Author: Rick Marshall

Editorial Cartoon Investigated as ‘Hate Literature’

Nova Scotia newspaper The Chronicle Herald has vowed to defend an April 18 editorial cartoon by award-winning cartoonist Bruce MacKinnon after police received a complaint that the cartoon could qualify as "hate literature."

The cartoon (pictured here) depicted the wife of Qayyum Abdul Jamal, who was arrested in 2006 on terrorism-related charges that involved an alleged plot to bomb targets in Toronto and Ottawa. Jamal’s wife, Cheryfa MacAulay Jamal, told The Herald that she intended to sue the federal government after the charges against her husband were stayed.

According to various reports, the cartoon was reported as potential "hate literature" to local police, but law enforcement officials are still determining whether a crime actually took place.

According to Dan Leger, director of news content for The Herald, "We will vigorously defend (the cartoon) and it would be an abuse of process for them to even contemplate initiating any type of action against the newspaper."

 

(via Journalista, ComicsReporter and just about everywhere, really)

Eric Reynolds on ‘How I Pissed Off Steve Ditko’

Fantagraphics’ upcoming Steve Ditko retrospective Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko will be available next month, so resident Fantagraphics jack-of-all-trades Eric Reynolds recently took the opportunity to share a story with readers that he’s called "How I Pissed Off Steve Ditko."

Reynold’s tale is one of those personal experiences with industry legends that I love to hear about, as it puts some substance behind the names and faces of people I’ve never been lucky enough to interact with myself.

About ten years ago we had the great fortune of publishing a new series by Mr. Ditko, STEVE DITKO’S STRANGE AVENGING TALES. This was incredibly exciting to me, having been a lifelong Ditko fan. Unfortunately, I did not get to interact much with Mr. Ditko. See, I do all of our promotion, and to say that Mr. Ditko is not big on promotion is like saying the Pope is not big on gay marriage. And, he preferred snail mail to phone. As such, I did not have many opportunities to interact with one of the greatest comic book artists of all-time. Except one.

You can also check out a 10-page preview of Strange and Stranger on the Fantagraphics website.

Of course, one of my main reasons for posting this is the fact that I’m fortunate these days to interact with a number of industry veterans every day here on ComicMix — many of which have had their names grace some of the greatest comics ever created — and I wonder what they’ll have to say about Reynolds’ story.

 

(via Journalista)

‘Diesel Sweeties’ Does ‘Iron Man’

With all of the Iron Man hype fading, I thought it would be worth pointing out one of my new favorite shout-outs to the film that popped up in my daily reading list.

In this strip, Diesel Sweeties mastermind R. Stevens manages to take a jab at both Stan Lee and everyone’s favorite drunken industrialist turned armor-plated superhero. Titled "Radical to the Extremis," it’s another example of why I enjoy DS so very much: not only does Stevens have some traditional comics savvy, but he’s also honest-to-jeebus hilarious.

You can read this strip and others at dieselsweeties.com, and be sure to check out my Diesel Sweeties interview with R. Stevens that ran previously on ComicMix.

Reviewing Jack Kirby and Stan Lee’s ‘Essential Thor’

I don’t normally post links to reviews on other comics news sites, since we have so many of our own hitting the site here every day, but I had to make an exception for Tom Spurgeon’s recent review of the third volume of Marvel’s Mighty Thor "Essential" collection.

Thor has never been a favorite character of mine, as his dialogue always seemed a bit hokey and he’s pretty much the definition of a deus ex machina. But Spurgeon’s review of the collection, which features Stan Lee and Jack Kirby doing exactly what made them legends in the industry, has me contemplating a change of heart.

He describes the collected stories’ overall tone as "verily, there are asses over yon we doth must beat" repeated ad infinitum — which is a big selling point for me.

Spurgeon goes on to summarize the collection as follows:

It’s quite fun. The panels where Thor is not punching people so hard their light source changes are stuffed to the brim with either a) cool-looking Kirbyana almost always in the form of monsters and machinery, b) Volstagg, a fat coward who can bench press a bus, providing J. Wellington Wimpy-style comedy relief, or c) Thor screaming at someone about how awesome he is in preparation of punching them so hard their light source changes.

I love a well-written review, and this is certainly a great example of one. Head over to The Comics Reporter to read the rest of it.

‘G.I. Joe’ Film Images Hit the ‘Net

There’s no telling how long they’ll be available, but it looks like the crew at ComicNerd has posted a set of 33 "leaked" cast photos from the upcoming G.I. Joe film.

The images posted include shots of The Baroness, Ripcord, Duke, Storm Shadow, Breaker, General Hawk, Destro, Heavy Duty and, of course, Snake Eyes (pictured here).

I haven’t wandered around the InterWebs enough to know if this is a legitimate "leak" or just one site pulling all of the images that were scattered among a large network of sites, but it’s worth checking out either way – especially for fans of the G.I. Joe properties.

See the rest of the photos over at ComicNerd.

 

‘The Spirit’ Movie Release Date Moved Up

The Cinematical crew are reporting that Lionsgate is moving up the release date for Frank Miller’s adaptation of Will Eisner’s The Spirit from January 16 of next year to Christmas Day (December 25), 2008.

Here’s the new tale of the tape for The Spirit:

So instead of going up against Mall Cop, starring Kevin James as a wacky security guard, and the Notorious B.I.G. biopic, The Spirit will face off against Adam Sandler’s Bedtime Stories, the supposedly ultra-heartwarming Marley & Me, The Tale of Despereaux, and the aftershocks of Twilight and The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Oh, and if you haven’t seen the trailer for The Spirit yet that debuted at New York Comic Con, here it is:

 

 

‘LitGraphic: The World of the Graphic Novel’ Exhibit Report

This weekend I had the pleasure of heading up to Stockbridge, MA, for the Comic Arts Festival and "LitGraphic: The Art of the Graphic Novel" exhibit at the Norman Rockwell Museum.

It was my first trip to the museum, and as I mentioned in my previous tease for the event, I’ve been kicking myself for not making the trip years ago, when I lived a much shorter distance from Stockbridge. The area surrounding the museum is a beautiful, rural landscape that was a breath of fresh air (literally) from the New York City madness.

The "LitGraphic" exhibit consisted of several rooms filled with various pieces of art from both well-known creators and some who I’ll admit I had never heard of prior to seeing their work on display in Stockbridge. On the day we attended, the museum was also playing host to some of the creators whose work was featured in the exhibit, and had scheduled several signings and other events as part of a "Comic Arts Festival."

One of the first pieces of art I encountered was a series of Niko Henrichon’s original, inked pages from Pride of Baghdad, including the impressive two-page "Baghdad Cityscape" spread. My less comics-savvy partner, who accompanied me on the trip, was amazed at the linework on the pages, and on several occasions when I wandered off to view other elements of the exhibit I returned to find her admiring this piece again.

Several pages of Terry Moore’s Strangers in Paradise also found their way into the exhibit, with one piece in particular catching my eye. Titled "The Point Is, She Found Me," the inked two-page spread included a sequence of progressively smaller square frames within a larger scene. The frames directed the reader’s eyes to a figure hidden in the bushes — something that might have been overlooked entirely without the frames zeroing in on the small face in the scenery. It was a nice, unconventional layout that added to the story instead of distracting from it.

In a corner of the exhibit were also some sketchbooks from artist Barron Storey, showcasing his jumbled, mixed-media style of work that appeared in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman: Endless Nights anthology. The display also featured a variety of dog-eared pages from his sketchbooks, including among other things, a set of small, incredibly detailed drawings of Saddam Hussein and Yassir Arafat on opposing pages. The former sketch was captioned with a single sentence: "Hussein, looking a bit like Stalin." (more…)

‘Final Crisis’ Preview Debuts

No matter how many times I hear about DC’s upcoming event-to-end-all-events Final Crisis, I can’t help saying its name to the tune of "The Final Countdown." Is there something wrong with me?

Moving on…

DC just sent word that EW.com has posted a five-page preview of… Wait for it…

IT’S THE FIN-AL CRI-SIS…

While that’s all well and good, they’ve also posted a nice little drop-down Grant Morrison script for each of the pages. I dig it immensely — especially since I didn’t realize that a character was actually supposed to be looking over the shoulder of another character (and not at him) until I read it in the script.

I wonder how much stuff like that I miss every week. *sigh*

New ‘Watchmen’ Set Video – Costumes

Zack Snyder and the Watchmen movie crew recently delivered another video from the set of the film, providing a bigger peek at the "look" of the upcoming adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ groundbreaking graphic novel.

This time around, costume designer Michael Wilkinson takes you on a tour of the clothing that makes the men — and women — of Watchmen.

UPDATE: Looks like the code JoBlo provided to embed the video wasn’t playing nice with our system here, but I think I’ve wrangled it into shape now. Apologies for the delay. – RM

 

 

 

 

(via Cinematical and JoBlo)

 

The ‘Iron Man’ Merch: Where’s the Rum Gone?

There’s no denying that the Merry Marvel Marketing Machine went all out for Iron Man — to the tune of $75 million, in fact. From games and toys to Slurpee mugs, in the run-up to last week’s record-breaking release, it was difficult to go anywhere without being exposed to some sort of hype for Ol’ Shellhead.

Nevertheless, I’ll confess feeling a little old-school joy when I see some of the new movie merch making the rounds. Over at Cinematical, the movie blog’s crew posted a detailed look at one of the promotional Iron Man action figures they received a little while back, while EW’s PopWatch blog generated a bit of envy here at ComicMix with their treasure trove of Iron Man swag. Oh, and for the Iron Man completist, IGN posted a fairly comprehensive guide to the licensed Iron Man merchandise you can expect to see on shelves — at least until the collectors get their hands on them, that is.

As is often the case, however, my favorite piece of geekery fell a bit outside the range of mainstream Iron Man swag popping up around the InterWebs. In fact, it was something resembling love at first sight when I came across the Custom "Repulsive Iron Man" Marvel Legends Movie Figure seen here:

It’s a beauty, right? Not only is the figure packaged with a miniature bottle of Bacardi and a set of beer cans, but it also comes with a piece of original artwork by Shortpacked creator David Willis. It’s the perfect combination of comic in-joke and webcomic fun.

Check out the product pitch:

Decked out in sickly green metallics, inebriated shading, and vomitous brown highlights, Iron Man is loaded with disgusting detail. Load him up with the various miniature beer cans or his trusty bottle of Bacardi and he’s ready to battle the bad guys, just as long as you point him in the right direction first!

So, yeah… It’s too bad the auction ended last week. That would have been $152.51 well spent.

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