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Dollhouse renewed amid Hulu audience size controversy

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First, the good news: Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse has been renewed:

The show will return for 13 episodes, with an option for more episodes
if required.  Return is seen likely for Fall.  The show budget has been
slashed, however the show is moving from 50 minutes per episode to 42
minutes per ep, which should help bring down some production costs. 
The move will also mark a shift in creative direction of the show.

Now, why was it renewed? The story is that the Fox execs were comparing Dollhouse to Firefly in terms of TV ratings
(i.e. pretty bad), but also took into account that Firefly sold a truckload of DVDs and turned into a movie that made
an okay profit, and apparently predict a similar trajectory for
Dollhouse.

But I suspect Fox is looking at other info, to wit, the numbers on Hulu. Nielsen claims that Hulu had 8.9 million unique visitors in March, but comScore estimated a drastically higher 42 million. The folks at Hulu aren’t making specific claims, but according to the New York Times, it’s unhappy with the Nielsen numbers. Fox, being a TV network, already knows how shoddy Nielsen numbers can be, and certainly has accurate numbers internally from Hulu, as Fox owns a large percentage of the company. So they know things that mere mortals don’t.

This also suggests why Fox is holding off on episode 13, “Epitath One”. They’re certainly holding it for the DVD to goose sales, but they may even hold it for Hulu just to prove a point to Nielsen.

Hat tip: Obsessable.

Friday Night Fights: Angels and Demons Edition!

Ladies and Gentlemen! Tonight we present to you a tag-team bout for the ages. It’s the heavens above against the fiery pits below. ComicMix is proud to present to you a battle that may very well shake the Earth in twain with the outcome! It’s not a brand new day until the fight is over folks. Tonight for one night only! It’s the thunder from down under versus the bright white light! Angels versus Demons in a no-holds-barred contest!

Introducing first, our challengers. In this corner, in the white bodysuit with blue trim, hailing from Westchester County, New York… Standing at 6 feet tall, weighing in at 150 pounds, with a 16 foot wingspan… He’s known as the Aeriel Aggressor, the Flying Fighter, the Soaring Slugger, and the Westchester Winged Warrior! He is Warren Worthington the Third… HE… IS… ANGEL!

Coming down to the ring is his partner, in the Golden Robes with white trim. Hailing from the Aerie high above Los Angeles… Floating at 6 foot 3 inches, weighing in at a holy 175 pounds, with a wingspan of 17 feet… He’s known as the Eagle Host Haymaker, the Angelic Antagonist, and the Shadowpact Scrapper! HE IS ZAURIEL!

What is the foul smell? Could it be the smell of sulfur and brimstone? Yes! Ladies and Gentlemen, presenting their opponents.

Coming to the ring, in the red cloak, he hails from Aitch-Ee-Double-Hockey-Sticks. Standing in at whatever form suits him best, weighing in whatever scares you senseless… he’s known the world round as the Prince of Lies and Pugilism, the Bruising Beezebub, and Lord of the Lower Depths. He is a Class Two Demon from the Depths of Hell! HE IS MEPHISTO!

Aaaaaand his partner, hailing from the Internecia in the Fifth Provence of Hell, wearing the red onesy with a blue tattered cape. Slouching in at 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighing in at a hellish 333 pounds… he’s known as Belial’s Bouncing Baby Boy, Merlin’s Mercenary, and the Bat-Earled Hellion. Gone gone the form of man, punch your lights out ETRIGAN!

So… for the thousands in attendance… and the millions watching at home… Let’s Get Ready to Really Not Infringe On Michael Buffer’s Licensed Phrase!

So, chime in below on who takes the prize. It’s not gonna be a fair fight… but we want to know how you’d think it would go down! Comment below… if you dare. You dare. Now comment.

The Point – May 15th, 2009

Kevin Smith and The Green Hornet kiss and make up, there’s a new helping of THE SOUP on the web and Mike Gold makes a move on Miss California. Oh yeah, we’ve got your LOST Finale post-game with Daniel Dae-Kim.

PRESS THE BUTTON to Get The Point!

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Manga Friday: Welcome to the Neighborhood

  • Uncategorized
  • May 15, 2009
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Some people stay in the same place their entire lives: joining the family business, marrying their childhood sweethearts, growing old in the bosom of their loved ones underneath the spreading chestnut tree their grandfathers planted. But they’re boring, so there aren’t many manga about them.

People who go different places and do new things, on the other hand, are much more popular…

Cirque Du Freak, Vol. 1
By Darren Shan; Art by Takahiro Arai
Yen Press, June 2009, $10.99

Let’s get a couple of notes out of the way – first, this book calls itself just Cirque du Freak everywhere on the actual volume, but online stores think it’s named Cirque du Freak: The Manga. (Probably because there’s a long series of books for young readers under the “Cirque du Freak” umbrella title, of which this volume adapts the beginning of the first book, A Living Nightmare.) Secondly, “Darren Shan” is a pseudonym, and I know that definitively, because this is the story of a young boy named…

Darren Shan – who loves soccer and spiders, is inseparable from his best friend Steve, and goes to a uniform-requiring elementary school in some unspecified place. But then one day the circus – the strange, mysterious, dangerous, secret circus – comes to town, and Darren and Steve get tickets. The show is creepy and surprising, mesmerizing and faintly evil, in the way of a thousand fictional circuses since Dr. Lao and Something Wicked This Way Comes.

Steve is sure that one particular performer, a Mr. Crepsley, is more than he seems, and sneaks off to beg to be allowed to run away with the circus. That doesn’t work out, but Darren soon has an unexpected transformation from the same source. By the end of the book, Darren’s been torn away from everything he ever knew (and so on; you know the drill), given dangerous and ill-defined new powers, and made a mortal enemy out of Steve.

Cirque du Freak shows its origins as a mildly creepy story for grade-schoolers in everything from the I-am-telling-you-my-true-story bunkum of the author credit to dumb names like “Vur Horston, the Vampire” to the moral simplicity of the choices that the characters make. Arai has an energetic but clean-lined shonen style, full of close-ups of distressed faces and overly-dynamic bodies, but that can only go so far – this is essentially a story for ten-year-olds, and so those of us substantially older than that will inevitably find it thin gruel.

(more…)

CORRECTION: ‘Famous Monsters of Filmland’ trademark case

On March 27th, we wrote that “A long-simmering trademark dispute over who owns Famous Monsters of Filmland ended on Wednesday when a federal court in California issued a summary judgment against Ray Ferry, who had lost the trademark during a bankruptcy filing.”

The ruling was actually a temporary injunction. Quoting from Philip Kim:

At the request of all parties involved, I would like to clarify that
the ruling issued by Judge Gary Allen Feess was a “temporary
Injunction” not a “summary judgement”. A request and advancement of
this case would have needed to occur for a “summary judgement” venue.
No “summary judgement” ruling has ever been issued for this case so the
outcome of that ruling would be anyone’s guess.

Ray Ferry, Connie Beane and I, of our own volition, constructed a mutual settlement that best served the public and the fans.

We regret the error and have appended a correction to the original article.

‘Grandville’ Trailer now Available

Back in October, we spoke with creator Bryan Talbot (Creator of Luther Arkwright, artist on Sandman) and he was talking about his forthcoming graphic novel Grandville.

A trailer for the book went live this week. Take a look:

The book will be available in October from Dark Horse in the US.

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Review: ‘The Best of Simon and Kirby’

  • Uncategorized
  • May 13, 2009

bestofskjacket-5096522Joe Simon and Jack Kirby have been the gold standard for partnerships in the comic book field. Their work ethic, their creations, and their longevity speak volumes about the duo and speaking of volumes, they are likely the only ones to get DC and Marvel to allow stories from their archives to share two covers,

Titan Books has just released the first volume in a six book set celebrating the collected works from Simon & Kirby. The Best of Simon and Kirby
(240 pages, $39.95) is a delightful sampler from the many genres they mastered. Forthcoming will be Joe Simon: The Man Behind the Comics, a more comprehensive autobiography than his previous effort, followed by five volumes focusing on super-heroes (two books), romance, crime, and horror.

The oversized book (9.25” x 12.5”) allows the artwork to breathe, showing off the vitality found in every panel. Harry Mendryk has lovingly restored each page, a project he did out of love for the material and has since turned it into a profession.  Between Mendryk’s work and the color restoration, each story has that Golden Age feel with the larger dot patterns and somewhat closed up line work.

As selected by project editor Steve Saffel, the stories in this book cover the genres – Heroes, Science Fiction, War, Romance, Crime, Western, Horror, and Humor. Each chapter has the stage set by — who else — Mark Evanier, who quickly recaps how the pair’s career evolved, and how they moved from company to company, genre to genre.

We get a sampling of three or so stories per genre plus some covers and it’s just enough to whet your appetite.  As one would expect, the adventure heroes shine above all else. The energy in their work is clear, the figures bursting from the panels. We can see Sandman, [[[Captain America]]], the Vision, Fighting American, and the Fly in derring-do.

The other stories, though, are the revelations as we see that no figure is at rest. Each panel is composed with figures in motion as if standing still was against some Simon & Kirby law. Page composition was fluid and inventive as the pair experimented with keeping the reader’s eye in motion, much like their characters.

Things moved, and they had to since the stories rarely ran over 9-10 pages each. We meet the characters, get into the situation, and before you know it, the story ends. Characterization, if there was any, was all surface and the dialogue was perhaps the weakest aspect of the collaboration. Both were strong draftsmen and inventive storytellers, but all the dialogue sounded somewhat the same.

As creators of the romance comic field, the two told confessionals, as they got in touch with the feminine sides (if that was possible). One such tale, “Weddin’ at Red Rock!” mixed romance with the old west with a nice surprise ending. And it was nice to see that while it was not Kirby’s forte, he could draw an attractive woman when pressed.

About the one genre where Simon excelled and Kirby faltered was the humor field. While Simon created and executed Sick for years, the stories seen here are pale imitations of Mad, with nothing new added to the mix.

If you only know the legendary Simon & Kirby team for their work on Cap or the Newsboy Legion, this book is a must-read.  You gain an entirely new appreciation for their efforts and Titan is to be commended for reminding us about the field’s pioneers.

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‘Human Target’ picked up by Fox

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It’s official: Fox has picked up Human Target, the DC Comics series created by Len Wein, Carmine Infantino, and Dick Giordano, as a new drama series this fall. The show was apparently the best-received pilot at the network’s
screenings last week.

The show centers on Christopher
Chance (Mark Valley from Keen Eddie, Boston Legal, and Fringe) as a bodyguard with a unique
form of security: he assumes the identities of people in
danger, becoming the “human target” on behalf of his clients.

Jackie Earle Haley (Watchmen, Nightmare on Elm Street) and Chi McBride (Pushing Daisies, House, Boston Public) will co-star in the project written
by Jon Steinberg and directed by Simon West (Con Air, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider). The two exec produced
the pilot with McG (Terminator: Salvation).

This continues a long streak of Len Wein’s comics work being adapted for the screen: off the top of my head, we have Swamp Thing, Wolverine, Storm, Colossus, and Lucius Fox. Even Human Target has been adapted before, in a 1992 series on ABC starring Rick Springfield.

Will Nickelodeon’s ‘Troop’ make creating comics cool for kids?

Hey kids! It’s cool to create comics! TV says so!

Nickelodeon has given the green light to a new mixed live-action/CG animated series, The Troop, according to The Hollywood Reporter.  Writer/producer Jay Kogen (Frasier, Malcolm in the Middle and many others) will serve as showrunner for the new science fiction comedy series, from executive producer Tommy Lynch (South of Nowhere, The Secret World of Alex Mack, etc.). 

Slated to launch in fall 2009, The Troop revolves around Jake, an average teen played by Nick Purcell, who wants to create his own comic book series, who is enlisted by a school counselor to join “The Troop”  a secret society that protects the world from monsters and creatures.

Comic writer stopped by TSA at airport about a script for BOOM!

Comics writer Mark Sable was detained by TSA security guards at LAX this past weekend when they discovered inflammatory material in a script for Sable’s new BOOM Studios miniseries Unthinkable. The comic series follows members of a government think tank that was tasked with coming up with 9/11-type “unthinkable” terrorist scenarios that now are coming true.

Sable was detained while traveling from LAX to NYC to attend a signing for the premiere of Unthinkable #1 at Jim Hanley’s Universe this Wednesday, May 13th.

Fans and friends were made aware of the TSA detention when Sable Twittered about the events after he was released.

Sable wrote BOOM! Studios a more in-depth version of the encounter to release to the public:

“Flying from Los Angeles to New York for a signing at Jim Hanley’s Universe Wednesday (May 13th), I was flagged at the gate for ‘extra screening’. I was subjected to not one, but two invasive searches of my person and belongings. TSA agents then “discovered” the script for UNTHINKABLE #3. They sat and read the script while I stood there, without any personal items, identification or ticket, which had all been confiscated.

“The minute I saw the faces of the agents, I knew I was in trouble. The first page of the Unthinkable script mentioned 9/11, terror plots and the fact that the (fictional) world had become a police state. The TSA agents then proceeded to interrogate me, having a hard time understanding that a comic book could be about anything other than superheroes, let alone that anyone actually wrote scripts for comics.

“I cooperated politely and tried to explain to them the irony of the situation. While Unthinkable blurs the line between fiction and reality, the story is based on a real-life government think tank where a writer was tasked to design worst-case terror scenarios. The fictional story of Unthinkable unfolds when the writer’s scenarios come true, and he becomes a suspect in the terrorist attacks.

“In the end, I feel my privacy is a small price to pay for educating the government about the medium.”

It’s a good thing the TSA didn’t know that Mark Sable’s destination, Jim Hanley’s Universe, is right across the street from the Empire State Building. Bad enough it was a script for BOOM!

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