If you can’t wait two weeks for Thor, starring Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman, we have a surprise for you. This is the post credit sequence at the end of the movie– the quality isn’t great and we’re looking for a better one, but you can figure out a whole lot.
Seriously, we aren’t kidding: if you don’t want to see what happens in this sequence, don’t view it, as it gives clues that lead us up to Marvel’s upcoming films Captain America: The First Avenger and The Avengers.
In a move that surprises absolutely no one, Marvel Entertainment has announced Captain America #1, the first issue of an all new ongoing series premiering in July from writer Ed Brubaker (Death of Captain America) and artist Steve McNiven (Civil War) just in time for the release of the new Captain America movie starring Chris Evans, Sebastian Stan, Tommy Lee Jones, and Hugo Weaving.
Steve Rogers is back as Captain America but when a mysterious figure from his past returns with the Sentinel of Liberty in his crosshairs, deadly secrets will surface—and send shockwaves through the lives of everyone Steve holds dear. An all-new, high octane Captain America series begins here, just in time for the First Avenger’s highly anticipated feature film from Marvel Studios.
Loyal and even semi-conscious comics fans know that Captain America’s arch-nemesis (love that phrase) the Red Skull was a big-time Nazi in the 1940s. The next decade, he was a Commie, proving you don’t have to be a Republican to conflate the two extreme opposites. In the 1960s – and ever since – he’s worked with (more or less) lots of organizations but was always in it for himself.
The movie Red Skull is a bit more confusing.
Entertainment Weekly released the above photo of Hugo Weaving as the Red Skull (a.k.a. Johann Schmidt) in this summer’s Captain America: The First Avenger, an origin story largely set in World War II. But if you take a close look at that belt buckle he’s wearing, it appears that at some point in the movie Skully gets… Hydrated.
Unless the shot is actually from the 2012 Avengers movie.
Did you ever wonder who might be Johnny Depp’s favorite super-hero? Probably not, but I’ll bet you can figure it out.
Yep. You guessed it. Johnny Depp’s favorite super-hero is Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner. Of course, Namor isn’t quite a super-hero, having been bridging the gap between hero and menace for 71 years. Which is why I’m not surprised he’s Depp’s favorite.
Now, let’s not go nuts here. Depp is not suggesting he’s going to play Namor in the Avengers movie or some other place, and he’s not even suggesting wants to play the part. Right now he’s in the middle of at least four movies, including the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean and the new Dark Shadows movie, where he plays Barnabas Collins.
Depp was a real Marvel Comics fan, showing preference for both Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four… although he didn’t care for Captain America, and this was long before we ever heard of Al Qaeda. Depp also liked Sgt. Rock. Depp told Hero Complex “The Sub-Mariner was the alternative one. The alt-superhero. He was the sort of Bohemian comic book. I like that.”
I know I said there was no movie involved, but if Depp were to give Subbie a go, maybe they could get Joaquin Phoenix to play the Human Torch.
OK, So I’m not likely to get much sympathy about the “hard work” bit, but Toy Fair is an overwhelming experience at which toy manufacturers will show off their wares for retailers, wholesalers, and the press from around the world. Anything and everything from yo-yos to high ticket collectibles and everything in between. But on to the fun stuff.
The venerable cartoon “Thundercats” is getting a reboot soon, and Bandai showed off a complete line of 4″ figures. They also had 8″ figures done of classic “Lion-O” and “Tygra.” Take a look at the difference between new and classic “Lion-O” (again – keep in mind that the Classic figure is really twice the size of the New one).
The 4″ figures have a magnet embedded in their backs that activate features in other playsets & accessories. Of course, if you want Snarf, ya gotta get the ThunderTank. Ain’t that always the case?
Bill Gladman, a writer/artist has been involved with comics most of his life. He recently helped form a local comics studio, Twilight Star Productions and last year they released twelve titles in their first year. Bill also ventured into the world of pulps for the first time ever when he contributed a story to RAVENWOOD – Stepson of Mystery from Airship 27 Productions. We caught up with this fellow in his home town of Springfield, Ohio and sat down to talk about his new pulp writing career.
AP – Bill, thanks for joining us today. Give us a short bio of yourself, age, where you were born, schooling, family etc.
BG –Born in Marysville, Ohio. About a half hour drive north of Springfield. In true dynamic fashion. In a middle of a thunderstorm, two minutes before midnight July 25th 1967, making me 44 years old this summer.
As far as schooling goes it seems I’ve learned all the important stuff by accident. I did graduate from Springfield North High School in 1985. I also went to Springfield Joint Vocational School during my junior and senior years of high school where I studied commercial art and girls. Unfortunately I didn’t get a certificate in art because I missed way too many days my senior year. I was sure the garage band I was in at the time was going to be world famous in six months and rock stars were too cool to go to school, right?
Currently married to my second wife and love of my life 13 years this April….between us and our previous marriages we have four kids and five grand kids.
AP – How old were you when you first became a comic book fan. What was the attraction?
BG – I was seven years old. My grandmother bought me a copy of Avengers #145 at the gift shop at one of the local hospitals. We were visiting my grandfather who had suffered the first of many strokes that would eventually claim his life a few years later and she wanted to keep my mind off things at the time so she bought me that comic. It all started then and there, so my grandmother gets all the credit, or blame. Depends on how you look at it I guess.
AP – Marvel or DC? Who was your favorite comic book superhero and why?
BG –Captain America. He’s the guy for me…..guess he always has been. He played a large role in that first Avengers story and although over the years when asked this question I may have said something along the lines of Daredevil or Batman, maybe even Dr. Strange…truthfully I guess it would really have to be Cap. The amount of Captain America comics in my collection would seem to only cement that train of thought.
AP – How did you come to write a Ravenwood story? Had you ever heard of the character before?
BG – I never heard of the character at all. I ran across a post on the Comic Related website made by Ron Fortier in which he was attempting to recruit fresh blood to write pulp stories for Airship 27. I’d never wrote a pulp story before, and never really read any either but I thought it would be a nice creative challenge so I e-mailed Ron to let him know I was interested. He sent me a list of characters that was available and that Airship 27 was interested in publishing stories about. Ravenwood was one of about three characters that seemed to appeal to me and the ball got rolling from there.
AP – What’s the name of your story in the Ravenwood collection? What appealed to you about this particular pulp hero?
BG –“When Death Calls”. After I received more background information about Ravenwood I felt there were elements of Dr. Strange, Bruce Wayne (both personas of that character), and Tony Stark (Iron Man) in the Ravenwood character. That allowed me to have a safety net of sorts. Plus there was just enough background info to get me interested in the character but I wasn’t smothered with details. There was a lot of room for me to breath as writer with this character.
AP – Was writing pulp easier or harder than your comics work? Elaborate, please.
BG –It was actually easier for me. It was exciting, new, and fresh. It was a great experience for me. I’m a big history buff as well so I enjoyed the research aspects of the story as well….what was the most popular film of 1938…how much did a pack of cigarettes cost 73 years ago. That type of thing. And I’m a very wordy writer. This story allowed me to express myself in a way that writing comics do not. I get grief from the artists I work with all the time about the amount of dialog in my stories. And in the end I still went over the word count for the story requirement. Go figure. Needles to say a good portion of it ended up on the editing floor.
AP – There seems to be a real renaissance of pulps today in both prose, comics and movies. Why do you think that is?
BG –I think it’s a couple of things, and this is just the opinion of some hack in Ohio so bare with me.
I think that pulps in prose and comic formats and hopefully film caters to the mature reading audience that actually collect comics and go to the movies. They’re action packed, entertaining, suspenseful, and fun. Mature doesn’t have to mean sex and violence. Mature can mean, wow that story made me think and I liked that.
Also I think the escape level in the pulp stuff is higher than your super-hero comics or horror comics. The time period that these stories take part in for the most part was less complicated and negative. At the same time the fiction is a little more realistic. I mean nobody is finding a baby from another planet in a rocket ship in a Ravenwood story.
AP – Will you ever do another Ravenwood story?
BG –Oh yeah. I loved working with this character and the cast of characters involved with this story. I already have ideas for a second and a third story.
AP – Is there any other pulp character you’d like to write some day?
BG –Possibly. I’m quite content writing Ravenwood for now but one of the other choices that appealed to me at first was Moon Man. He sounded like a fun character to write.
AP – Finally, what’s on the horizon for Bill Gladman and Twilight Star Productions?
BG –At times there’s so much stuff going on at Twilight Star Studios I can’t see the horizon! Seriously this studio has been very productive and although I have been involved in several different studios in the past there has not been an experience like this. One a personal note I’ll be involved with several of our books including Tales From The ‘Field which is our flag ship title and an anthology comic. I usually write short stories and even sometimes ink other short stories for this title. I write short stories for our horror anthology series Pandemonium Spotlight, write and draw Prodigy an on-going cosmic super hero tale, write and draw Jack the Rabbit an action/adventure/fantasy limited series. I also write and ink the Un-Naturals and recently co-wrote Hero Of The Day featuring the character Hero Montgomery created by a good friend of mine (Chad Strohl) as well as act as Executive Editor on all of our books. I also plan to re-release my first novel The Book Of Noheim through the studio. More novels will follow.
I also write two weekly web comics for the Comic Related web site (New Comic Day and Price For The Asking-with Ron Fortier) there is a third web comic about to launch on that site as well (The Bumtastic Four) I can also be found every other Monday co-hosting the RaynMan Power Podcast on that same site with Frank Raynor.
I have comic projects in the work with Penny Dreadful Press and Studio Akumakaze and a few other bigger companies which I’m not “allowed” to talk about at the moment.
AP – This has been fun and informative, Bill. Thanks and good luck with all your many projects.
BG –Thank you! It was a blast!!! Hope I didn’t bore you to death!!!
Now that we’ve taken a look back at the year – and boy oh boy, was that an interesting year – we can now look over the rainbow at what’s coming down the pike. Intelligent theories meet best guesses with a dash of wild-eyed visions; crystal ball, there’s so many things I gotta know… what’s coming in the New Year?
We’ve seen what the growth figures have been like for electronic reading, and now we can say there is no sign of slowing down. An estimated 70 different types of e-readers are expected to be on display at the Consumer Electronics Show later this month, and rumors have it that Apple is looking to purchase 65 million screens for iPads in the coming year, where book reading platforms are in the top 5 and two comics reading apps are in the top 20.
With the departure of Paul Levitz, Karen Berger is now the longest serving editorial employee at DC. But she’s on the other end of the country from where the action seems to be moving, and her sales figures haven’t been super-inspiring. Yes, Sandman moves lots of trade paperbacks a year– but what has she done for them lately? How many Big Events can they shove into the ever-narrowing pipeline? What if Green Lantern bombs? How do these new kids on the block respond? More THUNDER Agents? We will be told Wonder Woman is being given a bold new direction by a
new writer. This time the jacket will have fringe on it. The
DCU will get a few steps closer to being right back in the silver age.
Kyle Rayner and Wally West should buy some plots next to Ryan Choi any
day now.
How many Thor miniseries came out last year, in preparation for trade collection in time for the movie release? How about Captain America minis? Will the Spider-Man musical take flight – or will somebody get killed? Spider-Man himself will not die. Marvel’s Fear Itself will tie into Phobos being angry that daddy Ares was killed during Siege. The Avengers line-up will change and a new Avengers title will rise. Then, towards the end of 2011, we’ll have more Avengers mini-series than Richie Rich has tax shelters.
And then there’s the sword of Damocles hanging over the entire print industry. Steve Geppi’s financial problems are still touchy, not noticed as much because everybody’s had a softer year than most. Right now, we get the impression that Diamond’s treading water and has been able to refinance any cash flow problems, but shutting down their West Coast warehouse has to worry some folks about their future viability. But the real problem is with the Borders Book Chain: they closed the year not paying its creditors and returning tons of warehoused product. Sadly, Barnes and Noble and Books-A-Million aren’t doing all that much better.
The Green Lantern movie will be better than Spider-Man Turn On The Dark… we think. The Green Hornet movie will not. Please, please, please prove us wrong.
Beware the FINAL PICKLE. It’s coming.
Dr. Mid-Nite, Dr. Doom, Dr. Who, and Dr. Strange will start a competing talk show to take on the syndicated The Doctors. The show will however fail when Dr. Doom’s “Top Ten Super Health Tips for 2011” begin with SUCCUMB TO DOOM’S WILL!
The JLA line-up will change and spin-off into a new title, and no one will buy that book either. DC will quickly reconsider their no-crossover policy to jump on the Avengers bandwagon. Marvel will laugh.
Reed Dies. Sue Dies. Johnny Dies. Ben Dies. Franklin Dies. …. H.E.R.B.I.E. Dies. His parts will be distributed at random in the “final” bagged edition of Fantastic Four.
With the entire Disney Animated Universe being milked dry by BOOM! (and, increasingly Disney-owned Marvel),
look out for Avatar’s cleaning of the wonderful world of DiC.
Odin will return from the dead in a very angry state of mind. And a new pair of glasses.
Stan Lee’s characters for BOOM! will be forgotten by the summer, but don’t worry… Striperella will hit the shelves in the fall. And get ready to forget Stan’s new Archie titles!
The Walking Dead series will end with a unique twist: It was all a dream. Then Tom Welling shows up.
Marvel’s relaunching of the CrossGen Line will prove once and for all there was a good reason CrossGen went out of business.
Robert Kirkman will release only 17 new IP’s for Image.
And the surprise of the year: that Aunt May is going to outlive Miss Grundy.
How about you? What does your magic 8-ball reveal?
(Marc Alan Fishman, Mike Gold, Glenn Hauman, and Alan Kistler contributed to this piece.)
