November 3rd, 1999 - Return to the House of Secrets
Rumor has it that Vertigo´s House Of Secrets by Steven T Seagle and Teddy Kristiansen is due for a comeback next year. The new story is said to be a 2 issue Prestige Format series rather than a return to the monthly series. A source close to the project revealed to PopImage that though no date has
been set House of Secrets fans should be on the look out in July/August 2000.
House of Secrets was an ongoing series from Vertigo/DC that ran for 25 issues. The ongoing series was cancelled in 1998, in order to bring out a number of short, painted mini-series. While many had given up hope on the series returning, this rumour appears to be on the level. Fans might also remember that House of Secrets had been optioned for feature film production, however, as far as we know that deal is dead in the water, sorry.
- Thanks to Arni Gunnarson
November 2nd, 1999 - New Anime on TV next spring, Welcome GUNDAM WING
Bandai America Inc. confirmed last Friday what Japanese animation (anime) fans had been speculating about for weeks - popular Japanese animated TV series Gundam Wing will be making it's North American television debut next spring on the Cartoon Network. Gundam Wing will appear as a feature in the Cartoon Network's "Toonami" block of action-adventure cartoons.
Gundam Wing is the story of five high-school age boys who are chosen to pilot giant robots to defend mankind against an alien threat. Running 49 episodes and 3 television specials, Gundam Wing is one of the newer television series in the "Mobile Suit Gundam" franchise. Largely considered to be the best of the giant robot genre, Gundam as a whole is very deeply ingrained in Japanese culture, spanning 20 years, 354 television episodes, 34 Television Specials (OAV's), and 3 movies (and that's not counting some of the live-action Gundam Features!).
In fact, it's so much a part of Japanese culture that many fans are already wondering how well the series will play here. Gundam Wing involves a number of potentially volatile situations, including lead characters that "threaten to kill themselves and each other all the time, and even better than pointing guns at other students at school (!), make bombs and blow up buildings!" according to one fan. There's actually a great amount of fear in the fan community that large portions of the story may be re-written, or excised entirely (as happened with Sailor Moon upon porting it to the U.S.), to make the show more suitable for an all-ages market. Considering Bandai is marketing the series in conjunction with the Gundam Wing model kits that have gone on sale in California Toys R Us stores, those fears may not be entirely unfounded. However, according to Bandai they do plan on, at the least, releasing the series uncut on videocassette.
Toonami is the highest rated segment of programming on the Cartoon Network. The block already includes classic anime such as Speed Racer, Robotech, and Voltron, as well as more current features like Dragonball Z, Sailor Moon, and Ronin Warriors. Anime fans can take heart, as the Cartoon Network is in the process of spinning off all of their older Hanna Barbera cartoons (Scooby Doo, The Flintstones, Yogi Bear) on to a new Network named Boomerang early next year. It's then hinted at that the Cartoon Network will move to an "all Toonami", action-oriented network.
There are currently a number of Japanese animated shows in development for US television, including Ruroni Kenshin (which may end up being called "Samurai X" in North America), Card Captor Sakura (Card Capture), Vision of Escaflowne, and the Tenchi Muyo Television Series. Of the above, only Card Capture is in active development, and is planned for a tentative fall 2000 television release.
- Special thanks to David Crowe for his help on this story.
November 2nd, 1999 - Princess Mononoke fever begins to grip North America.
This weekend, the limited engagement premiere of Studio Ghibli's "Princess Mononoke" opened in 8 theatres across North America. While I try not to take too much of an editorial position while doing the news, I'd just like to go out of my way to say that Mononoke was a fantastic movie, and one that I recommend to everyone reading this (along with American Beauty and Fight Club, in case you were wondering).
What I found interesting this morning was the proliferation of Princess Mononoke reviews that littered the Internet. While most were on-line versions of reviews that showed up in print, some were exclusive to the Internet. I just thought I'd go through the reviews that I found, and discuss them in the context of well, each other. Generally the reviews were very positive, and very well-informed. There are always exceptions to the rule, either reviews with glaring technical or factual errors, or people who just didn't seem to 'get' the movie, but generally they were interesting to read, and even some of the critical reviews raised valid points.
First and foremost, if you'd like some background on the film Princess Mononoke, or it's director Hayao Miyazaki, make sure to check out Roger Ebert's interview with Miyazaki-sensei. It's makes perfectly evident just how much Ebert loves Miyazaki's work, particularly Mononoke.
You can find Roger Ebert's review of Princess Mononoke at the Chicago Sun Times' web-site. Ebert does gush lovingly over the movie in that review, and it seems that ghost of Gene Siskel, Ebert's old reviewing partner wrote the review at Siskel's old paper, the Chicago Tribune. In typical Siskel & Ebert style, the Tribune reviewer did enjoy the film, but with reservations. I can almost hear their back-and-forth banter debating the movie. At any rate, for a third Chicago review of the film check out the Chicago Daily Herald's review, which despite a few factual errors (Miyazaki did not direct the feature from "American" writer Neil Gaiman's screenplay, Gaiman only adapted the Japanese script. Not to mention that Gaiman is British.) is generally positive.
Boston was another city that produced a three reviews from three different newspapers. The Boston Globe describes the film in possibly the most glowing terms of all the reviews I've read. "Epic, mythic, simply terrific", "breathtaking", "riveting" and "profound, humane, and enormously generous" are just a few of the adjectives contained within. Meanwhile, the Boston Phoenix should be ashamed of what they consider a review. It's barely a plot synopsis. The Boston Herald unfortunately panned the film, although it seemed to be extraordinarily well-researched for a newspaper article. Although I disagree with the reviewer on a number of points (the reviewer apparently thought Billy Bob Thornton's Monk Character was the best part of the film), it is relatively well thought out.
New York City actually featured four different newspapers with four differing takes on the movie. The New York Times review is based on the Mononoke screening at the New York Film Festival, and basically glows with enthusiasm for the film. Contrarily, the New York Daily News panned the film on just about every level, but I think the most telling comment, "But the plot is far too dense," just about sums up the review. The reviewer simply didn't get it. The New York Post chimed in with a generally positive review though, and the Village Voice produced an outstanding article on both the film and director Miyazaki, and is definitely worth checking out.
Los Angeles was a city that seemed to genuinely enjoy Princes Mononoke. The LA Times went a great distance in it's praise of the film, and LA Weekly gave a positive review as well, although it was intermingled with some genuinely valid criticism of the film.
In my home town of Toronto, The Globe and Mail had a hard time with the cultural divide that large portions of Mononoke's plot and style relied on, and as such gave it a reservedly positive review. Not surprising considering the Globe is the city's leading business newspaper, and although it's trying to be a little more hip and relevant it's still very stuffy around the edges. Eye Magazine, a weekly alternative newspaper (akin to the Village Voice) loved the film and Princess Mononoke made it to the cover of the magazine. It's parent publication, The Toronto Star, also gave a positive review of the film, although it's main criticism was the script and voice-acting dumbed down the content of the movie. Surprisingly, the Star's arch-rival, The Toronto Sun, offers up a very similar review. A fantastic movie that, despite it's slightly over-long running time, is fantastic. It's only real flaw is that it's poorly served by it's lackluster voice acting. I always said us Torontonians were an intelligent breed.
Finally, online fandom seems to be the most divided on the movie. MSNBC offered up a review that found the film inconsistent, soaring and fantastic one minute and dragging and crude the next. Slate praises it's complex story line, going so far as to use the film to expose the puerile schlock of Hollywood; "The movie has a scope that makes Hollywood's homiletic, follow-your-dream fables look even more solipsistic." But perhaps the strangest online review is Mr. Showbiz's review. It seems that their reviewer, Michael Atkinson is just totally clueless about the intent of the movie. It's a negative review, but it seems to be an incredibly ignorant one as well. I can't quite figure it out.
Anyhow, that's a round-up of the good, the bad, and the stupid of Princess Mononoke reviews on the web. To add to one of those three categories, you can look for PopImage's review of the import version of Mononoke by Gwen Sato in the October Reviews section, or our review of the current release by me, Christopher Butcher, in next week's November issue update.
October 29th, 1999 - A Super Manga Blast! hit's Dark Horse
North American manga fans can look forward to a new anthology of manga stories, coming from Dark Horse Comics this February. Titled "SUPER MANGA BLAST!", fans of manga have another anthology to look forward to. Each issue will contain a diverse array of stories, including the previously serialized fantasy epic "3x3 Eyes", the amusing adventures of a housecat in "What's Michael?", the brand new sci-fi adventure story "Shadow Star", and the erotic thriller "Seraphic Feather", and as a special treat to manga fans, it'll include the previously unpublished early episodes of popular manga "Oh, My Goddess!".
"We're several issues into the translation and production work on each [story]," said Toren Smith, founder of Studio Proteus, the translation and packaging company that's putting SUPER MANGA BLAST! together for Dark Horse. Smith made the anthology announcement at the Studio Proteus website early last week. Although it has been announced, Toren said that "Although we still don't have a signed contract (aiee!), we've got most of the materials and work has been ongoing for several months now, so I'm pretty confident it's going to happen." We always strive to bring you the most accurate news here at PopImage, so we asked Mr. Smith some questions about the upcoming anthology.
PopImage: Are you planning on adding any features to Super Manga Blast? One rumour was that past aborted Dark Horse mainstays such as "Legend of Mother Sarah" might conclude their runs in a manga anthology book.
Toren Smith: There are only 12 of the "missing" Oh My Goddess! stories. We have not yet decided what to fill that space with, but we probably won't be trying to finish cancelled series for a while yet (although the idea has been discussed, especially with regard to Version).
PI: Will there be periodic trade paperback compilations of the titles in the anthology, akin to what Viz does with the trade paperback compilations from Animerca Extra and Pulp? Specifically, will the early OMG! stories be collected into trade paperback?
TS: Absolutely! We're still deciding how to handle the collection of the early OMG! stories, but right now the temptation is to restructure the existing volumes to include the stories in proper order.
PI: When are you estimating a "signed contract" might show up for the title?
TS: Our regular promise from Kodansha for the signed contract is "soon." In the meantime, they send the materials, so...
According to the Studio Proteus website, SUPER MANGA BLAST! will be a monthly anthology, 128 pages and with a cover price of $4.95. According to my incredible deductive reasoning skills, the book is scheduled for release in February (check Dark Horse's solicitation for "Dark Horse Extra" in January).
From Left to Right, Oh My Goddess, Shadow Star, 3x3 Eyes, Seraphic Feather, What's Michael
October 21st, 1999- Out of Avatar
"My name is Pat Quinn, I am a 'starving artist' desperately trying to start a career in the comics field. Recently, I have had some trouble with the comic publisher Avatar Press. The trouble being, Avatar Press hasn't paid me for stories that I drew that have been published."
That was the message that set off a major clash across the internet late this July when a freelancer named Pat Quinn publicly aired a laundry list of complaints about a company that had, according to him, withheld payment for published work. While that issue has to date not been settled to either Quinn, or Avatar Press' satisfaction, the fallout of those accusations may now be coming to light.
According to an anonymous tip PopImage received earlier this week, company editor Barry Gregory has resigned from Avatar. But did he decide to leave specifically as a result of the Quinn situation?
When specifically asked about his resignation, Gregory did not comment on the Quinn matter, but did say: "My decision was for personal reasons and I informed everyone at Avatar of my intention to leave several months ago. My actual departure date has not yet been determined. I have made certain commitments to Avatar and I will remain in my office there until those obligations have been fulfilled."
Those commitments? Astute comic fans will know that Barry's wife Jenni Gregory produces the excellent title DreamWalker for Avatar, and esteemed all ages creator Brian Clopper was scheduled to produce a new series named Marshall: Godling of War for the company, as part of a new all-ages line that Gregory was responsible for. The natural question would be, will these two series continue at the company with Gregory's departure? According to both creators, both of these scheduled projects will see the light of day, and from Avatar.
"DreamWalker: Autumn Leaves #1 will be out this week" said Jenni Gregory (astute comic fans know that the book did indeed ship this Wednesday). "Autumn Leaves #2 will follow a few weeks later. My publishing contract with Avatar expires shortly thereafter. I have another DreamWalker series planned (tentatively titled "The Winter Tree"), but I haven't decided when or where it will published." And Clopper's Marshall?
According to Barry Gregory, "Marshall: Godling of War was the victim of very low sales (low enough to have virtually guaranteed its cancellation elsewhere), but it will ship from Avatar nonetheless." But, not in it's original serialized form. Creator Brian Clopper has been gracious enough to inform us that "The book has been reformatted as a one-shot featuring 80 pages of Marshall." The book will not be re-solicited, but instead will go through Diamond's order-adjustment process. This process enables retailers to either decrease or increase orders on the book before it ships, without cancellation. Brian Clopper hopes that it's the latter option, "The book is slated for a December release. I certainly hope my readership will seek out this project as I think it really has a great deal of heart."
As of press time, Gregory's departure is not known to be affecting the publication of any other Avatar projects.
Is this part of the fallout of the Pat Quinn situation? The result of what our unnamed source described as "underhanded dealings" at Avatar? Or just someone deciding that it was time to move on from a company and explore other venues? While the public may not ever know for sure, it is interesting to note that Barry Gregory's resignation came a self-described "several months ago", right in the midst of the kafuffle regarding Quinn's on-line allegations.
October 21st, 1999 - Two Fantastic Women and the most Wonderful Woman of All This is truly going to be one of the best weeks in history for fans of Wonder Woman. Earlier this week we told you about the new doll coming from Mattel, and now fans rejoice as much loved creators Trina Robbins and Colleen Doran are in the midst of preparing a new mini-series for DC Comics, starring the Cheetah and featuring Wonder Woman.
According to Ms. Robbins, the 3 issue mini-series will be "written by me(Trina), pencilled by Colleen Doran (whom I LOVE working with - she's soooo good!), inked by Andrew Pepoy, and edited by Bob Schreck." Although currently unscheduled, fans can expect the series late this spring.
Bob Schreck, renowned for his innovative and attention getting editorial work at both Dark Horse Comics, and Oni Press, came to DC Comics editorial staff earlier this year. Colleen Doran's work can be seen monthly on A Distant Soil from Image comics. Trina Robbins' work can be seen in the new book From Girls to Grrlz from Chronicle books, and this spring on the new series Go Girl! From Image comics.
October 18th, 1999- The No-Longer Ambiguously Gay Duo
Warning: This story is incredibly biased.
Warren Ellis writes, arguably, the best super hero comics going right now with PLANETARY and THE AUTHORITY for Wildstorm/DC. The former, a taut thriller that tears apart genre fiction conventions to re-invent them as bright, shiny new things for a new millenium. The latter, a big-budget, blockbuster action movie whose pulse-pounding excitement never stops!
All of this relentless fanboy praise aside, Ellis has put to rest a question that has dogged THE AUTHORITY since it was introduced, namely, what's up with Apollo and the Midnighter? Are they, you know... ? Well, fans, you can set your minds at ease as Ellis revealed that these Superman and Batman analogues are in fact gay. Responding to a thread posted to his message forum today, Mr. Ellis was quoted as saying:
"Yes, Apollo and Midnighter are, in the debased English parlance, up each other. So what?"
Short and succinct. Thanks to Mr. Ellis clearing that up, we here at PopImage all appreciate your courage and conviction in this matter. Now when can we expect to see the on-panel copulation of their affection?
October 18th, 1999- "In Your Satin Tights, Fighting For Your Rights!"
Little girls, homosexual men, and fans everywhere rejoice! Tentatively scheduled for February 2000 from Mattel Toys is the 11 1/2 inch WONDER WOMAN doll! Scaled to the size of Mattel's Barbie line of girls fashion dolls, the Wonder Woman doll will come with her costume, tiara, magic golden lasso, and a very becoming cape. There's no pricing information as of yet, but according to Mattel representatives the doll will show up early in 2000. Regardless, the doll is certain to become a very hotly desired item, as it is the first time Wonder Woman has appeared in a fashion doll size since the late 70's Mego dolls.
We'd like to thank The WonderDome at http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/blish/126/ for tipping us off to this information.
October 18th, 1999- Battle on, Julius!
Xena: Warrior Princess series star Lucy Lawless gave birth to an 8 pound, 13 ounce baby boy this Saturday in New Zealand, according to Ms. Lawless' publicist and E! Online news. The boy, Julius Robert Bay Tapert, is the first child for Lawless, 31, and husband Rob Tapert, 44. Lawless also has an 11 year old daughter from a previous marriage.
"Mom, dad, big sister Daisy, and baby are all doing well," according to Lawless' publicist. Lawless' pregnancy did not affect the shooting of the XENA TV series, as her character is pregnant on the show.
Material from this story originally appeared at E! Online News.
October 15th, 1999- Mr. McGuiness leaves Mr. Majestic, Mr. Canete waiting in the wings
In the short three issues that Wildstorm Comics' MAJESTIC has been in print, it's come to be known as a book that references the magnitude and grandeur of the superman comics of yesteryear, while still maintaining an energetic and contemporary approach to the dialogue and storytelling. So what will become of the book now that Ed McGuiness, artist on MAJESTIC is slated to take over pencilling chores on SUPERMAN for DC Comics? You'll have a chance to find that out, as new series penciller Eric Canete has posted several pages from his first issue, MAJESTIC #7, on his site at http://www.hyperterminal3.com. View the pages directly at http://www.hyperterminal3.com/comics.html.
October 15th, 1999- An Interesting Look at Comics Journalism
For someone who apparently made his debut in comics just 6 short months ago, Larry Young has his name everywhere these days. Usually it's attached to the title of his recent, critically-lauded mini-series ASTRONAUTS IN TROUBLE. But on December 15th, his name will adorn the title of PLANET LAR 1999, a collection of comics essays, interviews, and original artwork by some of the top named in comics.
PLANET LAR 1999 is a collection of "little-seen gems of rants and interviews," said Larry Young. The material has been culled from both Young's early self-published review magazines, as well as San Francisco's Comix Experience's monthly newsletter, ONOMATOPOEIA. In addition to insightful comics criticism and theory, it will include "...artwork done by such big-shots as Matt Wagner, Mike Allred, Walt Simonson, Brian Wood, Phil Winslade, and Steve Dillon, just to name a few." For fans of in depth comics criticism, or those that just like to read a good rant about the state of the industry, PLANET LAR 1999 promises to be an excellent package well worth picking up this winter. For more information visit Larry Young's official web presence at http://www.astronautsintrouble.com.
October 13th, 1999 - Scum Speaks up about Ennis Death Rumours
PopImage was contacted earlier today with a message from Charlton Sect, better known as "Tom Scum", defending his role in the spreading of the rumour of Garth Ennis' death earlier this week. We're going to run his letter un-editted and without comment. We invite you to draw your own conclusions either on the PopImage message boards, or contacting us directly at cro2@212.net.
From: "charlton sect"
To: popimage@hotmail.com
Subject: did someone say my name?
Date: Wed, 13 Oct 1999 13:40:05 EDT
To whom it may concern...
In an attempt to redeem myself for the mistake i made about Garth Ennis' death, it is my hope that you wouldn't mind publishing this letter.
Dear everyone i drove to near insanity,
My name is Charlton. I am a Cincinnati, Ohio resident who works hard for the things he loves. I sing in a band, I write music/movie/book reviews that have been published both locally and as far off as Holland and Australia. I am, in fact, working on my own comic project as we speak. Therefore, it may not surprise you to know that i have friends in the industry.
So when a friend hears that Garth Ennis was killed, and tells me... of course i believe it. It was not my main objective to cause chaos among his fans. Being a fan myself, I was destroyed by the news. As i wrote then, Garth Ennis is the greatest comic writer i've ever had the pleasure of reading. I certainly wouldn't want to cause him or any of his friends any harm. I stated what I believed to be the truth, and sincerely apologized the second the rumor was proven false. Writing is my life. I assume I was fueled by breaking the story and being one of the first to hear the rumor. I shamefully apologize for the stir that I've caused. I'll be sure to think twice before listening to gossip again... as should everyone.
To Mr. Ellis, who said:
"I ever meet you, you'll wish you had been incinerated in a fucking train crash."
Sir, i had no intention of disrupting your morning coffee, but i believed someone very special to me and very important to the comic world had passed on. Given the situation and the many lives that were lost in that accident, I'm shocked that you would even say such a thing. Though I can't say that you haven't influenced my life as a writer, I assumed you would have used better taste and better grammer.
Thank you,
Charlton Sect
October 13th, 1999 - PopImage Begins Regular News Updates
PopImage.com, world reknowned comic news and information site begins regular news coverage with an update in style and format. News will be updated a minimum of every two days, with that number and the volume of updates increasing as the news staff grows. If interested in joining the PopImage news staff, please contact Christopher Butcher at cro2@212.net.
October 12th, 1999 - Australian Actor to Portrey Wolverine on the Big Screen
Australian actor Hugh Jackman will be taking over the leading role of Wolverine in the big-screen version of the comic book X-Men, currently filming in Toronto, Canada. The role had previously been filled by Dougray Scott who had to pull out rather unexpectedly last week due to previous obligations to appear in the sequel to "Mission: Impossible".
Long time fans of the X-Men comic book may remember Wolverine's original appearance outside of the comic book page on the cartoon series "Spider-man and his Amazing Friends". In it, he was portrayed as having an Australian accent (and incidentally barbecuing shish-kabob using his claws, but anyhow).
Jackman previously starred in several independent Australian films including "Erskineville Kings" and "Paperback Hero." He joins a talented cast which includes Ian McKellan as Magneto, Patrick Stewart as Professor X, and Halle Berry as Storm.
October 12th, 1999 - A Heap of Warren Ellis News.
Transmetropolitan #31 "is going to be a bit different" according to writer Warren Ellis. "...for the first time, artists other than Darick [Robertson] [will be] drawing interior pages. The artists portraying the mind and television set of Spider Jerusalem will include Lea (Clockwork Angels) Hernandez, Bryan (Authority) Hitch, Frank (JLA: Earth 2) Quitely and Eduardo (100 Bullets) Risso." Transmetropolitan #31 will hit comic stores in January 2000, courtesy of DC Comics/Vertigo.
And what of our rumours last week regarding his tenuous connection to Marvel's X-Books? Warren gave his adoring public another non-answer on his forum earlier this week; "I'm on promises to do gigs for the X-Office and for Joey Cavalieri. I'm no longer writing "ongoing" works, so whatever I do for these people will be short and finite." Perhaps it's the editorial position as we theorized about? No comment as of yet. But it looks like Warren might be doing some more Marvel Comics work;
"Yes, I've also been talking to Joe Quesada, and I may briefly join my friends Garth and Grant at Marvel Knights for a very short project. It would not, however, be a superhero comic. As Joe puts it, we're looking for something for me to 'get my teeth into'."
More information as it develops.
October 11th 1999 - Garth Ennis Not Actually Dead!
It started at 5:31 PM on October 7th, with a message posted to the Vertigo message boards at DCComics.com.
"I don't have all of the details right now, but I just heard that Garth Ennis.. THE Garth Ennis, writer for Preacher and Hitman, passed on sometime Tuesday morning in a train wreck outside Paddington Station in West London. His body was discovered late last night."
The poster of this message, ironically enough named Tom Scum set off a torrent of messages to the forum, equal parts questioning the validity of the rumour and outpouring of support and admiration of Ennis' work. We at PopImage worked through the night (actually, I was up until 6am-ish) trying to verify the validity of the rumour, both through the Victim Services line and Press Bureau of New Scotland Yard, and through comics professionals that have a good deal of contact with Mr. Ennis. At 7am October 8th, we got our answer.
"Garth is amused to learn he's dead. - Warren Ellis"
Following up a little more completely, ex-Vertigo Editor Stuart Moore posted to the same message board that started the rumour:
"Garth's alive. I just talked with him. He doesn't have a computer, but Warren Ellis had told him about the rumor. Garth said he was doing pretty well, considering he was 'dead.' He did say that sales would probably have gone way up if he really had died."
This leads to a lot of really interesting questions about the nature and validity of internet news sources. There's been similar controversy about unverified postings in other message forums, and about the sheer existence of a rumour-based column named Rich's Ramblings. There don't seem to be any easy answers on the subject, with the main arguments coming down to unprofessional (and sometimes malicious) journalism, versus freedom of the press to report things that they believe are true. While this issue won't be settled anytime soon, the proponents of these rumours do have something to fear:
"Some knobend decided it'd be funny to release a rumour onto the net that Garth was dead. I woke up to a literal barrage of panicked emails asking me to confirm it. Let me confirm something for the person who fucked up an already busy morning for me: I ever meet you, you'll wish you had been incinerated in a fucking train crash." - Warren Ellis
October 4th, 1999 - Chris Claremont back on the X-Men
Our top story this week is a dip into that widest of streams, the mainstream, with the news that comic writing uber-legend Chris Claremont will be returning to write the X-MEN for Marvel Comics. Claremont, who returned to the company as an editor after a bad break-up in 1993 and several years of freelance writing, confirmed the rumour earlier this week. Claremont is credited with pushing X-MEN to its industry-topping level of popularity using complex plotting and mature storylines. Unfortunately, he's also credited with inspiring a legion of hack writers that have plagued the industry with never-ending, overly complex stories that have made mainstream comics practically unreadable over the last 10 years. You win some, and you lose some. An X-MEN movie is currently in production.
October 4th, 1999 - Warren Ellis talks about The X-Men
Now, it's no secret that we here at PopImage all owe Warren Ellis a big debt of gratitude. We love the guy. In fact, the majority of our editors and contributors all got together in the Warren Ellis Forum before we started the magazine. The big news on Warren this week is that he's been named by Rob Liefeld as the supplementary creative force on the X-Men Books alongside Chris Claremont, according to "The Daily Buzz".
Reportedly Warren will oversee some sort of creative control on X-MAN, GENERATION X, X-FORCE, and CABLE. I was actually lucky enough to talk to Mr. Ellis about the possibility of his taking over that line of books earlier in the week. I asked him if he had been offered the job. Here's what he said:
"Actually, no. But Liebig's slate came up in conversation with someone after Rich's rumour, and I just thought, X-FORCE always had solid sales, GEN X was a hot book back when I was in the x-office, and X-MAN always prospered too... If this rumour were true, why would they be doing it? I do owe Jason and Mark a project, as I've said many times before - it'll probably be a WOLVERINE book. Make a promise, keep a promise. I don't think I'll be taking over an entire editorial slate, somehow..."
To which I say ha! HA! Or, rather, to which I actually agree. I could, in a far off land in a far off way see Warren maybe writing a couple of sets of guidelines for the books and hand-picking the creative teams for them. But I could not see Mr. Ellis taking on the editorial for four sets of books. He's already moaning about how busy he is. Yeah, Warren, so you write fourbooks a month plus assorted fill-ins, run a web-site and a successful online forum. Cry me a fucking river! Ahem. Warren Ellis has yet to specifically comment on the allegations made by Liefeld.
October 4th, 1999 - Marvel, DC Editorial Shake-Ups
It seems that Assistant Editor on the Batman line of books at DC, Darren Vincenzo, will be leaving the company in the near future. Over at the Vertigo imprint, Heidi Macdonald will be filling the empty space left by the departure of Stuart Moore earlier this year. Macdonald had previously been editing DC's all-ages lines of books, including the Cartoon Network and licensed Looney Tunes lines. No one has yet been named to fill Macdonald's position. This information could not be confirmed at time of going to press, but she has been named by a source high up at DC.
**UPDATE** We've been able to contact Heidi Macdonald about the editorial situation at DC. Although she is not able to comment on the situation as described, she did say that "For the record, I have not left my current position [as All Ages Editor]." We'll bring you more information on this as it develops.
Meanwhile, at Marvel, it seems that editor wunderkind Ruben Diaz will be leaving the company for greener pastures. Diaz recently took over edits on Christopher Preist's Black Panther, and the Priest Curse may be partly to blame.
October 4th, 1999- Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na- BENDIS!!!!!!
In creator news, Brian Michael Bendis, creator of JINX and TORSO, and writer of SAM & TWITCH for Image Comics announced on his message board last week that he'll be writing and illustrating a new Batman story for a BATMAN CHRONICLES Elseworlds project next year. "I have been picky with what [paid] comic book jobs I have been taking," said Bendis. "But its Batman and I always wanted to do it once... and it will be the only noir art I do next year."
October 4th, 1999 - Babylon Bust.
For those of you following BABYLON 5 guru J. Michael Straczynski's new comic series, RISING STARS from Image Comics, you're probably a little disappointed with the rather extended schedule it has kept. What you might want to be disappointed in is the reasoning behind it. Official word from Top Cow has it that the second issue was several weeks late due to the cover design having to be scrapped, and started from scratch after JMS decided he wasn't entirely happy with it. That's really interesting considering pencilling, inking, and colouring a cover at a major studio should take about 3 days tops. Perhaps this message posted to Usenet by Straczynski on 9/19/99 and entitled "ATTN JMS: Rising Stars #2" will shed a different light on the story;
"The final colored pages have come through this past week, so it should be out shortly. The interior artwork fell well behind what should have been the case." jms (jmsatb5@aol.com)
Of course, this information in no way co-incides with the announcement at Mania's "The Daily Buzz" that Keu Cha, penciller of the first two issues of RISING STARS, has left the book in pursuit of other work at Top Cow. We wish JMS and Rising Stars all the best with their new penciller Christian Zanier, whose work has previously been seen on Dark Horse's BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER .
PopImage news always strives to be an accurate source of information, so if you're an informed party that would like to contradict or clarify any of the information we've presented, feel free. All correspondence should be addressed to Christopher Butcher at cro2@212.net.
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