The Bum’s Rush #68

WARNING! None of the news or rumors you see here in The Bum’s Rush should be considered FACT until it actually happens. It might never happen. How do you know I’m not just making all this crap up? I could, you know. You’ve been warned!

This week we’ll be covering some of the stories coming out of the last weekend’s Wizard World Chicago convention. Marvel Comics dominated the show with a ton of announcements, but there were a few interesting stories from DC and some smaller companies.

But first…

My Bad… No, Wait… Blame The Martians!

In last week’s column I talked about the lawsuit filed by Pendragon Pictures against Dark Horse Comics. Pendragon claims that Dark Horse’s hardcover adaptation of H.G. Well’s War Of The Worlds, by Ian Edginton and D’Israeli replicates scenes and images from their own movie version, also entitled H.G. Well’s War Of The Worlds. In my report on the lawsuit I mentioned that Edginton and D’Israeli followed up their War Of The Worlds adaptation with the sequels Scarlet Traces and Scarlet Traces: The Great Game. Upon reading more about those series however I realized I made a bit of a mistake regarding the publishing timeline of the three books.

After doing a bit of research online and reading D’Israeli’s own blog I discovered that Scarlet Traces was originally published in the British publication, Judge Dredd Megazine in 2002 and then collected by Dark Horse in 2003. That book’s sequel, Scarlet Traces: The Great Game got the greenlight in 2004 but according to D’Israeli himself “various production hold-ups meant I didn't start drawing the first episode… until March 2005.”

In the meantime Dark Horse struck a deal with Jeff Wayne, best known for creating the musical version of The War Of The Worlds, who was interested in putting out a graphic novel version of the story to capitalize on the interest created by Steven Spielberg’s War Of The Worlds. Following the talks between Wayne and Dark Horse, Edginton and D’Israeli were allowed to do their own adaptation of the original book. Using the designs D’Israeli created for Scarlet Traces the duo was able to visually tie the adaptation into their own sequels and create a trilogy consisting of the adaptation, Scarlet Traces ) and Scarlet Traces: The Great Game.

In order to coincide with the release of the Spielberg version the adaptation was first published online (and can still be read here before finally being collected as a hardcover in April of this year. Scarlet Traces: The Great Game, the last part of the “trilogy”, hit shelves last month.

Phew… how’s that for a history lesson? Never let it be said that I can’t admit when I’m wrong. Except this time… no, this time it was all Dana’s fault.


Second Chance At A First Impression

Todd Dezago and Craig Rousseau’s Perhapanauts return in October with a brand new mini-series, Second Chances. The second mini will pick up right after the conclusion of the first four-issue series, which ended bizarrely with a nail-biting cliffhanger! Although it wasn’t quite what I expecting, the first Perhapanauts was a fun book filled with some rather interesting new characters and a lot of unexpected twists that, along with Craig Rousseau’s art, kept me coming back issue after issue. And with the way the first series ended there’s no way I won’t be picking up this second series.

A collection of the first series, The Perhapanauts: First Blood, is set for release in September.


Love For The Iron Fist… Wait… That Doesn’t Sound Good

Following his recent burst of exposure in books like Civil War, Daredevil and Daughters of the Dragon, Iron Fist will be getting his own ongoing series starting in November. The Immortal Iron Fist will be co-written by Ed Brubaker & Matt Fraction with art by David Aja.

Since Brubaker is writing some of the best stuff of his career at Marvel and Fraction continues to impress me with every comic he puts out, what could have been a book I would more than likely have skipped has become something I absolutely cannot wait to read. The enthusiasm with which both creators describe the book fills me with confidence as to the quality of the series. And heck, some of Marvel’s best comics in the last few years have been ones that feature second-string characters. I never thought I’d say it, but I can’t wait to read the new Iron Fist comic!


What If They Just Stopped Publishing This Crap?

Marvel announced a brand-new set of What If? one-shots, this time focusing on some of the most recent storylines from the Marvel Universe. The books, shipping at the end of the year, are:

What If? Avengers Disassembled by Jeff Parker and Aaron Lopresti

What If? Spider-Man: The Other by Peter David and Koi Pham

What If? Wolverine: Enemy of the State by Jimmie Robinson and Carmine Di Giandomenico

What If? Age of Apocalypse by Rick Remender and an artist to be announced

What If? X-Men: Deadly Genesis by David Hine and David Yardin

Man, it’s announcements like these that make me ask the question, “What if I stopped reading comics and got a life?”


Second Chance At A… Crap, I Already Used That One

Since Ryan Sook left the series after just 4 issues, Peter David’s excellent X-Factor series has had a number of guest artists ranging from good to… not so good. While the series has been one of the best written X-books to come out of Marvel in a long time it still suffered from a lack of a cohesive visual style. Thankfully that’s all about to change as Marvel announced over the weekend that, starting with issue #13, Pablo Raimondi will come aboard as the new regular artist.

Some folks may remember Raimondi as the artist on the outstanding Madrox mini-series which set-up and led into the current X-Factor ongoing. I’m pretty excited about this news, as I’ve been a fan of Raimondi for some time. I’ve followed his work on Excalibur: Sword of Power to Madrox to his latest comic, The Books of Doom, with Ed Brubaker and I keep hoping that his next assignment will be the one that turns him into a star. Perhaps X-Factor will be that book, perhaps not. All I do know is that I’m going to enjoy this book even more that I already do.


What, No Bon Jovi Theme Song?

In 2004, Marvel picked six artists that they felt were the next artistic superstars of the comic industry. These six Young Guns were Steve McNiven, Adi Granov, David Finch, Trevor Hairsine, Jim Cheung and Olivier Coipel. Despite a few of them already being somewhat established artists in the industry this marketing push from Marvel did indeed send all six creators into a new level of fame and accomplishment.

Now Marvel has announced a Young Guns: Reloaded line-up, hoping to catapult six more rising stars to new levels of popularity and ability. The new artists are:

Simone Bianchi started out at DC Comics working on Seven Soldiers and Green Lantern before signing an exclusive contract with Marvel earlier this year. He has done numerous covers for the company and is set to do a five-issue arc on Wolverine with writer Jeph Loeb early next year.

Clayton Crain recently worked on the Ghost Rider: Road To Damnation mini-series with Garth Ennis as well as some fill-in issues of Sensational Spider-Man. His next book will be a Ghost Rider follow-up, again with Garth Ennis, called Ghost Rider: Spirits of Vengeance.

Pascual Ferry gained prominence working on last year’s Adam Strange mini-series for DC Comics before joining the Marvel ranks. Currently he’s joining writer Mike Carey as the two begin their stint as the new creative team on Ultimate Fantastic Four and he’s set to do art for the Ultimate Iron Man sequel with writer Orson Scott Card.

Ariel Olivetti has bounced back and forth between Marvel and DC for years, working on such titles as Daredevil, JLA, Space Ghost and X-Man. Now he’s the artist for Matt Fraction’s new series, Punisher: War Journal.

Billy Tan started out at Top Cow Productions working on numerous titles before coming over to Marvel to work on Sensational Spider-Man and X-23. He got a big push recently when he was promoted to the illustrious gig of regular penciller on Uncanny X-Men, working with Ed Brubaker.

Like Olivetti, Leinil Yu has been doing comics for both Marvel and DC for years, working on X-Men, Wolverine, Superman and most recently, Ultimate Hulk/Wolverine with Lost co-creator, Damon Lindelof. Yu’s next project is the coveted position as regular artist on New Avengers, starting with issue #27.


Yes! That’s Exactly What We Need, Another Wolverine Series!

Jeph Loeb and Michael Turner are working on an Ultimate Wolverine mini-series to be released in 2007. Bleh.


No Brokeback Jokes, I Swear

I realize its not really breaking news anymore but Heath Ledger has been officially announced as The Joker in the upcoming sequel to Batman Begins. I can’t exactly picture Ledger as a good fit for the role but I never really thought that Michael Keaton would make a good Batman either and I was wrong about that. In my opinion Ledger’s a good actor and I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt rather than immediately dismissing him as the wrong choice. Most of the cast from the first film are expected to return for the sequel, entitled The Dark Knight, as well as director Christopher Nolan. The film is scheduled for release in the summer of 2008.
 

Wicked Byrne

Apparently DC Comics is none to happy with John Byrne, especially after he withdrew from art chores on one of the Superman Returns tie-in comics after the book had already been solicited. Byrne was supposed to draw at least six issues of the All-New Atom series but his run has been cut back to only three issues. It’s also rumored that numerous other Byrne projects have been cancelled or pushed back indefinitely.

It’s not yet clear whether Byrne’s workload at DC will merely lessen or if his tenure with the company has come to an end. If the latter is the case where will Byrne go from here? He already had a rather public falling out with Marvel 2001 and has since made it clear that he will not work for the company again while Joey Q is in charge. Perhaps he’ll return to Dark Horse where he enjoyed success with several creator-owned works in the late 90’s. Maybe he’ll just fade away after a time, like the memory of a great relationship that turned sour. One can only hope.


That’s It?

No! More Chicago News Next Week!


The Only Comics That Matter

Last Week –
Agents of Atlas #1 by Jeff Parker and Leonard Kirk

Battler Britton #2 by Garth Ennis and Colin Wilson

Y: The Last Man #48 by Brian K. Vaughn and Goran Sudzuka

This Week –
Beyond #2 by Dwayne McDuffie and Scott Kolins

Next Week –
The Boys #1 by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson

Casanova #2 by Matt Fraction and Gabriel Ba

Fell #6 by Warren Ellis and Ben Templesmith

Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. #7 by Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen




If you know of any interesting news, rumors, lies, etc. about comics and think I should know about it too just email me at thesuperleezard@yahoo.com.

Read more dumb crap written by me at www.livejournal.com/users/superleezard.

My semi-daily webcomic, Der Wundervolle Bean, will be coming to an end soon. But you can still check it out here www.livejournal.com/users/der_magic_bean.



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