News Roundup – July 21, 2012

Aside from the Sandman announcement last week I think Image Comics came out with the best news at SDCC. They really did make DC and Marvel look anemic by comparison. (Once again, Sandman aside. That news was huge!) Image has quite a few regular creators from the Big Two venturing into creator-owned territory and maybe this year really is the Year Of The Creator. Here is a list of awesome projects:

-Kelly Sue DeConnick (Captain Marvel) is writing Pretty Deadly for artist Emma Rios (Spider-Island: Cloak & Dagger). The book is about a female Western assassin.

-Matt Fraction and Howard Chaykin are working together on Satellite Sam, a book about a children’s TV host found dead in a compromising position.

-Chris Roberson is collaborating with artist Paul Mayberry on Reign, which will be a fantasy series.

-Greg Rucka and Michael Lark have a book called Lazarus coming out and that book is a hard sci-fi series set in the near-distant future.

-J. Bone is working with writer James Robinson on Saviors where a young stoner uncovers an alien invasion and has to convince people it is happening.

-Transmetropolitan and The Boys artist Darick Robertson will be teaming with writer Gary Whitta on a new mini-series called Oliver. Robertson is already teaming with Grant Morrison on the mini Happy which debuts in December. Look for Oliver sometime in 2013.

-Joe Casey has two Image books. The first is called Sex and is illustrated by Piotr Kowalski. (It centers on superheroes and sex.) The other series Casey is doing is Bounce with artist David Messina.

-Non-Humans from writer Glen Brunswick and artist Whilce Portacio is a four-issue mini-series where inanimate objects – such as toys, action figures – come to life!

-Clone will be a new book from David Schulner and Juan Jose Ryp.

-And finally there is Nowhere Men by Eric Stephenson and Nate Bellgarde.

Writer/Director Quentin Tarantino crashed the Before Watchmen panel to announce that DC will publish a five-issue mini-series based on the screenplay for Tarantino’s Django Unchained.

The five-issue Punisher War Zone comic will be written by Greg Rucka and will feature Frank Castle taking on the Avengers.

Geoff Johns stated that work on Batman Earth One Volume 2 is underway and that the second volume will feature the Riddler and find Batman becoming a Detective.

Will Conrad has left Marvel Comics to provide the art on DC’s Stormwatch. I am quite ok with that!

The Walking Dead #100 topped 380,000 issues in sales and is rumored to be going back for the second printing!

Scott Lobdell confirmed at SDCC that Tim Drake was never Robin. In Teen Titans #0 we are going to learn Drake used the name “Red Robin” his whole superhero career. In other news, DC continues to become less and less of a publisher I like.

Anthony Mackie is in negotiations to play the Falcon in the next Captain America film entitled Captain America: Winter Soldier. In addition to Bucky coming back, the film will also feature Nick Fury, Black Widow, and Hawkeye and we should get an insight in both Widow and Hawkeye’s past. Although this excites me I feel like it should be more Cap’s film. They should have done a SHIELD movie with Fury, Widow, and Hawkeye. Excited to see the Falcon though.

Iron Man’s new armor for Iron Man 3 was shown off at SDCC. Here it is! I really like it!
 

 -SJD