Archive Page 2197

February 2024

Ramona Fradon has died

"Ramona Fradon, DC Comics Metamorpho Co-creator and ‘Aquaman’ Artist, Dies at 97" – Yahoo News

"Metamorpho's co-creator who drew Aquaman for a decade, has passed away at age 97" – Comic Book Resources

More Ramona Fradon

"X-Men '97 and the smell of newsstand comics in the morning" – IGN News

Box Office

Madame Web at $61,067,275 worldwide, week 2.

Bob Marley: One Love - $110,889,000 week 2.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - $20,358,326 week 1.

Director Daniel Destin Cretton (he directed Shang-Chi) is going to do the Naruto film – Bounding into Comics

Neil Gaiman auctioning off collectibles – NY Times - "Art by Moebius, a Christmas card by Gaiman and a Swamp Thing cover are among the items."

Batman Beyond: The Animated Series Classics Compendium - 25th Anniversary – Pre-Order – Amazon

James Gunn casting Superman Legacy, Creature Commandos, Jurassic League, etc – video report and article at Comicbook

Blank Comic Book page Templates - Amazon - "Blank Comic Book For Kids: Over 100 pages with a variety of fun & creative templates for boys, girls and teens – Paperback"

Toxic Avenger coming back in a comic book reboot in October – MSN Total Film

The Superman:Legacy casting call – The Wrap

Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse wins VES Award – Deadline MSN

The Visual Effects Society organized in 1997 to promote and represent the visual effects practitioners of the entertainment industry. Members include artists, animators, technologists, model makers, educators, studio leaders, supervisors, PR/marketing specialists and producers in film, television, commercials, music videos, and video games.

The controversy around the non-made Batman Beyond movie – Gizmodo

Daredevil wearing a new white costume – Comicbook

First question that comes to mind is, does he know its white?

Batman Beyond with "Spider-verse vibe" – Cinemablend MSN

Disney shifting its physical media production over to Sony – Comicsbeat

The physical media world continues to shrink.

To add more to this complexity and why it’s relevant to comics, is that as it stands, the comic book shops and retail book stores may be one of the last vestiges of media not constrained to a corporatized service. With physical books and comics, users actually get to own their product. Which is becoming oddly more important in a world where every large business is seeking to hook users onto a platform."

EC Comics coming back from the grave with new stories? – MSN Hollywood Reporter

Dakota Johnson won't watch Madame Web either – MSN CNN News

More Madame Web, 2024

Blade release date getting moved again to protect Fantastic Four from coinciding with release of Superman: Legacy? – Bounding into Comics

Folio Society releasing Batman volume – Folio Society Website

"Selected and introduced by Jenette Kahn" – Kahn was the head honcho (President and Publisher) at DC for 26 years, from 1976 to 2002.

Article about the book at Superhero Hype

The only quibble: no Jim Aparo or Dick Sprang work is in the book.

The League of Regrettable Comic Book Heroes - 256 Pages - Amazon

"The Madame Web collapse" – MSN Hollywood Reporter

Judging by the volume of stories online following the terrible reception that Madame Web has received, there's been an interesting corollary created: the film is becoming famous for being both awful and a failure, something a simply mediocre film doesn't obtain. Madame Web could become a long-lasting Hollywood legend.

"On Wednesday night, you could actually watch advance purchase sales declining in real time as buyers were refunding their tickets," marvels a major theatrical chain insider. "It really says something when you'd rather have Shazam! 2 numbers." It marked one of the lowest starts in Hollywood history for a film based on a Marvel character."

Madame Web "unravels" while Bob Marley film tops box office – NY Times

One Love landed in what has become a box office sweet spot — stories that feel both nostalgic and new — while the Spider-Man spinoff is another sign that the comics-character boom is over..."

More Madame Web

Publishing company Abrams setting up graphic novel imprint – Comicsbeat

Silk Spider Society show being retooled – Boundingintocomics

Amazon’s upcoming Silk: Spider Society has cleaned out its writers room in service of a massive, from-the-ground-up retooling of the series’ entire creative direction."

Madame Web cannot catch a break

"Madame Web Is a Low Point for Superhero Movies" – Yahoo - Reason

"Dakota Johnson's new 'Madame Web' movie is awful, but her Gucci premiere dress is perfection" – MSN USA Today

A lot of umbrage going around superhero movie world

Fantastic Four cast announcement: "the downgrade is massive' "– Fantastic Four fans "are taking umbrage with Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards" – cinemablend

Batgirl has a new costume – MSN Screenrant

Doesn't really look like a Batgirl suit

Famed inker, writer, comic book editor Paul Neary has passed away at the age of 74 – Comicbook

Neary was one of the rare talents who could write, ink, color, letter, and edit, and throughout his career, he would help create all-time runs on books like Excalibur, Batman and The Outsiders, The Authority, Ultimates, and JLA, in addition to serving as Marvel UK Editor-in-Chief at two different times."

Mano-a-mano, Bob Marley beats Madame Web – MSN Hollywood Reporter

The Bob Marley singing biopic One Love has done twice (or more) the box office of Madame Web, with Marley at $19,409,622 worldwide, and Sony's Spider-Man derived superhero film at $6,051,012, domestic only reported.

The Madame Web reviews are coming in

"Madame Web is a love letter to the golden age of bad comic book movies" – The Verge

"Sony's Latest Live-Action Spider-Verse Experiment Doesn’t Know Why It Exists Either" – Cinema Blend

‘"Madame Web' Critic Reviews Are Brutal: "Hilariously Bad, Embarrassing Mess"" – Hollywood Reporter

"‘Madame Web’ Isn’t As Bad As You’ve Heard. It’s So Much Worse" – Rolling Stones

Omnibus Set Collecting "greatest" Marvel/DC Crossovers – Remind Magazine

Graphic novel publishing partnership between Disney and Mad Cave – Forbes

Seven titles are announced:

1. The New Adventures Of Encanto Vol. 1
2. Frozen – Olaf's Comics Collection
3. Disney Fairies 4 in 1 collection
4. 101 Dalmatians Early Readers
5. Disney’s Encanto & Turning Red Free Comic Book Day Special
6. The New Adventures Of Turning Red
7. Phineas & Ferb

Six Million Dollar Man remake? – The Wrap

The Six Million Dollar Man TV show and comic book (and the toys and other peripheral items it spun off) was a huge hit in the 1970s.

With sequels and remakes dominating a crashing industry of entertainment, the question it creates is obvious: do younger people "smell" the nostalgia on old properties being revived and automatically react with "well, that's not for me, I wasn't around in 1975." Does nostalgic reinterpretations get your feet in the door with one audience while alienating another?

Sequel to Chickenhare and the Hamster of Darkness CGI animation movie based on the Dark Horse comics has positive chances in international market– Story at MSN Variety

Hollywood winter box office is bleakly non-performing – Story at Hollywood Reporter

They're worried the superhero movie collapse at theaters is going to continue:

February is also looking rough. Last year, there was a steady stream of new releases, including Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, the octogenarian comedy 80 for Brady, Knock at the Cabin and instant cult classic Cocaine Bear. In terms of studio fare, February 2024’s lineup is largely anchored by Valentine’s Day and Presidents Day weekend. That’s when the Kingsley Ben-Adir starrer One Love: Bob Marley goes up against Sony’s superhero pic Madame Web, starring Dakota Johnson and Sydney Sweeney. Tracking shows both films opening in the $25 million to $33 million range, which would be a sobering sum for a superhero film. (Some think One Love could even beat Madame Web, which would contribute to these upside-down times.)

Are the walls closing in on the concept of personal lifetime streaming digital libraries?

Story at Giant Freakin Robot

Funimation, a streaming service specializing in anime, recently announced that digital libraries held by subscribers on its platform would become inaccessible after April 2."

Deadpool 3 to be titled "Deadpool and Friend" for final release? – Boundingintocomics

Bounding makes this sound like the nadir of bad creative decisions, but it actually reads like an unexpected and off-the-charts goofy attention-grabbing title. At least it's not the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Deadpool and his hairy friend, Wolverine.

The 500 Indie bestsellers of 2023 – Comicsbeat

Batman #142, Ultimate Black Panther #1, X-Men #31 and Avengers #10 are the best sellers from the week releases – Something

A3 artists agency getting shuttered – The Wrap MSN

Writer Declan Shalvey shocked by huge presale on Thundercats

Story at MSN Screenrant

Dynamite Entertainment's Thundercats #1 has pre-sold over 170,000 copies, wildly exceeding expectations, and rapidly making it one of the year's hottest comic book properties.

That's a lot of groundswell for this title, and in the current comic book selling clime, any title.

New Garth Ennis scripted Punisher storyline is set in 1971 and titled "Get Fury" – Gamesradar

Get into the Public Domain archives that are online at Graphic Chatter

Original page January 26, 2024