Eric Powell, Rick Remender, David Lloyd, Evan Dorkin, Jill Thompson and many more will highlight this Dark Horse gangs events:

Friday Feb. 6th :

2:00 - 3:00 PIGEONS FROM HELL – Nathan Fox
3:00 - 4:00 FEAR AGENT, END LEAGUE – Rick Remender
4:00 – 5:00 KICKBACK – David Lloyd
4:00 – 5:00 UNBOUND SAGA – Game Demo with Mike Kennedy
5:00 – 6:00 KULL – Arvid Nelson, Will Conrad, Jose Villarrubia
5:00 – 6:00 THE CLEANERS – Mark Wheaton, Rahsan Ekedal
6:00 – 7:00 THE GOON – Eric Powell

(more…)

News that this or that “famous person” reads comics isn’t exactly a headline-maker (unless you’re running for president, of course). With all the success of comics-based media in the last few years, it’s more newsworthy when some actress or sports figure proclaims they DON’T like comics. However, there are still a few nerdlebrities whose involvement with graphic literature goes above and beyond a few trips to the comics shop.

Such a figure is Eddie Argos, (above, far right) lead singer of Art Brut, an energetic British “Art Wave” band much beloved by The Beat’s music-listening pals. Argos is a sometime-painter and a huge DC Comics fan. Even further, buried in the news that Pixies legend Frank Black will produce their new album, is the title of one of their songs: “D.C. Comics and Chocolate Milkshake.” Could this be a new anthem? A chocolate milkshake goes well with anything, including comics!

Now, we know what you are thinking: What does Argos think of UMBRELLA ACADEMY, penned by fellow music/comics crossover star Gerard Way? Well, it turns out that Argos pens an occasional column for the St Louis Playback, and in one, he gives us the skinny:

I’m not really a fan of My Chemical Romance, and Grant Morrison’s pretentious ramblings in the introduction to the book claiming that the band is spearheading some sort of “necrodelic” counter-culture revolution makes me dislike them even more. Personally, I’m more into Fall-Out Boy. Also, as a singer in a band myself who also maintains fantasies of one day writing a comic of my own, there was probably a little bit of jealousy sneaking into my psyche as I started to read this book. I am, after all, a Scorpio with a rampant ego who sees himself in competition with absolutely everybody, so consequently, I was pre-disposed to dislike this book from the start. The cover to the collected Umbrella Academy by Gabriel Ba. I was wrong though. The Umbrella Academy is a pretty decent book. Most new books take a while to set the scene, and this book being no exception is a bit of a muddle at the beginning. Actually, thinking about it now, I started reading it the morning after my birthday, so it’s possible that it was my mind that was a bit of a muddle and the book is actually pretty straight-forward. Anyway, whoever was at fault - me or the book — I was really into it by the second chapter.

Call it a forced — but powerful — endorsement.

We’re sure all of this is old news to Brian Heater, and indeed, he recently interviewed Argos, who proves that his comics reading is not just a flash in the pan:

This time next year, I hope to be working on the soundtrack to major motion picture adaptation of which comic:

All three Essex County books by Jeff Lemire. They are a trilogy of books about the same small Canadian town. It’s a real place, but they’re fictional stories. Really, totally amazing. I can’t recommend these books enough. There on an independent called Top Shelf. I might write the songs anyway and release some sort of concept album so when it does inevitably turn into a film, I have a head start on everybody else.

CORRECTION: The PSU collection is NOT, as the headline for this post originally claimed, “The Country’s First University Comic Book Archive,” but one of many great academic comic book libraries, as PSU Librarian Helen Spalding explained in our interview with her. In a rush out of the office, The Beat’s humble intern neglected to change the headline, which has resulted in many varieties of confusion. Apologies all around.

In an partnership formally unveiled last week, Dark Horse Comics‘ entire catalogue is now being shelved at Portland State University. Available for check-out from the PSU library’s general circulating collection will be one copy of everything Dark Horse has ever published: comic book, graphic novel, manga, hardcover and foreign edition, you name it. A second copy of each will be stored in the library’s special collection.

While it’s become increasingly common for libraries to stock graphic novels, the PSU arrangement goes far beyond that in a number of ways. They’re not just shelving books with a spine, but also the floppy “pamphlet” comic books, which have long been archived only in fans’ long-boxes and retailers’ back issue bins. At Portland State, each issue will be given an acid-proof cover and a call number, as well as an extensive catalog listing that will include credits for everyone involved, including letterer and colorist.

The library’s Dark Horse collection will include everything they’ve produced, from books in 24 different languages to Aliens stickers and Hellboy lunch-boxes. The Beat spoke with Portland State University Librarian Helen Spalding, who explained that even a Buffy marquee statue can be useful to academics. “The key rings, action figures, mugs and tee-shirts are all rich research material for examining marketing, gender roles, and many other topics,” she said.

The idea for the collection was sparked a few years back when Spalding saw DHC Publisher and PSU alumnus Mike Richardson speak at a university luncheon. “They’re an important Portland institution, and the University is really engaged with the community and the alumni,” Spalding said, “so it just made a lot of sense that we work together on this important collection to our mutual benefit.

“It’s so important to Mike Richardson that people get to read this stuff just like any other literature that we’re allowed to check out, so he’s provided a copy for us to check out, which is great.”

The library has already shelved 3,000 of an expected 6,000 volumes in their Dark Horse collection, which will continue to grow as the publisher releases new material. This positions PSU as a leading academic archive of comics in North America, and Spalding hopes it will attract other collections as well. Although they likely won’t be seeking the complete corpus of any other publisher, she said that the confluence of independent publishers in Portland make them a good place to start.

Related: The Oregonian interviews Richardson; Portland Monthly looks at the collection; PSU’s alumni mag says “Pow! Zowie! Comics in the Library”.

Posted by Aaron Humphrey

In today’s Option News, David Gordon Green is set to direct FREAKS OF THE HEARTLAND, a film based on the Dark Horse graphic novel by Steve Niles and Greg Ruth.

Illustrated by Greg Ruth, Niles’ six-part 2004 series about the horrible secret of a rural Middle American town involves Trevor Owen’s attempts to protect his “monster” of a 6-year-old younger brother and Gristlewood Valley’s other “freaks” from their parents’ worst instincts.

ICV2 sits down with Dark Horse big wampum Mike Richardson for the annual gabfest. The always voluble Richardson is without question the very first publisher we ever heard volunteer to call periodicals “pamphlets” … and maybe this is why:

As for other types of graphic novels, those seem to be experiencing stronger sales, and maybe it’s the bookstores that have realized that this is a growing area of sales for them as a category. We’ve heard a lot of encouraging news, for instance the discussion of the addition of children’s graphic novel sections, and certain titles that the bookstores are very eager to receive. A lot of it is media based. They like familiar titles. They like titles where they feel there is less risk; certainly Star Wars and Buffy have been big successes for us.

As far as pamphlets–especially with what I see happening with the economy– as much as we all love them, the traditional comic book is going to be going to harder and harder to sell, and harder and harder to make work. And as I’ve said many times, that particular format is a product of a time that doesn’t exist anymore. They started out as cheap reprints of newspaper strips and now they’ve become relatively expensive packages for the marketplace.

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four

In all the WATCHMEN hubbub, questions about that supposed “300 prequel/sequel” were also raised, and Zack Snyder answered:

So when does the second 300 film take place?

In short, Snyder says he’s spoken with Frank Miller who will be writing and drawing the graphic novel that the second film will be based on. Upon Miller’s completion of the book, then, and only then, will they delve into writing a script for the movie.

Snyder continued and said he would not have any input into the novel and wants it to be a creation of Miller’s 100%.

Snyder also said it will take place between the Battle of Thermopylae and the Battle of Plataea, the battle that narrator Dilios is at while re-telling the story of King Leonidas and the mighty Spartans to a new group of warriors at the end of 300.

As Dilios says, there’s a whole year between Thermopylae and where he currently stands, in his final monologue he states…

Waiting for Miller to finish a GN, eh? That may be a looooong wait.

[Regular Beat commenter Torsten Adair attended the just-concluded Diamond Retail Summit in Las Vegas, sat through every presentation, and typed up his notes for us. A first installment ran yesterday in PW Comics Week with updates on the POS system, the Comic Shop Locator system and more. Here’s a summary of the rest of the announcements. Parsing through it, the biggest news, from a business standpoint, appears to be both Image and Dark Horse adopting the “Final Order Cut-Off” system through Diamond, meaning retailers can raise or lower orders for specific titles much closer to print dates, allowing more accurate ordering. The system has done well for Marvel and DC to increase periodical sales (retailers can order with more confidence) and could do the same for Dark Horse and Image.]

by Torsten Adair
• Diamond’s new warehouse:
At Monday’s breakfast, Cindy Fournier, Diamond Vice President of Operations, presented the new distribution warehouse moving from Memphis, Tennessee, to nearby Olive Branch, Mississippi. Six years ago, Diamond moved from Sparta, Illinois, to its present location in Memphis, renting a 225,000 sq. ft. facility. Today, they occupy three buildings with 350,000 sq. ft.

The new facility, built to Diamond’s specifications, will occupy 600,000 sq. ft. It will utilize modern technology, using Radio Frequency Identification and voice recognition software to assist with efficient distribution of product. Computer cartonization will calculate the volume of the product on each shipment and then select the optimal carton size, thereby reducing waste.

An implementation date for the new warehouse has not yet been publicized. Diamond plans to finish the move before the holiday season, preferably by late October. 6,000 skids, or 300 tractor trailers, of product has already been transferred. Diamond offers over 20,000 SKUs and 20,000,000 items, so reordering will be suspended for one week as non-comic book product is transferred, then later, comic books and graphic novels will be unavailable for six to ten days. New product will ship directly to the new warehouse, and won’t be affected.

Since the move is less than ten miles from Diamond’s current warehouses in the Memphis area, all of the warehouse management staff, and 98% of the warehouse employees will transfer to the new location. UPS shipping will continue from the current hub.
(more…)

While out doing the rounds of PR for RocknRolla, the new Guy Ritchie-directed film, Leonidas, aka Gerard Butler, sounded off on rumors of a 300 sequel or prequel of some kind:

Unfortunately, Butler hasn’t heard anything more then we have, and he seemed rather dubious of the film’s franchise potential. “I’ve heard some backroom chatter, but nothing more, so I don’t know if it would be a sequel or a prequel. I don’t want say anymore than that, because I really don’t know. I haven’t read anything. I can’t see it myself–sequel for me absolutely not, but I just mean the idea generally, I’m really not sure which way they would go with that.”

Whatever happened to that movie in which Bruce Campbell has to rescue a town beset by demons, and the townspeople believe he can really fight them? Well, screenwriter Mark Verheiden has the release news:

Dates for the theatrical release of “My Name Is Bruce” have finally been announced. Bruce Campbell himself, aka “the man”, will be making personal appearances in multiple cities to launch the greatest film directed by and starring Bruce Campbell released this year! Here’s the official press release, straight from B.C. himself:

My Name is Bruce is hitting theaters October 26th. I’ll be appearing in each of the following cities to introduce the film and answer questions afterward:

10/26 Austin, TX Alamo Drafthouse - Black Curtain screening/premiere with Harry Knowles
10/31-11/2 NYC
11/5 Philadelphia, PA
11/7 Boston, MA
11/9 Hartford, CT
11/12 New Haven, CT
11/14 Baltimore, MD
11/15 Washington D.C.
11/19 Columbus, OH
11/20 Toledo, OH
11/21-23 Detroit, MI
11/28-30 Chicago, IL
12/3 Madison, WI
12/5-7 Minneapolis, MN
12/12 Seattle, WA
12/13-14 Portland, OR
12/15 – Medford, Or
12/17 San Francisco, CA
12/18 Berkeley, CA
12/19-21 Los Angeles, CA

Over at the Splash Page blog, Laura Hudson has more on the Dark Horse comic book tie-in, including a three-page preview and an interview with scripter Milton Freewater.

Freewater says that when he got the call from Dark Horse to write the “My Name Is Bruce” comic, “it was tied to a Bruce Campbell movie, so I couldn’t pass it up… I love Bruce’s work. I’ve followed him since ‘Evil Dead.’ I think he’s been in every movie made since about 1987,” he jokes. “And he was the only good thing about the train-wreck that was ‘Spider-Man 3.’”

It’s the first new BEANWORLD story in over a decade! And it’s up on DARK HORSE PRESENTS at MySpace.

You can even friend up the Beanworld here.

Well we survived Hell Week and got about 87% of what we had to get done, done, which is a good percentage. We even managed to sneak in the movies we had to see before Nerd Fest and everything got spoiled.

Our enjoyment of THE DARK KNIGHT on Saturday was somewhat hampered by a few elements:

1) We arrived late and had to sit in the 3rd row. Not the most relaxing place to sit.

2) For some unknown reason, the woman sitting next to us decided to bring an entire box full of stinky Chinese food to eat during the film. Stinky Chinese food full of stinky cabbage. And every once in a while, as the movie unfolded, she would open up the box and have a taste, sending new waves of stinky cabbage — now old and cold — into the theater. She also sat with it on her LAP the whole time instead of at least lowering it to the ground where the potential for damage was less.

Now don’t get us wrong, we’ve snuck food into the theater — we especially favor one of the sublime tuna salad sandwiches from Todaro Brothers, and, sure, that doesn’t smell like a bed of jasmine, but we eat the whole thing and it’s soon finished. Ultimately, if the Joker really were to come to Gotham, he could do worse than to demoralize the populace and ruin people’s joy by sneaking stinky Chinese food into theaters across the city.

3) — and this is the one that will get us into trouble — we didn’t think BATMAN BEGINS was the Dostoyevsky-level masterpiece most fellows think it was. It was perfectly fine and well done and well cast, but it was, in the end, a fine action movie.

THE DARK KNIGHT is more, to that we would agree, and, yes, almost surely the greatest superhero movie ever made, but it was too choppily edited to be a truly great film, no matter how strong the story and the performances. Anyway, that’s our story and we’re sticking to it, at least until we see it in IMAX in a week or so. It didn’t complete us, or send us into orbit, or make us want to rate it the #1 film of all time or anything like that. We kind of get why The Dark Knight generation feels that way, but maybe this is just not as much our thing.

That said, we do think this, from New Yorker reviewer David Denby is one of the dumbest things ever written:

In brief, Warner Bros. has continued to drain the poetry, fantasy, and comedy out of Tim Burton’s original conception for “Batman” (1989), completing the job of coarsening the material into hyperviolent summer action spectacle.

This from someone who thought the wretched HANCOCK was the best movie of the summer? What is in Denby’s water? What is in his Chinese food, even?

***********
HELLBOY II was a lot of fun, and the best demo reel for THE HOBBIT we could imagine. Even down to how [SPOILER]the crown MELTED at the end. It was a visual treat, a feast of imagination, and just a great time at the movies. Not much more to say than that.

***********

In other news, we’re going to TRY to slog through the last of the booth listings for the big show, and try to finish the laundry.

Amano! Mignola! Sakai! Way! Nightow! BRUCE CAMPBELL! Dark Horse has an incredible list of signings, raffles to win exclusive Domo figures, a full day of WETA signings, a full day of Star Wars signings and panels galore. Details are all in the jump.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 23 (Preview Night)

Domo raffle! Come to our booth to win one of our San Diego Exclusive Domo Figures!

THURSDAY, JULY 24:
11:00 – 12:00 Rick Geary: The Adventures of Blanche
12:00 - 1:00 Joshua Dysart: B.P.R.D., Conan and the Midnight God
12:00 – 1:00 Bernie Wrightson: Bernie Wrightson’s Frankenstein
1:00 - 2:00 Gabriel Ba & Fabio Moon: Umbrella Academy, Myspace Dark Horse Presents
2:00 – 3:00 Nathan Fox: Pigeons From Hell
2:00 - 3:00 Dean Motter: Mister X
3:00 – 4:00 Greg “Stainboy” Reinel: Vicious Intent
3:00 – 4:00 Gilbert Hernandez: Speak of the Devil
4:00 - 5:00 Jim Hardison: The Helm
5:00 – 6:00 Eric Powell: The Goon

(more…)

Another comic book movie has landed at #1 at the box office, as HELLBOY II led the way:

Hellboy II: The Golden Army stormed onto approximately 4,400 screens at 3,204 theaters and grossed an estimated $35.9 million over the weekend, a significant bump over its predecessor’s $23.1 million start. That was the bar for Hellboy II’s success, but the movie also posted a greater debut than the similar comic book adventure, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which opened on the same date five years ago.

Oh no you didn’t Box Office Mojo! At any rate the good reviews and good debut cement Guillermo del Toro’s place as a filmmaker who can open a movie, and sets the scene for the hobbits very nicely. Nikki FInke praised the canny marketing for the film:

Obviously, the studio’s uber-marketing attempt to humanize the Guillermo del Toro pic’s bizarro collection of characters from the Dark Horse comic book worked nicely. That’s why Ron Perlman as Hellboy did promos on every NBC Uni media outlet imaginable. (Even on cable’s Oxygen channel with Bravo’s James Lipton interviewing him…) “We wanted to make him as audience friendly and accessible as possible,” one Uni exec explained to me. The fact that Hellboy II made 50% more than the 2004 first movie’s $23.1M opening FSS is a real triumph for Universal Pictures, whose bosses Marc Shmuger, David Linde and Donna Langley swooped in and scooped up the sequel from Sony/Revolution Studios which did the original Hellboy I.

Of all this summer’s plentiful comic book movies, the one we’ve been looking forward to the most is HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY, because…well, it just looks so crazy and Guillermo del Toro is a true visionary. It’s currently at a laudable 87% on Rotten Tomatoes, and a big opening weekend is expected.

There are a few ways that HELLBOY’s success is notable: unless we’re forgetting something big, he’s the first creator-owned comic-book character since the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to reach icon status (as confirmed by his appearances with James Lipton.) In that, he remains an inspiration rather than the first of many, alas.

HELLBOY is also notable because after the first film, the original distributor, Columbia, decided against a sequel, making it a very rare two-studio franchise. Borys Kit at THR details the film’s rocky road to the screen:

When Gordon and Dark Horse publisher Mike Richardson began shopping del Toro’s first “Hellboy” screenplay in 1998, they met with plenty of resistance. Why does he have to be red? Does he need to have a tail? Can we call him something other than Hellboy?

Although they managed to set up the project at Joe Roth’s Sony-based Revolution, the project continued to face an uphill battle. Executives were reluctant to make the film without a star, pushing such actors as Bruce Willis and Vin Diesel on the filmmakers. With the project stuck in development hell, del Toro hopped on New Line’s “Blade 2.”

A week after that action horror movie opened to $32.5 million in March 2002, Revolution greenlighted “Hellboy.”

“Why does he have to have a tail?”

Indeed. Hellboy is still an iconoclast — because of the very title, there aren’t many licensing opportunities. And maybe that’s why we like him the best.

Technorati Tags: Hellboy

Speaking of Mike Mignola, he very kindly forwarded us some pictures of HELLBOY II promos around New York. It is kind of odd to realize that Hellboy is now an iconic character who loms over Time Square. Sniff…we knew ye when…

Technorati Tags: Hellboy

Bonus:

On his blog, GOON creator Eric Powell makes a simple announcement:

THEGOON.COM is proud to announce that THE GOON has been optioned by acclaimed director and producer DAVID FINCHER and Academy-Award nominated BLUR STUDIO to develop as a CG animated feature film with Dark Horse Entertainment.

The Hollywood Reporter has a bit more:

No studio is yet attached, and deals are being negotiated. Dark Horse, which has a first-look deal with Universal, is aiming to develop the project in-house before setting it up.

Blur is best known for its shorts, including the Academy Award-nominated “Gopher Broke,” as well as its work in commercials and special effects. “Goon” be the company’s first feature.

After the success of SIN CITY and HELLBOY, this would seem a natural.

The big news coming out of Stumpown this weekend is that Larry Marder’s resurgent Beanworld comics will be published by Dark Horse:

Steve Duin of the Oregonian did a nice write up of today’s panel–including the announcement above and includes the following summary:”Dark Horse plans to republish the first 21 issues of Tales of the Beanworld, possibly in deluxe hardcover editions, then deliver Marder’s new adventures sometime in early 2009. Diana Schutz will edit.”

I’m really very excited to be affiliated with Dark Horse. I’ve admired Mike Richardson and his crew from across the playing field for two decades and have always had the greatest admiration for the entire Dark Horse team.

Today I gave the first solo Beanworld panel presentation in over 15 years. It covered a lot of ground, and I’m almost certainly going to be giving it again at SD08. Also revealed was the name of the up-coming NEW graphic novel: “Remember HERE when you are THERE.”

More: Steve Duin in the Oregonian and an interview with Marder at CBR.

Just for NYCC.

Numerous sources are reporting that Join HETFET.org appears to be a viral marketing site for HELLBOY II. Keep watching.

It’s up at Yahoo. Also more stills. We are, like, sooooo looking forward to this movie.

Recent comments on Dark Horse manga sales have been much talked about, and a post at Blogorama drew a response from Dark Horse Big Cheese Mike Richardson himself:

Saw these posts and had to respond. First, most of Dark Horse manga sells extremely well. While it is true that the horror line did not sell as well as expected, and that quality titles such as Eden and MPD Psycho are below expectations, most of our titles do quite nicely. Berserk. Ghost In the Shell, Blade of the Immortal, Trigun, Hellsing and others have all been big sellers and all of our manga continues to sell on backlist. The Lone Wolf & Cub series, by the way, has sold over 1 million copies to date.

More in the link. As Richardson points out, Dark Horse has been in the manga game since the very beginning, and they certainly have brought us some good reading. Also, Lone Wolf & Cub has sold more than 1 million copies. Via John Jakala, who has more Dark Horse manga facts.

Now on sale.