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Interview: Wil Wheaton on Storytelling, Technology and the Internet (Part 3)

  • News
  • July 28, 2008

wilwheatoncu-7729116Previously on ComicMix, I brought you the first and second parts of my interview with writer, actor, publisher, tech guru and all-around nice guy Wil Wheaton. In the two previous installments, we discussed a variety of topics from writing and acting, to technology and comics.

In this third and final installment, we cover still more topics, including politics, what piece of tech Wheaton feels is the most important of the last ten years and to him, what makes a good story.

COMICMIX: Okay, Wil, as a writer and reader of comics, what makes a good story to you?

WIL WHEATON:  Comics are a visual medium, so the artwork is extremely important to me.  There are tremendously talented writers who occasionally get paired up with artists whose art I don’t like. And I won’t read those books.

There are artists and writers who collaborate together.  Matt [Fraction] gives Casanova artist Gabriel Ba as much credit for Casanova being awesome as people give Matt for making Casanova awesome.  Ed [Brubaker] does the same thing with Criminal.  And I think that says a lot about the importance of a good team-up.  I’m lucky.

I’ve gotten to work with some great artists when I’ve done manga for TokyoPop.I don’t know if the stories I’ve written would have the same emotional impact with the reader with different art. That really, really important combination of peanut butter and chocolate is really important to making comic books great.

A lot of it also has to do with pacing. When I write comic scripts I just write them as I would write a film script and I just know that instead of putting the camera on the dolly or whatever, that’s what I’m going to ask the artist to draw… what the reader is seeing, you know?  So I think pacing is really important. (more…)

Shiny, Shiny Superheroes, by Mike Gold

  • News
  • July 28, 2008

Despite the graphic to the right, this week’s column isn’t another screed against “everything you know is wrong and will be wrong again” superhero plotting. We’ve pretty well strip-mined that topic, and unless I get inspired by original thought I’ll wait for DC and/or Marvel to make the next move.

This column is in the wake of a lengthy and continuing series of conversations I had with my ol’ pal John Ostrander. Having such conversations is the best part of the job; really, if you like talking with knowledgeable and highly creative people, I strongly recommend you become a comic book editor. I can’t quote from these conversations – for one thing, you’ll be seeing some of the results right here on ComicMix, and for another, I understand the Wi-Fi reception down at Gitmo isn’t so good. But I can give you the gist.

We were talking about doing superheroes in 2008. John does a lot of ‘em; depending upon your view of GrimJack and Jon Sable, I don’t do all that much in the genre. But I like it. I’m an American comic book fan and I proudly admit I enjoy a good superhero story. But there’s that “relevance-to-our-times” thing.

Brand-new superheroes were created in two waves: the build-up to World War II (Superman, Batman, Sub-Mariner, Captain America, Captain Marvel) and the cold war build-up to Vietnam (Spider-Man, The Hulk, Iron Man, The Question). There wasn’t a truly successful superhero created in the ten years following World War II, and the only totally original superhero created in the post-Vietnam years that comes to mind is Len Wein and Herb Trimpe’s Wolverine.

It’s easy to understand the element common to each of these two fertile periods: the reader had an overwhelming need for security. In the early “Golden Age” we were in a devastating economic depression with unemployment hovering around 25% and surrounded by massive international inflation. Japan had invaded China, Germany was beginning to engulf its neighbors and nations historically friendly to us were looking to us for war material. We had a lot of unemployed people who could aid their, and later our, war effort. (more…)

ComicMix Columns & Features for the Week Ending July 27, 2008

  • News
  • July 28, 2008

With so much news coming out of San Diego from ComicMix HQ (at booth #3208) and elsewhere, it’s my job back here in New York to make sure all our regular columns and features don’t get lost in the hype! Here’s your weekly one-stop shopping source for all our exclusive goodies:

So, I hear there’s a convention going on this weekend…

SDCC Interview: Exec. Producer David Eick on ‘Caprica’ and the End of ‘BSG’

  • News
  • July 27, 2008

battlestar-galacticasmall-6564484Producer and Writer David Eick has one of the best jobs in television. Each week he gets to work alongside Ron Moore, Mark Verheiden, Jane Espenson, other talented writers, a brilliant cast and a superb crew to produce one of the best shows on television: Battlestar Galactica. From his early work on projects such as Hercules: The Legendary Journeys through American Gothic until his turn on the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica, Eick has consistently managed to be involved with some innovative, and in many ways groundbreaking, television shows.

I had a chance to sit down and talk with Eick during the Battlestar Galactica press event at the San Diego Comic-Con. During that time we discussed the show, its Caprica spin-off and his feelings now that Battlestar is coming to an end. There were also a few other collegues at this particular event, so any questions not mine are in italics.

COMIC MIX: You’re probably not going to be able to answer any of my questions are you?

DAVID EICK:  No, no I’m good.

CMix: You showed some footage from Caprica during the Battlestar panel today? How’s the new show going?

DE: We finished shooting on the pilot which is now in post and we’re breaking stories for the first batch of episodes that hopefully we’ll have a reason to produce. We’re excited about it and so is the network. The truth is that even more so than with the original Battlestar mini-series, we’re hopeful and anticipating a successful series run with this.

CMix: But there’s no "official" series commitment from Sci-Fi as yet?

(more…)

SDCC: Mark Millar Returning to Marvel’s Ultimate Universe

  • News
  • July 27, 2008

Things have been pretty slow lately in Marvel’s Ultimate Universe, but big changes are in the works with the event Ultimatum on the horizon.

After the dust clears on that — whatever it is — writer Mark Millar has announced he’s returning to the Ultimate Universe, though it’s likely not to write The Ultimates, the series he made famous through two "seasons."

CBR talked to Millar about the project, though he couldn’t reveal much:

The United States will serve as the primary setting for Millar’s new Ultimate title. "I think anything set outside of America everybody always hates [Laughs]," the writer said. "And I say this as someone from outside of America. Even I feel slightly depressed when I see something set in Europe. So it’s going to be very America centric. Like most adventure stories it will move around the world at times but I like the top ten list too much to set something outside of America."

America may be the primary setting of his new title ,but Millar plans to use the series to expand the Ultimate Universe by introducing many new characters and concepts. "Part of the fun is building up our own Marvel Universe, because if you think about it, Marvel has had almost 50 years to create a world. But if you add up all the ‘Ultimate’ comics, like Spider-Man and Fantastic Four and the various mini-series, you don’t have 300 issues. So, there is an untapped world and I think that’s a lot of fun to play with. Like in ‘The Ultimates,’ I created a European team and you’ve been given glimpses of what’s going on in Russia. There’s still a lot we haven’t tapped into, like China. So I’d never focus an entire story on that type of thing but it’s fun to bring that stuff into it."

Marvel also held an Ultimate panel, which you can read about right here.

SDCC: DC’s Animation Panel

  • News
  • July 27, 2008

newfrontier-1533514An area DC Comics has been pushing hard is animated adaptions of the company’s comic book properties, including last year’s Justice League: The New Frontier, which earned an Emmy nomination.

At a Comic-Con panel, DC publisher Paul Levitz and others discussed upcoming animated projects, including Wonder Woman. Newsarama has a wrap up:

Noveck says “Wonder Woman” is not an adaptation of a specific comic, like “Justice League: The New Frontier.” Instead, it features an original story by “Wonder Woman” comics writer Gail Simone and Michael Jelenic, with the screenplay by Jelenic. That approach was decided on because the character can be a tricky one to get right, Levitz says.

Voice director Andrea Romano says they like to use a lot of name actors for these projects and joked that fans can often tell what she’s watching on TV and in the movies by who she casts. She says, for example, she liked very much the film “Waitress,” which played a role in her casting Keri Russell as Wonder Woman. Russell was right for the part because she can convey both strength and the vulnerability the character needs as she adjusts to living in the world of men.

Other cast members include fellow panelist Nathan Fillion as Steve Trevor, Alfred Molina as Ares, Rosario Dawson as Artemis, Virginia Madsen as Hippolyta and Oliver Platt as Hades. Romano says Platt had to record his lines in New York and couldn’t be filmed in the booth because of the distance — which turned to be a good thing when his starched shirt made so much noise he ended up having to work shirtless.

ComicMix Radio: Battlestar, Jimmy Kimmel and The CBG

  • News
  • July 27, 2008

It’s a wrap for us and Comic Con ’08 , but things go out in style with record crowds and some great people hanging out at the booth like

  • Comic Buyer’s Guide’s Maggie Thompson on what she found to be Cool At The Con
  • Adam De le Pena recalls the fun he and Jimmy Kimmel had on Crank Yankers
  • Battlestar Galactica‘s Jamie Bamber reveals his next big project
  • Not to be out done, Mark Wheatley from Insight Studios gives us the scoop on what he’s bringing here to ComicMix

All this and more Zuda Comics fun, too, You’ve just got to Press The Button
 

 

And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via badgeitunes61x15dark-7336988 or RSS!

 

Review: This Week in Trinity – Part 8

As Comic-Con starts to lull into submission (begin your hype for ’09!), I finally get a chance to sit down with the latest issue of DC’s weekly [[[Trinity]]] and ask myself again why I ever agreed to do weekly reviews.

Yes, the series is still so much better than [[[Countdown]]] that it’s useless comparing the two, but after last week’s big explanations of some of the major mysteries, issue eight has no tension among much weirdness.

We start off with Morgaine Le Fey, Enigma and Despero all hanging out on the largest moon of Itatoq (funny, I’m vacationing there this winter). Because they’re villains, a fight ensues, but after some “We’re all so evil” dialogue the three agree to form their own evil threesome.

At their disposal is the Cosmic Egg, which confused me, since last issue seemed to imply the JLA had the egg (and the villain inside it) stashed somewhere safe. Apparently they stashed it on the largest moon of Itatoq (miles and miles of sandy beaches!).

After that are scenes of the heroes going about their lives, still filling the generic roles prescribed to them by the universe (aka Kurt Busiek). Bruce is sleuthing, Clark is fighting robots and Diana is… shopping. Ahem.

(more…)

Comic-Con Photo Gallery: More Costumes!

  • Uncategorized
  • July 27, 2008

Saturday at Comic-Con International 2008 was its typical, packed-to-the-walls self, with swag to be had around every corner and a host of new costumes along with it. One of my favorites was the "Awesome X" costume shown here (from the Frisky Dingo animated series), and I’ve posted a few more after the jump. As I mentioned in the previous Comic-Con Photo Gallery I posted, it wasn’t easy to get a good photo with all of the pushing and shoving and general "no time to stop here" crowding, so I apologize for the blurriness in many of the photos. I promise I wasn’t drunk — at least, not at that point.

img_5639-00-3450408

(more…)

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