Tagged: comics

Alternate ‘Indiana Jones’ Comic Book Cover Revealed

  • News
  • February 13, 2008

Of course we’re all excited for the upcoming fourth installment of the "Indiana Jones" saga currently filming and set to hit theaters May 22nd. Really, how could any Indy fan not be?

But in addition to the intrepid archeologist’s big-screen adventures, there’s also a comic-book version of the film being published by Dark Horse Comics.

To help pique your interest for the upcoming comic book and the movie, ComingSoon.net posted the original Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull comic cover by artist Steve Anderson (seen at right) a few weeks ago. And now, thanks to the power of the modern Internets, they’ve just dropped the alternate Indiana Jones comic cover (posted after the jump) on us as well.

The regular cover prominently features Harrison Ford as Indy and Shia Lebouf as Mutt Williams — who may or may not be Indy’s son. The new, alternate cover opens things up a bit and showcases not only Indy but more of the supporting cast including Karen Allen as Marian and Cate Blanchett as Agent Irina Spalko.

  (more…)

WonderCon Schedules Panels, Guests From Comics and Hollywood

  • News
  • February 13, 2008

One of California’s biggest and best conventions devoted to comics, movies, TV and all the things we love here at ComicMix is putting the finishing touches on its stellar lineup of guests, screenings and other exclusive happenings.

No, I’m not talking about Comic-Con International in San Diego — although that is a fantastic convention not to be missed. In this case, I’m referring to the other great California comics conclave known as WonderCon.

WonderCon, the premiere gathering of all-things comics and pop-culture in Northern California, celebrates its 22nd anniversary this year and runs from February 22nd to February 24th at the Mocone Center in San Francisco. Scheduled to appear this time around are many of the top writers, artists and creators working in the comics world today including Sergio Aragones, Kurt Busiek, Mark Evanier, Jim Lee, Tim Sale, J. Michael Straczynski, Ben Templesmith, Brian Wood and many more.

In addition to all the assembled comics talent, Hollywood will also be making its presence felt at this year’s WonderCon. Stars, writers and directors from small and big-screen will be in attendence including Kristen Bell (reason enough for me to go), Brendan Fraser, Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, "Iron Man" helmer Jon Favreau, Chris Carter, Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny of the new "X Files" movie and Summer Glau of "Serenity" and "Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles." In addition, the Con will also host the exclusive premiere of the animated "Justice League: The New Frontier" movie. Good times.

For all the latest details, check out the WonderCon official site. And, if you’re having trouble deciding if you should go, check out our coverage of last year’s event.

 

elayne-riggs-100-5355317

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…)

Fan Comics Celebrate ‘Doctor Who’, ‘Torchwood’

  • News
  • February 12, 2008

Pia Guerra may have her work cut out for her.  While Guerra’s first issue of IDW’s Doctor Who comic book series is scheduled to come out in July, fan-drawn strips about the British sci-fi phenomenon and its spinoffs are already well underway.

Pseudonymous LiveJournal bloggers calling themselves spastasmagoria and jigglykat have created Torchwood Babiez, which is so unbearably adorable it could give Cute Overload a run for its money.  So far the ladies are up to Page 10, and they’re just getting rolling.

Meanwhile, Rich Morris is currently up to Page 81 of his wonderful strip The Ten Doctors, which can be enjoyed by casual viewers of the show but is really designed for the more fanatic trivia buff who remembers over a quarter century of Doctors, companions, villains and planets.  Only three of the story pages have been inked and colored so far, but Rich’s art is worthwhile even in pencil form.

Doubtless there are a ton of other fan-based comics making the rounds; we’d be especially interested to see any paying tribute to the kid-friendly "Sarah Jane Chronicles."

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!

 

Or subscribe to our podcasts via badgeitunes61x15dark-8962219 or RSS!

In Memory of Steve Gerber, 1947-2008

  • News
  • February 12, 2008

As we reported yesterday, comics legend Steve Gerber passed away Sunday. Anyone looking for proof of the impact his work had on generations of comic readers need only take a quick look around the ‘Net.

Tom Spurgeon of The Comics Reporter provides a long, detailed look at Gerber’s career and a wonderful assessment of Steve Gerber’s legacy:

His Howard the Duck comics remain amusing when read today, perhaps more poignant now, laying into their broad targets in a way that communicated a kind of critical consciousness into the minds of many devoted superhero comics readers, fans that simply wouldn’t have been exposed to those kinds of ideas any other way, the concept that media might lie to you, the notion of absolute self-worth in the face of a world that seems dead-set against it. Steve Gerber’s superhero books were a tonic to the over-seriousness of most of their cousins, and his horror-adventure books were frequently classy and reserved in a genre that tends to reward the blunt and ugly. No creator save Jack Kirby has as a cautionary tale and a living example saved so many creators the grief of turning over their creations without reward or without realizing what they had done. Few creators in the American mainstream were as consistently fascinating as Steve Gerber. Even fewer have been as outspoken and forthright, or in that way, as admirable.

(more…)

Roundup: Cartoonists of Color Sit-In

  • News
  • February 11, 2008

The Daily Cartoonist has a great roundup of yesterday’s Cartoonists of Color Sit-In, with links to participating strips and mainstream coverage of the event, as well as some interesting statistics related to the issues at the heart of the sit-in.

In case you missed our mention of the Cartoonists of Color Sit-In a while back, the event was organized as a protest of what participating cartoonists perceive as limits newspapers set on the number of comic strips with primarily non-white casts of characters. Each of the participating cartoonists used the same script for the day’s comic, written by Watch Your Head creator Cory Thomas.

Among other coverage of the event, Thomas appeared on lastnight’s CBS Evening News to discuss the event (links provided in Daily Cartoonist article).

 

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.

Inside the ‘Y: The Last Man’ Party

  • News
  • February 11, 2008

We told you about this event before and now Kevin Kelly at i09 let’s us in on the highlights of Friday night’s "Y: The Last Party" in L.A., celebrating the conclusion of Y: The Last Man, Brian K. Vaughan’s hugely popular tale of the last man on Earth.

The party, which took place at Meltdown Comics on Sunset Blvd., featured guests such as Vaughan himself, comic co-creator and artist Pia Guerra, Grant Morrison, Drew Goddard, Mark Waid and Joss Whedon.

Among the highlights of the event, whose proceeds went to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, were many revelations regarding the creation and inspiration of the comic as well as some tidbits about who might play the comic’s title character, Yorick Brown, in the oft-discussed, big-screen version and what co-creator Guerra’s next project will be.

According to the report:

[Vaughan] originally came up with the concept for Y as a project called Boyson, "The Last Boy On Earth" for Penthouse Comics full of "women built like robot fuck machines" and one boy remaining on the planet. After they folded, he replaced the robots with a Gloria Steinem quote and sent it over to Vertigo.

(more…)

Categories

Archives

Everything you need to make great comics!

comicmix-pro-300x69-2

Nucleus X

Bookshop Zaks