SMASHING!

that dude Cully Hamner (Black Lightning:Year One, Red) will be at Baltimore comicon this weekend, for all those who plan to be in attendance, 'longside his Gaijin bredren Brian Stelfreeze, Karl Story, Doug Wagner, and Laura Martin. Cully and Colorista extraordinaire Laura Martin will have this limited edition She Hulk print with 'em for you to cop, so be advised! He's also taking pre-orders for commissions, so get more info from him at cully@gaijinstudios.com.
holla!
-samax
ghettoManga.com
comics.hipHop.news.art.culture

the net's BUZZING about RED again

according to Peter Sciretta at Slashfilm, Morgan Freeman is in talks to star 'longside Bruce Willis in a big screen adaptation of Warren Ellis’ and Cully Hamner's comic book RED. as i've said before, i can TOTALLY see Bruce Willis as the retired CIA monster who the newly appointed government bureaucrats should have known better than to mess with. without knowing how they will change the book to bring it to the screen, i'm not sure who Freeman would play, but he is a welcome additon to any cast.

stay tuned...

-samax

Please HAMNER, Don't Hurt 'Em!

maybe you guys already knew this, but Bruce Willis (Die Hard) and Richard Donner (Lethal Weapon, Superman) are both rumored to be attached to the film adaptation of Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner's transcendantly DOPE spook nightmare RED. i can TOTALLY see Bruce Willis as the retired CIA monster who the newly appointed government bureaucrats should have known better than to mess with.
anyways, according to Hamner's blog, a new TPB collecting the phenomenal miniseries has been put together and it's pretty awesome. it'll have all the dvd-style extras that the previous collection left out, and it's still only fifteen bucks. RED: THE NEW EDITION hits comic shops June 10th.
holla!
-samax
ghettoManga.com
comics.hipHop.news.art.culture

In Stores this Wednesday...

Please don't miss Black Lightning: Year One, which drops this week, written by Jen Van Meter and drawn by the magnificent Cully Hamner (Red, Blue Beetle).

"My story is about a man -- a former Olympian and a successful educator — who returns with his family to the community where he grew up and finds it subjected to the will of a criminal organization not even Superman can fight,” Van Meter told CBR News. “And then he does what heroes do. He puts himself on the line to do what's right, risking his personal happiness to save thousands.” (read the interview)

-ghettoManga.com
comics.hipHop.news.art.culture

coming in January

BLACK LIGHTNING: YEAR ONE 1-2
Written by Jen Van Meter
Art and cover by Cully Hamner
Jefferson Pierce returns to his old stomping grounds – the infamous Suicide Slum of Metropolis – in order to bring some hope to the residents of his downtrodden former neighborhood. He'll quickly learn, though, that a lawless place sometimes requires a lawless vigilante to drag it into the light. Acclaimed writer Jen Van Meter (CINNAMON, OUTSIDERS) and kinetic artist Cully Hamner (BLUE BEETLE, RED) combine forces to retell the electrifying origin of DC's most honorable hero, the bold and brave Justice Leaguer known as Black Lightning!

Issue 1 on sale January 7; issue 2 on sale January 21 • 1 and 2 of 6 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US
go pester your comic shop to order this NOW!
ghettoManga.com
comics.hipHop.news.art.culture

Summit Entertainment has us seeing RED

Summit Entertainment has snagged the big screen rights to Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner's action-packed mini-series Red. in case you've never read it, Red is the story of a retired government assassin who, through no fault of his own, is targeted for death by the self-same government he served tirelessly and faithfully for decades. unlike many comics tapped for the silver screen treatment, Red is designed so much like a blockbuster film that one might never consider that it started on a comics page. published by DC/WildStorm, Red is the first DC Comics title to leave parent company Time Warner’s production umbrella.
we'll see how it goes...
holla!
-gM

Jason Pearson's Body Bags

what have i been thinking? i got a blog called ghettoManga, a stated purpose to hip the unsuspecting masses to fly hipHop flavored comics with anime-worthy pinache, and have yet to mention a book of MASSIVE proportions?

forgive me friends... today, i give you Jason Pearson's Body Bags. i first saw J.Pearson's work on covers (i bought Catalyst: Agents of Change primarily for his next-level cover art...), and was blown away by his impeccable sense of movement, flash and incredibly polished anime-ish style. in a field of Graph and Anime inspired artists of the mid-nineties (and there were A. LOT of 'em), Pearson's work stood far and away the best of the bunch.
anyways, Body Bags was part of Dark Horse's "Blanc Noir" imprint (with such notable label-mates as Brian Stelfreeze, Cully Hamner and Adam Hughes [if you don't recognize those names... i got a TON o' work ta do...]) . the house eventually folded, but not before j.p. wrote, drew and dropped the opus-worthy miniseries, Father's Day, which introduced us to Mack (aka "Clownface"), ruthless Body Bagger (high stakes bounty hunter) his elderly partner Pops, and his long-lost daughter (and wanna-be baby bagger) the bodacious Panda.

the book is PURE. F^&*^IN' GENIOUS!!! it's a violent, irreverant, blood-spraying masterpiece!!! Jason's new stompin' grounds, the aptly named 12-gauge Comics, has re-released Father's Day, so please do yourself a favor and go COP IT!!! for those too paranoid to trust me, go preview Father's Day for self.

holla!
samax.

Random comics News

DC will put new creative teams on a few of their books, including Superman and Batman’s Detective Comics. The new team to handle the Original Superhero is Kurt Busiek and Carlos Pacheco. The team was first paired on Avengers Forever for Marvel Comics, but both have been hanging around the Distinguished Competition lately: Pacheco handled art chores most recently on Green Lantern with writer Geoff Johns, and drew an arc of Batman/Superman for Jeff Loeb. After penning the JLA/Avengers crossover, Kurt Busiek parlayed it into a gig on the regular JLA book, which in turn landed him on the Superman title.

Batman’s flagship book, Detective Comics, will be written by Batman: the Animated Series writer/director Paul Dini, with art by Rags Morales, who drew last years unqualified runaway hit, the superhero murder mystery Identity Crisis. Paul Dini’s Batman has been heralded by some (including me!) to be the most definitive Batman portrayal since Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns. Additionally, Rags Morales is at the top of his game. It will be interesting to see what will become of this pairing of two such stellar talents on one of the best superhero characters around.

Speaking of Superman… please tell me you have been checking out that Ultima… I mean All-Star Superman series by Grant Morisson and Frank Quitely. Not for nothing’, but that mess is the bomb!

Civil War is breaking out at marvel… apparently there is some sort of tragedy where hundreds of get hurt or killed, motivating the gov’t to pass a superhero registration law requiring all heroes to reveal their secret ID’s…this causes a schism between Avengers buddies Iron Man and Captain America, and spreads out, as all the heroes start taking sides. There will be serious repercussions for some heroes (notably my favorite, the Amazing Spider-man) as changes in public policy, perception, and the balance of power spread through the Marvel U… the miniseries, entitled simply Civil War, will be written by Ultimates scribe Mark Millar, with art by slick newcomer Steve McNiven, who’ll be inked by Dexter Vines.

Get Down… my main man Warren Ellis, writer of cult hit Planetary and the Ultimate Galactus trilogy is the busiest guy in comics. To my delight, he has teamed again with artist Cully Hamner to do Down (remember their last collabo: RED? i know i do...), a 4 issue miniseries about police detective Deena Ransome going undercover as a hitman (or would that be hit person..?) in order to take down a local crime lord. However, she may lose her humanity in the process: she has already killed cops, crooks and innocent bystanders… and this thing is only half over!!! COP IT!