Thursday, June 29, 2000

X-MEN TV/MOVIE UPDATE

Jean Grey and Scott Summers will both be featured on the X-Men: Evolution animated series on Kids' WB!, but don't look for a romance from them like in the previous series.

"Not really, although there are hints of Scott's interest," said Bob Forward, who is story editor on the show. "The WB feels that kids don't really like romance, so we're keeping it downplayed."

Both Jean and Scott will be teenagers attending the Xavier Institute in the series, which is being produced at Film Roman.

In X-Men movie news:

* Producer Ralph Winter said that toys had no bearing on the story for the X-Men movie.

"It's such a big franchise, we really don't get too involved; we're making the movie," Winter said. "They come to us to look at stuff and get prototypes and see what the design of the movie is, so it's not in opposition to what we're doing. We'll look for ways to support what they're doing.

"We did not design the script consciously thinking about what toys we could design. We just didn't do that. We were looking to make the best script we could make. Somebody else looks at it with an eye for toys."

* Executive producer Tom DeSanto on Rebecca Romijn-Stamos' elaborate makeup as Mystique: "I found it, if anything, it transformed her. To me, Mystique is the ultimate femme fatale. She's sort of this very film-noirish character, a very beautiful and dangerous woman."

BLADE SEQUEL UPDATE

Writer David Goyer told The Continuum that work continues on the sequel to Blade.

"Blade 2 is just finishing up being budgeted," Goyer told The Continuum. "If all goes well, we will begin pre-production in August."

The Blade sequel, from New Line Cinema, will be directed by Guillermo del Toro.

Goyer has also been attached to the Ghost Rider movie from Marvel and Crystal Sky Entertainment.

"Ghost Rider is still in the discussion stages," Goyer said. "We'll see what happens."

Goyer said he will be attending Comic-Con International in San Diego, attending a panel for DC Comics' JSA, which he writes with Geoff Johns.

FIRST LOOK - AWESOME'S DEMONSLAYER

Next Entertainment's Marat Mychaels told The Continuum he is moving Demonslayer from Image Comics to Awesome Comics.

The move begins with Demonslayer #0, which is a Tower Records/Wizard World exclusive. There will be a crossover with Avengylene in August, which leads to Demonslayer: Rebirth #1 in October.

"The reason we left Image was that I felt that there were too many books at Image Central," Mychaels said. "They picked the books they were going to push into the forefront. I felt Demonslayer deserved to be one of those books we had a quality product that improved with every issue, a good shipping schedule and a good sell through. I felt that warranted better promotion from my publisher, the people at the office didn't agree. I don't have any ill will towards Image; they can't promote every book equally, I left on pretty good terms. I just feel they made some bad choices in the books they wanted to champion. Time will tell."

Mychaels was asked why he chose Awesome.

"The reason I went to Awesome is that Rob (Liefeld) liked Demonslayer from the beginning, there were talks of taking Demonsalyer to Awesome from the start, the talks never really got serious and I decided to go to Image," Mychaels said. "But, Rob has always been one of my biggest supporters, we talked about my frustrations at Image and Rob said if I ever wanted to bring the book to him, the door was open. I decided that would probably be in my properties best interest, so here we are.

"At Awesome I'm the 'pretty girl at the dance.' They like the product, they like our timely shipping schedule and they want to promote it. Demonslayer becomes a bigger fish in a smaller pond. But, that allows the people at Awesome to give Demonslayer some attention and promote it the way I feel my publisher should. Besides I talked to a bunch of retailers and all of them pretty much agreed that they wouldn't order any less on the book if it had an Awesome logo rather than an Image one. Besides an erratic shipping schedule, when Awesome books do come out they sell."

Said Liefeld: "Awesome is thrilled to be the new publisher of Demonslayer. I have long admired Marat's talent as well as his dedication to this project. While at Image, he fufilled his promise to the fans by delivering a timely product that never missed a beat, maintaining top notch quality story, art and production throughout. Demonslayer ships consistently, something that has eluded Awesome titles over the course of the past year. Awesome needs more books on the stands and we are proud that Demonslayer is joining our fold. We will provide the title with considerable support in hopes of expanding its impressive core fan base. Marat's skills as an illustrator and storyteller continue to grow leaps and bounds and considering his youth, I am excited to witness his further evolution as a creator on Demonslayer and beyond."

Mychaels provided The Continuum with promotional art from Demonslayer: Rebirth as well as two pages from the #0 issue.

CROSSGEN CRACKS TOP 100

CrossGen Comics announced that all five of its titles placed their first issues on the Diamond Comic Distributor's Top 100 list for initial order sales.

The first CrossGen release, CrossGen Chronicles #1, debuted on the list of May shipping products at No. 100.

The following month, the first issues of CrossGen's four monthly titles each debuted in the Top 100 for initial order sales for June shipping products. Mystic #1 placed No. 71, Scion #1 placed No. 83, Sigil #1 placed No. 85 and Meridian #1 placed No. 87.

CrossGen Chronicles #1 was one of only two titles on the list for May from a publisher other than Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Image Comics and Dark Horse Comics.

On the list for June, Mystic #1 was the highest-placing issue from a publisher other than Marvel, DC and Image, outselling the top Dark Horse title for the month.

"While we are extremely pleased with those numbers, they only represent our initial orders," said James Breitbeil, CrossGen's director of sales and marketing. What they don't reflect is the amount of copies that have been reordered by retailers because of either their use of our Customer Review Copy program or just the simple fact that these books are selling like hot cakes for them.

"If we could include these reorder numbers, all of our titles would have placed much higher on the list. That's how well the reorders have been coming in."

CLAYPOOL'S ELVIRA COLLECTION

Claypool Comics will debut its second Elvira trade paperback, Double Delights!, at the Comic-Con International in San Diego next month.

Mark Evanier provides an introduction to the 152-page collection, which includes:

Kurt Busiek's "The Children of the Night . . . What Crummy TV Shows They Make!", featuring Renfield, Stimpfield, and Dracula, with art by Neil Vokes and Louis Lachance.