Showing posts with label Iron Man. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Iron Man. Show all posts

Monday, September 7, 2009

Comics Primer

Hello, My Name is George and I'm a Marvel Zombie.

BY GEORGE CAVALENS

I was born in the early 80's so my introduction to comics, like most people born then, was the 90's X-men cartoon(1992). I'm not sure if Marvel made a concerted effort back then to market to tweenies but it worked on me. At first, I didn't even know comics existed. My first comic that I can remember buying with my own money was Darker Image # 1 (and only one, march 1993). That was it for me. For the next 15 years I was reading Marvel and Image books. Of course I dropped in and out of comics (After all, I had hundreds of worthless Wetworks and Heroes Reborn comics). When comics crashed, so did I.

I started playing in bands and drinking beer. Comics were the last thing on my mind. Then something happened. I started hearing about this guy Brian Michael Bendis. At the time, Ultimate Spider-Man (oct. 2000) had just come out and he was doing a book calld Powers over at Image. I came in at around issue 6 or 7 but I tracked down the back issues (this was before trades had become so popular). This is what got me back into comics. After that I was reading everything I could get my hands on. Wednesdays had become a ritual and everything was awesome. I was of course reading only Marvel and Image. The other company never interested me. And lets face it, DC had done some pretty fucked up things. In 2000, when I came back I didn't know anything about DC but now I can go back and find out stuff and I can see why I just never got intrested in it back then. But thats not what this article is about.

Now you know my history as a Marvel Zombie. In the last six months I have read a couple of DC books that i really enjoyed: Starman Omnibus 1 and 2 and Gotham Central HC vol 1. These were fucking excellent! So, I'm not against reading DC books. And now that Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, and Greg Rucka are saving this company I may be ready to read a couple books. Every monday here on storiesinmedium.com you will get:
-Awesome comics articles
-My DC progress
-What I'm reading every week
-Reviews in 7 words or less
-Recomdations

In addition to all this, feel free to leave me recomendations on what to read with my DC "quest".
Coming up, I've got Starman Omnibus 3, Gotham Central HC vol 2, and Green Lantern: Rebirth
on my plate. Now lets get to what I read this week and some 7 words or less reviews.

SGT. Fury and His Howling Commandos by Jesse Alexander and John Paul Leon(Marvel $3.99)
Horrible story telling meets gorgeous art.

Dominic Fortune #1 by Howard Chaykin (Marvel $3.99)
1950's James Bond punches and fucks.

Ultimate Spider-man #2 by Brian Michael Bendis and David Lafuente (Marvel $3.99)
I'm Confused. I didn't read it before.

Invincible Iron Man #17 by Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca (Marvel $2.99)
What Captain America was 2 years ago.

Irredeemable #6 by Mark Waid and Peter Krause (Boom $3.99)
Kind of creepy. Give me more.

Sweet Tooth #1 by Jeff Lemire (Vertigo $1.00)
Great! Buy it assholes!

Detective Comics #854-856 by Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams III (DC Comics $3.99)
Wow. That's art. I'm in.

Lost Dogs by Jeff Lemire (Ashtray Press $????)
Jeff knows how to make people sad.

Cat Getting Out Of A Bag and Other Observations by Jeffrey Brown (Chronicle Books $12.95)
Hilarious! Right on the money.

The Walking Dead Hardcover Vol. 4 by Robert Kirman and Charlie Adlard (Image $29.99)
Holy shit.

That's it for this week. Read Invincible Iron Man or you're and asshole!!!!!

Next week: Spider-man.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Marvel Searches for Next Big Thing

Comic book conglomerate is looking for writers to script ideas for lesser-known characters
BY EMIL TIEDEMANN

Comic book nerds everywhere are excited over the recent news that Marvel Entertainment is searching for talent to step forward with script ideas for film adaptations of some of the more than 5,000 heroes and villains the company owns rights to.

Scriptwriters are encouraged to come forward with any concepts for Marvel's library of comic book characters, many of which are extremely obscure. Some of the lesser known characters that Marvel are contemplating for a feature film include Doctor Strange, Vision, Black Panther, Cable, Nighthawk, and Iron Fist.

Whatever hero/ villain is chosen as the next big screen blockbuster, it will join an elite list of A-class Marvel franchises, including Spider-Man, X-Men, The Incredible Hulk, and their latest recruit, last year's Iron Man.

Some of the other comic series that have been adapted to film have seen less enthusiastic box office numbers and critical praise, including Daredevil (2003), The Fantastic Four (2005), and Ghost Rider (2007). Marvel is currently in the production phase for several upcoming comic flicks, such as The First Avenger: Captain America, Thor, The Avengers, and sequels to Iron Man and Spider-Man, though these films are not part of the script search.

Iron Man was one of the reasons why Marvel sparked a look back at its dusty catalogue of characters, grossing almost $582 million in worldwide ticket sales, despite being a less popular persona.

Marvel is asking potential writers to take on specific pitches for either future character developments or franchises already produced, and is offering as much as $100,000 for a one-year salary. Some of the writers who penned Marvel material prior are not eligible to submit work, including Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely, Zak Penn, and Justin Theroux.
Marvel's Spider-Man and X-Men trilogies have earned more than $3.63 billion combined in worldwide box office ticket sales alone.