Sunday, June 5, 2005
WIZARD WORLD PHILADELPHIA: DCU PANEL
PHILADELPHIA -- Joe Kubert is returning to DC Comics and his sons are joining the publisher.
That was the big news on Saturday at the DCU Panel at Wizard World Philadelphia.
Shortly after it was announced that Joe Kubert was writing and drawing a new Sgt. Rock series, DC Comics' Dan DiDio introduced Kubert's sons, Adam and Andy, who have signed three-year exclusive contracts with the publisher.
"We're very happy to have them," DiDio said.
DC didn't announced what Adam and Andy will be working on. "They will be doing DC comics," DC's Bob Wayne said coyly.
Joe's project is called Sgt. Rock: The Prophecy and will be a six-issue mini-series, targeted for next year.
The Kuberts were announced before a crowd of some 900 people, many of whom showed up to try to win tickets to an IMAX screening of Batman Begins.
|
|
|
|
|
In other highlights from the panel.
* Infinite Crisis with have dual covers for each of the seven issues. Artists on the covers are Jim Lee and George Perez.
* Ethan Van Sciver said his arc on Green Lantern will run #4-6.
* Green Lantern: Rebirth will be collected in a hardcover in October.
* Green Lantern Corps: Recharge is a five-issue mini-series, written by Geoff Johns and Dave Gibbons with art by Patrick Gleason and Christian Alamy. It starts in September.
* Scheduled for a November release is Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Absolute Edition, a deluxe, oversized slipcased set featuring the full 12-page maxiseries written by Marv Wolfman and pencilled by George Pérez, with a second volume presenting special behind-the-scenes features. Pérez is also creating new covers for both volumes.
* Dan DiDio was coy about the future of The Flash after Darwyn Cooke's four-issue run as writer.
"Big plans are in stores for the Flash," he said, and then when asked if it has anything to do with Infinite Crisis, he replied, "Crisis and Flash go together."
* Hawkman co-writer Jimmy Palmiotti: "We get into who Golden Eagle is and then tie everything into the Rann-Thanagar War."
* JSA: Classified artist Amanda Conner on her Power Girl story that tells the character's origin in the first three issues: "She's sort of the loneliest girl in the DC Universe. She's not related to anybody and the tough girl thing is starting to get to her. We get to see the human side of her."
In JSA: Classified #3, Power Girls travels to Gotham to meet the Huntress and finds herself face to face with the Crime Syndicate.
* The four-part tale "Sacrifice" leaps from July's Superman titles to its conclusion in Wonder Woman #219. With Wonder Woman deadset against Superman's planned revenge against Brainiac and other foes, the two heroes collide in an event that will send shockwaves throughout the DCU.
Or, as artist Rags Morales, put it: "We're going to beat up some people."
* DiDio on Rob Liefeld's two-issue stint on Teen Titans, written by Gail Simone: "Rob seemed like a natural guy to do a story centered on Hawk and Dove. Rob is a huge Titans fan."
* DiDio said that Jeph Loeb has a project that he can't talk about yet following Loeb's run on Superman/Batman.
|
|
|
|
|
* Seven Soldiers: Mr. Miracle, by Grant Morrison and Pascal Ferry, kicks off in September. The mini-series stars Shiloh Norman, who¹s grown up to be "the world's coolest escape artist, a cross between David Blaine and Puff Daddy."
* Bruce Jones and newly exclusive Bart Sears are teaming on Warlord, which starts in January.
"This is very close to my heart," Jones said. "It's a chance to do fantasy with a new spin. It will be a roller-coaster ride, a little different than the Mike Grell days, which I love."
* Jones is also writing the six-issue The Vigilante series, which stars in September and features art by Ben Oliver and covers by Michael Golden. "It's very, very, very dark," Jones said.
* Showcase Presents Superman in September kicks off DC's Showcase Presents titles, black-and-white books similar in format to Marvel's Essentials line. Other volumes in the sries will include Green Lantern, Jonah Hex, Metamorpho and Justice League of America.
* In August, the repercussions of last year's "War Games" story hit hard in the four-part, weekly "Batman: War Crimes," running in Detective Comics #809 and 810 and Batman #643 and 644.
|
|
|
* Luke Ross is the artist for DC's new Jonah Hex series. Jimmy Palmiotti, writer with Justin Gray, said that each issue will have a different cover artist, starting with Frank Quitely. "Everybody that Steve Wacker, the editor, has approached has jumped at it," Palmiotti said.
* DC's Bob Wayne said that order on All Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder #1 were huge. He also noted that All Star Superman, by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, has "more information and more stuff in each issue than in a year of some comics."
Copyright © 2005, The Comics Continuum