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"Sin" preem tonight

Good buzz is building on the film adaptation of "Frank Miller's Sin City," which is having its Hollywood premiere tonight. Variety's Todd McCarthy gave the film a positive review that starts like this:

Lurid run the streets of "Sin City," as aggressively faithful a rendering of a comic book aesthetic as has been put on the bigscreen with live actors. Deeply and digitally noir with the occasional slash of bold color to highlight a dame's golden hair or red lips and dress, Robert Rodriguez's guild-bolting collaboration with graphic artist Frank Miller is a Mickey Spillane fever dream, with a gallery of tough customers doing nasty things to each other on a shimmering monochrome canvas. For geeks, action freaks and sensation-seeking teenage boys of all ages, the price of admission will provide a one-way ticket to hard-boiled heaven, generating potent theatrical B.O. and even stronger returns in the homescreen afterlife.

Subscribers can read the full review here.

An All-New, All-Different Look

As you've no doubt noticed, Bags and Boards sports a new look, courtesy of occasional contributor and Variety.com production editor Erin Maxwell. Let us know what you think of the new look. And thanks, Erin! It looks great!

A Spider-Man movie e-letter from Sony states "Sideways" star and Oscar nominee Thomas Haden Church has been tapped to play the villain in "Spider-Man 3." No official word was given on which villain that will be, but Church bears more than a passing resemblance to Eddie Brock, the man who became Venom. The film is slated to start production early next year with a release date set for May 4, 2007.

Longtime Mad magazine rival Cracked! magazine has changed hands, with a new company being formed to revamp and run the humor mag. New company will be headed up by publisher-CEO Monty Sarhan, with ex-Marvel editor Tom DeFalco serving as editor in chief. The revamp of the magazine, which has been published continously since 1958, will break with the pure illustration model of its past and become a glossy magazine with a variety of content. The company also hired Sven Larson as associate publisher and Justin Droms as associate editor; both previously worked for Marvel.

IDW will bring last year's zombie hit movie "Shaun of the Dead" to comics form with a four-issue miniseries starting in June that will include deleted and unshot material. The series will be written by IDW editor in chief Chris Ryall with input from director Edgar Wright and co-writer/star Simon Pegg. The series will be drawn by Zach Howard with covers by Jason Brashill. IDW also plans a five-issue minseries based on "Angel," Joss Whedon's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" spinoff TV series. "Angel: Curse" also begins in June, with a story by Jeff Mariotte, art by David Messina and variant covers from such well-known artists as Ben Templesmith, Tim Bradstreet and John Byrne.

Catching up with goings on at DC:

• Superman #215, the conclusion of Brian Azzarello and Jim Lee's "For Tomorrow" story, will have a second cover by Lee and inker Scott Williams as well as 8 extra pages.
• The comicbook adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, which was a BBC TV series and a novel, is coming from DC in June. The nine-issue series will be adapted by writer Mike Carey and artist Glenn Fabry. A preview will appear in Fables #36.
• The covers to Identity Crisis #1-7 will be recolored for the final printings coming in April. A look at the recolored covers can be found here.

Marvel will publish six flipbook titles for its return to newsstands at 7-Elevens starting in June. The books will be 64-page comics collecting two issues of various Marvel titles and be priced at $3.99. The six titles and the comics they'll be collecting are:

• Ultimate Marvel (Ultimate X-Men and Ultimate Fantastic Four)
• Marvel Heroes (New Avengers and Captain America)
• Ultimate Tales (Ultimate Spider-Man)
• Marvel Tales (Amazing Spider-Man and Amazing Fantasy)
• Marvel Adventures (Marvel Adventures Spider-Man, Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four)
• Marvel Select (Astonishing X-Men, New X-Men: Academy X).

The flipbooks also will be available at comicbook stores.

The new issue of online quarterly Indy magazine examines the career of Art Spiegelman, from his underground days through "Raw," "Maus" and "In the Shadow of No Towers."

Third X-Men gets a director

Twentieth Century Fox and Marvel Entertainment have found a replacement for Bryan Singer on the third installment of the X-Men franchise in Matthew Vaughn. A producer on "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels" and "Snatch", this will be just his 2nd shot at directing. His first, a Brittish gangster drama entitled "Layer Cake" was well recieved overseas and had placed him in contention to direct installments of Harry Potter and James Bond franchise pics.

Vaughn was also a producer on the 2003 Neil Gaiman-directed documentary "A Short Film About John Bolton."

Wizard numbers

Wizard World Los Angeles is reporting attendance of 24,500, an increase of more than 20 percent over last year's 19,500. The press release notes that the show's attendance has in two years grown to half the size of that of E3, the annual videogame trade show now in its 11th year. Wizard World will move next year to the Los Angeles Convention Center, where E3 will be held in May.

"Killraven" booked

Marvel Studios chief Avi Arad kept quiet about "Killraven" this weekend at Wizard World, even when asked directly about the status of the project. But a deal to develop the 1970s sci-fi comic as a feature at Sony is expected in the next week. No director is set, but Pulitzer-winning author Robert Schenkkan is in talks to pen the script.

Wizard Wrap

Wizard World Los Angeles is a wrap, with next year's show taking the freeway north from Long Beach to the Los Angeles Convention Center. That move will certainly be a great one for Angelenos and the studios, though likely tougher on out-of-town guests.

The final day of the show was low-key, with the Joss Whedon "Serenity" panel the splashiest event. Whedon showed a heist scene from the film, which is based on his short-lived but much-loved TV series "Firefly" and is set to premiere in September. Whedon was joined by a large chunk of the cast: Nathan Fillion, Morena Baccarin, Ron Glass, Sean Maher and Jewel Staite. The panel was fun to watch as the cast horsed around with each other and Whedon, though a bit short on details. Whedon had little to say about his just-inked deal to make the "Wonder Woman" movie, though he did say he was not a big fan of the Lynda Carter TV series and that the character will be a lot stronger than she was on that show.

Surprisingly, a panel given at "Wizard School" for people who want to break into comics hosted by writer Allan Heinberg ("The O.C.," Marvel's "Young Avengers") had a larger turnout than the Vertigo/Wildstorm panel being held at the same time. DC's Bob Wayne, though stymied by a malfunctioning slide projector, revealed that an oversize hardcover Absolute Editions is on the way this fall for "Watchmen." The huge book will be slipcased, recolored under the supervision of original colorist John Higgins, and include extras from the long-out-of-print Graphitti Designs hardcover as well as some new stuff. The book will be price at about $100, but if anything deserves the Absolute treatment, this is it.

Off to see "Wizard World"

Fans milled through the exhibition floor at Wizard World Los Angeles in search of the latest and greatest in comicbook entertainment and came away with plenty to chew on.

The floor was crowded but not packed and the con was large enough to have plenty of things to see or buy and people to talk to, but it wasn’t so large as to be overwhelming in the way San Diego can be. That made it easy and fun to stroll through artists alley looking at indy comics, new toys and original artwork and still having time to make the big movie panels.

Guest of honor Avi Arad and actor Chris Evans showed up to preview “Fantastic Four,” starting with an extended trailer originally shown at ShoWest that gave fans their first good look at what the Human Torch’s and Mr. Fantastic’s powers will look like when the film opens in July. The clips showed a sense of humor in the film and the familiar teasing between characters, especially the Thing and the Torch.

Evans says that reflects a the good working relationship between cast members and that he and Michael Chiklis, who plays the Thing, got along especially well. “We're both from Boston, we're both pretty thick-skinned and we'd be going at it all day on the set. It'd be really fun to crack a joke and kind of smile and be like, ‘Hey, the Thing, Johnny — all right, this is gonna be good! It'll work!’ The banter off set really worked on set.”

Evans says that while he didn’t read comics as a kid, he wishes he had now that he’s read some. He also says he feels a great responsibility in making sure the movie doesn’t let down fans. “It's just keeping the people who really care about it happy,” he says. “So it's tough trying to juggle all those balls and it's nerve wracking.”

Arad says the Thing is his favorite character in the FF because he is the heart and soul of the team. "There are moments in this movie, where — guys, pretend like you've got something in your eye or drink your Coke or something. Pretend that you're not crying, because your date is going to look right in your eyes and see that the Thing will break your heart. And that's why we always loved him."

When asked about the status of a third X-Men film, Arad would only confirm that a release date had been announced of May 26, 2006. He would not confirm that a director had been chosen to replace Bryan Singer, who left the franchise to direct a Superman film for Warner Bros., but was confident the franchise would continue to be successful.

Arad also sees no end in sight to the success of comicbook material in popular entertainment. "It will always be a comicbook convention. But our kind of literature, our kind of culture today absolutely rules entertainment, DVD, animation, videogames. This is the source of it. There is trust and love for this material and now we see we are the most important component in pop culture, from ‘Star Wars’ to ‘Star Trek,’ from ‘Batman’ to ‘Spider-Man,’ from ‘Fantastic Four’ to ‘X-Men.’ This is what people want to see.”

A later panel offered a lengthy look at “Batman Begins,” which is going to try to cover a lot of plot from Bruce Wayne’s youth through his transformation into the Dark Knight and showdown with Scarecrow. The footage shown has a seriousness and scope to it that has been lacking in previous “Batman Films,”which is encouraging. Following was a look at “War of the Worlds” put together especially for the show and introduced onscreen by director Steven Spielberg and star Tom Cruise. Other films previewed included “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”

"Wonder Woman" gets her man

Joss Whedon has been announced as the writer and director for a "Wonder Woman" feature, coming from Warner Bros. and produced by Joel ("The Matrix") Silver. After "Buffy," "Firefly"/"Serenity" and a great job scripting Marvel's "Astonishing X-Men," this bodes well for the project.

Meanwhile, Matthew Vaughan is said to be the director for "X-Men 3." Vaughn is an associate of Guy Ritchie, and produced "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels," "Swept Away" and "Snatch." He also produced Neil Gaiman's "A Short Film About John Bolton" and directed a film called "Layer Cake," that has yet to screen in the U.S. Ain't It Cool News reports rumors that the film will feature new mutants including Beast, Gambit and a female Angel.

And with comics pros coming to town for Wizard World, the party will get started a bit early. Tonight from 7 to 9, artist Alex Ross will be signing at Meltdown Comics at 7255 Sunset Blvd. Meltdown also has some post-Wizard World appearances, with Grant Morrison set for a Q&A session on March 31.

The Spin on "Sin"

For those who've read "Sin City," watching the movie translation is a fascinating experience. With every line of dialogue and every shot composition painstakingly recreated from Frank Miller's stark black-and-white pages, there's no way not to compare what's on screen with what the reader imagined when they read the books. That gap will be bigger for some folks than others and will result in varying degrees of admiration for a film that's both admirable and flawed.

The big question is the one posed on the cover of Entertainment Weekly a few weeks back: Is "Sin City" the next "Pulp Fiction"? That question reflects the fan anticipation that's built since the release of the truly thrilling trailer. And if the question really is, "Will 'Sin City' be a surprise mainstream hit?" then the answer is, "Not likely." "Sin City" is both too much of a throwback to the 1940s noir films that inspired Miller in the first place and has too much of an arthouse feel to be a huge crowdpleaser. The violence won't appeal to older viewers while the sometimes caroony action and melodramatic dialogue will turn off those who prefer Hollywood-standard slickness to their movie thrills. And seeing three Sin City stories in one sitting emphasizes similarities in theme and character that make the film a bit repetitive.

But in an age when the cool scientific detachment of "CSI" is in vogue for crime fiction, the movie does successfully bring Miller's blood, guts and honor approach to the screen intact, and it's often a thrilling and hauntingly beautiful ride. The casting and the performances are all top-notch and seeing directors Robert Rodriquez and Miller bring to life the amazing visuals of the comic and such characters as the hard-nosed Marv (played by Mickey Rourke) is a joy to watch and soak in. This movie has "cult classic" written all over it, and it seems a sure bet that — even if it doesn't set the box office on fire — this film will earn enthusiastic fans and play to appreciative crowds on DVD and at midnight screenings for a long time to come.

Boom! Debut

Ross Richie, former publisher of Atomeka Press, has formed a new comics publisher called Boom! Studios that will release original and reprinted creator-owned work from Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, Howard Chaykin, Don Cameron, Dave Johnson and Mark Waid.
First up is a three-issue continuation of Hero Squared, by Giffen and DeMatteis. Collected editions will follow of previously published material including Giffen's "Trencher," originally published by Image; "Cyberella," by Chaykin and Cameron, from DC's Helix line of sci-fi books; and DeMatteis' "Seekers into the Mystery," first published by Vertigo. Waid will contribute an original project to be announced soon.

Awards that are Canadian

The nominees have been announced for the first Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards, known as The Shusters for Superman co-creator Joe Shuster. Only Canadians were eligible for nominations and the list includes most of the best-known Canadian creators such as Dave Sim, Chester Brown and Darwyn Cooke. The nomination of now-defunct Dreamwave as best Canadian comics publisher shows that there just aren't that many publishing houses north of the border. Voting is open to residents of Canada (looks as though we expats are out of luck), who can cast a ballot online or via snail mail. Winners will be announced at the Toronto Comicon on April 30.

Game Update

Electronic Arts and Marvel have teamed up to produce a new vidgame title set for fall release called "Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Impacts."

The fighter game will pit Marvel characters such as Spider-Man, Wolverine, The Thing and Elektra against EA’s  alien scientist Niles Van Roekel, who is out to create a new super army of vicious warriors. The game will feature game and character designs from comicbook artist Jae Lee and Paul Catling, who designed concepts and characters for a slew of Hollywood pics including “Spider-Man 2,” “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” and “Alien vs. Predator.” Marvel will produce a six-issue comicbook series that will introduce the new characters starting in May. The game is set for September release on PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube and PSP.

This comes just after Marvel suffered a setback in its case against NC Soft and Cryptic Studios, makers of the PC game “City of Heroes.” Marvel alleges in its suit that the game’s ability to create superhero characters that resemble its comicbook stars infringed on its copyright. But last week, a judge dismissed many of Marvel’s exhibits and claims on the grounds that the infringing characters submitted were created by Marvel and not by users of the game. Marvel says it still has confidence in its case.

Not surprisingly, Marvel will not be publishing the upcoming comicbook based on the game; that job falls to Blue King Studios.

Wizard's Back

Building on the success of last year’s inaugural Wizard World Los Angeles, the event is back at the Long Beach Convention Center this weekend with a larger floor presence, longer guest list and fuller slate of programming.

Gareb Shamus, chairman of the Wizard Entertainment Group, says the success of last year’s show — about 7,500 were expected to attend last year and nearly 20,000 showed up — helped the company to expand this year’s offering, bringing more exhibitors and Hollywood studios to the show.

The Hollywood presence is the most visible. Leading the pack is guest of honor and Marvel Studios chief Avi Arad, who will appear at a panel Saturday with actor Chris Evans to promote Fox’s upcoming “Fantastic Four” film. Other films sharing the promo spotlight are MGM’s “Amityville Horror,” with appearances by stars Ryan Reynolds (“Blade: Trinity”) and Melissa George (“Alias”); “Serenity,” the U pic based on TV show “Firefly,” with appearances by creator (and “Astonishing X-Men” comics scribe) Joss Whedon and the cast of the film; “Batman Begins,” in a presentation that will include footage from the film; and horror pics “The Ring 2” from DreamWorks and “Undead” from Lions Gate.

And there’s plenty more celebs of both the Hollywood and pen-and-ink varieties, including Marvel legend Stan Lee; “Jersey Girl” director and comics writer Kevin Smith; Allan Heinberg, writer on “The O.C.” and Marvel’s “Young Avengers”; Aspen Comics founder Michael Turner; “The Intimates” writer Joe Casey; “Lost” writer and comicbook author Paul Dini; “NYX” artist Josh Middleton; “We3” writer Grant Morrison; “Wolverine” and “Black Panther” artist John Romita Jr.; and stars from classic sci-fi shows and films including Lou Ferrigno (“Hulk”), Erin Gray (“Buck Rogers”), Catherine Bach (“Dukes of Hazzard”) and Sam Jones (“Flash Gordon”).

While those familiar with other conventions will find Wizard World fairly familiar, there are a few things that set these shows apart. One is the exclusive toys and comics available from the convention itself and from exhibitors on the floor. Early registrants receive rare sketch variant editions of Young Avengers #1 and Fathom #0. Exclusive toys include an Astonishing X-Men Colossus bust, a She-Hulk action figure and Muppets figures. An exclusive Dark Phoenix Heroclix figure from WizKids is expected to be hot item of the show after people camped out to get a shot at buying the Galactus figure last year.

Another difference is that popular programs require a ticket, available for free from the special events booth on the floor. Programming will take place in rooms named for Will Eisner and Bill Liebowitz, icons of the comics biz who died in the past year. Eisner was the innovative writer and artist who created “The Spirit” as well as graphic novels such as “A Contract with God” and instructional books such as “Comics & Sequential Art.” Liebowitz was an innovator in comics retailing, making his Golden Apple store on Melrose one of the most influential and successful in the industry.

“They were two people who had an incredible impact on the comics world,” Shamus says. “(Eisner) has influenced generations of creators. And then what else he did was he really influenced generations of people and their impressions of comic books too.” Liebowitz was an avid supporter of Wizard, Shamus says. “He always went above and beyond the call of duty to promote Wizard, to promote what’s going on.”

All this is part of the Wizard World strategy of expanding both the number of shows and the audience for its shows. Boston was added this year to the convention tour that also stops in Chicago, Texas and Philadelphia. The show also taps into hobbies other than comics, starting with those covered in Wizard’s other publications: ToyFare, Inquest and Anime Insider.

Shamus says the growing popularity of anime on the West Coast led to a full schedule of screenings and a cosplay event featuring costumes and sketches.

Gaming will be a major part of the show. Back are the Heroclix and Upper Deck Vs. tournaments from last year, joined by an expanded videogame presence pegged to the Ultimate Video Game Challenge, sponsored by retailer GameStop. The challenge will feature about 40 consoles and 25 PCs set up for videogame competitions and to demo new games.

Shamus says the company’s plan is to continue to add locations and broaden the scope of the shows, with music being a possible next step. “We’re constantly scouting new locations, for new events,” he says. “We don’t want to do it too fast, but we want to be able to grow.”

The convention gets started Friday at 2 p.m. and runs through Sunday.

Weighing Options

Marvel is feeling conciliatory toward Stan Lee, with company officials stating during an earnings conference call that a judge's recent ruling has spurred discussions that could lead to a settlement of Lee's lawsuit. Lee, co-creator of many of the company's most recognizable characters including Spider-Man, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four, filed suit claiming Marvel had not lived to its obligation to pay him a share of movie profits per a 1998 contract.

Adrian Loudermilk's Venture Management has optioned comicbooks "The Waiting Place" and "Firebreather." "Waiting Place," by Sean McKeever, tells the tale of teens growing up in a small northern town. McKeever also has written comics for Marvel. "Firebreather," by Phil Hester and Andy Kuhn, is about a teen torn  between his divorcing parents: a regular soccer mom and a father who's a city-trampling monster.

DC has tapped former Columbia Pictures senior general counsel Paula Lowitt for the post of senior VP of business and legal affairs. Lowitt, who comes to DC from indie film finance company Senator Intl., will be involved in expanding the number of TV, film and animated projects based on DC characters.

Coming Monday: A look ahead at next weekend's Wizard World L.A.
 

Creepy and Creaky

Business Affairs

Business is definitely looking up for comics, a remarkable turnaround for an industry that only a few short years ago was nearing extinction.

The most recent issue of Comics Buyer’s Guide (#1603) uses Diamond’s sales rankings for each month's top 300 comics to estimate 74.5 million comics were sold in the direct market in 2004, up 2% from 2003 and a 3% boost in retail value to $213.4 million. A similar analysis of graphic novels found that segment hit $41 million for the year. Using Diamond’s market share stats, CBG pegs direct market orders at $328 million for 2004, an increase of 6%, and the best year for the biz since 1997. It’s also the fourth consecutive year of growth.

Last week, icv2.com reported the graphic novel market grew about 25% in 2004, bringing the industry to more than $205 million at retail. The site breaks down that number as $140 million through bookstores and other outlets and $65 million to $75 million. That’s up from 2003, when bookstores had $105 million and the direct market $60 million.

Marvel has a double whammy of good news with its new and expanded distribution deals with 7-Eleven and Barnes & Noble, along with strong 4th quarter results. Those numbers show the publishing division’s net sales rose 16% to $22.1 million “due to strength in core comic and trade paperbacks as well as growth in new mass-market retail chains.”
Compared to the 1990s, when a bankrupt Marvel was nearly liquidated, specialty shops were closing left and right, and comics sales were in near total freefall, this is encouraging news.

But, as always, there are significant challenges.

Marvel’s return to the newsstands at 7-Elevens and in bookstores is welcome in that it shows the company going after the new, young readers the industry is all too aware it has lost. But newsstand distribution is risky. Comics happily fled the dwindling newsstand market for the direct market in the late 1970s and early 1980s, hurt by the slow demise of the corner market and low prices that made comics less profitable to sell than other periodicals. The average $3 cost of comics these days has taken care of the profit problem, but will the all-ages material Marvel will put in these outlets appeal to enough kids? Do today’s parents let their kids hang out at the 7-Eleven the way they did in decades past? Newsstand comics are returnable. If they don’t sell, the losses could pile up quickly. At least Marvel’s stable enough financially to try this and DC will likely try to find some way to compete in this arena.

For the direct market, the problem is one of haves and have nots. High profile books like The Ultimates 2 and Identity Crisis sell by the truckload, but the drop off in sales is extremely steep for everything else. Books that feature anything other than the top-tier established superheroes can barely get off the ground. Even if new comics do OK on their first few issues, the audience attrition for most books is amazingly quick, saved solely by the prospect of long-tem sales in a collected edition. Direct market majors can always cancel and relaunch (see Runaways, Hard Time or She-Hulk), but for indie publishers, it’s increasingly difficult to draw in fans no matter what the quality. Healthier mainstream presence for comics would, ideally, draw the most rabid new readers into the direct market and grow it some, but for long-term health the market needs sales need to level out a bit between the top 20 sellers and everything else.

These are difficult problems, but they don't threaten the future of comics the way the dire financial straights of the late 1990s did. It's easy to complain that comics don't sell the numbers they used to, but having a comics business that's stable and relatively healthy is a significant improvement from where we were 10 years ago.

Shellhead Shock

"Invincible" Takes Off

Paramount has bought the film rights to "Invincible," the teen superhero Image Comics series by writer Robert Kirkman, who's been all over the comics biz lately with "The Walking Dead" and plenty of work for Marvel, including "Marvel Team Up." Kirkman will write the screenplay — his first — and the pic will be produced by "Constantine's" Lorenzo Di Bonaventura and Circle of Confusion partner David Alpert.

Marvel Goes to School

Marvel will put 1 million Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four comics in the hands of second- through fourth-graders through a lesson plan that uses the cosmic quartet to teach reading, science, math and visual arts. Of course, it also promotes the big budget movie adaptation, set for a July 8 release. The program, announced by Marvel Studios chief Avi Arad at the Bear Stearns media confab in Palm Beach, Fla., is called Do Your Own Thing and features an essay contest; winner gets drawn into an FF comic and $1,000 in Toy Biz merchandise. The program will be carried out by Cover Concepts, a Marvel subsid and the largest distributor of classroom materials, and runs from March 14-April 29.

The program marks the first major effort by Marvel to target kids — a dwindling part of the comics-reading audience — and will be supplemented by a separate deal that will put Marvel comics in 7,000 7-Eleven stores and expand Marvel's presence in Barnes & Noble by 300 stores. While the new focus on attracting kid readers to Marvel comics is welcome and long-overdue, the move does raise questions about the film and whether the company has decided its appeal will be limited to kids.

Arad also talked about the company's upcoming movie slate, saying "Ghost Rider" is shooting Down Under with Nic Cage and Eva Mendes starring and a director should be announced soon for "X-Men 3." He also admitted the company made a mistake in rushed the underwhelming "Elektra" into theaters and said it would not happen again.