Tagged: IDW

‘Locke & Key’ Collected in Hardcover

‘Locke & Key’ Collected in Hardcover

IDW has announced an October 1 release for the hardcover collection of Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft. The book is from novelist Joe Hill who created the miniseries for the publisher and was surprised by its enthusiastic reception. It has since been optioned by Dimension Films.

Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft, written by Hill and illustrated by Gabriel Rodriguez (Clive Barker’s The Great and Secret Show), will include the first six-issue storyline, cover gallery, conceptual sketches by Rodriguez, and an all-new introduction from best-selling mystery novelist Robert Crais (Chasing Darkness). The 152-page book will carry a $24.99 cover price.

Locke & Key tells of the Locke family, who relocate after an unspeakable tragedy to Keyhouse, an unlikely New England mansion, with fantastic doors that transform all who dare to walk through them… and home to a hate-filled and relentless creature that will not rest until it forces open the most terrible door of them all…

The Locke & Key story continues next year as well. Hill and Rodriguez pick up where this story leaves off with the next story in the ongoing saga, January’s Locke & Key: Head Games #1.
 

Camera Phone Zen, by Elayne Riggs

Camera Phone Zen, by Elayne Riggs

After the past two weeks, I think I’m seriously burned out on political chatter for now. And as it’s sort of a “between” time here at the Riggs Residence, with Robin’s DC work all out in shops and his IDW assignment not debuting for two months, I haven’t gotten terribly worked up over comics lately. (It doesn’t help that I have three months’ worth of DC comp boxes yet to read.) I adore September, particularly weather-wise, but I also think we’re in kind of a weird few weeks of stasis, with the baseball playoffs and the new TV season and lots of other things just over the horizon but not quite here yet.

So, what to discuss this week? By the end of last weekend I was still clueless, then Montezuma had a bit of revenge so I’m not feeling as creative as I’d hoped when meeting the Dreaded Deadline Doom. Fortunately, being married to an artist, I’ve learned that when you can’t dazzle ‘em with brilliance or baffle ‘em with bull, you can always point to the pretty pictures!

My friend and Aquaman maven extraordinaire Laura Gjovaag has started a series on her blog called Camera Phone Zen, her take on Jon Stewart’s "moments of zen" from The Daily Show. Up until now I haven’t been big on taking pictures using my phone — heck, as readers may recall I can’t even text, I’m one of those weird 20th century people who uses her telephone for, you know, phone calls. But small as it is, my digital camera still takes up enough room in my hip pack (yes, New Yorker and proud of it, my commuting uniform pretty much consists of work clothes, sneakers and hip pack) that I don’t feel like schlepping it around every day. And once I get the hang of how to actually snap the photo at the right moment, I’ll probably get a lot better with the camphone.

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Let’s Go Raise Us Some Dumb Kids, by Mike Gold

Let’s Go Raise Us Some Dumb Kids, by Mike Gold

Lately, my wife Linda and I have been watching the Maverick reruns on one of the many Starz channels IDW’s owners foists upon our cable system. Maverick was one of the very few live-action teevee shows I enjoyed as a kid, and I’m amazed to discover that it is actually even better than I remembered it. The writing, in particular, was amazing – a standard rarely reached by broadcast television today.

Then Linda noticed something. The show was rated TV-14.

The television ratings system was proposed by Congress 12 years ago, caving in to a bunch of professional busybodies who firmly believe that we, unlike our parents and their parents, are too stupid to raise our own children without their blue-nosed “guidance.” I don’t know if it preceded the V-chip or not and I do not care to look it up: the V-chip allows parents to completely avoid the bother of being involved in their children’s television experience by having a slide of silicon do their thinking for them.

The idea behind the TV-14 rating was not that parents shouldn’t let their kids watch these shows. According to the guidelines, “Programs issued the TV-14 rating are usually unsuitable for children under the age of 14 without the guidance of a parent or guardian.” Please note that last phrase: “without the guidance of a parent or guardian.” Since it has been proven that today’s parents are too lazy or too stupid or too “busy” to provide such guidance, they can fire up their V-chip and let the teevee do all the heavy lifting, thereby denying their children such fine writing and acting on shows from 1957 such as Maverick.

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‘Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe’ Joker: “Want to see a magic trick?”

‘Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe’ Joker: “Want to see a magic trick?”

At the Liepzig Games Convention, Midway had revealed the latest characters to appear in Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe. And is cool as it was to hear that Deathstroke the Terminator will be getting his videogame debut (we’re not counting the animated Teen Titans game), nothing beats game producer Hector Sanchez demonstrating the Joker’s fighting moves for the Game Trailers television show.

Proving once and for all that some DC characters will have finishing moves, the Joker shows how to end a fight with style. See for yourself below. (Warning: It’s rated “M” for a reason.)
 
 

“Mortal Kombat vs. DCU” Adds Wonder Woman and Deathstroke

“Mortal Kombat vs. DCU” Adds Wonder Woman and Deathstroke

JK Parkin over at Blog@ reports that Midway Games has released the identities of two more characters in the upcoming Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe videogame: Wonder Woman and Deathstroke the Terminator. A preliminary rendering of Wonder Woman is available on the site, as well as a rendering of Green Lantern (seen here) and a series of screencaps from the game featuring Green Lantern in battle, as well as other DC characters (including Joker, Superman and Catwoman).

The announcement was made at the Leipzig Games Convention, and along with the DC characters, Midway also announced the return of Mortal Kombat characters Raiden and Kano in the new iteration. The game is scheduled for release this fall. 

Cory Doctorow and DJ Spooky at CBLDF Mashup

Cory Doctorow and DJ Spooky at CBLDF Mashup

While I tend to leave comics-related event promotion in far more capable hands, I couldn’t help but hype this happening that’s kicking off tonight in New York City. Online culture journalist, Internet freedom advocate and BoingBoing.net editor Cory Doctorow (who also happens to have authored IDW’s Futuristic Tales of the Here and Now comic) will be discussing life, the grid and everything with none other than writer/artist/musician Paul Miller (a.k.a. DJ Spooky) with proceeds from the event benefitting the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

For online culture geeks like myself, it’s pretty much a must-see discussion that blends comics, ‘Net culture and entertainment, and it all goes toward a pretty respectable cause.

Here’s the info dump from the the CBLDF website:

Cory Doctorow will read and discuss the issues behind his bestselling young adult novel, Little Brother. Addressing internet and government security, censorship, and civil liberties in a post-9/11 near-future atmosphere, Little Brother tackles timely issues while telling a story that’s smart, funny, and jam-packed-with-pop culture nuggets. Doctorow "hopes it’ll inspire you to use technology to make yourself more free." Doctorow is the former European Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group that works to keep cyberspace free. IDW recently published Cory Doctorow’s Futuristic Tales of the Here and Now a collection of comics based on his cyberpunkiest Sci-fi short stories.

DJ Spooky joins Doctorow to present concepts from Sound Unbound: Sampling Digital Music and Culture, his new book / literary mixtape collecting writing by artists and thinkers including Brian Eno, Jonathan Lethem, Saul Williams, Steve Reich, Moby, Chuck D, and more. "Young artists regard sound as a language they may freely sample to construct new compositions," says DJ Spooky, who, in addition to his own recordings, has collaborated with Ryuichi Sakamoto, Yoko Ono, Kronos Quartet, Kool Keith, Killa Priest from Wu-Tang Clan, and Thurston Moore from Sonic Youth. He also composed and recorded the score for film Slam, starring poet Saul Williams. In 2006, Miller was given access to the vaults of the classic reggae label Trojan Records, producing the compilations In Fine Style, DJ Spooky Presents 50,0000 Volts of Trojan Records!!! and Creation Rebel. Prior to the Trojan works, Miller released Drums of Death, featuring Dave Lombardo of Slayer, Chuck D., & Vernon Reid. He traveled to Antarctica in December 2007 to gather sonic and visual materials for his next large scale work Terra Nova: The Antarctic Suite.

The event begins at 7:30 PM tonight (August 21) at the Helen Mills Theater on 137-139 West 26th Street, NYC. Tickets for this benefit are available now at www.cbldf.org for $20.

If you’re down for the after-party thing, DJ Spooky will also be spinning "a rare small-venue set" at Sutra Lounge on 16 1st Ave at 1st Street. This event benefits the CBLDF, too, and is free if you attend the mashup but will cost you $10 otherwise.

Framing The Question, by John Ostrander

Framing The Question, by John Ostrander

There’s a lot of buzz on the Internet this last week stemming from new Image partner Robert Kirkman’s video-taped manifesto calling for … well, I’m not exactly certain what he called for. A subsequent article/interview on Newsarama said it was “a call to arms for fellow creators to focus solely on their original stories, instead of the licensed work from the big two comic book companies, Marvel and DC.” Although he is also quoted later in the article as saying, “I want everyone to understand, I’m not saying no one should aspire to write for Marvel and DC characters … I’m just saying that it shouldn’t be the pinnacle of a comic book career.”

The article adds: “While Kirkman sees contemporary creators who try to do both creator owned works, and books for the big two, he believes they’re hurting their opportunity to succeed with their original stories.” It then quotes Kirkman further: “You can’t put your feet on both sides of the fence you have to take that plunge … if I’m doing Invincible and I’m also writing Spider-Man, and I’m giving fans a choice to try my unknown book, or Spider-Man who they know, they’re going to choose Spider-Man.”

OR … maybe some of those fans try Invincible because they really like what the writer is doing on Spider-Man. The savvy ones follow the talent – whether it’s the writer or the artist. The majority, however, are reading Spider-Man because it’s Spider-Man and it doesn’t matter if a hundred monkeys are typing it – unless the monkeys do something really dumb with it like use a Mephisto ex machina to get rid of a pesky marriage or bring out a clone or something. Stoopid monkey!

The point is … more readers get exposed to the writer as a result of his work on Spider-Man. A fair question to ask is – did the sales go up on Kirkman’s own creator owned books after he started writing the webby wallcrawler at Marvel? If not, then he had no benefit from doing it. If they have gone up, however, then at least part of the reason will be his stint at Marvel.           

As I understand it, Kirkman wants to re-energize/save the comics’ industry. If all the established talent left DC and Marvel, he thinks the two companies would have to “re-focus the majority of their titles to the teen audience.” The established creators would then work on creator owned books, revitalizing the industry.

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Star Trek Comics Go ‘Round and ‘Round

Star Trek Comics Go ‘Round and ‘Round

According to CBS Consumer Products, the entire Star Trek comic book oeuvre from 1967 through 2002 will be released on a single DVD-ROM disc this September 1st.

The disc, produced by Graphic Imaging Technology, will contain everything published by Gold Key, Marvel, DC, and Malibu. This includes work by Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, Dave Cockrum, Tom Sutton, Mike W. Barr, George Pérez, Tony Isabella, Peter David, Robert Greenberger… pretty close to a Who’s Who of comics creators of the past couple decades.

IDW and ToykoPop are the current Trek comics publishers, but their works are not included on this disc. It will be available at big-box electronics stores and wherever better DVD-ROMs are sold.

 

Oh, by Dennis O’Neil

Oh, by Dennis O’Neil

Sunday, August 17: 155 days left.

Our man the brush clearer is back in Crawford, taking it easy. Having already set a record for presidential vacation days, he’s obviously trying for a record that no future chief executive can possibly hope to break. This may not be how everyone would like to be remembered.

Back when I occupied the celestial throne that is the sinecure of all those noble beings known – here you may genuflect – as editors … make that Editors – this was the time of year when life got calmer. Big travel was done – no trips to distant cities to attend conventions – and the increased summer publishing load completed. We put out fewer issues in the fall because, conventional wisdom had it, the kids were too busy with school concerns to bother with funny books. The same logic dictated that during the summer we cram the newsstands because, presumably, the nation’s youth had nothing better to do with their long, humid days than to laze around getting massive four-color fixes and, besides, since they didn’t have to buy crayons or switchblades or whatever school kids bought, they had disposable income to spend on our productions. Which, of course, was why late spring and early summer demanded industriousness from editorial types. Those printing presses out there in the Midwest were maws…

All that was probably true once. But because the ways comics are marketed, and to some extent read, I doubt that it is true now. But I don’t know. Any editors – working editors, that is – care to enlighten the old man?

The point is, though I was a comics editor at the two major companies for about 23 years… I don’t know. I have a sense that the business has changed a lot in the seven years since I occupied the celestial throne mentioned three paragraphs ago (seven years already?). My skills might be more-or-less okay (though I’m not even sure of that), but my attitudes and assumptions would need work.

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Hey! Where is our ‘Dark Knight’ Video Game?

Hey! Where is our ‘Dark Knight’ Video Game?

Since the birth of Tim Burton’s movie Batman in 1989, there has been a video game tie-in with every incarnation of the Batman film franchise. So why is it that we haven’t seen one for one of the most popular (and profitable) films for the character, if not for comic book films in general? It’s not as if there wasn’t a plan for a digitized Batman during the film’s production. Game publisher Electronic Arts had the rights to make a game for the Dark Knight film, according to an unnamed developer for the EA-owned Pandemic Studios. Speculation says that the lack of a game caused up to $100 million in missing sales, and would be the first time that the caped crusader didn’t have a game.

 
Speculation ranges from missing deadlines to Heath Ledger’s death, and even to the fear of success due to the poor quality of the last tie-in game with Batman Begins. Sales of movie-based games often parallel their box-office brethren. Last year’s Transformers games sold 2.6 million copies while the Spider-Man III games sold 2.1 million, according to sales data from NPD Group market research analyst Anita Frazier. Even the Iron Man games have sold 697,000 units following their release at the same time as the film in May.
 
If a Dark Knight game is still in the works, Batman could take a cue from Superman. Because of delays, the EA console games based on 2006’s Superman Returns didn’t take flight until the DVD release — and only then sold 705,000 copies. However, a Dark Knight game isn’t on EA’s release slate through March 2009, according an EA press release.
 
This is all not to say that there will be a shortage of Batman and his foes in the world of video games. You can catch them all on your console in September for Warner’s Lego Batman: The Video Game, then in November for Midway’s Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe, and finally later this year for Sony’s DC Universe Online.