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Frank Miller Defends ‘Spirit’ Film

  • News
  • July 21, 2008

spiritposter-3666215If you watched the first full trailer for Frank Miller’s upcoming adaptation of The Spirit, you could be forgiven for thinking it had little more than the title in common with Will Eisner’s comic series.

Miller insists that’s not the case, though, in a story in the New York Times.

“The only ways they resemble each other are the ways that I learned from Will Eisner: the use of black and white, certainly the rapturous approach to women.” Mr. Miller spoke after an editing session in Culver City in June, wearing a straw hat, a gray shirt and a loose black jacket; his voice, faintly adenoidal, stems from a long relationship with Winston Lights.

Where “Sin City” was bleak, “The Spirit” seems playful, quirky. For someone who exalts Ayn Rand and has vigorously defended America’s military response to 9/11, Mr. Miller seems to have tempered his cynical machismo. As for the strip’s most nettlesome character — Ebony White, the black sidekick with the Stepin Fetchit patois— he has been jettisoned.

But, as is always the case, not everyone agrees:

But the current film-comic infatuation isn’t for everyone. “I think they once made a movie out of ‘Ulysses,’ the Joyce novel, and it can’t be done,” said Art Spiegelman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novelist behind “Maus.” “I’m not saying that Eisner is Joyce, but the things that are great” about “The Spirit” “are likely to be lost in translation.”

Heidi MacDonald and Foreign Comics on NPR

  • Uncategorized
  • July 21, 2008

NPR ran a feature on All Things Considered, the daily news program, about the solid sales of foreign graphic novels in the United States.

One interesting note was that foreign novels don’t sell, but comics do. That seems to indicate comics readers are a bit more cultured than the general public, doesn’t it?

A few big comics people are quoted in the piece, including Heidi MacDonald of The Beat.

Heidi MacDonald, who blogs about graphic novels for Publishers Weekly, says the Japanese invasion has helped pry open American markets to authors and illustrators from other parts of the world, including Marjane Satrapi.

"Marjane Satrapi … she’s definitely one who has had a huge breakthrough commercially and critically," says MacDonald.

‘Greatest American Hero’ Returns at SDCC

  • Uncategorized
  • July 21, 2008

greatest-american-hero-00-7393198There are more than a few mysterious elements coming up at Comic-Con this week, and one of the big question marks hovers over the return of Greatest American Hero, the goofy superhero TV show from the ’80s.

Sounds like a comic book series is in the works, if not more. According to a press release (check it after the jump), a whole slate of original stars will be on hand in San Diego. There’s also a mysterious teaser video posted after the jump — which seems to be scaled far too large for embedding on most websites.

(more…)

Doctor Who in Review: Season Four, Episode #11 – Turn Left

The hit BBC series Doctor Who is now in its fourth season on the Sci-Fi Channel, and since we’re all big fans here at ComicMix, we’ve decided to kick off an episode-by-episode analysis of the reinvigorated science-fiction classic.

Every week, I’ll do my best to go through the most recent episode with a fine-tooth comb (or whatever the "sonic screwdriver" equivalent might be) and call out the highlights, low points, continuity checks and storyline hints I can find to keep in mind for future episodes. I’ll post the review each Monday, so you have ample time to check out the episode once it airs each Friday at 9 PM EST on Sci-Fi Channel before I spoil anything.

Missed a week? Check out the "Doctor Who in Review" archive or check out any of the past editions of this column via the links at the end of this article.

Keep in mind, I’m going to assume readers have already watched the episode when I put fingers to keyboard and come up with the roundup of important plot points. In other words, SPOILER ALERT!

Let’s begin now, shall we?

Season Four, Episode #11: "Turn Left" (more…)

ComicMix Meet & Greet Schedule in San Diego

  • News
  • July 21, 2008

Meet and greet the best talent online and on paper! Here’s the schedule for artists signings at Booth #2308 — ComicMix and Insight Studios. Please stop by and say hello!

THURSDAY, July 24

10 AM – Noon

Jerry Carr (Cryptozoo Crew)

Noon — 2 PM

Rick Marshall (ComicMix News)

2 PM – 4 PM 

Mike Gold (ComicMIx Editor-in-Chief)

4 PM – 6 PM

Alan Gross (Cryptozoo Crew)

 

(more…)

DC Comics Relaunches Website

  • News
  • July 21, 2008

DC Comics’ boring old Web site saw a big relaunch over the weekend, perhaps coinciding with the record-breaking debut of The Dark Knight film.

Not a ton of new features on the site, which you can view right here, but it’s a whole lot prettier than the previous incarnation.

There is a nice feature called "30 Essential," which lists 30 of what DC views as it’s can’t miss graphic novels. That’s sure to be useful for new readers, though it’s old ground for long-time readers.

You can find that feature right here.

Chess Boxing and Comics

  • News
  • July 21, 2008

Time Magazine recently turned the spotlight on a sport that’s worth noting here for two reasons: First, it sounds so bizarre that it could have been ripped off the pages of a comic book; and second, it was pulled from the pages of a comic book.

Welcome to the world of "Chess Boxing," folks.

The chess-boxing combo traces its roots back to a 1992 comic book, titled The Nikopol Trilogy, in which the men of the future box on a chessboard floor. The image inspired Dutch artist Iepe Rubingh to hold — and compete in — the first official chess-boxing bout in Amsterdam in 2003.

According to Time, chess-boxing competitors "alternate between three-minute rounds of boxing and four-minute rounds of speed chess,  with one-minute breaks in between to get the gloves off and hunker down at the chess table." Victories are earned via knockouts, checkmates, or referee decisions.

The current Chess Boxing champion is a19-year-old Russian math student — which makes it that much more interesting, as far as I’m concerned.

L.A. and Vegas Vying for Comic-Con

  • News
  • July 21, 2008

comic_con_logo-8740788As all interested parties get ready for this week’s Comic-Con International, a couple other municipalities are preparing to try to wrest the massive convention away from its historic home in San Diego.

Both Los Angeles and Las Vegas have their eye on Comic-Con, according to Variety. The event’s extreme growth has been a boon, but San Diego can’t handle the demand anymore, Comic-Con marketing director David Glanzer said.

That means Comic-Con may have to embrace the marketing mayhem that became a fixture of E3 before it downsized a year ago. So, even with the convention locked into San Diego for the next four years, cities such as Las Vegas and Los Angeles are actively trying to lure Comic-Con away.

“We don’t like to go in and infringe on other people’s leases when they are in the middle of doing business,” says Chris Meyer, VP of convention sales for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Bureau. Nevertheless, he admits, “We will be down in Comic-Con 2008 to have some discussions.”

The way he sees it, Las Vegas has some dramatic advantages, including twice the floor space and a surplus of competitively priced hotel rooms. Meyers notes, “I’ve got more rooms on my corners than they do in most of their downtown area.”

‘Dark Knight’ Breaks Weekend Record

  • News
  • July 21, 2008

dark_knight_joker-3923030After setting box office records for top midnight opening and top Friday sales, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that The Dark Knight broke the weekend record set by Spider-Man 3.

Sunday’s tallies showed The Dark Knight, the sequel to Batman Begins, hauled in $155.34 million for the weekend, according to the Associated Press. That tops Spider-Man 3 and its $151.1 million take.

The new Batman also bested Spidey’s IMAX debut, $6.2 million to $4.7 million.

The opening day grosses for “The Dark Knight” far exceeded the full weekend haul of its predecessor, “Batman Begins,” which took in $48.7 million in its first three days in 2005. …

“We’ve really never seen anything like this,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers. “The death of a fine actor taken in his prime, a legendary performance and a movie that lives up to all the hype. That all combined to create these record-breaking numbers.”

I finally caught a showing Saturday morning, which still nearly sold out. That might be the most applause I’ve heard at a theater yet, with the most coming somewhat surprisingly for Jim Gordon.

From Glenn H.

Media By Numbers’ OFFICIAL DARK KNIGHT RECORDS SO FAR (in order of occurrence):

1 – Largest Number Of Opening Theatres with 4,366 (More Than The 4,362 Debut Theatres Of Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World’s End in 2007).

2 – Biggest Midnight Preview Gross with $18.489 million in 3,040 Theatres (Beats Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith And Its $16.9 million in 2,915 Theatres in 2005).

3 – Biggest Imax Midnight Previews set a new record with $640,000 (Included in The $18.489 million Preview Number).

4 – Biggest Single-Day Gross in Box-Office History with $67.850 million (Bests The $59,841,919 set by Spider-Man 3 in 2007).

5 – Biggest Opening Weekend Gross in Box Office History with $155.340 million (Bests The $151,116 million set by Spider-Man 3 in 2007).

6 – Biggest Opening Weekend Gross For An Imax Release in Box Office History with $6,214,061 million in 94 Theatres With $66,107 Per Theatre. (Bests The $4.7 million set by Spider-Man 3 in 2007.) Imax Showing At Full Capacity $1.9 million On Saturday Alone.

7 – Biggest Opening Weekend Of 2008 with $151.340 (Beats Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull‘s $101.137 million From May 23-25, 2008)

8 – Biggest July Opening Ever (Beats Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest‘s $135,634,554 On July 7, 2006).

Interview: Wil Wheaton on Webcomics, Publishing and Tech (Part 2)

  • News
  • July 21, 2008

wilwheatoncu-1533902Previously on ComicMix, I brought you the first part of my interview with writer, actor and publisher Wil Wheaton. In that part, we discussed topics including his feelings about modern comics and comic-book movies, his acting career, his love of writing and, most importantly, what he likes to order for lunch.

In the second part of my interview, we spend a bit more time discussing the craft of writing, personal publishing, his preferences in technology and the sometimes unpredictable nature of an Internet audience.

COMICMIX: Let’s change gears for a minute, Wil. You’re a pretty well-respected technology guy, and I know you’re a Mac user. How long has that been going on?

WIL WHEATON: I was one of the earliest Mac adopters. I had a Mac 128K in the first few months of its release. I loved it. I wish I could find, I key-noted at Mac World a few years ago, and both my notes and my address are gone. I don’t know where they went. 

Ironically, I wrote them on a Linux machine and I think that I may have just inadvertently lost them. But I loved that computer. It was portable, which is funny to say now, because it only weighed like, 20-30 pounds. It had a handle on the top, so clearly, it was portable.

CMix:  Did you ever have a clone?

WW:  No. I wouldn’t consider myself a Mac cultist or an Apple cultist. There’s still stuff they do that I don’t like and I don’t really have brand loyalty. I have brand anti-loyalty, though. I’ll never buy a Sony product… ever. (more…)

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