San Diego 2o1o Final News Round-Up!

So it's been over a week since the end of the San Diego Comic-Con but there were a few things Josh didn't cover in his previous post and that I think should be talked about. They are laid out below:

-"Concrete", Paul Chadwick's unique man-trapped-in-the-body-of-a-monster character returns after an absence of about five years! The unfortunate professor, the gal pal, the assistant (all of whom I cannot remember the names of, but fondly remember the existence of) will return with the series that was one of Dark Horse's first critical successes. The related and almost equally cool announcement is that Chadwick's characters will return in "Dark Horse Presents", the company's original anthology comic which is itself returning to a printed page existence (after several years in webcomics form as MySpace Dark Horse Presents) sometime soon!

-"Kirby: Genesis" is the (I hope, tentative) title of an unusual project from Dynamite Entertainment bringing old Jack Kirby characters and concepts (some of them long since lost from the public eye) back in what will probably be a comic-book mini-series written by Kurt Busiek, designed by Alex Ross, and drawn by some artists yet to be announced. As you may have gathered, the details are fuzzy.

-Although I'd be lying if I said it excited me personally, John Byrne's "Next Men" will be returning with IDW Publishing in December 2o1o after disappearing from shelves, on a cliffhanger ending, for fifteen years!

-"Ultimate Doom" will complete Marvel's trilogy of minis started with "Ultimate Enemy" years ago. They seem to be making a concerted effort to not reveal the 'ultimate' enemy but... they've titled the final mini "Ultimate DOOM". If you're any kind of fan of Marvel Comics I think you know who this'll be.

-I suspect this will mean nothing to many of our readers but: Marvel has acquired CrossGen's old characters. It probably wasn't too hard since Disney bought them years ago and then bought Marvel late last year, putting them both in the same 'house' so to speak. Now Josh mentioned in his post that "it can't be every year that Marvel buys Marvelman and promptly does nothing of note with the property" but in a way we do have a very similar announcement here. Marvel now owns a cadre of little known, but in some cases well-loved, series: "Sigil", "Scion", "Ruse", "Way of the Rat", "El Cazador", and J.M. DeMatteis' "Abadazad". The shared universe in which many of them live having been cut-short in the middle of its first crossover event by bankruptcy in 2oo4. Only in the past few months have we finally seen some actions utilizing the Marvelman family of characters that Marvel announced acquiring at the San Diego Comic-Con LAST year. Hopefully we won't have to wait as long to see an effect from this year's acquisition.

-And connected with the new direction for Spider-Man Josh mentioned there will be:
A. A new series featuring Arana re-branded as a new Spider-Girl.
and
B. A Norman Osborn mini-series.
and
C. A Carnage mini-series.

~ @JonGorga

P.S. ~ And well, of course, on the adaptation movie front there was this HUGE news. Awesome.

That and there's going to be an "A Contract With God" film. Exciting, but sad for me. I wrote an adaptation script for that classic comic by Will Eisner back in college... Probably never going to get that job now!

5 comments:

  1. I think - and I hope - that the CrossGen project will do good in diversifying genre and readershop. http://comicscube.blogspot.com/2010/07/marvel-to-bring-back-crossgen-and-why.html

    As for your reservations on Kirby: Genesis, explain thyself, mortal!

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  2. It just feels like a corporate concept to me. And a really weird one at that.

    You wrote here: http://comicscube.blogspot.com/2010/07/watchmen-sequel-is-coming.html about the absurdity of continuing the Watchmen story just to make a buck (thankfully it hasn't happened yet). As much as I have liked a lot of Alex Ross' work, he and Dynamite feel as if they've become a little too focused on the past instead of the future.

    Where's the great NEW superhero or detective characters they could be creating? DC and Marvel have more of an excuse to mine their past, Dynamite seems to be begging to get bogged down by someone else's past.

    And just because Busiek and Ross worked well before doesn't mean they will again. I see their styles as very different and I suspect Ross has become used to leading projects instead of collaborating on them.

    Mind you... without a single page of comics actually drawn and printed this is all conjecture of the highest order. I don't see myself enjoying this BUT I will give it a serious look when it's finally on the rack. Pretty much just for you Duy, that's how much I respect your opinions!

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  3. Hm, good points, all, and I actually agree! I think I fall back on looking at Dynamite's business model, which is indeed to mine the history of comics that's not relegated to Marvel and DC - which I don't see as a bad thing, since there's a whole lot of history there that should never be forgotten. For example, I didn't have any problems with Project: Superpowers as a concept, since it used a lot of characters from the forgotten annals of comics that I don't think should be forgotten. (The execution is a completely different thing - I dropped it after two issues.) So in this case, it's a wonderful opportunity to educate newer fans on Kirby's legacy, so I'm all for that.

    And also, for this one, I kinda see it also like 1602, where the money will go to help a larger cause. In this case, the Kirbys, and their lawsuit against Marvel.

    But like I said, at the end of the day, the title is really going to have to come together as a total package for me, and in this regard, I'm going to have to be satisfied with the interior artist.

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  4. Is the money going to Jack and Roz's children? I hadn't heard that. That would be a reason to buy it all by itself.

    Projects 'mining' the history of comics and the pulps are GREAT in theory. But "Project: Superpowers" was unfortunately something I never even got the time to give a serious look.

    On a related note: I've really enjoyed some of The Phantom comics Moonstone has put out in past years and I'm kind of sad to see them lose the license to Dynamite. The one issue of the one Phantom comic they've put out so far did not excite me at all.

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  5. I think it's a safe assumption, since the Kirbys own these characters. I'm sure Alex and Kurt aren't doing it for free, but the Kirbys will get their royalty share.

    Project: Superpowers was a mess, I think - I dropped it at issue 2. But something like the Twelve was (potentially) great.

    I really should get my hands on those Phantoms...

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