Category: News

Happy Birthday, Hijinx

hijinxcomics-4344735In 1982, Mike Gamble opened a comic book store in Willow Glen, California.  Today, owned by Dan Shahin and renamed Hijinx Comics, the store is still open, still selling comics, and still entertaining the community.

Shahin started working at the store in 1986,when he was eleven years old.  Paid in store credit, he sorted baseball cards and filed back issue.  "Back when I first started working comics were 60 cents each and weren’t taxed, and Mike marked them down to 50 cents after a week to make sure they sold. That meant I was earning four comic books an hour to hang out in the greatest store I’d ever seen. I was in kid heaven," said Shahin. "Fast forward 20 years and I’m right back in the place where I was always happiest. I took what I learned from high tech and applied it to comics retailing. It’s the best decision I ever made 

Shahin credits the store’s focus on customer service and broad selection as being the key to getting and retaining new customers in the face of competition from chain bookstores as well as multiple area specialty shops. Hijinx also features a book club program allowing customers to earn store credit for every book they purchase. Hijinx also recently launched www.comicbookshelf.com, a website devoted to reviewing, categorizing and selling graphic novels featuring

free domestic shipping or in-store pickup.

ComicMix applauds any comic book store that survives in today’s tough market, especially one that adapts and prospers.

Movie Auction sets record

  • News
  • April 6, 2007

The auction we told you last Friday (http://comicmix.com//news/2007/03/30/to-do-april-5-buy-superman-oz-props/) is over,and sold more than $2 million in props.  Among the highlights of interest to ComicMix:

— SOLD $ 31,625.00  Lot 376.  Original car from Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride at Disneyland.

— SOLD $ 34,500.00  Lot 384.  Illuminating model of the Nautilus submarine from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

— SOLD $ 23,000.00  Lot 413.  Hero costume w/rocket pack from The Rocketeer.

— SOLD $ 31,625.00  Lot 525.  Yvonne Blake costume sketch of Superman from Superman: The Movie.

— SOLD $115,000.00  Lot 537.  Christopher Reeve hero ‘Superman’ costume from Superman:  The Movie.

— SOLD $ 26,560.00  Lot 545.  Screen-used Kryptonite crystal from   Superman III.

— SOLD $ 63,250.00  Lot 560.  Val Kilmer ‘Batman’ costume from Batman Forever.

— SOLD $ 48,875.00  Lot 561.  Alicia Silverstone ‘Batgirl’ costume from  the Ice Cave battle in Batman Forever.

— SOLD $ 40,250.00  Lot 566.  Wolverine hero claws worn by Hugh Jackman in X2: X-Men United.

— SOLD $ 34,500.00  Lot 591.  Early Leonard Nimoy "Spock" tunic from the first season of Star Trek.

— SOLD $126,500.00  Lot 631.  H.R. Giger Alien creature suit on display from Alien.

— SOLD $ 40,250.00  Lot 640.  Jedi Master stunt fighting lightsaber from SW: Episode II – Attack of the Clones.

— SOLD $ 69,000.00  Lot 641.  Golden headpiece of "Staff of Ra" from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Wonder Woman on the radio

Trey Songz will release his second album, Trey Day, June 12, via Songbook/Atlantic Records. The lead single from the album will be “Wonder Woman,” which features production from Danja.  You can get a preview at his website, www.treysongz.com/

MARTHA THOMASES: Why I love the Legion

  • News
  • April 6, 2007

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It was in early 1980 when I realized what I geek I had turned into. The night before, I had a dream. My dream was not the inspirational kind like Martin Luther King, Jr., nor the poetic kind that Neil Gaiman would later spin into a career that brings happiness to millions.

I had a geek dream.

In my dream, the Ramones tried out for the Legion of Super-Heroes, and were turned down because Legion rules didn’t allow for more than one person to have the same super-power, which, in this case, was being a Ramone. I no longer remember precisely who turned them down, but I do remember Bouncing Boy suggesting they join the Legion of Substitute Heroes. Joey wanted to, but Dee Dee refused.

Then I woke up.

I read my first Legion story in Jamestown, New York, visiting my grandparents in the late 1950s or early 1960s. I had what must have been an Adventure comic, with a story about the adult Legion of Super-Villains fighting Superman, and the adult Legion of Super-Heroes joining in. My grandparents, while lovely people, were very boring, and I dove into that comic as a way of avoiding Lawrence Welk on television. Luckily, this eight-page story had plenty to mesmerize a young girl. Cosmic King versus Cosmic Man! Lightning Lord versus Lightning Man! Saturn Queen versus Saturn Woman! The villains had regal names while the heroes had descriptive names. Clearly, ego and a class system must be what turned people bad.

Over the next several decades, I read as many Legion stories as I could. I loved the variety of powers these kids had (Matter-Eater Lad!), and that they had a meetings where they could gather and sit behind desks, with title cards that explained their abilities, in case they forgot. (“I’m Invisible Kid, but I don’t know what I do. Oh, here it says on my name-plate. I can turn invisible!”)

But mostly, I loved that they had a clubhouse.

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Edward Gorey Movies

  • News
  • April 5, 2007

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the work of everyone’s favorite creepy cartoonist, Edward Gorey, will be made into a movie. The project is being developed by Walden Media (the people who brought you the Narnia movie), the Jim Henson Company, and Fox 3000. 

Brad Peyton will direct from a script written by Matthew Huffman.

It’s hard to come up with a creature that you’ve never seen before in any medium, and he’s a unique little creation who is very appealing without being cute or cloying," Jim Henson Co. co-CEO Lisa Henson said. "He’s sophisticated yet simple at the same time, but it’s not overly juvenile. Adults can find him cute, too."

No word yet on a cast, or if the film will be live action or animated.

Depp’s daddy Disney disaster?

  • News
  • April 5, 2007

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As you may have heard, earlier this week rock legend Keith Richards acknowledged snorting the ashen remains of his father. Within 24 hours, his publicist issued a retraction. April Fools, she said, a few days late.

O.K. Fine. I believed the former, I don’t want to believe the latter, but what the hell it wasn’t my dad.

But it was said by Johnny Depp’s dad – as in, "Keith Richards plays Johnny Depp’s father in Pirates of the Caribbean At World’s End."

There’s a wonderful opportunity for an exciting new ending here. Otherwise, Disney’s spin-meisters are going to have quite a tangled web to weave.

Pirates of the Caribbean At World’s End opens May 25th.

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MATT RAUB reveals: Bob Dylan is a Cylon!

  • News
  • April 5, 2007

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So it’s been about two weeks since the season 3 finale of Battlestar Galactica. “Crossroads Part 2” has aired, and I’m tired of sitting on what I have to say about it. If you’re one of the unfortunate one’s who have still yet to see the show, here’s the spoilers: Basically we learned: who the final four Cylons turn out to be, how everyone copes with the recently deceased Starbuck, the outcome of the Gaius Baltar trial, that President Rosaline’s cancer has returned and she’s back on the wacky drug that made her see snakes, and finally, that Bob Dylan is a Cylon!

Don’t worry; I know there is a lot here, so I’m going to break it down for those playing along at home.

Those of you who remember the set-up in “Crossroads Part 1” know that throughout the episode, Colonel Tigh, Sam, Chief Tyrol, and Press Secretary Tory Foster (played by Michael Hogan, Aaron Douglas, Michael Trucco, and Rheka Sharma, respectively) hear strange sitar music that draws them toward the center of the ship. We don’t know where it comes from, only that these four are the only ones that can hear this music. We find out in the finale that mysterious music is a cover of the Bob Dylan song “All Along the Watchtower” – and not Jimi Hendrix’s, either! Now, those of you who read my review for the film 300 know my feelings about switching from orchestral beats to heavy modern guitar, but that goes full force when it’s a sci-fi show that uses an actual song when the show takes place millions of years ago and/or galaxies away!

Either way, we discover that these people hearing the music are drawn together and discover that they are all Cylon sleeper agents. This is probably one of the biggest moments in the season, and I feel likeit  didn’t get the respect it deserved by clumping all of the Cylon-outings in one scene.

Moving on, we also get the verdict of the excruciatingly long trial of Giaus Baltar. The arc basically consisted of a whole lot of father/son Adama melodrama, cranky Rosaline explains how her cancer has returned (which should be a non-issue because we know that the bastard Cylon-baby is the cure) and some more mystifying lines from Batlar’s lawyer, Matt Murdock-lite Romo Lampkin (played by 24’s Mark Sheppard). After some deep prodding from the prosecution, a recently de-commissioned Apollo takes the stand and gives this entire speech on what he’s been feeling from day one. This was a great little monologue, because he talks about how the fleet has forgiven all of its past “crimes against humanity,” referencing a lot of the back story along the way. Essentially this is what persuades the tribunal of judges to give Baltar a verdict of not guilty.

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Let’s you and him reconcile

  • News
  • April 5, 2007

Via Budgie, for your reading pleasure comes this post by artist Jesse Hamm on the ways in which writers drive him crazy, followed by a three part rebuttal by Mark Waid on why certain artists should perhaps choose their words as carefully as they choose their illustrations.  Beyond the sarcasm and vitriol is some terrific information and useful advice on the collaborative process in comics.

World War Free!*

  • News
  • April 5, 2007

ATT & T and Blizzard Entertainment today announced a free, two-week direct-download trial of World of Warcraft.  The game is available at the AT & T blue room gaming site (http://www.attblueroom.com/gaming). 

The press release claims this is the longest World of Warcraft trial available.  It also claims that WOW is the most popular multiplayer online role-playing game, with more than 8.5 million subscribers.

"World of Warcraft‘s following is phenomenal. Its universal appeal extends to both experienced players and those brand new to gaming, so we’re thrilled to offer an extended online trial edition," said Glenn Broderick, executive director of gaming, AT&T.

* You thought this was going to be a post about that 52 spinoff co-written by our own John Ostrander, didn’t you? Made you look…

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