Today in 1974, Lee Majors starred as Steve Austin, the world’s first bionic man, when the Six Million Dollar Man debuted as a regular series on ABC. Based on Martin Caidin’s novel Cyborg, the show created an explosion of superhero trends in TV, spawning the likes of Wonder Woman, The Incredible Hulk and The Bionic Woman, which was just revived in 2007. And yes, there was even a comic from Charlton back in the day.
What with shows like Heroes as well, it looks like the 70’s superhero revival has found its way into the new millenium– just as long as we don’t look back on this era and regret the hairdos as much.
We here at ComicMix paln to celebrate by doing everything in slow-motion while making na-na-na-na-na noises.
On this day in 1951, CBS first aired the hilarious classic, "I Love Lucy," and it’s never been off the air since. We must also honor the memory of Lucy for inspiring countless cosplayers across the country.
Where would they be without her? Forced into the likes of Barbra Streisand and Cher? Is that really the world we would want to live in? Thanks Lucy, we owe ya.
The New York Timesnotes what would have been Jack Kirby’s 90th birthday. (And, in honor of that, a random odd Kirby drawing is our illustration today – a stamp with a Kirby Silver Surfer.)
The Beatdigs into Marvel’s sales figures for the month of July.
Blogcriticsinterviews Mike Carey about his first novel The Devil You Know.
Kaplan is publishing graphic novels with deliberately difficult words (including definitions), reports Bloomberg. I can’t fault the idea, but I suspect teenagers aren’t looking to learn vocabulary words from their pleasure reading.
Wizard interviews Mike Mignola about the Hellboy 2 movie.
Publishers Weeklytalked to Kyle Baker about his new series Special Forces.
Comics Reportercovers the recent episode of Anthony Bourdain’s TV show No Reservations set in Cleveland, in which Harvey Pekar played a large part.
Kevin Melrose at Newsaramalists what looks like everything coming out this week. (If you buy all of it, I bet Steve Geppi will come and personally thank you.)
Comics Reviews
Eddie Campbell reviews Clare Briggs’s Oh Skin-nay! The Days of Real Sport.
Wizard reviewsTangent Comics Volume One and The Complete Bite Club.
BlogcriticsreviewsGood As Lilly by Derek Kirk Kim and Jesse Hamm.
The Boston Globereviews Gilbert Hernandez’s Human Diastrophism.
Augie De Blieck, Jr. of Comic Book Resourcesreviews two recent Fantastic Four comics, one of which he loved and one of which he didn’t.
Comic Book BinreviewsXXX Scumbag Party by Johnny Ryan.
Punked Noodlereviews Osamu Tezuka’s Ode to Kirihito.
Eye on Comicsdigs up a copy of X-Men #121 at a flea market.
At The Savage Critics, Graeme MacMillan reviewsBatman #668 and others.
Fifty-seven years ago today, science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard published Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, which led, through a long and twisted path, to the movie Battlefield Earth. Oh, and Scientology®.
And what is Scientology®, you ask? Luckily, we have a handy instructional video…
It was twenty years ago today, Homer Simpson taught the land to strangle his son.
On April 19, 1987 The Tracey Ullman Show aired a two-minute animated short by Matt Groening that introduced the world to the Simpsons, a family from Springfield, USA. And, quite literally, television has never been the same. The Simpsons has gone on to become one of the longest continuously-aired television shows in American history. What had been seen as "good grief, look what they’re shoveling onto the children now" has become one of the most honored and most respected shows of all time.
Michael Pinto points us to a Parade interview with Simpsons producer Al Jean.
In 1982, Mike Gamble opened a comic book store in Willow Glen, California. Today, owned by Dan Shahin and renamed Hijinx Comics, the store is still open, still selling comics, and still entertaining the community.
Shahin started working at the store in 1986,when he was eleven years old. Paid in store credit, he sorted baseball cards and filed back issue. "Back when I first started working comics were 60 cents each and weren’t taxed, and Mike marked them down to 50 cents after a week to make sure they sold. That meant I was earning four comic books an hour to hang out in the greatest store I’d ever seen. I was in kid heaven," said Shahin. "Fast forward 20 years and I’m right back in the place where I was always happiest. I took what I learned from high tech and applied it to comics retailing. It’s the best decision I ever made
Shahin credits the store’s focus on customer service and broad selection as being the key to getting and retaining new customers in the face of competition from chain bookstores as well as multiple area specialty shops. Hijinx also features a book club program allowing customers to earn store credit for every book they purchase. Hijinx also recently launched www.comicbookshelf.com, a website devoted to reviewing, categorizing and selling graphic novels featuring
free domestic shipping or in-store pickup.
ComicMix applauds any comic book store that survives in today’s tough market, especially one that adapts and prospers.