Watchmen watching
Aint It Cool News, via Heidi, has this image that was hidden in a 300 trailer:
This is purported to be a test image for the Watchmen movie that 300 director Zack Snyder is attached to. Get that buzz agoing…
Category: News
How to follow the thread
It’s no coincidence that The Fates of Greek mythology are female. The sisters sit and spin, each thread the life of a mortal. One sister decides when a thread will start, another adjusts the tension and thickness, and the third cuts it at the end.
Women are frequently storytellers. Sit around a playground and listen to the moms chat, or go to a laundromat, or the communal dressing room at Loehman’s. You’ll hear epic tales of finding a bargain at the designer rack, or intrigue and scandal at the PTA. You’ll hear detailed comparisons of size and technique.
Men tell stories to each other, too, when women aren’t around. Or so I’m told.
Are men’s stories better than women’s? I doubt it. Are they different? Perhaps. Are they told differently? You bet!
In her insightful book You Just Don’t Understand, Deborah Tannen describes the different ways men and women use speech. In general (and Tannen goes into more detail than we have space about the range of individual exceptions), women use conversation to establish common ground; men use it to establish hierarchy. This would suggest that we tell our stories for different reasons. (more…)
600 bare thighs
Starting off, I want to issue a warning to the readers out there who aren’t fans of scantily clad, bronzed, chiseled goliaths who seem to have leapt from the pages of Men’s Fitness Magazine. If you aren’t, much like this reviewer, you may not enjoy the true essence of the two-hour epic which is 300.
600 bare thighs aside, I wasn’t a huge fan of Zack Snyder’s interpretation of Frank Miller’s graphic novel. I place most of the blame not on Snyder, but on Robert Rodriguez. Their promotion play was established by showing off the “graphic novel” style of filmmaking, which is essentially comparing the comic book pages to the frames of the film, fast-cut, music video-style editing, heavy rock soundtrack, and shooting the majority of the film in front of a green screen. Now I’d hope the majority of you realize at this point that the style I just read off was identical to the style that Robert Rodriguez practically invented for 2005’s Sin City.
Now in playing devil’s advocate, I could say that the reasoning behind the similar styles lies with the fact that they are both done in Miller’s vision, and his artistic didn’t change much between the two graphic novels, and you could be asking at that point “Why should the film style change between the two films?” I’ll tell you why, dear readers. If this film was done with Rodriguez behind the helm once again, or even with his “Troublemaker Studios” at hand (which is where the majority of the green-screen activity was shot) it would have been far more acceptable. (more…)
The Onion on Captain America’s death
Captain America, the comic book character created during World War II as a patriotic opponent of the Nazis, was killed by sniper bullets in a recent comic. What do you think?
Monica Chan,
Systems Analyst
"But who will avenge him? If only there were a group of ‘avengers,’ if you will, organized for that purpose."
(Copyright 2007 The Onion)
Maybe Cap was lucky
One of the more interesting comments on Captain America’s passing was this from blogger Ari Emanuel on the Huffington Post:
"It’s hard to be a star-spangled Super Soldier these days. Given the lip-service-only support this administration gives our troops, the patriotic hero would have to fight evil with a substandard red, white, and blue shield, and be stop-lossed into an endless tour of duty.
"The only upside to the good Captain’s death? If he had survived his wounds, he might have been sent to Walter Reed."
But more to the point, this follows what we saw at the end of Civil War. Cap’s side was winning everything but the argument – and that was more demoralizing to him than anything else, that the people didn’t understand his point of view, and were happy to knuckle down to authority.
Cap’s death is relevant because now we get to have a real debate as to who we want as the symbol of our country. Who picks up the mask? Who gets handed the shield? Who will speak for America – and who should?
Expect a big debate on this, here on ComicMix and in the rest of the world at large.
Scribe nominees announced
The International Association of Media Tie-In Writers has announced the nominees for the first annual Scribe Awards, honoring excellence in licensed tie-in writing for books published in 2006. The 2007 Scribe awards will be given out at a ceremony at Comic-Con in San Diego.
Their first annual Grandmaster Award, honoring career achievement in the field, will go to Donald Bain, author of the Murder, She Wrote novels and the ghostwriter behind Coffee, Tea or Me and other bestsellers.
The nominees are:
Tintin heads to the big screen
Tintin, one of the most popular comic book creations on the international scene, is headed to the movie theaters coutesy of Dreamworks and producer Steven Spielberg. The movie has a projected budget near $100 million, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
George Hermi, better known as Herge, created 23 Tintin graphic novels before he died in 1983. Spielberg has been sitting on the rights since shortly before Herge’s death. Tintin already has appeared in five movies — two live action and three animated — and two animated teevee series. The classic Tintin in Tibet graphic novel was adapted into a London musical last year.
Convention Intimacy
I just got back from WonderCon in San Francisco, the week before that I was at the New York City Comic Con (NYCC).
These cons were fun and, for the most part, well run. I say for the most part because the NYCC people still have some work to do with regards to how they treat professionals and, more important, the fans. WonderCon ran smooth that’s because no one runs a convention better than Fae Desmond and the staff at Comic Con International. They treat each fan like they were the only fan there. The NYCC people have a good heart and I think any problems they had came from the staff at the Javis Center and not the convention people.
I had a good time at both but there is something missing from these cons and for my money something missing from all the really big cons. That something is intimacy. Now I can hear you asking the question: what does intimacy has to do with a comic book convention?
My answer is… everything.
Comics is an intimate medium, or it was once upon a time. Comic book fans will wait on a movie line for hours and consider it part of the experience. Comic book fans think that Star Trek marathons are cool, even if they were born decades after the show first aired. Comic book fans don’t just go to conventions seeking the issue of Spider-Man they need to complete their collection. Comic book fans go to conventions to be with like-minded people. They go there because if they want to they can dress up like a superhero and not be afraid. They can talk about a battle between the Hulk and Superman with the seriousness it deserves. Comic fans go to conventions because they are safe. Safe to be who they are, safe to say what they want.
These are important things.
Think not? Well let’s just say you are a comic book fan and you live in South Central L.A. You think you can stroll the street with your Captain Kirk outfit on without taking some flack?
You are walking down a South Central street a group of young men are walking towards you; they are members of a street gang. They approach and the leader stops and talks to you: (more…)
Maggie Gyllenhaal playing Rachel Dawes in ‘The Dark Knight’
Cinematical wouldn’t lie to us, and they tell us that Variety says that Maggie Gyllenhaal is in final talks to play Rachel Dawes in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight (which, of course, is the sequel to Batman Begins.) Gyllenhaal will replace Katie Holmes as the love interest of Christian Bale.
Me, I’m thrilled. I’ve loved her in everything I’ve seen her in, and I think that she’ll add an edge to the film that Holmes couldn’t. I’m looking forward to it.
Getting personally graphic
Via BoingBoing, the Seattle weekly alternative paper The Stranger features two personals sections – one called Lovelab and the other Lustlab (the latter probably Not Safe For Work). Graphic artist Ellen Forney has been choosing one Lustbalb personal ad each week and illustrating it on her website, and as of today she’s expanded the concept and doing the same for Lovelab. A terrific exercise in translating and interpreting often haphazard and rambling personals into cogent and meaningful single visuals.
