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On This Day: The Crimson Avenger

  • News
  • March 11, 2008

Lee Walter Travis was raised to wealth and privilege but nonetheless developed a social conscience, becoming a member of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade during the Spanish Civil War and then turning to publishing and producing a progressive paper called The Globe Leader. It was while attending a Halloween costume ball in 1938, however, that he discovered his true career.

A band of crooks robbed the party and shot several people, including Travis’ fellow reporter Claudia Barker. She died in his arms and Travis, enraged, pursued and subdued the crooks, leaving them for the police to find afterward. His costume—a red trenchcoat, fedora, and mask—and Claudia’s last words and favorite motto, “Qui Vindicet ibit” (“The avenger will come”) combined to create tales of a strange “Crimson Avenger.” Travis had found his calling.

The Crimson Avenger was later one of the Seven Soldiers of Victory and part of the All-Star Squadron. Years later, Travis sacrificed his own life to save an entire city, steering a deadly tanker well away and staying at the helm until it exploded. The Crimson Avenger first appeared in Detective Comics No. 20, predating Batman by a full seven issues.

Review: Andi Watson’s ‘Glister’

Glister, Vols. 1-3

Andi Watson
Image, 2007, $5.99 each

Andi Watson has had a career more typical of a prose writer than a comics creator: he’s worked on a number of projects, pretty much all of them his own original ideas, nearly all of them with defined endings, for different publishers, and kept the copyright. Some of those projects span more than one volume, but, still, his stuff ends up on a shelf as if they were novels, and he’s hasn’t shown any sign of really wanting to be the next great Avengers writer or to re-vamp the Haunted Tank or do anything else horribly fanboyish and all-too-typical for his generation. And yet his work isn’t particularly literary or self-indulgent, either: Watson may have a bit of autobiography hidden around the fringes of his stories, but he’s mostly not talking about himself.

Watson’s recent books have generally been aimed at adults without being restricted to them; a book like Little Star is about parenthood in a way that teenagers probably won’t be interested in, but there’s nothing about it that would keep them out. His earliest works, though – Samurai Jam and Skeleton Key – were much more obviously all-ages books, and he’s returned to a younger audience with Glister.

Actually, if anything, Glister excludes adults: it’s a series about the continuing adventures of a preteen girl (Glister Butterworth), and its central audience is presumably girls of Glister’s age. Each of the three volumes so far are independent stories of about 64 pages each — the first is a bit shorter, but it also has a Skeleton Key back-up to fill out the pages. (more…)

Video: Darwyn Cooke Draws Wonder Woman

  • News
  • March 11, 2008

On a really good day, I’m occasionally able to draw something that actually resembles a human shape, but that doesn’t make me an artist. I’m reminded of this when I see footage like this recent video of artist Darwyn Cooke from MegaCon.

The video, shot by Adam and posted over at the Drawn! website, shows Cooke working on a drawing of Wonder Woman, one of the characters featured in his critically praised New Frontier miniseries and its recent animated adaptation.

 

Generic Respect, by Dennis O’Neil

  • News
  • March 11, 2008

reeve-dreams-4-3273602Don’t bother putting on airs, Messrs. Man (Super and Bat); you’re nothing special, not any more. These days, you’re just two more members of a rather large club that includes cowboys, cops, private eyes, combat soldiers and guys who fly space ships to other planets and solar systems and galaxies. Serial killers who slice and dice sexy teenagers are in the club, too. And critters that are normally harmless but mutate into gigantic sociopaths.

While you weren’t looking, you’ve become a genre.
 
Of course, if we want to get sniffy about definitions, you always were, in comic books. Almost from the beginning, here were cowboy comics and detective (or Detective) comics, and monsters and spaceship jockeys were early joiners, too. And you guys, the superheroes. You were the most popular and emblematic, of the comic book good guys, but you had peers.
 
Movies were another matter. Oh, you guys showed up on what was called The Silver Screen pretty early in the form of serials or, if we want to get fancy, chapter plays intended for the Saturday matinees, which were populated by kids who, in my memory, made a hell of a lot of racket. Even there, you were a bit of an aberration, outnumbered by the gumshoes and gunfighters, and not deserving, apparently, of cinematic and dramatic niceties. And, while there were cowboys and sleuths aplenty in the movies made for after-dark showings to the kids’ moms and dads, no superheroes ever made the leap to, ahem, serious entertainments.
 

(more…)

Paramount Announces New ‘Indiana Jones’ DVDs

  • News
  • March 10, 2008

raiderssmaller-8864262Even though Paramount already released a superb DVD box set of the Indiana Jones Trilogy back in 2003, they’re doing it again. This time around, the new DVD releases of the classic trilogy will be available individually instead of as an exclusive box-set like before and will be released on May 13th — just in time to whet your appetite for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull‘s opening on May 25th.

These "Special Edition" DVDs, as they are being called, boast new features and exclusives not found in the earlier box-set releases. According to Paramount, some of these features and exclusives include interviews, discussions and new documentaries about the making of the three films that give audiences a new insight and appreciation for these classic films.

Examples include:

 
Indiana Jones: An Appreciation– The cast and crew of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull pay tribute to the original trilogy
 
The Melting Face–A recreation of the amazing physical effect of the villain’s melting face in Raiders of the Lost Ark, including Steven Spielberg and George Lucas commenting on the evolution of visual effects and CGI
 
Locations–Travel across the world to discover where the films take place and where they were shot
 
Friends and Enemies–Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Indiana Jones writers discuss how they created the most iconic characters in film history, including a look at new faces in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
 
The Women: The American Film Institute Tribute–The three Indiana Jones women (Karen Allen, Kate Capshaw and Alison Doody) reunite for a discussion
 
Interesting note: There’s been no word yet on whether these new Indiana Jones DVDs will get the Blu-Ray treatment. They’ve already been shown in HD on the HDNet Movies network, so why not release them in Blu-Ray now that the "format war" is over?
 
For a complete list of all the special features and other details about each of the three new DVDs, check out the official Indiana Jones site.

MegaCon ’08: Adrian Pasdar Talks ‘Heroes’

  • News
  • March 10, 2008

adrian-pasdar-7134605If MegaCon 2008 is any indication, anime fans are also huge Heroes fan. I was front and center among the 600-person crowd at Saturday’s Adrian Pasdar Q&A, thanks to ComicMix friend Jimmy Palmiotti, who moderated the discussion with the Heroes actor.

When asked, "If you could take anyone’s powers on the show what would it be?" Pasdar smiled and said that very question has been brought up many times among the cast and they all came up with the same answer: If you want invisibility as a power, then you’re a pervert. 

Pasdar said he’s very happy with only having the ability to fly, especially since his favorite comic character is the Silver Surfer. However, he wouldn’t mind having invisibility, too. According to Pasdar, his son asked him once how he can be a crime fighter with only the ability to fly, explaining, "What happens when you get to where you are going, and you don’t have a gun or a badge?" The question later turned up in the show as part of a conversation between Pasdar’s character, Nathan Petrelli, and his brother, Peter.

Pasdar added that his "dark side" would’ve enjoyed the role of series villain Sylar, though.

(more…)

Demons of Sherwood: Living Up to the Hype

  • News
  • March 10, 2008

 In today’s brand-new episode of Demons of Sherwood, by Bo Hampton and Robert Tinnell, there’s something strange happening in the forest.

It might be a dream, except Marian’s missing.  So what’s with the chattering teeth?

Credits: Bo Hampton (Artist), Bo Hampton (Colorist), Bo Hampton (Letterer), Bo Hampton (Writer), Mike Gold (Editor), Robert Tinnell (Writer)

More: Demons of Sherwood

 

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On This Day: The First Telephone

  • News
  • March 10, 2008

On this day in 1876, Alexander Graham Bell conducted his first successful experiment with his newest invention, the telephone. He used it to summon his assistant, Thomas Watson, with the now-famous words, “Mr. Watson—come here—I want to see you.”

It’s been over 130 years since then, and we’re still addicted to calling people we could just as easily walk over and see in person.

march10ant-4805093

Updates on ‘Thor’ and ‘Ant Man’ Films

  • News
  • March 10, 2008

march10ant-4805093Empire Online has the latest news on two Marvel movies currently in development, Ant Man and Thor, straight from the mouths of the directors behind the projects.

Ant Man is being written and directed by Edgar Wright, the English director responsible for Spaced, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. In regards to the pint-sized hero’s big screen adaptation, Wright said:

“It’s written and we’re doing a second draft of it,” said Wright. “It’s going to be less overtly comedic than anything else I’ve ever done. It’s more of a full-on action adventure sci-fi film but with a comedic element – in the same spirit of a lot of escapist fare like that. It’s certainly not a superhero spoof or pastiche and it certainly isn’t a sort of ‘Honey I Shrunk The Kids’ endeavor at all.”

Wright was mum on the subject of casting and whether or not the Ant Man in the film will be Scott Lang or fan favorite Hank Pym.

While Ant Man is chugging right along, the god of thunder seems to be stuck in neutral. The film adaptation of Thor, scheduled to be directed by Matthew Vaughn (Stardust, Layer Cake), is currently in a holding pattern until the parties involved decide on the future of the project.. The Odinson hath been forsaken.

 

NY Times Goes Behind the Scenes With ‘The Dark Knight’

  • News
  • March 10, 2008

The Sunday edition of The New York Times included a special bonus for comic book and movie fans: a great in-depth article with Christopher Nolan, director of Batman Begins and its upcoming sequel, The Dark Knight.

Feeling grim that you missed it? As the Joker would say in The Dark Knight promo poster "Why so serious?" You can read the article on the Times website.

Highlights from the article include:

  • The Dark Knight  cost $180 million
  • Nolan on the previous Batman films: "If the people who are making the film aren’t taking it seriously, why should we?"
  • The cast and crew commenting on the late Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker
  • Gotham will have a new bright, shiny look to contrast when the city is thrown into chaos
  • Nolan’s home is just down the street from 1960s TV Batcave entrance
  • 30 minutes of the movie were shot with IMAX cameras, including the entire opening (a first for any major motion picture)

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