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Webcomic News Roundup: Japanese Bikers and More

  • Uncategorized
  • August 9, 2008

Ugly Hill‘s Paul Southworth kicked off his comic-within-a-comic SasqWatch 2813 this week, and as Gary Tyrrell points out over at Fleen, this sort of storyline/plot point has spawned a successful spin-off or two in the past. Now’s your chance to read it before it got too big for its own good.

Owch! Just in case you missed it, Jeffrey Rowland (Overcompensating, Wigu) appears seems to have some fond memories of Connecticon — specifically, the Ctrl+Alt+Del crew.

For this week’s webcomic creator interview, I spoke with Moresukine‘s Dirk Schwieger about Japanese biker gangs, swordsmithing and invisible people in Iceland. Now that is a pitch!

If you’re hanging around the Beverly Hills area this weekend (and really, who isn’t doing that these days), Sheldon creator Dave Kellett will be holding court at a local lounge in honor of the release of his latest print collection, Pugs: God’s Little Weirdos. The book will feature a collection of pug-themed strips from Kellett’s popular webcomic, and the event kicks off at 7 PM on August 10. But wait, there’s more!

I’ll be putting free, personalized sketches in pug books all night long…and handin’ out high-fives at near rock-bottom prices. This is the night for such things, my friends.

And because this book is so specifically themed around pugs, we’re giving 10% of all the night’s sales to the LA Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. They’ll be on-hand that night, so feel free to give them a high-five as well — they deserve it.

 

Superman and My Homies, by Martha Thomases

  • News
  • August 9, 2008

The month of July was a veritable traveling sideshow for me. Between professional obligations and family emergencies, I barely saw my husband … and my kitty even less. I’ve had to seek out new, ever more tantalizing kinds of cat food for her to tolerate my continued presence in our home.

All of this makes me think of Superman.

When John Byrne relaunched the series, there was a lot of talk about Superman being not just the Last Son of Krypton, but the last Kryptonian. That didn’t last very long, and today we have remnants of the old continuity, with Supergirl and the Phantom Zone and the Bottled City of Kandor.

I like that Superman, but he’s not the character with whom I grew up. My Superman is the pre-Crisis version, the one published from the late 1950s up to the Byrne reboot. Sent to Earth shortly after his birth, his memories of Krypton are vivid but brief. He was already a toddler when the Kents found him in that field in Kansas.

Maybe it was because the character had been around for such a long time, and the creative teams were having trouble coming up with new ideas for stories, but there is a certain melancholy about the Man of Steel in that era. Kal-El had huge responsibilities, and no one close to him. His parents died with his planet; his foster-parents died before he left for Metropolis. He was afraid to commit to the women he loved, not because of anything as terrestrial as a fear of close relationships, but because he was afraid he’d put them in danger. Even his own cousin, who could have been a close confidante, was kept at arm’s length so he could train her to protect their adopted home.

This is the Superman who needed a Fortress of Solitude, where he could escape, at least for a while, the cries for help that flooded his every waking moment. Amid the cold from the top of world, he could conduct experiments, write to his intergalactic pen-pals, and build enormous monuments to his dead parents. (more…)

ComicMix Quick Picks: 8/8/08

The collection of posts that may not warrant a full entry of their own. Excelsio — er, onward and upward:

Billionaire financier Ronald O. Perelman has agreed pay $80 million to settle a lawsuit accusing him of helping to divert $553.5 million in notes when he controlled Marvel. I’ll do a better run-down of the financials after I have a chance to slog through them. Ironically, Perelman had always wanted to turn Marvel into an intellectual property powerhouse in the mold of Disney, but it only happened after he drove Marvel into bankruptcy and bolted.

And speaking of legal matters, Gordon vs. Gordon. It’s a shame when things go bad. I wonder what will happen at the custody hearings.

And speaking of Gotham City going-ons (what a segue!) somebody else has built a working Tumbler. No word on what else he keeps in his basement or his belfry.

Don Heck’s Lovecraft work to finally see the light of day. Ai! Ai! P’tagh i’dw ryall!

Tom Brevoort is attempting to take over DC Comics. Watch out, Paul…

And just because some of you might want to know how to give yourself pointed ears… well, here you are. We’re not responsible for any pon farr, though.

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Manga Friday: Here We Go Again

  • News
  • August 8, 2008

 

kaze-no-hana-2-9687297This time around I have a volume two, a volume three, and a volume four – all in series that I’ve read at least some of the earlier books. Let’s see if I can still remember what went before – since manga often don’t have “who the heck are these people and what are they doing” pages – and whether they’re getting more or less interesting.

Kaze No Hana, Vol. 2
By Ushio Mizta and Akiyoshi Ohta
Yen Press, August 2008, $10.99

This is the series about an amnesiac teenage girl, Momoka, who is part of a family that wields magical swords to drive monsters away and protect their city. I reviewed the first volume in April, and had to admit then that there were too many characters with too few faces for me to keep them all straight.

Well, this time, we get even more characters, including another sword-wielding family that likes the monsters and wants to see them take over the earth or rampage through Tokyo or do whatever it is these particular monsters would do. Their leader is the cute girl Kurohime – and the only thing more dangerous than an old man in a Hong Kong movie is a cute girl in manga – and they have “sacred swords,” which are utterly different from the heroes’ “spiritual swords” in ways that perhaps don’t entirely translate well.

(more…)

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Kyle Baker Goes Through The Looking Glass

  • Uncategorized
  • August 8, 2008

lookingcovsmall-5638752Howard Stern may be the self-proclaimed Master of All Media, but Kyle Baker is giving him a run for the title in the graphic story-telling media.  He’s got his autobiographical family comedy, The Bakers, in development for television at Fox.  He’s got his reality-base war comic, Special Forces, at Image.  Abrams just published gorgeous hardcover and paperback editions of Nat Turner.  He’s worked on Captain America and Plastic Man for the Big Two.  He’s won every award comics can give.

And now, Papercutz is reprinting his early work, Through the Looking Glass, adapted for First Comics’ Classics Illustrated in 1990.  Full-color, 56 pages, and gorgeous.  Just $9.95, in time for the holidays.

This is the newest volume in Papercutz’ re-issue, following Michael Plessix’ version of The Wind in the Willows and  Rick Geary’s adaptations of Great Expectations and The Invisible Man.  

Michael Silberkleit, 1932 – 2008

  • Uncategorized
  • August 8, 2008

michael_silberkleit-8596913Archie Comics chairman Michael Silberkleit, the last of the original breed of comic book company family-owners, died August 5th from cancer, Archie Comics announced last night.

Along with his life-long friend Archie publisher Richard Goldwater, who passed away last year, Michael spent virtually his entire life at the comic book company. MLJ, its original name, was started in 1939 as a pulp magazine publishing house when Michael was seven years old. It was founded by his father, Louis, along with Richard’s father John and accountant Morris Coyne. During World War II and after the massive success of their feature Archie, the name of the company was changed to Archie Comics.

Living in Westchester County New York, Silberkleit had also volunteered as an auxiliary policeman in Scarsdale, NY.

Speaking personally, I was always impressed with Michael’s adventurous spirit, always looking to new ways to further the Archie franchise and bring new energy to the company. Archie was one of the first comics companies to embrace the use of computers in their production, and one of the first to establish a fun, interactive website.

The funeral for the 76 year-old founding brother will be this Sunday.

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Milestone: If You’re Not There, You Just Won’t Get It, by Michael Davis

  • News
  • August 8, 2008

m-invite-1-1308510Denys Cowan and I were hanging out watching the crowds inside the convention center at the San Diego Comic Con. It’s 1991. As we walked the floor we were kidding around as always. Kidding around and looking at girls. Hey, that’s what we did when we walked the floor at conventions. We joked and looked at girls. We tried looking at guys but we both agreed that made us look pretty… gay.

We were having a pretty good time when Denys got quiet. I thought it was because of this real fine Asian girl we were looking at. Denys turned to me and said “We should start a comic book company that will create some characters of color.” I said, “That’s the stupidest idea I have ever heard. Will you look at that girl?” Denys did not look. That’s when I realized that he was being serious. I said “That’s a great idea.” After that we spent most of the rest of that day and evening talking about what the company could be and whom we should include. This is the first time I have really talked about Milestone outside of a VERY few interviews over the last 15 years. Milestone is the story of five – that’s right FIVE black creators and we all have a story tell.

This is my Milestone story…

Denys and I spent the rest of that day and evening talking about what the company could be and whom we should include. In 1991 there were ample black creators we could have included but we wanted to make sure we got this right. It’s important to note that we were not trying to be exclusive by only inviting black creators – we wanted to create black superheroes and wanted to do so with black creators first. If you really look at Milestone you will soon realize that we were never a black company, we were a black owned company. In truth we were a true multicultural company that counted among our talent many, many different races. We went out of our way to include talent from many different walks of life.

(more…)

ComicMix Quick Picks: 8/7/08

The collection of posts that may not warrant a full entry of their own. Excelsio — er, onward and upward:

When I saw this bit about Franklin turning 40, I have to admit that wasn’t the Franklin I was thinking of… yes, Franklin Richards is 40 years old too. And people complain about Bart Simpson never aging?

The Skiffy Channel’s top 10 brilliant but cancelled sci-fi shows. Also known as their regular line-up.

Lost in all the San Diego shuffle, MTV of all people have started a comics/movies blog called Splash Page, and have gone so far as to hire former Wizard and DC Comics staffer Casey Seijas. We welcome them to the blogosphere, but would like to remind them that hiring ex-DC and Wizard employees to run a weblog is our shtick.

Paul Levitz interviewed in the Wall Street Journal. Surprise note: yes, he’s another alumni of Frank McCourt’s english classes. I always wondered where Paul picked up the Irish brogue.

Robert Downey Jr. trying to keep his ego in check for Iron Man II:

"Suddenly, for a minute, I felt like everyone needed to take a knee and listen to what I had to say, because I f–kin’ made it, and my way works and all this stuff. Then I go home and I go, ‘Oh my God, what’s happening to me? I gotta get grounded here.’ "

Downey got Tropic cowriter and actor Justin Theroux the gig writing Iron Man 2. Theroux is just crawling out from under the pile of Iron Man comics as we speak.

"I’ve just stopped marinating in all the Iron Man lore that I didn’t know, and I’m sort of firing up the chainsaw and ready to attack it," said Theroux. "You’re writing for Robert Downey Jr., so, at the end of the day, that’s an enormous amount of fun."

Watchmen: Inside the Owlship and Owl Weapons

  • News
  • August 7, 2008

On the heels of the latest trailer, a new Watchmen production journal was released with an inside look at Nite Owl II’s ship. You can check out the video here, but don’t ask me why nobody ever refers to it as "Archie."

 
 
 
And over at prop master Rick Gamez’s (Iron Man, Indiana Jones 4) personal site, he has posted pictures of the new Nite Owl weapons that he had a hand in designing for the new film, which may not be from the book, but are still pretty cool. 
 
UPDATE: Looks like the powers that be at WB didn’t like that Gamez had posted pics of the props, so you can check out the pics for yourself here. Enjoy!

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ComicMix Radio: Doctor Who Times Three, Four Or More?

  • News
  • August 7, 2008

whos-6556695Our exclusive interview with the next Doctor Who head writer, Steven Moffat, continues. we explore his take on bringing back established characters, killing them off and the inevitable hope of another multi-Doctor story plus:

  • Dabel Brothers taking books into comics
  • Battlestar:Galactica gets “super sized”
  • Dan Jurgens can go home again

Christopher Eccleston and Peter Davidson together, could it happen? Find out when you Press the Button!

And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via badgeitunes61x15dark-6215662 or RSS!

 

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