Dynamite

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).

Uh, uh, looks like maybe Dynamite should have entitled its Barsoomian comics "Master of the Male Wedgie" and not Dejah Thoris and so on, because ERB, Inc., the family-owned corporation which controls existing trademarks to the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate, is suing Dynamite, Dynamic Forces, and Savage Tales Entertainment for trademark infringement and unfair competition over Dynamite's publication of books entitled "Lord of the Jungle," "Warlord of Mars," "Warlord of Mars: Dejah Thoris", and "Warlord of Mars: Fall of Barsoom" based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs originals.

Dynamite has passed along the covers to GAME OF THRONES #6 and Jim Butcher's Dresden Files FOOL MOON #3. Both issues go on sale in May.

With The Shadow already scheduled Dynamite is now scheduling their second pulp adaptation, The Spider. The Spider was effectively The Shadow's nastier little brother. Originally created to tap into the popularity of the Shadow's pulp magazine, The Spider amped up the Shadow's format: more violent, more lurid, wider-ranging schemes from the villains, more outright "weirdness" in the "Weird Tales" sense of "weird." The other major difference was that The Spider had a more streamlined backstory: only one identity and a much smaller circle of sidekicks/assistance.

Army of Darkness (as in Evil Dead) returns to the world of comics today with a new first issue. We caught up with Army of Darkness writer Elliott Serrano (who likes to pretend he's a mild mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper as the "Geek To Me" columnist at the Chicago Tribune's Redeye) to talk about Ash, Bruce Campbell and the new series.

You may have noticed the Warlord of Mars, Fall of Barsoom tpb was in stores today. Maybe you'd like to read the first issue and see if you like it?

New comics! Fun stuff for everyone! (And, of course, before you hand the book over to a young impressionable mind, you have to read it first to make sure it is age-appropriate!)

One of the questions you ask when you hear about a new Shadow comic is "what kind of take are they doing?" Another is "how serious will it be?" And then there's "how faithful is it to the source material?" As it happens, I've had a chance to read the script for The Shadow #1. I can't speak to Aaron Campbell's art -- I haven't seen that yet. I can, however, tell you what the tone and the take are going to be.

The past year has seen an unusually large number of Sherlock Holmes adaptations, both in comics and on the screen, but not all Holmeses are created equal. Last night, British viewers got to see the last episode of Season 2 of the BBC's wildly popular starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, and Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows starring Robert Downey Junior and Jude Law is still doing well in theaters a month after it opened. So if you're in a Holmesian mood and wondering what to read next, here's run down on the Holmes adaptations which have come out or had new installments in the past year. Varying from inspiredly odd to unreadably awful, don't go to the comic store without reading this first!

The rumor that's been making the rounds is true: Garth Ennis is the writer when Dynamite launches their ongoing revival of the classic pulp franchise, The Shadow. Joining him as the artist is Aaron Campbell, who's been doing Green Hornet: Year One and Dark Shadows for Dynamite.

You may recall that Dynamite laid hands on the comic book license for The Shadow, a little while back. Come to find out, they also laid hands on the reprint rights for the previous Shadow comics. You know how Dark Horse reprints Marvel Star Wars and Conan comics? Dynamite's going to be doing something similar with DC Shadow comics, and they're starting out with Howard Chaykin's "Blood and Judgement" reboot of the franchise from the mid-80s.

Dynamite has some new books on the way, including The Bionic Woman, by Paul Tobin, Leno Carvalho with Paul Renaud on covers. Today it's Merciless - The Rise of Ming #1, which is written by Scott Beatty and drawn by Ron Adrian, with Alex Ross covers. This is a spin-off prequel of Flash Gordon - Zeitgeist (a title that just begs for spin-offs called Flash Gordon: Weltschmerz, Flash Gordon: Der Zauberberg and so on.) The book debuts in April: