§ Words like “TV” and “Broadcast” are long ago relics as streaming from many sources takes over the sitting in front of a screen time. And many comics properties are getting a second (or first) life on these new platforms. F’rinstance, Powers, the Brian Michael Bendis/Michael Avon Oeming series that was made into a pilot then passed on by the FX network, is getting revived as a streaming series for Playstaton. The show will go straight to series for 10 episodes. The cast and crew of the previous pilot has been scrubbed, with Charlie Huston on board to write, with Michael Dinner (director of everything from The Wonder Years to Masters of Sex) to direct. According to THR, Huston and Bendis will be the showrunners—it’s nice to see Bendis getting a good title on this. Circle of Confusion (which also reps The Walking Dead) is among the exec producers.
Powers, in case you don’t know, is basically about two detectives who work for the “Super” division of the local force, solving crimes involving superheroes. It’s a natural.
§ A new issue of Infinity Magazine, a pdf and iPad magazine about digital comics, is now out, best read via the Sequential app. I like this magazine!
§ Jared Gardner reviews three GNs by Julia Gfrörer, Isalebl Greenberg and Cole Closser. All of them are excellent, but as I think I’ve stated here before, Greenberg’s debut graphic novel—Encyclopedia of Early Earth— is a stunner for a first timer.
§ I received an email lauding a new site called WebcomicsHub – A Better Way To Discover Webcomics — I’ve linked to a few sites like this over time, and I think most folks know what webcomics they liked reading but hey, if you have spare time, surf away.
§ This post suggesting candidates for the Joe Shuster Awards Hall of Fame 2014 also serves as a quick primer in Canadian comic book history. That’s a page by E. T. Legault, creator of Dart Daring and Whiz Wallace above.
§ No Plans for Any Female Superhero Films Coming from Marvel — so says Kevin Feige, and what Kevin Feige says goes!
The positive reaction to Scarlet Johansson’s Black Widow led to some rumors about a solo film for the red haired Avenger. However, Kevin Feige has shot down that idea. He says, “Frankly if we do a Black Widow movie after Age of Ultron, when she’s been central in three or four movies, I don’t think we’d get the quote unquote credit for it. People would say ‘She’s already a big giant superhero!’ But if we had a great idea, we’d do it… I like the idea if we’re going to do a female lead, to do a new one. Do a wholly new character, do an origin story… We’ve talked a lot about Captain Marvel. I think that would be very cool. “
I’d like to think that Marvel Comics’ current emphasis on female-led titles is laying the groundwork for an eventual female led superhero movie in 2020 or so.
§ If you don’t read comics on digital apps, this NYT primer will serves as a very basic entry— that is, if you didn’t already read your 10 articles this month like I did.
§ Another movie option alert: Will Smith has optioned Harlem Hellfighters by Max Brooks and Canaan White.. This is an interesting graphic novel because it’s by World War Z Max Brooks, and also because it’s a fictionalized version of real history: the African American 369th Regiment, which served longer in World War I than any other regiment. Despite the obvious option-bait in this book, it’s a good take on a little known—and dramatic—piece of history. If this film gets made, will we call it a comic book movie? I kinda think not.
§ Whit Taylor Interviewed Mike Dawson Whit Taylor interviews Mike Dawson whose dense and complex Angie Bongiolatti is coming out at MoCCA:
Mike Dawson: This book is extremely personal to me, despite being a work of fiction. I feel very exposed by it. The story reveals much of my own thinking about political engagement, gender roles, and sex; topics readers are likely to already have strong preexisting feelings and opinions about. Even the choice to excerpt key passages by Arthur Koestler and George Orwell, feels very revealing. It shows that these passages moved me enough that I opted to incorporate them into my work. I feel like I need to be prepared to defend that choice, in ways I didn’t feel the need to defend appropriating Queen lyrics or aspects of Boy Scout culture in my previous work.
§ And here’s an interview with Paul Rivoche who has The Forgotten Man, a history of the Great Depression based on Amity Shales’ bestseller. This book looks amazing!
The original book was nonfiction and of course not at all structured to be a graphic novel. It’s an economic history of the New Deal/Great Depression era, described from an alternative viewpoint. It has a huge cast of characters — all real people — and discusses many abstract ideas. To make it work as a graphic novel, we had to find a new structure for the same material; we couldn’t follow the exact arrangement in the print book. For example, there are many jumps in location in the real-life story we tell, and all these characters coming and going. In prose, it worked because you imagine it in your head, stitching it together, following the steady guidance of the author’s voice. In comics form, the same thing was disorienting.
Congrats to Brian Michael Bendis & Michael Avon Oeming on this tv show finally coming to fruition! And congrats to me for discovering Harlem Hellfighters. I’m a World War One nut and had no idea about this book.
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