Author: Mike Gold

Aquaman Co-Creator Paul Norris, dead at 93

  • News
  • November 6, 2007

Artist Paul Norris died yesterday at the age of 93.

Along with writer/editor Mort Weisinger, Norris created Aquaman, one of comics’ most enduring superheroes and one of only five to be continuously published since earliest days of the medium. A versitile and gifted artist, Norris also drew such major characters as Tarzan, Flash Gordon, Sandman, Secret Agent X-9, Magnus, Robot Fighter, Jungle Jim and – most notably – Brick Bradford, an assignment he maintained for 35 years. He continued to draw and make convention appearances until recently.

"I decided to color Aquaman green and orange, and the editors really liked that," Norris once said. "He’s worn green and orange almost the whole time he’s been around, and I still get royalties for every time they use those colors with him!"

Norris was one of the very last of the major golden age of comics creators.

The Rock IS Adam

  • News
  • November 5, 2007

Dwayne Johnson, the wrestler/actor formerly and yet forever known as The Rock, has signed on as Black Adam in the upcoming Shazam! movie. Not only does he look the part, he’ll fill out the costume just fine.

Directed by Peter Segal (Get Smart, also co-starring the Rock) andwritten by John August (Corpse Bride), William Goldman (All The President’s Men) and Bryan Goluboff (The Basketball Diaries) and co-produced by Michael Uslan (the Batman movies, Frank Miller’s Will Eisner’s The Spirit), shooting is expected to begin in about a year. Assuming the writers’ strike is resolved by then.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The evolution of outrage, by Mike Gold

  • News
  • November 5, 2007

Running Press Book Publishers released a 1,200 page, 15 pound tome called The Completely MAD Don Martin, reprinting all the work Don Martin did for Mad Magazine, back when in the days Mad was a force to be reckoned with.

That means it upset our parents.

That function must necessarily pass from one venue to another. Mad pretty much owned that turf from its inception in 1954 until the mid-60s. It passed on to its own children: the underground cartoonists. They, in turn, begat Matt Groening. Remember when The Simpsons was going to bring down civilization as we knew it – you know, 18 seasons ago? Then Mike Judge and Beavis and Butthead were going to burn your house down. South Park was too obscene for late-night cable teevee. As Kurt Vonnegut (another candidate for this list) famously said: So it goes.

I first encountered Don Martin when I was eight years old: my sister had discovered Mad and I had discovered my sister’s comics stash. Whereas his artistic style was in the spirit of the time, sort of Virgil Partch crossed with Basil Wolverton, his intrinsic bizarreness leapt off the page and attached itself to my obdula oblongata. It shaped my worldview… which probably explains a lot.

The feature was called “The Paper-Pickers” and it was about two sanitation workers picking up scrap in the park. One is a virtuoso of his craft who can spear paper with aplomb. The other is jealous. Why, I don’t know. The virtuoso is doing all the work; the other guy is just taking a walk on a nice summer day. But the competitive spirit prevails, and the also-ran flips out, spears the virtuoso to death and stuffs him in his refuse bag with a smile of evil satisfaction that would frighten Hannibal Lecter after a nice meal. (more…)

Mandrake Gestures Theatrically

  • Uncategorized
  • November 2, 2007

fred_fredericks-3021371Lee Falk’s Mandrake The Magician – arguably America’s first costumed comics superhero – is headed to the big screen at last.

No, the Fellini version isn’t being made; Fellini, like Falk, is no longer with us. But director Chuck Russell (The Mask, Scorpion King, Nightmare on Elm Street 3) will be doing one of those reimagining numbers, which probably means King Lothar will not be referring to Mandrake as "master."

More important – certainly more important to my wife and daughter – Mandrake will be played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers, star of Match Point and King Henry VIII in The Tudors. He replaces Criss Angel, whose career was seriously set back when he ditched Britney Spears in her time of need at the recent MTV awards. 

Mandrake The Magician continues to be produced for newspapers, written and drawn by long-time Fred Fredericks, who has been drawing the feature since 1965 and assumed the writing chores after Falk’s death in 1999.

Mystery Science Theater Returns

  • News
  • November 1, 2007

Unusual is in the mind of the beholder. My favorite teevee shows of all time include such fare as The Prisoner, Fawlty Towers, and Boston Legal – unusual to some, but probably not to most ComicMix readers. If pressed, though, I’d have to say my all-time favorite show was Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Well, in television, as in comics, the word "was" is rarely what it once was. After 11 seasons and nearly 200 two-hour episodes (including one theatrical movie that remains a cable perennial), the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 are back.

According to Satellite News, this Monday, November 5th (Guy Fawkes Day, no less), November 5th, MST3K’s parent company Best Brains Inc. will begin webcasting brand-new animated adventures of Crow, Tom Servo and Gypsy – the bots from the Satellite of Love and the only characters to survive all 11 seasons of the original show. (more…)

Wheatley & Hempel Work at Norman Rockwell Museum

  • News
  • October 31, 2007

According to a press release issued by the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA, next week will see the beginning of their latest exhibition, LitGraphic: The World of the Graphic Novel." Among the graphic novels on display will be Breathtaker, by Mark Wheatley (EZ Street) and Marc Hempel (Naked Brains).

The release:

Lions released from a zoo in war-torn Baghdad; a mother’s battle with lung cancer; an American expatriate searching for her identity in Mexico- serious subject matter for any medium, but particularly so for a new wave of critically acclaimed and commercially successful long form comic books. In these illustrated stories, called graphic novels (a mostly grown-up version of the comic book), themes explored include culture, society, and current events, and topics range from heart-wrenching to thought-provoking to risqué. A fascinating new exhibition at the Norman Rockwell Museum, "LitGraphic: The World of the Graphic Novel," examines the history, diversity, and tremendous popularity of this phenomenon considered by many to be a comics renaissance. On view from November 10, 2007 throughMay 26, 2008, the exhibition features over 146 artworks by 24 contemporary graphic novelists and historic practitioners of this ever-evolving art form.

"Comics are a language- and it’s a visual language," observes graphic novelist Mark Wheatley. "It cuts across cultural barriers and national barriers. The language of comics is something that a man in Dubai can understand as easily as a man in Chicago." (more…)

The Big Little Book Time Machine

  • Uncategorized
  • October 30, 2007

I’ll admit: I’ve got a thing for self-published fan projects. Nothing shows fannish commitment better than these books, and over the years a wealth of encyclopedic information about our culture has been gathered in such efforts.

Once upon a time, there was a whole category of comic books that measured just a couple inches wide but were about a full inch thick. Actually, they weren’t really comic books – they were illustrated fiction. But many, if not most, featured comics characters such as Popeye, Dick Tracy, and Flash Gordon – complete with illustrations often by the creators and their studios. They were called Big Little Books – BLBs – and were highly collectible. And so they remain.

A fan named Larry Lowery has self-published a fantastic reference book on BLBs, with great cover repros and every detail you can imagine. The 400 page compendium lists all the Whitman BLBs and peripherals related to Big Little Books from 1932 through 1980, as well as similar publications by Dell, Saalfield, Lynn, 5-Star, and such. It’s a great reference book for serious collectors with photos of every BLB. Check it out here.

Thanks to our pal Dean Mullaney for the lead.

Of course A Is A, by Mike Gold

  • News
  • October 29, 2007

I finally got around to watching Jonathan Ross’s excellent BBC-TV documentary In Search of Steve Ditko and I’ve gotta tell you, this week’s Wazoo is going to be about one-third disclosures.

Disclosure #1 – I know Jonathan Ross. I gave him his first tour of DC Comics. At the same time, Karen Berger was giving Neil Gaiman a tour. Jonathan is a major teevee star out in Britain but was largely unknown in the States at the time. A long, long time comics fan (he owned a London comics store with Rolling Stone correspondent and seminal letterhack Paul Gambaccini), I think Jonathan was really into the anonymity of the tour… until we turned the corner and smacked into Gaiman. Being British and familiar with Ross’s work, Neil turned into a babbling fanboy. Being a comics fan, Jonathan was already a babbling fanboy. The two got along famously, while Karen and I were having a nice chat on the side. This connection actually becomes relevant anon.

Disclosure #2 – I know Steve Ditko. I love his stuff; all of it. We worked together on several comics projects, one of my personal fanboy highlights was standing in his studio in the then-lower rent portion of Times Square, and we’ve had lunch and dinner together on several occasions, usually with my pal and his frequent collaborator Jack C. Harris. We talked politics (go figure) and philosophy. In private, Steve was always free about his experiences at Marvel. This, too, actually becomes relevant anon.

One of the more interesting experiences I enjoyed was introducing Steve to Ross Andru. Both came into the business at roughly the same time and, coincidentally, both had drawn Spider-Man… although, of course, only one had co-created the character. Ross was as quiet as he was fascinating. He was well-versed on the Illuminati conspiracy, which was a favored topic of ours. I digress. (more…)

Jim Lee Can Be Heroes

  • News
  • October 23, 2007

If you haven’t ordered your copy of the Heroes trade paperback collecting the first 34 chapters of NBC.com’s online comics and you happen to be a Jim Lee fan, you’re in luck. Jim’s got his own special version; yep, that’s the cover above.

Heroes –The Graphic Novel hits the stores November 7th. Heroes – The TeeVee Show is on the tube all the time, and is even available for download.

Isn’t that Saturn Girl up there on the right?

Gore, Mayhem and Violence, by Mike Gold

  • News
  • October 22, 2007

Unless you’re new to  or you’ve been avoiding our online comics (hey, c’mon, they’re FREE!) or our comments sections (where the real action is), you’ve probably figured out that I am among a number of cultural recidivists who hang out in this corner of the ether. Mark Wheatley, Andrew Pepoy, John Ostrander… well, damn, most of us, now that I think of it.

So it will come as no surprise that I’ve been reading Girasol Collectibles’ Pulp Doubles series (orderable at your friendly neighborhood comics shop and dozens of other online sources), featuring the original Master of Men, The Spider. The real one. The original. The man who best typifies pulp virtues, where the extreme is commonplace and New York City is destroyed every month.

It’s Jim Steranko’s fault. In the first volume of his History of Comics (and, yes, I, too, have been waiting patiently for volume three for over 35 years), he started off writing about the various costumed pulp heroes who influenced (or, in some cases, were blatantly ripped off by) sundry comic book creations. I had never heard of The Spider before, but Jim praised it as being so purple it would make a French king wince in pain.

Instead of filling space telling you what that means, I will instead tell you some of the plot points in The Spider #49, “The City That Dared Not Eat.” It’s one of my favorites, and it’s in Girasol’s Pulp Doubles #1. I don’t know how you can better that title, but, damn, author Wayne Rogers (no relation to Trapper John) certainly beats it to a pulp. Here’s just a few of the story’s highpoints:

(more…)

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