Yesterday we reported on a new Gargoyles Spin-off Comic, “The Bad Guys”, which was announced at Wondercon. More news on the subject has been clarified in this message from Greg Weisman.

The series will be black and white and have a 6 issue run. Following a bi-monthly schedule it is planned to start in October of this year.

Frequent readers of the Gargoyles creator’s Ask Greg may be familiar with this concept already.

Back when the Gargoyles TV series was still on the air Greg had ideas for a number of Gargoyles spin-off shows including “The Bad Guys”, which was the series which came closest to realisation. It only stands to reason that this comic will closely resemble the story planned out for this spin-off series.

[Read the rest of this entry…]

Today’s the big finish for WonderCon, and the upcoming animated DVDs from DC were the highlight of the day. Read on, OR ELSE…

DC:

• Superman/Doomsday is due to release on September 18th, 2007. Superman will be voiced by Adam Baldwin, Lois Lane gets Anne Heche, and Lex Luthor is James Marsters.
• The next film to be released will be DC: New Frontier.
• The third animated feature they’re working on – Teen Titans: The Judas Contract – is in pre-production, and will have a different animation style from the recent Teen Titans cartoon. They’ll also stick more tightly to the comic, to differentiate themselves from the similar arc on the series.
• Each movie will have its own ‘pocket’ continuity, where they’re not beholden to each other, or to the previous cartoons. Also, the movies will have more freedom in what they can do (read: they’re going to corrupt our youth with violence), as they aren’t made specifically for TV.
• The DVDs should have a decent amount of special features, like behind-the-scenes featurettes and other extras and games.
• After these three, they’re looking to do films for Aquaman, Wonder Woman, and Catwoman in the future. (The OTHER Big 3 of DC, right?) Bruce Timm’s wishlist for the future includes: The Question, Jonah Hex, New Gods, Kamandi, and Challengers of the Unknown.

IDW:

• For Transformers books, we have an upcoming Spotlight on Kup and one for Galvatron, a Megatron Origin mini, and two “Best Of” books – one for Don Figueroa and one for Simon Furman.
• There will be a Star Trek: Original Series mini which will have two versions of each issue – one in English, one in Klingon. And I was just wondering what could be nerdier than merely mating Star Trek and comics…

GROO THE WANDERER:

• Like we said yesterday, the prognosis on the Groo/Conan crossover looking good.
• Also, Mark Evanier has completed a script for the “Groo the Wanderer” movie, and Sergio Aragonés has completed some art, but at the moment it’s still tied up in negotiations.

Yesterday, at a panel at Wondercon Greg Weisman announced that a new Gargoyles spinoff comic “The Bad Guys” would be released. The name seems to indicate this comic would have something to do with some villains of some kind. This book would, like the current Gargoyles comic, also be released on a bi-monthly schedule so that between the two books one would be released every month.

This will be a nice change of pace from the 5 to 6 month delay between issues that fans have become used to with the last 2 issues that were released in the better part of the last year.

This article goes on to explain some interesting tidbits about the show’s early creation and discusses reasons for the delays to the comic we’re supposed to be ignoring with a smile. Oh sorry I know I’m bringing on God’s fury by saying things like that. Where’s issue 3 again? Even Civil War’s had time to wrap up.

Here’s hoping this will be as good a comic as we still hope the first book will be once they start telling new stories.

Well, in case today’s news updates don’t tip you off, Marvel & DC handed WonderCon the crap end of the stick when it came to breaking the news, compared to NYCC. Thank God for the smaller publishers! And hey, they’re previewing the 300 movie tonight, ain’t that’s pretty sweet too. Hey, here’s the news!

DARK HORSE COMICS:

• New books include an Abe Sapien book, reprints of Matt Wagner’s original Grendel issues (to celebrate the 25th anniversary), a new Grendel book, and, awesomest of the awesome…
• A possible GROO/CONAN crossover. SO AWESOME.

SLAVE LABOR GRAPHICS:

• They’re working on a downloadable-comic plan, and talking about a 69 cent ‘cover price.’ Not a bad pricing scheme.
• Gargoyles #3 has been done for THREE WEEKS. The holdup? Disney. Issues 4-6 will have fill-in art to catch up, which is just sad.

BOOM! STUDIOS:

• Amidst numerous new books launching, Giffen & DeMatteis’s Hero Squared will end at issue #9. My wretched eyes quiver in sorrow!

Well, it’s another weekend, so I guess that means it’s time for another comic convention.
…Really? Ok, I guess so. Here’s the news –

DC:

• Based on a little anecdote (A fan asked that they keep their weekly series the same price, and Didio put 50 cents on the table, saying “I’ve got your first one covered”) it sounds like Countdown gets a 50 cent price hike. Nice.
• Green Arrow ends at issue #75, with Green Arrow proposing to Black Canary.
• There’ll be a Black Canary miniseries running at the same time as this summer’s Green Arrow: Year One.
• WWIII will be “Black Adam versus everybody.”
• A Metal Men miniseries is coming.

More news as it comes…

Source: Newsarama.com

Because we can never have enough animated series starring Spider-Man, Kids’ WB! has just announced a brand new Spidey cartoon, tentatively named The Amazing Spider-Man, set to debut in early 2008.

So far we have Greg Weisman as supervising producer – whose previous credits include Gargoyles, one episode of Ben 10, one episode of The Batman, one episode of Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot, one – you know, you get the idea (don’t forget one episode of Jem!) – and we also have Victor Cook as producer/supervising director – whose recent credits include Hellboy Animated: Blood and Iron, W.I.T.C.H., and various episodes of Tarzan, Lilo & Stitch, and Buzz Lightyear. Hurrah for Disney?

The show will feature a 16-year-old Peter Parker, so I imagine this will be a ground-up telling of his story, much like the Ultimate books. In fact, if they’re smart, they’ll make Ultimate Spider-Man the series bible. I hear that book sells pretty well.

We’ll keep you updated with more news as it trickles in!

Newsarama has an interview up with Marvel’s Mark Millar addressing questions about the recent event Civil War. Toward the end of the interview he unloaded quite a shock…

NRAMA: Finally, before we let you go, what is interesting you/what are you working on outside the realm of comic book publishing?

MM: Like all my pals, the TV and movie people have come calling and even the computer game people (which is weird because games are for pedos and I have no interest).

Uh, what the hell is that supposed to mean, Mark? Are you a little bitter that video games have taken such a massive chunk of revenue out of your target audience?
If he dislikes games thats one thing, but this is kind of insane and I hope he didn’t mean that.

Dr. Strange: The Oath #5 (of 5)
written by Brian K. Vaughan, art by Marcos Martin

This book clearly illustrates why Brian K. Vaughan is one of comics’ top writers today, and why it’s an absolute travesty that he’s going to be writing creator-owned stuff solely from now on. Dr. Strange is often criticised for being too powerful of a character. He waves his hands, and the problem is solved immediately. There’s no limit to what he can do, and so there’s no situation where he’s ever in real danger. Brian K. Vaughan not only slaps these misconceptions in the face, he also goes on to make you excited and eager to read about the guy’s exploits.

In this book, Wong is dying of cancer, and Dr. Strange went to great lengths to find a cure – but then the cure was stolen by a sorcerer who works at a pharmaceutical company who can’t afford for their business to be ruined. Throughout, one of the more surprising aspects that Vaughan has explored is Dr. Strange’s ruined hands – Strange got into sorcery because his hands were mangled in a car accident, putting an end to his days as a surgeon. Another side effect of mangled hands: It’s quite difficult to shoot the giant eye of a giant demonic being strangling your friends – even if it’s Hitler’s gun, which you stole from your enemy – when your fingers are unsteady and crooked. Oh, and Night Nurse has been hanging out with them the whole time which, I promise you, is pretty awesome and brilliant in itself.

What Vaughan does is take the core components of the character – previously a doctor, has ruined hands, now practices sorcery – and celebrates them in the midst of a compelling and exciting story. I’ve never read a Dr. Strange story that equals this one, and if you’ve got any sense whatsoever, you’ll scoop up all 5 issues of this mini when you hit the shop tomorrow.