ComicMix Radio: Printing Errors Fuel Speculators Dreams

As we told you on Tuesday’s broadcast, DC has been plagued with a few printing errors one of which was Action Comics #869 that was recalled last week and redistributed this week. Why? The answer is a little simple, literally, plus:

• Heroes‘ website expands including new web episodes
• Marvel’s original online comics are here
• Meet the cast of ABC Family’s Samurai Girl

And if you think we are kidding about Action #869, there are several on eBay right now for as much as $39.99.
Stop laughing and Press the Button! And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via or RSS!

Transcript

Broadcast, 261. CometMits.com It's a gem tucked away over on ABC Family. CometMits.com Hi, it's Mike Rod. The show is called Samurai Girl and Don't Let the Name Fool You.

It's fairly serious and a pretty good adaptation of some great fantasy novels. We'll start talking to the cast and give you a little sneak preview and a lot more. All coming up on… September 18th. 2008. CometMits.use

Based on the successes they had last year, NBC.com has announced a new lineup of digital programming. Built around their Fall TV season programs that at least we're interested in. That includes Heroes, of course, with more microsites delving into some of the plot points revealed on the air this year. There will be more graphic novels, more cast commentaries, and another set of webisodes, too, that will begin in December. Meanwhile, based on the direction of this third season, a special Heroes vs Villains social network launches in October.

Knight Rider fans will be able to investigate the backstories of some of their favorite characters in the new series. You'll also be able to play an all-new kid game and interact in Attack Kit and the Kit Cave as well. And for fans of The Office, there's a Dunder Mifflin Infinity social network built around that series. This now features new branches, new tasks, new prizes, and the new features will include, by the way, Meredith's blog, Angela and Andy's wedding planning microsite, a Serenity by Jan microsite, and the second installment of webisodes that will begin in November from The Office website.

By the way, Heroes premieres Season 3 on Monday night on NBC. We've got a sneak preview coming up this weekend right here at ComicMix Radio. It was inevitable, but now it's true. Marvel Studios is taking a new direction with their digital comics initiatives, and they're going to be offering web-only comics through their subscription-based Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited service.

The comics will be produced, of course, under the guidance of the regular Marvel Studios, or at least so they say. The first two series will be tied into the two big movies this year, of course. That would be Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk. They'll both launch just about two weeks before the DVDs come out. That means Iron Man has already started this week, and The Incredible Hulk will begin on October the 8th.

For more details, go to marvel.com. Nickelodeon is green-lit, two new CG animated series, one of which is kind of interesting to all of us. It's called Fanboy and Chum Chum. It revolves around Fanboy, who, yes, is a comic book-loving 10-year-old with a huge imagination, and has a best friend named Chum Chum. It's created by Eric Robles. It features voices that will be familiar to you, including David Hornsby,

Nika Futterman, Jamie Kennedy, and Josh Duhamel. It's a spin-off of the Oh Yeah! cartoons series that was produced not long ago on Nickelodeon. A second new spin-off series is Team Yumi Zumi, which is an interactive show. They train little action figures that help real preschoolers solve everyday problems using math. That will premiere sometime in 2009, just like Fanboy and Chum Chum on the Nickelodeon network.

On Tuesday's broadcast, we talked about the fact there were some printing problems and delays. It caused a few comics to drop off the list last week and to appear this week, or will in the weeks to come. One of those, of course, was All-Star Batman and Robin that you've heard a lot about on the internet. However, there was another one that didn't get a lot of press. It was Action Comics No. 869 that was rescheduled until this week.

And you may wonder, what was the problem there? Well, it wasn't dirty words hidden away under some word balloon. Instead, it was on the cover. And if you get a copy of the book or have a chance to look at it, look for Clark Kent standing holding a bottle in his hand.

And that bottle originally read Crow Beer. The way it's positioned, it could have been rude beer, but DC didn't feel comfortable about it and felt some people might take it as an alcoholic beverage in the hand of the Man of Steel. So they changed it all now to Soda Pop. Look for versions of The Beer Fariat turning up on eBay, I am sure, in the days to come.

Hi, everybody. This is your cousin, Bruce, and you know what you're listening to right now? Comic face. Comic face radio. Samurai Girl is another foray into the world of heroic fantasy on the ABC Family Network. It's based on the best-selling fantasy action books by Carola Sy.

And it features a whole wealth of interesting characters, including another good bad guy, this one played by Brendan Farr. The character is Jake Stanton. He is an ex-army brat. Every tough guy on TV is an ex-army brat. Yeah, well, you know, the army produces some badass people.

But he's also an ex-assassin, henchman, evil-doer for the Japanese mafia. And so he kind of cut ties with them, which obviously you can't do very easily. So he's essentially in hiding. And Heaven, played by Jamie Chung, once her wedding's attacked and she feels that it's by the Yakuza, she comes and kind of solicits my help in order to find out exactly what the hell's going on.

Brandon's last part in a science fiction-based series was Roswell, and that particular part wasn't quite as action-based as the one he plays here. So was it very demanding, taking up the sword against the Japanese mafia, or more so, was it really tough to make it look good on screen? The combat stuff is relatively easy. I mean, I've done fight scenes before in film.

And so the technicalities of selling a punch, selling a kick, they obviously all hold true in the martial arts aspect of it as well. In dealing with the sword, it was obviously a little different in the sense that you want to develop a style and a stance, and you want to be able to hold it correctly. And so they taught us the basic blocks and strikes and all that stuff.

You want to kind of know as many of the little intricacies and details as you can. But there's only so much time we had to prepare. And after that, it's editing and music that make us look good. Jamie Chung plays Heaven. Now Heaven is the center of all the action in Samurai Girl.

And Jamie explains it very easily. So it's a story about a Nigerian girl named Heaven who's adopted by a wealthy family in Japan. And during tragic events, she discovers, she's told actually that her family is influenced by the Yakuza. And in an effort to find out how involved her family is with the Yakuza, which is a Japanese mafia, she discovers that she's a part of some crazy ancient secret prophecy.

So it's really a journey of self-discovery and it's a venture of Heaven finding out who she really is and finding the truth about her past since she was adopted. So what can we expect from Samurai Girl? Well, Jamie's very enthusiastic about it. The show is action-packed and it's full of romance and comedy.

And you know, it really is the whole package. And I really think everyone is going to, you know, find something to relate to. I'm sure it's a biased opinion, I'm sure. But I watch the show and I'm like, this is really good. I'm really proud of it.

You know, all the actors came together, you know, all the people, you know, behind the screen, like the producers, they're all brilliant. The fight choreographers, you know, the writers, everyone did such a great job in really polishing up this show. So, you know, I really hope it's the next alias, that's Gossip Girl meets alias. Now there's one more character in the mix, one familiar to any fans of the WWE over the last few years.

And she turns up as not so nice in this series. We'll talk to her and give you the whole scoop coming up here later in the week. Comic next timeline, September 18th, 1970. It was all about price with the comics this week, even though we didn't know it when we headed down to the grocery store, Spinor Rack. DC and Marvel were both hovering around the 15 cent mark.

Sales were at a lower point that they'd been in years and there was a big price and page change, not that many months away. Meanwhile, DC gave us Aquaman number 54, which had a great Steve Skates and Jim Iparro story in it. There was the Neil Adams cover on Batman number 226. Remember Hot Wheels? Well, it was a comic as well. It was up to issue number five this week. We got the Scary House of Mystery number 189. There were two issues of Justice League this month.

One was a 25 cent reprint, which had some cool stories in it. There was a big week with Lois Lane number 106, Phantom Stranger number 10, and a big change in Tomahawk when it skipped ahead a couple of decades to give us Son of Tomahawk in what was issue number 131. A little bit smaller pile for Marvel that was Fantastic Four 105. Amazing Spider-Man number 91, which had to smash a spider in it.

Avengers number 82, Kid Cold Outlaw number 151 this week. That came in from Marvel as well. And of course, what would a week of Marvel be without some reprints? This time Marvel Super Heroes number 29. They reprinted things from just about three years ago.

Charlie was still plugging along at the time. Their only superhero book was The Phantom. And this week we got issue number 41. In the news, Black Panther snipers were blamed for the shooting death of a Toledo, Ohio policeman, which set off a six hour siege in that city. A California newlywed became a Vietnam War widow for the second time when her new husband was reported missing in action

just as her first one was three years ago. And the Jordanian army called a ceasefire hoping guerrillas would use it to surrender their forces. In the movies there was Hotel, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage. George C. Scott was headed to an Oscar in Patton. There was the controversial Catch-22 up on the screen.

But the best performance for your ticket money came from Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis in The Out of Towners. TV tonight, it was a big week. Some things were premiering on NBC, including High Chaparral. A show called The Name of the Game with Tony Franciosa. There were episodes of The Interns. Andy Griffith was back with a short-lived series called The Headmaster and then a Look at Hollywood.

Well, it had a snappy 70s theme anyway. Second season for a show that wouldn't actually last all the way through this season. It was called Brackensworld. On the radio was a band that certainly was a 1970s icon with 13 gold albums and 21 trips to the top 40 charts. Every time they released a song, it was always just a little bit different.

Hard to believe it was the same guys who did Joy to the World that did a song called Out in the Country. It's Three Dog Night. Before the river is gone, before the sun, it's just the right spot in the meantime. Out where the rivers like to run, I stand alone and take back something we're remembering. On the weekend, we get you geared up for heroes.

There's three hours premiering on NBC on Monday night, two of which are all brand new. I will tell you some of the secrets on the way, including one of the cast members who has kind of a big change in his character coming up. But we'll let him explain that right here. You don't have to miss it. It is easy to subscribe to us on iTunes. And by the way, what else did you miss?

Did you know there might be an 11th Doctor Who or the fact there are Lego Batman Happy Meals? Just some of the news items that fell on ComicMix.com this week and you don't have to miss any of those either. We're glad to give you a nudge right through the electronic world easily on MySpace, Twitter or Facebook. All that and more plus free comics too like White Viper, Hammer Of The Gods and Black Ice. It's all free at ComicMix.com.

And don't forget the premiere of our exclusive limited edition graphic novels. That includes Mike Grell's Jon Sable, John Ostrander and Tim Truman's GrimJack and the Harvey nominated Easy Stream by Robert Tinnell and Mark Wheatley. Those are very limited and the only place to get them exclusively is at the Baltimore Comic-Con next weekend. Plus we'll be broadcasting live from there and we'll tell you more about what's on the way in a couple of days. But plan to make it to Baltimore if you can. You don't want to miss these exclusive graphic novels.

Talk to you in a couple of days. Bye.