Image has a big show planned with a WonderCon Exclusive edition of SAVAGE DRAGON #145 which features the most popular president currently in charge of the US taking on a dirty rotten terrorist. Won’t someone save us a copy?

This weekend thousands of comic fans will flood San Francisco’s Moscone Hall for WonderCon 2009 to meet their favorite creators and the publisher who brings it better than any other, the Bay Area’s very own Image Comics!

“It’s always fun to travel to conventions, but nothing beats the hometown show,” Image Comics Founder and Illustrator of the WonderCon Exclusive SAVAGE DRAGON #145 Erik Larsen said. “It may not be the biggest, but it’s certainly one of the best! Plus, it’s a particularly important con for me as this week marks the big relaunch of SAVAGE DRAGON! I’m excited to hear what the fans have to say about the big issue!”

Throughout the weekend Larsen along with VIKING’s Ivan Brandon, ELEPHANTMEN’s Richard Starkings & Moritat, DARKNESS’ Michael Broussard and Top Cow Productions Publisher Filip Sablik and will be available at the Image Comics booth signing autographs and selling exclusive items! However, the convention doesn’t truly begin until Friday’s Image Comics Show at 3-4 PM in room 103 featuring Larsen, Starkings, THE GREAT UNKNOWN’s Duncan Rouleau and Champions Online writer John Layman with the first word on an all-new project! In addition, the already much coveted SAVAGE DRAGON #145 variant featuring President Barack Obama taking on Osama Bin Laden will be available starting Friday for a very limited amount of time with a select few fans randomly winning a copy during the Friday panel. If that’s not enough GODLAND’s Joe Casey, PHERONE’s Viktor Kalvachev, NEW BRIGHTON ARCHELOGICAL SOCIETY’s Mark Andrew Smith and many more will stop by the booth!

Image Comics can be found at booth #407 during Wondercon, February 27 - March 1st 2009, taking place in the San Francisco Moscone Center.

Technorati Tags: WonderCon 09

Rob Liefeld’s YOUNGBLOOD has been optioned for a possible movie, possibly directed by Brett Ratner (RUSH HOUR, X-MEN 3):

The company paid mid six figures for the rights to “Youngblood,” about a superhero team sanctioned and overseen by the U.S. government.

“Most of the great graphic novels are gone, and ‘Youngblood’ is one of the few comic books left with tentpole potential,” Ratner told the trade. “It was a real personal passion project for me, and a lot of people wanted (’Youngblood’), but the amazing thing about the guys at Reliance is the speed with which they’re able to move.”

Be afraid; be very afraid.

It’s Jersey time at Image Comics:

Throughout the convention the Image Comics booth will be home to signings galore, a convention exclusive cover of the superhero debut JERSEY GODS and an array of creators including Rob Liefeld (YOUNGBLOOD), Whilce Portacio (SPAWN), Frank Cho (LIBERTY MEADOWS), Richard Starkings (ELEPHANTMEN), Glen Brunswick (JERSEY GODS), Josh Williamson (JOHNNY MONSTER) and Vinny Navarette (DEAR DRACULA).

Special events will include Thursday’s Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Welcome Party co-sponsored by Image Comics and Dark Horse, Saturday’s Apes & Babes: The Frank Cho Spotlight & the iFanboy/ROLFThing/1Up/PopGun Meet-Up Party and Friday’s The Image Comics Show: Breaking Into Comics on Friday, February 5th featuring Liefeld, Portacio, Joe Kelly (I KILL GIANTS), Steve Seagle (SOUL KISS) and Joseph Michael Linsner (DAWN, DARK IVORY) discussing the road they’ve taken to get to where they are now and where they’re going from here! The Image Comics Show will also be the epicenter of announcements from Image Comics, including the big secret behind Robert Kirkman and Todd McFarlane’s HAUNT!

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• On Monday, Rich Johnston reported that Top Cow has laid off two of its top people, VP of Sales and Marketing Mel Caylo and VP of Editorial Rob Levin. We’ve received the email from Levin confirming this…but he will be attending New York Comic-Con with Top Cow for those who might wish to talk to him regarding potential projects. Caylo and Levin are both well respected, so the cuts are becoming deeper.

• Much talk about Warner Bros.’s plans to cut 800 jobs, but based on what has been reported, it doesn’t seem that DC Comics will be directly affected.

Warner Bros. Entertainment is eliminating 800 jobs, or about 10% of its global workforce, becoming the latest media company to take drastic cost-cutting measures amid a deepening recession.

About 600 people will be laid off across all divisions of the studio’s operations, and 200 cuts will come from open positions not being filled.

Ivan Brandon and Nic Klein collaborate on a crime book for the 9th century. Due in April from Image.

Here’s a new Image book by Glen Brunswick and Dan McDaid that caught our eye: JERSEY GODS.

A sneak preview of Jersey Gods was done in Robert Kirkman’s Invincible. The ongoing superhero series will star Barock, who is a superhero from another planet, and Zoe, who is a high maintenance Jersey girl. Jersey Gods will tell the story of the newlywed couple. Of course don’t expect life for Barock and Zoe to be typical married life, because Barock’s previous life will shake things up for the couple.

Hopefully that cover isn’t just a tease and we’ll get to see scenes of life at the Woodbridge Mall and along Route 22. Maybe Fountains of Wayne will make an appearance. The series will have covers by Mike Allred, Darwyn Cooke, Paul Pope, and Erik Larsen.

Okay, buckle your seat belt, and BE SURE TO READ AFTER THE CUT!

§ Buenaventura Press:

Buenaventura Press will have a 5 table sprawl at APE this year. You can find us at tables 308 - 312. We will be debuting Kramers Ergot 7 with a limited handful of advance copies that have been specially flown in for the event. There will be continuous signings throughout the weekend, with numerous artists signing Kramers Ergot 7. In addition, Phil Elverum will be signing advance copies of his new book Dawn, Matt Furie will be signing Boy’s Club 1 & 2, Kevin Huizenga will be signing Fight Or Run, and Lisa Hanawalt will be signing her awesome mini comics. There will be a Kramers Ergot discussion panel on Sunday, Nov 2nd from 2:30 - 3:45 with editor Sammy Harkham, publisher Alvin Buenaventura, and participating artists Daniel Clowes, Eric Haven, Jaime Hernandez, Kevin Huizenga, Ted May, Johnny Ryan, Chris Ware, and others. Eric Reynolds will moderate.

Plus…PARTY!

§ Fantagraphics signing schedule

§ Fanfare/Ponent Mon’s plans

§ Top Shelf’s plans:
TOP SHELF GOES APE!
Heading to Alternative Press Expo this weekend? Top Shelf’s West Coast dream team, Leigh Walton and Brett Warnock, will be at tables 320-322 all weekend, together with the following creators:
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-Jeffrey Brown (SULK #1, starring Bighead & Friends!)
–Renee French (THE TICKING, MICROGRAPHICA)
–Robert Goodin (THE MAN WHO LOVED BREASTS)
–Liz Prince (DELAYED REPLAYS)
–Bill Kelter and Wayne Shellabarger (VEEPS: PROFILES IN INSIGNIFICANCE)
–Nate Powell (SWALLOW ME WHOLE)

And don’t forget to come by Isotope on Saturday night for Top Shelf Happy Hour at 8pm, leading into the Isotope Award for Minicomics! Brett Warnock will be shaking up the tasty drinks, while Nate Powell rocks a live art jam with Joshua W. Cotter! You can’t miss it!

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Big doins all over the place this week, including Robert Kirkman at Forbidden Planet. Ask him about creator’s rights or visit him on the web.

While there are countless blog posts about SPX out there, a few of them merit more than passing mention.

§ The I love Rob Liefeld blog has a good rundown of purchases.

§ Of course we loved Brian Heater’s report, because we’re IN IT. But he also catches that special SPX vibe:

The magic of SPX has always been, at least in part, due to the fact that the show is held in a Bethesda, rather than New York or San Francisco, so most of those in attendance haven’t just happened onto the showroom floor to get in out of the heat or the cold, but have rather devoted a significant chunk of time and money into attending the show. The location also ensures that those present don’t scatter to the wind as soon as the floor closes, but rather hop in massive carpools to the next location. And, when you wake up, bleary-eyed the next morning, there’s a pretty good chance that the person riding down in the elevator with you or stumbling down the hotel halls is there for the same reason. It’s a sense of comradery by necessity almost entirely absent in big shows like San Diego, and even smaller ones like MoCCA or APE

§ Ben Towle has the fun:

I returned in time for the post-show booze-fest, which was, as usual, a lot of fun. Again, pretty much everyone I talked to had nothing but great stuff to say sales-wise about Saturday. The cheery mood led to much merriment of course. In some strange manifestation of “six degrees of separation,” I wound up sitting at a table with a bunch of comics bigwigs far, far out of my league–including novelist and professor Tom DeHaven and his wife, and Fantagraphics/Comics Journal founder Gary Groth. I mostly talked to that guy that always comes to SPX in drag… who was curiously also sitting at this same table with us.

But he also does a breakdown of his sales at Heroes Con vs SPX… with numbers and GRAPHS. This part is definitely worth looking at:

Interestingly, as far as cash-in-hand goes, I wound up with almost exactly the same amount of money walking out the door at both shows. It says a lot about how brisk SPX was, though, that it’s a two day show and Heroes is a three day show. On the other hand, the hotel at SPX costs about 160% of the hotel at Heroes. A huge factor for me personally, though, is that I’m usually a guest at Heroes, but have to pay for a table at SPX–and of course Heroes is just down the road from me, whereas I have a long drive and one extra day in a hotel for SPX.

§ Nate at Bramble Vine Comics chose this year’s Balitmore show over SPX and has exhibitor’s remorse:

Don’t get me wrong, I still had a lot of fun at BCC. I met a lot of people and sold a ton of pins and sketches. The crowds at BCC were overwhelming and everyone I spoke to about it while at the con who had exhibited there last year agreed that there were far more people attending than last year. But, us indie folk in the Artist Alley, which ringed the convention floor, all saw mediocre sales. I could see it in people’s eyes as they walked past my table, they were searching for things they knew. They wanted something familiar, something that matched the superhero logo on their t-shirts. The majority of people at the BCC were not interested in new unknowns like myself. Webcomics were not on their radar screens, they wanted a deal on a new copy of Watchmen and the latest Batman action figure.

SPX 2007 was such a different experience for me. The folks that went to SPX were hunting for new comics and cartoons. They wanted to feel like they were discovering something, they wanted fresh, weird and experimental. Webcomics were high on their agenda of things to check out. There may have been fewer attendees, but I sold a lot more books and got a lot of encouraging comments there. The crowd that goes to SPX are far more likely to open their wallets on something that they haven’t seen before

And from the Chris corner:
Chris Mautner
Chris Pitzer

So anyway, the Kirkman/Bendis debate thingie. Perhaps it was just because everyone was still amped about the previous night’s Obama/McCain matchup, but everyone came expecting a real debate. What they got was Bendis and Kirkman sticking to their talking points. ComicMix has a near transcript, but Vaneta Rogers’s report at Newsarama has a more accurate take on the vibe of the room. While this particular exchange may not have reached soaring rhetorical heights, it was still a high-profile airing of the central matter of the creator’s life: making a living from your work. Via Rogers:

Bendis said he hopes “everyone in this room sits down and tries to make a comic. That would be amazing. But know that there’s an opportunity for it not to be seen.” He said that Torso, his early creator-owned work, never sold more than 2,200 copies, “which meant it sold 100 copies more than it needed to make a profit. Thankfully years later, the book has found an audience. But it didn’t look like it was ever going to find an audience.”

The writer said it’s a huge struggle to try to do creator-owned comics. “I just eeked out a living. And I just don’t care because I have mental problems,” he said to laughs. “You can’t live on it at all. I lived as a character artist,” he said, emphasizing that even when he thought he’d made it, he still needed another job.

“I remember very, very clearly winning an Eisner and leaving San Diego that night because I had to get to a gig doing a Bat Mitzvah that night.”

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In a case of burying the lede a bit, Shadowline has announced a new online comics site, including PLATINUM GRIT by Trudy Cooper and Danny Murphy, and perhaps most interestingly, a new online home for FINDER (above), Carla Speed McNeil’s ongoing SF saga. The site presents the comics in a Flash-based format. PR below.

The digital comics revolution continues as Image Comics’ Shadowline expands their web comics division with a number of titles from fan favorites and the newest generation of creators!

“While my first love comes in the traditional comics format, there’s no denying the massive amount of new ideas and talent coming from the online world,” said Shadowline Publisher Jim Valentino. “It’s become a way for creators like PLATINUM GRIT’s Trudy Cooper to gain recognition or established names like FINDER’s Carla Speed McNeil to get their work to a wider audience. We’re thrilled to bring these creators together in one collective.”

Shadowline’s continued diversity will be reflected in the web comics, as the line will vary from the science fiction of FINDER to the political intrigue of Len Kody & Jenny Frison’s CHICAGO: 1968 and even the oft-kilter superheroics of ACTION, OHIO by Neil Kleid and Paul Salvi. The lineup also currently includes newer titles like HANNIBAL GOES TO ROME, and the long-running YENNY and BRAT-HALLA. Future contributions include the web comic hit, PLATINUM GRIT by Trudy Cooper and Danny Murphy, and the upcoming LI’L DEPRESSED BOY featuring art by Jim Mahfood, Sam Kieth and more to come!

More information can be found at www.shadowlinecomics.com/webcomics.

Shadowline, the Jim Valentino-driven arm of Image Comics, is launching a new line of comics aimed at the younger set, dubbed Silverline. The line debuts in October; creators include Joshua Williamson Vicente Navarrete, Kristen Simon, Justin Shady, Eric A. Anderson, Manny Trembley, and Valentino himself. PR below:

“Silverline Books is dedicated to publishing quality all-ages books that bridge the gap between traditional storybooks and comics,” said Publisher Jim Valentino. “We believe that there’s a strong need to reach out to younger readers and introduce them to comics with uplifting, non-violent stories in a format they’re familiar with.”

Silverline Books officially begins October 29th with its first all-new release, DEAR DRACULA by Joshua Williamson and Vicente Navarrete; a Halloween-themed story about a boy who gets visited by his hero, the king of all vampires. It continues in November with BRUCE, THE LITTLE BLUE SPRUCE by Shadowline editor Kristen Simon and Image co-founder Jim Valentino, in which the titular tree wants nothing more than a family to take him in on Christmas.

The year ends with two more Silverline titles, including December’s MISSING THE BOAT by Justin Shady (aka Wayne Chinsang) and Dwellephant, about two lazy animals who are too late for Noah’s Ark, and the softcover follow-up to last years double Eisner award nominee PX! BOOK TWO: IN THE SERVICE OF THE QUEEN by Eric A. Anderson and Manny Trembley.

More info and previews in the link.

[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.
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Just to show that several downlodable comics services are still going strong, we got this press release just the other day:

Clickwheel LTD is proud to announce a new addition to its premium roster in ELEPHANTMEN. Written by industry mainstay, Richard Starkings with art by Moritat and Ladronn and published in print by Image comics, ELEPHANTMEN tells the story of the ‘Unhumans,’ The result of genetic engineering, the Unhumans have since served their wartime purpose and must now find new ways to survive in society. True to it’s Sci-Fi themes, ELEPHANTMEN and Starkings are eager to help Clickwheel push the boundaries of comics as we know them:

“I’ve been interested in CLICKWHEEL since Tim set up the site,” says ELEPHANTMEN and HIP FLASK writer/creator Richard Starkings. “Of all the sites that approached COMICRAFT with the whole ‘iTunes for comics deal’, it seemed clear that CLICKWHEEL had the cleanest, best designed user interface, and as ‘Purveyors of Unique Design and Fine Lettering’ the presentation of a download site is obviously going to be important to us. Plus — Tim didn’t even approach me, he got my attention just by doing a good job, what a concept! When Tim added 2000AD to CLICKWHEEL I realized that we were more than a perfect match — I’ve often said in interviews that ELEPHANTMEN is the strip I would have contributed to 2000AD had I ever had the opportunity. 2000AD’s founding fathers, John Wagner and Pat Mills were a huge influence on me and we even share cover artist Boo Cook from time to time!”

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How many cartoonists from Singapore and Thailand can you name? After the new anthology LIQUID CITY comes out from Image, you’ll probably be able to name many more. Edited by Sonny (MY FAITH IN FRANKIE) Liewthe book will include many new faces alongside the familiar: Image PR is below, but you can follow along at a LIQUID CITY blog. The cover art by Shelly Wan alone has us eager to check this out.

Oh, PS: check out the previews here. Good stuff!

Above: Invasion by Leong Wan Kok

“LIQUID CITY presents the unique visions of artists and writers based mainly in Southeast Asia,” said editor Sonny Liew. “The creators involved range from established figures in the region’s comics communities like Lat and Gerry Alanguilan, to exciting new talents like Nguyen Thanh Pong, kenfoo and Shari Chankhamma.”

Bringing together creators from Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and elsewhere, LIQUID CITY presents an edgy vision of lives in cities past, present and future: from Leong Wan Kok’s distinct post apocalyptic landscapes to Lat’s charming take on Malaysian life in the ’60s, from Mike Carey’s meditation on colonialism to kenfoo’s dark tales of regurgitation and bodily transformations.

Also contributing to the anthology are artists from outside the region, including award-winning illustrator Jon Foster and cover artist Shelly Wan.

The New York Times once again scoops the big Comic-Con news: Robert Kirkman has been named an Image partner, the first new partner since the fabled original seven partners formed in the Days of Yore.

Mr. Kirkman was asked to join Image in part to reward him for his commitment to putting out his creations through the company for several years, said Eric Stephenson, who was promoted to publisher of Image last month. “Beyond that, Robert has a pretty strong vision of what he wants to do and what comes he wants to make,” Mr. Stephenson said. That vision includes Invincible, which he created along with the artist Cory Walker, which was first published in 2003. It follows the title character, a k a Mark Grayson, the son of Omni-Man, a superhuman with alien origins, as he copes with his legacy, college and more. The comic received an A minus from Entertainment Weekly, which called it “a charming antidote to the histrionics present in so many fights-and-tights books,” adding that it had “the strongest female character seen in many a moon: Mark’s stoic mom.”

In this week’s “Lying in the Gutters,” Rich Johnston alluded to this announcement and several other rumors that are swirling just about everywhere:

I’ve been told Robert Kirkman, writer of “Invincible” and “Walking Dead,” will be named as a new partner at Image.

I also hear reference to a number of big comics names signing projects with Image. Look for people who have recently chosen not to renew their exclusive contracts with Marvel and DC.

And there is gossip about an emerging new model of payments for certain creators and projects, with less of an emphasis on back-end payments and the introduction of page rates.

The rumor we’ve heard most is the one about a new business model for Image - but one that would allow the publisher to get royalties, of sorts. As it stands now, after they take their “fee” for publishing a book, it doesn’t matter if it sells 100 copies or 10,000, so there’s no incentive at Image Central to push a book past the initial solicitation. From the creators we’ve talked to, if giving their publisher more incentive for sales would result in higher sales, it could be a good thing.

Image Comics publishes a line of eclectic comics breathtaking in their variety. They are also breathtaking in their lack of discipline, but for offering a friendly home for creators who want to call their own shots, Image is still the only game in town. With Eric Stephenson’s recent ascension to the publisher spot, and now Kirkman coming on board, this could be Image’s biggest move in, like, forever.

EW has word of a couple of movie deals for Matt Fraction:

He’s just inked a deal with producer Rick Alexander (MGM’s Adventures in the Land of Zametherea) and manager-producer Jeff Krelitz to turn two of his co-creations, Casanova and Last of the Independents, into movies. A major A-list actor is already mulling over the lead in Casanova, an adventure-caper about a thief-turned-spy, which Alexander promises will evolve into a “mega-budget, effects-intensive action spectacular.” (He says he’s aiming to unleash the “spectacular” during the Fourth of July weekend 2010.)

Everyone from Robert Kirkman to Tori Amos will be at the Image booth, and the company is teasing the biggest announcement since the company was formed. Now what could that be?

Comic Con Intentional 2008 kicks off next week in San Diego, and Image Comics has announced its plans for the big event!

Image Comics will kick off the convention Thursday night as the primary sponsor for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund’s San Diego Comic Con Welcome Party at the Westgate Hotel, including an amazing gift bag including the FOUR EYES PREVIEW BOOK, an exclusive meeting of the Drink & Draw Social Club, featuring Dave Johnson, Dan Panosian, and many more special guests. In addition, Image creator Brian Posehn will be headlining the COMEDIANS OF COMEDY show at Spreckles on Saturday at 8:30 PM, with tickets available at the Image Comics booth.

This year’s IMAGE COMICS SHOW (Friday, 4:00-5:00 PM, Room 7AB) will be the panel to be at, as a discussion led by THE WALKING DEAD’s Robert Kirkman, YOUNGBLOOD’s Rob Liefeld, TOP COW’s Marc Silvestri, SAVAGE DRAGON’s Erik Larsen, SHADOWLINE’s Jim Valentino and SPAWN’s Whilce Portacio reveals the biggest announcement Image Comics has made since its inception. The panel will be followed up by a special event held at the Image Comics booth featuring an extremely limited, San Diego Comic Con exclusive print signed by all present! The panel will also include the first word on the future of THE WALKING DEAD and just what Portacio’s non-SPAWN project is!

MORE IN JUMP

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Our good pals at Active Images reveal their doings and sent an attractive product shot as well.

Those awfully nice, Eisner-Award-nominated, chaps at Comicraft, John JG Roshell and Richard No Middle Initials Starkings have a whole bushel of goodies for visitors to their booth in the Independent Publishers’ Pavilion (just look for the red carpet, folks!)… Aside from hot-off-the-presses copies of the ELEPHANTMEN: WAR TOYS and ELEPHANTMEN: WOUNDED ANIMALS trade paperbacks, the latest issue of ELEPHANTMEN (#13) and the Beautiful Deluxe Edition of the Kelly/Bachalo masterpiece CAPTAIN STONEHEART & THE TRUTH FAIRY (with audio CD!), look for two show exclusives — the new TIM SALE sketchbook, HEROES/VILLAINS/BABES and the glorious hardcover edition of David Hine’s gothic shocker, STRANGE EMBRACE, which features an exclusive print signed and numbered by Dave. PLUS: Badges, Posters, Postcards and T-Shirts! Booth 2106. Signings by ELEPHANTMEN creators, Starkings & Moritat, SPAWN and DISTRICT X writer David Hine and TIM SALE BLACK AND WHITE REVISED & EXPANDED artist, um, Tim Sale! Bring British chocolate and don’t forget that Comicraft fonts are half price @ comicbookfonts.com for the duration of the show!

While we were out of it, we should have just posted this single link which should have kept everyone busy for a whole day: Part Six of Jay Allen Sanford ’s lavishly illustrated history of comics in San Diego. In this episode:

1 – The Birth of Image Comics

2 – Pacific Comics: The inside story of a legendary local comic book company (including a history of indie comics and the Creator’s Rights revolution)

3 - RIP Dave Stevens, famous former neighbor who created the Rocketeer

4 – Don’t Fear the Funnies: A history of censorship in comics

5 - The New Kids On The Block VS Revolutionary Comics - illustrated by Superman/Supergirl artist Stuart Immonen

Sanford was the publisher of Rock and Roll comics back in the day, and he has a pretty ground-level view, even if some would dispute parts of it. Well worth a thorough read.

What with WANTED’s very strong debut, original scribe Mark Millar is having his day in the sun, and you know what? He’s earned it. A few days ago, the UK Evening Times profiled him:

JET lag is an occupational hazard for Mark Millar. That and other hardships, like having Angelina Jolie rub suntan lotion on his face, being brought tea by Claudia Schiffer and making Jessica Alba gush happy tears.

It’s all in the line of work for the globe-trotting, Coatbridge-born comic book guru whose million-selling, graphic novel Wanted has had a Hollywood £55million blockbuster treatment, going on general release tomorrow.

“Comic-book guru?” Pretty good for a lad from Coatbridge, In this article and several others, Millar suggests a WANTED sequel is already on the way.

Millar also added that he’s been approached by Universal about concocting a sequel. “They’ve asked me how I can develop some of the other stuff from the book into the sequel. We’ll see what box office is like at the weekend, but everyone knows this is going to make a LOT of dough. Wall·E permitting.” (He actually has a few choice words for the hapless robot, who really shouldn’t be held accountable for his release date.)

Even if WANTED 2: STRONGLY HANKERED FOR doesn’t get made, Millar’s Icon book KICK-ASS is already looking good for the cinema, with Matthew Vaughn (STARDUST) on board to direct:

“I’m working as a producer on [’Kick-Ass’] as well, so I’ve been involved for about eight months, believe it or not. The comic didn’t come out until February, but we made the deal on the movie back in December. The script was finished six months ago, and it starts filming on location in New York in August. So it’s moving really fast.”

Even bearing in mind Millar’s wee penchant for, well, stretching things a bit, he’s got to be riding high and his projects in the pipeline are sure to get a boost as well. It’s all good for now.

UPDATE: A perfect example of Millarism in action, as he discusses the Superman movie he’s writing.

CBR presents an interview with newly installed Image publisher, Eric Stephenson:

I have a lot of goals, actually, but I think my biggest goal, the one that kind of arches over everything else, is to make more people aware of some of the great comics Image is putting out, getting our books in front of more eyes. And I’d like to do more music-related projects. Our “Belle and Sebastian” anthology did very well for us and our new Tori Amos book looks like it’s going to do even better, and I think there’s just a tremendous opportunity to use that kind of project to turn more people on to comics.

As far as reaching a more mainstream audience - I think getting comics in front of people who might not typically read them is a big part of that, and cross-pollinating comics with other mediums is a great way to accomplish that.

While WANTED broke the string of comic book movies opening at #1, it was still boffo, with $51.1 million at the box office. It also set some R-rated records:

“Wanted” scored the best opening ever for an R-rated film released in June and the sixth best of all time for any R-rated pic. Film, also starring Morgan Freeman, placed No. 2 for the weekend and played well across ethnic groups. U said it’s already eyeing a sequel.

Now this is interesting, because at the Friday screening we attended, the audience seemed to be, well, demoralized by this film. The Beat was the ONLY person to clap at the end (a nod to comics pals Mark Millar and JG Jones)–which was pretty shocking given the hype for the movie, the relentless action and the packed theater. After the screening, we noted a bunch of young men looking glum as they waited outside the restrooms — apparently their dates had been so appalled by the movie (probably the rat gimmick near the end) that there was no hope of getting lucky later on.

Was the big turn-off for the audience the moral ambiguity of this MATRIX meets FIGHT CLUB mash-up? Perhaps the idea of rooting for bad people for two hours was more than the audience could bear. Afterwards, we were shocked to overhear a cluster of young men dissing the film. “It was so unreaslistic!” one complained. “Bullets can’t do that!” Like you could really make a flying suit that worked? The second week drop off on this movie could be fierce.

As for The Beat, we liked the movie just fine — we like moral ambiguity, and a kick-ass action movie that posits bad vs worse without any easy answers was long overdue. James McAvoy’s Midwestern accent was dead-on, and Angelina Jolie was scary good — she is the action hero for our times. Sure, without the Wachowskis having existed, director Timur Bekmambetov would have to make up a visual style on his own, but he uses what he’s piked up well and some of the action pieces (particularly those involving trains) are nifty. WANTED was a gripping action flick with some clever twists on the form. It’s also very violent and nihilistic, and knows it.

Tolja so:
Comic Book Resources has the news that Erik Larsen is stepping down as Image publisher, and longtime Executive director Eric Stephenson is replacing him. Why the Erik for Eric switch? Larsen wanted to spend more time doing what he loves most: making his own comics:

I loved the job and it was great fun doing it; we put together some awesome books and there are a ton of cool things in the pipeline that will, frankly, blow your mind. Now that things are on the upswing at Image, I don’t think I’m as needed in that position as I was at one point. There are a number of people who are looking out for Image Comics. I’ll still be one of them and I’ll still be out there actively talking to people about books and recruiting talent. And I share an office with Eric Stephenson, who’ll be taking over for me, so it’s not as though this is going to be some drawn out, awkward learning period for him as he takes over. He was Jim Valentino’s right-hand man when he was in the Publisher’s chair and was my right-hand man when I was in the Publisher’s chair, so he’s certainly up on the company and how it works. And he’s been in and around Image Comics since its inception, going back to working with Rob Liefeld when he had his studio. Eric’s been around, knows the rope, knows what we’re doing and is a hell of a guy. I really think he’s the best guy for the job and I think it would be great if the guys who founded this company spent less time sitting in a chair pushing papers around and more time sitting in a chair pushing art boards around.

Comics legend Alex Niño has a book coming out from Image this September called DEAD AHEAD, and it’s described as “Dawn of the Dead on a cruise ship.” The rest of the team includes writers Mel Smith and Clark Castillo, colorist Moose Baumann and letterers Tom Orzechowski and Lois Buhalis. The cover is above and athe first page below. Click for a larger image.