Stevie Wonder, DC Countdown, Todd McFarlane…

Grammy award-winning Stevie Wonder is interviewed, DC’s weekly Countdown is discussed, and Tony Twist gets five million bucks from Todd McFarlane… all this and more (again) on our latest podcast from Mike Raub. Just press play:

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Transcript

ComicMix. What a dumb thing to do. I'll bet you wouldn't have done anything like this if mom and dad were here. Three, two, one. Hi, another weekend is here and another podcast too. It's Mike Raub, just about ready to head off the door to the New York Comic Con, but don't worry, we're going to take you with us. In the meantime, we'll check the mailbag, give you a little news, and have a word with a past and present Grammy winner. All on…

February 24th, 2007. ComicMix. Well, just when you thought you were getting off that treadmill of the weekly comic book, it's not going to happen. Yeah, well, you know what? The success of 52 DC had to do something new. And they have. The project is called Countdown, a new year-long weekly series. Now, the tales on us are a little sketchy, but here's what we do know so far. Paul Dini will be the head writer of the project, but obviously there'll be other people who'll take certain chunks. What's going to happen in Countdown? Well, it's not going to be a past story like what went on during that one year in 52, but it will tie very severely into the DC universe.

And they say, and we're quoting DC here, will act as a spine for the characters and be reflected by the events taking place all across the DC comics month by month as the series progresses. Starting out for the first four parts of the book, well, Jimmy Palmetty and Justin Gray will be involved, Adam Beecham, Sean McKeever and Tony Bedard. But again, Paul Dini will be the head of that particular project. We'll catch up with Paul, hopefully the New York Comic Con to get you some more information on this. Well, one time they were talking some $25 million, but in the end, Tony Twist and Todd McFarlane decided to shake hockey sticks and settle up their case. It came down to a $5 million payout to the former hockey player. The settlement was approved by an Arizona bankruptcy court in the recent days.

It all started when the character that Tony says was based on him was introduced in spawn back in 1993. In 1997, he filed suit and that's the way it ended up. ComicMix dot com ComicMix. Now, it is time to clear out the spam and look for the good stuff again this week. And I picked one from a righteous Hulk 11 33 at AOL dot com. Not just because I really like the email address because it's a fairly decent question here. Now, righteous says that he's looking forward to Spider-Man number three, especially to see how Thomas Hayden Church place Sandman.

But he says he's got a buddy who said that Sandman wasn't a Spidey villain after all, but really a foe of the Fantastic Four. What's the real deal? Well, I got to tell you, righteous, you're actually kind of in a right and kind of in the wrong here and your buddy is about in the same position. Sandman appeared first in Amazing Spider-Man number four way back in the early, early, early, early, early, early days of Marvel. About two years later, he turned up as part of a group called the Frightful Four in the Fantastic Four. And I kind of went back and forth over the years with a lot of different changes over the Marvel Universe for a couple of decades.

However, right now, with him being a major part in Spider-Man number three, like you said, I would imagine he's going to have a permanent place solid in Spider-Man's rogue gallery. Thank you for your question. If you got more things you'd like to know, of course, you know how to get in touch with us. We'll be right back. With the odd couple in the ratings and the forgotten show of the week. Tell me, does anyone remember something called Young Dr. Kildare? Well, you had about six episodes to remember it. And the last one aired this particular week.

Best surprise of the week, a guest shot on this show. Let me tell you something, Mr. Bunker. Let me tell you something, Mr. Stivik. You are immediate. Yep, it was this week that the classic Sammy Davis Jr. moment happened on All in the Family. On the radio, Stevie Wonder was riding pretty high with an album that has done pretty good and in Stevie's own words, it had songs on there that were destined to be hits. Superstition was exciting because I had the melody in my mind. I put the drums on the song first.

And immediately when I started playing the clapping part, I knew the song had to be hit or somebody was going to be fired. Very superstitious. Writing's on the wall. www.ComicMix.com New York Comic Con.

The countdown has ended and the fun is on at the New York Comic Con. Here's some of the stuff going on all weekend. If you heard about the new Micronauts movie, it's called Micronauts Evolution. The folks at Abrams Entertainment will be sneaking peeking some scenes from that this weekend. Over at DC Comics table, you'll have a chance to meet Brian K. Vaughan and Paul Dini, among others. Ask Paul what countdown is all about. Would you please let me know?

At the Midtown comics, their tables will have some great guests, including J.G. Jones and Michael Oeming this weekend. At Random House, you'll get a chance to get some things signed by Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden and Greg Rucka, as well as Jeff Smith this weekend. And go say hi to our own buddy Denny O'Neill live from the ComicMix website, of course. Denny's going to be signing at the Warner Books booth over this weekend. www.ComicMix.com

You know, when it comes to conventions, it's all about the swag. And this weekend, there's some really cool show exclusives at the New York Con. Here's some stuff you're going to be seeing on eBay in the next few weeks, I promise you. We told you about the military Xander Harris limited edition figure from Diamond Select. Well, in addition to that, if you wander around, you'll run into a Marvel exclusive icons Venom bust this weekend,

a sensational Spider-Man number 35 sketch cover variant, and, coolest of all, a couple of ghost writer toon tumblers for you to have a couple of shots to make it through the weekend. That's just part of the fun and part of the freebies you'll be able to find this weekend at the New York Con. www.ComicMix.com Alright, let's slide over and get in line to get inside the show and find out who's here for what. How about you guys? What brings you to the Comic Con?

I just want to meet the voice actors of, like, my favorite anime shows. I was here to see Stan Lee, but they gave the tickets away six hours too early, so I'm pretty much excited to see some new prototypes. Any chance you can go outside and stalk Stan and just wait for him to get out of the car and jump in? Nah, man. I'm hoping to get a couple of sketches from the audience. Anybody in particular?

One of the couples is George Perez, you know, hoping to meet him. You know, met him before I wasn't able to get to get to hoping to get this year. How about you? What do you want to do? Probably go inside and buy a lot of stuff. I'm here to see Kevin Smith tomorrow and check out all the new comics that are coming out.

Yo, what about you? You. I'm here for the anime stuff. ComicMix. Alright, if you're doesn't for this time, be here Tuesday. You can come over and help us unpack all the goodies we got at the convention too,

and we'll tell you some great things to spend your money on at the comic book store. We'll see you coming up in a couple of days. Thanks for watching.