Elmo Health Warning: This column is RUMOUR. Do not take anything here seriously. These RUMOURS are presented here as GOSSIP for their ENTERTAINMENT value. |
Dateline: 30 Mar 1998 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
More Moore Awesome excursions aside (which we are not yet at liberty to divulge... when we can, we will!) Alan Moore is a busy bugger. He's just got the first few pages back from Kevin O'Neill for the League Of Extraordinary Gentlefolk. According to Alan, Kevin's work is still recognisably his, but has taken on some interesting new twists appropriate for the environment he's working in. On the TV front, Channel 4 seem keen on Big Numbers and as reported on the Moore Webpage, the budget deadlines are looming. Things look good, plot tretaments and scripts are ready and Channel 4 are keen about doing more work with Alan. Fingers crossed (and then broken in a Rorschach manner.) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hudnall to remain at Image We forgot to mention this the other day, but James Hudnall will also be remaining at Image post-non-line. James has made good on his word to provide credit card processing at his own site --it should be up any day now. Between his books Espers, Shut Up and Die, and his new series Devastator (which looks very cool, from the preview at his site...), there will be a steady stream of good books coming out from James. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dateline: 27 Mar 1998 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Grant Morrison to leave JLA... but not quite yet. I love a good scoop don't you? This isn't a good one, but it's alright I suppose. Ramblings '98 has learned that Grant Morrison is planning to leave JLA as writer before the end of 1999, when the JLA graphic novel with Frank Quitely is to due to be published. Grant Morrison first came to fame on Zenith, a 2000AD strip with Steve Yeowell and after a brief dalliance on Zoids for Marvel UK, he became one of the first wave of British writers to break into DC with Animal Man. After a number of adult book runs such as Dare, Kid Eternity, Doom Patrol and Invisibles he returned to a more mainstream superhero with Aztec and then his bestselling and widely lauded run on the new Justice League of America book, JLA. Recently he instigated the crossover series One Million DC. The popularity of the new JLA series has been attributed to both Morrison's writing and that it is full of DC's most popular characters. With many expecting JLA to be DC's top seller by the end of the year, it looks like we'll be able to see just why JLA sells so well... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dan Dare Television Scrapped One highlight of the Second National Comics Awards was the brief peeks at a trailer for a pilot of a Dan Dare- Pilot Of The Future television series. Dan Dare was a popular space-faring astronaut in the 1950's, appearing in the weekly comic The Eagle. Etched into the British conscious, Dan Dare was reviced in the eighties and given a Dark Knight treatment by Grant Morrison and Rian Hughes in the seminal Revolver/Crisis series, Dare (later reprinted as a TPB by Fleetway and serialised by Fantagraphics). We saw a series of British actors playing the classic roles of Dan Dare, Digby and Professor Peabody. The special effects were spectacular and took the cheesy sci-fi images of 1950's comic books and made them real. The effect on the audience was certainly stunning. If it could be compared to anything, Tim Burton's Mars Attacks! would be a good start. And as for the Treens.... Research indicates that these sequences were made and commissioned by Zenith Productions, a well known TV and Film production company in London. Phonecalls have confirmed their involvement but they now claim they are no longer involved with Dan Dare and were unable to send out any copies of these brief excerpts of what could be a televisual masterpiece. Anyone who fancies a go can call Zenith on 0171 224 240, or from North America call 01144171 224 2440. Best of luck! And anyone from Zenith or involved in the production of Dan Dare- Pilot Of The Future is welcome to contact Ramblings '98 with any details they may care to give. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dateline: 25 Mar 1998 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jinx to remain an Image comic Jinx creator Brian Bendis made the following announcement this morning: "Though the Jim Valentino Shadowline of black and white comics at Image that JINX was a part of is sadly dead, I am happy to announce that JINX ain't goin' anywhere. Jinx remains a BI monthly black and white title from Image comics. For those of you who need to know such things, JINX will be an IMAGE title. Details are still being hashed out, but there will be absolutely no break in JINX's publishing schedule and there will be no cosmetic difference to the product. Jinx, the gritty crime comic, continues its BI monthly schedule, and readers and retailers alike can order with confidence that the book will ship and ship on time as it has done without fail for the last four years. Very soon right here I will announce what the next story arc and publishing schedule will be. I think you will all be delighted and surprised by the direction the book will take. I can't thank you all enough for your letters of support and encouragement over the last week. It meant the world to me. But as I told you all, there was nothing to worry about. A very special shout out to Larry Marder, ALL the Image founders, and everyone at Image central for showing such support and confidence in me and my book. Visit http://www.jinxworld.com for more details on this, on the Miramax film, and on some neat surprises coming your way." Congratulations, Brian, and kudos to Larry Marder and Image for preserving one of the best titles in the non-line. Will we be hearing more such announcements soon? Let's hope so -- it makes sense for Image to keep the successful non-line titles. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Second Annual comics Awards -- Results
A fun evening with surprises all round, a rather merry Comics International editor, Dez Skinn in the bar not presenting his awards, later to accuse Joel Meadows of Tripwire of rigging the ballot. Transmetropolitan was the pleasant surprise of the night and got the applause to match (and another chance for Stuart Moore to take the podium). The 2000AD prize wasn't popular but editor David Bishop gave a stirling speech. Stuart Moore and Bob Wayne cooked up what Archie would say if he could take his award. Stuart said that he'd probably say there were many other more deserving dead people who should receive the award, while Bob speculated that he'd say that if he'd known this was what you had to do to get an award... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
UKCAC news and rumours A semi-reliable source at DC Comics has stated that Dark Horse is to license the Turok title from Acclaim and continue the series despite Acclaim Comics' financial difficulties. This was probably a bluff to see if I'd print it, but he's sneaky enough for it to be a double bluff. Steve Pugh's new Vertigo book is called DEAD CORPSe, due Summer 1998. Written by Chris Hienz, it tells the story of a troop of peace keepers in the future, where the dead are revived to fight. Creator owned, and we have some art for you to peruse. Jamie Delano and Duncan Fegredo both seem a little annoyed at the work they did for Dark Horse's Millenium series that never was. They both say that they were never paid and that later they discovered that Dark Horse hadn't actually got the rights, merely pitching for them. And as for twice bitten, Duncan Fegredo also did work on a Buffy The Vampire Slayer adaptation for Dark Horse that never happened. Mind you, at least this got him under the eyes of Oni's Bob Schreck and the upcoming Jay And Silent Bob miniseries by Kevin Smith. More on that later, but a sketch of the pair by Fegredo went for one hundred and twenty pounds at the auction- a sign of how popular this series will be? Truth: Adaptations often can make a lot of money, and Dark Horse saw their first major success on the back of Aliens, then Terminator, Star Wars and Robocop. However, the powers that be, those who own the rights can make sweeping changes and undermine work at a pinch. No wonder Warren Ellis stopped Starship Troopers after one issue. Steve Darnall is working on The Grey Man, a new series proposed for Vertigo about a man who slowly becomes a robot. Alan Grant's Tattered Banners has lain in Vertigo files for years. Originally commisioned by Art Young just as he was leaving, it was soon cancelled from production. But a young upstart editor in the Vertigo offices found it in the drawers, thought it was amazing, and the book's back on line! Look forward to Tattered Banners forthwith! Garth Ennis and John Higgins' Vertigo book has been optioned for a movie. Duncan Fegredo has let slip a little about the plot of Jay And Silent Bob, Kevin Smith's new mini-series for Oni. The first episode is set immediately before Jay and Silent Bob enter the restaurant in Chasing Amy. They start, waking up in Trish the Dish's place. They asked if they could crash there... and have stayed six months. Trish wants them out, especially when Jay tries it on with her when she's in the shower... From the second issue, the book then continues to fill the space between the end ofChasing Amy and the new film, Dogma. After chatting up someone I discovered to be John McCrea's lady, I found out about Jamie Delano and John McCrea's new book Big Justice, four issues to come out from Vertigo under Tom Peyer. After his Gangland stuff, David Lloyd has an Aliens book to draw! Isn't he the most ideal Aliens artist you could think of? For those of you who don't know his style, he basically "inspired" what is now known as the 'Sin City' look. Frank Quitely is about to start work on a JLA graphic novel. How to tell Phil Winslade apart from Steve Pugh: Phil Winslade's hair is darker, a blacky brown while Steve's is lighter, even a tint of red in there. Phil is bigger. He takes up more physical space. Steve is more chirpy with chubby pinchable cheeks. Phil's beard covers more of his face. Steve draws quicker. I didn't ask about penis size though... And Glenn Fabry's off to the States to work as a designer on a horror film. He's still doing his cover artwork and has promised a cover to Twist And Shout Comics at some stage... and here's the good news. Glenn Fabry's famously late Judge Dredd/Batman series will be finished in ten days, after which it can go to print! Woo hoo! Originally meant to be the sequel to Bisley's Batman/Judge Dredd, his deadline was three years ago, and a number of Dredd/Bat crossovers have occurred since. Batman/Judge Dredd: Die Laughing Part One will be released very soon indeed. Aside form this the usual drunken debauchery continued apace. Tables, vases and noses were broken into the wee hours anmd there was some clandestine coupling between pros and fans, fans and fans and pros and pros as the evening got more morning. The greatest exponents of these practices were the gay contingent who discovered Manchester illuminous reputation as the place to pull. No questions asked, but Art Young can sure make his presence known. Go Art! Is it just me or does Robin Riggs look like a father of The Actor Kevin Eldon? Best new comic of the con? Well, Terry Wiley had a new Surreal School Stories book out which concluded the first chapter of Jo-Dribble-at-school, and there was a certain football comic called Foul! that I had a hand in but the winner was undoubtably Love Bomb 1 by Paul Rainey. Love Bomb takes a few characters from his fantastic Memory Man book and gives them a new life. Imagine you're a school child with a claculator that tells you what other people are really thinking? Love Bomb is from Abaculus and will be solicited in Previews shortly. Highly recommended. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dateline: 16 Mar 1998 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Details In The Shadow Rich's Ramblings has received more news behind its exclusive news of the fall of Jim Valentino's non-line (see below). Valentino was funding the line from out of his own savings when sales were insufficient on some of the books. To the best of our knowledge, the Image deal worked something like this -- Image would pay for printing costs and buy ads for the books. These expenses, plus a fixed fee of $2000 to Image, and a smaller fee to Shadowline itself, would be taken from the gross sales of the book. Any proceeds over and above that portion of the sales would then go to the creator. It's likely that this arrangement was slightly different for each book, with books like Bone perhaps paying additional fees if sales exceeded certain levels. This type of flat fee structure would require most books to need sales of 3500 or more to break even. Furthermore, a successful book selling in the range of 7K would contribute little more (if any, depending on the deal made) to the Image coffers than a book breaking even. Those selling less than that threshold of 3500 books over the last year ended up being subsidized by Jim Valentino. Due to personal reasons, Jim decided he could no longer do this. This system required a substantial boost in everyone's sales to be financially viable for Image. Just covering the licensing fees for the Image 'i' required a level of sales which most self-publishers would be able to use for steady growth. Most of the books saw substantial increases in sales, many at least doubling their self-published orders, but the current weakness in the market failed to materialize the even higher numbers needed for the line to remain profitable. Fallout from the non-line cancellation continues, with several creators already fielding offers. Others are mulling over their alternatives. Zander Cannon's series The Replacement God, previously published by Slave Labor/Amaze Ink is to be self-published... interestingly enough, he made that decision before the fall of the non-line. Company named The Handcraft Guild, issue 6 will be 80 pages long and subequent issues will be 48 pages long and appear quarterly. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Marvel Madness Marvel look like they're trying something new, something different, anything to help get back into the comics mix. After the failure of the Strange Tales line (blamed on some high up bloke who decided that Marvel shouldn't publish a single Mature Readers book) and the avoidance of Marie Javin's Epic line, a recent book, Generation X Underground, by Clerks and Fireman Press artist, Jim Mahfood sold out fast and got a good buzz going. Could it be that Marvel are touting to get more indy creators involved in their books? Names are being dropped at Marvel from Joe Pruett, Andrew Robinson, more Jim Mahfood, Vincent Locke, Philip Hester and Brian Bendis. More as we have it folks. Hey... could the people dropped by Valentino find a new home? And if anyone at Marvel wants to give me a call, I've got a couple of ideas myself... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hulk Out Talking of which, much of the Usenet comics groups seem to be still discussing the departure of writer Peter David from the book. So who's the replacement? No announcement yet, but we hear Ted McKeever is on the short list. Ted McKeever is known for various warped sci-fi books. While McKeever doesn't seem an obvious choice for Hulk, he has a history of writing politically-oriented books... maybe that's a good sign for the way Hulk will be going, into drawn out government conspiricies, covert operations and military strategy. Cool! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tie Rack Kiss: The Psycho Circus is going to second printings. Looks like all the Kiss freaks have been running around comic stores trying to get copies of this McFarlane book that was basically sitting on shelves. Never under estimate the power of a good tie in... most retailers couldn't see a good tie in if it bit them in the head. On a related note, both Oni Double Feature 1 and Clerks 1 have gone to second print after retailers seemingly forgot to order enough for the indy film buffs. Tie ins with films/TV won't get the filmgoers or TV goers in... but it will get all the film and TV buffs. So rather than getting the mainstream population in, you'll get more nerdy geeks like us in... in fact just the sort of people to get hooked on comics! I know of one shop that advertisied the Clerks comic at a local indy-cinema and has now got them all reading Kane, Stray Bullets, Hate etc.... that's the way to do it! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Automatic For The People A few years ago in Peter David's CBG column 'But I Digress...', he ran a 'mock' feature with a Rob Liefeld-alike of the future, who wrote comics and used a computer to put the art together with old images scanned in from the every comic. Styles, shots, light, characters... all were his to play with. Fantasy? A company called Magic Line is doing just that. They claim they can create any comic book artists style and use that style to create new pieces of work. Scan in loads of Jack Kirby, let the computer extrapolate, programme in what you want, specify where and splash! New Jack Kirby comics. Or Todd McFarlane. Or Alan Davis. Or... heaven help the mad fools, Rich Johnston! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Totally Eclipsed (updated) Miracleman appearing in Total Eclipse, the retailer incentive comic, free with 50 copies of the May issue of Spawn (and thus worth about 50 quid when sold to the public)? This news was reported widely, but a quick call from Mark Buckingham to Neil Gaiman says that MM will not be appearing in the book and that another venue is being sought for publication. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Quick Plug Just a quick announcement, Rich Johnston has a short story appearing in the mature-readers newstand comic, Foul!. An anthology themed around football (soccer to you American plebs), it is an attempt by a group of British entrepreneurs to find a place for mature comics on the newstand, alongside titles such as Viz. Foul! is available now in good British newsagents and will be made available via Diamond shortly. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dateline: 13 Mar 1998 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Shadowed Line You won't see a statement from Image until after orders for June books are in, but the Jim Valentino non-line of creator-owned titles at Image is being cancelled. This has been confirmed by several of the non-line creators, who apparently received letters with the announcement earlier this week. All non-line books will stop with their June issues, though any unprofitable books coming out before then will likely be cancelled. Image is hoping not to spook retailers from ordering the June books, so they are being fairly low-key about this at present. No announcements yet about any of the books moving to other parts of Image, though it hasn't been ruled out. Jim Valentino was one of the founders of Image Comics, the breakaway group of artists that set up a co-owned company of their own along with Rob Liefeld, Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane, Jim Lee, Marc Silvestri and Whilce Portacio. It has been stated that Valentino's presence in the Marvel office was instrumental in Liefeld's inspiration to depart and set up Image with Malibu. Valentino's book, Shadowhawk was successful for a time and the Alan Moore series 1963 he masterminded, was instrumental in Image's future success and Awesome's current presence, but Shadowhawk fell away as the market slumped. Valentino's studio merged with Liefeld's until internal matters led Liefeld to leave Image and broke Liefeld and Valentino's relationship. Recently, Jim Valentino returned to his alternative comics roots with a series, Touch Of Silver, that heralded a 'non-line', a series of books by both respected creators in the field and relative newcomers, creator owned and coveringa more diverse area od subject matters than Image, or mainstream comics in general, had ever covered before. A sizable marketing presence within Diamond's Previews led to high hopes for many of the books. From Valentino's slice-of-young-life book, Touch Of Silver, through Brian Bendis' crime series Jinx, Marc Hempel's comedy Tug &Buster, Stephen Blue's horrific Awakening and Malcolm Bourne's touching Childhood's End, Valentino's line has crossed genres and experiences, even hosting a rare lesbian lead character in Amanda And Gunn. Valentino's wish was that retailers would not judge each book by its 'line', avoiding the problems that beset many comics when a retailer decides to drop an entire line, rather than the one or two unprofitable items. However, while an imprint may not have been attached in reality, the retailers minds may have done the trick instead. The bottom line for the cancellation was low sales. The weak market, retailer reluctance to risk getting the new titles, and mixed reliability from the creators involved all contributed to this situation, and that lack of a line identity and line-wide promotion probably didn't help either. The very generous fixed-fee deal which non-line creators have with Image made it impossible for the more popular books to subsidize the less popular books in the non-line, as would be the case with a more standard publishing agreement. This made it a money sink for Image, and for Jim in particular. Valentino's non-line was a bold experiment. It diversified the line and brought a variety of genres to an audience still mired in superhero claptrap. Valentino's new book, Altered Images is an Image superhero crossover that takes on comic tones familiar to readers of his superhero parody comic, normalman.. So -- what happens to the specific non-line titles? James Hudnall's Halloween Comics will be resuming the publishing of his books (Espers, Shut Up and Die, etc.) in July, without a hiccup. He's adding credit card processing to his Web site as well. We'll keep you posted about the fate of the others as they become known. Pure speculation on Mike's part, but this looks like a great opportunity for Amaze Ink to get back Replacement God, Avatar Press has been looking to expand their offerings, and Oni Press would findTug and Buster a great addition to their line. Does anyone beleive that there won't be interest in Xeric winners Randy Reynaldo and Stephen Blue? Will Jeff Mason's Alternative Press turn this sad situation into a big coup? What about Top Shelf? It's very possible that this new breed of small but steady publishing houses will be able to absorb many of the books in question, and they may very well do a better job at growing the market than Image. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Kreuger Crew More news from the pighty pen of Jim Krueger. His previously announced Nighthawk series from Marvel is to be drawn by Doom Patrol favourite, Richard Case. His Footsoldiers book for Image will continue to issue 5 (linked with the above story??) and he will then self-publish a 120 page Footsoldiers story with Steve Yeowell as artist from Compass. Dark Horse will do a TPB of the Dark Horse issues with an introduction from Grant Morrison. He is also working on a couple of prose short stories he will publish on the net, the first entitled The Diary Of Anne Frankenstein. And the Foot Soldiers film is due in 2 years. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dateline: 04 Mar 1998 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Incomplete Tangent Ramblings are pleased to present the current list for the new DC Tangent line with creators where confirmed (or not).
Personal observation- some bigger character and creator names might help these suckers sell this time round. But don't count on the retailers being so kind... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
They'll Put Anything On TV I appeared on The People Vs. Jerry Sadowitz (Channel 5, 10.30 pm) on British television on March 3rd to promote my comic, The X-Flies and comics in general. Despite being fairly crap I received the "Sadowitz Seal Of Approval", the only one handed out so far, currently stuck to my portfolio. And I've got a stand up gig out of it for May. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dateline: 02 Mar 1998 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From The Ashes... More Ashes. Jim Krueger, Footsoldier creator and Marvel staffer has a new series from Marvel. It's the revival of that much-demanded character... Nighthawk. Nighthawk. Much demanded. You know, Marvel made this mistake with Namor, She-Hulk, Ghost Rider and Guardians Of The Galaxy. And this time there isn't a much-expanded Mania-driven speculator market to prop it up. Ships June. I'm buying all five covers. Talking of interesting marketing decisions... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tangential Decisions DC are doing another bunch of Tangent comics. This time we might get some big character names... Batman by Dan Jurgens might bring in the bucks. Watch this space for a full list of Tangent characters and creators. |
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