Holy Dark Knight, Batman

Check out the new trailer for The Dark Knight coming summer of 2008. Heath Ledger as the Joker looks very interesting.

Goodnight, Paul Norris

Mark Evanier posted the news about the passing of Paul Norris on his blog, News From Me. The co-creator of Aquaman in 1941 passed away at the age of 93 on November 5th, 2007. He also worked on Sandman for Adventure Comics among others. He also produced the Brick Bradford newspaper strip for a little over 35 years.

Zuda Comics

DC Comics has launched Zuda Comics that will feature web comics. Some of the titles include High Moon, Battlefield Babysitter, The Dead Seas, Leprenomicon and The Enders. The artwork is pretty cool but the site employs a Flash viewer that may cause problems for some.

Supergirl On Smallville

"Kara" is the second episode of the seventh season of CW's Smallville, following the season-opening "Bizarro." Although the network hasn't announced an air date for the episode, it is expected to air on Thursday, October 4, 2007. Kara will be Kal's cousin and have all his abilities plus the ability to fly.

Goodnight Mike Wieringo

Comic book artist, Mike Wieringo, passed away Sunday, August 12, 2007 from heart failure. He was 44 years old and was best known for his work on The Flash for DC Comics and Fantastic Four for Marvel Comics.

Jonah Hex To Be Movie

According to Newsarama, Warner Bros. Pictures have opted to do a movie based on DC Comics bounty hunter, Jonah Hex. Unfortunately, the movie will have supernatural overtones.

Wonder Woman Meeting Olivia Newton John

Here's a great video clip of Wonder Woman meeting Olivia Newton:

Lucky Luke Intro

I found the video intro for the Lucky Luke tv show starring Terence Hill and the theme song performed by Roger Miller. Rumor has it that the comic book series may once again be turned into a movie.

Goodnight, Marshall Rogers

From Newsarama: Marshall Rogers Dies:

Comics have lost another luminary. Details are still sketchy, but word came earlier today that Marshall Rogers died yesterday or Saturday. The cause of death was not immediately disclosed.

Rogers was born on January 22nd, 1950 in Flushing, New York.

From “DC Profiles #26” which appeared in 1978 (courtesy of the Marshall Rogers Fan Site):

Of all DC's rapidly rising new stars, Marshall Rogers' ascent has been swiftest of all. In less than a year, Marshall has gone from back feature artist to first-stringer on Detective Comics and Mr. Miracle.

Marshall almost didn't make it to comics. His studies in art school concentrated on architecture, but after two years of studying designing parking lots and shopping centers, Marshall decided "the world wasn't ready for another Frank Lloyd Wright" and left school seeking fame and fortune in the comic field.

Unfortunately, the comics world was not yet ready for Marshall Rogers. For the next two years, he worked in a hardware store while doing occasional illustrations for mass circulation magazines and sharpening his artistic skills.

Apparently, those two years did the trick. Marshall broke into comics, landing a stint pencilling for Marvel's Britain weeklies.

Not long after, Marshall showed up at DC Comics, portfolio in hand, and was given his first assignment: a two part Tales of the Great Disaster story for Weird War Tales. That was followed by some mystery stories, a Tales of Krypton piece and a four part feature in Detective Comics featuring a new villain named The Calculator. His work on the latter led Editor Julie Schwartz to hand Marshall a real plum for a newcomer: pencilling the book length Batman versus the Calculator story in Detective Comics. What came next surprised even Marshall. The powers that be assigned Marshall to Detective as the regular penciller. And he almost immediately picked up the art chores on the newly-revived Mr. Miracle book as well.

"What I try to do," Marshall told DC Profiles, "is first think of what's been done before and then I discard that and try to approach it from a completely different angle." After looking over Marshall Rogers' work, we'd have to say he's found his different angle.

Beginning in the late 1970s, Rogers’ career covered many different characters, Rogers is best known for his Batman work when collaborating with writer Steve Englehart. The two first worked together on the character in Detective Comics #471-#476 (inked by Terry Austin), and for years, their version of the character was considered to be the definitive one – a dark, brooding hero who stayed to the shadows and flowed with a natural grace.

An architect by training, Rogers' work always stood out for its attention to detail, from the cityscapes of Gotham and articulated (and realistic) muscles of the heroes, to the different techniques he would employ, from bold blacks and zipatone to a wide array of others.

Rogers work was seen in many other comics from the major publishers including brief runs on DC's Mr. Miracle, Marvel’s Silver Surfer, and Dr. Strange as well as a wide variety of independent titles: Detectives, Inc., Coyote (again with Englehart), his own Capt. Quick and the Foozle, and Scorpio Rose.

Rogers left comics for a period in the early ‘90s to work in videogames, but returned later in the decade, where his work was seen in projects such as Green Lantern: Evil’s Might and most recently, Marvel Westerns: Strange Westerns Starring The Black Rider, and Batman: Dark Detective, a continuation of his and Englehart’s story from Detective Comics two and a half decades earlier. The two were reportedly considering a third installment of the larger "Dark Detective" story.

Goodnight, Arnold Drake

Arnold Drake, comic book writer and creator of Deadman, The Doom Patrol and Stanly and His Monster for DC Comics, died March 12, 2007 at the age of 83 (source: Newsarama). He is also notable for co-creating It Rhymes with Lust, perhaps the first American graphic novel ever published.

Green Arrow News

Green Arrow will end with #75, Winick said, adding that the very last page of the issue features Oliver Queen offering an engagement ring to Black Canary. With that issue, Winick said, he’ll be off the series and character.

Newsarama Note: In clarifying his comment, Winick later told Newsarama: " I'm done, and DC is as well, with the monthly book Green Arrow. I'm not done, and DC is not done with Green Arrow. And that's all I say."

The four issue Green Arrow Year One miniseries will begin in July, by Andy Diggle and Jock; at the same time there will be a Black Canary miniseries (which Wayne was referring to earlier) by Tony Bedard and Paulo Siquera. The plan for further year ones will be that they will launch every three months, allowing for a small amount of overlap between them.

From Newsarama's WONDER CON '07: DC NATION PANEL:

Captain Carrot To Return

This is amazing news: NYCC '07: BILL MORRISON TALKS CAPTAIN CARROT

Goodnight, Bob Oksner

News From Me reported that comic book artist, Bob Oksner, passed away from pneumonia on February 18, 2007. Among his early work was the second Marvel Boy in 1943 for Timely Comics. He wrote and drew Miss Cairo Jones, a syndicated newspaper comic strip from 1945 to 1947. Sheldon Mayer, an editor at DC Comics, hired him to be an artist on comics adapted from other media. His works included Adventures of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Adventures of Jerry Lewis, Adventures of Bob Hope, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Sgt. Bilko, Pat Boone, Angel and the Ape, Welcome Back, Kotter, Elvira's House of Mystery and Stanley and His Monster. For King Features, he did art for the I Love Lucy newspaper comic. In the 1970s, Bob Oksner did artwork for Superman, Supergirl, Wonder Woman, Shazam!, Black Orchid, Lois Lane and others. He retired from comics in 1986.

Free Alter Ego #64

TwoMorrows is celebrating their love of comics by giving away five hundred free issues of Alter Ego #64.

Here is a desciption of the issue:

"Alter Ego 64 focuses on the Fabulous Fawcett Favorites-and Filchock, too! Featuring: A previously-unpublished cover painting by DON NEWTON, of Captain Marvel Jr. and Captain Nazi! ROY THOMAS’ special issue-by-issue analysis and appreciation of OTTO BINDER and C.C. BECK’s 1943-45 four-color "The Monster Society of Evil!" serial featuring Mr. Mind, Dr. Sivana-all that and World War II! Film model-maker ROGER DICKEN’s theory that Captain Marvel was modeled after German heavyweight boxer MAX SCHMELING! Plus a special double-size FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) section with MARC SWAYZE, EMILIO SQUEGLIO, C.C. BECK, MAC RABOY, et al.-hosted by P.C. HAMERLINCK! Also, JIM AMASH interviews MARTIN FILCHOCK, Golden Age artist for Centaur comics (Mighty Man, Fire-Man, Owl, Electric Ray, et al.)! Plus MICHAEL T. GILBERT and Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt-and MORE! Edited by ROY THOMAS. Includes a free preview of BACK ISSUE #20!"

Lynda Carter To Be On Smallville

Comics Continuum reported that Lynda Carter, who played the title character in tv's Wonder Woman in the 1970s, will be a guest star on tv's Smallville titled "Progeny". The episode is set to air April 12 and she will be playing Moira Sullivan, Chloe Sullivan's mother.

DC Comics Movies News

There has been some really interesting news involving movies featuring characters from DC Comics. Here's a quick rundown of the news:

Joss Whedon is no longer directing or writing with Wonder Woman. Supposedly, this happened a day after Warner Brothers bought a second script. Whedon had the movie set in modern day while the second script was set during World War II.

David S. Goyer's version of The Flash is dead. His script featured Wally West and Barry Allen. Shawn Levy is now set to direct the movie.

Katie Holmes will not be in the sequel to Batman Begins called The Dark Knight. Somebody else will be cast as Rachael Dawes. Rumor has it that Heather McAdams has been asked to make an appearance as Selina "Catwoman" Kyle. Aaron Eckhart is in the running to play Harvey "Two-Face" Dent.