True Story, Swear to God: This One Goes to 11

Creator: Tom Beland

AiT-PlanetLar, 176 pages, black-and-white, $14.95

So? Describing this book and why it's so touching is both difficult and easy. Easy because Beland's portrayal of his relationship is honest, heartfelt and truly touching. Difficult because there's almost no simple, one-sentence way to convey the myriad of small, wonderful ways in which this seemingly simple book works its magic. In that way, it's a lot like the subject it portrays. This is the second collection of Beland's comicbook series and starts with him living in Napa thousands of miles from his girlfriend, Lily, who lives in Puerto Rico. They go through a hurricane via long-distance and then have a tough choice to make about how they'll stay together. Beland's honesty and effective cartooning bring his authentic adult relationship to life with astonishing clarity and emotion. It takes only a few pages to believe he and Lilly are really in love and that they're as real as your own friends, family, neighbors and co-workers. The emotional turmoil on occasion gets a little thick, but it's easy to forgive people who feel like your friends their little flaws. This isn't a sexy, movie-style romance story, but it is a rare love story that feels like the real thing. Grade: A-

F-Stop

Creators: Antony Johnston, writer; Matthew Loux, artist

Oni Press, 168 pages, black-and-white, $14.95

So? A more standard form of romantic comedy can be found in "F-Stop," a tale of a struggling photographer whose chance meeting with a model leads to a complicated, Three's Company style series of events that lands him atop the fashion pic biz. The romance plot at times takes a back seat to Johnston's jabs at the fashion biz, which are well deserved and a lot of fun. Loux, in drawing his first comics work, has a lot of fun telling this story with well-defined and, yes, fashionably stylish art. The plot's reliance on genre conventions gets predictable by the end and the romance doesn't have the emotional chops to take up the slack. The end result is perfectly unobjectionable, but not good enough or unusual enough to warrant special attention. Grade: C

Green Lantern #1

Creators: Geoff Johns, writer; Carlos Pacheco, pencils; Jesus Merino, inks; Ethan Van Sciver, artist

DC Comics, 44 pages, color, $3.50

So? Now that Hal Jordan's back wearing the emerald ring, what next? Well, Hal's back to being a full-time test pilot and part-time superhero, living in the reconstructed but largely abandoned Coast City and catching up with friends and family members. This is much more fun than the "Rebirth" miniseries that preceeded it, if for no other reason than "Rebirth" had as its sole mission finding a way to resurrect and rehabilitate Hal in a convincing way. Now, we can get to know him a little better, and it turns out he's not such a bad guy. Not a lot of plot happens in this issue, even though it's double size, but plenty gets set up with a new threat from outer space infiltrating Earth and Hal's instant attraction to sexy test pilot Capt. Jillian Pearlman. The test pilot aspect is the one element that feels a bit odd. It was surely a very cool job for boys to dream about when the character first appeared in the late 1950s, an age when test pilots were national heroes and went on to become astronauts. But the job as portrayed here seems to have changed not at all in the past four decades and therefore has an odd, dated feel to it. The potential for great space opera in Green Lantern looks to be the most promising direction for the title, as long as it doesn't get too bogged down in backstory. Pacheco is an unsung artist in the comics biz. He had underrated runs a few years back on "X-Men" and "Avengers Forever" for Marvel, and this book should help raise his star. His clean and attractive art is well-colored by Moose Baumann and helps ground the characters while creative storytelling gives unexpected weight to the outer space action. There's still a ways to go to make this a must-read book for readers who aren't already GL fans, but the book and concept is more interesting than it's been in a long time. Grade: B+

Fantastic Four #527

Creators: J. Michael Straczynski, writer; Mike McKone, pencils; Andy Lanning, inks

Marvel, 32 pages, color, $2.99

So? With the countdown to the "Fantastic Four" movie under way, Marvel brings a new creative team onto its flagship title. Straczynski has been a Marvel mainstay for a while with a lengthy run on "The Amazing Spider-Man" as well his own "Supreme Power" series. The science-fiction elements central to the FF so far makes this an even better fit for JMS, creator of the "Babylon 5" TV series, than "Spider-Man." First issue sets a nice mixture of tones that spotlights Reed Richards and the Thing. Reed feels melancholy from the weight of the knowledge he alone is privy to understand, a feeling compounded by his taking a side job to pay the bills that has potentially profound results. JMS takes a different route with the Thing, who shows off his playful side in this story when he finds he has a large amount of money to his name. These scenes are both fun and funny, though will surely earn some complaints from die-hards that Ben should be portrayed more seriously. McKone was lured away to an exclusive at Marvel from his clear and clean work on DC's "Teen Titans" and it pays off pretty well, though at times Paul Mounts' coloring overwhelms and obscures the artwork.  Grade: B-

Brian Lee O'Malley's very funny "Scott Pilgrim" comic, published by Oni Press, has been optioned for feature film development by Universal and Marc Platt Prods. Michael Bacall is scripting and "Shaun of the Dead" helmer Edgar Wright is set to direct. Bacall's writing credits include "Bookies" and the forthcoming "In Search of Captain Zero."

New Line has picked up the license to "The Interman," a self-published graphic novel by Jeff Parker. Pic will be produced by Beau Flynn and Tripp Vinson through their NL-based shingle Contrafilm. "The Exorcist: The Beginning" scribe Alexi Hawley will pen the script. Project came to the attention of Contrafilm development exec Lisa Zambri from Illuminati Entertainment's Ford Lytle Gilmore. Zambri will be associate producer and Gilmore co-producer on the pic.

Alan Moore has severed his last ties with DC Comics and its Wildstorm imprint and will publish the third series of his popular "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" series through Top Shelf.

Reports such as this one from CBR's Rich Johnston say the move was precipitated by comments made by producer Joel Silver in a press release for the film adaptation of "V for Vendetta," which Moore and artist David Lloyd created in the 1980s. Moore objected to Silver saying in the release that Moore had read the script for the project and approved of the direction the film was taking. Moore has long distanced himself from film projects based on his comics — including "From Hell," "Constantine" and "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" — asking instead that his share of any proceeds from film projects be split among the other creators and that his name not be associated with the film. In the case of "V for Vendetta," Moore says he did receive a call from exec producer Larry Wachowski but declined to have anything to do with the film. When his request for a retraction or apology went unanswered and as he neared the end of his contract with Wildstorm/DC, he decided he will take his future comics projects elsewhere.

Moore created some spectacularly popular and acclaimed comics for DC in the 1980s, including a revival of Swamp Thing and the perennial classic "Watchmen," currently on the blocks at Paramount. He severed his direct contacts with DC in the mid-1980s, following disputes over a possible ratings system and what he felt were too many creative restrictions. In the 1990s, Moore took his idea for a superhero-adventure line of comics, called America's Best Comics, to Jim Lee's Wildstorm studios, kicking it off with the first "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" series. When Lee sold the company to DC, Moore stayed on by dealing with the company solely through Wildstorm.

Jerry Siegel and Arnold Drake will receive the first Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comics Writing. Siegel is, of course, co-creator of Superman with Joe Shuster. Siegel also co-created The Spectre for DC in a career that saw him leave the company in the 1940s during a dispute over ownership of Superman. He returned in the late 1950s, writing Superman tales for another 10 years before he again left the company. He died in 1996. Drake is best known for his work at DC in the 1960s, where he co-created Doom Patrol and Deadman. He wrote comics including X-Men, Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, Bugs Bunny, Batman and Superman into the 1980s. The awards were chosen by a blue-ribbon panel of judges comprised of Jerry Robinson, Mark Evanier, Denny O'Neil, Jules Feiffer and Roy Thomas. The award will be presented at the Eisner Awards ceremony at Comic Con Intl. in July.

Topher Grace has been cast as an unnamed villain in "Spider-Man 2." Grace, best known for his role on Fox sitcom "That '70s Show" and roles in "Traffic," "In Good Company" and "P.S.," joins newcomer Thomas Hayden Church on the villain side of the pic. Speculation surrounding Church had him playing either Venom or Sandman. Thesps Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst and James Franco are set to reprise their roles for director Sam Raimi. Pic is set to preem May 4, 2007.

"A History of Violence," the David Cronenberg-directed pic based on the graphic novel by John Wagner and Vince Locke, debuted this week at Cannes to generally positive review. Variety's chief film critic Todd McCarthy led off his complete review this way:

Apart from some effective detail work with classical American cinema archetypes that makes parts of it play like a modern-day Western, "A History of Violence" is a surprisingly conventional film from the normally more adventurously mind-bending David Cronenberg. A tale of a prototypically normal Middle American family put to the test by crime and a disruption of its very identity, pic is dominated by familiar themes hyped by an extra dash of hot sex and graphic violence. But lack of depth, complexity or strangeness make this a relatively routine entry for the director, indicating moderate B.O. prospects for New Line upon planned Sept. 30 release after fest rounds.

Comics business site ICV2.com has its monthly sales report up for April. It was a good month for DC, which landed four titles in the top five — Superman/Batman #18, Green Lantern: Rebirth #5, Superman/Batman #19 and Superman #215. Marvel's The New Avengers #5, however, took the top spot and the company had 14 of the top 20 sellers. Periodical comics sales in comics specialty shops were down 5% from the same month last year, but graphic novel sales surged 28% to bring the combined category up 4% over April 2004. Leading graphic novel sellers were Vertigo's bargain-priced "First Taste" sampler, plenty of Frank Miller's "Sin City" volumes, Wizard's "Twisted Toyfare Theatre, Vol. 5" and the "Batman: Year One" deluxe hardcover.

Marvel has hired novelist Jonathan Letham to pen a new 10-issue series based on 1970s superhero "Omega the Unknown." Letham is best known for his novels "The Fortress of Solitude" and "Motherless Brooklyn," and will collaborate with artist Farel Dalrymple on the series, which is set to start early next year.

Toymaker Hasbro has given the Transformers comicbook license to IDW Publishing. First book will be a preview issue #0 set to come out in October. Transformers comics were most-recently published by the now-defunct Canadian publisher, Dreamwave. Marvel held the license during the 1980s.

The nominees for this year's Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award have been announced. Award will be given out during the Eisner Awards ceremony at Comic-Con Intl. in July. The noms are:

• Chris Bailey, writer/artist of Major Damage (Sky Dog)
• Ben Caldwell, artist of Dare Detectives (Dark Horse)
• Scott Chantler, artist of Scandalous (Oni)
• Timothy Green II, artist of Fraction, (DC/Focus)
• James Heffron, writer/artist of Territory 51, (Law Dog Comics)
  

Kelsey Grammer has been confirmed as the Beast in X-3. He'll play the blue, furry version. Also, Vinnie Jones is confirmed as the Juggernaut and talks are going on with Maggie Grace of TV's Lost to play Kitty Pryde. Fox also is looking for an actor to play Angel.

At Cannes, the Weinsteins announced development of a sequel to Sin City.

And actor Frank Gorshin, who played the Riddler on the 1960s Batman TV show as well as Bele in one of the few really good third-season episodes of the original Star Trek, "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield," died Tuesday at age 71.

Blogging's a bit light this week as we're consumed by comicbooks' younger, bigger and better paid cousin, videogames. But comics fans checking out the wares at E3 in Los Angeles this week have plenty to see.

Efocus' pre-E3 event Tuesday night at the California Fashion Mart sported a superhero theme, with large cutouts of Marvel and DC superheroes adorning the walls behind booths spotlighting mostly new gaming hardware. "Booth babes" dressed up as Supergirl, Batgirl and Wonder Woman walked around handing out free Marvel and DC comics to guests, some of whom could even be spotted reading them as they took a break in the lobby.

Wednesday, the first official day of E3, saw a signing by none other than Brian Michael Bendis (picture courtesy of my cell phone) at the Activision booth to promote their upcoming Ultimate Spider-Man game. The game retains the look of Mark Bagley's art and was pretty fun to play. Villains include Electro and Venom, the latter of whom you play part of the game as while Spidey's temporarily knocked out of the action.

Activision was the biggest comics-related booth with all its Marvel licenses, including X-Men: Legends II, which will feature Apocalypse and includes Bishop and a cool-looking Toad. Topping all this off was a quick appearance by Ioan Gruffud and Michael Chiklis, stars of the upcoming Fantastic Four movie, to sign posters and unveil the new trailer for the film, which is now available online and showing in front of the new "Star Wars" pic. Of course, there's an FF game, in which you can play as any member of the team.

Chiklis is looking to make the fans happy, showing up in a T-shirt with orange lettering that said — what else? — "It's Clobbering Time!" Over at the Universal booth, the new Hulk: Ultimate Destruction game was on hand, in which you have Hulk run all over the city and smash things.

Not to be outdone, DC games were in evidence, though not as centrally prominent. Majesco had a fun, kids-oriented game based on the Teen Titans cartoon and a game in the works based on The Darkness, while EA had its very-cool looking Batman Begins on display next to its impressive looking array of cool games you never thought you'd see such as The Godfather and From Russia With Love. EA also was sporting Marvel Nemesis: The Imperfects in the same batch of massive booths.

Today you can catch Mark Waid and David Nakayama, writer and artist respectively of the City of Heroes comicbook based on the game, signing at the NCSoft booth. And Greg Horn, painter of many a cover for Marvel, will be at the Hip Games booth.

The Omac Project #1

By Greg Rucka and Jesus Saiz

Day of Vengeance #1

By Bill Willingham, Justiniano and Walden Wong

Villains United #1

By Gail Simone, Dale Eaglesham and Wade von Grawbadger

Rann-Thanagar War #1

By Dave Gibbons, Ivan Reis and Marc Campos

DC Comics, 32 pages, color, $2.99 each

So? These four six-issue minseries pave the path from DC's "Coundown to Infinite Crisis" 80-page special to this fall's event series "Infinite Crisis," and as such offer clues to where DC plans to take its newly reunified and consolidated universe. The talent assembled for these series is pretty impressive and it's disappointing to find that the first book to come out, "The Omac Project," is the best of the bunch. Rucka picks up the plot directly from the "Countdown" special, expanding on the new Checkmate organization and developing the "what does Batman know?" plot that began in last year's "Identity Crisis." The revamping of the Jack Kirby's funky original concept for Omac to place it in the present DC Universe is a neat trick. Saiz does a good job with the pencils, though his work is sorely missed on "Manhunter."

"Day of Vengeance" goes in a completely different direction, one that involves the Spectre seeking to destroy all magic in the DCU and a motley assortment of magical characters trying to figure out a way to resist. There's also a fun intro bit with Jean Loring and Eclipso that will surely come into play, though nothing further is done with it in this issue. But for a book that looks like it's out to revamp the role of magic in the DCU, "Day of Vengeance" does a poor job of introducing the status quo that's being changed and of making it clear how such bizarre minor characters as Detective Chimp are relevant. It's a read that's confusing to those who aren't intimately familiar with DC's version of magic, though Eaglesham is a good choice for artist with a style reminiscent of Chris Bachalo and the cover by Walt Simonson is, not surprisingly, great.

Similar confusion dogs "Villains United." Again, readers are given few clues who some of these characters are and just exactly who's assembling which teams of villains is again unclear. This is a common problem that pops up whenever comics start to lean heavily on continuity, as writers, editors and artists often end up having so much plot to fit into specific issues that simple things such as introductions that help bring readers in become the first things to be cut for space.

Rounding out this first wave is Rann-Thanagar War, which does a slightly better job of setting up its premise for the reader. This should be a fun action series, featuring a cool cast that includes Hawkman, Adam Strange and Green Lantern Kyle Rayner. These better-known characters make it easier to glean the info necessary to understanding the story. It's also an obviously fun idea to pit two of the DCU's most important alien planets against each other, and Reis and Campos give the book a nice sense of grandeur.

With 20 issues to go before these series wind their way to the start of "Infinite Crisis," there's a long way to go before the final picture becomes clear. It's a bold move on DC's part to try this kind of crossover again, since readers so frequently felt burned by too many bad megaevents in the 1990s. It would be nice if this kind of story worked better more often, because this kind of massive story is exactly the sort of thing that superhero comics and shared universes should be able to do that can't really be matched by TV, movies or videogames. Too often, though, it seems like these events are cooked up at the last minute or developed because a publisher needs an event to promote and sell books through. That this story is being developed through miniseries instead of in DC's ongoing regular titles indicates that some thought was put into how to package this product. But it  still feels rushed, crammed and jammed together in a way that so far reinforces the shortcomings of megastories and, unfortunately, does little to change their reputation.

Grades: Omac, B; Vengeance, C-; Villains, C+; Rann-Thanagar, B-

Sharknife, Vol.1

Creators: Corey Lewis

Oni Press, 136 pages, black and white, $9.95

So? Every so often there comes along a piece of pop culture, whether it's a song, a book or a film, that exudes an infectiously wild ride that's way more fun than it has any right to be. That's "Sharknife." It's almost impossible to describe the story and do it justice because the joy in this book is the strange experience of reading it. Nominally it's about a busboy named Caesar who works in a Chinese restaurant where monsters live in the walls and come out to attack just about every day. But when Caesar eats a fortune cookie, he becomes Sharknife, a huge dude who can put the beat down on these nasties. Reading this book is closer to the visceral experience of playing a really cool videogame (and there's lots of gaming connections in the story). And while this shouldn't be as much fun as it is, the insane enthusiasm Lewis throws into the book means it really doesn't matter if you can't really understand what you're looking at in every little panel during the fight scenes — you're still having a ball. Grade: A

Green Lantern: Rebirth #6

Creators: Geoff Johns, writer; Ethan Van Sciver, pencils; Prentis Rollins, inks

DC Comics, 32 pages, color, $2.99

So? Just when you thought that, with the last "Star Wars" movie and the end of "Star Trek: Enterprise," that nerdom's collective orgasm couldn't get any more intense, along comes the final resurrection of Hal Jordan, Green Lantern. This is an event Hal's die-hard fans have been awaiting for at least 12 years. It was the early 1990s when slumping sales on Green Lantern prompted DC to have Hal lose his marbles and slaughter a city, allowing a new GL named Kyle Rayner to slip on the ring. Hal was later half-way redeemed by being turned into the Spectre, but that never satisfied the die-hard Hal fans who formed a message-board trolling group called H.E.A.T. (Hal's Emerald Attack Team). That's the kind of baggage this series has to resolve and Johns handles it pretty well. It all ends up the way you'd expect, with Hal back in the saddle reciting his oath after having earned the respect of his fellow Green Lanterns and the rest of the DC Universe. He even gets to deck Batman, almost as if to show how worthy he is of rejoining the pantheon. The real test will be whether Johns and artist Carlos Pacheco will have any luck keeping the character exciting in the upcoming ongoing series once the excitement around Hal's return dies down. Hal fans will certainly be ecstatic over his return; anyone else will find it hard to get too excited about. Grade: C+

Comic Festival!

Creators: Darwyn Cooke, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Set, Dave Sim, Chester Brown, Jim Rugg & Brian Maruca, Dave Roman, Ray Fawkes & Cameron Stewart, Ramon Perez, Steve Manale, Kean Soo, chip Zdarsky, Salgood Sam, Attila Adorjany & Chris Weaver, Ben Sahnnon, Leslie Stein, Jason Azzopardi & Hope Larson, Brian McLachlan, Michael Cho, Ryan Carriere, Eric Kim & J. Torres, J. Bone, James Jean.

Legion of Evil Press/Toronto Comics Arts Festival, 40 pages, black and white, free

So? This anthology of comics from Canadian artists was one of the best contributions fo last weekend's Free Comic Book Day — so good, in fact, that it's worth paying money for. Highlights include a preview of Seth's upcoming "Wimbledon Green," a strange untitled story of a monster who loses his pants by Dave Sim and Chester Brown, a couple pages of "Street Angel," and Kagan McLeod's really cool "When I Wanted to Fight Bruce Lee." Wrapped up with flip covers by Darwyn Cooke and James Jean and you've got a worthy title at any price. Grade: A