Comic du jour: Detective Comics #437 (Nov. 1973)

I was visiting flea markets again this past weekend and came across a good deal on this classic issue of Detective Comics.

Was there ever a better time to be a Batman fan that the early 1970s? You had Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams doing their classic thing. And then there was this issue, the first edited and written by Archie Goodwin and featuring art by Jim Aparo and the first installment of "Manhunter" with art from then-newcomer Walt Simonson.

The lead story is a solid Batman detective story in which the Caped Crusader stumbles across and foils an elaborate criminal blackmail plan revolving around a mysterious artifact in a Gotham museum. (I'd like to know how often the Gotham museum cliche has been used in Batman stories over the years – I'd guess it's in the top five.) But this is a solid, complete story told in a mere 12 pages. Aparo is one of those workman-like artists who never got the acclaim that guys like Adams or Simonson did, but he should have. Looking at the quality of both his storytelling and his illustrations, this is top-notch stuff. There's even a stellar "silent" action sequence on page 2, in which Batman dispatches a group of rooftop thieves in an economical and compelling eight-panel layout. And Aparo still was a top-notch Batman artist more than 16 years later, when I first started reading his work on such seminal 1980s Batman stories as "10 Nights of the Beast," "A Death in the Family" and "A Lonely Place of Dying."

The backup story is known as a tried and true classic. I have a trade collecting the Goodwin-Simonson "Manhunter" stories, and they are definitive of the best comics of this era. Simonson remains one of my all-time favorite comics artists, mostly for his work on Thor, X-Factor, Star Wars and even Marvel's old Battlestar Galactica series, (which I believe gave him his first credits as a writer). Seeing these stories from early in his career, it's remarkable to see how consistent his distinctive art style has been, even as he improved his storytelling and drawing abilities in quite significant ways over the years.

Even more interesting is the letters page in this issue, in which Goodwin introduces himself as the successor to Julie Schwartz and outlines his plans for reviving Detective. (At the time, the book's sales were slumping and the series was being published bimonthly! I don't know how long this lasted, but I'm sure the quality of issues like this one helped turn that around.)

The weakest point of the whole package is, surprisingly, the cover. It looks like Aparo to me, but the illustration is poorly composed and completely overwhelmed by a design that overemphasizes the logo and trade dress. Even so, with regular comics today about to reach en masse the $3.99 price mark, this comic was a tremendously entertaining bargain, even at the princely sum (in 1973) of 20 cents.

Comics slowdown emerges in stores, new Diamond policies

So the general economic troubles have started to have a concrete impact on the comic book business. Take, for example, this article from today's Los Angeles Times, which says more fans are reading trade paperbacks through their local libraries rather than buying them, and notes the overall downturn in the direct market:

But even after a year stuffed with blockbuster films based on comic books, growth in all sectors is stalling.

There are no statistics available for comic books sold to customers. But the number sold to merchants is dropping. For February through November of 2008, the amount of top comic books sold to shops was lower than the same period in 2007, according to online research group Comics Chronicles.

Sales figures in broader comics categories, including magazines and trade paperbacks, nonetheless increased in the January-through-November period, though just 0.5% more than a year earlier, said John Jackson Miller, a Comics Chronicles researcher.

The article also discusses the impact of piracy and mentions the recent postponement of Wizard World Los Angeles. On a good note, it seems as though the Third Planet store in Torrance has been given a bit of reprieve:

Dreary sales forced Third Planet Games & Comics in Torrance to shut its doors in early January.

But in true superhero fashion, a longtime customer saved the day by buying the business.

The store will reopen with a smaller staff and stricter standards for ordering, manager Scott Grunewald said.

"Hopefully we have a happy ending," he said. "Because now, we're starting from scratch."

On top of this comes the news of policy changes at Diamond Comics Distributors that raise the performance bar for new products — and will certainly put the squeeze on, especially, small publishers. The Beat has all the particulars, including on-the-record comments from Joe Nozemack at Oni Press. Here's the gist, from The Beat:

In a change that will have a far greater impact, according to numerous reports, Diamond is raising its benchmark for products it will carry from $1500 to $2500. Jones has the clearest explanation of this change, (although he later amends perhaps the most key point of all) but the short version is that unless orders to Diamond on a product are consistently greater than $2500 at wholesale, Diamond will no longer carry the product.

The obvious result is that a lot of publishers in the back part of the Previews catalog will likely be dropped, limiting their ability to publish at all. This may not seem like a huge loss at first, but as pointed out on a number of sites, things that have become classics like Bone or even 30 Days of Night might never have been published with the new standards in place.

Being the optimistic guy I am, I wonder if this doesn't perhaps open up an opportunity for secondary distributors like Haven (formerly Cold Cut) to add more titles and specialize in the sort of indie titles that are being dropped. Sure, lots of stores won't add a second distributor to their workload and expenses in tough times, but low-fi indie work has a long tradition in the direct market that may now have a bit of a fire lit under it by the Diamond actions.

'Watchmen' dispute settled

Fans can relax: Watchmen will hit theaters March 6 as planned now that Fox and Warner Bros. have settled their rights dispute. Here's Variety's story, THR's and Nikki Finke with some of the details of the deal.

Details include a cash payment from WB to Fox and the latter having gross participation in the film. But Fox won't distribute the film, nor will its logo appear on it.

Frankly, this really was the only possible outcome, and all the drama can be forgotten.

The only thing that's even a little worrisome is that Fox got as part of the deal a stake in any spinoffs or sequels — neither of which I think any fan of the book really wants to see.

Comic du jour: Space: 1999 #6 (Sept. 1976)

I realize this is the second John Byrne comics I've picked for this feature in a week, but I just came across this one and couldn't resist for a number of reasons.

First, I loved the "Space: 1999" TV show when it was first on the air back in 1976 or 1977. It aired on ITV in Edmonton in the afternoons on Tuesday and Thursday, while "Star Trek" filled the same slot the rest of the week — making it perfect after-school viewing for a space fan in those pre-"Star Wars" days. The show seemed much cooler than it really was — especially now that I've revisited it on DVD — but the visual effects were terrific for the times, the Eagle was one of the coolest space ship designs ever, and this show had a great opening title sequence and theme.

Second, I bought this Charlton Comic off the stands when it came out and loved it for having all the action that the show promised but never really delived. The story is simple — an alien warrior whose ship is the size of an apple and more powerful than a small star slams into an Eagle on patrol and splits it in half. Commander Koenig, in the middle of the ship when this happens, is sucked out into space. There's this great sequence where Koenig's holding his breath as he twists and turns in zero gravity to try to reach his helmet. Byrne, who wrote and drew this tale, presents a great double page spread of 10 vertical panels of Koenig reaching for the helmet, counting down to the moment when Koenig's lungs will burst. He grabs the helmet, of course, and manages to turn the back half of the Eagle into a flaring pinwheel that alerts his fellow Alphans to their location and they're soon rescued. Simple, but cool.

Byrne's art is the reason this whole thing works. All the elements that would in short order make him the most popular artist in the industry are here — in the inventive design of the alien, the detailed technology of the alien ship and the clean, sharp look of the Alphans' ship and base.

It was about eight or nine years after this that I had returned to comics as a teenager and learned that Byrne was living just down the road in Calgary when he did this issue — a fact that surely would have impressed me to no end at the time I first read it.

The TV series remains a guilty pleasure for me — I own every episode from both seasons on DVD — but this comic remains my favorite Space: 1999 story and one of my favorite Byrne comics.

Comic(s) du jour: City of Dust #1-3 (Oct.-Dec. 2008)

Writer Steve Niles throws a pretty good twist into this five-issue series from Radical Comics. This starts off following the footsteps of Ray Bradbury's classic "Fahrenheit 451," introducing future copper Philip Khrome patrolling a future in which stories, religion and books are all banned. Khrome's a dutiful cop, doing his duty by the book. But the twist — the twist! — comes out of left field (at the end of the second issue, no less) and really makes you sit up and notice. Perhaps given Niles' track record as the creator of "30 Days of Night" (the comic rocks, even though the movie definitely does not), it shouldn't have surprised me, but it did.

The art on the first two issues of this are by the mono-named Zid, with Brandon Chng and a few others chipping in. It follows the Radical style, which is rapidly becoming a house style. It's a generally attractive, fully painted look that is dark and moody and looks in some way heavily processed. It reminds me of the look of the film "Beowulf," which was dank and murky. That film also had detail, which is something that some more traditional comic line art could add.

I don't know how much life this has beyond this initial five issues, but for now it's a nice injection of coolness into the comic scene.

Comic du jour: Fantastic Four #562 (Feb. 2009)

I don't know why the run by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch on this title is not getting more attention, because it's one of the most polished, pretty and interesting superhero comics out there right now.

This particular issue is a good example, even though it's an issue that bridges the previous "Death of the Invisible Woman" arc and whatever comes up next. The bridging issue is the sort of thing we used to see a lot of in the 1980s (which for many of us was the last time we could keep track of Marvel continuity without a scorecard), especially in books like The Uncanny X-Men. Perhaps I'm just nostalgic, but it speaks to a certain degree of continuity that has been lacking in superhero comics, which these days tend to lurch from arc to arc, with dramatic shifts in tone and style coming every time the creative team changes.

Bryan Hitch shows why he's so great on this book, delivering an art job that delivers in storytelling, design, emotion and realism. His portrayals of the FF team have been incredibly consistent, and no one since Kirby (OK, maybe Byrne at his best) has been able to create settings as perfectly suited to the cosmic tone of the title. These settings look like set designs — you can see the movie practically unfold before you. Lots of artists attempt this, but Hitch here is as close to cinematic as I've seen in a long time.

And Millar is no slouch either. The guts of this tale involve the funeral for the Invisible Woman (I won't spoil it with an explanation — go get the back issues or the hardcover if you want to find out what's going on) and a conversation between Dr. Doom and Reed Richards that is cool, in character and a lot of fun to read.

So, yeah, the first big complaint is going to be that this comic doesn't come out on time, every time. But it's worth the extra time and is, at least so far, nowhere near as late as Ultimates and Ultimates 2 became. It's also completely self-contained and is exactly the sort of thing that I would love to see more of from Marvel and DC.

Globe win makes Ledger the man to beat for Oscar

I didn't watch the Golden Globes telecast last night, just like I also don't drink Drano, walk barefoot across broken glass or pour salt in my wounds. But Heath Ledger won the supporting actor award for his performance as The Joker in "The Dark Knight." I think at this point, it's a near certainty that he will be nominated and be the favorite to win the same honor at the Oscars. It also raises the overall Oscar profile of "The Dark Knight," which is gaining ground in the Oscar race and I think stands a very good chance of becoming the first-ever comic book movie to get a Best Picture nom. It won't win, but as they say, it's nice to be nominated ....

Wizard World kills Texas show, postpones L.A.

Wizard announced today it is postponing its Wizard World L.A. show, originally set for March 13-15, and is canceling Wizard World Texas in November. That leaves the magazine publisher/con organizer with two shows: Chicago and Philadelphia.

I can't say this is surprising news, considering the struggles indicated by the paring down of the Wizard staff. The magazine, which truly was the bible of comics reading and collecting in the early to mid-1990s, has seen its stature as the source for news, info, comedy and data about the comics industry migrate to the internet. The last Wizard World L.A. show was a decent but unexciting event. My one year at the Texas show was enjoyable, but the show was quite small compared to other Wizard shows and to events like San Diego and New York.

The problem with Wizard's shows has always been their limited scope. While shows like WonderCon, NY Comic-Con and Heroes Con are inclusive of all kinds of fans, Wizard shows have always focused far too much on just superhero comics fans. While other shows put a lot of effort into thoughtful and compelling programming that covered a lot of territory, the Wizard programming was pretty much limited to cheerleader marketing sessions for Marvel, DC and whatever Hollywood properties the show could reel in. (Essentially, what you get in the magazine.) There wasn't enough there to warrant more than a single day's visit. In short, it failed to tap into the wider interest in things like anime, manga, indie comics and the wider worlds of cool TV, movies and animation that give shows like Comic-Con their wide appeal.

They also could have helped themselves with better marketing. I know comic shop regulars who are always surprised to hear a Wizard show is coming up or has just passed. And this show needs a better locale — the L.A. Convention Center is scaled for huge mega-events and Wizard World, taking up last year just a small corner of one of the massive halls, was lost in there. A decent hotel, or even the original Long Beach site, would be far better suited and more comfortable for a mid-size comics con. And maybe that's what we'll get — assuming the show is rescheduled.

Meanwhile, Texas is out of luck. That was a really pleasant show the one year I went. I don't think fans there had another option when it came to a show that brought in creators and celebrities. But it was the smallest of the Wizard shows and obviously first on the chopping block should times get tight — and they have.

The current absence of an L.A. show opens up the schedule a bit and should let the organizers of WonderCon and New York Comic-Con breathe at least a little easier. Hopefully, it will give both shows more flexibility when planning their shows for 2010 and beyond.

And the big questions, still to be answered, is whether the economy will put the breaks on the runaway growth of other comics shows — most notably the summer behemoth in San Diego.

Insiders spill 'Watchmen' history and how the 'Shazam!' movie died

Two interesting comic book movie tidbits. First, an open letter purportedly from Lloyd Levin, partner of the producer at the heart of the "Watchmen" legal dispute, Larry Gordon. Llevin writes about trying to get a "Watchmen" movie made for many years and criticizes Fox's claims as opportunistic. To wit:

From my point of view, the flashpoint of this dispute, came in late spring of 2005. Both Fox and Warner Brothers were offered the chance to make Watchmen. They were submitted the same package, at the same time. It included a cover letter describing the project and its history, budget information, a screenplay, the graphic novel, and it made mention that a top director was involved.

And it's at this point, where the response from both parties could not have been more radically different.

The response we got from Fox was a flat "pass." That's it. An internal Fox email documents that executives there felt the script was one of the most unintelligible pieces of shit they had read in years. Conversely, Warner Brothers called us after having read the script and said they were interested in the movie - yes, they were unsure of the screenplay, and had many questions, but wanted to set a meeting to discuss the project, which they promptly did. Did anyone at Fox ask to meet on the movie? No. Did anyone at Fox express any interest in the movie? No. Express even the slightest interest in the movie? Or the graphic novel? No.

Then, screenwriter John August explains on his blog that the "Shazam!" movie he had been writing is dead in the water and explains from his P.O.V. how it all went down.

In retrospect, I can point to two summer Warner Bros. movies that I believe defined the real issue at hand: Speed Racer and The Dark Knight. The first flopped; the second triumphed. Given only those two examples, one can understand why a studio might wish for their movies to be more like the latter. But to do so ignores the success of Iron Man, which spent most of its running time as a comedic origin story, and the even more pertinent example of WB’s own Harry Potter series. I tried to make this case, to no avail.

Amazing Spider-Man #583 to have Obama variant cover

I swear, when was the last time anyone wanted to put a real-life president on the cover of a comic book? I don't think it's ever happened, but I could be wrong.

I definitely will try to snag one of these when they come out Jan. 14.

Goyer says WB has a lot of DC movies "on hold"

In an interview with IESB, writer-director David Goyer says all the DC Comics adaptations he's working on — including "Supermax/Green Arrow" and "The Flash" — are treading water while the studio decides the best way to handle such movies:

"A lot of the DC movies at Warner Brothers are all on hold while the figure out, they're going to come up with some new plan, methodology, things like that so everything has just been pressed pause on at the moment. It was the double header of both Iron Man and The Dark Knight coming out, so more than ever I think they've realized, I think DC was responsible for 15% of Warner Brother's revenue this year, something crazy like that, so they realized that comic books, it's become a new genre, one of the most successful genres."

It's gratifying to see the success of "Dark Knight" linked back to DC, but I still think this is the wrong approach for Warners to take. Developing big strategic plans like that is difficult, time consuming and tends to create more problems than it solves — if a plan agreeable to all parties is even worked out. They have to not be afraid to pull the trigger and risk making mistakes. Marvel's already gone through that phase — "Daredevil," "Elektra," "Fantastic Four," "Hulk" — and have come out on the other side better for it. I really wish that, especially with the likes of "Green Arrow" and "Flash," that the studio would hire an up-and-coming director with a good take on the material, give him anywhere between $80 million and $100 million to make the pic, and then get out of the way.

Comic du jour: FX #1 (March 2008)

This is a bit of a throwback to the days of simpler comic book superheroes that I picked up recently in a bargain bin, mostly out of curiosity to see what John Byrne's drawing. The story by Wayne Osbourne tells the tale of Tom Talbot, a kid about 10 to 12 years old who mysteriously acquires a superpower that lets him pretend up any effect he wants. Taking the superhero name FX, he and his pal Jack test out the powers against a renegade gorilla.

This story began as a commission Osborne wrote and paid Byrne to draw, with the result getting picked up by IDW. This very much falls into the fairly rigid interpretation held by Byrne and the fans at his forum of "what superhero comics should be" and undeniably does evoke the kinds of stories comics told back in the days when the only place to get them was the spinner rack and every issue was somebody's first. Byrne's art remains clear and strong, even as it reflects the somewhat more cartoony nature of his recent work.

At the same time, FX is too much of a throwback — too simple and simplistic – to make much of a mark in today's market. Just because this kind of tale worked once, doesn't mean it still resonates with the same force, especially as kids are increasingly exposed to more choices and more sophisticated fare than ever before. The result is little more than a nice bit of well-constructed nostalgia that has all the relevance of a "Leave it to Beaver" revival.

Japanese 'Watchmen' trailer, more lawsuit news

First, the very cool Japanese trailer:



Second, it looks like all will be decided by the judge in the "Watchmen" legal dispute between Fox and WB. Again, as a non-lawyer, I'll defer to other sites to tell you what it all means.

Off the shelf: Path

"Path" ($12.95, Com.X) is essentially a chase story of the Wile E. Coyote vs. Road Runner variety. Story opens with a bang as a talking rabbit on the run from some crocidogs meets an elephant — and the two team up on the run to an unexpected point of destiny for them both. This comes from Com.X in England, and is written and "artworked" by Gregory S. Baldwin in a nice, cartoony style that evokes Sam Kieth's work on the excellent old "Maxx" series.

Most of the story involves various chases and close escapes that are done well and come into focus with an unexpectedly touching point right at the end. It takes a while to get there, but it's quite worth the relatively short trip.

The artwork is essential to the telling of this tale, and it's all done in what looks like pencil drawings with gray tones added via the computer. The tones give the book a nice overall look, but often doesn't have enough variation in shades, leaving too many panels and pages looking like a gray wash. I wish this book had been done in color, as it looks like the interiors are published in a "rich black" — or sepia, I guess — in which faint bits of color seem to be trying to edge their way in to the images.

Third Planet RIP

I'm a bit late to this, but my former comic shop, Third Planet in Torrance, has closed down. This article (which is on the Contra Costa Times site, but was originally done for the Daily Breeze), has all the details. Apparently, even the fixtures are for sale if you're interested in that sort of thing.

I shopped at Third Planet when I first came to California in 1996. I was living in Redondo Beach and working at the Breeze and Third Planet was not only the closest comic shop, but the best at the time in that part of Los Angeles. I last visited the store around 2000, after it had moved from its first location near the Del Amo mall to PCH and as I was moving north and east into the belly of the beast that is Los Angeles. It will be missed ...

Watching the 'Watchmen' legal battle is confusing

I’ve taken a look at the documents filed in the "Watchmen" film rights legal dispute and the judge’s recent summary judgment in favor of Fox and find myself fascinated by it all. (Filmesq.com is a great resource for all this.) I have no great insights on this, but I still think the film will come out March 6 as planned. I imagine delaying the film would damage the property and reduce the anticipated profits each side is trying to lay claim to. And as new info comes out, it gets harder to blame one studio or the other (I think doing so is counterproductive), so let's just hope the judge or the parties can work out some kind of quick resolution to this.

The most astounding thing is that the studios and all their attorneys somehow missed something as important as the rights the judge has ruled Fox still retains in the project. It seems too much was taken at face value and not double checked — a huge embarrassment for both sides. I can't wait to see the more detailed ruling. And I drove past the Roybal Building in downtown Los Angeles where the hearing will be held and found myself tempted to try to check out that upcoming hearing ...

Comic du jour: The Flash #309 (May 1982)

First in what I intend to be a regular series looking at various individual comics of yesterday and today.

This is a pretty typical comic from a period not remembered as especially good for B- and C-list titles. Still, there's almost always an element of charm to be found in such comics — and this is no exception.

Written by DC workhorse Cary Bates, the story involves an alien who comes back in time from a future in which the superheroes have become legends. Pleased to find the heroes really did exist, he kidnaps Flash and attempts to extract his speed energy by force. Flash escapes and, during a mind-link, learns the alien has the best of intentions — he needs the power to save his world from an alien threat. So Flash takes him back in time a bit further to the day he got his powers so the chemical soup Barry Allen was doused with could be analyzed and duplicated on the alien. The alien gets the Flash’s powers and goes back to his time to fight the alien. Flash tags along to make sure everything goes OK, but the monster is too tough, forcing the alien Flash to sacrifice his life to stop it. In the process, he resparks interest in the ancient superheroes and Flash goes back to his own time.

Carmine Infantino does the pencils on this issue and give it that special flair only he can deliver. As a kid, I didn’t like Infantino’s art on the “Star Wars” series because it didn’t capture the likenesses of the actors very well. But I came around on that, thanks to Infantino’s graceful and unique artistic talents. A lot of Infantinoisms are on display in this issue, too, from the design of the alien space ship, to his inimitable faces peeking out from the hyper-sketchy speed lines, the soft features of the alien’s face, and of course the Infantino hands! There are some drawbacks too: The unfortunately phallic imagery of the cover (duck, Barry!); a story told almost completely in thought balloons and the occasionally excessive looseness of the art.

Then there’s the backup feature, an 8-page Dr. Fate story written by Martin Pasko and drawn by Keith Giffen and Larry Mahlstedt. This feels like the last of several parts, and I was pretty much lost as to what was going on. But Giffen showed his chops on the art, which was polished, compelling and fresh in the way that a lot of stuff from this era seemed at the time. I also love the use of color holds — line art printed using only the red, blue or yellow plate — to create a unique look that’s both archaic and still pretty cool even by today’s standards.

As always, there’s plenty of interesting ephemera in an old comic: The inside front cover ad for the first “Swamp Thing” movie; house ads for the debut of new series Saga of the Swamp Thing and Firestorm; and a letters page with a rare DC statement of ownership that puts The Flash’s 1981 average paid circulation at 92,151 copies — good enough for a top ten ranging in the direct market these days.

Finding a home in my brain for "The Spirit"

“The Spirit,” which adapts Will Eisner’s beloved strip and features the solo directorial debut of Frank Miller, is by pretty much any common standard a complete flop. After two weekends in release — one of them an extended holiday weekend — the film has grossed about $18 million domestic and $3 million international. The reviews have been savage.

But what’s been sinking in with me since I saw it sometime last week was how similar watching this movie is to reading a Frank Miller comic book. Yes, it’s jarring and over-the-top and falls short in telling a story the way moviegoers expect, but it’s also fascinating to watch Miller put his style up on the screen so completely untouched. Doing so also puts Miller’s flaws on display. The same was true in “Sin City,” where the telling of three stories in one film emphasized their similarities in a way reading the comics one at a time did not, though the overall result was a more conventional film.

But “The Spirit” fits right into Miller’s recent work. Since “The Dark Knight Strikes Again,” Miller’s work has polarized fans as he stripped away the elements that grounded his work in the real-world milieu most fans prefer in favor of an unapologetically primal pulp style. Miller has largely abandoned superheroes as a vehicle for expression, going for the gut reactions evoked by pure sex and violence. In some cases, such as All-Star Batman, this goes so far against the audience’s expectation for comics (and the movies based on them) to plumb the hero’s soul and to establish their actions as occurring in the real world. “The Spirit” is much the same — Miller’s happy to have his hero beat up bad guys and make femmes fatales swoon because that’s his job. The villains, similarly, have little to no motivation beyond their fueling their own basic urges for power, money and sex. (Though it is interesting that Miller used the same formula Marvel does for its movies by connecting the origins of the hero and the villain.) The result is a story that lacks the depth commonly expected of comic books and movies in favor of the gut-level reactions to Miller’s intentionally provocative depictions of sex and violence. Miller’s love of breaking taboos is, in its way, admirable, even as I sometimes wish he’d get past pushing those buttons for their own sake.


The visuals are the one part of the movie that even the reviewers will admit are impressive to look at. Some of the things that are the most jarring in a movie — such as the scene with the Octopus and Silken Floss wearing kimonos — would work just fine in a Miller comic book. The background that changes from glowing red to a rising sun image, and the cartoonish figure of Samuel L. Jackson chopping a henchman in half with his samurai sword are so Miller-esque you can imagine the panels and the layout of the page with ease.



The way Miller sticks to a comic-book style of storytelling — especially at the start of the film, with its dense first fight between villain and hero and minimal exposition — reminds me of the dense, quick-action start to many a comic book. While readers can follow a story at their own pace and re-read panels or pages as needed to catch up, film and its audiences are much less forgiving. Given the way Miller slaps the audience around in the opening 20 minutes or so, it’s no surprise that viewers and critics gave up on finding a way into this bizarre, hyper-kinetic world.


By now you’ve probably guessed that I’m working up to saying I admire the film in a strange way — and I do. This is a film that is so comic-booky through and through, that it’s a taste that’s as refined and difficult to acquire as the most continuity-intensive superhero comic book series. This is a film made from and for the purer fringes of the comic-book culture and esthetic — and it is about as far from the standards of mainstream moviemaking and its audiences as you’re likely to get. I do lament that Miller's vision of The Spirit completely overwhelmed the charm and wit of Will Eisner, but it's been obvious from the first that that would have to wait for another time.

So is the movie bad? From almost every conventional standpoint, the answer is yes. But the parts of my head that really enjoys the occasional Heavy Metal story because it has nudity and violence, or Howard Chaykin’s “Black Kiss,” or the extreme violence of Simon Bisley’s artwork, and secretly cheers even the most childish of Miller’s anti-censorship rants, finds a lot to like in “The Spirit” — and is glad it got made.

Three "Spirit" prizes come to visit ... [giveaway]

Just in time for Christmas and the release of the film, I have three copies of "The Spirit: The Movie Visual Companion," by Mark Cotta Vaz to give away, courtesy of the publisher, Titan Books, and the most excellent Tom Green. The book is definitely worth a look through for fans of Miller, Eisner and the movie — even if the movie itself turns out to not be to everyone's taste. But to get a shot at winning, you'll have to wade through me prattling on about some stuff and then answer a couple questions.

The film seems to be losing the battle of the critics so far, which is both unsurprising and still disappointing. I haven't seen it yet myself, so I'm hoping there's something about it — the tone, or simply embracing its own goofiness, if need be, that makes the experience fun.

I feel more invested in this movie than usual, as I've been writing about it for what seems like forever. I chatted up producer Michael Uslan at a party Oddlot Entertainment threw to announce the pic at Comic-Con in 2006, and managed to ask Miller about adapting Eisner's short stories into a feature film (he said he was working on it). I did a set visit in November 2007 for Newsarama that produced three stories on the film; I did a short interview with producer Deborah Del Prete last summer about shooting in Albuquerque for a Variety special on New Mexico; and, coming up shortly, a piece on the film's visual effects for Animation Magazine. Through that time, I've been impressed by the way the film is being made. The project was put together independently by Oddlot, who shopped it around, saying "this is what we're gonna do, take it or leave it" and got Lionsgate to bite. This was the first feature film to shoot at the booming Albuquerque Studios, a brand new state of the art facility. The set visit was in a lot of ways less impressive, given that all there was to see was a huge greenscreen-draped studio and a few bits of scenery. It was cool to see an old-fashioned delivery truck with the logo "Ditko's Deliveries" stenciled on the side, and to chat briefly with Gabriel Macht in costume. Unfortunately, none of the films' femmes fatale were on set that day.

Beyond that, I've met Miller a number of times. (Some day, I'll have to get my pal Jeff to talk here about the time he asked Miller to make corrections on a piece of original art he owned.) I was most pleased to meet him at a Dark Horse Comic-Con party in 2002, when I handed him a copy of the first Variety comics special I had edited and got a quick pic, taken by DH editor Diana Schutz with my camera. I later learned Miller always does the evil-eye thing in pictures. That night, he excused himself to go say hi to "a good friend," who turned out to be Will Eisner.

Eisner was one of the greats I never had a chance to really meet. My favorite Eisner story was in "Invisible People," the episode in which an obit run by mistake destroys a meek man's life while the newspaper editor refused to admit the mistake and eventually won an award for her error-free track record. I was asked to be a judge for the Eisner Awards in September 2004 (the same day I had gone to press event for the DVD release of the original Star Wars trilogy and got to meet Mark Hamill and irvin Kershner — it was a good day). I had been looking forward to the opportunity to meet Eisner and perhaps talk with him a bit more. But it was not to be, as will died at the New Year, several months even before the judging. I don't recall any of the judges discussing Eisner much in the room, but when the ceremony came around and Will wasn't there, it was definitely a very sad moment.

Eisner and Miller's relationship is also interesting, and I am quite looking forward to finding the time to reread "Eisner/Miller" after seeing the movie to see if the impression that these men were in tune with each other's sensibilities was real or just an impression made larger than it really was by the very nice idea that these two creators from different generations could have the kind of collegial relationship they seemed to enjoy.

So, on to the giveaway: The first three people to answer the following three questions correctly in the comments section of this post will win a copy of the book. Be sure to use an email address I can use to contact you with when you make your post. I have to limit the contest to domestic entries, i.e., I will not ship overseas. I will contact the winners via email to get shipping info, etc. Got it? Go:

1. What year were the Eisner Awards first given out?

2. Who conducted the interviews in the 2005 book "Eisner/Miller"? (Bonus points if you can tell me what worthy comics org he works for.)

3. Which of his famous characters did Miller freely admit to copying almost directly from Eisner's Sand Saref?

Good luck!

Early reviews blast 'Spirit'

The premiere for "The Spirit" was last night at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood and the early word is not good.

Justin Chang at Variety writes:

A slain cop is resurrected as a masked crime-fighter in "The Spirit," but Frank Miller's solo writing-directing debut plunges into a watery grave early on and spends roughly the next 100 minutes gasping for air. Pushing well past the point of self-parody, Miller has done Will Eisner's pioneering comicstrip no favors by drenching it in the same self-consciously neo-noir monochrome put to much more compelling use in "Sin City." Graphic-novel geeks will be enticed by the promise of sleek babes and equally eye-popping f/x, but general audiences will probably pass on this visually arresting but wholly disposable Miller-lite exercise.

Newsarama, which also covered the New York-based junket, is a little more polite about it:

If this film does well enough to rate a sequel, and with some more directorial seasoning under Miller’s belt, perhaps future installments could achieve the greatness this one just frustratingly teases. As it stands, “The Spirit” does a precarious balancing act juxtaposing great moments and terrible ones, leaving audiences likely be split over which makes the greater impression.

And Ain't It Cool News skewers the film as the worst since "Battlefield Earth." Ouch.

And now I’ve seen something that has taken the top prize from “Battlefield Earth.” I mean, I honestly thought that would never happen. And it’s not like there aren’t MANY shitty movies made every year, and it’s not like I don’t SEE many of those. In fact, friends of mine and I have recently started a “Bad Movie Night,” where we have an opening act, a main feature, and a dessert: all of incredibly bad film & TV (the last one we did featured a vampire theme, so we started with “Knight Beat” (only available on VHS, but highly recommended), we feasted on the horror that is “Lost Boys 2: The Tribe”, and then for dessert, watched the (very) little-seen, “Paul Lynde’s Halloween Special” (holy crap! Amazing!). They’re our very own “MST3K” nights.

I'll withhold judgment until I've seen the film, though given my general reaction to Frank Miller's writing the past decade I can't say my hopes for this film are high (despite the apparently excellent technical aspects of the film) were terribly high even before reading the reviews.

'O Logan, Where Art Thou?', a.k.a. another Fox-Marvel movie misses the point

A few days of thinking about the new trailer to "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" that officially hit the web Monday have me downgrading the clip from my first impressions. In case you missed it, here's the trailer:

X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE HD


There's a lot going on in this clip, but this appears to be a great example of how movies sometimes try really hard to be faithful to the comics and yet somehow still get it completely wrong. These clips show interesting bits and pieces of the character's comic book history, starting with "Origin" and progressing to the pivotal Silver Fox-Sabretooth story that first appeared about 20 years ago in Wolverine #10. So far, so good.

What's most problematic is the introduction of William Stryker and the implication that Logan turned to the Weapon X program intentionally to get back at Sabretooth. Stryker was made part of Logan's past in the franchise-best "X2," but this particular change is a major one for the character that significantly alters his entire motivation and points out just how much the character has changed (and not necessarily for the better) in his nearly 35-year history.

The first real definition of the character came at the hands of Chris Claremont, who wrote Logan almost esclusively from 1975 to the early 1990s, and evolved Logan from a wild man whose instinct for mayhem won out over brain power to the famed "failed samurai" of the Frank Miller-drawn 1982 miniseries. Much of the character's appeal to fans came from Claremont's resistance to nail down an origin or a past for Logan — in retrospect, a great idea for the way it teased fans used to having every aspect of a character's life and motivation fully laid out before them. Logan himself stated on many occasions that he cared not a whit for who was responsible for what happened to him or for digging up his lost memories. He lived in the present, and eventually a little bit for the future.

But Wolverine's popularity couldn't keep writers from trying to fill in Logan's past. Barry Windsor Smith's "Weapon X" was the first, but while it portrayed the event of how Logan got his claws it was wisely light on the details of who was responsible. What was definitely clear was that this was done to him against his will — and the trauma it caused largely responsible for his lack of control over himself and his lost memories. This still worked within the overall X-Men universe, as the forces that experimented on Logan against his will was another example of the mutant-human conflict.

So having Logan turn to Stryker and willingly undergo the Weapon X procedure and join Stryker's special team is a radical change. Instead of a wild loner, or victim of experimentation, Logan's now motivated by his desire for revenge on Sabretooth. This is a more conventional character, but that's not surprising given the direction the comics (and the movies) have been taking for years now. Fox could have made a much more distinctive movie if they'd gone the Japan route — but it appears that's the last thing the studio expects from its superhero franchises.

Looking at the rest of the trailer, the sheer number of mutants appearing in this film is impressive, though in danger of treading on the comics' unfortunate tendancy to connect everyone to everyone else at every opportunity by throwing in Emma Frost and what looks like a young Storm. (Young Scott Summers is apparently in the movie, too.) Gambit looks good, though I'm still not sold on Liev Shrieber as Sabretooth. And the final line Jackman delivers just lacks the kind of aggression you'd expect from the character.

In the meantime, we've got "The Spirit," which is increasingly looking like niche fare (I haven't seen it yet), and "Watchmen," which is becoming so big a movie that it likely will affect how Hollywood treats superhero movies for years to come — for good or ill.

Bits: Jackman hosts Oscars; Kahn and Eastwood; VFX contenders

Deadlines and holiday travel have limited posting this week, bur here's a few tidbits that I came across:

* I haven't seen if the trailer for "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" that's supposed to be running before "The Day the Earth Stood Still" has been made available online yet. But Hugh Jackman's all over the place, having been named the host for this year's Oscars telecast.

* Looking at the newspaper ads for Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino," I spotted a name in the credits familiar to comics readers of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s: Jenette Kahn. An exec producer on the film, Kahn was publisher and/or editor in chief of DC Comics for something like 25 years.

* No fewer than four comic book movies made the cut for the Oscar's visual effects semifinals: "The Dark Knight," "Hellboy II: The Golden Army," "Iron Man" and "The Incredible Hulk." That list of 15 contenders will be pared down to seven for the famous VFX bakeoff in January, with the top three from that event getting actual nominations.

* And Bettie Page, queen of 1950s pinup girls and inspiration for countless comic artists, has died at age 85.

'Punisher' flops hard but comic frenzy continues with 'Fables'

Wow. "Punisher: War Zone," which I thought was a good pic for its genre, grossed a pitiful $4 million at the weekend box office. According to Box Office Mojo, that's the worst opening ever for a Marvel pic and about a quarter of what the 2004 Thomas Jane version did its opening weekend.

Most reviews were dreadful, though I also think timing is an issue. It's December, and most moviegoers are looking for family fare, Oscar bait or highbrow blockbusters — and this is none of those. October would have been a better month — much as it would have worked so much better for the also-maligned "The X-Files: I Want to Believe" — but who knows? The audience for this kind of movie has been dwindling into nichedom for years and we're a long way from the 1980s heyday of Stallone, Schwarzenneger, Willis and Chuck Norris.

None of which means the film won't make money — its primary market was always international box office and DVD. It just has a bit farther to go to get into the black. Whether Marvel will try yet again — sure. It's just a matter of how long they want to wait and how they'll try to reinvent the franchise yet again. I'd bet we have to wait about five years.

On the pleasantly hopeful side of things is ABC picking up a pilot based on Bill Willingham's DC/Vertigo comic series "Fables." Stu Zicherman and Raven Metzner will run the show — they most recently were on "Six Degree" — and the series is being produced by (big surprise!) Warner Bros. TV. David Semel will direct the pilot.

I can't help but think the success of HBO's "True Blood" influenced the pickup, as I can easily see a similar approach working with the "Fables" concept — though without all the nudity, sex and violence.

Frantic Friday: ComiXology on iPhone, 'Dark Knight,' Eisner submissions open

A couple of small interesting things for a frantic Friday morning:

* I don't have an iPhone, but if I did, I'd definitely take the new ComiX0logy iPhone app for a whirl. The regular site has a very good new comics pull list system that I imagine would be extra helpful if I could pull it up on my phone when I'm at the comics shop because I always forget something. The app also gives you access to some digital comics and, if you buy it the first week, it's a dollar off.

* In "The Dark Knight" news, the Joker has taken over the mosts recent issue of Mad Magazine. Check out a preview here. Meanwhile, the film is due to be rereleased to theaters on Jan. 23, which give me another chance to check it out in IMAX. And the AP moved a story yesterday about how the film's Oscar chances have risen as the rollout of awards contenders nears its end.

* Speaking of awards, all you comics creators should be aware that submissions are now being taken for the Eisner Awards. Details here.

'Punisher: War Zone' review

"Punisher: War Zone" is far and away the best Punisher pic of the three that have been made to date. That was the least I expected from the pic. What's encouraging is it's also a decent action pic that adds enough flair and style to its violent proceedings to finally strike a tone that suits the character and the genre.

(If you're new to the Punisher, check out this photogallery I wrote on his history for Metromix. If you want to know more about the making of the film, I have a story on the filmmakers and one on the actors over at Newsarama.)

The first thing this movie does right is cast Ray Stevenson as Frank Castle. Not only does Stevenson look and sound the part, but in the action sequences he moves with the confidence, poise and apparent skill that an ex-Marine like Castle would have. And that makes a big difference, compared to the goofy and limited fights of the previous Punisher movies. He also has the right touch in the story scenes. Castle’s never been much of a talker, but Stevenson for the first time on screen really evokes the character’s smoldering rage and seeming genius for dealing out death.

So be warned: there’s a reason this movie is rated R. This movie starts out with Castle in full Punisher mode, massacring criminals with just the right mix of deadly seriousness and action-movie inventiveness. There’s plenty of head splitting, blood splattering, severed limbs and brutal, bone-crunching deaths.



All of this is executed with likeable style by director Lexi Alexander. The movie looks better than you think it will, with lighting that evokes the mix of bright and muted coloring of more recent Punisher comics. The action sequences are well-staged and, unusually in an age of hyper-quick editing, easy to follow. The film also cuts away from its most cartoony violence quickly, keeping the “did that just happen?” effect without staying on screen long enough to look fake.

The film also sticks closely to the Punisher milieu and resists diverging into action movie cliché. There’s not a single car chase. Nor is there a forced relationship between the Punisher and Julie Benz’s widow of an FBI agent.

Some found what little was done with the Punisher connecting with Benz’s daughter annoying, but given the circumstances that turned Castle into the Punisher, it makes sense. Also appearing are a few cop characters, played by Colin Salmon and Dash Mihok, who get a little personality despite their limited roles. And then there's Microchip, long an element of the comic book series, played by "Seinfeld" alumnus Wayne Knight. Knight plays Micro as a serious supporter of the Punisher's campaign, while bringing just enough comic relief to the movie.

It’s not all good, though.

The villain of the piece is Jigsaw — who first appeared as the Punisher's nemesis way back in Amazing Spider-Man #162. Played here by Dominic West, who appeared in "300" and starred in the excellent HBO series "The Wire," we see his character traumatized and transformed into Jigsaw in a scene that successfully makes your skin crawl. But West's portrayal of the character borrows a lot from Jack Nicholson's turn as the Joker — one scene in the film directly evokes that performance — and it so far has been a litmus test for the audience, with some loving it and others thinking it too over the top and cartoonish. I leaned toward the latter camp, but not so much that it took much away from the movie.



Helping Jigsaw out is Doug Hutchison as "Looney Bin" Jim, Jigsaw's insane brother. Hutchison is great at creepy and crazy — he played the liver-eating, stretching Tooms in a pair of the best episodes ever of "The X-Files" — and he in some strange way balances out Jigsaw despite being no less cartoonish and weird. So your mileage on LBJ, as he’s called, may vary.

Additionally, the plot has some major holes in it that, despite being glossed over fairly quickly, are enough to make your head hurt if you apply too much brain power to them. The most egregious for me being a plot point that involves Jigsaw seeking immunity for his crimes that, while set up early on in the script, just is too hard to swallow when it eventually pays off.

The result is a film that in some ways succeeds by exceeding the admittedly low expectations set by previous films and in other ways fails as a mainstream movie experience. But it’s important to remember that it’s not intended to be a mainstream movie experience. This is a niche picture, rated-R and intentionally limited by its concept to appeal to mostly young men who like to watch thugs and things blow up real good. Marvel seems to understand this completely, marketing this as the first Marvel Knights picture complete with its own version of the flipping pages logo at the start of the film. They also kept the budget at $35 million, an amount that seems to ensure they studio won’t lose much money even if it’s a massive flop — which it won’t be given its niche appeal.

Bottom line: If you love the Punisher of the MAX series of comics, or are a general fan of this sort of action movie, you’ll likely love this movie. If you’re a more general Punisher or Marvel fan, you probably won’t get as much out of it, and if you prefer the Punisher as a quasi-villain guest star in the all-ages Spider-Man tales of the 1970s, your money and time will be better spent elsewhere.

Miller back-and-forth unfortunate reminder that 'Justice League' pic is still stalled

The strange case of the "Justice League" movie gets even stranger.

Dark Horizons posted recently that director George Miller, of "Mad Max" and "Happy Feet" fame, had told a Sydney TV show that he was off the "Justice League" movie. But when I went looking for the original item on that site, nothing came up. Now, it's come out that some of Miller's reps have contacted Coming Soon.net and said Miller never appeared on the show and there's no truth to his being off the movie.

Even with Miller still on the project, things don't look good for this project with constant delays, and casting controversies galore making it less likely every day that it will see the light of day unless something big happens to push it forward.

And without some kind of progress or encouraging plans, it's only going to get worse. Now, not having read a script or having any idea how this movie is envisioned, it's impossible to say whether it's any good or not. It may be absolutely terrific. But the public perception remains that DC/WB don't know how to make a good superhero movie that isn't a Batman flick.

The same problem doesn't afflict Marvel Studios, where their string of successes (and even the less than successful pics they've made) and ability to turn characters like Blade and Iron Man into hits gives folks confidence that we'll see their schedule roll out on time with "Iron Man 2," "Thor" and "Captain America" all leading up to "Avengers" in 2011.

That's also a strategy that works for fans, because it's how the comics were done — with each character being established in his or her own title before the big team up. Right now, confidence is low that WB can make characters like Wonder Woman, Green Lantern or Flash work on the big screen, making fans even less likely to think a Justice League movie with all of them will do justice to the characters.

On the other hand, putting "Justice League" on hold may not be the best idea if WB can't find a way to get these characters to the screen any other way. If fans have to wait too much longer for more DC movies, there's always a danger that the interest in superhero movies could cool and they may never get their shot. And in that case, nobody wins.

'Wolverine' pic: Overstuffed or lean and mean?

New pics from "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" show up seemingly every week, presumably because a trailer is imminent with the release of Fox's "The Day the Earth Stood Still" on Dec. 12. The film, which isn't out until May 1, will be the first big test of how well Fox can handle the X-Men franchise in the wake of "X-Men: The Last Stand."

The first major concern is that this film is trying to bite off too much. The photos and cast list on IMDB indicate that we'll be seeing Logan fighting as far back as World War II, his relationship with Sabretooth (unhinted at in "X-Men"), a whole bunch of mutants making their first film appearances and possibly elements of the still-controversial "Origin" series from 2001. All of which just makes this thing look way too crowded, what with Deadpool, Beak, Silver Fox, William Stryker, Agent Zero, Gambit, The Blob, John Wraith and, apparently, Scott "Cyclops" Summers all set to show up. You have to wonder if there's room left in such a film for Wolverine, especially with Fox actively talking about a spinoff for Deadpool. Alternately, charges of not giving each character their due are sure to come up, as is a question of coherence and clarity for folks who don't know all these folks' backstories. That kind of storytelling is the sort of thing that could turn the general audiences away from superhero pics, much the way they frustrate the casual comics fan.

On the plus side, the pictures look interesting. Jackman's really bulked up his physique and looks as good as ever in the role. The much-leaked Comic-Con footage shows a lot of action, which could go a long way toward overcoming story weaknesses. And Fox and Jackman have a lot on the line with this, so you can be sure they will do everything they can to avoid disaster. I also like the idea of having an actor like Liev Shreiber play Sabretooth — he's the sort who can give it the kind of depth it needs. Not being too much of a Deadpool fan, I still think Ryan Reynolds is good at that sort of wise-cracking hero thing and another good choice. Gavin Hood remains an unknown quantity — "Tsotsi" was acclaimed, but rumors of troubles on the set last year and the dispatching of Richard Donner to smooth things out is less than encouraging.

Updated: Comic Foundry and Write Now! pull the plug

Tim Leong has made the sad announcement that he's pulling the plug on his magazine Comic Foundry because his burgeoning career at Complex Magazine just leaves insufficient time to continue to put it out. Which is a shame, because Comic Foundry was the best and most interesting mag about comics to come along in ages, crossing the seemingly vast divide between all-out geekdom and comics as pop culture. As much as I enjoy trolling the net for news, the nostalgia of the TwoMorrows mags and the in-depthness of the Comics Journal, I miss having something that fills the pop, "comics are cool" role that Wizard played once upon a time. Like spinner racks in the local candy store, the time has apparently passed for such magazines.

UPDATE: Write Now!, the mag about writing for comics, animation, TV, etc., also is ending its run. Edited by author and former Spider-Man editor Danny Fingeroth, the TwoMorrows mag was felled by low circulation and February's issue #20 will be the last.

Will 'War Zone' make Punisher a movie hit?

That's a good question I'll be better able to answer after seeing the film tonight.

The good news for "Punisher: War Zone" is that it won't be hard to improve on the two previous Punisher pics. I recently rewatched both films on DVD while preparing this piece on the character's history for Metromix. (If you like the Punisher piece, check out a similar one I did over the summer on the Joker.)

My fondest memory of the first "Punisher" movie was reading about the making of the movie in the pages of Marvel Age, way back around 1987. I don't think I saw the movie for another four or five years when I found a copy for rent at a video store in Flagstaff. The film was saddled with a very low budget, but if there's any Marvel character that would work for, it's the Punisher. But this budget was beyond low and the movie looks flat and lifeless. Dolph Lundgren with black dyed hair seemed like a great choice for the role at the time, but it pointed up one of the real problems in bringing this character to the screen. In the comics, most writers use first-person narration to get inside the Punisher's head and it works great — you get easy access to the character's thoughts and therefore a sense of what's going on in his head. That makes it easier to show how brilliantly demented the character is, but doesn't translate to screen at all. There was no way Lundgren could convey the character the same way with the few lines that making this film in a somewhat realistic fashion demands. It's also amazing to me that they dropped the huge skull logo on his chest. I understand it was considered too comic-booky at the time, but it's easy enough to just paint the logo on a T-shirt or the leather jacket Lundgren wore throughout the movie and retain the great effect it has. I also don't understand why other changes were made — making Castle a cop isn't the same as making him a soldier, and having him ride through the sewers on a motorcycle is in retrospect pretty silly.

Despite all that, I think the 2004 "Punisher" is even more disappointing. Again, the film was hampered by a minuscule budget, but the bigger problem was one of tone. This movie just didn't know what it wanted to be, and veering from the goofiness of the Punisher's pals Joan, Bumpo and Spacker Dave to the very violent deaths of the Castle family just confuses the audience. Maybe that's why the individual clips of this movie I saw at a con somewhere looked so much better than the final movie, which evoked plenty of laughter in the advance press screening I caught a week or so before it was released. And it's a shame, because Thomas Jane really looked the part and could, with a more consistent script, really knock it out of the ballpark. Same goes for the rest of the cast, which included John Travolta, Ben Foster and Rebecca Romijn. There was a good movie in there somewhere, it just never made it to the surface. (I don't know if it's true, but I recall someone telling me at the time this movie came out that Marvel and Lionsgate made back their money on this picture before it even opened due to strong foreign sales.)

Which brings us back to "Punisher: War Zone." This looks very stylish and again has actors and a director that could make a very good Punisher movie. But there also were rumors of trouble and this is, yet again, a film that looks like it was made on a tight budget. What I think the movie needs to succeed is a good story like the ones done for years now in Punisher comics. It shouldn't be that tough to take some of the better ones (the Steven Grant-Mike Zeck stuff would be ideal) and adapt it in a straighforward and serious manner. But nothing about making movies is easy, so here's hoping that "War Zone" is a good movie in its own right and not just in comparison to the previous two.

"Mutant Cinema" gets UK coverage

David Bentley, blogger for the Coventry Telegraph in the U.K., writes about my book, "Mutant Cinema: The X-Men Trilogy from Comics to Screen" — in particular some of the details about where "X-Men 3" might have gone had Bryan Singer not left the franchise to tackle "Superman Returns." Check out his award-winning blog for the parts he finds the most interesting ...

The version of the article that showed up in my feedreeder notes that Bentley apparently had some problems finding the book, so here's the most up to date info:

• The book is available right now through Amazon.com and BN.com.
• The publisher, Sequart, also has copies available.
• The book will be coming to comic shops in the spring. I believe the latest news was that the book will appear for ordering in the January edition of Previews and will come out along with a bunch of other X-themed merchandise tying in to the release of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine." Tell your local comic shop to watch for it and to order lots of copies.
  

And for those who don't know, the cover for the book is by Kevin Colden, who since drawing this has gone on to significant acclaim for his graphic novel "Fishtown."

I'll be writing more about the book as the PR effort for the Previews debut nears, so watch here for some excerpts and maybe even a few giveaways ...