BLOG@FrontPage-a-Rama 03.09.10

BLOG@FrontPage-a-Rama 03.09.10 CREDIT: View full size image

Greetings, all!  Just because Blog@ is undergoing some maintenance and such, it doesn’t mean that the news has stopped.  We have a number of small bits for you today.  We apologize for the inconvenience of Blog@ being down, the whole thing should be back up in no time. In the meantime, we'll be doing these daily digests to keep you going.

Oswalt on Firefly: Wash, we hardly knew ye -- but Patton Oswalt aims to change that forthwith. MTV reports that the comedian has been tapped by Dark Horse to write "Serenity: Float Out," which follows the Firefly universe after the surprising conclusion of the 2005 film, where SPOILER ALERT Alan Tudyk's character was suddenly killed. "I had always been kind of bothered by Wash's death," Oswalt told MTV. The series, which is due out June 2, will be drawn by Patric Reynolds.

KISS Kids Show:  God of Thunder, King of the Night Time World, Producers of Kids Comedy Series.  What?  The Hollywood Reporter, uh, reports that Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of KISS will be producing a comedy series for kids via Canada’s E1 Television.  The duo will cover all of the licensing and merchandising, which is something they obviously know a bit about (KISS coffins, anyone?).  No names or specifics yet.  E1’s John Morayniss and Frank Saperstein join Simmons and Stanley as Executive Producers.

Logorama:  Remember the little animated pic we discussed last week on Blog@?  The Oscar-nominated short animation “Logorama”?  It went on to win.  Pixar’s “Up”, of course, snagged the award for best animated film.  A complete list of winners can be found here.

Avengers Aborning:  Now that you’ve watched the “Iron Man 2” trailer again and again, you’re no doubt becoming accustomed to the live-action versions of War Machine and Black Widow.  Considering that the live-action Avengers movie still looms down the road and that we’ll have a freshly cast Captain America to go with Thor (Chris Hemsworth), what on Earth would YOU want out of such a picture?  Do you just want to see The Power Trio?  Hulk or not?  Hawkeye, Hank Pym, Wasp?  How much, or how little, confidence does this trailer inspire?  Let us know.

Exxxxxxxclusssssivvvvvvvvaboom!!!:  And lo, there came -- AN EXCLUSIVE! Comics Alliance surprised me today with the announcement that Fred Van Lente is now an exclusive Marvel writer. With all the work he's been doing for the House of Ideas, I thought it had already happened -- Van Lente has not only been one half of the Incredible Hercules writing team, but is writing the upcoming Iron Man: Legacy series and is also a member of the Webhead collective running the Amazing Spider-Man. Van Lente told CA that his Comic Book Comics and Evil Twin books were all exempted from the exclusive, and will be continuing as intended. Laura Hudson disappoints us all, however, by dashing our hopes of a Fred Van Lente X-Force comic. For shame!

Fantagraphics Goes Manga: Fantagraphics is moving into new waters, as the Beat has announced that the company will be begin publishing manga books. Creators like Moto Hagio and Shimura Takako be hitting the shelves first -- Hagio's Drunken Dream anthology will be released in September, while Takako's gender-questioning Wandering Son will hit in December. According to Dirk Deppey, the project has been in the works for more than four years, until Amazon accidentally spilled the beans. Editor Matt Thorn described the projects as "a dream project for me."

Captain Jim?: Apparently, America runs on Dunder Mifflin -- Captain America, that is. Fox 411 is saying that the Office's John Krasinski has all but locked up the role for Steve Rogers. Am I little skeptical over this? Maybe -- but there were plenty of people surprised with Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, and in hindsight you couldn't imagine anyone else in the Iron Man suit. "It's a surprise and we are bracing ourselves for 'that guy from 'The Office'' to land Captain America," an alleged source told Fox. "They are not really looking at the other guys, so it's time to get ready to work with him."

Good Golly, Miss Molly: Zuda Comics has been pioneering DC Comics' online efforts for years now -- but now they're about to get a dose from Dr. Sketchy's. Molly Crabapple, the creator of Dr. Sketchy's Anti Art School, along with her ACT-I-VATE collaborator John Leavitt, will be working on a "Rococo steampunk murder mystery" for the online imprint, the artist wrote on Twitter. The current title of Crabapple's Zuda project is "The Puppet Makers" -- she did not say when the comic would go live. The duo has worked on many, many projects together before, including Dr. Sketchy's and the recent graphic novel Scarlett Takes Manhattan.