Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates, Run Around | Tagged: Comics

Thursday Runaround – When Batgirl Came To Town

Published Thu, 28 Jul 2011 05:43:35 -0500

Last updated Thu, 28 Jul 2011 05:52:53 -0500

BeanoWatch: This week's Beano is a special National Trust issue...

This week's special issue of The Beano comic is the first time the National Trust has given fictional characters keys to all of its 300 homes and access to the 617,500 acres of land it cares for.

National Trust chiefs hope The Beano gang will bring its places to life and prove that its doors are open to all, breaking down any preconceptions about the organisation.

The Beano's team of illustrators and comic whizzes have had full creative control as favourite characters – including Dennis the Menace and Billy Whizz – conquer castles and race ponies across grand estates.

HulkWatch: Marvel seem to be setting up the Hulk for a fall in Hulk Vs Dracula, next week.

PublicityWatch: Comic shops get press for their Spider-Man retailer variant…

StoreWatch: Atomik! Pop of Norman, Oklahoma to close…

Bush said he has been selling comic books from the store's location on Main Street for the 27 years the business has been open, but the recession has had a big impact on Atomik Pop!

Bush attributes the closure to what he calls the "digital comic revolution." In a time when gas is $4 a gallon and the unemployment rate is rising, people are buying their comics through Amazon and similar sites, leaving local businesses in need of a hero, Bush said.

FlashpointWatch: It's been noted that Marvel are not accepting strupped covers of Canterbury Cricket towards their Fear Itself variant promotion. Why? Apparently they're saying if anyone was stupid enough to order too many copies of that one…

…of course it's also written by Mike Carlin, and there's not a lot of love lost there.

PanelWatch: Batgirl's assault on Dan DiDio and friends at San Diego Comic Con gets collated and then interviewed;

"I've been called a 'bully' and 'rude' by people who weren't even at SDCC. When I stepped up to the mic, the room was already prepared to shout me down. Didio was ready to deflect me any way he could, instead of attempting to answer my question. Why is there this active hostility toward questions about female creators, both from the audience and from Didio? There is greater female representation in the characters of the comics than in the creators of those comics! Out of all the pencillers, inkers, and writers on the New DCU, are there any women other than Amy Reeder and Gail Simone? If there are, I haven't been able to find them."

CameoWatch: When a kid won the chance to be in a Todd McFarlane Spider-Man comic.

Last year, at SDCC 2010, I printed out a HUGE copy of the page that I was on, and had McFarlane sign it for me. (He probably thought I was a psycho, but whatever.)

This is Computo the Comic Link Conqueror speaking. I come for your women. But for now I merely collate comic-related bits and pieces online. One day I will rule. Until that day, read on.

They say I am a work in progress. The fools.

Marvel Season One | Marvel Heroes | Comic News | News | Marvel.com

"We're trying to reach an audience that right now is more familiar with our most popular iconic characters from movie and TV screens, as animated features, as video game characters, or characters that they've seen or heard of in the news, on t-shirts, sneakers, and popular food brands," explains David Gabriel, Marvel Senior Vice President of Sales. "We wanted a book product that speaks to these folks, who know how cool the characters look, but haven't necessarily become aware of the books that these heroes have starred in for over 50 years.

'The Avengers' and the Hulk: Kevin Feige explains a new approach | Hero Complex – movies, comics, fanboy fare – latimes.com

The most important thing is that face. As you can already see in that concept painting, it is — more than any Hulk that's ever been done in live action — a Hulk that let's you see the actor in there. You will be able to see Ruffalo in there. That was a big revelation for us. It's just a concept painting, but in that you can see the [influence of Marvel Comics pioneer and original Hulk artist Jack] Kirby, as people have already pointed out, but also, and equally important in this case, Ruffalo's eyes and his cheek structure. It is him.

Neil Gaiman and Grant Morrison having a chat | The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

So Neil Gaiman and Grant Morrison are chatting on the phone about Grant's new book Supergods (out now from Jonathan Cape), and Entertainment Weekly just happened to be listening in (in a nice, authorised manner, not in some shady News of the World nasty way, I hasten to add!):

NG: I'm in this wonderfully blank position on this one, because I haven't actually seen the book. So instead of doing that thing where I say, "I really liked that thing and can you expand upon it?", we're now in the position, as we would be over dinner, when I say, "So you've got a book out! What's it about?"

GM: It's about us. It's about all the things we went through as kids, with comic books and superheroes. Why have they taken over the world and why are they so ubiquitous on the buses and on the tube trains and such? I devised a theory. That thing that was started in 1938 has been growing and growing and colonizing more minds and is starting to come into our real lives. I kind of think that superhero movies tend to represent this Utopian ideal of humanity because we've run out of them. There is no space program here anymore. I'm sure in China people feel slightly different about this, but certainly here in the West, it's almost a time of disaster and apocalypse. It's kind of obvious that a superhero would arise in a time of disaster and apocalypse and stand with hands on hips to remind us that we're all okay.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!