Tagged: comics

So You Want To Hear A Superhero?

OK. So buried deep in your closet, you have that mask and cape that you might wear during those "special times," but do you have the powers and abilities to really be beyond mortal men?  If so, then you aren’t alone as hundreds of would-be crusaders sought to gain the favor of Stan Lee – and the Big ComicMix Broadcast talks to a few of them this weekend!

And speaking of masks, the one that the Green Hornet used might worn by someone new … DC and Marvel fill up the comic shelves for the fall … and there’s more on San Diego … plus what do you do when you have 17 kids to feed? Of course, you farm them out to make hit songs!

Press The Button and you will gain the amazing ability to … listen!

Baseball and comics go together

  • News
  • July 21, 2007

38pitches-2796247Want to excite that baseball fan whom you’d like to drag along to the Comic-Con International in San Diego next week?  Tell her or him that Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling will be there, or at least his company will.

On his blog 38 Pitches, Schilling links to a Businesswire story about his 38 Studios corporation having a San Diego presence.  It should come as no shock that one of the company’s executives is noted baseball fanatic and Spawn creator Todd McFarlane, but it may surprise some folks to see fantasy author R.A. Salvatore’s name in the mix as well.

McFarlane and Salvatore will be a the 38 Studios booth in Hall C, Booth #2601.  Don’t miss your chance to ask Todd about those valuable baseballs he owns, and whether he’ll be looking to purchase the ball from Barry Bonds’ #756, which may well be a reality by this time next week.

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Comics All Over The Place

  • News
  • July 21, 2007

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Comics Reporter reviews 1-800-MICE #2, All Flash #1, and Magic Hour #2.

Chris’s Invincible Super-Blog reviews this week’s comics, starting with All Flash #1.

Greg Burgas of Comics Should Be Good also reviews this week’s comics, but he starts with Annihilation: Conquest – Quasar #1.

At the All-New, All-Different Savage Critic(s):

  • Graeme McMillan reviews World War Hulk #2
  • Douglas Wolk reviews mostly the advertisements in Giant-Sized Marvel Adventures The Avengers #1
  • McMillan is back to review All Flash #1
  • And someone named Jog really likes Brendan McCarthy and Peter Milligan’s Rogan Gosh one-shot from 1994.

 

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MICHAEL DAVIS: Do Over

  • News
  • July 20, 2007

michael-davis100-5644230The other day I met a young lady at an airport. She looked around 16 or so. I noticed her looking at the comic book I was reading. When I was done I gave it to her. We started talking. She is a young artist who is struggling with her weight. She is being picked on at school and has one real friend. She wants to be a comic artist and is a big fan of Static Shock. She rarely goes outside and says that she sometimes wishes she were not born. She also has a family, which is a little odd. I told her that her family does not define her and that one day what is happening to her will help her. She wished she could start over. Before I could tell her anything else her father noticed we were talking and told her to “Get the **** over here.’

I never got her name, but I hope she remembers the ComicMix information I gave her so she can read this. This is for her…

When I was in grade school I had a terrible reputation. I was known as a punk kid who could not fight. When I was very young I was raised by my mom, my sister and my grandmother. Being raised by three women you tend to get a lot of advice like this,

“You are better than that.”

“Just walk away.”

“Sticks and stones.”

From time to time, my sister would have a different slant on things. Her advice really depended on how she felt that day. I would get, ‘Who cares what he said?’ Or ‘I can’t believe you did not kick his ass!’ That kind of mixed advice is enough to land any kid in therapy.

Living in the projects the last thing you want to known as is a punk. If you are then you better hook up with a group of friends or a gang who can look after you. Either that or you need a family member who was crazy so people would leave you alone for fear of that crazy relative of yours. I actually have a crazy cousin. He murdered four people in a drug-induced state. He was my favorite cousin until he did that. I have not spoken to him in more than 30 years; that’s how long he’s been in jail. I am not one of those people who think that blood is thicker than water.

Nope. Not me, I’m not that guy.

I don’t care who you are, you murder four innocent people to support your drug habit, then you are out of my life, period. Before I get all kinds of comments saying that I am heartless and that family is everything consider this: you may stick by a family member no matter what and I respect that, but I’m not you. As loud as I can get sometimes I am a real simple guy. My simplicity is almost comical to my family and friends. I only need one thing to make me content, that one thing is piece of mind.

If he ever gets out of jail then do I really want him around me? Do I really want to hear him explain why he did it? Do I really want to share holidays with this stranger? Make no mistake, the moment he killed four people he was no longer my favorite cousin, he was a stranger because the cousin I knew would not have done that. Yes, I have forgiven him, but that’s not even the point because the people he needs to forgive him is the family of those kids (yes, kids) he killed.

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X-Men Make Noise!

benturpin-8344189In a world where most of the comic industry is trying to “do it digital” we found a guy who is bucking the system with a new project in print only – and on today’s Big ComicMix Broadcast we reveal his story! Plus news on Image’s new Dynamo 5 collection, big heat in the X-Men titles, how you and someone you know can be a “Simpson” and some old rockers who rose out of the ashes to go multi-platinum.

Press The Button – we need to sample your DNA 

JOHN OSTRANDER: Potter’s End

  • News
  • July 19, 2007

ostrander100-7365603We’re at something of a cultural crossroads.

On July 21, Saturday, the last new Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deadly Hallows, will be published. With this, J.K. Rowling completes her story and a literary phenomenon is completed. Yes, I know there are two more movies and scads of related tie-ins still to come but the story itself will be complete. We’ll know how it ends.

I have a mistrust of anything that labels itself an “instant classic.” It suggests adding water to a half-baked idea, mix, and you have something for the ages. For something to be classic, time must pass. The work must speak to more than one generation. In the 1920 and the 1930s, the detective Philo Vance was all the rage; today, virtually nobody has heard of him, let alone read him.

All that said, I do think the Harry Potter books have the potential to become classics, to be read and loved by future generations. There is a timeless quality to them; they create their own separate but accessible world; and – as with all truly great children’s literature – they are accessible to adults as well as children. I’m 58 years old; I write GrimJack and have written things like Wasteland. I’m a fan of hard-boiled noir detective fiction and, yes, I’m a Potter-head as well.

What is going to decide whether or not the Potter books become classics or not, I think, is going to depend on how author J.K. Rowling winds up the series. I have nothing but respect for Ms. Rowling; she went from being a single mother on welfare when she wrote the first Potter book to being worth more than the Queen of England as she winds up the series. By the end of the summer, they’ll have to start inviting her to G8 meetings. On a simple commercial level, the writer in me is in awe.

The writer in me also admires her clear-headed vision of herself and of her work. I’ve dealt with fans, my own and Star Wars fans, and while I love them I know how fanatical some can get. There can be this sense of identification with a work to where they can feel entitlement or ownership even above the creator his or herself. On a video, I heard Ms. Rowling address this and say, pretty close to verbatim, “Is it important to me what the fans think? Absolutely. Should it change one word of what I’m doing? Absolutely not.” For the record, I think Ms. Rowling is spot on.

As I was saying, however, whether or not the Harry Potter books go on to become a classic or a flash in the pan will depend on this final book – on how she winds up the series. That ending must satisfy everyone, young readers and older ones alike, who have made an emotional investment that spans years. That doesn’t necessarily imply a happy ending; the movie Casablanca doesn’t have a “happy” ending in that the two lovers, Rick and Ilsa, are together. But, boy, does the ending satisfy the viewer.

There’s been a lot of speculation about how the series will end. Word has it that two of the series’ characters will die and that one of them could be Harry Potter himself. Since this is my last shot at it before the book comes out, I’m going to chime in with my own opinions/speculations. WARNING: SAID SPECULATIONS WILL NECESSITATE REVEALING EVENTS THAT HAVE HAPPENED IN PREVIOUS BOOKS. IF YOU’RE NOT CAUGHT UP AND HAVE SOMEHOW AVOIDED LEARNING WHAT’S HAPPENED AND WANT TO LEAVE IT THAT WAY, GO READ SOMETHING ELSE. NOT THIS.

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Meet the Real Sgt. Rock?

  • News
  • July 18, 2007

june5_bb-sgt-rock-3950821Perhaps the comic book world has achieved a higher level of respectability. According to WCBS radio in New York, military recruiters have discovered two new and potentially lucrative areas to ply their trade, as they have started targeting shopping mall food courts and comic book stores.

Whereas at first this might seem like a clever (or, given the nature of shopping mall food, desperate) approach, at least three groups of people are upset with the practice: parents who don’t want their kids to go to Iraq, mall managers who are accustomed to renting space to recruiters, and comic book collectors who are concerned about receiving their alternate cover editions in Falusia in mint condition.

It’s hard to say if this approach has been worth the effort, but many readers have noticed the increased level of military recruitment advertising in DC and Marvel comics. I’ll have to check to see if such ads have been appearing in Rick Veitch’s Army @ Love.

Artwork copyright DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

 

E3 Gaming Con Secrets Revealed!

A new week for the Big ComicMix Broadcast and some good scoops fresh out of the top-secret E3 Gaming Con, as well as a peek at the future of DC’s The Brave and the Bold and your wallet at war with tons of new comics and DVDs out this week – we are guessing you will surrender on this one! Then we toss out a few more San Diego tidbits and even subscribe to that X-Files 2 movie rumor!

The truth is still out there – but you have to PRESS The Button to get it!

LA Times claims comic book funk

  • News
  • July 17, 2007

In an op-ed piece in today’s Los Angeles Times, Tim Cavanaugh traces the disconnect between comic book’s influence on mass media and comic book’s actual sales.  He starts out on this up-beat note:  "Dying media don’t come much dying-er than monthly comic books."

He goes on to decry the "cloying, creepy, did-I-accidentally-enter-a-porn-shop vibe" of many comic book stores, and the cautiousness of most publishers.  He talks to Tom Spurgeon and Peter Bagge.

Like so many others, Cavanauagh suggests that the web may be the solution.  Stay tuned.

DENNIS O’NEIL: Do You Believe In Magic?

  • News
  • July 17, 2007

Here it is Tuesday evening and we’re still debating. Should we go to the 11:59 showing of the new Harry Potter flick at the local 21-plex or catch one of the early showings in the morning?  Pros and cons on both sides.  But we will see the movie within the next 24 hours; count on it.

Although I’ve enjoyed the previous films, I can’t call myself a Potter fan.  I haven’t read any of J.K. Rowling’s novels, though I love Ms Rowling’s bio: single mom writing in a café becomes hugely successful author, celebrity, and megamillionaire within about a decade, without becoming a robber baroness.  But Marifran’s read the books.  Oh yes indeed.  And so have daughters Meg and Beth.  So I’m pretty up on the Hogwarts scene and when the final volume in the series arrives in a couple of weeks, I expect my conversations with my wife to be conducted in monosyllables until she reaches the last page and learns Harry’s fate.

I’m surprised that these things are so popular, as I was surprised at the resurgence of interest in J.R.R. Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings saga and the huge success of the movies made from Tolkein’s trilogy. The reason is, I thought we were past believing in magic. 

Oh, sure, you don’t have to actually believe in something to enjoy stories about it.  But we do have to be able to accept it on some level. It helps the willing suspension of disbelief your English teacher told you is necessary to the enjoyment of fiction if you can allow that what you’re being told about exists, or could exist, or at least might have existed. Hero stories are about as old as civilization, and the tale-tellers always supply a reason why their protagonists have extraordinary powers.  In classic Greece, for example, and later in Rome, superpowers were explained by their possessors either being gods, or half-gods, or children of gods, or gods’ special pals.  Then plain ol’ magic, origin unknown, was used to rationalize superhuman feats in folk tales like those in A Thousand and One Nights. 

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