Jeremy Renner For Hawkeye In The Avengers

THR has confirmed that Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker) has almost completed a deal to play Hawkeye in Marvel Studio’s upcoming super movie, The Avengers.

It was widely reported last year that Renner was favourite to play Hawkeye, but the actor was too busy with other filming commitments to confirm.

Hawkeye’s weapon of choice is a bow and arrow, and he has an accuracy Legolas would be proud of. Hawkeye was first introduced as a reluctant villain in Marvel’s comic, Tales of Suspense #57, and was not initially a member of The Avengers. It wasn’t until he switched sides that he became a long standing member of the Avengers team.

You have to agree, The Avengers cast and crew is pretty fricken impressive; Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson and Don Cheadle will all reprise their roles from Iron Man (Tony Stark, Black Widow, Nick Fury and War Machine respectively), Chris Evans will play Captain America and Chris Hemsworth will play Thor.

Still to be confirmed is who will portray the role of the Hulk. Most showbiz types are betting on Edward Norton, but we’d prefer Eric Bana – much more believable!

Either way, Joss Whedon is writing and directing and the cast looks amazing – this is a film we cannot wait to see!

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Torchwood: The Comic Announced

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later wasn't it? Torchwood, or more specifically Torchwood hero Captain Jack Harkness, has been turned into a comic book. And show star John Barrowman has even penned a story himself.

The new series of prequel comics from Titan (due out in the US on Tue 10 Aug) sees Captain Jack team up with Gwen and Ianto for an adventure set in Scotland, titled The Selkie.

The book's second story was penned by Torchwood script editor Gary Russell, and sees the threesome get trapped in a cosmic hotel.

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Buffy comic pokes fun at Twilight

As Joss Whedon writes the final five issues of Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic book, season 8, part 1 of 5 will offer a tongue in cheek front cover. 

Drawn by Buffy artist Georges Jeanty, you will note that it has a remarkable resemblance to the official Twilight: New Moon poster. 

Although we must admit to being Twi-hards, our first and one true love is always going to be Buffy, so we feel no remorse at giggling along with the rest of the geek community.

On sale in September 2010.

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Comic Book Virgins No More

Now what we know about comics could be fitted on to the head of a very, very small pin, so when we heard about the Geek Girl Panel Dinner at the Sci-fi London Film Festival we jumped at the chance to go and learn more (and maybe bag some freebies, which we did – thanks guys!)

The Geek Girl Panel dinner was chaired by Judith Lewis (a founder of the Geek Girl Dinners and a veteran of anime conventions) and featured three self styled Geek Girl speakers, Karen Rubins, Emma Vieceli and Kate Brown, who all work in the comic book industry and were very lovely.

Karen Rubins was the resident artist at the V&A Museum and recently penned a set of playing cards in comic book style, tying in with tarot themes (they were awesome, fyi). She found early acclaim for her self-published graphic novel The Dark and is currently attempting to finish a 120 page graphic novel for the next big comic Expo.

Emma Vieceli is a very accomplished comic book illustrator and draws online Manga story, Dragon Heir. Excitingly, Emma has also recently worked for the mighty Marvel in it's new series, Girl Comics (no, we’re not feeling the brand name either – but Emma’s work is truly fantastic!).

Kate Brown illustrated the Manga Shakespeare adaptation A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She sketches with pencil and uses Photoshop to colour in over her etchings. She predominently works in self-publishing (freelance) and illustrates for DFC comics. She has recently completed illustrating for Spider Moon (available to buy now kids!).

As comic book newbs, we were thankfully given an overview of the history of comics and the situation now – especially from a UK market perspective. Up for discussion was the recent influx of female graphic artists into the comic book industry and if Manga has been the main contributing reason.

We had no idea there were so many different comic book styles and so many different genres (alternative/esoteric, Manga, science fiction, fantasy, action/adventure, horror, humour, romance, childrens, and adult). We loved it - we’re throwing ourselves into comic book land with abandon – any suggestions to get us going would be greatly appreciated!

GG recommend the Sci-fi London festival to anyone interested in sci-fi - it is NOT just a bunch of geeks dressed up in Star Wars gear ...Okay, okay so there were a couple of Storm Troopers running about outside – it’s a sci-fi festival, duh!

The festival featured film premiers, workshops, panels and lots of other events and was more about getting people involved and breaking down the barriers to enter the sci-fi genre with an open mind. But we suppose we’re rather preaching to the choir here; you're already following our blog!

We urge you to go next year!

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