Warren Ellis Doco at NYCC

Last year’s doco on Scottish comics scribe Grant Morrison was an entertaining insight into the mind of the man. That same team is behind Captured Ghosts, a similar doco about writer Warren Ellis. Here’s the skinny.

Halo-8 Entertainment and the Napa Valley Film Festival are co-hosting a special NYC sneak preview screening of “WARREN ELLIS: CAPTURED GHOSTS” at the downtown theater CINEMA VILLAGE (22 E 12th St NYC 10003) during New York Comic Con on Friday October 14th at 11:15pm.

CAPTURED GHOSTS will have its official World Premiere November 11th at the Napa Valley Film Festival (alongside the premiere of Martin Scorsese’s HUGO and gala screenings of Alexander Payne’s THE DESCENDANTS & Clint Eastwoods J EDGAR), but the NVFF organizers made a special exception to co-present this sneak preview screening for fans attending New York Comic Con.

This is the second year in a row Halo-8 will debut a film by Respect Films partners Patrick Meaney and Jordan Rennert during New York Comic Con, following the packed-house that greeted last year’s GRANT MORRISON: TALKING WITH GODS.

WARREN ELLIS: CAPTURED GHOSTS

NYC Special Advanced Screening

Friday October 14, 2011

11:15pm

CINEMA VILLAGE

22 E 12th Street, NYC 10003

212.924.3363

Advanced tix available from www.halo8store.com or direct at these links:

$11 adult / $8 student / $20 bundle with DVD pre-order

CAPTURED GHOSTS features the most extensive interview ever given by Ellis, whose groundbreaking body of work includes comic books Planetary, Transmetropolitan, Iron Man: Extremis, FreakAngels, The Authority and novel Crooked Little Vein. Spanning from his first memory watching the moon landing as a child to the recent boffo success of RED, Ellis’ acerbic wit and core belief in humanity come across like never before… revealing the unique point of view that has made him such a pivotal and influential figure to his massive audience of artists, journalists, scientists, and fans.

The film features Academy Award-winner Dame Helen Mirren (THE QUEEN), Ben Templesmith (illustrator 30 Days of Night), Matt Fraction (writer Casanova, Invincible Iron Man), Darick Robertson (illustrator Transmetropolitan), Joss Whedon (director upcoming THE AVENGERS), Will Wheaton (STAR TREK), Brea Grant (HEROES, DEXTER, writer Suicide Girls comic), Claudio Sanchez (Coheed & Cambria), Joe Quesada (Chief Creative Officer, Marvel Entertainment), Stoya (adult film star), Andy Hurley (Fall Out Boy), Patton Oswalt (RATATOUILLE), and a Warren Ellis Muppet (!).

“Patrick Meaney and Jordan Rennert have an uncanny ability to tell the stories of cultural visionaries like Warren Ellis and Grant Morrison whose work serves as an epicenter of influence that expands to higher-profile mainstream innovators and subtly changes the world,” said Halo-8 president Matt Pizzolo, who also served as co-producer on the film.

Produced by Patrick Meaney and Jordan Rennert through their Respect Films banner in association with Halo-8 Entertainment and SequArt Publishing, WARREN ELLIS: CAPTURED GHOSTS is the follow-up to Meaney’s 2010 GRANT MORRISON: TALKING WITH GODS docu which Variety said “will intrigue the previously unconverted” and Wired called “an instant classic.”


Marvel’s Point One 2012

Comic book newbies, and Marvel zombies take note. There’s a new one-shot launching in November that’ll show what in store next year for Marvel’s titles. I don’t know who that is on the cover. Perhaps Nova with a rad new getup?

The Foundation Of 2012 Is Here – POINT ONE!

Point One is a massive one-shot of 64 all-new pages of story by the top creators in the business, setting the stage for the biggest stories coming in 2012. It is the starting point to what’s in store for the world’s most iconic characters and startling events. Point One serves as the launch pad for dynamic new series, the return of fan-demanded characters, and a shocking teaser that will have everyone talking. See how all it comes together in one gigantic epic!” – Tom Brevoort, Senior Vice President, Executive Editor.

POINT ONE #1 (SEP110496)

Written by JEPH LOEB, BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS, MATT FRACTION, ED BRUBAKER, FRED VAN LENTE, CHRIS YOST, DAVID LAPHAM & MORE

Art by ED MCGUINNESS, BRIAN HITCH, TERRY DODSON, SALVADOR LARROCA, RYAN STEGMAN, JAVIER PULIDO, ROBERTO DE LA TORRE & MORE

FOC – 10/17/11, ON SALE – 11/2/11

Super ’70s and ’80s

I’ve been meaning to mention this for a while now, but essentially, author Marc Tyler Nobleman’s latest project is a great one, which focusus on some forgotten players in pop culture in the 1970s and 1980s. Here’w how he describes it.

To bridge the gap between my book Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman (which made the front page of USA Today) and my upcoming book on Batman/Bill Finger (2012), I found and interviewed 100 “lost” stars of superhero/cartoon entertainment of the ’70s and ’80s – from more than 40 Sea World water skiing superheroes to the pimp in Superman: The Movie to the original singer of the Scooby-Doo theme to the voice actors of the Wonder Twins. (Scroll down for the link and a list of the 10 subseries.)
The interviews are sometimes hilarious and often poignant; many of these people have not been interviewed before and had no idea they have fans. You will also see many previously unpublished “then and now” photos and rare documents and mementos from various private collections.
I am posting one interview per day between now and 10/12/11, with a few gaps for my blog’s “regularly scheduled content.”
10 subseries.
71 posts.
88 days.
100 interviews.
The 10 subseries (mark your calendar!):
Super Friends (1973-86)
28 interviews (15 voice actors, 7 writers, 2 animators, 4 other production staff)
launched 7/17/11
Sea World superheroes water ski show (1976-79)
45 interviews (37 skiers, 1 boat driver, 1 high diver, 2 announcers, 4 production staff)
launched 8/22/11
Superman: The Movie (1978)
3 interviews (all actors)
Legends of the Superheroes (1979)
5 interviews (3 actors, 1 deceased actor’s niece, 1 director/producer)
Batman and Robin Meet Dr. Danger (circa 1979)
2 interviews (both performers)
launches 9/26/11
Bugs Bunny Meets the Superheroes (1979-81)
6 interviews (all performers)
launches 9/27/11
The Plastic Man Comedy Show (1979-81; repackaged with live-action host in 1984)
2 interviews (1 actor, 1 director/producer)
launches 9/28/11
Superman (Ruby-Spears animated series, 1988)
1 interview (voice actor)
launches 10/2/11
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! (seasons 1-2: 1969-71)
7 interviews (2 voice actors, 2 theme song singers, 1 music producer, 1 songwriter’s widow, 1 songwriter’s son)
launches 10/4/11
And a wild card:
Mick Smiley (“Magic,” Ghostbusters, 1984)
1 interview
launches 10/12/11

The amount of research is very impressive and for those like me who grew up in those awesome 2 decades, this is a pretty intriguing project. In fact, I didn’t even know there was a Plastic Man cartoon, or that Bugs Bunny and his pals teamed up with a few DC Comics characters for stage show.

 

See? Great stuff, including interviews with the 2 actors who played Clark Kent before Christopher Reeve grew up in my fave film, Superman: The Movie, and a chat with the pimp who first comments on Superman’s outfit! ( “Say, Jim—whoa! That’s a bad out-fit! Whoo!”)

Check out Marc’s site right here.

Jim Henson’s A Tale of Sand Preview

And what a lively and generous preview it is. Below is the official lowdown and you can check out a 20 page preview at Archaia’s site.

 

ARCHAIA UNVEILS A 20-PAGE SNEAK PEEK OF ORIGINAL GRAPHIC NOVEL

‘TALE OF SAND’

 

BASED ON AN UNPRODUCED SCREENPLAY CO-WRITTEN BY JIM HENSON, THE PREVIEW IS TIMED TO COINCIDE WITH GOOGLE’S CELEBRATION OF HIS BIRTHDAY

 

In honor of what would have been the late Jim Henson’s 75th birthday, award-winning publisher Archaia Entertainment will debut the first 20 pages of the upcoming original graphic novel Jim Henson’s Tale of Sand, which is based on an unproduced screenplay written by Henson and longtime collaborator Jerry Juhl and visualized and illustrated by acclaimed artist Ramón Pérez, it was announced by Editor-in-Chief Stephen Christy today. The pages will appear exclusively on Archaia.com starting on Sept. 24th.

 

“We are so pleased to be able to share with Henson fans a glimpse inside this groundbreaking project,” said Christy. “Ramón Peréz has created a stunning visual translation of Jim Henson’s only unproduced feature-length screenplay, and we are honored to debut this exclusive preview of the forthcoming graphic novel in partnership with The Jim Henson Company and Google’s celebration of Jim’s birthday.”

 

Tale of Sand, a dark, existential feature-length screenplay that built off of ideas Jim Henson had been developing since he produced his Academy Award-nominated short film “Timepiece,” tells the story of a man who is kicked out of a dusty town in the middle of the desert, with no memory of who he is or where he came from. Relentlessly pursued by an unknown assailant, and with only a rucksack of odds-and-ends to his name, he embarks on a desperate race across an increasingly bizarre landscape with only one thing in mind: survival.

 

Archaia and The Jim Henson Company entered into a multi-year publishing partnership in 2009 for Archaia to publish comics and graphic novels based on classic franchises like Fraggle Rock, The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, as well as new, co-branded original properties.

 

Jim Henson’s Tale of Sand (hardcover, 152pp, $29.95, ISBN: 978-1-936393-09-1) is scheduled to debut in comic book shops and wherever books are sold in November 2011.


Extra Sequential Podcast #59-Donald Duck & DuckTales

55 mins. Don’t cry fowl, but we discuss the whacky and funny Fantagraphics collection of Carl Barks’ much loved 1940s Donald Duck stories, and compare them to BOOM! Studios’ current DuckTales…tales. Also, Ninja Turtles, Mythbusters and capitalism.

LISTEN TO IT BELOW, DOWNLOAD IT HERE OR ON iTUNES 

 

 

 

 

You can email us at kris (at)extrasequential(dot)com and befriend us on the NEW ES Facebook page.

2:53 NEWS

Amanda Waller gets retconned to a thin woman!

Marvel is no longer publishing any of French publisher’s Soleil’s great comics

Batman: Year One animated clip

 

John Dies at the End cast pics

9:43 THEME – DONALD DUCK AND DUCKTALES 

We tell you why creator Carl Barks is loved for his storytelling prowess and surprisingly funny and absurd humour in his Donald, Scrooge, etc tales and compare it with the modern equivalent in BOOM! Studio’s latest DuckTales mini-series.

You can get Fantagraphics’ Donald Duck in Lost in the Andes in November.

The 4 issues of BOOM!’s DuckTales series, Rightful Owners, are available now.

48: 02 A FEW QUICK THOUGHTS ON THE DC #1s WE’VE READ

 

Free The Thing Prequel Comic

Here’s the lowdown from Dark Horse about their free digital comic, set in the time of Vikings, and tying in to The Thing remake film.

THE THING RETURNS TO DARK HORSE COMICS

WITH A FREE DIGITAL COMIC THAT SERVES AS A PREQUELTO THE NEW THRILLER IN THEATERS OCTOBER 14!

Dark Horse Comics is pleased to announce that it has created an exclusive digital comic to serve as a prequel to the thriller “The Thing,” in theaters October 14. Starting today, the comic will be released in three parts on September 21, September 28 and October 5 and is available FREE online at www.digital.darkhorse.com and via the free Dark Horse Comics mobile app (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id415378623). The Thing: The Northman Nightmare tells the origin story of pioneering Norsemen who discover a shape-shifting creature that is hiding in a desolate village with few human survivors.

In December 1991, Dark Horse Comics first published The Thing From Another World #1. In the style of Aliens, Predator and Terminator, Dark Horse Comics picked up where John Carpenter’s classic 1982 film left off. Now, 20 years later, Dark Horse shares a much earlier story about this creature from beneath the ice.

Taking us into frigid Greenland, the comic introduces us to a group of Norsemen who find themselves caught in a game of survival when they discover a terrifying creature. The shape-shifting monster has the ability to turn itself into a perfect replica of any living being. It can look just like you or me, but inside, it remains inhuman. And it hides somewhere in a desolate village with few human survivors, among them a strange group of women…

Said editor Scott Allie: “This property consistently generates much excitement from fans, which made it easy to round up an incredible team for this prequel comic. This is a sincere horror story by guys who know how to knock it out of the park.”

The Thing: The Northman Nightmare is written by Steve Niles (Criminal Macabre), with art by Patric Reynolds (Serenity), colors by Dave Stewart (Hellboy) and a cover by Menton3 (Silent Hill). The Thing: The Northman Nightmare comes to readers as a prequel to Universal Pictures’ upcoming prelude to John Carpenter’s classic 1982 film of the same name.

“Steve Niles and Dark Horse have done it again, truly an amazing book,” said Menton3. “I am extremely proud to be a small part of it.”

The first eight-page installment of The Thing: The Northman Nightmare can be downloaded digitally from the Dark Horse Digital Comics App or at www.digital.darkhorse.com today FOR FREE!

About “The Thing” film: Antarctica: an extraordinary continent of awesome beauty. It is also home to an isolated outpost known as Thule Station. There, a crew of international scientists has unearthed a remarkable discovery. But elation quickly turns to terrifying paranoia in the thriller “The Thing,” as the group of researchers encounters something inhuman that has the ability to turn itself into an exact replica of any living being.

“The Thing” serves as a prelude to John Carpenter’s classic 1982 film of the same name. Directed by Matthijs van Heijningen, the thriller is produced by Strike Entertainment’s Marc Abraham and Eric Newman (“Dawn of the Dead”). www.thethingmovie.net


Batman: Year One’s Catwoman

Here’s the first look at how Catwoman will look in her short film on next month’s Batman: Year One animated film. Cool. She resembles her comic counterpart closley. Hopefully Anne Hathaway in next year’s The Dark Knight Rises will too. Official details below.

 

Warner Home Video to unveil Catwoman animated short, first Justice League: Doom footage at New York Comic Con

 

Warner Home Video, Warner Premiere, DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation proudly present an action-packed hour of first looks at DC Universe Animated Original Movies properties on Friday, October 14 from 3:00-4:00 p.m. at New York Comic Con.

 

Central to the panel will be the world premiere of the animated short Catwoman, starring Eliza Dushku (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dollhouse) as the voice of title character. The 15-minute short will be included on the release of Batman: Year One, which streets October 18 on Blu-ray, DVD, for Download and On Demand.

 

The panel will also include the very first footage to be seen from Justice League: Doom, the highly-anticipated next entry in the ongoing series of DC Universe Animated Original Movies.

 

The panelists, which include the ultimate voice of Batman, Kevin Conroy, DCU executive producer Bruce Timm and casting/dialogue director Andrea Romano, will offer a glimpse into the 2012 DC Universe Animated Original Movies slate, give away some exclusive prizes to inquisitive audience members, and quite possibly welcome a few surprise guests to the stage.

 

An autograph session with the panelists will immediately follow the panel.

 

Grifter #1 Review

I haven’t really had time to post my quick thoughts on the new #1s from DC that I’ve bought this month, but I was looking forward to Grifter, as it’s being created by one of my favourite comics writers Nathan Edmondson (Olympus, The Light), with artist Cafu.

My entire review of the premiere issue can be read here at Broken Frontier. In short, it’s awesome.

Billy Tucci’s A Child is Born

Creator of Shi, and superb artist Billy Tucci’s next project will be out just in time for Christmas, and like all his other work, it looks beautiful. You can read an interview at Newsarama with Tucci here in which he talks about A Child is Born, his Christian faith, and his exhaustive research for the book.

Check out the Facebook page for updates and you can order the 32 page, full colour comic now from your local comic shop. (It’s on page 226 of the current Previews catalogue).

Spider-Man Costume Redesign Winners

Project Rooftop is a great site that occasionally runs costume contests on comics characters. Seeing as there’s a new Spider-Man in Miles Morales (in the Ultimate Universe, and the first issue of his series was released this week), now’s a good time for them to announce their winner of their latest contest. Below is the winning entry by Mike Dimayunga, and 2 of my faves (by Corey Lewis, and Rosy Higgins) of their many great entries in their Spider-Man: Webhead 2.0 contest.

Check them all out here.

Nathan Edmondson News

Writer of Olympus, and The Light from Image Comics has his hands on the old Wildstorm character, Grifter. I’m not a fan of the character, but I’m curious to see what Edmondson (and artist Cafu) does with him when it debuts this week. A preview of Grifter #1 is below, and you can hear an interview with Edmondson at iFanboy.

Catch previews of Frankenstein: Agent of SHADE #1, and Red Lanterns #1 (also both out this week) here. There’s also a teasing interview with Edmondson, and artist Mitch Gerads about his next few projects, including the pair’s December releasing series here.

Finally, here’s a preview of the much anticipated fifth issue of Who is Jake Ellis? from Edmondson and artist Tonci Zonjic. WIJE? #5 lands on September 21, and somehow this slipped by me, but WIJE? has been extended from a 5 ish mini to…something longer. Good news.

My Kings Comics Article

At Comic Book Resources is my article on the Kings Comics shop in Sydney. Greg Burgas does a column in which readers can put the spotlight on their LCS, and since I was in Sydney recently, and Kings is arguably Australia’s best known comics shop, I interviewed their manager Jim, and took lots of photos, and you can see the end result right here.

Next up will be my article on Comic Kingdom, not far from Kings in location, but certainly in…everything else.

 

Black House Comics Submissions

Aussie publisher of great series like The Dark Detective: Sherlock Holmes is now accepting submissions for their bimonthly anthology, After the World. Awesome news. Details here and summary below.

After the World features short stories in the horror, sci fi and speculative fiction genres and is distributed throughout Australian newsagents and online via www.blackboox.net.

We are looking for stories between 1,000 and 5,000 words, although stories up to 10,000 words may be accepted. At the moment we are particularly keen on strong sci-fi stories.

Each issue of After the World features a story set in our After the World shared zombie universe. These stories are normally around 28,000 words in length and applications for upcoming slots are welcome. Please be aware, however, that we generally allocate these jobs to writers we have worked with before. Please also be aware that it is a guided universe and you will be asked to include specific plot points in any story idea you submit.

13 DC Reviews, But Not By Me

13 of DC’s 52 issue relaunch hit shelves this week. We didn’t get any new comics this week in Western Australia, thanks to the Labour Day holiday in America though. AARRGGHH! Oh well. At least customers who buy digitally don’t have to worry about that sort of thing.

Here’s a few reviews though, including all 13 #1s at Bleeding Cool, and Broken Frontier, 8 of them at CBR, Batgirl and Action Comics at Newsarama, Action Comics at ComicAttack and finally Action Comics, Detective Comics and Batgirl over at Luke Milton’s site, (who’ll be joining us on the Extra Sequential podcast next week!).

It’s interesting to see what Marvel fans, long-time DC fans, and newbies have to say about this.

 

Comics Alliance also has a handy look at the continuity changes that this first week’s offerings have shown us.

And now, here’s a look at some of next week’s releases including Superboy #1, Batman and Robin #1 and Legion Lost #1.