Tagged: DC

My Follow Americans, by Michael Davis

  • News
  • February 15, 2008
 
Hey, did I miss something? I may have as I don’t visit the site every day but did we not just pass one year of ComicMix?!! Where is the fan fare? Where is the celebration? 
 
Where is the love?
 
I’m not sure if fans know just how much goes into maintaining and producing a site like this. This is a HUGE deal. For any business to survive a year is a massive achievement and for an entertainment company to do so is nothing short of monumental! So my hat is off to the rest of the ComicMix crew! I am very proud of my small part in the ComicMix story and look forward to many more years from what has become comics and related media’s best place for great stuff!
 
A while ago I wrote a column about what I would do if I ruled the world. I realize now that was unrealistic at best. Ruling the world has been the mad dream of history’s idiots and I am no one’s idiot. I thought about how foolish it was for me to attempt to rule the world. That was perhaps the second silliest thing I have ever done. The first was assuming that a certain entertainment company would make toys from a wildly successful animated show I had a hand in creating. What was I thinking? 
 
No more. Enough.
 
My days of unrealistic fantasy daydreaming are over. Well except for the Asian girl hot oil Michael Davis sandwich daydream. I’m holding on to that one.
 
But all other silly daydreams are gone. That said I still want to help my follow man and I intend to do so. So today I am announcing my candidacy for The Presidency Of The United States.
 
This, I can do!
 
I am neither Democrat nor Republican. I am a member of the Comic Book Party. We are a small but powerful party that believes in whatever I say, as I am the only member. I told you it was small.
 

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Announcing – The Big ComicMix Radio Contest!

They Say It’s Your Birthday…

As we celebrate the kickoff of Year Two, ComicMix Radio notes our own anniversary by bringing back our very first guest, the shy and retiring ComicMix editor-in-Chief Mike Gold, who is eager to share what’s next for the site in the clicks to come.

Meanwhile, we’ve got the details on how you can WIN copies of Exclusive Graham Crackers Comics variants of some of the hottest titles – FREE.

Plus —

  • World Of Warcraft continues to sell out at DC
  • At Last: Spectacular Spider-Man getting set to debut on The CW
  • CBS & NBC start the rolling on new episodes
  • The Hobbit goes to court!

(To be sung) “Happy Birthday to us, Happy Birthday to us, Please Press The Button, Happy Birthday To Us!” 

Or subscribe to our podcasts via badgeitunes61x15dark-4411119 or RSS!

Star Trek My Eye!, by John Ostrander

  • News
  • February 14, 2008
 
I spent part of last Tuesday getting a laser shot into my right eye. And how was your Tuesday?
 
It was for purely medicinal reasons. I have glaucoma; it’s a disease, can be hereditary, by which the fluid in the eyeball doesn’t drain out well. This increases pressure within the eyeball which erodes the optic nerve which can and does lead to blindness. Usually, you get it when you’re older but I think I was still in my twenties when I was diagnosed with it. It can be controlled with medication or sometimes with surgery.
 
And, yes, marijuana has a medical use here. Whether or not it would be of any help in my case and worth all the hassle that would come with it, I don’t know.
 
My case is advanced and I know I’ve lost some vision (my heat vision is shot all to hell and don’t get me started on my X-ray vision). In the past few months, I’ve started to develop an allergic reaction to my eye meds. It can happen. That can result in meds having to be dropped, eyeball pressure going up, and blindness coming sooner. 
 
So we go to plan B: surgical solutions. The most extreme one of these, and one I will face at some point, is having new surgical drains inserted in my eyes. Laser work, however, is less expensive and less intrusive and that’s what we’re trying now.
 

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The Dancing Bear Expose, by Elayne Riggs

  • News
  • February 13, 2008

elayne-riggs-100-8791415Have you heard of the proverbial dancing bear? It’s apparently a Russian expression, which has its origin in some folk tale or other, and holds that the amazing thing about the performing animal isn’t how well it dances, but that it dances at all. This metaphor (sometimes substituting “dog” for “bear” after the Samuel Johnson quote comparing a woman preaching to a dog walking on its hind legs) became very popular in the heyday of “second-wave” feminism, whenever some consciousness-raising battle appeared won and another hurdle reared up in its place, when the very act of being female and expecting to be treated as human beings at the same time felt Sisyphusean in its difficulties. Sadly, the bear is still rearing its head, howling, dancing backwards and in high heels.

It doesn’t matter what the endeavor, career or hobby. Whether Presidential candidate or comic book writer or movie subject matter or just-plain blogger, a spate of “dancing bear” articles that appears like clockwork in the mainstream news, every few months or years, mining the same territory that comes down to “Look, women are doing things!” As if we need to be reminded we exist. It’s not how well the bear is dancing, it’s that it’s doing it at all! A fellow blogger once remarked that she could practically tell the changing of the seasons by how often she came across male bloggers wanting to know where all the female bloggers were, as a different male blogger posted this in almost exact 90-day increments.

Likewise, now that Gail Simone is writing Wonder Woman, DC’s longest-running, highest- profile book featuring a female character, we’re starting to see features pop up in all sorts of magazines pointing to the dancing bears again. “Pow! Zap! Women can write and draw!” And imagine, we can breathe and think as well! (more…)

ComicMix History Lesson: Steve Ditko’s Revenge

  • News
  • February 12, 2008

The cover Mike Raub used to illustrate his ComicMix Radio piece earlier today reminded me of another cover of somewhat similar design … and quiet controversy. So it’s time for another ComicMix History Lesson!

Once upon a time DC Comics had this idea of resurrecting their Showcase try-out series, but they made a couple significant changes. Instead of doing three-issue try-out runs, they did a series of one-shots. And, unlike Showcase‘s The Flash, Lois Lane, Green Lantern, The Atom (et al) runs, by and large these one-shots sucked.

They named the series 1st Issue Special because the phrase "1st issue" sold comics to collectors, and then they numbered each issue sequentially, proving their desire to sell comics in Canada outweighed their faith in collectors (don’t ask – or, better still, if you want to know, ask and I’ll respond in comments).

One of the better issues resurrected Steve Ditko’s Beware The Creeper, dropping the "Beware" part. Editorial director Carmine Infantino rejected Steve’s cover concept and drew up one of his own. Evidently, Steve didn’t care for it, but that was how the gig worked. So he drew it as designed: Firefly battling The Creeper in the sky, with a down-shot point-of-view.

As you can see, both characters are pummeling each other as they are falling to the ground. In the background is a street scene, with tiny little cars. And across from one of those tiny little cars, there’s a tiny little fire hydrant. And next to the fire hydrant, there’s a tiny little dog. And next to the tiny little dog who is next to the tiny little fire hydrant, there’s a tiny little puddle.

That last part reflects what Ditko thought of Infantino’s cover design.

ComicMix Radio: The New Star Wars!

Take a good look at the comic shown here. According to Diamond, Marvel’s Captain Marvel #3 has sold out before it even hits your comic stores tomorrow … and ComicMix Radio knows why!

Plus —

  • The Writer’s Strike seems just about over, so here come the new shows!
  • Star Wars in the theaters – and it’s all new!
  • Soon, it’s Trinity every week from DC
  • A Valentine treat for Indiana Jones fans!

As ComicMix starts Year Two, Press The Button and then hurry back on Thursday for details on how we are revving up the party by giving you some very hard-to-find comics… ABSOLUTELY FREE!

 

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Dan DiDio on DC’s ‘Trinity’ and ‘Final Crisis’

  • News
  • February 12, 2008

bagley-trinity-2974714As we reported recently, the upcoming DC project featuring a story by Kurt Busiek and art by Mark Bagley finally has a name: Trinity. DC announced the project at last weekend’s retailers summit, and have now begun providing some additional details about the series, as well as their other upcoming event series, Final Crisis.

In an interview with IGN, DC Executive Editor Dan DiDio sheds some light on both projects, and adds that the publisher learned some important lessons from comparing the structures of two of their most recent event-driven storylines, Sinestro War and Countdown.

When you work with a smaller group of creators, you have a much tighter control over what the message of the story is, and a much tighter sense of what that story is, and how to build momentum and excitement in that story. So we’re trying to do that right now, and we have a number of things that will be occurring throughout the DCU that really have that tightness, but also that large sense of scope.

So when you see Final Crisis occurring, it’ll have a tight but incredibly expansive story in regards to what’s being covered and the characters involved, but there are only going to be a handful of creators that will be working through the Final Crisis story. Kurt has a stranglehold in a very good way on Trinity and Trinity’s story for the year run of the book, and more importantly, you’ll see similar things like that occurring in the Batman group of books, the Superman group of books, and even more things building along those lines in some of the other series over the course of the next year.

 

Steve Gerber, R.I.P.

  • News
  • February 11, 2008

Mark Evanier has announced the death of comics legend Steve Gerber on his website.

Gerber was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis and had been in and out of hospitals for quite a while — an experience he had been chronicling on his website. Gerber’s career in comics included work with a variety of publishers, most notably as an editor at Marvel, during which he co-created the character of Howard the Duck.

Howard, born in Steve’s amazing mind and obviously autobiographical to a large degree, took the industry by storm. The creation was in many ways a mixed blessing to his creator. It led to an ugly and costly legal battle over ownership, which Steve settled out of court. It led to the occasional pains when he occasionally returned to the character and, due to reasons external and internal, found that he could not go home again. It also led to the sheer annoyance of watching the 1986 motion picture of Howard (produced with minimal involvement on Steve’s part) open to withering reviews and dreadful business. Still, the issues he did are widely regarded as classics…and Howard is often cited as a character who only Steve could make work.

Gerber’s work also included the development of the popular cartoon series “Thundarr the Barbarian.” Gerber had recently been working on the DC series Countdown to Mystery: Doctor Fate.

Valerie D’Orazio on DC, Comics Culture and the Female Presence

  • News
  • February 11, 2008

In a wide-ranging interview over at The Comics Reporter, Tom Spurgeon talks to Valerie D’Orazio, former DC editor, current Occasional Superheroine blogger and president of Friends of Lulu.

Over the course of their conversation, D’Orazio discusses her former employer(s), the state of women in comics and the industry as a whole, and even shares a few thoughts about what readers should and shouldn’t expect from publishers.

Oh, and she offers up a word or two about the best targets for fans’ outrage, too:

SPURGEON: Is there any issue in the last three years that you think has been underplayed? Overplayed?

D’ORAZIO: I understand a lot of the outrage some readers have about stuff like T&A in comics. But this stuff is never going away. The primal need to look at a pair of breasts is never going away. Now, saying something like "I don’t want this cherished comic book heroine to be a slut" or "kids shouldn’t read that stuff" or "mixing images of women with sexualized violence can be dangerous" makes sense to me. But take the case of Top Cow’s Witchblade. It’s erotica. It’s like our generation’s Vampirella or Barbarella. I can laugh at this or that aspect, but the title isn’t a menace that needs to be stopped. It serves a function for men, the same function Laurell K. Hamilton’s books serve for women — the blending of horror/fantasy with erotica.

As with many of Spurgeon’s interviews (and in the interest of disclosure, I was one of ’em), the conversation is quite lengthy but worth every word for anyone interested in learning about the culture, business and behind-the-scenes environment of the comics industry.

Kurt Busiek on DC’s Weekly ‘Trinity’

  • News
  • February 11, 2008

DC Executive Editor Dan DiDio made it official at this weekend’s Retailers Meeting: The publisher’s next weekly series is titled Trinity and will be scripted by current Superman writer Kurt Busiek, with art by longtime Marvel Ultimate Spider-Man artist Mark Bagley.

The weekly series will begin this June and feature a story each week involving the trio of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. Busiek will leave Superman with issue #675. According to Busiek, each issue of Trinity will feature 10 pages co-written by Busiek and Fabian Nicieza and 12 pages of a solo story by Busiek.

In an interview with CBR, Busiek commented on Trinity and the rumors that Jim Starlin’s recent Death of the New Gods miniseries cleared the way for DC’s "Big Three" to get the spotlight in Trinity — and that the series is simply leading to another big event.

“No, ‘Death of the New Gods’ is one of the series that is leading into ‘Final Crisis.’ ‘Trinity’ is not ‘Final Crisis’ related. It is a relatively self-contained story that follows its own track. It’s part of the DC Universe, but it’s not one thread in the giant plot structure that is a big event. It is its own story. It has a beginning, a middle and an ending. There will be repercussions, yes. It has new characters that are introduced that I sure hope will spin off into their own mini-series or series or things like that, but it’s not leading to ‘Final Crisis 2: This Time It’s Personal.’

Busiek also tried his hand at sorting out the web of storylines that make up DC’s final-countdown-to-infinite-crisis-on-52-multiple-worlds events and explaining where Trinity will fit into the greater DCU:

’52’ came out of ‘Infinite Crisis’ and itself was a repercussion of a big crossover. ‘Countdown’ is leading into a big crossover. Each time DC does a weekly, they want to do it differently. ‘52’ was about a world without the heroes, ‘Countdown to Final Crisis’ is building up to an event about the heroes and ‘Trinity’ is about the heroes. Front and center.

 

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