News
New STATIC SHOCK I've written a brand new, nine page STATIC SHOCK comic book story. I can't name the publication where it will appear quite yet, nor can I tell you the name of the incredibly talented artist who is currently finishing up the pencils (although I can hint that he's very familiar with Static). Let's just say that more information will be forthcoming shortly and that it's all for a very good cause.
It's A Girl! Former Milestone editor and STATIC writer JACQUELINE CHING and her husband, former HARDWARE penciller PRENTIS ROLLINS are proud to announce their latest creative collaboration, their daughter SCOTIA RAY ROLLINS. Born June 23, at seven pounds six ounces and nineteen inches long, she's already taller than mom. Congratulations to the new parents.
Everybody repeat after me: "Awwwww!"
JUSTICE LEAGUE News The folks at Comics Continuum have the following report on guest voices for the upcoming JUSTICE LEAGUE animated series:
JUSTICE LEAGUE ANIMATED UPDATE
In other Justice League news:
*" Susan Sullivan of ABC’s Dharma and Greg does the voice of Hippolyta, Wonder Woman’s blonde-haired mother.
* Other celebrity guest-voices in the first season will include Julie Bowen as Aresia, Virginia Madsen as Dr. Corwin, Danica McKellar as Sapphire, Garrett Morris as Al McGee, Sheryl Lee Ralph as Cheetah, Tom Sizemore as Metamorpho and Lane Smith as Simon Stagg. Smith played Perry White in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman."
Just for fun, I've put the names of actors playing characters who appear in episodes I've written in italics. Pretty cool, huh?
The JUSTICE LEAGUE, Cartoon Network-style. Click the picture for a better look.
Foot-Stompin' Time Make sure you go over to JimKrueger.com and score a copy of his latest FOOT SOLDIERS trade paperback. Not only is it a terrific collection of one of the best super hero series going, not only does it have art from GREEN ARROW'S Phil Hester and a stunning Bill Sienkiewicz cover, it also has an introduction by, ah, me. Don't hold the last against it though. For more info on FOOT SOLDIERS and other high-quality graphic novels, check out the home page of the publisher AIT-PlaNETLar.
Dwayne at Mid-Ohio Con I'll be appearing at the Mid-Ohio Con, "Ohio's best comic book & pop-culture party", on November 24 and 25th. Other first-time guests include Dave Gibbons, Brian Bendis, John Byrne, Ron Garney, Christopher Golden, Paul Jenkins, David Mack, James Warren, Lee Weeks, David ("Kung-Fu") Carridine, Lou (The Incredible Hulk") Ferrigno and actors from TV's ANGEL. For a complete listing of the many comic book and media guests that will be there, click here. As usual, I'll sign whatever you bring and relentlessly try and sell you more.
JUSTICE LEAGUE News The Comics Continuum web site reports that "Powers Boothe will be providing the voice of Gorilla Grodd in the upcoming Justice League animated series on Cartoon Network.
Boothe, 52, is an Emmy Award-winning actor who has appeared in more than 30 films and television shows.
Gorilla Grodd will be in a two-parter written by Dwayne McDuffie that features Flash and Green Lantern -- a team-up that provides sparks.
"He's such a wild card," Justice League producer Bruce Timm said of the Wally West Flash. "And our version of Green Lantern is such a straight arrow that we have to team them up as often as possible. They're just oil and water."
The Green Lantern in Justice League is John Stewart, who has become popular with the show's creators.
"We love him so much that he's in almost every episode," Timm said.
Another guest-voice in the Gorilla Grodd story will be David Ogden Stiers as Solovar, a leader of Gorilla City.
Stiers, perhaps best known as Major Charles Emerson Winchester from M*A*S*H, has a history with the Justice League franchise. He played the Martian Manhunter in CBS' live-action Justice League of America pilot"
X-O Manowar Proposal Added To Script Section I've just added the proposal that landed me my 1997 gig as the writer of Acclaim/Valiant Comics' X-O Manowar This is the first "new" addition to my script section in two years.
Oh, Canada! Canada's YTV has just added STATIC SHOCK to their Saturday Morning schedule. Now our fans to the north can catch Static's adventures from the beginning, every week at 9:30 EST.
STATIC SHOCK Wraps Second Season Production on 13 all-new episodes has just been completed (and I missed out on the wrap party, again). The upcoming season will bring us new villians, new music, an appearance from a member of THE BLOOD SYNDICATE (you'll never guess who) and a series of special guest stars that'll alternately stun and delight you. As the air dates approach, check here for more information.
STATIC SHOCK Goes To College Indiana University's Michael Chaney writes, "You might be interested to know how I'm using your work in the classroom. Like Jeffrey A. Brown, who has published an article "Comic Book Masculinity and the New Black Superhero" on your work in the African American Review, my research also discusses masculinity in Static Shock, but pays particular attention to the ways in which black and white masculinities intersect and conflict in both the comic book and in a few key episodes of the cartoon.
...Many props by the way for the cartoon. While comic scholars like Christian Davenport have pointed out how unique Milestone is as a black owned and operated company, few realize how nearly impossible it must have been for you to get a major network to run a Saturday Morning cartoon that featured a black teen hero in the leading role and which further takes place within a world that is more or less conceptualized from Virgil' point of view.
We will be focusing on the changing relationship between Virgil and Richie as both an example of and a revisionist critique of the "white-black buddy" relationship seen in films like Lethal Weapon. We are also comparing your graphic novel to The Watchmen while using Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics to get a gist of the mechanics of everything.
Anyway, that's it in a nutshell, except for expressing my thanks and gratitude to you for all that you have done. I'm not just an academic critic (if anyone is ever "just" anything anymore) I'm an artist also, an oil painter and muralist mostly, and I sincerely appreciate the artistic quality of your work as well. And yet, it is really from the perspective of a biracial reader that I feel most moved by your characters and stories. Your work is politically, socially, and artistically topnotch and I hope that you continue to prosper and thrive at it."
Thanks for the kind words, Michael. Keep us informed on how it's going, would you?
Get Your STATIC SHOCK Mini-Series Here! I've recieved a lot of inquiries about where to get copies of the mysteriously difficult to find STATIC SHOCK: REBIRTH OF THE COOL mini-series. If your local comic book store can't help you, I can. I have limited quantities of the entire series for sale right here. E-Mail me for more info, or browse my store, maybe you'll see something else you like.
Milestone Discussion If you want to meet and talk to a couple hundred Milestone fans, you’re only one click away. It's getting a little slow, so join up and start a flame war or something.
STATIC SHOCK Season 2: UPDATE The official air date hasn't been announced yet but we'll be back before you know it, look for more frequent updates as the happy day approaches.
Okay, okay! It's JUSTICE LEAGUE The rumors are in fact, true. The good folks at Cartoon Network's upcoming JUSTICE LEAGUE series have been kind enough to invite me to take a shot at the World's Greatest Superheroes. No, I don't know what they were thinking either. Anyway, I've already contributed to several episodes and once Cartoon Network and Warner Animation have made their official announcements, I'll give you more details.
Phil LaMaar To Voice ALL Cartoon Characters Okay, not really but in addition to his work as Virgil Hawkins/Static on STATIC SHOCK, Phil is the voice of John Stewart/Green Lantern on JUSTICE LEAGUE as well as the voice of SAMURI JACK on yet another CARTOON NETWORK series.
"Brought To You By" Archived All three and a half months of my late, lamented and often loathed opinion column is now archived on this site. I'll be adding more of my text pieces to the "Articles" page over the next few weeks.
STATIC SHOCK News Work on season 2 of STATIC SHOCK is well underway. I've contributed three more scripts, one of which includes an appearance of a member of the Blood Syndicate! Other scripts have guest stars too, you already know about Shaq but there are a couple others that'll really knock your socks off. Who? I'm sworn to secrecy.
Dwayne's New Writing Gig I've got a new assignment writing scripts for an animated series that premieres this fall. I can't say which show just yet but if there's any justice, I should be able to say more in a couple months.
John Paul Leon Can't Dodge Silver Bullet STATIC SHOCK artist extraordinaire gives a rare interview about how he broke in, his early work, what's next on his drawing board and the inside skinny on how I banished him from ever drawing ICON again. The last part is a fib, of course. Read it here.
Icebox.com Returns The home of the Flash animation series SUPERMODELS and my upcoming drama OLD SCHOOL has returned from the digital abyss. Check out episodes of SUPERMODELS right here. The first hit is free.
Dwayne Reviews Software? The good folks at MyMac.com have taken their digital lives in their hands by giving me a new column. The Dilletant's Corner is my new Macintosh product review column. First up, I take a look at Adobe GoLive 5.0.
STATIC RATINGS SHOCKER Among Kids 2-11, STATIC SHOCK is the #4 show on broadcast Saturday Morning. Let's give a big hand to the many talented people who put the show together.
Shaquille O'Neal to Guest Star on STATIC SHOCK Los Angeles Lakers center Shaquille O'Neal will be making a guest-voice appearance during the second season of Kids' WB!'s Static Shock.
"He will be playing himself, a truly larger-than-life NBA superstar," Static Shock story editor Chris Simmons told The Continuum.
"He is due to voice his part later on this month. Should be fun, no doubt."
Static Shock is moving to 8 a.m. (ET) on Saturdays, beginning next season.
O'Neal is a self-professed Superman geek and sports a Man of Steel tattoo. He starred in the 1997 movie Steel, based on the DC Comics character.
While helping the Lakers win the NBA title last season with an MVP performance and having an another All-Star season, O'Neal said he also wants to continue his acting career.
"I think I'm OK," O'Neal told The Continuum. "I'm not like Wesley Snipes or Bruce Willis yet, but anything is possible. Acting is very different than basketball. They're not even close. Acting is very much facial expressions and delivery."
The Store is Open For Business Newly redesigned and ready for action, this is a central location for the various Milestone and Dwayne-related stuff for sale. We're selling tee-shirts, sweat shirts, mouse pads, mugs and other overpriced crap with the single saving grace of having the Milestone Logo emblazoned across them. I'm also offering Milestone back issues from my personal collection and some other out of print Milestone products at this page. Get your credit card ready, then click right here to see what we've got.
Milestone Comics E-group News We've set up an on-line discussion group for Milestone and related topics (including the new Static Shock comic book's letters column), and it's growing like mad! But there have been some changes recently. Those yahoos at Yahoo have bought "E-Groups," the former host of the list. Your old membership should work, though. If you aren't already a member, shame on you. Click on the thingy below to join the fun. Current discussions include, What Milestone Comics would you like to see in reprint volumes? What should be the next Milestone comic we revive and why? What are your best ideas to promote Static Shock? I'll also throw in a prize for the fan who comes up with the most interesting new topic thread. So join already!
Click to subscribe to MilestoneComics
Turn Out The Lights... The party's over. My deadly pen has killed its third web site. The Sci-Fi Channel's Psycomic.com, home of weekly opinion columns by BABYLON 5 creator and Spider-Man scribe J. Michael Straczynski, CLERKS and CHASING AMY writer/director Kevin Smith and me, has shut its virtual doors for a second time. The link below will take you to my archived columns, for as long as they keep them there. Once again, I'm in search of a new home for my column. When I find one, I'll announce it here.
STATIC SHOCK RENEWED For Second Season!! From VARIETY:
KIDS' WB! REUPS 'STATIC' Series leads time period in kids 2-11
By PAULA BERNSTEIN
NEW YORK -- Kids' WB! has ordered an additional 13 episodes of "Static Shock" from Warner Bros. Animation, ensuring that the animated adventure series will return for a second season in fall 2001.
Since its premiere on Sept. 23, "Static Shock" has led its time period among the broadcast nets in kids 2-11 and in other key kid demos.
"We are excited that kids have responded as strongly to Static, a new kind of teen superhero with real humor and heart, as we expected they would," said Kids' WB! senior VP Donna Friedman.
Based on the Milestone/DC Comics property, "Static Shock" follows the adventures of Virgil Hawkins, who becomes the electromagnetic "Static," a superhero to his community. The series introduced the first animated African-American teen superhero.It's Here! Black Superheroes: Milestone Comics and Their Fans is the title of Jeffrey A. Brown, Ph.D's new book on Milestone Comics, comic book fandom and images of black masculinity in the media. I read an early version of the manuscript a couple of years ago, as well as the more recent excerpt that ran last year in the African American Review (volume 33, #1). It's an entertaining, thoughtful and surprisingly serious examination of some of the social forces that shape Milestone and our readers. You can order your copy right here through Amazon.com. Professor Brown teaches Popular Culture at Bowling Green State University. He e-mailed me recently to tell me that he uses Milestone comics as texts in some of his college courses. I'm telling you, between classes like these and Donald Snyder's, I'm tempted to go back and try for a Doctorate myself. Maybe not, I don't think I could live with the shame if I flunked out of Icon 101.
DEATHLOK going to the Big Screen? Several sources report that work is beginning on a feature film version of Deathlok, a Marvel Comics property about a cyborg. I've heard rumors from reliable sources that the movie may be based on the 1980's version of Deathlok created by myself, Greg Wright and Jackson Guice. I'll tell you more as I learn the details.
Son of Salmon Interview Here's a long but interesting interview with me. The interviewer, Randy Meyers, actually asked me several questions I hadn't been asked before, bless his heart. Forgive my lovable stammer, apparently I was channeling Woody Allen, that day.
Digital Webring Round-up Two interviews with me are archived on this page. I honestly don't remember if I linked them here before.The first interviewer is the only one who got what "Rebirth of the Cool" is a reference to, or at least the only one who ever asked me about it.
Audio Interview with Dwayne If you've got the dreaded RealPlayer and a fairly fast connection, you can hear me talk with Fantasticon.com about upcoming work right here. Make sure RealPlayer's already open, or it's pretty much hopeless.
DAMAGE CONTROL Movie News Producer Barry Levine talked to Comics2Film about the Damage Control movie. "It's an agency that cleans up after superheroes. We're working on our second draft right now," Levine told us. Don Calume and Chris Conroy are the screenwriters on this one.
Levine is enthusiastic about the movie. "They love the project over at Village Roadshow. They think it's their Men In Black.
"We are just trying to establish certain rules. Like with Men In Black: if you create the scenarios that this world does exist and you believe the characters and you believe the dialog, then everything else is acceptable."
C2F asked Levine if plans still called for Marvel's JLA knock-offs, the Squadron Supreme to provide most of the Damage for this movie. "That's a possibility," Levine said. "We're not sure where that is right now. There are superheroes in it."
-Courtesy Comics2Film
ICON: A HERO'S WELCOME Review ICON just soared into Psycomic's "permanent collection" of the 100 graphic novels everyone should have. Click here to read why.
Dwayne McDuffie As Literature? That's what the folks at the African American Literature Book Club say. Click here to see their page about me, then check out the rest of this very cool site.
New Animation Projects I've got two of them, both coming soon from Icebox.com. First up, I'll be joining former Milestone crony Matt Wayne as a writer/producer on mini-mogul Jim Krieg's latest creation, the animated comedy superhero series, SUPER MODELS. Icebox coincidentally just ordered a pilot for a new hard-boiled detective/family saga of my own creation called OLD SCHOOL. As both projects develop, I'll keep you guys updated right here.
UPDATE: On my recent West Coast trip, my Icebox contact, Bill Kaplan, was kind enough to give me a tour of their sprawling Los Angeles production facilities. I met many of the the talentd artists and big-domed computer whizeratti who will enable us to put SUPER MODELS and OLD SCHOOL on the web. As we get closer to the premiere of SUPER MODELS, I'll keep you updated right here.
New McDuffie Interview Kind of a Barbara Walters vibe, but it's interesting. Click here to see what I've got to sayi at Jazma Universe Online.
Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Me? That's what this new, in-depth interview at SilverBullet.com claims. Click here, then look for "McDuffie 101: All You Ever Wanted To Know About Dwayne McDuffie But Were Too Afraid Of Him To Ask!" under "News Headlines."
Another Dwayne Interview at The Comic Reader A longer-than-usual interview with me can be found here. Do you even care what my literary influences are?
McDuffie Survives Silver Bullet Here's a link to another interview with me by the good folks at Silver Bullet Comics.
McDuffie interview at Slush Factory The popular comicbook news and review site went Milestone happy for the entire week of September 4. If you missed out, click this link to find retro reviews of Milestone's first four issues, and check out Slush Factory all week for Milestone and Static Shock related features, including the new interview with yours truly.
What Should Milestone Do Next? Is a question that's turning up all over the internet. While I know that everyone here is already a member in good standing of the Milestone Comics e-Group and are already debating the issue there, you can find additional threads on both Usenet's rec.arts.comics.misc forum and on the always entertaining but studiedly playa-hating Warren Ellis Forum. You may have to sign in or some such, but that link should take you right to the thread.
DAMAGE CONTROL Movie News Comics2Film has some news about Village Roadshow's upcoming DAMAGE CONTROL feature film, based on the Marvel Comic series I created:
Damage Control #1, art by Ernie Colon
"Comics 2 Film spoke with Dave Elliot, VP of Development at Takoma Entertainment Group about the variety of comic related projects in the works at that company. Elliot's name may be familiar to comics fans. He's worn many hats in the comic industry including his role as the founder and publisher of Blackball Comics. More recently he wrote Sharky, a boy-turned-comic-book-hero mini-series which was illustrated by Alex Horley and published by Image. Elliot ... clued us in about the filmed adaptation of Marvel's Damage Control. We were intrigued by the decision to develop a movie about one of Marvel's lesser known concepts. The humorous Damage Control comics featured a team of civil engineers charged with the task of rebuilding cities and restoring order in the wake of devastating super-hero battles. We asked Elliot if any big-name Marvel heroes would appear in the movie. Much to our surprise Elliot told us the movie would feature none-other than Marvel's team of Justice League Wannabes: The Squadron Supreme. Elliot told us that while the focus of the film will be on the Damage Control team, the Squadron would be prominently featured. Fans can expect some good riffs on the thinly-disguised JLA characters."
UPDATE: Comics2Film has done quite a bit of reporting on the DamCon film, including the latest news from Variety. This link will take you to all of it.
Another Milestone Rant I was surfing the web recently, looking for mentions of our upcoming STATIC SHOCK! series, when I came upon a web preview that broke my heart, it read, in part
"Milestone didn't really take off, because it seemed like the editorial stance was, 'Hey, black kids! Come read our black books about black people! Black black black black!' without bothering with quality."Sigh. The problem of course, is that this guy formed his opinion without bothering with reading any of our books. I don't know where these guys get this stuff, but if this view of Milestone is still as widespread as I'm beginning to think it is, we've got some major obstacles yet to overcome. If you ever overhear anyone saying blatantly untrue crap about Milestone and its intentions, straighten them out for me, would you?
"Black Superheroes" news BLACK SUPERHEROES: MILESTONE COMICS AND THEIR FANS, Jeffrey A. Brown, Ph.D's upcoming scholarly book on Milestone Comics, comic book fandom and images of black masculinity in the media, has been rescheduled for January release. Click here to jump to my earlier comments about it ,or click here to go to the official press release.
Understanding Milestone I'm always happy to see new work from Scott McCloud, writer/artist of ZOT! and of the modern classic UNDERSTANDING COMICS, so you can imagine how pleased I was to see his new book, REINVENTING COMICS. I was doubly pleased to see a prominent mention of Milestone in its pages. I think Scott's an extremely intelligent, knowledgable and engaging writer and I agree with him about 75% of the time, an impressive figure, particularly when you consider that I only agree with myself about 80% of the time. Still, it disappoints me that discussion of Milestone was again confined to the eight year-old attack on us by "afrocentric" comic publishing coalition, ANIA. In paid ads, ANIA accused Milestone of "not really being black" and of being "sellouts" for doing a deal with "the white man's media." I hesitate to mention that while they were taking these ads out, they were also negotiating with Marvel Comics, in an attempt to do a deal with them identical to Milestone's with DC. So much for moral outrage.
For the slow kids in class, I'll repeat this again: Milestone is not an afrocentric company, it's a multicultural company. There was never a "feud" with ANIA. We never heard of them until they started taking out ads against us in the trade press. ANIA was a publicity stunt by a group of mostly undertalented creators, designed to draw attention to their books. I'd say it worked. Unfortunately, it also seems to have successfully misdefined Milestone in the minds of a lot of people. Yes, we're a black-owned company (co-owner Derek Dingle and myself are both black) but our staff, creative teams and creations are multicultural. ANIA's issues are absolutely irrelevant to Milestone and always have been. Their critique of Milestone is a transparent straw man argument. While I think afrocentric comics are an interesting and worthwhile creative endeavour, it's never what Milestone was doing. We think the world's bigger than that.
Dwayne Goes Hollywood I recently did an interview for Skip Press' "Writer's Guide to Hollywood" a well-respected film industry newsletter. Since it's not that easy to get your hands on a copy, I decided to reproduce it here.
An Interview With Me This relaxed interview from the Channel Zero Site accurately reflects my state of mind in 1997. It's a good interview but keep in mind that much of the editorial material is wrong. I never wrote STEEL, Milestone continued publishing comics way past 1994, et cetera.
Icon Goes To College I seem to have accidentally written a textbook! While surfing the web and narcissistically searching for my name, I discovered that my book, ICON: A HERO'S WELCOME, is part of the syllabus in a University of Maryland college course on American Culture!! I've exchanged a couple of e-mails with the instructor, Professor Donald Snyder, who was kind enough to explain a bit more about what he was doing. "Thank you for your e-mail; I'm amazed at some of the feedback I am getting from putting the syllabus on the web. Let me first say, I thought ICON was one of the most intelligent comics I have ever read and was upset when Milestone disappeared. As far as your comments about your intention about ICON, I understand that ICON was much more opening a discourse on "who gets to be heroes" and not a direct comment on Superman, however with students who have a limited knowledge of comic books, the Superman connection works. Where Superman was created as a subversive text, its lack of "others" helped to whiten the comic book universe. One of the essays I use in relation to Superman and ICON discusses how Superman had helped Japanese-Americans to the internment camps in WW2 and a recent Superman issue that appeared after ICON ended where Superman travels to the inner city and discovers that there are a bunch of people he has neglected in his search for "truth, justice and the American way." My question for the class in relating it to ICON is whose justice and who has the ear and eye of the American way. Because whiteness is so normalized in the comic book form, ICON helps by providing an alternative example within the Superman myth." Aw shucks. Oh, wait. This is Milestone, we don't shuck here.
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