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The original comic-book industry rumour
and news column, by Rich
Johnston. |
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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. |
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| What is Ramblings 99? | Logo by Kirk Kimball, Pop Rocket |
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Dateline: 23 February 1999 |
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Guiness Is Good For Superman. Deadpool and Fighting American artist Ed McGuiness is all set to join Jeph Loeb on Superman. He leaves his current book Mr. Majestic for DC/Wildstorm. Weezy Warlock. We reported that James Felder left the new Magus title for Marvel's Tech Line before it had even got off the grounf. New Mutants readers will either rejoice or gnash their teeth at the news that past-Warlock/Magus writer, Louise Simonson has taken the assignment. Jim Lee Presents. So what is Jim Lee's big project for DC comics after Divine Right is wrapped up? Rumour of Superman and Batman aside, the current top tip is... a Vertigo book. Okay, let's go fantasy here, who wouldn't pay to read a Milligan/Lee Shade The Changing Man? Every Witch Way. Talking of Shade, we hear Chris Bachalo moves further and further away from Witching Hour. We already reported that DC haven't digned on this, but the Witching Hour announcement made Chris' name high profile in the right places again, certainly as far as creator ownership goes. Slingers Unslung. We hear from AOL that according to Joe Harris, Slingers isn't cancelled. We hope that's true and not just another case of the creative staff not being told what the editorial staff know. Again. Squiddy Back. The Squiddies have been rebooted due to a web page problem. As a result, everyone who voted should vote again. Especially if they voted for me. Go to the January Archive to see what I recommended then. I've noticed that Ramblings is on the board for best web page but that X-Flies isn't for best Web Comic. Fix that folks! (Unless of course, it really is crap). To read X-Flies for yourself click in the place where Mike Meyer adds a hyperlink, here. And to vote, go to http://www.innocence.com/~squiddy/squid-ballot.cgi |
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Dateline: 19 February 1999 |
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Boom Back In The Box Rob Liefeld's back at Marvel. And Kaboom is back at Awesome. Anyone see the link? No? Well, it's rumoured that the reason that Kaboom stopped was that the money stopped. Liefeld's backers withdraw and Kaboom creator Jeff Mathusda was stranded. Until of course, some Marvel money comes Liefeld's way... it's been shown that Liefeld seems to be making sure that people who did work for him get paid, even if it's out of Liefeld's own pocket. And bingo, Kaboom is back at Awesome. A tale that ends happily. And there's so few of them these days. Geppi Gets In Gear Talking of interesting links... when Steve Geppi bought into Another Universe, everyone saw this as a sign that Diamond, of which Steve Geppi is in charge, was snapping up alternative means of distribution of comics and associated memorabilia. However, it was made clear that this was a purchase by Steve Geppi, not Diamond. And since Diamond is due to be bought up by DC in the imminent future, is this a way for Steve Geppi to ensure he's still in the comics distribution business? Only time will tell... Readily Available Sleaze. One of the greatest comics of all time has been Missing In Action for a while. Sleaze Castle got up to issue 8 and... vanished. It awoke, trapped in the past, facing mirror images that were not its own. Hang on. Sorry, anyway, despite a few issues of the illustrated text story Surreal School Stories, starring the young Jocasta Dribble at Tycho Brae School For Girls, us Sleazoids longer for of the 'proper stuff'. And I've just had work from the writer man himself that Sleaze Castle 9, by Dave McKinnon and Terry Wiley has gone to the printers and will be released at Comics 99. Okay, I think Sleaze is great. You should too. From The Dungeon. Ever heard of a glutton for punishment? Bad dog David Bishop returns with more news of the end-of-1999 issue of 2000 AD. I'll hand him over to Dominatrix Mary. Why hello there David. I hear you've been a naughty boy. Just what have you done? "Nothing mistress, nothing, but Pat Mills and Kevin O'Neill are reuniting for the final episode of Nemesis the Warlock in 2000 AD's end of the century special issue, Prog 2000. O'Neill has just agreed to draw the dramatic conclusion to the saga of the alien insurrectionist, once he has finished work on his current projects (including League of Extraordinary Gentlemen)." Well I think you need spanking for that David. Now bend over and reveal your buttocks. THWACK THWACK "Thank you mistress. Mills has begun writing scripts for Nemesis the Warlock: Book X - The Final Conflict. This will be the tenth and final book of the Nemesis saga and will wrap up all existing plot lines and story elements including whatever happened to Termight, Purity Brown and Torquemada." And why do you think I care? Here, let me grip your testicles in this desk clamp. SQUEAL! (The sound of the clamp, or David's reaction, I couldn't quite tell.) Now let me give you hand relief... while wearing a sandpaper glove. SCRAPE SCRAPE SCRAPE SCRAPE Tell me how you're feeling, David. Don't bottle it all up. "Nyeaaahhh.... the series will run in the final ten issues of 2000 AD, with Parts 1-9 drawn by Henry Flint. Then O'Neill and Mills will reunite on the series they co-created to present the final confrontation between Nemesis and Torquemada in the Terror Tube." Oh your voice is high pitched today. Are you getting closer, David? I hope I won't have to whip you... "The whole series will be published in black and white - just as Books I-IX were published between 1980 and 1989. When we decided to go ahead with the final book of Nemesis, it seemed fitting that it be published in black and white. Excluding short stories and one-offs, Nemesis has always been black and white - why change now?" SPURT. Well, I'll have to change my glove now, David. You just wait there and... drip. Thank you Mary, we'll leave David clamped in the dungeon until he, or any other brave soul willing to send us press releases, has something else to say. And just to reiterate, we welcome any and all press releases from comics companies. [Mike adds: Yeah, I'm sure they'll be lining up now. Is that Hart Fisher at the door?] Counting The Cost It's a tough life being a rumour columnist. Currently standing on four threats of legal action and two threats of physical violence. Talk about increasing our 'hits' counter... On the other hand, if you do have a problem with anything posted, talk to me. E-mail me at twisting@hotmail.com and have a friendly chat. I will withdraw articles (and have many times in the past) if they cause people hurt or harm and often simply putting your side of the story does you much more good. |
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Dateline: 18 February 1999 |
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Slingers Slung. Slingers is due to be cancelled. I Wondered What The Hell Had Happened To Him. It's been reported that it's Alan Davis' wish that his friend and old stablemate Terry Kavanagh take over the scripting duties on the X-Men books that Davis is plotting. But Marvel seeem to keep asking people like Fabian Nicieza (ah, there he is) and Joe Casey to do the job. So will Davis put his foot down? Considering that Mark Powers, current X-editor, used to be Terry Kavanagh's underling, is this personal politics at play? All comment, especially from people involved with these rumours is welcome, and will be kept confidential if you wish. Marvel Saviour Well, despite past cut backs, future cutbacks, expanding the Marvel line, selling off the dead wood, etc, Marvel are still up shit creek without a paddle, and may be filing again before the end of the year... but could someone provide an air lift? Mauricio da Sousa International Inc, Brazil's largest publisher, making Marvel Comics look like Defiant Comics, seems to be interested in buying stock. Well, at least the Deodatos will always be in work... |
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Dateline: 15 February 1999 |
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Dog Eared Press Release David Bishop, editor of 2000 AD, Britain's super duper weekly sci-fi comic comes crawling and pleading to me for a plug. Beg, you New Zealander dog, beg! That's more like it. Oh alright then. Hmmm. "The final issue of 2000 AD before the year 2000 will be a special 100-page edition. Prog 2000 will be published on December 15th, 1999, and stay on sale for three weeks. (Normal numbering will be resumed on January 6th, 2000 when Prog 1174 is published.) The content will be all new strip and features with absolutely no reprint." Good to hear it David. Have a biscuit. Now, is there going to be anything else special about this issue apart from its size? "Chomp chomp chomp. It'll have the best of the title from the past, present and future. A lot of acclaimed creators who have helped make 2000 AD the Galaxy's greatest comic are contributing to this millennial treat." Stop the generalities David. Now if you want me to give you a tickle, roll over and tell me who you've got lined up. "Dave Gibbons is drawing a new Rogue Trooper tale - his first strip art for 18 years on the character he co-created in 1981. The story by John Tomlinson explains the link between the original Rogue and the blue-skinned warrior Tor Cyan in current 2000 AD series Mercy Heights. Brian Bolland is drawing a new cover for Prog 2000, probably Judge Dredd. More details as we confirm the line-up of creators..." Well you've only got ten months David! I suggest you stop rolling around drooling and get on with it! Good dog. And for your next trick, get Alan Moore to do more Halo Jones by giving him the rights to the chartacters he worked on for Fleetway. Stop whining. Oh all right, have another tickle. And it might be worth noting that Diamond UK's appalling distribution speed means that the US won't see the issue until it's well into the new year. Any other companies who want to send us press releases are more than welcome. C**** Conspiracy (This article has been withdrawn due to complaints from two
people involved in the story. We genuinely apologise to anybody
offended, angered or just generally pissed off. All comics shops
in London are great!) This Year's Comic Book Geek. *SPOILER ALERT FOR THIS YEAR'S LOVE* This Year's Love, a new British film (think Short Cuts crossed with This Life) set in Camden, London, features as one of the ensemble cast, a comic book seller. Shambolic hair, thick specs, weedy frame, it's surprising that along with the rest of the cast, he's able to have sexual relationships, admittedly only ones that go wrong. He attempts suicide, sucks lollipops, becoming a frothing stalker and basically goes off his trolley. Not a bad film, certainly, but it's given my fiancee rounds of ammunition should she ever find the need to use it. Ah well, at least Chasing Amy came out on video over here recently (with a beardless Ben Affleck on the cover). This Year's Love is released in Britain on February 19th. No bloody idea about the US, sorry. I'll give it till about autumn, if I were you. |
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Dateline: 09 February 1999 |
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DC Distress In the last few month's we've been reporting on DC's advance solicitations, a few days or even weeks ahead of their official release date, thanks to an inside source. We've recently been informed that DC are fuming about this, and that Patty Geres and Bob Wayne have the power to fire whoever at DC or Diamond is the leak. We would not wish this on anyone so have decided to stop the advance solicitation as it stands in its current form. We do, however find it interesting that if this report is true, DC have even more power over Diamond than previously thought. In the past DC have prevented Diamond from listing signed DC comics from Dynamic Forces, until an agreement between them could be reached. But firing people? We know, courtesy of The Comics Journal that DC have the right to buy Diamond after a certain period. Isn't that coming up shortly? And we'd also like to know why Patty and Bob haven't contacted this column if they're in such a tizzy. If people have serious objections to stories that involve them, we are likely to remove these articles, and have done so in the past. And Patty and Bob have contacted me about this column a number of times. I'm not saying we won't use the information from this source. We'll just do it differently. |
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Dateline: 08 February 1999 |
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Pete Hogan Presents. Peter Hogan was on hand to respond to the recent DC May Days article, where we commented upon his latest project for The Sandman Presents line. He writes "Actually, the 'Sandman Presents' title was Neil's suggestion. I'd written 'Love Street' as an arc for The Dreaming monthly. Then Vertigo decided it merited a bit more of a fanfare, and - because of the Constantine factor - were going to do it as a "Dreaming/Hellblazer crossover mini-series", which is a bit of a mouthful, to put it mildly. So Neil suggested The Sandman Presents banner, at which point - when The Dreaming was changing format anyhow - Vertigo decided to commission some more stories (from me and others) that would fit with the new title i.e. Sandman-related stories that aren't set mainly/exclusively in The Dreaming itself. Neil gets to approve everything in both titles, so it's not like Vertigo are trying to sneak anything past him." Peter then clarified "Basically, DC owns Sandman. Legally, they could do whatever they want with it without involving Neil at all ... but I think they're extremely happy that he's involved as creative consultant on all the Sandman spin-offs. And so am I. Neil makes comments at all stages, from proposal through to finished artwork, and any changes he requests are - as far as I'm aware - always incorporated. I wouldn't want it any other way, and talk to Neil frequently about the scripts I'm working on. I know that Caitlin Kiernan feels the same, and so do the editors involved." So that's us told then. Thanks Pete, for clarifying and contributing your informed perspective. |
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Dateline: 03 February 1999 |
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May Days Another look through DC's up-and-coming stuff for May, as always the bits that I'm interested in and the bits I find funny. And not a quote in sight. Firstly both The Body Doubles and The Trouble Magnet miniseries have been postponed despite issues already being solicited. They promise resolicitation, but will Resurrection Man readers who would have picked up Body Doubles still be around by then? Now there's this thing called Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E issue zero, which gets my goat from the start. Issue zero, I mean what's that all about? What's wrong with an issue 1 to start the series? I mean, what if you made every issue a zero for the month, how confusing would that be? Oh hang on, DC already did that once. And this issue is meant to fit in between issues 6 and 7 of the ongoing series. Oh, that's clear. Anyway it's a kinda Starman spinoff with a new Star Spangled Kid and it's like multiple timelines, and a young girl as the new kid with her stepdad in a mechanical suit (called S.T.R.I.P.E which I guess is an acronym, shame it wasn't called the Correctable Unilateral Nuclear Terminator really. Now that would be more enjoyable. Anyway.) She ties into the new JSA thingy too. DC seem to be either trying to appeal to Silver Age fans and young girls simultaneously. I suppose that's what they call marketing. An interesting idea, Gen 13 issue 33 is being relisted specifically because of its Planetary Preview... clever... and that means they overprinted and never sold the buggers. Warehouses of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your overstocks. Chris Bachalo is doing more variant covers, now one for WildCATS 3... but come on, is there any artist that someone would prefer to do a WildCATS cover than Travis Charest? I mean, really. Evanier and Aragones' series Fanboy goes all Batman for issue five as representative artists from all decades come on board, Dick Sprang (the forties), Jim Mooney (the fifties), Joe Giella (the sixties), Neal Adams (the seventies), Frank Miller (the eighties) and Bruce Timm (the nineties). Lovely. I mean is there any Batman fan who won't buy this? Hell, I'm a very occasional rerader and it's straight on my pull list. DC collect Wildstorm's Voodoo mini-series so we get the first Alan Moore graphic novel published by DC in ages. Will Wildstorm's promise not to have DC labels over his work apply in this case? Let's see shall we? We get the Batarang to buy, and promises of future DC props such as a Flash Costume Ring (workable?) and Sandman's Key To Hell (better not be workable), as well as hints of future props from Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and... and Spider Jerusalem? Might we finally get the glasses (as a recent issue of Transmet hinted)? The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen are now working with The Invisible Man and Mr Hyde in an attempt to pick up some Cavorite... the substance needed to fly to the moon! Wahey! Now, when do we get the Lost Girls crossover? Tom Strong's off to Venus while the Family Strong look after home. And Top Ten... wasn't that meant to be out this month? Has it been delayed? Preacher gives us the backstory on Tulip. How did she get so good with guns? The teenage John Constantine has an... incident related to Sandman's imprisonment (and presumably why he felt a link when Sandman finally woke up). And now that incident comes back to haunt him. Or something. The Sandman Presents: Love Street, you get the idea. Soulless attempts for DC to ransack the Sandman brandname without pissing off Neil Gaiman too much. If only Moore had done a similar deal, we could have avoided the same with Constantine. Over in Transmet, Spider Jerusalem is interviewing Smiler. And it doesn't look like it's all going Spider's way. Good to see Greg Rucka on Batman: Legends Of The Dark Knight, Shadow Of The Bat... but why does Deodato have to follow him around? And will I understand what's going on by just buying his books in the huge crossover thing? We'll see. Jim Lee does a little more DC work, the cover for No Man's Land Gallery. We get a new Bizarro! We get a new Bizarro! And Steve Gerber's writing it! Enjoyable nonsense no doubt. Everyone's second favourite Scottish DC writer is doing an extra-long special thingy on Team Superman (hey, I hope Alan Moore does a Team Supreme someday). Superboy, Supergirl and steal teaming up to save the day... ah bugger, can't they just sit about the place and watch videos? I recommend the third series of Babylon 5 (box set, HMV, sixty quid). Anyway, that's DC for May. Look forward to DC for June shortly, unless our source gets cut off by people who don't like her. |
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Dateline: 02 February 1999 |
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Small Numbers More Neil Gaiman convention appearance reports. This
time, Neil Gaiman's not too happy with DC Marketing decisions.
Apparently they only printed 3500 copies of the Stardust
Illustrated Hardcover, and apparently won't Apparently Neil was was a trooper as usual, signing hours and hours past his alloted time. Hmm, that reminds me, I should really get round to submitting my Elseworlds concept to DC, it's called The Neil and it takes place in a DC Universe where Neil Gaiman never existed. Just wait till you see Alan Grant's The Sandman! Sorry, my brain is strange today. |
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Dateline: 01 February 1999 |
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Tech Tonic Slate Even before the X-Men crossover event begins, the new Marvel Tech line is in creative trouble. First Deathlok written by Joe Casey is having a lot of trouble finding a artist who is cheap enough and can cope with the technological demands of such a title. Anyone fancy a crack at it? Last week's Newsarama mentioned that a new artist would have been named a week after... one hasn't. And now Magus has lost its writer. James Felder has quit over "editorial differences". So, anyone up for that one then? Cap Capped As we earlier rumourmongered it's been confirmed that Captain America: Sentinel Of Liberty is cancelled from issue 12, coincidentally Mark Waid's planned last issue on the title. Kelly Jelly We've had it confirmed that, reprieve not-emerging, Deadpool will be cancelled at issue 33. But the creative team will use that time to go out with a bang, bringing Deadpool and his past together. However it's been rumoured from a different source that Joe Kelly seems to have taken his much admired writing skill across the road and has some high profile work on its way from... shall we say, the competition? Good luck Joe, we'll keep an eye on you. Switching Hour? There have been some serious doubts on the future of Witching Hour (first mentioned at Ramblings). This title has been beset by rumours from the beginning, that it could have gone to Cliffhanger, that there were strange editorial rumblings about where it belonged, and now one of the creators may be using Witching Hour as a jumping point to get a better deal elsewhere, leaving the other creator behind. Is this true? We don't know. We hope not, because the book sounds kinda cool. A DC employee stated that Witching Hour hasn't yet been confirmed and that despite Jeph Loeb's decision to go public on the book elsewhere, no contracts have been signed. Well, I'll be I'll be ordering a copy anyway. Event Weak The House Of Ideas has come up with another one! An event week, taking place every 3 months or so when a month has five weeks in it. One of those weeks will be an 'event week' a week of special issues around one theme. The first up? Heroes Reborn again. If only DC had thought up something like that first... I bet they feel right charlies! Alisa Quit Alisa Kwitney has decided to resign as DC/Vertigo editor after her maternity leave, to spend more time with her offspring and to work more as a writer. Her regular stint on The Dreaming will continue. All the best, Alisa! |
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