via: newsarama.com

They’ve both worked for DC Comics. They ate haggis together in Scotland. And on Saturday at Comic-Con International: San Diego, Grant Morrison and Gerard Way came together for a panel where they discussed “lo-fi weirdness” and took questions from the audience.
Way told the standing room only audience that Morrison had asked to do a panel together in the past. “I was so honored; he was my hero,” Way said. But the My Chemical Romance singer and former DC intern thought he should publish a comic first.

And has he ever. Morrison congratulated Way on the success of The Umbrella Academy, which took home an Eisner Award Friday night.

Way said that the Eisner award “absolutely” meant more to him than a Grammy Award, which has eluded the singer and his band. “I don’t really know what a Grammy means anymore, but I know what an Eisner means,” Way said.

“I’m gonna try for a Grammy next,” Morrison joked. “I can sing.”

Getting back to the idea for the panel, Way said Morrison coined the term lo-fi weirdness in an interview about six or seven years ago. Way said that inspired him to create The Umbrella Academy.

So what did Morrison mean by the term lo-fi weirdness? The Final Crisis writer said that as the new century began, he thought the internet was opening up new possibilities for creativity.

“The whole internet thing was allowing music to be made by anyone and comics to be made by anyone,” he said. At the same time, however, Hollywood was becoming very interested in comic books. “Movies were starting to fixate on comics and steal all our stuff.”

So Morrison thought comics should fight back. “So I figured the best way to fight back was to make comics even more bizarre, because the one thing comics can do is weirdness and strangeness and surrealism, and they do that better than movies.”

He added, “I think we just need more weird shit, to be honest, on this planet.”

Way said he read the interview like it was a call to arms. He was already a big fan of Morrison’s previous work, particularly the Doom Patrol, which he said was “50 years ahead of its time, and there’s still nothing like it today.” So he took Morrison’s words to heart as he created his own work.

One of the themes that both men touched on throughout the panel was the idea of creating comics because you want to create comics, rather than creating something that can be adapted into a film down the line “You don’t write it for the film,” Way said. “You dictate it, not them,” meaning Hollywood.

Morrison added that many comics nowadays were “cheesy pitch documents for movies that were never going to get made. We really want comics to be comics.”

Morrison also said he thought the world was starting to change in regards to the types of stories people want to read.

“People are getting a little fed up with the last few years of the war on terror,” he said. “Soldiers as heroes and soldiers as superheroes … Y’know, we all love soldiers, God bless them, those guys have a hard job to do, but I’ve had enough of the soldier as a hero, the fetishized soldier.”

He said those types of stories grew out of the Sept. 11 attacks, and it’s time to start telling new stories that give some hope for the future. “Right now there’s not a lot of hope for the future, or so it seems, but that’s only because we’re telling ourselves really shitty stories about soldiers killing each other,” Morrison said.

When they opened the floor to questions, a fan said he never read The Umbrella Academy and wanted to know what it was about. After joking that it was about gay cowboys with umbrellas, Way said it was a post-modern superhero story. “Nothing about it looks like superheroes.”

Morrison called it “the X-Men for cool people.” Scott Allie, the book’s editor, told another Dark Horse employee to “write that down.”

Another audience member asked if any Umbrella Academy art or animation would be incorporated into My Chemical Romance’s stage show. Way said he wanted to keep the band and his comics separate. Allie added that while they used the band name in some of the early advertising, they would be getting away from that in the future.

However, he added, “I’m also proud of being in that band. So it was cool to give interviews for My Chemical Romance and get asked those questions, and it was cool to give comic interviews and get asked My Chemical Romance questions.” He said it all comes from the same source.

Way also said that there were elements from My Chemical Romance’s concept album “The Black Parade” in his original pitch for The Umbrella Academy, but he took those out when he decided to use them in his music.

Another fan asked Morrison if he’d ever consider an Invisibles movie.

“Of course,” he said, but he’d want to write it himself rather than letting some “Hollywood nutjob” do it. “If you have ideas, you want to get them to as many people as possible,” he said.

Way said everyone in the room probably had some sort of dream or aspiration, and as long as it was pure and came from the heart, it would be special. He encouraged any potential creators to not think about the video game or the movie.

“You gotta remember in the entire history of the universe … you’re the only ‘you’ that has ever existed and ever will exist,” Morrison said. “… there’s nobody in existence who is you, and no one can ever see the world the way you see it and can tell the rest of us how it looks. And it might be so different and so beautiful that it changes everything.”

Another fan complimented Way on the fact that The Umbrella Academy read like it had a rich back story, even though not all of it was revealed in the comic. Way said he tried to create the illusion that a back story existed, but said a lot of it isn’t planned out yet.

“The comic is a bit arrogant,” he said. “It assumes you’ve read previous issues” that don’t exist. He said he didn’t start with the origin story because “there’s no real origin.” He later added that he thinks super hero movies that start with the origin are boring, that people understand what a superhero is and don’t need to see it.

Morrison then said he’d been watching the movie Zorro recently, and that Zorro didn’t have an origin story – “he just pops up and starts fighting.” Allie added that you don’t really need to know the origin to know a character.

Both Morrison and Way talked about how they related to their characters. Morrison, for instance, shaved his head and plunged himself “into the world of the occult” when working on Invisibles. Way said when he first saw Morrison while interning at DC, it was like seeing King Mob walking through the halls.

Way, meanwhile, said he dresses like he lives in The Umbrella Academy universe when working on the book.

When asked where his inspiration for his work came from, Way noted Wes Anderson films, City of Lost Children and David Lynch. He also sighted Morrison’s work, as well as “getting clean.” He said he’s been off drugs for more than four years. “I discovered I was way crazier sober than I ever was on drugs,” he joked.

In terms of writing an established character, Way said it was appealing to him. While he said he’s been talking to people about it, he couldn’t say anything yet. He added that Umbrella Academy and Dark Horse would always be his “home base,” though. “I’ll never take Umbrella Academy for granted,” he said.

When asked if Way and Morrison had thought about collaborating on something, Way said they almost made a My Chemical Romance video together, for the song “Momma” off of “The Black Parade.” Morrison was going to play the devil. Some of their ideas for the video had the band being chased by wolves at one point, Liza Minnelli playing the Virgin Mary and Morrison as the devil yelling in Way’s face.

Unfortunately, the video was never made.

Posted under News, Read This!

via:newsarama.com

As announced in the “DC Nation: One Weekend Later” panel on Sunday at San Diego Comic-Con, and exclusive video on Newsarama , Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert will team in January of 2009 for a Batman story entitled, “Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?”

The slide announcing the project and team was met with loud applause at the panel, and while seeing Gaiman return to comics is a big deal, for DC fans, the announcement is something of a bigger deal.

Why? The title – it’s an obvious homage/reference to 1986’s “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” written by Alan Moore, with art by Curt Swan, George Perez and Kurt Schaffenberger. The two issue story, which spanned Superman and Action Comics was a loving tribute by Moore to Superman, and is easily among Superman fans top five all time Superman stories.

Essentially, Moore’s story closed the chapter on an entire age of Superman, ending the character’s Silver Age continuity in preparation for the reboot helmed by John Byrne. Is history going to repeat itself in Gotham City?

Newsarama caught up with Dan DiDio just after the DC Nation panel for a few quick questions.

Newsarama: Dan, obviously the title is a reference to Alan Moore’s Superman story, “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” Are there parallels between this story and that one?

Dan DiDio: There are a number of parallels to that. There’s a very particular reason why we call it that, and that information will be coming out later on, but with this, we wanted to get someone of that particular stature to tell this story, a story that will really define the years of Batman’s life.

NRAMA: How did you get Neil to sign on for this project? With his novels and film careers going full tilt, he has pulled back on his comic work a lot lately…

DD: Neil and I have been talking for several years, and I’ve been trying to find something for him in the DC Universe, and as you said, he’s been rather busy lately, but we always kept the conversation going. I kept on pitching him projects and ideas with the hope that one would really just electrify him and pull him in, and I believe this is the one, and he is really bringing it all to the story.

NRAMA: And it’s also a re-teaming of Andy Kubert with Neil for the first time since 1602 at Marvel…

DD: Right. One of the first things that Andy wanted to do when he came to DC was to work with Neil again. We’ve been talking about different things for a while now, and I’m really happy we were able to put them on something like this together. I think it’s going to bring out the best from both of them,

NRAMA: What format will the project take?

DD: Two issues in January – one issue of Batman and one of Detective Comics. Both slightly oversized.

Posted under DC Preview, Leaked, News

On Wednesday, July 23, 2008, Boom! Studios and Disney Publishing Worldwide announced that they will be working together on an exciting new project. Revealed at the San Diego Comic-Con, Boom! will produce brand new stories from beloved Pixar properties for the comic book medium. 

The comics will feature the new animated classics, the groundbreaking Toy Story series and blockbuster summer hit Finding Nemo, along with Pixar’s newest box office success, Wall*E. Boom! Studios Editor-in-Chief Mark Waid will be writing The Incredibles comic book, with cover art by Darwyn Cooke, writer-artist of DC: The New Frontier. He commented, “Today, American comic books are aimed primarily at an older readership. Comics produced for an upcoming generation of readers are scarce, and Boom! Studios aims to do something about that…There will be comics for kids again!”

To celebrate the partnership, Boom! is releasing a special preview book, including sneak peeks at upcoming projects using the Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and Monsters, Inc characters. With commentary by Waid, the preview will offer comic fans, kids, and parents a look at the comics Boom! is producing for the younger audience. “It’s nothing short of an honor to work with Disney Publishing Worldwide and Pixar for this project,” Boom! Studios co-founder Ross Richie stated. “We found kindred spirits in the creative counterparts we have at both companies, and have just really had a fantastic time finding the right writer and artist combinations to do the source material justice.”

The Pixar preview book will be available at Boom! Studios’ booth #2543 for $5.

Posted under Leaked, News

Citizen Kane. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The Sopranos. Watchmen. Of this list, the following can be said: (1) Each is a masterwork representing the apex of artistry in its respective medium; (2) you might have no idea what Watchmen is.

Except that in our superhero-saturated, cult-pop moment, Watchmen’s fingerprints are everywhere. On Lost. On author Neil Gaiman and Buffy the Vampire Slayer auteur Joss Whedon. On almost every comic book published since 1986. Yes, Watchmen is a comic book. But for many honest-to-God not-crazy people, it is much more. ”Watchmen,” declares Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof, ”is the greatest piece of popular fiction ever produced.”

Or, at least, just plain great. First published in 12 installments by DC Comics, Watchmen is considered the first ”adult” (meaning sophisticated, not naughty) superhero comic. It is the signature work of English writer Alan Moore, whose trailblazing oeuvre also includes the movie-friendly V for Vendetta, From Hell, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Produced in close collaboration with artist Dave Gibbons, Moore’s saga concerns Rorschach, a demented vigilante with a morphing inkblot mask who investigates the murder of a mystery man named the Comedian — though that might be the skimpiest summary ever of a comic book that’s also an intricate conspiracy thriller, a radical deconstruction of superhero archetypes, a furious allegory of Cold War anxiety, and a tour de force of narrative technique. Says Whedon: ”Watchmen took the history of comics and used it as a template for examining the human condition in a way no one had seen before.”
Read More…

Posted under Educate, Read This!

MOON-WALKER CLAIMS ALIEN CONTACT COVER-UP: Former Nasa astronaut and moon-walker Dr EdgarMitchell - a veteran of the Apollo 14 mission - has stunningly claimed aliens exist. And he says extra-terrestrials have visited Earth on several occasions - but the alien contact has been repeatedly covered up by governments for six decades.  Dr Mitchell, 77, said during a radio interview that sources at the space agency who had contact with aliens described the beings as ‘little people who look strange to us.’
 
 

Posted under Did you know?

Comedy Meltdown 8: Jason Takes Manhattan
“Rennie:  You don’t understand, there is a maniac trying to kill us!
New York Waitress: Welcome to New York.”

Date: Friday, July 25th
Time: 8:30 p.m.
Place: The swanktastic Meltdown Gallery at the rear of the store which is located here:

7522 W Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90046-3408, US
http://meltcomics.com/

Whom: ANTHONY JESELNIK

JACKIE KASHAIN
ROB DELANEY
BRIAN ZARIN
ROBERT YASUMURA
Hosted by: BLAINE CAPATCH

Sponsored by: ASAHI

In addition to this stellar line-up we are charging NO COVER!
Please drink responsibly or designate a driver.
Something to be aware of: parking in this neighborhood is dodgy, so please plan accordingly.

“Tamara Mason:  [Before cutting the drugs] Night time is the right time.”

Posted under Comedy Show, Do Something

All Fanboy Stand-Up Comedy All Night Long
July 23rd, 2008
7:30PM
FREE!

Posted under Comedy Show

2008 is shaping up to be the year of that supervillainy broke. Arch-nemeses have arguably always been the icing on the comic cake (“Come for the Flash, stay for Captain Boomerang!”), but it’s getting sublimely ridiculous nowadays, what with Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along blog, the “Evil Wins” awesomeness of Final Crisis and Heath Ledger’s Joker stealing the entirety of The Dark Knight. With that in mind, we figured it was time to introduce you to the Original Villain Network, a video project by the Sucklord, New York blowhard artist and friend of Meltdown. The OVN uncovers the seedy lives of a cadre of NYC-based evildoers, and it’s pretty damn funny, too. Check out an example here (Warning: copious amounts of f-bombs and the like are dropped):

Original Villain Network

Posted under Comedy Show, WTF, Watch This!, You Tube

The http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ reports:
Batman star Christian Bale arrested by London police on suspicion …
The alleged assault is believed to have taken place at his hotel in Park Lane Photo: EPA
Bale, 34, attended a police station after it was reported his mother and sister had reported him to police.

The alleged incident was believed to have taken place on Sunday night at Park Lane’s Dorchester Hotel where Bale is staying.

His mother Jenny, 61, and sister Sharon, 40, are said to have gone to a police station in Hampshire to make the allegation, which was subsequently referred to the Metropolitan Police.

A Met Police spokesman said: “A 34-year-old man attended a London Police Station on Tuesday by appointment and was arrested in connection with an allegation of assault.

“He currently remains in custody.”

Despite the alleged incident and report, Bale was allowed to attend the first European screening of the new Batman blockbuster The Dark Knight in London’s West End on Monday night uninterrupted.

Bale was joined on the red carpet by Maggie Gyllenhaal, who plays love interest Rachel Dawes, and Sir Michael Caine who plays Bruce Wayne’s faithful butler and father figure Alfred.

The film took a record $158.3 million in its opening weekend at the US box office overtaking Spiderman 3, which took £151.1 million.

Interest in the film has increased because of the death of Heath Ledger.

His performance as Batman’s arch nemesis The Joker, has been widely tipped by critics, as well as Caine, to receive a posthumous Oscar.

Posted under DC Preview, Hollywood, Just Arrived, News, WTF

1981
The Greatest American Hero is a television series which aired for three seasons from 1981 to 1983 on ABC. It premiered as a two hour movie pilot on March 18, 1981. It starred William Katt as teacher Ralph Hinkley (or Hanley), Robert Culp as FBI Agent Bill Maxwell, and Connie Sellecca as lawyer Pam Davidson.

Official Press Release 
Fall 2008

Join the original cast of the “Greatest American Hero” television series on Thursday, July 24 at 12:30-1:30pm in Room 7AB at the 2008 Comic-Con Convention in San Diego.

After twenty-five years, this beloved cult series is being re-introduced to the world as a comic book series. In addition, two special announcements will be made regarding the franchise.

A video taped introduction from the show’s legendary creator STEPHEN J. CANNEL kicks off the panel including a remark about how “The Greatest American Hero” is his best-selling series of all time.

The Panel will be hosted by Pulp Secret stars Justin Tyler, Pete LePage, and Alex Zalben from comic book show The Stack.

Panelists will include the original stars:

• WILLIAM KATT
• CONNIE SELLECCA
• ROBERT CULP
• DENNIS “DANGER” MADALONE -Stuntman

Also in attendance will be Christopher Folino, director of the motion picture “Gamers”; Derek McCaw, editor of Fanboy Planet; Arcana Studios’ Sean O’Reilly (”The Clockwork Girl”).and Clint Hilinski (The Justice League) All four will be helping William Katt create the new comic book series.

Posted under Read This!, Watch This!