Monthly Archive: August 2007

MICHAEL DAVIS: It’s a real mad mad mad world part 2

  • News
  • August 24, 2007

michael-davis100-2162058Last week my article started with what I see is an obvious trend among comic book companies. That trend was the ‘mad angry look” that many comic book superheroes spout when they are looking out from a cover or poster. While writing the piece I came upon an idea to create some “Happy Heroes.”

So I created a super group called Happy Heroes! (Happy Heroes tm & copyright Michael Davis 2007 any unauthorized use will result in a harsh letter from the firm of Starve And Die, Attorneys-at-Law.)

When last we left the Happy Heroes, The Grin, Smiley and Gay-Man were being attacked. By the way that’s Gay as in:

1.    Full of light-heartedness and merriment

2.    Brightly colored

3.    Having or showing a carefree spirit

4.    Gives great dinner parties

As I was saying, when last we left the Happy Heroes The Grin, Smiley and Gay-Man were being attacked by their archenemy Dark Comedy. He had already blasted The Grin in the chest and had turned his attention and ray gun to Smiley. Gay-Man was hiding…eh, I mean seeking refuge in a closet so he could plan his next move.  

Page 4.

Panel 1.

Dark Comedy is now pointing his weapon at Smiley. Smiley is looking around for Gay-Man and by Gay I mean:

1.    Full of light-heartedness and merriment

2.    Brightly colored

3.    Having or showing a carefree spirit

4.    Likes Dick…Tracy

Dark Comedy: Where’s Gay-Man?

Smiley: I’ll never tell.

Panel 2.

Dark Comedy shoots Smiley in the kneecap.

Smiley: AHHHHHHHHHGGGG! GAY-MAN IS IN THE CLOSET!!!

Panel 3.

Dark Comedy is standing above Smiley who is rolling around on the floor holding his knee.

(more…)

OMNIBUS REVIEW: Giant-Size Steve Ditko

  • Uncategorized
  • August 23, 2007

61kwlc3ysml-_aa240_-3845203As we await Jonathan Ross’s BBC4 documentary “In Search Of Steve Ditko," I suggest reading Marvel’s Amazing Fantasy Omnibus; it’s one swell way to pass the time.

Sure, Ditko will be remembered forever as the creator and co-creator of Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, and maybe The Creeper and Shade the Changing Man. Jonathan’s documentary will help cement his role as comics’ most famous recluse, and many will continue to regard Steve as a man of principle, even if some disagree with that principle. The Amazing Fantasy Omnibus shows us what the man was up to the day before he co-created the Web-slinger.

In a sense, this hefty (416 page) tome is oddly named. It reprints the entire 15-issue run of… well, a book that was always titled “Amazing” and usually titled “Fantasy,” but was only once called Amazing Fantasy. And that was its last issue. The one that introduced Spider-Man.

Originally titled Amazing Adventures, the book was little more than an addition to Marvel’s dominant monster and mystery line – Tales to Astonish, Journey Into Mystery, Strange Tales, and Tales of Suspense. And like its sister titles, Amazing Adventures offered the efforts of writer/editor Stan Lee and artists Don Heck, Jack Kirby (inked by Dick Ayers) and Paul Reinman – on a series called Doctor Droom, no less. But with issue #7, the book morphed into Amazing ADULT Fantasy (emphasis mine) and it became pure Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. And it became magic.

A month earlier, I would not deign to pick up what we now call a Marvel comic book. I had just turned 11 and I didn’t care for monsters and mystery – at the time – and Patsy and Hedy didn’t do much for me either. At the time. But at the end of August in 1961 out of sheer boredom I picked up the first issue of a superhero-looking book called Fantastic Four, so I was open to their efforts.

But the title confused me. “Amazing ADULT Fantasy”? Would kindly Pharmacist Herman Orlove even sell this comic book to me? It said “The Magazine That Respects Your Intelligence” right there on the cover. Well, I was intelligent. Intelligent enough to hide the issue in the middle of my stack of comics, each and every one priced at 10 cents. Orlove never knew, and my place on his junior league baseball team remained safe.

The art … staggered me. I had seen nothing like Steve Ditko. It wasn’t good, in the sense that Kirby was larger than life and Curt Swan was life itself. But it was perfectly suited for the creepy stories in this comic book. I couldn’t explain it, and I still can’t. But I learned the lesson.

(more…)

Hayden Panettiere turns legal

  • News
  • August 23, 2007

haydenvote-7816011Yep, fandom’s favorite cheerleader (all right, I remember her as Princess Dot from A Bug’s Life, but I’m weird) turned eighteen on Tuesday. And what did she do to commemorate it? She registered to vote:

Exercising her civic right, star of NBC’s Heroes, Hayden Panettiere, celebrated her 18th birthday today by registering to vote utilizing the Declare Yourself campaign’s easy-to-use online registration process. Panettiere is an official spokesperson for the Declare Yourself, the national nonpartisan, nonprofit youth voter initiative aimed at empowering and encouraging America’s 18-year-olds to register and vote in the 2008 primaries and general election.

Like millions of other young people, Panettiere logged on to the campaign’s official site at http://www.DeclareYourself.com, completed the voter registration form online, printed it out and then mailed it off. She was also able to have any voting related questions answered through Declare Yourself’s FAQ section.

Now that’s a way to save the world.

BIG BROADCAST: Secrets of the Ultimates!

  • Uncategorized
  • August 23, 2007

megobat-4065195Longer than the discussions about Thor Vs Hulk or Mighty Mouse vs Superman, collectors have been arguing about the condition of their collections. Just like comics, collectible toys now have a third party grading service and The Big ComicMix Broadcast gives you the details here.

AND – Marvel starts to reveal the Secrets Of The Ultimate Universe, Superman and his crew take on Kryptonite, and Irwin Allen gets his own night of Prime Time Television!

PRESS THE BUTTON, which you will notice is in Very Fine Plus Condition!

Grace Paley, gone

  • News
  • August 23, 2007

509grace_paley-3196619Via Maud Newton comes word that Grace Paley has died at the age of 84.  I met Grace a few times through the War Resisters League, working the table at rummage sales.  She was like the greatest possible combination of my idol and my grandmother,  Her short stories were an important part of my personal literary odyssey, and her poetry was so personal to me that I read some at the memorial service for Kim Yale.  You can get a collection of all her short stories.  Her non-fiction prose, often about her time spent on the picket line to end war, combat racism or sexism, or her trips to Viet Nam, can be embarrassing in their enthusiasm and honesty.  Once, years ago, she agreed to write a Superman story, which never came to be.  I thought it would be cool for Martha Kent to talk to other moms in Washington Square Park. 

For me, this passage from one of my favorite stories, says it all:

The kids!  The kids! Though terrible troubles  hang over them, such as the absolute end of the known world quickly by detonation or slowly through the easygoing destruction of natural resources, they are stilll, even now, optimistic, humourous, and brave.  In fact, they intend enormous changes at the last minute.

Disney No Longer Adventures

  • Uncategorized
  • August 23, 2007

image-3836137One of the very few entry portals to the world of comics is coming to an end.

Disney Adventures, the monthly supermarket digest magazine containing a huge chunk of original Disney-related comic strips, will be ending its 17 year run with its November issue. This comes despite an increase of ad pages and a circulation of 1,200,000 copies – making Disney Adventures one of the highest circulation comics magazines in America.

Disney has had some success with their occasional comics-only Comics Zone editions, and one hopes this might continue. The publisher says they will be adding a new title or two to their line-up.

There are very, very few ways young readers come across comics; outside of Disney Adventures, only the sundry Archie digests come to mind. Once again, we’re left wondering how the next generation of Americas are going to discover the comics form.

Perhaps… the Internet?

COMICS LINKS: Definitely Not Kansas

  • Uncategorized
  • August 23, 2007

toto-3997352

Comics Links

Variety reports that Todd McFarlane’s toy-based re-imagining of The Wizard of Oz is being developed as a movie. (See all the toys here; everyone else went with Dorothy as the obvious illo, but I thought his vision of Toto was just as bad, but even weirder.)

Mark Evanier writes about Robert Kanigher and his Metal Men.

Nick Bertozzi has posted the proposal he and James Sturm put together in 2003 for a graphic novel adaptation of a screenplay called The Black Diamond Detective Agency. (The owners of the property ended up giving it to Eddie Campbell to turn into a GN, which came out earlier this year.)

Jayme Lynn Blaschke visits Metropolis, Illinois, and takes pictures of all of the Superman stuff there.

Comics Should Be Good casts their usual beady eye on DC’s November covers.

Occasional Superheroine believes everything is wrong with DC Comics, and explains their problems in great detail.

The Elmira Star-Gazette is happy to see the new comic based on a video game, Halo: Uprising.

Dick May or May Not Read Your Blog begins an odd, quixotic series on the career of Rob Liefeld with a long post about his work on Hawk & Dove.

 

Comics Reviews 

Wizard reviews Mike Allred’s Madman, Vol. 1 and Marvel’s X-23: Target X.

Comics Reporter reviews a mini-comic called Click by Sara Ryan.

Jog of The Savage Critics looks at Bill Jemas’s reign at Marvel, the “progressive” era, Igor Kordey, and, finally, the first eight issues of Soldier X.

(more…)

JOHN OSTRANDER: Widgets

  • News
  • August 23, 2007

ostrander100-6411617karl-marx-1801863Theories are great. I love theories. Usually they’re a wonderful conflation of thought and imagination. We all have our own pet theories on things and we teach them to do tricks or rub their tummies and have fun with them. For example, my sweetie, Mary, on a regular basis comes up with new theories of how the universe was created. They’re different each time and always fun. Sometimes they stumble near quantum theory and that gets a little spooky but, all in all, I enjoy them almost as much as she does.

My problem with theories is when they become ossified into dogma. This happens not just in religion but in all walks of life, including economics and business. Communism is a good example of an economic theory gone to dogma. One of its charming hypotheses was that, once communism had spread around the globe – as Karl Marx felt it inevitably would – all government would evaporate because we would have achieved the workers’ paradise. That theory, unfortunately, is not based on any human trait I’ve ever seen. Capitalism, on the other hand, being based on human greed, is and that’s one of the reasons it has survived and communism has not.

Capitalism and business, especially in recent years, have had their own bits of theories that are endlessly repeated like mantras until they too have become dogma. They’re applied whether they fit the situation or not, sometimes out of stupidity and other times from cupidity.

One of my least favorite bits of economic dogma is “They’re all widgets.” The word “widget” was coined, I believed, by playwright George S. Kaufman for his 1924 play Beggar On Horseback in which the protagonist must choose between his work as a composer and a steady but soul draining job in a “widget” factory. Since it was never defined, a “widget” – in the economic sense – is a synonym for “product” or, when dealing with a creative artist, the term “talent” is used. What it comes down to is that it doesn’t matter what the widget is, certain business and selling rules will apply. Soap, beef, talent, cars, drugs, beer, games, comic books, movies, TV shows – they’re all widgets. One theory fits all.

Except it doesn’t always do that. In 1989, Marvel was bought by Ron Perelman’s MacAndrews and Forbes; at the time, Marvel had maybe 70% of the sales of a very healthy direct sale market. Before Perelman’s little junket was done, Marvel was in bankruptcy and the market was in tatters. Why? Because they decided they were selling widgets. They didn’t need to know anything about comics or the market; they were going to apply sound business principles and make comics respond accordingly. (I had plenty of friends on the inside keeping me abreast of the latest theory.) Nobody could tell these guys nothing. Their business model was not simply Disney but McDonald’s which not only sells hamburgers but own the bakeries that makes the buns, the cattle ranches that supply the beef and so on.

Marvel started to bring its licenses inside the company with the idea that they would supply the product. Since trading cards were so popular, they would buy the trading card companies. They bought the companies after the interest in trading cards had already crested. Perelman’s suits were consistently behind the curve. (more…)

Stan Lee and… Paris Hilton?

  • News
  • August 22, 2007

paris-hilton-nip-slip-5820045From Film School Rejects : Stan Lee told NY Post columnist Cindy Adams he’s planning to make an animated cartoon TV show with Paris Hilton. “A hip comedy in the superhero comedy-adventure genre. We get on very well. This is a charming, very likable person. Sophisticated. Great comedic sense. A fine voice. And seriously hard-working. Totally unlike whatever the public is led to believe. And she has input. She attends every meeting. What we plan to do is truly tasteful.”

It’s good that Paris is getting involved in comics — I was wondering who was going to write fill-in issues for Jenna Jameson.

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