Category: News

Oh, My! More Book Reviews!

  • News
  • July 24, 2007

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Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review looks at Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

The Guardian reviews Scarlett Thomas’s The End of Mr. Y.

OF Blog of the Fallen reviews Daniel Wallace’s Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician.

Blogcritics reviews Warren Hammond’s KOP.

The Kansas City Star reviews The Dark River by the secretive and mysterious John Twelve Hawks.

In the Washington Post, Jeff VanderMeer reviews Ian McDonald’s Brasyl, Kay Kenyon’s Bright of the Sky, Susan Palwick’s Shelter, and more.

Book Fetish reviews Yasmine Galenorn’s Changeling.

CA Reviews looks at Kristin Landon’s The Hidden Worlds.

Powells Books Blog reviews Matt Ruff’s new novel, Bad Monkeys.

Kate Nepveu reviews  Vernor Vinge’s Hugo-nominated novel Rainbows End.

Visions of Paradise reviews C.J. Cherryh’s Inheritor.

(more…)

Is Sylar Spock?

  • News
  • July 24, 2007

10-zack-quinto-5274776The Chicago Tribune‘s Maureen Ryan reports Paramount is "close" to signing Zachary Quinto to play young Spock in the next Star Trek movie. Right now, Quinto is playing bad-guy Sylar on Heroes.

If this comes to pass, a few changes might be in store for one of the few successful teevee shows launched last season, as Sylar was expected to play a major role. Quinto’s Trek shooting schedule might disrupt those plans.

An announcement is "expected" to be made at the San Diego Comic Con.

Hollywood Casting Announcements Flow Towards San Diego

  • News
  • July 24, 2007

Comic-Con is upon us and Hollywood studios, like the various publishers, have lined up a series of announcements to whet the appetites of fanboys, geeks, and the mainstream media.  I should note it’s pretty fun the con is receiving more coverage this year than the political conventions will likely receive next year.

Over the last week or so, numerous announcements have been slipping out through the trade press, starting with word that Seth Rogan, riding high from being Knocked Up, will write and star in the long-awaited Green Hornet movie. 

Yesterday, word spread pretty quickly about likely casting for the forthcoming adaptation of Watchmen, being helmed by 300’s Zack Snyder.  Matthew Goode looks to be Adrian Vedit, a.k.a Ozymandias.  Joining him will be Billy Curdrup (Dr. Manhattan), Patrick Wilson (Night Owl) and relative newcomer Malin Ackerman (Silk Spectre).  Jackie Earle Haley, who was recently nominated for an Academy Award, will play the pivotal role of Rorschach.

The Hollywood Reporter, today, added to that by named Disturbia’s director, D.J. Caruso, as the man behind New Line Cinema’s version of Vertigo’s Y the Last Man.  Caruso is paired once more with writer Carl Ellsworth, who cut his teeth writing for Joss Whedon, before leaping to features. J.C. Spink, Chris Bender and Blade’s David Goyer are producing the film, which was optioned some two years ago. The comic book series wraps up a little later this year with nine trade collections currently available.

Additional announcements expected this week include casting for Frank Miller’s directorial debut on The Spirit and maybe some additional word on the long-stalled Wolverine film that now inches towards a green light.

DENNIS O’NEIL: “No wizard left behind”

  • News
  • July 24, 2007

At the end of last week’s exciting episode, the cute schoolteacher and I were involved in a tense debate about which showing of the new Harry Potter movie we would attend. (Yes, we media people do have lives that throb with excitement.)

We decided, and went.

The schoolteacher, who really does carry Potter devotion to an extreme, at least in one Muggle’s opinion, was enthralled. The Muggle – me – thought it was a pretty good summer flick. I’m a Muggle who can enjoy some good, old-fashioned, British Acting-with-a-capital A, and the Potters are full of A-list thespians. (There may be a pun in there somewhere, but, trust me, it’s not worth the effort needed to find it.) I think British movie acting is still partly influenced by its grandiloquent, stage-bound forebears, and that makes it appropriate to material that is the antithesis of realism, much as Brando’s naturalistic Method acting was appropriate to Tennessee Williams’s realism.

But the Pottery pleasure the teacher and I could share equally began when Dolores Umbridge entered the story. Miss Umbridge, splendidly embodied by a pink-clad Imelda Staunton, is an educational bureaucrat whose saccharine exterior conceals a heart of bile. She’s a stooge for the local politicians whose mission is to insist on a largely useless curriculum and on tests which accomplish nothing except make it impossible for real educators to do their jobs.

“No wizard left behind,” I whispered to the schoolteacher, who nodded vigorously.

I don’t know much about J.K. Rowling, Potter’s creator, but I do know that she must have been writing the novel on which the current movie is based about seven years ago, and that she works and lives in England. Those facts make it unlikely that in conjuring up Miss Umbridge she was commenting on and/or satirizing the Bush administration’s No Child Left Behind farce. So maybe art was anticipating life. Whatever the reason, Miss Umbridge could step from fantasy into the real life milieu of those involved in the president’s – ahem – educational efforts and feel right at home.

Spoiler alert!

Miss Umbridge gets hers, though it appears that she survives to be rotten another day, and I rejoiced. I think schadenfreude is a pretty crummy emotion when it’s directed toward people we know, but it’s perfectly acceptable, and maybe even expected – maybe even desirable – when aimed at creatures of the imagination. And despite what the schoolteacher might want to believe, J.K. Rowling does write fiction.

RECOMMENDED READING: The Assault on Reason, by Al Gore.

Dennis O’Neil is an award-winning editor and writer of comic books like Batman, The Question, Iron Man, Green Lantern and/or Green Arrow, and The Shadow, as well as all kinds of novels, stories and articles.

EZ Street To Sneak-Peek At San Diego…

  • News
  • July 23, 2007

xyx-5320566Our pals Mark Wheatley and Robert Tinnell will be at the good so’ San DIego Comic thing this week – booth 2308 – where they’ll be showing off their latest project, EZ Street.

In addition to his comics work, Robert, of course, is the writer and/or director of such movies as Frankenstein and Me, Kids of the Round Table, and Believe; he also produced the classic Surf Nazis Must Die! Bob also wrote the column on autism for ComicMix last month that generated so much comment. Mark is the man (or at least a man, when he’s standing next to Marc Hempel) behind Mars, Breathtaker, Tarzan, Frankenstein Mobster, and all sorts of other cool stuff. He’s got a new sketchbook called Handmaid debuting at SDCC.

Together, Bob and Mark are doing an on-line comic strip The Mighty Motor-Sapiens at the NASCAR fan site – it’s in collaboration with Daniel Krall and Craig Taillefer. It starts August 6th.

And we’ll tell you all about EZ Street right here at ComicMix.com… when the time is right.

Artwork copyright 2007 Mark Wheatley and Robert Tinnell. All Rights Reserved.

Harry Potter and The Final Sacrifice!

  • News
  • July 23, 2007

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Well, it’s a book, now. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows went on sale at the crack of Saturday, and the world will never be the same. (Or something.) For this link round-up, I’ll corral the stories into groups, by theme, proving that there are only about a dozen potential Potter stories, each of which is being endlessly recapitulated around the world. (And thus I’ll refute Bishop Berkley.)

The last few “anticipation” stories from before the launch:

PopMatters wonders if all of the Potter-readers will become writers. (Because what the world needs is more wanna-be writers.)

Associated Content, writing on Friday, says the book is already on sale.

The Free Lance-Star announces that Fredericksburg shops are ready for the onslaught of young muggles.

The Dallas Star talked to people in line.

Savannah’s WSAV told eager readers they would have to wait just a little longer.

The Money Times reported on the leaks a few hours before Deathly Hallows’s release, which would also be several days after the story broke.

The Motley Fool also reported on the leaks just before the release. (I thought the financial press was supposed to be sleek, fast and up-to-date?)

The Philadelphia Inquirer had a quiz.

The Irish Times had the usual “we’re waiting, none-too-patiently” story. (more…)

MIKE GOLD: Getting Nostalgic For Nostalgia

  • News
  • July 23, 2007

mikegold100-3100131As these very words see the dawn of a new week, I shall be at home packing my ComicMix shirts for the San Diego Comic Con International. It’s the most important event in the comics year. Really; don’t read that with any sarcasm because I mean that. I agree with every word Michael Davis wrote in his column last Friday the 13th: it’s a hell of an effort, it’s a hell of a show, it’s a huge event.

But I can’t help but get a little nostalgic for the old comic book shows, where the primary focus was on comic books as a hobby and an art form. These days, most of Hollywood and all of New York moves out for the SDCC; it’s a massive business. Meetings, negotiations, mega-promotions, dealers dealing comic books made unreadable by being embalmed in plastic to other dealers for very high-stakes, lawyers, agents, managers, suppliers… it gets to be overwhelming.

My first national conventions were back in New York in the late 1960s, where the sainted Phil Seuling created the model for the comic book comic book convention. When I was involved with the Chicago Comicon (now Wizard World Chicago) back in 1976 – 1985, I shamelessly ripped off Phil’s format and approach; thankfully, he saw that as a tribute. It was a different world then.

As I recall, I was at the first Seuling show to crack the 300 barrier. That’s 300 fans. Today, San Diego has more than 300 pros in attendance. Hell, it’s got more than 300 lawyers in attendance. Back then, most of us were amazed there were so many of us all over the nation. For the first time, we realized we were not alone. We weren’t that unusual. Comics were not hip; hell, from a real-world point of view, they weren’t even very profitable. This was before the direct sales market – we have Phil to thank for that, too – and comic book stores only sold back-issues. There were no action figures or posters or alternate covers; in fact, there wasn’t much of an original art market as neither DC nor Marvel returned the art in those days.

As a young fan, I was exposed to older fans’ nostalgia. I read The Spirit and Justice Society, and I met people who gave me access to Milton Caniff and to The Shadow and to old time radio and movie serials and other relics of The Greatest Generation’s lost youth. Guys like Jim Steranko and Al Williamson would personally turn me on to great artists and concepts and projects. I was exposed to America’s popular culture history, and it was great fun. (more…)

The Big ComicMix Broadcast’s Home Game!

  • News
  • July 22, 2007

benturpin-8884284We can’t deny it – we at The Big ComicMix Broadcast have a bad case of San Diego on the brain this week, but why not? The nation’s biggest tribute to comics and pop culture starts in just days, but here’s a few things to occupy your browsers until then:

  • Hipflask and Comiccraft have A PREVIEW OF ELPHANTMEN #10 on their site, and they will be offering samples at their booth in San Diego. While you are there, it is a quick jump over to see all the great fonts offered by Comiccraft – yowzer!!
  • Burger King’s SIMPSONS promotional site is the place where you can submit photos of you or your friends and be transferred into Simpsons characters – which is much cooler than being an M&M!
  • To relive your fond memories of great 90’s Nickelodeon TV like CLARISSA EXPLAINS IT ALL, SALUTE YOUR SHORTS and more, check out the music video from the band XYZ Affair. See if you can spot the former Nick Stars in there.
  • unknown-9868578TokyoPop continues to add new episodes of their anime series like I LUV HALLOWEEN, RIDING SHOTGUN and A MIDNIGHT OPERA;  there are links to get soundtracks and books as well.
  • Check out that limited edition sketchbook offered by Bill Sienkiewicz . It goes on sale at ComicCon on a first come basis.
  • Finally – for all things ComicCon, there’s one place to go – the official site of course: http://www.comic-con.org/. 

The Big ComicMix Broadcast will be back here on Tuesday, we clear off the desk with our rundown of new comics and DVDs, talk to one of the people who helped form comics fandom and then pack our bags for the west coast! See you then!

Once you’ve finished That Book…

  • News
  • July 22, 2007

Nerds, geeks and thinking people everywhere are settling down to read J.K. Rowling’s latest and last adventure of Harry Potter prior to packing for sunny southern California.  At least that’s what they tell me; I’ll wait for the easier-to-heft paperback, thanks.  But there are no queues at all to read ComicMix columnist contributions from this past week:

If you see Mellifluous Mike Raub at San Diego, speak loudly and clearly into the mic!  Here are his contributions as he hits the Big Seven-Oh:

Have a safe flight of fancy, everyone!

RIC MEYERS: Kung Fu Popeye

  • News
  • July 22, 2007

popeye-8114692I suppose I could have titled this pre-San Diego Comic Con installment “Popeye Hustle,” but I think that would’ve given the improper connotation. The new four-DVD boxed set from Warner – Popeye the Sailor 1933-1938 – (available July 31st) is anything but a hustle. And, in fact, the present column title is all the more apt because there’s some of the best kung-fu I’ve seen recently within these first sixty Popeye cartoons.

   

“Kung Fu” actually means “hard work,” not “martial arts,” but there’s a lot of both on display here – from the labor the Max (and Dave) Fleischer Studios lavished on these cartoons to the more than ample martial arts expended by the Sailor Man and all his antagonists (especially Bluto) in every minute of these more than three hundred and sixty animated minutes.

   

I say “more than,” because, in addition to the dozens of remastered black & white original cartoons, the set also includes two of the justifiably famous “two-reel” color mini-movies: Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad (sic) the Sailor, and Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba’s Forty Thieves. If the Fleischer Studios had only made a feature length Popeye (as well as a feature version of their beautifully made Superman cartoons), they might have remained as eminent as the Disney Studio.

But this handsome, reverent, and exhilarating set will hopefully go a long way to returning them to their rightful pantheon, despite the hundreds of inferior Popeye cartoons made by other studios since 1941. These almost pristine (the remastering process retains the rough edges of the cartoons as they were originally released) nuggets of aggressive mayhem are a welcome blast of fresh air in the fog of politically correct nonsense, which elicits waves of nostalgic pleasure with each spinach swallow and successive bout of frenzied fisticuffs.

Popeye’s legendary theme song, and oft-repeated quotes of “I yam what I yam,” and “that’s all I can stand, I can’t stand no mores,” clearly marks him as an inspiration for Bugs Bunny’s later feistiness (not to mention “this calls for a little stragedy,” and “don’t go up dere, it’s dark”) — and the set’s extras make that ultra clear. To say that there’s a wealth of featurettes and pleasant surprises is putting it mildly. Each disc has at least two engrossing docs detailing Popeye’s (and animation’s) extraordinary history, voices, music, and characters, as well as audio commentaries and mini-docs that they call “Popumentaries.”

The icing on the cake are a whole bunch of other Fleischer Studio cartoons “From the Vaults” – that is, the era before the 1930s, when cartoons were just starting and fascination, if not delight, could be found in inventive silence. At first these ancient animations seem too crude to be bothered with, but watching the just-drawn likes of Koko the Clown dealing with an animated “live-action” fly soon leads to many minutes of amazed viewing. (more…)

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