NEW YORK — Blast had an opportunity to chat with “Chuck” creators Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak and star Yvonne Strahovski at New York Comic Con earlier this month.

Schwartz and Fedak announced some upcoming guest stars to the show, namely Chevy Chase and Scott Bakula, both of whom will remain through the season finale. They also mentioned a potential return of the Awesomes and that Jeff’s sister will be introduced to the show.‚ 

Schwartz said there was always a possibility for more “The OC” alums to be included in the show in addition to last season’s Rachel Bilson and Melinda Clarke.‚ 

They also discussed the season finale, which Schwartz said was currently being written would a “game changer” and send the show in an entirely new direction. He emphasized the finale would not be a series finale.‚ 

“It’s pretty mind-blowing,” Schwartz said about the finale. “It’s going to be a lot of fun. It’s something we’ve been talking about for two years now and it’s going to launch the show in a really exciting, pretty different direction actually.‚ 

Strahovski talked a bit about her makeover for “Chuck Versus the Cougars” where she plays a nerdy teenager — bad hair cut, braces and all. She described that look as “the real me” and said it gave her flashbacks to when she was 12 and had braces of her own.‚ 

Superbowl special “Chuck Versus The Third Dimension” was also discussed — the episodes aired the Monday after the Superbowl and was the first television episode to be shot entirely in 3D.‚ 

Schwartz and Fedak did not know if the 3D version of the episode would make it to the second season DVD (with a pair of 3D glasses packaged with it).‚ 

Schwartz also didn’t know if they would create another 3D episode or instead outdo themselves — maybe next time in Smell-O-Vision.

NEW YORK — The highly-anticipated Wonder Woman animated feature will be released March 3 on DVD. The movie tells an updated version of Wonder Woman’s origins and her first big showdown.

The feature stars Keri Russell as Wonder Woman, Nathan Fillion (Steve Trevor), Rosario Dawson (Artemis), Alfred Molina (Ares), and Virginia Madsen (Hippolyta), and was helmed by Lauren Montgomery, one of the directors on the acclaimed Superman: Doomsday feature.

Blast got the chance to sit down with Montgomery to talk about the upcoming film.

Kellen Rice: First of all, congratulations on the film.

Lauren Montgomery: Thank you!

KR: Last night’s reception had to be exciting.

LM: Definitely.

KR: What’s your experience as a woman working on this film in an industry that’s pretty dominated by men?

LM: I personally haven’t run across any sexism in my career, which is nice. As far as being a woman that gets to work on Wonder Woman, it’s awesome. It’s the greatest thing, because I’ve worked on a lot of action cartoons which are typically geared towards boys and men. And so I draw a whole lot of guys a whole lot of the time. So getting to draw a girl and having her be a main character in the film, as well as a very heavily female supporting case, it was a dream come true. I always want to do whatever I can to get more women involved. When I was a kid watching action cartoons, it was all these guys and there would be be the one token female in the case and she was always my favorite. I always wanted a show that had more girls in it, but a good action show with girls in it, not just the usual stuff like My Little Pony or Strawberry Shortcake.

KR: You definitely did that with the opening scene of Wonder Woman.

LM: Yeah.

KR: And the supporting cast was so varied. Tell me how you developed those characters.

LM: Being that we have a large cast of Amazons, and they’re all women, we really had to make sure that finer details like facial features and color schemes were individual to each character, so you didn’t get confused watching the movie and think everyone was the same character.‚ 

KR: The color palette was very striking, very bold colors.

LM: Yeah, well especially in the opening scene we went into it wanting everything to have a red feel to it, just because it was such a bloody and violent scene. So we put a lot of red in the costumes, red on the field — and then when we get to Themyscira all the colors were softer, while still saturated and very bright, but just more calming. So we tried to play with the color palette so that the color would fit each scene.

KR: How did you feel when you saw the film for the first time? What was your reaction?

LM: As we’ve been watching it, we started out with pure silence and the animation, and the first time I got to see it with sound effects and music, I found myself getting a little choked up at parts because the music is so amazing. Music does so much to kind of cue your emotions. And the sound effects do a whole lot to add reality and weight to something. When you see two swords hitting in silent animation, it’s not that impressive. But as soon as you add that clink, it’s like “oh, those swords are heavy!” So adding sound to animation is really what saves it. So when we see the finished product it’s so much more impressive seeing it with all the bells and whistles, and I think it really came together.

KR: There were definitely adult themes in the movie. Do you think that animation is heading towards an adult audience as well a children’s audience?

LM: When we make these things we are trying to make movies that we ourselves want to watch. And in Japan, it’s been this way for pretty much forever, they don’t regard animation as a medium only geared towards children. It’s just another medium. It’s another way of storytelling. And in Japan, adults watch cartoons all the time. In America, sadly a lot of times anything animated is assumed to be for kids. If it’s a cartoon, it’s for kids and adults can’t watch it. And we’re just trying to change that, we’re trying to bring animation to a standard where everyone can watch it, and everyone can enjoy it.‚  <

KR: There’s also been a big stigma against superheroes, too.

LM: Right, and I think that video games and comics are becoming more mainstream. It’s not just geared towards the comic book geek, who lives in, you know, his mother’s basement. It’s for everyone – geeks are everyone. Like everyone has an inner geek and you’ll find the most normal of people playing video games these days. And so the audience is just becoming infinitely wider and I think all of these mediums – video games, comics, animation — will become much more accepted to everyone.

KR: Do you think that’s partly do the so-called Geek chic and the popularity of movies like The Dark Knight? Do you think that’s part of the reason why a movie like Wonder Woman can get made today?

LM: The kids who used to watch the‚ Saturday‚ morning cartoons are now adults and they’re now getting into the positions where they can green-light the movies they always wanted to see. And so the more kids that are watching these shows when they grow up they’re going to do the same thing. I think it’s only just begun, and I think it’s got everywhere to go from this point.

KR: What movie hasn’t been made that you want to work on?

LM: I’m more than happy to work on any comic-book female-driven movie. Those are the ones that I enjoy working on most, just because I love working with female characters. I find that they’re more expressive, they have more options, they’re just more fun to direct. That being said, I’m also a fan of Aquaman. He’s always gotten a bad rap, and I think there’s untapped potential there and I’d like to see him actually be cool for once.

KR: Someone at the panel brought up Selina Kyle. Could you see her carrying her own film?

LM: I definitely could, and she’s an intriguing character. I think she’d be awesome to work on, especially because she has that side of her that not only can she be good but she can be a villain as well. And that makes her just that more interesting.

KR: Wonder Woman in three words?

LM: Three words? Ah, I don’t know…

KR: Well, that’s kind of unfair of me.

LM: Powerful, yet a real woman, not real in the sense that she’s a superhero, but real in the sense that she has the same emotions that any woman would, but yet she has this amazing strength that every woman can look up to. I think she’s an awesome figure that way.

KR: What do you think has made Wonder Woman endure for so long?

LM: She has an interesting story, which is nice. She’s got this really interesting back story which is rooted in this mythology, and mythology itself is just a series of epic stories. And we also have the feminist aspect of her, which is that she is the one hero woman that’s kind of standing on her own in the DC universe. Most other women have spawned as sidekicks or villains to some other male hero, but you know she’s on her own.‚ 

KR: What’s your process of‚ creating a character? How did you create this version of Wonder Woman?

LM: First I’ll just brainstorm and put down a whole bunch of different sketches. From there, you just throw out the ones you hate. And you start to hone in on qualities you like. For instance Wonder Woman has a lot for different costume versions. And one of the things I thought of, in Justice League she has more low-cut panties and in New Frontier, she has the skirt. So I wanted to a different version, just to make her a different Wonder Woman. So I gave her the more high-cut bikini bottoms, and that’s just a technical thing. The hair shape was just something I found early on and I thought was a distinct shape.‚ 

KR: It also modernized the character.

LM: Right, and also just the fact that we were trying to make her younger and so that was a conscious choice on my part.

KR: What about Steve Trevor?

LM: I looked at the reference for Steve, and he looked kind of dated, kind of older. So we tried to bring him a little more into the now. I actually originally started with him have slightly longer hair, but then Bruce made the very good point that if he’s in the Air Force, he would need a shorter hair cut so we have to revise that and I’d made a page full of possible Steve hair-dos and I showed them to Bruce and he said, oh, I like the Caesar cut. And it’s easy to animate. So we went with that.

KR: It works with the Greek and Roman theme.

LM: And that’s one thing too. Ares had a similar bang style.

KR: You talked about the design of Hades at the panel. What kind of reaction did you want the audience have after seeing him?

LM: I’m hoping that they almost get a little uncomfortable, because I really wanted him to look massive. Not even in girth, but just 50% larger even in bone size from Ares. I had this theory that Zeus and Hades are like, the top tier of gods. Ares is one step down because he’s a son of Zeus. So I wanted just a size difference if they were standing, and then I expanded Hades outward. And he was actually super-fun to draw, with all those curves. And then someone pointed out that he looked like Ursula, and you know what, if he is an Ursula rip-off, it was 100% subconscious. It was not intentional at all, but it does happen that The Little Mermaid is my favorite movie of all time.‚ 

KR: I think that’s all our time. Thanks so much for sitting down with me — great job on the film. It was a pleasure.

LM: Thanks.

Is your curiosity piqued yet? Head to the stores to pick up your own copy of Wonder Woman on March 3.

NEW YORK — First, let me disclaim: I saw the upcoming DC animated feature “Wonder Woman” in the best possible setting, in a packed house with probably five or six-hundred excited geeks.

Actually, you know what? The movie would have been awesome if I’d watched it on a crappy laptop in some dark room somewhere.

Let me backtrack.

The Michael Jelenic-penned, Bruce Timm-produced “Wonder Woman” tells a new-and-improved origin story for the Lasso of Truth-wielding Amazon that begins before Themyscira even really exists. The opening scene is a massive battle between the Amazons, led by Virginia Madsen’s Queen Hippolyta, and God of War Ares’ horde, with no Diana in sight.

After Zeus and Hera intervene in the war, the Amazons are given the island paradise, Ares as their powerless prisoner, and the promise of a daughter in the future. Years pass and Diana arrives on scene.

But before giving away too much, let’s talk tech specs.

The animation and style were both top-notch, of the same quality as “Batman: Gotham Knight” but with a feminine flavor appropriate to a story about Wonder Woman. Director Lauren Montgomery has mentioned before how she counts the Disney princesses among her influences and while the style was distinctly separate from that, with straighter lines and cleaner angles, the influence was clear to see especially in the characters’ faces.

Wonder Woman herself was a far cry from the Marilyn-esque, stiletto-wearing Wonder Woman of yore; this Diana was a modernized and altogether tough-looking character; she was tall and statuesque without being manly, strong without bulging muscles, and, of course, voiced wonderfully by Keri Russell.

The supporting cast of Amazons were beautifully designed and Rosario Dawson’s hilarious Artemis was a scene-stealer.

And speaking of scene-stealers, Nathan Fillion’s Steve Trevor stole the entire show. Not only did the character have most of the best lines of the film (some surprisingly scandalous, though none up to “the hammer is my penis” levels of bawdiness). “Wonder Woman” does a fine job of walking the line with Steve as a guy physically weaker than Wonder Woman while making him a hero in his own right.

The film also manages to deal with some real issues in a way that is neither soap-boxy nor half-assed. The modern-day Wonder Woman is a fantastic feminist character without bowing to any clichƒ©s, and the film asks a lot of serious questions about the nature of men and women’s relationships and the ways that men and women deal with conflicts.

One of the best scenes in the film occurs when Diana first arrives in New York City and is walking in a park with Steve Trevor. She encounters a small girl who’s crying because the boys won’t let her pretend sword-fight with them. Wonder Woman finds that unacceptable, of course, and that mini-arc finds a hilarious and poignant conclusion.

The film was also paced beautifully. Each character had a meaningful and unique story arc that created a lot of depth to the overall story and theme, and the remarkable voice talent (including Alfred Molina as villain Ares) really sold it.

In all, I though the movie was great: beautiful, funny, well-written, and an altogether pleasure to watch… and watch again.

Grab your copy in stores on March 3rd.

Blast had the chance to sit down with New York City Comic Con Guest of Honor Michael Uslan, an executive producer for all of the Batman movies and the foremost authority on comic book history and legacy today.

A lifetime fan and attendee of comic conventions, Uslan had to be pried away from the impromptu autograph queue that was left over from his hours at the autograph area in order for us to get a few minutes to sit down.

When I commented on his enthusiasm to interact with fans, (“That’s just who Michael is,” said his assistant), Uslan said, “the fact that they made me a guest of honor this year, and had me deliver the keynote this morning, just means a lot to me. It really means a lot. As I told everyone at the keynote, I’m one of you.”

In that light, I asked him how it felt to see The Dark Knight succeed so extraordinarily. Had he expected it to be such a resounding success?

Michael Uslan:‚ Since the day I first dreamed of making dark and serious Batman movies and returning him to the creature of the night, I always knew in my head they would be successful and well-received. I don’t think anybody can‚ anticipate‚ something to the effect that your movie is the second biggest movie in history. That’s incredible to process.

The most important aspect of that for me is the respect and credibility that it brings to seventy years of of comic book artists, writers, and editors who toiled in obscurity largely, who are now rock stars. Their works are now hanging in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian and the Louvre. It’s a recognized American art form. People are acknowledging that it’s a modern day mythology. It is our contemporary American folk lore. To be part of that process after working in the trenches for thirty-three years, to get this kind of‚ recognition‚ for the art and for the business and creators, that’s been the biggest payoff in the world for me.

BLAST: To what extent does “The Dark Knight” responsible for that, do you think?

MU: It’s played a huge role, it truly has. One of my real true goals in the beginning of what turned to out to be my life-long journey, was to attempt to erase from the consciousness of the collective world culture, the three words “pow,” “zap”, and “wham.”

I was there in seventh grade — the night Batman came on TV for the first time — and was simultaneously thrilled and horrified by what I was seeing. Somebody spent a lot of money on a color version of Batman with a really cool Batmobile, and there it was on prime-time TV, but I knew everyone was laughing at him and that killed me.

To be at a point now where people can go in and appreciate a dark, serious Batman rather than a pot-bellied, funny Batman, where you can have a movie that resonates with people because it deals with critically-important themes and that many critics have hailed as the most important movie to deal with 9/11 and post-9/11 issues, it’s like we’ve turned the world on its it head.

BLAST: After so many years of Batman and so many different versions — like you said, Adam West’s Batman in the sixties and now Christian Bale — which incarnation is your definitive Batman?

MU: Well, to answer that generally, there have been so many completely different interpretations of Batman of the years just in the comic books themselves, and then you have the cartoons and live action series and the movies — my point is everybody has their one true version of Batman. If you grew up in the sixties, [for] the bulk of the people their true version was that TV show “pow, zap, wham.” If you grew up in The thirties, it was a darker Batman. if you grew up in the forties or fifties, it might be the Super-Batman of Planet X. So it really depends on when you’re reading this stuff and when you were exposed to it.

For me, when the smoke clears, I think Christian Bale’s Batman, and more importantly, Christian Bale’s Bruce Wayne, is the ideal interpretation, the truest interpretation that fans of all periods and all translations of the character known as Batman, can sink their teeth into and say, “This is truly Batman.”

BLAST: You mentioned Christian Bale’s Bruce Wayne. In Batman Begins, a solid hour of the film deals exclusively with the man, not the mask. Is it that real man, that flesh-and-blood greatest superhero, what makes Batman resonate the most with you?

MU:‚ The word is human. Batman’s greatest superpower is his humanity. That’s what resonates. That’s what works. That’s what people can identify with. That’s what people who sit in the movie theater watching “The Dark Knight” feel that they themselves are on those ships and that they are forced (to wonder), “would I press the button and blow up the other ship to save my own hide?”

[Batman] is one person who believes he can make a difference in the world. And he is willing to commit to that and go through hell in order to stay committed to that and prove that he‚ can make a difference in the world. That is so primal, that is so inspiring, that is so basic — as is his origin. The concept of a kid watching his parents murdered before his eyes is as primal as we can get. And I think people can truly relate to that and understand what drives him, what pushes him to the edge to the point where he’s so obsessed to get the guys who did it, to get all the bad guys, so that he’s driven to the fine thin line of being psychotic.

And I think if you add to that the Jerry Robinson Joker, who to me is the greatest supervillain ever, you’ve got this opera of two figures of opposing equal strength, representing goodness and evil. But the evil is wearing the mask of the carnival, covering the horror that lurks beneath the surface. And the good guy is dressed like a‚ terrifying‚ bat. The dance that they do is an incredible dance that again, anybody can relate to.

BLAST: Yeah, in “Dark Knight” the line that stood out most to me was the line, “the unstoppable force meets the immovable object” and I just sat back in my seat and said, “Whoa.” And then, of course, there’s the other line “I think we’re destined to do this forever.”

MU: Yeah, exactly. And in the first Batman movie, with that operatic dance going on in the bell tower – “I made you, you made me, one can’t really live without the other.” And in all history there will always be order and chaos, and black and white, and what I think Chris Nolan was saying is that in our world today, there is not as much black and white as there is gray. And comic books and comic book heroes must become more complex, more textured and layered, and the themes must be more carefully considered.

BLAST: Speaking of villains — well, we were sort of talking about villains – is there a villain that you haven’t yet seen on screen that you would love to see or that hasn’t yet been portrayed in the way that you imagine it?

MU: I can’t answer that in terms of the movies, but I can answer that in terms of comic book fan Michael. I always loved Man-Bat. I thought, here was another great story. That Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde thing. I always had a problem with the Hulk films because the Hulk I read growing up was the story of Frankenstein and the story of Dr. Jekyll and and I went to the movies and it was the story of King Kong. And it didn’t work for me, I couldn’t figure that out, I couldn’t make that transition. I think Man-Bat has a true Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde thing that I find fascinating. So I’ve always loved him as a villain.

I always seemed to like the edgier villains. The Penguin was always a little silly to me. Going back even earlier, there were villains called Tweedle-Dee and Twiddle-Dum. On the TV show, King Tut was a a little too silly for me. so I like the edgier ones, I like Two-Face, I like the Joker, I like the Reaper.

BLAST: And about Two-Face – it’s been said that at the end of “The Dark Knight”, Two-Face could still be alive.

MU: (laughs) I say the same thing that we said at the end of the first Batman movie, where people weren’t convinced that Joker was dead, that he could still be alive. And I said, “what makes you think so?” and they said, “Well, I’ve probably read a thousand Batman comics in my lifetime, and probably eighteen times the Joker has been killed and keeps coming back,” as do all the villains. Speak to a Superman fan! I thought he was dead, but he’s back.

BLAST: And Batman RIP right now. But I still don’t believe that, so –

MU: Yeah, lets’ not talk about that. I’m still waiting month by month for Captain America to pop back in.

BLAST: Same here! There was a Captain America downstairs and I was like, see, I told you, he’s still alive!

MU: (laughs) It’s comic books. You know, it IS comic books.

BLAST: We’re running out of time — I see your assistant waving me down — so let’s get in a few last questions. Do you have a favorite sequence from any of the films?

MU: Oh, I have many that still give me the chills.

BLAST: What was your favorite from The Dark Knight?

MU: Virtually Heath’s entire performance. It’s the performance of a lifetime.

BLAST: And is there anything at all you can give me on a possible sequel?

MU: (smiles) No.

BLAST: (laughs) Well, would you like to do it?‚ Have you spoken about it with Chris Nolan at all?

MU: How ’bout them Yankees?

NEW YORK — If you’re anything like me, you marked the date for Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse premiere the moment it was announced. And lucky for both of us, that day has finally come: tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern on Fox, the creator of Buffy, Angel, Captain Malcolm Reynolds, and most recently Dr. Horrible has a new character to add to his acclaimed repertoire: a mysterious girl named “Echo.”

Eliza Dushku (a “Buffy” alum) stars as Echo, a mind-wiped “Active” who resides in the elusive “Dollhouse.” As an Active, she receives a new personality for every “engagement” for which she is contracted and after her mission is complete, her mind is wiped clean. She is a living Doll who can become anything imaginable — and yet she has no true self of her own.

But that might change as the 13-episode first season of Dollhouse unfolds.

Blast got the chance to participate in an interview with creator Joss Whedon at the New York Comic Con, during which he answered some of the most pressing questions about his new show.

To the casual onlooker, it’s hard to reconcile Whedon’s iconic Buffy with Echo, a beautiful woman who is hired out to the highest bidder for anything and everything — including sex. This seeming departure from Whedon’s hard-line stance on feminism was one of the first questions he addressed in the interview.

When asked, “Did you get a show about prostitution on a major network?”, Whedon responded: “First of all, it’s not just women. It’s women and men. And secondly — yes.”

After the laughter died down, he continued.

“There was, in the higher ranks (of Fox), some consternation after the show as being made,” Whedon began, and then caricatured the “higher ranks” in a mocking voice: “‘say, this seems like prostitution.’ And my response was yes, that’s part of the package.”

Whedon paused before going on. “That is part of what is going on. And it’s not all of what is going on, but it’s part of it. and some people have been greatly offended by that, and some people want to stay away from that. And my response to it is to hit it head on. Let’s talk about exactly that, and say: okay, well how much of this is morally reprehensible and how much of it is just stuff that we as an American culture deem morally reprehensible? It’s about what parts of our identity and the way we behave with each other are actually positive, and decent. What parts actually come from ourselves and what parts have been socialized. What parts are we being told are good, or bad. And that’s a theme you’ll find in “Serenity,” you’ll find in a lot of my work. What truly is a sin?

“My villain — and I mean people will refer to Olivia Williams (as) the villain, she runs the Dollhouse. But she is, in her own way, a very moral person. She has a code. And yes, what’s we’re dealing with — the reality of prostitution — is beyond appalling. But Eliza said, I want to deal with sexuality on my show. I want to be part of what we talk about. So yeah, it’s in there.”

Another concern with the show is the degree to which a main character whose personality changes every week can form any meaningful attachment with either the audience or another character on the show. To that, Whedon didn’t elaborate much beyond saying, “Yes, yes — she will form attachments to other dolls.” He also indicated that Echo’s attachments would lead to some conflict during the series, an idea to which the trailer alludes.

But what about Whedon’s signature humor and wit? “Dollhouse” is not a show that seems as conducive to comedy as, say, “Buffy.” But Joss says not to worry.

“There is actually a great deal of humor in this show. Not up front, because we wanted the premise to be more realistic. We didn’t have license to be as silly up front. Having said that, we do fall into idiocy fairly quickly. (laughs) We do have fun with these characters.”

As if I had any concerns, right?

Stay tuned for Part 2 of the interview, including thoughts about the possibility for Dr. Horrible 2 and his upcoming horror flick, “Cabin in the Woods.”

NEW YORK — From commercial cover artist to rogue to video game director, Jim Lee’s signature is synonymous with modern comics’ culture.

Lee is the executive creative director for Sony’s upcoming DC Universe Online, a massive multiplayer online role playing game. In an interview with Blast, Lee said he hopes to bring his art and the stories of the DC universe into houses that would never have heard them.

With a hat shielding his face from the bright florescent lights lining the room, it was almost hard to see the bags under his eyes. Clearly tired, he still managed to put on his game face. Over this long New York Comic Con weekend, he had done a couple panels, several interviews, and now, a party for a game he is a very big part of.

DC Universe online brought out a completely new challenge for Lee.

Talking about his role in DC Universe Online, Lee laughs as he remembers his official title of “Executive Creative Director.” Sounds a bit on the bland side, but he explains that his job is to effectively make the skeleton in which this game will rest upon.

“I’m involved with a lot of the concept art, and it’s my job to report back to DC if the game looks right or not,” said Lee describing the multiple facets of his new job.

Lee did most of the conceptual artwork for not only the heroes and villains, but also the cityscape and landmarks throughout the game. Sony explained that more than 300 city blocks were designed just for a game demo and that’s only a very small fraction of the game. “Metropolis is huge,” Lee said, “There is just so much going on there that it really takes a while to grasp it all. You have S.T.A.R. Labs, Centennial Park with the big Superman statue and of course the Daily Planet.”

Lee said he was very excited about the game and the concept of it being a MMORPG. He says he’s a gamer, and it’s clear he means it, making mention of macros and zones, both familiar aspects to those who have played games of this genre, to pad his cred. “I’ve been playing MMO’s for a while now: EverQuest, EverQuest 2, Warcraft. But I like shooters too”

DC Universe online brought out a completely new challenge for Lee. He had to do something that had never been done before: design all of Gotham City and Metropolis. In all the years of Batman and Superman comics, no one has ever had to make a layout of their iconic cities. Sure, comic fans know what landmarks are in each city but not how they are placed on the map. Lee explained that comic tradition is to use the location to aid the story, rather than the story to be defined by the location.

“If in one book, the Daily Planet was 50 stories tall and next time it was 75, no one blinked an eye, because it was for the story to progress.” Now suddenly, Lee needed to define everything, and that was a problem. It was a new issue to someone who had spent 20 years drawing books, and that isn’t something you see every day in the world of comics.

Getting things like arms and shoulders to render just right took patience

To compound the problem, he needed to add in landmarks to make every area unique so that players can tell the difference and assign meeting places. “I needed to go through and add in all these little nooks and landmarks. Everyone knows the Daily Planet and Centennial Park, but we didn’t want everyone gathering at only those places,” Lee said.

Things that were just background in the past, suddenly needed to be the focus.

“Sure, it was challenging, but I think we got it right,” Lee said. “Sometimes stuff just falls right into place.”

The whole basis of the game is that you get to design and in essence, be your own superhero in the DC universe. Jim talked for a bit about the challenges of making interchangeable designs, to allow for maximum uniqueness, and then explained another overlooked part of the design process: character silhouette.

“We spent a lot of time creating iconic silhouettes,” Lee said, noting that it was one of the most important aspects to him. “It’s important that from far away, you could see someone like Superman, and still knows its Superman because his shape is unique. Not many characters in the DC Universe have weird or awkward shapes, so we made a few standard bodies to pick from.”

His eyes perk up when talking about the transition from being a comic artist to a concept designer. He explained that his biggest personal problem. “I need to clean up my lines,” Lee said. He was referring to the anatomy of the characters he draws day in and day out.

“When I draw for comics, things are more stylized. I tend to draw females with longer legs and guys with sloped shoulders,” Lee said. Those may look right in place in the 2D world, but when put in the third dimension, they make them look awkward and sometimes “downright monstrous”, as he put it.

“Functionally, my biggest problem was the shoulders. They didn’t articulate well,” Lee said.

NEW YORK – Eli Szasz and Aaron Rasmussen created the perfect gamer invention in 2007 – an energy drink worth two Red Bulls packed in a potion-shaped bottle and titled “Mana.” It doesn’t get any better than that.

Now, a year after their initial release of the “Mana Energy Potion,” Szasz and Rasmussen introduced their new “Health Energy Potion,” a companion to “Mana,” at New York Comic-con.

The guys were nice enough to let me test a bottle of each of the energy drinks. Both are about a shot’s worth of liquid. “Mana” is blue and has a sour, berry flavor while “Health” is red and is flavored apple-cinnamon.

The “Mana” potion was probably the best thing that happened to me during the entire Con. Blast cohort Kellen Rice and I split a bottle after the “Up” screening and started talking about 100 miles per hour in less than five minutes. While the initial boost of energy eventually died down, we remained coherent and aware for the rest of the night after an exhausting day and little sleep the night before.

Because I cannot do justice to how the “Mana” and “Health” potions were described in their press release, I will just quote directly from it:

“While Mana Energy Potion gets you pumped up for a fight, quest or adventure, Health Energy Potion restores you after battle so you can get back into the heat of the action.”

Rasmussen described the new “Health” potion to me as a gradual boost of energy spread out over a five to eight hour period. “Mana” packs an initial burst of energy (that Zac Turgeon had to listen to while he, Kellen and I had dinner at a nearby pizza joint) and then levels out for the same length of time.

“Health” might work well for gamers, who need a continuous flow of energy to stay awake. But for a quick pick-me-up, “Health” didn’t make too much of a difference, and maybe it was just the exhausted state I was in, but I didn’t feel much more aware after the bottle of “Health” that I drank.

“Mana” combines a variety of vitamins like Vitamin C, Vitamins B1, B3, B6 and B12 and Pantothenic Acid with their own special “energy potion” and enzyme blend to come up with their drink. “Health” uses Vitamin C, Vitamins B1, B6 and B12 and adds Elderberry, ginseng, biotin and folic acid to make a constant flow of energy.

Each potion is 25 calories and contains 1.69 ounces of liquid.

The potions are $3.45 a bottle and can be purchased at Hot Topic, ThinkGeek.com or at the ManaPotions.com webstore.

NEW YORK — Of the previews and screening at NY Comic-con, one film stood apart and out of place from the rest. Summit Entertainment’s “The Hurt Locker,” is about an Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal team (EOD) that is stationed in Iraq during the current war.

Comic-con has grown from a convention featuring solely comic books to include video games, movies and television shows, but all have a similar nerdy trend that ties them together.

“The Hurt Locker,” directed by Kathryn Bigelow (“Point Break,” “The Weight of Water”) and starring Jeremy Renner, is a serious, weighty film that already has earned critical acclaim at the 2008 Venice Film Festival.

At Comic-con, Blast had an opportunity to sit down with Renner and talk about the long and difficult filming process the film required, which took place over three months in Jordon.

For the film, Renner spent weeks training with an actual EOD team, and found out they weren’t like he was expecting.

“First I was in shock at how, for lack of other words, nerdy they are,” said Renner when describing them and how they operate.

They weren’t the stereotypical meatheads he expected, but rather interesting people with stories and lives like everyone else.

In the movie, Renner plays Staff Sergeant William James, a hot shot bomb diffuser. Renner said that it took a while for him to fully develop the character. Despite jut being a “cowboy” on the surface, as the movie goes on, James becomes more of a person, and that took some work to develop.

Much like the actual EOD team that they shadowed and trained with, these characters aren’t what they appear on the outside. They are people, with the war as a backdrop, not the same soldiers with different names.

Renner made it clear that this was a war movie, not a critique on a war many have come to despise. It’s about the people in these poor situations, not about any of the politics of war.

That fact might save this movie from damning reviews that other movies set in the Iraq war have received. It isn’t political; it isn’t about why the war happened, but rather about three people getting through their time in the sun soaked desert.

Renner discussed how his roles in “The Hurt Locker” and “SWAT” familiarized him with military knowledge, specifically with gun use.

He seemed a bit tense when this subject came up saying only “Do I love guns? I think they are interesting” and explaining a respect for the tool.

The mood got a lot lighter when the discussion of the movie’s signature bomb suit came up. For everyone who hasn’t seen an EOD bomb suit, picture a cross between the first Russian cosmonaut suits and the old deep sea diver suits. The suit weighs over 100 pounds, and is meant to absorb the impact of a bomb detonated mere feet away.

Renner said the suit was so heavy his “whole body and spirit were crushed under it’s weight.”

Eventually, he said, the suit became an escape for him. Inside its giant bell of a helmet, he watched the world go by while listening to Beethoven. Explaining that the suit was 10 to 15 degrees hotter than the already scorching Jordon, made him feel unbreakable. When he finally would take the suit off, it was felt like taking a dip into a pool, he said.

Renner said the crew behind “The Hurt Locker” was one of the best crews be has ever worked with and they ended up becoming close because they were filming so far away from home.

When questioned about director Bigelow, he said she was the toughest person out there. When the reporters started to laugh at his comment he stopped them, saying that it wasn’t a joke, and he had no idea how she put up with everything, all while under the rays of the hot sun.

Renner said he surprised that Jordon, the United States biggest ally in the Middle East, wasn’t all wind and sand but was actually incredibly westernized. It didn’t have all the amenities the United States is known for, but he was surprised to see that the world was not as far behind as he thought.

Renner is staying in New York after New York Comic-con for some reshoots on “The Unusuals,” a new ABC dramady that follows police detectives who have to solve the unusual cases, hence the name.

He said he also has expressed a lot of interest in the not-yet cast “The Losers,” a film based off the comic of the same name.

Keep an eye on Renner as press for “The Hurt Locker” continues, because he’s going to be huge after it hits theaters and gets the Oscar cred it duly deserves.

NEW YORK — After many years as one of Japans hidden gems, “Yatterman” finally finds it’s way onto US soil. “Yatterman” has been a long-time anime favorite in Japan, spawning two successful series and now a live action movie.

Brought to the screen by esteemed Japanese director Takashi Miike, “Yatterman” is the story of two heroes, Yatterman 1 and Yatterman 2, who use their specially designed toy weapons to stop the forces of evil lead by the mysterious God of Thieves. While the plot seems fairly standard fair, that characters are nothing but.

Takashi Miike said that if nothing else, he wants to portray the characters as real and authentic. Sure, they are dressed up in pink and white jumpsuits, but that’s merely the outside. He expressed his deep interest in showing that these characters mean things to Japan, and he hopes that they will soon mean things to some of us over in the US.

Also appearing at the panel was Yatterman’s star, Sho Sakurai. In his native land, Sakurai is about as big a celebrity as they come. He’s a pop star, an action hero, a news reporter, and a stage performer. He is the Japanese Swiss army knife of acting.

Sakurai showed he was a decent person in addition to a giant celebrity by taking the time to address everyone in English (his first language is Japanese), and thank them for showing up and trying to give this movie an American following.

Miike isn’t from this land, but he’s not foreign to having a cult classic. His movies, “Ichi the Killer” and “Audition” have become underground hits over here. Yatterman proves to be a departure from the suspense and blood, in favor of bright lights and giant robots, Miike assured everyone that it wasn’t going to just be a kid’s movie. He says he wanted to bring depth to everything.

When asked how they feel about the current American movie trend of making live-action movies out of successful animes, both said they couldn’t be prouder.

Sakuarai, who was in New York to write about differences in Japanese manga and American comic books, said that he is happy to see the things he grew up on entertaining a new audience.

Miike said it was an honor for Japan to have their work taken seriously by the biggest of American movies companies, but also subtly said that he thinks the Japanese can still do it better and that’s why he has chosen to bring “Yatterman” to the screen.

The second part of our videos from the “Fringe” interviews. Enjoy!

NEW YORK — For fear of mangling all the super-scientific terms and ideas behind J.J. Abrams’ “Fringe,” here is our interview with Joshua Jackson from New York Comic Con for your own viewing pleasure:

NEW YORK — Joshua Jackson might now be the star of J.J. Abrams’ new sci-fi drama “Fringe,” but we “Grey’s Anatomy” fans out there remember a time not so long ago where Jackson was supposed to be the new dreamy doctor at Seattle’s Grace.

Though the “Fringe” roundtable interview with Jackson at New York Comic-Con didn’t leave much of an opportunity to get a question in edgewise about “Grey’s” versus “Fringe,” I got the opportunity to talk to Jackson before he was rushed off to the “Fringe” panel.

After informing him how, as enjoyable as Kevin McKidd is on the show, I couldn’t help but watch and think how much different (and better?) the show could have been with him on it, he wistfully responded with, “You know, the day we were supposed to start filming was the day the writer’s strike began.”

It is clear that Jackson is in his element on “Fringe.” If you watch our video clips from the interview, he is off at 100 miles a minute about the intricate nature of the science of the show.

Declaring that “The X-Files” was one of his favorite shows ever and comparing the hidden connections of “Fringe” to how Beastmaster’s third sword was the same as He-Man’s, (“Because it was,” he assured us) it is clear that a sci-fi show could be more up his alley than the adult, hospital version of “Dawson’s Creek.”

He did assure me he regretted not having the opportunity to work alongside Christina Oh – he was supposed to be her love interest in “Grey’s Anatomy” until filming was put on hold due to the strike and he eventually went to “Fringe” and McKidd replaced his character – and he would take any future project where he could work with her.

Maybe if Shonda Rhymes ever does make a second spin-off starring Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh’s “Grey’s Anatomy” character) she could give Jackson a call and have one of her characters live happily ever after. That is, if she doesn’t decide to make a spin-off where Izzie and George (if T.R. Knight gets the same send-off it looks like Katherine Heigl is being sent towards) hang out with Denny Duquette and Ellis Grey and ride unicorns across rainbows over rivers of chocolate joy. Both options seem entirely plausible at this point.

NEW YORK — Comic-Con is a place for geeks and nerds nationwide to gather and spend a whole weekend thriving in an environment created especially for them. There are booths set up with special edition collectibles, comic book authors and artists signing their works galore and plenty of panels set up to keep the appetites of television and movie lovers whet until their next opportunity for the ultimate geekdom in San Diego.

But what happens when those geeks just happen to be celebrities as well? The large majority of the actors, directors and producers who are being featured at NYCC are huge nerds themselves and undoubtedly would rather be watching through the exhibit hall than sitting up on a panel listening to people ask for autographs and spoilers.

There’s nothing more obvious than a pack of security guards wrapped around someone who is trying to be seen, so these two tried a different approach to roaming unnoticed through the artist gallery.

Meet Tony Stark, exhibitor for Marvel Entertainment, otherwise known to we lesser mortals as Seth Meyers, writer and star of Saturday Night Live. Alongside him is Bill Hader, also as an “exhibitor” with Marvel Entertainment.

Drink that milkshake!

NEW YORK — The 2009 New York Comic Con wrapped up yesterday evening after three days of fan insanity. And while there are many divides between the Star Wars fans and the anime fans and the Halo fans and everyone else, there is one thing which unites them all: cosplay.

With the con behind us, it’s time for the cosplayers to put away their giant foam swords and Darth Vader helmets until next time, but it doesn’t mean Blast has to put away the pictures. Here’s a selection of some of the best costumes of the New York Comic Con.

All photographs by Kellen Rice

Terminator Salvation director McG showed up at the New York Comic Con yesterday to present a reel of never-before-seen footage from the unfinished film and to hold the geek equivalent of a town-hall meeting in the long campaign to win over the existing Terminator fan base.

In the process, he cheerfully suffered heckling over everything from his name (which is a old-hat subject by now and one that McG explained with a lot of expletives) to the recently-exposed Christian Bale blow-up. In brief, McG said that emotions running high on a movie set made freak-outs like Bale’s inevitable. Especially, McG added, because Bale’s a “very serious actor,” a line that prompted several members of the crowd to shout choice quotes from the audio clip. He went on to say that in his experience, getting in someone’s face when they’re in the middle of an explosion was never the best way to handle it, and that he and the producers had decided to simply wait for Bale to calm down.

“That remix is pretty hot,” he continued, drawing laughs from the attendees, and assured everyone that “(Christian and Shane Hurlbut) were fine that day” and that the two are “buddies” who worked successfully together for another month after the incident.

He made light of the blow-up later in the Q&A, when an audience member with a strong accent asked the first question. “What don’t you fucking understand?” he shouted. “We are done professionally!”

Jokes aside, McG made it clear that he was seeking a discussion about the film footage and impressed the die-hard Terminator fans (myself included) by insisting that he wanted to hear the fans’ suggestions on the material. He was going to take those suggestions, he said, to the cutting room floor.

The reel was about eight minutes long and contained a ton of footage of the machines that Terminator fans have only gotten to see in brief clips in previous movies. McG talked at length about the goals of the film, one of which was to portray the evolutionary steps leading to Skynet’s Arnold Schwarzenegger Terminator model (the “T-800″). Another goal, he explained, was to show how Kyle Reese becomes Kyle Reese, how he becomes the man who would sacrifice himself for John Connor. And to be honest, that potential character arc alone is enough to embolden my faith in the film.

And if those eight minutes are anything to judge by, Terminator Salvation promises to be an adrenaline ride with a lot of explosions. There were some unfinished action sequences in the reel that I can only imagine will be thrilling when the effects are completed.‚ 

McG fielded a surprising amount of questions after the viewing and answered one of the fans’ most pressing questions about the film; namely, to what extent were the events and timeline of the lackluster Terminator 3 versus that of T1 and T2 honored in Terminator Salvation. In brief, McG assured audiences that the spirit of the film was true to Jim Cameron’s original works but that there were aspects of the third film, such as the way Judgment Day comes about, that he incorporated into his movie.‚ 

A representative from an Arnold Schwarzenegger fansite (who McG invited up to the stage for wearing a Cyberdyne tee shirt) asked appropriately about the possibility of an Arnold cameo. McG revealed to the audience that they were working on a revolutionary technique for “doing something with that” and that he wasn’t sure if it would even work. And while he didn’t answer the question directly, McG made it clear that they were working on getting some version of Arnold (but not the Arnold of “today,” which drew chuckles) in the film as part of Skynet’s development. Personally, a Terminator film isn’t a Terminator film without Arnold, so I hope that this revolutionary technique works.

All in all, McG was eager to convince the tough crowd that he was honoring the Jim Cameron films and that he, like us, was a Terminator fan. Based off the footage that I saw (combined with his self-deprecating and expletive-laden humor) I have to admit that I am finally starting to believe. The film looks great, the cast looks great, and all in all it seems like McG’s Terminator Salvation might actually be a true Terminator film – not just an action flick, but a movie that says something profound and makes you think.‚ 

So McG — if you let me down on this one, we are fucking done professionally.

Blast reporter Kellen Rice and myself teamed up with David Chen and Devindra Hardawar of /Film Saturday evening to discuss a New York Comic-con exclusive showing of the first 46 minutes and 14 seconds of Pixar and Disney’s upcoming film, “Up.” “Up” opens in theaters on May 29.

NEW YORK — Sony Online Entertainment has confirmed the news that famed comic book writer, Marv Wolfman, has joined the DC Universe Online team to write its story arcs, quests and in-game events.

“Getting Marv on board with DC Universe Online shows just how passionate and determined we are about making sure this franchise delivers for both video game players and comic book fans alike,” said John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment. “This is a true collaboration between the top talent at DC and SOE, and I believe the result of this creative alliance will be one of the most exciting, memorable online game experiences to date.”

Wolfman is the creator of the Marvel villain Bullseye and the creator and writer of the Blade vampire franchise. He recently worked as a writer for the popular Teen Titans animated series.

“As a gamer, this is a dream project in many ways,” said Wolfman. “I get to create new stories in the DC Universe that will make this video game world a truly unique, unforgettable experience.”

Blast will be reporting live on Saturday at New York Comic-Con when Wolfman will join Jim Lee, Geoff Johns and Sony Online‚  Entertainment developers Jens Andersen, Wes Yanagi and Jared Carr for the panel “Bringing the DC Universe to Life Online.”

We will bring you more details as we get them.

From Sony:

Legendary Writer Marv Wolfman
Joins Creative Team Developing DC Universe Online Video Game

Wolfman To Lend Storytelling Talent To DCUO Saga

AUSTIN, Texas – Feb. 6, 2009 – In another sign of Sony Online Entertainment LLC’s (SOE) commitment to the upcoming DC Universe Online (DCUO) massively multiplayer online video game, the company today announced that award-winning writer Marv Wolfman has joined the creative team at WildStorm Productions that is working with SOE to bring the DC Universe to life on the PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system and the PC.

Wolfman will write compelling story arcs, exciting quests and in-game events for DCUO. Wolfman’s seminal run on The New Teen Titans is a favorite among comic book fans, and along with his work on series such as Crisis on Infinite Earths, Batman and Superman, he has become one of the most recognizable names in comics of the last three decades. His illustrious comic credits also include creating and writing Blade, The Vampire Hunter.

Wolfman joins an all-star roster already at work on DCUO, including legendary comic book artist Jim Lee, who serves as the game’s executive creative director, and renowned DC writer Geoff Johns, who is crafting the game’s overarching story. DCUO is currently in development at SOE’s Austin studio in collaboration with DC Comics and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.

“Getting Marv on board with DC Universe Online shows just how passionate and determined we are about making sure this franchise delivers for both video game players and comic book fans alike,” said John Smedley, president of SOE. “This is a true collaboration between the top talent at DC and SOE, and I believe the result of this creative alliance will be one of the most exciting, memorable online game experiences to date.”

Wolfman has been a creative force both on and off the pages of comic books. Wolfman recently worked as a writer for the popular Teen Titans animated series. In addition to Blade, which was turned into a TV series and three hit movies starring Wesley Snipes, he created Bullseye, the prime villain in the 2003 movie Daredevil. Wolfman has received numerous awards and recognition for his work, including the SCRIBE award for best speculative fiction novel adaptation for Superman Returns, and a special commendation by the White House for his work on three anti-drug comics for the “Just Say No” program.

“As a gamer, this is a dream project in many ways,” said Wolfman. “I get to create new stories in the DC Universe that will make this video game world a truly unique, unforgettable experience.”

About DCUO
DCUO offers a dramatic online setting where players can enter the DC Universe and battle alongside or against their favorite DC Comics heroes and villains including such icons as Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and The Joker, as well as many other fan favorites such as Green Lantern, The Flash, Catwoman and Martian Manhunter. The action and drama will play out in such well-known locations as Gotham City and Metropolis among others.

About Sony Online Entertainment
Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE) is a recognized worldwide leader in massively multiplayer online games, with hundreds of thousands of subscribers around the globe. SOE creates, develops and provides compelling entertainment for the personal computer, online, game console and wireless markets. Known for its blockbuster franchises and hit titles including EverQuest‚®, EverQuest II, Champions of Norrath, Untold Legends, and PlanetSide, as well as for developing Star Wars Galaxies, SOE continues to redefine the business of online gaming and the creation of active player communities while introducing new genres on various entertainment platforms. Headquartered in San Diego, CA, with additional development studios in Austin, TX; Seattle, WA; Denver, CO; Tucson, AZ and Taiwan, SOE has an array of cutting-edge games in development.

SOE, the SOE logo, EverQuest and PlanetSide are registered trademarks of Sony Online Entertainment LLC. Untold Legends and Legends of Norrath are trademarks of Sony Online Entertainment LLC. All other trademarks and trade names are properties of their respective owners

About DC Comics
DC Comics, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, is the largest English-language publisher of comics in the world and home to such iconic characters as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and the Sandman. These DC Super Heroes and others have starred in comic books, movies, television series (both animated and live-action) and cyberspace, thrilling audiences of all ages for generations.‚  DC Comics’ Web site is located at www.dccomics.com.

DC UNIVERSE, DC SUPER HEROES and all related characters and elements are trademarks of DC Comics.

About Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, a division of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group, is a premier worldwide publisher, developer, licensor and distributor of entertainment content for the interactive space across all current and future platforms, including console, handheld and PC-based gaming for both internal and third party game titles.