Comics

As the business is changing, creators are getting creative about the business and finding new revenue streams. One such venture is Crazy 8 Press. Six noted SF writers—Peter David, Michael Jan Friedman, Robert Greenberger, Glenn Hauman, Aaron Rosenberg, and Howard Weinstein—are banding together to start their own online publishing cooperative and sell direct to readers. Books will be offered on a bimonthly basis to start, with greater frequency to come. Interested readers can sign up for the newsletter at the above link.

The DC reveals continue apace. Over the weekend, a beverage glass manufacturer Facebooked an image of their San Diego exclusive: a JLA tumbler that seems to reveal all 15 members of the nü JLA Identified thus far: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Aquaman, Cyborg, Deadman, Atom, Element Woman, Firestorm, Green Arrow, Hawkman, and Mera. Element Woman is a new Jim Lee designed character from Flashpoint. However, the identity of the 15th character, a seemingly blonde woman on the right, remains a mystery.

Over the weekend, remembrances, and tributes continued to flow for Gene "The Dean" Colan, who died on Thursday. The most complete obituary we have is Tom Field's at TCJ, which cover his entire career, the triumphs, the problems with editors, and the artist's early embrace of the internet. While beloved of some writers and editors, Colan's style was not a natural for Marvel:

In for a penny in for a pound: Despite bad reviews, and a 66 percent decline at the box office this weekend, Warner Bros. is still planning a sequel to Green Lantern, THR reports. A WB spokesman admits that the studio was "somewhat disappointed” with the box office, but they still believe in it as a franchise.

DC has cited its changes and additions to the Super-verse as grounds for reducing the Siegel heirs’s share of Superman material produced since 1999. A recent Variety article takes this even further, reporting thatNeil Gaiman’s success in winning co-ownership of Medieval Spawn provides legal precedent for giving DC complete ownership of the contemporary Superman, limiting the Siegels’ interest to the far less lucrative 1938 version of the character. Does DC have strong legal grounds for splitting Superman between The Man of Tomorrow and The Man of Yesterday? Click below to see if Gaiman v. McFarlane is legal kryptonite for creators' rights--or whether that's just another misconceived retcon.

In a change of policy, the New York Times' venerable Week in Review section will go from running a round-up of editorial cartoons on the topics of the week to specially commissioned work. Among those tapped, Brian McFadden, creator of Big Fat Whale. McFadden is 27 and lives in Massachusetts, giving the section a younger perspective, to say the least.

Comics-savvy (aren't they all?) movie beat reporter Borys Kit has a succinct wrap-up, of lessons to be learned from the GREEN LANTERN experience. And they are many; a sequel -- already in the writing stages -- was supposed to have been greenlit if the film did over $60 million, but the $53 million opening and bad word of mouth may have stopped that. Kit suggests that comic book movies based on a singular vision tend to do better -- something GL did not have:

DC Entertainment is an important part of the Warners Stable, and although they won't be headquartered on the lot, they are getting offices in a swanky new building just up the street, THR reports. An unnamed number of employees will be moving into the second floor of The Pointe, at 2900 Alameda Ave., conveniently located between the Warners lot and the Disney lot and catty-corner to NBC.

Religious bookstores remain one of the pillars of the independent bookstore world, but companies trying to target them with comics have had varying levels of success -- or failure. PW reports on Kingstone Media which has jumped into the category with funding and a wide ranging line of books:

The weekly round-up of nerd world media news has Cap II already, a hot Wonder Woman and more!

Guess who's got a comics app? Disney has been rolling out a whole line of kids digital books with its DigiBooks for a while, and a few selected comics on iPhone, but now they have their own app selling comics from the range of their 80 years history -- from Donald Duck to High School Musical. According to the pr, Disney comics have over 1 billion readers worldwide.

While there are some things we can complain about with the system Marvel Studios has in place for its movie assembly line, there are some thing they do really well. Like release trailers that continually build excitement. And the new one for CAPTAIN AMERICA -- while telling the whole story of the movie -- also includes some awesome action shots that have everyone on the net raving.