Tagged: Marvel Comics

Podcast #5 up and running

Podcast #5 up and running

Our second reviewer, longtime comics writer Tony Isabella, makes his debut as a ComicMix podcast critic and spells out his rules and regulations. Archie Comics takes on Marvel Comics in "Civil Chores." More previews of this weekend’s NYCC. 

Mike Raub delivers the news and the goods on ComicMix podcast #5 — which you can get right now by pressing play:

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Riding high at the box office

Riding high at the box office

Ghost Rider, based on the Marvel Comics series, dominated the box office this holiday weekend, opening at $44.5 million according to studio estimates.  The movie took in over twice as much as its nearest competitor, the Disney movie Bridge to Terabithia, based on the Newberry-award winning book by Katherine Paterson. 

This was Hollywood’s biggest opening so far this year, and the best opening weekend ever for comics super-fan Cage, beating his previous $35.1 million debut for National Treasure.  This showing bodes well for the movies’ continued association with comic book properties, which are still pleasing audiences despite critics’ misgivings that "the genre" is on the way out. 

Someond tell them comics isn’t a genre, it’s a format!  Sheesh.

RIP Bob Oksner

Mark Evanier reports the sad news of the death of comics great Bob Oksner at age 90. 

Oksner began drawing around 1940 for Funnies, Inc., an art service that supplied comic book material to a number of publishers, including Timely (now Marvel) Comics, who hired him to work on various strips throughout much of the decade.

In 1945, he began work on a syndicated newspaper strip, Miss Cairo Jones, that caught the attention of DC editor Sheldon Mayer, who invited Oksner to work for DC — where he wound up for the rest of his long and storied career,on titles as varied asThe Black Canary, The Adventures of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Sgt. Bilko, Leave it to Binky, Stanley and His Monster and many more. Oksner co-created The Angel and the Ape in the late sixties, received the National Cartoonists Society Award in its Comic Book Division for 1960 and 196, and won the Shazam Award in 1970 for Best Pencil Artist (Humor Division).

Mark has much more on his site.

ComicMix Podcast #2 is now online!

ComicMix Podcast #2 is now online!

Our second Podcast is now available for your downloading pleasure.

Mike Raub covers the massive Toy Fair trade show where all kinds of interesting stuff was announced (you’ve already seen some pictures here and here at ComicMix.com), we’ve got another Timeline feature, and some important comments from Marvel Comics’ editor-in-chief Joe Quesada!

Plus — we debut our regular Thursday review segment with some comics opinion from Boston’s own Gwen David. You can grab our second Podcast simply by pushing this button:

 
Just in case you missed our first Podcast, it’s just a convenient button-push away.

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Webslinger

Webslinger

Books about comic books and comic book characters have grown in volume over the past few years. While some, such as Bob Handelman’s biography of Will Eisner, have received mainstream notice, many others fly under the radar.

Texas-based publisher BenBella Books has begun including comic book characters in their SmartPop series of essay collections. They dipped into the world of four-color heroes last year with collections pondering the X-Men and Superman.

Just out, in plenty of time for May 3’s release of Spider-Man 3, is their latest volume Webslinger: Unauthorized Essays on Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. Essayists include comic professionals, science fiction authors and other pop culture mavens. Guest editing is television writer and former DC and Marvel Comics editor Gerry Conway, who wrote a long, celebrated run of Amazing Spider-Man and provides some personal insights into the character in his introduction. The other writers are Darren Hudson Hick, Lawrence Watt-Evans, Robert B. Taylor, Lou Anders, Richard Hanley, Matthew Pustz, Michael A. Burstein, Joseph McCabe, Keith DeCandido, Robert Greenberger, Brett Chandler Patterson, J.R. Fettinger, Adam-Troy Castro, Paul Lytle, David Hopkins, Robert Burke Richardson, and Michael Marano.

SmartPop will also devote volumes to Wonder Woman and Batman, although neither are scheduled.

The Dark Tower: interview with Peter David

Dark Tower 1Peter David, writer of stuff, was able to take a few minutes between bowling, barfing babies, and boarding a plane to Maine to explain what’s germaine and urbane (and other words in the same vein) about the new Dark Tower series, going on sale tonight at midnight. Oddly, even though I’ve known Peter for over two decades and have been his webmaster for almost five years, this is the first time I’ve ever interviewed him…

Q. Assume I know nothing (always a fair assumption) about The Dark Tower. For those folks out there who’ve never read The Dark Tower or any other works by Stephen King, or just know his works from the movies, can you sum up what the heck’s going on here? What things do I need to know about the story that will make it accessible to me? Or will the comic be fully accessible to those who know nothing about The Dark Tower or even Stephen King?

A. You don’t really need to know anything about the series (well, aside from how to read) than anyone required when the very first Gunslinger novel was published. Basically, Dark Tower is a blend of fantasy and iconic western heroes, detailing the life’s story of Roland, the last of the Gunslingers of a long-ago city called Gilead, and the circumstances that forged him into the hero he eventually became.

Q. So this is more of a true dark fantasy than King’s usual horror?

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