Yearly Archive: 2008

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Autopsy Report: "The Ghost Network"

A man named Roy is having visions of terrible accidents and attacks before they happen, including the mystery of Flight 627. When he has these "feelings," he needs to draw the visions in order to get them out of his system. His latest premonition involves a man gas-bombing a bus that suspends all the passengers in an amber-like substance. Olivia Dunham and the Bishops investigate and learn that someone was trying to obtain an item from one of the passengers, secretly an undercover FBI agent. Olivia meets with the agent’s handler, who seems distraught over the agent’s death and goes to see her body.

The Bishops, meanwhile, meet with Roy. Walter discovers that Roy is tapping into something called the Ghost Network, a theory he and Massive Dynamic founder William Bell devised that there were certain wavelengths that information could be transferred on. Roy was a test subject of theirs, and was injected with a metal compound that turned him into a receiver of this top secret intelligence network. His premonitions occur because he intercepts the transmissions agents use on the Ghost Network.

Walter jerryrigs a way for Roy’s visions to be translated in spoken word rather than through illustration. In doing so, Roy picks up a signal suggesting that the dead FBI agent’s secret item has been found and is being exchanged at Boston’s South Station. Olivia figures out that the woman’s FBI handler must have removed the item from her dead corpse. She intercepts the handler, who is then shot by the other man in the exchange before throwing himself into the path of a moving train. With the culprit dead, Olivia obtains the sought after item and hands it over.

Meanwhile, Agent Phillip Boyles secretly meets with Massive Dynamic representative Nina Sharp. Phillip is irritated that Nina is trying to steal Olivia away from his agency. He nonetheless hands her an item, presumably the same item that Olivia recovered. Nina later takes the item to a scientist. The scientist is performing experiments on a very interesting test subject: a sedentary Agent John Scott, Olivia’s supposedly deceased ex-lover.

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What do you do after winding down your comic strip, which you have produced daily since 1979?  You go to Peru to act as an interpreter, of course.

Lynn Johnston, whose For Better or For Worse ended on August 31, told the Peterborough Examiner that she is off to South America.

"I’m on my way to Peru," she told the newspaper. "I’m working with a medical team, as an intermediary between patients and physicians." She got a taste of this by accompanying her dentist husband on a trip to Honduras a decade ago.  Not knowing the language at the time proved difficult for her so she came home and studied Spanish and is now fluent enough to make a valuable contribution.

"This is something I’ve dreamt of and have wanted to do for a very long time."

And she’s doing it alone since her husband of 30 years left her on April 23.  The dissolution of her marriage came at a time she was already planning to wrap up the original material for the strip and plan the rest of her life.

She took the news hard and found herself creating a series of paintings to reflect her evolving mood.  Her children — Aaron, 35, and Kate, 31 — provided tremendous emotional support but it fell to Johnston to assume control of the company that merchandises the strip and its characters.

It was a learning experience for her and she wound up having to downsize the company in the wake of the divorce and the strip’s natural conclusion.

He had also emptied their joint bank accounts, leaving her in a financial hole that came as a rude shock. "I’d been like a little kid, like a five year-old. Tell me how much I can spend this week, Dad," she described. "If I was not astute as a businessperson before, I suddenly had this overwhelming education within a month in which I had to learn how to do everything. It’s empowering actually because you suddenly realize there’s all this stuff you should have been doing all along."

What she does know is art and storytelling and in addition to revising her earliest strips which now run in the newspapers, she is also branching out.  Farley Follows His Nose will be her first children’s book, due out next spring from The Bowen Press.
 

This coming weekend the Baltimore Comic-Con kicks things off in a unique manner as Jim Lee will throw out the ceremonial first pitch at the Baltimore Orioles game at 7:05 p.m.  Lee, a baseball fan, will toss the pitch to start the con and the Orioles-Toronto Blue Jays matchup at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

"We know how well he can draw Batman — let’s see if he can throw a strike," promoter Marc Nathan said.

Lee will sign autographs, promoting the con, located across the street at the Baltimore Convention Center.

Fans for the convention can witness this themselves, as the Orioles are offering a discounted group rate for visitors coming into town for the Baltimore Comic-Con. Tickets begin as low at $8 for both Friday and Saturday nights’ games. Those who wish to see the artist deliver that first pitch should be in their seats 20 minutes ahead of time, at 6:45 p.m.
 
"The Orioles recognize how many people come to our event downtown," continued Nathan, "and they wanted to enhance everyone’s experience.  All you have to do is mention that you are with the Baltimore Comic-Con group, and the discounts will apply.  They have also made an easy-to-fill-out form to help chose which kind of seat you prefer."
 
Please go to Gate "H", the Orioles Main Box Office, to present your completed form.  See our website for more details about the event and the show, and for copies of the form – http://www.baltimorecomiccon.com/.
 
There will be fireworks at the end of Friday’s game to celebrate the weekend.

The Orioles, who are partly owned by Diamond Comics’ Steve Geppi, have had another dreadful season, with a record of 67-88 as of last night’s game.  They occupy the American League East’s basement, 26 games away from first place.  Their weekend opponents, the Blue Jays, are 15.5 games better off than the O’s.
 

After laying dormant for nearly a year, Rosario Dawson is ready to kick start The Occult Crimes Task Force back to comics and a film. She tells us why she believes morethan ever in comic based movies,  plus:

• Jimmy Palmiotti takes on Vampire Hunter D
• Warehouse 13 set for The SciFi Channel
• Our rundown of this week’s huge line-uo of new comics and DVDs

Don’t forget, ComicMix Radio will be broadcasting direct from the floor of the Baltimore ComicCon  with extended broadcasts Saturday and Sunday, and to join us all you have to do is Press the Button!

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

The Sunburst Awards for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic were won by Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet by Joanne Proulx and The New Moon’s
Arms by Nalo Hopkinson. Hopkinson’s previously won in 2003.

Proulx’s Sunburst is the first winner in the new separate category for young adult speculative fiction.

The Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic is a prized  and juried award presented annually. It is based on excellence of  writing and awarded to a Canadian writer who has published a  speculative fiction novel or book-length collection any time during the  previous calendar year. The award consists of a cash prize of $1,000  Canadian and a hand-crafted medallion.