Last Update: July 26, 2024
Marvel Studios just teased Galactus and ‘THE FANTASTIC FOUR’ in a drone show above #SDCC pic.twitter.com/5OliavHHGj
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) July 26, 2024
Review of the documentary: My Comic Shop Country – Bleedingcool
Review of the 5 year old film by a comic book store owner:
The documentary was about a closed comic store, and some customers were interviewed about it, along with interviews with other comic stores throughout the USA and comic book writer Mark Waid. I looked up one of the other store owners who was interviewed and discovered that he had sadly gone out of business. Topics such as the quality of comics and problems with pull boxes—the same things that were plaguing comic stores then—still are now. Quality has not improved, and sales are sliding..."
What's the issue with comic book sales decline? Simply put:
I may like certain comic book characters and have my favorites, but if publishers aren't putting out titles people want, they aren't buying them. You can't force someone to eat a spit sandwich.
IMDB page on My Comic Book Country feature film - it's also at Amazon for streaming
DC Comics bringing back one of their old logos? – Bleedingcool
Google Play Store has a news comics section – but only in Japan
Story at Mashable MSN
Asian anime content will be making a big impact at San Diego Comic-Con
Story at Variety MSN
Titan says Conan the Barbarian #1’s first printing was 80,000 and there's a spin-off titled Savage Sword coming – Screenrant MSN
Ex Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter sells off all of his $3 Billion in Disney – Boundingintocomics
"The Postcolonization of cartoonists"
Cartoons in Greece as the Junta years ended
Story at EFSYN
Brief article on the role of cartoons (and cartoonists) as the Junta military dictatorship of Greece was drawing to and end in 1974, and then abruptly stopped with the return of the exiled leader Karamanlis who flew into Athens from Paris and began the modern chapter of democratic rule (once again) in Greece.
The article at EFSYN is in Greek, you can go here to translate the page into English - Google translate.
Looking one by one at the hundreds of cartoons from that critical period (July 1974 - August 1975), we find an unprecedented breath of freedom in the form of spontaneous humor. Despite the different approaches, from the radical left to the conservative anti-junta right, for the first time since the war of 1940, a consensus prevails: condemnation of the junta, deepening of democracy and of course "fire squad" against the then most hated person in Greece, Henry Kissinger..."
"The Postcolonization of cartoonists" is the title of the exhibit presented at the garden of the Presidential Palace. A larger retrospective exhibition to appear at the Syntagma metro October 14-19 is curated by the Greek Cartoonists Club "under the auspices of the President of the Republic, Mr. Katerina Sakellaropoulou."
Graphic novels sales down in 2023 compared to 2022
Story at Publishers Weekly
Hits in streaming but bombs at the movie theatre – Screenrant
Discusses Madame Web, Wonder Woman 1984, and others.
DC Comics October book list – Comicsbeat
Could a Deadpool & Wolverine success in theaters bring back the superhero money train to Hollywood? – Yahoo Entertainment
Russo brothers coming back to superhero movies? – MSN Insider
The Russo brothers, the directing duo behind the $4 billion epics "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Avengers: Endgame," may be returning to save Marvel.
Article claims about the recent spate of superhero movies "...the losses for many of the movies on this list are all in the tens of millions." I believe that's a low-ball figure for films from 2023, and for a variety of other titles from previous years, too (or even decades: the superhero movie bust has happened several times now since 1978's Superman brought in a relatively consistent stream of superhero movies).
The string of overcooked big name superhero films of 2023 slammed down the coffin lid on superhero movies, and the incredibly epic lack of earnings for more recent releases just confirms the doom spiral. Individual brand names, either for a director or maybe an unblemished title (Deadpool? Matt Reeves Batman?) might be exceptions.
Fast review: Bad Boys Ride or Die One of the themes of modern action films of the 21st century is "forgotten sons" in which a mature, adult man is forced by a story line to remember he has fathered children and now circumstances require him to rise to the occasion and deal with the matter. Eventually, both some sort of emotional intimacy with the kid (who is in trouble) and some kind of overt physical action in which the father performs a deed that compensates in some fashion for years of absence and alienation will prove his true emotional investment in the child. There's a wistful "what could have been" angle to the tale, but not big enough to really cast doubt on the happy ending.
Will Smith and Martin Lawrence are a good comedy team and in between the jokes they set up some pretty involved stunt work as they battle a conspiracy of lies against their now departed "father figure" of police Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano) and a threatening range of threats building up from both feds and criminals. Bad Boys Ride or Die has a complicated series of clues to solve, of course, but also a lot of Florida scenery and a wide cast of characters making up it's "family." In between the fighting and a final confrontation at an abandoned coastline theme park featuring a large albino alligator, the main thing we get is the dominant value of family for a "grown ass man" and the need to kill vicious criminals.
James Gunn's Superman movie filming is getting near the end – MSN Variety
Novel sequel to the 1989 Tim Burton Batman movie
Story at Fansided
Eminem gets comic book – Billboard
Deadpool Movie Promotion at Spencers Gifts, July 18, 2024 Virginia Mall
Bestselling comics across the digital world – Comicsbeat
Ultimate Cyclops a girl? Hawkeye a Native American? – Bleedingcool
One-Punch Man Artist Yusuke Murata makes Naruto Tribute – Comicbook
How Marvel is better than the other companies – CBR MSN
US Mint to coin DC superhero coins – inviting public to vote on selection – Numismatic News
Treasury Dept page on the superhero coins they're going to be making.
Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman and Shawn Levy interview to promote ‘Deadpool and Wolverine’ – Variety
Given that they’re here to sell a raunchy, boundary-pushing sequel to the most profane superhero franchise in history, it’s not surprising that many of the jokes are NSFW. Take the moment when 47-year-old Reynolds, who stars in the film with Jackman, stands on a chair for a photo with his crotch hovering over writer-director Levy’s head..."
Arkham Asylum spinoff TV show cancelled – T3 Yahoo Entertainment
Comic-Con variants from BRZRKR Studios – IGN MSN
Hollywood + Green Lantern + forty years = failure – Dexerto
Is the anime bubble going to burst?
Story at Boundingintocomics
DC coming with the "Absolute Universe" featuring new versions of DC characters with new origin stories and changed looks – Comicsbeat
"The global comic book market size is estimated to grow by USD 3.25 billion from 2024-2028, according to Technavio" – Goodereader
The 20 best selling comic books "of all time" – Screenrant MSN
As impressive as some of the numbers reported are (for example Batman #50 from 2018 - 412,541 Copies Sold) these numbers don't compare to the millions of copies that Superman and other titles could move monthly in the prime peak years of of comic book popularity during the 1940s going into the 1950s.
Special Absolute Batman for San Diego Comic-Con – Bleedingcool
Marvel Comics No.1 sells for $2.4 million – Comicbookmovie
Comic book stores in Colorado see sales drop
Video report at Yahoo News
Re-inventing the origin of The Shadow – Denofgeek
Weaponizing Alfred for the new Bruce Timm Batman the Caped Crusader animated shorts – Comicbookmovie
Interview with Mad Cave Studios publisher Mark London – Comicsbeat
"Bizarro" plot twist for Superman movie?
Story at Boundingintocomics
July 2024
Dark Horse is going to republish MegaGhost
Story at Comicsbeat
Dark Horse have announced that Gabe Soria and Gideon Kendall’s Albatross Funnybooks imprint title MegaGhost is to get a rerelease in January 2025. The new edition will feature all five issues of the original series, behind the scenes extras, plus the never-before-collected holiday special MegaGhost of Christmas. It will also receive a new introduction and cover...."
The animated film Inside Out 2 sets record for fastest grosses and is 2024's first billion-dollar-earner film
Story at Geekculture
Charting the history of Batman from Detective Comics #27 to today – Screenrant
Marvel Comics brings back Disco era with Dazzler reboot – Marvel Comics page on the new series and Gamesradar has the variant covers.
Batman The Caped Crusader promo trailer for new series
The 10 episode series is executive produced by Bruce Timm, J.J. Abrams, Matt Reeves. It was originally in development for HBO Max but Amazon Prime took it over for an August 1, 2024 start.
Webtoon declares its value at $2.7 billion – Bleedingcool
The world's biggest publisher of comics, Webtoon, is trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange today, setting a market value of $2.67 billion..."
"Creature Commando" characters to be put into TV and feature film projects
Story at Boundingintocomics
I take it this is an effort to boost the profile awareness of what are probably obscure characters from out of DC's old Weird War Tales books, though the mythologically-derived characters (Frankenstein) in the Commandos is already well known, of course, and all of this is because James Gunn has bigger plans for them later..
Manga is getting bigger: Blackstone Investment Group spends $1.7 Billion to back new online manga effort – Comicbook
Cosmic Lion comics makes deal with Diamond Comics Distributors – Comicsbeat
"Local Comic Shop Day" moving to the last Saturday in September
Story at Bleedingcool
Francesco Mattina gets cut from DC variant covers for using AI – Gizmodo
The new Marvel Uncle Scrooge from an alternative universe?
Story at Comicbook
Duckburg's resident capitalist has plundered the planet and hoarded every trinket and treasure from Dismal Downs to the gold mines of Dawson City, but there's a hole that not even three-and-a-half cubic acres of cold, hard cash can fill. Inside his massive money bin is a relic he took from the sorceress Magica De Spell: the Mirror of Worlds, which opens a portal to another version of Uncle Scrooge with his own precious Number One Dime. "Why settle for being the richest duck in the world," he says, yanking it from alt-Scrooge's clutches, "when I could be the richest duck on ALL the worlds!!!" As it turns out, this Uncle Scrooge is from an alternate universe that branches off from the money-diving duck's debut appearance in 1947's "Donald Duck's Christmas on Bear Mountain."
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Walmart Mug June 2024
The Brave and the Bold movie – Cinemablend
DC fans are starving… despite the fact that they are getting a steady stream of quality entertainment, and have for years..."
Huh?
One of the announced projects that’s getting an inordinate amount of attention is The Brave and the Bold, a Batman project in the DCU that will explore (for the first time in live action) Bruce Wayne’s relationship with his son, Damian Wayne. Damian’s a maniacal little assassin, having been raised by the League of Shadows, so his dynamic with Batman will be interesting. Since the earliest days, The Flash director Andy Muschietti has been attached to The Brave and the Bold..."
Hopefully, they can dig up the spirit of the old DC Brave and the Bold which was a unique team-up book with a good number of well done stories. Damian wasn't in the picture for those old issues so having that be the "team-up" aspect of this film is not necessarily alarming but it doesn't exactly fit in with what worked in the book in the past. And having any connection to the bloated mess of The Flash (which had good parts to it, but also was marred with the heavy hand of post-production meddling) isn't an affirming detail.
Step-by-step how to make comics using AI – Tomsguide
GlobalComix popularity algorithm for comics
Story at Comicsbeat
September Marvel Comics Book list – Comicsbeat
Time-travelling Bride of Frankenstein movie that won't be made
Story at Gizmodo
Among the various plans there were for the Dark Universe was a remake of Bride of Frankenstein starring Angelina Jolie as the titular bride and Javier Bardem as her husband, with a planned release for Valentines Day 2019...."
James Gunn shoots down The Brave and the Bold rumours
Story at Clutchpoints MSN
Superman Movie filming starts, will shut down parts of Cleveland – cleveland.com
In February.... the Ohio Department of Development awarded an $11 million motion tax credit to a project called "Genesis." Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer later confirmed that "Genesis" was the codename for DC’s Superman reboot...."
What is significant about the link between Cleveland and Superman?
First of all, Superman's creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, were both from Cleveland and they created Superman in Cleveland in 1933. They were high school students at Glenville High School when they originated the character.
The Siegel and Shuster Society, along with various landmarks and events, celebrates the creators and their famous superhero in Cleveland.
Get into the Public Domain archives that are online at Graphic Chatter
Time to go to Disney World? Goofy 4 Mickey
Classic Film, reviews and more Cinemagraphe
Belief-Code, Body Code and T3 Therapy? See Belief Code Therapy.com