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Superhero confessions

  • Uncategorized
  • March 11, 2007

confessions_superhero-2773874Out in Austin, Texas it’s South by Southwest (SXSW) week, with two festivals and a conference going on.  While most tech types are attending the Interactive trade show and festival for creative web developers, designers, bloggers, wireless innovators and new media entrepreneurs, there’s also a film fest/conference going on, with plenty of world premieres.

One of those is the documentary Confessions of a Superhero directed by Matt Ogens, which "chronicles the lives of three mortal men and one woman who make their living working as superhero characters on Hollywood Boulevard."  Cinematical has a review of the docu.  Hey, at least they don’t have to wear giant animal heads like those poor kids up in Anaheim…

ComicMix’s own Brian Alvey is out there, and maybe we can press him into making his CM debut with a full report!

Who four confirmed

  • Uncategorized
  • March 11, 2007

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The BBC has picked up Doctor Who for a fourth season of its latest incarnation.

According to an interview with series producer and co-writer Russell T. Davies published in the London Telegraph, once again there will be a Christmas special between seasons three and four. However, there is no word as of yet if stars David Tennant and Freema Agyeman will return – or, for that matter, if Mr. Davies will return as well.

The third season begins in England on March 31 and in Canada this summer; the second season has been broadcast in the States on the SciFi Channel and the first season currently is being rerun on numberous PBS stations.

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He’s dead, Fred

  • News
  • March 11, 2007

hembeck-8465728Discussion about the death of Captain America probably won’t die down for awhile, and that’s just how Marvel likes it.  But that doesn’t mean we can’t glean all the humor we can out of this event.  To that end, in Episode 95 of The Fred Hembeck Show, the cartoonist presents a scenario wherein he sees dead people.  Right said, Fred.

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Moonstone soliciting Captain Action pitches

  • News
  • March 11, 2007

captaction1-3415444While we’re on the subject of Moonstone Books, Johanna Draper-Carlson reports that they’re looking for pitches for Captain Action, the toy figure from the 60’s best known for being other heroes, as well as a short lived comic book in the 60s from DC.

Quoth Johanna: "Moonstone wants to give CAP his due in comics! We’re looking for proposals of no more than two pages. The premise is entirely up to you! Create a NEW “back story” as well as set CAP on a course for new adventures! We’re looking for that one GREAT IDEA, and we know it’s out there! (Please remember that CAP is a licensed property, and as such, if approved, would be considered “work for hire”.) All proposals will be subject to review. You can e-mail proposals to contact_us@moonstonebooks.com."

Pulps and pulp comics

  • News
  • March 11, 2007

moonstonelogo2-5237012There has been quite a revival of interest in the old pulp heroes over the last year or two. Moonstone Books launched with the pulp-like exploits of Kolchak the Night-Stalker before adding characters such as The Phantom and The Spider, while Anthony Tollin has relaunched The Shadow and Doc Savage in two lines of facsimile reprint editions. In Hollywood, Sam Raimi has signed on to produce a movie about Doc Savage, the Man of Bronze. With so much renewed interest, we here at ComicMix thought we should dig a little deeper.

The energetic Joe Gentile has been running Moonstone Books for a decade now and has grown the line from a one or two comic books a month outfit to a burgeoning publisher of not only comic books but prose works. I chatted with him by e-mail to learn what’s been going on.

In the interests of full disclosure, I have written one story for Moonstone’s anthologies, with work beginning on a second, and ComicMix columnist John Ostrander has contributed a story to the recently released Kolchak prose anthology.

Robert: Joe, for those not in the know, what is Moonstone’s mission?

Joe: Well, we thought there were some niches that weren’t being filled in comics. We thought that if we could fill some of those, perhaps (with promotion and advertising, which we did a lot of at the beginning) we could bring either new people or readers who left the hobby, to come back to the comic shops. Great stories was always our #1 priority, all things else aside.

(more…)

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Own a piece of Heroes!

  • News
  • March 11, 2007

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SciFi Wire reports that NBC.com will be auctioning off some of Tim Sale’s artwork from Heroes in two separate auctions (beginning March 26 and April 2) to benefit the Epilepsy Foundation, a favorite of Heroes cast member Greg Grunberg, whose son Jake is an epileptic.  Here’s the official bidding site.  I can’t even imagine how much Hiro Battles T-Rex (above) will go for…

Shazam movie writer named

  • Uncategorized
  • March 11, 2007

captainmarvel-4658623According to the Hollywood Reporter, John August has been chosen to write the screenplay for New Line Cinema’s adaptation of the DC comic Shazam!, currently enjoying a resurgence thanks to the writing and art of Bone creator Jeff Smith.  August has served as screenwriter for a number of Tim Burton’s recent movies, including Big Fish, Corpse Bride and Charlie the Chocolate Factory.

But it wasn’t Smith to whom August turned for continuity advice. Instead he had a session with Geoff Johns for "idiot checking" to keep it true to the characters that readers expect.  "I think we’re going to be able to be really faithful to the mythology and yet make it completely transparent for people who have no idea who the character is," August said, adding, "It’s a unique opportunity to do a comic book movie where the character in it actually read comic books."

The will be produced by Michael Ewing and Peter Segal; Segal is also set to direct.  Let the casting call speculations begin!

ComicMix Week 4, 4 U

  • News
  • March 11, 2007

Have you sprung forward this morning?  Feel like you’ve missed an hour or so?  Well, come spend another one with us catching up on the weekly columns you may have missed!  Here they are all in one place for your convenience:

Yeah, John and I switched days this week, for reasons which you will discover when you read our respective columns.  And of course, Mellifluous Mike Raub is making history thrice weekly with his podcasts:

Lots of surprises in them thar audios!  And as a bonus for our first month online, here are our past roundups:

One other thing.  You may have noticed the site redesign starting, with the addition of more items per page and such.  Trust us, there’s much more to come!

DIY BSG

  • News
  • March 11, 2007

bsgvid-2957943Because Battlestar Galactica fans demanded it, and they didn’t even know it!  Also because hey, it provides the SciFi Channel with more airtime filler and they don’t have to work to get it.  In any case, the newest bit of viral interactive fun care of SciFi is the Battlestar Galactica Videomaker Toolkit, which allows viewers to insert sound, visual and music clips from the show in their own homemade four-minute masterpieces, which they can then upload to the site in a sort of contest where the winner will be shown during the airing of a future BSG episode. 

Maybe we’ll get to see a cool Starbuck resurrection scene, combined perhaps with a Stephen Colbert green screen kinda deal…

DC talks directly to you

DC Publisher and President and writer Paul Levitz gives ComicMix a major interview, Frank Miller’s 300 reviewed, Tim Sale’s Heroes work goes up for a charity auction… all this and, yes, Timeline and even more on ComicMix Podcast #12, available right here:

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