Category: News

Happy birthday, Mike Judge!

  • News
  • October 17, 2007

Born in Ecuador forty-five years ago, a talent no one could have imagined would grow up (in New Mexico) to make his mark on the world with timeless phrases such as "I do believe you have my stapler" and "I need T.P. for my bunghole." It’s Mike Judge’s birthday today, the brain behind classics such as Beavis and Butthead, King of the Hill, Office Space, and the incredibly underrated Idiocracy. Thank you, Mr. Judge, for bravely blazing the path of tastelessness for the rest of us to follow in. Thank you for illuminating adolescence in a way that is relatable, for encouraging office anarchy and for being responsible for the only movie in which Jennifer Aniston was bearable. We salute you!

And while we’re on the subject, go visit Me And My Red Stapler, a favorite comics blog of ours.

American Idol’s Aiken in Spamalot?

  • News
  • October 17, 2007

Playbill tells us that Clay Aiken is going to make his Broadway debut in the Tony Award-winning musical Monty Python’s Spamalot in the role of Sir Robin. Aiken will be making his Broadway debut in the role originated on Broadway by David Hyde Pierce. His run begins Jan. 18, 2008, and is scheduled to continue through May 4.

Naruto the Movie: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow – review

  • News
  • October 17, 2007

If you haven’t heard of Naruto yet, you’ve either been living in a cave or obsessively avoid all contact with manga; it’s the single bestselling series of comics in the US today, regularly placing multiple volumes on bestseller lists. (The animated version is also a decent-sized TV hit, especially among teenage boys.) In case you have been managing to avoid Naruto so far, Viz is making it really difficult to continue: they’re releasing the new volumes of the series three at a time every month this fall, and also threw in a direct-to-video movie, Naruto the Movie: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow, to boot.

It’s the movie we’ll be looking at today. I watched it twice over this past weekend, once alone and once in the company of my older son (my resident Naruto expert). The production values are clearly better than the animated show, which I’ve only seen intermittently – even the colors seem brighter and more vibrant. It may be direct-to-video in the US, but it’s a top-notch animated movie, with CGI effects blending very nicely with mostly hand-drawn 2D animation. It’s not quite up to the level of the very best theatrical animation, but the characters are fluid, the backgrounds are stunning, and the action is gripping and well choreographed. (more…)

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Stephen Colbert for President?

  • News
  • October 17, 2007

51yvj3-asyl-_aa240_-5835564Finally, Stephen Colbert is throwing his hat into the ring and officially announcing his candidacy for President of the United States.  Colbert appeared on The Daily Show last night and suggested he might consider considering a run for the highest office in the land, but then said he would make his official announcement on a "more prestigious show."  Then appearing on his own show, he made the big announcement amid a waterfall of red, white and blue balloons.  He went on to say he plans to file and run in South Carolina, his home state, and only in South Carolina, and will file for both the Republican and Democratic parties.

We suspected it ever since he took over Maureen Dowd’s column.

On this day: Marie Antionette beheaded

  • News
  • October 16, 2007

Today, we honor the patron saint of women in refrigerators. Devoid of pop-culture nerd-dom, somehow this event in history never loses its morbid charm.

Yes, this day two hundred and fourteen years ago, the extravagant life of Marie Antoinette was ended by the French resistance. Upon hearing that the French peasantry had no bread to eat, she famously responded, "Let them eat cake," and paid for such callousness with her head.   Little did she realize what her notoriety would leave in her wake: thousands of musical theatre fans and a peg in Kirsten Dunst’s unfathomable career. 

Perhaps Ms. Hilton should take heed of history’s lessons…

UPDATE FROM GH: The missus reminds me that Marie Antoinette is a character in the manga and anime series, The Rose of Versailles.

Yep. We can be Heroes…again

  • News
  • October 16, 2007

Our top of the week Broadcast covers a lot of ground starting with our rundown of the newest comics and DVDs to hit the stores, including:

• A new zombie variant for Ultimate X-Men

• A second printing variant for the Green Arrow Black Canary Wedding Special

• A new Ride one-shot from Image, plus a look ahead to the future of the series from the creators

• A new DVD collection of the Angel series

Plus News Updates on:

• Captain America‘s return and costume make-over

• The American Girls jump into video gaming

• Heroes gets yet another graphic novel

And much more of the usual fun… including a trip back to what was on our pop culture on this day in 1988!

Jump right in & Press The Button!

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Comics Great Marie Severin Suffers Stroke

  • News
  • October 16, 2007

images-3507439Long-time comics giant Marie Severin suffered a stroke last Thursday. She is recouperating at Huntington Hospital in Long Island, New York.

Marie is perhaps best-known for her work as the primary EC Comics colorist during the 1950s, doing much to set the tone and style of comics’ most highly-respected line. She is also well-known for her work as an artist, working on a wide variety of characters primarily for Marvel Comics: from Doctor Strange and The Sub-Mariner to Alf and Kull The Barbarian. She is particularly well-known for satiric work in titles such as Crazy and Not Brand Ecch!, drawing one of the finest comics parodies, "Kaspar The Dead Baby," written by Marv Wolfman.

Born in 1929, Marie’s brother, John Severin, is also one of the all-time comics greats.

Marie’s family suggests sending get well cards to:

Marie Severin, patient

c/o Huntington Hospital

270 Park Avenue

Huntington, NY 11743

(Thanks to Larry Shell for sharing the news.)

Cap In The Saddle Again

  • News
  • October 16, 2007

O.K. By now you’re heard that "Captain America" will be returning to Captain America, in issue #34. Place your orders today, folks!

I have no problem with Cap’s return. It was inevitable. That’s fine. I don’t know if it’ll be Steve Rogers resurrected; I certainly hope not. That sort of shoddy storytelling got tiresome about 20 years ago. Like the flag and the nation for which he was named, Captain America endures and that’s fine by me.

I’m not going to join the loud chorus of nay-sayers who have been pooping all over Alex Ross’s brand-new costume design. Cap’s got a gun and a knife? Bg deal. He’s a soldier, remember? If a gun was good enough for Alex Schaumberg, it’s good enough for Ross and for me.

However, there is a storytelling problem here. If the costume is so vital that it must survive as the skin of another, as it had before in the 1950s, then why change the costume? I guess we’ll find out. I hope we’ll find out. (more…)

Costumes, by Dennis O’Neil

  • News
  • October 16, 2007

My beloved has just been pushed out of a fourteenth story window and is plummeting toward certain doom. I must rescue her and I will – as soon as I change clothes…

We were discussing, last week, how superheroes are evolving and we agreed – didn’t we? – that, on the whole, with a few notable exceptions, they’re getting grimmer.

They also seem to be changing their taste in wardrobes. None of the current television superdoers wear anything more than normal clothing, albeit sometimes very spiffy normal clothing. Time was, and not so long ago, when…shall we call it unconventional garb was an indispensable part of the superhero thing. Capes, masks, tights, all kinds of bizarre raiment, often in the primary hues that were friendly to the aniline dyes and rather primitive printing presses used to color them.

It began, as did so much superheroish stuff, with Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s Superman. To the best of my knowledge, these pioneers never went on record regarding exactly why they chose this particular visual strategy, but it was a good idea. It gave the their character and immediate and utterly unmistakable image and it separated him from his ordinary brethren as a police uniform or priestly vestments separate the wearers from plain joes and janes, at least when performing unique services. As Peter Coogan wrote, Superman’s outfit “does proclaim his identity.” The costume was obviously a part of Superman’s appeal, and immediate success, and, being no fools, Siegel and Shuster’s army of imitators copied it.

Consider that, for now, the why of superhero costumes. As to the whence…

(more…)

Study in contrasts: Shazam! and Simon Dark, by Charlie Meyerson

  • News
  • October 15, 2007

Arriving in one press kit from DC, a couple of comics as different as day and night: The deluxe edition hardcover collection of Jeff Smith’s four-issue miniseries SHAZAM! The Monster Society of Evil and the first issue of Steve Niles and Scott Hampton’s Simon Dark, promoted as Gotham City’s other protector.

 

SHAZAM! is Smith’s brightly colored love letter to the original Captain Marvel comics, a new take on a storyline first presented in the 1940s. It’s yet another relaunch for a character DC has proven unable to handle with any consistency, but it brings Smith’s clear sense of storytelling to a plot that is, in the end, a little too simple. It’s a handsome volume – with a dustjacket that unfolds into “a giant-sized poster!!!” (to quote the enthusiastic cover blurb), and elaborate production notes and sketches. But longtime fans may be disappointed. The story itself is better suited for parents looking to introduce kids to the adventures of the Marvel family. (more…)

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