Photos: Latest “Avengers” Set Pix!

Here’s the latest set pix from this summer’s upcoming superhero blockbuster The Avengers!

Lots to pour over in these photos.

More after the jump …

ART: Great Horror Comic Book Covers!

Horror comics made quite an impact in the fifties, leading to congressional investigations and eventual a comics code.  But readers of that era just remember how great these comics were.  And one of the things that made the comics great was the covers.  Here we look a bunch of rare ones, offering a comment or two on each.

Action Comics #2 Sells Out!

According to Bleeding Cool, Action Comics #2, one of the hottest comics of DC’s recent relaunch, has “gone to back order”.  This means retailers cannot order any more copies and have any certainty they will receive them by street date.  The comic is written by Grant Morrison with art by Rags Morales.

Sign of the Apocalypes: Two Monthy Comics from Rob Liefeld?

In the nineties, no comic book artist got more press than Rob Liefeld.  A lot of it good.  A lot of it bad.  And most of the bad came from his inability to produce the books he promised.  Once again, Liefeld is making a bold promise.  He says:

I’ve never illustrated 2 monthly books but my childhood idols, John Byrne, George Perez and Jack Kirby did this frequently, its something I’ve always wanted to attempt and here I am pushing myself to achieve that goal. For this year at least, I’m pushing towards making that a reality. As I sit here The Infinite #4 is in production, issue #3 is off to the printer and over at Hawk and Dove issue #2 is off issues #3 and #4 are in various stages of completion, so there’s 4 months worth of doubling-down that has been achieved so far.

We wish Liefeld a lot of luck in this endeavor.  But we’re not placing any bets on his ability to keep up with two monthly for an entire year.  But we’d love Liefeld to prove us, and all other naysayers, wrong.  So get it done, Rob!

 

Neil Gaiman Praises YouTube Singer!

We’ve long been fans of  stopitsgingertime, the YouTube channel featuring a High School girl’s songs about “Doctor Who” and other genre television shows.  We highlighted one of her songs here.  Well, now she’s got a much bigger fan than us to champion her cause.  None other than Neil Gaiman, comic book and fantasy writer, not to mention author of this year’s brilliant “Doctor Who” episode “The Doctor’s Wife“.  This is what he had to say about the YouTube songstresses recent effort:

Took me 3 years of scribbling & rewrites to make 45 minutes of Dr Who, summed up in 2:29 by a smart girl with a ukulele http://bit.ly/k73eTQ

We’ve gotten good reviews before.  That is a VERY good review.  You can watch her response to that tweet above, and watch the song Gaiman is referring to after the jump.

Jim Shooter Joins the Blogosphere!

Jim Shooter, one of the most interesting figures in comicdom, now has a blog.  As a writer he’s been hugely influential.  (He started writing Legion of Superheroes for DC Comics while still in High School.) As editor-in-chief of Marvel he became notorious.  And as the creator o f superhero universes for independent companies ( e.g. Valiant, Defiant and Broadway Comics) he was ahead of his time.

On his blog, he answers questions on a wide range of subjects, and offers information on his latest projects.  If you’re a Shooter fan (we are!) or just want learn more about the man, this blog is a treasure trove.  Visit it here.

R.I.P. Wizard Magazine!

Wizard magazine is shutting down and the company (now public) will devote all its efforts to producing comic conventions.  This isn’t surprising.  Sales of the magazine had dropped significantly in the last decade.  (As they have for almost all print magazines in the U.S..)  While the convention business grew and grew.  But that doesn’t mean it isn’t a sad day.

Wizard magazine was often maligned for its slick, cheerleader attitude to the comic book industry.  But, if you were a comic book fan in the last 20 years, you read it.  And, we bet, you really liked it. (Even if you never said it out loud.)  Whereas the last decade has been marked by podcasts and websites, the nineties was the day of Wizard.  And their glossy pages, and rah-rah coverage, were the background music of the era.

It now seems the once maligned cheer-leading has been taken up by most of online news sites.  Newarama’s low brow coverage clearly owes more to Wizard than it does to Comics Journal.  But those sites don’t offer the excitement of paging through a new copy of Wizard, on the bus or Subway, and dreaming of computer colored worlds as you speed toward the doldrums of your black and white life.  Nope, they don’t come close to that.  Not by a long shot.

R.I.P. Wizard Magazine.  You will be missed.

NBC Picks Up WONDER WOMAN!

According to the Hollywood Reporter, NBC has agreed to pick up David E. Kelly‘s adaptation of comic book superhero Wonder Woman for the pilot … at least.  The network passed on the project earlier this year, but thanks to executive reshuffling, they were now open to accept it.

David E. Kelly insists his Wonder Woman would “real complex woman and not just a superhero”.   And he’s optimistic about the series, believing that it is a good fit for NBC and could begin airing as early as next fall.

Source.

Video: Real Life Superhero “Phoenix Jones”!

Back in 2006, award winning comic book writer Grant Morrison said that we’d be seeing real-life superheroes in the next few years.  And this video looks like confirmation of that prediction.

What do you think of this development?  Offer your thoughts in the comments section.

Stan Lee Releases New Tome!

This week Stan Lee released a new book Stan Lee’s How to Draw Comics.  A callback to the classic volume How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way (published in 1984 ), this books takes readers through the basics of drawing for comic books with the trademark humor and asides that have made Lee famous.  All this makes it a solid and  entertaining introduction to the subject.