Tagged: ComicMix

Marvel Fashion Show at Comic-Con

  • News
  • August 3, 2008

I’m not sure what to make of the "Marvel Fashion Show" event held during San Diego Comic-Con. I didn’t attend the event, and now that I think of it, I’m surprised I haven’t heard anyone express an opinion about it one way or another.

All I know is that Marvel.com just posted photos and a video from the event… and that provides a nice opportunity to open up discussion and hear what people think about it.

What do you think about Marvel’s superhero fashion show, ComicMix readers? Let us know in the comment section of this post.

ComicMix Radio: Steven Moffat On Taking Command Of Doctor Who

Even for an established and award winning television writer like Steven Moffat, taking command of a 45 year old universe is a little daunting. In the first part of our exclusive ComicMix interviews with the top BBC talents, he tells us his outlook for the future, plus:

  • Dave Gibbons shares his reaction to seeing The Watchmen come to life
  • The creator of Scream turns to comics
  • What is was like to camp out under the full moon last night waiting for Breaking Dawn

No spoilers here – really  just Press the Button!

 

And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via badgeitunes61x15dark-1725408 or RSS!

 

 

SDCC: Little Earthquakes, by Martha Thomases

  • News
  • August 2, 2008

It’s nearly a week since Comic-Con ended, but still it haunts my dreams. I grew up in Youngstown, Ohio, then the fifth largest city in Ohio (behind Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus and Akron), yet there were more people in the San Diego convention center.

I think all of them walked by our booth.

If they were any other place, I wouldn’t know about it, because I left the booth only to go to the bathroom and to the Black Panel (for different reasons, as I hope is obvious). The bathroom at the center back of the exhibit hall was usually not crowded and always clean, which is more than I can say for any of the other ladies’ rooms.

The Black Panel was packed. I arrived ten minutes early, which usually allows me my choice of seats, but this time, I was forced to navigate among strangers. Even though this event doesn’t get the hype of the movie panels, or the television shows, or even the video games, it’s really, really fun. There is music and dancing (not by me, you’ll be happy to know, but by people who know how to dance), and lots and lots of laughs. Also, people who have been seriously moved by comics get up and, in the guise of asking questions, testify to the power of graphic story telling.

I also got to leave the booth when my friend, Tiger, who is seven years old and was staying with us so she could read Mars, decided she wanted to find her father, who had a meeting at the Dark Horse booth. This was only about two aisles away, but it took us more than 15 minutes to get there. Not only did we have to stop and look at anything that might potentially be a toy display, buy we had serious problems avoiding backpacks. Now, I understand the appeal of the backpack – you can carry a bunch of stuff, and still have your hands free, and yet, you are not wearing a purse, thereby asserting your manly manliness. And my problem is not with backpacks, per se, but with backpacks that are stuffed so full that you, the wearer, are no longer aware of the dimensions. A backpack that is more than six inches deep is a deadly weapon, especially to those humans who are not yet tall enough to avoid getting whacked in the head by the bottom corner of your stuff. (more…)

Review: This Week in ‘Trinity’ – Part 9

This ridiculous villain thing has officially gone too far.

First, we have the “evil trinity” of Despero, Morgaine Le Fey and Enigma. Then there’s been Howlers galore and a trio of baddies headlined by the Eraser or White Out or whatever his name is.

And now? Swashbuckler!

He shows up amid the chaos of the bombed mall and lays a kiss on Diana’s gubmint pal (also stealing her ID), and then later fails to steal Nightwing’s mask. Both while offering B-movie banter.

He’s apparently another villain in league with Le Fey, who along with her cronies is amassing more goodies that “define the essence” of key people. It goes back to the continued theme in this series of objects being instilled with a mysterious energy force of the earth.

Elsewhere, Bruce fights off attacking Howlers with Clark’s help. They apprehend a few without being branded like Diana, but we don’t know what happens with that yet.

As Clark is inner-monologuing about Bruce forgetting an earlier encounter with the Howlers, Diana comes over the shortwave to let them know the Crime Syndicate was responsible for mass kidnappings.

Two things here: The Crime Syndicate? And, wait a second, when did these kidnappings happen? Off-panel, I guess.

(more…)

The Weekly Haul: Comics Reviews for July 30

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  • August 1, 2008

A pretty slow week in comics, as everyone’s still gasping for breath post Comic-Con (including me, even though I stayed at home this year). Not even a dozen books worth reading this week, and I somehow missed the JSA annual. Still, some interesting stuff, with a strong DC showing.

9716_180x270-1950612Book of the Week: Blue Beetle #29 — This was a really strong debut issue from Matthew Sturges, which makes it all the more unfortunate that the finished cover (not the same as the image at right) lists the writer as "Rogers," meaning the departed writer, I imagine.

There’s also a bizarre bit of text added that says: "No trespassing: Violators will be Prosecuted." Except the last word is crossed out and "Persecuted" is written over it. Meaningless fluff that distracts from an attractive bit of art.

Like I said, though, the issue is good stuff aside from a few minor awkwardnesses as Sturges warms up to the series. Jaime keeps on adventuring, though he’s falling into a big mess involving Intergang and smugglers.

Sturges uses that to create a nice dynamic, as Jaime is forced to take a side in the immigration debate. This is a really good jumping-on point, if you’ve been thinking of giving the series a try.

Runners Up:

Green Lantern #33 — Geoff Johns keeps working his magic, digging through the unexplored patches of DC lore for this tale of Hal and Sinestro’s first teamup. It’s a very Obi and Anakin scenario, except if Obi was the one who turned evil.

Johns uses subtlety in examining the reasons Sinestro went mad with power, and the prophecy of the Blackest Night finally is starting to be revealed.

Thor #10 — Not a lot to say here, just another issue that somehow makes believable the idea of Valhalla appearing over the U.S. Reality and myth mingle, and the seduction of Balder deepens. Great stuff.

(more…)

Manga Friday: Who Are You?

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  • August 1, 2008

This week we’ll be looking at three books with main characters who look like one thing, but are something else.

Nephilim, Vol. 1
By Anna Hanamaki
Aurora, May 2008, $10.95

On a continent with the unlikely name of Elwestland, two political powers – with the is-it-quitting-time-on-Friday-already? names of “The Empire” and “The Federation” – are in a long cold war, having split the land right down the middle. Oh, no, wait! There’s also a nearly impassable jungle right in that middle, conveniently separating the Empire from the Federation. And in that jungle live the mysterious, nomadic Nephilim.

Nephilim appear in one form by day and another by night – this may simply be swapping gender, but the text of the book doesn’t quite say that – and their night-form is the true one. (They’re fertile in that form, among other things.) But if an outsider sees a Nephilim in his/her true form – possibly only if the Nephilim is naked, but that doesn’t seem to be the important bit – The Curse declares that Nephilim must kill that outsider personally, or start to die slowly.

And our plot begins when the dashing Imperial soldier Colonel Sir Guyfeis S. Northenfield, who is also a top bounty hunter, a master of unarmed combat, and probably a deft hand at Parcheesi, too, is charging through that not-nearly-impassable-enough jungle on a mission to retrieve the fair Lady Lia, who has been kidnapped by perfidious Federal agents. He avoids or kills Federals by day, and has a quick run-in with a wandering Nephilim named Abel. (Rolling a fifteen or higher on the Random Encounter table, clearly.) That night, Abel is bathing in a stream, so Guy sneaks up to catch an eyeful – either unaware of the curse, secretly hot for the cute boy he thought Abel was, or just terminally nosy. He discovers Abel is “truly” (by night, at least) female, and she then tries, very badly, to kill him.

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The Day The Earth Moved, by Michael Davis

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  • August 1, 2008

I had a particularly bad day after the San Diego Comic Con was over. I don’t feel like sharing nor do I feel like writing about it. There are times when I don’t trust myself with my Mac and I fear whatever I write at those times would come back to haunt me. It’s like they say, never go shopping for food when you are hungry. I’ve done that and come home with 60 boxes of Twinkies.

I will allow myself to write when I’m mad about some injustice or something stupid, but when I’m sad or remorseful I’d rather just go with something I have in the can. When I first got the ComicMix gig I wrote a bunch of random articles to be used in case I was on vacation, sick or in case I had to deal with something on a personal level that required my time.

So, yesterday there was an earthquake that hit 5.4 on the Richter scale here in Los Angeles. What follows is a now-timely piece I wrote over a year ago when Mike Gold first offered me the ComicMix gig…

Why in the Hell do I live in Los Angeles? I hate it here. I hate the restaurants, I hate the fake people, I hate the what do you do and how much do you make and what car do you drive mentality that seems to resonate in this city. I hate the fact that I joined a gym like a sheep and almost never went. What an idiot I am!

Me, Michael Davis, joining a goddamn gym?? AHHHHHH!! Why the Hell would I join a gym?? I’ll admit it I joined because everyone in L.A. belongs to a gym. I wanted to belong as well.

What the FISH was I thinking? I’m not in shape? Hell yeah I am, ROUND is a shape!

I don’t need a damn gym. If I want exercise I can simply do what any black man does in Los Angeles… run from the police.

When I realized that I was becoming like the very sheep I hated, I quit the gym. In the year I belonged I went MAYBE five times.

Some people think that the weather is what makes people stay in L.A. Let me tell you something: where I live, the temperature hit 116 last summer. It was SO HOT that my dogs don’t want to go outside. They said to me (YES, they actually SPOKE) “Let us use the bathroom inside. We will leave the seat down, we promise… woof.” (more…)

Review: ‘Slow Storm’ by Danica Novgorodoff

slow-storm-2943298Slow Storm
By Danica Novgorodoff
First Second, September 2008, $19.95

This is Novgorodoff’s first full-length graphic novel; she was an Eisner nominee last year for the one-shot [[[A Late Freeze]]]. She’s got an assured, pseudo-outsider art style, with big blocks of color and slablike faces, but her writing isn’t quite up to the same level yet. [[[Slow Storm]]] will be in stores in September, but comics stores and online retailers are, as always, already taking pre-orders.

Ursa Crain is a firefighter in Kentucky’s rural Oldham County who has a very confrontational, unpleasant relationship with her brother and coworker, the very thuddingly named Grim. (What kind of family names their two kids Ursa and Grim, anyway? Did they know their kids would be characters in a story with heavy symbolism?) These two siblings clearly don’t get along, but we don’t know why – and their sniping and digs don’t give us much of a clue. Grim also complains that his sister “looks like a moose,” as if he wants her to increase her sexual attractiveness – which doesn’t sound like any brother-sister relationship I know. (Particularly since the other firefighters – the ones not related to her – are already sexually harassing Ursa in their mild, Southern, good-ol-boy way.)

Rafael Jose Herrera Sifuentes (Rafi) is a stableboy from Mexico, living in Kentucky illegally upstairs in the stable where he works. He comes from horse country himself, but he could only live hand-to-mouth there, and so he got himself smuggled into the US to be able to send money back to his family. He had the usual bad experiences on the way – robbed by the coyotes taking him over the border, shot at by a racist rancher – and somehow settled into this Kentucky stable.

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Review: ‘Shmobots’ by Adam Rifkin and Les Toil

shmobots_tpb_7-5396725Shmobots is a pretty stupid book on its face. And it’s pretty stupid inside too.

Government negligence leads to a city full of worthless robots (termed [[[Shmobots]]]), and three of the laziest ones hang out with a guy and do pretty much nothing with their lives.

The humore here — from writer Adam Rifkin — is all pretty obvious, heavy on robot cliches and slacker jokes we’ve heard before. Yet the book has an undeniable charm, no doubt because its creators acknowledge those faults and even celebrate them.

Sure, the lead robot character is a carbon copy of Bender from Futurama, but he’s used (at least this is my guess) to make fun of the stupid humor genre even while revelling in it.

There is a more involved plot than I let on: the robots and human friend are constantly looking for money, while unknowingly they’re being stalked by the Shmobot Killer. The plot advances at a marijuana-soaked pace.

(more…)

Review: ‘The Number’ by Thomas Ott

The sequence of numbers 73304-23-4153-6-96-8 sit at the top of each page of the superlative new horror graphic novel The Number by Swedish artist Thomas Ott..

Those repeated numbers create a cadence to the book, a dark rhythm drummed into readers’ heads that’s further instilled through Ott’s consistent use of four panels per page.

The wordless story follows a prison executioner who discovers a slip of paper marked only with the previously mentioned number. As the man notices bits of the number turning up in his life, he decides to place his fate in the number, taking it for a wild ride of good luck.

But after a night of gambling success, the man wakes to find the dream turned ugly, and the number only leads him farther into darkness.

It’s not terribly difficult to predict where things end up — after all, the book begins with the quotation “Good people are always so sure they’re right,” from a woman who was executed in prison.

The worthiness of the book lies instead in the way in which Ott unspools his protagonist’s demise. The story moves along briskly, and Ott transitions effectively from the sedate beginning into the surreal and terrifying conclusion.

(more…)

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