Tagged: ComicMix

Teen Titans’ Jamal Igle Speaks!

Teen Titans’ Jamal Igle Speaks!

Who’s your hero?

Starting today, that’s a question ComicMix is posing to a number of folks inside the comics industry and then sharing the results with you.

DC mainstay Jamal Igle steps up for the first crack at the query with some interesting results. Here’s a hint – his fave isn’t on this Teen Titans cover, but he is INSIDE.

Plus:

  • IDW unleashes their Second Stage for Star Trek!
  • Archie upgrades their web presence in a big way!
  • What comics were big sellers for the holidays? We’ve got your list!

All that and more is just a Button Press away!

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Fantastic Four – The Cave Painting?

Fantastic Four – The Cave Painting?

  • News
  • January 10, 2008

Stan Lee on acid?

Well, not really, but it might be as close as you’ll ever come. Recently, Gallery 1988 and Golden Apple Comics in Los Angeles hosted a tribute night to Stan with artists like Ruben Rude, Travis Lampe, Brandon Bird, Patrick Gannon, Misha, Angry Woebots and others paid through reinterpretations of some of his most famous characters. Proceeds from the night went to The Hero Initiative. You can see a gallery of the results here, but stay away from the brown M&Ms!

Tip of the ComicMix fedora to Allan Lamberti of 95.9-TheFox in Norwalk CT for digging this one up!

Oh God, if there is a god… by John Ostrander

Oh God, if there is a god… by John Ostrander

  • News
  • January 10, 2008
Every once in a while, when I disclose or discuss my agnosticism, I get pointed little messages and jokes along the lines of “Agnostics are atheists who like bingo.” I hear that more often from atheists than theists, interestingly enough. Some folks consider agnostics to be the bisexuals of religion – like we’re trying to have the best of both worlds. “They should stop straddling the Theological fence,” seems to be the attitude. Shit or get off the metaphysical pot. Pick a side, damn it! This is America and we pick sides.
 
The suggestion seems to be that I haven’t thought this through because, if I had, I’d be one thing or the other. Charlie Brown probably grew up to be an agnostic. Good ol’ wishy washy Charlie Brown. Or maybe it’s Hamlet – forever philosophizing and never really doing until it’s way too late. The thing is, I have thought about. I continue to think about it, to question it all, including my questioning.
 
I don’t usually get into discussions about what I believe/disbelieve. These things almost never end well. However, I need a column for this week and this topic comes to mind so…off we go! We’ll start with the usual caveats that one must issue in this civil discourse-challenged era. When I state my position, I’m not attacking your beliefs or unbeliefs, whatever they may be. I’m not trying to insult you, Jesus, Yahweh, Allah, Buddha, Odin, Jupiter or whatever church you may belong to or shun. I’m not trying to convince, convert, or proselytize. I’m just stating my position.
 

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Ho Ho Ho, It’s Magic, by Elayne Riggs

Ho Ho Ho, It’s Magic, by Elayne Riggs

  • News
  • January 9, 2008

In a comment to Mike Gold’s column on Monday regarding Marvel’s "One More Day" storyline, Michael H. Price noted, "It comes down to the question of ‘What is Sacred Screed, and what is negotiable?’ How far can the re-invention, or the seemingly likely evolution, of an established character go before the Powers That Do Be dictate a market-pandering reversal?" He even quoted the line that fanboy favorite Alan Moore borrowed for "Whatever Happened to the Man of Steel?" — the famous "This is an Imaginary Story … aren’t they all?"

Now, I must confess off the bat that I haven’t yet read the "One More Day" saga. I think I may have read the first issue, but I’m still waiting for delivery of most of my non-DC comics from December. It’s something I’ve learned to live with, this being one or more months behind the "early adopter" new-comics-every-Wednesday crowd of which I was once a part, ever since my former job moved out of Manhattan, rendering impractical my weekly visits to the local comics store. It makes responding to the fan outrage du jour a little trickier, as I can’t cite specific examples of one thing or another, so I’m left with responding to the response, as it were.

I like to think it’s a tribute to writers and artists of the past that the characters and situations they had a hand in creating have taken on such illusory "lives" of their own that inspire such passion in readers that they seem to argue endlessly over something that doesn’t exist. If only that energy could be harnessed for good!

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One More Day Too Many, by Mike Gold

One More Day Too Many, by Mike Gold

  • News
  • January 7, 2008
Damn. They blew it.
 
Pulling off those universe-shattering “everything you knew yesterday will be wrong tomorrow” budget-busting bookshelf-breaking crossovers is a bitch. Few of them prove to be worth anybody’s effort, most of them are contradicted within a few weeks of their conclusion, and there have been way, way too many such “events” for any of them to be actual events. 
 
Marvel’s Civil War was different. For one thing, it was actually about something – it took on issues and concerns that were metaphors for what has been going on in the so-called real world. For another, it had at least three really, really interesting story-threads: the devolution of Tony Stark’s humanity, the death of Steve Rogers (as opposed to the death of Captain America, which didn’t happen), and the outing of Spider-Man and the resultant impact it had on Peter Parker, his career and his family.
 
I was left with a degree of personal involvement that had been much greater than previously. Marvel had instituted real change, and while we all know change is a constant and that at some point some of it would be contradicted eventually – somebody, at some point in the future, will probably resurrect Steve Rogers, although I hope not – the “event” ended with my being more curious about what would follow than any other such mega-crossover. Silly me.
 
O.K. Now we get to the spoilers, so if you haven’t read the last few Spiders-Man, and you haven’t seen any of the covers or house ads, and you haven’t listened to the hubbub at your friendly neighborhood comics shop, and you’d temporarily gone deaf and blind after seeing Alvin and the Chipmunks, you might want to stop right here. Or you can view this as a public service. And now, back to our regularly scheduled rant.
 

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Resident Dragon Extinction, by Ric Meyers

Resident Dragon Extinction, by Ric Meyers

  • News
  • January 6, 2008
Let us now celebrate one of the greatest boons to entertainment in the entire history of film. It is seemingly small and insignificant – just a tiny speck amongst many others – but with a mere touch it can turn dreadful wastes of time into tolerable, even enjoyable, enhancements to one’s well-being. 
 
It is, of course, the fast forward button on your DVD remote, and, thanks to this brilliant advance in viewing pleasure, productions which were execrable in the cinema are made amusing at the very least. And, not only will it bridge the mind-numbing gaps between a mediocre film’s decent scenes, but it does so at a wide range of speeds.
 
You can watch at double-time, where, if your eye reflexes are honed by Wii or PS2/3, you can still catch the bulk of any subtitles (which is lucky for the likes of me and fellow kung-fu film fans). The FF button has, in fact, saved my emotional life many times, and it certainly was a godsend during this week’s DVD viewing – which, if truth be told, rarely got below 16X.
 
Of course I watched the special features at regular speed. That’s the least I could do, considering my ComicMix responsibilities. Besides, the extras are almost always interesting, whether they feature an underdog’s hopes or the stereotypically overstated prattle of seasoned hackmeisters. Both were on display in abundance this week.
 

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Leader of the Pack, by Martha Thomases

Leader of the Pack, by Martha Thomases

  • News
  • January 5, 2008

 As I start this column, the Iowa caucuses have been going on for less than half an hour. The 24-hour news channels, however, have been covering them, intensely, all day. The early returns aren’t in, but, since I don’t expect to finish this until the totals are final, we can keep talking.

 
Every four years, we go through primary season. This year, with neither party having an incumbent who can run for office, nor a vice-president who wishes to run, there is an especially large field. The network anchors assure me that, by next Wednesday, the field will have narrowed considerably as the trailing candidates drop out.
 
This is important stuff. We’re at the end days of what I hope will prove to be the worst presidency ever (as in “we will not ever elect anyone worse”). We have a huge deficit and trade imbalance, a tattered reputation among other countries, and people are dying in a war we didn’t have to start. 
 
Unfortunately, if you watch the American news, you wouldn’t know this. You would think it’s all a horse race, a matter of who wins and who loses. Some say the Democratic choice is between Obama and Clinton, ignoring the fact that John Edwards seems to be getting more support than at least one of those people. On the Republican side, they seem to be willing to include John McCain in the battle along with top vote-getters Huckabee and Romney, but that might not last past Tuesday.

 

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Simone and Andrew In Snoopy Land

Simone and Andrew In Snoopy Land

  • News
  • January 4, 2008

Simone and Ajax‘s daddy Andrew Pepoy did an interview at the Schulz Museum (yep, that Schulz!) and the good folks at www.comicscoasttocoast.com have it up in their latest podcast. This is your opportunity to hear Andrew the way we here at ComicMix do: actually speaking words from his mouth to your ears. It’s quite remarkable.

And since I have your attention, I should point out Andrew’s hard at work at his all-new full color Simone and Ajax graphic novel… soon to debut right here at ComicMix!

Everything Old is New (Year) Again, by Elayne Riggs

  • News
  • January 2, 2008

It’s the first business day of 2008 and, as I noted a few weeks ago, time for many pop-culture mavens to present their Best of 2007 lists. Alas, I will not be one of those. I can’t remember most of what I read in 2007, a blur of a year for me at the best of times due to the losses I suffered. But this isn’t new for me; I can barely remember the fiction I read or watch more than a half hour or so afterwards. It’s just the way my mind works. The only time I was able to do yearly wrap-ups and "Best Of"s was when I was regularly reviewing about a dozen comics every week, because I could refer to my previous work, but even then it was tough because I didn’t grade the stuff, I just talked about it.

My low retention rate is one reason why re-reading cherished books I’ve had for years is so fulfilling to me. It contains both the comfort of revisiting something vaguely familiar to me and the excitement of seeing it all anew. I was very happy to have received so many comments on my last column (thanks so much, all!). Obviously children’s books are beloved by a lot of adult pop culture geeks besides me. That’s really wonderful, and I think it proves the point that all-ages stuff really does mean stuff written for the young and the young-at-heart, rather than exclusively for the young. (It probably doesn’t hurt that we’re all comics people too, and have all experienced the knee-jerk reactions of many non-comics readers that we’re too old for our hobby, with its accompanying implicit assumption that all-ages literature ought not be enjoyed by, well, all ages.)

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The Happy Optimist, by Mike Gold

The Happy Optimist, by Mike Gold

  • News
  • December 31, 2007

 

As I write these words on the final Friday of 2007, I’m already tired of all the “best of” lists on all the media, so I’m going to go in the other direction and point my antennae towards the future. Chipper li’l guy that I am, here’s some of the reasons why I’m looking forward to 2008.
 
• Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark in the Iron Man movie. I can’t think of a better casting choice, except maybe for Howard Chaykin – and I’m not sure Chaykin could pull off the moustache thing. Downey’s got the right look, the right attitude… we’ll see if he gets the right screenplay.
 
• The inauguration of ComicMix: Phase Three and ComicMix: Phase Four. Actually, Brian tells us Phase Four might be ready before Phase Three. If so, we’ll probably rename Phase Four Phase Three. I went to school for this, you know.
 
• The end of Campaign 2008. Maybe we’ll get somebody worthy of the job. There’s a better chance of that if we all go out and vote at least once. I suspect I’ll be voting twice, as I once registered in Chicago.
 
• The most amazing and astonishing Munden’s Bar story ever told. With luck, we’ll have it done in 2008. It’ll be worth the wait.
 

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