Tag Archives: Superman

Artist pulls out of Superman comic, cites Card controversy

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Richard Neal

Local comic book store owner Richard Neal has been one of those at the forefront criticizing DC Comics for tapping virulent homophobe Orson Scott Card to pen a Superman story for them; Neal announced his Zeus Comics wouldn’t carry it when it was released.

Well, he will have to wait even longer until that day comes. Chris Sprouse, the artist hired to draw the comic, has pulled out of the assignment, citing the Card controversy.

That doesn’t mean the comic is dead, however; DC says it will hire another artist — a fact that distresses Neal.

“In the same week Carly Rae Jepsen and Train cancel a Boy Scouts of America concert appearance by standing up for LGBT equality, we get this from DC,” Neal sighs. “I’m not sure what I was expecting to happen, but I know what I was hoping to happen. However there will be no parade, no victory celebration for equality. DC relied on the artists to make the decision for them. If there is any victory, it’s in the meaningful conversations held in comic shops across the country about LGBT [rights] and marriage equality. The victory is in the community we create with each other.”

—  Arnold Wayne Jones

Zeus’ Neal gets national attention for opposing anti-gay Superman scribe

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Variants castDallas retailer Richard Neal, owner of Zeus Comics, has become the go-to guy on why DC Comics is being bone-headed about choosing anti-gay activist Orson Scott Card to write its Adventures of Superman trilogy, which the superhero-loving Neal has refused to carry in his store.

Neal, center, is now the subject of a two-part interview on the website ComicsAlliance about the controversy. You can read it here.

—  Arnold Wayne Jones

WATCH: CW33′s ‘Gay Agenda’

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Zeus Comics’ Richard Neal talks to CW33′s Doug Magditch about his decision not to carry the new Superman comic after DC Comics tapped anti-gay bigot Orson Scott Card to help write it.

In this week’s installment, CW33′s Doug Magditch talks about backlash against DC Comics for tapping an anti-gay bigot to help write the new Superman; the Associated Press’ reluctance to refer to married same-sex couples as “husband” or “wife”; and the furor over an anti-gay prom in Indiana. And as usual, don’t miss my cameo! Watch it below.

Continue reading “WATCH: CW33′s ‘Gay Agenda’” »

—  John Wright

Dallas’ Zeus Comics says it won’t carry anti-gay writer’s Superman

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Orson Scott Card

The gay owner of Dallas’ Zeus Comics store has announced he won’t carry the print edition of DC Comics’ Anthology of Superman, after the comic book maker hired a board member from the National Organization for Marriage to help write the series.

DC Comics announced Monday that Orson Scott Card will help write the new Superman. Card not only sits on the board of NOM, but he has also called homosexuality “deviant behavior” and argued that marriage equality will lead to the collapse of civilization.

Despite outrage from the LGBT community and a petition calling for DC Comics to get rid of Card that now has almost 8,000 signatures, DC Comics stood by its decision in a statement to the Advocate.

D Magazine reports that Richard Neal, owner of Zeus Comics, posted the following statement on his Facebook page:

Zeus Comics will not be carrying the print edition of writer Orson Scott Card’s Superman.

Card sits on the board of the National Organization of Marriage which fights against marriage equality. His essays advocate the destruction of my relationship, that I am born of rape or abuse and that I am equated with pedophilia. These themes appear in his fiction as well.

It is shocking DC Comics would hire him to write Superman, a character whose ideals represent all of us.

If you replaced the word “homosexuals” in his essays with the words “women” or “jews” he would not be hired. But I’m not sure why its still okay to “have an opinion” about gays? This is about equality.

Neal also linked to his husband’s Tumblr page containing a scan of a recent Superman comic that appears to show him saving a gay teen from suicide. View the scan below.

Continue reading “Dallas’ Zeus Comics says it won’t carry anti-gay writer’s Superman” »

—  John Wright

BREAKING: DTC adds summer musical to season

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For the last three seasons, the Dallas Theater Center has extended its season into the summer with a family-friendly musical: Sarah Plain and Tall, It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s Superman and The Wiz. But not was on the calendar when the season was released last spring.

Well, artistic director Kevin Moriarty has fixed that. Today, he announced the addition of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, directed and choreographed by Joel Ferrell, to the season. (We wrote about how valuable Ferrell is to the Dallas arts scene and DTC here; he’s done Joseph before, in Plano, to great acclaim.) Not only is it a bonus show, but it will be there for an eight week run — pretty long for regional theater.

—  Arnold Wayne Jones

Moriarty’s contract with DTC extended to 2014

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Kevin Moriarty

Kevin Moriarty, the gay artistic director of the Dallas Theater Center, will be in town a little longer.

Moriarty, who took over the post in 2007, had his contract extended this week through the end of the 2013-14 season, keeping him as head of the 52-year-old company through August 2014.

The DTC also finished its fiscal year in the black for the eighth time in 10 years, with a budget surplus, despite spending exorbitantly on the revamped musical It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s Superman.

The DTC’s managing director, Mark Hadley, announced his departure earlier this year; this month represented his last show with the organization. He will be working with a church in Arlington. A search is currently under way for his replacement.

—  Arnold Wayne Jones

DTC’s Mark Hadley stepping down

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Mark Hadley, the managing director of the Dallas Theater Center, is leaving the company, it was announced today.

Hadley has been at the DTC for nine years under both former artistic director Richard Hamburger and current AD Kevin Moriarty. For six, he has been the managing director. Next season will be his last.

The final show of the 2009-2010 season, “It’s a Bird… It’s a Plane… It’s Superman,” just opened. A review will run in the print edition Friday. Here’s our preview of the show.

—  Arnold Wayne Jones

Casting news; B'way hunk Matt Cavenaugh will be Superman

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CavenaughThe Dallas Theater Center’s updating of the ’60s-era musical It’s a Bird… It’s a Plane… It’s Superman! gets its first major casting announcement. Matt Cavenaugh — who played Jerry and Joseph Kennedy Jr. in the Broadway production of Grey Gardens — will take on the role of Clark Kent/Man of Steel. I guess this means I need to spend even MORE time at the gym … if I want to be Jimmy Olsen.

—  Arnold Wayne Jones