I was, until quite recently, completely unaware that the 2005 film Fantastic Four was not the first live film adaptation of the superheroes. The first was a low-budget film that was completed in 1994 but was never released. It is, by all accounts, a not terribly great B movie.

My favorite part of the article was this:

Speculation arose that the film had never been intended for release, but had gone into production solely as a way for [producer Bernd] Eichinger to retain rights to the characters; Marvel Comics’ Stan Lee in 2005 said this was the case, insisting, “The movie was never supposed to be shown to anybody,” and adding that the cast and crew had been left unaware. [Producer Roger] Corman and Eichinger had dismissed Lee’s claims, with the former stating in the same article, “We had a contract to release it, and I had to be bought out of that contract” by Eichinger.

I just really love the idea of slapping together a movie based on a high profile license just to maintain that license.

Amanda Holpuch, The Guardian, on gay characters in comics:

This year, finally, the industry embraced [gay] readers as mainstream publishers offered prominent gay plot lines. Archie Comics’ first gay character, Kevin Keller, was married in January; Marvel’s X-man Northstar was married in May; and DC Comics reintroduced the Green Lantern as gay in June.

Great piece.

Just recently finished this graphic novel. Very much enjoyed it. Especially recommended to anyone who enjoys lots and lots of world-building. Oh, and plus, female comic author and artist and female protagonist.

Alison Flood, The Guardian:

From The Epic of Gilgamesh to Infinite Jest via Dante, Dangerous Liaisons and Dubliners, the western canon is set to be turned into a 1,344-page, three-volume graphic novel.

The ambitious project from New York press Seven Stories is being hailed as the “graphic publishing literary event of the year”. Each of the 189 works of literature covered is being interpreted by a comics artist, with 130 illustrators contributing to the project including Robert Crumb, Will Eisner and Hunt Emerson. The first volume of The Graphic Canon – “From The Epic of Gilgamesh to Shakespeare to Dangerous Liaisons” – is out in April, to be followed by the second (“Kubla Khan to the Brontë Sisters to The Picture of Dorian Gray”) in July and the third (“From Heart of Darkness to Hemingway to Infinite Jest”) in October.

My original reaction to this was going to be “what the dickens,” but then I realized what I did there and shot myself.

Kelly Thompson’s list of “13 fantastic female creators in comics that you should be watching, reading, and supporting.” Some really great looking stuff on this list — warm up your credit cards, everybody.

(Via Bryan Gyg Jebavy.)

Fantastic. Explains a lot about Generation Y in general. Also, now’s a good a time as any to remind people to whip out their copies of Generations and Millenials Rising.