Category: News

Coming Soon To A TV Near You, by Mike Gold

  • News
  • November 12, 2007

The television and movie writers strike is entering its second week. The picket lines are being staffed by more stars than there are in the heavens. The writers are looking for their fare share of DVD revenue – currently, approximately three to four cents per sale – and of commercial Internet action – currently, zilch.

Ironically, as teevee shows are starting to go on early hiatus, us folks back home are beginning to turn to DVD purchase and rentals to fill the downtime, lest our sets stare blankly back at us.

This one seems simple. If somebody is making money off of your work, you deserve a fair share of the action. Or even a taste. Anyway, something more than an insult. Collective bargaining is genuinely American; it mirrors the very values of fair play that we were all taught in school. Just like “socialized medicine,” there is nothing left wing or communistic about it – despite what some of our right wing politicians, corporate magnates and the liars at Fox News babble incessantly babble.

We need to look no further than the deposed leader of Disney, Michael Eisner. “It’s a waste of their time. “(The studios) have nothing to give. They don’t know what to give.” Oh, really? These clueless number crunchers who “earn” eight digit compensation packages strictly solely off of the sweat of the artistic community (writers, directors, musicians, performers – 90% of whom are largely or completely unemployed at any moment in time, et al) have nothing to give? How about starting with me, and give me a break. (more…)

Legos, Peter David vs Howard Stern and Free Links

  • News
  • November 11, 2007

brickj-6931344In case the change in weather hasn’t hit your area yet, let us remind you that pages of the calendar are flying by as fast as in a one of those old Hollywood movies and those holiday are rushing closer. That being said, keep in mind a lot of our links do make way cool gifts!

• After existing since 2005 as a digital edition averaging over 100,000 downloads per issue, TwoMorrows will be taking BrickJournal into the print world. The print edition will debut in February 2008 with a new #1, and will be offered in the December issue of Diamond Distribution’s Previews and will be carried at newsstands and bookstores nationwide, as well as on the publisher’s website. Meanwhile, the latest issue (#9, the last digital-only edition) is available now as a free download here for anyone to sample.

• Just in time to drop under your tree, Museum Replicas Limited has their limited edition prop quality Magneto Helmet . Created from the actual 20th Century Fox prop, used in the motion picture X-Men 3 – The Last Stand, based on Marvel’s ever popular Superhero franchise, the helmet is full steel construction, has a leather padded lining and a polished enamel finish.  If the quality doesn’t have collectors everywhere clamoring for one, the attractive display stand, certificate of authenticity or the 2,006 piece limited edition run, will. If you just want to drool over the thing, go here.

(more…)

Striking the right notes

  • News
  • November 11, 2007

As the WGA strike begins its second week, ComicMix staffers and columnists applaud our fellow writers, remind readers to keep turning to United Hollywood and Deadline Hollywood Daily for the latest news, and promise to keep entertaining you as best we can!  Here’s what we’ve had for you this past week:

May the WGA get everything it wants and well deserves!

Happy 38th birthday, Sesame Street!

  • News
  • November 11, 2007

On this day in 1969, the National Educational Television network premiered a show from the Children’s Television Workshop, with songs, animation, Carol Burnett, and Muppets. Thirty-eight years later, Sesame Street has become the longest running American children’s program, having helped educate generations of children worldwide.

The effect of the show is so powerful and widespread, this song made it up to #16 on the Billboard charts in 1970:

Happy 47th birthday, Neil Gaiman!

  • News
  • November 11, 2007

Today we celebrate the birthday of one of comics most creative contributors, the great Neil Gaiman. To think, we all knew him when he was just writing some of the most brilliant comics out there, before he was responsible for half the films coming out from Paramount this year. But the man is nothing if not versatile– he writes short stories, TV shows, movies, novels, and once even wrote a poem about erotic cannibalism  in strict iambic pentameter.

While we tip him a bit of the birthday hat, we’d be remiss if we didn’t point out this story from Munden’s Bar…

Lois Lane’s Noel Neill Speaks To ComicMix!

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There is no denying that we have had our share of "Lois Lanes," from Phyliss to Margot to Erica, but for a lot of us there is only one gal who could fill the tight high heels of that plucky reporter – Noel Neil. ComicMix Radio gets the extraordinary pleasure of sharing a few minutes with Noel and previewing her amazing collection of Hollywood memories… plus:

• Peter David suits up in iron

• What If? a Hulk comic sold out – and actually did

• Tom Arnold is having a garage sale

• Cartoon stars go commando

Press The Button – or Lois’ BFF may get nasty on your butt!

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Norman Mailer, Neil Gaiman Fanboy

  • News
  • November 10, 2007

1101730716_400-8720063Norman Mailer died this morning, age 84, at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Manhattan. You can scour the news to read about his importance to literature in the Twentieth Century, from his ground-breaking novels to founding the Village Voice. But did you know he also helped change comics?

One night, we had a dinner party for the express purpose of introducing Mailer to Neil Gaiman. Neil, as was his habit, was so charming that Norman wanted to read Sandman. He liked the series enough to provide a cover blurb for the next trade paperback collection. Neil later reported that bookstore buyers told him that the Mailer quote persuaded them to stock graphic novels. And the rest, as they say, is history. Ancient Evenings is an awesome book. Start there.

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Joe Strummer and Selling Out

  • News
  • November 10, 2007

timnjoe-2172608I was at the old Chicago Comicon back in 1989, walking the corridors of the old Ramada-O’Hare hotel with my old pal Timothy Truman when an intense fan grabbed Tim by the arm.

“How could you,” the fan said, and I paraphrase. “How could you sell out?” He sported a gaze of disappointment and hostility. Tim didn’t ask what he was talking about. He knew. He had started supplementing his income by working for “the majors” – at that time, DC Comics. Not that First Comics and Eclipse Comics were any less corporate with many of the evils associated therewith; DC and Marvel were just bigger and better at it.

“Hey, I wanted to do a tribute to Gar Fox,” Timothy replied, and I continue to paraphrase. “I liked doing it.”

The fan staggered off muttering about things like big business and working for the man and such. I’m about as Red Cat as they come in comics (with the probable exception of Mark Badger), but I understood one thing: if you want to work on a corporate-owned character, you’re going to have to work for the corporation, and (as Martha Thomases noted earlier today) by their rules. That’s how gravity works.

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TV Eye by Martha Thomases

  • News
  • November 10, 2007

A few thoughts on the Writers Guild of America strike, and what it means for comics – and you!

• If the history of comics has shown us anything, it’s the fact that the more satisfied the creative talent is with their deal, the better our choices in entertainment. The rise in independent comics that started with the undergrounds in the 1960s forced innovation on what had been a stodgy industry, not only in terms of subject matter but also in terms of revenue sharing and creator-owned properties.

• Television and movies are much more collaborative efforts than comics, so sharing copyrights and trademarks can be much more complicated. That’s why, in those media, the accepted standard payments are residuals and royalties. Even though the comics industry has been paying royalties for over a decade, I have not seen it make any difference in the bottom line at Warner Bros. or Marvel. When profits are shared, everyone profits. (Aside: Yes, I know studio accountants can magically make profits disappear. That’s a separate rant.)

• It’s kind of hilarious that people expect a flood of Hollywood talent to descend on comics during the strike. For one thing, most of the major publishers book up their talent on regular books for at least six months to a year. For another, the major publishers offer deals that are much worse than what the studios are offering. DC or Marvel may consider original graphic novels, but they’ll want to retain ownership, just as they do with all their other properties. (more…)

Manga Friday: Out of the Past

  • News
  • November 9, 2007

This week, Manga Friday heads into the past…sort of. I picked up the first volume of two extremely popular manga series, to see what they’re all about. But we’ll start with something even less likely.

Siku is the pseudonym for a British cartoonist of Nigerian heritage who’s worked extensively in the British comics industry for the last ten years, including the obligatory stint on Judge Dredd. But he’s done something very different now – a book called The Manga Bible. It’s exactly what it sounds like: a retelling of the entire Christian Bible, in a manga-influenced art style, in two hundred pages. The script was written by Akin Akinsiku, another Nigerian-British comics creator, and there’s a lot of script.

Now, I’ve read Bible comics before. (You might not know this, but your humble Manga Friday correspondent won his church’s Bible Olympics two straight years back in his ill-spent youth.) There was a set of ten or so books that I particularly remember from that time, which adapted the entire bible, one chunk per book. And even those comics were pretty wordy – folks in the Bible tend to talk a lot (even with a New International Version translation, like the Manga Bible uses), and descriptive captions are often required to explain what’s going on and who all of these people are.

The Manga Bible is extremely wordy; each page is nearly covered in captions and dialogue balloons, to the detriment of the art. Yes, the characters are drawn in a manga-influenced style, but the storytelling doesn’t owe much to manga at all. It’s exceptionally compressed, like an early ‘60s Superman story, without the expansiveness and flowing layouts of real manga. The art is eye-catching, though not so stylized as to appear completely alien to American eyes. So it’s a shame that it’s so cramped, shoved into small panels by the relentless flow of words, words, words. (more…)

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