Well it took me a while to remember to get this thread going. I always think it's nice to know a little about each other and so this is the thread to give everyone a brief insight into who you are. If you want, you can even include a picture to scare the natives! Any uncalled for or off topic posting will be removed from the thread.

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Hi, my name is Bill and i'm an alcoholic.. oops wrong board... *takes a deep breath and starts again* ...Hi, my name is Bill and I am a 3*mumble* year old comic fan from Scotland and one of the poor saps ponying up the cash for the venture you are currently reading. For my sins and to pay for my rent (and the boards upkeep) I am a Systems Analyst and Developer for a multinational banking group. I am the youngest of seven kids and spent much of my childhood trying to prevent my brother (a year older than me but no wiser) from swapping my comics at school for stuff. I enjoyed a lot of comics as a kid and teenager, mostly british marvel releases (but I did get the odd import which were very rare in those days), Eagle, 2000AD, Roy of the Rovers, Victor, Warlord and lots more that have since gone the way of the Dodo. I parted ways with the comic world in my late teens and only really got back into them in a big way in the past couple of years, mainly because I have found them to be a great inspiration to create my photomanips and got me started doing some digital coloring too. My artwork can be found here in the Ink & Paint Club and on display over at Comics2Film's Digital Concept Gallery. It also rekindled my interest in writing and RPGs of which the Board's Guardians of Twilight is a current fave.

Since I got back into comics, I don't tend to buy individual monthly books much these days although I have been tempted by a few of the limited series on the go at the moment. I mostly buy TPBs(Trades) and collected works. My current favourite reads from the House of Ideas are Fantastic 4, Exiles, Ultimate X-Men and Weapon X, Spectacular Spiderman and Avengers. From the Distinguished Competition I think my faves are JLA, Fables, Y-The Last Man and Wildcats. I got just got into Crossgen as they were cancelling most of their books (typical eh) which was a shame as I enjoyed their 'no traditional superhero' universes, especially Crux, Meridian and Ruse. I recently got TPB #3 and #4 of Sojourn and think I have found a new fave. I would also highly recommend Rex Mundi from Image if you are looking for something a little different. My favourite place to browse comics is Forbidden Planet in Glasgow, but the Waterstones and Borders stores both have decent sections too (and you can read the books you don't fancy buying over a coffee there too heh).

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Well I think that's enough about me, let's hear a little or a lot about all of you.

Ok, here we go. It's our own version of Wheel of Fortune! (Hangman in the basic sense.)

The winner of each round starts a new round and gives a clue to their puzzle (ie:Movie, Animal, Place, etc.)

You get 100 points for each consonant you guess correctly. (If you guess "S" and there are 5 "S"s, you get 500 points.)
Vowels cost 50 points. (You have to pay for the vowel even if the vowel is not in the puzzle.)
If you guess a letter, and that letter is not in the puzzle (or has already been guessed), you must wait for 2 new letters to be guessed by other players before you can have another turn.

For guessing the correct answer, you get 500 points and the chance to run the next round of play.

So let's begin....

Your clue:
Place


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The pic I did for Chanty's character Firefly is up on display at Comics2Film.com. Check it out and let me know what you think

http://www.comics2film.com/DCG/DispArt.p...965&f_ssn=

Looks like our American members will soon be able to pick up their favourite marvel books regularly at their local 7-11 Check out the full story here

Reported: 29/03/2004 Source: Newsarama

RODI SPILLS IDENTITY DISC SECRETS

Thanks to its name, it’s already got some controversy (or notoriety, thanks to a switch from Sinister Six to Identity Disc, which is close to DC’s Identity Crisis, debuting the same month)) attached to it, but still, Marvel’s Identity Disc has a compelling through line – take six of the roughest, more street-level super-powered thugs (or worse) the Marvel Universe has to offer, and set them on a mission together. Their target – a disc at the core of Advanced Idea Mechanics (AIM)’s most secure headquarters that has all the heroes’ secrets.

The six bad guys: Deadpool, Juggernaut, the Vulture, Sandman, Bullseye and Sabretooth. The writer: Robert Rodi.

First off, sure, there are six, for lack of a better word, convicts on what’s clearly a suicide run, but there’s no Lee Marvin to bring them together. So don’t call it the Dirty Half-Dozen. Rodi has his own comparison. “It’s more like a Usual Suspects setup, in that the six criminals are recruited by a shadowy uber-criminal for the job,” the writer said. “Or so it seems. Not everyone is convinced that they’re not being played. But they learn pretty quickly -- in the first issue, in fact -- that refusing to play along is a very, very deadly mistake.”

Their target, as revealed in the solicitations is the goldmine for anyone who’s had the crap kicked out of them by Spider-Man, or any other costumed hero in the Marvel Universe. It’s a database of secret identities, home addresses, known relative, medical histories, and even credit records of every costumed operative in America. Bookstore purchases are probably on there too…just figure out how much any Joe Blow on the can find out about you with an Internet hookup, and you get the idea.

Yeah, yeah…we here you – “but if this disc does exist, why haven’t we heard of it before, or, at the very least, why hasn’t AIM used it to benefit themselves…or at least get better uniforms?

“We establish that the existence of the disc has been rumored for decades,” Rodi said. “A lot of people in the criminal community accordingly think it’s just an urban legend - a kind of bad guys’ Holy Grail, something that’s just too good to be true. Some of our six villains still have their doubts, even as they’re working to steal the thing. As for AIM not having used it yet, we’re told that they’ve just obtained it. How, and from whom, we don’t know.”

Sure – if a thing like this did exist, every bad guy would want it, but no one would want to go after it. Goofy bucket-headed costumes aside, AIM has the reputation of being about as friendly and accommodating as a cobra in a woven basket. So – as the mysterious puppetmaster opts – send some folks in to get what you want, preferably folks that you won’t mind too much if they buy it along the way.

“We wanted a roster of A-list villains -- or rather, A-list villains of a certain street-level type,” Rodi said. “You can’t realistically put Magneto or Dr. Doom into a story like this, so popularity was certainly one of the things driving our choices. And it’s funny how many of the really hot villains are certifiable sociopaths. But it’s even funnier how there are degrees of sociopathy. I mean, Bullseye’s as crazy as a rat in a coffee tin, but when you pair him up with Deadpool, he seems almost laid back. So it was enjoyable seeing how these guys’ various pathologies interacted.

“Surprisingly, one thing they all have in common is utter disdain for the Vulture, whom they see as an arthritic old geezer. Sandman excepted; he sort of stands up for Vulture, ‘cause they have a history from their Sinister Six days.”

So the six are blackmailed into doing their master’s bidding. And yes – you can blackmail someone like Deadpool, or even the Vulture.

“Everybody is blackmailable,” Rodi said. “If there isn’t something terrible in their past, or some looming indiscretion in their present, you can always invent something and threaten to make it public as if it were real. And of course, there’s always family, which makes anyone vulnerable - ‘Do as I say or I’ll shoot your dog.’ This is a disparate group of criminals, so all of the above methods have to be called into play. And of course, the criminals themselves don’t take kindly to being threatened - some less well than others.”

From the first pages of issue #1, Rodi said, it’s set out to be very clear that the six are in waaaaay over their heads, both with the nature of the mission (where stealth might be better than say, any movement the Juggernaut makes), and the disposition of the teammates.

“You’ve got a criminal mastermind who may or may not exist, blackmailing six criminals with secrets that may or may not be true, to steal an Identity Disc that may or may not exist, from a terrorist organization that may or may not have it,” Rodi said. “But we anchor all the ambiguity with lots of good, solid battles, brawls, and explosions - plus a couple of mind-blowing revelations at the end. It’ll be a fun ride.”

Identity Disc #1 ships in June.
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Is anyone else looking forward to this? It has the potential to be either a real firecracker of a book, or it could end up a damp squib. Fingers crossed some of our favourite marvel villains are done justice. (pun intended :p)

Two new "X Marks the Spot" articles by Annette peterson at the Comic Widows website. Check them out:

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Glenn Walker

Wasn't quite sure where this would fall in a category, so I chose Spider-Man, but Who else out there reads Runaways? If you don't, It's a rather well written book. It's humorous, the characters interact VERY well, the Art is often very good, and the plot overall is quite original. With recent appearances by Cloak and Dagger, It has quickly become one of my Monthly favorites! Thoughts? Oppinions?

Ok, as much as I'm in to pirates right now, I picked up a book that compiled the first 4 issues of El Cazador. So far, I like it alot.
I'll give you a full review when I finish reading.

This is the place to discuss the Daredevil spin off.


Reported 27/3/2004
Source ComicsContinuum

The Elektra movie will begin production in five weeks. The film, a spin-off of last year's Daredevil film, will star Alias' Jennifer Garner, who is reprising her role from Daredevil. Earlier this week, Garner was named Female Star of Tomorrow at ShoWest.

Sources have confirmed that Typhoid Mary will be a villain in Elektra. Elektra is being directed by Rob Bowman and is targeted for a February 2005 release. Expect casting announcements "very, very soon"

BY JENNIFER M. CONTINO
Posted 25/3/2004
Source: Pulse

Titan Books has a lot of comics related projects coming up. One of the most anticipated is their collection of Dan Dare comic strips from the British Boys biweekly comics collection, The Eagle. Editor Nick Jones gave us some details about why the time was right now for Titan Books to introduce a whole new audience to Frank Hampson's classic strips.



Jones believes the art in Dan Dare is some of the best the 20th Century comics medium has to offer. "The comic strip is so amazing to look at," enthused the editor. "As a piece of comics art, it's right up there with the best that the medium had to offer in the 20th Century. Practically any major British creative superstar - from Dave Gibbons to Grant Morrison - were influenced in some ways by Dan Dare. You only have to look at something like Warren Ellis and Chris Weston’s Ministry of Space to see the influence right there on the page. So not only will it appeal to older fans who might recall the comic from first time round, but younger fans who are simply interested in reading one of comics’ most influential creative milestones." Jones continued, "Also, from a historical perspective, Dan Dare creator/writer/artist Frank Hampson and his team instituted a way of working in the 1950s that foreshadowed the way someone like Alex Ross creates comics today. Hampson’s team posed for photo reference and assembled scale models, and the content of the strip was initially checked by none other than Arthur C. Clarke in an attempt to make it as scientifically plausible as possible. "

For those unfamiliar with Dan Dare, Jones explained a little about the character. "Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future is the Earth’s greatest space hero," began Jones. "He was created by Frank Hampson in 1950 as the cover comic strip for the new British boys’ weekly comic The Eagle. During the 1950s Dan was probably the most famous fictional character in the UK, generating mountains of merchandise, and propelling The Eagle to sales of three-quarters of a million copies each week. Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future was stuffed with memorable characters, like Dan’s right-hand man Digby, and the evil, green-skinned, bulbous-headed Mekon, and a newer version of the strip reappeared in 2000 AD in the 1980s. But Frank Hampson’s initial 10-year run remains the seminal incarnation of the characters." When asked what set Dare apart from Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers, Jones joked, "His uniquely British stiff upper lip!"



Thanks to the success of the recent CGI Dan Dare cartoon, currently running in the US on the Animania channel, Jones feels the character is "at least recognizable by his name."

Titan Books has some plans in place to make sure as many people as possible know about this new Dan Dare volume. "We’re planning a widespread press campaign to educate new readers about Dan Dare and also to let fans of the classic comic know about our new collector’s editions. We hope to achieve reviews and features in the mainstream press as well as in the comics and trade publications. We’re also planning to promote this title during UK National Comics Week (May 24-30), and we’ll be working with the Dan Dare Corporation, who are running a Dan Dare exhibition at this year’s Comics Festival in Bristol (May 28-30). And we’re securing endorsements from Dan Dare fans like Terry Jones (Monty Python) and working closely with some of the channels who broadcast the CGI animated Dan Dare to promote the book to younger readers."

Jones continued, "In this first volume we’ve got an introduction by Dave Gibbons; a Who’s Who guide to the characters; a checklist of the comic strips; and a six-page article on the genesis of Dan Dare, all illustrated with rarely-seen behind the scenes photographs and images of classic memorabilia. For future volumes, we’ve got a never-before-published interview with Frank Hampson (who died in 1985), and we’ll be talking to some of the other original Dan Dare studio members. This is one of the most beautiful, thrilling, exemplary examples of comics art ever committed to print."

The publishing schedule for Dan Dare is as follows:

DAN DARE: VOYAGE TO VENUS PART 1 is out in March
DAN DARE: VOYAGE TO VENUS PART 2 is out in June

Jones is working on a few other comics related projects at Titan. "At the moment, I’m finishing off Pat Mills and Kevin O’Neill’s Marshal Law graphic story album, and working on the first volume of classic newspaper strip Modesty Blaise. We’re also pulling together Writers on Comics Scriptwriting 2, the follow-up to the very successful first book, this time featuring interviews with THE hottest scribes currently working in US comics, and set to debut at San Diego. Stay tuned ...."