Articles by mike-gold
Mon Nov 2, 2009 — by Mike Gold
Only 1,000 Comic Books?
Review: 1000 Comic Books You Must Read, by Tony Isabella
1,000 Comic Books You Must Read
By Tony Isabella
Krause Publications, 272 pages. $29.99 retail.
I want to publicly thank Tony Isabella for taking on a task that is as courageous as it is, well, thankless. It’s hard to imagine a more difficult and a more controversial chore than recommending only 1000 comic books you must read.
This shows you how clever Tony is. First of all, he recruited over 130 people to make suggestions, including me as well as a good chunk of the state of Ohio – past and present (Harlan Ellison and Maggie Thompson are and will always be honorary Ohioans). Second, instead of arranging them numerically, an act that would guarantee his assassination at the 2010 Mid-Ohio Con (although this would make for a good panel), he arranged everything by decade. Brilliant.
This book is, above and beyond everything else, great fun. There are hundreds of books you’d expect, and even more that you might not. Of those, the ones you’ve read will make you go “oh, sure, of course.” Those you haven’t read – probably the awesome Jingle Jangle Comics, or Dick Briefer’s Frankenstein – you should. Don’t worry: the way stuff’s being reprinted, it’s just a matter of time.
Each choice is covered by the appropriate publishing and talent credits as well as a nice clean reproduction of the cover, along with Tony’s accompanying paragraph explaining what and why. To his overwhelming credit, Tony does not emphasize superheroes and heroic fantasy – Archie, Harvey, and Charlton get their due, and the various genres such as humor, children’s, and romance are well-covered.
The tome is well-designed and not the least bit pompous. When Tony told me he had taking on this project, he headed me off by saying he was, obviously, crazy. Well, having poured over 1,000 Comic Books You Must Read, I’ve got to say “not so much, Tony. Maybe just a little bit.”
You’ll love it. It’ll make an excellent holiday present.
For any holiday. Go buy it
Fri Oct 16, 2009 — by Mike Gold
George Tuska, 1916 - 2009
One of the last of comics' first generation
Pioneer comic book and newspaper strip artist George Tuska died yesterday at the age of 93.
It’s hard to imagine an artist with a greater pedigree. Beginning in 1939, George worked on such features as The Avengers, Black Terror, Buck Rogers, Captain America, Captain Marvel (both Fawcett and Marvel), Challengers of the Unknown, Doc Savage, Green Lantern, The Hulk, Iron Man, Justice League of America (a.k.a. “The World’s Greatest Superheroes” newspaper stip), Luke Cage, Planet of the Apes, Scorchy Smith, Sub-Mariner, Superboy, Superman, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, Teen Titans, Uncle Sam… and that merely scratches the surface.
George was a gentle man who once had taken the extraordinary step of punching out well-known wiseass cartoonist Bob Powell while working in the Eisner-Iger shop. Will Eisner said Powell, as brilliant an artist as anybody in that hallowed shop, absolutely deserved it. The stuff of legend.
On a personal note, George was drawing the Buck Rogers newspaper strip during its final years, from 1959 to 1967. During that last year, I was an unpaid intern at the National Newspaper Syndicate and was allowed to contribute story concepts and ideas. As a 16 year-old, I was amazed and thrilled to be working anywhere near George Tuska.
Sun Oct 11, 2009 — by Mike Gold
Marge Simpson's Naked Truth!
TV Cougar Goes Print
Why hasn't Marge Simpson done a Playboy fold-out? Easy: from the tip of her toes to the top of her head, she's just too tall.
But at least the fabled "Magazine For Men" is doing a pictorial on the teevee queen. And it's a cover story, to boot. She's legal, having had three children and a show that's run for two decades.
Hopefully, this will lead to a continuing presence for the blue haired actress in the struggling magazine. It's been quite a while since Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder's Little Annie Fanny had any real exposure; perhaps Marge can fill the gap.
Although, personally, I'm holding out for Turanga Leela. There's something about that eye...
Fri Oct 9, 2009 — by Mike Gold
Six Great Doctor Who Moments
The Returh of the ComicMixSix!
As we brace ourselves for the new Doctor Who specials, the return of Sarah Jane Adventures, and Matt Smith's first season, here's a little gasoline to pour on the fan-fire – my take on the six top moments on Doctor Who.
6. Quiet Time
There’s a great moment in the Doctor Who teevee movie, one that we had rarely seen (if ever) in the original series: the Doctor, in this case Doctor Seven, quietly sitting in the TARDIS in his comphy chair, reading a book. Of course, drama being what it is he quickly gets, well, killed. Fatally. And then begins a difficult regeneration into Doctor Eight. That wasn’t the worst thing that confronted him: he had to face Eric Roberts as the Master. He, and his series of proposed telemovies, was doomed.
5. The Ears Have It
There’s this great moment in Rose, the first of Doctor Nine’s shows where Christopher Eccleston stops the action when he crosses a mirror in the TARDIS. He peers into the mirror, thinks he’s kind of good looking, but he’s not too sure about those ears. In one stroke, Russell T. Davies established the Doctor had just reincarnated and, therefore, the fight that destroyed the other Time Lords had “just” happened (however one defines “just” in time travel) while, at the same time, revealing quite a lot about this new Doctor’s personality. Nice moment.
4.
The One and Phony Master
Stephen Moffat is the current Doctor Who showrunner and, along with Davies, the most significant writer of the new series. But between this series and the original, the BBC aired a wonderful “Doctor Who” episode called The Curse of Fatal Death. It was a charity fundraiser ten years ago, a brilliant parody, and the Who debut of writer Moffat. It featured no less than five new Doctors – played, sequentially, by Rowan Atkinson, Richard E. Grant, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant and Joanna Lumley – and one stellar Master: the gifted stage and film performer, Jonathan Pryce. Had one of those movie projects ever gotten off the ground, he would have been perfect in the role and might have given Delgado a run for his money. It isn’t easy being menacing in such a broad parody, and it is to the credit of both Pryce and Moffat that it comes off.
Fri Oct 9, 2009 — by Mike Gold
King Kong For Sale - Really!
Will beauty buy the beast?
Christie's auction house in London will be auctioning the 22-inch, well, action figure of King Kong used in the filming of the movie of the same name. In specific, the little guy was used in the Empire State Building scene at the end of the movie.
"Oh, no, it wasn't the airplanes."
Only the metal part (see right) survives; the cotton/rubber/latex/rabbit's fur "clothing" rotted off years ago. The auction will happen around Thanksgiving; I'll bet lots of well-heeled Hollywood moguls have aliases bidding on the trophy.
Fri Oct 9, 2009 — by Mike Gold
Comics Legend Jules Feiffer Reunites With Norton Juster
The Odious Ogre at the Phantom Tollbooth?
Jules Feiffer
Now that a half century has passed, Feiffer and Juster are finishing up their second project together. Titled The Odious Ogre, it is scheduled to be released by Scholastic Books next year at this time.
Feiffer told Publisher's Weekly he’s had a blast. “The one thing I will say is that, in relation to the other characters, he is possibly the biggest ogre in captivity,” Feiffer said. “He was great fun to draw, though—more fun for me than for the ogre.” He did the illustrations in pen and ink brush with colored markers, gouache “and anything else I could think of. It’s my new way of working, which I love.”Feiffer and Juster are planning their third collaboration for release in 2060.
Thu Oct 8, 2009 — by Mike Gold
Oeming & Wheatley's Mortal Gods Debuts In Baltimore!
Latest graphic novel from IDW/ComicMix
The long-awaited graphic novel Hammer Of The Gods: Mortal Enemy
Furthermore, the remaining 70 copies of the Lone Justice ashcan edition will also be available. Serialized here on ComicMix, Lone Justice will begin its ten-part run from IDW/ComicMix in December.
The Baltimore Comic-Con will be this Saturday and Sunday at the mammoth Baltimore Convention Center along the waterfront.
"We've received tremendous fan feedback from the online incarnation of Lone Justice: Crash, and I really enjoy the immediacy of it," Wheatley said. "This ashcan is the first time any of this material will see print, and that brings an excitement all its own." TInnell will also be at the Comic-Con, joining Oeming and Wheatley at the Insight Comics booth.Lone Justice: Crash! is the second time Wheatley and Tinnell have teamed up for a ComicMix serialization. Their first effort, EZ Street, the tale of two creative brothers, was nominated for a Harvey Award. It also contained a comic-within-a-comic aspect, as it featured Lone Justice as one creation of its central characters. Despite the obvious connection between the tales, however, both graphic novels can be enjoyed entirely independently from the other.
Being a superhero isn't just dangerous work, it's also very expensive. Imagine a recession-era Batman without Bruce Wayne's fortune or Iron Man without Tony's Stark's billions. Their respective crime-fighting enterprises would be very different - or perhaps all together grind to a halt - if their money was to simply disappear. Just like many Americans in the past year, that's exactly what has happened to Lone Justice, the pulp-style action-adventure hero created by Wheatley (Breathtaker, Mars) and writer Robert Tinnell (Feast of the Seven Fishes, Sight Unseen). Our hero experienced the devastating financial loss of the Great Depression, but he didn't lose his drive to keep fighting crime...regardless of the consequences.
"Given our title, Lone Justice: Crash!, it was difficult to resist calling this the Lone Justice: Crashcan, but life is confusing enough as it is," Wheatley laughed. "So, c'mon by the booth and pick up of the Lone Justice: Crash! Ashcan!"
Fri Oct 2, 2009 — by Mike Gold
It's No New Comics Week
Oh Christmas/New Years, Where Is Thy Sting?
Back in the days before direct sales and specialty shops overwhelmed comic book sales, you couldn't find a new comic book on the newsstands to save your soul. The theory was, nobody buys magazines between Christmas and New Years Day, and even now "weekly" magazines like Time and Newsweek skip that week. The fact was, the newsstand distributors and shippers thought that would be a swell week to take off, so they did.
Well, those sing-along days are back. Diamond will not be shipping anything the week of December 30, 2009. Nada. Zippo. Nothing.
There's a bit of a difference between modern times and those thrilling days of yesteryear. Maybe the old mom and pop stores could survive selling Brylcream and Ipana, or maybe they'd take the week off as well. But today's comics shop owners can't afford to close down that week – yes, comic book selling is that marginal a business – and they've still got to pay the rent.
Expect a lot of in-store post-Christmas sales, which might be lucrative for those retailers whose customers get cash as holiday presents.
Tue Sep 29, 2009 — by Mike Gold
Legend Irwin Hasen Creates Graphic Novel
What will you be doing when you're 91?
The legendary Irwin Hasen, co-creator of DC’s original
Wildcat who is best known for his work on the classic newspaper comic strip Dondi, has written and drawn a 128-page
graphic novel. Not bad for a guy 91 years old.
Loverboy, which purports to be something of a dramatized autobiography, will be released by Vanguard Publishing in December. Joe Kubert and Neal Adams contributed cover blurbs; Irwin has been a teacher at the Kubert School.
In addition to Wildcat and Dondi, Hasen had been a regular contributor to the golden age versions of Green Hornet, Green Lantern, The Flash and Justice Society of America, among many others.
Tue Sep 29, 2009 — by Mike Gold
Robot Chicken Goes Jughead
Probably Won't Need To Be Bleeped, Though
Archie Comics is perhaps the most innovative publisher
around these days, although for many comics fans they’re beneath the radar.
That’s a shame; folks are missing out on some great stuff.
Some fans are aware of their New Look digest books (“Ultimate Archie”?), and Mike Uslan’s Marriage of Archie and Veronica has made headlines. For me, well, I’m looking forward to their upcoming crossover with the 1950s/60s Archie Comics characters: Cosmo the Merry Martian, Super Duck, Seymour and friends. But the stunt they’ve just announced is the most provocative one yet.
Tom Root, co-head writer/ co-producer of Robot Chicken and co-creator/executive producer of Adult Swim’s new Titan Maximum parody series, is writing the 200th issue of Jughead. Yeah, that’s volume two of Jughead; you know how comic book numbering goes these days.
Both Robot Chicken and Titan Maximum are, to put it politely, hardly family fare… unless your family has the name “Manson” in it. The Adult Swim broadcasts are heavily bleeped – the DVD releases are not – and they tend to be quite violent and, dare I say it, irreverent. Oh, and extremely funny. Which probably tells you more about me than you wanted to know.
The story, “Something Ventured, Something Gained,” starts out with Jughead trading his, ahh, metabolism to a witch for a mega-cheeseburger. Bizarre wackiness ensues: Archie tries to cut a deal to trade the witch his awesome wholesomeness to restore his best friend to normalcy, Betty and Veronica try to cut a deal to restore Archie’s purity, and so on. All the while, Jughead actually gains weight!
It probably would have been easier for the Riverdale crew to just drop a dime on Sabrina, but hey, count me in! After all the mindless, in-perpetuity crossover events from DC and Marvel, I can use a self-contained book-lengther!
Wed Sep 23, 2009 — by Mike Gold
Old-School Comics Art Gets A Lot Older
Still Another Era Ends
Remember Howard Chaykin’s American Flagg? Roy Crane’s Buz
Sawyer and Captain Easy? Alex
Toth? How about much of that beautiful black and white art in Warren’s
magazines Creepy, Eerie and Blazing Combat?
The one thing they all had in common – along with a hell of a lot of other great art – is the fact that they were drawn on Duoshade boards. That’s a certain rather expensive type of paper that allowed an artist to brush a developer solution over an inked drawing creating different types of horizontal lines for shading. Originally, they boards replaced the painstaking task of cutting and pasting the effect onto the original art. It allowed certain types of dramatic shading and feathering techniques (that’s a line that consists of teensy tiny lines, giving a softer edge to that line).
Note my use of the past tense.
Now Graphix, the company that makes Duoshade boards (as well as the Unishade boards, which is a similar type of stuff) has discontinued production because production has grown more difficult and costly to produce and demand as declined over the years. Younger artists use their computers – not necessarily a complete substitute – and many are unaware of the existence of the product.
Sadly, this comes at a time when the reproduction of comic art in America has never been better. In the past, some of these types of effects would close up or turn to mud. With better printing and better paper, Duoshade – when properly used – gave us some beautiful artwork.
Tue Sep 22, 2009 — by Mike Gold
Mark Millar To Rescue Superman After All?
Well, SOMETHING has to happen soon!
It’s no secret that top comics writer Mark Millar wants to
write the next Superman movie. He’s given lots of interviews, and ComicMix has run a whole bunch of news
items about this going back over two years. The story stalled when it appeared
such a move was not going to happen.
Now, maybe, yes.
It turns out Mark was misunderstood when it was reported Warner Bros. could not afford him. That seems logical for two reasons: 1) Warner Bros. can afford damn near anything, and 2) with the clock ticking loudly on their Superman movie rights and their miserable track record with this movie franchise, meeting the Wanted co-creator’s financial demands just might inure to everybody’s benefit.
Might. It’s Hollywood. No guarantees. According to Mark’s board: “I don't think I said they couldn't afford me now. If I did I was joking because writing Superman would be a massive payday so if I said that I was obviously laughing at the time. It's possible though as I like being glib.”
Mark had also stated "a very well-known American action director heard about my love of Superman, approached me and asked me to team-up with he (sic) and his producer to make a pitch." Hmmm... I'm sure Warner Bros. appreciates the consideration.
Of course, there’s no word either way as to Warners’ feeling about the matter. We should know soon. In the Siegel estate fight, the courts mandated Warner Bros. produce a new Superman movie by 2011 or lose their rights to one of their brightest corporate jewels.
Stay tuned.
Mon Sep 21, 2009 — by Mike Gold
Top 10 Comics of 5769
Heeb Magazine Has The Skinny
For those not in the know, Heeb Magazine is the cleverly titled magazine for mostly young
people (and me) of Jewish, and generally Ashkenazi, descent. It’s clever,
relevant, and not terribly religious. They regularly cover the comics scene; I
know of at least one comics shop that carries the magazine: Comix Revolution in
Evanston Illinois.
For the past several years, our friends at Heeb have been ranking their favorite graphic novels on an annual basis – defining “annual” by the Hebrew calendar. Ergo, here’s their Top 10 list for the year 5769. More info here at the Heeb site.
1. The Complete Essex County by Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf Comix)
2. Tales Designed to Thrizzle by Michael Kupperman (Fantagraphics)
3. Asterios Polyp by Dave Mazzucchelli (Pantheon)
4. The Alcoholic by Jonathan Ames & Dean Haspiel (Vertigo/DC)
5. Little Nothings Volume 2 by Lewis Trondheim (NBM Publishing)
6. A Drifting Life by Yoshihiro Tatsumi (Drawn & Quarterly)
7. Brat Pack by Rick Veitch (King Hell Press)
8. The Beats by Harvey Pekar, Paul Buhle & Ed Piskor (Hill & Wang)
9. Fut Miso by Michel Fiffe (ACT-I-VATE.com)
10. Masterpiece Comics by R. Sikoryak (Drawn & Quarterly)
Hmmm… Do you think we should tell them that John Gaunt is Jewish?
Wed Sep 16, 2009 — by Mike Gold
Review: Joel McHale and Chevy Chase in 'Community'
From Soup To Nuts
Well, thus far the new teevee season has brought at least one pleasant surprise.
Generally speaking, I don’t care much for sitcoms. They’re predictable, they’re sophomoric even by my standards, and they’re usually are littered with obnoxious children. But I checked out the pilot to NBC’s Community because I really like Joel McHale and John Oliver, and I’ll admit to having some morbid curiosity about Chevy Chase.
The pilot wasn’t bad, with a few truly funny moments and some great performances. McHale and Oliver didn’t disappoint me in the least. But here’s what surprised me.
Chevy Chase turned in a first-rate performance, worthy of the reputation he gathered in the earliest days of SNL. He plays an aging businessman with the same sort of bewildering lack of reality he exhibited in Caddyshack. After a lot of redundant lame movies, this is classic Chevy Chase.
I think Community’s performers will hold the show together long enough to give the writing a chance to improve. Then again, it could go the way of most sit-coms and sink in the sea of predictable puerility. Community is worth checking out. Thursday, September 17, 9:30 PM EDT/PDT on NBC.
Wed Sep 16, 2009 — by Mike Gold
'Sarah Jane' Doubles Up!
And The Big ComicMix Doctor Who Reveal!
According to Doctor Who Magazine, the third series of
the BBC’s Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah
Jane Adventures will start up on Thursday October 15th.
This year the show will run twice weekly, on Thursdays and Fridays, and therefore conclude its 12-episode commitment in six weeks. The series runs two-part adventures, so one full “story” will run each week.
More significant, the two episodes which co-star (note: not cameo, but co-star) David Tennant as the Doctor will be broadcast right before Tennant’s remaining three Doctor Who specials.
So this is as good a place as any for ComicMix to bury the final line of dialog of Tennant’s final episode of Doctor Who. Therefore…
SPOILER WARNING!
