Wednesday, February 27, 2002

MARVEL COMICS FOR MAY

Marvel Comics has released its solicitation information for May.

For a complete rundown, CLICK HERE.

RALPH HEMECKER TALKS WITCHBLADE, SEASON 2

Ralph Hemecker, executive producer of TNT's Witchblade, told The Continuum that the second season will have a slightly different approach from the first.

"Last year was pretty serialized," Hemecker told The Continuum. "We're going to go a bit more standalone this year. There will be plot threads that carry through the 13 episodes, though."

Production of the second season of Witchblade has begun in Toronto, with new episodes targeted for June. The entire cast, led by Yancy Butler, is returning.

Hemecker also revealed that the first episode of the second season - in keeping with the tradition of one-word titles - will be called "Emergence."

Look for more from Hemecker, and the cast of Witchblade, in Comics Continuum #1, which is on sale May 1. You can order the magazine through your local comics retailer beginning today or CLICK HERE to pre-order directly through Blue Line Pro.

PAUL DINI UPDATE

Paul Dini told the Continuum that he has finished the script for a Zatanna one-shot for DC Comics.

The book is being drawn by Duncan Fegredo and will be released through DC's Vertigo imprint.

"I'll probably be writing a few other Zatanna-related things for Vertigo as well," Dini told The Continuum. "Also there are a couple of special projects coming up later in the year, one with Harley Quinn and another with Jingle Belle, but it will be a while before I'm ready to say more about them."

As previously reported, Dini is working on a new Oni Press series, Mutant, Texas: Tales of Sheriff Ida Red, drawn by J. Bone.

"It deals with the inhabitants of a very strange little west Texas town and the orphan girl who eventually becomes the peoples' hero and protector," Dini said. "Ida Red is a character I've been developing for a while and she's guest-starred in Jingle Belle and a few other places. This new series tells her origin and really gives her a chance to shine.

"Bone's artwork is just awesome. Every day there's a new creature design or a stunning page layout that just knocks me out. We're really having a lot of fun with it."

Dini had to pull out of an episode of Cartoon Network's Justice League because of an injury, but it looks like he might be back in animation soon.

"Warner Bros. directors Spike Brandt, Tony Cervone and I are working on a new Duck Dodgers pitch for Cartoon Network," Dini said. "Spike and Tony are amazingly funny guys and two years ago they created a three-minute Duck Dodgers 'coming attractions' preview as a selling tool for an animated feature. The studio ultimately passed on the DD feature, but now Cartoon wants to develop it as a series.

""It hasn't gotten the go-ahead yet, but we're hopeful they'll pick it up soon."

WARREN ELLIS' SCARS AT AVATAR

Warren Ellis has signed an exclusive contract with DC Comics, but is following through his previous assignments, including Scars, a six-issue mini-series from Avatar Press.

The series is drawn by Jacen Burrows and will start in the fall. According to Avatar, the series asks, "How much of a monster do you have to become to catch one?"

"Scars is my first major attempt at producing a straight police story -- as straight as I can tell it, anyway," Ellis said. "The one thing that stays with me from my conversations with police officers is that the job is scary, scarier than most people ever find out, and that the job marks you. Marks everybody.

"Sanitised crime fiction desensitizes the reader to the extreme emotional reaction engendered by proximity to the result of violent crime..

"This is a story about the scars of a policeman, and about how terrifying the things that people do to other people really are."

"As the work on Scars has come in from Warren and Jacen over the past several months, it's been clear that this is one of Warren's most powerful, terrifying, and gut-wrenching works," Avatar Press editor-in-chief William Christensen said. "It's a concept that almost seems to compel him to get the story down on paper. And Jacen Burrows is rendering that story with a skill that Dark Blue and Bad World readers have only begun to glimpse."

The series will get a 75-cent Scars Sampler in May.

"We are also trying some new things promotionally with this series," Christensen said. "I'm told that the 75-cent Scars sampler is the cheapest comic item in the Previews catalog for May, and we're driving the price down even further by offering bundles of the Sampler to retailers at an even better. This is one of Warren's best series yet and we're going to get the work into people's hands well in advance of the series to prove it."

The Scars Sampler shows six sequential pages of the series and a four-page essay from Ellis.

Avatar is also collecting Ellis' Atmospherics. For Avatar's complete May solicitations, CLICK HERE.

BRIEFLY