I am very excited about the issue above that comes out Wednesday 09/27!!!
It earned an 8.4 overall from critics. Not bad.
For today's COMIC BOOK SUNDAY, I am sharing a variety of links I have accumulated.
https://www.polygon.com/sdcc/23805557/watchmen-animated-movie-rated-r-sdcc-2023
For a very long time, an animated version of Watchmen was basically a joke, the sort of ill-advised idea that seemed so bad that even DC, a publisher that has never met a lousy Watchmen idea it wouldn’t at least consider, wouldn’t do it. Well, time makes fools of us all, especially internet bloggers who think themselves clever: DC has just greenlit an animated adaptation of Watchmen.
According to reports from San Diego Comic-Con, DC announced its next two animated films at a screening of its newest release, Justice League: Warworld. Those two movies are Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths and Watchmen.
Few details were revealed beyond logos for both projects, although DC confirmed Watchmen would be rated R, as any reasonably faithful adaptation of Watchmen can be expected to be (and was rumored to be the case when whispers of the project first emerged way back in 2017).
An animated Watchmen is a bafflingly strange choice, and that’s without even getting into the well-established history of DC’s exploitation of Moore and Gibbons’ comic. For one, Zack Snyder’s 2009 film, while divisive, is still fiercely faithful to the source material, barring a controversial third-act change. For another, HBO’s acclaimed follow-up casts a long shadow, reconsidering the comic in a modern context while also remaining faithful to its spirit.
And finally: Watchmen is a lot of comic book, the sort of story that is longer than DC’s 90-minute animated films tend to be. In the past, DC has adapted lengthier stories across two films, like The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Hush, which could be an option here, since the DC animated films named after comics tend to be relatively true to the source material.
Otherwise, we might be looking at a new take on Watchmen entirely, which will definitely go over well.
AND THEN, so, apparently, DC is going full BEAT MODE in November.
Not sure how I feel about this, though I do like Beast Boy (former Changeling), Garfield Logan, getting more central focus on the big stage as he has been an often over-looked character used mostly for comic relief. The Titans live action show has definitely changed all that.
Every DC hero is turning into an animal and all the other big comic news out of SDCC 2023
And I’m not counting the ducks and the turtles
DC Comics revealed the company’s next crossover extravaganza at San Diego Comic-Con this weekend: Beast World — in which millions of people are transformed into rampaging anthropomorphic animals, including, naturally, plenty of heroes and villains.
The whole thing appears to have roots in the Teen Titans’ foremost shapeshifter, Beast Boy, and also some mad science, and also him turning into a giant space starfish in order to combat another giant space starfish and losing his mind in the process, but... I’m kind of cautiously optimistic about it?
For one thing, the book comes from Tom Taylor (with art from Ivan Reis and potentially the likes of Nicola Scott and Bruno Redondo), who is simply the king of taking a wild premise — in this case, a literal one — and turning it into hyper-compelling superhero drama. For another, it would simply be hypocritical of me to have gotten enormously hype for Jurassic League, the story where the Justice League are all anthropomorphic dinosaurs, and not give essentially the same concept but set in the modern DCU a chance.
And for a third... look. Sometimes it’s nice when the crossover event isn’t about a universe-ending threat, or the multiverse collapsing, or every hero getting trapped in their own worst nightmare. Maybe it will be nice when the crossover event is about everybody battling it out like the Street Sharks meets Zoo. Titans: Beast World kicks off in November.
Marvel Continues to Bilk Comics Creators Out of MCU Profits
Joe Casey, who co-created America Chavez, said Marvel gave him an “insult of an offer” to use the character in 'Doctor Strange 2'.
Marvel fans are hyped for next month’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Sam Raimi’s highly anticipated MCU entry will bring Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) back to the big screen. It will also debut fan-favorite comics character America Chavez, played by Xochitl Gomez. Chavez will break barriers as the first gay Latina superhero to join the MCU. But what of the writers and artists who created the character?
Chavez was created by Joe Casey and Nick Dragotta, making her comics debut in Vengeance #1 (Sept. 2011). Casey recently discussed Chavez’s big screen debut in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, where he called out Marvel for their treatment of comics creators. While seeing a character you created on the big screen is undeniably exciting, what’s less thrilling is the lack of compensation and profits-sharing from Marvel Entertainment and Disney.
Casey said he received a “pittance” of an offer for Chavez’s Multiverse of Madness appearance. His relationship with Marvel dates back to the late 1990s, where he wrote on titles like Uncanny X-Men, Cable, The Hulk, and Iron Man, among others. Casey has also seen massive success as one of the creators of animated franchise Ben 10, and is one of the heads of Man of Action Entertainment (Ben 10, Generator Rex, Big Hero 6). As part of the negotiations team between Disney and Big Hero 6 (2014), Casey has firsthand experience in negotiating better rates for creators, a position not many comic book writers find themselves comfortable in.
“The fact is Marvel owns America Chavez. That’s not in dispute on any level, but there are still systemic flaws in the way that creators are neither respected nor rewarded,” Casey said. Casey wouldn’t say what the offer was from Marvel, but similar agreements were made in the $5,000 range. It’s frankly an insulting offer given that these films regularly gross hundreds of millions of dollars. And these films wouldn’t exist without the characters that these writers and artists created.
“Marvel has paid me nothing for America Chavez, not only for appearing in the Doctor Strange sequel, but in numerous animated TV episodes, for the numerous action figures they’ve made of her, for video games she’s appeared in,” he said. “They seem to be fine with that.”
While the money is not a make or break issue for Casey (again, he co-created Ben 10), he felt compelled to speak out. “For me, it’s not about money. It’s not even about the respect. I would never expect to be respected by a corporation, … If I’m in a position where I can afford not to take their insult of an offer, and be able to talk about it, maybe the next guy — where that kind of money could change their life — would get a fair shot of receiving that money.”
Fellow creator have also called out Marvel for their stinginess with regards to creators. While they all acknowledge that Marvel owns the rights to these characters, they cannot help but feel jilted by insulting offers. Comics creator Ed Brubaker, who revived the character Bucky Barnes and turned him into the Winter Soldier, discussed the issue during an appearance on Kevin Smith and Marc Bernardin’s Fatman Beyond podcast. Brubaker noted that he earned more money for his cameo performance in The Winter Soldier than for his creation of the character itself, adding “There’s nothing preventing anyone at Marvel from looking at how much the Winter Soldier has been used in all this stuff and calling up me and Steve Epting and saying, ‘You know what, we’re going to try to adjust the standard thing so that you guys feel good about this.’”
Last year, Disney sued the families of Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, Gene Colan, and other creators in an preemptive attempt to challenge copyright termination notices that have been (or will be) submitted by these creators’ estates. And it’s not just a Marvel problem: the estates of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the men who created Superman, sought to reclaim their copyrights of the iconic superhero. The case spent years in litigation, only for the courts to side with DC Comics.
This sets up a David vs. Goliath battle between studios and their armies of lawyers and comic book creators who lack the funds for a protracted legal battle. Given that Marvel and Disney have raked in billions of dollars from the Marvel cinematic universe, it seems like a massively cruel oversight to deny these creators adequate compensation and acknowledgment.
(via THR, image: Marvel)
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"The Super Hero's Journey" is a gorgeous graphic celebration of Marvel Comics
The Super Hero's Journey is a new graphic biography/memoir of sorts, written and illustrated by Patrick McDonnell. Though he's perhaps best known as the creator of the popular comic strip Mutts, McDonnell has also taken a slightly more introspective turn in recent years, such as his graphic novel about environmentalism inspired by his conversations with the Dalai Lama. — Read the rest
I am a huge fan of Kelly Thompson, so I am highly anticipating the issue above, which is out, but I have to wait for it to arrive from Michigan early next month.
I would have made this issue a cover photo at the top, but I had another post with the same image, so I had to move it down.
https://comicbookroundup.com/comic-books/reviews/dc-comics/birds-of-prey-(2023)
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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2309.24 - 10:10
- Days ago = 3005 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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