Via PR, we learn that the 1958 TV series based on Milton Caniff’s Steve Canyon comic strip about pilots and adventure is coming out on DVD:

After 50 years in the hangar, the entire series (34 episodes) of the classic 1958 Air Force-centric television series Steve Canyon has been meticulously restored and is being released on DVD in its entirety for the very first time.
Based on the iconic newspaper comic strip of the same name, which ended a 41-year syndicated run in 1988 with the passing of its legendary creator, Milton Caniff, the acclaimed television series – the most expensive and realistic show of its era – has been revived and updated to commemorate the 50th anniversary of its debut.
The series is being released in three volumes titled The Complete Steve Canyon on TV, with the first volume hitting the streets Nov. 18.

Volume 1, which retails at $24.95, features the first 12 episodes of the series, in their correct running order, plus a few specially-selected extras.

Volume 2, containing the next 12 episodes, is scheduled to be released 60-90 days later. Volume 3 will follow 60-90 days after that, and will feature the final 10 episodes of the series, the uncut pilot show, and a variety of special extras. These include documentaries of the star Dean Fredericks and the history of the show. As an added bonus, Volume 3 will also include a full-color, custom collectors slipcase designed to hold all three volumes.

DVDs can be ordered at http://stevecanyondvd.blogspot.com, and may soon be available through certain selected retail outlets.

We’re used to reading all the interviews about the series that are coming but, but Kiel Phegley at CBR presents a rare look at an idea that didn’t make it with Joe Casey’s EXECUTIVE POWER, which would have plunked a real-life politician down into the Marvel U. It’s an interesting behind the scenes look at how ideas are developed at the Big Two:

“Honestly, my original notion was for it to be a fictional President in the Marvel U,” Casey told CBR. “But, the more I thought about it, and in initially talking to [Executive Editor] Axel Alonso about it two years ago, it made much more sense — on several levels — to make it about the actual President — which, back in the summer of ’06, obviously no one had any idea who the candidates would be, although that didn’t really matter for the purposes of this pitch. At that point, it suddenly morphed into possibly the most commercial idea I’ve ever come up with for a work-for-hire series. And Axel was into it. In a lot of ways, he’s probably the most forward-thinking editor at Marvel. His track record certainly shows he doesn’t shy away from controversial ideas, approaches or stories. I think he knew right away that this would be a lot more substantial a project than merely some gimmick book.”

Casey’s probably right that putting real life governators into a comic book would have gotten lots of press — look at the play IDW and Bluewater have gotten for their candidate bio books — but it’s also the kind of thing Marvel and DC really tend to shy away from. In one way, it’s understandable. Rights issues and complaints are a big concern, and real world commentary is usually left to the satirists, as Mad Magazine shows.

Kristy Valenti remembers GREENBERG THE VAMPIRE:

Written by J.M. DeMatteis and drawn by Mark Badger, GtV was Marvel’s 20th “graphic novel.” For Marvel, at that time, “Graphic novel” meant aping the European album format, and accordingly GtV is magazine-sized and in full color with high production value. Marvel’s initial graphic novel offerings were a mix of superhero and proto-Vertigo genre offerings. GtV obviously falls into the latter category: there are cusses in it, and I imagine the pitch was “a Woody Allen vampire movie.” The high concept is not completely without promise — there could be some very funny or even philosophical situations arising from the idea.

Those were the days of adventure and experimentation, weren’t they?

Artist Jock has been working with director Peter Berg on a new video for Christina Aguilera, and shares some of his art.

ALAN’S WAR, the US edition of an award-winning French graphic novel by Emmanuel Guibert, is one of the best-reviewed books of the year. Here’s a video of Guibert’s drawing techniques.

You heard that right — Marvel’s Avengers movie will field an all-star lineup:

As part of his four picture deal with Marvel Studios, Robert Downey Jr. is appearing as Tony Stark in “The Avengers” motion picture, as well as reprising his starring role as the larger-than-life leading character in “Iron Man 2.” Jon Favreau will return to direct the sequel to the blockbuster “Iron Man,” which to date has grossed over $578 million worldwide, as well as executive produce “The Avengers.”

In addition, Don Cheadle, who just signed on as the role of Rhodey/War Machine, will also appear in THE AVENGERS. Burning question: who will play Spider-Woman and the Two-Gun Kid?

A careful reading of the above reveals that Robert Downey Jr. has really decided to make his Marvel. He has a FOUR PICTURE DEAL with them, which spells IRON MAN 3.

Given the sizable haul, Marvel needed to lock down Downey for future pics. Thesp’s been filling up his dance card with projects. He’s currently lensing Warner Bros.’ “Sherlock Holmes,” which could also turn into a new franchise for Downey. Either way, deals put Downey front and center in a major tentpole each year through 2012.

Marvel will self-finance and produce its upcoming slate with Paramount distribbing the pics.

A wonky rumor is going around that Christian Bale is the frontrunner to play Dr. Strange:

The actor - who has played Batman in both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight - is said to be the number one choice to play Dr Strange in movie studio Marvel’s latest comic book adaptation.

A source said: “Christian is hot property right now, courtesy of Batman. Doctor Strange is a very different kind of hero to Batman and it’s felt Christian is the sort of actor who can make the part work on screen.

“It is understood a deal could be struck in the coming weeks.”

Excuse me, it is understood that this is just a rotten idea! Bale is allowed to play John Connor becaue it’s a different genre — that of robot-tinged apocalyptic future films — but he cannot play a Marvel superhero. That is just wrong! Christian, you might be having fun playing the Batman as a gravel-voiced psychotic, and sure, it’s fun to ride motorcycles and swing on Bat-ropes and all that, but one is enough! Don’t be greedy!

Who could play the Sorcerer Supreme? Come on, the answer is as obvious as the nose on Dormammu’s face: MAD MEN’s Jon Hamm!

In addition to his famed Laugh Out Loud Cats comic strip, Adam Koford is the man behind 700 Hoboes and is a force to be reckoned with. We’re not sure if it’s been announced yet that a book collection of the LoL Cats is coming from Abrams this March, but it is.

PLUS: See Frank Santoro’s review of Bat-Manga in today’s PW Comics Week with an EXCLUSIVE three-page preview. This book is WILD! I mean…SKIDOO.

Via Boing Boing, Mad Magazine’s take on Shepard Fairey’s now iconic Obama poster. Fairey has a gallery of parodies of the poster, but apparently it’s been boing boing’d and is down for a while.

Once again, Colleen Doran does the hard work and digs up a list of book agents who handle graphic novels.

Here are just a few of the contacts I found who are accepting graphic novel submissions. If you know of any other agent contact info you would like to share, email me at colleen@adistantsoil.com and I will post it later.

Don’t everyone email at once now, hear?

Via PR — the new release date is two weeks after the announced date.

Marvel would like to announce that the hotly anticipated, extra-sized Secret Invasion #8 will now arrive in stores on December 3rd, 2008. The top-selling comic book event of 2008, by award winning scribe Brian Michael Bendis and superstar artist Leinil Yu, concludes with this final issue that redefines the Marvel Universe and begins Dark Reign!

“The additional pages in #8 did both Leinil and the schedule in,” explained Executive Editor Tom Brevoort. “Anybody who pored over the artwork from #7 a week ago can easily see how he and Mark Morales have been putting their all (and then some) into every page and every panel, and that effort has finally caught up with us. Hopefully, retailers and fans will forgive us these extra two weeks as we make sure that everything is in the shape it should be in for the extra-sized climax—and from there, it’ll be smooth sailing straight into DARK REIGN.”

David Gabriel, Marvel’s Senior Vice President of Sales, added, “In speaking with retailers, Marvel decided it was more important to preserve the creative integrity of the series, rather than rush out the final issue. This not only creates a stronger product for our loyal readers, but also for our retailer partners, whose support helped make Secret Invasion a huge success.”

Oh, MEOW!

The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive gets in the spirit of the season with Edgar Allan Poe illos by Edmund Dulac. The above is from “The Haunted Palace.”

We were doing our usual Google news search last night and noticed you can now look back in time. A quick search on DC Comics came up with this story from the New York Times talking about D.C. Comics In New Push To Sell Space:

IT’S been a traumatic year at D.C.

First (bam!) Robin, the Boy Wonder, was killed in an explosion. Then (omigosh!) Superman suffered an identity crisis. Now (golly!) D.C. says it will accept national advertising in a previously pristine line of its comic books.

This article is a goldmine for historians.

The decision to open a second line of books, the D.C. Group, to advertisers was based on a reader survey that the company commissioned a year ago from Mark Clements, a leading magazine researcher.

The survey showed that the 1.5 million readers of this group’s 25 titles, which include ‘’Swamp Thing,'’ ‘’Hellblazer'’ and ‘’Dr. Fate,'’ were, on average, 24 years old, with college educations and household incomes of $38,000, and spent $40 to $60 a month on comic books.

More significant was their ‘’psychographic profile,'’ detailing their likes and dislikes. It showed, said Jenette Kahn, D.C.’s president and publisher, that the readers were ‘’high-tech fiends.'’ At a time when 3 percent of American households had compact disk players, for example, 38 percent of the D.C. Group’s readers owned them.

And:

Their sophistication is a response to the dramatic change in the distribution of comic books in the last decade. The corner candy stores, which once sold virtually all comic books, have closed. The convenience-store chains that took their place discouraged browsing by children.

To fill the demand for comic books, specialty stores opened, and 3,000 of them now account for about 65 percent of distribution. Because these stores are often in malls and strip shopping centers on highways, they draw an older customer. The comic-book publishers decided to create titles that reflect the new readers’ worldliness, and, voila, a new advertising medium was born.

The hook for the article is the hiring of D.C.’s first advertising director, one Tom Ballou. Reading the quotes from Jenette Kahn and Paul Levitz (then executive VP) with a bit of hindsight, it’s easy to see the excitement over the perceived artistic and business growth. It was not long after WATCHMEN and DARK KNIGHT, two radical successes that are still being mined. Who knows what else we’ll find in the Google wayback machine?

§ Gawker predicts hard times for political cartoonists if Obama is elected. Part of the problem is that caricaturing the African-American candidate could draw accusations of racism. What’s really interesting about the piece is this bit about famous illustrator/cartoonist Thomas Nast (who invented Santa Claus, among other things):

Master cartoonist Thomas Nast proved political cartoons could be used to subvert racism, as in this classic satire of whites congratulating themselves for the emancipation of slaves from an 1863 issue of Harper’s Weekly:

Nast’s cartoons not only crucially challenged the way people saw political issues — coming as they were in a time with significantly less media — but they consistently fought against racist caricatures of black people.

The idea that in 1863 a great artist was actively campaigning against racist caricatures (in a country where slavery was a current event) comes as a bracing reality check for those who defend racial caricatures that have lasted right to the present day as an innocent reminder of a happy time when folks just didn’t know any better.

Guess what?

Folks have always known better.

§ In this heated election season, it’s only natural that candidates would use the power of comics to deliver their messages. In California, state senate candidate Hannah-Beth Jackson has put out a cartoon flyer:

On the comic-book cover of the mailer, a woman expresses shock at a paper’s headline, “Hannah-Beth Jackson kidnaps Elvis!!” The inside of the flier explains how “Tony Strickland has been making some pretty wild charges about Democrat Hannah-Beth Jackson.” Another illustration shows a man reading a newspaper with the ridiculous headline, “Jackson voted to tax puppies!”

§ Not so innocently, in the heated Minnesota Senate race, incumbent Norm Coleman has been forced to repudiate a comic book attack on opponent Al Franken:

Sen. Norm Coleman doesn’t like the tasteless comic books attacking Al Franken sent out by the National Republican Senatorial Committee to Minnesotans, notes the Pioneer Press blog Political Animal, and the senator said so in a message to the group:

“The piece itself is something that simply should never made it to the mail. The direct mail piece, which comes in the form of something that looks like a comic book, focuses on Mr. Franken’s repeated efforts at comedy using jokes about rape, child abuse and other degrading commentary during his career,” Coleman wrote.

Guess ya gotta draw the line somewhere.

American Elf, James Kochalka’s daily comic diary, is celebrating its 10th anniversary with some guest stars. Above, Tony Millionaire’s take on the Elf.

Following his prints with Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman, letterer supreme Todd Klein is teaming up with artist Alex Ross:

The print will be called “Comic Book Dreams”, and will have quite a bit of lettering on it. I’ll be showing that, and writing about the evolution of the print in the coming weeks, but right now I have to get them printed, painted, and off to Alex for signing. I’m hoping to have them ready for sale the last week of November.

A game of Magic: The Gathering turned violent when pranksters mooned a comics shop in Bellingham, WA and vigilante justice went too far, news sources are reporting. The tragic incident began when three walked into Access Comics, in Bellingham, in an intoxicated state. The three were asked to leave by owner Lanny Wolfe as they were interrupting the game with their antics. The trio left, but came back and mooned the people in the store. Unfortunately, the pressure of their buttocks against the front window of the store caused the glass to break, and an even more unfortunate series of events was to unfold.

Two of the players, aged 19 and 42, took after the mooners. They were armed with a baseball bat. What followed was brutal. One of the victims suffered a broken orbital bone, and another is in serious condition with a life-threatening skull fracture.

What started as fun and games for all concerned now has one man fighting for his life, and two facing felony assault charges.

A video report is up at KING5.com:

Starz has announced a new TV series version of Spartacus, the stirring historical epic of a doomed but feisty slave rebellion in ancient Rome. With intense gladiator action sure to be on tap, it’s no surprise that the tale — already interpreted as a film by Stanley Kubrick, a novel by Howard Fast and a ballet by Aram Khachaturian – would be ripe for adaptation for a new generation. However, the buzz words in the press release are, we believe, of some interest to our audience:

Starz’s new series, “Spartacus,” an entirely new twist on the ancient legend, will utilize virtual environments giving it a unique graphic novel look and style, along with a fresh narrative approach….

With comics-loving exec producers Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert, and Josh Donen on board, getting that graphic novel look and feeling should be a snap; in addition, though, the show runner is Steven S. DeKnight, who worked on Smallville and “Season Eight” of the Buffy comic.

From the talented team responsible for some of the biggest action feature film hits, and consistently popular action TV series, “Spartacus” will take the story of the rebellious warrior-slave and re-imagine it for a generation of TV viewers raised on graphic novels and cutting-edge production technology. Audiences will get 13 hour-long episodes of unsparing action, set in the brutal world of gladiators.

The show promises lots of “character, action, sex, and combat,” meaning it will be much like a typical day at the San Diego Comic-Con, where the idea was probably hatched.

In all seriousness, is this the first TV show to be done in the “Frank Miller/green screen” style?

§ Brian Cronin is running a month-long feature called Stars of Political Cartooning. The series concentrates on figures of the past, like John ‘Ding” Darling (above), but the whole piece is an education.

§ Despite the rack, ruin, bloody-tinted haze and smoking rubble of Wall Street, Tim Beyer at the Motley Fool is still bullish on Marvel stock, boldly proclaiming:

Marvel Entertainment may not be the best company I’ve ever seen but I like its chances to become the next Disney.

The reason? Dr. Strange.

§ The Onion’s team of Noel Murray, Keith Phipps, and Tasha Robinson reviews some comics.

§ This syndicated piece looks at Wacky Packages and what they say about us as a nation:

Today, when anything without a wink or a nudge is either suspect for its naivete or genius for its retro sensibility, it is difficult to imagine a world in which satirizing the country’s most established advertising icons was subversive.

But there was such a time: the early 1970s, at the dawn of the age of irony. The product was called Wacky Packages.

Via PR, news of benefit activity at the next Wizard Show in Texas:

Wizard World Texas will play host to a game show night mixing popular creators and fans like never before, and all for a great cause.

Ethan Van Sciver, Terry Moore, Sean McKeever, Shane Davis, Phil Hester and others will grab their pen and paper and fill in the blanks during a rousing comic-book-tinted version of the classic game show, “Match Game.” These superstar creators have worked on a veritable who’s who of huge characters including Spider-Man, Captain America, Superman and Batman. Trying to match the creators will be numerous lucky fans who will have the chance to get onstage if the ticket they purchased is drawn. All proceeds from ticket and admission sales go to benefit the Hero Initiative and the lucky winners will receive original artwork and other memorabilia donated by the contestants and other top name creators.

(more…)

Via Boneville.

Hey cartoonists and goth kids: send us your debut books for this week’s APE! We won’t be there but plenty of people will, including
Jessica Abel, Paige Braddock, Megan Kelso, Matt
Madden, and (ulp!) Chris Ware! Make sure you put “APE DEBUT” in the email title and include either a nice clear jpg or a link to the same.

Thanks!

You’d think with the WATCHMEN graphic novel selling 10K+ copies a week on and off since July that it would have cracked a major print bestseller list (NYT, PW) by now, wouldn’t you? Well, you would be wrong. For various reasons, WATCHMEN has been shut out, and in fact, graphic novels are not even counted on the New York Times Book Review’s prestigious bestseller list.

This fact was brought up this week in a post by Del Rey’s Betsy Mitchell on the Suvudu blog:

As a result of my ranting around the office Thursday morning, the head of publicity contacted the Times to find out why Welcome to the Jungle had been dissed. “Well, there’s actually an answer,” she reported. “Even though they have included graphic memoirs and nonfiction like Persepolis and Art Spiegelman books on the list, they have not been tallying graphic novels. HOWEVER: they are planning to start a separate list of graphic novels, if not by the end of this year then very early next year.”

The Times’ ban on graphic novels has been in place for a while, and has caused consternation at both Marvel and DC, according to numerous gripes we’ve heard.

Marvel, in particular, has been hoping for a slot in the NYT bestseller list for a while, going so far as to take an ad out in the NYT Book Review for the Stephen King DARK TOWER hardcover, which came out a year ago last November. Apparently, both DARK TOWER and DC’s HEROES GN both sold enough to crack the list, but both were denied. Since then, WATCHMEN has been a legitimate publishing industry phenomenon, but hasn’t made the paperback list.

It isn’t that graphic novels NEVER made the list. In fact, ENDLESS NIGHTS, the deluxe Sandman hardcover anthology, made #20 on the extended list in 2003. However, according to several observers, this was viewed by the folks who make the list at the Times as “a mistake,” for reasons that aren’t entirely clear.

The Beat contacted Times spokeswoman Diane McNulty about the GN situation a few weeks ago, and was given this response:

We’ve never attempted to capture this market comprehensively, which would involve different retailers than the ones we currently poll, in order to do the field justice. On very rare occasions over the years one or two of the comic- or graphic format titles hit the list for a short time, due to whatever phenomena and general interest surrounded their appearance in the general market place.

As for PW, the magazine does host a GN bestseller list; however, as editor Calvin Reid explained, it doesn’t take backlist into account, so no WATCHMEN there, either.

Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons much acclaimed superhero epic, has always sold well as a backlist title. But since the July release of an online trailer to promote director Zack Snyder’s forthcoming film adaptation of the book, DC Comics has gone back to press for nearly 1 million copies of the graphic novel. “A pretty amazing record for a 21 year old book,” said DC president Paul Levitz. In fact, the popularity of the Watchmen trailer and the hit Dark Knight film, is giving several classic superhero collections a backlist sales push, among them, Moore’s V for Vendetta, Grant Morrison and Dave Mckean’s Arkham Asylum. David Mazzuchelli’s Batman: Year One, The Long Halloween and Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns.

As for the Times’ proposed new graphic novel bestseller list, as the reply to Mitchell shows, it’s still in the works.

Although newspapers (and the Times) are having serious problems in the new media world, getting on the Times’ list is still seen as a real coup in the book publishing world…and even in this era of booming sales and legitimacy, there are still a few glass ceilings.

Two of the sales charts analyses came out last week; at Newsarama, John Jackson Miller does his thing, charting Marvel’s big month. However here’s something we noted — the ten year comparison chart, from the near-depths of the last comics sales depression:

Sept. 2008 final orders versus Sept. 1998 preorders (est.)

Top 300 units: -9% (6.77 million copies vs. 7.44 million copies)

Top 300 dollars: +21% ($21.96 million vs. $ 18.18 million)

Top 25 trade paperbacks: +49% ($1.7 million vs. $1.14 million)

Top 300 comics plus top 25 trades: +22% ($23.66 million vs. $19.32 million)

Interestingly, although total units are down, the chart shows more strength overall:

Nine items were above the 100,000-copy preorder mark, with 131 items over 20,000 copies and 209 items over 5,000 copies. Titles in the midlist tended to sell more strongly, but the chart doesn’t have nearly the depth we see today. The 300th-place item had preorders of 1,761, compared with this September’s 2,889.

Meanwhile, John Mayo also looks at charts, and flags late shipping as a problem:

When I first started reading comics, titles shipped each and every month. Some titles would always come out on the first week of the month, others always on the second week, etc. If a comic didn’t ship the week it normally did, it was considered late. In most cases, it would ship a week or two later. These days, complaining about a comic shipping a week or two late is tantamount to nitpicking. Shipping a comic late is considered acceptable behavior for a publisher. How often have we heard things along the lines of “do you want it good or do you want it now?” from publishers? It is too much to ask for both? Late comics equate to missed sales.

Sort of related, Brian Hibbs looks at SECRET INVASION vs FINAL CRISIS, and although he feels FC is better artistically, it hasn’t flourished:

Let me tell you a little story about my audience: I was, for the LONGEST time there, the prototypical “DC store” — DC comics ALWAYS sold better than Marvels for us. This has ABSOLUTELY changed in the wake of “One Year Later” and COUNTDOWN. New DC series are largely non-starters for us, with anything that isn’t “A-List” having the lowest rack sales I’ve ever seen, including my first month of business 19 years ago! Things like RANN/THANAGAR WAR or DC DECISIONS are having rack sales of ONE OR TWO copies for us. I could stop racking 80% of the DC line today, and I don’t think it would have a significant negative impact on my sales. That’s really painfully ugly. If it weren’t for Morrison and Geoff Johns, DC would have nothing at this stage. That makes me deeply sad.