Author: Marc Alan Fishman

Aardwolf Publishing Book Release Party, and you’re SO Invited…

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  • May 25, 2010

madrigals-6348282Who: Why you, you lovely person you!

What: A party to celebrate the release of Aardwolf Publishing’s The Whorehouse Madrigals by Hank Magitz

When: Wednesday, May 25th, at 7:30-10:30 PM

Where: Manitoba’s Bar, 99 Avenue B. New York, NY

Why: Let us count the reasons! 1. Cause it’s ‘New Book Day’ and it should be celebrated. 2. An appearance by the legendary Gene Colan! 3. Performances by Clifford Meth, Peppi Marchello, and Handsome Dick Manitoba!

How about a link?  Why here you go, sport!

What if I can’t get there? Order the book anyway!

Monday Mix-Up: The New ‘Lost’ Spin-Off!

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  • May 24, 2010

Sad that you’ll no longer spend your free time with The Others? Wish you could curl up on your couch with some Doritos, and visit with those crazy survivors of Oceanic Flight 815? Wish that they had a never ending set of alternative realities after they set off that bomb? Well fret no more you DHARMA loving dudes and dudettes. This fall ABC is bringing a LOST spin-off to the air that will bring you right back into the large and crazy world of LOST. We got a special sneak peak here folks, so click play and get ready for the mystery to continue…

Saturday Morning Cartoons: Big Guy And Rusty

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  • May 22, 2010

In 1995 Geoff Darrow and Frank Miller brought us a wonderful comic. It starred an “Astro-Boy-esque” boy robot, Rusty, and his American counterpart… the metal capped, gun filled beast know as the Bug Guy. Four years later, in an attempt to fill their waning Saturday morning block, then chocked to the gills with “Goosebumps” reruns and “Big Bad Beetle Borgs”… fox ordered up 2 seasons worth of goodness. The show had it all. Skeezy businessmen with talking monkeys, even scientists, giant robots, even gianter monster, and enough explosions to rattle the brain of any good-hearted sugar-coated kid looking for his next fix of boom-booms.

In addition, the series boasted some heavy hitting voice talent, including Clancy Brown, R. Lee Ermey, Kathy Kinny, Steven Root, and Nancy Cartwright. While the show obviously ended in 2000, thanks to the internet, we can bring you the amazingly patriotic theme song  below, as well as graciously link you to the entire series, which you can watch for free over at Hulu (better do it soon, you never know when they’ll take that away…). So folks, without any further explanation, enjoy a big ole’ dose of the good stuff. Now take yer’ medicine.

Ten New Laws On the Books in Arizona

So, it seems every day as we open our papers, turn on our TV’s, and fire up our computers… Arizona is adding law after law that makes our jaws drop. If Arizona were itself a TV show, it just jumped a shark, and added several new adorable “cousins” to liven up it’s image. From requiring President Barack Obama to present his birth certificate in order to run for re-election in the state, to it’s newest law allowing police the ability to pull over anyone they suspect of being an illegal immigrant… we’re not sure who’s writing the laws in the state. According to our sources though, it appears to be none other than state captive Norman Osborn. After his depantsing at the hands of the newly formed Avengers, our embedded agent at S.H.I.E.L.D. found documentation that as his back-up back-up plan to leading project H.A.M.M.E.R., Norman decided to get into villainous legislation writing. Who knew Arizona would be his biggest buyer! The following list was sent to us by our agent, laying out 10 new laws Normie has planned for the state to vote into law:

1.Police officials will be allowed to pull over anyone they suspect of owning Spider-Man merchandise. The detained will be searched, and if they have anything pertaining to the wall-crawler, they will be paddled in the bottom until they cry uncle.

2.Fast Food chains will have to present documentation with all nutritional information for their food on demand. Fast Food chains will also have to add at least 3 oz. of liquid ‘Globulin Green’ to all food products. For health reasons.

(more…)

Is Captain America Unamerican?

Tip of the hat to Yahoo! Movies for finding out our national hero, Captain America, will be filming his autobiography not amongst purple mountain’s majesty… he’ll be filming in limey Britain!

A wag of our finger to Marvel Films who, in the interest of saving a few Ben Franklins, moved production to the land of fish and chips. Our collective hearts weep at the thought of Steve Rogers hurling his mighty vibranium-iron alloy circular disk of patriotism to vanquish vile villains inside a faux-America set housed inside some sound stage; Washed over in the gray malaise of London fog. We can only hum a few bars of “Yankee Doodle” before our voices crack, at the mere notion that Steve Rogers, chock full of super-soldier serum, is punching Hitler on anything other than good old-fashioned American soil. And don’t go telling us that Captain America didn’t punch Hitler in America. We know he didn’t. But in our minds, we all know Cap should be thwapping the Third Reich on a Hollywood set, minutes away from succulent fish tacos and the best menudo money can buy.

We know the economy is rough these day, ComicMix Nation. And yes, the state of California imposes huge taxes on filming in L.A. And yes, we know Britain offers up to a 25% tax credit incentive to bring productions to it’s limp-wristed shores… And we might be ok if that figgie-pudding eating Edgar Wright filmed his supposed Ant-Man feature in his home country (cause face it, no one cares about Ant-Man. Not even Ant-Man cares about Ant-Man.), but face facts, America. Captain America should be filmed where all good American summer blockbusters are filmed:

Canada.

The Next Season Of ‘Smallville’ Is The Last. So What Do You Need To See?

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Just in case you’ve not been knee-deep in the most current TV news, allow us to share some tidbits about your favorite CW drama with super people. That’s right, next fall, the tenth season of Smalleville will be the last. How do we know? Well, ole’ Clark himself, actor Tom Welling told Hollywood Life. The 33 year old actor was quoted as saying “Season 10 of Smallville will be the last season.”… Seems pretty straight forward to us, and the CW confirmed it at the upfronts. With many fans wondering how long the show was going to go on (after series regular Michael Rosenbaum left, and several disappointing storylines), it seems as good a time as any for the long running drama to take a bow.

Thanks largely in part to some revitalization from DC Comics guru Geoff Johns, who contributed to the season high ‘Absolute Justice’, the series gained back some lost steam with fans during it’s 9th season. Name dropping “Apokolips”, adding “Checkmate” and Amanda Waller didn’t hurt either. But with Clark still donning his “Neo-Lite” black trenchcoat and silver sparkle Superman tee-shirt combo… will the final season break the original series law of “No Flights. No Tights.”?

Well ComicMix’ers season 10 is just a summer away. So we ask you, what do you want to see in in the final Smallville episodes? Clark don his signature eyewear? More Justice-League Lite? More JSA? A showdown with Lord Darkseid? How about a return of Michael Rosenbaum? Let us know in the comments below!

DCU Figure Line Wave 15 Hits the Shelf, Later This Summer

Kudos to the king of nerd collector sites, Mattycollector.com for bringing us up to speed on the newest line of figures to hit shelves as part of the DC Universe line of toys this summer. Continuing to bring DC fans a plethora of their favorite golden, silver, and modern age heroes and villains, Mattel is bringing a wave of 7 figures (with a few chases which we’ll describe in a bit) for you to put down your hard earned cash for. Collecting them all this time will nab you the mighty Legion of Super Heroes villain Validus, complete with see-thru-brain head!

Wave 15 (yes, 15!) of the figures include:

  • Starman – Your choice of either the golden age Ted Knight version or his son Jack in his modern garb. Each Starman comes with their respective Cosmic Staff; Ted also comes with his Stellar Energy Pistol. No clue yet which is considered the chase. But we’re counting on you super collectors to get both anyways, right?
  • Raven – Joining that Beast Boy and Cyborg on your shelf comes this fan-choice figure. She comes with high heels and well toned arms. And a big blue cape.
  • Jemm – The crimson skinned Saturnian is in the line, probably to be a stitch in the side of…
  • The Martain Manhunter – That’s right! In case you don’t have him from the JLI set, the JLA Classified Set, or any other set… get your mitts on a little J’onn J’onzz for yourself. He comes in two flavors in the wave… double fisted, or a chase figure packed with a “Martian head sculpt” and a “Martian weapon hand”. Nope, we don’t know what the weapon hand looks like either.
  • OMAC – This one’s for the king, baby! Jack Kirby’s mohawked mighty one man army corps makes his way into plastic kids… scoop him up!
  • Sinestro Corps Batman – Sure it was only drawn into one panel… but we’ll be damned if it wasn’t a cool panel! The Sinestro Corps Dark Knight comes with a translucent bat ring construct.
  • Golden Pharaoh – For the true collector, Golden Pharaoh was a figure release in the original Super Powers action figure line. He comes packed with his Mystical Pyramid Staff and sports a manly translucent purple torso.

Megan Fox out of ‘Transformers 3’

It seems Hollywood is rife with debate on the news that token Tn’A actress Megan Fox will not reprise her award schwing worthy role in the Transformer Threequel. The debate? Whether Fox herself chose not to be a part of the Bay directed blockbuster, or if the ‘Godard of Explosions’ simply chose not to bring her back.

As reported by Yahoo! Movies and Deadline Hollywood it seems Boom-Boom-Bay was the one who chose not to bring back Fox, citing several issues leading to his decision. Could it be because the Juliard trained heroine of Transformers and Transformers 2: Revenge of the Robo-Rappin’ Robots equated working with Bay to working for Hitler? Perhaps. Maybe it was Fox’s insinuation during interviews for her Oscar nominated performance in Jennifer’s Actually An Evil Monster, But You’re Here Just To Look at Her Body that Michael Bay’s sets were “dangerous”, and that the director “[is] like Napoleon and he wants to create this insane, infamous mad-man reputation…”

Bay left no comments on his website regarding the matter, leaving studio reps to communicate with the press. Reps from Paramount stated that “in order to take Shia’s character – Samuel James Witwicky — in a new
direction, it was better if Sam wasn’t tied down to a love interest.”

In response, Megan’s people told People Magazine that “it was her decision not to return. She wishes the franchise the best.”

When asked for a comment the leader of the Autobots, Optimus Prime, added… “I will miss working with Ms. Fox. Her headlights put the spark back in my matrix. But we are confident the human leader Bay will provide us with a new human sacrifice for the all-spark for our next filmed venture.”

Look for Transformers 3: More Stuff Explodes and You Won’t Understand What’s Going On Anyways 3D to hit theaters and IMAXes in July of 2011. 

Is Manga Dying in the U.S.?

  • Uncategorized
  • May 19, 2010

naruto-7769209In case you’re coming late to the party, it seems the American manga market is drying up faster than our mother’s brisket on Sunday nights. Our first hint came when Publishers Weekly recently reported that Viz Media, one of the largest publishers of manga in the U.S., laid off 40% of their staff. This included closing a small New York based office, and putting as many as 55 people packing up their desks. Following on their heels, DC Comics’ Dan DiDio and Jim Lee announced today that the doors of the DC Manga imprint, CMX, will be closed on July 1st. In addition to these two large announcements, Go! Comi, a smaller North American manga publisher let it’s website domain expire on May 8th, and has since ceased it’s activity.

What’s at the root of all of this decimation? While we wished it was some form of attack, perhaps from Sachiel, Shamshel, or Arael from Neon Genesis Evangelion, or perhaps a dastardly plot by Orochimaru… Sadly, in this case, it’s most likely due to the state of both the American and worldwide economy. As reported at The Beat, Gia Manry of Viz was asked if this was a time for panic:

“…this is probably closer to VIZ still at the dock, realizing that the boat won’t survive the trip at its current weight and therefore removing what it can before setting sail. VIZ is, after all, no stranger to the occasional unpopular move made to preserve the business. With no obvious “next Naruto” on the rise and big hit Fullmetal Alchemist about to end its run in Japan as well as general economic difficulties world-wide, it should come as no surprise that VIZ is tightening its belt for what may be a pretty lean year– or several.”

Speaking to CBR, Dan DiDio and Jim Lee released a joint statement:

“The shuttering of the CMX line does not affect the best-selling series Megatokyo which will continue publication, now as a DC Comics title with story and art by Megatokyo’s award-winning creator Fred Gallagher.

“We’d like to take a moment to acknowledge the efforts and dedication of the CMX staff and to thank our fans who have supported CMX.”

And all of this comes on the heels of a New York Times story that discussed the recent popularity of manga at the Quuens Library branch in Bayside, where children of all ages and ethnicities were drawn to the japanese comic books. Perhaps too little too late?

So, Comic Mix’ers… what does this news mean for you? Having watched the rise of Dragonball, Dragonball Z, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Bakugan, Naruto, One Piece, Full Metal Alchemist, Death Note, Bleach, and it’s brethren… does anyone feel that maybe the American marketplace finally reached it’s saturation point? Maybe the rise of popularity by American born licenses and subtle shift in programming on TV has pushed the zeitgeist back towards the western world? We leave it open to you to discuss below in the comments. We’ll be sure to follow any more developments as they arise.

Ghostbusters Bust Ghosts in New York Public Library

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  • May 19, 2010

ghostbusters-8787806Folks sitting amongst the stacks in the New York Public Library were present for what we artist folks call a “happening”. Patrons using their laptops, searching the shelves, and researching rare facts for their reports in the Rose Reading Room were haunted by a trio of white sheeted ghosts! Who were they gonna call? Given that the NYC Library was haunted in a similar fashion back in 1984, officials were quick to call in the Ghostbusters.

Or they called Improv Everywhere, the virally-famous YouTube clan known for their No Pants Subway Rides, a Fake Ben Folds Concert, and my personal favorite, the Grocery Store Musical, amongst other ‘missions’. Improv Everywhere performed their homage to the Second City’s send-up of the paranormal to help raise awareness for the New York Public Library, which is facing a serious budget cut. A cut to the tune of 37 million dollars.  

We want to give some kudos to library’s marketing department for hooking up some some local talent to help create this viral buzz. Given what a budget cut of this size would do to the New York Public Library System, now’s the time to act. If you’d like to do your part to keep one of the countries coolest library systems in tact, you can visit their site and donate. Or if you live in the area, they are calling for a letter writing campaign as well. So, do your part, lest YOU be haunted by ghosts yourself.

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