The Mix : What are people talking about today?

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Things That Make Your Eyeballs Go Huh?

  • News
  • August 4, 2007

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Three words you never expected to see all at once: KISS. yaoi. manga.  Our illustration today is, I’m afraid, only the beginning… [via Journalista!]

Chris’s Invincible Super-Blog not only reviews a bunch of new comics, but also has a picture of Jughead with a jetpack.

Speaking of Jugheads, the Joplin Independent is in love with Archie’s Double Digest #5.

Greg Hatcher of Comics Should Be Good admits to loving Stan Lee’s Who Wants To Be a Superhero? despite the fact that it’s completely insane.

Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review has been on a Walking Dead kick – he’s just reviewed (and loved) volumes two through four.

Historical fantasy author Alice Borchardt has died at the age of 67; she turned to writing as a second career after working in nursing for thirty years. Borchardt was also the older sister of Anne Rice.

SF Scope analyzes the story choices in Gardner Dozois’s latest Year’s Best Science Fiction anthology.

(more…)

MARTHA THOMASES: Space Oddity

  • News
  • August 4, 2007

x-1225417Jerome Bixby’s Man From Earth is a profoundly unfashionable film. Written by Bixby before he died and directed by Richard Schenkman, it’s a science fiction movie with no aliens, no space ships, not even any explosions. It’s a thoughtful movie, intimate, with adult actors dealing with complex philosophical ideas.

When I was first reading science fiction, I liked the books with lots of talking and big ideas. I liked Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy and the robot books, where scientists explained large concepts and the societies these concepts would inspire. I liked it so much that I could often overlook inane plots and cardboard characters. When the books were more literate, that was even better.

Jerome Bixby is a science fiction writer from the old school. He wrote episodes of Twilight Zone and Star Trek, including “Mirror, Mirror.” He wrote screenplays, including Fanatastic Voyage, which was based on his short story. Just before he died, he wrote the screenplay to The Man From Earth.

It’s a small film, produced on a shoestring budget of $200,000. The closest thing to a celebrity in the cast is William Katt, formerly the star of The Greatest American Hero. Also in the cast is Richard Riehle, a character actor you’ve seen in a zillion movies, Annika Peterson, Ellen Crawford, John Billingsley, Tony Todd, Alexis Thorpe and David Lee Smith as the central character, John Oldman.

There is only one set, a cabin in the woods, and the entire story takes place over the course of a single day. John Oldman is a university professor packing his belongings to leave for a new job. His friends, other professors and a student, have come with food and drink to wish him well. Over the course of the day, he tells them that, to the best of his knowledge, he’s 14,000 years old.

For the rest of the film, these highly educated, polite people argue with each other about whether or not such a thing is possible, or is Oldman pulling some kind of cerebral practical joke. They consider religion, anthropology, history, and the other fields in which they are expert. No one attacks Oldman for a DNA sample to run tests, no one pulls out an old photograph or other evidence. The devout Christian character feels threatened, but does not condemn Oldman to Hell, nor does she stone him. They talk from mid-afternoon until night, when the last few people at the party go out to look at the stars. (more…)

Spike and Mike, Sick and Twisted

  • News
  • August 3, 2007

Warning: Not necessarily office-friendly words abound.

Unless you go to an animation festival, and you should go to an animation festival, the only way to see independent animation is to look out for the traveling cartoon programs.  For a while it was Fans Only.  We clustered in this or that museum auditorium for the International Tournee of Animation, now defunct.

 

This was the traveling hothouse for the short cartoon, where animation lived on as an art form, not a commercial proposition.  The films came mainly from studios run by a government or a college mixed in with a few made by individuals.  And the individuals almost always had a grant.  Civilians in the audience were always surprised that at least half of these pictures are serious, not made to make you laugh; quite often a meditation on unpleasant things or a non-linear succession of disturbing images.

 

That’s show biz.

 

Then came Spike and Mike.  They were into animation, going to a festival or a traveling program now and again.  As showmen, they were dismayed that only, say, 20 percent of these films, on a bad day, would be what you would call entertainment.  They were all worthy of contemplation by the prepared, patient mind, but keep ‘em in their seats, keep ‘em hollering for more?  No.

 

Spike and Mike made change.  Their Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation began with a core of cartoons from the museum shows that were fast, stupid jokes or slightly slower jokes that were quite filthy.  They packed the rest of the program with other funny or gross films too low for the museum crowd.  They marketed it to regular theaters, to be shown as a regular attraction, not the weekend midnight slot.

 

They’ve been at it so long they have created their own sub-genre (and I certainly don’t mean than in a derogatory way, unless that would make you more likely to attend, then yes, I mean “sub” in the most demeaning, degrading sense possible).  Spike and Mike is now a learning tool, like a video game, that teaches you how to do something very specific, in this case to make a cartoon that can get past the gauntlet.

 

Consider if you will an audience.  An audience of mostly men, like what you used to see at the San Diego Comic-Con.  If the center wasn’t dry, a lot more of these people would be working on a cheap high, a perfect attitude for the gauntlet.  They’ve been whipped up by having free t-shirts thrown at the crowd.  They say, “Fuck Stoners,” or “I Fucked a Backstreet Boy;” a few are kind of rude.  Then they’re ready for the gauntlet.

(more…)

Scott Kurtz’s entry for Zuda Comics

  • Uncategorized
  • August 3, 2007

At San Diego, DC’s new online project, Zuda Comics, was handing out lots of postcards that cartoonists could fill in as a sort of tryout for their website so that you could get all the advantages of DC’s name recognition and traffic.

Scott Kurtz, whose PVP webcomic gets about twice as much traffic as DC’s entire website, produced this:

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Hear, hear.

The Lobo Paramilitary Christmas Special video

  • News
  • August 3, 2007

lobo3-4533548Ah, August. The birds are singing. The bees are buzzing. The barbecues are cooking. And that means it’s time for — <a href=”

Eddie’s Christmas Sale!

Oh, wait. They closed down that chain. Never mind. Well, what do we have that’s Christmas themed and deranged beyond all possible belief?

How about this: some happy clowns took The Lobo Paramilitary Christmas Special by Keith Giffen, Alan Grant, and Simon Bisley, and made a movie out of it– and it’s actually one of the better adaptations out there. Take a look at Part 1 and decide for yourself.

(Do I really have to tell you that it’s not safe for work or kids? Oh, all right.)

Linka-a-dink-a-doo!

  • Uncategorized
  • August 3, 2007

heroic-9598635James Lileks has been digging up hideous old comic book covers and making fun of them in public – it’s good to know that time-honored pastime is still alive and well. One of the more nightmarish things he unearthed is our illustration of the day.

Comics Reporter has a San Diego report from Darwyn Cooke.

Among the books I never, in a million years, expected to see a review of, would be Essential Marvel Two-in-One Presents the Thing, Vol. 2. Well, Bookgasm is toying with me today, because that’s just what they did. What next? Their ten favorite issues of Ghost Rider from the ‘70s?

SciFi Wire gets two posts out of what I suspect was one interview with Neil Gaiman: one about Henry Selick, who is directing the animated adaptation of Gaiman’s book for young readers Coraline; and one about the complicated path Gaiman’s novel Stardust took on its way to the screen.

SF Signal must be bored, since they’ve dug out the old party game of replacing random words in a title with “pants.” They have 21 books and 13 stories with humorously altered titles, for those who dare to click.

Locus magazine’s August issue includes a special celebration of the centennial of Robert A. Heinlein’s birth (which was in early July, but it’s hard to report on an event which hasn’t hapened yet).

The Times (the one out of London) reports that Philip Pullman is working on a sequel to his reportedly very good “His Dark Materials” trilogy (the first of which, The Golden Compass, is also being turned into a big-budget Hollywood fantasy effects extravaganza for this Christmas). Pullman is quoted as saying that the new book “will explain his atheist beliefs more clearly.” And we know that an author who tries to explain his beliefs in fictional form (cough! Ayn Rand! cough cough! Dave Sim!) always brings forth a masterpiece of cogent thought, rational understanding, and a thorough understanding of the real world…so I guess I’d better read “His Dark Materials” before Pullman completely mucks them up.

(more…)

Valiant & Valiant

  • Uncategorized
  • August 3, 2007

visitorvsvaliant-2015644A few years back when the folks who eventually started up ComicMix were figuring out what we were going to be doing in comics next, we were debating on bidding for the rights to the Valiant characters at a bankruptcy auction. Now, thanks to a heavy analysis at Newsarama, I’m really glad we didn’t, as there seems to be a major battle shaping up between two entities, Valiant Entertainment and Valiant Intellectual Properties, LLC. as to who owns what trademarks, characters, and so on. And it looks messy enough to make the battles over First and Eclipse look sane.

There’s no easy excerpt, just read the whole thing — but be warned, this way lies madness. And legal minutae induced tedium. Meanwhile, I’m wondering if we’re going to have to get us a legal correspondent over here…

Back to the Spidey?

  • Uncategorized
  • August 3, 2007

spider2-2511805A while ago we told you Amazing Spider-Man was going thrice-weekly and Sensational and Friendly were being canned. Some scoffed, some reached deeper into their pockets, and ultimately (and quite recently) Marvel confirmed. Now they’ve announced their creative team.

spider2-2511805Since just about the only single writer/artist duo alive that can handle producing 72 pages a month is Stan Lee and Steve Ditko and Steve isn’t interested in returning to his co-creation, four writers (Bob Gale, Marc Guggenheim, Dan Slott and Zeb Wells) and four pencillers (Chris Bachalo, Phil Jimenez, Salvador LaRoca, Steve McNiven) will be handling Amazing. They will work together to provide seamless on-going story arcs, sort of the way DC did 52 – but, hopefully, in a fashion that provides interesting stories.

spider2-2511805If the name Bob Gale rings a bell, he’s the guy who co-wrote and co-produced the Back To The Future movies. The Albany Park, Chicago writer (hey, I grew up there at the same time) has some comics writing credits, including Batman, Ant-Man, and Daredevil.

I still say Marvel should bite the bullet and make Amazing Spider-Man a weekly.

Dial B For Blog Returns

  • Uncategorized
  • August 3, 2007

dialb_comicmix-8109959We’ve talked about a couple of my favorite websites – the on-vacation Dial B For Blog and it’s Shadow, Dial B For Burbank. Well, I’ve been informed that Robby Reed will indeed come back from the dead! How do I know? Because I got a press release telling me so. To wit:

New issues of DIAL B FOR BLOG will begin in September, starting with a three-part, history-making SECRET ORIGINS series! But how will Robby Reed come back from the dead? And whose origin will Robby reveal? Visit www.dialbforblog.com on September 1st to find out!

Robby leads me to believe that his return shot will revolve around the Dynamic Darknight Dark Knight. Until its return next month, catch up on the back issues. You’ll be glad you did!

UPA: Inventing the Future

  • News
  • August 3, 2007
“…To anyone dismayed by the artlessness of television’s ‘limited animation,’ it is difficult to realize that the trend began on the highest note of artistic endeavor.”

Leonard Maltin, in Of Mice and Magic

 

three-horned-flink-4681615Nothing pleases writers and readers trying to understand the arts like a clean break.  Styles and periods have a messy way of melting into each other at each end as artists and audiences push and pull, sometimes for decades, before the old is no longer visible, and the new is just what is.  Animation readers and writers are glad they have UPA.  While Disney’s “trusted” artists were away trying to draw every leaf in the Amazon, the radicals back home were working up a way to suggest that jungle with a line and two areas of different color, maybe not even green.  “Illusion of Life” was a great style for a walk through a landscape. To race to the moon a method as different from walking as rocket science was needed.

 

As impressionism came along when the machine age was changing the rules.  The vision we now call UPA in honor of the studio most identified with its art and politics came along, conveniently, and inevitably as the Second World War.  Walt may have thought it was the Army contracts or the tentacles of the Comintern that were the main changes he was witnessing in his line of business.  If you look at what ended up on the screen, the big change was in the way people began to draw.  Gone was the realism left over from the nineteenth century.  Finally the air of the modernists was let in.

 

Walt loved the older styles and pursued them as far as possible.  Producers who tried to compete head to head in Illusion of Life all went bankrupt.  His visual statement was so coherent and powerful that his is the only name of the movie pioneers still in common usage, and standing for both a style and a personality.  Illusion of Life and Walt’s dedication to it can’t be denied or explained away.

 

When people talk about UPA today, as they did at a San Diego Comic-Con panel last week, it is impossible not to mention Walt Disney early and often.  You can’t talk about up without down.  Walt Disney, more than he ever imagined or intended, stands today for the visual establishment, going back to the French Academy and their yearly, binary selection for the salon.  Those chosen had it made, those excluded might as well go back to painting signs.  For some time in animation it was: do it Disney’s way, fail, watch your business dwindle away to nothing.

 

At the core of UPA were artists who had made the cut at Disney but would push the envelope artistically and politically in ways that ended with their exile from his studio.  For some there was a disconnect between the glorious product and the rigid production protocols, which fit Disney’s personality perfectly but ran counter to many other people’s ideas of logic or fairness.  Some people had more to say than could be said in a studio with someone else’s name on it.  Some people were just ready to move on.

 

Leonard Maltin nails it:  “If there hadn’t been a UPA, someone would have had to invent it.” (more…)

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