Here at ComicMix HQ, we’re located down the hall from the Star Wars changing room, so we’ve seen more Slave Leias and Stormtroopers in one day than the average person sees in a lifetime. Take that, average person!
With that in mind, here are some of our favorite photos of the costumed masses at this year’s show:
I remember the morning after the primary election where Harold Washington won the Democratic nomination for Mayor of Chicago, becoming the first African-American man to do so. It was February 22, 1983 – 25 years ago. The white voters were split between then incumbent mayor Jane Byrne and Richard M. Daley, son of long-time mayor Richard J. Daley and who is currently mayor of Chicago.
Whoever wins the Democratic mayoral primary is de facto mayor of Chicago. That’s a given. The last Republican mayor, William Hale Thompson, left that office in 1931.
There is no two-party system in Chicago. At best, it’s a party and a half. As a result, Washington was going to be the new mayor of Chicago and, oh, how the white establishment cried! One white Democratic politician actually considered switching parties to oppose Washington in the mayoral election rather than have Chicago face the terrible possibility of a Negro mayor. The fact that he didn’t simply means that he realized that the habit of voting Democratic was too ingrained.
I learned exactly what it meant on my way to work that day. I used the “L” at that time – Chicago’s rail transit line. My neighborhood was “iffy” – right on the borderline between an okay area and a slum and was gradually slipping downwards. That meant you walked around with your ‘spider-sense” definitely on. That was especially true of the L station.
I paid my fare and walk up the stairs to wait for the train. There was only one other person up there – a “Negro.”
For the record, I’m a child of the giant robot generation. I grew up pondering the life lessons of 1980s cartoon series such as Robotech
However, there was always one wildcard in my studies: Voltron.
The 1984 series Voltron: Defender of the Universe
In 2003, I found myself thinking about Voltron (and humming the series’ theme song) once again when Devil’s Due Publishing began producing comics based on the Voltron series. Despite its highly praised development of the characters and mythos of the Voltron universe (including contributions from noted creators such as Mark Waid, Kaare Andrews and Dan Jolley), the series was cancelled in 2005 without concluding its final storyline.
Nostalgia for the character has endured, however, and it now appears as if 2008 will be another big year for Voltron and the Lion Force. Earlier this year, DDP released the Voltron Omnibus, a collection of the entire DDP run that includes the previously unpublished final issue of the 2003-2005 series. The Devil’s Due crew also announced the July release of Voltron: A Legend Forged, a five-issue miniseries that promises to take readers on "a spectacular quest, 1200 years into the past." The series will be written by DDP President Josh Blaylock, and feature interior art by G.I. Joe: America’s Elite
I spoke with Blaylock about the new Voltron series and its place in the character’s complicated history, and picked his brain about the character’s role in the world of giant robots. DDP also provided ComicMix with new art from the series, including both an inked and full-color version of the first issue’s Tim Seeley cover, as well as an E.J. Su variant cover featuring Voltron in its popular "Lion Force" form. Full-size versions of each cover are posted at the end of the interview.
COMICMIX: First, let me get the most general pair of questions out of the way: Why Voltron and why now?
JOSH BLAYLOCK: It’s been a while since we played with Voltron, but lately there seems to be something in the air. The DVDs are selling like crazy, the Reeboks shoes, the streetwear. All that, combined with the movie buzz, and it seems like a great time to kickstart a new Voltron miniseries, and who knows, maybe more.
Need a Star Wars fix but tired of reading tie-in novels, playing mediocre video games and re-watching the films? Why not whet your appetite with footage from some new adventures in a galaxy far, far away?
Film School Rejects has gotten ahold of the trailer for the upcoming Star Wars: The Clone Wars film, set for release on August 15, 2008. The movie will kick off an animated series on Cartoon Network this fall.
Check out the trailer soon, before the powerful Sith lords of Lucasfilm’s legal department use their dark powers to remove it.
I’m growing older, approaching cranky-old-manhood, and there are increasing number of small petty things that simply annoy me, dagnab it. Since I can write whatever I durn well please in this here column, I’m just going to indulge myself with a couple of rants on different topics and nothing unites them beyond the fact that I’m a cranky old fart. Yessir.
Grocery stores. The grocery stores I use have self-checkout lanes. These are new contraptions and, as such, on general principles I’m agin ‘em. However, in theory, they get me out of the store faster and that’s a boon so I use them most of the time. What I hate is that the damn things nag ya! They have this voice that keeps walking me through the process. I know how to use it. I don’t need it to keep telling me. It has the same disapproving female voice as Sister Mary Water Closet back in the third grade. I don’t need to hear that voice again, thank you very much!
It would be nice if you could refuse its help but you can’t! Screaming at it to “shut the fuck up!” only gets you stares from your fellow shoppers. Telling it that, “If I wanted to be nagged I’d dig up my mother!” is ineffective and sets small children to weeping, bringing store security. They and the IRS are not well equipped in the sense of humor department.
In the recurring "Paper Comics Deathwatch" feature over at Flashback Universe, the blog’s authors chronicle the events they believe to be hastening the demise of comics in printed form. It’s an interesting read occasionally, and I can’t help but laugh at the way "PCDW Points" are assigned to each event.
Recent subject matter for PCDW includes all of the love publishers are showing MySpace around the comics scene, an analysis of Joe Field’s address at the recent Comics Pro retailers conference and the Wizard crew pimping an advertising partner’s scanner as "Comic Book Collectors’ Heaven."
Heck, they’ve found so much fodder for this feature that they’re taking art submissions for a PCDW logo and awarding some prizes for the winner.
(DISCLOSURE: Readers can always get free, online comics published every every day of the week here at ComicMix, so there’s a distinct possibility that we might be showing up in that PCDW feature at some point, too.)
In related news, Vaneta Rogers recently tackled the best ways to attract new readers to comics in her always interesting Q&A feature over at Newsarama. A variety of industry creators weighed in with their thoughts on how to get a foot in the door with readers outside of the hardcore comics scene.
Christos Gage offers up some of his thoughts:
Like, if you rented a film noir movie, then there would be an ad at the beginning of the DVD, just like you have ads for other movies, but it would be for Criminal by Ed Brubaker, or something like that. I’d like to see ads that tie-in not only with comic book movies — like if you enjoy the Iron Man movie, then you’ll like Iron Man comics. But something where it says, "Hey, if you like James Ellroy, you’ll like Criminal."
Chuck Dixon also makes a nice point:
I wish someone other than Archie would make a digest-sized comic for the "impulse" aisle at the supermarket. A Batman/Superman or Spider-Man or Star Wars comic would go nicely in the pocket recently vacated by the cancelled Disney Adventures digest in thousands of market checkout lines. Disney cancelled their book because it was only selling a million copies a month!
(semi-via Journalista)
After The Batman went off the air, we all knew it wouldn’t be too long before the caped crusader returned to animation in a different form. Cartoon Network has finally revealed the form in which Batman will be return. This time, he won’t be alone.
The Brave and the Bold will team Batman up with different DC superheroes each episode. Some of the heroes confirmed for the series include Green Arrow, Blue Beetle (the Jaime Reyes version), Green Lantern and Aquaman. The series is described as equal parts comedy and high stakes action.
The show will run on Friday nights as part of an action themed block of cartoons that also includes Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Ben 10: Alien Force and The Secret Saturdays. A premiere date has not yet been announced.
S
poiler Alert: This column will be reviewing HBO’s In Therapy series and more than a few of its secrets are bound to get spilled along the way. If you have the show TiVoed for future viewing, you may want to delay reading this week’s installment.
I’ve just finished watching HBO’s nine week, 43 half hour episode series In Therapy wherein we follow a bunch of patients as they have sessions with their therapist. Each day, Monday through Friday, is devoted to a different client/patient with Friday devoted to the therapist’s sessions with his own therapist. In theory, you could watch just one patient’s sessions, such as X on Wednesday, and wind up with a complete narrative. The show is also designed, however, to have an over-all über-narrative that emerges if you watch all the episodes. It is itself based on an Israeli show, Be Tipul, and the episodes of In Therapy are adapted from specific scripts in the Israeli series.
The series boasts some fine – in some cases, superb – acting with a topnotch cast. At the center of it is Gabriel Byrne as therapist Paul Weston. Weston’s office is a room in his own home that has separate entrances and exits from the rest of the house. He’s about 50, very respected and successful in his profession but things are starting to crack. His marriage to his wife, Kate, played by the always incredible Michelle Forbes, is cracking. He barely knows his children anymore. One of his patients has fallen in love with him and he may be falling in love with her as well.
It was a demanding series, not the last for its length. 43 episodes is a major commitment to ask of viewers. Also, the bulk of the series happens in Paul’s office as we sit in on the sessions. That means a lot of talk with folks sitting. Perhaps better suited for a play, one might think, or a book, or a radio play. For television? Doesn’t that call for something that is more visual?
For myself, the length didn’t put me off. In the theatre, I’ve watched both parts of the staged production of Nicholas Nickelby in one day and a staging of all seven plays in Shakespeare’s War of the Roses cycle in one weekend. At the dame time, both had more movement, more spectacle, than did In Therapy. Perhaps the more important question is – did each individual story require the episodes devoted to it? Did each one add up? Did the whole series, all of the stories together, itself add up to something that was, frankly, worth the time and commitment to watching it? Do I regret spending the four hours or so with each character?
Ctrl+Alt+Del webcomic creator Tim Buckley recently dropped two pieces of news of interest to readers on his website.
The first is that Season Two of the Ctrl+Alt+Del Animated Series begins today. Like the property it was based on, animated CAD will premiere online first. Fans can buy individual episodes, the first of which will cost an introductory $0.99, or they can subscribe for the entire season in advance. This gives you access to the entirety of Season One, Season Two episodes as they become available and a discount on the DVDs. Subscribers get the whole package for $24.95 if they sign up today.
The second piece of news concerns the webcomic. Buckley admits that he was a fan of the Choose Your Own Adventure book series growing up. Before the webcomic gets too tied up with a wedding/pregnancy storyline, he wants to experiment with "Ethan MacManus: Space Archaeologist," a storyline where the CAD characters are reimagined in a cross between Star Wars and Indiana Jones. But here’s the best part: readers will be able to vote on the choices the pop-culture obsessed Ethan must make.
So if it’s not funny, you only have yourself to blame.
Science fiction, role-playing game, and comics author Michael A. Stackpole
On March 23, 2001, David Healy and Jeff Medkeff discovered an asteroid about a mile in diameter, in the asteroid belt on the Mars side of the solar system. It was designated 165612.
Until today.
Now that asteroid is officially known as Stackpole. The International Astronomical Union approved the designation on March 21.
I am completely blown away. I can remember looking at images of the moon or Mars and seeing features named after famous people. I never figured my name might be up there somewhere. As Phil Plait so aptly notes in the post referenced below, this is a slice of immortality that goes beyond writing books.
If you click on this link, you can see a 3D render map, thanks to JPL, of where Stackpole orbits.
Columns / Glenn Hauman / News
Stephen Colbert, we have your writer for “The Chronicles of Amber”!
January 20, 2023
The Law Is A Ass #460: Those “For Life” Sentences Are Nonsense
February 24, 2022
