The Big ComicMix Broadcast From Pittsburgh

We’re here at the Pittsburgh Comiccon – sorry we’re a bit late, but we’ve been doing all sorts of  interviews and we’ve got some amazing stuff we’ll be telling you about today and in Big ComicMix Broadcasts to come.  As always, we’ve got the latest comics and media news and an interview with legendary Flash and Batman artist Carmine Infantino.  We’ll tell you about a bunch of television season finales, what exclusive Voltron product will be exclusive to comics shops, and ComicMix.com editor-in-chief Mike Gold lays some top secret info on the masses.

You’ll get all this (yes, and more!) by pressing this button:

Transcript

www.ComicMix.com What I really could go for right now, major distractions. Like tequila shots and a weekend with Brad Pitt and Angelina. Sorry about that, Jane. The best I can do is hook you up with a couple of guys I saw in line this morning dressed as red vs blue. Hi, it's Mike Raub. The broadcast is on the road. We are the Pittsburgh Comic Con.

At the Expo Mart in Roeville, PA, we're going to tour the con today, of course, with you. Share a little news. We'll also check out when Phil Spector was number one with a bullet, and that was a good thing then. And our ComicMix comic book master series continues as we talk to one of the founding fathers of the Silver Age. All that and more on April 28, 2007. It's back to press again for Justice League of America number two.

And believe it or not, Justice League of America number one. We just got a third printing of that a couple of weeks ago. Now we're going for number four on that one, printing number two of JLA two, and there are going to be some nice new covers. JLA one fourth printing is going to have another recolored version of the Michael Turner variant. And JLA number two second printing has a pencils only version of the variant cover again by Michael Turner.

Both will be in stores around the 16th of May. Talk to your retailer if you want to grab those. Independent is a new program from Mark Burnett and Company. This is now designed to launch initially on MySpace and then migrate over to network television. The program will be looking for a young American who has a political voice of the younger generation. If you're interested, get an audition tape together.

You got to put it up on MySpace.com. Then viewers will be allowed to decide which of the candidates it prefers. The winning candidate gets one million dollars to be used as seed money for his or her political campaign. The MySpace audience will also determine what are the most important issues their independent candidate will tackle. At this point, though, there is no network affiliate attached.

So right now it'll start on MySpace and we'll let you know where it's going to turn up on regular TV. A couple of days from now, it is May. That means it's May sweeps on TV. A lot of big shows doing a lot of big things. Fox is announcing to see some finales in some of their big shows.

May 16th will be the last episode of the season for Bones. King of the Hill will have a one hour finale on the 20th. That'll be at 7 p.m. Followed by the one hour 400th episode of The Simpsons at 8 o'clock. And then The Family Guy and American Dad.

Again, that's on Sunday, May the 20th. 24 wraps up the season on May 21st with a two hour special starting at 8. And House calls it quits. May 29th at 9 p.m. on Fox. Here's something interesting to note.

NBC's Daytime So Far But Passions will be resurrected for a ninth season but not on NBC. The show ends finally on September the 7th with many cliffhangers still dangling. But then it's going to continue with new episodes starting on September 17th, just 10 days later, on an original programming channel on DirecTV. If you're a DirecTV subscriber, that is channel number 101.

What does this mean for the future and what does it mean for people who are Passions fans but don't have DirecTV? Well, they'd like to get you on board. They'll offer you a free DVR and an HD receiver upgrade and a whole bunch of other deals as well. But more importantly, what other new programming is liable to end up on DirecTV only? We'll keep an eye on that.

Here's something interesting if you're a DVD fan and especially if you're a Voltron fan. The new DVD release of Voltron Defender of the Universe Revelations is going to be offered exclusively in comic bookstores one month before it goes on the DVD outlet shelves. Now that's interesting only because it's exactly the opposite of what usually happens. The DVD will be released on the 7th of August this summer.

It's based on the Voltron comic book series, of course, which is published by Devil's Do. Well, here's a hot rumor that could possibly be true. The New York Times says that Universal is in the midst of talking to J.K. Rowling about a Harry Potter theme park. So far, no official word, but they say if it does go up, it'll be part of the Universal Studios Orlando Isle of Adventure and could be up and running in as fast as 18 months.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios has confirmed it's going to open the Simpsons ride at its Orlando and Hollywood theme parks coming next spring. The ride is part of the overall Simpsons attraction concept, which is a fantasy park as envisioned by Krusty the Clown. I could pull a better cartoon out of my ear. Hey, whoa! Wasn't that great, kid? It's a little sad to note that the ride is going to take place in the area that was originally occupied by the Back to the Future attraction.

C-C-ComicMix. ComicMix. On the floor here at the convention, you know, Pittsburgh is considered to be the first big show of the 2007 convention season. So one of the first things we want to ask is what the dealers expect to be the hot genre in comics this year. Gene from Maryland's All-American Comics had his prediction.

Well, in the Silver and Gold age, you know, typically the superheroes are always going to be strong, but I focus a lot of times on the movie and TV as well as westerns, and westerns have made a strong resurgence in the past 18 months. So it'll be interesting to see what they do. The movie and TV stuff is very eclectic because it involves collectors that don't necessarily buy comics. Panels were the big highlight today, including one in particular where all of us here at ComicMix got a chance to shine just a little bit.

Editor-in-chief Mike Gold told a room full of enthused fans exactly what's coming here next at ComicMix. If you've seen the ComicMix website, which is oddly enough ComicMix.com, go figure. You've probably seen our columns written by people like Martha Thomas is here, Jenny O'Neill, John Ostrander, Michael Davis. But what's going to have to do with the guys up here on the panel? Well, let's see if you can connect the dots.

It just so happens in order. Mr. Truman is drawing a gorgeous, brand new, perfect graphic novel that will be published as a graphic novel probably next year, but will be seen before that. Mike Grell, a brand new Jon Sable freelance graphic novel, which similarly will be seen before that. Bob Zunell here at Mark Wheatley, our two-lingual series that is much less set here in this room called Easy Street. We'll give you more on that panel with some very special video broadcast clips coming up later on this week on the site. Don't miss it.

ComicMix.com. ComicMix.com. Let's take a break from the road trip for our ComicMix Comic Bookmaster series, and this is one we can't wait to share with you. The year was 1941. A young Brooklyn native got his very first major comic book job in Gigastrip called Jack Frost in Marvel Comics USA No. 1. He found a lot of work during and after the Golden Age 2 working on all sorts of features from heroes to westerns to romance. Then we jump ahead to 1956.

DC editor Julius Schwartz was trying to revive superheroes for the company. At the time, his very first assignment was going to be The Flesh, appearing in Showcase No. 4. He needed an artist who could design a look for the character that would last through the ages, and he turned to Carmine Infantino. Carmine continued to work for Julius and for DC all through the 60s into the 70s as well. He was involved in the new look revival of Batman, he created The Elongated Man, and eventually he became the publisher of the company for a while in 1971. During the time, the characters like Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Superman, Wonder Woman and others were revamped.

He was along to bring Jack Kirby over from Marvel to DC in the 70s, and then was replaced as publisher by Jeanette Kahn. After that, he went back to drawing, he'd do The Flesh a couple of times during the 80s or so, and has since retired. But of all that time and all that area, what character in the thousands of pages that Carmine drew jumped out as one he loved? What was his favorite? Detective Chimp. I'm not joking. It was fun. It's comedy. I didn't get much comedy to do, and that was a chance. That one, The Elongated Man, was fun too. Carmine admits the guy behind the typewriter was one of the best too.

The best, John Bohm. He's one of the very best in the world. He wrote Detective Chimp, he wrote The Elongated Man, and he wrote Many of the Flesh. But I think he was genius. I love his work. He was unbelievable. John was one of the very best. He would do maybe a page a week. But sometime, yeah, he bled on his work, but this show, that stuff will never go away. These days, Carmine attends a lot of comic conventions. You'll certainly see him over the summer. But if you'd like to see an incredible retrospective of his work, check out Vanguard Productions' autobiography of Carmine, The Amazing World of Carmine Infantino, available in comic book stores right now. ComicMix.com

ComicMix Timeline April 28, 1962 Let's count this one as one of those weeks where if you only do then, what you know now? Because under a buck, what about you? Fantastic Four, number five, with the first appearance of Doctor Doom. One of my favorite Fantastic Four issues. You also got the second issue of The Hulk, and then over from DC, Flash number 129, with the second appearance of the Golden Age Flash. And then you got World Finance number 136 with a negative Superman story, and if you were smart and passed on by in the extra pieces of Double Bubble, you grab Pep number 155, which had a really cool fly girl story. In the news, President Kennedy met with British Prime Minister Harold McMillan for a quick summer talk. Natalie Wood got her first divorce from Robert Wagner and then planned an overseas trip with her new boyfriend, Warren Beatty.

And officials in Italy were warning Liz Taylor to quote, straighten up. They were shocked at her behavior with the then still married Richard Burton. In the movies, good families were entertained by Rogers and Hammerstein State Fair and Disney's Moon Pilot, which of course had a chimp in it, and Elvis was on the big screen in GI Blues. The twist was all over the radio and it took no time for that twist craze to migrate into the movies. They were throwing together these teenage films left and right. And this week, there was one on the screen waiting for you with Jimmy Clinton. It was called Teenage Billionaire. But up there in full color, you saw Chubby doing this. Come on, everybody. Clap your hands. Oh, you're looking good. I'm going to sing my song. It won't take long. We're going to do the twist and it goes like this. Come on, let's twist again.

Like we did last summer. On TV tonight, you got episodes of The Tall Man, Make That Spare, which when you think about it was the original reality TV show, a prime time cartoon, which was rare for the time on ABC called Calvin and the Colonel. And then chalk up the classics. It was Paladin, Richard Boone, and Have Gun, Will Travel. On the radio, Phil Spector was making headlines doing incredible music instead of allegedly shooting up people. He was at his prime this week in 1962 in the top of the charts with a girl group called the Crystals and a song called Uptown. He comes up to my team.

As I travel around this land of ours, one thought comes back to me again and again. These people are nuts! All right, we'll be back unpacked and ready to do a brand new week. It's going to be a big one to first 52 wraps up countdown is waiting in the wings. Spider-Man 3 opens and there's free comic book day to it is going to be a big one. Be right here and let us know what you think with comments. Of course, just go to ComicMix.com. Click in there. Tell us what you think or write us direct at podcast at ComicMix.com. Talk to you in a couple of days. Bye.