ComicMix Radio: Big Future For The Wimpy Kid
Best selling graphic novelist Jeff Kinney has another Wimpy Kid book set for release right after the New Year, and hopefully more to follow, but don’t look for The Kid to age too much. we’ll explain that today, plus:
- A new Pixar trailer this weekend
- An original Avengers story already set for Free Comic Book Day 2009
- X-Men Noir disappears from shelves
It’s all joyful and triumphant when you Press the Button!
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Transcript
Broadcast, $2.99. CometMits.com What's next for the Whippy Kid? CometMits.com Hey there, Matt Raub again, and in minutes we're going to continue our exclusive interview with the best-selling graphic novelist Jeff Kinney,
and we get a few hints of just what's coming up for his Whippy Kid. That and more coming up on… December 13th. 2008, CometMits Muse. Disney Pixar will premiere its first Disney Digital 3D short, Tokyo Mater, in theaters nationwide beginning this weekend.
Directed by John Lasseter, Tokyo Mater will run right before Disney's Bolt, and the animated short is the fourth in the Cars Toon series, which are based on the Disney Pixar film Cars. A 2D computer version of the Tokyo Mater will also be available for theaters showing Bolt in 2D. VH1 will premiere its new eight-episode reality series entitled Confessions of a Teen Idol, January 4th. The series will take a group of former teen idols from the 80s and 90s under the tutelage of Scott Baio,
former Child star now producer Jason Hervey, and celebrity psychologist Cooper Lawrence. Each are given the tools and confidence to make a career comeback. The heartthrobs include Christopher Atkins, Jeremy Jackson, Jamie Walters and Adrian Zmed. The trailer for DragonBall Evolution, Fox's live-action version of the DragonBall anime and manga series, is now available online on a range of sites, including movies.ign.com, YouTube and many others.
Fox will release DragonBall Evolution on April 8th, 2009. Merely ten years after he wrote his first Justice Society story for DC, Geoff Johns is stepping down from the series. In addition to ending his run on action comics, Johns' focus will now be on the Flash rebirth, Superman's Secret Origin and Green Lantern Blackest Night.
Plans are already being formed for next year's free comic book day. It hits on May 2nd, 2009 and Marvel has already announced an all-new Avengers book in their lineup. The book is by the team of writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Jim Chung and is an all-new story that ties into Marvel Universe continuity while also providing the perfect jumping-on point for new fans.
Also set for free comic day is Green Lantern Blackest Night No. 0 from DC and Disney's Cars No. 1 from Boom Studios. Marvel has announced that X-Men Noir No. 1 has sold out and they're already going back to press with the X-Men Noir No. 1 second printing variant. It'll be in stores January 7th with new artwork taken from the interior of the story.
Make sure you see your retailer to be sure that you grab yourself a copy. In 2006, Jeff Kinney's webcomic Diary of a Wimpy Kid exploded as a New York Times bestseller. Jeff is continuing his series in a couple of different ways, including the recent Diary of a Wimpy Kid Do It Yourself book. The idea was to create a blank journal in the family of Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
I just felt like when kids see a new book, they're going to think it's a new book and they're going to open it up and it's just going to be blank pages. I felt awful about that. I really wanted to create something that was sort of like writing prompts to get kids to start writing or thinking in that creative sort of way.
My books have been liked by reluctant readers and I thought that there might be a lot of people who are maybe writers, but they don't know it yet. So I'm happy with it now. In his personal life, Jeff is a full-time dad with two of his very own critics at home. They are five and three, so they don't think much
except for they know that I tell them that I can't play with them a lot, which I feel awful about. But I'm back to being normal dad now. My son, who's three, grants, he left for joy when I finished my third book and he said, you can be normal daddy forever. Normal daddy is daddy who doesn't for two months write all night.
For the past two months, my schedule has been at eight at night I sit down to draw. I draw straight until four in the morning. Then I wake up at nine in the morning and do a full day's work until six, six thirty, over and over and over again for two months every single day. So why not quit the day job?
I could quit my day job, but I don't want to. I think that there's, I don't want to be one dimensional. I know that I could do Wimpy Kid pillowcases and everything like that. I'm very grateful for my regular sort of humdrum life. I'm also doing something I really love, as much or more than Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
Jeff's newest release hits bookshelves in January and it involves some pretty big planning. Diary of a Wimpy Kid, The Last Straw. And it's going to be, you know, they're making a big deal of it and doing a lay down and an embargo. And you know, don't open these boxes until midnight. So see those kids in the Harry Potter line with the Harry Potter glasses and hats and things.
And I think there will be a bunch of kids with like bad posture. You know, you'll know what it's for. I don't know. I don't think the kids who like my books are going to be up past midnight. So we'll see how that goes. So will the Wimpy Kid ever grow up?
Well, he's in middle school, which is kind of vague. You don't really know what grade he's in. I'd like to, I think the best cartoon characters don't age. And I think he's more of a cartoon character than a literary character. So I'd like to keep him in that zone. Hey, if it's good enough for peanuts, why not?
I think Charlie Brown always has the first day of school, but he never know what grade he's in. And I'd like to keep it like that. ComicMix Radio. ComicMix timeline, December 13th. 1988.
In comics this week, we got from DC, Flash number 23, a third issue of Invasion. Question number 24, Suicide Squad number 23, Justice League International number 24, the 27th issue of Wonder Woman and Action Comics Weekly number 638. Also Marvel gave us Excalibur number 6, Hulk number 353, She-Hulk number 2, Silver Surfer 21, the 16th issue of Solo Avengers and Spectacular Spider-Man number 148.
Dark Horse brought us Dark Horse presents number 28 with concrete and finally Predator number 2. 1988. In the news, a kidnapped US Marine was sentenced to death by a radical group of Arab extremists. Bad organization hampered rescue efforts after a massive earthquake in Armenia. Three commuter trains collided in London during a busy rush hour, killing dozens of riders.
In the movies, you saw Arnold and Danny in Twins, Iron Eagle number 2, plenty of kids to see in Oliver and Company and The Land Before Time. Plus Jodie Foster in The Accused and Kim Bassinger in My Stepmother The Alien. Pump up the volume, pump up the volume, pump up the volume, dance, dance. On TV tonight we cut episodes of Cosby, Family Ties, Friends, Midnight Caller,
Who's the Boss and the annual broadcast of a holiday classic. I'm dreaming of a white Christmas. 1988. On the radio, a new wave trio who lost one member this year to a rival group, Swing Out Sister. With a new addition to the band, they recorded their first album, which hit it big with the dance clubs,
both around here and abroad. Only one single made it to the charts for the guys known as When in Rome. But over a decade later, this song would turn up again in the indie film Napoleon Dynamite. Here's the promise. ComicMix.
Mike is back on Tuesday with our showcase of new comics and DVDs, plus some big news about ComicMix Radio. Don't miss it by subscribing right now on iTunes and get ComicMix News updates 24-7 via Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. See you later. ComicMix Radio.
