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59, by John Ostrander

  • News
  • April 24, 2008

Numbers represent. They don’t really mean.

Any meaning associated with numbers – or words for that matter – are what we assign to them. My social security number identifies me to the government but it’s not who I am. It has importance, yes, and if unscrupulous people get a hold of it, it can have a terrible impact on my life. It is not, however, my life. The finger pointing at the moon is not the moon. The road map is not itself the road.

I turned 59 last Sunday and I’ve asked myself “What does that mean? Am I different in any essential way than I was on Saturday?” No. “Do birthdays have meanings?” If we give them some – yes. I like to celebrate the birthdays of those close to me more than I like to celebrate my own. I celebrate the fact that they were born, that they entered this world, and I get to be a part of their lives. I don’t dislike my birthday; I don’t have a problem with having one. I am thankful for the thoughts and good wishes expressed and any excuse to have a double chocolate cake is a good one.

The real use to me of my birthday these days is a bit more meditative. The number 59 has meaning in context with numbers 1 to 58. They are mileposts in my journey thus far. Milepost thirty-three – my first published comic book work. I remember that because I was pleased to be a rookie at anything at 33. Milepost thirty-eight – I married Kim Yale. Talk about being a rookie! Milepost forty-seven – Kim died and the world collapsed only to begin again a few mileposts later with Mary Mitchell. Life goes on. Death gives way to new life. (more…)

Happy Birthday: Myron Waldman

  • News
  • April 24, 2008

Born in 1908 in Brooklyn, NY, Myron Waldman always loved to draw. He went to Pratt Institute and majored in Art, graduating in 1930.

Shortly after that, Waldman got a job with Max Fleisher Studios. He started as an inker, but by 1934 was one of Fleisher’s lead animators, working on Betty Boop, Popeye, Raggedy Ann, and even Superman. When war broke out, Waldman joined the Army, and served for three years—upon his return he went to work for Paramount’s Famous Studios, handling Casper the Friendly Ghost.

From 1958 to 1968 Waldman worked for Hal Seeger Productions, reviving the old Fleisher series Out of the Inkwell and helping to create Milton the Monster. Waldman also drew the 1940s comic strip Happy the Humbug, and wrote Eve: A Pictorial Love Story, one of the earliest American graphic novels.

In 1997, he received the Windsor McCay Award for lifetime achievement in animation. Waldman passed away in 2006 but his influence is still felt by animators and cartoon artists everywhere.

Interview: Joshua Dysart on ‘B.P.R.D.: 1946’

  • News
  • April 23, 2008

bprd5-9590823One of this year’s big additions to the Hellboy universe has been the series BPRD: 1946, which puts the spotlight on Trevor Bruttenholm as he investigates the occult legacy of the Third Reich.

I recently caught up with series co-writer Joshua Dysart to talk about BPRD, working with Mike Mignola and Dysart’s strange journey into comics writing. Dysart also touched on the wealth of other projects he’s working on, including one based on musician Neil Young’s life and music.

COMICMIX: How did you end up working on BPRD: 1946 and being so closely involved with the Hellboy books for Dark Horse? 

JOSHUA DYSART: It was kind of a long and winding road, as these things mostly are. I first met Mignola and [Editor] Scott Allie in Dallas, Texas at the first Wizard World there in 2004. We hung out by the pool table in the bar together and just talked. Our aesthetic was very similar. About six to eight months later, Scott got me the job on the Van Helsing comic. Which, despite its source material, I’m still really proud of. When Mike was moving out to Los Angeles he showed interest in finding a local writer to work with. Scott mentioned my name. Then Mike went out to a local comic book shop and the owner, a close personal friend of mine, recommended me. We set up a luncheon date and I was terribly, terribly nervous. But I did my little song and dance and it worked out. That was late in 2006.

CMix: That has to be a little intimidating to go pitch yourself to somebody like Mignola.

JD: I was late to the meeting as well, by the way. I ride a bicycle everywhere and at the time didn’t have a cellphone. So on top of being terribly intimidated, I was late with no way to contact him. I thought for sure that being without a cellphone and a car was not going to bode well for me as a professional. But it turned out that Mike didn’t have a car or a cellphone either, and I think there was a sense of a shared value system in this — like two Luddites finding each other amongst the Blackberry/BMW wasteland of Santa Monica, CA. But all the way around it was a pretty terrifying thing, the notion of the meeting.

But in the end, it was fine. Mike is so enthusiastic about his creation — and as a reader, so am I — so I was put at ease very quickly. I don’t think he even noticed I was late.

The advice I got from Scott Allie before the meeting was, “Don’t act like such a fucking hippie.” (more…)

ComicMix TV at NYCC: ‘Hellboy II: The Golden Army’ Interviews

Big Red and the whole Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense crew are back this summer, and the cast and crew of Hellboy II: The Golden Army made a trip to the Big Apple for this year’s New York Comic Con. We chatted up actors Ron Perlman (Hellboy), Doug Jones (Abe Sapien) and Selma Blair (Liz Sherman), as well as Hellboy II director Guillermo del Toro about the loves, lessons and lives of monsters in this special ComicMix TV report from the show.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army hits theaters on July 11, 2008.

 

 

 

 

EZ Street: Swords and Sorcery

  • News
  • April 23, 2008

In today’s brand-new episode of EZ Street by Mark Wheatley and Robert Tinnell, you’ve got your magic swords, you’ve got your evil witches, you’ve got your prophesies to be fulfilled.  

And you’ve got your alcoholic police woman, wondering how she fits in. Does she?

Credits: Mark Wheatley (Artist), Mark Wheatley (Colorist), Mark Wheatley (Letterer), Mark Wheatley (Writer), Mike Gold (Editor), Robert Tinnell (Writer)

More: EZ Street

 

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NYCC Kids Report: Archie Comics Panel

  • News
  • April 23, 2008

[Editor’s Note: There was a big emphasis on kids at this year’s New York Comic Con, with a sizeable chunk of Sunday’s programming geared toward the youngest of the comics-reader age bracket. While we consider ourselves a pretty young-at-heart crew, we thought it best to go to an actual member of the event’s target audience for this report on Sunday’s kid-savvy "Growing Up With Archie" panel. The author of this report (with a little help from our own Martha Thomases) is Lillian Baker, daughter of popular writer/artist Kyle Baker, and an aspiring artist in her own right. -RM]

We attended Sunday’s presentation by Archie Comics.  The room was nearly full, with lots of girls sitting next to their mothers.  The panel included Archie Comics editor-in-chief Victor Gorelick, publisher Michael Silberkleit, managing editor Mike Pellerito, artist Dan Parent, creators Barbara Slate, Fernando Ruiz, Misako Rox and ComicMix’s own Andrew Pepoy.

After a slide show that presented Archie and his friends through the ages (including a character named Wilbur we had never seen before), Mr. Silberkleit said that parents can trust Archie Comics to always tell good stories.  He let everyone introduce him or herself (Mr. Gorelick has worked at the same company for nearly 50 years!) and talked about some new projects, including a new look for Jughead and a series called Archie’s Freshman Year.  He said there would be stories about the characters applying for college, too.

Since Archie has been around more than 60 years, we asked, "Shouldn’t they be old geezers asking for pills instead of going to college?”  Mr. Silberkleit asked if anyone wanted to read those stories, and only a few people said, “Yes.”

We also asked, “Why do Betty and Veronica like Archie so much?  He’s the nerdiest guy in the school. He drives a crappy car.  He doesn’t have any money.  He doesn’t look great and he has freckles and crosses on his head.”  Dan Parent said all of this gave hope to him when he was a kid.

They talked about a bunch of new series, including Riverdale Jones and the Temple of Food.  The company is also publishing a “Who’s Who” of the MLJ superheroes, such as The Shield, The Fly and The Web.  Andrew Pepoy is doing a new Katy Keene graphic novel that will be out in August. There’s also going to be Archie’s Vault, which will reprint all the old stories, like the DC Archives.

The stories look like they’ll be fun, and you can find them at newsstands everywhere.  You can also find them at places like Wal-Mart.

Our thanks go out to Lillian for providing this special report from the show!

New York Comic Con: The Brain-Dump Roundup

  • News
  • April 23, 2008

Here we are, two days after the beast that is New York Comic Con settled back into hibernation, and all that’s left of the big show are piles of discarded promo cards, comics with dinosaurs fighting tanks, and a bunch of skrull masks missing their rubber-band straps. Welcome to my post-NYCC highlight reel, folks.

All things considered, the convention was a fine time. Sure, the bar was set pretty low when you consider the debacle of the first NYCC show, but even when one adds all of the other recent conventions to the frame of reference, this year’s NYCC fared pretty well. With a few exceptions, it felt like just the right level of crowd — not packed to an uncomfortable San Diego Comic-Con level, but not the empty, depressing little ghost towns of Wizard World Texas and Philadelphia. The creators I spoke with seemed happy about the show, too. They weren’t hustling to cover the cost of their attendance or feeling frazzled by crowds, contradicting policies or inevitable scheduling issues that pop up at these types of events.

Friday was manageable, Saturday was tolerable and Sunday was actually somewhat relaxing. The temperature allowed attendees to dress comfortably — no winter jackets to increase the sweat level once you enter the building, and no oppressive heat outside to raise the humidity levels before you even reach the front door. The big programming dust-up on Saturday, in which a perfect storm of late-running panels and big-name guests prompted the convention staff to close the panel area for a short time, was the only major problem I had with the show — and only because it made me slightly late to the panel I planned to attend. (more…)

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Review: Chris Ware’s ‘ACME Novelty Library, Vol. 18’

acme1-7237097ACME Novelty Library, Vol. 18
By Chris Ware
Drawn & Quarterly, 2007, $18.95

My friend and former colleague James Nicoll once said “Whenever I find my will to live becoming too strong, I read Peter Watts.” For me, Chris Ware fills the same function – Ware’s work is almost terminally depressing, but executed with such craft and skill that it’s impossible to look away.

This edition of [[[ACME Novelty Library]]] continues Ware’s current graphic novel, “Building Stories” – at least, that’s what this has been called before; there’s no page with that or any other title in this book – with a series of interconnected short stories about an unnamed woman who lives on the top floor of that apartment building. (Parts of this volume also appeared in The New York Times Magazine in 2007 as part of their cruelly-misnamed “Funny Papers” feature – Ware might have been the most bleak thing in that comics space so far, but all of it has been serious, most of it has been dour and none of it has been funny.)

(more…)

We Become What We Deserve To Be, by Elayne Riggs

  • News
  • April 23, 2008

It’s now been three days since NY Comic Con 2008 ended, but I had to save my con report until now because it usually takes me this long to fully recover and gather my thoughts. The older I get and the more convention time I’ve logged, the more a few patterns begin to present themselves, and this con pretty much ran the gamut for me.

Friday was our longest stint at the con, and is pretty much a blur to me now. I’d had no set plan other than touching base with the ComicMix office and wandering around Artists’ Alley to see friends, but I was determined to give the exhibition hall as thorough a perusal as possible during the "trade only" portion of the con in the morning. But between the non-comics media stuff and the dealers in which I had little interest, it all ran together far sooner than I’d expected, and I quickly found myself in "seen one, seen ’em all" mode, wishing I’d prearranged specific meetups with blog friends and such. Thing of it was, though, I wanted to wing it. I’ve had to insert so much structure into my life what with the job search that I just wasn’t up to organizing anything having to do with fun, leisure activities.

Speaking of organization, I should mention that this was hands-down the best run NYCC yet, even with the reported surge in attendance. The volunteers were helpful without being intrusive, polite to a fault (one even asked if we needed help finding anyone in Artists’ Alley) and extremely professional. What a total pleasure! We saw a queue on Friday to get into the Javits, but nothing like the chaos of previous years. And here I must confess that part of the reason we may have seen only the sunny side was that we’d decided to truncate our time on Saturday and Sunday to about four hours rather than the entire day.

We have to face facts — these days, even in our home town, a full convention day takes a lot out of us, between all the walking and the hour-plus bus rides (which turned into two hours going back, as the crosstown bus from the Javits tended to arrive at Sixth Avenue moments after our express bus departed, leaving us to wait another 30 minutes for the connection). We’re not about to keel over or anything, we make it up and down the two flights between our apartment and the sidewalk just fine, but neither are we cut out any longer for the more frenzied activity we could handle ten years ago. (more…)

Happy Birthday: Steve Englehart

  • News
  • April 22, 2008

Born in 1947 in Indianapolis, Indiana, Steve Englehart graduated college from Wesleyan University and served briefly in the Army before moving to New York. He got his comic book start working as Neal Adams’ art assistant at Warren Publishing.

Art was not Englehart’s chief interest, however, and he soon switched to different areas, going to work for Marvel as a proofreader. Then he got the opportunity to write a story for Amazing Adventures, and from then on it was writing all the way.

Englehart wrote The Avengers from 1972 to 1976 and also wrote Doctor Strange, Captain America, and The Hulk before moving over to DC Comics to help revamp their core characters in Detective Comics, Superman, Flash, and other titles. Englehart left comics and the U.S. in the late ’70s and early ’80s to travel Europe and work on a novel, but later returned to design video games and created Coyote for Eclipse.

Englehart has since written Green Lantern, Fantastic Four, Night Man, and several others, and has written more videogames and several animated series as well.

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