To Sir, With Love – Static Shock Blackout

Hey, kids! We’re you bummed when you heard that DC was going to cancel Static Shock after John Rozum left the book? Well, then there’s good news for you fans of Dakota City’s favorite electrically charged teen hero! Static Shock Blackout, a student made film that opens with a dedication to the memory of the character’s creator Dwayne McDuffie, has now been released to the internet via YouTube. The 13 minute film follows reporter Daisy Watkins, who has been tipped to the existence of Bang Babies – meta humans created after an explosion in Dakota City that killed hundreds and was mysteriously covered up.

Over on the film’s YouTube page, the film’s creators describe the film and themselves:

We know this isn’t a super-professional superhero movie, since we shot this on a student budget with limited resources. If you’re interested in our future productions, please feel free to contact us…We have more projects on the way, so please add us to your social networks! We are a group of students from Carnegie Mellon University, The Art Institute, Syracuse University and University of Central Florida who spent 1.5 years making this film for you.

The film may not be “professional”, but it’s clearly a labor of love, both for the character of Static Shock and the process of film making. Speaking as someone who can barely hold her camera phone steady to make a comic app review video, I give them major props for their finished product. They should be proud of what they put together; I just hope that it doesn’t take them another year and half to give us another installment in this series!

Check out the complete short film, after the jump.

Roll Me Over, Lay Me Down and Do It Again: DC Comics New New 52

Well, we knew it was coming – the DC brass all but told us it was – but DC’s New 52 is now the New 46.

DC has announced that they are canceling Men of War, Blackhawks, O.M.A.C., Mister Terrific, Static Shock, and, in the interest of at least some justice, Rob Leifeld’s Hawk & Dove, after their respective eighth issues.

But since DC’s multiverse includes 52 worlds, and because the only words that rhymes with “46” are “ticks,” “dicks,” and “pricks,” they will be releasing six new regular books in May, including:

The Walking Dead (Not That One)

When it comes to creative teams, DC’s New 52 is turning into Thunderdome: 52 teams enter… one team leaves… and if recent DC history’s any guide, that team will be Grant Morrison, an A-list artist to be named later, and a terrifyingly large pile of mescaline.

Last week it was John Rozum walking away from Static Shock, which was a shame because I had some hope for it; sure, the first issue didn’t grab either Amanda or I enough to review it, but Rozum’s responsible for writing 2002’s terrific and woefully underrated Midnight, Mass. from Vertigo, so I was hoping things would improve.

Instead, he chose to leave the title, absolving pretty much all parties involved of any blame by name, then saying with one breath that he was looking forward to doing more books with DC Comics and with the NEXT saying, “…if you are in the position to give me work, please let me know.” Which only tells me that if you want to know what REALLY happened there, you should attend next month’s New York ComicCon and fill that man with bourbon. And then send us an email. And then fill US with bourbon. But I digress.

Yesterday afternoon brought us another man down: Green Arrow writer J. T. Krul announced that he was leaving the book after the third issue: