‘Static Shock’ Movie in Development

A new “Static Shock” movie may be on the way.

At a DC FanDome panel on Saturday, filmmaker Reginald Hudlin said there’s been “serious conversations” about bringing the electric-powered teen hero to the big screen.

Virgil Hawkins, a.k.a. Static Shock, was created by Milestone Media and DC Comics in the 1990s and starred in a Kids’ WB animated series in the early 2000s. The series received multiple Daytime Emmy award nominations and is still highly regarded by fans for being one of the few superhero series starring a Black character.

“One of the things we’re really excited about, we really want to live up to the name of the company, Milestone Media,” said Hudlin. “When we spoke to Jim [Lee] about reviving the Milestone line, we said ‘Look, we all know this has been a hit comic book and hit animated series. It’s time to expand back into all those areas and then some.’ So we’re in serious conversations about, as we’re launching the comic book series, developing the ‘Static Shock’ movie. That will be a theatrical feature film.”

There were no other details given on “Static Shock’s” move to the big screen, but he will star in a digital comic book series in February 2021.

[SOURCE: VARIETY]

Growing Popularity of Black Superheroes Creates Opportunities for Comic Book Investors

(Black PR Wire) Marvel Comic’s Black Panther—the first black comic book superhero, born in the 1960s—is poised to make his big screen debut in the much-anticipated movie, Captain America: Civil War. It’s culturally significant, but that’s not all. For comic book collectors, the growing interest in black superheroes opens doors for investors, too. 

“When interest in a character rises, comic book values do, too,” says Vincent Zurzolo, co-owner of Metropolis Collectibles, the world’s largest vintage comic book dealership, and ComicConnect.com, its online auction site. 

Take The Black Panther’s first appearance in Fantastic Four #52 in 1966. (First appearances are typically the most valuable comics in a series.) In 2012, a 9.8 graded copy of Fantastic Four #52 sold for $19,200. In 2016, a similar copy sold for $83,650—a 435% increase in value.

Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, The Black Panther character was born as T’Challa, the prince of Wakanda, a technologically-advanced country. He takes on the hero role when his father, the king, is killed. 

Then there’s Luke Cage, a favorite of actor Nicholas Cage, who adopted his surname. This black superhero, who first appeared in Marvel’s Hero for Hire #1 in 1972, boasts superhuman strength and unbreakable skin. Last year, he was featured on the Netflix series Jessica Jones. This fall, he’ll headline his own series. 

In 2011, a 9.8 graded copy of Hero for Hire #1 sold for $2,766. In 2014, one sold for $6,100. But earlier this year, a similarly graded copy sold for $24,000, a whopping 867% increase in 5 years. 

“The interest is industry wide,” notes Stephen Fishler, co-owner of Metropolis/ComicConnect, pointing out the upcoming reboot of Milestone Comics, a DC imprint created by African-American artists and writers in 1993. The best known are Hardware, Icon and Static. 

Hip hop icon Darryl “DMC” McDaniels of Run DMC, launched his own comic book imprint, Darryl Makes Comics (http://www.dmc-comics.com), in 2014. His graphic novel series, DMC, features McDaniels as a contemporary superhero—complete with trademark Adidas and fedora—confronting evil in 1985 New York City. 


“The Black Panther has been a favorite of many collectors for decades. He has a great back story and cool powers. Once more people learn about him, his vintage comics will become more collectible.”

Source: www.ComicConnect.com

Milestone Media rises again

Great news! The company that gave us Static Shock, Hardware, and other super heroes of color is back, Milestone Media has risen again!

The idea arose not just in the wake of Dwayne McDuffie’s death, but also at the wake to remember the man.

Reggie Hudlin, the “Django Unchained” producer, spoke at the gathering in 2011 with artist Denys Cowan and Derek Dingle, who with McDuffie had co-founded Milestone Media, the prominent minority-owned comics publisher. McDuffie, also known for his DC Comics work, was widely considered to be a pioneer in his efforts to diversify the comic-book industry, prior to his shocking death at age 49.

“Derek said, ‘It’s been too long. We’ve got to restart the company’,” Hudlin recounts to The Post’s Comic Riffs, of that day in 2011. “So the three of us have been working for the past two years on sorting out all the business, and now we are the core of Milestone Media 2.0.”

That’s right. Hudlin, Cowan and Dingle tell Comic Riffs that they are working together to revive the company that debuted more than 20 years ago before its demise in 1997 — a publisher that could boast of such heroes of color as Icon, Hardware and Static Shock. That means Milestone titles will soon return to comics shops physical and virtual.

Read more here: Milestone Media rises again. Hudlin, Cowan and Dingle will revive company with eye toward characters of color

A new Static Shock series is on the way!

Warner Brothers has announced the launch of a new digital division, named Blue Ribbon Content. Among the new series in development is a live action version of the comic book, Static Shock.

Writer/producer/director Reginald Hudlin (Best Picture Oscar nominee for producing Django Unchained) leads the creative team behind a live-action adaptation of Static Shock, featuring the African-American super hero Static, aka Virgil Ovid Hawkins. Static Shock is based on the Static comic co-created by the late Dwayne McDuffie with co-writer Robert L. Washington III and artist John Paul Leon, which was originally published by the DC Comics imprint Milestone Comics and, later, by DC Comics. Milestone Media co-founder/comic book artist/TV producer Denys Cowan (the original Static Shock animated series) is collaborating with Hudlin on the new Static Shock