A shitload of shit is going down and we don’t have time to make it all pretty, so here’s a raw info dump. It is so raw we are bringing out the dreaded “bullet point” in lieu of the elegant “section mark.” Like they said in the trailer for EVAN ALMIGHTY, be prepared for “Persistant rude humor and some peril.”
• Clio Chiang, the amazingly talented animator, illustrator and FLIGHT contributor has drawn a few pages of art in a Marvel comic, namely the Deadpool/GLI Summer Fun Spectaculaaar. You know if we didn’t know better, we’d say that behind all the bluster and hype, Marvel is actually sneaking in way more interesting things than they get credit for these days.
• As ICv2 points out and several of our eagle-eyed readers noted, the 30 DAYS OF NIGHT poster flaunts the fact that it is based on a graphic novel! Evidently that is now A Good Thing!
The poster for Sony’s film adaptation of Steve Niles’ 30 Days of Night clearly flogs the original graphic novel (published by IDW) with the caption “Based on the Graphic Novel” right under the title itself. The striking black and red poster design is also the key element in the opening page of Sony’s official 30 Days of Night Website, which also includes a link to a new trailer on the IGN Website.
• THE ENGINE is now home to a couple of interesting thread. In this one writers post pages of their scripts in progress — the html doesn’t allow for a lot of formatting, but it’s still of merit.
• And in THIS ONE Warren Ellis posts the first page of the last issue of PLANETARY. Ten years down.
• Jacob Covey takes the Salma-is-Luba thing and runs with it all the way to daylight.
• A Kenny Scharf–curated Basil Wolverton show? Damn it, if only we lived in Portland!
Basil Wolverton – A prolific comic creator, Oregon-born Wolverton gained national prominence when his character Lena Hyena appeared in the popular Al Capp comic. Wolverton published numerous titles, including Powerhouse and Pepper for Marvel Comics, and contributed regularly to Mad Magazine. With his grotesque and distorted characters, he influenced a generation of artists, most notably R. Crumb, as well as many animators. After converting to Herbert W. Armstrong’s “Radio Church of God” in the 1940’s, Wolverton created some of his most outstanding work: apocalyptic illustrations for pamphlets, publications and bibles.
• Spekaing of Marvel, they have seriously redesigned the Marvel Universe live page. This is the Wiki page for Marvel characters, and frankly, we think a public Wiki for Marvel characters is probably the greatest thing ever because it will keep the nerds from filling up the actual Wikipedia with nothing but nerd crap! Seriously, the new Marvel page looks nice and includes this super-flash intensive The Marvel Universe Connections, a 3-D map/visualization of the Marvel Universe that kind of blew our mind, as if the Beyonder and the Impossible Man and the In-Betweener all starred in a book by Fletcher Hanks.
• Lots of cute James Kochalka paintings.
Thanks for spotlighting Clio’s awesome work in the DP/GLI Summer Fun Spectacular! As the editor of this title, I think I actually became aware of Clio’s art because of a mention on this very site, so credit is due to the Beat here as well.
In addition to Clio, I’m excited about all the talent we have on this book, and I’m grateful for reader support. If you’ll forgive me a gentle plug, anyone interested in picking it up, please let your retailer know in time for the order cutoff this Thursday, June 14th.