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Planet Buzz 02-26-02
Comics:
This Just In…
You say you want to be able to walk into a Barnes & Noble and find your favorite graphic novels? Well, sure, for quite some time you could find the best of Image, Marvel and DC, but despite an obviously aggressive reprint plan, CrossGen has remained conspicuously absent. Until now.
This morning Director of Corporate Communications Ian M. Feller announced that CrossGen had signed with the LPC Group to be exclusive distributors of their trade paperbacks, Compendia, and any other projects specific to the book trade (such as the beautiful CrossGen Illustrated of a couple of months ago).
Through LPC, the largest distributor of graphic novels in the United States, CrossGen will now have a presence in bookstores, discount chains, libraries and (crucially for Fanboy Planet) on Amazon.com.
You can bet we'll be heavily schlepping once that happens.
CrossGen Pulls You Into Its Web
Lots and lots of big announcements got made at MegaCon this past weekend, but the Fanboy Planeteers were too busy entertaining the locals of Santa Clara, California to make it to Florida. As promised, CrossGen dropped a big bombshell in the form of a new on-line project.
Entitled Comics On The Web aka COW, the project is CrossGen's latest effort to make it easy for new readers to start actually reading. 51 back issues (so far) of CrossGen comics have been posted on the site, set up in conjunction with a variety of comics news sites (though not Fanboy Planet - we don't take it personally. Yet.).
For the first two months, reading will be free, and then CrossGen will impose a $1 a month fee for unlimited access. In addition, two issues will be added per week. By the end of 2002, more than 200 issues will be on-line.
If you're one of those still not reading CrossGen, this is a pretty nifty way to get caught up. The powers that be there also swear that COW will have a reprint schedule that lags behind The Compendium Project, for those who just can't resist the feel and smell of a real-live comic book. (We count ourselves in this category.)
Green Arrow Keeps His Artist A While Longer
Kevin Smith has gotten hip-deep in other things again, including the Black Cat mini-series for Marvel (which, thanks to Smith's justifiable grousing, will now actually have the name "Black Cat" in the title). So as he ends his run on Green Arrow, it may be a while before he gets to the hotly anticipated revival of DC's The Brave And The Bold.
What does this mean? Current Green Arrow artists Phil Hester and Ande Parks were to start work on the new project (and still will, eventually), but DC announced at Megacon that they will remain with the Emerald Archer at least through new writer Brad Meltzer's arc, said to be about six issues.
Smith also announced that the moratorium on other titles using Green Arrow had been lifted, starting with early issues of Hawkman. Of course, readers of our interview with Hawkman writer Geoff Johns already knew that.
Hester Creates A New Series, Too...
Not content to just draw Green Arrow (okay, he is content, but you know what I mean…), Phil Hester will be creating a four-issue mini-series for Image Comics, called The Holy Terror, a horror/adventure set in the world of professional wrestling. Hester described it as crossing El Santo films with those of John Carpenter.
He went on to explain, "No, it's not another 'Rock 'n' Wrestling'/Hulk Hogan/Acclaim comic.' We're treating the wrestling not only as a source of action, but as a lifestyle completely alien to most people. We're trying to offer a Ball Four or North Dallas Forty expose of the wrestling life. You're just as likely to see our main characters renting cars, eating at truck stops and trashing motel rooms as you are to see them apply a figure-four leg lock.
"All this is a setting for a story about a struggling wrestler who becomes embroiled in a centuries old conflict between savage ancient gods. He's exposed to a source of power that, while beneficial to his faltering wrestling career, is slowly corrupting his soul, making him a vessel for those ancient, evil forces.
"Oh, yeah... there's a lot of fighting."
Matt Wagner Takes On The Big Three
Also coming out of MegaCon, comics creator Matt Wagner announced that he would be writing and drawing a three-issue mini-series for DC tackling their flagship characters.
Wagner, who has recently been the cover artist for Green Arrow, wants to cover Wonder Woman's first meetings with Superman and Batman. He said the dynamic among the three fascinated him, especially since combining any two seemed to make sense, but not all three. The mini-series will explore that further, and heck, just give him an excuse to draw the big guns.
Movies:
New Line Declares State of Emergency
Thanks to its popularity (or controversy), Rockstar Games has just sold its new PS2 title State of Emergency to New Line Cinema and Zide/Perry Entertainment.
In the game, players try to start riots and generally stir up the populace in an attempt to topple a fascist corporate government that has ruined American life. Clearly, New Line recognized that this strikes a chord, or are they just acting on orders of the man in order to squelch its popularity? One Super Mario Brothers type movie and it could all be over.
The studio has turned the project over to screenwriters Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, who also at one point worked on Freddy vs. Jason. Yep. They're trying to squelch it.
Not So Much New As Just Confirmation…
Variety reported last week that The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a go under director Stephen Norrington. It has an $80 million budget, and a star: as long rumored, Sean Connery has signed on as Alan Quartermain.
The trade magazine also mentioned that the production is shooting from the script by James Robinson, writer of Starman.
Because The World Thinks Only Bert Is Evil…
Chaos! Comics founder Brian Pulido announced that he has taken back the movie rights to his creation Evil Ernie, and will be directing it himself.
"It's a $5-million zombie meltdown movie, much in the tradition of Night of the Living Dead, Halloween, Nightmare of Elm Street and Blair Witch to some degree," he said at MegaCon, making sure that he covered all his bases.
Pulido and co-producer Adam Goldfine will seek funding this summer, to shoot from a script currently being written by Violent Messiahs creator Joshua Dysart.
It's not the only Chaos! property headed for the big screen, though. In addition to the Lady Death animated film confirmed a couple of weeks ago, Pulido announced that Bad Kitty had been picked up by producer David L. Wolper, while Gale Ann Hurd (producer of The Terminator) has optioned Jade.
Television:
Another Great One Passes…
By now you've probably heard that animation great Chuck Jones passed away last Friday, at the age of 89. What you may not have known is that Boomerang - Cartoon Network's little sister network - will be running a Chuck Jones Marathon in tribute.
Starting at 8 AM on Friday, March 1st, Boomerang will run 24 hours of nothing but Chuck Jones cartoons. While a line-up isn't available yet, chances are that any time you tune in there will be something on that was an integral part of your childhood. Jones created the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote (as well as Wile E.'s clone, Sam Wolf, star of the current Playstation game Sheep Raider). He brought opera to the Looney Tunes without making it hurt. And after leaving Warner Brothers, he went on to direct the classic How The Grinch Stole Christmas, a work alone that guarantees him a spot in the pantheon of animation.
Check it out and laugh, because that's what Jones would prefer you to do.
Where Do We Get Silver Bullets?
Hey, you fans of CBS' Wolf Lake! Yeah, you three. E! Online's Wanda reports that UPN has picked up all nine shot episodes of the show to run on Wednesdays after Enterprise. It may not end up in full-blown renewal, as all the cast have been released from their contracts, but it should help ease the pain of its loss.
For the rest of us, Wolf Lake tells of a community of wolves that have learned to shape-shift into humans, or vice versa. It never seemed too clear from promos. All I really know is that Lou Diamond Phillips was on it, and because CBS is owned by the same company that owns UPN (Viacom), it looks like we should beg CBS to revive The Tick. That way, even if it dies again, it could still get revived on yet another network.
Sob. Oh, Tick.
This Makes Me Feel LOTS Better…
Gotham Clock Tower, the fansite already set up to track the Birds of Prey TV series, reports that another piece of casting has fallen into place.
According to the site, Sherilyn Fenn (Audrey Horne of Twin Peaks) has landed the role of Dr. Harleen Quinzel, current head of Arkham Asylum. If the name rings a bell but you can't quite put your finger on it, you clearly stumbled onto this page by mistake. Quinzel is, of course, the real name of Harley Quinn, the clown princess of crime and America's Psychotic Sweetheart.
Keep your fingers crossed that this pilot gets shot and picked up, because every time we get a piece of news on it, it just sounds better and better.
Discuss this and more in the Fanboy forums.
