Tagged: comics

Happy Birthday: John Ostrander

  • News
  • April 20, 2008

Born in 1949, ComicMix creator/columnist John Ostrander loved comics from early on but initially followed a different love: religion. Raised Roman Catholic, Ostrander wanted to become a priest and attended a year of seminary before deciding it wasn’t right for him. Instead he turned to acting.

Ostrander was part of a Chicago theater company in the early ’80s, and in addition to acting he co-wrote a play called Bloody Bess with William J. Norris. ComicMix Editor-in-Chief Mike Gold was starting First Comics at the time and had seen and liked the play—he knew Ostrander was a big comics fan and invited him to try his hand at writing comics. Ostrander wrote several stories for First’s Warp series before creating the character of GrimJack.

By the time First Comics closed in 1991, Ostrander was working for other comic companies as well, and he continued to do so. He has written The Spectre, Firestorm, Justice League of America, and Wasteland for DC, X-Men, Heroes for Hire, and The Punisher for Marvel, Lady Death for Chaos!, Eternal Warrior for Valiant, Star Wars: Republic for Dark Horse, and many many others. Ostrander has also written audio plays and short stories, and he currently writes for ComicMix, producing both a regular column and new issues of  GrimJack and Munden’s Bar.

NYCC Photo Gallery: Costumes, Costumes and More Costumes…

  • News
  • April 20, 2008

After a mediocre Friday, the costumed crowd made their presence known Saturday at New York Comic Con. All of the standards were there, including Supermen, Slave Leias and Stormtroopers, but the convention soup was spiced up a bit by the addition of a few great, original takes on the standards, like the "Mr. Freeze" seen in the gallery below.

A special bit of comic cred goes out to "Superwoman" (also pictured in the gallery below) from Grant Morrison’s All Star Superman. It’s unfortunate that we couldn’t get an image of one of our favorite "costumed" guests — the guy wandering around the show with a music player ambushing attendees and rickrolling them with "Never Gonna Give You Up." Brilliant.

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ComicMix Radio: What Peter Purchases – Milo Ventigmilia at NYCC

No wonder he looks so good using his powers – Heroes star Milo Ventigmilia is no stranger to the comic book store.

So, what’s in his brown bag each week? We catch him on the floor of The New York Comic Con to find out.

 

 

And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via badgeitunes61x15dark-5624127 or RSS!

 

‘Mortal Kombat Versus DC Universe’ A Reality?

  • News
  • April 18, 2008

There were rumors back in Fall 2007 that the next Mortal Kombat game would pit the Kombatants against superheroes from the DC Universe, but they were quickly scoffed at and ignored.

After all, how could these two universes possibly come together? Would DC really allow Scorpion to rip Batman’s head off? Foolishness!

Well, all those people look like the fools now. Mortal Kombat Online has gotten wind that Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe is a reality.

The Mortal Kombat series is good at violence but poor when it comes to the comic book universe (see Malibu’s Mortal Kombat comics). On the flip side, the DC superheroes are great at comics and poor when it comes to fighting games (see Justice League Task Force on the 16-bit consoles). Can these two great tastes combine and taste great together?

Not many details about the title are known at the moment. Future details (and an official confirmation from Midway) may be forthcoming on developer Ed Boon’s website, Noob.com.

 

(via Joystiq)

ComicMix TV: New York Minute #1 – Captain Action is Back!

This weekend, beloved 1960s hero Captain Action makes a triumphant return to the comics scene courtesy of Moonstone Books and a big debut at this year’s New York Comic Con. Manhattan comics mainstay Jim Hanley’s Universe recently hosted the Captain Action creative team of Fabian Nicieza, Mark Sparacio and Ruben Procopio for a pre-convention signing and celebration of all things Captain Action.

ComicMix was on the scene with this report:

 

 

 

 

For more on Captain Action, read our ComicMix interview with writer Fabian Nicieza.

 

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Happy Birthday: Keith R.A. DeCandido

  • News
  • April 18, 2008

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Born in New York’s the Bronx in 1969, Keith R.A. DeCandido was a science-fiction fan from the very start—his parents were fans of the original Star Trek, as well as classic SF/Fantasy novelists like Heinlein, Le Guin, and Tolkien.

DeCandido attended Fordham University and edited the college newspaper, and after graduating he worked for several New York publishing houses.

In 1990, he and John Drew created the public-access SF TV show The Chronic Rift, which DeCandido also co-hosted. In the late ’90s, DeCandido worked for Byron Preiss, editing anthologies and novels, and began writing stories for Preiss as well.

DeCandido’s first novel, Spider-Man: Venom’s Wrath (written with Jose R. Nieto) was published in 1998. In 1999 DeCandido got the opportunity to write for the Star Trek franchise, authoring the four-issue comic book miniseries Star Trek: The Next Generation: Perchance to Dream. Since then he has written over a dozen Star Trek novels and over a dozen novels for other licenses.

 

Review: Three More Books for Kids

Here are three more graphic novels for readers of varied ages, gathered together for no better reason than because I read them all recently:

Gumby Collected #1
By Bob Burden, Rick Geary, & Steve Oliff
Wildcard Ink, 2007, $12.95

Bob Burden’s connection with Gumby goes back twenty years, to the great [[[Summer Fun Special of 1988]]] (illustrated by Art Adams), and he’s pretty much the dream writer for a modern Gumby comic. (Although Steve Purcell, writer of the equally-great Gumby Winter Fun Special, did a damn good job as well.)

But the idea that a big media creation – even an old and quirky one like Gumby – would actually end up being written by an oddball outsider like Burden, instead of some safe writer of corporate comics, is…well, it’s as unlikely as any Bob Burden story, which I guess makes it doubly appropriate.

This trade paperback – which has an ISBN and price only on the inside front cover, tucked away like an afterthought, so it may be difficult to track down – collects the first three issues of what is supposed to be an ongoing Gumby series. (It’s been late regularly, though, so it’s anybody’s guess how long it will continue. But this book came out, and that’s more 21st century Gumby comics than I ever would have expected to begin with.)

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‘Prototype’ Videogame Morphs Into New DC/Wildstorm Comic

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  • April 17, 2008

DC Comics/Wildstorm recently announced that they’ll be publishing a comic book based on the upcoming Prototype videogame from Sierra Entertainment.

From the press release:

PROTOTYPE puts gamers in control of Alex Mercer – a genetically mutated shape-shifter with no memory of his past hell-bent on solving the mystery of his existence – as he tears through a densely populated New York City moving with Parkour-style fluidity and consuming anybody that gets in his way…assuming their physical identity, memories and abilities. Fueled by a three way war between Alex, the military and its elite Blackwatch division, and a viral outbreak known as the Infected, players will venture deep into a dark conspiracy 40 years in the making.

What the press release doesn’t go into is that this game has a great comic book pedigree. It’s being developed by Radical Entertainment, the makers of The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, one of the best superhero games ever made. In that game, players were given free reign to smash anything, bound across the city at will, fight the army or even throw civilians around for no good reason whatsoever.

With Prototype, Radical Entertainment looks to have taken everything they did with Hulk and expanded on it. Different powers, different story (sorta shady goverment types messing with superpowered guy who’s not 100-percent mentally stable), and more realistic graphics, thanks to the power of PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360.

My only complaint? The character has one of the worst outfits in modern games: a hoodie. Yup, he looks like every other wannabe thug. One look at this amazing trailer for the game, though, makes me forget all that.

 

ComicMix at New York Comic Con

  • News
  • April 17, 2008

Yeah, so there’s this comic convention "thing" going on in Manhattan this weekend… or so we’re told.

Here’s where you can find the ComicMix crew throughout the weekend (when we’re not cavorting at the three-day party in our official "ComicMix HQ" conference room, of course):

The weekend kicks off with ComicMix Managing Editor Rick Marshall (who also likes to refer to himself in third-person while writing roundups) engaging in a thoughtful (only if he doesn’t open his mouth) discussion with a cadre of other InterWebs-based comics journalists at Friday’s "Choosing the News: The Changing Face of Online Journalism" panel:

It’s a fact – journalism has changed. With more outlets than ever, more demands from news sources, and comics increasingly covered by the mainstream, how do comics news sites navigate the uncharted waters? Join Matt Brady (Newsarama), Richard George (IGN), Rick Marshall (ComicMix), Brian Heater (Daily Cross Hatch) and others for this engaging discussion, moderated by The Beat’s Heidi MacDonald.

Friday, 2:00 -3:00 PM : Room 1E09

Later that day, ComicMix Editor-in-Chief Mike Gold and columnist Michael Davis will be among the panelists at this year’s "Black Panel – NYCC Style" discussion:

Witness true black power—the power of black content in the entertainment marketplace. This lively panel will look at how black content is influencing entertainment and discuss how to increase its output in the mainstream.

Friday, 7:30-8:30 PM : Room 1E12-13-14

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ComicMix Six: Top Political Campaigns in Comics

smiler2-1805729It happens every few years, just like the Olympics or locusts: People lucky enough to live in democracies hold an election.

Sometimes they’re voting for a President or a Congressman, and sometimes they’re voting for a mayor or dogcatcher. People in comics vote, too, and their choices are often as stupid as ours.

That’s why, with primaries on the horizon and campaigns dominating the headlines, we’ve decided to take a look at some of the most notable attempts (successful or otherwise) at obtaining political office in the comics world… in typical ComicMix Six fashion.

*Sigh* If only it were that easy to ret-con a disappointing election in the real world…

6. Myra Fermin, Mayor of Hub City (DC): In the most corrupt city in the DC Universe, Myra ran on a platform promising to clean up the mess. And she won, because there had to be a reason she couldn’t sleep with the Question.

5. Gary "The Smiler" Callahan, President (Vertigo): This mayoral candidate gave Spider Jerusalem a lot to write about in Transmetropolitan. At first, Spider liked him more than his predecessor, "The Beast." And then, Spider learned the truth. Basically, The Smiler was sort of like Rudy Giuliani, but without the combover.

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