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All The Rage – All The Raijin

Honshu Globetrotters

The US version of Shonen Jump from Viz Comics has caused much debate and speculation across the message boards this week. One speculation is that this monthly manga anthology will contain Slam Dunk, the insanely popular Japanese basketball manga residing in the Japanese Shonen Jump library of properties. It won't.

The reason is that Slam Dunk has already been signed up for a weekly manga anthology magazine in preparation for publication this autumn called Raijin Comics. Already Japan's first English language manga magazine, I understand that Raijin Comics will be published in the US by Gutsoon. Raijin looks like a direct rival to Shonen Jump in the US.

On the Warren Ellis website, Sam Humphries, Consulting Editor of Gutsoon recently wrote. "Looks like the tiger is out of the suitcase…. the format will be similar to what you see in Japan, with serialized stories continuing from week to week. Trade paperbacks collecting the stories will follow… obviously, this is a risky format for the US market, so it's great to see some are at least intrigued."

But as far as Slam Dunk is concerned, Sam Humphries, Consulting Editor for Gutsoon would only tell me that he could "neither confirm or deny" the story.

See the gameplan at http://www.gutsoon.com and http://www.raijincomics.com – and according to their website, they will be publishing Global Infiltration Manga. Can't wait.

This Has A Rumour Value Of 8 Out Of 10

Cat Cap

Orders for Thundercats #0 from Wildstorm, featuring a 12 page story drawn by fan favourite J. Scott Campbell may well be down on what they could be. DC are not letting retailers order any more of #0 than of #1 (not by Campbell). Intended to push #1 sales up, retailers are left with the possibility of getting stuck with #1s they think they won't be able to sell, or reduce the number of 0's so that those buying only for J. Scott Campbell will be disappointed.

Clever marketing ­ but could it bite DC in the arse? Are DC the new New Marvel?

This Has A Rumour Vale Of 9 Out Of 10

Checking The Atlas

DC's clarification at Bristol that they "settled" with Charles Atlas, rather than won, over the Flex Mentallo case does seem to conflict with a certain legal document online. Read the full summary here. I'm the furthest thing from a legal expert on this planet (as the Bristol Comics 2000 panel plainly showed) but it looks fairly cut and dried to me. Here's a few quotes:

"Plaintiff's argument that DC's bad faith is evinced by its decision to forgo publication of a planned

Flex Mentallo

paperback after receiving plaintiff's cease and desist letter is unavailing. We refuse to infer bad intent from DC's decision to accommodate Atlas's request. To the contrary, since DC has represented that it has no intention to use the Flex Mentallo character again, the likelihood of confusion in the future is even further reduced."

"The likelihood of confusion is therefore slim, and is clearly outweighed by the public interest in parodic expression. As a result, summary judgment must be granted to the defendant."

"For the foregoing reasons, defendant's motion for summary judgment is granted in its entirety. Defendant's motion for sanctions under Rule II is denied. The Clerk of the Court is respectfully directed to enter judgment in favor of the defendant and close the above-captioned case."

Any legal eagles care to help out? Any reason here why DC had to settle, and not reprint the Flex Mentallo series as a TPB?

This Has A Treading-On-Thin-Waters Value Of 8 Out Of 10

That Pizza Order In Full

There are still unbelievers that last week's Joe "Two Pizzas" Quesada story is false. So, for their benefit, here is the Marvel crew's full order run down for that night:

Joe Quesada – Margarita Pizza and Southern Fries

Axel Alonso – Seafood Pizza and Garlic Bread

Stuart Moore – Four Seasons Pizza ­ but he did not eat the quarter with Olives. Was this a sign of his imminent resignation?

The only complaint was that there was not enough ice in the cokes.

Axel's response? "To confirm: There was not enough ice."

This Has A Pizza Value Of Formaggio* Out of 10

God Is Watching You

William Messner-Loebs or Bill Loebs, is one of my favourite writers and artists. Creatior of Journey and Bliss Alley, writer for Sam Keith's The Maxx, his work has often entertained me. He's now in very serious financial trouble due to a series of very unfortunate events, which you can read about here. Anything you can do to help will be gratefully received.

Also looking for aid are the Borderline team, creators of the pdf free downloadable Borderline magazine which has just lost the possibility of further backing from one source, after Cool Beans World went down. To find out more, go here.

And if you're not all tapped out, the Just One Page charity comics project I was vaguely associated with a year ago is selling its original art.

Click here for the full list, including a Howard the Duck page drawn by Phil Winslade from a script by Steve Gerber, created before the series was started by the pair. This will be the only Winslade Howard art available for sale.

This Has A Dig Deep Value Of 9 Out Of 10

World's Greatest Allocation

I understand that Fantastic Four #60, The 9 Cent Edition has received disappointing initial orders compared to DC's Batman 10 Cent Edition. This may explain the recent Diamond announcement that this book may be allocated when published – so retailers only receive a proportion of what they ordered.

Either Marvel they're using it as a way to bump up initial orders from retailers in the fear there will be allocation.or they've have decided to cut their losses on this one, and are trying to make an impact with what they've got for less outlay.

Thus making it a small collectable. Look at it this way, if demand does exceed supply, this comic is bound to go up in value. In a year it could have doubled in price! Tripled even. One day it might be worth a quarter!

This Has A Rumour Value Of 7 Out of 10

Fury At Fury

I understand that ER and Batman star, George Clooney, was being groomed as the new Nick Fury, for either TV or film. Until, that is, they saw a copy of the recent MAX series Fury, in which Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson depict Fury as a cold war dinosaur trapped in a world he didn't make, full of PR, collateral damage and an enemy solider called Fuckedface.

They passed. Avi Arad was not a happy man.

This Has A Rumour Value Of 4 Out Of 10

Bolt In The Neck?

I hear that editor Andrew Lis is working with comic book writer John Arcudi for a total revamp of Kurt Busiek's Thunderbolts series, currently written byFabian Nicieza. Thunderbolts is one of the few projects associated with Bob Harras' regime that has survived relatively unscathed under New Marvel. So far.

This Has A Rumour Value Of 5 Out Of 10

Manpowers

Want to work at Marvel? You could do worse than try here… VP of licensing, fiction editor… the choice is yours! Click here.

This Has A Flood Barrier Value Of 8 Out Of 10

Truth, Justice And The American Waid

I hear that Mark Waid is working on a year-long Superman project for DC Comics. Famously, after the failed attempted "Superman coup", he was informed that he'd never be allowed to write the solo character ­ something he found very hard to take. Looks like they've found a way around it.

Mark Waid did not choose to comment.

This Has A Rumour Value Of 5 Out Of 10

Cable Call

There were plenty of Portugeuse speakers on hand ready to translate last weekend's report on Cablebeing welcomed in Rio de Janiero – including from article writer Pedro Bouca himself. He writes:

"Croatian writer Darko Macan has just took over the writing of the

Cable

book which, by the way, is about to be renamed as

Soldier X

! On this first issue, the Askani'son visits Rio de Janeiro and ­ Surprise! ­ the place REALLY looks like Rio de Janeiro! The tourist attractions are well represented, the slums look like slums, the people look like Brazilians (whites, blacks, false blondes, cheap hookers on the sidewalk) and not like Mexicans! Congratulations to the penciler also Croatian Igor Kordey, for his great research work!

Also, everyone speaks Portuguese… with slang! Macan was even able to put a "caralho" in one of the balloons (sorry about the context). Fortunately the Marvel censors don't know jack of our language!

On the book, Cable goes to Rio to relief his stress, there he meets a mutant-powered street kid named Xande. With the help of the boy, he finds out an illegal Ultimate Fighting ring for sons of the atom. It's at that moment that appears on the book Juliana Jararaca, the first genuinely Brazilian mutant, much different from "Made in Paraguai" Brazilian mutant Sunspot.

And what does the great hero, relentlessly called "gringo" by the locals do? As a good defender of the American Way of Life, he decides to put an end to the fights. The result: he gets his crap beaten out of him and has to flee for his life, maybe then he will learn not to put his nose where he isn't needed.

As it is evident, it's not Alex Ross' Superman bringing food for slums in Rio de Janeiro which appear to be Mexican shantytowns in a Rio de Janeiro where the building of the Escola Militar da Urca, razed decades ago, still stands.

My sole criticism, Macan made Xande pronounce Sao Paulo slang "gambé" to say that Cable wasn't a policeman instead of the more "carioca" (native of Rio de Janeiro) "cana", but it is understandable since, in the book, he thanks ­ with good reason ­ to the "paulista" (native of Sao Paulo) Ricardo Giassetti for help with the Brazilian expressions. I trust that our friend, Fernando Lopes, editor of the Brazilian arm of Marvel/Panini, will correct that small mistake whenever the story gets published here.

For its good representation of Brazil ­ a relief after aberrations such as Batman in Brazil, Superman: Peace on Earth and the execrable Sunspot, great artwork and subtle criticism of the US interventionism in Latin America Latina,

Cable #105

gets a deserved A+!"

Pedro also added a few of his excess notes from the original article, exclusively for All The Rage readers to enjoy.

""Batman in Brazil" is a fairly unknown storyline for

Detective Comics

written by Peter Milligan and penciled by Norm Breyfogle. In Brazil it was published, with pomp and circunstance, in a special edition, which only made the horrible misconceptions about Brazil in the story and art (and the general mediocrity of them) all the more evident for the Brazilian comics readers.

Kordey did very good shots of distinctive places of Rio de Janeiro like Pao de Açucar, Copacabana Beach, the church of Candelaria and even the Rocinha slum!

"Caralho" is an horrible profanity (one of those that they don't speak on TV), one of the worst nicknames for penis…>

"Xande" is a nickname for Alexandre (Alexander) which is exclusive of Brazilian portuguese, no other portuguese-speaking country that I know of makes use of it. It's typical of lower-class people.

Brazil (and Rio de Janeiro in particular) is a virtual factory of champions of Ultimate Fighting tournments. An illegal mutant Ultimate Fighting ring in Marvel's Brazil is something that makes a lot of sense!

The marvel character Sunspot is used in Brazil as an example of the lack of research of the American comic writers which try to do stories happening on Brazil. The little bastard speaks spanish and is a boring prick, much different from the typical (even stereotypical) Brazilian, which is smart, cool-headed and goes out of his way to avoid problems (and work…). That guy was as angst-ridden as all of the other New Mutants.

The "Made in Paraguai" reference. In Brazil, Paraguai has the reputation of being a heaven for low-quality product piracy. We use to say here that any product that looks like a particular brand but isn't nearly as good is made there. Yes, that is not very nice with the citizens of Paraguai.

Yes, Americans are despised in Brazil for their holier-than-thou attitude and the backlash that results of Cable's actions is extremely appropriate.

A not-very-subtle shot at the terrible "Superman: Peace on Earth" special of some years back. As I said, the slums on the special are from Mexico and the reference used by Alex Ross for the bird's eye view of Rio de Janeiro is half-century old. The large building of the "Escola Militar da Urca" (a VERY large building which is a distinctive feature of old pictures of Rio) was razed long ago, after being shot at by the insurrected garrison of Copacabana's Fort (don't ask).

The inhabitants of the two largest Brazilian cities ­ Rio de Janeiro ("cariocas") and Sao Paulo ("paulistanos" or, in a more general classification, "paulistas") are fierce rivals (think New York and Chicago). They use an entirely different slang from each other. Most of it is alien for the natives of the other city.

There are also a few typos on a couple of Portuguese expressions. "Louco" (madman) is written "luoco" on the book and "Paulo" (both as a character name and the name of Brazil's largest city) is written "Paolo" in italian fashion."

This Has A "Wait Till The End Of The Week, Brazil" Value Of 8 Out Of 10

A New Hole

We're all going to http://www.moviepoopshoot.com on Monday, right?

This Has A Regular Bowel Movement Value Of 9 Out Of 10

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