Category: News

ComicMix flicks hits!

  • News
  • March 12, 2007

With 300’s $70 million opening weekend, everyone’s eyes lit up. No one expected this number, with the best estimates at least $20 million lower. Now everyone is scrambling to read the tea leaves and try to understand what just happened.

A few thoughts from our corner of the universe. First, this will make 2007 the best year ever for comic book movies. There are six feature films scheduled for release this calendar year and I will guarantee you that combined, they will add up to huge box office receipts.

As a result, this will fuel future comic book-into-movie activity. It also makes Frank Miller a suddenly bankable name. Forget his work on Robocop 2 and look at Sin City and now 300. Once he begins directing The Spirit later this year, expect that to get onto a release schedule ASAP.

Projecting ahead, there are five more comic book movies have firm release dates for 2008 with at least two others penciled in (see schedule, below).

I’ve said all along that the comic book adaptations will continue until there are enough flops to sour Hollywood on the genre. This year opened with Ghost Rider opening to surprisingly huge numbers and then had legs. With 300, the reverse seems to be happening. I suspect production heads will fast track properties in the various studio pipelines and we’ll see one or two more movies added to 2008 and 2009 could possibly get jam-packed even though all that’s for certain that far out is the next Bryan Singer Superman release and Captain America.

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Comics take on statutory rape

  • News
  • March 12, 2007

To help combat a growing trend, the Virginia health department has commissioned a "fotonovela" – a comic book that uses photographs instead of art, also known as fumetti – to educate Spanish-speaking girls younger than 18 about how they can avoid being coerced into unwanted sex.

Citing cultural tradition, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention told CNN Latinas lead the nation in teen births with a birth rate more than double the national norm. Young mothers are extremely reticent to name the fathers of their children.

According Paz Ochs, the Richmond VA Hispanic liason who helped create the fotonovela, "We wanted something that would be appealing. There’s some people that might not realize that this is even against the law." Health care workers in Illinois, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Indiana and Florda have contacted the Virginia Department of Health for more information.

The reading generation

  • News
  • March 12, 2007

teenread-7222504According to this article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, teenagers are reading more now than they have in decades.  Not only that, but they’re "buying books in quantities we’ve never seen before," says Booklist magazine’s Michael Cart, who also notes that "publishers are courting young adults in ways we haven’t seen since the 1940s."

The reasons for the surge, besides a high teen population at present (over 30 million), include more quality young adult literature in just about every genre, with fantasy and graphic novels being particularly in vogue.  But it’s not just buying – teens are also visiting libraries in greater numbers, and many librarians are seeing a greater circulation of teen fiction than adult fiction. 

Oddly, the article doesn’t really credit online activity for this upswing; it actually notes, "The staying power of books is especially remarkable given the lure of YouTube, MySpace and other techie diversions."  But as any teen or adult can tell you, you need to be able to read, and read well and fast, in order to fully partake of online "techie diversions," and once you’re reading stuff you like, you’re bound to read more.

Mike Gold: It’s about time

  • News
  • March 12, 2007

mikegold100-4129572I was listening with keen interest to Mike Raub’s interview with my old friend, DC publisher and president Paul Levitz, available on the current (#12) ComicMix Podcast. Back in the days of papyrus scrolls, Mike, Paul and I were in an a.p.a. (amateur press association; a forerunner of the Internet) called Interlac. It was great fun, and if I’m not mistaken it’s still around in the more capable hands of those who still own staplers.

Anyway, Mike asked Paul for his opinion as to the single greatest change in the comics medium in the 35 years since he ran a massively influential fanzine called The Comic Reader. Without dropping a beat, Paul talked about the acceptance of the comic art medium.

A couple hours later I found myself debating which would be the least expensive way to see the movie 300: my AARP card or the first-showing matinee. Linda and I piled into the car and drove up I-95 to watch the carnage. I’m referring to the movie, and not I-95.

Later on TiVo showed us the latest episode of Ebert and Roeper, where 300 lead the discussion. Mind you, I regretted the passing of the show’s original co-host, Gene Siskel. Unbeknownst to much of humanity, Gene was a serious fan of Roy Thomas’s Conan work and at one time had at least three complete collections. But then again, he might have reviewed the movie through the eyes of a comics’ fan. I doubt that, but roll with me for a while longer.

Roeper reviewed the movie and loved it. He commented at length about the evolution of the graphic novel-based movie without once referring to costumes and capes (oddly, 300 had both – but you get my drift) and Frank Miller’s influence on comics, film, and our culture in general. He spoke of Miller’s work the way arts critics speak of Martin Scorsese, John Lennon and Philip Roth. Not a single word was condescending. Not one.

And it’s about time. Paul’s perception is right on the money. In earlier days we would look to the movies as justification for our four-color passions, as if to say “see, somebody else is taking us seriously.” That played a big, big part in our enthusiasm for Richard Donner’s Superman – The Movie. Today, we no longer need to prove anything to anybody.

Previously, I stated in this column that respectability might be the death of us. I still feel that’s a possibility: I’d hate to see the comic art medium be taken as seriously by its fans as those many rock’n’roll enthusiasts who lost their sense of humor and perspective a long time ago.

But if respectability is the death of comics, at least we’ll get a well-written obituary.

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He’s dead, Fred

  • News
  • March 11, 2007

hembeck-8465728Discussion about the death of Captain America probably won’t die down for awhile, and that’s just how Marvel likes it.  But that doesn’t mean we can’t glean all the humor we can out of this event.  To that end, in Episode 95 of The Fred Hembeck Show, the cartoonist presents a scenario wherein he sees dead people.  Right said, Fred.

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Moonstone soliciting Captain Action pitches

  • News
  • March 11, 2007

captaction1-3415444While we’re on the subject of Moonstone Books, Johanna Draper-Carlson reports that they’re looking for pitches for Captain Action, the toy figure from the 60’s best known for being other heroes, as well as a short lived comic book in the 60s from DC.

Quoth Johanna: "Moonstone wants to give CAP his due in comics! We’re looking for proposals of no more than two pages. The premise is entirely up to you! Create a NEW “back story” as well as set CAP on a course for new adventures! We’re looking for that one GREAT IDEA, and we know it’s out there! (Please remember that CAP is a licensed property, and as such, if approved, would be considered “work for hire”.) All proposals will be subject to review. You can e-mail proposals to contact_us@moonstonebooks.com."

Pulps and pulp comics

  • News
  • March 11, 2007

moonstonelogo2-5237012There has been quite a revival of interest in the old pulp heroes over the last year or two. Moonstone Books launched with the pulp-like exploits of Kolchak the Night-Stalker before adding characters such as The Phantom and The Spider, while Anthony Tollin has relaunched The Shadow and Doc Savage in two lines of facsimile reprint editions. In Hollywood, Sam Raimi has signed on to produce a movie about Doc Savage, the Man of Bronze. With so much renewed interest, we here at ComicMix thought we should dig a little deeper.

The energetic Joe Gentile has been running Moonstone Books for a decade now and has grown the line from a one or two comic books a month outfit to a burgeoning publisher of not only comic books but prose works. I chatted with him by e-mail to learn what’s been going on.

In the interests of full disclosure, I have written one story for Moonstone’s anthologies, with work beginning on a second, and ComicMix columnist John Ostrander has contributed a story to the recently released Kolchak prose anthology.

Robert: Joe, for those not in the know, what is Moonstone’s mission?

Joe: Well, we thought there were some niches that weren’t being filled in comics. We thought that if we could fill some of those, perhaps (with promotion and advertising, which we did a lot of at the beginning) we could bring either new people or readers who left the hobby, to come back to the comic shops. Great stories was always our #1 priority, all things else aside.

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Own a piece of Heroes!

  • News
  • March 11, 2007

auction_hiro_pnt-6255609

SciFi Wire reports that NBC.com will be auctioning off some of Tim Sale’s artwork from Heroes in two separate auctions (beginning March 26 and April 2) to benefit the Epilepsy Foundation, a favorite of Heroes cast member Greg Grunberg, whose son Jake is an epileptic.  Here’s the official bidding site.  I can’t even imagine how much Hiro Battles T-Rex (above) will go for…

ComicMix Week 4, 4 U

  • News
  • March 11, 2007

Have you sprung forward this morning?  Feel like you’ve missed an hour or so?  Well, come spend another one with us catching up on the weekly columns you may have missed!  Here they are all in one place for your convenience:

Yeah, John and I switched days this week, for reasons which you will discover when you read our respective columns.  And of course, Mellifluous Mike Raub is making history thrice weekly with his podcasts:

Lots of surprises in them thar audios!  And as a bonus for our first month online, here are our past roundups:

One other thing.  You may have noticed the site redesign starting, with the addition of more items per page and such.  Trust us, there’s much more to come!

DIY BSG

  • News
  • March 11, 2007

bsgvid-2957943Because Battlestar Galactica fans demanded it, and they didn’t even know it!  Also because hey, it provides the SciFi Channel with more airtime filler and they don’t have to work to get it.  In any case, the newest bit of viral interactive fun care of SciFi is the Battlestar Galactica Videomaker Toolkit, which allows viewers to insert sound, visual and music clips from the show in their own homemade four-minute masterpieces, which they can then upload to the site in a sort of contest where the winner will be shown during the airing of a future BSG episode. 

Maybe we’ll get to see a cool Starbuck resurrection scene, combined perhaps with a Stephen Colbert green screen kinda deal…

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