Publishers

Some dude was walking by the Green Lantern movie set in new Orleans and totally got lucky with this photo of Peter Sarsgaard as villain Dr. Hector Hammond. In the comic, Hammond is one of those guy--with-a-giant-deformed-head--who-rides-around-in-a-chair types who are so prevalent these days, a problem caused by a run-in with a meteor back in the day.

Lots and lots of personnel announcements over the last few days.¶ Image has hired Todd Martinez as their new Sales & Licensing Coordinator. For...

Joining the elite three-time (Stardust, Kick-Ass) club for comic book movie directors, Matthew Vaughn has signed on to direct X-Men: First Class after a lot of back and forth. Bryan Singer was originally on board to direct but he pulled out due to scheduling -- the helmer of the first two X-flicks will stay aboard as producer. Vaughn had been rumored for a while -- he was originally scheduled to direct the third X-men movie before pulling out at the last moment himself, leaving Brett Ratner to have his way with the franchise.   

During his six years as Marketing Manager at Marvel Comics, Jim McCann definitely established himself as a strong candidate for Nicest Guy In Comics, and certainly helped out The Beat on many occasions. This Thursday will be his last day on staff at Marvel, however, as he leaves to pursue his writing career with both regular Marvel writing gigs and a stiking creator-owned project, THE RETURN OF THE DAPPER MEN, coming this fall from Archaia. As McCann mentions in the interview, he long had a background in writing, but his outgoing nature usually ended up spinning him towards marketing jobs, but now he's sticking with the path to what he wants to do. McCann has definitely been in the middle of some of Marvel's wildest rides over the last six years, and when he suggested an "exit interview," we thought it would be a good way to look back on them. Plus he suggested a music number to end it all, so we had to go along. You won't find too much muckraking here -—McCann could easily segue into inspirational speaking -— and things might get a little sappy at the end, but not every one can be a tearjerker!

Friday afternoon news dump as Zuda Comics, DC's webcomic imprint, makes it official that they are leaving their competition format behind. VP of...

While we're all talking IRON MAN 2 right now, a look into the crystal ball revelas that a year hence we'll be all yakking...

Another Icon comic is Hollywood bound, Michael Fleming reports, as INCOGNITO, the supervillain vengeance caper by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, has been optioned by by Fox. Peter Chernin and Circle of Confusion's David Engel will produce and the screenwriter attached is playwright Robert Schenkkan.

The summer of comic book movies continues as the trailer for JONAH HEX hits the internet. http://d.yimg.com/m/up/ypp/movies/player.swf I guess it might not be that bad, even...

I was moving an exercise machine - The Total Gym -down to the basement on the sly. My wife and I had discussed moving it from our bedroom – she wanted to keep it there and I wanted to move it to the basement. So, of course I moved the machine behind her back. Now, the thing weighs about 90 pounds and has ropes and pulleys so it’s awkward to carry. As I wrestled with it coming down the stairs, I missed the last step, and landed on my left ankle. As I went crashing to the ground, the Total Gym followed and came down on my chest…just as my wife was turning the corner. She screamed thinking I had died. When she realized that her idiot of a husband was alive, she started yelling at me for being an ass for carrying it down on my own and reminded me she didn’t want it moved at all. Even though the machine was still on my chest, my wife was crying and yelling, and my ankle hurt like hell and was ballooning up to the size of Schwarzenegger’s bicep, all I could think was; “Shit, the Neil Gaiman book is coming out soon – I have too much to do.” Then I asked my wife for an Advil. 2003 turned out to be an important year, for me and for graphic novels. DC Comics was publishing a BIG book, Neil Gaiman’s Sandman: Endless Nights. It was Neil’s return to Sandman comics and it was not a collection of comics, but an original graphic novel. There was the idea floating around the office that maybe, with Neil’s success with his novels and the fact that American Gods had hit the New York Times Bestseller List, we could have a bestseller on our hands. It was of a dream of mine, to have one of our graphic novels become a best seller.

In the spirit of cleaning out our email in-box, here is some promo art that came in yesterday that may be of some interest to Beat readers, including THE CRUSADES, MORNING GLORY ACADEMY, HAWKS OF OUTREMER, FCBD IRON MAN/THOR, DARKWING DUCK and SECRET PROJECT ROBOT.

Dan Clowes is on tour this week, D&Q tells u, starting today in Washington DC. In each city, Dan will be talking with a special...

Another intriguing looking Viz Signature manga is coming via their partnership with IKKI Magazine, Hisae Iwaoka's SATURN APARTMENTS. According to the blurb: Far in...