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San Diego Comic-Con 2008
Your one-stop spot for all the ComicMix coverage of the big show!
San Diego Comic-Con International is officially underway here in Southern California, and ComicMix is on location to bring you everything you need to know -- and some things you might not realize you needed to know -- about the people, places and geekery that make it one of the most feared anticipated events of the year for fans of comics and comics culture.
Be sure to bookmark this page and return for a running tally of our convention coverage, including all of the interviews, audio, video and photo galleries you enjoy here on ComicMix.
Want to meet some of the ComicMix team? Be sure to check out our Meet & Greet Schedule at the ComicMix/Insight Studios Table (Booth #2308). You can also follow all of our updates throughout the show on the official ComicMix Twitter Feed and ComicMix on Friendfeed.
News Articles Featured in San Diego Comic-Con 2008
Fri Jul 25, 2008 — by Van Jensen
SDCC: Radical Making Movie News
Three projects optioned
Comics and movies meet at Comic-Con, and this year Radical appears to be the most forward gal at the dance, so to speak.
The relatively new publishing company announced recently that a film version of its Old West action series Caliber is headed to screens with John Woo attached to direct. In balmy San Diego, they've announced another three series getting development deals.
The company has also made deals for Hercules: The Thracian Wars and the mecha book Freedom Formula. Blog@ notes:
Radical Publishing is introducing the five-issue series this week at Comic-Con, and will release the first issue in August. ...
The comic, created by Edmund Shern, is set in a future in which racing exo-suits have replaced fighter jets. The story centers on Zee, a genetically engineered racer who transforms himself into the hero of a dying city.
Fri Jul 25, 2008 — by Chris Ullrich
SDCC Interview: Producer Gale Anne Hurd Talks 'Punisher: War Zone'
The prolific producer tells us all about the new movie
Producer Gale Anne Hurd has been involved with some of the most successful and exciting sci-fi and action films of all time. From the original Terminator through Aliens, Terminator 2, Armageddon and the recent Hulk, Hurd continues to deliver successful, entertaining and action-packed films over and over again. And her career is showing no signs of slowing down.
Recently, Hurd is readying yet another comic book adaptation for the big screen -- a new new film called Punisher: War Zone which is, of course, based on the very popular Punisher comic. I caught up with Hurd at the San Diego Comic-Con to talk a bit about the new film, its dark, violent nature and why she thought a woman was the perfect choice to direct it.
COMICMIX: Hi Gale, thanks for talking to me. Let's get right to it. Is Punisher: War Zone a sequel, a reboot or. . . ?
GALE ANNE HURD: its a reboot. We wanted to really go back to the origin but this isn't an origin story in the way that we did it with hulk and take the origin of the punisher from the comic and we have that set up in flashbacks. So in the film we have Frank Castle set up on his mission of vengeance to punish the guilty.
iIs very much a MAX series. It's a pedal to the metal, violent, tough hard-core film and it takes place in New York. We knew the heavy-duty fans were disappointed that the earlier film took place in Tampa.
For this movie we wanted to go back to the essence of the character, the locations, the other characters and the world and make it much closer to the comics.
CMix: Was it difficult decision to go back and reboot the franchise? Why did you do it? Did the first film not do well?
Continue reading SDCC Interview: Producer Gale Anne Hurd Talks 'Punisher: War Zone' ›
Fri Jul 25, 2008 — by Karl Cramer
Watchmen Comic Gets Animated on iTunes
Warner Premiere debuts Motion Comics with Watchmen
Creators have been struggling with how to bring comics into the digital age: CD-ROMs, subscription based services like Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited, or for free on the web like ComicMix.
A full-page ad in the most recent issue of Entertainment Weekly magazine gave readers a link to download the premiere episode of Watchmen Motion Comics for free on iTunes. Motion Comics is Warner Premiere’s new videos of comic books animated with full audio.
In many ways, it’s like those old Marvel cartoons where they took comic art and moved mouths and use limited animation to move cut-out pieces of art. But this time, they’re using modern digital manipulation technologies. The effect is weird, but it works. It’s Dave Gibbons’ art, but it’s moving.
Fri Jul 25, 2008 — by Karl Cramer
Go to Comic-Con On Your Xbox
Xbox LIVE takes you to the comic convention from the comfort of your living room.
The best way to experience the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con is to be there. The second best is to constantly refresh ComicMix.com. But the third might be to fire up your game console.
The Xbox 360’s online video service offered excellent coverage of last year’s Comic-Con. Not only did they show footage premiered at the con, they also offered daily wrap-ups, interviews with comic creators, and videos of entire panels. I didn’t fly out to California, but I saw J. Michael Straczynski’s Babylon 5 panel as if I had a front row seat.
To borrow a phrase from one of their upcoming games, this year the coverage will be “bigger, badder, and more bad ass.” Xbox LIVE has partnered with Warner Bros. and DC Comics to show a weekend’s worth of footage. For free! Hosting the events will Larry Hyrb, better known by his Gamertag as Major Nelson, the public face of Xbox LIVE. To start things off right, the service reposted their daily wrap-ups from last year.
Now if they could just figure out how to download a convention T-shirt, I’d be set.
Fri Jul 25, 2008 — by Van Jensen
SDCC: Kevin Spacey Partners With Devil's Due
Triggerstreet looking for new comics talent
Shortly before Comic-Con started, word spread that Devil's Due was bringing a major celebrity mystery guest, who was then shortly revealed to be Kevin Spacey.
Kevin Spacey? The actor? Yep, that guy.
At Comic-Con on Thursday the sort of odd pairing was explained, which ComicMix's Chris Ullrich reports:
Devil's Due partners with triggerstreet.com to find new comics talent and hopefully get them to the big screen
Kevin Spacey (co-founder of triggerstreet.com) said when asked why they were doing this, "Because comics are taking over Hollywood"
Triggerstreet started as a site to allow aspiring filmmakers to upload content for peer review. Now you can upload comics for the same purpose (and to be discovered, I suppose). Here are their uploading guidelines, which were just posted:
* The page size should be 6.875" wide x 10.438" high.
* The page count should be a minimum of 6 and a maximum of 10.
* You may also (optionally) upload an icon / avatar
associated with your Comic. The image should be 85 pixels wide by 100 pixels tall and in GIF or JPG format.
* Your Comic should be uploaded as a .pdf file.
Fri Jul 25, 2008 — by Van Jensen
SDCC: The Marvel Panel
New projects, partnerships announced at Comic-Con
No huge news yet from Marvel in San Diego, but they did reveal a few upcoming projects at Thursday's creator-dominated panel, according to various reports.
CBR's Andy Khouri was there, and listed off the major news:
[Kevin] Grevioux and [Mat] Broome will be coming out with a new title called "Adam: Legend of the Blue Marvel." It's about a black superhero in the late '50s and early '60s, who is the most popular hero in the country -- but he wears a mask to hide his skin color. When he is revealed to the public as a black man, President Kennedy calls the Blue Marvel to the Oval Office and implores the hero to stand down so as to not disrupt the ongoing Civil Rights movement. Blue Marvel agrees and forty years later his greatest villain returns, and Blue Marvel is the only one who can stop him. The miniseries begins in November and runs six issues.
Grek Pak will write "War Machine," a new ongoing series illustrated by Leonardo Manco. The title will replace the outgoing "Iron Man: Agent of SHIELD." "You will soon see the humanity of Jim Rhodes and War Machine. The book will be HARD. CORE. Around the world, tyrants and madmen are committing the worst atrocities imaginable. Jim Rhodes is going to take on the responsibility of taking them on upon his giant rocket-equipped shoulders." The book begins in December.
Garth Ennis return to the Punisher with the weekly "Punisher- War Zone" miniseries. It's six issues and begins in December. It takes place in Ennis & Dillon's Marvel Knights run on "Punisher."
David Mack will adapt Philip K. Dick's "Electric Ant" for Marvel, with Paul Pope providing cover artwork.
Newsarama offered pretty similar coverage of the panel (and coverage of the X-Men panel), and had this note about a possible big cosmic event:
A fan complimented the cosmic books - Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy - and asked if they're going to intermingle with the rest of the Marvel Universe. McCann said there were "really big plans" for Marvel's outer space characters (and not just the ones in the aforementioned two titles), and said more will be revealed at the Secret Invasion panel Saturday.
Fri Jul 25, 2008 — by Arthur Tebbel & Christopher Toia
SDCC: Superman: Man of Tomorrow panel
New Krypton and new directions for the Big Red 'S'
DC Comics ran their first panel of the show on Thursday morning with DC: Superman: Man of Tomorrow. The panel was moderated by editor Matt Idelson and featured writers Geoff Johns, James Robinson, and Sterling Gates along with artists Jamal Igle and Renato Guedes (who was provided with a translator, yet never spoke).
Johns kicked off the panel by asking how many in the crowd were reading Action Comics to a strong, but noticeably short of unanimous, ovation. He then continued to explain that what they’re trying to do right now in the books is to create a cohesive universe for Superman so they can “start telling big excellent stories”.
As an example of a big excellent story Johns went on to explain the upcoming "New Krypton" story arc. Coming out of the current Brainiac story Kandor will be restored to full size on Earth. “100,000 Kryptonians come to Earth and say, cool this is New Krypton, and Superman's like, ‘no it ain't.’” said Johns.
The panel then turned towards the role of Supergirl in the upcoming stories. Gates expressed a desire to turn the book from a "B"-list title to a more marquee title. Igle said of Gates’ first issue, “I was surprised at how good his script was. I had to go back and read it twice.”
Johns went on to discuss the return of Cat Grant to the Superman titles and the relationship between her and Supergirl. He said that one of the first thing she would do is publish an article called “Why the World Doesn’t Need a Supergirl.” It was later revealed that this article would make up the first page of Gates’ run on Supergirl.
Thu Jul 24, 2008 — by Van Jensen
SDCC: What if Grant Morrison Met Stan Lee?
Creators talk Virgin comics
Here's a bizarre bit of "Only in San Diego." Grant Morrison and Stan Lee agreed to partner on a new superhero... Let that soak in.
We'll see if anything comes of the planned partnership, which came about during a panel featuring the two creators at which they discussed their work with Virgin comics. They also talked up some existing work, including Morrison's MBX animated shorts. CBR reports:
After a short delay, the panel kicked off with a quick video -- an electronic press kit prepared by Virgin -- giving a glimpse of Grant Morrison's "MBX." "MBX," a series of animated shorts, will launch online later this year, and the video showed some behind-the-scenes footage of the motion capture technology and even a glimpse of the characters in action. The characters, based on Hindu mythology but re-imagined by Morrison for the 21st century, fought robots on what looked like a post-apocalyptic landscape. With their energy bows and laser whips, the fierce combatants held off the mechanized swarm. ...
Stan Lee, when asked what drew him back to writing comics, said it was "the idea of coming to Virgin and working with new artists on new projects. It's like the early days at Marvel to dream up something brand new. It's exciting and I can't wait to get started."
Then Lee added, "of course -- to compete with someone like this," referring to Morrison, "I wouldn't have been so eager if I had known."
Thu Jul 24, 2008 — by Glenn Hauman
SDCC: Kevin Smith to do Batman miniseries
Featuring the return of Onomatopoeia
From today's DC Nation panel at San Diego, Kai Connolly and Arthur Tebbel send the news that Kevin "Silent Bob" Smith will be doing a Batman five issue miniseries.
Titled "Cacophony", it features the return of the villian Onomatopoeia from Smith's run on Green Arrow, as well as Deadshot, Joker, Mr. Zsasz, and will be drawn by Walt Flanagan. Those familiar with Smith's View Askewniverse will recognize that name as Smith's longtime friend, actor and character in his film, most notably as Walt Grover the Fanboy.
Noting Smith's, shall we say, tardiness on certain comics projects, we've been told that solicitations won't happen until scripts are in hand. Nevertheless, the firstissue is expected out in November.
And with Onomatopoeia as the villian, we can safely assume that somewhere in this Batman story, we will have lots of Pow! Biff! and Sock! action. Just when we thought we were done with all of that...
Thu Jul 24, 2008 — by Van Jensen
SDCC: 'Agents of Atlas' Returns
Jeff Parker brings back funkiest Marvel team
For those who gave Jeff Parker's Agents of Atlas miniseries a shot a couple years ago, it comes as great news out of San Diego that a new ongoing A of A series is on the way.
Parker and editor Mark Pannicia shared some dirt with CBR on the new series which will show up early in 2009.
Paniccia added. "'Weird turn of events' is something readers should get used to with this book. Jeff's got quite a few 'Oh &%$@#!' moments planned."
The "Agents of Atlas" may control a global empire, but their main base of operations is currently under a California city that's quickly becoming a Mecca for Marvel heroes. "At the moment the Agents still work from the underground city below San Francisco. But the surface there just became the home to a lot of nosy mutants!" Parker explained. "So they may find it necessary to relocate soon to function without interference."
Thu Jul 24, 2008 — by Van Jensen
SDCC: Geek Chic Jumps the Shark?
Paris Hilton invades
There are no shortage of reminders of the lack of attention span in today's culture, so it shouldn't come as any surprise that there's already some murmurings that "geek chick" has "jumped the shark." At the very least, those are two phrases that are well beyond cliché.
The Hollywood Reporter gives some thought to the sentiment that this year's massive Comic-Con marks the moment the tide shifts away from all things nerdy, with the ominous mention that -- gasp! -- Paris Hilton is doing San Diego. (No, not the whole city.)
There is talk that despite the high numbers of conventiongoers, or maybe in spite of them, Comic-Con as a measure of geek cool may have reached a tipping point.
Critics are pointing to the scheduled appearances by tabloid mainstays Paris Hilton, who will join Thursday night's panel for Lionsgate's "Repo! The Genetic Opera" as well as host a party, and fellow party girl Kim Kardashian, who is supposed to hit DC Comics' party Friday night before appearing at a "Disaster Movie" panel Saturday. When Comic-Con becomes fodder for the Us Weekly crowd, has the event nuked the fridge? Folks wonder.
"This may be the 2012 of Comic-Cons," said one comic writer-turned-screenwriter, referring to the year on the Mayan calendar that signals the end of the world.
Seriously, one "writer-turned-screenwriter" (whatever the hell that means) made an off the cuff remark and now the comic book renaissance is ending?
Thu Jul 24, 2008 — by Van Jensen
SDCC: BBC America Adds 'Torchwood' Season Three
Science fiction show's return announced at Comic-Con panel
I just got an e-mail from ComicMix's Chris Ullrich, who was sitting in on a panel at Comic-Con regarding the TV show Torchwood.
Chris has an update on the show that's sure to be happy news for fans of Torchwood.
He writes:
I'm at the torchwood panel and they just announced season three was picked up by BBC America. Deal was done today.
As always, stay tuned to ComicMix for news from San Diego.
Thu Jul 24, 2008 — by Van Jensen
Cartoon Network Adapts Image Books
'Firebreather,' 'Mice Templar' and 'The Vanishers' to be toons
One of the cool early pieces of news out of San Diego has been Cartoon Network's development of a trio of Image properties for cartoons.
That would be Mice Templar (created and drawn by Hammer Of The Gods co-creator Mike Avon Oeming with Bryan J.L. Glass), Firebreather, and The Vanishers.
CBR has an interview with Firebreather creator Phil Hester who talked about the upcoming two-hour cartoon and the potential for an animated series.
Both Hester and Kuhn credit film producer Julia Pistor for seeing "Firebreather" through the hazards of Hollywood development to find it a home. "Originally, we were optioned by Paramount, and during that time they didn't really do anything," said Kuhn. When the option was up, it was Pistor who contacted the creators with an offer to help. As a vice-president at Nickelodeon, Pistor has a long history of shepherding successful animation projects. She recognized "Firebreather" as something special.
The executive who had brought "Firebreather" into Paramount had unexpectedly passed away, leaving the project with no champion when the option period had passed. "She said 'this is too good to just let die," Hester explained. "She offered to take it out herself and find a place to set it up."
I can only wonder (and hope) a Perhapanauts cartoon could soon follow, as writer Todd Dezago recently told me there had been some serious interest in that Image book as well.
Thu Jul 24, 2008 — by Mike Raub
ComicMix Radio: Buffy Reunion? Why Not!
Episode #235: We Explore All Things Joss Whedon
It's the first full day of Comic Con '08 and we continue our Broadcasts direct from ComicMix Central on the floor of the show. From the madness, we offer:
- David Gallaher and Steve Ellis from the award winning High Moon webcomic and how they came together to create the Zuda phenomenon
- Marsia Powers, Mistress of Whedonoplis talks About All Things Joss including the solution to a Buffy or Angel reunion.
Go on Press The Button or do we have to stake you?
And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via 
or RSS!
Thu Jul 24, 2008 — by Glenn Hauman
Overheard at San Diego 2008, part 1
Rumors, chatter, and the real low-down
Continuing our award winning wackiness from last year, ComicMix presents the ongoing whispers that you might have missed while you were on line waiting to get in...
On the way to the Dr. Who panel:
"If I see another Stormtrooper, I'm going to drop-kick one."
Luckily, we found one that's just the right size to drop-kick...
Around Entrance A:
"Find The Six? And what the hell is that guy with the 5-3 on his back?"
"Third base to first?"
Comics pro who wishes to remain anonymous:
"Chris Tucker is really upset that all of his scenes as Ebony have been cut out of the Spirit movie."
