Tagged: ComicMix

Mark Millar To Rescue Superman After All?

  • News
  • September 22, 2009

It’s no secret that top comics writer Mark Millar wants to write the next Superman movie. He’s given lots of interviews, and ComicMix has run a whole bunch of news items about this going back over two years. The story stalled when it appeared such a move was not going to happen.

Now, maybe, yes.

It turns out Mark was misunderstood when it was reported Warner Bros. could not afford him. That seems logical for two reasons: 1) Warner Bros. can afford damn near anything, and 2) with the clock ticking loudly on their Superman movie rights and their miserable track record with this movie franchise, meeting the Wanted co-creator’s financial demands just might inure to everybody’s benefit.

Might. It’s Hollywood. No guarantees. According to Mark’s
board: “I don’t think I said they couldn’t afford me now. If I did I was joking
because writing Superman would be a massive payday so if I said that I was
obviously laughing at the time. It’s possible though as I like being glib.”

Mark had also stated “a very well-known American action director heard about my love of Superman, approached me and asked me to team-up with he (sic) and his producer to make a pitch.” Hmmm… I’m sure Warner Bros. appreciates the consideration.

Of course, there’s no word either way as to Warners’ feeling about the matter. We should know soon. In the Siegel estate fight, the courts mandated Warner Bros. produce a new Superman movie by 2011 or lose their rights to one of their brightest corporate jewels.

Stay tuned.

‘Sarah Jane’ Doubles Up!

  • News
  • September 16, 2009

According to Doctor Who Magazine, the third series of the BBC’s Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures will start up on Thursday October 15th.

This year the show will run twice weekly, on Thursdays and Fridays, and therefore conclude its 12-episode commitment in six weeks. The series runs two-part adventures, so one full “story” will run each week.

More significant, the two episodes which co-star (note: not cameo, but co-star) David Tennant as the Doctor will be broadcast right before Tennant’s remaining three Doctor Who specials.

So this is as good a place as any for ComicMix to bury the final line of dialog of Tennant’s final episode of Doctor Who. Therefore…

SPOILER WARNING!


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Review: ‘Richard Stark’s Parker: The Hunter’ by Darwyn Cooke

Review: ‘Richard Stark’s Parker: The Hunter’ by Darwyn Cooke

Richard Stark’s Parker, Book One: The Hunter
Darwyn Cooke
IDW, July 2009, $24.99

Richard Stark’s Parker novels come out of a particular
period in literary history: the heyday of the disposable paperback for men.
Paperbacks had appeared in their modern form just before WWII, and servicemen
got used to carrying small paperbound books in whatever pockets they could jam
a book into. The boom continued through the postwar years, with a flood of
short thrillers, detective stories, and soft-core porn – all to stave off
boredom for a man waiting for dinner time on a business trip in some hick town,
or hanging out at the PX on his army base, or riding the streetcar home at
night.

[[[The Hunter]]] was
published in 1962, at the height of that boom – a good decade before the ‘70s
taught publishers that women were even more dependable consumers of paperbacks,
and the long shift to romances and their ilk began. At first glance, Stark’s
hero is right out of the mold of the great hardboiled Mikes (Hammer &
Shayne) – tough, violent, single-minded, implacable. But Parker was less
emotional than the usual hardboiled hero – cold where they were hot,
calculating where they were impetuous. Parker could kill when he had to – and he
did it quite a bit – but he never killed for fun, or just because he could. As
the Parker novels went on he avoided killing as much as he could, simply
because deaths attract more attention than he wanted.

Hardboiled heroes came from both sides of the
law – Mike Shayne and Mike Hammer were detectives, but there were plenty of
law-breakers before Parker, from writers like David Goodis and Jim Thompson.
They usually weren’t series characters, though: Parker’s amoralism went beyond
his own actions to his world, and his stories told how a master criminal could get away with it – if he was smart and tough
enough.

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GOP Looking For ‘Great White Hope… to beat ‘The Original Johnson’?

GOP Looking For ‘Great White Hope… to beat ‘The Original Johnson’?

  • News
  • August 28, 2009

The Topeka Capitol-Journal reports that freshman Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins (R-KS) told a town hall meeting
a week ago that the GOP still had to find a “great white
hope” capable of thwarting the political agenda endorsed by Democrats
who control Congress and President Barack Obama.

“Republicans are struggling right now to find the great white hope,”
Jenkins said to the crowd. “I suggest to any of you who are concerned
about that, who are Republican, there are some great young Republican
minds in Washington.” And yes, there’s videotape.

The phrase “great white hope” is frequently tied to racist attitudes when Jack Johnson became the first black heavyweight champion of the world. Reaction to the first black man to
reign as champion was intense enough to build support for a campaign to
find a white fighter capable of reclaiming the title from Johnson.

If you’d like to read more about Johnson’s life, we highly recommend The Original Johnson here on ComicMix.

Let’s gossip about gossip in the comics industry

Let’s gossip about gossip in the comics industry

  • News
  • August 26, 2009

It’s hot out there, and we just had a weekend or two without a major convention, so we’ve all been talking amongst ourselves. And as a result, we’ve been talking about… talking.

The major flare-up has been on Heidi MacDonald’s blog, chroncling a heated discussion between Gail Simone and Rich Johnston…

Sometime in the night, the marvelous Gail Simone went on Twitter and spoke thusly: Do We Need Tabloid And Gossip Comics Journalism?
which Rich Johnston picked up at the above link. Simone is no stranger
to the message board, so the debate continues in the link and its very
own Twitter topic.

…with comment thread cameos from Mark Waid, Mark Engblom, Kurt Busiek, and Dwayne McDuffie, and since the comment thread has closed down over there, I’m reopening it over here.

Let me throw in an example, and try to give some of an idea as to what we’re trying for here at ComicMix.

Very late last night, someone IM’d me that an editor had been laid off. Reasonably impeccable source, and I know the editor. Should I post it on ComicMix?

Well, no. If it’s true, I don’t think that person would appreciate personal employment issues being broadcast to the world. If it’s false, it’s even more damaging to their career and possibly the freelancers that editor employs. So there’s a good reason to hold back on it, until confirmation.

But wait! If that editor is truly gone, then that means that an entire line of publications goes down as well! Does that make it newsworthy then?

The scales tip a bit here. Because now you’re beginning to impact a number of other professionals (who I also know) who may suddenly find themselves out of work, and a number of businesses who will suddenly have their stock (and backstock) affected because books may be canceled.

Then it’s a puzzlement. In that case, there’s a case to be made for private gossip– check with the affected pros privately to give them a heads up, mayhaps. But it’s fluid. We make our choices day by day, and yes, we have our
own sacred cows and things we don’t like to talk about. We don’t want
to tick off publishers– we’re publishers. We don’t want to tick off
retailers, we publish print editions– but then, we also do electronic
versions of our books. We could pick on some websites when they go down, but then we look like idiots when we have technical problems.

My only personal take on it the matter? Always punch up. Picking on an editor who’s doing the bidding of a large company is fair game. Picking on an editor fired by a large company? No. Or, if you prefer, comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable.

Or, simply enough– what would crusading columnist Oliver Queen do?

Review: B.P.R.D., Vol. 10: The Warning by Mignola, Arcudi, and Davis

Review: B.P.R.D., Vol. 10: The Warning by Mignola, Arcudi, and Davis

B.P.R.D. Vol. 10: The Warning
Written by Mike Mignola and John Arcudi; Art by Guy
Davis
Dark Horse Comics, May 2009, $17.95

[[[The Warning]]] is the tenth volume
collecting the adventures of the [[[Hellboy]]]-less Bureau for Paranormal Research
and Defense, and the first in what the creators are calling the “[[[Scorched Earth
Trilogy]]].” The afterword by co-writer John Arcudi claims that events will get
bigger and more dangerous from here – though he does note that this volume
includes, among other thing, “[name withheld] gets kidnapped, … entire fleet of
helicopters gets wiped out, and gigantic robots trample [name withheld] into
rubble.” And previous volumes of this series (and, of course, of the related Hellboy)
have been no slouch in the near-Armageddon sweepstakes – particularly [[[The Black Flame]]]. That’s a lot of promise, but Mignola’s fictional
world does always teeter on the verge of utter supernatural chaos, in his very
Lovecraftian way. It would be wise to take Arcudi at his word.

The Warning begins with the team going
in two directions at once, urgently following up recent events – Abe Sapien
leads an assault squad out into the snowy mountains to try to find and retrieve
the Wendigo-possessed former leader of their team, and the others have a séance
to contact the mysterious ‘30s costumed hero Lobster Johnson, whom they think
will have information about the robed man taunting and manipulating firestarter
Liz Sherman in her mind. But neither one of those leads works out as the
[[[B.P.R.D.]]] hopes, and, before long, they’re face-to-face with another
high-powered menace and seeing another city being assaulted by giant robots.

And yet, remember that note from Arcudi. The plot of The
Warning turns out to be just a warm-up; the antagonists here
are not the true enemies of the B.P.R.D. Near the end, that mysterious man
claims that he isn’t their real antagonist, either. The B.P.R.D. is
fumbling in the dark in The Warning, unsure of what the
real menace is, let alone how to stop it. But they go on, because that’s what
they do.

The Warning is a great installment
of a top-rank adventure series, filled with wonder and terror, eyeball kicks
and quiet character moments. It’s a magnificent brick in a more magnificent
wall, but it’s no place to start. If you haven’t read B.P.R.D.
before, go back to the beginning with [[[Hollow Earth
]]]– or, even better, go back to the beginning of Hellboy
with [[[Seed of Destruction]]]. But, if you enjoy adventure
stories with characters who don’t wear skin-tight outfits,
you should have discovered Mignola’s world by now.

Andrew Wheeler has been a publishing professional
for nearly twenty years, with a long stint as a Senior Editor at the Science
Fiction Book Club and a current position at John Wiley & Sons. He¹s been
reading comics for longer than he cares to mention, and maintains a personal,
mostly book-oriented blog at antickmusings.blogspot.com.

Publishers who would like to submit books
for review should contact ComicMix through the usual channels or email Andrew
Wheeler directly at acwheele (at) optonline (dot) net.

Review: ‘Likewise’

Review: ‘Likewise’

Likewise: The High School Comic Chronicles of Ariel Schrag

By Ariel Schrag
Touchstone, April 2009, $16

One of the nice things about reviewing for ComicMix is that people send you things that I would otherwise not consider reading or watching. Such is the case with [[[Likewise]]], an autobiographical graphic novel by Ariel Schrag. She began illustrating tales of her life while a ninth grader and had previous published [[[Awkward and Definition]]] and [[[Potential]]], the latter having been nominated for an Eisner Award, and is currently being developed into a major motion picture with Schrag herself handling the screenplay. Her writing about her growing up an active lesbian also led her to be a writer on the third and fourth seasons of Showtime’s [[[The L Word]]].

Likewise, a 360-page work is dedicated entirely to her turbulent senior year in high school. It definitely felt like I was coming in on the middle with the players already established but as the pages turned, everyone came into sharper focus. Ariel was already publishing her comics through Slave Labor Graphics and applying to college while trying to manage life without Sally, her girl friend who is now a college freshman. Her parents have divorced and her mother is apparently enjoying a second childhood, much to Ariel and her sister’s displeasure.

From the start of the term through graduation, Ariel recounts the highs and lows, the anxiety that comes with being a lesbian, a girl, a high schooler and a child of divorce. In graphic detail, we see that she is quite sexually active, seeking love and affection, reaffirmation from others while pining away for Sally, who seems to have discovered sex with men. Sally’s relationship with Ariel forms the spine for the year whether Sally is physically present or not.

Schrag’s simple style is also a detailed one, altering the amount of texture to reflect her state of mind. We go from a few scratchy lines to incredibly vivid panels that put her bedroom and classroom on display.

Given the page count, Schrag invites us into her mind, which is turbulent and very much her own. The teens talk like teens, the adults clearly differentiated without the stereotype that all adults are clueless jerks. In fact, at least one teacher comes through as genuinely helpful and sympathetic. The concerns of October are entirely gone, replaced with new ones by Christmas. There are incredibly embarrassing moments such as the night Mom invites the girls to share a joint with her and other joyous times such as the outing to buy her first dildo.

The book suffers a bit from being a bit too stream-of-consciousness and you lose track of time or decisions she has made, especially the important ones like college. Her lettering reflects the artwork’s mood so can go from typeset to an illegible scrawl and could have paid more attention to clarity. Still, these are minor nits in an overall fascinating examination on one of today’s teens. They all have their own stories, but Schrag chose to document and share her own tale, which proves to be compelling reading.

Review: ‘Stuffed!’ By Glenn Eichler & Nick Bertozzi

Review: ‘Stuffed!’ By Glenn Eichler & Nick Bertozzi

Stuffed!
By Glenn Eichler & Nick Bertozzi
First Second, September 2009, $17.99

Eichler writes for Stephen Colbert’s show, which is
why [[[Stuffed]]]! has a prominent Colbert quote on the cover – and,
perhaps, why it was published at all. It’s a graphic novel that wants to be
satirical, particularly about the modern touchiness surrounding race, but it bogs
itself down in bland talk without ever quite pushing its satire to become
really funny or really dangerous.

Tim Johnston is a mid-level bureaucrat at an
HMO, one of the faceless thousands responsible for denying healthcare whenever
possible. But one day he gets a call he doesn’t expect: his estranged father is
dying. Soon, Tim has to deal with his father’s death – and his inheritance from
the old man. Johnston senior had a small storefront – The Museum of the Rare
and Curious – in which he displayed various odd items to the very few people who
ever bothered to come look at it. Most of that “museum” is easily disposed of,
since it’s nearly all junk. But then there’s “[[[The Savage]]],” which Tim refers to as a “statue” of an African tribesman – about a hundred years old and dressed in a leopard-print loincloth in best Republic serial fashion.

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Don’t You Forget About Me…

Don’t You Forget About Me…

  • News
  • August 8, 2009

Artist Cliff Chiang (Green Arrow/Black Canary, Doctor Thirteen: Architecture and Morality) has an amazing comics-themed tribute to the late John Hughes up at his blog.

Seriously, just go look at it full sized.

It’s appropriate, with a comics convention in Chicago this weekend. Reports are coming from ComicMix staff there of a parade in downtown Chicago with pallbearers singing “Twist and Shout”…

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