Everyday Hero, your fanboy news roundup

Welcome to the weekend edition of Everyday Hero, which brings you hand-picked headlines from across the fanboy universe. Before we get to the links, a quick recommendation: Take a look at my favorite Web comic of the moment, "Fear My Dear" by Dean Haspiel over at Act-I-Vate. It's a nasty fever dream of a story and well worth checking out, especially if you enjoyed his art on "The Alcoholic" (see the bottom link below) or "The Quitter".

Now, on with the news...      

Astral projection: Neil Gaiman wants to make a Dr. Strange movie with Guillermo del Toro, but they won't be making magic anytime soon. "We’d love to do it together. The problem is, Guillermo’s off doing ‘The Hobbit’, and that’s going to be three, four years in New Zealand for him." [Splash Page, MTV]

On the set of "The Road": There are some photos posted online showing the "cannibal house" from the upcoming film adaptation of the harrowing Cormac McCarthy novel. The photos came from Jeremy Ambler, an actor in the film, and show him posing with star Viggo Mortensen. [Quiet Earth]   

Kind of blue: A behind-the-scenes video on the creation of Dr. Manhattan for Zack Snyder's upcoming "Watchmen" film. [Sci Fi Wire]

A new book called "The Age of TV Heroes" hits shelves in November with a history of costumed crusaders on the small screen and interviews with the actors who played them. George Khoury, who co-wrote the book, is a bigger geek than you. Want proof? "The only time that I really got starstruck was when we interviewed Danny Seagren, the actor who played Spider-Man in 'The Electric Company.'" [Newsarama]

Michael Miller graphic novel review: "The Alcoholic" by Jonathan Ames and Dean Haspiel  comes "laced with the brittle, soul-scraped-out feeling of a hangover" [Time Out New York] ... and you already know how the Hero Complex feels about this one.

-- Geoff Boucher

Image from "Fear My Dear" courtesy of Act-I-Vate.

T.J. Kosinski, one of our talented interns this summer here at The Times, wandered around Comic-Con International a few weeks ago and interviewed some of his favorite comics creators. Here is his third guest post.

Like the undergound comix scene in those roiling days of the 1960s, the burgeoning online comics sector is a wide-open frontier now making up its own rules and picking its leading voices. I'd say one of the strongest players at the moment is Act-I-Vate, the webcomics collective with about 30 creators on its roster. It's both smart showcase and wild laboratory, providing consistently updated (and thoroughly interesting) comics to readers across the Web for free.

Two of the member creators are Joe Infurnari and Molly Crabapple.  Infurnari is a writer and artist who values the benefits of creating comics strictly for the Web: “Going digital is great to get yourself to a wide audience. If I write something, [someone] can place a link to it on MySpace and it gets 60,000 hits. That sort of exposure can’t be done by handing out postcards or just talking to people.”

Infurnari is working on his latest webcomic, "The Transmigration of ULTRA-Lad!" It's a reverse-Shazam sort of story in which an old man transforms into a teenage superhero. The aesthetic of the webcomic is great. The story is told on "pages" that have the browning, battered edges of a vintage comic book (one that was not stored in a Mylar bag) and the art is a shadowy valentine to super-hero artists such as Mac Raboy and Wally Wood. Infurnari also has The Process, which had been nominated for an Eisner Award.
One interesting dimension of Infurnari’s The Process is how tailored it feels to the Web. The website that hosts the comic is meticulous; even the table of contents is intricate. Infurnari took this approach seeking “an interactive experience.” He explained that “with the Web, I can control how the audience absorbs material. The whole thing is an immersive design. My goal is to teleport the viewer into the world of the story.”

Readers should check out The Process, not only for the tremendously detailed artwork, but for Infurnari’s surreal narrative. It’s self-described as “a journey and exploration through a personal ‘pleroma,’ an imaginary landscape populated by strange, wondrous creatures and archetypal characters." The Eisner nomination for Best Digital Comic speaks to the ability of Infurnari to relay his strange inner visions to a wide audience.

ACT-I-VATE is making dynamic webcomics

T.J. Kosinski, one of our talented interns this summer here at The Times, wandered around Comic-Con International a few weeks ago and interviewed some of his favorite comics creators. Here is his third guest post.

Like the undergound comix scene in those roiling days of the 1960s, the burgeoning online comics sector is a wide-open frontier now making up its own rules and picking its leading voices. I'd say one of the strongest players at the moment is Act-I-Vate, the webcomics collective with about 30 creators on its roster. It's both smart showcase and wild laboratory, providing consistently updated (and thoroughly interesting) comics to readers across the Web for free.

Two of the member creators are Joe Infurnari and Molly Crabapple.  Infurnari is a writer and artist who values the benefits of creating comics strictly for the Web: “Going digital is great to get yourself to a wide audience. If I write something, [someone] can place a link to it on MySpace and it gets 60,000 hits. That sort of exposure can’t be done by handing out postcards or just talking to people.”

Infurnari is working on his latest webcomic, "The Transmigration of ULTRA-Lad!" It's a reverse-Shazam sort of story in which an old man transforms into a teenage superhero. The aesthetic of the webcomic is great. The story is told on "pages" that have the browning, battered edges of a vintage comic book (one that was not stored in a Mylar bag) and the art is a shadowy valentine to super-hero artists such as Mac Raboy and Wally Wood. Infurnari also has The Process, which had been nominated for an Eisner Award.
One interesting dimension of Infurnari’s The Process is how tailored it feels to the Web. The website that hosts the comic is meticulous; even the table of contents is intricate. Infurnari took this approach seeking “an interactive experience.” He explained that “with the Web, I can control how the audience absorbs material. The whole thing is an immersive design. My goal is to teleport the viewer into the world of the story.”

Readers should check out The Process, not only for the tremendously detailed artwork, but for Infurnari’s surreal narrative. It’s self-described as “a journey and exploration through a personal ‘pleroma,’ an imaginary landscape populated by strange, wondrous creatures and archetypal characters." The Eisner nomination for Best Digital Comic speaks to the ability of Infurnari to relay his strange inner visions to a wide audience.