Comics Continuum by Rob Allstetter: Monday, September 13, 2010

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MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2010

THE SIMPSONS ROUNDUP

Fox has released four new images from "Elementary School Musical," the season premiere of The Simpsons scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 26.

The episode guest-stars Lea Michele, Cory Monteith and Amber Riley from Glee and Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie from Flight of the Conchords.

Here's how Fox describes the episode:

"Marge surprises Lisa with a week-long retreat at performing arts camp, where she is greeted by her artsy counselors (guest voices Clement and McKenzie) and fellow musically inclined campers (guest voices Michele, Monteith and Riley), who inspire her to embrace her creative side. After she returns to Springfield, Lisa becomes restless with her ho-hum suburban lifestyle and sneaks off to Sprooklyn in hopes of connecting with her inner hipster, but she soon realizes that the city is not the same as camp."

Click on the thumbnails for larger images.

Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg and Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus provide guest-voices in the Oct. 3 episode, titled "Loan-a-Lisa."

Here's how Fox describes the epsiode:

"When Grampa gives each member of the family a portion of his savings, Lisa and Marge spend their money in drastically different ways. Lisa invests in Nelson's brand-new business venture, but soon realizes that her friend's instant success might lure him away from the classroom. Worried that his judgment might be clouded, Lisa introduces Nelson to the well-educated and successful creator of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, only to find out that he too dropped out of school. But when the soaring business suddenly takes a sharp turn, Lisa teaches her friend that education is invaluable."

CORT LANE TALKS THE SUPER HERO SQUAD SHOW

At the recent Comic-Con International in San Diego, The Continuum talked to Marvel Animation's Cort Lane.

Lane talked about the scope of the second season of The Super Hero Squad Show on Cartoon Network and some of the upcoming guest voices, revealing a guest-star from The Vampire Diaries.

To see the interview, CLICK HERE.

KIERON GILLEN ON UNCANNY X-MEN

Marvel Comics has announced that newly exclusive writer Kieron Gillen is joining Matt Fraction as co-writer on Uncanny X-Men, beginning with #531 in December.

Fraction and Gillen pit the X-Men against what may be their greatest threat yet, the loss of their powers at the hands of the Sublime Corporation.

"For the last thirty years, Uncanny X-Men has been superhero comics' truest reflection of the age. That's what I have to live up to and take it into the future, trying to write the definitive twenty-teen take on the X-Men," Gillen said.

"Any less is underselling what the book deserves. Co-writing with Matt seems a worryingly natural development, as we were friends, then were working together creating the five lights for Generation Hope. The exclusive is the proverbial gravy."

Fraction said, "As a writer? This feels like Kieron and I have already been working on the book for several months anyway, what with the 'Five Lights' story and cueing up what he needed for Generation Hope, so this is a perfectly natural extension of that. As a reader? There's literally no one else in the world I want to read writing X-Men more than Kieron. He's great. He's dangerously great."

MARVEL COMICS ROUNDUP

Marvel Comics has released a teaser image for Assassin for Hire.

The project is due to start in December.

In other Marvel news:

* The publisher has released the variant cover image by J. Scott Campbell, for Uncanny X-Force #1, which goes on sale on Oct. 6.

Click on the thumbnails for larger images.

BOOM!'S THE TRAVELER COVERS

BOOM! Studios has revealed all seven covers for the first issue of the second title from Stan Lee, The Traveler.

The series is written by Mark Waid, with art by Chad Hardin.

Here's how BOOM! describes the first issue, due in November:

"The mysterious hero known only as The Traveler battles the forces of evil in a time-bending thriller that finds all of history -- and the future -- hanging in the balance!"

Click on the thumbnails for larger images.

DC COMICS FIRST LOOKS

For covers and three- to five-page previews of six titles arriving in stores on Sept. 15 from DC Comics, CLICK HERE.

Titles include Zatanna #5, DC Universe Legacies #5, Batman Beyond #4, Justice Society of America Speical, Ides of Blood #2 and DV8: Gods and Monsters #6.

BRIEFLY

* DC Comics has unveiled David Finch's cover to Batman: The Dark Knight #2.

Click on the thumbnail for a larger image.

* Image Comics has announced a second printing for the sold-out Guarding the Globe #1. The new printing will be in stores on Sept. 29, the same day as #2.