CN pulls DC Nation, fans sign petition as iTunes premieres new episodes.

This weekend, thousands of fans of the popular animated shows 'The Green Lantern' and 'Young Justice' were shocked to find out that Cartoon Network (US) had decided to pull their 'DC Nation' block off the air.

While the buzz went all over the net, CN quickly twittered that they will absolutely bring 'DC Nation' back, but fans would have to wait until January 2013. Cartoon Network is currently celebrating their 20 years of existence, which might explain the change of schedule, although most fans think the new hiatus is just another way of prolonging the current season.

Meanwhile, it's business as usual at iTunes, that made new episodes of  'The Green Lantern TAS' and 'Young Justice' available for download yesterday. Meaning, that if you want to check out your what your favorite characters are up to, you'll have to pay for it.
Already fans have created a petition to force CN to bring back their favorite shows, so if you're feeling the rage, make sure to leave your John Hancock there and/or get to iTunes asap. Word is the fresh batch of episodes won't be up for long at iTunes, once CN learns of the mistake. (For the new 'Green lantern' episodes, you'll need a season pass, although some fans seem to have found a workaround).

'DC Nation' premiered on Cartoon Network on March 8th this year, showing new cartoons featuring popular characters from DC Comics. DC Nation had just returned after a hiatus of four months, showing a few new episodes before CN decided to pull it off the air.

My guess is, the remaining episodes of both shows will not air until 2013, in order to catch more attention for the upcoming CG animated 'Beware the Batman' and 'Teen Titans Go!', two new animated shows that will be part of 'DC Nation' next year.



Above: The past meets the future in a scene from 'Before the Dawn', the episode from 'Young Justice' that didn't air on CN this weekend, written by Kevin Hopps and directed by Tim Divar. The Blue Beetle fights Black Beetle after he was captured by extra terrestrials known as 'The "Reach' and rescued by Impulse. He learned that if not stopped, Black Beetle will be the one to take over the Earth and enslave mankind in the future. All animations on 'Young Justice' are done by Lotto Animations in South Korea.

Below: Hal Jordan AKA The Green Lantern is transported to an alternate world where steam is still the main power source in 'Steam Lantern'. The unaired 15th episode was written by Ernie Altbacker and directed by Rick Morales. The first season consists of 26 episodes in total. A DVD containing the first part of this season was released on August 28 (unfortunately no HD release known as of date). All animation work on TGLTAS is done by CGCG in Taiwan (also responsible for 'Star Wars The Clone Wars').

DC releases 'The Dark Knight Returns' Part 1.

As the police radio announces that a robbery is in progress at the Gotham City trust, the arriving officers are met with a hail of bullets while the robbers make for a getaway in their cars. Tires screeching. Crime has never been so high. A high speed chase follows. 'You see that other car? It just went the other way' The younger officer says to his much older partner, who's driving like crazy.  'Forget it,' he replies, 'We're gonna lose this one as it is...'  'What the hell is that?' the younger officer sees a shadow moving across the building top. 'Up there...freakin' weird!' When the masked figure jumps through the air, lightning strikes. 'Holy...!'

The older police officer now sees it too. He hits the breaks and the robbers go for it. It's been ten years since Bruce Wayne retired and Batman has become not much more than a legend since. But the older cop still recognizes the dark figure coming to their rescue. It's Batman...the Dark Knight has returned! 'You're slowing down?' the younger officers asks. 'Yeah,' his partner replies laughing...'we're in for a show kid!' And that's exactly what we get. The Bruce Timm produced animated feature of Frank Miller's epic graphic novel was released on Blu-ray yesterday.

The image of Batman jumping through the storm with the lightning striking behind him, revealing him as he returns to Gotham City to bring justice to a corrupted city, is almost Iconic. It was the cover image for Frank Miller's graphic novel that I got such a long time ago. It gives me the chills when I think about it again.  The Dark Knight returns isn't your average Batman good-guy-catches-bad-guy fairy tale. Miller introduced a completely different Batman than we ever saw before. With one story, Miller single-handedly changed the DC Universe for ever. It's gritty, it's brutal and yes, it's terrifying. With his graphic novel, Miller brought Batman closer to reality than ever. It took DC 25 years before they dared to bring it to the screen (Miller's novel dates back from 1986) and the release couldn't have been timed better, with the TV screaming stories of corruption, fueled by an end-of-the-world-type of economic disaster, night after night.

Above and below: great artwork for the exterior scenes showing Gotham City, darker than ever. A city turned into a cesspool of corruption during Batman's ten year absence, until his sign is seen once again over the night sky, notifying that justice is coming once again.

Plugging comics: While an army of mutants are waging a personal war against him, Commissioner James Gordon enters a grocery store and gets into a gunfight. All the while he might as well have picked up some comics, as the backdrop clearly shows some of DC's finest.

Below (click to enlarge): the four issue story DC published in 1986 that went all the way to the top of the chart. 'The Dark Knight Returns' was created by Miller with inks by Klaus Janson, coloring by Lynn Varley and lettering from John Costanza. The second issue was titled 'Dark Knight Triumphant'. Part three, 'Hunt the Dark Knight' and four, titled 'Batman, the Dark Knight falls' will serve as the follow-up of this animated feature, to be released by Warner near the end of 2013.

What's Batman without Robin? Just like in the comic, A young girl named Carrie Kelley buys a cheap lookalike costume, puts on the outfit and saves Batman's life when he fights the Mutant's leader. She is then accepted by Bruce Wayne and becomes his sidekick.

Above: Caroline Keene aka Carrie Kelley as Robin in the animated feature. Below: Frank Miller's introduction of Carrie as Batman's aid.

Below: Introducing the Mutant leader, a scene from 'The Dark Knight Returns', and the equivalent scene from Miller's graphic novel.

One of the things I loved greatly about this animated feature was the score, which was one of the best I've heard this year so far. Composed by Christopher Drake, the soundtrack compliments all the action and flying bullets perfectly with some nice dramatic touches. The voice cast includes talents like Peter Weller as Bruce Wayne, known for his leading role in Paul verhoeven's 'Robocop' and currently often taking on the role of director on 'Sons of Anarchy'. If you pay attention you'll also be able to catch producer Bruce Timm himself as Thomas Wayne.

And please let's not forget the extremely talented group of artists working at Moi Animation Studios in South Korea, providing all the animation artwork for this feature (they also work on animated shows 'Young Justice' and 'Ultimate Spiderman'). Check out Lesean Thomas' 'Seoul Sessions' videos. He's an American animator living in Seoul and working with Moi Animation on all the shows we love to watch.

Jim Lee and the 'Justice League'.

Out today: JLA #7 with art by Gene Ha and Gary Frank.

Last September DC Comics started 'the new 52', meaning all their 52 comics started from scratch after decades of faithfully continuing the old numbering. Among them of course, 'The Justice League'. Now that the first six issues have been published, the first story arc, about the origin of the Justice League has been told with absolutely stunning artwork by jim Lee. This month,Gene Ha and Gary frank take over for an all new story. But don't be affraid, jim still did the cover artwork (see above!)

'The Villains Journey' will be the next stop for Lee with writer Geoff Johns, which will start in JLA issue 9 in April, along with 'The Curse of Shazam' by Johns with Gary Frank, which takes off today as a backup story. Check out all of Lee's cover artwork for the past story arc below and you'll understand why he's easily the greatest artist around at DC today. Awesome! (Click to enlarge).

Bruce Timm rocks with new 'Green Lantern animated series'.

'In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil's might beware my power... Green Lantern's light!'

This weekend the Cartoon Network (US) premiered the pilot for their great new show 'Green Lantern: The animated series' which will air in 2012. Directed by the great animator Bruce Timm, who earlier, together with Paul Dini, produced the multiple Emmy winning 'Batman, the Animates series'(1992 to 1995) for FOX and 'Superman, the animated series' (1996 to 2000) for Warner. Known for his great style, he also created the critically acclaimed 'Batman Beyond' for Warner between 1999 and 2001 and 'Justice League' for Cartoon Network between 2001 and 2004. 'Green Lantern' marks the first time Timm is doing a CGI animated cartoon show. Although a bit scared Timm's vision for stylish animation would suffer under the CGI, I was fortunate enough to check it out and can securely attest that the new Green Lantern series will definately live up to Timm's earlier work, both animation and storywise. And oh boy, what a great story it is indeed!

Above: Where fantastic tales of fiction meet the latest real life adventures in science: Cartoon Network's 'The Green Lantern animated series' will be another step forward into CGI animation for TV after their 'Star Wars: The Clone Wars' proved a hit succes.

Bill Finger and Martin Nodell.

'The Green Lantern' first appeared in 'All American Comics' issue 16 from July 1940. Created by Bill Finger (script) and Martin Nodell (art), the first Green Lantern was Alan Scott, an engineer involved in a terrible train crash, from which he was the only survivor, rescued by an otherworldly green light to become the masked avenger. Finger, being Bob Kane's writing partner at that that time, was responsible for the first Batman stories and also Batman's design (although every comic book today still reads 'created by 'Bob Kane' as Kane had legally requested). In 2005 the 'Bill Finger Award for excellence in comic book writing' was created, given each year at Comic-con, it honors writers that never received credit for their work. Among the recipients today are Gardner Fox, creator of 'The Flash' and the 'Justice League of America' and Larry Lieber, who wrote the first stories of 'Thor' and 'Iron Man'. Otto Binder, who introduced aspects to the realm of Superman like 'Krypto the dog','Supergirl' and the 'Legion of Super-Heroes' received the award in 2010 along with Gary Friedrich, who co-created 'Ghost Rider'.

Above: Martin Nodell in his studio in 1987. He passed away in 2006 at the age of 91, while Bill Finger had died in 1974 at the age of 59.

Finger and Nodell's original comic story reads like a tale of old mythology: arriving on earth through a meteor crash in Ancient China, the green light fortold it would flame three times: once to bring death, once to bring life and a third and last time to bring it's power. The burning metal from the meteor is used by the old wiseman Chang to make a lamp that shines green light, however, the villagers are afraid of him and his old scrolls and books, thinking it will bring them doom, so they set fire to his workshop, burning all but the lamp, which then fulfilled it's first prophecy and kills all the attacking villagers. The lamp finds its way into the US and falls into the hands of a mental patient in an asylum. After his health is restored by the green light (fulfilling the second prophecy) he crafts the lamp into a modern lantern, used by railroad workers at the time to give the 'clear' signal (green lanterns for 'go' and red lanterns of course, for 'stop'). It is this lamp Hal Jordan has with him during his train accident when the railroad bridge collapses. He receives the power of the Green light and therefor survives the crash, fulfilling the third and last prophecy.

Above: cover from 'All American Comics' 16, July 1940, which introduced Finger and Nodell's 'The Green lantern'. The magazine was published by Max Gaines' All-American publishers, one of the three companies that forged 'National Periodical Publications' in 1944, which officially adopted the name'DC Comics' in 1977.

Above: After surviving the train crash engineer Allan Scott receives instructions to create a ring that will harness the Green Lantern's power, from page 7 of 'All American Comics' 16. Originally Finger was inspired by the tale of Aladdin and thus had originally named his character 'Alan Ladd'.

Max Gaines' company also published 'All Star Comics' magzine which introduced the first female heroine 'Wonder Woman' in their eigth issue from December 1941. Creator Dr. William Moulton Marston was a psychologist who had advocated the educational use of comic books and was hired by Gaines as a consultant. He also invented an early version of the polygraph or lie detector, which he used to examine German POW's (prisoners of war).
Artist Gil Kane and writer John Broome revived the Green Lantern in 1959 in the 22th issue of DC's 'Showcase' comic series. It introduced test pilot Hal Jordan as the main character, who discoveres a crashed alien craft, carrying Abin Sur, an officer of the Green Lantern Corps, an intergalactic organisation, who is dying and tells him the ring selected him to take his place in the corps.

Above: artwork by Gil Kean (with inks by Joe Giella) features the first appearance of Hal Jordan. In the first story he receives the ring of the Green Lantern from Abin Sur (right).

The Green Lantern animated series will premier in spring 2012 on Cartoon Network as part of their new 'DC Nation' programming block that will also include'Young Justice' and another CGI animated show produced by Glen Murakami called 'Beware the Batman', which will debut in 2013. (check out the artwork below from this new show as first shown at the MIP junior conference in Cannes last month).

Below a few more screenshots. In the new animated series Hal Jordan is confronted with the sinisterous 'Red Lantern Corps' lead by Atrocitus (voiced by Jonathan Adams). The Red lanterns first appereared in the comic books created by Geoff Johns and Ethan van Sciver in 2007 and are first mentioned in the 'Sinestro Corps War' crossover event. Sinestro, a former green lantern and Jordan's arch nemesis, created by Gil Kane and John Broome in 1961 will not be part of the story line of the animates series.

DC Comics starts from scratch - the new 52!

While DC Comics released several major issues the last months (Action Comics #900 being just one of them) they decided to recreate history all over and start from scratch: This month DC will reset the clock and relaunch all their current series and release all-new premier issues of their 52 titles: the new 52! The other news is that from now on, the complete DC comics line will also be published digitally, so you will officially be able to get your favorite titles from DC in digital form, the very day the printed versions arrive in the shops!

The First title out was the new 'Justice League #1'. It was for sale on the night of August 31- September 1 at Midtown Comics, the huge comic book store on Times Square, New York, which had a signing session with the title's creators Jim Lee and Geoff Johns!

Waiting, waiting, waiting! With all these people waiting in line for the first issue of the new DC universe to arrive at midnight...

... creators Jim Lee and Geoff Johns were glad they could help out a little, handing out free pizza to the crowds before going on to sign their comics inside the shop!

No, it's not Halloween yet, but some of them were already in the mood to dress up! Jim Lee looks quite surprised while leaving his sketch on the covers of Justice League #1! Check out all photo's by Ron Gejon on the Midtown facebook page.

Some of the other titles arriving this month you might want to get for your grandkids : Action comics #1 (published September 7). The original version from the 1940's recently sold for a million Dollars! Below: original artwork and final cover by Rags Morales for the very first new 'Action Comics'. See anything different? Well, the man from Krypton lost his underpants! (Check out his cool new look from the 'Justice League Sketchbook' section underneath.)

More titles to look forward to: the premier issue of a whole new 'Detective Comics' (out now) and the very first issue of the new 'Superman' series (published September 28th). DC had just released Detective Comics #881 and Superman #714 last August. The first issue of 'Detective Comics' was released in March 1937 (the 27th issue would introduce us to 'Batman' for the very first time in May 1939). The original premier issue of 'Superman' was a spin-off of DC's popular 'Action Comics' which had introduced us to the Kryptonian flying man. It marked the first time a superhero had it's own series and dates back from June 1939.

The new 'Detective Comics' series will start off with story and artwork by Tony Daniel, while the new 'Superman' series will have artwork by one of my favorite DC artists George Perez! (cover above is by Jesus Merino). Check out the video beneath and see what the guys at DC Comics have to say for them selves about the complete new DC Universe!

DC publishes historic 900th issue of Action Comics!

As Writer Paul Cornell and artist Jesus Merino conclude their 'Black Ring' story arc, DC brings in Richard Donner, Gary Frank and Geoff Johns as Action Comics hits the 900 issue mark!

If you've never heard of Superman, you might have been in cryogenic sleep for the past several decades, or your name is Dr. Walter Bishop and you fell victim to your own experiments involving brain surgery. Anyway, the flying hero fighting evil mankind couldn't possibly face on it's own will have a small party this month celebrating it's landmark issue! DC Comics invites you to the party with a special 100 page celebration issue, due April 27th! (right, cover by David Finch).

He may have started out as a simple comic book character but has since grown into a pop culture icon. The 'S' logo on his chest has propably become one of the most prolific symbols of the last seventy years. But not everybody may be privy to the fact that he started out as a character in the first issue of Action Comics, in April 1938.

Action Comics became one of the longest running comic magazines in history, along with DC's other juggernaut 'Detective Comics' (starring Batman), who's currently running Scott Snyder's 'Hungry City' story arc in issue # 875.

Superman, named Kal-El (meaning 'star child'), the last survivor of his home planet Krypton, was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe shuster prior to WWII. Seeing his popularity in Action Comics, publisher National Periodical Publications (as DC was known back then) decided to give their hero his own self-titled monthly series a year later, in June 1939. Superman issue 710, featuring Michael Straczynski's 'Grounded' goes live this April 13.

The first issues of  'Action Comics' (left) and 'Superman' (right) went for $ 0,10 cents each at the time. Mint condition classics are rare these days, only a handfull remain. In 2010, an unknown A grade copy of the premier issue of 'Action Comics' was auctioned for a record $ 1.5 million dollars through ComicsConnect.  This one had layed unnoticed tucked inside an old movie magazine for 50 years. Creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster had sold the rights to Superman for $ 130 dollars at the beginning of their careers.

New Superman movie.

Today, Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures announced that Michael Shannon will play Superman's enemy General Zod, in the new upcoming movie 'Superman: Man of Steel' directed by Zack Snyder ('Sucker Punch', 'Watchmen', '300') and produced by Christopher Nolan.

Henry Cavill ('The Tudors') will star as Clark Kent/Superman and Amy Adams will portray Lois Lane. Budget has been set at $175 million Dollars, a little under the 209 million for Bryan Singer's 'Superman Returns' (2006). Diane Laine and Kevin Coster co-star as Kent's parents.
Snyder has stated that anything Superman will do, will be visual effects enhanced CGI. The story will focus on Superman's early days, and will not be linked to previous movies.
General Zod first appeared in Action Comics # 283 (april 1961) and was created by Robert Bernstein and George Papp. Dru-Zod as he's actually named, was a general in charge of Krypton's military forces and attempted to take over the planet. Zod created an army of robotic duplicates but was sentenced to live in exile in the Phantom Zone.

Before 'Man of Steel' will hit the theatres in December 2012, Christopher Nolan's third and final Batman film will be released on July 20. Entitled 'The Dark Knight Rises' the movie will not feature unused footage of the late Heath Ledger (as rumored). Christian Bale will reprise his role of Bruce Wayne/Batman. The Post Gazette confirmed last tuesday that TDKR will be shot this summer on location in Pittsburgh. Nolan's previous Batman film, 'The Dark Knight' (2008) currently holds 7th place in the top ten highest grossing movies to date, crossing the 1 Billion dollar mark.