Tagged: Superman

RIC MEYERS: Fantastic Up Creature – Rise of the Surf’s Comforts

RIC MEYERS: Fantastic Up Creature – Rise of the Surf’s Comforts

There were rumors to the effect that the first Fox Fantastic Four movie was the victim of studio interference that somehow moved a mid-film confrontation to the climax. But given its success, FF2 would be the full, unadulterated vision of director Tim Story. Right?

Well, with the “Power Cosmic 2-Disc Edition” DVD release of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, it appears those rumors were merely wishful thinking. If you liked #1, you’ll probably be fine with #2, but if, like me, you felt #1 was lacking, you, like me, may find #2 essentially insupportable in terms of comedy, drama, action, and/or romance.

On the one hand, Sue Storm — a.k.a. Invisible Girl a.k.a. Jessica Alba — is given a nice wardrobe, especially her pre-wedding robe. On the other hand, she’s given Cleopatra’s  make-up and has gotten the same disease as Lois Lane in Superman Returns and Mary Jane Watson in Spider-Man 3 – that is, the safety of the world is nothing compared with her bee-otchy, selfish, superficial ego needs.

But what of the special features, which, nominally, this column’s about? If you’ll remember last time, the first film’s DVD was saved by some above average history of comics and the graphic FF. This time just about the only thing that buoys the effort is the  “Sentinel of the Spaceways: Comic Book Origins of the Silver Surfer Documentary.” There’s also some interest inspired by the “Character Design with Spectral Motion Featurette,” but the rest of the many, many extras are self-congratulatory ego-boo fests for a job mediocrely done.

(more…)

DENNIS O’NEIL: Darkness in Four Colors

DENNIS O’NEIL: Darkness in Four Colors

If I want to be reminded of a very good reason for being where I am for the next six weeks or so, all I need do is look out the window. The foliage is always glorious. I wish I were a poet, or Henry David Thoreau, or James Lee Burke, so I could properly celebrate the changing of the leaves.

But I’m not. What I am is a guy who’s had a lot of reason to think about superheroes and – here comes a stretch – they’re changing, too, just like the leaves.

Well, maybe not just like. Actually, whether you think these überpowered gallants are getting glorious or dreary as dishwater is emphatically a matter of opinion. If you’ve already made up your mind about this … permission to skip to another column granted. If you haven’t … some remarks.

They’re getting darker, these superheroes. Grim, tormented, almost tragic. No doubt about that. Just read a few comics, or, if time and/or budgetary constraints don’t allow for a trek to your nearest pop art dealer, turn on the television.

Because one of the major changes in the superhero saga is that they’re no longer the exclusive property of comics (or low-budget film and video enterprises.) There are the big budget theatrical movies, of course. And television is rife with superheroes, and I’m not referring to the Saturday morning kiddie television ghetto, either; I’m talking prime-time network stuff. It’s about money, as it usually is.

(more…)

MARTHA THOMASES: Every Picture Tells a Story

MARTHA THOMASES: Every Picture Tells a Story

It’s great to have the comics on ComicMix now. I knew they were always planned to be part of the site, and so the site seemed to me to be a bit empty without them. Now the place seems to be filling in nicely, like a garden in mid-May.

Besides enjoying free comics from the comfort of my home, able to get them without even putting on pants, I find this format is great for my calling as a leading comics’ missionary.

Ever since I grew out of being a kid who loved comics, I’ve tried to encourage people to join my in my love of the medium. It wasn’t easy. When I was a teen at boarding school, there were a few other girls who like to read romance comics, and we would amuse our dorm-mates by reading them aloud. Unfortunately, it was the romance part that was most appealing to my peers (which was demonstrated when they also read True Confessions magazines out loud), and no one really wanted to read anything else.

In college, underground comix were cool, so I found people who shared my interest. These were heady days (in more ways than one), with all kinds of new stories from Robert Crumb, S. Clay Wilson, Trina Robbins, Skip Williamson, Jay Lynch, Spain and many many more. The National Lampoon had comics pages in every issue, and people like Neal Adams did spot illustrations. My Superman habit was still considered kind of weird, but no weirder than anything else – certainly much less weird than Spiro Agnew.

And then, I moved to New York, and the world opened up. The direct market was a newborn, and there were six comic book stores within a mile of my apartment. Some specialized in undergrounds, some in superheroes, and some mixed it up. It was great. I could find anything I wanted.

Everything except people that I knew. My then-boyfriend (now husband) would come with me to Forbidden Planet, then the largest store near by. He didn’t like comics as much as I did, but he would look at the books about film and animation.

Competition and market forces closed down most of the direct market accounts in the Village. Forbidden Planet shrank. The stores that were left, quite naturally, sold the merchandise that was available. Since a lot of such product was T & A, the stores started to seem seedy and creepy. People who might be interested in comics didn’t want to go into a lot of these stores. Women, especially, were skeeved out by the impossible physiques of the women on the covers and in figurines. If I could talk them inside, they would want to get out as quickly as possible.

(more…)

COMIC BOOK REVIEW: The Biggest Comic Ever?

COMIC BOOK REVIEW: The Biggest Comic Ever?

Here’s a comic book so big it makes those old tabloid editions (Superman Vs. Muhammad Ali, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer) look like a Jughead Digest. It measures 16" by 21.25", but even if it’s not the biggest comic book ever published, it certainly is one of the best.

On November 24, 1918, a new newspaper comic strip debuted named Gasoline Alley.  It’s still around today, making it the longest continuously published continuity strip – an incredible achievement, as continuity strips have been anathema in the newspaper world for decades. Revolving around the adventures of nonagenarian Walt Wallet and his family and their friends, Gasoline Alley actually didn’t become a continuity strip until Valentine’s Day 1921, when Walt discovered baby Skeezix abandoned at his doorstep. The child wasn’t from Krypton.

(more…)

Fishhead, Fishhead

Fishhead, Fishhead

Terrors lurk in the American South and they burst through the screen in Fishhead, the new graphic series from artist Mark Evan Walker, writer Michael H. Price and Larry Shell, appearing on ComicMix.com every week starting Monday, October 8th.

Like a combination of All the Kings Men and Saw, Fishhead is adapted from the early work of classic early 20th century horror writer Irwin S. Cobb.  This is the story of a man born with a surprising resemblance to a catfish, and living in the Big Splayfoot Swamp during the Great Depression.  With his freakish appearance, he is the subject of much speculation.  Men fear him and fish seem defend him.  And, one day, he is picked up by a traveling circus and taken for display to the rest of the world. 

Michael H. Price is best known amongst the Gothic-terrors enthusiasts for his Forgotten Horrors series of movie-genre encyclopedias and, with frequent collaborator John Wooley, a chronic-to-acute Forgotten Horrors column in Fangoria magazine. Price’s outcroppings on the comics scene have included The Prowler and Spider series of the 1980s and ’90s, with Timothy Truman’s 4Winds Studios; the Carnival of Souls graphic novel (Midnight Marquee Press; 2006); and appearances in such anthology titles as Heavy Metal and The Big Book of Unexplained Phenomena. A long-running collaborative relationship with Robert Crumb has yielded several stage-play versions of R. Crumb Comix (1985–2006) and two original-cast record albums.   Price is Associate Editor of The Business Press, a board-room journal, founding President of the Fort Worth Film Festival, Inc., L.L.C., and a noted Texas musician.  His latest album is Waiting for Slusgot.  Michael also writes a weekly column for ComicMix.

Postmodern pulp-fiction artist Mark Evan Walker works as a commercial illustrator in the magazine, newspaper, and advertising fields; and as a theatrical set designer, muralist, editorial cartoonist, and storytelling author. A steady contributor to Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Walker has illustrated more than seventy-five pulp-thriller stories. In the theatrical realm, he has designed and painted more than 400 stage productions and serves as a stage-setting mentor to some of the Southwest’s more prestigious college-preparatory schools. He and Mike Price have recently completed a short-story collection called What You See May Shock You, being prepped at Midnight Marquee Press of Baltimore. Walker and Price first worked together during 1998–99 on the Southern-Fried Homicide series of crime-and-horror comics from Cremo Studios and Larry Shell’s Shel-Tone Publications.

In Fishhhead, Price and Walker combine issues of race, class and economics with zombies and circus freaks. Kidnappings and crime involve slapstick humor, homicidal apes, moonshine and ancient, unspeakable curses, for a series that will have readers laughing through their goosebumps.

Here’s what they have to say about their latest graphic novel project.

(more…)

The Girl and Her Dinosaur

The Girl and Her Dinosaur

Coming this October to ComicMix –The Adventures of Simone & Ajax! This is the story of Simone, a fun-loving 20-year-old girl, and Ajax, her friend who happens to be a small, green dinosaur. Together they find themselves in a series of strange and wacky adventures, taking them to many different lands, times, and places. Simone is not so much the leader of the duo, but more the instigator, looking to have fun and often acting before she thinks, getting herself and Ajax into trouble and so into their adventures. She’s not dumb, just over-zealous. Ajax, the dinosaur, is the more sensible of the two. While deep down he loves adventure, too, he’d rather ponder and worry before leaping into the fray.

Simone & Ajax’s adventures take them around the world, and off it, as well as to any time or place, be it Atlantis, the Moon, Santa’s Workshop, Victorian England or the grocery store. Sometimes strange adventure comes to them at their home in the ruins of Rene de Chartre Cathedral. Their adventures are "a bit like the best issues of Cerebus, and a mood that harkens Bone" (Toph, Overstreet’s Fan #21). It’s a buddy strip, but all in all, The Adventures of Simone & Ajax is a fun and exciting comics series that will attract readers of all ages looking for exciting, zany adventure stories.

Creator Andrew Pepoy was born in 1969. After abandoning such worthless pursuits as becoming the President or an accountant, at age 10, he decided to draw comics. Soon after, he met the classic Buck Rogers artist, Rick Yager.

After many years of publishing fanzines, and while still attending Loyola University Chicago, Andrew sold my first professional work and was soon working for Marvel, DC, and other major comic book publishers on such characters as Superman, Spider-Man, Batman, The X-Men, Mutant X, Scooby Doo, Sonic the Hedgehog, The Simpsons, Betty & Veronica, Godzilla, Star Wars, G.I. Joe, and many more. Starting in 1995 I also wrote and drew my own comic book feature, The Adventures of Simone & Ajax.

In 2000, he was asked to redesign the Little Orphan Annie newspaper strip, which he drew for the next year. Andrew is currently working on various comic books, including writing and drawing a revival of Katy Keene for Archie Comics, and developing new ideas for comic books and comic strips.

Andrew lists his influences as “Roy Crane, Dan DeCarlo, Russell Keaton, Bob Lubbers, Matt Baker, Alex Raymond, Charles Schulz, Mark Schultz, Steve Ditko, Enoch Bolles, George Herriman, Henk Kuijpers, Francois Walthery, Wally Wood, Bob Oksner, Don Flowers, and so many more.”

You’ll find Andrew living in a condo with a turret on the north side of Chicago with his wife (and assistant), Chris Atkinson, and two odd cats.

Here’s what Andrew had to say about the upcoming stories.

(more…)

BIG BROADCAST: A Girl and Her Dinosaur

BIG BROADCAST: A Girl and Her Dinosaur

The Big ComicMix Broadcast starts our Second One Hundred with an exclusive preview of another Phase Two Project cooking up FREE from ComicMix. You take a cute girl, toss in a cartoon dinosaur and stir up a lot of wacky adventures and out pops Andrew Pepoy’s The Adventures of Simon & Ajax!

Plus Superman has the Deadline Doom, the Top Ten Comics & Graphic Novels are revealed and we play a game of "Where Did I Hear That Before"??

Simone likes people who PRESS THE BUTTON

Mad Max Meets Justice League

Mad Max Meets Justice League

Ha! Got you! No, not Mel Gibson. Well, maybe not Mel GIbson.

We’ve all been hearing about Warner Bros.’s forthcoming Justice League of America movie starring Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Green Lantern and Aquaman. More or less’ who knows until the movie gets made. It’s got a script by Kieran and Michele Mulroney. Well now, according to Variety, it’s even got a director.

George Miller, the director of the three Mad Max movies as well as The Witches of Eastwick and Happy Feet (among others) is going to pilot the League to box office heights.

No word on the availability of the current Superman and Batman, Brandon Routh and Christian Bale, respectively. Variety thinks not, but if Warner’s is carrying a hefty wallet, we might just get Ocean 11 with capes. Perhaps WB will sign their new Wonder Woman (if that movie actually gets made) to the JLA deal as a casting condition. 

I’ll bet Mel’s got George on speed dial.

Variety suggests the movie will be released in 2009; IMDB thinks 2010.

BIG BROADCAST #100!

BIG BROADCAST #100!

The Big ComicMix Broadcast hits 100 and we couldn’t be prouder to share the party than with two incredible talents who are each part of ComicMix Phase Two. You saw the previews this week, now listen as Robert Tinnel and Mark Wheatly spill the beans on EZ Street, premiering right here FREE on October 3rd. Plus, we dig up the dirt on the new Superman/Doomsday DVD, cover the rebirth of The  Weather Girls, herald the return of Steve Canyon and trip back to the moment the "Philadelphia Sound" was born.

You did it 99 other times – go ahead PRESS THE BUTTON and make it an even 100!

JOHN OSTRANDER: The Way I Were

JOHN OSTRANDER: The Way I Were

For me, it seemed like this week was all about returning home. The news about GrimJack appearing here on ComicMix was broken… well, here on ComicMix. And DC published the first issue of my new Suicide Squad miniseries (Elayne also has a stake in this since her husband, Robin Riggs, is providing wonderful inks over Javi Pina’s pencils for the series). This is my first new issue of Squad in – well, in a long long time.

It’s interesting coming back to a series after a lengthy absence. When I began scripting GrimJack: Killer Instinct a while back, my concern was – would I get Gaunt’s voice right after so long? Not to worry – it was right there – as was Amanda Waller’s over on Squad.

I’ll be writing more about GrimJack as we get closer to the publication date. (October 2, if you’ve forgotten and, by the way, you’ll be able to see it here on ComicMix for free. Always bears repeating.) Today I’m going to talk instead about one other book with which I was closely connected and which, after a lot of thought, I don’t think I’d want to return to on a regular basis.

The Spectre.

Tom Mandrake and I had a longish run on that series which some people at the time said couldn’t be done. For those of you who don’t know the character, he was created in the late 1930s by Jerry Siegel  – co-creator of Superman – and Bernard Baily. Jim Steranko once said the Spectre had the toughest origin in comics – he had to die to get his powers. The Spectre was also the strongest character in the DCU – perhaps in all comics. Only God was stronger and He?She had better be eating His/Her Wheaties.

The concept: the Spectre was Plainclothes Police Detective Jim Corrigan who ran afoul of some gangsters and was dumped into an oil can of cement and dumped in the river. At the gates of Heaven, Corrigan just can’t let it go. The Voice (aka God) lets Corrigan return as a crime fighting ghost who can take an almost human form. His powers were magical – almost divine – and he meted out big time justice. Never more so in a series of stories by Mike Fleischer and Jim Aparo. The vengeance meted out was often horrific.

The Spectre then went through a bunch of different permutations depending on who was writing him when Tom Mandrake and I got him. We had just come off a stint on Firestorm together and were looking for another project and both of us loved the potential of the Spectre. We had very clear ideas of what we should and should not do with him.

(more…)