Publishers

Roger Langridge mentioned in a podcast that he was done with Marvel and DC (OK, he wasn't working with DC... but he's planning on keeping it that way) a little while back. The story has popped up again over at the Washington Post's Comic Riffs blog. This time out, the emphasis is clearly on Jack Kirby and The Avengers movie.

A while ago, a few very select comics press outlets were invited to the NY and Burbank offices of DC Comics to look at the pages of the BEFORE WATCHMEN prequels. Of course, only the tip top of the comics media were allowed in: MTV Geek, IGN, CBR, , Comicvine, and 670 The Score Chicago Sports Radio. We call shenanigans! Anyway, caveats were entered, impressions gleaned. Writers were not allowed to actually discuss plot points but rather give overall thoughts and gestaltic reactions.

By J. M. Walter, via Cartoon Brew.

You never know where the next round of cuts is going to come from. DC appears to have been cutting titles from their subscription program, not based on overall sales, but based on how many subscriptions they're getting. Which is to say, while Aquaman, which has caused much head scratching over it's omission from the subscription list while being a top 10 Diamond seller, may be more of a Direct Market title than a mainstream title.

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.

I guess it's all come full circle now.

After a lot of misfires, the WB finally hit the target* with a pilot pick up in the form of ARROW, what they are now calling Green Arrow. We don't know why the Green part was redacted because as you can see from the cast shot, they do wear green. Guess "**** Lantern is not a phrase that is remembered fondly beneath the water tower.

Thom Zahler's cult tale of superhero romance and marraige is coming back from IDW with a new series, a baby and a a San Diego exclusive.

DAREDEVIL continues to be the superhero book that proves that "nice art" can be better than "house style" as Mike Allred takes over for an issue. Mark Waid continues to write.

The "Upfronts" have taken/are taking place somewhere in Hollywood and New York and although it sounds like a bra convention, what it really means is the networks are parading their new shows for 2012-13 in front of TV reporters. The big comics news was a greenlight for the Green Arrow TV show—minus the arrow—but Marvel stuff also has some motion.

Jason, the great cartoonist of I KILLED ADOLF HITLER, ATHOS IN AMERICA, and so on, is the person who didn't like THE AVENGERS:

Or: how did we get here anyway? Chris Eckert does something we're surprised more anal retentive fans internet researchers haven't done, and collates Five Years Later: The Oral History of Countdown to Final Crisis using the plethora of internet interviews that flooded the comics internets in the innocent days of 2007. Although, as Eckert points out, a lot of material from that era has been removed, including most of Newsarama and The Pulse, to name but two. So what was Countdown?