Tagged: John Ostrander

Comic Book Market Farces, by John Ostrander

  • News
  • June 26, 2008

How’s this for a concept of a superhero? A guy who is strong, can leap maybe a mile but doesn’t fly, and only a bursting cannon shell can puncture his skin. He is on the outs with the government, the local representatives of whom may be corrupt. He’s on the side of the “little guy” who otherwise may not have a chance against the Big Interests. He dangles neer-do-wells by one foot high in the air and threatens to drop them unless they co-operate – and he laughs while he’s doing it. The guy may be more than a little crazy.

Like the sound of this guy? Readers during the Depression did when they first started reading Superman. You ever go back and read those initial stories? In one, Superman decides that one slum area of the city needs urban renewal, which, of course, the city is disinclined to do. Superman then provokes the army who tries to drop bombs on him. He rushes in and out of abandoned tenements and the bombs level those buildings instead. The army fails to capture Superman and the tenements are leveled. The city now has to rebuild public housing, given the attention on the area.

That Superman today would be labeled a terrorist.

Or how about Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner over at Marvel when it was called Timely Comics. He was at war with the surface dwellers – us – and, in one story, deliberately flooded the Hudson Tunnel into New York. The tunnel is shown full of cars and there is no doubt in my mind everyone in them drowned. (more…)

ComicMix Columns/Features for the Week Ending June 22, 2008

  • News
  • June 22, 2008

You know the recent dire rumors floating about in the comics industry are heating up when they’ve made it to Nikki Finke’s Deadline Hollywood Daily blog, alongside a huge photo of Dan DiDio.  DHD was an indispensable resource during the recent writers’ strike; let’s see how Finke helps raise the profile of the funnybook business, for better or worse.  Meanwhile, our columnists and feature writers will keep bringing you what we do best!  Here’s what we have for you from this past week:

Stay tuned for more news and views!

Comic Reality Bytes, by John Ostrander

  • News
  • June 19, 2008

2658_4_001-5598695Samuel Keith Larsen recently popped me a question on my message board that I found interesting:

“Remember back in the Death Of Captain Marvel, where Rick Jones asked the Avengers why they haven’t discovered a cure for cancer? To this day, given all the magic and super-science, there hasn’t been any good answer for why cancer hasn’t been cured in the Marvel Universe. If you were asked to write a story dealing with that topic, how would you answer the question?”

Well, I’d note that Captain Marvel was dead but seems to be feeling better these days. Same with Bucky. However, that’s beside the point – and the question being asked.

As I answered the question on my board, if I was approached to write a story such as Sam described, I’d probably not cure cancer but use the story to explore the problems with curing cancer and why finding a cure is so difficult. The question asks really about continuity – if Mr. Fantastic is so freakin’ smart, why can’t he cure cancer? Or AIDS? It begs the issue of consistency.

For me, there is a larger issue and it gets back to the basic purpose of storytelling – all storytelling, to a greater or lesser degree. As the rector at my church, the (sometimes) Reverend Phillip Wilson, has often put it, stories are the atoms of our society. We use them to tell, share, compare, illustrate, defend, and maintain our lives, our experiences, who we are as individuals, as communities, even as a nation. (more…)

ComicMix Columns/Features for the Week Ending June 15, 2008

  • News
  • June 15, 2008

This week we’ve brought you a man-sized portion of columns and features by our intrepid band:

Strong enough for a man, but made for — well, everybody!

Dead Toe-Jam

  • News
  • June 13, 2008

 In today’s brand-new episode of GrimJack: The Manx Cat, by John Ostrander and Timothy Truman, John is closing in on the trail of the missing Manx Cat.  He only has to follow the master thief, kiss her… and hope for the best.  Oh, and he has to get there first.

We’re winding up to the big finale, folks!

 

Alone Together In the Dark, by John Ostrander

  • News
  • June 12, 2008

lab06popcorn-posters-6676198I remember the first time I saw the film Casablanca. It was at the 400 Theater in Chicago, just up Sheridan Road from Loyola University where I attended college. It was on the bill with Woody Allen’s Play It Again, Sam, an obvious but terrific double feature. I went stag but was lucky to get in at all; the small theater was packed.

I had missed or ignored Casablanca up until this point. I’m not sure why; I liked old serials a lot. The movie had certainly played on TV enough. I’d seen bits here and there or seen send-ups of it; callow youth that I was, I thought it wasn’t for me. Part of it was my own perverseness; my immediate reaction, on being told by everyone else that I must see this or I must hear that or I must read such and such is to say, “No, I don’t.” I get stupid stubborn about such things some times. Being told I would love the film I, of course, refused to see it. Finally, my curiosity overcame my perverseness and I sneaked off to view it without anyone else.

As I said, I went stag but I soon discovered I wasn’t alone. I was part of an audience, folks who mostly knew and loved the film. At the end of the singing of La Marseillaise, they cheered. When Captain Renault said, “Round up the usual suspects,” they cheered again. They laughed out loud at the funny lines (the movie is incredibly witty and they had actors who knew timing) and listened with rapt attention to Bogart’s speech at the end. Their delight and enthusiasm was catching on its own. And then there was the film itself.

(more…)

ComicMix Columns/Features for the Week Ending June 8, 2008

Greetings from the MoCCA Art Fest, where ComicMix will be out in force today!  We’re probably having the time of our lives, having prepared this roundup well beforehand.  Good thing, too, as we keep adding more new features!  Here’s the scoop on what our columnists and feature-ists have brought you this past week:

Back to the fun at the Puck Building!  Or is that the pun at the F– no wait, that can’t be right…

bloody20bess20website20art-2634988

John Ostrander’s ‘Bloody Bess’ Retakes The Stage

bloody20bess20website20art-2634988Way back in the dark ages, Stuart Gordon directed a play for his Organic Theater written by ComicMix’s own John Ostrander and our pal William J. Norris called Bloody Bess. It starred Dennis Franz, Joe Mantegna and Meshach Taylor along with writer Norris – writer Ostrander was pressed into service once when he wasn’t performing at the Goodman Theater with Del Close. The play was about this lady pirate’s revenge on her kidnappers and had lots of swashbuckling and mystery and terror. I saw it only about nine times.

It toured all over the world, but eventually, like all stage plays, it faded. And like all good stage plays, Bloody Bess is making its triumphant return.

Between June 13 and July 20, Chicago’s BackStage Theater Company will be presenting Bloody Bess at The Storefront Theatre Gallery 37, 66 East Randolph Street, downtown near Lake Mighigan. It stars Eva Swan, Ron Kuzava and Scott Graham. They work on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm and on Sundays at 3 pm.

Hmmm… This will be going on during Wizard World Chicago. If you’re around, check it out. 

Crossing the Line, by John Ostrander

I’ve been in this comics business for umpty-bum years now. Its not that I’m ashamed of the number; I just keep forgetting it. Ah, the joys of aging! It’s more than a quarter century since I started as a full-time writer; I know that. I’ve been a comic fan even longer. I’ve watched the occasional villain become… well, if not a hero, then something like one. Magneto, over in X-Men Land, for example. He’s gone from being the arch-enemy to our merry mutants to metamorphosing into an ally, to sometimes becoming their leader, and then back. Batman periodically gets darker until it’s hard to tell him apart from his foes.

Occasionally, this happens in real life.

Today, June 5, 2008, Ian Paisley steps down as First Minister of Northern Ireland.

Brief background, in case you don’t know: Northern Ireland is not a part of the Republic Of Ireland. It’s a constituent county of the United Kingdom and comprises the six counties that chose to remain a part of the U.K. when the Government of Ireland Act in 1920 created Home Rule in Ireland, formerly directly ruled by England. The Republic of Ireland, the South, with its capital of Dublin is (nominally, at least) largely Roman Catholic. Northern Ireland is largely Protestant but with a large Roman Catholic minority. In general, the Protestants regard themselves as English (they’re considered “Unionists”) while the Roman Catholics consider themselves Irish although, in fact, a citizen of Northern Ireland born before 2004 could claim citizenship in either or both the U.K. and Ireland. (more…)

ComicMix Columns for the Week Ending June 1, 2008

As readers doubtless have noticed, we’ve been adding a lot of regular features to ComicMix in addition to our columnists.  So it’s time to add Van’s Weekly Haul comic reviews to our rotation!  Here’s what we’ve done for you this past week:

In addition, here’s the listing of all the ComicMix Six fun we’ve come up with so far:

  1. April 2: Alan Kistler – Worst Moments in Skrull ‘Invasion’ History
  2. April 9: Alan Kistler – Why Marvel’s ‘Secret Wars’ Was Better Than ‘Civil War’
  3. April 17: Martha Thomases – Top Political Campaigns in Comics
  4. April 24: Alan Kistler – The Worst Superhero Names in Comics
  5. May 6: Chris Ullrich – The Worst Movies Adapted from Comic Books
  6. May 14: Alan Kistler – The Worst Supervillain Names in Comics
  7. May 21: Chris Ullrich – The Best Movies Adapted from Comic Books
  8. May 28: Martha Thomases – Biggest Tease in Comics (Male)

And with that, we bid our numbering goodbye!  Next week we’ll start adding in our Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica reviews (from Rick Marshall and Chris Ullrich respectively) to the roundup…

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