The Mix : What are people talking about today?

Rant-O-Rama, by John Ostrander

  • News
  • January 31, 2008
 
Lots of different things pissing me off this week so let’s just make this one a grab bag of rant.
 
The Flordia Primary, Part One. Some time ago, Will Rogers, the noted American humorist, said, “I belong to no organized party. I am a Democrat.” Still true. Given the state of the country today – mired in a war that we shouldn’t have gotten into, edging into recession, a housing shortage that bids fair to upend our financial apple cart – the Democratic nominee for President should be a shoo-in. I think the DNC – the Democratic National Committee – assumes that. Not me. I still trust them to find a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. It’s a time tested Democratic tradition.
 
Cases in point – the Florida and the Michigan primaries. You’ve heard a lot this week about the Florida Republican primary but not so much the Democratic one. Why is that? Because the DNC has decided to punish those two states for moving their primaries ahead despite what the DNC told them. Furthermore, the DNC says they won’t be seating those states’ delegates at the Convention later this year. That’ll show ‘em! Naughty locals!
 
Question: what state lost the Dems the election in 2000? That’s right – Florida. There’s also plenty of votes to be had in Michigan. Mary’s family comes from Michigan and she knows some of them who have voted Democratic regularly before. This time they’ll sit it out or will vote Republican. Why? They’re pissed that the Dems have told them their delegates won’t be seated; that their votes in the primary don’t mean anything. If some people told me my vote didn’t matter, I’d find others who thought it did.
 

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Happy 75th Anniversary to the Lone Ranger!

  • News
  • January 31, 2008

On this day in 1933, to the strains of the William Tell Overture, the first of 2,956 episodes of The Lone Ranger premiered on WXYZ radio in Detroit, Michigan and later on the Mutual Broadcasting System radio network and then on NBC’s Blue Network (which became ABC).

We hope we don’t have to tell you who that masked man is, but just in case, return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear… when a Texas Ranger named Reid, who, as the series begins, was ambushed along with five other Texas Rangers by by Butch Cavendish, leader of the "Hole in the Wall Gang" and a man named Collins, who has infiltrated the Rangers for the gang as a scout, leaving almost every ranger dead.

Reid, the sole survivor, vowed to bring the killers and others like them to justice. So while he recovers, he asks his companion Tonto to make a sixth grave to make people think that he had died as well.

The Lone Ranger has gone on to appear on TV (both animated and the famous series starring Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels), in movies and serials, and (of course) comic books, most recently in publications from Dynamite Entertainment.

Hi-yo Silver! Away!

Y: The Last Man Roundup

  • News
  • January 30, 2008

Sure, I heard something about Captain America and some guy named Bucky this week, but the story I really can’t avoid no matter where I turn is the conclusion of Brian K. Vaughan’s five-year series Y: The Last Man.

From MTV to CNN, the mainstream media is all over this story, and rightly so. It’s one of the best to hit comic shops’ shelves in recent years. (If you don’t agree, we’ll just have to step outside. Seriously.) Over the last week, we’ve been directing you to some of the coverage the series and its writer have received as the release date for the final issue appraoched, but the buzz around Y has noticeably spiked in the last 24 hours.

So, without further ado, let’s take a (somewhat spoiler-free) look at what’s being said about the conclusion of Y: the Last Man.

(Oh, and don’t worry about spoilers in this post, folks. I haven’t had a chance to pick up my copy of Y #60 yet, so I’m providing links to spoiler-free stories except where I’ve noted otherwise.)

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Carla Gugino talks Watchmen

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  • January 30, 2008

Actress Carla Gugino, who plays The Silk Spectre (a.k.a. Sally Jupiter) in the film adaptation of the graphic novel Watchmen, had a lot to say about the role in a recent interview with MTV.

I start at 25 years old in the 1940s, and I age to 67 years old with full prosthetics in the 1980s. [Sally] is a larger-than-life character. She’s a costumed crime fighter, but her idea of a costume is very Bettie Page-meets-[Alberto] Vargas.

In the interview, which took place during the recent Screen Actors Guild Awards, Gugino offers up her thoughts on her character’s hairdo, the amount of "ass-kicking" scenes she filmed, and one of the story’s darkest moments: the scene in which her character is raped.

According to Gugino, the film’s title sequence could be one of the most impressive elements of the big-screen adaptation, combining computer-generated effects with live-action shots to create a visual timeline for the troubled superteam.

"It incorporates real history and the fictitious world of Watchmen, and so it’s very cool,” Gugino explained to MTV. “We meet Nixon and all sorts of people.”

Matthew Sturges on Salvation Run

  • News
  • January 30, 2008

Readers of DC’s villain-centric series Salvation Run received a bit of a suprise when issue #3 hit shelves earlier this month and series writer Bill Willingham was suddenly replaced by his frequent collaborator, Matthew Sturges.

Luckily, ComicBookResources has interviews with both Sturges and Willingham, discussing the reasons why they pulled the ol’ switcheroo. Willingham says the decision to leave Salvation Run was made under doctor’s orders, but hints at a far more sinister, unspoken explanation:

There’s a longer version with more nuance, many more details, some interesting subplots, a few surprise dramatic twists and even a musical interlude or two, but in the interest of discretion and decorum we’ll stick with the short version.

Willingham goes on to assure readers that neither Fables nor Jack of Fables (which he co-writes with Sturges) were even considered for dismissal.

On the other side of things, Sturges said his main concern is keeping the story flowing without interruption, and cited Willingham’s characterization of the Joker as something he hopes to seamlessly work into his own scripting. He also hinted at some intriguing events to come for the series:

[There will be] giant gorillas, fighting tooth and nail, to the death. If that’s not enough to hook you, nothing else I could possibly add would entice you more.

‘Nuff said.

Spooks Goes Online

  • News
  • January 30, 2008

Supernatural investigations are big in comics these days. From Perhapanauts to B.P.R.D., readers can’t seem to get enough of teams-investigating-scary-stuff stories. Add another to the mix with the upcoming launch of Spooks from Devil’s Due Publishing.

Before the series goes on sale next month, fans can check out preview pages, character profiles, creator interviews and more on the shiny, new Spooks website.  

According to the site, Spooks is about the agents who work for the Department of Supernatural Defense, which "recruits, arms, and deploys sepcially trained forces based within the nation’s borders in support of national security …. to keep the country free of supernatural enemis, whether their origins are domestic, international or otherworldly." 

Spooks is written by Ryan Schifrin and Larry Hama.  Schifrin produced and directed the film, Abominable, for the Sci-Fi Channel, and also served as musical consultant for Rush Hour and Rush Hour 2.  Hama worked on some of the most influential comics of all time, including Wolverine, G. I. Joe, Mort, The Dead Teenager and others.  

The art is by Adam Archer and Jonny Rench (Friday the 13th). Covers are by Greg Staples and Adam Archer, Federico D’Allesandro, Bill Sienkiewicz and Drew Strewzan.

Casting Call posted for Thor film

  • News
  • January 30, 2008

Hey there, actors – this one’s for you:

Partially disabled medical student Dr. Donald Blake discovers his heretofore unknown alter ego, the Norse warrior, Thor.

That’s the film description posted in a casting call on www.auditions-auditions.com. The film is looking for non-union actors, ages 18-60, any gender, for filming in New York City.

Want to join the Norse God’s posse? Make sure to submit your headshot by Feb. 3!

 

New Punisher: War Zone photos

  • News
  • January 30, 2008

Lexi Alexander, director of the upcoming Punisher: War Zone film, recently posted some photos on her website from the set  in Vancouver.

The images provide the first look (actually, a very tiny peek) at Ray Stevenson in the Punisher gear.

It seems that Punisher series cover artist Tim Bradstreet is also providing some input on the film, as Alexander posts an excerpt from one of the messages she received from Bradstreet:

I had an opportunity to see a ton of stills from the film and it looks sensational. The Jigsaw makeup is top. LOVED seeing Doug Hutchinson look like such a hard assed nut, and of course, Ray Stevenson looks AWESOME. They lit a lot of it like I light and [they] did a great job.”

 

Interview: Jamie Delano on Narcopolis

  • News
  • January 30, 2008

Jamie Delano is back in the game. The British writer who helped usher in Vertigo with his launch of Hellblazer returns to comics with Narcopolis, his radical new vision of the future, out today from Avatar Press. In this exclusive, we took the chance to interview Jamie and got all sorts of answers about addiction, controlled substances, controlled people, and why you should be careful about getting drunk in a strange bar…

It’s been twenty years since you burst onto the scene here in America, with some rather scathing looks at Thatcherite England and Reagan/Bush America. So what are you looking at now?

Is that the time already?  Strange, how one’s life passes.  I guess you mean "bursting" in an antiheroic fashion…?

Not entirely sure just what it is I’m looking at now… some sort of ugly foetal monster of post-democracy is clawing its way down the birth-canal of history, though.  The aberrant post-war half-century of  social liberalism is choking its last, held face-down in the swamp of Terror.

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