It is with profound personal regret that I report comics legend Dick Giordano died this morning.

The man who guided two comics companies, Charlton and then DC, to greatness and served as collaborator, friend and mentor to more people than I’d have capacity to recall in a week – Neal Adams, Dennis O’Neil, Jim Aparo, Joe Rubinstein, Terry Austin, Steve Ditko, Frank McLaughlin, Klaus Janson, Al Milgrom, Bob Layton, Steve Skeates, and every young artist, writer and editor who passed through Continuity Associates and DC Comics during his tenure at those companies, to name but a very few. His own gifts as an editor and artist were nothing short of breathtaking.

Dick always defended creative freedom and aesthetic opportunity, sometimes putting him heads-on with management powers, often representing not his own work but that of the editors in his charge, most certainly including myself, for which I will be forever grateful. He knew the good stuff when he saw it, he knew how to improve it, he knew how to incubate it. Projects he saw through included Ditko’s Blue Beetle, Bat Lash, Deadman, Superman Vs. Muhammad Ali, The Dark Knight, Watchmen... really, way too many to list in one place.

As an artist, he drew virtually every major and most minor characters for Charlton, Marvel and DC, including his own early work with Joe Gill on Sarge Steel. Best known as an inker on Batman, Green Lantern, Green Arrow (separately and together), and Superman Vs. The Amazing Spider-Man. One of his very last creative projects was the forthcoming graphic novel White Viper with Erin Holroyd and Frank McLaughlin, serialized on ComicMix and to be released shortly by IDW/ComicMix.

Much of Dick’s best known efforts were done in collaboration with artist Neal Adams, with whom he partnered in a commercial art studio, Continuity Associates, in 1971. A great many comics artists both young and old worked in that studio, often collaborating under the name “the Crusty Bunkers.” He authored the book Drawing Comics with Dick Giordano and served on the board of directors of The Hero Initiative. Even in his corporate capacities, Dick always championed the cause of creator’s rights.

A very warn, opinionated, feisty man with a disarming sense of humor and a knowledge of illustration history second to none, Dick suffered through many health difficulties, including asthma, hearing loss, and ultimately leukemia.

Dick was my friend and my mentor as well; I had the privilege of serving under him for seven years at DC Comics where we worked on Green Arrow, Modesty Blaise and numerous other projects. Dick did a public service piece for me in promotion of The National Runaway Switchboard, and I was proud to be his editor on The White Viper.

I’ll miss him a lot; in this, I will not be alone.

Roald Dahl’s imagination is to be celebrated. His books never repeat themselves and offer readers a vivid variety of ideas and images, memorable characters and incredible situations. Thankfully, technology today allows the works to be adapted with an eye towards retaining as much of his creations as is possible. The latest such adaptation is Fantastic Mr. Fox, another stop-motion production.

Available this week through 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment,  the fall 2009 movie is available in the combo package of Blu-ray, standard DVD and digital copy. Directed by Wes Anderson, making his first animated foray, the movie is a largely satisfying and entertaining production.

With an all-star vocal cast including George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, and Bill Murray it tells the story of Mr. and Mrs. Fox (Clooney and Streep), who live a poor but happy life with their eccentric son Ash (Schwartzman) and visiting nephew Kristopherson (Eric Chase Anderson).  That is until Mr. Fox slips into his sneaky, old ways and plots the greatest heist the animal world has ever seen.  When mean old farmers Boggis, Bunce and Bean  (Michael Gambon, Robin Hurlstone, and Hugo Guinness) join forces to surround Mr. Fox and his family, they don’t realize they are not dealing with any old fox.

Anderson, who says Dahl was a personal hero, added the opening and closing scenes to frame the novel and they have the right feel, giving the film a nice resolution. Co-writer Noah Baumbach nails the voices of the characters and retains their inventive personalities.

The stop motion work is fluid and attractive, with a nicely selected color palette to make the story feel, well, fantastic. Credit goes to not only Anderson, but to Henry Selick, who collaborated with him on The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. When Revolution Studios folded, Selick left to make the equally engaging Coraline while Anderson kept the Dahl book and cut a deal with 20th. The voices were recorded in a variety of settings for a different tonal quality but it’s so subtle as to be effectively pointless. But the performances themselves are terrific all the way through the cast.

The Blu-ray comes packed with a variety of extras to accompany the 89-minute feature. Making Mr. Fox Fantastic is a six-part featurette including the visual look, adapting the script to the stop-motion film, the puppet makers, the puppet animation, the vocal cast and Bill and his Badger (only the 7-minute from script to screen segment can be found on the standard disc). A Beginner’s Guide To Whack-Bat is a fanciful newsreel about the sport played throughout the film; while Fantastic Mr. Fox: The World of Roald Dahl celebrates the author as is appropriate.

Read your children the book then let them revel in this film, which will stand up to repeated viewings.

(more…)

On the road again… see ComicMix folks Robert Greenberger, Glenn Hauman, Aaron Rosenberg, Matthew Weinberger, and probably even more of us this weekend at I-Con 29, back at the campus of SUNY/Stony Brook on beautiful Long Island. In addition, you’ll be able to hear Aaron and Glenn on Destinies: The Voice Of Science Fiction on WUSB 90.1 FM, or online at http://www.wusb.fm.

Glenn’s schedule (subject to change):

Meet the Pro’s – Friday from 8:00pm – 10:00pm in Islip Ballroom
Good Prose/Bad Film – Saturday from 12:00pm – 1:00pm in SAC 302
Pimp Your Talent – Saturday from 3:00pm – 4:00pm in SAC 302
Superman: An American God? – Saturday from 4:00pm – 5:00pm in ESS 001
Business of Publishing – Saturday from 5:00pm – 6:00pm in SAC 302
Slans, Mutants, and Vampires Rule! – Saturday from 7:00pm – 8:00pm in SAC 302
Eye of Argon/Amanda McKittrick Ros Reading Competition – Saturday from 11:00pm – 12:00am in Ronkonkoma Room
Smack Yourself in the Forehead Moments – Sunday from 10:30am – 11:30am in SAC 303
Just Add Sex – Sunday from 2:00pm – 3:00pm in SAC 302

Aaron’s schedule (subject to change):

Meet the Pro’s – Friday from 8:00pm – 10:00pm in Islip Ballroom
Popular Media Licenses & Gaming – Friday from 8:00pm – 9:00pm in ESS 131
State of the Industry – Indie Press/Freelance edition – Saturday from 10:00am – 11:00am in ESS 001
Writing Media Tie-ins – Saturday from 11:00am – 12:00pm in SAC 302
Business of Publishing – Saturday from 5:00pm – 6:00pm in SAC 302
So You Want To Be a Game Designer? – Saturday from 9:00pm – 10:00pm in ESS 131

Matthew will be on various and sundry comics panels, and Mr. Greenberger, of course, will be doing the world famous I-Con Movie Previews both Saturday and Sunday.

Stop by and say hi. Tickets are still available. It’s a hell of a convention, and literally has something for everyone and the only way they’d get a bigger dealers room would be to rent Nassau Coliseum.

There’s only one reason for Warner Home Video to release the 1993 disaster of a film, Arizona Dream: Johnny Depp. Anything with him in it is virtually a license to print money so the movie is released this week as a part of their Archive Collection. The DVD comes with the movie and nothing else as in keeping with the line designed for collectors.

While Depp was still at the beginning of his film career, the cast includes veterans who should have known better, including Faye Dunaway and Jerry Lewis. That’s right, Jerry Lewis playing a straight role.  The film also has veteran character performer Michael J. Pollard in a cameo and relative newcomers Lily Taylor and Paulina Porizkova.

The movie was shot in 1991, released in Europe only two years later and didn’t come to America until 1994. The original cut ran for 142 minutes while the television and home video cuts are at 119, including this release. From what I’ve seen, that’s more than enough and the director’s cut can stay in the vault.

David Atkins wrote what is politely called a romantic fantasy about Axel (Depp), a young man trying to make it on his own in New York City when his cousin Paul (Vincent Gallo), essentially kidnaps him for a trip to Arizona for Uncle Leo’s (Lewis) wedding to the much younger Porizkova. Depp, with his vivid dreams about Eskimos, is coaxed by Uncle Leo to stay and join the family car dealership. When Axel tries, he falls for Elaine (Dunaway), a woman who dreams of flying. Her stepdaughter Grace (Taylor) has her own dream: suicide and reincarnation as a turtle. Axel and Paul vie for Elaine’s affections while Uncle Leo is convinced he’s dying and wants to leave the family together.

The script, though, under-develops every character and there may be some comedic elements, but there’s little to hold things together. Why does Leo want to marry the younger woman and what does she see in him? How did Elaine get to be so daft and what demons drive Grace towards her own death? There’s a morbid tone to everything and despite the desert setting, the film feels dark and forbidding.

There’s a lot of talk of death from all the characters but there’s no rational behind any of it and interestingly enough, only two actually die. And let’s not even discuss the final scene.

Directed by Emir Kusturica (who cowrote the story) has some terrific performers to work with but doesn’t let any of them shine. Lewis is wasted in a nothing part and you wonder why the extremely selective performer agreed to be in such a minor role. Depp’s characterization tries too hard and at times feels like he’s in an entirely different film.

(more…)