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Review: ‘Maps and Legends’ by Michael Chabon

mapslegends2-9137528Maps and Legends
By Michael Chabon
McSweeney’s Books, May 2008, $24.00
 
Michael Chabon has had the good luck to be writing in an era when it’s possible to both be a respected, bestselling literary writer and have a public, abiding love for some of the more disreputable genres. His best-known novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Klay, is not only a fictionalized story of the fledgling comic-book industry during World War II, but also has a very definite fantasy element. And his latest novel, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, is a detective story set in an alternate history – tying it into two types of genre fiction.

If he’d started writing twenty years earlier, or even ten, he probably wouldn’t have been able to do that; only in the last decade or so have writers like Chabon (and Jonathan Lethem, who transitioned from genre science fiction straight into the “literary novel”) been able to admit to their love of genre. Previously, literary writers could go slumming and use genre ideas once in a while – think Doris Lessing with the “Canopus in Argo” series, or The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood – but they could never admit to reading or liking books actually published in that genre. Kurt Vonnegut, after all, was only taken seriously because he ritually denied being a SF writer every day before breakfast.

But Chabon goes even further than his pop-culture-loving compatriots do; he doesn’t just admit to liking science fiction and detective stories – he’s even willing to claim that comics can be pretty damn good, and that some of them have influence him.

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Happy Birthday: Jesse Santos

  • News
  • June 24, 2008

Born in Teresa, Rizal, in the Philippines in 1928, Jesse F. Santos was already displaying his art as a young boy—at the age of ten he did the mural for his church.

By 14 he was working as a professional artist. During World War II Santos sketched portraits for American G.I.s. This led to an invitation to work on Halakhak Komics, the Philipines’ first serialized comic book, in 1946. Santos teamed with writer Damy Velasquez to create Kidlat, and later they created the detective strip DI-13 for Pilipino Komiks.

In 1969 Santos and his family moved to the U.S. He then got work with Western Publications, where he illustrated books like Davy Crockett and worked on several Gold Key comic books, including Dr. Spektor, Brothers of the Spear, Tragg, and Dagar.

 

ComicMix Radio: Grab Some Comics and Head West!

Wizard World Chicago begins in just two days and we have almost 100 things to help pass the time – most of which are new comics and DVDs in the stores hours from now, plus:

— Another Supergirl – the Peter David version – is headed back to DC

— Bane joins The Secret Six

— Get ready for The Marvel Super Hero Squad and the “Wacky Adventures of Wolvie”

Don’t forget – we will be broadcasting direct from Wizard World on Friday, Saturday & Sunday (there will be no Thursday ‘cast this week) so you won’t miss a thing. Hurry and  Press the Button – we have to pack!

 
 

And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via badgeitunes61x15dark-3798715 or RSS!

 

‘God of War’ Creator Talks Spider-Man Videogames

  • News
  • June 24, 2008

Unless you’re a rap star, it’s rare for established entertainment professionals to openly criticize someone else in the industry. But when they do, people pay attention — if only as a reminder that the pros can occasionally be angry fans just as much as the rest of us. One of comics’ famous feuds was the Peter David and Todd MacFarlane debates from the ’90s. Now videogames based on comics get theirs.

David Jaffe is considered one of the big names in the videogame industry for designing the Twisted Metal and God of War series, among other hits. On his personal blog, he posted images from the upcoming Spider-Man: Web of Shadows game and wrote a plea for the makers of Marvel Comics videogames to make the games more true to the spirit of the comics.

Please stop putting Spiderman games in big open sandbox environments where you swing around and do oh so slight variations on 4 pretty dull mission types (chase/race/collect/etc) and then once in a while toss in a boss fight and/or a somewhat unique mission.

I LOVE Marvel Comics and I LOVE the promise of games based on Marvel Comics. But why can’t you guys make a game that feels like a comic? I don’t mean art style wise; I don’t mean like Comix Zone with panels and cliche stuff like that. I mean feels like a comic in a story based, narrative way: a game that shows off the OTHER aspect that makes Marvel Comics so special: The characters/story. It’s not JUST about the powers, you know. But your games are always ONLY about the powers.

The post was followed up by another entry where he countered some reader rebuttals. His argument concludes:

I LOVE Marvel comics and want to see them start making games worthy of their amazing history of great products and characters. I want to see them apply their smart logic to making films to their games division.

The posts are rare example of a AAA-level creator speaking out like a fan. If you agree or disagree, let us know in the comments.

I would like to point out that Marvel: Ultimate Alliance had a story that rivaled any recent Marvel crossover, accurately detailed Marvel history, and gave us some theatrical-quality cinematics. (See below.) Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 has been announced for 2009 and will cover the events of Civil War.

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Interview: Neil Kleid on ‘Worlds of Dungeons and Dragons’

  • News
  • June 24, 2008

worldsofdnd1cover-6078099Writer and Xeric Grant winner Neil Kleid has come a long way since he wrote his award-winning improvised comic Ninety Candles. Since that time, he’s managed to have a diverse and interesting writing career tackling various comic book titles such as G.I. Joe and X-Men Unlimited.

Recently, he’s signed on to help bring Devil’s Due Publishing’s upcoming series The Worlds of Dungeons & Dragons to eager comics fans. ComicMix caught up with the busy author to get the latest info on Worlds of Dungeons & Dragons, his other upcoming projects and his love of axes.

COMICMIX: How much did you know about Dungeons & Dragons before you started writing the comic book? Did you ever play the game growing up?

NEIL KLEID: Once or twice, as a kid. I was mostly into the Bard’s Tale videogame and the early Dragonlance books. When I did play, I was always a dwarf. I liked the axes.

I’d stopped reading the DL books years ago, but my pal Andrew Dabb’s been adapting them for Devil’s Due for a while now and so, to check out his work, I’d flip through them at the store and I kind of got hooked again. I’m mostly into the books that focus on the characters from the War of the Lance.

CMix: What attracts you to a project like Worlds of Dungeons & Dragons in the first place?

NK: Intriguing characters, creepy monsters, short, condensed stories. Also, free rein and choice. Good editors. Stories I liked when I was younger that strike a chord inside.

CMix: How did this project first come about and how did you get involved?

NK: I’d been talking to the folks at Devil’s Due for a while now, trying to set something up with them – specifically with the G.I. Joe license. I had a meeting with former editor Mark Powers a few years
back and then traded several emails with current editor Mike O’ Sullivan. We always talked about the possibility of doing something together.

Then, Dabb mentioned they were looking for new D&D writers just as Mike emailed asking if it was something I’d be interested in. He hooked me up with editor James Lowder and we ran through the types of stories I wanted to do, narrowing it down to “The Legacy.” It’s been a lot of fun so far.

CMix: This is your first time doing something in the sword-and-sorcery genre, right? This comic seems like new territory for you based on your previous work. (more…)

Countdown Breakdown: An Illustrated Guide to DC’s ‘Final Crisis – Part 2

  • Uncategorized
  • June 24, 2008

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Yesterday, we gave you the first half of our "Countdown Breakdown" courtesy of comic book historian Alan Kistler. Today, Alan gives us the second half of his guide to everything a reader should know to get the most out of DC’s latest mega-event, Final Crisis. Oh, and Alan provided all of the artwork seen here, too. Quite the jack-of-all-trades, eh? – RM]

kistler-countdown-breakdown-09-200-1416753So, where were we?

Ready? Here we go…

By the time Apokolips was destroyed, just about all of the New Gods had caught a mild case of death thanks to a mysterious killer who turned out to be the Infinity Man, a New God warrior who usually only showed up when the Forever People (basically, New God hippies) summoned him.

Infinity Man had been ordered to kill the New Gods by "The Source," the sentient energy that binds the cosmos together and manifests itself as a talking, glowing ball. The New Gods had been born when the Third World of gods had erupted and given birth to New Genesis and Apokolips (known collectively as the Fourth World). Now that a Fifth World was coming, the New Gods had to make way for new cosmic beings that were to come.

This reminded some fans of a couple of Grant Morrison JLA issues where the New God called Metron had said that Earth would be the cradle of the Fifth World and that the JLA were fore-runners for the next phase of New Gods.

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Marvel Gets Smart, by Dennis O’Neil

  • News
  • June 24, 2008

As I begin to type this, on a rainy Sunday afternoon, there are only 211 days left before someone else lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, near the Potomac. I tell you this, not because it has anything to do with what follows, but to perhaps lend a note of cheer to your hour.

Now then:

I didn’t stay through all of the Iron Man flick’s end credits, but I should have because my friend Ken Pisani told me that Samuel L. Jackson has a brief scene in which, in the persona of Nick Fury, he reveals to Robert Downey’s Tony Stark that he represents an organization called, in acronym-crazed Sixties fashion, S.H.I.E.L.D. Dissected, that meant Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law Enforcement Division when the organization first appeared in 1965. It was later changed to stand for Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate, which was probably more au courant, but is no less a mouthful.

It is a nifty coincidence, but no more than a coincidence, that S.H.I.E.L.D. makes a big screen appearance at about the time as another espionage-themed entertainment with roots in the spy-mad decade of peace and love, Get Smart, gets into the malls.

It is not a coincidence that the current tv promos for another popcorn movie, The Incredible Hulk, tells us that Marvel has done it again, thus making a solid connection between theaters and comic shops. So, we don’t go to the multiplex to see a superhero movie, we go to see a Marvel superhero movie. This is called “branding” and it means, as I understand it, the identification of a group of products as a single, collective entity. You, fashionista that you are, don’t buy a suit, you buy a Brooks Brothers suit because the Brooks Brothers label guarantees a certain level of quality and a certain approach to the creation of clothing. (And aren’t you a bit young to be dressing so conservatively?)

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Heroes Con: Elsewhere On The Grid

  • News
  • June 23, 2008

Ah, convention season… when the wind-down from one show overlaps with the preparation for the next.

In case you missed our two-part report on last weekend’s Heroes Con in Charlotte, NC, Van Jensen provided ComicMix readers with a great summary of all the important happenings from the the convention, including some interesting thoughts on DC’s dilemma from the publisher’s rumor-plagued Executive Editor, Dan DiDio, as well as the unfortunate overshadowing of the sizeable small-press crowd.

There are some great roundups of the show to be found elsewhere on the ‘Tubes, too. Here are a few links to checkout if you want to read up on the show a bit more:

The Beat’s Heidi MacDonald has a great wrap-up of Heroes Con: Day Two, including a few more quotes related to all of the DiDio madness that has swept the industry press.

DiDio described DC’s audience as a “collector market” but defended DC’s use of character deaths and upheavals at the same time by saying these plot devices always new for some one.

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Doctor Who in Review: Season Four, Episode #8 – Silence in the Library

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 #8: "Silence in the Library" (more…)

Happy Birthday: Frank Bolle

  • News
  • June 23, 2008

Born in 1924 in New York City, Frank Bolle grew up doodling. He went to the High School of Music and Art and then served in the Air Force from 1943 to 1946.

After the war Bolle attended Pratt Institute and began looking for work—his first job in comics was in 1948 and he has been working in the industry ever since. He illustrated westerns like Black Phantom, Tim Holt, and Redmask for Magazine Enterprises; worked on Sherlock Holmes, The Lone Ranger, and other adventure stories for Western Publishing; drew several strips and covers for Boys’ Life; and did Doctor Solar, Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, and others for Gold Key Comics.

In 1982 Bolle joined Stan Drake on The Heart of Juliet Jones comic strip, which he drew for seventeen years—Bolle also drew the Winnie Winkle comic for twenty. He is still drawing Apartment 3-G, which he took over in 1999.

Bolle has won three Graumbacher Gold Medallion Awards for his oils and watercolors. In 2003 he was awarded the Inkpot Award for lifetime achievement.

 

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