The Mix : What are people talking about today?

Kurt Busiek on DC’s Weekly ‘Trinity’

DC Executive Editor Dan DiDio made it official at this weekend’s Retailers Meeting: The publisher’s next weekly series is titled Trinity and will be scripted by current Superman writer Kurt Busiek, with art by longtime Marvel Ultimate Spider-Man artist Mark Bagley.

The weekly series will begin this June and feature a story each week involving the trio of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. Busiek will leave Superman with issue #675. According to Busiek, each issue of Trinity will feature 10 pages co-written by Busiek and Fabian Nicieza and 12 pages of a solo story by Busiek.

In an interview with CBR, Busiek commented on Trinity and the rumors that Jim Starlin’s recent Death of the New Gods miniseries cleared the way for DC’s "Big Three" to get the spotlight in Trinity — and that the series is simply leading to another big event.

“No, ‘Death of the New Gods’ is one of the series that is leading into ‘Final Crisis.’ ‘Trinity’ is not ‘Final Crisis’ related. It is a relatively self-contained story that follows its own track. It’s part of the DC Universe, but it’s not one thread in the giant plot structure that is a big event. It is its own story. It has a beginning, a middle and an ending. There will be repercussions, yes. It has new characters that are introduced that I sure hope will spin off into their own mini-series or series or things like that, but it’s not leading to ‘Final Crisis 2: This Time It’s Personal.’

Busiek also tried his hand at sorting out the web of storylines that make up DC’s final-countdown-to-infinite-crisis-on-52-multiple-worlds events and explaining where Trinity will fit into the greater DCU:

’52’ came out of ‘Infinite Crisis’ and itself was a repercussion of a big crossover. ‘Countdown’ is leading into a big crossover. Each time DC does a weekly, they want to do it differently. ‘52’ was about a world without the heroes, ‘Countdown to Final Crisis’ is building up to an event about the heroes and ‘Trinity’ is about the heroes. Front and center.

 

Demons of Sherwood: Slimy Things!

In today’s brand-new, totally free episode of Demons of Sherwood by Bo Hampton and Robert Tinnell, Robin swears he saw a giant snake with a man’s face.  

What’s he been drinking?  And where did Ben go?

 

linklogo2-7064841

 

Poll: Choose the Free Online Neil Gaiman Novel

This weekend we told you about the 7th Anniversary of Neil Gaiman’s blog, and it looks like the Sandman author has more to announce than his website’s birthday.

Publisher Harper Collins has given Gaiman the go-ahead to post one of his novels online, at no charge, on his site. Now, the question is: Which novel?

In order to make the decision, Gaiman has posted a poll to choose which Neil Gaiman novel goes online.

What I want you to do is think — not about which of the books below is your favourite, but if you were giving one away to a friend who had never read anything of mine, what would it be? Where would you want them to start?

The poll is only up for a week, so treat it like you would the ’08 presidential election: Vote early and vote often.

 

(via boingboing)

 

New ‘Iron Man’ Images Released

Gizmodo has posted a new gallery of images from the "Iron Man" film featuring, among other things, a few more shots of the Iron Man armor in action, as well as a few of the suit in a state that’s probably best described as "out of action."

There are also a few more shots of the film’s cast, including (of course) Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark), Terrence Howard (Jim Rhodes), Gwyneth Paltrow (Virginia "Pepper" Potts), a bald and bearded Jeff Bridges (Obadiah Stane), and a barely clothed Leslie Bibb (Christine Everhart).

"Iron Man" opens May 2, 2008.

On This Day: The First Science-Fiction Television Program

Today in 1938, the Brits did television a mitzvah when the BBC created the first sci-fi TV show, an adaptation of a section of the Karel Capek play "R.U.R.", which coined the term "robot."

For those of you who thought "The Matrix" was revolutionary, it was Capek who introduced androids that rebel against their human creators. We’re also pretty sure she wasn’t the first to think that one up either (the first probably being the golem stories from the Talmud).

Anyway, the piece was translated from Czech to English, which explains the etymology of the word, "Robot." In its original Slo, "robota" means "work."

Inside the ‘Y: The Last Man’ Party

We told you about this event before and now Kevin Kelly at i09 let’s us in on the highlights of Friday night’s "Y: The Last Party" in L.A., celebrating the conclusion of Y: The Last Man, Brian K. Vaughan’s hugely popular tale of the last man on Earth.

The party, which took place at Meltdown Comics on Sunset Blvd., featured guests such as Vaughan himself, comic co-creator and artist Pia Guerra, Grant Morrison, Drew Goddard, Mark Waid and Joss Whedon.

Among the highlights of the event, whose proceeds went to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, were many revelations regarding the creation and inspiration of the comic as well as some tidbits about who might play the comic’s title character, Yorick Brown, in the oft-discussed, big-screen version and what co-creator Guerra’s next project will be.

According to the report:

[Vaughan] originally came up with the concept for Y as a project called Boyson, "The Last Boy On Earth" for Penthouse Comics full of "women built like robot fuck machines" and one boy remaining on the planet. After they folded, he replaced the robots with a Gloria Steinem quote and sent it over to Vertigo.

(more…)

Today, We Are One, by Mike Gold

 

Well, it says here that this is Whizzy’s Wazoo #53. That means today ComicMix starts our second year.

Wow. 

This is a good time to look back at what we’ve done, what we’re trying to do, and how we’ve made the world a better place. Whereas that last point is undoubtedly true, I’d rather look forward. Not a whole year forward; that seems like bad luck. Just the next few months.

ComicMix is going to increase our number of pages by tens of thousands. No kidding. We’re almost ready to do that; our tech team has been working furiously to do the tech voodoo that they do so swell. We’ve already got enough broadband to bury Atlantis. You’ll be seeing a lot more of… well, everything, including some of the greatest names old and new in comics and related media.

And speaking of comics… (more…)

ComicMix Columns For The Week Ending Feb. 10, 2008

There’s a new Marshall in town, and he’s laid down the law against punny headers.  So let’s just get down to business and rustle up this past week’s worth of ComicMix columns:

So if ComicMix newbee Rick is the Marshall, does that make me the schoolmarm with the heart of go — nah, I’m more like the extra mumbling "rhubarb" in the background…

Sunday’s Free Hot Comics Links!

Drained by an overdose of football and politics, this week we’ve got just a few quick links left on the desk to share,  but some great ones.
 
The animation portal MyToons.com launched a branded channel to showcase the work of its community of animators. Take a few minutes and browse through the work – some of it is truly  amazing. 
 
Assuming you really want one, it’s just about your last chance for a replay of your favorite Superbowl commercials. Hulu beta subscribers can check them out here
 
Filmmaker Ryan Schifrin, creator and co-writer of the Devil’s Due military horror series Spooks, has launched the official Spooks web site here. The site features a lot of original content, including Spooks music by Ryan’s dad, Lalo Schifrin (Mission: Impossible), and Andy Garfield.
 
From our No Comment Files: Lasagna Cat is a very odd live action series based on the Garfield comic strips. You can see it here. Don’t saw we didn’t warn you. 
 
Just in case this comes up in day to day conversation, there is a list here of every reason why Dr. David Banner (Bill Bixby) turned into The Hulk on that old TV show. And despite what you think, it always wasn’t just about being angry. 
 
It might be all about hearts and flowers in the week to come, but for us it’s the true love of cool new comics and DVDs we showcase for you – and better yet, it’s our First Anniversary Celebration, plus, with a little luck, the end of the Writer’s Strike. See you right here for ComicMix Radio on Tuesday!
And as always, you can subscribe to our podcasts via badgeitunes61x15dark-1451831 or RSS!

Turok: Son of Stanley Kramer, by Ric Meyers

 

Unarguably, one of the things DVD has way over VHS is its compression. Far more discs fit in any given space than cassettes – allowing producers to create compact yet extensive homages to filmmakers or genres. A welcome addition to this group arrives this week in the form of the Stanley Kramer Film Collection. We’ll now take a moment for average film-goers to say “who?” and film-lovers to go “ahhhhh!”
 
For the a.f.g.’s amongst you, Kramer was a true maverick-altruist among those about whom the great comedian Fred Allen once said: “You can take all the sincerity in Hollywood, place it in the navel of a fruit fly and still have room enough for three caraway seeds and a producer’s heart.” Kramer’s filmography was chock-ablock with socially-conscious challenges which were as ground-breaking as they were entertaining. As producer and/or director, he constantly strove to do both the right and best thing, including breaking the iron rule of the blacklist and rampant racism.
 
Amongst his classics not in this six-DVD set are The Defiant Ones, Death of a Salesman, High Noon, Inherit the Wind, Judgment at Nuremberg, The Caine Mutiny, and (arguably) It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World. This collection, however, features some of his rarer (The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T), most influential (The Wild One), heartfelt (The Member of the Wedding, and ambitious [Ship of Fools)] efforts — culminating with the 40th Anniversary release of his last great masterpiece Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. 
 
The latter film has a special edition disc of its own, featuring deserved kow-tows from Steven Spielberg, Quincy Jones, Tom Brokaw, Alec Baldwin, and many others. It also has a two-part “making of:” one for the daring interracial romantic comedy-drama itself, and one just on its final pairing of Katherine Hepburn and the dying Spencer Tracy (when the cast and crew recount his final day on the set, delivering the film’s final speech just a fortnight before he passed away, I’ll defy you not to be as misty-eyed as they are).

  (more…)