Category: News

Actors Want Odd Parts

  • News
  • September 2, 2008

russell-crowe-picture-4-3310925Competing Sherlock Holmes movies will be racing to see who can get before the cameras faster.  Guy Ritchie (Rocknrolla)’s version already has Robert Downey, Jr. on board as Holmes but now Russell Crowe says he wants to play Watson. He was quoted in Australia’s Daily Herald as indicating this desire although an anonymous source was cited. 

Crowe is looking for a project now that his Robin Hood film with Ridley Scott is on hold for at least a year.

Meantime, also in Australia, Heroes star Milo Ventimiglia was quoted by Showbiz Spy indicating his desire to play a decided adult Boy Wonder. "I always thought I would make a great Robin. I would love to be Christian Bale’s sidekick in Batman," he told the reporter. "Even when I was younger I never wanted to be Batman." Of course, director Christopher Nolan has already said for years now that his film version of the Caped Crusader will never feature a Wonder – boy, teen or adult.

This, on the heels of the absurd notion of Cher as Catwoman, means we have years of casting rumors to endure before Nolan mounts the third film in the franchise.
 

Meltzer Begins Effort to Save Siegel Home

  • News
  • September 2, 2008

As reported across the web and in today’s New York Times, Brad Meltzer has launched a campaign to raise funds to renovate and preserve the boyhood home of Jerome Siegel, co-creator of Superman. Starting today, a four week auction of items will begin with winners gaining original artwork, VIP seats to the Colbert Report, walk ons in comic books, novels and even an episode of NBC’s Heroes.

Meltzer’s The Siegel & Shuster Society has launched and can be accessed at Ordinary People Change the World, a charitable website Meltzer founded. In addition to the auction, other items such as an Chip Kidd-designed t-shirt can be purchased or cash donations made.

The goal is to raise at least $50,000 for the necessary work on the exterior of the home, still occupied by an older couple. The website says, "It’s the right thing to do. In return, The Siegel & Shuster Society has the right to buy the house when it eventually goes up for sale.”

His latest novel, The Book of Lies, in a nice bit of synchronicity, goes on sale today.  Based on the robbery that led to Murray Siegel’s death, Meltzer’s book explores a thrilling What If? scenario that may have had more to do with Jerry Siegel conceiving Superman than the pulps he read as a child. (more…)

ComicMix Radio: Pushing The Limits At DC

September roars in with a new TV season on the way, one of the year’s last big conventions just around the corner and our usual load of new comics and DVDS, plus:

  • Gale Simone says she is pushing DC’s limits with The Secret Six
  • Scott McCloud shines with Google Chrome
  • Marc Guggenheim celebrates Eli Stone on DVD this week

A new month, a new season but a familiar request – just  Press the Button!
 

 

And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via badgeitunes61x15dark-2892381 or RSS!

 

Scott McCloud Explains Google Chrome

  • News
  • September 2, 2008

Today, Google will be launching their version of a web browser.  Dubbed Chrome, it is said to be an open Source construct which began with the needs of today’s web users being taken into consideration.  To make certain we understand why this is different than IE, Opera, Safari and Firefox, they hired Scott McCloud to produce a 35-page comic story to walk us through the browser.

It is said to be stronger for visuals, more secure, faster and has a neat tab that will provide you thumbnails of your nine most visited sites for easy access.  The privacy factor will allow you to use a site and have its cookie deleted and the page won’t show up on your history.  They sell it as a way to order surprise gifts, but more likely it’ll hide you surfing for porn.

The browser will be available only to PC users with Macintosh and Linux versions forthcoming.

ComicMix will be evaluating the browser before including it in our supported browser list.

looneytunes-gcv6-final-1-3305514

‘Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 6’ Coming in October

  • News
  • September 2, 2008

looneytunes-gcv6-final-1-3305514Warner Home Video has announced a sixth DVD box set in their Looney Tunes Golden Collection series.  The new set will be released on October 21 with 60 classic, fully re-mastered and restored cartoons, presented in their original un-edited format. Most of the shorts in the collection have never been available on DVD before.

Retailing for $64.92, the set will feature a disc dedicated to Bosko, Buddy and Merrie Melodies while the bonus features includes a never-before-seen documentary on voice genius Mel Blanc.

A smaller Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection Volume Six will also be released that day with material drawn from both Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Six and Volume Two for $26.99.
 

(more…)

Alaska Names Cartoon Laureate

  • News
  • September 2, 2008

Suddenly, there’s a lot of news coming out of Alaska.  In addition to the state’s governor being nominated as the Republican candidate for Vice President, cartoonist Chad Carpenter was named Alaska’s Cartoon Laureate last week. State representative Wes Keller began campaigning for the designation back in February, according to the Daily Cartoonist. 

Carpenter has been drawing Tundra for a dozen years now and as a thirty year resident of Alaska, knows something about the environment. He was encouraged to get into comic strips by Dik Browne and Mike Peters and has managed to grow his strip into a mini-empire with not only the strip but four strip collections, t-shirt designs, note cards, mouse pads, bumper stickers, and an interactive CD-ROM.

Keller said at the time, “Chad is one of my most famous constituents. I love his humor and success, and I was happy to ask my fellow legislators to support and co-sponsor this citation recognizing and honoring the work and goodwill he has accomplished for Alaska during his successful run of Tundra. His ability to export Alaska grown is a true example of what you can do when you put your mind to it.”

On May 24, Carpenter was given the Reuben Award for Best Newspaper Panel, crediting Carpenter’s success as a self-syndicated cartoonist with over 200 newspapers carrying Tundra.

Turning Comics Into Manga, By Dennis O’Neil

  • News
  • September 1, 2008

If you’re a student, or a teacher, you may not be reading this when Mike Gold posts it. Unless there’s a glitch he’ll be doing digital voodoo-hoodoo that I don’t understand – me and Johnny Mac, Luddites and proud of it – and making these words available to interested parties, if any, on Tuesday morning. The reason you’re not reading this on Tuesday morning, if you’re a teacher or student, may be that you’re in school and presumably putting your laptop to other uses. (I didn’t say “better.” I said other. Let’s not be judgmental.) Here in Rockland County New York, school begins early this year and unless the unforeseen happens, Marifran is, on the Tuesday-to-come, down the hill, beginning her forty-seventh year of teaching and I’m… oh, eating breakfast. Reading the paper. Sleeping. Something. I hope Mari didn’t wake me when she left.

For comics professionals, these fine, crisp September days are often a lull – an easy interval between the frantic, convention-going days of summer and the rush to finish and get to press the upscale books that publishers hope will be under a whole lot of trees on Christmas morning. Not much happening. The only items of interest that have come to my attention recently are the demise of one of the new comics publishers and Marvel’s announcement that it will tailor its superheroes for the Japanese market.

That market has been something of an enigma. The Japanese are, as a nation, the world’s largest comics consumers and have been for decades. Why? One theory is that experiencing narrative through the medium of pictures is natural to many Asians because their written language is pictorial – it may have begun as actual drawings and has evolved into a series of highly stylized glyphs. Neither a new idea, nor one restricted to comics: the great Russian director and theorist Sergei Eisenstein offered a similar explanation for Asia’s quick adoption of movies.

(more…)

‘Jonah Hex’ Begins Shooting in March

  • News
  • September 1, 2008

Warner Bros. has given a green light to a Jonah Hex script from Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (Crank).  "Pre-production will begin January 2009 before principal photography gets underway in March 2009 in either Louisiana, Georgia or Arizona,” the producers told Movie Blog. 

Actor Thomas Jane had himself done up to show what the Hex makeup could look like and essentially was begging to be cast in the title role. The directors have rejected Jane, despite being impressed by his efforts.  No casting has been announced for any of the roles nor has a story synopsis been revealed. The movie, though, is pencilled in by Warner Bros. for a 2010 release.

The antihero, created back in 1972 by John Albano and Tony DeZuniga, is one of the best characters published by DC Comics. Hex reached his creative heyday under writer Michael Fleisher during a long run from the 1970s through the 1980s.  Currently he is enjoyed renewed popularity through the monthly now written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, working with a variety of noteworthy artists. 

Batman Breaks $500 Million Barrier

  • News
  • September 1, 2008

The summer box office ended anemically although The Dark Knight did as expected, and sailed past the $500 million domestic box office mark.  By doing so in just 45 days puts it on a faster pace than the #1 champ, Titanic. With $11 million for the four-day weekend, the film stands at $504,696,000. Add in the $416,700,000 from foreign receipts and the film has earned Warner Bros. $919,121,000 (this despite our report that it’s tanking in Japan).

Warner Bros. has recently revised their estimate of the film’s final domestic number to $530 million, down from the $550 million it announced in mid-August. On the other hand, adjusted for inflation, the film rises from 49th on the All-Time chart to 30th as of this weekend and will likely climb a little higher before all is said and done. Not bad for a sequel to a super-hero movie.

To put this into additional perspective, The Dark Knight alone will account for almost one-eighth of the summer box office, which saw dozens of films open and many turned out to underperform. The summer b.o. is anticipated to close today with $4.2 billion in ticket sales.

Tropic Thunder remained atop the weekend chart in its third week of release, locating some $83.8 million along the way. Right behind it was the opening weekend for Babylon A.D. which was savaged by its director and the critics but still took in $9.7 million.  The better-reviewed Traitor, with Don Cheadle, opened in fifth place, taking in just $7.9 million.

Comedy had a tough summer as veterans Mike Meyers and Eddie Murphy crashed and burned and even inexpensive spoofs like the just opened Disaster Movie and the beer-soaked College opened poorly. Thunder and Pineapple Express were the exceptions, showing a shifting taste in theatrical comedies.

If any studio suffered, it was 20th-Century Fox which misfired with Meet Dave, Space Chimps, The Rocker, Mirrors, and most notably X-Files: I Want To Believe.
 

‘Simpsons’ Season 11 Box Set Due in October

  • News
  • September 1, 2008

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment announced the box set of the eleventh season of The Simpsons will be unveiled on DVD on October 7.

In addition to the stellar cast, the eleventh season of the seminal series featured guest voices Mel Gibson, Lucy Lawless, Kid Rock, Dick Clark, Tim Robbins, John Goodman, Parker Posey, Don Cheadle, Ron Howard, Willie Nelson, and Britney Spears.

The Simpsons The Complete Eleventh Season will feature a special Krusty The Clown themed box that  is promised to contain a surprise insert for the die hard fan.  The DVD collection will be available for the suggested retail price of $49.98 U.S./$69.98 Canada. (more…)

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