The New Millennium Theater Company brings to the stage the horror comicbook Hack/Slash from Devil's Due Publishing just in time for Halloween. Hack/Slash follows Cassie Hack and her ogrish partner Vlad as they hunt down slashers from every conceivable B-movie ever made. The stage play Hack/Slash: Stagefright doesn't stray too far from Tim Seeley's (G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, Voltron) original creation. Projections of scenes from the comic books actually make up the backdrops. Mix in some fight scenes, scantily clad coeds and splattering blood (don't sit in the first row if you're wearing white), and you get an in-your-face fright flick right before your very eyes.

Chad Wise (Scooby-Doo Mystery Theater, Evil Dead! The Musical) directs Stefani Bishop (Cassie Hack), Adam Mack, Jason Bone and others. The show will play at the National Pastime Theater in Chicago from Sept. 23-Oct. 29.

Geoff Boucher in the Los Angeles Times has a lengthy and interesting writeup on the troubles surrounding the film version of "V for Vendetta" on the front page of the Calendar section today. The story talks extensively about the perception problem brought on by similarities between the plot of the film and this summer's bombings in London, the pushback of the release date from November to March, as well as writer Alan Moore's condemnation of the script and the replacement of lead actor James Purefoy with Hugo Weaving. Oddly enough, the story itself had some bad luck of its own, with the printed sub-headline reading "Fans of the graphic novel must wait till March for the troubled film, delayed by the London terror attacks" prompting a same-day correction saying the pic was delayed to allow more post-production time.

MAD ON DECK: "The Ultimates 3" is the beneficiary of Joe Madureira's return to comics. Marvel editors at this past weekend's Canadian National Comic Book Expo in Toronto basically confirmed Joe Mad would be teaming up with writer Jeph Loeb for the series. The new is set to be made official in the issue of Wizard magazine hitting stores tomorrow. Loeb and Mad will launch the third "season" of the series sometime after the current series, which is just past the midpoint,  by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch wraps up.

IN FOR A POUND: Looks like Marvel has opened its own webstore for the UK market. So far, the site's offering toys, books and various trade paperback collections. The main page says the store will feature exclusives in the coming months. Marvel tried something similar around 1994 when it put inserts in all its comics announcing a chain of Marvel stores. The announcement drew a huge outcry from retailers who saw the stores as direct competition and the stores never came to be.

'SIN' SELLS, RENTS: "Sin City" topped the DVD sales and rental charts its first week in release. "Constantine," based on the DC/Vertigo series "Hellblazer," also is hanging in on both charts, reaching No. 8 on sales and No. 7 on rentals five weeks after its release. At the domestic b.o., Marvel's "Fantastic Four" has pulled in $151 million through this past weekend and DC/WB's "Batman Begins" has $191 million.

'X-3' BITS: And one last bit we missed last week: IGN.com reports that Oscar-nominated actress Shohreh Agdashloo has joined the cast of "X-Men 3" in the role of Dr. Rao, the name of a character Joss Whedon created for his run on the current Astonishing X-Men series. And AICN has a link to some pics via Hollywood North Report.com supposedly from the set of the pic, featuring Shawn Ashmore as Iceman and Ellen Page as Kitty Pryde.

The website for the Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center opened Sunday, which was the 88th anniversary of Kirby's birth. The site and the org is just getting started, but there's already some interesting data up there, including a database of Kirby's work, a few bits of audio or video and plans for a traveling retrospective and documentary film.

'MIRRORMASK' MINIREVIEW: Had a chance to catch "MirrorMask," the Neil Gaiman-penned and Dave McKean-directed fantasy pic due for release next month from the Jim Henson Co. and Sony. Like "Sin City," the film version will look familiar to fans of McKean's beautifully dark and strange art. Seeing McKean's style come to life is at times unsettling but always striking. The story is typical of the Gaiman-McKean collaborataions (if you can call anything about such books as "Violent Cases" and "Mr. Punch" typical) in that it's a fantasy tale about a teen girl who runs away from the circus into a strange world where her doppelganger is looking to take over her real life permanently. There is a real disconnect between the dark look of the film and some of the imagery used in it and the basic fantasy story that seems aimed at a young audience. While beautiful, it goes so much against the grain of what's expected in a family movie that it's unlikely to make much of a splash in that market while not being hip and cool enough for teen audiences. The movie seems destined for cult fame in the home aftermarket, which isn't so bad considering the film was made for relatively little money. You can read Variety's original review of the film from Sundance here.

Jack Cross #1

Creators: Warren Ellis, writer; Gary Erskine, artist

DC Comics, 32 pages, color, $2.50

So? Warren Ellis gets back into the black ops stories he loves to tell with Jack Cross, a kind of superviolent comicbook Jack Bauer for the post-9/11 world. While Ellis does this kind of character and subject frequently, he does it very well and this is an interesting book to watch for the ultraviolence and superslick dialogue. Gary Erskine does an excellent job of bringing the real-world setting to life in scenes that are alternately violent and talky. And while it's nice to have Ellis once again writing an ongoing book that he created, Jack Cross doesn't have the same thrill of discovery or invention that Ellis' infused into "Transmetropolitan," "Planetary" and "The Authority." The result is a book that will please Ellis' fan base, but so far lacks the excitement needed to break out in the current market. Grade: B-

Bunnywith 2: The New Batch

Creator: Alex Pardee, with Sam Kieth, Dave Correia, Eric Pigors, Scott Ferguson, Attaboy, Billy Martin, The Judge and Wayshak

Eyesuck Ink, 36 pages, black-and-white with color, $5

So? There are only a few books I keep handy enough to pull out on a moment's notice, and the first issue of this series is one of them because it remains gut-bustingly funny even after multiple reads and the second one will go right next to it. The premise is simple: Pardee draws a bunny (who has male genitals but no arms) and then draws the bunny with ... anything he can think of. That leads to a series of strange and hysterical drawings of things like "Bunnywith magical ability to shit rainbows"  or "Bunnywith skin pockets where he stores his four goldfish" or "Bunnywith enormous scabies under his skin." These are jam-packed on every page of this book, with a few contributions (some in color) from guest artists who take a whack at the concept. Hilarious. Grade: A

Teen Titans #27

Creators: Gail Simone, writer; Rob Liefeld, artist

DC Comics, 32 pages, color, $2.50

So? Rob Liefeld is such a lightning rod in the comics biz, it's almost impossible to not take a look when he draws one of the big superhero series. On Teen Titans, he and Gail Simone are stepping in for the first of two issues while regular writer Geoff Johns concocts the Infinite Crisis. That makes this a fill-in issue, and it unfortunately feels very much like it. Liefeld's art here likely won't convince those who dislike his style otherwise, but it is one of his better efforts in recent years and successfully avoids some of the strange inconsistencies of his past work. Still, the story moves far from smoothly and it's not always easy to tell what's going on. Some of the characters, including Hawk and Dove and the villain Kestral, don't get much of an intro in this issue and it takes a bit of deduction to figure out why they're in the story at all. This does have some strange nostalgic feeling for longtime Titans fans and anyone who was reading comics in the early 1990s when Liefeld and the Image boys set the comics sales charts on fire. Without those caveats, though, this is less than memorable. Grade: C+

Valentine #10

Creator: Daniel Cooney

Red Eye Press, black and white, 24 pages

So? Scars never looked as good as they do on ex-CIA assassin Dana Valentine. Try as she may to live a normal life, creator Daniel Cooney keeps pulling her back in. As "The Killing Moon" story arc begins, Dana finds herself with 36 hours to live after a Russian mobster mixes poison in with the epinephrine shot that brings her back from the edge of death. To get the antidote, she must travel from Las Vegas to New Mexico and carry out a mission for the Red Faction. Mob boss Ursula Stanimir dangles another tempting carrot in front of Ms. Valentine -- Dana's journal. Dana finally has the opportunity to gain back the memories stolen from her by CIA through their mkUltra reprogramming. Cooney continues to soften Dana's hard-edged exterior as he did in the "Red Rain" story arc. "The Killing Moon" promises even more bullets and bodies once Dana’s GTO crosses the New Mexico border. Grade: B+

Alcatraz High #3

Creator: Bobby Rubio Bobby Rubio, color, 22 pages

So? What happens when you take Disney's hand-drawn animation and inject it with testosterone, pubescent hormones and attitude? You get the world of Alcatraz High. Bobby Rubio creates the school of the future where students learn from holographic teachers and live locked down in dormitories patrolled by security drones. Slacker/Hacker Miguel take his frustration out on his ex-girlfriend Stacey her with a little reprogramming that turns her into a blonde bombshell and the classroom into a discotheque. Rubio delivers amazing artwork with Michael Greenholt adding depth with his superb cel-shading. Each page offers a character study in nuanced emotion through facial expressions. You immediately feel what each character says and thinks. Grade: A-

Henagi #1

Creator: Ben Seto

Black Sheep Comics, black and white, 56 pages

So? Ben Seto knows manga, which explains why TOKYOPOP included him in its "Rising Stars of Manga Vol. 1" TPB. He now unleashes his talents upon the lazy ninja girl Henagi as a follow-up to his "Waterfall" series. Seto introduces us to the world of Mizuyama and its mostly adolescent characters. While the straight-laced Yumi tries her best to keep Henagi out of trouble, trouble follows them everywhere. Henagi may be useless for most other things, but she sure knows how to fight. Fans of Dragonball Z and Teen Titans will appreciate the super-deformed expressions, but the casual reader may not have the patience for the juvenile humor dominating the book. Regardless, Seto creates manga true to form, even if it reads left to right. Grade: B-

Keith David will return to voice the role of "Spawn" in the new animated series based on Todd McFarlane's long-running Image Comics series. Pictured above are actor Carl Weathers, McFarlane and animation director David Patton. According to the press release, the cast for the new series, being produced by IDT Entertainment, includes:

• Keith David (Pitch Black, Something About Mary) as the voice of Spawn, the tortured soul on an eternal battle with evil, caught between heaven and hell.

• Carl Weathers (Rocky, Predator) lends his voice talent as Captain Edwards, a long time police captain who tries going by the book despite rampant crime.

• Mark Hamill (Star Wars, “Batman : The Animated Series”) plays the voice of Twitch, a seasoned overly analytical detective tormented by the evil lurking in NYC’s alleys.

• Michael Jai White (SPAWN the Movie, Exit Wounds) lends his voice to Barabbas, right-hand man to Russian gang boss Lukas. As the enforcer of the gang, he oversees all protection and disciplinary action within the gang.

• Bruce Boxleitner (Tron, "Babylon 5”) will be the voice of Ainge, a dirty cop with only one thing on his mind: money. Someone only truly interested in himself over and above everyone else.

• Cree Summer (Atlantis: The Lost Empire, “Star Wars: Clone Wars”) actress/singer/songwriter lends her voice talent as Marie, a pretty young Cajun girl hidden beneath the surface of a tormented drug addict with frightening other worldly visions.

• Peter Jessop (“Resident Evil,” “Medal of Honor” video games) will voice Lukas, the vicious leader of a brutally violent street gang looking to control more than just the streets and back alleys of Hell's Kitchen.

• Jon Polito (The Rocketeer, The Man Who Wasn’t There) is the voice of Sam Burke, the dangerously passionate detective eager to stop the evil in NYC.

• Clancy Brown (The Shawshank Redemption, “The Batman”) will voice Mammon, a mysterious dark figure plotting against Spawn for reasons yet unknown, a man with a ferocious appetite for power.

• Jesse Corti (“CSI Miami,” Resident Evil: 4) will voice Pedro, rival gang leader and number one nemesis of Lukas.

• Phil LaMarr (Pulp Fiction, “Samurai Jack”) is the voice of Perry, a strung out, immature, trouble maker in way over his head.

"Spawn" began as a comicbook in 1992 and became an Emmy-winning animated series on HBO from 1997-1999. A feature film version was produced in 1997 by New Line. A trailer for the new series debuted at Comic-Con and can be found on the Spawn website.

THE SUPERMAN STORY: A new documentary called "In a Single Bound," which its makers say is the first such film devoted to the history of Superman, is now available on DVD and on the Internet. The pic, made by NYU film student Ross Marroso, covers the history of the man of steel from his creation in the 1930s through the 1970s, with a second film planned to cover the years from then to now. The pic features interviews with comics talents George Perez, John Byrne, Alex Ross, Jerry Ordway, Kerry Gammill and Greg and Tim Hildebrant, as well as actors Noell Niell and Jack Larson (who played Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen on the classic 1950s TV show), actor Gerard Christopher of the syndicated "Superboy" TV series, and "Batman" movie producer and comics scribe Michael Uslan. The pic can be viewed online for a credit card or Paypal charge of $1.50, or is available on DVD for $9.95.

The Winter Men #1

Creators: Brett Lewis, writer; John Paul Leon, artist

Wildstorm, 40 pages, color, $2.99

So? While the Cold War may have thawed long ago, the hardened Cold Warriors of the former Soviet Union still figure prominently in comics as mobsters, mercenaries, corrupt apparatchiks or the occasional good guy. For this eight-issue series, writer Brett Lewis (Bulletproof Monk) and artist John Paul Leon (Earth X) revise the Cold War arms race to include superhuman weapons of mass destruction as well as nukes. The book introduces police officer Kalenov, one of four known ex-Rocket Soldiers still living and a pit bull for the Moscow mayor. Lewis casts his anti-hero Kalenov from the same mold as "Die Hard's" John McClane -- a grizzled, cigarette-smoking, smart mouthed bad-ass who ends up ruining his marriage. In short order, we meet the other four Rocket Men: Drost, the soldier; Nina, the bodyguard ; and Zuko, the gangster. Each is somehow connected to a rash of political killings and possibly a kidnapping. The mayor personally tasks Kalenov to solve a missing persons case that involves a possibly radioactive transplanted liver. The trail sends him to New York — the gateway to the land of opportunity and hopefully answers. This well-paced book delivers plenty of back story to promise a decades-spanning plot. You hear Russian accents while reading the dialogue, and the gritty visuals bring to life the jagged-edged world and rough personalities populating The Winter Men. Grade: A-

Dracula Vs. King Arthur #1-2

Creators: Adam Beranek and Christian Beranek, writers; Chris Moreno, artist

Silent Devil, color, 40 pages, $2.95

So? Although the title sounds like a B-movie complete with wax fangs and cardboard armor, Adam and Christian Beranek deliver an epic throwdown that pits the Prince of Darkness against the Enlightened King. While both the tales of Dracula and Arthur are familiar enough, this medieval mashup provides an interesting twist to both stories. The Beraneks keep the story light but not campy to make Dracula Vs. King Arthur a fun summer read. Chris Moreno delivers consistent pencil work in the first two issues with very complimentary coloring from Jay Fotos.  Grade: B

Warner Bros. pushed back the release of "V for Vendetta," based on the Alan Moore-David Lloyd graphic novel, from Nov. 4 to March 17 to give the filmmakers more time to complete visual effects work and to allow for a few extra days of shooting.

Marvel and Fox have withdrawn their lawsuit against Sony and aRevolution Studios. Suit alleged that the Sony/Revolution pic "Zoom Academy" was too similar to the concept of "X-Men" and that plans to release the pic on May 13, only a couple of weeks prior to the release of "X-Men 3," would damage the franchise. Revolution has moved the release date of "Zoom" to next August, citing increased competition for the May 13 slot after Warner Bros. moved "Poseidon Adventure" to the frame.

And those of you who missed Bryan Singer's Comic-Con presentation can get a peek at some of the highlights in the latest video blog over at Blue Tights.net.

G.I. Spy #1

Creators: Andrew Cosby, writer; Matt Haley, artist

Boom! Studios, 24 pages, color, $3.99

So? This slick-looking new spy series about a macho pre-World War II spy and his sexy scientist sidekick is a pleasant mix of James Bond and Indiana Jones. Which is both a good thing and a bad thing. Good in that it's entertaining in the same basic way; bad in that those formulas are so well-trod that even well-crafted efforts like this have a hard time not being predictable. Best part of the issue is Haley's detailed and realistic art and the excellent coloring by Pamela Rambo and Matt Nelson. Grade: B-

Godland #1-2

Creators: Joe Casey, writer; Tom Scioli, artist

Image Comics, color, 28 pages and $2.99 each

So? This is a loving homage to the comics Jack Kirby did in the 1970s, mostly at DC in such books as Kamandi, Omac, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the Fourth World books. Unlike other attempts to recreate the oddness of cosmic Kirby, Casey and Scioli give us a fun story that's more than just an imitation of the King's style. Story is about Adam Archer, an astronaut who four years ago was marooned on Mars only to discover an alien artifact and undergo an amazing transformation. Now, of course, he's back on Earth fighting strange alien dogs and Basil Cronus, whose head floats in a jar atop his body, with the help of his sisters Neela, Stella and Angie. Kirby fans will get a kick out of the artwork , which does a fine job of recreating the grandeur, the boldness and the plain strangeness of Kirby's work. Unlike the comics of the 1970s, the story is told in a more modern fashion, with the origin of Adam Archer told in flashbacks and still incomplete after two issues (something the King would never have done!) and makes for a funky, cool read. Grade: B+

Zombie King #0

Creator: Frank Cho

Image Comics, 32 pages, black and white, $2.95

So? Frank Cho's better known for drawing girls you can drool over than drooling zombies. But this works even though it's a bit slight because it's got a good if twisted sense of humor. Story has an experiment gone wrong, creating a bunch of zombies who want only to eat and screw. The opening scene of a pair of farmers finding a zombie screwing one of their cows is reason enough to give this a shot. Cho's art is, as always, beautiful and worth the price of admission on its own. Grade: B+

Supergirl #1

Creators: Jeph Loeb, writer; Ian Chuchill and Norm Rapmund, artist

DC Comics, 32 pages, color, $2.99

So? This is one of those tough-to-review comics because the idea an image of Supergirl is cool and appealing, but the character's continuity is a total mess. (Remember when she died in Crisis on Infinite Earths #7? Then she was a blob of alien gloop in love with Lex Luthor? And then there was Peter David's recent down on the farm series ...) Anyway, the character is back courtesy of the pages of Superman-Batman and the powerful pencil of artist Michael Turner, who contributes a cover to this debut issue. This starts off with the new Supergirl trying to figure out who she is by going to talk with Power Girl of the JSA, who's actually a Supergirl from another reality. It's hard to see where this is going and with Loeb on his way to Marvel the fate of this series may lie in the hands of whoever replaces him. Chuchill does a decent job on the art, though his compositions are a bit stiff and every panel seems designed to emphasize how hot Supergirl's supposed to be in a midriff-baring outfit with a micro-microskirt that leaves little to fanboys' imagination. Grade: C

The Ultimates Annual #1

Creators: Mark Millar, writer; Steve Dillon, artist

Ultimate Spider-Man Annual #1

Creators: Brian Michael Bendis, writer; Mark Brooks, Jaime Mendoza, Scott Hanna, artists

Marvel, color, 48 pages and $3.99 each

So? Annuals are back, this time in the Ultimate universe where they provide a refreshing change of pace from the lengthy multi-issue arcs common to the line. Both books are written by the regular series writers, with Steve Dillon of Preacher fame doing the art duties on The Ultimates story and Mark Brooks penciling the Spider-Man version. The Ultimates book plays more off the continuity of the series, with Millar throwing in a bunch of cool twists and a great finale for the tale. While Ultimates feels a bit more like a primer on the book, Ultimate Spider-Man Annual #1 allows Bendis to indulge the inner David Mamet he usually lets loose on his creator-owned books on Spider-Man as Peter Parker gets asked out on a date by the X-Men's Kitty Pryde. The story captures the fun and terror of teenage dating with lots of conversation and just a little bit of the normal dose of superheroics, making the book a refreshing and real addition to the regular series. Grades: Ultimates 2, B-; Spider-Man, A-

The comics biz has a couple things going for it this summer that Hollywood does not: Strong financial growth and flattering media coverage. ICV2.com's estimates of sales to comicbook specialty stores in July have DC moving 261,000 copies of All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder #1 — making it the best-selling single comicbook of the 2000s. And that's just in comicbook stores. The top ten:

1. 261,046 All Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder #1
2. 158,693 New Avengers #7
3. 151,744 House of M #3
4. 146,529 House of M #4
5. 127,768 Astonishing X-Men #11
6. 108,341 Superman / Batman #21
7.  99,134 Ultimates 2 #7
8.  93,598 The Omac Project #4
9.  91,321 Ultimate Fantastic Four #21
10.  88,475 Villains United #3

The top-selling graphic novels in the direct market for July were:

1. Y: The Last Man, Vol. 5 8,526
2. Ultimate X-Men, Vol. 11 6,406
3. Ultimate Spider-Man, Vol. 13 6,400
4. Dead Boy Detectives Digest 6,347
5. Superman-Batman, Vol. 3 6,092
6. 100 Bullets, Vol, 8 5,575
7. Space Ghost 5,274
8. X-Men: The New Age of Apocalypse 4,548
9. Fruits Basket, Vol. 11 4,247
10. Wizard Michael Turner Millennium Ltd. Ed. 4,149

The site sums up the strong performance of the specialty shop market this way:

July sales of comics and graphic novels to comic stores were up 10% in dollars over the year-ago period, with graphic novels once again pacing the growth at 33%. Graphic novel sales have grown no less than 24% since February of this year, a remarkable six-month run. Comic format sales were up 7%, with the red-hot sales of All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder #1 certainly contributing substantially to that growth, along with House of M and its related titles.

The top 300 comicbook list has a few surprises, including Dynamite's Red Sonja #1, which charted at #14 with about 80,000 copies ordered and was the only non-Marvel or DC book in the top 75.

But it's not all perfume and roses. If you look at where the growth is coming from. If you compare the sales figures in on the ICV2 charts for the last three Julys at positions 1, 10, 25, 50, 100, 200 and 300, you get a picture that says while books at the high end of the chart are doing a lot better, those at the low end have actually seen sales decline.

                                                               

Rank	July 2005	July 2004	July 2003
1	261,046	143,712	146,605
10	91,321	92,923	93,546
25	70,827	51,335	54,624
50	38,306	36,094	35,715
100	20,782	23,704	23,090
200	4,103	5,902	7,359
300	1,125	1,187	1,833

Newsweek then goes and gives comics even more attention, saying that Marjane Satrapi's "Persepolis" — a graphic novel recounting her life growing up in Iran — is required reading in the U.S. military and then goes on to give some more interesting numbers:

In the United States, sales of graphic novels have leaped from $75 million in 2001 to $207 million in 2004. Booksellers in America, Britain, Germany, Italy and South Korea cite graphic literature as one of their fastest-growing categories. In Borders, one of America's largest bookstore chains, graphic-novel sales have risen more than 100 percent a year for the past three years. In France, where comics have long been mainstream, sales are reaching record highs, up 13.8 percent to 43.3 million copies in 2004; indeed, five of the 10 best-selling books in France last year were comic books. Manga, which already represents 20 percent of Japan's publishing market, is also spreading rapidly in South Korea, Thailand and other countries; in many cases, locals are buying American versions of the originals in an effort to learn English.

So despite the tremendous growth of the medium, the direct market remains a very hard sell for anything that's not a traditional Marvel or DC superhero franchise. It's not too difficult to imagine a day when the top talent in comics goes to the stability and receptiveness of the bookstore market, bypassing the traditional specialty market and its reliance on decades-old heroes and leaving it in the aging hands of fanboys who remember buying comics off the drugstore spinner rack. The direct market deserves to enjoy its recent successes, but the success of graphic novels in bookstores is starting to make some of the seams in the specialty business model show.