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Mon May 12, 2008 — by Rick Marshall
ComicMix on Twitter, MySpace and Facebook!
ComicMix Wants You (to Check Us Out On the 'Net)
Attention ComicMix Readers: Even though we're still not convinced that these InterWebs are more than just a passing fad, we've taken steps to make sure you can find ComicMix all over them... just in case the 'Net sticks around for a while.
Here are some of the places you can find us:
ComicMix on Twitter: Have a Twitter account? Get updates via Twitter about all of the new columns, features, reviews, interviews and other original content you love on ComicMix. Follow the feed at: https://twitter.com/comicmix
ComicMix on Facebook: Be a fan! If you have a Facebook account, be sure to get connected with our ComicMix page on Facebook. We'll be posting links to new comics, articles, audio and video content, as well as photos and art, as soon as they're published. Visit the ComicMix page on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/ComicMix/11458084665
ComicMix on MySpace: Sure, MySpace is filled with enough bells and whistles to cause the occasional seizure, but we're willing to endure the slings and arrows of animated icons for our readers. Connect with our MySpace page and get links to new comics, news and other content as soon as it hits ComicMix. Here's where you can find us: http://www.myspace.com/comicmix
See you on the 'Net!
Mon May 12, 2008 — by Rick Marshall
Grand Theft Auto IV: Less NYC, More Chicago's South Side?
Where 'GTA IV' really gets its inspiration...
The hub-bub over the recent release of Grand Theft Auto IV is finally starting to die down, but of all the stories popping up around the InterWebs about the controversial videogame, one really caught my eye.
Slate recently posted an analysis of the real-world dynamics of life on the wrong side of the law - and those who are forced to live and work with that dynamic every day - as echoed in GTA IV. While the landscape of the videogame is based on the New York City Metro area, the author contends that the true real-world equivalent of life in the GTA IV universe can be found in Chicago's South Side neighborhoods.
The last time I visited Chicago, I stopped by 59th Street, near Washington Park (and only a few short blocks from the picturesque University of Chicago). Two of the local gangs were fighting each other in full view for control of a prime sales spot, a hotel. For a monthly fee, the proprietor had promised to allow one gang to turn the place into a bordello—drugs, prostitution, stolen merchandise. For the gangs, winning meant more than simply getting rid of their enemy. Neither controlled the area surrounding the hotel. Anyone bringing drugs (or women, or guns, etc.) to the hotel would have to run the gantlet formed by other enemy gangs, who would be at the ready to shoot down the transporter.
Author Sudhir Venkatesh goes on to compare the decisions GTA IV's protagonist must make over the course of the game, and compares those choices to many of those made by residents of South Side streets where the criminal element provides the only semblance of structure.
Read the full article on Slate.com.
Mon May 12, 2008 — by Wade Gum
Witchblade Hits the Big Screen with New Movie
The witchy woman goes Hollywood.
Why should Marvel and DC be the only comic book companies making serious bank at the box office? Top Cow Productions has officially begun work on a live-action feature adaptation of their popular Witchblade comic book series.
The series already spawned a live-action television show on TNT that lasted for two seasons. Plus, half naked women beating up bad guys with an awesome glove is the type of can't miss concept that Hollywood craves.
The producers hope to start production of the film in September.
(via SHH)
Mon May 12, 2008 — by Andrew Wheeler
Review: 'Ghost Stories' by Jeff Lemire
All Canadians do is farm and play hockey. Discuss.
Lemire is in the middle of an impressive thematically-related trilogy of stories about a rural bit of Ontario, Canada – the first book was Tales from the Farm, in early 2007, and the third, The Country Nurse, will be along in October of this year. Ghost Stories is the middle book, but it’s a completely independent story – you don’t need to know anything about Tales to read it.
Ghost Stories: Essex County, Vol. 2
By Jeff Lemire
Top Shelf, September 2007, $14.95
Lou Lebeuf is an old, alcoholic, deaf man, living alone on the farm that was his younger brother’s and their father’s before him. He’s also either going senile or just doesn’t care about his current life – and who would? there’s not much to it – so he ignores his new home-care nurse and instead wanders through the memories of his younger days. At first he remembers growing up on that farm, playing hockey with his younger, bigger brother Vince, but he soon moves into the main plot of Ghost Stories.
Lou came up to Toronto to play semi-pro hockey for the Grizzlies around 1950, and Vince followed him up in 1951 -- Lou was a solid, smart player, but Vince was a giant bull of a man, dominating the ice once he got angry enough. But, unfortunately for both of them, accompanying Vince on that trip in 1951 was his fiancee, Beth Morgan. Lou was strongly attracted to Beth, and, once -- the night after the Grizzlies made the playoffs that March -- Lou and Beth had quick, secret sex on a rooftop.
Mon May 12, 2008 — by Rick Marshall
Doctor Who in Review: Season Four, Episode #3 - Ood Get Even
Everyone's favorite servant species gets emancipated in 'The Planet of the Ood'
The hit BBC series Doctor Who is now in its fourth season on the Sci-Fi Channel, and since we're all big fans here at ComicMix, we've decided to kick off an episode-by-episode analysis of the reinvigorated science-fiction classic.
Every week, we'll have our best Who-philes go through the most recent episode with a fine-tooth comb (or whatever the "sonic screwdriver" equivalent might be) and call out all of the continuity checks, names dropped and storyline hints we can find to keep in mind for future episodes. We'll post our analysis each Monday, so you have ample time to check out the episode once it airs each Friday at 9 PM EST on Sci-Fi Channel before reading our review.
Missed a week? Readers can view past "Doctor Who in Review" features via the links at the end of this article.
Keep in mind, we're going to assume readers have already watched the episode when we put fingers to keyboard and come up with our roundup of important plot points. In other words, SPOILER ALERT!
Let's begin now, shall we?
Season Four, Episode #3: "Planet of the Ood"
Continue reading Doctor Who in Review: Season Four, Episode #3 - Ood Get Even ›
Mon May 12, 2008 — by Aaron Rosenberg
Happy Birthday: Tony Strobl
A Master of Duckland
Born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1915, Anthony Joseph “Tony” Strobl graduated from the Cleveland School of Art in 1937 (along with Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster—Strobl helped them fine-tune a character concept they were working on, which they called "Superman") and began working for Disney a year later.
His first project was doing “in-between” art (the frames between the ones the main animators drew) on Fantasia. Strobl also worked on Pinocchio and Dumbo before joining the Army during World War II.
After the war, he decided to switch from animation to comics, and in 1947 he went to work for Western Publishing. Western produced comics starring characters from Disney, Warner Brothers, and Walter Lantz, and Strobl did a lot of art on Disney’s “Duck” books.
After 1954, he was responsible for the monthly Donald Duck comic. In the mid-'60s Strobl began drawing Disney comics for the international market, and from 1986 to 1987 he drew a daily Donald Duck comic strip for them as well. Strobl died on December 29, 1991.
Mon May 12, 2008 — by Chris Ullrich
Battlestar Galactica Interview: Mark Verheiden on Athena, Anders and the Hybrid
BSG Weekly - Season Four, Episode #6 'Faith'
Welcome to the latest installment of Battlestar Galactica Weekly, our recurring Q&A with Mark Verheiden, co-executive producer of the hit Sci-Fi Channel series Battlestar Galactica. Each week, we'll interview Verheiden about the events of the week's episode, what those events might mean for both the season and the series, and hopefully unearth some clues about what to expect as the final season of Battlestar Galactica nears its conclusion.
Along with posing our own questions to Verheiden, we're also taking questions from fans -- so be sure to send your questions to me, your official BSG Weekly interviewer, after each episode airs at chris [at] comicmix dot com. New episodes of Battlestar Galactica can be seen every Friday at 10 PM EST on Sci-Fi Channel. You can read previous interviews via the links at the end of this article.
This week, Verheiden answers questions about the Episode #6 of Season Four, "Faith," which aired May 9, 2008. Note: These answers may contain spoilers, so read at your own risk.
COMICMIX (from reader Andy): Are all the things the Hybrid says supposed to mean something or is it only relevant to the story when she's actually speaking to Starbuck directly? For example, the "toy soldier will become pliant" was said at one point. That could refer to Adama, especially in light of what he says about changing his mind at the end of the episode?
MARK VERHEIDEN: I don't want to get into a line-by-line analysis of the hybrid's monologue(s), though it's always fun to write! At any rate, it's safe to say that some of the babble represents the creature's very mysterious mental gymnastics. And, if you listen closely, certain writerly obsessions with The Wild Bunch and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
Some of it is specific to the ship (repairs, altering temperatures, etc.) and some of it is very pertinent to the larger mysteries. Maybe this will help: Every line is scripted, none of it is ad-libbed, so everything our hybrid says, she was meant to say. As for interpretation, I leave that to you...
CMix (from reader Leah): Why does Athena pull back at the last minute and not want to touch the dying Eight? And why does Anders show so much compassion for a Cylon when he was about to kill one shortly before that?
Continue reading Battlestar Galactica Interview: Mark Verheiden on Athena, Anders and the Hybrid ›
Mon May 12, 2008 — by Mike Gold
Barack Obama and the Comic Book Time Machine, by Mike Gold
Whizzy's Wazoo #66
I have always been a major league comic book fan. Always. As a child, whenever my parents dragged me out of town I would make them stop at every possible drug store, newsstand and dime store so I could check out the comics stock. In those days we had no forewarning of what was coming out when, and few outlets carried every title. Some even ignored entire publishing lines.
So when I think back on those trips, I can date them by the comic books I had seen along the way. For example, I encountered Lois Lane #1 at a roadside inn on the road between Gary and Indianapolis Indiana, since replaced by Interstate 65. Ergo, that trip was at the very beginning of 1958. I was seven years old.
In the corner behind the comics rack, I encountered separate drinking fountains: one said, “Whites” and the other said, “Colored.” That confused me, and I asked my father why they needed two. “Because some people are damn idiots,” Dad replied in undisguised disgust.
We were in central Indiana, a place that just a few decades earlier had been the focal point of the Ku Klux Klan. Now, mind, you, if not for the Ku Klux Klan I wouldn’t be alive today.
Continue reading Barack Obama and the Comic Book Time Machine, by Mike Gold ›
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 ›
