Tagged: Fantastic Four

Silver Surfer and Fantastic Four in ‘Not Brand Echh’ #1

Silver Surfer and Fantastic Four in ‘Not Brand Echh’ #1

  • News
  • February 8, 2008

Over on the online home of ASIFA-Hollywood, a full, scanned story from the inaugural issue of Marvel’s parody series Not Brand Echh is posted in all of its old-school, self-effacing fun.

The story, titled "The Silver Burper" is a spoof on a Fantastic Four storyline by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby that ran through issues #57-60. ASIFA-Hollywood Director Stephen Worth, who posted the scan, does a good job of summing up the attraction of Not Brand Echh:

Current superhero comics (now referred to self-importantly as "graphic novels") take themselves VERY seriously. It’s rare for a publisher to allow a parody of its own characters… and unheard of for the creator himself to get the opportunity to make fun of his own creation. But back in the silver age of comics, cartoonists didn’t take themselves quite so seriously. Here we have the unthinkable… Jack Kirby and Stan Lee doing a parody of their own Fantastic Four and Silver Surfer comics for Marvel’s Not Brand Echh!

 

(via boingboing)

‘Justice League’ Artist on Film Delays and Silver Surfer Design

‘Justice League’ Artist on Film Delays and Silver Surfer Design

  • News
  • February 6, 2008

Daniel James Cox, a concept artist for the "Justice League" film, recently commented on the project’s delay over on his blog:

It’s unfortunate, but the Writer’s strike has delayed further pre-production on the Justice League movie (i was working on it as a concept artist/illustrator) until later in the year. as a comic fan, i’m happy because the script does need another rewrite. however, the art dept has been doing some amazing artwork, so the team and I will all assemble back at Fox Studios in June/July to pick up where we left off!

While that’s all very interesting, his behind-the-scenes look at the "Fantastic Four 2: Rise of the Silver Surfer" art he created is definitely worth checking out.

 (Hat Tip: C2F)

Roger Corman’s ‘Fantastic Four’ Movie Climax

Roger Corman’s ‘Fantastic Four’ Movie Climax

  • News
  • February 4, 2008

Science-fiction fan site io9 has posted a video clip in their "Found Footage" section featuring the climax of 1994’s live-action "Fantastic Four" film, which Roger Corman produced and Marvel Comics spent heaps of money to hide from the public.

Okay, I’ve never seen the full film, but I’m quite certain its depiction of Ben Grimm, The Thing, will live on in my nightmares. Oh, and check out the animation used in the "Johnny Storm flying off to stop the Destructo Ray" sequence – it’s wonderfully cheesy.

io9 has more on the background of the film’s production, as well as some of its more questionable plot choices (an angry space leprechaun, anyone?):

How did this disaster happen? A German production company owned the rights to make a Fantastic Four movie, but was unable to raise the $40 million it needed before the rights were due to expire. So the company turned to Roger Corman, who said he could make the movie cheap and quick. … At $1.4 million, this movie had a huge budget compared to a usual Corman spectacle. After the film was completed, Marvel paid a few million to suppress it. The team worked in secret to complete post-production on it, but then Marvel ordered all prints destroyed. So it’s a minor miracle that you’re able to suffer through this clip.

 

Rob Liefeld’s 40 worst drawings? You missed a few…

Rob Liefeld’s 40 worst drawings? You missed a few…

  • News
  • December 3, 2007

This list is making the rounds, The 40 Worst Rob Liefeld Drawings, highlighting his particular style of anatomy, perspective, teeth-gritting and shoulder pads. If you can get through to the site, it’s worth a view. However, the compilers missed an entire category of sins. Look below:

The first image is from New Mutants #93, cover date September, 1990, reprinted here. I would normally say that it’s by Rob Liefeld except when you look at the second image, from Fantastic Four #247, by John Byrne back in October 1982, reprinted here— well, it’s not quite Rob’s art, is it now?

If you have other examples of other places where Rob Liefeld has been less than a scrupulous stickler for credit, list it in the comments below and we’ll find the art and post it.

RIC MEYERS: Fantastic Up Creature – Rise of the Surf’s Comforts

RIC MEYERS: Fantastic Up Creature – Rise of the Surf’s Comforts

  • News
  • October 9, 2007

There were rumors to the effect that the first Fox Fantastic Four movie was the victim of studio interference that somehow moved a mid-film confrontation to the climax. But given its success, FF2 would be the full, unadulterated vision of director Tim Story. Right?

Well, with the “Power Cosmic 2-Disc Edition” DVD release of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, it appears those rumors were merely wishful thinking. If you liked #1, you’ll probably be fine with #2, but if, like me, you felt #1 was lacking, you, like me, may find #2 essentially insupportable in terms of comedy, drama, action, and/or romance.

On the one hand, Sue Storm — a.k.a. Invisible Girl a.k.a. Jessica Alba — is given a nice wardrobe, especially her pre-wedding robe. On the other hand, she’s given Cleopatra’s  make-up and has gotten the same disease as Lois Lane in Superman Returns and Mary Jane Watson in Spider-Man 3 – that is, the safety of the world is nothing compared with her bee-otchy, selfish, superficial ego needs.

But what of the special features, which, nominally, this column’s about? If you’ll remember last time, the first film’s DVD was saved by some above average history of comics and the graphic FF. This time just about the only thing that buoys the effort is the  “Sentinel of the Spaceways: Comic Book Origins of the Silver Surfer Documentary.” There’s also some interest inspired by the “Character Design with Spectral Motion Featurette,” but the rest of the many, many extras are self-congratulatory ego-boo fests for a job mediocrely done.

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Summer Box Office Closing Report

Summer Box Office Closing Report

  • News
  • September 5, 2007

The summer is now officially over and our minds are already beginning to turn to… the Christmas movie season.  But first, let’s take stock and see where we are with comic book-based movies.  We have just one left for release this year, the feature version of Steve Niles’ 30 Days of Night, but that’s waiting for the appropriate Halloween period.

Much has been made of the $4 billion summer box office and how it set a new record, until you adjust for inflation and then it doesn’t beat 2002.  Studios say that’s okay, because the hits will also prove strong sellers this holiday season in DVD (regular, HD-DVD, Blu-Ray, collect them all!).  With average ticket prices creeping up to $6.85 (it’s $10.25 in Connecticut, where on earth is it only $6.85?), the receipts have also risen.

Here’s an updated look at the genre films released this year with their total box office to date followed by their budgets. Again, following that logic, 300 remains the clear winner by traditional Hollywood logic.  When all the home video sales get counted next spring, we’ll see if that remains the case.

Ghost Rider, $115,802,596 / $110,000,000

300, $210,250,922 / $65,000,000

TMNT, $42,273,609 / $34,000,000

Spider-Man 3, $336,530,303 / $258,000,000

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, $131,451,007 / $130,000,000

Stardust, August 10, $31,912,000 to date / $70,000,000

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OMNIBUS REVIEW: Giant-Size Steve Ditko

OMNIBUS REVIEW: Giant-Size Steve Ditko

As we await Jonathan Ross’s BBC4 documentary “In Search Of Steve Ditko," I suggest reading Marvel’s Amazing Fantasy Omnibus; it’s one swell way to pass the time.

Sure, Ditko will be remembered forever as the creator and co-creator of Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, and maybe The Creeper and Shade the Changing Man. Jonathan’s documentary will help cement his role as comics’ most famous recluse, and many will continue to regard Steve as a man of principle, even if some disagree with that principle. The Amazing Fantasy Omnibus shows us what the man was up to the day before he co-created the Web-slinger.

In a sense, this hefty (416 page) tome is oddly named. It reprints the entire 15-issue run of… well, a book that was always titled “Amazing” and usually titled “Fantasy,” but was only once called Amazing Fantasy. And that was its last issue. The one that introduced Spider-Man.

Originally titled Amazing Adventures, the book was little more than an addition to Marvel’s dominant monster and mystery line – Tales to Astonish, Journey Into Mystery, Strange Tales, and Tales of Suspense. And like its sister titles, Amazing Adventures offered the efforts of writer/editor Stan Lee and artists Don Heck, Jack Kirby (inked by Dick Ayers) and Paul Reinman – on a series called Doctor Droom, no less. But with issue #7, the book morphed into Amazing ADULT Fantasy (emphasis mine) and it became pure Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. And it became magic.

A month earlier, I would not deign to pick up what we now call a Marvel comic book. I had just turned 11 and I didn’t care for monsters and mystery – at the time – and Patsy and Hedy didn’t do much for me either. At the time. But at the end of August in 1961 out of sheer boredom I picked up the first issue of a superhero-looking book called Fantastic Four, so I was open to their efforts.

But the title confused me. “Amazing ADULT Fantasy”? Would kindly Pharmacist Herman Orlove even sell this comic book to me? It said “The Magazine That Respects Your Intelligence” right there on the cover. Well, I was intelligent. Intelligent enough to hide the issue in the middle of my stack of comics, each and every one priced at 10 cents. Orlove never knew, and my place on his junior league baseball team remained safe.

The art … staggered me. I had seen nothing like Steve Ditko. It wasn’t good, in the sense that Kirby was larger than life and Curt Swan was life itself. But it was perfectly suited for the creepy stories in this comic book. I couldn’t explain it, and I still can’t. But I learned the lesson.

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Mike Wieringo: 1963-2007

Mike Wieringo: 1963-2007

  • News
  • August 13, 2007

Via Warren Ellis and Newsarama: Mike Wieringo, the artist well known for drawing Flash, Robin, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Sensational Spider-Man, Adventures of Superman, Fantastic Four, and the co-creator of Tellos and Impulse, suffered a fatal heart attack on Sunday.

Everybody in the comics industry is shocked and saddened at his sudden passing, including collaborators Peter David and Todd Dezago.

We’ll post more details about services and the like as we get them.

UPDATE 8:57 PM EDT: More kind words from Mark Waid and Karl Kesel.

BOOK REVIEW: The Marvel Vault

BOOK REVIEW: The Marvel Vault

O.K.  I’ve got to admit this: I can’t remember the last time I’ve had so much fun with something I’ve pulled out of my weekly Diamond Distributing box., Betty Boop blow-up dolls notwithstanding.

At first glance, The Marvel Vault might appear to be just another well-designed history book. And who better to write such a tome than master comics writer and former longtime Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas and noted comics historian Peter Sanderson? Well, Roy’s a noted comics historian too, but I’ve got a thing for the "editor-in-chief" title. Whereas there have been somewhat more comprehensive histories of Marvel (more-or-less including "corporate-approved" volumes), everything you need to know to understand and appreciate the publishing house is here, along with a great deal of inside information and well-informed observation that other books are lacking.

Nope. What makes The Marvel Vault amazing fun is the surplus of bells-and-whistles. It’s subtitled "A Museum-in-a-Book with rare collectibles from the World of Marvel" for a reason: it’s got tons of removable reproductions of all kinds of cool stuff produced by Marvel and its predecessor imprints Timely and Atlas over the past 70 years. To name but a few: original sketches of the early 1940s Sub-Mariner and Human Torch by Carl Pfeufer, including work from the history-making 50 page crossover from Human Torch #8; Bil Everett’s illustrated postcards to his daughter; a John Severin color piece denoting himself and fellow Atlas artists Bill Everett and Joe Maneely; the plot synopsis to Fantastic Four #1, a ton Merry Marvel Marching Society stuff; the program book to the 1975 Mighty Marvel Convention, Bernie Wrightson’s Howard The Duck For President art; Marvel Value Stamps from 1974; the Marvel No-Prize Book; a Marvel stock certificate from 1993; Andy Kubert’s Wolverine sketches from Origin… and, as the saying goes, a lot more.

The spiral-bound Marvel Vault was designed by Megan Noller Holt, and she deserves notation and praise. The Marvel Vault makes for a wonderful gift, particularly to yourself. It’s available at comic book stores (either in-stock or by special order), online retailers and better big box outlets. When it comes to being a Marvel fan, if, on a one-to-ten scale, you are anything north a "2" you’ll love this book.

The Marvel Vault, by Roy Thomas and Peter Sanderson
US $49.95, CAN $60.00, UK £29.99
ISBN: 9780762428441
ISBN-10: 0762428449
Published by Running Press

Transformers with a side of Ratatouille

Transformers with a side of Ratatouille

Box Office Mojo’s weekend movie estimates show that Transformers made a whopping $67.6 million, including $22 million on Friday alone. The total gross so far is $152.5 million since Wednesday. Per theater grosses were $16,853, more than double what the next ranked film, Ratatouille, took in.

The Pixar rat did okay, though, with a weekend haul of over $29 mil, and a per-theater gross of $7,367. So far, it’s made more than $109.5 million.

The other top-tenners are Live Free or Die Hard ($17.4 million), License to Wed ($10.4 million), Evan Almighty ($8.4 million), 1408 ($7.14 million), Knocked Up ($5.19 million), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer ($4.15 million), Sicko ($3.65 milion) and Ocean’s Thirteen ($3.525 million).

Knocked Up, which cost abou $30 milion, has earned more than $132 million so far this summer, making it the most profitable non-documentary film on the list so far.

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