Marvel

It's coming fast, kids. IDW recently announced a four-week window for digital comics releases, and Marvel today announced their first day-and-date release of a...

As we alluded to the other day, concept art for Chris Hemsworth as Thor and Chris Evans as Captain America have been leaked....or "leaked,"...

Well, well, it looks like things are shaping up for Joss Whedon's AVENGERS movie , as Oscar nominee Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker) ahs joined the cast as Hawkeye. So far we have RDJ as Iron Man, Chris Evans as Cap, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, ScarJo as The Black Widow, and Don Cheadle as War Machine. That's a hefty and costly lineup of stars, but thrifty Marvel is asking the actors to take pay cuts and otherwise watching the budget very, very closely, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Bully boils it all down in easily digested panel format. Bookmark for pals!

Joe Quesada, whose been serving up his Cup o' Joe as Marvel Publishing's E-i-C- and CCO for a decade, has taken a larger role at Marvel Entertainment as Chief Creative Officer where he'll work alongside Alan Fine to provide creative input on Marvel's continuing expansion into all media.

Although Quesada has said in the past that the job of editor in chief "comes with a shelf life," his success at guiding Marvel's iconic characters through the digital era and into acquisition by Disney has led him to an even more important role at the company. PR below:

It's sort of the worst kept secret in comics that there will be a second Strange Tales anthology from Marvel, featuring more indie cartoonists presenting their takes on classic Marvel characters. The latest cartoonist to let the cat out of the bag is Farel Dalrymple who posted this excellent panel from a Spider-Man story.

Some pissing and moaning this week about the fact that Marvel/Deisney will be shooting the Captain America movie in the UK instead of the US. The reason? Oh, budget and so on.

GIRL COMICS #2 is out this week (a little late) and Faith Erin Hicks' Wolverine comic provides a pleasing preview.

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!

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...