Standing in front of the mechanical wolves from the film Wolfen on display at Museum of the Moving Image, Mike Drake, Mezco's Director of Special Projects, "handed off" various items from the new film The Wolfman to Barbara Miller, the Museum’s Collection Curator. The donated items include two prototypes of action figures of the new film's main character: The Wolfman.
Set to be released in theaters on Friday, February 12th, the new Wolfman film is considered by many horror fans to be the "must see" horror film of 2010. Starring Academy Award-winners Anthony Hopkins and Benicio Del Toro, the new big-budget film tells the tale of Lawrence Talbot, a haunted nobleman, who is lured back to his family estate after his brother vanishes. Reunited with his estranged father, Talbot sets out to find his brother...and discovers a horrifying destiny for himself. “With a Wolfman designed by 5 time academy award winner Rick Baker, this film is destined to be a howling good time!” said Mark Kwan of MyMovieScreenings.com “Mezco has really captured the essence of Rick Baker’s design. This is the type of thing that makes collecting exciting”.
Mezco has produced both 7- and 12-inch figures of the title character.
Prototypes of both figures are being donated to the Museum. The towering 12-inch-scale figure features intense film-accurate detail, 13 points of articulation, and a real cloth vest and shirt. Mezco has also produced a Mez-Itz designer vinyl figure. The collectible figures are available now at ToysRUs.com and other fine retailers.
The only museum dedicated to the art and industry of all of screen culture, from the earliest silent films to today’s video games, Museum of the Moving Image includes a collection of more than 130,000 artifacts from motion pictures, television, and digital media. Among these, the Museum’s licensed merchandise holdings are particularly noteworthy with more than 17,000 artifacts dating from 1914 to the present. Highlights include an extremely rare, original Shirley Temple doll (c. 1934); more than 150 artifacts relating to Our Gang films dating from 1922 through 1944; and a collection of 1,200 action figures, toys, board games, housewares, and other items from every Star Trek television series and all 10 motion pictures. The Museum provides access to the collection through its website, exhibitions, and education programs.
Both Wolfman figure prototypes will be accessible on the Museum’s online Collection Catalog at http://collection.movingimage.us.
About Museum of the Moving Image
Museum of the Moving Image advances the public understanding and appreciation of the art, history, technique, and technology of film, television, and digital media. It does so by collecting, preserving, and providing access to moving-image related artifacts; screening significant films and other moving-image works; presenting exhibitions of artifacts, artworks, and interactive experiences; and offering educational and interpretive programs to students, teachers, and the general public. Construction is currently underway on a major expansion of the Museum, designed by architect Thomas Leeser. The project entails a complete renovation of the existing first floor and construction of a three-story addition housing a new theater, screening room, galleries, and a multi-classroom education center. The Grand Opening of the expanded Museum is scheduled for fall 2010. For more information, visit movingimage.us
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Presented by The Cartoon Art Museum and
The Hero Initiative
Cartoon Art Museum exhibition:
February 13 – June 20, 2010
Reception and Charity Auction: April 2, 2010
The Cartoon Art Museum and the Hero Initiative proudly present Ed Hannigan: Covered, a retrospective exhibition celebrating the art of Ed Hannigan. This retrospective features a selection of covers and original artwork created by Hannigan for Marvel Comics and DC Comics in the 1970s and 1980s, including such popular characters as Batman, Superman, Spider-Man and The Defenders.
Today, Hannigan is 58 years old and has multiple sclerosis. The Hero Initiative, a charitable organization that provides financial assistance to comic book professionals in need, and Marvel Comics have collaborated on a tribute book, Ed Hannigan: Covered, that features highlights from Hannigan’s artistic career. The Cartoon Art Museum will display some of Hannigan’s most notable covers alongside the cover and complete interior artwork for one of his most famous single-issue stories, The Spectacular Spider-Man #64, which introduced the crime-fighting duo Cloak and Dagger.
Sponsorship for this exhibition has been provided by The Comic Outpost. The Comic Outpost, located on 2381 Ocean Ave. San Francisco, CA has been fulfilling the needs of comic book lovers for well over 15 years. Current owners Gary Buechler and Roger Yan firmly believe their customer service and subscriber program is second to none. For more questions, visit their website at www.comicoutpost.net or call (415) 239-2669.
SAVE THE DATE: An auction of original artwork will be held at the Cartoon Art Museum on Friday, April 2, 2010, in conjunction with San Francisco’s WonderCon Comics convention.
About Ed Hannigan
Ed was born August 6, 1951 in Newport, Rhode Island, the first of what would become eight children. His dad was an officer in the U.S. Navy, and later an engineer/sales executive for Tidewater Oil (later to become Getty Oil). He grew up throughout the Northeast, where his grandmother used to give him comic books. With their help, he learned to read at a young age, particularly impressed with World's Finest, featuring Superman and Batman.
Ed soon became a Marvel fanatic, and was determined to draw comic books some day. In high school in Ashland, Massachusetts he practiced drawing constantly and produced comics of his own. He also illustrated the senior yearbook. In 1971, after moving to New Jersey, he managed to wrangle an invitation to visit Marvel Comics’ offices. He showed his art samples to the folks there—Marie Severin, Mike Esposito, Herb Trimpe and others. They were polite, but less than impressed. But he still kept coming around. Then one day Sol Brodsky needed someone to do some lettering corrections on the British weekly reprint series, Mighty World of Marvel. Ed volunteered and for a short while, became a letterer.
Sol then needed someone to do some zip-a-tone shading on the same reprint line. Ed and Klaus Janson took on that job and were friendly rivals for a while as they shaded photostats of old Spider-Man, Fantastic Four and Thor stories. But Ed did not give up on drawing comics, practicing and learning from the pros at Marvel. Eventually he was allowed to do some sketches for those same British reprints and finally was given a Planet of the Apes cover to draw. After that he started helping Art Director John Romita to design covers for other artists and occasionally himself to draw. He also illustrated some stories. By and by, Ed became the busiest comic cover sketch artist in the place. At one time or another he did cover designs for just about every comic in the line.
Ed tried to tailor cover designs to the style of whichever artist was going to do the final art, but he also introduced some trademark features of his own, most famously, "messing with the logo" in some way or another, destroying or distorting it. The sketches became more elaborate and often were fully colored. He continued to draw some stories ands even wrote a few (Defenders was his longest run), but cover sketches were his mainstay for the next several years, and that's what he is best known for in the industry.
When the comics business contracted in the early 1990s, Ed was forced to find other employment. He end up doing computer graphics for a publisher in Massachusetts for nine years. In the course of those years, he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, which at first was a minor annoyance, but soon progressed to a major disability. He now lives in New Hampshire with his wife and two children.
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Matty took time out of his busy schedule to answer some questions.
1) With Mattel unable to be able to produce certain Filmation Masters of the Universe figures, is there any sort of easy guideline so that fans can know which characters can and can't be produced in the line? Could you possibly produce a list or something?
In MOTU Classics you will see a character who had a figure (toy) in the 1981 MOTU line, 1985 POP line, 1989 NA line as well as characters who were in the 200X series TV show or toy line. We can also do figures who were in the Mattel Mini Comics.
2) Can we expect any more figures in the DC Super Friends style to be offered through the site (as Robin & Hawkman were)?
Right now we do not have any plans to pursue futher 6” Superfriends figures. You can still find great Imaginex Superfriends figures in the Fisher-Price aisle!
3) The Retro-Action Heroes Green Arrow was amazing. Even though it’s still early in this line, have you considered female figures or teenage body figures (i.e. Mego’s Teen Titans)?
Absolutely!
4) You've said in a couple of recent Q&As that your intention was to eventually produce two Prince Adams, with one being based on the 80's toy and another closer to the 200X concept of the character. Can you tell us if the 80's Adam will merely be a bonus figure or will he be worked into the emerging MOTUC continuity. While I welcome the extra figure, I'm wondering how you would justify a second Prince Adam?
How a second Prince Adam will be offered is yet to be revealed. After all, we haven’t even offered one version yet. Unlike say with the case of Zodac/Zodak, Prince Adam is the same guy. It is just a “design” difference if you prefer him as a teen or a repaint of He-Man. So the bios will be just a continuation of one another as they aren’t intended to be separate characters.
5) Will we be seeing more DC Infinite Heroes packs like the 3-Packs or Battle for Metropolis pack?
We have more 3-packs for 2010. The 6 packs will wrap-up with the Doomsday pack at Wal-Mart.
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This past Thursday, New York Comic Con and Newsarama, in association with Marvel Animation and Lionsgate Home Entertainment, presented a bi-coastal premier screen of the much anticipated Planet Hulk DVD.We were invited to the event and able to bring a brief recap back.
Held at the Paley Center for Media in New York, the evening started off with the premier of Planet Hulk. Now, we are planning a full review and I don't want to give away anything, but it was extremely enjoyable.
After the film, there was a Q&A panel with comic writer Greg Pak, President of Marvel Animation Eric Rollman, and Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada. It was followed by a quick trivial contest. The entire panel was moderated by WWE SmackDown Superstar Matt Striker.
Eric assured fans that Marvel Animation is growing, and soon they'll be able to cross-over some properties they weren't able to before. Meaning, we may see Spider-Man in an episode of Wolverine and the X-Men, as an example.
While nothing was leaked during the Q&A, all three panel guests got suspiciously quiet when someone asked if they would consider doing Annihilation as an animated feature. Could Annihilation be in the future? We'll just have to wait and see.
Afterwards, all four of them signed Planet Hulk movie posters.
Thanks go out to New York Comic Con, Newsarama, and Bender/Helper Impact for putting this all together.
Planet Hulk will be available on DVD and Blu-Ray on February 2nd.
WWE SmackDown Superstar Matt Striker
Marvel Comic Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada
The panel (left to right): Joe Quesada, Matt Striker, Greg Pak, Eric Rollman
Greg Pak & Matt Striker signing posters
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