Sega released a video yesterday with the unwieldy title The Beast Within: The Making of The Incredible Hulk The Official Videogame
Sheesh! What’s with the love fest? This is the Incredible Hulk. It’s all about rage and anger. But the video did show some neat renders and development footage if you’re into that kind of thing. See it for yourself after the jump. (more…)
We were the Squires of Science, my friend Mike and I were. He went to public school and I was a sixth- or seventh grader at St. Louise de Marillac, but that didn’t keep us from palling around together, watching Tom Corbett, Space Cadet on his family’s television set and doing chemistry set experiments in his basement. Actually, I don’t remember doing many experiments – we squires weren’t really much into real science – but Mike, who was good with tools, made us a plaque and, well…we believed in science. Maybe not as much as I believed in the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, but still a lot.
I was also reading a lot of science fiction, thanks to the public library, and I guess Mike was, too.
Adolescence disintegrated the Squires of Science. I was off to a Catholic military school – and yes, you may snicker – and Mike went…I don’t know – probably to Beaumont High, which we Catholic kids thought was kind of wicked, in some ill-defined way.
About then, I began to realize, dimly, that science involved mathematics. I had never been really good at arithmetic, which caused me a lot of grief at old St. Louise, and I seemed to be getting worse as I grew older. Then I flunked freshman algebra. Had to go to summer school. It wasn’t exactly a disgrace, but it wasn’t exactly not a disgrace, either.
Neil Gaiman has been too busy lately to write much for comics unless it’s an event — like 1602
The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch
By Neil Gaiman, Michael Zulli, and Todd Klein
Dark Horse Books, May 2008, $13.95
Now, for most writers, “[[[The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch]]]” would be by far their longest title ever, but Gaiman is not most writers. He’s also responsible for “[[[Being An Experiment Upon Strictly Scientific Lines Assisted By Unwins LTD, Wine Merchants (Uckfield)]]]” ” [[[Forbidden Brides Of The Faceless Slaves In The Nameless House Of The Night Of Dread Desire]]],” ” [[[I Cthulhu: Or What’s A Tentacle-Faced Thing Like Me Doing In A Sunken City Like This (Latitude 47º 9′ S, Longitude 126º 43′ W)?]]],” and ” [[[Pages From A Journal Found In A Shoebox Left In A Greyhound Bus Somewhere Between Tulsa, Oklahoma, And Louisville, Kentucky]]].” So “[[[Miss Finch]]]” may just be one of Gaiman’s more punchy and terse titles.
According to the Neil Gaiman Visual Bibliography — and why should we mistrust it? — “Miss Finch” is one of Gaiman’s more obscure stories, showing up in the program book for the convention Tropicon XVII and a magazine called Tales of the Unanticipated
Hey, Battlestar Galactica fans! First, I just want to thank all of you for your interest in our weekly interviews with BSG‘s Mark Verheiden. Every week, you and your fellow Battlestar fans make these interviews one of the most popular features on ComicMix, and we can’t thank you enough for doing so!
Unfortunately, this week’s interview will be a bit delayed, as big things are brewing in the world of Battlestar Galactica, and Mark is hard at work on a few projects that demand his attention. In the interest of always keeping ComicMix readers in the loop, we anticipate this week’s edition of BSG Weekly posting in the next day or two — so be sure to keep an eye on the site for your weekly fix of BSG questions from fans and answers from the series’ talented co-executive producer.
Oh, and don’t worry — we’ll be sure to pester Mark for some info about some of those other, super-secret projects he has in the works, too! Remember: you can always send your questions for Mark to our BSG Weekly interviewer, Chris Ullrich at: chris [at] comicmix [dot] com.
There continues to be strong debate about the equality (or lack thereof) between female and male comic book creators, and a recent online panel discussion shines much light on the situation.
Hudson Phillips — screenwriter, designer, fellow Atlantan and all-around good guy — hosted the discussion on his blog. He spoke with artists Rebekah Isaacs (Hack/Slash, Drafted) & Amy Reeder Hadley (Fool’s Gold, Madame Xanadu), journalists Johanna Draper Carlson (Comics Worth Reading) & Angela Paman (Comic Addiction), and Web-comics creator Julia Wertz (The Fart Party).
It’s a wide-ranging chat, with a wide variety of viewpoints that give a lot of perspective to the many issues facing women in comics:
IN WHAT WAYS DO YOU THINK CREATORS & PUBLISHERS CAN BE MORE “FEMALE-FRIENDLY” WITH THEIR BOOKS?
Angela: I think if they came out with more books similar to the format like the Minx line but had topics or stories catered to not just one specific age group but for different age groups. Comics got me to loving reading again and I think to myself, “if comics got me into reading at my age, what more someone younger than me”. Publishing more books for the younger audience would also help as well.
Johanna: The biggest gap still remaining is work that adult women can find interesting and appealing. Manga is mostly teen-targeted, and many “indy/alternative” books still reflect a male perspective.
Rebekah: I truly believe that so much of what’s being published today IS female-friendly, but is not being marketed towards females in any way. I don’t believe that simply adding strong, “empowered” female characters to a book makes any difference, since women with enough good taste to appreciate a well-written story will equally love books with both male and female-dominated casts. So doing such can come across as condescending. Publishers just have to find a way to get their ads and press out there to a more diverse audience. And comics readers, suggest your favorite titles to ALL of your friends, not just the ones who also read comics.
A small rectangular box, wrapped in brown paper and stamped "Super Spy," appeared in my mail box over the weekend. I opened it to find an Arturo Fuente cigar box.
Inside that, no cigars, but instead a weird little collection of items put together from Top Shelf to celebrate the Eisner Award nominations of two of its books, Matt Kindt’s Super Spy and Jeff Lemire’s Ghost Stories.
There’s a paper gun, a piece of original art signed by Kindt, some "cyanide" tablets, a pictorial treasure hunt, a pack of 1991 hockey cards (gum included) and an Essex County postcard.
What it reminded me of most are the packages sent out by college football teams to promote their players for the Heisman and other awards. The only problem with Top Shelf’s effort is that comics journalists don’t vote on the Eisners. Still, it’s pretty cool stuff.
George “Digger” Harkness was born to an American soldier and an Australian woman. An illegitimate child, Harkness grew up in poverty but quickly discovered a talent for both crafting and using boomerangs.
As a young man, he got a job working for a toy company, demonstrating the use of their boomerangs. When audiences ridiculed him, Harkness turned to crime instead, keeping his costume and creating specialized boomerangs to become Captain Boomerang.
He became a member of the Flash’s Rogues Gallery, though years later he joined the Suicide Squad in order to be pardoned for his crimes. Harkness later returned to his criminal ways but was increasingly outclassed by both heroes and other villains.
He eventually became so desperate he accepted small jobs working for other crooks. His last act was an assignment to kill Jack Drake, the father of current Robin, Tim Drake. Harkness succeeded, but Drake managed to shoot and kill him as well.
The hit BBC series Doctor Who
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 #4: “The Sontaran Strategem”
A quick scan of the shelves at your local comic shop this month should be all it takes to realize that writer/artist Todd Nauck has been keeping busy. The popular Young Justice artist’s name graces the cover of four different issues in a five-week span, including the launch of two new miniseries and the grand finale of another series.
One of those new miniseries marks the return of Nauck’s popular creator-owned series WildGuard to comic shops, and provides yet another look at a world where superheroes are chosen via American Idol-esque competitions and readers have helped determine everything from storylines to costumes.
Nauck also lends his considerable talents to the first two issues of American Dream this month, featuring the alternate-reality heroes of Marvel’s MC2 universe — specifically, the female Captain America. The first issue was a sellout for Marvel, with rave reviews for the work of both Nauck and series writer Tom DeFalco.
However, it isn’t all new beginnings for Nauck, as he helps close the door on the cartoon-inspired DC series Teen Titans Go! with issue #55 at the end of May. The kirds-oriented series has had Nauck embracing a new artistic style — one that’s now turning up in his other projects, too.
I spoke with Todd about nearly achieving the "quadfecta," finally finding time for more WildGuard and juggling the different artistic styles required for each of his very-different projects this month.
COMICMIX: When we spoke during New York Comic Con, you were excited to have the "quadfecta" schedule this month, with an issue hitting every week of May. Although some last-minute scheduling shifts pushed up one of the release dates, it’s still an impressive run of four comics in five weeks. When you first found out there was a chance of the schedule lining up like this, did you push for the quadfecta or was it entirely by chance?
TODD NAUCK: Entirely by chance. I couldn’t have planned it. The only book I could have a say in the release date was WildGuard: insider since that is my creator-owned book. I had the release date on May 14th for WildGuard: Insider #1 set around December or January for solicitations.
Then I come to find out my Marvel series American Dream is coming out bi-weekly with issue #1 out May 7th and issue #2 out May 21st.
Then I had to find out when Teen Titans Go #55 (the last issue of that series) was coming out. As I frantically flipped through the DC section of Previews I was hoping it would be May 28th. And wouldn’t you know, that was the exact date for Teen Titans Go #55.
I had hit the "quadfecta!" Four books, each coming out in a different week of the same month.
WildGuard: Insider #1 did get released early for Free Comic Book Day, though. But a lot of WildGuard fans probably expect it in their pull boxes for May 14th. So it’s still quadfecta-ish! (more…)
Punisher War Zone won’t be hitting theaters until December, but that’s not about to stop the marketing machine at Lions Gate from advertising it. The first poster for the film has been released and, well, it’s about what you’d expect. The Punisher loves bullets and he loves skulls, so why not combine the two?
It looks like an image ready made for a shirt at Hot Topic, if it isn’t already on sale there already. At least the poster lets us know that lots of bullets will be fired in the film. Will there be anymore parking ticket antics with fire hydrants like in the last Punisher movie though?
Punisher War Zone hits theaters on December 5. The film stars Ray Stevenson as Frank Castle/The Punisher, Dominic West as Jigsaw and Wayne Knight as Microchip.
(via UGO)
Columns / Glenn Hauman / News
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