Articles by matthew-weinberger
Tue Oct 6, 2009 — by Matthew Weinberger
Monty Python turns 40: ComicMix Quick Picks for 10/6/09
Still slow going around these parts, but have these tidbits to keep you warm during the cold season:
- Not strictly comics-related, but the work of Monty Python is close enough to our hearts here at ComicMix that we'd feel remiss in not wishing them a happy 40th anniversary-- the first episode of Flying Circus aired October 5, 1969.
To celebrate, IFC announced it will air all episodes from the original Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch comedy series starting October 18th as part of the network's "Python-a-thon" week through the end of 2010. IFC has acquired all four seasons of the Monty Python series (45 episodes). IFC's "Python-a-thon" runs October 18-23 consisting of the original six-part docu-series Monty Python: Almost the Truth (The Lawyer's Cut) each night at 9 pm followed by a Python feature film at 10 pm and capped off by an episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus at 11:30 pm. Additionally, IFC will air all thirteen episodes from season one unedited and uncut through the end of 2009 on Mondays at 7:30 pm and Fridays at 11 pm. Seasons two, three and four will begin airing on IFC next year. - The Eisner-winning Marvel series Invincible Iron Man is getting new trade dress for the upcoming Stark Disassembled arc. The new design has been getting a lot of buzz for the same reason the series has: it's half past awesome.
- Cla$$war, a 2002-2004 comic from publisher Com.x about a supersoldier that goes rogue to expose the corrupt regime that created him, has been optioned for a movie by the same people who made The Surrogates.
- We don't normally like to put this kind of thing here, but this article on superhero Facebook status updates is sure to make any comics fan who's sick of turning down invitations to Mafia Wars laugh out loud.
- Joe Quesada informally announced that there's a sequel to the X-Men: Misfits manga coming from Del Ray this time next year in his weekly Cup O' Joe column at CBR.
Mon Oct 5, 2009 — by Matthew Weinberger
Superman's powers explained and DiDio on Outsiders: ComicMix Quick Picks for 10/5/09
It's been a slow few days in comicsylvania, so here's a roundup of the last few days:
- Stellan Skarsgård (Bootstrap Bill in the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy) joins the Thor cast. Says it all, really, especially since no one will say what part he's playing.
- A unified theory of Superman's powers. Warning: may blow your mind.
- Rob Liefeld turned 42 on Saturday. Hooray!
- From the inaugural Long Beach Comic Con: DC Comics executive editor Dan DiDio is the new writer on troubled team title The Outsiders, with Philip Tan on art.
- Also from LBCC (and the horse's mouth), Geoff Johns will be writing a Wally West backup feature for the upcoming Flash relaunch as well as the main Barry Allen-centric story.
- An all-new, all-awesome picture of Robert Downey Jr. wearing the Iron Man armor from the upcoming sequel has surfaced. The full pic is at the link.
Wed Sep 30, 2009 — by Matthew Weinberger
ComicMix Quick Picks: NY Anime Festival grows, comic sales hold, and Hugh Jackman doesn't stop the show
Get ready for a special
"still-recovering-from-fasting-on-Yom-Kippur" edition of ComicMix Quick
Picks. Yesterday was pretty busy, and here's a roundup of the stuff we didn't get to:
- New York Anime Festival attendance was up 16 percent from last year. And according to data from this past August, comic sales have held very steady, even through the econopocalypse. Are these signs of a recovering economy, or signs that our kinds of people just can't cut this stuff out of our budgets?
- Popular British football (that's soccer to us heathen Americans) comic strip Striker ended its 24-year run in British newspaper The Sun ended--without telling readers. Hilarity ensues.
- Marvel second-in-command Tom Brevoort explains why Alpha Flight seems to be unable to stick around for very long in their own series: "But when you drill down, the core concept of the series is based on geography, which is very limiting -- they're like the Avengers, but in Canada."
- Sam Rockwell, who's playing Justin Hammer in Iron Man 2, dropped some plot SPOILERS in an interview, if that's your thing. We'll say no more.
- Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig stopped a performance of their Broadway show "A Steady Rain" in the middle to chastise-- you guessed it-- someone who forgot to turn off their cell phone. After pissing off Wolverine and James Bond, it's a wonder the guy made it out of the theater alive.
- Heroes ratings continue to disappoint. Who wants to place bets on the exact date and time it gets canceled?
- Columbia Pictures just bought a spec script for a movie called Supermax, about a prison full of people with creepy superpowers. The problem is that they've also been developing Super Max, a vehicle for DC Comics hero Green Arrow, also about a prison for people with powers. Now, the rumor is that even if it gets a name change, the thematic similarities may kill the comic book-flavored movie in favor of the new one. How fair is that?
- Former Terminator Summer Glau has been upgraded from "Dollhouse guest star" to "Dollhouse regular cast." Joss Whedon's been wearing out his rolodex for the show's cast, huh?
Mon Sep 28, 2009 — by Matthew Weinberger
'Surrogates' underdeliver, Shuster and Ignatz Awards, and other ComicMix Quick Picks
Quick Picks for a slow Sunday:
- Today was former Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter's 58th birthday. Thanos was unavailable for comment.
- Comic book movie Surrogates flopped in theaters, earning only $15 million over its opening weekend--which is nothing for a big-budget movie like this.
- They announced the winners of the Ignatz Awards, given for achievement in comics and cartooning, at the Small Press Expo; and the winners of the Shuster Awards, given to outstanding Canadian comic creators, at the at the University of Toronto as part of the Word on the Street National Book & Magazine Festival.
Sat Sep 26, 2009 — by Matthew Weinberger
High school cosplay, 'Venom' movie, and the rest of the ComicMix Quick Picks
Quick Picks for 9/26/09
They're quick, they're...picked, they're the stuff we didn't get to today:
- The Venom movie may or may not be moving forward. Maybe. Well, they wrote a script. That they may not use. Exciting, right?
- A Minnesota high school encouraged its students to dress up as superheroes during their Homecoming week. At last, the LARPers weren't the only ones wearing capes to school.
- Today's comic book birthdays: Louise Simonson (Writer, New Mutants), who turned 63 and Tom Veitch (Writer, Star Wars: Dark Empire), who turned 58.
- Smallville and Dollhouse premiered to series lows. After Heroes' premiere fizzled, should we be getting worried about the future of genre television?
As always, this is an open thread. What did we miss?
Sat Sep 26, 2009 — by Matthew Weinberger
ComicMix Quick Picks for September 26, 2009
Freshly picked from only the finest and most pedigreed blog bushes, here's the stuff we didn't get to yesterday:
- Entertainment Tonight visited the set of Iron Man 2, and has video.
- The Chicago Tribune's pop culture blog, of all places, has a fun round-up of what Battlestar Galactica actors are up to these days. Highlight: Mark Sheppard (Romo Lampkin), by law, must appear in every scripted series shot in North America. You no doubt enjoyed him in "Burn Notice," "Leverage," "Dollhouse" and "Warehouse 13" (and those are just a few of his recent credits). Look for him next in the series premiere of USA's "White Collar" (Oct. 23).
- A quick update on the status of the Orphan Works bill. For those not familiar, the update itself has a good quick summary. It starts like this: In 2004, Google announced its intent to digitize all of the world’s 80-100 million books – and to make most of them commercially available as orphaned works. The plan has been controversial since its inception.
- TokyoPop has released their winter publishing schedule. February will see a slew of new releases, which is a good sign for the industry, right?
- There's not much else to report because everyone is at Small Press Expo 2009 or New York Anime Festival this weekend. Expect fuller writeups from us on these later.
What'd we miss? Consider this an open thread.
Thu Sep 24, 2009 — by Matthew Weinberger
ComicMix Quick Picks (in Six) for September 24, 2009
There was a lot going on today, so let's see if we can get these Quick Picks done in ComicMix Six words or less.
- A lawyer explains the Kirby lawsuit.
- Heroes ratings nosedive, its worst ever.
- Peanuts lookalike kids can win big.
- Daredevil movie reboot coming, no Affleck.
- Whedon confirms Buffy: Season 9 comic.
- Ghost Rider 2 wheelie-ing into theatres.
- Obama cover fad jumps the shark.
What was missed? Comments are open.
Thu Sep 24, 2009 — by Matthew Weinberger
ComicMix Quick Picks - September 24, 2009
If you need further proof that we here at ComicMix love you and want you to be happy, check out these, our Quick Picks of stuff we didn't get to yesterday.
- Tim Leong, former editor-in-chief of the late, great, lamented Comics Foundry, landed an excellent interview with Joss Whedon over at Complex.com.
- Yaoi Press publisher Yamila Abraham was arrested on drug and fraud charges. Abraham replies here.
- DC will be featuring incredibly adorable Lil' Gotham backups in upcoming Bat-family annuals. Seriously, they're so sweet they'll rot your teeth.
- Disney's revealed the timeline that led to the Marvel acquisition. It's very dry, but there's some interesting stuff in there.
- In today's comic book movie news, Dreamworks has acquired the rights to Xombie, the creator-owned Devil's Due zombie cop comic. This is not to be confused with Milestone's Xombi, last seen in Brave and the Bold with the Spectre.
Wed Sep 23, 2009 — by Matthew Weinberger
ComicMix Quick Picks - September 23, 2009
Presented for your approval are these, the stories we didn't get to yesterday.
- This year's Animation Supercon in Miami has announced it will host reunions of the voice cast for two of our favorite shows: Futurama and Pinky and the Brain.
- In today's inevitable Archie Comics news, Dark Horse has announced it will be publishing archive edition hardcovers of every appearance of the Eternal Teenager in chronological order, starting with 1941's Pep Comics #22, his first appearance.
- We got confirmation that Jack Kirby's heirs are also looking for a piece of the Spider-Man pie in their recent lawsuit against Marvel, despite the strong possibility that the King's involvement in Ol' Webhead's creation was tangential at best.
- An interview with Lauren Shuler Donner, producer of the X-Men movies, revealed that a) X-Men First Class will NOT be filming soon, as rumored, and b) she's cooking up several other movies starring Marvel's band of Merry Mutants, including X4 and a New Mutants adaptation, among others. This doesn't mean they'll all get made, obviously, but it's nice to know that they're working on it.
- And sadly, legendary illustrator Bernie Fuchs, known for his nontraditional and inventive compositions and striking color palette, passed away last week.
What else did we miss? Consider this an open thread.
Tue Sep 22, 2009 — by Matthew Weinberger
ComicMix Quick Picks - September 22, 2009
Here are some of the things we didn't get to on Monday, bullet-pointed for your reading pleasure:
- Alan Moore weighs in on Blackest Night in an otherwise interesting interview about the revival of Miracle/Marvelman, with predictable results and a huge fan backlash (as seen on the CBR Forums): "They didn’t need some upstart from England to come over there and tell them how to do comics. They’d got plenty of ideas of their own. But these days, I increasingly get a sense of the comics industry going through my trashcan like raccoons in the dead of the night."
- Crayon Shin-Chan creator Yoshito Usui was found dead over the weekend, the victim of a hiking accident.
- Archie Comics has signed a deal with CAA, a major Hollywood talent agency, to help expand its properties into other media.
- Webcomics luminary John Allison has launched his new comic Bad Machinery in the wake of his recently-ended Scary Go Round.
- Newsarama's got DC's full December 2009 solicitations, now with 100% more controversial Blackest Night spoilers (hint: read the solicitation for Green Lantern Corps).
Tue Sep 15, 2009 — by Matthew Weinberger
The DCAU Justice League returns in 'Crisis on Two Earths': UPDATED
Ain't It Cool News is reporting that the next direct-to-DVD DC Comics movie after the upcoming Superman/Batman: Public Enemies will be a new release titled Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, tentatively coming Spring 2010.
As you can glean from the title, it takes place on two different planet Earths: one protected by the Justice League, and one ruled over by the evil Crime Syndicate. When a heroic version of Lex Luthor steps over from that parallel Earth to ask the Justice League for help, a superhero fight breaks out. That last part is merely conjecture, but we'd put good money on it.
What we do know for sure is that Dwayne McDuffie, who masterminded the original Justice League cartoon and its Unlimited followup, will be writing the script, and that it'll feature an all-star voice cast, including Gina Torres (Firefly) as Wonder Woman's doppelganger Super Woman and James Woods (Ghosts of Mississippi, those episodes of Family Guy) as Good Lex Luthor.
The AICN article has the press release and full details, so go check it out.
UPDATE 9/17: Andrew Laubacher writes in comments:
Based on the image in the AICN article, this is NOT the DCAU Justice League. Hal Jordan is Green Lantern and Wonder Woman is wearing the costume from Lauren Montgomery's WONDER WOMAN animated movie. If you have some evidence for your assertion, please, give it up.
Well, everybody's officially locked down for comments while promoting the current release of Superman/Batman: Public Enemies. However, someone close to the production confirmed that this is not strict JLU continuity.
On the other hand, since this is dealing with alternate earths, things could be up for grabs-- and in fifteen years or so, we're going to need a "Crisis On Animated Earths" to reconcile this, New Frontier, Challenge of the Super Friends, Swamp Thing, WildC.A.T.S., Krypto the Superdog, and the Superman/Aquaman Hour.
Thu Sep 10, 2009 — by Matthew Weinberger
NYCC and NYAF Sitting in a Tree
We just received word that next year's New York Anime Festival and New York Comic Con are going to co-locate, with both conventions taking place October 8-10, 2010 in the Jacob K. Javits center in Manhattan. The full press release with all the details is after the jump, but here's a highlight:
“Our decision to co-locate NYAF with NYCC is the final installment of a strategic plan to place and sequence our pop culture events in a manner that best serves the needs of our fans and exhibitors,” notes Lance Fensterman, Vice President of the Reed Exhibitions Pop Culture Group.
“We are launching the Chicago Comic and Entetainment Expo (C2E2) in April 2010, and we have moved NYCC to a permanent October date, thus providing a spring and fall balance to these two key events which will remain in place as we move forward. Rather than create a third date for NYAF, it was decided a co-location would be better for anime fans, professionals, exhibitors, and partners. We spoke to attendees and exhibitors of both shows before making this decision, and everyone agrees that this will provide an opportunity for both shows to further grow and prosper.”
What do you think? Can these two conventions join hands and sing in harmony? And even more, what does this do to the plans of Wizard with their convention in New York planned for the fall?
Wed Sep 2, 2009 — by Matthew Weinberger
50 comics facts about the Class of 2013
Every year, Beloit College puts together a list of facts regarding the mindset of the class entering college this Fall—the Class of 2013. Their list, as always, is well worth a read, but this is ComicMix, and we’re here to talk about comics, by gum.
So as we get ready to send them off to college, we wondered: what constitutes the comics status quo for them? What’s normal to these kids born in 1991 (he asks, knowing that being born in 1986 puts him in largely the same boat)? So glad you asked.
- The guy who did the above strip had already ended his daily strip and retired by the time these freshmen started reading newspapers.
- There has never been a Miracleman (or Marvelman) comic published in their lifetime.
- They have no idea who Don Thompson or Carol Kalish were.
- Gambit has always been on the X-Men.
- Spider-Man was always married to Mary Jane... until One More Day.
- There wasn't a DC multiverse until the end of Infinite Crisis.
- Wally West was always the Flash, and his first sidekick was Impulse.
- Adam West has never been Batman—he’s best known as the mayor on Family Guy.
- Wolverine never wore a brown costume, and has always had a solo book.
- Barbara Gordon has always been in a wheelchair.
- Sandman has always been that pale-skinned goth guy with the hair.
- Batman has had three Robins: Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown, and Damian Wayne.
- Lex Luthor has always been a businessman.
- Image Comics has always existed.
- So has Wizard Magazine.
- New Mutants was a short-lived series from 2003-2004, until the recent relaunch.
- Hank McCoy's always been blue and furry.
- Elektra has always been dead.
- Frank Miller is the guy who did Sin City, and he never worked with Klaus Janson.
- There’s never been a character named “Streaky the Supercat.”
- The only composite Batman-Superman was a giant robot.
- The original Dove has always been dead.
- Thanos has always been searching for the Infinity Gems, so he can impress Death.
- Death has always been a goth chick.
- Jim “Rhodey” Rhodes has always been War Machine.
- S.H.I.E.L.D. has always stood for Strategic Hazard Intervention, Espionage Logistics Directorate.
- Kyle Rayner has always been a Green Lantern.
- Starman has always worn goggles and a leather jacket.
- John Romita. Jr. has always been known as a regular penciller for Amazing Spider-Man. John Romita, Sr. never was.
- Ghost Rider was Danny Ketch.
- Jean-Luc Picard was the first captain of the Enterprise.
- Cerebus the Aardvark was always a classic.
- Grendel has always been a Dark Horse title, except for that DC crossover.
- Cassie Sandsmark was the first Wonder Girl.
- Roy Harper was only known as Arsenal up until the current volume of Justice League of America.
- There’s never been a First or Eclipse Comics. Comico only did some of those soft-core Elementals books.
- There were originally four Justice League titles on the stands.
- The original Teen Titans were comprised of a de-aged Atom (Ray Palmer), Risk, Argent, Captain Marvel, Jr., Omen, Prysm, Fringe, Arsenal, and Joto.
- Julia Carpenter was the original Spider-Woman.
- The two Avengers teams were the East Coast and West Coast branches. None of this New, Mighty, Dark, Pet, and Caramel Covered.
- There’s always been a comic called Love and Rockets.
- The superhero cartoons of choice were Darkwing Duck and Fox’s X-Men. For live action, it was all about the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers.
- Kraven the Hunter has always been dead.
- Northstar has always been out of the closet.
- Kevin Conroy has always been the animated voice of Batman.
- Jim Shooter was the guy behind Valiant, then Defiant, and then he wrote the Legion for a while. Wait, he was at Marvel, too?
- Phoenix is Rachel Summers, not Jean Grey.
- Karate Kid was Ralph Macchio, and Ralph Macchio was the guy editing X-Men.
- There have always been Pulitzer Prize winning graphic novels.
- Disney never had a major successful comic book franchise.
What's yours?
(Alan Kistler and Glenn Hauman contributed to this list.)
Tue Sep 1, 2009 — by Matthew Weinberger
Disneyfication Wave, Plus One Day
So Disney is buying Marvel. By now, that's old news-- in Internet terms, anyway.
How big a deal was it? I don't think Marvel sent out a single press package today hyping their comics. Usually, we get two or three of them a day.
The Beat has an excellent roundup of what we do and don't know by now. But they don't say much about other reactions. So what does the Internet think? Twitter, as might be expected, has gone crazy with the #disneymarvel and #disneybuysmarvel hashtags. Reactions can be broken down pretty easily into three categories, in order of increasing rarity:
People Trying to Be Comedians
poohbear151: So is everyone ready for the spider-man/fantastic four/x-men/high school musical crossover event?
Professionals Trying to Be Comedians With More Success
Brian Reed (Writer, Ms. Marvel): "Face it, Tigger, you hit the jackpot!"
Stephen Wacker (Editor, Amazing Spider-Man): Y'know I never thought Cinderella and Prince Charming shoulda gotten married...hmmm.
Jason Aaron (Writer, Punisher Max): Can now officially have the Punisher target the entire cast of "Hannah Montana."
Jeff Parker (Writer, Agents of Atlas): Please, will someone draw MODUCK (NOTE: Ryan Dunlavey did, as did Chris Samnee.)
Warren Ellis (Writer, Astonishing X-Men): so I got this phone call from Joe Quesada and it was just the sound of him rubbing himself with money and now I am confused
(Broken Frontier has a strong round-up of other professional's reactions in somewhat longer form.)
People Who Might Actually Know What's Going On
C.B. Cebulski (Marvel talent liaison/editor/writer) Allow me to reassure you right now, guys, that Marvel's going to continue to produce great comic books the way we always have.
Joe Quesada (Marvel Editor in Chief) If you're familiar with the Disney/Pixar relationship, then you'll understand why this is a new dawn for Marvel and the comics industry.
Marv Wolfman: Because I was both the Editor-in-Chief of Marvel as well as one of the two founding editors of Disney Adventures Magazine, I've already gotten numerous phone calls, including one from Forbes Magazine, asking what I think about Disney buying Marvel. The easy answer is - nobody knows. Certainly I don't.
We'll keep more stuff coming-- we don't think this story is going away any time soon.
Tue Aug 11, 2009 — by Matthew Weinberger
Chicago Comic-Con Round-up
The Chicago Comic-Con ( or The Convention Formerly Known As Wizard World Chicago) was this past weekend, positing that you can never have too many comic conventions in one summer.
It shouldn't come as a shock that, this soon after San Diego Comic Con, publishers didn't have much to announce, but here's a quick roundup of our favorite news to come out of CCC, mostly from Marvel:
- Jeff Parker (Agents of Atlas) will write Thunderbolts starting later this year. (Link)
- "Assault on New Olympus" is the next major Incredible Hercules arc, and sees the Prince of Power leading a team of heroes, including members of both the Mighty and New Avengers, in an assault on Wall Street. A one-shot prologue will herald the start of the arc. (Link)
- Spider-Man and the Secret Wars, an in-continuity retelling of the original Marvel crossover from the perspective of everyone's favorite wall-crawler, will be a four-issue miniseries written by Paul Tobin (Marvel Adventures Spider-Man) with art by Patrick Scherberger (GeNext).
- From the X-Men Panel: Paul Cornell will be writing a five-issue Dark X-Men miniseries with art by Leonard Kirk, involving the return of Nate Grey, perhaps better known as X-Man. Moreover, Kieron Gillen (Beta Ray Bill: Godhunter, Phonogram) will be writing a S.W.O.R.D. ongoing series about the adventures of Agent Brandt, spinning off from Joss Whedon and John Cassaday's Astonishing X-Men run.
- DC's only real announcement sounds like a lot of fun: Batman/Doc Savage, written by Brian Azzarello with art by Phil Noto and a cover by J.G. Jones.
- Last, but certainly not least, the Comix4Sight auction was a smashing success, raising over $13,000 towards writer John Ostrander's glaucoma treatment costs. We're still waiting for the final tally of cash donations over the weekend, plus new photos of the art that was donated on
Did we miss anything?
