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SATURDAY, MARCH 17, 2007

WIZARD WORLD LOS ANGELES: ASPEN COMICS PANEL

LOS ANGELES -- The Fathom movie is dead -- for now -- Michael Turner told fans at the Aspen Comics panel at Wizard World on Friday night.

"The Fathom movie is now not really happening. We're moving on with it," Turner said. "We've had some problems with the scripting and the timing of it."

Turner said there were frustrations with the script process, even in rewrites, with the film, which was set up at Fox through James Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment after originally intended as an animated feature.

"In the first script there was a characted named Aspen, but nothing else," he said. "The scripts were completely different than what you know as Fathom.

"We're going to do it right or not do it at all."

Aspen's Frank Mastromauro said the character is set up at a new agency "with a whole new set of eyes."

"In fact, there's a few things we're possibly working on, possibly Shrugged," Mastromauro said. "The future is looking better."

The panel also included Micah Gunnell, Don Ho, Michael Turner, Peter Steigerwald, Beth Sotelo, Jason Gorder, J.T. Krul and Vince Hernandez.

In other notes from the panel:

* Turner said he has been undergoing chemotherarpy for about three months. "It's working and I'm going to continue doing it because it's working," he said, noting he's off painkillers and is gaining weight back.

Turner plans to continue to work on covers short term and then return to complete the final three issues of Soulfire.

* Soulfire: New World Order #0 will ship in May, with #1 in July. The mini-series is written by Krul, with art by Francisco Herrera.

* Shrugged #5 will be in stores on Wednesday, and Aspen unveiled the covers to #6-8. Shrugged #8 will be an oversized final issue.

"We're been getting a lot of good feedback and sales have been good, so hopefully we'll come back for a second edition of Shrugged," Mastomaruo said.

The third volume of Fathom is targeted for later this year.

* Fathom: Kiani, by Hernandez and Marcus To, will launch on Wednesday. Alternate covers include a Talent Caldwell cover, a retailer's exclusive, a Wizard World L.A. cover, a V.I.P. edition and an United Kingdom exclusive.

Upcoming variant covers will include Randy Green on #2, Andy Park on #3 and Micah Gunnell #4.

Hernandez is also writing Fathom: Killian's Vessel, with art by Sean "Cheeks" Galloway. "It's a dark love story," Hernandez said. "I always wanted to do a love story."

* Mastromauro said there will be new Fathom prints and another swimsuit issue is in the works, with five pieces turned in.

*Kiani, Soulfire, New World Order and Shrugged will be featured in Aspen's Free Comic Book Day offering.

* The next Seasons book is targeted for October.

* Mastromauro said that the Kiani statue has run into several unexpected delays but is "a priority" for Aspen.

* Turner said he still plans on working on Ekos following his Ultimate Wolverine mini-series.

"Geoff Johns and I are still talking about it," he said. "I'm almost glad it's taken so long because every time we get together, the story gets better."

* Aspen/Turner is providing five consecutive covers for Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four.

* Mastromauro said that some announcements regarding Aspen's involvement with NBC's Heroes should be forthcoming, including a possible publishing of the webisodes into a graphic novel.

"We're on tap for three seasons worth of stuff," Mastromauro noted.

* Krul on New World Order: "I'm really excited about this one. It's different from Michael's style. The story is darker story, a smaller story than crazines of main Soulfire title."

Krul said the story will contain new and old characters and will primarily take place in San Francisco. He described it as "dark and gritty."

* Asked how it is to write a female character, Hernandez said, "I don't know too much about how women think, but I do my best to write an angry female warrior."

* Mastromauro said that Aspen will be ramping up its trade paperbacks, with plans to reprint older material. "We'll have four to five trades this year alone," he said. "We'd like to put out one every quarter, so it catches back up with the volume."

* Steigerwald said that work on the Soulfire: Dying of the Light trade paperback is finishing up and that the ultimate Fathom collection is taking longer than expected to finish.

* Is Captain America really dead? "I've got to draw him a few more times, so in my eyes, no," Turner said. "But I can't really say."

* Turner said that he "definitely can see" Aspen getting into animation and there have been talks. "We've seen some things in 3D animation and in our style, and it's really cool," Turner said.

"We definitely want to parallel ourselves with somebody who see things the way we want to see it done," Mastromauro said.

* Mastromauro said there were far more ideas than were able to be used in Shrugged. "It's going to end on a high note and we'll see where it goes from there," he said.

* Turner said Aspen talent will be working with other companies. "We can't announce it yet," he said.




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