Weekend Reading: Dark Horse, Tokyopop, Borders, Glut & Apes

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Interviews, Movies, Dark Horse Comics, TokyoPop,

So, not a great week for comic book publishers as Tokyopop finally called it quits. If you have a project over there, it's a good time to get a lawyer to look over your contract and see about rights reversion when the publisher goes away without declaring bankruptcy (yet) or getting sold.

Then Dark Horse laid off a bunch of employees, many of them beloved and had been there a long time.

But at least the US Government is stepping in to try to stop Borders executives from looting the stores they’ve already ruined.

Rise: I love the way the new Planet of the Apes comic book from Boom! is looking. The Scoop has a sneak preview of the first issue, on sale April 27.

Victor: Here’s a great interview with writer Don Glut that’s mostly about Frankensten. “Why don't I do a series of Frankenstein novels that would be based on the movies and all of these other things? In each one I would bring in some other character from fiction or whatever. I would create this whole Frankenstein universe.”

Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Dark Horse, Tokyopop, Borders, Glut & Apes

Weekend Reading: Bill Finger, Mighty Samson, The Shadow & Valerian

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Movies, Reviews, Dark Horse Comics, DC Comics, Independent, Marvel Comics,

Thank you internets, you’ve been great this week. So let’s share that bounty with others:

Mighty Samson: Writer J.C. Vaughn has a preview of Mighty Samson #1 at his blog. Shooter’s involved, Patrick Olliffe is the artist. Dark Horse is the publisher. I’m in!

Here’s a little more about the series at Comic Attack.

Shadow: Novelist James Reasoner has a Forgotten Book that’s a must have for fans of Maxwell Grant’s The Shadow: Gangland's Doom: The Shadow of the Pulps, by Frank Eisgruber Jr.

British Comics: Matthew Murray at Comics Beat goes all out for the new Dandy and breaks down its contents.

Peanuts: Zach Weiner finally lets Charlie Brown kick that football.

Peppers: Mark Evanier lives the sitcom life.

3-D: Ricky Sprague at Project Child Murdering Robot tells how Marvel Comics (in 3-D!) turned him into an atheist. Bonus: 3-D artwork on the internets!

Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Bill Finger, Mighty Samson, The Shadow & Valerian

Kick-Ass Pleased Fans, Underperformed at Box Office

Posted by Robin Paulson Categories: Movies, Reviews, Marvel Comics,

UPDATE: According to THR, Kick-Ass did take the top rank at the box office, despite early Sunday estimates stating otherwise.
Matthew Vaughn’s film adaptation of Kick-Ass contains plenty of good, geeky fun: nerds loving comics; Nicolas Cage channeling Adam West; and an adorable 12 year-old girl slicing and dicing grown men four times her size. Why did How to Train Your Dragon seriously beat this comic book movie down to second place at the box office?

Initially, I was ready to leave (without even finishing my popcorn, mind you!) the theater when I had seen how far the film strayed from the comic; however, I decided to give it a chance and left the theater quite pleased with my final decision. Despite all the alterations, the adaptation was a good time packed with Easter eggs that filled my nerdish heart’s desire. Besides, everyone went nuts over this at last year’s Comic-Con, right?

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