Let me tell you a timely story.

Almost fifty years ago, my parents piled my sister and me into the car for a drive to DeKalb, Illinois. Since my sister was about to start college only three of us would be coming back. Always concerned about his children’s cultural upbringing, Dad stopped by a phenomenal bagel joint called Kaufman’s in what was Chicago’s Jewish neighborhood at the time. While he was stocking up on carbs, I was ordered to go across the street to an ancient drug store, the type that had a genuine soda fountain, three huge magazine racks and a separate and equally gigantic rack for comic books. My father disliked feeding my habit, but he wanted the drive to college to be as peaceful as possible and the best way to insure that was to buy me some comics. The stunt still works to this very day.

Sadly, as much as I scoured the racks I had read everything that was likely to catch my eye, and even some of the fringe titles such as The Adventures of The Fly, Our Army At War, and Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane. But I would be damned if I let such an opportunity pass. I discovered a sort of superheroish first issue from an unnamed company that I associated with monster titles that I generally passed over.

My dad came into the store to pick me up and pay for the damages. I gave him one solitary little pamphlet. One. He was amazed. “Only one?” I shrugged. “Well, we’ve gotta go, we’re late.” He literally flipped a dime across the room to the ancient man behind the counter and we began our hot, tedious trip with warnings to my young just-turned-11-years-old ass that I better shut up and behave.

I proceeded to read my one and only comic book. Within a couple pages, I was hooked. It was a monster comic, but it was also a superhero comic. It was drawn by a guy whose work I recognized and appreciated from his brief time with Green Arrow, Private Strong, and The Fly. By the time I finished the book-length story, which was rare in those days, I had already decided to reread it.

Several times, as it turned out. Dad and I both got lucky.

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Pontiac, MI., July 25, 2011—Walt Disney Pictures’ fantastical adventure Oz The Great and Powerful,  directed by Sam Raimi, went in front of the cameras at the brand-new Raleigh Studios in Pontiac, Michigan, on Monday, July 25, 2011, boasting a stellar cast that includes Academy Award® nominee James Franco (127 Hours) as the young wizard, Golden Globe® nominee Mila Kunis (Black Swan) as the witch Theodora, Academy Award® winner Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener) as Kunis’ sister Evanora and two-time Oscar®-nominated actress Michelle Williams (Brokeback Mountain, Blue Valentine) as Glinda, the Good Witch.

The cast also includes Emmy® and Golden Globe® nominee Zach Braff (Scrubs, Garden State), who will play Franco’s circus assistant as well as lend his vocal talents to one of the CGI creatures in the story — Finley, the winged monkey who accompanies the magician on his journey to Oz; and 12-year-old actress Joey King (Ramona and Beezus), who will voice another CGI character in the story, China Girl, who also joins the future Wizard on his excursion through Oz. (more…)

Joe Johnston knows how to direct adventure films but watching his growth as a director has been a pleasure. His first offering, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids was a visual effects feast, thanks to his training at Industrial Light & Magic. He followed up in 1991 with his first comic book adaptation, Dave Stevens’ Rocketeer and while the movie is far better than the critical reaction or box office would indicate, it still lacked that certain spark of delight for a summer blockbuster. Over the intervening years, Joe has continued to direct films that has shown steady growth as he has more subtly integrated effects with characterization with the family friendly Jumanji and the heart-warming October Sky. It was all good training as he took on what has become his highest profile project yet, Captain America: The First Avenger.

Clearly, he has learned his lessons as the critics – both mainstream and geek alike – have raved over the film while the $65 million it earned over the weekend proves he delivered a film people wanted to see. There were many obstacles challenging Johnston so that he managed to overcome them with aplomb is quite impressive. First of all, he had to turn a brief origin story from Captain America Comics #1 into a story that was plausible for modern day audiences. He had to fill it with winks and nods to the comics continuity that has been built around that Joe Simon & Jack Kirby tale of a man being turned into a super-solider. Then there was all the spadework that was required to prime audiences for the next installment in the Marvel Film Universe, next summer’s The Avengers.

Joining me for the Saturday matinee were two neighbors who only knew the character by name so while I sat there geeking out like the rest of you over the little touches, they were thoroughly satisfied with the story from beginning to end. (I had to spend dinner annotating it for them which was a fun test of memory.) (more…)

Marvel Studios has reacquired film rights to the characters of Blade and The Punisher according to Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada. He announced this during his Cup O’ Joe panel during Comic-Con International, but cautioned the audience that this did not mean either was being put into active production.

As a result of these acquisitions from New Line Cinema and Lionsgate, respectively, this leaves the X-Men, Ghost Rider, and Fantastic Four franchises still under 20^th Century-Fox control while Sony continues to produce Spider-Man films. A Ghost Rider sequel with Nicholas Cage returning as Johnny Blaze is in the works while a reboot of the FF is in pre-production. X-Men: First Class performed so well this summer sequels are already on order.

Marvel has indicated that as the first cycle of films based on their best known heroes chugs along, the focus is shifting to their lesser known characters, most likely leading off with Doctor Strange and Edger Wright’s Ant-Man. At present, none of these projects have been given release dates meaning they are far off.

At the Marvel Television panel conducted by their VP Jeph Loeb, it was shown that the ABC pilot for Alias Jessica Jones continues to move through the production process, and would include Luke Cage in the supporting cast. Cloak & Dagger is also in development for ABC Family.

2012 will see The Avengers on May 3 followed by Amazing Spider-Man over July 4 weekend with 2013 already ticketed to screen Iron Man 3 and Thor 2. Beyond that, the calendar and options remain wide open even though lead actors including Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, and Samuel L. Jackson are signed for multi-picture deals. Evans, for example, has a nine picture deal with Captain America and The Avengers only covering two of the nine.

Dylan Dog: Dead of Night played for about three weeks in the spring and is being released Tuesday by Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment on Blu-ray. In an exclusive conversation with ComicMix, director Kevin Munroe talked about the experience.

Munroe first came to attention with his revival of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, released in 2007 as TMNT and is absolutely no stranger to comics. “Yeah, I think I started with Sgt. Rock and then the European titles which I read growing up on the east coast of Canada. I read Tin Tin, Lucky Luke, Asterix then discovered Plastic Man, “he said.

An avid comic book fan, Munroe became an artist and found work storyboarding episodes of Nickelodeon’s Hey Arnold! before scripting and producing ABC Family’s Christmas special Donner. Comics weren’t far from his mind, though as he wound up writing Dark Horse Comics’ El Zombo Fantasma, with Dave Wilkins. His other comics work includes Olympus Heights from IDW.

Given his work with Dark Horse, Munroe found himself in consideration for the director’s chair at a fortuitous time. “That was happenstance,” he admitted. “I heard of the project, while doing my own project for Dark Horse. I saw they had just done the first issue of the American edition of Dylan Dog and I picked it up. The series had everything I liked about comics.”

His fan interests certainly informed his career choices and he’s perfectly happy finding ways to adapt comics to the screen. “I think comics are such rich world and it’s just so easy to do,” Munroe explained.  “I’m a fan on a visceral level. I like how active it is to read a comic and see the pacing and hear the voices in your head. Personally, I get a kick out of it. Where are the best stories being told? In comics. Who has the best characters? They take their time; create an entire world and mythos.” (more…)

This is a milestone: it was announced at San Diego Comic-Con that a live-action adaptation of Last Blood, a webcomic first published on Keenspot back in 2006, is in the works with Simon Hunter (The Mutant Chronicles) directing with an anticipated 2012 release. To our knowledge, this is the furthest any webcomic has gone towards being adapted into a feature film.

The premise is amazingly simple: After zombies take over the Earth, vampires must protect the last surviving humans so they can live off their blood. Wackiness, as they say, ensues.

Last Blood will be produced by Ironclad exec producer Christian Arnold-Beutel as well as Red Giant Media’s Aimee Schoof, Isen Robbins and Benny R. Powell, and Chris and Bobby Crosby. The Crosby siblings created the graphic novel with illustrator Owen Gieni, and Bobby Crosby wrote the script with Nick V. Sterling.

…or how the fuck did that happen? Part One

So how did I get into comics?

I wasn’t going to write about this because the last column was all about me, and I don’t want you all thinking that “it’s all about her,” because it’s not, really, but I just reread my first column, and I did promise you, so…

I wish I could tell you that I always knew I wanted to be a comics writer, and that I was encouraged by my high school teachers and then went to university and majored in English with a minor in writing, or that I was a “convention-ho” and showed sample after sample after sample of my writing to every editor who didn’t make a beeline for the bathroom when they saw me coming. Or that I’m related to someone in the comics world, and hey, a little bit of nepotism doesn’t hurt. (Let’s get real, here, right?)

But…

Once upon a time –1983 – I was working in the OR at a “great metropolitan hospital of a major American city.” It was an ordinary day, with no hint of things to come. Lunchtime came, and, not having anything to read while I ate, I went down to the hospitality shop, thinking I would pick up a magazine or maybe a paperback. None of the magazines or books was really catching my interest, when out of the corner of my left eye I noticed a rack.

A rack of comic books! (more…)

Marvel Comics released a wide variety of posters at the San Diego Comic-Con this weekend with Chris Evans as Captain America, Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, Scarlett Johannson as the Black Widow, Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Clark Gregg as Agent Phil Coulson, and Cobie Smulders as Agent Maria Hill, all in advance of the May 2012 release of the Avengers movie directed by Joss Whedon, and all making a giant poster after it’s all, ahem, assembled.

The images were created by Marvel Studios Co-Visual Development Supervisor Ryan Meinerding and Charlie Wen. Check ’em out.