Right now (and I don’t know for how long), the Season 4 premiere of Leverage is available for free on iTunes. I haven’t watched this particular episode yet, but I’m planning to, because the show is great escapist summer watching. This time, they go mountain climbing!

I hadn’t been following the tribulations of publisher Devil’s Due, mainly because I don’t read any of their comics. Most of what they’ve put out this year are a handful of issues of Hack/Slash, Jericho (based on the canceled TV show), and Presidential parody Barack the Barbarian. Nothing’s come out since April.

Last year, Rich Johnston reported that they owed a lot of money to their creators — one of whom even won a court judgment against the company — to which publisher Josh Blaylock responded that bookstore returns had been a problem for them.

We’re still dealing with hundreds of thousands of dollars in book store returns that rocked us in late 2008 and into 2009, right in the middle of an already aggressive restructuring. … It’s a reminder to publishers not to be too over leveraged in the book stores.

An unpleasant example that, while sales to comic stores are non-returnable, sales to bookstores may be imaginary, and all your stock has the risk of coming back. Given those circumstances, it’s surprising that Devil’s Due is still in business, but they wouldn’t be the first comic company to stick around longer than expected by the simple expedient of not paying artists. Now comes an unexpected press release that states

Devil’s Due Publishing has pulled its distribution of comics and graphic novels from Diamond Comic and Diamond Book Distributors, effective today. The Publisher will soon be announcing its new book store distribution partners and will offer product direct to comic book retail outlets, as well as distribution through Haven Comic Distributors.

According to Blaylock, Diamond has been taking their revenue to cover debts Devil’s Due owed to the comic distributor. So while Devil’s Due comics were selling, DD wasn’t seeing the money, so they couldn’t pay their creators.

This release raises more questions than it answers. Such as, how is DD going to pay Diamond now? How is DD going to continue to sell comics, now that their tenuous financial position is so visible and Hack/Slash has moved to Image? Why isn’t Blaylock giving up now, if he’s under such financial pressure? Why would anyone order from his company? Does Diamond have the right to seize incoming funds that way?

Graeme McMillan asked Blaylock some questions to clarify, but, well, when the publisher is saying things like this:

If not for [Diamond's] withholding of moneys for the past year, according to my estimates DDP would have been able to pay not only all talent owed, but many other creditors as well, plus a considerable amount paid back to Diamond. Instead, funds have been trickled down to us, we’ve had to slash the publishing, and hence each month the ability to rectify the situation gets smaller and smaller.

You can see why Diamond wouldn’t find “but we want to pay other people we owe before we pay you what we owe” a compelling counter-argument. It’s not Diamond’s purpose to keep tenuous publishers going. Blaylock, sadly, sounds like a dreamer who can’t face the truth that his company is unlikely to recover. And just to add insult to injury, here’s a scathing review of Blaylock’s book on How to Self-Publish Comics, which appears to be out of print.

Leverage Season 2
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Out today is the second season collection of one of my favorite summer series, Leverage. Season 2 of the caper show started last July, with nine episodes, followed by a mini-season of six episodes in January.

All 15 are available on this four-disc set. As with the first season, every episode has a commentary, plus these bonus features:

• The Creators of Leverage Q&A
• John Rogers Set Tour
• Behind the Boom Featurette
• “The Hand Job” Spoof Video
• Andy Lange Music Featurette
• Season 2 Wrap Party Gag Reel

Season 3 starts June 20 on TNT. This two-minute clip, from episode 6, “The Top Hat Job”, shows off the action, humor, and cast interaction I enjoy about the show:

While this one, from episode 13, “The Future Job”, features guest starts Jeri Ryan and Luke Perry:

Tonight airs a new episode of Leverage, the caper mystery series, on TNT at 10 PM Eastern/Pacific. It’s called “The Bottle Job”, in which Timothy Hutton’s character Nate returns to his old Boston neighborhood’s Irish pub on the occasion of the owner’s wake. Unfortunately, his daughter and sole heir has just been threatened by a local loan shark who demands $15,000 or ownership of the bar.

Turns out that Nate, a recovering alcoholic, lives over the pub and feels rather protective of both it and the daughter, who is “like a niece” to him. It’s a bit predictable — who didn’t expect an episode about the bar and its substitute family once the team started meeting clients there? — but the point of this show is how well they handle classic schemes and cons, especially once they toss in a twist or two. The bad guy is so irredeemably bad, propositioning the girl at her father’s memorial, that you’re rooting for his downfall as soon as you see him. At least he has a sense of humor about his job, so it’s not horrible to watch him.

Alan Smyth as a loan shark and Jeri Ryan as bait

I tend not to like Jeri Ryan’s character very much, preferring Gina Bellman’s softer grifter, but I loved her introductory scene this episode. Nate has called her down to the bar to find more information on the bad guy. He points him out to her as she takes off her coat and exchanges a couple of wisecracks. To prepare, she pulls up her short skirt, raising the hemline, tugs down her V-neck top, shakes out her hair, slugs a drink, and says, “I’m Trish, and I’m lonely.” It’s such an economic creation of a character, all the aspects she needs transformed in a few quick motions.

The main challenge for the team is that the shark is leaving that night and so they have an hour and a half to save the bar. First problem, find enough cash to start up the classic Wire con — that’s the one you saw in The Sting, about betting on sports based on knowing the outcomes ahead of time. (Only now, technology makes it much simpler.) The setup allows Parker (Beth Riesgraf), Hardison (Aldis Hodge), and Eliot (Christian Kane) to work together on the behind-the-scenes prep. I love seeing them interact; their characters play off each other well, and this episode is full of little moments among them that are quite entertaining.

Parker, Hardison, Nate, and Eliot

There’s also a bit of drama, as running a con in a bar is a bad idea for Nate, since it will be obvious if he’s not drinking. But it’s the comedy that keeps me coming back — Aldis Hodge in particular gets a great funny scene when he’s called upon to improvise a snow storm. When I first heard about it, I wasn’t as interested in this setup as I was in the previous episode, but it turned out to be even more entertaining, especially the final double-cross. Unexpected, but perfectly plausible.

Leverage returns on TNT with a mini-season of six episodes starting tonight at 10 PM ET. (The first half of the season started last July, and the first season is available on DVD.)

In “The Runway Job”, the team aims to take down a sweatshop exploiter and his wannabe designer wife. This setting of course allows Jeri Ryan to model high fashion as well as providing comedy as Christian Kane (the muscle), Aldis Hodge (the hacker), and Beth Riesgraf (the thief) struggle to fit in a world that they know little about and don’t really care for. I wasn’t surprised to see Riesgraf undercover as a model, because she’s beautiful, although she carried it off with the typical wacky attitude of her character, making for some of the show’s best moments.

Ryan is still standing in for Gina Bellman (Sophie), although Sophie is having webcam conversations with the team from Paris and other global locations. I’m glad, because she’s not as brusque as Ryan’s character. I think we’re not supposed to like Ryan much, just as the team feels a bit off about their lack of history with her. Mixing up the interactions shows us more about the characters, as well as allowing the writers to tweak the viewers, since we don’t have a good sense yet of where her loyalties really are.

I enjoyed watching this episode, like all the others, for its blend of action, humor, and caper. Next week, “The Bottle Job” (January 20) has the team attempting to save a neighborhood bar, in an episode directed by Jonathan Frakes. Future episodes include one where they have to break Nate’s ex-wife out of a Ukrainian jail; another guest-starring Luke Perry as a fake psychic (is there any other kind?); and a two-parter written by series co-creator John Rogers involving baseball and a corrupt mayor.

Here’s a clip from the premiere with Ryan and Kane. Also, a show soundtrack is now available.

Following up on the Disney acquisition of Marvel, I attended this morning’s investor call. A full transcript is supposed to be available later today; in the meantime, here are some quick notes I took. I apologize in advance if there are any glitches; I was trying to type very fast to take down statements.

The call was opened by Lowell Singer, Disney’s SVP of Investor Relations. Bob Iger, President and CEO of Disney, began with prepared remarks. Several times, Marvel’s portfolio of “over 5000 characters” was mentioned as having potential value for development. Terms like “value”, “leverage”, and “revenue synergies” were used frequently. Disney expects that “synergies over time will drive value creation”, that is, they’ll make money by being able to incorporate Marvel characters into their many distribution areas. Also said was “vertical integration removes friction” (which I read as meaning not needing to pay outside companies to do what they can do in-house in terms of movies, properties, licensing, etc.). Comparisons were made to the successful acquisition of Pixar three years ago.

The deal is expected to be complete by the end of the calendar year. I found it interested that, when talking about characters, Iron Man was listed first before Spider-Man and X-Men. Marvel was praised by Iger for showing strength in “increasing the appeal of characters not known outside fan community”. Iron Man was seen as a great example of that, making money from an unknown character who was turned into a huge property.

Iger also said something about how the popularity of Marvel characters and stories transcends gender and age, which I disagree with, but once Disney gets a hold of them, that will likely become more true. Discussion also covered the potential of international expansion to add more shareholder value.

Disney has a “proven ability to maximize value of properties across markets” which they’ll use on Marvel’s “treasure trove of content” across both “traditional and new media platforms”. They aim to “build a business stronger than the sum of the parts.

They then switched to Morton E. Handel, Chairman of Marvel’s Board of Directors, who mentioned in his prepared remarks how both companies have their roots in great storytelling and how Disney will be the perfect home for their great collection of characters and stories. They look to effectively expand their licensing businesses across many media platforms.

Thomas O. Staggs, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Disney, gave some followup on strategic value. The “fit is clear” and they find it “financially compelling” as well. They think Marvel will be more valuable as part of Disney than on a stand-alone basis because of the “many areas of synergy”.

Regarding existing agreements (such as Marvel movies), Disney felt Marvel had “attractive licensing and distribution agreements with third parties”. Disney will assume those agreements as part of this transaction. As licensing agreements conclude over time, Disney will either bring them in-house or pursue third-party agreements depending on what they feel will most create value. I think that this would also cover things like theme park agreements, deals to show the Marvel movies on TV, etc.

There was concern about Disney share dilution, so Staggs stated that Disney intends to repurchase as least as many shares as they issue in this transaction within the next year. Then came Q&A, where I lost track of who was answering which questions. Here’s just some key points I found interesting.

John Lassiter met with key Marvel executives recently to talk about the potential of combining Marvel with Pixar. Everyone was very enthusiastic. “Exciting product may come from that; sparks will fly,” said an executive.

Someone asked how this would impact the film rights of characters at other studios. Disney said they thought Marvel did a good job putting attractive deals in place, and those deals would stay in place under the terms Marvel entered into.

Several time it was reiterated that Disney trusted Marvel as a “good group of people”. They said they were not only buying properties but “buying people who know the brands, stories, characters very well, and they will be relied on in this process. No one knows their characters and stories better than the folks at Marvel.” Disney said they were impressed by both what they’ve done and what they’re doing in approach from both a creative and business perspective. They feel Marvel has managed both smartly and diligently.

Someone asked about other bidders. Disney stumbled a bit on getting started on this. They said they reached out a few months ago to get to know them better, and then, as talks continued, both sides felt this was a unique combination. They also haven’t made any real estate decisions (I think this related to Marvel Studios in Manhattan Beach).

Are there benefits towards Disney in the comic book business? “We have a robust children’s publishing business.” They look to broaden both companies’ publishing and think there are opportunities there. I was disappointed not to hear more on this; it seemed a non-specific answer to me.

“The goal is not to rebrand Marvel as Disney but to shine a spotlight on the Marvel brand.” They aim to create value over and above the purchase price by bringing Marvel into Disney. In summation, they think Marvel has great creative people and great intellectual property and Disney can enhance their value by reaching more people globally.

Note that the NY Times article on the deal (which basically rewrites the press release) does add this context:

The acquisition comes as Disney, with its vast theme park operations and television advertising business, has been struggling because of soft advertising sales at ABC and ESPN and drooping consumer spending at theme parks. Disney’s profit in the third quarter, which ended June 27, dropped 26 percent.

So maybe Disney’s looking for a jolt in the arm of new properties to jazz things up? Or maybe that’s much too superficial an analysis, and I should let the financial pros figure all this out?

The second season of Leverage starts tonight at 9 PM Eastern.

It’s pretty astounding. Timothy Hutton, after interviewing with an insurance company to get back the kind of corporate job he once loved, almost gets hit by a flying car (in a breathtaking movie-level stunt). He rescues the driver and his daughter only to discover that the car had been tampered with and the banker’s briefcase stolen.

After splitting up at the end of last season, the team reunites by accident at one of Sophie’s performances. They’ve been bored over the past six months; helping people was more fun than they realized. In a cute twist, the “bad guys” are now the ones trying to talk Nate into reforming their team to figure out what caused the accident. Watch the clip.

Turns out the con involves federal bank bailouts and mobsters who actually pay their taxes. Because that’s always how they get caught. Great dialogue exchange:

Nate: How do you catch a mobster?
Sophie: Two glasses of Chianti and a story about my grandmother in Sicily.
Nate: How does the government catch a mobster?

About the only thing that made me grumble was how the show has become a little too fond of its one-word descriptors for the team: hitter, hacker, grifter, thief, mastermind. I liked the use in the credits, to bring new viewers up to speed, but having someone actually speak those terms was over the top. And “hitter”? Better than “killer”, I guess.

Here, the team planned carefully to target a particular person, only to discover that they had the wrong leader identified. This isn’t the first time that they’ve had to improvise, thinking on their feet, and those are the best, most creative interactions.

It’s always a pleasure to see Hardison and Parker together, what with their unspoken interest. That they’re dressed as priest and nun is kinky fun. I’d missed all of these characters, and putting them in unusual positions relative to each other — Hardison playing tough guy while Eliot worries about danger, Sophie taking care of Nate while hiding a secret — gives them fresh spark.

Leverage: The First Season
Buy this DVD set

I found the opening season of the TNT original series Leverage — the Ocean’s 11-style TV show about a group of semi-reformed thieves working for justice — very enjoyable. If you haven’t been watching, you should check out this first season collection for some entertaining escapism as grifters take on powerful people when they’ve done wrong and no one else can set things right.

Timothy Hutton stars as Nathan Ford, a former insurance investigator whose son died due to his employer’s heartlessness and their desire to save on (irony!) health insurance costs. When he’s asked to help recover stolen aerospace designs by Saul Rubinek (currently starring on Warehouse 13), he recruits these criminals: Aldis Hodge as Alec Hardison, genius hacker and tech geek; Christian Kane (Angel) as Eliot Spencer, tough combat expert; Beth Riesgraf as Parker, crazy girl thief; and Gina Bellman (Coupling) as Sophie Devereaux, a con artist who really wants to be on the legitimate stage. The British actress gets to do a number of accents, some lesser known, throughout the show.

The team works well together, although all were formerly loners. Many are damaged in various ways and have never been able to share their true selves with others. The character interplay is a large part of the appeal for me, as the different personalities in various combinations raise different moods.

There’s a nice blend of adventure, teamwork, and development, lightened with a comedic tone. It gives me what I want from a good superhero comic: an unusual fight for justice, picking right over wrong and helping innocent victims, without taking itself too seriously and presented in a creative way. It’s a great caper show, with a high tech, mini-movie feel, and as I said before, “seeing underdogs get the better of corrupt corporate big-wigs is immensely appealing these days.”

The Episodes

These are presented in filming order, not the order in which the network aired them.

1. The Nigerian Job — The extended-length pilot is a very strong opening, establishing all the characters and showing some nice double-crosses.

2. The Homecoming Job — A solider was injured in Iraq by government contractors. A cover-up prevents them having to take responsibility, so the team takes down a corrupt Congressman to get the soldier the medical rehab he needs.

3. The Wedding Job — A more light-hearted take, where the gang pretend to be wedding planners to steal money from a mobster during his daughter’s wedding. Guest stars Nicole Sullivan.

4. The Snow Job — A family of contractors are running a scam to take people’s homes after foreclosure. The team decides to take their company in return in a con involving a ski resort. Guest stars Sam Anderson (Angel) and Danny Strong (Buffy the Vampire Slayer).

5. The Mile High Job — A “locked room”-style episode, with most of the team on a plane along with Sara Rue (Popular, The Big Bang Theory). They’re trying to find the document that proves an evil company knew their pesticide killed a little girl, while Hardison infiltrates the company back on the ground in outrageous fashion. A lot of character work in a small space, and then the plane starts to crash.

6. The Miracle Job — Nate’s old friend (D.B. Sweeney) is a priest whose church is going to be demolished by a real estate developer, requiring a miracle (provided by the team) to save it.

7. The Two-Horse Job — Background on Eliot, as the team helps a Kentucky horse trainer who’s the father of his old girlfriend. A rich owner had his stable burned down to kill off racehorses that didn’t do well. This episode introduces Jim Sterling (Mark Sheppard), the man who replaced Nate as investigator at his old insurance company, as a nemesis for the team.

8. The Bank Shot Job — Another limited-setting show: Nate, Sophie, and their mark are taken hostage in a bank robbery, and the team has to help the robbers, whose loved one is being held hostage elsewhere, in order to get out safely.

9. The Stork Job — A couple is trying to adopt a Serbian baby from a corrupt orphanage that only wants their money, so the team fakes a low-budget movie production to catch the orphanage’s manager.

10. The Juror #6 Job — Parker gets a spotlight, as one of her aliases is called for jury duty in a wrongful death case involving a supplement pill. Guest stars include Brent Spiner, Armin Shimmerman, and Lauren Holly.

11. The 12-Step Job — Another focus on Nate and his alcoholism. A broker bilks a charity and goes to rehab. Nate and Parker go in as well, but for Nate, it may no longer be acting.

12. The First David Job and The Second David Job — The two-part finale. Sterling and Nate’s old boss come after his firm, complicated by the presence of his ex-wife.

Special Features

These are pretty forgettable, not the kind of in-depth information I was hoping for, with a few exceptions: Every episode has commentary from the executive producers (who also wrote and/or directed several of the episodes) and any other writers and directors for that episode (including Jonathan Frakes, who directed “Wedding Job” and “Juror #6 Job”). No actors participate, unfortunately, but the result is lots of discussion about structure and pacing and other informative information about how TV shows are made. Many episodes also have deleted scenes, one of which shows up twice with different framing. In addition, there’s:

Behind the Scenes (12 min.): Typical promo reel, with people like Executive Producers Dean Devlin, John Rogers, and Chris Downey and some of the stars talking about the premise; how the show came about; and character profiles. I found the most important part to be seeing their technical advisor on theft and scams, Apollo Robbins, and how the others react to him. (He’s also sometimes a hand double during card stunts.)

Anatomy of a Stunt Fight (3 min.): Christian Kane works out a fight sequence in an airplane hanger with a guest star.

The Cameras of Leverage (2 min.): Tech porn. Wordless footage of the cameras used to film the show.

Leverage Gets Renewed (3 min.): A fake interview setup, where they assembled the cast through video-conferencing to tell them that they were getting a second season of the show.

Beth Riesgraf’s Crazy Actress Spoof (5 min.): The woman who plays Parker takes on the writers.

(A complimentary copy for this review was provided by the studio.)