Tagged: DC

DC Bringing ‘Chuck’ to Comics

  • News
  • March 19, 2008

The long delay ’til the next season of NBC’s Chuck gets a bit of a reprieve this summer when DC Comics — via the Wildstorm imprint — releases a six-issue Chuck comic book miniseries.

From DC’s solicit, it sounds like the series will be trying to expand the scope of the TV series, which has a little thing called "budget" hemming it in.

From the solicit:

The hit NBC television series comes to comics as Chuck Bartowski and his friends are about to take the world by storm—literally! From series co-executive producer Peter Johnson (Supernatural: Rising Son) and series writer Zev Borow joined with artists Jeremy Haun (The Leading Man) and Phil Noto (Jonah Hex) comes an adventure too big for television!

In this globe-trotting, action-packed adventure, Chuck will see many exotic locales, dodge numerous bullets, and be tortured by the world’s greatest…tickler?

This sounds fairly similar to the globally expansive central storyline to last year’s Heroes graphic novel, another NBC-to-DC synergistic development. (Check out the haiku review of Heroes, another ComicMix greatest hit.)

Call me cautiously optimistic about this one. I really like the premise of Chuck, and I enjoyed the first few episodes. But things became very repetitive very quickly, and the gaps in logic became too unfathomable even for a "fun" show. Still, it has the chance to be this generation’s Get Smart, and that’s nothing to sleep on.

‘Smallville’ Comic Contest to Determine Plot, Comic-Con VIP

  • News
  • March 17, 2008

Years ago, DC let fans determine whether Batman sidekick Jason Todd met his end at the hands of the Joker via phone-in voting. Fans of Smallville, the television series that follows Clark Kent before he was Superman, now have a chance to play a similar (albeit far less morbid) role in determining the direction of a superhero-themed story.

Twice a week, fans will be able to vote on how Smallville: Visions, a DC-produced digital comic scripted by Stephan Nilson with art by Andie Tong, will evolve. At the end of the voting period, the pages will become (virtual) reality for readers.

Along with determining the outcome of the story, fans can also participate in the Stride Gum contest that goes with the promotion. All participants in Smallville story development will be entered for a chance to win a "VIP Weekend" at this year’s Comic-Con International: San Diego. They’ll also receive a year’s supply of Stride gum — which could come in handy amid the funk of the convention floor.

 

 

Interview: Jacen Burrows on Garth Ennis, Warren Ellis and ‘Crossed’

  • News
  • March 17, 2008

Artist Jacen Burrows has already had an impressive career in a relatively short amount of time. His talent, bold visual style and penchant for the darker, more sinister aspects of life have already earned him a place collaborating with some of the most popular and successful writers working in comics today.

Some of these writers include Warren Ellis, Garth Ennis and Alan Moore on projects such as Dark Blue, Scars, The Courtyard and 303. More recently, he’s worked on Chronicles of Wormwood with Ennis.

And, just yesterday at Wizard World in LA, it was announced that he’s doing a brand-new project with Ennis called Crossed — described by Avatar Press’ William Christensen as "a story about the worst people can possibly be, as a group of good people attempt to survive in a world of pure evil."

ComicMix caught up with Burrows at Wizard World LA to get some more details on Crossed, his other work with writers like Warren Ellis, what artists he admires and much more.

COMICMIX: Jason, thanks for taking the time to talk with me. Let’s get right into it with a little background. When did you first start drawing?

JACEN BURROWS: I’ve been drawing from the beginning. Three years old I was doing more drawing than anything else. And I think everyone does that. All kids draw but it was just the thing I happened to stick with because everyone would tell me I was good at it so I never stopped. When other kids were outside doing things I was inside working on my drawing. So, its kinda my curse.

CMix: Your parents encouraged you?

JB: Oh yeah, they were like "do what you want" and let me do my thing. Early on I had a tendency to draw the things that were fun to me, like war scenes with tanks and dead bodies.

Teachers would freak out and my mom would come in and tell them I was just being creative. Later, when I had art teachers, they would say it’s all perfectly normal.

CMix: You liked that kind of thing? Monsters, severed heads, etc?

JB: Yeah, I had a nice healthy obsession with drawing monsters, werewolves and things like that. It’s the fun stuff. (more…)

On This Day: Dan Adkins

  • News
  • March 15, 2008

Born on March 15, 1937, in Midkiff, West Virginia, Dan Adkins grew up in rural areas where he could indulge his love of wandering and exploring. When he was 11, however, rheumatic fever left him paralyzed from the waist down for six months.

He passed the time by reading comics books and became fascinated with the artwork in particular. Adkins joined the Air Force after high school and became a draftsman, then an illustrator. It was during that time that he started the fanzine Sata, in 1956.

After leaving the Air Force Adkins moved to New York, where he did freelance illustration for several years before joining Wally Wood Studio in 1965, which gave him his start in comics. Since then he’s worked for DC, Marvel, Eclipse, and others, and done many magazine covers as well. Adkins is probably best known for his work on T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, Strange Tales, and Doctor Strange.

ComicMix Radio: Darwyn Cooke Looks Back at ‘The Spirit’

It was the job everyone admired, but no one wanted to try: following in the footsteps of Will Eisner on The Spirit. For over a year, Darwyn Cooke stepped up to take on the task and in an exclusive ComicMix Radio interview, he talks about the good — and bad — moments, plus:

— DC finally makes a move with Manhunter

— Spectacular Spider-Man blows up the ratings

—  Dark Horse partners with Universal

—  Sure – there’s another trivia question  and another chance to grab an exclusive Graham Crackers Comics variant by e-mailing us at: podcast [at] comicmix.com

It’s a click away – so just press the button:

 

 

And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via badgeitunes61x15dark-5437125 or RSS!

‘Manhunter’ to Return in June

  • News
  • March 15, 2008

DC Comics’ Manhunter was originally cancelled with issue #25 in 2006. After an outpouring of protest from fans, DC resurrected the series for five more issues with the promise of more if the five were successful.

The series did well enough to extend its life, but the hiatus between issue #30 and #31 has been prolonged to say the least. In the meantime, Kate Spencer has been hanging out with the girls from Birds of Prey.

Following up on our DC Nation panel report, the long wait for Manhunter fans is finally over, as the title will resume shipping in June. Marc Andreyko returns as writer with Michael Gaydos serving as artist.

The recent solicitation for the first issue hints at a few of the new situations Kate Spencer will be getting into when Manhunter resumes:

Los Angeles is Manhunter’s town — so when Kate Spencer learns of the disappearance of hundreds of women along the Mexican border, she’s on the case both as law-breaking D.A. and costumed vigilante.

Meanwhile, Kate’s bloodline tie to the JSA returns to haunt her — and it looks like her sidekick’s most notorious supervillain ex-boss is doing the same to him.

Exclusive pages from the forthcoming issue can be viewed at Newsarama.

 

Interview: Keith Giffen on DC’s ‘Reign in Hell’

  • News
  • March 13, 2008

Not long ago, Keith Giffen was charged with making Marvel Comics’ catalog of cosmic characters relevant again. Little more than a year later, Nova, Guardians of the Galaxy and various other spin-offs from Giffen’s critically praised Annihilation storyline are still finding success on the shelf, and the results of Marvel’s grand experiment speak for themselves. That’s why it seemed like a no-brainer that DC would turn to its now-exclusively held contract with Giffen to revitalize one of its own subsections of characters.

Starting in June, Giffen will begin redefining DC’s magic users alongside artist Matthew Clark in an 8-issue miniseries titled Reign in Hell. The story will focus on a battle for dominion over the plane of hell waged between the forces of Neron (last seen imprisoned in Doctor Fate’s tower at the end of 52) and  the combined efforts of Lord Satannus and his sister, Blaze, who gained a foothold over the realm in Neron’s absence.

According to Giffen, one of the initial plot points of Reign in Hell will include a roll call for DC’s magic users — especially those with ties to the "real" underworld. I spoke with Giffen recently about his plans for the series, what impact he hopes it will have, and some of the characters that might be called into service for a "war in hell."

COMICMIX: Keith, you’re becoming an old pro at this type of story, it seems. How do you approach the task of kick-starting an entire subsection of a publisher’s universe?

KEITH GIFFEN: I love world-building. That’s always been my favorite thing to do since I took on Legion of Superheroes. When DC approached me and asked me to rethink hell, that was right up my alley. I just looked back over different versions of hell in Marvel, DC and other publishers, and realized that I didn’t want to do any of that.

What I’m trying to do is create an infernal realm that stands on its own — that’s unique. The DC hell will not resemble, aside from the fact that it’s about damnation and torment, any of the hells that we’ve seen in comics before. It’s a different take on the environment, with different characters and motives, how  it runs, its hierarchy and what it means to have a "war" in hell.

CMix: What characters will play significant roles in the series? What characters should readers be watching out for?

KG: Doctor Occult is definitely a major player. I’m going to go in and see what makes that character tick. It will mostly be the DC mystics that you would expect to be involved in something like this. [It will be] Zatanna, Doctor Fate and some of the newer guys from that Countdown to Mystery series, like Sargon the Sorcerer, Ibis the Invincible — or whatever he’s calling himself these days — and Black Alice.

It utilizes some of DC’s matchbook characters, and also unearthes this magic bible — these rules of magic that Michael Moorcock had done for DC years ago that had never really been implemented. There were some spectacular ideas in there about the nature of magic and the price you pay for wielding certain kinds of magic. For example, every time you use infernal magic, you’re putting your soul in jeopardy. How does that affect the character? (more…)

Atari Comics Receive Digital Reprint

  • News
  • March 13, 2008

The Steam online digital distrubution system announced that Atari PC games would be added to their catalog of programs. One of the games, Atari 80 Classics in 1, is more of a bargain then meets the eye. A collection of retro Atari games from the arcades and the Atari 2600 game system, the package includes a bonus not listed in any of the marketing materials.

Each game in the collection has an Extras bonus content section. Usually this includes box art and original manuals. But the Atari archivists were very thorough and included the bonus mini-comics that were published in conjunction with DC Comics. These comics, while never valuable, do entertain on a cult status level. Atari comics had surprisingly high quality for what was essentially a marketing pack-in item.

Comics included in the collection are as follows:

Swordquest #1-3. Written by Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway, but the real star of these comics is the amazingly great art by George Perez and Dick Giordano. Swordquest was intended to be an epic multi-part adventure game. Each game in the series would include a comic to explain the story while the games would be puzzle adventures based on mythology.

Atari Force #3. Sci-fi from Gerry Conway and Roy Thomas. Artists included Ross Andru, Gil Kane, Dick Giordano and Mike DeCarlo. Atari Force proved popular enough that DC Comics published a second volume in the regular, monthly comic format. Unfortunately, the games collection only includes one of the issues since the rights for the other games that included the comics are no longer held by Atari.

Centipede #1. A light-hearted kids’ book in the style of Harvey Comics. An evil wizard turns Oliver the Elf’s forest friends into monsters. Who knew Centipede had a deep back story? We thought we were just shooting bugs.

Atari 80 Classics in 1 is available at Steampowered.com for $18.95. That’s 80 games and five hard-to-find comics… Why not?

Sex and the Citizens, by John Ostrander

  • News
  • March 13, 2008

 

There are those of you out there who don’t regard politics as necessarily pop culture. And then there are those of us born in Chicago.

When you get down to it, is there anything more politically entertaining than a sex scandal? It appeals to our prurient interest; we get to be “shocked, shocked that this sort of thing is going on” while, at the same time, seeking out the really juicy details. They’re death to a politician’s career all around the world except, of course, in France where the lack of a mistress may be cause for impeachment.

The latest sex scandal, of course, is New York Gov. Elliot Spitzer’s consorting with prostitutes and paying big money to do it. He spent more money for two hours with one “escort” than a lot of us make in a month. (“Shocked, shocked.”) That loses him sympathy points right there, especially with a recession going on. Bill Clinton got his jollies for free from an intern but Spitzer paid big bucks via bank transfer, supposedly to keep from leaving a paper trail. That worked real good, didn’t it, Gov?

You know, of course, that as I write this there has to be a big hunt going on right now for that call girl, Kristen, named as the woman Spitzer spent over four grand for about two hours worth of whoopee. Whatever newspaper or book or magazine publisher that finds her had better have a checkbook because I guarantee she’ll have an agent by then because, damn it, the details she knows are the ones we all really want to hear. She sold her body to a privileged few for some big bucks; she won’t sell the story that everyone wants to hear for chump change. She’s a businesswoman; one high priced call girl in a TV interview called herself a “hofessional.” I like a woman who has a way with. . . words.

 

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Review: Jughead’s Double Digest #138

So there I was, at Midtown Comics, one of New York City’s better-racked shops, trying to find something my wife was looking for. That’s the only way you could get me into a comics shop on a Tuesday, the day before the new stuff is put on the shelves. Since I was there, I looked at everything else as well… and came across [[[Jughead’s Double Digest #138]]], a beneath-the-radar book that some will find of note.

This is the issue before the beginning of their latest “new-look” story, this time drawn by my pals Joe Staton and Al Milgrom, so I gave it a second glance. Above the logo, in type too small to be visible in the reproduction I cribbed from Archie’s website, is the phrase “Collectors (sic) Issue Featuring Jughead #1, 1949.” The cover art promised a story where the 2008 Jughead meets up with his 1949 counterpart. The one who only owned one shirt.

Unless you’ve been scouring the ComicMix comments sections lately, it is possible you are unaware that the Archie line is one of the best-selling newsstand comics ventures of our time. In fact, since their digests are available at most supermarket checkouts, they provide an unparalleled portal into the world of comics. Because their content appeals to readers of all sexes and age groups, they appeal to a group Marvel and DC barely acknowledge: the younger reader.

I should point out that Archie is also the last of the publishing houses still controlled by the family of its original owners. That comes across quite clearly in their editorial content, which is quite respectful of its roots.

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