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ComicMix Radio: Kick-Starting The Ultimate Universe

ccbanana-bendis-1204915Late books and creator changes have plagued this once untouchable Marvel brand, but this summer both talent and publisher are dedicated to bringing it back to the glory days. At the front line is Brian Michael Bendis, who began it all with Ultimate Spider-Man, and has a lot to say on how the video game will tie into the title, why creators are late and the possibility of an Ultimate What If, plus

  • New Heroes webisodes this week
  • More new anime and Lost come to the Sci Fi Channel
  • Where have those Ghostbusters guys been, anyway?

Before you Press the Button, please note Bendis is NOT the guy in the banana suit,

 

 

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New ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ Videogame Announced

  • News
  • July 12, 2008

 buffyds-8446965The Buffy the Vampire Slayer television show simply will not die. Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8 is a runaway hit for Dark Horse Comics, while merchandise is still selling at cons, the DVDs are perrenial sellers and they’re still coming out with Buffy videogames.

That’s right. Publisher 505 Games has announced Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Sacrifice for the Nintendo DS. A mixture of first- and third-person gameplay as players take on the role of Buffy as she attempts to seal the re-opened Hellmouth. This is Buffy’s first incarnation on the Nintendo DS.

“Buffy’s return to videogames is great for long-time fans of the franchise and we hope the huge market reach of the Nintendo DS will help to create new fans too,” proclaimed Rowan Tafler, Global Brand Manager for 505 Games.

In a shocking Buffy-like twist, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Sacrifice will be available exclusively throughout Europe on Nintendo DS during November 2008. Fans across the pond are still waiting to hear details on a North American release.  Betcha Giles is lording that one over everyone.

Expect to come across Spike, Angel, the Master, the First Evil, Caleb and, of course, the Scooby Gang. The story is penned by series writer Rob Deshotel.

As an uber-geeky Buffy fan and gamer, I have to wonder where this story takes place. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds games were considered Buffyverse canon, especially since they featured participation from the actors and Joss Whedon, but other entries are questionable. The screenshots seems like it takes place during Season Seven, but the story description makes it sound like it takes place between the finale and the comic book.

Yeah, I know — even Xander would look at me and say, “What a nerd.”

More screenshots are posted after the jump. (more…)

The Origin of Image Comics?

  • News
  • July 12, 2008

Part of me really just wants to post the image here and leave it at that, but there probably should be some explanation. Over at the San Diego Reader, former Rock n’ Roll Comics co-creator Jay Allen Sanford has put together an illustrated history of the "The Birth of Image Comics" as part of a recurring feature spotlighting some of the local comics talent in the run-up to San Diego Comic-Con. Seen below is Sanford’s interpretation of the reaction from Stan Lee when Rob Liefeld decided to break from Marvel.

See? The explanation wasn’t nearly as entertaining as the illustration now, was it?

Also in this edition of the Reader’s "Local Comic Publishers History" lesson:

  • The Birth of Image Comics
  • Pacific Comics: The inside story of a legendary local comic book company (including a history of indie comics and the Creator’s Rights revolution)
  • RIP Dave Stevens, famous former neighbor who created the Rocketeer
  • Don’t Fear the Funnies: A history of censorship in comics
  • The New Kids On The Block VS Revolutionary Comics – illustrated by Superman/Supergirl artist Stuart Immonen

26 Cartoonists Dustin Harbin Met and Liked

  • News
  • July 12, 2008

Dustin Harbin continues to both surprise and amaze.

The Heroes are Hard to Find comics shop employee is also THE GUY when it comes to Heroes Con, seeming to be everywhere at once, making sure everything was just right. He also donned one sweet white suit for the nightly bar crawl, but that’s neither here nor there.

Now he’s showing off both his love of cartooning and his art chops on his blog, with the following image "26 cartoonists which I have recently met and liked." And there’s a larger version on Dustin’s Flickr page.

New ‘Conan’ Poster Muscles Up

  • News
  • July 12, 2008

conan_teaser-2943753There’s a new Conan movie on the way, supposedly headed to theaters next year.

Granted, there’s no director, no cast and no crew (so far as IMDB knows), but there is the image at right.

IMP Awards has the first poster for the film, and it looks about exactly like what you’d expect it to look like. Big, muscly guy with a sword.

Maybe it’ll be a shot-for-shot remake, like the Gus van Sant Psycho.

Since we’re on the topic already, what actors would you like to see cast as the sword-wielding Cimmerian?

The Lizard King, by Martha Thomases

  • News
  • July 12, 2008

Last weekend, I found myself in southern Florida, visiting my father. It’s something I’ve done a whole bunch of times since he moved down there twenty years ago, but it’s the first time I’ve been there in a July.

It’s hot.

This doesn’t bother my Dad, whose home is nicely air-conditioned, and whose car is nicely air-conditioned, and who is fortunate enough to only need to go to offices, stores, and other places that are nicely air-conditioned. And for me, it doesn’t feel that much different from being there in December, February or March.

Except for the lizards. They’re huge in July. By “huge,” I mean they are five to six inches long, instead of the two to three inches long they are when I usually see them. I don’t mean five or six inches is huge by any other frame of reference.

For some reason, on this trip, I was mesmerized by the way they acted.

If you live in a warm climate, you may be less than charmed by the kind of lizard I’m talking about. They are little, brown (light and dark, or a combination thereof) and they are everywhere. If I lived in Florida, I might regard them with the same disdain I heap upon roaches and pigeons. (more…)

Webcomic News Roundup: Goats Goes Big, Webcomics.com For Sale

  • News
  • July 11, 2008

By far, the biggest item of note this week was announced today, as one of the longest-running webcomics in the ‘Tubes will now be collected in a series of 150-page Goats tomes. If you want to know the whole scoop, you can read my interview with Goats creator Jon Rosenberg here on ComicMix, as well as Gary Tyrell’s mustachioed Q&A stylings over on Fleen.

Here’s an excerpt from Tyrrell’s interview:

Q: Any of your other material — earlier strips, the tantalizingly incomplete Patent Pending and Worlds of Peril, your minicomics (including the long hoped-for Operating Thetan III) — that might now see print as a result of this deal? 

A: Anything is possible, but a lot of the projects you mentioned were ended for good reason. Patent Pending needs to be completely rethought and redone if I ever decide to work on it again, it would have made a better novel than comic I suspect. The Worlds of Peril comics were the inspiration for a lot of what makes up The Infinite Pendergast Cycle, I like to think that it’s the story of what takes place in the aftermath of Goats proper. It’s not canon, though, so don’t be reading too much into that.

The first minicomic is going to be reworked slightly to serve at the intro chapter for Infinite Typewriters. The second one could theoretically be included as an extra in one of the other volumes. I don’t have any plans to produce OT3 at this time but if I can fix some of the plot issues I could see it appearing in the future in some form, either as a standalone or as an arc of Goats.

(more…)

‘Sherlock Holmes’ Up Next for Downey Jr.

  • News
  • July 11, 2008

Variety is reporting that Robert Downey Jr. has signed up to play titular detective Sherlock Holmes in the upcoming Warner Bros. movie to be directed by Guy Ritchie.

Shooting starts this fall, which means it shouldn’t get in the way of Iron Man 2, which Downey also has on the table with a prospective 2010 release date. Marvel also apparently just brought back director Jon Favreau for that sequel.

Strangely, this is one of two competing Holmes movies, Variety says:

With Downey aboard, the film will go into production before a comedy that just coalesced at Columbia Pictures, with Sacha Baron Cohen playing Holmes, and Will Ferrell playing his crime-fighting partner Dr. Watson.

Columbia is fast tracking its project, which is being written by Etan Cohen ("Tropic Thunder") and produced by Judd Apatow and Jimmy Miller.

One might wonder, then, what this news portends for Downey’s supposed interest in a film version of Cowboys & Aliens. Platinum Studios leaked word of that, going so far as to say the film would have a 2010 release.

File that one under "doubtful."

Writer Shares Origins of ‘Batman’ TV Series

  • News
  • July 11, 2008

The 1960s Batman TV series couldn’t be more different than the current movie versions — Batman Begins and the upcoming The Dark Knight — with the former being campy fun and the latter being dark, psychological action epics.

Variety tracked down Lorenzo Semple, Jr., writer of the Adam West TV version, and printed a lengthy article from him on the differences between the Batman stories and how his version came to be.

As we sat in the garden of that splendid caravanserai, sipping cool sangria, Bill pulled something from the inner pocket of his jacket. For those who never had the privilege of knowing him, Bill Dozier was one sophisticated gent. "This," he said, with a look of humiliation bordering on shame, "is what ABC has given us." It was, as the shrewd reader will have guessed, a copy of the comicbook "Batman." I’d seen this comic from time to time, even read it with amusement, but I was hardly a dedicated fan. Nevertheless. At the risk of pretending to Minerva-like wisdom, I must tell it like it happened: The TV show concept virtually exploded in my sangria-enhanced brain, full-blown. Bill asked me what I was thinking. I replied it was a really terrific idea — trust me and fly back home to Los Angeles, and I would write it. Trust me. …

It was a writer’s hog heaven. I was sent four issues of the comic for plot ideas, each featuring one of the Big Four villains. The Joker seemed the best pilot choice, though I’m not sure why. I mailed Bill the script at Fox. He and his folks loved it. Then I flew back from Malaga to New York for a meeting with ABC, where Bill eloquently pitched the script and its high-camp POW!! BLAM!! WHAMMO!! style, those onscreen graphics already written in. The network was a bit flabbergasted, so different was this from their usual pilot, but they got it. A particular supporter was exec Douglas Cramer, whom I like to think was only exhibiting the same exquisite connoisseur’s taste that has since made him one of America’s leading contemporary art mavens and collectors.

Review: This Week in ‘Trinity’ #6

Things started to coalesce in last week’s Trinity #5, and issue six keeps moving in the right direction with DC’s big three coming to realize there’s a big problem building, and they’re at the center of it.

This issue has dueling narratives, one part featuring Tarot now hiding out from Morgaine Le Fey’s wolf monsters. Tarot continues to see weirdness in her tarot cards, but she dives into it, seeing Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman appear on the cards and in her dreams.

There are some obvious elements in the cards — Superman on The Sun, Wonder Woman on The Earth and Batman on The Moon — but also a few more mysterious ones. Batman appears on The Magician, and Superman shows up on The Hanged Man, with the drawing making him look like Christ on the cross. Hmm…

Meanwhile, the big three themselves are up in the JLA space station trying to figure out what’s going on and not having much luck. The brand left on Diana’s shoulder by another of Morgaine’s monsters gives them worry, and again Kurt Busiek’s character moments are done quite well.

The two narratives come together as the heroes and Tarot both talk over the nature of the trinity, and their identities as heroes, how they each represent different faces of the same ideal. One strange aspect is that in Tarot’s dream, the people around each of the heroes have no faces, like the Question. Hmm…

(more…)

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