‘Mortal Kombat vs. DCU’ Trailer
The flood of video game/comic book crossover news continues as the trailer to Mortal Kombat vs. DCU debuts. Check it out below:
The Mix : What are people talking about today?
Speaking Up, by Dennis O’Neil
The comic book veteran was smiling as he leaned forward to read the lettering on the button fastened to my lapel: Let’s Legalize Pot. His mood changed instantly, to one of anger. He snatched the pin off my jacket, flung it into a wastebasket, and stalked from the room.
That was in 1965 and before I relate another incident from the same era, let me offer a quick clarification. I don’t like marijuana. Never have. The circumstances of my rather bumpy life have, at times, put me close to it and of course, like William Jefferson Clinton and maybe just one or two other pols, I sampled it and found it usually did little for me. Which is not to say I didn’t have addiction problems. No siree. My love of alcohol cost me a marriage and a job and a lot of dignity and some trips to the hospital. But pot? Usually just made me cough. That button? Well, although the evil reefer was not my drug of choice, I thought that if booze and nicotine were legal, evil reefer should be, too.
This was not conventional wisdom in 1965 (and still isn’t) and, although, as we discussed last week, comics guys like the man I outraged were outsiders, they were not rebels. No, they were outsiders by birth and circumstance, not choice, and their values were pretty much those of mainstream America. They wore suits and ties to work, they paid taxes and owned homes, went to church or temple, voted, behaved themselves. Many had served honorably in the war. They were patriots, they were good citizens. They knew, because they had not learned otherwise, that our nation was menaced by godless Communism, that elected officials were as honorable as they themselves were, that what was good for General Motors was, in fact, good for America, that the atomic bomb was an invaluable part of Liberty’s Arsenal and, oh yeah, that the Devil’s Weed would likely corrupt any youth who got a whiff of it. They were my parents, my relatives, and the folks in my old neighborhood.
SDCC: ‘Scott Pilgrim’ Fights the Universe
The big news out of the Oni Press panel at San Diego all revolved around Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim, with an announced title and release date for the fifth book.
It’ll be Scott Pilgrim vs. the Universe and it’ll come out at next year’s New York Comic Con. Other than that, all the news was of other books from the publisher.
Newsarama has some coverage.
James Lucas Jones moderated Oni’s panel, which featured a packed room of fans and at least a dozen Oni creators who Jones invited to the podium to talk about their titles as he announced them.
The panel kicked off with artwork for Billy Smoke by B. Clay Moore and Eric Kim. The book is about an elite hit man who’s nearly killed during a botched assignment. He decides his only path to redemption is to kill his former hit man associates.
Jones called it an “adrenaline-fueled thrill ride about an assassin on the path to redemption.” It debuts in early 2009. Matthew Fox has signed on to star in the film adaptation and was at the Oni booth some of the weekend signing autographs.
SDCC: All the Manga News
We at ComicMix didn’t get to too much manga news coming out of San Diego, if only because of the explosion of happenings and announcements coming out of the convention center.
The folks at ComiPress come through in spades, compiling a thorough listing of manga news.
Read up to your heart’s content right here.
SDCC: ‘Spider-Man: Web of Shadows’ Trailer
The rush of Comic-Con slows to a trickle, with some of the late news including a trailer for the upcoming video game Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, which features an invasion of symbiotes and the apparent Venom-ification of Wolverine.
Watch below.
Comics at Harry N. Abrams
It went a bit overshadowed amid the madness of Comic-Con, but there was some big news out of New York last week as publisher Harry N. Abrams announced the creation of a new comics imprint, headed by Charles Kochman.
Kochman was recently promoted to be executive editor of the publishing company, and he told Publishers Weekly it was a natural fit to take on more comics.
Kochman will direct the new imprint, which will launch with four new titles: The Art of Harvey Kurtzman: The Mad Genius of Comics by Denis Kitchen and Paul Buhle; The Art of Jaime Hernandez: The Secrets of Life and Death by Todd Hignite, designed by Jordan Crane with an introduction by acclaimed cartoonist Alison Bechdel; Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman’s Co-creator Joe Shuster by Craig Yoe; and Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow? by Brian Fies, the creator of the award-winning Web comic/book Mom’s Cancer.
Abrams publisher Steve Tager said launching a new imprint “made sense. We’ve published comics and pop culture titles in the past—we’ve sold half a million copies of the Art of Walt Disney—so Charles is building on a history that Abrams already has. But he brings a passion and experience in the category. He’s brought in more graphic novels and launching an imprint just makes sense in this marketplace.” Tager said the imprint will be able to cross-promote with Abrams’s children’s book line, special markets department and internationally—he noted that Kirby: King of Comics, Mark Evanier’s biography of comics artist Jack Kirby, is a bestseller for Abrams U.K. “We’ve been coming to Comic-con for several years now and our education in the category continues,” said Tager. “And our designers and sales reps all love Charlie’s books; he focuses on the little things and that’s what makes his books special.”
Who’ll Be the Next ‘Batman’ Villain?
It appears the villains of The Dark Knight, the latest installment in the Batman movie franchise, won’t return, as Aaron Eckhart’s Harvey Dent appears to be killed off and Heath Ledger’s untimely death makes it impossible for him to return his version of the Joker.
So, the obvious question becomes "who’s next?"
One blogger at Doomkopf thinks we may have already seen him:
…actor Joshua Harto plays Mr. Reese in “The Dark Knight,” an employee for Wayne Enterprises who comes to the conclusion that Batman is actually Bruce Wayne. Oh, and, it’s not like I’m spoiling anything; everybody and their dog has seen this movie already. He eventually gets targeted by the Joker before he can share his secret, after which he’s summarily pushed out of the movie after Bruce Wayne saves his life and gives him one hell of an evil eye. It’s either a loose end that never got tied up, or it’s a sign that he’ll be back in future movies.
Now, isn’t that kind of like Edward Nigma’s origin? Ex-employee to Wayne Enterprises, grown bitter, and seeking revenge against his former employer? And, ditching the lame “enigma” joke would be a step in the right direction, though another clue presents itself when you think about it for a second. His name in this movie is Mr. Reese. Mysteries. I’d say I might be on to something.
Mr. Reese… Mysteries. Clever.
However, a viral marketing campaign for Dark Knight might indicate the people behind the film were making much-less subtle hints to the Riddler’s whereabouts, as Edward Nashton (an alias of the Riddler) "wrote" a letter to the editor at the Gotham Times Web site.
Comic-Con Photo Gallery: Costumes (Part 3)
Sometime tomorrow I’ll post a general gallery of some of the creators, sights and swag that made this year’s San Diego Comic-Con memorable, but for now, here’s yet another gallery of some of the costumes that are such a big part of the Comic-Con scene. As I mentioned with the first and second galleries, you have my apologies for the blurriness of some of the photos — it was a wall-to-wall experience on the show floor and not the most ideal environment for photography.
Demons of Sherwood – Complete, Online and Free!
It’s been over a decade since Robin Hood last rescued the Maid Marian from the forces of the wicked Sheriff of Nottingham. Did they live happily ever after?
Hell no! Drink, religion, and a passle of demons are just a few of the threats that face Robin and the remnants of his Merry Men in this all-new full-length graphic novel from Robert Tinnell and Bo Hampton (Legends of the Dark Knight, Clive Barker’s Hellraiser, Moon Knight, The Viking Prince), providing amazing fully painted art at is best!.
The serialization ran for months, and now you can read the entire graphic novel Demons of Sherwood, from the very beginning right here at ComicMix for FREE!
Credits: Robert Tinnell and Bo Hampton (Writers), Bo Hampton (Artist), Bo Hampton (Letterer), Mike Gold (Editor)
Review: ‘Swallow Me Whole” by Nate Powell
Swallow Me Whole
By Nate Powell
Top Shelf, September 2008, $19.95
Ruth and Perry are stepsiblings, somewhere in the South – people say “shoore” for “sure,” biology teachers can’t even say the word “evolution,” and the kids’ slowly-dying, live-in grandmother is called “Memaw.” It also seems to be sometime in the late ‘80s, from the clothes and the music and the hair.
And they’re both – how should I put this? Oh, let’s use the jargon – both are very far from neurotypical. Perry hallucinates a tiny wizard who makes him draw incessantly for “missions.” And Ruth may even be schizophrenic: she hears voices and feels patterns in everything around her, particularly with insect swarms. She has a huge collection of insects in jars in her room; she’s stolen at least some of them from school, but it’s not clear where they all came from. When she finally has a break at school and is taken to the nurse’s office, the school cop immediately assumes she’s high and starts loudly questioning her about drugs – she doesn’t get diagnosed has obsessive-compulsive for several days.
[[[Swallow Me Whole]]] is a slow, swirling, uneasy book, centered mostly on Ruth and her efforts to live in the world – talking to her Memaw, getting a work-study job at the museum, trying not to be swallowed up by the massive swarms of insects that comfort her and that may, or may not, be real. (Don’t decide either way until you get to the end.) It begins with a few short scenes set about five years earlier, when Ruth and Perry are both pre-teens and Memaw’s hospitalization ends with her moving in with them and their parents. From there, it’s hard to say how much time Swallow Me Whole covers, since there are no external markers. They go to school but we don’t see school begin or end for the summer. We don’t see the seasons change. Scenes could be separated by a day or three months. It’s all now; it’s all happening, like life, one thing after another after another.
