In honor of the event of the day…
Photo by Lisa Padilla.
The Mix : What are people talking about today?
Saturday Morning Cartoons: Autobots don’t ask… don’t tell.
I watched the Transformers growing up… and frankly, it never occurred to me what was going on. I mean, the signs were all there. The whole “fake war” over “energon”? C’mon people. How stupid was I? To believe that they were always at war with one another… Seriously! Look at the dang opening to the show. I counted no less than 7,423,209 shots of laser fire, and not one Autobot or Decepticon even gets so much as a scratch. They all just role play whilst the sexual tension builds on the battlefield.
Yeah. I said it. Sexual tension. Think about it. As long as there has been a Transformers television show, there has been the on-again off-again banter between them. The “hatred”. The “battles”. All this time, it was all just foreplay. It turns out Optimus Prime was in love with Megatron. No wonder no one gave two spark plugs about Arcee!
Need proof? Check out these deleted scenes filmed on location during the taping of the hit 1980’s television show.
Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths gets big-screen Premieres on Two Coasts
Warner Home Video, Newsarama.com and The Paley Center for Media proudly present the bi-coastal World Premieres of Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, the highly anticipated next entry in the ongoing series of DC Universe animated original PG-13 movies, in New York on February 16 and in Beverly Hills on February 18. Filmmakers and members of the voice cast are expected to attend both events.
On February 16, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths will screen at The Paley Center in New York City (25 West 52nd Street) with a media interviews starting at 5:30 p.m. and screening commencing at 6:30 p.m. A panel discussion with filmmakers and voice cast will follow the screening.
On February 18, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths will screen at The Paley Center in Beverly Hills (465 North Beverly Drive) with media interviews starting at 6:00 p.m. and screening commencing at 7:00 p.m. A panel discussion with filmmakers and voice cast will follow the screening.
Media wishing to attend the premieres must RSVP via email to WHVRSVP@gmail.com.
A limited number of free tickets are available for the general public. Fans in New York City wishing to receive free tickets to the NY event on Feb. 16 must RSVP via email to justiceleagueNY@newsarama.com. Fans in the Los Angeles area wishing to receive free tickets to the Beverly Hills event on Feb. 18 must RSVP via email to justiceleagueLA@newsarama.com. Tickets to both events will be distributed on a “first come, first served” basis.
In Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, a “good” Lex Luthor arrives from an alternate universe to recruit the Justice League to help save his Earth from the Crime Syndicate, a gang of villainous characters with virtually identical super powers to the Justice League. What ensues is the ultimate battle of good versus evil in a war that threatens both planets and, through a diabolical plan launched by Owlman, puts the balance of all existence in peril.
A star-studded cast provides the voices behind the super heroes and villains, led by Mark Harmon (NCIS) as Superman, James Woods (Mississippi Burning) as Owlman, Chris Noth (Law & Order, Sex and the City) as Lex Luthor, William Baldwin (Dirty Sexy Money) as Batman, Gina Torres (Firefly/Serenity) as Superwoman and Bruce Davison (X-Men) as President Wilson. Other cast members include Josh Keaton (The Spectacular Spider-Man) as The Flash, Vanessa Marshall (Grim & Evil) as Wonder Woman and Jonathan Adams (Bones) as Martian Manhunter.
Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths is an original story from award-winning animation/comics writer Dwayne McDuffie (Justice League). Animation legend Bruce Timm (Superman Doomsday) is executive producer, and Lauren Montgomery (Wonder Woman, Green Lantern: First Flight) and Sam Liu (Superman/Batman: Public Enemies) are co-directors.
Review: ‘Civil War Adventure’
{{{Civil War Adventure]]]
By Chuck Dixon & Gary Kwapisz
History Graphics Press, 144 pages. $14.95
The graphic novel as memoir and teaching tool has become accepted in schools and libraries and there is a growing need for well-researched material. Thankfully, Chuck Dixon knows his history and how to do research. He’s displayed this in a rich career, covering all the eras. Here, he’s partnered with veteran artist Gary Kwapisz to produce the first in a line of Civil War graphic novels.
The first volume was recently released and makes for good, solid reading. There are seven stories in this inaugural collection, spanning the length of the war, along with single page features on terminology, weaponry and personalities. The book smartly opens with a timeline of the Battle Between the States, placing each story contained in context. On the other hand, the stories appear in a jumbled order that makes little sense.
If anything, there appears to be a preference for stories told from the point of view of the seseches, that is, the Confederacy. Their passion certainly outweighed their level of preparedness and organization. If anything. Both North and South were comprised of militias and armies that were loosely organized and commanded so sometimes it’s hard to keep track of the squads.
Dixon keeps things personal, largely following a father and son both leaving their farm to go to war, to protect a way of life that was largely unsustainable. They crop up in several stories and we’re promised more about them in subsequent volumes. Wisely, many of his stories are taken from journals and letters written during the war and lend a voice of authenticity to the book.
The stories are light on ideology so there’s little about why the Union split in two, nothing about states’ rights or even much about the slavery issue. These are the men, largely uneducated, who are fighting for freedom on the front lines, far from the news and politicians.
Kwapisz provides the majority of the artwork and is a strong storyteller. Some of his characters border on the exaggerated and backgrounds could be more detailed here and there but overall, he does a commendable job with differentiating his players and battlefields. Silvestre and Enrique Villagran each contribute art for a story, providing a little visual variety.
The volume is a nice, if jumbled, package and promises more to come. While not to be considered a sole source for readers, it certainly helps bring some of the history to life. These two have formed their own company and I wish them well so other historic times can be explored in compelling ways.
The Point Radio: Billy Zane Dives Into ‘The Deep End’
The Man Who Was The Phantom now handles the law in a different arena. Billy Zane is one of the stars of the new ABC series THE DEEP END. Billy, and co-star Tina Majorino, fill us in on why they chose to return to TV on this midseason show. And no matter what you read, AVATAR is not the #1 movie of all tine. We’ve got the numbers to prove it!
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Review: ‘Planet Hulk’ on DVD
When Greg Pak received his dream assignment, writing the [[[Hulk,]]] he was handed a few notions that Marvel’s editorial team conjured up, starting with exiling him from Earth. From there, Pak spun the Planet Hulk
Exiled to space by the Illuminati, the Hulk crashed on an alien world and suddenly was surrounded with assorted aliens who could give as well as he could. Enslaved, he suddenly was an underdog, just another mongrel to fight for the rulers’ pleasure in the gladiator games. Seeing no Banner and all-Hulk helped make this a standout adventure.
Yeah, its [[[Spartacus]]] to a degree, but seeing the Hulk in chains then in armor was cool. It made sense to ship him off Earth to spare humanity and we all knew he’d be back and there’d be some serious payback involved. But first, he had to survive.
The story was engaging and ripe for adaptation as part of Marvel Animation’s series of animated features for Lionsgate Home Entertainment. The highly promoted event arrived in stores this week. In 81 brisk minutes, the story is boiled down by Greg Johnson and streamlined, bringing this to a satisfying closing point (and leaving room to finish the adaptation in a sequel).
On the other hand, Johnson spoils Pak’s work by writing flat characters and providing everyone with stilted and trite dialogue. For legal reasons, the Silver Surfer couldn’t be used and rather than drop the moment, he’s replaced with Beta Ray Bill but also means there’s a flashback setting up Bill that doesn’t add anything to the tale and tells us nothing about Bill. It’s pretty but pointless, taking away from the main story.
The animation from Sam Liu and his team is superior to last year’s Hulk Vs. effort but could have added a little more texture and detail to the various aliens and architecture. The Hulk looks pretty ferocious and proportional for a gladiator. There are some nice subtle touches, especially in the final scene.
Overall, this feature may well be the best of the Marvel films but all fairly pale in comparison with the superior Warner Premiere efforts culled from the DC Universe.
The two-disc DVD comes with a digital copy and a ton of bonuses. There’s an informative[[[A Whole World of Hulk]], making of featurette; Let the Smashing Commence! which gives Pak his due along with penciller Aaron Lopresti; commentary from Liu, character designer Philip Bourassa and key painter Steve Nicodemus. We’re also shown the opening to 2011’s [[[Tales of Asgard]]], which actually looks even better. The Wolverine segment from Hulk Vs. is repurposed along with the motion comics for [[[Spider-Woman]]] and Astonishing [[[X-Men]]] along with music videos and too many trailers.
‘Merlin’ appears on SyFy in April
Syfy picked up the basic cable rights for all 26 episodes of the series Merlin, including the US TV premiere of season two which has never before been seen in America. Syfy will premiere the series this April.
The series featured the adventures of young Merlin and Arthur, who is being groomed by his father Uther Pendragon to one day become king of England. Season one aired on NBC last summer and seasons one and two
aired on BBC One in the UK during 2008-09. BBC is moving forward with a
third season, slated to air in September.
‘Human Target’ tv show finally references the comics– and not in a way you’d expect
Okay, so Christopher Chance is sent to a monastery to find the person he’s supposed to protect. And, well, you’ll see…
And yes, of course he knows all of this, he’s Jimmy Olsen.
Darth Vader and Snoop Dogg selling sneakers together in Times Square
Lily Tomlin was right. No matter how cynical you get, it’s impossible to keep up.
Yes, it’s been one of those days. Why do you ask?
More on the ‘iPad: will it save the world… or destroy it?’ debates
I always notice these things when I’m on five different deadlines and really shouldn’t be distracted, but when Dirk Deppey says I’ve missed the point entirely, as he does here, replying to my comments here— well, it catches my attention.
Dirk says: It [the iPad] has to be cheap enough to appeal to the general public, building a large enough pool of potential customers to once again make selling comics to a mass audience feasible — otherwise you’re just trading one limited, stagnant marketplace for another, selling primarily to a fraction of the same customer base that you already had. Which is what I think will happen with the iPad as presently designed and marketed, for reasons already outlined. … Here’s the thing about Google’s strategy: Because it’s both open source and backed by one of the largest tech corporations on Earth, they can make a strong appeal to manufacturers, not only for their operating system’s lack of licensing costs but also because it comes with an already-functioning apps store that sells across multiple hardware platforms, guaranteeing (to the extent that anyone can) a thriving online marketplace for one’s customers. This in turn offers creators and publishers a potential for mass-market ubiquity that Apple will never, ever be able to match.
In order:
The iPhone came out less than three years ago and Apple has sold 33.75 million iPhones sold by the end of 4Q09. That’s a mass market platform, certainly a larger number than the number of people walking in to comics stores. For a point of comparison, Time Warner Cable has less than 25 million cable subscribers.
An even bigger sales platform is the iTunes Store, which has been the number one music vendor in the US for almost two years straight, which has sold over 9 billion songs, over 1 billion HD TV episodes, and downloaded over 2 billion apps, while traditional stores like Sam Goody and Tower Records have pretty much gone bye-bye. I wouldn’t exactly call that a “limited marketplace”.
We already have reports that iPhone editions of some comics from major publishers have been outselling print editions of the books, and that’s on a platform that’s not optimal for reading comics.
If there’s a problem with the platform, it’s the problem of getting lost amidst the huge amounts of stuff other people are putting out.
Dirk, if you’re willing to bet against Apple, which is also “one of the largest tech companies on Earth”, more power to you– I remember the Newton too. But don’t be surprised if these new distribution methods and platforms turn your local comic shop into the 21st century equivalent of Record World.*
*For the youngsters: once upon a time, CDs (remember them?) used to be as big as your head, and they would have so much music on them that they turned black. And when you turned them over, there was more music on the other side!
