The Mix : What are people talking about today?

Wolverine and the X-Men go Manga

  • News
  • February 11, 2009

At New York Comic Con this weekend, Del Rey Manga announced the latest information on their two new manga-style retellings of Marvel Comics properties, Wolverine and The X-Men.

Both books will be all-new stories with original art — consider them a "radical re-mix" of the well-known comics characters.

Wolverine: Prodigal Son, with story by Antony Johnston and art by Wilson Tortosa, takes a shonen manga approach. It’s an American characater with a Japanese spin, and according to Associate Publisher Dallas Middaugh, to add to the international flavor, the author is British and the artist is Filipino. Due out at the beginning of April, this book will be extremely different from Marvel’s version, and does not require any prior knowlege of the Marvel continuity. 

X-Men: Misfits, with story by Dave Roman and Raina Telgemeier and art by Anzu, is also a complete re-imagining of the X-Men universe and characters, mixing shojo conventions with elements of the classic X-Men story. It focuses on Kitty Pryde as the protagonist, telling the story entirely from her perspective. In this version, Kitty is invited to attend an illustrious academy as the first girl at an all-boys’ school. Release is scheduled for May 26.

Roman’s previous works have included comics Jax Epoch and Agnes Quill, and Telgemeier worked on the Baby Sitters’ Club comics for Scholastic.

According to Roman, the student body is a collection of bishonens who represent different subcultures. Cylclops is depicted as a "emo rocker." Nightcrawler is a goth. Angel is a "preppy pretty boy." Their looks are also inspired by real-life celebrities such as Justin Timberlake (Angel) and Zac Efron (Pyro). You’ll even encounter a Tim-Gunn inspired Magneto. "We had to distance ourselves from the characters as they were," said Roman, and consider "who were these characters to us, and who else they could relate to." (more…)

Review: ‘Labor Days’ by Philip Gelatt and Rick Lacy

  • Uncategorized
  • February 11, 2009

Labor Days, Volume 1
By Philip Gelatt and Rick Lacy
Oni Press, September 2008, $11.95

Some kinds of double standards will never die. Take a brutish young American male – dull, unattractive, drunken, and stuck in a dead-end odd-jobs business – and he’s both boring and contemptible. But turn him into a London boy, with the same face and job, demeanor and intellect, and suddenly he’s a hero. This hero.

He’s Benton “Bags” Bagswell, the man who put the “never” in ne’er-do-well. And these two New York-based creators knew that if they made him a Londoner, made him a British boy, then he’d be loveable rather than the lumpish prole the identical New Yorker would be.

Bags opens the story on a morning after the night before – his girlfriend has just dumped him for terminal being-Bags reasons, and a package has been left on his front step, for him to take care of professionally. (On the first page, we see Bags’s flyer, which says “I’m your next handyman for hire! Benton Bagswell’s the name. Are your chores bores? No job is too mundane for me!” Now, I haven’t hired a handyman in some time, but I thought they generally list things they’re reasonably good at, such as carpentry or plumbing or C# coding or knitting, rather than proclaiming that they’d do anything at all, as long as there’s a quid in it for them. One wonders if this approach works for Bags, and, if so, why? It reads very close to the kind of code used for drug transactions and other nefarious activities.)

(more…)

Would you buy a 30 page comic for $5?

  • News
  • February 11, 2009

A braintrust question for you, as you rush off to buy your Wednesday fix of comics, and you lament the upcoming price hike from $3 to $4. Please take a second to consider…

The average comic gives you around 22 pages of story and art. And there are a lot of marginal titles out there that probably will be axed. There are also a lot of comics writers and artists without regular assignments and idle time on their hands. Would it be a better deal to bump the price to $5 and raise the page count to 30?

Surely there would be a lot of books this could work for. Spider-Man is already published three times a month, an eight page back up story would be the equivalent of an extra issue a month now.

Or do you think that in this economy, five dollars is just too much for any comic, even one with 30 pages of story and art?

Leave your thoughts on the matter in the comments section, please.

NYCC 2009: New manga releases from Del Rey

  • News
  • February 10, 2009

Del Rey presented its new manga and manga-related releases at New York Comic Con this weekend.

This fall will be the 20th Anniversary of the superstar shojo manga studio CLAMP. To commemorate the occasion, Del Rey will be releasing the xxxHolic Official Guide, featuring everything you need to know about the manga series xxxHolic, of which Del Rey has released the English translations of the first 12 volumes so far.

The official fan book will include character profiles, an index to the witch Yuko’s wardrobe (did you know one of the members of CLAMP is also a kimono designer?) and a complete key to the crossovers between xxxHolic and CLAMP’s other manga series brought to you by Del Rey, Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle. The format of the xxxHolic guide will be similar to that of the previously-released Genshiken guide.

Speaking of Tsubasa, Del Rey will also be releasing an oversized full-color art book this fall, Tsubasa: Album de Reproductions, featuring covers of all the Tsubasa manga, as well as art bever before published in the US and an additional manga feature.

CLAMP in America by Shaenon Garrity is an original project also hitting the stores this fall. Garrity edits manga for Viz Comics, as well as writing original webcomics and manga-related blogs such as All the Comics in the World for comixology.com and the Overloooked Manga Festival. CLAMP in America is a chronicle of the rise in popularity of CLAMP’s work in the US and their role in building the fan base for anime and manga in this country. It includes interviews with editors and creators and will also feature 300 pieces of art. (more…)

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Tiny Titans Invade Chicago’s Challengers Comics

  • Uncategorized
  • February 10, 2009

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Challengers Comics is holding a kid friendly event this Valentine’s Day to celebrate the release of  the Tiny Titans "Welcome to the Treehouse" collection by renowned artist Art Baltazar.  The event will run from 12:00-3:00 on February 14, 2009 and will include free Tiny Titan themed sweets, valentines, signings by the artist and anyone who shows up to Tiny Titans Day in costume, kid or adult, gets a free Tiny Titans comic signed by Baltazar.   As if that isn’t enough, fans can come get their picture taken with characters from the book for free as well.  Challengers Comics is located at 1845 N. Western Ave in the West Town neighborhood of Chicago.

     “We know everyone is having a tough time right now and we wanted to do something to give back to the neighborhood we now call home”, explained co-owner of Challengers Comics Patrick Brower. “Tiny Titans are the kid friendly version of the Teen Titans a fan favorite book from DC Comics.  It’s been a hit with comic book readers young and old and is a great way for whole families to enjoy reading together.” The other co-owner of Challengers Comics, W. Dal Bush, commented “Art Baltazar has been working on various major comics for over a decade and is a downright nice guy. He’s a hometown Chicagoan who is a great example of what hard work and persistence can achieve.”

ComicMix Six: Lessons from the past two years

  • Uncategorized
  • February 10, 2009

Two years ago today, on February 10, 2007, ComicMix went live to the world. In that short time, I’ve seen a lot, worked some very long hours, pulled many all-nighters, and would like to think I’ve come to some useful observations about the industry, which I now share with you.

1. The only think more disruptive to your regular work schedule and overall concentration than long-term hourly blogging would be posting the numbers 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42 every 108 minutes to a website. But we keep at it.

2. There are more of you out there than you think. There are more of us out there than we thought. Finding them all has been the challenging part. There’s always somebody who hasn’t gotten the word. The number of times someone has come up to me at a convention and said "GrimJack is back? I had no idea!" is still astounding to me.

3. Research and development, in comics and in technical matters, is not predictable. If it was, it wouldn’t be research and development, would it? But we continue to try and improve the website every day, and we keep pushing at the boundraries of comics. Lots of it may be invisible to you until it suddenly appears– but that’s the way the best magic works.

4. There is an almost staggering amount of creative work going on out there, so much so that it’s in danger of overwhelming Sturgeon’s Law. And happily, it’s a mix of styles and content, appealing to every niche– and every (you’ll pardon the phrase) mix. You want a story of zombies vs. vampires, you got it. You want pretty young girls meddling with mad science? No problem. And so on.

5. You never do a massive undertaking like this alone. I started to write up a list of all the people who have helped us out over the last two years plus and easily topped two hundred people– to all of them, who’ve helped us out in good times and bad, thank you all.

6. The Internet is still a big scary place to a lot of companies– and that’s really a shame, because that’s where all of their readers are hanging out nowadays, and it’s a lot cheaper than pushing paper around at a loss. But that’s a subject for a much longer post.

Again, thanks to everyone who’s contributed to ComicMix— writing, drawing, commenting, reading, or just having fun. Here’s to the future. See you in 108 minutes or so.

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ComicMix Quick Picks – February 10, 2009

  • News
  • February 10, 2009

spidercakes-5477225A collection of news items that have come in over the last few days while we’ve been recovering from NYCC.

  • KC Carlson is also recovering, but from a mini-stroke instead of con crud. Get well soon, big guy.
  • Brett Ratner directing Youngblood, according to Variety. So if you love what he did with X-Men 3… and Rob Liefeld continues one heck of a lucky streak.
  • Denys Cowan alerted me to the existence of a Rich Johnston for the win:
    Daniel Dae Kim, better known as Jin off of “Lost”, also attending the New York Comic Convention this weekend, in his capacity of being in “Lost,” “24,” “Enterprise,” “Angel,” “Hulk,” “Crusade” and all that. But he also wanted to walk around the show, buy comics, meet creators etc, without getting mobbed. So someone found him a “V For Vendetta” mask, letting Daniel walk around untouched for hours.
    As I start looking through all my photos…
  • And finally, Spider-Man cake wrecks. (Hat tip: Lisa Sullivan.)

Anything else we missed? Consider this an open thread.

Coraline… the Musical?

  • News
  • February 10, 2009

Not content with having a Newbury Award, the the top-debuting, wide-release, stop-motion film in movie history, and throngs of adoring fans dressed in black, now Neil Gaiman is trying for a Obie Award.

Coraline the musical goes into previews on May 7 at the Lucille Lortel Theater, off-Broadway in Greenwich Village, where it will run through June 20. The book is by David Greenspan and music and lyrics by Stephin Merritt, and directed by Leigh Silverman.

Casting will be– unconventional, to say the least. 9-year-old Coraline will be played by 55-year-old actress Jayne Houdyshell, with the Other Mother played by David Greenspan. (Cross-dressing in Greenwich Village? That never happens…)

ComicMix At Two

  • News
  • February 10, 2009
Well, today ComicMix turns two years old. It’s a tad bittersweet, as the advertising cutbacks that have decimated other media outlets have had their impact upon this young site as well. So – as you’ve no doubt noticed – we’ve hunkered down for the long haul. We ain’t going to give in to this economy; we’re up for the fight.

I’m glad to report that, lately, we’ve made some truly significant progress. We’ll be making a major announcement soon, with a touch of luck – meaning the lawyers and number crunchers do what they do in a timely fashion. Most of the folks who’s been working with us and hanging in there are aware of the broad strokes, and there’s been some Twittering and blogging and such, but you’ll get the full story right here as soon as it’s finished.

I’m told we’re getting significantly closer to the launch of the long-awaited Phase Three improvements and additions. This, too, is exciting stuff and has taken an enormous amount of energy from our Tech Team. We all want to get it right the first time, to the extent that’s technically possible.

So hang in there. You’ll be seeing the fruits of these labors very soon. As always, we want to thank all the writers and artists and tech folks who have been part of ComicMix, and we thank you, our worldwide audience, for your continued interest and support. 

The Point – February 9th, 2009

We are back and barely unpacked from New York ComicCon 2009 and we brought you some surprises already starting with the coolest Comic iPhone app so far, plus DC revives The Doom Patrol yet again,  Mike Gold talks comic economics plus The Five Cool Things in comic shops this week. Not enough? Then wait until you meet The Great Cat!

PRESS THE BUTTON to Get The Point!
 

 

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