Let us help you slide back after the holiday with a nice pile of new comics & DVDs to ease the pain – plus news on DC’s plans for the fall, George Lucas encourages to do you own STAR WARS sequel & a little ditty from a guy who had The Beatles as his opening act!
If you PRESS THE BUTTON – Rosie will never come back to THE VIEW – we promise!
The New York Times has an article about the new trend in comics of TV writers coming in and acting as producers, with the series development being more like what comes out of a writer’s room. Focus is given to Paul Dini, TV and animation vet and currently big kahuna behind Countdown:
Mr. Dini was a writer and story editor on Season 1 of “Lost” and a consultant on Season 2, and says that the same skills will come into play in the comics. “As a story editor in television, whether it’s live action or animation, I’m really the one responsible for the overall direction of the story,” Mr. Dini said in a telephone interview. In “Countdown,” he said, “each week I go over the beats of the upcoming issue with the editor and the writers.”
If new ideas arise, he amends the series’s outline before writing the script. He then reviews the final script before it is sent to the artist. Once drawn and given dialogue, it is reviewed yet again. “We have to make sure the tone is right and that we’re keeping the ultimate vision of the story line,” he said.
And of course we have an even more extreme example in Joss Whedon doing what he calls Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season Eight in comics:
The origin of the series is simple enough: “I had an idea for an eighth season and I knew they wanted to start the comic,” said Mr. Whedon, who created Buffy in a 1992 film that preceded the television series.
“I knew there wasn’t going to be another venue for it, so I started to work,” he said.
The series was originally planned for about 24 issues, but will now be closer to 40 or 50. Mr. Whedon is writing the opening story line, while other writers will step in for smaller story arcs, but everyone will be working toward an already planned ending.
“They all have my sort of manifesto, which I update constantly,” Mr. Whedon said. “And I’ll sit down with the writers so that I can fold their stories into the bigger picture.”
This control over the series’s overall vision is why he is billed as executive producer. “It’s a nonexistent title in comics, but it best fits what I’m doing,” he said. “Everyone goes through me. It doesn’t take as many people, but it sometimes comes as down to the wire to produce a comic as it does a TV show every week.”
Not mentioned is how the show Heroes is borrowing concepts back from comics production, with their Origins series coming out shortly.
Mr. Robert Joy, of DC Comics, informs me that Green Arrow and Black Canary are getting married this summer. Allow me to assume a Victorian mien and sniff, “About time.”
How long have they been “going together” anyway? I guess that depends on whether we’re talking about the first Black Canary, Dinah Lance, or her daughter, Dinah Laurel. I confess: I’m no longer sure who was involved with whom, or when, which may mean that senility is knocking at my door, or that the continuity has become a tad confusing.
Well, I am sure of one bit of Black Canariana, and that’s that the hot mama, Dinah Lance, the original Canary, was an alien – even more alien than Superman or the Martian Manhunter. At least The Man of Steel and the green detective from the red planet were of this universe. Not so, Dinah: In one of Julius Schwartz’s annual teamings of the forties superheroes, whose club was called the Justice Society, and the new superheroes, whose club was The Justice League, we saw Dinah’s husband, Larry Lance, die. So grief-stricken was the Canary that she followed the Leaguers into another dimension to insure that she would be free of anything that could remind her of her late spouse. I mean, think about it: another dimension! That makes Superman’s migration from (I guess) another galaxy seem pretty paltry. And the Manhunter’s trip from Mars? Another planet, not only in the same solar system, but one of Earth’s nearest neighbors? Pah! Hardly worth mentioning.
Those annual teamings of the superdoers of different eras is what’s really interesting (and, incidentally, the point of this blather, if it has one.) The reason is this: the stories ran over two issues. If you were born before, oh, say, 1966, you might be asking, so what? Because if you’re that young, you don’t remember a time when continued stories were rare. But until Stan Lee made them standard procedure at Marvel in the 1960s, they were next to unheard-of. The reason, someone back then told me, was that publishers couldn’t be sure that just because a certain newsstand had this month’s issue of Detective Comics, there was no assurance that it would carry next month’s. Comic book distribution was a hit-or-miss affair in which those involved paid attention to the number of comics entrusted to a given retailer, but none at all to individual titles. Funny animals, superheroes, wacky teenagers – made no difference. It was all just product.
How, then, was Mr. Schwartz able to perpetrate his annual continued stories? I once asked him this and his answer was that he just did it, and no one ever complained. Stan’s answer would be different. I remember that he said somewhere – in his autobiography? – that doing continued stories saved him the trouble of having to think of so many plots – and there, my friends, speaks a true professional!
I don’t think we’ve exhausted this subject so – you guessed it! – you can consider what you’ve just read as Part One, to be continued…
RECOMMENDED READING: God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
Batman, The Question, Iron Man, Green Lantern and/or Green Arrow, and The Shadow, as well as all kinds of novels, stories and articles.
Dennis O’Neil is an award-winning editor and writer of comic books like
Remember when I expressed surprise about the Silver Surfer quarters being retouched by the Franklin Mint, opining "one would assume the US Mint rather exempt from messing with our legal tender just to hawk a film" by 20th Century Fox?
Turns out I was right. According to MSNBC, the mint "said in a news release Friday that it learned of the promotional quarter this week and advised the studio and The Franklin Mint they were breaking the law. It is illegal to turn a coin into an advertising vehicle, and violators can face a fine."
The Franklin folks insist "putting the character on the coin didn’t alter the integrity of the coin," and say they didn’t mean to break the law. Isn’t that the Monica Goodling defense?
We’re in another cycle of teevee tie-in comic books. Right now we’ve got Transformers, Battlestar Galactica, several Star Treks (or is that Treks Star?), Xena, Stargate whatever, lots of Simpsons titles, Tek Jansen, and a whole lot more.
This happens every once in a while, starting from the time publishers didn’t know what to do when the superheroes stopped selling back in the late 1940s. It’s a bit of a role of the dice for them, as the licensing fees they pay are on top of their regular costs for talent, production, promotion, printing, and distribution. Generally speaking, you’ve got to sell a lot more copies to clear a profit and, on its best day, comic book publishing is not for the faint of heart.
I’m not at all critical of this. Whereas reaching for the licensed material might have been an act of desperation back in the 1950s – I mean, Marvel’s Pinky Lee comic did not fare well, running a mere five issues – today such ventures seem to work when nostalgia based: publishers are reaching for teevee properties that their readers enjoyed before, or at the same time as, they discovered comics.
Now as we all know, the Baby Boomers have a deathlock on our culture. “It was the greatest, it was the best, you people don’t have squat, your music sucks and there hasn’t been a good movie since The Godfather Part 2.” If you’re a GenXer, you’ve heard this way too much. If you’re a Baby Boomer, you’re probably a parent so please give your kids a break. Besides, they’re beginning to think The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again” is about the Bush Administration.
So where are the Baby Boomer’s nostalgic teevee comics? The Man From U.N.C.L.E. is about to get the DVD box set treatment. I know at least two-dozen writers (and I’m not kidding) who would give their eyeteeth to do that comic book.
What about Rocky and Bullwinkle? Oh, wait. That’s funny stuff. And we can’t do funny comic books, despite the irony of that statement.
How about Perry Mason? He’s been around forever. Books, stories, a soap opera and movies – and that was even before the teevee show that starred that guy from Godzilla.
The AP reports that Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi’s animated adaptation of her graphic novel about growing up during and after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, won the jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
Here’s the trailer:
According to the Associated Press, the Australian government says Warner Bros. will donate money to save the Tasmanian Devil from extinction.
The real animals — which don’t actually whir around in little tornados — are being wiped out by a contagious cancer that creates "grotesque facial tumors." Since Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumour Disease (warning: photos at link) was first detected in northeast Tasmania in the mid-1990s, more than 90 percent of the devils have perished. Scientiests estimate that within five years, there will be no disease-free population in Tasmania. It is hoped that the uninfected animals can be moved to island sanctuaries.
Paula Wriedt, who is Minister of State Tourism, Arts and Environment (talk about job-sharing!) said Warner Bros. will donate $1 Australian (about $0.82 American) from the sale of each DVD in a new series to be relasaed in Australia. The University of Tasmania will handle the donations.
"This partnership will go a long way to assist in raising funds, awareness and future opportunities to ensure the survival of the Tasmanian Devil," she said.
The AP says that a spokesman for Warner Bros. did not immediately return calls for comment on Saturday. It’s a holiday weekend, people!
Artwork copyright Warner Bros. All Rights Reserved.
The National Cartoonists Society handed out their 61st annual Reuben Awards at their dinner in Orlando, Florida this weekend. The winners of this
year’s awards are:
NEWSPAPER COMIC STRIP: Stephan Pastis, Pearls Before Swine
COMIC BOOK: Gene Luen Yang, American Born Chinese
GAG CARTOONING: Drew Dernavich
MAGAZINE FEATURE/MAGAZINE ILLUSTRATION: Steve Brodner
BOOK ILLUSTRATION: Mike Lester
NEWSPAPER ILLUSTRATION: Laurie Triefeldt
TV ANIMATION: Craig McCracken
FEATURE ANIMATION: Carter Goodrich
GREETING CARD: Carla Ventresca
ADVERTISING & ILLUSTRATION: Tom Richmond
EDITORIAL CARTOON: Mike Ramirez
NEWSPAPER PANEL CARTOON: Hilary Price, Rhymes With Orange
Bill Amend (Foxtrot) won this year’s overall Reuben Award. The Reuben was named after comic strip legend Rube Goldberg, creator of the wacky sequential invention strips, among many other features. Previous recipients have included Milton Caniff, Al Capp and Alex Raymond.
Artwork from yesterday’s Over The Hedge by Michael Fry and T Lewis. All rights reserved.
Via Colleen Doran, your video clip of the day, United 300:
If you’re wondering where they got the budget, this was featured on the MTV Movie Awards.
Hope you’re having a terrific Memorial Day weekend, at least in the US; readers from elsewhere in the world must content themselves with, we hope, lovely spring or fall weather. Regardless, what better way to while away a lszy Sunday than with a week of ComicMix columns?:
Of course, for your listening pleasure we present Mellifluous Mike Raub‘s most recent podcasts:
Hope your memories of this weekend are happy ones!
Columns / Glenn Hauman / News
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