In the 80’s and 90’s, one of the busiest inkers in the comics business was Arne Starr. A protege of Dick Giordano, Arne’s work graced the pages of The Legion of Super-Heroes, Nexus, Star Trek, and Sachs & Violens (who are now showing up in Fallen Angel), even doing uncredited work on Crisis On Infinite Earths, and he was a mainstay of a lot of east coast conventions, usually running the movie previews. Then he left the business in the mid-nineties recession.

So how come you haven’t seen him lately?

Well, you probably have seen him– just not in places where you expected.

Arne Starr packed up his bags and moved to Beverly (Hills, that is) and has been doing lots of work as an actor, finding himself doing tremendous amounts of background work all over TV and movies. Some of his more recognizable appearances are as an Attending Physician on Grey’s Anatomy, and an artist at the Sterling Cooper agency on Mad Men, in a clear case of typecasting.

If you keep your eyes open, you can also spot him in episodes of CSI, Medium, Jericho, Sleeper Cell, Bones and as a semi-regular at the Crab Shack in My Name Is Earl. In movies, he shows up in Bedtime Stories, Frost/Nixon, as the Citizen Kane cinematographer Gregg Toland inMan In The Chair, and in a nod to his comic book roots, Iron Man.

Here’s a shot from an appearnce on Grey’s Anatomy:

It’s great to see Arne doing well. But more than anything else, I’m just amazed I got to a Hollywood comic book story before Mark Evanier did.

The 2009 Oscar nominations are in, and they include a gratifying number of comic book adaptations and other geekly delights. First and most obvious is The Dark Knight. In addition to Heath Ledger’s highly anticipated posthumous Best Supporting Actor nod for his reinvention of the Joker, The Dark Knight has also gathered a slew of technical nominations: Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Sound Mixing and Sound Editing, Best Film Editing, and Best Visual Effects.

But the Batman isn’t the only comic hero to get Oscar’s nod. Iron Man was nominated for Best Sound Editing and Best Visual Effects (though sadly, Robert Downey Jr. received no recognition for his splendid portrayal of the eponymous douchebag hero. His nomination for Tropic Thunder is a small consolation, as comedies and comic roles get snubbed by the Academy almost as much as fantasy and science fiction.) Wanted, based on Mark Millar and J.G. Jones’ comic miniseries, was nominated for Best Sound Mixing. And Hellboy II: The Golden Army got a nod for Best Makeup. No nominations at all for The Incredible Hulk – thought I wouldn’t want to be the one breaking the news to Ed Norton.

You may notice a pattern here: except for Ledger’s Best Supporting Actor nomination, all the comic book movie nominations are for technical awards: music, sound, visual effects, makeup. And even those seem a bit skimpy – where is The Golden Army’s costume or visual effects nomination? Makeup alone does not begin to cover Guillermo del Toro’s stunning visual feast. It’s sad that in a year delivering so many knockout performances and stories from the comic book world, the Academy continues to marginalize them in favor of heavy real-world dramas. (more…)

We head into the weekend with a celebration of the great Joe Kubert, a look at the under appreciated humor of Lord Buckley, how LOST celebrated their return to prime time and what new celebs are joining in the NY ComicCon celebration. 
 

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It’s a fairy tale story that could only happen in comics.

Recent photographic evidence has come to ComicMix that shows that Laura Hudson, late of Comic Foundry and currently of Cerebus: A Diablog, is the long lost twin sister of Queen Beth Lowery of Waukau, Wisconsin.

Beth Lowery, according to America’s Finest News Source, was recently chosen as the consort of the Mattress King James Koepke III, Lord and Master of a vast bed and box-spring empire in central Wisconsin.

As we all know, there has been no true royal powers exercised in the industry since the passing of King Jacob in 1994. The lack of a royal presence in comics since that time has been long and bleak, with poverty, despair, and widespread variant covers roaming the land.

It is unclear what new privileges her connection to royalty will bestow unto Laura. Royal pardons do seem to be within her portfolio, and it is suspected that she may have the power to grant new royal charters to new comics distributors.

We here at ComicMIx are happy to pay homage to the newly-discovered princess, and hope that she doesn’t turn out to be one of those mad royals who runs around conventions with an axe screaming, "Off with their heads!" We got enough of that when Larry Hama used to carry swords around the Marvel bullpen.