The recent shakeup behind the scenes on "Heroes" shows that there may be a limit to how accepting mainstream auds are of the kind of storytelling common in mainstream superhero comicbooks.

That's one way to look at the shakeup on the show, which saw co-exec producers Jeph Loeb and Jesse Alexander axed on Sunday night by the show's creator and showrunner Tim Kring. Cynthia Littleton reports in today's Variety that Kring is trying to refocus the on simpler storytelling that could woo back audiences and cut the show's pricey budget of $4 million an episode.

Loeb in particular was the show's most direct connection to the comicbook industry, having written popular series featuring just about every major Marvel and DC character since his first comic script in 1990. His departure also raises questions as to whether his frequent comicbook art partner, Tim Sale, will continue to contribute to the show.

While "Heroes" was an unqualified hit its first season, it faltered in a strike-shortened second season and has struggled to regain its hit status in its current, third season. But criticism has continued to mount as the plotlines became increasingly complicated and continuity-dependent. Expect Kring's refocusing to cull the crowded cast and scale back the focus of the show to more personal tales.

All of which adds up to "Heroes" becoming less like a mainstream superhero comicbook and more like a conventional TV show.

Sci Fi Channel's collaboration with Virgin Comics appears to have hit it off its first at-bat. Cabler has announced an order for a two-hour pilot based on "The Stranded." Script for the pilot will be written by Mike Carey, who created "The Stranded" series for Virgin/Sci Fi. PR from Virgin in the jump.

Sci Fi also decided to develop "True Believer," based on a comic co-created by "Sin City" star Rosario Dawson. 

And while it's not based on a comic, plenty of comics fans will be pleased to hear that "Caprica," the prequel series to "Battlestar Galactica" has been given a greenlight as a backdoor pilot.

Here's an odd story that takes the idea of product placement in comics to a new and slightly different level. ABC has been placing elements from "Lost" in various Marvel books to promote the show's season premiere next week. I havent' seen any such references myself, but I'm hoping these are just background things that don't affect the stories, rather than having, say, the Hulk, smashing a tank while saying something like "Puny humans keeping Hulk from Lost premiere!!"

I'm going to look for some examples. In the meantime, here's the PR, via the futon critic:

DISCOVER "LOST" IN MARVEL COMICS

ABC Marketing Places Key Visual References from the Hit Show in Popular Marvel Comics, Including Uncanny X-Men, Incredible Hercules, Thunderbolts and Wolverine Origins

Now fans can discover elements from the hit series "Lost" in Marvel Comics. ABC marketing has strategically placed images and references from the show in various comic books, including Uncanny X-Men, Incredible Hercules, Thunderbolts and Wolverine Origins on sale now. Examples of "Lost" references include a "Lost" poster, the number 6, and the slogan "Find Yourself" in the latest editions of numerous Marvel comics throughout the month. Expect more "Lost" placements to pop up in comic books on stands January 23 and January 30.

Season Four of "Lost" premieres, Thursday, January 31 at 9:00 p.m., ET.

The writers strike continues to roll on, now claiming as casualties not just the Golden Globes kudosfest, but increasingly new episodes of favorite TV shows.

That raises an interesting possibility for the few comics licensed from current TV shows to maybe try to fill the gap left by the absence of new episodes.

The number of comics that qualify for such a proposition is very small, as most TV comics these days are licensed from classic (i.e., defunct) series, such as Dark Horse’s smash hit “Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8” series, IDW’s “Angel,” and Dynamite titles like “Xena: Warrior Princess.”

IDW Publishing, based in San Diego, has in its recent and upcoming offerings comics based on “24,” “CSI” and “Ghost Whisperer.” Andrew Steven Harris, an editor at IDW who works on “24” and “Star Trek,” says the company is “not interested in cashing in on the strike in any way."

A number of factors preclude comics publishers from doing much about the strike, says Harris, who cited production time as an example. Most of the comics coming out now were written way in advance of the strike, and any books initiated since the strike began in November would still not be due out for months — by which time the strike is likely to have been settled, he says.

“What it’s really become more for us is not an opportunity to promote titles to replace the TV show, but to give some of these (striking) writers some work when they can’t ply the normal course of their trade,” Harris says.

Nick Barrucci, president of New Jersey-based Dynamite Entertainment, agrees.

“We work with writers from Hollywood regularly, and we plan on staying the course,” says Barrucci, whose company publishes comics based on both the current Sci Fi's version of “Battlestar Galactica” and the classic 1970s version. “I would think pushing the comics as the only place to see the shows would be a slap across a lot of people’s faces right now. The writers are fighting for their rights, and we’re standing by them.”

Still, Harris says the circumstances are a bit unusual for projects like "24: Cold Warriors," a new Jack Bauer adventure by writer Beau Smith and arists Steve Bryant due out next month. “We’re kind of excited that we get to carry the torch for ’24,’ but I’m a fan of the show and I’d be happier if the show was on the air.”

"Law & Order" guru Dick Wolf is looking to mount a "300"-style greenscreen drama series based on the 1950s comics character Johnny Dynamite. "Disturbia" director and writer J.H. Wyman have signed on to the projet, which will see the ex-cop travel to Vegas looking for his missing girlfriend only to find Satan has set up shop buying and selling souls. Skein would feature Dynamite getting involved in the lives of those whose souls Satan touches. Plans are for the show to be shot almost entirely against greenscreens, much as the Frank Miller-inspired pics "Sin City" and "300."

While this take on the character is a big digression for Wolf, who's built an empire on the procedural crime genre, it's also an interesting take on the character that appears to be based mostly on Collins' revival.  Collins has a pretty good track record with such material, having scripted for years the Dick Tracy comic strip and writing comicbooks ranging from issues of Batman to his own creations Ms. Tree and the graphic novel "Road to Perdition," which was turned into a successful film starring Tom Hanks and Paul Newman. As a novelist, he's best known for his Nathan Heller series.

The character has quite a long and convoluted history. According to this entry at Don Markstein's Toonopedia, the character first appeared in 1953's Dynamite #3, created by writer Ken Fitch (under the pen name William Waugh) and artist Pete Morisi. The publisher, Comic Media, soon folded and the rights to the character were bought by Charlton Comics and they reintroduced Dynamite in 1955. Again, his publishing stint was short-lived, but the character was a favorite of fans of hard-nosed 1950s private eyes. One such fan, novelists and comics scripter Max Allan Collins, picked up the rights to the character in 1987, and has published a handful of new adventures since then and are available from AiT-PlanetLar.

Sci Fi Channel made a big push at Comic-Con this year for its December-airing miniseries "Tin Man," a kind of edgier retelling of the "Wizard of Oz" starring Zooey Deschanel, Alan Cumming, Neal McDonough and Richard Dreyfus.

To promote the upcoming event, they've commissioned a prequel comicbook from writer Stuart Moore and artist Siju Thomas. Some printed versions were handed out at Comic-Con — one of many TV shows using comics as promos — but the main rollout will be on Scifi.com and cellphones sometime soon. Here's a sneak peek at the cover and a few inside pages. (Click on the images for a closer look; more after the jump.)

Ice Cube and his production company CubeVision are in talks to option "10," the Boom! Studios action-crime graphic novel by Keith Giffen and Shannon Eric Denton.

Meanwhile, Disney has picked up "Pet Robots," based on the graphic novel by Scott Christian Sava and published by his own Blue Dream Studios.

And Sci Fi Channel will pull "Painkiller Jane," based on the Event Comics series created by Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti, after its first season finale next month.

G4, the cable network for gamers and all the stuff they love, is again covering Comic-Con this year, expanding to two-hours live from the floor each night from 7-9 p.m. ET. To prepare, a Preview special has been airing on the channel (and will continue to air today and tomorrow -- that's as much as my program guide shows for the next week). The hour-long special, hosted by cabler regulars Blair Butler and Chris Gore, includes several pieces aired in the channel's coverage of last year's con and the N.Y. Comic-Con, and some other material both new and old such as interviews with Zack Snyder (new — I think) and Frank Miller (old).

While it's great to see a cabler actually bringing cameras into Comic-Con and broadcasting the show to people who can't be there, I do wish the material was more interesting than talking to (and making fun of) people in costumes and glib or snarky intros to even more glib or snarky comedy skits — all of which gets very old, very very quickly. With everything that's going on at the con, there's a tremendous opportunity to cover stuff besides the movie panels, which will be covered by  pretty much every other entertainment news show anyway. Comic-Con offers such depth and variety of creative material, it would be great to see them talk about, you know, comicbooks, artwork and even toys. Last year, they did interview Marvel editor in chief Joe Quesada, but it wasn't a terribly deep or interesting interview. Getting say Warren Ellis or Jeff Smith or Grant Morrison or Larry Young or even some of the people making their own films on the show has potential to be far more interesting and much cooler than what was on the preview special.

Canadian actress Laura Vandevoort has been cast as Supergirl, aka Clark Kent's cousin Kara from Krypton, on The CW's "Smallville" skein. Actress's previous TV credits include "Instant Star," "CSI" and "Doc." She also appeared in the Miramax feature "The Lookout."

"Smallville" begins shooting for its seventh next week in British Columbia.

Surprisingly good footage in which the show is played straight instead of the campy approach that made it to air.