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Super Hero SquadMy favorite superhero cartoons are the DC ones from Warner Bros. where Bruce Timm and friends are at the helm. In fact, if someone just put a show on the air called “Bruce Timm & Friends,” I’d watch it. But the Marvel Comics cartoons have made vast improvements over the years and while I’m outside of the target audience these days, my sons get a kick out of them. Now the Marvel Studios down in Manhattan Beach, California are looking for some help.

In their Animation division, they need a Coordinator in Development and Production. It’s an entry-level deal, and you’ll be working across all of their shows (both regular series and DTV) and pitching in wherever support is needed. In the corporate world, this used to be referred to unofficially as a “floater.”

The job description has a lot of functions – it’s longer than anything you’ll be able to do in a full week – so just be satisfied knowing that you’ll be doing everything someone above you needs done from tracking, monitoring, researching, coordinating and stuff like that. One perk is that you’ll be hiring and managing interns and managing the search for key production and creative positions (which makes you my new best friend).

Click to continue reading Comic Book Jobs: Who’s Hiring? Marvel!


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Stan LeeNot everybody who’s part of the comic book industry is writing, drawing, coloring, lettering or editing or blogging about writing, drawing, coloring, lettering or editing. There’s plenty of room for lawyers and accountants and guys who drive the trucks for Diamond Comic Distributors (and those guys are essential). But now there’s also an opportunity for anyone who can tap out a tune on a keytar, slap a bow on a violin or a blow a French horn.

I didn’t know this, or if I did, I’d forgotten it, but there’s apparently a Stan Lee documentary in the works called With Great Power. I believe this is different from the one called True Believer: The Stan Lee Documentary.

The folks behind the With Great Power doc are putting together “talented score musicians” which, unfortunately, are not guitar players who know how to make women pay their rent, but skilled musicians who want to be in the orchestra that’s scoring the film.

If you’re “skilled at your craft, non-union and can sight-read” and want to be part of the 90-piece non-union mighty marching band, I mean orchestra, currently being assembled for a 1-day session in mid-March over at the Warner Brothers’ Eastwood Stage, then some producers would like to hear from you – by email first, then they’ll listen to your pulse-pounding tuba triumph .

Click to continue reading Comic Book Jobs: Who’s Hiring? The Stan Lee Orchestra!


Marvel HandbookUnless you’ve been living in a hole for the past week or infected with a Zombie virus that’s harmed your brain, you’re aware that DC Entertainment has made a significant restructuring move in their executive suite and put a team of 5 people in charge - Dan Didio, Geoff Johns, Pat Caldon, John Rood and Jim Lee - to replace the outgoing Paul Levitz.

The internets abound with excellent coverage and analysis. One of the best pieces is from Heidi McDonald who lands a short interview with Diane Nelson, the head of DC Entertainment who put the team together.

Tom Spurgeon at The Comics Reporter runs through some very worthwhile bullet points in a “fingers crossed” sort of way.

And Dirk Deppey, no fan of the outgoing Paul Levitz, is optimistic about the new DC Team-Up.

I’m reminded of a time many years ago when Marvel Comics went on a buying spree that included the acquisitions of Panini, Fleer and Malibu Comics and culminated with the buying of Heroes World to be Marvel’s sole distributor. Under different circumstances, they also put a team of 5 in place as editorial shopkeepers. They called it “Marvelution.” A similar, “clever” phrase has yet to be made from DC’s name. “No Fear” might somehow stick in some way, but I think someone else already has that trademark. “High Five” is getting some play over at Bleeding Cool. And maybe if the DC gang do well, someone will tag them “The Superior Five.”

Click to continue reading A Marvelution Flashback


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Siege #2 Rating: *** 1/2*

Marvel Comics’ Siege continues this week with issue two of the four part mini-series. The issue returns to the scene of the battle in Oklahoma where , HAMMER, and the Dark Avengers are battling it out with Thor and the citizens of Asgard. All look lost as Norman Osborn stands over a defeated Thor, but he’s saved by Maria Hill using a bazooka, which blows Norman out of the way.

Ares discovers quickly that he’s been duped by Norman into helping lead the invasion of Asgard. Ares decides to make good on his promise and rip Norman’s head off when the Sentry comes in to protect Norman. They duke it out and in a shocking big splash page moment, the Sentry rips Ares in half. I knew someone was going to die in this issue and I had a feeling it would be Ares, but in no way did I see him meeting his end this way. Very cool!

Issue one left off with an angry Steve Rogers watching the footage of the invasion of Asgard. We pick up here with Steve gathering the New Avengers, the Young Avengers, and Nick Fury and his Secret Warriors so they can all head to Oklahoma to defeat Osborn once and for all. Also with this group is Bucky the new Captain America. He hands over the shield to Steve stating he believes if they are going to do this, it has to be done right and Steve must wield the shield once more.

Click to continue reading Review: Marvel Comics Siege #2


Lego BatmanEveryone loves a good job, and people without a job would just like one. I can’t guarantee that any of these jobs are good, bad or fun, but I can see one thing for certain: they are jobs. Let the hunt begin!

Marvel Comics: If you can tell the difference between the Fantastic Four and the Howling Commandos and you’ve got some mad Adobe software skills as well (not just your free Acrobat Reader), then Marvel Comics’ New York office could be the place for you. Their digital production department is looking for a graphic designer with experience in comic book or traditional book production. The downside is that it’s a temp spot and it only pays $15 an hour, but hey, you’ll still be a part of the comic book industry.

Full Moon: Charles Band and the crew behind Full Moon Entertainment’s movies like Puppet Master, Demonic Toys, Dollman, and Trancers are looking for an eBay consultant to help them sell off their tons of warehoused material. It’s a 1000-piece collection “of rare and valuable items, many of them one of a kind. At this time, the intention is 20 pieces per week. They include giant film posters, original concept and production drawings, paintings, pen and ink comic book art, prototypes for figurines, and autographed items.” I worked on some of those Full Moon comics back in the 1990s and if some of the art they’re offering is from that era, there are some nice pieces in that collection including early J. H. Williams.

Click to continue reading Comic Book Jobs: Who’s Hiring? Marvel, Full Moon and Lego (Sort of)


Marvel's Siege#1Rating: *** 1/2*

Marvel Comics is promoting their latest blockbuster crossover Siege as a project that has been seven years in the making. It began with Avengers #500 when writer Brian Michael Bendis first took over the title. The storyline was called Avengers Disassembled where the Scarlet Witch went crazy, the Vision was destroyed, and Hawkeye and Ant Man (Scott Lang) were killed off. It was a good story and a huge turning point for the team that left many fans very angry as fan favorite Hawkeye was killed in an unsatisfactory manner and the New Avengers were then launched with a non-traditional lineup which included the Sentry.

As the years have gone by, we’ve had various crossovers such as Civil War, , and Dark Reign which further complicated the lives of the Avengers and the Marvel Universe in general. All of this has lead us to Siege, which is a storyline that will focus on Norman Osborn and his Dark Avengers invading Asgard to expel it from the Earth. This was a very good start. Osborn wants power and looks at Asgard as a roadblock. With the assistance of Loki, Osborn is able to get a reason to invade Asgard.

During the Civil War, innocent civilians were killed during an incident involving the New Warriors. Loki is able to replicate a similar incident using the Asgardian Volstagg who battles the U-Foes which results in the death of thousands of civilians at Soldier Field in Chicago. Osborn’s Dark Avengers are not too willing to go along with the invasion - especially Ares who promises Osborn if this is a trick of some sort, he will kill him personally. 

Click to continue reading Review: Marvel Comics Siege #1


Captain America #1 Rating: ****
Well, I’m not sure why Marvel Comics released this one-shot epilogue to Captain America: Reborn when the series still has one issue to go, but it’s here. Reborn was originally slated to be a five issue mini-series, but at some point it was decided that an additional issue was needed to tell the story. So Captain America: Who Will Wield The Shield is shipping on schedule because last week should have been the last issue of the Reborn series. I’m not sure why did not just push this issue back to ship the same day issue six comes out or make issue five a double sized issue. Money? Probably, but you could still make money by doubling the price of a double sized issue.

Whatever the case may be, Captain America: Who Will Wield The Shield still stands as a great comic book even with all the nonsense of it coming out prior to the completion of Reborn. Even before Reborn was even announced, we all knew that Steve Rogers would come back to land of the living at some point. It was only a matter of when, the how was almost meaningless because fans just wanted their guy back in action. The issue opens with a flashback to the days of World War II and Cap and Bucky fighting I believe the Japanese - not the Germans, as you normally see during Cap flashbacks to the war.

Click to continue reading Marvel Comics Review: Captain America: Who Will Wield The Shield


Reborn#5 Rating: *** 1/2*

A great recovery executed to this story by writer Ed Brubaker. I was starting to get a bit bored with it. Although you know how this story is going to end, I still enjoyed this issue. Besides knowing how this story will end, the only other drawback for me was the artwork by Bryan Hitch. I think Hitch is a great artist, but I felt his work seemed rushed here. From what I understand, he’s not a fast artist. so maybe he was rushing to try and get this book out as soon as possible.

I was a bit confused by what was happening as this issue opened with Steve Rogers in a world where the Nazi’s have taken over America. At first I thought he was transported to an alternate universe where the Nazi’s won World War II, but I soon realized that his essence is stuck within his body in some weird world that has been created by the Red Skull as the Skull’s essence has taken over Steve’s body. Thank God because had this been an alternate universe I thought it would have been too cheesy to have a Nazi America where instead of Uncle Sam, you have Uncle Skull.

Click to continue reading Marvel Comics Review: Captain America: Reborn #5


Bryan Singer at the Valkyrie premiereShowing up on the red carpet at the Avatar premiere a few nights ago, X-Men and X2 director Bryan Singer spilled some major news regarding the next X-Men Origins film.

“I’m prepping up to do a movie called Jack the Giant Killer [at] Warner Brothers, and I just yesterday signed a deal to do an X-Men First Class Origins picture, which is kind of cool.” So much for keeping the audience guessing!

Then again, word of Singer directing the next film isn’t as shocking when you consider that he’s already expressed interest in returning to the mutant mythology; he probably was simply uber-excited to break the story: “I’m still looking to possibly returning to the X-Men franchise. I’ve been talking to Fox about it. I love Hugh Jackman. I love the cast.”

Unfortunately, Singer will be working with a younger cast that sounds like Jackman won’t be asked to join. Series producer Lauren Shuler Donner described X-Men Origins: First Class as such: “The movie focuses on the first class at Xavier’s school of the gifted, so only those mutants will be featured in the first movie.”

Street Kings writer Jamie Moss is set to pen the script; aside from that, little else has been said about the project.

Click to continue reading Bryan Singer Signs Deal For X-Men Origins Film

Read More | /Film

Mickey Rourke as Whiplash

First we got a glimpse of Iron Man 2‘s War Machine; now Paramount has released an image of Mickey Rourke as Ivan Vanko a.k.a. Whiplash.

Set against a backdrop of newspaper clippings centering on Tony Stark’s nontraditional superhero reveal that he was Iron Man, Rourke doesn’t don a mask as the Russian criminal (at least, we have yet to see an alternate costume change for this character) but does not look any less menacing and crazed.

Are you buying Rourke’s portrayal so far?

Read More | Splash Page

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