The Mix : What are people talking about today?

Will the writers strike affect the San Diego Comic-Con?

  • News
  • January 15, 2008

My Magic 8-Ball says "ALL SIGNS SAY YES". Valerie D’Orazio links to this piece in Wired‘s blog (which links to Marc Bernadin, which links back to Heidi MacDonald and Peter Sanderson):

Comic-Con is a ways off, but people are already talking about the effects the Writers Guild (and possible Directors and Actors Guild) strike will have on the geek event of the summer.

The second half of the TV season is already a doozy, and if production doesn’t start soon next season may never start. Since TV shows like Heroes, Battlestar Galactica, and Lost draw in a large part of the crowd at Comic-Con, can we expect a way smaller audience this July? … To make matters worse, if the Directors and Actors Guilds follow-suit with their own strikes, will movies that are expected to promote themselves in San Diego, like Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince, Watchmen, Star Trek, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and G.I. Joe, show up without their stars? If a movie promotes itself and no one is around does anyone see it?

The real question will be the ripple effects outwards. Will we have Kristen Bell and Hayden Pantierre doing even more conventions? Will the autograph tables at WizardWorld start having actors from Grey’s Anatomy? And most importantly: will I be able to get a hotel closer to the San Diego Convention Center than National City?

On the other hand, we could get great shows like this one: Murder, Unscripted:

Fight Bribery With… Comics?

  • News
  • January 15, 2008

The Collective ManChina’s Communist ruling party plans to start off the Lunar New Year holiday by distributing comics depicting graft and various other forms of corruption in an effort to reduce crime in one of the nation’s most troubled provinces. 

According to the Associated Press:

"The pocket-size comic book, which includes caricatures depicting common forms of graft and bribery, will be distributed as a gift to 100,000 party members in the central province of Henan, Xinhua news agency said."

 

Cut Them Off At The Past, by Dennis O’Neil

  • News
  • January 15, 2008

And the Screen Writers Guild lurches into a tenth week and if there’s any end in sight, I haven’t heard about it.

Last time, I mentioned the Academy of Comic Book Arts and its failure to do any significant negotiating on behalf of its members. ACBA wasn’t the first attempt, though, to organize those glorious mavericks, the comic book community. In the 60s…

Wait! Better issue a warning before I go further. Do not regard anything that follows as gospel. (In fact, you might consider not regarding the Gospel as gospel, but let us not digress.) I have no reason not to believe what I’m about to tell you except one: About a year before he died, Arnold Drake, who was a busy comic book writer at the time we’ll be discussing, told me that the story I had wasn’t the whole story, or even necessarily accurate. I don’t know why I didn’t press him for further information, but I didn’t.

Okay, the story:

(more…)

Happy 144th birthday, Richard F. Outcault!

  • News
  • January 14, 2008

Today in 1863, the very first Sunday comic artist was born.

Yes, we should all take pause today to acknowledge Richard Felton Outcault, who drew the world’s first color comic strip, "Origin of a New Species," in The New York World‘s Sunday edition.

His first regular strip was "Hogan’s Alley," but he later became known for Buster Brown and The Yellow Kid.  Where would we be without your first brave steps, Mr. Outcault? I’m not sure I would want to live in a Peanuts-less world, even if I were (perish the thought) ignorant to their very existence. We must all thank Outcault for paving the way. He died in 1928 having made his mark. In color.

Look to your loins!

  • News
  • January 14, 2008

In today’s brand new, full color Demons of Sherwood adventure, Robin of Locksley is pushed into greater heroic adventure.

Fires! Swordplay! Attacks and rescues!  All this, and more, as Robert Tinnell and Bo Hampton tell you what happened to Robin Hood, Maid Marian, the Merry Men and the rest of Sherwood recovered from their happily ever after.

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Roger Avary arrested for manslaughter and DUI

  • News
  • January 14, 2008

This just in from AP:

Oscar-winning screenwriter Roger Avary has been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter and driving under the influence after a Ventura County car crash that killed a man and injured Avary’s wife, authorities said.

Avary, 42, was the driver in the single-car collision shortly after midnight Sunday in Ojai, said Capt. Ross Bonfiglio of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department.

Killed in the accident was Andreas Zini, 34, a resident of Italy who was apparently visiting the couple. Firefighters cut Zini from the car with Jaws of Life, and he died several hours later at Ventura County Medical Center.

Avary’s wife Gretchen, 40, was ejected from the car and found in the road by deputies, Bonfiglio said. She was hospitalized in stable condition.

Avary was booked but later released on $50,000 bail, Bonfiglio said. He did not know whether Avary has hired an attorney.

Avary won an Academy Award along with Quentin Tarantino for writing "Pulp Fiction," and was also a co-writer of the recent epic "Beowulf." He and his wife live in Ojai, a popular artists’ colony and tourist destination 14 miles north of Ventura.

We’ll post more as we hear about it.

UPDATE: Neil Gaiman writes:

I just read the news about Roger Avary, and am mostly posting this because people have already started writing to let me know about it, and to stop that turning into a flood. (I still can’t access Blogger except via a sort of email work-around right now.)

 

According to the news reports (and I have no other information), Roger crashed his car yesterday. His wife Gretchen was thrown out of the car and is in hospital with serious injuries, and the passenger, an Italian friend of Roger’s called Andreas Zini, was killed. Roger has been arrested for suspicion of manslaughter and DUI, and released on bail.

 

And I’m worried about all of them. Worried about Gretchen and their kids, worried about the family of their poor friend, and worried about Roger (who, it’s probably worth mentioning, I’ve known well for over a decade, and who barely drinks).

Paris Review

  • News
  • January 14, 2008

Paris collects a four-issue mini-series set in that city in the early ‘50s, written by Andi Watson and illustrated by Simon Gane. Watson is fairly well-known these days as the writer-artist of such relationship-oriented comics as Slow News Day and Love Fights, but I haven’t heard of Gane before. (From a quick perusal of his blog I think that’s because he’s mostly worked in the UK and for music magazines.) Gane has a very ornate, ornamented, even rococo style, which is a good artistic choice for a historical comic – it clearly distances the action, and keeps it from feeling contemporary.

The story of Paris is pretty straightforward, and focuses on two young women from elsewhere living in that city. Juliet is an American, studying at the Academie de Stael by day and painting society portraits by night to pay her rent. Deborah is an English aristocrat chaperoned by her hideous aunt Miss Chapman. (more…)

Editing Comics In The 21st Century, by Mike Gold

  • News
  • January 14, 2008

As you may know, as part of the ComicMix ruling triumvirate I spend my spare time editing comics published on, and soon by, ComicMix. It’s the most fun part of the job, and I really enjoy the catalytic experience. I’ve been editing for a million years, much of that time editing comics, and I try really hard not to get set in my ways. Having a short attention span helps.

So does working on the Internet. Case in point:

I’ve been working with John Ostrander and/or Timothy Truman since the week before fish crawled out of the ocean. It’s one of my happiest experiences; it’s great fun to work with talented people with whom you share culture, worldview and personal history. But I’m always concerned that creatively we’ll fall into a rut and take things for granted. So far, so good.

Our process (and this differs for each creative team as well as on each project) is simple. Either John or Tim comes up with an idea and we kick it around in an endless series of witty and self-referential e-mails. Eventually Tim decides he’s read enough. John and I continue for a bit just to make sure Tim didn’t change his mind (or maybe just to annoy him; I can’t tell anymore). Then John writes up a plot for the first chunk of story. Before the Internet, that would usually be a 22 – 24 page segment; now, it’s whatever John feels like. We kick it around a tiny bit, and Tim takes it away and draws whatever he feels like drawing. John dialogues it. At each step of the way, I make snarky notes and cultural references that would confound Dennis Miller.  (more…)

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