Category: News

Top Cow and Myspace Comics Announce ‘Pilot Season’ Winners

  • News
  • February 20, 2008

velocitycyblade-6505422Recently, Top Cow Productions and MySpace Comic Books announced the winners of their Pilot Season contest, the first annual event which encouraged established comic book writers to create a pilot for a potential series using characters already well-known by comic fans. During the contest, five potential winners were submitted and the MySpace Comic Book community was told to "Take Control" and vote to determine which two charactes would get their own series in 2008.

The winning titles chosen by over four million voting fans were Velocity and Cyblade, two of the dynamic female characters from Marc Silvestri’s Cyberforce. Both new series are slated to debut in the fall of 2008, just in time for Cyberforce’s 17th anniversary.
 
The new Velocity series will be written by Joe Casey, whose previous credits include The Last Defenders and Youngblood, with art by an as-yet undetermined artist. When told of his new gig, Casey was, as you might expect, excited.
 
"I couldn’t believe the voting topped four million votes," said Casey. "Better than a New Hampshire primary! If only that many folks would buy the comics…! In any case, the Pilot issue was only the beginning of what we’re going to make sure is a wild ride when the new series hits in the fall."
 
The other winning series featuring the character Cyblade will be written by Joshua Hale Fialkov of Marvel Comics Presents and Punks The Comic Book and Rick Mays, writer of Kabuki and Gen 13. Flalkov was also very excited about his latest project and eager to get started.
 
"I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who voted for the book, and I’m positive they won’t be disappointed with where the series goes," said Fialkov. "It’s going to be balls-to-the-wall explodo, and I’m psyched to be along for the ride."
 
For more on the contest and the winning series, head on over to the Pilot Season official site.
 
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TV Back Talk, by Elayne Riggs

  • News
  • February 20, 2008

elayne-riggs-100-9837088Many people in this country are experiencing the age of interactive television for the first time. In other countries such as the UK, they’ve had a version of this for some time, in the form of a curious informational additive known as teletext, a useful imp that lives in the bands of the picture that we don’t normally see, and which can be accessed by Brits wanting to know the local weather, transportation timetables, sports scores, and lots of other stuff that most of us in the US can only get online or through cable systems. Here in the US I’ve just discovered my digital cable system has interactive channels that can personalize my weather, traffic, pretty much whatever I want. And that’s not even counting the on-demand entertainment, a tiny percentage of which is available at no extra charge!

And bully for the 21st century and all, but I’ve been interacting with my TV since I was a kid. And I’m not just talking about Winky-Dink.

Romper Room aside, I think I always suspected the people on TV couldn’t see me or talk to me. I understood the idea of shows being recorded for anyone to tune in to, or not. The shows were still there even when I wasn’t watching them. But none of that prevented me from talking back, from letting what I saw affect me to the point where I had an immediate, visceral reaction. As I recall my Dad couldn’t stand it, he’d be there constantly reminding me “they can’t hear you!” Then again, maybe that’s Mom. Dad was the first person on his feet cheering whenever the Yankees took the lead, and yelling about what a bum the umpires or managers were when the game wasn’t going well. So it’s not like the apple fell very far from the tree there.

One of the great things about being married to Robin is that we have many of the same pet peeves about what we see and respond to on TV. One of my biggest annoyances is the increasing use of subtitles when the person being subtitled is speaking English. Occasionally the speaker will have something of a thick accent, but I’ve seen subtitles used with Scots and Irish and even Americans from southern states. Now come on y’all, a lot of that down-home drawl does get to be a bit much, but it’s not a foreign tongue! The only thing subtitles have in their favor is that they, like news crawls on the 24-hour cable stations, encourage reading. Even when they’re misspelled. (more…)

Marvel Earnings Report Reveals Upcoming Project Details

  • News
  • February 19, 2008

Marvel has released its quarterly company earnings report and according to Comics2Film, many interesting things were revealed in the report, besides how much money Marvel made or didn’t make. According to the site, the report also gives clues about Marvel’s slate of live-action films as well as several new animated titles including a World War Hulk direct-to-video feature and Super Hero Squad TV series.

The Planet Hulk film, planned for a February 2010 release, is being produced by Marvel’s animation partner Lionsgate and joins a roster of upcoming films which already includes Hulk Vs., Next Avengers and Thor: Son of Asgard. However, according to the report, Marvel isn’t just working on direct-to-video animated films, they are also planing several animated TV projects as well.
 
The company is developing a large roster of animated TV series such as Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Heroes, Spectacular Spider-Man, Wolverine and the X-Men, Iron Man: The Animated Series, Hulk: The Animated Series. They are also working on a show called Super Hero Squad, which is a version of the well-known heroes geared towards a much younger audience. 
 
Finally, the report may also reveal that Matthew Vaughn, who was attached as writer and director of the live-action Thor feature, may have left the project because now its listed as "writer engaged" instead of "writer and director engaged." So, some interesting bits of into there. Who knew you could get so much great stuff from an earnings report? I’ll have to pay attention to those more often I guess.
 
Of course, if the Vaughn info turns out to be true, we’ll bring you all the details right here at ComicMix.

 

Jon Sable: Tuesday!

  • News
  • February 19, 2008

When last we saw Jon Sable, he was captured next to the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.

In today’s brand new episode of Jon Sable: Freelance, by Mike Grell, Jon is tied to a chair, naked, and being tortured. Will he be strong enough? Will he talk?

And will they ever ask him a question?

 

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Toshiba ‘Officially’ Drops HD-DVD

  • News
  • February 19, 2008

Remember that format war between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD? Well, you can forget about it now because the final battle is over and Blu-ray is the winner — which ComicMix Chief Mike Gold called on Sunday.

Today, Variety is reporting Toshiba has officially thrown in the towel and will no longer build or ship players and recorders using the HD-DVD format — with the final end coming March 31st.

According to the article, Toshiba President and CEO Atsutoshi Nishida made the annoiuncement today from its company headquartes in Tokyo. 

“We realized that if we were to continue in this business on such a small scale, we would only inconvenience our customers and partners,” Nishida explained. “We also saw that, from a competitive standpoint, there was no way we could win.”

In addition to the reasons Nishida outlined above, Warner Bros.’ decision to stop selling HD-DVD discs last month and support only Blu-Ray had, according to the article, "a major impact” on the situation. “After that we had to make a decision quickly," Nishida admitted.
 
Toshiba’s decision clears the way for Blu-Ray, which is championed by Sony and has been battling Toshiba and its HD-DVD allies, including Intel and Microsoft, for nearly six years, to finally dominate the market. Of course, this also comes at a time when downloading content via devices such as Microsoft’s XBox 360 or the Apple TV, instead of using physical media such as Blu-Ray disks, is becoming more and more popular. 
 
Will Blu-Ray’s victory be short-lived as consumers switch, instead, to other ways of getting their content, leaving their unwanted disks gathering dust in a closet somewhere? With the state of our current infrastructure and the country’s lack of internet bandwidth when compared to others, it seems unlikely that downloads will completely replace physical product any time soon. 
 
However, technology often advances very quickly so the switch to downloadable content may end up happening sooner rather than later, especially with the very important younger consumers who already downloading most, if not all, of their content anyway. 
 
In the end, Blu-ray’s victory may be a hollow one and its dominance fleeting. I hope they enjoy it while it lasts. Hey, anyone want to buy a slightly used XBox 360 HD-DVD drive?
 

Government Recalls Spider-Man Cups

  • News
  • February 19, 2008

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued a recall of 6,600 Spider-Man water bottles sold exclusively at Sears last summer. These bottles carry a sufficient risk of choking, as the screws under the lid can come loose and fall into the cup.

Even though these items haven’t been sold for some time, the news is significant as many were purchased by and for fans old and young. Quite frankly, they look sort of cool. So if you’ve got ’em, you might want to take them out of service and put them on a shelf beyond the reach of small children who are not endowed with the powers and proportionate strength of a spider.

More info here.

Toy Fair ’08: Ledger Inspired Joker Figure Announced

  • News
  • February 19, 2008

In spite of the recent, tragic death of actor Heath Ledger, the New York Post is reporting that plans are still in effect to release a new action figure in his Dark Knight character’s likeness to coincide with the upcoming release of the film.

According to the article, the Joker action figure will come in two different versions, both of which will hit store shelves in May.

One smaller version will feature a rocket launcher that can be put in the figure’s hand. The other, designed by well-known team the Four Horsemen, will be slightly larger, more detailed and come with a toy knife. Some might question the timing, or good taste, of releasing the action figure so close to Ledger’s death — or in releasing it at all.

However, according to the article, Ledger’s family supports the decision. "Heath was very proud of his work in the film, and his family is aware and supportive of Warner Bros. and its partner’s plans for the movie," said a family spokesperson. In addition, Mattel, the company behind the figure, are sensitive to the situation but still plan to go forward.

"It’s not exactly a marketing point," said Mattel’s P.J. Lewis of Ledger’s death. "But kids are going to buy the toy if they like the movie."

The Dark Knight hits theaters in July.

[EDITOR’S NOTE: You can see pictures of both figures in our gallery of photos from the ComicMix tour of Mattel’s showroom.]

 

ComicMix at Toy Fair: Mattel’s ‘Infinite Heroes’ and ‘Dark Knight’ Showroom!

  • News
  • February 19, 2008

As promised in our earlier announcement, we have a ton of photos from the ComicMix tour of Mattel’s showroom.

You might have already heard about "Infinite Heroes", Mattel’s new line of 3.75-inch figures based on a wide assortment of characters from the DC Universe, but have you actually heard about it? Check out today’s installment of ComicMix Radio for an interview with Mattel’s "Infinite Heroes" guru, P.J. Lewis.

We’ve also included photos of Mattel’s upcoming line of toys based on The Dark Knight, including figures based on Heath Ledger’s character, Joker, as well as Christian Bale’s Batman. Oh, and for those of you who’ve always wanted a Bat-suit of your own, we’ve got something for you, too.

Finally, we have some photos of Mattel’s line of superhero-incpired toys for their youngest demographic — but we won’t make funof you if you buy a couple for yourself.

So enough with the introduction, check out the full gallery of photos after the jump…

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ComicMix Radio Exclusive: Doctor Who Mini-Mates and Mattel’s Infinite Heroes!

 
Coverage of Toy Fair 2008 continues as ComicMix Radio becomes your ears to the event,  and unveils our exclusive report on a new line of Doctor Who Mini-Mates, as well as big news on Mattel’s new DC "Infinite Heroes" and classic action figure lines… plus…
 
• Our Tuesday rundown of new comics and DVDs
• A brand-new trivia question and another chance to grab an exclusive Graham Crackers Comics variant comic AND our very first winner revealed. 
 
First you Press The Button, and right after that e-mail us (podcast@comicmix.com) and you might be the next winner!
 

 

First Look: ‘Doctor Who’ Minimates and Mattel’s ‘Infinite Heroes’ DC Lineup!

  • News
  • February 19, 2008

There were a number of big announcements this past week at Toy Fair, but two that really caught our attention should make fans of Doctor Who and the DC Universe very happy.

First up is the announcement that a line of Doctor Who Minimates have finally been approved for production by Underground Toys! Minimates fans will soon be able to add figures to their collection based on David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor, Martha Jones and, by the looks of the figure designs, an army of Cybermen, too.

We have a trio of larger images of the Doctor Who designs posted after the jump, but be sure to check out today’s edition of ComicMix Radio (Live at 2:00 PM EST) for an interview with Underground Toys about the details of the line — specifically, when you can expect to see the Doctor Who Minimates on shelves, which characters you can expect to find and how they’re getting distributed.

The second half of today’s ComicMix Radio podcast features an interview with Mattel about their recently announced "Infinite Heroes" line of 3.75-inch figures based on the DC Universe. This is the one that has comics fans and toy collectors talking all over the ‘Net, and we’ll have pictures of the roster of "Infinite Heroes" figures on display in Mattel’s showroom — as well as more more details about the line — available here on ComicMix at 2 PM EST today.

So be sure to check out today’s edition of ComicMix Radio, our thrice-weekly podcast, for more on both announcements!

Now for more  images of the Doctor Who Minimates designs…

  (more…)

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