Author: Mike Gold

Well, you just can’t keep a good Doctor down.

76 year-old Tom Baker, the longest-running Doctor to date, will once again return to the role of the fourth Doctor in original adventures – this time for Big Finish’s full-cast audio productions. This follows this year’s Baker’s successful six-hour full-cast audio, Hornets’ Nest, for the BBC.

All Baker requested was total control to create his own stories; Big Finish, having worked with Doctors five, six, seven and eight along, agreed. They’re no fools. Thus far Big Finish has produced several hundred hours of original full-cast adventures featuring the Doctor(s) and one or more of his companions, including spin-off adventures featuring Sarah Jane Smith, the Daleks, UNIT and others.

Rumors continue to persist about Baker someday returning to the hit television show, although if you pay attention to the noise it seems he’s more interested in playing a villain than in appearing as the fourth Doctor in a crossover, although charity events might create that opportunity. Until then, we can listen to his new work and let our imagination do the heavy lifting.

All of this is according to Baker’s website, The folks at Big Finish have yet to confirm or deny.

In the never-ending battle with the Jerry Siegel estate over the rights and ownership of Superman, DC has fired its old law firm and replaced him with a big, scary guy.

Well, Warner Bros. did the hiring. DC no longer has any distance from their parent company and therefore no longer steers the ship.

The new guy is Daniel Petrocelli. With respect to the current Superman situation, this is the guy who hammered the estate of literary
agent Stephen Slesinger on behalf of the Disney empire. Slesinger was the man who initially propelled Winnie the Pooh into the hearts and souls of Americans. Petrocelli got the suit tossed not on its merits but because the Slesingers’ lawyers illegally obtained documents by
trespassing on Disney property. Hey, a win’s a win.

Petrocelli is defending Jeffrey Skilling, the Enron CEO who was convicted of the massive swindle that cost so many Americans their life savings, their jobs, and/or their retirement. And by “convicted,” I mean the case is presently before the Supreme Court in an attempt to free the convict instead of letting him roast in a well-deserved living hell. But that’s just my opinion, and I like the guy’s brother.

This is not to say the Siegel estate doesn’t have its own heavy-hitter. Marc Toberoff, who already won some major innings in this particular dispute, is well-known in media circles and is also representing the Jack Kirby estate in a similar action against Marvel and their parent company, Marvel Comics. Toberoff’s involvement mitigates against the philosophy that Petrocelli was hired simply to intimidate the Siegel estate.

The people out of a job are the firm of Weissmann Wolff Bergman, who successfully defended DC Comics and our pals Timothy Truman and Joe R. Lansdale when the faded rock stars Johnny Winter and Edgar Winter gracelessly sued the bunch over a tribute in a Jonah Hex miniseries.

On the right, the well-known Watchmen icon. Trademarked and in use since 1986.

On the left, Marvel Comics’ ad for their new X-Men summer event, “We Are The X-Men.”

Coincidence? Really?

Worse still, if there are any walruses in the storyline, Marvel could have Yoko Ono up their ass.

About seven minutes after Canada beat the United States for the Winter Olympics gold medal, I got a call from ComicMix‘s own utility infielder, Glenn Hauman.

“So are you going to write it up?” Glenn asks.

“Write WHAT up?” Mike responds.

“The Grell thing, Glenn responds.

“Damn. WHAT did Mike do NOW,” Mike queries, oblivious to the obvious while deep in the throws of mourning the
American’s having to settle for a mere silver medal.

“You know, that hockey thing.” Like most Americans, Glenn’s not much of a hockey fan. He didn’t even know that his local team, the New Jersey Devils, was beating the poo out of nearly every other NHL team this year except for my Chicago Blackhawks.

“WHAT hockey… oh, I get it.” The cold light of reality started seeping into my blackened brainpan; the first sign of recovery for a hockey fan. Or maybe it’s the first sign of soberness; I wouldn’t know.

It turns out a couple years ago I assisted Iron Mike in a special licensing project for the NHL turning a bunch of rookies and newbies into super-heroes. It was a lot of fun for me, but mostly because this time Mike was the one playing point with the licensee and I was simply “advising,” which is a euphemism for “consulting,” which is another word for “money for nothing and your chicks for free.” Mike did some great work on this series, and among the players so empowered was an astonishingly young phenom called Sidney Crosby.

Sidney, of course, went on to become one of the hottest players in the NHL and captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins. He also received the ultimate honor: I wear a Penguins t-shirt with his name and number on the back.

Sidney Crosby also scored the sudden death overtime goal last night that gave his homeland another gold medal for hockey. Quite aside from my genuinely patriotic fervor in my support of Team USA, it was an amazing goal and a well-earned victory.

And it teaches a lesson. See what happens when Mike Grell turns you into a super-hero?

Commercial artist Frank Kasy was thrown by a 1,200 pound horse and was taken to a Chicago hospital. “It’s a miracle he’s still alive,” his friend Jim Wisniewski told ComicMix today.

Outside of ad agencies, Kasy is perhaps best known as Alex Ross’s model for Superman in his sundry DC Comics paintings and stories. As of presstime, he’s holding his own, watching Jack Webb videos. Jim told Frank “They rolled you in here, but thanks to your Kryptonian blood, you will walk out soon”

Actually, we expect Frank to fly out of the hospital. Get well soon, Frank.