Alex Ross on "Justice"

While waiting for some more news from San Diego Comic-Con, check this out.

Superstar comics painter Alex Ross, known for his photo-realistic superhero artwork (Kingdom Come, Marvels) is launching a new ongoing, bi-monthly Justice League series in August called Justice.

Plotted and painted by Ross, the series is written by Jim Krueger and pencilled by Dougie Braithwaite. Ross talked about the out-of-continuity series, inspired by the Challenge of the Superfriends (JLA vs. the Legion of Doom) cartoon from the 70s, to Newsarama in a series of interviews, then shared some of his concept drawings for the villians.

Alex Ross Justice interview Part 1

Alex Ross Justice interview Part 2

Legion of Doom concept art

San Diego Comic-Con: DC Day 1 – Batman

This post is edited from the coverage that appears on Comic Book Resources, The Pulse and Comics Continuum.

For more quotes, including how Lee likes working on All Star Batman and Robin with Frank Miller and what Rucka thinks of Batman Begins, check the links above.

Not a whole lot happened at the San Diego Batman panel, and most of the session was Q&A. Panelists included Bob Schreck (Editor), Bill Willingham (writer, Robin, Fables), Greg Rucka (writer, Gotham Central, The OMAC Project), Joey Cavileri (Editor), and a late-coming Jim Lee (All-Star Batman & Robin).

Some news and quotes:

Gotham Central: Greg Rucka announced that issue #37 is a stand-alone issue with his Whiteout collaborator Steve Lieber, an Infinite Crisis tie-in featuring Captain Marvel. Rucka has the book planned out through issue 40.

Jason Todd: No comment. Writer Judd Winick, who has returned Jason Todd in Batman, was not present at the panel and no one else wanted to touch that controversial subject.

War Crimes: One of the goals of this follow-up to War Games is to get past the grim n’ gritty Batman, and develop him into someone beyond that. The Joker appears in the story and has a defining “Joker-esque” moment, according to Willingham.

Batman/Fables crossover: Willingham said he has an idea for a Bigbie Wolf/Batman story but doesn’t know what to do with it because of Infinite Crisis.

“One Year Later”: No one thinks any comics will get new Number #1 issues as a result of Infinite Crisis, much to the audience’s relief.

Batman’s successor: Rucka said, “Bruce Wayne will be Batman until the day he dies. But if it had to be anyone else, then it's Tim Drake. After Identity Crisis, it's a no-brainer.”

The OMAC Project: When Rucka was asked if he was not a fan of Keith Giffen and his era of the Justice League (Max Lord was revealed to be an evil mastermind, and killed Blue Beetle in Countdown to Infinite Crisis, which is followed up in The OMAC Project), he said he was afraid that not only fans but Giffen himself would think that. Giffen heard this and called ruvka to assure him he wasn’t offended and said that Max would do that, and “KILL ‘EM ALL!” Of issue, #6, Rucka says: “Batman goes to great lengths to address errors in judgment he may have made" Sasha will be around after the min-series, though she will have gone through some “life changes.”A new Checkmate series may spin out of The OMAC Project.

All-Star Batman and Robin: the non-continuity, iconic version being presented in this more accessible title, allows for a little more freedom in the regular titles. Jim Lee claims to have just finished drawing issue 5.

Future plans: Rucka loves Harvey Dent and he should be appearing in a project he’s working on. He also has an idea for a project called "Gotham Plus 20", which involves Batman looking for a successor after he has a stroke.

Upcoming projects: a Legends of the Dark Knight 3-issue arc by Will Pfeiffer and Chris Weston, and a double-sized issue written by Eddie Campbell (From Hell) and drawn by Bart Sears. Also announced was Batman: Year 100, a prestige format 4-issue mini-series starting in early 2006 written and drawn by Paul Pope.

San Diego Comic-Con: DC Day 1 – Green Lantern

This post is edited from the story that appears on Newsarama.

Hal Jordan returned as Green Lantern in the recent mini-series Green Lantern: Rebirth, and is now the star of a new Green Lantern series. The Guardians and the Green Lantern Corps are also returning in a new mini-series Green Lantern Corps: Recharge.

The Green Lantern panel was attended by Geoff Johns, writer of Rebirth and the new ongoing GL series; Patrick Gleason, artist on GLC: Recharge mini (co-written by Johns and Dave Gibbons); and editor Peter Tomasi. Here are some of the newsworthy tidbits they shared:

Guy Gardner/Kyle Rayner – both characters are central in the Recharge series. Guy apparently gets a chance at payback to Batman in Recharge #1. Regarding why there are so many GLs on Earth, Johns said the Guardians will mention in Recharge #1 that the GLs of Earth share a trait that’s unique in the universe.

Supporting cast – Hal, once again a test pilot, will have a new supporting cast. Carol is leaving, and no Pieface. He will have “many love interests”. Green Arrow is important in Hal’s life and will guest star in issue #7. Kilowog and the Guardians are important as well. Villains old and new will appear.

Infinite Crisis -- Hal and the rest of the GL Corps will have a big role in Infinite Crisis, the DC Universe-spanning 7-issue mini-series also written by Johns. The “One Year Later” approach after the Crisis will have a big affect on the Green Lantern book next spring. Guy Gardner plays a big role in the Crisis.

Green Lantern Corps -- While currently planned as a mini-series, GLC: Recharge could become an ongoing, if sales warrant it. The Green Lantern Corps is like a police force. Each sector will be assigned two GLs, so there will be a total of 7200 Green Lanterns. Hal is the primary GL for Sector 2814 (which includes Earth). His back-up is John Stewart. G’Nort will not appear.

JLA – John Stewart remains the JLA’s Green Lantern. Neither Hal Jordan nor Guy Gardner feels welcome in the JLA because of Batman. Stewart plays a big role in the current "Crisis of Conscinence" JLA arc, a follow-up to Identity Crisis that is co -written by Johns (with Allan Heinberg).

Alan Scott – the original, Golden Age Green Lantern has an important role to play now and in the near future, though the panelists could not reveal what that is yet.

The Guardians – Dave Gibbons has come up with a new spin on the Guardians and their goals. The Corps don’t always understand or agree with the Guardians' methods.

The Spectre – Hal doesn’t remember much about his time as the Spectre and therefore doesn't have guilt over anything he may done during his time as host. The Spectre will likely get a new host in Infinite Crisis.

Rebirth – In Rebirth, it was revealed that Parallax, the identity Hal assumed after he supposedly went mad and destroyed the Guardians and the entire Green Lantern Corps, is actually a manifestation of the Green Lantern ring’s yellow impurity. Johns came up with this when DC publisher Paul Levitz told him Hal’s comeback/redemption had to be tied to GL mythology. The ability to remove the impurity from the ring was suggested in an old GL story. Hal’s actions as Parallax will not be swept under the rug.

Yellow impurity – Veteran Green Lanterns are no longer affected by the yellow impurity, though trainees still will be, until they overcome their fear, which is what the impurity (Parallax) represents.

Future projects – Johns indicated he would like to write Superman, the Suicide Squad and take a crack at Batman’s villains. When asked about the return of any Golden Age characters, Tomasi hinted that a project is in the works by a writer known for his work with such characters. Speculation suggests that would be James Robinson (Golden Age, Starman, JSA).

San Diego Comic-Con: That's the Spirit

The biggest comic convention of the year , the San Diego Comic-Con, officially opened yesterday (Wednesday night is preview night). Most of the really big news comes on Saturday, but things kicked off on Thursday from an unexpected source. During a panel dedicated to the upcoming movie version of the late Will Eisner's The Spirit, two special projects were announced:

• Batman/The Spirit -- a one-shot special in December, written by Jeph Loeb (who's also writing the movie screenplay) and drawn by Darwyn Cooke, which will help kick off...
• A new The Spirit ongoing series from DC Comics, written and drawn by Darwyn Cooke.

Both comics projects -- as well as the movie -- were approved by Eisner before his passing in January.

DC is also planning to release an "affordably priced" trade paperback collecting several of Eisner's The Spirit stories from over the years. DC also produces the not-so-affordably-priced The Spirit Archives and other Eisner classics.

Potter Spotter

Tonight at midnight, the 6th Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince goes on sale.

I love hearing that a BOOK can generate so much frenzy -- especially among kids.

Meanwhile, here's the trailer for Harry Pottter and the Goblet of Fire, the 4th movie in the series, due in theatres in November. It starts with a montage showing how the kids have grown.

Not a Potter fan? The new pope.

New Spidey "Event" Starts in October

As the entry below makes pretty clear, most of my comics focus has been on DC, but there are a few characters from Marvel that I try to keep up with at least through the industry news sites. Top of that list of course is Spider-Man, whose main books I don't read at all anymore, though I still keep up with Ultimate Spider-Man via trades.

When J. Michael Straczynski (JMS) first started on Amazing Spider-Man over four years ago, he introduced a cool concept that put Spidey's origin in a new light -- that Spider-Man was part of a legacy, and Parker was chosen to be the next in line. It introduced the character of Ezekiel, a previous "chosen" one, and Morlun, an energy vampire that Spidey has yet to defeat.

After this initial story, the book got further and further away from what I liked about the character and I stopped buying the trades (I have the first 4 from the JMS run; I should have stopped 1 or 2 before that).

Now, in the first multi-title crossover since the books were revamped four years ago, Marvel is introducing "The Other," a 12-part, 3-book crossover event premiering in October. Besides JMS' Amazing Spider-Man, the story will be found in Marvel Knights' Spider-Man (currently written by Reginald Hudlin) and the debuting Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, which features writer Peter David returning to the character for the first time in well over a decade.

The story, which is written about in the current issue of Wizard, features the return of both Ezekiel and Morlun and revisits the legacy idea. According to a follow-up article on Newsarama:

Strazynski, Hudlin, and Marvel Editor in Chief Joe Quesada tease the storyline in the Wizard piece, neither confirming nor denying the identity of “The Other,” or if Peter Parker will be under the Spider-Man mask after the final word is written and page is drawn.

This of course brings back memories of the infamous "Clone Saga" an intriguing story that saw Peter replaced as Spider-Man by a clone named Ben Reilly. The story now stands as a symbol of eveything that was wrong with comics in the 90s, as it was driven by marketing , rather than editorial, and ran on aimlessly far too long (over 2 years), shifting directions constantly, and finally concluding in a way that pretty much no one was happy with.

It took quite a few years for Spider-Man to emerge from the mess, which happened with JMS' arrival on Amazing Spider-Man (hey, full circle!).

We can only asume Marvel has learned from this mistake. While the new arc is 12 issues long, since it takes place in 3 titles, the whole thing will wrap up in 4 months. However, with JMS' recent major mis-step with Gwen Stacy and Norman Osborn, fans are a little skeptical.

DC Comics' Master Plan

"If you can wait for the trade, then we're not doing our jobs."

Damn that Dan DiDio (VP – Editorial, DC Comics). He’s right. Never have I bought so many monthly comics at once because I can’t wait for the trade. Why? Read on.

It started with Identity Crisis, which revealed a dark secret from the JLA’s past (mindwiping of villains – and Batman) and saw the death of heroes (Firestorm), villains (Capt. Boomerang) and heroes’ family members (Robin’s dad, Elongated Man’s wife), and betrayal by another hero’s wife (Atom’s estranged wife, Jean Loring).

Around the same time, this was happening, hints that something big and bad was coming started showing up in comics throughtout the DCU. DC conveniently collected many of these hints in Prelude to Infinite Crisis.

In the meantime, Hal Jordan returned to land of the living and mantle of Green Lantern, leaving the Spectre without a host.

Then came the Countdown to Infinite Crisis, which got Blue Beetle killed for discovering that former JLI leader Max Lord was the secret leader of a black ops group dedicated to “controlling” the meta-human population.

From Countdown, out spun four mini-series:

• The OMAC Project -- most directly continued from Countdown, reveals more about Max Lord’s organization and plans
• Villains United – takes the idea introduced in Identity Crisis of the villains banding together to overcome the heroes, and adds a splinter group of villains who don’t want to join
• Rann/Thanagar War – re-establishes and expands DC’s cosmic/sci-fi characters and settings
• Day of Vengeance – DC’s magic based heroes fight a host-less Spectre and the new Eclipso – Jean Loring

Then there’s DC: Special the Return of Donna Troy, a four-issue mini-series, which brings back the former Wonder Girl/Troia from her supposed death that happened in the battle that led to the formation of the new Teen Titans and the Outsiders. Donna is apparently the lynchpin of the Infinite Crisis.

Meanwhile, the repercussions of mind-wiping Batman are being addressed in a current JLA arc, while Batman also deals with apparent return from the dead of Jason Todd.

All of this (and much more) lead to Infinite Crisis, a 7-issue mini-series written by Geoff Johns starting in October. All we know so far about that is what’s it’s NOT: a continuity reboot. However, about mid-way through the series, EVERY DCU book will be set “One Year Later”. DCU mastermind Dan Didio revealed this at the Wizardworld Philly convention last month.

With Johns’ role as the writer of Infinite Crisis (as well JSA, Teen Titans, GL: Rebirth, the new Green Lantern title, and until recently, The Flash), DC made official what he had been doing unofficially for the past few years -- continuity cop, that is making sure that the “shared universe” is consistent, even as writers tell their own stories.

Separately, Grant Morrison returned to DC in a big way with his ambitious Seven Soldiers project – seven four-issue mini-series, where he revamps some of DC’s lesser known/used characters in separate, yet linked storylines. Morrison apparently has dozens of notebooks filled with his revamp ideas, and DC called his bluff – he’s officially their second-tier character revamp guy, much like editor Julie Schwartz did with characters like the Flash, Green Lantern and the Atom, when he ushered in the Silver age in 1956. The announcement also hints that Seven Soldiers isn't as separate from these other goings on as it may seem.

Every Monday, DC's website provides "Crisis Counseling" a recap of all the books from the previous week that tie in to the Crisis for those who just can't buy everything. I think this is a great idea, but unfortunately, they don't archive previous installments.

So, I'm buying a lot more comics these days (Teen Titans, Outsiders, JLA, Batman, OMAC Project, Villains United) but I've never been more excited about my weekly comic reads. I'll probably end up geting a lot of these in trades too. Somebody is certainly doing their job right.

Flash Forward

David Goyer, currently riding high as the screenwriter of the most faithful movie Batman adapatation ever, is starting to talk about his next project -- The Flash, which he will write and direct (which he also did for Blade: Trinity, so that may be some cause for concern).

In a recent interview with the New York Daily News, not only does Goyer talk about Batman, but he drops some hints about his take on the Fastest Man Alive:

"Fans know there's been more than one Flash over the years," Goyer adds. "There's been a lot of speculation and rumor, but both Barry Allen and Wally West will be in this movie."

Goyer is referring to the The Flash's "normal" identity. He started as Jay Garrick in 1940. Allen took over in 1956 and Wallace (introduced as Kid Flash in 1959) in 1986.

"We're going to go into the 'Speed Force' and a lot of the cosmic aspects of the character from the more recent past," Goyer says. "Trust me, we're going to do a lot more than have the Flash run on water and create vortexes."

The article also includes plenty of quotes from Batman Begins star Christian Bale on the character. Pretty good read overall.

Too Much Monkey Business

The teaser trailer for the Peter (Lord of the Rings) Jackson remake of King Kong is here.

In theatres this December.

First "V For Vendetta" Movie Poster

From the Muppet Balcony

Remember The Muppet Show? Remember those two cranky old guys in the balcony, Statler and Waldorf? Well, they're back and now they're reviewing movies. Currently, they are checking out Bewitched.

They seem to lost a little of their bite, but are astill good for a chuckle.

For more modern-day Muppet fun, click here.

Get Ready for NEXT Summer's Big Superhero Movie!

Director Bryan Singer continues to post to his video journal on the making of Superman Returns (I'm guessing we'll see a lot of this on the eventual DVD).

The latest entry (the 17th!)was posted this week, and man is it cool. You'll see just how much the look of themovie is based on the first two Superman films, based on photos, footage and concept art for the movie.

Concept art for Superman Returns

"Amazing Screw-On Head" Animated Pilot Moving Ahead

Hollywood trade pub Variety has just announced the Paul Giamatti (American Splendor, Sideways) has signed on to voice the title character in an animated adaptation of Mike (Hellboy) Mignola's "The Amazing Screw-On Head," as a pilot for the Sci-Fi Channel.

"Screw-On Head" is a one-shot published a few years ago by Dark Horse Comics that is one of the funniest, most imaginative comics I have ever read. I'm not alone either. The book won an Eisner award (top award in comics industry) for Best Humor Publication in 2003.

One of the best non-super-hero comics ever created

Who is the Amazing Screw-On Head? According to Comics Continuum, he is "a Civil War-era secret agent at the service of president Abraham Lincoln and an unsung hero who never made it into the history books. His special power is the ability to screw his head onto a variety of different bodies."

I met Mike Mignola at Wizard Philly this month, where he signed my copy of the book, and mentioned this pilot to me. He also said that this is his single favorite work of his and that he will never do a follow-up to it because he doesn't want to mess with how good it is.

Other voices featured in the pilot are David Hyde Pierce (who voiced Abe Sapien in the movie version of Mignola's Hellboy) as Emperor Zombie, Molly Shannon as Patience the Vampire and Patton Oswalt as Mr. Groin.

The pilot is expected to be finished by early next year. No word yet on when -- or if -- it will air, or if it will become a series.

Stella!

On Tuesday, June 28th, Comedy Central premieres a new show, Stella, starring David Wain, Michael Showalter and Michael Ian Black, three of the cast members from MTV's 90s sketch comedy series The State, a very funny sketch comedy show that is STILL not available on DVD.

Comedy Central has posted the entire first episode online, which you can see here.

I've watched it, and it's got a similar sensibility to The State. It's not a sketch show though, but rather a full-length scripted story. It's been compared to the Marx Brothers. It reminds me of The Monkees, without the music.

The show is the next step in the evolution of the comedy troupe, also known as Stella. According to the bio on Comedy Central's site:

The Black/Showalter/Wain co-venture began in 1997 as a weekly nightclub comedy show that quickly became New York's premier showcase for alternative and mainstream comedy. Running for seven years at Fez in New York's Greenwich Village, the trio hosted such regular guests as Janeane Garofalo, Ben Stiller, David Cross and the Upright Citizens Brigade. The show has been praised by Time Out, The New Yorker and Entertainment Weekly.

In addition to their stage show, Stella has created a number of short films, which can be seen here.

The show premieres at 10:30 after Reno 911! , another show featuring former cast members of the State.

Timed with the upcoming premiere of Stella, the most recent issue of Entertainment Weekly has an article on the cast members of The State. A copy of the article is here. It's pretty interesting.

Convention Highlight: Comics Legend Carmine Infantino

One of the personal highlights of the WizardWorld convention for me (since I didn’t get picked to see Batman Begins two weeks early on an IMAX screen) was seeing legendary comics creator Carmine Infantino. Though I met him once before, when I bought his book – The Amazing World of Carmine Infantino -- at a WizardWorld convention two years ago, I loved hearing the man spin his tales of his entry into comics in the late Golden Age, his role in the birth and development of the silver Age, and his accomplishments as president and publisher of DC Comics in the 1970s.

His panel was at 11 am on Sunday, the last day of the convention. Accompanying him was J. David Spurlock, the co-author of his book, who helps prod his memories for the better anecdotes. He didn’t have a formal presentation, but immediately asked for questions to get him started on anecdotes, many (though not all) of which are recounted in the book. Though the audience was small, it was respectful and he received a applause several times throughout the presentation, which also contained numerous plugs for his book by both men.

He is currently involved in a legal action against DC Comics for his part in the creation of the Silver Age Flash and Batgirl (which he created specifically for the 60s Batman TV show after the success of Catwoman created a demand for more female characters in tight costumes). He couldn’t talk about the legal action, but he did talk about the characters themselves.

Here are some of his anecdotes (though this is a lot, it’s not all of the stories he told in a session that lasted just under an hour. For another report on the panel, click here):

• Some of his most famous covers are the result of the challenges he and editor Julius Schwartz threw at each other. Infantino would draw a cover and Schwartz would come up with the story to go with it. One time, Infantino thought he finally had Schwartz beat when he drew a cover with both the Golden Age and Silver Age Flashes running to save a man. Schwartz rose to challenge and created the concept of Earth-2, the birth of the multiverse.
• Jack Kirby was one of his inspirations and an early employer. He took a pay cut to work for Kirby, just so he could learn from him. It was Infantino who later lured Kirby to DC, where he created the Fourth World universe and characters (including Darkseid, one of the DCU’s enduring villains). Kirby also created Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth, after Infantino suggested a Planet of the Apes-type setting for a series.
• Bill Finger was the real genius behind Batman, after Bob Kane created the character, but he never got any credit, and died poor. He also spoke fondly of other creators he worked with, and who worked for him, including John Broome, Denny O’Neil, Nick Cardy, Jim Steranko, Arnold Drake, Alex Toth, and Joe Kubert. He is a fan of the art of Bill Sienkiwicz and Steve Rude.
• Infantino was asked to draw Batman to save it from cancellation, and helped usher in the “new look”. Sales picked up dramatically. It was one of Infantino’s covers that attracted the attention of TV producer William Dozier who was inspired to develop the Batman TV show, which further catapulted comic book sales for Batman.
• Not only did Infantino create the Barbara Gordon Batgirl in response to the request for more female characters, but he also created Poison Ivy during that time. He pointed out that he received no credit or payment for her use in the movie Batman & Robin (unlike Chuck Dixon, who received payment for the use of Bane, one of his creations, in the same movie. Of course, creator-participation agreements have changed quite a bit since the Silver Age).
• After Mario Puzo turned in his first draft of the Superman movie, it was so un-Superman-like, that Infantino, Puzo and the film producers locked themselves away for a long weekend and came up with the story that became the first two Superman movies.
• He was also a creative consultant on the Superfriends cartoon series.
• When asked if he was aware of the Birds of Prey comic series, which features Barbara Gordon in her current incarnation of Oracle, and Black canary, a character he co-created in the Golden Age, Infantino remarked that was once on the set of the short-lived TV series of that name and met the young actresses who played the characters. He said they very gracious and asked him about the roots of the characters they played. He said he wished he was a lot younger at the time.
• Infantino discovered Neal Adams, later to become famous for Batman and Green Lantern/Green Arrow. When he ran DC, Infantino designed every comic book cover. Including the ones that Adams drew, which Adams didn’t like. When Stan Lee hired Adams at Marvel and wasn’t happy with the covers, Lee called Infantino and asked him why Neal’s covers weren’t as good as his DC covers. “Because I designed them,” was Infantino’s reply. Adams soon returned to DC, balking less at Infantino’s influence.
• While most of his career was at DC Comics, he did spend a little time at Marvel, where he drew the first several issues of the Star Wars comic (written by Archie Goodwin, who Infantino thought was brilliant). Though Lucas was known as very controlling about the way his characters were handled, Infantino was never asked to change anything. He later found out that nobody asked him to make changes out of respect, but in fact his inker, Terry Austin, was requested to make all of the changes. Infantino hated working on the book, particularly disliking drawing the ships and robots.
• When he returned to the Flash in the early 80s to help improve sales and save it from cancellation, he did not enjoy the work. By that time, he was just a pencil for hire and had no editorial input, so it held no appeal. It should be noted that the series lasted about 50 issues longer than it would have otherwise.
• He has a nephew in animation (He said he worked at the Cartoon Network but also said he works on SpongeBob Squarepants, a Nickelodeon show). He advised his nephew not to get into comics, since it was a shrinking business.
• Another nephew is front-man in a band called Jim’s Big Ego, which has a song called “The Ballad of Barry Allen” on an album that has a cover drawn by Infantino.
• When asked about his opinion of comics today, he said he doesn’t really read them, but isn’t a fan of what he does see. While admitting that he is not the target audience, he commented on a recent DC storyline (Identity Crisis). “Raping and killing the Elongated Man’s wife? That’s not comics!” Note that Infantino co-created the Elongated Man and his wife, Sue Dibny.
  

A fantastic presentation. I highly recommend his book , not only for the great artwork, but also for his personal anecdotes like the ones above and many more. If he’s appearing at a convention, make a point of seeing him. If you’re a fan of comics and comics history, you’ll be glad you did.

Convention Cameos

Do these kids realize there's an Imperial stormtrooper behind them?

Remember those kids? See what happens when you don't pay attention when there's a stromtrooper around...

Anybody got a lightsaber?

Marc Singer -- Many remember him from Beastmaster, but to me he's the guy from V.

Lou Ferrigno -- We took this pic when he wasn't looking because we didn't want to make him angry.