Sunday Runaround ' Brian Wood's Free Massive

PoliticsWatch: Ostensibly a kids comic, the rather successful Spirou in France goes rather political with its upcoming issue, declaring that in the midst of political uproar, France needs saving. The last time it did this was when Belgium was without a government'

NovelWatch: Darkroom, is an autobiographical graphic novel by Lila Quintero Weaver about growing up in Alabama, in a time of racial upheaval. And it gets reviewed by those who live there.

As the years passed, the young Lila Quintero became more aware of the segregation and racial tension around her. In fact, being brown-skinned (her father's skin was designated wheat color), with full lips, put her into an uncomfortable no-man's land. She was not the same kind of Anglo white as her neighbors, but was not African-American either. And she had no culturally inherited racial prejudices.

LegacyWatch: Nicolas de Crecy and David B are feted as continuing the legacy of Moebius, by the Guardian.

So David B is pretty good; one of the most sophisticated cartoonists in the world, even. Certainly The Armed Garden blows the mind. But when it comes to producing work that is indescribably strange and yet beautiful, even he must bow before the 'mad genius' of French comics, Nicolas de Crecy.

DigitalWatch: Marvel is being seen as a digital pioneer for their embedded digital code in print copies' and the New York Post sees it as a model for other magazine publishers.

ClothesWatch: Cartoonist Paul Rainey tweeted 'I split my trousers in Gosh Comics this morning.'

This is Computo the Comic Link Conqueror speaking. I come for your women. But for now I merely collate comic-related bits and pieces online. One day I will rule. Until that day, read on.

They say I am a work in progress. The fools.

Read The Massive & Save the Planet this Earth Day :: Blog :: Dark Horse Comics

So head on over to the Dark Horse Digital store and download The Massive digital one-shot for FREE on EARTH DAY this Sunday!

DC Women Kicking Ass ' Before Super BFF there was almost Supergirls

Artist Saxton Moore posted some illustrations on Flickr this week that caught my attention. He told me they were for a never done animated project called 'Supergirls'

 

Isaac Perlmutter, Packing Heat And Pushing Disney

I've been frequently told that Isaac Perlmutter, billionaire, CEO of Marvel and largest shareholder of Disney now that Steve Jobs has died, and veteran of the Six Day War, is usually armed.

Well, the New York Post list him as one of the one percent in New York City with a gun license.

Which might be handy, if he ever bumps into Rich Ross in a dark alleyway. Recently fired as Disney Studio Chairman, with Kevin Feige rumoured to replace him, Deadline fingers Isaac Perlmutter as one of those with the knives in their hand. Or semi-automatics, in Perlmutter's case. They also report;

The comic book, TV, and film entertainment company's Israeli owner Ike Perlmutter is not just a notoriously tough customer but a budget-obsessed megalomaniac besides a recluse. He has taken control of Disney's consumer products division already (firing here, fixing there), and my sources tell me he is making Iger's life miserable with back-seat managing of everything, especially Walt Disney Studios. ('Iger has real problems with Ike. That's the real story,' one of my insiders tells me. 'Bob thought he could handle him. But Ike is uncharmable.')

New York-based industry veteran Heidi MacDonald backs this up, saying;

Although Marvel's publishing business is still being more or less left alone to do its comics thing, it is increasingly in the middle of Disney's New York real estate problem. Disney Publishing's lease on its New York office is up and a new home is being sought. Much of the staff was relocated to White Plains several years ago, but the editorial offices are still in New York. Ike has reportedly volunteered to have them move into Marvel's midtown offices'offices which are already 'snug', shall we say. The plan hasn't been approved'Disney has an entire department given over just to moving people around and they operate with military efficiency. They might even require more than one bathroom for their floor plan.

This also remains the only available photo of Ike, courtesy of Forbes. I don't suppose anyone else has another? No Montgomery Burns pics please, I'm serious.

WB Confirm That They're Going To Piggy Back New Dark Knight Trailer On Avengers

A third Dark Knight Rises trailer is on the way, and Warner Bros. have confirmed to Deadline that it's going to screen with The Avengers in the US.

It's very unlikely that it will roll out in time for the UK release of The Av' Marvel Avengers Assemble, but I'm sure a lot of cinema chains will add it into the mix when it becomes available. Makes sense from their end too.

The only people who could have some beef, I suppose, are Marvel Studios and their Disney chums, but they'd do the same thing too if the release dates were the other way around.

Apparently, the third Dark Knight trailer was paired with Iron Man and the final Inception promo was tagged onto Iron Man 2. Marvel have, in their way. been good to Chris Nolan throughout the years.

The Seven Year Old Batman Of Arlington

How a city government helped a seven year old kid with leukemia fulfill his dreams. Even if they happen to want to be Batman.

Kye's first mission was to stop a robbery in progress at Worthington National bank in downtown Arlington. With the help of an adult Batman ' and his brother and sister sidekicks Robin and Batgirl ' Kye apprehended the Joker and returned the bank's money.

After a lunch break ' a hero needs to stay fueled up! ' the young Batman was back to work, arresting a would-be purse snatcher. Next, he and his team were called to respond to a car bomb placed by the Riddler. Kye got to see the city's bomb robot and bomb squad in action as they removed and safely detonated the pretend bomb.

Police and fire officers of Arlington, Virginia, volunteered their time to help set up the experience with Wish With Wings . His mother dressed up as Batwoman, his brother and sister played Robin and Batgirl and got an award on the steps of City Hall from the mayor for his behaviour.

In other real life superhero news, a self-styled 'She Hulk' dragged a man who was flashing his genitalia around, off the train in Boston, holding him down until the police arrived.

Agent 13's Pulp Fiction And Comic Book Origins Revealed

As Universal take a stake in Rupert Wyatt's sci-fi action film, Agent 13, many more details have come to light.

It's not, as I had (perhaps naively) assumed, an original project, but derived from the pulp novels and comics published in the 80s by Starship Troopers: Invasion screenwriter Flint Dille and David Marconi, himself a successful scribe ' or, at least, the man behind the scripts for Enemy of the State and the last Die Hard film. It's not yet totally clear if either will be involved in the Agent 13 movie at all, but the pitch to studios was developed by TS Nowlin so it's a 'probably not.'

Charlize Theron is the only actor known to be attached to the movie right now, though as Heat Vision observe, this won't be in the lead role of Agent 13, who is a chap. My best guess is that she'll be cast as Maggie Darr, another operative in the same agency, and kind of Theron-looking in the art I can see ' though there is also a character called China White that might be a contender.

I've not read the books or comics, though there's a lot of info out there about what they contain (think: Sam Spade goes Rocketeer-ish on the trail of the Illuminati), and the covers themselves tell a lot of the story. Here's a compendium of that artwork.

How To Train Your Dragon Goes Live Action ' Trailer And More Videos Of The Live Show

Currently touring the world, slowly, is Dreamworks' live-show version of How To Train Your Dragon. Replacing the big CG dragons are some big rubber dragons, and the movie star voice cast have been swapped out for' dancers? Yeah, something like that.

But it does look spectacular.

Perhaps a bit less spectacular in these shot-from-the-audience clips, but there's scale here, and the animatronics are nice. Is there really much storytelling going on here? Not compared to the film, it seems.

Thanks to Bad Taste for the trailer.

Reading With Josh Elder

Greg Baldino writes for Bleeding Cool

Josh Elder wants kids to read comics in school.

Kids want to read them in school too. And so do the teachers. Josh Elder is the energetic founder of Reading With Pictures, a nonprofit organization that advocates the use of comics in the classroom to promote literacy and boost educational development. Part of the organizations work is academic, researching into the proper role of comics in education; not just from the cultural point of 'kids like comics already' but also looking at how comics communicate information. With an incredible roster of cartoonists, they've already produced an exceptional graphic anthology of comics for kids about comics and kids.

It's a bold publishing move, one that looks to the outlet of schools and libraries in addition to book stores and comic shops. There's been much written and discussed about comics as an art form, but it seems like in the last decade there's been a real surge in non-fictional comics and graphic novels prompting the idea of comics as an informational form.

Now Elder and Reading With Pictures want to take their theory and put it into practice. They've launched a Kickstarter to produce The Graphic Textbook, a book of comics aimed at explaining math, science, and the like. The organization hopes to eventually have a whole series of books, utilizing their'

Oh heck, I'll just let Josh explain it:

The many bonuses'in addition to digital editions of the book for $10 and hardcover print editions for $25' include the chance to be drawn into one of the stories, and teachers and librarians will want to take note of the classroom set offer: $450 gets you thirty copies of the book in both print and digital editions. Now, given that digital copies are available for a $10 pledge, solve for X where X=individual cost of the hardcover edition. Number two pencils only, no graphing calculators.

The Kickstarter launched this weekend at C2E2, where many of the artists who contributed to their previous anthology were on hand, and Elder led a morning panel during Friday's professional hours on the organization's mission.

Find out more about Reading With Pictures here: http://readingwithpictures.org

Read more about The Graphic Textbook here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/readingwithpictures/the-graphic-textbook?ref=card

Greg Baldino lives and writes in Chicago. Follow him on Twitter at @gregbaldino.