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Sun May 11, 2008 — by Glenn Hauman
Weekend Window-Closing Wrap-Up
The Mother's Day edition
Once again, a bunch of things that haven't quite generated a post of their own, but deserve some sort of mention...
- The must-have costumes for San Diego: your own powered exoskeleton, rentable for only $1000 a month-- and it'll make hauling boxes a lot easier too. But if you're on a budget, you can always go as the Bat-Signal.
- Now where have we heard this before?
- What makes a superhero comic? What, is this like Scott Adams's checklist on what makes a joke?
- The creatures in Andrew Bell's head.
- Some Hong Kong "entrepenuer" grabbed all the images from Darren Di Lieto's The Little Chimp Society website and published it into a 350-page book being sold online for $100. You can read more on this post in Darren’s blog. (Via Stuart Immonen.)
- Tom Brevoort was a teenaged moron. It's true, he was. And he's just showing the stuff from 1988-- you should have seen the stuff from 1983. On the other hand, I wasn't much better. But while Tom and I have gotten better, Laura Hudson is still evil.
- A story of love in the letter columns.
- The Flash is back... at the Metropolitan Museum of Art? This wasn't the Flash Museum I remembered... Now with extra photos of the gala event.
And before I forget... hi, Mom!
Sun May 11, 2008 — by Rick Marshall
Cracked's Creepiest Comic Book Characters
What, no mention of Krypto and his superpowered crotch-sniffing abilities?
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To be filed under "Hey! that's OUR thing, man!" Cracked.com recently posted a list of "The 6 Creepiest Comic Book Characters of All Time," leaving me wondering why they chose to make it a list of six characters. Why not five... or ten? "Cracked Six" just doesn't sound right, while ComicMix Six is practically candy for the ears.
But I digress...
Highlights of the questionably named list include Proty, the "sentient spunk blob" from Legion of Superheroes, and Comet, Supergirl's bestiality-minded superhorse.
Also, Comet periodically turns into a full human, at which point he does what any horse would do: Try to get laid with Supergirl before she can figure out he is really her horse.
The Cracked crew also gives a nod to Inner Child, one of Grant Morrison's creations during his Doom Patrol run, which seems like a cop-out, seeing as how 95-percent of the characters created by Morrison are pretty freakin' creepy.
Check out the full list at Cracked.com.
Sun May 11, 2008 — by Elayne Riggs
ComicMix Columns for the Week Ending May 11, 2008
Come to Momma!
Greetings from Asbury Park the wilds of New Jersey, where I'm visiting my Mom for Mother's Day! Hope all you moms out there are having a good one. Here are some loving presents we've given you, and every other ComicMix reader for that matter, this past week:
- Mike Gold - Whizzy's Wazoo #65: Name Dropping
- Dennis O'Neill - The Four-Color Answer #64: Wrath
- Me - It's All Good #64: What I Can't Write About
- John Ostrander - Tales From The O-zone #65: Them Bones
- Michael Davis - Straight, No Chaser #65: I Got Nothing...
- Martha Thomases - Brilliant Disguise #56: I Lost It at the Movies
- Michael H. Price - Forgotten Horrors #56: Child Brides of the Ozarks and Beyond
Hey, why not take your Mom to see Speed Racer today? After all, Susan Sarandon plays the protagonist's mom, doesn't she?
Sun May 11, 2008 — by Karl Cramer
'Star Wars: The Clone Wars' Trailer Now Online
The first trailer for the Star Wars CGI movie debuts
I don't know what's more weird: Seeing the Warner Bros. "WB" shield instead of the 20th Century Fox spotlight logo on a Star Wars film or seeing a Star Wars movie done in the style of the TMNT movie from last year. But the fact remains, the Star Wars: The Clone Wars is real and it's coming this summer, August 15, 2008!
We all knew that the Star Wars animated movie would take take place between Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith and continues with many of the characters and settings from Cartoon Network's Star Wars: Clone Wars cartoons. But the trailer dropped some new details on us. Renegades have kidnapped Jabba the Hutt's son. Obi-Wan had dealings with Jabba. Anakin returned to Tattooine. Anakin seems to have himself a young apprentice. Episode III isn't the first time Anakin caught up to Count Dooku. And Yoda is really, really cute when done in CGI animation.
To see the trailer for yourself, go on over to Yahoo's exclusive preview.
Sun May 11, 2008 — by Van Jensen
Stanford Class Creates Graphic Novel
'Shake Girl' explores history of Cambodian acid attacks
In what is being billed as the first full graphic novel to be created as a classroom project, a group of Stanford students this past year completed Shake Girl, a fictional story about a Cambodian woman who is attacked with acid as revenge on an affair.
The 224-page book came from a writing class taught by Tom Kealey, and signalled a new step in the advancement of graphic fiction into traditional college campuses. The San Francisco Chronicle has a nice long story on it.
"In a normal writing class, you'd write a poem or finish a chapter and you'd own it," Kealey said. "In this class, we had to collaborate every step of the way, every idea, and make compromises. It was the most difficult and rewarding class I ever taught."
While the study of comics and graphic novels has steadily become an acceptable part of college curricula - "Maus" creator Art Spiegelman taught a course at Columbia University last year - the project-based graphic novel class offered at Stanford appears to be the first of its kind.
In case you're interested in the project, Stanford has made Shake Girl available online, so click right here and grade it for yourself.
Sun May 11, 2008 — by Aaron Rosenberg
Happy Birthday: Sandy Carruthers
Of Canada and covert ops
Born on May 11, 1962 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, Sandy Carruthers remembers watching the Batman television series when he was only a toddler. He began drawing soon after that, and hasn’t stopped since.
Carruthers attended Holland College from 1979 to 1981, training in its Commercial Design (now Graphic Design) program, then studied illustration at Sheridan College in Ontario. His first job in comics was at Malibu Graphics and included Captain Canuck and what is still his best-known work, the comic book series The Men in Black (later made into the films Men in Black and Men in Black 2).
In 2004, Carruthers began the web comic Canadiana, which took a break but resumed in 2007. He has also done several graphic novels for Graphic Universe, illustrated several books, done a cartoon strip for the Guardian newspaper, and teaches at his old alma mater, Holland College.
Sun May 11, 2008 — by Michael H. Price
Child Brides of the Ozarks and Beyond, by Michael H. Price
Forgotten Horrors #56
Sixty-five years after a double-edged sword of a movie called Child Bride of the Ozarks professed to indict the custom of underage marriage – while courting a leering, voyeuristic audience, naturally – the issue remains urgent. Last month’s raids upon a polygamist sect in Texas demonstrate that such persistence, involving girls scarcely into their teens, belongs as much to the presumably Civilized World as to the more thoroughly well-hidden corners of the planet: The Yearning for Zion Ranch had hidden in plain sight, a Third World concentration camp, bunkered in alongside Mainstream Amerika.
Meanwhile in the Dominant Culture, a Florida-based plastic surgeon named Michael Salzhauer has published a cartoon-storybook testament to female objectification called My Beautiful Mommy (Big Tent Books) that purports to “[guide] children through Mommy’s [cosmetic] surgery and healing process in a friendly, nonthreatening way” – nonthreatening, that is, until one grasps the deeper message: Looks are everything, and you get what you can pay for. The greater objective would appear the preconditioning of a next generation of face-lift addicts: Better start saving up now, girlie, and maybe develop an eating disorder as a prelude.
So which sector, or sect, is the less civilized? The backwater zealots who propose to wait out the Apocalypse in round-robin conjugal confinement with “brides” young enough to be their granddaughters? Or the proponents of glamour-at-a-price?
Dr. Salzhauer’s idealized Beautiful Mommy, as pictured on the cover of that scrofulous little book, calls to mind nothing so much as an over-glamorized Britney Spears or Miley Cyrus, perhaps a Bratz-meets-Barbie: Never too young to aspire to such artificiality, never too old to lay claim to it, given a loaded checkbook. Photographs from the Yearning for Zion round-up suggest nothing so much as some 19th-century agrarian-society re-enactment, but the forcibly modest attire of the young women involved conveys an aspect more ominous than bucolic.
About that movie…
My lingering impression of Harry Revier’s Child Bride of the Ozarks has hinged more upon featured player Angelo Rossitto (1908–1991) than with any social-agenda implications. Rossitto, a pioneering dwarf player of Old Hollywood, had reminisced fondly about Child Bride during a series of late-in-life interviews for the Forgotten Horrors film-history books. George Turner’s and my chapter on Child Bride in Forgotten Horrors 2, in turn, deals as much with Rossitto as with the picture itself.
Continue reading Child Brides of the Ozarks and Beyond, by Michael H. Price ›
Sat May 10, 2008 — by Mike Raub
ComicMix Radio: Living The Dream - Writing TV and Comics
Episode #201: Marc Guggenheim, Heroes, 'Wolvie's Wacky Adventures' and more...
He's Marc Guggenheim, and if you didn't know him from Brothers & Sisters, CSI:Miami or even the "Death Of Bart Allen" storyline in Flash, you may have encountered his current run on Amazing Spider-Man, his new Young X-Men series or even a little show called Eli Stone. So how does he work it all out? Marc is happy to fill us in, plus:
-- The Scarecrow moves to Heroes
-- Secret Invasion tie-ins dry up on the shelves
-- Get ready for The Marvel Super Hero Squad and the "Wacky Adventures of Wolvie"
And there are at least three songs we play that you will not get out of your head until Monday morning, guaranteed - so just Press the Button!
And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via 
or RSS!
Sat May 10, 2008 — by Rick Marshall
Editorial Cartoon Investigated as 'Hate Literature'
Canadian newspaper accused of promoting hatred via cartoon
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Nova Scotia newspaper The Chronicle Herald has vowed to defend an April 18 editorial cartoon by award-winning cartoonist Bruce MacKinnon after police received a complaint that the cartoon could qualify as "hate literature."
The cartoon (pictured here) depicted the wife of Qayyum Abdul Jamal, who was arrested in 2006 on terrorism-related charges that involved an alleged plot to bomb targets in Toronto and Ottawa. Jamal's wife, Cheryfa MacAulay Jamal, told The Herald that she intended to sue the federal government after the charges against her husband were stayed.
According to various reports, the cartoon was reported as potential "hate literature" to local police, but law enforcement officials are still determining whether a crime actually took place.
According to Dan Leger, director of news content for The Herald, "We will vigorously defend (the cartoon) and it would be an abuse of process for them to even contemplate initiating any type of action against the newspaper."
(via Journalista, ComicsReporter and just about everywhere, really)
Sat May 10, 2008 — by Matt Raub
Review: 'Speed Racer' - Emile Hirsch Gets Behind the Wheel
Is it a warning flag or checkered flag for the popular anime's big-screen adaptation?
So here we are, a mere two weeks into the Blockbuster Season and the veil of bedazzlement has already been lifted. If you are a fan of the original Speed Racer franchise, animated films, or even decent films in general, you will more than likely be disappointed with the film that should've been more accurately named Speed Raver. From start to finish, this film is very much like what an 8-year-old would do if he were given a crate of Pixie Stix and free run of a CGI studio, with no knowledge whatsoever about pesky details like story structure, character development or any shred of realism.
For those not in the loop, the story of Speed Racer surrounds not just the titular character (played by possibly one of the better actors of his generation, Emile Hirsch), but his über-supportive family. Pops and Mom Racer, played by John Goodman and Susan Sarandon, respectively. Balancing out the cast was Speed’s girlfriend Trixie (Christina Ricci), his obnoxious and extraneous little brother and pet chimp, and by far the MVP of the film, in Matthew Fox as Racer X.
The plot, or at least what one can gather about it after two hours in the theater, takes place in a world where car racing is king and the car-building Racer family takes aim at the allegedly fixed world of professional racing with their prodigal son, Speed. The plot is almost beaten into our heads for the first hour, with cartoonish performances and poorly rendered backdrops aiding along the way.
Continue reading Review: 'Speed Racer' - Emile Hirsch Gets Behind the Wheel ›
Sat May 10, 2008 — by Aaron Rosenberg
Happy Birthday: Vincent T. Hamlin
Allez oop, good sir!
Vincent T. Hamlin was born in 1900 and grew up during tumultuous times—he enlisted in the Army at age 17 and served in France during World War I.
After returning home, he studied journalism and art at the University of Missouri, but was kicked out of art class because his teacher told him he was too fine an artist to waste his time as a cartoonist. After graduating Hamlin moved to Des Moines and became a reporter.
Next he went to Fort Worth, Texas, where he got occasional work as a reporter, a photographer, and a cartoonist. In 1927 he got a job creating maps and posters for the oil fields. It was during that time that Hamlin came up with the idea of a cartoon about a prehistoric caveman, and in 1929 he moved back to Iowa to work on the idea. It took him several years to get it right, but Alley Oop finally appeared a daily strip in 1932.
The strip became so popular that the first fan-based comics award, the Alleys, was named after it. Hamlin continued Alley Oop until his retirement in 1971, when he handed the reins over to his assistant, Dave Graue. Hamlin died in 1993.
Sat May 10, 2008 — by Martha Thomases
I Lost It at the Movies, by Martha Thomases
Brilliant Disguise #56
Last weekend, my son and I went to see Iron Man. We went in the middle of the day to a movie theater in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood that is rarely crowded, so the only other people there were geeks like us.
We had a great time, and that’s what this column is about. Tomorrow is Mothers’ Day, and last week is the last time I’ll be able to go to a superhero movie with my son, without involving an airplane. He’s moving to Los Angeles next month. That’s as far away as he can go without crossing an ocean or a border.
Our movie-going habits started early. When he was six weeks old, we went to see the original Ghostbusters, with the baby in a Snugli. It’s not that we were those horrible parents who take a screaming infant everywhere, as if the world deserves to share their headache. We knew his sleep schedule, and we knew that if we fed him just before the movie started, we should have at least two hours before he woke up. And we went in the middle of a weekday when there would be few other people, and sat in the back, near the aisle, so we could make a hasty retreat if our calculations proved wrong.
Later, as he grew older, my son developed a love of comics that rivaled my own. Even though he was barely five years old, there was no way he would let us go see the first Batman film without him. Being afraid of nightmares, I found a book that explained how the special effects were done, so he’d know that Jack Nicholson didn’t really hurt anyone. The effects didn’t scare him, but he did remark on how out of character it was for Batman to use a gun.
Continue reading I Lost It at the Movies, by Martha Thomases ›
Fri May 9, 2008 — by Rick Marshall
Eric Reynolds on 'How I Pissed Off Steve Ditko'
Fantagraphics' go-to guy reflects on an encounter gone awry with the comics legend
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Fantagraphics' upcoming Steve Ditko retrospective Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko will be available next month, so resident Fantagraphics jack-of-all-trades Eric Reynolds recently took the opportunity to share a story with readers that he's called "How I Pissed Off Steve Ditko."
Reynold's tale is one of those personal experiences with industry legends that I love to hear about, as it puts some substance behind the names and faces of people I've never been lucky enough to interact with myself.
About ten years ago we had the great fortune of publishing a new series by Mr. Ditko, STEVE DITKO'S STRANGE AVENGING TALES. This was incredibly exciting to me, having been a lifelong Ditko fan. Unfortunately, I did not get to interact much with Mr. Ditko. See, I do all of our promotion, and to say that Mr. Ditko is not big on promotion is like saying the Pope is not big on gay marriage. And, he preferred snail mail to phone. As such, I did not have many opportunities to interact with one of the greatest comic book artists of all-time. Except one.
You can also check out a 10-page preview of Strange and Stranger on the Fantagraphics website.
Of course, one of my main reasons for posting this is the fact that I'm fortunate these days to interact with a number of industry veterans every day here on ComicMix -- many of which have had their names grace some of the greatest comics ever created -- and I wonder what they'll have to say about Reynolds' story.
(via Journalista)
Fri May 9, 2008 — by Rick Marshall
'Diesel Sweeties' Does 'Iron Man'
When art imitates art you have... a potential lawsuit?
With all of the Iron Man hype fading, I thought it would be worth pointing out one of my new favorite shout-outs to the film that popped up in my daily reading list.
In this strip, Diesel Sweeties mastermind R. Stevens manages to take a jab at both Stan Lee and everyone's favorite drunken industrialist turned armor-plated superhero. Titled "Radical to the Extremis," it's another example of why I enjoy DS so very much: not only does Stevens have some traditional comics savvy, but he's also honest-to-jeebus hilarious.
You can read this strip and others at dieselsweeties.com, and be sure to check out my Diesel Sweeties interview with R. Stevens that ran previously on ComicMix.
Fri May 9, 2008 — by Aaron Rosenberg
Happy Birthday: Barbara Slate
Cheers to a leading woman in comics
Born in 1947, Barbara Slate started out in greeting cards before moving to comics. In 1974, she met with a greeting card buyer from Bloomingdales and showed him 24 feminist greeting cards she had designed. Thus, the "Ms. Liz" line was born.
Ms. Liz then became a comic strip in Cosmopolitan, and then an animated feature on The Today Show. Next, Slate spoke to Jenette Kahn of DC Comics, who hired her to create Angel Love. From there, Slate moved to Marvel to create Yuppies from Hell and Sweet XVI (which won a Forbie Award in 1991), and then began working on Barbie and Barbie Fashion (which won the Parent’s Choice Award in 1992 and 1993).
Slate has also written for Disney Comics (Pocahontas and Beauty and the Beast) and Archie Comics, among others. Currently Slate writes for Archie Comics, teaches graphic novel and sequential art workshops, and has a syndicated column called “You Can Do A Graphic Novel.”
