Author: Mike Gold

Steven Moffat To Take Over ‘Doctor Who’

According to our friends at Outpost Gallifrey, Steven Moffat will be succeeding Russell T Davies as the chief writer and executive producer of Doctor Who beginning with next year’s series of specials. Moreover, he will be taking over as showrunner for the 2010 series.

This move was long expected by fans and predicted by the omnipresent rumor mill.

Moffat has written a great many episodes over the past four seasons, including the award-winning “Blink,” the forthcoming “Silence in the Library” and “Forest of the Dead,” “Empty Child,” and the crossover special “Time Crash.” He has a great many credits, including the upcoming Tintin movie for Steven Spielberg.

Moffat also wrote the classic 1999 Doctor Who episode “The Curse of Fatal Death,” which starred Rowan Atkinson, Richard E. Grant, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant and Joanna Lumley as The Doctor and Jonathan Pryce as The Master. Some regard this broadcast as out-of-continuity; however, given the nature of the show one can never be certain.

He told the BBC’s publicity department “My entire career has been a secret plan to get this job. I applied before but I got knocked back ’cause the BBC wanted someone else. Also, I was seven.”

Piling It On, by Mike Gold

With great power comes… bloggers.

One of the first lessons I learned writing an Internet column – both here and on my soon-to-be-revived political rant Weird Scenes Inside The Gold Mind – is also the first lesson I learned when I started on radio shortly after Marconi found the electricity outlet: if you say it, some people will buy it. Either way, if it’s big enough people will debate it.

Joey Goebbels had some success with this concept… for a while.

We here at ComicMix strive for responsibility, and in that spirit I’ve had a great many column ideas that I rejected simply because they weren’t true. Oh, sure, I thought about selling them to Michael Davis, but then it dawned on me I can squeeze this column out of my spiked copy. Ergo, without further ado, here’s a bunch of columns I won’t get around to writing.

•     •     •     •     •

Oh, sure, Marvel rebooted Spidey to much loathing, but the reboot sells and if there’s one concept in comics that is engraved in stone it’s this: “Fool ‘em once, make big money. Fool ‘em twice and they’ll double-bag it.” In this spirit, Marvel has announced two exciting new projects. (more…)

Barack Obama and the Comic Book Time Machine, by Mike Gold

I have always been a major league comic book fan. Always. As a child, whenever my parents dragged me out of town I would make them stop at every possible drug store, newsstand and dime store so I could check out the comics stock. In those days we had no forewarning of what was coming out when, and few outlets carried every title. Some even ignored entire publishing lines.

So when I think back on those trips, I can date them by the comic books I had seen along the way. For example, I encountered Lois Lane #1 at a roadside inn on the road between Gary and Indianapolis Indiana, since replaced by Interstate 65. Ergo, that trip was at the very beginning of 1958. I was seven years old.

In the corner behind the comics rack, I encountered separate drinking fountains: one said, “Whites” and the other said, “Colored.” That confused me, and I asked my father why they needed two. “Because some people are damn idiots,” Dad replied in undisguised disgust.

We were in central Indiana, a place that just a few decades earlier had been the focal point of the Ku Klux Klan. Now, mind, you, if not for the Ku Klux Klan I wouldn’t be alive today. (more…)

R.I.P.: Ted Key

Cartoonist Ted Key, creator of the popular newspaper comic panel Hazel and the classic cartoon characters Mr. Peabody and Sherman, died today at 95.

Born Theodore Keyser in 1912, Key created Hazel for the Saturday Evening Post in 1943. The panel shifted over to King Features Syndicate in 1969 after its creator acquired the rights when the Post ceased publication. In the interim, Hazel evolved into a hit television show that ran between 1961 and 1966, and in syndication thereafter.

In 1959 Key developed the surreal "Peabody’s Improbable History" cartoon series for producer Jay Ward and his program Rocky And His Friends.

Key retired from Hazel in 1993 but the panel has continued in newspapers in reprints ever since.

Name Dropping, by Mike Gold

I’ve been around the northeast quadrant a bit since the New York show a few weeks ago and I’ve seen a lot of people. Good people, old friends, new collaborators, strange and unusual folks. That’s what my life’s about, and I’m proud of that.

I enjoy going to the Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention. Compared with, say, the mass of hustling humanity at comics shows in New York, San Diego or on WizardWorld, the Windy City show is like a weekend at the spa. Anthony Tollin was there along with his latest Shadow and Doc Savage trade paperbacks; we talk about them here all the time. I was able to have a solid conversation with frequent ComicMix commentator Russ Maharas, I got to go over the next Simone and Ajax plot with Andrew Pepoy for a bit, FOC (that’s “friend of ComicMix”) George Hagenauer gave Adriane Nash a swell history lesson on 1950s pin-up art, Rob Davis and Ron Fortier told me about a new project that fascinated the hell out of me, and I had the chance to talk with master cartoonist Jim Engel once again.

The next day we had lunch and dinner with FOCs Charlie Meyerson and his wife Pam (Charlie of Chicago Tribune fame; Pam’s a lawyer and bon vivant) and Rick Oliver and his wife Jade (Honest Rick of First Comics, Jade was a swell comics colorist). George, Charlie and Rick have given us a lot of advice and opinion ever since ComicMix was just a gleam in our eye – Rick is a major commenter in these precincts – and the whole bundle of ‘em are brilliant conversationalists.

Since the best thing to do in Chicago is eat until you burst, we were particularly fond of our dinner with the aforementioned Mr. Pepoy, Simone and Ajax colorist Jason Millet, Hilary Barta (Munden’s Bar, The Simpsons, The Thing, Power Pack, New Mutants, Alan Moore’s Tomorrow Stories), and writer / professor Len Strazewski (Prime, Justice Society, The Fly, Starman, Phantom Lady). Sort of like the fabled Algonquin round table, but a lot more snarky. (more…)

Del Close Close Up, by Mike Gold

  • News
  • April 28, 2008

Well, it’s about time.

Author Kim Howard Johnson, former comics newsman (the late, lamented Comics Scene), occasional comic book writer (Superman: True Brit, with John Cleese and John Byrne), and frequent ComicMix commenter, has written the definitive biography of his mentor, collaborator and friend, comedy legend Del Close.

It’s called The Funniest One In The Room: The Lives and Legends of Del Close (Chicago Review Press, $24.95), and I’ll admit right off it’s impossible for me to not absolutely love a book in which I am mentioned in the second paragraph. I could have titled this column “Me and My Ego” but, no, this one’s about Del’s ego.

Comics fans may be familiar with Del’s work in collaboration with John Ostrander on Munden’s Bar during its original First Comics run, and/or their work together on the even-more-over-the-top Wasteland, the one we did at DC Comics. In fact, it was Del who suggested the title.

Students of American cultural history know Del as a Shakespearean actor who also performed on television and in movies and plays by Steve Martin, Jules Feiffer, William Saroyan, Judge Julius Hoffman, and Kaufman and Hart. But he is best known for his work as a director, teacher and mentor to – to name but a very, very few – John and Jim Belushi; Brian Doyle, Joel, and Bill Murray; Howard Hessman; Rob Reiner; Joe Flaherty; Harold Ramis; Betty Thomas; George Wendt; Tim Kazurinsky; John Candy; Chris Farley. Tim Meadows; Andy Richter; Stephen Colbert; Steve Carell; Kim Yale… and literally hundreds more. Oh, yeah… he was also rehearsal director of Saturday Night Live for a couple years and he created the format for SCTV. (more…)

59, by John Ostrander

  • News
  • April 24, 2008

Numbers represent. They don’t really mean.

Any meaning associated with numbers – or words for that matter – are what we assign to them. My social security number identifies me to the government but it’s not who I am. It has importance, yes, and if unscrupulous people get a hold of it, it can have a terrible impact on my life. It is not, however, my life. The finger pointing at the moon is not the moon. The road map is not itself the road.

I turned 59 last Sunday and I’ve asked myself “What does that mean? Am I different in any essential way than I was on Saturday?” No. “Do birthdays have meanings?” If we give them some – yes. I like to celebrate the birthdays of those close to me more than I like to celebrate my own. I celebrate the fact that they were born, that they entered this world, and I get to be a part of their lives. I don’t dislike my birthday; I don’t have a problem with having one. I am thankful for the thoughts and good wishes expressed and any excuse to have a double chocolate cake is a good one.

The real use to me of my birthday these days is a bit more meditative. The number 59 has meaning in context with numbers 1 to 58. They are mileposts in my journey thus far. Milepost thirty-three – my first published comic book work. I remember that because I was pleased to be a rookie at anything at 33. Milepost thirty-eight – I married Kim Yale. Talk about being a rookie! Milepost forty-seven – Kim died and the world collapsed only to begin again a few mileposts later with Mary Mitchell. Life goes on. Death gives way to new life. (more…)

NYCC: A Post-Game Analysis

  • News
  • April 22, 2008

comicart2-4363435Fifty-nine weeks ago I slammed the first two New York Comic-Cons pretty hard, so it’s only appropriate that I comment on this year’s jamboree. The previous shows were held in February, so the mere fact that people waiting in line this year didn’t have to suffer in below-freezing wind chills is, in and of itself, a vast improvement.

The show was better organized, crowd flow on Friday and Sunday was almost manageable, and the convention staff from Reed Communications (not the volunteers, who were great) drifted more towards being hospitable and informed. In fact, they were neither hospitable nor informed but you could tell that this year somebody suggested being so might be a good idea.

Saturday was pretty much the same premise as last year: “What if you tried to squeeze the entire population of Manhattan into a phone booth?” They claim attendance records were broken and that would be nice to believe, but it would be even nicer if they were at a venue where they could actually obtain enough space so that people could walk down the aisles without getting bashed in the face by an endless number of backpacks and tripped by an equal number of light sabers.

I can’t help but wonder what the show would have been like if god hadn’t helped out. Passover started Saturday and the New York metropolitan area contains a lot of religious Jews. And the pope was in for the weekend, so a lot of Catholics were attending one or another event. In fact, it looked like he was on Frank Miller’s Dark Knight panel.

(more…)

Superman Blue … Archie Orange, by Mike Gold

  • News
  • April 21, 2008

In the comments section of my column of two weeks ago, I told Van Jensen that today’s broad spectrum of color could not be printed on the cheap toilet paper employed in the days of yore. That stuff would soak up ink like a spirit gets sucked into Harold Ramis’s ghost trap. Back in those days just after the invention of papyrus, color artists were limited to a palette of three values each of red, blue and yellow, plus black. Not a lot to work with.

Still, as Van implies, the end result was fine. It didn’t bother us, just as riding a horse to work didn’t bother us. Except… except … it bothered me.

To be specific, blue hair bothered me.

I understand why hair was blue: if it were black, it’d just look like Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne had a big blob of India ink atop their brainpans. You couldn’t make it look like hair, and not everybody could have brown, red, or blonde hair. The blue stuff was supposed to suggest highlights, but with a few dozen colors to choose from, what can you do?  (more…)

DC’s Killing Fields, by Mike Gold

  • News
  • April 14, 2008

chp-9129134How many times can you run a stunt into the ground in one month before you just look like you’re totally bereft of originality? DC Comics’ June, 2008 solicitations, as published in Diamond Distributing’s Previews catalog, offers no less than six phony death and/or resurrection stunts.

Gotham Underground #9 asks the musical question “Will Penguin pay the ultimate price?” Well, who cares? If he’s dead, he’ll get better. Death has no sting in the DC universe.

Batman #678 is the third part of their “Batman R.I.P.” arc. “Is it truly the end for one of the world’s finest heroes?” the solicitation asks.  Forgive me, but how many times have the sundry world’s finest heroes R’ed in P? Hell, I’ll bet if you ask them they would have wanted to stay dead at least a bit longer in order to get some rest in peace. I should add Robin #165 to this list as it ties in to Batman #678 and has Robin holding a dead-looking Batman on the cover. Maybe – probably – the old buzzard isn’t dead. The fact is, it doesn’t matter.

Booster Gold #10: “Someone from his past must live and someone must die!” My wife informs me (happily) that Ted (Blue Beetle the Second) has already been resurrected. The death – if it actually happens – well, again, who cares? If it was somebody important, he/she/it wouldn’t be killed off in Booster Gold. Unless the stunt has grown so lame that DC is willing to bury it in a title such as this.

(more…)

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