Tagged: ComicMix

Son Of Filling The Big Shoes, by Mike Gold

  • News
  • March 3, 2008

Remember my column last week ? I’m sure you committed every hallowed word to memory. Well, this is a sequel. Fittingly, it’s about Hollywood.

I’m staring at this massive schedule of movies of interest to your average ComicMixer that are due to be released in the next 12 months or so: Iron Man 1, Indiana Jones 4, Incredible Hulk 2-but-1, Get Smart 1, Hellboy 2, The Dark Knight 6-but-2, X-Files 2, The Mummy 3, James Bond 22, Harry Potter 6, The Day The Earth Stood Still 1-but-2, Star Trek 74, Will Eisner’s The Spirit 1, and Green Hornet 1 (serials don’t count). I’m looking forward to about half of them, which is a pretty good average for me. But there’s one that I’m looking to with trepidation.

No, it’s not The Day The Earth Stood Still, the original of which is the Citizen Kane of science-fiction movies. Let them take a shot; I wish ‘em luck. Nor is it Star Trek 74: The Reboot-To-The-Rear. I’d scoff at this attempt but, frankly, after the majority of Trek movies what the hell, maybe it’ll work. It did for James Bond in Casino Royale 3. Nope, I’m trepidatious about Will Eisner’s The Spirit. Make that Frank Miller’s Will Eisner’s The Spirit.

There’s absolutely no slight here against Frank. Of all the folks in comics, he has been one of the most publicly and most aggressively pro-creator rights activists around. His passionate arguments about the Comics Code and about the way Marvel treated Jack Kirby still ring loudly in my inner-ear. In fact, I’m glad to see The Spirit in the hands of a person who knows how to make comics work yet also has a solid background in movies. 

No, I’m afraid of Hollywood. (more…)

ComicMix Broadcast Blog: Dark Tower, Hulk and Hawaii Five-O!

  • News
  • March 2, 2008

Another sure sign of spring – the second big convention of the year, plus another Marvel Midnight Release. Let’s lay out the links:

In case this blew past you, the second story arc of the comic book series adapted from Stephen King’s magnum opus, The Dark Tower, begins now from Marvel Comics. Just like last year, they  will offer a midnight release of Dark Tower: The Long Road Home #1 on the early morning of Wednesday, March 5, 2008. Participating retailers across the country will open at midnight on Tuesday (effectively 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, March 5, 2008) so Stephen King fans can get their hands on the next issue of this historic comic. Watch for a special ComicMix TV report on Wednesday, and to find out if there is a store near you, go here.

Work has begun on the 100 original Hulk covers created for The Hero Initiative and the very first covers received will be on display publicly for the first time at the Orlando MegaCon, taking place March 7-9 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, FL. For more information on that even, visit www.MegaConvention.com or watch for coverage all weekend on ComicMix.

CBS Interactive is dusting off a selection of its own classics from the CBS Library for distribution across the CBS Audience Network. Full-length episodes of Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, Hawaii Five-O, MacGyver and Melrose Place will be available for free on an ad-supported basis through more than 300 member sites. Got some time to kill? Catch an episode here: www.cbs.com

 

Johnny Knoxville and MTV are bringing Jackass to the digital age with JackAssworld.com. The site, which you can see at www.jackassworld.com, has 24-straight hours of continuously updated video of the latest stupid stunts. Users can view and comment on the video via message board, email or text message.

And how about if we toss in a little hint for the answer to our latest Trivia Question, which could win you a limited edition, Graham Crackers Comics variant?  For full details, catch yesterday’s ComicMix Radio, get your answer to us at podcast [at] comicmix.com, and be back here on Tuesday for the winner, a new question and much more.

If I Had a Hammer, by Martha Thomases

  • News
  • March 1, 2008
 
If you’re reading this, we’ve survived February, my least favorite month. If we’re going to have Leap Years (and we are), I don’t see why we can’t have the extra day in May, or June, when there are flowers and it’s not too hot yet, but the days are long and full of promise. Instead, we stretch out February.
 
Cranky? Moi?
 
It’s really horrible for me to complain. I’m blessed with a family that’s only mildly neurotic, a roof over my head, a full refrigerator and work I enjoy. These facts only make me more apt to gripe, because these things should be adequate. Adequate is not enough.
 
So here are some things I would smash, if I were the Hulk:
 
• The city of New York, particularly the construction parts of it. I know Manhattan is the Center of the Intelligent Universe™, but there is no reason to drill through the surface of West Houston Street at one o’clock in the morning on the weekends. Because of this work, half of Houston Street is closed, so buses that pick up students on our block now do so on my street. For some reason, they think it’s appropriate to get here at least half an hour early, and idle their engines for the entire time. This is a violation of noise and environmental laws. Where’s my costumed vigilante?
 
• Talk shows. During the writers’ strike, progressives with principles refused to cross the picket lines of those programs – The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Real Time with Bill Maher – that counted on opinionated conversation. Faced with empty seats, the producers hired those willing to cross a picket line. For the most part, these people were right-wingers, apathetic to the issue, Joe Quesada, or some combination of the above. And that’s fine. It’s their choice. The show must go on. Baby needs a new pair of shoes. However, it made for rather boring talk. Now that the strike is over, there could once again be more, funnier talk, but there’s not. Bill Kristol has never been right about anything. P. J. O’Rourke isn’t funny and makes me miss Michael O’Donohue. Get them off my television!

  (more…)

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Interview: From Webcomic to Videogame With ‘Little Gamers’

  • News
  • February 29, 2008

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Little Gamers, the deceptively cute webcomic about foul-mouthed European gamers, is now in development as a videogame itself.

Last week, during the industry’s Game Developers Conference, Microsoft spotlighted it as one of the downloadable games being developed with their XNA program tool set. The trademark Little Gamers humor got a big laugh with beer and shotgun power-ups that are used throughout the game. During the event’s keynote speech, Microsoft surprised the community by announcing that Xbox 360 owners could download the in-development game for a limited trial.

The game itself proved to be accessible and fun, especially for a game designed mostly by one person. And it gave you a big stick to poke zombies from a distance.

ComicMix had a chance to ask Pontus Madsen, one of the webcomics’ creators, and Loïc Dansart, the designer of the game, some questions now that the public has had a chance to to play the upcoming title.

COMICMIX: What’s been the reaction from the regular Little Gamers readers? Enthusiastic, critical or "UR SELLING OUT" nonsense?

PONTUS MADSEN: I’ve only heard nice things, no emails telling us we sold out. I think much of it has to do with the "free" aspect of it.

LOïC DANSART: Most of the reaction of the LG readers are really enhtusiastics, except for the few users on Mac or Linux who cannot play the game and complain about that.

 

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ComicMix Radio: When Good Heroes Get Bad Makeovers

So you grow up with a favorite comic character and then you actually get into the industry and get a chance to work on the hero you read as a child. What happens when the story you work on happens to be the one in which they trash the character? ComicMix‘s Andrew Pepoy shares his story here, plus

— It’s another midnight release for Marvel’s Dark Tower

— Ultimates 3 has another sell out and bounces back in black & white

— Komikwork’s World Of Quest hits Cartoon Network UK

— Believe it or not,  another brand new trivia question and another chance to grab an exclusive Graham Crackers Comics variant by e-mailing us at: podcast [at] comicmix.com

This time – no hint – it’s an easy one – Just Press The Button and get us an e-mail!

 

 

And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via badgeitunes61x15dark-4568234 or RSS!

 

Other People’s Sandboxes, by John Ostrander

  • News
  • February 28, 2008
 
This column has its roots in Mike Gold’s column this week. While it’s not necessary to read Uncle Whizzy’s Wazoo this week,  it is recommended – as it is every week. Loves my UWW on Monday!
 
I’ve spent a lot of my writing career in other people’s sandboxes and, in general, have had a great time. Sometimes I wonder if I haven’t spent a little too much time in those sandboxes. My career might have been better served with a few more original creations such as GrimJack (and I’m working on some that will appear here on ComicMix eventually) but, as they say, hindsight is 20/20. Hindsight also often sounds as if one is looking out one’s butt – which certainly explains many of the utterings we hear from political pundits these days. However, that’s a different topic for another time.
 
Brother Gold’s column this week was about whether or not a strip or a character or a series should continue after its creator’s death (or their choice to discontinue work on said property). His point was that in many cases we would not have some very fine stories using those properties were that not the case. Nor would we have had some very notable careers. For example, Frank Miller first made his name taking over the very moribund Daredevil book at Marvel and making it the most talked about book in the industry. Alan Moore was known to those us who could get their hands on 2000 AD and/or Warrior (and thus first saw Miracleman, a Captain Marvel rip-off character that he performed surgery on and made into something very new) but his first big American title was when he took over Swamp Thing and re-invented not only the character but its whole mythology.
 

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Review: Bryan Talbot’s ‘Alice in Sunderland’

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Alice in Sunderland
Bryan Talbot
Dark Horse Books, 2007, $29.95

Even for an artist as hard to pin down as Talbot, [[[Alice in Sunderland]]] is odd and unique: it’s one-half a local history of the town in northern England where Talbot lives now and one-half a popular history of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (a.k.a. Lewis Carroll) and Alice in Wonderland. And then both of those halves are wrapped up in a metafictional package, since there are two narrators (the Pilgrim and the Performer, both of them Talbot) and one audience member witnessing this performance (the Plebian, who is also Talbot). To make things even more confusing, about half-way through the book Talbot breaks down and admits that Sunderland, the town he claims he lives in, doesn’t actually exist!

Except even that is a trick: Sunderland is a real town in the northeast of England, on the coast near Newcastle upon Tyne. And the various facts Talbot presents, about the history of Sunderland and of Alice, and the many connections between the two? Well, there’s an extensive list of sources in the backmatter, so I think they’re real. At least, most of them. I think.

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I, the Jury Duty, by Elayne Riggs

  • News
  • February 27, 2008

elayne-riggs-100-9879649It’s been a hell of a winter for me. Under the Lennonesque heading of life being what happens to you whilst you’re busy making other plans, the latest in a series of stumbling blocks that have come between me and my ability to participate more in ComicMix’s news section — including the still-ongoing detox from my former job (which kept calling me back in through the end of last year), the nearly-full-time search for a new means of income, and a nasty lingering flu – was last week’s call to jury duty. It was inevitable, but given my temporary unemployment period I’m glad it happened when it did. It’s been over four years since I last served, and now it’ll be another four years at least until they call me up again, which should gladden any potential employer.

I had no excuse to postpone this, but I still wasn’t looking forward to it. The one time I’ve actually served on a jury was on a criminal case, a murder trial, and we wound up convicting the accused, during a time when the death penalty was still in effect. The knowledge that I and my fellow jurors may have contributed in sending this guy to the electric chair, however guilty we may have thought him for his crime, unnerved me to the point where I don’t think I can ever serve again on that sort of a criminal case.

I was lucky in subsequent call-ups, in that most of the cases where my name came up for the jury pool were civil ones. One was settled before it commenced to trial, and I got out of the pool for the other one, I think, because I knew Cheryl Harris. You see, folks, you never know when your comic book connections will come in handy! Cheryl and I had both held the Membership Secretary position on the Friends of Lulu National Board, and saw each other socially besides, ever since our CompuServe days. But in this case I had to admit, during the initial jury questioning from the attorneys and the judge, that I also knew that she worked in the Bronx County court system, and so I was excused back to the jury assembly room and my name wasn’t picked again during that round.

In those days I think the typical jury service, if you weren’t picked to go on a case, was three days, and you got $15 per day which the state sent to your employer and your employer deducted from your paycheck, or something like that. It works differently with each state, and the rules seem to change all the time. As a matter of fact, this round even the venue changed. (more…)

New ‘Indiana Jones’ Poster Hits the Net

indy4posterwithshia-7094094Previously on ComicMix, there’s been some cool new Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull news including the exciting first trailer for your viewing pleasure. Now, thanks to the Unofficial Movie Blog, there’s a picture of the new poster for the upcoming film as well.

The poster, snapped by Dan perhaps somewhere in the bowels of Lucasfilm, features not one but two intrepid adventureres in the form of Indy, of course, and his younger sidekick Mutt Williams. Mutt, as we’ve seen previsouly in the trailer, seems somewhat reluctant to be tagging along with Indy as he struggles to find and/or protect whatever the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull happens to be.

That’s probably why he’s making that face in the poster.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull hits theaters on May 22nd.

New Info Revealed on ‘Batman: Gotham Knight’

  • News
  • February 26, 2008

batmangothamknightsmaller-3709383Previously, my ComicMix colleague Rick Marshall brought you a first look at DC Comics and Warner Bros. animated direct-to-DVD anthology Batman: Gotham Knight. The film, designed to fill the gap between Batman Begins and Batman: The Dark Knight, features the work of several notable writers including Josh Olson, David S. Goyer, Alan Burnett, Jordan Goldberg, Greg Rucka and Brian Azzarello.

This time around, thanks to an official press release, I can also let you in on some more details about the film, including who the directors are and the release date. According to the site, directing the anthology stories will be Shojiro Nishimi, Futoshi Higashide, Hiroshi Morioka, Yasuhiro Aoki and Toshiyuki Kubooka.

In addition, the stories in the anthology will include "thrilling new adventures of Batman that spotlight several of Gotham City’s most dangerous villains, including the fearsome Scarecrow, the freakish Killer Croc and the unnerving marksman known as Deadshot."

Batman: Gotham Knights comes out on DVD and Blu-Ray on June 8th.

 

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