Latest News
Fri Oct 9, 2009 — by Glenn Hauman
Best-selling comic book character of 2009 wins Nobel Peace Prize
Congratulations, Mister President.
(No, before you ask, this is a mock up cover. Marvel is not going back to press with another variant cover. Yet.)
Fri Oct 9, 2009 — by Glenn Hauman
New Alan Moore zine, free Charles Vess, submit to Viz, and Gravel to film: ComicMix Quick Picks for 10/9/09
All the quick news while shooting at the moon and waiting for stories from Baltimore Comic-Con to come in...
- Alan Moore is launching Dodgem Logic, "the 21st century’s first underground magazine from his home town of Northampton, a community that is right at the geographical, political and economic heart of the country; one which has half its high street boarded up and is at present dying on its arse, just like everywhere else." Josie Long, Graham Linehan, Kev O'Neill, Melinda Gebbie, Steve Aylett, Leah Moore and John Reppion will be contributing. (Hat tip: Cory Doctorow.)
- Dark Horse Comics just announced that, in honor of their imminent publication of Drawing Down the Moon: The Art of Charles Vess
in December, they are offering the entire book online for free viewing for an indefinite time. All two hundred-plus pages of Drawing Down the Moon can be found on the Dark Horse website.
- VIZ Media is now accepting submissions and pitches for original comics. Interesting. I think this is a change in policy and direction.
- I almost don't believe this story from Superhero Hype and Variety about Legendary Pictures picking up the film rights to the Warren Ellis series Gravel, just because I would automatically assume Bleeding Cool would have that story first. Tsk, tsk... Rich is slowing down. (Warren: we have just the guy for the role for you. Honest.)
- And in case you didn't hear, Archie's an imaginary bigamist.
Anything else in the news? Consider this an open thread.
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!"
Thu Oct 8, 2009 — by Glenn Hauman
'South Park', the MPAA, and the memo
In honor of South Park's new season startig yesterday, we wanted to take the time to show you this memo between co-creator Matt Stone and the MPAA over the release of the movie South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut.
It's my favorite memo too. Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan
Thu Oct 8, 2009 — by Robert Greenberger
Review: 'Red Dwarf: Back to Earth' on DVD
When traveling in SF circles, inevitably you find pockets of people who adore certain books or films or TV series who cannot conceive of how you consider your life complete without having read or watched “Fill in the Blank”. One of the shows that are on the list I’ve heard over the years has been Red Dwarf. The BBC series was said to be a beloved comedy that skewered science fiction tropes and was a delight to watch. So, when BBC Worldwide offered to send me Red Dwarf: Back to Earth for review, I kindly accepted (which is my way of saying, this was a complimentary copy for those keeping track in Washington).I knew very little about the show and figured I would watch it with an open mind, eager to see what the fuss was all about. The two-disc set, on sale this week, offers the series as three episodes, as it aired this spring in England, or a director’s cut that spares you sitting through the credits more than once, although a few lines referring to the show as being in three parts have been deleted.
Written and directed by series co-creator Doug Naylor, the story opens nine years after we last saw the crew of the Red Dwarf and we learn that things are not going well. They’re running low on water and the water tank is currently housing a threatening squid-like creature. Before you know it, Katerina Bartikovsky (Sophie Winkleman), reappears on the ship and uses the mining equipment to slice a hole between dimensions with the hopes that they can find a human female who will help repopulate the human race (which apparently went extinct millions of years earlier). Instead, they find themselves transported to Earth circa spring 2009 AD and learn that they are all fictional characters slated to die when the three-part series concludes transmission. From there, they seek the series’ creator and the show shifts tone and feel, parodying Blade Runner.
Unfortunately, for those of us just tuning in for the first time, very little backstory and context is provided. I have no idea that the truly annoying Cat (Danny John-Jules) is an evolved version of the cat David Lister (Craig Charles) smuggled aboard the ship three million years earlier. I have no idea why the Red Dwarf seems to be plying an unpopulated universe and why they are so incredibly incompetent.
The humor was too broad for my tastes, I guess, because I never laughed or smirked. I found the self-referential bits in the 21st Century self-indulgent and wasting a great opportunity to tell a good reunion story. The Blade Runner elements felt shoe-horned in because, apparently, the series would periodically parody other films. I was actually bored and fidgety watching this, leading me to conclude the reunion show was aimed squarely at its fan base and was not at all interested in attracting new viewers.
Disc two contains a nice variety of features such as Smeg Ups (lengthy bloopers) which gives you a glimpse of how much green screen work was done to recreate the look of the ship. You get featurettes on the show’s SFX, see the cast sign pictures and chat (boring), the electronic press kit, four behind-the-scenes pieces, trailers, photo galleries and the obligatory Making of Back to Earth. While somewhat engaging, this disc is also more for the fans of the series who can’t get enough Red Dwarf.
Since the miniseries never aired in the United States, this is your chance to see it for yourself and if you loved the series, I guess you’ll like this.
Wed Oct 7, 2009 — by Alan Kistler
'Crazy Sexy Geeks' returns with Edward James Olmos, Rob Zombie, and David Alan Mack
The weekly web-series is back with all new episodes!
After a small hiatus, the geek talk series is back with a vengeance!
This week, hosts Alan Kistler and Carrie Wright talk with Halloween director Rob Zombie, Battlestar Galactica and Blade Runner actor Edward James Olmos and novelist David Mack, talking about remakes, reboots and sequels:
And if you want to see what else is in store for the series, check our cool trailer!
Every week, "Crazy Sexy Geeks: The Series" will discuss topics such as super-hero fashion, the best time travel stories, movie monsters, mythology in comics, gay characters in media, and what makes a good adaptation. You can find new episodes right here and on the YouTube channel "CrazySexyGeeksSeries."
Wed Oct 7, 2009 — by Glenn Hauman
On sale today: 'GrimJack: The Manx Cat' #3!
The continuing printed adventures of John Gaunt and friends. Available at finer comic book stores nationwide.
Wed Oct 7, 2009 — by Robert Greenberger
Review: 'Lego Star Wars the Visual Dictionary'
Lego Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary
By Simon Beecroft
96 pages, $21.99, DK Publishing
It used to be that Lego would never feature licensed characters. Instead, you could construct moon bases or pirate ships and make up your own characters to tell tales plucked straight from your imagination. Then came the first license, Star Wars, which proved so successful that there is now an entire line of licensed Lego toys which in turn have spawned video games and related merchandise.
Now, DK Publishing this week provides readers Lego Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary which breaks George Lucas’ universe into sections: the Movie Saga, The Clone Wars, Specialist Sets, and Beyond the Brick. A handy timeline upfront shows you the explosive growth of the line with every set properly displayed and identified for completists.
Each section properly displays each figure or vehicle with a handy guide to the number of pieces, their set number and which film the construct relates to. Along the way, the capsule descriptions provide information not only about the figure or vehicle but about their construction and history. You learn some interesting facts and I discovered to my surprise and delight that set 7163 features a Jedi Bob (must find!).
This is a treasure trove of information for the diehard Lego collector but written for those 7 years old and up, it also is engaging and entertaining with information about the characters and their adventures.
The book, as is typical of DK’s output, is a visual treat and the bottom corners feature, respectively, storm troopers and Luke Skywalker so flipping through the pages you get a sense of animation.
Not being a kid anymore, I found the Beyond the Brick section the most fascinating to see the level of detail that went into their construction as Jens Kronvold Frederiksen, Design Manager, has a nice interview about the entire Star Wars line for Lego. There’s even a final spread about the Lego Star Wars merchandising which is a growing subset of the overall Star Wars phenomenon.
As with any Lego line, there’s something special here. The book comes complete with an exclusive Luke Skywalker minifigure which begs the question if the book is ruined by taking out the toy to play with his compatriots.
Tue Oct 6, 2009 — by Glenn Hauman
FTC new rules to affect comics bloggers: disclose or be fined $11,000?
In a move guaranteed to accelerate the adoption of the PDF review copy, the Federal Trade Commission revised their "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials" (click here to download),
urging bloggers who review products, from a book or DVD to a video game
system, to disclose if they received the product for free when giving
an endorsement. According to the Washington Post, breaking these new guidelines could generate up to $11,000 in fines. (There are no penalties directly associated with violating the rules. But the FTC could seek a cease-and-desist order. If you ignore that, the fines start coming in.) These new guidelines will be put into
effect on December 1, 2009.
Bureau of Consumer Protection representative Richard Cleland was interviewed about the guidelines to clarify for blogging reviewers. In a statement that shows that he doesn't understand how the book reviewing process works, Cleland said that newspaper book reviewers are exempt because "the newspaper receives the book and it allows the reviewer to review it, it's still the property of the newspaper." Cleland saw no problem with a blogger receiving a book, provided there wasn't a linked advertisement to buy the book and that the blogger did not keep the book after he had finished reviewing it. Keeping the book would, from Cleland's standpoint, count as "compensation" and require a disclosure-- but there would be no such disclosure required if the blogger took the item and sold it for cash or store credit? Huh? (Are they trying to put the Strand out of business?)
This may accelerate another trend I came across recently: I understand that at least one major website has cut their book reviews back from twice a week to twice a month-- and this was before the announcement of these guidelines, so maybe it will just be easier to cut reviews altogether. But apparently, it'll be fine for them to keep promoting their own product relentlessly, and will presumably do so.
Tue Oct 6, 2009 — by Robert Greenberger
Review: 'Pixarpedia'
Pixarpedia
300 Pages, $40
DK Publishing
I doubt there has been a studio to start out with as long a streak of consecutive hits as Pixar. Not only have they succeeded beyond anyone’s wildest expectations, but they have helped rewrite the rules for family entertainment and created an armload of pop culture characters that are likely to endure for decades to come. The secret, it seems, has been to take iconic themes and figures and distill them down to their essence then tell engaging stories that never lose sight of character.
You are reminded of those relatively simple and obvious lessons while reading DK Publishing’s Pixarpedia, which was released some weeks back. Written with their core audience in mind, it’s geared for 9-12 year old readers and is a treasure trove of information about every feature and short film they have produced along with details on each character seen in the films.
The book is divided into thirds with the bookend sections about the studio. You can trace their progress from a small company owned by George Lucas to its sale to Steve Jobs and its explosive growth. The final third, Behind the Scenes, provides cast and crew credits and assorted trivia tidbits about each film along with sidebars spotlighting members of the company with career capsules. It’s amazing how many shout outs there are for beloved movies and people) especially Mickey Mouse) hidden in each film. You are shown many, but certainly not all, of them in this section.
The largest third is the movie by movie section that provides information about the major and minor characters. Unlike too many DK books, the visual design is clean and colorful, easy to read and chock full of detail. Sprinkled throughout are “Did you Know?” bullets with factual information that supplements each film. You get a plot summary, character descriptions, lavish looks at the sets and lots of fun reading.
Paging through the oversized book is a treat and overall, you come away with a greater knowledge about the characters than you might have imagined possible. At the end of this portion, there are pages dedicated to the themes that carry through the films and its their dedication to these simple dictates, like “You’ve got a Friend in Me”, that places their output head and shoulders above the competition.
Tue Oct 6, 2009 — by Glenn Hauman
#makecomics Colorist tip: How to un-antialias a file to make flats
Here's a tip that you may rarely need, but when you do, hoooo boy.
Let's say you've been flatting a page for coloring, or you've sent it out to be flatted. The page comes back, and it looks decent-- except when you go to select an area, you discover that the page was created with antialiasing on, which makes it impossible to make a decent selection for further rendering. How do you get the page un-antialiased, without redoing the entire page?
Here's how.
First, you're going to need to the BPelt Flatten plugin for Photoshop. (You may find it and Multifill useful for other flatting jobs as well.)
Duplicate the color layer.
Apply Filter -> Stylize -> Find Edges
Apply Image -> Adjustments -> Threshold at 255.
Set layer to multiply and merge down.
Apply Filter -> bPelt -> Flatten.
That's it. You'll get an un-antialiased image. Zooming in, you'll go from this:
to this:
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.
Tue Oct 6, 2009 — by Glenn Hauman
'Doctor Who's new logo UPDATE: with video!
Just up on the BBC website, in time for the debut of the new bloke, Matt Smith.
UPDATE: Oh, look, some nice person has posted the video that you're not supposed to see if you aren't in England:
