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Happy Birthday: Mon-El

  • News
  • March 27, 2008

Lar Gand was born on the planet Daxam and, as a young man, took to exploring the galaxy. He was unlucky enough to land on Krypton just before the planet exploded, but Jor-El warned him away in time. Jor-El also provided Lar Gand with a map to a safe planet he’d already selected for his own infant son—a planet called Earth.

Lar Gand went into suspended animation for the journey, and upon arriving he encountered Jor-El’s now-teenage son Kal-El, also known as Superboy. The two hit it off immediately. Lar Gand was suffering amnesia from his trip and his Daxamite powers, plus the map from Jor-El, convinced Kal-El that Lar Gand was his brother.

He gave his newfound sibling the name Mon-El, since they met on a Monday. Unfortunately, Daxamites find lead even more poisonous than Kryptonians find kryptonite, and when Mon-El was accidentally exposed to lead he regained his memories but almost lost his life. Superboy placed his friend in the Phantom Zone to save him until they could find a cure.

In the 30th Century, Saturn Girl finally created a temporary antidote, which Brainiac 5 later modified to become permanent, and Lar Gand left the Zone and joined the Legion of Super-Heroes. He became one of their greatest members, and led the Legion several times.

Interview: R. Stevens on ‘Diesel Sweeties’

  • Uncategorized
  • March 27, 2008

ds12-9341916When Richard Stevens III (a.k.a. "R Stevens") initially launched his webcomic, Diesel Sweeties, back in 2000, the premise seemed simple enough: four panels (three for the set-up, one for the punchline) of humans and robots interacting and commenting on life, pop culture and inter-species love.

Nearly 2000 strips and a newspaper syndication deal later, DS has evolved into an Internet phenomenon of sorts. The series is often held up as a prime example of the success an online-based comic can achieve, while the Dumbrella webcomic collective Stevens’ co-founded is host to many of the most popular series on the ‘Net. The DS creator is also finding himself frequently called upon to serve as the medium’s ambassador to the world of print comics.

Earlier this month, Stevens made waves in the comics industry yet again with the announcement that, in celebration of the series’ upcoming 2000th strip, he would release the entirety of the DS archive in free, downloadable PDF files under a Creative Commons license.

I spoke with Stevens this week about the looming 2000th strip for DS, the decision to release the PDF archives and how he ever finds time to sleep. (The answer? He doesn’t.) 

COMICMIX: It’s been just over a year now since Diesel Sweeties was picked up for syndication. How is it going so far?

R STEVENS: It’s hard work, but boot camp is good for the muscle tone. I wish I could tell you it’s made me a millionaire and offer you a gold cake, but we’re getting by and learning a LOT. Can’t get taxed on that,
thank god.

CMix: With DS hitting its 2000th strip, if you were going to do a clip reel of some of your favorite moments from the series, what would it include? What have been some of the highlights for you professionally?

RS: I work close to deadline almost every night, so finishing up and high-fiving my FTP server is the highlight of my day. I really enjoy having a process and something to culminate every day with, so there’s no shortage of highlights.

That said, staying up ’til 4 AM writing 58 panels of jokes for all 50 states was probably the most fun I’ve ever had working. Aside from that, I’m simply grateful to have this as a job.

CMix: Any thoughts on your most controversial strip or storyline?

RS: That would probably be wiping Clango’s brain. I wanted to synch up my web and print strips while adding a level of creepiness for people who read both.

I was amazed that my readers rolled with it and I don’t think we lost anybody. Try doing THAT with Spider-Man… Oh, wait. They did.

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New Shots of Iron Monger from ‘Iron Man’ Released

  • News
  • March 27, 2008

Yahoo Movies has three new pictures of the Iron Monger in action. The Iron Monger is the gigantic metallic villain that ol’ shellhead is forced to do battle with in the upcoming Iron Man movie.

Judging by the size of the Iron Monger, it certainly seems that Tony Stark will have his work cut out for him. Then again, does bigger always equal better? Is it the size of the armor or how you use it?

Iron Man hits theaters on May 2. The film is directed by Jon Favreau and stars Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeff Bridges.

Which Comic is Getting a New 4-Player Arcade Game?

  • News
  • March 27, 2008

Who says comic book fans are antisocial? I grew up hanging out at pizza parlors and movie theaters with my friends, playing arcade games like <a href=”

America and the Avengers, Spider-Man, TMNT and X-Men.

Well, cue a flashback to the ’90s, because arcade developer Signature Devices announced in a press release that they’ve finished work on a four-player arcade game that featuring "several well known comic book and television superheroes."

The game will feature a four-player arcade style co-operative play. Players can play solo or as a team against the plot, which takes place in three separate locations on earth and other planets. Signature Devices has developed the game to allow players to control the powers and abilities of
earth’s mightiest heroes [Ed. Note: emphasis ours] in an action packed fight for justice against some of the greatest comic book villains. The Company has developed the game to truly come to life using the co-operative methods best utilized with two to four players at a time.

But they didn’t say which comic book heroes, probably because that’s the responsibility of the arcade game publisher. Meanwhile we’re left to speculate which superheroes it could be. It helps that they say they’ve been on television. Candidates include Justice League, X-Men, Spider-Man, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or maybe even NBC’s Heroes, among others. One interesting phrase we highlighted in the quote is "earth’s mightiest heroes," a term commonly used by The Avengers, who had a brief cartoon run.

We’ll admit we’d be excited to grab a few beers and play this with friends at Dave & Buster’s. ComicMix readers, any ideas what you think this might be… or, of course, which characters you want this to be?

ComicMix Radio: Hey, We’re Makin’ Movies Here!

Movie cameras may be the most needed accessory at that comic convention you are attending — as we give you the story of one fan who turned San Diego into a feature film, plus:

— Marvel’s King Size Hulk has two covers and a big change for The Red Hulk!

— Read a chunk of Secret Invasion #31 online right now

— PaperCutz continues the classics

—  And there’s another chance to grab  an  exclusive Graham Crackers Comics variant — and you win by e-mailing us at: podcast [at] comicmix.com

The magic starts when you Press The Button!

 

 

And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via badgeitunes61x15dark-7582835 or RSS!

 

The Weekly Haul: Reviews for March 27, 2008

  • News
  • March 27, 2008

This week has all the makings, as an underdog wins book of the week honors, Marvel tries its darndest to rev up Skrullfest ’08 and Atlanta traffic finally almost kills me. Without further ado, the reviews…

Book of the Week: Blue Beetle #25 — When this first series first started up, I loved the concept but found it too hit-or-miss to pick up on a regular basis. After reading this latest issue, I can firmly say that not only has writer John Rogers found his stride, he’s turned this book into one of DC’s best.

In the conclusion to an epic whole-world-at-stake storyline, Jaime finally comes into his own as a hero, using a whole lot of trickeration and stick-to-it-ive-ness to defeat the bad aliens. Rogers uses those evil aliens (who are in a way the scarab’s source) to effectively entrench Jaime as the definitive Blue Beetle – no small feat.

It’s a perfectly executed balancing act between superhero fun and tense action, with plenty of credit owed to Rafael Albuquerque’s art. The two hilarious intrusions by Guy Gardner and Booster Gold put this book over the top.

Runners Up:

New Avengers #39 — Of the three books that crammed the upcoming Secret Invasion down my throat, only this one had any effect. Brian Michael Bendis combines the expected handful of brilliant personal exchanges with an intense fight between a mysteriously super-powered Skrull and Echo and Wolverine. Ultimately, it’s a tense and foreboding book, although I’m still on the fence about the big event.

All-Star Superman #10 — This book is so consistently entertaining and touching that it’s like clockwork. Now, if only it was like clockwork regarding the release schedule… That aside, the story of Superman’s impending demise continues and (maybe?) concludes in this issue, which essentially serves as an elegy to his glorious life. Beyond the affecting contemplations on mortality, what Grant Morrison does especially well here is capture the sense of round-the-clock heroism of Superman’s life.

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Review: Terry Brooks’ ‘Dark Wraith of Shannara’

Dark Wraith of Shannara
By Terry Brooks, Illustrated by Edwin David, Adapted by Robert Place Napton
Del Rey, 2008, $13.95

I am morally sure that the following conversation took place somewhere, among some people, before this book came into existence:

“It’s not fair! All of those other fantasy writers are getting comics based on their books!”

“Yeah! Why Salvatore and Hamilton but not Brooks?”

“What do they have that he hasn’t got? He’s at least as popular as Feist!”

I have no idea who said it, or who they said it to, but, somehow, the influence of the Dabel Brothers has led to ever more epic fantasy writers getting the urge (or maybe just the contract) to create graphic novels based on their work.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that; American comics have been a closed guys-in-tights shop for a generation now, and anything that opens that up is nice. But it is a bit weird, personally, when the two sides of my world collide quite so violently.

Dark Wraith of Shannara, unlike most of the recent epic fantasy comics out there, doesn’t adapt anything; it’s a brand-new story set in Terry Brooks’s very famous (and very bestselling) world of Shannara. For continuity geeks – and aren’t we all that, about something? – this takes place soon after the end of the novel The Wishsong of Shannara, and involves much of the cast of that book. Wishsong is the third of the original Shannara “trilogy:” they’re nothing like a trilogy, despite being three books about members of the same family published relatively quickly and all having the word “Shannara” in the title, but fantasy fans will call any conglomeration of three books a trilogy if you don’t stop them with heavy armament.

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Absolutely Free Speech, by John Ostrander

  • News
  • March 27, 2008

In addition to my appearances here, I also have a chat site that can be found at World Famous Comics Community. Yes, you’re all invited to come over for a chat if you like. I check in usually several times a day if I’m not drowning in deadlines.

On occasion, we get someone who is abusive and they get told (more or less politely at first; it depends on my mood) to knock it off. Almost invariably, I get informed by the poster that this is a free country and they have the right to “free speech” which generally mans saying whatever they want in whatever manner they want to say it.

At that point, I usually explain that whether or not this really is a “free country” may be debatable but the Comics Community Board (like the Boards here) are for members and that, when you sign up, you agree to behave a certain way. Other sites may not demand that but we did there. Further, it was my discussion board – it has my name on it – and I had my own rules as well. If they didn’t like it, they could go elsewhere. Unlimited, absolute free speech was not guaranteed anywhere in any case.

A lot of people when they claim the right to free speech really don’t know what they’re talking about. So let’s be specific, just for fun.

To start off with, it’s not universal. Lots of places in the world don’t have it and the governments don’t want their people to have it. We have it because it’s in the Constitution; it’s enshrined in the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights which reads as follows: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” (more…)

Review: ‘The Ten-Cent Plague’ by David Hajdu

  • News
  • March 26, 2008

tencentplague-9163407

The journalist David Hajdu’s new book, The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How it Changed America, has been billed as a retelling of the little-known inquisition against comics that nearly killed the industry in the 1950s.

It does tell that story (and quite well), but perhaps more importantly it serves as one of the best histories yet of the Golden Age of comics. Picking up literally with the creation of the comic book, The Ten-Cent Plague chronicles the medium’s rise as cartoon characters gave way to superheroes, adventurers, pirates, criminals and jungle queens.

With an unerring eye for the telling detail, Hajdu brings to life the mad men of the early comics scene, a rag tag group of artsy teens and swindler publishers who make today’s comics personalities seem tame by comparison. Big names like Will Eisner and Bob Kane earn mention, along with a great number of lesser-knowns.

Harry “A” Chesler, Jr., the comic-book packager, applied the “Jr.” to his name or dispensed with it as he saw fit, and put quotation marks around the initial because he thought they were stylistically correct, and he had a point. When he was asked what the “A” stood for, he said, “Anything.”

If anything, Hajdu goes a bit overboard in describing so many people in great detail. While these anecdotes are interesting and reveal an impressive layer of research, they also meander and distract from the central narrative. That being the progression of comics pushing ever harder against any perceived boundaries, just as the youths who devoured the books tested the confines of their mid-century upbringing. (more…)

German Authorities Use Comic to Combat Extremism

  • News
  • March 26, 2008

In the great book Freakonomics, one of my favorite stories is the one detailing how the writers of the old Superman TV show used a storyline to give a negative depiction of the Ku Klux Klan, and that alone was one of the most effective methods of turning public opinion against the Klan.

That story came to mind when I came across a couple of articles detailing efforts to combat Islamic extremism through comics.

In Egypt, Hands Across the Mideast Support Alliance has been distributing copies of an Arabic edition of a 50-year-old comic based on Martin Luther King Jr.’s life. The comic is available for download in Arabic and English from the HAMSA Web site.

"The Montgomery Story" was published in 1958 and helped inspire the American civil-rights movement in the 1960s. In 2008, it was translated and designed by young reformers in the Mideast. It features full-color panels depicting the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a campaign to end segregation on buses in the capitol of Alabama. The comic book ends with a section on “how the Montgomery Method works,” outlining essential techniques of nonviolence.

I also came across this article in the Globe and Mail on a comic book designed to combat Islamic extremism produced by officials in a north-German state. The comic, Andi, follows a youth who dates a Muslim girl, and the girl’s brother comes under the sway of an Islamist "hate preacher." (Apologies for the small cover image, below, but it was all I could track down.)

The comic is distributed to schools and is intended for an audience from 12 to 16-years-old. It’s available online in PDF form right here. I learned German in grade school, but sadly since then my knowledge of the language has wittled away to a few numbers and swear words, so I couldn’t read the two available issues.

The article says Muslim response to the project has been positive. From the article:

The comic, printed in 100,000 copies and distributed to every secondary school in Germany’s most populous state, aims to show young people the difference between peaceful mainstream Islam and the violent, intolerant version peddled by militants.

"We were always careful not to hurt feelings and anger people by painting a caricature of Islam," said Hartwig Moeller, head of the NRW Interior Ministry. "We had to make clear we weren’t aiming against Muslims, but only those people who want to misuse Islam for political aims."

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