Author: Rick Marshall

James Marsters Talks Torchwood and Interspecies Romance

  • News
  • January 25, 2008

In a recent, spoiler-filled (we repeat: spoiler-filled) interview with TV Guide, Buffy/Angel actor James Marsters discussed his return to TV on the Season Two premiere of Torchwood.

According to the interview, Marsters portrays a snarky, lusting Brit who quickly becomes a thorn in the side of the series’ main character, an old associate of his who ends up… Wait, doesn’t this sound familiar?

Anyways… The interview is chock-full of behind-the-scenes details about the filming of the Torchwood premiere, as well as some questionable personal revelations from Marsters himself. Unfortunately, most of those sections of the interview are impossible to post here without revealing key plot points, so you’ll have to make do with this short bit about how one of America’s favorite vampires made his way to the BBC:

I was on a concert tour in the U.K. — I broke up my band, so it was just me and my guitar — and my tour manager, Lisa, got me to watch Dr. Who. I thought it was a really well-written show and would be fun to do. So my agent called Russell T. Davies, who wrote Queer as Folk and is responsible for Dr. Who. Russell said no, but he would love for me to come on Torchwood, the spin-off. It’s a funny, subversive show like Buffy. I feel very much at home.

Marsters also sheds some light on the potential demise of a Spike spin-off series:

I don’t think it’s absolutely dead. I told Joss that I didn’t want to do the character as an old vampire, which would be really sucky. [Laughs] But I’m holding up better than I thought I would. With the right lighting, we might be able to get away with it.

Expendable Exposes the Secret Lives of Henchmen

  • News
  • January 25, 2008

expendable-poster-2734549Wednesdays are always big days in the comics world, but this week Hump Day was especially important because it marked the debut of Expendable, the latest film by Wondermark webcomicker David Malki !.

Expendable is a film about one of the most underappreciated cogs in the gears of global domination: the random henchman. Think back to the last spy movie you watched. Remember those guys who were thrown off the catwalk when the laboratory exploded? Well, this is their story.

Better yet, in the words of the film’s creator:

They may wear jumpsuits with skull logos on them, and they may carry assault rifles, but really they’re ordinary guys just like you and me — concerned about health insurance, pension plans, and making it through the workday without being shot, blown up, and/or karate-chopped by smug, oversexed Englishmen. Expendable is their story.

Sure, it’s a great film, but our favorite part occurred in the first four seconds, when the presentation of the production company card ("A Wondermark Presentation") blasted us in the face with some old-school TV nostalgia. We weren’t the only ones, either.

 

Real-World Superheroes?

  • News
  • January 25, 2008

Next time you see someone in a cape and tights running toward you on a busy street, you might not need to cross the road or locate your pepper spray, folks. You could be having a real-world superhero encounter.

This article in The Minneapolis/St. Paul City Pages documents the presence of "Reals" – people who don costumes to do good as real-life superheroes – throughout the country. According to the article, 150-200 of these individuals operate within the U.S., with at least another 50 fighting crime internationally.

One such real-life superhero is "Geist," who dons a black duster and arms himself with smoke grenades, bolos, a slingshot, and a pair of six-inch fighting sticks to fight crime in and around Minneapolis.

A mission awaits and time is of the essence, so Geist eases his solid frame, honed from martial arts training, into his trusty patrol vehicle—a salt-covered beige sedan. Unfamiliar with the transportation tangle of downtown, he pulls a MapQuest printout from his pocket, discovering his goal is but a short cruise down Washington Avenue.

You know what? Forget that stuff we wrote earlier. You should still cross the street and put as much distance as possible between you and the masked guy in spandex… just to be safe.

… Tip o’ the hat to the Blog@ crew

Checking Out Penny Arcade: The Game

  • News
  • January 25, 2008

Ever since it was announced in 2006, details have been hard to come by regarding Penny Arcade Adventures Episode 1: On The Rain-Slick Precipice Of Darkness, the videogame based on the über-popular Penny Arcade webcomic. That’s starting to change, however, as the anticipated release of Episode 1 nears.

The crew over at Wired were recently offered the opportunity for a semi-review of the game (they weren’t allowed to actually play it – they just watched the designers), and the their description of the gameplay, graphics and overall outlook on the game will certainly whet the appetites of eager videogame and/or webcomic fans.

According to Wired‘s semi-review, the game "blends old-school point-and-click adventure gameplay with RPG combat." The dialogue and art were praised by the reviewer, and some hints were provided about PA characters appearing in the game and, in some cases, the roles they’ll play.

Early in the tutorial, you’ll come across the first of the game’s three support characters, who act like summoned monsters in Final Fantasy. Their gauges build up slowly and over time, and you can call them out when they’re ready to deal a big attack to all enemies. The first support character is Thomas Kemper, the PA gang’s erstwhile cat. ("The cat appraises you, and finds you wanting," reads the text when you first encounter him.) His special move is to walk out and lick his cathole, causing one point of damage to all enemies. This is absolutely useless, but very rarely he will do something better, although I’ve been asked not to spoil what that is.

The reviewer ventures a guess that Episode 1 will hit shelves sometime this spring (judging by its level of completion at the time of the review), with installments released at four-month intervals.

If you’re the type that needs to see it for yourself to believe it, you can also view some footage of Episode 1 over at Game Trailers.

 

Martha Thomases Interviewed!

  • News
  • January 25, 2008

Sure, pride goeth before a fall and such, but we can’t help pointing out this interview with ComicMix VP of Corporate Communications Martha Thomases over at Friends of Lulu.

The interview touches on Thomases’ long and winding path through the comics industry, including one of her best-known roles: Head of Publicity at DC Comics during the "Death of Superman" event. Having served in both an editorial and PR capacity for various publishers, she provides some insight into the way these two aspects of the industry rely upon each other and the reasons they often appeal to similar personality types.

I told stories. I looked at what we were publishing and tried to figure out who would care about those titles, and what was the most effective way to get the word to them. I dealt with the mainstream press, not the comics press, so I looked for human interest stories. After all, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are at least as interesting as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

Thomases also chats at length about the changes she’s witnessed in both the comics industry and the role of women in it.

Marketing The Dark Knight After Heath Ledger’s Death

  • News
  • January 25, 2008

There’s been a lot of talk about how the death of Heath Ledger will affect The Dark Knight, but there hasn’t been much response from the studios or producers thus far. Will million-dollar plans get scrapped? Will posters featuring The Joker be removed and/or discontinued? Will they scrap the entire film and just start all over again from scratch??

Okay, so the last question was never really an issue, but you get the idea.

Well, we wish we had all of the answers for you, but we don’t. Instead, we have this article from The Wall Street Journal that manages to get a few quotes from powerful people about the marketing plans for The Dark Knight. However, what really caught our eye about this article was the comprehensive look it provides at the marketing timeline for the film and how all of the bits and pieces fit into a much grander puzzle.

At the defaced Harvey Dent Web page, fans could get a code that allowed them to remove a piece of the overlying image. As more fans participated, Mr. Dent disappeared pixel by pixel, displaying the first official photo of Mr. Ledger’s Joker: a grim white face appearing out of the darkness with dead eyes and an erratic, ruby smile carved into his cheeks.

Not only does it have a long list of sites you can visit for all of the film’s viral-marketed fun, but it also places the information in semi-chronological order – so you can trace the course of the viral campaign at your own pace.

Conan Continues On

  • News
  • January 25, 2008

Conan the Barbarian may be 75 years old, but he can still kick the butts of comics’ youngsters all over town.

From a new coffee-table book and a growing interest in his 1970s stories to the possibility of a new feature film and an upcoming series relaunch, Publishers Weekly provides a nice look at the goings-on in the world of Conan with this recent article.

Among the notable Conan-conscious events set to take place in ’08 is the aforementioned relaunch of Dark Horse Comics’ Conan series, with the current series ending in March at issue #50 and then a new series, Conan the Cimmerian, beginning in June. The new series will be written by ComicMix’s own Timothy Truman and illustrated by Tomas Giorelloand and Richard Corben. It will be edited by Philip Simon.

“With Conan 47–50, readers will see Conan has come to the end of his carefree years as a thief. He’s about to enter the mercenary years. But first, he decides to take a trip back to his homeland, Cimmeria,” Truman said. “His first wanderings into the lands south and east of Cimmeria have been filled with all sorts of nastiness and betrayal and have left a sour taste in his craw. So, he decides to pay a visit back home—just like most teenagers after they take their first stab at the world. (No pun intended, of course.) When he gets there, he finds that he views the place with different eyes, and that people are the same all over.”

The PW crew also chats with Paul Sammon, the writer of the recently released Conan the Phenomenon, a coffee-table hardcover compendium of all things Conan, and investigates the possibility of another Conan feature film.

Lost TV Meets Marvel Comics

  • News
  • January 24, 2008

The new season of Lost begins January 31, but leave it to the creators behind one of the most successfully marketed shows on television to find yet another way to cross-pollinate its addictive mysteries.

Beginning with issues shipping yesterday, January 23, references to the hit TV series will be popping up in the pages of Marvel comics such as Uncanny X-Men, Incredible Hercules, Thunderbolts and Wolverine: Origins. The references will continue with issues shipping January 30.

Among the things to look out for, Marvel has indicated that a Lost poster and the phrase "Find yourself" will pop up here and there throughout the issues.

We’re just hoping that Nikki and Paolo don’t start making cameos in Marvel comics, too. shudder

(Don’t get the joke? Watch the show, dangit!)

 

Jamal Igle Talks Teen Titans

  • News
  • January 24, 2008

55tt2x-4292109No stranger to drawing the up-and-coming among DC’s superheroes, Jamal Igle takes a turn on the publisher’s premiere teen team with Teen Titans #55.

In this interview with The Pulse, Igle discusses how to avoid playing favorites when you’re working on an ensemble book, but still names the characters he looks forward to drawing and the characters he’s, well… "still getting a handle on."

He also provides some insight about the ways in which the characters resemble ladies he once dated.

I have to admit out of the current roster my two favorite characters to draw are Ravager and Kid Devil. KD has a great visual look but as far as character traits, Rose Wilson is such a wild card type character. She reminds me of girls I dated in the past, someone who is searching for her place in the world. She was raised in a brothel until Slade Wilson found her, and then he used her and abandoned her. So she tries to hard to be difficult and provocative. I’ve seen it so many times.

Seriously, though… Who hasn’t dated a girl or two who grew up in a brothel, was rescued by a deadly mercenary, trained to become his heir, gouged out her own eye as a form of tribute and eventually decided to reform and become one of the good (albeit somewhat psychopathic) guys?

New Iron Man Movie Photo, Toys Debut

  • News
  • January 24, 2008

Marvel Studios has released yet another teaser shot (seen here) from the Iron Man film set to hit theaters May 2, but they’re not the only ones riding the Iron Man promotional bandwagon this week.

Hasbro recently launched a new "Iron Man’s Hall of Armor" website that will debut a new figure from the upcoming Iron Man movie toy line each week. The first two figures, "Iron Man Mark III" and "Iron Man Mark I," are already on display.

The Hasbro site also features links to animated "webisodes" featuring Iron Man.

 

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