Comics in the Classroom, Camelot and Candidates (of the Rogue Variety)

Some quick notes on things I’ve noticed in the last few days…

First of all, it was called to my attention after I wrote up JMS’ new-to-video release Ninja Assassin yesterday that Straczynski’s bestselling and wildly controversial Spider-Man: One More Day is available for only $6.97 in hardcover in the bargain section of Barnes & Noble bookstores all over the country. Seems like a great chance for continuity junkies who didn’t like the story, but feel like they ought to own something so important, to get it cheap.

There are only 60 days remaining to make yourself part of the upcoming Reading With Pictures Anthology, which is being funded through Kickstarter. It’s 45% funded, with $4,500 of its final $10,000 already pledged. The book involves a bunch of really cool creators working together for a good cause, so I’d say to at least check it out. If somebody else doesn’t contribute in the next month, I’m going to have to raise the level of my contribution. And I’m a cheap bastard, so don’t make me do that!

Speaking of worthy causes on Kickstarter, Ted Rall’s sequel to his great To Afghanistan & Back is still up in the air, with only about half of the total cost donated and a little under two weeks before he’s got to report back to the publisher. Rall’s one of the most fearless and funny graphic novelists in the market right now, so I’d suggest everyone check his work out and think about helping him get funded.

Third and final fundraising shill (for now): Zach Roberts, who masterminded the Greg Palast/Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. comic book Steal Back Your Vote (of which I was an editor–full disclosure here), has a forthcoming documentary about Sarah Palin called Rogue Candidate; it’s not up yet, but he’s been discussing some very interesting and comics-related promotion avenues for the film, so keep your eyes and ears open; it may be the first documentary film ever to have a comics adaptation.

Starz is not only taking some stories from England, but a style of televising them, too; the network has greenlit a Camelot miniseries that will run for ten episodes and be written by Chris Chibnall of Torchwood fame. Removing “Starz” from this sentence, when I first heard that this was happening, I assumed that it was a BBC or BBC America series being reported. It will, however, go nicely with their Spartacus: Blood and Sand series.

Last week at South by Southwest, Warner Brothers announced that they planned on using DC superheroes as tentpole films starting in 2012 or so to replace the departing Harry Potter franchise. There’ll be some overlap, of course, with the last two Harry Potter movies not yet released and Green Lantern already shooting, but it’s a sound business idea on paper, I think, and setting them up as tentpoles unto themselves means that people will have to start thinking of them as viable commercial franchises instead of just talking about how there are all these random superhero movies being made and when will they go out of style. Should be interesting and really fun for comics fans…provided that Warner can make it work.

Booster Gold #30: “Things Are Booming in Coast City, OR Rip was tripping on mushrooms and no one was even there.”

Check this article out on ComicBook.com!

Linkblogging

Compliments of Simon Pegg's Twitter site, fans and press alike have been clamoring over a four-minute clip from the American, McG-helmed remake of Spaced that was almost unleashed on an unsuspecting public a few years back in the wake of The Office and House proving that British television can work on a major American network. See for yourself why it was axed after only the pilot (little things like the original creators freaking out and a Facebook campaign to boycott the damned thing notwithstanding, I mean). For my part, I'm skeptical of what this proves. Certainly it's pretty godawful, but it's hard to figure out for my part whether it's awful because it's awful, or just because it's beat-for-beat a ripoff of the UK show and so I know how it "should" look and sound. Bear in mind, the US version of The Office is a critical and audience favorite six years in, and the pilot for that show was basically a line-for-line ripoff of the UK version, too.

Kirby Krackle's new record, E For Everyone, hit this Tuesday. I'm checking it out now and will have a review and interview when the band return from this weekend's Emerald City ComiCon. A single from the record, "Ring Capacity," was released a few months ago. The ode to Green Lantern was clever and catchy, and bodes well for the album.

Warner Home Video has a Scooby-Doo promotion starting on Monday. Originally it was going to start today, but after I'd already written this column the press guys wrote back to ask reporters to hold off on the announcement until Monday, presumably so they can get the website to the stage where they want it or something. More on that later.

Hill & Wang, a division of Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, will publish Ted Rall's forthcoming book about his forthcoming trip to Afghanistan (a kind of sequel to his popular 2002 NBM hardcover To Afghanistan and Back)--assuming there is a trip. Rall's success in getting the project funded through Kickstarter haven't panned out yet, and the amount he says he needs isn't just to cover crappy hotel rooms. Rall describes the $25,000 goal as necessary "for travel expenses, including bribes to avoid capture." Rall's last graphic novel, an autobiographical confessional with art by Pablo Callejo called The Year of Loving Dangerously, was one of last year's best.Listen to me talk to Rall about it on Comic Related's "Related Recap" podcast.

Gearing up for convention season, a couple of smaller publishers have reached out to fans this week: Brant Fowler has put out some feelers about low-cost print advertising for as little as $5 in his upcoming comic, and Alterna Comics has approached their mailing list about both paid advertising and website advertising trades. Gotta pay for gas somehow when you're driving all over the country, folks!

Following on the heels of the Amazon debacle, apparently not only has Barnes & Noble faced some similar glitches, but Amazon has revoked the "buy" buttons from comics and graphic novels until the issue is resolved to their satisfaction. Ouch.