Even more than usual, according to the report we heard, Chicago was the sleepy hungover Sunday to San Diego…there was a good bit of comics news, and the WB held off on the Dark Knight presentation for Chicago (the movie is being filmed there so it makes total sense), but it was not a blockbuster show. The photo displays are quite alarming, to be honest. Top photo from CBR, below from Blog@Newsarama.
CBR’s complete news round-up
Newsarama
Wizard
News Bytes:
• Wildstorm and Dynamite are producing a Freddie vs Jason vs Ash ultimate horror team up based on the screenplay for a proposed film by Jeff Katz:
In November, DC and Dynamite Entertainment will re-team for another crossover between their respective licensed properties for a six-issue Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash miniseries written by James Kuhoric with three interlocking covers by J. Scott Campbell for #1, and covers by Eric Powell for #2-#6. And the best news about the miniseries? It’s not some new take a meeting between the three. Nope – the six issues will tell the story of the movie that was could have been. One more thing that makes this whole deal interesting? That original treatment for the Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash movie that the miniseries will be pulling from? Written in 2003 by a guy named Jeff Katz (formerly at New Line and now at Fox). Yep – the same Jeff Katz that’s currently co-writing Booster Gold with Geoff Johns for DC.
• Alex Ross will be doing something involving Captain America for Marvel although it’s all still a bit vague.
The Avengers by Alex Ross And now that Ross is back at Marvel, the question then becomes: What is he working on? Little can be said at this early stage, and the “Return” piece he’s painted to mark his homecoming—which he estimates took seven to eight hours to complete—actually poses many more questions than it answers. “Well to be fair to the process,” teases Ross, “as much as we’ve talked about it this great length of time, we could wish for things we want to do, but honestly we couldn’t really manufacture any good story until we had our first major meeting over the subject. I think that was earlier this year. There’s a number of thoughts and hopes, but I was wracked with paranoia and worry. I hope I don’t screw it up,” laughs Ross.
• Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch are reuniting on the FANTASTIC FOUR, it has finally been revealed.
• The biggest buzz at the show was DARK KNIGHT footage, with apperance by Christiuan Bale, Gary Oldman and Aaron Eckhart.
The footage showed Heath Ledger as the Joker, battling with Batman in several scenes. As we’ve seen in preview images released of Ledger in full Joker make-up, the actor’s face was mutilated and painted in an eerie white with a sloppy red giant smile across the mouth. His hair in some scenes was obviously green, he was wearing a purple suit in some full-body shots, he used a machine gun in another, and in one clear face-on shot, black make-up around his eyes was visible and make-up seemed to be oozing down his face. The Batmobile was shown at the beginning of the trailer, but soon we got to see Batman riding on his Batcycle. Included in the footage was the first meeting between Bruce Wayne and Harvey Dent, Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth talking to Bruce, a shot of Batman standing on the corner of a building overlooking the city at night, what looked like Bruce Wayne kissing a woman that must have been Maggie Gyllenhaal as Rachel Dawes, several scenes of Gary Oldman as James Gordon, Joker dancing with a resistant Rachel, a fire truck burning on a street, a few fiery car crashes, a coin spinning like a top, and the Joker on what appeared to be television.
Sleepy, compared to San Diego? Of course.
But there was a ton of Silver Age and newer comics for $2, a buck, 50 cents, or even a quarter. I ended up buying 5-6 times more comics in two days at WW Chicago than I’ve purchased elsewhere in the past year — almost all of which I paid a buck each for, or less.
And several dealers had the trades and hardcovers heavily discounted. Twenty to fourty percent off was the most common discount, but on Sunday afternoon, I picked up the hardcover version of “The Comics: Since 1945” — a book I’ve been eying for awhile that originally retailed for $49.95 — for 80 percent off ($10).
Happy about Alex Ross, sad about the whips. WTF? Imagen a kid begging mom and dad to take him or her to a comic con, and then hearing them tell them “never again” because of stupid crap like this. There’s a place for that sort of thing, and it’s nowhere near where children gather.
My Flickr set from the show:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/joewilly/sets/72157601413624528/
I’m conflicted about the “kid stuff” since Wizard itself as a magazine seems to love the big breasts and bondage in a lot of mainstream comics so they’re hypocrites to try to suppress this stuff. Why are the ships bad but you can walk by a 10 foot tall Witchblade poster that’s 2″ from full frontal and nobody bats an eye? Also, they try to tell Artist Alley exhibitors not to sell adult material but let the Suicide Girls set up and let dealers sell porn videos- one dealer near the cafeteria even had obviously bootleg porn DVDs next to obviously bootleg cartoon DVDs.
It should have said “whips” not “ships.”
I was wondering what you had against that Pirates of the Caribbean exhibit, Joe!
NUBBA NUBBA!! That “White Queen” costume is HOT!!