The Emmy nominations are here, and the Justice League: The New Frontier animated movie is among the contenders.
The direct-to-DVD adaptation of Darwyn Cooke’s retro comics series is nominated as an animated program at least an hour long.
Competition is all surprisingly nerd-friendly fare: South Park and Family Guy.
The headline pretty much says it all, as the trailer for the much-anticipated adaptation of Alan Moore and David Gibbons’ groundbreaking graphic novel Watchmen was released on Empire Online today. The Empire Online video is down, but the trailer has found its way to YouTube, of course. (As various verisons get posted and taken down, I’ll try to keep this thread updated with any that are still available. Be sure to check out our Watchmen trailer image gallery, too!)
(via a tip from UglyHill)
UPDATE: Well, you knew that was bound to happen. The YouTube video has been taken down, and the Empire Online page remains in a state of 404 Error. Here’s hoping you were able to catch the trailer while it was floating around — it was impressive, to say the least.
UPDATE: Thanks to another astute ComicMix fan, we’ve tracked down the trailer elsewhere on the ‘Tubes and embedded it after the jump. (Thanks, RJ, Jr.!) (more…)
And there hasn’t even been a showing yet. We’ve got some interesting facts and figures in how the next Batman film is poised to make movie history over the next 72 hours, plus:
Our warmup act for San Diego continues with a few new surprises – just Press the Button!
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This issue is titled "A third symbol now…" but a more accurate one would be "OK, so here’s exactly what’s going on."
For six issues, Trinity was a fairly opaque book, with several seemingly disparate storylines and a completely mysterious large threat — the one screaming "Let me out!" in issue one.
What do we know now?
All the "disturbances" from issue two are an unknown form of primal energy. "Creation energies." The heroes quickly put two and two together and check on Krona, that Oan who tried to manipulate the beginning of the universe and accidentally created the multiverse (check out Crisis on Infinite Earths
Later in the book, it’s revealed that Krona is in fact the mysterious shouter of "Let me out!" that the trinity has been hearing. And, it’s a bit hard to decipher, but it appears that he’s getting close to escaping from the cosmic egg, if he hasn’t already.
The heroes are gathered to talk about all the goings on. They figure out the rash of museum robberies has all been to obtain wands, swords, pentacles and cups, which happen to be the four suits of the Tarot. Which leads them to Tarot, the girl who was kidnapped last issue by Morgaine Le Fey’s monsters.
They also have a third symbol appearing on Wonder Woman’s scar. The three are ancient Egyptian symbols: Strength, the high priestess and the world. Three symbols tied to our three heroes.
Now approaching its fifth year on the World Wide Internets, Questionable Content has gone through quite a few changes since its beginnings as an indie-rock webcomic that chronicled the life, loves and culture criticisms of "music nerds" Marten, Faye and a surrounding cast of characters (which also included Marten’s troublemaking, sentient "AnthroPC," Pintsize).
These days, the cast has expanded singificantly to include fan-favorite characters such as Marten’s obsessive-compulsive neighbor, Hannelore, and the relationships between major and minor characters have been explored, dismissed, or in the case of Marten and the "Coffee of Doom" owner Dora, bloomed into long-term (by webcomic standards, at least) plot points. While drama has managed to carve a niche for itself in the world of QC, Jacques has similarly carved out a name for himself among the top-tier creators in the webcomic scene.
After wandering through the QC archives a bit, I was struck by the differences in those first strips posted back in August 2003 and today’s QC. Both the art and the focus of the series have shifted dramatically in the last few years — much moreso than many of the strips on my radar. With that in mind, I recently took the opportunity to pick Jacques’ brain about the origins and development of the series and the nature of "indie cred."
COMICMIX: I’m familiar with the area QC is based on, so I think it would be interesting to hear your take on the setting for the series and how it compares to its real-world counterpart…
JEPH JACQUES: For those not In The Know™, QC is set in Northampton, Massachusetts, a smallish town in the western end of the state, home to Smith College. Northampton is a Very Fancy Town that likes to pretend it is actually a chunk of Manhattan that somehow got carried two hours due north (possibly via Hipster Albatross).
The QC version of Northampton corresponds roughly, at best, with its real-world counterpart. Many of the streets are the same (almost all the outdoor backgrounds are taken from real-life photographs) but there are differences. Coffee of Doom, for instance, exists on some bizarre meta-street that does not actually exist in the real world. The exact location of Marten’s apartment building is similarly a mystery. Basically, I use the actual town layout when it’s convenient, but break the rules whenever it suits me.
As for the cultural setting, from what I can tell Northampton is primarily young, liberal, Caucasian, and college-educated, and the cast of QC essentially reflects that. (more…)
A couple disappointments and a near no-show from DC aside, this was a pretty good week in comics, especially outside of the mainstream superheroes.
Still, this week more than anything is just a little whisper, as all eyes are on San Diego for next week’s Comic-Con. All the same, books came out, so on to the reviews…
Book of the Week: Mice Templar #5
Last issue, it started becoming clear that writer Bryan J.L. Glass was veering away from the expected route of the young protagonist realizing his great destiny and triumphing over evil.
This issue, any and all signs of the archetypal fantasy narrative have been thrown clear out the door. Paradigms change in a big way for Karic, and to write anything about it would be to spoil the fun.
Mike Oeming is once again top-notch on art, and really the only question left is how many times the creative team can keep raising the bar.
Runners Up:
Captain America #40
Cap sees the big fight between Bucky and the new impostor (the old Nomad), but the real bout to watch is that between Sharon and the Red Skull’s daughter. Ed Brubaker uses his skil with pacing to tell both stories at once, using each to heighten the drama of the other. And the ending? An out-and-out punch in the stomach moment.
Omega the Unknown #10 — The weirdest Marvel series in a good, long while finally ends, with Jonathan Lethem and Farel Dalrymple taking a bow with a nearless wordless denouement that comes straight out of David Lynch’s oddball mind. It’s a fitting conclusion to the series, which was enigmatic for the whole trip.
Even Sam Raimi would be hard-pressed to choreograph a great fight between Spider-Man and the Vulture. I mean, c’mon. Adriane Toomes is an old man who dresses like a carrion-eating bird. He’s not one of Spidey’s A-list bad guys.
After watching Activision’s latest footage for the Spider-Man: Web of Shadows videogame, I believe a man can fly… and fight! The battle highlighted developer Shaba Games promise to bring Spider-Man’s mid-air battles to life.
Also note Peter Parker giving in to his dark side and letting the black costume take control. The balance between the classic and black costumes is supposed to be a major point of the game.
Video of the gameplay is posted after the jump.
Back in January, after the untimely death of actor Heath Ledger, we posted audio from an interview we had conducted with Ledger as part of a special edition of ComicMix Radio. In the interview, Ledger discussed his reasons for taking the role of The Joker in the Batman Begins sequel, as well as his thoughts on how best to prepare for the role. With the release ofThe Dark Knight fast approaching and Ledger’s passing certainly looming large over the project, we thought the interview might be worth another listen for ComicMix fans.
With that in mind, we present (or re-present, in this case) the ComicMix Radio interview with Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight.
For more on The Dark Knight, make sure you don’t miss our special Dark Knight-themed edition of ComicMix Six, featuring The Joker’s Greatest Victories, as well as our recent list of Must-Read Batman Stories to get you caught up with the Dark Knight.
Muriel Kubert, Joe Kubert’s wife, died last week. You may have seen the story here at ComicMix . I went to the services. When I saw Joe, I asked him how he was doing (the same lame question most of us ask of those who have lost someone vital to them). He shrugged and said, “You know.” Then he looked me in the eye and repeated, “You know.”
I do. Kimberly Ann Yale, my own wife, died over eleven years ago, something that I’ve talked about more than once in this column. It strikes me that we don’t really talk about the grieving process much. It’s been studied and Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross charted its stages, noting them as shock, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, testing and acceptance. That’s certainly useful in an intellectual way but I don’t know as it really prepares you for the emotional impact.
We don’t like to talk about grief. I didn’t, before Kim died. It’s death. It’s scary. If Death hears us talking about it, maybe it’ll come over to hear what we’re saying. That doesn’t make sense but that is sometimes how it feels. Emotion has its own logic. If we don’t talk about it, maybe Death will go away. Knock on some other door.
Grief is something that should be talked about. The only person with whom to really discuss it is someone who has been through it. Not someone who is going through it at the time; they’re trying to make sense of everything and it won’t make sense. It has to be someone who has come out the other side.
Sometimes the villain wins.
Sure, you might stick them in jail — or an asylum — for what they’ve done. You could even throw them off a rooftop, leaving them paralyzed for life. But that won’t change the fact that they already did it. They scored a victory, even if it was short-lived.
The Joker is definitely a villain with a better track record than most. Lex Luthor may have become President and nearly destroyed Superman a few times. But he never killed Lois Lane or tortured Ma and Pa Kent. The Clown Prince of Killers, however, has had quite a few shining moments.
What drives this evil mass murderer? Some have claimed the chemicals which altered his pigmentation also damaged his brain. Some have claimed he suffered such psychological trauma and simply snapped. Some believe his brain actually acts on a higher level of perception, forcing him to operate with a logic we simply aren’t equipped to understand. Half of his crimes seem to be a way of trying to bring Batman to his own way of thinking, that there is no hope in the world, only chaos.
The fact that we can argue about the Joker’s sanity (or lack thereof) is part of what makes him so interesting. And so, with the release of The Dark Knight — and the Joker — looming near, we’ve sifted through the long and bloody history of the Harlequin of Hate to find those victories which stand out above the rest. Steel your nerves and enjoy ComicMix Six: The Six Greatest Joker Victories.
And if you’re interested, you may want to check out our related article, 11 Batman Stories to read before The Dark Knight.
Columns / Glenn Hauman / News
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