Comic-con Wheels and Deals
This story originally appeared in PW Comics Week on July 22, 2006 Sign up now!
By Ian Brill, Karen Holt and Heidi MacDonald -- Publishers Weekly, 7/22/2006
 Miller will direct The Spirit movie |
Perhaps the biggest news splash at the con, however, is that Frank Miller (Sin City, 300) will write and direct a film version of The Spirit, Will Eisner’s comics classic.
Agent Denis Kitchen, who represents the Eisner estate, told PWCW, “Michael Uslan had the property optioned for about 10 years.” In that time, several writers have been attached to developing the story, including writer Jeph Loeb, who was announced last year. Now, however, the property has landed at Odd Lot Entertainment, headed by Daborah Del Prete and Gigi Pritzker, who will co-finance and produce the film. Batfilm’s Benjamin Melniker is on board as executive producer.
Miller made his directorial debut as the co-director on Sin City, which was based closely on his own comics. Details of the production and his approach to The Spirit will be announced Saturday at the Spirit movie panel. Kitchen praised Miller as a huge admirer of Eisner’s original who would remain faithful to the tone of the original.
Cassaday and Miller will join Dave McKean (Mirrormask) and Enki Bilal (Immortel) as cartoonists making the jump to film directors. And cartoonists are also writing screenplays. Dan Clowes has signed a deal with Jack Black Productions for his Deathray series. "Jack Black has always been a supporter of comics," says Clowes. The deal to option "Deathray" was signed this past Tuesday, July 18.
"Deathray" deals with a teen-age superhero and the same person in middle age. " I found that I liked working with the older man more than with the teen-age boy," he said, but those stories aren't written yet—they’ll be in the script. Clowes said, "I don't want to talk about what exactly will be in the script, as I haven't started writing it yet." He plans to begin writing next week.
Clowes also recently turned in a script commissioned by Scott Rudin, based on the true story of a group of teenage boys who spent eight years reshooting the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark, scene by scene. "We were talking about it for about a year before I actually started," Clowes said.
There’s also been fast and furious wheeling and dealing connecting the Web and the printed page. Shooting War, the acclaimed Web comic by Anthony Lappé and Dan Goldman, has found a print home at Warner Books, where it will be published as a hardcover graphic novel. Currently running on the Smith magazine Web site, the near-future tale follows the caustic experiences of a video blogger who gains fame after live blogging a terrorist bombing. The story will be much expanded for the print version, with the Web comic making up only about a third of the final book.
Warner senior editor Jaime Levine acquired the book, and it’s her first graphic novel. She says the politically subversive tale will be aimed at the same audience as the publisher’s huge bestseller America: The Book. Warner Books has also acquired two other graphic novels, one by members of the WuTang Clan and another by tattoo artist Mister Cartoon.
There was also much activity among traditional comics publishers, as Vertigo announced a new slate of original graphic novels. At the Vital Vertigo panel, Karen Berger, newly promoted to senior v-p and executive editor, introduced a panel of 15 Vertigo writers, artists and editors and presented a slide show promoting continuing and new projects at Vertigo.
Starting with Vertigo’s monthly series, Berger announced that the first collected edition of Steven T. Seagle and Beck Cloonan’s American Virgin will be available in October. In a move that shows that Vertigo is paying close attention to the book market, the series debuted in March and was quickly collected into book form. It follows The Exterminators, Testament and DMZ, which were also quickly collected into trade paperback.
Bill Willingham's Fables, one of Vertigo’s most popular continuing series, will released an original graphic novel called Fables: 1,001 Nights of Snowfall. The new book will be a prequel, centering on Snow White regaling an Arabian sultan with stories. Those stories will be illustrated by a range of artists including James Jean, Brian Bolland, Derek Kirk Kim and Jill Thompson. Snowfall will arrive in stores in October.
Vertigo is further expanding its original graphic novel program. Creators Gilbert Hernandez and Dean Haspiel spoke about their respective books, Sloth and The Alcoholic. Several more original graphic novels were announced at the panel, including Cairo, written by Middle Eastern expert G. Willow Wilson with art by M.K. Perker, who is from Istanbul. Both creators are intimately familiar with life in the Middle East, and the book that tells the story of an American woman living in the Egyptian capital and her run-ins with drugs, an Israeli soldier and a genie.
Another new book, Sentences, is a rare foray into autobiographical comics for Vertigo. Independent hip-hop artist MF Grimm recounts his own life story, involving shootings, gang violence, jail time and music. Ron Grumbley provides the art. Another new title, Incognegro, takes place in the 1940s and features an African-American journalist who passes as white to cover lynchings. Novelist Matt Johnson and long time Vertigo artist Warren Pleece are behind the book. Berger got little reaction when she asked the audience if anyone had read Can’t Get No, but she called attention to the Village Voice’s recommendation of the epic graphic poem as “a great beach read.” A softcover edition of director Darren Aronfsky's graphic novel The Fountain will be available in October, in time for the release of the film. Aronfsky wrote the book, with art by Kent Williams. There is also a new Sandman spinoff book by Mike Carey and John Bolton entitled God Save the Queen that will feature a story starring Queen Titania. The actual Sandman series by Neil Gaiman will soon be available in a DC deluxe Absolute Edition. The $75 boxed hardcover collects 20 issues newly recolored, along with such extras as Gaiman’s original scripts. It’s the first of four volumes
