Articles by elayne-riggs
Mon Oct 15, 2007 — by Elayne Riggs
Who's Who for Hallowe'en
Scary yet cool Dalek mask
The Guardian reports on a "must-have" item among British children for the upcoming holiday season: a mask modelled on the Dalek-human hybrid which appeared in the Doctor Who episode "Daleks in Manhattan" and which "changes the voice of the wearer to the metallic scream of the doctor's mortal enemies." Parents everywhere will no doubt be thrilled.
The mask featuress two play buttons; the first activates a Dalek question, followed by Dalek Sec Hybrid's reply, and the second activates the Dalek Voice Changer Function. The product was mentioned in the context of many other TV-based toys available for Christmas which are expected to be best-sellers, but what about those who need to have it for Hallowe'en?
Never fear, it's available now, at least in the UK. Sure beats "Anna Rexia," if you ask me!
Sun Oct 14, 2007 — by Elayne Riggs
More fall classics
Your weekly ComicMix columnist roundup
Our readers aren't the only ones falling for ComicMix's new format. We Phase I-ers are really excited over Phase II as well; that handy-dandy Latest News search box has made doing these weekly wrap-ups easier than ever! And the powers that be aren't done tinkering yet! Here's what our columnists have offered you this past week:
- Mike Gold - Whizzy's Wazoo #35: Name Dropping
- Dennis O'Neil - The Four-Color Answer #35: Darkness in Four Colors
- Me - It's All Good #34: The Fifth Freedom
- John Ostrander - Off in the O-Zone #35: Obit the Living
- Michael Davis - Straight, No Chaser #35: The Fanboy Guide to Girls • Part 2
- Martha Thomases - Brilliant Disguise #26: (We Could Be) Heroes: Top Ten Rock Songs About Superman
- Michael A. Price - Forgotten Horrors #26: Cowpuncher cartoonist J.R. Williams
- Ric Meyers - DVD Xtra #20: Fantastic Up Creature – Rise of the Surf’s Comforts: #21: Hostel II Hostel
And don't forget to click on Mellifluous Mike Raub's latest Big ComicMix Broadcasts over there on the right!
Wed Oct 10, 2007 — by Elayne Riggs
ELAYNE RIGGS: The Fifth Freedom
It's All Good #34
Last week was the American Library Association's annual "Banned Books Week." What bothers me most about Banned Books Week isn't its concept, but its name. Even its proponents admit it's not about banned books, but challenged ones. Even at our country's most fascist periods (like, um, now), I don't believe our federal, state or local governments have actually banned books in decades, if ever. But apparently "banned" has a more alliterative cachet than "challenged" or "endangered" or even scrapping the misnomer altogether in favor of something like "Freedom to Read Week" which is more in keeping with the point of the event -- to "celebrate the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stress the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them."
Oh sure, lots of backwards-thinking people, the kind who usually believe every word in the Bible is true (rather than seeing the book as allegorical fiction and an interesting take on history by multiple authors, the way a lot of rationalists view it), seek to limit others' imaginations and freedoms and generally stir up trouble by whining in the courts about any piece of fact or fiction they don't like, from science texts to Harry Potter. And these attempts at censorship should be and are condemned and fought by patriots and book-lovers everywhere they crop up. Partly because of these efforts, no attempts have succeeded.
And yet, people's hobbies and even lives have been ruined by this repression. Even in our hobby, the CBLDF abounds with stories of comic shop owners who paid for a misstep or a failure to predict ever-shifting "community standards" usually embodied by the community's loudest kook.
Tue Oct 9, 2007 — by Elayne Riggs
Menagerie bows in theatres
Star Trek pilot cinematic event
Next month will mark the release of the remastered 10-disc DVD (and HD-DVD) set of the original Star Trek series, and the Trek publicity machine has been busy. We've seen an asteroid named for George Takei, both Takei and Nichelle Nichols appearing on Heroes (which also houses the proto-Spock), and the world will even witness William Shatner's upcoming receipt of the Jules Verne Lifetime Achievement Award in Paris in December.
But for some Trekkers, that just isn't enough. They need their own version of the Buffy musical phenomenon. And the powers that be are more than happy to oblige, at $12.50 a pop.
On November 13, the two-part remastered version of "The Menagerie," made using footage from the original ST pilot "The Cage," will be shown in select theatres throughout North America. The event will include an "in-theatre exclusive greeting from creator Gene Roddenberry’s son, Eugene 'Rod' Roddenberry" and of course the evening wouldn't be complete without the mandatory making-of-behind-the-scenes self-congratulations. Bear in mind, the "event content," as it's called, will be shown in its original (TV) format, 4x3.
Some of us are just looking forward (or backward, as the case may be) once more to a female Number One.
Sun Oct 7, 2007 — by Elayne Riggs
Phasing in with more to come
Our first week of original FREE comics!
Wow, it's been some week for ComicMix, and we appreciate all the kind words of support and terrific reviews we've seen so far! Please let us know where you've seen our comics discussed, we don't want to miss any feedback! In the meantime, here's your weekly wrapup of our regular columns:
- Mike Gold - Whizzy's Wazoo #34: Our Son Will Come Out Tomorrow
- Dennis O'Neil - The Four-Color Answer? #34: Plugging No-Face
- Me - It's All Good #33: The Girls of Summer
- John Ostrander - Off in the O-Zone #34: Genius and Barbecue
- Michael Davis - Straight, No Chaser #34: The Fanboy Guide to Girls • Part 1
- Martha Thomases - Brilliant Disguise #25: Every Picture Tells a Story
- Michael A. Price - Forgotten Horrors #25: Shock! Theatre, 50 years later
As you can see, Mellifluous Mike Raub's Big ComicMix Broadcasts are now all accessible right from our front page, so no need to recap them here any more; just scroll down on the right sidebar and there they are! In fact, it just so happens that all of the above columns can currently be accessed from our section entitled "More Comics News" at the bottom of our front page, mixed in with our news items. Can a separate column archives be far behind? Well, that would be telling, wouldn't it?
Thu Oct 4, 2007 — by Elayne Riggs
Bungie cutting the cord?
Halo 3 co rumored jumping off from Microsoft
On the heels of the phenomenal success of Halo 3, the rumors are flying fast and furious in the gaming world that Bungie Studios is about to separate from Microsoft.
The buzz apparently started with a gamer on 8Bit Joystick, citing the old standby, "A friend of mine who has someone close to them that works at Bungie..." and claiming Microsoft would retain the Halo property and let Bungie once more produce independent projects, listing among the proofs a search of the company's global address book and Microsoft's controlling nature. The rumor was then more or less contradicted at XYHD.TV, without the author getting around to flat-out denying it. Now it's being spoken of on larger sites like Game Informer and CNet as if it may be a done deal, even though everyone's still quite careful to use the "r" word.
Tantalizing food for thought includes "For an unstated, but significant amount of money, Bungie shareholders bought the studio name back from Microsoft" and "Microsoft was supposed to release the press release today [10/1] but if they wait till 10/6 the impact won't affect the quarterly results." So I guess we all need to stay tuned until Friday to see whether this rumor becomes fact!
Wed Oct 3, 2007 — by Elayne Riggs
ELAYNE RIGGS: The Girls of Summer
It's All Good #33
The summer of 2007 is well and truly behind us now. The regular baseball season has wrapped, culminating in the promise of the playoffs and World Series, new network TV shows have debuted and returned, and October ushers in a new era for many of us. For ComicMix it means Phase II, the actual raison d'etre for this site (and I'm psyched to be sharing Wednesdays with EZ Street). For me it signals an imminent lifestyle change as the day job I've held for the last ten years is about to disappear, a part of my life destined to become an unpleasant memory in the very near future.
This job has taken much out of me emotionally this last decade, snipping away at little pieces of my soul and memory that I feared I'd never recover. But now that things are taking their course and I feel like I'm about to be paroled, I find many of those pieces are starting to return. Robin's remarked that I remind him once again of the person I was when we met, the last time I was between jobs -- healthier, happier, more energetic and optimistic, closer to my true self. And I'm having strange dreams that mix the past and present, where I can almost recall things that I'd thought gone forever.
The other night I dreamt I was back in college, only I was the person I am today. And for some reason, my roommate looked exactly like Sarah Silverman. (I often dream about celebs for whom I have no particular affinity in real life; the pheme of fame, as Stephen Fry calls it, seeps into my subconscious remarkably easily.) And I remarked to Sarah, in between trying to divvy up the laundry and other mundane chores, that I was impressed by all the youthful enthusiasm around me. "I remember when I used to have that kind of energy," I mused. "Heck, back when I was a day camp counselor I'd run around all the time…"
Then I woke up, thinking about day camp.
Sun Sep 30, 2007 — by Elayne Riggs
Everything old is new again
ComicMix from the past to the future!
Only two days and counting until the next exciting phase of ComicMix debuts! Lots of familiar names with brand-new comics work, a couple of whom also double as regular columnists. Speaking of which, here are our contributions from the last week of September:
- Mike Gold - Whizzy's Wazoo #33: Enough Is Enough
- Dennis O'Neil - The Four-Color Answer? #33: On Writing Comics, Part Two
- Me - It's All Good #32: Still Life with Gadgets
- John Ostrander - Off in the O-Zone #33: Devil’s Advocate – Iraq
- Michael Davis - Straight, No Chaser #33: All My Children…Suck
- Martha Thomases - Brilliant Disguise #24: If I Could Talk to the Animals
- Michael A. Price - Forgotten Horrors #24: The folklore-into-fiction cycle persists
- Ric Meyers - DVDXtra #19: Bram Stoker's Ninja
Mellifluous Mike Raub is smoothly into triple digits with his Big ComicMix Broadcasts; here's what he's had for us this past week:
And Media Queen Martha Thomases has been previewing our comics offerings for the last couple of weeks; here's a compendium to get you up to speed:
- GrimJack - Every Tuesday (debuts 10/2)
- EZ Street - Every Wednesday (debuts 10/3)
- Black Ice - Every Thursday (debuts 10/4)
- Munden's Bar - Every Friday (debuts 10/5)
- Simone & Ajax - Every Saturday (debuts 10/6)
- Fishhead - Every Monday (debuts 10/8)
Hope you'll join us this coming Tuesday as we debut our free comics content by some of the industry's greatest luminaries! Did I mention free yet?
Sat Sep 29, 2007 — by Elayne Riggs
The farce is with them
Star Wars pets for a slow news day
Some may consider it cruelty to animal companions, some the ultimate tribute. As Hallowe'en approaches once more, Good Housekeeping, of all places, considers pets dressed as Star Wars characters. Sundance here is probably my favorite:
"I find your lack of cheezburger disturbing..."
Fri Sep 28, 2007 — by Elayne Riggs
Too good to Biel true?
EW reports Jessica a no-go on WW
This is why we're sometimes reticent to pass along casting call news. Everyone beleived Variety when they said that Jessica Biel's talks to play Wonder Woman in the upcoming Justice League movie were solid and the real thing and so on. We even found you a photo of Biel in a WW t-shirt to seal the deal.
But noooo. According to Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider -- and who better to know from things inside Hollywood? I mean, it's right there in the name -- Biel has given the role a pass.
So you know, we state all Obiwan-like, when we reported that she was in talks, it was the truth, from a certain point of view. It's like the old joke about prayers being heard: sometimes the answer is no.
But you know, it gives us an excuse to post another photo of Ms. Biel. This was one of the tamer ones from our Google Image search. We liked the outfit, reasoning that, if she isn't interested in Wonder Woman, maybe someone can talk her into Isis?
Fri Sep 28, 2007 — by Elayne Riggs
A new Starz is born in Canada
Tim Burton project the first from Toronto
With all the talk about the Canadian dollar reaching par with its American counterpart, now would seem the perfect time for a US animation studio to branch northward. Starz Animation Toronto officially opened this past Tuesday and is already billing itself as "ne of Canada’s largest 3D animation, effects and compositing facilities, and Toronto’s leading studio for breakthrough digital production."
The studio's first major project will be fantasy epic 9, based on an Oscar®-nominated short, co-produced by Tim Burton, directed by Shane Acker, and featuring voice work from Elijah Wood, Jennifer Connelly, Crispin Glover, Martin Landau, Christopher Plummer and John C. Reilly. As one might expect from Burton, it's a happy tale "about rag dolls battling for civilization's survival in a post-apocalyptic parallel world." It's slated to be released late next year.
The studio will also generate income through producing content for TV, commercials and live-action visual effects.
Fri Sep 28, 2007 — by Elayne Riggs
Baltimore comes to the big screen?
Goyer to direct, Golden and Mignola to write
Variety reports that New Regency has acquired the film rights to the illustrated novel Baltimore, or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire, drawn by Mike Mignola and written by Christopher Golden.
David Goyer, himself no stranger to the world of graphic storytelling, is slated to direct, and Golden and Mignola will be writing the screenplay.
The graphic novel published by Bantam "tells the story of the awakening of supreme evil on Earth. Lord Henry Baltimore is bitten by a demonic vampire bat on a WWI battlefield. The plague destroys his family, and Baltimore creates a team to hunt and fight the Red King, the embodiment of all evil."
Great to see that movies based on comic book properties are continuing to get greenlit, especially those properties not necessarily oriented towards tights and flights.
Fri Sep 28, 2007 — by Elayne Riggs
Costume contest in time for Halloween
Project Rooftop hosts 2nd annual challenge
The thing about superhero costumes is, you can get away with a lot of cheating. Costumes appear to stay attached by magic (particularly to areas featuring naughty bits), usually contain no wrinkles or folds, pretty much be painted on what would otherwise be nude bodies, because the characters wearing them aren't real people who actually move and have bodies which feature internal organs and such.
It's much trickier designing a streamlined, stylish superhero outfit to be worn by a living, breathing human being in motion.
But the folks at the superhero fashion site Project Rooftop have announced their second annual costume contest, entitled Fights, Flights and Tights. All you have to do, say editors Dean Trippe and Chris Arrant, "is wow us with a cool, original costume that redesigns a classic superhero or villain. Take some photos and send them to us along with your name, age, and website (if any) by October 21st, 2007." Winning entries will, as always, be featured on the site, with the grand priize being an original sketch of the winning design drawn by Trippe.
Presumably, Trippe and Arrant are counting on entrants not violating the spirit of the contest via photo manipulation programs.
Fri Sep 28, 2007 — by Elayne Riggs
Stumptown here we come!
Well, in spirit, anyway
This is the weekend! The fourth annual Stumptown Comics Fest will be held tomorrow and Sunday at the Lloyd Center Doubletree Hotel in absolutely gorgeous Portland, Oregon! Portland is a virtual hotbed of cartooning creativity, and the convention attracts lots of out-of-town luminaries as well, most of whom will receive spotlights during the show's events. This also marks the first year Stumptown will be holding an awards ceremony, which will recognize achievements in art, writing, design, DIY, small press and debut work. It looks to be very much the Northwest's version of SPX or MoCCA or APE, some great workshops and even parties lined up. We're totally jealous of you folks in Portland!
Thu Sep 27, 2007 — by Elayne Riggs
Halo everybody, Halo
No wonder Marvel's doing the comic
A videogame has set the all-time record for most revenue earned in a single day by any entertainment property. Any property. Ever.
That game, for anyone hiding under a rock, is Halo 3 by Bungie, a subsidiary of Microsoft. Who knew there were so many Xboxes out there?
CNet notes that the game "netted $170 million in sales in the U.S. in its first day. If true, that would top previous records set by the motion pictures Spider Man 3 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." Although you really have to divide the $170 million by $60 per, rather than by the cost of a movie ticket which, I'm informed, is considerably less.
Also, over a million players have logged on to Xbox Live to play the multiplayer version, Your news editor is not one of them.
