Author: Martha Thomases

Fantastic Four director looking at The Losers

  • News
  • June 11, 2007

The Hollywood Reporter, via Reuters, says that Tim Story, director of the new Fantastic Four film opening this weekend, will direct The Losers for Warner Bros. The series, which debuted 37 years ago in Our Fighting Forces, was recently revived for DC’s Vertigo line by Andy Diggle and Jock.

Story said, "I told my agents I didn’t want to do another comic book.  I had been in the world of fantasy and I wanted to do something very edgy, a realist action movie. I wanted to find something like a Bourne Identity or Black Hawk Down."’

You can download the first issue of the Vertigo series at http://www.dccomics.com/graphic_novels/?gn=1687

MARTHA THOMASES: Gangster of Love

martha100-8677944This may come as something of a shock, but tomorrow night is the last episode of The Sopranos.

Now, I’m not the world’s most dedicated fan. I came late to the party, not tuning in regularly until the second season. I tend to be suspicious of critical darlings, afraid they might be uplifting and good for me, or depressing and bleak. However, in this case, my husband and my son were both enthusiastic, I recognized the name of creator David Chase from The Rockford Files, and so, one night, I didn’t get out of my chair when the distinctive theme song came on.

It would be nice if I could say that I was hooked on the brilliant acting, the profound scripts, even the incredibly realistic portrait of middle-class values in New Jersey. That would be a lie. I tuned in to watch Michael Imperioli, because I thought he was really cute.

Over the years, though, I got sucked in. Watching these characters week in and week out (not counting the breaks that lasted over a year) helped me to identify with them. No, I’m not part of organized crime, but I, too, tend to offer my loved ones food when they come to tell me about their problems. I’m not a hired killer, but I’ve been angry enough to want to take someone out to the woods and leave them there.

Serial fiction, like soap opera, comics and Harry Potter books, are especially good at enmeshing the audience with the cast of characters. What The Sopranos has done so well with the form is to take people who are evil, who kill and steal, and make them so mundanely human.

When I read a Superman comic every week, I feel like I’m spending time with a friend I’ve known since I was five years old. He’s in the media in a major media market, probably knows a bunch of the same people I know. Bruce Wayne has a penthouse in midtown, and is a big part of the city’s party circuit, a beat I’ve covered. The Legion of Super-Heroes is like a big dorm, and I lived in dormitories through high school and college.

So, even extremely unrealistic comic book characters present no challenge to me. I can bond with them no matter how inane nor how two-dimensional the writing. Even though they have super-powers (or at least super-human self-discipline), I can find things in common that make it possible for me to relate to them.

But Tony Soprano? He lives in (gasp!) New Jersey! He works in a strip club. Both of those things put me off, even before we get to the guns and the beatings. Carmella wears a lot of make-up, has lunch with her lady friends a lot, and seems to care about jewelry. These are not qualities common to my friends or me. How do I relate?

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7-Eleven Hosts Fantastic 4 Screenings

2873_1-1827424Having trouble staying awake during movie sequels this summer?  The 7-Eleven chain has created a new Slurpee energy drink with caffeine, taurine and guarana.  It’s so strong, you can see The Thing drinking it in Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer.

And that’s not all!  You can drink yours in a special collector cup.  Plus 7-Eleven is hosting advance screenings in 20 cities.

You say you want more?  Well, you can also go to your friendly neighborhood Spide — uh, I mean 7-Eleven and enter a contest during their month-long promotion.  Prizes include a chance to win a trip, a walk-on role in a Fox flick, and a whole lot of other suff.  According to the press release, "Visitors to http://www.slurpee.com, http://www.biggulp.com or http://www.7-eleven.com can register on the site to try to win instant prizes by playing the Fantastic 4 game."

The Weekend Numbers, Plus…

According to Variety estimates, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End was the top-grossing film this weekend, earning $43,188,000 over Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  The hilarious Knocked Up was second with $29,284,20, while Shrek the Third earned $26,704,000.  Newbie Mr. Brooks earned just over $10 million, while Spider-Man 3 took in $7.5 million.

Variety also says that Jack Black will star in Year One, a comedy produced by Judd Apatow and directed (and co-produced) by Harold Ramis.  Ramis is co-writer, and Owen Wilson will executive produce.

Along with the upcoming Superbad, Apatow’s plate is full.  He is producing and in some cases co-writing a series of Columbia projects, including Walk Hard, Pineapple Express and You Don’t Mess With the Zohan, which stars Adam Sandler, a former roommate of Apatow’s.

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MARTHA THOMASES: Last Man Standing

martha100-5988441When I was a teenager, the environment of my hometown became poisonous. To save me, my parents sent me to an alien environment that seemed to be a universe away, filled with people so different from me they might have been a different species altogether. No one knew anything about my home, nor about my people’s civilization and customs. Instead, I had to hide my true self until I understood how I fit in and what I had to offer the strangers with whom I lived.

No, I’m not Supergirl. I understand how you could be confused, because the resemblance is striking. However, I did find myself in a similar situation to Kara Zor-El. Instead of being a Kryptonian from Argo City sent in a rocket ship to Earth, I was a Jew from Ohio sent to an Episcopalian boarding school in Connecticut. Instead of being part of the majority as I was at my public school in Youngstown (there were so few kids in class during the High Holy Days that they could bring comics to school!), I had to go to chapel five times a week while the priest swung incense.

Many of my classmates had never seen a Jew before. Others, more worldly, would say things to me like, “You’re from Ohio? I have a friend in Wyoming. Do you know her?” For the first time in my life, I wasn’t part of the majority culture. I learned what it was like to be a minority.

There’s a lot to be learned from the majority culture.  Not the least of it is learning where you, as a minority, fit in. You learn your place. You learn how to get by. You learn another point of view, that of the majority.  That’s what taught in school. That’s what you see on television and in movies.

If you’re lucky, you take your experience as a minority and use it to understand how other minorities feel. You know what it’s like to be on the outside, looking in. In my case, as a Midwestern Jew, I could imagine how it would feel to be African-American, or gay, or Asian. I could take my own experience as a minority to imagine the experience of people who were other kinds of minorities.

Fiction helps. For example, when I read Amy Tan’s The Joy-Luck Club, I read about a society where, no matter what you did for your parents, it wasn’t enough, and that it was more important in a marriage to find a husband with money than with imagination. I was convinced that being Chinese felt just like being Jewish.

Comics help even more, if only because they are produced more quickly than novels. In The Legion of Super-Heroes, we can see how Chameleon can shape change to fit in – but chooses not to. Princess Projectra tried to hide her snake form at first, but learned to exult in it. The theme of three X-Men movies has been a metaphor for the dangers of the closet, of hiding your true self to pass for straight or, in this case, non-mutant.

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Groth vs Ellison: The Fantagraphics side

At New York’s Book Expo America today, Fantagraphics publisher Gary Groth took time out from a busy schedule with booksellers, rights agents and talent to talk to ComicMix‘s Martha Thomases and Mike Gold briefly about the upcoming arbitration session to settle Harlan Ellison’s lawsuit. We asked why he wasn’t able to go to Los Angeles for the May 29 session, as originally scheduled. "I’m a single father.  My son turns 13 tomorrow," he said.  "I just couldn’t go to Los Angeles then to New York in three days." Fantagraphics is headquartered in Seattle.

Does he hope the arbitration process will work?

"Yes, I obviously have some hope or I wouldn’t spend the money or take the time to fly down."

Is the process binding?

"It’s binding if we agree on an arrangement we can both sign off on. I don’t know what that would look like. It won’t involve any money damages, because there is no money. That was a condition of our agreement to participate.

At the booth, Fantagraphics was distributing postcards urging interested parties to view the court documents at http://www.fantagraphics.com/support-html.

Groth was in New York promoting a wide variety of Fantagraphics projects, including the Pogo series we mentioned previously and their boxed-set tribute to Bill Mauldin’s classic World War II feature, Willie and Joe. The latter is scheduled for February.

Ellison / Fantagraphics mediation delayed

  • Uncategorized
  • May 31, 2007

As previously reported, the scheduled mediation in the civil case between Harlan Ellison and Fantagraphics Press, originally scheduled for May 29 in the 9th Circuit Court in Santa Monica California, has been delayed until June 28.  "As to the postponement of the court-mandated mediation hearing that was scheduled for the 29 of May, which did not transpire, I am disappointed. Very disappointed.  Very, very disappointed."

John Carmichael, Harlan’s lawyer, explained that he received a call from Fantagraphics lawyer,, A. J. Thomas, saying that  Gary had a prior commitment that he either didn’t know about or tell his lawyer about at the time.  Carmichael had hoped the mediator would have time in the first week of June, but she only had June 23-28. She explained that it is her policy to only re-schedule once.  The reason Gary could not be in California on May 29 was his commitment to be at Book Expo in New York City, which begins June 1.  "I’m focused on getting the case settled, and if not, winning the case," he said.

Does he expect this to be resolved in one session?

"I don’t know," Carmichael replied.  "The Ninth Circuit has a very detailed sophisticated mediation program where they have court-appointed mediation lawyers.  This woman is flying down from San Francisco.  The parties are in separate rooms, they’re together at the beginning and make a statement, so each side feels heard, and then she separates them and they go into separate rooms and she shuttles between them.  It’s a great process.  It’s a great way to solve the problem."

Let us hope.

David Kelley, Thomas Schlamme on Mars

Variety reports today that David E. Kelley, creator of Ally McBeal, The Practice, and favorite among many ComicMixers, Boston Legal (among others) has hired Thomas Schlamme to direct the pilot for the American version of Life on Mars.

Schlamme previously worked on Sports Night, The West Wing, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, and Jack and Bobby, written by comic book guy Brad Metzler.  He also once inspired New York Times writer Joyce Wadler to devote an entire paragraph to how much fun it was to say his name ("Tommy Schlamme!").

The show is based on the BBC series about a time-traveling detective who gets stuck in the 1970s. 

Warner Bros. donates $$$ to Tasmanian Devil

tazwb200-9745728According to the Associated Press, the Australian government says Warner Bros. will donate money to save the Tasmanian Devil from extinction.

The real animals — which don’t actually whir around in little tornados — are being wiped out by a contagious cancer that creates "grotesque facial tumors."  Since Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumour Disease (warning: photos at link) was first detected in northeast Tasmania in the mid-1990s, more than 90 percent of the devils have perished.  Scientiests estimate that within five years, there will be no disease-free population in Tasmania.  It is hoped that the uninfected animals can be moved to island sanctuaries. 

Paula Wriedt, who is Minister of State Tourism, Arts and Environment (talk about job-sharing!) said Warner Bros. will donate $1 Australian (about $0.82 American) from the sale of each DVD in a new series to be relasaed in Australia.  The University of Tasmania will handle the donations.

"This partnership will go a long way to assist in raising funds, awareness and future opportunities to ensure the survival of the Tasmanian Devil," she said.

The AP says that a spokesman for Warner Bros. did not immediately return calls for comment on Saturday. It’s a holiday weekend, people!

Artwork copyright Warner Bros. All Rights Reserved.

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MARTHA THOMASES: Summer of Love

  • Uncategorized
  • May 26, 2007

martha100-7771239It is traditional to see Memorial Day as the unofficial beginning of summer.  Entertaining blockbuster movies open, people who rent summer homes start their weekend commutes, beaches open, and the more enlightened workplaces close early on Fridays.  It is nearly as traditional for newspaper editors to write essays decrying the fact that people “celebrate” a holiday that was started to honor the memory of those who lost their lives defending our country in wartime.

Throughout the history of literature, war has been glorified and those who fought have been lauded more than those who resisted. Graphic storytelling is no exception.  Throughout World War II, when many comics sold in the millions of copies per title, war comics and other stories where the good guys trashed the evil Axis were favorites. 

The Fifties continued in this vein, with a few ripples in the undercurrent.  Harvey Kurtzman’s Two-Fisted Tales showed that war might be more than glory.  At the same time in other parts of popular culture, the Hollywood witch-hunts, searching for Communists under ever bed, inspired brilliant science fiction and fantasy, as creators tried to tell their story through metaphor.  The Twilight Zone, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Day the Earth Stood Still – all are more profound entertainments because of the complexities of the time.

By the Sixties, everything you ever knew was wrong.  The civil rights movement, the war – and the draft – affected everyone and everything.  It was a fabulous time for pop culture.  Top 40 radio played Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder, the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, the Jefferson Airplane, all jumbled together like jambalaya.  Events like the Woodstock Festival made clear that topical issues were interconnected, that poverty, racism, sexism, homophobia and environmental destruction were the results of what happens when violence and capitalism are out of control. Underground comix made the scene, and the people who made comics were an honored part of the counter-cultural art scene.  They made comics that were completely unlike the heroic fantasies that were popular before.

That’s the basis for where we are today, pop culturally speaking.  In between, the people who sell entertainment for a living got a lot more savvy, and blurred the lines between rebellion and consumption. Want to save Africa?  Buy a phone.  You say you want a revolution?  We’ve got the car for you.

My best friend lost her brother in Viet Nam, and that was horrible.  Richard was smart and funny and would have served his country much better if he’d stayed home, worked at a job, amused his friends and had a family.  There are tens of millions of people with similar memories, and our current administration is doing all that they can to ensure that people will continue to mourn for generations.

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