Over at ComicMix, it’s been teased and speculated that co-owner Mike Gold and partners will be rolling out a “Phase 2″ for the site. Given that Gold is the founder of First Comics, properties and creators associated with that line has been part of that speculation. Today Glenn Hauman pulls a tease with this:

After all, if Nexus can come back in this day and age, complete with the original creators, what could possibly be next?

John Ostrander and Timothy Truman on GrimJack?

Mike Grell doing new Jon Sable Freelance?

Del Close coming back from the grave for new Munden’s Bar stories?

Obviously, if we have any information about any of these properties, we’ll let you know.

Soon.

Unless something else comes along to eclipse that news.

Eclipse was of course the OTHER early 80s indie comics company that published many fondly remembered books like the original ZOT! and Miracleman and all that kind of stuff. Dean Mullaney was the publisher, the same Dean Mullaney who has now reappeared in comics editing comic strip reprints for IDW.

Is is all a coincidence? Or a tease? Or just something to fill column space?

ICv2 breaks the news that IDW will be following up TERRY AND THE PIRATES with a collection of Little Orphan Annie:

Dean Mullaney, who is editing the new reprint edition of Milton Caniff’s classic Terry & the Pirates comic strip for IDW, has informed ICv2 that his next project with IDW will be a similar reprinting of Harold Gray’s Little Orphan Annie. “Just as Fantagraphics took up the reprinting of Krazy Kat just where we at Eclipse left off, so I plan to start the Little Orphan Annie reprints in the mid-1930s, where Fantagraphic stopped (more or less) so that collectors won’t have buy the same material twice,” Mullaney explained.

Damn, we have to start saving our shekels now!

RED HERRING follows up on the news that Stan Lee Media is suiing Marvel, and Stan Lee is Suing Stan Lee Media, with the news that Stan Lee Media will almost certainly countersue Stan Lee! Financier/whistleblower Jim Nesfield, who revived Stan Lee Media last year, explains:

“He’s calling me a rogue opportunist,” said Mr. Nesfield. “He’s a rogue employee.”

He alleged that assets including characters such as the Drifter and the Accuser were transferred into an entity known as SLC LLC that was never actually created, and that there was an undisclosed conflict of interest involving a principal in the company.

The suit, he added, will probably be filed either later this week or next. No amount has been set yet. However, the transferred assets were recognized during the bankruptcy proceedings as being worth between $4 million to $7 million over a five-year period.

According to a very positive LA Times story on the little pamphlet publisher that could, Boom Studios Ross Ritchie and Andrew Cosby, there were 28,000 people at last weekend’s Wizard World LA. Whatever you think of that factoid, the piece has much of interest otherwise, including news that Boom will be producing a comic book version of THE GODFATHER:

The average Boom comic sells for about $4, and most issues sell about 5,000 to 10,000 copies, Richie said. He declined to reveal company revenue. The work for issues, about a dozen a month now, comes from more than 50 freelancers and a core staff of about five. About 10 issues a month are based on original content, and two issues a month sprout from deals with Games Workshop of Nottingham, England.

As Boom grows the licensing side of its revenue stream with projects such as “The Godfather,” it also has diversified into the screen, selling its “Talent” and “Tag” series to Universal Studios last year. Their days in show business helped make the leap. After leaving Malibu, Richie went into consulting and script reading and Cosby produced television shows. Meanwhile, they pitched comic-book story lines to studio and network executives.

[Link via Journalista]

Chris Ware has done the opening animation for Showtime’s THIS AMERICAN LIFE show, debuting Thursday. The show is an adaptation of the NPR show that looks at ordinary lives. You can view the animation here.

Although the headline says Publisher to launch Japan’s first monthly online manga magazine is sounds a bit misleading, because the magazine is actually the first (orone of the first) for mobile phones:

Publisher Shinchosha will soon launch what it calls the country’s first digital subscription magazine, an online comic regularly transmitted to mobile phones, a news report said Wednesday.

“Com2″ will contain about 200 pages of cartoons and is geared toward cell phones so readers in tech-savvy, comic-book-crazy Japan can keep up with their favorites on the go.

The new service will be launched Friday. It will originally have cartoons in Japanese only, but Tokyo-based Shinchosha plans to add English and Chinese translations in the future, public broadcaster NHK said.

Subscription will cost 350 yen a month, and the format is also accessible through the Internet on personal computers.

As everyone knows, the Japanese are phone-crazy and this is a logical step in the evolution of the non-paper comics economy.

§ Top Shelf employee and THE SURROGATES writer Robert Venditti talks about getting an indie comic optioned at CBR:

“The first issue of the series debuted in July 2005, only a couple of weeks before Comic-Con International in San Diego,” Venditti explained to CBR News. “The story generated a healthy amount of press in the comics community, which in turn generated some interest in Hollywood. A fair amount of producers came by the Top Shelf booth at the convention as a result, and the discussions ranged from the calm — ‘This sounds really cool. Can I read more of the story?’ — to the more frenzied — ‘I want this right now, and I’m going to make you a star!’ It was all a bit shocking. I work for Top Shelf full-time, so not three hours earlier I was grimy from unloading boxes of books for the booth, and now here I was talking to people who make movies for a living.”

§ The Daily Cross Hatch continues to present intelligent, essential interviews with indie comics movers and shakers. Like this from Tony Millionaire talking about his Batman pitches:

I had one where Batman went completely broke. His corporation went completely broke. He was like, ‘should I throw this Batarang? These cost me $550 each. I’m not really sure I can afford to throw it. I should probably just run.’ And he had to sell all his cars and ride a bicycle around. If anyone sees him on a bicycle with his costume on, they’ll catch him, so he can’t even wear that anymore. He just has to wear a t-shirt and run around. They said, “no, we’re not going to do that” [laughs]. I’d like to do a story about the real Batman, what a real Batman would be like. Just some guy, who’s not really that rich. He’d just run around and try to figure out where the crime is. In my neighborhood, all he’d be doing is running up to cars where they’re selling drugs out the window.

§ DJ Coffman visits Platinum Studios where he is stunned by actual human contact:

We work our way back to Scott Mitchell Rosenberg’s office, and I’m greeted all along the way with excited employees who are really happy to meet me, which was weird. Weird in a great way, but one I’m not use to. I live a pretty hermetic lifestyle here, rarely leaving the office and work area, so to be thrown into this awesome environment with all these people telling me how awesome I am, yeah, it’s a crazy kind of weird.

Coffman’s long report includes many pics of the Platinum offices as well as a WWLA report.

§ Ryusuke Hamamoto, artist of Puchi Evangelion, and the Image book COMPASS demonstrates his working technisue in a series of YouTube vids at his site.

§ Speaking of WWLA, Tom McLean puts into words the ennui that many are experiencing:

Overall, the end result was enjoyable but underwhelming.

Part of the problem is that San Diego, WonderCon and now New York Comic-Con have set a high standard for comic cons as places that are packed full of fans, creators, celebrities and unique events – certainly more than any one person can see during the show.

Wizard shows on the other hand seem quite content to focus on mainstream comics and a few related areas, such as wrestling, Kiss fans and the IFL.

What’s surprisingly missing is the studio presence that was the original rationale for the company setting up a show in Los Angeles. While WWLA has a few Hollywood-focused panels — most notably the popular “Heroes” panel I’ll talk more about in a bit — and presentations from smaller studios like Lionsgate and small studio arms like Fox Atomic, the majors were nowhere in sight. Compared with the first WWLA, this area has actually shrunk for the show.

That first show saw Marvel and Fox send out producer Avi Arad and actor Chris Evans to preview “Fantastic Four.” This year, with the FF sequel and “Spider-Man 3” set for summer, there was nothing from either Fox or Sony. Warner Bros., which just hit it big with “300” and is working on a number of DC Comics-related projects, also was absent.

§ Local writer has way with words:

There are three kinds of people in the world: folks who realize comic books are a vibrant, dynamic and vital art form, and folks who disagree and are therefore pig-ignorant neo-peasant scum who probably listen to jam bands and think Reno 911! is funny.

§ Speaking of the vibrancy of comics, did you know they are not for kids any more? The LA Daily News presents a well-researched examination of this old saw bolstered by many many quotes:

People 25 and older aren’t the only ones reading and collecting. On the other hand, it’s the Gen X-ers who possess both the nostalgia for the heroes and villains of their youth, and the disposable income to feed the still-existing mania.

Coincidentally or otherwise, comic-book story lines are getting darker, the violence and language more graphic and sexually explicit. Ditto, their movie adaptations. Ryan Liebowitz, general manager of Golden Apple Comics in Northridge and Hollywood, estimates that customers younger than 18 account for 25 percent of his business.

“There’s a finite amount of books out there for all ages or just for kids,” says Liebowitz. “A lot of little kids can’t even buy ‘Family Guy’ or ‘The Simpsons.’ They’re using big words, and it’s a little bit smarter humor. For KISS, you typically get the older crowds, the ones who have been following the band since the 1970s,” he adds.

A Californian schoolgirl is suing her school over her right to wear TIgger socks:

Toni Kay Scott, 14, was sent to an in-school suspension program called Students With Attitude Problems last year for violating a dress code, according to a lawsuit against the Napa Valley Unified School District and Redwood Middle School.

She had donned socks with the Tigger character from the Winnie the Pooh cartoons on them, along with a denim skirt and a brown shirt with a pink border.

But the school’s policy requires students to wear clothes with solid colors in blue, white, green, yellow, khaki, gray, brown and black. Permitted fabrics are cotton twill, corduroy and chino. No denim is allowed.

The lawsuit, filed by Scott and the ACLU, alleges that the dress code is unconstitutionally vague and too restrictive.

Well, as we’re sure you’ll recall, the wonderful thing about Tigger socks is that Tigger socks are wonderful things.

BTW, yesterday’s story about Marvel and the Al Ahli Group teaming for a marvel theme park in Dubai, this will be nothing compared to the other crazy shit going on in the world’s fastest growing city: a race for the world’s biggest skyscraper; the world’s first underwater hotel; the world’s tallest hotel; artificial island archipelagos in the shape of continents…The Starjammers should feel right at home here, along with all the other foreigners who are helping fuel the growth. Check out the link for even more mind boggling architectural renderings.

We vowed we would never turn this into the “Fox Atomic” blog, but we’re kinda wrapped up in wrapping up THE HILLS HAVE EYES: THE BEGINNING for the next couple of weeks and so blogging might be a little light. (In case you missed it, we’re freelance editing for the Fox Atomic line of graphic novels.)

Now you may have noticed that every time we say that we have a huge day — that’s because we’re trying to “clear off our plate” before going on hiatus. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

[hype alert] I may write a bit more about the whole Fox Atomic thing eventually because we hear you kids love the “behind the scenes!” thing. Anyway, here’s a page of art by John Higgins, colors by Dennis Calero to keep you busy. The movie opens on Friday. The graphic novel is NOT an adaptation, but rather a prequel which explains where the mutants came from and how they got that way. Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin gray, John, Dennis and the fine crew at Comicraft have really done an incredible job, and I’m eager to see what everyone thinks.

Actually the first Fox Atomic graphic novel, 28 Day Later: The Aftermath comes out next month. Since I had nothing to do with it, I can say I’ve seen advance copies and it’s a really gorgeous package. The books are coming out through HarperCollins, and they are handsome volumes.

The Fox Atomic deal is also an interesting experiment in putting out graphic novels without pamphlets.Although that is common place with indies and manga, it’s not so common with this kind of genre (horror) material so…this could be interesting. [/hype alert]

Out in July.

The good news: A Marvel theme park is opening!

The bad news: You will have to go to Dubai to ride The Punisher’s Intensive Carousel.

A UAE-based investment group hopes to sink $1 billion into the park, which will open in 2011 and is planned to be the start of family vacation destinations in Pan Arabia.

The news of Marvel’s characters going into theme park development may not be a surprise (they are already found at Universal Studios), but the location may seem odd — however, Marvel’s characters have been popular throughout the Middle East for a while. In addition, Dubai itself has become something of a city-wide theme park, as Nick Tosches wrote in a June 2006 Vanity Fair article:

On a…piece of desert about the size of Rhode Island, sits the Capitalist Dream on Steroids, Dubai. Expanding faster, taller, bigger than any other country on the planet, spawning schemes of impossible luxury, such as Falconcity of Wonders, Sunny Mountain Ski Dome, and a manmade archipelago called the World, the emirate has become a juggernaut of tourism, finance and Information Age business, where everything–crime, religion, terrorism-takes a backseat to profit.

Speaking of Marvel—and this is IN NO WAY RELATED to the Dubai deal—we’ve been getting a bunch of emails from someone purporting to be convicted financier Peter Paul with all kinds of behind the scenes info on Marvel, Stan Lee, shareholders, Ike Perlmutter and all that other stuff. It’s kind of nutty, and reads like the background in an ARG (alternate reality game.) Heck, maybe it is all an ARG.

United Arab Emirate-based Al Ahli Group and Marvel Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: MVL) announced today a partnership that will bring Marvel’s full library of Super Heroes — including Spider-Man, Iron Man, The X-Men, Incredible Hulk, The Fantastic Four and Silver Surfer — to Dubai for a major new theme park destination being developed by AAG. The development is in line with the vision set by HH Shk. Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, through his innovative entertainment and hospitality driven expansion projects for Dubai and the UAE.

The Al Ahli Group, under the leadership of Chairman Nasser Ali Khammas and driven by the idea and dedication of CEO Mohamed Khammas, is poised to bring the region’s first and only global theme park destination directly to the heart of the Emirates. AAG and Marvel are also in initial stages of discussions about additional projects throughout the greater Pan Arabia region.

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Oh yeah! Hip hip hooray! This is it! The comic that set the standard for exotic danger, adventure, romance and femme fatales. Oh yes. Six volumes from IDW starting in July, with the Sundays in color. In case you don’t get that far into the press release, Dean Mullaney, a name not heard in comicdom for quite some time, is editing and designing the series.

And in case you’ve never read TERRY AND THE PIRATES…well, you get another chance.

Celebrating the centennial of Milton Caniff ’s birth, IDW Publishing will publish a fully authorized six-book series collecting the entirety of Caniff ’s groundbreaking newspaper adventure strip Terry and the Pirates. The Sunday pages will be reproduced in their original color, alongside the daily black-and-white strips.

No cartoonist has so heavily influenced his medium as has Milton Caniff, and no comic strip has had more imitators than Terry and the Pirates. He is considered the great American novelist of the comics medium.

“In Terry and the Pirates,” wrote Jerry Robinson in The Comics, “all the storytelling techniques of the adventure strip fused and a classic style emerged. Caniff developed and integrated the narrative and its visual expression into a uniform aesthetic balance.” Jules Feiffer noted, “Before Caniff introduced the Dragon Lady to Pat Ryan, before Burma and Raven Sherman and Normandie Drake fell for our hero, there was not a hint of sex to be found in the American newspaper strip. Caniff changed all that.”

Terry and the Pirates provided the vehicle for Caniff’s maturation both as an artist and as a storyteller. He set the strip in exotic China, where historic events then occurring in the region during the 1930s provided the raw material from which he blended fantasy and reality to create an extraordinary graphic narrative. Howard Chaykin, who has written the introduction to Volume One, says, “It’s historically the first, and for my money, greatest example of what we do. The evolution of what Caniff did with Terry in his first year is unbelievable. It’s pure core storytelling.”

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There are still no details on the tragic drowning death of King Feature editor Jay Kennedy, but he is being fondly remembered by many. I only met him in passing, but heard his name constantly from people and it was always as a friend who was trusted and respected. In addition to being a highly regarded syndicate editor, he also wrote THE UNDERGROUND COMIX GUIDE in 1982, a standard reference work that has never been bettered. From all that we have heard he was one of those rare people who seemed to understand comics as the true spectrum of visions that is it, and it is a sad loss for the business and his many many friends.

UPDATE: Tom Spurgeon, who worked with Kennedy has a lengthy and definitive biography.

Some remembrances:
Milton Griepp remembers him here:

We met when we were both studying sociology at the University of Wisconsin in the mid-70s, but it wasn’t sociology that brought us together, it was comics. Jay was already hard at work assembling his “best in the world” collection of underground comics, and I was working at Wisconsin Independent News Distributors, a “distribution co-op” that distributed underground and mainstream comics, among other pop culture paper products of the day. He came to W.I.N.D. to find the source of the underground comics that were distributed at record stores, food coops, and head shops in Madison because he wanted to make sure he had them all. We quickly bonded over our mutual appreciation of the art form, and had many pleasant afternoons trading and discussing the exciting work that we both loved from artists like Robert Crumb, Art Spiegelman, S. Clay Wilson, Denis Kitchen, and many others.

Brian Fies

Jay was one of the few editors who took the time to provide notes and encouragement along with the rejections. I knew I was getting somewhere when his notes grew from a scribbled sentence to a few paragraphs to comments on the individual strips.

Craig Yoe
New York Times obit.

The Daily Cartoonist has more links.
Here’s the King Features obituary:

Jay Kennedy, editor in chief of King Features Syndicate, a unit of Hearst Corporation, died March 15, 2007, while on vacation in Costa Rica. He was 50 years old and lived in New York City and Orient Point, Long Island.

“Jay had a profound impact on the transformation of King Features as a home for the best new and talented comic strip creators in the country,” said Bruce L. Paisner, executive vice president, Hearst Entertainment & Syndication. “He was an extremely creative talent himself and we are indebted to him for all he did.”

King Features President T.R. (“Rocky”) Shepard III added: “Jay and I worked closely together to build this company into the dynamic and creative enterprise that it is today. He had a great impact on our industry throughout his career. He strengthened King’s roster of talented commentators and writers and articulated his vision for the future of the art. Everyone is deeply saddened. We will miss Jay’s talent and friendship.”

Kennedy joined King Features in 1988 as deputy comics editor and became comics editor one year later. He was named editor in chief in 1997.

From 1983 to 1988, Kennedy served as cartoon editor of Esquire magazine, also owned by Hearst Corporation. At the same time, he served as a humor book agent as well as a cartoon consultant and editor for magazines and publishers, including People and Whittle Communications. In addition, he was guest editor in 1985 for the “European Humor” issue released by the National Lampoon.

Kennedy wrote articles about the history of cartooning, and profiled cartoonists and contemporary comics for magazines including New Age Journal, Heavy Metal, New York, The IGA Journal, and Escape, an English bi- monthly. He was also the author of “The Underground Comix Guide” (1982). Kennedy’s interest in comics was worldwide and lifelong.

Before graduating with a sociology degree from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Kennedy studied sculpting and conceptual art at The School of Visual Arts in New York City.

Kennedy once explained that he chose a life in cartooning because “in the fine arts, artists generally comment on the world only obliquely; and sadly, only those people who have the leisure to study art history can fully appreciate their comments. By contrast, cartoons are an art form accessible to all people. They can simply laugh at the jokes or look beyond them to see the artist’s view of the world. Cartoons are multi-leveled art accessible to everyone at whatever level they choose to enjoy.”

He is survived by his mother, Jean M. Kennedy of Wilmington, Del., brothers Bruce C. Kennedy of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Mark W. Kennedy of Allentown, Pa., and sister Janet J. Kennedy of Centennial, Colo. He is predeceased by his wife Sarah Jewler.

Speaking of Charles Vess, he’s searching for some of his Stardust art for an exhibition later this year:

From June until September of this year I’ll be mounting an exhibition of my Stardust art at the the William King Regional Art Museum in their premium exhibition space.

A LOT of people will be seeing the exhibition and I want to put my best ‘face’ forward. So I’m looking for various pieces of Stardust original art that I’ve sold over the years and would like to borrow that art back for this show. The names of the donors will be included in various publications concerning the exhibit as well as being on the identifying labels themselves.

In particular I’m looking for these full page illustrations:

Vess has tracked down most of them, but a few are still out there. Take a look and see in you can help.

A variety of PR that dropped into our mailbox from Dark Horse recently.First off, Jeremy Atkins has been promoted to Director of Publicity. Way to go, Jeremy!

They also announced that they will be releasing the cult hit manga MPD-PSYCHO

MPD-Psycho was deemed too shocking for other publishers, with violent images that most thought were too graphic for the American public.

But coming this June, the most-requested manga series in recent memory will be presented uncut and uncensored from Dark Horse Comics. Brace yourself for a dark journey into madness: Eiji Otsuka and Sho-u Tajima’s MPD-Psycho.

Police detective Kobayashi Yousuke’s life is changed forever after a serial killer notices something “special” about the detective. Kobayashi is stable police detective until he witnesses the killer he’s hunting mutilate Kobayashi’s own girlfriend. The event triggers several dormant personalities that push Kobayashi into a complex tempest of deviants and evil forces, ultimately creating a multiple personality detective.

Earning praise for its consistently shocking plotlines and Sho-u Tajima’s clean, arresting art style, MPD-Psycho is the manga event of the decade. The title was rated the eighth most wanted Japanese series in U.S. fan polls and has sold more than four million copies in Japan.

MPD-Psycho is written by novelist and manga visionary Eiji Otsuka, author of The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, with sleek, stylish art from Sho-u Tajima. MPD-Psycho comes shrink-wrapped and carries an 18+ content advisory.

The trade paperback arrives on sale June 6 and retails for $10.95. Prepare for gory!

Finally, Charles Vess has sculpted a “FAIRY PRINCESS” statue for Dark Horse. Picture below, PR in the jump.

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Director DeZ Vylanz dropped us a note directing us to the page for The Mindscape of Alan Moore, a DVD interview with many extras:

ALAN MOORE -writer, artist and performer- is the world’s most critically acclaimed and widely admired creator of comic books and graphic novels.

In The Mindscape of Alan Moore we see a portrait of the artist as contemporary shaman, someone with the power to transform consciousness by means of manipulating language, symbols and images.

The film leads the audience through Moore’s world with the writer himself as guide, beginning with his childhood background, following the evolution of his career as he transformed the comics medium, through to his immersion in a magical worldview where science, spirituality and society are part of the same universe.

The Mindscape of Alan Moore is an audiovisual document of utmost relevance in the wake of current global developments.

The 2-disc set includes a bonus disc of interviews with Melinda Gebbie, Paul Gravett, Dave Gibbons, David Lloyd, Kevin O’Neill and Jose Villarubia. The DVD is out at the end of the month.

Indie band Coheed and Cambria’s Claudio Sanchez is one of a growing number of musical stars who itch to create their own comics. Indeed C&C have been putting out graphic novels, illustrated by folks like Christopher Shy, along with their albums for some time. Perhaps Sanchez can join other comics-creating tunesmiths MCR’s Gerard Way and Gene Simmons to have a battle of the comic book bands! That would be cute!

Coheed and Cambria is one of the more formidable rock bands in the world today, with two gold records under their belt, a new album in the fall, and a rabid, loyal fan-base. The band’s frontman, Claudio Sanchez, is known for his ability to craft amazing stories with his lyrics. Now he’s taking those stories and transforming them into comic books in THE AMORY WARS.

Sanchez had this to say: “œTHE AMORY WARS is the overall title of the mythology that surrounds Coheed and Cambria. Bringing this story to life on the printed page, exactly the way I’ve always envisioned it, is very exciting to me.”

Claudio’s own Evil Ink Comics has teamed up with Image Comics and 12 Gauge Comics for a June debut. THE AMORY WARS chronicles the life and death of Coheed and Cambria, a young couple who discover their lives have been a lie, that memories have been imprinted on their past, and that their future is tied to a deeper — and perhaps more sinister — purpose within the universe. The series is edited by acclaimed writer David Tischman.

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Angelina Jolie has joined the cast of WANTED, the adaptation of the Mark Millar/JG Jones comic, Variety reports. Globe-trotting baby-collector Jolie joins James McAvoy and Morgan Freeman in the film, which will be directed by Timur Bekmambetov whose hard-to-spell name is sure to lean to much mirth here at Stately Beat Manor.

Pic will be Jolie’s next, with shooting to begin in Eastern Europe in May.

McAvoy will play a young man who discovers his father is an assassin, only to learn shortly thereafter that his dad has been murdered. The youth is drafted to follow in his father’s footsteps. Jolie will play an assassin who teaches the ropes to the wannabe killer.

Script was originated by Michael Brandt and Derek Haas, and Jolie took the role after a rewrite by Dean Georgaris (”Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life”) to tailor the character for her.

Yay! More pictures of Brangenlina!!!

Congrats to Peggy Burns and Tom Devlin on the arrival of “August Dagwood Devlin”

8 pounds 14 ounces, 7:56pm on March 15th. Peg and “Woody” are resting comfortably. Yes, his middle name is Dagwood–we love all comics that much.

Well, anyway you slice it its better than Kal-El!

We were totally checking out the gruesome photos of his staph infection on UFC star Forrest Griffin’s MySpace page when we found his own tribute to the Maid of Might.

Seriously, between showing off his pustulant staph infection and this, this dude has ISSUES, and we don’t mean DETECTIVE #494.

Buck Buchanan…Tug McGraw…now Allen “Bad News Brown” Coage…I guess we have to be our own hero, now.

Viz sent out a press release this afternoon trumpeting Naruto’s placement at #25 on the USA Today Best Seller list. Our memory may be a little shaky, but that strikes us as the highest placement ever. EDIT: Actually Naruto had hit #21 before, so this is merely another very strong showing. NARUTO is however the only manga ever to chart this high.

VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has announced that the recently released volume 13 of the popular NARUTO™ manga series (rated ‘T’ for Teens), which is published under the company’s SHONEN JUMP™ imprint and also serialized in the monthly SHONEN JUMP magazine (also rated ‘T’ for teens), placed at Number 25 on the USA Today Top 150 Best Seller List through the week of March 11.

The list (available on USA Today’s website at www.usatoday.com) is based on an objective computer analysis of retail sales from 4,700 independent, chain, discount and online booksellers nationwide. In 2004 NARUTO was the first manga title to be featured on the USA Today Top 150 and has placed repeatedly on the list since, most recently in September 2006. The NARUTO brand has become one of VIZ Media’s most viable in terms of sales. The series, by Masashi Kishimoto, depicts the adventures of a young boy who trains to become a ninja, and the series has sold more than 66 million copies in Japan since its 1999 debut. In North America, a massive amount of fan interest continues to drive the success of both the manga and the anime series, seen on Cartoon Network, the Toonami Jetstream web site, and on DVD distributed by VIZ Media.

“The NARUTO brand has proven to be a consistent best seller and demonstrates the continued viability of the manga medium and of this property in particular,” says Liza Coppola, Senior Vice President, Marketing, VIZ Media. “The well developed character and story arcs have captivated a truly wide range of readers and we are pleased to see the action-packed positive storylines find broad appeal. As popularity continues, VIZ Media looks forward to further expanding the NARUTO property with the DVD release of the NARUTO - THE LOST STORY ‘Mission: Protect The Waterfall Village!’ and the next installment of the manga series, Volume 14, both in May!”

March ‘07:

Blog@ news round-up — a few news tidbits, but seems everyone was kind of burnt out after Mega Con, NYCC and WonderCon three weeks in a row. This was the fourth convention in five weeks and that’s just the Spring season!
CBR photo parade
Hollywood.com photos (Celebrities)
K2 Ramblings
Cecil Castellucci
[Image taken from CBR]