The first episode of The Simpsons, titled "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" also known as "The Simpsons Christmas Special," premiered on this day in 1989 on the Fox Television — well, it wasn’t much of a network 18 years ago, but we have to call it that nowadays.
We mention it because nobody ever remembers birthdays around Christmas time.
How do you get nominated for a Writers Guild Award? Write a comic book episode, apparently; one that’s a cut above the rest. (Sorry. Should I have gone with "slice of life drama" instead?)
One of the six nominees for this year’s Writers Guild Awards in the Episodic Drama category is "The Dark Defender" episode of Dexter, which reimagines America’s favorite serial killer as a vigilante called, you guessed it, The Dark Defender, because he seems to only be killing other killers, so he’s just a misunderstood vigilante. Like Rorschach. Or Faust. Or John Wayne Ga– well, you get the idea.
Showtime has been doing little bumper videos in the style of the Dark Defender comic book, here’s a taste:
The 60th Writers Guild Awards will be February 9th, strike or no strike. The finale of this season’s Dexter airs tonight on Showtime, and the series is rerun a couple of times a week.
This one’s for Elayne and Valerie, because dang it, sometimes when guys talk about geek porn, we really mean geek porn:
In the great lineage of comic books, no one has explored heroes and villains quite like Nerdcore™. In this 12-month, 2008 calendar, heroines and their evil counterparts square off in quite revealing ways — a fully nude firestarter igniting her surroundings, a “super” lass undresses after a hard day’s night of battling bad guys, and a katana-wielding vixen, wearing a headband and not much else, shows a few ninjas who’s the real boss is. These are the powered-up ladies that watch over downtown Los Angeles from rooftops and can turn invisible with the snap of a finger. They are the heroes and villains of the 2008 Nerdcore™ calendar.
The best thing about this calendar– okay, tied for first– is that the calendar also includes the high holy days for geeks, including major movie releases like Iron Man, Speed Racer, The Dark Knight, Indiana Jones 4, Harold and Kumar 2, and The Incredible Hulk; conventions like San Diego Comic-Con, Alternative Press Expo, etc.; anniversaries for Night of the Living Dead and more cult classics; birthdays for Stan Lee, Quentin Tarantino, Jean Luc Picard and others; even Sarah Connor’s assassination, the morning Oceanic Airlines Flight 815 departed, and the day Marty was sent back to the future.
Hey, that’s important to me, I write for a website that needs that kind of important information. Shut up. I need this calendar for the dates. And no, not the dates that involve a jar of– just shut up.
Do I really have to tell you the link is not safe for work? Fine, you’ve been warned.
Now if there was only a way to put in an Amazon link for it… wait, it actually isavailable on Amazon? Well, what are you waiting for? This has got to make a decent Christmas present for someone you know. Even if the only thing they want to do with it is burn it.
Marvel and Del Rey announced this weekend at the New York Anime Festival that they plan to publish two new manga series based on the X-Men. The first project, scripted by the husband-and-wife team of Raina Telgemeier (writer and illustrator of The Babysitter’s Club graphic novels) and Dave Roman (creator of the comic Agnes Quill), will focus specifically on the X-Men team, with the storyline fashioned as a private school shôjo comedy. (Shôjo manga is aimed at girls and often covers popular subjects such as comedy, romance, and drama.) As the only girl in the all-boys School for Gifted Youngsters, Kitty Pryde, a mutant with phasing abilities, is torn between the popular Hellfire Club, led by flame-throwing mutant Pyro–and the school misfits, whom she eventually bands together as the X-Men. Indonesian artist Anzu will illustrate the two-volume series, which will go on sale in Spring 2009.
The nice folks at Del Rey Manga have provided us with looks at the character design sheets by Anzu, starting with Mystique:
Well, geez, it sure looks like he has, doesn’t it?
Apparently, BBC Channel 4 is bringing back Max Headroom for a series of TV ads to raise awareness of their switchover to digital, and yes, that’s Matt Frewer, the actor who played the original Max Headroom (and will be playing Moloch the Mystic in Watchmen). The ads feature Max criticizing Channel 4, which created the stuttering digital host in the 1980s, for ignoring his vision of a digital future. See for yourself:
If this keeps up, he’ll be playing the Crypt-Keeper next. Kudos to the BBC for hiring a digital creation who looks that decrepit, and who’s best foray into advertsising was shilling for New Coke. No bit player here. (Hat tip: Michael Pinto.)
Okay… as usual great Mike Grell story and art, but it leaves me scratching my head because sadly I do not remember when this first appeared. When and how do Ashes of Eden and his guest appearance in Shaman’s Tears fit into the overall Jon Sable continuity?
That’s because Ashes of Eden is appearing here first, on ComicMix. It’s all new. Tell your friends. (Tell them it’s new GrimJack and Munden’s Bar stories, too.)
As for continuity — let’s see if I have this straight:
Then Shaman’s Tears, which spins off into Bar Sinister, both available to read for free here on ComicMix.
Then the recent JSF IDW series, Bloodtrail, also available in lovely trade paperback.
And now the new storyline, Ashes of Eden, available to read for free here on ComicMix
Since everybody asks, Marv Wolfman’s Sable series, while exceptional in many regards, is not part of Mike Grell’s continuity. Think of it as existing on Earth Sable2, if you must. Perhaps we can get Marv to write a story combining the two earths — no, because then someone else will come along and mess it up in 2017.
Besides, Marv’s Munden’s Bar story comes first.
Glenn Hauman is associate editor of Jon Sable Freelance: Bloodtrail, Jon Sable Freelance: Ashes of Eden (which he also colors), and of the IDW Sable reprints. He’s also production director of ComicMix, has had the thankless job of putting up with editor Mike Gold for about a decade (hey, thank you, Glenn!) and spends his spare time writing Star Trek stories and roaming the streets of eastern New Jersey.
On Fan Day at the Universal Studio pickets, people came from as far away as Houston to walk the lines in solidarity with the writers of Battlestar Galactica. We think that’s worth celebrating, and that it shows who the momentum really is with in the battle of writers vs. studios.
Here’s a video of the day’s events, with appearances from writer/executive producer Ron Moore, writer/professional Blanche DuBois impersonator Harlan Ellison, and the Tick:
I’m not sure which concept scares the studios more: that the studios might have to open their books so people can see the funny accounting, or that when writers go back to work, they’re going to be so emboldened by the reaction to the strike that they start ignoring studio notes.
At Mid-Ohio Con this year, there was a Sunday night dinner between Mixers Mike Gold, Michael Davis, Martha Thomases, me, and a few other folks including Brian Pulido , and we got onto the discussion of ultimate weapons in comics– Warworld, the Cosmic Cube, the Anti-Life Equation, the Ultimate Nullifier, and so on.
I don’t know how we missed him, but Chris Ward must have been eavesdropping. He’s got his own list of fifty ultimate weapons.
Granted, he had to go outside comics to do it, but he does a pretty good job. But really– as long as you’re going outside comics, no Doomsday Machine? No Death Star? No Shadow Planet Killers? No Tox Uthat? Not even Lexx?
Certainly you have to include the Illudium PU-36 Explosive Space Modulator…
The first episode of The Simpsons, titled "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" also known as "The Simpsons Christmas Special," premiered on this day in 1989 on the Fox Television — well, it wasn’t much of a network 18 years ago, but we have to call it that nowadays.
How do you get nominated for a 
This one’s for Elayne and 
Well, geez, it sure looks like he has, doesn’t it?
Promoting a question from the comments on the latest installment of 
At Mid-Ohio Con this year, there was a Sunday night dinner between Mixers Mike Gold, Michael Davis, Martha Thomases, me, and a few other folks including Brian Pulido , and we got onto the discussion of ultimate weapons in comics– Warworld, the Cosmic Cube, the Anti-Life Equation, the Ultimate Nullifier, and so on.
