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Thursday, May 29, 2003SPIDER-MAN ANIMATED UPDATEStan Lee is providing a guest-voice for MTV's Spider-Man animated series, The Continuum has learned. The guest role will mark a first for Lee: he will be voicing a villain in the show. Lee's episode will likely be one of the later ones in the show's first season. Lee will also be an executive producer of Spider-Man. Lee, who has appeared in the X-Men, Spider-Man, Daredevil movies, has lent his voice to several Marvel animated projects in the past decade. In Fox Kids' Spider-Man, he played himself in the series finale. He also provided live-action wraparounds to the syndicated Marvel Action Hour that featured Fantastic Four and Iron Man cartoons. MTV has yet to announce a premiere date for Spider-Man, but it is expected to start in either late summer or early fall. Look for more Spider-Man news soon here in The Continuum.
JUSTICE LEAGUE ANIMATED UPDATEJustice League continued to draw strong ratings in May, according to figures released by Cartoon Network on Wednesday. The show, which aired Monday-Thursday at 10 p.m., remained No. 1 in its time period on all cable with kids 6-11 ratings (2.6, up 18 percent) and delivery (632,000, up 16 percent) and kids 2-11 ratings (2.7, up 8 percent) and delivery (1,081,000, up 5 percent). The series was also No. 1 with boys 6-11 ratings (4.1, up 58 percent) and delivery (515,000, up 58 percent) and boys 2-11 ratings (3.6, up 24 percent) and delivery (744,000, up 24 percent). For Justice League's upcoming schedule, including its move to Toonami, CLICK HERE.
KOMIKWERKS' ANTHOLOGIESKomikwerks, a provider of online and digitally distributed comics, has announced a series of printed anthologies. The first book, entitled Komikwerks Volume 1, will ship in August. The book features work from such creators as Danny Miki, Aaron Sowd, Vatche Mavlian, Andy Kuhn, Matt Haley, S.D. Lara , James Burks and Vinton Heuck. Komikwerks Volume 1 will be 120 black-and-white pages with a color cover. The digest-sized (8 inches by 5 inches) book will cost $9.95.
FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS' FINANCIAL WOESFantagraphics Books on Thursday issued a press release detailing financial problems and a plea for support. According to the release: "Our former and now bankrupt book trade distributor went out of business owing us over $70,000 - which we will never see. (To add insult to injury, we learned that the owner is selling copies of our books that he should've returned on e-bay!) This unexpected shortfall necessitated taking out a couple loans which have now come due. In late 2001, our line was picked up by the W.W. Norton Company, who took over our bookstore distribution, and has done a magnificent job of providing us unprecedented access to the bookstore market. Inexperience with the book trade resulted in our erring on the side of overprinting our books too heavily throughout 2002, so that our anticipated profit is in fact sitting in our warehouse in the form of books. Loans must be paid in cash, not books. The only way to get out of this hole we've dug ourselves into is to sell those books. Which is where, we hope, you come in. "Over the last few weeks, we've worked to fix our in-house problems (which included, most painfully, laying off several fine and long-term employees). We have put in place a system of checks and balances by which we will watch our inventory growth scrupulously. But, we have a debt to pay down and wolves at the door. It's so severe that this month we envisaged shutting down our active publishing, seeking outside investors, or similarly odious measures. (Fantagraphics continues to be owned 100% by Messrs. Gary Groth and Kim Thompson. We'd like it to remain that way.) "If you've respected what Fantagraphics stands for and what we've done for the medium, if you've enjoyed our books, and if you want to insure that this proud tradition continues into this new and ominous century, we're asking you to help us now in our especial hour of need by buying some books. Put simply, we need to raise about $80,000 above our usual sales over the next month, and the only way to do that is to convert books into cash."
BRIEFLY
E-mail the Continuum at RobAlls@aol.com
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