Author: Chris Ullrich

ComicMix at WWLA: The Mondo Marvel Panel

ComicMix at WWLA: The Mondo Marvel Panel

  • News
  • March 18, 2008

Wrapping up our coverage of this weekend’s Wizard World LA convention, we have this report from Sunday’s Mondo Marvel panel at the Los Angeles Convention center.

Like the X-Men panel, leading the discussion again this time is Marvel Comics marketing guru Jim McCann. Once things settled down a bit and got organized, he introduced the distinguished panel of Marvel creators including Matt Fraction, Chris Gage, Aubrey Sitterson and Charles Knauf.

Knauf, who is currently co-writing Iron Man: Agent of SHIELD, said of the book, "It’s kind of interesting to write the most hated man in the Marvel Universe. I can’t wait till the movie comes out; it’s going to bring a lot of attention to the book."

Among Knauf’s future plans for the book are the introduction of a new "femme fatale" and an attempt to return Iron Man to his "hero status." He will also be trying to make the book "a little more fun."

"The flaws are what make him so great," chimed in Fraction, who’s also writing an Iron Man title: Invincible Iron Man. Said Fraction: "I’m looking forward to sending Iron Man on a big redemptive arc. He is his own arch-rival. I’m looking forward to grinding him to dust and seeing where he ends up," said Fraction.

Next, McCann turned to Chris Gage who is currently working on Avengers: The Initiative with Dan Slott — which has issue #10 at comic’s shops now. According to Gage, Issue #11 will feature the Mighty Avengers and Gage also said fans of the New Warriors may want to check it out, too, "just in case."

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Interview: Jacen Burrows on Garth Ennis, Warren Ellis and ‘Crossed’

Interview: Jacen Burrows on Garth Ennis, Warren Ellis and ‘Crossed’

  • News
  • March 17, 2008

Artist Jacen Burrows has already had an impressive career in a relatively short amount of time. His talent, bold visual style and penchant for the darker, more sinister aspects of life have already earned him a place collaborating with some of the most popular and successful writers working in comics today.

Some of these writers include Warren Ellis, Garth Ennis and Alan Moore on projects such as Dark Blue, Scars, The Courtyard and 303. More recently, he’s worked on Chronicles of Wormwood with Ennis.

And, just yesterday at Wizard World in LA, it was announced that he’s doing a brand-new project with Ennis called Crossed — described by Avatar Press’ William Christensen as "a story about the worst people can possibly be, as a group of good people attempt to survive in a world of pure evil."

ComicMix caught up with Burrows at Wizard World LA to get some more details on Crossed, his other work with writers like Warren Ellis, what artists he admires and much more.

COMICMIX: Jason, thanks for taking the time to talk with me. Let’s get right into it with a little background. When did you first start drawing?

JACEN BURROWS: I’ve been drawing from the beginning. Three years old I was doing more drawing than anything else. And I think everyone does that. All kids draw but it was just the thing I happened to stick with because everyone would tell me I was good at it so I never stopped. When other kids were outside doing things I was inside working on my drawing. So, its kinda my curse.

CMix: Your parents encouraged you?

JB: Oh yeah, they were like "do what you want" and let me do my thing. Early on I had a tendency to draw the things that were fun to me, like war scenes with tanks and dead bodies.

Teachers would freak out and my mom would come in and tell them I was just being creative. Later, when I had art teachers, they would say it’s all perfectly normal.

CMix: You liked that kind of thing? Monsters, severed heads, etc?

JB: Yeah, I had a nice healthy obsession with drawing monsters, werewolves and things like that. It’s the fun stuff.

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ComicMix at WWLA: The Screenwriter’s Panel

ComicMix at WWLA: The Screenwriter’s Panel

  • News
  • March 16, 2008

Sunday, Day Two at Wizard World in LA and this time around its the Screenwriter’s panel. Moderator Rickey Purdin introduced a distinguished group of successful screenwriters including Mark Verheiden, Carl Ellsworth, John Cox and Zak Penn. With the intros finished, Purdin launched into a short video montage featuring clips from some of the projects the members of the panel had written.

Some of these clips included scenes from The Mask, X-Men 2, Disturbia, Smallville, Red Eye and Battlestar Galactica. Following the clips, Purdin started in on the questions for the panel.

First up, how each of the writers got their various starts in the "business."

Cox started it off saying that, infortunately, he didn’t have a “sexy story" to tell. Instead, like many others, he went to film school with the intention of being a director. However, he soon found out that directing was “too much like working for a living" and decided to switch to screenwriting.

“My story is pretty sexy,” joked Penn. “I was a stripper for a couple of years. It’s a weird job. It was in a female strip club and I was the only guy there, and I stood out.”

"No, I’m joking. Obviously," he continued. "Actually, I got really lucky and wrote Last Action Hero pretty much right out of college and then sold it pretty fast. So that was it for me."

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ComicMix at WWLA: The X-Men Panel

ComicMix at WWLA: The X-Men Panel

  • News
  • March 16, 2008

Day Two at Wizard World LA and this time around it’s the X-Men Panel, hosted by Marvel Marketing Honcho Jim McCann. Featured on the panel are X-Force co-writers and "life partners" Chris Yost and Craig Kyle, as well as Matt Fraction, Marvel editor Aubrey Sitterson and X-Factor writer Peter David. Young X-Men writer Marc Guggenheim ran a bit late but managed to phone in and confirm, via speakerphone, that he would be arriving shortly.

And so, with introductions over, McCann went right into the announcements and the slideshow.

The first slide showed three of the "Divided We Stand" titles which include X-Force, Cable and X-Men Legacy. Seeing the slide, McCann jokingly referred to Cable as "Two men, two natural arms, and a baby."

Sitterson then chimed in and talked about X-Men: Legacy, saying "There is a nostalgic aspect to it, but it’s also a story picking up directly from ‘Messiah Complex.’" He continued: "X-Men Legacy picks up what’s going on with Professor X after he takes a bullet to the brain. We’re checking in with these giants of the Marvel mutant universe. Gambit will be among those that show up in the series."

Next, McCann let the audience know about the current story arc of Uncanny X-Men — particularly why everyone seems to be heading for San Francisco. "The San Francisco stuff is not just for fun, this is definitely leading up to something," he said. ‘It all makes sense what Brubaker is doing." 

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David Fincher Onboard for New ‘Heavy Metal’

David Fincher Onboard for New ‘Heavy Metal’

  • News
  • March 15, 2008

According to Variety, director David Fincher, whose credits include some of the most visually innovative and interesting films of the last 20 years (Fight Club, Zodiac and Se7en), has signed on to direct a segment of Paramount’s updated and re-imagined version of the cult-classic Heavy Metal.

The new film is inspired, as was the earlier ’80s version, by the erotic and violent magazine of the same name, which first came to our shores in 1977 and billed itself as "The Adult Illustrated Fantasy Magazine." It will consist of eight or nine individual animated segments, each helmed by a different director.

In addtion to Fincher, some of the other directors taking on segments include Kevin Eastman, of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fame, and effects specialist Tim Miller, whose Blur Studios will handle the new feature’s animation. Fincher, Miller and Eastman will also produce the film which, according to Variety, was conceived from the outset as an adult-oriented, R-Rated project.

As I mentioned previously, in addtion to Heavy Metal, Fincher is a busy man, having just completed The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, again starring Brad Pitt, and developing a film based on the Charles Burns graphic novel Black Hole. He’s also working on several other projects including The Devil in the White City, The Killer and Torso — which is based on the Brian Bendis graphic novel. 

ComicMix at WWLA: The DC Nation Panel

ComicMix at WWLA: The DC Nation Panel

  • News
  • March 15, 2008

Day one at Wizard World LA and we’re in the Mike Wieringo room for the DC Nation Panel featuring DC Comics Executive Editor Dan DiDio, VP of Sales Bob Wayne and writer Adam Beechen.

Getting right to it, DiDio introduced the other members of the panel and then, as is his style at events like these, launched right into the Q&A, taking question from the eager fans in attendance.

First question out of the gate was about the "New Gods" and their story. Specifically, the fan wanted to know about their deaths.

To answer, DiDio explained that the stories originally created by Jack Kirby during his DC period were great but subsequently some of the later writers were trying to hard to honor his creations and execute what they thought Kirby would want.

Consequently, according to DiDio, "the Fourth World and the DCU never really fit together harmoniously."

"And now you’re killing the New Gods off?" another fan chimed in.

"Yes, but they’ll get better," DiDio answered. "Death of the New Gods is about closure to that story."

Pushing further on the Fourth World questions, another fan asked about Batman’s potential involvement, citing rumors on the Internet to that effect.

"You can’t react to rumors," answered DiDio. "They’re often misinterpretations of information or personal agendas. The rumor involving Batman is a silly idea."

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Dark Horse and Universal Announce Production Deal

Dark Horse and Universal Announce Production Deal

  • News
  • March 15, 2008

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Universal Pictures and Dark Horse Entertainment today announced an exclusive production and distribution agreement which effectively makes Universal the new home for all of Dark Horse’s film, television and comics properties for the next three years.

Specifically, this deal gives Universal the rights to all of the properties currently held by Dark Horse as well as anything that the company may want to aquire or develop in the future. It’s not a one-way street, however, as Dark Horse is able to tap into Universal’s vast financial and development resources to develop, finance and distribute projects of its own.

Of course, many of Dark Horse’s properties have already been made into films including The Mask, Barb Wire, Timecop and Mystery Men. In addition, Universal is currently behind the latest Dark Horse comic book project: Hellboy 2: The Golden Army.

Given this new deal one wonders if we might end up seeing feature film version of some of the most popular Dark Horse titles like Angel: After the Fall or or even Buffy: Season Eight? As a fan of both of those comics, I hope so.

Full ‘Incredible Hulk’ Trailer Hits the ‘Net

Full ‘Incredible Hulk’ Trailer Hits the ‘Net

  • News
  • March 13, 2008

I first brought you word of the upcoming trailer for the new Incredible Hulk movie last week when it was originally announced. Then yesterday, there was a sneak-peek available that showed some great bits from it to whet your appetite for the release of the full trailer.

And now, the wait is over and the actual full trailer is finally here and posted over at MTV’s website.

I won’t say more about the new trailer except that if the movie turns out half as good as the trailer looks, its gonna be a really fun ride. Check it out below or at MTV’s website if you want to see it in High-Def.
 

Marvel Comics Unveils ‘Secret Invasion’ Covers

Marvel Comics Unveils ‘Secret Invasion’ Covers

  • News
  • March 12, 2008

Even with all the hype and recent discussion of Marvel’s grammar skills, like it or not, the "Secret Invasion" is coming from Marvel Comics. Another example of this inevitable occurrence was revealed today by Marvel with the release of cover art for the first issue of the Secret Invasion comic book series.

However, Marvel didn’t just release one cover by artist Gabrielle Dell’Otto, featuring some of Marvel’s heroes who may or may not be Skrulls, they also unveiled two pretty-cool variant covers for the first issue as well. One of the variants, by Civil War veteran artist Steve McNiven, features some of your favorite Marvel heroes being squeezed by the claws of a giant Skrull.

The other variant cover is by series penciler Leinil Yu and showcases Captain America, Spider-Man, Thor and other heroes standing in defiance of the invasion and ready to kick some Skrull butt.

Check out larger pics of all three covers after the jump.

Secret Invasion #1, written by Brian Michael Bendis with art by Leinil Yu, is set to hit your local comic shop on April 2nd.

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Exclusive ‘Lost Boys 2: The Tribe’ Trailer Released

Exclusive ‘Lost Boys 2: The Tribe’ Trailer Released

  • News
  • March 12, 2008

Previously, I brought you the first pic and an interview about the upcoming direct-to-DVD sequel to one of the cult-favorite films of the ’80s: The Lost Boys. And now over at MTV, they’ve released the exclusive new trailer for the sequel, known as Lost Boys 2: The Tribe, for your viewing pleasure.

And as if that wasn’t enough, along with the trailer they’ve also got an interview with Edgar Frog himself, Corey Feldman, where he discusses, among other things, the new film’s story, its characters and how the sequel fits in with the original timeline. He also talks about how his character has evolved since the first film and how important it was for the sequel to stay true to the original and not disappoint hardcore fans.

Finally, he reveals that Corey Haim is, in fact, in the new movie and talks a bit about their strained relationship. The trailer itself features what you would expect from a movie like this: action, motorcycles, attractive young people in danger, blood, gore and vampires, vampires, vampires. Surprisingly, after watching it a couple times, the movie doesn’t seem as cheesy as I thought it would. In fact, it looks pretty good.

Lost Boys 2: The Tribe hits DVD store shelves in July.

 

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