Kick Ass is officially showing at a theater near you. Reviewers’ hype for this film, along with blogs, is positive it would seem. Of course I take all reviews with a grain of salt until I see something myself and am able to throw in my own two cents. Hopefully, I’ll get to see the movie myself this evening, with all the other fan boys and girls.

Looking ahead we only have 21 days until Iron Man 2 hits theaters. I may pee my spandex pants in anticipation for this one. Hero Complex, the LA Times’ entertainment/comics blog is dropping behind-the-scene tidbits of the film along with a countdown clock on a regular basis. I’m enjoying what I am reading there about Iron Man 2.

It is particularly intriguing to read director John Favreau’s approach for the second  installment of what is to be at least a trilogy of Iron Man films when confronted with the fact Marvel hopes to do an Avenger’s film with the title character between films 2 and 3. For one it means a long delay before the third film, and two it means Favreau will have to deal with any potential impact on the character in what is the most ambitious ensemble movie I can think of.  (And Marvel studios still has Thor and Captain America to debut before Iron Man as well) So, no cliffhangers for IM2. Favreau describes how he still tried to craft a couple of potential story points to propel his piece of the Marvel franchise forward when it returns.

On the Avengers’ front perhaps the most interesting news is the tentative commitment from Joss Whedon to direct the mega-summer blockbuster. The news is a gamble on a gamble. The man has done well continuing his Buffy The Vampire work in comics in recent years, along with the Doctor Horrible musical and comics in general, but lost ground with the big networks who dropped Firefly after season one and Doll House after season 2. He’s also been dismissive in the past when asked about directing The Avengers. Dicey.

On the plus side though, he has a huge fan base, shows genuine talent when left alone and given a chance (Buffy and Horrible). Serenity, the film ending to Firefly, was fantastic too. And really, I met Whedon at a convention. He’s a generally nice and pretty enthusiastic guy. So here is hoping The Avengers can truly assemble in a mind blowing, exceeds all expectations fashion.

The only recent potential bad news in terms of comic books to film news is Jonah Hex. It seems Warner Bros. is having a hell of a time delivering even a trailer on this film about a bedeviled and scarred gunslinger based on the DC Comics/Vertigo character. The cast looks solid enough with Josh Brolin as Hex. Of course the studio took a chance (in my opinion) with Jimmy Hayward, a Pixar animator turned director. And maybe that is where the trouble is. Or maybe it’s Warner Bros., who I personally feel are dubious at best when it comes to their comic book properties (they own DC).

As Marvel produces a monsoon of mostly successes, now backed by Disney as well, Waner Bros. gave us a mediocre Superman remake, a collapsed rumor of a Justice League film, and a promise of Green Lantern we can only hope is good. Oh, they also empaled Superman in the 80s and Batman in the 90s, only having resurrected the latter franchise with one hell of a director, actor, and script (it’s glowing star so full of promise). Oh, they also gave us Shaq as Steel. How could we forget?

Anyway, what seems to be going on with Hex, according to Mtv’s Splash Page, is recent reshoots after primary filming is complete, an addition of 12 pages to the script, and delays-delays-delays with that trailer for a film due out in June. Plus the studio is bringing in “special” advisors, supposedly.

Sigh.

This does not sound good at all in terms of the quality of the actual film. And it’s heartbreaking too, because honestly, DC Comics and Vertigo have always been a favorite of mine. But you got to respect quality, so Kick Ass.

That said, I’m tempted to go ahead and read reviews of other works. Instead I decided to pick through news and reviews of books I either don’t read, or comic book news in general.

Here is what I read so far:

1. Action Comics #1 received solid reviews in Newsarama (linked) and Comic Resource Guide. In particular Francis Manapul received high praise for his artwork in both reviews. It seems Conner has been taken back to basics and retrenched back into the DCU in preparation for future adventures by writer Geoff Johns. Just by reading the reviews I am glad that Conner is back. He and John Henry Irons were my favorite characters to have come out of the whole Reign of Supermen storyline way back when. Conner’s maturing as a character has been fun to watch and I do think he brings something to the table in terms of possible stories with his unique origin.
2. The Marvels Project #1. Having read a bit of this in preview form the CBR review of issue one makes this sound like a great book to be following, especially if you love Marvel continuity and want to see its past a little more fleshed out and connections between characters made. This seems to be Marvel’s dawn of the superhero title that will frame much of what already exists in Marvel U from the perspective of an insider, instead of the outside casual observer.
3. Thank goodness. It is being reported today that Darwyn Cooke’s The Hunter, which is sold out, is being set up for a second printing by publisher IDW. The Hunter has been on the New York Times bestseller list for two weeks and has received infinite praise from critics, both comics based and more mainstream.
4. Yesterday marked the two years since Mike Wieringo passed suddenly. He was a fantastic artist and one of my personal favorites for his unique style of drawing. There are memorials for his passing here, here, and here. Also, Wieringo’s own blog can still be viewed here.

Of course nothing will make me happier than to read my tasty line up of the evil dead rising up in comics this week once I sit down in an easy chair under a non-leaky roof.

Over-all it was a cool experience. It was the first time I ever saw Stan Lee in person and saw the big booths of Marvel and DC and before I remember hearing the buzz about San Diego. My buddies credentials probably made the trip a little more fun too.

Of course this remembrance was sparked by a recent opinion piece by Troy Brownfield on Newsarama and the accompanying comments about this years Chicago Con. With the two big publishers not there I’m personally sort of saddened by what seems like a shift in con schedules and popularity, while at the same time appreciating there is a verdant field for smaller publishers, alternative presses, and artists to bask in the exposure and con spotlight without having it lost in the loud roar of television and Hollywood. If anything I wish I had more cash and time to visit this con, Heroes Con, and the New York City con so I could make the call myself on what might play out and work better.

But I just know, as I look at the Superman for All Seasons poster I had signed at the DC booth in 1998, that Chicago might feel a little less without the booths of the big two.

Obviously, like all media, digital aspects of the business have grown exponentially since that time.   I probably would never have realized how much the new medium revolution could potentially affect the habits of comic book readers like myself if I had stuck with my tentative plan to get back into reading regular. It involved either borrowing trades off  friends and then collecting the books myself, or limiting myself to those books that I could check out at my local library for free, to ease back into collecting. (Lame I know, but I’m also cheap and comics are my crack)

It was a chance tweet on Twitter of all places that introduced me to the comic book matrix, a healthy Digital social media web that changed my approach dramatically.

Like any good little obsessive/neurotic type I took that one “discovered” Tweep (Mark Waid of Boom! Comics in a hilarious ‘twitter war’ with Gail Simone) and went down the data pipe of following artists, writers, editors, recruiters, and those who report on comics at sites with a strong web presence. Before I knew it I was following over 80 comic book folks, many of whom promoted their own interests and works in under 140 words.

These folks also lead me to a plethora of comic book Podcasts by those who cover comics that I was able to download to my iPhone. The podcasts recommended a whole host of reads with great discussion in order to give me a basis to start shaping my new pull list on a limited budget. Many, such as some of the iFanboy video podcasts gave me the background I needed to follow such things as Blackest Night, along with a recommended GL reading list with direct links to Amazon where I could purchase those titles in trades.

Perhaps the biggest revolution though came after reading Isotope comic shop owner James Sime on Twitter promoting a new Web 2.0 venture, Comixology. The site has a free and paid application through iPhone, as well as a site on-line (much like iFanboy.com) that organizes, tracks, previews, reviews, rates, and pulls comics for ever Wednesday shipment of books. It also has a spotlight to highlight more independent works each week and pages that grow a community organically around the multi-publisher platform promotional tool.

As a concept ComiXology blew my doors off. It builds itself around the comics community and appears to be as inclusive to publishers as possible. Basically, as a word herder in community journalism and having seen multiple attempts in my own industry for individual publications to try to jockeying for platform position within various niches, it is astounding to see a third party organize and promote multiple sources for its audience that seems beneficial to all parties involved. Of course this is an outgrowth of the paper publications that would list solicitations for weekly publications no doubt, but the bringing together of all elements of what can be done on-line is fascinating to watch and use.

Most recently the group at ComiXology launched Comics, an application that allows folks to view previews and free issues, and to purchase comics on-line or on iPhones (as well as guiding them to purchasing the paper products). This test drive approach to allow participants to view comics before purchase has me reading one more title. And I like the way the frame transition of comics works on my iPhone.

Even better, competition for Comics seems to be on the way with a project called Longbox by Rantz Hoseley. In a long interview on CBR the project is being described as an ‘iTunes for comics’ that will allow download purchases as seamlessly as possibly from multiple participating publishers of not only paper comics in a digital form, but solely digital comics too. A whole host of community features will be provided as well according to Hoseley who is partnering with CBR for news content on Longbox. A tentative release date for the project, which is in closed beta, is set for September or October according to the CBR article.

These ventures move much further to empower the reader and allow them to make choices in a sprawling market. I know a digital approach to disseminating news about comics and the comics themselves has introduced me to titles, publishing companies, and independent works I may never have been introduced to before. (Quite humorously I got around to listening last week’s Around Comics podcast after I posted this to hear the gang in Chicago basically say the same thing about comic podcasts. Great minds.)

Of course this does not even broach the subject of solely on-line comics that already exist like Zuda, Marvel, Top Shelf 2.0, motion comics, and others. Hopefully they participate with projects like ComiXology and/or Longbox to aggregate their catalogue of works as well.

For someone like myself, whose been out of the game for a while, this robust on-line presence for comics is a spectacular thing. May the Digital age of comics be golden.

The reviewer of First Flight believes fans will enjoy it and if a Green Lantern film does materialize this does well in helping to promote the character of Hal Jordan to greater prominence between fans of the DCU. The review will at least have me adding the 70 minute animated film to my Netflix list.

Oh, and speaking of Con, @nerdybird put up this wonderfully geekish YouTube posting of the Green Lantern oath being spoken aloud by a host of fans at a Geoff Johns panel.

Twitter

Follow the right people on the social networking tool and you get a chance to live vicarious through the chaotic schedule of various folks attached to comics, anecdotes from ground zero and signing locations if you are actually at the convention. Plus my following list has grown with all the additional mentions made during tweets. Here are my top five faves as I sit and monitor the madness in cube world:

@amandapalmer: Though she’s not in the industry per se, her boyfriend Neil Gaiman is, thus she’s at the Con too. Her tweeting habits usually include lots of pics of where ever she is and in true form she’s posted a large number of images of her with folks on the convention floor. She also tends to give away some cool stuff to events (like giving away tickets to her performance for the CBLDF). Well played Ms. Palmer.

@perazza: If there is one thing Ron Perazza, overseer of Zuda Comics, has shown through his tweets it’s that online comic creators know how to party. Perazza’s tweets have usually been the latest into the evening. He does a great job of reporting what he’s heard on the convention floor (“high five for sluts!” being one of my favorites) and offers a host of other folks on twitter to follow as he lets you know what he’s doing on the floor every step of the way.

@CBCebulski: Been following C.B. Cebulski before Con started. The talent scout for Marvel Comics is awesome simply for the fact he’s freely dispersed advice to artists wanting to break into the industry for days and puts no bull into his feedback. At con he’s been fun to follow just because of where he’s been and who he’s met. So far he’s brushed up against Megan Fox and mused on smelling of gin and sweet perfume by nights end. Come on, who can’t be jealous of that?

@neilkleid: Writer and artist Neil Kleid is a funny guy on twitter, no doubt about it. The author of the upcoming Big Kahn graphic novel does not seem to be having the best of times on the convention floor. I’d imagine the agonizing pain of being at the center of all that chaos must feel as tragic and definitely reads as funny as Kleid depicts it. Buy that man a beer.

@jamessime: The owner of Isotope Comics in San Fransisco scours the floor of the convention in his custom suits and rather tall hair snapping pics and sharing his enthusiasm for ray guns and golden lasso martinis.

Online

The plethora of sites covering Comic-Con is too large in scope to even begin to cover here. Here are a few usual suspects.

Youtube: A smattering of videos are already starting to crop up on Youtube via official interviews and releases such as FUNimation. Other publishers and reporters are there too, along with some of the pirated video footage from panels, that honestly are never that great or cool.

Newsarama: The popular culture and comic book site has thrown together a page of all of their coverage. The panel blogging and live feeds are great for those of us not there. With the torrent of news and announcements made at SDCC the staff here does a pretty decent fantastic job at keeping up with a lot of it and picking their panel coverage well.

Marvel: And props to Marvel for the great coverage of their own events and panels at SDCC. Their page is pretty well layed out, highlights their products and provides us voyeurs with videos of daily events. DC could learn something from them. I mean there schedules are there on the website, buried, but I wonder if they considered the popularity of the con on the home pae and us fans who aren’t there?

and finally:

Pop Candy: And finally I can’t leave out Whitney Matheson’s USA Today Pop Candy blog. Though Whitney is doing the majority of her day-in-day-out reporting via a video diary and twitter this site does extremely well in introducing a wide variety of people to comics whom might not otherwise be exposed. And yes, this is the site whose coverage ignited my passion for Con. Hopefully Whitney survives her grueling coverage schedule and all the additional writing duties I’m sure she is pulling. It was lovely attending her meet up last year and I know the one this year will be as fun (hopefully with follow-up for all of those not there). Though I never really engaged fully in the following and community all the people that were there were super-nice.

Of course, what I’m missing in my follow are some sites and people on tweet more focused on the independent publisher/small publishing company sites and events. Please feel free to add to the list of my vicarious observing sources in comments.

It saddens me that the game has been in development this long. I remember seeing it at the Con last year and wanting to purchase it and play it, like, today. Wolfman’s interview only has me that much more stoked. Plus, I do enjoy the fact that the creative team are comic artists and Wolfman is part of that. His gaming tweets definitely show his credentials for wanting to help create a great online gaming experience.

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