Another Scud Update

In my last post about Scud: The Disposable Assassin I reported that the final adventure of Scud would be released in one complete volume. Apparently, this is not exactly the case anymore. As reported in the Image Solicitation, Scud: The Disposable Assassin #21, the first of a four issue conclusion to the long unfinished series, will be released February 13, 2008. Creator Rob Schrab has tapped 4 different artist to do cover art for each consecutive issue, including Ashley Wood on #21, ex-St. Louisian Jim Mahfood on #22, David Hartman on #23, and Doug Tennapel on the grand finale #24. After all the individual issues of the conclusion arc have been released, Image will finally put out the complete Scud in June of 2008.

Schrab explains more about the decision to release the conclusion as individual issues on Newsarama:

"Even after all this time it's hard to say goodbye, I was working on a thirty-two page conclusion to include in a collection of all the previous material, but it grew to well over a hundred pages. Image and I agreed this warranted its own release and it's for the better. The ending is now an entirely different beast, one I couldn't be any prouder about."

Posted above is the Ashley Wood cover, and Below is the Jim Mahfood cover:



Scud fans unite, the ending is almost here!

-Jon

Manga? But You Don't Read Manga!

As some of you may know, I'm not really all that much into manga. Oh sure, from time to time I'll dip my toes in to check the temperature, but rarely to do I go swimming. Well this last was the exception. I was checking in some restock and one of the "back of the book" descriptions happened to catch my eye. I checked the shelves to see if we had the first issue in stock, and lo and behold, we had the first seven sitting right there. Beautiful. That night after close I sat down with volume 1 and proceeded to devour it. Not wasting any time I tore through every volume available, staying late into the early morning hours. What could get me so interested? Two of my favorite words: post-apocalyptic fiction. Oh yeah!

The book? Dragon Head, by Minetaro Mochizuki. Teru Aoki is a typical Japanese student (aren't they all), returning from a class trip to Kyoto. As the train they're riding in enters a mountain tunnel, the ground starts to shake violently. Awaking in a pitch black compartment, Teru is shocked to discover that all of the other passengers are dead. Using a zippo from one of the bodies Teru starts out in search of help. Finding both ends of the tunnel collapsed, Teru resigns himself to searching the train for any other survivors. But from this point on things only get weirder. What was the light that Teru saw on the horizon just before they entered the tunnel? Why is it so hot in the tunnel, when they are far underground where it should be cool? And why does ground keep shaking, well after any aftershocks should have died down? Are the other survivors safe to be around? After a while Teru knows he must find a way out of the tunnel and back into the world. But with what's waiting for them outside, they probably should have just stayed put.

This book is fantastic from start to finish. Mochizuki's art is fabulous, with thick heavy inked lines combined with pencils too detailed to go on about. The pacing of the story is slow, but not boring, with the mystery of what happened being slowly revealed volume after volume. The tension level just keeps ratcheting up the entire time. If you're smart, you may just be able to figure out what happened before the characters do. Then again, maybe not. I was sure I had it, but in the very next volume, well, let's just there must be more to it then I thought. One word of warning to you before you go, if the apocalypse ever happens, try not to be in Japan. Remember, this is the culture who brought us Battle Royale.

-Dan

The Comics Reporter's 2007 Holiday Shopping Guide

With the holiday season in full swing, I thought I would do my best to suggest some early comic related X-mas gift ideas. Fortunately, the Comics Reporter has done my job for me. Providing 171 suggestions for comic related gift shopping, I was rather impressed with how comprehensive their list was. I'll let you take a look at their list, but here is my quick top 5 comics related gifts for 2007 that you can pick up at Star Clipper.

1. Planet Hulk HC

Hulk as Conan, you can't beat that! Plus, it will catch you up if you've been wondering wants going on with that crazy World War Hulk.

2. I Shall Destroy All The Civilzed Planets!

This retrospective book on the work of Fletcher Hanks is perhaps the most deranged book of the year!

3. Akira Club

A great way to fully appreciate the art of the best manga ever!

4. Captain America Omnibus

The biggest event in comics this year, including the death of Captain America, collected in one giant beautiful book.

5. Sundays with Walt and Skeezix

This is the big dollar item, but it is so worth it!

Happy Shopping!

-Jon

Marvel Initiative

If you remember, back a couple of weeks ago I wrote about Marvel's newly redesigned website. Well, looks like they're still making some changes. The big news of the week seems to be Marvel's on-line comic initiative. For about $60 a year, or $10 a month, you'll be able to view older comics on Marvel's website. By older I mean mostly comics from the 60's and 70's, but also many current titles as well. And while Marvel has said there will be a least a 6 month gap between when a comic hits the shelves and when it goes on-line, I just might have a little trouble believing them. Apparently so do other retailers.

But like any issue in the comics market, retailers, fans, and creators alike are coming down on both sides of the issue. Many are concerned what this will do to the back issue and trade markets, and many are not. As one retailer pointed out, the back issue market is almost a thing of the past now. Being able to find so many stories collected up in trades, or the simple cheap availability of many books on eBay has reduced the back-issue market to a shell of it's former self.

Yes, there will always be those of us who must have every issue of a series. I myself am guilty of this several times over, with New Mutants, Transmetropolitan, and Starman to name some. But when you can buy complete runs of specific authors, or something like the complete run of Miracle Man on eBay, why are going to try and hunt them down one at a time? I remember those days, driving around St Louis hitting every shop I could find, looking for that one elusive issue. God I hated that.
But what about the visceral feel of a comic in your own hot little hands. Again, I have tried reading a few on-line comics (full comics posted on the net), but they never to really grab me the way a physical copy does. I just can't connect with it. There are a lot of retailers who are betting on that as well.
On the flip side, many welcome it as a stepping stone for less "well-read" comic fans to read some of the classic stories. Also, since you would be paying flat rate for access to the site, many retailers are hoping fans branch out and try some titles they normally wouldn't pick up at the store. Then they might find a series or two they just have to keep reading, and bam, you're selling two more monthly comics to that customer.

Among creators, there is also talk about how this will affect them. Some feel it would be an invaluable tool for writers to use for research. Others, their senses sharpened by the current WGA strike, wonder about the residuals on internet books. As you might know, on-line media and the future of such is one of the key points in the WGA strike. To my knowledge Marvel has not addressed this issue yet, but I think it might be a little too soon for them to have put together a comprehensive response. Though they probably should have known that it would come up.

Will I be getting a subscription? No, not likely. Like Shawn Demmbrum of SpazDog Comics in Phoeniz, AZ said, "...a printed comic won't burn your lap when you read it on the toilet." Too right.

-Dan

PS Did you notice the title of the online initiative? "Digital Comics Unlimited" DCU for short. Somebody should get sued. Or at least be very, very ashamed of themselves.

Love & Rockets to Become Annual Book

Starting in summer 2008, the Hernandez Bros. Love & Rockets will no longer be published as a traditional comic book but rather as a all-original graphic novel, Love & Rockets Volume 3. The new format will comprise at least 100 pages of all new Love & Rockets stories, evenly split between creators, Gilbert, Jamie (and sometimes Mario) Hernandez. The change was inspired by the popularity of the 2007 repackaging of Love & Rockets Volume 1, in which the original series was divided into seven highly successful graphic novels, the seventh Amor Y Cohetes seeing release in June 2008. Fantagraphics sales director Greg Zura elaborates that the format change will allow Love & Rockets to reach a large untapped market:

"We wanted to be able to reach those readers who aren't near a comic shop with, specifically, the new Love & Rockets material, and we wanted it to be available through Amazon.com and similar on-line book-selling services. Moving to a "spine" format gives us this option."

Love & Rockets was first published in 1981 and was highly influential in inspiring the alternative comics movement of the 1980's. Notably, the Hernandez Bros. have two separate popular naratives, with Gilbert's "Palomar" telling the story of a fictional village in Latin America, and Jaime's "Hoppers 13" following the lives of a group of Mexican-American California teenagers.

The Fantagraphics blog has released a number of exclusive images for the new LR collections. Here are a few collected below:


"The Search for Penny Century," pages 1 & 2 by Jamie


A second "Penny Century" page in progress.

The first volume of Love & Rockets Vol. III will premiere in San Diego in July 2008.

-Jon

Future Prepped

I was poking around WarrenEllis.com the other day when I found this. Not strictly comic related, it is pretty cool nonetheless. Its the Phillips, the home electronic manufacturer, Design Probe home-page. It's not what you think, a design probe is, in Phillips own words: "Philips Design Probes is a dedicated ?far-future? research initiative to track trends and developments that may ultimately evolve into mainstream issues that have a significant impact on business".

Basically they're looking at 2020 and saying, What are the problems we will face then? And then they try to solve them. The biggest of these, the Off the Grid: Sustainable Habitat 2020 is one that they are working on in conjunction with the Chinese government to create self sustaining buildings. It's really quite an innovative project. The building is covered in thousands of tiny little devices on the outside. Shaped like a flower cup or small funnel, these things do some amazing stuff, capturing outdoor light and funneling inside to be used or stored for later, taking in and purifying water for home use, acting as an air conditioner in the summer, and taking in solar energy. There is a video that explains it much better.

But some of the other projects seem to be stuff that they might have just come up with by accident. Jewelry that attaches to the skin, and then uses the body itself to power it. Yes, powered jewelry. They apparently also work as bio-sensors to limited extent. The purpose of these thus far eludes me.

One of the things, and the one that brought me there in the first place, that really captured my imagination was the SKIN: Tattoo project. Again, I have no idea what exactly they are doing here. The tattoo seems to inert and invisible most of the time. But when warmed, in the example with human contact, the tattoo looks to become alive. I say this because not only does the tattoo become visible with touch, but it's more then that, it seems to respond to the wearers bio-chemical field. It does not appear so much as it grows. In one example the tat is spreading up the gentleman's neck. Two shoots come up the neck, bring forth new shoots from those. Pieces intertwine with others, break apart, form new structures, break down again and rebuild again. The second time they showed the neck an entirely different design came up. Quite astounding really. No
wonder Ellis was interested in it.

So no, not really a comic thing, unless someone had these in a comic already. Which Ellis might have done for all I remember. Anyways, check it out, there's some cool stuff on there.

-Dan

Marvel Does Good

I know I have railed on Marvel's website here before, but it turns out someone may have been listening. I went on there for the first time in what seems like months the other day, and I was really quite surprised. The new layout is well designed and much more user friendly then the last. They still have the character bios and such as a large part of the front page, but they're toned down a bit. I know Marvel thinks they need these so their characters are more
accessible to the masses, which is probably true, but I certainly don't need them. What's more important to me is shipping schedules, and Marvel has made those more available.

But the thing that I found most intriguing, and the thing that will keep me going back there are the video blogs. I watched several and for the most part they are very funny, well put together, and informative. The one of Robert Downey Jr and Jon Favreau was my favorite out of the bunch, though it seems like you're only getting a part of the whole. Hope to see that. I also enjoyed the Joe Quesda hosted "In the House" look inside the Marvel offices. I have yet to check out the "2007 Marvel Mustache Pageant", but it looks like a real winner. They also have a regular series, The Weekly Watcher, which has been going for a while now, and features the ever alluring Alexa Mendez.

So all in all, a very good upgrade for the folks over at Marvel. Now just make more of the backgrounds available without having to register and you've sold me.

-Dan

HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM EVERYONE AT STAR CLIPPER!

More News in Brief

A few more tidbits from the World Wide Web!

-The Flash is set to come to big screen later this decade. The Scarlet Speedster will be starring in his own movie sometime after the JLA movie is released. Wally West will be the main character, not Barry Allen, further fueling rumors that the JLA movie will begin with the death of Allen. David Dobkin, who did Fred Claus, is now attached as the director. He is the third director attached to the project, after David Goyer and Shawn Levy.

-Also in DC movie news, Green Lantern has moved a far pace ahead on his project. Variety named Greg Berlanti as the new director for the project, as well as co-scripting with veteran comic writer Marc Guggenheim and Heroes' Michael Green. The film will most likely star Hal Jordan, and serve as an origin story. Berlanti is hoping the film will will do well enough for a sequel that could show off more of the Corps as a whole.

-Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson may also be coming to the silver screen in a DC Comics project in the next few years. In a interview with MTV Johnson reported that he is hunting the role of Black Adam in the upcoming Pete Segal directed Shazam picture. Johnson was supposed to have a meeting with Segal earlier this week to discuss the possibility. Sounds like a good move to me, but why not just cast him as Captain Marvel in the first place?

-Dan

AFTERSMASH

Well puny humans, it looks like we can all sleep a little easier at night because Hulk is done smashing for a quite awhile. With the recent conclusion of World War Hulk, an abundance of questions have been answered about the bane of Bruce Banner. However, I finished the series unsatisfied, and am starting to think that the fate of all Marvel crossover events will leave me feeling these way.

Let me explain, I enjoyed the conclusion of World War Hulk (I will do my best not to spoil it for those of you who haven't finished) I just feel that the way writer Greg Pak tied everything together was very rushed. It seemed like every issue of the series went to an excruciating degree of effort to re-explain why Hulk was taking over New York. Hulk was unfairly
sent to space. He was forced to become a gladiator and fight the Red King. He becomes the king of Sakaar, and has a pregnant wife. Bam! His world explodes, loses his wife and seeks vengeance on the superheroes of earth who sent him there. Yeah, that was a great story when I read Planet Hulk, but I don't need to be retold this every time I pick up an issue of Hulk.
Let's move forward, and to Pak's credit we have, but it was not until the last half of issue 5 that anything major was really revealed.

Obviously, the problem I am having with World War Hulk is that Marvel wants to make sure that if any stray reader picks up an issue they'll have enough back story to understand what is happening and will be enticed to continue the series. In comparison, a crossover series like the Green Lantern - Sinsetro Crops. War has done a great job of constantly moving the series forward without repeating itself. I guess Marvel's strategy is great for sales but for the dedicated readers the story telling can get redundant.

Ultimately, I want to give World War Hulk a thumbs up. It was like a Micheal Bay movie, lot's of explosions and insanity meant to for you to just enjoy and not think to hard about. Hulk's last battle with The Sentry was exactly like the last battle in Bay's Transformers, I couldn't tell what the hell was going on but boy was it cool! My complaint is only that an event that will clearly have a major effect on Hulk continuity was treated like a Micheal Bay movie, only until the very end when there are quite a few interesting reveals. If you want to know what happens you'll just have to read it yourself!

To catch up with Greg Pak's thoughts on the conclusion of his Smash-fest check out the href="http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=136412">War Room over at newsarama.

smash! Smash! SMASH!!!

-Jon

Angel: After the Fall

The new Buffy The Vampire series has been one of the biggest hits for the comic book market in the past five years. Bringing many people who might not have otherwise ever visited a comic shop in droves. This week IDW seeks to capitalize on Dark Horse's success with Angel: After the Fall.

It's the same concept that the Buffy book is working with, picking up right where the TV series left off. For legal reasons (which I don't know sadly), this isn't being marketed as Angel season six, and I was thinking that might have left some readers confused, that it's just another spin-off book. But make no mistake, these are the canonical adventures of Angel and crew. And while Whedon's name may not appear in the writing credits, he is involved heavily with the project. Former Spike scribe Brian Lynch will be writing the comic, but Whedon is the one who has laid the groundwork. The two writers talked heavily during the planning stages of the comic, with Whedon laying out where he and the other writers had been planning to take the series. While some of the ideas were scrapped, many that would have never made it into the TV show will be seen in the comic. Why? Because there's no special effects budget in comics.

It's just as easy (relatively), for an artist, in this case Spaniard Franco Urru, to draw Angel riding a giant dragon as it for him to draw a bunch of talking heads. Maybe even easier. And yes, there is a giant dragon, and it is the dragon from the last episode. He too was misled by Wolfram & Hart, so now he's working with Angel. But as far as the rest of Angel's pals, Lynch is remaining silent. I guess we'll just have to read it to find out. If you want to know more, and knowing is half the battle, check out this interview with Lynch over at the Comic Book Resources. Ciao.

-Dan

Best Episode Ever!

Don't forget that this Sunday November 18 is the the airing of The Simpson's episode with guest stars Daniel Clowes, Art Spiegelman, Alan Moore and Jack Black. Springfields local comic haunt, the Android's Dungeon, is faced with some stiff competition as Jack Black's character moves to town and opens "Coolsville" a much hipper comic shop. What's Comic Book Guy to do? I say get rid of those dusty Radioactive Man back issues and expand to Radioactive Man graphic novels!

-Jon

News in Brief

A few things are going on out in the big bad world I figured you would want to know about, but just don't rate their own blogs. Here we go.

-The Wanted trailer was released this week. The original mini-series, part of the Millarworld event of a few years back, told the story of young Wesley being recruited into a secret society of super-villians when his old man kicks it. Wanted is well known to be a kick-you-in-the-face type of book looks to have been seriously castrated when adapted to film. Now it's a league of assasains out to protect the world. Boo. I'll still see it, but nontheless, Boo.

-A favorite artist of mine, going back to Starman, Peter Snejbjerg will be joining the creators of The Boys for two issues. Darick
Robertson is one of the most talented guys out there, but even he needs help sometimes apparently. Snejbjerg will be working on two issues for the current Russian story arc, issue 13, and presumably 14, but no definate word. Garth Ennis had this to say in an interview: "This is the fifth time that Peter's guest-starred on one of my books, and it really is about time the two of us created something from the ground up. He's one of the best storytellers in the business, with a sense of character second to none- he certainly had no trouble nailing The Boys. It's a real treat to be working with him again."

-Dan

Are You A Comic Book Addict?

Wednesday never really mattered to me before I started working at Star Clipper. All my favorite TV shows were normally on Thursday and Sunday night. New CD's and DVD's came out on Tuesdays. So Wednesday was just lame old hump day. Ah, but this was before I was a helpless comic book addict. Let me warn you now, if you are a compulsive collector don't work at a shop the feeds your habit. I'm not only guilty for working at Star Clipper for that tasty employee discount, I used to work at Euclid Records as well, helping me indulge in my nasty record collecting habit. Either way, I'm willing to admit I'm addicted to comic books, but are you?

Well, first let me help you defined a comic addict. If you only pick up one or two comics a month its probably safe to say you're a healthy comic reader. Comic addiction is when you pick up more comics than you can really pay for, and half the damn time you're disappointed in what your reading. For instance, I keep picking up Iron Man even though I haven't enjoyed it in months. I even tried to cancel my hold for it but I freaked out and had to reactivate it. Without getting to self degregrating, let me turn it over to nurse Adrian Brown who wrote a really thoughtful and funny take on comic books and addiction.

Here is Brown's Twelve Steps of admission for comic users :

1. We admitted we were powerless over comics. Compared with the superheroes.

2. We came to believe that a Power greater than Superman could restore us to sanity.

3. We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to comics.

4. We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of our collections.

5. We admitted to a comics related internet forum, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our comics addiction.

6. We were entirely ready to have a sale to remove all these, even the ones without defects of cover.

7. We humbly asked if we could keep some trade paperback collections.

8. We made a list of all persons we had introduced to comics, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. We made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when their own addiction might jeopardise our own recovery.

10. We continued to take personal inventory and sold many comics via eBay.

11. We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with Stan Lee as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the Powers to carry that out.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to anyone who would listen, by going on about it at length in any appropriate internet discussions, and also many inappropriate ones. 'Nuff Said!

Make sure to check out the complete article on comic addiction.

Now I have to go pick up a few comics that got away last week.

-Jon

Savage Sword Play

For the past week I have been trying the new Conan game for XBox 360. Pretty sweet, a perfect rental pretty much. Not too hard to be able to be beaten quickly, but not so easy to get repetitive or dull. It's a straight forward hack'n slash, but it keeps it pretty simple. The combo attacks are easy to pull off, as are the numerous special attacks. Very similar to most fighting games, but on the level of say Tekken, more then something current. A typical, and oft used, combo favorite of mine is simply X, X, Y, Y. They don't get a lot more complicated then that. But I don't want to kid you, this is a button mashing festival of death. Enemies can be decapitated, cut in half (lengthwise in some cases), or have one or more limb taken off at a time.

As a matter of fact, there are so many dismemberments and the like I started to think Paul Verhoeven might be involved in some way. But all of this does actually take a back seat to the look and feel of the game. The art style of the game is obviously based on the new Conan books that Dark Horse is putting out, particularly Cary Nord's work. The writing also feels straight out of the newer Conan works. It's got a good bawdy, black sense of humor. Right at the start of the game, Conan is asked if he would serve a woman, his reply? "Service her? Aye, and gladly!" But this is also not the only thing that helps to earn Conan the M rating it so richly deserves. One of the games objectives is to free all the slave girls you can. Of course all the slave girls are chained up to various rocks, walls, etc., what ever a half-naked slave could be chained to. And when I say half-naked, I should say about 95% naked, as the only they wear are loincloths, and they are not shy about it at all.

The game happens almost exclusively in Stygia, so if you were hoping to see some of the more exotic locales of the Hyborrean Age, I must say you will be disappointed. But the level design is still solid, I never felt like I was just replaying something from an earlier level. So, for those of you who enjoy a good hack'n slash brawler, or if you're just a die hard Conan fan, this game is worth a rental, no question. But if you just want to have a little barbarian fun, you could try some of the new Conan graphic novels. The original Dark Horse series is the best, but many of the mini-series they've been putting out are quite good as well. I would recommend in particular either Conan and the Jewels of Gwahlur, or the brand new Conan and the Midnight God.

-Dan

You know, not for kids!

Marvel wants everyone to know that this is, by no means, an official Marvel licensed product. What is this? It's pepper spray. Specifically pepper spray that is dispensed from a bracelet like device you wear on your wrist. The spray is then triggered by a button on the underneath, near the palm of your hand. Of course Florida based inventor Domonique Torrence is quick to admit the device was inspired by our favorite wall-crawlers weapons of choice. Marvel however doesn't seem quite as happy. All across the media this little invention is quickly getting labeled as a "Spider-Man" bracelet. On a Marvel blog, Agent M, one of Marvel.com's regular contributors, says "...but all the folks dubbing this a Spider-Man bracelet? Ya gotta stop. Think of the kids!!" Sounds like they're trying to get out in front of the inevitable lawsuits.

-Dan

Brian Chippendale's Maggots

Scrawled on 350-pages of a Japanese book catalogue is Brian Chippendale's new graphic novel Maggots. Chippendale is best known as the drummer for noise rockers Lightning Bolt and the co-founder of the legendary Providence underground art and music space Fort Thunder. Maggot's was originally conceived and drawn in 1996 while Chippendale was living in Fort Thunder, and like his music the art is frantic and explosive. Inked with a think black marker, the lose story deals with a group of characters living at Fort Thunder, but the themes range from psychotic sci-fi to down-in-out gutter punks. Maggots is the follow-up to his first book Ninja, which was half an art book featuring poster for Lightning Bolt and half comics.



-Jon

Dude, What Are You Wearing?!?

(Editor's Note: Dan sent this to me well after Halloween, and having just read it, I've got the feeling someone should come down on him for sending a Halloween post a week after the holiday...but that's just me. -ed)
Yet once again loyal readers we find ourselves having been confronted by the ugly specter of Halloween. Just kidding, I love Halloween. And just what, if anything, is Halloween about? Appeasing the dead to stay dead for another year and leave fleshy living things to fleshy living business?

NO! It's about stupid costumes! And so this year saw the return of the Marvel Costume Contest. I check these out each year, but some of the costumes this year just can't be missed. Tons of characters are represented this year, there are two Phoenixes, a J. Jonah Jameson that is very good, an impressive Sandman, a hilarious Juggernaut (though I don't think he meant to be), and an Iron Man that just has to be seen to be believed. My favorites of the bunch are the The Thing, the previous mentioned Iron Man, a perky little Squirrel Girl,
and the most accurate Deadpool I have ever seen.

But, more then any one thing, this just goes to show how ridiculous super-hero getups are. Even the most well put together versions still look pretty bad. The Mr. Sinister costume they have up is well done. The makeup is good, the costume looks well tailored, if homemade. But if an actual maniacal laughing super-villain showed up wearing this, I would be the one doing the maniacal laughing. Even the Punisher costume, more the original then the current, when put on a real human looks pretty silly. More then inspiring terror, it looks like the guy is off to some sort of fetish ball.

The voting and all that is already over, but if you want to, check out the finalists.

-Dan

Heroes Origins Unofficially Cancelled

Save the cheerleader, save the world, but it's not going to save the spin-off show "Heroes: Origins" from being cancelled. NBC has not officially confirm the show's status, but the rumor mill looks bad for the six episode mini series, based on the popular super-hero show. According to The Hollywood Reporterthe looming Hollywood writer's strike and lower than expected ratings for "Heroes" season 2 is the cause of the cancellation. "Heroes: Origins" was slated for a mid-season launch in April 2008, with big-name guest directors such as Kevin Smith and Eli Roth tapped to write and direct episodes. Thankfully, "The Biggest Loser" is renewed for two-hour installments for mid season, keeping idiotic reality TV on prime-time.

In other Heroes news, Wildstorm will be releasing the Heroes graphic novel on November 7. Collecting the first 34 chapters of the popular Webcomic, the Heroes graphic novel will also include original artwork by Superman and Batman artist Tim Sale, from work that appears on the paintings in the show. Hereos Volume 1 will even include cover art by comic superstars Alex Ross and Jim Lee.

Hopefully, the graphic novel will renew interest in the show. If not, they're going to need a new catchy slogan. Let's see, how bout "Sylar: Powers Today, Gone Tomorrow" or " Kaboom! and whatever Happened to Peter Petrelli?"

-Jon

Razor's Edge

Ah, Battlestar, how we love you so! Now it's been way too long since you came around here, but boy are we glad you're back.
Now while the regular series doesn't come back till the beginning of next year, there is some new BSG out there for you. First and foremost is the new "movie", Razor. What is Razor exactly? Well, here's what SciFi.com had to say about it, "...tells the story of Lee Adama's first mission as the commander of the battlestar Pegasus ? and the harrowing tale of that ship's desperate fight for survival in the immediate aftermath of the Cylon's genocidal siege of the Twelve Colonies". Most of the story will be told through the eyes of Lee's new XO, Major Kendra Shaw, a veteran of the Pegasus. Since Shaw wasn't seen during the regular show, I can only assume she doesn't last all that long. Should be excellent as always. Razor will
premiere Saturday November 24th, 8pm CST. Just a week later on December 4th the unrated extended version comes out on DVD.

But thats not all! Every Friday till Razor airs, SciFi will be showing short two minute Razor Flashbacks during Flash Gordon. Must be the only way they can get people to watch it. But never fear, you can get them on the web as well! Either go to SciFi.com, or, if you want them in a little bigger screen, IGN.com has them as well. These tell the story of Billy "Husker" Adama's first mission against the Cylons as a combat pilot. It really doesn't look different then the regular series, even some of the shots were either directly lifted from the original mini-series, or they re-shot them to evoke a similar
manner. Its pretty good, and they even did a good job with the actor (Nico Cortez) portraying the young Adama. Either they found someone with similar facial scarring, or edited it in post, but it looks like him enough for me. His voice though is pure Lee Adama, even to the point that I went and looked to see if Jamie Bamber was listed on the credits.

So you think that's all the BSG you can handle? Wimp. If, like me, you have an XBox 360, there is a new BSG arcade game. Not quite as good as the game put out a few years back for the XBox and PS2, but still enjoyable. It is, after-all, just an Arcade game. And check out the store this January when we get the new Colonial Viper Mark II statues in. Roughly a little smaller then the Galactica statues we have now, they will also be a little cheaper. A hundred, I think, don't quote me on that though.

So, new "webisodes", new movie, new game, new statues, and a new season. Get your fix now.

-Danny Dan Dan

Ipecac Records Vinyl Toy Line

Fan's of indie record label Ipecac rejoice, the whole Ipecac band rooster is being made into a series of Vinyl Toys from UNKl. As reported on pitchfork, the 12 Ipecac figures will be released once a month starting in January 2008. Each figure is limited to a release of only 500!! Bands included Desert Sessions, Unsane, label co-founder Mike Patton of Faith No More, and my personal favorite sludge rockers The Melvins. You might remember UNKL as being the company that released those adorable href="http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/42362-wilco-become-toys">Wilco vinyl toys earlier this year.

For more info on the Ipecac toyline check out UNKL site.

-Jon

Diamond Pushing For Barcodes For All Comics

Most Star Clipper regulars know we have an impressive point of sale (POS) system called MOBY (and which we've sold to other retailers across the country), that is very effective for us to track our store inventory and manage subscriptions. So, when I read Todd Allen's recent column Publishing Follieson comic book resources, I thought I would chime in. Diamond is pushing for two barcode initiatives to take place in the near future, described as followed in the article:

First, Diamond is offering to help set up retailers with a Microsoft RMS POS system, in anticipation of their "ComicSuite" software, which would customize the RMS system for comics retailers and streamline some of the interaction with Diamond.

Secondly, Diamond is moving towards requiring all products to have barcodes, much to the horror of many smaller publishers.

Ultimately, I can't see any reason a retailer wouldn't want to have an effective POS system. With the number of titles that come out a week from the comic industry, it would be an absolute nightmare to reorder comics without one.

What concerns me is the effort to require all publishers to have barcodes on their products. I see comics as an artist medium, and if an independent creator of a book feels that a barcode would distract from the merit of their work it should in no way be required. No matter the inconvenience it poses to retailers, which it shouldn't cause any if they have an effective POS syestem like us, barcode should not be a requirement. This is actually the first time I can think of Diamond pushing the monopoly power.

Let me know what you think.

-Jon

ZUDA is GO!

Last week, on October 30th, 2007 the first wave of Zuda Comics went live. The first ten contestants were announced earlier last week, as well as the first up and up instant winner. The first instant winner will be Jeremy Love's Bayou. For this he wins a one year contract on Zuda, and also the possibility for the strip to be collected and published in book format. This would not be Love's first foray into comics either. Several years ago he, and his two brothers, started a comic company called Gettosake. They specialized in "urban style animation, comics, and illustration." You might remember their 2004 Dark Horse project, Fierce. They are coming back after a short hiatus, and I expect to see some pretty good stuff coming out of their studio.

Now onto the contestants. It seems like a pretty good mix of talent and types of stories. "Alpha Monkey" is about a child sent in a rocket to an alternate dimension ruled by monkeys. Oddly the bananas of this planet give the strange hairless ape super-powers and he becomes their defender. "This American Strife" goes completely the opposite direction as more observational editorial blogging. Just thinking and talking out loud. "Black Swan" is a mystical detective story, and "High Moon" is an Old West werewolf tale.

The one that I'm looking forward to the most is "Dead in the Now" by Corey Lewis. Here's the description off Newsarama: "When Braz – a young, cynical boy – discovers the world’s first authentic zombie he decides to end Earth’s monotonous routine and usher in an age of zombie-infested, chaotic adventure! Gathering supplies and weapons, Braz sets his friends up like modern, urban Lost Boys with himself as their Pan." Yes, yes, yessssss!!! Bring on the Zombie apocalypse! (It's starting to look like the most likely apocalypse scenario I'm gonna see!)

You can check out the rest of the descriptions over here at the Zuda message boards, as well as the surprise of a lot of the creators at being chosen. It's cool.

-Dan

Go see 30 Days of Night

Last weekend a record eight films opened, but it was the movie adaptation of comic 30 Days of Night that came out on top, grossing 16 million dollars. However, movie analysts predict that the second weekend performance is what will determine the staying power of these frosty vampires. Having seen the film last weekend, I suggest going to see 30 Days of Night in its second week. I think it's even better then the graphic novel, and it's always a rare occurrence when a film is better than the source material.

For those of you not familiar with 30 Days of Night, basically the story revolves around Barrow, Alaska. the northern-most city on the map, where for one month of the year the city is cast in 30 days of night. Unfortunately, for the residents of Barrow a group of ravenous vampire descend down during those 30 days to feed on the unsuspecting town. Geography is vitally important to the story because Barrow's isolated location makes escape virtually impossible for the few human survivors of
the initial onslaught.

Written by Steve Niles and drawn by Ben Templesmith, 30 Days of Night is actually improved upon by director David Slade. The film impresses visually, recreating and strengthening Templesmith art for celluloid. For example, Slade cuts a throwaway photographer character from the film entirely, but keeps the ingenious eagle-eye shot the character takes of Barrow to display the massacre. The scene closely resembles the opening sequence of the 2004 Dawn of the Dead remake, displaying the mass hysteria cause by the vampires. In actuality, the vampires more closely resemble "Dawn" zombies then the typical Hollywood "ancient beauty" vampire.

Most striking about 30 Days of Night is the Juxtaposition of the white snow covering the town and the human blood spilled from the vampire massacre. The visual motif really amplifies the gruesomeness of the desperate month.

For a great review of 30 Days Of Night check out newsarama.

It's Halloween weekend so treat yourself to a good horror flick!

-Jon

Corps UNITE!

URGENT!! URGENT!! URGENT!!

TO ALL LANTERN SECTOR HOUSES:

SINESTRO CORPS ATTACK UNDERWAY. LANTERNS ARE TO EXECUTE EXTREME CAUTION. USE OF DEADLY FORCE AUTHORIZED.

ALL LANTERNS PROCEED AT DUE SPEED TO EARTH. MASSIVE SINESTRO CORPS ATTACK IN PROGRESS. SENIOR LANTERNS PREPARE FOR UPPER ATMOSPHERE DEFENSE.

URGENT!! URGENT!! URGENT!!

ALL TRAINEE LANTERNS RENDEZVOUS AT 6392 DELMAR IN THE U. CITY LOOP ON THE NORTH AMERICAN CONTINENT. THERE YOU WILL BE ABLE TO PROCURE ALL NECCESSARY BACKGROUND MATERIALS TO THIS ATTACK. AT THE SAME TIME YOU WILL BE ISSUED YOUR TRAINEE RING AND BE GRANTED TEMPORARY INDUCTION INTO THE CORPS FOR THE DEFENSE OF EARTH.

STAY BRIGHT OUT THERE POOZERS.

So what does this mean for you Rookies? It means get over to Star Clipper to grab back and current issues of runaway Green Lantern hit story, The Sinestro Corps. Also, for a limited time, with the purchase of any Green Lantern comic, book, apparel, or merchandise, receive a free Green Lantern Corps ring. While supplies last.