From the fine artists at Udon, comes these two nifty looking pieces of art to promote the upcoming Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds game. The newer one at the top is from Alvin Lee and Saejin Oh, and the one underneath it is from Joe Ng and Espen Grundetjern. Both are, obviously awesome.
Released recently is this newer trailer for next year’s battle of costumed characters. It starts with Dr. Doom and Chun-Li on a burning S.H.I.E.L.D hellicarrier and then alternates (as expected) between cool and kinda strange from then on.
The eighth episode of our podcast is now online. Myself and my co-host Mladen chat about Spider-Man bedsheets and all manner of comic book-ery goodness. Hear it below, download it here or find us on iTunes or Mixcloud.
2:18 NEWS
The big shake ups at DC Comics, the outrageous prices of floppies at Borders, the diverse list of possible directors for the upcoming Superman film and our opinion on the All Star Superman animated trailer. Also, Ghost Rider 2 and Fantastic Four Reborn.
18:58 WHAT WE’VE BEEN READING
First up – video games, including Halo Reach and Scott Pilgrim.
Thor #615. The first issue from the new creative team of Matt Fraction and Pasqual Ferry.
Peter Pan by Regis Loisel. A French, and mature, prequel to the classic tale.
Skullkickers #1. The sleeper hit from Image by Jim Zubkavich, Chris Stevens and Edwin Huang. Lethal Weapon via Lord of the Rings.
Gon, “the little dinosuar with the heart of coal,” by Masashi Tanaka.
41:41 Trade Swap
Sea Bear and Grizzly Shark. A one-shot Image story that is insane and entertaining.
EmiTown by Emi Lenox. A cute and largely amusing visual diary.
1:00:40 WEBSITE OF THE WEEK
Kick Starter. If you have an arty idea and need funding, or would like to fund others’ ideas, this is the place for you.
Wordless wonders is the name of the game in the seventh episode of the new Extra Sequential podcast by myself and my mate Mladen Luketin. Besides the below topics we ramble onto subjects as diverse as Buster Keaton, Garfield, annoying dinosaurs and superhero evidence in court.
Download it here, hear it below or on iTunes or Mixcloud.
1:16 NEWS
Black Panther is the new Daredevil, cheap comics from publishers Top Shelf and Drawn and Quarterly, and retailer Mile High, Back to the Future game, Atlas Comics returns, Watchmen writer Alan Moore talks to aliens (or at least leaves them a message), the possible return of cinematic slackers Bill and Ted, 24 Hour Comics Day and Australia’s Reel Anime festival.
13:54 Panel Plays
We re-enact a scene from a classic comic. You guess which one, and we’ll tell you at the end!
16:07 What We’ve Been Reading/Watching
Transformers: Drift from Perth writer Shane McCarthy, Wilson from Daniel Clowes, Thor: First Thunder by Bryan J.L Glass and Tan Eng Huat, Muppet Sherlock Holmes, ’60s TV series The Prisoner and Smallville Season 8.
36:55 Wordless Wonders
Comics without words? Insanity!
The Graphic Witness collection of pioneers of wordless storytelling, anthology World War 3 Illustrated from Top Shelf, Chris Ware’s Acme Novelty Library, The Arrival by Aussie writer/artist Shaun Tan, Vowels by Skye Ogden and Gestalt Comics, Moebius’ Arzach, Matotti’s Chimera, German Jens Harder’s weird large whale tale, Leviathan and New Engineering by Yuichi Yokoyama.
On the comedic side of things we discuss Spy vs Spy, Mad magazine, Perry Bible Fellowship, the little dinosaur Gon by Masashi Tanaka and Andy Runton’s cute Owly. As an added bonus, G.I Joe #22 and Marvel’s ‘Nuff Said issues from 2002.
70:25 Website of the week and the Panel Play answer
Cereal Geek – a PDF and print magazine all about the wonders of ’80s cartoons.
Parkour, gunplay and cool costumes. Looks like a good combo. This FPS game will be released next year from Bethesda and Splash Damage and is set in a futuristic city on the brink of a civil war.
Spidey has a new game coming out on September 7 and the new launch trailer has just been released. 4 different Spidey versions, a whole bunch of villains (Kraven, Juggernaut, Carnage) and some diverse gameplay.
Staying with Marvel, not only have they celebrated their one year anniversary of being bought by Disney, but their CCO Joe Quesada is now celebrating a 10 year stint with the publisher. Well done Joe! Official press release below.
Joe Quesada Celebrates 10 Years As Editor-In-Chief Of Marvel!
This is it True Believers, the Mighty Marvel Podcast you’ve been waiting for – EPISODE 100 with Editor-in-Chief and Chief Creative Officer, Joe Quesada! That’s right folks, Joe stops by to talk with fan-favorite host and Marvel Senior Art Director Jeff Suter about his 10 years as EiC and bestows some helpful tips on how to break into the industry. Listen in as Joe reflects on his time in Marvel Knights, bringing this century’s hottest new talent to Marvel and his role in the creation of the Ultimate Universe! You’ve heard about the top-secret creative retreats and in this episode of the MMP, find out where they began! This is one episode no Marvel fan can miss!
So what are you waiting for? Go download the latest chapter now here:http://marvel.com/rss/podcasts/100th_MMP_Joe_Q_Podcast.mp3
The Mighty Marvel Podcast, your one stop shop for news about comics with the people who’re making them, features some of the hottest writers to hit the scene like – Brian Michael Bendis, Jeph Loeb, Matt Fraction and more! Make sure you keep checking back to Marvel.com at Marvel Podcast Central or subscribe to the Mighty Marvel Podcast on iTunes (that way you never miss any of the action-packed installments)!
My buddy Mladen and I have now released our fantastic fourth episode focused on comic books and pop culture. Listen to it below or download it right here.
1:35 NEWS
We yak about the possible closure of famed Japanese anime production company Studio Ghibli and the latest updates for a few Marvel films including Iron Fist and X-Men: First Class. Kevin Bacon, Halle Berry, Vin Diesel and bland rom-coms are also mentioned for some reason.
20:15 WHAT WE’VE BEEN READING/WATCHING
The Darkness: Four Horsemen #1, Gaston Lagaffe, the American Splendor film, Superman/Batman 75th Anniversary issue, cartoon series King of the Hill, action film From Paris With Love, District B13, James Bond new and old, and the Monkey Island 2 Special Edition and Killzone 2 games. As an added bonus the term “lazy doofus” is mentioned twice and the Fantastic Four are compared to a ’70s rock band.
42:40 TRADE SWAP
Indie black and white OGN Power Out, and Winsor McCay’s groundbreaking Little Nemo in Slumberland from early last century.
57:50 WEBSITE OF THE WEEK www.io9.com
While people were escaping their suburban existence and voting for the future of our country (Australia), my mate Mladen and I were recording the latest episode of our Extra Sequential podcast. In episode three, we talk about The Phantom (both old and new), everything Scott Pilgrim, our Top Ten political moments in comics, recent Eisner Award winners and more outlandish geeky indulgences.
Listen to it below, or download it right here.
2:17 NEWS
Batman Beyond DVD boxset, Mark Millar’s new magazine.
5:30 WHAT WE’VE BEEN READING/WATCHING
Cop Out, “Aquaman’s” appearance in Clash of the Titans, Alan Moore’s underground mag Dodgem Logic, Lucky Luke: The Dashing White Cowboy, sci-fi novel Eifelheim, Image’s The Light. Also – a Nicolas Cage impersonation.
20:11 The Phantom
Reminiscing about Lee Falk’s classic character during our youth and its brand new series from Dynamite Entertainment. Billy Zane, the origin of The Ghost Who Walks, Larry Walker: The Almost Phantom, Seth Rogen and more.
28:23 SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD
The film, the Oni Press series, the game and even the soundtrack. Full of Pilgrim-y goodness. The great TV series Spaced, including slow-mo gun fights, Princess Peach from the Mario games, Seinfeld, and yes, lots of Canadian hero Scott Pilgrim.
46:48 THEME OF THE WEEK – POLITICS
Jennifer Love Hewitt, Jack Black, voting and our Top Ten Comics/Politics X-Overs.
10. Lex Luthor as U.S President
9. Cerebus: Church and State
8. Transmetropolitan: Year of the Bastard
7. Fables: March of the Wooden Soldiers
6. J. Jonah Jameson as New York Mayor
5. Everyman: Be The People
4. Asterix and the Caesar’s Gift
3. Ex Machina
2. DMZ: Blood in the Game
1. Voting for the death of Robin!
69:30 EISNER AWARDS AND HARVEY NOMINEES
See the full list of Eisner winners here and Harvey nods here.The comic book equivalent of the Oscars. We talk about David Mazzuchelli’s Asterios Polyp, the black, white and blue of Darwyn Cooke’s The Hunter (based on the crime novel by Donald Westlake aka Richard Stark), and David Small’s Stitches.
84:45 WEBSITE OF THE WEEK
www.thecurfewgame.com an on-line game set in a future London.
Publisher Oni Press have wisely made the most out of the attention they’ve been getting with the Scott Pilgrim film and Bryan Lee O’Malley’s last volume in the excellent series, both of which I’m hoping to enjoy tomorrow.
I just noticed that they’ve also relaunched their site, with a bunch of features, including a Twitter feed from its talented creators and a host of classy previews. Check it out here and an interview with Oni publisher Joe Nozemack about translating their comics for the cinema screen here.
As a bonus, here’s a short trailer for the nostalgic side-scrolling Scott Pilgrim game, now with a code for zombie fun!
Sony’s new DC Universe Online multiplayer game will finally be released in November. I’ve often thought that a CGI superhero film would be the way to truly capture the grandeur of the comics, as it sells the fantasy much more easily. A live action adaptation means studios are more inclined to forego spandex in favour of more realistic leather costumes, but a CGI film would make that redundant. A look at the new trailer below and you’ll know what I mean. Epic battles, drama and costumed characters fighting each other without holding back. Awesome stuff. Watch the trailer all the way to the end so it makes more sense.
Coming out later this year is Blacklight: Tango Down, a game from Zombie Studios and Ignition Entertainment that looks pretty awesome. This one-shot from new publisher Storm Lion follows the same story and sets things up for the game rather nicely. It certainly makes me want to delve into the world via my Xbox. It’s the kind of near future world in which players of Tom Clancy’s games will be familiar, but apart from some interesting soldiers and hi-tech gear this concept throws something else into the mix – zombies. Now don’t roll your eyes just yet. Zombies may be overused these days, sure, but like vampires, they are a versatile bunch.
This story, written by Jared Gerritzen, Ian Stephens and Cullen Gallagher, begins with a rookie soldier fighting to stay alive on a hospital bed with one word on his lips: Klein. Through an intense flashback we learn that the solder and his Blacklight team were sent to Russia to find fellow army man, Colonel Klein. It’s not long before they learn the hard way that Klein has gone power mad in this city in revolt, and the squad learn that Balik’s citizens have been subject to a test virus by a group called The Order, who apparently unknowingly turned them into zombies, and now everyone’s in trouble.
Tango Down is a concise and well told story, filled with drama and action. I never have too much faith in video game adaptations, but this exceeded my expectations. Things move briskly, with plenty of tense moments. The art from Zid, Puppeteer and Mahendra is superb in a slightly sketchy yet evocative fashion. It will be familiar to those who read pretty much anything from Radical Publishing, as the Asian collective of artists that form Storm Lion have worked with Radical on some of their titles before. In fact Edmund Shern, C.E.O of Storm Lion wrote one of Radical’s best early books in Freedom Formula.
I’m a little surprised that both the makers of the game and this comic didn’t give the zombies more emphasis though. They don’t feature on the cover and don’t even make an obvious appearance in the pages behind it. The juxtaposition between futuristic soldiers and the blood thirsty undead is a great visual, let alone a storytellers’ delight.
This is a bittersweet review though, as it’s recently been revealed that Storm Lion are facing difficulty due to an investor pulling out. This must be extremely frustrating for Shern and his talented team, especially as they have a wealth of beautiful looking tales ready to unleash upon the curious public. Seeing the Free Comic Book Day issue, their Turbulence art book and this issue, I’d be filled with confidence if I was the man signing the cheques. I hope they manage to make it to Comic Con at least and get the backing they deserve. If I had the money, I’d sign them up in a heartbeat.
You can follow the happenings of Storm Lion at their Facebook page.
Me neither. I’ve been the last 2 years, but it’s not a cheap trip with the flight, hotels and week-long spending frenzy, so I’ll take a rain check until next year. If, however, you want something else to pass the time apart from catching up on all the big announcements, you can check out Puzzle Hub. As the name states, it’s a website with themed puzzles, crosswords and the like. The week of July 21-27 (when the Con is on) the site will be running pop culture and comic themed puzzles for those seeking to dust the cobwebs off their mind, if not their wallet.
If you’re a US resident it gets even better for the Con-absent, as the press release below from Dark Horse states.
On July 24th fifty-five comic book shops across the country will host unique parties in conjunction with ChinaShop Magazine and Dark Horse Comics to celebrate the highly dedicated culture of sequential art during the weekend of San Diego Comic-Con.
Branded #NotAtComicCon, based on the Twitter hash-tag those unable to attend San Diego Comic-Con have been using, fifty-five participating stores will create a fun and creative atmosphere where free drinks and over $200 worth of Dark Horse prizes will be available. In addition, Dark Horse Comics will make an exclusive announcement to fans at participating stores before releasing the special information to crowds in San Diego.
Fans looking to participate in the unprecedented, nation-wide event can find a comic book shop in their area on the following site:
http://www.darkhorse.com/Blog/34/notatcomiccon
Plus, during the week of July 19th, ChinaShopMag.com will feature interviews with well-established comic creators who aren’t attending San Diego Comic-Con to get their insight into the larger community rarely talked about in mainstream news outlets.
Fans are also encouraged to use the hash-tag “#notatcomiccon” when talking about the event to show the world the fun comic fans have even outside the largest pop-culture convention. For more updates, follow @notatcomiccon and @chinashopmag on Twitter.
After two successful games set thousands of years before the Star Wars films, the Knights of the Old Republic franchise, (KOTOR for those in the know) is getting a MMORPG. The SW games aren’t always the greatest, but they always have the best trailers, as this beauty unveiled at the recent E3 conference attests.
Tron Legacy, the sequel to the 1982 fan fave film, opens on December 17. The game looks set to be just as shiny with a minimalist veneer of cool. Tron Evolution is out sometime this year, and is proof that Disney can have a grand film series for adults too (Pirates of the Caribbean doesn’t count).
Also unveiled at E3 was this brutal barrage for the Metal Gear Solid line of games. Gotta love the Japanese.
So the film based on the comic opens August 13. The game based on the film based on the comic, inspired by retro games is out soon. It promises to be old school fun. Trailer below and a wilder montage right here. I’m getting ’90s arcade flashbacks.
comicbookjesus 