Neal Adams tells Mike Raub about teaming up with Frank Miller on a Batman mini-series, we uncover the roots of the Suicide Squad, our Timeline stops on 1968, Walter Cronkite talks parallel history, and new releases are exposed!
You can here all the thrills by pressing the play button, right here:
Those of us who frequent the liberal end of the political blogosphere got a real kick out of A-list blogger and comics fan Matt Yglesias’ post The Green Lantern Theory of Geopolitics on the group blog TPM Café.
Of course, Denny O’Neil responded in his column last week here on ComicMix, and now Matt has since followed up on his own blog (of particular amusement is that post’s comment section). Will this be the last word on the subject? Check out Denny’s next column, available mid-day Tuesday, right here.
Budgie calls our attention to another anti-comics screed from the (London) Times Online entertainment columnist Kevin Maher, this time writing about the TV series Heroes. Not only does Maher begin his article with a "Holy fill-in-the-blank, Batman!" cliché, but his entire point is about how "there are no subjects and no areas of modern life that cannot be infected by the inane juvenilia of comic-book lore," emphasis ours. What, did Superman disintegrate his teddy bear when he was a kid or something? Budgie assures us this contempt is nothing new for Maher, whose bias ought to make his editors think twice about assigning him to write about anything remotely comic-related.
Charles Vess is preparing to mount an exhibition of his Stardust art this summer in the premium exhibition space at the William King Regional Arts Center, and to that end has put out a call for sold art: "I’m looking for various pieces of Stardust original art that I’ve sold over the years and would like to borrow that art back for this show. The names of the donors will be included in various publications concerning the exhibit as well as being on the identifying labels themselves." More details at Vess’ blog.
Folks are still recovering from this past weekend’s New York Comic Con, which garnered over 40,000 unique attendees according to ICv2.
"The trade day on Friday set new records for retailer, librarian, press, and other trade attendees," which meant pretty much anyone with a pro badge, and since pros are an integral part of any comic convention (and the con itself never asked for proof of professional credentials so one assumes there were a number of non-pros there too) this trade-day "record" isn’t all that surprising. ICv2 also notes, "Artist alley space was off the main floor, but was jammed throughout the show, due not only to the appeal of the wide range of talent, but also to the fact that access to the autographing and gaming areas required passage through the ‘alley.’" One hopes this layout will change next year when con space doubles again.
Some nice overview reports from attendees:
ICv2 also reports on the winners in Saturday’s American Anime Awards.
Jessa from Bookslut pointed to one of the archives at the Authentic History Center, specifically Treasure Chest’s This Godless Communism produced by the Catholic Guild (and with an introduction by J. Edgar Hoover herself!). This link led to much trepidation about time suckage, as the AHC has some really fascinating stuff. You can peruse WWII military cartoons, comics about atomic energy, a really wrong Howdy Doody cover… a great way to kill a few spare hours! Highly recommended, and adding stuff all the time.
Sunday was a fairly quiet convention day, at least compared with Saturday. Oh, there was still the huge entry queue, but it seemed to be all caught up by around 10:30 or so. However, the energy level was definitely lowered from Saturday’s intensity, so the veteran con-goers among us opted for what we considered really important — reconnecting with good friends, using panel attendance as an excuse to do so.
Yes, there are more photos, and a little bit of a panel review: (more…)
We at ComicMix are dedicated to bringing you as much stuff as we can, but we also know that means sometimes you miss things. We know you want tagging and site feed and comments and that’s all coming down the pike real soon, but in the meantime here’s your handy-dandy guide to the second round of entries by our regular columnists.
Look for Mike every Monday (in fact, his latest should be right below), Denny on Tuesday, me on Wednesday, John on Thursday, and Michael on Friday, and guest features on the weekend. For those of you who, like me, grew up with the Marvel superhero cartoons in the ’60s, that means Mike = Captain America, Denny = the Hulk, me = Iron Man, John = Thor, and Michael = Namor. (Hey, don’t knock it, that’s how I first discovered that Thursday was named after Thor!)
We also gave you a special "mother and child reunion" pair of featured columns this past weekend:
And our latest podcasts, hosted by Mellifluous Mike Raub, continue:
Happy reading and listening!
Great Caesar’s Ghost, my first comic convention actually was 38 and one-half years ago. I thought about that a lot this past weekend. I recall hearing about 300 people attended that show; we were completely astonished by the huge turnout.
It was one of the late Phil Seuling’s first Fourth of July shows in New York, and he established the standard by which I measure all comic book conventions. I helped run the Chicago Comicon for ten years, and I tried to hold us to that same standard. Phil’s shows were absolutely great, and of course they grew in size and importance with the times. (more…)
After more rumor that what the smoke monster is on Lost, J.J. Abrams will direct the Star Trek XI movie, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Abrams had already said that he was writing the script and producing the movie for Paramount, which is re-launching the Gene Rodenberry franchise with this the 11th Star Trek feature film.
According to an oft-repeated yet not quite officially confirmed story,the movie is a prequel, taking place prior to the time represented in the original Star Trek TV series when both James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock are at the Starfleet Academy. William Shatner had stated he was approached for a cameo.
The film is set for release November 26, 2008, just in time for the 40th anniversary of the cancellation of the original series.
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