I had the opportunity to meet Chris Burnham recently at Emerald City Comicon in Seattle – and I got a Batgirl head shot sketch! Burnham is joining Grant Morrison on a new Batman Incorporated. The new title is part of DC Comics New 52: The Second Wave. DC revealed preview art and a new quote from the artist.
Batman Incorporated #1 courtesy DC Comics
“Oh, man, I am so excited for this book to come out! Grant and I have put our all into making this the best reading experience possible. We’re trying to do away with the widescreen movie-wannabe comics of the last ten or fifteen years and make the comicbookiest comics we’re capable of. Breaking borders, impossible perspectives, intricate panel interplay, sound effects, speed lines, splash pages, and some stuff that I’m not quite sure how to put into words. Words are Grant’s department, anyway!
We’re throwing everything we can think of at the wall and I’m pretty sure most of it’s sticking. It’s exciting, dramatic, funny, violent, deadly serious, utterly ridiculous, and, hopefully, moving. We’re doing our darnedest to dress the entirety of human experience up in tights for 20 pages a month and punch it right in the teeth.”
The Easter Bunny shared the spotlight with some of Marvel’s most famous heroes at the 134th Annual White House Easter Egg Roll. Marvel.com revealed this photo of Spider-Man, Captain America, Thor and Iron Man at The White House for the April 9th event.
Can you imagine the kids seeing Earth’s Mightiest Heroes?
Chinese movie star Andy Lau (Infernal Affairs) is in talks to join Iron Man 3 according to Neon Punch. Easy fanboys, Lau will NOT be playing the Mandarin but a scientist who helps Tony Stark with technology to fight the main villains of the film played by Ben Kingsley and Guy Pearce according to Dark Horizons. The film will be shot on location in China after wrapping up in North Carolina.
The film is based on Iron Man Extremisand will not feature the infamous Mandarin, the Asian criminal mastermind with ten rings of power.
Here’s the Amazon link to Extremis if you’d like to get an idea of Tony’s third film adventure.
Sketch Duel Round 1 at Fan Expo Vancouver, photo by ComicsBlend.com
3 artists. 1 hour. A room packed with fans – 3 lucky ones would leave with a sketch. We all left with great stories in a unique non-panel panel experience. This was one of my favorite part of Fan Expo Vancouver this past weekend.
Mike Choi, Stephen Sadowski and Georges Jeanty were pitted in this friendly competition. While they created art, fans asked questions, laughed at the name-dropping (I’m talking to you Mr. “Joss Whedon called me up “Jeanty) and the wisecracks (Mr. “Well Nathan Fillion called me” Mike Choi with the quick wit comebacks.)
Sketch Duel Round 1 at Fan Expo Vancouver, photo by ComicsBlend.com
When asked about their favorite heroes: Stephen Sadowski revealed Nightwing. Sadowski is usually sporting a Nighwing logo t-shirt at most cons and he was showing his Nightwing pride here. He reflected that seeing Burt Ward at Fan Expo reminded him of why he loved Robin. Dick Grayson didn’t have powers. He just wanted to be a hero. He said his favorite work was on JSA with Geoff Johns.
Georges Jeanty named the Thing as his favorite hero and references the classic Marvel Two-in-One series in which Ben Grimm was paired up with a different hero each issue.- Jeanty also named Tigra and couldn’t believe he saw a fangirl dressed as the Avenger at Emerald City Comicon in Seattle. I remember seeing her too – great body paint work!
What were the weirdest fan requests? Sadowski said there’s a guy who goes around collecting sketches of superheroes eating pie. After many close encounters, Sadowski said he finally gave in and did the hero/pie sketch. I asked from the audience “who was the hero eating the pie?”
“Wildcat,” he responded. I can see that, he’s a boxer, needs the carbs.
Jeanty revealed his biggest fan request was a commission of Buffy kissing Willow. He produced a rated G version of the Slayer kissing the witch on the cheek – much to the disappointment of the guy who expecting a racier kiss.
Mike Choi's Round 1 Sketch at Fan Expo Vancouver, photo by ComicsBlend.com
The results – Choi produced a beautiful Emma Frost sketch. The White Queen in the audience didn’t win.
Georges Jeanty Sketch Round 1 at Fan Expo Vancouver, photo by ComicsBlend.com
Jeanty revealed an adorable but empowering Buffy, the Vampire Slayer sporting a Supergirl uniform.
Stephen Sadowski Sketch Round 1 at Fan Expo Vancouver, photo by ComicsBlend.com
Stephen Sadowski showed that Aquaman is awesome – and a fangirl dressed as Mystique walked away with! By Editor
Sketch Duel Round 1 at Fan Expo Vancouver, photo by ComicsBlend.com
Northstar’s past is coming back with a vengeance. A new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants is back on the attack. Marjorie Liu and Mike Perkins kicked off their Astonishing X-Men run with a frightening future sequence involving Northstar on the run from his new teammates.
Issue 48 revealed Northstar and boyfriend Kyle’s home life in New York City and Gambit getting cozy with Dr. Cecelia Reyes (another blast from the past) when Wolverine, Iceman and Warbird show up.
Issue 49 is out and I’m eager for a major fight with this new villain team (which appears to be a mix of Matt Fraction’s Sisterhood and the Marauders from the Messiah Complex epic.) There must be a ton of quick action because a wedding is scheduled for next month’s issue.
Double the cover for 007. Empire magazine revealed their upcoming Skyfall covers celebrating the new James Bond film. The first has Daniel Craig in full color over other film images. The second is Daniel Craig looking cool in black and white – reminding me of the black and white pre-title sequence from Casino Royale.
Batman, Incorporated is back with a new number one! It’s part of the DC Comics The New 52: the Second Wave. Grant Morrison and Chris Burnham chronicle the Bat brand gone global. DC revealed this gorgeous variant by Frank Quitely, Morrison’s collaborator on New X-Men and Batman and Robin.
Tony Daniel at Fan Expo Vancouver, photo by ComicsBlend.com
Tony Daniel made a rare appearance at Fan Expo Vancouver, the city’s first major comicon. The creative force of DC The New 52 Detective Comics shared his take on Batman’s foes and the new villains he’s bringing to plague Gotham City.
“Batman has the greatest rogue’s gallery of all the comic book characters in the world probably so it’s easy to use those characters and find something fun and creative that you’ll enjoy as a writer and the fans will enjoy because they love seeing these villains.
What I try to do in Detective is bring in a little bit of the new as well as a little bit of the old. I created a character named the Dollmaker who I think fits in rather well with the other characters, the other villains taking up residence in Gotham City.”
Daniel launched his Detective Comics run with a violent showdown and shocking cliffhanger for Batman’s archrival and his favorite villain.
“My favorite villain…well my favorite villain is the Joker but I’ve only used him sparingly. I worked with the Joker in Grant Morrison’s RIP. That was a lot of fun. (Say Thank you to my gushing!) That was…you know…I can’t believe I was part of that it was just a great experience. I’m lucky to have done the work with Grant on that. And then of course Detective Comics #1 I show a nice fight, battle that goes on between Batman and the Joker and we leave it off with his face hanging on the wallI would love to get back to him. I can’t say when but I’m sure it will be soon because we can’t leave him hanging there so to speak.”
Detective Comics #1 courtesy DC Comics
Detective Comics #8 was the start of a backup story starring Two-Face. Daniel says you may experience conflicting feelings for Harvey Dent with this tale.
“He’s pretty much the protagonist of the story so you gonna end up rooting for him. He’s kind of the good guy in the story but he’s still a bad guy so it’s the perfect noir style story which I absolutely love that. Those old school detective stories. The Jim Thompson stories. He’s a great noir book writer – one of the groundbreaking writers from the 50’s and 60’s. I love that pulp fiction type atmosphere and I’m going to bring that to my Two-Face backup story so I’m having a lot of fun with that.”
Daniel praised artist Szymon Kudransky as the perfect fit for back up story.
September will mark the one year anniversary of DC Comics The New 52 with big plans for Detective Comics. Daniel says he will change-up the villains.
“One of the characters we’ve seen before in the Penguin arc at the Iceberg Casino. He’s the guy that shows up and gives Batman some trouble and we deal with a lot of radiation and villains that are experimental. We have one guy who is a new 52 version of Professor Radium so we haven’t seen that guy in a long time and I kind of breathed new life into that character but he’s new…he’s a 52 version so he’s not the same Professor Radium so hopefully people will like that. It’s a story I’m writing and Ed Benes is doing the art work.”
Daniel expressed his ambition to create a story with Clayface and a bigger arc with the Scarecrow. Detective Comics #1 ended with a shocking fate for the Joker and Daniel hopes to dive back into the fate of Batman’s archenemy.
In the Fan Expo Sketch Duel against Whilce Portacio and Yanick Paquette, Daniel revealed his early comic book dreams were inspired by KISS and how the love of the rock band led to this first commissioned work. I asked if he shared my love for the movie KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park.
“I did and when I was a kid man I loved that show. I like 7-year-old – it was a long time ago. As a kid those guys are like superheroes. They’re more than like rock stars. Every kid in my class loved KISS just because they look crazy and had the makeup on – dragons and space guys and what not. What I remember it was so weird. But back then you didn’t have video recorders, Tivo – you watch it once and when it’s over you’re like, man what did I just see. Today you can rewind and watch it again. It was such a weird – you know maybe that screwed me up or something it was very…I just remember it being very bizarre. I’m sure if I watched it now I might feel disappointed in it (laughs) but it was super cool back then as a child.
(I interject asking about how KISS art was his first paying work so to speak)
Yeah it was my first commission. I drew a giant poster size picture of all of four characters. One kid was gonna buy it from me for like two dollars and another kid was gonna give me a big giant stack of basically the entire collection of KISS trading cards and I went with the trading cards and ended up getting into a brawl afterwords with the guy that lost. So yeah, you know blood, sweat and tears from age 7 on with the art.”
Detective Comics #9 arrives May 2nd featuring Mr. Toxic and the Two-Face backup story.
By Editor
My only regret – not bringing more books to be signed – including Gambit and the X-ternals – anybody remember that one?
