Sin City 2 set for Oct 2013 release

Dimension Films has announced production is set to begin on Frank Miller's Sin City: A Dame To Kill For for a scheduled release on 4 October 2013. Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller will return to co-direct from a screenplay by The Departed's William Monahan adapting the titular second volume of Miller's hugely acclaimed comics series, along with the short story Just Another Saturday Night and at least one new story penned for the film by Miller. Mickey Rourke and Jessica Alba are already confirmed to reprise their roles from the first film, with Rosario Dawson, Clive Owen and Bruce Willis also expected to return.

Gage, Adams chronicle The First X-Men

Christos Gage and legendary X-Men artist Neal Adams will reveal the secret history of Marvel's mutant heroes with The First X-Men, a five-part limited series debuting in August. The project is set before 1963's X-Men #1 and will feature Charles Xavier as a student at Oxford, a globetrotting Nazi-hunting Magneto, Wolverine working in partnership in Sabretooth, and a number of new characters.

RIP Tony DeZuniga

Veteran comics artist Tony DeZuniga, best known as the co-creator of Jonah Hex, has passed away aged 79 after a period of illness. Born in the Philippines, DeZuniga became the first Filipino artist to break into the American market when he was hired by DC Comics editor Joe Orlando in 1970 and opened the door to an influx of talent throughout the decade. With writer Joe Albano DeZuniga co-created gritty Western antihero Jonah Hex, inventing the character's distinctive facial scarring and pencilling the majority of Hex's appearances in Weird Western Tales and a 92-issue solo series that launched in 1977. After close to twenty years working for both DC and Marvel DeZuniga moved into concept art and design for the video game industry, including a decade at Sega. He returned to Jonah Hex in 2010 to illustrate No Way Back, an well-received graphic novel penned by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray and released to coincide with the movie adaptation of the character.

Avengers sets opening weekend record

The Avengers has set a new US opening weekend record, soaring to $US207 million at the box office to dethrone last year's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 which took around $170m. The Earth's Mightiest Heroes have already grossed an estimated worldwide total of $648m in the film's opening two weeks, making The Avengers the most successful Marvel Studios production to date.

 

Kingsley, Pearce, Chastain eye Iron Man 3

Marvel Studios is in final talks with Ben Kingsley, Guy Pearce and Jessica Chastain to join the cast of Iron Man 3. There are conflicting reports that Kingsley may be set to play the Mandarin, while Pearce is confirmed for the role of Aldrich Killian and Chastain a female scientist in an adaptation of 2005's Extremis storyline by Warren Ellis and Adi Granov. Marvel previously announced it will partner with Disney's Chinese arm and DMG Entertainment to co-produce and shoot some of the film in China. With Shane Black succeeding Jon Favreau in the director's chair and co-writing with Drew Pearce, production on Iron Man 3 is set to begin next month for a scheduled release in May 2013.

 

C2E2 highlights

Marvel's recently relaunched Ultimate line unites in July for a three-part crossover under the banner 'Divided We Fall' and featuring the return of Ultimate Captain America. Also, the 50th anniversary of Thor's first appearance will be celebrated with a crossover between Mighty Thor and Journey Into Mystery from regular series writers Matt Fraction and Kieron Gillen with artists Alan Davis and Carmine Di Giandomenico.

This August the former Invincible Iron Fist pairing of Matt Fraction and David Aja will reunite for a Hawkeye ongoing series, while James Asmus and Clay Mann will launch a new Gambit solo title. Also, Jeph Loeb and Simone Bianchi return to Wolverine in July to chronicle the recent resurrection of Sabretooth.

DC will add to its slate of digital-only titles with the forthcoming launch of Ame-Comic Girls, featuring an anime-influenced take on the girls of the DCU, and a Batman series featuring standalone stories from creators including Damon Lindelof, Jeff Lemire, J.G. Jones, Nicola Scott, B. Clay Moore, Ben Templesmith, Steve Niles, Trevor Hairsine, Jeff Parker, and Chris Sprouse.

Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming's Powers will relaunch in July as Powers FBI, with lead character Deena Pilgrim now a federal agent and dealing with superpowered cases on a national scale.

IDW will launch a five-part G.I. Joe/Danger Girl crossover in July, with Danger Girl creator J. Scott Campbell co-writing with Andy Hartnell and providing cover art and John Royle on interiors.

Ryan Stegman is the new ongoing artist of Fantastic Four as of August's issue #609, with Khoi Pham replacing him on Scarlet Spider.

Mark Waid unveiled his new digital comics platform Thrillbent, with its launch title Insufferable to reunite the acclaimed writer with his Irredeemable collaborator Peter Krause.

 

Marvel confirms 616/Ultimate Spider-Man crossover

The New York Daily News has confirmed widespread rumours that the forthcoming Spider-Men limited series will feature a teamup between the Ultimate and regular '616' Marvel Universe versions of Spider-Man. Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the character's debut in 1962's Amazing Fantasy #15, the project is the first crossover between the two continuities and follows last year's headline-grabbing introduction of the biracial Miles Morales as the second Ultimate Spider-Man following the death of that universe's Peter Parker. The five-part series from the former Ultimate Spider-Man pairing of Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli launches in June.

Captain America 2 confirmed for 2014

Marvel Studios and Disney have confirmed a followup to last year's Captain America: The First Avenger is scheduled for release in April 2014. Screenwriters Chris Markus and Stephen McFeely have previously commented that while it will be set in the present day the sequel may include flashbacks to the World War II setting of the first film. Marvel's post-Avengers cinematic slate also includes Iron Man 3 in May 2013 and Thor 2 in November of the same year, with Captain America 2 joining in 2014 a currently untitled film rumoured to feature some combination of Nick Fury, Black Widow and Hawkeye.

2000AD goes same-week digital

Longrunning UK weekly science fiction anthology 2000AD is the latest title to embrace simultaneous print and digital distribution, with new issues of 2000AD and its sister book Judge Dredd Megazine to be available for download 48 hours after they hit newsstands in the UK as of this week (30 March). In contrast to current digital comics offerings from Marvel, DC and other major publishers which are tied to the Comixology platform, 2000AD publisher Rebellion is making its digital versions available without digital rights management (DRM) or other copying restrictions in PDF and CBZ file formats.

Since debuting in 1977 2000AD has featured numerous classic series and characters including its best-known mainstay Judge Dredd, and helped launch the careers of several generations of UK comics talent with names including John Wagner, Alan Grant, Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, Brian Bolland, Grant Morrison, Mark Millar, Frank Quitely, Garth Ennis, Frazer Irving, Andy Diggle and Jock.

WonderCon highlights

Carol Danvers will take on the mantle of Captain Marvel in a new ongoing series launching in July from Kelly Sue DeConnick and Dexter Soy. Meanwhile, June will see Thunderbolts change direction and title to feature a new lineup of the Dark Avengers, from the continuing creative team of Jeff Parker and artists Kev Walker and Declan Shalvey.

Changes are afoot in the X-Men universe with Greg Pak and Stephen Segovia to launch a new series of X-Treme X-Men focused on a group of alternate timeline mutants, while Brian Wood and David Lopez will take on the adjectiveless X-Men title. Wood is also set to take the reigns as the next ongoing writer of Ultimate Comics X-Men.

The latest American Vampire spinoff miniseries Lord of Nightmares, to be illustrated by Dustin Nguyen, will focus on the European wing of vampire-hunting organisation the Vassals of the Morning Star.

Following the success of its Rocketeer Adventures anthology book IDW will follow up with a new miniseries The Rocketeer: Cargo of Doom from writer Mark Waid and artist Chris Samnee. The publisher has also licensed 2000AD mainstay Judge Dredd, with plans to a launch an original ongoing series featuring the futuristic lawman plus reprints of classic stories.

 

Rodriguez confirms Sin City 2, Machete sequels

During a panel appearance at South by Southwest filmmaker Robert Rodriguez announced he intends to begin shooting a second movie adaptation of Frank Miller's Sin City in the middle of this year. Previous reports suggest the screenplay by William Monohan (The Departed) will feature A Dame to Kill For, the second arc in the series, along with two new stories penned for the film by Miller. Rodriguez indicated he plans to begin filming Sin City 2 concurrently with post-production on Machete Kills, the followup to 2010's Machete slated to begin production in April, with a third film Machete Kills Again ... In Space! also in the works.

Marvel announces new digital initiatives

Marvel has used a presentation at the South by Southwest interactive media conference to unveil a slate of new digital comics initiatives under the banner 'Marvel ReEvolution', spearheaded by an 'alternate reality' app which will link to the print version of Avengers vs X-Men #1 to offer bonus content such as creator commentary. The publisher will also be launching a line of online exclusive stories utilising an interactive approach to motion comics-style animation, with the first offering a Nova story and AvX tie-in from Mark Waid and Stuart Immonen. Marvel has also announced it will be expanding its program of including free digital download codes in print comics to all its 3.99 books from June onwards.

RIP Jean 'Moebius' Giraud

Legendary French artist Jean Giraud, also known as Moebius, has passed away at age 73 following a lengthy illness. Born in Paris in 1938 and educated at the Ecole des Arts Applique art school, Giraud adopted the pseudonym Moebius for his science fiction and fantasy work and 1975 co-founded the science fiction anthology title Metal Hurlant, republished in the US as Heavy Metal. Hugely acclaimed in his home country and Europe but lesser known in the English-speaking market, with 1988's Silver Surfer: Parable with Stan Lee one of his few works in American comics, Giraud's most famous creations include Western antihero Blueberry and the dystopian science fiction series L'Incal. He also worked as a storyboard artist and conceptual designer on films including Alien, Tron, Willow and The Abyss.

 

Valiant teases quartet of relaunches;
Marvel ditches Crossgen revival

Valiant Entertainment has outlined plans for a 'Summer of Valiant' resurrection of the 1990s publisher and its titles, with a new book to debut each month from May through August. A new series of X-O Manowar from Robert Venditti and Cary Nord is scheduled to debut in May and Harbinger from Joshua Dysart and Khari Evans slated for June, to be followed by revamps of Bloodshot and Archer and Armstrong.

Marvel has announced it has shelved two further relaunches of titles from defunct publisher Crossgen, with new series of horror book Route 666 by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Peter Nguyen and spy thriller Kiss Kiss Bang Bang from Peter Milligan and Roman Rosanas canned after disappointing sales for 2011 revamps of Ruse, Sigil and Mystic. Marvel landed the rights to Crossgen properties by way of parent company Disney, which purchased the remnants of the short-lived publisher following its filing for bankruptcy in 2004.

WB eyes live action Bleach movie

Variety reports Warner Bros has tapped Get Smart director Peter Segal and Wrath of the Titans screenwriter Dan Mazeau to develop a live-action adaptation of hugely popular manga series Bleach. Written and illustrated by Tite Kubo and centred on a teenager drawn into protecting humanity from supernatural forces, Bleach has enjoyed massive readership in both its native Japan and the English language market and also spawned a successful anime series and a number of animated movies.

 

RIP John Severin

Veteran artist John Severin, best known for his Western and war comics work, has passed away aged 90. The New Jersey-born illustrator began his career in the late 1940s at Joe Simon and Jack Kirby's Prize Comics and in the mid-1950s joined high school classmates including Harvey Kurtzman to launch EC Comics, where he worked on the publisher's trademark horror comics along with war titles such as Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat. Following the collapse of EC he moved to Marvel predecessor Atlas where he established himself as the publisher's definitive Western artist on books including Rawhide Kid and Kid Colt, before transitioning to superheroes during the 1960s including a notable run inking Herb Trimpe on The Incredible Hulk.

During the 1970s Severin shifted his focus to satirical magazine and MAD rival Cracked, becoming one of the magazine's most prolific and popular cartoonists and cover artists, before returning to comics in the 2000s with occasional projects including a controversial reimagining of the Rawhide Kid under Marvel's mature readers MAX imprint. Severin was inducted into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 2003. His sister Marie was EC Comics' primary colourist and went on to work with John at Marvel as one of the earliest credited female comic book artists.

 

Smallville continues in digital-first DC series

DC will return to Smallville with a comics continuation of the CW television series, which ended its 10-season run last year with Clark Kent established in the role of Superman. Penned by TV series writer Bryan Q. Miller and illustrated by his former Batgirl collaborator Pere Perez, the weekly digital title debuts on 13 April with print compilations to follow in May with covers by Gary Frank.

The series will look to emulate the successful TV-to-comics transition of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which launched as an ongoing series at Dark Horse in 2007 as the canonical 'season eight' of the cult show with active involvement from creator Joss Whedon.

Writers & Artists Unite @ the Grace Emily Saturday May 5th

Prospective writers and artists, professional scribes and illustrators, curious comic buffs and those up for a great chat or just a relaxing time are all more than welcome to get down to the Grace Emily Hotel, 232 Waymouth St Adelaide, on Saturday the 5th of May from 2 p.m for a monthly gathering of awesome talent!

Kitted out with some snacks, PFC-funded happy hours and wonderful persons, the Grace Emily plays host to everyone creatively minded on a sunny Saturday afternoon!