Monthly Archive: June 2008

Battlestar Galactica Interview: Jane Espenson on Episode #9, ‘The Hub’

  • News
  • June 10, 2008

Welcome to the latest installment of Battlestar Galactica Weekly, our recurring Q&A with Mark Verheiden, co-executive producer of the hit Sci-Fi Channel series Battlestar Galactica. Each week, we’ll interview Verheiden about the events of the week’s episode, what those events might mean for both the season and the series, and hopefully unearth some clues about what to expect as the final season of Battlestar Galactica nears its conclusion.

Along with posing our own questions to Verheiden, we’re also taking questions from fans — so be sure to send your questions to me, your official BSG Weekly interviewer, after each episode airs at chris [at] comicmix dot com. New episodes of Battlestar Galactica can be seen every Friday at 10 PM EST on Sci-Fi Channel. You can read previous interviews via our BSG Weekly Archive or the links at the end of this article.

This week we have a special treat for fans of BSG, as well as those of you who love Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Answering our questions this time around is the writer of this week’s episode, co-executive producer Jane Espenson.

She’s answering questions about Episode #9 of Season Four, "The Hub," which aired June 6, 2008. Note: These answers may contain spoilers, so read at your own risk.

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COMICMIX (from reader Shannon): Was there a kiss between Adama and Roslin in the last scene? If so, why was it edited out? Or, if not, why not? That seemed like a moment when they would kiss.

JANE ESPENSON: It is scripted as a "fierce hug," but with moments like that, the script doesn’t really matter.  If you’re lucky enough to have amazing actors like Eddy and Mary, you don’t even want them to rely on the script in a moment like that.

You want them to just do.  And personally, I love the choice they made.  It played perfectly for me.  I want to see their faces on screen — easier in a hug than a kiss.

CMix (from reader Solonia): Do you consider Elosha to be Laura’s subconscious in this episode?

You mean, as opposed to being a Head Being like Baltar’s Six?  Yes.  I thought of her much more as Laura’s subconscious.

CMix (From reader Tommy): What was the purpose of the scene between Baltar and the Centurion? It seemed it was mostly there to put Baltar in a place where he could become injured so Roslin could save him? Or perhaps the scene is there to serve a larger purpose? Maybe Baltar is planting the seeds of another Cylon revolt?

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Interview: John Arcudi Talks ‘B.P.R.D.’ Summer Series

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  • June 10, 2008

bprdwofcover-5628985This summer is a big one for Hellboy fans, and not just because Hellboy II: The Golden Army hits theaters on July 11. Dark Horse is releasing several comics from Mike Mignola’s Hellboy world.

The co-author on several Hellboy and B.P.R.D. books, John Arcudi recently chatted with me and gave some sneak peaks at B.P.R.D.: War on Frogs, B.P.R.D.: The Warning and the B.P.R.D.: Ectoplasmic Man one shot.

Dire times are coming to the B.P.R.D. crew, Arcudi warned, and no one is safe.

COMICMIX: What can you tell me about these new series, War on Frogs and The Warning? They take place before and after Killing Ground, respectively, right?

JOHN ARCUDI: WoF takes place in the past, back in 2005 during the era of the Black Flame, while The Warning picks up about a week after the end of Killing Ground and will kick off the large three-part arc that brings the Memnan Saa storyline to its conclusion.

CMix: The Warning sounds like it’ll be focusing on Liz quite a lot. What can we expect for her? What are the big issues she’s facing?

JA: Well, she thinks she’s finally free of Memnan Saa’s control and so she’s in a hurry to kick some butt. His butt. Liz is interesting in that she seems to always be looking for an authority figure, for someone to point out the direction in life she should follow – due, undoubtedly to the premature deaths of her parents (at her hands, no less). If you go back to Hollow Earth, you see Liz leaving the B.P.R.D. to find herself in some temple at the top of the world. She doesn’t go and ride a motorcycle across the country, she goes and asks somebody else for help. This may be what made her susceptible to Saa’s thrall in the first place. And that is the personal story nugget at the core of this very far-reaching, cataclysmic epic tale.

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Getting Reality Right, by Dennis O’Neil

  • News
  • June 10, 2008

Vinnie Bartilucci said it better than I did. Commenting on a couple of columns that asked, sort of, if the science in comics should be real, Vinnie wrote, “… once a writer chooses to mention actual, proper science, he should get it right.”

Yes. Exactly. Well put.

But I wonder if we shouldn’t extend the idea to other real life areas. Social problems, for example.  Or such knotty personal problems as addiction. One of the difficulties is, there isn’t the kind of consensus on personal and societal quandaries that there is on the basics of, say, physics. All but the most skeptical – or reactionary – can agree that Newton’s three laws are on the money and Einstein was right about relativity, both general and special, and even Heisenberg’s principle doesn’t seem terribly uncertain these days.

But, to pluck just one example from the ether…addiction? What, exactly, is it? My imperfect understanding is that many, if not most, addictions are caused by environment acting on genetics. In other words, nature and nurture combine to rot out somebody’s life. But, with patience, determination, and rigorous self-honesty, the addict can put his demons in the coal bin, and if he’s able to continue being patient, determined, and honest, they’ll stay there until he dies and they die with him. Addiction is not exactly a disease, in the conventional sense, but it’s more that than character defect.

That was, more or less, the version of addiction I posited in an extended comic book continuity some years ago, and most people who saw the stories seemed to agree with me. But not everyone. A source I trust told me that a person much higher on the corporate food chain than either my editor or me thought that the fictional addict should have just…I don’t know – snap out of it? (In fairness to all concerned, the executive in question never confronted me personally, so I am taking a trusted somebody’s word for what happened.) On another occasion, an excellent artist, a man I respect, refused, politely, to draw a one-page shot of a hero dreaming he was drunk – just dreaming, mind you – because, in the artist’s opinion, heroes don’t behave like louts, even when snoozing.

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MoCCA Recap: Day Two – Fire! Smoke! Sellouts and Links!

Day Two at the MoCCA Art Festival was… an experience.

Except for the few moments when the possibility of dying via fiery inferno was an issue, much of the day felt as if I was slogging through a sweaty, soupy mess thanks to the outdoor conditions and the exhaustion from the previous day (which I detailed in my MoCCA: Day One Recap).

As ComicMix‘s Elayne Riggs pointed out earlier today, the forced evacuation of the Puck Building generated quite a buzz as attendees, guests and staff were asked to leave the building (and its air conditioners) while emergency personnel did their thing. (On a side note, for a comprehensive look at exactly what "doing their thing" meant for the emergency crews, check out Fleen’s MoCCA Emergency ’08 report.)

Okay, confession time: When the fire alarm first started ringing, I honestly thought somebody in the room had won something… and according to a few reliable sources, I started clapping.

Apparently, all the bells, whistles and sirens I’ve been exposed to over the last few years at larger conventions have succeeded in reversing decades of training regarding what to do when I hear an alarm. Nevertheless, it looks like I won’t die alone. (more…)

Review: ‘Water Baby’ by Ross Campbell

[EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the fourth in a series of reviews of the five books coming out from DC’s Minx imprint this year. Previously, Van Jensen reviewed Rebecca Donner’s Burnout, Cecil Castellucci’s Janes in Love and Brian Wood‘s The New York Four. -RM]

Ah, ambiguity. It can be the driving force of great fiction, powering along mysteries, character dramas and horror stories.

And, when wielded irresponsibly, ambiguity can sink a promising book straight into the murky depths of… somewhere or other.

Take Water Baby ($9.99), a new Minx book written and drawn by Ross Campbell. At the book’s start, surfer girl Brody loses a leg to a hungry shark. She sorta tries to get over it with the help of her sorta friend Louisa, but then things kinda get crazy when Brody’s old flame Jake shows up (he’s somewhat cool but a bit of a jerk).

The girls (who have a relationship that meanders toward lesbianism, but never conclusively) decide to drive Jake back home to get rid of him, and things kinda sorta get even crazier when they pick up Chrissie, a girl who’s either cool or a slut or just crazy. Maybe.

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Happy Birthday: Johnny Cloud

Flying “Johnny” Cloud was a member of the Navajo tribe but little is known about his early life. He enlisted in the U.S. Air Force at the start of World War II and overcame racial prejudices with his superior skill as a pilot, quickly becoming known as “the Navajo Ace.”

When the commander of his unit died in battle against a squadron of Nazi bombers, Cloud became his successor and the unit was dubbed "The Happy Braves."

Cloud led the Happy Braves for several years, but during one failed mission his plane was shot down. He was rescued by the Haunted Tank, which picked up several other stray soldiers on the same run, and the strays banded together to form the misfit military unit the Losers.

They fought together until their final, fatal mission near the end of the war.

News Roundup: Comic Theft Solved, Aimee Mann Goes Graphic, ‘Middleman’ Debuts

Here’s what’s been going on in the world of comics over the past few days to give you some Monday afternoon I-don’t-feel-like-doing-any-real-work reading.

In an interview with the Toronto Star, Shooting War illustrator Dan Goldman talks about why he doesn’t draw Spider-Man:

"I could be doing that kind of stuff, but … I feel like you’ve got a microphone; if you’re going to step up, you really should have something to say."

Goldman is concerned with what he sees as the degradation of the United States. "I have my days when it’s tough to look over at my desk and see my little American passport and I feel ashamed."

You may have heard about the sad news out of Seattle, where a man’s collection of about 6,000 comics was stolen from a friend’s house. The case is now closed. The original owner tracked down the thief, got back his books, and no one was arrested. Priceless quote from the police spokesman: "We didn’t want to spend any more time on it,"

Buried deep in this CNN story about singer/songwriter Aimee Mann (you probably know her from the Magnolia soundtrack) is the news that she’s slowly become a graphic novelist: "I take a sketchbook and I bring it out at dinner … and I’ve got this one friend who always says something ridiculous, so I’ll try to write it down and put it in [graphic] form, and it kind of amuses everyone at the dinner table," she says, while saying it’s "kind of a long-term project."

Lastly, Lost writer Javier Grillo-Marxuach reveals to Comics2Film that Paul Dini is responsible for Grillo-Marxuach’s The Middleman going from proposed TV series to comic (and now it’s set to be a TV series again): "Of course, I was a huge comic book fan already, but something about talking to Paul and realizing here’s a guy who’s doing it sort of inspired me to say, ‘Here I have a property that, in a comic book, without the constraints of budget, would be spectacular.  So why not go in that direction and try to fulfill this creative need that I have to see this thing made?’"

MoCCA Catches Fire!

Smoke in the sub-basement, fire in the sky…  As if this weekend’s MoCCA Art Festival weren’t already the hottest ticket in town during the hottest couple of days so far this year, there was a fire condition around 3 PM on Sunday that wound up causing an evacuation of the building.

An earlier video of the event was taken down from YouTube for some reason, but Brian Heater of The Daily Cross Hatch posted one of his own. Have a look:

According to MoCCA founder Lawrence Klein, there was apparently a "smoke condition" in the building’s sub-basement, nowhere near either of the convention floors or window-based air conditioning units. Attending professionals and fans were probably not all that thrilled to be ushered out into the 90-degree heat, but better safe than sorry!

Doctor Who in Review: Season Four, Episode #6 – The Doctor’s Daughter

The hit BBC series Doctor Who is now in its fourth season on the Sci-Fi Channel, and since we’re all big fans here at ComicMix, we’ve decided to kick off an episode-by-episode analysis of the reinvigorated science-fiction classic.

Every week, we’ll have our best Who-philes go through the most recent episode with a fine-tooth comb (or whatever the "sonic screwdriver" equivalent might be) and call out all of the continuity checks, names dropped and storyline hints we can find to keep in mind for future episodes. We’ll post our analysis each Monday, so you have ample time to check out the episode once it airs each Friday at 9 PM EST on Sci-Fi Channel before reading our review.

Missed a week? Check out our "Doctor Who in Review" archive or check out any of the past editions of this column via the links at the end of this article.

Keep in mind, we’re going to assume readers have already watched the episode when we put fingers to keyboard and come up with our roundup of important plot points. In other words, SPOILER ALERT!

Let’s begin now, shall we?

Season Four, Episode #6: "The Doctor’s Daughter" (more…)

Iron Man Featured in New ‘Incredible Hulk’ Trailer

As most of you know by now, Marvel and Universal are taking the Incredible Hulk marketing into full swing this week, with one TV spot that may just be giving away a little too much.

Those of you who stayed till the end of Iron Man know that Sam Jackson pops up as fellow Marvel character Nick Fury, and rumor had it that we would be getting the same treatment with the next film from Marvel Studios, with Robert Downey Jr. rumored to appear as Tony Stark in the upcoming Incredible Hulk.

Well, it looks like the cat is out of the bag here, because according to the TV spot that hit the airwaves last night, Downey is definitely in the picture. It seems bizarre that the studios would spoil what could have been another big cameo, but such a move is likely indicative of the studios’ worries regarding the film — and an effort to ride the coattails of the biggest movie of 2008?

Check out the video below, but beware: If you would rather enjoy the surprise in the theater, stay away!

 

 

You can also view the video here.

Incredible Hulk hits theaters this week on Friday, June 13.

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