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Monday Mix-Up: When ‘LOTR’ Met ‘the Transformers”

  • News
  • April 5, 2010

Hey guys, at least this time, Frodo can just drive to Mt. Doom. I mean seriously, it took them like 9 hours of film to walk up to a mountain and drop the damn ring into the volcano. If they were smart, they’d just give it to Jetfire. I mean seriously guys… Frodo walked all the way to that mountain, and then gets picked up by an eagle? You’re telling me the eagle’s couldn’t have dropped him off like…months ago? And speaking of nothing… Gandalf is like this super awesome wizard, right? How come he doesn’t cast anything in the movies except “light” and “light beam” and “beam of light”. Hello? My second level warlock in D and D could cast more useful spells.

But I digress. Enjoy this mash-up.

The Point Radio: Tour The Mothership With Laura Vandervoort

  • Uncategorized
  • April 5, 2010

V is back and things are moving fast, even for cast member LAURA VANDERVOORT. Laura helps us all catch up, plus touches on why she still wants to be Supergirl. Plus we finally have a Bucky, iPad apps everywhere you look and the Cracken does 60 mil.

And be sure to stay on The Point via iTunes - ComicMix, RSS, MyPodcast.Comor Podbean!

Follow us now on and !

Don’t forget that you can now enjoy THE POINT 24 hours a Day – 7 Days a week!. Updates on all parts of pop culture, special programming by some of your favorite personalities and the biggest variety of contemporary music on the net – plus there is a great round of new programs on the air including classic radio each night at 12mid (Eastern) on RETRO RADIO COMICMIX’s Mark Wheatley hitting the FREQUENCY every Saturday ay 9pm and even the Editor-In-Chief of COMICMIX, Mike Gold, with his daily WEIRD SCENES and two full hours of insanity every Sunday (7pm ET) with WEIRD SOUNDS!

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN LIVE FOR FREE or go to GetThePointRadio for more including a connection for mobile phones including iPhone & Blackberrys.

 

 

New Doctor Who For You, Too

  • News
  • April 5, 2010

 

The eleventh doctor debuted on British teevee this weekend, in the 31st season of Doctor Who. It will be airing on BBC America on
the 17th, so I’m going to avoid any spoilers. Still, consider this something of a warning;  if you don’t wanna know diddley, go no further.

If you’re still with me, here’s what you will need to know:              Matt Smith and Karen Gillan will do just fine, thank you. Smith plays the
new doctor as a younger and brasher version of David Tennant’s doctor, which is only appropriate given Smith’s age. He wisely retains the 10th doctor’s joie de vive; he’s having a ton of fun. And Gillan plays the skeptical sense of wonder beautifully in what is this time a particularly demanding role. But the actors are not the most important aspects of doing Doctor Who correctly.

The most important aspects are the writing and the production. I never met a doctor I didn’t like, but the last two guys on the original series were hamstringed by uninspired scripts. No worries here: Steven Moffat is an excellent writer and as producer he truly gets it. His predecessor ran each show at breakneck speed; Moffat kicks it up a notch.

The season-opener presents a particular nightmare for the writer: he has to introduce a new lead character in a show that’s been around for 31 seasons. Origin shows, often called pilots, are a bitch to write because you’ve got to introduce everybody and set everything up while you’re telling a
compelling story. That’s a lot to squeeze into one episode; Moffat had the
additional problem of satisfying those fans of Tennant’s or, for that matter, any of the preceding doctors.

The fact that he pulled it off is a minor miracle. Matt Smith won’t be the only person having fun here.

2010 Hugo Nominees Announced

  • News
  • April 5, 2010

Science fiction followers take note: The 2010 Hugo nominee list is out. For those not so in-the-know, the Hugo awards (named for Amazing Stories’ creator Hugo Gernsback) have been recognizing great work in Science Fiction or Fantasy since 1955, and have recently added comic books to their categories under consideration. This year’s nominees are an amazing bunch; Allow us to share some highlights.

In the fight for comic book supremacy this year, fan favorite Neil Gaiman leads off in the “Best Graphic Story” category with his Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? Going toe-to-toe with Neil though comes a bevvy of other hot comic talent including Bill Willingham (with, among other folks, Simone & Ajax‘s Andrew Pepoy) for Fables Vol. 12: The Dark Ages, as well as Paul Cornell for Captain Britain And MI13 Volume 3: Vampire State, and Kaja and Phil Foglio for their Girl Genius Volume 9. Rounding out the nominees comes Howard Taylor for Schlock Mercenary.

Also interesting this year will be the fight for “Best Dramatic Presentation – Long Form”. Where Peter Jackson’s Oscar winning Lord Of The Rings: The Return of the King was once crowned with this Hugo, 2010 pits James Cameron’s 3D epic Avatar against District 9, the Star Trek reboot, Pixar’s Up, as well as Moon by Duncan Jones. Without his ex to steal his thunder, will Cameron walk away with the award? Only attending and supporting members of the AussieCon could tell you. The awards will be given September 5th.

For a complete listing of nominees, simply check it out after the jump.

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April Fool’s Day 2010 Roundup

  • News
  • April 5, 2010

Let’s see if we caught them all– there have been some real gems this year:

World’s Top Writers Hate Brad Meltzer – Comic Book Resources 

Mark Waid Goes On Rampage At BOOM! Offices, Wounded By Police – ComicMix news 

#aprilfoolscomics – Twitter Search 

Oh, Right…It’s April Fool’s Day: The Best Internet Gags – Humor – io9 

April Fool’s Link Ink: Where Nothing You Read Is Really Happening! – ComicsAlliance | Comics culture, news, humor, commentary, and reviews

April Fools’ Day On The Web : 2010
April Fools 2010: The Definitive List 

Who Will Play J. Jonah Jameson In Spider-Man Reboot? 

Behind The Scenes Of YouTube’s ASCII Prank 

On reflection, not very dangerous: Harlan Ellison’s The Last Dangerous Visions

Locus Online April 1st: 2010: News Summary of the Year To Date

Splash Page
April Fools Day: New Marvel/DC Crossovers, ‘Halo’ Movies, ‘Lost’ Clocks, And Other Fake Stuff! 

April Fools’ Day: Michael Cera Is The Flash! No, Zachary Levi Is! Wait — Neither Of Them Are!

April Fool’s Tweet : Edgar Wright Here 

Zachary Levi Is Front Runner For Lead Role in DC’s The Flash 

April Fools’ Day Roundup: Taylor Lautner Is Superman? Avatar Sues Avatar? Don’t Believe The Hype!

DC and Hot Wheels Announce a Hot New Toy, If You Can Find It

Halo: The Bollywood Epic, and YES… It’s Real.

Review: ‘Lord of the Rings Original Animated Classic’

Ralph Bakshi has been a visionary filmmaker and animator, whose ambitions always seemed larger than his talent. After cutting his teeth at Terry Toons, he talked his way into running Paramount’s dying animation arm before moving on to work such as the ABC Saturday morning [[[Spider-Man]]] series. He finally gained recognition when he set out to make feature-length films, beginning with the X-rated [[[Fritz the Cat]]].

Bakshi’s tastes have always run towards edgy fare and he’s produced animated film son subjects Walt Disney or Don Bluth would never have approached, such as [[[American Pop]]] and [[[Hey Good Lookin]]]’ and for that he deserves credit. Unfortunately, in just about every case, the projects have been flawed, largely because not enough money was spent on the animation or the story so they never felt finished.

In the 1970s Bakshi was in the right place at the right time when he managed to get the rights to adapt J.R.R. Tolkien’s [[[Lord of the Rings]]], a project that had previously stymied filmmakers such as Stanley Kubrick and John Boorman. He set about to create a new look for Middle-earth by using the rotoscope technique, to shoot large portions of the film as live-action and then provide the footage to his animators to essentially trace.

The results arrive Tuesday as Warner Home Video releases a combo pack edition containing Blu-ray, DVD and digital copy discs, the same day it also debuts the Peter Jackson trilogy on Blu-ray.

Tolkien fan Chris Conkling was first hired to do research then was given a shot at writing the first screenplay which oddly decided to tell most of the story in flashback from Merry’s point of view. Bakshi wisely shelved it and brought in fantasy master Peter S. Beagle to rewrite the script. Beagle, of [[[The Last Unicorn]]] fame, followed Bakshi’s instructions to preserve as much of Tolkien as was possible.

What’s interesting is how Beagle and Jackson made many of the same decisions regarding what to drop or change. While there was a huge cry about the absence of Tom Bombadil in the live-action film, he’s also gone in Bakshi’s film and no one screamed in those pre-Internet days. They also both chose to have the Ringwraiths themselves seen attacking the seemingly slumbering hobbits at Bree.

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iPad launches, comics will never be the same, blah blah blah

  • News
  • April 3, 2010

Lorem ipsum dolor sit iPad, consectetur adipiscing elit. Donec
sollicitudin mattis dui, in Apple dui tempor ut. Vestibulum augue
nisi, Disney in tincidunt vitae, Marvel et elit. Vivamus ultrices
tempus mollis. Quisque rutrum libero comiXology risus blandit sed porta enim
ultrices. Pellentesque congue ipsum id neque battery life ultrices. Duis nec
sapien massa. Sed eu ornare massa. Morbi suscipit iVerse velit in
molestie. Andy Ihnakto vel felis ac dolor varius pellentesque vitae tincidunt
ligula. In aliquet, odio app mollis vehicula, felis metus congue mauris,
et molestie ligula leo iTunes purus. Aliquam posuere turpis et quam pinch and zoom condimentum. Vestibulum ComicBookLover tempus urna ut posuere.

Quisque vel @AgentM vel risus consequat scelerisque. Nunc venenatis Gary Groth  Dirk Deppey sapien sed condimentum. IDW non ante quis enim sagittis
pellentesque. Nulla vel mattis too expensive. Ut ut dui semper risus Zuda no Flash faucibus
in at ipsum. Aenean WonderCon ut turpis augue. Proin convallis odio et urna
fermentum id accumsan lectus manga tentacles.

Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet,
consectetur, adipisci velit…

(Complelety ripped off from Jason Kottke. Hat tip: Making Light.)

Easter Goodies from 20th Century-Fox and MGM

  • News
  • April 2, 2010

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment and MGM Home Entertainment has released Easter-themed family friendly fare complete with Easter Basket Approved! stickers. 

At More Easter Fun there are Easter activities including downloadable character coloring pages,
coupons, games, and a chance to win a $50,000 Nest Egg.

The titles involved include

Alvin and the Chipmunks                                  
Horton Hears A Who                                                      
Ice Age                                                        
Ice Age: The Meltdown                               
Night at the Museum   
The Black Stallion                                
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang                                      
The Pink Panther 2                                                        
The Secret of Nimh

Personally, we here at ComicMix can recommend the Ice Age films for modern day humor and The Secret of Nimh as a fun, underrated animated escapade. And while Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is based on the Ian Fleming book and features that nifty car, it was too long and devoid of magic.

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The Point Radio: Ausiello Says: Goodbye ‘Chuck’?

  • Uncategorized
  • April 2, 2010

He’s the guy everyone turns to for television scoops and spoilers – EW.Com’s Michael Ausiello. Michael takes a look at what this TV season has brought us and updates his “on the bubble” list which may be sad news for CHUCK fans. Plus we dig back a few decades for the secret origin of three little critters named Theodore, Simon and Alvin and find out just how The Chipmunks grew to be a huge part of Americana.

And be sure to stay on The Point via iTunes - ComicMix, RSS, MyPodcast.Comor Podbean!

Follow us now on and !

Don’t forget that you can now enjoy THE POINT 24 hours a Day – 7 Days a week!. Updates on all parts of pop culture, special programming by some of your favorite personalities and the biggest variety of contemporary music on the net – plus there is a great round of new programs on the air including classic radio each night at 12mid (Eastern) on RETRO RADIO COMICMIX’s Mark Wheatley hitting the FREQUENCY every Saturday ay 9pm and even the Editor-In-Chief of COMICMIX, Mike Gold, with his daily WEIRD SCENES and two full hours of insanity every Sunday (7pm ET) with WEIRD SOUNDS!

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN LIVE FOR FREE or go to GetThePointRadio for more including a connection for mobile phones including iPhone & Blackberrys.

 

 

ComicMix Six – Missing Golden Agers!

  • Uncategorized
  • April 2, 2010

comicmixsix300px-6494171The Golden Age of Comics usually refers to the first period of massive super-hero output, roughly 1938 to around 1950, give or take. Super-heroes lost their following, and desperate publishers rushed to replace capes with westerns, romance, and horror – or all three, if they could figure out how to do it. Sometimes, decisions were made hastily and work was stopped mid-production, more often they printed off their inventory and moved on… sometimes to oblivion.

cmx61-1922537But there was an interesting phenomenon in which the “lead” super-heroes featured in or above the logo failed to appear on their very final covers. Here’s the ComicMix Six top golden age missing heroes covers. If we missed yours, please write in and let us know!

Number One: The Marvel Family

This is the most blatant example of the inadvertent trend. The Marvel Family – Captain, Mary and Junior (who were more like siblings than The Three Bears) are not only missing, but there’s white silhouettes where they were supposed to be! Again, this was the last issue, so they never reappeared on the cover of that series. And before long, The Marvel Family would fade to limbo due to poor sales and the weight of an unending lawsuit from DC Comics. An unfortunate ending to a proud family.

cmx62-1-8448266Number Two: Green Lantern

Okay, this really sucks. Try and tind Green Lantern on this cover, the last of his solo-series of the 1940s. You can’t, except for in the logo, which doesn’t count. He’s not on the cover. But his dog is. Just…his…dog. No wonder Alan Scott didn’t walk the dog over to the Justice Society. But if you think that sucks, here’s comes the real embarrassment.

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