Thursday, September 27, 2001

MARVEL PRESS CONFERENCE

Marvel Comics announced further relief efforts and a gathering of retailers at its press conference on Wednesday.

For more details, CLICK HERE.

JUSTICE LEAGUE ANIMATED UPDATE

The JSA won't be appearing on the Cartoon Network's upcoming Justice League animated series after all, but there will be another super team appearing.

The series' producers had hoped to do a JLA/JSA story in traditional DC Comics fashion.

"As for the JSA story, we ran into some issues with DC over the use of those characters," producer Rich Fogel told The Continuum. "The solution was to invent a new 'classic' super-hero group. Although at first we were disappointed that we weren't allowed to use the beloved JSA characters, it worked out well in the end.

"The new characters are more archetypes and actually a lot of fun. I just saw the storyboard, and this is going to be one of the weirdest, wildest episodes ever!"

In other Justice League news, two of the images released on Tuesday by Cartoon Network were done by producer Bruce Timm.

The images done by Timm were the group shot of the seven Justice Leaguers, right, and the posed image of Wonder Woman, left.

It's unclear who the artists of the other pieces were. They might have come from a licensing guide.

See Tuesday's report for all nine images.

MUTANT X'S SOAP STARS

Mutant X cast members Forbes March and Victor Webster are both former soap opera stars.

March, 28, played Scott Parker Chandler on ABC's All My Children and is now playing Jess Kilmartin on Mutant X. Webster, 28, played Nicholas Alamain on NBC's Days of Our Lives and is playing Brennan Mulwray on Mutant X.

Both actors said that filming Mutant X is different than their soap opera experiences.

"Yes, in the sense we have the luxury of time," March said. "On a soap opera you starting going on tape around 1 in the afternoon and you hope to be finished by 6:30. That's a real crunch. You got one shot to get it.

"They shoot four cameras at one time. You walk on set, you get told where to walk, what to say, how to say it. They change your lines on the five count. 'Five, four, what? You didn't get your changes? OK, here, let's go.'

"But that's great because it prepares you for something like this where we do have the luxury of more time, more budget, special effects, one camera. It means you get to do it time and time again."

Webster agreed about the time elements in shooting Mutant X.

"With a soap opera, you're shooting an episode a day," Webster said. "I mean, I've done 75 pages of dialogue in one day. Here, we'll do five pages a day or six pages a day and it takes eight days to do an episode.

"I think it's completely different. I don't get to do triple back-flips and kick people in the face and shoot electricity out of various body parts. It's much, much more exciting. It's much more fulfilling to have the kind of dialogue."

Mutant X premieres in syndication the week of Oct. 1. Look for more on the show soon here in The Continuum.

LINSNER'S NEW YORK TRIBUTE

Joseph Michael Linsner is releasing I Love New York, a 24-page book in January.

A portion of the proceeds from this book will go to the American Red Cross, donated by both Linsner and Diamond Distributors.

Here's how the book is described:

"Joseph Linsner was raised in Queens, New York, and from his apartment he could see the Twin Towers. On September 11th, 2001, New York was attacked and those building which he had thought of as eternal were destroyed. The unthinkable had happened and he knew that his country would never be the same. How does one react to such an overwhelming crime against humanity? Writer/artist JML gives his personal viewpoint on a tragedy that has affected a nation, a world, and a boy who grew up in New York."

The black-and-white book will cost $2.95.

BRIEFLY