Comics

Via PR, confirmation that Image is adapting a ratings system based on DC's ratings, which are similar to manga and video game ratings system implemented over the years. With the death of the Comics Code, publishers are now voluntarily submitting to labeling systems, perhaps reflecting the widening audience for comics in bookstores and chain stores. The brief PR makes no mention of who will implement these ratings: the creators or someone on the Image staff. WE've fired off an email to Image and will report any responses.

David Goyer, co-creator of Flash Forward and the regular story collaborator with Chris Nolan on DARK KNGHT and THE DARK KNIGHT RISES is looking to produce 100 BULLETS as a TV series for Showtime.

Only a few days ago, SLG announced they would be selling digital comics via iVerse, and, in a sign of the continuing difficult of selling small comics periodicals, they have announced that the final issue of ROYAL HISTORIAN OF OZ by Tommy Kovac and Andy Hirsch will only be available as a pdf download. Although low orders scuttled the final print issue, it will be available in the collected edition, which is due in September.

When alt-comix superstar Brian Chippendale reviews mainstream comics, the result illuminates us all this episode he examines the X-men, the new UNCANNY #1, and fanboy style, suggests that consecutive numbering didn't hurt X-MEN #94:

The latest round of outrage over the matter of women in comics was sparked off when DC's relaunch had only three "distaff" members. In all the talk-talk there was some along the lines of Adam P Knave's Why Aren’t There More Women in Comics? which points out the lack of a welcome mat for female creators.

Knave takes pains to point out that he's talking "mainstream" comics, but this got me thinking about how obsessing about women at The Big Two is really like worrying about the number of saunas in the Kalahari.

Meanwhile, back at the box office, GREEN LANTERN debuted at #1 with $52.6 million, less than THOR and even X-MEN: FIRST CLASS. As the Times put it: "An all-hands-on-deck effort by Warner Brothers to turn “Green Lantern” into a box office superpower fizzled over the weekend." With a budget of a reported $300 million, dreadful reviews and a big Friday-to-Saturday drop-off, GL's task as the advance guard for a new generation of movies based on DC characters has been made much more difficult.

More great Canadian cartoonists were honored Saturday, with the presentation of this year's Joe Shuster Awards at the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo with...

If you had asked me if I had wanted to see a movie about Green Lantern, I would have been neutral, but if you had asked me if I wanted to see a movie about a giant space octopus made of fear and smoldering owl fewmets busting loose from green chains, I would have said hell yes! GREEN LANTERN is probably the most comic-book comic book movie since SPIDER-MAN. All the imagery and spirit come straight from the yellowing pages of some old comic by John Broome and Gil Kane -- a boldly colored, nuance-challenged world of wonder and battle in the stars.

Designing the Green Lantern Corps for the screen left veteran designer Neville Page spent with exertion -- it dwarfed his previous projects AVATAR, SUPER 8 and STAR TREK. To solve the problem, Page turned to the work of the comics giants who paved the way:

In a blog post, Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams reveals himself as a male-basher who thinks all men need to be castrated to ensure a smoothly running society because all they want to do is rape and tweet pictures of their junk to co-eds:

Bob Haney and Del Connell are the writers selected to received this year's Finger Award. The Finger Award is presented each year to writers, one living, one dead, who for whatever reason, have not received the recognition they should have for their creative efforts. It's named for Bill Finger, who created much of the Batman mythos we see today while Bob Kane got the credit.

Shannon O"leary is back with a rundown on the week's Hollywood doings and brewings.