Thursday, Dec. 14, 2000

SPOTLIGHT ON BATMAN'S MARK HAMILL

The Joker's not the only one back in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. Mark Hamill, who returns to do the voice of Batman's greatest foe, talks about the new movie, his love of comic books and his very own comic in a Continuum feature story.

For the complete story, CLICK HERE.

KEVIN SMITH AT IMAGE

Image Comics publisher Jim Valentino announced Wednesday that writer/director Kevin Smith's View Askew Productions, in association with Graphitti Designs, has entered into co-publishing agreement with Image Comics.

"Image will be publishing Bluntman and Chronic comics, a new three-issue, full-color finite series from Kevin and Powers artist, Michael Avon Oeming, plus re-releasing several of the View Askew Trade Paperbacks with new photo covers." Valentino said. "All of us here are fans of Kevin's work and we consider this a huge step forward for the new Image."

"Boy, have we cooked up something fun for comic fans and retailers alike," said Smith, who is currently in pre-production on his fifth film. "The mini-series is an offshoot of two View Askew flicks: Chasing Amy, and the summer 2001 Dimension release we're working on right now, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Not only does the mini function as a linking device between the two, it's also a valentine of sorts to the history of comics in general.

"In Amy, Holden McNeil and Banky Edwards (Ben Affleck and Jason Lee, also returning in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back), created Bluntman and Chronic as comic book alter egos of Jay and Silent Bob. This thread from the earlier flick drives the plot of the present one, so it just seemed natural to actually create the comics that we've only seen the covers to in Amy. Fans of our flicks and comic fans in general should really enjoy the three issues, which poke fun at golden, silver, and modern age comics."

Bluntman and Chronic #1 will be released in June, with the next two issues shipping bi-weekly. These comics will feature the original Mike Allred covers as seen in Smith's Chasing Amy, with interior color story pages by Oeming.

July will also see the release for the first time in full-color,

The Chasing Dogma Trade Paperback, with a new photo cover, will be released in July. The Clerks TPB (also with a photo cover ), is scheduled for August, as are Bluntman and Chronic action figures from Graphitti Designs.

The Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back movie is scheduled for an Aug. 10 release.

"The fact that the mini-series ties in with a major summer movie release means non-comic-buyers are going to be venturing into comic shops, looking for these titles -- which also show up in the flick," Smith said.

"Kevin's audience transcends the traditional comics fans. Consumers who as a rule do not frequent their local comic stores, will drop by once they know they can get Kevin Smith stuff that they just can't find anywhere else," said Graphitti Designs' Bob Chapman. "The comics and TPB's cross-promoted with the videos, T-shirts, action figures and other goodies, makes the creation of a View Askew 'boutique' exciting and profitable for all. This is Kevin's final Jay and Silent Bob film and is destined to be the biggest and the best yet."

Smith addressed a problem with lateness that he's encountered with his past comics.

"I know this may be a well-earned reservation for some, based on my lateness with Jay and Silent Bob #4, but I'm telling you, we're going to hit every one of our bi-weekly dates, folks. I promise," Smith said. "Taking a page out of my Green Arrow book, I waited until all the scripts were finished to even approach Image about soliciting. And with Mike Oeming already hard at work on the art, I personally guarantee these comics will be on your shelves on their scheduled release dates. I'm as committed to that as I am to getting Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back into theaters Aug. 10, 2001."

NEW STATIC SHOCK EPISODE

"Winds of Change," a new episode of Static Shock, airs this Saturday on Kids' WB!.

Chris Simmons, story editor of the series, provided The Continuum with insight to the episode.

"Richie's resentment of Virgil's blossoming friendship with Daisy, combined with Virgil's annoyance at Richie's over-management of Static's opportunities, causes their own friendship to strain," Simmons said. "At the same time, Static must contend with Slipstream, a new Metahuman with the power to control winds.

"This episode nicely focuses on another aspect of Virgil's friendship with Richie. It also provides an opportunity to get Richie in on the super-hero action and prove his mettle in the heat of battle."

The episode was written by Len Uhley and directed by James Tucker.

MARVEL NEWS CONFERENCE

Mark Millar will be writing a fourth Ultimate Marvel title, it was revealed during a Marvel news conference on Wednesday afternoon.

Marvel's Bill Jemas called Millar a "key and crucial player" in the Ultimate Universe and also said that a fifth Ultimate title might happen in 2001, as might a second Ultimate magazine.

In other notes:

* Marvel is looking into putting its comics on CD-ROMs.

* The upcoming mature readers' line will include creator-owned books.

* January 2001 sales were better than January 2000.

* Grant Morrison and Joe Casey, upcoming writers of the X-Men titles, will be meeting in New York in a couple of weeks for a story conference.

OBERGEIST LAUNCHES TOP COW'S MINOTAUR PRESS

Obergeist, from Tony Harris and Dan Jolley, will be the first title under Top Cow's new Minotaur Press imprint.

According to Top Cow, Minotaur Press will be the company's "cutting edge imprint label," which will also include licensed property books such as video games, excluding Tomb Raider, which is already ingrained into the Top Cow universe

"Branding is very important to us, we already have an art driven imprint [Top Cow] and J. Michael Straczynski has Joe's Comics to publish his original titles," said Matt Hawkins, Top Cow's president of publishing. "With Minotaur Press, we now have the opportunity to publish a wide variety of concepts created by some of the top writers and artists in the industry today."

Tony Harris and Dan Jolley have been developing "Obergeist" for almost 10 years now.

Here's how co-writer Jolley describes Obergeist, which was originally set up at DC:

"Obergeist is a tale about the quest for redemption; it's a journey a tragic character undertakes in an attempt to atone for the horrors he's committed. More specifically, it's the story of Jurgen Steinholtz, a Nazi butcher scientist working under Josef Mengele, who is radically transformed by a Jewish telepath and made to understand the immensity of the crimes he and the rest of his party have been committing. From there -- by way of the tremendous psychokinetic abilities awakened in Jurgen's mind -- Obergeist takes the readers all the way to Armageddon itself, then to a shadow-filled vision of America in 2147, where Steinholtz has the chance to undo some of the world's evil." said Jolley, co-creator and co-writer of Obergeist.

Added Harris: "This story partially was inspired by another story Dan and I were developing. The other part of it was from a personal perspective. I was wrestling with what, if any religious beliefs that I had. A lot of the story that I contributed was just deconstructing a lot of religions and mythology and rebuilding it into something I thought was plausible. I wanted to tell a terribly gut wrenching story about ethics, evil deeds and attempting Redemption."

After parting ways with DC on Obergeist, Harris consulted with friend Alex Ross, who offered to make some calls. One such call was to David Wohl, editor-in-chief at Top Cow. After review of the proposal, it was agreed upon that Obergeist would be the launch title for Top Cow's new imprint. They were also asked to submit a name for the imprint as the label was unnamed at the time. Harris' wife Stacie came up with the name Minotaur Press.

According to Top Cow, it is in discussions with Harris and Jolley about further projects for Minotaur Press. Obergeist will begin in April and last six issues.

ALTERNATIVE PRESS EXPO FEB. 17-18

The Alternative Press Expo (APE) returns to San Francisco for a two-day show on Feb. 17-18 at the Herbst Pavilion at Fort Mason Center.

"Last year's show was very successful and there was a great deal of interest in expanding the show from one to two days," said David Glanzer, spokesperson for the nonprofit event.

Originally held in San Jose, APE moved to San Francisco for the 2000 event, which saw an increase in participation from artists and publishers and brought a one-day total of attendees to 1,500.

APE 2001 should be one of the largest gatherings of alternative and self-published comic books, fanzines and books in the United States. Created by Dan Vado of Slave Labor Graphics as a way of showcasing small press and alternative comics and publications, APE has been operating under the auspices of Comic-Con International (Comic-Con) for more than five years.

Among the guests scheduled to attend the February show are Terry Moore, creator/writer/artist of Strangers In Paradise, and Judd Winick, creator of The Adventures of Barry Ween and writer of Green Lantern.

A complete list of APE exhibitors includes: Aardbart And Son Press; Abstract Studio (Terry Moore); Alternative Comics (Jeff Mason, Graham Annable, Sam Henderson); Astonish Comics (Mike Kunkel, Jason Lethcoe); Black Swan Press (Richard Becker); Black Velvet Studios (Eric Canete, Byron Penaranda, Axel Ortiz, Geoff Ong); Box Office Poison (Alex Robinson, Tony Consiglio); Braino Comix / Burning Head Press (Trevor Alixopulos, Cory Thrall); The Carbon Based Mistake (Marc Calvary); Catmull And Williams (Ben Catmull, Dylan Williams, Adam Jones, Tom Walsh); City Lights Books (Stacey Lewis, Yolanda Montijo); Colonia Press (Jeff Nicholson, Adarro, "The Old Man-of-Fish"); Comics Conspiracy (Doug Miers, Valerie Miers, Ken Fetty, Joe Cool); Crazyfish (Scott Morse, Jim Mahfood, Troy Nixey, Mike Huddleston, Kelley Seda); Drawn And Quarterly (Chris Oliveros, Adrian Tomine, Jason Lutes, Ed Brubaker, Joe Matt); Empty Life (Vladamir Sock Monkey); Exhibit A Press (Batton Lash, Jackie Estrada); E-Z Cheese Comics (Jon Wayshak, Thien Pham, Lea Ballard, Paul Harmon); Fantagraphics (Jim Blanchard, Mary Fleener, Johnny Ryan, Richard Sala, Steven Weissman, J.R. Williams); Fingerprint Studios (Larry Brown); Flash Publications; Fogelcomix / LCD (Dan Fogel, Kieron Dwyer, Guy Colwell, Paul Mavrides, Hal Robins, Steve Moore, Roger May, Rick Remender, John Heebink, S.S. Crompton); Headless Shakespeare Press (Craig McKinney); Highwater Books / Red Ink (Jordan Crane, Ron Rege, Brian Ralph, Greg Cook, Matt Madden, Tom Devlin, Megan Kelso); Hungry Tiger Press (Eric Shanower, David Maxine); Java Turtle (Lynne Lowe); Kiwi Studios (Jon "Bean" Hastings); Keith Knight (Keith Knight, Jeff Kramer); Steve Lafler / Permanent Swim Press (Steve Lafler, Serena Makofsky, Jenny Makofsky, Jeff Roysdon); Lee's Comics; Steve Leialoha; Steve Lieber; Los Comex( Michael Aushenker); Manic D Press (Jennifer Joseph, Jon Longhi); Museum Of Lost Wonder (Jeff Hoke, Clint Marsh, Nick Mullins); Oni Press (Chynna Clugston-Major, Scott Morse, Mike Huddleston, Jamie S. Rich); Original Syndicate Press; Phantomb Publishing; Plastic Planet; Tony Raiola Books; Re-Imagining Comic Art (Greg Beda, Derek Beda); RE/Search Publications (V. Vale, A. Richmond); Trina Robbins; Rooster Press (David Hedgecock); Shades Of Green (Tracy Held); Shortwave Productions (Garret Izumi); Slave Labor Graphics (Dan Vado, Jhonen Vasquez, Roman Dirge, Tommy Kovac, David Hahn, Serena Valentino, John Gebbia); Spidric (Gordon Sutton, Leigh Dragoon); Spiral Bound Press (Tyler Cohen); Squid Works (Stan Yan, Lonnie Allen, Andy Glass); Stickman Graphics (Kevin Tinsley); Syndicate Publishing (Matthew Pasteris, Tait Bergstrom, Billy K, Marc Calvary); Top Shelf Productions (Chris Staros, Brett Warnock, Peter Kuper, Craig Thompson, Dean Haspiel, Scott Mills, Steve Lafler, Alex Robinson); Troubletown (Lloyd Dangle); and Shannon Wheeler (Too Much Coffee Man).

For more information, go to www.comic-con.org.

FIRST LOOK: SUPERBOY #83

Superboy #83 will arrive in stores on Wednesday from DC Comics. The issue is written by Joe Kelly, with art by Pascual Ferry and Keith Champagne and a cover by Ferry and Alvaro Lopez.

Here's how DC describes the issue:

"Superboy might be facing something far worse than the latest super-villain or world threat: Is it possible he's become...unhip? Having fallen into a serious rut, Superboy begins to worry that what once made him the coolest Kid in the DC Universe has become so 'five minutes ago.' The action heats up when Superboy seeks advice from several guest stars from the DC Universe, including Steel, Superman, and his teammates in Young Justice. Superboy may have to resort to drastic measures if he hopes to ever reach 'phat' status again, but the answers to his problems may force him to take a good hard look inside himself, discovering what really defines him."

Superboy #83 will be 32 pages and will cost $2.25.

GIVE'EM A CLICK

FIRST LOOK: DETECTIVE COMICS #753

Detective Comics #753 will arrive in stores on Wednesday from DC Comics. The issue is written by Greg Rucka and Jordan B. Gorfinkel, with art by Steve Mannion, Brad Rader, Jeff Johnson, and Dan Panosian and a cover by Dave Johnson.

Here's how DC describes the issue, which is part of the "This Issue: Batman Dies!" event:

"During a psychiatric evaluation, it's revealed that, as therapy, Two-Face has written and drawn his own comic book adventures starring Harvey Dent and Detective Renee Montoya, in which he chronicles the many deaths of the Dark Knight. Plus, the back-up adventure The Jacobian continues."

Detective Comics #753 will be 40 pages and will cost $2.50.

GIVE'EM A CLICK

FIRST LOOK: ROBIN #85

Robin #85 will arrive in stores on Wednesday from DC Comics. The issue is written by Chuck Dixon, with art and cover by Pete Woods and Jesse Delperdang.

Here's how DC describes the issue, which is part of the "This Issue: Batman Dies!" event:

"The Joker is perhaps the greatest of Batman's foes, but after the death of Jason Todd he'll be linked forever with Robin. Poor Joker's been locked up in the Slab for so long, he's going cuckoo, and he's ready to spill the goods on Batman and his annoyingly resilient sidekick."

Robin #85 will be 32 pages and will cost $2.25.

GIVE'EM A CLICK

FIRST LOOK: BIRDS OF PREY #26

Birds of Prey #26 will arrive in stores on Wednesday from DC Comics. The issue is written by Chuck Dixon, with art and cover by Butch Guice.

Here's how DC describes the issue, which is part of the "This Issue: Batman Dies!" event:

"He's the man who broke Batman's back, a hideous creature who laughs at danger and defies death. But take a moment to crawl inside Bane's head and you'll find...unrequited love? When Bane forms an unlikely alliance with Black Canary, she may just find herself a man on the rebound."

Birds of Prey #26 will be 32 pages and will cost $2.50.

GIVE'EM A CLICK

BRIEFLY