Planet Comicon welcomes creators
From Friday’s The Oklahoman:
The Planet Comicon, in Overland Park, Kan., expects dozens of comic-book creators and media stars this weekend.
Scheduled to be there is Walter Koenig, who played Chekov on “Star Trek,” and Kenny Baker, who played R2-D2 in “Star Wars.”
Comic-book creators scheduled include Kurt Busiek, David Finch, Bruce Jones, Angel Medina and more.
The show’s hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Overland Park International Trade Center at 115th and Metcalf in Overland Park. For more information, visit www.planetcomicon.com.
DC Comics on Jim Mooney
DC’s release on the death of Jim Mooney, prolific artist for DC and others:
ARTIST JIM MOONEY DIES AT AGE 89
Jim Mooney, the prolific artist who worked on memorable DC Comics features
including Batman, Supergirl and Tommy Tomorrow, has died at age 89.
“Jim Mooney’s beautiful women and noble men graced the DC universe for decades,
showing up (sadly uncredited for much of the time) from the adventures of Batman
and Robin, to the far future of Tommy Tomorrow, to his legendary run on
Supergirl,” said Paul Levitz, DC Comics President & Publisher. “Few artists have
made our characters look better.”
Born in 1919, Mooney broke into comics in 1940 with early publishers Fox and
Fiction House. He soon moved to Timely Comics, where he specialized in funny
animal features, then joined DC Comics in the late 1940s as penciller on BATMAN
and DETECTIVE COMICS, as well as solo Robin tales in STAR SPANGLED COMICS. In
the 1950s, he contributed numerous stories to DC’s mystery titles and
illustrated Tommy Tomorrow in ACTION COMICS and, later, WORLD’S FINEST COMICS.
In 1959, Mooney became the regular artist on Supergirl, one of his signature
features, in ACTION COMICS, beginning with the second installment of the series.
He continued to illustrate Supergirl through the 1960s, while working on HOUSE
OF MYSTERY’s Dial H for Hero and several Legion of Super-Heroes tales for
ADVENTURE COMICS.
Mooney moved to Marvel Comics in the late 1960s, where he went on to draw
Spider-Man, Man-Thing, Omega The Unknown, Marvel Team-Up, Thundercats and
numerous other series. Most recently, Mooney contributed to Claypool Comics’
Elvira and Soulsearchers and Company.
ComicsPRO meeting: Notes from DC, Top Cow, Hero Initiative, CBLDF, Cartoon Books
From Friday’s The Oklahoman:
By Matthew Price
Assistant Features Editor
WORD BALLOONS
LAS VEGAS — Comics publishers gathered at the 2008 ComicsPRO annual meeting to share information about upcoming plans with comic-book retailers.DC Comics’ vice president of sales Bob Wayne talked about DC’s upcoming crossover “Final Crisis,” and the prelude to the series, “DC Universe Zero.”“DC Universe Zero” is a 50-cent comic set for May release that is written by Geoff Johns and Grant Morrison, with art by George Perez, Tony Daniel and J.G. Jones.“When you finish reading ‘DC Universe Zero,’ you’re going to say, ‘Wow, I really wish I had ordered more copies of this,’”
Wayne said. “It does set up some of the things that appear in ‘Final Crisis,’”
Wayne said.“Final Crisis” is a seven-issue miniseries, with issue No. 1 set for a May release.
Wayne said “Final Crisis” is “Grant Morrison telling stories the way Grant does.”“It starts with Anthro and goes to Kamandi. From the first boy on earth to the last boy on earth, and everything in between,”
Wayne said.In addition,
Wayne announced a sequel to “Plain Janes,” the best-selling title in their “Minx” line of young adult graphic novels for girls.
“Plain Janes: Janes in Love,” from Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg, is shipping in September.“The comic shop market has surpassed all of our expectations at DC on how many copies you would be able to sell of these titles,”
Wayne said.
Wayne talked about DC’s newest weekly comic book, “Trinity,” following in the footsteps of “52” and “Countdown.” The lead story of the book each week will be written by Kurt Busiek and drawn by Mark Bagley.“Mark Bagley has shown he’s a guy who has consistently been able to produce a high number of pages,”
Wayne said, “and we feel very comfortable that Mark can continue to do this on this particular project.”
The first issue of “Trinity” is 40 pages for $2.99. Back-up stories for “Trinity” will be written by Busiek and Fabian Nicieza, with rotating artists.
ComicsPRO is the largest organization of comic-book retailers in the world, with more than 100 members. Other representatives at the conference included Marvel Comics, Dark Horse Comics, Cartoon Books, Top Cow, the Hero Initiative, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and Graphitti Designs.
More notes from the ComicsPRO conference:
* Top Cow outlined plans for their “Witchblade” property, including keeping the creative team of writer Ron Marz and artist Stjepan Sejic on the book for 34 issues.
“This creative team is going to be on the book until issue 150,” Top Cow’s Filip Sablik said. “We’ve heard that you want consistent shipping, you want a creative team you can rely on, you want a book that can turn and make money for you month in and month out. We’re going to do that for you with ‘Witchblade.’”
* The nonprofit organization, the Hero Initiative, which helps comic-book creators in need, will collect the “Stan’s Soapbox” columns from Marvel Comics as a fund-raiser.
* The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is planning a retailer resource guide, to help comic-book retailers to be aware of good retailing and legal practices.
* In May, “Stupid Stupid Rat Tales” and “Rose” will come back into print from Cartoon Books.
“Captain America” #37 previewed
]”Captain America” continues to be one of the best comic books on the stands, and Act Three of Ed Brubaker’s “Death of Captain America” story begins with “Captain America” No. 37. Issue No. 37 goes on sale April 16.
From Marvel:
Acclaimed artists Steve Epting and Jackson Guice join Brubaker for Captain America #37, as the Red Skull targets the very soul of America with his latest gambit! As James “Bucky” Barnes must adjust to the new mantle once worn by his mentor, he must also search for the kidnapped Sharon Carter—whose jaw dropping discovery last issue may change the entire direction of Captain America!
ComicsPRO meeting: Top Cow on Witchblade
LAS VEGAS — “Witchblade is obviously our flagship title,” Top Cow’s Filip Sablik, vice president of marketing and sales for the publisher, told the assembled retailers at the annual ComicsPRO meeting. “We’ve got two things that we’ve done recently that we think have panned out pretty well for you guys, and they’ve done very well for us.”
The first is the recent $4.99 collection of the first Ron Marz arc in “Witchblade” was exclusively for direct-market comic-book retailers, and had been selling very well. It collects six issues at the same quality level of all Top Cow collections.
The second is a promotion for comic stores to increase their orders on the recently shipped issue No. 116 of “Witchblade.” That issue introduces a new artist, Stjepan Sejic. He and Marz have signed onto “Witchblade” for the long haul, Sablik said.
“This creative team is going to be on the book until issue 150,” Sablik said. “We’ve heard that you want consistent shipping, you want a creative team you can rely on, you want a book that can turn, and make money for you month in and month out. We’re going to do that for you with ‘Witchblade.’”
In issue 116, Sara Pezzini and Dani Baptiste begin a new chapter as joint bearers of the Witchblade. “Witchblade” mixes police action and fantasy adventure. The Witchblade is an ancient mystical weapon of great power.
Sablik lined out four goals for the company across the board in 2008:
1. Timely shipping of product
2. Comic Shop Locator information in all trade paperbacks and hardcovers
3. Labeling variants in ordering material consistent with the ComicsPRO position paper on variant covers
4. Providing a trailer loop of professional trailers to retail stores promoting Top Cow products
– Matt Price
ComicsPRO meeting: Dynamite on American Flagg, Man with No Name
LAS VEGAS — Joe Rybandt of Dynamite said the long-awaited “American Flagg” reprint project will finally come out in July. Howard Chaykin’s influential 1980s science fiction tale had some problems in production, but the remastered book with the first 14 issues as well as some new material is now set for a hardcover release.
Rybandt talked about several of Dynamite’s projects to the retailers assembled for the ComicsPRO annual meeting in Las Vegas. “The Boys” vol. 1, from Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, is now in its third printing. Volume 2 is now in stock, and volume 3 will follow this year.
Rybandt reiterated the involvement by painter Alex Ross in “Project Superpowers,” from Dynamite, and “Avengers/Invaders” from Marvel, being packaged by Dynamite.
“Each issue (of Project: Superpowers) has the character work that Alex has done for the series in the background of the issues,” Rybandt said. “Alex is as involved in every aspect of both (”Project: Superpowers”) and ”Avengers-Invaders” as anyone could possibly be. From plot to script to reviewing the pencils to providing art to reviewing the colors, the whole nine yards.”
Rybandt showed an Alex Ross cover for “Red Sonja” No. 30. He said issues 30-34 would be “done in one” stories by rotating creative teams. Issue No. 34 would be a one-issue story by writer Brian Reed and artist Mel Rubi, who become the regular creative team with issue No. 35.
“Lone Ranger” will be back from Dynamite soon; issue No. 11 was resolicited for April. Paul Pope and Sergio Cariello provide the art. Issues 12-15 are scripted, and Dynamite is working on getting back to a monthly release schedule. The other Lone Ranger book from Dynamite, “Lone Ranger and Tonto,” is slated to come out quarterly.
“The Man with No Name” No. 1 ships from Dynamite in May. The series will have a 1-in-10 Arthur Sudyam variant cover. The book is based on the Clint Eastwood films starring the Man with No Name. The writer is Christos Gage, and the artist is Wellington Dias. Richard Isanove provides the cover to No. 1.
– Matt Price
Gamekeeper’s adventures to continue
From Friday’s The Oklahoman:
By Matthew Price
Assistant Features Editor
The antihero of “Guy Ritchie’s Gamekeeper” returns for a second comic-book series from Virgin Comics, this time with a new creative team.
Warner Bros. has acquired the film rights to “Gamekeeper,” with Joel Silver (”The Matrix”) attached to produce, and Guy Ritchie on board to direct. Now, Virgin Comics and Ritchie are back with a brand new story arc.
Writer Jeff Parker joins artists Ron Randall and Ron Chan for this second storyline starring Brock, the gamekeeper.
A formula that contains the means to produce cold fusion drags Brock back into the world of espionage and black ops.
Randall explained his role in the process in a recent conference call:
“I do the breakdowns, or the laying out of the story,” Randall said. “Where I see my major role in this thing is try to follow through on two things: One is the intention of Jeff in the story that he’s written, which of course goes back to following through with the original intentions in the first series and creating a cinematically paced and visually arresting adventure story.”
Chan takes those breakdowns and provides finished art, which is colored in-house by artists working for Virgin Comics.
Parker said the stoic Brock is a different character than those that often populate Ritchie’s films.
“What’s interesting about the first arc is that it’s so 180 degrees from what you’d think of as a Guy Ritchie project, because it introduces this extremely stoic character who’s all action and no talk,” Parker said. “What I was thinking would be fun with the second one, once that was really thoroughly established, how Brock worked, was to then slam him back into what you think of as a more conventional Guy Ritchie, London-underground crime movie.”
Parker created a London-based group of gangsters, called “The Soccer Club,” to populate the second series.
“That’s because they tend to use soccer terminology in reference to what they’re talking about, whether that’s stealing something or killing someone,” Parker said.
The sharpshooter known as The Raven heads the Soccer Club, and he’s been tasked with eliminating Brock.
Randall said it’s been stimulating to work with Parker, with whom he and Chan share a studio.
“We both want to tell a story that moves with velocity, and establish compelling characters, just the basic principles of doing a good comic book,” Randall said.
Blogging from ComicsPRO Thursday and Friday
Get the latest from the ComicsPRO annual meeting at Nerdage, as I’ll be posting updates from the show on Thursday and Friday. Dozens of the nation’s top retailers will be in attendance, as well as representatives from most of the nation’s top publishers. Click “more” for the full schedule of events and comments from ComicsPRO officials.
OU grad Sterling Gates concludes Green Lantern tale
From Friday’s The Oklahoman:
By Matthew Price
Assistant Features Editor
WORD BALLOONS
The second part of the “Green Lantern Corps” story by University of Oklahoma graduate Sterling Gates hit stores this week. In “Green Lantern Corps” No. 22, “The Curse of the Alpha Lanterns” concludes.
The Alpha Lanterns are the Internal Affairs officers of the Green Lantern Corps.
“The Alpha Lanterns, which were created by (writer) Grant Morrison, are a complete mystery, and it was up to me and (writer) Geoff (Johns) to flesh out their purpose and put a spin on them and their relationships to keep them from being ‘just another Green Lantern’” Gates said. “By creating a new style of Green Lantern (an internal affairs division), Grant has added a new wrinkle into the equation that’s a lot of fun for us to play with and explore.”
In “Curse of the Alpha Lanterns,” Alpha Lantern Boodikka comes face-to-face with her past, as she finds out her sister, Zale, has been made a Green Lantern.
“It pays off all of the threads we set up in ‘Green Lantern Corps’ No. 21 in a way that has never been done before, and shows a side to the Alpha Lanterns that no one will see coming,” Gates said.
Sterling Gates, a 2005 University of Oklahoma graduate, grew up in Tulsa and attended Edison High School, which is now Edison Preparatory Academy.
Tulsa welcomes “Hulk” artist, “Ghost Rider” co-creator
From Friday’s The Oklahoman
By Matthew Price
Assistant Features Editor
Oklahoma comic-book fans can meet the artist of the first appearance of Wolverine at the Tulsa Comic Con, Saturday and Sunday.
Herb Trimpe, who drew “The Incredible Hulk” for eight years, introduced Wolverine as a foe for the Hulk in “Incredible Hulk” No. 181. (Wolverine also appeared in the final panel of “Incredible Hulk” No. 180, drawn by Trimpe.)
Trimpe joins several other guests at the Tulsa Comic Con, which is Saturday and Sunday, at the Econo Lodge at 11620 E Skelly Drive in Tulsa.
“Ghost Rider” co-creator Gary Friedrich also is scheduled to be at the convention. He wrote titles for Marvel Comics including “Incredible Hulk,” “Daredevil” and “Captain
America.”
Also appearing at the convention is Rich Buckler, who has drawn issues of comic books including “All-Star Squadron,” “Black Panther,” “War of the Worlds,” “Battlestar Galactica,” “Justice League,” “Teen Titans,” “X-Men,” “Superman,” “Batman,” “Detective Comics” and “Wonder Woman.” He co-created “Deathlok the Demolisher” in the pages of “Astonishing Tales” with writer Doug Moench. He is perhaps best known for his 1970s run on “Fantastic Four.”
Other guests include: RA Jones, Steve Erwin, Michael Vance, Jeremy Haun, John Wooley, Rob Davis and Selina Rosen.
