Monday, October 11, 2004

Apparat, apparently not.

There's a small rumor, gathering force that Warren Ellis' Apparat books from Avatar (due in November, with a sampler this month) don't exist; that the whole thing's a bit f**k you to the fanboys. Why would someone think this?

Well, from Ellis himself:

"Four imaginary first issues of four imaginary series from an imaginary line of comics on an imaginary launch week...what adventure comics might've looked like today if superhero comics hadn't have happened. If, in fact, the pulp tradition of Weird Thrillers had jumped straight into comics form without mutating into the superhero subgenre we know today."
I think this is highly unlikely given that orders will have been placed for these, and the talents of Carla Speed McNeil, Laurenn McCubbin, Jacen Burrows and Juan Jose Ryp are attached and would have to be part of the deception, alongside Avatar themselves.

Here's hoping that this is all just crap, and I'll just sit here festering until the Apparat preview drops into my letterbox.

Variant madness

With the Wolverine #20 variant already selling on Ebay for over $100 before it was even released, is variant madness and the return of the speculator just around the corner? Could be, if you look at the number of variants Marvel have released in the past few months, not to mention the tidy amount that DC have thrown to the hungry masses.

But is a new, more deadly variant, being prepared for launch?

After the debacle (read: media opportunity/PR stunt) that was Marvels 50/50 shipping of a b&w pencilled Ultimates Vol2 #1, rumor has it that the next big thing are complete variant books. Yes, one issue is in the pipeline of a big title, which will ship as 90% regular and 10% variant which contains a totally different storyline inside.

Yep, different characters and plots, written and drawn by different creators.

Ludicrous? We'll see.

DC out of Focus with Hard Time

Heh, I like that title.

Anyway, as you probably know, the DC Focus line hasn't been doing too well of late and yes cancellation looms. While the books are likely to be put down gently, it is very likely that Hard time by Steve Gerber and Brian Hurtt will be be revived under the DC bullet.

What is also interesting is that the new TPB, which will be released this week, has no mention of Focus anywhere on it.

Intruiging.

Thanks to Outsider Hoover for his investigative journalism.


Sunday, October 10, 2004

Late

Happens to the best of us. Apologies however, for not having lascivious rumors ready for you at the usual time. I could give you an excuse, but what's the point? You don't want excuses, you just want facts or rumors or filthy made up lies (what, Warren Ellis is doing LITG this week?).

So, without further ado, here is this week's round-up.