Yearly Archive: 2008

James Kochalka on Life, Music and American Elf

  • News
  • January 26, 2008

James Kochalka has done it all, and we are green with envy.

Playback has a nice interview with Kochalka, the creator of the award-winning daily comic American Elf, the adults-only Super F*ckers and a host of other comics – not to mention the frontman for the multi-album band James Kochalka Superstar. In the interview, the multi-talented Kochalka reflects on the ways Elf has both documented and shaped his growth as a creator, father and, well… superstar.

When I started the diary, I was still working my job as a waiter at the Chinese restaurant, then a couple months into the strip I quit. The strip covers my entire career as a full-time superstar. When I quit I said I was quitting to be a full-time superstar, instead of just part-time as I had been.

Kochalka also discusses the recent design overhaul of the American Elf website, as well as his upcoming projects in both comics and music. One such project, as he explains it, overlaps between the two:

Yeah, I have a song called "Dragon Puncher" and I wrote this book called Dragon Puncher and I just can’t find anyone to publish it. I really drew it to appeal to little kids, but the whole thing is fighting. The whole book basically is this battle. I think the children’s book publishers are freaked out ‘cause it’s all fighting, and the publishers of more adult stuff are freaked out ‘cause it seems like it’s for little kids. Everyone needs to lighten up cause it’s an awesome book.

Seriously, what’s not to like about punching dragons?

 

Oprah Brings It

  • News
  • January 26, 2008

Not that it’s necessarily geek news, but fantasy writers beware! Using your eighth-grade trauma to inspire your superhero’s journey? Think again!  You can’t mix fiction with non-fiction, or you will get a taste of Oprah’s wrath. Well, let’s be honest. That’s if you claim that you actually were that superhero, and while we all know you’re prancing around in those blue-lined yellow action hero underpants on your own time, at least you’re not on national TV saying that it’s real, or bouncing on couches, like some numb nuts out there.

Today in 2006, James Frey, author of A Million Little Pieces, was ripped into a million little pieces by Oprah when it was found that a detail in his so-called autobiographical experience was shall we say, embellished. Let that be a lesson to all writers out there: when presented with the golden calf of Oprah’s Book Club, tread lightly. No detail shall be exaggerated, no recollection blurred, lest her wrath be set upon you and your stories. 

$100 Million Earmarked for Chinese Comics/Animation

  • News
  • January 26, 2008

The People’s Daily Online is reporting that the Chinese province of Guangzhou has announced plans to spend nearly $100 million over the next four years on developing the local comics and animation industry.

According to the report, more than 120 comics and animation companies are located in Guangzhou, generating nearly a fifth of the nation’s total revenue in these industries. The plan would devote 180 million yuan (approx. $24.9 million) each of four years to development of domestic comics and animation projects, with 50 million yuan directed toward nurturing, recognizing and promoting new talent, and the rest toward new "development parks" for companies.

"There is a promising market for the comics and animation industry as the city has introduced a series of preferential policies to support and develop the industry," Fan Xu, director of the Guangzhou press, publication, and radio and television (copyright) bureau, said earlier this week.

 

Jack Harkness to Keep Torchwood Burning?

  • News
  • January 26, 2008

John Barrowman, the actor who plays Capt. Jack Harkness on the hit BBC series Torchwood, says he plans to stay on the series as long as they’ll have him.

In this interview with SciFi Wire, Barrowman said he hopes to see a few more seasons come out of the darker, more adult-oriented Doctor Who spin-off series. He added that he has no plans to vacate his command of the Torchwood crew, either.

If I was asked to do Jack for the next five or six years I would do it with a big smile on my face, because I absolutely love playing him.

Barrowman also provided a few hints at what viewers can expect from the second season of Torchwood, which already premiered in England, but is set to air its first episode in the U.S. tonight, Jan. 26. SciFi Channel will broadcast the episode at 9 PM ET.

You’re going to also see much more of Jack’s history. Our time travel in Torchwood is different. [In] Doctor Who, the Doctor gets in a Tardis and travels. Our time travel is done through memory.

 

Ballad of a Thin Man, by Martha Thomases

  • News
  • January 26, 2008

 

Last weekend, we finally caught up with I’m Not There, the brilliant Todd Haynes movie about the myths of Bob Dylan. The director intertwines the lives of six men, each symbolizing a stage of Dylan’s artistic development and public persona. They include a wide range: a young black boy, played by Marcus Carl Franklin; the protest singer, played by Christian Bale; the walking, talking enigma played by Cate Blanchett; the egomaniacal prick, played by Heath Ledger; the romantic, Ben Winshaw; and the lonesome recluse, played by Richard Gere. I don’t know if you’d like it if you aren’t a Dylan fan, but, if you are, it’s an amazing narrative.
 
On Monday, Brian Williams reported on the NBC Nightly News that the Monday of the last full week of January is known as “Blue Monday,” because it’s the single day that the most people are depressed, and has the highest suicide rate. 
 
On Tuesday, Heath Ledger was found dead in his apartment.
 
I don’t mean to imply that he committed suicide. His body was found by a masseuse, with whom he had an appointment, and people planning suicide don’t usually get a massage first. As I write this, there’s not a lot of information about what caused his death. The autopsy didn’t reveal anything, nor was there a suicide note. Police found prescription drugs in the apartment, but they’d find prescription drugs in my apartment, too. There was no evidence that these drugs had been taken in anything other than the prescribed dose. 
 
He was only 28 years old, and he had a daughter, Matilda, age two. And now he’s gone.
 
We know and grieve over Heath Ledger because he was famous. We knew his face. We sat in the dark of movie theaters, and projected our own emotions into his eyes. He was young and handsome and talented, and it’s a loss for all of us.
 
Those of us who love comics felt a special kinship, because he was playing The Joker in The Dark Knight. The trailers and the early teasers indicate that he gave a brilliant performance, one that understands the complicated character created by Jerry Robinson and further sculpted by dozens of writers and artists over the past 50 years.
 

(more…)

ComicMix’s Interview With Heath Ledger

Exclusive To ComicMix Radio: Heath Ledger On Taking On The Joker

The untimely death of any celebrity leaves a lot of questions and speculation. In the wake of Heath Ledger’s passing, some are looking at his overly dark portrayal of The Joker in Warner Bros’ upcoming Dark Knight Batman film. In a ComicMix exclusive, Heath Ledger tells us just why he took on such a demanding part.

Plus:

  • NBC props are up for sale – again
  • Monsters invade Hollywood – we have proof
  • Witchblade vs. The Darkness – again
  • Marvel’s Twelve blasts out of the stores
  • Urban Monsters goes to Hollywood
  • What were the top selling comics and graphic novels in recent week? We’ve got the list!

All it takes is for you to Press The Button!

Or you can now listen to our podcasts via badgeitunes61x15dark-2083460 or RSS!

James Marsters Talks Torchwood and Interspecies Romance

  • News
  • January 25, 2008

In a recent, spoiler-filled (we repeat: spoiler-filled) interview with TV Guide, Buffy/Angel actor James Marsters discussed his return to TV on the Season Two premiere of Torchwood.

According to the interview, Marsters portrays a snarky, lusting Brit who quickly becomes a thorn in the side of the series’ main character, an old associate of his who ends up… Wait, doesn’t this sound familiar?

Anyways… The interview is chock-full of behind-the-scenes details about the filming of the Torchwood premiere, as well as some questionable personal revelations from Marsters himself. Unfortunately, most of those sections of the interview are impossible to post here without revealing key plot points, so you’ll have to make do with this short bit about how one of America’s favorite vampires made his way to the BBC:

I was on a concert tour in the U.K. — I broke up my band, so it was just me and my guitar — and my tour manager, Lisa, got me to watch Dr. Who. I thought it was a really well-written show and would be fun to do. So my agent called Russell T. Davies, who wrote Queer as Folk and is responsible for Dr. Who. Russell said no, but he would love for me to come on Torchwood, the spin-off. It’s a funny, subversive show like Buffy. I feel very much at home.

Marsters also sheds some light on the potential demise of a Spike spin-off series:

I don’t think it’s absolutely dead. I told Joss that I didn’t want to do the character as an old vampire, which would be really sucky. [Laughs] But I’m holding up better than I thought I would. With the right lighting, we might be able to get away with it.

Expendable Exposes the Secret Lives of Henchmen

  • News
  • January 25, 2008

expendable-poster-2734549Wednesdays are always big days in the comics world, but this week Hump Day was especially important because it marked the debut of Expendable, the latest film by Wondermark webcomicker David Malki !.

Expendable is a film about one of the most underappreciated cogs in the gears of global domination: the random henchman. Think back to the last spy movie you watched. Remember those guys who were thrown off the catwalk when the laboratory exploded? Well, this is their story.

Better yet, in the words of the film’s creator:

They may wear jumpsuits with skull logos on them, and they may carry assault rifles, but really they’re ordinary guys just like you and me — concerned about health insurance, pension plans, and making it through the workday without being shot, blown up, and/or karate-chopped by smug, oversexed Englishmen. Expendable is their story.

Sure, it’s a great film, but our favorite part occurred in the first four seconds, when the presentation of the production company card ("A Wondermark Presentation") blasted us in the face with some old-school TV nostalgia. We weren’t the only ones, either.

 

Happy Birthday, Geoff Johns!

Geoff Johns was born today in 1973 in Michigan where the writer himself admits, it is "damn cold." Like so many of us, Geoff had a passion for the creative (screenwriting, graphic design, storytelling, your basic artist jack-of-all-trades stuff) but he got lucky in Los Angeles when after a phonecall, he became an intern to someone fancy schmancy. This in turn led him to a fruitful career as a contributing writer to DC comics, among others. You’ve probably read a couple of issues of The Flash by Johns, he was responsible for reviving Teen Titans, plus he’s got some fun TV credits sprinkled here and there (Robot Chicken!). We’re glad LA was kind to you Geoff Johns and glad that you have return your karma with some pretty fun storylines. Happy Birthday!

Diamond, diamond, who has the diamond?

  • News
  • January 25, 2008

In today’s brand-new episode of Mike Grell’s Jon Sable: Freelance: Ashes of Eden, Jon and Maggie the Cat alibi each other for the theft of the McGuffin.  The wealthy socialites at the party where it was stolen?  They need to be frisked.

Categories

Archives

Everything you need to make great comics!

comicmix-pro-300x69-2

Nucleus X

Bookshop Zaks