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The Point Radio: Dawson Lands On ‘Mercy’

  • News
  • January 29, 2010

NBC has given their freshman medical drama MERCY  a jump start by adding James VanDerBeek to the cast,. “Dawson” is here to tell us about his place in the show, plus are you ready for a JOE DIRT cartoon and Media Mercenary Ric Meyers covers the new HUMAN TARGET.

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Ralph Bakshi ‘s ‘Lord of the Rings’ Coming to Blu-ray in April

  • News
  • January 28, 2010

While we all knew to expect the Blu-ray debut of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy this spring, Warner Home Video issued a release regarding the previous film incarnation of the classic tale. Here’s the release:

BURBANK, CA (January 27, 2010) – Journey back into the world of Hobbits, Humans, Elves and Dwarves in the all-new The Lord of the Rings Remastered Deluxe Edition coming April 6, 2010 from Warner Home Video.  This original animated classic from acclaimed director Ralph Bakshi and Academy Award Winning producer, Saul Zaentz, has been remastered with pristine New Dolby 5.1 audio and picture quality and will be distributed as a single disc DVD and Blu-ray combo which features a Blu-ray, DVD and bonus digital copy.  The film will also be available for Digital Download. This film is rated PG.

One of the great visionary animation directors of the modern era, Bakshi went to artistic extremes to meticulously bring the legendary world of J.R.R. Tolkien to animated life – adding yet another stunning title to the director’s canon of ground-breaking films. Bakshi’s animation accomplishments include Fritz the Cat, Heavy Traffic, American Pop, Wizards and Cool World.

All the magical adventure of the fantasy classic comes to life in Bakshi’s brilliantly animated tale of the enchanted land of Middle-earth – and the brave band of Hobbits, heroes and Wizards who set out to protect it. When a dangerous and powerful gold ring falls into his hands, a courageous Hobbit named Frodo embarks on an epic adventure. Along with the mighty Wizard Gandalf and some daring Elves, he defends his homeland from the Dark Power  who would destroy it. Set in a mystical age of magic, monsters and unlikely heroes on incredible journeys, The Lord of the Rings will cast its spell over the entire family!

The deluxe edition also features a never-before-seen, 30-minute in-depth interview  with legendary director Ralph Bakshi entitled Forging Through The Darkness: The Ralph Bakshi Vision for The Lord Of The Rings.  This special feature explores his concept for creating an illustrated film, his pioneering rotoscoping process, and inspirations for his visual storytelling.

“The Lord of the Rings is a timeless classic that continues to be a favorite for generation after generation,” said Amit Desai, WHV Vice President of Family, Animation & Partner Brands Marketing. “The theatrical release in 1978 had a domestic total gross of nearly $90 million at the box office and shipped 1.1 million net videos. We are looking forward to offering this remastered deluxe edition to the fans for their library collections and providing endless enjoyment for years to come.”

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Newsarama has a virus AGAIN?

  • News
  • January 28, 2010

Promoted from comments here:

I’ve gotten the same virus TWICE from The Rama in the past two days…I go to the site and my OneCare tells me that the software n.exe is trying to access the net and I tell it no and then my firewall, auto-updates, and virus protection fail, won’t re-open and pop-ups start…I had to do a system restore. Done with the site over the computer. Accessed it on my phone and got a message saying there was a problem with it’s security certif. Guess I’m onto a new Comics site! :(

Guys?

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Irredeemable #10: Boy, Mark Waid must’ve hated ‘Action Comics’ #442

  • News
  • January 28, 2010

action-comics-442-8931713Warning: We’re discussing Irredeemable #10, out in stores this week, and we’re probably going to spoil a minor plot point. You might want to read it first before you go any further.

Based on part of Irredeemable #10, I can tell that Mark Waid read Action Comics #442 at a very impressionable age– specifically “The Midnight Murder Show” written by Cary Bates, with art by Curt Swan and Kurt Schaffenberger.

And he was struck by the sheer implausibilty of it all. And re-reading it, I can’t blame him.

Let me recap the plot a bit: Late night talk show host Johnny Nevada, host of GBS’s “The Midnight Show” has been kidnapped by the psychotic and trigger-happy “Touch” McCoy and his henchman, Louie, because all criminal henchmen in Superman stories are named Louie. 

Nevada is being held for ransom of ten million dollars. (In 1974, that was enough to stun a TV network– in 2004, ABC spent more than that on the pilot of Lost, and today, there are pilots rumored to cost fifty million dollars. My, how times change.)

To catch the kidnapper, Superman hatches a plan to goad the kidnapper into shooting, which he will be able to hear with his super-hearing. So Superman goes on The Midnight Show and goads Touch into shooting his .45
at Carso– er, Nevada, which Superman will hear fire from across the
city, and can get there before the bullet travels the distance to hit
Nevada.

All well and good, except that Superman has forgotten that a .45 caliber bullet travels at 800 feet per second. In a 20 foot room, it will take 1/40th of a second. 

In
that time, the sound of the gunshot will only travel 28 feet. It’s not
going to matter if he’s faster than a speeding bullet if he can’t hear
it before it hits the target.

We won’t even get
into the argument of how Superman knew how far away the shot was or the
exact direction to fly off in– suffice it to say that it’s a
completely implausible story.

I mean, really– TV networks caring about the hosts of their late-night talk shows?

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Review: ‘The Burning Plain’ on Blu-ray

19889-burningplain3dhirzrgb2-7330555Screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga ([[[21 Grams]]], [[[Babel]]]) was determined to take greater control over his stories by directing and made his debut in the well-intentioned [[[The Burning Plain]]]. The movie, out now on DVD from Magnolia Home Entertainment, played at various festivals before receiving an unsuccessful theatrical release. Starring Charlize Theron and Kim Basinger, the movie is told in Arriaga’s patented nonlinear manner, but keeps us at arm’s distance from the characters.

In short, the story is told in three parallel timelines that eventually begin to converge. Basinger plays Gina, an unhappy mother who is having an affair with Nick (Joaquim de Almeida) and doing a poor job of hiding it from her eldest daughter, Mariana (Jennifer Lawrence). In attempting to keep her family together, Mariana trails them to the trailer they use for their trysts, setting the gas line on fire, hoping to flush them out. Things don’t go well and later, at the funeral for the former lovers, Mariana catches the eye of Nick’s oldest, Santiago (Danny Pino) and the two teens begin an affair.

Years later, Mariana now calls herself Sylvia (Theron) and is a self-destructive, near-suicidal restaurateur in Portland. Her precarious life is thrown into turmoil when the daughter she abandoned is brought to her after Santiago is injured in a crop dusting accident.

Structurally, the movie is well crafted and fascinating to see things fall into place. On the other hand, because two of the three timelines are close in setting, there needed to be more visual cues which storyline we were watching. This is a strong drama about people engaging in happy pursuits but none take any pleasure in their acts and guilt is an overriding undercurrent to all the major players.

The greatest failing, though, is to explore any of the characters. Why was Nick so attractive Gina couldn’t resist? Why was Gina so unhappy at home? What prompted Mariana/Sylvia to abandon Santiago and her daughter? All the characters are there but none of them are deeply written to allow us to really feel for them.

This is a shame because the three main women – Theron, Basinger, and Lawrence – give riveting performances.  In fact, Lawrence justly earned the Marcello Mastroianni prize, for the best young emerging actor/actress at the Venice Film Festival. You want to know more about them, their worlds, and what drives them all but Arriaga lets us and them down. The film is rounded out with many other familiar faces in smaller roles including John Corbett, Robin Tunney, Rachel Ticotin, and Brett Cullen.

Beautifully photographed, it features a haunting soundtrack from Omar Rodríguez-López and Hans Zimmer. All the elements were there for a stronger film.

The Blu-ray comes complete with a 43 minute Making Of featurette where Arriaga goes to great pains to introduce us to all the major players behind the camera. Along the way, we see how the film was shot and the themes of earth, wind, fire, and water that he subtly assigned his characters. A 15 minute piece shows us the unusual collaboration between Rodríguez-López and Zimmer and there’s a four minute puff piece from HD Net.

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The Future of Media… Again

  • News
  • January 27, 2010

 

apple-itablet1-2454626After years of rumors, I finally understood what the playing field was going to look like when ComicBookLover released their viewer
for the iPhone yesterday. I knew that Apple’s new iPad would run on the iPhone OS, that it would be high-resolution enough to read comic books on a 10” screen. I knew it was going to become the cool platform of choice for newspapers and magazines and books that need color and graphics support.

All stuff that had been generally predicted, along with a lot of other stuff. But what I didn’t know was the price. And I don’t know if people are even interested in reading newspapers any longer, although Apple chief Steve Jobs doesn’t know that either.

If the iPad price was too high, a whole lotta people in the media racket would be out of jobs. Magazines and newspapers, and to a slightly lesser extent book publishers, cannot survive with the present distribution models. Textbook publishers would be marginally more secure. So if
I heard a figure with five nines in it, I knew there’s be quite a number of
people on Sixth Avenue selling their pencils.

Apple always prices their products high under the belief
that a BMW is worth more than a Toyota. But this time they took a turn. Pricing between $500 and $830 – the difference is in 3G connectivity and the amount of memory you get – even the high-end model is reasonably priced. AT&T’s service is low-priced; $15 a month for 250 MB of service, and only $30 for unlimited service. This includes full access to AT&T’s Wi-Fi hotspots, providing even faster service than 3G. And the iPad promises 10 hours of video use on a single charge.

Oh, and it weighs 1.5 pounds. Check out Marc Fishman’s excellent piece with all the details here.

It’s got a large on-screen keyboard and it can use Apple’s Bluetooth keyboard. You can get Apple’s word processing, spreadsheet and
presentation software – fully comparable with Microsoft Office – for $10 a
module. Doubtlessly, Microsoft will offer their far more expensive versions of the same stuff before too long.

Lots of publishers have already signed up: Penguin, Harper-Collins, Hachette, Simon & Schuster, Gameloft, Electronic Arts, the New York Times, and Major League Baseball. And the iPad will run most all iPhone and iPod apps as well.

So. Will the media thrive? Maybe. Is this a lifeline?
Absolutely. Will it be the cool thing to own? Probably. Will it save the comic book format? It will if I have anything to say about it. Will the streets of
midtown Manhattan be splattered with mediaworkers’ blood?

No more than usual.

Apple unveils iPad, prescribed newest tablet

  • News
  • January 27, 2010

Once again, the mighty Steve Jobs took the stage in front of scads of Mac-o-philes to present them another device they need so bad it hurts. The iPad debuted to the standard “ooohs” and “oys”, and we here at ComicMix feel no need to wax poetic. We know you don’t care about our awesome alliteration adeptness. How about a little meat n’ potatoes:

  • It’s meant to bridge the gap between a smart phone (like that iPhone already collecting dust in your pocket) and a laptop (that horrendously underpowered Macbook Pro heating up your desk).
  • It operates on a hybrid OS from the iPhone, on it’s Apple A44 1ghz processor. Meaning you can use all 14.4 bajillion iPhone apps on it, right out of the box.
  • iPhone apps will run at a pixel to pixel representation, or you can “double” the size at the same resolution for a faux-full screen effect.
  • The aspect ratio is closer to 4:3 than 16:9… A 9.7″ IPS Display.
  • Has already won this season’s American Idol (unconfirmed).
  • The keyboard pops up like on an iPhone, though it’s now close to lifesize (as in your normal keyboard.)

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Review: ‘Copper’

  • Uncategorized
  • January 27, 2010

[[[Copper]]]
By Kazu Kibuishi
96 pages, Scholastic Graphix, $16.99

copper-5605294It’s often illuminating to look at a creator’s earlier works to see how they inspire and influence the later, better known works. Such is the case with Kazu Kibuishi’s Copper, now in a single volume collection from Scholastic. This webcomic, launched in 2002, was the first serious work the artist produced on a sustained basis and in his introduction; he talks about how this helped put him on a career path.

Copper is a young boy, accompanied by his dog Fred who is his best friend and constant companion. The classic duo, unlike [[[Red & Rover]]], go on fantastical adventures that in reading them reminded me of [[[Calvin & Hobbes]]] mixed with [[[Little Nemo’s]]] inventive page design. I was pleased to see that Kibuishi cites both in a recent Newsarama interview. There are few recurring characters beyond these two, other than the girl in the bubble, who appears as Cooper’s unreachable object of desire (think Little Red-haired Girl).

The artist began producing the feature as a large format comic strip with numerous panels and designs which The New York Times criticized as forcing the reader to scroll up and down to follow each strip. The 9”x 9” book solves that problem and collects every strip and story. He worked on the feature sporadically as his career began to take off and he began his [[[Amulet]]] series (which we reviewed here) and edited the [[[Flight]]] anthologies to showcase his friends’ work and where longer Copper stories ran.

The strip has been largely placed on hiatus while Kibuishi focused on the Amulet series and other projects. Reading this book, though, shows his growing sense of pacing and storytelling, without losing the sense of whimsy. Often the strips feature one or the complaining about the journey until the goal is reached and the real fun begins. The longer stories, including the 18-page “[[[Maiden Voyage]]]” show a wonderful sense of design and detail, along with a strong command of composition and color.

Copper is all about warmth and friendship, taking the universal theme of a boy and his dog and unleashing them into a borderless world of imagination. Taken as a whole, these are entertaining stories that demonstrate that if you apply yourself, and create from the heart, magic can happen.

The book concludes with a detailed feature on how Kibuishi creates a Copper strip which is a marvelous How To for would-be real world Coppers just now discovering comics.

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DC Rings in the Brightest Day with More Rings!

  • News
  • January 27, 2010

Rabid DC fans flocked to their local android dungeons to get their pudgy fingers on the infinitely collectable ‘Blackest Night’ promo rings. Soon thereafter the DC Nationites (Nationals? Nation-Zombies?) could create their very own rainbow brigade, all for the price of a new comic. Sure not every DC loyalist subscribed to every book that came with a ring… but hey, who doesn’t need an extra copy of Superman/Batman? I used mine to sop up a glass of water I let slip at lunch the other day!

Not to be outdone by their own promotion, DC decided it wasn’t too short a time to go right back to the well. Coming in April, packed with ‘Brightest Day’ bannered Green Lantern #53 and The Flash #1 comes … more promo rings! The Flash comes with a newly minted in plastic Barry Allen ring. Green Lantern comes packed with yet another promo Green Lantern ring. Seriously… did they mint one for every living, dead, and legacy GL Corpsmen?

Your local comic emporium will have to order a minimum of 10 issues of each of the crimson and ivy hued heroes with the February previews issue. So, make sure to start whining now, so you can have yet another hunk of plastic to show off to your girlfriend mother.

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