Fred (Fred Othon Artistidès) was born on this day in 1931.
A French comic strip creator, Fred created his first comic in 1954. In 1960 he became art director of Hara-Kiri, and illustrated several pieces for the magazine (and its first 60 covers!) over the next few years.
He is best known for his comic Philémon, which appeared in Pilote magazine in 1965. He was awarded the Grand Prix de la ville in 1980.
There’s a new actor playing the childhood version of Logan in the upcoming X-Men Origins: Wolverine and his name is Troye Mellet. If that name’s unfamiliar to you, perhaps you should pay more attention to YouTube.
Mellet first attracted the interest of the film’s producers in YouTube clips such as this one, which feature his singing voice. Mellet is no stranger to acting and has received some acclaim for playing the lead in Oliver in Sydney, Australia. If there’s any need for young Logan to break into a rendition of "Hard Knock Life," Mellet has the pipes to pull it off.
The actor originally cast for the role, Kodi Smit-McPhee, has had to bow out of the project due to prior commitments and a change in shooting dates for X-Men Origins: Wolverine. McPhee is attached to the film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, which stars Viggo Mortensen and Charlize Theron.
(via SHH)
During a weekend press junket for the upcoming film Never Back Down, actor Djimon Housou told IESB that he’ll be taking a role in a comic book trilogy and referred to it as a dream project. The full article is right here.
Hounsou wouldn’t specify which trilogy, though, so the rumor mill can go ahead and start churning. Here’s what the folks at IESB theorized:
The obvious answer is that Hounsou is talking about staring as The Black Panther in the inevitable Fantastic Four 3. Tim Story mentioned in an IGN article nearly a year ago that Hounsou was his ideal choice for the Wakandan King. If this is the case, it’s actually perfect casting (outside of it being another Story-directed Fantastic Four film).
The other possibility, though, that I’m not entirely willing to shake is that Hounsou might be talking about Tintin.
Hounsou mentions that this is a dream project for him. While Tintin may not be the biggest bit of pop-culture this side of the Atlantic, it’s still extremely popular in Europe — especially in France where Hounsou moved when he was 13. Add in the Spielberg connection and the fact that Tintin‘s being done as a trilogy and I think its speculation with some potential.
Hounsou’s page at IMDB doesn’t have any mention of a project yet, and there aren’t a whole lot of other comic book trilogies on the horizon. Y: The Last Man is supposedly in the works, though Hounsou obviously wouldn’t have a place in that, unless the director decided to be very creative in casting Agent 355.
Kevin Conroy, who provided the voice of Batman in just about every animated series to feature the character in recent years, will now be continuing with the role in Batman: Gotham Knight.
There’s been significant speculation about who will voice the Dark Knight in the upcoming direct-to-video anthology created by some of the most notable names in the worlds of comics and anime. It was originally rumored that Batman Begins‘ Christian Bale would reprise the role — due mainly to the actor’s presence on the IMDB site for the project. Bale’s name has now been removed from IMDB’s cast listing.
There’s been no word on how many of the stories featured in the anthology will use Conroy as Batman’s voice. Conroy’s past Batman credits include Batman; The Animated Series, the voice of Bruce Wayne in Batman Beyond, Justice League Unlimited and many of the feature-length projects related to each series.
Batman: Gotham Knight is scheduled to hit shelves July 8.
(via WF)
Wired.com’s blog recently posted this entry on the Online Museum of Black Superheroes, a Web site that compiles a fairly comprehensive list of black superheroes (as well as non-superhero characters).
The museum, which you can find right here, also contains a lengthy collection of articles on black characters in comics. The articles come from a variety of sources (from the Washington Post to Comic Book Resources) and while they don’t represent an end-all-be-all dissertation on black superheroes, they do offer a wealth of interesting discussion.
Simply reading through the character lists (they’re divided by publisher) offers plenty of opportunities for analysis. For instance, you can separate the characters by when they were introduced and look for trends. One thing I noticed was that while there were disproportionately more male characters than female ones, the division didn’t seem to be any more lopsided than the gender divide among white characters.
The site also documents some of the blatant racism evident in comics with characters such as Whitewash Jones (he appeared in the 1940s war comic Young Allies), and the unintentionally offensive, such as Marvel’s creation of Man Ape (he was a Black Panther villain).
Remember my column last week ? I’m sure you committed every hallowed word to memory. Well, this is a sequel. Fittingly, it’s about Hollywood.
I’m staring at this massive schedule of movies of interest to your average ComicMixer that are due to be released in the next 12 months or so: Iron Man 1, Indiana Jones 4, Incredible Hulk 2-but-1, Get Smart 1, Hellboy 2, The Dark Knight 6-but-2, X-Files 2, The Mummy 3, James Bond 22, Harry Potter 6, The Day The Earth Stood Still 1-but-2, Star Trek 74, Will Eisner’s The Spirit 1, and Green Hornet 1 (serials don’t count). I’m looking forward to about half of them, which is a pretty good average for me. But there’s one that I’m looking to with trepidation.
No, it’s not The Day The Earth Stood Still, the original of which is the Citizen Kane of science-fiction movies. Let them take a shot; I wish ‘em luck. Nor is it Star Trek 74: The Reboot-To-The-Rear. I’d scoff at this attempt but, frankly, after the majority of Trek movies what the hell, maybe it’ll work. It did for James Bond in Casino Royale 3. Nope, I’m trepidatious about Will Eisner’s The Spirit. Make that Frank Miller’s Will Eisner’s The Spirit.
There’s absolutely no slight here against Frank. Of all the folks in comics, he has been one of the most publicly and most aggressively pro-creator rights activists around. His passionate arguments about the Comics Code and about the way Marvel treated Jack Kirby still ring loudly in my inner-ear. In fact, I’m glad to see The Spirit in the hands of a person who knows how to make comics work yet also has a solid background in movies.
No, I’m afraid of Hollywood. (more…)
Another sure sign of spring – the second big convention of the year, plus another Marvel Midnight Release. Let’s lay out the links:
In case this blew past you, the second story arc of the comic book series adapted from Stephen King’s magnum opus, The Dark Tower, begins now from Marvel Comics. Just like last year, they will offer a midnight release of Dark Tower: The Long Road Home #1 on the early morning of Wednesday, March 5, 2008. Participating retailers across the country will open at midnight on Tuesday (effectively 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, March 5, 2008) so Stephen King fans can get their hands on the next issue of this historic comic. Watch for a special ComicMix TV report on Wednesday, and to find out if there is a store near you, go here.
Work has begun on the 100 original Hulk covers created for The Hero Initiative and the very first covers received will be on display publicly for the first time at the Orlando MegaCon, taking place March 7-9 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, FL. For more information on that even, visit www.MegaConvention.com or watch for coverage all weekend on ComicMix.
CBS Interactive is dusting off a selection of its own classics from the CBS Library for distribution across the CBS Audience Network. Full-length episodes of Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, Hawaii Five-O, MacGyver and Melrose Place will be available for free on an ad-supported basis through more than 300 member sites. Got some time to kill? Catch an episode here: www.cbs.com
Johnny Knoxville and MTV are bringing Jackass to the digital age with JackAssworld.com. The site, which you can see at www.jackassworld.com, has 24-straight hours of continuously updated video of the latest stupid stunts. Users can view and comment on the video via message board, email or text message.
And how about if we toss in a little hint for the answer to our latest Trivia Question, which could win you a limited edition, Graham Crackers Comics variant? For full details, catch yesterday’s ComicMix Radio, get your answer to us at podcast [at] comicmix.com, and be back here on Tuesday for the winner, a new question and much more.
I love March, particularly the way the winds blow in such promise for the year to come. Spring training, buds on the trees, the hope that we can avoid any more snowstorms, it’s all fraught with positivity. Even our weekly ComicMix columnists seem to be more enthusiastic than usual (particularly Michael Davis with his Obama-at-SDCC teaser):
Spring forward, fall back into bed now…
Eight years ago an anime appeared that has stood, and even reverberated, the test of time. Blood: The Last Vampire was a groundbreaking and engrossing effort that clearly left virtually everyone who saw it wanting more. Clocking in at a breathless, seemingly unfinished, forty-eight minutes (just enough to fill a network TV hour slot), it showcased a pretty, young high school co-ed who swung a mean samurai sword against vampires at a Vietnam-era military base.
Born in 1952, Mark Evanier has been writing professionally since 1969. He apprenticed under Jack Kirby and wrote for Disney, Gold Key, and the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate before moving on to television.
There, Evanier worked on such series as The Nancy Walker Show, The McLean Stevenson Show, and Welcome Back, Kotter. Next he worked for Hanna-Barbera on several series, including Scooby Doo, Plastic Man, and Thundarr the Barbarian. Evanier returned to comic books as well, writing and later editing Blackhawk, working with Sergio Aragonés on Groo the Wanderer, and co-creating The DNAgents and its spin-off, Crossfire.
His most recent project is Kirby: King of Comics, a biography of his first mentor, Jack Kirby. Happy birthday, Mark!
Columns / Glenn Hauman / News
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