Monthly Archive: June 2009

MoCCA karaoke (no, it’s not a new yaoi title)

(Cue the citizens of Tokyo running in the streets and screaming AIEEEEEE!)

This Saturday, June 6, sing your heart out after MoCCA at Live Rock N
Roll Karaoke, presented by the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund & The Beat!

The
party starts at 7 PM at M1-5 in Tribeca. Rock Star Karaoke NYC provides
the live backing as you belt out your favorite Karaoke tunes. For a
full song list visit: http://rockstarkaraokenyc.com/songlist.html

A donation of $5 – $10 is asked for admission. Show your current year CBLDF member card and get a free poster!

Heidi sez, “With a proud tradition of unorthodox karaoke choices, we
look forward to the first annual ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ Mocca Sing
Off!'”

What: Live Rock n Roll Karaoke
When: Saturday, June 6, 7 PM to 10 PM
Where: M1-5, 52 Walker Street, between Church & Broadway
Why: Support Free Speech & Sing Your Heart Out After MoCCA!
How Much: $5 to $10 suggested donation
How To Get There: Take the 6; J, M, Z; N, Q, R, W, A, C, or E to Canal St

And if you’re really lucky, you’ll hear me sing too. (Cue the screaming Japanese again.)

David Carradine: 1936-2009

David Carradine,
best known as the star of the 1970s TV series Kung Fu who also had a wide-ranging
career in the movies, has been found dead in the Thai capital, Bangkok. News reports said he was found hanged in his hotel room and was believed to have committed suicide. He was 72.

Since every other obituary is going to mention his role as as Kwai Chang Caine in the 1970s television series Kung Fu and the 1990s spinoff Kung Fu: The Legend Continues as the grandson of his original character, and every other genre site is going to mention his role as Frankenstein in the original Death Race and his role as Bill in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill, we’d like to take a moment and remember him for a different role– as Woody Guthrie in the Hal Ashby film Bound For Glory:

ComicMix Six: Batman Replacements

  • Uncategorized
  • June 4, 2009

This week Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely have brought us the new Batman and Robin #1, featuring the brand new partnership of Dick Grayson as Batman and Damian Wayne as Robin.

But did you know this isn’t the first time someone has stepped in as the Dark Knight or attempted to replace Bruce Wayne? Here is a list of six other blokes who have donned the famous cape and cowl.

SUPERMAN – Ever since the 1950s, there have been times where Superman and Batman have had to impersonate each other in order to protect their secret identities or to fool criminals. This also happened in the Batman/Superman animated series from the 90s in the episode “Knight Time”. With Batman missing, Superman donned the cowl and surprised several Gotham criminals who concluded that the Dark Knight must have somehow gained supernatural powers.

(more…)

Marvel vs. DC: E3 Edition!

In case you’ve been under a rock, or don’t pay any attention, this week the Electronic Entertainment Expo has been showcasing some fancy new titles due out soon for the current generation (that being the Sony Playstation 3, and Microsoft Xbox 360… sorry Wii-Heads) of video game systems that should tickle comic lover’s thumbs.

From DC’s mighty utility belt comes Batman: Arkham Asylum. Produced by Rocksteady Studios, and published by the fine folks who gave the world Lara Croft’s shapely rear end life, Arkham Asylum lets wanna-be detectives put on the digital cape and cowl for a rousing round of villain destruction. Falling somewhere between Splinter Cell‘s stealthy kill-em-up, and God of War‘s thumb-destroying beat-em-up, the game features an original take on the Grant Morrison penned graphic novel. Players will take Bats through multiple levels (all inside the aforementioned loony bin) in what appears to be a final fracas with the clown prince of crime. Voice actors from Bruce Timm’s seminal animated series provide audible lift to what easily appears to be the best iteration of the Dark Knight’s digital gaming experience. While hands on reports mention some sloppy camera work still be worked out, the game is slated for release at the tail end of August… giving them enough time to work out the kinks. Let’s just hope there’s no multiverse twist at the end, eh?

From the House of Idea’s comes another sequel in the celebrated ‘dungeon-crawler’ epic: Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2: Electric Boogaloo. OK, it’s not an electric boogaloo… but what UA:2 is, is a continuation of Vicarious Vision’s long running franchise that’s looking to make the true leap to the next generation from its Playstation 2 / Xbox roots. UA:2 takes place in the current-ish comic storyline (Civil War anyone?) and allows players to take the reigns on some of Marvel’s most popular characters. Want to smash and bash as the Hulk? Go ahead. Want to pilot some mighty armor as Iron Man? Hit the X button pal. Not a fan of the classics? No problem. UA:2 brings Matt Gargan’s Venom, Deadpool, and the mighty Juggernaut as potential playable characters. Players will get to make their own teams, and take them into battles across several Marvel stalwart environments, from Latveria to the Barack Obama-Spider-Man-fist-bumping Washington D.C.. While Activision is hush-hush on an official street date for now, look for the Ultimate Alliance 2 to hit your local gaming emporium in the fall.

For more information on E3, and the scads of games being played by people more important than us, feel free to head to the official site.

David Eddings: 1931-2009

  • Uncategorized
  • June 3, 2009

We are saddened to report on the passing of David Eddings, author of the Belgariad and Malloreon series of books, at the age of 77.

The first volume of the Belgariad series, Pawn
of Prophecy, came out back in 1982 and was followed in short order by Queen
of Sorcery, Magician’s Gambit, Castle of Wizardry and Enchanters’ End
Game. They sold in quantities that stunned the publishing establishment
at the time, as SF was pretty much the rage.

Author Stephen Hunt commented on Eddings:

His commercial success paved
the way for a whole generation of doorstopper sized fantasy series…. I was in my early teens when I discovered these books, and they
opened my eyes to the fact that not all fantasy had to be the ‘Ye Olde
Speake’ variety favoured by Tolkien – they were fantasy, but they
carried a modern feel to the dialogue and characterisation, while still
being firmly placed in a deeply believable fantasy world.

It’s a feel that influenced a whole swathe of media, and not just
books – you can see David Eddings’ influence running through Xena and
Hercules too, albeit taken to extremes with their, ‘Hey, dragon dude!’
dialogue.

He will be missed.

BBC America goes HD July 20 with lots of SF, including ‘Torchwood: Children Of Earth’

BBC Worldwide will launch BBC America HD, the hi-def simulcast of BBC America, on July 20– and they’ll be rolling out a lot of science fiction during their first week:

  • The five part Torchwood: Children of Earth will debut July 20 at 9 PM and air Monday through Friday.
  • That Saturday, July 25, Primeval has its third season finale at 8 PM and Being Human premieres at 9 PM.
  • Then on Sunday, the first of the last four David Tennant Doctor Who specials runs at 8 PM.

So if you can’t make it to San Diego, you get a few things to compensate. And if you are going to San Diego, you better hope your hotel has HD and BBCA HD.

Review: ‘Defiance’ on DVD

We here at ComicMix write about heroes all the time. They tend to be muscle-bound, wear spandex and appear in the fevered imaginations of writers and artists. In the real world, people are given the title hero when they are bystanders, victims, or their feats are fairly ordinary. As a result, the term has been somewhat watered down and in need of rehabilitation.

The process could have begun last winter when two movies about World War II were released, featuring very different kinds of heroes. Neither Valkyrie nor Defiance made a lot of noise at the box office nor did they ignite a debate over the nature of heroism in times of war. And that’s a shame, really, since in the former, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, was a patriot, a German who saw Hitler for the devil he was and risked everything to take him down, paying for it with his life.

[[[Defiance]]] visited a different side of the war, that of the victims, the Jews who rose above their adversity and defied by Nazis by surviving, led by three amazing brothers. Bother films suffered because by the time they were made and released, the country’s mood was too dour to pay attention to serious dramas or care about dated acts of heroism.

Today, though, Defiance comes out on disc and worth a look. Again, an incredible story from the war has been uncovered and brought to the screen. Edward Zwick first began writing this story in 1999, based on Nechama Tec’s [[[Defiance: The Bielski Partisans]]], and finally managed to shoot the story in 2007, starring Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, and Jamie Bell as the brothers Bielski. They were your lower class workers in Belarus when the Germans began killing the Jews. To survive, they fled into the forest where they played as boys. Fairly quickly, the scattered refugees in the forest coalesced around these three, who took on the responsibility of caring for them, and more importantly, organizing them to survive the impending winter.

While the film focused entirely on that first formative year, it should be noted they survived in the forest for three years, with over 1200 walking to freedom when the war ended.  The brothers had their differences, with Tuvia (Craig) and Zus (Schreiber) arguing over what to do and Zus eventually leaving to serve with the Russians for a time. But we see how these “street smart” people came to lead a motley crew of intellectuals, peasants, upper class, and just plain folk who needed guidance. We watched as news reached them of now-dead loved ones, including Tuvia and Zus’ wives. In time, people took Forest Wives and Husbands, seeking comfort where they could.

Zwick is no stranger to historical tales ([[[Glory]]]), and brings the same attention to detail and character here. Not only do the brothers evolve over the course of the story, but we watch all the bit players adapt, change, and grow; filling the screen with a sense of life that Bryan Singer’s Valkyrie was devoid of.  The movie is not entirely faithful to history as combat sequences including the climax were added for “Hollywood” concerns but their struggles, especially the harsh winter, ring true.

The film is backed by several special features. The 30 minute Making Of shows the attention to the little things extended to the weapons, costumes, and makeup – all well displayed. Zwick took portraits of some of those who survived and we’re treated to a nice black and white gallery. Children of the Otriad: The Families Speak, though, is the highlight, as the children and grandchildren of the Bielskis talk of their fathers and what they were like after the war. Whereas Asael (Bell) died soon after these events, the two remaining brothers survived and worked side-by-side in the trucking industry here in America for 30 years. We see them as older men in bar mitzvah footage, and it’s hard to see these elders as war heroes but there they were and while Zus still had a spark of life, Tuvia carried a gravity about him. Lilka (Alexa Davalos), the woman who came to marry Tuvia after meeting in the forest, never seems happy in the footage. Her children spoke of her inability to fully enjoy anything, another price exacted by World War II.

Comics-Op

How ungentlemanly of me. I’m late in pointing out the new column by the Occasional Superheroine Valerie D’Orazio over at Comixology, the new Comics-Op. She’s actually doing something new for comics blogging, it’s called “interviewing the principals in a news story for a column”. I think it might catch on.

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