The Mix : What are people talking about today?

The little Ant that could

Take one popular super heroine and roll her into a whole new comics company — that’s the path of Big City Comics. Spun from the former Image series, Ant, Big City has a table full of new projects and a kick ass attitude about comics — and you get it here  first.  Plus proof that some internet rumors are true as Jim Shooter returns to the Legion of Super Heroes, more DC deadline drudgery, and a little girl from the stage of the Apollo Theater who used her big voice to hit the charts.

One – Two – Three – PRESS THE BUTTON!

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startrek_logo_2007-6694439

Happy 41st birthday, Star Trek!

startrek_logo_2007-6694439Forty one years ago today, on a little network called NBC, a little TV show from Desilu hit the airwaves for the first time with an episode entitled "The Man Trap" or as everybody else knows it, the one with the salt vampire.

Six TV series and 726 episodes later (not to mention ten movies with a new one on the way, twelve comic book series and a passel of mini-series and one shots, video games, role-playing games, books, e-books, and that Power Records book and LP with the Neal Adams cover — oh, don’t give me that look, you know the one) Star Trek has grossed billions of dollars and changed the world as we know it.

As one of the thousands of people who’s worked on the franchise and through my own small contributions helped build on this marvelous future, I’d like to offer my congratulations to all the people who helped make it happen and all the people who watch it with us, and here’s hoping we still keep it going where we’ve never gone before.

Now, if I only had a way to somehow link this post with yesterday’s birthday post for Monty Python… oh, wait, I do:

UPDATE 9:44 PM: Okay, so I can’t count– it’s 41 years, not 40. Been bopped on the head with one too many tribbles.

COMICS LINKS: Insert Snappy Title Here

Comics Links

Comic Book Resources talks to producer Tony Panaccio about the recent Heroes Initiative DVD, featuring a conversation among Stan Lee, Joe Quesada, and Kevin Smith.

CBR’s Mayo Report crunches the numbers on comics and trade paperback sales in July. Bottom line? Marvel is selling a hell of a lot of TPs collecting series that barely ended.

The Wall Street Journal thinks that women might buy more comics if given more of the stuff they’d like.

The Bookseller – the magazine of bookselling in the UK – points out that manga is huge over there, too.

Comics Reviews

Bookgasm reviews DC Comics Covergirls.

Forbidden Planet International reviews Marvel’s Secret War.

PLAYBACK:stl reviews Immortal Iron Fist #1.

Seibertron reviews two upcoming Transformers comics: Devastation #1 and Beast Wars Ascending #1.

Comics Reporter reviews The Mice Templar #1.

Blogcritics reviews Graphic Classics: Bram Stoker.

Comics Worth Reading looks at the Carey/Liew/Hempel Minx original graphic novel Re-Gifters.

Panels and Pixels investigates Fletcher Hanks’s I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets.

Chris’s Invincible Super-Blog reviews this week’s comics, starting with The All-New Atom #15.

Brian Cronin of Comics Should Be Good reviews She-Hulk #21, writer Dan Slott’s last issue.

Cronin also reviews the first part of the latest everything-will-change-forever storyline, “One More Day,” in Amazing Spider-Man #544. (And does anyone else start singing Les Miserables songs every time he hears that title?)

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MARTHA THOMASES: Anticipation

3519005904-2712620Tomorrow is the Big Day. After months of blogging, after weeks of teasing on the podcasts, we’re going to announce what’s next here at ComicMix at the Baltimore Comic-Con. If you aren’t able to be in Baltimore with us, I’m sure Editor-in-Chief Mike Gold will make sure you know as soon as everybody else. He’s good about sharing that way.

As I write this, the Big Day is not tomorrow. It’s the day after the day after the day after tomorrow. This makes me very happy. I have nearly 90 hours to look forward to our panel.

Anything can happen.

When I was a child, I was a huge fan of The Mickey Mouse Club – the real one, with Darla, Annette, Karen and Cubby, not the fake one with Justin, Britney and Christina. Every day of the week was something special. Monday was Fun with Music; Tuesday was Guest Star Day; Thursday was Circus Day and Friday was Talent Round Up. The best was Wednesday because that was Anything Can Happen Day. That’s because, well, anything could happen.

Often, I like the anticipation as much as or more than I like the event I was anticipating. For example, I spend most of March waiting for the warmth of summer, and then I hate summer in the city. Spring is really the best, with the buds on the trees promising flowers and shade.

I’ve been happily with the same man for nearly 30 years, but sometimes I miss courting, when we didn’t yet know how the other would taste or smell or speak.

Comics? When I was the kid watching Mouseketeers, I couldn’t wait until Sunday, when I got to pick out my weekly comic book. Then, when it was Sunday, I would pick up each one, examining the covers, looking for clues (like a giant gorilla) that would tip me off that this was the best story ever.

Trust me, this is not one of those times when the anticipation is the best part. This is better.

You don’t believe me. You think I’m a publicist, and therefore I’ll say anything to get your attention. I once worked for a man who described a the job like this: a pessimist says, “The glass is half empty;” an optimist says, “The glass is half full.” A publicist says, “Oh my god! It’s a flood!” A funny story, but it’s not the way I see my job. I’ll tell you the story about where the glass came from, what happened to the water, and which of you might someday be thirsty.

So go about your Saturday, and enjoy yourself. If you find yourself in Baltimore, come by the ComicMix booth and say “Hi.” You can talk to some of the talented writers, artists, and crew, maybe get some clues about tomorrow’s big story. If you bring your own yarn and needles, I’ll show you how to knit.

If you aren’t in Baltimore, enjoy the summer weekend. And if you find yourself in traffic, or there’s a seventh-inning stretch, you can think about tomorrow and smile.

It’s worth it.

Martha Thomases is ComicMix‘s empiress of all things media, a.k.a. Martha the Merciless.

Madeleine L’Engle: 1918-2007

madeleinelengle-6333172The New York Times reports that Madeleine L’Engle, award-winning author of more than 60 books, died yesterday in Connecticut of natural causes at the age of 88.

Ms. L’Engle (pronounced LENG-el) was best known for her children’s science fiction book A Wrinkle in Time, which won the John Newbery Award as the best children’s book of 1963. By 2004, it had sold more than 6 million copies, was in its 67th printing and was still selling 15,000 copies a year. Many sequels followed, including A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, and Many Waters.

We offer our condolences to her family, friends, and fans.

Happy birthday, Monty Python!

On this day in 1969, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gillaim, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin gathered to start filming the first episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. If it weren’t for them, we’d have to call massive piles of junk email something completely different.

And now for something completely different…

Dial “B” For Back!

x-1892222We’ve mentioned them before, but this is the day my favorite comics website, Dial B For Blog, returns to the Internet with all-new entries.

Written and designed by "Robby Reed," Dial B For Blog covers the history of the comic book form in detail and with panache. It’s always a joy to read, and even a guy like me who has consumed all the American comics history he could find over the past many decades learns a lot from each entry. Today, Robby begins a three part look into the real origins of the Batman, going beyong Anthony Tolin’s recent unearthing of The Shadow connection and noting relationships with folks like Alex Raymond and Will Eisner.

Better still, all the previous "issues" of Dial B For Blog remain online, all 388 of them!

Welcome back, "Robby Reed."

 

 

Meyer-Briggs for fans

The Myers-Briggs Personality Sorter was intended to be a general, universal personality ID that divides people into one of sixteen distinct personality types, along four axes for Introverted (I) or extroverted (E), Sensing (S) or Intuitive (N), Thinking (T) or Feeling (F), and Judging (J) or Perceiving (P).

That said, these folks have applied it to the way we look at personalities:

ENTJ: The Evil Overlord

The ENTJ is best characterized by his charisma, his ability to grasp complex situations and to think flexibly and creatively, his keen and active intelligence, and his overwhelming desire to crush the world beneath his boot. ENTJs are naturally outgoing and love the company of other people, particulalry minions, henchmen, slaves, and the others they rule with ruthless efficiency….

ISTP: The Psycho Vigilante

ISTPs are quiet, unassuming people, who tend to be mechanically gifted but withdrawn and reserved. ISTPs often need a great deal of personal space and "alone time," which may give others the impression that they are aloof; in reality, this time is necessary to hide their secret identities….

ENTP: The Mad Scientist

The ENTP, like the ENTJ, is charismatic, outgoing, and intelligent. ENTPs are often quickwitted, clever, and genial; they typically display a highly organized, rational cognitive ability which makes them natural scientists and inventors….

Now if they can just come up with a conversion chart for comic book professionals, I’m golden.

MICHAEL DAVIS: Reading is Fundamental

rif-1245405My friend Tony Isabella has mentioned that I give a good rant, Tony; this is about to be the rant to beat all rants!

I am soooooo pissed. I had two columns ALREADY written so I could get ahead on my ComicMix deadlines. I have a great deal of work to do with my comic book line, a new project called The Adjuster (you will hear about that soon enough) and The Underground from Dark Horse, so I wanted a few S-No-C’s in the can so I could deal with those projects but then…

LAST SATURDAY I WATCHED THE TV SHOW CNN’S NEWSROOM!

I have no idea why they call this show CNN’S Newsroom. News is supposed to be reported fairly. This show was SO biased that it reminded me of the McCarthy witchhunts of the 50s.

The host of any news show should be impartial. The host of this show was about as impartial as a Jewish mother who has the choice between saving her child or Hitler from falling off a cliff.

The show focused on Black Entertainment Television’s (BET) hard-hitting satirical video Read A Book that asks the viewer to (wait for it) read a book. The key word in all of this is satirical, as in satire.

The creators of the video were on the show but were never given a chance to complete a thought. The host kept cutting them off. He would ask them a question and not let them answer. That’s real journalism right? They should change the name of the show from CNN’S Newsroom to Shut up while the host talks.

The “panel” consisted of concerned parents. In another journalistic milestone, there were NO parents on the opposing side. All the parents on the show hated the video. I told Reggie Hudlin when he first showed me Read A Book some months ago that some people would have a issue with this. I said some people.

Little did I know that the chorus CNN choose to sing would only include parents that hated the video? How fair is that? Let’s see, let’s have a new show debating the war in Iraq. Our panel will be George Bush, Dick Cheney and… that’s it! All you will need for CNN’S Newsroom.

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Sunday morning cartoons: Hi, Marlo!

Here’s an esoteric one for you– if you remember the sub-sub-basement of the Leo Dullo computer company, and the hapless Marlo who worked there, then you remember that after that five o’clock whistle blew, he’d hang out with a machine he brought to life, the Magic Movie Machine.

Marlo and the Magic Movie Machine ran in syndication in the late 70s, usually appearing on Sunday mornings on tv stations that had to put some educational programming in, but generated a love/Pavlovian reflex that has only grown over the years. So come on back with us behind the fake bookcase…