Culture

Here are some visuals from Comic-Con... I'm taking a break.

Looking for a theme at Comicon isn't always the most sensible thing to do. It's a big show and there's a lot going on. I am, however, seeing some momentum being gathered -- in force -- from a trend that seemed to spin out of the Image convention this past spring. It's a little bit more than a movement back towards creator ownership, though that's certainly part of it. It's about the era of exclusive contracts dying and an age of , for lack of a better term, playing the field coming back.

"Given the artistic quality of Canadian cartooning, it's cultural importance, its centrality to an understanding of Canadian society and history, and its appeal to readers of all ages, a strong argument can and should be made that the Canada Council should support the work of Cartoonists and that of publishers interested in publishing their work. "

I fear we might have a little bit of type casting going on here. They've cast a new Q for Skyfall. Ben Whishaw is playing a decidedly younger Q than we're used to seeing, and definitely more on the nerdy side than the classical preoccupied professor, to look at the promo image:

Dave McKean, the British artist/polymath who has worked as a cartoonist, comics cover artist, illustrator, graphic designer and filmmaker, opened his panel by saying, “I’m not going to assume that people know who I am, which was greeted by a cheer from the crowd, trying to let Dave know how many people in the packed room DID know who Dave is (at least 25%, if you’re keeping track).

The Cup o' Joe panel had a few announcements and has taken the first step to solving some of the solitication mysteries spinning out of "Marvel Now." A lot of it seems to be spun out of AVX.

Two primary announcements are coming out of the "Ultimate Marvel" Panel. (That really does sound goofy if you say it out loud, doesn't it?) First off, there's a new Ultimate Comics Iron Man mini-series coming out. Secondly, there's going to be an Event in the Ultimates line called "Divided We Fall."

It's the 25th anniversary of Neil Gaiman's Sandman. Could DC let this go by without new material? No. And not only did they get Gaiman to agree to do a new tale, they got a real artist's artist to illustrate it in the form of J.H. Williams III. Technically, this sounds like it will be a prequel, if not a prologue, to the original series. It should end just as the original issue #1 is about to begin.

Legendary continues to pick up more name creators. We already told you about Waid, Brooks and Davis. Now we hear J. Michael Straczynski has a project at Legendary:

A few items from Marvel's Next Big Thing panel. Something of a round-up of recent events with some art.

by Pamela Auditore "Now I know who the comic lovers are here at Comic Con,"  said Jimmy Palmiotti to appreciative applause  in first DC Panel...

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.