The Mix : What are people talking about today?

Tech Report: E-Ink and Comic Covers

  • News
  • September 10, 2008

A few months back I had heard that Esquire magazine was going to celebrate their 75 anniversary with an experimental  electronic ink technology. Basically batteries are sewn into the cover that power a flexible LCD screen. I was interested but wanted to see how it came out. Well, issues are hitting the stands now. Take a look at the video below:

 

The “animation” is limited. Kind of like web page banner ads, not television. (Yet.) But the first thing that sprang to my mind was how long before a comic company puts out a special edition comic featuring this? Back issues bins are overstocked with prismatic, die-cut, hologram, lenticular special editions from the 90’s. Collectors may have been burned but those suckers sold for the publishers.

What comic covers that come to my mind immediately are an Iron Man cover with lots of parts lighting up. Or the Batmobile with motion blur background. Or seeing that star field effect seen with Donna Troy, Alexander Luthor, Captain Marvel and other cosmic characters actually twinkling.

The only drawback is that the batteries only last 90 days. But hey, put an E-ink comic cover in a comic shop front window and see how fast they’d sell anyway.

Harvey Pekar Interviews Collected

  • News
  • September 9, 2008

Harvey Pekar: Conversations is a new collection of interviews with the celebrated graphic novelist.  Now available from the University Press of Mississippi, the book spans 25 years of interviews that have been drawn from a wide variety of places, from fanzines and radio to The Washington Post. The book was assembled by Mike Rhode who is editor International Journal of Comic Art and blogs about comics.

The creator American Splendor and subject of a biopic, Pekar has a lot of conversations about life in this country that make for fascinating reading.  The 240-page book comes with 20 illustrations and is available in a $50 hardcover or $22 paperback.
 

Hoffman as Penguin is news to Hoffman

  • News
  • September 9, 2008

The problem with smash hit films is that everyone immediately begins speculating about the sequel.  After all, Hollywood is driven by success and “tent pole” films are necessary for business.  Its one reason, studios stake out release dates years in advance, sometimes before there’s even a script (see Spider-Man 4).

Since the box office records shattered with The Dark Knight, everyone has been running around guessing who might be in the running for the third film from Christopher Nolan. Actors have let it be known they’re interested whether appropriate or not to the part.  The merest hint news sends news around the Internet in a nanosecond.

As a result, retractions, clarifications or denunciations follow just a tad slower.

No sooner did the dust settle from the Cher-as-Catwoman nonsense, MTV began reporting that Michael Caine received Warner Bros. confirmation that the next movie in the series will offer up Johnny Depp as The Riddler and Philip Seymour Hoffman as the Penguin.

Of course, Nolan insists he hasn’t thought once about the next film, preferring to concentrate on a non-Bat feature as a palette cleanser before returning to Gotham City.

Hoffman, who would be terrific in just about any part short of Catwoman, told The Stone Report that ”Some friend of mine told me he read that [rumor]", Hoffman reported from the Toronto Film Festival. "First I heard of it. I don’t think so.

"I grew up a comic book fan, so I love that stuff. I love going to that stuff. I think what they’re doing with that whole Batman story is really true to what that whole Batman thing has always been. It’s one of the darkest origins of a super-hero, to get all nerdy and geeky on you. That character sees his parents gunned down as a young child. I remember when I was a kid reading that story, so seeing it now come to life as the dark tale that it really is as an intense, really dark, very visceral, adult tale that they’re doing now, all the great work people are doing on it, of course I wouldn’t say, ‘Well, no, no no.’ But I don’t know the reality of it, so I wouldn’t say ‘yes’ to you."

Marvel isn’t immune from this nonsense either as they had to quickly stomp out the word that Will Smith was being cast as Steve Rogers in the Captain America movie.  Previously, rumor had it Cap would be played by Matthew McConnaughy.

 

‘Iron Man’ DVD Sneak Peek

  • News
  • September 9, 2008

With Iron Man coming out on DVD (in a variety of formats and editions) on September 30, Paramount Home Video has begun letting websites sneak peek some of the extras to be found on the discs.

We have three such links for you this morning.  First there’s one on the costume design, then one on flying, and finally one on Robert Downey, Jr. being prepped for the suit.

Enjoy.

marvel09teaser1-7760106

ComicMix Radio: Dark Reign Looms At Marvel

  • News
  • September 9, 2008

marvel09teaser1-7760106Marvel and Brian Michael Bendis have teased the follow up act to Secret Invasion – it’s  Dark Region and with it comes some some major titles changes as well, plus:

  • Tobey and Sam and Spider-Man 4
  • Seth McFarlane launches his web cartoons
  • Chuck Dixon leads The Joes back to comics

And we hit the comic stores and DVD racks for the good, the bad and the “they did what??” – just  Press the Button!
 

 

And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via badgeitunes61x15dark-5999276 or RSS!

 

Review: ‘The Lindbergh Child’ by Rick Geary

  • Uncategorized
  • September 9, 2008

A Treasury of XXth Century Murder: The Lindbergh Child
By Rick Geary
NBM/ComicsLit, August 2008, $15.95

Rick Geary has been chronicling in comics form the crimes of past ages since “An Unsolved Murder,” one of his earliest stories. Most of those stories have been funneled into his “[[[Treasury of Victorian Murder]]]” series – first an album-sized book of short stories in 1987, later an additional seven slim books, each chronicling one famous murder of yore.

Those “Treasury of Victorian Murder” books have been coming, one every year or two, since 1995, but Geary’s varied his approach this year – the book is the same size, the format is very similar, but the story this time is part of the newly-named “[[[Treasury of XXth Century Murder]]].” And the crime is one of the many claimants to the throne of “[[[Crime of the Century]]]” – after Fatty Arbuckle and Sacco & Vanzetti but before the Manson Murders – though it didn’t start out to be a murder (and some people, even now, doubt that the Lindbergh baby really died). So now Geary has an entire new century of murder to work through – the pre-WWII years alone could keep him busy for years. (Particularly if he expands his plan slightly to allow larger crime sprees – like Bonnie & Clyde and the various Prohibition-era gangsters.)

Geary tells [[[The Lindbergh Child]]] in his usual detailed, nearly deadpan style – though hints of the Geary wit sneak through, particularly in the faces of his characters – starting off with maps and plans of the important locations and swiftly moving on to set the scene and get into the kidnapping itself.

(more…)

‘Schlock Mercenary: The Teraport Wars’ Coming in October

  • News
  • September 9, 2008

Schlock Mercenary: The Teraport Wars is now available for pre-order. The Teraport Wars is the fourth collection of Schlock Mercenary strips to make it into publication; in true George Lucas style, Book 3 and Book 4 were released first. This book fits between The Tub of Happiness and Under New Management, and with it the first 1000 strips are available four hard-copy volumes.

This 228-page volume is in full color on glossy paper, and contains all the strips and footnotes from November 12th of 2001 through March 8th of 2003. It also features some new footnotes, commentary, guest art, concept art, deck plans for the Post-Dated Check Loan, eleven pages of all-new bonus story, and an introduction by Brandon Sanderson. The book is expected to ship October 9.

Schlock Mercenary is a webcomic by Howard Tayler that follows the adventures of a mercenary company aboard a starship in a 31st-century space opera setting. Schlock Mercenary updates daily at http://www.schlockmercenary.com/, and has been doing so continuously since June of 2000, a near-unheard-of feat in webcomics. Schlock Mercenary was previously featured on Keenspot, and is now a member of the Blank Label Comics consortium.
 

‘Dark Reign’ Descends on Marvel Universe

  • News
  • September 9, 2008

Last night, Marvel hosted a presentation during Diamond Comics Distributors’ retailer summit in Las Vegas, Nevada, where their next big crossover was announced. Writer Brian Michael Bendis took the stage and said Dark Reign will shine a spotlight on the Marvel Universe in the wake of Secret Invasion, which concludes in November.

Similar to SI, the titles participating in Dark Reign will carry distinctive trade dress.

With the Skrull invasion of Earth reaching its climax, Bendis took the opportunity to discuss how the Avengers titles, which he writes, will be altered.  He announced his departure from Mighty Avengers after issue #20 to move to yet another spin-off, Dark Avengers. Joining him will be Mike Deodato, who just left illustrating Thunderbolts.

Bendis also promised his next series with artist Alex Maleev, Spider-Woman: Agent of SWORD, was still forthcoming.

Marvel went on to formally announce a new Ultimates title, Ultimate Avengers, from writer Mark Millar, which can be expected during the first quarter of 2009. With the revamping of the Ultimates universe forthcoming, this is likely the replacement for The Ultimates.

Confirming that the black and white teasers that have been around for weeks now are something new, they announced Marvel Noir, a new sub-imprint that will kick off with X-Men and Spider-Man titles. No creative teams, format or scheduling was mentioned.

terminator-season-2-2363631

Review: ‘Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles’

By Allan Lamberti

terminator-season-2-2363631Easily one of the highest anticipated returns for this fall season, Terminator has been a franchise that has kept fans interested since the mid 80’s (despite the backlash against the third film). When the television series was announced, fan curiosity piqued immediately, and we all became hooked to the all-too-short first season. From the clever time-traveling aspect of the pilot (that does in fact work well within the continuity of the films), straight through to the awkward season finale (clearly shortened due to the writer’s strike), they sold the fans on another season to watch the continuing saga of the Connor family.

The first episode of this season, entitled “Samson and Delilah,” gets off to an interesting start. Picking up immediately where the first season ended, a group of men attack Sarah (Lena Headey), John (Thomas Dekker), and terminator Cameron (Summer Glau). The men are killed, but as a result of the battle, Cameron’s chip is damaged and her mission has been altered from protecting John to terminating him. Ms. Glau, doing her best Schwarzenegger impression from the first film, is hunting them through the streets while they are injured and on the run. We also see the return of Derek Reese (Brian Austin Green) who is hiding in Sarah’s former lover’s ambulance hoping to get the Connor’s to safety before Cameron finds them. FBI Agent Ellison (Richard T. Jones) returns, as does the other terminator Cromartie (Garret Dillahunt, who has been promoted to series regular). We also meet Shirley Manson of the band Garbage, seemingly playing an evil corporate version of herself.

The good: the action and effects budget has certainly been amped up for this season, a very good sign that Fox actually has some faith in the show continuing on for a longer run. The actors have also grown into their roles a lot more. Ms. Headey is still very capable in her interpretation as Sarah, while Mr. Dekker is gradually becoming a better future-leader John Connor. Ms. Glau’s Cameron actually behaved far more like a “classic” terminator should, slow-moving and menacing – my guess is that the show runners made the decision to tone down the more comical aspects of her from last season and make her more like the film terminators we’ve come to enjoy. While Cameron’s “panic” and begging while pinned between the two trucks was becoming slightly ridiculous and stupid, thankfully the writers had John do the right thing in not listening to her.
 

(more…)

Waiting For The Phone To Ring, by Dennis O’Neil

  • Uncategorized
  • September 9, 2008

money-7756500So here we were, writer/editor Jack C. Harris and myself, caught in a warp of eternity. Had we committed some hideous transgression to be doomed to this Purgatory? Well, no. What we’d done is agree to be guests on a radio call-in program about 30 years ago. Subject, of course: comic books.

We arrived at the small, shadowy studio early, earlier than the host, who breezed in a minute or so before air time and then, without notes, he was speaking into a microphone, introducing Jack and me, urging listeners to ask us questions and giving a phone number they could call if they wanted to speak to one or both of us.

We waited for that ol’ switchboard to light up. And waited. And waited. And waited. It seemed that nobody was interested in comic books, not that night in that city. We waited, and tried to make small talk, which I do not include in my skill set, and waited and waited.

Then there was a call! Hallelujah! Oh joy, oh happiness – a call! For us? Unfortunately, no. Some guy wanted to tout a community event of some sort, and fine, say I – more power to him.

There may have been one or two more calls – as noted, this was 30 years ago and I had no reason to cherish the memories – but basically, Jack, Mr. Radio Man, and I sat in that studio for two hours and then Jack and I left and I got on a train back to New York.

Got on the Amtrak, did I, little knowing that Jack, Radio Man and I were pioneers. What we’d done was fill up airtime without imparting any information, without saying anything anyone wanted or needed to hear

(more…)

Categories

Archives

Everything you need to make great comics!

comicmix-pro-300x69-2

Nucleus X

Bookshop Zaks