The Mix : What are people talking about today?

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…)

MICHAEL DAVIS: I’m a Believer

  • News
  • August 3, 2007

michael-davis100-1596076Last week at the San Diego Comic-Con I was hosting a forum called “The Black Panel.” The panel was filled with heavy hitters from comics, film, television and animation. At one point during the Q&A a young man asked that more creators recognize and do stories about black atheists. I made a joke that the characters battle cry would be, ‘I don’t believe!’

It got a laugh and I went on to the next person with a question. I happened to look into the young man’s face who asked the atheist question and realized he was not kidding; he was very serious.

I hope that he reads this, or that someone he knows reads this and tells him that I am truly sorry for making light of his belief. I thought he was kidding but the look on his face said otherwise, so in all seriousness I apologize.

That young man has every right to believe what he wants. This brings up an interesting question: Do creators who have a voice in the industry have an obligation to recognize fan beliefs and/or pay attention to them?

My answer with all due respect to the young atheist is no.

I can only speak for myself, but what anyone else believes is not my concern. That said, I do believe that you respect people’s belief.

I’ll say that again so there is no misunderstanding and so I don’t get any nutty comments: I believe that you respect people’s belief.

My former wife had a religious belief that frankly freaked me out. She never tried to convert me and I never tried to talk her out of it. We were two people who met, fell in love and got married. We broke up not because of her beliefs but because I was stupid.

I frankly couldn’t care less what you believe or practice. It’s your right in a free society to do what you want. As long as you do not harm other people or animals you can live in the woods and eat bark for breakfast for all I care. If you want to believe that Richie Rich is the one and only true God then have at it, buddy. What you do with your life is really nobody’s business but yours. How you live, what you think and why you think it is all you, my friend.

The last comic book universe I created was The Guardian Line. A Christian publisher publishes those books and, ironically, we do have a black atheist character. I did not think to mention it at the Black Panel but, yes, we have one. The character is important to a storyline which deals with belief. That storyline makes the point that even if you do not believe in God that you respect each other. I created that character for that story line not because I think black atheists have a right to be represented in The Guardian Line. (more…)

Warren Ellis pontificates

  • News
  • August 2, 2007

Overheard at my local comics shop this week:

"Yeah, I saw Warren Ellis at San Diego — I don’t know what it was, but he reminded me of Santa Claus."

"You mean fat, bearded, and with millions of underage children under constant surveillance?"

Which is as good an intro as any to Carla Hewitt’s 44 things said at the Spotlight on Warren Ellis panel. Probably not safe for work, and let’s face it, you’d be disappointed if it was.

A superhero wedding in St. Louis

  • News
  • August 2, 2007

Look, okay, I knew that when I wrote the first Jewish/Klingon wedding ceremony I knew that very shortly thereafter, some couple was going to use it in their own wedding– it’s just the way we are. So I’m happy to see this:

weddingsuperhero-4831367

Congratulations to Jonathan Wagner and Brigitte Flannery.  The happy couple received a Marvel-themed ceremony from the St. Louis Science Center on Friday, July 20. Here’s hoping the Black Panther doesn’t find out that Storm a) married someone else, and b) is white. And let’s not even talk about the Spider-Man clone…

GRAPHIC NOVEL REVIEW: The Professor’s Daughter

professor-6501047

According to their publisher, First Second, Sfar and Guibert have had very complicated careers. Both of them write and draw, separately and together, so they each have individual works, and they each have illustrated the other’s scripts. The Professor’s Daughter – originally published in France in 1997 – was their first collaboration and their first notable success. It’s just now made it to the USA, trailing some later works by Sfar (such as The Rabbi’s Cat, which attracted a lot of favorable attention two years ago) and by both of them (the children’s series Sardine in Outer Space).

The Professor’s Daughter is album-length – 64 pages, plus some sketches and background materials as an appendix – but has a small trim size, about 5” x 8”. It’s a generally handsome book, with French flaps, cleanly white pages, and sizable margins.

The story begins without any exposition: a young woman is going out for a walk with a walking, talking mummy. We quickly learn that she is Lillian, the professor’s daughter of the title, that he is the Pharaoh Imhotep IV (and the property of her father), and that it is sometime late in the reign of Queen Victoria. We never do learn why Imhotep is mobile and active now – or why he wasn’t in the past – that’s the premise, and we have to take it for granted. (more…)

Snoopy and Jessica Simpson?

Midweek on The Big ComicMix Broadcast gives you some suggestions to beat summer boredom. We have new games to play and some films to create, we’ll tell you all about the return of  Snoopy and fill you in on all the new Heroes stuff. And while we’re at it,  we preview a book that would make a great read for your vacation, briefly recap the Eisner Awards and bitch about Jessica Simpson.

Press The Button and take a 11 minute vacation on us!

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