Tag: Marvel

Based on what we know of publishing data, August 8th, 1961 was the day FANTASTIC FOUR #1 arrived on newsstands. Tom Brevoort sent out a birthday tweet. Although there's talk of boycotts and justified anger over Marvel's shoddy treatment of some of its greatest talent over the years, we should still mark this day. Pairing the protean storytelling of Ditko and Kirby with the breezy populism of Stan Lee created some of the greatest adventure comics that have ever been, and we suspect they'll be read for another 50 years.

Marvel just sent out another one of its mystery teaser campaigns, with the above graphic and the tag "Coming in November 2011." Of late the FF has of course been renamed and renumbered Fantastic Force, in the wake of Johnny Storm's death. However, there had been some speculation that Marvel wouldn't pass up the opportunity to publish FANTASTIC FOUR #600 in what would have been the original numbering. Since two issues are shipping in October, the timing is right. Or it could be the return of Johnny, aka the Human Torch.

There have been about 42 multigabillion reactions in the media to the new multi-culti-ultimate Spider-Man, and we're not going to link to all of them, but here are the three best that have crossed our desk today. Perhaps we'll update this post if more good ones come in. • As you can see Stephen Colbert weighed in last night with some funny, funny jokes. Colbert is an avowed comics fan with many crossovers in his resume already, including having Joe Quesada on as a guest, and guesting himself in an issue of Spider-man.

All of you folks who have been crying about diversity in comics had better be all over this! Marvel has revealed that the new Ultimate Spider-Man will be Hispanic/African-American teenager Miles Morales. A USA Today story broke the news and reveals that yes, Donald Glover's campaign to play Spider-Man was an influence on writer Brian Michael Bendis, although only as an indication that previous discussions about relaunching Spider-Man as a non-white character were on the right track.

Spinning out of a Facebook discussion, cartoonist and educator Steve Bissette is making a case for a boycott of Marvel over how shabbily they have treated Jack Kirby and his heirs:

A sad day for those who hoped, perhaps against hope, that Jack "The King' Kirby's heirs would get some of the money their father's creations have made over the years. Characters including Captain America (created in the '40s with Joe Simon), The Hulk, Iron Man and Thor-- you know, if they called next year's potential biggest-movie-of-all-time THE AVENEGRS "JACK KIRBY'S AVENGERS" they would not be far from the mark. Deadline has analysis, seeing it as a big setback for lawyer Marc Toberoff, who has won many unlikely IP cases against giant studios in the past:

Tom Brevoort believes in the satisfying chunk. Or in his case, "big, sizable, meaty chunks" of of story like those found in graphic novels. Marvel has significantly rejected the notion of creating original graphic novels over the years, with former E-i-C Joe Quesada continually saying they don't make economic sense. However, maybe they do make more reading sense for new readers in a world of tablets and Kindles. Marvel has announced a new line of Season One hardcover original graphic novels which will give modern readers a modern take on the origins of classic characters:

HUGE SPOILERS Watch at our own risk -- it will be gone by dawn anyway. If you stick around to the very end of the CAPTAIN AMERICA credits, there's a teaser for ANOTHER movie. Can oyu guess what it is?

Is it a new comic book about the adventures of Saul Bass?  Or just the return of Iron Fist?

True believers will have a lot to see and do at Comic-con.

Less than 24 hours ago The Beat and several other websites linked to a Kickstarter page forWomanthology, an all-female anthology of comics by both established and new creators. Less than 24 hours later not only has it met its $25,000 goal...it is OVER the goal with $27,454 in pledges. In case you haven't noticed, there's been a SURGE of interest in comics, video games, books, movies and TV from females readers, nerds and geeks out there. I have already pointed out how successful female cartoonists and writers are on the bestseller charts. It would seem that everyone who has been squawking about this has spoken with in the loudest way they can -- not with Twitter, or Tumblr but the DOLLAR.

For years, we wondered why Disney didn't do it's own Comic-Con...and now they are with the biennial D23 festival in Anaheim. This year's show, set for August 19-21, is the suspected reason why Disney's Hall H presence for such films as John Carter and The Avengers will not be at Comic-Con. And indeed, the presentation schedule has just been announced and not only does it include a 90 minute Hall H style presentation, but an entire Joe Quesada-led Marvel event. This would be an awesome thing to attend if it weren't just a month after Comic-Con for us East coasters. Anyone want to cover it for us? Also, nice to see the Disney princesses getting named as legends.