EDITOR’S NOTE: Before you all scream at once, “WHAT THE HURM IS THIS POOPIN’ CRAP?!?! WHERE THE FIG ARE MY AICN COMICS REVIEWS!?!?!?! Just to let you know, you are not going crazy. Yes, this is Wednesday and AICN COMICS: SHOOT THE MESSENGER is usually our Monday feature for interviews, previews, and news, but due to personal issues, the column was delayed until today. Our regular comic book review column was also delayed this week for the same reasons. Next week, the world will return to normal and you’ll get your weekly dose of @$$Hole Reviews as usual next Wednesday. But instead of taking a complete bye week, we wanted to give you something to Talkback about. If you like what you see here, be sure to check back every Monday for more interviews, news, and previews in our weekly SHOOT THE MESSENGER column. Enjoy!
What’s SHOOT THE MESSENGER?
Well, AICN COMICS: SHOOT THE MESSENGER is your weekly one stop shop for comic book news that’s dropped in the previous week. Thanks to Newsarama, CBR, Wizard, etc. for reporting it as it breaks. Click on the links for the original stories. This column cuts the crap to run down all the vital information for those of you who don’t follow it as it comes in, and serves it all up with that special ingredient of @$$y goodness. It’s also the place for interviews, previews, and special reports.
Hey folks, Ambush Bug back again with three big Q & @’s for all of you putting the messenger in your sights this week.

AMBUSH BUG INTERVIEWS DC EDITOR JANN JONES
Let’s start off with an interview I did with DC editor Jann Jones. Jann is the brainchild behind such comics as TINY TITANS, BILLY BATSON & THE MAGIC OF SHAZAM!, the upcoming SUPERGIRL: COSMIC ADVENTURES IN THE 8th GRADE, and of course, the reason this interview came to pass in the first place, Keith Giffen’s AMBUSH BUG: YEAR NONE. Jann has re-energized DC’s kids line and played a huge part in putting the fun back in funny books. Jann was nice enough to answer a few of my questions about her role as editor, what makes things funny, the formation of the DC Kids line, and of course Ambush Bug. Throughout this interview, Jann and DC were nice enough to give us a preview of AMBUSH BUG: YEAR NONE #2. Click on the thumbnails to enlarge them. Enjoy!
AMBUSH BUG (BUG): Let's start out right away with Ambush Bug. You were one of the loudest voices in getting this miniseries underway. What is it about Ambush Bug that prompted such an effort to get him back into comics?
BUG: Ambush Bug has been Keith Giffen's baby from the get-go. Was there any doubt that Keith would come back to do it? Is it possible to write a good Ambush Bug story without Keith's participation?
JJ: I honestly would not have done the project without Keith's involvement, even his blessing would not have been enough to do this book without him. Keith and Robert are the heart and voice of Ambush Bug. An Ambush Bug book without them would be like Christmas without any presents.BUG: Ambush Bug has gone through a lot of permutations since his inception. He's been a comic foil, a villain, a depressed downer, a snarky observer, and occasionally a hero. What version of the Bug is your favorite?
BUG: Ambush Bug is one of those characters I would love to see interacting with pretty much any character. I'd love to see how the Bug interacts with Hawkman or Guy Gardner or Batman or even Vertigo's Sandman. After the miniseries, is there any chance for an ongoing series for the character or is Ambush Bug best served in small doses?
JJ: Ummmm, who says you won't see all of the above in the hilarious romp known as AB: YEAR NONE!! And as much as I love the Bug, I think he is best in small doses. For me, I like not having him around all of the time. That way when he does show up, it feels special.BUG: What can we look forward to in future issues of AB: YEAR NONE?
BUG: Humor is such a subjective genre. In our talkbacks alone there were people who love the book and people who simply didn't get it. What type of reader do you think would be attracted to Keith's brand of insanity in AMBUSH BUG?
JJ: Oh boy, don't I know that. AMBUSH BUG isn't for everyone but the people who do find him funny find him really funny. For me, the type of reader who would like Ambush Bug is the person who adores SPINAL TAP, can poke fun at themselves, finds Failblog.org incredibly funny, laughs at fart jokes, sometimes chews with their mouth open, remembers why they love comics and what still makes them great.BUG: Although I could talk about the Bug all day, let's move on to some of your other comics. TINY TITANS. Can you tell us how that comic came to be?
BUG: I love me some TINY TITANS. What has the feedback been like for the book?
JJ: The feedback has been amazing. It's been such a cool convention season because of all of the parents, aunts, uncles, boyfriends, and teachers who have sought me out to tell me just how much they love the book. I hear about how it's become bedtime reading, the only book someone's girlfriend will read and about kids getting caught reading it with a flashlight way past bedtime. I feel like I might be to blame for a generation of kids with bad eyesight.BUG: TINY TITANS is DC proper's Teen Titans' favorite TV show. Are we ever going to see an actual TINY TITANS cartoon?
BUG: BILLY BATSON AND THE MAGIC OF SHAZAM is another title you've spearheaded. What can you tell us about this story and why it was chosen to be a part of DC's Kids line?
JJ: My first San Diego in ‘99, I discovered Mike Kunkel's HEROBEAR AND THE KID. It was pure magic to me and I couldn't stop talking about, reading it, giving it to strangers etc. I knew I wanted to work with Mike and it was Dan DiDio's idea to offer him Shazam. He knew that Mike could truly capture the innocence and wonder of these amazing characters. The story is about being a hero and the true meaning of being a family.BUG: Not to rag too much on the mega-crossover events that are occurring at both Marvel and DC, but it's great to see books like BILLY BATSON and TINY TITANS come out unscathed from the crossover-itis most of comics have these days. That said, has there been any talks about a TINY TITANS/BILLY BATSON crossover?
BUG: You've single-handedly brought back the fun to DC with these kiddie books. Was it hard to convince the powers that be at DC to give the line a chance?
JJ: That one I really owe to Dan, without him these books never would have happened. Kids books have never been huge sellers but he has fought really hard to make sure that people knew how important it was for us to try.BUG: There are movies and TV shows that are geared towards kids that, as an adult, I simply can't take. Then there are movies and TV shows like Disney and Pixar's films that are entertaining for everyone from ages 3 to 300. How do you walk the fine line between entertainment for kids and entertainment that all ages can enjoy?
BUG: I was at the Women in Comics panel at this year's WIZARDWORLD CHICAGO where you and other women in the comics industry talked about what it was like to be a female in this field. Could you elaborate on that experience and tell us what it's like to be a female in this industry mostly populated by guys?
JJ: That panel was amazing!! I was so proud to be up there with so many strong talented women, it was a highlight of my convention season. Being a woman in comics these days is not so different from being a woman in most industries. I still get questions from men about if I actually read comics (I do) and there are still some men who have trouble dealing with a woman in authority but that happens less and less as I have established myself in my career.BUG: I keep on seeing more and more women at these cons and less of them being dragged along by their boyfriends. Why do you think female appreciation of comics is on the rise?
BUG: Editorially speaking, what do you look for in a good comic? Does that differ from the types of comics you would read simply for fun?
JJ: I get teased because I never really wanted to be an editor, I was pretty vocal about that. After doing the job for two years I started to get the twitch to edit. I don't ever have to edit a book so anything I decide to work on had better be something I feel pretty passionate about. I make books that I would want to read. My personal tastes definitely run on the more independent side so I try to find a way to bring that sensibility to what we do in the DCU.BUG: Editor is such an ambiguous title. Can you take us through a typical day-in-the-life of Jann Jones, Editor At Large?
You contacted me after reading my review for the first issue of AMBUSH BUG: YEAR NONE and that's when you agreed to an interview. How often do you read the review sites and do they (and the reactions in the talkbacks, messageboards, blogs) have any influence on your decisions as an editor?
JJ: Well your moniker is AMBUSH BUG!! Your review was the one I was most anxious about. I will admit that I do read the sites, I have been known to check out the occasional message board and I google my books to see what the bloggers have to say. I appreciate how passionate people are about what we do. As an editor, I can't let it influence my decisions. The internet can be a deceptively loud place. I have to trust my gut and just do the best I can. I find if you try to make everyone happy you end up making no one happy.BUG: You seem to be pretty successful in getting the comics that you like and want to see to print. You've also expressed your love for the Giffen/Dematteis JLI. Any chance of a JLI book under the DC kids banner?
Besides, I think Dan killed them all.
BUG: Since we're AICN and all about the scoops, can you drop any bombshells or hints about any other projects from you in the future?
JJ: Well SUPERGIRL: COSMIC ADVENTURES IN THE 8th GRADE is going to be so much fun. I just got more pencils to #2 and it really is just so very cool. Landry Walker and Eric Jones are good people and they get what I am trying to do with the all ages line.And I can't mention any specifics just yet but I did have some very exciting meetings in San Diego. My fingers are crossed that everything works out.
BUG: One last question...and I'm sure you've been asked this before, but you can be honest here. Are you a Martian, Ms. Jones...or should I say, Ms. J'onnz?
JJ: Ohhhh, I am so not a Martian although I do love me some chocos.BUG: Thank you so much for taking the time to answer these questions.
JJ: Thank you!Ambush Bug is Mark L. Miller, reviewer and co-editor of AICN Comics for over seven years. Check out a five page preview of his short story published in MUSCLES & FIGHTS 3 (AVAILABLE NOW at Muscles & Fights.com.) on his ComicSpace page. Bug was recently interviewed here and here at Cream City Comics about indie comics, his own artistic process, the comics industry, and other shades of bullsquat. Look for Bug’s follow-up this Fall in MUSCLES & FRIGHTS!
Next up we have Part One of superhero’s intensive sit-down with the makers of the new WONDER WOMAN Cartoon. Take it away, superhero!
SUPERHERO ON WONDER WOMAN CARTOON
PART ONE
AN INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR ANDREA ROMANO
Greetings, superhero here. The following is the first part of a three part interview I was involved in for the Wonder Woman straight to DVD movie that launches in February ’09. In part one I got a chance to talk to Andrea Romano who was the Voice Casting/Director for the project. In case you didn’t know Andrea Romano has been involved in every DC Comics animation adaptation all the way back to the original “Batman: The Animated Series”. But it’d be disrespectful of me not to acknowledge the fact that she has been a driving force behind so many more animated productions which fans may or may not know about. This woman’s IMDB page goes all the way back to stuff like “The Snorks” and “The Go-Bots”. Now that’s impressive.
But before I get to the interview I have a couple of thank you’s to throw out there. First, I need to thank Sleazy G. It was Sleazy who tossed me this opportunity and I can’t thank him enough. I didn’t think this would be as fun as it was and I gotta thank Sleaze for getting me into this. It was the highlight of my time at SDCC this year.
Next I have to thank my pal Kevin Murphy. Kevin Murphy is a journalist by trade and when he found out that I was being given this chance he encouraged me to go and do it. Not only that, but the guy actually gave me one of his old tape recorders. To keep. Now if that’s not a good egg I don’t know what is. Be sure to check out Kevin’s website at www.kevmurphy.net. Thanks for the encouragement, Kev. You are the man.
The last, but by far not least, person I must give thanks to is my wife, Amy. Amy did all the hard stuff for this interview in that she sat down and transcribed the whole damn thing. I type about as fast as a retarded chimp with broken knuckles and my beautiful wife stepped up to the plate and did all the hard work. They don’t make women like that anymore and I just want the world to know that if there is a Wonder Woman out there she is my wife.
One more thing. To give credit where credit is due I have to let everyone know that this interview was what is called a round table interview. I was one of four other people asking questions so I have to give them their due here. The other interviewers were: Matt Hazuda from toonzone.net, Janet Hetherington of best-destiny.com, Derek McCaw of fanboyplanet.com, and a gentleman from Wizard Magazine whose name I can’t remember because he never gave me his card. But he was a nice guy and I hope he forgives me for not including his name here.
In any case, here’s the interview. Hope you all enjoy it!
SUPERHERO: Were there any particular challenges you had casting the role of Wonder Woman?
Andrea Romano (AR): Yes, I was so excited to do a project that had a major female character because so often the action shows are all male cast, so it was a pleasure first of all to do a show that has many females in it, which made me really happy. And this was a slightly different Wonder Woman than I’d worked with before in that it was really kind of her origin story as she comes into the world of humans and off the island paradise that she lives in, so I needed someone with a voice that has strength, because clearly she’s got physical strength, but also an innocence, you know, a naïveté she had to have. So as I was, this often happens on things I’m casting, you can often tell what things I’ve been watching on TV, or what films I’ve been watching, series and things because those tend to be the actors I bring in because I’m aware of them. And I’d just watched “Waitress”. So I saw Nathan Fillion and Keri Russell giving those beautifully sensitive performances. So then it became no-brainer, let’s see if they want to work together. I believe they have a good chemistry together and I’m sure their experience working together was fun, so let’s see if we can get them to work together on this one. SUPERHERO: As important as it is to get people like Keri Russell and Nathan Fillion to do this, how important do you think it is to have these well known faces being these voices when it used to be the journeyman voice over actors that were the ones getting these things?
AR: I don’t feel that it has to be a celebrity at all. I am of the mind that it should be the best actor for the role regardless of who they are. Whether they’re well known, never been heard of, whatever. I don’t think that the people going into a video store to buy a property like Batman or Superman or Wonder Woman are going to look at it and say “I won’t buy that because there’s no celebrity in it.” I really don’t. I think they’re going to say, oh it’s Wonder Woman and I want my daughter to watch Wonder Woman, or whatever, or I want to watch a Wonder Woman or a Justice League or whatever.SUPERHERO: Since you need a strong voice to be Wonder Woman herself, who do you cast as the antagonist or the villain in the movie to counter that strong voice?
AR: You mean, Ares, the voice of Ares? Alfred Molina. Alfred Molina who just couldn’t be a more wonderful man. A brilliant actor as we all know. We watched him do remarkable work and he told me a great story, this is always fun too, this is one part about hiring celebrities where you get to hear great stories about...whether you’re hiring Mark Hamill tell “Star Wars” stories or you hire whomever. Alfred Molina was telling me about, it was Christmas time when we were recording him and someone had sent me an enormous basket of chocolate. So I brought it into the recording studio and said, “Please everybody help me because if I eat this chocolate, because if I take it home, I’ll eat it all myself”.SUPERHERO: Yea, you’d just picked him up as Alfred.
SUPERHERO: Not even the preview stuff they put on “Gotham: Dark Night”? It’s just the sketches and voices.
AR:I think in the panel we’ll see something. I think they’re going to show some today. I hope so…it’s like yesterday at the “Batman: Brave and The Bold”? I saw footage. I’d never seen any footage of and was like “That looks great!” ‘Cause I work so far before the animation comes back. You know, sometimes it’s as much as 6 months. I’ve done the voice recording and then 6 months before the picture comes back and I’m already moved on to some other projects.SUPERHERO: It must be difficult to do publicity now in July for something that’s not coming out until March (note--tt actually comes out in February-ish). At least it’s somewhat fresh in your mind.
SUPERHERO: Yeah, yeah I saw it and thought it was wonderful.
AR: It was, wasn’t it. I’m sad it’s over. They only ever intended 3 books of 20 stories each, so 3 seasons of 20 episodes. And now, of course, M. Knight is making the live action movie of “Avatar”, so that’s amazing.SUPERHERO: The third season aired?
AR: It just finished, so you know it will be out on DVD and you’ll be able to get it.SUPERHERO: As a fan of the Wonder Woman franchise yourself, what are you most looking forward to about the Wonder Woman movie?
AR: I always love to see how it all fits together, because I work with it almost like a puzzle.SUPERHERO: Did you have to do a lot of research? Did you have to read any of the Wonder Woman comics?
AR: I always have to do research because you know girls didn’t, back in my day, read comic books like Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman. We read Betty & Veronica and the occasional romance comic books if we read them at all, you know it just wasn’t….now girls read much more. I see even just girls in hotels reading comic books and that was not the -du jour. So I always have to do research. And I always have to ask a lot of questions and plead ignorance - “You guys, can you tell me where this comes from and why are they talking about this?” and then what makes that good is that I become an audience member who needs to have things explained to and when I say the script didn’t make that clear then the writers know that they should add something to help anyone who, like Andrea, doesn’t know that history. And while they can’t go too deep into it but at least that reference to that point make sense to someone who doesn’t know Wonder Woman’s history. Doesn’t know, you know, what island she comes from. Doesn’t know who Hippolyta is, doesn’t know the relationship between Ares and Hippolyta.SUPERHERO: Do you, having done the research before casting the role, do you see the designs for the characters before casting?
AR: Yes, and I’m also told sometimes that the designs will change. And then I ask the question is it going to change considerably? Is she going to be older or younger? That’s the kind of thing I have to deal with. It doesn’t matter to me if the waist will be a little smaller or her bosom a little larger, that doesn’t matter. But what does matter is sometimes a character like Ares is he going to have big old massive shoulders, or is he going to be slight? Because that’s a voice type you have to be concerned with. What’s the physicality of that character and does the voice…now we all know there are big massive guys who have thin voices, but that doesn’t always work. You kinda have to have them sound like what they look like. Unless you’re playing the comedy beat and then you have a big beefy guy who talks like Mike Tyson, you know.SUPERHERO: Holding that line of thought, since it is the origin of Wonder Woman as she enters into the modern world is there an evolution is the way she presents herself in her voice? Do you see an evolution there?
AR: Not in her voice. In her knowledge, like in her maturity. That we see what happens. And yet she still maintains this kind of innocence that’s so endearing about her. Because you know Wonder Woman can be played really, you know she can be really strident and tough. And I wanted to keep the femininity most importantly. And there’s a growth and learning process that happens for Wonder Woman in the piece, but I would not say that vocally she changes terribly. The acting changes, the acting beats change, but the voice doesn’t change.SUPERHERO: Have you found challenges over the years since BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES of recasting characters you’ve visited before in the cast?
SUPERHERO: How did you convince him to do that?
AR: The piece was created very interestingly, we did what was called a scratch vocal, which means we record the voices but it’s not with the actors who are ultimately going to really play it. Bruce and I played roles. I called in a bunch of my friends who are actors and said come in and just do the voices. Then we send that track over to Asia to be animated by the 5 or 6 directors that worked on it. And then almost like dubbing the film, we replaced the voices from start to finish with the real actors. So we knew that it was going to require actors that had that ability to match picture. Kevin Conroy has been doing that for me for you know 17 years, so we knew that. And every time we would come to Comi-Con every panel we would do someone would stand up in the question line and say, why is Kevin Conroy not every Batman that ever exists? And I have to say that to me he’s always Batman, he was my first and I think the most wonderful voice talent. But you know he’s a Julliard trained actor, he’s a really classy wonder…he brings such depth to that character and I’m not just talking about the depth of his voice, I mean the depth of this acting.SUPERHERO: So is it hard at all to, say, tell the actress who did Wonder Woman from the Justice League that she’s not going to be doing the voice for this project?
AR: Oh, it’s very hard. I’m a very actor friendly director. Having been an actress myself a thousand years ago I always want to be sure to protect the actor’s feelings as much as possible and actors are really sensitive people, that’s why they’re actors. They have a really strong emotional response to things, so I always have to be very straightforward to them and let them know that I’m working on another project. I’ve been told I have to re-cast it not because you did anything wrong. You didn’t do anything wrong. And when we do something that has to do with what we’ve done in the past you will be our Wonder Woman again. It’s not that you’re being punished, it’s really just that this is what I’ve been asked to do. And so they really do understand. It’s very hard.SUPERHERO: Be sure to tune in next time for Part Two of this interview with the people behind the WONDER WOMAN Cartoon.
Discovered as a babe in an abandoned comic book storage box and bitten by a radioactive comic fan when he was a teenager, superhero is actually not-so mild mannered sometime designer & cartoonist, Kristian Horn of Los Angeles, California. He's been an @$$hole for three years. Some of his work can be seen at www.kristianhorn.com.AMBUSH BUG INTERVIEWS SECRET INVASION EDITOR TOM BREVOORT
Ambush Bug back again. Last but not least, I had a chance to pop off a few quick questions at Marvel Editor Tom Brevoort about the aftermath of SECRET INVASION and how it will change the Marvel Universe FOR-EV-ERRRRR!!!! We also have the world premiere of the American and International propaganda campaign those pesky Skrulls are putting out to communicate their message to Earth and its population.
But first, a friendly message from your invading Skrull Empire…
With those simple words, and the actions that they entail, all can be resolved, and we can finally put an end to aggression, violence, and strife. Remember, He loves you all so very much.