#9… #9… #9…

Mike Raub has a major interview with George Perez who tells us all about the new Brave and Bold and gives us the low-down on the Hero Initiative plus our usual allotment of  comics and media news and Timeline.

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Transcript

www.comicnext.com And now ladies and gentlemen, for your further listening pleasure… I finally the weekend again welcome to another podcast and get ready for a massive download. We're gonna sit down with one of the best artists of the 70s, the best artists of the 80s and one of the best artists of the 90s and a guy that looks pretty good right now. And believe it or not, it's all the same gentlemen.

Plus, the trip back to the week where daytime TV took over radio and a lot more. All that on March 3rd 2007. ComicMix. Yes! Well congratulations to the guys at NBC Universal for launching their new 24 hour cable network, Chiller, a few days ago. I don't know about you but I'm watching it a lot. If you have cable you will not be able to see it. It is only available on direct TV.

They also though launched a website, chillertv.com. It's all in cooperation with their friends at After Dark's Wharffest. Remember we taught the Black Betty a couple days ago. The website of course is available to everybody and has all sorts of info about scary TV shows and movies and things that are coming up on the channel. Which will really frustrate you if you don't have direct TV. There's also gonna be a chance for you to see some exclusive videos and other content from some of the films and features that are on Chiller. Check it out.

Ghost Rider was at the top of the box office for number two last week and surprised a lot of folks by beating out the overhike number 23. But what's next for comics on screen? It's this of course. We died in hell! Frank Miller's 300 and Frank, a pioneer in the world of comics is gonna be at the focus this weekend of an all new episode of Icons on G4. That's their documentary biography series. It's gonna have a lot of great stuff including an interview with Stan Lee and one with 300 director Zack Snyder.

Icons Frank Miller premieres tomorrow that's Sunday on G4 and then will be on most of the week as well a bunch of different times. Check your local listings. I always wanted to say that. www.ComicMix.com ComicMix. ComicMix timeline. March 3rd 1984.

Well DC was going through another one of their big reprint periods. They had this very nice prestige format Greenlander and Green Arrow reprint that lasted six issues. It was kind of expensive for the time. Much better deal was to roll down the rack a little farther and get the latest issue of Flash number 331. Carmen and Fatina was on the artwork and sadly there was only a few more issues left in this initial run. Marvel Comics gave us A-Team number one Hercules miniseries and their continuing Indiana Jones comic.

In the movies it went from mediocre with blame it on Rio to pretty darn good with splash to really good with this is Spinal Tap this week. And then there was this film. I wish I could just make it turn around. Turn around and CB cry. Perfect example of how a good song can be in a mediocre movie.

On television speaking of mediocre we had some great stuff. Magnum PI A-Team and Remington Steele this week. Some horrible stuff like Aftermash on CBS. What were they thinking about that? In music it was those light FM years like we like to call them in the early 1980s.

But there was also something weird that happened early in the year. It was daytime TV teaming up with Top 40 radio. Now the number one daytime soap opera was General Hospital at ABC and for years the number one characters had been Luke and Laura Spencer. Now Laura had disappeared for a while as happens in soap operas and then about this time she was coming back as either a double or a twin or an alien or whatever. In the meantime though as they built the anticipation for her return they started playing a song by a guy named Christopher Cross.

The song had never been a hit it was on the back of some album or something as people had forgotten about. But within a few weeks the power of daytime television made it the number one song in the country. She turned my day around A girl with those eyes could stare through the light To see what your heart was saying

Fingers along I was left home crying I know she wanted that way ComicMix dot com Www.ComicMix.com I've been looking forward to this for a while.

You know in the 1970s he revolutionized the Avengers. I love those stories. In the 80s he helped create the landmark Teen Titans and then he spearheaded the first crisis at the end of that decade. Jump a little farther ahead he gave us the unforgettable JLA Avengers. It's been a quarter of a century maybe a little more since we've been seeing the name George Perez on a comic and every time we did we knew we were in for a visual thrill ride.

And now he's back at the helm of DC's revived Teen title Brave and Bold. So we sat down with George and we asked him first of all what was it like to step back into familiar territory. I mean coming back to that book must have been amazing. I mean it took about a good 10 pages where I got used to working on a monthly grind again of actually doing storytelling pages. I knew we were going to be leading into more pages as opposed to just a chapter of a larger story like I did with Infinite Crisis.

So it was kind of nice to get back into the swing. And also because it's a monthly title getting back into the drawing for an anchor to that ink myself a lot on Infinite Crisis and definitely on JLA Avengers. So once I got back into it I realized how addictive it is and that I really need to work on a monthly title. And also that if I can't show enthusiasm for what I do how can I put the fans to stay enthusiastic for comics. So I want to do all that crazy stuff they expect from me.

All the details, all the little noodling, all the extra characters in the background because back to Frankenstein I created and I got to feed that monster. Recently George has been very heavily involved in something called the Hero Initiative. It's a group designed to help comic creators past and present who are in financial need. Now originally it was known as Actor. But why the name change? Yes, the reason we changed the name from Actor to the Hero Initiative is what ended up being the obvious problem from the beginning is that many started associating Actor with a show business charity.

For those who didn't know, in fact in one convention my name was listed as George Parris Actor. So in the beginning that was George Parris, the actor who appeared on Tin Cup. He got a big boost for Tin Cup. But we didn't even know it was more evocative of the comic book industry. So we went through a lot of suggestions.

And Hero Initiative is a good name. They may not have been the best name but it was also the available name. Because there were so many charities that used Hero, Heroic and other things that we had to also clear. So we started using the Hero Initiative as our official name. Just a few months ago, since last September. And I think it has helped. There have been a lot of comic book artists themselves who are glad that the name has changed.

Because they had a hard time trying to explain Actor as a concept to the uninitiated. Because even though there was a great acronym commitment to our roots, we wish we had one that said Artist that we could have created a great acronym for. I've heard there are a lot of cool ways to get involved and also get some really cool comics. How do fans get involved with this? I've been using various covers for a special Heroes edition of Ultimate Spider-Man 100. Where they printed a bunch of blank covers and different artists did sketches on them.

Including Todd McFarland who has not done a Spider-Man in many many years. I did one. Joseph Michael Lindzer did one. Frank Scho. Some classic artists like John Romita, senior and junior. Alex Saviuk, Herb Trimpey. I mean it's an immense number of characters. And it's doing so well that hopefully we'll be able to do more of them once this initial 100 are sold. Because they're going to be sold throughout the year both on silent auctions, during convention and online auctions.

I've got to ask you this one after almost four decades of work. As you sit back and look at everything spread out there on the floor in front of you. What is the moment in time you're most proud of? What is the quintessential George Perez comic book? That's a tough one. I guess that would probably be JLA Avengers. Because made up my entire fan dream come true. I mean this is the type of stuff that every fan used to do as a kid.

You know, team up all the characters that they never thought they would see in the same book. And to do it at such a large scale and with the knowledge that it's probably going to be the last time that Marvel and DC are going to collaborate on this type of project. Makes you feel wonderful. And I guess if I was going to be encapsulated with anything that not only has a historical significance but also shows me at my prime that probably would have to be it. I think I can go along with that. Catch George on Brave and Bold. First issue is in comic stores right now. Second issue should be out very soon. And don't forget to help out people in need. That's a lot of good folks involved as well. It's www.heroiniti.org.

ComicMix.com Alright, time for me to get out of here. I have a lot of stuff to read. I just picked up this new series called 52. You think I can finish it over the weekend? I wonder if it's going to catch on. Alright, I'm kidding. Back on Tuesday with a lot of cool news including what's coming out in the stores this week. It is going to be a big week. Start more lawns right now. Remember write us a podcast at ComicMix.com with any ideas, suggestions, whatever you'd like to say. We would love to hear from you. See you in a couple days. Bye. www.ComicMix.com

Thanks for watching.