§ Wrapped trolleys are already showing up in San Diego! Comic-Con is only 37 days away!

§ The MNT is reporting that comics writer Greg Thelen has passed away. He created and wrote the webcomic Amanda Green, SIA.

Following the eponymous Superhuman Insurance Agent of the title, the series looked at how regular people would get by in a world of superheroes and powers – as Thelen said in an interview at ComicsAlliance with Jon Erik Christianson, his series quickly became “about the people superheroes save”. Keen on expanding the comic in new ways to make the world feel real and engaging, he created twitter accounts for his central characters, a website for the fictional news organisation of the world, and constantly played with new ways of drawing readers into the story.

§ Tia Kalla looks at the “incubator” program recently introduced by Tapas, the webcomics portal. This deal has been criticized quite a bit online, and that’s because it’s a bad deal: shared copyright for unknown pay, no negotiations, and other hallmarks of bad deals. The idea is to get a piece of as much IP as possible to exploit everywhere they can. As Kalla points out, in most cases cartoonists can get representation that does that and doesn’t own half the copyright.

Tapas isn’t all bad, but you can get noticed on your own these days thank to the internet thing.

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§ I think I forgot to link to the actual first look at the color pages of From Hell, as revealed by Eddie Campbell, and I think this looks very nice.

§ Karen Berger has a nice remembrance of Anthony Bourdain’s early love of comics, and comics writing.

§ It’s Pride Month! Let’s go all the way back to December for this list of How to Support Your Favorite Queer Comics Creators This Holiday Season by Mey Rude; it’s not the holidays but you’ll still want to support these queer cartoonists.

§ Also for Pride Month, The MNT reprints an essay by Veronique Emma Houxbois which looks at the larger picture of LBGTQIA creators in an industry that isn’t all that great for cis het creators, let alone marginalized groups. Sadly, this essay was written for Pride Month 2017 but I thought it couldn’t have been written right now.

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§ Writer Mark Russell has been on a tear over in the Hanna Barbera Reimagined Universe for DC, and how his spin on a gay Snagglepuss is canon? As in he tied it to the cartoon not that Hanna-Barbera is acknowledging that Snagglepuss is gay, although. heavens to Murgatroyd, have you been paying attention?

Russell’s second Hanna-Barbera series, Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles with artists Mike Feehan, Sean Parsons, and Paul Mounts has proven another devastating modern parable, casting the pink mountain lion as a gay Southern Gothic playwright targeted by the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) in 1953. The series has explored the reactions of several real-life writers, artists and members of New York high society of the era as they negotiated the dangers of the Red Scare, and issue #5 saw novelist Huckleberry Hound, Snagglpuss’s closest friend, commit suicide after being betrayed by his lover and indicted on indecency charges. In short: Snagglepuss has been a brutal comic book.

§ Headline of the day! N.L. War in Comics exhibition includes debut of Blue Puttees graphic novel. What this means is that our one time friendly neighbors the Canadians are talking about historical comics.

The Canadian Forces Station on The Boulevard in St. John’s seems an unlikely place for comic enthusiasts to gather. But there they were Thursday evening, discussing the nuances of comic artists’ portrayal of war in a new exhibition called “War in Comics” on display at the Royal Newfoundland Regiment Museum until July 1. The exhibition was organized by Memorial University’s English Department in partnership with the Royal Newfoundland Regiment. Five artists’ work is on display, including Miriam Katin’s account of surviving the Shoah when she was an infant in Hungary, Scott Chantler’s reconstruction of his grandfather’s service in the Highland Light Infantry, and Jason Lutes’ depictions of the lives of Berliners in 1930s Germany. St. John’s-based comic artist Paul Tucker collaborated with writer Paul Allor for “Tet” — a story about the Vietnam War and its legacies.

MOOOOVIES:

§ It seems that Gareth Evans is busy making a tv show, or washing is hair or something, and the proposed DEATHSTROKE movie starring Joe Manganiello will be delayed until 2020, or maybe never. This is the latest in a long string of DCEU movies that are delayed or not happening or confused, and meanwhile a bunch of other movie trial balloons are being floated and….really what is happening over there? No wonder Diane Nelson wanted to spend more time with her family.

§ Meanwhile, there’s a big mooovie confab this week in Europe called CineEurope, and speculation is FIERCE that it’s the perfect place for  Marvel to reveal some details about Avengers 4!

§ In fact, everyone is so excited that some leaked “concept art” purportedly prepared for CineEurope has been making all the rounds, and every detail of what it shows has been analyzed to death. If this is actual Marvel-produced concept art, it is very not good. And I am alarmed. And no I’m not going to reproduce the art, which showed up in a Brazilian twitter feed. Here’s just enough to give you a taste.

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§ BUT MEANWHILE! Kevin Feige and the Russos have been dropping all kinds of hints about Avengers 4. Like the Russo’s saying that not everyone is necessarily come back from The Snappening. Like say, alright, we know Black Panther and Spider-Man 2 take place AFTER A4, but the Guardians of the Galaxy had a four year gap so it could be nuts!

“Here’s the thing, I think it’s important to remember anything is possible in the MCU [Marvel Cinematic Universe],” Anthony said to the Huffington Post. “Just because there’s a sequel on the books doesn’t mean … people become accustomed to time moving linearly in the MCU. That doesn’t necessarily have to be the case. There’s a lot of very inventive ways of where the story can go from here.” “There’s four years between Guardians 2 and Infinity War. That’s a long time, and a lot of Guardians stories to tell,” Joe added. “Again, as Anthony said, don’t expect everything to move forward in a linear fashion in the Marvel universe.”

So you could theoretically watch a Guardians movie while knowing that all the characters but Rocket will be dead in a few years. That would give you a real wistful feeling, I bet.

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“Avengers: Infinity War” directors Joe (left) and Anthony (right) Russo with Chris Evans on set. (Photo courtesy of Disney)

§ Along these very same, traumatic lines, Kevin Feige says we could get “different incarnations” of beloved characters. This information was revealed in a live tweet of a movie confab.

What does it mean? Think George Lazenby.

§ AND ALSO: The Russos were quizzed about what characters died and lived offscreen in the Snappening, and oddly, Sif (Jaime Alexander) and Betty Ross (Liv Tyler), characters we haven’t seen in a looooong time, are both dead! But sexy Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) made it! BUt they got all coy when asked if Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster lived or not, so maybe?  I wouldn’t mind see her again because she was spunky.

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