The Emmy nominations are here, and the Justice League: The New Frontier animated movie is among the contenders.
The direct-to-DVD adaptation of Darwyn Cooke’s retro comics series is nominated as an animated program at least an hour long.
Competition is all surprisingly nerd-friendly fare: South Park and Family Guy.
If there is one absolute statement that can be made about [[[Hellboy II: The Golden Army]]], it is that this is easily director Guillermo del Toro’s lightest and funniest film — which may just be its greatest downfall. If the first film were to be classified as a “horror/action with comedic relief”, this film is most definitely a “horror/comedy with action sequences,” and that could be what hurts the film the most.
The story picks up about a year from where the first film leaves off: the [[[B.P.R.D.]]] has grown, with the addition of Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), who is now Hellboy’s live-in girlfriend. Tom Manning (Jeff Tambor) is still in charge of the team and is trying his hardest (“trying” being the operative word) to keep it all a secret from the public. There’s all of this, and then there’s also an epic war being forged between a renegade elf prince and mankind.
The film starts off sweet enough, on a military base on Christmas during one of Hellboy’s adolescent years. A cameo from John Hurt gets the audience excited right off the bat. Hurt then tells a young Hellboy the story of the first Human/Elf war. This is where we set the mood for the rest of the film. The story is told using computer-generated wooden dolls, rather than actual elves or humans. While Guillermo is known for his imagination with monsters and/or children, this may have been a bit much in the direction of puerility. Instead of giving the impression of a childhood story, the CGI comes across as sloppy and unfinished.
It looks like Stan Lee’s next collaboration in comics will be one with a Far East flavor – we’ve got the story, plus
— Jonathan Hickman’s Pax Romana
— Family Guy
— The folks at Cannes will see Indiana Jones
— And yes, a brand new trivia question and another chance to grab an exclusive Graham Crackers Comics variant by e-mailing us at: podcast [at] comicmix.com
Excelsior – Press The Button!
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Today we celebrate the birthday of a man who has given us so much cause for hilarity, Seth MacFarlane, the man-child responsible for the shocking and hilarious television series, Family Guy. In addition to being the show’s chief creator and writer, his malleable timbre is behind many of the show’s characters, including Peter Griffin, Brian, Baby Stewie, Tom Tucker the Anchorman, Glenn Quagmire and a host of supporting characters. Although Family Guy was cancelled in 2000 and then again in 2002, it is the first show to be resurrected based on DVD sales. And let’s not forget to acknowledge the thousands of us who watched reruns on "Adult Swim." All those nights of bong hits and brownie binges were well worth the effort.
Thank you, teenagers and stoners nationwide, for your commitment to topical and nerd-material-citation humor. No one can deliver a Star Trek reference like MacFarlane can. Or for that matter, a Commencement Day speech at Harvard:
Nine is the magic number here at ComicMix – nine days until the giant ENTER key is pressed and ComicMix Phase Two launches (sounds like a prop from the old BatCave, huh?). If I said things are busy, that would be an understatement, but we DO have the time to share a few things with you, following up on news heard this week on The Big ComicMix Broadcast:
• If you want to get a copy of that (one time only) Steve Canyon revival, here is the information direct from the folks at the USAF: "People outside the newsstand radius can buy single copies by calling our customer service department (800.368.5718) or sending e-mail to order@mil-mall.com. Each issue will cost $3 (plus $1.50 shipping) the week the paper is on the newsstand. Thereafter, it’ll cost $5 plus shipping."
• Feel an inner flair for clothing design? The place to go might be here, It’s the home for Viper Comics and their new Sketch 86 line of t-shirts, plus it ‘s where you can submit your own designs for cash and prizes.
• Shades of the original “soap" operas! Mobile and broadband content provider GoTV Networks introduced the initial chapter of a 10-episode made-for-broadband series with Tide laundry detergent called Crescent Heights (as in the West LA neighborhood). Available on here among other places. Ther series features the work of writer Mike Martineau from Rescue Me.
This week, look for more previews of the features debuting here free on ComicMix on 10/2. Meanwhile on The Big Broadcast, we’ll let those creators tell you about their projects in their own worlds! And do we have to tell you it’s going to be a BIG week: Halo 3, the return of Family Guy, Heroes and Smallville and more – and, wait until you see what’s coming to comic stores in justa few days!
Take a deep breath and meet us right back here for The Big ComicMix Broadcast on Tuesday!
According to Valleywag, Seth McFarlane, creator of "Family Guy" has just hooked up with Google, using its AdSense network to distribute original video shorts. The show, which McFarlane and Google hope will be paid for by embedded ads, will appear in banners Google serves on both its own and independent sites. The concept is that as ads, the videos will reach a larger audience than a single website would. Says VW: "For Google, it’s a way to fill unsold ad inventory and prove the notion of AdSense as a distribution vehicle, after a similar deal with Viacom‘s MTV Networks collapsed. And it could also have a long-run benefit for Google. By inserting content into ad banners, Google could be, in essence, retraining users to pay attention to the Web commercials they’ve long learned to ignore."
Leave it to Stewie to find a new and different way to attempt world domination.
In the future, there will be no graves and nothing will stay dead. Motor-shock is coming.
The first original Futurama production since the series was canceled in 2003 will be a feature-length film, Futurama: Bender’s Big Score that will go directly to DVD and be available on November 27th. The new film features the show’s original cast and crew, and its release marks the second time that a Fox cartoon series has spawned a direct-to-DVD film after cancellation (Family Guy: Stewie Griffin, the Untold Story was the first). Previews were shown at SDCC with the crowd going nuts, as you’d expect.
Fox is planning to release three additional Futurama direct-to-DVD features during 2008, Futurama: The Beast With a Billion Backs, Futurama: Bender’s Game, and Futurama: Into the Wild, Green Yonder. In addition to the original cast each Futurama film will feature guest stars. Al Gore, Sarah Silverman and Coolio appear in Bender’s Big Score.
The release of the direct-to-DVD features doesn’t affect the previously announced plans to revive Futurama in episodic form on Comedy Central in 2008 (see "Futurama Revived"). The producers of the series plan on chopping up the features, adding new material and airing the resulting reconfigured new 22-minute episodes on Comedy Central during 2008 along with reruns of the original 72 episodes, much as they did with Stewie Griffin, the Untold Story. Click here to see a faux trailer.
I suppose I could have titled this pre-San Diego Comic Con installment “Popeye Hustle,” but I think that would’ve given the improper connotation. The new four-DVD boxed set from Warner – Popeye the Sailor 1933-1938 – (available July 31st) is anything but a hustle. And, in fact, the present column title is all the more apt because there’s some of the best kung-fu I’ve seen recently within these first sixty Popeye cartoons.
“Kung Fu” actually means “hard work,” not “martial arts,” but there’s a lot of both on display here – from the labor the Max (and Dave) Fleischer Studios lavished on these cartoons to the more than ample martial arts expended by the Sailor Man and all his antagonists (especially Bluto) in every minute of these more than three hundred and sixty animated minutes.
I say “more than,” because, in addition to the dozens of remastered black & white original cartoons, the set also includes two of the justifiably famous “two-reel” color mini-movies: Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad (sic) the Sailor, and Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba’s Forty Thieves. If the Fleischer Studios had only made a feature length Popeye (as well as a feature version of their beautifully made Superman cartoons), they might have remained as eminent as the Disney Studio.
But this handsome, reverent, and exhilarating set will hopefully go a long way to returning them to their rightful pantheon, despite the hundreds of inferior Popeye cartoons made by other studios since 1941. These almost pristine (the remastering process retains the rough edges of the cartoons as they were originally released) nuggets of aggressive mayhem are a welcome blast of fresh air in the fog of politically correct nonsense, which elicits waves of nostalgic pleasure with each spinach swallow and successive bout of frenzied fisticuffs.
Popeye’s legendary theme song, and oft-repeated quotes of “I yam what I yam,” and “that’s all I can stand, I can’t stand no mores,” clearly marks him as an inspiration for Bugs Bunny’s later feistiness (not to mention “this calls for a little stragedy,” and “don’t go up dere, it’s dark”) — and the set’s extras make that ultra clear. To say that there’s a wealth of featurettes and pleasant surprises is putting it mildly. Each disc has at least two engrossing docs detailing Popeye’s (and animation’s) extraordinary history, voices, music, and characters, as well as audio commentaries and mini-docs that they call “Popumentaries.”
The icing on the cake are a whole bunch of other Fleischer Studio cartoons “From the Vaults” – that is, the era before the 1930s, when cartoons were just starting and fascination, if not delight, could be found in inventive silence. At first these ancient animations seem too crude to be bothered with, but watching the just-drawn likes of Koko the Clown dealing with an animated “live-action” fly soon leads to many minutes of amazed viewing. (more…)
Okay, technically Family Guy is a Sunday night cartoon rather than a Saturday morning one; let’s just go with it.
As you might imagine, Seth MacFarlane’s Family Guy did not spring forth fully formed from the pen like Bosko The Clown did, there were earlier versions. Here we have Seth introducing a 1995 early presentation reel of a proto-Griffin that he developed while he was a student at the Rhode Island School of Design, and yes, we have to warn you that it’s probably Not Safe For Work:
According to TV Guide Online, here’s their latest top 30 cult teevee shows of all time.
I would scoff at this, but it turns out I really like at least a dozen of ’em.
30) Strangers with Candy (1999-2000)*
29) Absolutely Fabulous (1994-2003)
28) Stargate SG-1 (1997-2007)*
27) H.R. Pufnstuf (1969-1971)
26) Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1975-1978)
25) Firefly (2002-2003)*
24) Twin Peaks (1990-1991)
23) Dark Shadows (1966-1971)
22) Doctor Who (1963-present)
21) Freaks and Geeks (1999-2000)
Columns / Glenn Hauman / News
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