Could it be that Hollywood's junkie-like reliance on sequels could be coming to an end? A series of so-so-sequels, many based on comics, tallied another disappointing chit with this weekend's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadowstook. Produced by Michael Bay, the film was #1 at the box office but with a moribund $35.25 million, on a production cost of $135 million. X-Men Apocalyse was #2 with $22.3 million, a 66% drop that's typical for sequels but further evidence of a softening market:

A lot of newish comics companies have launched of late—Double Take, Aftershock, Z2—and I’m guessing they would all like to have films made from their comics. Well, Double Take, the branch of gaming company Take Two that is run by former Marvel to exec Bill James, has hit that brass ring. Lions gate has signed […]

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We’ve written before about OBLIVION, the SF movie that seemed to be “based’ on a graphic novel by director Joseph Kosinski, adapted by Arvid Nelson and Andree Wallin — although a mock-up of the project was apparently used to lure Tom Cruise into starring in the film (which opens later this month) — Ksinski now says it will most likely never be published::

As for whether we’ll ever see the printed version of the story? “I don’t have any plans to do it right now. To me it’s feels like it’s in the rear-view mirror, you know? It’s like part of the development process. The film is the end result. But never say never. Maybe at some point it will be fun to go back and show the steps and the journey.”

Farewell, we never even knew you, Oblivion the graphic novel.

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The biggest success for comics over the past five years hasn’t actually been comics at all: it’s been the movie industry. Superhero films are gigantically big business now, with The Avengers pulling in over a billion dollars worldwide, and the industry paying top-dollar for any new comic rights they can get their hands on. At the same time, superhero films are in a very good critical position as well - Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy won Oscars! Top directors are almost literally battling for the chance to get their hands on characters like Daredevil or Luke Cage.

While movies have taken the characters and distilled them into their most winning core – the comic book version of Iron Man was essentially revitalised by Robert Downey Jr’s energetic portrayal of Tony Stark – the comics themselves have struggled to keep up that mindset. Whilst the Iron Man of the movies was flying about, smashing racecars and saving the world, his comic book counterpart was busy being a fugitive, living a miserable life as he attempted to clear his name. The X-Men in X-Men First Class may have been enjoying themselves, but the X-Men in the comics were hounded, segregated on an island and blocked from society. In terms of tone? Mainstream superhero comics have been downbeat rather than optimistic.

Take any comic book version of a character and compare them to the film version. Hal Jordan is nominally dead right now in the DC Universe, but in the films he was Ryan Reynolds! Even Professor X, who is lovely Patrick Stewart and James MacAvoy in the films, has spent the last decade at Marvel being a terrible bastard. And, y’know, dead. For all that the movies may offer superheroes as a safety net for people wanting to be inspired, comics have been offering superheroes as corrupted, agonised people. Now, this isn’t bad storytelling – it’s always been the way. Drama requires a little tragedy from time to time, and comics have had a long time to dwell on their characters. Eventually you run out of ways to move a character, so things have to take a turn for the darker.

And that’s why it’s going to be so fascinating, two years from now, to sit in a cinema. Because two years from now, Gwen Stacy will die.

Whoa! Spoiler. True, though. The relaunched Amazing Spider-Man trilogy are setting us up for some major tragedy just around the corner. They’ve hired an actor to play Green Goblin, they’re bringing in a Mary Jane, and thematically the first film made it blatant that Gwen has to die for the narrative to be complete. The first film hammered the point that Peter Parker is dangerous for Gwen Stacy, and his decision not to end their relationship (which seemed sweet at the time) is going to look very ominous in two years time.

The other films coming up aren’t going to be much different. If Kick-Ass 2 remains true to the original comic, then fans are going to line up for a horrible rape sequence midway through their movie, followed by a lot of murder and horror. The Man of Steel has been marketed as a brooding, mournful take on the most iconic superhero of all time, while the Wolverine franchise is soon going to introduce doomed love interest Mariko Yashida. And if this wasn’t enough, the next X-Men movie will take us into the Days of Future Past dystopia.

In essence, the movies are going to hit unsuspecting audiences with a wall of ‘darker and edgier’ storytelling all at the same time. Comic book fans have been experiencing this for a while now, with formerly silly characters getting brought back, made miserable, killed off, tortured, or turned evil. The only notable upbeat characters of the last few years have been, perhaps, Stephanie Brown, Pixie, and Squirrel Girl. For the most part, comics have moved their attention towards an older audience, with more mature stories – well told stories, but stories which focus on human drama and horror rather than fantasy and idealism.

Film fans have no idea what they’re going to get into. While comic fans are aware that Gwen Stacy is doomed, the majority of film fans have no idea what’s coming up. It’s going to be MASSIVELY shocking for to see her die. People were prepared to see Uncle Ben die, because it’s what he always does – but adorable Emma Stone? Killed off halfway through a blockbuster trilogy? Film audiences expect superhero films – with a few exceptions – to be comforting, safe, and for all-ages. That’s a big twist for them.

What they’re going to get over the next few years are an unexpectedly brutal series of events, which could completely sour the idea of superheroes as comfort food. Comic fans accepted the move away from all-ages stories – how will film fans react? And Spider-Man is barely going to scratch the surface - are we eventually going to have to deal with Iron Man’s alcoholism? To what extent might that Ant Man film deal with Hank Pym’s history of domestic abuse? Is Channing Tatum still going to die in GI Joe 2?

The reaction of film fans to these next two years of superhero films will determine the future of comic book stories, I think. The reaction people have to this upcoming ‘darker and edgier’ period of films could have massive implications for comic companies. There’s a perception in general that comic books are fun entertainment for kids – but if movies now subject audiences to an onslaught of rape, murder, abuse and horror, what will that do for the next generation of comic fans? If the films are rejected by the public, will that mean the superhero genre of cinema will fall out of favour?

Films tentatively suggested for future release include a Lobo movie, Ant Man, and several Mark Millar projects such as Nemesis and Wanted 2. It’s interesting, isn’t it? There’s little hope for a Wonder Woman or Black Panther film, and yet film companies think audiences can support super-violent, misogynistic works. Films aimed not at all fans, but a smaller, older demographic. Just like happened in mainstream superhero comics! Rather than films suggesting a brighter future for comics, could their turn towards darker and edgier stories actually be the thing which helps to bury the medium entirely?

Steve Morris writes, tweets, and comics. Follow his epic journey!

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Mike Molcher is the PR Co-ordinator for Rebellion, meaning he is the man directly responsible for promoting their comics, 2000AD and Judge Dredd Megazine. If you’ve noticed over the last few months that more people are talking about 2000AD, be it the recent ‘Trifecta’ storyline, or the ‘gay Judge Dredd’ teaser which got picked up everywhere – that’s Mike Molcher’s work. He’s also an interviewer and writer himself, who has interviewed many of the key figures who have worked at 2000AD over the years, including Alan Moore, Warren Ellis, Dave Gibbons and Carlos Ezquerra. 

But how do you go about promoting a company like 2000AD, which releases a new anthology EVERY WEEK? I spoke to Mike about his work with the company, to see how exactly he goes about promoting the series. And what is comic book marketing, anyway? How does it work? Is this interview secretly all part of his marketing plan?

By reading this, have we become trapped in Mike Molcher’s sinister plans for 2000AD to take over the world? Oh dear…

Steve: I’ll start with a self-sabotaging question: since 2005 you’ve been involved with interviewing some of the most influential 2000 AD creators – from Alan Moore to Carlos Ezquerra. What makes for a good interview?

Mike: Oof, tough start! I can’t say mine are particular exemplars of good practice so I can only speak about the interviews I enjoy reading – they tend to be the ones that actually stray away from what’s on the comic book page to what’s going on in the mind of the creator, what motivates them, what inspires them, what grinds their gears. By uncovering these things the interviewer can begin to form a picture of the roots of that person’s creativity. Talent and ability never exist in isolation, they have always come from somewhere (usually thanks to a lot of hard work) and it’s the people of comics that I find most fascinating. I like to think my interviews try and achieve that (he said, nervously).

Steve: Before you took on your current role, you worked as a features writer for 2000 AD. How did you first come to get involved with the company in this respect?

Mike: I think it was Matt Badham who first mentioned to me that 2000 AD was looking for creator interviews and features. At the time I was a local newspaper reporter in the north of England but had started up my own self-published magazine, The End is Nigh, which took a Fortean Times-style look at end-of-the-world theories. I’d interviewed Alan Moore about the apocalyptic aspects of his work and his ideas on the approaching human singularity, so I did a retrospective on him for the Judge Dredd Megazine. That opened the door to interviews and I’ve been doing them ever since. Fortunately it meant that when I applied for the job they already knew me and knew that I was a big 2000 AD fan.

Steve: Obviously, your goal as a features writer is to promote and flesh out the company you’re writing for at the time. Do you think there’s a natural step between journalism and PR? How do you alternate between the two?

Mike: I don’t know what it’s like in the States, but you’ll find many of the big names in PR in Britain started out as journalists in some respect. Personally, I’d say that firsthand experience of what goes on inside the head of a journalist and what makes a good story is invaluable when you’re trying to reach out to reporters and reviewers. I continue to write creator interviews in my spare time for the Judge Dredd Megazine and Comic Heroes, so personally I think one compliments the other, because it keeps me abreast of what’s going on in the industry and how we can use that to our advantage at work.

Steve: Only a short while ago you moved to become Rebellion’s PR Co-ordinator. What sort of work does this involve on a day-to-day basis?

Mike: Answering a LOT of emails, mostly. 2000 AD represents just part of my work so I spend a lot of time writing press releases for new titles and announcements, keeping the social media side of things flowing, running blog tours for our three novel imprints, keeping track of the development of the various games Rebellion are working on, plus trying to work out new opportunities to promote our products. Fortunately we’ve recently taken on a marketing coordinator, Robbie Cooke, whose focus is more on the games side of things so he’s been a massive help with that.

Steve: Rebellion don’t just publish 2000 AD/Judge Dredd, but also handle novels and computer games. How do you structure your time between the three?

Mike: With a rather heavily annotated diary, a lot of scheduling, and an increasingly wrinkled brow. Working across three different industries can be pretty mad at times and making sure I give equal time to every new title and product can be damn hard work. Ultimately I have to judge whether something needs a slight PR nudge to sell or a heavy marketing shove out the door…

Steve: The Dredd movie came out last year, giving you a unique opportunity for promotion on a wider field. How did the movie affect the way you promoted the comics?

Mike: I very quickly learned that ANY mention of movies gets people really excited – our most shared image on Facebook was one I did publicizing the fact that DREDD was number one in the DVD and Blu-Ray charts over here and even the slightest mention of the movie would get a huge response. We’re constantly asked whether there are movies coming for our other characters, so it seems the magic of film hasn’t exactly diminished in the digital age!

We obviously went heavy on the promotion of Judge Dredd to tie in to the movie and that’s really paid off – the collected ‘Case Files’ have been flying off the shelves on both sides of the Atlantic – but I have tried to make sure that when someone discovers 2000 AD for the first time they quickly see that it’s not all about Dredd, as loveable as he is. We have a huge and constantly growing back catalogue of some of the greatest characters in comics, from Halo Jones to Nemesis the Warlock and more recent things like Shakara, Low Life and Brass Sun.

Steve: Were there any promotional campaigns you were surprised to see get less attention than others? Do you find, when promoting a comic to a film audience, there was a difference in reaction than when you promote more directly to comic fans?

Mike: Nikolai Dante ended last year after 14 years. And when I say ended, writer Robbie Morrison and artist Simon Fraser brought the Russian rogue’s story to a close. In effect, we killed off one of our most popular characters. And he ain’t coming back. For a comic book to do something as bold as that, I thought, deserved more attention – alas, no-one really picked up on the announcement. It may be that he never had the right profile outside of 2000 AD, but by the time I came on board it was a bit late to change the situation.

I don’t think there’s a big difference in the way you talk to the two audiences other than reminding yourself that the film audience won’t be as conversant in the language and culture of comics as someone who’s been reading them for years. The biggest question we got was “I loved the movie, where do I start reading?”. We were very fortunate that someone can see DREDD then walk into their local comic book and walk out with a comic featuring the same character they saw on screen; Karl Urban and Alex Garland nailed the character of Judge Dredd so perfectly that it was like he’d leapt off the page. So marketing to fans of the film was a case of giving them a good starting point (The Complete Case Files #4, if you’re interested, then #5 and then pick up a copy of ‘Origins’ and ‘America’) and then letting them discover it for themselves.

Steve: You’ve spearheaded several successful campaigns for 2000 AD over the last year – the ‘gay Judge Dredd’ promo picked up a lot of attention, in particular. How do you decide which comics might be suitable for a push, and which stories are going to pick up the most attention?

Mike: I talk to 2000 AD’s editor Matt Smith about what we have coming up and he’s very good at highlighting things that are noteworthy. For example, we recently had BPRD’s James Harren do his first Judge Dredd story and we’ve got a couple of big artist announcements coming in the next few months which are quite exciting. I always do a baseline social media push for each edition of 2000 AD – teasing new stories or returning series, promoting striking covers – but quite often there’s something specific to push like new or returning talent.

The ‘gay Dredd’ campaign was a particular highlight. Not every fan was pleased with my tactics there, but the wall by my desk covered in national and international media clippings and the 30% hike in sales for that particular issue (with high retention and new subscriber rates) makes me feel somewhat justified. It was the same for the return of the Dark Judges as part of the Judge Dredd: Day of Chaos storyline – we ran a great teaser campaign with CBR and the sales graphs all blipped upwards and stayed there.

Alongside the digital explosion our print edition is benefiting from the higher profile – over the past six months, the 2000 AD iPad app has not only grown our number of subscribers overall but has also bolstered the number of print subscribers. We’ve got clear data showing that promotion has played a major part in that, so I’ve been very pleased with our work over the past year.

Steve: Similarly, the Trifecta story from Al Ewing, Si Spurrier and Rob Williams got a lot of critical acclaim. Can you plan for that sort of buzz ahead of a story being released? Ahead of the issue being released, do you try to arrange for more people to get hold of review copies? How do you manage a story which you think is going to be critically acclaimed, by fans and by reviewers?

Mike: We decided very early on with Trifecta that we wouldn’t spoil the surprise, but that once it was out in the open it was all hands to the pumps – Al, Si, and Rob played along brilliantly and once it was out there we really pushed hard on the reaction from readers and from those reviewers who picked up on what was happening. The issues of Trifecta have been some of our biggest digital sellers as people hear the hype then go back and pick up the relevant issues.

Building word of mouth isn’t much use when it’s for a single weekly issue because by the time people have heard about it it’s already time for the next issue, but when you have an exciting ongoing storyline then you can really help spread the word. We do weekly press previews to bloggers and journalists; getting those all-important reviews means getting copies in the right people’s hands, something that I think we’re much better at doing now than we ever have been.

Steve: Are there any techniques which always help drive attention to a comic? Valiant’s successful relaunch, for example, seemed to have a lot to do with the way they publicised themselves ahead of the first comic release.

Mike: On a very basic level you can’t go wrong with new artwork, the return of popular characters, and intriguing teasers. Nothing’s better for getting social media buzz going than a juicy piece of art or a surprise announcement that your favourite character is coming back. The biggest attention-grabbers are when you change the game a little bit or find a niche no-one knew was there.

Steve: What do you think about the current state of American comics, in terms of marketing? Marvel and DC seem to have become a lot more ‘stunt’ orientated over the last few months. Every other day sees about fifty teaser images get released.

Mike: In an insanely competitive marketplace, it’s small wonder that the big two have to shout louder and louder about their books. I like what DC is doing with its ‘DC family’ blog and the campaigns on titles such as Journey into Mystery, Young Avengers and Spider-Man that Marvel has been running have been spot on (and I was blown away by the skill of their digital announcements at SXSW recently), while Image has completely reinvented itself over the last two years into something a lot closer to the feel and ethos of 2000 AD than I think any of us realise!

I often get asked why we promote 2000 AD the way that we do and why we don’t just let “word of mouth” do our work for us. 2000 AD has been on a hell of a run for the past decade and the word of mouth was very positive, yet we weren’t significantly building our readership. Two years of strong marketing and new distribution and we’re adding readers. It’s not rocket science.

Steve: 2000AD must be an interesting magazine to work on, because it’s a weekly anthology series. How do you focus your PR for each issue? Do you focus on creators, or characters – or the magazine as a whole, single product?

Mike: All of the above! And yes, it’s a constantly fascinating, evolving comic to work on. We have a brilliant stable of artists and writers who’ve really knocked it out of the park over the last 18 months, plus a tiny editorial team who are just as enthusiastic and passionate about 2000 AD as any reader. It can be challenging at times because many non-readers have an idea of it that’s 20 years out of date; all those great strips and creators are fantastic and amazing, but the past ten years of 2000 AD have been universally praised amongst fans as a second golden age and that’s pretty bloody exciting.

Steve: We’ve seen 2000AD building up a reputation overseas (which in this case means America) over the last year or so. How do you approach publicising the magazine abroad? Again, do you find you have to tailor the material you offer overseas readers?

Mike: It’s been a particular aim of mine to make us as much of a part of the comics mainstream in America as any other publisher and I believe we’re starting to get some traction there. I’d like to offer more previews of material to news sites, though it can be a struggle to make people understand that carrying 2000 AD news can bring in readers. We have a great relationship with sites like CBR and Comics Alliance, and some real advocates of our comics in people like Doug Wolk, Karl Keily, and Tucker Stone. We bring out one or two collections specifically for North America every month so it’s a case of publicising them as normal while bearing in mind that American and Canadian audiences may not be as au fait with the language and culture of British comics.

Steve: Do you think digital has evened the playing field a little, now everybody has access to comics from home?

Mike: Completely. For reasons unfortunately beyond our control many comic book readers in North America can’t get hold of 2000 AD as easily as we would like, so being able to beam each ‘Prog’ directly into their hands is a massive bonus. We have a reputation as a British comics powerhouse, so we just have to make sure people are intrigued enough to give 2000 AD a go.

Steve: What would you say is the key to working PR in the comics industry, in the current climate?

Mike: Good material to work with, constant attention to social media and a thick skin (I admit mine could be somewhat thicker).

Steve: What would you like to see more of from comic companies in 2013, in terms of PR, co-ordination, and marketing?

Mike: A bit more innovation, but then that’s easy for me to say and very hard to suggest ways in which you could do it. While marketing is important, it should never drive creative choices but I would like to see marketing that pointedly pushes out into other demographics and stresses aspects of comics beyond the obvious – the industry has a lot of work to do to convince people it’s not all spandex and T&A for teenage and not-so-teenage boys. But it must always be about working with the creative teams, who are the ones delivering the material in the first place.

Many thanks to Mike for his time. Big interview! Repay him by following him on Twitter. If you’d rather see a Tharg-approved twitter feed, however, then you can follow 2000AD too. And if that still isn’t enough Tharg endorsement, head over to 2000AD online.

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Vertigo released Book 1 of its THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO graphic novel adaptation of the award-winning posthumously published Millennium Series novels by Stieg Larsson in 2012 in hardback, begging the question: do we really need a graphic novel of a series so popular that the novels fly off the shelves and two film adaptations (both Swedish and American) have already been made? But it’s more a question of what the comics format has to offer to the concept that the film versions haven’t done or can’t do in quite the same way. The choices that filmmakers have made in adapting the series also leave a great deal of room for alternative formats to bring out elements of the books that have been neglected or understated.

[*Spoilers for Book 1 but not for Book 2 ahead]

Firstly, there’s the English-language title, which Vertigo maintains, though the original Swedish title is, of course, Men Who Hate Women. The graphic novel series, more than the American film version, and perhaps more than the Swedish film series, emphasizes this theme with great consistency. In Book 1 from Vertigo, the narrative chapters are interspersed with what takes the place of single-issue covers or splash-pages in the form of artfully presented statistics about crimes against women in Sweden. The figures are sobering, and sometimes shocking, making American readers wonder how these stats compare to the USA. It’s a grounding in non-fictional reality that keeps reigning the story back into the society it depicts, reminding readers that the plot elements of DRAGON TATTOO may not be as fanciful as your average murder-mystery. Within the narrative of Book 1, also, smaller elements of characterization, setting, and back-story reinforce this theme even more fully than either film version. There’s a tension in the graphic novel between this overarching theme, which could well be the primary “message” of the story, and the massive gravitational pull of the appealing character, now pop culture icon, Lisbeth Salander. She steals the show at every turn. Hailed as a “super hero for grownups” by Vogue Magazine, getting sucked into her story becomes an experience of this abuse, but it’s easy to get caught up in her remarkable abilities and achievements and allow her origins in violence and trauma to fall by the wayside.

Book 2 of DRAGON TATTOO (set to be released May 7th 2013) shows the same focus, laudably, as Larsson’s series itself, and shows no signs of letting up as an investigation of gender-based crimes. Book 2 continues to cover ground contained in the first volume of the Millennium Series of books, the American film version (2011) and the two part Swedish film version of the first book, tracing the arrival of Lisbeth on the island to help shamed journalist Mikael Blomkvist piece together clues in the disappearance of another possibly wronged woman, Harriet Vanger 40 years previously. The grisly murders they investigate after deciphering coded information in Harriet’s journal reinforce the ongoing theme of the societal prevalence of violence against women.

While all of the essential plot elements that deal with violence against Lisbeth (at the hands of her state-appointed guardian), and the murder cases she investigates are present in the film adaptations, Denise Mina, who adapts the graphic novels, and Leonardo Manco and Andrea Mutti, who handle the artwork, decompress the narrative enough to give equal focus to violence against women as to action sequences and romantic encounters. This changes the feel of the storytelling and alters the reader’s sense of what the story is really “about”. It is certainly a story about a hero, Lisbeth, and a crusader, Mikael Blomkvist, but it also a story about society, a story that is essentially “ugly”, as it was branded when it first reached American readers. To be fair, the Swedish film version comes closer to giving this theme more space to breathe than the American film version, but the graphic novel trumps them both in this regard.

The graphic novel has another ace up its sleeve in terms of format in comparison to film: readers can control their own narrative pacing. But Book 1 goes beyond that allowance by including visual detail and more minor linking scenes in both Lisbeth’s and Mikael’s life that can provide more of a sense of the world that they inhabit. Manco and Mutti do an excellent job of loading panels with atmospheric elements that go beyond the utilitarian basics of storytelling. The Venger mansion is a relic loaded to the rafters with remnants of a past way of life, a kind of gracious opulence that can quickly turn into a sinister reminder of even worse times for social injustice. Giullia Brusco and Patricia Mulvihill’s colors on the graphic novel in Books 1 and 2 deserve special attention for contributing to this sense of differing social settings, from the more brash hues of Mikael’s life in the city, and later at the Venger mansion, to the more muted and moody world that Lisbeth inhabits. Brusco and Mulvihill’s wise decision to color code flashback sequences according to character works well, from Mikael’s sepia memories to Henrik Vanger’s blue-washed narratives of past events.

The tour de force, though, in colors, and also in lettering by Steve Wands, comes in Volume 2 when Lisbeth’s own flashbacks to recent traumatic events are depicted in a disjointed but overwhelming psychedelic repeat of phrases and images from her life, set in punk colors on a black background. Book 2 shows the same strengths as Book 1 in its unrushed pacing, attention to detail in setting, and also its commitment to establishing the psychology of its characters through preserving as much realistic minutiae as possible.

[Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish film version]

Though Manco and Mutti’s artwork is fastidious throughout Books 1 and 2, it feels most confident when depicting Lisbeth. This may be because of Manco’s “dark and gritty” style, Volume 1 touts, established through working on comics such as HELLBLAZER, is given full reign. It provides the character with quite a wow factor, boosting the sense that she’s a form of superhero, since the art style that surrounds her often stands in contrast to the more staid (but nevertheless threatening) environments she moves through. She frequently seems to explode onto the scene, even when walking quietly, and is depicted in a heroic lower than eye-level perspective. Her qualities, suggested and emphasized by the artwork, are even more apparent once she reaches the Venger estate. It’s as if her personality, and visually the art-style surrounding her, disturbs and undermines the heavily ornamented, and static, world of the past. While this visual contrast is established in Book 1, it’s even more apparent, and even more effective in Book 2 because of changing environments.

[American film version poster]

Book 1 of THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO was promising, setting up a lot of potential for telling a story in a way distinct from film versions that have been made, and though Book 2 by nature doesn’t have the same introductory force of Book 1, it does form a remarkably seamless development on the best features of the earlier volume from emphasizing violence against women as a governing, haunting theme, to including more detail about the lives of its characters than film versions have allowed. Book 2 also preserves and enhances Lisbeth’s hero status visually and narratively while guiding the reader deeper into the mysteries surrounding Harriet Vanger’s disappearance. If the prevailing sense created by the same team in Book 1 is “this could all be real”, Book 2 explores the implications of that assumption and so has the potential to be even more disturbing and more compelling in its revelations. If readers want realism that comes closer to the original novels by Larsson than the film versions, the graphic novels provide that alternative while still capturing the larger than life elements of the characters that have made the story such a phenomenon in the first place.

 Title: THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, Book 2/Publisher: DC Vertigo/Creative Team: Adapted by Denise Mina, Art by Leonardo Manco and Andrea Mutti/Colors by Giulia Brusco and Patricia Mulvihill/Letters by Steve Wands

Hannah Means-Shannon writes and blogs about comics for TRIP CITY and Sequart.org and is currently working on books about Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore for Sequart. She is @hannahmenzies on Twitter and hannahmenziesblog on WordPress.

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We all want Wonder Woman to be in a movie. In fact, I’m going to go out on a limb and say we want her to be in EVERY film. And every TV show. Maybe a few music videos. But for one reason or another, we’re repeatedly disappointed by a world which does not seem to share our desire for Diana to take over the entirety of culture. She can’t get a TV show off the ground, her film scripts never get put anywhere near production, and Nicki Minaj hasn’t dressed up as her ONCE.

So step-forward first-time director Jesse V. Johnson, a stunt co-ordinator who has worked on films like Lincoln, Thor, and Spider-Man, to show how it’s done. Johnson today uploaded a film trailer for Wonder Woman, to show off his ability as a director for potentially-interested parties… and it’s pretty darned good, you guys. It’s even got this poster, created by Robert Sebree.

Casting actress Nina Bergman as Wonder Woman and Peter-flipping-Stormare as her Nazi captor, this fan film captures basically everything William Marston could have possibly wanted to see in a Wonder Woman movie. There’s fighting, and empowerment, some light bondage, and even a touch of psychological theory. Johnson describes the project’s origins:

It was my manager / producing partner Kailey Marsh’s idea to shoot the trailer.  She really believes I should be a studio director, and thought shooting Wonder Woman would be a great way to show off my skills in a fun way that people could get excited about.

So without further ado, here’s the trailer for the movie. What do you think?

Female Super Hero Fan Film from Jesse V. Johnson on Vimeo.

Tweet Just the other day we were telling you how Radical Studios has ridden the comics-to-movies rollercoaster to some success with a movie based on the not-really-a-GN Oblivion on its way to a multiplex near you. And now, Variety tell us, they’ve raised $3 million of a wished for $9.5 million to “help broaden its [...]

You may have noticed a few trailers for OBLIVION, a new Tom Cruise SF film that seems to fuse the themes of I am Legend, Mission Impossible, War of the Worlds and Minority Report into one handy epic. (It also destroys New York, just as all futuristic movies must.) The film comes out in April and in addition to Cruise it stars Morgan Freeman, Olga Kurylenko, Melissa Leo, Zoe Bell and Andrea Riseborough. The director is TRON: UPRISING's Joseph Kosinski, and he's also the source of this film's tenuous but fascinating "graphic novel" connection.

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A gn adapting the cult Nazis on the Moon movie IRON SKY is coming from IDW with art by Gerry Kissell and Amin Amat. Everyone wants to put Nazis on the moon right on their own bookshelf!

IDW Publishing, along with comic production house Hazmat Studios and film production company Blind Spot Pictures, are thrilled to present fans with the official IRON SKYmovie tie-in graphic novel in March 2013. Drawn and colored by the amazing artistic team of Gerry Kissell and Amin Amat, the guys behind IDW’s best selling graphic novel Code Word: Geronimo, and Xbox’s comic game tie-in Alan Wake. The book will also be featuring original pin-up art by Miguel Angel Abad(Planet of the Apes) and Darren Douglas (Golden Compass) and chronicles the battle against the return of history’s most notoriously evil villains, the Nazis, who unbeknownst to us, escaped to the moon following their defeat in World War II.
 
“The graphic novel is a prequel to the hit sci-fi action film Iron Sky produced by Blind Spot Pictures, and focuses on how the Nazis ended up on the moon, and how Udo Kier’s character, Wolfgang Kortzfleisch, became Der Überführer.” Said lead artist Kissell. “Part steampunk and part comedy, the graphic novel was written masterfully by Alan Wake scribe, Mikko Rautalahti. who has a wicked sense of humor.”Kissell continued.
 
The book will be 104 pages, with 67 pages of comic art with an additional 33 pages of production art, behind the scenes bonus material, and other exclusive material written by the film’s director, Timo Vuorensola.

This press release is a little light on details, but we’re big on Spain Rodriguez here, and it appears he’s been hired to draw one of those “screenplay-to-comics” deals, which will be funded through Kickstarter. Like we said, it’s just a plan, but it’s nice to see Spain in the news.

Spain Rodriguez has signed to draw Joan Dark, a new graphic novel by three untried authors in the comics field. Rodriguez, one of America’s first underground comics artists of the ’60s and ’70s (and frequently identified only as ‘Spain’), has published a large body of work as both artist and writer. The writers of Joan Dark are Robert Hurst and Jeff Tamblyn, who wrote the story first as a screenplay, and Patrick Quinn, who penned the comic script.

“We’re incredibly lucky to have made the connection with Spain,” Tamblyn says. “As first-timers, this is beyond our wildest dreams. We expect to learn a lot from him during the course of the next year.” Tamblyn, a filmmaker, was acquainted with Spain’s wife, filmmaker Susan Stern (Barbie Nation, Self-Made Man) for more than three years before learning to whom she is married. “Even after I found out, I never expected to have the opportunity to work with him,” Tamblyn says.

Joan Dark is a modern-day retelling of Don Quixote that features a female leading character who is an emotionally-damaged Iraq War veteran. It’s described as a darkly comic, action-adventure tale, laden with political overtones – an arena that should work well for Rodriguez, whose left-wing sentiments have never been a secret.

The team intends to finance the artwork through kickstarter.com, a crowd-sourcing website for creative endeavors that’s become well-known to comics enthusiasts around the world.

Rodriguez created the first underground tabloid, Zodiac Mindwarp. His character Trashman, Agent of the Sixth International, was an icon in underground newspapers of the ’60s. Big Bitch, another popular Spain character, appears in She Comics. Spain’s work currently appears in the online graphic novel Dark Hotel, at sfgate.com, the LA Weekly and Blab. Spain also recently published Che: A Biography, which was translated into eleven languages.

Quinn, a writer and editor, wrote the 1995 novel Thick As Thieves, which was adapted as a motion picture starring Alec Baldwin. Tamblyn’s feature documentary, Kansas vs. Darwin, was released in 2008 through New Day Films. Hurst, who also teaches film at the University of Kansas, is a writer, director and technician who’s worked on various features over a 20-year career, including Sundance screener The Only Good Indian.

Another key character in the story is an Arab journalist, who plays the voice of reason to Joan’s deluded-but-driven knight. “We really love the character of the journalist, whose name is Fahreed Al-Hassan,” says Hurst. “He’s an Arab character who’s not a terrorist or a doctor or a convenience-store clerk, he’s very human, with many weaknesses and a very good heart.”

Publishing plans for the book have not yet been announced.

By Steve Morris

With just over a week left until Mark Millar’s Kapow Comic-Con returns for 2012 (you’re going, right? See you there — I’ll be the handsome guy with glasses, you can’t miss me), it might be worth going over all the latest announcements the man himself has been making recently. From convention guests to comic-book announcements, he’s been characteristically busy over the past few days, with many an update popping up on his twitter feed.

Most of these are related to his Icon series Kick-Ass, which seems to have become his primary focus over the past few weeks. With the completion of the first and second mini (which is actually the third part of the story – we’ll get to that in a second), Millar’s been ramping up to the imminent launch of his spin-off story, ‘Hit-Girl’. Drawn by John Romita Jr (co-creator of Kick-Ass, who replaced initially announced artist Leandro Fernandez on the title at Millar’s request), this is a five-issue miniseries starting this month. It stars the eponymous underage Chloe Moretz lookalike antihero as she goes about the business of, y’know, murdering people in the name of justice.

Issue #1 comes with a cover from Phil Noto, released only a few days ago by Millar, which pretty much sets the scene for what’ll be to come from the series. It’s a little reminiscent of Game of Thrones, which is rather appropriate as I imagine people are going to get their heads lopped off at random, in true HBO fashion. The mini is set between the events of Kick-Ass and Kick-Ass 2 (which, it’s just been announced, is in development as a film by Universal), you see, meaning fans waiting for some kind of trilogy conclusion to the Red Mist/Kick-Ass battle will have to wait until later on in the year to get their satisfaction and swears.

Hit-Girl sees the main character trying to make it by at school, without snapping and killing people. After seeing her dad die and going on a murderous rampage of revenge as betrayed tweenagers are wont to do, this change of pace is something Millar has been wanting to try for a while now, as it’ll let him delve into the character and explain her origin story for readers. There’ll be an exclusive art preview over on CBR later tonight, so you can get yourself up to speed then.

Does that help? Now when you bump into Mark Millar after being dazzled by my bi-focular good looks at Kapow, you’ll have something to talk to him about! That’s in-between your trips to go see the creators of Arkham City on panel, Audiences with Nick Frost and Warren Ellis, waving at Emma Vieceli, meeting and greeting Jonathan Ross, Scott Snyder and Oliver Coipel, and ‘treating’ C.B. Cebulski to a look at your art portfolio, of course.

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Star Wars Ruined Comic-Con!

Yup.  People may complain about Twilight crowding out the “true fans”, squatting in rooms while keeping others from enjoying panels, but the hard cold truth is, it’s all George Lucas’ fault, and it can be traced back thirty-five years to 1976.

Back then, Star Wars was the next film from George Lucas, who had some success with “American Graffiti”.  An unknown science fiction movie, with few stars, and a militaristic theme in the aftermath of the Vietnam War was a hard sell.  So Charles Lippincott, head of publicity and promotion, hit the road.  The first stop was Westercon, then in its 28th year, held during the Fourth of July weekend in Los Angeles.  Three weeks later, Star Wars hit San Diego and it’s record crowd of 3,000 attendees.  Lucasfilm knew they had to promote the film to fans, and so purchased a table to promote the movie, something unprecedented at the time.

So, where did the idea to hit the fan circuit come from?  Lippincott had worked at MGM during the release of “2001: A Space Odyssey”.  When the box office lagged on that film, Mike Kaplan tailored a campaign to the hippie subculture, emphasizing the psychedelic “star child” theme.  Lippincott realized the same strategy could be done with Star Wars, except with comics fans instead of hippies.

Lippincott knew Lucasfilm needed comics to promote the film before it came out, and met with Stan Lee at Marvel.  Stan was hesitant, but Lippincott was able to lunch with Roy Thomas, and sold the Conan writer on the movie.  Marvel made a sweetheart deal… Lucasfilm would not make any money on the first 100,000 copies, but Marvel would produce a six-issue miniseries of the movie.  Twentieth Century Fox couldn’t understand what good this deal was, but for Star Wars, it proved to be very important.  (It also proved very important to Marvel… it was a gamble which paid off handsomely.)  Lippincott and Lucas were both fans of Howard Chaykin’s “Cody Starbuck” comic published by Star Reach, and felt he had the sensibility to adapt the movie.  Thomas wrote and edited.

So, it’s 1976.  You’ve got an unknown product.  How do you sell it to comic book fans?  Well, you schedule a panel with Roy “Conan” Thomas and Howard “indy” Chaykin, so that people will come and see the cool slide show! 

Back in August, 2010, we told you all about the story behind OBLIVION, a graphic novel concept by director Joe Kosinski (TRON: LEGACY) that was optioned to Disney Studios for a cool $500,000. It seemed like a lot of money for yet another “celebrity comic” so what was so hot about it? At the time we wrote:

As regular BEAT readers know, studios optioning comics are a weekly occurrence, and yet this one not only gets a coveted Nikki Finke TOLJA! (signifying an important story) but $500K just for some typical comics-to-movie pitch after FOUR STUDIOS were in the running to get it? What gives?

The answer lies in the identity of the celebrity brainstormer. Although TRON: LEGACY is still months away from release, Disney has set its eyes on TRON as its franchise of the future, and they are very, very — as in VERY — high on Kosinski, even though he’s a virtual unknown: TRON: LEGACY is his first film and prior to that he was best known for that GEARS OF WAR TV spot with the song from Donnie Darko in it.

Mouse House picked up the project from Kosinski last August after the book bowed at Comic-Con.

Studios are looking at a rewrite by Karl Gajdusek, and I’m told this is a $100 million plus project (not including star salary), so it’s an opportunity for someone to pencil in a tent pole. Calls to Disney haven’t been returned on the subject, but I’ve heard that the reason Disney stopped work after developing the script and going through a soft prep process is that the studio decided that a gritty PG-13 science fiction action project didn’t fit into the Disney mandate. Considering that Paramount, Fox-based Chernin Entertainment and Universal all chased the property before Disney stepped up to keep its Tron: Legacy helmer in the studio fold, I’m told this will get bought by somebody. It will have an easy exit, as the deal came with progress to production language. It’s unclear if Kosinski will direct this next; he’s got Black Hole at Disney, and the studio’s developing a Tron: Legacy sequel.

There is hardly a company that does not have some kind of celebrity “vanity project” comic out there made mostly to show to producers as a bible for a film. And all of this is despite the fact that not a single movie has yet been made from a

15 Comments on Anatomy of a Press Release, Part 2: Disney DROPS Radical’s OBLIVION, last added: 3/30/2011

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Naveen Malli said, on 3/30/2011 8:13:00 AM

So does that mean Kosinski gets to keep the $500,000? If so, talk about a profitable comic!

Dave Elliott said, on 3/30/2011 8:32:00 AM

Cowboys & Aliens isn’t a Radical project.

Dave Elliott said, on 3/30/2011 8:38:00 AM

Naveen, Radical would have split the $500k with Joe IF it had gone into production, but as it didn’t, Disney doesn’t have to pay it.

jimmy palmiotti said, on 3/30/2011 8:46:00 AM

Option money is not returned. I never had to return a single Cent on a paid option ever.

As for Radical, They are a pleasure to work with and let Justin , Paul and I have the time of our lives putting together TIME BOMB for them exactly th way we envisioned it.

I have nothing but well wishes for them. Stuff like this always happens in the business.

Jason Green said, on 3/30/2011 9:07:00 AM

Dave Elliott: “Cowboys & Aliens isn’t a Radical project”

Well, no, but it is “a movie made from a comic book that was published just to be turned into a movie,” which is the exact, non-Radical-specific comment from Heidi’s post we’re all referring to.

CitizenCliff said, on 3/30/2011 9:53:00 AM

Jimmy is right. In my case, Rat Bastard never aired on UPN, but Ron Howard’s Imagine Television gave me a nice chunk of change for the rights for one year. They spent $450,000 on the project, but in the end dumped a project by Howard Stern, one by Todd McFarlane, and my show when UPN parent Viacom merged with CBS I’m 2000. At the end of one year, I got the rights back. Kevin Altieri did a nice job directing, and Robocop creator Ed Neimeier wrote the script . You can see the mini pilot here: 
http://m.youtube.com/index?client=mv-google&desktop_uri=%2F&gl=US&rdm=4m2ax5fyg#/watch?xl=xl_blazer&v=1XBLUGxMSsA

Joe Lawler said, on 3/30/2011 10:56:00 AM

Cliff, clicking that link took me to a “Katy Perry’s Cleavage Traumatizes Mother!!” video, along with a few others.

The Beat said, on 3/30/2011 10:59:00 AM

All: It’s possible that Dave, as a former Radical E-I-C might know more about this deal than we do, but whatever the facts in this case, it is common for option money to be quite low — sometimes nothing, which is ridiculous — with a big fee to kick in should the property get actually filmed. Most deals that I know of (and my eyes tend to glaze over about this stuff) include a progressive fee chart — you get so much when a script gets accepted, so much when a pilot is ordered, so much when it gets filmed…every deal is different.

Jimmy, from the sound of things, everyone at Radical is good to work with, and they may be putting out some good books. Unfortunately, their book that got the most attention was negative (the Nick Simmon’s plagiarized comic)…at the retailer’s summit, retailers kept mentioning books that Radical doesn’t even publish. As I said previously, a marketing push wouldn’t be a bad idea just to get more of their properties out there and lift them from the pack of #6, 7 and 8 publishers.

Dave Elliott said, on 3/30/2011 11:11:00 AM

Two things:

Jason – You are 100% correct. I misread that quote because it was exactly the same quote that was used recently to describe Radical.

All: It may well be the use of the word ‘option’ here. Options are extremely rarely paid out in those large numbers. The $500k was the purchase price and a fraction of that was paid as an option which Radical and Joe do get to keep.

Nikke Finke covered this very well last year.

Purchases are often paid out in increments starting with the signing of contract, first day of production and final wrap of the project. Anything paid out when a studio cans a project is non-refundable.

Gianluca Glazer said, on 3/30/2011 11:34:00 AM

Poor Arvid. Unless Variety recently edited the article, they say that the illustrated novel is being written by Rex Mundi.

Dave Elliott said, on 3/30/2011 11:40:00 AM

Poor Arvid. The Beat is using the original teams cover with Ian Edginton credited on it and the cover by Kai Lim of Imaginary Friends.

Gianluca Glazer said, on 3/30/2011 11:59:00 AM

Which brings up a good point about how, after years of promoting “Oblivion”, they now have to sell it as “Horizons” because the film name is already copyrighted by a game company.

Regarding Heidi’s last comment: As someone who worked for Radical and had prior experience in Marketing/Production, doing billboards and giving away concert tickets, by getting your picture taken with a free printed sign, doesn’t cut it. Especially if you only do one fan convention a year and only release 2 to 3 comics a month.

Boom! Studios has the model for a successful publishing company down pat. They do the conventions. They give retailers incentives through deals and variant covers. They provide press and arm the retailers with promotional items. They also aquire license deals from commercial properties in order to increase sales, provide more comic product and introduce new fans to their other, non-license titles. Boom! Studios has had many film options deals, but aren’t reliant on them to stay afloat. I lot have of those deals have come and go, that’s the nature of the business. If one pans out, like the Two Guns looks to be, then great. Until then, you have to be the best “publisher”, until those years of setting up the films pays off.

horatio Weisfeld said, on 3/30/2011 3:02:00 PM

Who is this, Katy Perry?

horatio Weisfeld said, on 3/30/2011 3:07:00 PM

+ Thanks to those discussing reality.

horatio Weisfeld said, on 3/30/2011 3:53:00 PM

Sorry for the 3 some — but one more thing:

jimmy palmiotti
03/30/2011 AT 10:46 AM
Option money is not returned. I never had to return a single Cent on a paid option ever.

>>

I’m not so sure this discussion is about people being asked to return money on option (No, I’ve never heard of that) as much as people going around saying, “They ‘bought’ it for X” — which of course leads humans to believe that X was actually “paid” for something, when in fact 5% (or so, or whatever) X was “paid”, with a promise made to pay the other 95% if something happens (of which the likely hood of that happening is probably something like .00099%) — So did Dreamworks REALLY “pay” 500K for ASH, did somebody REALLY “pay” 350K for World War Robot, or with Oblivion: did Disney “pay” what they “bought” it for? What a tangled web..

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