Monthly Archive: June 2008

The Walk Of Fame, by Michael Davis

  • News
  • June 13, 2008

hollywood3-9385254Whenever I meet a celebrity, I say one of two things: either Can I have some money? or Black people love you. Which one depends on the star. When I met Al Sharpton it would not have been cool to say black people love you… because they don’t.

I’m kidding. It’s just much more fun to say black people love you to someone who’s not black. The looks on their faces are mostly priceless… mostly. I work in television and have the opportunity to meet a bunch of Hollywood types – actors, directors and producers. When I meet someone on business I’m not quite the knucklehead I am when I meet someone at a party or some other random place.

I’m always interested in what people who don’t work in the industry think of celebrities. If you read my column regularly you know I’m hard on some Hollywood stars and their behavior.  So I thought I would take the time to give you a few of my many positive encounters.

The first time I ever took a drink I was in the ninth grade and I was trying to be cool. My friend Earl and I were going to a party and we each had a bottle of really cheap wine. Earl had a bottle of Wild Irish Rose and I had a bottle of MD2020. That’s short for Mad Dog. How did two 13 years old kids get their hands on those bottles of wine? We went in and gave the clerk money, that’s how.

What about ID’s?

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Video: David Tennant Talks ‘Doctor Who’ and ‘Hamlet’

  • News
  • June 12, 2008

In a recent video interview with the BBC, Doctor Who‘s David Tennant chatted up Andrew Marre about the hit science-fiction series, his breakthrough role on Taking Over the Asylum and his upcoming turn as Hamlet.

I’ve embedded the full Andrew Marre episode below, but you can watch a higher-resolution version focused on the Tennant portion of the show, over at BBC News.

 

 

(semi-via LitG)

 

The Adventures of Simone & Ajax: The Hole Story

  • News
  • June 12, 2008

In today’s brand-new, full color episode of The Adventures of Simone & Ajax: The Maltese Duck, by Andrew Pepoy, our heroes find themselves in a mysterious, lost city.  In Michigan.  Will they escape?  Will Simone find an outfit with no ripped seams?  And why do lemmings always know?

Credits: Andrew Pepoy (Artist), Andrew Pepoy (Letterer), Andrew Pepoy (Writer), Jason Millet (Colorist), Mike Gold (Editor-In-Chief)

More: The Adventures of Simone & Ajax: The Case of the Maltese Duck

 

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Happy Birthday: Two-Face

  • News
  • June 12, 2008

twoface-6656997Harvey Dent was young, charismatic, idealistic, and driven—at 26 he was the youngest District Attorney Gotham City had ever had, and the press dubbed him “Apollo” for his good lucks and his meteoric rise.

Dent’s idealism was also flexible enough that he recognized the good Batman did, even if the Dark Night Detective didn’t always follow the rules. The two wound up becoming staunch allies, even friends, and their passions for justice actually complemented each other.
 

Until, one June 12th, Dent reached the high point of his career—prosecuting Sal “Boss” Maroni for murder. Unbeknownst to Dent, his own assistant Vernon Field worked for Maroni, and when Maroni was forced to take the stand Field handed him an antacid bottle filled with sulfuric acid. Dent got up to cross-examine Maroni, displaying his key evidence—Maroni’s good luck charm, a two-headed coin he always carried, which he had carelessly left at the scene of the crime.

Maroni then hurled the acid—Batman tried to intervene but only managed to deflect the attack so Dent caught the acid on the left side of his face and on his left hand instead of across his entire face. The attack did not kill him, as Maroni had planned, but did leave Dent permanently disfigured—in mind as well as body.

The horribly scarred D.A. snapped and turned to a life of crime and violence himself, scarring one side of Maroni’s coin and flipping it to determine his actions whenever presented with a choice between good and evil. And thus Two-Face, one of Batmnan’s most dangerous villains, was born.

Review: This Week in ‘Trinity’ – Part 2

Two weeks down, and things are already heating up in DC’s weekly series Trinity.

We left off last week with [[[Superman]]], [[[Wonder Woman]]] and [[[Batman]]] all under the gun from mysterious forces: A dwarf solar system appears in Metropolis, giant robots attack Washington D.C., and Gotham… becomes Olde Timey?

The main point of interest is the nature of the attacks, and the way in which each hero handles the threat. Superman saves civilians and acts tactically. Batman wills Gotham back to normal by refusing the vision. And Wonder Woman smacks the crap out of some robots.

Based on what we’ve seen so far, the central notion of this series lies in exploring the identity of these three main heroes (in the first issue, this came up in how each saw variations of the same dream). Clark is a protector, Diana is a fighter and Bruce is…

So far, writer Kurt Busiek is leaving that one open, as the bizarre transformation of Gotham could imply a lot of things about Batman. It’s also interesting that Bruce is the only one of the three to remark on the strangeness around him.

Why would Busiek only hang a lampshade with Batman? Maybe it has to do with him being the lone human of the Trinity, and thus a stand in for readers. Food for thought.

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Free Download of ‘The Middleman’ Pilot Episode

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  • June 12, 2008

For those of you who are iTunes-enabled, the first episode of the new ABC Family series The Middleman, based on a comic book series by former Lost writer and producer Javier Grillo-Marxuach, is currently available as a free download. The series premieres this Monday, June 16, at 8 PM on ABC. 

The episode will only be available for a limited time, so make it a point to snag it as soon as you have a chance.

For those who aren’t familiar with The Middleman, the series chronicles the adventures of a secret agency whose slogan is "Fighting evil so that you don’t have to." The Viper Comics series was filled with well-scripted humor, crazy science-fiction gadgetry, over-the-top action and a never-ending supply of creepy-crawly tentacled things for the heroes to battle. After picking up a copy of the first volume a few years ago (there have been a total of three volumes published thus far), I became a big fan of the series — so the news that a television adaptation was in the works was a nice surprise indeed.

Grillo-Marxuach initially conceived the story of The Middleman as a television project, but Paul Dini convinced him to kick it off as a comic. The pilot episode of the series was written by Grillo-Marxuach, who also serves as executive producer of the series.

 

(via beaucoupkevin)

ComicMix Radio: Feeling the Rush From MoCCA

Meet award-winning publisher and writer Tyler Chin-Tanner and step into his fast-paced world of adrenaline, as well as the upcoming American Terrorist. Tyler was just one of the people we met at MoCCA — before things got "hot," plus:

— Marvel adds a cover to Invincible Iron Man

— Fox revamps their fall TV lineup

— Chuck Dixon and DC = splitsville

Kindly press the button and  away we go!

 

 

 And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via badgeitunes61x15dark-8345293 or RSS!

 

Review: ‘The Incredible Hulk’

Going into this film, you will need to play a bit of a trick on your brain. You need to completely forget everything you experienced in Ang Lee’s 2003 version of the film, while still comparing this film to its predecessor.

You’re going to want to compare this film to Marvel’s previous blockbuster, Iron Man, but you shouldn’t do that — this is a whole new beast (pun intended) and needs to be treated as such.

That said, this film certainly delivers for the franchise, with the only major problem being the anticlimactic fight scene at the end, but we’ll get to that.

Starting off, the abbreviated back-story of this film is given to us in the form of the opening titles. Changing from the books: there is no Rick Jones and no Gamma Bomb, but instead a quiet gamma test on our Dr. Bruce Banner that goes horribly wrong, causing him to “hulk-out” and destroy the facility while also injuring his assistant/girlfriend Betty Ross. He goes on the run from the government, and we come into the story a few years later in Brazil, where Banner has now gone five months without “incident.” The first 15 minutes of the film keep the audience well entertained without the need of the Jade Giant, with some great character development and a fair amount of humor.

On the critical side of things, the biggest change from the first film was easily the look of the hulk and computer-generated imaging throughout the film. This was a drastic change from 2003’s “Shrek on Steroids” look. We’re given plenty of shots of the hulk in plain daylight and in action, and the look is next to flawless. If you are not a fan of CGI to begin with, you have to understand that you are going to see a movie about a gigantic green monster here, and no one is throwing Lou Ferrigno in green makeup this time around.

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The Weekly Haul: Reviews for June 12, 2008

  • Uncategorized
  • June 12, 2008

An odd blend of comics this week, with four new series, a couple of landmark issues (Invincible hit 50 and The Goon hit 25) and Geoff Johns making sure we remember why he’s THE MAN when it comes to superhero comics. On that note…

action866-3745456Book of the Week: Action Comics #866 — As in Green Lantern, Johns mines DC’s history for revelations that make big waves for today’s heroes. This issue marks the start of his Brainiac storyline, which begins with Braniac’s shockingly brutal theft of Kandar from Krypton.

That campy relic of Superman’s Silver Age becomes a tense and believable moment even before Johns uses it to lay out a mystery in the present (a Brainiac robot steals a sample of Superman’s blood while the main Brainiac seems imprisoned in his own ship). Check out the ComicMix interview with Johns about the story.

It’s that rare first issue of a storyline that delicately lets readers know something big is in the works without ramming that point down anyone’s throat. It’s epic but never self important.

As if that wasn’t enough, there’s the best Daily Planet sequence in a Superman comic in years, highlighted by this exchange about the newly returned Cat Grant. Lois: "I bet she has TMZ tattooed on her butt." Clark (lifting his glasses): "I don’t see it… Kidding."

Runners Up:

The Goon #25 — The return of Lazlo has the Goon thinking about turning tail, which shows just how lousy Eric Powell has made things for his scar-faced protagonist. It’s not as funny as your typical Goon tale, but that’s a good thing. And the end speaks for itself: "The war starts now!"

Powell’s art is in its finest, breathtaking form in this issue, from action sequences to emotional lulls. With his smooth designs and slight exaggerations, Powell is something of a modern Norman Rockwell who likes to draw demons being chopped up with cleavers instead of idyllic slices of life.

Captain Britain and MI 13 #2 — This series is essentially an answer to the question: What would Secret Invasion be like if Neil Gaiman wrote it? The British heroes continue to struggle to protect their homeland’s stores of magic from the invading Skrulls, which is complicated by old disagreements in the magical world and, of course, the apparent death of Captain Britain.

Even more than that other Skrull series, this book is capturing the "fate of the world in the balance" vibe, and it creates an interesting dichotomy between the surgically precise Skrull invasion and the unpredictable world of magic.

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Interview: Emily Horne and Joey Comeau on ‘A Softer World’

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  • June 12, 2008

asw3-200-7130368I’ve been reading A Softer World off and on for the last three years, but I have a good reason for my my irregular visits to Joey Comeau and Emily Horne’s photo-based webcomic.

The fact is, it’s hard to predict what emotion I’m going to feel when I take the plunge into a new iteration of ASW and its text-over-photograph, three-panel world. With other comics, I can usually anticipate the laugh or, in some cases, the snark-fueled sense of satisfaction the latest strip is likely to provide. Heck, with most strips I can at least anticipate learning the next plot point in an ongoing storyline.

ASW, however, is always a gamble.

One strip can prompt hysterical laughter, while the next can only make you shiver and and wonder what the unholy hell was going on in its creators’ minds when that strip was conceived. ASW can explore complex social issues one moment and the depth of depravity in the next.

The point is, I like having at least an inkling of what I’m jumping into before my feet leave the ground — so that’s why A Softer World has always been one of the more irregularly visited comics on my reading list. But I’m not too dense to realize that therein lies its appeal.

In fact, it was one of the more recent, controversial episodes of ASW, sent to me by a friend who is far more willing to suffer the emotional highs and lows of this tremendously creative series, that prompted me to roll the dice and become a regular reader once again — and to contact its creators about this interview.

COMICMIX: With most comics, script usually comes first and art later, but you go at it in reverse with A Softer World. Can you tell me a bit about the creative process for ASW? How does a strip typically come together for you?

EMILY HORNE: When we were both in Halifax, we used to be able to be much more collaborative about it. ASW started with us taking a typewriter and a stack of photos to the all-night copy shop and making a mess of comics all at once. Now that we live on opposite sides of the continent, it’s a bit more difficult. I usually make up three or four comics at a time and upload them for Joey to look at. He comes up with text for them as inspiration (and our 3x a week posting schedule) demands. If we are both online before it goes up, we’ll edit together.

JOEY COMEAU: Also, it’s worth noting that we try to keep the relationship between the images and text interesting and not always a literal illustration. Often times, the picture just feels like it goes with the text, even though they both seem to involve different things. Or, it’s also fun to have a conflict between the two. Very serious people making very serious faces, and ridiculous text.

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