Monthly Archive: March 2008

On This Day: Mark Waid

On This Day: Mark Waid

  • News
  • March 21, 2008

Born on March 21, 1962 in Hueytown, Alabama, Waid entered the comics industry in the mid-1980s as an editor and writer for Fantagraphics Books’ fan magazine, Amazing Heroes.

He soon moved to DC as an editor on Secret Origins and Legion of Super-Heroes. In 1990, he shifted from full-time editorial to freelance writing, and in 1992 DC hired him to write The Flash. Waid stayed with The Flash for eight years and can be credited with establishing Wally West as a worthy bearer of the Flash name and costume. Waid then moved to Marvel to work on Captain America.

In 1996 he went back to DC to produce his best-known work, the mini-series Kingdom Come with Alex Ross. He also wrote the follow-up series, The Kingdom, and has since written JLA, Impulse, Empire, Fantastic Four, and others.

In July 2007 Waid joined Boom! Studios as Editor-in-Chief. He’s stated since that all of his future creator-owned work will be with Boom!

Interview: Jeffrey Rowland on TopatoCo and ‘Overcompensating’

Interview: Jeffrey Rowland on TopatoCo and ‘Overcompensating’

Jeffrey Rowland, the creator behind popular webcomics Wigu and OverCompensating, has a new, full-time job these days — and it just might make him one of the most important people to watch in the world of webcomics.

Late last year, Rowland officially expanded TopatoCo, the online store where he sold shirts, stickers and other merchandise related to his webcomics, bringing several other popular webcomics’ stores under the TopatoCo banner and consolidating their merchandise operations. By doing so, fans of many of the most popular webcomics are now able to mix and match their orders among different creators’ designs, and TopatoCo has evolved from a basement business to a staffed, international operation Rowland runs out of an office building in Easthampton, MA.

According to Wikipedia, Rowland "can be considered one of the small number of professional webcartoonists, as running Overcompensating and Wigu, in addition to his merchandise company TopatoCo, is his full time job and source of income."

I spoke with Rowland about the growth of TopatoCo and the first few months of becoming a webcomic merchandising hub, as well as the status of his own webcomics, OverCompensating and Wigu. From the lure of running off to Mexico on a motorcycle to the Snakes on A Plane experience, Rowland shares his thoughts on making a living in the world of webcomics.

COMICMIX: You sound busy, Jeff. What’s going on at TopatoCo HQ today?

JEFFREY ROWLAND: Well, I’m just trying to get a handle on this whole business arrangement here.

CMix: Yeah, it sounds like you’re pretty deep into it these days…

JR: Well, the way we were doing it before was, everyone had their own individual sites up. Dinosaur Comics would have its little store, and then [Dinosaur creator Ryan North] would collect the orders throughout the week and send them to us in a file once a week or so. It wasn’t that bad, because everyone was doing a pretty good amount of business, but when I put them all together… Well, all of a sudden, it just exploded. It was bigger than I thought it was going to be. I think we’ve been up for about a month now, and we’re over 2000 products sold. Over 1000 transactions. Basically, it’s just two of us here working – sometimes three. I have one full-time employee — she’s "Tallahassee" in OverCompensating.

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Pictures of Snake Eyes from ‘G.I. Joe’ Film Revealed

Pictures of Snake Eyes from ‘G.I. Joe’ Film Revealed

  • News
  • March 21, 2008

Paramount Pictures has released two photos from the upcoming G.I. Joe movie featuring everyone’s favorite mute ninja, Snake Eyes. Full sized versions of the pictures can be found at Superhero Hype.

Fans hoping that the characters in the film will resemble their comic book and cartoon counterparts should be pleased with the classic look that good old Snake Eyes is sporting.

Snake Eyes will reportedly have a large role in the upcoming film. In a recent interview, director Stephen Sommers gave some details about what Snake Eyes will be up to in the movie: 

"He’s the world’s greatest ninja, but he’s also next-generation. He’s not afraid to use a sword one second, and a split-second later he’s pulling out his Glock," Sommers told USA Today. "His chief nemesis is arguably the world’s other great ninja, Storm Shadow. The two grew up together, were blood brothers and now are mortal enemies."

G.I. Joe is scheduled to be released on August 7, 2009. The film stars Ray Park as Snake Eyes, as well as Dennis Quaid, Sienna Miller, Marlon Wayans, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Arnold Vosloo and Christopher Eccleston.

‘Fantastic Four 3?’ Not According to The Human Torch

‘Fantastic Four 3?’ Not According to The Human Torch

  • News
  • March 21, 2008

If you happen to be one of the people who really liked the first two Fantastic Four films and were anxiously awating a third installlment, you may be waiting a lot longer than you thought. In fact, your wait might be endless.

Why? Well, according to an interview over at MTV with actor Chris Evans, who plays Johnny Storm (aka The Human Torch) in the films, a third film doesn’t seem to be in the cards. His main reason for thinking so? He hasn’t gotten any scripts or story ideas from Fox.

"After the first one was released we got wind of potential titles and plots [almost immediately], and I’ve heard nothing from anyone at Fox [yet],” said Evans in the interview. “We had all planned on doing [another] one but if there were going to be a third I think a week after the second one was released we would have heard.”

In truth, Evans doesn’t seem all that disappointed that a third film probably won’t happen. "It takes up a lot of time. It’s a big commitment,” said Evans. “I’m happy with walking away.”

Although he might be willing to walk away from another Fantastic Four film, he’s not closing the door completely on playing The Human Torch again — especially if it was a cameo appearence in some other Marvel franchise like The Hulk or Spider-Man. Said Evans: "Absolutely. If Johnny Storm wanted to make a pop in appearance in one of those movies that would be a treat.”

Of course, the opportunity for another big-screen appearance by Marvel’s favorite family might not be a complete impossibility, given the discussion of a potential Silver Surfer spin-off film.

So, now that we know another Fantastic Four film is probably not going to happen, is this good news or bad?

Manga Friday: Fairy Tail

Manga Friday: Fairy Tail

  • News
  • March 21, 2008

I suppose I should start off by saying that Rave Master is the name of Mashima’s previous manga series, not his nickname. (Though it does make a great nickname, actually.) Rave Master ran thirty-five volumes – of which twenty-seven has been published in the US to date – and was a fairly typical young-guy-with-great-power-battling-the-forces-of-evil story.

But that story ended, and now Mashima is back with…

Fairy Tail, Vols. 1 & 2
By Hiro Mashima
Del Rey Manga, 2008, $10.95 each

The first two volumes of his new series in English – published simultaneously on March 25th by the good folks at Del Rey Manga.

Fairy Tail breaks completely with Rave Master, because its young, untried, magically-powered person fighting evil is a young woman. How ‘bout them apples, huh?

All kidding about the genre markers of shonen manga aside, Fairy Tale is somewhat generic, but still distinctive. It’s set in one of those not-quite-medieval worlds, with magic, walled cities, and mostly low technology – though there’s an exception for trains, as so often is the case. It seems to be ruled by some sort of aristocracy, since there are people with power called “Duke,” but that’s not entirely clear.

Similarly, it’s hard to tell how the working world is organized, but the magical people have a structure of guilds (helpfully explained, with diagrams, in the second book), and, of course, there’s then Tokyo University-level competition to get into the “better” guilds. Presumably, most of the other occupations are regimented in a similar way, but Fairy Tail is not a book that spends much time among the peasants.

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Review: ‘The Last Days of Krypton’ by Kevin J. Anderson

Review: ‘The Last Days of Krypton’ by Kevin J. Anderson

Everyone knows the basic story of [[[Superman]]]. Baby Kal-El, last survivor of the planet Krypton, rocketed to Earth by his parents Lara and Jor-El, found by a nice couple in Kansas, raised to be Clark Kent AKA Superman. But what about the story of Krypton before Kal’s birth? What about the lives of his biological parents?

In this hardcover novel published by Harper Entertainment, Kevin J. Anderson ([[[Captain Nemo]]], [[[Hopscotch]]], [[[Star Wars: Darksaber]]]) gives us a story of the ill-fated planet and its people, who are so tranquil and advanced in science that they have stopped dreaming and questioning reality. One man, Jor-El, still dares to dream — but finds his technology constantly censored by the Science Council and by Commissioner Zod. Eventually, Jor-El meets someone much like him, an artist named Lara Lor-Van who never hesitates to speak her mind, and the two fall in love. When disasters begin to occur, Jor-El and Zod may have to join forces to save their planet from destruction. But is Zod really concerned about the benefit of Krypton or is he plotting his own take-over?

In the foreword to this novel, comic writer Marv Wolfman (New Teen Titans, The Crisis On Infinite Earths) stated that Kevin J. Anderson’s goal was to create a story that took elements from all of the various and contradictory interpretations of the planet Krypton, its society and just why it was destroyed. (Did the sun go supernova, was it destroyed by a shifting orbit or was it a victim of a war involving terrible weapons?) The result would then be a tale that would allow everyone to at least find one or two familiar elements and would be entertaining for people who knew very little about the Superman mythos.

Unfortunately, that is not quite what we get. But more on that later. First, I should mention there are many good scenes here and there, as well as some touching moments. Of particular note is Anderson’s version of the first meeting between Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van. It involves danger and nice characterization and the date that it leads into shows just why these two fall for each other. Too often these days, we are shown a couple who are in love but who don’t really show this in their actions, requiring the writer/director to spell things out by having their characters awkwardly say things such as “I’m blinded by your love.” (Are you listening, George Lucas?!)

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The Story Of O, by Michael Davis

The Story Of O, by Michael Davis

  • News
  • March 21, 2008
 
 
This was going to be an article about the sheer stupidly of the former Governor of New York and other idiots who say one thing and do another. Then I listened to Senator Obama’s speech on race. I was going to write about that speech but at another time. Then I received the following text message on my cell phone:

U and denys r no talent racist lying frauds. What kind of monster abuses positive accomplished young black men? Michael Davis PhD Player Hating Dickhead.

The denys he is writing about is my best friend Denys Cowan. He also left a voice mail on Denys’ business phone where he called Denys a “Faggot,” among other things.

Who is this person? Let’s call him O. If I really wanted to “playa hate” I would give up who he was, thus ending any chance of this guy ever working with any major entertainment companies. I don’t out him because there is still a small chance that he will try and clean up his act.

A very small chance.

Why is he so upset? More than a year ago he submitted a project to me which I thought showed promise. The project has not moved fast enough for him and O wanted to know why. I told him what I tell everyone about selling in the entertainment business…

A deal takes the time a deal takes.

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David Hajdu on ‘The Ten-Cent Plague’

David Hajdu on ‘The Ten-Cent Plague’

  • News
  • March 20, 2008

Over at Newsarama, frequent ComicMix comment-thread presence Vinnie Bartilucci interviews David Hajdu, author of The Ten Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America.

Previously known for his books on various musical subject matter, Hajdu’s Ten-Cent Plague examines the anti-comics movement in the ’50s that threatened to destroy the industry. In the interview, Hajdu discusses the interviews that provided much of the book’s source material, and why he chose many of his interview subjects.

… I never see the need to take up my time, and the reader’s time, to tell a story that’s already been told before. Yes the story of the controversy over comics has been told before, but on a certain scale. But there’s a great deal more to that story that has hasn’t been told. Especially the story of those people who suffered most from that purge…because they disappeared. And because they disappeared, because they haven’t done the comic-book conventions, they haven’t stayed in the scene; their stories were largely lost to time. The story of the purge is a tragedy, but what brings the tragedy to life is an understanding of how some people suffered by having their livelihoods taken from them, and being denied the ability to do something they were proud of and they treasured and they thought was important. Some of these people felt so wounded, they felt such a miscarriage of justice had happened, they felt so wronged, that they left comics and never looked back. They were bitter about their comics experience and they never looked back. Somebody like Mort Leav, he was living in New Jersey in a retirement home. Still vital, but had devoted his career to advertising, and just didn’t want to think about comic books any more, because he had felt so wronged. So it was important for me to find those people who hadn’t talked before.

It’s an excellent interview that provides quite a bit of insight into both the development of the book and its author’s relationship with comics.

 

On This Day: Ned Buntline, Dime Novelist

On This Day: Ned Buntline, Dime Novelist

Edward Zane Carroll Judson was born on March 20, 1886 in Stamford, Delaware County, New York. He ran away from home as a boy and took to the sea, taking on the name Ned Buntline, which he would use for the rest of his life—a “buntline” is the rope at the bottom of a square sail.

Buntline stayed at sea several years, fighting in the Seminole Wars and achieving the rank of midshipman, before retiring and creating various eastern newspapers, including Ned Buntline’s Own. While in Fort McPherson on a lecture tour, Buntline crossed paths with Wild Bill Hickock and tried to interview him for a dime novel. Hickock refused and ordered Buntline out of town at gunpoint. Instead, the reporter located Hickock’s friend William Cody, better known as Buffalo Bill, and decided to write about him instead.

The Buffalo Bill Cody-King of the Border Men dime novel series was an enormous success and Buntline followed it with a play, Scouts of the Prairie, which opened in Chicago in December 1872. The two men had severe differences of opinion and temperament, however. As a result, the show closed in June of the following year, and Buntline and Cody went their separate ways.

Buntline continued to write dime novels, but none matched his earlier success—he was close to penniless by the time he died of congestive heart failure in 1886.

Matthew Vaughn to Direct ‘Kick-Ass’ Movie

Matthew Vaughn to Direct ‘Kick-Ass’ Movie

  • News
  • March 20, 2008

Mark Millar’s Kick-Ass hasn’t even released its second issue and it’s already supposedly headed to the big screen courtesy of Matthew Vaughn, the director of Layer Cake and Stardust.

Vaughn, who was attached to X-Men: The Last Stand before Brett Ratner took over and who is currently attached to the film adaptation of Thor, will be writing and directing the adaptation of Millar’s latest. Joining him on writing duties will be Jane Goldman, his partner on the Stardust script.

Kick-Ass is the story of 15-year old Dave Lizewski, a dweeby kid who decides to take on the mantle of a superhero despite having absolutely no powers or combat training. Predictably, he gets the crap knocked out of him regularly. The series features art by John Romita Jr. and is published by Marvel’s ICON imprint.

(via AICN)

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