Author: Mike Gold

Format Wars: We Have A Winner

  • News
  • February 17, 2008

If you have a HD-TV and you bought a Blu-Ray DVD player to watch Spider-Man 3, 300 or X-Men The Last Stand in all their high-definition glory, congratulations. You win. It looks like Toshiba is about to throw in the towel on their HD-DVD format.

Left at the alter by such outlets as Netflix, Best Buy and Wal-Mart and supported by an ever-shrinking number of studio releases, Toshiba tried slashing the price of their players and their discs – to no avail. Now Microsoft is talking about making its next X-Box compatible with Blu-Ray, a format also supported by a great many computer companies; Toast and other DVD authoring software also burn to Blu-Ray discs.

Sony had hoped for an immediate win with its Blu-Ray, but its delays in marketing the Playstation 3 game machine and software put them in second position. As movies became available and people could see the difference between the two formats, consumers voted with their credit cards.

So when the Iron Man movie comes out on DVD this fall, you won’t have to toss the dice. You’ll be able to see each and every hair in Tony Stark’s goatee with alarming clarity.

ComicMix History Lesson: Steve Ditko’s Revenge

  • News
  • February 12, 2008

The cover Mike Raub used to illustrate his ComicMix Radio piece earlier today reminded me of another cover of somewhat similar design … and quiet controversy. So it’s time for another ComicMix History Lesson!

Once upon a time DC Comics had this idea of resurrecting their Showcase try-out series, but they made a couple significant changes. Instead of doing three-issue try-out runs, they did a series of one-shots. And, unlike Showcase‘s The Flash, Lois Lane, Green Lantern, The Atom (et al) runs, by and large these one-shots sucked.

They named the series 1st Issue Special because the phrase "1st issue" sold comics to collectors, and then they numbered each issue sequentially, proving their desire to sell comics in Canada outweighed their faith in collectors (don’t ask – or, better still, if you want to know, ask and I’ll respond in comments).

One of the better issues resurrected Steve Ditko’s Beware The Creeper, dropping the "Beware" part. Editorial director Carmine Infantino rejected Steve’s cover concept and drew up one of his own. Evidently, Steve didn’t care for it, but that was how the gig worked. So he drew it as designed: Firefly battling The Creeper in the sky, with a down-shot point-of-view.

As you can see, both characters are pummeling each other as they are falling to the ground. In the background is a street scene, with tiny little cars. And across from one of those tiny little cars, there’s a tiny little fire hydrant. And next to the fire hydrant, there’s a tiny little dog. And next to the tiny little dog who is next to the tiny little fire hydrant, there’s a tiny little puddle.

That last part reflects what Ditko thought of Infantino’s cover design.

Today, We Are One, by Mike Gold

  • News
  • February 11, 2008

 

Well, it says here that this is Whizzy’s Wazoo #53. That means today ComicMix starts our second year.

Wow. 

This is a good time to look back at what we’ve done, what we’re trying to do, and how we’ve made the world a better place. Whereas that last point is undoubtedly true, I’d rather look forward. Not a whole year forward; that seems like bad luck. Just the next few months.

ComicMix is going to increase our number of pages by tens of thousands. No kidding. We’re almost ready to do that; our tech team has been working furiously to do the tech voodoo that they do so swell. We’ve already got enough broadband to bury Atlantis. You’ll be seeing a lot more of… well, everything, including some of the greatest names old and new in comics and related media.

And speaking of comics… (more…)

‘Battlestar Galactica’ Books Its Final Trip

  • News
  • February 9, 2008

The Sci-Fi network announced the fourth and final season of Battlestar Galactica will begin on Friday, April 4th at 10 PM Eastern and Pacific, preceded, as usual, by a couple of half hour specials to remind viewers of what’s been going on.

Oddly enough, these specials will feature the likes of Robot Chicken‘s Seth Green and The Soup’s Joel McHale.

This new incarnation of Galactica, which rose phoenix-like out of the cold and deservedly piss-on ashes of the Lorne Greene series affectionately known to Baby Boomers as Battlestar Ponderosa, has won all kinds of awards, including an Emmy and a Peabody. Earlier this winter, Razor, an all-new direct-to-DVD Battlestar movie, hit the shelves. It was a rare thing: a continuity implant that actually worked.

No word on if the Galacticans actually discover Earth and, if so, if they’ll be treated as illegal immigrants.

Prince Valiant, Gary Gianni and The Page

  • News
  • February 9, 2008

Time was when the whole family would gather in the living room once a week to fight over the Sunday newspaper. People would settle for their second favorite sections, but only one could start with the most popular: the Sunday funnies. Back in those days, there were no more than three strips to a page — often two, and sometimes only one. Principle among these full-page delights was Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant.

Seventy years later Val is still with us, often criminally reduced to one-fifth of a page. Prince Valiant is in the hands of only its third artist, a worthy successor to Foster and John Cullen Murphy named Gary Gianni.

Known to comics fans for his work on such iconic characters as The Shadow, Tarzan and Conan, Gianni illustrates Mark Schultz’s scripts – Schultz himself is no slouch as an artist. All that is preamble.

This June, Flesk Publications is releasing Gary Gianni: The Prince Valiant Page, a 112 page hardcover study of Gianni’s work on the feature, lavishly illustrated with black and white art shot from the originals as well as three color gatefolds. The hardcover edition is limited to 1,000 copies; there’s also a ultra-cool deluxe hardcover that features one of Gianni’s pencil preliminaries – in other words, original art. A trade a paperback edition will be released eventually. Prices on all this have yet to be announced.

Oh, yeah. The introduction was written by Mike Mignola. Turns out Gary did some Hellboy, too!

Deal Reached In Writer’s Strike

  • News
  • February 9, 2008

According to a Reuters dispatch, the Writer’s Guild of America has reached a tentative deal with the studios after a three-month walk-out that brought most domestic television and movie production to a halt.

The deal isn’t perfect, union reps stated, but it’s strong enough for them to recommend to their membership. Meetings will be held later today on both coasts to explain the terms and to vote on ratification.

The heart of the dispute involved the writer’s share of online revenues, which for which they previously did not receive penny one, and their diminutive payments for DVD sales. Whereas prognosticators haven’t had a great track record lately, it is expected this deal will be approved.

This means the Justice League movie might get rescued – maybe – and the Academy Awards will go on as scheduled later this month. And that means the world will not end after all.

 

 

 

‘Ms. Tree’ Headed to TV?

  • News
  • February 9, 2008

First, the disclaimer. I’ve known Ms. Tree’s Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty since we were all pups down on the farm, I’ve done some research consulting on Max’s Heller series, and I was the editor of Ms. Tree Quarterly. More to the point, there’s this scene at the end of a story where Tree goes back to the scene of the crime strictly to murder the bad guys; that final page was dedicated to me and I’m proud of it. Make what you will of that.

Well, it turns out Our Gal Friday (that’s a joke, but you’ve got to read Ms. Tree to get it) may be headed to the small screen. In an interview with Comics2Film, Collins disclosed the Oxygen Network has "gone beyond an option (and paid) the purchase price." They’ve assigned two screenwriters to the write the first movie, both women, and it’s being regarded as a pilot for further movies and possibly a teevee series.

Obviously, things have been held up a bit by the WGA strike, but Collins took his original treatment and turned it into Deadly Beloved, a paperback novel published last December by Hard Case Crime. Cooler still (since Collins is the author of about a million mystery novels, including the aforementioned Heller boos, and teevee/movie tie-ins, including many of the C.S.I. books) the cover was painted by Ms. Tree artist Terry Beatty.  (more…)

“… this is Captain America calling…” by Mike Gold

  • News
  • February 4, 2008
There’s been a lot of controversy about killing and resurrecting superheroes. I know that, because we’ve done a lot of that here on ComicMix. It’s fun. Be that as it may, Steve Rogers is dead, deal with it; Bucky Barnes is alive, so we (meaning me) should deal with that, too.
 
Quite frankly, I would have been burning effigies of Joey Quesada for allowing  ol’ Bucky to rise from the grave – if not for the simple fact that Ed Brubaker’s run in Captain America is so damn great. Any lesser achievement would have inflamed my wrath and you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.
 
Well, maybe you would, but only from afar.
 
Wandering back towards the point, it’s perfectly fair for someone to inherit the mantle of a “dead” superhero. I did this when I was editing The Flash; management wanted a new person inside the suit, and I felt strongly that Wally West earned his stab at adulthood. If Bucky Barnes (now referred to as “James”) is alive and well, he deserves the shield and cowl. So it’s only appropriate that I comment on Bucky’s transcendence.
 
There’s an odd timeliness to the story, as it opens with the doubling of the price of gas and thousands of homes being foreclosed. That puts a sharp contemporary edge on a story about a guy who should be 80 years old and keeps on linking his feelings to those he experienced in The War. But the economic apocalypse is a story-point that establishes the role Captain America will play in this continuing story.
 

(more…)

Quesada and Colbert – Together Again!

  • News
  • January 28, 2008

Well, given the writer’s strike and the fact that people have to cross picket lines in order to get in the building, The Colbert Report doesn’t  announce their guests in advance. But Marvel Comics does. 

Marvel Comics today announced that Joe Quesada, editor-in-chief, will be a guest on The Colbert Reporton Tuesday, January 29. In order to do so, he must cross the Writers Guild picket line outside the program’s mid-town Manhattan studio.

The WGA has been on strike since early November, seeking (among other things) a share of Internet revenue and a larger portion of DVD profits. Ironically, the Marvel film studio just signed an interim agreement with the WGA last week.

The last time Quesada appeared on the show, the gave Colbert Captain America’s shield. Since his appearance is the very night before the release of the return of Captain America (Bucky gets promoted), perhaps Joey needs it back.

Then again, perhaps it won’t be Joe Quesada. Maybe it’ll be a Skrull. Skrulls would cross picket lines.

The Colbert Report airs on Comedy Central 11:30 PM Eastern and Pacific.

Martha Thomases co-wrote this here article.

Sex, by Mike Gold

  • News
  • January 28, 2008

I’ve been gallivanting across this fine country again like the high society bon vivant that I am, so I was a little late in scoring my family’s big box o’ comics. It was even heavier than usual, despite the fact that my wife and daughter are both big-time comics fans. I figure it was about four and one-half pounds heavier. That’s because Playboy Cover to Cover – The 50s, finally arrived. It was released as a Christmas item last November, no doubt under the belief that it would make for an excellent stocking stuffer should King Kong become a cross-dresser.

If you ask founder / publisher / editor Hugh Hefner, he’ll give you the impression he single-handedly invented the sexual revolution back in 1954. That’s okay; he’ll also give you the impression he has foursomes with The Girls Next Door. Whereas I think the creation of the birth control pill and the resultant sexual empowerment of women had a lot more to do with it than Hugh, he did take a lot of risk and paid some heavy dues. Remember, until 1965 laws prohibiting the distribution of information about contraception, and in some cases even the possession of contraception, were still on the books – and not just in the bible belt states. Connecticut was the last to fall. People still went to jail for publishing, owning or mailing stuff about sex.

From a sexual perspective, all Playboy’s success did was put some of the under-the-counter content out on the newsstand racks. By the time Penthouse and, later, Hustler came out Playboy was irrelevant from a pictorial point of view. Of course, later the Internets completely rendered Playboy magazine sexually impotent, as they supplied men the one thing any magazine could not: freedom from your own fist. No, sex is not the reason Playboy was hip. (more…)

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