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Don’t Count David Tennant Out

  • News
  • December 19, 2007

According to Outpost Gallifrey, don’t put too much into all those rumors about David Tennant leaving Doctor Who at the end of this season.

Last week, co-star Catherine Tate told famed British broadcaster Jonathan Ross (In Search Of Steve Ditko) she thought that 2008 might be Tennant’s last. Last night, Tennant told the BBC’s Richard Bacon "It’s a decision I’ve not been forced to make, so I’m just going to play my cards close to my chest as long as I can. Despite what Catherine might have you believe, I haven’t made any decision about the next series yet."

Tennant confirmed he will be staring in four extra-long dramas in the year following the next season, allowing him to fulfill his stage commitments. After that, it’s anybody’s guess.

In an unrelated matter, the London Daily Mail is reporting Absolutely Fabulous star Jennifer Saunders may be taking on the role of Doctor Who for a special episode. If she does, she’ll be joining AbFab co-star Joanna Lumley as the only female doctors; Ms. Lumley joined Rowan Atkinson, Hugh Grant and Jim Broadbent at the Doctor in Steven Moffat’s Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death, which some consider to be outside regular continuity.

More of My Favorite Things, by Elayne Riggs

  • News
  • December 19, 2007

elayne100-5596635The combination of my temporary unemployment and inclement weather has enabled me to catch up on my DC comp box reading, so I can finally pick up where I left off a few weeks back. Mind you, I was looking at October books at the time and since then the November box came in. Still, a couple of the same caveats apply as last time — I haven’t seen the comics from the last few weeks, which gives me a bit of a headache when Robin gets his Suicide Squad advance comps and the issue in question (#4, in stores now) cross-references an important plot point in a Checkmate issue I’ve yet to see. So a lot of these observations will be about the issue prior to the one most comic fans have already seen, but in most cases the artists are the same.

Also, as before, I won’t cover every artist who did a good or serviceable job, just the ones I considered my very favorites of this most recent batch. Any omissions are not to be taken as an assumption that I didn’t like other stuff. And yes, I’m still talking more about how the art affected me viscerally than using technical vocabulary, which makes these more overviews than reviews per se. I miss full-on reviewing, but I just don’t seem to have the time any more.

While I stopped at the letter "F" last time, I wanted to mention a couple books which hadn’t come out at the time. Onward, then:

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Archie, Judge Dredd, and Elves!

 Kids, Grab Your Wallets!

It’s the last shipping week before Christmas, and the Funny Book Elves have unloaded an avalanche of new comics and DVDs. ComicMix Radio gives you the inside intel needed to make you ready to shop! Plus:

• 2000 AD finally gets into the 21st century

• Larry Hama is back and he brought some Spooks

• Archie has a new Editor-In-Chief

And some of our  own brand of holiday cheer awaits you, too, once you… Press The Button!

The Lobo Paramilitary Christmas Special fan film

  • News
  • December 18, 2007

lobo3-4068797So we first told you about this back in August. You’ve probably expunged it from your memory already, and you need it, now more than ever. So we re-present to you the video adaptation of The Lobo Paramilitary Christmas Special by Keith Giffen, Alan Grant, and Simon Bisley, now all in one piece and with a nice Christmas border.

(Do we really have to tell you that it’s not safe for work or kids? NOT SAFE FOR– ah, you know.)

Driving The Big Boat, by Dennis O’Neil

  • News
  • December 18, 2007

Maybe we ought to retire the word “hero” and designate the characters whose needs and actions drive the story, more technically and accurately, as “the protagonist.”

(You’ve guessed that we’re continuing our incredibly prolonged discussion of the evolution of superheroes?  Good.)

As mentioned in an earlier installment of this blather, the word “hero” is derived from the Greek and means, roughly, “to protect and serve.”  (Lest anyone think I’m a scholarly dude who actually knows Greek…I wish!) The problem nowadays is defining exactly how the protection and service is to be accomplished.  In other words, what kind of person do you admire, and why do they do what they do?  Who do you favor mor e– Mother Theresa or the late Colonel David Hackworth, our most decorated combat veteran?

I never met the good nun, but I did spend an hour or so with Colonel Hackworth once and liked him very much.  I don’t think I would have enjoyed Theresa’s company a whole lot.  But maybe she was the more heroic of the two, if we count heroism as doing deeds that take courage and accomplish long-term good.  Going out every day to deal with disease and poverty…it must have taken guts and it can’t have been easy.  Easier than facing enemy guns?  I have no idea what measurement we can use to quantify such things.  Maybe there is none.

Col. Hackworth did what he did repeatedly and must have often known what he was getting into and, presumably, chose to do it anyway.  But I’m wary of heaping too many accolades on folk who, in a military situation, do one brave thing because…

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Happy 18th birthday, Simpsons!

  • News
  • December 18, 2007

The first episode of The Simpsons, titled "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" also known as "The Simpsons Christmas Special," premiered on this day in 1989 on the Fox Television — well, it wasn’t much of a network 18 years ago, but we have to call it that nowadays.

We mention it because nobody ever remembers birthdays around Christmas time.

But you’re still not getting a second present.

Hot Links! Hot Links! Hot Links!

  • News
  • December 17, 2007

This week, ComicMix Radio had the chance to share the good bad and weird – and as usually here’s the links to prove it:

Robert Kirkman, writer of Invincible, Marvel Zombies, The Astounding Wolf-Man, Ultimate X-Men, The Walking Dead and more finally has a home on the web. Go here to check out his Kirkmania.Com, and tell him ComicMix sent you!

EyeShield 21,  the popular Shonen Jump manga that actually combines anime and American football, debuts on Cartoon Network today  but you can get a sneak peek here.

Those Top 25 Best Rock Posters of All Time can be viewed here and while you are looking at them, see if you can figure out the ones that influenced Jim Steranko back in the day! (more…)

Ultimate Complete Final Cut Collection (Volume 1), by Ric Meyers

  • News
  • December 17, 2007

If you happen to have three hundred and twenty-five smackaroos lying around, you can secure a DVD-lover’s dream. Because that’s about how much it’ll cost you to give yourself — or others — my top DVD picks for this season’s gift-giving.

Oh sure, you could simply go back amongst my previous columns and cherry pick my favorites, but what’s the fun of that? Wouldn’t it be, oh, so much better to lay on your chosen a mass media item that they’ll never forget? Imagine the joy and confusion on your preferred holiday morning when they receive not only a mass o’discs but a handy attaché case as well?

Yes, there are not one, but two special editions available just in time for ho-ho-ho-ing that come in a super nifty briefcase. The first, and most hefty, is the long-awaited The Man From U.N.C.L.E.: The Complete Collection, available only from Time Life Video (until the autumn of ’08). Although it comes with a hefty pricetag to match ($250) it includes 41 discs, so that’s really only about six bucks each.

Let’s get one thing straight: The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is to James Bond what The Monkees are to The Beatles. But plenty people like The Monkees, myself included, so that’s okay. When the 1960’s TV networks saw how well 007 was doing, they scrambled to get a piece of the action. MGM and NBC’s answer was to go to the source: James Bond’s creator, Ian Fleming, who took a minor mobster character from Goldfinger, and turned him into Napoleon Solo, the man from the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement. Sam Rolfe, a veteran writer/producer (Twilight Zone, Have Gun Will Travel) took the idea and ran with it. (more…)

The Art of Bone Review

  • News
  • December 17, 2007

The first thing I should mention is that, although this book is credited to Jeff Smith, it doesn’t seem to have been written by him. I think the text in it – aside from a stilted introduction by Lucy Shelton Caswell, curator of the Ohio State Cartoon Research Library – was actually written by the editor, Diana Schutz, but the book itself doesn’t actually say. The text talks about Smith in the third person, and doesn’t show any strong connection to his personal thoughts, so it certainly looks like it was written by someone else.

But no one reads a book like this for the text: the pictures are the main draw, and this is full of pictures. Over two hundred large, well-designed and cleanly printed pages showcase lots of Smith’s Bone art, from early sketches to final color work. The text tends to be descriptive – dating particular pieces, or explaining where in the process they were created – rather than more discursive.

The Art of Bone begins with a 1970ish comic from a very young Smith, in which a very Carl Barks-ian Fone and Phoney Bone have an adventure trying to retrieve a lost gem. (This is clearly juvenilia, but has some cute touches, such as a “title wave” which is not a misspelling.) There are a few other bits from the prehistory of Bone as well, such as a few strips from the Thorn comic Smith drew for Ohio State’s Lantern daily paper. (I’d love to see a full collection of these; the art is clearly professional quality, and the fact that he re-used a lot of the plot in Bone proper is no longer a big problem, since Bone is complete.)

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The Variant Question, by Mike Gold

  • News
  • December 17, 2007

Despite my firm belief that I know everything about everything, I humbly admit there is something about this variant cover thing I don’t understand. Therefore, I’m tossing these questions out to you, the public, for comment. I’m not really trolling for comments; I honestly don’t understand this stuff.

I got into this because I just finished filling out my part of the retailer’s order form for Diamond distributing. My wife will do so tomorrow, my daughter already did. None of us are particularly interested in variant covers. In fact, I can’t recall any of us ever ordering one, let alone juice up our orders so we can procure one of those “for every ten you get one” deals.

Some publishers release as many as five different covers on damn near each title they publish. Some only restrict themselves to two, and then only occasionally. I understand how the device works as a sales incentive for comics shop owners, but, really, do you – as a reader – enjoy this? Do you usually buy alternate covers? All of them? Some of them? Only particular artists? Do you ever pay a premium for one?

More important, if you can’t get one at your store, do you buy it at a premium on the collector’s market? If there’s an alternate cover out there you want, do you track it down online or at conventions or sic your friendly neighborhood retailer on the quest?

Collecting mania aside, there’s really nothing new about alternate covers – the magazine business has been at it since the invention of the staple. In our little donut shoppe, it goes back at least as far as 1956 – Mad #28 had three variant covers. About 15 years ago, our hobby (as opposed to art form) was consumed by gimmick covers: prisms, holograms, lenticular pasties, all kinds of stuff. More recently, we’ve even combined the two with the variant gimmick of the “pencil” cover. Yep, you’re paying more for an unfinished product. (more…)

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