Tagged: Sci-Fi

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?

Updates on ‘Thor’ and ‘Ant Man’ Films

  • News
  • March 10, 2008

march10ant-4805093Empire Online has the latest news on two Marvel movies currently in development, Ant Man and Thor, straight from the mouths of the directors behind the projects.

Ant Man is being written and directed by Edgar Wright, the English director responsible for Spaced, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. In regards to the pint-sized hero’s big screen adaptation, Wright said:

“It’s written and we’re doing a second draft of it,” said Wright. “It’s going to be less overtly comedic than anything else I’ve ever done. It’s more of a full-on action adventure sci-fi film but with a comedic element – in the same spirit of a lot of escapist fare like that. It’s certainly not a superhero spoof or pastiche and it certainly isn’t a sort of ‘Honey I Shrunk The Kids’ endeavor at all.”

Wright was mum on the subject of casting and whether or not the Ant Man in the film will be Scott Lang or fan favorite Hank Pym.

While Ant Man is chugging right along, the god of thunder seems to be stuck in neutral. The film adaptation of Thor, scheduled to be directed by Matthew Vaughn (Stardust, Layer Cake), is currently in a holding pattern until the parties involved decide on the future of the project.. The Odinson hath been forsaken.

 

ComicMix Broadcast Blog: Indie Online and New York Comic Con

  • News
  • March 9, 2008

Our process here is simple – at the end of every weekend we clear off our desk and give you the links for things we’ve covered recently on ComicMix Radio. Ready to click?

Add Jonathan Hickman’s  all new miniseries, Pax Romana, to the list of cool indie comics now available online. Here is the first issue. Jonathan hopes it inspires you to go seek out the second issue which hit comic stores last week.

ABC announced the creation of Stage 9 Digital Media, a separate creative studio dedicated to producing original series for the Internet. Their  first project, Squeeges, is available here . The 10-episode series was created by a comedy troupe that calls itself "Handsome Donkey." New episodes  will appear on ABC.com and on YouTube each Monday and Friday. Other projects in the works include a sci-fi thriller called Trenches from Shane Felux (creator of fan film Star Wars: Revelations). Meanwhile, more Hollywood talent is jumping to the online world. Actress Justine Bateman (Family Ties), writer/producer Jill Kushner (The Ellen DeGeneres Show), Peter Murrieta (Wizards of Waverly Place) and Alan Sereboff (Snowblind) are working on an original web video portal.

Get ready for a big career move as cable network Chiller is once again hosting the "Dare to Direct Contest" where fans are invited to write, produce and submit short horror films. Prizes and the chance to be featured on Chiller’s 2008 Dare to Direct to Direct Film Festival on Halloween night will go to the finalists and winners. All contest rules and information can be found at Dare2Direct.com.

Michael Agrusso, comic book action figure director, has put together a trio of videos to help promote the New York Comic Con. See them here. Meanwhile, the NY Con itself has produced new guest lists that include a huge Artist Alley, reserved for comic book and pop culture creators — both legendary as well as emerging — and including Mark Buckingham, C.B. Cebulski, Colleen Doran, Danny Fingeroth, Keith Giffen, Bob Layton, Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld, Monte Moore, Rags Morales, John Romita, Jr., Jim Shooter, and Jim Valentino. New additions are added almost daily and the complete listing is available.

This week on ComicMix Radio, find out a few interesting tidbits about the upcoming end of DC’s weekly series Countdown from the guy at the center of it all, Keith Giffen, plus some interesting notes from MegaCon, the list of new comics and DVDs previewed, and more.

Got a busy week coming up? Don’t miss anything by subscribing to ComicMix Radio on  badgeitunes61x15dark-5241029 or RSS right now!

 

‘Doctor Who’ Videogame On the Way

  • News
  • March 7, 2008

Hot on the heals of our other various videogame announcements and some recent spoilers concerning a certain Time Lord and a show that’s popular here at ComicMix, word now comes from the site Videogaming247 that a videogame based on the hugely popular Doctor Who BBC television series is on the way.

According to the site, video game producer Edios confirmed the game is in active development and is being made for various gaming platforms including the PC, Sony PS2 and the Nintendo DS.

When asked to confirm the game was, in fact, in development, an unnamed rep for Edios said:

“That is correct. We haven’t announced a release date at the moment. It’s not too far away. We should be showing it to [press] quite soon.”

Well, there you go. Even though details are still mostly unknown right now, it doesn’t seem like eager fans will have to wait too long to know more about the game — and that’s great for them.

For me, if I had a choice, I would actually prefer a game based on a different BBC Sci-Fi show. A show that I actually like quite a bit: Torchwood. With all the innuendo, sex, aliens and action, that would be a cool game. Anyone else fancy a game of Torchwood?

D&D Co-Creator E. Gary Gygax: 1938 – 2008

  • News
  • March 4, 2008

Chances are if you love comic books, sci-fi, fantasy and other great things like these, you’ve probably also played Dungeons & Dragons at one time or another as well. I’m not embarrassed to admit I used to play it quite a lot and before the days of the sophisticated computer and console games we have now, it was a great way to get together with a bunch of friends, roll the 20-sided-dice and kick some Beholder butt.

So, it’s sad news today to report that Gary Gygax, co-creator of D&D, co-founder of Tactical Studies Rules (TSR) and generally regarded as the "Father of the Role-Playing Game" has passed away. The news was first reported on the Troll Lord Games Forums but now has spread across the Internets with postings at various other sites. Plus, his Wikipedia page has also already been updated.

Born on July 27, 1938, Ernest Gary Gygax took his love of Avalon Hill wargames and his passion for the works of Robert E. Howard, J.R.R. Tolkien, Fritz Leiber, and other great sword and sorcery authors and created D&D. He also co-founded Tactical Studies Rules, the company that published the game.

After D&D, Gygax went on to create the Dangerous Journeys and Lejendary Adventure RPGs, as well as a number of board games. He also wrote several fantasy novels. Over the years, Gygax became an icon to gamers and developed a huge following of fans, even appearing as himself in an episode of the show Futurama.

ComicMix’s own Glenn Hauman had a personal connection to Gygax.

"I met Gary a few years back, and he was a complete gentleman," said Hauman. "Ironically, he died on GM’s Day, a day created by various role-playing aficionados to pay tribute to the one who holds your character’s life in your hands. Gary’s influence on the gaming industry is immeasurable, and he will be dearly missed."

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Fan Comics Celebrate ‘Doctor Who’, ‘Torchwood’

  • News
  • February 12, 2008

Pia Guerra may have her work cut out for her.  While Guerra’s first issue of IDW’s Doctor Who comic book series is scheduled to come out in July, fan-drawn strips about the British sci-fi phenomenon and its spinoffs are already well underway.

Pseudonymous LiveJournal bloggers calling themselves spastasmagoria and jigglykat have created Torchwood Babiez, which is so unbearably adorable it could give Cute Overload a run for its money.  So far the ladies are up to Page 10, and they’re just getting rolling.

Meanwhile, Rich Morris is currently up to Page 81 of his wonderful strip The Ten Doctors, which can be enjoyed by casual viewers of the show but is really designed for the more fanatic trivia buff who remembers over a quarter century of Doctors, companions, villains and planets.  Only three of the story pages have been inked and colored so far, but Rich’s art is worthwhile even in pencil form.

Doubtless there are a ton of other fan-based comics making the rounds; we’d be especially interested to see any paying tribute to the kid-friendly "Sarah Jane Chronicles."

On This Day: The First Science-Fiction Television Program

  • News
  • February 11, 2008

Today in 1938, the Brits did television a mitzvah when the BBC created the first sci-fi TV show, an adaptation of a section of the Karel Capek play "R.U.R.", which coined the term "robot."

For those of you who thought "The Matrix" was revolutionary, it was Capek who introduced androids that rebel against their human creators. We’re also pretty sure she wasn’t the first to think that one up either (the first probably being the golem stories from the Talmud).

Anyway, the piece was translated from Czech to English, which explains the etymology of the word, "Robot." In its original Slo, "robota" means "work."

The Sci-Fi Currency Exchange Rate

  • News
  • February 9, 2008

We’re not quite sure what they’re putting in the water coolers over at io9, but it’s producing some bizarre  (yet strangely attractive) reading material. Case in point: This feature on the rate of exchange for various forms of currency in the science-fiction world.

Galactic Standard Credits, the money used by the Republic and the Imperial regime in Star Wars. It’s a remarkably stable currency, having expeirenced no inflation whatsoever over a 4,000 year period. Eat your heart out, Allen Greenspan!

Exchange rate: I’m guessing about $0.50 to the GSC. Luke Skywalker got just 2,000 credits for his worn-out land speeder, which is also what Han Solo charged for passage to Alderaan. A hyperspace-capable starship costs a bit more than 10,000 GSCs.

So what did we learn? Well, apparently I got ripped off when I bought my Hyundai for the same price as a pair of landspeeders. sigh

 

‘Battlestar Galactica’ Books Its Final Trip

  • News
  • February 9, 2008

The Sci-Fi network announced the fourth and final season of Battlestar Galactica will begin on Friday, April 4th at 10 PM Eastern and Pacific, preceded, as usual, by a couple of half hour specials to remind viewers of what’s been going on.

Oddly enough, these specials will feature the likes of Robot Chicken‘s Seth Green and The Soup’s Joel McHale.

This new incarnation of Galactica, which rose phoenix-like out of the cold and deservedly piss-on ashes of the Lorne Greene series affectionately known to Baby Boomers as Battlestar Ponderosa, has won all kinds of awards, including an Emmy and a Peabody. Earlier this winter, Razor, an all-new direct-to-DVD Battlestar movie, hit the shelves. It was a rare thing: a continuity implant that actually worked.

No word on if the Galacticans actually discover Earth and, if so, if they’ll be treated as illegal immigrants.

Spooks Goes Online

  • News
  • January 30, 2008

Supernatural investigations are big in comics these days. From Perhapanauts to B.P.R.D., readers can’t seem to get enough of teams-investigating-scary-stuff stories. Add another to the mix with the upcoming launch of Spooks from Devil’s Due Publishing.

Before the series goes on sale next month, fans can check out preview pages, character profiles, creator interviews and more on the shiny, new Spooks website.  

According to the site, Spooks is about the agents who work for the Department of Supernatural Defense, which "recruits, arms, and deploys sepcially trained forces based within the nation’s borders in support of national security …. to keep the country free of supernatural enemis, whether their origins are domestic, international or otherworldly." 

Spooks is written by Ryan Schifrin and Larry Hama.  Schifrin produced and directed the film, Abominable, for the Sci-Fi Channel, and also served as musical consultant for Rush Hour and Rush Hour 2.  Hama worked on some of the most influential comics of all time, including Wolverine, G. I. Joe, Mort, The Dead Teenager and others.  

The art is by Adam Archer and Jonny Rench (Friday the 13th). Covers are by Greg Staples and Adam Archer, Federico D’Allesandro, Bill Sienkiewicz and Drew Strewzan.

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