Last Update: April 30, 2025
Sgt. Rock film not happening, again – Deadline Hollywood
The production was supposed to kick of in the UK this summer with Colin Farrell and Luca Guadagnino and produced under the part of cinematic DC that is run by James Gunn and Peter Safran.
Willy Wonked: 15 golden tickets hidden inside copies of the comic The Writer by Josh Gad and distributed to 10 comic book stores in North America – People Magazine
Comic artist Rob Stull has died – Bay State Banner
Stull had over 20 years in the animation and illustration business. He worked for all of the major publishers in the industry, including Marvel Entertainment Group, DC Comics and Warner Brothers. His work can be seen gracing the pages of superstar titles that include the projects Spider-Man Adventures, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Iron Man, X-Force, Wolverine, Nightwing, Batman and JLA. His talent encompassed a wide variety of jobs working as an illustrator, penciler and inker..."
New comic book of Sgt. William Carney, Civil War hero portrayed by Denzel Washington in the movie Glory – Task and Purpose
Carney was the first Black American soldier to receive the Medal of Honor. The award was related to his actions in the attack on the Confederate Fort Wagner in South Carolina in 1863.The American Civil War was fought from 1861 to 1865.
Not exactly a new acting method: "Superman Star Reveals Surprising Lack of Comic Book Research" – Comicbook – Nope, they're not talking about the actor playing Supes/Clark Kent, but Jimmy Olson payed by Skyler Gisondo.
"Caption - the Uk's weirdest comic-con" – Bleedingcool
Indy comics pioneer Jack Katz has died – The Comics Journal
Artist/writer Jack Katz, whose ambitious indy epic, The First Kingdom, laid the groundwork in the 1970s for long-form graphic narratives like Cerebus, died April 24 at the age of 97. If he had not published that science-fantasy saga, it’s likely that Katz would have been regarded as just a journeyman artist, who tried — with little success — to make a living in comics. As it is, he will be remembered for his attempt, during the waning days of underground comics, to put out one of the first self-published graphic novels..."
In the 1970s and into the 1980s, The First Kingdom was a strange anomoly (like Mike Friedrich's Star-Reach), which became less strange as other indy projects appeared like ElfQuest and Cerebus.
Back in the old days "Avengers Kang Dynasty" was meant to be released this week – Comicbookmovie
Disney plans things and then life happens: Avengers Kang Dynasty was supposed to follow on the heals of a successful Ant-Man Quantumania movie and ensuing plot detritus spread out over other (cancelled) film projects. Instead, Quantumania did middling business (against a large production budget) and then the Kang star Jonathan Majors got into a public tabloid-level legal problem with a domestic abuse accusation, resulting with all the cinematic plans built around his super-villain getting canned. A real question, not addressed in the article, is whether (or, really, why) Disney has yet to recover from getting shellacked from so many different directions at once with that 2023 disaster..
The article goes over what was intended for the deleted movie title, such as an evil Iron Man (with Robert Downey, Jr) and a major emphasis on Spider-Man.
"Overkill" – horror films are making money so now there's going to be an onslaught of horror movies – Variety
IDW and Webtoon team up is launched – Comicsbeat
Sinners movie retains astounding audience share into second weekend of release – The Numbers
It’s already a virtual certainty for the top-grossing film of the year not based on previous IP, and will clearly have a long and very healthy run in theaters (if Warner Bros. lets it—and they’d be fools not to)..."
Meanwhile, a re-release of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith is making serious money.
Completely unofficial re-release poster art by KUDZUPOSTER
Suddenly movie theaters are making money again:
Disney’s 20th anniversary release of Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith and Amazon MGM Studios’ new Ben Affleck action-thriller The Accountant 2 are also fueling the boom (and don’t forget about Warners’ A Minecraft Movie, which remains high up on the chart in its fourth weekend as it races past the $800 million mark globally).
– Hollywood Reporter
Voting while superhero
Which way does a superhero vote? – Phys.org
Participants thought Spiderman, Cinderella, Yoda, Aladdin, Brienne of Tarth, Gandalf and Captain America shared their political views. They dismissed Kylo Ren, Ursula the sea witch, Cersei Lannister and Thanos as siding with their political opposition...."
The people participating in the survey also demonstrated a phenomenon of "false memory," in which, when presented with information about a politician whose partisan identity was not revealed, they "remembered" the politician as belonging to their own party if the politician was described as performing acts of charity, and as belonging to the opposition party if the politician was accused of corruption.
These results are striking. Even when there is nothing to be remembered and participants could say that partisanship wasn't part of the story, voters read what they wanted between the lines based on their own tribal political identities...."
Canadian comic book writer-artist Jim Zubtalks about Avengers and AI – The Week
He says AI has nothing new to offer.
The controversy around the female Silver Surfer for the upcoming Marvel release in July and "canon" arguments – Boundingintocomics
...not only is the ‘Twin Herald’ from another universe, but also that the totality of her time in the role amounts to seven panels (and a feature appearance on an Alex Ross cover) across two issues of a relatively obscure 1997 miniseries, three of which consist of her and Norrin appearing as bystanders to larger events, and eventually ends with her death at the hand of a Celestial..."
Diamond Distributors back in action – Bleedingcool
Diamond got permission (the legal kind) to reject the bid from Alliance Entertainment and to instead go with purchaser Universal Distribution/Ad Populum. Alliance offered more money but Universal apparently offered something (or would not do something) to Diamond that Diamond preferred.
"Fletcher Hanks’ cult hero Stardust returns" – Comicsbeat
It doesn't look like a homage to Fletcher Hanks' work (at all) but a brutal and mocking parody.
Now, Stardust makes a long-awaited comeback in Family Fun Comics#18 from James and John Coats in an all-new story that is both a radically modern (and violent!) take on the character and an homage to the weirdness of the Golden Age originals...."
Ryan Reynolds "joining the Avengers or X-Men would be 'the end' of the character" – Gamesradar
In the cinema world it appears Ryan Reynolds owns the character more than Disney/Marvel/21st Century Fox.
Interview with Kent Worcester about his new book on The Punisher – The Comics Journal
I would have liked for the interview to include a discussion of Punisher in relation to the Charles Bronson's Death Wish movie (July 24, 1974) and the 1972 novel Death Wish by Brian Garfield that the film was based upon, which would have helped more broadly set the pop culture landscape just as The Punisher was first appearing in The Amazing Spider-Man #129, February 1974.
The Amazon attack on Independent Book Store event – Daily Cartoonist
Buying graphic novels online but not at Amazon – Comicsbeat
Their most recent shady tactic is having a book sale that starts on the 23rd and runs through the 28th. Independent Bookstore Day is on the 26th. This is no coincidence being that this is the second year that Amazon has had a book sale a week before Independent Bookstore Day. So let’s stick it ‘em and get books at one of these places instead..."
Man running competing business (Netflix) says that other business with market share (movies theaters) is an outdated concept and the audience for that outdated concept ought to hurry over to his modern, smaller-screened service and sign up – Boundingintocomics
1989 Batmobile replica goes to auction. Comes with flamethrower. – Cover News India MSN
Coming Supergirl movie has title change – Superherohype
"Florence Pugh Is ‘Superb' in ‘Some of Marvel's Darkest Material to Date'"
Thunderbolts praise at MSN Variety
2025 Caption Small Press Comic Festival – Downthetubes
This year’s Caption is taking an educational direction by giving attendees opportunities to speak directly to established creators for guidance and advice on their own projects. They are looking to highlight the way established creators can help up and coming creators, whether in a practical way like storytelling or printing, to more promotional activities with marketing, exhibiting at conventions, and dealing with social media..."
Thunderbolted!
Reviews for Marvel's Thunderbolts* are starting to appear now that the premiere has happened in London ahead of the coming release date of May 2. There's not much real info yet so going to mention how this "roll out" seems like, so far, other Disney roll outs.
First reactions are positive – Comicbookmovie
So far: the praise at various websites is of the untrustable variety that first surrounds Disney production releases. What I mean is that across news media there is pre-canned reviews all using the same keyword, for example when The Marvels appeared:
"A cosmic triumph" – MSN Deadline
"An effervescent cosmic adventure" – MSN Cinema Blend
"Story problems weigh down an effervescent kitty-filled romp" – Yahoo Consequence Net
So far with this new release, the nice talk about Thunderbolts is repetitiously stating that it is a film that goes into "unfamiliar Marvel territory" and mines "authenticity" which might be the keyword being exploited here, as "authenticity" is showing up everywhere these days for all sorts of things as a marker of something that seems like, but not necessarily is, quality. In effect, it is a marketing word.
But that doesn't really tell us much about the film itself. The real test for this new Marvel film is coming up shortly when general reviews for the film happen instead of the selected critical voices for the Thunderbolts premiere. After Disney's recent batch of bombs at theaters its going to be a tough environment for a superhero movie, but some are saying this is Marvel's "Suicide Squad" which by that I guess they mean the money-making David Ayers film of 2016 (release the original Ayers cut!) and not the reboot from James Gunn in 2021 that bombed.
Avengers Doomsday cast will "wear comic book accurate costumes" for the film – Comicbookmovie
Is Batman II basically cancelled? – Netflix Junkie
For awhile it has looked like that Robert Pattinson is going to be the George Lazenby of the Batworld, and Matt Reeves 2022 Batman is destined to be On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969). Besides the relunctance of Pattinson going back into the gym and into the tights, there's all the rumours about Matt Reeves has issues which are determinantal to doing another Bat-production. But, being as these rumours (or "news items") are found upon the internet, that instantly makes them suspicious if not likely to be outright wrong.
Rob Liefeld: Marvel executives must be fired! – Comicbookmovie
Megaton Man: Multimensions, a 214-page treasury-sized anthology of sixty contributors, gets its Kickstarter campaign suspended because one of the creators lives in Iran
Story at Bleedingcool
Steve Bissette stated, "Spread the word: Kickstarter has refused longtime amigo Don Simpson's publishing project (and a momentous one it is, too) because one of the project contributors lives in a country now BANNED even mention of. Even on appeal (such as those are even permitted), Kickstarter refused the project because of a word—the name of a country—nothing else. I kid you not. This is insane...."
Hey, put TV shows into movie theaters – MSN Gamerant
New Thunderbolts* trailer
Henry Cavill doing a Highlander reboot at Amazon – Newsweek and shock devastates celebritytown as Cavill grows his hair out and somehow this is big news
Five-issue "Godzilla destroys the Marvel Universe" series this summer – Cosmicbook
Nigerian cartoonist Obe Ess has died – Dailycartoonist
Grant Morrison back on Batman, again, after ten years – Gamesradar
About the Diamond Comics Distributors Bankruptcy Deal – The Comics Journal
Back-scene scrambling hasn't made this a simple sell-off, though it looks like, after some legal wrangling, Alliance Entertainment is going to be the winner in purchasing Diamond.
Comics are a $5 product, yet somehow PRH and Lunar are making money distributing them, so perhaps Ogilvie will find a way as well..."
Bruce Ogilvie joined Alliance Entertainment as CEO in 2001.
The July DC Books (list with covers) – Bleedingcool
Todd McFarlane says a good Batman would be Spock, that is, Zachary Quinto – Boundingintocomics
Anthony Mackie talks about what's ahead with Avengers Doomsday – Comic Basics
Marvel comics bringing back "swimsuit special" after decades – Gamesradar
Press release from Marvel about it – Marvel
Marvel presents new promo poster of Fantastic Four for the coming film – Marvel
Interview with Dan Nadel who wrote "Crumb: A Cartoonist's Life" – The Comics Journal
Batman going AI? – Bleedingcool
The New Zealand AI and metaverse company Futureverse has today announced it has acquired Candy Digital, an NFT digital collectibles platform, that includes licenses to Major League Baseball, Netflix, and DC Comics...."
Federal judge makes decision and now Diamond Comic Distributors has an official buyer – Baltimore Banner
Mikey Madison offered Star Wars film but says "no" – Superherohype
Mark Waid, Joshua Williamson , and Dan Slott on handling Superman right now: don't screw up – Polygon
Superman is a character that, over the decades of knowing comic book aficionados, I have yet to meet a collector who places this original "superhero" as their number one favorite. Like me, there's plenty who find the character important and certainly collectible as an investment, but as a favorite character the way some fans prefer Batman, Spider-Man, etc? Nope. But, they must be out there, right? If so, DC Comics is trying hard to please them as we start gliding toward the July Superman movie release when James Gunn has the tricky business of saving the DC-side of the cinematic superhero business.
Williamson — one of the architects of DC’s All In initiative, encompassing new creative teams, new directions for books, and the highly successful Absolute Universe — is first out of the gate with a new story arc that starts in the double-length Superman #25, drawn by Dan Mora and hitting shelves on April 23. And he said that Superman remains at the heart of DC Comics’ biggest plans for 2025 and beyond..."
My experience with Superman comics was there was an appeal to the character's books only if the stories inside were interesting or not. It was one of the titles I could obtain pretty easily through trading, and on pretty good terms (Batman was much harder, so was Spider-Man. Much less so were Archies and various kid comics like Little Lulu and Hot Stuff, etc.). If a Superman issue had a good story, that made the character better (to me) and the issue better, too, so that in the many short boxes stacked on my shelves, there's a several dozen Superman comics (mostly from the bronze era) that I wouldn't part with except under duress (also they're not in great shape, either, so there's hardly much pressure).
On the other hand, when I saw an excellent condition issue of Superman #233 (the famous chain-busting Neal Adams cover) for a good price, it was a worthy investment that generated some enthusiasm out of me for this forlorn character that scores better with "normies" than within the hobby itself.
"Almost unheard of" latest comic books fresh from the printer picked up in person by Rob Liefeld flying from California to Arizona – Hollywood Reporter MSN
This is kind of an odd little story since comic book artists picking up their self-published comics from the printer is only as rare as self-published comic books (which is hardly rare at all, just ask me), but the story ties it all in to the anniversary of Youngblood.
A few weeks ago, Rob Liefeld flew to Arizona to see his latest comic fresh off the printers. Holding the books in his hands, he admired the artistry, from the quality of the paper to the feel of the spine. A few hours later, he boarded a return flight to California, carrying with him 80 comics across five different editions of Youngblood, the title that launched Image Comics in 1992.It's almost unheard of for a creator to hand-select every detail about a book, much less transport the copies themselves. But Liefeld wanted to try something new for the 33rd anniversary of Youngblood..."
Comic book prequel for Rebel Moon movie coming – Variety
Captain America: Brave New World writing team member Rob Edwards reflects on how the film has fared – Boundingintocomics
Movies take time to make," he detailed. "During the production of this movie there was quarantine. I started my work in 2020 and that was during quarantine. We came out of that for a stretch and then there was the strike, and then the strike on top of the strike. Those lasted longer than people remember. It was almost a year. And then there was production. And no matter what movie you’re making, you’re always going to reshoot stuff, so there’s a natural progression of filmmaking and its easy to misinterpret that."
Captain America Brave New World at $413,930,016 worldwide – The Numbers
Is Hollywood on the way to becoming "Detroit"? – Hollywood Reporter
The specter of Los Angeles becoming another Detroit, a city built on a specific industry that became a shell of its former self when that business moved out, loomed over a compelling film and TV industry town hall that tackled not only the calamitous drop in production in Hollywood and California, but also the fight to get the state to increase its entertainment production tax incentive."
This recent article researched how the cost of Cap4 is much larger than the superhero "super-production" of Batman 1989. Part of the point was how that production for 1989 was considered an unusually large amount of money spent at the time, but Cap4, which accounting for inflation and other factors is substantially higher in cost (by a third) over Batman, and yet Cap4 is right in line with what superhero films like it are costing in the 21st century. What has changed to explain this extraordinary increase of cost far exceeding inflation?
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