Frank Miller’s 300

The new trailer is out for the movie 300 based on Frank Miller’s graphic novel which is harkens back to the ancient Greek Spartans. The plot is centered on the famous battle of Thermopylae, where the king of Sparta led his army against the advancing Persians.

and it looks pretty neat:

ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2773069

Also check out the films’s production blog:

300themovie.warnerbros.com

MangaNEXT: A Manga Convention

At long last there will be a manga convention in North America:

MangaNEXT: a fan-run manga convention

“MangaNEXT is a fan-run manga convention that will take place on October 6-8, 2006 at the Crowne Plaza Meadowlands in Secaucus, NJ. Anime conventions have been existence for many years, and manga has had a large presence at these events, but there has yet to be a convention dedicated to manga. MangaNEXT aims to correct that. With the manga market growing in leaps and bounds and exceeding the pace of the anime market, it’s manga’s time to shine.”

Comic Strip Artist’s Kit

A great blog entry by Mark Kennedy on the famous “Comic Strip Artist’s Kit” by Carson Van Osten, a famous Disney artist:

Comic Strip Artist’s Kit (Redux)

“The other day I got an e-mail from Carson Van Osten, a famous Disney artist who did many Disney Comic Books and created the famous “Comic Strip Artist’s Kit”. It was created to help beginning comic artists deal with perspective problems and other drawing difficulties. I scanned my old xeroxes a while ago. It’s probably the best thing I’ve ever seen about practical staging and drawing for storyboards or comic books.”

Slate: The 9/11 Report as a Graphic Novel

Slate.com has a graphic novel version of the 9/11 report up. It reminds me a great deal of the old Classics comic series, and is worth a look:

slate.com/features/911report/

Drawing Insights from 9/11

I have to say that I wasn’t sure what to put up on this website today. Five years ago on this day I was in Manhattan watching the Twin Towers smoke, and then vanish into history. Yet having watched the events of that day there is still a part of me that’s still trying to make sense of it all, and whenever I look downtown in my mind I still see a gap in the skyline of a city that I love.

Over the past year a number of filmmakers have tackled the subject of 9/11, and in my mind there’s something very tacky about that. As a creative person I’m all for an artistic exploration of an event, but something on the scale of a Hollywood epic or TV mini-series seems a bit insincere to me. Yes I’m sure in the minds Oliver Stone or ABC that they had “the best of intentions”, but making a big budget drama at this point in time stikes me as exploiting the tragedy of others.

In stark contrast, as I was researching this subject I came across a website on 9/11 in comic books. What struck me looking at some of the titles is that while you might expect them to be tacky (ala a Hollywood epic) there’s something very personal and honest about them. Marvel put together several short stories on 9/11 called “A Moment of Silence”, and there’s some very good storytelling relating to the event going on inside the book. To me this is more of a tribute to what happened that day.

Take look at this panel, it manages to capture the moment without any words:

I was even struck by a December 2001 issue of Spiderman which shows a bit of class when dealing with the subject. For starters the cover of the issue is all black which is a pretty stark but creative statement for a comic book. Even more amazing is that inside the book you see fleeing survivors demanding to know from our superhero “Where were you?” and “How could you let this happen?”, and struggling for words Spidy can only reply that he couldn’t even imagine the event taking place.

Looking back at it I think Marvel comics was able to do a class job with these books because their offices are located here in New York City. For the editors of Marvel the event wasn’t some abstract movie-of-the-week that they watched on CNN, but their everyday reality. I think the gap I see from Hollywood, be it Oliver Stone or ABC/Disney is that if you weren’t in New York City that day (or living here in the months that followed) you wouldn’t get the same personal insights into the event.

Japan in America: the Turn of the 20th Century

An exhibit of ads, cartoons, art and other popculture artifacts from the decades leading up to WWI (spotted via Metafilter):

Japan-in-America

Cartoon from the Brooklyn Eagle on the Russo-Japanese War from 1904:

Original Superman #1 Comic Book for Sale

One of the rarest and most coveted comics is for sale, the starting bid is at $30k. Superman first appeared in Action Comics #1. This is the first issue of the comic book from 1939 dedicated solely to him. There are very few copies of the comic know to exist:

Original Superman #1 comic book for sale at auction

Do It Yourself Comics: Stripgenerator.com

I just discovered a website that allows you to create your own comic strips online. What’s cool about the website is that it features some very hip looking illustrations, not your standard comic book clip art:

Stripgenerator.com

Here’s a quickie one panel that I put together in just a few seconds:

Paul Frank vs. Paul Frank

I found this sad story via Boing Boing, it seems there is a feud between designer Paul Frank and the company that bears his name. The designer is no longer part of the $40 million empire built on his cute animal drawings:

The Artist Formerly Known as Paul Frank

“Depending on whom you ask, late last year Frank either quit or was forced out of the company he co-founded with Oswald, the C.E.O., and Heuser, the president. To Frank’s defenders, it’s as if Walt Disney had been separated from his eponymous empire. That’s because Frank created his own Mickey Mouse in Julius, the widemouthed monkey that adorns a substantial portion of the products sold by the company.”

…after reading this it would make me think twice before buying another Paul Frank Industries product.

Oh No: Marvel Babies!

Superheroes go super cute:

Marvel powers up girls and babies merch

“Playing to new parents who want to pass their love of comic book heroes on to their wee ones is Marvel Babies, a comprehensive licensed baby brand that will have a product for every infant and toddler need. Marvel has turned back the clock on superheroes including Spider-Man, Captain America, Thor and Rhino-Man, using a pastel palette to render them as roly-poly infants in diapers and sucking on pacifiers.”

The Evolution of Speech Balloons

I just discovered this great web page via Digg:

Evolution of Speech Balloons

The New Batman movie will be the Dark Knight!

I hope Hollywood doesn’t screw this one up – I’d love to see Clint Eastwood play Batman if this is true:

THE DARK KNIGHT: Title and Ledger As Joker Confirmed
http://www.filmrot.com/articles/news/007194.php

After months of specualtion we got our first hint of who would play Joker in the Batman sequel at Comic-Con. At first many of us, including yours truly, hemed and hawed at the rumor. I wanted it to be mere speculation, but the more I thought about it the more I liked the idea. Well, love it or hate it, it’s official. SciFi Wire has just learned that the title to the next Chris Nolan Batman film is The Dark Knight and Heath Ledger will in fact play the Joker. We can put these rumors to bed now and kiss them good-night. Will this be a wise career move on Ledger’s part, or will this turn into so many gay movie puns? Let the rejoicing/bitchfest begin!

Oh No! New Ninja Turtles…

Once again proving that there are very few new ideas in all of Hollywood, I just spotted several posters for a new Teenage Ninja Turtles movies that will come out in 2007:

Tags: Teenage Ninja Turtles