Previously, I told you about the first episode of The Middleman that was available as a free download on iTunes. For those who didn’t take advantage of the offer, you’re missing out — the series premiere lived up to my lofty expectations, and now I can hardly wait until Monday for the second episode.

As part of the marketing push for the series, "Middleman" Matt Keeslar recently participated in a conference call with various news outlets about the series. While the interview provides a great behind-the-scenes look at the series and its move from comics to screen, the best part just might be the final response from Keeslar.

"In one of the episodes we battle trout craving zombies, people who have been bitten by Peruvian flying pike and have turned into zombies who crave the flesh of trout. Natalie and I were covered in fish gore and then tracked down by these trout zombies, so that was an odd thing.

"I had a scene where I had to fight 100 Mexican wrestlers in a sandy Aztec pyramid set, which was a lot of fun, kind of hard work, but also pretty silly. The fighting styles ranged everywhere from WWF to Kung Fu. In general, The Middleman’s naiveté also beats him to make a lot of unintentional double entendre about sex, sexuality, and his own lifestyle choices, and those have been probably some of my sillier utterances throughout the show."

Not only does this response confirm fans’ hopes that a certain scene from the comic involving Mexican wrestlers will indeed be included in the TV series, but it just sounds, well… excellent.

Head over to The Deadbolt for other highlights from the conference call, and be sure to check out the Middleman Monday on ABC Family.

Born in 1957, Gary Carlson first appeared on the comic book scene with his self-published superhero anthology Megaton back in the early 1980s.

He created the character of Vanguard with Erik Larsen, whose Savage Dragon also began in the anthology. Carlson later wrote Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Berzerker, and Supreme.

He and Larsen also co-wrote Aquaman for DC and Nova for Marvel. Carlson created Big Bang Comics, initially for Calber Press—he later moved Big Bang to Image and now self-publishes it, functioning as writer, editor, and publisher.

DK Publishing has announced Marvel Chronicles, a high-end hardcover that takes fans from the ’40s to the present day in Marvel history with a few interesting twists. Comic historian Peter Sanderson, one of the creators of the project, gives us an exclusive look at this “must have” goodie, plus:

— The next Transformers saga is ready, but where are the Autobots?

— Kick Ass out of print – again

— Greatest American Hero in comics

Okay, stop singing “Believe It Or Not” and press the button!

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

For those not attending Heroes Con in Charlotte this weekend, and for most of those who are, the big news is the rumors swirling around DC Comics.

There was chatter all day about DC Executive Editor Dan DiDio, and whether he might be out. The only real news, though, was that VP John Nee is resigning.

Sadly, everyone was so caught up in the rumormongering (which, so far, has turned out to be fluff) that they missed out on the panel of the weekend. The man behind the current greatest cartoon in the world, Cul de Sac, came down to talk about his strip and new collection.

That’s Richard Thompson at right, the quiet genius of the comics world. What you can’t see is the massively empty hall in front of him. Fewer than 15 people were there, and that’s just a shame.

That complaint aside, it’s been a fun if relaxed con so far with plenty of interesting tid bits:

The DC presence was pretty tense. DiDio stayed pretty gruff throughout the State of the Industry panel and dodged moderator Tom Spurgeon’s questions about the past week at DC, marred by Chuck Dixon’s acrimonious exit. (more…)

It’s that day of the week again, folks — the one where I hastily cobble together a bunch of posts to run this weekend while hoping no one notices that I kicked off my own “Happy Hour” several hours earlier. Oh, and it’s also the day when I wrangle a few items of note for you to take notice of from the online side of the comics scene, too.

This week, the Penny Arcade duo notified readers that their corner of the InterWebs was recently named one of Time magazine’s “50 Greatest Websites of 2008.” You can also vote for which of the 50 sites is ranked #1 — so consider this some encouragement to stuff the holy heck out of that ballot. Go ahead and make your webcomic-reading vote count, choose or die, or just rock the vote. Whatever works.

Since it’s an Election Year here in the U.S., another item of note on the voting side of things: Not only did our very own EZ Street series wrap up its 38-issue run this week, but it was also nominated for a Harvey Award as “Best Online Comic.” Congratulations to creators Robert Tinnell and Mark Wheatley, who were recently interviewed by Scoop about the finale of the series and their future plans. Keep an eye out this week for a Q&A with the EZ Street team here on ComicMix.

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