Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
Andrew over at Gray Haven Magazine.com is working with me to establish a regular schedule for certain AICN Comics features, just so you'll be able to count on seeing them at a certain time, or on a certain day.
One of the new features is this weekly review of news that affects the comics industry. Let's take a peek, eh?
Andrew from GrayHaven here. We're going to be starting a new feature this weekend focusing on the top Comic Industry News of the past week. Look for it every Sunday or so.
MARVEL PRESS CONFERENCE DETAILS
Marvel confirmed that Kevin Smith's Black Cat 6-issue mini series is going to be solicited in June. Terry Dodson will be providing the art and the official title is Spider-Man: The Evil that Men Do.
Also, three very popular titles: Captain Marvel, Black Panther, and Spider-Girl, that consistently live on the bean counting chopping block, will continue. Jemas stated, "To keep the books going we are raising the prices by a quarter on all three. One fan suggested a price increase and since that would keep the books going for at least another year that's what we decided to do."
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CROSSGEN AIMS TO SCARE READERS WITH ROUTE 666
This June, CrossGen Comics will release ROUTE 666, their eagerly anticipated horror title written by Tony Bedard, penciled by Karl Moline, inked by John Dell and colored by Nick Bell.
ROUTE 666 tells the story of Cassie, an escaped mental patient who targets seemingly random victims as she drifts across the country. She claims they are monsters, disguised as humans, covertly dwelling among us, and only she can detect them. She claims they steal souls to use for some unknown, unspeakable purpose. She must be a dangerous lunatic, right? But what if she's not?
"There are a million reasons why this is a dream project for me," commented Bedard. "Ever since discovering Alan Moore's Swamp Thing, I've been a huge fan of horror comics, and in ROUTE 666 we've managed to combine all the things I love about those kinds of stories -- the psychological tension, the supernatural horrors, ghosts, the Devil...even classic movie monsters! Also, this all takes place in a very accessible contemporary setting, with a 1950s Cold War twist that I find fascinating, both visually and thematically. Most of all, I'm excited to be collaborating on this with Karl Moline, John Dell and Nick Bell, all of whom I greatly admire as artists and creators. There's not one ingredient in this witches' brew that doesn't put my creative engine in overdrive."
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DC COMICS PRESIDENT, PAUL LEVITZ SPEAKS
With his recent promotion to President, DC Comics, it's now clearer than ever that the buck stops at Paul Levitz's desk when it comes to issues of DC, Vertigo, Wildstorm, and now, MAD Magazine.
Newsarama had a chance to sit down with Levitz and ask him a wide range of questions, from how he felt 2001 was for the company, to why there isn't a Smallville comic on the stands, why he's quiet in the face of Marvel's constant drum-beating, and his views on the can of controversial worms that is The Authority.
Newsarama: First off, it's still pretty early in the year - let's start with the State of the DC Union for 2001. How was the year for the company?
Paul Levitz: It was a pretty good year. We had a certain amount of excitement going on out there in the real world with Smallville, which is probably the strongest television show we've debuted maybe since Batman, in terms of public excitement, so that was a lot of fun. We had an okay year in comics, not a spectacular year, but finished up with the incredible excitement of Dark Knight 2 which was both record-breaking, and something that we've wanted to do for over a decade. That was certainly an exciting way to finish up the year.
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QUESADA AND JEMAS: MARVEL STATE OF THE UNION 2002
A year and a website ago, Newsarama interviewed the then still wet behind the ears Editor in Chief, Joe Quesada, and Marvel's then president of New Media, Bill Jemas. In the intervening year, they've talked - lots - but we tracked them down and asked them to update us on that original interview a year back, as well as discuss what's coming in the rest of 2002.
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HOPELESS SAVAGES CELEBRATION IN JULY
Due to its status as a cult favorite of 2001, Oni Press is designating June 2002 as HOPELESS SAVAGES month. To celebrate, Oni is releasing both the first issue of the new HOPELESS SAVAGES: GROUND ZERO miniseries and the trade paperback collection of the first miniseries. The story of the punk rock Hopeless-Savage family and their oddly functional dysfunctions quickly earned a solid fanbase and left many wondering when they'd get more.
"HOPELESS SAVAGES is one of those homegrown Oni projects," said editor in chief Jamie S. Rich. "Jen Van Meter, the series creator, began developing it with us, she debuted the characters in our first COLOR SPECIAL, and it has only gotten bigger from there. And everyone involved has been an Oni perennial. Last year's miniseries was just a taste."
That same miniseries is the focus of the HOPELESS SAVAGES trade paperback. The four issue story was written by Van Meter, with Christine Norrie handling main art chores and BLUE MONDAY's Chynna Clugston-Major drawing flashback sequences in each issue. Covers for the series, as well as the trade, were drawn by Andi Watson (BREAKFAST AFTER NOON). In addition to the four black-and-white issues, this collection will also feature a 16-page color section with the stories from the two COLOR SPECIALs, the online comic strips, and the newly colored two-page story from Oni's 2001 convention ash can.
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CHARLES SCHULZ SPEAKS!
Fantagraphics and THE COMICS JOURNAL is proud to announce the inauguration of our new series of online audio excerpts from the Journal's legendary archive of interviews (in MP3 format) with an extended selection of conversations between Gary and Charles Schulz, originally conducted for the long out-of-print The Comics Journal #200 (currently fetching ridiculous amounts on eBay).
While absolutely free, each interview excerpt will be archived for a limited period of 30 day on the COMICS JOURNAL's website, so don't miss out!
FIND IT HERE!!
QUEEN & COUNTRY STATUS CHANGE
This May, Oni Press' ongoing series QUEEN & COUNTRY will be changing its status once again. The espionage comic book written by Greg Rucka was initially established as a bimonthly project where the artist would change every three to four issues as the story changed. #8 will mark the beginning of the third story arc, "Cystal Ball," and the debut of new artist Leandro Fernandez on interior art and covers.
"I first met Leandro in San Diego at the Comic Con International in 2001," Rucka explained. "He had come up from Argentina to attend the show. James Lucas Jones and I spoke with him at Bob Chapman's aftershow party, and shortly after we returned home, Leandro sent us some samples. We knew right away that we wanted him for QUEEN & COUNTRY."
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DC CANCELS IMPULSE
Rumors of title cancellations have been running rampant on the Internet these past few weeks. Over at Marvel "Spider-Girl" was to be cancelled until a last minute reprieve saved the book for at least another year. But the same luck afforded "Spider-Girl" doesn't seem to be making its way over to DC's favorite teen speedster.
DC Comics has confirmed for CBR News today that "Impulse" has been cacelled. Rumors about the titles cancellation have been ongoing for quite some time, more than three years in fact, but this time it's definite. Issue #89 will be the last one for Bart Allen in his solo-series. Of course fans of Bart can still find him in DC's teen super-hero group title "Young Justice."
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LETHARGIC LAD RETURNS
Lethargic Lad finally returns in his own comic book this summer, with a jam-packed LETHARGiC LAD JUMBO-SIZED ANNUAL #1 hitting stores in June! The world's most lethargic hero, doing all kind of lethargic things to save the world, also launches the new Dork Storm Press imprint, Dork Storm Special.
"It's nice to be with a publisher that I don't have to pretend to like," said Greg Hyland, creator of Lethargic Lad. "Working with John Kovalic and Dork Storm has been great, and I'm really happy to be included in a group that already creates such great humor books."
The LETHARGiC LAD JUMBO-SIZED ANNUAL #1 will collect cartoons from lethargiclad.com, as well as a new four page Lethargic Lad story.
Lethargic Lad has been and will continue running as a back up in DORK TOWER, while in a reversal of roles, Dork Tower will also become a backup feature in the LETHARGiC LAD JUMBO-SIZED ANNUAL #1, with a brand-new story as Matt, Igor and the gang tackle superhero role-playing games.
Since it's launch in 1991, Lethargic Lad has seen press in numerous mini and ongoing series, as well as a sell-out trade paperback, "THE BIG BOOK OF LETHARGiC LAD." At its height, the Lethargic Lad comic book had a circulation of 7,000.
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NEWHOUSE PORTER TO PROVIDE EXCLUSIVE REPRESENTATION FOR CROSSGEN'S NEW MEDIA EFFORTS
CrossGeneration Comics, Inc. has contracted Nancy Newhouse Porter, Chair of the Entertainment & New Media Group of the law firm of Weston, Benshoof, Rochefort, Rubalcava and MacCuish, to serve as their entertainment attorney. Newhouse Porter will team with Michael Uslan of Branded Entertainment to represent CrossGen in the areas of film, television and other new media. CrossGen will be the only comic book company that Newhouse Porter will be working with in this capacity.
Newhouse Porter's experience in the entertainment industry includes six years in business development for The Walt Disney Company, and she is most known in Hollywood for her representation of Academy Award-winner John Lasseter in connection with his "Toy Story" directing deal. She has devoted a significant amount of her practice to representing the key filmmakers of animated hits such as "Antz," "A Bug's Life," "Prince of Egypt," "Tarzan," "Rugrats," "Shrek," and "Monsters, Inc." as well as several upcoming animated films from Disney, DreamWorks, Fox, Universal, Sony, Paramount and others.
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