§ Stan Lee’s house is for sale for $3.75 million — economical.Why is he selling? My first guess would be because he’s never there, but perhaps the 91-year-old icon just doesn’t have time to dust the 2,500 sq. ft property. This house is surrounded by “mature landscaping”—so many jokes. [Via Robot 6]

§ Multiversity’s Brian Salvatore went to New York Comic-Con and interviewed cosplayers on harassment and how the new policy worked. Depressingly, most just expected some level of inappropriate contact and women felt safer in groups with men in them, but the picture wasn’t all bleak

The opinions on the cosplayer’s convention experience were mixed, but overall relatively positive. However, it seems that the new policy didn’t really affect the people I spoke with. One Harley Quinn cosplayer, approximately 25 years old, said that on Thursday she had two incidents of people being “handsy” with her while taking photos. When asked if she reported the incidents she said that she did not, because she felt that it “wasn’t worth it.” She said that this is par for the course when cosplaying, and therefore she gave a dirty look and moved on. She was well aware of the new policy, and felt that it was a good thing to have in place, yet chose not to take advantage of it. This sentiment was echoed through a number of cosplayers I spoke with: the idea that human nature + 100,000 people + women in revealing outfits inevitably leads to some harassment. This is not incorrect, per se, but is a bit of a defeatist attitude and still unacceptable. Almost everyone I spoke with complained of being photographed without consenting or of having disparaging remarks tossed their way and, most disturbingly, most of the women mentioned some sort of inappropriate physical contact.

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§ A nice preview of Lala Albert’s Janus and a primer on her work by Zainab Akhtar.

§ Dave Gibbons, you’ve just been named Comics LAureate of the UK. What are you going to do next? Talk up the comics of course:

According to Gibbons, “comics are a very vibrant art form in their own right … part of the continuum from novels through to movies and computer games”, and are also ideally suited to encouraging children to read. “They are very accessible. I think children naturally gravitate to their particular mix of brief words and exciting, interesting pictures. They can do everything from spin yarns of derring do to things which are very educational in the sense of history and science – virtually everything,” he said. “What we have to do is show what is out there, not just the Beano and Dandy and Batman stuff, but to show the range of the medium.”

That’s our man!

§ Yet another inntelligent take on comics from a mainstream publication, in this case EW’s Jason Heller on The Hospital Suite and other comics about medical issues.

§ And Amanda Conner was profiled on People.com. Cartoonists are people now?

Between Power Girl, Harley Quinn and Watchmen, you’ve come to a lot of characters with big, built-in, very vocal fanbases. Is that daunting? How do you cope with it?
I just try to show the characters a lot of love. Each character has their own very distinct voice, and I try and work with that and amp that up. I think when you read a character and really know a character before you start working on it, you get a feel for it. And that’s sort of how I approach things.

 

§ Speaking of Conner, here’s the team up you have all been waiting for:

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§ Ray Fisher will be playing Cyborg in the Justice leage prequels…and eventually a Cyborg movie, now set for 2020, and he found out the same day everyone else did.

The actor didn’t expect such a role to come his way this early in his career. At 27 years old, he thought he’d be in “at least [his] 40s” before seeing any success like this. His interview also confirmed that Cyborg will appear in both Justice League movies, already a nearly foregone conclusion. Interestingly, he finished shooting his scenes for Batman V Superman back in July. He name-dropped meeting Gal Gadot and Ben Affleck on set, as well as Jason Momoa, recently announced officially as Aquaman (at the same time as Fisher’s expanded Cyborg role). That’s the first direct confirmation that Momoa’s Arthur will appear in the film.

 

§ Oh and speaking of Jason Momoa as Aquaman he’s channeling his training and heritage for the role:

Momoa added, “Yeah, I did go to school for Marine Biology, but the cool thing is…the greatest thing for me is that Polynesians, our gods, Kahoali, Maui, all these water gods, so it’s really cool and a honor to be playing a [water] character. And there’s not too many brown superheroes, so I’m really looking forward to representing the Polynesians, the natives.” Momoa continued, “My family are some of the greatest water men on earth. I’m not, but I’m going to go train with them. But it’s really an honor just being a Polynesian. And water is the most important thing in this world and we all know it. It’s cool be a part of DC’s universe. I’m really excited to be with Warner Bros., and hopefully everyone likes it. And Zack Snyder’s a genius, so I’m really excited to be hanging out with him.”

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§ Everyone has linked to this great AV Club piece on choreographing comic book fight scenes by Oliver Sava. I will too. That’s a page from Tradd Moore above.

M: Action choreography is one of my favorite parts of drawing comics. It’s something I’ve always focused on in my work, and each project I’ve worked on has built upon my knowledge and practice with it. I try to make action and movement as clear and easy to follow as possible, yet still dynamic. I take a lot of inspiration from martial arts movies, video games, dance, and athletic events. In all of those art forms, the most important part is that the character, performer, or athlete is doing something incredible and the viewer gets to witness their performance in complete clarity. The performance and performers are the star of the show, not the way it’s framed or edited. I want readers to see exactly what’s going on, because that’s what I like to see. If I’m watching a Jackie Chan movie, I want to see all the stunts, all the choreography, all the athleticism, you know? I’ve had an artist describe my storytelling as journalistic, and another artist describe it as “painfully obvious, but in a good way.” I agree with both!

§ Vivek Tiwary went to the Hyderabad Comic Con and what happens next is…charming.

§ There was a comic con on the West Bank and people had a fun time. Comic-Con brings the world together. [Via Comics Reporter]

§ If you’ve been following the whole Marvel vs Fox wr over the movies, and the ritual slaying of all comics characters who are in the Fox movie stable, this piece wraps it all up, from Mutant X on.

But lest you think Marvel’s freeze-out of Fox isn’t real, let’s take a look at what’s happened in the past few months. Fox isn’t relinquishing its rights to the X-Men and Fantastic Four, and that won’t change any time soon – so Marvel leveled up. If you can’t beat ’em outright, undermine ’em. And that’s exactly what Marvel is doing. The first thing you need to understand is that this isn’t just about movies. Juggernaut franchises make more money off the merchandising and tie-ins than the movies even do themselves: Clothing, toys, promotional deals, video games – if it can be marketed with an iconic character’s face, it will be. That’s why they’re franchises. And it’s that pervasive, cross-promotional aspect of comic book movie franchises now that audiences (particularly the all-important young demographic) expect to see.