May 5th, 2007 marks the sixth time the comic book industry will come together to celebrate the spirit of specialty Comic Book Shops around the world. The titles being given away this year are extremely solid and include selections from every major comic publisher, as well as a number of issues from smaller, independent artists. The sheer number of styles and genres available may make choosing individual comics incredibly difficult. Transformers the Movie Prequel # 1, Amazing Spider-Man Swing Shift, and Justice League of America # 0 are just a few of the almost 30 titles that will be available, so remember to call your local shop and ask if they will be participating in this year’s festivities.

Check out the “Free Comic Book Day” website here

Full list of “Free Comic Book Day” titles

The modern day comic book is one of the few original American art forms. They have been a mainstay of popular culture for close to 70 years, and the lifeblood of the industry is still the neighborhood specialty shop. Show support for your favorite shop by stopping in this Saturday and picking up a free book, (and buying another for yourself).

This reminder brought to you by your Friendly Neighborhood Bloggerman! ‘Nuff said!

The image above comes from a few weeks back, when Terrence Howard (playing Jim “Rhodey” Rhodes in the movie) came by Edwards Air Force Base in California for some training. Recently, when Howard made a return trip to the base, this time he brought everyone back with him, and director Jon Favreau set up camp to do three days of filming.

The article from Edwards AFB’s actual website talks a bit about locations they used, shares some quotes from Favreau, and even has some personal quotes from the members of the Air Force:

At Edwards AFB, Mr. Stark and his sidekick, Lt. Col. Jim Rhodes, brought their comic book characters to life against a bustling backdrop of high-tech aircraft, a dry lakebed that’s a secondary landing strip for the space shuttle, and stretches of desert to be depicted in the movie as Afghanistan.

“I didn’t think it would be that big of a deal, but my friends who got involved with it had a great time, so I didn’t want to miss out on this one,” he said.

The article continues with a few more quotes from various members of the Air Force who enjoyed their time working on the film, including one man who just wants his son to be able see him in a movie, another who actually did get to work on the Transformers movie, and even one guy who was just happy his Porsche got put in the film.

Courtesy of Entertainment Weekly, the world gets its first look at the ketchup-and-mustard flavored suit Robert Downey Jr. will be wearing in Jon Favreau’s Iron Man. The suit was designed by Oscar-winning special effects man Stan Winston, who has quite an impressive resume to his name, spanning from Edward Scissorhands to Predator to Galaxy Quest to Terminator 2 … and the list goes on and on.

Favreau had made a cryptic comment on myspace yesterday, saying, “Check out this weeks EW. You might want to check their website as well.” And clearly, this is the payoff. I only wish they had a bigger image to share than the one showing on the left.

As for the suit itself, it definitely looks, for lack of a better word, right. I can’t say I’m surprised; they did such a glorious job on the grey suit that I expected them to knock this one out of the park as well. As cool (and comics-accurate) as the suit might look though, it turns out (not too surprisingly) that it’s a bit of a chore to wear. “Robert was very bullish on wearing the suit whenever possible,” said Favreau. “Now I don’t know if he’s such a fan of that idea.” Oh, you crazy Hollywood people, not wanting to walk around in giant, heavy, sweaty mech-suits.

Check it out here

The sequel to 2005’s Fantastic Four looks to be better than the original, but the transition of Galactus from Purple-Helmeted World Devourer to gaseous nebula is disturbing. I was really hoping the creators would go all out and adhere to canon, but I suppose the mainstream ticket holder might be a bit put off by a corporeal Galactus.

Perhaps I’m jumping the gun. Maybe, just maybe, the destroyer of worlds will show up in the third act and and silence the jaded critic inside me.

Regardless, the Surfer looks great!

New Avengers/Transformers #1 may come out in July, but the first glimpse of the interiors has just been made available for your viewing pleasure – just click on the thumbnail on your left. It’s the pencilwork for page 19 (of the 32-page book), as drawn by Tyler Kirkham.

I realize it’s not much, but at least we’re getting an idea of what the interiors will look like. And hey, we even get to see a glimpse of the two groups standing face to face. More or less. I kind of hope this isn’t the first meeting though – otherwise, what are the first 18 pages being spent on? I guess if that’s mostly Doctor Doom and Decepticons running around together, I could live with that. Personally, I’m loving that Doom is the Marvel equivalent to ALL of the Decepticons. That’s a lot of sneaky bastardliness to fit in one human being.

As previously announced, the book goes on sale Thursday July 5th (not on Wednesday the 4th as it’s a little local holiday) and will cost $2.99.

David Goyer, known more for writing movies like Batman Begins and the Blade trinity, will be flexing his directing muscles when he goes to work on the upcoming Magneto movie. There’s not a lot of concrete details about the film, but ICv2.com tells us, “The story will focus on the early life of Magneto with his parents in Aushwitz, and hunting down Nazi war criminals after the war.”

Don’t let Goyer’s presence make you think this movie is a guaranteed winner though – the only completed movies we’ve seen from writer Shelden Turner are 2005’s The Longest Yard (starring Adam Sandler) and 2006’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. I remain optimistic, but very, very, very wary.

Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark.

Source: USA Today

Well at least they’re being upfront about it.

This is a promotional image that popped up online on Omelete.com for some reason. A new animated series for the X-Men has been in the works for some time, and we’d heard they would “focus” on Wolverine, but I didn’t imagine he’d get top billing like that. Take a look at Xavier in the background. He’s got new legs like Lt Dan.

Where is there room for the other major X-men players? Will there even be any character development for secondary characters? I realize thats a lot to assume from a single image, but they’re the ones who put Wolverine in 400 pt font.

Marvel is producing this themselves, not unlike the Avengers or Iron Man movies they’ve already released. Steve Blum will play Wolverine, no word yet if he’ll use the same voice he always uses in every role he’s ever played.