Daredevil

Comics need to adapt to a digital medium if they want to survive, comics writer Mark Waid told WonderCon attendees Friday afternoon during a panel spotlighting his career. And to drive his point home, Waid announced that he is selling his extensive comic book collection to fund a weekly online comic series, which will launch in May. “This is in no way a hard-luck story,” said Waid, the writer behind Marvel’s relaunch of “Daredevil” and co-creator (with artist Alex Ross) of the Eisner Award-winning graphic novel “Kingdom Come.” “I’m a very lucky man. I don’t have to do this because I need a kidney. … I’m just doing this because it’s about the right time to let go of the past and really embrace the future.” A future for comics, according to Waid, means creating comics specifically for a digital […]

Gene Colan, the comic-book artist best known for The Tomb of Dracula and his work with characters such as Daredevil, Batman, Iron Man and Howard the Duck , died Thursday in New York after battling liver disease and cancer. The work of the Bronx, N.Y., native spanned 67 years and crossed multiple comics universes, with credits for Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Eclipse and even Archie. His moody, atmospheric style stood in stark contrast to, say, the cosmic bombast of Jack Kirby or the kinetic realism of Neal Adams. Colan will be most remembered for an era-defining achievement in 1970s horror comics; he drew 70 issues of The Tomb of Dracula,” written by Marv Wolfman, creating the vampire-hunter character Blade that would lead to the first Marvel film franchise. (“Howard the Duck” also made history in 1986 as the first Marvel feature film, although its achievements beyond that are debatable.) […]

Another Hollywood entity is trying the daredevil move — literally — of rebooting a superhero franchise that hasn’t really been away that long. The Fox-affiliated production company New Regency, which produced the initial “Daredevil” back in 2003, is making another go of a movie headlined by that character. The company is interested in restarting the Marvel franchise and has hired David Scarpa, a writer best known for the script of the 2008 sci-fi remake “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” to offer a new take. Former News Corp. executive Peter Chernin will also produce the project via his new production company. Fox/New Regency have been rumored for some time to be interested in a new “Daredevil,” but to this point had taken few concrete steps in that direction. The first “Daredevil,” which came out in 2003, starred Ben Affleck as […]

Here’s one more Comic-Con International 2008 anecdote as I clean out my notebook from the long weekend: Could a British actor wear the red horns of the Man Without Fear? Jason Statham says, "Absolutely, just give me the chance, I would love to be Daredevil." Statham was in San Diego to promote "Death Race," his upcoming high-octane film, but after a long day "The Transporter" star was taking it easy with a beer downstairs at the Hard Rock Hotel. Also sitting at the table was filmmaker and comics icon Frank Miller, whose solo directorial debut "The Spirit" arrives in theaters on Christmas Day. Fans of comics know that Miller became a superstar for Marvel Comics with his work on "Daredevil" beginning in 1979 and many of his creations and innovations (not least among them, the character Elektra) added new depth […]