Monthly Archive: May 2008

Disney Invades Iraq? by John Ostrander

You may already know about this story – it surfaced in late April elsewhere. I found out about it thanks to This Is True, a weekly newsletter and website run by Randy Cassingham and one of my fave e-mails of the week each week.

Here’s the story, in case you missed it. An American entrepreneur has looked at the mess in Iraq and decided that what Baghdad needs is an entertainment park. Llewellyn Werner, chairman of C3, which The Times of London online says is “a Los Angeles-based holding company for private equity firms” is putting 500 million dollars – a cool half billion – into the Baghdad Zoo and Entertainment Experience outside but near the American “Green Zone.” It will comprise fifty acres and, in addition to the former Baghdad Zoo, will include a skateboard park, rides, a concert theater, and a museum.

The Baghdad Zoo itself now has only 35 animals out of about 700 it had originally. The rest were lost to the war – starved to death, stolen, and killed so they could be eaten by Baghdad citizens who were afraid there was going to be no food.

Quoting the Times:

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Gene Colan’s Health Issues Prompt Industry Fundraising Efforts

colan_batman_cover-3861728While Warner Bros./DC is actively shutting down fundraisers, the friends and family of artist Gene Colan are continuing to put the word out about their need for donations to help with the cost of Colan’s medical bills due to dangerous liver problems.

Dirk Deppey over at Journalista has made it the top story for the entire week and like many other sites, provided a link to auctions of Colan’s original art that his family has posted. He’s also offered up an alternate strategy for getting much-needed money into the right hands:

Do as I did, and make a direct donation via Paypal, where the Colans are registered as genecolan@optonline.net — just log into your account, hit the “send money” button, and insert said email address and the amount you wish to donate into the appropriate boxes. Oh, and you might want to mention the word “donation” prominently in the comments box, so the Colans don’t have to sort through a bunch of listings to find the eBay payments.

Tom Spurgeon also offered up a host of links and information about Colan, his predicament and how you can help, while ComicMix pal Mark Evanier posted a long message about Colan on his website:

I don’t know what else to write here. It just seems appropriate to send a whole lotta love the Colans’ way this morning. I hope the dire reports on his health will prove to be overstated. I hope we’ll have Gene around for many more years. I hope — and of this, I am the surest — that Gene is well aware how many fans he has and how, whenever he goes, he’s leaving behind an incredible body of work that will be praised and studied and appreciated by comic book fans who aren’t even born yet. I just think we oughta postpone losing a guy like that as long as possible.

A message from Colan’s wife Adrienne can also be read here. (more…)

DC/Warner Bros. Shut Down Childhood Cancer Fundraiser

superdrunk-9327448BoingBoing recently put the spotlight on Warner Bros. decision to shut down a series of original art auctions on eBay benefitting a childhood cancer charity. Apparently, many of the pieces of art in the auction (which the organizer had requested of his contacts in the comics community and they were more than happy to provide) depicted DC characters such as Batman and Superman.

From organizer Thomas Denton’s blog, Say It Backwards:

I just got notice that two of the Superman related auctions have been removed from the site and the rest are probably next. I don’t know what to do now. I have to start canceling auctions and issuing refunds. That means all the fees and such I’m now responsible for which is money i just don’t have, and I have no idea if I’m still obligated to the middleman ebay uses for their charity auctions.

…

I am heartbroken. I am really sorry to any one this is any trouble for. Legally, I was in the wrong. I used their intellectual property without their permission. I’m not going to play the victim on that front. I swear I just wanted to do something good.

Denton offered some further thoughts on the whole kerfuffle in a later post, as well as notice that he would probably be shutting down his site — which had been a vocal supporter of all things Superman and DC over the years — once the dust had settled.

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Superheroes, the Richard Mullins Way

Our pals over at Fanboy.com recently posted some really great work from artist Richard Mullins featuring Batman, Robin and a few other familiar characters. I’d love to have any one of these pieces hanging in my office, to be honest.

Since I’m probably the last person you want to consult when it comes to describing art (I’m more of a "I know it when I see it" sort of guy), I’ll let Fanboy.com’s Michael Pinto handle the synopsis:

What I like about his work is that in addition to be inspired by pop art subjects, his style of painting and bold use of vivid colors reminds me a great deal of the Fauvism of Henri Matisse.

Yeah, I agree. I think he summed it up there.

(Psst Between you and I, I had no idea what "fauvism" was before I read this.)

Darth Vader Gets Drunk, Attacks Jedi Church

darthvader-9314371To be filed under "Sometimes This Stuff Really Writes Itself," Newsweek.com is reporting that a 27-year-old man who dressed up as Star Wars villain Darth Vader (complete with garbage-bag cape)  and attacked members of a British group calling itself the Jedi Church, has been officially spared any time in jail.

According to reports, Arwel Wynne Hughes attacked church founders Barney Jones (a.k.a. "Master Jonba Hehol") and Michael Jones (a.k.a. "Master Mormi Hehol") with a metal crutch two months ago. The cousins created the "Jedi Church" after a 2001 U.K. census reported 390,000 people (0.7 percent of the country’s population) who claimed "Jedi" as their religion.

Here’s the best part, though:

Hughes claimed he couldn’t remember the incident, having drunk the better part of a 2 1/2-gallon (10-liter) box of wine beforehand.

Seriously, there’s nothing worse than a drunk guy who can control The Force. If I had a nickel for every party that ended when someone force-pushed another guest through a wall…

Happy Birthday: Brad Anderson

Born in Jamestown, New York in 1924, Brad Anderson started cartooning as a child. He attended Brocton Central School for high school, and while there sold his first cartoons (to an aviation magazine).

Anderson served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, then attended Syracuse University’s School of Fine Arts. After graduating college, Anderson focused on advertising for a few years, but in 1953 decided to turn his full attention back to cartoons.

A year later, he created the cartoon strip Marmaduke. He still draws the strip today. In 1976, Anderson received the National Cartoonist Society Award for Best Panel, and in 1999 Syracuse University honored him with the George Arents Pioneer Medal.

Review: ‘The Amazing Remarkable Monsieur Leotard’

leotard-1710289Eddie Campbell has always done comics his way, without worrying about other people’s expectations or preferences — one of his two major series has been a fictionalization of his own life as a comics creator, and the other, a superficially more populist sequence about Greek gods in the modern world, was itself about storytelling more often than not. So it’s no surprise that his latest graphic novel — co-written with Dan Best — is more about telling its story than it is the story being told.

The Amazing Remarkable Monsieur Leotard
By Eddie Campbell and Dan Best
First Second, August 2008, $18.95

[[[Monsieur Leotard]]] will be published by First Second — who published Campbell’s last book, The Black Diamond Detective Agency, and have been putting together an impressive list of graphic novels for adults and younger readers for the past few years — in August, and the first thing to note is that it’s not the story the reader expects.

You see, the famous acrobat Jules Leotard lies dying of smallpox on page 12. So, we think, the book will be a series of flashbacks showing his life? No, he’s dead by the bottom of page 13, and the story moves on. So far, so very Campbell.

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Can You Build Your Own ‘Iron Man’ Suit?

So what would it take to build your own Iron Man suit? Given enough money and access to scientific equipment, could you become a superhero?

The good people over at The Chicago Tribune posed exactly those questions to James Kakalios, a University of Minnesota physics professor. Kakalios weighed in on the likelihood of building various elements of Iron Man’s armor, including jet boots, cybernetic helmet and, of course, repulsor rays:

It’s that power thing again. If you want to send lightning bolts — or laser beams, more likely — shooting out of your palms, you have to carry along a power source big enough to generate them. To make a beam "powerful enough to melt a fist-size hole through a half-inch steel plate," Kakalios says, "would require an energy pulse of over 2 gigawatts of power, greater than the output of a nuclear power plant."

The verdict? Well, let’s just say that you might want to hold off on making any superpowered arch-enemies for a while.

Read the full article over at The Chicago Tribune website.

bushmaster-wonder-woman-x-6670236

ComicMix Six: The Worst Supervillain Names in Comics

  • Uncategorized
  • May 14, 2008

bushmaster-wonder-woman-x-6670236A while back, I gave you "The Worst Superhero Names in Comics," but now it’s time for the other end of the spectrum. Yes, it’s time to give the supervillains their due. (Well, those of them with horrible names, that is.)

Oh, and before anyone mentions folks like "Mr. Banjo" and "Captain Nazi," I didn’t include those characters because they were created to fight Captain Marvel back when that character’s adventures were still very much aimed at younger readers – so I consider them to be an entirely different animal. The same goes for any villains created with intentionally silly names (i.e., Howard the Duck’s nemesis, "Dr. Bong").

Ready? Okay, then I give you the ComicMix Six list of The Worst Supervillain Names in Comics…

6. BUSHMASTER: Yeah, I know it’s the name of a deadly snake. But honestly, guys and gals, when you see Wonder Woman (of all people) fighting a telepathic character called "Bushmaster," and then you read her thought bubble proclaiming, “Great Hera! I — I cannot resist the telepathic commands of the evil Bushmaster!” … Well, you can’t help but laugh and cringe at the same time — which is painful, believe me.

Congratulations, Bushmaster. You just barely edged out "The Growing Man" and "Bi-Beast" in the award for names with ridiculous innuendo.

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Devil’s Due and Capcom Partner for Videogame-Based Comics

  • Uncategorized
  • May 14, 2008

ddplostplanetsmaller-1987325Devil’s Due Publishing, the Chicago-based home of comic book titles such as Dungeons & Dragons, Demon Squad and the cult favorite Hack/Slash, recently announced that it will be teaming up with noted videogame publisher Capcom to launch four new comic book titles based on the company’s successful videogame properties.

Two of the four titles announced as part of this deal will be comics based on popular Capcom titles Bionic Commando and Lost Planet.

According to Devil’s Due President Josh Blaylock:

Not only are these awesome games, but they have great stories behind them ripe for comics, including a vintage classic with Bionic Commando that’s been revived along with the new sequel.

More details about DDP’s plans for Bionic Commando, Lost Planet and the two other new Capcom comics are expected to be announced in July at the San Diego Comic-Con. Be sure to check back here at ComicMix for all the details.

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