NEWS EDITION #6 - HELL BOY DEAD, FURMAN & WILDMAN BACK ON TRANSFORMERS,

Welcome to the 6th issue of CBC News Edition.




HELLBOY IS DEAD . . .SERIOUSLY

   Our top story today is that after so many years and several movies . . . including a third movie being filmed, Hellboy met his end in last weeks. In the finale of Hellboy: The Fury #3, Hellboy Creator Mike Mignola and Duncan Fegredo took the red, demonic hero and killed him this past well. Reactions from creators, fans and others gave comments to CBR after the death of Hellboy last week. And Mignola promises that this is not just a gimmick to resurrect it later.

The following is comments from CBR :


Duncan Fegredo: As the artist I'd had some time to come to terms with Hellboy's passing, way before reading Mike's script we had talked of the event. I had long come to terms with the event, after all, it's not as if Hellboy hadn't died before... Even when the time came to draw the layout depicting the event, it was an abstraction, a problem to be solved, needs to be met. You'd imagine then that drawing the final art would be no more affecting, and you'd be right, well, maybe a twinge when it came to drawing hellboy's stunned expression when faced with the reality of his heart before him. It wasn't until I drew Alice, crumpled in despair in the stairwell that it really hit me, all my time on Hellboy lead to that moment, I'll be honest, I felt bereft, drained. Still a few more pages to draw, keep it together. Three months later, I still feel exhausted by the experience. But I'm also excited for the future of Hellboy, looking forward to reading the book as I used to, as a fan. I know a little of what Mike has in store for us, and I can't wait.

Guillermo del Toro, Director of both Hellboy movies:Farewell dear friend. Part of my heart dies with you- a dark, intimate corner reserved only for my most cherished monsters. The world is suddenly a lonely place deserted of your light. I stand amidst strangers wondering about your fate- your ultimate fate- having been born a demon and having raised to become a man. But so much more than a man. Unlimited power was laid at your feet and you resisted the temptation of tyranny and domination- your red right hand guided by the better demons of your nature. Farewell dear friend, I miss you too much already.

John Cassaday, Writer and Artist of “Big-Top Hell-Boy” from "Hellboy: Weird Tales" #1: It’s sad to see our big red boy go, but I’m sure he’s in a warmer place. Congrats to Mike on a lovely run and an inventive character that entertained me at every turn. Whatever’s around the next corner for Mike, whatever he does next-- I’ll be there.


Scott Allie, "Hellboy" Editor: For all the great things Hellboy did with his life, I think his chief virtue was in always believing he was just one of us humans. I think he was one of the best of us. I've been lucky enough to spend my days with Hellboy for nearly half my life. Seldom has a day gone by that I don't think of him, don't say his name. I doubt this will change, now that he's gone. I know I'm not alone in this.

Mike Mignola: It's strange. All these changes, like putting out his eye and now killing him, always seem like they're so far away. It's always strange when you get to that point and go, "Oh wait! It's really here." It's kind of like when your daughter takes her first driving test. You knew she was getting older and at some point we'd get to that...but it's strange when she just hops in a car and drives away. It's like that. It was weird to write the scene and go, "Are we really doing this?" I knew we'd been talking about that scene, but writing it that way, I went, "Am I really going to do this? Because once I do it, once I type this line out...there's really no going back." Then when Duncan draws it, you say "Are we really doing this?" You go through that whole process again! Can I change my mind? So now having the comic finally come out, it's like "Well...we've done it now." And it's fine. I don't have any second thoughts about doing this. You just hold your breath and say, "I hope it works. I hope it goes over the way I want it to go over."

It would be sadder if I didn't have all that room to go back and tell stories about the old, classic Hellboy. But I've got the best of both worlds. I've got the classic Hellboy, and I can move forward into really uncharted territory. Unlike everything I've done with Duncan where even if I didn't know exactly what I was doing it was at least clear that we were going to this place, what I'm doing now myself doesn't have a specific end point. It's got certain things it's got to do, but beyond a certain point, it's just blue sky. We don't know what happens to him after that.

There are still stories to do about Hellboy in Mexico. There's really so many things that I haven't done with Hellboy in the past. We've never seen a story about young Hellboy and the Professor Bruttenholm. Other than "Pancakes," we've never seen a story with young Hellboy. There's plenty of unexplored Hellboy territory to do. And for me as an artist, what I want to draw are these stories of Hellboy drifting through Hell, but as a writer, I can do a couple more books about Hellboy in Mexico and a lot of other stuff.

It is interesting though, because now that we've done it – while Hellboy has been pretty isolated of late, there will now be repercussions from "Hellboy" throughout the Hellboy world. Because we really did destroy England. And Duncan is drawing right now a sort of epilogue that will run in "Dark Horse Presents" that is Kate finding out that Hellboy is dead. There are these ripples. There's no way we could do this thing and not have it impact the B.P.R.D. a bit. I think we're all looking around right now and going, "We really did this...so how does it affect this, this and this?" It's exciting.

FURMAN & WILDMAN BACK ON TRANSFORMERS AFTER CHAOS!!


    IDW has been taking care of the Transformers franchise for over 5 years now, giving us some pretty great stories for fans to take and enjoy. Yet, in all the time that Transformers has been hitting the presses . . . in all the time that Transformers series by Dreamwave, IDW and other indy companies . .. nothing has compared to the legendary work of writer Simon Furman and his often time partner of  the Transformers UK & Transformers American comics of the 80s and early 90s, Andrew Wildman. 
     It has now been confirmed that after the landmark storyline Chaos in the current Transformers ongoing, Transformers will go from issue #30 to #125. And confirmed during this years Comic Con, Simon Furman and Andrew Wildman will be the creators behind the helm. 
     It seems that the current storylines "Chaos" and "The Last Story On Earth" are building up to the return of the Transformers legends. 
       To people not up on their Transformers comic book lore, allow me to tell you what this means. This is like Chris Claremont and John Byrne returning to Uncanny X-Men after being away for so long. Andrew Wildman gain alot of favor with Transfans (as Transformers fans are called internationally) doing art for Marvel UK's Transformers series with Furman as well as taking over the last two years as artist in the original Marvel comics run.
     Simon Furman spent most of the 80s and early 90s writing Transformers both in the US and the UK Marvel divisions. The transformers books in the UK were weekly  so he threw out many stories and concepts that were put into the animated canon and are still used today. Simon Furman was the man behind Primus, the god that created the transforms and for most Transfans and nearly every single comic book, animated and movie adaption since those books were released followed the fact that the Transformers were created by Primus aka The All Spark as dubbed during Beast Wars. He gave Transformers a god instead of followed the original G1 continuity that suggested that the Transformers were made by the Quintessions.  Simon Furman penned well over 150 Transformers stories over his time and regarded as THE Transformers writer.
     Hence the news that this combo were coming back and were going to continue the fusion UK/US Transformers comic book continuity from the past has made many fans sit up and cheer. 
    Fan pressure brought back this duel as a recent online petition, which was signed by CBC's own Frankie Rodriguez, proved to IDW that were was certainly a demand and market for Furman and Wildman working on the original Transformers comic book continuity. IDW's reprints of the Marvel UK stores selling well only added the fuel needed to bring back the two Transformers legends. 
     Transformers #125 will hit stores this December, written by Simon Furman with art by Andrew Wildman. 



FANTASTIC FOUR RETURNS IN NOVEMBER . . .BUT FF CONTINUES!

   Okay. Things are going nuts in the world of FF as Marvel confirmed that the Fantastic Four will return with issue #600 coming this November. Oh . . . and this was just not something that is happening on a whim as first, there may have been sightings of the Human Torch but not confirm its Johnny Storm. But, smart marketing, the FF will continue with the kids as the Stars.  So one book will easily becomes two. Franklin, Val, Alex, Dragonman and the others take over the FF while the original crew and Peter go over to the FF. Both written by Jonathan Hickman. Fantastic Four #600 written by Jonathan Hickman with art by Steve Epting, Di Giandomenico, Yu and Dalrymple.
    FF # 12 written by Jonathan Hickman with art by Juan Bobillo. Both books will hit stores in November.






DARKWING VS. LAUNCH PAD FOR CONTROL OF ST. CANARD?!

It’s a super-powered stampede as waves and waves of brand new baddies pop up all over St. Canard, in the midst of a mayoral race you have to see to believe! How many more meta human menaces are gonna show up to crash Darkwing’s political party? Count ‘em all in “The Ballot of Darkwing and Launchpad!” as our grand hero must face off against his best friend, Launchpad McQuack for control over St. Canard. Fan-favorite writer Ian Brill and superstar artist James Silvani bring you another fantastic issue of DARKWING DUCK!


Darkwing Duck #17 written by Ian Brill with art by James Silvani will hit stores this Wednesday, August 17th, 2011 for $3.99 from BOOM! Studios.

















COMIC BOOK CLASH DC'S RELAUNCH BLOG PROJECT


 Yes. You are reading right. CBC is doing a special project in honor of the massive relaunch of books from DC Comics this September. This is historic. And we want to know how you feel about the books. Yeah you! Not the person to the left. No, no the midget who stole your girlfriend. Not your parents. YOU!  DC is releasing 52 new number 1s as you know . . . and we want to hear for you what you think.

    We will go by a Week by Week Breakdown of the new titles. And we need your input. It can be a few sentences. It can be a video of your opinion that we can upload and/or link. But we are looking for as much input from fans about the books after you have read them.

    Comments and/or videos from books on a certain week will come out the week after they have been released . .. For example, Justice League opinions will be hit our page September 7th. Then every week after till the final week of new number #1s, which will be seen in the first week of October.

  We want your input. And we will take your input on more than just 1 book but at least 1. We want to have something for all 52 books so do hesitate to pick up a new #1 and tell us what you think. And don't worry, CBC and many of the J1 staff themselves will be weighing in their own opinions come September.

So if you are interested in take 1 book or more, reading it and giving us an honest opinion other than just "It's sucks!" or "It's awesome!", please feel free to email us at francisco.k.rodriguez@gmail.com and state which book or books you will give opinions on. Deadline for opinion of the book is the Monday before the next CBC so for Week 1, you have until 11:59pm Monday September 5th to tell us what you think of Justice League #1 and next Monday till 11:59pm for all the books of Week Two.  J1 Studios and CBC will reserve the right NOT to post certain comments if they are too . . .offensive.  So don't be shy. Tell us what you think. See and talk with you all soon.

Frankie Rodriguez (aka Seraph)
CBC Head


See ya next week