"WITH GREAT POWER THERE MUST ALSO COME -- GREAT RESPONSIBILITY!"

Stan Lee, "Spider-Man!" Amazing Fantasy No. 15 (Sept. 1962)

Friday, March 22, 2013

More Super Buddies

The teaser embed code appears defective in the previous post, so I include a copy of the cover from Amazon below:



Super Buddies by Disney

A belated post:

Disney will release the direct-to-video film Super Buddies this August as part of its Buddies franchise. A teaser is available on the official site, but it offers little detail.



Luckily, a synopsis explains:

Watch the fur fly as a new breed of super hero is born in Disney's fun-filled epic adventure.

An ordinary day at Fernfield Farms turns extraordinary when Budderball, Mudbud, B-Dawg, Buddha and Rosebud discover mysterious rings that grant them each a unique super power. Before you can say, "Buddies, assemble," the pups unleash their amazing abilities and race to the rescue when a shape-shifting bully from outer space threatens the planet. But can they succeed in kicking major tail without revealing their new secret identities?

A must-own movie event packed with laughter, action and incredible new characters, Super Buddies proves that when you use your wits and work together, you don't need super powers to be a super hero!

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Comics at ACLA 2013

A number of comics-related papers and sessions will occur at the upcoming meeting of the American Comparative Literature Association at the University of Toronto in Toronto, Canada from 4-7 April 2013.  Complete conference details and program can be found at http://www.acla.org/acla2013/.

DC Comics at Capstone

A quick head's up:

Capstone Publishing now has a dedicated site to it's DC Comics series of chapter books at http://capstonesuperhero.com/. The site includes promotional posters with the DC trinity promoting literacy. At present, content includes books featuring Superman, Batman, and the pets of the Justice League (see trailer below), though the publisher has additional series (through its Stone Arch imprint) featuring the Flash, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and the foes of the Justice League.

Some details on the line from Capstone's YouTube Channel:






Beware the Batman Teaser

Two new series are coming soon to DC Nation on Cartoon Network (and replacing Green Lantern: The Animated Series and Young Justice). One, Teen Titans Go! is a humorous take on the Teen Titans franchise, while the other, Beware the Batman, offers a more serious look at the Dark Knight and his world in CGI for the first time.


Smallville Collection CFP (6/1/13)

Here's another CFP for a collection on Smallville. The first, edited by Lincoln Geraghty, apperared in 2011, while the rest remain unpublished at this time.

 Essay Collection: Smallville
Publication Date: 2013-06-01
Date Submitted: 2013-02-05
Announcement ID: 201106 (at H-Announce)

Articles are invited for an essay collection on Smallville.

Superman has held audiences’ attention since his first appearance in 1938. Since then the Man of Steel and his fellow characters have never left the audiences’ sight. Multiple reinventions and installments found a highpoint between the years 2001-2011 with the CW´s hit series which not only told the story of Superman´s teenage years for the first time, but also added new characters such as Chloe Sullivan. Moreover, including members of the Justice League and the Justice Society of America opened up the series’ universe even more and created an alternate universe in the DC realm like few Superman installments before. After its successful ten-year run, Smallville´s story is far from over and although the actors are ready to move on, their audience is not. The series continuation as a graphic novel leaves more room to experiment with different formatting and even more interesting storylines. Moreover, Smallville’s active fan base continues to produce fan fiction and videos online, illustrating the continuing interest in the series.

This collection will examine a variety of issues surrounding this retelling and expansion of the Superman universe(s).

The following categories suggest possibilities but are by no means exhaustive
• Fandom and/or Reception
• Transformation and/or Adaptation
• Gender
• Race
• Sexuality
• Romance and Desire
• Power
• Monstrosity
• Heroism
• Villainy
• Identify
• Visual Style and practices
Smallville’s usage and representation of known DC Comics characters and stories
• Representations of masculinity, femininity, race, sexuality and family within Smallville 

What to Send:
300 - 500 word abstracts (or complete articles, if available) and CVs should be submitted by June 1, 2013. If an abstract is accepted for the collection, a full draft of the essay (5000 – 8000 words) will be required by December 1, 2013.
Abstracts and final articles should be submitted to: supernaturaltelevision@gmail.com and Nadine.Farghaly@gmx.net

Margo Collins and Nadine Farghaly
supernaturaltelevision@gmail.com
Nadine.Farghaly@gmx.net

2nd Global Graphic Novel Conference CFP (3/22/13; UK 9/23-25/13)

Two quick posts today in an attempt to stay current. Here's the first:

2nd Global Conference: The Graphic Novel (September 2013: Oxford, United Kingdom)
Location: United Kingdom
Conference Date: 2013-09-23
Date Submitted: 2012-12-17
Announcement ID: 199598 (at H-Announce)

2nd Global Conference
The Graphic Novel
Monday 23rd September – Wednesday 25th September 2013
Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom

Call for Presentations

“Behind this mask there is more than just flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea… and ideas are bulletproof.”
(Alan Moore, V for Vendetta)

This inter- and multi-disciplinary conference aims to examine, explore and critically engage with issues in and around the production, creation and reading of all forms of comics and graphic novels. Taken as a form of pictographic narrative it has been with us since the first cave paintings and even in the 21st century remains a hugely popular, vibrant and culturally relevant means of communication whether expressed as sequential art, graphic literature, bandes dessinees, tebeos, fumetti, manga, manhwa, komiks, strips, historietas, quadrinhos, beeldverhalen, or just plain old comics. (as noted by Paul Gravett)

Whilst the form itself became established in the 19th Century it is perhaps not until the 20th century that comic book heroes like Superman (who has been around since 1938) became, not just beloved characters, but national icons. With the globalisation of publishing brands such as Marvel and DC it is no accident that there has been an increase in graphic novel adaptations and their associated merchandising. Movies such as X-men, Iron man, Watchmen and the recent Thor have grossed millions of dollars across the world and many television series have been continued off-screen in the graphic form, Buffy, Firefly and Farscape to name a few.

Of course America and Europe is not the only base of this art form and the Far East and Japan have their own traditions as well as a huge influence on graphic representations across the globe. In particular Japanese manga has influenced comics in Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, China, France and the United States, and have created an amazing array of reflexive appropriations and re-appropriations, in not just in comics but in anime as well.

Of equal importance in this growth and relevance of the graphic novel are the smaller and independent publishers that have produced influential works such as Maus by Art Spiegleman, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, Palestine by Joe Sacco, Epileptic by David B and even Jimmy Corrigan by Chris Ware that explore, often on a personal level, contemporary concerns such as gender, diaspora, post-colonialism, sexuality, globalisation and approaches to health, terror and identity. Further to this the techniques and styles of the graphic novel have taken further form online creating entirely web-comics and hypertexts, as in John Cei Douglas’ Lost and Found and Shelley Jackson’s Patchwork Girl, as well as forming part of larger trans-media narratives and submersive worlds, as in the True Blood franchise that invites fans to enter and participate in constructing a narrative in many varied formats and locations.

This projects invites papers that consider the place of the comic or graphic novel in both history and location and the ways that it appropriates and is appropriated by other media in the enactment of individual, social and cultural identity.

Papers, reports, work-in-progress, workshops and pre-formed panels are invited on issues related to (but not limited to) the following themes:

Just what makes a Graphic Novel so Graphic and so Novel?:
~Sources, early representations and historical contexts of the form.
~Landmarks in development, format and narratology.
~Cartoons, comics, graphic novels and artists books.
~Words, images, texture and colour and what makes a GN
~Format, layout, speech bubbles and “where the *@#% do we go from here?”

The Inner and Outer Worlds of the Graphic Novel:
~Outer and Inner spaces; Thoughts, cities, and galaxies and other representations of graphic place and space.
~ Differing temporalities, Chronotopes and “time flies”:

Intertextuality, editing and the nature of Graphic and/or Deleuzian time.
~ Graphic Superstars and Words versus Pictures: Alan Moore v Dave Gibbons (Watchmen) Neil Gaiman v Jack Kirby (Sandman).
~Performance and performativity of, in and around graphic representations.
~Transcriptions and translations: literature into pictures, films into novels and high/low graphic arts.

Identity, Meanings and Otherness:
~GN as autobiography, witnessing, diary and narrative
~Representations of disability, illness, coping and normality
~Cultural appropriations, east to west and globalisation
~National identity, cultural icons and stereo-typical villains
~Immigration, postcolonial and stories of exile
~Representing gender, sexualities and non-normative identities.
~Politics, prejudices and polemics: banned, censored and comix that are “just plain wrong”
~Other cultures, other voices, other words

To Infinity and Beyond: The Graphic Novel in the 21st Century:
~Fanzines and Slash-mags: individual identity through appropriation.
~Creator and Created: Interactions and interpolations between authors and audience.
~Hypertext, Multiple formats and inter-active narratives.
~Cross media appropriation, GN into film, gaming and merchandisng and vice versa
~Graphic Myths and visions of the future: Sandman, Hellboy, Ghost in the Shell.
~Restarting the Canon: what are the implication of the restart in universes such as Marcel and DC and do they represent the opportunity to reopen ongoing conversations?

Presentations will be accepted which deal with related areas and themes.

What to Send:
300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 22nd March 2013. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 21st June 2013. 300 word abstracts should be submitted to the Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats, following this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords
E-mails should be entitled: GN2 Abstract Submission

Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.

Organising Chairs
Nadine Farghaly: Nadine.Farghaly@gmx.net
Rob Fisher: gn2@inter-disciplinary.net

The conference is part of the Education Hub series of research projects, which in turn belong to the At the Interface programmes of Inter-Disciplinary.Net. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore discussions which are innovative and challenging. All papers accepted for and presented at this conference are eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be invited to go forward for development into a themed ISBN hard copy volume or volumes.
For further details of the conference, please visit: http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/at-the-interface/education/the-graphic-novel/call-for-papers/.

Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.


Priory House
149B Wroslyn Road
Freeland, Oxfordshire OX29 8HR
United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0)1993 882087
Fax: +44 (0)870 4601132
Email: gn2@inter-disciplinary.net
Visit the website at http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/at-the-interface/education/the-graphic-novel/call-for-papers/

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Iron Man: Rise of Technovore

In connection with the upcoming release of Iron Man 3, Marvel is promoting a new direct-to-video anime-inspired film called Iron Man: Rise of Technovore, due out on 16 April 2013. Marvel has a detailed press release on their website (http://marvel.com/news/story/20068/iron_man_rise_of_technovore_coming_to_blu-ray_416); however, it is unclear as to whether the story is based on previous comics narratives, ties into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or is meant to stand on its own.  Official trailer follows: 



The film is sold as either Blu-ray or DVD with the following extras:
  • Blu-ray exclusive: Conceptual Art Gallery
  • Blu-ray and DVD bonus features: Two featurettes, "Tale of Technovore" and "S.H.I.E.L.D.: Protecting the Marvel Universe"

Superman: Unbound?

Expect much hype surrounding the release this summer of Warner Bros.'s Man of Steel. Warner Bros. Animation is doing their bit with the original video Superman: Unbound based on the "Brainiac" arc from phenom Geoff Johns's run on Action Comics (conveniently collected as Superman: Brainiac). With voice work by Matt Bomer as Clark Kent/Superman, the film is due out on 7 May 2013 in multiple platforms. As is standard practice with DC Universe Animated Original Movies,the Blu-ray version (single disc only this time and no digital copy) will include the bulk of the extras (feature commentary, making-of featurettes, and--though don't ask me why--a selection of related cartoons), and the DVD release getting the shaft with only a first look at the upcoming Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox (also available on the Blu-ray).