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Wizard Entertainment HQ For Sale: Comics Not Included

To be filed under "Talk Amongst Yourselves," we were recently sent a link to a Century 21 ad for a property located in Congers, NY, that piqued our interest. Apparently, the office of Wizard Entertainment, publisher of Wizard Magazine, is being shopped around for potential buyers.

According to the ad, the owners of the property (Wizard Entertainment) are looking for $4 million in exchange for the 35,000 square-foot property. Although we’re not sure what to infer about this aspect of the posting:

Owner would prefer to deliver building vacant but would be agreeable to a lease back 60-100% of office/warehous [sic] space.

When asked for comment on the posting, a representative of Wizard identified only as "Ed" said that the publisher was simply "checking our business options."

Additionally, when asked about the company’s plans should the building find a new owner, the Wizard representative responded, "We may not go anywhere. We may sell the building and stay as a tenant. We may sell the building and move across the street."

Neither Century 21 nor representatives at Wizard would offer any further comment on the sale or its implications for the publisher.

What we really want to know, though, is whether the pricetag includes that warehouse full of comics seen in the ad. Maybe there are a few good issues of Captain America hidden in there.

Happy Birthday: Chemical King

Most members of the Legion of Super-Heroes have the same powers as the rest of their people, but some are unique. Condo Arlik was one of the latter. The people on Phlon had no innate powers, but Condo was born with the ability to alter the speed of chemical reactions, causing them to happen as quickly or as slowly as he wants.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t control his power, and so from birth Condo was isolated to protect others. He was also taught chemistry right away, in an attempt to help him gain control. Even so, it was not until Lyle Norg (Invisible Kid) stepped in that Condo, by then a teenager, was able to interact normally with others.

With Lyle’s help Condo learned to finally control his powers, and he immediately applied to and was accepted into the Legion Academy.

Condo, known now as Chemical King, was an excellent student and while still there, was asked to infiltrate the Legion of Super-Villains, since as a trainee he was unknown to them. He and his classmate Timber Wolf were successful in their mission and afterward graduated to full Legionnaire status. Sadly, Chemical King became depressed after Lyle died, and a short while later Condo sacrificed himself to prevent World War VII. A commemorative statue of him stands in the Legion’s Hall of Dead Legionnaires.

Doctor Who in Review: Season Four, Episode #2 – Hot Prophecies

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, 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 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 reading our review.

Missed a week? Readers can view past "Doctor Who in Review" features via the links at the end of this article.

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 #2: "The Fires of Pompeii" (more…)

Update: ‘Iron Man 2’ Likely Thanks to Box Office Reports

Following up on the previous story that Iron Man placed 14th in the "highest grossing opening day," reports are now coming in that Marvel Studios’ first production brought in an estimated $104 million since Thursday here in the states and an estimated $96 million overseas.

This ranks Iron Man as the 10th highest grossing film on opening weekend, and easily the highest-grossing film for 2008 thus far. The film also produced the fourth highest-grossing opening weekend ever for a superhero movie.

This will no doubt provide the go-ahead for the proposed sequel, getting Robert Downey Jr. back into the suit in around five months for an expected May 2010 release.

We’ll be tracking the box office numbers for all of the big comics-related films this summer, so check back here at ComicMix for more to come!

 

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Battlestar Galactica Interview: Mark Verheiden on Deleted Scenes and Cylon Love

Welcome to the latest installment of Battlestar Galactica Weekly, our recurring Q&A with Mark Verheiden, co-executive producer of the hit Sci-Fi Channel series Battlestar Galactica. Each week, we’ll interview Verheiden about the events of the week’s episode, what those events might mean for both the season and the series, and hopefully unearth some clues about what to expect as the final season of Battlestar Galactica nears its conclusion.

Along with posing our own questions to Verheiden, we’re also taking questions from fans — so be sure to send your questions to me, your official BSG Weekly interviewer, after each episode airs at chris [at] comicmix [dot] com. New episodes of Battlestar Galactica can be seen every Friday at 10 PM EST on Sci-Fi Channel. You can view previous interviews via the links at the end of this article.

This week, Verheiden answers questions about the fifth episode of Season Four, “The Road Less Traveled,” which aired May 2, 2008. Note: These answers may contain spoilers, so read at your own risk.

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COMICMIX (from reader Cal): Was this an episode written before or after the writer’s strike? If after, what was changed in it, if anything, after you guys came back?

MARK VERHEIDEN: That’s a little later. The first 13 episodes of Season Four (counting Razor as two episodes) were all written and produced before the strike.

CMix (from reader Anthony): It seems Tyrol realizes Cally was murdered. Does he suspect Tory? It looks as if he might.

MV: Tyrol’s still trying to work through Cally’s death, which just doesn’t make sense to him. Suicide can be extremely problematic for the loved ones left behind, and the ex-Chief is no exception. That said, I’m not sure Tyrol intuits suspicion specifically toward Tory, but something sure doesn’t add up…

CMix (from reader Lisa): Tyrol seems to really reverse himself after Baltar comes to see him. He even offers his hand. What made him change his mind about Baltar? (more…)

Video: Iron Man and Batman in ‘Hi, I’m a Marvel… and I’m a DC’

A little while ago, we told you about the "ItsJustSomeRandomGuy" panel at New York Comic Con featuring the popular YouTube filmmaker and his series of action-figure films based on Marvel and DC characters.

Late last week, his latest film hit the InterWebs — just in time for the debut of Iron Man in theaters (you can read the ComicMix reviews of the film here and here). While RandomGuy’s series has been sort of hit-or-miss for me up to this point, this one’s a keeper.

This time around, Iron Man and Batman address some of the similarities between their origins and their upcoming films.

 


 

On a side note, here’s hoping ItsJustSomeRandomGuy can finally replace that weird "Thorbuster" Iron Man figure now that Ol’ Shellhead has line of movie-based figures hitting shelves.

Name Dropping, by Mike Gold

I’ve been around the northeast quadrant a bit since the New York show a few weeks ago and I’ve seen a lot of people. Good people, old friends, new collaborators, strange and unusual folks. That’s what my life’s about, and I’m proud of that.

I enjoy going to the Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention. Compared with, say, the mass of hustling humanity at comics shows in New York, San Diego or on WizardWorld, the Windy City show is like a weekend at the spa. Anthony Tollin was there along with his latest Shadow and Doc Savage trade paperbacks; we talk about them here all the time. I was able to have a solid conversation with frequent ComicMix commentator Russ Maharas, I got to go over the next Simone and Ajax plot with Andrew Pepoy for a bit, FOC (that’s “friend of ComicMix”) George Hagenauer gave Adriane Nash a swell history lesson on 1950s pin-up art, Rob Davis and Ron Fortier told me about a new project that fascinated the hell out of me, and I had the chance to talk with master cartoonist Jim Engel once again.

The next day we had lunch and dinner with FOCs Charlie Meyerson and his wife Pam (Charlie of Chicago Tribune fame; Pam’s a lawyer and bon vivant) and Rick Oliver and his wife Jade (Honest Rick of First Comics, Jade was a swell comics colorist). George, Charlie and Rick have given us a lot of advice and opinion ever since ComicMix was just a gleam in our eye – Rick is a major commenter in these precincts – and the whole bundle of ‘em are brilliant conversationalists.

Since the best thing to do in Chicago is eat until you burst, we were particularly fond of our dinner with the aforementioned Mr. Pepoy, Simone and Ajax colorist Jason Millet, Hilary Barta (Munden’s Bar, The Simpsons, The Thing, Power Pack, New Mutants, Alan Moore’s Tomorrow Stories), and writer / professor Len Strazewski (Prime, Justice Society, The Fly, Starman, Phantom Lady). Sort of like the fabled Algonquin round table, but a lot more snarky. (more…)

Weekend Window-Closing Wrap-up

A bunch of things that have been open on my browser, but may not deserve a full post of their own…

  • I have no idea where this Power Girl image came from, but I’m thinking that there’s a fan film out there that I don’t know about. Can anybody help me out?
  • Digital drawing tutorials in a Lackadaisical style.
  • Bobby Crosby says it really wasn’t an April Fool’s joke: Last Blood, a story about vampires protecting the last humans on Earth from zombies, is being adapted for the screen.
  • Finally, you can scan your comics without cracking the spine! As somebody who occasionally has to do this when we don’t have the original film to reproduce from, this is a godsend. Now if only somebody had a cheap tabloid scanner for the Mac…
  • Neil Gaiman gets around– here’s an article by Yvette Tan about meeting him in a Phillipine magazine.
  • The ten sexiest cartoon women…? Uh, not quite. No animated Zatanna? (Might be NSFW, depending on your workplace.)
  • Ian Gibson! (For you young ones in the audience, he did Secret Invasion 20 years ago for DC.)
  • One of these panelists is not like the others… one’s wearing a hat.
  • Dan Grauman?
  • And finally, the comic movie premiere we were all waiting for this weekend– Super Ninja Bikini Babes! …what, there was another comic book movie premiering this weekend?

ComicMix Columns for the Week Ending May 4, 2008

Hope you all had a great Free Comic Book Day!  Here at ComicMix, of course, every day is free comics day, with all our new original graphic material!  But don’t forget the original material from our columnists as well; here’s what we’ve had for you this past week:

And while every ComicMix reader with disposable income has probably already seen Iron Man, I have a date later on with my ironing board… that’s sort of the same thing, right?

Box Office Report For ‘Iron Man’ Could Mean Sequel

It was an auspicious start for the Metal Marvel Hero, as Iron Man grossed an estimated $5.5 million at around 2,500 theaters during its Thursday night previews and made an estimated $32.5 million at 4,105 theaters on Friday, making it the 14th highest-grossing opening day on record. (You can read the ComicMix reviews of the film here and here.)

The Friday gross was comparable to X2: X-Men United, which debuted May 2 five years ago, bringing in $31.2.

Paramount big-wig Brad Grey went on record last week by saying that as long as the flick does "as well as expected", the studio wants to get a sequel in theaters for the same May weekend in 2010 — and with numbers like these, that could be more realistic than we imagined.

While this is actually a Marvel Studios-produced film, with Paramount distributing, it’s no surprise after these numbers that they will be rushing to get Downey Jr. back in the red-and-gold ASAP. Director Jon Favreau has already stated that he planned a loose structure for three movies, with the Mandarin presumably making an appearance somewhere down the line.

Keep your eye on ComicMix for more updates on how the first big blockbuster of the summer does in the box office!

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