Wed Oct 14, 2009 — by Glenn Hauman

On sale today: 'Jon Sable Freelance: Ashes of Eden' #1 by Mike Grell

Jon Sable returns in his latest adventure, Ashes of Eden. Sable is hired to deliver a diamond and a girl safely to New York; a simple enough job if the rock wasn't the size of a bomb and the girl wasn't Bashira-- who, of course, is as unbelievably gorgeous as she is completely spoiled rotten. Mike Grell writes and does the art, with John Workman lettering and yours truly coloring, assisted by Shannon Weaver and Matt Webb.

Published by ComicMix and IDW and available at finer comic shops everywhere-- with the really good ones having a variant pencil sketch cover available as well.

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Tue Oct 13, 2009 — by Robert Greenberger

Review: 'Knights of the Lunch Table - The Dragon Players'

Knights of the Lunch Table: The Dragon Players
By Frank Cammuso
Scholastic/Graphix, 128 pages, $9.99

The pee wee population of Camelot Middle School is back in the second volume of the Knights of the Lunch Table from Frank Cammuso. The series, launched by Scholastic’s Graphix imprint last year, takes the broad strokes of the Arthurian legend and reimagines everything from a junior point of view. Our protagonist is Artie King and his two best friends are Percy and Wayne, all trying to survive the hostile environment that can be early adolescence.

While unrelated to Jolly R. Blackburn’s Knights of the Dinner Table, Cammuso’s junior adventures are no less enjoyable. The Dragon Players, now on sale, finds science teacher Mr. Merlyn easing Artie towards entering the robot dragon competition. While reluctant to participate, he agrees since Wayne owes Principal Dagger $300 for a new windshield and the competition’s prize just happens to be that exact amount.

With that as a launching point, we see a cleverly constructed plot that involves the students and the faculty. Along the way, the pitfalls of school life are clear with the boys being bullied by the enormous Joe and Artie struggles to survive in the house with his older sister Morgan.  The characters act their ages with their emotions ranging all over the place and in need of some wise counsel. Artie can get some tips from his magic locker, but it falls to Merlyn to gently point him in the direction of doing what is right, not what is easy.

Cammuso’s art and color make the main characters appear a little younger than they should be but he fills the pages with nice details and keeps things moving at a nice clip. The climax, at the competition, is a little rushed, but everything is neatly tidied up by the final page.

Scholastic recommends this for ages 7-10 and that sounds about right. The readers should find the characters fun and relatable while Cammuso’s story imparts some good lessons. These annual offerings are most welcome.

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Tue Oct 13, 2009 — by Glenn Hauman

Ever wanted to collaborate with Neil Gaiman? Here's your chance

MediaBistro reports that starting in less then an hour, Neil Gaiman and a thousand Twitter followers will write an audiobook script together on Twitter--an epic test to see if the Twittersphere can actually cooperate on a story.

The whole project starts on this Twitter page at 12 noon EST. Gaiman will tweet the first line of a story, and the Twittersphere will add the next sentences, continuing the story in a round-robin style. To be included, your addition to the story must be tagged #bbcawdio and be sent to the correct Twitter page, like this:

@BBCAA Your Tweet Here #bbcawdio

Here's more from BBC Audiobooks America: "When roughly 1000 Tweets are logged, we'll edit the contributions and compile a script, then head into the studio to record and produce the audiobook. The final audiobook will be downloadable free on our website and also available as a digital download at iTunes and other audiobook retailers."

Doing the math, that should be about 130,000 characters, probably around 21,000 words, which is in the ballpark of an audiobook script.

Neil's twitter feed, in case you don't have it, is @neilhimself.

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Mon Oct 12, 2009 — by Robert Greenberger

Whedon's 'Cabin' Delayed a Year for 3-D Conversion

Original Thriller Needs 6 Month Makeover

With 3-D all the rage, MGM announced over the weekend that Joss Whedon’s original thriller, The Cabin in the Woods, will be delayed from February 5 2010 to January 14 2011 to allow it to be upgraded to a three-dimensional chiller.

According to Shock Til You Drop, the film, co-written and directed by Drew Goddard (Cloverfield), will require six months for the conversion. The movie stars Bradley Whitford (The West Wing), Richard Jennings (Burn After Reading), Chris Hemsworth (Star Trek), and Whedon regulars Amy Acker (Angel, Dollhouse) and Tom Lenk (Buffy)

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Mon Oct 12, 2009 — by Robert Greenberger

Tennant and Pegg Team Up

Will Play Graverobbers in 'Burke and Hare'

Two of Britain’s most popular actors have been cast in director John Landis’ Burke and Hare. According to Bloody Disgusting, Landis’ return to filmmaking will have him working with David Tennant, fresh off Doctor Who, and Simon Pegg, who gained acclaim in Star Trek.

The title characters are based on the famed 19th Century graverobbers who made a nice live providing corpses to an Edinburgh medical school. Piers Ashworth and Nick Moorcroft (St. Trinian’s) have written the script based on the real life incidents involving the hapless Burke (Pegg) and Hare (Tennant). Given demand, the pair would try and hasten along the end for borders at the lodging house run by Hare’s wife.

Landis last directed Susan’s Plan in 1998 while Tennant just completed shooting the sequel to St. Trinian’s, also written by Ashworth and Moorcroft. Pegg guest starred on Doctor Who, but played opposite Christopher Eccleston’s version of the Time Lord.

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Mon Oct 12, 2009 — by Robert Greenberger

Singer Wants Back in the Mansion

Director Interested in Return to 'X-Men' Franchise

Director Bryan Singer is interested in returning to the Marvel Universe, telling a South Korean audience he’s made it clear to 20th Century Fox. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Singer told fans at South Korea's Pusan International Film Festival, "I love Hugh Jackman. I love the cast," he said of X-Men: Origins: Wolverine.

After directing the first two features, he left the franchise to try his hand at rebooting Superman for Warner Bros. The critical and financial drubbing Superman Returns received derailed the Man of Steel’s film trajectory and left Singer a wounded director. He noted that "the risk is too great to leave [the final cut] in the hands of a filmmaker," he said, adding that he "has a responsibility to help studios feel secure in their investments."

During an on-stage discussion with director Kim Ji-woon, Singer noted that directors in this Asian country enjoy tremendous creative freedom compared with the studio-mandated filmmaking in America.

The director who gained renown for The Usual Suspects, said he likes to "trick audiences into thinking they're seeing fireworks, but they're learning about themselves and listening to what I have to say. The excitement about working in science fiction and fantasy is — the stories, if they are good, are about the human condition."

Fox has already announced their reboot of the mutant franchise will be X-Men First Class with X-Men Origins: Magneto still in development with writer/director David S. Goyer. Word is that pre-production has already started on Wolverine 2.

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Mon Oct 12, 2009 — by Mike Raub

The Point Radio Kyle Baker Kills DEXTER

Plus Brian Cox On How To Get A Creepy Part

Showtime is preparing a new DEXTER animated series for the web with some familiar names attached including Kyle Baker, we've got the details plus when BRIAN COX was offered a role in TRICK 'R TREAT, took it blind - literally!




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Mon Oct 12, 2009 — by Glenn Hauman

Quick-Draw McNoir: The rare noir episode that featured Peter Lorre

Merrill Markoe (the person who dated David Lettermen before dating him was controversial) has unearthed the most existential episode of a Hanna-Barbera cartoon ever.

If you'll excuse me, I have to go kill myself now.

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Sun Oct 11, 2009 — by Mike Gold

Marge Simpson's Naked Truth!

TV Cougar Goes Print

Why hasn't Marge Simpson done a Playboy fold-out? Easy: from the tip of her toes to the top of her head, she's just too tall.

But at least the fabled "Magazine For Men" is doing a pictorial on the teevee queen. And it's a cover story, to boot. She's legal, having had three children and a show that's run for two decades.

Hopefully, this will lead to a continuing presence for the blue haired actress in the struggling magazine. It's been quite a while since Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder's Little Annie Fanny had any real exposure; perhaps Marge can fill the gap.

Although, personally, I'm holding out for Turanga Leela. There's something about that eye...

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Sun Oct 11, 2009 — by Glenn Hauman

Jesus, meet Jon McNaughton, then meet 'Shortpacked'

A little Sunday morning blasphemy for y'all:

First, we have this painting by Jon McNaughton featuring Jesus Christ, creator of the heavens and earth and bearer of the US Constitution, flanked by, among others, Thomas Jefferson (a deist who actually rewrote his own version of the Bible to take out all the miracles and mysticism and just leave the philosophy), Ronald Reagan, and Christa McAuliffe. At his feet on his right you have the good guys-- the farmer, the Christian minister, the US Marine, the handicapped child, the mother, the black college student, the schoolteacher who vaguely resembles Sarah Palin.

On the other side-- Jesus' left side, wink wink-- is a professor holding a copy of Darwin's Origin of the Species, a politician, a lawyer counting his money, a liberal news reporter, Mr. Hollywood, and a Supreme Court Justice weeping over Roe v. Wade, and of course, SATAN!

And yes, there's a full listing explaining exactly what each person and position is supposed to represent. Click through to see what they all are (and order your own print, of course). You gotta admire the dedication to detail-- it immediately reminded me of the political cartoon Dave Gibbons parodied in the back of Watchmen #8, with the same amount of over detail and overenthusiasm.

This desperately needed to be parodied, and David Willis at Shortpacked beat us to it.

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Sat Oct 10, 2009 — by Glenn Hauman

2009 Harvey Awards: 'All-Star Superman' repeats win; 'Umbrella Academy', 'Kirby', Al Jaffee win 2 each

With this many twos, you'd think the Harvey was Harvey Dent.

The 2009 Harvey Awards were given out tonight at the Baltimore Comic-Con in a ceremony MC'd by double nominee Scott Kurtz. Named in honor of the late Harvey Kurtzman, the Harvey Awards recognize outstanding work in comics and sequential art.

All-Star Superman repeated the win for best continuing or limited series, with Grant Morrison picking up the Best Writer award. Last year's best writer winner, Brian K. Vaughn, picked up the award for Best Single Issue for Y: The Last Man #60. In the two-time winners, The Umbrella Academy won for best artist Gabriel Ba and best colorist Dave Stewart, the Mark Evanier biography Kirby: King Of Comics won for best historical/journalistic and excellence in presentation, and Al Jaffee won for best cartoonist and a special award for humor in comics.

Special awards were given by the Hero Initiative: the Humanitarian Award was given to Neal Adams for his years fighting for creators, and Baltimore Comic-Con organizer Marc Nathan received a surprise award just because he puts on a great show.

Nominations for the Harvey Awards are selected exclusively by creators - those who write, draw, ink, letter, color, design, edit or are otherwise involved in a creative capacity in the comics field. They are the only industry awards both nominated and selected by the full body of comic book professionals. This was the fourth year for the Harvey Awards in Baltimore, MD.

The full ballot is listed below, with winners listed in bold. Congratulations to all the winners and nominees.

Continue reading 2009 Harvey Awards: 'All-Star Superman' repeats win; 'Umbrella Academy', 'Kirby', Al Jaffee win 2 each ›

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Sat Oct 10, 2009 — by Robert Greenberger

Review: 'The Good Neighbors - Book Two: Kith'

The Good Neighbors, Book Two: Kith
By Holly Black and Ted Naifeh
Scholastic/Graphix, October 2009, $16.99

Trilogies can be tricky things to pull off successfully. Quite often, a single event is a surprise success and suddenly gets expanded into a trilogy. Why? Because it feels like an expanded version of the three-act structure that has a stranglehold on popular storytelling these days. Some trilogies should have remained a single event (The Matrix) while others have proven more successful (the original Star Wars trilogy).

Holly Black knows how to structure a trilogy. With artist Ted Naifeh, she returns to her original graphic novel series, The Good Neighbors, and shows how to properly structure a three-part tale. In the course of 115 pages, we rejoin our characters but learn much more about their interrelationships and the world of magic that now threatens the modern world. The story continues, grows, and leaves you anxiously awaiting the final chapter.

Rue Silver learned in the first book that she was not really an ordinary teen but the product of a truly mixed marriage between her human father and her faerie mother. In book one, which we adored, we discovered that her mother was not really dead, but had returned to the faerie realm at the behest of Rue’s grandfather. Grandpa wants the town for himself and has been setting things in motion so after a key ceremony; the university town would be walled off from mortals and become a home to the faerie folk.

The stakes have grown in this book and a major sequence comes when Rue agrees to spend the night with her mother and grandfather in their realm. She learns of her heritage and discovers how similar and dissimilar the faerie are from humans. Her mother is far from warm, but wants Rue to stay with her, abandoning Thaddeus. Dad, meanwhile, learns his wife is not dead and breaks the news to the woman he had begun a romance with; a woman who has long loved Thaddeus and was Rue’s one true adult friend.

Rue’s circle of friends has come to accept the wild magic and existence of faeries, coming to Rue’s support. Throughout this chapter, though, new strains are placed on the bonds of friendship and some may not be emotionally strong enough to help when they’re needed the most.

Black’s writing is solid with the story being exceptionally well-paced. The characters have distinctive voices and personalities, which helps a lot. Naifeh’s art mixes fantasy and Goth in nice gray tones, helping differentiate the two worlds. On occasion some of the characters are hard to distinguish from one another but overall, his art goes a long way to enhance the story and keep readers turning the pages.

This all wraps up in the final volume, due next year, and one can hope it ends as strongly as it has started.

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Fri Oct 9, 2009 — by Mike Gold

Six Great Doctor Who Moments

The Returh of the ComicMixSix!

As we brace ourselves for the new Doctor Who specials, the return of Sarah Jane Adventures, and Matt Smith's first season, here's a little gasoline to pour on the fan-fire – my take on the six top moments on Doctor Who.

6. Quiet Time

There’s a great moment in the Doctor Who teevee movie, one that we had rarely seen (if ever) in the original series: the Doctor, in this case Doctor Seven, quietly sitting in the TARDIS in his comphy chair, reading a book. Of course, drama being what it is he quickly gets, well, killed. Fatally. And then begins a difficult regeneration into Doctor Eight. That wasn’t the worst thing that confronted him: he had to face Eric Roberts as the Master. He, and his series of proposed telemovies, was doomed.

5. The Ears Have It

There’s this great moment in Rose, the first of Doctor Nine’s shows where Christopher Eccleston stops the action when he crosses a mirror in the TARDIS. He peers into the mirror, thinks he’s kind of good looking, but he’s not too sure about those ears. In one stroke, Russell T. Davies established the Doctor had just reincarnated and, therefore, the fight that destroyed the other Time Lords had “just” happened (however one defines “just” in time travel) while, at the same time, revealing quite a lot about this new Doctor’s personality. Nice moment.

4. The One and Phony Master

Stephen Moffat is the current Doctor Who showrunner and, along with Davies, the most significant writer of the new series. But between this series and the original, the BBC aired a wonderful “Doctor Who” episode called The Curse of Fatal Death. It was a charity fundraiser ten years ago, a brilliant parody, and the Who debut of writer Moffat. It featured no less than five new Doctors – played, sequentially, by Rowan Atkinson, Richard E. Grant, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant and Joanna Lumley – and one stellar Master: the gifted stage and film performer, Jonathan Pryce. Had one of those movie projects ever gotten off the ground, he would have been perfect in the role and might have given Delgado a run for his money. It isn’t easy being menacing in such a broad parody, and it is to the credit of both Pryce and Moffat that it comes off.

Continue reading Six Great Doctor Who Moments ›

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Fri Oct 9, 2009 — by Mike Raub

The Point Radio: Wanna See Something Really Scary?

Bendis Gets The Band Back Together

Michael Dougherty (X2, SUPERMAN RETURNS) has managed to turn his obsession for his favorite holiday into a feature film. TRICK 'R TREAT is a horror anthology just released on DVD and we get the scary details from  Michael and star Lauren Lee Smith. Plus Brian Bendis is plunging ahead full steam on POWERS in comics and TV as well as bringing back the Original AVENGERS to Marvel.




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Fri Oct 9, 2009 — by Mike Gold

King Kong For Sale - Really!

Will beauty buy the beast?

Christie's auction house in London will be auctioning the 22-inch, well, action figure of King Kong used in the filming of the movie of the same name. In specific, the little guy was used in the Empire State Building scene at the end of the movie.

"Oh, no, it wasn't the airplanes."

Only the metal part (see right) survives; the cotton/rubber/latex/rabbit's fur "clothing" rotted off years ago. The auction will happen around Thanksgiving; I'll bet lots of well-heeled Hollywood moguls have aliases bidding on the trophy.

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