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Monday, December 8, 2003HELLBOY MOVIE UPDATEHellboy creator Mike Mignola said that director Guillermo del Toro is making the Hellboy movie much closer to the comic than he anticipated it could be. "I loved Chronos and I loved Mimic," Mignola said, referring to del Toro's previous films. "So I told, 'I love what you do. I've done the comic. Feel free to make it Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy. Do whatever you want. Make it as different as you want.' "And he came back to me and said, 'No, I want it to make it (faithful).' He wanted to make it more faithful to the comic than I ever imagined it would be. I came up with some really different ideas, having the actor as himself and three-quarters of the way through the movie turning to Hellboy. "And he said, 'No, I want to do what's in the comics.'" Del Toro, appearing with Mignola at the recent Wizard World Texas, said that in meetings with one studio, it was suggested that Hellboy's look would be triggered by anger -- a la The Hulk -- or that the character not be red. "Guillermo said to me when we first met, 'I want to make this The Last Emperor of cheesey monster movies,'" Mignola said. In other Hellboy news: * Sideshow Collectibles has released images of the Hellboy and Abe Sabien polystone busts. Click on the thumbnails for larger images. * Del Toro said that he provided the voices for monsters in the film. * Both del Toro and Mignola said that the success of Blade II -- which was directed by del Toro and opened No. 1 -- was key to getting Hellboy greenlit for production. "Blade II was the perfect place to get Hellboy," del Toro said. "If we didn't get Hellboy out of Blade II, we wouldn't get Hellboy. It was like a three-year plan."
STAR WARS TALES UPDATEArt studio Grafiksismik has provided The Continuum with a two-page preview from its upcoming story in Dark Horse Comics' Star Wars Tales. Grafiksismik is providing art for a 16-page story, "Revenants," that will appear in Star Wars Tales #18, arriving in stores on Wednesday, Dec. 24. "Revenants" pits Han Solo against an army of Boba Fetts in an action packed, high adventure story. Working off a script by author and game developer W. Haden Blackman, Grafiksismik's artists Dub and Niko Henrichon will collaborate on the pencils, with Pierre Andre Dery providing inks and Phiz coloring. Dery, also the studio's art director, describes the artwork on "Revenants" artwork as "different than what we usually do. It really shows our animation influences, with fully-painted backgrounds and cell-type shading on the characters." Click on the thumbnails for larger images.
THE SIMPSONS UPDATEFox has relased a promotional image from this year's Christmas-themed episode of The Simpsons. The episode is called "'Tis The Fifteenth Season" and it will air on Sunday, Dec. 14 at 8 p.m. Here's how Fox describes the episode: "When Homer is given a Joe DiMaggio rookie card by an oblivious-to-its-value Burns, he sells it for a pile of cash. After spending most of the money on himself, Homer comes to realize his greedy ways when he sees A Christmas Carol on TV. So he reverses course and starts to do favors for everyone he can."
ONI PRESS' SPOOKEDOni Press is releasing Spooked, an original graphic novel by Antony Johnston and Ross Campbell, in February. The first of three new projects by Johnston scheduled for early next year, Spooked looks at the creepier side of London through the eyes of an extremely unusual fine artist named Emily Spook. "Spooked is one of those books that took some time to come together," said editor James Lucas Jones. "Don't get me wrong, Antony's pitch was fully formed and realized, but there were some stumbling blocks along the way. Format changes, artist changes, title changes--but it's true what they say, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger and the challenges that arose in getting Emily's story from concept to completion only helped to shape into one of my favorite projects.² Here's how Oni describes the book: "Emily Spook's reputation in the indy art scene is growing. Her paintings have a devoted following and the ranks of that group continue to swell more every day. Emily should be thrilled but instead she's terrified. You see, ever since she was a young girl, Emily has been somewhat of a hostel for ghosts. Visitors from the ether would drop in for a few days or a month or even years and from those specters Emily would draw inspiration. But lately the ghosts have disappeared, leaving Emily alone and unable to touch a canvas. When Simon's consciousness first shows up inside Emily's skull she's relieved, but before long she fallen into the same web of mystics and murder that ended Simon's life. Can the unlikely pair discover the truth about Simon's gruesome death or will Emily join the spirits she's played host to all these years?" "My website is called MostlyBlack.com and I've worked under the name for almost ten years," Johnston joked. "So it can hardly be a surprise that I'm finally writing a book about a goth artist and ghosts. And it's plain to anyone who's seen Ross' work that it's where his tastes lie, too. It's a perfect marriage of sensibilities." "And talent," added Jones. "Antony and Ross just go together like nose rings and black hair dye. They're both incredibly versatile talents with long, varied careers ahead of them, but this project is something truly special. It's not often the wavelengths overlap so perfectly and the shockwave is going to knock the comic reading public on its backside." Artist Campbell is an alumnus of the Savannah College of Art and Design where he honed his sequential art skills, skills he put to use on the flashback sequences of the mini-series Too Much Hopeless Savages. "As soon as I saw Ross' samples, I knew he was going to be going places," said Oni editor-in-chief Jamie S. Rich. "It was just a matter of finding the right project for him. His short sequences in Hopeless Savages really allowed him to get his motor all revved up. With Spooked he's doing laps around the track at Mach 1 and there isn't anything that could stand in his way. It's exciting to see someone go from a group of five or six page scenes to an entire graphic novel and not miss a beat." Spooked will be 160 black-and-white pages and will cost $14.95.
FIRST LOOKSFor covers and five-page previews of titles arriving in February, Titles include The Last Straw Man #1 from Image Comics and Hard Time #1 from DC Comics.
BRIEFLY"The Punisher is one of Marvel's grittiest heroes delivering a unique brand of vigilante justice that is a perfect fit for the video game universe," said Germaine Gioia, vice president of licensing, THQ. "We look forward to working with Marvel in bringing a perfect blend of classic comic book and filmed franchise versions of The Punisher to console gamers across the globe." Here's how the show is described: "The quest for Energon, a rare and potent substance that the Autobot and Decepticon warriors have battled over for eons, continues on Earth. The Decepeticon forces have made a deal with Unicron in exchange for new powers and forms that they will supply to Energon to fully reactivate him. Now legions of hyper-powered Decepticons speed toward Earth determined to control its Energon resources at any cost. Only an elite team of Autobots, empowered with the Spark of Combination, can save the planet from total destruction." COMICS CONTINUUM BACK ISSUESIn case you missed The Continuum's recent coverage, here are some links: * For Tuesday, Dec. 2, including Teen Titans news, CLICK HERE. * For Monday, Dec. 1, including X2 movie news, CLICK HERE. * For Saturday, Nov. 29, including Hellboy movie news, CLICK HERE. * For Friday, Nov. 28, including X-Men: Evolution news, CLICK HERE. * For Thursday, Nov. 27, including Transformers news, CLICK HERE. * For Wednesday, Nov. 26, including Justice League animated news, CLICK HERE. * For Tuesday, Nov. 25, including X2 movie news, CLICK HERE. * For Monday, Nov. 24, including Marvel Comics' solicitations for February, CLICK HERE. * For Sunday, Nov. 23, including Hellboy movie news from Wizard World Texas, CLICK HERE. * For Saturday, Nov. 22, including the DC Comics and Devil's Due panels at Wizard World Texas, CLICK HERE. * For Friday, Nov. 21, including IDW Publishing's solicitations for February, CLICK HERE. * For Thursday, Nov. 20, including Image Comics' solicitations for February, CLICK HERE. * For Wednesday, Nov. 19, including DC Comics news, CLICK HERE. * For Tuesday, Nov. 18, including DC Comics' solicitations for February, CLICK HERE. * For Monday, Nov. 17, including Astro Boy news, CLICK HERE. * For Saturday, Nov. 15, including Wonder Woman news, CLICK HERE. * For Friday, Nov. 14, including Punisher movie news, CLICK HERE. * For Thursday, Nov. 13, including Image Comics news, CLICK HERE. * For Wednesday, Nov. 12, including Smallville news, CLICK HERE. * For Tuesday, Nov. 11, including Tomb Raider news, CLICK HERE. * For Monday, Nov. 10, including Punisher movie news, CLICK HERE. * For Saturday, Nov. 8, including DC news, CLICK HERE. * For Friday, Nov. 7, including Dark Horse solicitations, CLICK HERE. * For Thursday, Nov. 6, including Smallville news, CLICK HERE. * For Wednesday, Nov. 5, including DC news, CLICK HERE. * For Tuesday, Nov. 4, including DC news, CLICK HERE. * For Monday, Nov. 3, including Punisher movie news, CLICK HERE. * For Sunday, Nov. 2, including the DC panel at Las Vegas, CLICK HERE.
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