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The Mighty Motor Sapiens Roar To Life

  • News
  • August 29, 2007

Rowdy.com has partnered with Insight Studios Group to offer The Mighty Motor Sapiens, a new online daily comic strip that combines high speed action, fast cars, humor and the entire planet being taken over by lizard people.

With new installments appearing every weekday beginning September 3, 2007, the story begins 18 months after the world has been taken over by a race of the Morisoni, lizard people from the center of the Earth. Despite the odd change in circumstances, life has continued and things seem disturbingly okay. Sure, they took out Washington, Moscow, Beijing, and Paris, but on the other hand they took out Washington, Moscow, Beijing, and Paris. And for some reason they wiped out everyone’s credit histories, too.

Now the Morisoni control the world and their military bases are everywhere. The Lizards live among us, but this new arrangement seems to be working. Four teenagers, Cam Corman, Hannah Barbario, Gigs Brewster and Maddie Brewster, haven’t seen much of an impact from the changes. Yet.

Springing from the minds of writer-artist Daniel Krall (Oni’s One Plus One), writer-artist Mark Wheatley (Frankenstein Mobster), and writer Robert Tinnell (Feast of the Seven Fishes), The Mighty Motor Sapiens was created as an exclusive feature for the Rowdy.com web community.  The strip will be written and drawn by Krall with additional material by Wheatley and Tinnell. All three creators are veterans of both print and online comics. They are joined by inker Craig Taillerfer (The Chelation Kid), with colors provided by Krall’s studio and lettering by Matthew Plog. The strip is produced by Insight Studios.

Comic Foundry launch party tonight

  • Uncategorized
  • August 29, 2007

comicfoundry200-1413572Laura Hudson posts that there’s a release party tonight for last week’s Comic Foundry release at The Irish Rogue, 356 W 44th St., NYC. from 6 PM to whenever. They’ll be giving out a limited number of gift bags to the first however many people get there, containing a free issue of Comic Foundry, a comic book pulled directly from Laura’s or Tim Leong‘s personal collection, and potentially other… mysteries.

Laura adds: "Wednesday also happens to be ladies night at The Irish Rogue, which means 2 for 1 Cosmos for the fairer sex. We aim for female friendliness!  Bring your women, your men, your lovers, your friends, and your thirst for liquid courage–we’re having a party, and you’re invited!"

ELAYNE RIGGS: The Stupid — It Burns!

  • News
  • August 29, 2007

elayne100-7557489I’m sure most readers will agree that we all bring our own unique views to our entertainment experiences, our own desires and prejudices and lifetimes of baggage. And many of us try to partake of those experiences bearing that baggage in mind, allowing for it or disclaiming it or even using it to enhance our POVs.

For the average consumer, baggage is something you try not to let get in the way. But a certain subset clings to it like a badge of honor. That’s the portion of the crowd that brags of specialized knowledge, and will accept nothing less than that same level of specialization in their entertainment. Which is silly, in my opinion. You may be a rocket scientist, or a medical intern, or a lawyer, or even a secretary, but the people who write movies and comics and whatnot, well, they’re just storytellers.

This is not to say that a certain verisimilitude isn’t welcome. A story needs to be internally consistent, after all, to keep you involved in its world. But if you’re from Cleveland and the movie you’re watching is supposed to be set in that city and it’s pretty darn clear that it was shot in Vancouver, it can take a bit more effort to stay with that story when you keep going "But that’s not the street I used to walk to school on!" If you’ve just come home from a day in the newsroom, opened up the latest Superman comic and noted that the Daily Planet scenes don’t resemble your job in the least, I can understand the irritation. Many’s the time I’ve watched actors pretend to type or play a musical instrument as just something to do with their hands, not as though they were actually performing the task at hand. (By the way, how things have changed on the typing front since the advent of PCs and laptops; one of the things I love about the TV show The Office is how the actors actually type IMs to each other during filming; they look like they’re at their desks doing actual office work, just like me!)

But obsessing on these comparatively minor things to the point where they ruin your enjoyment of the story is, to my mind, just silly. It’s not seeing the forest for the trees. Even if they’re palm trees and the story’s set in a northern climate.

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Bourdain and Pekar do Cleveland

  • News
  • August 28, 2007

withoutreservations_100-7562432At last, one of my favorite TV shows paying homage to the comic book format!  Writer Anthony Bourdain, the host of the Travel Channel show No Reservations, is a big fan of Cleveland’s own Harvey Pekar, many of whose daily-life adventures in American Splendor have been drawn by Gary Dumm.  Last night’s episode of No Res had Bourdain visiting his friend Michael Rulhman in Pekar’s town, with all the scenes fading to and from Dumm’s illustrations.  It was pretty cool, and not likely to be repeated soon (I checked the listings), but we’ll always have the comic created for the event.  Enjoy!

Buffy Spin-Off Ripper Finally Happening

  • Uncategorized
  • August 28, 2007

anthony_stewart_head_01-1173530The Ripper a spin-off from Buffy The Vampire Slayer, is headed to the small screen at long last. According to FIlmick, at the Collectormania Glasgow event Anthony Stewart Head revealed the Ripper series is finally going into production next summer, under creator Joss Whedon’s charge.

Ripper was originally proposed some years ago as a BBC co-production while Buffy The Vampire Slayer was still at The WB," Filmick notes. "It’s to be set in the UK and Anthony Stewart Head is to lead a line-up of new characters, much the way Angel did when he went to LA."

Don’t get your hopes up for any Buffy characters showing up – at least, not without a lot of negotiations and legal wrangling.

Much thanks to our pal Larry Shell for the lead.

BIG BROADCAST: Say It’s So, GI Joe!

joe-5443749All is cool and cheery in the land of comics and pop culture as The Big ComicMix Broadcast kicks off the week with our rundown of new issues and DVDs to grab. We’ve got the lowdown on GI Joe on the big screen, Battlestar Galactica back on BOTH screens and Britain’s greatest hero gets reborn in a new comic series. Then there’s what may be the final word on any new Neil Gaiman Sandman stories. AND we revisit how we got FF #1 for a shiny new dime!

PRESS THE BUTTON, cause’ The Joes say so!

The New Year’s Spirit

  • Uncategorized
  • August 28, 2007

eisner_thespirit-3633478So, what are you doing on January 16, 2009?

According to comingsoon.net, chances are you’ll be thinking about paying ten bucks a head to see Gabriel Macht, Samuel L. Jackson, Eva Mendes, and Scarlett Johansson in the big-screen version of The Spirit, as written and directed by Frank Miller. This assumes the shoot goes swell; they begin in October.

Artwork copyright Will Eisner Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The Geek Hierarchy

  • News
  • August 28, 2007

geekhierarchypiece-1812094So a bunch of us Mixologists were having dinner in a suburb of Chicago having what EIC Gold claims are the best hamburgers in the world (pretty good, but that’s another post) and we started talking about  who looks down on whom — Doctor Who fans looking down on Dark Shadows fans, who in turn look down on Forever Knight fans, and so on — and I mentioned that the Geek Hierarchy already existed. Multiple Michaels Davis, Gold, and Raub were all disbelieving that such a hierarchy existed, let alone that it had standing.

Doubt me, eh? Gentlemen… this link is for you. Presenting The Geek Hierarchy. (All ComicMix readers can elevate themselves one level on the chart.)

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COMICS LINKS: Completely Random

  • News
  • August 28, 2007

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Comics Links

Eddie Campbell tries to define what a graphic novel is. (Illustration of Campbell deep in thought by Campbell.)

The LA Times has an article about the webcomic A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge.

Publishers Weekly interviews Satoru Kannagi, writer of Only the Ring Finger Knows.

PW also reports on the massive Japanese convention Comiket.

Comic Book Galaxy interviews the always-sunny Harvey Pekar.

Comics Should Be Good takes their usual monthly look at Marvel’s December covers.

Newsarama talks with the creators of Punks: the Comic.

Comic Bloc interviews Mike Baron.

The CBC interviews For Better or Worse cartoonist Lynn Johnston.

Comics Reviews

Dana of Comics Fodder reviews this week’s Marvel comics.

Sequart’s Rob Clough reviews three volumes of Graphic Classics.

Sequential Tart reviews the new The Spirit comic.

Reviews from The Savage Critics:

 

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Battlestar Galactica Goes Unrated For Christmas

  • News
  • August 28, 2007

cover_a-2648449There’s this great scene at the very beginning of The Simpsons Movie where Homer is at the movie theater watching Itchy and Scratchy – The Movie and then asks why anybody would want to pay for something they’re used to seeing for free. Then they cut to the opening titles.

The Sci Fi Channel is doing the same thing, only backwards. The two-hour Battlestar Galactica: Razor movie will be broadcast on November 24, 2007. On December 4, NBC Universal will release the Battlestar Galactica: Razor Unrated Extended Edition. Hmmm… were I a BG fan – and, well, I am – I’d just wait the ten days and watch the real thing, if for no other reason than in hope that there’s some seriously X-rated material in the unrated extended edition. When it comes to "extended," perhaps I misunderstand their meaning. But if I were buying ad time on the Sci Fi broadcast, I’d want a discount.

By the way, I’d love to see Itchy and Scratchy – The Movie.

Sarcasm aside, our correspondent Robert Greenberger adds significant detail to this story:

The DVD, retailing for $26.98, is said to contain an additional fifteen minutes of footage in addition to the usual assortment of extras. Among the extras will be the eight mini-episodes the channel will begin airing in October. The lead-in material, which will also be available at their website, will set up events seen in the movie and edited into the home video version. The miniseries features young William Adama, to be played by Nico Cortez and is likely to be about the early Cylon War with glimpses of the original Cylon designs from the ABC series.

The telefilm’s story is told in present day and will feature the entire Galactica cast but will have extensive flashbacks to a mission of the other Battlestar, the Pegasus, which was helmed by Admiral Helena Cain (Michelle Forbes).  As a result, familiar faces from that ship will appear as guest stars, including Steve Bacic as Colonel Jurgen Belzen.

What’s a razor, you ask? In “Resurrection ship, Part 1” Cain told Fisk she needed people who were,"…completely reliable. Completely loyal. Razors."

Producer Ronald D. Moore has indicated the story is an important piece of the bigger picture and elements introduced here will pay off in the fourth and final season, which Sci-Fi is expected to schedule to debut in January. Much of Cain’s background will be explored including a hint of romance with Gina. Additionally, part of the story shows Lee Adama in charge of the Pegasus and his search for an XO which introduces Stephanie Chaves-Jacobsen as Kendra Shaw.

Two trailers for the event have already run on Sci-Fi and can be found on their website.

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