October
11 Catching up

Blogging has been on the light side of late as other projects have hogged up all my time. So here's what's going on in comics-land:

SANDAL GAMBLE? Pamela McClintock looks at the risks and rewards Warner Bros. faces with its upcoming adaptation of Frank Miller's "300" in the most recent edition of weekly Variety. Here's a few highlights:

But whether Warners can play the genre game is the question. It's no surprise that studio honchos would want to lock up the hard-core comicbook crowd, whose reach spans the globe. Dimension Films' "Sin City," based on Miller's graphic-novel series of the same name, pulled in $78 million overseas and $74 million Stateside.

Warners, the same studio that turned out "Alexander" and "Troy," is sure to play down the historical-epic aspect in marketing the film -- at least Stateside.

U.S. auds have soured on such fare, perhaps explaining why two other projects regarding the battle of Thermopylae -- one at Universal and one at Fox -- are languishing on the shelf.

SPAWN'S NEW MASTER: Todd McFarlane Productions has appointed Brian Haberlin of Haberlin Studios as editor of the comic book. Haberlin, a longtime member of the "Spawn" creative team, will now run the whole show for the comicbook.

TOGETHER AGAIN AT LAST: Marvel has been busy sending out press releases with the following announcements from the House of ideas:

• "Sentinel," a critically acclaimed comic from Marvel's Tsunami efforts, will be coming back in a five-issue series starting in December. Eisner Award-winner Sean McKeever will return to write the series and UDON will be back on the artwork.
• Robert Kirkman's creator-owned superhero "Invincible" will co-star with Spider-Man in Marvel Team-Up #14, which comes out Nov. 9. Kirkman will pen the issue and "Invincible" co-creator Cory Walker will provide the art.
• Christopher Yost and Craig Kyle will take over the writing chores on New X-Men: Academy X starting with issue 20. They replace the departing team of Christina Weir and Nunzio DeFilippis, who will bow out with a double-size New X-Men Yearbook Special.

NEW DIRECTION: Image Comics has hired Laurenn McCubbin as the company's art director. McCubbin is the creator of the comics "Rent Girl" and "XXX Live Nude Girls."

REVISIONS AND TIE-INS: DC Comics has more going on than this week's release of the long-awaited Infinite Crisis #1. News from 1700 Broadway includes:

• There will be a new trade paperback edition of "DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore"  that will include the stories "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow" and "The Killing Joke."
• The Batman Strikes #15 will tie-in to the animated DVD movie release of "Batman vs. Dracula."
• Artist Neal Adams will provide an alternate cover to  All-Star Superman #1, due to arrive in stores Nov. 16. Retailers will be able to order one copy of the Adams cover for every 10 copies of the regular edition.
• DC/Vertigo has put out a free minicomic of the first chapter of "A History of Violence" to lure moviegoers back to the original graphic novel. The comic features the first part of the graphic novel with a cover using the movie poster image from the movie. It's about the same size as the Hellblazer minicomic inserted in the deluxe edition DVD of "Constantine," so it would be no surprise if the minicomic showed up in the eventual "History" DVD as well.
• "The Flash" TV series is coming to DVD on Jan. 10 in a six-disc boxed set that includes all 22 episodes of the 1990-1991 series.

SIGN UP: Golden Apple has announced a number of cool in-store signings for the next few weeks:

• Tomorrow (Oct. 12) from 5-7 p.m. will be Batton Lash ("Supernatural Law"), Dawn Brown ("Ravenous," "Little Red Hot") and Todd Livingston ("The Black Forest").
• Saturday, Oct. 15, will see Len Wein ("Swamp Thing," the new "X-Men"), Marv Wolfman ("New Teen Titans"), Berni Wrightson ("Swamp Thing") and Bill Morrison ("The Simpsons") signing copies of the new Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror from 1-2 p.m. at the Valley store and 3-5 p.m. on Melrose.
• Wednesday, Oct. 19, will see David Mack ("Kabuki") and Brian Michael Bendis ("Ultimate Spider-Man") signing from 7-9 p.m. at Melrose.
• Wednesday, Oct. 26, will be Satan's Three-Ring Circus of Hell, with Robert Steven Rhine, Jim Smith, Vincent Waller and many more.