Articles by mike-gold
Mon Nov 26, 2007 — by Mike Gold
Raiders of Lost Knowledge, by Mike Gold
Whizzy's Wazoo #42
A couple weeks ago, Linda and I were at the Norman Rockwell Museum for the opening of their graphic novels exhibit. If you can get to Stockbridge Massachusetts before the end of May, I highly recommend it. Even if you can’t get there by then, I highly recommend the Museum.
Well, I think I managed to break my record. I actually went off-subject in my very first paragraph. When I read this online, ten days from now (I’m writing ahead because I’ll be at the Mid-Ohio Con), I will really be embarrassed. But, again, I digress.
We were there at the invitation of the Museum and of Mark Wheatley and Marc Hempel. We did a graphic novel called Breathtaker, which was both published by and loathed by DC Comics. Joke’s on you guys: we were at the Rockwell. Anyway, it seems I’m digressing once in each paragraph. I promise I’ll be more linear.
Dave Sim, of Cerebus fame, was among the dozen or so honorees. Well deserved; he’s possibly the only single cartoonist to pull off a 6,000 page graphic novel. Dave, Linda and I got into a lengthy conversation about the medium and its future – occupational hazard, that – and in the course of discussion Dave suggested it was possible – possible, mind you – that it takes a higher level of intelligence than average to be attracted to the graphic storytelling medium (I think Dave called it “comics”). The Simpsons’ Comic Book Guy isn’t the exception, he may be the rule. And I’ll admit that most of the Mensa people I know are into comics, but that’s probably because a lot of comics people I know were in Mensa. And most of them couldn’t get laid there, either.
But we, as a micro-society deviant or otherwise, do seem to have a thirst for knowledge. So, with the kind permission of our DVD Extras columnist Ric Meyers, I can highly recommend the Young Indiana Jones DVD box sets. Not so much for the teevee movies contained therein, which I rather liked even though they lacked the action and pacing of the theatricals, but for the documentaries. The first box set (of two) contained 12 discs and some 38 documentaries, each running about 15 to 30 minutes.
Mon Nov 19, 2007 — by Mike Gold
Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, and the High Price of Irony, by Mike Gold
Whizzy's Wazoo #41
Last Thursday, Alex Rodriguez signed a 10-year contract in excess of a quarter billion dollars that allows him to continue working for the New York Yankees, a team about which, in the interest of full disclosure, I couldn’t care less. A couple hours later, the government indicted San Francisco Giants player Barry Bonds for lying to a grand jury.
That’s a nice slice of irony. When Rodriguez “quit” the Yankees he announced his decision during the final game of the World Series, effectively destroying the momentum of the business’s most holy event – particularly if you’re from Boston. Still, it was bad form and I enjoyed seeing those chickens come home.
So now A-Rod (not to be confused with L-Ron or Kal-El) gets a nice locker at the new Yankee Stadium. But what goes around comes around and then goes around again: part of Rodriquez’s deal is that he gets all kinds of bonuses for accomplishing major feats that will inure to the financial benefit of his employer. Among these is breaking Barry Bonds’ home run record. I love irony.
That’s just become a whole lot easier. Bonds is without a contract and is now, effectively, unemployable. Like Willie Mays, he’s now standing still and breaking his record is much easier. Not that A-Rod doesn’t already have enough money to buy Mongo air-turf from Prince Vulcan, but still, we probably won’t have to worry about asterisks for very long.
While still wallowing in the synchronicities of irony, I listened to Dave Ross’s editorial on CBS Radio. Dave pointed out that Bonds is over 18 and if he wants to pump dangerous drugs into his veins, that’s his right. Dave lives in Seattle; they think like that up there. If it violates the rules of Major League Baseball, that’s the business of Major League Baseball and not our courts. He lied to a grand jury in 2003? It didn’t physically harm anybody except himself and gamblers. If a grand jury looked into lies that actually harmed people in 2003, Dave pointed out, they wouldn’t have any problem finding people to indict.
Continue reading Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, and the High Price of Irony, by Mike Gold ›
Tue Nov 13, 2007 — by Mike Gold
Mighty Marvel MONEY Society
Online thrills for $10 a month
They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. It's a shame they didn't get it right.
Several months after ComicMix started posting serialized new comics for free, several weeks after ComicMix started posting complete previously-published comics for free, and, what, about a year after Newsarama started posting Powers and Kabuki and other titles for free, our friends at Marvel Comics have started reprinting their classic fare online – for ten bucks a month.
"We did not want to get caught flat-footed with kids these days who have the tech that allows them to read comics in a digital format," Marvel president Dan Buckley told USA Today. "Our fan base is already on the Internet. It seemed like a natural way to go."
Well, Dan, welcome to the club. We've been saving you a seat for a while now. By the way, since you're charging so much money for all this, how much cash do the writers and artists get?
Mon Nov 12, 2007 — by Mike Gold
We're Going To Get Our Flying Car
Sort of.
Baby boomers have been whining about this since the turn of the century. Well, we're about to get our wish. Sort of.
According to Sharon Gaudin at IDG, we're about to get our flying car. Terrafugia Inc. is currently creating a prototype of The Transition, a 19-foot, two-seat "roadable light-sport aircraft" that is both road-worthy and air-worthy.
I know you've got to start somewhere, but the prototype kind of misses the point. "We're not going to have a flying car, as people think of it, for a while," chief operating officer Anna Dietrich told IDG. We don't have the infrastructure to deploy roadable planes. We need runaways instead of roads, and the FAA is likely to demand drivers have a pilot's license. Typical government buzz-kill crap. Actually, since you'll need a pilot's license and you're restricted to airport take-offs and landings, there's no real benefit to The Transition over traditional small airplanes which seat twice as many people, except you won't need to take a cab to the airport.
The flying car will be available in 2009; they've already taken orders for about 40 of them. This means there will likely be more Transitions in the air than there ever were Tuckers on the road. The machine will sport an anticipated price of $148,000; chrome detailing will be extra.
(Thanks and a tip of the hat to Rick Oliver.)
Mon Nov 12, 2007 — by Mike Gold
Coming Soon To A TV Near You, by Mike Gold
Whizzy's Wazoo #40
The television and movie writers strike is entering its second week. The picket lines are being staffed by more stars than there are in the heavens. The writers are looking for their fare share of DVD revenue – currently, approximately three to four cents per sale – and of commercial Internet action – currently, zilch.
Ironically, as teevee shows are starting to go on early hiatus, us folks back home are beginning to turn to DVD purchase and rentals to fill the downtime, lest our sets stare blankly back at us.
This one seems simple. If somebody is making money off of your work, you deserve a fair share of the action. Or even a taste. Anyway, something more than an insult. Collective bargaining is genuinely American; it mirrors the very values of fair play that we were all taught in school. Just like “socialized medicine,” there is nothing left wing or communistic about it – despite what some of our right wing politicians, corporate magnates and the liars at Fox News babble incessantly babble.
We need to look no further than the deposed leader of Disney, Michael Eisner. “It’s a waste of their time. “(The studios) have nothing to give. They don’t know what to give.” Oh, really? These clueless number crunchers who “earn” eight digit compensation packages strictly solely off of the sweat of the artistic community (writers, directors, musicians, performers – 90% of whom are largely or completely unemployed at any moment in time, et al) have nothing to give? How about starting with me, and give me a break.
Continue reading Coming Soon To A TV Near You, by Mike Gold ›
Sat Nov 10, 2007 — by Mike Gold
Joe Strummer and Selling Out
And Hawkman...
I was at the old Chicago Comicon back in 1989, walking the corridors of the old Ramada-O’Hare hotel with my old pal Timothy Truman when an intense fan grabbed Tim by the arm.
“How could you,” the fan said, and I paraphrase. “How could you sell out?” He sported a gaze of disappointment and hostility. Tim didn’t ask what he was talking about. He knew. He had started supplementing his income by working for “the majors” – at that time, DC Comics. Not that First Comics and Eclipse Comics were any less corporate with many of the evils associated therewith; DC and Marvel were just bigger and better at it.
“Hey, I wanted to do a tribute to Gar Fox,” Timothy replied, and I continue to paraphrase. “I liked doing it.”
The fan staggered off muttering about things like big business and working for the man and such. I’m about as Red Cat as they come in comics (with the probable exception of Mark Badger), but I understood one thing: if you want to work on a corporate-owned character, you’re going to have to work for the corporation, and (as Martha Thomases noted earlier today) by their rules. That’s how gravity works.
Wed Nov 7, 2007 — by Mike Gold
Batman Pisses Off Hong Kong
It's Universal, not Warners, that's green this week
Hong Kong is generally considered to be one of the most polluted major cities in the world. Its beautiful skyline is virtually invisible due to a permanent haze, and the water is so dismal that the producers of the next Batman film, The Dark Knight, killed a scene where Batman was to drop from a plane into the harbor because the water quality could pose a significant health risk to the stuntmen.
Well, now the shoe is on the other foot. The Dark Knight producers asked the owners of 60 buildings facing a waterfront to keep their lights and signboards on all night for a week to make for a more visually stunning scene.
For some reason, environmentalists went ape. The amount of energy that would be wasted by such a stunt would be insane in a city half as polluted as Hong Kong. "We welcome the filming of Batman in Hong Kong, but why do we need to keep the lights on to make the backdrop?" Green Sense project manager Gabrielle Ho told The Associated Press. "It seems like film-making is coming before environmental protection. We believe producers are able to create the same effects via post-productions works, but instead they are asking us to turn on so many lights, wasting so much energy," Ho concluded.
Tue Nov 6, 2007 — by Mike Gold
Aquaman Co-Creator Paul Norris, dead at 93
Also Tarzan, Magnus, Brick Bradford Artist
Artist Paul Norris died yesterday at the age of 93.
Along with writer/editor Mort Weisinger, Norris created Aquaman, one of comics' most enduring superheroes and one of only five to be continuously published since earliest days of the medium. A versitile and gifted artist, Norris also drew such major characters as Tarzan, Flash Gordon, Sandman, Secret Agent X-9, Magnus, Robot Fighter, Jungle Jim and – most notably – Brick Bradford, an assignment he maintained for 35 years. He continued to draw and make convention appearances until recently.
"I decided to color Aquaman green and orange, and the editors really liked that," Norris once said. "He's worn green and orange almost the whole time he's been around, and I still get royalties for every time they use those colors with him!"
Norris was one of the very last of the major golden age of comics creators.
Mon Nov 5, 2007 — by Mike Gold
The Rock IS Adam
That's Adam... Black Adam
Dwayne Johnson, the wrestler/actor formerly and yet forever known as The Rock, has signed on as Black Adam in the upcoming Shazam! movie. Not only does he look the part, he'll fill out the costume just fine.
Directed by Peter Segal (Get Smart, also co-starring the Rock) andwritten by John August (Corpse Bride), William Goldman (All The President's Men) and Bryan Goluboff (The Basketball Diaries) and co-produced by Michael Uslan (the Batman movies, Frank Miller's Will Eisner's The Spirit), shooting is expected to begin in about a year. Assuming the writers' strike is resolved by then.
Mon Nov 5, 2007 — by Mike Gold
The evolution of outrage, by Mike Gold
Whizzy's Wazoo #39
Running Press Book Publishers released a 1,200 page, 15 pound tome called The Completely MAD Don Martin
That means it upset our parents.
That function must necessarily pass from one venue to another. Mad pretty much owned that turf from its inception in 1954 until the mid-60s. It passed on to its own children: the underground cartoonists. They, in turn, begat Matt Groening. Remember when The Simpsons was going to bring down civilization as we knew it – you know, 18 seasons ago? Then Mike Judge and Beavis and Butthead were going to burn your house down. South Park was too obscene for late-night cable teevee. As Kurt Vonnegut (another candidate for this list) famously said: So it goes.
I first encountered Don Martin when I was eight years old: my sister had discovered Mad and I had discovered my sister’s comics stash. Whereas his artistic style was in the spirit of the time, sort of Virgil Partch crossed with Basil Wolverton, his intrinsic bizarreness leapt off the page and attached itself to my obdula oblongata. It shaped my worldview… which probably explains a lot.
The feature was called “The Paper-Pickers” and it was about two sanitation workers picking up scrap in the park. One is a virtuoso of his craft who can spear paper with aplomb. The other is jealous. Why, I don’t know. The virtuoso is doing all the work; the other guy is just taking a walk on a nice summer day. But the competitive spirit prevails, and the also-ran flips out, spears the virtuoso to death and stuffs him in his refuse bag with a smile of evil satisfaction that would frighten Hannibal Lecter after a nice meal.
Fri Nov 2, 2007 — by Mike Gold
Mandrake Gestures Theatrically
King Henry VIII fits the bill
Lee Falk's Mandrake The Magician – arguably America's first costumed comics superhero – is headed to the big screen at last.
No, the Fellini version isn't being made; Fellini, like Falk, is no longer with us. But director Chuck Russell (The Mask, Scorpion King, Nightmare on Elm Street 3) will be doing one of those reimagining numbers, which probably means King Lothar will not be referring to Mandrake as "master."
More important – certainly more important to my wife and daughter – Mandrake will be played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers, star of Match Point and King Henry VIII in The Tudors. He replaces Criss Angel, whose career was seriously set back when he ditched Britney Spears in her time of need at the recent MTV awards.
Mandrake The Magician continues to be produced for newspapers, written and drawn by long-time Fred Fredericks, who has been drawing the feature since 1965 and assumed the writing chores after Falk's death in 1999.
Thu Nov 1, 2007 — by Mike Gold
Mystery Science Theater Returns
On Guy Fawkes Day!
Unusual is in the mind of the beholder. My favorite teevee shows of all time include such fare as The Prisoner, Fawlty Towers, and Boston Legal – unusual to some, but probably not to most ComicMix readers. If pressed, though, I'd have to say my all-time favorite show was Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Well, in television, as in comics, the word "was" is rarely what it once was. After 11 seasons and nearly 200 two-hour episodes (including one theatrical movie that remains a cable perennial), the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 are back.
According to Satellite News, this Monday, November 5th (Guy Fawkes Day, no less), November 5th, MST3K's parent company Best Brains Inc. will begin webcasting brand-new animated adventures of Crow, Tom Servo and Gypsy – the bots from the Satellite of Love and the only characters to survive all 11 seasons of the original show.
Wed Oct 31, 2007 — by Mike Gold
Wheatley & Hempel Work at Norman Rockwell Museum
According to a press release issued by the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA, next week will see the beginning of their latest exhibition, LitGraphic: The World of the Graphic Novel." Among the graphic novels on display will be Breathtaker, by Mark Wheatley (EZ Street) and Marc Hempel (Naked Brains).
The release:
Lions released from a zoo in war-torn Baghdad; a mother's battle with lung cancer; an American expatriate searching for her identity in Mexico- serious subject matter for any medium, but particularly so for a new wave of critically acclaimed and commercially successful long form comic books. In these illustrated stories, called graphic novels (a mostly grown-up version of the comic book), themes explored include culture, society, and current events, and topics range from heart-wrenching to thought-provoking to risqué. A fascinating new exhibition at the Norman Rockwell Museum, "LitGraphic: The World of the Graphic Novel," examines the history, diversity, and tremendous popularity of this phenomenon considered by many to be a comics renaissance. On view from November 10, 2007 throughMay 26, 2008, the exhibition features over 146 artworks by 24 contemporary graphic novelists and historic practitioners of this ever-evolving art form.
"Comics are a language- and it's a visual language," observes graphic novelist Mark Wheatley. "It cuts across cultural barriers and national barriers. The language of comics is something that a man in Dubai can understand as easily as a man in Chicago."
Continue reading Wheatley & Hempel Work at Norman Rockwell Museum ›
Tue Oct 30, 2007 — by Mike Gold
The Big Little Book Time Machine
Journey With Us Now...
I'll admit: I've got a thing for self-published fan projects. Nothing shows fannish commitment better than these books, and over the years a wealth of encyclopedic information about our culture has been gathered in such efforts.
Once upon a time, there was a whole category of comic books that measured just a couple inches wide but were about a full inch thick. Actually, they weren't really comic books – they were illustrated fiction. But many, if not most, featured comics characters such as Popeye, Dick Tracy, and Flash Gordon – complete with illustrations often by the creators and their studios. They were called Big Little Books – BLBs – and were highly collectible. And so they remain.
A fan named Larry Lowery has self-published a fantastic reference book on BLBs, with great cover repros and every detail you can imagine. The 400 page compendium lists all the Whitman BLBs and peripherals related to Big Little Books from 1932 through 1980, as well as similar publications by Dell, Saalfield, Lynn, 5-Star, and such. It's a great reference book for serious collectors with photos of every BLB. Check it out here.
Thanks to our pal Dean Mullaney for the lead.
Mon Oct 29, 2007 — by Mike Gold
Of course A Is A, by Mike Gold
Whizzy's Wazoo #38
I finally got around to watching Jonathan Ross’s excellent BBC-TV documentary In Search of Steve Ditko and I’ve gotta tell you, this week’s Wazoo is going to be about one-third disclosures.
Disclosure #1 – I know Jonathan Ross. I gave him his first tour of DC Comics. At the same time, Karen Berger was giving Neil Gaiman a tour. Jonathan is a major teevee star out in Britain but was largely unknown in the States at the time. A long, long time comics fan (he owned a London comics store with Rolling Stone correspondent and seminal letterhack Paul Gambaccini), I think Jonathan was really into the anonymity of the tour… until we turned the corner and smacked into Gaiman. Being British and familiar with Ross’s work, Neil turned into a babbling fanboy. Being a comics fan, Jonathan was already a babbling fanboy. The two got along famously, while Karen and I were having a nice chat on the side. This connection actually becomes relevant anon.
Disclosure #2 – I know Steve Ditko. I love his stuff; all of it. We worked together on several comics projects, one of my personal fanboy highlights was standing in his studio in the then-lower rent portion of Times Square, and we’ve had lunch and dinner together on several occasions, usually with my pal and his frequent collaborator Jack C. Harris. We talked politics (go figure) and philosophy. In private, Steve was always free about his experiences at Marvel. This, too, actually becomes relevant anon.
One of the more interesting experiences I enjoyed was introducing Steve to Ross Andru. Both came into the business at roughly the same time and, coincidentally, both had drawn Spider-Man… although, of course, only one had co-created the character. Ross was as quiet as he was fascinating. He was well-versed on the Illuminati conspiracy, which was a favored topic of ours. I digress.
