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‘Lone Justice: Crash’ debuts today on ComicMix — for free!

From the creators of the Harvey-nominated EZ Street comes a hero for the ages, in the thrilling pulp adventure Lone Justice: Crash!

Lone Justice: Crash! is the new graphic novel from the Harvey award nominated team of Robert Tinnell and Mark Wheatley.  It’s the sideways sequel to the Harvey Award nominated EZ STREET graphic novel, also perpetrated by the Tinnell and Wheatley team. Why sideways? In EZ STREET, the central characters Scott and Danny Fletcher are attempting to create a graphic novel.  And LONE JUSTICE: CRASH! is the graphic novel they create.

 

More Obama comics

First Savage Dragon went in with the endorsement. Spider-Man followed up with the inauguration appearance. Then Mad. Now we have the upcoming Captain Action #5 from Moonstone, where the hero actually becomes Obama.

For a hero who is already known for becoming Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Captain America, Aquaman, the Phantom, The Lone Ranger, Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Sgt. Fury, Steve Canyon, and the Green Hornet, putting Obama in that pantheon is pretty darn awesome.

Madagascar Penguins double up at Nickelodeon, The Life and Times of Tim renewed

madagascarpenguins-6051952At the Television Critics Association meeting on Friday, Nickelodeon announced that they were giving the go-ahead for 26 additional episodes of the computer-generated animated series The Penguins of Madagascar, for a total of 52 episodes.  A Nickelodeon and DreamWorks Animation co-production, The Penguins of Madagascar is set to launch on the network Saturday, March 28 at 9:30 PM.  The series will air regularly Saturdays at 10 AM starting April 4.

Remember, boys… cute and cuddly…

In other animation news, HBO renewed the animated comedy The Life and Times of Tim for a second season.

‘Torchwood: Children of Earth’ to air near simultaneous in US and UK this summer?

In a somewhat off-the-usual track for news of this type, Michael Jensen at AfterElton.com cornered BBC America president Garth Ancier and asked him about Torchwood: Children of Earth, and Ancier dropped a few tidbits:

He didn’t yet have a firm air date as BBC America is waiting for the BBC to finalize their date, but he was fairly certain that it was going to be the first part of this summer, possibly late June or early July. 

He also said that not only would BBC America air the five episodes on consecutive nights as they are doing across the pond, but that they would also air in th U.S. the same day as they did in the U.K. meaning American audiences will have almost no lag time in seeing the series. (The U.K. is five hours ahead of the east coast of the U.S meaning the delay should be about that give or take). Ancier said the series might also air in High Definition, a first for BBCA.

Nice catch, Michael!

(By the way, the image is from the marvelously warped Torchwood Babiez.)

24 tickets per day per theater for ‘Spirit’? Ouch!

In the middle of a weekend movie recap article with the fascinating headline "Anne Hathaway, Kate Hudson Spanked by Clint Eastwood" we come across these horrible statistics:

From Friday-Sunday, the broken-down Spirit sold about 24 tickets a day at each of its theaters.  The above stat brought to you by highly speculative movie math: take the weekend per-screen average ($515) divide by three, and then divide by the average ticket price ($7.20).

My city screams, indeed.

Braintrust question: who will be brought low?

John Kenneth Galbraith’s dictum about the end of financial euphorias states that a previously omnipotent figure from the boom must be dethroned in the bust.

So who is that going to be in the comic book world? Who was invincible in the past that’s going to going to get knocked off him perch in the not-too-near future?

Discuss in the comments.

ComicMix Politics: Obama’s Mad, Caroline Kennedy, and Editorial Cartoons with closing papers

A quick wrapup of the mix of comics and politics:

  • Obama meets Spidey. Yeah, yeah, everybody’s covered it by now. But most people haven’t seen Mad Magazine asking what Barack Obama will do during his first 100 minutes in office. Indecision 2008 has the sneak peek. Hint: lots and lots of cigarettes in the Rose Garden.

  • And while we’re on the subject of Obama, one of his biggest boosters was Caroline Kennedy, who’s currently under consideration for Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat. And Caroline Kennedy’s been in comics a lot longer than most.

  • Editorial cartoons are getting endangered, with newspapers beginning to fold up shop. Tom Spurgeon has a very informative write-up (boy, that’s redundant) on the problems at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and what that means for comics.

You can now go back to watching Meet The Press.

Rich desserts, and other economics comics calamities

Time Magazine reports on the latest victims of the economic downturn by reprinting this letter to the employees of Rich Enterprises, Inc.:

From:  Richie Rich, President and CEO

My loyal employees,

There is no other way to say it, so I’ll just say it.  We are broke.  I unwisely invested all our company’s funds with Bernard Madoff, and now the money is now gone, never to return.  As of January 1, 2009, Rich Enterprises is no more.  You are all without a job, healthcare and pension.  And for this I am terribly sorry.

I was always known as "the poorest little rich boy," but today, that is literally true.  I have nothing.  Every asset has been liquidated.  My gold racecar that runs on cash has been sold.  My dollar-sign shaped swimming pool filled with diamonds has been drained.  I have had to fire my beloved butler, Cadbury, and he is now the personal valet of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.  Such is my poverty that I have had to shave the signature dollar sign fur pattern off my thusly-named dog.

Believe me, I have tried every option to avoid this catastrophe.  I appealed to my cousin and longtime rival, Reggie Van Dough, for a loan, but he too was heavily invested with Madoff.  Tragically, Reggie took his own life by riding his emerald-encrusted skate board under the deadly tank treads of Irona, my robot maid.  Best wishes, Reggie.  I hope you’re with Casper now…

Luckily, Bruce Wayne is still doing fine. Nothing’s stopping that Dark Knight money.

ComicMix QuickPicks – January 10, 2009

Today’s installment of comic-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest…

* New Pooh to view: Here’s a reason to celebrate: "In August, Dutton will publish Return to the Hundred Acre Wood, the first authorized sequel to the Winnie-the-Pooh books in years. The author is David Benedictus, who finally prevailed upon A.A. Milne’s estate to let him write a book. ‘We thought David had a wonderful feel for the material,” a Pooh trustee tells The Wall Street Journal. “No doubt some will say it’s not as good as the original, but it’s very good, and we’re pleased with it.’ " Call it a hunch, but I’ll bet that book isn’t cut in the publishing downturn. (Via The Daily Beast.)

* Space And Time magazine has updated their website.

* If Norse legends are good enough for Neil Gaiman, they’re good enough for J.R.R. Tolkien. HarperCollins has bought the rights to an unpublished work written before The Hobbit, The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún, edited and introduced by Tolkien’s son Christopher. The work, written when Tolkien was professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University during the ’20s and ’30s, makes available for the first time the author’s extensive retelling in English narrative verse of the epic Norse tales of Sigurd the Völsung and the Fall of the Niflungs. The book is expected for May 2010.

* Barnes & Noble’s holiday sales dropped, though not as badly as expected.

* J. Steven York on the coming publishing apocalypse and electronic saviors.

* Disneyland Shanghai? "Walt Disney Co said today it’s going to submit a joint application report with the Shanghai government to China’s central government to build a new theme park. The company was responding to a Wall Street Journal report saying the joint venture is for a $3.59 billion Shanghai Disneyland to open in 2014 with Disney taking a 43% stake while a holding company owned by the local government keeping 57%."

Anything else? Consider this an open thread.

Tsk, tsk, Valerie…

Not that Valerie D’Orazio (of the new Cloak & Dagger series, reserve your copies now!) found THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO UNLAWFUL CARNAL KNOWLEDGE FOR FANTASY ROLE-PLAYING GAMES "while searching for something completely different."

Not that she wrote it up on Occasional Superheroine.

But that it’s not comics, and it’s not complete. For that, you have to go to What’s New with Phil & Dixie:

Click through to find out the word. I’d tell you myself, but suddenly I am eaten by a grue.