“We are very excited to have Desperado join us,” said IDW chief operating officer, Greg Goldstein. “Desperado’s books and roster of creators are both very impressive, and as an IDW imprint, Joe will have the flexibility and support to expand both. It’s really a win-win situation.”

IDW’s new imprint will continue to offer the high quality books and feature the talented creators for which Desperado is known. The 2010 line up already includes industry greats, such as Dave Dorman, Tony Harris and George Perez. These books, as well as Desperado’s comics and graphic novels, will be released under the new imprint.

“I was sold from the first conversation,” said Pruett. “If there was one company that I would admit to being envious of, it would be IDW. Watching them transform from a start-up company to the present-day publishing beast has been nothing if not inspiring. Everything about IDW speaks to how much they love this industry and love what they are doing. We at Desperado look forward to a long, prosperous relationship. As the famous quote goes, ‘I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.’”
 

David Brothers comments as well.

§ Librarian Robin Brenner looks at her circulation stats to figure out what’s really popular and there’s a pretty good chance that something on the list will surprise you. For instance Case Closed is really popular. On second thought you will either be surprised or find something to back up your long held beliefs on this list.

§ Rich Johnston sends a chill down our spines with the disturbing news that the exhibitor lottery for hotel rooms for San Diego Comic-Con 2010 has already taken place Of note: The Hyatt is no longer on the hotel list. Oh dear god, this year’s Hoteloween is going to be brutal.

§ The end of the decade, as normal humans account it, draws nigh, and Tom Spurgeon is kicking things off with The 83 Best Superhero Projects Of The Decade We’re Leaving.

§ A short, nice interview with First Second’s Mark Siegel.

§ Chris Mautner interviews the Will Durant of the comics crowd Larry Gonick whose cartoon history of the world just brought us up to Iraq:

Abolitionists, while they were often motivated by moral considerations, lived in a time when the society at large was receptive to their message. Somehow, the advance of science and technology, the wealth that came from factory production and overseas trade, and the development of enlightenment ideas about human nature—essentially sociable and good, not the victims of Original Sin—produced a government that saw abolition as good policy. I tried so show how these threads were woven together by describing the origins and progress of the abolition movement itself, along with an account of how Britain was able to afford to do it: by banning the trade to all nations, Britain was displaying its power on the open seas, and when slavery itself was outlawed in the British Empire, the profits from the opium trade with China were enough to buy off nearly every slave owner in the West Indies.

§ Scott Edelman continues his trip to the Vault of Memories with memories of early comics events:

Just to show my appreciation, here’s a blast from the past—a letter Roy wrote to Joe Brancatelli’s fanzine Comic Fandom Monthly that was printed in its April 1972 issue, in which he debated the merits of the famed Stan Lee at Carnegie Hall event.

§ Valerie D’Orazio explores the image of blue women.

§ J. Caleb Mozzocco praises The Dreamer by Laura Inness:

It’s not a completely transcendental, all-things to all-people, everyone-must-read-this-now sort of book or anything. And it’s therefore not one I’d reccommend to anyone. But if you like shojo? If you like Young Adult fiction? If you like historical romance and teen drama and nicely drawn, very expressive, clean, open, fun, slightly cartoony artwork with a hint of Japanese influence? Then perhaps this is one that you must read now, at least.

§ Time’s rebranded Techland blog proclaims itself yet another spot we must check for comics content, with a preview of Superman: Secret Origin’s #3

§ Oliver Ho looks at Celebrating Peanuts

These would make fine gifts for the person who enjoys absurdo-abstractionist fantasy or creepy deconstructed children. Click for larger images.

These stunning numbers have left Hollywood dazed and confused — how could a movie with an audience that is 80 percent female beat out “four quadrant” movies like Dark Knight and so on? Inconceivable! Variety has beaucoup analysis:

Heading into the weekend, rival studios believed “New Moon” would have trouble going north of $110 million, since it is driven by only two out of four quadrants of the moviegoing audience: Females under 25, and those over. Even Summit execs might have agreed.

But the ferocious appetite for the franchise among girls and younger women proved those predictions wrong. Of the females turning out, a full 50% were under 21.

“This blew away a lot of preconceived notions about who you should play to, and how you get to a certain group,” Summit prexy of distribution Richie Fay said.

Despite Friday’s huge numbers, “New Moon” declined only about 41% on Saturday, the same drop “Twilight” had sen. That indicates that the fanbase has grown, since “New Moon” did so much more for the weekend.

Nikki FInke also chimes in:

Hollywood was stunned as night after night the New Moon numbers kept breaking even four-quadrant Dark Knight and Harry Potter film records. Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight Saga” novels — New Moon is the second in the series — are now proving as much of a phenomenon as comic books and J.K. Rowling for source material at the box office. And two-quadrant New Moon also has shown that when female audiences support a film, it can absolutely dominate box office.

Our own take? Maybe — and this will come as a HUGE, HUGE SHOCK — Hollywood execs do not know What Women Want. Once you hit the magic formula — and something about TWILIGHT is indeed magic and not to be replicated — the dedication of girls and women to the objects of their obsession will make male fan allegiance look positively tepid. There are reams of books to be written about the Twilight phenomenon and how today’s pop culture establishment has reacted to a female-driven fanbase, if you are into social psychology. At least half the mainstream media stories about Twilight are pitched as “We’re as puzzled by this as you are folks.” (With, say, Star Trek, it was more — hey this is cool!”) And as I’ve written before, the outright hostility of the general “fan nerd” culture towards Twilighters speaks volumes. No group of fans has ever been singled out for outright rejection at San Diego, for instance. It’s a discomfort that springs from the very core of Otherness.

The bottom line, as we see it, is that understanding what girls want is so far outside the skill set and comfort zone of your average Entertainment Exec that it actually scares them. For the few people who do realize that a teen-aged girl’s dollar is jut as good as a man’s dollar (and just as easily manipulated) — well, they are laughing all the way to the bank.

And what do girls want? I haven’t seen TWILIGHT or read the books (I’ve never been that into vampires) but it isn’t just shirtless boys, although I’m sure that doesn’t hurt. It’s intensity, drama, romance, heartache — draw a line from TITANIC to TWILIGHT and you’ll begin to get the drift.

Finally, we’ll leave you with the one essential takeaway, courtesy of Colleen Doran: Edward Cullen panties.

Mark Evanier has more, of course:

His experience with s-f conventions was one of many things he brought to the nascent Comic-Con when he signed on in 1970 as its first chairperson. Another was his lifelong love of comics and fantasy. Professionally, Ken operated a string of bookstores throughout this life and also dabbled in distribution and publishing. As a publisher, he gave many talented artists their first in-print experience, including Dave Stevens, Scott Shaw!, Greg Bear and Jim Valentino. (He was the Best Man at Valentino’s wedding and an obvious father figure to Jim and others who came up through the San Diego fan community.)

But perhaps his greatest contribution to the early cons in San Diego was that he was the Grown-Up.

Krueger attended several of the 40th Anniversary events at this year’s con — he can be seen in this photosetby Roger Freedman of several events.

I recall several pleasant conversations with Krueger in my own early days of con going and socializing. He clearly loved comics but also knew a lot about the business side of things, and managed to balance the two. Our condolences to his friends and family.

Given Shamus’s recent track record of aggressive competition with existing shows, it would seem the move to Boston enters a rather low-key market. But a Google check of the principals raises more questions than it answers.

A search for “new england comic con” and Larry Harrison yields almost no results. Dig around a little and you get a “North East Comicon” site run by Harrison’s Comics which looks to be a modest one-day hotel/dealer show set for January 10 with Ethan Van Sciver as a guest.

Adding to the confusion, there’s a listing for the Boston Comics Spectacular which announces

THE BOSTON COMIC SPECTACULAR IS NOW The New England Comic Con – Boston’s Longest running show gets a new promoter and a new name! http://www.necomiccon.com/ .

The Boston Comic Spectacular shows a previous event in September, again with Van Sciver.

There is also an existing Boston Comicon, with the next event set for April. The last one was held in October, to some local interest.

No matter what this show’s pedigree and provenance, it is NOT Shamus’s first foray into Beantown: A Wizard World Boston was held in 2005, to what most attendees thought was a very, very disappointing turnout. (At the time, the Sunday of the show was described to us as “The slowest day I’ve ever seen.”)  A second WW Boston, planned fro 2006, was canceled.

Is this going to be another battlefront in Con Wars? What event is Shamus going to plan THIS confab against? It could go up against the same weekend as Reed’s Pax East, also held in Boston, but Shamus already planned his own Toronto Comic-Con against that. DEVELOPING, Hell yeah! Complete PR in the jump.

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Gareb Shamus, CEO of New York based Wizard Entertainment, announces today that he has purchased New England Comic Con, in a move to further expand the Wizard World Comic Con tour.

“We’ve known Larry for many years, and his exceptional 35-year old New England Comic Con gets us into Boston in a big way. New England has a long legacy of cartoons and comics embedded in their history, making the fans there very appreciative of comics’ impact on society and pop culture,” said Shamus. “I’m excited to bring these discerning fans an even better Con experience and everything they expect from a Wizard run show.”

Larry Harrison, owner of Harrison’s Comics & Collectibles, and Jimmy Tournas, the former owners of New England Comic Con, will be intimately involved in the new show production to ensure fan favorite traditions are maintained.

“Working with Gareb is an awesome experience. The folks at Wizard World have a great sense of how to grow the show in a way that I’ve always wanted to see it flourish. This should be the best comic con the city of Boston has ever seen,” said Harrison.

The New England Comic Con acquisition is the first of several Comic Con tour expansion announcements expected in the weeks ahead.

“We bring together more fans, in more cities than anyone, to celebrate their passion for pop-culture. We’ve had such a strong positive fan and industry reaction to our new show launches that expanding the tour just made sense,” said Shamus.

New England Comic Con venue and dates will be announced soon.

7 out of 19 have worked on completed films, either as production designers or story artists:
- Enrico Casarosa (Ratatouille, Up)
- Jake Parker (Horton Hears a Who!)
- Vera Brosgol (Coraline)
- Khang Le (Monster House)
- Chris Appelhans (Monster House, City of Ember, Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox)
- Phil Craven (Kung Fu Panda, the forthcoming Kung Fu Panda 2)
- Clio Chiang (the forthcoming Princess and the Frog)

11 out of 19 have published one or more graphic novels (or will have a graphic novel published in 2010):

- Enrico Casarosa (The Venice Chronicles)
- Kazu Kibuishi (Daisy Kutter, Amulet, the forthcoming Copper collection)
- Jake Parker (Missile Mouse, forthcoming Scholastic GNs)
- Vera Brosgol (forthcoming First Second GN)
- Jen Wang (forthcoming First Second GN)
- Neil Babra (Hamlet)
- Bengal (Meka, Naja)
- Dylan Meconis (Wire Mothers: Harry Harlow and the Science of Love, Bite Me!)
- Derek Kirk Kim (Good as Lily, The Eternal Smile)
- Rad Sechrist (Tom Sawyer)
- Kean Soo (Jellaby)

It’s certainly an impressive body of work — especially where comics for kids are concerned. But as Kazu notes, it perhaps wasn’t as much a movement as some very talented people who came together. And of the 12 who had webcomics running at the time, only 3 do now.

§ Is someone making a book of Stan Lee’s tweets? They should.

The reason I always say “good night” is I don’t want you staying up for hours denying yourself sleep, desperately waiting for my next tweet

§ Jog examines the ORIGINAL Astro Boy.

§ Cartoonist Berkeley Breathed is also doing the happy dance that there will be no 20000 Leagues remake.

§ For some mysterious reason unknown to me, we have yet to link to this totally excellent NY Times profile of Joe Kubert. HIs art auction is ongoing.

§ Speaking of the New York Times, they also had a Holiday Gift Guide featuring Graphic Novels.

More cute baby pictures of Juni Kibuishi

Created and written by Mark Sable, “Unthinkable” centers on a brilliant man who was recruited just after 9/11 into a government think tank consisting of America’s most imaginative minds and tasked with dreaming up wild scenarios for possible attacks on U.S. soil. Years after the think tank was disbanded, the attacks the man concocted begin to occur, and he becomes the only one who can stop them. But the government has become his pursuer.

UNTHINKABLE gained a bit of notoriety earlier this year when Sable was detained at LAX after authorities found one of the scripts for the book.
• Meanwhile, Aurora has optioned Platinum’s NIGHTFALL by Scott O. Brown and Ferran Xalabarder. The story concerns a man in a prison full of vampires. Has anyone ever seen a copy of this comic?
• Warren Ellis’s GLOBAL FREQUENCY — a 12 issue maxiseries about eh covert operations that battles other covert operations– has already been the subject of a TV pilot, spearheaded by John Rogers and starring Michele Forbes. Although well received by those who saw it, it was never picked up, some say because of anger over the pilot being leaked onto bit torrent sites. (It seems like this would pass for valuable pre-awareness these days.) But someone is trying it again, Ellis writes:

The CW will again try to adapt Warren Ellis’ comic book “Global Frequency,” this time Scott Nimerfro will script the pilot.

Does this count as a remake?

• Idris Elba, lately of THE LOSERS, will play Heimdall in the Thor movie. We did not know Elba was Norse but welcome his participation.

UPDATE: J. Caleb Mozzocco also covers this:

I can’t disagree with anything she said in her post; she’s dead-on right. If I had anything to add, it would be that the writer’s doing the justification of the costumes almost never have any real control over those costumes, and probably think they’re doing something valuable by finding a reason for explaining a costuming choice that sounds better than “Some guy 20-65 years ago though this was totally hot, and wondered if his editors would let him get away with it.” (That doesn’t make it any less irritating though, especially for a character like Power Girl, who is given explanation after explanation for her cleavage window. The first one of these speeches you read is never as annoying as the second, third or fifth).

We wouldn’t be brining this up so soon after our Brokeback posting series except that, as jaded as we were, even The Beat was dazed by the speed with which the “But men are sexualized too!’ and the other bingo card justifications came out.

Jesus, people, can’t you imagine for one minute that your own viewpoint is not the only one on Earth? AND what is wrong with calling cheesecake cheesecake? Plus, do you really know what sexualized men look like? If you think THIS is sexual, just go and google “French Rugby Team.” (Link NSFW.) Heck, Gay porn even has its own version of the Brokeback pose, although showing a surprising lack of flexibility. (Also NSFW)

To be fair, we suppose that there are times when a state of unclothedness is not merely used as titillation. Take, for example, the Greek water polo team.

Nothing sexy there! Or suggestive.

Just people doing their job! We salute the Greek water polo team!

The Greek water polo team!

The Greek–say, why are they wearing helmets, anyway?

November 19, 2009-February 28, 2010
Opening Reception: November 19, 7-9PM

For more info.

We linked to this interview with organizer Lisa Wood yesterday. It sounds like a great way to spend a few days.

The library board heard speakers — limited to two minutes each — on both sides of the case, which involves two library workers who felt that LOEG: BLACK DOSSIER should not fall into the hands of an 11-year-old girl and took it upon themselves to remove the book from circulation, thereby violating library policy and getting themselves fired. Although the traveling evangelist, a homeschooling mother and over 200 kids who signed a petition begging for books to be censored all seemed to think that others should decide what they can read, the other half of the speakers felt, as Bobbi Stout, herself the daughter of a preacher, that “It’s dangerous to democracy when an interest group imposes its views on another,” she said. “Stand up for the Constitution.”

A petition was also introduced calling for four works to be removed from the library

on the grounds that they “offended me in that they depict sexual acts and/or describe such acts in a way that in my opinion are contrary to the Jessamine County public opinion” of what should be in a public, taxpayer-supported collection. The petition concluded the works constituted a public safety issue in that they encourage sexual predators.

You may be surprised by the list of four works:
• The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier, by Alan Moore, graphic novel
• Snuff, by Chuck Palahniuk, adult fiction
• Choke (based on a novel by Chuck Palahniuk), DVD
• Ron White: You Can’t Fix Stupid, DVD

It’s fairly obvious that Alan Moore, Kevin O’Neill and Chuck Palahniuk are trying to subvert public morals and ennoble kiddie fiddlers everywhere, but what about stand-up comic Ron White? According to the IMDb page for the DVD this is a typical joke:

I think because of the unrest in the Middle East, we’re all becoming more aware of the globe. I found out the other day there really is a place called Bumfuk, Egypt. And the only way to get there is to go up Shit Creek.

White is known to hang out with popular “blue collar” comedians like Jeff Foxworthy and Larry the Cable Guy, so his ascent into the same pantheon of perverts as Alan Moore is deeply troubling for this country.

The upshot, as in past library uproars over controversial works, is that the Jessamine County library board will consider whether to change their policy — which is similar to library policies nationwide:

For those under age 18 to get a library card, parents must sign the application. The library considers parents responsible for what children and teens check out; librarians do not have discretion to refuse to loan items.

Although fist-shaking Earl Lee Watts resembles many bad dreams of “A New Wertham” come to life, a grassroots teabag-style protest against naughty graphic novels has never gotten much traction. Perhaps it because folks just don’t know what’s in those graphic novels: according to the story, at the meeting, Pastor DeWayne Brewer “warned that if the Bible ever went into graphic novel form, the banning committee would have something to really fret about” a statement which must have made W. W. Norton’s publicists very, very sad.

Bonus: WKYT has two news videos. one covering the original story and a second with footage from the library hearing.

§ As promised in our comment section, Shaun Manning interviews Gilbert Hernandez about TROUBLEMAKERS, his new book:

All of Hernandez’ characters, though, share the thrillseeker mentality. “Each person in the story only knows that getting away with something works better than earning it honestly,” the artist said. “The 4 main characters are attractive people, for the most part, but they are drawn to shady doings because it turns them on. This type of immaturity is glorified everywhere you look, so why work a 9 to 5 job? Fritz’s character brings up the obvious question of ‘Why doesn’t she just marry a rich guy?’ Because she would get bored right away. She’s the type of person I like to compare to ‘monkeys with dynamite.’”

§ Kristy Valenti investigates the work of Frank Tashlin, whose body of work goes far beyond directing CINDERFELLA.

Tashlin also wrote and drew three children’s books that could easily function as graphic novels for adults today: The Bear That Wasn’t (1946) The Possum that Didn’t (1950) and The World That Isn’t (1951). Two of these, The Bear That Wasn’t and The World That Isn’t, were hiding inside library binding at my local branch.[4] The World That Isn’t is a satiric, rise,-fall,-and-rise-again-of-man story, of the type that cartoonists still do today. Its pen-and-ink lines are controlled, flattened and simplified, with occasional tight curlicues.

§ The comics connections of the late Ken Ober are saluted at ComicMix.

§ Glen Weldon’s review of SANDMAN: DREAM HUNTERS at the NPR website did not appeal to everyone.

§ When you get an email with the headline “SPECIAL NEEDS ROCK STARS WRITE CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED COMIC BOOK” you get all KINDS of ideas about Ozzy Osbourne or Noel Gallagher writing comics, but it turns out it’s all for a good cause.

§ Help blogger Ragnell identify a bra!

We enjoyed this video AND the ad for ZORRO DVDs that ran before it!

We are also once again way behind on answering emails. AND as long as we’ve got your attention (I wish!), anyone who is using our old old AOL email address should switch to our current Gmail one. ALSO, we don’t customarily use Facebook for business communiques — believe it or not an email to our Gmail account, as backed up as it may be, is still the most effective way to reach The Beat.

BTW, how cool is this cover, especially the haphazard way the artist threw that hand behind the cloud. Talk about burying the lede!

Wunder was the artist tasked with the thankless job of working on Terry and the Pirates after Milton Caniff left the strip for Steve Canyon, which he had more ownership stake in. Now, while Wunder is no Caniff, there is undeniably something obsessive and compelling about his dense, near grotesque art as well. Nowadays, it’s not hard to see Wunder doing some kind of indie book for Fantagraphics with that kind of style.

§ Also at Comics Comics a roundtable discussion of Al Columbia’s deeply disturbing PIM & FRANCIE kicks off.

§ This week in PW Comics Week!

•The Beat talked to Nick Barrucci about Dynamite Entertainment’s last five years.

•Terri Herd talked to Jim Salicrup about the Wimpy Dead Kid.

• And Evie Nagy found out what Paul Pope did in the new issue of Royal Flush that was so filthy it had to be polybagged.

§ Matt Badham chats with Lisa Wood, organizer of this week’s Thought Bubble comic convention in Leeds, UK.

§ Novelist Kevin Baker talks about his graphic novel LUNA PARK at NPR.

§ A sort of transcript of last week’s Barry/Feiffer/Groening/Ware comics panel by Ed Choy Moorman. Also, Lucy Knisley captured the day in pictures. [Links via The Comics Reporter]

§ A nice report on the recent SCAD Atlanta Comics Arts Forum by Tim O’Shea.

§ This only came to my attention via trackback, but writer Rob Pincombe has a fascinating analysis of The Prisoner (ORIGINAL!) and how Patrick McGoohan was influenced by playing the title role in Henrik Ibsen’s play, Brand.

6 Independence Day - ORIGINAL
7 The Sixth Sense - ORGINAL
8 Home Alone - ORIGINAL
9 Men In Black - Comic Book
10 Toy Story 2 - Sequel
11 Twister - Original
12 The Lost World - Jurassic Park- Sequel
13 Mrs. Doubtfire - Novel
14 Ghost — ORIGINAL
15 Aladdin - Classic fairy tale
16 Saving Private Ryan - Original
17 Austin Powers - The Spy Who Shagged Me - ORIGINAL
18 T2 - Terminator 2 - Judgment Day - Sequel
19 Armageddon - ORIGINAL
20 Toy Story - ORIGINAL
21 Dances With Wolves — Novel
22 Batman Forever - Comic Book
23 The Fugitive - TV Show
24 Liar Liar - ORIGINAL
25 Mission Impossible - TV Show

Setting aside the obvious shockers — MRS DOUBTFIRE??? — this list does show a lot more original ideas, even if they are based on historical events — Titanic, Ryan — and that wow, in the new century nerds and their comics really have taken over, haven’t they. If enough of you are interested, we will offer analysis of previous decades in a later post.

Craig Fischer is an associate professor of English at Appalachian State University, where he teaches courses on film and comics. His articles have been published in The Comics Journal and The International Journal of Comic Art, and he served on the executive committee of the International Comic Arts Forum (ICAF) from 2005 to 2007. Currently, Craig blogs with comics scholar Charles Hatfield at www.thoughtballoonists.com.   

Francisca Goldsmith, director of branch services at the Halifax Public Libraries, Nova Scotia, has been working with comics and library users for over 20 years. This year her Reader’s Advisory Guide to Graphic Novels (ALA Editions) was published, along with her contributions of chapters to two other books on sequential art. Goldsmith regularly reviews graphic novels and comics for a variety of professional journals and has planned and implemented school and public library programs and staff development opportunities, featuring sequential art media and creators, for librarians. In addition to her work with comics and readers, Goldsmith has served on a number of state and national literary awards committees and has published numerous interviews with artists and authors, including Will Eisner.  

John Hogan is a graduate of the University of Northern Iowa, where he majored in English literature and minored in journalism. In his professional life, he has worked as a copyeditor, copywriter, and editor and he is the former editor-in-chief of Pages, the magazine for people who love books. He’s currently the editor of GraphicNovelReporter.com, a website devoted to covering the world of comics through the eyes of librarians, teachers, creators, and general readers. 

James Hudnall has worked in the comics industry since 1986, as a writer, publisher, and letterer, as well as a rewriter of manga. He has worked for almost all of the major publishers at one time or another. His comics series Harsh Realm was adapted to TV by Fox in 1998. His graphic novel The Psycho, with artist Dan Brereton, is in development with Universal Pictures. His Unauthorized Biography of Lex Luthor has been called one of the best comics of all time by Wizard magazine. He’s currently finishing a crime thriller graphic novel 

Wayne Winsett has owned Time Warp Comics and Games in Boulder, Colorado, for 25 years. He managed the Mile High Comics flagship store for five years prior to buying his store from Mile High in 1984. He is currently helping support a popular graphic novel course at the University Of Colorado that has 100 students enrolled this semester. Last semester he helped organize an exhibit at CU that was the most attended gallery showing in school history. He also frequently gives lectures on “Comics Economics ” to the students. 

The judges will meet in San Diego in late March to select the nominees that will be placed on the Eisner Awards ballot. The nominees will then be voted on by professionals in the comic book industry, and the results will be announced in a gala awards ceremony on Friday, July 23 at Comic-Con in San Diego. 

The Eisner Awards are presented under the auspices of Comic-Con International, San Diego, a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to creating awareness of and appreciation for comics and related popular art forms. primarily through the presentation of conventions and events that celebrate the historic and ongoing contributions of comics to art and culture..  

Peter Tomasi, interviewed at CBR

Now, we’re fans of most of the previous versions of this story — including Kirk Douglas’s pants-to-the-armpits turn as Ned Land, Harryhausen’s marvelous Mysterious Island, and even Karel Zeman’s weirdo animated version — but we are STILL doing the happy dance over this movie’s journey to the dustbin behind Mickey Drive.

Why?

Because of the name of the director attached to this project.

McG.

The guy who produced, oh say, “Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious.”

And, as any sane human would agree, based on the empirical evidence at hand, McG sucks.

Yes, it seems to us that Mr. Rich has only done the decent thing by pulling the plug on yet another bloated, noisy, empty Hollywood contraption that would be 94 percent badly conceived, sketchily rendered, plot-replacing CGI, two percent content and probably three percent farting chipmunks. So in our view, Rich is a Real American Hero.

According to one person familiar with the situation, Ross made the decision based on creative concerns and plans to redevelop the movie, a new adaptation of Jules Vernes’ classic novel, which the studio first brought to the big screen in 1954.

Now, it’s entirely possible that the movie got scuttled just because Rich Ross is a dick who gets his jollies by murdering everything his predecessor left behind.

But we’re going to take the more positive view.

Sort of related: Only Two of the Top 30 Grossing Films of This Decade Are Original. Those two being FINDING NEMO and KUNG FU PANDA. Discuss.

Stills from The Fabulous World of Jules Verne.

But what do YOU think?

§ This interview with early Bullpenner and romance editor Irene Vartanoff is fascinating:
By the time I was out of college, I had already been a frequent visitor to DC Comics. It was not hard to convince them to give me a try, and in 1971 I worked simultaneously on superhero and romance stories. People at DC were extremely welcoming and I was insufficiently grateful at the time. I was very young, and arrogant enough to dare to go to the big city, but not quite ready for it on several levels. I did not ride out my moments of self-doubt to writing success in comics. I was a sheltered girl from the suburbs who was trying to make it in a strange place as a freelancer, without much support system or money. After a while, I had to take a break and go back home.

§ The latest in the Angoulême squabble.

§ More on Grant Morrison’s Wonder Woman project?? Hmmmm.

§ The Mysterious World of Al Columbia. But would you want it any other way?

§ David Welsh reviews Inio Asano’s WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD!

§ Retailer Jay Bardyla points out that comics for kids is a fast growing, good selling category these days, not the weird anomaly it was in the ’90s.

Frankly, I am tired of hearing this from retailers. When I look back and see what comics were being offered through the 1990s and early 2000s against what’s being offered today, I can’t help but feel that every retailer that says the above phrase is out of touch with the industry. There are dozens upon dozens of titles aimed at young children and dozens and dozens more that are appropriate for all ages. Are the number of today’s books in the whole of all titles published monthly comparable to the number of “all ages” books from the 70s and 80s? No but then again, there weren’t 300 to 500 new books published each month in the 70s and 80s. And also, the world’s view of entertainment is not the same either.

§ All of which makes the lack of a publisher for the kids comics anthology FLIGHT EXPLORER all the more puzzling.

§ Creator grapples with pirates, learns lessons.

§ Director James McTeigue reveals he’s probably NOT working on a Superman movie, but considering that he wanted it to be “super dark,” we are just as glad, because what the world DOESN’T need is another superdark Superman!

§ Lovable eccentric Wes Anderson has just made a goofy stop motion animation movieand wants to spin a comic seen in one scene off from it:

So he and head storyboard artist Christian De Vita put their heads together and came up with their brand-new superhero.

“[Christian] was very good at these kind of drawings and he became the artist that does ‘White Cape.’ We sort of made this comic book series,” said Anderson. “He has posters and we have some pages. We didn’t ever figure out any full stories, but in fact he wants to do some ‘White Cape’ comics now. So maybe we will be developing that property.”

§ Last night’s premiere for TWILIGHT: NEW MOON may have been the dawning of a new epoch for humanity, but it was a washout for standing up straight. Posture, people! Also, watch out for squinting!

Frankly, we’re still amused by Robert Pattinson’s popularity, but each generation gets the heartthrob it deserves.

BONUS! Twilight creator Stephenie Meyer.

According to the piece, Igort’s 5 IS THE PERFECT NUMBER is slated for a movie adapted by Marco Mueller.

The line-up of contents remains as stunning as before:
• Art Spiegelman and Kevin Huizenga
• Jean-Christophe Menu and Sammy Harkham
• Frank Quitely and Dave Gibbons
• Dave Mazzucchelli and Dash Shaw
• Alison Bechdel and Danica Novgorodoff
• Howard Chaykin and Ho Che Anderson
• Denny O’Neil and Matt Fraction
• Jaime Hernandez and Zak Sally
• Ted Rall and Matt Bors
• Jim Borgman and Keith Knight
• Stan Sakai and Chris Schweizer

And we’ll read it when our hard copy arrives, just like always. Johanna Draper Carlson has commentary.

On another matter, late last night a story on Variety.com was making the rounds stating that the Warriors Three had been cast for the Thor movie. But it seems whoever wrote the story had gotten his ’60s Marvel characters mixed up, since — not trying to sound racist or anything — but casting a slender Asian man as Volstagg the Voluminous didn’t make much sense. Anyway, Marvel.com has the final lineup:

Fandral will be played by Stuart Townsend. The job of Hogun goes to Tadanobu Asano. And Volstagg will be portrayed Ray Stevenson.

That’s more like it.