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ItsJustSomeRandomGuy and ‘Hi, I’m a Marvel… and I’m a DC’ at NYCC

  • News
  • April 25, 2008

itsjustsomerandomguy01-3163960It started out so innocently. Michael Agrusso made a silly video for his girlfriend. He thought it was too funny not to share, so he created a YouTube account with the username ItsJustSomeRandomGuy — just in case someone decided to sue. So began the Internet sensation “I’m a Marvel… And I’m a DC”.

Fast-forward a bit and not only has he not been sued, but some of the companies he’s lampooned have featured him on their official sites. Next thing you know, he’s got his own panel at the New York Comic Con.

Agrusso began the Saturday panel with a confession: He forgot to buy his girlfriend and co-producer of the videos, ItsJustSomeRandomGal, an airline ticket. His girlfriend was kind enough to her regards via YouTube, however.

The video side of Agrusso’s presentation continued with a DC-centric promotional film the New York Comic Con had commissioned that was created but not released on the Internet at the request of DC. Let’s just say Wonder Woman got hit on at the convention a lot.

The filmmaker then he announced that the series that grew out of his initial efforts, Marvel/DC Happy Hour, wll be launching its second season — with actual sets, special effects and bigger storylines. Same silly jokes, though. The first two-part episode of Season Two is posted after the jump:

(more…)

Podcast Feud: iFanboy Vs CAGcast?

  • News
  • April 25, 2008

It’s happened to all of us at some point. As a comic book fan you attend a convention with hopes of making a personal connection with a creator or personality you admire. Then reality shatters your expectations when you find that he or she’s, well… sort of a jerk.

Wombat, the co-host of the popular Cheap Ass Gamer podcast (aka CAGcast), is a well-known comic book fan and has gone off-topic on his show many times to talk about comics. It’s no surprise that the New York CIty native was planning to attend the New York Comic Con. In past episodes of the show, he’s mentioned that he enjoyed the iFanboy video podcast. So what happens when he spotted them on the convention floor?

According to Wombat, after introducing himself to the iFanboy crew, they promptly gave him the cold shoulder. CheapyD, the other CAGcast co-host, made the segment into a wickedly funny Internet video.

 

 

At the end, Wombat reports that Josh from iFanboy apologized and no hard feelings are held on either side.

Wombat, ComicMix Radio promises to never slight you — because now we’ve seen what happens!

 

 

Happy Birthday: Peter Sanderson

  • News
  • April 25, 2008

Born in Milton, Massachusetts in 1952, Peter John Sanderson, Jr. is proof that an obsession for comic books and consistency can be made into a viable career.

Sanderson is a comic book critic and historian, as well as a teacher at New York University (NYU). He is best known for his work with both Marvel and DC, helping each of those companies catalog their characters and continuities. Sanderson’s first professional job in the comic book industry—he had written for comic fanzines in the early 1980s—was reading every comic book DC had published since 1935.

That research was instrumental for both Marv Wolfman’s Crisis on Infinite Earths and Len Wein’s Who’s Who in the DC Universe. Sanderson then moved to Marvel, becoming their archivist and assisting with the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. He also wrote the Marvel Saga and Wolverine Saga limited series.

Currently, he writes the online column “Comics in Context,” reviews for Publishers Weekly, and teaches at NYU.

Manga Friday: Shoulder-a-Coffin!

  • News
  • April 25, 2008

This week, Manga Friday applies its lazer-like eye to one and only one book – luckily, this one is weird and confusing enough for any five regular volumes…

Shoulder-a-Coffin Kuro, Vol. 1
By Satoko Kiyuduki
Yen Press, May 2008, $10.99

Shoulder-a-Coffin Kuro is one of the few manga series I’ve seen with extensive color: about a half-dozen times in the first half of this book, a story begins with at least two pages in full color. That slows down as the book goes on, so I suspect this is done in Japan to launch “big” new series with a splash.

(I should also note that this probably hasn’t quite hit stores yet — the publication date is officially "May," which means it’s probably on trucks whizzing across North America right now. And "May" covers quite a bit of time, too.)

And, for those of us who have managed to train our eyes to read manga “backwards,” and have gotten moderately adept at that, Kuro throws us another curveball: it’s in 4-koma (four panel) style, so each page reads straight down the right-hand column and then straight down the left-hand column…unless one of the top tiers has a panel stretching across the page, in which case I have to read all the panels several different ways before I’m sure how it’s meant to go. Your mileage may vary, but do expect at least a few pages for your eyeballs to reboot on the new operating system.

And then, once I’d figured out how to physically read Kuro, I still had to work out what was going on. And that wasn’t easy, either. Kuro is the girl on the cover – she’s dressed up like a boy, and talks like a boy — so says the explanation; this may be clearer in Japanese — and thus people tend to assume she’s male. She’s also carrying a coffin, and refuses to explain exactly why. (It’s more likely to be for her than for whatever she’s looking for, though — that much is clear.) (more…)

Frank Miller: Comics ‘Strip-Mined’ by Movies

  • News
  • April 25, 2008

The Los Angeles Times just had a story about the boom in comics-to-film. In a recent six-week stretch, some 22 comics properties were optioned, the paper reported.

That includes Locke & Key, the supernatural thriller by Joe Hill for IDW (cover at right). While this is great news for many and illustrates the growing popularity of comics, not everyone is looking at the boom with rose-colored glasses.

"It’s accelerating because right now it’s fashion," says Frank Miller, who created the graphic novels behind "Sin City" and "300," and whose early-’80s series "Ronin," about a reincarnated samurai battling evil in a futuristic New York, is being adapted by Joby Harold ("Awake") for Warner Bros. "I think we can expect it to calm down. Comic books have always been this vast mountain range that gets strip-mined and left behind."

The main point of the story, though, is that one reason so many comics are adapted is that comics and graphic novels are substantially easier to read than screenplays. Miller calls screenplays the "single [worst] story form" and "unreadable."

Interview: Paul Southworth on ‘Ugly Hill’

  • News
  • April 25, 2008

Paul Southworth’s webcomic Ugly Hill is about, well… monsters.

At least, that’s how he usually describes it.

If I were to describe it, I’d write that the five-day-a-week strip features a brightly colored cast of creatures who experience the trials and tribulations of life in a bleak, consumer-driven world not entirely unlike our own — except that it’s full of monsters. That’s how I’d describe it.

I’d also write that Ugly Hill is part of the Blank Label Comics collective, and at the end of the month, the multiple Web Cartoonists Choice Award-winning strip will celebrate its third year on the InterWebs.

Oh, and I’d also mention that Paul Southworth recently became a new daddy.

But the thing is, I don’t want to put words in his mouth, so I’ll just let the following interview I conducted with Paul explain everything about his wildly successful webcomic.

COMICMIX: First off, congratulations on the new addition to the family! What’s your schedule like these days?

PAUL SOUTHWORTH: Rigorous. I thought I was busy before, but it turns out I was living a life of spoiled luxury, concerned only for myself and my own ridiculous pursuits. Now my life is consumed with filling bottles, mixing just the right amount of orange mush with just the right amount of pale green mush, and having long, detailed conversations about the size, frequency, and consistency of another human being’s feces. Somewhere in there I manage to work a day job for nine hours and draw a comic strip on the side.

To be fair, sometimes I can draw and hold a conversation about human waste simultaneously, but only when I’m pressed for time.

CMix: Well, I’ll try to keep this short, then. How did you prepare for keeping the strip active when the baby came home?

PS: I always try to keep at least 2-3 weeks ahead of publication. When I started the strip, I was six weeks ahead, but I squandered that away somehow.

So I just tried to work ahead as much as possible. I was also able to line up two weeks’ worth of wonderful guest artists to fill in for me directly after the birth, which was so helpful. I don’t think there has been a time in my life that I have thought less about drawing than those 3 or 4 panicky weeks after my son was born, so not having to worry too much about it was a blessing. Otherwise, after the guest strips had run their course and my buffer had dwindled, I didn’t know what I was going to do. I’m sure glad it worked out, though! (more…)

Send In The Clowns, by Michael Davis

  • News
  • April 25, 2008

Last week I was in New York for just 24 hours. I flew in to do my Black Panel at the New York Comic Con and meet with Mike Gold about another project I’m doing for ComicMix. The week before I was suffering from a series of migraine headaches and got on the plane with the full knowledge that I could have a relapse. THEN Jet Blue lost the only bag I checked. That bag happened to be what I needed for a meeting with Mike and another meeting I was having. So with all that in mind I was not expecting the best of times. In fact I was thinking the trip was a mistake.

So I was not in the greatest of moods when I got to the con. THEN I had an impromptu

meeting with Mike Richardson, which turned into great news! THEN I meet with Mike Gold and that meeting was great even without the stuff I wanted him to see that was in the bag that Jet Blue lost. THEN I talked to Dwayne McDuffie and got some more good news from him about a project we are planning! THEN, the Black Panel was great fun. THEN I had dinner with ComicMix’s Media Goddess Martha Thomas and she introduced me to TWO great writers that I hope to work with in the future.

THEN, I was sharing some more good news with my best friend Denys Cowan. As head of BET Animation, a division of Black Entertainment Television (BET), he announced production on The Black Panther animated series, which is really cool.

So, I was feeling pretty darn good when I flew back to L.A.

THEN I met this guy…  (more…)

Marvel Interactive on Iron Man and Hulk: New Deal For Comic Book Videogames?

  • News
  • April 24, 2008

Comic book and videogame fanboys freaked out a little recently when the news broke that Sega would be handling Marvel’s movie-based games. After years of bad Marvel Comics videogames, Activision turned out solid hits that satisfied the mainstream and comic fans alike, such as Spider-Man and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. While the Activision partnership continues, the New York Comic Con panel Marvel – Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk: Making the Video Games emphasized that Marvel themselves were taking a greater hand in game creation.

Justin Lambros, VP of Marvel Interactive, operates out of the same West Coast office as Marvel Studios. The philosophy is that his division can oversee the partners, and with their studio ties they can improve the process by increasing development times, granting access to movie assets earlier, speeding approvals and allow for movie talent participation. They can also relate to the studios what the limitations are of the current systems.

It’s an interesting idea that brings to mind the ’90s buzzword "synergy," but in this case it seems to be making good on its promises. As mentioned in earlier articles, the Iron Man movie-based game producers were granted access to the CGI models for the armor much earlier then usual. Iron Man game director Jeffrey Tseng said that meeting the cast while doing the voices made a difference.

"Robert Downey gave us insights into the character," said Tseng — something they wouldn’t have received with sound-alike voice actors. Also, the action figures for the Iron Man and Incredible Hulk movies will feature characters only seen in the videogame adaptation. (more…)

Happy Birthday: Howie Schneider

  • News
  • April 24, 2008

Born in the Bronx, NY in 1930, Howie Schneider is best remembered for Eek & Meek, the comic about two mice (later two men) he created for the Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA) in 1965 and ran for 35 years.

Schneider also published several cartoon books, wrote a daily cartoon called Unschucked for the Provincetown Banner after he moved there in the mid-1970s, and in 2003 launched a new daily syndicated strip, The Sunshine Club. Schneider served on the Newspaper Features Council board for 20 years, and on the National Cartoonists Society board for eight.

He won the New England Press Association award for Best Editorial Cartoon twice. Schneider died in 2007 from complications after heart surgery.

Comicspace/Webcomics Nation Merger: The Interview

  • News
  • April 24, 2008

Gary Tyrrell of the popular webcomics blog Fleen doesn’t do a lot of interviews, so when he does have the opportunity to do one, he makes it count. Case in point: His recent conversation with Webcomics Nation founder Joey Manley and John Boeck, one of the primary investors in comics-focused social networking site ComicSpace, on the recent merger of the two online entities.

While much of the discussion focuses on the pair’s plan for the two projects and how the new union could fit into the greater webcomics scene, it’s an interesting read for anyone of the industry-watching mindset. The duo claim that comics publishing isn’t one of their goals, but instead they’re setting plans in motion to "allow the artist to delegate the secondary tasks that aren’t writing and drawing, and to pay a fair fee for those services, not to have to give up the IP in exchange for those services."

Intriguing it is, yes…

My favorite part of the interview, however, has to be Manley’s explanation of what attracted him to Boeck and his investment group, E-Line Ventures:

Theirs was the first proposal that didn’t skeeve us out. They didn’t want to just write a check, they wanted to work with us — they’re teaching us, they’re not out to steal the IP.

Head over to Fleen for the full interview.

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