As you all probably know, this is a huge weekend for news of the comics industry as publishers make their biggest announcements of the year at San Diego’s ComicCon International!
Unfortunately, while SDCC rages on into the night with a non-stop party machine driven by guys like Kevin Church and Bully, I’m stuck over here on the East Coast, which is a shame, because believe it or not, I was actually invited to be on a panel this year. Still, I’m not going to let a little matter of 3,000 miles keep me away from the breaking news, so I’ve been on the phone all day with trusted sources and I’ve been Twittering up a storm to bring you the news that you won’t be seeing anywhere else!
Marvel Comics
- Sources report that the House of Ideas is going to be expanding their “Marvel Bestselling Authors” line, rechristening it as “Marvel Bestselling Artists”–including recording artists! First up, fan-favorite writer Matt Fraction teams with Amazing Spider-Man‘s Phil Jiminez for a six-issue series that shows what happens when a young man gets everything he always wanted… and doesn’t live happily ever after in Skee-Lo’s I Wish.
Future plans include a multi-part epic of urban warfare, starting with Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em v.1: Now Watch Me Do.
- With the upcoming movie just over the horizon, Marvel’s tapped indie superstar Chip Zdarsky, of Monster Cops fame, to write and draw a 48-page Giant Size Dazzler one-shot to reintroduce Allison Blaire to a new generation of fans!
- Adam Warren’s Master of Kung Fu? Still rejected. Early con reports confirm that Marvel does in fact hate joy.
- In addition to the new Nick Fury ongoing by Brian Bendis and The Nightly News’s
Jonathan Hickman, the events of Secret Invasion will also lead to the dramatic return of U.S. 1 by Dan Slott and Juan Bobillo, as well as an all-new ROM: Spaceknight series from Christos Gage and Leonard Kirk!
- Marvel plans on returning the Educational Comic to bookstore shelves with a new historical series from their popular Marvel Adventures line of kids’ books. Writer Garth Ennis and artist Steve Dillon are probably more well-known for their Mature Readers fare, but the series promises to show off their talents in a way that we can learn from as well as enjoy:
DC Comics
- Editor Jann Jones announced a new Johnny DC title: WORLD’S BEST FRIENDS by Tiny Titans’ Art Baltazar and Franco. Done in the style of the classic Haney/Aparo Brave and the Bold, the series will be a Krypto the Super-Dog team-up book that debuts with Rex the Wonder Dog in battle against Destructo!
- Jann Jones will also be editing a new Brother Power the Geek revival by J. Torres and Rick Burchett, which she described as “a cross between Mannequin, Donald Sutherland’s scenes in Kelly’s Heroes and [Mickey Spillaine’s] I, the Jury.”
- Breaking news from the hotel bar: After a respectable six Appletinis, DC honcho Dan Didio let it slip that Grant Morrison’s Batman: RIP will in fact end with the death of Bruce Wayne, who will be replaced under the cowl by a more brutal hero from the past: Jack Wheeler, the Quad Cities’ own Wild Dog!
- With the opening of the Watchmen movie, DC’s going to be re-examining the groundbreaking series for the first time in over twenty years! It all starts in the pages of Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley’s Trinity, which will spin out into a weekly, four-issue mini-series by Keith Champagne and Scott McDaniel called Crisis On Earth-4, where the Big 3 take on a power-mad, world-dominating Dr. Manhattan for the sake of the multiverse.
- Even better, the Watchmen Universe is going to be expanded with four one-shots timed for a weekly release in the run-up to the movie: Rorschach by Brian Azzarello and Jim Lee, Nite-Owl by Judd Winick and Ethan Van Sciver, Silk Spectre by writer/artist Terry Moore, and Ozymandias, by J. Michael Straczynski and Dale Eaglesham. All of this leads up to…
- A new hardcover graphic novel: Tales of the Watchmen, by Geoff Johns and Alex Ross!
At 96 pages, this will be Ross’s most ambitious work in ten years. Said Johns, “Our goal is to do exactly what Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons intended, using their story as a springboard to tell other fantastic tales of the characters in this world.”
And the biggest news from the convention…
Pretty exciting stuff, and we haven’t even hit the weekend yet! Stay tuned for more con news that you won’t be seeing anywhere else, only on the ISB!
*: Truth percentage may be slightly exaggerated.
I’m on the same boat. My best friend is there right now. And yes, he’s getting what I call “Preachin’ Cobra Commander”. Church services start at 10:25am Sunday. Special music this week Cold Slither.
Don’t even joke. that Watchmen thing isn’t true, is it? I might cry.
I realize you’re probably joking, but I need reassurance, because that’s so scary it isn’t even funny. At all. I’m legitimately worried they would do something that awful.
You little scamp, Chris.
Dazzler talks are still ongoing.
I dunno. I like the thought of Alan Moore screaming in soul-scorching terror. It amuses. :)
Man, all those sound like great comics.
My first thought was that the Ennis/Dillon Marvel Adventures The ‘Nam would be spectacular. Then I realized that since I’ve read more than ten issues by that team I’ve already read everything that would be in it so my enthusiasm waned.
And its about time that DC revived those Watchmen characters and used them in their mainstream books. I’m looking forward to the originals fighting their New Earth versions. I was also reading that the new, darker Silk Specter as mentioned briefly at the end of Watchmen was going to be used in Birds of Prey which should be great!
The bravest predictions I’ve seen since the glory days of KTLA.
You know that bit in Watchmen? The bit with the riots? If that stuff about Watchmen was true, then there would probably be real riots. And there’s no magic naked blue guy to send all the rioters home, no sir!
Chris Sims is the best guy. That’s why people are telling him all these rumors.
Marvel Adventures: The ‘Nam is hilarious and a really nice job on the cover. The Watchmen…not so much.
Because I’d bet they’d like to do just that.
Marvel Adventures: The ‘Nam is a perfect idea for a comic book.
Dan Slott on US 1 would be good. But I don’t know if Gage is the right guy for ROM. Although his A:C: Quasar book DID have Xemnu the Titan. Though if it were to be a Paul Tobin/Colleen Coover ROM I’d find a way to make Quesada EiC for Life…
Oh, come on. Christos Gage is the right guy for everything. I mean, LESBIAN SPACE DRAGONS. (Also the Deadshot mini, Stormwatch: PHD and the Boulder issue of Initiative.)
The first bit of Marvel News reminds me of when Marvel was supposed to do the “Marvel Music” comics.
It’s kind of a shame that they never made “Doctor Dre, Man With a Cold, Cold Heart” or “Snoop Doggy Dogg–Unleashed!”
That was the scariest April Fool’s in July I’ve ever read.
Awwww…and I was getting so stoked for the Krypto/Rex team-up.
Awwww…and I was getting so stoked for the Krypto/Rex team-up.
Let me explain something. You were NOT getting stoked for the Krypto/Rex team up unless you were getting stoked for the END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT.
I’m worried that one of those rumors is absolutely true.
Guess I’ll have to use booze to get to sleep. Again.
Speaking of ComicCon, check out the real life Spider Super Stories’ WEBBY!, http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2008/07/dsc_3592.jpg
This just in! Steve Ditko on a new Swamp Thing! Subjectivism goes primal! With plants! “Suck it, Lee!” says artist!
Chris, you appear to have readers bashing Krypto again. You know what must be done…
Only thing you missed at the Con was the 40 Princess Leias in metal bikinis all posing on stage.
And a LOST panel, because it’s the greatest show ever and hooray for ABC(shameless plug).
Other than that, it was a typical merchandising convention with a comic book thrown in every once in a while.
Are any of these true? Because I’d actually like to see Johnathan Hickman on a mainstream book.
Does this mean there really won’t be a “V For Vendetta: The Next Generation” ongoing?
CCS, Hickman is co-writing the new Nick Fury book with Bendis. Seriously.
I was flicking through the more action-figure-y oriented SDCC news and I spotted this:
http://i.marvelousnews.com/g/index.php?mode=view&album=2008_SDCC%2FMarvel_Panel&pic=209.jpg&dispsize=600&start=20
I’m saddened that they’re using the JMS-era rendition of Thor, mind you. I suppose it’s not a bad design in and of itself. I shall console myself with the classic-styled Thor that also turns into an A-10 Thunderbolt.
So Chris, is it true that you’re writing the mini-series that introduces the Archie Superheroes to the DCU? If not, why the devil did they acquire them in the first place?
Hey Chris, probably a dumb question but – are you aware of the archie collections available here? http://www.nostalgiatown.com/Default.aspx?CategoryId=4
Yes, those are all available through Diamond. I even wrote a Prism article about a story in Best of the Fifties.
This is brillianly written. The best part is that you actually asked yourself “if Quesada/DiDio were to make market any of these unlikely books in good faith, what would be the best (or at least most logical) decisions they could make.”
You easily could have gone for more outrageous/offensive names, but then we readers wouldn’t have had that terrified voice in the back of our heads saying “I dunno, sure Chris is a fabulist, but this sounds disturbingly believable.”
We don’t deserve comedy writing this good for free. Bravo, sir.
A new Batman animated series, described as “what if we took the the Adam West [Batman] title sequence and gave it some balls?”, would fit into this list quite well.
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=17417
We don’t deserve comedy writing this good for free.
Agreed. Paypal address is in the sidebar.
Just brilliant stuff – how on earth do you find the time to be funny AND gorgeous (you are gorgeous, aren’t you?)
SPLGFRD!
I’m excited for Rex and Krypto too.
No better way for the world to end, I say.
Awasome I hope there will be another Watchmen comic booyah!!!