Details, details

More details on Marvel's production plans show the company has put the rights to 10 characters down as collateral in its funding deal with Merrill Lynch. That collateral is only for the theatrical and motion picture production and distribution rights to those characters, which include Captain America, Nick Fury and The Avengers. The deal has Merrill Lynch making a $525 million line of revolving credit available to Marvel to make up to 10 pics with budgets between $45 million and $180 million over the next seven years. Given the financial success Marvel has had even with films such as "Elektra," it seems unlikely that there is much danger the company — well known for controlling costs — would default and lose those rights. For its part, Paramount will receive a fee from Marvel to promote and distribute the films; it will not be providing any production funds. Deal is the first major pact for new Par chief Brad Grey.

Meanwhile, the film version of "Iron Man" has hit a snag, as a deal with director NIck Cassavetes has not been finalized despite such an announcement having been made by Marvel and New Line months ago. Reportedly, Cassavetes is still working on a screenplay with "Smallville" chiefs Alfred Gogh and Miles Millar and "X2" scripter David Hayter. With no director on board, pic has been pushed back to 2007.

At the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld appeared at a news conference with Spider-Man and Captain America to promote the free New Avengers comic Marvel is producing for the U.S. armed forces. Details and a photo slideshow that shows the only thing more amazing than superheroes posing with Rumsfeld — kids reading comics — can be found here.

And in a strange turn, it turns out John Taddeo will not take ownership of the Acclaim/Valiant comics characters after all. A second group of bidders — Ashok Kothari, Jason Kothari, and Chandra Shamdasani — has concluded the deal. According to Newsarama, the group had submitted the same $920,000 bid as Taddeo and the court appeared to favor Taddeo's bid, which was contingent on being able to close the deal. Now, the site is reporting that the second group has actually completed the sale and plans to restore the characters to their original Valiant-era state.
 

"Batman Begins" earlier

Warner Bros. has moved up the release of "Batman Begins" from June 17 to June 15. The midweek opening is intended to parallel intl. plans to open the film on the 15th.

Marvel Goes Solo

Marvel has completed its transformation from the sleepy comicbook factory started by Martin Goodman into a true media player, announcing its intentions to finance and produce its own films and striking a distribution deal with Paramount. Marvel reportedly has $500 million set aside for a production fund to make movies based on its characters with budgets of up to $180 million. Marvel takes on a lot more risk than if it stuck with licensing its characters to studios the way it has done so far. But the limited b.o. success of films based on B-list characters such as "Elektra," "The Punisher" and the straight-to-cable "Man-Thing" (airing this weekend on Sci Fi Channel) seems to have prompted the company to take greater control of how those properties are handled. Marvel Studios CEO Avi Arad admitted to stockholders after the disappointing perf of "Elektra" that the film was rushed to completiion and Marvel would not make that mistake again. The film was a b.o. disappointment, but it has done well on DVD. Producing its own films means Marvel will reap significant financial benefits from DVD revenues and ownership of a catalog that is sure to have a long shelf life. Among the first characters in line for films are "Captain America" and "Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD." This also means that it is possible to make films starring multiple Marvel characters, such as "The Avengers."

The Par deal was followed by the release of Marvel's first quarter results and the announcement that the company has settled its lawsuit with Stan Lee for a sum of $10 million. Marvel beat preditions, but earnings were down 11.5% over Q1 2004. Publishing division was up 14% on strong comicbook and graphic novel sales; company saw increases in both the number of comics shipped and the average circulation of comics. Licensing was the star for the company, with a 52% increase from Q1 2004, mostly due to improved contributions from Marvel's joint venture with Sony on Spider-Man movie licensing and growth in international licensing. Toy sales were down over the same quarter last year, when "Spider-Man 2" toys were released in advance of the film.

Creative reunions

Couple of interesting assignments that reunite some popular writers with characters they worked on early in their careers.

• Peter David announced on his blog that he will be handling the writing chores on "Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man," a new title coming from Marvel in August. David's first writing work for Marvel was on Spider-Man and he is taking over from Mark Waid, who was originally announced as the book's writer but had to step away for various reasons. The book will be drawn by Mike Weiringo, who most recently drew Waid's run on Fantastic Four.
• Rob Liefeld and Gail Simone will be doing two issues of Teen Titans starting in August that will feature Hawk and Dove. Liefeld discusses the project on his new website, saying theses issues will give regular Titans writer Geoff Johns a breather so he can work on DC's upcoming Infinite Crisis miniseries. Liefeld did some of his first pro comics work on a Hawk and Dove miniseries in the late 1980s.

Comics on the Front Lines

Marvel announced in USA Today plans to produce a free comicbook to be distributed to U.S. armed forces personnell in Iraq and around the world. The comic will be an issue of New Avengers written by Brian Michael Bendis and drawn by Dan Jurgens and Sandu Florea; it will guest star most every hero in the Marvel Universe. The book will have a huge print run of 1 million copies and will be available for free at military exchanges. The project is part of a Defense Department program called America Supports You. And of course, the story gets into how valuable the comic might be as a collectible despite the monstrous print run. Marvel execs tell the paper the comic probably won't be much of a collectible, but then quotes a dealer who says he expects the book will sell for a decent price.

Defunct vidgame maker Acclaim's comicbook properties are now officially in the hands of John Taddeo, who has bought the rights from the trustee for $925,000. The purchase includes most of the original characters created for Valiant Comics, which was acquired by Acclaim in the mid-1990s. Valiant was a bright star in the early 1990s. Co-founded by former Marvel editor in chief Jim Shooter and Jim Massarsky, Valiant established itself with licensed revivals of 1960s Gold Key comics favorites "Magnus, Robot Fighter" and "Solar, Man of the Atom" before creating such original properties as "Harbinger," "Eternal Warrior," "Shadowman" and "X-O Manowar." Valiant pioneered marketing tactics such as free comics, coupon redemption and #0 issues. Its books were hugely popular during the speculator boom of the early 1990s (mostly because they came out on time and took advantage of the legendary lateness of the then-new Image Comics), but the publisher hit hard times when the comics market contracted severely a few years later. The company was acquired in 1994 by Acclaim, which tried to revive the properties. Acclaim's comics output slowly dwindled to zero and the company filed for bankruptcy last year.

Taddeo will have the rights to publish new comics with the characters and reprint old comics. But Taddeo has no rights to "Solar," "Magnus" or "Turok," so a reprint of Valiant's popular 1992 crossover "Unity" is out of the question. Classic Media, owner of those characters, has been licensing them out again, with new "Magnus" graphic novels being published by iBooks and hardcover reprints of classic "Solar" and "Magnus" material being published by Dark Horse.

And Newsarama has a report about the possibility of "Battlestar Galactica" returning to comics through Dynamite Publications. The new comic would be based on the hit Sci Fi revival show.

Short and Super

"Blade" star sues

Wesley Snipes has filed a lawsuit seeking more than $5 million in damages from the makers of "Blade: Trinity," including New Line, writer-director David Goyer and exec producer Toby Emmerich. The suit claims the screenplay, director and co-stars in the pic were hired without Snipes' approval in violation of his contract. The film opened in December and pulled in a domestic gross of $52 million.

New Line has optioned Ruben Bolling's alt newspaper comicstrip "Harvey Richards, Lawyer for Children." The film is envisioned as a family comedy and has been set up with Deviant Film and Silver Nitrate. John Glynn and Bridget McMeel of Universal Press Syndicate's Amuse division are exec producing.

"Sin City," which had racked up $61.3 million at the domestic b.o. through last weekend, will be competing for the Palme D'Or at Cannes this year — but it's not the only comicbook based movie up for the honor. "A History of Violence," the forthcoming film directed by David Cronenberg and starring Viggo Mortensen, also will be in competition and is based on the comic by John Wagner and Vince Locke. "Violence" was published by Paradox Press, a division of DC Comics and the line that produced "Road to Perdition." Cronenberg describes the film as "almost a classic Western feel to it, like a John Ford film, even though it's set in Indiana in modern times."

Pics have flooded the web the past day or so of Brandon Routh in his "Superman Returns" costume (click on the image for a better view). Other pics have shown up from Marvel's "Ghost Rider" of star Nic Cage and his flaming ride. And Ain't It Cool News is reporting that "X-Men 3" director Matthew Vaughn says actor Vinnie Jones is very close to signing on as Juggernaut for the pic. The site also says Vaughn is going to direct a film adapation of Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess' illustrated story "Stardust."

Marvel made the largest gains in licensing revenues last year, according to License! Magazine. Sales of licensed products went from $189 million in 2003 to $4 billion in 2004, moving the company up the mag's rankings from No. 69 to No. 4. Topping the list were Disney ($15 billion), DC Comcis parent Warner Bros. ($6 billion) and Nickelodeon-Viacom ($4.75 billion).

ICV2.com's direct market sales estimates for March are out, showing strong growth in sales of graphic novels for the month and for the first quarter. Graphic novels sales were up 24% for March and 27% for the first quarter over the same periods last year. Periodical comics sales also were up: 2% for March and 3% for the quarter. That puts total growth at 6% for both March and the quarter. Leading the comics sales chart was DC's 80-page, $1 special "Countdown to Infinite Crisis," with nearly 200,000 copies. But Superman #214 was the only other DC book to crack the top 25, which was dominated by Marvel. Nine new Marvel titles and 13 "X-Men" titles could be found on the list. Topping the graphic novels chart was Frank Miller's "Sin City: A Dame to Kill For" — which was not one of the stories adapted for the film — and Dark Horse's adaptation of "Star Wars: Episode III." Lastly, Tom Spurgeon at the Comics Reporter notes that the sales for comics in the 10th, 25th, 50th and 100th spots on ICV2's charts all show increases over the same-ranked titles from last year. This seems to indicate some improvement in the overall market and should take some of the performance pressure off mid-level titles.

Platinum Studios has bought a 20% stake in French comicbook syndicate Hexagon Comics, including exclusive worldwide film and TV rights. Hexagon's library includes about 200 properties created over the past 50 years. Platinum, headed by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, is looking for production partners for live-action and animated projects for the U.S. and European markets.

Art collectors and Charles Schulz fans were horrified by this story about a naked woman who tore up and flushed down the toilet an original "Peanuts" strip worth $90,000. In other "Peanuts" news, Namco has obtained the videogame rights to the strip.

In short: DC Comics will offer a free special edition of the first issue to the hit series Ex Machina on May 4. ... Marvel talent relations manager and editor C.B. Cebulski has left the company to spend time with his family. ... Cabler Bravo will air a triptych of comicbook specials May 26-28: "Ultimate Super Heroes," "Ultimate Super Villains" and "Ultimate Super Vixens." ... Online comic Bento & Starchky has been disqualified from the Eisner Awards; creator Peter Branting says he made a typo in his submission and the strips first appeared in 2005. The awards are for the 2004 calendar year.

Eisner Noms Official

The list of Will Eisner Comic Book Industry Awards nominees was announced today. I was one of the judges (and the press release has been corrected -- I am definitely at Variety and not the distinguished competition). The judging was held April 1-4 in San Diego and it was a thrill sifting through so much material and making some very tough calls with a group of judges whose passion for and knowledge of comics was truly outstanding.

As with any awards, there will be complaints that something great was not nominated. Everything was given due consideration and there were some great discussions and back and forth. Nothing was nominated that didn't have top ratings from at least two judges and a number of the categories were incredibly tough to narrow down.

Here's the list of nominations:

Best Short Story

• “Eve O’ Twins,” by Craig Thompson, in Rosetta 2 (Alternative)
• “Glenn Ganges: Jeepers Jacobs,” by Kevin Huizenga, in Kramer’s Ergot 5 (Gingko Press)
• “God” (story on wrap-around dust jacket) by Chris Ware, in McSweeney’s Quarterly #13 (McSweeney’s)
• “The Price,” by Neil Gaiman and Michael Zulli, in Creatures of the Night (Dark Horse Books)
• “Unfamiliar,” by Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson, in The Dark Horse Book of Witchcraft (Dark Horse Books)
• “Where Monsters Dine,” by Troy Hickman, Angel Medina, and Jon Holdredge, in Common Grounds #5 (Top Cow/Image)

Best Single Issue (or One-Shot)

• Demo #7: “One Shot, Don’t Miss,” by Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan (AiT/Planet Lar)
• Eightball #23: “The Death Ray,” by Dan Clowes (Fantagraphics)
• Ex Machina #1: “The Pilot,” by Brian K. Vaughan, Tony Harris, and Tom Feister  (WildStorm/DC)
• Global Frequency #12: “Harpoon,” by Warren Ellis and Gene Ha (WildStorm/DC)
• The Goon #6: “Ilagarto Hombre!,” by Eric Powell (Dark Horse)

Best Serialized Story

• Astonishing X-Men #1-6: “Gifted,” by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday (Marvel)
• Ex Machina #2-5: “State of Emergency,” by Brian K. Vaughan, Tony Harris, and Tom Feister (WildStorm/DC)
• Fables #19-27: “March of the Wooden Soldiers,” by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, and Steve Leialoha (Vertigo/DC)
• Planetary #19-20: “Mystery in Space/Rendezvous,” by Warren Ellis and John Cassaday (WildStorm/DC)
• Y: The Last Man #18-20: “Safeword,” by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra, and José Marzan Jr. (Vertigo/DC)

Best Continuing Series

• Astonishing X-Men, by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday (Marvel)
• Ex Machina, by Brian K. Vaughan, Tony Harris, and Tom Fesiter (WildStorm/DC)
• The Goon, by Eric Powell (Dark Horse)
• Stray Bullets, by David Lapham (El Capitan)
• Y: The Last Man, by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra, and José Marzan Jr. (Vertigo/DC)

Best Limited Series

• DC: The New Frontier, by Darwyn Cooke (DC)
• Demo, by Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan (AiT/Planet Lar)
• 30 Days of Night: Return to Barrow, by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith (IDW)
• WE3, by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely (Vertigo/DC)
• Wanted, by  Mark Millar and J. G. Jones (Top Cow/Image)

Best New Series

• Astonishing X-Men, by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday (Marvel)
• Doc Frankenstein, by the Wachowski Brothers and Steve Scroce (Burlyman)
• Ex Machina, by Brian K. Vaughan, Tony Harris, and Tom Fesiter (WildStorm/DC)
• The Shaolin Cowboy, by Geof Darrow (Burlyman)

Best Publication for a Younger Audience

• Amelia Rules!, (Renaissance Press) and Amelia Rules! What Makes You Happy (iBooks) by Jimmy Gownley
• Courtney Crumrin in the Twilight Kingdom, by Ted Naifeh (Oni)
• Owly, by Andy Runton (Top Shelf)
• Plastic Man, by Kyle Baker and Scott Morse (DC)
• Tommysaurus Rex, by Doug TenNapel (Image)

Best Humor Publication

• Angry Youth Comix, by Johnny Ryan (Fantagraphics)
• Birth of a Nation, by Aaron McGruder, Reginald Hudlin, and Kyle Baker (Crown)
• The Goon, by Eric Powell (Dark Horse)
• Kyle Baker, Cartoonist, by Kyle Baker (Kyle Baker Publishing)
• Plastic Man, by Kyle Baker and Scott Morse (DC)

Best Anthology

• Common Grounds, by Troy Hickman and others, edited by Jim McLauchlin (Top Cow/Image)
• The Dark Horse Book of Witchcraft, edited by Scott Allie  (Dark Horse Books)
• The Matrix Comics, vol. 2, edited by Spencer Lamm (Burlyman)
• McSweeney’s Quarterly #13, edited by Chris Ware (McSweeney’s)
• Michael Chabon Presents The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist, edited by Diana Schutz  and David Land (Dark Horse)

Best Digital Comic

• Athena Voltaire, by Steve Bryant 
• Bento & Starchky, by zer0 (Peter Branting)
• Copper, by Kazu 
• Jonny Crossbones, by Les McClaine
• Mom's Cancer, by Brian Fies 
• ojingogo, by matt forsythe 

Best Graphic Album—New

• Blacksad Book 2: Arctic Nation, by Juan Diaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido (iBooks)
• It’s a Bird . . ., by Steven T. Seagle and Teddy Kristiansen (Vertigo/DC)
• The Originals, by Dave Gibbons (Vertigo/DC)
• Suspended in Language, by Jim Ottaviani and Leland Purvis (GT Labs)
• Tommysaurus Rex, by Doug TenNapel (Image)

Best Graphic Album—Reprint

• Age of Bronze: Sacrifice, by Eric Shanower (Image)
• Bone One Volume Edition, by Jeff Smith (Cartoon Books)
• The Book of Ballads, by Charles Vess and others (Tor)
• Clyde Fans, by Seth (Drawn & Quarterly)
• In the Shadow of No Towers, by art spiegelman (Pantheon)
• Locas, by Jaime Hernandez (Fantagraphics)

Best Archival Collection/Project

• The Complete Cartoons of the New Yorker, edited by Robert Mankoff (Black Dog & Leventhal)
• The Complete Peanuts, edited by Gary Groth (Fantagraphics)
• DC Comics Rarities Archives, vol. 1, edited by Dale Crain (DC)
• Krazy and Ignatz, edited by Bill Blackbeard and Derya Ataker (Fantagraphics)
• Russ Manning’s Magnus, Robot Fighter, vol. 1, edited by Katie Moody, Mike Carriglitto, and David Land (Dark Horse Books)

Best U.S. Edition of Foreign Material

• Barefoot Gen: A Cartoon Story of Hiroshima, vols. 1-2, by Keiji Nahazawa (Last Gasp)
• Blacksad Book 2: Arctic Nation, by Juan Diaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido (iBooks)
• Buddha, vols. 3-4 by Osamu Tezuka (Vertical)
• Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return, by Marjane Satrapi (Pantheon)
• Tokyo Tribes, by Santa Inoue (TOKYOPOP)

Best Writer

• Steve Niles, 30 Days of Night: Return to Barrow; 30Days of Night: Bloodsucker Tales; Aleister Arcane (IDW); Freaks of the Heartland; Last Train to Deadsville (Dark Horse)
• Greg Rucka, Queen & Country (Oni); Gotham Central (DC)
• Brian K. Vaughan, Y: The Last Man (Vertigo/DC); Ex Machina (WildStorm/DC); Runaways (Marvel)
• Joss Whedon, Astonishing X-Men (Marvel)
• Bill Willingham, Fables (Vertigo/DC)

Best Writer/Artist

• Paul Chadwick, Concrete: The Human Dilemma (Dark Horse)
• Dan Clowes, Eightball #23 (Fantagraphics)
• David Lapham, Stray Bullets (El Capitan)
• Stan Sakai, Usagi Yojimbo (Dark Horse)
• Adrian Tomine, Optic Nerve #9 (Drawn & Quarterly)

Best Writer/Artist—Humor

• Kyle Baker, Plastic Man (DC); Kyle Baker, Cartoonist (Kyle Baker Publishing)
• Phil Foglio, Girl Genius (Airship Entertainment)
• Scott Kurtz, PvP (Image)
• Eric Powell, The Goon (Dark Horse)
• Johnny Ryan, Angry Youth Comix (Fantagraphics)

Best Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team

• Charles Adlard, The Walking Dead (Image)
• John Cassaday, Astonishing X-Men (Marvel); Planetary (WildStorm/DC); I Am Legion: The Dancing Faun (Humanoids/DC)
• Geof Darrow, Shaolin Cowboy (Burlyman)
• Cary Nord/Thomas Yeates, Conan (Dark Horse)
• Frank Quitely, WE3 (Vertigo/DC)

Best Painter/Multimedia Artist (interior art)

• Juanjo Guarnido, Blacksad, Book 2: Arctic Nation (iBooks)
• Teddy Kristiansen, It’s a Bird . . . (Vertigo/DC)
• David Mack, Kabuki (Marvel)
• Ben Templesmith, 30 Days of Night: Return to Barrow (IDW)
• Michael Zulli, Creatures of the Night (Dark Horse Books)

Best Coloring

• Peter Doherty, Shaolin Cowboy (Burlyman)
• Steven Griffen, Hawaiian Dick: The Last Resort (Image)
• Laura Martin, Astonishing X-Men (Marvel); Ministry of Space (Image); Planetary (WildStorm/DC); I Am Legion: The Dancing Faun (Humanoids/DC)
• J. D. Mettler, Ex Machina (WildStorm/DC)
• Dave Stewart, Daredevil, Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate Six, Captain America (Marvel); Conan, BPRD (Dark Horse)l DC: The New Frontier (DC)

Best Lettering

• Todd Klein, Promethea; Tom Strong; Tom Strong’s Terrific Tales (ABC); Wonder Woman (DC); Books of Magick: Life During Wartime; Fables; WE3 (Vertigo/DC); Creatures of the Night (Dark Horse)
• Stan Sakai, Usagi Yojimbo (Dark Horse)
• Dave Sim, Cerebus (Aardvark Vanaheim)
• Craig Thompson, Carnet de Voyage (Top Shelf); “Eve O’ Twins” in Rosetta 2 (Alternative)

Best Cover Artist

• Kieron Dwyer, Remains (IDW)
• James Jean, Fables (Vertigo/DC); Green Arrow, Batgirl (DC)
• Tony Moore, The Walking Dead (Image)
• Frank Quitely, Bite Club; WE3 (Vertigo/DC)
• Michael Turner, Identity Crisis (DC)

Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition

• Frank Cammuso (Max Hamm, Fairy Tale Detective)
• Bosch Fawstin (Table for One)
• Matt Kindt (Two Sisters; Pistolwhip)
• Sean McKeever (A Waiting Place; Mary Jane; Inhumans; Sentinels)
• Raina Telgemeier (“Smile,” Takeout)

Best Comics-Related Periodical

• Comic Art, edited by M. Todd Hignite (Comic Art)
• Comic Book Artist, edited by Jon B. Cooke (Top Shelf)
• Draw!, edited by Mike Manley (TwoMorrows)
• Indy Magazine online (www.indyworld.com), edited by Bill Kartalopoulos (Alternative)

Best Comics-Related Book

• The Art of Usagi Yojimbo, by Stan Sakai (Dark Horse Books)
• Chris Ware, by Daniel Raeburn (Monographics/Yale University Press)
• Give Our Regards to the Atom Smashers, edited by Sean Howe (Pantheon)
• Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book, by Gerard Jones (Basic Books)
• Strangers in Paradise Treasury Edition, by Terry Moore (HarperCollins Perennial)

Best Publication Design

• The Art of Usagi Yojimbo, designed by Cary Grazzini (Dark Horse Books)
• Clyde’s Fans, designed by Seth (Drawn & Quarterly)
• The Complete Peanuts, designed by Seth (Fantagraphics)
• In the Shadow of No Towers, designed by art spiegelman (Pantheon)
• McSweeney’s Quarterly #13, designed by Chris Ware (McSweeney’s)

Hall of Fame
Judges’ Choices:

• Lou Fine
• René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo

Four will be selected from:

• Matt Baker
• Wayne Boring
• Nick Cardy
• Yves Chaland
• Gene Colan
• Johnny Craig
• Reed Crandall
• Floyd Gottfredson
• Frank Hampson
• Graham Ingels
• Robert Kanigher
• William Moulton Marston
• Hugo Pratt
• Frank Robbins

Congratulations to all the nominees. The winners will be presented in a ceremony at Comic-Con Intl.: San Diego in July. I would like to thank Jackie Estrada for inviting me to be a judge; my fellow judges Gib Bickel, Tom Russo, Kat Kan and Steve Conley; and the people who helped out and made the experience so much fun, such as Batton Lash and Gary Sassaman.

DC drops Humanoids, 2000 AD

DC Comics is discontinuing publication of Humanoids and 2000 AD titles, citing poor sales. DC will reportedly continue to offer previously published books as backlist but will produce no new titles. Speculation over the fates of these imprints began when no titles were included in the company's just-released July solicitations. The decision was made public today via a press release.

DC struck deals with France-based Humanoids and UK's 2000 AD last year, starting its Humanoids editions in July and its 2000 AD line in September. The move for DC to publish imported comics was furthered by a manga line called CMX, which debuted last fall.

DC president and publisher Paul Levitz told Variety last summer that the company has found different flavors of comics work best in developing new readers. Levitz said the company hoped to make the books attractive to American readers by producing them in the less expensive trade paperback format common to U.S. comic shops. European comics volumes are usually  thin oversize hardcover books that can look awkward and overpriced on shelves next to books in the standard American size.

Humanoids had previously published American editions of its books out of its Los Angeles office. The deal with DC made it possible for Humanoids to get out American editions by such popular Euro creators as Enki Bilal into the American market. DC's long history with British writers and artists made the 2000 AD deal a logical move for the publisher, which published some of the material in color for the first time.

But an analysis of sales by Newsarama as well as the regular reports of estimated sales of graphic novels in comicshops by ICV2 show that few books from any of DC's international lines have made a dent saleswise. The most attention any of them have drawn came from CMX, which was criticized by fans for altering artwork to obscure sexually explicit images.

Second week, second place

"Frank Miller's Sin City" pulled in $14.1 million at the box office this past weekend to bring it's cume to $50.7 million. The drop off of 52% from last weekend's opening of $28 million is typical. "Sin" finished second at the b.o., behind "Sahara's" 18.5 million but ahead of the $13 million opening for Farrelly Bros.-directed comedy "Fever Pitch," which stars Drew Barrymore and Saturday Night Live's Jimmy Fallon.

Fans of Miller's should check the newsstand tomorrow for the new issue of Maxim, which will features stories on "Sin City" and star Brittany Murphy and a Frank Miller-drawn variant cover. The Miller cover will only appear on 20% of copies.

Dale Messick, creator of the comicstrip "Brenda Starr, Reporter," died last week at the age of 98. While referred to in some obits as a comicbook creator, "Starr" has only made three comicbook appearances. "Starr" was a newspaper strip that began in 1940, reaching its peak in the 1950s; it still appears in 20 newspapers drawn by one-time Marvel artist June Brigman with stories by Mary Schmich. "Brenda Starr" made it to the screen on three occasions: a 1945 serial that ran 13 episodes and starred Joan Woodbury; a 1976 TV movie starring Jill St. John; and most famously a film starring Brooke Shields and Timothy Dalton that was released in 1989, three years after it was film.

"Bone" creator Jeff Smith will be signing tonight at Golden Apple on Melrose to promote the release of his fantasy epic in color through Scholastic. Mad magazine artist and "Groo" co-creator Sergio Aragones also will be on hand to sketch for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. The signing will run from 6-8 p.m.

Three Deals

Trio of deals on comicbook movies have come to light:

• Jeph Loeb, who has dozens of comics credits and is a supervising producer on "Smallville," will write the script for a film version of Will Eisner's "The Spirit" for Odd Lot Entertainment and Batfilm Prods. Michael Uslan and Benjamin Melniker, who helped bring Tim Burton's "Batman" to the screen in 1989, will have a hand in the producing duties. Loeb is best known for his iconic interpretations of Marvel and DC characters with artist Tim Sale in series such as "A Superman for All Seasons," "Daredevil: Yellow" and "Batman: The Long Halloween." Eisner is one of the elder statesman of comics, known for his innovative work on "The Spirit," which ran as a comicbook supplement in newspapers in the 1940s, and for such graphic novels as "A Contract with God." He died in January. The top awards in the comics biz are the Will Eisner Awards, which are given out each year at Comic-Con Intl.: San Diego.
• Famke Janssen has signed on to reprise her role as Jean Grey for "X-Men 3," confirming the film will definitely get into the Phoenix storyline. So far, Hugh Jackman is confirmed with Halle Berry, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan also moving toward a deal to star in the pic, which will be directed by Matthew Vaughn.
• Top Cow comic "Proximity Effect" has landed at Universal with Stephen Sommers of "The Mummy" and "Van Helsing" fame producing it with partner Rob Ducsay. Sommers will not direct. Script dutes fall to Jason Rothenberg. Deal is second between Sommers Co. and Top Cow after "Flash Gordon," which Sommers is writing for U.

"Sin's" in; Watching the "Watchmen" film

Lots to catch up on after an extended weekend away ...

"Frank MIller's Sin City" was tops at the box office this past weekend with a take of $28.1 million on 3,230 screens. Reviews were generally postive and word of mouth seems to be good. The opening is comparable to those for "Constantine," "Hellboy" and "Kill Bill, Vol. 2." There's thousands of sites, posts and articles talking about the movie and the comics, though the best so far is Peter Sanderson's examination on IGN.com of reviews and the subtle and not so subtle ways in which critics reveal their love or disdain for comicbooks and comicbook movies.

While Frank Miller's magnum opus revels in its success, the adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' 1980s classic "Watchmen" has run into money trouble. The film's $100 million budget has fallen under intense scrutiny from new Paramount execs Brad Grey and Gail Berman, and some members of the London-based crew have reportedly been let go. The high cost of shooting in the U.K. has fueled speculation that the project may move elsewhere. The film's producers insist the project is going ahead with director Paul Greengrass ("The Bourne Identity"). In other "Watchmen" news, a report at Ain't It Cool News states rocker David Bowie has an interest in a rock opera version of the comic (scroll way down to find this tidbit), though plans are very tentative at this point.

A new CGI animated pic based on another 1980s comics icon, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird's "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," is in development at  Imagi with an eye toward a 2007 release. Pic is being written and directed by animation vet Kevin Munroe.

Frank Langella has been cast as newspaper editor Perry White in Bryan Singer's upcoming "Superman" feature.