Tagged: Dark Horse

Stranger Bedfellows, by John Ostrander

  • News
  • February 21, 2008

 

ann_coulter_origin-6149618Forget whether or not Barack Obama is “black enough.” The newest wrinkle in the Presidential Campaign That Never Ended is whether or not John McCain is “conservative enough.” Evidently, according to two of the biggest conservative blowhards on the air – Rush “Dr. Feelgood” Limbaugh and Ann Coulter, She-Wolf of the Neo-Cons – the answer is “no.”
 
Limbaugh has been on a rampage about McCain, tearing the presumed Republican nominee a new asshole almost daily over issues like immigration and McCain’s voting against tax-cuts. Rush jokingly says he would endorse Barack Obama over McCain as Obama was “a blank canvas upon which anyone can project their fantasies and desires.” (Why am I not amazed that Limbaugh finds a black man to be a “blank canvas?” And you’re going to project your “fantasies and desires” on him? Oh, Rush – how Mandingo of you! Heavens, I feel all flushed! I swear I may have to swoon!)
 
Coulter has gone so far as to declare, on Fox’s Hannity and Colmes, she would campaign for Hilary Clinton rather than support McCain. That, if it came down to Hilary Clinton or John McCain, she would vote for Hilary Clinton as being more truly conservative. And on her site, she continues to champion “her Hilary.”
 

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Mike Richardson Announced as Stumptown Fest Guest of Honor

  • News
  • February 20, 2008

The Stumptown Comics Fest, an annual celebration of comics and cartooning art in Portland, Oregon, recently announced that it has chosen Dark Horse Comics founder and head-honch Mike Richardson to be its special Guest of Honor at this year’s event.

Festival organizers chose the accomplished (and extremely tall) Richardson for many reasons, some of which are detailed in the events official press release announcing Richardson’s selection:

Under his direction, Dark Horse has gone from a tiny startup during the black-and-white boom of the ‘80s to the biggest independent comics publisher in the nation, featuring such talents as Frank Miller, Mike Mignola, Neil Gaiman, and the late comics legend Will Eisner, and revolutionizing the industry’s approach to licensed properties through innovative Star Wars, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Conan, and Aliens/Predator stories.

The Fifth Annual fest will be held on April 26th-27th, 2008, at the Doubletree Hotel Lloyd Center in Portland. To find out more info on the Stumptown Comic Fest, a great event showcasing some exceptional art and artists, check out its official site. 

Conan on Conan Action on TV!

  • News
  • February 19, 2008

Jim Lauderdale and The Dream Players were on Conan O’Brien’s show last night, promoting and playing from their new CD, Honey Songs, which hits the stores today. The jacket art was drawn by GrimJack artist Timothy Truman; Timothy also writes Conan for Dark Horse. He’s also been known to draw everybody’s favorite barbarian from time to time as well.

Yep. That means that Conan was holding up Conan’s art, but not Conan art. Nor GrimJack art, sadly, but we were thrilled to see Tim’s stuff on network teevee! Nice goin’, bro!

 

 

 

ComicMix TV: Toy Fair ’08 Preview

ComicMix comes to you from Toy Fair this week, in the heart of New York City… and we have video!

Okay, so it’s not exactly the "heart" of the city. It’s more like the "elbow-region," way over on the Western side of the island where the subways don’t dare to travel. But the point here is that there are toys — lots of them.

We’ve already shown you the comics-inspired dolls of Tonner, a heap of Incredible Hulk and Iron Man branded toys, and Dark Horse Comics’ Will Eisner-designed Spirit statues. Now we have a short video preview of what’s to come from our Toy Fair coverage, hosted by our intrepid ComicMix host, Matt Raub.

Be sure to check back throughout the week for a look at highlights from our tours of the DC Direct and Mattel showrooms!

ComicMix at Toy Fair: Eisner’s ‘Spirit’ Meets Conan at Dark Horse

  • News
  • February 18, 2008

There was quite a bit to see at the Dark Horse Comics booth during this year’s Toy Fair, from statues based on Doctor Who and The Dark Crystal to busts based on Robert E. Howard’s Conan universe and various other products inspired by comics.

Most notable of the bunch, however, were a pair of statues based on the title character of Will Eisner’s The Spirit comics. With a Frank Miller-helmed film based on the character scheduled to hit theaters early next year, Dark Horse Comics’ statues are based on the original Eisner design for the character — literally.

According to DH’s Vice President of Product Development, the statues are based on sketches Eisner made in the event that a 3-D sculpture was ever made of the character. Dark Horse acquired the sketches from the Eisner Estate after the creator’s passing, and had the statues made from teh sketched designs.

"The statues aren’t just in the Eisner style," explained Scroggy, "but actually designed by Eisner."

Dark Horse also had a few busts from its upcoming "Savage Sword Collection" of products based on the work of Conan creator Robert E. Howard. The design of the busts will be based on recent covers of each character’s current Dark Horse Comics series.

In the spirit (pun totally intended) of letting a picture speak a thousand words, we’ve put together the following gallery of highlights from the Dark Horse booth.

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Star Trek My Eye!, by John Ostrander

  • News
  • February 14, 2008
 
I spent part of last Tuesday getting a laser shot into my right eye. And how was your Tuesday?
 
It was for purely medicinal reasons. I have glaucoma; it’s a disease, can be hereditary, by which the fluid in the eyeball doesn’t drain out well. This increases pressure within the eyeball which erodes the optic nerve which can and does lead to blindness. Usually, you get it when you’re older but I think I was still in my twenties when I was diagnosed with it. It can be controlled with medication or sometimes with surgery.
 
And, yes, marijuana has a medical use here. Whether or not it would be of any help in my case and worth all the hassle that would come with it, I don’t know.
 
My case is advanced and I know I’ve lost some vision (my heat vision is shot all to hell and don’t get me started on my X-ray vision). In the past few months, I’ve started to develop an allergic reaction to my eye meds. It can happen. That can result in meds having to be dropped, eyeball pressure going up, and blindness coming sooner. 
 
So we go to plan B: surgical solutions. The most extreme one of these, and one I will face at some point, is having new surgical drains inserted in my eyes. Laser work, however, is less expensive and less intrusive and that’s what we’re trying now.
 

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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.

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Me Eat Meat, by John Ostrander

  • News
  • February 7, 2008

So there I was, in my car, tooling along, headed towards my eye doctor appointment, listening to my public radio station, WNYC, and one of their talk shows – the Brian Leherer Show. The segment was referred to as “Can Meat Be Ethical?” The guests were Joan Gussow, professor emeritus of Nutrition and Education at Teachers College Columbia University, and Gidon Eshel, Bard Center Fellow and a geophysicist at Simon’s Rock College.

I could already tell we weren’t going to be on the same wavelength for this segment.

Here are my basic ethics about meat: if it hasn’t eaten me, I can eat it.

Professor Gussow seemed relatively reasonable. She said grass fed cows are eminently preferable to grain fed and that one should shop locally for everything – meats, grains, fruits, vegetables – as that reduces the amount of fossil fuel for transport. And that we should reduce the amount of meat that we consume and treat it more like a flavoring or a condiment as many cultures do around the world. That would be healthier.

Professor Eshel would have none of it. I should probably try to separate his snide, patronizing tone from his message. The tone probably comes with his turf; Simon’s Rock, up in the Berskshires in Maine, is – according to its website – “a small, selective, supportive, intensive college of the liberal arts and sciences” whose “400 students come to us after 10th or 11th grade in high school.” The few, the proud, the elite.

Professor Eshel maintained that grass fed beef is worse than grain fed beef. Why? Because, as bad as cow shit and cow farts may be for the environment, cow belching is worse not only in volume but in kinds of gases being released into the atmosphere.  (more…)

Marvel and Dark Horse: Winning the MySpace War?

  • News
  • February 1, 2008

Now here’s a story you don’t see every day: ComicBookResources looks at who the highest-profile comic publishers are on MySpace and compares the strategies each publisher is using to climb the mountain of online social networking environments.

According to CBR, Top Cow has been generating a lot of buzz lately due to its "Pilot Season" promotion that asks MySpace users to vote on several recent miniseries and pick which one will ge its own ongoing series. However, it’s Marvel and Dark Horse Comics that reign supreme in the MySpace world, thanks to a variety of clever marketing strategies and online tie-ins to their titles.

As for DC Comics, well, it appears as if a "divide and conquer" approach is only good for a "divided we fall" result in the world of MySpace.

DC Comics, who welcomed 835 friends to its profile, slipped by its sister DC Nation page and now sits fifth with 16,227. With the two profiles combined, the total leaps to 32,231, which would place the publisher third behind Dark Horse and Marvel (42,513). But with DC split between two profiles, manga heavyweight TOKYOPOP takes third with 18,956 friends.

 

Rant-O-Rama, by John Ostrander

  • News
  • January 31, 2008
 
Lots of different things pissing me off this week so let’s just make this one a grab bag of rant.
 
The Flordia Primary, Part One. Some time ago, Will Rogers, the noted American humorist, said, “I belong to no organized party. I am a Democrat.” Still true. Given the state of the country today – mired in a war that we shouldn’t have gotten into, edging into recession, a housing shortage that bids fair to upend our financial apple cart – the Democratic nominee for President should be a shoo-in. I think the DNC – the Democratic National Committee – assumes that. Not me. I still trust them to find a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. It’s a time tested Democratic tradition.
 
Cases in point – the Florida and the Michigan primaries. You’ve heard a lot this week about the Florida Republican primary but not so much the Democratic one. Why is that? Because the DNC has decided to punish those two states for moving their primaries ahead despite what the DNC told them. Furthermore, the DNC says they won’t be seating those states’ delegates at the Convention later this year. That’ll show ‘em! Naughty locals!
 
Question: what state lost the Dems the election in 2000? That’s right – Florida. There’s also plenty of votes to be had in Michigan. Mary’s family comes from Michigan and she knows some of them who have voted Democratic regularly before. This time they’ll sit it out or will vote Republican. Why? They’re pissed that the Dems have told them their delegates won’t be seated; that their votes in the primary don’t mean anything. If some people told me my vote didn’t matter, I’d find others who thought it did.
 

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