COMMENT: Give the mostly negative reviews, you'd think Stan would disown this flick.
Rotten Tomatoes link: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/conan_the_barbarian_2011/
Lastly, Stan did NOT invent Conan, with was originally written by R.E. Howard!
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Friday, June 1, 2012
Green Lantern relaunched as brave, mighty and gay
Green Lantern relaunched as brave, mighty and gay
Associated PressBy MATT MOORE | Associated Press, June 1, 2012
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Green Lantern, one of DC Comics' oldest and enduring heroes no matter what parallel earth he's on, is serving as a beacon for the publisher again, this time as a proud, mighty and openly gay hero.
The change is revealed in the pages of the second issue of "Earth 2" out next week, and comes on the heels of what has been an expansive year for gay and lesbian characters in the pages of comic books from Archie to Marvel and others.
But purists and fans note: This Green Lantern is not the emerald galactic space cop Hal Jordan who was, and is, part of the Justice League and has had a history rich in triumph and tragedy.
Instead, said James Robinson, who writes the new series, Alan Scott is the retooled version of the classic Lantern whose first appearance came in the pages of "All-American Comics" No. 16 in July 1940.
And his being gay is not part of some wider story line meant to be exploited or undone down the road, either.
"This was my idea," Robinson explained this week, noting that before DC relaunched all its titles last summer, Alan Scott had a son who was gay.
But given "Earth 2" features retooled and rebooted characters, Scott is not old enough to have a grown son.
"By making him younger, that son was not going to exist anymore," Robinson said.
"He doesn't come out. He's gay when we see him in issue two," which is due out Wednesday. "He's fearless and he's honest to the point where he realized he was gay and he said 'I'm gay.'"
"It was just meant to be — Alan Scott being a gay member of the team, the Justice Society, that I'll be forming in the pages of 'Earth 2,'" he said. "He's just meant to be part of this big tapestry of characters."
It's also another example of gay and lesbian characters taking more prominent roles in the medium.
In May, Marvel Entertainment said super speedster Northstar will marry his longtime boyfriend in the pages of "Astonishing X-Men." DC comics has other gay characters, too, including Kate Kane, the current Batwoman.
And in the pages of Archie Comics, Kevin Keller is one of the gang at Riverdale High School and gay, too.
Some groups have protested the inclusion of gay characters, but Robinson isn't discouraged, noting that being gay is just one aspect to Scott.
"This guy, he's a media mogul, a hero, a dynamic type-A personality and he's gay," Robinson said. "He's a complex character."
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Follow Matt Moore at http://www.twitter.com/mattmooreap
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Online:
DC Comics: http://www.dccomics.com/
http://news.yahoo.com/green-lantern-relaunched-brave-mighty-gay-070052544.html
Friday, March 9, 2012
Slovak Batman lends helping hand
Slovak Batman lends helping hand (from REUTERS; March 10, 2012)
Zoltan Kohari, 26, lives alone in an abandoned building in Dunajska Streda, Slovakia, without water, heat or electricity. For local residents he became known as the hero in a Batman's costume. While he has not fought crime yet, he does what he can to help residents to make their daily life easier.
Photo By RADOVAN STOKLASA/REUTERS Thu, Mar 8, 2012
Friday, March 2, 2012
Spider-Man Musical ruined by Supervillians!
Related Content
Enlarge Photo FILE - In this Sept. 10, 2010 file photo, Julie Taymor, director of the musical "Spider-Man: …
NEW YORK (AP) — Director Julie Taymor has hit back at her former creative partners in "Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark," arguing in court papers that she was the victim of a conspiracy to unfairly push her out of the production and that her one-time collaborators were secretly working on a rival script behind her back.
Taymor's legal team on Friday defended the Tony Award winner against claims in an earlier countersuit from producers, the latest installment in their bitter legal battle over financial rewards for Broadway's most expensive show."While secretly conspiring to oust Taymor and use and change her work without pay, the producers also fraudulently induced Taymor to continue working and to diligently make improvements," her team alleges.
Taymor, who was the original "Spider-Man" director and co-book writer, was fired in March after years of delays, accidents and critical backlash. The show, which features music by U2's Bono and The Edge, opened in November 2010 but spent months in previews before officially opening a few days after the Tony Awards in June. It has become a financial hit at the box office.
Producers shot back late Friday. "It's very disheartening for the former director of the show to take no responsibility for the consequences of her actions while, at the same time, trying to claim credit for the show's success," Dale Cendali, an attorney for the producers, said in a statement.
In November, Taymor slapped the producers — led by Michael Cohl and Jeremiah J. Harris — as well as Glen Berger, her former co-book writer, with a federal copyright infringement lawsuit, alleging they violated her creative rights and haven't compensated her for the work she put into the $75 million show. In January, the producers' filed a counterclaim asserting the copyright claims are baseless. The latest salvo is Taymor's team responding to that counterclaim.
In the legal filing, Taymor claims she was ousted not because she wasn't willing to cooperate with changes but simply to appease investors, sway critics to the idea that the show was being fixed, bilk her of royalties and "mask the producers' own failures."The document says she was fired during a lunch meeting at The Lamb's Club restaurant by the producers, Bono and The Edge. Playwright Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa was hired to work on the book and Philip William McKinley stepped in to direct.
The filing quotes from emails between her and the producers, Berger and Bono and The Edge, painting a picture of a creative team very supoortive of Taymor's direction and vision. She also claims she had no part in the accidents that injured actors and embarrassed the production and that Bono and The Edge's frequent absences from the theater "hampered timely improvements."
The filing describes a behind-the-scenes atmosphere that was secretive and slightly paranoid. Taymor alleges that Berger was told to quietly work on changes to the story without Taymor's knowledge — called "Plan X" — that in an email Berger complained led him to lead a "double life" — both working with and against Taymor.
The document quotes Berger in an email to Bono complaining that "it's a bit draining" working for hours with Taymor "on scenes I know in my heart-of-hearts are wrong." Taymor claims she was unaware of any alternative story line until after being fired and yet she was to have final approval on the musical's book.
The stunt-heavy show has been doing brisk business ever since it opened its doors and most weeks easily grossing more than the $1.2 million the producers have indicated they need to reach to stay viable. Over the Christmas holiday, the show earned the highest single-week gross of any show in Broadway history.
Taymor alleges that the show has not been re-imagined and that what audiences are seeing at the Foxwoods Theatre is essentially the same show she directed. "The producers' current suggestion that they have created a 'new' show after a mere three-week shutdown is false and incredible," the filing says.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
New Watchmen Series! Issues of Fidelity Abound!
From Brian Truitt, USA Today, Feburay 1, 2012
DC gives Watchmen a graphic past
- Comments
The masked vigilante Rorschach was originally created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons in the original 1980s Watchmen series.
Who watches the Watchmen? This summer, it will again be a legion of comic-book fans.
Under its DC Comics banner, DC Entertainment is reviving characters from the beloved and seminal graphic novel Watchmen for seven prequels collectively titled Before Watchmen.
The comics will feature all of the heroes — and anti-heroes — who writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons created in the 1986-87 Watchmen series, which was later collected as a graphic novel. Those characters will star in miniseries by some of the company's top writers and artists, including:
•Rorschach by writer Brian Azzarello and artist Lee Bermejo
•Comedian by Azzarello and artist J.G. Jones
•Minutemen by writer/artist Darwyn Cooke
•Silk Spectre by Cooke and artist Amanda Conner
•Nite Owl by writer J. Michael Straczynski and artists Joe and Andy Kubert
•Dr. Manhattan by Straczynski and artist Adam Hughes
•Ozymandias by writer and original Watchmen editor Len Wein with art by Jae Lee
Issues will be released so that there will be a new one every week, and each will include two pages of a separate, continuing backup story, Curse of the Crimson Corsair, by Wein, with art by Watchmen colorist John Higgins. A single-issue Before Watchmen: Epilogue will also be a part of the prequel series, featuring several of the writers and artists involved.
According to the Guinness World Records, Watchmen is the best-selling graphic novel of all time, with more than 2 million copies sold. However, Azzarello first read the series when it came out monthly in the '80s and was a huge fan 10 years before he broke into the industry.
Azzarello says he "dropped the phone" when DC co-publisher Dan DiDio called him last summer and asked if he'd write the fan-favorite character Rorschach, the vigilante clad in a mask with shifting ink blots who investigates the death of his old friend, The Comedian, in the original Watchmen story.
"He's the face. The guy who covers his face is the face of the franchise," Azzarello says. For the four-issue Rorschach series, he's teaming again with Bermejo, the artist from his Joker graphic novel.
"You're going to get the Rorschach that you know and want. It's a very visceral story we're going to be telling,'' Azzarello says.
Set in a bleak version of 1980s America where Richard Nixon is still president and powered beings have changed the fabric of society but are now considered outlaws, Watchmen created a legion of fans with its rich storytelling and deconstruction of the superhero genre. The phrase "Who watches the Watchmen,'' spray-painted on buildings in the original book, has become iconic.
Many of those readers view Watchmen as a sacred text that shouldn't be touched. Moore himself publicly stated that he wanted nothing to do with the 2009 movie adaptation by director Zack Snyder, or any sequels or prequels.
Gibbons, who was an adviser on the movie, has given his blessing. "The original series of Watchmen is the complete story that Alan Moore and I wanted to tell. However, I appreciate DC's reasons for this initiative and the wish of the artists and writers involved to pay tribute to our work. May these new additions have the success they desire," he says in a statement.
That approval, however, isn't as important as making sure all the Before Watchmen books work on their own, Azzarello says. What's key is "that we all get in there and we tell the best possible stories we can and we reconnect these characters. It's 25 years later. Let's make them vital again."
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Action No.1 Goes for How Much??!!!!
Yahoo News:
By MATT MOORE | AP 
But in 2000, it was stolen and thought lost until it was recovered in a storage shed in California in April this year.
About 100 copies of Action Comics No. 1 are believed to be in existence, and only a handful of those in good condition.
After it was stolen, Fishler said, collectors figured it would never be found or, worse, would be destroyed.
"Clearly, I was wrong. Not in my wildest imagination could I have predicted that this legendary, stolen Action Comics No. 1 would be found, graded at 9.0 and break the record a year and a half later," he said.
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Online:
http://www.comic%href_on(http://www.comicconnect.comconnect.com
Action Comics 1 sells for $2.16 million in auction
By MATT MOORE | AP PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A rare and pristine copy of the first issue of Action Comics, famed for the first appearance of Superman, has set a record Wednesday for the most money paid for a single comic book: $2.16 million.
The issue, graded at 9.0, was auctioned starting Nov. 11 online at www.comicconnect.com. The starting bid was just $1 but there was a reserve price of $900,000. Neither the name of the buyer nor seller was disclosed.
It's the first time a comic book has broken the $2 million barrier. The issue was published in 1938 and cost just 10 cents."When we broke the record in 2010 by selling the Action Comics No. 1, graded at 8.5, for $1.5 million, I truly believed that this was a record that would stand for many years to come," said Stephen Fishler, CEO of ComicConnect.com and Metropolis Collectibles.
The previous record set in March 2010 was followed by the sale of another copy for $1 million. But neither of those issues was in as good a condition as the issue that sold Wednesday, though it's pedigree of setting records was already documented. Twice before it set the record for the most expensive book ever, selling for $86,000 in 1992 and $150,000 in 1997.But in 2000, it was stolen and thought lost until it was recovered in a storage shed in California in April this year.
About 100 copies of Action Comics No. 1 are believed to be in existence, and only a handful of those in good condition.
After it was stolen, Fishler said, collectors figured it would never be found or, worse, would be destroyed.
"Clearly, I was wrong. Not in my wildest imagination could I have predicted that this legendary, stolen Action Comics No. 1 would be found, graded at 9.0 and break the record a year and a half later," he said.
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Online:
http://www.comic%href_on(http://www.comicconnect.comconnect.com
%href_off(
Saturday, November 19, 2011
New Avengers promo
Via Yahoo:
In the past decade, there have been two attempts to bring Marvel Comics' "Incredible Hulk" to the big screen. And neither fully satisfied critics or comic-book fans with how they portrayed Bruce Banner, the mild-mannered scientist who grows into an uncontrollable green monstrosity when he gets angry. So when writer/director Joss Whedon (creator of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer") was brought aboard "The Avengers" -- next year's movie that teams up the Hulk with fellow superheroes Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor -- he had both the opportunity and the challenge of giving the character a fresh start. Luckily for Whedon, he had a great Oscar-nominated actor, Mark Ruffalo, to help him redefine both Banner and Hulk.
See an exclusive character banner for 'The Avengers' >>
In a phone interview with me this week, Whedon told me that he met with all the actors in "The Avengers," -- including returning stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth and Samuel L. Jackson -- before he started working on the script to get their perspectives on their roles. But Whedon said that he did the most character work of all with Ruffalo, "because we really were starting fresh, but we were starting with something that had been embodied several times."
Whedon told me that he and Ruffalo both agreed that they wanted their version of Dr. Banner to follow the model established by Bill Bixby in the '70s TV version of "The Incredible Hulk," rather than how he had been portrayed in the more recent films. The character on the show, they felt, "was busy helping other people.... That was more interesting to us than the Banner in the first two movies who was always fixated on curing himself."
Once the actor and director found a common vision for how they would handle Bruce Banner's personality, they had to work out the other side of the role: the lumbering, destructive, out-of-control Hulk. Whedon admitted that he and Ruffalo fought over this. Physically. He said, "I mean literally we actually got some pads out and did some tussling. Just to talk about the physicality of somebody who has to control this thing, and the way he moves in space and the way he relates to the people and the objects around him. It was extremely fun."
Together, Whedon and Ruffalo worked out not just the dual nature of Banner's personality, but also the two sides to the Hulk's physical presence. Whedon said, "What we found was that he could be very bumbling and kind of awkward, but at the same time very graceful and in this almost transcendent control of himself." Their efforts should show on screen as well. While the Hulk will be a digital creation like in the last two films, this time it will actually be Ruffalo playing the big green guy. Using motion capture technology like in "Avatar," all of the Hulk's movements and expressions will come from Ruffalo.
You can get a brief look at Ruffalo hulking out in the teaser trailer for "The Avengers" below. Then click over to read the full text of my interview with Joss Whedon, where we covered working with Robert Downey Jr., Samuel L. Jackson, and why he spent as much time writing the big stunts in the movie as he did on the dialogue. "The Avengers" opens May 4, 2012.
Read the full Joss Whedon interview >>
http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-talk/hulk-gets-fresh-start-avengers-003500379.html
Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner (Photo: Marvel Studios)
See an exclusive character banner for 'The Avengers' >>
In a phone interview with me this week, Whedon told me that he met with all the actors in "The Avengers," -- including returning stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth and Samuel L. Jackson -- before he started working on the script to get their perspectives on their roles. But Whedon said that he did the most character work of all with Ruffalo, "because we really were starting fresh, but we were starting with something that had been embodied several times."
Whedon told me that he and Ruffalo both agreed that they wanted their version of Dr. Banner to follow the model established by Bill Bixby in the '70s TV version of "The Incredible Hulk," rather than how he had been portrayed in the more recent films. The character on the show, they felt, "was busy helping other people.... That was more interesting to us than the Banner in the first two movies who was always fixated on curing himself."
Once the actor and director found a common vision for how they would handle Bruce Banner's personality, they had to work out the other side of the role: the lumbering, destructive, out-of-control Hulk. Whedon admitted that he and Ruffalo fought over this. Physically. He said, "I mean literally we actually got some pads out and did some tussling. Just to talk about the physicality of somebody who has to control this thing, and the way he moves in space and the way he relates to the people and the objects around him. It was extremely fun."
Together, Whedon and Ruffalo worked out not just the dual nature of Banner's personality, but also the two sides to the Hulk's physical presence. Whedon said, "What we found was that he could be very bumbling and kind of awkward, but at the same time very graceful and in this almost transcendent control of himself." Their efforts should show on screen as well. While the Hulk will be a digital creation like in the last two films, this time it will actually be Ruffalo playing the big green guy. Using motion capture technology like in "Avatar," all of the Hulk's movements and expressions will come from Ruffalo.
You can get a brief look at Ruffalo hulking out in the teaser trailer for "The Avengers" below. Then click over to read the full text of my interview with Joss Whedon, where we covered working with Robert Downey Jr., Samuel L. Jackson, and why he spent as much time writing the big stunts in the movie as he did on the dialogue. "The Avengers" opens May 4, 2012.
Read the full Joss Whedon interview >>
Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr., and Chris Hemsworth in Marvel's 'The Avengers'
Monday, August 22, 2011
Stan Lee Media, Inc. files suit against 'Conan'
This from Entertainment Weekly, August 22, 2011:
Stan Lee Media, Inc., a company founded by comic book legend Stan Lee, wants a judge to rule that it is still the rightful owner of the character Conan the Barbarian. In a lawsuit filed Aug. 19 in federal court in L.A. and obtained by EW, SLMI is demanding 100 percent of the film’s proceeds. The company claims its bankruptcy in 2001 would have prevented anyone from taking the rights to the Conan character away. In the suit, Stan Lee Media, Inc. claims the company was betrayed by a former lawyer who made an illegal deal to transfer the rights to another company that would later green-light this summer’s Conan movie. The poorly reviewed remake earned $10 million on its opening weekend, barely beating the debut of the original Conan the Barbarian in 1982.
COMMENT: Give the mostly negative reviews, you'd think Stan would disown this flick.
Rotten Tomatoes link: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/conan_the_barbarian_2011/
Lastly, Stan did NOT invent Conan, with was originally written by R.E. Howard!
Stan Lee Media, Inc. files suit against 'Conan'
COMMENT: Give the mostly negative reviews, you'd think Stan would disown this flick.
Rotten Tomatoes link: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/conan_the_barbarian_2011/
Lastly, Stan did NOT invent Conan, with was originally written by R.E. Howard!
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