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Zuda, Zuda

  • News
  • August 21, 2007

zudaworry200-6471632One of the panels I was most looking forward to at Wizard World Chicago was the Zudacomics panel, where Richard Bruning and Kwanza Johnson were going to show off the reader and answer questions. Sadly, their demo wasn’t working at the time, so it just turned into a lot of questions and answers. Jason Fliegel was there and covered many of the thing I wanted to, but there are a few points to add and emphasize.

Jason points out the issue of the contracts: "First… DC didn’t brief the panelists on the legalities of the deal that is being offered to creators. Or DC hasn’t figured it out themselves yet. Or both. During the panel, Bruning noted that DC would own the trademarks in the characters. I asked whether the trademarks would be registered with the Patent and Trademark Office, and if so, in what categories. Bruning and Johnson looked flabbergasted, then bullshitted me for thirty seconds before moving on to the next question. Clearly they had no idea."

Let me add: DC/Zuda will let the creators keep the copyright to the work, but they will retain the trademark.  If you think that’s not a problem, let me refer you to Chris Butcher: "Trademark is interesting, it’s why the KRAZY KAT collections that Fantagraphics are doing are called Krazy & Ignatz and why the GASOLINE ALLEY collections that D+Q are doing are called Walt & Skeezix. The copyright on those early works may have fallen into the public domain, but the titles (marks) used in business (trade) haven’t, and are still owned by the syndicates." Or think Captain Marvel instead of Shazam.

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Today’s Hot Comics Links

  • News
  • August 21, 2007

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Comics Links

Suspension of Disbelief (which I haven’t seen updated much lately, so I hope it’s back) looks at Spirit #5, and that old bad-plotting standby, beating a guy until he signs a contract/confession/whatever.

Think the San Diego Comic-Con is big? It’s only the third largest comics gathering in the world – and number one is Japan’s Comiket, held twice a year in Tokyo. This past weekend, about 550,000 people were there.

Forbidden Planet International reports on graphic novels at the recent Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Publishers Weekly reports on the recent land-rush business in movie rights for graphic novels.

Newsarama rounds up and comments on a bunch of stories about DC comics’s Zuda project.

Canada’s National Post reports on the Toronto Comic Arts Festival.

The Chicago Tribune talks to Douglas Wolk about whether comics are getting any respect.

The LA Times has noticed that some comics have been “slabbed” by CGC. Once again, the mainstream press runs about a decade behind events in the comics world…

Comics Reviews

Graeme McMillan of The Savage Critics admits that he’s a latecomer to Ultimate Spider-Man, but he likes #112.

Comics Reporter reviews an anthology comic from a few years back, Reactor Girl #6.

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9 Superpowers You Might Actually Want

  • News
  • August 21, 2007

From The Best Article Every Day, 9 Superpowers You Might Actually Want:

Humor ESP. You’ve got a great joke involving St. Peter, a stripper, and a tricycle, but you’re not sure how it will go over with your friend’s new boyfriend, whom you’ve only met once but get the feeling doesn’t really like you. Your humor ESP will let you know whether the joke will end in laughs or a theological debate. This peculiar psychic ability also comes in handy when you want to come up with the exact line to scare off that guy at the bar who just won’t leave you alone.

I’ve got a few of my own:

Time Dilation & Compression: Make those slow movies fly by and meetings with the in-laws fly by, and stretch out that vacation time and get a few extra hours to finish art corrections.

Parking Spot Creation: The ability to magically have a parking spot appear wherever and whenever you need one.

Human Computer Antivirus: Nuff said.

What are yours? Leave them in comments.

DENNIS O’NEIL: On The Road Again

  • News
  • August 21, 2007

Jack Kerouac’s novel On The Road is 50 years old.

“And this has exactly what to do with comics?” demands the snotty guy in the corner. Well, actually, not much, but maybe if we stretch, a little something. Patience, please.

If you know people my age, or a bit younger, you may have heard On The Road stories. Mine is pretty banal: I was fairly unhappy at school (I was always fairly unhappy at schools, except when I was actively miserable) and I read and had my mind altered by Kerouac’s book which is, among other things, a paean to travel and the highway. So, one morning, I went down to breakfast, borrowed about forty bucks from my father and, blowing off university exam week, got on a bus for New Orleans.

Once there, I didn’t do much: checked into a Y, hung out, walked around, had a friendly lady on Bourbon Street offer to teach me everything about life for only five dollars. I kind of guessed what she was talking about and, being the Good Catholic Boy that I was, politely declined. Then I boarded another Greyhound and went home. No hitchhiking, not that trip, though there was plenty later. (And, by the way, don’t try this at home. Hitchhiking in the 50s and 60s was not without hazards, but not nearly as dangerous as it is now.)

“Did someone mention comic books? This column, this whole dern website, is supposed to be about comics.” The snotty guy in the corner again. Okay, be at peace, brother, and give me another paragraph or two.

Kerouac was, as I’m sure everyone except the guy in the corner knows, the most famous and visible member of a loose confederation of novelists, poets, and musicians that became known as The Beat Generation. I’ve never heard, or read, any of them even evidencing knowledge that comics existed. But they were contrarians that believed that most conventional wisdom was erroneous, that genuine American values involved peace and understanding and, incidentally, that maybe mainstream literary and critical folk – the Establishment – did not own the last word on artistic matters.

Jump ahead a few years to the mid-60s and here we are, on college campuses, and what are the bright rebels reading? Well, a few – those who still wear ties on Sunday – are still delving into Catcher In The Rye, and a few more are grokking Stranger In A Strange Land, but the real nonconformists, the bright ones, are into comics, particularly Marvel comics.

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Halo ActionClix Coming Soon

  • News
  • August 20, 2007

halo-2356691Halo 2 launched to the single biggest day in entertainment history grossing $125 million and, with the third game’s release rapidly approaching, the Halo franchise is looking to extend their dominance to the miniatures market with Halo ActionClix.

Launching in September, Halo ActionClix is changing many of the rules from Wizkids’ other ‘Clix games to make game play more like the video game.  Players can switch weapons mid combat, for example, if you were playing a figure of MasterChief with a sniper rifle and decided that the best weapon for the situation was, in fact, the shotgun you could spend an action to swap out one figure for the other.  Another feature more like a video-game is that figures do not stay dead, rather they will respawn at pre-determined points on the map.

Halo ActionClix also features exclusive Halo 3 preview content.  Figures from the initial set will be from the upcoming game; in many instances this will be gamers’ first glimpse at these characters.

The game launches this September with four- and five-figure booster packs and the Hunter Combat Pack Starter Set.  Subsequent releases will be vehicle packs and an expansion focusing on Halo 3 in earnest, all by the end of the year.

You’re kidding: Joan Collins???

  • Uncategorized
  • August 20, 2007

joancollins3-6588644As the next season of Doctor Who is prepping up for shooting, casting information is flowing fast and furious. London’s News of the World reveals Joan Collins, of Dynasty and Star Trek fame, will be playing arch-villain The Rani.

The Rani appeared in the classic series twice, first with Colin Baker in "The Mark of the Rani" and later with Sylvester McCoy in "Time and the Rani." She was played by Kate O’Mara who, coincidentially, played Joan Collins’ younger sister in Dynasty.

The Rani marks the third Gallifreyan to survive obilvion by the Daleks. The News of the World calls Collins’ Rani as "Alexis Colby with a sonic screwdriver."

No word yet on when Series Four is expected to start, but it is likely it won’t begin until late April or May, after Series Two of Torchwood has completed its run.

Metal Men, Naruto, and Other Unfathomable Things

  • Uncategorized
  • August 20, 2007

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Comics Links

Comic Book Resources looks back at the long, odd history of the Metal Men.

The Toronto Star reports on a Toronto Comic Arts Festival presentation on four wordless graphic novels from the early 20th century.

If you’re like me, and spent much of the weekend in the company of kids watching a Naruto marathon, you might also find this Paul Gravette lecture about Naruto to be useful in explaining what the heck it all is about.

Comics Should Be Good takes a look at all of Image Comics’s October covers.

Mike Sterling discovers that if you stare at a poster of Superman’s funeral long enough, the abyss also gazes into you.

Comics Reviews

Comics Reporter reviews Rian Hughes’s Yesterday’s Tomorrows.

The New York Times reviews Emily Flake’s These Things Ain’t Gonna Smoke Themselves and Jessica Bruder’s Burning Book.

Warren Peace Sings The Blues reviews Whiteout by Rucka and Lieber.

SF/Fantasy Links

Douglas Cohen responds to comments and criticisms of his drive to increase subscriptions for print SF/Fantasy magazines.

Irene Gallo of The Art Department showcases Jon Foster’s covers for Timothy Zahn’s “Dragonback” series.

The Hugo Awards now have a website of their own – just in time for this year’s awards, which will be announced at Nippon 2007 in less than two weeks.

The UK SF Book News Network lists all of the newly-published books that they’ve received in the last three weeks.

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The Dark Knight Senator

  • Uncategorized
  • August 20, 2007

patrick_leahy-2664901Long-time Batman fan Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont will be appearing in next year’s movie The Dark Knight.

This isn’t the first time the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee has been involved with the character, having done voice acting on the Batman cartoons and having written the preface for The Dark Knight Archives Volume One (his piece was ghost-edited, by the way, by ComicMix’s editor-in-chief). His compensation will be donated to charity.

No word on whether Leahy’s been signed to any sequels.

MIKE GOLD: Comic Conned-Out

  • News
  • August 20, 2007

mikegold100-7174689A whole bunch of us ComicMixers have been attending various and sundry comic book conventions over the past half-year, and, having just come back from Chicago Wizard World, I’ve got a few observations.

For the record, we attended Comic Con in New York, Comic Con in Pittsburgh, I-Con in Stony Brook, New York, Heroes in Charlotte, North Carolina, MoCCA in NYC, the Big Apple Con in NYC, Comic-Con in San Diego, and Wizard World in Chicago. We also did the annual Book Fair and the Licensing Show, both in Manhattan. We’ve got at least three more shows coming up: the Baltimore Comic Con, another Big Apple show in Manhattan, and Mid-Ohio Con in the middle of Ohio.

MOST INTERESTING SIGHT: Scalpers hawking one-day passes at the San Diego Comic-Con. Just like at sports events and concerts. Pretty amazing. I wonder if SDCC saw many counterfeits? I wonder if I could trade my pass for two tickets to The Police?

adam-strange-1216399BEST COSTUME: This is a close call, and sadly I don’t know the name of the winner. But he dressed up as Adam Strange in a costume so on-model Murphy Anderson would have swooned. Take a look; he’s the guy with the ray guns.

BEST PRESENCE OF COSTUMED FANS: I-Con, in Long Island. Damn near everybody was in a costume. Some furry, which confuses some people. But if you’re looking for the thrill of being surrounded by hundreds of costumed college students, many of whom are armed, I-Con won’t let you down.

BEST EXPOSITORY MOMENT: When Adriane Nash explained the concept and activities of “furries” to Michael Davis while at dinner in Chicago. ‘Nuff said.

BEST REUNIONS: Len Wein and I are old friends, but for some reason we haven’t been in contact for a while. A sweet, gentle, funny, talented man, Len will be visiting Munden’s Bar sometime soon. Len and I got together at Michael Davis’s SDCC dinner party, which was my second favorite meal of the convention season thus far (and it was a close second). Also, and equally, Mindy Newell, at MoCCA. Mindy used to write comics; Mindy should be writing comics. Or something. A great talent, a wonderful human being. Hiya, Mindy!

BEST MEAL: The post-Wizard World decompress at Chicago’s Gulliver’s Restaurant, the only place I can get genuine Italian beef with barbecue sauce along with the Italian beef goo. ComicMixers Adriane Nash, Mike Raub, Kai Connelly, Andrew Pepoy, and Chris Burnham joined my wife Linda and me, along with artist Reilly Brown and writer, professor and fellow Gulliver’s habituater Len Strazewski. (more…)

Big Doctor Who Crossover Next Season?

  • Uncategorized
  • August 19, 2007

7p-video-4282238According to Outpost Gallifrey, at a convention in New Zealand the Seventh Doctor, Sylvester McCoy, stated Peter Davison, the Fifth Doctor, is going to appear in a multiple Doctor episode this coming season. He did not say that he, McCoy, would be appearing, nor did he say that any of the other surviving Doctors (other than David Tennant, of course) would be in attendance.

As usualy, the BBC has no comment. The original series offered at least three shows where previous incarnations of the Doctor popped up to help save – and/or confuse – the day.

Thanks to our pal Lisa Sullivan for the lead.

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