTOR by honoring its commitment to donate funds. ACTOR will receive the full amount it was scheduled to for packaging the book."

Gone and Forgotten simultaneously brings back nostalgic memories (I had that issue of OHOTMU!) and ruins them:

"Colossus is most famous, in comic book circles, for repeatedly nailing a 13-year old girl. Not to worry, he was only 19 at the time! Fuck! Chris Claremont, you retarded fuck. You know, the only time the other X-Men gave Colossus any shit for mowing that particular lawn was when he LEFT Kitty for a woman HIS OWN AGE. They gave him that retarded 'You better not hurt her, bub' speech, meaning somehow after committing dozens of acts of statuatory rape and forcibly imprinting all over that kid's psyche, he should watch out for her feelings now..."

It had to happen: Newsarama becomes a cult, including a manifesto:

"1. You must love comic books as one of the ultimate forms of entertainment.

2. You must make Talk@Newsarama your main comic site and treat the its citizens like family.

3. You pledge to never troll or bash without though, to always be constructive of your criticism. (You will be aloud minor mishaps when arguing with other members of the Talk@ family).

4. You must represent Newsarama when traveling abroad (to other boards), defending it's fine name if necessary."

Matt Fraction reviews Previews:

"I really liked BONE when it started. Then it went all LORD OF THE RINGS and I felt out of place for not having felt knee boots and a 20-sided dice when I read it. Still, the cartooning is beautiful, and this book ends the BONE series. So it's got that going for it, which is nice. I mean, sad, I guess, if you like BONE, but, you know, it's good, too."

Mike San Giacomo likes Blankets. Newsarama ain't convinced:

"This piece is another attempt at damage control. He wants to pretend (all of a sudden) that he has sophisticated tastes, when he is soooooooooooooooooooooooooo on record, for all posteriety, for being very narrowminded. Ya know; if he would only admit to the industrial sized foot he put in his mouth & the subsequent re-evaluation he has had of the effects of such amateur views upon his credibility; perhaps the industry would regain respect for him."

John Byrne doesn't like Peter David's already-been-retconned-about-a-decade-ago wrinkle in Hal Jordan's origin, and thankfully isn't too scared to speak out about it:

"Abin Sur instructed his ring to seek out a man without fear. Not someone the Ring could render fearless, a man already without fear.

"Alas, since Hal got handed off a few too many times to writers and editors who do not understand the simple notion that there are people in the world who are, you know, better than they are, this guy who was pretty much anybody's definition of a superhero before Abin Sur came along got whittled away until. . . .

"Pity there's not some kind of exam people have to take before they're allowed to write superheroes. A whole lot of the last 30 years or so would not have happened."

Ethan Van Sciver posts on Millarworld about busts being based on his work, without credit:

"Marvel doesn't have to credit me, there isn't any money involved for Frank Quitely or myself. It's just a matter of decency and honesty. The ad copy is misleading. It borders on being a lie. And we went through this with them already. This second wave is DELIBERATE. It's hateful, pure and simple."

"The key thing about this whole issue is that it WAS discussed with Diamond Select Toys already, with the first batch of these sculpts. They said it was too late to change the advertising in such a way as to insert my name, although they would 'rephrase' the way they used Quitely's name, and it was definitely too late to change the packaging. They did, in fact, change the packaging for the first Jean Grey sculpt, however. But here we go again. That new Jean Grey sculpt has NOTHING to do with Frank Quitely. It's not even based on his costume designs. The jacket is mine, the hairstyle is mine, the t-shirt is most definitely mine, and the little chain around her neck is mine. 100% Van Sciver Jean Grey. That's why I'm re-pissed off."

Crossgen pits Lady Death versus Sojourn, as illustrated by George Perez. The Newsarama posts say all that needs to be said from the fanboy perspective:

"Ah George.........His love of battling women. Gotta love this. I still remeber george's site where he designs costumes for Female wrestlers......for videos productions."

"If there's anything George can draw, it's two women locked in battle. I'd pick this up for that alone!"