May the Fourth be with you

Happy Star Wars Day, everyone. I got you an ecard that Grant Gould made for StarWars.com.

From C2E2 with love

I'm back from C2E2 and it was a great trip. I blogged most of it at Robot 6 (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday), but here are some things that didn't make my official report:

• Hyatt, I love you so much, but your conditioner sucks. Could not get my hair under control all weekend.
• Your view, on the other hand, is awesome.
• I roomed with Grant Gould and Anton Peck. Grant's an old friend and convention buddy; Anton's a new friend and talented photographer/drawer of robots.
• When ordering Chicago pizza in the future, I need to remember that one stuffed Chicago pizza = two of any other kind of pizza.
• I came away from the convention with three more writing jobs than I had when I got there. 
• I affirmed that I suck at maintaining long-distance relationships. There are so many people that I only see once a year at these shows - people whom I love and love talking to - and with all the communications tools at my disposal there's really no reason that I shouldn't do a much better job keeping up with them the rest of the year. I need to do a better job at that. 
• It was one of the few conventions where I wasn't completely ready to go home once it was over. Not that I wasn't excited to see my family; that's not it. It's related to that last bullet point about friendship. I don't know what's changed between this year and previous conventions, but for whatever reason I felt more connected to the comics community this time. Less like we are all isolated contributors and more like we were all family. Not that everyone knows everyone - or even likes everyone else. Large families don't always. But I felt more at home than ever before and wasn't quite ready for that to end.
• Having said that, it's really good to be home.

Comics News: Defenders of the Earth and Space Dock 7

Together Again: The Phantom, Flash Gordon, and Mandrake the Magician



I got an email from Dynamite Entertainment last week about their now having King Features' top three characters. According to the press release, this is the first time that Phantom, Flash Gordon, and Mandrake have been under the same publisher in 43 years. Which makes for some cool crossover possibilities.

I'm mostly curious to see how they handle Flash. I know nothing about Mandrake, so they can do whatever they want with him, but I'm not at all excited about their version of the Phantom. I've heard good things about their Buck Rogers though, so maybe Flash will be okay. I hope so, 'cause I'd really like to read some new, good Flash Gordon stories.

It sounds like they'll be starting with a faithful re-telling of the origin story:

Dynamite's comic book story begins as Earth is bombarded by fiery meteors. Dr. Zarkov believes the meteors are from outer space and invents a rocket ship to locate their place of origin. Half mad, he kidnaps Flash and Dale, whose plane has crashed in the area, and the three travel to the planet Mongo, where they discover the meteors are weapons devised by Ming the Merciless, evil ruler of Mongo.

Space Dock 7



The webcomics portal that was teased back in February is live and full of awesome scifi comics including some I've mentioned here before and some I'm brand new to.

Pass the Comics: Thrilling! Exciting! Educational!

Captain Daring vs the Alliance of Evil



[Pappy's Golden Age Comics Blogzine]

The Kilgore Monster



[Golden Age Comic Book Stories - you'll need to scroll way down, but there's other good stuff in there too]

Jungle folks, Machine Gun Kelly, and a space girl after the break.

Art Show: Hot Blue Catwomen

The Little Mermaid



Artist Unknown [Animation Backgrounds]

Pirate Girls



By Richard Sala.

Cave Batman



By Andy Kubert. [The Source]

Zorro



By Francesco Francavilla.

Captain America



By Steve Epting.

Sherlock Holmes



By Francesco Francavilla.

Zatanna



By Stephane Roux.



By Ms. Mars.

John Carter



By Larry Ivie. [Golden Age Comic Book Stories]

Daughter of Pandora



By Grant Gould.

Comics News: Black Beetle, the robot circus, and more

The Black Beetle



Why did it take me so long to learn that Francesco Francavilla (The Black Coat, Zorro, Fear Agent) has a blog? What's more, he's serializing the adventures of his own pulp hero creation, The Black Beetle.

Ectopiary



Hans Rickheit describes his new graphic novel (being serialized online at a page a week) as "science fiction." There's only five pages up so far, but they're beautiful. With stuff like this to look at, I can be patient while waiting for whatever fantastic elements are coming.

Brislan Frost



My pal Grant Gould is working on a new series called Brislan Frost. He's not spilling a lot of details yet, but he describes it as being about "a young woman discovering the astounding and sometimes horrific secrets of the supernatural."

Carnivale DeRobotique



As part of Indy Comic Book Week last month, Robot 6 ran some previews of independent comics coming out on December 30. One of my favorites was Tony Trov, Johnny Zito and Mark Fidona's comic about a robot circus.

Zita the Space Girl



First Second Books is an awesome publisher and always has been, but they're really outdoing themselves with 2010's catalog. I'm planning to do a longer post about their new stuff coming out this year, but here's a taste from their blog of one of the upcoming books.

John Carter of Mars: The Jesse Marsh Years



I'm still disappointed that IDW never got to produce their comics adaptation of John Carter of Mars. Until someone's able to make new John Carter comics, I'll make myself content with Dark Horse's reprint of Dell's short-lived series from the '50s. Coming out May 26.

And Now the News: Thor's willingness to share

Here's what went on this week in adventure news.

Pirates of the Caribbean 4 update



Filming on Pirates of the Caribbean 4 is planned to start early next year so that the movie can be released in 2011. They're hoping that it'll be the first of another trilogy.

Also - and I've lost the link to this, unfortunately - word is that they're going to tone it way down from the first trilogy. They can't get bigger than those movies, so they're making a conscious decision to go smaller. They've even gone so far as to call it a "reboot" (man, Hollywood loves and overuses that word) even though it'll still star Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow.

Voyage of the Dawn Treader update



Shooting has begun on Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which should be the best Narnia movie yet based on story and subject matter alone. Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, Ben Barnes, and Liam Neeson are all back as Lucy, Edmund, Caspian, and Aslan respectively. Not sure if Eddie Izzard is still the voice of Reepicheep, but it looks like Will Poulter from Son of Rambow is still playing nasty cousin Eustace as once announced. Guess we'll find out soon enough though. It's still scheduled to come out next year.

Undersea heroes profiled



The Aquaman Shrine just finished a cool and informative Undersea Heroes Week looking at Namor, Undersea Agent, Shark-Man, and Pirana. He's already got a nice list going (including Marrina! Yay!) for another week at some point, so I'll be impatiently waiting for that.

Kong: King of Skull Island update



Apparently, the movie based on Joe DeVito's illustrated prequel/sequel novel Kong: King of Skull Island is now going to be produced by Spirit Pictures instead of Fantastic Films International as previously announced. And it's being planned as CGI motion-capture animation.

Night Mary movie



Rick Remender and Kieron Dwyer's Night Mary mini-series is being made into a movie. That's cool because it's a great, spooky story (sort of like Dreamscape, only scary), but I've got a personal - though tangential - relationship to this news. My medieveal vampire short story "Completely Cold" was published in the back matter of Night Mary #3.

Hangman preview



DC has a preview of their re-introduction to the Hangman character. This is written by J. Michael Straczynski, but I'm excited about it because it presumably sets the stage for the John Rozum stories that will follow. Also, that logo kicks twelves kinds of bootie.

Wolf Man update



Though Universal denies that it has anything to do with their confidence in the movie or the troubles they've had in making it, they've moved the Wolf Man remake from this November back to next February.

Wolves of Odin webcomic launches



The sequel to Grant Gould's Vikings vs. Werewolves graphic novel has begun. For free.

World War Robot movie



Jerry Bruckheimer has bought the rights to IDW's World War Robot series. I still need to read those stories.

Spacecaptain Blood



I wish this was actual concept art from Warner Brothers' planned Captain Blood in Space movie, but it's not. It is of course from Captain Harlock, a series that I'm long overdue in watching.

But back to Captain Blood: There will be those who complain that this is a bad idea and will cite Disney's Treasure Planet as evidence. I don't know what those people are talking about. It may not be an original idea, but space pirates are never a bad idea and Treasure Planet was much more entertaining than people give it credit for.

Wolves of Odin: The Webcomic

How 'bout some better news? Grant Gould's announced that he's turning his Vikings vs. Werewolves graphic novel into an ongoing webcomic. Bookmark that puppy! It starts July 31.

The Cownt: Jessica Hickman

I sort of let my Cownt art sharing fall by the wayside. Need to get back on top of that, so here's Jess Hickman's initial concept sketches for how her version of the character will look.



And speaking of Jess, she's got a pin-up in Image's collection of Josh Howard's Dead@17 out in comic shoppes today. Brother Grant has one in there too.

Cownt Week: Grant Gould, Part 1

Grant Gould

Quote of the Week: The Double-Whammy of Boomer Death

Boomer getting killed = love it. I have no sympathy for that Tyrol-playin' child-stealin' Cavil-humpin' ho bag. I'm an Athena boy all the way. Glad she was the one who got to do Boomer in. It would've been even cooler if Helo had run up to her and punched her in the head at the same time Athena shot her. The double-whammy of Boomer death.
--Grant Gould, with whom I agree on just about everything concerning the Battlestar Galactica finale.

Free Jessica Hickman!

Cownt artist Jessica Hickman's latest book is available to read for free right now at the Viper website. Otis Frampton wrote it, naturally. Also included are a couple of short stories by more pals of mine, Star Wars: Clone Wars artists Grant Gould and Katie Cook. (Incidentally, Katie will be illustrating the next volume of Oddly Normal.)

Zoetica Ebb and the Undersea Guardians

"Undersea Guardians"



By James B. Settles.

The Ghosts of Ice Planet Omega



Oh, how I wish this was a real comic. What it really is is the latest in a series of annual portraits Grant Gould does of his pal Zoetica Ebb, which are all very cool too, but don't satisfy my need to see Zoetica swinging that weapon at some space spectres.

Awesome List: Oddly Normal, Wolves of August, Phil Jimenez, pacifist Hulk, Marvel Slurpees, and the Baby Orchestra

Oddly Normal

Caught up on some TiVo last night and got to see the episode of Middleman where Otis Frampton's Oddly Normal makes a guest appearance.



This was especially cool for me because my friend Jess Hickman is illustrating the next volume in the series, Fignation Times.



It doesn't look like Volume 3 is available on Amazon yet, but if you're going to be at San Diego Comic-Con, Otis will have a Limited Edition debut available for sale there. Make me jealous and check it out if you're there.



The Wolves of Odin



And speaking of friends with projects, Grant Gould's Wolves of Odin Vikings vs. Werewolves comic has a publisher and will debut in November. Grant will also be in San Diego and he'll have a Limited Edition Preview Book for Wolves with him. You will be hearing much, much more about this from me.

If you're not going to San Diego and still want a taste of the book though, Grant's running a Meet the Cast feature on the publisher's blog. So far he's introduced these two.

Phil Jimenez is way cool

I loved Phil Jimenez's work on Wonder Woman and I'm really looking forward to the upcoming Wonder Woman Encylopedia he's editing.

I just discovered this Pop Syndicate interview where he talks about that project and what he's learned from it.

It’s been fascinating to see how historically the same sorts of stories have been told over and over again. I am not even sure creators between generations actually know this. They just think, “Oh my god I’ve got the perfect wonder woman story!” Like, “someone else is going to be wonder woman.” Only to find out and realize that in comic book history there have been 10 Wonder Women. Three of whom, mind you, are the golden age, earth 1 and post crisis versions. So there are three Dianas. But Wonder Woman has been replaced numerous times. Some cranky Amazon has said ‘I can do your job better than you can’ and has tried to orchestrate another contest. They get the outfit, they find out they are not suited for it, Diana gets the outfit back, - Artemis, Orana, another one from the 60s, Donna Troy, Circe. It’s interesting to me how the costume goes around. The point being that one of the things that has been fascinating me is sort of marking these story trends. And once the encyclopedia is done, I can honestly say that we never need to see another Amazon challenge Wonder Woman to the title, because it’s been done. Not because it’s not such a good story but because it’s been done over and over again.

He also talks about how he'd love a shot at drawing John Byrne's version of Alpha Flight. I'm so wishing I was in charge at Marvel right now.

The Hulk does not fight?

I've always thought this smiley, kiddie version of the Hulk was weird, but now I actually hate him. Again... so wishing I was in charge at Marvel right now.

Master of Slurp Fu



Totally by coincidence, I found two different galleries of two different sets of Awesome Slurpee Cups.

I just thought this was funny




There's more like it here.

The Lizard by Grant Gould

I commissioned this from Grant Gould at MicroCon. The Lizard is one of David's favorites.

Awesome List: Indiana Grimm, new Flash Gordon comics, Chuck, Keira, and ever so much more

Ben Grimm loves Indiana Jones

Bully's got the story.

Siskoid's got cool stuff too

Namely: write ups on underappreciated DC characters like the Grim Ghost (who'd be much more interesting if he still called himself the Gay Ghost), G.I. Robot (it's all there in the name, pal), and the dino-kicking, poison-blooded Green Man. Gorilla Grodd's there too, making me fantasize about what a cool comic it would be to have him fight the Green Man, G.I. Robot, and the Gay Ghost.

Did Millar bait-and-switch the Wanted movie?

Trying to head off potential complaints that Wanted is no longer a superhero story like the comic it's supposedly based on, Top Cow spokesman Mel Caylo explains that the movie is actually based on Wanted's original concept; not the comic that was produced from it.

"What many people don't know is that Wanted was optioned before the series was concluded ... At that time, Mark had an idea based around a society of assassins that worked underground or behind the scenes, and that's what the producers bought. Mark then decided to go in the direction that Earth was once populated by superheroes, but they have been vanquished, ... and supervillains now run the Earth [in] five major cabals that run the whole world."

Before the series was "concluded?" It sounds to me like it was optioned before the series was started. I'm not saying that Millar was necessarily unethical because I don't know what kind of communication went on with the filmmakers as he was changing his mind. I am saying though that I'm way more excited about the movie than I am about ever reading the comic.

Billy Batson and the Legend of Shazam

Speaking of movies' being faithful to comics, Peter Segal (Get Smart) reassures fans that he's going to keep the Shazam movie as faithful to the original comics as he can.

"You have to please the original fans, but also make it survive on its own for people who might not be familiar with the series," Segal said. "So we try to do both, and that's constantly the balancing act. But I think the underlying similarity between adapting Shazam and adapting Get Smart is you have to love the source material, you have to embrace it. You can't look at it as a fixer-upper."

You know, the way DC has.

Flash Gordon comic

You know, I'm way more optimistic about this than I am about the potential for a new movie. The Sci Fi Channel series pretty much killed my desire to see Flash Gordon done in live action for a while.

Grant Gould and Jessica Hickman interview

I talk about 'em every time the word "convention" gets brought up. Now you can get to know them a bit yourself thanks to this Comics Bulletin interview.

Chuck news

Tony Hale (Buster from Arrested Development) will be joining the cast of Chuck next season as a Buy More efficiency expert. That promises some really funny moments, but in the meantime, you can catch up on Season 1 when it's released on DVD September 16.

Kiera?

The Keira Knightley 2009 Calendar is already available for pre-order. I wonder if misspelling her name will cost them any sales.