It is good news and strange news that Marvel Comics now has the rights to Marvelman

It’s weird because I was thinking the other day “what ever happened to Marvel Comics' strong push to get the rights to Marvel Man (Miracle Man),” and now here we are. Honestly, from a comic book standpoint this is the biggest and most important news to come out of Comic Con. I just don’t see anything else as earthshaking being announced. (see here)

Marvel Man has a long history and it doesn’t behoove me to try to get through the whole thing here, so check the Wikipedia page out for more detail. The article is actually quite detailed. Simply put, one of the main reasons that Marvel Man is important is because it showcases work by Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman (and some great artists too). This is Moore before Swamp Thing, Watchmen, and V for Vendetta; and Gaiman before Sandman (sorta).

Marvelman was originally a British knockoff of Captain Marvel and essentially the UK’s first superhero. His adventures were good, silly fun in the tradition of the big red cheese. Marvelman had a nine-year run from 1954 to 1963.

Alan Moore reinvented the dormant character in the 1980s and all the notions of modern comics that we associate with Watchmen were actually first explored in Marvelman. The irony of ironies, is that Marvelman had to be renamed Miracleman in the US as Marvel Comics was not interested in buying this strange adult character (unlike what DC did with V for Vendetta) and was none to pleased that another comic company (Eclipse) could publish MM’s stories using their company’s name. It’s my understanding that the birth scene really freaked them out. It was a big missed opportunity by Marvel at the time, but obviously Marvel has come to realize how important MM is and that they really need more Alan Moore comics in their intellectual property inventory to make gads of cash like DC does.

Anyhoo, Gaiman picked MM after Moore was done but only got about one third of the way into his storyline before Eclipse went bankrupt and MM was abruptly cancelled. The rights were tangled up badly for almost two decades with everybody claming to own all or part of the character and it was beginning to look like Marvelman would never see the light of day again. But now we have Quesada’s announcement that MM is back and Marvel has him and what’s even better is that they have worked out the rights with the original creator, Mick Angelo too.

What this all means (hopefully) is that Alan Moore’s run on the title will be collected and published again; Neil Gaiman will finally be able to finish his MM storyline; and the original 1950s-1960s stories will be collected for the first time as well.

What is maybe not so good is that it sounds like Marvel will bring MM into regular Marvel continuity somehow. That might not work out so well but we’ll wait and see I guess. An alternate MM is kinda already a part of the Marvel Multiverse via Moore’s work on Captain Britain. That might possibly be the way to do it but I’m not holding my breath.


I could go on about how important the Marvelman is to me personally. I was a teen when MM was published by Eclipse Comics. It blew my mind. I had never read anything so adult and so deep in comic book form before and when it comes to supervillians I got two words for you, Kid Marvelman. Never has a bad guy done so much, to so many, in quite such a horrific way. It was so delicious that my folks thought I was engaged in some light kidde stuff when in reality I was exploring the dark side of the superhero soul. This is what could have and maybe what should have happened to characters like Superman and Captain Marvel but obviously will never happen.

If you are a fan of Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Atomic Age superheroes, or are interested in the development of the “modern” superhero,” Marvelman is one of the true blues that changed the comic industry forever. Once you read MM, you’ll see how it has been ripped off and imitated countless times since it was created. I’m looking at you Sentry!

Make Mine Marvelman.


PS. I’m not saying MM is perfect but I am saying it’s very important. Plus it’ll be very funny if MM does become a top tier, mainstream Marvel Comics character because a very British Superhero will now carry the Marvel identity… now that is ironic and random strange.


Oh and one last thing... if you like comics and superheroes and don't think this is an big deal then tah hell with ya! :)!


-Swinebread

When I see a picture like this, it reminds me that the sentiment that women don't like science fiction is total bullshit.


Image from this post at i09

-Swinebread

Comic Con For Me

Of course Comic Con is going on this weekend but for obvious reasons I haven’t been paying much attention, But here’s a few stories that sparked my interest.


Rose McGowan and Robert Rodrigez talk about the new Red Sonja movie that's due out in late 2009 (here). It looks like it could be a lot of fun and I like what both McGowan and Rodrigez had to say about the Character and the project. The director, Douglas Aarniokosk, seems like a total putz though with statements like this:

"We're trying to do what Chris Nolan did with Batman, and that's [to] take an established story and an established character and reinvent it," he said. "You didn't have to see the other 'Batman' [movies] to appreciate it. You didn't have to read the comics to appreciate it."

You don't even have care about the Red Sonja at all to appreciate it... sigh

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The Greatest American Hero is set for a comic book debut this fall. The cast and crew reunited for walk down memory lane to talk about a what made the show so special and why it was canceled before its time. Plus, there’s a buzz of for possible film in 2009. See Here

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Frank Miller’s adaptation of Will Eisner’s classic comic The Spirit might be really cool or it might suck and maybe Samuel L. Jackson might make or break the film project. See here

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Watchmen, Watchmen, Watchmen… blah, blah, blah see here

Also, watch Dave Gibbons discuss his experience with the film here

Take a gander at the Nite Owl's ship here

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The Warlord is returning to comics for his 35th anniversary and this time the relaunch will be done by the character's creator Mike Grell. See here. This a big relief after the reimagining that DC did a few years ago stunk so bad. It is time to get back to the original version. Hopefully the new Warlord will be a success so some Warlord Showcase Presents will get published.


-Swinebread

Emerald City Comic Con part three

I could do some very bad things with this picture in Photoshop.



Zenescope was there representin with some of their gals. I bought the zero issue of 1001 Arabian Nights: The Adventures of Sinbad.



Here's Arthur Suydam. He's the guy that's done all those wonderful zombie covers. His line was way too long so I didn't wait around for his signature.



Another guy that had a honking huge line was Ed Brubaker. It was OK for me because I didn't have anything for this Cap-killer to sign.



I would have picked up Arcana Comics' Dead Men Tell No Tales trade but I had already ordered it through previews. They had an early release for ECCC. I forgot to get this fine fellow's name (if you know it leave a comment please) but I encouraged him to check out the Stumptown Comics Fest because Arcana Comics is a Pacific Northwest Company (based outta' Vancouver BC). I hope they show up in Portland next year!



Good Bye ECCC. I had a wonderful time and I loved the new space for the show.



We caught a rainbow on the way back to Portland. Very colorful just like the comics I enjoy so much.


-Swinebread

Emerald City Comic Con part two

A mistake on my part was not attending more panels. I paid my 20 bucks to get into ECCC and I didn’t really take advantage of it. I guess I was a little too focused on getting creators signatures. The only panel I attended was DC Nation. I really wanted to hear what Dan Didio, Executive Editor of DC Comics, sounded like. He’s supposed to be the guy that’s ruining their whole line of characters right? ☺

It was actually quite a weird experience for me if the truth were told. I’d never attended anything like this. Being in a large room where the minutia of a fictional universe is being discussed was just odd. I realized I had no idea what was going on for the most part with the DC Universe. Not a surprise as I’m not reading most of their stuff. Maybe I was also taken aback at being out geeked by most of the folks there.

As for Dan Didio, I have to say he’s a pretty charismatic guy. He’s certainly knows how smooze a crowd and he has impeccable comic timing. His timing is so good I actually think he’d make a good standup comedian or actor. So maybe I was somewhat lost during the DC Nation Panel and haven’t agreed with many of his editorial decisions but he sure made the hour spent in the room quite fun.

CBR has an excellent rundown of the event here.

If you notice this section:

Didio’s next threw out a question to the audience: “How many people picked up €DC Universe’ #0.” While 90% of the room held their hands high, Didio playfully shot back with, “Why isn’t every hand raised?”

When a fan jokingly said that he didn’t purchase the issue because it didn’t have Ambush Bug in it, Didio pointed out that Stephane Roux just completed the latest “anti-inspirational” ad which will feature the character. He said it’s an image of Ambush Bug with the word “Unvictorious” underneath it, which seemed to please the audience.

That fan was me. That’s right. I’m a huge Ambush Bug groupie, so why not get this panel discussion off and rolling with the bug. I always assumed that the DC folks, including Dan, hated the character, so why not have a little playful sniping. What was funny was that Ambush Bug got mentioned several times throughout the event. So much so, that Dan stipulated that the last question could not be about Ambush Bug. I even got up at one point and asked couple of questions just so I could mention Ambush Bug again. The first question was just something so I could sound normal but the second question was “any chance of a Jonah Hex / Ambush bug crossover?” Dan seemed to get frustrated and cried “who would want to see that?!” Kurt Busick said maybe it could be Ambush Bug’s ancestor Bush-wacked. Heh, heh.heh It would be funny though as some sort of Joke I suppose. Hey Keith Giffen You listening?


Dan went into he audience several time to coach questioners to great humorous affect. This is the gal that asked about titles for new readers because most of DC's titles are too continuity heavy and confusing.

Heidi and James Meeley

I met up with Heidi and James Meeley from Comics Fairplay at the space goat booth. We had a great conversation about many aspects of comics and blogging. Our chat was one of the most fun things I did that whole day. Now that I know they like a good microbrew, I can’t wait for an enjoyable pub conversation between us. They said they were going to try to make it to Portland for the next Free Comic Book Day. Maybe they can take a trip sooner, but either way it will be fun to have them visit the city of roses and talk comics. They also introduced me to Laura “Teagan” Gjovaag of Bloggity-Blog-Blog-Blog. She was really nice and inquired if I was an Aquaman fan since she was. I didn’t have the heart to tell her I’m more of a Sub-Mariner kinda guy. Being really angry and kicking Nazi butt is more of my thing. Oh and the pointy ears too. Gotta’ love them pointer ears.

Michael Alan Nelson

I swung by the Boom Studios booth and said hi to Michael Alan Nelson. He’s the guy that’s been writing most of the Cthulhu Comics. I told him how much a mythos horror title was needed and that Fall of Cthulhu and Cthulhu Tales fit the bill perfectly. As you can see he’s got a Mohawk now. Michael was such a straight looking guy before; the knowledge of the outer void must be affecting his mind.

Jeffery Brown

Here’s Jeffery Brown. He’s signing my copy of Big Head. Jeffrey is most known for his autobiographical comics but Big Head was a nice departure. It’s a title that’s made deceptively simplistic looking. I think it’s great because it captures the magic and imagination of childhood while at the same time expressing the angst of adulthood. Plus, it’s really funny too. I recommend it to readers whose habits cross back and forth between mainstream and indy comics.

-Swinebread

Emerald City Comic Con part one

Well, I learned my lesson last time and so I’m going to post this in parts. I think my wrists will thank me for it.

Lady Bug and I drove up to Seattle in a one-day mad rush for the Emerald City Comic Con. The show has really grown by leaps and bounds and so this year’s con was in a larger venue, the Seattle convention center.

I had brought a ton of books and comics to sign but I did tell myself that maybe some of the lines might be too long and sure enough there were a few folks I didn’t have the patience queue for but there was so much going on it didn’t matter.


Here the entrance into the main showroom… kinda looks like the Superman movie’s fortress of solitude.

Bill Willingham

I lucked out when I had Bill Willingham sign my comics. For some reason there wasn’t a big line but while I standing there, with only a few folks in front of me, a huge gaggle developed. Bill’s gaggle was merging with the line for Ed Brubaker, which was creating a big mess. I took charge and said “hey, why don’t we shift this around the other way.” Bill thanked me for adjusting things and then proceeded to sign several issues of Shadowpact for me.

I asked Bill about the connection between the Villains and Vigilantes modules (Death Dual with the Destroyers and the Island of Dr. Apocalypse) and the Elementals. Basically, while he was trying to break into comics, Bill was doing art for Fantasy Games Unlimited and worked on a couple of modules. Around that time, He had created a portfolio containing generic superheroes that he sent to Comico. They liked what the saw and Bill had a new job. When he showed up at Comico’s offices, Bill asked what he was going to be working on and their response was something like “what? You’re going to work on the proposal you submitted to us.” Bill was like “oh, yeah, of course” so he took the generic superheroes and fleshed them out into the Elementals. Needing a storyline quickly, he grabbed the outline from Death Dual with the Destroyers and the Island of Dr. Apocalypse as he owed the rights to all the characters and the rest is history. Sadly, Bill says the Elementals will never be reprinted, as the guy that owns the rights to the stories is a complete jerk. Back when Image was flush with money in the ‘90s, they tried to offer the jerk a large sum for the rights, but he always kept asking for more. The Jerk has disappeared and Bill has heard he’s homeless now. Maybe he should have taken the deal.

Brandon Jerwa

Here’s the multitalented Brandon Jerwa, along with his band mate Jessica Blackshear from SD6. He’s been writing several of the BSG titles for Dynamite Entertainment. Brandon told me that they’ve had such success with the BSG season zero comic that they might extend the series. He wasn’t sure they would do a Capria comic book based on the upcoming BSG related show, but he did say that there is going to be a BSG comic with a different group of survivors. Basically, you’ll have you’ll the same cylon models but a story that’s centered on a completely different group of humans. Kinda reminds me of a Star Trek: New Frontier approach.

Brandon signed my copy of BSG Season Zero #1, which had a great photo cover of Jamie Bamber.

Since Jamie Bamber was at ECCC, I decided why not have him sign my comic as well. His line was small at one point, so I just walked up and marveled at how short and how handsome he was. I shook his hand and he had a genuine smile on his face. It was funny because I guess Jamie hadn’t seen any BSG comics before because he was very intrigued with the issue I plopped in front of him. He opened it up and looked at pages. He then said with disbelief “is that supposed to be Colonel Tigh?” pointing to a scratchily rendered image. He flipped another page and again with disbelief said, “is that supposed to be Eddy?” Remember, he’s asking these questions in a gentle British accent. He looked right at me pleading for an explanation. I just raised my hands in an “I don’t know” shrug. With that, Jamie said, shaking his head, “I love comic books” and signed the cover with his image on it.

I realized at that moment that Dynamite Entertainment had really blown it by not getting an artist for the BSG comics that could draw realistic representations of the actors. I think Jamie was actually offended that the characters and actors he’s so familiar with didn’t look as they should. In this situation, the negative stereotype of comics was reinforced because the folks at Dynamite couldn’t be bothered I guess. The stories are quite good, but most non-comics types will look at the art and dismiss the titles completely just as Jamie did.

Moving on, I asked Jamie a few more questions. He told me he has nothing lined up after BSG. He’d slightly prefer to do films to more TV but if a TV show had the same level of camaraderie as BSG came along, he’d jump at the chance. I asked what was the best part of being on BSG for him personally and he said it was working with and learning from such a great group of people. Finally, I thanked him for coming to Seattle and (because of some theater experience in my background) I told him the one thing you are supposed to say to compliment an actor. He really seemed truly touched by my expression of gratitude and I walked away feeling like I needed to talk to some women to shake off our man moment. (Oh and I’m not going to tell what I said, this is the Internet of gosh sakes, so do your own research). .

Phil Noto & Gerry Duggan

I was really eager to meet Phil Noto as I greatly enjoyed his work on Jonah Hex and his current work on The Infinite Horizon. Phil, come to find out, is a very quiet guy actually so I ended up talking to Gerry Duggan the writer for The Infinite Horizon. We discussed the apocalypse-light world of IH a little and also adapting the odyssey into a near future tale. Gerry mentioned his post-apocalyptic x-mas story The Last Christmas and I bought it from him on the spot. Santa fighting cannibals in bombed out cities? I had to have it. Lastly, I encouraged him to check out the Stumptown Comics fest in Portland. He seemed very interested in the comic creator centered event. Hopefully he’ll make the trek to Portland someday.

Rick Remender

Rick Remender and his wife Danni had just had joked about something that’s why they look kinda snarky in the photo. Maybe it’s was something about my geekiness? Heh heh. Regardless I let him know how much I was enjoying The End League and that I saw a huge improvement from issue one to issue two. I think we’re at the beginning of a very cool series. I also decided to give Rick’s XXXombies a chance too and picked up the first issue of that. Kieron Dwyer drew it so how could I not try it out?

Matt Maxwell

I came across Matt Maxwell by chance and found the cover art to his book Strangeways: Murder Moon very compelling. Matt was happy to tell me about it, basically it’s a cowboys and werewolves horror story. I threw out the term Weird West, and Matt joked that his book is listed on wikipedia under Weird West. He also, mentioned that he’s working on a new horror western and it will include vampires but it won’t be all Goth like Vampire the Masquerade. I mentioned that that’s a good idea because I’m really tired of the artsy bloodsuckers and that I prefer the monstrous type. He joked that Vampire the Masquerade was a lifestyle and not merely a game. I laughed and agreed. Needless to say, I bought his book.

Eric Powell

Here’s Eric Powell, creator of The Goon, and next him is one the Nashville Roller Derby gals that Eric has designed promotions for… That's pretty f***ing cool. I had Eric sign an issue of the goon, and the Devil Dinosaur one-shot for me.

Esteban Maroto

The fantastico Esteban Maroto, had a bunch of amazing art, including original pages from Conan the Barbarian and Savage Sword of Conan. I really wanted one, but I was afraid to ask how much they were because I would embarrass myself if I couldn’t afford any of them. I had Esteban sign my copy of The Adventures of Red Sonja trade, which reprints a story he drew. I thanked him in Spanish.

J. Michael Straczynski

The lines were too long to meet J. Michael Straczynski, except at one point but then he had to rush off to a panel discussion, so I missed out. I wanted to tell him how much I enjoyed Babylon 5 and his current comic series the Twelve. I did learn that that he’s a very tall guy though. He’s friggin' huge.

Gail Simone

I had Gail Simone sign an issue of Villains United. I’m not reading her titles so I felt bad that I had nothing to ask her. Maybe I should have found out what Marvel character Gail would like to write if she had the chance, She-Hulk maybe?

-Swinebread

Off To Emerald City ComiCon

I'm leaving early in the morning so I'm posting my message now.

So much to see. So much to do. Plus, I gotta' drive 3 hours to get there and 3 hours back.

Regardless, I'm sure excited. ECCC here I come.


-Swinebread

CAPTAIN CARROT AND THE FINAL ARK Preview

It’s the last few days until the release of the new Captain Carrot mini-series. It’s finally coming out this Wednesday. DC has released a 5 page preview on Newsarama.com here. After more than 20 years, it’s about time. Needless to say, picking up the mini series has become more important than ever since DC recently cancelled the Showcase Presents that collected the original Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew. If this mini-series sells enough issues, I’m sure the DC guys will put the collected adventures back on the schedule for 2008. So, grab your copy of Captain Carrot and help revive the best funny animal superheroes ever… If the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles can have movies than the Zoo Crew can surely have a least a few more comics published.

-Swinebread

Jericho Update

Haven’t made an update about Jericho in awhile, so I thought I’d post a few odds and ends. As you know, Jericho was saved after it was cancelled because fans sent in huge amounts of nuts to CBS.

First up is the “thank you” vid that was presented at Comic Con. There's great behind the scenes shots along with some footage from season 2 and the extremely happy cast and crew members. From wikipedia:

On August 2, 2007, a video was released on YouTube showing clips from the first day back at work for the Jericho cast and crew. It shows clips of the first season, explaining the cancellation, followed by brief clips from the second season premiere and a "thank you" from the cast and crew to the fans for their efforts to revive the show

The official Jericho website has all kinds of new content and this time the producers have free reign to post what they want. Check out their production blog here.



If you want to find out why the Jericho fans were so crazy about the show then drop 50 bucks and get Season One, which comes out on DVD October 2.

Now if they could just get a Jericho comic book going…

-Swinebread

Mark Waid Blabs about being BOOM! Studios Editor-In-Chief

One of the big bits of news that came out of Comic Con was that Mark Waid became Editor-in-Chief of Boom Studios. Well, here's a vid with some of his ideas for the company.



Boom Studios... this is the place to be, from Horror, to Humor and everything in-between. These guys are making great stuff!

-Swinebread

Spiderman Cartoon and Iron Man Comic Con Trailers

The Fanboys came through and posted the con exclusive vids for Iron Man and the Spectacular Spider-Man Cartoon! It looks like the buzz with Iron Man is worth it so far and now we just might have a Spidey done in the same style as the WB Batman and Justice League. Great stuff!

EDIT AGAIN: I found another copy of the IRON MAN trailer, not as good as the first one but here goes (Thanks to Sequentially Speaking):


EDIT AGAIN: >


-Swinebread

Pulp Report

I found a site that's all comic news,Pulp Secret. They do comics video blogs as well a hosting comic reviews. Looks like I have another place to checkout for rumors and breaking comic book news.

Checkout their coverage of Comic Con:


On a side note, maybe Comic Con is too big. Hours and hours of waiting to get into the panels… bagh...

-Swinebread.

Who wants to be a Superhero? and Comic Con thoughts

I enjoyed the 1st episode of season 2 of Who Wants To be a Superhero? They’ve obviously got a bigger budget with more special effects and a longer season. I liked the fact that no one was eliminated right off the bat as happened last year. It’s kinda sad that we never got to know Levity, from season one, because he was kicked off so soon. So it’s nice that everybody got a real chance this time around. With an expanded season, it seems like there will only be one elimination per episode. That’s a good too because it will be more difficult to figure out who has been kicked off ahead of time.

1st impressions:

Basura: Weird arty girl that you wanna get to know.

Braid: bored homemaker, good costume.

The Defuser: Cop guy who took Superhero “values” to heart.

Hygena: Funny homemaker, this season’s fat mama.

Hyper-Strike: amped up wild man with real skills

Mindset: the stereotypical comic fan, classic scifi silver age hero

Mr. Mitzvah: Spoiled rich guy with interesting personality quirks.

Ms. Limelight: Miss Airhead, but nice enough.

Parthenon: sorta classic golden age style mystical hero.

Whip-Snap: down on her luck, gal who is glad to be here.

The fact that feedback went around and told everyone they were on the show was a nice touch, with Whip-Snap’s reaction the best of the bunch.

Should I guess who is gonna get kicked off next? I’m really terrible at that sort of thing but I’ll say Ms. Limelight is gone next time around.

I watched some of the coverage of Comic Con on G4. It was nice to see the reveal with the news that Karen Allen will be in Indy 4. Maybe there’s hope Lucas won’t screw this up… …maybe. Here’s the vid:

I’m also getting excited about the special edition DVD of Blade Runner, but the interview with Ridley Scot was kinda lame.

The Neil Gaiman interview was much better and now I’m looking forward to both Beowulf and Stardust.

Some of the hosts on G4 show are irritating with their fake enthusiasm and no comic book knowledge comments.

I was also happy to learn from Heidi MacDonald’s blog that Mark Waid is now the editor-in-Chief of Boom! Studios. They’re making big waves with great comics, why not bring on a big name.

-Swinebread

Someday

Someday I really wanna go to the San Diego Comic Con. It’s the superbowl of comic books. It’s starts tomorrow. Certain factors have prevented me from going and will most likely continue to keep me from going for a few more years, but someday… I’m trying not to pay TOO much attention, but a few things have bubbled to the surface that interest me a lot; the Watchmen Movie, Jericho news, and Dynamite Entertainment’s new Superpowers series based on the public domain Nedor Comics line of superheroes.

I think I gonna stick with Heidi MacDonald’s blog to get most of my con fix.

If it’s like last year, G4 should have some live broadcasts that will be available “on demand.” I enjoyed the clips last year, so this year should be good as well.

Someday…

-Swinebread