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Showing posts with label Superman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Superman. Show all posts
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Photos from the Short Film, "The Death and Return of Superman"
Plot:
The Death and Return of Superman forever changed comics. Superman's tragic death was not just mourned by comic book readers, it echoed throughout the entire country. What is never mentioned, however, is just how poorly conceived The Death and Return of Superman saga was and how it shattered the integrity of the comic book industry. A follow up to his previous comic web videos Cooking with Comics: Knightfall and Vague Recollections of: Watchmen, writer/director Max Landis shows us through reenactment just how ridiculous The Death of Superman saga became and how it affected the world of comics.
The Death and Return of Superman is making its premiere at 12pm on November 27. Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theater (611 North Fairfax Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90036) is hosting the event.
The film is a comedic viral short that stars Elijah Wood, Mandy Moore, Elden Henson, Morgan Krantz, Zach Cregger, Ron Howard, Simon Pegg, Matt Bennett, Sarah Shahi, and Barats and Beretta.
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Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Monday, August 29, 2011
Read How Batman, Superman and Green Lantern Almost Became Marvel Characters!!
Here's the official story told by Bill Sarnoff:
That shit crayy!Bill said, more or less, that Marvel seemed to be able to turn a substantial profit on publishing comics, as opposed to DC, which consistently lost money, a lot of money, and had for a long time. On the other hand, LCA (Licensing Corporation of America), Warner’s licensing arm did very well with the DC properties, while Marvel “didn’t seem to do much licensing.”
I guess the few million a year we made from licensing, mostly from Spider-Man, seemed paltry to him, what with the fortune that just their big four, Superman, Batman, Robin and Wonder Woman brought in.
I told him I thought Marvel would be very interested, and that I would discuss it with Marvel’s President, Jim Galton.
So, I did. I told Galton about my conversation with Sarnoff. Galton said he’d give Sarnoff a call.
The next day, I went upstairs, poked my head into Galton’s office and asked whether he’d called Sarnoff and, if so, how that went?
Galton said he told Sarnoff we weren’t interested.
I was stunned. Why not?!
Galton said—and this is prima facie evidence of the fact that he missed Comic Books 101 in publishing school—since DC books weren’t selling, “those characters must not be any good.”
Great Krypton!
Trying not to sound too crazed, I explained that they were great characters and that the DC editorial people were, frankly, doing a pretty poor job with them. And that we could do better. A lot better.
I talked him into calling Sarnoff back and telling him we’d give it some thought.
I left his office with instructions to put together a business plan and present it to Joe Calamari, Executive V.P. of Business Affairs.
It took me about three days to put together a presentable plan.
The first part of the business plan was the publishing plan. I decided that we should launch with seven titles and build from there, if all went well. The titles were:
SUPERMAN
BATMAN
WONDER WOMAN
GREEN LANTERN
TEEN TITANS
JUSTICE LEAGUE
LEGION OF SUPER HEROES
I projected that we would sell 39 million copies the first two years generating a pre-tax profit (gross revenues less cost of goods sold, royalties, staff, SG&A, etc.) of roughly $3,500,000.
That was huge money for a comic book publisher in 1984.
That was with just the original seven titles—no expansion of the line—though if we were doing that well, obviously, we’d add titles. Slowly and carefully, if I had anything to say about it.
I anticipated adding one editor, two assistants and one production person to start.Calamari enthusiastically endorsed my plan.
Galton was still skeptical. He thought my projections were crazy high. He sent the plan to the circulation department to review.
Somebody leaked. Rumors spread.
My first clue was when John Byrne showed up in my office one day with his cover for…
It wasn’t a sketch. It was a cover. Might even have been inked, I forget. I don’t have a copy of the thing, but I’ll bet Byrne still has the original. Somebody should ask him to display it on his site if he hasn’t already.
He had a story worked out, too, as I recall. He reallyreallyreally wanted to do Superman.
I think I remember Byrne telling me once that he had watched the first Superman movie over 1,100 times.
Anyway….
When the circulation department said they had completed their analysis of my plan, Galton called a meeting to discuss it. Besides Galton and me, Ed Shukin, V.P. of Circulation and Direct Sales Manager Carol Kalish were present. I don’t think Calamari was there. V.P. of Finance Barry Kaplan might have been.
Galton asked what Shukin’s take on my numbers was. Shukin said the numbers were “ridiculous.” Galton sort of smirked at me.
“We’ll do more than DOUBLE these numbers,” Shukin said.
Oh, my stars and garters!
And so, negotiations with Sarnoff began in earnest. I was a spectator at that point. The suits took over.
However….
Very soon thereafter, First Comics launched a lawsuit against Marvel Comics and others, alleging anti-trust violations, among other things.
One test of anti-competitive market dominance is market share of 70% or more. At that time Marvel held a nearly 70% share, 69-point-something. DC was around 18%.
I think it’s safe to say that when you’re being sued under anti-trust laws, it’s a bad time to devour your largest competitor.
On the other hand, there is the “we-have-a-clue-and-they-don’t” or “superior acumen” defense. We considered arguing that defense and pressing on with the deal.
But, no. Ultimately, the suits and lawyers decided to play it safe and backed away from the DC deal.
Jeepers!
P.S. First’s suit was nonsense. They alleged that we had flooded the market. Our actual increase in releases published during the “flood” year from the year before? Six. Six issues, not series. They alleged that we had used our dominance to fix prices with World Color Press to inflate their costs. In discovery, it came out that we were paying more than they were! (And that news made Galton and the print production people very peeved!) Etc.
Anyway….
I’ll write more about the First suit someday. Enough about that for now.
Net result, no SUPERMAN –First Marvel Issue! Too bad. It would have been fun.
Here's the official correspondence:
out:
Monday, August 15, 2011
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Friday, August 5, 2011
First Look at Henry Cavill as Superman in "Man of Steel"
Press release:
The film also stars three-time Oscar® nominee Amy Adams (The Fighter) as Daily Planet journalist Lois Lane, and Oscar® nominee Laurence Fishburne (What's Love Got to Do with It) as her editor-in-chief, Perry White. Starring as Clark Kent's adoptive parents, Martha and Jonathan Kent, are Oscar® nominee Diane Lane (Unfaithful) and Academy Award® winner Kevin Costner (Dances with Wolves).
Squaring off against the superhero are two other surviving Kryptonians, the villainous General Zod, played by Oscar® nominee Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road), and Faora, Zod's evil partner, played by Antje Traue. Also from Superman's native Krypton are Lara Lor-Van, Superman's mother, played by Julia Ormond, and Superman's father, Jor-El, portrayed by Academy Award® winner Russell Crowe (Gladiator).
Rounding out the cast are Harry Lennix as U.S. military man General Swanwick, as well as Christopher Meloni as Colonel Hardy.
Man of Steel is being produced by Charles Roven, Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan and Deborah Snyder. The screenplay was written by David S. Goyer, from a story by Goyer and Nolan, based upon Superman characters created by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster and published by DC Comics. Thomas Tull and Lloyd Phillips are serving as executive producers.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Sunday, June 12, 2011
DC Comics is Rebooting Its Entire Universe!! Here's the First Look at the New Superman!!
DC Comics has announced a historic reboot and redesign for its entire line of superheroes.
DC Comics is currently running a storyline called Flashpoint that involves the Flash (Barry Allen version) and his experiences in a strange timeline where the world's superheroes are very different than they once were in memory. In a bombshell announcement, DC has revealed that Flashpoint will lead into a reboot of the entire DC Universe.
Starting on August 31, DC Comics will renumber 52 different books back to #1. Every single title that takes place in the DC Universe will be affected. It isn't just a renumbering either, as DC is also redesigning costumes, storylines, characters... everything. All 52 #1 issues will launch over a period of 5 weeks.
The flagship book appears to be Justice League #1, which teams DC superstar scribe Geoff Johns with artist extraordinaire and current DC co-publisher Jim Lee. The first image from the reboot (seen below) was done by Jim Lee, partially showing how DC plans to redesign its universe's characters. The idea is to make things more contemporary, but the changes aren't incredibly drastic or anything going by this particular image. Superman's outfit and younger appearance look to be the most changed.
"We really want to inject new life in our characters and line," DC Comics co-publisher Dan DiDio told USA Today. "This was a chance to start, not at the beginning, but at a point where our characters are younger and the stories are being told for today's audience."
Justice League #1 will also mark the further entry of comic books into the digital age. Though digital comic books are becoming more common, neither DC nor Marvel have begun to release digital versions of all their books alongside the print versions day-and-date. Starting with Justice League #1, all 52 titles featured in the reboot will be released both digitally and physically on the same day.
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