Category: News

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Doctor Condemned, Ratings Extolled

  • News
  • December 28, 2007

docmessiah-2412312Seems that Christmas entertainment is not without its controversy even in an officially Christian country like the UK.

On the heels of the massive ratings success of this year’s Doctor Who Christmas special, "Voyage of the Damned," which garnered a 50% share of the total British TV audience (increasing to 55% at its peak), an obscure group with way too much un-Christ-like anger (think the UK equivalent of crazy Bill Dohonue’s Catholic League) has complained about the portrayal of the Doctor as a savior figure as "completely inappropriate."  Why this complaint wasn’t lodged at the end of Series Three (see photo) is beyond me.

In addition, Millvina Dean, the last living survivor of the Titanic disaster, criticized the episode sight-unseen, saying "I think it is disrespectful to make entertainment of such a tragedy."  No word on whether she made the same complaint to James Cameron a few years back.

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Manga Friday: Look! A Mammoth!

  • News
  • December 28, 2007

mammoth-8034044I’ve long harbored a suspicion about the “Mammoth Books” – you’re familiar with them, right? Big fat reprint anthologies, on a wide range of subjects (fiction and nonfiction, photographic and comics) published by Constable and Robinson in the UK and imported to this side of the pond by the now-defunct Carroll & Graf? – were put together somewhat on the cheap. (This was based on my encounters with their historical reprints, which I kept thinking should be called things like The Mammoth Book of Vampire Stories That Are Out of Copyright.)

But this book, I hasten to say, is made up of new material, as far as I can tell. All of the works are copyrighted 2007, though the book doesn’t say where, if anywhere, any of this appeared before. Come to think of it, that’s a bit of a problem – if this is the Best New Manga, surely that’s in comparison with other manga, and implies that this stuff was previously published?

These are the kind of problems I always have with the Mammoth Books — they’re generally nice anthologies, but aren’t quite what it says they are on the tin.

OK, so here’s what I think this book is: a collection of all-new stories, in a mostly manga manner, by creators primarily from the UK. It doesn’t actually say that – the introduction, by one-named editor “Ilya,” spends most of its time burbling about how cool manga is and how wonderful the world will be once we can all manage to sell more and more copies of more manga books – but it’s the most likely scenario. (If this really is an anthology of previously published works, and those works are “manga,” then the fact that they’re nearly all British and that none of them are, oh, Japanese, becomes much more puzzling.)

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Snaked, eyed: a review

  • News
  • December 28, 2007

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Are you tired of the Christmas spirit? Clifford Meth and Rufus Dayglo’s Snaked is guaranteed to wash all that away.

In one of the more audacious acts of counter-programming in comics, IDW is releasing Snaked today, in the skip-ship days between December holidays. And Snaked is about as far from Christmas treacle as you can get.

If you’re already a Meth addict, you probably suspected no less. Clifford Meth is a man who does benefits for Bill Loebs and Dave Cockrum– but as a storyteller, he would take Harlan Ellison calling him bugfuck and use it as a cover pullquote. Clifford’s stories have often been dark and mean and nasty and this is no exception. His story hints at, in no particular order, violence, politics, mayhem, cannibalism, September 11, the Bush Administration, the Clinton legacy, and prison rape. Rufus Dayglo’s art reminds one of collages compiled from lunatics’ sketches with crayons drawn on newspaper clippings of murder and corruption trials.

Like I said, the feel-good story of the season.

I wouldn’t recommend this book if you’re trying to smile after a few days with the in-laws*– Snaked is a brutal piece of work. But if you’re looking to dispense with plastered on holiday smiles, this book is the comics equivalent of listening to speed metal to get Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer out of your head. And that’s a good thing.

* Unless you’re hoping your in-laws meets the sort of fate that happens to some of the characters. And if so, I don’t want to know about it.

James Purefoy returns as The Saint

  • News
  • December 28, 2007

A new generation is about to meet the famous Simon Templar. James Purefoy, best known for playing Mark Antony in Rome and getting let go from palying V in V For Vendetta, is set to play Simon Templar in the forthcoming TV series of The Saint.

No fewer than 10 actors have portrayed the character, including the legendary George Sanders and former Maverick / future James Bond Roger Moore. Another nine actors played him on radio, including Vincent Price.

William J. Macdonald (Witchblade, Rome) is prepping a two-hour pilot for a European shoot. Shooting in Berlin and Australia begins in April.

Burl Barer, Edgar Award winning author of The Saint: A Complete History, is also on board.  Barer, authorized by the Estate of Leslie Charteris to write new Saint novels and short stories, will novelize the movie length pilot and future episodes for a new generation of Saint fans.

Happy 85th birthday, Stan Lee!

  • News
  • December 28, 2007

Happy birthday to Stan the Man!

Sure, you know about his comics. You even know about his movies. But you probably don’t know the work he does with the less fortunate. Here’s a photo of him from San Diego this year, where he’s giving a big smile and a hug to a double amputee in lieu of shaking hands–

Oh, wait. That’s ComicMix’s Brian Alvey. I just took a lousy photo.

Anyway, here’s to you, Stan! May you continue to strike fear into the hearts of evil doers everywhere!

Excelsior from all of us true believers!

The Top 10 Reasons I’m Glad it’s 2008, by Michael Davis

  • News
  • December 28, 2007

 

Happy New Year!!
 
Soon it will be 2008! An entire new year! A fresh start! A new beginning! A new lease on life! I love it, love it LOVE IT!
 
Before my last rant of 07 begins, I should address some things. I’ve been asked repeatedly as to why my last two columns were a bit, shall we say… reflective?
 
Somebody even asked me why last week’s column were gloomy and downright depressing. Well, as I said in my very first column 46 weeks ago, I would always carry a real point of view in this space. 
 
My point of view.
 
I just can’t join the crowd and march to the same beat as everyone else does. As Sammy Davis Jr. said “ I got to be me.”  
 
Who is Sammy Davis Jr.? 
 

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Young X-Men – fact or rumor?

girl-wolverine-8620106As the Big Ball looms over Times Square for next week’s plunge, ComicMix Radio begins our series of "What Were Your Favorite Comics Of 2007?"  with today’s rundown from DC and Marvel writer Paul Storrie.

Plus:

• Young X-Men – fact or rumor?

• The NY Comic Con begins building their guest list

• Dean Koontz Frankenstein lumbers into comics

And what did you enjoy reading in 2007? Right after you Press The Button, post a comment or write us direct here (podcast@comicmix.com) and we’ll share it with the world for you!

The Art of Bryan Talbot Review

  • News
  • December 27, 2007

There are plenty of comics writers and artists (and combinations thereof) who have never been fashionable, but who do good, interesting work, and even dive in and out of “mainstream” comics as they go. I’m thinking about people like P. Craig Russell, Eddie Campbell, and – most to the point right now – Bryan Talbot. They mostly keep control of their own work, so they never end up as fan favorites for their run on Ultra Punching Dude, but, as consolation, they do get to do their stories their way.

The Art of Bryan Talbot is a 96-page album-sized softcover, with text by Talbot and a short introduction by Neil Gaiman, which traces Talbot’s varied career. After the requisite page of juvenilia, the book moves into Talbot’s first published comics, the “Chester P. Hackenbush” stories in his Brainstorm comic of the mid-‘70s. It all looks very late-underground; interesting but clearly at the far, tired end of a movement.

After that, Talbot’s career goes all over the place, with stints on “Judge Dredd” and “Nemesis the Warlock” for 2000 AD, a pile of art about the singer Adam Ant, some random minor comics projects, and posters/pin-ups on musical and SFnal themes. Talbot refers to himself as a “jobbing illustrator” at one point, and that describes his work in this section. It’s all technically well done, and the pieces are generally excellent for what they are, but they’re extremely various. (Also around this part of the book is a longish section of life drawings Talbot did for a class in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Pencil life drawings are great for an artist’s development, but can be slightly less compelling in the middle of a book of ink and color comics art. They really don’t seem to mesh with the other pieces of art surrounding them.) (more…)

ComicMix 2008 Suggestion Box

  • News
  • December 27, 2007

If you have thoughts or suggestions about what you’d like to see on ComicMix starting in 2008, leave them here. You may think of something very cool that we haven’t thought of yet, because, you know, we’ve been kind of busy.

We can’t promise that we’ll use any of your suggestions (I can’t even promise I’ll use my own suggestions), but we are interested in knowing what you guys would like to see more or, or less of, or added. Daily strips? Back issues? Baseless rumors? Previews? Reviews? Doctor Who news? Timing? Sliming? An end to rhyming?

Please let us know. We think of this as not just our site, but your site too– which means if something isn’t right, it’s your fault for not telling us.

Zeus, In Passing, by John Ostrander

  • News
  • December 27, 2007
Having celebrated Christmas, we all now stagger towards the New Year. There’s no inherent meaning or importance to the fates of December 31 and January 1; nothing save what we invest in it. Part of the meaning is to look forward, to imagine what will be. The other is to look back and to remember what has happened in the past year especially if someone you know has died.
 
I experienced that late this year. On Saturday, November 17th, I received word from Phillip Grant that his father, Paul, has suffered a major heart attack and was not expected to live. Paul Grant died the following Tuesday.
 
I’d gotten to know Paul in my early Internet days online at the old Compuserve Information Services site, in their Comics and Animation Forum. I knew him at the time by his handle, Zeus, and his were the first online reviews that I read – Notes from Olympus, if I recall correctly. Paul, as Zeus, covered a wide range of comics and, while economical in length, each review was well written and well thought out. Paul could write. He was also an early and vocal supporter of GrimJack, for which I was and am extremely grateful.
 

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