Tagged: comics

Felix sues clock

  • News
  • April 9, 2007

4219_4_4-7935215asm_clock-9705372Felix, the world’s oldest cat, has reached into his bag of tricks to whip out a lawsuit.

The Otto Messmer creation who first appeared in Pat Sullivan cartoons dating as far back as 1912’s Felix Saves The Day has taken offense at the popular Kit-Kat Klock. The clock dates back to the 1930s; it’s taken Felix a bit of time to file the papers. Next time, he should pull an opposable thumb out of his bag of tricks. However, it should be noted that the Kit-Kat Klock had been marketed in the past as the "Felix Clock."

Felix has been a perennial in comic books as well as on television and in both silent movies and talkies. Kit-Kat Klocks are no relation to the popular candy bar, whose manufacturers may be waiting on deck for their turn at bat.

An August primer

  • News
  • April 8, 2007

Writer John August notes, "Ever since I announced that I’m writing Shazam!/Captain Marvel, I’ve gotten some great questions and comments from longtime fans of the character, many with detailed pleas to include a specific cherished piece of the mythology. But when I tell people face-to-face that I’m writing a Captain Marvel movie…their eyes go up and to the left as they try to remember, who the hell is Captain Marvel?…

"So, in the interest of spreading general knowledge about Captain Marvel and why he kicks ass, I thought I’d share a reading list. Don’t worry; there’s no test. In fact, consider this a gentle education (or re-education) on why some of the best writing today is inked and colored."  And he goes on to recommend in detail a step-by-step list for folks new to comics, new to the DC Universe, and new to the specific character.  It’s always a good sign when a writer’s done his homework!

MICHAEL DAVIS: The Emperor’s New Clothes

  • News
  • April 7, 2007

michael-davis100-6237660I don’t really have a subject for this week, which explains why I’m writing this on Thursday afternoon with a Friday morning deadline. Sorry, Mike. Nothing really ticked me off or got me excited this week. That’s an issue for me because when I took this gig I made a promise to keep it current and to always have a definitive point of view.

Well, what follows are some random thoughts that I may as well get off my chest. None of these things really warrant an entire column (yet) but they all have my interest,

Remember the story of the Emperor’s new clothes?  Well that seems to be what is going on with American Idol. Major newscasts like the Today Show (who made my greatest list last week) are all saying that this kid Sanjaya Malakar can’t sing.

HELLO!!!!!????

Even before America stared to vote this kid beat out thousands of other singers to make it to the show. Now everyone is saying he can’t sing. Why? Because one person said he could not sing after one bad performance and now everybody is saying it. What is up with people? People are just sheep! He is clearly not the best singer on the show, but the kid can sing. Why are people such sheep? Why, why, why?

Sheep, sheep, sheep!

In other random thoughts, in case anyone is interested I will be speaking at the Biola Media Conference April 21st at Biola University and at Cal State Northridge on April 23rd. Maybe the person who sent me the angry email will want to come down and heckle me.

What angry email? The angry email that I was sent in response to The Black Panel article I wrote. They told me “You are a Uncle Tom who does not care about Black People. We have a right to be represented and you should let any black person on the panel who wants to be there.” They also said that I was…” one of those uppity (N-word) who only dates white woman!” (My Asian lady loved that one.)

Well, fellow and or gal (I don’t know what you are because you sent the email anonymously – how brave, by the way), if you are feeling strong come on down and take your best shot. Hey wait. Why don’t you speak at the conference or at Northridge. I’m sure they will just let you walk in off the street and talk about your work or whatever you want to talk about. I mean you are entitled right? Wait! Now that I think about, it why don’t you just walk on to the Tonight Show? I’m sure they will just let you be a guest. Wait! What am I thinking?? Why doesn’t ABC just do a special on you? I mean you have certainly earned the right to have your own show right?  Wait, wait wait!!! Not a show –you deserve your own NETWORK!!! I mean why not? Wait, wait wait, wait, why don’t they just hand you your own galaxy? 

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Happy Birthday, Hijinx

hijinxcomics-4344735In 1982, Mike Gamble opened a comic book store in Willow Glen, California.  Today, owned by Dan Shahin and renamed Hijinx Comics, the store is still open, still selling comics, and still entertaining the community.

Shahin started working at the store in 1986,when he was eleven years old.  Paid in store credit, he sorted baseball cards and filed back issue.  "Back when I first started working comics were 60 cents each and weren’t taxed, and Mike marked them down to 50 cents after a week to make sure they sold. That meant I was earning four comic books an hour to hang out in the greatest store I’d ever seen. I was in kid heaven," said Shahin. "Fast forward 20 years and I’m right back in the place where I was always happiest. I took what I learned from high tech and applied it to comics retailing. It’s the best decision I ever made 

Shahin credits the store’s focus on customer service and broad selection as being the key to getting and retaining new customers in the face of competition from chain bookstores as well as multiple area specialty shops. Hijinx also features a book club program allowing customers to earn store credit for every book they purchase. Hijinx also recently launched www.comicbookshelf.com, a website devoted to reviewing, categorizing and selling graphic novels featuring

free domestic shipping or in-store pickup.

ComicMix applauds any comic book store that survives in today’s tough market, especially one that adapts and prospers.

Let’s you and him reconcile

  • News
  • April 5, 2007

Via Budgie, for your reading pleasure comes this post by artist Jesse Hamm on the ways in which writers drive him crazy, followed by a three part rebuttal by Mark Waid on why certain artists should perhaps choose their words as carefully as they choose their illustrations.  Beyond the sarcasm and vitriol is some terrific information and useful advice on the collaborative process in comics.

JOHN OSTRANDER: The headline quartet

  • News
  • April 5, 2007

ostrander100-7707776You’ve done this on tests. Which of the following doesn’t fit?

  1. Celeb fashion flops
  2. Crafting the perfect lawn
  3. Man films own death by meth
  4. Clearing home clutter

If you picked “Man films own death by meth” then give yourself an A. I plucked this quartet as is from my MS Hotmail account; after I sent off an e-mail, a screen popped up asking me if I wanted to go back to the message or to the inbox. In the left margin, there were also some news stories that I might want to pick. These were the four headlines to choose from. Three innocuous bits of news fluff and one fairly grotesque news item.

Each headline had equal value. The type sizes were all the same size. Suicide is given the same value as “Crafting the perfect lawn.” They’re all just newsy bits, one no more important than the next. In a list we sometimes assume that the top or the bottom items have the most impact but not so here. Exchange the top two items and nothing really has changed. Put the suicide item at the top or the bottom and the list changes but nestle it in the middle and it’s just one more bit of fluff.

I’ve been looking at our little headline quartet and reacting several different ways. In this context, with everything being the same, death has no more importance than crafting the perfect lawn. It’s just another widget headline. If everything has the same value, then what has meaning? “Man films own death by meth” is grotesque, it should horrify. The quartet suggests otherwise to me. There is no sense of priority here, that this one thing is more important than this other thing. The context of its appearance in this quartet suggests that the death is mundane.

Which might raise the question – is it more important? An unknown man films his own death by meth. Should his death mean anything more to me than celeb fashion flops? Is his death noteworthy or the fact that he filmed it? If there wasn’t video, we wouldn’t care. Just another meth user screwing up his life. I’m not going to pretend that I care deeply about every person who dies; I don’t. The deceased may have family and friends who will mourn him; I hope he does. Me? I’m mostly appalled but that’s about it. Maybe for me it IS just another widget headline. (more…)

lonegunmen-9200810

Why “The Lone Gunmen” got axed

  • News
  • April 4, 2007

lonegunmen-9200810We seem to have an unofficial theme of sorts today.

Fans of The X-Files remember the Lone Gunmen, the trio of brilliant but socially inept hackers and conspiracy experts that made comic book fans look socially un-inept. They were spun off into their own short-lived TV series, which recently became available on DVD.

But some wondered: How could a show featuring such popular characters get cancelled so quickly? Was it some sort of evil scheme? Who was to blame? Why was that guy in Fox’s programming division constantly smoking?

Finally, we have an answer – in comic book form, no less, which means that we can talk about it here and still remain within our theoretical charter.

Dean Haglund, better known as Richard "Ringo" Langly, has written and drawn an autobiographical story of what happened to the Lone Gunmen – how they found out about the series, how it lived, and how it died. The art is reminiscent of a cruder version of William Messner-Loebs, and the story reinforces every dumb story you’ve heard about Hollywood. He’s selling it on his web site for a pretty high price, but if you ask nicely, I’m sure he’ll autograph it directly to you.

Beetles Blue, Doctors Three, and Adams Neal

A new week and a new line up of surprises, including a peek at the big Blue Beetle Companion, 50 or 60 ways to spend money on comic books and DVDs, and we dissect The Doctor’s third season opener. Plus – the ComicMix line-up of what’s been delayed and when it’s going to happen. Plus – Neal Adams is all over Timeline.

As always, you can hear the ComicMix Podcast by clicking on this very button:

DENNIS O’NEIL: Who knows what evil lurks…? Part 1

  • News
  • April 3, 2007

Meet Anthony Tollin.

I did, more than 30 years ago, at DC Comics. Anthony was tall, friendly, didn’t look like a New Yorker, and wasn’t. He came to Manhattan from Minneapolis in 1973, worked a couple of jobs, and then landed at DC, where he stayed for 20 years, proofreading, color-coordinating, helping Jack Adler manage the production department – necessary chores, done well away from the spotlight, that transform the raw materials of artwork and script into a printed artifact. Along the way, Anthony got married, and divorced, moved to another state, and when he retired from DC, settled in Texas, where he lives and single-parents his lovely and gifted daughter, Katrina.

If you talked to Anthony much, you soon discovered that he had a number of pop cultch enthusiasms, not the least of which was comic books. But his real passions – I don’t think the word is too strong – were always The Shadow novels, mostly written by Walter Gibson under the pseudonym Maxwell Grant and published in the 30s and 40s in the pulp magazine format, and old radio shows, particularly the crime and adventure programs that were the first cousins of the pulps and comics. If ever I had a question about either of these subjects, Mr. Tollin was always my first go-to guy. I never needed a second.

Those passions are still part of the Tollin gestalt, and now he’s found a new way to both share and make a living from at least one of them. Since July, a company Anthony started has, in partnership with something called Nostalgia Ventures, been issuing reprints of The Shadow books. The price is $12.95, quite modest considering that in one volume you get two novels and reprints of the original illustrations, a feature that’s both unusual and, I think, a real value-adder. The book that’s on the desk next to my computer would certainly be mistaken for one of the old pulps – same size, same kind of cover and font – until you picked it up and found that, in fact, both the cover stock and the interior stock are considerably better than anything that bore the original work. Inside, there are the novels, plus a couple of pieces by Will Murray, another expert and go-to guy, and an adaption of a Shadow radio show.

And as a comics fan you should care… why?

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MIKE GOLD: You say you want an evolution…

  • News
  • April 2, 2007

wonder-woman-6594318I like Martha Thomases’ idea of 365, as reported on ComicMix yesterday. A full-length comic book story each and every day for a year. Now that would be an event.

Sadly, most such comic book events aren’t worth the effort, let alone the price. The stories are overblown, their effects on their “universe” temporary – either in the sense that they will be countermanded or, at best, castrated in the next such event.

(Hmmm. There’s a phrase I’ve never written before. “At best, castrated.”)

By the time they’re over, most events turn out to be nothing more than marketing gimmicks, and an endless sea of marketing gimmicks doth not a universe make. As of this writing Captain America is dead but Bucky is alive – something he’d managed to avoid for over 40 years. As Denny O’Neil pointed out in his recent ComicMix column, death has no permanence in comics. As a plot point, it is hackneyed: it may have collectibility, but it has no credibility.

Wonder Woman has been redefined, resurrected, rebooted, and retold differently so many times since 1965 (arguably her first real reboot) that I’m surprised she doesn’t bump into Tony Soprano at her shrink’s office.

Of the two major universes, Marvel’s is the most consistent – but only by comparison to DC, whose universe had to be cobbled together retroactively by combining the efforts of five publishing houses over 70 years: DC, All-American, Quality, Fawcett and Charlton – and maybe Fox, depending how you, ahhh, look at Phantom Lady. But by and large, in the past couple decades Marvel’s change has been evolutionary and not stop-and-start-over. Spider-Man went step by step from being a four-eyed high school wallflower with a secret identity to becoming a publicly known married-to-an-actress superhero and, oh yeah, menace to his nation. Marvel never stopped and said “Oh, now everything you know is wrong; this is the way it is and the way it will be until we need to burrow into your pockets again.”

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