The Season of Shows

With WonderCon having inaugurated the convention season with a by-all-accounts successful show, a number of big events will heat things up in the coming weeks.

First up is MegaCon in Orlando, Fla., set for March 7-9. This looks like a great show, with a deep pool of comics and Hollywood talent set to show. The programming looks equally good, including such diverse ideas as a belly dancing  seminar and the con's fourth annual indie film festival.

Wizard World Los Angeles returns to the South Hall at the L.A. Convention Center March 14-16. Wizard looks like it's bulking up its film programming for this year's shows, with a Lucasfilm presentation on "Star Wars: Clone Wars" and "Indiana Jones" sure to draw a packed house. Some big names will be on hand for a two-part "ultimate screenwriters panel," headed up current "Amazing Spider-Man" comics scripters Bob Gale (writer of “Back to the Future”) and Marc Guggenheim (“Law and Order,” “CSI: Miami,” “Eli Stone”) and featuring Zak Penn ("X-Men: The Last Stand," “The Incredible Hulk”), Mark Verheiden (“Teen Titans”) and John Cox (“Sgt. Rock”). There also will be a "Heroes" panel with Jeph Loeb and an "Incredible Hulk" TV retrospective with Lou Ferrigno, in addition to the usual comics panels from Marvel, DC and Top Cow.

Back on the East Coast, New York Comic-Con has chosen YouTube videomaker Michael Agrusso, creator of the Marvel vs. DC parodies of the Mac vs. PC TV ads, to create three promo videos for its third annual show on April 18-20. The first, featuring a plastic Doctor Doom trying to talk his way into a discount ticket, can be watched below or at this page here.

Lastly, there's the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, set for April 26-27 at UCLA, which will feature a new graphic novel area called "The Comix Strip." The Times is holding a design contest for a logo for the strip. Head over to this site and you can check out the 10 finalists and vote for your favorite. The winner will be announced at Wizard World L.A.

New 'Iron Man' trailer in HD

From the look of this new trailer, now up at MySpace, Marvel's managed to turn one of its B-list superheroes into an A-list movie.

Iron Man Exclusive Trailer

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"Justice League" a go for 2009; Dimension picks "Locke"

In need of a tentpole pic for 2009, WB is moving ahead on production of "Justice League of America," with scribes Kieran and Michele Mulroney polishing the script and pre-production proceeding. The cast remains the same, with Adam Brody as The Flash, rapper Common as Green Lantern, Armie Hammer Jr. as Batman and Megan Gale as Wonder Woman. 2009 is looking like a good year for comicbook pics, with release dates also set for "Will Eisner's The Spirit," "Watchmen" and "X-Men Origins: Wolverine."

Dimension, meanwhile, picked up the rights to "Locke & Key" from IDW. Just-debuted horror comic is written by novelist Joe Hill, son of Stephen King.

Mostow talks "The Megas"

Jonathan Mostow is the most recent Hollywood director to create a comic for Virgin, with the first issue of his series “The Megas” hitting stands today.

Mostow, who directed “U-571” and “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,” says he’s not a die-hard comics fan, describing himself as a more typical reader who loved them as a kid but has not been an avid follower of the medium. You wouldn’t know that, however, from looking at his upcoming projects, which include a film version of “The Surrogates,” based on the Top Shelf graphic novel by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele and set to shoot in two months with Bruce Willis, and a screenplay for a “Sub-Mariner” movie at Marvel that he says may be his follow-up project.

“The Megas” is an alternate timeline story: What if democracy never came to America and the nation was ruled by an aristocratic class that was subject to different laws than the rest of us. The story begins with a sordid Mega-related crime investigated by Bureau of Royal Investigation Agent Jack Madison, whose belief in the system is challenged by what he learns in the course of his enquiry.

Mostow says he came up with the basic idea a few years ago, and he had considered it as the basis for a television show. When Virgin approached him to do a comic for its Director’s Cut line, which has published concepts created by the likes of John Woo and Guy Ritchie, Mostow saw it as the right way to explore the concept.

“The great thing about the graphic novel medium is you can draw it. I can sit there and try to explain it to you, but when you see the image I think it has a kind of certain power to that image,” Mostow says. “I get to communicate what’s cool about the idea and compelling about the idea in a way that’s more compelling than writing about it or a phone call with me talking about it.”

That was especially key when the underlying concept is as abstract as it is in “The Megas.” “The idea is an intellectual idea and if you start to explain it people think it sounds like a thought experiment from some eighth-grade social studies class,” he says. “But if you draw it, if you see the White House re-envisioned as a palace, and you see these iconic architectural archetypes like the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument re-imagined as trappings and symbols of power of a monarchy, there’s some thing very compelling about those images that I think can create an emotional feeling the viewer or reader.”

For Mostow, there is one key image in the book that, for him, nails the idea and gets it across in an instant. “There’s a panel in there where one of the high-level royals comes into a club and everybody who’s there bows down,” he says. “I find that to be a very compelling image: modern people dressed in Armani suits and they drive nice cars and live in nice houses and are professionals and lawyers and doctors and bankers and all that stuff, but they have to bow down to somebody.”

Mostow created and co-plotted the series with scripter John Harrison, whose credits include the Sci Fi Channel adaptations of “Dune” and “Children of Dune.” The series is drawn by Peter Rubin, a former art director at ILM who has done conceptual art on Mostow’s movies. “One of the thing I like about Peter’s work and one of the ambitions I had for this comic was I was not out to create a overstylized look to the comic,” Mostow says. “I wanted it to look good and rich, but I wanted the story and the idea to be the star of it.”

He says the production of the comic was a real learning experience, both in its similarities to filmmaking and its differences.

“It’s kind of got no rules in a sense, which is really from a creative standpoint very exciting and dynamic,” he says. “It’s not like we did anything groundbreaking in the execution of this, but it’s the medium. It’s deciding how many panels are you going to have on a page and where are they going to be and what are you relying on text to explain and what are you just going to show in an image.”

Mostow says creating a comics script was an unusual experience because of the need for everything to be up front, whereas film scripts can rely on the talents of actors, directors, production designers and cinematographers to fill in the details. “It’d be like if I did a movie, but only if I did it by faxing and memoing and emailing everybody.”

Mostow and Virgin are shopping the project around as a feature. With no screenplay, the comic is the key to their pitch. In print, “The Megas” is set to run four issues and then Mostow says they’ll see what the reaction is. “From there, it will be sort of self-evident as to whether it becomes a movie or not,” says Mostow.

The Word on WonderCon

We didn't make it up north for WonderCon this year, which is too bad because it sounds like it was a great show.  The first major show of the year, now that the scheduling conflicts of past years with New York Comic-Con have been worked out, WonderCon is increasingly becoming a West Coast complement to San Diego's mammoth summer show. (Both shows are put on by the same not-for-profit group.)

The Hollywood programming in particular has grown quite impressive and corrects one of the difficulties with San Diego's late July dates, which is that most of the major Hollywood summer pics have already come and gone by the time Comic-Con rolls around. WonderCon offers a chance to check out the stuff you'll want to see this summer before heading down to San Diego.

There's lots of great coverage out there from the usual suspects, i.e., news sites and blogs that were there to cover the show such as Newsarama, CBR and Comics Continuum. Here's a few of the film-related highlights, culled from such reports:

* “Iron Man” director Jon Favreau appeared for a Q & A, showing bits of new footage from the film. He also confirmed the “Hulk” crossover scene, says he'd like to do the Tony Stark alcoholism storyline in a sequel and would love to do the “Avengers” movie. A new trailer is set to debut on this week's episode of “Lost."

* Since I've seen nothing on these sites about "The Dark Knight" and "The Incredible Hulk," I'm going to assume they were missing in action at this con, though new trailers for both films are in the works.

* WB Animation debuted “Justice League: The New Frontier” Saturday night, including a panel featuring the creator of the comic its based on, Darwyn Cooke. Original movie comes to DVD tomorrow, though we saw it quite a while back and were very impressed by the adaptation.

* Animation fans also got a look at the premiere episode of “The Spectacular Spider-Man,” a new animated series that hits the Kids WB! lineup in a couple of weeks. Series is already in production on a second set of 13 episodes, with Marvel and Sony figuring out where to air them now that Kids WB! is going away.

* A packed panel got a first look at “The X-Files 2,” complete with appearances by David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz.

* Disney presented clips from “Prince Caspian,” and brought out director Andrew Stanton to show a bit of footage from the upcoming Pixar pic “Wall*E.”

* Lucasfilm showed "Star Wars" Lives! The house that George built promoted both its upcoming “Star Wars: Clone Wars” animated series, the premiere of which gets a theatrical release on Aug. 15, and the long-anticipated “Star Wars: The Force Unleashed” videogame. They also gave a plug to “Indiana Jones” by showing the trailer for “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” as well as a Jones Lego videogame and the final DVD release of the “Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.”

* James McAvoy stopped in to plug “Wanted,” introducing a quick look at the film before heading down to yesterday's Oscars ceremony.

* More folks on their way to the Kodak included Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway, answering questions about “Get Smart” along with director Peter Segal. Roland Emmerich also showed some footage from “10,000 B.C.”

On the comics side, there was a lot of DC-related announcements as the company plugged its upcoming superhero plans, including “Final Crisis,” the new weekly title “Trinity” and writer James Robinson taking over Superman, (Expect Marvel to make more announcements at Wizard World Los Angeles next month.)

* J. Michael Straczynski, who recently ended his exclusive status with Marvel, is going to be writing some comics for DC, including new “Babylon 5” material. He also has two books at Image and will continue to write “Thor” for Marvel.

* Boom! Studios announced new projects from novelists Gary Phillips and Matt Forbeck as well as one by Adam Rifkin, director of Detroit Rock City.

* In a move that surprised no one, Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan's “Demo” will return as a Vertigo series.

* Spotlight panels were held for artists Darwyn Cooke, classic Marvel artist Herb Trimpe, “Fables” creator Bill Willingham, and “Heroes” contributor Tim Sale.

News bits: Fincher, Foo Fighters, Wolverine, JLA

David Fincher has signed on to direct an adaptation of Charles Burns' graphic novel "Black Hole," from a screenplay by the "Beowulf" team of Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary. Fincher also has been long attached to adapting "Torso," a true-crime comic about Eliot Ness by Brian Bendis and Marc Andreyko.

Foo Fighters have sued Marvel, claiming the band's music was used without permission in the trailer for the upcoming "Wolverine and the X-Men" animated series.

Even more casting on "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," with former hobbit and "Lost" castaway Dominic Monaghan set to play Barnell, a.k.a. Beak, from Grant Morrison's "New X-Men" run and Daniel Henney to play Agent Zero.

While the "Justice League of America" movie is on hold, reports have it when production does start it will lens in the Great White North instead of Down Under due to a dispute over tax incentives.

Oscars light on comics content

The sole comics-based pic nominated for an Oscar, “Persepolis,” was to no one's surprise passed over in the animated feature category for the heavy favorite, “Ratatouille.” Hard to be too upset by this, as both are excellent if completely different films.

The best comicbook mention of the night goes to supporting actress winner Tilda Swinton, who brought up the nippled Batsuit worn by her “Michael Clayton” co-star George Clooney in the camp-tastic “Batman & Robin.”

First look: 'Y' party footage at MySpace Comic Books

If you missed the "Y: The Last Party" benefit event for the CBLDF at Meltdown a couple weeks back, you can check out a short video clip produced by co-sponsor MySpace Comic Books.

Seen in the clip are 'Y: The Last Man" creators Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra, DC writer Geoff Johns, Boom! Studios editor in chief Mark Waid, and parts of the keynote address by Joss Whedon. If you for some reason can't see the video below, you can check it out at MySpace here.

Y: THE LAST PARTY -- Joss Whedon Speech

The event was a big hit, raising more than $11,000 for the CBLDF and was a joint production of MySpace Comic Books and Meltdown, and was sponsored by DC/Vertigo, Dark Horse, Image Comics, Top Cow and Monster Energy.

'Boys,' 'Akira' edgy picks for comics pics

You know you live in interesting times when the likes of "The Boys" and "Akira" are optioned on the same day.

"Akira" has long been talked about for a live-action version, though I'm skeptical that any adaptation of Katsuhiro Otomo's manga classic will live up to the anime version he himself directed in the late 1980s. Still, the visuals of this story are amazing and the Wachowskis' upcoming "Speed Racer" may point the way for really adapting anime-style visuals and storytelling to the big screen. In comics, this was a big one in manga's entry into America, first published by Marvel's Epic Comics line in the 1980s and most recently reprinted in six volumes by Dark Horse.

As for the "The Boys," well, that's a thornier question. Garth Ennis' irreverently gross and funny take on superheroes as corrupt jerks that need to be taken down was dropped by DC/Wildstorm for content issues despite being a decent seller for them, continuing now at Dynamite Entertainment. I'm not sure what kind of audience Col sees for this property, but I would bet that it's going to have to be toned down a bit much the same way as "Wanted" seems to have been, with the main characters changed from supervillains to "assassins who protect order."

Wolverine casting; comics movie rumors

Casting news on the upcoming "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" movie, now shooting down under, should make fans of the character's early 1990s adventures more than happy. It's been confirmed that Ryan Reynolds has been cast as Deadpool and Taylor Kitsch as Gambit, with rapper will.i.am playing Wraith. They join Hugh Jackman in the lead role, as well as Liev Schrieber as Sabretooth, Danny Huston as William Stryker and Lynn Collins as Kayla Silverfox, based on the comics character Silver Fox. Above photo is the first still released from the pic, courtesy of USA Today.

That's a lot of mutants for a "solo" pic — and perhaps not the ones that inspire the most confidence, either. The best Wolverine solo stories, such as the 1982 miniseries by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller or Barry Windsor-Smith's "Weapon X" — both reportedly influences on the film — were true "solo" stories staring a tough loner. Adding Deadpool, a motormouth assassin created by Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza in 1991's The New Mutants #98, in particular alters the tone of the movie to something a bit more jokey. Gambit makes a bit more sense, especially since he's almost made it into the "X-Men" pics twice now, as do Stryker (played in "X2' by Brian Cox) and Sabretooth (played in "X-Men" by Tyler Mane). Silver Fox also was an element in early drafts of the "X-Men" script, but ultimately was one of the more troubling elements of the 1990s-era Wolverine comics, in which the character constantly discovered his memories were faked.

* In other superhero movie rumors, it's going around that "Justice League of America" will be pushed back to 2010 and that it may be revamped to remove Superman and Batman, preventing overlap with their respective solo movies.

* On the toon front, could "Brave and the Bold" — featuring Batman teaming up with a different DC hero each week — be the next DC-based WB animation series?

* Meanwhile, writer director Edgar Wright is waiting to see which of his two comics films will get the greenllight first: "Scott Pilgrim," based on Bryan Lee O'Malley's popular humor comic, or "Ant-Man" for Marvel.

Spidey boosts Marvel in 2007

Marvel's fourth-quarter and year-end results got a big boost from the company's flagship character, thanks to revenues related to the "Spider-Man 3" licensing juggernaut. The company's full report can found online here, and below are some relevant bits:

Marvel’s Publishing Segment net sales increased $1.7 million or 6% to $30.3 million in Q4 2007
principally due to continued strength in the Direct and Mass Market channels and the benefit of
special event publishing such as World War Hulk and Stephen King’s Dark Tower series.
Operating income in the publishing segment also rose 6% on a year-over-year basis to $12.3
million in Q4 2007 with a comparable operating margin of approximately 41%.

(snip)

Marvel’s Film Production segment operating losses increased to $3.1 million for Q4 2007,
compared to $2.2 million in Q4 2006, reflecting the expanded staffing of our studio operation. Film
Production Segment operating costs consist primarily of employee compensation and the expenses
associated with a portion of the Marvel Studios office in California.

Among the changes in the company's entertainment plans: the "Punisher: War Zone" pic is set for release Sept. 12; an "Iron Man" toon is in development for a spring release, while "Wolverine and the X-Men" is pushed back to 2009, along with a "Hulk" toon and a "Super Hero Squad" show. The slate for the direct-to-DVD toons the company is doing in partnership with Lionsgate not includes "Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow" in August, "Hulk Vs. ... " in January, a "Thor" feature for September 2009 and "Planet Hulk" in 2010.

News bits: Besson, Di Bona, WonderCon and more

* In the missed-it department: French director Luc Besson has optioned Jacques Tardi’s classic comicbook series “Aventures Extraordinaires d’Adele Blanc-Sec”; and “America’s Funniest Home Videos” producer Vin Di Bona has formed Vin Di Bona Comics, whose first title, “Urban Monsters,” will be published later this month through the Shadowline imprint at Image Comics.

* Fox is suing WB over the rights to "Watchmen."

* The schedule for next weekend’s WonderCon in San Francisco has been posted on the show’s site, with plenty of big names set to appear. Projects getting the panel or preview treatment include “Iron Man,” “Prince Caspian,” Pixar’s “Wall*E,” “Get Smart,” “Journey 3-D,” “Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay,” “Jericho,” “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles,” and the upcoming “X-Files” movie. The con also will premiere WB’s animated DVD feature “Justice League: The New Frontier” and the first episode of the new animated series “The Spectacular Spider-Man.”

* Marvel's planned massive multiplayer online game has been killed.

* Popular comics cover artists Greg Horn and Glenn Fabry are working on a new series of children’s books called “The Professionals,” with the first of six planned volumes set to be published in May as “Anna Smudge: Professional Shrink.” Written by MAC, the series features a group of sixth-graders with professional jobs who take on the evil Mr. Who. Horn will provide covers and Fabry will draw full-page interior illustrations. Obviously, this is a switch in content for both artists, with Horn known best for covers featuring sexy superheroines and Fabry for his Vertigo work on the likes of “Preacher.” Book will get a preview at New York Comic Con in April.

* Rogue Wolf Entertainment has acquired Cold Cut Distribution, one of the few remaining comics distributors not named Diamond. The company is relocating its assets to a facility in Chicago and plans to continue to offer the same terms to retailers.

* More movie scribes are jumping into the comics biz, with Kim Krizan, who co-wrote “Before Sunrise” and the Oscar-nominated “Before Sunset,” contributing a tale to Boom! Studios’ anthology “Zombie Tales.” She talks about writing comics over at Comics Worth Reading.

* IGN poses the question of whether today’s superheroes — which are really yesterday’s heroes — will still be relevant tomorrow and gets some interesting feedback from its readers.

'Howard the Duck' creator Gerber dies

Steve Gerber, a prolific writer for Marvel Comics in the 1970s who created "Howard the Duck," died on Sunday at a Las Vegas hospital while awaiting a lung transplant. He was 60.

The news was announced on Gerber's blog by his friend, writer Mark Evanier, who also writes about Gerber on his own blog, News From Me. Lots of sites have more details on Gerber's life, including The Beat and an especially detailed obit at The Comics Reporter.

Though he wrote many comics, Gerber was best known for "Howard the Duck." The character first appeared in Adventure into Fear #19 (Feb. 1973), almost as a joke. But the character proved popular, and after a few more appearances graduated to his own series with Howard the Duck #1 (Jan. 1976). Gerber left the title and later sued Marvel over the rights to the character; the suit was eventually settled.

The movie version of "Howard the Duck," known as one of the biggest flops in Hollywood history, bore little resemblance to Gerber's ascerbic take on the character and, according to most sources, Gerber had little to no involvement in the film.

In addition to comics, Gerber also scripts for animated series such as "G.I. Joe," "Superman," "Yu-Gi-Oh!" and a second-season episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation." He occasionally returned to the comic book version of "Howard," most recently in a 2001 miniseries. He also spun out a background character from an issue of "Howard" into the Vertigo miniseries "Nevada," about a Vegas showgirl and her pet ostrich and was recently writing a Dr. Fate story for DC.

'Y: The Last Party' report

Fans and pros alike showed their admiration for Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra’s just-concluded Vertigo series “Y: The Last Man” at a fundraiser benefit Friday evening for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund at Meltdown Comics in Hollywood. The event raised more than $11,000 for the fund, which defends the First Amendment rights of the comicbook industry.

That the end of “Y,” which concluded its acclaimed five-year run with issue #60 last week amid a flurry of press and positive reviews, could prompt such an event at all was in itself the topic of much discussion. “This is a weird thing, because we’re not really used to doing these sort of events,” said series editor Will Dennis. “Suddenly comics are like the hot chick in the room and we don’t know what to do with ourselves.”

On hand to celebrate was Vaughan, who also works as the story editor on the TV’s “Lost,” along with his wife, playwright Ruth McKee; penciler Guerra, who flew down for the event from Vancouver; colorist Lee Loughridge; “Lost” exec producer Damon Lindelof; Boom! Studios' Ross Richie, Mark Waid and Chip Mosher; Grant Morrison; Geoff Johns; Top Cow’s Matt Hawkins; Percy Carey (aka MF Grimm), writer of the graphic novel “Sentences”; Eric Lieb of Fox Atomic Comics. The event was a joint production of MySpace Comic Books and Meltdown, and was sponsored by Vertigo, Dark Horse, Image Comics, Top Cow and Monster Energy.

Joss Whedon, creator of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Firefly,” praised the series in a humorous keynote talk. “These two people are telling a story that is, as I later found out, concise; it’s compact; it’s one thing; it’s not endless; it’s not, ‘Well, maybe if he just forgets about Mary Jane we can keep telling this.’ It’s more like a novel than it is like a franchise, for which I’m eternally grateful.”

Overseeing the event was MySpace’s Sam Humphries and CBLDF’s Charles Brownstein. The VIP reception featured a chance to look at artwork inspired by Y that will be auctioned off starting next week on eBay to benefit the CBLDF and — in honor of the comicbook’s simian co-star, Ampersand — a live monkey in a cowboy hat.

Humphries said ticket sales for the event raised $8,000, to be augmented by the art auction. He also says the CBLDF will be among the first to try out a new technology from MySpace Impact — the company’s charitable arm — that will allow it to raise money directly off its MySpace profile.

That total was augmented by the auction of a page of original art from issue 36, donated by Guerra, that quickly soared in price on bids from Mark Waid, DC VP of publicity David Hyde and finally sold to Hawkins for $2,000.

Vaughan and Guerra then took questions from the audience, with Vaughan giving crowd-pleasingly funny and self-deprecating responses. “As you know, I’m a writer who likes to have bare boobies, severed heads and I like to use the word ‘douche’ over and over again. So it’s really sophisticated fare for mature readers,” Vaughan said.

When asked if their work on the series ever made them cry, Guerra said it was especially tough to illustrate the final issue. “The scene with Ampersand in the woods, I cried all night,” said Guerra, who is next drawing a “Doctor Who” comic for IDW. “I went through Kleenex like crazy!”

They also discussed the impact of 9/11 on the series. Guerra was set to start drawing the first issue on that day, while Vaughan, who lived in New York at the time, says it made the book funnier because humor was his natural reaction and defense against the tragedy.

A final auction was held for a truly unique item: a straightjacket emblazoned with the Y logo. Vaughan says they were custom made for the people who worked on the book, with only one extra for the auction. The item was sold to Fox Atomic’s Lieb for $1,200.

“I hate the fact that we need a Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, but we do so that terrible books like 'Y: The Last Man' can be read,” Vaughan said. “So thanks to everyone who came out to support the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund — you’re definitely not douches.”

Comic-Con hotel mania

Perhaps appropriately, I had just finished a long, rambling post about the trials and tribulations of trying to land a hotel for Comic Con when my computer crashed and I lost the whole thing.

If you missed it, yesterday was the day the convention opened its reservation system for discounted hotel rooms for the show. This used to be a fairly simple process a few years back, when you could easily log on, score pretty much the hotel of your choice and be done in about 10 minutes.  But as the show has grown in size, and apparently maxed out at 125,000 attendees, the demand for hotels close to the convention center has skyrocketed, turning the reservation system into something that rivals trying to score good tickets to the hottest show in town through Ticketmaster. The online system used by Travel Planners was overwhelmed, making it hard to load a page and every click through to the next page in the process a gamble.

Last year, I managed to get a good hotel but the site hung up on me and crashed my browser before I could get a confirmation number, forcing me to start over. By that point, all I could get was a very expensive hotel near the show or a cheaper one much farther away. I took the closer one, using a completely different method to find just a month before the show a much cheaper hotel that was just as close though not as posh.

This year was better, in that I was at least more prepared for frustration. Starting at the appointed hour of 9 a.m. PT, it took me about an hour and a half to complete the process, using two computers and hitting redial on two phones. During that time, hotels available on one page were no longer so when I clicked through; the credit card page froze up and crashed on me once; and the system crashed for a few minutes.  A friend emailed me suggesting a lottery would be more sane than this frustration, when suddenly the system returned and we both were able to make reservations. Using two computers, I made separate reservations on each that both ended up going through. I'm not as close as the Hyatt or Marriott Marina, but I'm on the shuttle route at a perfectly acceptable, modern hotel and the price is very very good. (BTW, I canceling my extra reservation as soon as I decide between the two hotels.)

The blogs have been full of stories of frustration from folks as well-regarded in the industry as Len Wein and Paul Dini, while others got through with few problems. Most exhibitors, who use a different system, reported no problems with getting rooms.

A lot of folks are trying to be positive by looking to next year, when a few more hotels in downtown are set to open and should help, especially with the show having apparently maxed out its attendance. But getting a room will continue to be a difficult part of going to the show because there's just not enough rooms in downtown San Diego to meet demand and the cost of those hotels is only going to go up.

There are always folks who scratch their head in wonderment at this annual mad rush. And while it's true that you can call many downtown hotels directly and get a room with little or no fuss, you're going to have to pay for it. The rooms the con offers through Travel Planners are so valued because they're affordable enough to make attending the show possible for many fans, families and even professionals. Even the relatively small difference between $185 a night and say $235 a night adds up over three or four nights, especially when so many fans have to pay travel costs, parking, meals, drinks, admission, plus whatever stuff they came to the show to buy.

While most people I think recognize and accept this as part of the show now, any steps that can be taken to make the process more predictable and less hair-raising would be a great step forward. Everyone agrees that Travel Planners' site can work better. A lottery would be fair, but would likely annoy as many as it please. Beyond that it might be time for the convention, the city and the hotels to team up and take advantage of social networking technology to create an online clearing house of rooms that give folks a clearer idea of which hotels have rooms at which price and allow them to trade up (or down) or team up with like-minded folks as roommates.

(This also could address one of the rumors I keep hearing from enough independent sources to make me think there's something to it: That each year many prime rooms reserved by the studios as part of their block go unused. This story usually goes that the studios reserve blocks large enough to accommodate all their people who will go, may go or can't be written off as someone who may want or need to go at the last minute. Invariably, many of these folks are either too busy to go, decide not to go or just don't show up, and by this point it's too late for those rooms to be put back on the market and be of any use to anyone. I don't think we're talking about more than a drop in the bucket as far as meeting the demand goes, but anything would help.)

This has been done for years on various message boards, but taking the idea wide would give a clearer picture of the overall situation and reduce some of the anxiety people feel about this. I'm not going to hold my breath for the city or the hotels to jump on this bandwagon, but the con has taken a small step in that direction with its new housing blog.

I also have to address the other, increasingly common solution offered: Moving the show to Las Vegas, which I will again go on record as saying would be a very bad idea. The prime advantage cited for Vegas is its plethora of hotel rooms and its experience handling large conventions. My personal experience from attending shows like Nexpo and NAB in Vegas is that it's not much easier to find a good room at a good price when demand is high in Vegas than it is in San Diego. Also, Vegas in July is hot — 105 degrees a day hot — and getting to that convention center from a hotel on the strip requires either walking outdoors a far stretch on pedestrian-unfriendly roads or taking a cab and fighting traffic. But perhaps the biggest reason to avoid Vegas, aside from excluding many families and children, is that the city itself would compete with the show. Vegas is a great place for rather dull business conventions, but an entertainment show like Comic-Con would only suffer as folks are lured away to shows, buffets, gambling tables and other adult entertainments. San Diego isn't perfect, by any means, but the Gaslamp District, cool coastal air, and the relative normalness of the city's residents are all part of the appeal of the show.

The scramble for a hotel room is just a part of the experience now. I expect demand for tickets will follow suit in coming years. The frustrations are real, but realistically, there's not much that can really be done about it and complaining about the process will do nothing to improve it. There are plenty of other, smaller conventions that offer a more intimate experience, if that's what you're looking for. In the meantime, I expect that given the overall outstanding job the con staff has done dealing with the show's astounding growth that they will take whatever steps they can to improve it.

Hockey fans think new Oilers owner is ... Batman!

A friend in my old hometown of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, sends along a tip that a growing number of folks in the hockey-mad former home of Wayne Gretzky think the new owner of the NHL's Oilers is a real-life Batman.

At the center of this case is Darryl Katz, the 46-year-old billionaire pharmacy owner who just bought the Oilers for $200 million. (Another comics connection: Spawn creator Todd McFarlane was a member of the owners group that sold the team to Katz. McFarlane also designed the third jerseys the team used for a few years.) Fans have taken clues from Katz's initials — D.K. could stand for Dark Knight — as well as the stately $24 million manor he built overlooking the North Saskatchewan River. Like Bruce Wayne, the former lawyer is reclusive, apparently single and living a mysterious playboy life that fits right in with that of the Caped Crusader. In this Globe and Mail story on the phenomenon, mention is made of the Wayne-like manner in which Katz participated in a conference call about the sale of the team:

“I'm sorry I couldn't be in Edmonton today,” he said without revealing where he was. (Katz's public-relations man was no help, either, saying only that Mr. Wayne, er, Katz was “was out of town.”)

What's missing, of course, is word on whether Katz has a butler to fill the Alfred role or a young ward to be Robin. His father was a pharmacist, and wasn't gunned down by a cowardly criminal. Also, Edmonton is far from a hot spot of crime — and the closest the city ever came to having an archvillain was former Oilers owner Peter Pocklington, who was blamed for trading Gretzky to the Los Angeles Kings in 1988.

Not everyone sees Katz as Batman. Website NHLDigest.com thinks Katz looks like "Deuce Bigalow" actor Rob Schneider.

Back to Batman, there's a Facebook group, and lots of discussion on local message boards. And while Katz may not don a cowl and fight crime, he already is a hero of sorts, bringing hockey fans some peace of mind that their beloved NHL team — long a prime suspect for relocation south of the border — will stay in local hands.

Again, as my friend says, we'll have to watch and see if the bat symbol shows up on the Oilers' new jerseys.

Comic-Con Update gets an upgrade

For the past few years, Comic-Con has been publishing a rather nice update on everything related to the big show in San Diego — as well as its sister shows, WonderCon and APE — in comicbook format that's sent to shops as a freebie and by mail to attendees. Now, the publication is being upgraded to a magazine format.

The PR for the release includes a fascinating bit of info: The magazine is distributed to about 250,000  people — more than double the circulation of the top-selling comic book in the direct market.

As I'm sure many of you already know, the system for making discounted hotel reservations through the Con goes live tomorrow at 9 a.m. PT.

Full PR on the magazine in the jump.

COMIC-CON MAKES A MAJOR UPGRADE

SAN DIEGO – Comic-Con, the largest comic book and popular arts convention in
the United States announced today that they have implemented a major
redesign of their Update Magazine.

            “With all three of our shows, Comic-Con, WonderCon and APE, the
Alternative Press Expo, continuing to grow both in terms of size and scope,
it made sense to increase the amount of space in our magazine to highlight
all the cool things happening at each of our shows,” commented David
Glanzer, spokesperson for the non profit event.

            The Update Magazine, which was printed three times a year and
distributed via direct mail to 150,000 recipients as well as 100,000 to
select comic book shops and specialty stores, will now be called Comic-Con
Magazine. The print run and distribution will remain the same.

            Glanzer continued, “Comic-Con Magazine will be standard magazine
size which allows us more room for content, photos and up to date
information on all of our events.” The inaugural issue features special
reports on Comic-Con, WonderCon and APE as well as exclusive interviews with
Comic-Con guests Bryan Hitch, and Rutu Modan.

            Comic-Con Magazine will also feature contributions from leaders
in the comics and popular arts fields. Issue one of Comic-Con Magazine
features articles from contributors Mark Evanier, Shaenon K. Garrity,
Maryelizabeth Hart and Jason Thompson.

            Look for Comic-Con Magazine at your local comic shop, or email
cci-info@comic-con.org to request a free copy.

Comic-Con International, is a nonprofit educational organization dedicated
to creating awareness of, and appreciation for, comics and related popular
art forms, primarily through the presentation of conventions and events that
celebrate the historic and ongoing contribution of comics to art and
culture.

###

News bits: Manga exhibit, Zuda, L.A. Con, Mad

Comics may be pushed off the front page this week by Super Tuesday, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing going on.

* Anime and manga are coming to the Kennedy Center as part of the Japan! Culture+ Hyper Culture exhibit, which opens today and runs through Feb. 17 at the Washington arts center. The exhibit features more than 450 artists, 40 performances, and more than a dozen free events to showcase the best in Japanese theater and dance, music and fashion, architecture and sculpture, poetry and literature, photography and film. Key fan events include a marathon screening of anime premieres on Feb. 17, and a manga café and reading lounge sponsored by VIZ Media.

* “Supertron” won the January competition at DC’s Zuda Comics site. The February contestants are up now for your voting pleasure.

* Meltdown Comics in Hollywood is having a good week, with “Scud: The Disposable Assassin” creator Rob Schrab set to sign at the shop tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Don’t forget, there will be 70 “standing-room only” tickets for Friday’s “Y: The Last Party” event available at the shop the day of the event.

* The Los Angeles Comic Book and Science Fiction Convention returns Feb. 17 with appearances by the producers and stars of CBS’ “Jericho” to promote the return of the fan-favorite series. Also appearing will be producer Kenneth Johnson, who worked on such classic TV fare as “The Bionic Woman,” “The Incredible Hulk” and “Alien Nation,” to talk about “V: The Second Generation,” the sequel to the classic 1983 sci-fi miniseries; “Married … With Children” and “Futurama” actress Katey Segal; “Drillbit Taylor” star David Dorfman; and Amy Wolfram, writer on the “Teen Titans” animated series and DC’s “Teen Titans: Year One” comic book.

* Mad Magazine has assembled 10 Pulitzer-winning cartoonists to contribute a one-panel cartoon on the topic “Why George W. Bush is in Favor of Global Warming.” Contributing to the feature are Clay Bennett of the Chattanooga Times Free Press, Steve Breen of the San Diego Union-Tribune, Matt Davies of the Journal News; Jack Higgins of the Chicago Sun-Times, Dick Locher of the Chicago Tribune, Jim Morin of the Miami Herald, Mike Peters of the Dayton Daily News, Joel Pett of the Lexington Herald-Leader, Michael Ramirez of Investor's Business Daily and Ben Sargent of the Austin American-Statesman. The feature will appear in Mad #487, on sale Feb. 19.

'Wanted,' 'Iron Man' rock Super Bowl viewers

I was in Arizona over the weekend (though it had nothing to do with the Super Bowl) and only now am getting a look at the two big comicbook movie ads that aired during the game.

First, the ads for both movies — Marvel's "Iron Man" and U's "Wanted," based on the Top Cow comic — offered only the slightest glimpses of something new. Both films have had trailers out, and these short clips didn't give us a whole lot more than we'd seen before.

"Iron Man" continues to look like it's going to be an extremely solid movie. Robert Downey Jr. is an ideal casting choice for Tony Stark, and this may be the first instance of a second-tier Marvel hero spawning an A-list film franchise. Still, the coolness of "Iron Man" only makes the absence of any significant look so far at "The Incredible Hulk" increasingly worrisome. Also missing was an ad for "The Dark Knight," though obviously there are some tough issues surrounding promoting that with the recent death of Heath Ledger.

"Wanted" looks cool, but it's hard to overlook the fundamental change made to the plotline. In the graphic novel, Wesley is invited to join a group of super-VILLAINS — to take part in a fraternity of thoroughly nasty folks whose goal is to take the world for all its got. (It also explains the title: "Wanted," as in "10 Most Wanted Super Criminals.") The movie has morphed this into a "brotherhood of assassins" out to protect the world. So, yeah, the effects look cool and James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie look terrific doing all kinds of cool superhero-y things, but the closer this gets the more annoyed I am at this fundamental change in the plot, which I suspect was made to keep the film from being accused of glamorizing villainy, promoting violence, etc. The move amounts to little more than lip service anyway — as if a few lines of dialogue will take away from the seemingly awesome and outlandish portrayals of violence anyway.

Platinum goes public

Shares of Platinum Studios began trading today on the NASD's over-the-counter bulletin board market. The trading symbol is PDOS, and it looks like shares are trading at an opening price for $0.20, according to Yahoo! Finance's page on the company. That's 15 shares for the price of one comicbook!

It's been a bit of a rarity for comics publishers to go public. As a relatively small division of Warner Bros., DC is somewhat sheltered from external scrutiny  by its position within the studio, while Marvel's experiment with public ownership has had some high points, but is perhaps best known for the very low point of bankruptcy and near dissolution of the company in the mid to late 1990s.

The PR for the stock debut includes the following rationale for going public:

Brian Altounian, President and COO, and architect of the company’s public registration process and investor base development, said, “With Platinum Studio’s  access to Wall Street, we are  now  able to accelerate the development of our intellectual property portfolio, turning our characters into cash flow by developing and merchandising them across all forms of media.  We currently have properties in development across a myriad of entertainment platforms.”

Given how creators rights is an issue that pops up whenever Platinum makes news, the next bits from the release are sure to fire the flames of debate:

Platinum Studios controls a comic book library of more than 3,800 characters in which it has developed four core areas for the merchandising of its intellectual property – Print Publishing, Online/Mobile, Filmed Entertainment, Merchandise/Licensing

Platinum Studios continues to expand its vast library, through acquisition and by way of its annual Comic Book Challenge™ held in San Diego during the same week as the International Comic-Con Convention, the industry’s largest annual trade show. 

But most relevant to this blog is that work is continuing on the "Cowboys & Aliens" feature with DreamWorks and U and the "Unique" feature at Disney.

Full release in the jump

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For more information, contact:

Investor Relations
Platinum Studios, Inc.
702-478-7363
investors@platinumstudios.com

PLATINUM STUDIOS, INC. BEGINS TRADING UNDER SYMBOL “PDOS”

Intellectual property library of more than 3,800 comic and graphic novel characters for development and merchandising

Los Angeles, CA – January 31, 2008 –Platinum Studios, Inc. (OTCBB: PDOS), an entertainment company that controls an international library of more than 3,800 comic book characters which it adapts, produces and licenses for all forms of media including print, film, online, mobile / wireless, gaming, and merchandising, today announced that the company’s shares have been approved for trading on the NASD’s Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board market under the symbol PDOS.

“Our new trading symbol, PDOS, allows our existing shareholders and potential new investors to obtain our trading and financial information, as well as keep up to date on our company’s developments and accomplishments,” said Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, Platinum Studio’s Chairman and CEO, and comic creator.    

Brian Altounian, President and COO, and architect of the company’s public registration process and investor base development, said, “With Platinum Studio’s  access to Wall Street, we are  now  able to accelerate the development of our intellectual property portfolio, turning our characters into cash flow by developing and merchandising them across all forms of media.  We currently have properties in development across a myriad of entertainment platforms.”

Platinum Studios controls a comic book library of more than 3,800 characters in which it has developed four core areas for the merchandising of its intellectual property – Print Publishing, Online/Mobile, Filmed Entertainment, Merchandise/Licensing

Platinum Studios continues to expand its vast library, through acquisition and by way of its annual Comic Book Challenge™ held in San Diego during the same week as the International Comic-Con Convention, the industry’s largest annual trade show.  The elimination style contest in which fans vote on the new characters and concepts presented by talented newcomers, draws thousands of applications and has already produced two new comic book franchise properties, “Hero by Night” and “Gunplay”.  In addition to owning the social comic site www.DrunkDuck.com, where anyone can upload their comic creations to share them with a vast reader community, Platinum Studios also has partnered with Comflix Studios in the creation of Splastk:  the first web syndicated, comic book-fueled video network.   

In its mobile division, Platinum Studios has launched the mobile comics site, www.PT78mobile.com, and has partnered with Skyward Mobile and PlayPhone.com, allowing fans to consume their favorite comics wherever and whenever they want. 

The film and TV division is moving forward, with DreamWorks and Universal Pictures (NYSE: GE) partnering to turn the graphic novel, “Cowboys & Aliens”, into a full-length feature, and with Walt Disney Pictures (NYSE: DIS) on board to develop the company’s comic book series “Unique” into a full-length feature film.

To learn more about the company and to sign up for our newsletter, visit www.platinumstudios.com.

About Platinum Studios, Inc. (OTCBB: PDOS)
Platinum Studios, an entertainment company that controls an international library of comic book characters from all over the world, which it adapts, produces and licenses for all forms of media including print, film, online, mobile / wireless, gaming, and merchandising. Platinum Studios’ library contains more than 3,800 characters spanning a full range of genres and styles, and also includes properties such as www.DrunkDuck.com, the industry’s preeminent Web comics community. Working with leading companies in the entertainment and new media sectors, Platinum is emerging as one of the front-runners in the creation of new content across all media platforms. Platinum Studios - Comics Fueling Media EVERYWHERE!
To learn more about the Company, please visit our website at http://www.platinumstudios.com.

Platinum Studios Safe Harbor Statement
Matters discussed in this press release contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. When used in this press release, the words "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "may," "intend," "expect" and similar expressions identify such forward-looking statements. Actual results, performance or achievements could differ materially from those contemplated, expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements contained herein.. These forward-looking statements are based largely on the expectations of Platinum Studios and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. These include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties associated with: the impact of economic, competitive and other factors affecting Platinum Studios and its operations, markets, product, and distributor performance, the impact on the national and local economies resulting from terrorist actions, and U.S. actions subsequently; and other factors detailed in reports filed by Platinum Studios.

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