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?
The Mix : What are people talking about today?
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.
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:
- Mike Gold – Whizzy’s Wazoo #52: "…this is Captain American calling…"
- Dennis O’Neil – The Four-Color Answer #52: William James and the Superbowl
- Me – It’s All Good #51: Birds of a Feather
- John Ostrander – Tales From The O-zone #52: Me Eat Meat
- Michael Davis – Straight, No Chaser #52: Pow! Zap! Dim! Thick! Asinine!
- Andrew Wheeler – Manga Friday #15: Something Old, Something New
- Martha Thomases – Brilliant Disguise #43: The Look of Love
- Michael A. Price – Forgotten Horrors #43: George A. Romero’s ‘Diary of the Dead’ in Review
- Ric Meyers – DVD XTra #36: Turok, Son of Stanley Kramer
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!
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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).
Matt Fraction on ‘Thor: Ages of Thunder’ and ‘The Order’
Newsarama has posted an interview with Matt Fraction about Thor: Ages of Thunder, his upcoming peek at the war-torn history of Marvel’s Norse Gods.
Newsarama: Matt, what’s Ages of Thunder about, and how does it tie into the Thor mythos?
Matt Fraction: It’s a Thor graphic novel, told in parts, that plugs the pure Stan-and-Jack interpretation of Thor and the Asgardians into the Norse myth cycle. It sort of exists outside of any current incarnation of Thor – one of my favorite things about the Norse myths is that it’s cyclical; that Ragnarok has survivors and the stories begin again.
So we’re using that as a motivation to look at Thor and his pantheon throughout various different eras of Ragnanroks, with various different visual interpretations. Each time they’re living through these insane and colossal stories that build on top of one another, each chapter presenting us with another way of seeing Asgard as it rages towards its inevitable destruction and rebirth.
Ultimately, these stories present to us with the reasons why Odin saw fit to curse Thor with the humanity of Donald Blake, and who he becomes because of it. That’s the uniting thread that, no matter what apocalypse he’s skyrocketing towards, Thor had this flaw, and this ultimate redemption because of it, told in giant, divine terms. It was danced around back in Thor#159, if you want to get all continuity-guy on it; Ages of Thunder is a kind of explicit play-by-play, where Thor’s lack of humility triggers all of these wonderful, horrible things.
Along with making a passing comparison of Thor to Wu Tang Clan, Fraction shows off a few pieces of art from the series and also weighs in on the "real" reasons his series The Order is coming to an end with issue #10.
Thor: Ages of Thunder hits shelves April 30, 2008.
