Tagged: History

The Point Radio: The World According To Clint (Eastwood)

Clint Eastwood talks about the cinematic challenge of directing a film that spans a long stretch of history, plus will he will ever go in front of the camera again? Plus – Howard Stern on NBC? It might happen!

The Point Radio is on the air right now – 24 hours a day of pop culture fun for FREE. GO HERE and LISTEN FREE on any computer or mobile device– and please check us out on Facebook right here & toss us a “like” or follow us on Twitter @ThePointRadio.

Watch “Zombies: A Living History”

Watch “Zombies: A Living History”

The Walking Dead on San Diego

Image by {El Gris} via Flickr

Premiering tonight on the History Channel!

Relentless. Infectious. All consuming. Since the beginning of time they have embodied our deepest fears and today their power to frighten us is more potent than ever before. They are the monster that history cannot kill.

Get ready for an unprecedented exploration of history’s most terrifying and enduring horror. What are the origins of the living dead and what makes them more relevant than ever before? Join Max Brooks, Jonathan Maberry, Roger Ma, JL Bourne, Kim Paffenroth, Rebekah McKendry, Steven Schlozman, Daniel Drezner, The Zombie Squad and many more as we investigate the roots of our ultimate fear and find out what you can do to prepare yourself for the zombie apocalypse.

…Because if you’re prepared for zombies, you’re prepared for anything.

You’ll even see a few ComicMix contributors in the special. The producers wanted them for their braiiinnnnnssss…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnCbOs5alYA[/youtube]

Happy 70th Birthday, Aquaman!

Happy 70th Birthday, Aquaman!

Today is a very, very special day in the history of Aquaman–it’s his 70th birthday! And when we say 70th birthday, we don’t mean the birthday DC Comics has seen fit to give him within their continuity–that’s January 29. No, we mean that on this day seventy years ago–September 25, 1941–More Fun Comics #73, Aquaman’s debut appearance, hit newsstands…

So, with Aquaman hitting the big 7-0, and his new series only days away from debuting, the Shrine thought it a tribute fit for a king to reach out and collect birthday greetings from various writers, artists, and performers, all of whom have been involved with the Sea King in some way over these seven decades…

How do you blow out birthday candles underwater? For that matter, how do you light them?

via The Aquaman Shrine: Happy 70th Birthday Aquaman!.

MICHAEL DAVIS: Back To The Future

“Just when I thought I was out, they drag me back in.”
Michael Corleone

“This is a moment of history.”
Jim Lee

“ I told you so.”
Michael Davis

“Bitch better have my money.”
Fly Guy

Michael Corleone was talking about not being able to escape the Mafia.

Jim Lee was talking about the DC Comics Reboot.

I’m taking about my return to ComicMix.

Fly guy was talking about a bitch having his money.

Don’t waste anytime trying to figure out why I used the Fly Guy quote. I’ll just tell you, I simply like saying, “Bitch better have my money.”

I’m told there are a lot more ComicMix users now then when I was writing here. Because of that I’m going to write a brief bio of myself in case you never heard of me.

My name is Michael Davis and I’m Master Of The Universe. I’m also a writer, TV producer artist and dealmaker. I work in mainstream publishing, comics, television and the music industry, yada, yada, blah, blah. When ComicMix started I wrote a wildly popular column called “Straight No Chaser”.  I was fired from ComicMix because I was black.

OK, the black thing is just what I told girls at comic conventions when I wanted them to feel bad for me. Now I’ll tell them ComicMix brought me back because of pressure from the NAACP and President Obama.

My column WAS wildly popular. If you hear differently remember that’s the white man trying to keep me down.

As I mentioned my column was called Straight No Chaser. I can’t call my return to ComicMix that because I continue my weekly rants under that title at my WILDLY popular website, www.michaeldavisworld.com.

If anyone tells you it’s not wildly popular, remember,

White man.

Down.

Me.

(more…)

DENNIS O’NEIL: Universal Upheaval!

So the universe upheaved and a gap appeared in time and here we are, at the far end of that gap. (Or the near end, if we’re looking backwards. But never mind.) We’ve again grubbed residence in Comicmixland and vowed to deliver weekly blather.

But, with a deep bow to Bill Maher, we have new rules—or to be exact, just rules, since when I last did this nobody mentioned rules, though I did promise Mike Gold and myself to do at least 500 words per installment, lest I be mistaken for a carbuncle. The 500 word deal still holds, but Mike has added a new proviso; subject matter should be somehow related to comics.

Pretty draconian, huh?

Actually, Mike’s edict doesn’t much close any doors. First, a lot is happening in comics and related media per se and, second, virtually everything in our media-drenched, perpetual-news-cycling global civilization is connected. Always has been. Really. Remember the butterfly effect: The sumbitch flapping around a garden in Tokyo today will cause your hat to blow off next Tuesday and the breath I just took may have contained an atom that was once part of Cleopatra. (And, more painfully, the monetary crisis in Greece may bump your mortgage.) And we all come from the same place, out there among the stars in the baby cosmos.

So yeah, the world is a vast network of interconnections, and it’s a lot easier to see that now that it was a century ago. It shouldn’t be much of a rhetorical trick to write about comics and still acknowledge that other things exist, and are worthy our notice.

(I wonder: could you have a comprehensive knowledge of comics, beginning with [[[The Yellow Kid]]] and ending with…oh, I dunno – Chris Claremont’s run on [[[X-Men]]]? – could you know that and be ignorant of the history of the United States in the Twentieth Century? Maybe not.)

But where to begin?

Well, this week, nowhere. I’ve already burned away 329 of those 500 words and unless I want to content myself with knocking off a few haiku, there isn’t much room left for pontificating. But next week? Hey, this has been called the summer of the superhero movie, hasn’t it? And although I haven’t seen all of the films in question, and probably won’t in the next seven days (Thor has already hammered back to Asgard, which I think is somewhere just off Sunset Boulevard, and is not available for viewing) but doesn’t utter ignorance of my subject qualify me as a pundit? Darn right! And what’s happening behind the cameras—the changes in management—is worth a bit of uninformed opinionating, too.

A final note: In the previous incarnation of this feature, and in a comic book that the aforementioned Mike Gold and I worked on a couple of decades past, we recommended books we thought might amuse our readers. I’d like to continue recommending reading, but not every week, just when I come across something I think will be of particular interest to y’all.

Happy trails…

FRIDAY… Martha Thomases

Review: Dissidia 012 [duodecim]

Drawing upon their rich history, Square Enix’s Dissidia 012 [duodecim] places a “Who’s Who” list of well loved characters from their “[[[Final Fantasy]]]” games into a novel setting – a combination of a role-playing game and a fighting game. Any “Final Fantasy” veteran may think about who would win in a fight between Lightning and Sephiroth, and now you can find out.

This may seem like an uneasy marriage, but it works. If you’re used to traditional fighting games like “[[[Street Fighter]]]” or “[[[Tekken]]],” this is very different. First off, combat is in three dimensions with aerial attacks as well as ground-based. Direction is automatically locked on to your opponent or power-ups. The RPG side of this pits characters in the middle of an eternal battle between Cosmos and Chaos. The focus is on combat, and you’ll have to go through different offensive & defensive techniques, as well as evasion. While the fighting engine is simple in principle, because of the high number of variables, execution can be tough. Along the way, you’ll be able to upgrade your weapons, armor, as well as swap out different attack techniques.

There’s also a “fighting only” option, but if you’re looking at this in the same frame of mind as a traditional fighting game, you’ll be slightly disappointed. You choose which character you want and match by match (no “best out of three” stuff here), you select your opponent. The opponent’s skill level is evenly matched to yours, and while this is fair, fighting games are usually not fair. There’s also no sub-boss or boss opponents, but any shortcomings Dissidia 012 [duodecim] may have as a fighting game are made up by the fact that any experience you rack up in the fighting area carries over in the RPG.

Square Enix graciously provided a free copy of this game for review. Thanks, guys.

Marvel Announces Marvelman’s Return in June

Marvel Announces Marvelman’s Return in June

After announcing the acquisition of the British hero Marvelman last summer, Marvel Comics finally has scheduled their initial offerings. In a press release, the company said they would be celebrate the rich history and reprint material from the beginning.

Once Fawcett ceased publishing Captain Marvel stories in the 1950s, the British publisher of the comics chose to convert the hero, supporting cast, and villains into original characters under the similar name Marvelman. Under the guidance of artist Mick Anglo, the characters lasted until the 1960s then vanished. Dez Skinn resurrected the character for Warrior magazine and has been a source of fascination ever since.

Here’s the release:

Marvel is proud to announce the return of Marvelman to shelves everywhere with the release of Marvelman Classic Primer #1 in June! Who is the mysterious Marvelman? And just why is he one of the most enduring super heroes of all time? The answers arrives in this commemorative one-shot featuring interviews with creator Mick Anglo, superstar Neil Gaiman and more who contributed to this character’s history over the years! Plus, get all-new pin ups of key Marvelman characters by superstar artists Mike Perkins, Doug Braithwaite, Miguel Angel Sepulveda, Jae Lee, Khoi Pham and Ben Oliver! This landmark issue features two covers—one with the timeless art of Mick Anglo and another with the now-iconic rendition of Marvelman by Marvel Editor-In-Chief—and superstar artist—Joe Quesada!

Then, in July, thrill to the debut of Marvelman Family’s Finest #1, a new ongoing series reprinting Marvelman’s greatest adventures for the first time in the US! Plus, no comics fan can miss Marvelman Classic Vol.1 Premiere HC, reprinting Marvelman’s earliest adventures in chronological order!

Now’s your chance to learn just why Marvelman is one of the most important characters in comic book history—it all begins in Marvelman Classic Primer #1, this June!

MARVELMAN CLASSIC PRIMER #1
Written by JOHN RHETT THOMAS
Cover by JOE QUESADA
Variant by MICK ANGLO
Rated A …$3.99

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Paul Kirk, Manhunter– er, Senator?

Paul Kirk, Manhunter– er, Senator?

Jesse Ventura was elected governor, so why couldn’t a costumed mystery man serve in the U.S. Senate?

Paul Kirk, the late Senator Ted Kennedy’s temporary replacement, shares a name but (probably) not the predilection for vigilante crime-fighting, with Manhunter, a DC character with an interesting history. 

In the comics, Paul Kirk used decides to become a crimefighter when his friend, Empire City
police inspector Donovan, was murdered by the supervillain known as the
Buzzard. He wore a superhero-like red costume with a blue mask. While
he had no superpowers, he was an above average athlete and possessed
superior tracking skills. Later, he went off to become a big-game hunter, but was killed by an elephant, then brought back to life by a secret society intent on ruling the world (insert obligatory Obama/ACORN reference here) and set up to lead an army of clones of him, but he rebelled and brought down the Council in a story chronicled by Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson.

That doesn’t seem to describe the real-world Paul Kirk, but who knows? He could be a man of hidden talents.

Or it could be yet another one of those Paul Kirk clones running around…

The new Robin revealed? Plus, whatever happened to Calvin and Hobbes?

The new Robin revealed? Plus, whatever happened to Calvin and Hobbes?

Watch how we seamlessly blend three items from last week, add a bit of comics history, and… but we’re getting ahead of things.

Last week, we had Grant Morrison talking about the new Batman & Robin series he’ll be doing with Frank Quitely, discussing (among other things) a new Robin. We also saw lnks to fan images as to whatever happened to Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes now that he’s older, with one sweet image and one… not so sweet. (Incidentally, I think the girl’s name is Berkeley. No, not Breathed.)

This puts me in mind of what happened the last time we replaced Robin. I was working in the production department at DC during the time of Batman: A Death in the Family , which took Jason Todd out. And at the time, there was a tradition in production of taking that day’s Calvin and Hobbes strip, xeroxing it larger, having Bob LeRose color it, and posting it on the bulletin board.

And Steven Bové wondered what they were going to do about the new Robin. And one idea led to another, and he drew a little something. And then it got passed around the rest of the department with everybody contributing, and a minor masterpiece was born.

So here, with pencils and inks from Steven Bové, inks by Jerry Acerno, letters by John Workman, and colors by me after the late great Bob LeRose:

Coraline… the Musical?

Coraline… the Musical?

Not content with having a Newbury Award, the the top-debuting, wide-release, stop-motion film in movie history, and throngs of adoring fans dressed in black, now Neil Gaiman is trying for a Obie Award.

Coraline the musical goes into previews on May 7 at the Lucille Lortel Theater, off-Broadway in Greenwich Village, where it will run through June 20. The book is by David Greenspan and music and lyrics by Stephin Merritt, and directed by Leigh Silverman.

Casting will be– unconventional, to say the least. 9-year-old Coraline will be played by 55-year-old actress Jayne Houdyshell, with the Other Mother played by David Greenspan. (Cross-dressing in Greenwich Village? That never happens…)