Buh-whah? What’s going on here? This isn’t the weekly reviews column! Where’s Ambush Bug? And Rock-me Amodeo? Hate to disappoint you, pilgrim-- you’re all alone with me, Stones Throw. And there’s no one here to help. No one. Oh, you can wail, but it won’t do any good. You’re...
…Um, sorry. The brighter ones in the audience might have noticed that the title said SHOOT THE MESSENGER. Yeah, that’s right. SHOOT THE MESSENGER. Sounds good, doesn’t it? Shoot that messenger. Go on, do it--I won’t tell.
Er, finding it hard to focus. What’s SHOOT THE MESSENGER? Well, AICN COMICS: SHOOT THE MESSENGER (devised by veteran @$$hole Dave Farabee) is your weekly one stop shop for comic book news that’s dropped in the previous week. Thanks to Newsarama, CBR, Wizard, etc. for reporting it as it breaks. Click on the links for the original stories. This column cuts the crap to run down all the vital information for those of you who don’t follow it as it comes in, and serves it all up with that special ingredient of @$$y goodness. Trust me, it’ll be a wild and wonderful ride!
@ OMD writer JMS leaves ASM, dissing JQ and BND. AICN prefers USM by BMB. NB: That’s da n00bs handled. LOL!
@ SHUFFLINGS AND CANCELLATIONS SECTION…James Robinson will take over from Kurt Busiek as writer of SUPERMAN in June. Renato Guedes will stay on as regular artiste.
@ Geoff Johns has
re-upped his exclusive contract with DC.
@ Sean McKeever has stepped aside from BIRDS OF PREY. He’ll be replaced by Tony Bedard.
@ England’s
Barry Kitson is the latest artist to join the Spider-Man BRAND NEW DAY stable.
@ COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS will now end with #1 rather than #0 (counting backwards, folkies!). Bridging the gap between COUNTDOWN and Grant Morrison’s FINAL CRISIS will be
DC UNIVERSE #0, written by Geoff Johns and Grant Morrison, which will retail at an incentive-inducing 50 cents.
@ ADVERTISING SECTION…Marvel will launch a
second Iron Man ongoing series in May to coincide with the release of the movie. Matt Fraction will write and Salvador Larroca will draw.
@ Fraction has another new project with Marvel coming up too - spinning out of J. Michael Straczynski’s THOR relaunch, he and Patrick Zircher will tackle
THOR: AGES OF THUNDER, which attempts to fit the Marvel Universe version with the Norse myths and the cycle of Ragnarok.
@ Confirmed! Mark Bagley’s inaugural project at DC will be the weekly series
TRINITY with Kurt Busiek, focusing on Matter-Eater Lad, Bronze Tiger, and the first Huntres…okay, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. Bagley will provide 12 pages of art per issue. First image
here.
@ AICN Comics’ Fearless Gang-runner Ambush Bug is doing little pirouettes of joy and jetting to New York to apologize to Dan DiDio for all the nasty things he said about COUNTDOWN. Why, you ask? Well, it’s been announced that Keith Giffen is bringing back
his green, insect-like creation for a six issue miniseries that will parody all of the recent goings-on at DC.
@ Y: THE LAST MAN co-creator Pia “Brian K. Vaughan owes his career to me” Guerra’s next project will be
DOCTOR WHO at IDW.
@ Marvel has signed a deal with French publisher
Soleil to chop up their original sci-fi graphic novels and release them in a superhero context. First to hit is SKY DOLL in May.
@ J. Torres and Tim Levins have a creator-owned six issue miniseries coming from DC in June –
THE FAMILY DYNAMIC is about a family of four superheroes with powers that correspond to the four classical elements. Can anyone say “Marvel lawsuit”?
@ TOUR NEWS SECTION…Bigger than Led Zep! Dave Sim has been “touring” the “internet” to promote his new series GALMOURPUSS, doing battle with the likes of Gail Simone and getting to grips with acronyms such as LOL and GGILF. See the fall-out
here and
here and
here and
here and
here.
And that’s it! Sweet and mercifully short. So, anything up there exciting y’all? I have to confess I’m looking forward to THOR: AGES OF THUNDER. I know I’m not the only one who gets annoyed by the lack of logic behind Thor’s origin, and while I tend to prefer cosmic adventurer Thor, I reckon Matt Fraction has the crazy inventiveness it requires to channel Kirby and do good by Goldilocks. TERROR INC. showed Patrick Zircher draws some mean barbarians and monsters, too. What about you?
