Extra Sequential Podcast Episode Two

Just to prove that we’re not a one hit, or one podcast, wonder, myself and my good friend Mladen are back for round two of our comic book/pop culture podcast! Now with improved audio and funnier jokes! Chapter times below.

Listen to the episode below, or download it here.

1:23 NEWS

The much delayed Spider-Man Broadway musical, how Star Wars could’ve ended, Neil Gaiman vs Todd McFarlane about Spawn characters, record breaking One Piece sales and the Reel Anime festival in Australia.

13:15

Manga sales compared to comic sales in the West

15:55 WHAT WE’VE BEEN READING/WATCHING

Inception, KING! #1, Batman: Under The Red Hood, Battlestar Galactica, Hellblazer: Hooked and Black Hole and detours into the multitude of Robins, Batman Beyond, dead superheroines and the unfunny Bubba Ho-tep film.

39:22 Trade Swap

Asterix! The hugely popular French series is new to myself, but is very familiar to my cohort Mladen. We discuss its origins, success and the animated and live action films. Also – suede pants, theme parks, French puns and dogs in catapults.

50:43 Theme – Vanity Projects

Sometimes creators get so successful that their name alone can be a selling point, regardless of the quality of the content. Not all such projects are bad though. We yak about the recent work of Alan Moore, Dave Sim, Frank Miller, Neal Adams and a few more.

77:25 WEBSITE OF THE WEEK

Comic Twart – a different character each week, drawn by a variety of artists. Check it out here. We also meander to Antarctic Press’ Time Lincoln: Fists of Fuhrer, Sandman, different types of triangles and next week’s topics, which will be the Scott Pilgrim comics and film, Eisner Award winners and Harvey nominees including our looks at Darwyn Cooke’s Hunter and Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli.

New Oni Press Website

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!

The Frontiersman #9 Now Out

The 9th issue of the free, digital mag from Broken Frontier has now been released. In its pages you’ll find a review of Scott Pilgrim’s cinematic adventure, a look at Ex Machina, a history of the Young Avengers and much more, including my interview with Chandra Free, creator of October’s OGN The God Machine from Archaia.

Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comics

I’ve been waiting for Warner Bros./DC to do something like this for a while. They’ve had plenty of practice with all the bonus features they’ve been putting on their animated film DVDs. Now comes this Ryan Reynolds-nararted doco about the history of the publisher, with plenty of nods to adaptations in to other media by the looks of it. Details, trailer and great cover below.

SECRET ORIGIN: THE STORY OF DC COMICS

RIVETING DOCUMENTARY NARRATED BY RYAN REYNOLDS CELEBRATES THE CREATIVE
TALENT BEHIND THE WORLD’S GREATEST SUPER HEROES

WARNER HOME VIDEO TO DISTRIBUTE DVD NOV. 9

Warner Bros. Pictures presents an enthralling examination of the creative forces behind the World’s Greatest Super Heroes in Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comics, an all-new documentary that takes viewers behind the scenes of the iconic company with unprecedented access to the Warner Bros. and DC Comics archives. Narrated by Ryan Reynolds, Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comics will be distributed by Warner Home Video on November 9, 2010 on DVD for $24.98 (SRP). Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comics will also
be available On Demand and for Download.

Behind the amazing tales of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and a host of other well-known characters is the equally impressive story of the challenges, creativity and triumphs of the company that brought those
characters to life. Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comics is both a celebration of the best writers and artists in comics and a thoughtful exploration of 75 years of DC Comics history.

Produced by the Academy Award ® -nominated team behind Spellbound (Feature Documentary), Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comics combines excerpts from comics, films and television series with the insight of
some of history’s most influential comic book creators and editors, among them Neal Adams, Karen Berger, Mike Carlin, Dan DiDio, Neil Gaiman, Geoff Johns, Jim Lee, Paul Levitz, Dwayne McDuffie, Grant
Morrison, Dennis O’Neil, Paul Pope, Louise Simonson, Mark Waid, Len Wein, and Marv Wolfman.

Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comics is written and directed by Mac Carter. Jeffrey Blitz (Spellbound, The Office) served as executive producer. Producer is Gregory Noveck and co-producer is Ivan Cohen.
Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comics is produced by Sean Welch and Janet Eckholm.

“From the bans to the breakthroughs, from humble pulp beginnings to the literary rise of the graphic novel, the story of DC Comics holds a mirror to an ever-evolving enterprise and the society reflected in its comic book pages,” said Diane Nelson, President, DC Entertainment. “It’s a true American story – Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comics is a riveting, exciting, surprising revelation of that fascinating history and the men and women who forged it.”

Return Of The Dapper Men Cover Revealed

This looks like another great book from Archaia. Press release below about this unique OGN, that will be in shops in November.

ARCHAIA UNVEILS FINAL COVER TO ‘RETURN OF THE DAPPER MEN’ ORIGINAL GRAPHIC NOVEL FAIRY TALE BY JIM MCCANN AND JANET LEE FEATURES COVER DESIGN BY EISNER AWARD-WINNING DESIGNER TODD KLEIN

Turning to one of the most well-respected designers in the comics industry to create an elaborate cover for one of 2010’s most anxiously awaited titles, Archaia revealed the final cover to RETURN OF THE DAPPER MEN, designed by the award-winning Todd Klein (America’s Best Comics). RETURN OF THE DAPPER MEN (with pre-order sales nearing 5,000 units even before official solicitation) is the highly anticipated all-ages title coming from writer Jim McCann (Hawkeye & Mockingbird) and critically acclaimed and award-winning visual artist Janet Lee.

“Having a master designer like Todd Klein on board Team Dapper is a great honor,” said Archaia Editor-in-Chief Stephen Christy. “I’ve been talking for months about how special this book is, and how much fun it is as an editor to be working on a fairy tale entirely unlike anything seen in comics before. With Todd joining creators Jim McCann and Janet Lee as we bring Dapper down the homestretch to publication, I can promise readers that this is one of those instances where the quality and artistry of this book lives up to the hype!”

The cover draws in many influences both within literature and without. “We wanted to go for a timeless feel, given both the importance that time plays in the story and the fact that this is a sort of classic fairy tale of old with some modern twists,” explained McCann. Janet Lee’s stunning découpage art is featured prominently in the cover design. “I love the look of books from the turn-of-the-century and classic children’s fiction. I love how they incorporate filigree and natural elements with illustrations that are now iconic,” said an excited Lee. “Todd was able to reference that feel and yet make it very today.”

RETURN OF THE DAPPER MEN (hardcover, full color, 128 pages, 9.5” x 11”, $24.95) is a visually stunning fairy tale that combines steampunk with fantasy and science fiction with Renaissance style. Together, McCann and Lee have created a world where J. M. Barrie, Lewis Carroll and Maurice Sendak meet Jim Henson and Tim Burton—all sharply dressed in a pin-stripe suit and a dapper bowler hat!

“Seeing this whole package come together with this level of production and talent involved, along with more surprises to be announced in the coming weeks, is a dream come true,” beamed McCann. “Knowing that Archaia is behind us and recognizing their established high quality production values in their hardcovers makes RETURN OF THE DAPPER MEN even more exciting as it gets closer to hitting shelves!”

A limited amount of advance copies of the RETURN OF THE DAPPER MEN hardcover will be available at New York Comic Con (Oct. 8-10 at the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York, NY) and will go on sale in comic shops and wherever books are sold in November. To pre-order a copy, use ISBN code 978-1932386905.

Top Cow’s Pilot Season 2010

Publisher Top Cow produced a grand idea when they launched the Pilot Season initiative a few years ago. Basically, they unleash a few one-shots and the discerning public vote on which story deserves a series. Below are the official details from this year’s offerings, complete with all the snazzy covers. There’s something for everyone!

TOP COW DEBUTS NEW ‘PILOT SEASON’ CONCEPTS AND FORMAT

Top Cow Productions, Inc. proudly announced today that Pilot Season 2010 will debut next month with six new concepts and six different creative teams, and will adopt a 6-week event format.  The 32-page preview book, Pilot Season 2010: Declassified, first made available at this year’s Comic-Con International: San Diego, will be available in stores later this month.

Since 2007, Top Cow has given fans the power to choose the next two Top Cow series based on a selection of one-shot Pilot Season “pilot” issues through online voting.  The inaugural Pilot Season initiative garnered more than four million votes from fans across the globe.

”Pilot Season started as an experiment, but has evolved into a highly anticipated yearly event,” commented Top Cow Publisher Filip Sablik, “This year we’re amping up the intensity based on fan and retailer feedback by releasing all 6 projects in a weekly format. With a wide variety of creators, genres, and styles represented, I’m confident there’s something for everyone in this 2010’s contestants!”

The six new concepts include:

Pilot Season: Forever #1 – Created by Matt Hawkins and written by screenwriter Brad Ingelsby with art by Thomas Nachlik with a cover by Bagus Hutomo of IFS, Pilot Season: Forever #1 focuses on a pharmaceutical company, Longevity™, and their development of a drug that extends human life and counters the debilitating effects of aging almost indefinitely.

Pilot Season: 39 Minutes #1 – Created and written by William Harms and debuting art from Jerry Lando with a cover by Rafael Albuquerque, Pilot Season: 39 Minutes #1 turns a heist story on its head when a bank robber’s only solution to getaway from a surrounded bank full of customers and employees is to kill everyone in their way.

Pilot Season: Crosshair #1 – Created and co-written by Marc Silvestri and co-writer Jeff Katz with art by Allan Jefferson, Pilot Season: Crosshair #1 centers on former assassin for the CIA, Justin Weller, who just settled into the life of a loving husband and devoted father in the suburbs, coping with the discovery that he has been brainwashed to kill the President of the United States.

Pilot Season: The Asset #1 – Created and written by Filip Sablk and debuting art from David Marquez with a cover by Jenny Frison, Pilot Season: The Asset #1 redefines the femme fatale for the digital age. Madeline is the woman of Doug’s dreams; the same woman who’s trying to get Doug killed.

Pilot Season: 7 Days from Hell #1 – Created and co-written by the team behind Broken Trinity: Pandora’s Box,Bryan Edward Hill and Rob Levin, with jaw dropping art from industry legend Brian Stelfreeze, Pilot Season: 7 Days from Hell #1 finds ex-pat turned mercenary John Bishop mortally wounded, but spared from Hell by a renegade demon seeking redemption.

Pilot Season: Midway Earth #1 – Created and co-written by Marc Silvestri and Rick Loverd with art from Stjepan Sejic, Pilot Season: Midway Earth #1 sees our home planet as the strategic prize in a brutal war between two alien races.

Torchwood Comic Trailer

Now I’ve not seen an entire episode of the relaunched Doctor Who, not its spin-off Torchwood. However, I know a lot of people will be buying this tie-in comic from Titan Publishing, which goes on sale tomorrow. It’s written by lead actor from the series John Barrowman with art by Tommy Lee Edwards, who’s currently working on Turf from Image Comics with Englsih TV personality and life-long fanboy, Jonathan Ross. Trailer and press release for the new series below.

Tommy Lee Edwards and John Barrowman team up for Titan’s new Torchwood comic!

Titan Publishing is pleased to announce the launch of Torchwood comic, based on the hit BBC America show.

Acclaimed artist Tommy Lee Edwards, currently working with outspoken TV personality Jonathan Ross on the hit comic series ‘Turf’, has teamed up with John Barrowman (Torchwood’s Captain Jack) and his sister and frequent coworker Carole E. Barrowman, to produce ‘Captain Jack and the Selkie’.

‘Captain Jack and the Selkie’ is one of two original Torchwood stories in issue #1 and sees Jack facing a deadly threat on a remote Scottish island, where people are disappearing one by one. To his horror, Jack starts to suspect he may know who, or rather what, is responsible.

Barrowman is overjoyed to have worked with Edwards, who he describes as one of his favorite artists. The pair began their collaboration when Barrowman and his sister Carole came across a poster of Captain Jack at the 2008 San Diego Comic Con.

“Tommy and Trevor had drawn a brilliant poster of my face super-imposed over the Face of Boe, which I think is the best piece of Captain Jack art I’ve seen,” said Barrowman. “The four of us hit it off immediately and I asked if they’d ever be interested in working with us on a Captain Jack project. They thought about it for, oh, about 30 seconds, and so ‘Captain Jack and the Selkie’ was born!”

The second story is part one of a special five-part story written by Torchwood TV script editor Gary Russell. Entitled ‘Broken’, the story sees Captain Jack, Gwen and Ian to get trapped in a cosmic hotel, while an old villain from the TV series returns.

Artwork for ‘Broken’ is provided by Adrian Salmon, whose work includes The Cybermen for Doctor Who Magazine and Judge Karyn for the Judge Dredd Megazine.

Extra Sequential Podcast Episode One

On the wonderfully sunny Saturday morning just gone, my mate Mladen and I launched our very first podcast! It’s something we’d been talking about for a while now, and sure, we know there’s quite a few comic book/pop culture podcasts out there already, but hardly any in Australia, and especially in Perth, Western Australia. In fact, I think we are the only one. Most of the American podcasts are superhero centric, but Mladen and I have quite different tastes and rarely agreee on matters of the spandex brigade, so we thought we’d give it a shot. I must say, it went rather well. Both of us have had stints on community radio in the past few years so it was quite an easy experience, but tell us what you think dear listeners/readers!

We’ll be chatting it up weekly, and like the Extra Sequential magazine our aim is to make diehard fanboys and girls, and comic book newbies feel at home, so fear not if you’re not a regular comics reader!

You can listen to it our first episode through the player above or download it right here . It goes for just over 70 minutes and is broken down in to segments, if you want to skip through to the parts that may interest you more. So what did we talk about exactly? Well, here goes…

2:55 NEWS

Will Eisner’s A Contract With God film adaptation

Broken Frontier’s free, fortnightly digital mag now on iTunes

The death of Superman: The Movie and Superman II writer Tom Mankiewicz

The Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon

Also…Arkham City, the sequel to the excellent Arkham Asylum game

17:40 WHAT WE’VE BEEN READING

(Mladen) 20th Century Boys, Vagabond, Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant, Bouncer

(Kris) Brightest Day, Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne, Franken-castle

Also…impressive vocalisation of the names of foreign creators, Kill Bill, how DC is like Twilight, Alien vs Predator and more.

32:30 SUPERMAN/BATMAN: PUBLIC ENEMIES

We talk about the animated film, the comic that inspired it, the upcoming sequel and what we liked and didn’t like about it and somehow manage to discuss orphans, Superman’s exercise regime, baldness and craving for power.

52:48 TABLOID SIZED COMICS

We discuss oversized comics in the large newspaper style format, focusing on DC’s Wednesday Comics experiment and the indie anthology Pood #1 and also bring up 3 new TPBs from Top Cow, Rocky Balboa, Hawkman’s business card and cadmium.

1:05 WEBSITE OF THE WEEK

Project Rooftop We also chat about Wonder Woman’s new costume.

1:08:34 NEXT WEEK’S TOPICS

For episode two we’ll discuss vanity projects, Eisner Award winners and Asterix. Oh and for some reason we mention Vegemite.

Lucas Lee Film Posters

It’s good to see these props up close. From the film adaptation of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim comic (which opens next week!) comes this little treasure trove; 5 fake posters from the movies of pro skateboarder turned film star Lucas Lee, the 2nd evil ex-boyfriend that Pilgrim must fight. Chris Evans has played The Human Torch and is currently wearing Captain America’s suit for next year’s The First Avenger film, so it’s good to see he still has a sense of humour about being an action man. After having read the excellent, Showgirls, Teen Wolves and Astro Zombies about bad movies, I kinda want to see these made. They look like real straight to DVD films from 1996. You gotta love Evan’s best Zoolander impression and great slogans. Go Action Doctor!

Under the posters (all of which unsurprisingly have the same credits BTW) is a clip showing Pilgrim vs Lee.

Top Shelf Sale During August

I’m not one to keep a good deal secret, so here you are: on-line retailer TFAW (Things From Another World) is chopping 20% off their books from great indie publisher Top Shelf for the month of August. I’m always keen to see what the Shelf produce, as they rarely steer me wrong. Blankets, The Surrogates, American Elf, Essex County, Swallow Me Whole and more all come from the diverse team at Top Shelf, so check them out I say!

Get Graphic In Sydney

The Graphic festival continues this weekend at the Sydney Opera House. Sure, they’ve had Neil Gaiman, Kevin Smith, a screening of Akira with live music by Regurgitator and Shaun Tan’s wordless The Arrival also now with music. However, there’s still plenty of good (and free) events left over the coming days, including workshops on comics and publishing. Spaces may have gone by now, but you just may get lucky. More details can be found here.

On a related note the Triple J radio station had a brief feature on Aussie comics yesterday. It goes for just under 5 minutes and you can listen a few fans and creators speak including Maus creator Art Spiegelman and my fellow West Aussie Wolfgang Bylsma from Gestalt Publishing.

Broken Frontier On iPad

Yay! I’ve been writing for Broken Frontier for almost 2 years now, and am pretty pleased that we have  a new digital magazine to call our own, which is now available through iTunes. Official lowdown below.

Broken Frontier Launches New iPad App for Digital Comics Magazine The Frontiersman

App Now Includes Back Issue Catalogue, Remains Free

BF has launched a new iPad app for The Frontiersman, the world’s first digital comics magazine for mobile devices. The new app features the entire back catalogue of the magazine, with new issues continuing to be released for free on Tuesdays at a bi-weekly pace.

“Since we launched the magazine in early May, lots of people have inquired about the availability of back issues as The Frontiersman’s popularity continues to increase,” Broken Frontier’s Editor in Chief Frederik Hautain says. “As of today, all previous issues are accessible in our new app. Because the magazine was created specifically for mobile readers, we’re only making our back catalogue available there. Comics fans that don’t own an iPad can continue to download a free PDF copy of each new release on BF.”

The new app for The Frontiersman can be downloaded via iTunes at the following link:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-frontiersman/id382206249?mt=8

Currently, there are 8 issues of the magazine available, and the app updates itself whenever a new release becomes available. The Frontiersman #9 is set for release next Tuesday, August 10.

The Frontiersman, Exploring the Comics Universe. Go mobile and download The Frontiersman right now on iTunes or as PDF at http://www.brokenfrontier.com.

About Broken Frontier

Established in the fall of 2002, Broken Frontier (www.brokenfrontier.com) quickly built a solid reputation for its extensive, unique, and critical coverage of the comic book industry. Coverage includes headline news, interviews, articles, reviews, columns and blogs. The website covers every corner of the comic book industry, from mainstream to independent publishers, from print and digital publications to film and tv adaptations. Additionally, Broken Frontier is the publisher of the first digital comic book magazine for mobile devices, The Frontiersman.

Follow us on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/brokenfrontier

Become a fan on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/brokenfrontier

Batman And Deadpool Mania In October

We all know that, in the wake of the Merc With A Mouth making his big screen debut in Wolverine’s solo film last year, Marvel have been going nuts with Deadpool fever. In the new Preview solicits for October, Deadpool appears in 7 books, and 2 TPBs. That’s almost 2 new issues a week for the whole month. However, the new Uncanny X-Force title by Rick Remender and Jerome Opena sounds like it might be great, and the more adult Deadpool Max by Dave Lapham with art by Kyle Baker sounds just whacky enough to hold much promise.

The Dark Knight has him beat though, and how. Counting every book that has a Batman in it, whether that be the returning Bruce Wayne, or former Robin Dick Grayson, there’s a whopping 23 appearances of the Caped Crusader, and that’s assuming he doesn’t show up in Azrael, DC Universe Legacies, Knight & Squire or Red Hood: Lost Days. He’s sure to show up in at least one of those. So on average that’s almost a new Batman comic everyday for October. Phew. What has me excited though is Batman: Hidden Treasures, which is an old unpublished Bernie Wrightson tale, and with the assistance of Ron Marz, Len Wein and Kevin Nowlan, I’m sold.

The Lost Room Season 2 Comic

This is one of those announcements at San Diego Comic Con that I should’ve mentioned, but alas, faced with a barrage of good news, some things slipped through my net. Well, the writers of The Lost Room (a widely praised TV mini-series) will now have a follow-up in the form of a comic mini-series. Christopher Leone and Laura Harkcom’s We Kill Monsters was one of the surprise hits for me in the last few months (and is now available in TPB!) and The Lost Room is one of those shows I must get around to watching as it’s been recommended to me a few times and now might just be the time before Season 2 hits. Official press release below.

WE KILL MONSTERS writers Laura Harkcom & Christopher Leone announced at the Comic Con edition of “The Totally Rad Show” that “The Lost Room: Season II” will be published by Red 5 Comics next year!

The book is a sequel to their original television mini-series “The Lost Room,” which they co-created, co-wrote and co-executive produced for The SyFy Channel and Lionsgate Television. “The Lost Room” starred Peter Krause, Julianna Margulies and Kevin Pollak. The 6-hour series garnered much critical acclaim, with The New York Times calling it “…a jackpot for a mystery series,” and Entertainment Weekly citing it as “…one of the most creative ideas to hit TV in a while.” The show was nominated for two Emmys and a Writers Guild Award.

Since its debut in 2006, “The Lost Room” has continued to increase in awareness and build an ever-growing fan base.  In September of 2009, Salon.com featured an article about the show’s rising profile, raving, “Forget the latest from J.J. Abrams… ‘The Lost Room’ is a cult hit waiting to happen.”  Ain’t It Cool News said this weekend, “The Lost Room miniseries was, I thought, up there with ‘Battlestar Galactica’ as one of the best Sci-Fi Channel originals ever produced.”
The comic book picks up one year after the events of the miniseries. The story of the Key continues as it falls into the hands of a new protagonist: a hardened criminal who was finally framed for the one crime he didn’t commit.  The new Motel Man escapes prison looking for revenge, only to find himself in a new cell: Room 10.

“The Lost Room: Season II” is a 4-issue limited series that will publish monthly.  A search is currently underway for artists.

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