The formatting on the DC numbers is screwed up in Explorer.

Next, I’m trying to fix it, but I’ve left the safety of SBM, so I might not be able to in a timely manner. We’re working on a fix however.

Fixed — I think. If it looks bad let me know.

But you should still stay the hell away from Exploiter!

The long, sad, lonely wait is over as TALES DESIGNED TO THRIZZLE unleashes itself on a moribund world tonight at Rocketship in Brooklyn. Long lay the world, in sin and terror pining, until Thrizzle appeared to lift us from the humdrum, to elevate us from the slough of despond, to lay forth a shining path of laffs and yuks to the promised land.

The fun kicks off at 8 pm!

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This weekend is the big Stumptown Comics Fest 2006, in Portland, OR, kicking off TODAY!

The Third Annual Stumptown Comics Fest hits Portland this weekend with its largest assortment of creators, cartoonists, illustrators, publishers and retailers yet. The show runs for two big days, Friday, October 27th and Saturday, October 28th in the south end of the Oregon Convention Center’s Portland Ballroom.

Admission for the Fest is $5 per day, or $10 for a Weekend Pass (includes a poster and button, while suppplies last), and gives you access to 120 tables of exhibitor space and a full schedule of panels and presentations. Hours for the Fest are:

Friday: 4pm - 8pm
Saturday: 10am - 6pm

From the sounds of things, this is a swell indie event, what with Portland having such a lively comics scene. Guests include Paul Chadwick, Colleen Coover, Keith Knight, Kazu Kibuishi and Steve Rolston, but much of the local scene is sure to turn up. Exhibitors include Oni, Dark Horse, Top Shelf, AdHouse, and more. Darn, we wish we could go!

Saturday night there is a big COMIC TONIC party (poster above) sponsored by Top Shelf and Oni.

In celebration of Stumptown Comic Festival 2006, local Portland, Oregon publishers Top Shelf Productions and Oni Press have organized the COMIC TONIC party to take place on October 28th at The Voodoo Lounge.

“Portland is such a unique and amazing city for the comic book industry and Stumptown has become such a wonderful show for Indy comics that we wanted to put together a raucous party to spotlight both,” explained Top Shelf’s Brett Warnock.

The party will take place at The Voodoo Lounge (53 NW 1st Ave, Portland, OR 97209
(503) 241-3840) beginning at 9:00 pm on October 28th, the final day of Stumptown 2006.

“This is an open invitation party. If you’re a creator, retailer, editor, publisher, press or one of the much appreciated fans, we’d love to see you come hang out, have a drink and celebrate everything that is great about our wonderful medium,” said Oni Press publisher, Joe Nozemack.

A limited-edition poster promoting the event has been created by Seattle artist Corey “The Reyyy” Lewis. A portion of the poster’s run will be available for sale at the Top Shelf and Oni Press booths during the Festival.

Send us reports!

Darn, it’s a busy busy weekend!

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27

Los Angeles, CA, 8-10pm: Jordan Crane at Secret Headquarters, 3817 W Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 28

London, UK, Noon-4: Ben Templesmith signs at Orbital Comics.
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Recently, Tom Spurgeon pointed to the existence of a recent collection of Dick Briefer’s Frankenstein comics. We confess to owning no Briefer comics ourselves, but the bits of his work we’ve seen over the years — most recently in ART OUT OF TIME — have always been very enjoyable. The strip started out as a horror book, but later evolved into a more humorous effort, as the creature got involved in various zany adventures.

To get into the Halloween spirit, a Comics Journal board thread discussing the reprint leads us to this complete scary Briefer story online. Enjoy.

Clickee for large version.

Tony Long, copy chief at WIRED, comes right out and says it: comics aren’t good enough to get nominated for the National Book Award:

Gene Luen Yang is a teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area who also happens to be a fine illustrator. He produced a graphic novel (or “comic book,” as we used to call them), American Born Chinese, which has been nominated for a National Book Award in the young people’s literature category.

I have not read this particular “novel” but I’m familiar with the genre so I’m going to go out on a limb here. First, I’ll bet for what it is, it’s pretty good. Probably damned good. But it’s a comic book. And comic books should not be nominated for National Book Awards, in any category. That should be reserved for books that are, well, all words.

This is not about denigrating the comic book, or graphic novel, or whatever you want to call it. This is not to say that illustrated stories don’t constitute an art form or that you can’t get tremendous satisfaction from them. This is simply to say that, as literature, the comic book does not deserve equal status with real novels, or short stories. It’s apples and oranges.

We’ll note that most “copy chiefs”–at least in our experience–are what are commonly known as “sticklers.” And sticklers like “rules.”

Neil Gaiman (where we first saw this link) has a response. Of course, who would take the word of a crummy, comic-writing Brit?

I suppose if he builds a time machine he could do something about Maus’s 1992 Pulitzer, or Sandman’s 1991 World Fantasy Award for Best Short Story, or Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan winning the 2001 Guardian First Book Award, or even Watchmen’s appearance on Time’s Hundred Best Novels of the 20th Century list. Lacking a Time Machine, it seems a rather silly and antiquated argument, like hearing someone complain that women have the vote or that be-bop music and crooners are turning up in the pop charts.

I like the bit where he says that he hasn’t read the comic in question, but he just knows what things like that are like. It’s always best to be offended by things you haven’t read. That way you keep your mind uncluttered by things that might change it.

Oh, snap!

“Maid cafes” have become a popular fad in the otaku district known as the Akihabara in Tokyo. Here, pretty young women dressed in frilly lolicon costumes wait on male geek customers hand and foot, giving them some idea what it would be like to have a real subservient girlfriend. Just to even the score, “butler cafes” have also sprung up, where women customers get the royal treatment. (There was supposedly a butler cafe set up at the recent Yaoi Con.)

Now, via ComiPress a disturbing story that they report has badly shaken the otaku world: a maid was accosted and assaulted at knife point.

Not only is Akihabara a hot tourist spot, but it also serves as a place for geeks and otakus to “heal their spiritual wounds.”

A few days ago, a shocking event took place in this otaku heaven that sent tremors throughout the otaku world - a maid was threatened, and subsequently molested, by a man. This incident is now being called “Maid Hunting,” named after the controversial “Otaku Hunting” event that took place earlier this fall in Akihabara.

According to reports, around 7:00pm on October 17th in front of the JR Akihabara Station, a 18 year old girl dressed as a maid (who was handing out flyers) was approached by a man. The man asked, “Are you a college student? Where do you work?” The maid was then asked to bring the man to the maid cafe she worked at. When they were climbing the stairs of the maid cafe, the man suddenly took out a small knife, and proceeded to forcefully molest the maid’s lower body.

According to another story, this was the third recent assault on a maid. The “otaku hunting” incident mentioned above refers to reports of thieves targeting supposedly loaded otaku:

In late September, a group of teens arrested for mugging said they selected their target because he was headed for the central Tokyo otaku haven of Akihabara and appeared loaded with money.

“We figured that otaku are pretty weak and always carry around lots of cash,” Shukan Post quotes one of the arrested muggers telling the police.

In fact, this year Akihabara has already witnessed 25 reported cases of “otaku hunting” and cops fear there could be more. The stereotypical image of the otaku is somebody who devotes as much time and money as possible to their obsession of choice, buying magazines, toys and whatever other paraphernalia tickles their fancy. And the geeks are also normally seen as weak, mild-mannered types not likely to put up a fight if accosted.

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Quirky Wes Anderson is the favored director named Anderson at Stately Beat Manor — we thought THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU was one of the finest adventure/comedy/documantaries of recent years. Now it seems, he’s taking a crack at the cartoons with an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s FANTASTIC MR. FOX>:

The 20th Century Fox division will turn the Roald Dahl classic title into a film that will mix several forms of animation, primarily stop-motion.

Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach adapted the book; Anderson will direct and produce with Scott Rudin.

Tome tells the story of a fox who uses its wits and cunning to outfox three dimwitted farmers who tire of sharing their chickens with the fox and resort to a shock-and-awe offensive.

Now this should be very very quirky.

Yes, it’s my mother’s birthday. She tells me she’s working on a brand new comic for MoCCA next year. In the meantime, the first chapter of Soho Snake has wrapped up.

by Marc-Oliver Frisch

September was a relatively quiet month for DC Comics. The publisher’s big direct market push for September occurred at the WildStorm imprint, where Jim Lee and company begun to relaunch some of their longest-running properties. Unfortunately, Wildcats, the new line’s supposed flagship title, missed its shipping date, leaving us with Mike Carey and Whilce Portacio’s Wetworks. While DC Universe titles Justice League of America and the weekly 52 took half of the Top 10 spots on the September chart, the only new launch in the publisher’s mainstream line was the limited series Mystery in Space. Over at the Vertigo imprint, Harvey Pekar’s American Splendor made its debut at DC Comics with a limited series, while Brian K. Vaughan’s Pride of Baghdad claimed the top spot of the graphic novel chart. Another new WildStorm launch in September was Ninja Scroll, the spin-off of a Japanese animated film.
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Due out this year. Just think, now you can mail your electric bill with Elektra! That is dope!

Best headline ever, right? Well, it turns out that it refers to a high school where girls dressed as CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS were banned by the mean old principal:

But in reality, principal Nicholas Restivo is simply an administrator who, on Superhero Day, had a problem with the way the three seniors were dressed. He issued them an ultimatum: Change clothes, cover up or leave school.

At the root of the clash was Captain Underpants, chubby superhero star of popular children’s books in which he battles talking toilets and foes such as Professor Poopypants.

The reality of the skin-tight suit is what upset this particular Superhero Day:

“I didn’t know which superhero it was, not that it mattered,” said Principal Nicholas Restivo.

The girls depicted this superhero _ who has battled, among other things, talking toilets and the infamous Professor Poopypants _ by wearing beige leotards and nude stockings under white briefs and red capes.

“Yes, I know they weren’t naked,” Restivo said. “But the appearance was that they were naked.”

“They’re not see-through or anything,” said one of the girls, Chelsea Horowitz, an honor student and softball player. “All the teachers thought it was cute.”

But Restivo made his decree: There would be no visible underpants in his hallways.

And thus, Horowitz and fellow seniors Ashley Imhof and Eliana Levin went home to change back into their mortal attire.

This story seems to cry out for the r-rated teen comedy film treatment. It could be called PANTSLOOSE, or some such.

DC just sent out a listing of the trades and GNs for early 2007 (Jan and Feb.)

The list is long — we’re happy to see a collection for THE AMERICAN WAY, John Ridley’s very well received mini-series from Wildstorm, and collections of Batman books by Paul Pope and Sam Kieth.

January instore:

BATMAN: SECRETS TP
Writer/Artist: Sam Kieth
Price: $12.99 US/$17.50 CAN
Page count: 128 pages
Collects: BATMAN: SECRETS #1-5

BATMAN: YEAR ONE DELUXE EDITION TP
Writer: Frank Miller
Artist: David Mazzucchelli
Price: $14.99 US/$19.99 CAN
Page count: 144 pages
Collects: BATMAN #404-407

BATMAN: YEAR 100 TP
Writer/Artist: Paul Pope
Price: $19.99 US/$26.99 CAN
Page count: 232 pages
Collects: BATMAN: YEAR ONE HUNDRED #1-4 and a story from BATMAN CHRONICLES #11

CRISIS AFTERMATH: THE BATTLE FOR BLÃœDHAVEN TP
Writers: Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray
Artists: Dan Jurgens, Gordon Purcell and Jimmy Palmiotti
Cover artist: Daniel Acuña
Price: $12.99 US/$17.50 CAN
Page count: 144 pages
Collects: CRISIS AFTERMATH: THE BATTLE FOR BLÃœDHAVEN #1-6

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Continuing our trip through the vaults, we found this picture of the late Alfredo Alcala, Phil Yeh and The Beat at a 1994 signing for our book SECRET TEACHINGS OF A COMIC BOOK MASTER. During the research of the book I spent many hours interviewing Alfredo and learning about the history of Filipino comics. The Phillippines have a rich, individual history of comics and cartooning that goes back 120 years, making it one of the more quirky outposts of comics tradition.

Just this week, Benjamon Ong Pang Kean had a two part history of Filipino comics at Newsarama, an examination of the past and the current scene. At various points, komiks, as they are known, have been hugely popular in the Phillippines, with the most popular being adapted into movies, plays and soap operas.

The biggest contribution of Filipino cartoonists to American comics history was undoubtedly in the 70s, when many of the top Filipino artists were recruited to work on the then burgeoning horror comics scene, but tons of superhero work as well. The top artists were Alcala, Nestor Redondo and Alex Niño, but the list included, Tony DeZuniga, Rudy Florese, Ernie Chan, ER Cruz, Gerry Talaoc, Rico Rival, Jesse Santos, Teny Henson, Romeo Tanghal and many others. The artistic wellspring for their tradition was the American pen and ink school of illustration, best exemplified by Charles Dana Gibson, originator of the “Gibson Girl.” No wonder that so many of the artists become inkers, then, most sporting an intricate, sometimes overwhelming style. (I know Alfredo had no qualms about redrawing whatever he thought was bad draughtsmanship.)

Nowadays, artists like Whilce Portacio, Leinil Francis Yu, Jay Anacleto, Gerry Alanguilan, Rod Espinosa, Philip Tan, Francis Manapul and J. Torres are staying in the forefront of the US mainstream, with a wide variety of styles. Kean’s articles include interviews with these artists and more about the past and current state of Filipino comics. Some of them admit they aren’t completely well versed in history, but others have longer comments on the current struggles of the marketplace, as gaining acceptance for fresh material is as hard as in any other market. A lot is still going on, however.

Garry Alanguilan (a regular poster here) also supplies a report on Komikon 2006, the second annual national komiks convention.

Although much of the new material comics from independent self publishers, the most significant step in bringing comics back into the mainstream was the publication of Filipino Komiks #1 by Risingstar Printing Enterprise. Risingstar is the publisher of many nationally distributed music magazines, romance and horror pocketbooks, and puzzle booklets. Bringing together the talents of writers and artists from the old komiks industry and the new industry, creatives from komiks like Karl Comendador, Nestor Malgapo, Ofelia Concepcion, Nar Castro, Fermin Salvador work side by side with younger creators like Gilbert Monsanto, Rodel Noora and Ner Pedrina. The style of the stories and art are decidedly reminiscent of the old komiks, which is cool, but I think they need to be infused with newer blood and newer sensibilities of approaching comics storytelling, without losing any of the Filipino feel so evident on every page. I thank Risingstar for taking this risk, and it’s obvious Editorial Director KC Cordero loves comics to the bone.

Alanguilan also runs Komikero, an online comics museum, an outstanding source for information on the history of komiks. You can spend a long time looking at the art — there’s a kind of adventuresome elegance to the prevalent style that you hardly ever see in comics any more. I have to admit, I’m a big fan of the romantic Alex Raymond/Caniff/Pratt school of comics, and the komiks seem to have excelled at this tradition.

Alanguilan’s own current book is ELMER, which is about the adventures of some chickens who gain human intelligence. Needless to say, if I ever come across a copy, I’ll definitely check it out. The history of Filipino comics may be peripheral to the American trends, but it’s also ax example of the universal appeal of comics, and how a unique culture adapts them to its own concerns and sociology.

[Top art by Francisco Coching, who’s kind of the Jack Kirby of the Phillippines. Below that, a page by Nestor Redondo.]

WIRED mag, still the purveyor of futurist culture after all these years, invited 33 writers to write stories in 6 words. You can see the results here. Comics-type participants include Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Frank Miller, Mark Millar, Howard Chaykin, etc, along with David Brin, Margaret Atwood and more. Many people have quoted Alan Moore’s tale:

Machine. Unexpectedly, I’d invented a time

but is it SO wrong of us to say we enjoyed William Shatner’s?
Failed SAT. Lost scholarship. Invented rocket.

Matt Wayne writes to remind us that the first animated Hellboy movies, HELLBOY: THE SWORD OF STORMS airs this Saturday 10/28 at 9:30 on the Cartoon Network. Wayne talks about writing the film at Toon Zone. Director Tad Stones has been blogging all about it here. If you’re out partying, be sure to Tivo it!

Kyle Baker blogs about the CAPS banquet honoring Jack David and Sergio Aragones :

Sergio and Jack told funny stories about their travels around the world. My favorite was the story about their trip to Mexico, and how Jack Davis held an umbrella over Sergio’s mother in the rain while she cooked for her son’s friends. It was one of many illustrations of what a great friendly guy Jack Davis is. My favorite “Sergio is a great guy” story of the evening was about the time a translator was hired for a public appearance at a venue where it was mistakenly assumed Sergio couldn’t speak English. Not wanting to see the translator lose a paying job, Sergio pretended he couldn’t understand English for the duration of the gig.

Chris Staros writes to tell us that the copyright dispute over LOST GIRLS with the London children’s hospital to whom J.M. Barrie bequeathed rights to the play PETER PAN has been settled very amicably:

Following very amicable discussions between the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (owners of the copyright to J M Barrie’s PETER PAN) and ourselves, Top Shelf Productions (the publisher of LOST GIRLS by Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie), the parties have agreed that, without conceding that the work necessarily breaches the GOSH copyright, Top Shelf Productions will withhold United Kingdom (UK) and European Union (EU) distribution of LOST GIRLS until the end of 2007, when the Peter Pan copyright in the UK and EU expires. This means that a special UK First Edition will be released in the UK on 1 January 2008.

I flew to England and met with the Hospital on Oct 11th, and on that day we signed an agreement together putting to end the controversy surrounding this issue. It was a very nice meeting, and we’re very glad that we could come to a peaceful settlement. We’ll gear back up for a big UK and EU release of LOST GIRLS towards the end of next year.

Of course, this means smuggling over copies in your luggage for pals.

§ Jewish Week examines how Batman embodies Jewish values as explained by Rabbi Cary Freidman:

Friedman argues that Batman instills in his audience some of Judaism’s most important moral values, using supporting examples from Torah, Talmud and other rabbinic commentary, and offers insight on how to incorporate those same values into their own lives.

One of Batman’s most concretely Jewish values is tikkun olam, repairing the world, and sacrificing for one’s ideals.

“In one of the first chapters, ‘How to Triumph over Adversity,’ Bruce Wayne watches his parents get killed,� Friedman said. “He has two choices: wallow in self-indulgence or confront the pain and choose a life of saving others.� Wayne ultimately chooses the latter, giving up his playboy life for secrecy and crime fighting, also showing his (Jewish) values of hard work and family.

§ Manga flourishes in Budapest!

Manga – a very popular comic style in Japan and abroad – highly affects our visual culture today. Both Toulouse-Lautrec and Gauguin were very much inspired by the Japanese woodblocks, the roots of Manga. But what is the connection between Pokemon and 18th century Japanese woodblock printing? Find out at the Iparmuvészeti Múzeum (Museum of Applied Arts) Anime Day on Oct 28, which is also connected to the World of Kabuki Stars exhibition currently running there.

§ JoongAng Daily profiles the brother/sister manga writing duo known as Tadashi Agi (best known for Kindaichi Case Files, who write a comic about WINE which has apparently become a big hit in KOREA.

Following two Japanese authors down to the wine cellar beneath their house in the city of Musashino in Tokyo, this writer was surprised to find the Tadashi Agi siblings to be as enthusiastic about wine in real life as in their books. (Tadashi Agi is one of many pennames the siblings work under when creating their comic books.)

The brother and sister, who insisted on anonymity, are authors of the bestselling foreign comic book in Korea ― “Les Gouttes de Dieu” or “Drops from God” ― which enthuse about wine drinking. As the books became popular in Korea, so did many of the 70 different wines mentioned in the comic series, such as the 1988 Chateau Margaux and the 2000 Chateau Mouton Rothschild. But surely the authors can’t own them all, can they?

§ Meanwhile, in Arizona, local boy James Owen continues to talk about the success of Here, There Be Dragons his fantasy novel, already on its way to its fourth printing.

Owen started selling books and comics in a mail order business he began at the age of 14. “Mythworld,� one of his first series, was sold only in Germany and France, and award winning “Starchild� is a graphic novel series that he has been writing for 12 years. Owen has produced more than half a million comic books.

He had a literary and arts magazine recently, but Owen said, “The distributor botched them.� He used his own money, borrowed from partners, friends and supporters. and lost hundreds of thousands of dollars. There was no way to rebuild that without a lot more cash. Owen recalled that an editor looked at the magazine, saw how much he lost and asked, “How are you going to get out of this?� As a joke, Owen replied, “The only solution is write a best selling novel and sell the movie rights.�

Project Rooftop is a site run by Dean Trippe and Chris Arrant which is given over to exploring superhero fashion and costume design — not a bad topic. They just announced a photographic Halloween costume contest whose results should be quite entertaining.

I guess it was only a matter of time before we ventured into the realm of actual costuming. So with Halloween nearly upon us, we at Project Rooftop would like to announce our first annual costume contest: Fights, Flights, & Tights!

As usual, all you have to do is wow us with a cool redesign of a classic superhero, only this time it has to be a physical costume. Take some killer photos and send them to tights@projectrooftop.com! We’ll feature the best entries here on the site, and the best of the best will get original art of their design by our own Dean Trippe! The deadline for entries is November 5th, so there’s enough time to process your trick-or-treating shots.

So basically, if you send us some pics like these, you could win something like this!

by Paul O’Brien

The CIVIL WAR crossover continued to sprawl across Marvel’s line in September. However, the delays are starting to take their toll. PUNISHER WAR JOURNAL was supposed to launch last month as a tie-in series. But the main CIVIL WAR series isn’t ready yet, so the series has been put back to late November.

That leaves BLADE as the only new ongoing title for the month - Marvel’s latest attempt to relaunch the character on the back of his success in other media. Also on this month’s charts, a range of new miniseries, including ZOMBIE, which sees the beleaguered Max imprint showing signs of life again. And there’s the first of the very odd STAN LEE MEETS one-shots.

Despite the CIVIL WAR delays, Marvel still thrashed DC in terms of market share. In dollar terms, they win 41.3% to 33.4%. In unit share, it’s 45.8% to 36.1%. Not even close.

Thanks as always to Milton Griepp and ICV2 for permission to use their figures for these calculations.

1.  CIVIL WAR
05/06  #1 (of 7) - 354,536
06/06  #2 (of 7) - 333,404  ( -6.0%)
07/06  #3 (of 7) - 309,028  ( -7.3%)
08/06  —
09/06  #4 (of 7) - 272,573  (-11.8%)

Running a month late, CIVIL WAR continues to rack up enormous sales. The re-order activity is insanely high, especially by Marvel standards - issue #1 picks up a further 22,867 sales to chart at number 99, issue #2 sells another 20,473, and issue #3 sells another 5,390. Of course, variant covers play a big part in those re-orders, but even by those standards, the continued sales on early issues are extremely high. As always, the added sales are included in the numbers above.

Issue #4 also has a variant cover by Michael Turner, which will also boost sales. But these are incredibly good sales, by any standards. Admittedly, there’s been something of an online backlash to the actual content of issue #4 - and the introduction of Clone Thor seems a curious direction for a book that was being aggressively marketed to new readers. But online complaints about top sellers rarely seem to be reflected in sales, and it’s virtually guaranteed that CIVIL WAR will remain a juggernaut for the whole run.

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Moon Knight, the superhero with more secret identities than ties created by Doug Moench and Don Perlin, is being developed for a TV series. The pr refers to him as a “cult favorite,” but execs assured everyone the TV show would be “compelling and long-lasting.” Plus, with the success o HEROES, it seems superheroes on TV are still going strong.

Marvel Studios, a division of Marvel Entertainment, Inc. and Vancouver based production company, No Equal Entertainment, have entered into an agreement to develop a live-action television series based on Marvel’s cult favorite Moon Knight. The announcement was made today by David Maisel of Marvel Entertainment and Larry Sugar of No Equal Entertainment.

First introduced by Marvel Comics in the mid-1970s, Moon Knight remains a true fan favorite as evidenced by the current best-selling comic book series featuring the Super Hero. Moon Knight presents the story of soldier of fortune Marc Spector. After an encounter with the Egyptian god of vengeance and the moon deity Konshu, he became a hero: Moon Knight. The encounter leaves the tormented Spector with even more inner demons to combat. Now as Moon Knight, he hunts criminals in the night, bringing them to justice, and striking fear in the hearts of criminals everywhere. Moon Knight’s blend of action, the supernatural, and complex, intriguing characters will serve as the foundation for the live-action series.

“Moon Knight has all the elements for an engaging television series. No Equal Entertainment has a real passion for the project and an amazing vision of how to bring the character and storyline to life that will appeal to action and sci-fi enthusiasts,� said Mr. Maisel.

The production will be spearheaded by No Equal Entertainment’s Sugar. Sugar brings to the project over 35 years experience as a Hollywood executive and producer. His track record includes a wide array of global television series, including: “The Collector,� “Romeo,� “First Wave,� “Dead Man’s Gun,� and “So Weird.�

Mr. Sugar added, “We are delighted to be in business with Marvel Entertainment and believe that Moon Knight will make a compelling and long-lasting television series.�

A production blog for the PERSEPOLIS movie. Posting sparse thus far, but a report on the first crew screening of the film is entertaining:

The last scene before the end, my heart started beating so badly (thanks god everybody applauded!) thinking about the first time the movie is REALLY going to be screened. I will maybe make a heart attack, I will faint… Or at least I would need a diaper.

[Link via Cartoon Brew]

Meanwhile, Satrapi continues to give good interview on her press tour for CHICKEN WITH PLUMS.

Q What comics are they reading in France?

A The American cartoonists are very well known in France. Art Spiegelman, Chris Ware, Daniel Clowes and Joe Sacco. The idea that I had of comics before I made my own was like everybody else’s; that reading them was for adolescents and kids. But when I read “Maus” I thought, “Oh my God, you can do that also.”

Q So no superheroes, huh?

A Not really. The problem with superhero comics is that most of the characters are men so there is no way that I can identify. And the woman always have big breasts and long legs. The only character that can be a little bit seducing is Catwoman, but she’s so mean. And then you have Wonder Woman, but you don’t believe with these big breasts she can go and make justice in the world.