News roundup from WW Philly and HeroesCon.

Last weekend, there was quite a bit of news coming out of Philadelphia and Charlotte, and this wouldn’t be much of a news site if we didn’t give you SOME idea of what happened.

  • The big news spinning out of HeroesCon was Longbox, essentially an iTunes for comics.  The brainchild of  “Comic Book Tattoo” editor Rantz Hoseley, Longbox will provide single issue downloads for .99 cents with Top Cow and Boom! Studios being the first two publishers confirmed to use the service [via Comic Book Resources].
  • Marvel Comics announced a crop of new “Dark Reign” titles called, The List. Which is basically Norman Osborne’s s#@$ list of people he wants to wipe out as director of HAMMER. Marvel has the list of creators involved.
  • Phil Jimenez will be replacing Simone Bianchi on “Astonishing X-Men”.
  • DC Comics mostly showed off their “Wednesday Comics” at HeroesCon and announced that Brian “100 Bullets” Azzarello will be teaming with Rags Morales on a new “Doc Savage” mini series.
  • “Booster Gold” co-writer and “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” producer Jeff Katz announced the first four comics coming out of his American Original imprint.  Brian Lynch (“Angel: After Fall”) teams with Greg Whitta (who adapted “Akira” for the screen) for “Daybreak” a comic akin to the style of old John Carpenter/Kurt Russell movies.   Also, Katz will be writing a noir called “Vengeance is Mine” drawn by Filip Sablik. Scott Aukerman will be editing a comedy anthology. But most interestingly, Katz picked up “Blastosaurus” a indie comic self-published by 23-year old New Zealander Richard Fairgray. The comic follows a dinosaur detective who has been brought into the future to fight Velociraptor street gangs. Katz compares it to being similar to “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”.

So, what do you think? I’m personally looking forward to see how “Blastosaurus” turns out and I’m glad that “Astonishing X-Men” will be back on a regular schedule.  Let us know what you think of these new stories in the comments.