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"The Drudge Report of comics..." -- Don Simpson  |
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Elmo Health Warning: This column is RUMOUR. Do not take anything here seriously. These RUMOURS are presented here as GOSSIP for their ENTERTAINMENT value. |
| What is Ramblings 99? | Logo by Kirk Kimball, Pop Rocket |
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Grooming Gorilla So who's up for publishing Gorilla? we've already printed the rumours that Image Central and Wildstorm are in the running, but with Larry Marder's departure? And could another player be entering the ring? We've been passed an inside industry rumour that states that Waid and Busiek are talking to Gareb Shamus and Wizard... possibly following in Black Bull's shoes. However, Image Central's boss, Jim Valentino, is trying to snag the deal. Nothing's been signed or decided but names like Larry Grummet and Karl Kesel are already attached to one book. And as the rumours spread across the industry a few big name and loads of B-list creators are seeing the opportunity Gorilla might bring. P.S. Just read the latest Comics Journal and Busiek's interview... that crack I made about registering domain names was made before I read the Busiek interview where he talks about people doing just that. Indeed, FanBoyComics has registered www.gorillacomics.com to be sold to the highest bidder. However, www.gorillapress.com is still up for grabs lads! |
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Bad Gorilla With Busiek's first project for Gorilla finally rumoured in recent Ramblings, now it's time for Mark Waid's title to reach the bounteous shores of Ramblingsania. A source writes "I believe the book Waid is doing for Gorilla, if Gorilla comes about, is to be the book he had in the works for a while. It was planned to be part of the Homage comics line when it first popped up. It is a book dealing with a super villain that has conquered the world (or whatever he was planning to conquer) and now what does he do? Barry Kitson is to be involved with the project." That's the rumour. Certainly that adds credence to the possibility that Gorilla wuill happen at Wildstorm, if this book was associated with Homage. But still no titles! For either of them! Damn you, secretive rumourmongers for denying me the chance to register the domain names and then sell them back to the creators for a high price! The Devil You Know. Brian Michael Bendis, creator of Jinx, AKA Goldfish and loads of other great comics, currently writing Sam And Twitch (created by Lance Gueck... we should revisit that story again one day) has had Marvel Knights rumours associated with him. The rumour we've just received is that he's all set to take over writing Daredevil in the future. He's Off Again. Oh, and I'm off again for the weekend to Leeds, to spend time with friends. Leeds was the first place I discovered comic shops. Sigh. And then i'm going to get started with this Miracleman rumour thing. Give me a month, and see what I get. |
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Ramblings Revisited. It's a tad quiet at the moment, so I'd thought I'd take time out to flick through recent Ramblings and pick out anything that needs elaboration and correction. The Ashley Wood/Grant Morrison project for Todd is, apparently, not on paper yet. It's planned but hasn't reached official nature within the company. We do hear though that this project is a result of Ashley Wood meeting Grant at SDCC, and getting a few pages on the last issues of Invisibles. Rumours we've received (but not yet printed) about editor Shelley Roeberg not knowing Wood's work and demanding samples have been scotched. As to Marvel Boy being a previously submitted concept by Grant, apparently that's untrue. Grant says that Marvel Boy is very much a development of his work on JLA. Oh, and Mark Waid sent Ramblings a pleasant, almost reconciliatory e-mail about various stuff. Thanks, Mark! Now... if Kurt's doing pirates, what are you doing for Gorilla? Romance? Police? Medieval? We wait in awe... Still no more on the big sackings... the rumour stated that we'd hear something in days and, aside from a scotched rumour that Dan Raspler had gone, nothing. Hopefully a rumour is all that it was... Talking of rumours... DC Shall Pay. Alan Moore's been having fun... he's claimed to one of our sources that DC haven't been paying him on time and he's been having to hassle them. You know, this is starting to sound familiar. All sorted now though, I'm sure. Marvel Kerniggits! Couple of other pieces... another rumour from San Diego (how long ago was that now?) is that Brian Michael Bendis and Bill Sienkiewicz were preparing a Marvel Knights book, about Nick Fury. It wasn't signed then, but they were very interested. On that point, speculation about whether Marvel Knights would be taking over Spider-man at some point had an interesting twist when we were informed by Warren Ellis that he's been offered both a Marvel knights team book and Daredevil/Spider-Man, but turned both down. He is in talks with them, but if he does anything, it won't be superheroes. But this might indicate that one one level at least, Marvel Knights have some Spider-man plans... |
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Green Slip An anonymous member of some group called H.E.A.T.(Hal's Emerald Advancement Team) e-mails me to tell me that Green Lantern writer, Ron Marz is stepping down from the book in a few months. Rumour has it that Kurt Busiek has been approached with an eye to taking over the title. However, Busiek's previous statements about the book, that he's bring back Hal as the lead and that he wouldn't write the Kyle character make this part of the rumour fairly tenous. Let's see, shall we? |
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Sea Monkeys. It's been a while since we've had any rumours on the Waid/Busiek writer-owned imprint Gorilla (currently been mulled over by both Image and Wildstorm). Well now we've been given a lovely rumour to sink our primate teeth into. One of the first titles (we haven't got a name yet) will be a pirate comic, created by Kurt Busiek, Carlos Pacheco and Merino on inks. Spanish Armada. But another rumour may contradict the above one... as Chris Claremont shores up for his return to the X-Men stable, who'll be taking over his chores on Fantastic Four? Well, the rumour is that Pacheco and Merino will take over the writer and artist roles on the book with the able assistance of Spanish sci-fi and comic book writer Rafa Marin. And what then for Larroca? Only time, a dose of reality and a report at Beau Yarborough's Comic Wire will tell.. |
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Ramblings '99 Yes, yes, I've been away. Sorry chaps, sometimes I need a bit of Ramblings motivation. And I've only just finished Peachtree on Dungeon Keeper 2. Okay on with the rumours. Remember, these are rumours, stuff that's circulating around the industry, believe what you want. The usual nonsense applies. Defective Comics Like Marvel a while back, it's possible that DC might be going through a night of the long knives. And a Dark Knight at then. As speculated by Comicon's Splash Page and others, Time-Warner may be getting more involved in DC's goings on. And as we originally reported, it's Batman that has their interest. We hear that Warner are unhappy with the Batman books and the general slowdown in sales. And those who face the consequences go all the way to the top of DC. There may be personnel cuts and changes all across the board. If this rumour is true, expect to see something happen in the next week or so. DC's not alone to have these kind of rumours. Todd McFarlane Productions may also be facing downsizing very shortly as Larry Marder goes to work. Look to see books cancelled, freelancers dropped and some production and colouring staff let go. Again, if this rumour is true, we'll see the effects soon. Distribution Adventures Okay here's something that's true. Alan Moore's Awesome Adventures finally shipped to the UK this week, two months late. Which means we've only just seen those last few pages... ouch! Spawny Grant We're told on the rumour grape vine that Grant Morrison and Ashley Wood are doing a mega-graphic novel-prestige project for McFarlane next year. We also hear it's the most shocking thing he's done yet. Also look to see Ashley Wood's work for a few pages in the last few issues of the Invisibles (still the greatest superhero comic book being published). There's anythother story in this one, but I've got to check with Grant first... Nameless Wonder. A few people have e-mailed me to ask what I've heard about the new Paul Jenkins/Jae Lee book for Marvel Knights. Well, these people have taken the first rule of rumour management - don't tell anyone. Anyway, to reiterate what we know, iy's a new comic featuring a character supposedly (but not) created by Lee and Kirby in the sixties but who ws too powerful to publish as the conept of him wiped everyone's mind... including the title of the comic. Does anyone have any info on this to share? Or has the Mighty Marvel Media Machine succeeded where it often fails? M******man Rec.arts.comics.misc has been going over the 'who-owns-Miracleman' again. At Ramblings, I'd love to do a he-said, she-said, get every account together and let them sort it out special. But for a taster, here's what a publishing insider had to say recently. "I can tell you that the original contract deeded Alan Moore 1/3 of profits from Miracleman, but no rights to vote or make any decisions regarding the series. Alan signed this contract, so that should put to rest those rumors that Miracleman was illegally sold to Eclipse by Dez Skinn. However, when Neil took over, Alan deeded his share to him (apparently. I never saw documents to support this, but Eclipse certainly believed it was so) for the duration of his time as writer. When the series ended, the rights should have reverted to Alan, but Neil never gave them back!" Well, I've certainly heard different versions that contradict this... specifically that the rights to create future issues went *permanently* to the next creative team when creators changed... this was certainly the case with the artists so I'm sure it should have been with the writers. If this is Eclipse's stance, it differs significantly with all the involved creators I've talked to. Over the next month, I'm going to try to talk to or get messages to Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Dez Skinn, Gary Leach, Alan Davis, Cat Yronwode, Mark Buckingham, Rick Vietch and as many others as I can think of. Let's clear this thing up once and for all. If anyone can help, please e-mail twisting@hotmail.com. And that goes for any of you. If you'd heard a spicy bit of news (the closer to the source, the better), have any particular views about the column, or just fancy a rant, e-mail me. I guarantee anonymity. |
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