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ComicMix QuickPicks – January 26, 2009

v-05-1113561Here is today’s list of comic-related news items that might not generate a post of their own, but may be of interest…

* V for ABC: ABC has announced that they’ve picked up the pilot for a remake of "V". Oh, don’t pretend you don’t remember the series. If nothing else, we wrote about it back in October.

* Shooting on Spielberg’s Tintin has finally started. Although I have to ask– $100 million budgeted for a motion capture film? Good grief. I would have pegged it at about $80 million.

* Because 6.5 million people haven’t gotten their act together, the Senate OKs 4-month delay to digital TV changeover.

* Cripes, now they’re laying off folks at Publisher’s Weekly, including editor-in-chief Sara Nelson and about 7% of the staff. So far, Calvin Reid and Heidi Macdonald are unaffected directly.

* And finally, Gene Roddenberry and Majel Barrett Roddenbery’s ashes will be shot into space next year, together in infinite eternity… unless they were picked up by V’G’r.

Anything else? Consider this an open thread.

Neil Gaiman wins Newbery Award, ‘Moribito’ wins Bachelder

  • News
  • January 27, 2009

Many of you probably already know by now that Neil Gaiman picked up the 2009 Newbery Award for The Graveyard Book. If you’ve completely forgotten your unhappy childhood, I’ll remind you that the Newbery Medal is the most prestigious award given out in children’s publishing; all the books your parents’ friends gave you for your birthday and Christmas had the medal stamped on it.

But unless you’re connected to the children’s book world, you might not have paid attention to all the other awards the American Library Association handed out today. The Bachelder Award is given to the “most outstanding” book published in a foreign language. Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit by Nahoko Uehashi (published by, yes, Harry Potter’s American publisher, Arthur A. Levine) picked up the laurels this year. The award comes a week after the animated series based on the novel was yanked from the schedule at Cartoon Network.

This year marks the second year in a row that a novel translated from the Japanese has won the Bachelder; last year it was Miyuki Miyabe’s Brave Story, published by Viz, which had not previously been known for its non-media fiction.

Amy Goldschlager writes for FindingDulcinea.com.

cartoon-marriage-8611681

Review: ‘Cartoon Marriage’ by Liza Donnelly and Michael Maslin

  • Uncategorized
  • January 26, 2009

cartoon-marriage-8611681Cartoon Marriage: Adventures in Love and Matrimony by The New Yorker’s Cartooning Couple
By Liza Donnelly and Michael Maslin
Random House, January 2009, $24.00

Donnelly and Maslin are both professional cartoonists – both regularly appearing in The New Yorker – and have been married for twenty years. [[[Cartoon Marriage]]] is their paired look at modern relationships, consisting of two hundred reprinted New Yorker cartoons – divided roughly right down the middle – and some new comics-format pages to explain and introduce each section.

(The two of them have collaborated on two previous books – [[[Call Me When You Reach Nirvana]]] and [[[Husbands and Wives]]] – the latter of which sounds very similar in scope and theme to this new one. But both of those are well over a decade old, so presumably they have a lot more marriage to reflect on now – as well as more cartoons to choose from.)

(more…)

The Point – January 26th, 2009

Watchmen toys at last! Just one of the five cool things in the comic shops this week, plus The Punisher headed to DVD, Hot exclusives headed to the New York ComicCon and why no one is headed to The Oscars this year.  

 

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Time Traveler Convention Advisory – May 7, 2005

  • News
  • January 26, 2009

WARNING: Denizens of Cynosure that are planning on attending the Time Traveler Convention held forty-four months ago are reminded that the Chronarch strictly forbids intentional time travel within Cynosure city limits; and that the early 21st Century is a generally unstable chronological era. Travelers should try the 100th anniversary convention in 2105 instead.

Yes, Rond Vidar and Michael Jon Carter, this means you.

Failure to heed this warning may result in a repeated time loop, possibly infinite.

Preview: ‘Watchmen: The End is Nigh’

  • Uncategorized
  • January 26, 2009

watchmentheendisnigh-2-1059494As is typical with any comic to film adaptation, there’s bound to be a video game tie-in, and (sadly for some) Watchmen is no exception.  But this isn’t your typical cheap cash-in on the film or graphic novel’s name…at least, that’s what the developers, filmmakers, and even some of the comic’s creators would have you believe.  Watchmen: The End is Nigh takes place in 1972, over a decade before the events in the graphic novel and film, and tries to explore the days when Rorschach and Nite Owl were a crime fighting duo (just five years before the Keene act outlaws vigilantes and costumed heroes).  As such, don’t expect to see the events of the film or book here…but fans will definitely have something familiar to look forward to.
 
As detailed in last month’s issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly, Zack Snyder (the film’s director) and Dave Gibbons (the graphic novel’s co-creator and artist) are both involved in the making of the game on a purely collaborative level.  The game’s script itself is being penned by comic scribe (and creator Allan Moore’s mentor) Len Wein, who also served as editor on the graphic novel.  It’s these elements that the Denmark developer Deadline Games hopes will separate the title from other such games in the genre.  That and the fact that it won’t be sold in stores at all: the title will be available exclusively as an episodic download beginning in March for Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and the Steam network on PC.
 

(more…)

Whatever happened to Arne Starr?

  • News
  • January 25, 2009

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.

Review: ‘Mary Poppins’ 45th Anniversary Edition

  • Uncategorized
  • January 25, 2009

As new anniversary editions or Blu-ray releases of classic films continue to arrive, the question has to be asked each time: is it worth the upgrade?

In most cases, as with Paramount Home Video’s centennial series, the answer is always yes because the restoration work done to the film plus the extras make for a fine package.  I wish the same could be said for one of my all time favorite films, [[[Mary Poppins]]].

The 45th anniversary set comes out on Tuesday and is a two-disc celebration of Disney’s great musical. The 139 minute feature film continues to delight and enchant and is a must have for any serious movie collector or parent. But, coming five years after the last anniversary collection the answer has to be, if you have the 40th, you don’t need the 45th.

The film itself is technically the same.  Pristine in look, the film is at the original 1.66:1 aspect ratio and the color remains terrific. The audio remains available in Dolby Digital 2.0 or 5.1 surround sound and still sounds swell

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Handicapping the Best Costume Oscar

  • News
  • January 24, 2009

The Academy Awards are always a bit baffling in their nomination choices— who gets chosen, who gets overlooked— but the Best Costume category is a lot easier to predict. Historical dramas, unless they’ve really bollixed things up (think of the laughable attempts at historical garb in King Arthur or Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves), will invariably fill the nomination list.

This year we have Australia, a World War II epic; The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, in which Brad Pitt lives backwards from the early 20th century to the present day; The Duchess, set in 18th century England—I think everyone would have been shocked if this one hadn’t been nominated—Revolutionary Road, set in the 1950s; and…

…Milk. Okay, apparently the 1970s are now long ago enough that they qualify for a historical costume drama. I feel old. Then again, looking back at the 1970s, much of the fashion was as outlandish in its own way as panniers and three-foot powdered wigs, so I suppose it’s really not that much of a stretch.

Shamefully overlooked were any of the year’s many science fiction, fantasy, and comic-book related movies. In particular, it is shocking that Hellboy II: The Golden Army did not get a Best Costume nomination for its visual feast of elves, trolls, demons, and fish-creatures. The Makeup nomination hardly seems adequate. But then, this is nothing new; none of the Star Wars prequels received so much as a nomination for their incredibly detailed and inventive costumes.

Which leads to an interesting question: why does the Academy tend to nominate and honor movies whose costumes are based on history over movies whose costumes are entirely invented—created (pardon the expression) out of whole cloth, rather than copied from the history books? There are exceptions, of course; The Fellowship of the Ring was nominated, and The Return of the King was not only nominated but actually took home the award. Still, one would think that the creativity and imagination that goes into designing an original fantasy or science fiction costume would trump historical recreation. (Though having done both I can say that to do either one well requires a fair amount of skill.)

To answer this, let’s take a look at each of the 2009 nominees. (more…)

Happy silver anniversary, Macintosh!

  • News
  • January 24, 2009

Twenty-five years ago today, on January 24, 1984, two days after the famous "1984" Super Bowl commercial directed by Ridley Scott right after Blade Runner, the first Apple Macintosh– the Macintosh 128– first went on sale.

From this humble beginning, the comics industry would never be the same. From the earliest experiements in MacPaint to the first comic created completely in a computer, Shatter (and First comic, for that matter) Macintoshes have evolved and are now used in every single aspect of comics today– and most times, you don’t even know it.

So if you still remember doing everything on a 400k 3.5" disk, black and white screen, no hard drive, no modem, no MS Word– man, don’t you feel old.

Here’s that original commercial:

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