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Mon Aug 11, 2008 — by Van Jensen
The Funniest 'Dark Knight' Review You'll Read
TV writer Ken Levine (reluctantly) visits Gotham
This is probably the tardiest and possibly the funniest review of The Dark Knight you'll see, as TV writer Ken Levine writes on his blog about how much it must suck to live in Gotham City.
Jesus! You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting six mob bosses. And then there’s the town’s super psycho villain – they couldn’t find someone a little more aesthetically pleasing? Children watch those televised truck chases too, y’know. And Juneau appears to have more daytime in the winter than Gotham City. Does it get dark everyday at noon?...
Quick aside: Wouldn’t you love to see AMERICAN IDOL open auditions in Gotham City? Paula would be mistaken for the Joker.
I used to think the Joker was a brilliant mastermind until I realized a number of his fiendish plots were a direct lift from SAW.
DARK KNIGHT was a fun ride and Heath Ledger steals the movie (and everything else). But is it just me? I’m reaching the superhero saturation point. I’ve sympathized enough with tortured reluctant caped crusaders. And these movies all seem to turn on the heroes’ inability to kill the mass murderer psychopath villain because of some “code”. That doesn’t seem real. Oh… wait. We’re talking about guys who wear spandex suits and can fly – strike that last objection.
That's all good and fun, but then there's the following, which is a worrisome note about superhero movies wearing out their welcome.
DARK KNIGHT is worth seeing but please Hollywood, no more comic books. The only character left is Bazooka Joe.
It's just one opinion (well, that and some commenters), but it's worth considering that these projects are hitting a saturation point and the average (non comics fan) viewer is getting tired of it.
Mon Aug 11, 2008 — by Andrew Wheeler
Review: 'The Fart Party' by Julia Wertz
From a webcomic about one girl's life
The Fart Party
By Julia Wertz
Atomic Book Company, May 2008, $13.95
Julia Wertz’s comics would be terribly juvenile if they weren’t wonderfully juvenile – little snippets of life from a young woman in San Francisco, obsessed with beer, cheese, bicycles and comics. (Not to mention the occasional outburst of cartoony violence.)
Wertz has been posting her autobiographical comics at www.fartparty.org for nearly three years now, with occasional published-on-actual-paper minicomics as well, but this is the first collection that sits comfortably on a shelf. It seems to collect roughly the first year of the online strips, when Wertz was living in San Francisco with her boyfriend, Oliver, though the book itself doesn’t say that, or have dates on any of the strips. (Wertz’s life has changed a bit since the time of these strips; she’s currently ensconced in Darkest Brooklyn.) The strips here do form something of an arc, and have a natural ending, which is rare for any collection of regularly published comics, from the web or anywhere else.
Wertz’s style is simple and cartoony, but springs out full-formed from the beginning of the book with all its rubber-armed, pointy-eyed, casually-violent energy. Wertz does include a couple of strips she created earlier, in a more conventionally “realistic” style. But she buries those strips in the middle of the book, and they’re definitely less distinctive than her current style. I’m sure the fine-art brigade will hate her work – as will the good-taste brigade, which is similar but not identical to the first brigade – but she’s a real cartoonist, and that’s something to be celebrated. There’s still room for improvement in her style; her faces are only intermittently expressive at this point, and the figures’ body language tends to huge, stagy gestures even when those aren’t appropriate.
Mon Aug 11, 2008 — by Matt Raub
George Lucas Hangs Up The iPhone
Lightsaber app no more...
Those who own or know people who own an iPhone have probably come in contact with an application that has been on the iTunes top 25 applications since the birth of the App Store, and easily one of the most entertaining. The PhoneSaber app is a very simple yet enjoyable application which uses the accelerometer of the iPhone, turning the phone into a makeshift Lightsaber, sounds and all – minus the ability to cut off your bastard son's hand.
Well, it looks as if Star Wars creator and ultimate ruiner of all things good George Lucas has expressed that he is not pleased with the fact that there is a Lightsaber application, seeing as how his video game developer, LucasArts, along with sister company THQ, have all the rights for handheld Star Wars video games. This coming on the heels of the I Am Rich App scandal, Apple has pulled the popular PhoneSaber from the App Store.
There are currently talks about LucasArts retooling the application under thier name to coincide with the "Unleashing the Force" iPhone game later this year, with better functionality (and a price). Either way, if you own the application, and don't feel like spending $4.99 in six months to buy the exact same thing, make sure you don't delete it in a fit of rebellion.
Mon Aug 11, 2008 — by Mike Gold
Comics Out Of The Closet, by Mike Gold
Brainiac On Banjo
My old pal Joe Staton, one of the most brilliant graphic storytellers in the history of this medium, is currently enjoying a long-overdue exhibition of his work at the Storefront Artist Project in Pittsfield, MA. Peculiarly titled The Art of Joe Staton, it runs through August 31. We talked about this here at ComicMix a while ago; click-through and read to your heart’s content. Better still, go there and check it out.
This could have been the shortest column I’ve ever written, but no, I aim towards broader context. We’re seeing more and more of this sort of thing. Mark Wheatley and Marc Hempel’s Breathtaker was among the dozen or so graphic novels recently honored at the Norman Rockwell Museum, and that exhibit is now touring the nation. There have been many theme-based exhibits of comic art all over the country – too many to mention.
Oh, boy. We’ve been accepted as a real art medium. Not to look a gift horse in the mouth (for a change), I just wish this happened a couple decades ago.
Will Eisner and Stan Lee lived long enough to feel the full brunt of public acceptance; Jack Kirby really didn’t. He was honored as the ABC News Man of the Week after he died, but I’m sure that didn’t massage his ego any. Wally Wood got bubkis. The fact is, the first generation of comics creators is almost entirely gone, and most died with a stigma attached to their names. Sure, Stan and Joe Kubert are still around (thankfully) and are still producing stuff (also thankfully), but that’s because they entered this craft while still pre-pubescent.
Sun Aug 10, 2008 — by Elayne Riggs
ComicMix Columns & Features for the Week Ending August 10, 2008
Bringing you an Olympic-sized pool of talent!
Don't bother me, I'm watching the 'lympics. As if I followed any of these sports at any other time. We've had some good sports here in ComicMix too; here's a bit of what they've done for you this past week:
- Mike Gold - Brainiac On Banjo: Forward... Into The Past
- Rick Marshall - Doctor Who In Review: Season Four, Episode #13: Journey's End
- Dennis O'Neil - The Four-Color Answer: A Billion Dollars Worth Of Respect
- Me - It's All Good: Always a Workaround
- John Ostrander - Tales From The O-zone: Semi-Controlled Chaos
- Michael Davis - Straight, No Chaser: If You're Not There, You Just Won't Get It
- Andrew Wheeler - Manga Friday: Here We Go Again
- Martha Thomases - Brilliant Disguise: Superman and My Homies
Now will someone please put some proper shorts on those female volleyball players?
Sun Aug 10, 2008 — by Mike Gold
Calvin... and Jobs
Calvin! CALVIN!!!
Here's a little ditty that ComicMix's Macintosh majority would like to share with you. It's from The Daily Cartoonist, and it's called Calvin and Jobs.
Sun Aug 10, 2008 — by Robert Greenberger
Dark Knight Rules Fourth!
Full BO report for the week
The Dark Knight continues to rule the box office as it takes the number one position for the fourth weekend in a row, the first time any 2008 release has achieved this. Its estimated haul of $26,030,000 pushes its domestic take to $441,541,000, faster than any movie in history.
Next week, the movie should surpass Star Wars Now, adjust everything for inflation and The Dark Knight will wind up not second but 49th while Gone With the Wind The stoner comedy Pineapple Express opened in second place with a healthy $22,400,000. Counting ticket sales from Wednesday’s opening, the film already has taken in $40.5 million. In its second weekend Universal’s The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor dropped 60.2%, taking in just $16,113,000. With a total of $70,671,000, it chugs along although there has to be some concern that bad word of mouth, poor reviews and steep drop off may mean the franchise is running out of steam despite director Rob Cohen already talking a fourth film.
Sun Aug 10, 2008 — by Mike Raub
ComicMix Radio: Broadcast Blog
More Places To Click
Let's take a lazy Sunday and add in a few links and recaps of things you might have missed on this week's ComicMix Radio:
- This week Wanted's Mark Millar and Ex Machina's Tony Harris hit the shores of the United States to promote War Heroes. Starting at New York's Midtown Comics and ending on the west coast, fans will have a chance to get to meet Mark and Tony as well as nabbing a copy of the extremely limited War Heroes #1 Tour Of Duty Edition. According to Image Comics, this special edition will never be made available again. By the way, War Heroes #1 has sold out from Image and there is no word yet on a second printing. For the full schedule of the tour, go here.
- On your way out west to follow Mark & Tony, try and work out a stop in Toledo, Ohio tomorrow to see Marvel artist Greg Horn throw out the first pitch in a Toledo Mudhens game. It's not the usual spot you find someone from our world, but Greg got the chance to do this because Mudhens' Assistant General Manager Neil Neukam is a big fan of his work.
- As you read here on ComicMix, Michael I. Silberkleit, the chairman of Archie Comic Publications, died August 5th in New York City at the age of 76, after a short battle with cancer. Keep a close eye here for Arcihe Comics' official tribute which should be on the site any day now.
- Top Cow has the voting polls for Pilot Season 2008 wide open. If you have been following the series of try-outs, you can vote for your favorite title out of the six one-shots that were put out this summer. Polling stations are now set up at the Top Cow main site , the Top Cow MySpace page and the Pilot Season MySpace page. Readers can vote once per day until the polls close on September 8, 2008. Did you know that last year’s top two vote getters, Cyblade and Velocity, will debut with new series later this year, mainly due to the over four million votes were cast.
We are back on the broadcast on Tuesday with our run down of new comics and DVD releases and more from Torchwood Executive Producer Julie Gardner and series star, Naoko Mori. And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via
or RSS!
Sun Aug 10, 2008 — by Glenn Hauman
2008 Hugo Award winners
The 2008 Hugo Awards were given out last night at Denvention, this year's World Science Fiction Convention, a.k.a. WorldCon. The Master of Ceremony was Wil McCarthy. The winners are (cue the drum roll) ...
" by Ted Chiang (Subterranean Press; F&SF Sept. 2007) by Jeff Prucher (Oxford University Press) Written by Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn, Based on the novel by Neil Gaiman Illustrated by Charles Vess Directed by Matthew Vaughn (Paramount Pictures) "Blink" Written by Steven Moffat Directed by Hettie Macdonald (BBC)
Sun Aug 10, 2008 — by Matt Raub
Hey! Where is our 'Dark Knight' Video Game?
The score: PS3, EA 0
Since the birth of Tim Burton's movie Batman in 1989, there has been a video game tie-in with every incarnation of the Batman film franchise. So why is it that we haven't seen one for one of the most popular (and profitable) films for the character, if not for comic book films in general? It's not as if there wasn't a plan for a digitized Batman during the film's production. Game publisher Electronic Arts had the rights to make a game for the Dark Knight film, according to an unnamed developer for the EA-owned Pandemic Studios. Speculation says that the lack of a game caused up to $100 million in missing sales, and would be the first time that the caped crusader didn't have a game.
Sun Aug 10, 2008 — by Mike Gold
Review: Creepy Archives Volume 1
... but mostly Archie Goodwin and airports
Pretty soon, this is going to turn into a review of Dark Horse’s Creepy Archives Volume 1. Hang in there; I’ll get to it, I promise.
I miss Archie Goodwin, particularly this time of year. He died 10 years ago from cancer at the ridiculously young age of 60. He was one of the best writers this medium has ever seen. In a field that sports the talents of Harvey Kurtzman, Will Eisner, Jules Feiffer, and Dennis O’Neil, Archie was of that highest caliber. If Archie ghosted bible tracks for Jack Chick, I would have read them. He was that good.
As a human being, he was even better. A life-long EC Comics fan (you could see it in his work, as well as in those with whom he chose to associate), for a couple years Archie and I had adjoining offices at DC Comics. We used to go out to lunch and talk about, oh, Tales From The Crypt and Ronald Reagan. Did I mention Archie was very politically aware? Read his Blazing Combat stories. Anyway, sometimes our conversations scared the Manhattan businessmen who sat near us.
Archie enjoyed that. I enjoyed those conversations immensely; I wish I could relive them.
So why do miss Archie “particularly this time of year”? This is convention season. No matter where we were, we would run into each other a couple times each year at various airport gates. He could be leaving from New York and I from Chicago and we’d run into each other on connecting flights in Denver. We could both be at a show in, oh, his native Kansas City and we could be flying to two different places, but we’d still share the first leg of our respective flights. At first it was uncanny; quickly, it became another fact of life.
I haven’t met all 6,500,000,000 people on this planet, but based upon my unscientific sampling I can state with complete confidence that there are few people with greater wit, charm, and intelligence. So there.
This brings us to Dark Horse’s Creepy Archives Volume 1. Archie started writing for Jim Warren’s Creepy with the first issue; by issue two he was story editor and issue four he was the sole credited editor. He wrote most of the stories and, therefore, did a lot to define the 1960s horror story while working with a lot of EC greats like Reed Crandall, Jack Davis, Al Williamson, Alex Toth, George Evans, Joe Orlando, Wally Wood and Frank Frazetta. As time progressed, he added younger talent like Gray Morrow, Neal Adams, and Steve Ditko.
Sat Aug 9, 2008 — by Mike Raub
ComicMix Radio: Torchwood Series Three Less Is More
Episode #244: One big story for Captain Jack
Our exclusive talk with the creative minds at BBC Television continues with Julie Gardner, executive producer of all things Doctor Who as she talks about her next career move and the reasoning behind next years shortened season for Torchwood, plus:
- William Katt and Robert Culp share feelings on the return of The Greatest American Hero
- Mark Millar hits the road this week for War Heroes
- Sold Out books and shipping changes are updated all nice and neat for you
And for another Torchwood scoop, check out this earlier article. Meanwhile, there is lots to cover here so buckle up and Press the Button!
And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via or RSS!
Sat Aug 9, 2008 — by Mike Gold
Adams, Kubert and Lee Come To Aid Of Concentration Camp Artist
Six page story details Dina Gottieboa Babbit's plight
The perfect trifecta of living comic book legends – Neal Adams, Joe Kubert, and Stan Lee – have come to the aid of Nazi concentration camp survivor and animator Dina Gottlieboa Babbit in her fight to retrieve her long stolen artwork from a Polish museum.
According to today's New York Times, Ms. Babbit survived two years at the infamous Auschwitz Polish concentration camp by painting watercolor portraits for the notorious butcher of Aushwitz, Dr. Josef Mengele. Many of these paintings are in the possession of the Aushwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum; as her work, Ms. Babbit claims ownership and has long demanded its return. The Museum has refused, and Neal, Joe and Stan have taken up the effort.
To help raise awareness, Neal teamed up with Rafael Medoff, the director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, to produce a six page comics story detailing the situation. The story was inked – in part – by Joe and sports an introduction from Stan.
They are presently looking for a publisher.
Since her liberation, Ms. Babbit had worked as an animator for Jay Ward Productions, Warner Bros. Animation, and MGM.
Sat Aug 9, 2008 — by Matt Raub
The Iron Man Ultimate DVD Commeth!
Not Ultimate Iron Man, but the big ol' movie
If you've grown tired of watching that bootleg copy of Iron Man that you've crammed onto your iPod/iPhone, then you will be happy to know that details of the Iron Man DVD release are now available for you to drool over.
Sat Aug 9, 2008 — by Mike Gold
New Torchwood Without The Make-Up
BBC Radio 4 to air original episode
Torchwood will be retuning to the airwaves next month in a somewhat unique fashion, according to the good folks at Outpost Gallifrey.
BBC Radio 4 will be broadcasting an original 45 minute full-cast radio drama, Lost Souls, on Wednesday September 10 at 9:15 Eastern Daylight Time. The story is set right after Exit Wounds, the season two finale, and deals with the events of that traumatic episode. Therefore, you might not want to hear the show until you've seen the second season.
Torchwood regulars John Barrowman, Eve Myles and Gareth David-Lloyd will be starring in the broadcast along with Doctor Who regular (and Torchwood guest star) Freema Agyman. The show was written by Joseph Lidster.
BBC Radio 4 can be accessed online right here. There's no word yet on its availability through BBC Radio as part of their podcast programming.
