Yearly Archive: 2008

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The Story Of O, by Michael Davis

  • News
  • March 21, 2008
 
storyofo_final-1917074
 
This was going to be an article about the sheer stupidly of the former Governor of New York and other idiots who say one thing and do another. Then I listened to Senator Obama’s speech on race. I was going to write about that speech but at another time. Then I received the following text message on my cell phone:

U and denys r no talent racist lying frauds. What kind of monster abuses positive accomplished young black men? Michael Davis PhD Player Hating Dickhead.

The denys he is writing about is my best friend Denys Cowan. He also left a voice mail on Denys’ business phone where he called Denys a “Faggot,” among other things.

Who is this person? Let’s call him O. If I really wanted to “playa hate” I would give up who he was, thus ending any chance of this guy ever working with any major entertainment companies. I don’t out him because there is still a small chance that he will try and clean up his act.

A very small chance.

Why is he so upset? More than a year ago he submitted a project to me which I thought showed promise. The project has not moved fast enough for him and O wanted to know why. I told him what I tell everyone about selling in the entertainment business…

A deal takes the time a deal takes.

(more…)

David Hajdu on ‘The Ten-Cent Plague’

  • News
  • March 20, 2008

Over at Newsarama, frequent ComicMix comment-thread presence Vinnie Bartilucci interviews David Hajdu, author of The Ten Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America.

Previously known for his books on various musical subject matter, Hajdu’s Ten-Cent Plague examines the anti-comics movement in the ’50s that threatened to destroy the industry. In the interview, Hajdu discusses the interviews that provided much of the book’s source material, and why he chose many of his interview subjects.

… I never see the need to take up my time, and the reader’s time, to tell a story that’s already been told before. Yes the story of the controversy over comics has been told before, but on a certain scale. But there’s a great deal more to that story that has hasn’t been told. Especially the story of those people who suffered most from that purge…because they disappeared. And because they disappeared, because they haven’t done the comic-book conventions, they haven’t stayed in the scene; their stories were largely lost to time. The story of the purge is a tragedy, but what brings the tragedy to life is an understanding of how some people suffered by having their livelihoods taken from them, and being denied the ability to do something they were proud of and they treasured and they thought was important. Some of these people felt so wounded, they felt such a miscarriage of justice had happened, they felt so wronged, that they left comics and never looked back. They were bitter about their comics experience and they never looked back. Somebody like Mort Leav, he was living in New Jersey in a retirement home. Still vital, but had devoted his career to advertising, and just didn’t want to think about comic books any more, because he had felt so wronged. So it was important for me to find those people who hadn’t talked before.

It’s an excellent interview that provides quite a bit of insight into both the development of the book and its author’s relationship with comics.

 

On This Day: Ned Buntline, Dime Novelist

Edward Zane Carroll Judson was born on March 20, 1886 in Stamford, Delaware County, New York. He ran away from home as a boy and took to the sea, taking on the name Ned Buntline, which he would use for the rest of his life—a “buntline” is the rope at the bottom of a square sail.

Buntline stayed at sea several years, fighting in the Seminole Wars and achieving the rank of midshipman, before retiring and creating various eastern newspapers, including Ned Buntline’s Own. While in Fort McPherson on a lecture tour, Buntline crossed paths with Wild Bill Hickock and tried to interview him for a dime novel. Hickock refused and ordered Buntline out of town at gunpoint. Instead, the reporter located Hickock’s friend William Cody, better known as Buffalo Bill, and decided to write about him instead.

The Buffalo Bill Cody-King of the Border Men dime novel series was an enormous success and Buntline followed it with a play, Scouts of the Prairie, which opened in Chicago in December 1872. The two men had severe differences of opinion and temperament, however. As a result, the show closed in June of the following year, and Buntline and Cody went their separate ways.

Buntline continued to write dime novels, but none matched his earlier success—he was close to penniless by the time he died of congestive heart failure in 1886.

Matthew Vaughn to Direct ‘Kick-Ass’ Movie

  • News
  • March 20, 2008

Mark Millar’s Kick-Ass hasn’t even released its second issue and it’s already supposedly headed to the big screen courtesy of Matthew Vaughn, the director of Layer Cake and Stardust.

Vaughn, who was attached to X-Men: The Last Stand before Brett Ratner took over and who is currently attached to the film adaptation of Thor, will be writing and directing the adaptation of Millar’s latest. Joining him on writing duties will be Jane Goldman, his partner on the Stardust script.

Kick-Ass is the story of 15-year old Dave Lizewski, a dweeby kid who decides to take on the mantle of a superhero despite having absolutely no powers or combat training. Predictably, he gets the crap knocked out of him regularly. The series features art by John Romita Jr. and is published by Marvel’s ICON imprint.

(via AICN)

New at ComicMix: Comic Reader Updates and More!

  • News
  • March 20, 2008

If you’re a faithful reader of ComicMix (and we hope you are), you may have noticed that we didn’t post the new episode of Simone & Ajax: The Case of the Maltese Duck. It’s not because anything bad happened to our favorite dinosaur and his cute friend Simone. We’re giving Andrew and Jason a bit of a breather.

However, we have just installed some new bells and whistles to the site that will make it more fun for you to use.

You know how they made a hit television show out of the premise that you want to go to a place where everybody knows your name? Well, ComicMix now remembers how you like to read your comics. When you set a preference for single pages or double-page spreads or for a certain degree of magnification, that’s how the settings will stay, until you choose to change them again. And you can bookmark individual pages – if you want to check out page 3 of Simone & Ajax: The Case of the Maltese Duck, you can now do so directly.

You say you want more? Well, coming up in the near future we’ve got a couple of massive additions to our site – a world of entirely new features – and we’ll be bringing back Munden’s Bar and Black Ice, as well as starting up Giordano/McLaughlin/Holroyd’s White Viper and Trevor Von Eeden’s The Original Johnson. Plus new outings from John Ostrander and Ian Gibson and Joanna Estep… and more. A whole LOT more.

Stay tuned.

IDW Announces ‘Transformers: All Hail Megatron’ Maxi-Series

  • News
  • March 20, 2008

Following up on last month’s release of untitled, yet very cool promotional art featuring Transformers villain Megatron, IDW Publishing today announced it will be bringing a new chapter in the Transformers saga to the shelves of your local comics shops in the form of a 12-part maxi-series called Transformers: All Hail Megatron.

IDW, whose titles also include other Transformers books, Angel: After the Fall, 30 Days of Night and Fallen Angel, is planning for a June release for issue #1 of the comic.

According to the release, the maxi-series will take the Transformers:

"… in a new direction courtesy of writer Shane McCarthy and artist Guido Guidi. Together, they tell the tale of an Earth decimated by the DECEPTICONS. Where are the AUTOBOTS, and how did they come to be exiled from Earth? Who has changed sides, who will live, and who will die? These questions, as well as the introduction of an all-new TRANSFORMERS character, will be answered in the pages of the series."

Series writer McCarthy is very excited about the new story:

“This thing is going to knock the fans’ socks off,” McCarthy says. “This is exactly the kind of story I’ve always wanted to see done, and I think the fans will be right there with me.”

IDW head honcho Chris Ryall is equally enthusiastic about Transformers: All Hail Megatron: 

“ALL HAIL MEGATRON is what the AUTOBOTS fought so hard to prevent, the ultimate culmination of MEGATRON’s plans. It’s destruction on a grand scale; it’s a story of sacrifice, lost heroism, betrayal, and hopefully at the end, renewal.

 

BBC Schedules ‘Doctor Who’ Season Four

  • News
  • March 20, 2008

The BBC has confirmed that the fourth season of Doctor Who will premiere sometime during the week beginning April 5 on BBC One.

Season Four pairs David Tennant as the Doctor with a new companion in Catherine Tate, who reprises her role as "Runaway Bride" Donna Noble.

From the BBC synopsis of the season premiere, titled "Partners in Crime":

Donna Noble is determined to find the Doctor again – even if it means braving the villainous Miss Foster and her hordes of sinister Adipose, as Russell T Davies’s Bafta Award-winning time-travelling drama returns for a fourth series. But when the alien threat escalates out of control, can Donna find her Time Lord before the march of the Adipose begins?

Although the actual date/time of the premiere has not been announced, it’s widely speculated that the premiere will air on BBC One around 7 PM on Saturday, April 5.
 

 

(via OutpostGallifrey)

ComicMix Radio: Four-Color Broadcasts!

We kick off spring with the perfect soundtrack for your drive in the country: a comic book radio show; plus:

— Harry Potter films – and now there are eight…

— IDW expands the fate of Angel with Spike:AfterThe Fall

— X-Men, Wolverine and Teen Iron Man… on TV

—  And yet another new trivia question that is worth an  exclusive Graham Crackers Comics variant – and you win by e-mailing us at: podcast [at] comicmix.com

The Black Hood sez: Just Press The Button!

 

 

And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via badgeitunes61x15dark-2842028 or RSS!

 

The Weekly Haul: Reviews for March 20, 2008

  • News
  • March 20, 2008

After skipping town last week, I’m back with an all-new spate of reviews for this week’s comics issues. Lots of super hero fare this week, with a few studs and a whole lot of "meh."

Book of the Week: Captain America #36 — I know, I know. Not a very out-there choice. But, c’mon, this is simply the best superhero book coming out right now. Ed Brubaker sets it up perfectly to test Bucky, the new Cap, by pitting him against some serious supervillains. And we get to see how Bucky is different from Steve Rogers, for good and bad.

And while Bucky brawls his way through that challenge, the defining moment of the issue comes when Bucky can’t summon the Captain America aura to calm a riotous crowd. And, if that’s not enough, Butch Guice’s fill-in art is so good that I didn’t realize he’d replaced Steve Epting until I looked back at the credits.

Oh, and then – SPOILER – there’s that little cliffhanger that a certain dead person might not be so certainly dead.

Runners Up:

The Brave and the Bold #11 — Here’s another "can’t go wrong" series (at least until Mark Waid jumps ship). The Challengers see just how tough Megistus is (and just how crazy), then Superman and Ultraman have a zany little team-up only after Ultraman impersonates Clark and runs roughshod through the Daily Planet newsroom. The too-big, too-fun antics culminate in one of those straight-from-the-silver-age moments, when Megistus throws a Green Lantern (the actual lantern, not a hero) into the sun and turns it green. Bad news for Ultraman and Superman.

The Immortal Iron Fist #13 — I’d be calling this book the best of the week if it weren’t for a weaker than usual outing from artist David Aja. His work isn’t as polished as usual, which means it’s still decent but not great. That aside, this Seven Cities of Heaven storyline is finally coming together in a big way. What’s really remarkable about this issue is how Brubaker and Matt Fraction keep up the excitement with only a couple punches thrown. It’s a perfect setup to the big brouhaha coming down the pike next issue, and offers the line of the week when Danny finally reveals his plan to the villainous Xao: "So we can get out, you dumb son of a bitch."

(more…)

‘King of the Hill’ Parodies ‘Invincible’ Comic

  • News
  • March 20, 2008

King of the Hill, the Emmy award-winning animated television series created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels, gave a sly wink to comic books on their Sunday, March 16 episode "Behind Closed Doors."

The soft-satirical parody of Texas middle America found housewife Peggy Hill questioning her family’s unity. When entering son Bobby’s room, she finds him reading "Unvincible," a comic that bears a striking similarity to Image’s Invincible by Robert Kirman and Cory Walker.

This is not big, breaking news but ComicMix thinks it’s pretty cool that instead of taking the easy mainstream route of spoofing Superman or Spider-Man, the show wore its comic book fan pride by choosing one of the great indie superheroes.

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