The Mix : What are people talking about today?

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ANDREW’S LINKS: Super Hanger!

  • Uncategorized
  • September 18, 2007

 

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Now you have no excuse not to hang up your super-suit…

Comics Links

Eddie Campbell writes about speech balloons (including his differences of opinion with Bryan Talbot).

Yann Martel, author of the Booker Prize-winning novel The Life of Pi, has been sending a book and cover letter to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper every week for the past three months. This week, the book he sent and wrote about was Art Spiegelman’s Maus.

Viper Comics, not content with making comics I’ve never heard of, is branching out into clothes I won’t wear.

Comic Book Resources talks to Andy Smith, artist of Stormwatch PHD.

Fantagraphics Books has a regular Shoot-Out party, in which they run out into the woods, dump a pile of old monitors, lawn mowers, and TVs, and then blow them to pieces with assorted firearms. Apparently, this is not precisely legal. Wow, if you’d told me there was a comics publisher that shot up electronics regularly, Fantagraphics would not be the one I guessed…

Comics Worth Reading isn’t sure if there’s any market for comics mini-series any more.

Associated Content interviews Desert Peach creator Donna Barr.

Comic Snob pulls together various bestseller charts to make a grand unified field theory of popular manga.

Dick Hates Your Blog tries to work up some hate for Fantagraphics and Drawn & Quarterly.

Living Between Wednesdays likes that new magazine Comics Foundry.

Comics Reviews

Inside Pulse reviews the usual stack of comics, starting with Daredevil #100.

Sequential Tart reviews the newest Minx books, Clubbing and Good As Lily.

Comics Reporter reviews Will Eisner’s Life, in Pictures.

The Axis reviews Confessions of a Blabbermouth.

Warren Peace Sings the Blues reviews the Groo 25th Anniversary Special.

From The Savage Critics:

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DENNIS O’NEIL: On Writing Comics

  • News
  • September 18, 2007

 

I don’t remember a lot about the first time I ever did a cable TV show. It must have been in the 1980s because I know I was working for Marvel, and it was probably on one of those public access channels which still exist but never seem to have anything on them. The evening’s host might have been Carl Gafford. I do recall, to a certainty, that my co-guest was Jo Duffy and we were debating a topic with, surely, international if not cosmic consequence. To wit: which is the better technique for producing comic book scripts, the so-called Marvel method or the full-script method.

Why the networks, or at least the New York Times, did not report this momentous colloquy I know not. Just another example of the ineptitude of American journalism, I suppose.

Jo had the Marvel side of the dialogue and I championed the full-script side. I have no idea what either of us said or did, but it’s now years later and we’re both still alive, so it couldn’t have been too bloody.

Which brings us, via a prolix pre-digression, to this week’s topic. I put it to you, my friend: which is better, Marvel style or full script?

But before you answer, let’s be sure we’re all talking about the same things and that’ll require some definitions. Here we go.

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Happy birthday, Enterprise!

  • Uncategorized
  • September 17, 2007

enterprise-6532375On this day in 1976, the first Space Shuttle, Enterprise, was unveiled by NASA. Named after some fictional starship from some silly TV show, OV-101 was rolled out of the Rockwell plant at Palmdale, California. In keeping with its name, Gene Roddenberry and much of the cast of the original series of Star Trek were on hand at the dedication ceremony, and the show’s theme music was played.

The ship currently resides at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum‘s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles International Airport, where it is the centerpiece of the space collection.

Graphics Noir: GrimJack Returns

  • News
  • September 17, 2007

gj-06-proof-8433220John Gaunt is GrimJack, a hard-bitten mercenary and private detective in Cynosure, a city at the nexus of dimensions. Raised in the Pits to fight for the amusement of the public, Gaunt lives by his finely honed wits. He can and does fight demons, sharpshooters, magicians and gangsters.

Since its first appearance as a back-up in Starslayer in 1983, GrimJack has been a fan favorite. The stories blend genres – the hard-boiled detective stories of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammet get combined with the sword and sorcery of Robert E, Howard. GrimJack can and has done science fiction, horror, fantasy, and even westerns, with a streak of dark humor and strong, strange characters running all the way through.

In his newest adventure, exclusively on ComixMix.com every Tuesday starting October 2nd, Gaunt goes in search of The Manx Cat, a statuette made of fossilized dreams. Why do so many want to possess it? What happens when it “goes walkabout”? Why is Gaunt seemingly immune to it and how did he become that way? What price did he pay?

The saga of the Manx Cat has been part of the GrimJack legend since the very first story. Here, at last, Ostrander and Truman reveal the legend’s roots – as John Gaunt must attempt to declaw the Cat once and for all!

John Ostrander wrote some of the most important and influential comics of the past 25 years. After studying theology and training under Del Close at Chicago’s legendary Second City, he used this knowledge of story and character to bring a unique voice to the marketplace. Ostrander started his career as a professional writer as a playwright. He co-wrote his best known effort, Bloody Bess, with actor William J. Norris. The production, directed by the noted Stuart Gordon, starred Dennis Franz and Joe Mantegna. Bloody Bess has toured all over North America and Europe, and is frequently revived.

From Warp, his first published comics work in 1983, based on the series of science fiction adventure plays, he went on to create GrimJack with Timothy Truman. He’s since written Batman, The Spectre, Manhunter, Firestorm, Hawkman, Martian Manhunter, Suicide Squad, Justice League and more for DC Comics. At Marvel Comics, Ostrander has also worked on X-Men, Bishop, Quicksilver, Heroes for Hire and The Punisher. From the mid-1980s until her death from breast cancer in 1997, Ostrander frequently co-wrote with his wife Kim Yale. It was while working with her that he made what is probably his most lasting contribution to the DC Universe: the recasting of Barbara Gordon, the former Batgirl, into the information and computer specialist Oracle.

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Price Performs At Ammons Benefit

  • News
  • September 17, 2007

ammons-poster-2007-jpg-3048585If you happen to be in Chicago this coming Saturday (September 22nd), you can watch and hear musician and ComicMix writer Michael H. Price along with a legion of music stalwarts in tribute to Albert Ammons, one of the very best boogie-woogie pianists.  But I’ll let his granddaughter Lila give you the low-down:

"Albert Ammons was a gifted musician who helped spark the boogie-woogie craze and whose music has influenced such greats as Dr. John, Axel Zwingenberger, Hadda Brooks, and Dave Alexander. He was also my grandfather. This year marks the one-hundredth anniversary of his birth. Please join me, and a constellation of stellar performers, as we celebrate the life and music of this extraordinary artist." The event is being held at the Chicago Temple at 4:00 PM Saturday. Quite frankly, the $25.00 ticket price is worth it just to appreciate the venue’s awesome architecture. And it ‘s in the heart of the Chicago Loop overlooking Daley Plaza, site of the penultimate scene from The Blues Brothers – the one where the cops scale the County Building walls.

If you’re a blue, jazz, roots and/or rock fan, this is the place for you. For more information, check out their website. It’s gonna be kickin’.

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ANDREW’S LINKS: Bikini Jeans

  • Uncategorized
  • September 17, 2007

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To start the week out on a pleasant note for about half of you – check out bikini jeans. [via Pat Cadigan]

Comics Links

The UK SF Book News Network talked to John Higgins, artist on a graphic novel adaptation of the old splatter-horror movie The Hills Have Eyes.

Estoreal reports on representing the Jack Kirby Museum at New York’s HOWL Festival in Tomkins Square Park.

The Baltimore Sun talks to Steven Parke, who uses a photo-manipulation style to create graphic novels.

A New York Times article on reality TV wandered off into graphic novel-land, talking about a book called The Homeless Channel.

Comics Reporter interviews Chris Brandt.

Comics Reviews

Library Journal’s current graphic novel reviews start out with the fourth volume of Kiyohiko Azuma’s Yotsuba&! (whose first volume recently confused me), and goes on to review a bunch of other things as well.

The Indypendent reviews a graphic novel called Fat Free.

Brad Curran of Comics Should Be Good reviews recent comics, kicking off with Batman #668.

Curran, still at CSBG, also pokes his head into the world of Marvel’s all-ages comics.

At The Savage Critics, two critics unleash tag-team havoc on today’s comics:

Newsarama asks a bunch of comics critics why they don’t talk about the art. (When I don’t, personally, it’s usually because I simply forgot to mention it, or because there wasn’t anything interesting to say.)

Over on my personal blog, I went nuts with a overly long comparison of two art-comics anthologies from last year: Best American Comics 2006 and An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, and True Stories.

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Robert Jordan (James Oliver Rigney), 1948-2007

  • Uncategorized
  • September 17, 2007

robert-jordan-6627197James Oliver Rigney, Jr. , who wrote under the names Robert Jordan and Reagan O’Neal and was best known as the author of the bestselling The Wheel of Time fantasy series, died yesterday from complications from cardiac amyloidosis. He was 58.

Jordan also wrote seven Conan novels, which have been kept in print by his longtime publisher, Tor Books.

He was best known for his massive Wheel of Time series, an eleven book series at the time of his passing. Early reports state that the twelfth book in the series, tenatively titled A Memory Of Light, will be finished by his editors and be published in 2009.

Our sympathies to his wife Harriet McDougal, and the rest of his family and friends.

Photo by Jeanne Collins, taken November 2, 2005.

MIKE GOLD: Look Who’s Writing Comics Now!

  • News
  • September 17, 2007

mike-gold-2-100-9853155There’s an exciting new trend in comics these days. Comic book writers are actually being hired to write comic books.

Recently, we’ve seen guys like Jim Shooter taking on The Legion of Super-Heroes, Marv Wolfman on sundry Teen Titans and the newer-still Vigilante, Tony Isabella told me he’s got a full schedule of assignments and our own John Ostrander is writing the new Suicide Squad mini-series. Go figure.

We’ve gone through a fad of hiring novelists and movie writers and directors. Some of these folks have turned in some great stuff. Others, not so great. Most, not so on-time. There’s nothing wrong with this. In fact, back in 1981 I brought on a playwright named John Ostrander under the belief that his training and background would inure to the benefit of the medium. In all modesty, that was one of my better decisions, I think.

Since then, John’s gone on to become one of the top writers in the medium. I know this because he’s writing three or four major projects for ComicMix while juggling his Star Wars and DC commitments. That’s because John devoted his full resources to the craft of writing comic books. It shows.

Comic book writing is not a part-time job. It requires discipline, experience and skill. In order to make a career out of it and remain fresh and innovative, comic book writing requires thought and enormous effort. Novelists and movie folks do not have the time to prioritize this medium. Movie folks in particular have to turn down stupid money to write for this medium which, by the way, pays pretty well if you’re fully employed.

Stan Lee, bless him, made it sound so easy. Back in the day, he frequently said anybody could write comics. That’s true… if you happen to be Stan Lee. A great many writers of the 1950s went the other way, from comics to “Hollywood” (movies and teevee), seeking what was then greater stability, better compensation, and a stronger sense of legitimacy during a time when society put comics creators on par with child pornographers. By and large, most found their storytelling skills inhibited by the commercial demands of these media, and they returned to the comics world.

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Happy birthday, Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner!

  • News
  • September 17, 2007

On this day in 1949, we had the premiere of Fast and Furry-ous, which brought us the first appearances of Wile E. (Ethelbert) Coyote and the Road Runner. And yes, Mark Evanier is responsible for the name Ethelbert. So come with us now and take a look while we try to figure out one question — why does Mel Blanc get a voice credit for this cartoon?

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BIG BROADCAST’s Stories Behind The Stories

  • News
  • September 16, 2007

grimm-6330769Tick…tick…the countdown clock on the wall here at the Big ComicMix Broadcast Central shows less than 16 days until we launch Phase Two here on ComicMix.  There is so much is coming together in the next 2+ weeks and we are itching to share it all. First, though,  let’s cover a few things from our To Do List:

• If you are ready to add material from Top Cow to your mobile phone, go here. The folks at Zannel have it all set up with easy-to-follow instructions for this channel and the others they offer from current TV & movie properties.

• Those reprints of the first three issues of Grimm Fairy Tales may not hit comic stores until November, but you can preview the amazing cover art of #1 by Al Rio here. If you poke around, there are a few more pieces of Grimm art to drool over, too.

• With the recent "talent exodus" at The World Wrestling Federation and the renewal and expansion of TNA Wrestling on SpikeTV, you might want to see just what these "new" guys are all about by going here. They also do a daily internet video show – and, to bring it back to comics, they have strong connections with Marvel’s new licensed toy line. My guess is we will see some sort of Marvel/TNA project early in 2008.

This week, start watching for knock-your-socks-off previews of the original material coming to ComicMix – FREE – on October 2nd. At the same time join us on the Broadcast as we let the creators share the excitement of their projects in their own words.

Oh yeah – and the Big ComicMix Broadcast hits the 100 mark, too! Whose bringing the cake??

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