Category: News

Suicide Girls Talk To ComicMix!

With the hope of finally something good on TV tonite, ComicMix Radio helps you fill up the rest of the day with a few pop culture tidbits that include:

  • The Suicide Girls weigh in on our Who’s Your Favorite Hero survey — and Meow seems to have a thing for the guy with Bat-Ears
  • New Exiles and Freddy vs Jason vs Ash both go up on the Sold Out List … with variants on the way!
  • Even more American Gladiators invade the airwaves
  • Saturday matinees maybe making a comeback!

There are mere hours left until we go back to the island – fill a bit by Pressing The Button!

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Time-Hopping with Star Wars: Vector

Whether your interests lie in the Old Republic or the New Jedi Order, it’s a good time to be a Star Wars fan. With the kickoff of Star Wars: Vector, Dark Horse Comics’ big Star Wars crossover event, the good times might be getting even better.

The crew at IGN Comics are jumping into the Star Wars mix with this interview of one of the Vector writers, John Jackson Miller. In the interview, Miller provides some explanation as to how the event will touch each of the four Star Wars series in the Dark Horse line, from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic to Star Wars: Legacy – especially without the use of time travel:

It’s been the subject of many, many different theories out in fandom. But I can say this: There is no time travel in the Star Wars universe — not in most of the conventional science-fiction senses — and that remains the case even in light of "Vector." You won’t see Luke hopping in the Tardis to go visit the Old Republic!

Well, I guess that answers my question about the potential for a Doctor Who/Star Wars crossover. sigh

With 4,100 years separating KotOR and Legacy, it looks to be an interesting storyline. As I can personally attest, these series are a great read for even the least Star Wars-savvy comics fan. Here’s hoping The Force is strong with Vector.

 

Video: Joe Quesada on The Colbert Report

As you might have already heard, Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada was a guest on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report this week.

Just as many readers predicted, the topic of discussion was the ascension of former Captain America sidekick Bucky Barnes to official superhero status – and the new wielder of Cap’s red, white and blue shield. Apparently, Stephen Colbert was under the impression he was next in line to be Captain America.

Holy awkward situation, Bat-… Wait, wrong publisher…

Anyways, here’s a video of the segment, just in case you missed it:

 

Ed Brubaker, Criminal hit MySpace

Criminal, the award-winning series by Captain America writer Ed Brubaker and Sleeper artist Sean Phillips, will be the focus of a weeklong promotion on MySpace, according to a recent Marvel Comics press release.

Here are the details:

During each day of this event, at http://www.myspace.com/comicbooks, readers will be treated to excerpts from the first two Criminal trade paperbacks and previews of the new Criminal Vol.2 #1 (arriving in stores this February. But that’s not all—look for behind the scenes extras that include a Criminal noir art talk interview between Eisner-winners Sean Phillips and fan-favorite Daredevil artist Michael Lark, a “Week in the Life” writer’s diary by Ed Brubaker; and a special Artist-to-Artist video featuring Ed Brubaker and Bill Hader (Superbad, Saturday Night Live).

And, of course, the obligatory statement by Brubaker:

“The chance to reach the vast network of MySpace Comic Books readers presented us with such a great opportunity, to not just promote Criminal, but to peel back the curtain a bit in a sort of DVD extras kind of way, which is something I think a lot of people will enjoy,” said Brubaker. “The fact that Bill Hader was willing to help us do this was completely overwhelming, too, and is something that I think will make an even more memorable event.”

Issue #1 of the second volume of Criminal hits shelves at the end of February.

 

 

Rant-O-Rama, by John Ostrander

 
Lots of different things pissing me off this week so let’s just make this one a grab bag of rant.
 
The Flordia Primary, Part One. Some time ago, Will Rogers, the noted American humorist, said, “I belong to no organized party. I am a Democrat.” Still true. Given the state of the country today – mired in a war that we shouldn’t have gotten into, edging into recession, a housing shortage that bids fair to upend our financial apple cart – the Democratic nominee for President should be a shoo-in. I think the DNC – the Democratic National Committee – assumes that. Not me. I still trust them to find a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. It’s a time tested Democratic tradition.
 
Cases in point – the Florida and the Michigan primaries. You’ve heard a lot this week about the Florida Republican primary but not so much the Democratic one. Why is that? Because the DNC has decided to punish those two states for moving their primaries ahead despite what the DNC told them. Furthermore, the DNC says they won’t be seating those states’ delegates at the Convention later this year. That’ll show ‘em! Naughty locals!
 
Question: what state lost the Dems the election in 2000? That’s right – Florida. There’s also plenty of votes to be had in Michigan. Mary’s family comes from Michigan and she knows some of them who have voted Democratic regularly before. This time they’ll sit it out or will vote Republican. Why? They’re pissed that the Dems have told them their delegates won’t be seated; that their votes in the primary don’t mean anything. If some people told me my vote didn’t matter, I’d find others who thought it did.
 

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Happy 75th Anniversary to the Lone Ranger!

On this day in 1933, to the strains of the William Tell Overture, the first of 2,956 episodes of The Lone Ranger premiered on WXYZ radio in Detroit, Michigan and later on the Mutual Broadcasting System radio network and then on NBC’s Blue Network (which became ABC).

We hope we don’t have to tell you who that masked man is, but just in case, return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear… when a Texas Ranger named Reid, who, as the series begins, was ambushed along with five other Texas Rangers by by Butch Cavendish, leader of the "Hole in the Wall Gang" and a man named Collins, who has infiltrated the Rangers for the gang as a scout, leaving almost every ranger dead.

Reid, the sole survivor, vowed to bring the killers and others like them to justice. So while he recovers, he asks his companion Tonto to make a sixth grave to make people think that he had died as well.

The Lone Ranger has gone on to appear on TV (both animated and the famous series starring Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels), in movies and serials, and (of course) comic books, most recently in publications from Dynamite Entertainment.

Hi-yo Silver! Away!

Y: The Last Man Roundup

Sure, I heard something about Captain America and some guy named Bucky this week, but the story I really can’t avoid no matter where I turn is the conclusion of Brian K. Vaughan’s five-year series Y: The Last Man.

From MTV to CNN, the mainstream media is all over this story, and rightly so. It’s one of the best to hit comic shops’ shelves in recent years. (If you don’t agree, we’ll just have to step outside. Seriously.) Over the last week, we’ve been directing you to some of the coverage the series and its writer have received as the release date for the final issue appraoched, but the buzz around Y has noticeably spiked in the last 24 hours.

So, without further ado, let’s take a (somewhat spoiler-free) look at what’s being said about the conclusion of Y: the Last Man.

(Oh, and don’t worry about spoilers in this post, folks. I haven’t had a chance to pick up my copy of Y #60 yet, so I’m providing links to spoiler-free stories except where I’ve noted otherwise.)

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Carla Gugino talks Watchmen

Actress Carla Gugino, who plays The Silk Spectre (a.k.a. Sally Jupiter) in the film adaptation of the graphic novel Watchmen, had a lot to say about the role in a recent interview with MTV.

I start at 25 years old in the 1940s, and I age to 67 years old with full prosthetics in the 1980s. [Sally] is a larger-than-life character. She’s a costumed crime fighter, but her idea of a costume is very Bettie Page-meets-[Alberto] Vargas.

In the interview, which took place during the recent Screen Actors Guild Awards, Gugino offers up her thoughts on her character’s hairdo, the amount of "ass-kicking" scenes she filmed, and one of the story’s darkest moments: the scene in which her character is raped.

According to Gugino, the film’s title sequence could be one of the most impressive elements of the big-screen adaptation, combining computer-generated effects with live-action shots to create a visual timeline for the troubled superteam.

"It incorporates real history and the fictitious world of Watchmen, and so it’s very cool,” Gugino explained to MTV. “We meet Nixon and all sorts of people.”

Matthew Sturges on Salvation Run

Readers of DC’s villain-centric series Salvation Run received a bit of a suprise when issue #3 hit shelves earlier this month and series writer Bill Willingham was suddenly replaced by his frequent collaborator, Matthew Sturges.

Luckily, ComicBookResources has interviews with both Sturges and Willingham, discussing the reasons why they pulled the ol’ switcheroo. Willingham says the decision to leave Salvation Run was made under doctor’s orders, but hints at a far more sinister, unspoken explanation:

There’s a longer version with more nuance, many more details, some interesting subplots, a few surprise dramatic twists and even a musical interlude or two, but in the interest of discretion and decorum we’ll stick with the short version.

Willingham goes on to assure readers that neither Fables nor Jack of Fables (which he co-writes with Sturges) were even considered for dismissal.

On the other side of things, Sturges said his main concern is keeping the story flowing without interruption, and cited Willingham’s characterization of the Joker as something he hopes to seamlessly work into his own scripting. He also hinted at some intriguing events to come for the series:

[There will be] giant gorillas, fighting tooth and nail, to the death. If that’s not enough to hook you, nothing else I could possibly add would entice you more.

‘Nuff said.