Comic Books

Well...tomorrow is Tuesday, and it is the 22nd, and by God, Green Lantern is supposed to be out. This is the BIG one, the humdinger, the final battle between the Good Guys and the Bad Guys. Or just Guy. Of course some of the thunder has been stolen from this epic event, with the publication of Green Lantern Corps two weeks ago...but I have withheld reviewing it...although I HAVE read it of course. I am also wondering when Green Lantern: New Guardians comes out...is that tomorrow as well? So while I do wish that some of the surprise still existed, who REALLY thought that the Lantern Corps was going to be wiped out? Although I imagine that there has probably been a certain amount of collateral damage. I also hope that the Guardians get theirs. And Volthoom. I REALLY dislike Volthoom. I can like a villain with proper motivation, and character...just look at Sinestro...but Volthoom seems to be evil, just because he can. Which I fnd to be boring. I am still suffering from a bit of trepidation about a Green Lantern world without Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi. We've been together for SO long now. But perhaps it is time to move on, and see what other people have to say. Just don't keep Guy in the Red Corps for more than an issue or two. He really HATES the Red Lanterns.

At midnight Central time (10pm PT, 1am ET, 6am BST) voting for the Bleeding Cool Fan Awards close. The award ceremony will be held two days later at the Phoenix Comic Con, Friday at 6pm, with guest presenters including Frank Cho, Peter David, Ethan Van Sciver, Katie Cook, Christos Gage, Mike McKone, Aaronb Lopresti, Billy Tucci, Jim Valentino and more. I will be your host… So place your votes now, and make them count! Best Monthlyish Comic of 2013 So Far Take Our Poll Retweet the Vote! Who says you can only vote once? Campaign for your candidate and retweet the vote, tweet counts will figure as a component of final tally. Vote Saga Tweet Vote Hawkeye Tweet Vote Manhattan Projects Tweet Vote All New X-Men Tweet Vote Fatale Tweet Vote Mind MGMT Tweet Vote Revival Tweet Vote The Walking Dead Tweet Vote Chew Tweet Vote I Vampire Tweet Best Kiddy Comic of 2013 So Far Take Our Poll Retweet the Vote! Who says you can only vote once? Campaign for your candidate and retweet the vote, tweet counts will figure as a component of final tally. Vote Adventure Time Tweet Vote My Little Pony Tweet Vote Superman Family Adventures Tweet Vote Phoenix Tweet Vote Crossed Tweet Vote Princeless Tweet Best Graphic Novel of 2013 So Far Take Our Poll Retweet the Vote! Who says you can only vote once? Campaign for your candidate and retweet the vote, tweet counts will figure as a component of final tally. Vote Nemo Heart of Ice Tweet Vote The Man Who Laughs Tweet Vote Hyrule Historia Tweet Vote Montague Terrace Tweet Vote The Murder Mile Tweet Vote The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil Tweet Best Comics Writer of 2013 So Far Take Our Poll Retweet the Vote! Who says you can only vote once? Campaign for your candidate and retweet the vote, tweet counts will figure as a component of final tally. Vote Scott Snyder Tweet Vote Brian Bendis Tweet Vote Brian Wood Tweet Vote Alex De Campi Tweet Vote Matt Kindt Tweet Vote Si Spurrier Tweet Best Comics Artist of 2013 So Far Take Our Poll Retweet the Vote! Who says you can only vote once? Campaign for your candidate and retweet the vote, tweet counts will figure as a component of final tally. Vote Amanda Conner Tweet Vote JH Williams III Tweet Vote Skottie Young Tweet Vote Jae Lee Tweet Vote RM Guera Tweet Vote Fiona Staples Tweet Best Comics Publisher of 2013 So Far Take Our Poll Retweet the Vote! Who says you can only vote once? Campaign for your candidate and retweet the vote, tweet counts will figure as a component of final tally. Vote Image Tweet Vote Marvel Tweet Vote SelfMadeHero Tweet Vote DC Tweet Vote IDW Tweet Vote Avatar. Yes, I know. Tweet Best Digital Comic of 2013 So Far Take Our Poll Retweet the Vote! Who says you can only vote once? Campaign for your candidate and retweet the vote, tweet counts will figure as a component of final tally. Vote Atomic Robo: Two-Fisted Tales: Along Came A Tyrantula Tweet Vote Scatterbrain Tweet Vote Crossed: Wish You Were Here Tweet Vote L’il Gotham Tweet Vote The Private Eye Tweet Vote Ashes Tweet Vote Bandette Tweet Most Anticipated Comic Event of 2013 Take Our Poll Retweet the Vote! Who says you can only vote once? Campaign for your candidate and retweet the vote, tweet counts will figure as a component of final tally. Vote Sandman Zero Tweet Vote Infinity Tweet Vote Trinity War Tweet Vote Marvel NOW Part Two Tweet Vote Harbinger Wars Tweet Title Launched Most Likely To Be Cancelled By The End of 2013 Take Our Poll Retweet the Vote! Who says you can only vote once? Campaign for your candidate and retweet the vote, tweet counts will figure as a component of final tally. Vote All Star Western Tweet Vote Batwing Tweet Vote Stormwatch Tweet Vote Thunderbolts Tweet Vote Bleeding Cool Magazine Tweet Most Impactful Resignation/Firing of The Last 12 Months Take Our Poll Retweet the Vote! Who says you can only vote once? Campaign for your candidate and retweet the vote, tweet counts will figure as a component of final tally. Vote Gail Simone Tweet Vote Josh Fialkov Tweet V

LOOK AT THIS: AND THIS: Those are just two images ganked from the manga Swan by Kyoko Ayoshi. The series was one of the initial launches in DC Comics’ CMX line and ran for about 15 volumes until the company pulled the plug on the imprint in 2010. One of the original plans for CMX was to focus on older, more renowned (at least in Japan) manga, so as to not compete for licenses against the one-two powerhouses of Viz Media and Tokyopop. Thus, the release of Swan and other, older titles like From Eroica With Love. Ayoshi is often lumped in as one of the Magnificent Forty-Niners, also known as The Year 24 Group. It’s a loosely affiliated group of female cartoonists that transformed and radicalized the shojo manga industry. “Members” includes such luminary talents as Moto Hagio and Keiko Takemiya. Originally serialized in the 1970s, Swan isn’t as emotionally wrenching as Hagio’s Hanshin or as head-spinningly philosophical as Takemiya’s To Terra, at least not at first glance. At its heart it’s a boiler-plate soap opera. The key is the backdrop, the world of professional ballet. The manga’s central character is Masumi, a young, flighty thing that loves to dance more than anything. After impressing a bunch of important people with her passion, she enters a dance competition and from there ends up traveling across the globe in order to make her dream of becoming a real, honest-to-goodness ballerina come true. Along the way she encounters a seemingly endless succession of dance rivals and potential suitors. But it’s not the story that’s the real draw here. What makes Swan so charming, emotional and utterly captivating is its dance sequences. Ayoshi pulls out every trick in the book – and even invents some new ones – in order not just to convey the motion of the human body, but to help the reader fully appreciate the emotion and drama involved in each and every scene. So, athletic dancers leaping across double-page spreads as inset panels of onlookers gape in wonder? Check. Overlapped forms of characters performing successive, intricate dance moves in true  Edweard Muybridge fashion? Check. Panels that seam to bend and twist to fit the rhythm of the dancers and (perhaps) the music itself? Double-check. The result is a comic that completely transformed the way I thought about how motion should be depicted in comics. I’ve often said that many Western artists could be using Swan as a bible, learning from it without once ever having to ape any of the more obvious characteristics of shojo manga (assuming most superhero artists don’t want their protagonists to have big, dewy eyes). As I said, CMX released 15 volumes of Swan. The problem is that the series ran to 21 volumes in Japan. That’s six volumes in bad need of translation. Hopefully someone will come to the fore in the near future and release a definitive version of this wonderful series. I’d even re-buy the volumes I have if they use better paper stock this time around.

During the unveiling of the new X-Box One – which is a curiously counterintuitive name – Microsoft also announced a TV series derived from Halo. That’s not the only big name involved, however, as they’ve made a deal for Steven Spielberg to come onboard. What exactly will he do? Probably what he did for the Transformers movies, or even something like Back to the Future or Gremlins. That’s a) consult b) endorse and c) get mistakenly showered with credit. Okay, c) didn’t happen so much with the Transformers films. Also in a position of influence are 343 Industries, the current developers of Halo games. Now, we’re calling this a TV series, and it is, I suppose, in just the sense that Netflix and Amazon have been making TV. But, as you’d expect, you’re going to need an X-Box to watch it. There were plans for a Halo movie, some years back, with Alex Garland amongst the writers, Peter Jackson producing and Neill Blomkamp directing. It didn’t happen. Still, I can’t help but wonder what words PJ and Spielberg might exchange about these projects. There was also a leak, back in March, that Spielberg and Dreamworks were working on a Halo film. Turns out that wasn’t quite right. Shame I didn’t take more seriously at the time, really. The X-Box One launch featured a video of Spielberg talking the new show up. That’s yet to hit YouTube, but here’s the general, all-purpose console launch clip. Click here to view the embedded video. Microsoft Announce Halo TV Series With Some Help From Steven Spielberg

Get a look at what the new Avengers animated series from Marvel will be like.

Writer John O’Bryan (Avatar: The Last Airbender, Motorcity) appears at Dark Delicacies on Sunday June 16th at 2 p.m. to sign his new book A History of Weapons: Crossbows, Caltrops, Catapults & Lots of Other Things that Can Seriously Mess You Up. Dark Delicacies 3512 W. Magnolia, Burbank, CA 91505

LEGO and super heroes are a natural fit. LEGO has been delivering a great variety of sets and it's great seeing Batman, Superman and other DC heroes in LEGO form. Having a movie based on the line makes sense given the rise in other LEGO animated series along with the video game from last year.One of the strangest things is hearing Danny Elfman's score from Batman: The Animated Series. Soon afterwards, we hear John Williams' Superman theme. The movie does feature cutscenes from the video game. It begins the same way with at the awards for Man of the Year when the ceremony is invaded by Joker and other Bat-Villains.Eventually we see Lex free Joker from Arkham in order to help perfect a LEGO Destructor Ray. Despite Batman's reluctance, he teams with Superman. There are plenty of familiar faces as we get to see the LEGO versions of Two-Face, Catwoman, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, Penguin and Riddler. We even see Two-Face's jeep (available in toy form, naturally).There have been several different versions of Batman over the years and Troy Baker voices one that is more of a jerk than usual. This is a guy that is very curt and cold with Robin. This continues over the story and you start to feel sorry for poor Robin.There is a theme throughout the movie that you can pick up on right away. The movie is called 'DC Super Heroes Unite' but the last thing Batman wants to do is accept or admit he might need help. He's willing to work with Robin, to a certain extent. He barely even sticks around for him. When Superman pops in (because of Lex's involvement), you get that tension between the two that is sometimes seen in comics.Speaking of Lex, it's wonderful having Clancy Brown reprise the role.The graphics look pretty slick. Some of the scenes are taken from the video game but there is more added (obviously) to flesh out the story. The story spans several locations including Arkham Asylum, the Batcave, Metropolis and more. Every once in a while we're reminded that everything is made up of LEGO. It can be a little weird but humorous at the same time.What about the other heroes?Seeing the different heroes is great. I have to admit that Green Lantern was the most impressive. There is plenty of entertainment here. The movie doesn't compare to the other DC original animated movies. You do get a sense this is geared towards younger viewers, or perhaps 'all ages' while the other movies tend to be PG-13.This is a fun movie. Is it groundbreaking? No. Does it need to be? Not really. We have DC super hero LEGO brought to life. It looks great on Blu-ray and is a great movie to watch with all the comic book fans in your ife. Typical to the DC movies, it has a low running time of 71 minutes. Special FeaturesThere is a short feature "Building Batman" (14:55) featuring Garrett Barati, a professional animator. He won a competition on building LEGO and does stop-motion animation. We see some of the building programs he does with kids.Additional Episodes from the DC Comics Vault: "Triumvirate of Terror" from Batman: The Brave and the Bold; "Scorn of the Star Sapphire" from Batman: The Brave and the Bold and "Overdrive" from Teen Titans.There is a short feature "LEGO Batman Jumps Into Action: A LEGO Batman Stop-Motion Short" (:38) Super short video.Winning shorts from the LEGO DC Universe Super Heroes Video Contest. The video entries for the first through fifth place are included.Trailers: More from DC Comics (1:15) Green Lantern: The Animated Series, Young Justice, Batman: The Brave and the Bold; DC Comics: The New 52 (:34) old launch trailer; Scooby-Doo! trailers (2 of them) and a Scooby-Doo Dubstep video.It should be noted there was also a trailer/commercial at the beginning for buying digital comics, "New comics every week."It's a fun movie. If you're a DC Comics or LEGO fan, you'll want to check it out. The biggest problem I had was having already seen so much of the story in the video game. It didn't feel 'new' and I pretty much knew what was coming up. If y

So, in case you missed it, there’s a new Lone Ranger movie coming out in a few weeks. Walt Disney has released the final trailer to entice you into the theater. Just seeing Johnny Depp in that makeup should be enough, unless you prefer Armie Hammer in a mask. From producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski, the filmmaking team behind the blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, comes Disney/Jerry Bruckheimer Films’ The Lone Ranger, a thrilling adventure infused with action and humor, in which the famed masked hero is brought to life through new eyes.  Native American warrior Tonto (Johnny Depp) recounts the untold tales that transformed John Reid (Armie Hammer), a man of the law, into a legend of justice—taking the audience on a runaway train of epic surprises and humorous friction as the two unlikely heroes must learn to work together and fight against greed and corruption. The Lone Ranger also stars Tom Wilkinson, William Fichtner, Barry Pepper, James Badge Dale, Ruth Wilson and Helena Bonham Carter. A Disney/Jerry Bruckheimer Films presentation, The Lone Ranger is directed by Gore Verbinski and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Gore Verbinski, with screen story by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio and Justin Haythe and screenplay by Justin Haythe and Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio. The Lone Ranger releases in U.S. theaters on July 3, 2013.

Warner Bros. Television and the co-creators of Smallville have settled a multimillion-dollar dispute concerning profits from the long-running television series. The agreement was announced Monday during a status hearing, but Hollywood Esq. reports no paperwork has been signed. Series creators and executive producers Miles Millar and Alfred Gough and series producers Tollin/Robbins Productions sued WBTV in 2010, accusing the company of licensing Smallville to its co-owned WB and CW networks “for unreasonably low” fees, thereby cutting the plaintiffs out of tens of millions of dollars. They amended their claims of breach of contract and breach of good faith and fair dealing in April 2012 to include the allegation that WBTV’s sister company DC Comics was brought into the profit pool without the contractually required approval, greatly reducing the plaintiffs’ profit participation. Warner Bros. settled with Tollin/Robbins in early January, but Millar and Gough’s portion of the lawsuit had been headed for a June jury trial. The plaintiffs were seeking more than $100 million in damages. The terms of the settlement haven’t been made public. Smallville aired for 10 seasons, from 2001 to 2011. Gough and Millar left the series in 2008 after seven seasons.

Tweet [Above illo via and © Matt Wiegle] As usual I’m the very last out of the gate with my TCAF wrap-up (although I was early with my newsier report). But like many I feel compelled to write a memoir about it because it was so generally awesome. Last year’s TCAF — my first—was among the top five comics-related experiences of my life, and maybe partly because I hyped it so much, more people I knew made the first time trek this year. TCAF ’13 wasn’t quite as glorious as TCAF ’12, but it was still fairly glorious. But I also heard the phrase “growing pains” quite a bit. In my estimation the Toronto Comic Arts Festival is now the #2 North American show in terms of global comics and cartoonists—Comic-Con International will always be #1 just because of its scope and stellar guest list. But even this year they won’t have Boulet and David B. and Taiyo Matsumoto and Rutu Modan and Glyn Dillon and Michel Rabagliatti. (I will throw in an aside here and point out that New York Comic-Con could easily be the #2 international show since everyone from Europe shows up to drink, but spotlighting them isn’t really part of the show’s focus.) I think I covered most of the salient business points re TCAF in my PW piece: sales were mostly good, the line-up of books was extraordinary, the day for librarians and educators gave the show an added dimension, and the focus on comics as the are READ by readers gave it an optimistic air that’s hard to top. I didn’t get to talk to as many people as I wanted, but that’s because when I walked around the floor, customers and readers were lined up three deep around most tables. It was hard to find time and space to chitter chatter. The two after parties I attended were also a little too hectic for too much spontaneous hanging (I liked last year’s Saturday venue better) but once a show hits a certain size, having a party where everyone shows up just isn’t possible. I did chance into the “grown ups” table a few times, where Art Spiegelman and Chester Brown and Gilbert Hernandez were hanging out and talking about this and that, and that was a thrill and a privilege. Tom Spurgeon’s TCAF report is quite comprehensive, covering as it did the two most important events of the show: Peter Birkemoe’s formal shorts suit and Paul Pope lending his hat to Spurgeon. I’m kidding, but those still were highlights. If SPX is comics summer camp and Comic-Con is it’s Cannes, then TCAF is its family reunion. “Did you SEE what Helen was wearing!” “Uncle Buster is hitting the Fort Thunder again.” You know, that kind of thing. Anyway, Tom went into details on the programming problems. The programming was done late and some people were non plussed at having to cram overnight for panels featuring some of the world’s all time greatest cartoonists. Tom wrote: + I stopped counting between 25 and 30 the number of people that sought me out to complain to me about the way programming was executed, which is an astonishing number to me. I probably got about 40 such complaints, and maybe got three more about other things the entire show. Seventy-five percent of the people saying something said so in an apologetic way. No one seemed to be axe grinding. A couple of people thought that programming was executed so poorly in a way they felt like TCAF itself and its good name was being used as a way to indulge some poor practices (a good-looking date that’s 45 minutes late because they can be), that people would be more likely not to flip the fuck out at being listed in a program without being directly consulted because they love TCAF. Others expressed the idea that they were so many good people on hand, so many competent comics folks, that this saved a lot of what could have been disastrous about these kinds of hassles. I think this basically covers the alpha and omega of it. Upon m