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------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Yahoo! Domains - Claim yours for only $14.70 http://us.click.yahoo.com/Z1wmxD/DREIAA/yQLSAA/bGIolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> CBEM 476 rolls on with ALL THE RAGE . . . Lost Horizon Paul Dini, one of the key creators behind the Batman and Superman animated series, announced last week that he was leaving Warner Brothers Animation. He issued the following statement on his website: A number of folks who visit this site have followed my writing and producing career at Warner Bros. Animation over the past fifteen years. It is now with a mixture of excitement and sadness that I announce, effective immediately, I am leaving WBA, at least for the foreseeable future. From assorted Spielbergia through Batmen present and future, onto Superman, Duck Dodgers and finally closing out on JLA and a certain super powered pup, I was lucky to work on some great projects with a truly gifted assortment of artists and writers. I'll miss them Part of me hates to leave ol' Termite Tower (the somewhat presumptuous name the Tiny Toons crew and I gave our digs in Sherman Oaks when we started back in, yikes, 1989!) but new opportunities are calling and it's time for me to go. On the horizon I look forward to doing more live feature film writing, more comic book writing (my own characters and others) and generally stretching myself in other creative areas. But a nice long vacation is what I need right now and I think I'll lose myself on a desert island for a while. Speculation regarding Dini's next undertaking has centered on "Project X", of which Dini has said only that it is "not a cartoon, movie or comic book, but something completely different." However, Toonzone is now reporting that Dini will be writing for the upcoming action/adventure TV series, Lost. The series will premiere on ABC in September, and was created by J.J. Abrams (Alias). This Has A "Finding Your Own Shangri-La" Factor of Six Out of Ten Mr. Singularity Ben Templesmith (30 Days of Night) is currently working on Singularity 7, which will be his first full-published comic as both writer and artist. The series envisions a dark future, in which seven disparate people are brought together in a last ditch effort to save the human race from a nanotechnological plague. When asked about his inspiration for the series, Templesmith replied: I've read a few `speculative future: this is what nanotech can do for us' type books, and try to stay abreast of the news really. The concept of what nanotechnology can do for us is pretty mind blowing if you think about it. Other than that, I'm no real scientist, and don't pretend to be an expert. The book isn't hard science. I just don't believe you should ever stop learning, so I'm always looking for interesting things and facts. Basically, the heart of Singularity 7 is about change, survival and what you do to ensure that. Using nanotechnology, and what it's capable of to push the story wherever it might go. Genre wise... it's got elements of a few things, but I'm not really one to try and classify anything exactly. That's for others to do depending on what they think of it in the end really. Singularity 7 will be a four issue miniseries. The first issue is due out in July. This Has A "Gravitational Forces" Factor of Nine Out of Ten Positive Reinforcement Randy Milholland, the writer/artist of Something Positive and New Gold Dream webcomics, recently posted the following message: I've been getting some complaints as of late, and I'd like to address them as well as make all of you an offer. I am the first to admit my spelling is FAR from wonderful. Yes, I do have proof-readers, but you have to understand: I work forty hours a week at my normal job, and at least as much on Something Positive. See, that's a lot of time, isn't it? And, no, I don't mean forty hours of drawing. I'm talking about site maintenance, responding to emails, ad sales and THEN drawing. By the time I'm able to squeeze doing the comic in, it's usually very, very late. And I'm tired. And whoever I'm getting to proof my work is either just going to bed in one time zone, or waking up in another. Neither are going to be at the top of their game. So I spend a lot of time just working. This wears one down. So do the aggravating and condescending emails. No, I'm not talking about people emailing me to say, "You misspelled a word," or, "there's a broken link on the site." That's cool. I appreciate those people. I'm talking about emails that go on and on about my "apparent inability to place letters correctly" and make bold claims like, "I'm one of those freaks who is just about incapable of making or overlooking these kinds of errors, so if you'd like to make use of my preternatural English abilities." Both are real quotes from people who "love the comic in spite of [my] inability to spell." (Another quote). So, I'm going to make you an offer. If you can lighten my workload, I'll go out of my way to see to it the spelling - and the update schedule - improve. On both S*P and New Gold Dream. How do I want you to do that? Help me quit my job. Seriously. Click on that donate button and give me a buck... fifty center... five bucks. Whatever. I've more than enough readers that if over half of you did that, I'd have a year's salary and could quit my day job - and that's forty hours freed up for the comics. Go ahead. Do it. If you are really bothered by my lack of updates or my need of extra proofreading, help me quit my day job so I can devote the time to doing it. No, ad sales and merchandising aren't enough to help me do that. They're supplemental. They definitely help, but I'm not going to be living off of them (and since S*P is now looking for a new webhost because of some issues with Speakeasy, I'll likely have to be paying twice or triple my monthly hosting costs because this comic pushes about 300 gigs of bandwidth a month). I would love nothing better to do than spend all my time working on S*P... okay, that's not true. I wouldn't mind having sex once in a while, but I'm trying to be realistic and instead just asking people to hand me money out of the kindness of their hearts (yes, that's more realistic). But I'm serious about this. If you guys REALLY want me to put more time into the comic (and, y'know what, I want to do that), help me quit my job and I will be all too happy to do so. I'll be working for you almost 24-7 (I get lunch breaks and I don't do windows). So, everyone who's spent the time crafting a snark email - if you can devote time to that, devote a buck to the problem improving. I'll even work on some special gift for everyone if you guys can pull this off. I DARE YOU!. -R And his readers have answered the challenge. Over $19,000 in donations has been raised. in just over two weeks. Milholland's response was succinct: "Jesus, you people are amazing! Thank you!" Periodic fundraiser updates have been posted on the front page of his http://somethingpositive.net/>;website, below the current comic. At this point the question is not whether the goal will be met, but when. This Has A "Good, Good Vibrations" Factor of Ten Out of Ten 24 Hour Party People By all accounts, this year's 24 Hour Comic Day was a rousing success, with over 50 locations onboard for the event and 500 participating comic creators. Nat Gertler, the founder of 24 Hour Comics Day, recently announced the selections for the upcoming trade paperback: 24 Hour Comics Day Highlights 2004. Creators who made the final cut include comic veterans Chris Gossett, Paul Smith and Josh Howard, as well as a few lesser known talents from across the comic industry. When asked for comment on his selections, Gertler replied: Putting this book together was an amazing effort. The fun part was reading through all of the hundreds of submissions. The tough part was in choosing the hundreds to -not- put in the book, winnowing it down to just 24 stories. If I could, I would've put out a book with everything in it... but that book would be so many thousands of pages that it would crush your lap as you tried to read it. As it is, I think it's pretty amazing that we're issuing in early July a 500-page comic book on which the drawing hadn't even been started April 23rd. Gertler also passed along these preview pages by Jennifer Omand, Eric Wolfe Hanson, Ken Lashley, and Paul Smith. This Has An "Experiments of Human Nature" Factor of Eight Out of Ten Iron Giants Christopher Moeller (JLA: A League of One) recently posted a preview of his upcoming JLA: Cold Steel miniseries. Moeller is writing and painting the three issue prestige format series for a 2005 release. On his website, he described the series: The JLA is approached by a race of aliens under attack by a horde of aquatic invaders. To help them, the JLA's tremendous powers will require some enhancement...in the form of giant robotic armatures. This Has A "Giant Lobo" Factor of Nine Out of Ten Web of Intrigue Earlier this week, a demo for the PC version of Spider-Man 2 was available online, and then quickly removed from several sites. It was rumored to have come from a pirated beta version of the game, or even from a Russian soda promotion. However, what really incensed gamers was the fact that none of the promised gameplay features were anywhere to found. Gamespot solved that part of the mystery with the revelation that there are two versions of the game: Spider-Man 2 for the PC will be a child-oriented, mass-market game along the lines of Finding Nemo, instead of the open-ended, Grand Theft Auto-style console game. Gamespot also discovered that the demo came from a Cheez-Its promotion, and was pulled because they have the exclusive rights to it. As for the console version of Spider-Man 2 (X-Box, Playstation 2), no one outside of the dedicated game press has seen it yet. With the release date coming up in about three weeks, we'll soon know whether it delivers the goods or not. This Has A "Here Comes The Spider-Man" Factor of Six Out of Ten 4 Color Election Joe Quesada, Kurt Busiek, J. Scott Campbell and nearly 50 other comic creators are teaming up for a special project: getting fans registered to vote. At this year's San Diego Comic Con, a star-studded line up of pros will be manning a booth for the "grassroots voter registration drive We Want YOUR Autograph." A formal press release should be going out in the near future. Any professionals who want to volunteer their help, can find more information here: http://www.wewantyourautograph.com/volunteer.shtml This Has A "Stand And Be Heard" Factor of Ten Out of Ten One more thing before I sign off: I'd like to give a special thank you to Oz Perdomo for his help with my computer problems this week. Thanks again!! Later, Blair PS If anyone has any rumors, stories or news to share, please email me at blairm@silverbulletcomicbooks.com Thanks to everyone who has been sending stuff in. It's greatly appreciated. +++++ Items found in Rich Johnston's "Lying in the Gutters" column at http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/ which are all rumors or gossip so take any of it with a BIG bucket of salt! Rich was chosen Best Comics Journalist in the 2002 Usenet Squiddy Awards, his third consecutive win. Write to Rich at: rich@comicbookresources.com Rich heard rumors . . .. The "Seven Soldiers" project mentioned last week from Grant Morrison is picking up steam. Here's the list of intermingled mini-series Zatanna Shining Knight Bulleteer Klarion the Witch Boy Mister Miracle Spawn of Frankenstein Guardian Dave "Watchmen" Gibbons as part of his DC exclusive deal (?) was seen researching Green Lantern and Guy Gardner back issues. Robert Kirkman is working on an Image founder's original book, but not Shadowhawk. Argentinian artist Enrique Alcatena is working on a comic version of Beowulf with Chuck Dixon. Dark Horse commissioned Jason Pearson for a Ghost illustration casting Beyonce in the star role but just a close approximation. Rumor has it, though not so reliable that Mark Alessi is suing ex- Crossgen employees Brian Soltis (Controller), Chris Oarr (VP of Sales), Mike Beattie (Financial Officer) and Bart Sears (Art Director) in a joint suit, in relation to their management of CrossGen and their recent resignations. Larry Molinar is still at Crossgen, and is working on a new project with Sergio Cariello, supposedly a relaunch of "Mystic" without any connection to the sigil concept. Italian Disney is setting up offices in the USA and is using its new high profile to launch a monthly comic series called "Kylion": The first issue of KYLION has a print run of 200,000 copies, retailing for 1 Euro/$1.5 each as a special launching price, for eighty colour pages. Say, did you know that 70% of Disney comics in the world are produced in Italy? Diamond Select, the creator and distributor of a number of toylines to comic retailers is now becoming those retailers' direct competition. They've launched a retail section of the Web site to sell toys directly to the public. Fantagraphics are collecting "Hate" in larger wedges with "Buddy Does Seattle," collecting the first few "Hate" trades, merely 340 pages for $15. _____________________________________________________________________ _ --------------------------------------------------------------------- - [5] Interviews Richard Vasseur richardv@sympatico.ca Lori Scott writer for Masters Of The Universe from MVCreations interviewed by Richard Vasseur. Richard: Where were you born and raised? Do you have any immediate family? Lori: I was born in Tracy, California. My sister, Debbie, my brother- in-law Brian and my two nieces, Sarah and Megan still live there. We have family gatherings at their house pretty frequently. I live out in the country on a piece of property I share with my retired parents. Richard: When did you first decide you wanted to be a writer? Lori:I knew I wanted to write when I was six or seven years old. That's when I wrote my first short story. I've been writing on and off ever since then, both fiction and non-fiction. Richard: How did you get into writing comics? Lori:I heard that MVCreations was accepting script submissions, looking for someone to write some scripts for the Masters of the Universe comic. I have been writing MOTU fan-fiction for more than a year, and I write my own original fiction. I thought it was too good an opportunity to pass up. After all, it was a chance to be part of a franchise that I have loved for years. Richard: Can you tell us what you have planned for MOTU? Lori: Sorry, I can't give out any spoilers. I can say that this story arc will give us a close look at character we've never gotten to know intimately before. It will be very revealing, and I believe it will fire up the fans' imaginations. Richard: What would you like to write a story an about in MOTU? Lori:If I could write an original storyline for the comic, I would love to tackle Captain Randor's time in the army. I think it would be fascinating to further explore his early relationship with Marlena, his initial antagonism with Keldor and his friendship with Duncan. Richard: How is it working for MV Creations? Lori:It has been a tremendous experience. Though I've yet to meet any of the MVC crew in person, I've really enjoyed working with them, and I've learned a great deal from Val Staples about the fine art of writing for comic books. Richard: Do you base any of your stories on real life? Lori:I find the inspiration for my stories just about everywhere. Real life events, music, fiction, history, my experiences as a Special Education teacher - it all plays into my writing. However, I have never written any characters specifically based on myself. That idea has never appealed to me. Richard: Where does your inspiration come from for writing? Lori:As I said, I get my story ideas from just about everything. Stories, characters, plots - they're all constantly writing themselves in my head. Sometimes I just have to put them down on paper or share them verbally with a friend. I keep a long, LONG list of story ideas with detailed notes. I doubt I'll ever run out of things to write about. More likely, I'll run out of time. The average human only lives 60 to 80 years after all. Richard: Have you watched the new or old MOTU cartoons and the live action movie? Lori:I own the live action movie, but I'm not overly fond of it. I don't think they put much real effort into it. More importantly, when they made the movie, they changed all the characteristics about MOTU that made it great. As for the cartoons, I own copies of every episode of the original MOTU and POP cartoon as well as all the episodes of the new Mike Young Productions cartoon. I love all three series, and I enjoy watching them a great deal. Richard: What comics did you read as a child? Lori:I read a bit of everything, really. New Mutants, Spider- Man, Wonder Woman, Power Pack, Jonny Quest, Amethyst and Firestorm were particular favorites, but I read a few dozen titles. It would take too long to list them all. Richard: What comics do you read now? Lori:Well, aside from He-Man, I read SG1, Battle of the Planets, Tales of the Realm, Invincible, and Y the Last Man. I pick up other titles occasionally, but nothing that I've committed to reading every month. Richard: How does it feel to be a female comic writer in a predominately male field? Lori:Well, I haven't met many of the field's other professionals in person yet, so I can't speak to how that will feel. Overall, I guess you could say I'm proud to be breaking some new ground. Truthfully, it never entered my mind when I was writing the scripts. It was only after the fact that I realized how unusual my position was. Richard: Who do you most admire in the comic business? Lori: That's easy. Stan Lee is someone I've always admired. The man is a god, and he always will be. I could go on, but I think everyone who knows anything about comic already knows about his sterling qualities. Richard: Do you have any future projects planned? Lori:I am pursuing other script writing positions, but nothing is definite yet. I write science fiction/fantasy novels, and I hope to see some of those published in the next two to three years. In the meantime, I still write fan-fiction for fun and relaxation. My work in that area can be found on the He-Man.org fan fiction forum under the name of Catslyn. Richard: Who has been the most influential person in your life? Lori:My parents have probably been the greatest influence on me. My father taught me to think for myself at a young age, to question the world and the way that I see it. He doesn't always agree with my opinions these days, but I just laugh and point out that he's the one who taught me to stand up for myself and what I believe in. That has had an enormous impact on all areas of my life. My mother encouraged my writing at a very young age. Thanks to her, I was reading before I even entered kindergarten, and I was always well ahead of my peers academically. She still has one of my earliest short stories tucked away in a drawer somewhere. I know she's very proud of the work I've done as a newspaper reporter as well as the work that I'm doing on my fiction at the moment. Richard: What do you like to do when you are not writing? Lori:Well, I work full-time as a Special Education teacher. I sing and play the guitar, strictly country western music. I also enjoy reading, working on my embroidery and card weaving. I used to be active in the Society for Creative Anachronism, but I haven't had time for it in years. Someday I hope to get involved again. Thought I have no children of my own, I also love spending time with my two teenage nieces. They're both fun and bright girls, and I get to spoil them since I'm not their mother. Richard: Will you be attending any conventions? Lori:I will be attending San Diego Comicon in July. You can look for me at the MVCreations booth. Richard: Any parting words of wisdom? Lori:Read. Read to your children. Read to your parents. Read for fun. Read to learn. Just read. That's the teacher in my talking, but it's also the writer. There's no better way to learn to write than by reading. Don't forget to check out their website at www.MVCreations.com *** Kirk Kushin creator of B.A.B.E Force from Forcewerks Productions interviewed by Richard Vasseur. Richard: How did you get into the comic book business? Kirk: I was developing B.A.B.E. FORCE as a live action project and ended up licensing the comic book rights to another publisher. After that series was completed, we decided to publish the book ourselves - starting with the B.A.B.E. FORCE: Back To School mini-series earlier this year and continuing with B.A.B.E. FORCE: Jurassic Trailer Park this summer. Richard: Can you tell us about what we can expect from B.A.B.E. Force? Kirk: Our comic is a cross between Seinfeld and Danger Girl - meaning you can always expect a satirical, yet action packed adventure each issue. The story follows a crack team of super spies, B.A.B.E. FORCE, as they try to function in suburbia. They have been forced to adept because super villains have given up trying to conquer the world using "traditional" methods and gone corporate. Just imagine James Bond trying to function in the Wal-Mart run by Doctor Doom and you get the idea. Richard: A "thinking man's Charlie's Angels" does that mean beautiful and intelligent women? Kirk: Matthew Phillon (one of the first critics to promote the series), coined that term and I think it's a great description of the premise of B.A.B.E. FORCE. While we deal with ridiculous topics like mind control soda and doomsday recreational vehicles, we are also telling an action/adventure story. Some of the situations may be absurd but the book is never outright silly. The humor is very dry and works in service of the story. Plus there is always some sort of underlying truth about modern life...that hopefully makes people think a little more next time they shell out $3 for a cup of coffee (or a gallon of gas). So the "thinking man's Charlie's Angels" tag is about our readers more than anything else. Richard: Where did the inspiration come from for the various characters of B.A.B.E. FORCE? Kirk: Since B.A.B.E. FORCE was originally designed as a live-action project, I modeled a lot of the characters around actors I knew who would play the parts for me. So the images - a debonair Clown, big laser guns and eye-patch wearing villain - came even before the plot. Once I started developing the story specifics, I decided to play everyone against type. For example; who says the sinister looking guy with the eye-patch can't be a lovable CEO? When Anthony Marinelli (Dr. Chaos) first read the feature script, he was somewhat miffed that he wasn't a bad guy. I said, "Trust me it's more interesting this way." Now Dr. Chaos has become one of our more popular characters, so I think it was a good route to go. Richard: What comic books did you read growing up? What do you read now? Kirk: Then: Marvel's cool eighties books (X-Men, Fantastic Four and Thor) as well as DC's (Teen Titans and Legion) Now: Runaways, Spider- Girl, and Invincible. I recently discovered Steve Gerber's original Howard the Duck series. I mean a duck running for President of the United States?!?! Even thirty years later that is priceless. I recommend picking-up the Howard the Duck Essentials from Marvel or Gerber's current title, Hard Time from DC's Focus line - both are great reads. Richard: Why secret agents and not super-heroes? Kirk: I'm much more a student of comic books than the spy genre, and since the main thrust of the series is parodying "the real world", I needed to create an environment similar to our daily lives. Super- heroes, to me, change the dynamics of society too much - while James Bond could feasibly exist and the general population could still be unaware of his exploits. I am also a big fan of Gerry Anderson's body of work (especially Space: 1999) so I wanted to create something that had some wonky technology and, of course, a really cool secret base. Richard: Do you have any other future projects? Kirk: I have recently gotten the art back for the first issue of a super-hero series that's set in Las Vegas. It's about four college kids at various levels in the super-hero "industry". One of the girls is the "super-franchised" Britney Spears of the group and another is just a guy who doesn't want the powers that have been thrust upon him. The other two leads are a quirky female vigilante and an eager, go-getter type who badly wants to make a name for himself in the hero game. It's a fun character-driven story with a little unrequited love thrown in for good measure. We haven't scheduled it yet because we are very focused on promoting B.A. B.E. FORCE. I know in today's comic business the modus operandi is to solicit books before they're even done - but call me old fashioned - I like to get books completed first and then decide what's the best way to present them to the pantin' public! Richard: What do you like to do in your spare time? Kirk: The last time I had some was when I was ten years old and it's hard to remember that far back. I think I saw a move directed by some guy named Lucas, but I'm having a hard time recalling the name of it... Richard: I see you are part of "Free Comic Book Day" - why did you decide to participate in it? Kirk: Stores simply can't order every book Diamond solicits, so as an independent publisher you have to find a way to make your series stand out. Free Comic Book Day is an excellent opportunity to get our comic into more locations and thus into more reader's hands. We worked really hard to make Dr. Chaos' Comics Cornucopia a fun package for retailers to include in their promotional plans. The message got through because we had a massive order, which was extremely gratifying! Thanks to the good taste of your local retailer even the biggest cheapskate on your block can check out B.A.B.E. FORCE on July 3rd. Richard: Are you planning to go to any conventions? Kirk: Forcewerks Productions will be at the San Diego Comic Con handing out Dr. Chaos' Comic Cornicopia to the seething crowd. We'll have some of the cast members from the live-action version (including Dr. Chaos' himself!) appearing as well as doing some portfolio reviews. We'll be actively scouting new artists to add to our roster for some new titles we have planned for 2005. Richard: Any parting words of wisdom? Kirk: I'm a little short in the wisdom department - but our resident meglomaniac, Helga Chaos, has an advice column at www.babeforce.net - she'll be happy to steer you in the right direction... CBEM 476 continues . . . Thanks for subscribing to the Comic Book Network Electronic Magazine (CBEM) --------------------------->Disclaimer<--------------------------- This is an ANNOUNCE only mailing list, only the Editor can send messages to the list. No one else has access to the subscriber list. Replies to these messages will be received by the Editor ONLY, so you must CC: individual contributors if you want them to get your E-Mail. The E-mail to the E-mag MAY be used in future issues at the Editor's discretion UNLESS you specifically request that they not be. It is our policy to withhold names and/or Addresses, by request only, from letters of comment. All contributors are required to use their real name and have a valid Email address for their columns to be published. Send Email comments to: ComicBkNet@aol.com Material for inclusion in the Emag - press releases, solicitations, column submissions, Letters to the Editor, guesses for the trivia contest should be sent to ComicBkNet@aol.com The EDITOR, not the submitter, has final approval and edit rights on ALL material. Printed comic books and advanced copies for review in the Emag should be sent via US Mail or UPS to David L. 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