Yearly Archive: 2008

‘Ctrl-Alt-Del’ Webcomic Goes ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’

  • News
  • March 31, 2008

Ctrl+Alt+Del webcomic creator Tim Buckley recently dropped two pieces of news of interest to readers on his website.

The first is that Season Two of the Ctrl+Alt+Del Animated Series begins today. Like the property it was based on, animated CAD will premiere online first. Fans can buy individual episodes, the first of which will cost an introductory $0.99, or they can subscribe for the entire season in advance. This gives you access to the entirety of Season One, Season Two episodes as they become available and a discount on the DVDs. Subscribers get the whole package for $24.95 if they sign up today.

The second piece of news concerns the webcomic. Buckley admits that he was a fan of the Choose Your Own Adventure book series growing up. Before the webcomic gets too tied up with a wedding/pregnancy storyline, he wants to experiment with "Ethan MacManus: Space Archaeologist," a storyline where the CAD characters are reimagined in a cross between Star Wars and Indiana Jones. But here’s the best part: readers will be able to vote on the choices the pop-culture obsessed Ethan must make.

So if it’s not funny, you only have yourself to blame.

Warren Ellis Leaving ‘Thunderbolts’

  • News
  • March 31, 2008

march31thunder-7203643Newsarama reports that Warren Ellis will be leaving Marvel’s Thunderbolts with issue #121.

Ellis spoke about his decision to leave the title on his Whitechapel message board:

It’s as simple as this — if I don’t own it, I’m not going to spend my life on it. Joe Quesada and Dan Buckley know that, they’re fine with that, and they hire me on that understanding.

Or, if you like: you can only paint someone else’s house for so long before you start thinking that it might be nice to own your own house one day.

I’m okay with painting other people’s houses for short periods, because I’m good at it and it pays well and on nice days it’s fun. But I never ever confuse painting a house for owning that house. And if I spent every waking hour painting other people’s houses, I wouldn’t be able to build houses of my own.

The more creators who only took on housepainting as a part-time gig, the healthier this medium would be.

Christos Gage will take over writing duties on the title with #122, beginning a four-part tie-in to Secret Invasion.

 

Interview: Keith Giffen on the Final Weeks of ‘Countdown to Final Crisis’

  • News
  • March 31, 2008

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With only four issues remaining in Countdown to Final Crisis, the looming end of DC’s year-long, weekly series marks not only the grand finale of a sprawling, epic storyline but also the conclusion of two years of weekly deadlines for industry veteran Keith Giffen.

After serving in the role of "breakdown artist" for the entire run of DC’s first weekly event, 52, Giffen jumped right back into a weekly production schedule last year as the breakdown artist and "story consultant" for Countdown (later renamed Countdown to Final Crisis). Two years and more than 100 issues later, the finish line is finally in sight for Giffen.

I spoke with the prolific creator about the highs, lows and upcoming end of Countdown to Final Crisis, as well as the last two years of weekly deadlines, last-minute changes and prolific output from the creators involved with each weekly series.

[Editor’s Note: For the spoiler-conscious, this interview contains discussion of some events occurring in both this week’s issue and future issues that, although hinted at and likely quite expected at this point in the Countdown storyline, are certainly worth a warning.]

COMICMIX: Keith, last time we spoke, I think you had just turned in the last issue of Countdown, right?

KEITH GIFFEN: Yeah, I had just popped in the final issue. Now, I can put weekly comics behind me for a while.

That was 104 in a row, man. Come on!

CMix: So, how are you feeling now that, for the first time in two years, you don’t have another issue that needs to go out as soon as you turn the last one in?

KG: Well, it wears on you. When I handed in that last issue of Countdown, the next day I was like, "I don’t have to do it anymore. The pressure is off."

It’s kind of nice. I can go back to my regular books now, and I can get back to my regular workload again. In a weird way, just like an abscessed tooth, you kind of miss it. It’s not there, but you’re kind of grateful it’s gone.

CMix: How did Countdown compare to 52?

KG: it’s really a whole different animal. It would be unfair to draw any comparisons between 52 and Countdown. The tone was different, the entire approach was dfifferent. The first time you do it, especially when it unfolds in real time, it’s an accomplishment. You did it!

The second time, you’re kind of expected to do it, because you did it the first time. It’s like a sequel to a movie — it’s not going to be as satisfying as the first time you saw it.

The overall thing is getting it done and putting these issues out. Certainly it wasn’t just me — it was an entire team of people pulling these projects along. Getting it out on time when so many monthly books seem to have trouble hitting the target, to do two years of a weekly and just nail it week after week, there’s a real sense of satisfaction there. Were there certain things I’d go back and redo if I had the chance? Sure. But I can say that about anything I’ve ever done. Hindsight’s always 20/20.

CMix: Was there anything you wanted to do in Countdown but couldn’t fit in due to the time constraints or other factors?

KG: Oh, yeah. We had lots of  leftover ideas on 52 and we had lots of leftover ideas on Countdown, as well. I’m not going to go into them here because I never waste an idea, and I don’t want other people to waste the ideas, either. If everyone thought that it was a great idea and it didn’t make it into the series, you can pretty much guarantee that it will pop up somewhere else. Good ideas don’t die easy deaths.

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Breaking The Mirror, by Mike Gold

  • Uncategorized
  • March 31, 2008

3787_2_02-7985621One of the more disgusting experiences I suffered through in my professional life was the reaction of one DC Comics executive – no longer with the company; not for quite a while – to the new El Diablo series back in 1989. His response was “not a lot of those people buy our comics.”

Without this executive’s support, the series didn’t have a chance. It lumbered on through 16 issues despite good work from a respected team. A lot of people didn’t know the title existed. Your reaction might very well have been “El Diablo?? Oh, yeah, I think I remember that…” Sigh. When I hired a black man as a full editor at DC, a first for the company, a couple of my fellow editorial staffers made their displeasure quite well known to me, and to my boss.

This is no criticism of DC: they had a large staff even at that time and these clown were hardly the only bigots in the building. That’s America, and these people (as opposed to those people) sometimes get their way. Sometimes we watch them on CNN; sometimes we elect them to office.

Comic book universes have been slow to reflect the spectrum of humanity: too many white men running around with other white men for way too long. Yep, that’s been changing somewhat more slowly than in other sectors of our popular culture, but I’ll bet we’ve still got another black superhero coming out named “Black” something. At least Marvel is unlikely to create another black sidekick named Bucky.

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ComicMix Columns for the Week Ending March 30, 2008

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  • March 30, 2008

Wow, March seemed to fly by even faster than February, didn’t it?  But opening day is finally upon us, allergy season is already in full swing and ComicMix columnists are nipping things in the bud as usual:

Congrats to Martha and Michael on their columns reaching the Big Five-Oh!  Presumably Dennis O’Neill is on spring break, and we look forward to his return.

Trailer For ‘Incredible Hulk’ Videogame Debuts

  • News
  • March 30, 2008

Sega has released the first trailer for the videogame based on the upcoming Incredible Hulk film. The footage gives us a good indication of what we can expect.

The Hulk jumping great distances? Check. Hulk wrecking New York City? Check. The army and robots, Hulk’s favorite fodder, getting smashed? Check and check.

Also the "Coming Soon" message on the game’s official website has been replaced with all-new info, images and what may be the music from the movie. The Incredible Hulk game will be released in June 2008 for the Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360 and Windows PCs.

 

Happy Birthday: Hawkman III

  • News
  • March 30, 2008

Katar Hol was born on the planet Thanagar, the child of a wealthy family. Katar joined the Wingman police force but rebelled against his world’s ruthless conquest. He became addicted to drugs and was then manipulated into publicly killing his own father.

As a result, Katar was exiled to the Isle of Chance, where he purged his body of the drugs, atoned for his crime, and made peace with himself. After his sentence was up, Katar uncovered and defeated Byth, the corrupt police captain who had manipulated him, and was reinstated as a Wingman. When Byth escaped to Earth, Katar and his new partner Shayera Thal were sent there as well. After defeating Byth, Shayera returned home but Katar remained on Earth and became the third Hawkman. Katar then encountered the previous Hawkman, Carter Hall, and discovered that he was half-human himself–his mother was a Native American medicine woman and still alive. Katar was reunited with his mother and learned more about her ways and her people.

Unfortunately, Katar later became the avatar of the Hawk-God, which drove him mad, and to save others he had Arion the mage transport him to the Realm of the Hawkgod and leave him there.

 

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A Time Warrior to India, by Ric Meyers

  • News
  • March 30, 2008

passage-to-india-1963980I like it when the DVDs I review here are similar, but I also really like it when they’re very different. And other than being made by British talents, the DVDs in this edition are about as different as they can get. First, there’s the cultural classic that is A Passage to India. Columbia Pictures decided that marking the 100th anniversary of director David Lean’s birth (March 25, 1908) was a great excuse to remaster three of his films as “2-Disc Collector’s Edition Columbia Classics.” First out of the box is Lean’s final film, a two-hour and forty-four minute “intimate epic” based on E.M. Forster’s lauded novel of the same name.

Lean came at the challenge with a lot to prove. Despite being one of the world’s most respected filmmakers, with an unprecedented run of sweeping successes behind him, the critical thrashing his turgid, half-badly miscast, penultimate film, Ryan’s Daughter, suffered, had sent him reeling into a fourteen year self-imposed exile. He returned to tackle a cerebral, controversial story that many felt was effectively unfilmable, including, according to the DVD’s extras, the author and several actors in the production.

The reaction at the time of its 1984 release ranged from grudging to delirious, though a majority seemed to feel it still wasn’t quite up to his undisputed classics, Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia (the other two films set to be part of this 100th birthday DVD celebration). The passage of time, however, has been great to this particular film, and this new release could do much to elevate its standing, since it’s fascinating, intriguing, beautiful, and in this artificial age of cgi additives, all natural.

The special features are involving, if not as exceptional as the film. They are, at their best, reserved and civilized like the subjects of their interviews. If the producers and actors had been American, there might have been lots of superlatives and hyperbole, but the likes of producer Richard Goodwin, Lean’s young assistant directors, and actors Nigel Havers and James Fox are polite to a fault.

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ComicMix Review: ‘Superhero Movie’

  • Uncategorized
  • March 30, 2008

[Editor’s Note: While ComicMix columnist Michael H. Price devoted a recent column to reviewing the superhero parody film Superhero Movie, regular ComicMix film reviewer Matt Raub braved hordes of pre-teen Drake & Josh fans this weekend to provide some addiitonal insight on the film. With ticket prices as they are these days, we figured ComicMix readers would appreciate the extra review before they parted with their money. -RM]

superhero_poster_preview22-4113094To begin with, this movie isn’t terrible. But before we get into that, a brief history lesson:

Scary Movie is a horror-spoof franchise that began in 2000 and was helmed by six writers that included the Wayans brothers and their team from previous projects. Also included were writers Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. This team’s only previous credit was the 1996 spy spoof Spy Hard, starring Leslie Nielson. As a whole, this was the creative team responsible for the first two Scary Movie films, but they opted out of a third film, and the franchise continued with Airplane and Naked Gun creator David Zucker at the helm. Zucker brought along Pat Proft, who he had previously worked with, and a new guy named Craig Mazin, who worked on a quirky superhero comedy from 2000 called The Specials.

Still with me here? Good, because we’re almost to the point, I promise. Upon leaving the franchise after Scary Movie 2, two of the six writers decided they weren’t quite done with the “spoofing genres” game and went on to write and direct Date Movie. (The original trailer for Date Movie even tagged the film as “from two of the six writers of Scary Movie.”) They also went on to do Epic Movie and, finally, winter’s kick-in-the-face: Meet the Spartans. At this point, if you’re not bleeding from the ears, you may be asking yourself, “Why did I need to know any of this?” Well, because those hating on this film based purely on its existence need to know that [[[Superhero Movie]]] was not the brainchild of any of the people attached to the three terrible spin-off-genre-spoofing-machines, be they [[[Date]]], [[[Epic]]], or [[[Spartan]]]. Instead, it is that of Craig Mazin, who created 2000’s superhero comedy [[[The Specials]]], starring Thomas Hayden Church and Rob Lowe (pick it up on DVD, it’s pretty good).

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Supermoney: The Superman Trial and Jerry Siegel’s Estate

  • News
  • March 30, 2008

supermoney-1584927For those who came in late… As has been widely reported, the Federal District Court ruled somewhat in favor of the estate of Jerry Siegel in its lawsuit to have all publishing rights to the Superman story in Action Comics #1 be taken from Time Warner’s DC Comics subsidiary and given to Jerry’s heirs. The decision runs 72 pages, but at heart is the judge’s ruling that because the property existed before Action#1, “work for hire” stipulations do not apply.

The New York Times did a good job covering the story; Mark Evanier, as would be expected, did a better job. For one thing, Mark got co-creator Joe Shuster’s first name right. The New York Times did not.

Whereas there is much cause for celebration, before we start dancing in the streets we should look at what’s at stake here.

Only the original concepts – only Superman, Clark Kent, the costume as portrayed in that initial story, and the abilities unique to Superman in that story – are in play. Perry White, the Daily Planet, Lex Luthor, the Legion of Super-Heroes, Bizarro, kryptonite, Jimmy Olsen and the rest are not on the table. Only the domestic rights are in play, and even then the estate would be in something of a co-ownership position with DC Comics. So don’t look forward to that Eros Comics Superman series quite yet.

Sadly for the Siegel family, this does not bring to an end a fight started by Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster 60 years ago. Actually, it’s just warming up.

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