The Tuesday Comics/TV/Movies news report

[Guest starvenger]

Before we start, I'd like a moment of silence for those who died on 9/11/2001...

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Thanks. Now back to the report...

 

 

...and yes, I've changed the name of it again. I think I'll stick with this name for a while.

 

WTF?! of the week: Reese Whitherspoon pulls an Adam Sandler and gets $15 MILLION to star in Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde. And you thought MLB owners were crazy.

 

Fanboy alert! In an interview with Piper Perabo, the actress reveals that she has a "healthy fixation" with Thundercats.

 

Song of the Week: Dancing in the Moonlight by Toploader. Chosen because when I was on a bus tour of Europe last year (we were heading into Paris on 9/11), they played this song every morning as a sort of "good morning and welcome aboard". I think the song is a cover of a Van Morrison tune, but it's rather infectious. You can also do the Hustle to it, but that's not necessarily a good thing.

 

 

Comics

DC/Wildstorm/Vertigo

- Haunted Tank, star of DC's old G.I.Combat series, is the newest member of The Power Company. They decided this through an online vote, with the other choices being Batgirl, Booster Gold, Firestorm and Superboy. Tank was actually a joke nominee. Good thing they didn't add Hawk and Dove to the list... (Comics Continuum)

 

Marvel

- Three new dotComics are available at Marvel.com: Wolverine #181, The Call Of Duty: The Brotherhood and The Call Of Duty: The Precinct #2 (Pulse)

 

- Marvel is accepting about 100 books for return from retailers, presumably in respose to the lawsuit from retailer Brian Hibbs. What follows is an open letter from Hibbs in response to this:

I think comics retailers are all gratified to learn that Marvel has designated some 100 items as "returnable". Certainly, this is a major step in the right direction in having Marvel honor its contractual commitments to us. Nonetheless, the action by Marvel hardly "solves" the issues between retailers and Marvel, for several reasons.

 

The first area of concern is of the breadth of material that has been affected. Through out this process, several different lists of products have been generated. For example, comparing my initial list of late-shipping material to the list of returns that Marvel is now accepting, we find at least 21 items that they've ignored. Perhaps it is coincidence, but looking at that list, one can note that it is mostly trade paperback collections - or, in other words, the most expensive items - that they are still choosing to not honor.

 

Looking at Marvel's return list, it becomes clear that there are a large number issues which, despite being recognized by Marvel to have been delivered more than 30 days late, have yet to be made returnable. It represents a very significant amount of material, though, of course, until we are able to depose Marvel witnesses, we will not be able to verify the precise number.

 

Another thing to consider is that Marvel's returnable list appears to have been generated by Diamond Comics Distribution. Why is this significant? Because Diamond's systems only track Diamond arrival dates, and pay no heed to when material actually arrived in comic retailer's stores. There can be ten days or more difference between those dates. Marvel's Terms of Sale requires that the "30 day period" is measured from the on-sale date and actual delivery to the retailer's stores. It is virtually certain that Marvel's returnable list contains a fraction of affected books.

 

Further, little analysis has yet been done on mis-solicited items - one example might be Iceman #3, which was solicited as having art by Karl Kerschl, but instead shipped with art by Skott Young - it is unclear at this moment how many other titles are similarly affected, but this too has not yet been satisfactorily addressed.

 

So, while we believe that the list of returnable items is a positive first step, and bodes well for the future, we believe it is entirely possible that the breadth of material that has still not been made returnable could possibly meet or exceed the list that Marvel has already provided.

 

The second major area of concern is that of damages. Some of the items on the returnable list date back half-a-decade!

 

A reality check on comics retailers: the average comics retailer is a small, independently owned business. We live and die on our cash flow. Generally speaking, the average comics retailer is not so cash-rich that we can pile up unsold Marvel books hoping that five years later they'll let us return them. Even if we were financially able to do so, the average comics retailer generally doesn't have the space to warehouse that material.

 

The gist of this is that we believe that "returns" on five year old product will be minimal because most retailers have long since liquidated that material at a loss. Whether that came from putting the books in the Quarter Box, or from giving the books away, or just, as in some cases, recycling them, a retailer can't return a book that they took a loss on.

 

The question at the core is this: do simply authorizing returns on years-old material make whole the retailer's damages and losses? We don't think it even comes close to doing so.

 

The suit may bear my name - but that's not the whole picture. My intent, from the beginning has been to protect comic retailers as a group, and I've consulted with dozens of my peers on this issue. To a man they say that they can't "return" what they've since liquidated. And the consensus is the suit must go forward until our actual damages are redressed - by trial or settlement. To stop now because Marvel has made an incomplete effort to mitigate damages would be foolish.

 

Marvel has just released a list of more than one hundred items they are now taking returns on due to lateness. Think about that for a moment. This is a tacit admission that they're aware they've done something wrong. We believe that both the scope of the affected books is too small, and that Marvel's "solution" doesn't address the damages that they have inflicted upon retailers. For all of these reasons, while we remain encouraged by Marvel's actions, there are yet significant issues to be resolved.

 

- (Unconfirmed Rumour) Crawl Space is reporting that Peter Parker, Spider-Man title will end after #50 and be replaced with Spectacular Spider-Man. They say that another site, X-Fan said that writer Paul Jenkins had said this during a DragonCon panel, but I haven't seen this anywhere else.

 

- If you're a Colossus mark, then check out X-Men Unlimited #38, which features Nightcrawler and Shadowcat reflecting on the big Russian. (Comics Continuum)

 

- Ultimate War is the name of the Ultimates vs Ultimate X-Men minseries coming in December, assuming that Chris Bachalo can get his art done on time. (Comics Continuum)

 

Others

- Village Voice has an article featuring artist Amanda Connor. (Newsarama)

 

- Connor also returns as the cover artist for the Vampirella series, beginning with #15, (Comics Continuum)

 

- Arcade comic's comic based on the Alias TV series will be called Alias: Agent Bristow. The #0 issue ships in December and is written by series creator JJ Abrams with art by Andy Park. There is also a backup story that is written by Abrams and drawn by Rob Liefeld, who doesn't seem to understand that he should just go away. (Newsarama)

 

- Pulse has an interview with two-time, two-time, two-time Hugo Award nominee (and one-time winner) Neil Gaiman. Sample Q&A:

THE PULSE: What up-and-coming comics creators are you keeping an eye on?

 

NG: That Alan Moore. You may think me mad, but I think he shows tremendous promise.

 

- Pulse had a quick Q&A with Sam Kieth. They call it an interview, but seeing as it's shorter than a USA Today blurb, I can't see how.

 

- To see a REAL interview, check out Newsarama's 2-part interview with Kevin Smith flunkie Joe Quesada.

 

- Newsarama has a "making of" article on the Savage Dragon Companion. This was actually done by the fans, as Larsen's too much of a lazy bastard [/sarcasm] to do it himself. Oh, and Savage Dragon #100 has sold out. Congrats to Erik...

 

 

Television

- Witchblade has been cancelled by TNT despite having decent ratings throughout it's run. The main rumour is that it was canned partly because star Yancy Butler is a lush. That's probably not the only reason though, since you can dump Butler and have someone else star. I mean if, say, Yasmine Bleeth replaced Butler would anyone notice?

 

- If you've been watching Cartoon Network, you'll know that they've started airing new episodes of Justice League on Fridays, right after Transformers Armada. If you didn't, well, you do now.

 

- As you may have read in another forum, Futurama is now a part of Adult Swim on Cartoon Network. Given the crap that I've seen on Adult Swim, this makes Futurama by default the best show in that block. Hell, if they put Kevin Spencer on Adult Swim it'd become their best show.

 

Movies

- George Lucas has begun work writing Episode 3 of the "Anakin Skywalker is a Whiny Bitch" trilogy. At this point, I'm starting to think that Vince Russo could write a better screenplay than George. Yep, you read that right. (CHUD/StarWars.com)

 

- Matt Damon is interested in doing more Bourne movies, but also pointed out that it'll be like The Lost World in that aside from titles, nothing else would be similar to the Robert Ludlum books. Hey, at least he's honest. (CHUD)

 

- The Daredevil crew is currently working on editing and adding visual effects to the film. No word on whether one of the effects will be to alter that craptastic costume. (Comics Continuum)

 

- CHUD has a DVD review of Blade II, which is a pretty decent movie with the exception of the criminal underuse of Donnie Yen (Iron Monkey). Lots of sarcastic comic references thrown in there, so you guys should enjoy it.

 

- Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the CGI Muppets and Poorly Scripted Romances will start showing on IMAX screens on November 1. (starwars.com)

 

 

Books

- I finished reading Cloak of Deception, and am almost finished Traitor, so I'll have reviews on those two Star Wars books soon.

 

 

Places I normally get this shit from: C.H.U.D., Comics Continuum, Dark Horizons, IGN Filmforce, Movie Poop Shoot, Newsarama, Pulse, theForce.net

 

Movie Poop Shoot's Title Bout appears every Wednesday. Check it out for rants on just about anything, and CrossGen bashing.

[Guest areacode212]

May I suggest changing it to the Comics/TV/Movies news report, so I can continue to justify posting a link to it in the TV/Movies folder?

[Guest starvenger]

Consider it done as of next week. I dunno if you can change it for this week, but if you can, please do

[Guest raptor]

Great job, Starvenger.

 

I'm replying to say I probably won't be back here for a long time. I'm starting college soon, so I just don't have time for any of this. Sorry.

 

Oh, and buy Spider-Girl #51. It's very touching for anyone who's ever been in love.

[Guest areacode212]

Good luck with college, raptor. Maybe I'll go back to doing reviews in your stead.

[Guest Sassquatch]

Raptor:

 

We didn't share a lot of exchanges in this folder but you sound like someone who knows their shit about comic books.

 

I hope you have a good time in your first year of college.

 

I also hope we will see you here again in the future.

 

Take care.

[Guest starvenger]

Good luck with college. I think you'll be back though - I know from experience that the internet has a way of sucking you back in. If not, we'll see you in about 8 months...

[Guest treble charged]

Yeah, I left for school last Monday, and within a day, I was back on the internet, wasting my time.

 

I'm sure you'll be no different.

[Guest pochorenella]

Raptor, I really liked your reviews on the Comics Forum, so I hope you'll be back soon. Good luck.

 

I also hope someone like starvenger (who's doing a great job BTW) or Areacode can pick up where he left off regarding comic reviews.

[Guest Spaceman Spiff]

- As you may have read in another forum, Futurama is now a part of Adult Swim on Cartoon Network. Given the crap that I've seen on Adult Swim, this makes Futurama by default the best show in that block

Holy crap! You just dissed Aqua Teen, Harvey Birdman, and Sealab 2021.

 

Any particular reason you don't like them?

[Guest starvenger]

Birdman's an interesting concept, I'll give it that, but that and pretty much the rest of just don't really make me WANT to watch the shows. They just seem kinda there, you know? I dunno, maybe I'm just disappointed that US cable TV isn't what I'd thought it'd be.

[Guest Spaceman Spiff]

I'll admit Brak pretty much went south, but I'll still watch the reruns of Harvey & Aqua Teen & Sealab. I love those 3 shows.

[Guest Sassquatch]

Mission Hill is by far the best of the bunch overall IMO.

 

But Sealab cracks me up whenever I watch it. The crew is just so stupid that you can't help but laugh at them when they try to do the right thing and make things even worse. They remind me of the mom/dad who can't fix a thing in the house but always try to and instead they make things worse.

 

The Brak Show is hit or miss with me and only Zorak and the dad can really get a laugh out of me.

 

Harvey Birdman is simply fun to watch just because it parody's the old Hanna-Barbera cartoons that Cartoon Network always looked at as sacred.

 

The fact that Johnny Bravo got the go-ahead to spoof Scooby-Doo the way they did in the ep. with Johnny and the gang was surreal but made for great television.