Monthly Archives: December 2003

Harlen Ellison broke the news on his message board that Julius Schwartz has been hospitalised with pneumonia. Schwartz the the first JLA editor and edited most of DC’s Silver Age superhero titles. Our thoughts go out to Mr Schwartz at this time and we wish him a speedy recovery. SOURCE: See Newsarama for more details.

Newsarama has interviews and comments from the editorial and creative team on John Byrne’s and Chris Claremont’s JLA story. The article describes the story as:

“The 10th Circle” begins when the JLA are called in to investigate a rash of child disappearances. Before they can solve the mystery, though, members of the JLA also begin to disappear. Before long, Superman is brainwashed and in the hands of a fanatic cult that worships an ancient, vampiric evil. When it looks like the JLA may be overwhelmed by their undead adversaries, a mysterious new team enters the picture—a team that has been shadowing the JLA for a while. But is this new team coming to the rescue, or to hasten the JLA’s defeat?

John Byrne then comments on the supernatural elements in the story…

The supernatural elements that are the frame of this story are “entirely mine,” Byrne said. “I plotted and penciled, and then the pages were handed off to Chris to script. Basically it’s a vampire story, but with some twists thrown in—the twists were what had been percolating in my head before Carlin called.” What sort of twists?

SOURCE: Newsarama article

DC have just announced that JLA and JL Elite writer Joe Kelly has extended his exclusive agreement for a further year.

“DC has been my home for over four years now, and I am thrilled to continue our relationship,” says Kelly. “Everyone has proven very easy to work with. My editors are all top notch: supportive, creative, and enthusiastic about the work. The projects I have slated for 2004 are very diverse, including the provocative JUSTICE LEAGUE ELITE and the revamp of a beloved character (more on that soon!). Creatively, I couldn’t be happier with my workload, and I anticipate an even wider range of projects as the year progresses.”

“I’m glad Joe’s sticking around with DC,” says Senior Group Editor Mike Carlin. “While we’ll be shifting to multiple creators on the regular JLA title this year, don’t be tricked into thinking Joe’s done with the team…just wait till you see what he’s cooked up for the new JUSTICE LEAGUE ELITE series! He’s got some other new things up his sleeve as well, so it’ll be nice to know where to find Joe for another year – DC Comics!”

SOURCE: DC COMICS DIRECT CHANNEL #652 via Super Hero News.

• CBR has an interview with occasional JUSTICE LEAGUE ADVENTURES writer Jason Hall.
• The Continuum reports that the remaining episodes of Justice League will feature a number of guest appearances including Red Tornado, Green Arrow and Black Canary. Warren Ellis is also rumoured to be writing an episode. And Teen Titans has been okayed for a second series.
• The Continuum and CBR also report on the Wizard World Texas JLA/Avengers Panel. DC will be publishing the collected edition and it will contain 20 pages of art left over from the original. George Perez actually hurt himself drawning the massive crowd cover for issue three: “It took me three weeks to draw that cover and by the end, I was in utter pain.”
• Kurk Busiek quotation from the same panel: “I brought up the idea that the DC characters are all incredibly powerful guys who can move faster than their villains can think, and the Marvel characters are more tough, realistic scrappers. The Justice League tends to figure out solutions to the puzzle, to solve the crisis. The Avengers just beat the crap out of everybody. That’s the difference between Gardner Fox and Jack Kirby.”
• Rich Johnstone interviews Geoff Johns a few weeks ago for Waiting for Tommy
• Identity Crisis by Brad Meltzer and Rags Morales will be a seven issue mini-series shipping in June. It is a murder mystery that dates back to the earliest days of the Justice League. Check out Newsarama for more details.
• The Pulse has an interview with ex-JLA scribe Grant Morrison. He talks about his return to DC, the last story on X-Men and his creater owned stuff that he’ll be doing at DC. He did mention in passing that he loved the last few issues of Kelly’s JLA. He also scotched the rumour that he was taking over the Green Lantern title and noted that he actually prefers Kyle to Hal.
• And finally: Games, the legendary unfinished Wolfman and Perez Titans graphic novel, is back on for release for Christmas 2004 or sometime in 2005. Wolfman has been musing about the novel at SBC and on his own homepage.