cyrus.mortazavi

The actor, who played Slade Wilson on "Arrow," was arrested Sunday while in San Antonio for Alamo City Comic Con.

Earning a place in Valhalla, a 20-year-old engineering student transformed his wheelchair into a war rig, and himself into Mad Max.

Series editor Kawakubo Shintaro tells fans that there are about three years' worth of chapters left.

Gary Patterson likes to say he “came the low road” on the way to becoming TCU’s head coach. Patterson didn’t get an early break with an NFL team or a major college program before joining the Horned Frogs, instead working his way up with gigs at places like Tennessee Tech, UC Davis, and Pittsburg State. “I am not saying anything bad about UC Davis,” Patterson has said. “But in South Carolina, they do not know where UC Davis is.” For Patterson, “the low road” represents more than the past; it represents his outlook on life: “I didn’t come the high road, I came the low road; I don’t care if I ever get on the freeway,” Patterson said during a heated press conference following a narrow loss to Baylor in 2013. “I didn’t build this program backing down to anybody. … Not in anything we do, not in recruiting, not in anything.”

That underdog mentality has fueled the occasionally prickly Patterson for much of his career, but TCU isn’t the underdog at the moment: On the heels of a 12-1 season, the Frogs are ranked no. 2 in the preseason AP poll, signaling their return to prominence after a bumpy beginning to their Big 12 tenure.

More 2015 CFB Preview

• Staff picks: Playoff, Heisman, more
• Your 2015 CFB Triangle All-Stars
• Conference preview cram session
• Reverse-engineering a CFB champ
• Adopt a 2015 college football team
• Leap Year: Six poised to break out
• Weak Links: Conteders' main flaws
• The Indispensables: 10 vital players
• 2015 Preseason Heisman Watch
• Impact freshmen: Murray & more
• Impact transfers: Eight to watch
• The genius of Patterson's defense 
• The legend of Leonard Fournette
• Cody Kessler enters the limelight
• Rosen and the true frosh QB ceiling
• All of our CFB preview coverage!

While last season’s resurgence was triggered in large part by the offense’s transformation into an Air Raid–infused powerhouse following Doug Meacham’s and Sonny Cumbie’s appointments as co–offensive coordinators and Trevone Boykin’s emergence at quarterback, the constant throughout Patterson’s 14-year head-coaching tenure has been his defense. The Frogs have led the nation in total defense four times under Patterson, and his defense was again championship-caliber in 2014, when TCU gave up the fewest rushing yards per play and tied for the most interceptions nationally. The Frogs also led the Big 12 in nearly every meaningful defensive category last year, including scoring defense, total defense, and pass efficiency defense.

TCU embarks on the 2015 campaign with a real shot at making the College Football Playoff and competing for the national title, but NFL and college coaches alike have their eyes on the Frogs for more fundamental reasons: Patterson’s masterwork is a morphing, multifarious 4-2-5 defense featuring five defensive backs and only two linebackers, and it’s uniquely designed to slow, and ideally stop, the offenses that have been bombarding defenses with a combination of spread formations, option (and run/pass option) football, and a frenzied no-huddle pace.

“I don’t think there’s any question about the fact that it’s more difficult to play defense,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said at SEC media days. “I think that’s why you see more points being scored, and I don’t think that trend’s going to change any time soon.” While other great coaches have been overhauling their defenses, however, Patterson has continued to rely on the 4-2-5 he developed precisely to combat the kinds of wide-open attacks now dominating football. Before one can understand why Patterson’s design might be the antidote to the problems posed by modern offenses, though, one first has to understand how his defense is built.

The no-huddle has proliferated across the NFL and college football primarily because it limits what defenses can do. At media days, Saban explained the challenges these offenses present: “Being an old NFL guy, the way you play defense in the NFL is you play a lot of specialty defense because everything is based on situations. What pace of play has done to the college game does not allow you to do that. So you have to basically play the same players in every situation because, if you do play situation defense and you’re allowed to sub in that particular situation, you can’t get the players out of the game. And you have to be able to match up in all circumstances and situations with teams that actually play that way, which is more difficult.”²⁸

Patterson’s 4-2-5, however, was designed with those challenges in mind. By playing five defensive backs, Patterson almost never needs to substitute to match up with the offense. But the system’s genius runs even deeper: Patterson has cleaved the very structure of his defense into pieces, simultaneously making everything simpler for his players and more complicated for opponents.

“We divide our defense into attack groups,” Patterson explained at a coaching clinic in 2011. Those attack groups are: (1) the four defensive linemen and two linebackers, referred to as the front, (2) one cornerback, the free safety, and the strong safety, and (3) the weak safety and other corner. For most teams, the calls for the front and secondary only work if appropriately paired, but that’s not the case for TCU. “Our fronts and coverages have nothing to do with each other,” Patterson said at the clinic. “The coverage part is separate from the front.”

Patterson isn’t the only coach who divorces his fronts from his coverage calls — Bill Belichick is another — but Patterson takes the principle as far as I’ve seen by having different coaches call TCU’s fronts and coverages, in many cases independent of each other. “The best system is to have one guy thinking about how to stop the best run play and the best pass rush, and another guy thinking about the best coverage,” Patterson said in 2006. “That’s the ultimate.”

In addition to divorcing the fronts from the coverages, Patterson goes even further by splitting his secondary down the middle. “The coverage is what we call a double-quarterback system,” said Patterson at the 2011 clinic. “We play with three safeties on the field. We have a strong, weak, and a free safety. The free and weak safeties are going to control the halves of the field. They are the quarterbacks and they make all the calls.” In short, TCU typically calls three different defenses on every play: a front call for the linebackers and defensive linemen and different coverages for each side of the backfield.

While this confuses opposing offenses, it also provides Patterson with multiple tools to call upon to combat specific strategies. The surprising bonus is that it also makes learning the defense simpler for his players: Instead of each defender needing to interpret and apply each defensive call, Patterson essentially tells each player what to do on each play. “Our key is the limited amount of teaching you have to do with each position,” said Patterson at the 2011 clinic. “We build sentences to tell the defense what to do.” 

Just because Patterson breaks his defense into bite-size morsels doesn’t mean it’s unsophisticated, however. Far from it, particularly when it comes to Patterson’s unique pass coverages, which mutate from man to zone and back again, sometimes on the same play.

TCU plays mostly zone coverage, but not a zone where defenders drop to a spot on the field and wait for the quarterback to throw the ball. TCU instead plays pattern-matching zone coverage, which begins like a traditional zone as defenders read the offense, but quickly evolves into what amounts to man-to-man coverage. “It can deceive you,” West Virginia head coach Dana Holgorsen has said of Patterson’s pass coverages. “Sometimes I get confused if it’s man or zone because there’s a lot of matching [of] routes that goes on that looks like man.”

The Horned Frogs use three zone coverages in the secondary, as Patterson explained at the 2011 clinic: a Robber coverage they call Cover 2; a traditional two-deep zone they call Cover 5; and a Quarters coverage they call Blue. The idea behind each is for the cornerback, free safety, and strong safety or outside linebacker to read the receivers to determine each defender’s assignment.²⁹

In Cover 2 coverage, known to most coaches as Robber, the safety and corner read the second receiver (counting from the outside in), typically a slot receiver or tight end. If he runs any route more than eight or so yards downfield, the safety picks him up in man-to-man coverage while the corner locks on to the no. 1 receiver; it’s essentially pure man coverage. But if the no. 2 receiver breaks his route off short to the inside or outside, the safety is freed up and becomes a “Robber” defender, reading the quarterback’s eyes to break up or intercept any inside curl or post route.³⁰

Blue coverage, known as 2-Read or Palms in the NFL, looks essentially identical to Robber coverage if the no. 1 and 2 receivers run vertical; again, it’s man coverage. But if the no. 2 breaks his route short, the coverage morphs into something very different. Specifically, if the no. 2 runs to the flat, Blue transforms into something akin to traditional Cover 2 coverage, with the cornerback coming off the outside receiver and becoming responsible for the receiver underneath in the flat, with the safety rotating to defend any downfield route by the outside receiver.³¹

In recent years, Patterson has also added a hybrid man/zone concept called Bronco, in which the corner plays man on the no. 1 receiver and the safety plays man on the no. 2 on any vertical or outside-breaking route, but if the no. 2 receiver runs inside on a slant or short crossing route, the safety lets him go and becomes a Robber. Bronco allows TCU to keep its linebackers in the box to stop the run even if the offense is in a spread formation. Finally, Patterson also features an extensive man-to-man blitz package that allows him to call essentially any blitz or stunt at any time.

Just because Patterson’s defenders are reading the offense doesn’t mean they’re passive, though. “Where we are different from other teams is our rule for our safeties: ‘Don’t go till you know,’” Patterson said at a 2015 clinic. “Other teams have their safeties backpedal, but we sit there and flat-foot shuffle. We want you to try to throw vertical. I was a front coach for many years before I became a secondary coach. There is nothing worse than a secondary coach who is always worried about getting beat deep. We want to take away the short game, we want to take away combination routes, and we want to stop the run.” TCU’s defense does all three.

For example, in TCU’s 42-3 Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl win over an Ole Miss team that, while somewhat injury depleted, had spent most of the year ranked in the top five nationally, the Horned Frogs baited Rebels quarterback Bo Wallace into an interception on the first series. TCU was in Blue coverage to the two-receiver side, and safety Chris Hackett used Patterson’s rules and his own savvy to jump the route. “We were in a two-deep shell,” Patterson said at the clinic this spring. “When the no. 2 receiver went to the outside, the free safety knew the pattern, played the curl, and made the interception. The reaction came off route recognition and an understanding of tendencies.”

Great defense isn’t a function of base calls; it’s a function of how those calls are applied to specific situations. Patterson’s true gift is his ability to stop his opponents by thinking like them. “On defense, we must think like the offense,” Patterson said at this spring’s clinic. “Offenses have gotten so good, we must teach our team what the offense is trying to do to our defense. You have to think outside the box.”

Most teams play base defense against up-tempo offenses as they just want to be sure to get lined up correctly, making them predictable and, in turn, allowing offenses to pile up easy yards, first downs, and points. That approach does not appeal to Patterson: “The first thing you must do is make a good first-down call,” he explained at the clinic this spring. “On first down, we can run a ‘Bullets’ B-gap blitz, which brings both linebackers into the B gaps [the space between the offense’s guards and tackles]. If the offense runs a zone running play, they are in second-and-12. If that happens enough, it will slow the offense down.”

“Instead of lining up and going fast, the offense will slow down to see how we align before they call their play,” he added at the clinic. “Their advantage of going fast and controlling the tempo is now our advantage. You cannot do this and play just base defense. You must make a better call than they do.”

To make that superior call, Patterson isn’t guessing or randomly blitzing. Each call is carefully calibrated based on his opponents’ tendencies. For example, Patterson identified a number of tells in Ole Miss’s offense before the Peach Bowl that resulted in his team holding the Rebels to a measly three points and 129 yards, including a mere 9 yards rushing. “Against Ole Miss, we worked our defense against the tight end,” Patterson explained at the coaching clinic. “If the back aligned away from the tight end, and the tight end was outside the tackle on the line of scrimmage, we slanted everyone to the tight end. Ninety-eight percent of the time, that’s where they were running. If the tight end aligned behind and inside the tackle, we slanted the other way.”

And Patterson’s scouting goes beyond spotting general tendencies; he wants to shut down specific plays. “We teach our players to play the play,” said Patterson at the clinic this spring. “If they know what is coming, they will stop it for a loss.” For example, “In six games [in 2014], Ole Miss motioned down to the inside with a receiver, and every time they ran the same play, a sweep,” added Patterson. “When they ran [the motion], our linebackers knew it was going to be the sweep play toward the motion.”

This deep scouting extended beyond general offense: Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze has a reputation for calling trick plays at opportune times, but Patterson discovered another tell. “Before the bowl game against Ole Miss, we told the defense that if a receiver or back lined up wide and deeper than five yards, be on alert. They were going to run a trick play of some type: a reverse, counter, screen, double pass — something crazy was about to happen.” Patterson was right — and his defense would not be fooled.

Trick plays don’t always work, but it’s rare to see them blown up as dramatically as this one was. As Patterson drily said at the 2015 clinic, “everyone came free.”

These results aren’t flukes. Patterson pushes his team, but he also pushes himself as a playcaller. Each week, the Horned Frogs run a drill in which their defense must deal with two scout team offenses running off plays as fast as possible, which, in turn, means Patterson has to call his defenses roughly every six seconds. It’s draining. “I have walked off the field on Thursday feeling as if I have called a terrible game, and I do not feel ready to call a game on Saturday,” he said at the 2015 clinic. “I go back and watch more film, so that when Saturday rolls around, I am ready to call a defense every six seconds.”

Patterson’s defenses have made short work of essentially every offense they’ve faced over the past decade or so, with one glaring exception: in-state rival Baylor, now a conference foe. Baylor has torched TCU’s defense a few times in the past few years, including Robert Griffin III’s 359-yard, five-touchdown coming-out party in the 2011 season opener, and last season’s come-from-behind 61-58 Baylor victory, in which the Bears racked up 782 yards of offense in overcoming a 21-point fourth-quarter deficit. Baylor’s offense certainly presents TCU with a number of challenges, particularly given how effectively the Bears get their ultra-speedy slot receivers matched against TCU’s safeties on deep shots, which in turn opens up the Bears’ inside runs. If Patterson’s philosophy is to force his opponents to throw deep, Art Briles’s Bears have been only too happy to oblige.

But I don’t think Baylor’s success exposes a fundamental flaw in Patterson’s defenses — and neither does Patterson. “Except for the Baylor game this year, we did well,” Patterson said at this spring’s clinic. “In the last five years, Baylor has won three and we have won two. They beat us twice by three points and once by two points. We blew them out twice. In [last] year’s game, I did a poor job in the last 12 minutes of the ballgame. We lost the game and did not get into the playoffs. We ran out of gas, and the only person I can blame is me.”

Baylor has boasted arguably the best offense in the country over the past four or five years, averaging 600 yards of offense per game over the past two years in particular. Yet if you study the games in which the Bears have been limited, TCU shows up on the opposing sideline more than any other team. In 2013, TCU held Baylor to roughly half its season average in yards per play, and in 2012 the Horned Frogs snagged four interceptions en route to a 49-21 win. That’s not a knock on Baylor’s modus operandi, but a reminder that the evidence is mixed — and that the November 27 matchup between TCU and Baylor, which ranks no. 4 in the preseason AP poll, looms large.

“I do not believe the 4-2-5 defense is the best defense ever made,” Patterson said at the coaching clinic in 2011. “The bottom line is this: Does your defense fit your personnel, and can you fix that defense? When you are in a game and the offense causes you a problem, do you have the answer so you can correct the problem?”

Since Patterson arrived at TCU, he’s found an awful lot of answers to an awful lot of offenses, causing coaches at every level to look to TCU to see how Patterson is trying to solve the riddles posed by today’s schemes. Time will tell whether his defense will continue to stay ahead of offenses, but right now, Patterson’s distilled defense, fluid pass coverages, and uncanny game planning and play calling are as good as any coach’s in football. Not bad for a coach who took the low road. 

Favre, T.O. among 1st-year nominees for Canton

Rock Band 4 is pretty close to being upon us, and soon we will see if the market is ready for the reintroduction of instrument based rhythm games. It’s going to be pretty interesting to see play out, after the genre fell apart a few years ago.

Finally, we know all the songs we will be able to play in the game. Of course, you’ll be able to bring in all your Rock Band 3 DLC into 4, but the game will also come with a base list of songs you can play. That list has now been finalised and you can take a look at it right here.

• .38 Special – Caught Up In You
• 4 Non Blondes – What’s Up?
• Aerosmith – Toys in the Attic
• Arctic Monkeys – Arabella
• Avenged Sevenfold – Hail to the King
• Benjamin Booker – Violent Shiver
• The Black Keys – Fever
• Brad Paisley ft. Keith Urban – Start A Band
• Brandi Carlile – Mainstream Kid
• The Both – Milwaukee
• Cake – Short Skirt/Long Jacket
• The Cure – Friday I’m In Love
• Dark Wheels – V-Bomb
• Disturbed – Prayer
• Dream Theater – Metropolis – Part 1 – “The Miracle And The Sleeper”
• Duck & Cover – Knock ‘Em Down
• Eddie Japan – Albert
• Elvis Presley – Suspicious Minds
• Fall Out Boy – Centuries
• Fleetwood Mac – You Make Loving Fun
• Foo Fighters – The Feast and the Famine
• Gary Clark Jr. – Ain’t Messin ‘Round
• Gin Blossoms – Follow You Down
• Grouplove – Tongue Tied
• Halestorm – I Miss The Misery
• Heart – Kick It Out
• Heaven’s Basement – I Am Electric
• Imagine Dragons – I Bet My Life
• Jack White – Lazaretto
• Jeff Allen – Recession
• Johnny Blazes and the Pretty Boys – Cold Clear Light
• Judas Priest – Halls Of Valhalla
• The Killers – Somebody Told Me
• Lightning Bolt – Dream Genie
• Little Big Town – Little White Church
• Live – All Over You
• Lucius – Turn It Around
• Lynyrd Skynyrd – That Smell
• Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars – Uptown Funk
• The Mighty Mighty Bosstones – The Impression That I Get
• The Outfield – Your Love
• Ozzy Osbourne – Miracle Man
• Tijuana Sweetheart – Pistol Whipped
• Paramore – Still Into You
• The Protomen – Light Up The Night
• Queens of the Stone Age – My God Is The Sun
• Rick Derringer – Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo
• Rush – A Passage To Bangkok
• Scandal – The Warrior
• Scorpions – No One Like You
• Slydigs – Light The Fuse
• Soul Remnants – Dead Black (Heart of Ice)
• Soundgarden – Superunknown
• Spin Doctors – Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong
• St. Vincent – Birth In Reverse
• System of a Down – Spiders
• Van Halen – Panama
• Van Morrison – Brown Eyed Girl
• White Denim – At Night In Dreams
• The Who – The Seeker

They really did seem to stick to that Rock Band name, having a strong core of straight rock tracks, with several supporting genres. I like it. I’m looking forward to this.

Get A Look At The Entire Rock Band 4 Set List

According to an unnamed source, Den of Geek reports Christopher Nolan may be involved Warner Bros.‘s with the latest attempt to bring Katsuhiro Otomo‘s Akira to the screen as a live action, American made film.

If you’re a big fan of the manga series or anime film, feel free to groan.

“We’ve now heard from a source close to Warner Bros. that the studio is planning to make a trilogy of films based on Akira – all the better to do justice to Otomo’s sprawling dystopian sci-fi yarn, perhaps,” writes Den of Geek.

It is unclear if Nolan would be producing or directing the series, but its interesting to see Akira rise from the dead again. The Hughes Brothers, Leonardo DiCaprio and others could not get this film made. It would take someone really passionate about the source material to will it into existence and I really doubt Nolan cares all that much.

But one thing is certain, a feature film version of Akira will happen whether fans want it or not.

Christopher Nolan To Take On Akira As A Trilogy?

Despite previous reports, it appears the Star Wars filmming on Skellig Michael in Ireland will not be reshoots for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but the very first filming on Episode VIII.

According to StarWars7News and local Irish newspaper, Kerry’s Eye, The Force Awakens crew has not been seen, but Episode VIII director Rian Johnson and his crew have been seeing heading for the island and scouting locations.

Fans have also snapped pictures of various tents and tarps being set up in anticipation of production. Shooting was intended to begin today, but was delayed due to rain.

The presence of Star Wars on the island, an UNESCO World Heritage Site, is somewhat contentious. The Irish Ministry for for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltach gave the production certain restrictions in regards to shooting and, no doubt, filming scenes for Episode VIII this early was prompted by unease their presence generated.

Episode VIII is due to be released on May 26th, 2017

Star Wars Episode VIII To Film In Ireland This Week

Blizzard are known for their exuberant cinematic trailers at this point. Ever since they’ve been able to, they infuse their games with stunning cutscenes and especially love their pre-release ultra high quality story trailer. I remember being mesmerised by World of Warcraft’s before it came out.

Well, now it’s Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void‘s turn to get one of those, and unsurprisingly, it is gorgeous. It shows the Protoss going toe to toe with the Zerg, in a pretty well put together battle sequence. Take a look:

The expansion also got a release date of November 10th 2015, meaning that you won’t have to wait too long Star Craft players. That means that the already busy November is going to continue to get busy, for everyone else though.

Starcraft 2 Gets A Cinematic Trailer And Release Date

While speaking with Collider, director Brad Bird offered a few details about the upcoming sequel to his 2004 animated film The Incredibles. He’s three-quarters of the way thought the script, but his story department is already storyboarding sequences. “I’ve got a lot of people that worked on the first one working on it, so we’re all having a good time with it,” he said.

Bird also noted the change in the superhero playing field since the first film’s release. “There were only two other superhero franchises at the time Incredibles came out. One of them was X-Men and the other was Spider-Man, and now there are 400 billion of them and there’s a new superhero movie every two weeks,” he said. “What you don’t want to do is trot over the same turf in the same way everyone else is. So we’re trying to keep it focused in the area that our film was, which was a little bit more about characters and relationships and stuff like that, and see where that takes us.”

Those character definitely went along way toward setting The Incredibles apart. Of course, it’s still a long way from script to screen, so it’ll be interesting to see how the film develops over the next several years.

 

Brad Bird Talks Superhero Turf And Incredibles 2

Despite topping many people’s casting wish list, Edge of Tomorrow star Emily Blunt tells MTV News she has not talked with Marvel Studios about playing Carol Danvers in the upcoming Captain Marvel. “I’ve not had a phone call about it. Not one whisper of Captain Marvel has come my way. Promise,” she said. “I don’t even know who Captain Marvel is!”

It’s a familiar refrain as Blunt has said similar words before, particularly in the wake of her strong role in Edge of Tomorrow, which at times felt like a dry run for Carol. She also previously turned down Black Widow and Peggy Carter citing scheduling problems.

Considering the film is still three years away, its possible Marvel just hasn’t gotten around to talking with anyone about playing Carol. Or maybe, just maybe, the studio doesn’t see what so many fans on the internet see in her.

Emily Blunt Has No Idea Who Captain Marvel Is

Marc Silvestri is a fan-favorite artist, Image co-founder, Top Cow founder, writer, creator and likely the second tallest person in comics (after Dark Horse’s MIke Richardson). He created Witchblade, The Darkness, Cyberforce and many other iconic characters.

So what is he working on? Whatever it is must be a long project and he’s teasing the hell out of it. For the last three or four months Silvestri has been posting random images from a “secret project” that he seems to be spending a lot of time on. The images he’s chosen to share are dark, gothic but don’t give enough away to make a good guess.

I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out to be for one of the big two… but we’ll have to wait and see, and follow Silvestri on Facebook for more clues.

Can you figure out what he’s working on?

Rich seems to know:

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2014/12/01/marc-silvestri-to-draw-batman-monthly-for-dc-comics-after-convergence/

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2014/12/02/marc-silvestri-batman-comic-means-dc/

What Is Marc Silvestri Working On?

According to “a trusted source,” Schmoes Know reports a tease for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story may appear after the credits to December’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

“[Schmoes Know contributor Kristian] Harloff trusts his source and has mentioned their record for news like this is pretty reliable. But as of this posting, the jury is still out,” they write.

Assuming it’s true for the moment, I wonder what form it would take. Something like a trailer, akin to Captain America: The First Avenger‘s tease of the first Avengers film? Or would it be worth the effort of getting Felicity Jones into old age make-up, looking at a toy of the Death Star and saying something like “I remember …”

The whole thing is highly dubious, of course, with Schmoes Know themselves flagging it with a grain of salt. At the same time, it is interesting to consider how modern blockbusters tactics could work with something as solidified as Star Wars. The series has its own grammar, and a post-credit scene would seem to break those rules.

Now, an especially made Rogue One teaser before the movie introducing the whole notion of the standalone series …

Star Wars: Force Awakens Post-Credit Scene?

From the Amazing Houston Comic Con this weekend, comes a rather uncomfortable report from the John Romita Jr/Mark Bagley “Architects Of Pop Culture” panel. These are two comic book creators most associated with Marvel Comics, though Bagley did a stint on Justice League Of America for DC and Romita is now drawing and sometimes writing the Superman monthly comic, though he confirmed at the panel that he is leaving for a yet-unclosed DC project, and he is still working on Schmuggy & Bimbo with Howard Chaykin.

The pair discussed the change of plot-script to full script, how they work with artists, how things have changed over the years, and what you have to do in order to keep long runs of corporate comics keeping going. Bleeding Cool has received full video of the event, filmed by one of the audience members.

We sought it out because a number of people reported the same sequence of events to us at the panel. Beginning the panel in high spirits, the two creators seemed competitive on stage, with plenty of crosstalking, but the problem really began when the two creators expressed differences on aspects of their comics work, Mark Bagley stating that he got into comics by winning a competition, and teasing Romita that he got in through his father. It appeared to be the usual banter, but then things changed.

Bagley had confessed that his daughter had made his granddaughter cry to get some photo reference for Ultimate Spider-Man. Romita called out his grandfather skills, but Bagley stated he hadn’t known anything about it until after.

Romita later had to correct Bagley, when he referenced his character Carnage being “son of Spawn”, rather “son of Venom” telling him “having a grandkid really messes you up”. Bagley responded “having a wife really messes you up.” It’s not particularly clear whose wife Bagley is talking about but Romita suddenly pulled back, went silent and became restrained. When Bagley talked about the difficulty of being able to express Carnage’s emotions with the costume designs, the following happened:

Romita snarks: “because Carnage needs so many emotionally important moments, the way he’s sad.”

Bagley: “My point is if you’re going to do artwork you want to have something to focus on. You’re a real pain in the ass, you know that?”

Romita: “Which is exactly why I’m here, you’d be boring if I wasn’t a pain in the ass.”

Bagley: “I’m so not. Your wife didn’t think I was boring.”

Romita. “Wow. She would beat the shit out of you. She’s much bigger than you.”

Bagley: “I’ve never met his wife, so…”

Romita: “That was very good, I’m impressed.”

Bagley: “So was your wife.”

Romita: “I’m thinking, I don’t want to start picking on your wife, she’s a sweetheart.”

Bagley: “She is a sweetheart. And she has guns.”

That was the end. Romita suddenly moved back to talking about the Hobgoblin design but he seems visibly pensive, he’s no longer happy to be on stage.

There is one last interruption of Bagley when a question is asked of them both and Bagley starts to answer. Romita jumps in “You want me to talk first, so you can make fun of me? I’m thinking about something about your wife.”

But Romita is angry. He is keeping it together for the panel. An attempt at humour it may have been, but it totally soured things. Romita was visibly angered by this comment and, if it wasn’t for the restraints of the panel, it looked to members of the audience like it may well got a lot worse.

Bagley’s subsequent attempt to walk things back by saying “I’ve never even met his wife, so I can’t say” doesn’t seem to mollify things. When Bagley interrupts Romita later, Romita responds “By the way, you’re a pain in the ass.” But the joking tone has gone. Romita stops even looking at Bagley for a while, save for short interjections, “He didn’t mean what he said. He’s going to be in trouble for it later. Don’t start your car without thinking about it.”

Later, when Bagley talks about how he sees Romita’s work method, Romita interrupts “if I say something that’s counter to what you say, are you going to get mad?”

Bagley: “I’m not going to get mad at all.”

Romita: “Are you going to call me any names?”

Bagley: “I haven’t called you one.”

Mark seems amused that this situation is even happening. Romita… is not amused. A Rubicon has been crossed. The panel continued for another half hour, and it did recover especially during the Q&A, but the banter had gone. And as the panel finished, so had Romita.

Don’t expect them together on a panel again any time soon.

Mark Bagley Assures John Romita Jr That He Has Never Met His Wife – Amazing Houston Comic Con

The success of Felix ‘PewDiePie’ Kjellberg is staggering. His dominance in the YouTube space is massive and his impossibly growing audience has raised him up to be probably the most watched human being on the internet.,

To that, PewDiePie has become the first ever person to cross the 10 billion views threshold on the video platform. In a world with 7.1 billion people in it…well that’s a lot.

His dominance of the platform can’t be overstated either. He absolutely dwarves the second most watched user, Chilian comedian HolaSoyGerman who has 2 billion views.

And as always, I’d love to say, well done to the guy. His popularity is staggering, but more power to him. He’s good at what he does and he resonates with his audience. You can’t blame that

 

PewDiePie Has Surpassed 10 Billion Views On YouTube

TVLine reports UnREAL actor Freddie Stroma has joined the season six cast of HBO‘s Game of Thrones as Samwell Tarly’s brother Dickon.

In season five, Sam was last seen leaving Castle Black, with Wildling Gilly and her baby in tow, at Jon Snow’s behest to become a Maester. He probably also didn’t want to see his dear Sam stabbed in the back by the less noble factions in the Night’s Watch.

The Maesters train at the Citadel in Oldtown, which brings Sam near his father’s seat in Horn Hill. Shortly after season five ended, casting sheets went out including an unnamed “cruel father” and various family members that many suspected would be the Tarlys. You may also remember that Sam and his father, Randyll Tarly, do not get along. Despite being the firstborn, Sam was stripped of his claim and ordered to take the black because of Randyll’s distaste for him. Dickon is the replacement heir.

In the novel series, A Song of Ice and Fire, Sam is last seen taking up his duties at the Citadel, so Tarly family life, and Dickon, will be completely new material for the show.

Freddie Stroma Joins Game of Thrones As Sam’s Brother

While Marvel Studios continues to redefine its status in the Disney empire, actor Chris Evans clarifies his stance on working with them.

Following work on Captain America: The Winter Solider, the actor said he might retire from acting at the end of his Marvel contract and focus on directing. While talking with Collider about his directorial debut, Before We Go, Evans’s clarified his position. “If Marvel wants me they got me,” he said. “I’ve never had such a relationship where you have such — I mean look at my resume, I’m used to being on set being like, ‘Ah is this movie gonna be terrible?’ Marvel just can’t stop making great movies, they do it in their sleep. It’s wonderful directors and producers and actors and scripts, and it’s like a playground as an actor.”

Evans’ contract expires after the two-part Avengers sequel, Infinity War, but it remains to be seen if he will renew his contract. With the change of authority at Marvel Studios, a very lucrative deal could be arranged for the actor. Of course, rule one of negotiation is never to let the other side know you’re excited.

Also, this makes me wonder about the possibility of legacy. When Evans finally decides to hang up the shield, will Marvel recast Steve Rogers or will Anthony Mackie‘s Sam Wilson — or Sebastian Stan‘s Bucky — take his place as Captain America?

Chris Evans Says “If Marvel Wants Me, They Got Me” For More Movies

I’ll be honest. I loved Star Wars toys when I was a boy. I’m sure like so many of you, it inspired an appetite for collectibles that I still enjoy to this day. Sadly, my love of Star Wars toys did not survive into the 21st Century — granted, I did get the Black Series IG-88 recently.

But that may have more to do with a certain fan video than IG-88’s presence in Darth Vader’s cadre of bounty hunters.

Since the Star Wars toys are so tied to the experience of the films, retailers are taking full advantage of our nostalgia with the Force Friday promotion for the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens line of merchandise. People camped out to buy things, like that slick Sphero remote controlled BB-8 and Black Series Force Awakens characters. Granted, some people encountered empty shelves when let into stores at midnight.

I wish I could share the enthusiasm, but I’ve been burned in the past by buying Star Wars characters before I saw them in a film, so, yeah … I’ll sit back for now.

Luckily, some movie news (of a sort) can be sifted out of the mountain of merchandise. For instance, IGN interviewed a Kylo Ren action figure with a soundchip. Take a listen to Adam Driver do his best at reading discontented lines in an audio both. Of course, feel free to avoid as there’s a very slight potential spoiler at the end:

Meanwhile, Anthony Daniels — long laboring under that C-3PO costume — tells The Guardian that secrecy around the film has been “beyond ludicrous.” He continues, “When I got the script, it was typed in black on paper of the deepest red so you couldn’t photocopy it. I got a hangover just reading it.” The actor was also scolded after he teased meeting an unnamed actor on the set of The Force Awakens. “Look, I know perfectly well not to tell you now what I’m giving you for a Christmas present because it would spoil the surprise,” he quipped. “And these films are all about opening the box on Christmas Day.”

At the same time, he praised the collaborative nature of director J.J. Abrams, which he says was a sharp contrast from creator and prequel director George Lucas. “[George] made decisions that I believe might have been better discussed with other people. J.J. is more collaborative. He likes to listen.”

Imperial Dispatch: Kylo Ren “Speaks”, Anthony Daniels Talks “Beyond Ludicrous” Secrecy

By Devon Sanders

I adore the comics medium.

Adore it.

Comics asks  you to contemplate of an idea, then asks you to hold it for a month or longer, re-examine it and move on. Comics reading takes thought, commitment, patience and above all else, an appreciation of art and the written word.

That said, no comic right now is a greater celebration of the comics medium than DC Comics’ Prez, one of the best and most timely things I’ve ever read.

Seriously.

Ever.

It is the one book I look forward to month in, month out.

Prez is a bit of an outlier when it comes to what we know as a “DC comic.” Prez is political satire set in a future where there are no superheroes. Not a one. No Batman. No Superman. The lone mention of anything remotely superhero-ish is a cable news TV program scrolling the announcement of who’s set to direct “Aquaman IV” as cable news pundits discuss ridiculous hypotheticals over the issues at hand.  Prez is, spiritually, a Vertigo comic. This Prez, Beth Ross will become president in a future where voting for President on social media is the height of apathy. She exists in a world where going viral is king and getting your ponytail stuck in a corndog fryer during a presidential election can have major consequences for America. In Beth Ross, we’re given a protagonist we want to see win simply because, in this future, the bar has been set so low you can’t wait to see her raise it, even if just an inch. She is the best of what comics offers, she is hope.

And that speaks something to what Prez is at its core, just good comics storytelling. Like most great comics sagas, our hero’s journey begins with the death of a parent. The future she inherits is one where she and her father crowdfund through social media in the hope of continuing his healthcare. It’s a goal that couldn’t sustain him. She lives in a future many are living in right now.

As sure as two bullets awakened something dark inside a young Bruce Wayne in a Gotham alleyway, the death of her father leads Beth Ross to ask something greater of herself. She will try harder. She will ask this of everyone she meets. She will care. She will draw others towards her light.

The odds will be against her but she will fight for change despite the evidence going before her. This character with deep roots to Joe Simon, co-creator of Captain America, will ask more of you as a reader. Writer Mark Russell has created in this comic, a character of much consideration. In the world in which she lives, we’re given so much to think about and even more importantly, questions to ask of it. In a great bit of what could be meta-commentary, a character from DC Comics’ past reaches out and tells her that basically she owes no one anything and to go out and shake things up. This is how Alan Moore approached Swamp Thing and this how I see Russell on Prez.

You can see the passion and excitement for world building in artist Ben Caldwell’s every line. His Beth Ross is the definition of semiotics. When I asked Caldwell about Beth’s racial identity, he said, “Prez was only described as having blonde hair, a ponytail and thrift store punk style but I’m all about semiotics and not eager for a “greatwhitehope” or Barbie comparisons. I went the “everyman” route, which, in 2036, wouldn’t not come in a default white setting. So, I made her indeterminate. Ditto for her dad.”

Basically, the future is now, again.

In Prez’s world, factoids and advertisements are constantly floating in mid-air via digital billboards to the point where anything of substance barely has time to register or be scrutinized. In the world Caldwell creates, this becomes just as much a character as Gotham is to Batman. It’s an amazing thing to behold and deserves more eyes upon it.

Here’s what it comes down to: we throw our support behind the things we want to see. I want to see more thoughtful and considered comics. Prez is exactly this. I adore this book. I want more of this book. I want this book to succeed.

Prez is scheduled to be two 6-issue series and the fact this comic is being released during a presidential election cycle is not lost upon anyone. Prez is a smart and thought-provoking read. I believe it is the most necessary thing to come from a major comics publisher in very long time.

My sincere hope is that DC Comics knows they’ve got something incredibly special in Prez and allows for the long game. I truly believe Prez will be something people will be talking about for years to come.

Devon Sanders has a fantastic idea for a Go-Bots reboot. Seriously; he can be found on Twitter at amazingly, @devonsanders.

Why DC’s Prez Is The Most Necessary Mainstream Comic Being Published Right Now

Yesterday Drew Faraci broke the story that the Marvel Creative Committee has been disbanded at Marvel Studios.

It was a story I was also working on at the time and damn him for beating me to it. But with a campus full of sources and a variety of different takes on events, it takes time to parse out what is spin and wherein lies the truth.

It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that Drew’s sources appear closer to Kevin Feige‘s group. So here’s what I’ve been hearing and putting together.

Earlier, Bleeding Cool told you how Avengers: Age Of Ultron was considered a failure at Disney.

Let’s first talk about what we actually know and is part of the public record.The Marvel Creative Committee for years have been considered the caretakers of the Marvel brand. It’s publicly known that the MCC worked on more than just the films, they give creative advice on all of Marvel’s wider projects, from comic book events to games to toys to websites to television shows.. to films. you can readily look and find how Marvel has always touted collaboration as the key to their success. Not unlike other Disney companies Pixar, who follow the exact same model. I’ve always heard plenty of successful plot ideas, iconic moments and executions of characters have been attributed to Creative Committee’s collaboration with leaders of each division such as Feige. And their work, and influence within Marvel, along with creative department heads such as Feige, Head of TV Jeph Loeb and Marvel EIC Axel Alonso been supported by wholeheartedly Marvel CEO Isaac Perlmutter, because they have led to great success and – more importantly – profitability.

I’ve heard conflicting reports that for, some say six months, others a year to two years, Feige has been ignoring MCC sessions and has been methodically cutting the committee out.

“Suggestions” is the operative word here, Feige as the head of Marvel Studios has always made the final creative decisions. But Avengers: Age Of Ultron brought things to a head.

Full disclosure, I heard rumours long before the release of Avengers: Age Of Ultron, that extensive and expensive re-shoots on the movie could have been avoided if Feige had been receptive to notes. I couldn’t get verification at the time, but, in retrospect, the tea leaves seem to have fallen into place.

Could it be that Feige doesn’t want visible second guessing used by the powers that be at Disney – especially when it’s right?

Could those notes have saved millions of dollars?

Why else would the public finger-pointing be coming from Feige’s camp, other than to deflect blame in an attempt to amass power, curry public favour and create a bogeyman? Especially one who is as private as Isaac Perlmutter and won’t speak in public, even to defend himself.

It’s no secret that I’ve been no fan of Permutter on this site, but extensive and avoidable re-shoots? That’s exactly the kind of Hollywood expenditure that would raise the ire of any executive – especially Ike.

So it seems that this has all come to a head. Despite evidence to the contrary it looks like Feige managed to blame Perlmutter and anyone else outside of his division for any failure or mishap.

And so he was able to shut it down. It was the opening salvo in the war that last week saw Feige and Marvel Studios’ films taken out of Perlmutter’s purview, in favour of Disney.

The bigger question, is how did Feige manage to strong-arm Disney into this decision? Because it has left him, far more secure on “Feige Island” with less inconvenient critical voices. If Feige doesn’t answer to Marvel, who does he answer to?

As a former employee to Marvel’s film division said to me “if you want a target on your back, just say no to Kevin.”

Last week’s move was not the end. It was not even the beginning of the end. But maybe, just maybe, it’s the end of the beginning…

Welcome To Feige Island – Why Kevin Feige Canned The Marvel Creative Committee Of Dan Buckley, Joe Quesada And Brian Bendis

The split between Marvel CEO Isaac Perlmutter and Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige has seen the film side of Marvel Studios moved away from Perlmutter’s purview. But what triggered it?

I understand from a Disney sources that, though the two have been at loggerheads for a while, it came to a head over one project, Avengers: Age Of Ultron.

Because, although the film made a lot of money and got okay reviews, it didn’t make enough money. Or get as good reviews as the first. People, basically, didn’t go back for seconds.

And as a result, at Disney, it has been dubbed a failure. Which enabled Kevin Feige to use it leverage to push out Isaac Perlmutter, without whom there wouldn’t even be a Marvel Studios. And forced the disbanding of the Marvel Creative Committee a few months ago.

But since the initial leak of Marvel Studios absorption into Disney, there’s been a rash of stories leaked about the evils of Isaac Perlmutter and the ineptitude of the Marvel Creative Committee, which almost seems like a calcuated effort.

It’s enough to leave anyone with a discerning eye for this kind of thing to wonder if there’s a reason for the active character assassination?

Oh look, I’ve got two of them. More to come. Much more.

Avengers: Age Of Ultron Was Considered A Failure At Disney – And What Happened Next

A couple of weeks ago, you could pick up copies of Marvel Premiere #20 for $2 to $10 on eBay without difficulty.

Yesterday it was announced on Deadline that Misty Knight would appear in the upcoming Luke Cage TV series to be played by Simone Missick as the semi-cyborg private detective.

And suddenly lots of copies of her first appearance going spare on eBay were snapped up, and some withdrawn by sellers realising what they had on their hands…

Some people are now asking a lot more…

 

Speculator Corner: Misty Knight And Marvel Premiere #20

When we reported on cable outlet Epix‘s new alliance with streaming service Hulu, I mentioned the service was getting closer to the diversity and quality Netflix was known for in years past. Well, once you try to excuse the presence of commercial interruptions during forty-year-old episodes of The Brady Bunch. But the service has just announced a new ad-free tier … with a few catches.

Going ad-free will cost $12 a month versus the standard $8 fee and certain series — including ABC’s Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder, Grey’s Anatomy, Once Upon a Time, Agents of Shield, the NBC series Grimm and Fox’s The New Girl — will contain what Variety calls “a 15-second preroll ad and followed by a 30-second post-roll ad.” Hulu CEO Mike Hopkins says these exceptions were unavoidable as those seven programs “have other commitments that they couldn’t free them up for a complete commercial-free offering.”

Though a little pricier, I suppose I could finally discontinue my disc-by-mail Netflix subscription so I can enjoy The Flash and Law and Order: Special Victims Unit in commercial-free peace. Provided I choose to pay the premium for a feature Netflix already offers at the lower price point.

In other streaming news, Variety also reports Roku devices made between May 2008 and May 2011 will no longer be supported by the company. If you happen to own, say, a Roku XD, you will no longer be able find new channels, receive firmware updates or hope for an update to the antiquated Netflix menu system on that particular device.

According to a statement, the company said, “Over time, our channel partners have also chosen to focus their development efforts on the latest generation of Roku streaming players.” They also cite hardware limitations of the older models as part of the move.

The devices will presumably still connect to existing channels, which means users are not necessarily compelled to upgrade. The company is offering a 20% discount on its current models to owners of the old devices. So, if you gave your mother a Roku seven years ago, it might be something to consider come the holiday shopping season.

Streaming: Hulu Ad-Free Service Announced; Support Ended for Older Rokus

I’ve been lucky enough to get hand’s on with Star Wars: Battlefront, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it. I think it is an experience people should get some play time with before writing it off as a ‘Battlefield skin’.

Luckily, you’ll get the chance to do that in the upcoming beta for the game. It was announced the title would get the trial period as ‘a technical test’ in early October on the EA Blog. During the period, you’ll be able to play the 40 man Hoth based Walker Assualt, Survival Missions on Tatooine and a newly announced mode Drop Zone.

It is said more details will come out in the coming weeks, but right now, there is no mention of how you get into this Bbeta or if it will be completely open. We will have to see I suppose. I’ll keep you updated.

Star Wars: Battlefront Beta Coming In Early October

Who will sit the Seastone Chair? I’ve been asking that question since season four of HBO‘s Game of Thrones ended and the series moved into the events of the fourth book in George R. R. Martin‘s A Song of Ice and Fire series, A Feast for Crows. In the novel, the throne of Theon Greyjoy’s homeland is up for grabs; with his uncle Euron, known as “The Crow’s Eye,” a lead contender. It comes to a head at an event known as the Kingsmoot, in which damp men shout at each other.

After which, any chapter told from the point of view of an Ironborn — Theon, his sister, Euron, further members of House Greyjoy — features the phrase “sit the Seastone Chair” as leadership of the Ironborn is hotly contested.

When Thrones announced its season five additions, Euron and the rest of the Ironborn were conspicuous in their absence, suggesting the storyline might be dropped from the series. But sources tell Watchers on the Wall that Danish actor Pilou Asbæk will play the Crow’s Eye in the upcoming sixth season. According the report, Absæk was “spotted shooting today with the cast around Ballintoy Harbour, in a scene that involved a crowd cheering for Euron.” Which would appear to confirm that the Ironborn story will play out in the new season.

I became endlessly fascinated by the storyline as it appears to be superfluous for most of the book. In the end, it both serves as a microcosm of the problems in Westeros and offers a possible answer to a question long asked about Daenarys in Slaver’s Bay.

The same sources claim Gemma Whelan‘s Yara and another Greyjoy, a priest known as the Damphair, were also spotted on set, but there was no sign of Euron’s brother Victarion. Watchers on the Wall maintains the character has been deleted from the story.

Games of Thrones returns in Spring, 2016.

Rumor: Game of Thrones Finds Its Euron Greyjoy?

I understand that Marvel divisions all had meetings a week ago, on Tuesday afternoon regarding the change in who Kevin Feige reports to at Marvel/Disney, from CEO Isaac Perlmutter, to Disney’s Alan Horn.

At the time, it was intended for the news to hit the wires that day. But it didn’t. Instead it took Hollywood Reporter six days to get it out there. And they were way ahead of anyone.

The bafflement at Marvel is, however, how long it took for this to break. Because, it seems, there’s so much anger and ire over this – and other- changes. It seems that too many people are afraid of breaking rank.

Though “wouldn’t happen if Nikki Finke was still doing this” I have heard. Though Nikki is now contractually obliged not to, and is very busy with her fictitious Hollywood Dementia site.

But now that the dam has burst, expect all sorts of big changes at Marvel to start flooding out. In fact, this article is just a tiny part of what’s coming.

However, in the rush to report on the importance of Isaac Perlmutter to what Marvel and Marvel Studios are now, and it is a very important role, no doubt, it is worth considering a number of other people.

There was David Maisel who both put the Marvel Studios financing deal together, and then the Disney buyout deal that followed.

And there was Alan Fine who also joined Toy Biz before the buyout and the bankruptcy, rising to CEO of Marvel and leading Marvel’s Creative Committee. Between David, Alan and Ike, they created what is Marvel Studios.

Avi Arad, who founded Toy Biz with Perlmutter, and who with Ike wrested the bankrupt company from the hands of both Carl Icahn and Ron Perelman, and whose role on developing Marvel movies with other studios cannot be undervalued.

Then there are people like Joe Quesada, Dan Buckley, Brian Bendis, on the Creative Committee who joined up the various aspects of Marvel together into some kind of sellable, exploitable whole that prioritised the Marvel Studios properties at the publisher. And Jeph Loeb who saw the TV shows add to that mesh of a Marvel Cinematic Universe.

And members of the brain trust, the creators who helped bring their stories through the system, such as Brian Bendis, Mark Millar and Ed Brubaker, and who formed much of what the Marvel movies actually are.

It’s not to dilute what Perlmutter did, and the massive risks he took that paid for the company. But it takes a village to raise a cinematic universe…

…but all of that happened before Kevin Feige came along.

 

Perlmutter/Feige Split Is Only The Start Of Big Marvel Changes

This November, fan favorite writer Warren Ellis takes on one of the most popular British Icons, James Bond. Ellis talked with Byron Brewer about taking on the adventures of 007 and his license to kill. Cover art by Stephen Mooney, Gabriel Hardman and Francesco Francavilla.

BYRON BREWER: Describe your idea of the James Bond character, the fellow we will be meeting in Dynamite’s new comic series. Who is he to you, the writer?

WARREN ELLIS: The blunt instrument of British foreign policy. That’s the key to Bond. A walking weapon and a psychologist’s nightmare, living high on casino winnings and existing as the walking wounded, a mass of scars and losses, operating as the gun of a diminished and prideful country. No belief in much of what he does, as a gun doesn’t have politics or faith – until it becomes personal. He can be told something is unjust, and go through the motions. He can find something personally offensive and act instantly. Reluctant until something pierces his thick, callous hide and the castle walls around his emotional core.

BB: Will you be adapting previous material by Ian Fleming or others for this first Bond book or will these be original stories?

WE: No. This is an original work, produced under the watchful eye of the Ian Fleming estate.

BB: You, I believe, are working from the novels. What novel is your favorite and why? Which stands above the rest?

WE: Objectively, MOONRAKER or THUNDERBALL or FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE are probably the best books. But I have a great fondness for DR. NO and YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE is possibly my favorite because it shows Bond at his most lost and broken.

BB: Most fans are familiar with Bond from the films, but that version is legion. But will his familiar cinematic trappings (some from the novels themselves) – the gadgets and Q, the Walther PPK and Aston Martin, a martini “shaken, not stirred” – be a part of your book?

WE: Not all of those things. Because, as you say, not all of them are from the novels, and this is very specifically Ian Fleming’s Bond. And Ian Fleming’s Bond does not drink the Vesper after CASINO ROYALE – he’s actually a bourbon man. The gadgets are not strongly present in Bond’s toolkit beyond the general utilities of spycraft. The Bond of the books is mostly often a counterspy, relying on his wits – one commentator noted that part of the appeal of the books is that he is one man with soft shoes and a small gun. The updated Walther is there, of course, as is Major Boothroyd, a character based on the real Geoffrey Boothroyd, a man so eccentric that I just had to use him.

BB: Can you tell us about the first arc of your book, VARGR, and what that name entails?

WE: VARGR is an Old Norse word meaning variously wolf, evildoer or destroyer. The story begins with Bond avenging the death of 006, and then having to take over that agent’s workload, which involves a trip to Europe to dispose of a small, nimble drug-production operation that is moving tainted narcotics into Britain. This involves speaking with a CIA informant, a medical technology mogul called Slaven Kurjak. And that’s where it all goes wrong for Bond.

BB: You once said, if memory serves, that James Bond is one of the only existing characters you would be interested in taking on. What makes the spy so appealing?

WE: He’s one of those British icons, and that alone made the job very hard to refuse. It’s a little like Doctor Who – a world-famous character, deeply embedded in British culture and speaking to a certain kind of British attitude. Not the misogyny and racism, I hasten to say. There’s an old saying: “The sun will never set on the British Empire, because God doesn’t trust the bastards in the dark.” That speaks to a certain sense of us: we may not be a world power, we may not command continents and air strikes and invasions, but we like to think that nobody is better at sneaking into your room in the middle of the night and stabbing you in the heart. A British fantasy of quiet, ruthless competence.

BB: Lastly, will your run on Bond feature any of his famed supporting cast, and might you be planning to introduce new ones?

WE: You can’t do Bond without M, Moneypenny and Bill Tanner. And Major Boothroyd. I haven’t decided on the second volume yet, but I’d like to work the Felix Leiter of the novels in there.

Warren Ellis Talks James Bond, How His Series Will Differ From The Movies And What Vargr Means

I’ve been doing some number crunching, courtesy of those ICV2 sales estimates. And while they are just estimates, and only include North American stores (and there hangs a tale) they do provide some consistency.

So, for the top 300 comic book sales of July (and just single comic books here, not collections), Image Comics, the third biggest publisher in the comic book direct market behind Marvel and DC Comics brought in an estimate total of 700,000 comic book sales, spread amongst 45 titles that made the Top 300.

Now, this doesn’t include twenty-odd titles outside the top 300. Or collected sales. Or digital sales. Or bookstore sales. Or convention sales. Or other available outlets.

In comparison, Star Wars, the line of comics based upon the Lucasfilm property owned by Marvel’s parent company Disney and publisher by Marvel, has been running since the beginning of the year. And their titles brought in an estimated total sale of 620,000 comics, split between Star Wars, Darth Vader, Kanan, Land, Princess Leia, and repeated printings of those titles.

However the average Image Comics sale price is $3.50. While the average Star Wars price is $4.20. Bringing in an estimates $2,450,000 for Image and $2,650,000 for Star Wars.

Now when it comes to trade collections, Image Comics dwarfs Star Wars, in that Marvel’s Star Wars line don’t have actually have any yet. And, as we say, Image Comics dominates bookstores with its collections as well. And while Image Comics has eschewed retailer exclusive variant covers, Marvel’s Star Wars has made a business model of it (one which DC’s Dark Knight is currently emulating).

But right now, under these very exacting parameters, it appears that Star Wars’ line might either be, or about to be, the third biggest publisher of single comics in the direct market. As it stands an extra issue of The Walking Dead here or there would reverse that. And Image have plenty of exciting comics to come. But Marvel has the movie…

But for those looking at Marvel dwarfing the marketshare of DC recently, if it wasn’t for Lucasfilm, they may well be closer to level pegging when it comes to superheroes.

And it’s also worth considering that, for all those sales, Star Wars comics writers Kieron Gillen and Jason Aaron should still do better, financially, from their Image Comics titles.

 

 

 

Could Star Wars Become The Third Biggest Publisher In Comic Book Stores?

After years of evading, avoiding and possibly dreading a return to Ghostbusters, actor Bill Murray — the scene-stealing Doctor Peter Venkman — will return to the franchise as a new character in Sony Pictures‘ upcoming film starring Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy under the direction of Paul Feig.

While talking with New York Magazine’s Vulture about the subject, Murray said, “I like those girls a lot … I mean, I really do. They are tough to say no to. And Paul is a real nice fellow.” He added that it was not an easy decision, but he worried not making an appearance in the film might color people’s perception of the endeavor. “Maybe somebody would write a bad review or something, thinking there was some sort of disapproval [on my part],” he explained.

Rumors suggest Murray will play a man out to debunk the new Ghostbusters team, not unlike his onscreen adversary Walter Peck, played memorably by William Atherton, in the 1984 original film. It remains to be seen, however, if this will be the case. At any rate, his part is described as a cameo role. Co-creator Dan Aykroyd is also rumored to appear.

The new Ghostbusters comes to theaters July 16th, 2016.

Bill Murray Talks New Ghostbusters Cameo

Yahoo! Movies has revealed the first image of Michael Fassbender as Callum Lynch, the character he’ll play in 20th Century Fox‘s Assassin’s Creed, based on the Ubisoft game series.

According to Yahoo, “Lynch discovers he is a descendant of the secret Assassins society through unlocked genetic memories that allow him to relive the adventures of his ancestor, Aguilar, in 15th Century Spain. After gaining incredible knowledge and skills he’s poised to take on the oppressive Knights Templar in the present day.”

Well, that certainly sounds like Assassin’s Creed. I’m a big fan of the series, even completing all the content in the most recent game, Assassin’s Creed Unity. I’ve been unsure of a movie from the beginning because video game adaptations tend to lose the spirit of the game and are often made cheaply.

And that’s not counting the ones made by Uwe Boll.

But since Fassbender signed up to star and produce, the film gained some pedigree, attracting Fassbender’s Macbeth director Justin Kurzel and co-star Marion Cotillard. Michael Kenneth Williams and Ariane Labed also star. It seems like they’re taking this seriously. If it works, the concept is dependable — and not necessarily cast dependent — for a reliable franchise.

Will Assassin’s Creed break the curse of video game adaptations? We’ll find out when it’s released on December 21st, 2016.

Assassin’s Creed Michael Fassbender Revealed