Yearly Archive: 2008

Spaceballs The Animated Series Debuts on G4

  • News
  • September 20, 2008

Starting today, G4 (the channel that brings you daily marathons of Cheaters and Ninja Warrior) will be debuting the animated series based on Mel Brooks’ Star Wars spoof, Spaceballs. The project has been on ice for nearly three years, but is finally in the can and ready for airing.

Brooks, who is still on as executive producer, has also come back to voice his characters from the film, along with Daphne Zuniga reprising her "Princess Vespa." The series is said to be far more mature than the original film, chalf full of sexual innuendo and boobs, which doesn’t exactly stay congruous with the film’s tone. You can check out the NSFW trailer below, and Spaceballs debuts Sunday, September 21, at 3pm ET.

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ComicMix Radio: Heroes – Third Time’s A Charm?

  • News
  • September 20, 2008

milo-6065215NBC rolls the dice in a big way with a three hour relaunch of Heroes this Monday. After nine months away, and a weak second season as well, can they overcome it all? Milo Ventimiglia thinks so and in our exclusive interview, he explains it all, plus:

  • The World’s Most Dangerous Milkman in a movie?
  • Top Cow has the 2008 Pilot Season winners
  • Comics newest Top Sellers analyzed

Now assume a nice heroic pose like Milo and  Press the Button!
 

 

And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via badgeitunes61x15dark-5086375 or RSS!

 

The Theory of Webcomics: Could DRM Kill Your Webcomic?

  • News
  • September 20, 2008

The idea that the march of technology is too slow and could kill a baby art form is nothing new. Scott Kurtz wrote “Could Success Kill Your Webcomic?” in 2002, as he was then concerned with the increasing cost of bandwidth that came with an influx of readers. Fortunately, in the last six years, technological growth outpaced his concerns, but things were a bit dicey for some popular webcomics for a little while there.

Webcomics are taking the market share from print comics, particularly indie ones (though I wouldn’t be surprised if the general correlation between the advent of the web and decreasing sales of major companies’ print comics turned out to be a causation). When it comes to attracting new readers, a free product available on the web and updated daily (or several times weekly) is far more enticing to cash-strapped kids than a $3 22-page pamphlet that requires leaving the house to acquire and only advances the story once a month.

On a similar note, I’m of the strong opinion that when a company is able to produce and market a color ebook reader at the right screen size and the right price-point, it will kill the pamphlet comic book and hugely broaden the market for webcomics. Once the reading experience is equivalent, the decreased effort of ebooks can win the market for them. Why buy when you can download? If you want a physical copy, wait a few months and buy the trade paperback.

Obviously, the solution for the big companies is to appeal to those new readers by directly competing with webcomics and taking their advantages for yourself, while keeping your original advantages (professionalism, well-known brands, and the like). Of course, there are problems with translating print-sized comics to screens: Virtually no-one’s monitors can fully display ten-by-seven inches in portrait format with enough magnification to make it readable without destroying your eyes. Which means you either expand the image and have to scroll, or you can’t read the text and need to magnify it. (And in the worst cases, you need to scroll in multiple directions.) And there’s the loading wait when you turn a page. Most webcomics solve these problems by formatting their comics to fit most browsers, intentionally limiting the necessary scrolling and optimizing their text size for reading on monitors. The comics themselves are set up as compressed graphic images that load quickly. The archive sections of sites are usually designed with stripped-down graphics so that you can read through them quickly. (more…)

Tintin A $130 Million No-No

  • News
  • September 20, 2008

The $130,000,000 budget for the upcoming Tintin movie, based upon Hergé’s world-wide hit comics series, has been rejected by Universal.

The movie, produced and directed by Steven Spielberg (with the second installment to be directed by The Lord of the Rings‘ Peter Jackson) and written by Doctor Who’s Stephen Moffat, is the first in a proposed trilogy of movies. Paramount is already partnered up in the movie, having spent over $25,000,000 on development work.

If they can straighten out financing issues, shooting is expected to begin in October. If not, maybe the U.S. government will bail the movie out.

Updates available at the official Tintin movie site.

Everything I Need To Know About Politics I Learned From Superman, by Martha Thomases

  • News
  • September 20, 2008

For the last few weeks, most ComicMix columnists have been writing about politics. I can understand how you, Constant Reader, who came here to read about comics and movies and games, might think this is self-indulgently off-topic. Most of us have an intense interest in politics, and we think this is the most important election in a long time. People’s lives are at stake. But I can understand you frustration.

And then I had an epiphany. Not only did I grow up in a household where we discussed politics over the dinner table (and walking the dog, and taking in the dry-cleaning), but even more important, I gained my political perspective from Superman. The goals, strategies and tactics I discovered reading comics shaped my view of the world. Here’s what I know:

• You never know what you’ve got until it’s gone, whether that’s the planet Krypton or the ozone layer.

• Solar power makes you stronger.

• Drilling for oil in the ocean can upset the homes of your dearest friends, including your first love.

• Billionaire industrialists should not be trusted with positions of power. At best, they are obsessive loners with a mission to avenge their parents. At worst, they try to take over the world and destroy you and everything you believe in. (more…)

Stephen Chow to Direct ‘Green Hornet’

  • Uncategorized
  • September 19, 2008

Feels like it is hard to believe that when you say a name like Green Hornet, the first actor to come to mind is Seth Rogen, but it looks as if that may just become a reality now. Rogen and writing partner Evan Goldberg have finally serenaded Hong Kong legend Stephen Chow enough in wanting him to don the eye-mask as Kato, Hornet’s driver and not-so-side-kick, that it looks like Chow will also be taking the helm as director.

Stephen Chow is well known globally for his slapstick comedy style in such films like Shaolin Soccer, and Kung Fu Hustle (both also directed by Chow). Those who are familiar with his work know that Chow is a big fan of zany slapstick a-la classic Merry Melodies, and well as being a student of serious Kung Fu. When approached about the new role, Chow had this to say:

I’m excited to be taking on ‘The Green Hornet’ — obviously, I’ve been a huge fan of the show since I was a kid. The idea of stepping into Bruce Lee’s shoes as Kato is both humbling and thrilling, and to get the chance to direct the project as my American movie debut is simply a dream come true. I’m grateful to my friends at Sony, who have shown so much faith in me for so many years. I’m looking forward to working with Seth, Evan, Neal, and the team at Sony, and I’m eager to get started.

You can see the comedy stylings of the next Brett Reid in this year’s Zach and Miri Make a Porno, wirtten and directed by Kevin Smith, who was at one time rumored to pen a Hornet script.

 

Want to Hang Out With Robert Downey Jr. on Iron Man 2?

  • News
  • September 19, 2008

A special charity auction is being held online benefiting Jayni and Chevy Chase’s Center For Environmental Education. The highest bidder (and a friend) at the auction will get to spend a day with Downey on the set of Iron Man 2 in Manhattan Beach CA, including time with the actor in Downey’s trailer.

The Center For Environmental Education is a non-profit organization that helps create environmentally-friendly and health-oriented schools across the nation. The auction closes on September 23rd; as of this writing the highest bid is $17,500 (after 19 bids) with the next bid placed at $20,000.

This is far less expensive than a seat on the next Russian space mission, and the proceeds go to a better cause.

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Ted Rall Gets Animated

  • News
  • September 19, 2008

lil-rall-5884648It’s been a good week for cartoonist / columnist / bon vivant Ted Rall.

The Mad Magazine regular and incendiary editorial cartoonist was named president of the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists. GIven how some newspapers are dropping their local editorial cartoonists in an organized effort to trim down their page count while chasing away their readership base, the position is perfect for an advocate/rabble-rouser like Rall (and, of course, I say that with the utmost respect).

Now he’s got himself his first animated editorial cartoon.

Ted wrote and drew a four-minute cartoon revealing what President Barack Obama’s first day in office might be like. In typical Rallian fashion, what you see might not please Obama’s supporters. Or McCain’s, for that matter.

Animation was provided by David Essman, a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (ahem; my alma mater) and it’s available at YouTube… and, of course, by clicking right here.

 

 

Avi Arad’s Next Project: Mass Effect

  • News
  • September 19, 2008

Avi Arad is widely credited as one of the linchpins that turned Marvel around from the edge of bankruptcy to multimedia superhero powerhouse it is today. The former CEO and founder of Marvel Studios, the production company responsible for the Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk movies, left in 1996 to form his own production company.

Variety is reporting that Avi Arad Productions has optioned the rights to Mass Effect. The sci-fi RPG was a huge critical and commercial success. It even gained some notoriety when FOX News blew a possible lesbian relationship in the game out of proportion. The story centers around Commander Shepard, one of the first humans allowed to join a multispecies, intergalactic police force known as the Spectres. He discovers one of their greatest members has gone rogue. (Shades of Green Lantern, wouldn’t you say?)

Mass Effect is owned by BioWare, a developer best known for epic RPG games with rich stories. Mass Effect was released for the Xbox 360 by Microsoft Games and PC by Electronic Arts. It is considered the first part of a bigger trilogy. Novels based on Mass Effect proved popular. Hopefully with Arad’s connections we’ll see a Mass Effect comic book too.

Watch the trailer below if you have any doubts that this sci-fi story wouldn’t be great comic.

Manga Friday: Yen Plus Magazine

  • News
  • September 19, 2008

Yen Press launched a new manga magazine last month called Yen+ (or maybe Yen Plus), to compete directly with those twin 800-pound gorillas of manga in America, Shonen Jump and Shojo Beat. I now have the first three issues here in my hands, so let’s take a look at Yen+ and see what’s in it.

Yen+, August to October 2008 issues
By various
Yen Press, Aug-Oct 2008, $8.99 ea.

All three issues have the same eleven serials in them, so it would be silly of me to review each issue separately and come back again and again to the same stories. (I’m not saying that I never do anything silly – just that I’m not choosing to do so this time.) So I’ll talk about Yen+ in general first, then cover the serials, and finish up with particular points in the separate issues.

The first thing a savvy reader notices about Yen+ is that it has two front covers, and a quick glance inside shows that it’s not just the covers – the whole magazine is divided in half. Japanese manga start at the “back” and run right-to-left for two hundred and some-odd pages, while Korean manwha and Western-originated comics go the opposite way for about the same number of pages. The Korean/Western side is the “front,” with the table of contents, editor’s letter, masthead, and the other usual “front-of-the-book” materials. But the two sides are close in length – the Japanese side has five serials (with generally longer page counts), and the Korean side six (plus the editorial matter). So Yen+, if I may be impertinent for a moment, is perfectly happy swinging both ways…

Yen+, if I may continue to torture a metaphor, doesn’t aim at one sex or the other, unlike the Japanese magazines that are its model – or like Shonen Jump and Shojo Beat in the US. (So it’s bisexual as well as swinging both ways – no wonder it comes in its own plastic bag!) The editor’s letter in the first issue explains that – since the audience for manga, and for manga magazines, in the US is not huge yet, trying to please both boys and girls will, they hope, allow them to reach an audience large enough to survive. (The other possibility is that it will fall between two stools, with too much mushy stuff for the boys and too many severed heads for the girls.) (more…)

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