Dynamite

Back in the 90s, Evil Ernie was hot book for awhile. Brian Pulido and Stephen Hughes had a hot run with the Chaos! Comics imprint, which also featured Lady Death (yes, that was when Bad Girls were at their peak). Dynamite acquired most of the Chaos! intellectual property, back in 2010 (Lady Death is over at Avatar). This looks to be the first book to come out from that IP family.

Has it really been 6 years since Alex Ross painted an entire comic? He did do pencils and inks with some computerized painted finishes for a Justice Society/Kingdom Come special edition in '09. Other than that I think it really has been just a page or two here and there since Justice wrapped in '06. Ross is returning to interiors in November for a pulp character (Shadow/Green Hornet / Zoro/ Black Bat / Miss Fury / The Spider) crossover mini-series called Masks from Dynamite in November.

The Russ Manning Awards Draw Closer. Here's a quick rundown of nominee Craig Cernak

A couple months back, Dynamite starting publishing new adventures of two classic pulp magazine heroes: The Shadow and The Spider. Both characters have seen comic adaptions over the years, particularly The Shadow. With a couple month elapsed, its time to step back and see how these characters that predate comic book superheroes (and influenced the creation of Batman) are holding up.

By Todd Allen

--I learned something new today. Remember how Watchmen started out as a treatment for the Charlton characters DC had purchased? Come to find out out, DC didn't purchase the rights to all the Charlton characters and Dynamite now has the rights to Peter Cannon/Thunderbolt. As in, the prototype for Watchmen's Ozymandias.

There are some comics that really should have digital editions. American Flagg! is a 15 minutes into the future classic of dystopian (not _quite_ cyberpunk) science fiction that put Howard Chaykin into the spotlight with First Comics in the early 1980s. A political satire featuring military industrial complex taking over, government regulation of cable television, the outlawing of sports (leading to an underground basketball league), subliminal messages, a talking cat,some Nazis, and a fair amount of sex, Flagg! is a hugely influential book.

Thun'da is a bit of an oddity from the tail end of the golden age (1952). On the surface, it's a variation on the Tarzan mythos, with a bit of a cold war spin. It only ran for six issues. On the other hand, the first issue was one of legendary painter/illustrator Frank Frazetta's comic projects. It also was tapped for a movie serial starring Buster Crabbe. According to comics.org, Gardner Fox was the scripter on the first issue, adding a little most historical flavor to it.

Dynamite has landed a new comics license in Pathfinder. Pathfinder, if you're not current on role-playing games, is a sort of spin-off of Dungeons & Dragons. Essentially, the D&D 3.5 rule set is available for licensing via a "Game System License" and Pathfinder jumps off from that point. Tor talks about Pathfinder as being like D&D "3.75" and an alternative to the latest rule revisions to the mother ship.

Dynamite has just revealed these exclusive sneak peaks of their July releases. Take a look at the covers for GAME OF THRONES #10, WHEEL OF TIME #27, and FULL MOON #7. Expect these on your radar in July!

You'll recall that a few weeks ago, the estate of Edgar Rice Burroughs sued Dynamite over their ongoing lines of Tarzan and John Carter comics. Although the earliest works in each series are in the public domain, ERB, Inc. sued on the basis of trademark infringement, claiming that Dynamite's Lord of the Jungle was infringing their trademark for "TARZAN LORD OF THE JUNGLE" and so on. Well, Dynamite has responded, and it's pretty much a blanket denial, as you can see above. Dynamite's defense is pretty simple: the books are in the public domain, and ERB, Inc., doesn't have a trademark to infringe. For instance, ERB didn't file a trademark claim for Lord of the Jungle until March, 2012, although a shadowy company called ETT Corp. had filed one a few years earlier.

I've already previewed Marvel and DC, so here are the other publishers, with titles MAYBE shipping this month!

Vampirella wasn't the only reoccurring character from the old Warren comic magazines. One of the supporting characters in Vampirella was the shape shifting Pantha. In June, Pantha will be spinning off into her own book, written by Brandon Jerwa (G.I. Joe, the Shield) and illustrated by Pow Rodrix (Justice League).