Tagged: ComicMix

Bryan Singer and Warner Premiere to Work Together

  • News
  • November 26, 2008

Warner Premiere is known to ComicMix readers as the source for the cool direct-to-DVD movies featuring the DC heroes but they also produce original fare as well.  This morning, they announced a deal with director Bryan Singer to create a “cyberpunk sci-fi thriller” H+, “which picks up after a terrorist fries the brains of a segment of the population ‘jacking’ into the net”

The series will be written by John Cabrera (Gilmore Girls) and Cosimo De Tommaso, who will also serve as executive producers. They conceived of H+ as a television series but  Warner Premiere’s Head of Digital Content, Lydia Antonini, persuaded them to convert it to a web-based series.

The new series, to debut sometime in mid-2009, will be produced by Singer’s Bad Hat Harry Productions, the outfit that already gives us House.

Warner Premiere is dipping its toe into live action after working on numerous animated efforts including the recently unveiled Peanuts, a full animated comic web series. They have 20 original web series in development, some of which will go to video, some to the recently relaunched TheWB.com.

‘The Champions’ Coming from McQuarrie & del Toro

  • News
  • November 21, 2008

Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects) remains one very busy screenwriter with his work on Valkyrie about to be finally seen on December 31.  Up next will be two new films which he will both write and produce according to IESB, The Monster of Florence and The Champions. The latter is a feature film based on the short-lived BBC series that he is co-writing with Guillermo del Toro who has been most vocal in his passion for the show which ComicMix also recalls most fondly.

The series lasted all of one season, 1968-1969, and was syndicated in America a few years later. It featured “the adventures of a team of secret government agents who are rescued from a Himalayan plane crash by an advanced civilization and given superhuman abilities.”

United Artists President of Production, Don Granger, told the site, "The Champions is not just a strong concept with serious franchise potential, we believe that with Chris and Guillermo’s combined creative vision it can be an incredibly original film."

"Champions is a great premise with fascinating potential,” McQuarrie added. “I wanted to be involved from the moment Guillermo and I first discussed it."
 

patrick-stewart-ian-mckellen-x-men-001-5823444

‘X-Men’ Are ‘Waiting For Godot’

  • News
  • November 3, 2008

patrick-stewart-ian-mckellen-x-men-001-5823444If you’re not based in England but need a reason to travel to London, well, here you go. Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen are about to share the stage together.

That’s right, homeboys! Magneto and Professor Xavier have mutually knocked over their respective king pieces, deciding on a "gray" middle ground over a "black" or "white" dominant party, and are starring alongside one another for an on-stage production of Waiting For Godot.

Okay, yeah, before you leave, we’re talking about theater. No major shifts in the sociopolitical dynamics between mankind and mutantkind, but, hey, this is pretty close.

The two well known thespians, who shared the silver screen with each other as Erik Lansherr and Charles Xavier in the X-Men trilogy, will star alongside each other in Waiting For Godot on The West End, according to Variety.

The trade reports, "Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart will topline a Brit production of Waiting for Godot that will launch a U.K. tour in March ahead of an April bow at the Theater Royal Haymarket."

American audiences will recognize the actors as having shared the screen as nemeses in X-Men, but Stewart and McKellen had previously costarred in Every Good Boy Deserves Favour in 1977.

Waiting For Godot focuses on two men waiting for a man whom they’ve never laid eyes upon before, but know that his presence is incredibly important to their own self-worth. McKellen and Stewart play the two men, Estragon and Vladimir, respectively. The play is written by Samuel Beckett, and despite multiple attempts, has never seen a film adaptation. Waiting for Guffman, filmed and written by Christopher Guest, plays on Godot‘s themes without being a direct knock-off.

If anyone has tickets to London, please direct yourself to ComicMix. We’ll trade you in beets and other various candies.

My Way, by Michael Davis

  • News
  • October 31, 2008

And now, the end is near;

And so I face the final curtain.

My friend, I’ll say it clear,

I’ll state my case, of which I’m certain.

I’ve lived a life that’s full.

I’ve traveled each and every highway;

And more, much more than this,

I did it my way.

For whatever reason ComicMix has decided not to continue featured articles from me and our other columnists. Three weeks ago I turned down an offer to write for another site because I’m to busy for another deadline. That’s what I told the site. Truth is I have two things going for me, the first is I’m damn sexy, the second is I’m loyal like a puppy. O.K. I have one thing going for me, I’m loyal like a puppy. No, wait I do have two things going for me: I am damn sexy, even if I do say so myself.

Now I find myself with a bit of free time and you know what?

I don’t want to write for another site.  I like it where I am.

Look, I’m living the goddamn life of Riley here. I’m creating TV shows, I’m writing books, I’m about to run another entertainment company, I’m doing just fine without the weekly drag of coming up with stuff for ComicMix.

But I love this shit.

I have a great life and I have few regrets. One thing I like about me is I put it all out there. Love me or hate me, I put it ALL out there. Won’t you guys miss that? You need a guy like me to love or hate. You need me to piss you off and you need me to make you laugh. Of course I’m speaking of ALL the ComicMix columnists and using myself as an example. You need us. Not just me…really.

If I may take a moment and just talk about me…Asian girls…YOU NEED ME.

Look, I’m trying to be serious here. I’m sorry to get off track. On the serious tip, Asian girls you REALLY need me.

Anywho, I mentioned I was loyal like a puppy and my loyalty makes writing for another site not sit well with me. I mean ComicMix was unlike any other site out there and a great deal of that is because of the columns. You hear that powers that be at ComicMix? We helped build you. We help create the ‘mix’ in ComicMix.

You need us.

Don’t you?

No?

Well then if that’s the case, I’m now officially pissed!!! You motherfuckers think you can just use me? Did you think you COULD STEAL MY IDEAS? DID YOU THINK YOU COULD STEAL FROM MICHAEL DAVIS? FROM BEN SIEGEL? FROM MEYER LANSKY??

Sorry. I was watching Bugsy. 

I’m just kidding about the pissed part also. I’m not pissed. How could I be?  This was a wild ride and a lot of fun, but really, won’t you miss my rants? Won’t you miss my Death Ray? Won’t you miss how I get all deep and tell you stuff that you never expected from me? Won’t you miss the witty way I connect two seemingly impossible points?  Won’t you miss my annual Comic Con columns? Won’t you miss my tales from the hood? Won’t you miss, is you stupid?

Hey, now that I think of it; powers that be at ComicMix, IS you stupid?

Nah, I know it’s all about the business, guys. Or maybe not. Maybe just maybe the powers that be just hate me and instead of doing away with me (they can’t because of my massive power in the industry. Oh you think I’m kidding about that massive power? You have no idea who the Frank you are dealing with buddy. You try getting 25 rooms at Comic Con the WEEK before the con because some idiot canceled the rooms you had set up. Hell I got those 25 rooms back with ONE phone call. Then get that same idiot who thought she had some juice and canceled the rooms in the first place to apologize to you like the little bitch she was. Tell me how that works out for you. You get Ludacris, yeah THAT Ludacris to host YOUR Comic Con party. Tell me how THAT works out for you) wait a sec, where was I? Oh yeah, maybe just maybe the powers that be just hate me and instead of doing away with me they get rid of all the columnists just so it does not look like it’s all about me. Why would the powers that be go though all this trouble.

Why? WHY you ask?

Because I’m black.

See that? Did you see what I did? In one, way to long paragraph I bragged about my power, dropped some serious knowledge about my reach, insulted some hotel executive and made a joke.

Won’t you miss that? Wait! The one thing missing is a sad story from my childhood; and an Asian girl reference. So insert the following passage in there someplace:

My stepfather came home drunk. This was not rare but this time he had a puppy. Man, I was glad to see that puppy. That puppy meant to me that my stepfather was trying to do the right thing; he was trying to reach me with that puppy. “Is that for me?”  I asked already knowing the answer in my heart. The very same heart that was filled with love for this man at this moment. “IS WHAT FOR YOU?” He answered…loudly. “The puppy.” I said with a smile. “WHAT PUPPY?” He said again, loudly. I started to answer assuming this was his way of playing a game with me when I noticed something strange, my stepfather had tipped his head back and was bringing the puppy to his lips…

He was trying to drink the puppy. 

I found out later that he dropped his beer coming out of a bar and when he went to pick it up, he picked up the puppy instead.

“Ugh.” He said as the puppy (perhaps sensing danger with his puppy sense) peed in his mouth. “Tastes like piss.” He said while pausing…before he tipped the puppy to his mouth again.

Won’t you miss that? I know, I know so will I. Wait; I forgot the Asian girl reference. Here you go:

“Tastes like piss.” He said while pausing…before he tipped the puppy to his mouth again. Years later I would tell that story to an Asian girl hoping for understanding, hoping for love. Hoping she would love me… long time.

SEE? Won’t you miss all of that? Sure you will.

Well this does not have to be goodbye. I’ve gotten a lot of requests over the years (some with $ backing behind it) to write a blog. So that’s what’s I’m gonna do. I love ComicMix so much I’m not going to write for another site I’m going to write for me.

You can find me every Friday (I hope) at michaeldavisworld.com. I may or may not do more than one a week but I like this Friday thing. All this said, if Mike Gold wants me back at ComicMix I’m there. I have nom idea how I will do without the massive amount they were paying me there. I guess it’s back to my paper route; I have to get my milk money somewhere. 

I hope that I have been an interesting read at least. This is the 90th article I have written and I have loved this run. I’m grateful for the time I’ve spent here and look forward to seeing you all at michaeldavisworld.com.

I also wish ComicMix well. It’s still my favorite site on the net and Mike Gold will always be my friend. Regardless of him firing me…because I’m black.

Thanks, to all my follow columnists and to the un-official columnists, Vinnie, Russ, Marc, Reg, Jeremiah and last but not least my boy Shane. I’ll leave you with this:

For what is a man, what has he got?

If not himself, then he has naught.

To say the things he truly feels;

And not the words of one who kneels.

The record shows I took the blows –

And did it my way…

GOBAMA!!   (more…)

The Parting Glass, by John Ostrander

  • News
  • October 30, 2008

As I’ve mentioned before, one of my favorite films is a fine Irish delight called Waking Ned Devine. The closing theme is a lovely version of the Irish tune Parting Glass, an appropriate song to come to mind for many different reasons on this, my final column at ComicMix. The refrain of it reads like this:

So fill to me the parting glass / Good night and joy be with you all.

An appropriate lyric in particular since, last week I was at the funeral of my Aunt Helen who died peacefully at the age of 101. If you’ve read the column regularly, then you might recall the column I wrote when Helen reached her 101st birthday earlier this year. She died peacefully in her own apartment in Chicago, sitting on the sofa, the morning paper beside her. The TV set was still on and she had, by all reports, a peaceful expression on her face.

My family was sorry to see Helen go, of course, but I wouldn’t say her wake was a solemn affair – nor would she have wished it to be. The youngest of the great grand nieces and nephews, ages two or so, played in front of the open casket, turning somersaults and squealing. Helen would have adored that – especially the incongruity of it. As my nephew, Fred Ludwig (who has a fine writer’s voice himself) wrote for part of her obituary, Helen “had a laugh that could fill a room.” I think I heard it there that night.

As I mentioned in that other column, at her 90th or 95th birthday, Helen received many a bottle of bourbon, almost all Seagrams 7. Enough whiskey to stock a liquor store. She laughed as she received each gift and said, “Oh, you know my brand.” She continued to have one highball a day, towards dinnertime, in the tradition of her father, who also lived to be 100. Her stash was found in the apartment – there was plenty left – and brought to the wake in a discreet side room where family and friends could repair to lift a parting glass to Helen without disturbing other wakes also being held at the funeral home. Helen would also have appreciated that – and the toasts.

She left bequests and had her funeral all organized – who was going to do what, what songs were to be sung, what readings at the church – the same church she had attended all her life – and who was to do them. My brother and I were both to do the eulogy. I began my part by “blaming” the Chicago Cubs for her death. Helen was such a Cubs’ fan. For the recessional we all sang “Take Me Out To the Ball Game.” (more…)

Growing Out Of Comics, by Mike Gold

  • News
  • October 27, 2008

It was the very end of summer, I had just turned 11, and – heaven help me – I was just beginning to tire of comic books.

Not that I was considering getting that four-color monkey off of my back. My enthusiasm was waning. The Superman books were beginning to get silly, the Batman titles had already become silly, and Julie Schwartz’s books like The Flash and Green Lantern were beginning to feel repetitious. I had exceeded the five-year point in my comic book reading life, that moment when the publishers felt you were on your way out, trading comics for sports, girls, and/or life. Being a precocious reader, I was at that portal at an age somewhat younger than the norm, but there was no doubt about it, comics weren’t quite as exciting to me as they had been.

At that time, DC had the market on super-hero titles lock, stock and barrel. Few new titles were launched; indeed, DC’s two debut books – Showcase and The Brave and the Bold – often recycled previous unsuccessful attempts like Cave Carson: Inside Earth and the original Suicide Squad to give them another shot at the marketplace. Each run generally consisted of three issues, so at best there would be four debuts each year, and most of those (like Cave Carson and Suicide Squad) were not of the super-hero genre. Today, of course, we get four such debuts a week.

So when it came time to drive my sister to college, my father did something unique. He stopped at a drug store – one of those places that actually had a massive wooden rack plus two comics spinner racks exclusively dedicated to comic books – and told me to pick out a few for the ride, in the hope that I would not be a bother. He then dashed across the street to pick up a dozen bagels at Kaufman’s, the original one on Montrose and Kedzie in Chicago. They boasted the best bagels in the country, and they were right.

When he returned to the drug store, I had nothing. Absolutely nothing. I had read each and every superhero title in the vast expanse of rack space. Even Lois Lane.  Even the war comics, about which I was ambivalent at best, although I was not ambivalent about Joe Kubert’s art. (more…)

ComicMix Poll: How should we display our comics?

  • News
  • October 23, 2008

We’ve been having an internal debate here at ComicMix, about possibly doing different things with the way we display comics– and we want your feedback, since, after all, you’re the people reading them.

Should we…

  • Run one or two pages a day from all of our series?
  • Run four to eight pages a week, alternating series daily?
  • Run twenty to twenty-four pages a month, alternating series weekly?
  • Run it however it works best for the story?

Please vote in the poll below, and feel free to discuss your thoughts on the matter in the comments. Your votes will help determine how we show our comics going forward. And thanks for taking the time to respond!

Get your own Poll!

Interview: Todd McFarlane on the State of Comics

  • News
  • October 21, 2008

Yesterday, the first part of my interview with Spawn creator Todd McFarlane focused on issue 185 of the long-running comic and the changes in store for readers as he returns to active creative duty with Whilce Portacio and Brian Holguin.

Since part one ran, it has been announced that the shipping date has slipped a week and the issue, complete with previously unannounced variant covers, will now be in stores on October 29.

In the second part of our discussion, we chatted about approaching the big 200 mark, the comics landscape overall today and what it might look like in the future, as well as a few Spawn-related surprises.

ComicMix: With issue 200 on the horizon and the “end of Spawn” being teased, will Spawn continue past issue 200?

Todd McFarlane: Yeah, [Issue] 200 we’re already planning for. We’ve thrown enough ripples out already and that people will sort of go ‘whoa’ and have to pay attention to keep pace with it. And 200 will allow us to get to one of the big notes and it’s all sort of a Pandora’s Box; you close one door and another one opens. We’ll have a nice compelling story for 200.

CMix: The comic landscape has changed and continues to change in a lot of ways with all kinds of different formats on the shelves and walking into bookstores now with full sections devoted to trades and original graphic novels, as well as the rise of webcomics and digital formats on the Internet. What are your thoughts in general on these trends and new directions in comics as a medium?

TM: The medium of comic books, which is a combination of words and pictures, I don’t think that medium is ever going to go away. I believe what will evolve over our lifetimes and it’s been a slow evolution, is the delivery mechanism. Is it possible that some day everybody who reads a comic book will turn on a computer? I guess, but it’ll still be words and pictures, it just happens to be in digital form. The basic form of what a comic is will never die. The delivery mechanism, to me, is less important. If people want them in trade paperback, in book form, on their computers, on the back of cereal boxes, I mean, whatever, but it’d still be a comic book. So I’ll let the consumer tell us where they want to get their fix on this medium and then we’ll hopefully not be too far behind the curve and we can give it to them.

CMix: Do you see the monthly pamphlet format headed for extinction at some point as some people have suggested?

TM: It’s possible as long as someone can offset it with another business model that gets it to the consumer. Again, as long as you give people an option as to where they can get it. Change for change’s sake doesn’t make much sense. At some point, there might be an economic tipping point where you look at sales and see you’re selling 51% or more doing something a new way rather than the old way so you start putting all of your resources behind the new way like the transition from VHS to DVD at Blockbuster where [DVD] was 5% and then 10% and then it took over. If we’re going to go in that direction, I sort of see it being the same as other business models where it’ll simply be a slow transition. (more…)

Sex & Gasoline, by Martha Thomases

  • News
  • October 18, 2008

The campaign is almost over. The last Presidential Debate was Wednesday. Those of us who are not Joe the Plumber may wonder what the candidates have to say about the issues that matter to us.

You can go to the candidate’s websites here (Obama) and here (McCain) to find out what they say. There’s a lot there, but it’s written in political speak, designed to offend as few potential voters as possible. Will anyone tell us about where he stands on the issues in words we can relate to?

I have my own opinions. Take a look, and you’ll see why I’ll never be elected to any public office:

• The candidates in DC Decisions seem to be running for office in the year 2000.

No one is talking about the price of gasoline. No one is talking about the war or windfall profits. No one is talking about gay marriage (the hot button issue of 2004). Maybe corporations are less greedy in the DCU. Maybe people there are more tolerant. It seems to be a wonderful place. They have a black woman running for the Republican nomination. People come to her rallies. No one has mentioned if she’s a Muslim.

• The Marvel Universe is having its own election. They get to vote for Stephen Colbert.

• There are a lot of graphic novels about cancer, including this one, this one and this one. There are no graphic novels or comic books about health insurance.  There is, however, a wonderful <a href=”

on the subject.

• Similarly, religion plays a huge part in our national conversation every four years. We don’t see that in comics. How would Rao vote? What would Odin do?

• Can dolphins vote in either version of Atlantis? If not, why not?

• One of the ways the Guardians of the Universe recognized Hal Jordan as a man without fear was his experience as a test pilot. John McCain crashed six planes. Would he get a ring? If so, what would his energy constructs look like? (more…)

The Man of the day After Tomorrow, by John Ostrander

  • News
  • October 16, 2008

And every fair from fair sometime declines / By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d

Shakespeare, Sonnet 18

smallville-2-figures-8099962

 

The Superman of today is not the Superman of the Thirties, nor of the Eighties, nor the Superman that will be. At some point the Man of Tomorrow becomes the Man of the Day After Tomorrow. He will evolve and change as he has since his creation. Everything changes, everything evolves. The alternative is death and extinction.

The principal problem (IMO) with the most recent Superman film, Superman Returns, is that director Brian Singer wanted to go back and make the Superman 3 film that he felt should have been made. However, that interpretation of Superman belonged to the era in which the original Christopher Reeve Superman was created. Say what you want about Smallville, it at least re-interpreted Superman as if he had come to Earth recently and was a young man today. Sure, at the start it was a little Superman 90210, but so what? It translated the mythos into something recognizable for our era. In fact, in this its supposedly last season, after losing two of the lead supporting cast members, I think the show has gotten better. It borrows heavily from the comic book mythos that spawned it but has consistently thrown a new spin on that mythos. Superman Returns didn’t.

It’s not just Superman; comics as a medium needs to re-invent itself, to adapt to changing times. I love, honor, and respect the comic book retailers but they are in hard times and its going to get harder. Comics are a niche market and the retailers are part of that niche.  There’s x amount of fans buying the books and they have y amount of cash to spend on them. DC and Marvel play the same games from the Eighties with continuity heavy crossovers and attempts to crowd one another off the shelves. None of this grows the market.

One of the things I like about ComicMix and other sites like it is that we are where the eyeballs are, where the future of comics is going to lie – here on the Internet. This is where you can grow the market. It’s cheaper to produce stories on the Internet – no cost for printing or shipping, no distribution or retailer percentages – and you can still package the material for trade paperbacks which is where the real money is in comics anyway. Most of all, it has the potential to reach people who don’t go to comic book stores.

(more…)

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