Neal Adams does the ComicMix Big Weekend Broadcast

The weekend is here – and the ComicMix Pop Culture Buffet is wide open with healthy servings of sold out Marvels, stuffed bookshelves from DC, a sprinkling of Michael Ian Black, Neal Adams laying claim to Batman, farewell to Rourke & Tatoo and a bit of hard love from the guy we loved as Lamont Cranston, "clutching forks and knives, to eat the bacon…"

Lots of Wonder Woman from the 40s and the black-and-white 50s, revisit one of Superman’s various deaths, and we put some uncomfortable music to the Dark Knight. All this and all that, by pressing this button:

Transcript

www.ComicMix.com whoa sometimes the crazy ones get through oh hi I was just over here in the corner enjoying my blu-ray disc of the shadow wow that Vermont is what hell of an actor huh hi it's Mike Raub it is the weekend I bet you couldn't wait for this one to be over right

we got the ComicMix comic book master series continuing with somebody you're going to want to hear from in just a little bit a whole bunch of news a sweet back in time to see roar content too and a lot more all on April 21st 2007 ComicMix here's two more things to add to your list of sold out comics in Marvel starting with Iron Man number 16 second month in a row for that one and the Loner's mini series first issue

Loner's number one also is sold out oddly enough at this point Marvel says they're not going back to press for second printing or variance on either one of those books well here's one internet rumor they got way out of control Lawrence Fishburne was said to be the voice of Galactus that is not true he is going to be the voice of Silver Surfer in this summer's Fantastic Four movie

even though that's interesting in its own right the question is begged that when they had that premiere slash screening of the Fantastic Four movie out in Seattle a couple of weeks ago who did the voice then? God would give me some sign if he would just speak to me once anything one sentence two words if he would just cough Marvel Entertainment has acquired a deal with Sega Europe and Sega of America which will let them develop and distribute games based on the upcoming Marvel superhero feature films and this includes The Incredible Hulk coming out next summer

Captain America and Thor with dates still to be determined the new games are slated for release in conjunction with these films starring their respective superheroes there's also going to be multi-year deals following this for other superhero games including Iron Man and more starting in 2008 Comedy Central has ordered a pilot project called believe it or not Michael Ian Black Doesn't Understand it's a project that includes sketch comedy, tape segments, in studio bits all performed oddly enough by Michael Ian Black

Make some room this summer on your bookshelf DC has some really great trade paperbacks and big thick volumes coming out in July two issues of showcase this time with Adam Strange in one covering all those early showcase and mystery and space issues and a showcase of Wonder Woman volume the first of what will be many more than likely 500 pages of Wonder Woman but not the Golden Age stuff this picks up right smack dab in the middle of the Silver Age with Wonder Woman number 98 DC is also releasing the Tangent books in volume starting with volume one this summer

if you don't know what Tangent is back in 1997 they presented a whole bunch of new heroes all with very familiar names like a new version of the Adam the Metal Men, Flash, Green Lantern, Sea Devils and so on almost like Amalgam but not quite as psychologically damaging Tangent will be coming along in a volume in July with more to come the rest of the year there's another Wonder Woman archive speaking of the Golden Age Wonder Woman this is number five in that list and Superman the death and return of Superman Omnibus big thick book incredible work by Dan Jergens of course

Jerry Orton, Wade Rogers started a lot more everything from the death and Superman coming back all in one big book and believe it or not you don't have to pay 12 million dollars for it like you had to do for the death of Superman more interesting is the Batman Secrets of the Batcave trade paperback featuring stories from not only the Golden Age but the Silver and later Age as well this will be coming out in the summer as well all from DC Comics ComicMix

It's a weekend of course and that means another one of our ComicMix comic book master series comes into play this time throw on your cape because we got a story for you you know when we finished that very first Batman story in 1939 everybody knew The Dark Knight was in reality of millionaire Bruce Wayne but over the next few decades the identity of who actually drew the character was a lot harder to figure out over the years there's been a lot of volumes written on what Bob Kane did or didn't do plus about the work of Shelly Moldoff, Dick Sprang and a lot more great artists however in the 1970s there was pretty much just one name associated with the character and that was Neil Adams

Well I've actually done Batman more than you'd imagine I did Batman for Federal Express storyboards I designed a Batman ride that is being built and has been built in Spain I've done Batman sketches For Neil it didn't stop just there

Oh when Universal Park was going to do not Marvel but DC Comics I designed other Batman rides I designed a Batman roller coaster a roller coaster that you ride upside down in and Gotham City is in the ceiling

and the sky is on the ground and they let me do things like that because not only do I do comic books but I also do things that are based in the future and I do things that are based in engineering and slightly more scientific stuff and so I get to experiment on a lot of stuff so I'm not that far away from Batman

And Neil left his imprint in a lot of places I mean I designed a new Robin costume that came out 10 or 15 years ago or whenever it came out that's my design so it's a very close character to me

Now it's interesting to footnote here that with all this outside comic book work for Batman Neil actually only drew a handful of Batman stories Just about 30 when you combine all the ones in Batman comics, Detective Comics and even the Brave and Bold ComicMix.com ComicMix timeline

April 21st 1984 This week from Pacific Comics we got issue number 8 with our really nice couple of Gru's stories from Sergio and Mark Archie comics came up with an issue of the original SHIELD with their short-lived Red Circle revival DC had Vigilante number 7, Supergirl 20 and All Star Squadron number 34 For Marvel the second issue of Secret Wars and more of that Black Costume 2 in Amazing Spider-Man 253

In the news a group calling itself the Angry Brigade set off a bomb at London's Heathrow Airport 22 people were injured 6 Eastern European countries were warned by President Reagan that the future of the US relations for them depended on rejecting terrorism And a Tennessee lawyer claimed that a 60 Minutes report on odometer tampering led to the car dealer client he had committing suicide In the movies it was Robin Williams in Moscow and the Hudson, Michael and Catherine in Romance in the Stone

And one particular music movie that had a lot of people singing even when they just Not got to lose, lose Think I'm a runnady Please be I had no idea what the rest of the air taught

It wasn't quite Saturday Night Fever but there's a lot of fond memories for the 6 degrees of Kevin and Footloose On television tonight we got episodes of Different Strokes, William Shatner and TJ Hooker, oh boy There was a love vote and another ABC Saturday Night Mainstay that was coming to an end of a long and fond remembered run Welcome to Fantasy Island In just one week ABC would air the last episode of Fantasy Island

Let's not even talk about that awful revival a few years ago As far as we're concerned the original Mr. Roark and Tattoo are still on the island, still waiting for that plane to come in On the radio is one of the songs that's been heard more in soundtracks since 1984 than it was on the radio in that year Still though even today every time a movie wants to establish itself as being part of the 80's they drag this song out again It's the point of Sisters and Jump

I always love it when we get a mailbag question about something that someone saw on the ComicMix website that means you're paying attention That's a good thing. J.D. Roper89 from gmail.com writes about the fact that a couple of days ago He saw the Spider-Man Broadway musical article by Mike Gold and he said wasn't Superman on Broadway once a long time ago Yes, J.D. That is true. It was March 29th 1966 right smack dab in the middle of the Batman TV camp craze that they took Superman to Broadway in a musical comedy called

It's a Bird. It's a plane. It's Superman. It opened on the Alvin theater. Like I said on March 29th it closed after 129 performances on July 17th 1966 it wasn't a horrible play I guess for the time I mean just to have superheroes in the limelight was a good thing The music was fairly good for the time the stars of the play weren't really probably the biggest name in the entire stage was Jack

Cassidy who played an enemy of Superman Lois Lane was played by an actress who you never heard of but there was a character called Sydney who was kind of the Anti Lois Lane in the Daily Planet Office and she was played in this one by Linda Lavin then in 1975 ABC TV revived it for a special performance on the air wasn't live, but it was pretty bad That's for sure

They adapted the whole thing for a performance and this time there were some names You'll remember David Wayne was in it Kenneth Mars was in it and Lois Lane was played by Leslie Ann Warren that aired by February 1st 1975 the music well again kind of forgettable There was one standout song as the character Sydney tried to find out just what was under Clark Kent suit simply terrible necktie

the worst bearing just unbearable what to tackle first till you got possibilities though you're horribly square I see He's underneath

Alright JD if you need therapy after all that don't send us the bill. Thank you though. You can send us questions We'd love to get them You can send them directly to podcast at ComicMix calm drop a couple of comments on the website if you think it is something We love to hear from you any way possible Www dot ComicMix dot com

Next week more spring in the air we hope and a whole bunch of new stuff on that comic book racks in the DVD Sheriffs will be sharing that with you Can you believe we are within just a couple of weeks with spider-man 3 and free comic book day? That is gonna be some things we have to talk about plus that new episode of heroes is coming up in just days We'll find out Monday what happens there and talk about that plus Doctor Who later in the week in the meantime

We can talk anytime you'd like to all you got to do is just tick tick tick a couple of comments in on the website Love to hear from you or write us direct at podcast at ComicMix calm. See you in a couple of days. Bye Www dot ComicMix dot com ComicMix