Bryan Lee O’Malley unveils SCOTT PILGRIM #5.

Matthew Loux’s well-received kids comic, SALT WATER TAFFY, is back this week with a second volume:

Following closely on the success of the first volume of his new graphic adventure series, Matthew Loux brings us the second installment with SALT WATER TAFFY VOL. 2: A CLIMB UP MT. BARNABAS. In stores this week and with a third volume already in the works, critics are convinced that the American Library Association & YALSA award winning Matthew Loux is here to stay.

Cory Casoni tells us of two new books from Oni at SPX:

CROGAN’S VENGEANCE
by Chris Schweizer (w/a)

CROGAN’S VENGEANCE, the first in an ongoing series of adventure graphic novels spanning continents and centuries as cartoonist Chris Schweizer climbs through the various branches of the Crogan clan’s family tree!

Volume one of THE CROGAN ADVENTURES series introduces us to “Catfoot” Crogan, an honest sailor who finds himself thrust into a life of piracy! Crogan never wanted to be a pirate and he never dreamed he’d wind up at odds with the most dangerous buccaneer ever to sail the Spanish Main! But there’s more to this fight for “Catfoot” than just staying alive, there’s also CROGAN’S VENGEANCE!

LABOR DAYS
by Philip Gelatt (w) and Rick Lacy (a)

Benton “Bags” Bagswell is doing nothing with his life. He runs a chores-for-hire business in London and that’s about it. That is, until the day his girlfriend dumps him, and he finds himself in possession of a mysterious videotape. Thrust into a dangerous world of deceit and betrayal, it’s up to Bags to pack up his, erm, suitcase and hit the road in search of the truth!

It’s globe-trotting hijinks as our unlikely hero tries to grow out of his slacker life-style and bring some new world style to old world Europe all the while digging deeper into the enigma that’s blown up his former existence!

Right now! Buy the amazing hardcover collection next.

At the Beguiling!

Arrives at New York Comic-Con 09!

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Oni has tons of creators, tons of tbooks and some great exclusives, including the SCOTT PILGRIM COLOR SPECIAL:

Premiering at SDCC 2008:_
THE APOCALIPSTIX
by Cameron Stewart and Ray Fawkes
Mandy, Megumi, & Dot aren’t going to let a little thing like armageddon stop them from rocking a world tour, so don’t let the Comic-Con crush stop you from picking up a signed copy at the SDCC 2008 premier!
_
Only available at SDCC 2008 and other conventions this year:
SCOTT PILGRIM COLOUR SPECIAL!
Bryn Lee O’Malley has collected odds and ends from 2008 and Oni Press has compiled them into this SDCC exclusive! It’s Scott Pilgrim in full colour, it’s a limited run, and it’s only available at the Oni Press Booth during San Diego Comic-Con 2008

_New Oni Merch! _
Including: Scott Pilgrim Shirts & Buttons, Black Metal Shirts & Buttons, Wasteland Shirts, North World Shirts, and much more!

(more…)

Have you heard that new Neil Diamond song Pactin’ Oni? This time out they have pacted with online entertainment producer 60Frames for a bunch of comics-and-web projects written by Hollywood types:

First titles include “Men With Guns: Assassin,” created by Tom Fontana (”Oz,” “Homicide”), as well as “Ark,” from “Freaks and Geeks” scribes Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah, now showrunners on the CW’s upcoming redo of “Beverly Hills, 90210.”

The two properties will launch simultaneously in print and as Web series next year.

“Ark,” a sci-fi series created by Robbie Thompson and developed by Sachs and Judah, follows a young woman who wakes up in a coffin-like capsule on a large spacecraft. Series will explore how and why she got there and if she can get home.

The Web series will feature a combination of live-action and CGI.

Here’s an comics-to-movie story we couldn’t be any happier to report: Universal is developing LAST CALL:

Universal has bought the Oni Press graphic novel series “The Last Call” and set it up with Barry Josephson to produce through his eponymous banner.

“The Last Call,” written and illustrated by Vasilis Lolos, centers on two teens on a joyride who get hit by a train — an interdimensional soul carrier — and find themselves on a quest to solve a mystery that will allow them to return to their regular lives. Series debuted last year.

Evan Spiliotopoulos, who most recently penned “The Box” for Fox, is adapting the series for the screen.

We just finished working on THE NIGHTMARE FACTORY 2 with Vasilis and a more talented creator couldn’t be imagined.

Silly tabloid chatter, but for those wondering what’s up with WHITEOUT, the upcoming film based on the Greg Rucka/Steve Lieber GN, apparently some reshoots are being done so that Kate Beckinsale’s “giant rump” will not be seen:

But a source on her new film Whiteout said: “Kate has a terrible self-image. She thinks she is fat and she is always complaining how certain outfits make her bottom look big. Of course, the reality is that she has the most amazing body.

“The script called for her character to be filmed nude in a shower, focusing in on her bottom and thighs. Kate insisted on a double being hired. She was quite open on the set about not liking her body and said she particularly loathed her bottom and was not comfortable baring it.”

A last-minute call for a double went out on a Hollywood casting website last week for scenes that begin shooting tomorrow.

And now, your feminist moment for the day: Kate, you are not fat, honey. You are beautiful.

In the recent avalanche of comic book movies, one has been MIA for a while — the Kate Beckinsale starrer WHITEOUT, based on the GN by Greg Rucka and Steve Lieber. Its been in the can for a while, but appears to have been caught (perhaps — this is our speculation only) part of the Warner Bros. edict against female fronted movies — and also moved to avoid going up against the similarly snow-themed 30 DAYS OF NIGHT. However Shock Till You Drop reports that it will finally be hitting this September 19th.

Directed by Dominic Sena, Whiteout stars Kate Beckinsale as a U.S. Marshall investigating the first murder in Antarctica. She must solve the case before the winter comes and plunges the continent into darkness. Tom Skerritt, Alex O’Loughlin and Columbus Short co-star.

§ Hall-of-Famer Al Feldstein will serve as Creative Adviser on the upcoming William M. Gaines biopic. Above, Gaines and Feldstein in the early 50s, taken from Bhob Stewart’s blog, which has much more info.

§ The SPEED RACER website has been updated with a 2 minute trailer and many Flash-based interactive bits that actually do not entirely suck.

§ David DiGilio, writer of the controversial NORTH WIND comic from Boom, is also creator of the TV show THE TRAVELLER and he’s now up to his eyeballs in comics-to-screen works. Besides penning the script for NORTH WIND, he’ll now adapt The Damned, by Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt, originally pubbed by Oni.

Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald are producing via their DreamWorks-based shingle. Described as horror-noir, “Damned” follows a Los Angeles detective who discovers that a new gang with ties to the supernatural has infiltrated the city. Eric Gitter is also producing via his Closed on Mondays Entertainment, the film production arm of Oni Press Mark.

§ Zack Snyder is going whole hog with animation for his next project: Guardians of Ga’Hoole based on the based on the series of children’s books by Kathryn Lasky. “Pic is set in the Forest of Tyto, where Barn Owls live in peace until their kingdom is threatened by an evil that could destroy their home.” THIS! IS! A FEWMET!

Ben Stiller has joined the graphic novel set! He’ll produce and possibly star in The Return of King Doug based on a yet to be published Oni graphic novel by animation writers Greg Erb and Jason Oremland. The duo will also pen the screenplay. The title joins Oni’s Courtney Crumrin, The Damned, Scott Pilgrim (see below) and Maintenance among the Hollywood set.

MEANWHILE…unstoppable Stan Lee has announced three projects in his Disney pact. Lee and his POW! partner Gil Champion will produce.

“Nick Ratchet” will be directed by Richard LaGravenese (”P.S. I Love You”) from a screenplay he is writing. Larry Jacobson and Sonny Grosso are in talks to produce.

“Blaze” is being penned by Gary Goldman (”Next”).

“Tigress” is being written by newcomer Zoe Green. State Street Pictures’ Robert Teitel and George Tillman will produce. Film is not the same as a previously announced project titled “Tigress” that Lee is developing with Michelle Rodriguez attached to star. That project is based on a “Conan the Barbarian” villainess.

Talkative Stan chafed at having to keep plot details under wraps. “You have no idea how frustrating that is for me, because I love these characters so much and want to talk about them.” Lee said, adding that perhaps the properties could even become comic books. “You either have a great comicbook and it becomes a great movie. Or you have a great movie that becomes a great comicbook. These things have a natural progression.”

FINALLY…Michael Cera demonstrates his ability to talk up comics as he told Empire about his casting in SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD (the official title):

“I love the graphic novels, they’re amazing,” gushed Cera. “The first time I met Edgar, we hung out in Toronto [Cera’s home town and the setting for Pilgrim] with Bryan Lee O’Malley [the series’ creator, also from Toronto], and he showed me pages from the fourth book that hadn’t come out yet. It was awesome!”

Yes it was. These things have a natural progression.

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Bryan Lee O’Malley was sort of non-plussed by all the news reports about the Scott Pilgrim movie last week

The Hollywood Reporter prints a story hastily sent in by someone’s publicist. Nobody fact-checks anything. The rest of the internet / world hastily copies the facts in the article into their own hastily-published articles. It’s amazing!

Anyway, I can “confirm” that Michael Cera is going to play Scott Pilgrim in this movie adaptation.

It is not called “Scott Pilgrim’s Little Life”, as the whole internet has been saying. Gee, I wonder why they took out “precious”, the internet wonders? Maybe because some idiot made an error while filing the story? No, couldn’t be. There must be some deeper meaning.

It isn’t even called Precious Little Life, but I defer to the film’s creators as to when and how they want to make their announcements.

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§ First off, Bryan Lee O’Malley will be appearing this Saturday at Meltdown in LA. Hope Larson will also be lurking.

§ NEXT, Alex Zalben has a review of the SCOTT PILGRIM movie script!

There’s spoilers here, not just for the movie version, but for the books as well. Because, at least in the draft I read, the movie covers every single book. That’s right. This isn’t the first book in the series, adapted into one movie Chronicles of Narnia style. You’re not going to get six (or seven) Scott Pilgrim movies, at least none that are based on the series of books O’Malley is in the process of writing. This is all of the books, packed into one two hour film.

§ FInally, Matthew Pack writes to tell us that O’Malley will be appearing on the Public Radio International show FAIR GAME tonight. The show will be available at the link.

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Michael Cera is taking a break from the world of Judd Apatow to star in the SCOTT PILGRIM’S LITTLE LIFE movie, The Hollywood Reporter reports. Edgar Wright is set to direct the Michael Bacall screenplay.

Cera and Wright had mutual admiration for each other’s work, which manifested itself when Wright stepped in to act alongside Cera and Jonah Hill in a viral promo for “Superbad.” Wright acted as a snarky interviewer of an exasperated Cera and Hill.

Oni has announced the first volume in an all ages series by Matt Loux called Salt Water Taffy. In short it about two lads named Jack and Benny visit Maine and have adventures in the “unusual hamlet called Chowder Bay–a small town full of big mysteries, giant adventures, and gargantuan lobsters.” The first book is called “The Legend of Old Salty.” Sold!

The first stills from WHITEOUT starring Kate Beckinsale in the film adaptation of the Greg Rucka/Steve Lieber graphic novel have been released.

The film is slated for a June 2008 release.

Based on this post on Bryan Lee O’
Malley’s LJ, we’d guess it is not so easy:

I wish it was easy to get a copy of Scott Pilgrim volume 4, but it’s still kind of hard (and confusing). Here is my attempt to explain.

1. Good comic stores who ordered plenty of copies should still have copies. Examples of good comic stores: the Beguiling (Toronto), Strange Adventures (Halifax NS), Chapel Hill Comics (north carolina), Jim Hanley’s Universe, Midtown Comics and Rocketship (all NYC), Comix Experience and Comic Relief (both Bay Area California), Meltdown (Los Angeles), Gosh (London UK), Page 45 (Nottingham UK), many more that I can’t list. Obviously, not everyone lives in one of these cities. Some of these shops do mail-order and you could check the website of your closest one and find out.

2. Khepri.com probably has copies (if anyone knows, please inform me). They’re an online comic store. Here is another one: In Stock Trades dot com.

3. As far as I know, most of the Big Box Bookstores (Barnes & Noble, Borders, Chapters, Indigo, etc) do not have copies yet. If you work at one of these stores or corporations in a knowledgeable capacity, please inform me otherwise.

3a. I am told Borders ordered “several hundred” copies. Which would mean less than one book per store.

According to the post, 7000 copies are already in circulation.

business small bad loan credit

The technology that achieves this depends on loan equity finance rate home which the loan equity finance rate home operator has adopted.

Stardust helmer Matthew Vaughn has been tapped to direct Marvel’s THOR Variety reports. Vaughn was once slated to direct X-MEN 3 so he’s on a comic book tear;

Mark Protosevich (”I Am Legend”) did the adaptation of the comicbook franchise that launched in 1962. Thor is a blonde-tressed, hammer-wielding hero who’s sent to Earth to protect mankind.

{snip] Marvel Studios will likely finance “Thor” using its $500 million credit facility through Merrill Lynch. Marvel has used that fund to finance both Edward Norton starrer “The Incredible Hulk,” which Universal releases June 13, and “Iron Man,” the Robert Downey Jr. starrer that Paramount will open on May 2.

§ Speaking of directors, we missed the announcement of the director for Punisher 2, and she’s a character in her own right: German-born one time kickboxing champ Lexi Alexander, who previously directed HOOLIGANS. Ray Stevenson (ROME) has been cast as the Punisher following Thomas Jane’s exit from the project.

§ McG is also back on a comic book project: Maintenance by Jim Massey and Robbi Rodriguez:

Joe Ballarini is adapting the project, which follows the exploits of two janitors who work at Terrormax Inc., the world’s leading manufacturer and supplier of weapons and doomsday devices to supervillains. If they’re not too busy cleaning up toxic spills and performing menial repairs on time machines, they just might save the world.

“Some of the films that made me want to become a director like ‘Back to the Future’ and ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ are based on action, comedy and ground-breaking special effects,” McG said. “It is my goal to make ‘Maintenance’ in the same tradition.”

§ Reporter Nikki Finke is a controversial figure in Hollywood, but her discussion of the marketing and outlook for STARDUST is interesting, if depressing, reading.

There are two things you may not know about Stardust, opening this weekend. 1) Good thing Brad Grey is vacationing in Europe with his family. Because he’ll miss the pic’s disastrous domestic opening this weekend.

§ Finally, even movie stars enjoy the perks of Comic-Con as SUPERBAD’s Michael Cera made like a fanboy:

Cera’s ability to play likable nerds may come naturally. He says that one of the highlights of his involvement with the marketing of Superbad came when he attended the comic book and film convention Comic-Con and met one of his idols.

“I met [Ghostbusters’] Ernie Hudson and got a signed headshot. It cost 20 bucks, but then I lost it. I still have it [the evidence] on tape that I got the autograph. He was really friendly, and he hasn’t aged a bit. The photo was from Ghostbusters, and it said: ‘To Michael, who are you gonna call?’ ”

Yes we know the embed stills are particularly unflattering but what you gonna do?
Okay now embed fixed…click on pic or here.