We couldn’t let the year go without this wonderful holiday greeting from our friend Liam Sharp & family:
You can check out all of Liam’s offerings at his Mamtor site, which also includes this intriguing preview for something called Viking Zombie Elvis:
Did you spot the Simon Bisley cameo? I think Paul Neary may be in there as well…
The animators of Blue Sky Studios were finishing up their work on the movie Robots in late 2004 when a group of them decided that was the perfect time to do a collection of more personal stories. (A similar impulse is behind the Flight series of anthologies, to which more miscellaneous animators, illustrators, and cartoonists have contributed.) The first edition of Out of Picture – published in hardcover by a French house – debuted at 2006’s MoCCA show, and was a surprise hit there. Now, Villard has brought out an expanded edition of Out of Picture in paperback, with the promise of a second volume to follow next year.
I do first have to admit that the art is absolutely stunning – the different artists are varied in their approaches, but all are successful in creating their own worlds. On the other hand, Out of Picture is reminiscent of Robots (and other Blue Sky productions, such as Ice Age) – the visuals are amazing, showing deep thought and amazing skill, but the stories those visuals tell are much less original or special.
For example, Nash Dunnigan’s “Night School” uses a dark, chiaroscuro palette and well-chosen camera angles to tell a somewhat clichéd, “If This Goes On” style story about religious domination in the mid-21st century. And David Gordon’s “The Wedding Present” is visually stunning, with a great sense of design and the audacity to make his terrorist characters into brightly-colored funny animals. But the story, again, doesn’t really go anywhere.
• Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark in the Iron Man movie. I can’t think of a better casting choice, except maybe for Howard Chaykin – and I’m not sure Chaykin could pull off the moustache thing. Downey’s got the right look, the right attitude… we’ll see if he gets the right screenplay.
While it’s been a rather quiet week news-wise, our weekly ComicMix columns have seen lots of activity. We were particularly honored to host an online wake of sorts last Thursday, reuniting members of the old CompuServe Comics and Animation Forum (myself included) in the comments section of John Ostrander’s touching remembrance of Paul "Zeus" Grant. Here’s what else we’ve written for you this past week:
We wish everyone all you wish for yourselves in 2008 and beyond.
Ah, holidays: a time to get together with family and friends … and watch all the DVDs you missed during the year. In my case, it’s with my teen and preteen nieces, so sooner or later they get control of the remote, and they call the shots. So it was in this cozy, tinsel-lined environment that we settled in to watch the special features on two of the second sequels that so galvanized marketing types a few weeks ago.
Tom Ryan’s Tumbleweeds ends its 42 year run in the newspapers today, at the request of the artist.
The always entertaining big-foot western strip launched an animated teevee series, a musical and a theme-park, as well as appearing in hundreds of newspapers throughout the years. Ryan continues a trend of creators retiring their strips at the end of their careers instead of allowing the syndicates to turn their creations over to others, transforming their work into minor family annuities.
Every time I backtrack to some last-century comic book or movie or teevee show that purports to portray Bat Masterson, I come away with a greater appreciation of the historical model as a bigger-than-real figure. Granted that some of Masterson’s real-life exploits and con-games aren’t quite the stuff of sensationalized melodrama, I’ll take the genuine article every time for Puckish wit and adaptability to wildly differing environments.
Some important Wolverine casting news and our list of late comics end the year and ComicMix Radio covers it all!
Plus:
• Marv Wolfman comes back to The Titans – sort of
• Mark Waid splits from The Flash
• The Justice League director may not "get it"
And Sean McKeever shares what he enjoyed reading in 2007.
Press The Button now and we promise to save you from Zombie Dick Clark!
On this day in 1967 — well, actually, on Stardate 4523.3, but you get the idea — Cyrano Jones sold Lt. Uhuru an adorable little fur ball of the species polygeminus grex that quickly began to multiply like a rabbit on steroids. The creatures found their way into every nook and cranny of Deep Space Station K-7 and the visiting Enterprise, endangering the crew and their mission in the premiere of "The Trouble With Tribbles."
Of course, the concept was revisited in 1996’s Deep Space Nine episode, "Trials and Tribble-lations". Here’s a brief comparison between the two episodes:
And remember, when you’re up to your ass in tribbles, your initial assignment was to poison the grain.
A Tribble is expected to have a cameo in the upcoming Star Trek prequel movie.
The Financial Times reports that the United Nations Office for Partnerships will be working with Marvel Comics to create "a comic book set in a fictional war-torn country with superheroes working alongside UNICEF aid workers and U.N peacekeepers."
Notes UPI somewhat sarcastically, the partnership is designed in part to bolster the UN’s "international image damaged by the unilateral diplomatic efforts of some Western countries by teaching children the value of international cooperation."
And by "some Western countries, " read "the scary guy with the mustache who wants to lop off the building’s top ten floors yet somehow got a recess appointment to be our ambassador to the organization, and who was forced out in deserved disgrace about a year ago." The UN hopes to distribute the comics to about 1 million US children initially, and one can only hope Spider-Man & co. are more powerful than Ornery Moustache Dude.
Columns / Glenn Hauman / News
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