Another familiar voice and the guy behind it – Meet Neil Kaplan, once Transformer’s Optimus Prime and now a comic creator in his own right. Plus Mike Gold regrets REBIRTH and The Big Two are where you might want to place your bucks in the comic store this week.
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His life of privilege is over! With or without the mask, Lone Justice is a man down on his luck – and the streets are mean! Read the latest installment of Lone Justice: Crash! from Mark Wheatley and Robert Tinnell now — or start from the beginning!
New York magazine shows us 8 Reasons Not to Download Wolverine, but they forgot a biggie– it could get you fired. At least, if you’re stupid enough to wite a review of it, and then post the review for FoxNews.com, sister company for 20th Century Fox, the company that’s putting out the movie that’s just been pilfered.
You ask, quite logically, who could be that dumb? Ladies and gentlemen, say hello– and good bye– to Roger Friedman. Since FoxNews.com has pulled the article, we rely on Nikki Finke for the play-by-play:
"Fox 411" freelance columnist Roger Friedman wrote what I’m told his bosses felt was a blatant promotion of piracy on his Fox News web outlet. Besides writing a review from watching the purloined print of Wolverine, Friedman posted, “I did find the whole top 10 [movies in theaters], plus TV shows, commercials, videos, everything, all streaming away. It took really less than seconds to start playing it all right onto my computer. I could have downloaded all of it but really, who has the time or the room? Later tonight I may finally catch up with Paul Rudd in I Love You, Man. It’s so much easier than going out in the rain!” I’m told that Fox News’ actions were swift and severe. First, Roger Ailes, who overseas Fox News, deleted the offending post after he was contacted by 20th Century Fox about it. And then Ailes fired Friedman as a freelance Fox News entertainment writer. I hear the move was done with the full support of News Corp. "He promoted piracy. He basically suggested that viewing a stolen film is OK, which is absolutely intolerable. So we fired him," a source told me Saturday. "Fox News acted promptly on all fronts."
It’s WRESTLEMANIA weekend and we kick it off with WWE Superstar Dusty Rhodes on what is is like to live the life of a legend. plus Mike Gold ponders the passing of print and will the WOLVERINE movie leak put a claw through the heart of a superhero blockbuster?
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Oh my lord, how did I miss the work at TÖRdötCÖM?
Either let us drag you willingly into the future, or be impaled upon the shiny, metallic spikes of our awesomeness. We will bludgeon all resistance with our second generation Kindles and Sony PRC 505s, slicing and dicing holdouts and naysayers with our sleek, sexy MacBook Airs. Now bow before our awesome new lögö. Note the umlaut—it’s totally Spinal Tap, “but way cooler,” according to our latest focus group, a culturally diverse assortment of popular sixth graders (twelve-year-olds being widely recognized as the eternal harbingers of Cool).
It must be understood that we’re not cutting ties with the geek community—rather, we like to think of ourselves as ultra-modern alchemists, painstakingly turning geek into chic. We would never attempt to trivialize the concerns of fandom. At least the fandom we care about—the kind that hangs out at the Apple Store, and look like those kids from Twilight. Young, pasty, sexy, tech-savvy, secret vampires…yes, that pretty much sums up our new target audience.
Where do we start?
And now, all the stories that we couldn’t run yesterday because people would think it’s another prank. I don’t blame them, I barely believe this one myself.
The statement from 20th Century Fox says it all:
"Last night, a stolen, incomplete and early version of X-Men Origins: Wolverine was posted illegally on a website. It was without many effects, had missing and unedited scenes and temporary sound and music. We immediately contacted the appropriate legal authorities and had it removed. We forensically mark our content so we can identify sources that make it available or download it. The source of the initial leak and any subsequent postings will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law – the courts have handed down significant criminal sentences for such acts in the past. The FBI and the MPAA also are actively investigating this crime. We are encouraged by the support of fansites condemning this illegal posting and pointing out that such theft undermines the enormous efforts of the filmmakers and actors, and above all, hurts the fans of the film."
The economic impact cannot be underestimated here, both to Fox and to Marvel, which had pegged May as the month to publish alternate Wolverine covers on every single title. We can assume that word-of-mouth attendance on the film’s opening weekend is going to be hurt. Remember that this was probably going to be Fox’s major money maker for the year– now they have to hope that nobody leaks Night At The Museum 2 or the next Ice Age film.
Between this and a bad batch of Slumdog Millionaire DVDs released without the special features advertised on the box, Fox is not having a good week.
Yep, it was that time of year again. The highlights:
And of course, we have our contributions:
Amazingly, one of those five articles is true. You’ll find out which in less than a month.
Did we miss any? What were your favorites?
Just to prove that we have some editorial process around here, this was a conversation between Mike Gold and myself on a potential article:
GH: So, I want to run a story on April Fool’s Day… ComicMix to publish the complete Sonic Disruptors, including the unpublished last issues.
MG: Don’t do it.
GH: Aw, why not? You’ve even got unpublished art…
MG: Yeah, but Baron might believe it.
GH: …point taken.
Over on his Marvel blog, Tom Brevoort asks:
If you were given the power to make a single change at Marvel to make things better, what would it be? This can involve story, creators, personnel, direction, anything–but you only get one. What would it be?
Here’s mine: for one month, every issue Marvel publishes has a price tag of $1. All ages, Marvel Knights, Icon titles, the works. If you really want to make it useful, try it around October, when people can buy extra copies to give them out at Halloween.
In that vein, Challengers Comics is throwing a party this Saturday, April 4th, 2009 at 5 pm. As a way to say thank you to their customers and the city that gave them a home, Challengers is having a party complete with food and drink to celebrate the one year anniversary of the store officially opening. In addition to the party, all back issues will be $1.00. The store encourages all interested to swing by and say “hello” or simply search the back issue bins for great deals. Challengers is located at 1845 N. Western Ave #2R, Chicago IL 60647 — and they have a loyal, loyal following at that store.
ComicMix co-founder, production manager and news site scribe Glenn Hauman will be leaving his position at the end of the week to focus on his growing career as a male nude model.
"I’ve been offered a stimulating position out in Long Island," Hauman stated, "and like all native Long Islanders I long for the opportunity to return. And I really mean long."
Glenn had been debating this prickly decision for some time. "I enjoy comics and I can tolerate my partners, but let’s face it — I won’t be young and handsome forever, and I owe it to humanity to squeeze every last drop out of my nature-given charms." Word has it he’s in negotiations with the renown Flava-Punisher agency.
In response to this announcement, ComicMix editor-in-chief Mike Gold stated "Are you kidding me? The guy’s 40! He can’t bend over, let alone dance! Good luck with this one, pal!"
Columns / Glenn Hauman / News
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