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It costs a bunch of money to make a movie and nearly as much to actually go see one in the theaters. Top Shelf has hit a fall jackpot with their comic book The Surrogates, written by Robert Venditti and drawn by Brett Weldele. It’s debuting as a movie on September 25th, directed by Jonathan Mostow, written by John Brancato and Michael Ferris and starring Bruce Willis and Rosamund Pike.
To celebrate the movie’s release (check out the trailer after the jump!), Top Shelf is debuting The Surrogates comics at iTunes, so you can read the original graphic novel on your iPod Touch or iPhone. You can get the first two issues for 99¢ and the remaining three issues for 99¢ each. If that seems like too big a risk for you, then you can just download the entire first issue—that’s The Surrogates #1—for free from the iTunes App Store. Got it?
Between now and September 25th, Top Shelf will be taking advantage of the slow fall comic book season and offering up a whopper of a sale to celebrate: lots of great graphic novels and comic booky stuff for $3 a pop and reduced prices for their prime Alan Moore books like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Lost Girls, and From Hell. Also, Halloween is coming up, and what better gift than a copy of Johnny Boo by James Kochalka?
It’s a great time to be alive.
[Artwork: The Surrogates © Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele]
Click to continue reading The Surrogates & Alan Moore: On Sale Now!
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Marvel Comics Review: Captain America: Reborn #3
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, Marvel Comics,
Rating: ****
Another great issue for this series. In our last issue, Bucky and the Black Widow were captured by Norman and Obsborn. Norman has released to the media that Sharon Carter was the second shooter in the assassination of Captain America. He released the Black Widow and said that unless she returns with Sharon Carter, Bucky is dead.
Our story opens with Cap continuing to jump through time to different points in his life. Cap has now jumped to the time when he was frozen in ice. During this period, Cap was worshiped by local tribe as some sort of ice god. Namor arrives and is angry at the natives and picks up the block of ice and launches back into the ocean. Steve narrates the scene and it seems this isn’t the first time he’s visited this point in time. He says that he tries to cry out for help every time, but it never works. We then flash to the present where Reed Richards and the present Namor are at the same spot. Namor brings up Steve’s glass coffin, only to see his body disappear!
Click to continue reading Marvel Comics Review: Captain America: Reborn #3
Rating: ****
Wow! Blackest Night may be Geoff Johns’ best work yet and along with artist Ivan Reis, it makes the story that much better. In the two previous issues we had a lot of fighting and an establishing of the situation, but with this issue we get a firm direction of where this series will be headed and what needs to be done to stop the Black Lanterns.
Our story opens up with the new Firestorm, Jason Rusch. As we know from the previous Firestorm, Ronnie Raymond, Firestorm is not just one person. It took the combination of Ronnie Raymond and Professor Mark Stein to form the Firestorm matrix. Currently Jason’s other half of the Firestorm matrix is his girlfriend Gehenna whom he calls Gen. The two are discussing their relationship. Jason is able to read the thoughts of Gen when they are merged together as Firestorm and realizes Gen wants to get married. Jason isn’t ready and Gen says that maybe they shouldn’t be Firestorm together. But before Jason can answer that, his Justice League comm link goes off alerting him to some trouble.
Click to continue reading DC Comics Review: Blackest Night #3
Michael Uslan: The Boy Who Loved Batman
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, DC Comics,
Michael Uslan has had a very interesting career in comics - he went from fan to comic book writer to producer of the modern era Batman films. Uslan has been called one of the 25 Most Influential People In Comic Book Movies.
Now Uslan has just signed on to write his autobiography for Chronicle Books. The book, The Boy Who Loved Batman, traces Uslan’s journey “from a comics-obsessed childhood in 1950’s New Jersey, to the fulfillment of his vision of the Dark Knight over the course of six Batman films.“ The book will also feature “comic reproductions, photos, and illustrations.”
Click to continue reading Michael Uslan: The Boy Who Loved Batman
Read More | Cuppacafe
Ultimate Comics Avengers 1: Mark Millar & Carlos Pacheco
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Reviews, Marvel Comics,
This issue was a test for me. I’m not up on my current Marvel continuity and even if this was a Double Jeopardy round I don’t think I could tell Ultimate Avengers from Dark Avengers or even The Avengers with Patrick McNee and Diana Rigg. I prefer Marvel’s weirder mini-series and one-shots these days, whether it’s Marvel Apes, Marvel Zombies or the new Strange Tales.
So when this first issue came out, I thought I’d pick it up as a test. Will this issue seem like so much super-hero hieroglyphics that I’d need a Rosetta Stone of Continuity to keep up? Or will I be able to just leap into it and be entertained? In other words, how quickly will I have to go to the Wikipedia to figure out what’s going on?
The answer: I didn’t need Wikipedia at all. Yeah, Fury now looks a lot like Samuel L. Jackson (that’s the power of a multi-picture movie deal in the Marvel Universe), Carol Danvers (the one-time Ms. Marvel back when Mark Millar was in diapers) is now the director if S.H.I.E.L.D. Hawkeye is not only carrying a gun (yup), he’s now looking like some kind of ninja warrior in an outfit from a bad 1980s-era comic, wearing a mask that looks like he stole it from Bug’s Fourth World Kirby closet. Oh, and Tony Stark now looks like the current Robert Downey, Jr. and drinks and parties like the old Robert Downey, Jr.
Click to continue reading Ultimate Comics Avengers 1: Mark Millar & Carlos Pacheco
Comic Book Jobs: Who’s Hiring? Viz And Not Viz!
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Viz Media,
Over in the city by the bay (that’s San Francisco for you rubes in the audience), Viz Media (publisher of Shonen Jump, Naruto and a whole lot more) is looking for a Bilingual Japanese/English Collateral Coordinator. That sounds like a job you get at a bank your first year out of college, but it’s much better than that.
It’s an opportunity to join Viz’s Sales & Product Marketing team. If you know your manga, can fluently read/write/and speak in both English and Japanese, can translate, and have some graphic design experience, there’s an English/Japanese desk with your name on it.
Lots of duties come with the new job including logistics, timelines, tracking and trafficking. Some of them—like drafting promotional copy and working with licensors in Japan sound like high points indeed. As does the part about occasional travel, both domestic and international. Wonder where they’ll send you…
Of course, there are some minimal physical requirements: you must be able to: “lift and carry materials weighing up to 20 pounds, kneeling, bending. Approximately 70 percent of time spent on the job involves use of a video display terminal. Must be able to sit for extended periods and to utilize standard ergonomics practices.” So, probably not for the average Justice League fan.
Click to continue reading Comic Book Jobs: Who’s Hiring? Viz And Not Viz!
Read More | Career Builder via Viz
Campaign for Drawing: Gerald Scarfe, Quentin Blake and Steve Bell
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials,
Even though I’m not a big collector of original art, I love looking at it and the pieces that I own are very special to me—and they’re framed and mounted on the wall of my office. I love to thumb through originals when I go to Comic Con International. I like to feel the weight of the art board, see the underlying pencils and study how the ink line digs into the paper.
The Campaign For Drawing is a British organization that’s holding a silent auction. The campaign is devoted to creating a “new regard for the value of drawing to help people see, think, invent and take action. Its long-term ambition is to change the way drawing is perceived by educationalists and the public.” Their Big Draw Auction features original art by a couple dozen wonderful artists and cartoonists.
Over at the website, you’ll find some excellent pieces by artists Tony Husband, Steve Bell, David Roberts, Martin Rowson, Posey Simonds, Gerald Scarfe, Bill Stott, cartoonists from The Guardian and Private Eye, Ken Pyne, Lucinda Rogers, Robert Duncan, Rosey Brooks, Anthony Brown, Quentin Blake and lots more.
Click to continue reading Campaign for Drawing: Gerald Scarfe, Quentin Blake and Steve Bell
Read More | Campaign For Drawing via The Blog Horn
Considering that it’s been a year since director Sam Mendes spoke of the long-awaited Preacher adaptation, I’m not sure if I should count on seeing the film completed in my lifetime. There is, however, a somewhat glimmer of hope in the matter.
“It’s getting closer. I’ve seen a script and it’s very good. We’re a little further down the road than when I last spoke to you,” Mendes told Empire
He’s seen a script?! Well, that just quells all my doubts. Then again, I can’t blame the guy—Preacher would be a tough act to translate to film.
Let’s hope that it helps that he’s a fan of the novel: “It’s funny, it’s violent as hell, it’s extremely blasphemous and profane, but it has an amazingly skilful tone. I met Garth Ennis, and I’m just a huge fan of it.”
Despite seeing a script, the adaptation will still rest on the back burner, as Joseph O’Neill’s Netherland is the next project at his plate.
Read More | Empire
Diane Nelson Talks DC
Posted by Robin Paulson Categories: Interviews, DC Comics, Marvel Comics,
Almost instantly after Warner Bros. announced a restructuring of DC comics, head of the task at hand, Diane Nelson, was the most hounded woman around these comic book parts. She took time out to defend Warner Bros. and her being a girl as well as her guess at how many DC characters exist.
Of the age-old Marvel vs. DC war, Nelson was quick to point out that DC was planning to call for the restructuring before Marvel was eaten up by Disney: “It’s something we’ve been discussing and planning for nearly a year. We wanted it before Labor Day – but then Marvel and Disney announced and thought—It is good. One, my hat is off to them. Bob Iger is great. I have nothing but respect for them. I’m glad we were thinking along the same lines without having to pay $4 billion. I think it’s good for the whole industry.”
Click to continue reading Diane Nelson Talks DC
Read More | The Wrap
After keeping its fans in long anticipation, Kick-Ass #7 finally jump starts the series from a long four-month hiatus, delivering an issue that pushes its own envelope of drama and brutality. With a plate full of fan complaints concerning the neglect of a timely released issue, creators Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. answered the patience-stolen outcries by following last issue’s cliffhanger through an electrifying climax.
Issue seven bursts through the gates from Red Mist’s betrayal, revealing Kick-Ass’s partnership with him as just an elaborate plan to trap the father/daughter team of Big Daddy and Hit-Girl. What follows next is a slew of teeth-clenchingly painful scenes and yes, some much needed ass-kicking to celebrate.
Cornered by the series’ thus-far villain, John Genovese and his crime organization, we see Hit-Girl make an attempt to turn the tables with shameful consequences and Dave Lizewski at his most defeated, providing us with a literally balls-out torture scene. We also experience the painful demise of Big Daddy, which in turn finally answers the long-awaited question of what the heck is in that damn case of his. What’s revealed only fuels the issue’s skillful storytelling and drives us to see the core of more believable humanism that sets Kick-Ass from other exaggerated comics that feature costumed heroes—the “what-if?” question of Average Joe paired with heroic drive.
Click to continue reading Kick-Ass Returns From Long Hiatus
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