Category: News

Big Changes at Image Comics

  • News
  • July 22, 2008

The summer of change continues for Image Comics. Earlier, Erik Larsen stepped down as publisher, turning the reins over to Eric Stephenson. And now Robert Kirkman has signed on as a partner at the company.

The New York Times has a story on this latest development in today’s Books section.

And this week at Comic-Con International in San Diego, Image Comics will announce that Mr. Kirkman is becoming its newest partner. Under the company’s structure, partners profit mainly from their own work but also have a say in what will be published.

“This is kind of a big deal for me,” Mr. Kirkman, 29, said by phone from his base in Richmond, Ky. “Image Comics as a company was founded by comic book creators for comic book creators.”

This was rumored yesterday in Rich Johnston’s Lying in the Gutters, and Johnston also mentioned other big changes that could be afoot at Image, including offering page rates on certain projects by star creators.

Expect to hear more out of Comic-Con.

Neal Adams and Modern Comics Movies

  • News
  • July 22, 2008

You know superheroes are dominating Hollywood when the movie trade Variety features an extended ode to Neal Adams.

The piece, which includes some quotes from Adams, stresses his role in bringing about more serious superhero comics, particularly on Batman, and how that has influenced superhero movies.

Major studios have mounted a corporate takeover of Comic-Con as a vehicle to promote movies and TV shows, but comicbook artists still receive rock star treatment at the San Diego event. And among those artists, none cast a larger shadow over the current cinematic renaissance than Neal Adams.

Teaming with writer Denny O’Neil in 1970, Adams transformed Batman from the "Biff! Bam! Pow!" camp associated with the 1960s TV show starring Adam West back into the sleek, brooding Dark Knight depicted onscreen for the past two decades. By doing so, they helped establish the serious-minded template that has informed the best superhero adaptations that followed.

And the best quote from Adams:

As rendered by Adams, Batman again became a night-shrouded creature and less a superhero than a grim vigilante — Sherlock Holmes with Olympic-quality athleticism. "Batman is the grittiest character in all of comics," Adams said. "This is an awfully real concept, so none of this wishy-washy shit would do."

‘Iron Man’ as Reading Instructor?

  • News
  • July 22, 2008

ironman-2686376Slate posted a slideshow/essay this morning about "early reader books," the works aimed at young kids with the idea of encouraging them to start reading (think Dr. Seuss).

That literary tradition has been taken up by adaptations of superhero movies, like Iron Man and Incredible Hulk, the essay notes, before questioning whether such works are good brain food.

There’s no denying that kids, especially little boys, love their superheroes, and the whole point of early readers is to get kids excited about reading. But do you really want the Hulk teaching your kid to read?

To which Hulk responded:

HULK READ GOOD!!!

(Oh, c’mon. I had to make that joke.)

ComicMix at San Diego Comic-Con 2008

  • News
  • July 22, 2008

San Diego Comic-Con 2008 kicks off Wednesday night in Southern California, and ComicMix will be on location, bringing you everything you need to know — and some things you might not realize you needed to know — about the people, places and geekery that make it one of the most anticipated (or in some cases, feared) events of the year for fans of comics and comics culture.

This year, the ComicMix team will be all over the show, providing you with all of the interviews, daily con reports, audio, video, blogging and photo galleries you’ve come to enjoy here. Our podcast team will be broadcasting each day of the show with special guests from the worlds of comics, TV and film, while the rest of our audio and video crew will be doing their best to capture the people, panels and general vibe of the show for ComicMix readers. If you’re looking to connect some faces with ComicMix names, be sure to check out our official Meet & Greet Schedule at Booth #2308.

Throughout the show, we’ll be updating our San Diego Comic-Con 2008 News Archive with links to every Comic-Con story we post, and if all goes as planned, there should also be a fancy button on the right side of the homepage for quick access to Comic-Con news.

Keep in mind that you can also follow all of our updates on the official ComicMix Twitter Feed, as well as ComicMix on Friendfeed.

Christian Bale Arrested For Assault

  • News
  • July 22, 2008

christian-bale-the-dark-knight-00-4851559The Envelope of the Los Angeles Times has reported that actor Christian Bale is alleged to have assaulted his mother and sister. Despite these allegations, he was allowed to attend the London premiere of The Dark Knight, after which he turned himself in to the police.

The alleged incident was believed to have taken place on Sunday night at Park Lane’s Dorchester Hotel in London where Bale is staying.

Bale’s mother, Jenny, 61, and sister Sharon, 40, are said to have gone to a police station in Hampshire to make the allegation, which was subsequently referred to the Metropolitan Police.

The full story can be found here.

ComicMix Radio: Battlestar Galactica Heads Back To SciFi


The next time someone asks you “When is Battlestar coming back?” you have an answer and we give it to you here, plus:

  • Two Final Crisis sell outs
  • Len Wein joins Bloodfire
  • Lots of new comics and DVDs all hit the stores

And remember, ComicMix Radio will be broadcasting direct from the floor of ComicCon 2008 starting tomorrow night (Wednesday) for Preview Night. We will have extended broadcasts every day right through Sunday, and to join us all you have to do is Press the Button!

Don’t forget you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via badgeitunes61x15dark-2246862 or RSS!

 

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Barry Blitt’s Other New Yorker Covers

  • News
  • July 22, 2008

newyorker-00-7663838There’s been quite the hub-bub over artist Barry Blitt’s recent New Yorker cover featuring presidential candidate Barack Obama dressed in traditional Muslim garb and surrounded by various jingo-tastic symbols in the Oval Office, and you can catch up on some of the debate via ComicMix Editor-in-Chief Mike Gold’s recent column, "We Will Think For You."

However, ComicMix reader Simon Owens recently posted a pair of past New Yorker covers created by Blitt that might be of interest to anyone following this story, too.

In all the news coverage over the controversial New Yorker cover depicting the Obamas as terrorist extremists, I haven’t seen many mentions of other works by Barry Blitt, the artist of that cover. Two of his covers last year — which I’m posting below — were among the best the magazine has featured in years.

This first one had every political cartoonist in America smacking his head, saying, “Why didn’t I think of that?”

Thanks for the tip, Simon!

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Getting Respect, by Dennis O’Neil

  • News
  • July 22, 2008

dark_knight_onesheet-795949-7861483Well, it is certainly a superheroic weekend here in New York, and maybe where you are, too. The latest Batman flick has already set one box office record and who knows what others it may yet conquer? The second Hellboy movie is still kicking box office butt. And a while ago, I was paging through the Arts and Leisure section of my Sunday New York Times when I saw a familiar face staring up at me from a photo: my old colleague Frank Miller, grim and determined looking. The accompanying story was about Frank’s writing and directing of The Spirit movie, based on work by yet another old friend, the late Will Eisner, produced by yet another old friend, Michael Uslan. (Good heavens! Whom don’t I know?)

Last week, the loyalists among you, if any, will remember that I strongly recommended a book titled The Ten Cent Plague, by David Hajdu. Since then, I’ve recommended it in conversation a couple of times, and may do so again. Damn good book. One of the points Hajdu makes is that comics were the outsider’s medium: the first bunch of creators and promoters were primarily Jewish, guys who had trouble getting work elsewhere. This is one of the reasons the Establishment may have felt threatened by the four-color trash sprouting from the newsstands like crab grass on a lawn; these were not their kind of people and who knows what kind of anarchy these grubbies might promote, given the opportunity? Decent folk practically had an obligation to put them in their place!

When I entered comics, about a quarter century into their history, the field was still dominated by outsiders, or anyway at least ex-outsiders. As for my cohorts… maybe one of the writers who came into comics at about the same time after I slithered in may have been destined for a respectable career in respectable institutions among respectable citizens, but the rest of us were hippie-rebel, anti-establishment types. If that hadn’t been true, why were we there? Comics publishing didn’t have an established career path, there didn’t seem to be really serious money to be made, at least at the editorial level, and Lord knows we weren’t reputable; only a decade or so earlier, our chosen endeavor had been crucified in magazines and on editorial pages and even in congressional hearings. We weren’t exactly bracketed with axe murderers, but you probably wouldn’t want your daughter marrying one of us.

(more…)

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Interview: Jeffrey Brown on ‘Sulk’ and the ‘Incredible Change-Bots’ Toys

  • News
  • July 21, 2008

jeffrey-brown-00-9928571There’s a lot to like about the contradictions surrounding award-winning writer/artist Jeffrey Brown (I Am Going to be Small). His intensely personal work isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when considering properties destined to become action figures, but that didn’t stop Devil’s Due Publishing from licensing the characters from Brown’s Incredible Change-Bots series for their new “Pop” line of collectible toys — the first of which is scheduled for an August release.

In contrast, the work of Brown and several of his peers recently became the focus of an exhibit in the Galerie Anne Barrault in Paris, France. The exhibit, titled “Midwest,” promises to explore “the American Midwest, a huge, flat, agricultural area around Chicago, stretching over several states, swept by the winds, dotted with the Great Lakes.”

I recently had the chance to speak with the soft-spoken Brown about the Incredible Change-Bots toy deal, as well his upcoming projects and the overseas exhibit of his work.

COMICMIX: How did Change-Bots get connected with Devil’s Due, Jeff?

JEFFREY BROWN: Tim Seeley happens to live around the corner from me and we shop at the same local comic shop. Sam Wells happened to be a groomsman in a wedding that my girlfriend and I were attending, so I met him there.

So I knew all of these people at Devil’s Due. They had the Change-Bots book sitting around, and came to me with the idea. (more…)

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Jon Sable Freelance: Ashes of Eden – Complete and Online

  • News
  • July 21, 2008

jsf-8365997Mike Grell returned to his greatest character creation in this all-new full-length graphic novel co-starring Maggie The Cat! And you can read the entire story, from first chapter to last, now that we’ve posted every little bit of it online. 

Any time you have one of the world’s biggest diamonds and one of the world’s most beautiful women, you have a recipe for danger. With New York City on the brink of disaster and Maggie tossed into the mix, and you’ve got more than just an international incident. Can Jon Sable do his job without bringing about nuclear disaster? Can his do it in time for Christmas? 

Read the entire graphic novel Jon Sable, Freelance: Ashes of Eden, from the very beginning right here at ComicMix for FREE!

Credits: Mike Grell (Writer, Artist), Glenn Hauman (Colorist), John Workman (Letterer), Mike Gold (Editor).

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