Monday, March 5, 2001

PETER DAVID, DALE KEOWN RETURN FOR LAST HULK

At a panel at the Orlando MegaCon on Sunday, Peter David announced that he will be re-teaming with former Incredible Hulk artist Dale Keown on a new Hulk story.

"Marvel is doing this series called The Last, the last stories told about Marvel characters," David said. "They asked me, 'Would you like to write the last Hulk?' And I told them I already had."

David was referring to "The Last Titan," a short text story in a collection called Ultimate Hulk (not be confused with Marvel's current Ultimate line).

"It was the Hulk as basically the only thing left on Earth," David said. "So they said, 'OK, do you want to adapt it?' And so Dale Keown and I are together again on 'The Last Titan.'"

David also said he hopes to follow up his Star Trek: New Frontier - Double Time book with another New Frontier one-shot for WildStorm Productions.

WildStorm editor Jeff Mariotte confirmed the company's interest. "I'm awaiting Peter's proposal," he said.

Michael Collins will likely return as artist.

Look for more from David soon here in The Continuum.

JOE QUESADA TALKS MARVEL SECRET, MATURE READERS

Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Joe Quesada concluded a Marvel panel at MegaCon by saying a big secret will soon be revealed.

"Keep your eyes open for August solicitations," Quesada said. "Because, frankly, it's the biggest secret we've ever kept at Marvel Comics. In August, we will be soliciting, without a doubt, what will be the most controversial comic ever in the history of Marvel.

"I guarantee you not a single person in this room will be of the same mind whether we should be publishing it or not publishing it. But that comes in August.

"It's so controversial, as a matter of fact, that we already have major magazines promising us full-page spreads in the magazines to cover this book. So, I'll leave it up to your imaginations."

No word yet if this involves The Last project with which Peter David is involved.

Quesada earlier said that Marvel's mature readers line - which now has a yet-to-be-announced name - will likely premiere in September.

"It's a very important initiative for Marvel," Quesada said. "There will be a bunch books, two or three titles in September and more in October. There are some really wild ideas, some based on Marvel heroes, and, as we go, some not."

Quesada said the line is not Marvel's answer to DC Comics' Vertigo imprint.

"We're taking our darker sort of sensibilities with cooler, edgier Marvel characters, but making sure they are commercially viable," he said. "That's really the most important thing.

"Whereas Vertigo, they have the ability to do the occasional vanity project and say, you know what, this is going to be a really, really good story that 10 people are really going to get, but it might win an Eisner. We don't really have that flexibility. We have to say, this is a really good, cutting-edge story - something that we wouldn't normally print - but we have to make sure it has a commercial angle to it.

"As we roll along, you'll see less and less of the spandex. It would be nice if we could get past the financial barriers to do some of the vanity projects, but right now we have to keep our eyes on the prize."

CHAOS! MOVIES UPDATE

Chaos! Comics' Brian Pulido told fans at MegaCon that things are moving forward on movies involving his company's characters.

"We're working with Gene Simmons of KISS on an Evil Ernie live-action movie. It's in development," Pulido said. "Chaos! Comics works with the god of thunder, himself - not the easiest experience.

"This has been a slow process for both parties. We had to sniff each other out and give it direction. Gene has a certain point of view and we have a certain point of view. He's an immovable object. We're an immovable object.

"Actually, we expect to see the first draft of an Ernie screenplay under our mutual direction probably by the end of April now. It's a little later than I would have liked, but at that point, it goes into financing. It doesn't mean that it's guaranteed, but that's exactly where it's at right now."

Pulido said Evil Ernie's budget will be in the $10 million-$15 million range.

"It will be like the first story, Youth Gone Wild, but adjusted," he said. "It will emphasize suspense and scare. There will be an unrated version that will be over the top. There will be a rated version, because you just can't get away with violence any more."

Meanwhile, work continues on the animated Lady Death movie from ADV Films.

"The storyboards are complete. They're in Japanese, and I have no idea what they mean," Pulido said. "They're being interpreted right now and they're doing an animatic. The expectation is this summer, during the convention season, you'll see the first four-minute trailer of Lady Death. The latest idea is that the movie itself is finished by December to come out sometime during 2002."

Pulido, who wrote the movie, said it's a "new interpretation" of the character.

"It's somewhere between American and anime. Amerime," he said. "At one time it was done just for the Japanese market, and we knew that going in. Then they started saying, 'You know we're really doing America a disservice,' since this is America's goddess.

"I know that Lady Death is very popular in the comics world, and our comics world is a small world. But can you see what I see? When Lady Death, the animated, comes out, it's all over. It's gonna explode. It's like every biker, tattoo guy, everybody who hates the other guy, every who is against authority ... looks at her, and this is their goddess."

Pulido said that the movie, which should be close to 72 minutes in length, is targeted for cable and then a video release. He also said it would be rated R.

"To give you some perspective, it's Bravehart in Hell," Pulido said. "It's not sex, but it's a lot of violence."

Pulido said that because the designs of the movie are different enough from the comics, the film lends itself to all-new types of merchandise.

Chastity is another Chaos! character being developed as a movie.

"It's with Avalanche Entertainment, the producers of Detroit Rock City," Pulido said. "Patrick Topolis -- the special effects director of Independence Day, and yes, he made that screwed up Godzilla -- but he's a good guy and he's working on Chastity.

"With Chastity, we're looking at a Rachel Leigh Cook kind of gal."

IMAGE DOES CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON GRAPHIC NOVEL

Image Comics publisher Jim Valentino announced that Image has secured the rights from Sony for a comic book adapting the Oscar-nominated film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

The movie will be adapted into a graphic novel timed to coincide with the October DVD release.

"I didn't know this, but that movie is actually the third part of a trilogy," Valentino said. "Maybe if the book does will, we'll also do the other two parts and introduce them to the country."

Exact creators have yet to be finalized, according to Image marketing director Anthony Bozzi, but they will be coming from Art Asylum's staff. Art Asylum's Digger said that there will be 4-5 toys, and a piece of the graphic novel will accompany each.

"We don't want it to be a straight adaptation, but it will be very pretty to read," Digger said. "It will have a lot of sword play and will be very passionate."

SPIDER-MAN MOVIE UPDATE

J.K. Simmons, who is playing J. Jonah Jameson in the Spider-Man movie, commented about the character during an America Online chat on Friday.

Simmons' take on the character? "My take is that he has a lot more hair than I have, and that he's a classic blowhard," Simmons said.

Simmons also said that he wears a wig that makes him look "frighteningly" like Jameson.

In other Spider-Man movie news, the film's web site is now up at www.spe.sony.com/movies/spiderman.

Look for exclusive Spider-Man movie news later this week in The Continuum.

LAURA DUPUY JOINS CROSSGEN

Laura DuPuy, the colorist from The Authority and JLA, has joined CrossGen's staff, it was announced Sunday.

DuPuy, who has already colored George Perez's art on CrossGen Chronicles #2, will color his next two issues and will be the colorist on a new title launching later this year.

DuPuy said joining CrossGen's studio set-up was something she was looking for after leaving WildStorm.

"The chance to walk around a studio environment and see people absolutely thrilled with the stuff they're doing and thrilled to see everybody else's work," DuPuy said.

"I get to go see artists being excited, and that excites me. And that is the kind of motivation I have been starving for since I went free-lance."

DuPuy will join CrossGen's staff later in the year after she completes her current contractual obligations and moves from California to Florida.

"Anyone who has seen CrossGen's comics knows how important coloring is to our product," said Mark Alessi, publisher and CEO of CrossGen. "Our colors are part of what distinguishes us from out competition, so it became a no-brainer from our standpoint to hire one of the best colorists in the industry.

"Laura has been a joy to work with as a freelancer, and we're looking forward to a long and rewarding relationship with her as part of the CrossGen family."

Look for more CrossGen news here in The Continuum on Tuesday.

ROY THOMAS WRITES JLA, AVENGERS

Roy Thomas, one of the few who have written both Justice League and Avengers, will be getting a crack at both franchises in the next year.

Thomas told The Continuum he has lined up two Justice League Elseworlds projects at DC Comics and an Avengers special at Marvel Comics.

Thomas' first JLA project, edited by Joey Cavalieri, is a sequel of sorts to his Superman: War of the Worlds book, tentatively called JLA: The Island of Dr. Moreau. The story is set in the 19th Century and is the Justice League version of the classic story.

"It's weird, but not any weirder than mixing Superman into War of the Worlds," Thomas said.

Thomas said he couldn't reveal too much about his other JLA Elseworlds project, except that John Buscema will be the artist and it will probably last five issues. Dan Raspler is editing.

After about a year of discussions, Thomas said the Avengers story, which he is working on with Kurt Busiek and editor Tom Brevoort, just came together.

"It's an Ultron story and they want me to plot it," he said.

JAY FAERBER'S NOBLE CAUSES

Image Comics has announced that Jay Faerber's new creator-owned series, Noble Causes, will premiere this summer.

According to Image, Noble Causes will be a full-color ongoing series which chronicles the adventures of the illustrious Noble family, the world's most-famous super-heroes.

"They're kind of like the Kennedys, only they've got super-powers," Faerber said.

But don't expect to see the Nobles fighting crime every issue.

"The most successful super hero comics have always contained generous soap opera elements," Faerber said, "so I thought I'd take that mainstay one step further. Rather than have the continuing subplots as back-drops set against the villain-of-the-month, we're going to flip that, so that the characters' interpersonal conflicts are the focus of our book, with all the tired, old, world-in-danger stuff as background material."

Noble Causes is Faerber's first creator-owned comic.

"I've been doing this for about three years now, and for awhile, I was completely content to just work on company owned characters - the characters I grew up reading," he said. "But over the past year, I've grown more and more restless. In an odd sort of way, there's a safety net when working for Marvel and DC. If a comic doesn't turn out the way you wanted it to, there's plenty of people you can blame it on - the editor, the editor-in-chief, the publisher, etc. You can rationalize away until your heart's content. But here, at Image, it's all me. Sure, I couldn't do any of this without my creative partners -- and the folks at Image -- but if the finished product stinks, I've got no one to blame myself. I'm putting it all out there for everyone to see, performing without a net. And I've never been more excited."

Faerber said Image marketing director Anthony Bozzi is responsible for him developing Noble Causes.

"He took a rather eclectic bunch of creators out to dinner at last year's Wizard World Convention, and over the course of the evening, I became obsessed with joining the Image team," he said. "After six months of hard work, here we are! I consider myself extremely fortunate to be working with Image, considering ultra-high caliber of talent they're associated with these days. I can only hope to be guilty by association."

Billy Dallas Patton, who Faerber found in an online talent search is the primary penciler, handling the lead story in every issue. He's joined by Damon Hacker, a Kubert School trained inker.

Patrick Gleason, who also is Doug Mahnke's assistant, pencils each issue's back-up story. Gleason is inked by John Wycough, who works in Randy Green's studio. Rounding out the team is colorist Rob Schwager, a 10-year industry veteran who got his start coloring Shadowhawk.

Each issue of Noble Causes will feature a lead story, which furthers the serialized present-day story, and a self-contained back-up story, which focuses on one or two characters at a time, recounting key moments in their lives.

"The goal of these back-up tales is to give readers a better appreciation of the characters' modern-day interactions," Bozzi said. "They say that the past is but prologue to the future. In that spirit, the Noble Causes Team is weaving some very entertaining and eventful history lessons, while providing hints of events to come through these fresh, in-the-moment shorts."

Bozzi told The Continuum that the back-ups will also help ensure a consistent shipping schedule.

A self-contained, introductory one-shot, Noble Causes: First Impressions, ships in August, with the ongoing Noble Causes series starting in November.

SHI MOVIE UPDATE

Shi creator Billy Tucci said that Franchise Pictures' option on the Shi movie has expired and he might be looking elsewhere to make the film.

According to Tucci, Franchise might be encountering some legal difficulties, prompting him to seek another studio.

One might be Warner Bros., which was going to distribute the movie when it was set up with Franchise.

"I'm flying out on March 19 to meet with Warner Bros.," Tucci said. "With Tomb Raider, Charlie's Angels and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, everybody wants Shi."

Tucci said that revisions to make Shi a Caucasian have been scrapped. "Because of Michelle Yeoh and Lucy Liu, they're all hot on Asian actresses," Tucci said. "I'm glad about that."

BRIEFLY