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Thursday, August 1, 2002
BIRDS OF PREY/SMALLVILLE UPDATE
DC Comics has provided The Continuum with a first look at the Birds of Prey and Smallville posters it is handing out at Comic-Con International in San Diego.
The Birds of Prey poster shows Ashley Scott as Huntress, poised on a Gotham City gargoyle. The tagline reads: "Batman's little girl is all grown up."
In the series, which debuts on Wednesday, Oct. 9 on The WB, the Huntress is Helena Kyle, the daughter of Bruce Wayne/Batman and Selina Kyle/Catwoman.
The Smallville poster shows series star Tom Welling, juxtaposed against a tornado, which refers to the cliffhanger at the end of the first season. It also mentions the season premiere date of Tuesday, Sept. 24.
Click on the thumbnails for larger looks at the posters, although the Smallville poster is of lesser quality.
In other related news:
* It's probable DC will release Smallville comics beyond the upcoming one-shot, although the publisher has not made an announcement yet.
* The Tuesday, Aug. 13 episode of Smallville will be a rebroadcast of "Craving."
* At Comic-Con, DC Direct is displaying the upcoming Smallville action figures in their blister packs. Click on the thumbnails below for a larger look.
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BUSIEK, GRUMMETT PUSH POWER COMPANY
Kurt Busiek and Tom Grummett, the creators of DC's Power Company series, have announced a new focus to the book.
The "new focus" starts with Power Company #8, shipping in September, and include promotional support both from DC and from Busiek and Grummett themselves, including online support and comics-store-focused promotions, including free comics, "virtual" store appearances and giveaways of original art.
For complete details, including upcoming story hints, CLICK HERE.
CHRISTINE NORRIE'S CHEAT
Oni Press on Thursday announced that it is moving forward with creator-owned projects written and drawn by Hopeless Savages artist Christine Norrie.
The first book on the schedule is Cheat, an original, 64-page graphic novel that is slated for a February release. Cheat is the story of one couple as they grow apart, and of a woman who finds herself making a choice to have an affair while her partner is out of town-leading her and her relationship to dark patches she never wanted to visit.
"Christine and I have been tossing around various ideas for her first full-length project for a while," Oni Press editor in chief Jamie S. Rich said. "There have been a lot of choices, and it's been a matter of figuring out which one best fit her schedule. After we did Dumped with Andi Watson, we particularly wanted to find projects that fit the same format. It sold well, it was artistically pleasing-it was just a good experience all around. Next thing I knew, Christine was telling me about Cheat."
"Cheat actually began as a weird dream I had," Norrie said. "In it, I encountered some of the scenarios that would wind up in the book. The dream disturbed me, and got me thinking about the consequences that could occur when someone strays from their commitments. Originally, I had been looking to do a longer project with Oni, and had been planning one, but then Jamie suggested the original novel format, and it just seemed the timing was perfect."
"There was a lot of synergy," Rich added. "I also called her and was raving about having just seen the DVD of the Wong Kar-Wai film, In the Mood for Love. She said, 'I love Wong Kar-Wai, but I haven't seen that.' I started explaining the story, about two people who realize their spouses are cheating on them with each other, and she started laughing. The story she was waiting to propose to me was like the flip side of that. It's like In the Mood for Love from the point of view of the adulterers."
"I really wanted to get into the characters' heads," Norrie said. "I wanted to figure out why they do what they do, what leads them to make their decisions. And then there is the question of reaction. All four of the participants end up getting involved, and each one is affected in their own way. There's guilt, arrogance, hurt, supplication-and that's just to start. I'd been wanting to do a romance comic forever, but I wanted to do it in a way that would be much more of our time."
Norrie's longer project is one that has previously been mentioned in news items and interviews, and it is also still going to happen.
"Crush is a six-issue mini-series that Jamie and I have been talking about since before the first Hopeless Savages ended," Norrie said. "It's been a difficult book to bring to fruition. There have been schedule conflicts, like inking Queen & Country and drawing the Spy Kids comics for Disney, and there have also been issues of planning, of wanting to make such a large series work right. It will now follow Cheat, and almost serve as a companion to it. In it you follow a young girl through several relationships and how she learns to deal with her feelings-the sort of thing the main female in Cheat probably should have gone through before getting married. I think we're looking at a summer, 2003 release."
Cheat will be 64 pages of black-and-white story and art at digest size and will cost $5.95.
LADY DEATH MOVIE
ADV Films' Andy Orjuela told The Continuum that the Lady Death animated movie remains on track for a 2003 release.
"One more year to wait," Orjuela said on Wednesday night at Comic-Con International in San Diego. "We're getting close."
Lady Death has been in development for several years and this is the first public announcement of a release date.
ADV has begun aggressive promotion for the movie, with a big display at Comic-Con, with standees, posters, three different T-shirts and character designs/descriptions.
Orjuela, a producer of the film, and writer/director Carl Macek will discuss the movie at a panel on Saturday at 1 p.m.
Click on the thumbnails for larger images, and look for more on Lady Death soon here in The Continuum.
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BRIEFLY
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The episode was written by J. Michael Straczynski and directed by Brett Dowler.
Copyright © 2002, The Comics Continuum