Category: News

Watching the Presidential Inauguration – and I realize I’m making fun of a dude in a wheelchair, but heck, that’s just who I am – it occurred to me that our former (damn, it feels good to say this) vice-president Dick Cheney goes on to become… Davros!

No kidding. Look at the guy and imagine him on a diet, maybe 100 years older. Nosferatu trapped in the sun. Turns out this isn’t an original observation; the graphic is from seedsofdoubt.com.

Bye, bye. Dick. Don’t let the door knob slam you in the forehead on your way out.

"I was actually born on Krypton and sent here by my father Jor-El to save the planet Earth."
—Barack Obama, October 16, 2008

Good luck, sir.

The happy mutants at Tor.com– no wait, the happy mutants are at BoingBoing, the snarky geeks are at io9, and the ink-stained shockwave riders are at Tor.com– are running a Dan Goldman comic, "Yes We Will", in which Obama deals with the greatest problem of his first term, as predicted by Nostradamus. Or the Mayans. Or Timothy Leary. Or something like that.

Go read it, it’s fun.

Although I can deal with the idea of the singularity a lot easier than I can with Barack Obama not dressed nattily. I’m sorry, but that’s stretching credibilty too far.

ComicMix’s Frank McLaughlin is profiled in today’s Connecticut Post, talking about his career and new role as professor of cartooning at the Sterling House Community Center.

In discussing his long career, McLaughlin noted the change of emphasis from newspparer comic strips to comic books to the Internet.  "Comics and newspaper comic strips have been on the decline for years now," McLaughlin said. "The days of light-hearted comic strips are over. Now, the movies have made characters like Batman very dark and serious."

That allowed him a chance to plug White Viper, which ran here in 2008 and can still be read in case you missed out. The serial was written by his daughter, Erin Holroyd, and pencilled by McLaughlin’s long-time art partner Dick Giordano.
 

Greg Pak is a very busy man. Between the just-launched War Machine, Skaar: Son of Hulk, Magneto: Testament, and Incredible Hercules, which he co-writes with Fred Van Lente, it seems like he’s writing half the Marvel Universe.

It’s an incredibly diverse body of work—Skaar brings to the table the same combination of cosmic Marvel and high fantasy that his very well-received Planet Hulk storyline did, while Incredible Hercules is a more tongue-in-cheek buddy adventure that’s very much rooted in the recent goings-on on Earth. Magneto: Testament presents, at long last, a cohesive and historically accurate origin for the mutant master of magnetism. Finally, War Machine casts  Jim “Rhodey” Rhodes as the planet’s lethal protector.

But don’t take it from me. Greg Pak agreed to take some time out from his busy schedule to answer a few questions about his various series—and provide a few teases. Spoilers abound, so you might want to make sure you’re all caught up on these books before you continue on.

ComicMix: Magneto: Testament has been getting a lot of attention, both for attempting to tell the definitive origin of Magneto and for placing it in a meticulously specific historical context. Would you mind telling us a little bit about where this project came from?

Greg Pak: Marvel editor Warren Simons has wanted to tell this story for years.  And from the minute he started telling me about the project, I knew I had to be a part of it.  I researched the project for about three years before we finally went to script.  And Warren and I have spent hours and hours talking through the history and the nuances of the story beats.  I think everyone working on the book has felt the same kind of responsibility to getting the story right.  Artist Carmine DiGiandomenico and colorist Matt Hollingsworth in particular have gone above and beyond, bringing just the right tone and nuance and gravity to the images while making constant tweaks to ensure the book is as historically accurate as we could make it.  And we owe a thousand thanks to our historical consultant, Mark Weitzman of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

CMix: When it’s done, will it represent the canonical last word on where Magneto came from, or is this outside of continuity?

GP: As Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada recently confirmed in his MySpace Comics column, Magneto Testament is indeed in continuity.  Feel free to start updating your wikis, Mags fans! (more…)

The YIVO Institute presents one-on-one interviews with Al Jaffee, Jules Feiffer, and Harvey Pekar. YIVO’s “Comics and the American Jewish Dream” series kicks off Wednesday, January 21 at 7:00 pm with:

"The Mad, Mad, Mad (Jewish) World Of Al Jaffee"

A graduate of New York’s High School of Art and Design, Jaffee worked as an editor, writer and artist for Stan Lee at Timely (later Marvel) Comics during the 1940s. In 1955, Jaffee joined “the Usual Gang of Idiots” at Mad Magazine, where he’s been a mainstay ever since, entertaining generations with his Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions and Mad Fold-Ins. Join us as Jaffee provides snappy answers to provocative questions about his art and life, including his new book, Tall Tales, published by Abrams.

Series curator and moderator Danny Fingeroth, a longtime writer and editor at Marvel Comics, has spoken about comics at the Smithsonian Institution and The New School. He’s the author of Disguised as Clark Kent: Jews, Comics, and the Creation of the Superhero (Continuum) and The Rough Guide to Graphic Novels (Penguin).

Wednesday, January 21, 7:00
The YIVO Institute For Jewish Research
15 West 16th Street / New York, NY 10011

The series will continue with:
Jules Feiffer: Tuesday, February 3, 7:00 P.M.
Harvey Pekar: Tuesday, February 17, 7:00 P.M.

Admission to programs: $25 / YIVO members: $18 / students: $12
For tickets: call 212-868-4444 or visit www.smarttix.com
For more info visit www.yivo.org