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Dunkin’ Nonsense, by Mike Gold

Sorry. I won’t even try to tie this week’s column into comics. Or into Rachael Ray, for that matter. It’s about fear and bigotry and other concepts that have been washing over America repeatedly these last few years.

There was a guy who worked at the Mobil station about a half-mile down the road from me. His name was Muhammad. It said so on his nametag. On 9-12-01, he looked like the most scared man I ever met. By the next time I was at the gas station, his nametag had undergone a rewrite. He was now “Michael.” At least in public.

I know a couple kids with an Egyptian last name. Prior to 9-11-01, they were quite little. After 9-11-01, they grew up pretty fast. That’s what happens when your schoolmates hold you and your Egyptian last name responsible for the deaths of some 3,000 people (we like to say “3,000 Americans, but that’s not the truth). Kids can be vicious, but they’ve got to learn that type of bigotry somewhere.

Last week, for example, kids could learn how to be fear-mongers and bigots from our friends at your friendly neighborhood Dunkin’ Donuts. In case you haven’t been near the media, or in case you’ve been totally fixated on Hillary Clinton’s attempt to ape George W. Bush’s 2000 election theft, here’s the story.

Professional celebrity Rachael Ray did an ad for Dunkin’ Donuts. In this ad, she wore a scarf. This scarf sorta, kinda looked like a keffiyeh. That’s a rather traditional clothing item worn by Arabian men – Rachel Ray is not an Arabian man – of all political persuasions. Pro-America, anti-America, and anything else that might matter to the Lunatic Right and one of their prime screamers, columnist / broadcaster Michelle Malkin. If the name rings a bell and you’re up on asinine outrage, Ms. Malkin is an American of Asian descent who wrote the book In Defense of Internment: The Case for ‘Racial Profiling’ in World War II and the War on Terror. Now don’t get upset; it’s okay, she can say that because she’s Asian. Well, she’s Philadelphia-American, but of Asian descent. So if you think she’s being politically incorrect, you’re wrong. She’s farting in the swimming pool, but she’s not politically incorrect. (more…)

Happy Birthday: Carter Hall

flash-comics-091-6295107Carter Hall was an American archaeologist with a particular interest in Egyptian history and relics. He was on a dig in 1940 when he discovered an ancient knife that the priest Hath-Set had used to murder Prince Khufu and his royal consort Chay-ara. Upon touching the knife Hall gained the memories of Khufu, discovering that he was the ancient prince reincarnated. Hall used the rare Nth metal to create a belt that allowed him to fly, and then crafted a winged costume so that he could confront Hath-Set’s reincarnation, Anton Hastor, as Hawkman.

Hall also encountered a woman named Shiera Saunders and recognized her as his reincarnated love Chay-ara. Hall became a member of the Justice Society of America and later its chairman. Shiera joined the team as well, using an Nth metal belt and wings of her own and adopting the guise of Hawkgirl. They put away their costumes for much of the 1950s after refusing to divulge their true identities to the Join Congressional Un-American Activities Committee, but returned in the early 1960s and restore the JSA to active duty. Hall and Saunders married and had a son, Hector Hall, who would become a hero in his own right years later. Ultimately Hall’s soul and consciousness merged with that of Shiera, his successor Katar Hol, and the hawk god, but the merge caused Hall to lose his sanity and his friends were forced to banish him to limbo. Years later he was restored to life by Thanagarian priests, and eventually returned to Earth and to the JSA.

ComicMix Columns for the Week Ending June 1, 2008

As readers doubtless have noticed, we’ve been adding a lot of regular features to ComicMix in addition to our columnists.  So it’s time to add Van’s Weekly Haul comic reviews to our rotation!  Here’s what we’ve done for you this past week:

In addition, here’s the listing of all the ComicMix Six fun we’ve come up with so far:

  1. April 2: Alan Kistler – Worst Moments in Skrull ‘Invasion’ History
  2. April 9: Alan Kistler – Why Marvel’s ‘Secret Wars’ Was Better Than ‘Civil War’
  3. April 17: Martha Thomases – Top Political Campaigns in Comics
  4. April 24: Alan Kistler – The Worst Superhero Names in Comics
  5. May 6: Chris Ullrich – The Worst Movies Adapted from Comic Books
  6. May 14: Alan Kistler – The Worst Supervillain Names in Comics
  7. May 21: Chris Ullrich – The Best Movies Adapted from Comic Books
  8. May 28: Martha Thomases – Biggest Tease in Comics (Male)

And with that, we bid our numbering goodbye!  Next week we’ll start adding in our Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica reviews (from Rick Marshall and Chris Ullrich respectively) to the roundup…

The Simpsons Meet Dragonball?

To be filed under "I Don’t Know Where It Came From But I Like It," this image of characters from the popular Dragonball anime and manga series (and upcoming live-action film) drawn up a la The Simpsons recently popped up on the InterWebs.

While it’s safe to assume Simpsons creator Matt Groenig had no hand in the creation of this piece, it’s nice to see that the "Simpsonizing" thing is still going strong.

I’ve posted a larger version of the image after the jump.

Oh, and read our past coverage of the Dragonball live-action film here. (more…)

EZ Street: The Soundtrack

Comics pro Mark Wheatley is already known for his work on series like Breathtaker, Frankenstein Mobster and his current ongoing series EZ Street here on ComicMix, but many readers might not be as familiar with Wheatley’s other creative outlet: music.

The talented writer/artist recently directed me to a batch of songs he’s written (and in most cases, performed all by his lonesome), including the theme song to his Insight Studios series Radical Dreamer and both a theme song and songlist for several episodes of EZ Street.

According to Wheatley, the theme song for EZ Street recently climbed as high as #25 in the Top 100 (of more than 13,000) Progressive Rock songs on SoundClick, the musician site hosting the tracks.

You can listen to EZ Street by pressing the "Play" button on the widget below:

 

 

You can also view the rest of Wheatley’s songs on SoundClick by clicking here, and if you’re interested in pairing the music with a few episodes of the series that inspired them, visit our EZ Street archive found here.

For those interested in the lyrics to the EZ Street theme song, Wheatley has provided them after the jump: (more…)

detour-lobby-card-6176778

An Unprecedented Perspective on Edgar G. Ulmer, by Michael H. Price

detour-lobby-card-6176778I had mentioned Edgar G. Ulmer, the Grey Eminence of Old Hollywood’s Poverty Row sector, in last week’s column, attempting to draw a thematic similarity between Ulmer’s most vivid example of low-budget film noir, 1945’s Detour, and a newly opening picture called Stuck, from the dramatist-turned-filmmaker Stuart Gordon. The cause-and-effect response here was an urge to take a fresh look at Detour. Right about that time, the mail brought a copy of Gary D. Rhodes’ new book, Edgar G. Ulmer: Detour on Poverty Row (Lexington Books; $85).

Gary Rhodes is a colleague of long standing, a filmmaker, educator and journalist whose work has intersected with mine on several fronts. Such Rhodes volumes as White Zombie: Anatomy of a Horror Film and Horror at the Drive-In relate strategically to the Forgotten Horrors books that George E. Turner and I originated during the 1970s, and Gary and I have long acknowledged a shared interest in Ulmer (1904-1972) as a talent essential to any understanding of maverick moviemaking.

With Edgar G. Ulmer: Detour on Poverty Row, Rhodes takes that interest to an unprecedented extent. Editor Rhodes and a well-chosen crew of contributing writers consider Ulmer in light of not only his breakthrough film, 1934’s The Black Cat at big-time Universal Pictures, or such finery-on-a-budget exercises as Bluebeard (1944) and Detour (1945), but also Ulmer’s tangled path through such arenas as sex-hygiene exploitation films (1933’s Damaged Lives), Yiddish-language pieces (1937’s Green Fields), well-financed symphonic soap opera (1947’s Carnegie Hall), and ostensible schlock for the drive-in theatres (1957’s Daughter of Dr. Jekyll).

(more…)

Happy Birthday: Dean Haspiel

Born in 1967 in New York City, Dean Edmund Haspiel started in the comics industry as an assistant to such luminaries as Howard Chaykin, Bill Sienkiewicz, and Walter Simonson. In 1987 Haspiel created The Verdict with Martin Powell. He also created the two-man comics anthology Keyhole with Josh Neufeld. In 2006 Haspiel created the online comics studio ACT-I-VATE with several others, and began serializing the Billy Dogma Trilogy there. He was also a founding member of DEEP6 Studios. Haspiel worked on The Escapist with Michael Chabon, Brawl with Michel Fiffe in 2007 and The Alcoholic with Jonathan Ames in 2008 but is probably best known for his work on The Quitter and American Splendor with Harvey Pekar.

Currently he edits the comix anthology Next-Door Neighbor at Smithmag.net, produces more Billy Dogma stories at ACT-I-VATE, and has a new wecomic, Street Code, coming soon from Zudacomics.com.  Haspiel was nominated for an Eisner in 2002 and an Ignatz in 2003.

ComicMix Radio: Next On Deck – The Incredible Hulk!

Direct from Book Expo 2008 in LA, one of the biggest questions on the floor actually involves The Incredible Hulk movie set to open in just under two weeks. Will Marvel Studios hit another homer or end up batting .500 at the end of the summer? We begin our coverage with a frank talk with the movie’s producer, Gale Anne Hurd, plus:

  • More on Devil’s Due Publishing and a preview of their newest series
  • Disney gets back into comics

  • Clear the bookshelves for some amazing works from Joe Simon

And we manage to do a Hulk story without a reference to Lou Ferrigno – honest? Press the button and you’ll see!

 

 

 And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via badgeitunes61x15dark-9325221 or RSS!

 

Marvel Offices Art Tour

Over at Marvel.com, the publisher’s "Spy in the House" blogger Agent M recently posted the first in what he says will be an ongoing series of photos from around the company’s Manhattan office, spotlighting the art on display.

For the first piece of art, he’s posted a photo of an Iron Man print, of course:

But this image by the legendary French artist Moebius (Jean Giraud) blows my mind every time I see it. It’s weird, creepy, super-detailed and alien and I love. I don’t know if it’s just a poster/pin-up or it was actually published in a comic, but there are a few other Moebius Marvel posters out there in this style (that we don’t have here, as far as I know) and I still dig this one the most.

Like Agent M, I’ve never been a big fan of Iron Man, but I’m equally impressed with this piece of art. Here’s hoping he continues this series. I’d love to see a few more pieces like this from around the Merry Marvel HQ.

Check out the full post on Marvel.com. I’ve posted a larger version of the image after the jump. (more…)

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