EW talk to Andrew Farago (Cartoon Art Museum) about the upcoming Peasnuts 3D CGI feature adaptation of one of the most loved cartoon strips:
It’s hard to imagine any comic strip taking hold today the way that Peanuts has for several generations. Any 8- or 80-year-old knows what a security blanket is, or who Peppermint Patty’s best friend is, or “Good Grief!” and “Curse you, Red Baron!” Charles Schulz was beloved by millions — and that’s a conservative number — worldwide, and everyone knows Charlie Brown and Snoopy. If Schulz had been more comfortable in the public eye, he could have been another Walt Disney in terms of universal celebrity. But he was always about the work, and letting his characters speak for him, and I get the impression that’s exactly how he wanted it.
No matter how the movie does at the box office, we’ll always have the Peanuts comic strip. Fantagraphics Books has been reprinting the strip in its entirety dating back to the first one in 1950, and as long as the movie reminds people about the comic strip and the man behind it, I’ll be happy. There’s a great early Peanuts strip where Charlie Brown and Patty find her parents’ record collection and are amused by an album featuring the song Old Rockin’ Chair’s Got Me. They sit and listen to the song, and Charlie Brown asks in the final panel, “What in the world is a ‘rocking chair’?” as they’re surrounded by the latest new-fangled 1950s furniture. That humor gave way to jokes about hula hoops, transistor radios, and countless other fads over the next five decades, but the characters and their personalities, those stories are timeless.
Microsoft’s much maligned X-Box One has been getting some much needed good-press… with the announcement that the console will now allow indie developers to self-publish their own games.
First they announced “Project Spark,” a game-creation software and now comes the news that they will be providing a platform within X-Box One:
Our vision is that every person can be a creator. That every Xbox One can be used for development. That every game and experience can take advantage of all of the features of Xbox One and Xbox LIVE. This means self-publishing. This means Kinect, the cloud, achievements. This means great discoverability on Xbox LIVE.
It all remains to be seen how free the Microsoft indie platform is - don’t forget there was a similar hope for indie game dev publishing on the Xbox 360 but the games released were quarantined and difficult to find. But with the honest reactions to pre-launch feedback maybe, just maybe this is Microsoft stepping up to the plate. Who knows
Techhive have a great insight into one of the new tech drives for comic book publishers - playing with animated graphics, new transitions, colour shifts and alternative angles.
These are books, not animation and we want to push the envelope for books, not compete with Pixar. We’re at a point where we’re evolving a new medium, a grammar for the new medium. This first year is an adventure in R&D - Liam Sharp, Madefire
The first rule of Fight Club has been broken…. by its creator, Chuck Palahniuk. Palahniuk announced that he was returning to Fight Club with a sequel - this time as a graphic novel:
About the graphic novel, it’s true. Chelsea Cain has been introducing me to artists and creators from Marvel, DC and Dark Horse, and they’re walking me through the process. It will likely be a series of books that update the story ten years after the seeming end of Tyler Durden. Nowadays, Tyler is telling the story, lurking inside Jack, and ready to launch a come-back. Jack is oblivious. Marla is bored. Their marriage has run aground on the rocky coastline of middle-aged suburban boredom. It’s only when their little boy disappears, kidnapped by Tyler, that Jack is dragged back into the world of Mayhem.
It will, of course, be dark and messy. Due to contract obligations it can’t come to light for a while. Next year is “Beautiful You,” followed by the story collection. But since the Fight Club sequel will appear serialized in graphic form, my book publisher might allow me to launch it earlier than 2015.
Feel free to release any or all of this information. We haven’t started to court a specific publisher, not until I hammer out the complete story.
