The Mix : What are people talking about today?

Obama-Palooza, by Martha Thomases

  • News
  • August 23, 2008

The major political parties’ conventions this week and next follow the Olympics like night follows day. Just as the quadrennial sports event serves as a ceremonial battleground with ornate rules and rituals, so do the Democratic and Republican conventions to choose the party leaders and figureheads.

Just as the Olympics represent combat in a peaceful way, the political conventions represent democracy. Our elected representatives assemble to choose candidates for the highest office in the land.

It’s a charming system, but hopelessly out of date. Sure, in the past, before mass media, before telephones, it made a certain amount of sense for people to congregate and make these decisions. There was a time when there most states didn’t have primaries, and so the question of whom to nominate was left to the party bosses.

Before then, political conventions were an excuse to party, a time for the regional bosses to convene – in the stereotypical smoke-filled room – and personally select the candidates.

This system, while not democracy, was not always bad. Through it, we had candidates like Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, and Theodore Roosevelt. With it, we get candidates like George W. Bush and … well, I think my point is made right there.

When I was first voting, all that changed. The debacle that was the Democratic convention in 1968 demonstrated that the system was a farce. Since then, the trend has been more towards the appearance of including the wishes of the voters in the selection process.

Nothing in this world is that simple. The influence of money, bias, and corporate media make it all but impossible for the average citizen to determine what the real issues are, and where the candidates stand. It serves the interests of the power structure to distract us with foolish questions such as which candidate we’d prefer to hang out with in a bar, which candidate can bowl, which can Google, and what kinds of cookies the wives bake.

Politics is so much simpler in comics, where tradition favors painting everything in black or white, good or evil. When Lex Luthor runs for office, we know he’s corrupt. It’s rare to find a creative team that depicts a more complicated system, such as Warren Ellis’ and Darick Robertson’s brilliant Transmetropolitan. (more…)

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What’s “Watchmen” About?

watchmen-cover-00-5610748Over at The Comics Reporter, Tom Spurgeon has asked readers to let him know how they would answer the question, "What’s Watchmen about?" It’s a nice feature, as I believe Watchmen to be one of those projects that has been held in high regard by comics fans for so long that it’s difficult to think outside of our comics fishbowl and explain why it’s such an important story to someone with little knowledge of the industry.

Here’s the answer I gave Tom, which I came up with pretty quickly due to having been asked that same question by someone yesterday:

Watchmen examines the relationship between superheroes and society and the ways in which this relationship changes over time given a variety of real-world factors. What would happen when the shine wears off and things like politics, economics, racism and the knowledge of one’s own abilities far and beyond that of everyone else come to the surface? The story examines all of this by way of a noir-style murder mystery in which one of the former "superheroes" investigates the mysterious death of a former member of the superteam "The Watchmen."

That was my three-sentence answer that skips over so much of what makes Watchmen great to comics fans, but is most likely to hook newcomers to the comics scene. In this case, it seemed to work, as the person I told this to called me up an hour later to say he’d watched the trailer again and now definitely wants to see the film.

You can read more responses over at The Comics Reporter, but feel free to add your own to the comment thread here or email Spurgeon (via the link provided in his post) in order to have your answer added to the feature.

Paul Pope on Toys and “THB”

  • News
  • August 22, 2008

batman-year-100-1-00-2678935Over at the L.A. Times’ geek culture blog Hero Complex, T.J. Kosinski talks to celebrated creator Paul Pope (Batman: Year 100, 100%) about the upcoming re-release of his fan-favorite series THB, as well as what he sees as the "new canvases for comics."

According to Pope, the upcoming reprint of THB (due out in 2009) will feature quite a bit of new material — almost half the project, in fact.

Talking about clothing design, upcoming iPod artwork, and the possibilities of designer wallpaper was all very interesting, but what grabbed my attention most was the future of "THB," Pope’s independent comic begun in 1995. The futuristic series featured the exploits of a teenage girl, HR Watson, and her super-powered bodyguard, THB. That collection due next year will be half reprints and half unseen material.

While I was on the edge of my seat, Pope leaned back in his chair and opened up about "THB," referring to it as “his baby.” “I’ve been working on it this whole time,” Pope explained. In fact, he’s accumulated so much new material that the complete collection of THB will total four volumes.

Pope also spoke to Kosinski about joining the growing pool of creators who have turning their attention to the vinyl toy market. His "Masked Karimbah" figure was one of the major hits of San Diego Comic-Con, and Pope seems to be hitching his future success to both the collectible vinyl scene and his designer line of DKNY Jeans clothes hitting shelves next month. 

Christopher Reeve Still Soars, by Alan Kistler

  • News
  • August 22, 2008

It’s been a rough week and I needed something to make me feel good about the world.christopher-reeve-american-flag-1179568

This past monday was the last day this year they were doing the Bryant Park movie. For you non-New Yorkers, HBO has sponsored movie screenings every Monday evening for the past 16 years during the summer, projecting films on a large screen at the edge of the Bryant Park. People gather with blankets and picnic baskets for when the lawn opens at 5 PM, and within 10 minutes there is an audience of well over 1000 people, all waiting for sunset when the movie begins.

This last week, it was Superman: The Movie (the director’s cut, specifically) with Christopher Reeve, Marlon Brando, Margot Kidder and Gene Hackman. I needed this and so I got a couple friends together to join me in the park. Some of us, myself included, were born after this film came out in theaters. Lucky for us, though, we still had the opportunity to see Superman: The Movie in something approaching that big-screen environment this week — because I’m quite certain that you haven’t truly experienced this film unless you see it on a massive widescreen surrounded by an enormous crowd. You can literally feel the electricity in the air that surges from a nearby person becoming a new fan.

When the "S"-shield blazed across the screen and the John Williams theme soared from the speakers, over 1000 people roared and cheered and applauded. When Clark Kent donned the costume for the first time, again, the entire park was filled with cheers and screams and shouts of "YEAH, CLARK!" It was like the moment in a sports game when your team makes an incredible play and you feel the joy of everyone around you. We laughed at Hackman’s sarcasm, we sighed at Lois and Clark’s flight over the clouds, and again, cheered our hearts out when Superman saved the day in the end and said "We’re all on the same team." (more…)

Manga Friday: Lawless, Winged, and Unconfined

  • News
  • August 22, 2008

Poking through the stack of manga to be reviewed, earlier this week, I noticed several books featuring characters with wings of one kind or another. Quick to sense a theme, I dragged them together, and here they are:

Koi Cupid, Vol. 1
By Mia Ikumi
Broccoli, April 2008, $9.99

Koi Cupid is an all-ages series about cherubs-in-training – yes, cute little girls in white outfits, running around making people fall in love. It’s not quite as kawaii (cute, often cloyingly so) as it could be, though, so I came to think of Koi Cupid as actually fairly restrained.

(Of course, that’s by manga standards – recalibrate your cuteness detectors from American settings, or you’ll be instantly deafened by the alarm.)

Anyway, the story focuses on three cupids-in-training: Ai, the cheerful one; Koi, the shy one; and Ren, the way-ahead-of-the-others one. They’re taught by a full cupid named Rin, who is deferring her own promotion to Guardian Angel to continue to mentor them. Kou actually is a guardian angel who pops in for added firepower now and then; Sister Yuuri is a winged, talking cat who supervises the cupid training program, and Lizette is a sneaky demon who tries to foil their work, but whom Ai wants to be friends with. (more…)

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“Mortal Kombat vs. DCU” Adds Wonder Woman and Deathstroke

  • News
  • August 22, 2008

normal-greenlantern-render-00-7075831JK Parkin over at Blog@ reports that Midway Games has released the identities of two more characters in the upcoming Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe videogame: Wonder Woman and Deathstroke the Terminator. A preliminary rendering of Wonder Woman is available on the site, as well as a rendering of Green Lantern (seen here) and a series of screencaps from the game featuring Green Lantern in battle, as well as other DC characters (including Joker, Superman and Catwoman).

The announcement was made at the Leipzig Games Convention, and along with the DC characters, Midway also announced the return of Mortal Kombat characters Raiden and Kano in the new iteration. The game is scheduled for release this fall. 

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Skrull-icide in “Secret Invasion”

  • News
  • August 22, 2008

secret-invasion-5-00-8968406Over at Metabunker, Matthis Wivel has posted an interesting analysis of the "only good skrull is a dead skrull" theme in Marvel Comics’ Secret Invasion event. When presented with the rampant slaughter currently going on in Marvel’s latest big event, Wivel wonders what ever happened to the whole "heroes don’t kill" standard of yesterday’s comics.

I’m not going to be all holier-than-thou about this — I know that the audience for these comics is largely adult geeks such as myself, and that a little killing won’t hurt our sensibilities much. But still, it’s gotta be some kind of landmark that the biggest superhero event this year so callously ignores what was once a central principle of the genre. And kind of auspicious too, that a series that at least superficially carries pretensions of political allegory most likely unintentionally lends to its heroes a borderline fascist groupthink outlook on their enemies.

And beyond all that, what is the big problem with the skrulls, anyways? I mean, Embrace Change sounds like a pretty nice guy… er, skrull.

(via Tom Spurgeon)

If You’re Not There, You Just Won’t Get It, Part 3, by Michael Davis

  • News
  • August 22, 2008

 

This is part three of my Milestone Media story I began two weeks ago. If you are reading this segment first, please read the other two installments, not so much for background but so I don’t look like a complete moron.

On a faithful day I walked into a Milestone meeting and was met with a pointed finger and this statement directed at me.  “I cannot work with this man.”

Now there are those in the industry who see me as overrated, lucky or a con artist.  That’s partly because my public persona is over the top. I tend not to explain a lot about how I do stuff, I just do it. I have never been one to share information about details on certain aspects of my business. Let me try and clarify what that means: if you invite me to a party and I say no, that’s all you are getting. You are not getting a detailed description why I’m not going or what else I may be doing or instead of going to your party. To me no just means no. It does not mean that you are a bad person, it does not mean I am. It just means no. Look; I just don’t pay attention or care about what or why anyone does anything.

I never ask personal questions when I get a no. I don’t care why you make a decision; it’s your decision. I have no right to expect an explanation from you unless it affects me in some way that matters to me. I was that way in 1991. I’m still that way in 2008 but I’m less hardcore about it.

So when a Milestone member pointed his finger at me and said “I cannot work with this man.” My first reaction was anger. I knew what I was doing to build Milestone and resented the fact that I was being put on the spot with this bullshit. I thought at the time it was all motivated by my personality, and some of it was. In retrospect I realize another part of the issue with me at the time was my methods and how I did things.  The meeting went on for a while and became heated.

Wait a sec.

  (more…)

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Behind the Scenes With “Stan’s Soapbox”

  • News
  • August 21, 2008

stansoapbox-00-6645624Just about a week ago, it was announced that the ol’ "Stan’s Soapbox" columns that ran in Marvel Comics from 1967 to 1980 will be collected in an upcoming paperback published by (and benefiting) The Hero Initiative, the very worthwhile organization that is also the "first-ever federally chartered not-for- profit corporation dedicated strictly to helping comic book creators in need."

In true form, Stan "The Man" had this to say about the collection:

"Wow! What a kick it is for me to see all my old Soapbox columns printed in one great volume!," said Stan Lee. "Reading them now is like taking a trip back through the history of Marvel in those great ol’ days when the fans and I would rap about how our batty Bullpen was exploding with new heroes, new villains and more far-out, fun-filled, fantastic new ideas than you could shake a radioactive spider at! And, best of all, every Stan’s Soapbox book sold means more money for the great Hero Initiative cause. No wonder I’m so proud of this book and the cause that it serves! Heck, I might even buy two copies!"

While the 144-page collection is scheduled for a November 2008 release and sporting a $14.99 price tag, as well as commentary from Marvel luminaries like Joe Quesada, Kevin Feige and Roy Thomas, there’s one thing the collection won’t include: the original typed copy straight from the desk of Marvel’s Main Man himself. Lucky for us, former Marvel Comics Assistant Editor Scott Edelman recently posted a scan of one of those aforementioned drafts — as well as some thoughts on how he ended up with them.

One of my duties as an Assistant Editor at Marvel Comics in the mid-’70s was to write all of the text for each Bullpen Bulletins page except for Stan’s Soapbox. (Thanks for the opportunity to channel my childhood idol, Len!)

Which meant that Stan would hand me a yellow sheet of paper each month on which he had typed out his musings, complete with edits in the form of crossed-out clauses and handwritten additions. I’d hand both his text and mine (for the rest of the page) to a different Stan, Stanley Aaron, the typesetter who would make it all look pretty so it could then be pasted up for print.

Even without the drafts, the Stan’s Soapbox collection looks like a great opportunity to get all sorts of nostalgic about comics days gone by. I’ve posted the full press release after the jump, with more information about the project. (Oh, and we’re told that’s not the final cover art.)

(via The Beat)

(more…)

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Bryan Lee O’Malley and Hope Larson on “Bear Creek Apartments”

  • News
  • August 21, 2008

bearcreek-00-2002423Celebrated comics couple Bryan Lee O’Malley (Scott Pilgrim) and Hope Larson (Chiggers) returned the focus of their considerable talents to the webcomics pool this week with Bear Creek Apartments, a new, original collaboration between the two creators. They announced the project this week on their website, radiomaru.com, and the comic was subsequently flooded with traffic — forcing O’Malley to break it down from a single page to a series of linked pages.

For the art geeks, the pair also provided the following details about their tools of the trade for Bear Creek:

The art is done with pen, watercolor, crayon, and some CG elements (mostly lighting effects). The lettering was done with ComiCraft’s "Monologous" font.

You can see the full comic now at the link I’ve provided above, but be sure to read it through to the end. There’s a twist there that caught me by surprise… so you’ll want to beat the spoilers, too.

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