Tagged: Death

The Doctor Seeks the Eternity Crystal in Multi-Platform Experience

The Doctor Seeks the Eternity Crystal in Multi-Platform Experience

  • News
  • October 3, 2008

Doctor Who is journeying somewhere new, even for him.  A multi-platform adventure known as The Darksmith Legacy kicks off as a book and online experience for fans of the Time Lord.

Fans who want the fill experience will need to register online and create an avatar so they can participate in the adventure by completing tasks, earning points and helping the Doctor when things get most dire.  Collaboration with other fans online to earn extra points will release exclusive content and assist in the Quest to keep the precious Eternity Crystal safe from the dangerous Darksmith Collective. It’s the cyber equivalent of clapping your hands if you believe in fairies.

Fans can log in at a special website www.thedarksmithlegacy.com starting in mid-November.  Meantime, the book component will be ten volumes, with the first two being released in January and then one per month throughout 2009. Penguin UK will be releasing the books with no known American publishing announced.

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Cory Doctorow and DJ Spooky at CBLDF Mashup

Cory Doctorow and DJ Spooky at CBLDF Mashup

  • News
  • August 21, 2008

While I tend to leave comics-related event promotion in far more capable hands, I couldn’t help but hype this happening that’s kicking off tonight in New York City. Online culture journalist, Internet freedom advocate and BoingBoing.net editor Cory Doctorow (who also happens to have authored IDW’s Futuristic Tales of the Here and Now comic) will be discussing life, the grid and everything with none other than writer/artist/musician Paul Miller (a.k.a. DJ Spooky) with proceeds from the event benefitting the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

For online culture geeks like myself, it’s pretty much a must-see discussion that blends comics, ‘Net culture and entertainment, and it all goes toward a pretty respectable cause.

Here’s the info dump from the the CBLDF website:

Cory Doctorow will read and discuss the issues behind his bestselling young adult novel, Little Brother. Addressing internet and government security, censorship, and civil liberties in a post-9/11 near-future atmosphere, Little Brother tackles timely issues while telling a story that’s smart, funny, and jam-packed-with-pop culture nuggets. Doctorow "hopes it’ll inspire you to use technology to make yourself more free." Doctorow is the former European Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group that works to keep cyberspace free. IDW recently published Cory Doctorow’s Futuristic Tales of the Here and Now a collection of comics based on his cyberpunkiest Sci-fi short stories.

DJ Spooky joins Doctorow to present concepts from Sound Unbound: Sampling Digital Music and Culture, his new book / literary mixtape collecting writing by artists and thinkers including Brian Eno, Jonathan Lethem, Saul Williams, Steve Reich, Moby, Chuck D, and more. "Young artists regard sound as a language they may freely sample to construct new compositions," says DJ Spooky, who, in addition to his own recordings, has collaborated with Ryuichi Sakamoto, Yoko Ono, Kronos Quartet, Kool Keith, Killa Priest from Wu-Tang Clan, and Thurston Moore from Sonic Youth. He also composed and recorded the score for film Slam, starring poet Saul Williams. In 2006, Miller was given access to the vaults of the classic reggae label Trojan Records, producing the compilations In Fine Style, DJ Spooky Presents 50,0000 Volts of Trojan Records!!! and Creation Rebel. Prior to the Trojan works, Miller released Drums of Death, featuring Dave Lombardo of Slayer, Chuck D., & Vernon Reid. He traveled to Antarctica in December 2007 to gather sonic and visual materials for his next large scale work Terra Nova: The Antarctic Suite.

The event begins at 7:30 PM tonight (August 21) at the Helen Mills Theater on 137-139 West 26th Street, NYC. Tickets for this benefit are available now at www.cbldf.org for $20.

If you’re down for the after-party thing, DJ Spooky will also be spinning "a rare small-venue set" at Sutra Lounge on 16 1st Ave at 1st Street. This event benefits the CBLDF, too, and is free if you attend the mashup but will cost you $10 otherwise.

Comics at Harry N. Abrams

  • News
  • July 28, 2008

It went a bit overshadowed amid the madness of Comic-Con, but there was some big news out of New York last week as publisher Harry N. Abrams announced the creation of a new comics imprint, headed by Charles Kochman.

Kochman was recently promoted to be executive editor of the publishing company, and he told Publishers Weekly it was a natural fit to take on more comics.

Kochman will direct the new imprint, which will launch with four new titles: The Art of Harvey Kurtzman: The Mad Genius of Comics by Denis Kitchen and Paul Buhle; The Art of Jaime Hernandez: The Secrets of Life and Death by Todd Hignite, designed by Jordan Crane with an introduction by acclaimed cartoonist Alison Bechdel; Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman’s Co-creator Joe Shuster by Craig Yoe; and Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow? by Brian Fies, the creator of the award-winning Web comic/book Mom’s Cancer.

Abrams publisher Steve Tager said launching a new imprint “made sense. We’ve published comics and pop culture titles in the past—we’ve sold half a million copies of the Art of Walt Disney—so Charles is building on a history that Abrams already has. But he brings a passion and experience in the category. He’s brought in more graphic novels and launching an imprint just makes sense in this marketplace.” Tager said the imprint will be able to cross-promote with Abrams’s children’s book line, special markets department and internationally—he noted that Kirby: King of Comics, Mark Evanier’s biography of comics artist Jack Kirby, is a bestseller for Abrams U.K. “We’ve been coming to Comic-con for several years now and our education in the category continues,” said Tager. “And our designers and sales reps all love Charlie’s books; he focuses on the little things and that’s what makes his books special.”

Comic-Con News: Wednesday

Comic-Con News: Wednesday

  • News
  • July 24, 2008

Comic-Con International officially kicked off last night, and already there’s plenty of news to report:

The early hit of the show? Heidi MacDonald of The Beat says it’s the model Owl Ship that Warner Bros. brought from the Watchmen film. "Cooler than dirt," Heidi says.

Ed Brubaker makes the jump to scripting live-action, as Sony has announced they’ll make an online series out of Brubaker’s Angel of Death. It’ll appear on Crackle, Sony’s online video outlet. More information right here.

Darwyn Cooke also announced his new project for IDW, a potential series of four graphic novels based on the Parker crime novels by Donald Westlake. The first will be Hunter, and IDW will have some cards promoting the project that they’ll distribute at San Diego.

On a related note: "And IDW did a nice job with the collateral material as well, handing out Cooke artwork with a disc, as well as Parker T-shirts to the press. Well done, guys." I guess the whole "journalists don’t accept gifts from sources" thing doesn’t apply to the comics world?

"Tossing a bus on an unsuspecting villain never gets old." And that’s the highlight quote from the DC Universe Online panel. Check right here for more.

Blog@ has a nice collection of photos from day one.

Bully makes a smart move with the California excursion and loads up on In-N-Out.

Twitters from Pop Candy, and be sure to note the uber-creepy Photoshopped image of Whitney turned to She-Hulk.

And, lastly, the legend of The Bag.

Dan Abnett’s Top 10 Movies

  • News
  • July 19, 2008

Just stumbled across this on the blog of writer Dan Abnett, who’s been doing a hellaciously good job on Nova and, to a slightly lesser extent, the new Guardians of the Galaxy.

Here are his top 10 favorite movies of all time, with a surprise atop the list:

1) Singin’ in the Rain
2) Casablanca
3) Some Like it Hot
4) This is Spinal Tap
5) A Matter of Life and Death
6) The Empire Strikes Back
7) A Canterbury Tale
8) One Million Years BC
9) Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
10) The Magnificent Seven

I can only wonder if that top choice had some influence on the cover of Nova #13 seen at right, wherein Richard Ryder and the Silver Surfer appear to be engaging in some intergalactic tango.

The Truth Behind the Death of Harry Horse

  • News
  • July 14, 2008

On Jan. 10, 2007, police found the bodies of Richard Horne, known as Harry Horse, the illustrator, and his wife, Mandy. Word came out that the two had taken their own lives as part of a suicide pact, made after Mandy began to suffer severely from multiple sclerosis.

It’s taken a year and a half for the full story to come out — that Richard brutally murdered his wife, then himself. The Times of London has a lengthy piece on the crime, and it’s a great piece of journalism, though a difficult read because of the ugliness of the incident.

If you do read the story, or the below excerpt, be prepared for graphic descriptions of violence. From the Times:

That evening, Harry and Mandy had their last visitors: two brothers from New Zealand. As relayed by Williamson, Harry was in a demented state, roaming the house and proclaiming: “It’s a wonderful night for a killing.” Mandy was distressed, and did not want the friends to leave. At 9.40 the next morning, January 10, the friends came back to retrieve an item of clothing. The front door was unlocked, so they pushed it open. Inside they saw the bodies of Harry and Mandy lying close together on Mandy’s bed. There was blood on the floor, windows and walls. Harry, so it proved, had butchered Mandy to death with a knife. By the medical examiner’s count, he had stabbed Mandy more than 30 times, fetching a second knife after breaking the first inside her. Then he turned the knife on himself, crisscrossing his arms with cuts and mutilating his genitals, 47 wounds in all. The death certificates record that both died of “exsanguination”: because he’d failed to deliver a lethal blow, both had bled to death. As a final token of horror, he also killed their dog, a chihuahua Mandy liked to cuddle, and their cat.

George Carlin: Death and Coincidence

George Carlin: Death and Coincidence

  • News
  • June 23, 2008

This editorial cartoon was published in the Cincinnati Enquirer, before word of George Carlin’s death.

I know this is a somewhat different definition of the word "comic" than we usually address here on ComicMix, but Carlin did much – perhaps more than anybody else – to mold and shape our attitudes over the past 40 years. He will be greatly missed.

Thanks and a tip of the hat to the Chicago Tribune’s Charlie Meyerson. His paper also published this cartoon before news of Carlin’s death.

And no, I won’t say "passing." Carlin hated such euphemisms. 

ComicMix at Toy Fair: Mezco’s Hellboy II, Heroes and Warriors

ComicMix at Toy Fair: Mezco’s Hellboy II, Heroes and Warriors

  • News
  • February 19, 2008

I was already looking forward to Hellboy II: The Golden Army, but after seeing Mezco Toyz’ lineup of figures based on the film, it looks like I’ll be buying a ticket and making a little more room on the "geek shelf" (as my friends call it).

New, old and in-production films and television series inspired the bulk of Mezco’s lineup for Toy Fair ’08, with products based on Hellboy II and Heroes occupying the lion’s share of the booth. And while it’s not exactly comics-related, I wanted to let go with a big ol’ fist pump when I saw the 9-inch figures based on the film The Warriors lined up on one of the booth’s display shelves.

Several of the figures Mezco had on display weren’t available for photography, as they were either still awaiting approval by the licensors. Here are some of the highlights of those that were camera-ready, though:

 

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Death, Warmed Over, by Elayne Riggs

Death, Warmed Over, by Elayne Riggs

  • News
  • January 30, 2008

As I type this I’m struggling through a pretty bad flu, which I am convinced I contracted on Thursday. That’s when I went for a job interview at the World Financial Center, a hermetically-sealed office and mall complex sandwiched squarely between the Hudson River and the now-cavernous World Trade Center site in downtown Manhattan. I’m unsure whether it was the biting winds or the horrendously long "pedestrian walkway" past the gaping hole of Ground Zero and back to the nearest subway that could get me home now that the Cortlandt Street stations are, it seems, permanently closed, but I haven’t been the same since I shrugged off the interview suit upon my arrival home. The next day Robin met his latest deadline, and we were looking forward to a somewhat active weekend — and then it hit. And it’s still hitting me, and has started hitting him. Funny how, at my age, "lucking out" translates into "thank goodness Robin and I got sick whilst I’m unemployed and he’s between issues!"

But you know, in the back of my head I can’t help but wonder whether I got ill, in part, from breathing in dead people. After all, we all know how the EPA of a government renowned for its repeated lies about everything else also lied to citizens about the air quality in that area. I know it’s over seven years later, but there’s still a ton of construction kicking up dust in that area, and the "walkways" offer scant protection, particularly on a cold and windy day.

Living through 9/11, being in the city the day the towers were attacked, one learns never to take life for granted. This is my 50th It’s All Good column for ComicMix, a milestone number of sorts, and so it seems fitting that I come back around to a subject touched upon in my first column here last February 15, scarcely a month after I’d lost my best friend. In fact, this would have been It’s All Good #51 but for the untimely death of my father. Sometimes the Reaper seems inescapable. Because in the end, of course, it is. And as it touches us all in real life, personally or otherwise (as with Heath Ledger’s recent demise), some of us find much less entertainment and amusement in its fictional counterpart.

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Sex and Death, by Andrew Wheeler

Sex and Death, by Andrew Wheeler

  • News
  • January 25, 2008

 

This week: three manga series featuring sex and death in high school. (I don’t know about you folks, but if my high school was like some of the ones in manga series, I wouldn’t have bothered to graduate.)

Case in point: Sundome by Kazuto Okada, a story about a young woman who may just be the single biggest tease in the history of the human race. (By the way, the title is pronounced “sun-do-may” and is a Japanese term meaning “stopping just before.” And, yes, the general implication is pretty much what you think it is.) Her name is Kurumi Sahana, and, in time-tested manga fashion, she’s the transfer student who arrives at this high school on page two. Narrator Hideo Aiba falls for her immediately, and thus tries to resign from his “roman club” – a collection of three other exceptionally geeky young men dedicated to vague “romantic” ideals. One of the rules of the club is that members must remain virgins until graduation, and Hideo, being an honest young man, is hoping he can break that vow, and, being very Japanese about it, wants to quit first.

What follows is a very exaggerated but not completely unbelievable sex comedy. Hideo is a whiny little schlub – of course, he’s the hero of a sex comedy manga, so I’m repeating myself – and Kurumi knows exactly what he wants and refuses to give it to him. On the other hand, she’s more than willing to torment him, with a glimpse of this or a touch of that, to get him to do what she wants. One of the things she wants, though, is for Hideo to grow a spine and stop being such a wimpy little stereotype, so she doesn’t come across as a bitch. Manipulative, yes. More than a little cruel, clearly. Not someone to introduce to your mother, absolutely. But she’s honest, and not capricious, and she does follow through on what she says.

(Another girl – somewhat more conventional but also in her way tormenting Hideo and his fellow members of the Roman Club – shows up about halfway through the book.)

I feel I should apologize for liking Sundome, but I did enjoy it. It’s “sexy” in a completely sophomoric way, full of panty shots and nipples straining against fabric, but it’s authentically tawdry and juvenile. It’s probably not a book for women, or for men who have completely outgrown their own childishness (which I clearly haven’t), but if you’ve ever wished Superbad was a book, you are in luck.

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