Meet and greet the best talent online and on paper! Here’s the schedule for artists signings at Booth #2308 — ComicMix and Insight Studios. Please stop by and say hello!
THURSDAY, July 24
10 AM – Noon
Jerry Carr (Cryptozoo Crew)
Noon — 2 PM
Rick Marshall (ComicMix News)
2 PM – 4 PM
Mike Gold (ComicMIx Editor-in-Chief)
4 PM – 6 PM
Alan Gross (Cryptozoo Crew)
Previously on ComicMix, I brought you the first part of my interview with writer, actor and publisher Wil Wheaton. In that part, we discussed topics including his feelings about modern comics and comic-book movies, his acting career, his love of writing and, most importantly, what he likes to order for lunch.
In the second part of my interview, we spend a bit more time discussing the craft of writing, personal publishing, his preferences in technology and the sometimes unpredictable nature of an Internet audience.
COMICMIX: Let’s change gears for a minute, Wil. You’re a pretty well-respected technology guy, and I know you’re a Mac user. How long has that been going on?
WIL WHEATON: I was one of the earliest Mac adopters. I had a Mac 128K in the first few months of its release. I loved it. I wish I could find, I key-noted at Mac World a few years ago, and both my notes and my address are gone. I don’t know where they went.
Ironically, I wrote them on a Linux machine and I think that I may have just inadvertently lost them. But I loved that computer. It was portable, which is funny to say now, because it only weighed like, 20-30 pounds. It had a handle on the top, so clearly, it was portable.
CMix: Did you ever have a clone?
WW: No. I wouldn’t consider myself a Mac cultist or an Apple cultist. There’s still stuff they do that I don’t like and I don’t really have brand loyalty. I have brand anti-loyalty, though. I’ll never buy a Sony product… ever.
Writer, actor and soon-to-be publishing mogul Wil Wheaton has come a long way since his days as a child actor in such breakout roles as Gordie LaChance in Stand By Me
However, in the years since Star Trek, Wheaton has managed to mostly put acting and Wesley Crusher behind him and reinvent himself as a writer through his website, his work in various magazines and other publications, writing gigs on several comic books and work on manga titles from publishers such as TokyoPop.
Wheaton has also managed to launch a very successful publishing company, and is still a fan favorite at conventions and appearances all over the country. I caught up with the multi-talented Wheaton recently at a non-trendy eatery in Pasadena, CA, to talk comics, his career and his love of writing.
COMICMIX: Okay Wil, what people really want to know is what you order for lunch.
WIL WHEATON: The ricotta with mission fig here is awesome. I love that, but I get it so much…
CMix: Before you arrived, someone’s cellphone rang and it was the bridge alert from the Enterprise.I looked around and thought you were already here, but realized that you probably wouldn’t have that as your ringtone.
WW: No, my phone plays "Good Times, Bad Times" by Led Zeppelin.
CMix: That’s a good one. So, you just came back from a convention, right?
WW: Yes, the Emerald City Comicon.
CMix: Are you wearing an Emerald City Con shirt?
WW: You know what, I didn’t have time to get one. This is a "Hanners" t-shirt from Questionable Content, which is one of my all-time favorite webcomics ever.
CMix: Nice. At the convention you seem kind of surprised at the amount of books you were selling. Does that happen a lot?
WW: I never know what to anticipate when I go to a new show. And I have these internal metrics that I set — sort of like an average sales figure that’s kind of the line for whether or not it’s a successful show, and there are all these different means by which I measure success.
Is it fun? Are the people cool? Did I stumble across a cool new t-shirt? Did I meet new artists?
PvP Vol. 5: PvP Treks On
By Scott Kurtz
Image, June 2008, $14.99
Image is a comic-book publisher, and sees everything through that lens. So, for them, this is a book “collecting issues 25-31 of the hit comic strip series,” as the cover proclaims. For most of us, though, PvP (http://www.pvponline.com/) is a daily comic strip on the web, so what’s important is that [[[Treks On]]] collects strips from June 12, 2005 through April 9, 2006. (Possibly not all of them, since several seem to be added at the beginning and others are missing at the end – and there were some duplicates in the middle, too – but most of them, at least.)
Image might think that referring to comics – which cost money – instead of to a free webcomic might increase the perceived value of their book, but are there really people – even in the inbred, hothouse environment of the comics shop – who would be a) interested in a daily comic strip about computer gaming and b) unfamiliar with webcomics?
My complaints about Image’s publishing strategy aside, this is a handsome package, with the strips shown at a nice large size, two to a page. We’re running about two years behind the current strip, so Brent isn’t even engaged to Jade yet – though he comes darn close in one storyline here. The other character relationships are close to where they are now: Francis and Marcy are friendly but not quite dating, and Robbie & Jase win the lottery in these strips.
George Takei, known for his roles on Star Trek and Heroes, as well as co-writing Star Trek comics with Peter David, was the first to pay $70 for a same-sex marriage license in West Hollywood early today. George is expected to marry his partner of 21 years, Brad Altman, on September 14th in Los Angeles. (We won’t know for sure until we get the invite.)
George was quoted as saying "it’s going to be the only day like this in our lives and it is the only day like this in the history of America." He also told reporters and a swelling crowd outside the West Hollywood city auditorium "may equality live long and prosper."
We wish the two of them continued happiness, and we’re calling dibs on being the ones to buy them the toaster oven.
According to USA Today, DC Comics is going to break its long-standing tradition and actually commit to a new series based on a teevee show before it goes on the air.
J.J. Abrams, instigator of the series Alias and Lost and director of the upcoming Star Trek: The Next Damn Movie, has a new show going up on the Fox Network called Fringe, which is supposed to be in the X-Files vein. The show debuts August 27th; DC’s book – which reportedly is without writer or artist — is supposed to ship the first issue August 13th. We’re not taking bets on that.
Fringe stars Charlotte Rampling (Zardoz), Mark Valley (Boston Legal), Blair Brown (Altered States) and a bunch of others. Abrams’ writing posse of Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, who huddled over Mission Impossible 3 and the aforementioned Alias and Star Trek: The Next Remake, have hooked up for the new series.
Maybe they’ll knock out the comic book while they’re at it.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Here on ComicMix, our lists of must-read Iron Man stories and recommended reading for The Dark Knight were so popular that we decided to put together the following list for Friday’s release of The Incredible Hulk in theaters. Enjoy! -RM]
He’s been in comics for decades. His cameos in series other than his own have always meant blockbuster action. He’s had a live-action television series, TV-movies, cartoons, videogames and now a new major motion picture coming out this Friday.
He is the Hulk.
Yet he is also Dr. Robert Bruce Banner, and long ago, he created the gamma bomb — the next step in nuclear warheads. But when he saw a kid named Rick Jones in the test area, Bruce condemned himself by saving the boy’s life and getting caught in the bomb blast. Bathed in gamma rays, he was mutated so that he would now transform into a gray-skinned, monstrous version of himself at night.
As time went on, Banner’s mutation shifted and he would turn into a green-skinned, savage, child-like creature whenever he was angered, which became the most famous take on the character. Later still, he struck a balance by becoming a gestalt, merging his different alter egos. In recent years, he has reverted to his "classic" status, the scientist who is terrified to lose his temper lest he become a destructive emerald beast.
Perhaps it’s this isolation, and his desperation to change his situation in life, that causes so many people to relate to him — both in the fictional world he occupies and the real world of his readers.
Here, then, are some of the most important, must-read stories involving the Hulk from the character’s long history, and a good place to start if this week’s release of The Incredible Hulk piques your interest in Marvel’s famous green-skinned goliath.
Born in 1952, Mike W. Barr’s first comic book story was an eight-page backup in Detective Comics #444 in 1974.
In 1980, he started doing semi-regular backup stories in both Detective Comics and House of Mystery. He also wrote an issue of Captain America, which led to regular work with Marvel as well.
The following year, Barr picked up some editorial duties at DC and also started writing Star Trek for Marvel. In 1982, he wrote Camelot 3000, one of the first so-called “maxi-series.”
August 1983 saw the debut of Batman and the Outsiders, probably Barr’s best-known creation, and in 1987 he wrote Batman: Son of the Demon, which is often credited as singlehandedly restoring DC’s fortunes.
Since then Barr has done many more comic book projects, including more Batman stories, a two-parter for JLA: Classified, a relaunch of his Maze Agency series, and a piece for Star Trek: The Manga.
He also wrote a Star Trek novel, Gemini, which included some of the characters he created in the Star Trek comic book series.
We continue our look at the ongoing world of Star Trek fiction with news of a massive crossover event that will have major effect on all aspects of Trek, from Archer to Janeway, plus:
— Comics And The Movies – Flash Gordon & Buck Rogers?
— Captain America returns to WWII
— Yes you did see that in Iron Man!
Toss another dog on the holiday bbq and press the button!
or RSS!
For the first time ever, there is no new original Star Trek series on television, but your favorite characters are alive and well in book form. Discover what’s been going on with the Next Gen crew, DS9 and more, plus:
— Marvel unveils two new, hard-to-get treasures
— Famous Monsters is back!
— "Dial H For"??
You just want to kill time before the three-day weekend – so press the button!
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Columns / Glenn Hauman / News
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