Author: Luana Haygen

Today’s list of quick items that don’t fill a full post on their own:

• Cartoon Network has committed to 26 episodes of Marvel Super Hero Squad, to begin broadcasting in late 2009.
   
• Apparently, the classic romantic comedy of manners is just not considered to be of sufficient interest anymore. First, Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy were battling zombies; now, they’re facing an alien invasion. Where’s the reverse of this trend? When do they put “Mars Attacks—and Hosts an Afternoon Garden Party” on the schedule?
   
• The BBC plans to put Doctor Who on stage.  (Wow, and it worked out so well for that other beloved British property, The Lord of the Rings. Heck, maybe Coraline will prove me wrong.)
   
• Dragonball purists will no doubt be disappointed to learn that Goku will be played by a 26-year-old in the live-action film Dragonball Evolution. However, fans of James Marsters—who’s portraying Goku’s foe, Lord Piccolo—are probably salivating at the slashy opportunities that this choice offers. Let’s face it, slash is a fine manga/anime tradition; plus, that episode of Buffy Season 6, in conjunction with that episode of Torchwood Season 2, suggest that Marsters is making a career of playing characters who confuse fighting with foreplay (and that’s definitely not a bad thing…).
   
• Cardiologist needed at the Satellite of Love (or its current equivalent), stat! Mike Nelson, formerly of MST:3K, now of RiffTrax, is spending the month of February on an all-bacon diet.  He’s not allowed to add any sauces or condiments to the bacon, either, which seems an unwarranted restriction, because how can you go on an all-bacon diet without trying Bacon Explosion?

Anything else? Consider this an open thread.

Amy Goldschlager is an editor for FindingDulcinea.com.

We were all kids once and, let’s face it, for many of us there was a particular television show or short that caught our attention and grabbed our inner-geek by the shoulders to shout “Look at me!” Whether you had a particular fondness for Interplanet Janet (“She’s a galaxy girl!”), Underdog, or Super Grover, chances are that something you saw in early childhood helped shape you into the fan you are today.

My sister and I always loved Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends (new action figures are coming out this year!), and my niece is a huge Power Puff Girls fan. This got me wondering what shows will inspire today’s budding geeks. The great thing about these days is that DVD and the Internet make it possible to view not only the latest children’s shows, but everything you feel that old nostalgia for as well. However, today’s children aren’t always as excited about the Wonder Twins or Cowboy Curtis as Mom and Dad may have been. Here, then, are some more recent selections for the latest generation of fans:

1. Backyardigans
From Pirates to Samurai to Space-Travelers and everything in-between, this colorful and musical CGI-animated show (formerly aired on Nickelodeon, and now available on DVD) is all about five anthropomorphic neighbors whose imaginations take them on adventures to faraway times and places. While teaching children about the value of friendship and imagination and introducing several styles of music and dance, this show also stirs the core of future gamers. You see, the characters, Austin (a kangaroo), Pablo (a penguin), Tasha (a hippo), Tyrone (a moose), and Uniqua (a creature vaguely reminiscent of a child-sized pink ant), are like a game group. They meet, they create characters, they play out their roles and scenarios as their game characters, and then they have a snack. If you’ve ever gamed at a con, you know this drill.

(more…)

Today’s list of quick items that don’t fill a full post on their own:

• Don’t believe the lousy "ratings" on Dollhouse that some folks are touting. The only ratings that can conceivably be in are overnights from the largest markets. No Live+7 (in other words, people who have it in their DVR because they went to see Friday The 13th in theaters this weekend) and no smaller markets. Ask again next week.
• On the other hand, Eliza Dushku is already looking for extra work as the Black Widow in Iron Man 2…
• Vinnie Bartilucci points us to a possible shooting location for M. Night Shyamalan’s Avatar: The Last Airbender.
• Chris Sims is doing Valentine’s Day again in that special, special way of his.
• And finally, The Simpsons premieres tonight in HD, and they actually change the credits for the occasion. The first permanent change in 19 years. Yikes. Take a look– can you spot Fat Tony? (You can cheat by looking here.)

Anything else? Consider this an open thread.

You may have seen BOOM! Studios‘s marketing slogan a while back: MARK WAID IS EVIL.

What you probably didn’t know was that there were other slogans that were considered and rejected…

Today’s collection of items may not be worth a post of their own, but may be of interest:

• Twilight watch: Director Catherine Hardwicke declined a monster payday to direct the sequel New Moon, but she said no because she didn’t want to make the movie under the deadline and budget constraints that would have been placed on her. Edward actor Robert Patterson says he bores people in 2 minutes. And Stephen King says ‘Twilight’ author Stephenie Meyer ‘can’t write’.
• Jennifer de Guzman has had her hours cut 40%. Been there, done that. Courage, Jen. That said, I’m not sure I agree with her Publishers Weekly column, Can Creativity Save Comics from Troubled Times? I think it’s going to take new ways of doing business.
• Surprising stories behind 20 Muppet characters. Pepe the King Prawn’s full name is Pepino Rodrigo Serrano Gonzales? Coooool.
• D’Israeli gives this warning to colorists looking back at their works: Be Sure Your Sins Will Find You Out. Been there, too.
• And finally, Russ Rogers sent us this, a little ditty called "Batman’s Song" which, even though the writing pre-dates it, certainly sounds like the Batman’s lament from the Grant Morrison run…

Anything else we missed? Consider this an open thread.

Two years ago today, on February 10, 2007, ComicMix went live to the world. In that short time, I’ve seen a lot, worked some very long hours, pulled many all-nighters, and would like to think I’ve come to some useful observations about the industry, which I now share with you.

1. The only think more disruptive to your regular work schedule and overall concentration than long-term hourly blogging would be posting the numbers 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42 every 108 minutes to a website. But we keep at it.

2. There are more of you out there than you think. There are more of us out there than we thought. Finding them all has been the challenging part. There’s always somebody who hasn’t gotten the word. The number of times someone has come up to me at a convention and said "GrimJack is back? I had no idea!" is still astounding to me.

3. Research and development, in comics and in technical matters, is not predictable. If it was, it wouldn’t be research and development, would it? But we continue to try and improve the website every day, and we keep pushing at the boundraries of comics. Lots of it may be invisible to you until it suddenly appears– but that’s the way the best magic works.

4. There is an almost staggering amount of creative work going on out there, so much so that it’s in danger of overwhelming Sturgeon’s Law. And happily, it’s a mix of styles and content, appealing to every niche– and every (you’ll pardon the phrase) mix. You want a story of zombies vs. vampires, you got it. You want pretty young girls meddling with mad science? No problem. And so on.

5. You never do a massive undertaking like this alone. I started to write up a list of all the people who have helped us out over the last two years plus and easily topped two hundred people– to all of them, who’ve helped us out in good times and bad, thank you all.

6. The Internet is still a big scary place to a lot of companies– and that’s really a shame, because that’s where all of their readers are hanging out nowadays, and it’s a lot cheaper than pushing paper around at a loss. But that’s a subject for a much longer post.

Again, thanks to everyone who’s contributed to ComicMix— writing, drawing, commenting, reading, or just having fun. Here’s to the future. See you in 108 minutes or so.

A collection of news items that have come in over the last few days while we’ve been recovering from NYCC.

• KC Carlson is also recovering, but from a mini-stroke instead of con crud. Get well soon, big guy.
• Brett Ratner directing Youngblood, according to Variety. So if you love what he did with X-Men 3… and Rob Liefeld continues one heck of a lucky streak.
• Denys Cowan alerted me to the existence of a Black Panther trailer for the BET series this summer, but for some reason Marvel didn’t make it embeddable. Because, I presume, they don’t want to let people share and promote it. Way to go, Marvel. Go follow the link.
• Rich Johnston for the win:
  Daniel Dae Kim, better known as Jin off of “Lost”, also attending the New York Comic Convention this weekend, in his capacity of being in “Lost,” “24,” “Enterprise,” “Angel,” “Hulk,” “Crusade” and all that. But he also wanted to walk around the show, buy comics, meet creators etc, without getting mobbed. So someone found him a “V For Vendetta” mask, letting Daniel walk around untouched for hours.
  As I start looking through all my photos…
• And finally, Spider-Man cake wrecks. (Hat tip: Lisa Sullivan.)

Anything else we missed? Consider this an open thread.