The Mix : What are people talking about today?

Happy Birthday, Geoff Johns!

Geoff Johns was born today in 1973 in Michigan where the writer himself admits, it is "damn cold." Like so many of us, Geoff had a passion for the creative (screenwriting, graphic design, storytelling, your basic artist jack-of-all-trades stuff) but he got lucky in Los Angeles when after a phonecall, he became an intern to someone fancy schmancy. This in turn led him to a fruitful career as a contributing writer to DC comics, among others. You’ve probably read a couple of issues of The Flash by Johns, he was responsible for reviving Teen Titans, plus he’s got some fun TV credits sprinkled here and there (Robot Chicken!). We’re glad LA was kind to you Geoff Johns and glad that you have return your karma with some pretty fun storylines. Happy Birthday!

Diamond, diamond, who has the diamond?

  • News
  • January 25, 2008

In today’s brand-new episode of Mike Grell’s Jon Sable: Freelance: Ashes of Eden, Jon and Maggie the Cat alibi each other for the theft of the McGuffin.  The wealthy socialites at the party where it was stolen?  They need to be frisked.

Real-World Superheroes?

  • News
  • January 25, 2008

Next time you see someone in a cape and tights running toward you on a busy street, you might not need to cross the road or locate your pepper spray, folks. You could be having a real-world superhero encounter.

This article in The Minneapolis/St. Paul City Pages documents the presence of "Reals" – people who don costumes to do good as real-life superheroes – throughout the country. According to the article, 150-200 of these individuals operate within the U.S., with at least another 50 fighting crime internationally.

One such real-life superhero is "Geist," who dons a black duster and arms himself with smoke grenades, bolos, a slingshot, and a pair of six-inch fighting sticks to fight crime in and around Minneapolis.

A mission awaits and time is of the essence, so Geist eases his solid frame, honed from martial arts training, into his trusty patrol vehicle—a salt-covered beige sedan. Unfamiliar with the transportation tangle of downtown, he pulls a MapQuest printout from his pocket, discovering his goal is but a short cruise down Washington Avenue.

You know what? Forget that stuff we wrote earlier. You should still cross the street and put as much distance as possible between you and the masked guy in spandex… just to be safe.

… Tip o’ the hat to the Blog@ crew

Checking Out Penny Arcade: The Game

  • News
  • January 25, 2008

Ever since it was announced in 2006, details have been hard to come by regarding Penny Arcade Adventures Episode 1: On The Rain-Slick Precipice Of Darkness, the videogame based on the über-popular Penny Arcade webcomic. That’s starting to change, however, as the anticipated release of Episode 1 nears.

The crew over at Wired were recently offered the opportunity for a semi-review of the game (they weren’t allowed to actually play it – they just watched the designers), and the their description of the gameplay, graphics and overall outlook on the game will certainly whet the appetites of eager videogame and/or webcomic fans.

According to Wired‘s semi-review, the game "blends old-school point-and-click adventure gameplay with RPG combat." The dialogue and art were praised by the reviewer, and some hints were provided about PA characters appearing in the game and, in some cases, the roles they’ll play.

Early in the tutorial, you’ll come across the first of the game’s three support characters, who act like summoned monsters in Final Fantasy. Their gauges build up slowly and over time, and you can call them out when they’re ready to deal a big attack to all enemies. The first support character is Thomas Kemper, the PA gang’s erstwhile cat. ("The cat appraises you, and finds you wanting," reads the text when you first encounter him.) His special move is to walk out and lick his cathole, causing one point of damage to all enemies. This is absolutely useless, but very rarely he will do something better, although I’ve been asked not to spoil what that is.

The reviewer ventures a guess that Episode 1 will hit shelves sometime this spring (judging by its level of completion at the time of the review), with installments released at four-month intervals.

If you’re the type that needs to see it for yourself to believe it, you can also view some footage of Episode 1 over at Game Trailers.

 

Martha Thomases Interviewed!

  • News
  • January 25, 2008

Sure, pride goeth before a fall and such, but we can’t help pointing out this interview with ComicMix VP of Corporate Communications Martha Thomases over at Friends of Lulu.

The interview touches on Thomases’ long and winding path through the comics industry, including one of her best-known roles: Head of Publicity at DC Comics during the "Death of Superman" event. Having served in both an editorial and PR capacity for various publishers, she provides some insight into the way these two aspects of the industry rely upon each other and the reasons they often appeal to similar personality types.

I told stories. I looked at what we were publishing and tried to figure out who would care about those titles, and what was the most effective way to get the word to them. I dealt with the mainstream press, not the comics press, so I looked for human interest stories. After all, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are at least as interesting as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

Thomases also chats at length about the changes she’s witnessed in both the comics industry and the role of women in it.

sundome-9226480

Sex and Death, by Andrew Wheeler

  • News
  • January 25, 2008

 

sundome-9226480This week: three manga series featuring sex and death in high school. (I don’t know about you folks, but if my high school was like some of the ones in manga series, I wouldn’t have bothered to graduate.)

Case in point: Sundome by Kazuto Okada, a story about a young woman who may just be the single biggest tease in the history of the human race. (By the way, the title is pronounced “sun-do-may” and is a Japanese term meaning “stopping just before.” And, yes, the general implication is pretty much what you think it is.) Her name is Kurumi Sahana, and, in time-tested manga fashion, she’s the transfer student who arrives at this high school on page two. Narrator Hideo Aiba falls for her immediately, and thus tries to resign from his “roman club” – a collection of three other exceptionally geeky young men dedicated to vague “romantic” ideals. One of the rules of the club is that members must remain virgins until graduation, and Hideo, being an honest young man, is hoping he can break that vow, and, being very Japanese about it, wants to quit first.

What follows is a very exaggerated but not completely unbelievable sex comedy. Hideo is a whiny little schlub – of course, he’s the hero of a sex comedy manga, so I’m repeating myself – and Kurumi knows exactly what he wants and refuses to give it to him. On the other hand, she’s more than willing to torment him, with a glimpse of this or a touch of that, to get him to do what she wants. One of the things she wants, though, is for Hideo to grow a spine and stop being such a wimpy little stereotype, so she doesn’t come across as a bitch. Manipulative, yes. More than a little cruel, clearly. Not someone to introduce to your mother, absolutely. But she’s honest, and not capricious, and she does follow through on what she says.

(Another girl – somewhat more conventional but also in her way tormenting Hideo and his fellow members of the Roman Club – shows up about halfway through the book.)

I feel I should apologize for liking Sundome, but I did enjoy it. It’s “sexy” in a completely sophomoric way, full of panty shots and nipples straining against fabric, but it’s authentically tawdry and juvenile. It’s probably not a book for women, or for men who have completely outgrown their own childishness (which I clearly haven’t), but if you’ve ever wished Superbad was a book, you are in luck.

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Marketing The Dark Knight After Heath Ledger’s Death

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  • January 25, 2008

There’s been a lot of talk about how the death of Heath Ledger will affect The Dark Knight, but there hasn’t been much response from the studios or producers thus far. Will million-dollar plans get scrapped? Will posters featuring The Joker be removed and/or discontinued? Will they scrap the entire film and just start all over again from scratch??

Okay, so the last question was never really an issue, but you get the idea.

Well, we wish we had all of the answers for you, but we don’t. Instead, we have this article from The Wall Street Journal that manages to get a few quotes from powerful people about the marketing plans for The Dark Knight. However, what really caught our eye about this article was the comprehensive look it provides at the marketing timeline for the film and how all of the bits and pieces fit into a much grander puzzle.

At the defaced Harvey Dent Web page, fans could get a code that allowed them to remove a piece of the overlying image. As more fans participated, Mr. Dent disappeared pixel by pixel, displaying the first official photo of Mr. Ledger’s Joker: a grim white face appearing out of the darkness with dead eyes and an erratic, ruby smile carved into his cheeks.

Not only does it have a long list of sites you can visit for all of the film’s viral-marketed fun, but it also places the information in semi-chronological order – so you can trace the course of the viral campaign at your own pace.

Conan Continues On

  • News
  • January 25, 2008

Conan the Barbarian may be 75 years old, but he can still kick the butts of comics’ youngsters all over town.

From a new coffee-table book and a growing interest in his 1970s stories to the possibility of a new feature film and an upcoming series relaunch, Publishers Weekly provides a nice look at the goings-on in the world of Conan with this recent article.

Among the notable Conan-conscious events set to take place in ’08 is the aforementioned relaunch of Dark Horse Comics’ Conan series, with the current series ending in March at issue #50 and then a new series, Conan the Cimmerian, beginning in June. The new series will be written by ComicMix’s own Timothy Truman and illustrated by Tomas Giorelloand and Richard Corben. It will be edited by Philip Simon.

“With Conan 47–50, readers will see Conan has come to the end of his carefree years as a thief. He’s about to enter the mercenary years. But first, he decides to take a trip back to his homeland, Cimmeria,” Truman said. “His first wanderings into the lands south and east of Cimmeria have been filled with all sorts of nastiness and betrayal and have left a sour taste in his craw. So, he decides to pay a visit back home—just like most teenagers after they take their first stab at the world. (No pun intended, of course.) When he gets there, he finds that he views the place with different eyes, and that people are the same all over.”

The PW crew also chats with Paul Sammon, the writer of the recently released Conan the Phenomenon, a coffee-table hardcover compendium of all things Conan, and investigates the possibility of another Conan feature film.

Marvel Studios Settles with WGA

  • News
  • January 25, 2008

United Hollywood, the news blog founded by a group of Writers Guild of America strike captains, is reporting that the WGA has signed an interim agreement with Marvel Studios " that will put writers immediately back to work on the Marvel Studios development slate."

Marvel Studios chairman David Maisel said that they "look forward to resuming work with writers on our future projects including Captain America, Thor, Ant-Man, and The Avengers."

Ant-Man?  Seriously?

The WGA also signed an interim agreement with independent film studio Lionsgate, whose upcoming work includes Rambo,  Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns, Forbidden Kingdom, Punisher 2, and The Spirit.

This Is Not My Column, by John Ostrander

  • News
  • January 25, 2008

Editor’s note: Due to a completely unrelated attack from the Ether Bunny, this column was supposed to run yesterday. It’s just as swell today, but if you’re looking for Michael Davis’s column, well, it was run yesterday. However, when you’re done reading this, go read Michael by clicking here. Thank you.
 
There are days when I hate writing, just hate it, and this day and this moment is one of them.
 
Why? Because nothing is working. Absolutely nothing. I have, as of this moment, five different versions of this column in the works including this one. I don’t like any of them. I’m presently reduced to writing about how the writing is not going well. Sad, Isn’t it? Not something in which I’m likely to get a lot of sympathy for, though. I mean, a lot of people have to get up and go into jobs that they may not care for. They do it day in, day out, week in, week out, month in, month out and so on. Maybe they don’t ever get to love their job. I mean, I make my living writing comics. That should be fun, right?
 
Not today. Today I’m in hell.
 
Most days I really do love what I do. I get paid pretty nice for it. I have a really quick commute, from the kitchen into the back bedroom, which serves as the office. We had friends who lived with us for awhile and, in the morning, I’d wave to them as they went to work and announce I was beginning my commute, too. And then I amble away. They recently allowed how they wanted to kill me at those moments. I knew that. It was part of the smug job satisfaction.
 

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