Archive Page 2238
May 2025
Jack Kirby exhibition at Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles – Orange County Register
The rooms of the exhibition are full of vibrant color and include all manner of treasures, including a variety of original artwork; a wall of comics featuring the first appearances of Kirby-created characters; a room depicting the evolution of his explosive style and much more..."
The Skirball Cultural Center web site page on the Kirby exhibit – May 1, 2025 thru March 1, 2026
Some DC digital titles get a one week delay – Bleedingcool
Court stamps approval on Diamond Distributors sell off – Comicsbeat
How the Sinners movie brought vampire-slaying back to the big screen faster than the Marvel Blade reboot – Boundingintocomics
Sgt. Rock film not happening, again – Deadline Hollywood
The production was supposed to kick off 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 anomaly (like Mike Friedrich's Star-Reach) because it was obviously not DC or Marvel (or Charlton) but it was within the same heroic-style universe. This became less unusual as other indy projects appeared like ElfQuest and Cerebus, and then of course the onslaught that happened with the black-and-white indy comics boom during the 1980s.
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 (now long 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...."
More about this Voting While Superhero
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
Get into the Public Domain archives that are online at Graphic Chatter
You will see Amazon links on this web site because I am an Amazon affiliate. I earn from qualifying purchases.
Original page May 3, 2025