Warner Home Video picked the wrong day to tell eager comic book fans about Young Justice being released on DVD since the fun news was eclipsed by the Star wars on Blu-ray announcement. Still, the excellent series, airing on the Cartoon Network, will have volume one of the debut season available in mid-July. The following is the complete press release:
BURBANK, CA (May 4, 2011) – The newest Warner Bros. Animation–produced hit series on Cartoon Network finally arrives on DVD as Warner Home Video (WHV) unleashes its secret weapon with Young Justice Season 1 Volume 1. These DC Universe teenage super heroes have quickly proven to be a hit as the favorite show among boys 9-14. With non-stop action, Young Justice Season 1 Volume 1 comes to DVD for the first time on July 19, 2011.
In Young Justice, being a teenager means proving yourself over and over — to peers, parents, teachers, mentors and, ultimately, to yourself. But what if you’re not just a normal teenager? What if you’re a teenage super hero? How much harder will it be to prove yourself in a world of super powers, super villains and super secrets? Are you ready to come of age in such a world? Are you ready for life or death rites of passage? Are you ready to join the ranks of the great heroes and prove you’re worthy of the Justice League? That’s exactly what the members of Young Justice — Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash, Superboy, Miss Martian and Artemis — will find out: whether they have what it takes to be a proven hero. (more…)
The voice cast has been revealed for the animated version of Frank Miller’s [[[Batman: Year One]]], which premieres in July at the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con. Heat Vision reports that Ben McKenzie (The O.C.) will provide the voice of Bruce Wayne/Batman, with [[[Breaking Bad]]] star Bryan Cranston portraying Lt. James Gordon. Katee Sackhoff ([[[Battlestar Galactica]]]) is voicing Detective Sarah Essen, and Eliza Dushku ([[[Dollhouse]]]) will voice Selina Kyle/Catwoman, and Alex Rocco (Moe Greene from The Godfather) will be the voice of Carmine Falcone.
Tab Murphy ([[[Superman/Batman:Apocalypse]]]) adapted the script, and Sam Liu and Lauren Montgomery ([[[Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths]]]) are directing. Miller’s original novel lends itself nicely to a film adaptation, and large hunks of the story were used in Christopher Nolan’s [[[Batman Begins]]]. Executive producer Bruce Timm points out:
“The source material is surprisingly cinematic; it’s a pretty straight forward literal retelling. [David] Mazzucchelli’s artwork is beautifully composed and we were able to refer to the comic for about 80 percent of the camera setups.”
Miller’s Year One storyline– along with Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, which is also being adapted into an animated version– were both pivotal in restoring a dark and gritty style to the Caped Crusader.
To refresh your memory on Miller’s original 1987 four-issue story arc, “Batman: Year One”:
A young Bruce Wayne spent his adolescence and early adulthood traveling the world so he could hone his body and mind into the perfect fighting and investigative machine. But now as he returns to Gotham City, he must find a way to focus his passion and bring justice to his city.
Retracing Batman’s first attempts to fight injustice as a costumed vigilante, we watch as he chooses the guise of a giant bat, creates an early bond with a young Lieutenant James Gordon, inadvertently plays a role in the birth of Catwoman, and helps to bring down a corrupt political system that infests Gotham.
Batman: Year One comes out on Blu-ray and DVD on September 27th.
We’ve received all the covers for DC Comics July solicitations, including the long awaited Games, the New Teen Titans graphic novel from Marv Wolfman and George Pérez. And when I say long awaited, I mean two decades long– which kinda ties in with all the DC Retroactive titles coming out, including our favorite, Green Lantern reuniting the team of ComicMix contributors Dennis O’Neil and Mike Grell.
As we wind up our coverage of SUCKER PUNCH, director Zack Snyder talks about his directing style and why he chose not to jump on the 3-D Bandwagon. Plus no MADMEN until when and that WONDER WOMAN costume is a lot better!
Mad about no MAD MEN until 2012?? Drop us a comment below!
In a startling move to control images of their copyrighted characters, lawyers for Warner Bros Entertainment, parent company of DC Comics, have begun issuing cease and desist orders to fans sporting tattoos featuring DC characters. While walking the floor of last month’s C2E2 in Chicago, several fans were handed official looking documents citing that they were in violation of DC’s copyrights– over their tattoos.
“It is unlicensed artwork. And like any bootlegged material we are going to come down against it. We see it as no different from t-shirt or other paraphernalia” said one of the WB lawyers.
Many comic book conventions, including ReedExpo’s New York Comic Con and C2E2, feature tattoo pavilions showcasing tattooists and their art. Wizard’s Chicago Comic Con has also welcomed tattoo artists onto their floor, encouraging fans to show off their ink or get some at the show.
“I guess I’ll have to wear long-sleeved shirts when I go to cons now” said one fan after getting a c & d order. He is close to finishing a Justice League themed sleeve on his left arm. “I’m not going to stop or get it covered up. It’s how I chose to express myself as a fan!”
This comes at a time when tattoos have become almost accepted in mainstream culture and as comic book movies are big budget blockbusters. And it looks like Warner Brothers has spotted a money making opportunity.
“We will be unveiling a line of official DC Comics Tattoos at this year’s San Diego Comic Con. Tattoo shop owners will be able to purchase these pages of tattoo flash for their shops and offer their clientele officially licensed DC Comics artwork.
Wonder Woman has been through a lot lately. J. Michael Straczynski — the writer best known for the universally-beloved Spider-Man: One More Day — signed on in the last half of 2010 for a storyline that completely revamped the Amazon princess’ origins. But after the success of Superman: Earth One, the original graphic novel that saw JMS completely break out of his comfort zone by revamping the Last Son of Krypton’s origins, he decided to focus on the sequel and leave Wonder Woman to Phil Hester. But now Hester is leaving, too, unable to resist the temptation of working on the hotly-anticipated 2012 relaunch of Marville for the other guys.
But Diana of Themyscira is in good hands with Dave Sim, the self-publishing legend and creative force behind the eight million-page Cerebus the Aardvark saga, writing and drawing her monthly adventures starting with April’s issue #401. And if that weren’t enough, cartoonist Scott Adams of Dilbert fame, who recently rose to prominence with some enlightened treatises on the feminist movement, will be providing eight-page “Tales Of Diana” backups.
Details are still scarce, but early word has it that Sim will keep with the “Odyssey” timeline established by JMS and Hester in his feature stories. The younger, angrier Princess Diana will meet this timeline’s version of Steve Trevor, an ex-Air Force pilot who quit when he realized that society wasn’t advanced far enough to deserve his servitude.
Under Sim’s guidance, Trevor is expected to teach Diana to embrace the aspects of womanhood she has ignored for so long – namely, submission to the powerful men around her. On Justice League missions, Diana will choose to stand back in the face Superman and Batman’s leadership, deferring to their wisdom. Unfortunately, Wonder Woman cannot be a “normal” woman. It becomes clear the joys of femininity must remain unknown to her, as her repressed aggression manifests into a demon that the men around her have to defeat alone.
As for the Scott Adams backup stories, the Dilbert scribe is aiming for humor over dramatics, as you might expect. Wonder Woman attempts to find Mr. Right in New York City while defeating a slew of villains who roll over and turn themselves into the police rather than fight her. Over the course of his six issues, you can expect to see Adams address such hot-button topics as premenstrual syndrome, shoe shopping, and cubicle life. David E. Kelley has reportedly seen the scripts early and may integrate elements into the new TV series.
Here at ComicMix, we’re very excited to see what may well be the most empowering and popular take on a female superhero since Frank Miller’s All-Star Batman and Robin The Boy Wonder.
Lex Luthor, evil genius and president of the DC Universe, spoke today on his plans for Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, the Justice League, and of course, Superman…
…our mistake. This is actually Jeff Robinov, evil genius and president of the Warner Bros. motion picture group, which owns the DC Universe, who spoke today with the Los Angeles Times on his plans for Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, the Justice League, and of course, Superman…
The first priority for the man with the ultimate say on what films get made at Warner Bros.: Finally getting the Justice League, DC’s team featuring all its top characters, on the big screen in 2013. The picture had been very close to production in late 2007 and early 2008, but was killed by the Writers Guild of America strike, tax credit issues in Australia, and concerns by some at Warner about presenting a competing (and conflicting) version of Batman while director Christopher Nolan’s films were breaking box office records.
But Robinov said a new Justice League script is in the works. Also being written for Warner are scripts featuring the Flash and Wonder Woman, who could be spun off into their own movies after Justice League.
We apologize for the confusion. And we suddenly understand why no one is talking about having Luthor in the next Superman film.
AP: Van, it’s good to have you in the interviewee’s seat at ALL PULP again! In your view, are superhero comics a linear descendant of pulp adventure magazines, or do they represent different evolutionary tracks?
Van: Same genus, different species, maybe?I think that a lot of the comics writers that came along and made superheroes (and superhero comics) big again in the 1960s and beyond would have been pulp adventure writers if they had been born a few years earlier.The two have similar appeal, and (for the most part) similar audiences, but maybe slightly different flavors. And I also think comics have been able to go into a lot of different areas that the pulps weren’t, such as the whole “cosmic” phenomenon of guys like Kirby and Starlin and now Abnett and Lanning.With a few notable exceptions, pulps tended to be more grounded in the real world, or in history, for the most part.
AP: Your affection for Marvel’s Avengers series is well known, and your own “Sentinels” series features a super-team. What is it about the team dynamic that appeals to you, both as a fan and as a writer? What are your thoughts on other teams, like DC’s Justice league or even Doc Savage’s Fabulous Five?
I like big casts.I like lots of different characters rotating in and out of a story.You tend to get the potential for lots of fireworks that way.Of course, it’s nice to have a well-defined set of “core characters”– the few that pretty much always hang around the Mansion or the Satellite or Hall of Justice or what-have-you.But beyond that core, it’s neat to see how other, diverse individuals interact with them–and with each other.How will Character X get along with… the android?the mutant witch?the Amazon?the dark loner?the god?
As a writer, a big cast gives you a lot to work with, in terms of various powers as well as various personalities.And it’s simply not as boring.Get tired of writing the acrobat guy? Focus on the super-scientist or the armored guy or the radioactive lady–or bring in someone new.
There’s plenty to appreciate about the Justice League, but–at least for me– the DC characters have always worked better individually than as a team.They just don’t fit together well, at least for me.I’d make an exception for the Legion of Super-Heroes, of course, because they were mostly created as a team and have always had that dynamic.
The Avengers are my favorites and always have been, partly because they seem to mesh together, story-wise, so well– even when the characters themselves are squabbling (or especially when they’re squabbling, because that’s when their real personalities come roaring out!).
AP: You’ve also tackled Sherlock Holmes. How far back does your interest in the Great Detective reach? Do you see Holmes as a sort of forerunner to the pulp heroes of the 1930s, and even the modern superhero?
Absolutely, because the one thing that Holmes and all of those later characters share is some sort of special ability that sets them apart from the average man and woman.I think that’s one reason why things like “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” have broad appeal within the comics community.It’s not just the novelty of “Victorian super heroes”—it’s recognizing that these characters share that one key element with modern superheroes:the “Extraordinary.”
Watson really is the perfect foil, because he’s a normal guy (not a buffoon, as so many later interpretations made of him).You need someone like Watson to relate the stories to the reader, because Holmes himself is so antisocial.He’s not a likeable guy personally, but he’s terrific fun to follow as he does his thing.He’s the original anti-hero superhero—you may not like him, but he’s the best there is at what he does!
When a couple of years ago Airship 27 offeredme the chance to write Holmes stories, it was one of those strange twists of timing where I had just the previous month or so finished reading the entire original Holmes collection, just for fun.My brain was fully saturated with the style and structure of those stories.Even so, they were extremely difficult to write, but enormously satisfying.
AP: Obviously, pulp in the 21st century isn’t going to be exactly like pulp in the 1930s. There’s a whole different perspective, and more than half a century of scientific and cultural progress. There was a certain simplicity and innocence to those early stories that one cannot really take seriously today, as a reader or a writer. What are your thoughts on that?
I think that as modern pulp writers, we have to be very careful.As you say, there are elements to the classic pulps that simply cannot be replicated today—and shouldn’t be.Conversely, a big part of what we’re doing is trying to recreate at least something of the experience of reading a classic pulp. We want to give the readers that feeling you would have gotten by reading the classics in their day.It’s a tricky proposition.The best modern pulp writers can pull it off.
AP: What led you to this particular kind of storytelling? What do you find attractive about heroic adventure? What is it you want to convey to your readers that can be done better in this genre than any other?
I want to tell stories that are fun, that are successful as fiction, and that incorporate ideas that are important to me.I work extremely hard on them, writing and rewriting.I spend a great deal of time and effort on the “musicality” of words and phrases and sentences and paragraphs, inserting as much of a lyrical nature as I can get away with.It is very important to me that stories “sound” good to the ear, as well as being good stories in general.
I study other writers’ work constantly, tearing it apart to figure out what they did that worked so well and sounded so good.I read in a very wide range of genres and styles, from Japanese poetry to science fiction to pulp noir and crime fiction to British nautical and historical adventures, as well as history, politics, economics, and then superhero comics.I think every bit of it helps—it all goes into the mental hopper, and you never know what will conglomerate together and come out.
For the Sentinels books, as an example, I want to tell a huge, vast saga that covers many worlds and covers centuries of time. As a kid, I was utterly enthralled by the big, brain-melting conglomerations like Jack Katz’s FIRST KINGDOM, where cavemen and robots and mutants and starfleets all coexist and interact, or Jim Starlin’s “Metamorphosis Odyssey,” blending science and magic and hordes of aliens and the death of galaxies.Thus you will find that kind of thing in the Sentinels books.I love stuff like “Babylon 5,” where the very fate of the galaxy hinges on the decisions of a few individuals at key moments in history, played out across this epic backdrop.To do that as an actual comic book would have taken me a hundred years.As novels, I can fit a stack of comics installments into each novel, and move the big story along—while also digging much deeper into the heads and the motivations of the main characters than comics would generally allow, given limited space.It all sort of became pulp when I started actually writing the stories and that was the natural form they took, right from the start.
AP: Human beings seem to have a natural affinity for storytelling, for a great many purposes. What kind of connection do you see, in cultural terms, between contemporary superhero/pulp fiction and epics like “The Odyssey” and “Beowulf?”
These are the cultural touchstones of each society, generation after generation.They define what each society and each generation considers good or bad, right or wrong, desirable or detestable.These kinds of stories, for every generation in every age, shape the very people that then go on to shape the society itself.You have to have this—a society with no mythology is culturally destitute and rudderless.
AP: What do you like to read, and what have you taken from it over the years? Is there any writer or character in particular that inspired you and helped you shape your own narrative voice? What about movies, radio dramas and TV programs?
I am the product of a childhood spent reading whatever science fiction and comics I could get my hands on.My reading preferences, as I have said, broadened out considerably as I grew up, but there’s little doubt the core of my narrative voice was shaped by the prose poetry and recurrent themes of Roger Zelazny.I’m afraid there is a touch of his Corwin of Amber in nearly every main character I write.
Zelazny was aided and abetted in shaping my writing style and interests by the technical imagination of Larry Niven, the cosmic concepts of Jim Starlin and Jack Kirby, the superheroic alchemy of Doug Moench and Jim Starlin, and the voice and perspective of Carl Sagan.
In more recent years I’ve been heavily impacted by the writing of Patrick O’Brian (the Master and Commander series), Dan Abnett (elevating media tie-in fiction and military prose to an art form), James Clavell (big, sprawling Asian epics) and the prose styles of Donald E. Westlake (Parker) and Robert E. Howard (Conan and Solomon Kane).They all have taught me valuable lessons about how to properly tell a story and tell it effectively and in an exciting fashion.
AP: You are a history professor as well as a writer of pulp/superhero adventures. These are obviously two subjects about which you are passionate, so there must be a few connections between the two. How does your interest in, and knowledge of, world history inform your fiction writing? You have said that you prefer big, epic sagas to short stories. What is the connection there, between the writer of
fiction and the professor of history?
Probably the main connection and appeal for me is in digging around in the background of big, important historical events and being able to root out the various intertwined causes—why things happened, who caused or contributed to them, what the consequences were, and why.Once you have done that a few times as a historian, you start to see commonalities—causes and effects that are similar across different eras and different parts of the world.Those kinds of things translate well into stories set in the future as well as in the past because, at their core, all stories are really the same, whether they’re set a long time ago or a long time from now.
AP: Suppose you were approached by the richest man or woman in the world, whoever that might be, and he or she offered to bankroll any project you wanted to do. You would have complete creative freedom, you could obtain the rights to any character or characters you wanted to use—there would be no legal obstacles, you could freely use anything you wanted, your own characters and/or any others—in a novel, comic book, TV series or movie. What would you do?
The Sentinels in every medium!Seriously, I’d love to see a series of movies based on the Sentinels, in the vein of what Marvel’s doing with its Avengers-related characters right now.I think it would work very well, because it’s as much a sort of big-budget space opera saga as it is a superhero story.
Lots of folks have asked about the possibility of seeing a comic book series based on the Sentinels, and I’m not opposed to the idea.It does seem like a natural, since many of the main characters are essentially super heroes and super villains.It’s not a big priority for me, though, at least for now, simply because I worry that converting them into comic books might cause them to kind of blend in and lose a big part of what (I think) makes them special; they might be seen as just another comic book super-team.
The property would work well as a television series, I think—it would look a lot like “Heroes” (which I didn’t watch until after the first three books were finished), but with a serious cosmic angle; sort of “Heroes” meets “Babylon 5,” you might say.
As far as properties that don’t belong to me, I’d love to produce a live-action movie or TV series based on Roger Zelazny’s “Amber” novels.I’ve even gone so far as to write an outline for a screenplay.(I think it’s out there on my web site, somewhere.)Corwin and his scheming royal brothers and sisters seem like a natural fit for an HBO series.This needs to happen!
AP: You seem to always have a great deal going on. Have you got anything new coming up that you’d like to talk about?
I sure do, and I sure do.First up, the premiere volume of Mars McCoy: Space Ranger just came out from Airship 27.This is a very cool retro-SF throwback character in the vein of Flash Gordon and the Lensmen, complete with spaceships and blast-cannons and space pirates and robots.I helped create the character’s supporting cast and I co-edited the book, so I’m certainly hoping it will find a large and appreciative audience.The second volume, which I hope will be coming along soon, will contain a 45,000-word Mars McCoy novella that I wrote and that I think is one of my more entertaining efforts of the past couple of years.For that one, I tried to channel Dan Abnett writing 1950s space opera as if it were Warhammer 40,000. We’ll see what people think of that!
The next volume in the Sentinels series, Stellarax, is very close to being finished.I try to get one of these out every year, and the announced publication date for this one is July 12, 2011. We will see if I can meet that deadline.This is going to be a big book—at least 100,000 words—and will wrap up the second major story arc of the series, called “The Rivals.”It’s the most “cosmic” one yet, with vast, Kirby-esque space gods threatening to devour the Earth, in one fashion or another.Our heroes are trapped in Earth orbit and have no clue how they’re supposed to deal with a menace on this scale—and that’s before the alien nano-virus shows up and starts turning everyone, human and alien and robot alike, into zombies!Can’t wait to wrap it up and get it out to the growing Sentinels fan base and see what they think.Chris Kohler returns with his signature interior art (I can hardly imagine a Sentinels book anymore without Kohler art accompanying it!) and Rowell Roque again supplies the fantastic cover—which completes a three-panel mural when you lay it and the two previous volumes down next to each other.
I also have a story in the upcoming Lance Star-Sky Ranger, Vol. 3 anthology, called “Thunder Over China.”It was fun to get to play with Bobby Nash’s 1930s air-ace characters a little bit, and I think I got ol’ Lance into a pretty good fix.
There are a bunch of other things simmering on the back burner, but that’s probably enough for now.Make sure to give Mars McCoy a try, and look for the Sentinels in Stellarax, coming (I hope) in July!
On Saturday night, Peter David won an award from the the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation for his work on X-Factor and the portrayal of Rictor and Shatterstar. The Media Award recipients were announced in 25 of this year’s 32 media categories at the 22nd Annual GLAAD Media Awards presented in New York. Other winners included Russell Simmons, Ricky Martin, the HBO drama series True Blood, the NBC comedy , and CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360″ for its series on gay teen suicides.
We asked Peter for his reaction.
ComicMix: So, first off, congratulations. Do you have an acceptance speech? We took the conductor’s baton away, so you have all the time you want. Peter A. David: I guess I’d say that we’ve come a long way from when the Comics Code Authority forced DC to remove what the CCA saw as a lesbian kiss in an issue of Justice League Task Force I had written, even though it was a kiss between a woman and a shapeshifted J’onn J’onzz. I’m appreciative of Marvel Comics allowing me so much latitude in X-Factor, particularly Joe Quesada’s unequivocal public support when Rictor and Shatterstar first liplocked. I note that the award only names me, and I think that’s shortsighted, because there’s been a host of artists and editors along the way who have done a terrific job to bring the stories to the public. And ultimately I look forward to the day when this award is utterly unnecessary because the positive portrayal of LGBTs is simply so commonplace that it’s no longer newsworthy. It’s just the normal state of things.
CM: We have the perennial question: so when did you first know that Rictor was gay? And what was it like coming out to the rest of the comics community? (more…)
From the Justice League Unlimited episode “This Little Piggy” broadcast on TG4– we have Batman singing “Am I Blue” as Gaeilge… or Gaelic, if you prefer. Because really, what else could we do with this clip?
Warner Home Video picked the wrong day to tell eager comic book fans about Young Justice being released on DVD since the fun news was eclipsed by the Star wars on Blu-ray announcement. Still, the excellent series, airing on the Cartoon Network, will have volume one of the debut season available in mid-July. The following is the complete press release:
