DC talks directly to you

DC Publisher and President and writer Paul Levitz gives ComicMix a major interview, Frank Miller’s 300 reviewed, Tim Sale’s Heroes work goes up for a charity auction… all this and, yes, Timeline and even more on ComicMix Podcast #12, available right here:

Transcript

www.ComicMix.com I'm confused. I'm a little confused. Alright, I know it's been a long week and you're a little mixed up here, but let me get somebody in here who can point you in the right direction. Hi, this is Paul Levitt, president and publisher of DC Comics, and this is ComicMix.

Thank you, Paul. Hang around. We'll talk to you in a little bit. Hi and welcome to The Weeknd. It's Mike Rodd with another podcast. This week, the first big review, the real review that is of 300. We'll have that for you. A lot of news and a trip back in time to see David, Maddie and Ducky too. All that on March 10, 2007. ComicMix. Alright, one more bit of 300 news here. I have watched that trailer on YouTube over and over again.

I still have not seen a little Watchmen clip. If you find it, would you just take a screencap of it and send it to me, please? A lot of talk about Zach Gregory being the guy to be the guy who's going to be the guy behind the Watchmen if it comes to the screen. But keep in mind, before you get too excited, there have been a whole bunch of people who have had their names attached to this over the past 20 years or so. So don't count your chickens too early, and as soon as anything solid is happening, we'll let you know here at ComicMix.

NBC is doing something very nice for the folks at the Epilepsy Foundation. What they're going to do is auction off the artwork from Tim Sale, some of the stuff you've seen on the show, the big paintings they've had, and prints of some of those paintings as well. Now, there'll be some of the artwork that was included in the episodes, Exploding Man, Eclipse, Clara on the Stairs, and Hero in T-Rex. Bidding begins on March 26 at 6 p.m. and ends on March 28 at midnight, and there'll be a second auction coming up on April 2nd, running through April 4th. For more information and to do a real good cause for the folks at the Epilepsy Foundation, go to NBC.com.

Well, on May 9th, the very first issue of Countdown is going to be coming out, and they're making this returnable about stores. Now, this may not mean a lot to you as a comic book buyer, but keep in mind that comic book store owners don't get to send back comics that they don't sell. They have to keep them. That's why it's called the Direct Market. There's a whole bunch of history about that. We'll go into it another time. However, DC has decided that for the first issues of Countdown, they're going to make them fully returnable, hoping the retailers will get way behind this. By the way, you do know that Countdown starts with issue 51 and then goes down from there. Okay, just in case you hadn't figured that out.

First issue, by the way, has a great cover by Adam Kubert and a lot more, and we'll give you some more details as soon as we know them. Speaking of sold-out comics and that sort of thing in the comic book stores, the first three issues of the Spider-Man Back in Black series have all sold out. Not only Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man number 17, which we told you about a week or so ago, but also Sensational Spider-Man 35. And Spider-Man Family number one, there will be second printings coming out though, and we'll give you details about that more than likely in our Tuesday podcast. www.ComicMix.com

Well, another weekend in the spring, another comic book movie. This time Frank Miller's 300, everybody's talking about. But we're talking about it in our own special way. Let's go over to the other Rob that works for ComicMix. Here's Matt Raub who bought a ticket and has something to talk about. Spottons! Tonight we dine in hell! That's right. I got to review 300 this week. And you know, I really wanted this movie to be amazing.

This was supposed to be the big doorway into summer movie blockbuster land. You know, we've got Spider-Man 3, Transformers, Fantastic Four 2, and this movie was supposed to be the beginning of the best. But I just didn't get that feeling. I had a few issues with the movie, which you could read fully in my review on ComicMix, but my biggest problem was that it was visually the exact same movie as Robert Rodriguez's Sin City.

Granted, they are both based on Frank Miller's graphic novels, but I was hoping for something a little different. In this movie we get the green screen background, we get the music video editing, and the frame by frame comparison to the book. But I expected something along the lines of a Lord of the Rings style epic. Not some new hip spin on a Greek myth about Spartan soldiers. Our arrows will blow out the sun!

Then we will fight in the shade. And don't even get me started on the use of the heavy metal guitar during the more epic battle sequences. Call me crazy, but nothing ruins the mythos of a story about an ancient Greek battle, than the sounds of a Jimi Hendrix style twanging on a guitar. I was definitely not buying into that.

Other than that, I really enjoyed Gerard Butler as Leonidas, king of the Spartans. I totally bought him as a scary, sociopathic warlord with a heart of gold, seeing as how the last thing I saw him in was playing the mass main character and Phantom of the Opera. And the time he could stand was baptized in the fire of combat. All in all, I give this movie about a 6 out of 10, which in my opinion isn't the greatest.

But hey, Frank Miller's got a lot of graphic novels out there, and maybe there's a Sin City 2 out there in the works. But don't forget to hop on over to ComicMix.com and check out my full review. And until next time, I'm Matt Raub. Today, and for the past while, he's been the publisher and president of DC Comics. But once upon a time, he was a fan, publishing a little fanzine as well.

In between now and then, he wrote The Legion, he wrote The Justice Society of America, and love him or hate him, you've got to admit this gentleman's been through a lot in the comic book industry. It's Paul Leavitts who sat down to talk to us real briefly, not long ago. And one of the first things I wanted to ask was, in the time that he's been in the forefront of comics, what's the biggest change he sees today?

The biggest thing I think that's changed is where comics stand with regard to the culture. When I came into this in the early 70s as a fan, the American culture was really still recovering from worth him. And if you ask the average person what comics were, they were something for some kids, and not for any kind of adult except possibly a retarded one. We're now living in a time where the content of the material has certainly changed,

but the cultural acceptance has changed even more. And it's now central to the culture, the kinds of ideas that are explored in comics, the feeling that comics are a hit and cool medium within the field. Some of that changes the reality, but a much larger change is the perception, and it's an enormous self-fulfilling prophecy at the end.

You know, as you walk around, you see kids wearing Spider-Man PJs and teenagers wearing Superman t-shirts, but that doesn't necessarily mean they read the comics. I think the big movies like a Spider-Man 3 or more this summer might change that for a lot of people. Thanks a lot Paul, and thanks for your support too here at ComicMix. You can always check everything Paul has done, including some of those classic Legion stories as well.

Just search right here at ComicMix.com. While this was a week, we were still trying to figure out what the heck happened in Crisis on Infinite Earth. The last issue, number 12, hit the stores, as well as the very first issue of a new Dead Man series. And DC did a science fiction adaptation in a graphic novel format of a book called Frost and Fire. That was real pretty to look at.

It was a typical Marvel 80s week with issues of Cloak and Dagger. That was number 5, New Mutants number 37, Top Book of the Week from Marvel, Uncanny X-Men 203. The racks from the other publishers were stuffed with all sorts of black and white gerbils and hamsters and all that sort of thing. And it was an issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles just to let us know that they were still going on. In news, it was a sad day as Navy divers located the remains of the crew of the ill-fated Space Shuttle Challenger.

And Gasoline Price Wars caused a drop in gasoline prices today to 63.9 cents a gallon. We won't even comment on that. On TV, well, for the forgettable list, there was Lime Street, a show Saturday nights on CBS if no one remembers. Helltown that had that guy that almost got arrested for murder a couple years ago. Trapper John M.D. as well. But the best, the best, there was a lot. Let me tell you, 18, Remington Steel and then there was Moonlighting.

We made money. The first money we made. Money we've made. That sounds so much nicer than money we spend or money we've lost. Sure does. Why, you are so beautiful when you get fiscal. Get your hand off my mind.

Is that your behind? Is that my hand? You know, that's what I like about this place. You learn something new every day. But you get serious. Here it is. Matty, I just have my hand on your behind. If I get any more serious, you're going to move us to cable.

You know, maybe a cliche to say it, but there's something that still holds up even a number of years after the last episode. Find out for yourself, by the way, the last season, season five, was just released on DVD about a week ago. In movies, Care Bears 2 came out this week. If you want to flip the coin completely over, so did 9.5 weeks. However, one movie that's still in the theaters on this very date was a classic. You can call it hokey, you can call it retro, but this one is still on a lot of people's top ten lists.

His name is Blaine? That's a major appliance. That's not a name. He told me he couldn't believe in somebody who didn't believe in you. I believed in you. Always believed in you. He just didn't believe in me. If you believe, don't leave now, please…

John Cryer, Molly Ringwald and more. It was pretty in pink. And on the radio is the song I'm guessing falls in also to the love it or aid it box. Either way, keep all sharp objects out of your hands for the next 30 seconds or so. It's Falco. Ooh, Ruppy Amadeus! Ruppy Amadeus!

Ruppy Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus!

Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus!

Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus!

Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus!

Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus!

Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus!

Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus!

Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus!

Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus!

Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus!

Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus!

Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus!

Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus!