May
20 Spidey Villain Team-up!

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)