Friday, November 1, 2002

SPIDER-MAN SETS DVD RECORDS

Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment revealed on Friday that it has shipped more than 26 million copies of Spider-Man on DVD and videocassette in North America -- more than any other home entertainment title in history.

It is also estimated that Spider-Man will ship more than 14 million units internationally. This would bring the worldwide ship number of Spider-Man to a record-breaking 40 million units -- substantially all of which will be released simultaneously worldwide during this month.

Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment president Benjamin Feingold said today: "Home entertainment has proven to be virtually recession proof and we expect industry growth to be 15 to 20 percent for all video categories this fourth quarter led by CTHE's line-up of Mr. Deeds, Spider-Man, Men In Black II, Stuart Little 2 and XXX. It is the strongest holiday lineup from one studio in home entertainment history.

"We thank all of our suppliers, Columbia Pictures and Revolution Studios as well as the films' directors, producers and actors for giving us the opportunity to shine this fourth quarter. We also thank our retail partners and their associates, logistics team, our marketing and promotional partners and our own personnel for bringing Spider-Man and our other films to market."

Avi Arad, president of Marvel Entertainment, said, "The incredible success of 'Spider-Man' on DVD clearly mirrors the box-office success of the film. Both performances are true barometers of our culture's love and fascination with this beloved heroic character as well as the record-breaking popularity of this incredibly produced and directed movie. We at Marvel are simply delighted over the results produced by Columbia TriStar's very creative, strategic and effective sales and marketing teams."

In other Spider-Man news:

* One of the bonus features on the DVD is a screen test for Tobey Maguire, who goes shirtless for a fight scene.

"He really got in great shape for the screen test," director Sam Raimi told E!. "Spider-Man is both a very human character, but also capable of a great amount of movement and grace. Tobey had to show the studio through this screen test that he had the ability to pull it off.

"In the screen test, he doesn't necessarily play Peter Parker. It was really more about not chaining him with that performance or that character, but showing that he could be a creature of danger."

* During a recent signing on Royal Oak, Mich., Bruce Campbell, who appeared in Spider-Man as a pro wrestling ring announcer, said that he will be appearing in the Spider-Man sequel.

CROSSGEN COMICS FIRST LOOKS

For covers and four- or five-page previews of CrossGen Comics titles arriving in stores on Wednesday, CLICK HERE.

Titles include The First #25, Mystic #30 and Way of the Rat #7.

G.I. JOE FRONTLINE SELLS OUT

Image Comics has announced that Diamond Distributors has completely sold out of G.I. Joe Frontline #1 by Larry Hama, Dan Jurgens and Bob Layton.

The first chapter in the four-part "Mission That Never Was" storyline launching this companion series to the ongoing series arrived in stores on Oct. 16.

"As with all Image titles, it's our aim to keep enough copies of G.I. Joe on hand for reorders, but we may have been a bit conservative with G.I. Joe Frontline #1," said Image Director of Marketing Eric Stephenson. "In fact, I think it's safe to say everyone was, because given the high caliber of the creative team and G.I. Joe's incredible success over the past year, this issue should have received far greater orders."

"People keep saying the '80s trend is over," said Devil's Due's Josh Blaylock, "but it looks like there are a lot of people out there who disagree, and they're buying G.I. Joe! Seriously, I think this shows that these comics definitely have a loyal following that enjoys what we're doing."

Image also supplied five pages of preview art from the second issue of G.I. Joe Frontline, due in November.

GIVE'EM A CLICK

NEW MUTANT X EPISODE

"The Future Revealed," a new episode of Mutant X, will air this week in syndication.

In the episode, written by Peter Mohan and Mark Amato and directed by John Bell, Ashlocke threatens to destroy the Mutant X team and the entire city unless Adam finds a cure to save him.

For a complete episode description, with spoilers, CLICK HERE.

ONI PRESS' DAYS LIKE THIS

Oni Press in March will release Days Like This, a graphic novel by J. Torres and Scott Chantler that is the fictionalized account of one woman's ambitions in the music industry and the teenage girl group she creates.

Here's how Oni describes the book:

"Set circa 1962, it revolves around Harmony Plaza, a buzzing factory for pop music. Hits for bands all across the world are written there, and teenage heartthrobs like Dana Darling and Robbie Mann got their start in those musical hallways. So did Anna Solomon, now ex-wife of music mogul Abe Solomon. Anna is taking her divorce settlement and starting her own music label. Her first signing comes when she discovers Christina James and her two friends singing at their high school talent show-and Tina and the Tiaras are born.

"Days Like This is the story of these remarkable women and how they conquer the music industry."

"I remember it was a Friday night, and my e-mail dinged," Oni Press editor-in-chief Jamie S. Rich said. "It was J. Torres. He had been toying around with some ideas and had written up some entries for an imagined music encyclopedia. He thought he'd send it to me, as it was right up my alley. The attached documents had biographies of Anna Solomon, songwriter Karen Prince, the Tiaras, and all the various periphery characters. J. had already put his world together, and his instincts were right-I was instantly hooked."

"It's no secret that most folks in comics also love music," Torres said. "You've got guys like Joe Casey and James Kochalka playing in bands, you have the Hernandez Bros. and Paul Pope and Chynna Clugston-Major listing the songs they are listening to when they work, and then you have people who are making comics about the music they listen to. It seems these days, most of those comics end up at Oni.

"Days Like This has been a personal project for me. I love the bubblegum pop music that flowed out of the Brill Building, and that still lights up oldies radio. It's a type of music I could share with my father. He passed away this last year, and I have been writing the comic with him in mind. It's the thing I have done that he could have read and he would get it."

While new to comics readers, Chantler is actually a seasoned artist with a background in commercial illustration and animation.

"I had seen work from Scott years ago, back even at Dark Horse," Rich said. "I remember liking it then, but had sort of lost track of him since. When J. sent me a link to his site, I was instantly reminded of why I had been into his stuff. His classic approach to a vintage illustration style was perfect to capture the essence to the time our comic book took place in."

"This was a fascinating project for me," Chantler said. "It's exactly the type of work I'd been looking for in comics, because I can't think of another book like it. It's personal and character-driven, and makes meaningful use of the time period. It's not just some nostalgia trip. It gave me an opportunity to do a lot of juicy research and challenged me to represent the era properly, but without ramming it down people's throats. There is something iconic to J.'s story that I wanted to reflect in the art."

In addition to the comics, Days Like This will contain supplemental material written by Rich about the climate of pop music that inspired this project. Though known primarily for his editing duties at Oni, Rich also the author of the illustrated novel Cut My Hair, a book evocative of the early '90s music scene. He also writes reviews for Portland, Ore., area papers.

30 DAYS OF NIGHT COLLECTED BY IDW

30 Days Of Night, the mini-series by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith, will be collected into a trade paperback by IDW Publishing in January.

Even though it was overprinted by 100 percent, 30 Days Of Night #1 sold out within two weeks and the second printing was gone even faster. Senator International has purchased the movie rights to 30 Days Of Night, with Sam Raimi producing and Niles working on a screenplay.

The book tells the story of an isolated Alaskan town that is plunged into darkness for a month each year when the sun sinks below the horizon. As the last rays of light fade, the town is attacked by a bloodthirsty gang of vampires bent on an uninterrupted orgy of destruction. Only the small town's husband-and-wife Sheriff team stand between the survivors and certain destruction.

The 30 Days Of Night trade paperback will have an introduction by Clive Barker. In addition, the 30 Days of Night trade paperback features eight all-new story pages not included in the original mini-series release.

"Steve and Ben really wanted to give something extra to fans who buy the trade paperback. They've added some amazing vampire battles that happen between issues 1 and 2," said IDW publisher Ted Adams.

30 Days of Night trade paperback will be 80 pages and will cost $17.99.

BRIEFLY