Comics

"Justice League: Doom" Releases Feb 29, 2012 February 21, 2012
by Gene Turnbow

In last week’s installment, we let it slip that we were at the west coast premiere of the new Warner Home Video direct-to-video movie Justice League: Doom. We were there to interview the cast and crew at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills, California last Thursday, February 16. The movie, to be released February 28, 2012is an adaptation of Mark Waid’s “Tower of Babel” story from the JLA comic. It was produced by Bruce Timm and directed by Lauren Montgomery, and is the final DC Universe film to be scripted by the late, great Dwayne MacDuffie.

The grand reunion of actors who provided the voices of the Justice League for the cartoon of the same name and its follow-up, Justice League Unlimited, includes Kevin Conroy (Batman: The Animated Series) as Batman, Michael Rosenbaum (Smallville, Breaking In) as Flash, Susan Eisenberg (Superman/Batman: Apocalypse) as Wonder Woman and Carl Lumbly (Alias) as J’onn J’onzz/Martian Manhunter. Bumper Robinson (A Different World, Transformers: Animated) joins the cast as Cyborg.

The Justice League faces two sets of villainous teams in the film – The Royal Flush Gang, and a newly formed Legion of Doom, headed by Vandal Savage. These are voiced by three voice acting alumni of the Justice League animated series: Phil Morris (Smallville, Seinfeld) as Vandal Savage, Olivia d’Abo (The Wonder Years) as Star Sapphire, and Alexis Denisof (Angel) as Mirror Master. There’s also Carlos Alazraqui (Reno 911) as Bane, Paul Blackthorne (The Dresden Files) as Metallo, and Claudia Black (Farscape, Stargate SG-1) as Cheetah. David Kaufman (Danny Phantom) is back as Jimmy Olsen.It’s probably the darkest Justice League film I’ve seen in a long time. Batman, ever five moves ahead of everyone else, has figured out scenarios for nullifying each of the members of the Justice League should they go rogue. Unfortunately, the plans fall into the hands of Vandal Savage, who has even bigger plans once the League is out of the way. The look of the film reflects the theme of betrayal that brings the League to the brink of destruction, with Batman as the indirect cause. Nobody animates on celluloid sheets anymore – it’s all done digitally. Yet, somehow, they’ve managed to bring a remarkable look to the scenes.

People talk endlessly about the “silver screen”, but few today know what that means. If you’ve never seen Casablanca projected from an original nitrate print, it had this shimmery, silvery quality to it that you only got from nitrate film. In this video excerpt featuring Batman and his butler Alfred, you can see something of this ineffable, almost indescribable visual quality. The whole film looks this beautiful – and yet, it’s traditional, hand-drawn animation.

We got to talk to Tim Daly (Superman), Phil Morris (Vandal Savage / Martian Manhunter from Smallville), Susan Eisenberg (Wonder Woman), Voice Director Andrea Romano, and the film’s Director, Lauren Montgomery.

Tim Daly spoke on how he breathed Superman to life for his reprised role as the Man of Steel, and the iconic importance of the character.

Susan Eisenberg talked about her relationship with her character as it has developed and matured over the years.

When we spoke to Lauren Montgomery, she did confirm that the next film will be called Superman vs. The Elite. She said that she wasn’t going to be working on that one, but that it was already in production.

It was a real treat to speak with Andrea Romano. The spark for a film has to come from somewhere. Of course, it does have to start with the screenplay, and the director has a lot to contribute as well (some directors contribute almost at the level of being a film’s author. After speaking with Andrea, though, I think I know where the film’s vital spark comes from. Watch the video of the interview and see if you agree.

Phil Morris was a delight. This isn’t the first time he’s played Vandal Savage, having had the role in the Justice League series, but he offered interesting comparisons between this role and his part on Smallville as J’onn J’onzz, the Martian Manhunter (Carl Lumbly plays the Manhunter in this film, not Morris). draws themas well as being a student of the humanities, arts and sciences. I don’t think there are any examples of his work on the ‘net anywhere – we may be able to get him to show us some of it at some point, if he’s amenable.Here are the interviews. Enjoy.

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'Justice League:Doom' Premieres (and Krypton Radio was there!) February 17, 2012
Left to right: Susan Eisenberg, Andrea Romano, Phil Morris, Olivia D'abo, Tim Daly, Lauren Montgomery

.. and Krypton Radio was there to interview the cast and crew on the night of the Los Angeles premiere at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills, California. The film, to be released February 28, 2012 is an adaptation of Mark Waid’s “Tower of Babel” story from the JLA comic. Vandal Savage steals confidential files Batman has compiled on the members of the Justice League, and learns all their weaknesses.

We got to talk to Tim Daly (Superman), Phil Morris (Vandal Savage / Martian Manhunter from Smallville), Susan Eisenberg (Wonder Woman), Voice Director Andrea Romano, and the film’s Director, Lauren Montgomery, all up close and personal.

Stay tuned for the interviews on video, and listen for them on Krypton Radio (we’ll announce the air times). You’re gonna love this, we promise!

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RIP John Severin February 15, 2012
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Krypton Radio Newswire
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Hall of Fame artist John Severin, one of the last of the legendary EC artists, has died at age 90. Severin—whose sister Marie was also a famed artist and colorist for Marvel—was among the greatest draftsmen of the EC crew. Severin was especially well known for his Western comics, which were meticulously researched and elegant in their line, but also drew barbarian comics. His humorous work for Cracked Magazinealmost singlehandedly made it a worthy competitor for MAD Magazine.

The family has released a statement:

Internationally acclaimed illustrator-?cartoonist, John Powers Severin (1921-? 2012), passed away Sunday, February 12, 2012 at his home in Denver, Colorado with his family by his side.

He was 90 years old.

Throughout his sixty plus year career in comic illustration and cartooning, Severin gained world-wide notoriety and is regarded by many fans, friends, historians, and colleagues as a truly distinctive and brilliant artist.

Long-time friend and former president and chairman of Marvel Comics, Stan Lee states,
“He had an art style that was uniquely and distinctly his own.The minute you looked at his artwork you knew you were looking at a John Severin illustration; it could be no one else. Besides his inimitable style, there was a feeling of total authenticity to whatever he drew, whether it was a Western, a crime story, a superhero saga or a science fiction yarn. Not only was his penciling the very finest, but his inking, too, had a distinctive Severin touch that made every strip he rendered stand out like a winner”.

Talents like John Severin come along once in a lifetime. He will be missed.

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IDW's Doctor Who / Star Trek Crossover Starts May 2012 February 14, 2012
"Excuse me Doctor - whoever you are. You're sitting in my chair."

“Excuse me, Doctor – whoever you are. You’re in my chair.” – Capt. Picard

The rumors are true, and the geekosphere is a-buzz with the news of the latest comic book crossover that many thought could never happen (and purists on both sides possibly wished never would). IDW Publishing — rights-holders for comics adaptations of a range of licensed properties, including Who and Trek — has announced the forthcoming Star Trek: The Next Generation/Doctor Who: Assimilation2, which will throw together the crews of the Tardis and the Starship Enterprise for the first time. Looking at the leaked cover, it’s not hard to guess who the villians in the story are going to be – Cybermen and the Borg. They pretty much both assimilate people, so it’s a pretty natural fit. The issue will be written by people who have worked on separate comics for both Trek and Who: Scott and David Tipton (Star Trek: Infestation) and Tony Lee (Doctor Who). It will be drawn by J.K. Woodward, who worked on Fallen Angel.

Since IDW acquired the rights to publish Doctor Who comics in 2008, fannish wags have perpetuated the rumor that a crossover of some kind might eventually happen . The rights surrounding the BBC’s Doctor Who TV series has been a much more challenging hurdle to overcome than than most of the other series that IDW runs.

The series is set to launch in May 2012, although American readers will have an easier time getting issues than their U.K.-based counterparts. Doctor Who is rare among U.S. comics series in that its issues can’t be sold on the direct market in the United Kingdom. Panini, publishers of the long-running Doctor Who Magazine, have exclusive rights to print Who comic strips, which means IDW can’t touch it domestically. In practice, however, issues of IDW’s previous and current series have made it over as imports — so U.K. residents will still be able to get their hands on the books if they watch the import shops carefully.

“By joining these two sci-fi powerhouses, fans will be taken on the ultimate adventure through time and space,” said Liz Kalodner of Trek owner CBS in the official press release, with the BBC’s Soumya Sriraman adding that, “This is a perfect partnership for not only Doctor Who‘s incredible fans, but also for the brand.”

Neither party, however, would be drawn on the question of whether the Doctor or Captain Picard makes the better cup of tea.

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STOLEN DROIDS Comes to Krypton Radio! February 13, 2012
Stolen Droids

If it’s fandom – of pretty much anything – Stolen Droids is all over it. Tune in every Tuesday at 4PM as Zuke, Schmidty, Zohner, and Stark pry the lid off a can of pure fan geekitude and show you what the world of scifi fandom looks like from their unique perspective. A new show every week!

Stolen Droids can be heard on Krypton Radio on Tuesdays at 4PM, PST

You can also download the shows as podcasts right from their web site from the Stolen Droids web site, or hear them on Stitcher.com. Join them on Facebook too!

Guys, welcome to the family – we’re proud to have you with us! And the rest of you lot, tune in. You’re gonna love this!

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Krypton Radio Now on iTunes! February 12, 2012
We heard the news that we were going to be listed early last week, but we didn’t want to jinx it by announcing early – but this morning we checked, and sure enough, there we are!

To find us in iTunes, open the list of radio stations and go to the Ecclectic grouping. We’re there, about half way down.

We’re proud of this moment, and we hope this will help many more listeners find us.

As our news anchor Tony “Vagabond” Carter would say, “Look to the skies – and enjoy the tunes!”

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P.S. On an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, you can use an app called ‘TuneIn’ , find us in search, and Krypton Radio will be there for you any time you want! The same app is available on Android – but on Android you can also use WinAmp and look us up in Shoutcast. There are lots of ways to stream Krypton Radio goodness on portable devices now, so everyone can tune in!

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Superhero Summer at the Theaters February 8, 2012

The summer of 2012 will be the summer of the blockbuster superhero movies, most of them Marvel. Are you ready?

by Gene Turnbow

This summer is a paradox. Industry comic books are in serious trouble at the news stands in terms of sales, but the characters they spawned are huge at the box office and pushing what’s loosely termed as the entertainment industry to new heights – but if there was any question that being a scifi geek has now become socially acceptable, the sheer number of movie trailers shown during the Superbowl this year should lay the issue to rest.

Let’s have a look at what’s coming.

John Carter

A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs took a century to become a motion picture after many abortive attempts. The absolutely dreadful Princess of Mars from 2009 featuring ex-porn star Traci Lords had so little to do with the original story that it doesn’t count, despite Burroughs estate having apparently agreed to allow his name to appear in the writer’s credits. What could they have been thinking? We haven’t seen this new film yet – it’ll be in theaters March 9.

The Dark Night Rises

Eight years after the events of The Dark Knight, the terrorist leader Bane arrives in Gotham City, pushing it and its police force to their limits, forcing its former hero Batman to resurface after taking the fall for Harvey Dent’s crimes. This film will be the end of director Christopher Nolans’ Batman trilogy, and will be Christian Bale’s final appearance in the title role. By 2014 there will be a new director and a new lead actor bringing the world’s greatest detective to life once more, but the two-fisted punch of Bale and Nolan will be one tough act to follow. The Dark Knight Rises releases July 20.

Chronicle

What happens when a bunch of irresponsible teenagers get superpowers? Lord of the Flies with nuclear weapons, apparently. In this cynical twist on the superhero genre, three high school friends gain superpowers after making an incredible discovery. Soon, though, they find their lives spinning out of control and their bond tested as they embrace their darker sides. I sure hope this isn’t as lame as it looks.

The Avengers

I could practically write a book about The Avengers and what it took to finally get us all to the point where every comic book fan on the planet, whether they’re Marvel boosters or not, is anxiously awaiting the release of a movie about The Avengers. Films about all the Avengers have been piling up, and somehow they’ve managed to make them all ranging in quality from “hey, pretty okay” to “OMG, you have gotto see this!” This trailer premiered on Superbowl Sunday. Best two lines of dialog in a trailer so far:

“I have an army.”

“We have a Hulk.”

Booyah.

Look for The Avengers on May 4.

The Amazing Spider-Man

Toby McGuire moves aside to make room for Andrew Garfield in the title role of this new offering directed by Marc Webb and featuring Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy, is more of a prequel than a sequel, giving us a peek into Peter Parker’s past. Ever wonder exactly what ever happened to his parents and why he lives with Aunt May? The Amazing Spider-Man swings into theaters July 3.I can’t resist a comment on the suit – the thing looks like it’s made of melted cargo netting, and has to be the most uncomfortable thing in the world to wear. Garfield deserves a medal.

Iron Man 3

Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down..

To be fair, this film hasn’t even started shooting yet, and isn’t slated for release until next year. It was announced as a project only a year ago (February of 2011), is currently untitled. Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson and Gwyneth Paltrowhave all been signed to reprise their signature roles. Shane Black directs, and this is a surprise, because he’s more known for screenwriting than directing. Writers are usually given a shot at directing when the studio feels that there’s little chance the franchise could be screwed up by a mediocre director – which may mean that we’re nearing the end of the Iron Man cycle of films.So if it hasn’t started filming yet, how, you may be wondering, did we get our hands on a trailer for it? Well, it wasn’t easy. We were told that this is some really early footage, and probably contains scenes that will not appear in the final film.

I think the biggest problem we’re going to have is that we’re going to want to see pretty much every one of these films. We may even want to see them all in 3D, because probably most of them are going to be offered that way. The only trouble is going to be how much that’s going to cost.

Let me whip out my pocket calculator here.

What? Yes, I still have one.

Okay – $14 each for a family of four, plus popcorn and drinks, times four must-see blockbusters (if you don’t count Chronicle), that comes out to – holy crap.

For a family of four, seeing these four films (I’m obviously not counting Iron Man 3 either) with popcorn and drinks will set you back something in the neighborhood of $350. That’s a whole lot of fan devotion they’re counting on. I think a lot of us may be waiting for them to come out on Blu-Ray, and then waiting a year after that for them to hit the bargain bins, no matter how good they are.

I was recently asked whether 3D movies are really better, or did I think they were just overhyped? The answer is definitely “overhyped”.In nearly all cases, if you see the 2D version of the film you don’t miss the 3D – except in the case of the Transformers movies where the scene is so busy that if you don’t see it in 3D, you can’t pick foreground from background. Very often the 3D is an effect added afterwards, meaning the film wasn’t even composed for 3D in the first place – so why would you want to see it screened that way?

There’s a limit to how much we as consumers can be expected to absorb – hey, Hollywood, are you listening? You want us back in the theaters? How about just giving us a break on the price of those tickets?

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Who Is John Carter? February 8, 2012
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by Susan L. Fox   Hollywood, Jasoom¹
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John Carter. A gentleman of Virginia, back when that meant the world to a man’s identity and pride. A former Army Captain on the Confederate side of the American Civil War in a postwar career mining gold in Arizona, and a lonely death, injured by Apaches, looking up at the Red Planet gleaming in the cave mouth as he bleeds his life away.

He wakes up in an unknown land where he is captured by green warrior giants, whom he impresses with his feats of strength, born of physique molded in Earth’s greater gravity. And therein begins the saga, stretching across 11 novels and certain literary history.

Edgar Rice Burroughs found himself in a situation in 1911 which might seem familiar to readers in 2011 and beyond. Flat broke, with a young family to feed, he worked a tedious office job that left him many hours of waiting, so he spend time at his desk reading pulp magazines [being as Facebook had yet to be invented]. At some point, the light went on in his head and the feeling that he could write this stuff.

UNDER THE MOONS OF MARS was serialized in ALL-STORY MAGAZINE in 1912. That was his first fiction sale. His third fiction sale was TARZAN OF THE APES, creating a character and scenario that have lasted nearly a century now. Burroughs probably invented the now-common “franchise” where a character’s story and image is commercialized through various media. Tarzan books numbered 26 in all, including TARZAN: THE LOST ADVENTURE, written by John Lansdale from an unfinished draft of Burroughs’ and published by Dark Horse Comics in 1995. The movies began in 1918 with muscular and bewigged Elmo Lincoln as the king of a silent jungle filmed in the swamps of Louisiana, of all places, standing in for Darkest Africa. Dozens of versions followed, with varying degrees of faithfulness to the original texts.

The journey leading to the 2012 feature film release JOHN CARTER is as complex as any adventure story. The stops along the way include ace animator Bob Clampett, father of Daffy Duck and more beloved characters and wacky situations than we can count, contacting the Burroughs estate in 1936 with a serious proposition for the Barsoom series and some test images and footage². There was a feature film in 2009 starring the athletic Antonio Sabato Jr., the lush and lovely Traci Lords, the familiar landscape of Vasquez Rocks and a script so bad that the Krypton Radio staff lasted maybe fifteen minutes just to say we tried to watch it.

Announcements of the current production were met with a certain skepticism on the part of us longtime ERB fans, considering the spotted history. But fans have been won over slowly and surely with casting notices featuring actors who can really act, snippets of footage of the Tharks and other inhuman characters, Space Ships and Ray Guns and some really noteworthy characterization by Taylor Kitch who really sells the man from the 1870’s, lost and finding himself again.

So John Carter, why is his name up in lights? Tarzan gets his name on the movie marquis and nobody says, “Who’s that?” Maybe by the time the sequels appear, John Carter will do the same.

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¹ That’s “Planet Earth” to you and me.
² See it here on YouTube or also as an extra on the Bob Clampett DVD box set.

Links
- The whole Barsoom series at Project Gutenberg Don’t forget to be a Hero and pay for your “free” books with a contribution to Project Gutenberg.
- Official site of the Barsoom series and related works
- IMDB link for feature film JOHN CARTER
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Marvel Comics Goes After Second Life Vendors February 6, 2012
Spotty Takedown Panics Virtual Business Owners
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by Gene Turnbow
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Second Life vendors earn unwanted attention from Marvel Comics for recreations of characters like these.

Last week vendors using the online marketplace for the popular MMO Second Life were treated to a number of takedown notices from Marvel Comics for offering avatars for sale that resembled characters from Marvel Comics. Second Life uses a web-based system which they own and operate to enable users of their service to purchase virtual goods, buildings, room furnishings and custom avatars for use inside the virtual environment. In all, between six and twelve vendors were affected (the exact number of vendors or items involved isn’t known and was not announced). Not all items by all vendors were identified for removal.

This is not the first time Second Life has been raided by entertainment companies seeking to protect their trademarks.
- In April of 2009, the estate of Frank Herbert, author of the Dune series of science fiction novels ordered that all Dune-related materials be removed from Second Life over a two day period. The Dune roleplayers simply renamed everything and kept going. Much the same thing happened with the estate of J.K. Rowling regarding Harry Potter themed sims in 2008 – the sims with offending names were removed.
- On Thanksgiving Day of 2010, Universal City Studios ordered Linden Research, creators and operators of the popular online community, to remove any and all to remove any and all intellectual content relating to ‘Battlestar Galactica’ from its grid. Second Life players complied (having been given little choice) – regions and products named for or presenting items from Battlestar Galactica were removed.
- On August 19, 2011, in a sobering development for fan creators, Linden Lab removed Power Rangers merchandise from the Angel Grove Mall in Second Life and from the Marketplace Second Life website.
A Patchword Response

In each case, while actions were taken by Linden Lab in response to DMCA takedown requests by the various holders of the intellectual property rights involved, in no case was the removal of materials or content from Second Life particularly comprehensive or thorough. To understand what happened and why, one needs to understand what the DMCA is and how it works. Here are the mechanics in simple terms:
- An item is identified that potentially violates someone’s copyright. (In this case it was copyrighted characters. One cannot copyright clothing, and though what was removed was mostly costumes, it was also technically just digital assets – the appearance of clothing. And the appearance of an illustrated character can be copyrighted.)
- The owner of the copyright or their representative specifically identifies where the infringing material can be found. In this case, it was a web site. The individual URL’s were reported to Linden Lab.
- By law, Linden Lab is then required to take down the offending material, whether or not the copyright claim is valid. The reason for this is that the infringement cannot simply remain in place until ownership has been proven in a court of law, because this would destroy the timeliness of the remedy and render nonexistent any protections.
After that, surprisingly, usually nothing happens. And the reason is that the complaint has been made regarding the content of the Second Life Marketplace web site, not the actual virtual products themselves. Legal aides rarely have the horsepower or graphics support in their office machines to be able to enter an online service such as Second Life with its graphics intensive hardware requirements to be able to go into the virtual world and look around for more things to ticket for removal. Of course, our examples above are noteworthy because Universal, Saban, the Frank Herbert estate and the J.K. Rowling estate all went in-world and did some pretty massive sweeps, but for every one of these major events, there are a dozen or so smaller ones that nobody ever hears about – because they’re picking out individual items instead of whole virtual islands to clean up.

Don’t Panic

If you are a creator of virtual goods in online services, you needn’t panic. If you are infringing and you know it, you might want to rethink your business strategy. If you believe that what you are making and giving away is Fair Use, you’re most likely right – but be prepared for a takedown notice anyway. These companies don’t read the fine print, and are big enough not to care. On the other hand, the ramifications of a takedown notice are pretty simple: the materials in question get taken down, and pretty much that’s all that happens to you. You’re unlikely to get sued, or fined, or anything else. The DMCA takedown is the end of the action.

Not all companies are as litigiously minded as Marvel Comics. DC Comics, for example, is owned by Time Warner, who in turn has a relatively lax attitude about fan recreations of their characters and can’t be bothered with the nickel-and-dime operations inside a virtual world. A week’s pay for an in-house legal assistant usually exceeds the total profits of an entire year’s work for a virtual business in an MMO such as Second Life, so unless they see something sticking up outside on the internet where they can see it, they generally won’t expend the energy.

Why are they picking on the little guys? Mostly it’s because they have to. This seems counter-intuitive, but it’s the way trademark and copyright law both work. If you own a trademark or copyright, and you see violations of your intellectual property rights and you do nothing about it, you stand to lose the right to defend your own trademarks or copyrights later on when it really counts. Xerox Corporation failed to do this, and eventually the word ‘xerox’ became a generic synonym for ‘photocopy’. What most think Marvel was doing was going after trademark and copyright violators. That’s only half right. They were also protecting their ability to do so later on when it really counts, and they have to make a good faith effort so that they can demonstrate to the courts when the time comes that they actually did. It’s credibility in the bank.

The bottom line is that if you’re a creator of virtual goods, chances are good you’re not making enough money doing this to really affect a trademark or copyright holder one way or the other. If you’re caught using somebody else’s stuff and distributing it, be prepared for its removal. On the other hand, getting flattened by the boot of vengeful Galactus is a pretty small probability.

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Links
- Linden Lab Tightens Copyright & Trademark Rules
- Saban Entertainment Cracks Down on Power Rangers Merchandizers in Second Life
- Universal Forces Battlestar Galactica Off Second Life
- Second Life
- Second Life Marketplace
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Hollywood's Brain-Drain Hits Broadway With "Back To The Future" Musical February 5, 2012
1980′s Movies Being Brought Back as Broadway Musicals – Stop the Madness!
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A Random Rant by Staff Editor, PK
(Pulled and re-published, now with extended rant)
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As I’m cruising the interwebs, I heard a lot of screaming and crying mixed with a bit of golf clapping. Much to my chagrin, I discovered that Broadway has broken into the 1980′s section of the net and was found pillaging old movie scripts for ideas for new shows. I pulled my web-browser over and hopped out, quickly grabbing one of the Broadway Producers by the shirt and begging him for an answer, “why are you digging up old 80′s movies for shows?” He looked at me with lifeless eyes and pointed to the wallet in my pocket, “money” he groaned like a zombie. The 80′s was a special part of my life; classic Nintendo games, the early days of hardcore movies like Die Hard, and there was just something about a cute girl with chemically irradiated big hair, Swatch Watches and neon green tube socks.

And while I respect that Hollywood has the right to occasionally dig up a good movie and remake it, I have to ask, do you think they’re going a bit far with all the remakes? For every few brand-new movies with original stories, it feels like we’re being inundated with five or six remakes every year or so. Hollywood’s brain-drained obsession with making a fast buck off established stories from 20-30 years ago, has become contagious and spread to Broadway. News has come out that Back To The Future is being strongly considered for adaptation for a Broadway musical, and that sound you just heard is BTTF fans around the world fainting. Now I know I can’t speak for all fans, but this news really just made me groan in pain.

If it was just BTTF it might not be so painful, but word is coming down the pipe that movies ”Newsies,” “Ghost,” “Big Fish,” “Austin Powers,” “Rocky,” “The Goonies,” and “Dave“, are being developed for the stage. Movie wise, modern day versions of “RoboCop“, “Total Recall“, and what appears to be a 5th installment in the Terminator movie series are being worked on. RoboCop is set to release sometime in 2013, while Total Recall is planned for this year. This is sort of a two-pronged rant on the movie and stage industry, they’ve helped our lives by bringing to the screen and stage, stories that have shaped us and our culture beyond belief. In a way I can understand film makers pulling old movies out of the vault and adding effects or even entire scenes years later, but I think many would agree that it detracts from the original movie and is an insult to those who worked on the film in the first place and to the fans.

I’ve only had brief exposure to the stage works, but have seen some on television. It’s the original form of organized entertainment, and it deserves more respect than taking a bunch of movies (some of which may not translate well) and trying to cram them onto the stage. I think my main gripe is the constant remaking of movies, and those in the stage industry not trying to just come up with their own original works. I admit that it’s extremely hard to come up with purely original content these days, everything is influenced by something else. And that’s not specifically a bad thing, but it makes it harder for people like me to become engaged in the story. Especially when it feels like a retelling of a retelling of something else, ya’know. Now I know that not all of the movies listed above are from the 80′s, but they still don’t deserve the horror of a Broadway treatment, not when there’s perfectly good story-lines out there that are more suited for stage production.

Cinema and Stage fans the world over beg those in power to stop the madness of endless remakes and sequels that are sure to be painful!

These are all excellent movies, but do they need to be remade or sequel’d as movies or Broadway shows?,

Sincerely,

One Old Angry 80′s Nerd

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Comics Spotlight: Claudio Ghirardo's "Untitled" Surprises, Intrigues February 2, 2012
A scene from Claudio Ghirardo's "Untitled"
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by Gene Turnbow
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We often report on independent comics, which are usually off the beaten path. Superhero comics are great, and we love them, but it’s not all there is. In fact, real artists draw and paint these, and we forget just how much of the artist there really is in these works. Today we’re stopping and taking a breath and having a closer look at one artist whose work exemplifies the concept of comics as fine art.

Artist Claudio Ghirardo has debuted “Untitled” at Paintedcomic: a drama/comedy series of short, introspective stories where the main character, an enigmatic artist, is usually seen drawing in a sketchbook and the circumstances he confronts and deals with. Some stories are be based from the creator’s real life experiences, some are fictionalized.

Claudio Ghirardo combines his background as a self-taught artist with his sequential storytelling training. Taking his cue from artists such as Bill Seinkewicz, Kent Williams, his childhood hero Frank Frazetta, and many others, Ghirardo plays with the imagery while working to keep the storyline unified. Says Ghirardo, “Doing the kind of comic I want to do would prove too costly to publish. But when I saw the kind of work being done on the web, I realized that this forum was perfect for what I wanted to accomplish!”

Ghirardo’s work crosses the line back and forth between how his characters appear to one another, how they see themselves, and the flow of their own thoughts and impulses in what sometimes seems like effortless stream-of-consciousness writing and design. The design of the characters breaks with convention, but does not simply discard rules of traditional comic art – instead, Ghirardo creates a new and unique personal paradigm. Art is in the eye of the beholder, it’s often said, because it’s often as much what the observer thinks about the art as the intention and message conveyed by the artist. Ghirardo’s work is arresting, sometimes poignant, sometimes humorous, but it always makes you stop and think about what you’re seeing and reading.

“Untitled” will be updated once a month and can be seen at http://paintedcomic.wordpress.com/.

About Claudio Ghirardo: a professional artist who has exhibited his work in many group and solo exhibitions. A graduate of the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art, he left traditional comics behind him years ago working as a freelance illustrator and then as a painter. He has come back to his first love, comics, and this is his first foray into webcomics.

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Flying People Mystify New York Citizens February 1, 2012

In one of the most creative movie viral campaigns in recent memory, 20th Century Fox teamed up with viral marketing pro’s ThinkModo to create a wild aerial publicity stunt for the film Chronicle. The film follows three high school students (Dane DeHaan, Michael B. Jordan, Alex Russell) who develop super powers and the havoc that comes with those powers.

“Since the three main characters of the movie have the ability to fly, we came up with the idea of staging a few “flying people” sightings around NYC. We achieved that illusion by having 3 custom-made aircraft (which were shaped like human beings) fly above designated areas in NYC and NJ,” says Michael Krivicka from Thinkmodo.

Check out the video which shows how the team at ThinkModo created the people shaped custom aircraft.

Chronicle feaures visual effects by Rhythm & Hues Studios, and hits theaters on February 3^rd.

Now that we’ve shown you what a lot of sites are showing you, we’re going to show you what most sites are showing you – where Thinkmodo got their flying people from.<br /> They didn’t design the things. They probably didn’t even buy the plans available from http://www.rcsuperhero.com for $19.95. They probably bought the deluxe models, fully assembled and ready to fly, for about $345 USD.

Up, up and away.

Links
- Chronicle on IMDb
- RCSuperhero.com
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DC vs. Marvel - Dominating Theaters 2012-2014 January 28, 2012
Holy Sh*t Batman!

By Staff Editor, PK

If you’re a big fan of superheroes, then you may be like us and having a glee-filled fanboy meltdown over the news that continues to emerge from Hollywood on even more superhero stories coming to the silver screen. Marvel Comics & DC Entertainment have spent decades trying to capture our hard earned nerd money, pumping out some amazing and at times not so amazing shows, movies, and games based on our favorite comics. We could cover the last 50 years of superhero cinematic history, but lets’ just take a look at recent events and work forward. In 2002 Marvel set the bar for superhero movies to an all new high with the big budget modern day adaption of Spider-Man, Tobey Maguire wowed audiences with his boyish charms and CGI enhanced combat skills, as he fought The Green Goblin.

One decent sequel and one teary-eyed massive flop later, Spider-Man is being reborn as The Amazing Spider-Man starring Andrew Garfield, in an another attempt to retell the story of Peter Parker, the mutant spider, and the worst allergic reaction to a bug bite known to medical science. To be fair this new version of Spidey’s adventures appears to be more of a grittier and somewhat darker telling of the story, and audiences will get to judge for themselves if the web-slinging wall-crawler is meant to stay on the big screen, with the film debuting on July 3, 2012 in theaters everywhere.

2012 & 2013 will be big release years for Marvel in particular, as we see if three big movie franchises can be successfully combined into Marvel’s The Avengers. On their own, Thor, Iron-Man, and The Incredible Hulk, have done very, very well. So far the Iron-Man movies have been amazing, and I think Don Cheadle should have been James Rhodes in the first movie as well. And while they didn’t get a big budget movie treatment of their own, fan favorite characters Hawkeye, Black Widow, Loki, and Nick Fury; will join the Avengers in their quest to save Earth coming May 2012. Most fans know that it’s been traditionally hard to take superhero adventures and make them work on the big screen, especially when you finally get that tight fighting lycra outfit on a real person. But I also think most would admit that lately, Hollywood has really been giving 110% on making live action hero movies that don’t stink.

The big surprise announcement this week, is that Samuel L. Jackson is set to star in a big budget adaptation of Nick Fury’s storyline, estimated to show up in 2014. Does that mean there’s hope that Hawkeye or Black Widow may get their own movie? No word yet, but we’ll keep an ear out for news! Not everyone remembers this, but Nick Fury did have his own television show in 1998. Nick Fury: Agent of Shield tortured audiences for less than a season, with David Hasselhoff as the legendary SHIELD agent. 2013 will see the debut of The Wolverine(aka Wolverine 2), featuring Hugh Jackman returning as his sweaty claw wielding alter-ego during his adventures in Japan. The Captain America movie may have seemed like one long setup to The Avengers movie, but the Cap is back post Avengers in Captain America 2, set to release sometime in 2014.

Another couple superhero surprises for the 2014 season, is that Deadpool makes its way to the big screen, but with Ryan Reynolds? Reynolds of course played The Green Lantern in the 2011 theatrical adaption, but this does raise some interesting questions if this casting is true. Does this create a conflict of interest? Starring as a superhero for competing companies? We don’t have confirmation of this yet, but I wonder if there would be any contractual conflicts over this. Following up with this, we find the tiny foot prints of Ant-Man and the apparent film version also coming that year. For those not familiar with the Ant-Man story, it does in-fact involve S.H.I.E.L.D, so it’s not too big of a surprise that Marvel appears to be sticking with an overall story-line.

Because I can see DC waving it’s arms wildly and demanding to be heard, they to having movies coming out this year. The Dark Knight Rises featuring our favorite brooding caped crusader, premiers July 20, 2012. Batman faces off against his greatest foe, Bane! The super steroid freak who in the legendary story Knightfall, breaks Batman’s back and cripples him. Catwoman co-stars in this conclusion to the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy, which we can only imagine will be as incredible as the first two. 2013 will see the release of Man of Steel, the re-booted re-boot of the theatrical Superman story-line, starring Henry Cavill as the legendary hero. This time around we meet the young 20 year-old something Clark Kent struggling to come to terms with his superpowers and wondering if he’s really the right person to save the world from General Zod, played by Michael Shannon. I know there was some controversy over Laurence Fishburne being cast as Perry White, a black actor playing a traditionally Caucasian character. My response is, chill people, Laurence Fishburne is a fantastic actor and I don’t see why it’s a big deal for him to play Perry.

DC Entertainment has been slacking a bit on theater releases, but making up for it with television shows and direct to DVD movies such as Justice League: Doom. A lot of work has been done with establishing a partnership with Cartoon Network, in development of animated shows related such as Young Justice and Green Lantern: The Animated Series. DC has been attempting to bring some live action hero shows back to the small screen, sadly they’ve flopped in a big way, with the 2011 Wonder Woman never even making it out of the pilot episode stage.

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‘Justice League: Doom’: Free screening in L.A. on Feb. 16 January 27, 2012
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Krypton Radio Newswire
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Justice League: Doom (Warner Home Video)

“Justice League: Doom” will make its West Coast premiere on Feb. 16 with a Hero Complex screening at the Paley Center in Beverly Hills with a limited number of free tickets available for fans.

Los Angeles Times’ Hero Complex lead writer Geoff Boucher will moderate a Q&A with the filmmakers and members of the cast after the screening.

“Justice League: Doom,” the latest DC Universe animated original movie from Warner Home Video, takes its core plot from Mark Waid’s memorable “Tower of Babel” story arc (which was published back in 2000 in the pages of DC Comics) although there are considerable differences. In both the comics and film, the world’s greatest heroes are all placed in danger when villains get their hands on Batman’s secret files — which indexes the weaknesses of all his teammates and precise tactical plans for taking them down.

Justice League:Doom (Warner Home Video)

The film features Nathan Fillion (“Castle”) as Green Lantern, Tim Daly (“Private Practice”) as Superman, Kevin Conroy (“Batman: The Animated Series”) as Batman, Michael Rosenbaum (“Smallville”) as Flash, Susan Eisenberg (“Superman/Batman: Apocalypse”) as Wonder Woman, Carl Lumbly (“Alias”) as Martian Manhunter and Bumper Robinson (“A Different World”) as Cyborg. As for the bad guys, there are three alumni of the “Justice League” animated series: Phil Morris as Vandal Savage, Olivia d’Abo as Star Sapphire, and Alexis Denisof as Mirror Master. There’s also Carlos Alazraqui (“Reno 911?) as Bane, Paul Blackthorne (“The Dresden Files”) as Metallo and Claudia Black (“Farscape”) as Cheetah. David Kaufman (“Danny Phantom”) also reprises his “Justice League” role of Jimmy Olsen.

The filmmaking team includes executive producer Bruce Timm, director Lauren Montgomery, producer Alan Burnett and dialogue/casting director Andrea Romano. “Justice League: Doom” also represents the final DC Universe film script from the late Dwayne McDuffie.

“Justice League: Doom” arrives Feb. 28 as a Blu-Ray Combo Pack or as a DVD; it will also be available On Demand and via download.

To be first to hear about other Hero Complex screenings, follow them on Twitter: @LATherocomplex.

To learn more about the Paley Center, check out their website.

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"The Avengers" Cologne Set "Do you want to smell like a Superhero?" January 26, 2012
Now You To Can Smell Like a Hulking Green Super Beast

By Staff Editor, PK

It’s been a while since I’ve stepped into a comic shop, and I knew that they could order almost anything that my geeky little heart desires, but cologne? That’s right folks, you to can now smell like one of Marvel’s The Avengers! Smell like the hulking tank smashing beast who’s been wearing those same purple shorts far past their launder date! Smell like the billionaire playboy who’s spent one too-many hours locked in a metal suit and desperately needs a shower! Smell like… Water lily? Not the fragrance I would associate with Bruce Banner’s sweaty alter ego, but hey, if you make it, nerds will buy it.

From JADS International, LLC., comes The Avengers Cologne Set, with the tag line “Finally four unique fragrances assembled for the first time!“. And forgive my sarcastic nature, but I couldn’t help but suddenly develop this mental image of a skinny nerd with horned rimmed glasses looking bewildered as a beautiful woman blows him off over his offer of a date; standing there with a tear dripping from his eye and thinking, “but I smell like Iron Man, how could she turn me down?”. But believe it or not, if you desire to smell like Captain America, Iron Man, The Hulk, or Thor; all you have to do is hit up your local comic retailer who can order you up a batch for only $59.99.

If you thought JADS International was a familiar name in the geek/nerd world, you’d be right. JADS has also brought us cologne collections involving Star Trek and Star Wars; with scents such as Shirtless Kirk Cologne and Red Shirt Cologne, for when you feel the need to be that expendable unnamed guy in the landing party. But if you’re more in the swinging mood, and want to meld your favorite nerd girl, check out Pon Farr Perfume for Her. Or if she’s looking to be your little Slave Girl to your Jabba the Hut, (bad mental image there) then check out Slave Leia Perfume.

The Patriot “Captain America Cologne”

PATRIOT Cologne

A cologne that pays homage to the confident, stand-up-to-bullies, hard working average Joe in every man. PATRIOT Cologne is both reserved and sexy; like a symbol on a shield or a moniker on a motorcycle helmet. Fresh notes of green lime and white pepper are the first to hit with dry oak wood, sandalwood and tequila accords finishing the adventure. Perfect for any time or place, PATRIOT Cologne puts the Novus Mundus in your strong, sensuous hands for you to embrace and discover.

PATRIOT Cologne
Your Attack Plan.

Mark VII "Iron Man Cologne"

Mark VII Cologne

A resolutely sophisticated cologne forged from the sea, the sun, the earth, and a touch of devil-may-care whimsy. Transparent, aromatic, and modern in nature, Mark VII combines mandarin, neroli, nasturtium and jasmine layered with light patchouli to create a contemporary expression of “I don’t play well with others” confidence; leaving you always ready for whatever a genius, billionaire, playboy-philanthropist might encounter along the way.

Mark VII Cologne
Armor Up.

Smash! "The Hulk Cologne"

SMASH!

Very unusual and rare materials have been brought together to create a woody aquatic cologne evoking both a serene sense of timeless freedom and a single-minded, unbridled passion for life. Yuzu, bergamot and tarragon create clean, clear top notes along with unexpected accords of water lily and nutmeg. SMASH! then carries an intense woody drydown enriched with Indian sandalwood, vetiver, musk and sharp cedar. Complimentary to a full range of emotions, it wears well no matter where—at work, the lab or an evening out on the town.

SMASH!
Be Angry.

Worthy Cologne "Smell like Thor"

Worthy Cologne

This woody citrus cologne is a unique, meaningful combination of bergamot, frozen ginger and wheatgrass blended with a hint of fresh natural grapefruit and layered deeply with aromatic cypress. Basenotes are possessed with sensual, seductive tones of dark amber and cedarwood, protecting and enhancing a deep, dry masculine (dare we say almost God-like?) musk.

Worthy Cologne
Possess the Power.

Links:

JADS International, LLC.

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DC Entertainment Announces “We Can Be Heroes” Campaign January 24, 2012
DC Entertainment’s Justice League Teams Up to Fight Real World Hunger in Africa

Krypton Radio Newswire

(Press Release – New York, NY) DC Entertainment, home of the world’s greatest super heroes, today unveiled an unprecedented giving campaign to fight the hunger crisis in the Horn of Africa. This multi-million-dollar commitment over the next two years will be supported across all Warner Bros. Entertainment’s and Time Warner’s businesses and feature DC Entertainment’s iconic Justice League characters, including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg, issuing the call to action, “We Can Be Heroes.” The announcements were made at a press conference today in New York by Barry Meyer, Chairman & CEO, Warner Bros.; Jeff Robinov, President, Warner Bros. Pictures Group; and Diane Nelson, President, DC Entertainment.

We Can Be Heroes will support the efforts of three humanitarian aid organizations working in Africa—Save the Children, International Rescue Committee and Mercy Corps—as part of the global effort to fight the current hunger crisis in the Horn of Africa. The region is suffering its worst drought and famine in over 60 years, with 13 million in need of critical assistance and 250,000 facing starvation in Somalia alone. Each partner organization was chosen for its track record of effective and expeditious humanitarian aid efforts in Africa.

We Can Be Heroes will be supported via promotional exposure across all of Time Warner’s divisional advertising platforms (Warner Bros., Turner Broadcasting, Time Inc., HBO), generating millions of consumer impressions and creating crucially needed awareness of this crisis worldwide. Save the Children, International Rescue Committee and Mercy Corps will equally share a corporate donation of at least $2 million over the next two years comprised of cash donations, employee matching funds and consumer matching funds.

“Warner Bros. has a long history of corporate philanthropy and outreach, and this campaign proudly continues that tradition,” said Meyer. “We are a global company, and this is a global issue. By marshalling our expertise in consumer and fan engagement and creating global awareness, we hope we’re able to inspire others to join us in becoming ‘heroes’ and make a difference in the Horn of Africa.”

The Justice League characters were chosen by DC Entertainment both for their global recognition as well as their demonstration of strength in unity and numbers. The campaign’s graphic identifier features the iconic Justice League characters—Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg—outlined in silhouette against the African continent. Each of these characters is a super hero in his or her own right, but when they band together as the Justice League, they become an unstoppable force for good and right in the universe—a key message of the We Can Be Heroes campaign. While many individuals may feel powerless to effect change on their own, as part of a global campaign such as this, their efforts, combined with those of other donors, can create a world of change.

A key launch element of We Can Be Heroes is the campaign’s website, WeCanBeHeroes.org. Here, consumers can make donations which DC Entertainment will match 100 percent (up to $1 million in donations), purchase specially branded merchandise, with 50 percent of the purchase price going to fight the hunger crisis via We Can Be Heroes , sign up for newsletters and updates, and join the We Can Be Heroes online community. The site will also feature information on each of the partner organizations and updates on current conditions in the Horn of Africa.
“This campaign goes straight to the heart of our core competency, as Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment both have a rich legacy of telling socially relevant, compelling stories with characters embraced by global audiences,” said Robinov. “The fact that we’re able to take what we do and use it to raise awareness—and inspire action—around a cause as important as this is gratifying. With the support of the entire Studio and our Time Warner sister companies, this campaign, like the DC Comics super heroes, will make a great impact on an important issue.”

“The members of the Justice League are an international team of super heroes beloved by a broad range of fans, including men and women, young and old. This makes them the perfect ‘spokescharacters’ for this campaign,” said Nelson. “Their dedication to social justice and commitment to band together to defend the helpless brilliantly supports the ideals of the We Can Be Heroes campaign. The hunger crisis in the Horn of Africa is something we can reverse if we all work together. I’m proud and grateful we’re able to harness the power and standing of the DC Comics brand and iconic characters as well as for the support from both Warner Bros. and Time Warner that has allowed us to pursue this unprecedented initiative.”
“This is a tragic situation affecting millions and millions of people. Everyone has the ability to be a part of the solution and efforts such as We Can Be Heroes help bring us closer to that goal,” said Dr. Jill Biden, who visited refugees in Kenya in August and has worked to raise awareness of the crisis. “I commend the efforts of DC Entertainment, Warner Bros. and other organizations who are using their global reach to help raise awareness of the crisis.”

For more information on We Can Be Heroes, visit www.WeCanBeHeroes.org. For more information on the campaign’s partner organizations, visit their websites: www.savethechildren.org (Save the Children);www.rescue.org (International Rescue Committee) and www.mercycorps.org (Mercy Corps).

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Steampunk Batman Video Game Cancelled January 15, 2012
A Potentially Wonderful New Interpretation of Batman is Silenced

By Staff Editor P.K.

1989 Comic Cover

Do you remember Steampunk Batman? Not everyone may, but back in 1989 Gotham by Gaslight was produced by DC Comics, in what would become known as the first of the Elsewords stories. Batman was taken out of his normal environment and set in the Victorian Era which is normally associated with the alternate history of Steampunk stories, where gears and steam powered inventions rule supreme. In a truly innovative story-line (as far as Batman goes), Bruce Wayne is framed and convicted for the murders associated with Jack the Ripper. Fast forward to modern day, and the one time Steampunk Batman comic is being considered for development as a full fledged video game.

Originally set to be made by Day 1 Studios and Warner Bros, word has come down from the artist who had been hired to develop some artwork to show what the game might look like; that the game has in fact been cancelled before it even got out of the pitch stage. For those of us who love Batman and the world of Steampunk, this is a true disappointment.

Graphic artist Julie A. Farrell, announced via her blog and twitter, that the concept art which she had developed for the game, had been rejected and that as far she knew, the game itself had been flagged as a no-go. She later updated to say that the studio along with Warner Bros. had asked her to take down the art, despite a previous agreement she could use it in her portfolio. Way to be a buzz-kill Warner Bros.

Fortunately, the artwork has survived on the net, and as shown below Ms. Farrell has through her work brought to life an amazing 3D look into the world of Gotham by Gaslight.

We can only hope, or better yet, if you feel strongly enough about wanting to have a Gotham by Gaslight game; contact the studio and demand they take a serious look at developing this into a full game.

Links:
- Gotham by Gaslight
- Day 1 Studios
- Julie A. Farrell
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Toronto Scarborough Museum Holds Superhero & Mad Scientist Classes For Kids January 12, 2012
Toronto Museum Finds Creative Ways to Entice Children to Visit

Krypton Radio Newswire

Anything for the Superkids Yo.

The Toronto based Scarborough Museum in Scarborough-Ontario, have found very creative ways to grab the attention of young children with innovative workshops and programs. One such program is their Saturday Adventures Club, which features alternating monthly themes and with each Saturday building upon the previous one on what the children learned. This month is for wannabe heroes with The Superhero School, running from January 7th, to the 28th of this year. The museum looked for ways to help the community and it’s younger members (with admittedly a benefit of bringing in more visitors to the museum), and initiated the special programs back in 2010.

The Superhero School allows kids 5-12 Years of Age to build emblems, masks and other Superhero attire, as they work on building their super-powered alter-egos. One of the wonderful aspects of the programs, is the level of participation by the children, being allowed to have a voice in upcoming programs; such as February’s Mad Scientist Workshop starting on Saturday February 4 and running until February 25.

Upcoming Workshops:

Mad Scientists
Saturday February 4 to 25
5-12 yrs. $60 / 4 Workshops
Course Code: 1884288
Saturday Adventurers welcome to the lab! See what crazy concoctions can be created. Strange science each and every week!

March Mix-up Mania
Saturday March 10 to 31
5-12 yrs. $60 / 4 Workshops
Course Code: 1884289
Get into crafts, cooking and creative play. Mini adventures each week. Something new to taste, try and see!

March Break Pioneer Adventure Day Camp - Ages 5 to 12
Monday March 12 to Friday March 19, 2012, 9 to 4 p.m.
Course Code: 1884378
Have a March Break you will always remember! Experience the life of an early settler. Cook food over the open hearth and in the wood stove, make early settler toys, play camp games, create a variety of fun historic crafts. Take nature hikes and enjoy the woods in beautiful Thomson Memorial Park, so dress for the outdoors! Pre-register online at www.toronto.ca/torontofun or call 416-338-4FUN. For more information call the museum at 416-338-8807. $152. Extended care available for an additional fee.

Links:
- Scarborough Museum
- Scarborough Museum on Facebook
- Toronto Metro
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"Something Animal" Giveaway from Fanboy Comics! January 11, 2012
Fanboy Comic's "Something Animal"

In celebration of the release of Fanboy Comics’ premiere graphic novel, Something Animal, FBC will be giving away two graphic novels this week, signed by the creative team behind the book.

All interested fans should enter the giveaway by retweeting the following when you see it posted on the Fanboy Comics (@FanboyComix) or Something Animal (@SomethingAnimal) Twitter accounts:

We’re giving away a free @SomethingAnimal graphic novel to two followers! #nosparklyvamps RT this tweet to enter!

They’ll be tweeting this message from both Twitter accounts all week. Multiple entries are permitted, and the contest will officially close on Thursday, January 12th, 2012, at 5:00 p.m./PST. At the end of the week, the FBC staff will choose two lucky fans to win the Something Animal graphic novels. The winners will be announced on the Fanboy Comics website on Friday, January 13th, 2012, along with being notified through Twitter. (International entries will be accepted for this contest.)

For more information regarding the giveaway, please visit the Fanboy Comics contest page!

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Richard Alf, Co-Founder of ComicCon, Dead at 59 January 8, 2012

Richard Alf, Co-Founder of ComicCon, RIP

Richard Alf, one of the co-founders of San Diego’s Comic-Con, died last Wednesday of pancreatic cancer at age 59. Alf joined up with a band of volunteers in 1970 to start what is now the convention that defines the comic book industry. He fronted friend and fellow Comic-Con co-founder Mike Towry a few thousand dollars to pay for the convention for the first three years and played a pivotal role in the success and growth of annual convention.

The three-day annual gathering has become a phenomenon, drawing a heavy Hollywood presence in recent years as the movie business has put an increasing emphasis on comic book heroes; and is the venue of choice for building buzz around new creative projects targeted at the comic book and science fiction communities. In the 70′s and 80′s it was largely a fan-run celebration, but has become a trade show in most important details. Alf, however, had long since left the volunteer position before Comic-Con became a signature events for geeks across the globe.

The first Comic-Con was relatively modest in scale compared to the convention that now draws more than 125,000 people to San Diego every summer. Alf was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer in December. He is survived by his mother.

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Krypton Radio Looking for On-Air Talent! January 6, 2012
Do you have what it takes to be our On Air Fan Talent?

Krypton Media Group™ aka Krypton Universe™ / Krypton Radio™, is looking for original Fan Talent to host a morning show on Krypton Radio! We’re looking for individuals, or even a small group that is willing and able to produce its’ own show to be aired on Krypton Radio, with a minimum of three new episodes per calender week.

What is Fan Talent? Fan talent is like what you see on YouTube, people or groups using their talents to produce low-budget, yet high quality shows or series, in lieu of the millions of dollars some big budget studios pay to produce something of the same quality. We admit it, we’re not a huge station with 10 Million listeners, but we’re rising fast and looking for someone to jump on at the ground floor with us and ride to the top.

How We Can Help You

Let’s face it, everybody and his pet rock has a podcast these days. Google is full to overflowing with them. Therein lies the problem, though – how to you get heard in this tidal wave of downloadable content? When everybody has a podcast and a blog, how do you get noticed? Getting your show heard depends on having a high traffic web site to start with, developing a strong fan base and online community and having contacts with whom you can cross-promote it all. Krypton Radio has all this and wants to share it with you in exchange for being able to air your creative content on our radio station. We have literally thousands of listeners a month, in 109 countries all around the world. You can take the next three years and develop your presence on the web from scratch, or you can join ours and skip the hard part.

If you have an idea for a show that you want to do, we can help you by putting it on air for free (radio stations typically have hourly operating costs and normally charge for air time) and giving you assistance and guidance getting your show produced in a slick, polished manner. Producers for Krypton Radio will get the benefit of exposure to thousands of listeners each month, and the growing Krypton Radio fan base. We’ll work with you on cross promotions between your web site and ours, and we’ll coordinate with you on your ad campaigns so that you get maximum yield from your own advertising and promotion. We want to help you succeed.

Requirements for On-Air Production:
- You must have a clear and understandable voice.
- You must be able to produce/edit own show from home, with minor oversight from Krypton Radio (we reserve the right to review each episode before airing).
- Your content must be kept PG-13 or better at all times. Kids and their parents both listen to this station. No vulgar or explicit language or content. If you must use an expletive it must be bleeped or blurred out. (And obviously, we don’t do either politics or hate speech, but we hope that goes without saying.)
- You must be able to tape at least 3 shows per week on a consistent basis.
- Your show must be a half hour to an hour in length, or time can be varied for purposes of including advertisements (do not insert your own advertising).
- Experience with the fandom in any of the following themes is strongly preferred:
- Superhero / Comics
- Science Fiction
- Steampunk
- Fantasy
- Gaming
- Must have experience with Social Media (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
If you’re interested in joining the Krypton Radio team and share our passion for the scifi/fantasy geekosphere and the awesome music that comes with it, e-mail thepitch@kryptonradio.com, include your full legal name, performance name (stage name, if any), and a working phone number. Tell us about yourself, your experiences, what you love about the genres we cover, and what you bring to the table. Please also include your ideas of what you would like to do with the morning show, and anything other information you feel is relevant.

Important Notes
- Yes, we can accept podcasts, so long as the podcast can be repackaged as a prerecorded show for broadcast on Krypton Radio. You must mention that your show is broadcast on Krypton Radio at the beginning and end of each episod. You are getting air time free of charge, this is all we ask for recompense at this time.
- We love the idea of syndication – airing existing podcasts as broadcast shows. It shows that you have your production process down and can deliver on a regular basis, because you’ve already been doing it. We may ask to receive a copy of a finished pilot episode if you’re new to this sort of thing so that we can help you assess where your weak spots in production values are and help you make your show the best it can be.
- If you’re doing a news show or have news topics in it, the material must be delivered in a timely manner.
- We are fully BMI / ASCAP licensed. Which means if you want to include a clip of some song or music in the body of your show, it’s legal.
- You agree that other than this, that you have acquired all necessary licenses, ownership and clearances for the material you present and agree to indemnify Krypton Radio from any legal ramifications that may result from your use of it in the body of your show. This means that you can have a show that talks about somebody else’s intellectual property or material, but you cannot, for example, make a fanfic show using characters from your favorite TV show, book or movie as characters in your own production. Unless you’ve got a contract that gives you the right to do that.
Don’t Be Shy About This

Lacking one or two bullet points may not stop you from getting your show on the air. We’ll help you figure stuff out, or figure ways around production problems. Remember that we’re fan geeks just like you. Let’s get you on the air!

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Writer Loses 'Ghost Rider' Ownership Claim to Marvel January 3, 2012
‘Ghost Rider’ Rides On Without Creator Gary Friedrich
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Krypton Radio Newswire
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Gary Friedrich's creation, Ghost Rider

MANHATTAN – Comic book writer Gary Friedrich won’t be seeing any royalties or punitive damages from the copyright infringement he alleges Marvel Enterprises committed against him relative to his Faustian creation “Ghost Rider”. A federal judge ruled against him last week in a nineteen page summary judgment – meaning he can’t attempt to sue them again for this.

Friedrich sued Marvel in 2007, claiming there was no dispute that he conceived and wrote the Faustian storyline of “Ghost Rider,” in which motorcycle stunt-rider Johnny Blaze promises his soul to the devil in exchange for the life of his adoptive father, who is dying of cancer. Friedrich said that Marvel and dozens of other companies improperly used his storyline for an unauthorized film adaptation. Marvel countersued in July of this year, claiming Friedrich had violated their trademark by using a picture and description of the Ghost Rider on a poster.

It didn’t go well for Friedrich after that – as the judge saw it, Friedrich had repeatedly and unequivocally signed away his rights to the character and has no claim or title left to defend.

U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest granted the summary judgment to Marvel:

“This Court finds that there were at least two moments in time when Friedrich definitively conveyed by contract to Marvel all rights of whatever nature, including any renewal rights to the Character and the Work: (1) at the time of payment for the initial creation of the Character and Work in 1971 and 1972; and (2) in a separate contract signed in 1978 by Friedrich and Marvel Comics Group, a division of Cadence Industries Corporation …

“At the time Friedrich and Marvel Comics entered into the 1978 Agreement, the term ‘Marvel’ referred to, inter alia, Marvel Entertainment Group (a predecessor-in-interest to defendant Marvel Entertainment, Inc.). There is no triable issue of fact as to whether (a) in 1971, Friedrich conveyed any rights he may have had to both the Character and the Work to Marvel and (b) in 1978, he again conveyed to Marvel any rights he then had or could have in the future in the Character and the Work. Either one of those contractual transfers would be sufficient to resolve the question of ownership. Together, they provide redundancy to the answer that leaves no doubt as to its correctness.”

That, unfortunately for Friedrich, is that.

Nicolas Cage starred in the film “Ghost Rider” in 2007. The film didn’t wow the critics, but it earned a respectable $228 million worldwide. The sequel will be released in February of 2012.

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HAPPY NEW YEAR! December 31, 2011

Not a whole lot to say, except Happy New Years! We’re looking forward to bringing you even more music, news, and the best entertainment we can in the new year, we’ll celebrate by sharing some trailers for movies that the boys and girls at Krypton Radio are looking forward to seeing in 2012!

And in no particular order:

Battleship

Hasbro has brought us many joys and nightmares over the years; toys that inspired cartoons, which inspired more toys and emptied our parent’s wallets. Twenty years later, karma bites us in the butt, as our wallets are emptied from the movies and toys inspired by our childhood memories. Once again Hasbro eyes our bank accounts, as they flash the next movie monster inspired by a toy that’s been around since many of our parent’s were young. BATTLESHIP!

A board game that as far as anyone can remember, never had a story to it, other than to sink the other guy’s boats and give you a reason to taunt your siblings and friends with your uncanny ability to guess the position of little plastic ships. Yet, we see the next sci-fi epic of Battleship, featuring the story of our great Naval Fleet suddenly attacked by underwater alien life forms, using mechs and an otherworldly assortment of weapons in an attempt to wipe out our servicemen.

Read more…

Men In Black 3

Our favorite duo are back in Black, with Men In Black 3! Agent J must travel back in time to discover the mysterious disappearance of his partner and mentor Agent K, who has suddenly died decades before Agent J was born. It might be a bit of a plot hole… but, if Agent K died years before he met Agent J, how exactly did he recruit Agent J, who goes back in time? More fun that watching a worm suck coffee and smoke Marlboros!

John Carter

As we’ve previously reported on Krypton Radio, John Carter is the big budget and modern day adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs‘ sci-fi fantasy adventure classic, Princess Of Mars.

Prometheus

We couldn’t say this any better than the synopsis; Ridley Scott, director of “Alien” and “Blade Runner,” returns to the genre he helped define. With PROMETHEUS, he creates a groundbreaking mythology, in which a team of explorers discover a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leading them on a thrilling journey to the darkest corners of the universe. There, they must fight a terrifying battle to save the future of the human race.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

He’s back for the first time in a big budget adaptation of The Hobbit; the long awaited prequel to the Lord Of The Rings trilogy. Hairy feet, really tall wizards who yell a lot, and much, much more.

The Dark Night Rises

We basically know the story already, but yeah, we’re anticipating this as much as you are. The conclusion to the Christopher Nolan Batman saga, Batman vs. Bane and Cat-Woman. And with the first two movies being better than any previous Batman movie ever made, we’re expecting a mind-blowing ending to the trilogy.

GI Joe: Retaliation

It burns! Ok, so we had really hoped that they had learned from their mistakes in the first movie. The fact it was made in the first place! We have nothing against a G.I. Joe movie, but the first one was just… not that wonderful. This trailer is not that inspiring, but hey, it’s worth watching just to get that GI Joe fix. And the fact that they’ve drafted Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and non-other than world renowned action hero, Bruce Willis, may be the ONLY thing that saves this film… maybe.

The Amazing Spider-Man

Well… Yes, it seems too early for another Spiderman remake, and while we’re interested in yet another interpretation. We, like you are cautiously waiting to see if this is going to be a winner, or a stinker like the last Spiderman movie. As long as they leave out the crying every other scene, then maybe we’ll have a good Spidey movie for 2012.

Marvel’s The Avengers

Last but not least, Marvel’s The Avengers. All we have to say is… “DO WANT!”

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Comics Spotlight: Big Dog Ink and CRITTER December 30, 2011
Tom Hutchison's creation "Critter", from Big Dog Ink
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Krypton Radio Interviews Tom Hutchison and Stephen Smirl of Big Dog Ink
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Interview by Gene Turnbow

At the annual Long Beach Comic Convention last October 30, we got to speak with Tom Hutchison and Stephen Smirl of Big Dog Ink! Mr. Hutchison owns the fledgling but rising comic book company and created Critter; Mr. Smirl writes and draws Island Tales.

The first issue of Critter was released to the public in April of 2011, and it takes comic books back to the basics: good story, appealing artwork, great characters, fantasy costumes and utility belts.

Gene Turnbow: It’s great to see you here at the convention, Tom! Can you tell our readers about your publishing company and what you’ve been doing?

Tom Hutchinson: Actually this is our third year at the Long Beach Comic Convention, and our third year that we’ve been in existence, so this is sort of our anniversary as well. Since 2009, we came with a couple of titles, starting with “Penny for your Soul”, which we followed up with our superhero title called “Critter”, and this year we’re doing five or six series. We’re releasing at this show our western reimagining of the Wizard of Oz called “The Wicked West”, and we just keep on growing.

GT: I see the quality of these books is extremely high, certainly as good as from any major publisher I’ve ever seen. How long does it take to produce one of these books, and what are you working hard on developing right now?

Tom Hutchinson: When we started this, we really wanted to make a splash with our art. To do that, we really had to make some decisions, primarily about the distribution of it. Most of our books at this point are bi-monthly, they’re coming out every two months. We want to give our artists all the time in the world to do the best work they can possibly do. In order for us to compete artistically in this business – well, art is the first thing people see. So we let our artists do their job, and we have great people working for us.

GT: So how many people does it take to do one of these?

Tom Hutchinson: It varies. On “Critter”, there are three people. I’m the writer, the artist does the pencils, the inks and the color all himself, and then we have a letterer. We have a horror book coming out in May called “Ursa Minor”. I write it, we have a penciller, Ian Snyder, an inker named Sony Mervin [pronounced "Sunny"], a colorist named Luis Guerrero, and a letterer. So in that case we have five, and every book’s a little bit different.

GT: How do you manage your distribution? Are you online, or publish on demand? I see you have a great deal of product out here on the table – it’s high production value, and it’s a little less expensive than you’d see from a major publisher.

Tom Hutchinson: Our distributor is Diamond, which is the primary comic book distribution channel in America, so we’re available essentially nation wide. If your comics shop wants to carry us, they can do so. There’s no difference in the way our comic is distributed than say, if you wanted to buy Spider-Man or Batman. It’s the exact same system.

GT: So how did you get started in this business? The first hurdle is deciding that you’re going to do it, and then you have to be funded somehow…

Tom Hutchinson: Funding is always tricky, I mean, not everybody has the money to sink into a company. A lot of the people you see here are self-publishing, they’re doing it all themselves, they’re writing and drawing the books themselves. That’s totally cool, but in our case we wanted to go a little bit beyond the standard self-publishing, we wanted to be be a publisher, not just be me trying self-publish my own work. So we went and found funding for what we were doing. We found guys who would get behind us. They looked at the product we were trying to produce, they understood what we were trying to do, and they saw the quality in it, ultimately. So we were very lucky in that regard, and that kind of funding allows us to pay page rates to these guys. There’s no back end deals, or back end percentages or any of that kind of stuff. Everybody who works on these books gets paid.

GT: That’s a fantastic business model, and it’s so different from how a lot of these content creation companies do business, not just comic books but movies and music and pretty much anything else creative. They have so much dependence on this deferred payment which is just industry slang for “you’re working for free”.

Tom Hutchinson: That’s pretty true. And, you know, paying page rates is not easy – and we’re not the most profitable business on the planet because of that. But what we do have is a quality level that will stand up to Marvel or DC. And I would stand behind that on anything we produce.

GT: Tell me about “Island Tales” – and who is this that I’m speaking to?

Stephen Smirl: I’m Stephen Smirl and I’m the creator and writer of “Island Tales”. It’s a series of one-shot stories based on Hawaiian and Polynesian lore and fantasy. Sometimes they’re straight retellings, sometimes they’re updated for the current day – but we’ve targeted a lot of non-comic book fans. Most of our fans come from Facebook; they’re not used to going into comic book shops, so we’ve drawn a lot of those people into the comics world. But we give them self-contained stories rather than serialized stories, because they’re not used to reading serialized stories.

GT: Once again, the artwork is fantastic. I see some anime influences in it. And it’s some really solid drawing and characterization.

Stephen Smirl: Thank you.

GT: Now what about “Critter”, the mini-series? You said it was a four issue series, and that it was all wrapped up now?

Tom Hutchinson: It’s all wrapped up – it officially wraps on November 2, 2011, that’s the official release for issue #4. Technically it’s a five issue series, if you include the initial origin story. So there were five issues total, and it’s been a great success, people who’ve seen it at the shows have really loved her, which is great. She’s been with me for a long long time. The online web boards I’m on and things that I use I use the tagline “Critter’s Daddy”, because I just love her, so I’m glad everyone else does. The fourth issue has a nice little cliffhanger at the end that will lead us right into the online book that we’re going to be doing next year in 2012. It’ll be our first monthly book.

If you’re a superhero fan, it’s great old school superhero stuff. You’re on the ground floor of a character, you’re learning about her powers as she does. So it’s a lot like early Spider-Man even, where Peter Parker was trying to figure this whole thing out. It’s not like today, where the characters just are a superhero, and the books are about the battles they fight.

There are a lot of comic book companies out there. But few of them are doing it as right as Tom Hutchison and Big Dog Ink are. “Critter” was a treat, and we’ll be posting a review of the origin story of this book in January.

Links
- Big Dog Ink!
- Big Dog Ink on Facebook
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Happy Holidays From Krypton Radio! December 25, 2011

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM KRYPTON RADIO!

The crew at Krypton Radio would like to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a safe Holiday Season, we look forward to continuing our mission to bring you the best in Superhero, Comic Book, Science Fiction, Steampunk, Fantasy, and Gaming Internet Radio, news and variety entertainment. We’d like also share some of our favorite holiday videos from around the web, and hope you’ll share the cheer with your friends and family as well.

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Unlikely Superhero Brought up for TV Show Pilot December 23, 2011
DC Comic’s Booster Gold Considered for Television Series on SyFy Channel, No, Seriously.

by Staff Editor PK

Booster Gold © DC Comics

Out of all the Superheroes in the vast world of DC and Marvel Comics, it really makes you wonder what made someone think Booster Gold would be the ideal character for a television show. Ok, so this is my time to rant a little, or a maybe a lot, depends on how much coffee I’ve had today. Booster Gold, in the world of fictional Superheroes, is sort of a B-List Character in my opinion. A-List would be Batman, Superman,Iron-man, Wonder Woman, etc etc; and don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of taking one of the B-List guys to say hey, we’re a little tired of the over-saturation we get from the A-List. How many times can you re-tell the story of a Billionaire losing his parents and going nuts to the point of becoming the Dark Knight? I don’t know, Hollywood is still working on that.

Booster Gold is a DC Comic‘s character which first appeared in Booster Gold #1 (February 1986), in which we’re introduced to Michael Jon Carter, a disgraced athlete from 25th century Gotham City. His ego fueled desires drive him to steal technology from a museum and travel back in time to the 20th century, in order to become the most famous Superhero ever, and to make as much money from promotional endorsements as possible. Despite his self-proclaimed hero status, he manages to join the Justice League and over the course of the series, Booster does slowly become somewhat selfless in his actions, and perhaps this is one of those underrated anti-hero type stories, but I’m not completely sold on it.

His story is different, he starts out a selfish jerk and depending on what version of the storyline you get into, he turns into a decent person. Now the the show is not a done deal, this is still in the script writing stage and a full blown television pilot has not been ordered yet. Andrew Kreisberg is slated to be the Executive Producer and will write the initial script for what is being called a one-hour drama; Krisberg hails from the production company of Greg Berlanti who will also be listed as an Executive Producer. Berlanti helped produce a recent superhero show No Ordinary Family, which barely lasted a season, and considering that this is being made for the SyFY channel, my hopes are not going to be high, that this will turn into a high quality work of Superhero television art.

And what kind of Sci-Fiction channel shows WWE wrestling, anyway?

Share your opinions! Hit us up in comments or rant away on our Facebook page, we want to hear from you!

-30-

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Deadpool Speaks - An Interview December 23, 2011
Krypton Radio’s Fiona Toohey Speaks with the Head of the EAST COAST AVENGERS Charity Cosplay Group

The appeal of being a superhero is undeniable. Everyone at some time in their lives has stared out the window at the clouds drifting by in a perfect blue sky and wished they could soar among them. Or see the injustice in their lives around them and wish there was something they could do about it. There’s a reason superheroes hold such high favor in Western culture: they can do things we would not dare to do ourselves, or are imbued with preternatural abilities that allow them to make right the things we know in our hearts are wrong but don’t have the power to do anything about.

Some have the outlet of making costumes and wearing them at conventions and at Halloween, and for many this is enough. But for the East Coast Avengers, a group of cosplayers based in Washington, D.C., this is not enough. They take their passion for comic books and the unquenchable urge to help those less fortunate than themselves to the next level.

Meet the East Coast Avengers, a chapter of the Avengers Initiative Costuming Group. Krypton Radio reporter Fiona Toohey got an audience with none other than Deadpool, the group’s founder and leader.

Fiona Toohey: How did this all begin for you?

Deadpool: For me, I have been into costuming since I was very small. In 2009 I had put together a Deadpool costume, and wore it to a convention in Mesa, Arizona. The response was huge. In that, I came into contact with Aaron Forrester, whom was making an Iron Man suit based on the recent movie. He was friends with Ben Dickenson, whom had a Spiderman costume, and Dan Burgos, our S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent, whom was adept in all social media. We decided to start a group for charity promotion and children’s social work. We saw that there was a need for positive interaction with children, and a lack of hero role-models. I started contacting the many people that I knew in the costuming community in Arizona, and recruiting for the newly assembled Arizona Avengers. There were many interested, and some of the first were Anna (Our Scarlet Witch), Talyah (Our Pepper Potts, Ironette, and Wildcat), and it grew from there. Our first large event was the Phoenix Comic Con in 2010, where I semi-forcibly recruited many of our Avengers. Every Marvel Superhero that I saw there was abducted and tossed into the group. We were so bombarded by request for pictures, that I had to commandeer a large section in the corner of the main lobby of the convention as a makeshift photo area, were about 16 to 20 of us stood and posed for pictures for 4 hours or so. Then it was just a matter of time before we were asked to appear at charity and children’s events, becoming an almost weekly thing, sometimes multiple times in a single day.

FT: Do you stick to Marvel characters only or have any of your groups ever branched out with other publishers characters. Or, has anyone ever tried to bring in an original character?

Deadpool: The concept of the Arizona Avengers is to stick to the Marvel Comics universe, but that Any character therein can be portrayed. Many of our members also costume other characters and are even members of other groups. DC comics, Star Wars, Ghostbusters, to name a few, and we are excited about this. The Arizona Avengers (AzA), and now the West Coast Avengers (WCA) and East Coast Avengers (ECA), love working alongside of these other groups at events. Because we are set in the Marvel Universe, original characters would be done outside of the Avengers.

East Coast Avengers with John Krysiak, Jess Steele, Zachary Seegers, Ryan Moss, Deadpool-avenger Aza-Eca, Nocturne Eca and Emily Sylvest.

FT: Do you make your own costumes?

Deadpool: Most of us do make them. Many of us are Very accomplished, and award winning, costumers. It is not a requirement, however. Some are purchased, or elements of the Supersuit are purchased. It is not a requirement that you make your Supersuit.

FT: Is that expensive, or have you found ways to make it economical?

Deadpool: It can be very expensive, or not, depending on the character, and the skills of the person/people making it. A Supersuit can be purchased inexpensively , but some also are paid for in time spent making it. Iron Man and War Machine are examples. Aaron crafts his starting it as folded paper, then fiberglassing, and sanding, for over a year, to create the finished suit. With the massive talents available in the costuming community, literally anything is possible.

FT: What do you do when not donning the tights?

Deadpool: We are active in the planning and logistical side of the group, chatting with the event organisers and charity representatives to ensure that each event is successful. We started out looking for events to ask to attend, then it shifted to them asking us.

FT: Are you actively recruiting? If so, what are you looking for in a candidate?

Deadpool: We are Always looking for more teammates !! A candidate should be enthusiastic about the charity and community aspect of the group. They need not portray a Superhero at all. We also need character wranglers to help the Supers, work with the crowds, the event organisers, and the public; and to also perform some behind the scenes work to make everything happen successfully. We call those people our SHIELDies, and they usually dress up in black suits, or even full character costumes, as S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents, whom would be with our Super characters in the comics.

FT: What characters does the East Coast Avengers have represented currently?

Deadpool: We have a few already, though we are spread out across the East Coast from Maine to Florida. We have Wolverine, Spiderman (Both the red/blue and Black suits), Jubilee, Storm, Domino, Nocturne, Captain America, Deadpool, Bucky-Cap, Hercules, Black Panther, Nick Fury, Emma Frost, She Hulk, Cyclops, and even multiples of some of those characters. I am currently looking for more members in the Washington DC area.

FT: Why “Deadpool” (same for any other characters you may also do)?

Deadpool: I did not put much conscious thought into why I did Deadpool at first, but when I did, I realized this:
I have chosen a hero who does not walk the righteous path, and therefore can do the dark things that others cannot, in the name of Good, all while sometimes looking like an idiot, and making you smile. I may look like I have no clue, or am bumbling. But truthfully, there is Always a Plan at work. I am not the Shiney Hero, the one who children Love, the one in the Front, the one who is always Right, always Good. I am the one who lurks in the back, is sometimes hated, sometimes ridiculed, but is strong enough to take it, because he knows that he is needed to do the things that a Superman cannot do. I focused on the enthusiastic, playful, and slightly warped sense of humour that Deadpool defines.
This has been a very good fit for me. I also do Black Panther, because I am impressed by the character, and thought that we needed one, could not find anyone to do it, and decided to do it myself. I do get some strange looks when people discover that the guy in the Black Panther suit is white, but ah well.

FT: What of “you” do you bring to the characters, and what of the characters do you bring back to your personal life?

Deadpool: I bring focus and leadership to my Deadpool. Most other Deadpools focus on the silliness of the character, which is fun and appropriate, but I also understand the desire in the character to do good. I take back the sense of pride in doing good, even if it is unnoticed, for it’s own sake.

FT: Has there ever been any problems with Marvel over “copyright infringement”?

Deadpool: None at all, in fact, we applied for official sanctioning from both Marvel and Disney,(like the Star Wars groups have from George Lucas), and are This Close to receiving it. Once we have that, we can really expand our good work, globally. The only problems that we have had were certain places, some hospitals for example, whom would not allow us to visit the patients without official licensing. We were very sad about that.

FT: What was the inspiration for forming the original group?

Deadpool: We wanted a cohesive, recognizable Identity to be able to effectively assemble together as an Impressive entity, and do something positive with it.

It is a truth that any small contact that someone has can stay with them for the rest of their lives, bad or good. A small unkind word can crush someone’s life forever, just as a small good word can empower it. If we are going to say something, we should make it something good, eh ?!!
The child whom is bombarded by negativity and examples of a bad sort, upon seeing a Superhero who is there to see him, can be forever changed by even the slightest contact, and then be a better person. They can never see the world in that same negative light again. That is why we assemble.
I enjoy watching some of the new recruits, who may have joined simply to be seen in their awesome costume, or with the ‘cool kids’, and nothing altruistic; then it happens that they connect with a child on a Hero level, and both the hero and child are changed forever. I love seeing that.

FT: What events has your group been involved with?

Deadpool: We have been at charity drives, cancer awareness and support rally’s, hospital visits, first parental meeting fun days for newly adopted children , military and military family appreciation festivals, food drives, parades, store promotions, Family fun days, and many other events of a positive and caring theme. We are involved with virtually every Convention in Arizona at this point. In fact, they have recognized that we are poor superheroes, some are even unemployed and broke, yet we still assemble for others without thought for ourselves, so the conventions bring us in now as free guests. They also actually feature us as a draw to the conventions. I have great pride that we have so many fans that we are a reason that people actually go to them to see us, specifically.

FT: Have you ever experienced any problems at an event? If so, how did you handle it?

Deadpool: We have logistic problems that arise at any event. We have had property stolen, transportation failure, and weather related problems. We handle them with effective action and good humour. We strive to always remain positive. There shall always be problems, and there shall always be solutions. As a Leader, it is My job to strive to be three steps ahead of the problems, and to overcome them decisively when they arise.

FT:What is the biggest laugh you’ve ever gotten doing this?

Deadpool: Most of them involve the children, and just how excited they are to see us. At our first Phoenix Comic Con, a small boy was so excited and overjoyed at seeing us, he literally lost his mind in joy and pooped his pants and did not care !! There is always a moment when everything comes together and it just works epically !!

FT: Beyond the suits, what is the foundational impetus for the groups existence? What do you perceive as your “Mission Statement”?

Deadpool: This is our mission statement, from day one:
The Avengers are formed to give a group identity for people whom want to make a positive impact on the world. We are supporters of children’s causes, charities, and events. We strive to make the world a better place through action and participation.

FT: Are you Cosplayers first and charity workers second, or the other way around?

Deadpool: It is a dance depending what type of event we are attending, but both always come into play.

FT: What is the most rewarding experience you’ve had as a result of forming these groups?

Deadpool: I am most proud of the fact that the members are personally invested, and that the public understands and loves us.

FT: Have you heard about the real life “super hero” groups that are popping up who are walking the streets of their communities and trying to lower crime rates?

Deadpool: I have, and I am sad that there obviously is something bad that has happened to cause them to be driven to such an extent. I always say that the level of Wrong that a village endures is only that which they allow. Being an actual combatant, however, is a slippery slope. If anyone was standing there watching an adult beat a child, we would expect them to say or do something. But how severely should you react? It is a difficult question to answer until you are in that position.

FT: What do you think of them? Heroes or vigilantes?

Deadpool: It will vary given the circumstances of the event. Being an example to others is different from being an enforcer. Handing a can of food to the homeless is different from handing a gang member his head. But if someone is being put in deadly danger, and official help will arrive too late, one should jump to help, supersuit or no. The bystander who jumps into the frozen lake to save the drowning man, is different from the man whom enters the street looking for someone to beat up in the name of ‘justice’.

FT: What is your vision for the future of the East Coast Avengers?

Deadpool: I hope that Marvel and Disney give us all official sanctioning and license to operate as “Avengers”, then we can do work officially with everyone. With the embassies and government so close, we can do Massive things, regularly. I see the East Coast Avengers having chapters all up and down the coast. Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Atlanta, Orlando, Miami, Tampa, Washington DC, and many others.
Each community, with it’s own Heroes, all out doing good !!

FT: Where would you like to see the group in 5 years?

Deadpool: I would like to see the Avengers go global, like the 501st Star Wars groups have.

- 30 -

Links

Deadpool offered the following links to the Facebook pages of the various Avengers groups for our readers who would like to find out more about them:
- Arizona Avengers
- East Coast Avengers
- West Coast Avengers
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Legendary Comic Artist Eduardo Barreto, Dead at 57 December 16, 2011

Another Giant of the Comics Industry passes away

2011 is slated to be one of the most devastating years for the comics industry, as it has been previously reported legendary comic artists and creators Joe Simon and Jerry Robinson had passed away within the last couple weeks. Now the comics world is coping with the death of famed artist Eduardo Barreto, who has passed away at the way too young age of 57.

DC Comics along with other sources have confirmed that Mr. Barreto passed away on December 15; he had reportedly lost his long term battle with Meningitis, he is survived by his children Diego and Andrea.

In a statement from DC:

“I was saddened to hear of the passing of Eduardo Barreto. His work helped to chart the course of many DC Comics’ characters, from Superman to the New Teen Titans. Personally, I was a fan of his work from his time here at DC Comics.” – Dan DiDio, Co-Publisher, DC Entertainment

“With his impeccable draftsmanship and attention to nuance and detail, Eduardo Barreto was a true artist’s artist. A mainstay of DC Comics, he was one of the key artists during the 1980s who not only helped define the look and feel of the DC Universe but got me hooked on the Teen Titans. His incredible work and vision will be missed.” – Jim Lee, Co-Publisher, DC Entertainment

The Staff of Krypton Radio would like to extend our deepest sympathies to the families of these incredible men; they helped us to dream, wonder, and explore exciting and fantastic new worlds of bravery and hope.

Gentlemen, we salute you.

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Links:
- DC Comics: Remembering Eduardo Barreto
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Joe Simon, Co-Creator of Captain America, Dead at 98 December 15, 2011
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Krypton Radio Newswire
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The Cover of Captain America #1, March 1941

Joe Simon, 1913-2011

It seems the world can’t catch a break this week. First we reported that Jerry Robinson had died – it is now our unhappy task to tell you that Joe Simon, the co-creator of Captain America and a leading figure during the golden age of comic books, has also died. He passed from this world to the next last Wednesday night at the age of 98 in New York following a brief illness.

Hymie Simon was born in Rochester, New York in 1913, and grew up in a small apartment above his father’s tailor shop. He moved to New York City at 23 and was hired as an editor of Fox Comics. That’s where he met one of the most influential illustrators ever to work in comics, Jack Kirby. They worked together for 25 years exploring what comics could be and setting the standard for the generations that followed.

Timely Comics was was a new rising star in the comics publishing world, and when Simon went there as their new editor in chief, he brought Kirby with him as director. That’s where the pair created Captain America. The cover of the first issue, printed in March of 1941, showed Cap punching Hitler in the jaw almost a full year before the attack on Pearl Harbor. It was a deliberately political move on the part of Simon and Kirby, and the first edition sold an unpresidented million copies.

World War II took both of them out of the comics business for a while. Kirby was shipped overseas and Simon went with the Coast Guard. Reunited in the late 1940′s, they went on to create comics, romance horror and satire comics. It was during this time that the pair were able to negotiate rights to half of the stuff they’d created over the years. Captain America, though, stayed with Timely Comics – a firm which eventually became Marvel Comics in the 1960′s.

Simon and Kirby also created the Newsboy Legion, Boy Commandos and others for what is now DC Comics.

Simon leaves behind two sons, three daughters and eight grandchildren.

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Comic Book Legend Jerry Robinson - Dead at 89 December 8, 2011
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 Krypton Radio Newswire
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It has been an unimaginably bad week for the entertainment industry. First we lost acting legend Harry Morgan – and now the news is spreading on the death of the one and only Jerry Robinson, the man who named Batman’s sidekick “Robin the Boy Wonder”, the creator of the Joker according to historians, and so many other famous comic-book characters, has left us.

Mr. Robinson was also well known and very well respected in the comics industry for his fighting on behalf of artist’s rights; he personally aided in the fight for Siegel and Shuster to gain credit for the creation of Superman, and to get royalties from the use of their iconic character.

“Jerry Robinson illustrated some of the defining images of pop culture’s greatest icons,” said artist and DC Entertainment co-publisher Jim Lee. “As an artist myself, it’s impossible not to feel humbled by his body of work. Everyone who loves comics owes Jerry a debt of gratitude for the rich legacy that he leaves behind.”

Jerry Robinson, comic book legend, passed away at the age of 89, less than a month from his 90th birthday.

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'Cowboys & Aliens' Producers Sued for Copyright Infringement December 7, 2011
One of those rare cases where the infringement claim seems legit
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Krypton Radio Newswire
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Steven John Busti's Cowboys & Aliens

It’s very commonplace in the world of Hollywood for one artist to claim another ripped off his/her idea for a movie or book; but in the case of Steven John Busti, his claim appears to be dead on. Texas based writer and artist Steven John Busti is suing Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, the CEO of Platinum Studios; Universal Studios, and Dreamworks. Makers of the major motion picture Cowboys & Aliens for copyright infringement on the basis that they illegally used a story based on his creations.

In 1994 Busti came up with the concept for a new comic called “Cowboys And Aliens“, with a story about space aliens in the old-west. The Cowboys And Aliens story was to be featured in his comic series Bizzare Fantasy; a preview of the story appeared on the back cover of Bizzare Fantasy #0. In January of 1995, “Cowboys and Aliens” was published in the issue “Bizarre Fantasy #1” and was internationally distributed on March 1, 1995.

Two years later, Scott Mitchell Rosenberg and Platinum Studios, Inc produced a eerily familiar image of a Cowboy being chased by a spaceship. And while it’s not impossible for two people to have similar ideas, the title of this image being “Cowboys & Aliens” was too coincidental. Based on this graphic, Universal Studios and Dreamworks bought the film rights from Rosenberg and Platinum Studios. By 2006 Rosenberg and his Platinum Studios had launched a graphic novel titled “Cowboys & Aliens”, which bore even more similarities to Busti’s “Cowboys And Aliens”.

In both versions of the story, Native Americans discover the aliens and each version features a space craft zooming over a cowboy’s head. The similarities to Busti’s main villain “Morguu” is also remarkable; Busti also points out that Rosenberg would have seen his story due to Busti’s Cowboys And Aliens being featured in Comic Shop News #388, on the same page as a story regarding Rosenberg and his studio. To date the Cowboys & Aliens movie has grossed over 100 Million domestically, and was released on DVD on December 6 of this year.

Busti through his lawyer sent official legal notification to Universal Studios of their infringing on his work, but the studio never issued a response. Many times infringement cases are over very subtle similarities in works of fiction, but we have to admit that the law appears to be very firmly on Steven John Busti‘s side in this case.

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Links
- Copy of Lawsuit via CourtHouse News
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Fanboy Comics releases SOMETHING ANIMAL.. December 5, 2011
Krypton Radio Newswire, LOS ANGELES, CA – December 5, 2011

After witnessing his sister’s brutal murder, Jack struggles to cope with the disturbing, psychological aftermath. Tormented by images of the attack, Jack is forced to confront the harsh reality that either his sanity is quickly crumbling or that he is turning into something else… something dark… something animal…

Fanboy Comic's "Something Animal"

Fanboy Comics releases its first graphic novel, “Something Animal“. The 90 page graphic novel is drawn by Robert Burrows, was written by FBC founders Bryant Dillon and Sam Rhodes, and is based on an original story by senior contributor Ben Rhodes.

“Something Animal is a response to the modern, romantic view of the vampire motif,” says Fanboy Comics’ president Bryant Dillon. “We wanted to return to the very old idea of the vampire condition being a curse or a debilitating disease. The story relies heavily on its strong visuals and is perfect for the graphic novel medium.”

With the release of this first book, Fanboy Comics makes it clear that they’re a triple-threat: daily news on events in the world of comics, their weekly talk show on Krypton Radio “Fanboy Scoop – Week in Review” were already in full production before they stepped up to the plate and lived up to their name by publishing the first in what we hope will be a long string of successes for the still-fledgling media company.

Something Animal will be available for purchase on the Fanboy Comics website starting on Wednesday, December 7, 2011, and in select comic book stores in Los Angeles.

Fanboy Comics’ second graphic novel, Identity Thief, will be available in 2012. For more information on Something Animal, please visit www.fanboycomics.net or www.somethinganimal.com.

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"DC Super Friends: Race to Save Christmas" Debuts on Apple's App Store December 1, 2011
Warner Bros. Press Release for the kids!
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Krypton Radio Newswire
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New York – Warner Bros. Consumer Products www.warnerbros.com), one of the leading licensing and retail merchandising organizations in the world, and ScrollMotion (www.scrollmotion.com), creative leaders in the digital publishing business, introduce DC Super Friends‘ first-ever interactive storybook app for iPad®. DC Comics’ most beloved Super Heroes await a digital adventure this holiday season with the brand-new story, DC Super Friends: Race to Save Christmas, debuting exclusively on the App Store.

In DC Super Friends: Race to Save Christmas, Santa is the guest of honor at the DC Super Friends’ holiday party – but he’s running late to the event. When Superman and The Flash decide to investigate, they realize that Santa is missing, and the race to save Christmas is on!

“We are thrilled to have created the first DC Super Friends interactive book app just in time for the holidays,” said Karen McTier, Executive Vice President, Domestic Licensing and Worldwide Marketing, Warner Bros. Consumer Products. “Now kids can experience their favorite DC Comics Super Heroes in this innovative new format.”

This interactive Reader app features tappable surprises, puzzles, digital coloring pages, sticker activities, and hidden DC Super Friends Points that users can collect to receive an in-app reward – an exclusive emailable holiday postcard. The app also includes professional narration, sound effects, word highlighting, and record-your-own audio.

ScrollMotion Kids’ Stickers feature enables kids to create their own super hero scenes by placing digital DC Super Friends stickers atop animated backgrounds. Children can use multi-touch to grow, shrink, and spin the characters, and can also save and share their creations. Additionally, users can personalize their app by taking a photo with the DC Super Friends or importing a picture from Photos.

“Through the DC Super Friends: Race to Save Christmas app, kids are one step closer to the extraordinary action-packed world of DC Super Friends,” said Josh Koppel, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of ScrollMotion. “We’re proud to unite kids and long-term fans with these fantastic comic characters, and to present an entertaining and educational digital experience that continually surprises users along the way.”

DC Super Friends: Race to Save Christmas is made available through ScrollMotion Kids’ groundbreaking platform, which has revolutionized children’s books and is powering bestselling kids’ titles. Children acquire knowledge best through discovery and play, and ScrollMotion Kids apps provide hands-on interactivity to promote learning through technology.

To celebrate the launch, a 99 cents promotional sale of DC Super Friends: Race to Save Christmas app will take place Tuesday, November 29th through Sunday, December 4th on the App store.

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- iPad users can now download at http://j.mp/DCSFXMAS.
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Action Comics #1 Sells for 2.16 Million at Auction December 1, 2011
Superman’s Debut Nets Record Price

Krypton Radio Newswire

Action Comics Number 1 sold recently at auction for $2.16M dollars. If you've never read the book before, now's your chance - click on the image to read it now, online.

Each time we hear about Action Comics #1, the comic book in which the American mythic icon Superman debuted, we always do a spit take when we find out how much it sold for.
- In 1992, a copy of the book sold for $86,000 in 1992.
- Nicholas Cage bought one in 1997 for $150,000 in 1997.
- In March of 2009, a copy sold for $317,200, to John Dolmayan, drummer for the rock band “System of a Down” who also happens to be a dealer in rare comic books. The purchase was made for his anonymous client, via the internet on ComicConnect.com.
- Another copy sold in February of 2010 for a million dollars. That’s a one with six zeroes after it. The sale was made through the same internet auction site.
But it’s the most recent sale that just makes your mouth fall open, your eyes pop out and roll across the carpet: the most recent sale of the comic netted an amazing $2.16 million, setting a world record for the purchase price of any comic book, anywhere. The issue was auctioned starting Nov. 11 online at www.comicconnect.com . The starting bid was just $1 but there was a reserve price of $900,000.

There are only about a hundred copies of this legendary comic in existence, and each copy has its own individual history.

The person selling this particular copy was none other than actor Nicholas Cage. His copy had been stolen from its security frame along with high-grade copies of Batman’s first appearance in Detective Comics No. 27 and Marvel Mystery No. 71. The other two were recovered shortly thereafter, but Action Comics #1 was not and and presumed lost forever. It was later found in an abandoned storage locker in April of 2011 in California and recovered.

Not many of the copies are in good condition, but Cage’s copy was graded as a 9.0 in terms of its condition, making it one of the most perfect copies known.

Now, don’t you wish you’d kept yours?

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Fanboy Comics Wednesday Treat: Comikaze Expo! November 28, 2011
The first annual Comikaze Expo was held November 5th and 6th of 2011 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. If you didn’t get to go, fortune smiles upon you, for Krypton Radio presents the Fanboy Scoop Interviews done right there at the convention! It’s great listening to these; you can get a real sense of what these conventions are like and get a little flavor of what goes on even if you can’t attend yourself.

Tune in Wednesday night at 7PM to hear this special Fanboy Scoop presentation!

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'Superman Bandit' Behind Bars November 18, 2011
Armbruster Pleads Guilty, Gets Six Years
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Krypton Radio Newswire
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Mike Meyer

You may recall reading the story here on Krypton Radio about how Gerry Armbruster stole about five thousand dollars worth of rare Superman comics and memorabilia from Mike Meyer, a mentally disabled man living in Granite City, Illinois when we reported it last month. The thief was identified by Mr. Meyer and found to be already in custody by police. He’d been apprehended in the act of beating a 76 year old man and taking his money.

We are very pleased to report that Armbruster has been sent to prison, after a very short trial, and is serving a six year sentence.

Mike Meyer, a 48-year-old man who works at McDonald’s to supplement the income he receives from Social Security, was on an all-expenses paid trip to Cleveland, Ohio to visit the house of Jerry Siegal, co-creator of Superman, when he got the news of Armbruster’s conviction.

Armbruster, a former coworker, ingratiated himself to Meyer during an encounter at a comic book store sometime in August of this year. Armbruster expressed interest in Meyer’s Superman collection, and Meyer invited Armbruster into his home to inspect the items. Armbruster specifically asked to see the “most precious” comics, and later returned with a woman he identified as his girlfriend, asking if they could watch Superman movies with Meyer. While Meyer and the woman watched films, Armbruster “disappeared for a while.” Meyer later discovered the theft of more than 1,800 items and informed the police.

A portly man with wispy eyebrows and a child’s charm, Meyer not only adores the Man of Steel but lets the superhero’s do-good ideals permeate his life, right down to his answering machine message: “Every man can be Superman.”

“Justice did prevail, and this will give him some time to think,” Meyer said.

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Links
- Krypton Radio – Superman Comics Thief Collared
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Comics Spotlight: R.C. Young's "Witchman" November 18, 2011
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article by Gene Turnbow, interview transcription by PK
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R.C. Young's "Witchman", premiere issue

During my visit to the Long Beach Comic Convention on October 30, 2011, I happened the display booth of artist/writer R.C. Young and her independent, self published comic series called “Witchman”. From the web site, “Witchman” is a three book, 15 issue comic book series created by independent artist, R.C. Young. It tells the tale of a masked hero in a fantasy world where magic is power and evil comes in monstrous forms…

Witchman is set in a mystical realm appropriate to the sword and sorcery theme. The title character rarely – if ever – appears without his mask, and comes from a different world or parallel reality. He doesn’t seem to be a superhero, really, he’s more of an adventurer with magical powers – so from what I can see he has no apparent need of a secret identity. Perhaps there’s an explanation for this that I just haven’t read yet. Also unanswered is why he’s considered a witch, and not a warlock.

These aside, Witchman has a bright, clean approachable visual style as well as being a fast fun read. It passes the critical test for comic books: the cover makes you want to pick it up and open it, and each page makes you want to flip to the next one to see what happens next. The character design looks like it was designed for animation. From a purely artistic standpoint, the transition to animation would be doable without changing things too much.

Here’s the interview:

Gene Turnbow for Krypton Radio: I see you have four issues of the Witchman comic; this is quite a labor of love! I’ve been reading through some of these, and I see it’s a nice clean approachable style. Some very interesting story development going on, and definitely some very interesting characters. Can you tell us a little about Witchman, how you got started and what brought you to the space you’re at now, and where’s Witchman going in the future?

RC: Sure, well I work in the animation industry, so I do a lot of fun work. But I’m working for other people, and so Witchman is my little pet-project. Something I can do for myself ya’know, completely on my own and have complete creative control over it.

It’s something I enjoy doing and I always find spare time to do it, I’m like always working on it to some degree. I hope to continue to do this ya’know, for as long as I can. I already have a fifteen issue plot planned out and hopefully I can get through it; I’m at issue four and working on five right now, and I’m continuing to look forward to working on this.

KR: So these are very high quality materials, and I don’t see very much advertising in your comics… In fact I don’t see any at all. How are you getting these onto paper, and how are you doing in terms of the project being self sustaining?

RC: Uh well you know, it’s an investment I think. But it’s something I enjoy doing, and I always get a thrill selling an issue to someone, because it’s something I did completely on my own. As for getting it onto paper, yeah I do everything myself and then send it to a printer. Totally out of pocket, but it’s what I love to do.

KR: As for WitchmanComic.com, do you feature your comic online as well?

RC: Yes, but in bits, I usually use the site to promote the comic and will have a few pages up at a time. I have a lot of character bios and artwork from the comics, as well as information on the conventions I’ll be attending that year, stuff like that. You can also order the comic via the website too!

KR: I see, that’s great! So how long ago did you start doing this, and did you have any particular inspiration to start with?

RC: Um, I’ve been working on it; I mean I really started writing the story back when I was in college. I only started creating the actual books a few years ago; as far as my inspiration, it’s mostly come from animation and just anything that interested me since my childhood. All the cartoon shows I watched, whatever comic books I did read, all that stuff. My story, (Witchman) is a combination of a little bit of everything that interested me throughout my life.

KR: You say you work in the animation industry, what do you do specifically?

RC: I work as an animator. Occasionally I work doing storyboarding and hope to get into that more in the future.

KR: How do you feel you’ve been doing, or in terms of Witchman’s popularity, has it been growing over the years?

RC: I have a few followers I see come to multiple shows, and have collected every issue, I have a lot of people that come up for the first time, it seems like I get more people buying my comic at every convention. A lot of new people, so this is good, and hopefully they’ll continue to follow it on the website and see that we have future shows.

KR: Thank you so much for speaking with me Rachel, and we’ll help spread the word on Witchman!

RC: Thank you!

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Links
- WitchmanComic.com
- Witchman on Facebook
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Movie Preview Review - Movies For The Whole Family! November 18, 2011
Taking a look at upcoming movies and hoping they don’t stink!
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By Staff Editor PK
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I’m a critic, what can I say? As much as I love movies and especially the Superhero themed ones, I gotta be brutally honest in what I think of them. So I thought I’d share my thoughts on a few of the upcoming movies that I’m anxious to see. Now we at Krypton Radio are not just hardcore fans of Superhero movies, we all enjoy a wide variety of genre’s and so that you don’t feel burned out on the latex clad heroes coming to save the day, I’ll review some other up and coming films that would be great for the entire family!

ParaNorman

About:From Studio LAIKA the creators of the hit stop-motion children’s film Caroline, comes ParaNorman. An animated action comedy about a young boy with the uncanny talent to talk to the dead and who embarks on a quest to save his town from rampaging zombies.

Featuring the voice talents of: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Tucker Albrizzi, Casey Affleck, Anna Kendrick, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Leslie Mann, Jeff Garlin, John Goodman, Elaine Stritch, Bernard Hill, Alex Borstein, Tempestt Bledsoe, and Hannah Noyes.

Review: I have to say this looks promising, I’ve seen Caroline and it was smartly written and very well animated. This trailer so far is showing just as much promise, and while zombies movies get old at times, I’m hard pressed to turn down a well written animated film. ParaNorman looks to be a well rounded feature film for kids and grown-ups who are still kids at heart.

Rating & Premieres: Not yet rated (but thinking it will get a “G” rating) – August 17, 2012.

Appropriate for: Young kids and just anyone who enjoys a good animated film.

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance

About: Nicholas Cage returns as Johnny Blaze in this sequel to Ghost Rider; hiding from the devil in Eastern Europe and recruited by a secret group of monks from the Church, he must protect a young boy from the devil. Blaze must come to terms with his Ghost Rider powers and discover if he can save the boy and get rid of his own curse, if he would only embrace the power of the Rider.

Featuring: Fergus Riordan, and Ciaran Hinds as the devil.

Review: It burns! Take Ghost Rider dip him in tar from skull to boots, and give a living skeleton the ability to pee fire? Then you apparently have enough of a reason to make a sequel; however you would think that it would be kinda hard to hide from the devil no matter where you are on the planet. Now I actually enjoyed the first Ghost Rider movie, loved it in-fact, but this gave me reason to pause when the directors of the film are the ones intro’ing the trailer and telling us how much we’re going to love the movie. I would think most film-makers would let the movie speak for itself, but they needed to give us a heads up about how much the movie is going to rock. Nicholas Cage is a real hit and miss kind of star in my book, he was truly wonderful in Lord Of War and I enjoyed his performance in the first Rider film, but this makes me stop and groan a bit. I’ll reserve final judgement until I see the movie, but my hopes will not be too high for this theatrical continuation of the storyline.

Rating & Premieres: PG-13 & will be released on February 17, 2012.

Appropriate for: Due to the violence and adult humor, I’d say keep this to kids 13-14 or older.

Detective Dee: And The Mystery Of The Phantom Flame

About:Official synopsis: “On the eve of her coronation as Empress, China’s most powerful woman is haunted by a chilling murder mystery: seven men under her command have burst into flames, leaving behind only black ash and skeletal bones. Recognizing this threat to her power, she turns to the infamous Dee Renjie: a man whose unparalleled wisdom is matched only by his martial arts skills. As he battles a series of bizarre dangers, he unveils a chilling truth that places his life, and the future of an entire dynasty, in peril.”

Featuring: Andy Lau, Bingbing Li, Carina Lau, and Tony Leug Ka-fai, amongst a cast of a thousand or more.

Review: While looking through the various film trailers, I really wanted to find a movie that was just a bit different. We’re being deluged with remakes and spin-offs these days, so when I saw Detective Dee it caught my eye enough to give it a chance. I have to say that this is Sherlock Holmes meets Kung-Fu Panda, the scene where a large antlered deer (which was voiced by a goat) is kung-fu kicked in mid-air nearly had me on the floor laughing. If like me, you enjoy a steady diet of kung-fu action, confused comedy and somehow mixed with an engaging storyline that involves old-world China and deer kicking, then this movie is for you!

Rating & Premieres: PG-13 & is already in theaters!

Appropriate for: Due to the violence and adult humor, I’d say keep this to kids 13-14 or older.

Act Of Valor

About:IMDB Synopsis: An unprecedented blend of real-life heroism and original filmmaking, Act of Valor stars a group of active-duty Navy SEALs in a powerful story of contemporary global anti-terrorism. Inspired by true events, the film combines stunning combat sequences, up-to-the minute battlefield technology and heart-pumping emotion for the ultimate action adventure. Act of Valor takes audiences deep into the secretive world of the most elite, highly trained group of warriors in the modern world. When the rescue of a kidnapped CIA operative leads to the discovery of a deadly terrorist plot against the U.S., a team of SEALs is dispatched on a worldwide manhunt. As the valiant men of Bandito Platoon race to stop a coordinated attack that could kill and wound thousands of American civilians, they must balance their commitment to country, team and their families back home. Each time they accomplish their mission, a new piece of intelligence reveals another shocking twist to the deadly terror plot, which stretches from Chechnya to the Philippines and from Ukraine to Somalia. The widening operation sends the SEALs across the globe as they track the terrorist ring to the U.S.-Mexico border, where they engage in an epic firefight with an outcome that has potentially unimaginable consequences for the future of America.

Featuring: Active Duty Navy SEALs, Roselyn Sanchex, Alex Veadov, Jason Cottle, Nestor Searrano

Review: I intended for this to be a list of reviews for mostly family grade movies, but when I saw the trailer for Act Of Valor, I thought this is one the adults need to see. Our real life superheroes are those who take on these kinds of missions, doing what no one else can. They fight to keep us safe day and night, and this movie is a true tribute to the dedication and heroic efforts of our nations military. While the kids are watching Ghost Rider, Mom and Dad need to pop next door to see Act Of Valor. I calling this movie a must see!

Rating & Premieres: “R” & coming to theaters February 17, 2012.

Appropriate for: Sorry kids, but this one is for the adults. But if Mom and Dad feel comfortable with the older kids seeing it, it’s looking like a great movie.

Tell us what you think! What movies are you anxious to see? Let us know in comments, or hit us up on Facebook to share your thoughts!

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Fired Director Sues 'Spider-Man' Producers November 13, 2011

Broadway Squabble Hits the Courtroom
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Krypton Radio Newswire
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Turn of the Dark - the Spider-Man musical

The former director of the “Spider-Man” musical Julie Taymor has now sued the producers of the “Spider-Man” musical for firing her from the much-delayed Broadway show, and hiring creative consultants to make changes she says were unauthorized and infringed upon her work. The auteur director, in her federal complaint, states that the musical has earned more than $60 million but the producers have cut her out of royalties. She wants more than $1 million in damages and royalties.

Taymor says that in 2005 she demanded, and was told she’d get, complete creative control over the musical before she signed on. In addition to the musical itself, she was to have control over the book of the musical, and approval over subsequent productions of the musical beyond broadway. Six years later, according to Taymor, she says she was being removed from the production and that her work would be rewritten by what was described as a creative consultant by the name of Philip William McKinley. She fired back that she didn’t authorize any such changes, and that according to her contract, they couldn’t actually do this.

About 6 years later, Taymor says, she was told she was being “removed” from the production, and that a “creative consultant” would be hired to change her work. She says her lawyers then notified the producers that she did not authorize any changes.

They rewrote the book she’d written, and it was so similar to the original that the Tony Awards Administration Committee notified her she would be eligible for a 2012 Tony Award in the category of Best Direction of a Musical. Taymor says that it’s so close that it doesn’t qualify as a new work, and that she should be eligible for the award instead of McKinley.

She was sent a check for a little over $52,000 which was supposed to cover payment of her coauthorship royalties through April 17, 2001, but the producers are holding out on paying her anything else for any performances since then.

The Spider-Man musical has been beset by problems ever since it first opened, with numerous accidents and injuries befalling the cast members, and some pretty lousy reviews, though it achieved financial success despite this.

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Announcing Our New Listen Page! November 12, 2011
You can say goodbye to our racoon’s-backside ugly player page – you know the one you used to click to listen to us on the web and nobody could figure out?

Yah. That one.

We have a brand new listen page now, and it’s bright and clear, easy to use and just plain works – and you can pick what you want to use to listen in, too. You can stream right from the web page if a browser is all you have. Otherwise, you can select Windows Media Player, iTunes, WinAmp, or RealPlayer and get that great Krypton Radio music directly into your aural canals where it belongs.

Krypton Radio – it’s superhearing for your secret identity.

Ssh. Pass it on.

No, really. Tell your friends.

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Green Lantern: The Animated Series November 11, 2011
Can Cartoon Network pull off what Hollywood failed to?

by: Staff Editor PK

Many including myself, are awaiting the premiere of Cartoon Network‘s latest fully CGI show, Green Lantern: The Animated Series. The big debut is tonight at 7PM-Est/6PM-Cst, and after seeing previews of the show, I’m unsure if CN can really improve the franchise in a significant way. I personally liked the big-budget Green Lantern movie, which this series is riding the coat-tails of, but at the same time I can understand the multitude of complaints people have of it. I know many diehard fans who thought Hal Jordan’s character was made too wild, and took away from the persona built up in the comic books. I do also agree that the organic suit/armor used in the movie was pushing it. However I digress; after watching a six-minute preview of the new television series, my initial reaction was that of dread.

I personally am not a fan of the huge shoulders and tiny waistlines look that is typically used for animated versions of superhero characters. General aesthetics aside, the writing was not overly impressive, although to be fair it’s hard to judge the series fully from only six-minutes of footage. The show debuts with a full 1-hour episode, which will give all Lantern fans a chance to really examine the show and decide if it will pass muster. The series starts out with Hal Jordan verses the Red Lantern Corps, which tells us that the show’s creators will be introducing the other lantern corps at some point in the storyline, assuming the show survives a first season run. From what I saw of the preview, the show is being aimed at the teen to pre-teen market with the style of animation being presented. The language is kept to PG-13 or better, and there’s not an initial sense that this is going to try to compete with Cartoon Network’s Young Justice show, which features more realistic animation and character designs from the DC Universe. Overall a decent superhero show for all ages, and a generally good way to introduce the younger kids to the Green Lantern genre.

Do I think this series will survive? At the moment I don’t want to call it either way, when shows like the 2011 edition of Transformers were introduced, I initially thought it stunk simply for the art style. But after forcing myself to watch four or five episodes, I found the writing to be fairly engaging. My point is, don’t judge a book too harshly by its cover, or a show by its pilot episode. A good example is Star Trek: The Next Generation, if I had never seen the original series or the movies, I may not have given TNG a chance. Counselor Troy looking like an interstellar Cheerleader wasn’t the most inspiring image on the first episode, but we all know how amazingly popular that show became.

Keep your rings charged, and let us know what you think of the show after the premier!

Links
- Official Cartoon Network preview – Six Minutes of Green Lantern: The Animated Series
- Cartoon Network & DC NATION
- DC NATION on Facebook
Post Premier Review

An hour later and I’m asking myself, “was it good?” I have to say yes! The writing was actually much better than I originally observed, and the voice acting I found to be excellent. (I still don’t like the animation that much but I’ll let it slide) And while it was announced earlier in the year Cartoon Network also debuted its closer association with DC Comics, via their joint venture of DC Nation set to officially launch in 2012. DC Nation on Cartoon Network includes specials, news, and animated shorts from various studios, including AARDMAN Animations.

Green Lantern: The Animated Series, gets 4.5 out of 5 stars!

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Comics Spotlight: Love and Capes November 11, 2011
A Romantic Comedy about Superheroes
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by Gene Turnbow
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While it’s obvious that I’m a Superman fan, I’m an even bigger fan of the independent creators who are always coming out with fresh new original content. Sometimes you have to wonder how many different ways you can re-tell the creation of Batman, or Superman’s birth before fans become permanently burned out. That’s why it’s always a thrill to mingle with those in the indie comics industry, and I had the chance to do so at the Long Beach Comic Con on Oct 30, 2011.

At the convention I met with and interviewed Mr. Thom Zahler, the creator of Love and Capes, an honest to goodness situation superhero romantic comedy inspired in part by the television series Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. Thom who is a fellow Superman fan, looked at the average Superhero story and thought that no one had really focused on the actual romance between the spandex clad hero and his love; but instead always had the typical sequences of heavy action with the small side story of romance, mixed with the hero’s turmoil of being blessed or burdened with his powers.

Love and Capes follows the adventures of Mark a lantern-jawed yet unassuming accountant, and Abby the bookstore-owner love of his life; who must come to terms with Mark’s secret of being The Crusader, when he decides that he must tell her the truth about his past when professing his undying love for her. Faster than a speeding teen-drama, and able to leap tall soap-operas in a single bound, it’s Love and Capes!

Thom Zahler Interview at Long Beach Comic Con

KR: Hi Thom!, really good to meet you! I’ve heard about your work and seen bits and pieces of Love and Capes on the internet, so tell me what it’s all about and how it got started?

Thom: Great to meet you too! Love and Capes is superhero romantic comedy; it’s about a superhero kinda like Superman who says” I love my girl friend, but if I’m gonna tell her that, I gotta tell her everything”. So, is there ever a good time to tell your girlfriend you have x-ray vision? What does she want for Christmas when she knows you can crush coal into diamonds, things like that.

I was looking for a new project in 2005-2006 somewhere around there, I had written a spec sitcom strip for a contest, and found I really liked doing that. But I knew I worked in the world of comics, and knew that I wanted to do something fun to do with comics. Then I had that chocolate and peanut-butter moment, when I realized no one had really tackled the superhero/superman relationship stuff. It’s kinda like Lois and Clark, but Delta Burke never ever shows up in it.

KR: (laughs) So, you’ve been in the comic book industry before doing Love and Capes, what else have you done?

Thom: I had been working for ten to fifteen years, and started off with doing lettering for the longest time, also doing inking. Love and Capes has gotten me more work than anything else.

KR: That’s really cool, so you’ve got fifteen issues of Love and Capes so far?

Thom: Eighteen issues actually! I had thirteen issues done when I self published, and five issues done through I.D.W this year. And there will be also a sixth issue mini-series coming out from I.D.W next year.

KR: Wow, so I know this is a tremendously popular title and..

Thom: Everyone in my family likes it, yes.

KR: Well a few people in mine like it too. (laughs) It’s such a clean fresh start and it’s got a little Disney in it, and a little Saturday morning cartoonish flavor about it. How did you arrive at this style – or were you planning on going this direction when you started out, or did it just evolve on its own?

Thom: It was conscious direction, the project before was standard superhero looking stuff, and I’m ok at that. But once I started doing a lot more cartooning, that was really my wheelhouse and I stopped trying to fight it. Darwin Cook who wound up doing a cover for issue #3 of the I.D.W series was my big inspiration. I had the DC New Frontier book with me the whole time I was doing that, I also had Steve Silver’s Art of Silver book and a couple other really cartoony stuff. I wanted to go into some new graphic dimension, and it became a lot more organic after that. You can really see the growth from the first issue to like issue 6 or 7, where things really start to come together.

KR: Did you take the route of a lot of these other publishers and start with a web-comic, in order to drive the sales of the physical paper?

Thom: No, actually I did the comic book first, I also work as a graphics designer during the day and as such I have a lot of printing contacts, and knew I could do the book cost effectively. I put the first issue online afterwards, after it came out in stores. And waited until I had more content done with issues 2 and 3 before I put those up; now the book is done in a eight-panel grid, so every fourth panel is a (unintelligible) like a comic strip. It’s built to section up in that four-panel grid, which fits on a computer screen much better, pre-iPad days, so I’ve been able to put the older stuff up. Right now issue eleven is showing online, so ideally you can go to the website, read the comic and get hooked. Decide if you want more, and the only way to get more is that you can buy it.

KR: I see, excellent. Well thank you for speaking with me, it’s been great!

Thom: Thanks, you too!

Now personally, I’ve read a fair amount of Love and Capes online – it reads as a four-panel strip, and has ongoing storylines and memorable characters. The superheroics is central to the premise, but not central to the story. As goofy as some of the situations are, the characters aren’t just throwaway cardboard cutouts. You really get a sense of who these people are and why they think they way they do, and the conflict and comedy comes out of this solid foundation. Add some really appealing character design and strong drawing to that and you’ll be able to see why Love and Capes really hits the mark.

Excerpts from Thom’s Official Biography:

The origins of the man who would become Thom Zahler are shrouded in mystery. Historians currently believe that he was part of the top-secret government super soldier breeding project code-named: “The Zahler Family.”

After twelve years of Catholic school, he was sent to the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art by a military court for a crime he didn’t commit. Zahler promptly escaped the maximum security art education facility to the Northeast Ohio Underground. Today, still wanted by the New Jersey government and several desperate women, he survives as a freelance cartoonist and graphic artist. If you have a job, if no one else can help, and if you can find him, maybe you can hire…Thom Zahler Art Studios. Blam, blam, blam, blam, blam, blam, blam!

Thom Zahler is many things to many people, including: cartoonist, penciller, inker, letterer, caricaturist, illustrator, web designer, writer, producer, director, game show contestant, prize in a bachelor raffle, and right-handed relief pitcher. One of his favorite roles, however, is Godfather to his lovely Goddaughter Erin, in which he tries to teach the precocious two-year old that Superman really is cooler than Batman, and that, despite what she may hear on the street, Greedo never, repeat never, shot first.

Zahler’s work has been seen nationwide. He designed the bus seen in the Prilosec advertising campaign, worked in many capacities for various comic book companies including Marvel and Claypool Comics, and has done cartooning for both the Cleveland Indians and the Colorado Rockies. He is the designer and webmaster of “Angel” star Andy Hallett’s website, and has designed logos for companies large and small.

He currently lives at his palatial estate, Zahlerdu, in Northeast Ohio. Okay, he really doesn’t call it “Zahlerdu,” but if he did, it would be because of “Citizen Kane” and not that Olivia Newton-John disco movie. It’s not really a palatial estate, either, but it is a pretty nice place.

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Links
- Love and Capes.com
- Tom Zahler Art Studios
- Love and Capes on Facebook
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Comics Spotlight: TRIGGER MEN November 9, 2011
Misadventures in the World of Contract Killing
```
Gene Turnbow reporting
```
Trigger Men is a dark comedy that revolves around the lives of two friends who make a living as hitmen. The series follows the misadventures of Matt and Jason as they navigate the absurd world of contract killing. Their exploits range from setting up their high school bully as a fall-guy to saving their favorite Chinese buffet from bankruptcy. While the comic is dark in nature, it is not gratuitously violent and it focuses more on the characters’ wacky chains of dialogue and interesting relationships than the actions at hand.

Kyle Winters and Mike Andersen formed Triptych Books, frustrated with the apparent opacity of the comics industry and determined to break in – even if they had to do something unorthodox like create and publish their own comics series to do it. They took their first project to Kickstarter.com and got it funded, and Trigger Men was born.

I met with Kyle Winters, the manager and producer Triptych Books at their booth at the Long Beach Comics Convention on October 30, 2011:

Trigger Men, a bromantic dark comedy from Triptych Books

Gene Turnbow: I see a great big banner here for a book called “Trigger Men”! Hi, Kyle! Can you tell me a little about Trigger Men?

Kyle Winters: Trigger Men is a light-hearted dark comedy about two best friends who are hit men and the kind of misadventures they get into along the way. We like to say it’s a bro-mantic comedy with guns, because it really is about their relationship and their relationship with other people with some action and drama tossed in for good effect. We started our company about a year and a half ago. We went to last year’s Long Beach Comic Con and had our first issue. Now we’re three issues in, and getting down to a monthly schedule with our book, so it’s really starting to take off.

GT: That’s pretty impressive stuff. It’s very difficult to pull something like this off. I run an internet radio station, and it’s like pulling teeth to get any traction.   How have you been managing all this?

Kyle Winters: It is like pulling teeth, you have to enjoy – you have to stop enjoying sleeping and start enjoying coffee more than anything else, but you know, it works. Persistence is how you gain traction in the industry, and if there’s one thing we are, it’s persistent. This is the seventh convention we’ve gone to, and we’re building up a really nice fan base. People are respecting what we’re doing. Everything keeps building with every convention and every book we put out.

GT: How many books do you have in production right now? Is it just Trigger Men so far?

Kyle Winters: Trigger Men is the only one we’re actively publishing right now, but behind the scenes we have three other series that we’re working on that will be coming out between six and eight months to a year from now.

GT: So those are in preproduction now.

Kyle Winters: Yes.

GT: What genres are you going after with these? Trigger Men is an unusual “break the mold” sort of book.

Kyle Winters: It’s dark action comedy, which is less common than one might think. The other genres – we have a war book, we have a drama book, we have some sci-fi – a dystopian thing we want to work on. We want to do anything and everything, so we have our fingers in all these different pies. Probably the next thing we come out with will be dystopian near-future book. We’ve done funny. Now we need something depressing. (laughs)

GT: This is so refreshing – this is a really different take on the comic book genre.

Kyle Winters: Thank you – you know, there’s room for that. In independent comics, the market share is growing, and it keeps growing. And there’s room for people to do good stories that aren’t superheroes or whatever, and still coexist with the whole superhero ecosystem. So we have a place here, and this was just the perfect time for us to do it.

GT: So how much would you say the market has changed over the last five years. What made you decide that this was a good time to get going with Triptych Books?

Kyle Winters: I think the biggest thing is we saw how popular comic book movies were, and how those were driving people into stores and into comics as a medium, but they’d see “Iron Man” and not want to read Iron Man – they’d see Iron Man and want to read what they like, just as a comic.   And so we thought there’s potential here. We like telling these stories, and this is a growth period even in a down economy. And also we’re kind of stubborn, and we’ll make it work even if we’re wrong on that aspect. Oh, and digital – the explosion of digital makes independent comics a thousand times easier.

GT: So you can do a lot more distribution because of publish-on-demand?

Kyle Winters: Actually we go to a traditional printer, a small printer in San Francisco for our print work. We don’t send it to Canada or China like a lot of bigger companies do. But we have a digital distribution system hooked into our web site. So you can download a DRM-free PDF from our web site, and read it on your microwave while you’re cooking your dinner, assuming your microwave could read PDF’s. We don’t feel we should stand in your way. And if you share it, it just means more people are gonna buy it down the line. So that helps us.

GT: That’s really the way it works with a lot of the publishers, a lot of the bigger ones. One of the landmark publishers has been Foglio Studios with Girl Genius, and they were sort of floundering around until they started putting the comic online. People said they were crazy until they started selling the physical books. People wanted the physical paper versions so they can sit in bed or on the couch and flip through the pages and have that comic book experience.

Kyle Winters: Yep – one thing I think is that the people who are afraid of digital comics and are afraid that their stuff is going to be stolen, the people who download your comics for free somehow and like it are going to want to support you in the future. There was this guy who was giving away free EP’s for his album, and I loved his music and I buy a T-shirt.   And T-shirts are great profit for bands, you know – it’s the same with comics. You give away the first issue for free, and maybe people will buy the trade, to support you. And it’s all about building community and trusting your fans. They’re good people, just like us. They’re gonna make the right decision. People will support you if you make something they like.

It was great talking to Kyle, and the Trigger Men book is stylish and way off the beaten path. Look for a review of the book itself here in the pages of Krypton Radio in the near future!

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Links
- Triptych Books
- The Kickstarter Page
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Bad News for ‘Man of Steel’? October 30, 2011

Never-Ending Battle in Courtrooms
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by Dezdemona Thanatos
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Henry Cavill on the set of Man of Steel - from the looks of this, the cape will be mostly CG.

Production and filming for Christopher Nolan’s Superman movie, set to be a reboot, with the hopeful release on June 14^th 2013. However the movie may not be all that fans hope it to be. It’s been stated that the production was rushed ahead of what it should have been, with a script that has been said, by the director, still needs work.

In fact it’s rumored that the director, Zack Snyder, was specifically picked for his willingness to work with their needed time-frame. It’s been said that originally Director Aronofsky was wanted to direct it, but that he wanted the time to fix the script and do it properly, which may have taken many months to do.

And with the threat of a potential lawsuit by Jerry Siegel’s heirs hanging over their heads, they needed to get it done right away. If the production wasn’t started in 2011 Warner Bros. ran the risk of losing rights to making any more of the Superman movies.

DC Comics and Warner Bros. have been in legal disputes with Marc Toberoff on behalf of the heirs to both Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster for some time. However lawyers for DC and Warner Bros. have potentially found a way to have Toberoff removed from the proceedings. He is being accused of interfering as a competing business owner. He owns and works on behalf of Pacific Pictures and reputedly has made business deals with the Siegel and Schuster heirs. The result of this is that Toberoff may have to resign from his position in this case.

Nikki Finke from Deadline got this quote from Toberoff.

“Having substantially lost the Superman copyright, Warner Bros and DC Comics and their new counsel Daniel Petrocelli now resort to gutter tactics and personally libel me rather than just litigate the remainder of the case on the merits. Even before filing this lawsuit, Warner Bros launched a well cordinated media campaign to defame me. Warner Brothers and Mr. Petrocelli are well aware that their frivolous allegations in the complaint will never prevail. However, that’s not the purpose of the lawsuit against me. The purpose is to defame me or potentially conflict me out of the case and thereby pressure my clients to sell back the Superman and Superboy copyrights they’ve recaptured at a distress sales price.

Warner Bros, DC Comics, and Mr. Pertocelli disingenously claim that I have a financial interest in the lawsuits when they know full well that the only interest I have is a contingent legal fee. And the last time I checked, a lawyer working on a contigent fee basis is legal in the State of California. The goal here is to muddy the waters and avoid litigating on the merits. As further proof of that, Warner Brothers, DC Comics, and Mr. Petrocelli attach to their complaint an anonymous letter spewing unsubstantiated and unattributed accusations — and time will tell whether Warner Bros itself had a hand in that letter. Such unethical thug tactics are nothing short of deplorable. Warner Bros and Mr. Petrocelli should be ashamed of themselves.

In recognition of the inferior bargaining power of authors who seek to get their works published, the termination provisions of the Copyright Act specifically allow authors and their heirs the right to recover their copyrights by terminating, with an emphasis on terminating, prior grants of copyrights. Ridiculously, Warner Brothers/DC Comics is alleging that the exercise of this termination right is the basis for their frivolous claim of tortious interference with an existing contract. The Siegels, Shusters, and I will vigorously defend against these baseless accusations, and my clients remain undeterred in their efforts to protect their Superman and Superboy copyrights.”

The accusations revolve around documents stolen from Toberoff’s office and delivered anonymously to Warner Bros. studios. Supposedly these documents prove that Toberoff was making deals with the estates that led them to reject ‘mutually beneficial’ deals with DC and then try to recapture the copyrights to the Man of Steel.

It seems however that Siegel and Shuster’s estates may still get all copyrights to Superman between the two of them. Siegel’s heirs were already awarded half the rights to Superman, with Shuster’s estate due to receive the second half in 2013.

According to SlashFilm the reboot may follow close to ‘Superman: Birthright’. It’s a twelve issue comic that showed Clark’s origin in his early twenties as a freelance reporter struggling with the decision of whether or not to become Superman.

IMDB lists the actors for Lois Lane and the Man of Steel as Amy Adams (Giselle from ‘Enchanted’) and Henry Cavill (Charles Brandon ‘The Tudors’). Filling out the cast are also, Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner, Laurence Fishburne, and Diane Lane.

All in all a decent cast, so that doesn’t disappoint at least. But in the end we’ll just have to wait and see how Snyder pulls off the rush job. So here’s hoping for a wonderful save and an excellent movie.

Links
- Slashfilm.com – David Goyers Superman Story Revealed
- superman-movie.com – Superman release date in 2013
- Deadline.com – Shocker Warner Bros Now Suing Superman Rights Lawyer
- FirstShowing.net – Man of Steel Logline Revealed but Script is Rushed
- ScriptFlags.com – New Superman Man of Steel Script
- Deadline.com – Warner Bros Wins Round in Superman Suit Against Copyright Lawyer
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The Avengers is Gonna Rock October 11, 2011
We know, we know, we’re biased too.

But hey, have a look. Tell us what you think.

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Fanboy Comics Miniseries Debut: The Scoobies and the Newbie! October 1, 2011
Fanboy Comics "Scoobies and the Newbie" cast Sam Rhodes, Barbra Dillon and Bryant Dillon

The Scoobies and the Newbie

Buffy fanatics Bryant Dillon and Barbra Dillon (the Scoobies) introduce Buffy-virgin Sam Rhodes (the Newbie) to Joss Whedon’s tale of vampire-slaying, demons, magic, and a universe composed entirely of shrimp.

Documenting Sam’s thoughts on Buffy before he begins his trek through the series, this episode includes Bryant and Barbra reflecting on their first impressions of the series, a discussion of Sam’s history and opinions of Buffy, and a Buffytrivia quiz that Sam fails with flying colors! He is definitely a newbie, gang!

Tune in at 8PM this coming Wednesday, October 5th to hear the first episode!

EXCITING NEWS: You can hear also hear The Scoobies and the Newbie on CC2K.us, and Whedonopolis, and of course on the Fanboy Comics web site!

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Superman Comics Thief Collared September 24, 2011
Thief Caught, Comics Returned
```
Krypton Radio Newswire
```
Superman Comics Thief Collared

The thief who stole Superman comics and memorabilia from Mike Myer on August 29th has been collared by Illinois police. KMOV in St Louis has reported that Gerry Arville Armbruster, suspected of being “Gary”, the guy who “befriended” Mike Myer, a mentally challenged man who loves Superman, and stealing a choice selection of the most valuable of Mr. Meyer’s Superman comics and memorabila, has been arrested by Illinois police.

Gerry Arville Armbruster

The arrest came after another robbery of a 76 year old man who was attacked and had his jewelry and money stolen in Granite City, after the suspect conned his way into a cleaning job. The two crimes were linked due to the suspect’s description, and the Superman comics and memorabilia was not only recovered but has been returned to Mike Meyer, their owner.

Meyer, a 48-year-old mentally disabled man, was robbed of over 1800 items in his collection, worth over $5,000, by an old co-worker he only knew as “Gary.” Granite City police were investigating the crime when Smith brought it to the attention of the paper and from there, the world. Sympathizers from all over immediately offered to donate items from their own collection as well as countless other items to Meyer in case the thief was never caught. The Superfriends of Metropolis organized quickly to help as well as many on a specially created Save Superman facebook page and a local comic book shop. Folks went so far as to list the items they were planning to donate on a Collectors Society message board in order to prevent duplicates being sent. One of the Superfriends members is actually going to hand-deliver a chunk of the donations to Meyer in person dressed as George Reeves era Superman.

As the news of Mike Meyer’s original loss was reported across the comics industry, a hoard of fellow collectors and professionals gathered replacement Superman items that included hundreds of comics, original artwork, and memorabilia.

After he was swindled of more than 1,800 of his favorite Superman comic books, and hundreds of figurines and other memorabilia, Meyer shared his story with the Granite City Post-Dispatch. He hoped the increased attention would make it harder for the thief to resell the items.

Meyer had no idea how much attention his story would receive. Word of the theft quickly spread among fellow collectors, who started up collection drives and gathered support through online message boards and e-mail lists.

Mike Meyer shows off some of the donations he received after shocked fans heard of his misfortune. Now that his collection has been returned to him, it's about doubled in size with the donations taken into account. He plans to donate much of the donated materials to charities.

A Facebook page dedicated to Meyer now has more than 2,100 “likes.” Celebrities and publicists associated with Superman films past and future have expressed interest in reaching out to him. Cleveland, Ohio officials have offered to pay Meyer’s way to the city for a grand tour of the house where Joe Shuster created Superman. The Chamber of Commerce in Metropolis, Ill., the official “Hometown of Superman,” also reportedly has a plan in the works.

Jon Bogdanove, an artist who was under contract with DC Comics through most of the 90s and worked on its Man of Steel comic book, sent a personal drawing and some of his recent work.

Bogdanove said he was inspired by the bevy of support shown by the comic book collectors groups and wanted to do his part as well. He said the common motivation of everyone involved seems to reflect Superman’s message in the comic books and movies.

“I think as kids, that’s the kind of lesson we get from Superman,” he said. “Superman is really about doing whatever you can to help.”

With his original collection returned, Meyer intends to give the comics donated to him to a charity such as a children’s hospital, according to St Louis Today:

As for his Superman collection, Meyer now has close to double what he had lost. Smith has about 40 more items ready to be delivered, and dozens more have been promised. Meyer said he wants to take the donations and give them to charity, possibly delivering them to a children’s hospital.

“People were generous to me; this is how I can be generous in return,” he said.

Mike Meyer, the victim, has collected Superman items most of his life. The 48-year-old lives off social security for a mental disability and works part-time at a McDonald’s in Collinsville to support himself. He lives in Granite City with his two dogs, Krypto and Dyno.

The folks here at Krypton Radio love a happy ending, especially one where justice is served. We thought you would too.

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Jenny Everywhere Sighting at Intervention Con 2 September 21, 2011
Jenny Everywhere, heroine of Jenny Everywhere’s Infinite: QuarkTime! was recently spotted at Intervention Con 2 on September 16 by an unknown photographer. She seemed interested in a table full of scarves and buttons. She shifted out just moments later.

Jenny Everywhere sighted at Intervention Con 2 over the September 16 weekend.

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CAN'T STOP THE SIGNAL - Krypton Radio's Fall Lineup September 19, 2011
The new fall season on Krypton Radio starts today!

It’s hard to believe that we’ve been on the air continuously since May of 2009, bringing you news and information on popular media and online gaming as well as an unending parade of talent old and new. And since we’re doing so well and the station is so popular now (six thousand regular listeners in 108 countries around the world and growing, and we’re in the top 9% of the whole internet in terms of popularity) we decided we were probably on a roll. So here’s our new fall season lineup:

TV Campfire!

TV Campfire

Krypton Radio is very, very proud to announce the newest addition to our pantheon of popular shows, TV Campfire!

TV Campfire is the brainchild of Libya El-Amin, a professional editor working in the television industry in Los Angeles, California. She started out as a fan of sci-fi television, but expanded her interests to include many more types of scripted shows. TV Campfire gives her the chance to share her love of these great stories, and she invites anyone who loves television to join her on the show! Guest hosts and commentators come from all over the country.

But it’s not just talk – sometimes there are some guests that will surprise you – like the cast of The Closer, and the cast of Torchwood! We’re airing two TV Campfire specials this Wedneday: “The Closer” and an interview with Jane Espenson, writer for the comedy web series“Husbands” air back to back this Wednesday at 8PM Pacific Time, and the show itself will air Tuesdays at 7PM, and again on Sundays at 2PM. It’s a round table discussion of your favorite shows every week! You won’t want to miss it!

Stark Reality

Yes, Vagabond “Tony” Carter’s hit show Stark Reality is back for a fourth season! Tony brings us news and commentary on the virtual world and how it relates to the internet at large every day throughout the week. Listen for Tony’s show every day at 8AM, 10AM, 4PM and 8PM Pacific Time.

Fanboy Comics – Week in Review

How do you describe being thrown into a maelstrom of comic books and movies, interviews and reviews and guest speakers, covered in geek sauce, and covered with those colored sprinkles they usually put on ice cream?

Well – I guess we just did. But that’s Fanboy Scoop – Week in Review for you. Tune in Mondays at 7PM and then again on Saturdays at 2PM to hear each weekly show. Join hosts Bryant Dillon, Barbra Dillon, Sam Rhodes, and Drew Siragusa – and an assortment of special guests – as they discuss the most exciting geek news from the week, compiled from their daily e-newsletter, The Fanboy Scoop.

And there’s more from the folks at Fanboy too – a new miniseries centering on the Buffyverse! Stay tuned to Krypton Radio to find out more about this cool new production, and to get the airtimes.

Krypton Radio – CAN’T STOP THE SIGNAL!

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Johnny Quest Stop-Motion Surprise! September 9, 2011
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Roger D. Evans

Jonny Quest was an American science fiction/adventure animated television series about a boy who accompanies his father on extraordinary adventures. It was produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions for Screen Gems, and created and designed by comic book artist Doug Wildey. Inspired by radio serials and comics in the action-adventure genre, it astounded viewers by featuring more realistic animation and action than had been seen on television up to that point, and it opened the the door for other shows such as Space Ghost, The Herculoids, and Birdman and the Galaxy Trio – and ran on ABC in prime time on early Friday nights for one season in 1964–65.

Unfortunately the show was so expensive to produce that it only lasted that one season – but that one season was so popular in syndication for twenty years that Hanna-Barbera Productions produced a second season in 1986. It had disappeared for a good number of those years, though – shortly after Johnny Quest aired, the network censors took notice of what was actually going into entertainment for children, and they started laying down the rules for future productions, most of which are still in effect today:
- You could depict people shooting at other people, but you couldn’t show anybody being hit by a bullet.
- You couldn’t show anybody dying on screen (though they often got around this by making the person “dying” a robot or android double).
- You can have as much collateral damage as you wanted, so long as it was clear that nobody was being hurt (though people in the office buildings being destroyed when giant monsters fight apparently didn’t figure into this).
The show was the stuff little boys dreams are made of – action, adventure, and the hero was somebody our own age, and he always found a way to get out of whatever jam he was in, and always seemed to have a competency equal to the adults around him. Somehow, Johnny Quest became one of our modern folk legends.

Most of us remember Johnny with fondness, but perhaps no one remembers him with more fondness than Roger D. Evans, a professional animator who, with some help from his friends, recreated the entire opening sequence from the show in stop-motion animation!

Says Roger about his creation:

In 1964, Jonny Quest aired to rave reviews as the first, adult action/adventure cartoon in prime time. It had cool jazz music by Hoyt Curtin and terrific, high contrast pen and ink design work by Doug Wildey. As an animator and long time JQ junkie, I had always wanted a set of Jonny Quest action figures but, due to high production costs, the show only lasted one season; not long enough to spawn any kind of serious toys or other merchandising tie-ins. So, almost 50 years later, I made my own. Here is my Valentine to one of the coolest, if not THE coolest, cartoons ever to spin up the imagination of a 53 year old man now going on six. Enjoy!

Stop motion animation, for those new to the term, is the use of articulated figurines in animation. Each frame is set up one pose at a time, in sequence, and then a single motion picture frame is taken. One frame might take ten to fifteen minutes to set up, meaning that if you got a full second’s worth of animation done in a day you were doing very well indeed. Until about the late 80′s the Pillsbury Doughboy was done this way, and all the Rankin-Bass Christmas specials used this process as well. Stop-motion animation has been around since the 1850′s but was most famously used by Willis O’Brien for the original version of “King Kong” made in 1933.

Links
- Roger’s Johny Quest Fan Site
- RogerEvans.tv – How it was produced
- RogerEvans.tv
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