Mekhi Phifer to Star in ‘Hunter’s Moon’ Film

News
April 28, 2008

Mekhi Phifer, who stars in ER, has signed on to appear in an upcoming comic movie adaptation, according to Reuters.

Phifer will take the lead role in Hunter’s Moon, which originally appeared as a five-issue series that came out last year. It features a father and son who go on a hunting trip to a rural area and become framed in a theft.

The series, which also touches on racial issues, was written by James L. White. White wrote the screenplay for Ray, the biopic of Ray Charles. No word if he’s adapting the script on Hunter’s Moon.

Hunter’s Moon was published by BOOM! Studios, which is producing the film.

Doctor Who in Review: Season Four, Episode #1 – New Companions, Old Feelings

Reviews
April 28, 2008

The hit BBC series Doctor Who kicked off its fourth season on the Sci-Fi Channel this weekend, so there’s no better time than the present to kick off an episode-by-episode analysis of the reinvigorated science-fiction classic here on ComicMix.

Every week, we’ll have our best Who-philes go through the most recent episode with a fine-tooth comb (or whatever the "sonic screwdriver" equivalent might be) and call out all of the continuity checks, names dropped and storyline hints we can find to keep in mind for future episodes. We’ll post our analysis the following Monday, so you have ample time to check out the episode when it airs each Saturday at 9 PM EST on Sci-Fi Channel.

Keep in mind, we’re going to assume readers have already watched the episode when we put fingers to keyboard and come up with our roundup of important plot points. In other words, SPOILER ALERT!

Let’s begin now, shall we?

Season Four, Episode #1: "Partners in Crime" (more…)

Del Close Close Up, by Mike Gold

News
April 28, 2008

Well, it’s about time.

Author Kim Howard Johnson, former comics newsman (the late, lamented Comics Scene), occasional comic book writer (Superman: True Brit, with John Cleese and John Byrne), and frequent ComicMix commenter, has written the definitive biography of his mentor, collaborator and friend, comedy legend Del Close.

It’s called The Funniest One In The Room: The Lives and Legends of Del Close (Chicago Review Press, $24.95), and I’ll admit right off it’s impossible for me to not absolutely love a book in which I am mentioned in the second paragraph. I could have titled this column “Me and My Ego” but, no, this one’s about Del’s ego.

Comics fans may be familiar with Del’s work in collaboration with John Ostrander on Munden’s Bar during its original First Comics run, and/or their work together on the even-more-over-the-top Wasteland, the one we did at DC Comics. In fact, it was Del who suggested the title.

Students of American cultural history know Del as a Shakespearean actor who also performed on television and in movies and plays by Steve Martin, Jules Feiffer, William Saroyan, Judge Julius Hoffman, and Kaufman and Hart. But he is best known for his work as a director, teacher and mentor to – to name but a very, very few – John and Jim Belushi; Brian Doyle, Joel, and Bill Murray; Howard Hessman; Rob Reiner; Joe Flaherty; Harold Ramis; Betty Thomas; George Wendt; Tim Kazurinsky; John Candy; Chris Farley. Tim Meadows; Andy Richter; Stephen Colbert; Steve Carell; Kim Yale… and literally hundreds more. Oh, yeah… he was also rehearsal director of Saturday Night Live for a couple years and he created the format for SCTV. (more…)

ComicMix Columns for the Week Ending April 28, 2008

News
April 27, 2008

Last weekend’s New York Comic Con affected ComicMix columnists in different ways, with Michael, Martha and myself all musing about the con experience (and Dennis and John discussing other events of note from that same weekend). Here’s what we’ve written for you this past week:

Mike Gold – Whizzy’s Wazoo #63: Superman Blue…Archie Orange
Dennis O’Neill – The Four-Color Answer #62: The Holy See in NYC
Me – It’s All Good #62: We Become What We Deserve to Be
John Ostrander – Tales From The O-zone #63: 59
Michael Davis – Straight, No Chaser #63: Send in the Clowns
Andrew Wheeler – Manga Friday #26: Shoulder-a-Coffin!
Martha Thomases – Brilliant Disguise #54: Convention Queen for a Day
Michael H. Price – Forgotten Horrors #54: Amos ‘n’ Andy ‘n’ Independents (sic)

Michael’s column totally wins for "best byline" this week.. He probably wins for "best comment thread," too.

Happy Birthday: Russell T. Davies

News
April 27, 2008

Born in Swansea, Wales in 1963, Russell T. Davies was immediately entered in academia—his father Vivian taught Classics and his mother Barbara taught French. Davies attended Olchfa Comprehensive School in Swansea and was a member of the West Glamorgan Youth Theatre.

He graduated Worcester College, Oxford in 1984 with a degree in English literature and turned to the theatre but soon left to work for BBC television. Davies started as a floor manager and then graduated to production assistant, but in the late 1980s he took the BBC’s directors training course. From 1988 to 1992 he produced children’s shows for BBC Manchester, and began writing for that division as well.

In 1991 Davies wrote his first television drama, Dark Season. Two years later he wrote Century Falls, technically a children’s show but dark enough that Davies realized he was better suited for adult programming. In 1992 he moved to Granada Television, producing and writing their children’s hospital drama Children’s Ward. He also began writing for several of Granada’s adult shows.

In the late ’90s Davies left Granada for Red Productions and created Queer as Folk and several other shows. He returned to the BBC in 2003 when they offered him his dream job, helming the revival of the long-running science-fiction series Doctor Who.

Since then, Davies has produced and often written not only Doctor Who but also two spin-off shows, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures—he can be reasonably credited with introducing a new generation and much of the world to the adventuring Time Lord and his companions and friends.

Michael Chabon, Guillermo del Toro Among Nebula Award Winners

Uncategorized
April 27, 2008

The Science-Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America announced their annual Nebula Award winners this weekend in Austin, TX. The non-profit association honors writers of speculative fiction each year with the awards, and this year’s list of winners included some familiar names and series to fans of comics and science-fiction/fantasy:

Novel: The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon

Novella: "Fountain of Age" by Nancy Kress

Novelette: "The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate" by Ted Chiang

Short Story: "Always" by Karen Joy Fowler

Script: Pan’s Labyrinth by Guillermo del Toro

Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling

The group also held its annual election, which I probably wouldn’t report on here were it not for some of the intriguing write-in candidates for the positions. Spiro Agnew as Vice President, eh?

‘Iron Man’ Premieres Thursday at 8 PM

News
April 27, 2008

Hooray, hooray, the first of May; outdoor– er, Iron Man begins today!

Paramount is planning to open Iron Man at 8:00 PM on Thursday, May 1, instead of one minute past midnight on May 2nd as originally planned. The studio is apparently hoping that great word-of-mouth will help boost box-office business for the weekend.

Early buzz has been strong, let’s see how big a weekend it’s going to be, shall we? Place your bets in the comment section. I’m starting with $115 million for the first four days.

Amos ‘n’ Andy ‘n’ Independents (sic), by Michael H. Price

News
April 27, 2008

andycalhoun-9466253 An earlier installment of this column had examined a 1931 gorillas-at-large movie called Ingagi as an unlikely long-term influence upon the popular culture as a class. Ingagi, a chump-change production built largely around misappropriated African-safari footage and staged mock-jungle sequences, tapped a popular fascination with apes as a class even as it fostered a generalized anti-enlightenment toward natural history and racial politics.

Strange, then, that the film should have inspired a sequel (unofficial, of course, and certainly in-name-only) from a resolutely Afrocentric sector of the motion-picture industry. The production resources behind 1940’s Son of Ingagi stem from white-capitalist niche-market corporate interests – but the screenwriter and star player, and his supporting ensemble cast, all represent a trailblazing movement in black independent cinema.

From momentum that he had developed beginning with Son of Ingagi at Alfred Sack’s Texas-based Sack Amusement Enterprises, Spencer Williams, Jr., attained recognition that would lead him to a role-of-a-lifetime breakthrough in 1950, with his casting as Andrew Brown on a CBS-Television adaptation of a long-running radio serial called Amos ’n’ Andy. Though created by white-guy talents Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, Amos ’n’ Andy needed black artists for its on-screen representation. (Gosden and Correll had gotten away with blackface portrayals in 1930’s Check and Double Check – the tactic would not have borne repeating by 1950.) The partners hired a pioneering showman of the pre-Depression Harlem Renaissance period, Flournoy E. Miller, as casting director for the CBS-teevee project, and Miller came through with such memorable presences as Williams, Tim Moore as George “Kingfish” Stevens and Alvin Childress as Amos Jones, Andy Brown’s business partner. (more…)

Happy Birthday: Donna Troy

Uncategorized
April 26, 2008

donnatroy-2175297 Donna Hinckley Stacey Troy has had as many different origins as any other DC hero, but unlike the rest she currently remembers all of them.

In her original origin, Donna was an orphan (her parents were killed in a fire) who had been saved by Wonder Woman and taken to Paradise Island, where the Amazons used the mysterious Purple Ray to grant her Amazonian powers. Donna then joined several other junior heroes to form their own super-team, the Teen Titans—she took the name "Wonder Girl," which until she adopted the alias “Donna Troy,” was her only name.

As Wonder Girl, Donna became a well-known figure in the DC Universe. Many years later, she was recast as Troia, champion of the mythic Titans. She later gave up her powers to become human, marry, and have a son, but years later (and after losing her husband and son in a car accident), regretted her decision. When the Titans refused to take her back, Donna became a Darkstar instead.

After leaving that group, Donna discovered she was actually a magical duplicate of Diana, the true Wonder Woman, and regained her powers before being acknowledged by Queen Hippolyta as a true Amazon princess. Since then Donna has discovered the existence of the Multiverse and the fact that she is the only person to remember all of her changing origins. As such, she has become the key to nurturing and protecting the new Multiverse.

ComicMix Radio: Grab Your Video Camera and Live The Dream!

Podcasts
April 26, 2008

Thomas Edison did it, Stephen Spielberg did, too. And following in those traditions is filmmaker Shane Felux, who turned a maxed-out credit card into an Internet film phenomenon. Now, he is producing an ABC-backed, sci-fi thriller just for the web, and we have the story , plus:

— Amanda Conner returns to Power Girl

— Gears Of War hits the table top

— And just when you thought you had seen all the lists, how about "The Most Awful Songs From Geek Movie Soundtracks." Get ready to have your head filled with stuff you won’t clear out until Monday!

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