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Grant Morrison And Guillermo Del Toro's 'Sleepless Knights' Movie: Put To Bed?

Posted 12/12/08 2:31 pm EST by in News

Grant MorrisonYou would think a Grant Morrison-Guillermo del Toro team-up would be a no-brainer -- but the two have been trying to push an idea through the Hollywood machine for several years now. And at this point, it seems to be stuck.

“Sleepless Knights” was an idea Morrison scripted that would be a sort of fairy tale, which del Toro was attached to direct. Thanks to a time-machine error, the world gets stuck on Halloween, permanently -- kind of like “Groundhog Day,” but for everyone. Ghosts, goblins, and other creatures think of it as a free-for-all, and start running wild. That is, until a new kind of Ghostbusters, called the "Sleepless Knights," start fighting them. Read More...

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How Would 'The Endless' Have Voted? Neil Gaiman On The Politics And Presidents Of 'Sandman' Stories

Posted 12/10/08 2:03 pm EST by in News, Vertigo

'Sandman'Two big events converged last month: the US Presidential Election, and the 20th anniversary of Neil Gaiman's epic "Sandman" series. So, to celebrate one without ignoring the political climate of the other, the folks behind a recent dramatic reading of stories from "Sandman" to benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund chose two of the more politically-minded tales -- one about the Emperor of the United States, and one about the first teenage president.

"They definitely both seem more political now," Gaiman told MTV. "Probably the other one we could have done which would have been just as political in its own strange way would have been 'Ramadan,' [a story about how fairytale-like Baghdad lives on in war-torn Iraq]."

Even so, Sandman stories such as "Three Septembers and a January" and "The Golden Boy" seem especially apt now considering the spectacle around Barack Obama (which echo the sentiments in the country when Bill Clinton was elected). Read More...

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PREVIEW: Zack Whedon Tells 'Dr. Horrible' Henchman's Origin In 'Moist: Humidity Rising'

Posted 12/3/08 1:33 pm EST by in Dark Horse, News, Preview

'Moist'Compared to Dr. Horrible, his henchman Moist seemed pretty together, other than the being constantly damp thing. After all, he at least seemed to have a social life.

But we learn in the second Dr. Horrible prequel comic, "Moist: Humidity Rising" -- out today (December 3) on MySpace Dark Horse Presents -- that the boy who became Moist had a supervillain-esque origin story that perhaps makes him more of a sad sack than the titular wannabe supervillain of "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog." (The first comic being, of course, the one from Captain Hammer's point of view).

Moist, as it turns out, started off as abnormally dry, but "his father was just not very content with who his son was," comic scribe Zack Whedon told us. "He meddled a little too much [by getting him a Soviet humidifer that backfired]. I think that's what turned him into an outsider." Read More...

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Geoff Johns 'Would Love A Crack At' Writing Live-Action Superman, Flash Movies

Posted 12/2/08 5:56 pm EST by in DC Comics, News

Superman and FlashNow that he's done "Smallville," comics scribe Geoff Johns told MTV he wants to take a flying leap and do more adaptation work of his favorite comics... much more.

"I love the DC universe," he professed -- which is no surprise to comics fans, of course. Johns has either written himself or had a hand in the scripting of many of DC's most popular series, events and reboot projects of the last few years.

If "Smallville" extends into a ninth season, he'd love to write for that, he told us. If the CW had gone ahead with plans for "The Graysons" television series he would have been happy to write for that, too. But if the Superman or Flash filmmakers would just knock on his door, "I would love a crack at Superman or the Flash for a feature," Johns said. (And he already has Richard Donner in his corner for the Man of Steel.) Read More...

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EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW: Jeph Loeb Takes 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' Back In Time In 'Season Eight'

Posted 12/2/08 12:47 pm EST by in Dark Horse, Hot Stuff, Preview

'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'Remember that "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" animated series that never was? Turns out, it is getting new life -- as the basis of an upcoming "Buffy: Season Eight" comic.

Called "After These Messages ... We'll Be Right Back!", the storyline, out December 10, plops the Buffster down into the middle of her own animated show, in a sort of "Pleasantville"/"Peggy Sue Gets Married" kind of way. (And we have your exclusive, eight-page preview after the jump!)

"She arrives in the animated world, but she knows it's not right," said the issue's writer Jeph Loeb. "In many ways, it's a time-travel show. She's having a day from hell and she wonders if life was always this hard, and when she wakes up, she's got a 'Season One' bod and a 'Season Eight' brain." Read More...

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How The 'X-Men: First Class' Film Could Draw From Grant Morrison's 'New X-Men' Run

Posted 12/1/08 5:55 pm EST by in Hot Stuff, Marvel, News

'New X-Men'Okay, so if Josh Schwarz has the rosters of "X-Men: First Class," "The New Mutants," "Generation X," "New X-Men," and "Young X-Men" to draw from for his upcoming younger X-Men film, might he do some good by revisiting Grant Morrison's run on the series, too? Although the youth weren't always the focus of his "New X-Men" run, they were the metaphor.

"When the X-Men started, Stan Lee was thinking about prejudice," Morrison told MTV. "Mutants can talk about civil rights as a stand-in [for other races]. Then it became a metaphor for gayness and gay culture, about coming out, having pride. But to me, it was about a war against youth." Read More...

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'Green Lantern' Co-Writer Marc Guggenheim On Casting Superman's Cameo And Script Changes

Posted 12/1/08 12:21 pm EST by in DC Comics, Hot Stuff, News

'Green Lantern'The "Green Lantern" movie is rolling right along, co-screenwriter Marc Guggenheim tells us -- even if digressions about other comics characters sometimes distract them from the task at hand.

"This morning, we sat down to talk Green Lantern," Guggenheim told MTV, "and we ended up riffing for an hour and a half on another, much more obscure character. Sometimes, you just have to roll with it when inspiration strikes, you know? I'm sure the studio wouldn't be happy about it, but we're not going to blow the deadline. We'll get it in."

Guggenheim said that he and fellow screenwriters Michael Green and Greg Berlanti (who's also directing the film) are on the third studio draft, and they've just been refining the script based on studio notes and locations. Read More...

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Comic Book Writer Geoff Johns Throws A Legion-Sized Wrench In 'Smallville'

Posted 11/25/08 5:35 pm EST by in DC Comics, News

'Smallville'When "Smallville" recruited Geoff Johns to write an episode for the show, they expected to get more steeped in comic book-lore than ever before -- they just didn't realize how much. John's episode, set to air January 15, brings in the classic comic book team the Legion of Super-Heroes and a new villain in the Persuader.

"The concept of the Legion throws a wrench in Clark's life," Johns said. "They've already built up to a huge climax with Chloe and Doomsday, and then the Legion comes in and completely complicates everything."

Johns pitched the show on introducing the time-traveling Legionnaires -- Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad, and Cosmic Boy -- by explaining that they would be relevant to Clark Kent's life at this point in time (unlike some other characters who'd been introduced on the show although he wasn't supposed to meet them until later -- can you say Green Arrow?). And when the time came to talk villains, Johns brought in a bunch of his comic books to show them how the Persuader would translate in a cameo appearance. Read More...

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Neil Gaiman On The 'Obscenity' Of Manga Collector Christopher Handley's Trial

Posted 11/24/08 2:09 pm EST by in News

Neil GaimanLook through your comic book collection. Do you have Alan Moore's "Lost Girls"? Any of S. Clay Wilson's Underground Comix? Even Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" series? If the prosecution of manga collector Christopher Handley sticks, all of that and more could be considered obscene, Gaiman told MTV.

"I wrote a story about a serial killer who kidnaps and rapes children, and then murders them," Gaiman said, referring to a storyline in "The Doll's House." "We did that as a comic, not for the purposes of titillation or anything like that, but if you bought that comic, you could be arrested for it? That's just deeply wrong. Nobody was hurt. The only thing that was hurt were ideas." Read More...

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'Young X-Men' Writer Marc Guggenheim Weighs In On 'X-Men: First Class' Movie And Character Lineup

Posted 11/24/08 11:37 am EST by in Hot Stuff, Marvel, News

'Young X-Men'Ever since it was announced that "Gossip Girl" creator Josh Schwartz would focus on the junior X-Men in the upcoming "X-Men: First Class" film, we've been trying to wrap our brains around how that would work. Would it be the junior X-Men as established in the last film, "X-Men: The Last Stand" -- more of Iceman, Kitty Pryde, Colossus, and Angel? And if so, how would Rogue fit in, now that she's had the cure?

Or would it be the junior X-Men as established in the comics? We asked "X-Men: First Class" scribe Jeff Parker what he thought when the news broke and now we're asking "Young X-Men" writer Marc Guggenheim. And wouldn't you know it? Both of the comics writers heard the news the same way we did -- by reading it in Variety.

"It's funny," Guggenheim told us, "when they first talked about doing this [before Schwartz was attached], Variety had the project as 'Young X-Men,' so I thought it might be coming from the comic. But the idea of a junior group of X-Men has been around long before I started writing it." Read More...

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Cover Artist

Splash Page welcomes Ed Tadem to our cover artist family (our custom-designed theme up top). Currently working on the forthcoming "Avengers" animated series, Tadem's work can also be seen in the "Jackie Karma" issues of Image's "'76," and in "Pop Gun, Volume 1." Ed Tadem can be found online at EdTadem.com.
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