Tagged: United States

MIKE GOLD: Inspiration from a Master

Here at ComicMix we’ve run a couple tributes to Jean Giraud, a.k.a. Moebius. Michael Davis did his yesterday, Glenn Hauman wrote the obituary on Saturday. There might be more coming because Jean Giraud, a.k.a. Moebius, was exactly that important. Here’s how this master of our beloved medium affected me.

It was December 31, 1973, and I was in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Quebec is Canada’s most French province, and most of the people speak French-Canadian and most of the signs and radio stations are in French. They care about their heritage and their culture and, surrounded by the United States and Ontario, they have an understandably protectionist attitude.

So there I was in downtown Montreal. To be specific, I was in a Woolworth’s, then a distinctly United States institution, now sadly missed. There is no easier way to absorb the cultural differences than to see how others interpret our stuff, and this Woolworth’s was distinctly French-Canadian.

For one thing, they had a big selection of what we now call graphic novels. Not only did most domestic Woolworth’s neglect to carry comic books, we didn’t even have graphic novels in the States.

A couple of cigarette smoking skinny kids – teenagers, probably five years younger than me – approached me as I was gawking at the book racks. One mumbled something in French-Canadian. I looked at him blankly; like most United States citizens, I am linguistically challenged. I said “I’m sorry, but I don’t speak French.” Well, nor did they, but that’s not the point. The kid who approached me leaned in and translated. “Do you have any spare change?” Embarrassed, I gave him something and they slinked away in distain, leaving me to my profoundly holy moment.

I started pawing the racks, picking up each different title and thumbing through in amazement and astonishment. I’d seen a few such pages reprinted in books, but there had been only a few at that time and there were no English-language translations readily available in the States. At that time, my comic book choices came in but a few flavors: superhero, war, romance, mystery; all targeted to an age that was south of mine.

But here in Montreal was a wonderworld of choice, and I was… well, actually, I was pissed. Why didn’t we have this opportunity? Why were we restricted to such  narrow fields of routine genre fiction?

Of the many titles in my view, I rapidly realized one single artist dominated the rack. I quickly understood why: he was mind-numbingly different.

He was Jean Giraud… a.k.a. Moebius.

My jealousy grew as I saw these and other books for sale at damn near every Montreal subway station I visited – and I visited quite a few, because they are beautiful. Besides, much of the newer downtown Montreal at the time was underground.

The name Jean Giraud, a.k.a. Moebius, was burned into several of my more prominent lobes. I was able to acquire imported English-language versions, and as Michael noted yesterday, Heavy Metal came along and made my quest easier.

Jean Giraud, a.k.a. Moebius, opened my eyes to the communications medium I had enjoyed and even worshipped since I was four years old. He re-fired my sense of wonder. He showed me that everything I knew was not enough, and damn it I wanted more.

Thank you, Moebius. I won’t miss your work; it’ll be here forever.

And don’t get me started on Lt. Blueberry.

THURSDAY: Dennis O’Neil

 

REVIEW: “In Time”

in-time-300x367-8536441Andrew Niccol is an English teacher’s dream, presenting visually compelling dystopia in movies that feature pretty people in dire straits. While his 1997 debut, Gattaca, got us all interested in him as a visionary, he has offered up precious few films since and the most recent one, In Time, was more hard-scratching than captivating.

The Justin Timberlake action movie came and went fairly quickly in the fall and was released this past week by 20th Century Home Entertainment. In a near-future, man has figured out how to alter our genetics so on our 25th birthday, our body is locked in place and our body clock begins to countdown. If I understand it right, they have a year to live without additional time being obtained which has led to a society of the immortal haves versus the time-starved have-nots. District 1 is at the bottom of the social ladder, a slum-like environment in an unnamed portion of the United States and there, factory worker Timberlake fights back, becoming the rebel a society had been waiting for. Along the way, he falls for heiress Amanda Seyfried, who has her eyes opened to the inequity largely controlled by her billionaire father (Vincent Kartheiser). Timberlake is hunted down by a Time Keeper (Cillian Murphy) for breaking the fuzzy law.

Everything is fuzzy about the movie. The world’s economy has shifted from cash and oil to time and it can be bought, sold, traded, and stored. How that works and how the genetics work are never clearly explained. Nor is the society and why is has been divided into a dozen distinct districts (Suzanne Collins does a better job of this in her Hunger Games trilogy). The power stems from the prime district called appropriately enough New Greenwich. (more…)

Nathaniel Parker Brings Agravaine to Camelot as Newest Member of MERLIN cast

  • News
  • January 12, 2012

Just as one mysterious character departs, another enters as MERLIN welcomes its newest addition – Agravaine, chief adviser to the King. Played by acclaimed actor Nathaniel Parker, the character provides yet another potential snake in Camelot’s grass for Arthur and Merlin as they fend off Morgana’s attack in the epic conclusion of the season-opening, two-part episode entitled “The Darkest Hour, Part 2.” The episode premieres this Friday, January 6 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Syfy.

The magic of MERLIN continues to cast a spell over audiences: Last Friday’s fourth-season premiere of MERLIN attracted the biggest-ever first-episode audience in its Syfy history, with viewership 29% higher for Season 4 than Season 3.  Episodes from all three previous seasons are available on iTunes, and Season 3 will be released January 17 on DVD.

In “The Darkest Hour, Part 2” the kingdom of Camelot is on the brink of collapse as Lancelot (Santiago Cabrera) races back to Camelot with the dying Merlin, the Dorocha continue their siege on the kingdom, Arthur considers an unthinkable sacrifice … and Morgana waits to strike. (more…)

MINDY NEWELL: Happy Christmas! Merry Chanukah! And Festivus For The Rest Of Us!

As a nice Jewish girl, I’ve always loved Christmas and Chanukah and Festivus for the rest of us.

We lived on a “not quite” cul-de-sac that had an island in the middle of the street. On that island was a huge old fir tree, and every holiday season all the “cul-de-sac’ers” would decorate it for Christmas. Yep, it was “National Brotherhood Week” on Hodges Place – I always wondered if the street was named for Gil Hodges of the Brooklyn Dodgers. I doubt it – this was on Staten Island, not Brooklyn – but it would make a nice story, wouldn’t it?

Anyway, my brother and I didn’t feel cheated in mid-December – like every snotty, young, selfish Jewish kid, Chanukah meant eight days of presents. And latkes ; potato pancakes for the uninitiated. But truth to tell, we also thought the story of the oil in the Temple miraculously burning for eight days was pretty cool, and the candlelight was so pretty. My brother and I didn’t lose on Christmas either.

Christmas Eve was when my mom took me, my brother, an done friend each into Manhattan for our annual visit to Rockefeller Center and the Christmas Tree, then to skate on the Rockefeller Center ice rink, then to Radio City Music Hall to see the movie and the Christmas show, then to walk down Fifth Avenue to see the fantabulously animated window, and finally to then meet up with our Dad at Macy’s, where we would all bundle into the car for a trip through the tunnel and home.  And once at home, bathed and tucked into bed – with visions of sugarplums dancing in our heads – dad and mom would hang Lord & Taylor’s, or Saks Fifth Avenue, or Bloomindales or B. Altman ‘s (yeah, I’m that old) shopping bags for Santa to fill – I guess jolly ol’ St. Nick was kosher, but real stockings were trafe.

So here’re some suggestions for your shopping bags and/or stockings, trafe or not. Some political – hey, it wouldn’t be my column with at least one political comment, would it? – and some not.

  • The full collection of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, beautifully drawn by various artists such as P. Craig Russell, Mike Dringenberg, Glenn Fabry, Frank Quitely, and Bill Sienkiewicz.
  • 1000 Comic Books You Must Read, by Tony Isabella. A wondrous collection that takes you through 70 years of comics, and if you don’t find something in this chock-full-of-‘mazing stuff that wets your whistle, you ain’t a comic fan!
  • Loading up your stocking with everything you need to enable you to enact your basic right as a citizen of the United States – to vote for the candidate of your choice. Republican governors are attempting to disenfranchise the vote to those they consider “undesirable,” i.e., those they fear will vote for President Obama and/or the Democrats. 34 states have already loaded the registration process with so much debris it makes it nearly impossible for many to do what nearly 40,000 American deaths and casualties gave to the Iraqis and Afghans – please, don’t let those deaths be in total vain. Whether you’re a Democrat, a Republican, an Independent, a Libertarian, a Communist, or something altogether different: VOTE, goddamn it!
  • If you’re a fan of the original Law & Order, and you have roughly $700 dollars to spend, consider the boxed Complete Law & Order DVD Collection. (Hmm, I just checked on Amazon, and it’s selling there for the bargain price of $450.99, a 36% savings.) Check out Michael Moriarty, George Dzunda, Chris Noth before he was Mr. Big and Mr. Julianne Margulies, Dan Florek as Captain Donald Cragen before he moved to the Special Victims precinct and S. Epatha Merkeson as the luminously jaded Lt. Abigail Van Buren. See the fascinatingly different styles of D.A. Steven Hill, Fred Thompson, and Dianne West. Watch Sam Waterson’s hair turn grey. And mourn the premature passing of the one and only Lenny Brisko – Jerry Orbach.
  • And speaking of L & O, for you video-gamers out there, I just read, it was either in Entertainment Weekly, or, believe it or not, TV Guide, keep your eyes out for Law & Order: Legacies, in which you’ll have the choice of being either part of the Law or part of the Order as you hunt down the criminal and aim for justice.
  • Fly to the second star to the right and then straight on to morning. Get tickets to see Cathy Rigby as Peter Pan. You’ll be in Neverland.
  • A donation to your favorite charity, be it a couple of dollars in the Salvation Army red bucket or $1000 to Oxfam.

With our troops “officially” coming home from Iraq – my girlfriend is in the Army and she knows soldiers who have gotten marching orders to Baghdad to help protect the nearly 20,000 “diplomats” who will remain in the Emerald City Otherwise Known As The United States Embassy, it’s time for you to really understand how the fuck we got involved there in the first place.

  • Want to know what made Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda tick? Buy The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright. The best book I’ve read on the rise of the terrorist organization and its megalomaniacal leader.
  • Next read about the fucked-up U.S. politics that led to 9/11 in Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001.
  • Or check out Bob Woodward’s trilogy, Plan of Attack: The Definitive Account of the Decision to Invade Iraq; State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III; and The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006 – 2008. It’s amazing how freely people spoke to Woodward, including President Bush. And you’ll wonder how these people slept at night.

As for me? What do I want for Christmas, Chanukah, and Festivus for the rest of us? Oh, say, it’d be nice to part of the 1%, wouldn’t it? C’mon, you know you’d like it, too. I’m joking. (Or am I?) A guarantee that President Obama will have a second term, this time with a Congress that’ll work with him instead of demonizing everything about one of the smartest men to ever hold the office. Barring that, a Presidency for Hillary – and yes, I know she said she’s done with politics after winding up her term as Secretary of State. To write Wonder Woman again.

Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men.

Yeah. I like that one.

Ho, Ho, Ho!

TUESDAY: Michael Davis

BIZARRO MINDY NEWELL #1: Me Praise

Me read Frank Miller’s blog and me think Miller is right. Me think all those people who am mad at Frank are dunderheads.

Me think protesters at Occupy Wall Street just don’t want to clean their own homes. It am easier to go live in a park in New York City and make a new mess there. After the protesters make the park is dirty Mayor Bloomberg is very nice. He send policemen to help protestors move to a new place.

Me heard that in Oakland the policemen did not think the place where the protestors were living wuz dirty enuf, so the policemen helped with tear gas. All the protestors am happy, they laugh and giggle and cry with joy.

Me saw students sitting on ground, me think they could not get up, like that nice lady in the TV ad. The nice policeman tried to help them by putting pepper spray in there faces so they wood sneeze, but me do not know how sneezing wood help the students get up. But at least the nice policeman try and help them.

Me heard a lady had a baby inside her and the policman hit her in the stomak to help the baby come out. Then the lady went to the doktor and the doktor said the baby am dead. The lady am very happy to not have a baby inside her any more.

Me think Amerika is a very noisy country. People yell and shout and march instead of going to their jobs. Me work hard. Me make lots of money and then I give it to the nice taxman. This am fair because if me not give money to taxman he will lose his job. Me not want nobody to lose there job.

Me heard there are some people who make so much money they are called the 1 per cent. Me heard me am part of the 99 per cent. Me not know what this means but the nice man with orange skin in the big house in Washingten must know because he said the 1 per cent does not need to give money to the taxman because they make jobs. Me not understand, because Mr. Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital makes my job. Me not know any body at my job named Mister 1 per cent. Me will rite the nice man with the orange skin in Washingten and ask him who Mister 1 per cent is. He am very smart. Me sure he will know.

Me went to school and learnt about Amerika. A long time ago some bad men did not want to pay taxes to the king. They said “no taxation without representation.” Me not know what that means, but the bad men throw tea bags into the cold water. They are very stupid. If me am there me wood tell them u need hot water to make tea. Me make tea at home every morning.

The bad men said “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Me not know what that mean.

The bad men said “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of Amerika.”

Me not know what that mean, either. But silly bad men spelled Amerika wrong. Me fix it for them.

TUESDAY: Michael Davis

“Voltron: Defender of the Universe” Coming to Game Consoles Next Week

  • News
  • November 19, 2011

I missed the Voltron craze when the series first debuted in the United States but we here at ComicMix certainly recognize it remains a well-loved series. As a result, the following announcement should be welcome news.

AGOURA HILLS, Calif. – July 19, 2011 –Infracells are up, mega thrusters are go and the legendary robot hero is ready to make his resurgence in Voltron: Defender of the Universe, scheduled for release in October on Xbox LIVE® Arcade and PlayStation®Network.

In this brand-new take on the classic Voltron animated adventure, players will find themselves teaming up to battle the evil forces of King Zarkon across the varied landscapes of Planet Arus. Interwoven with clips from the original animated television series, the new game from THQ (NASDAQ:THQI) promises a re-mastered adventure in stunning high-definition.

Voltron fans can finally relive some of the most defining moments from the classic series, or even introduce a new generation of young Space Explorers, as they command any of the individual Lions or even team up to form Voltron and wield his epic blazing sword.

Galactic peacekeepers may choose to play either online in seamless 1- to 5-player co-op or offline in 1- or 2-player co-op. Players will select a Lion based on a number of strengths, resistances and elemental attacks that they use to battle fierce Robeasts and a number of other familiar adversaries.

“We really wanted to create a game that’s exciting, true to the original series and challenging to play,” said Peter Armstrong, executive producer. “All of us here are big fans of classic Voltron, and we’re really proud of what we have created.”

Voltron: Defender of the Universe will be available on Xbox LIVE Arcade (800 Microsoft Points) and PlayStation Network ($9.99).

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzT9moWuQ_k[/youtube]

Review: “Neverwhere” 15th Anniversary Edition

Imagine the BBC fifteen years ago, before the current explosion of science fiction and fantasy fare. It was a dowdy set of channels, working on the cheap, and not being necessarily accommodating to the needs of its shows. Instead, they often said we have a hole for X, please take your concept and make it fit.

While their schedules were not entirely devoid of genre fare, it came few and far between with offerings like [[[Neverwhere]]], which aired on BBC Two and was written by Neil Gaiman, in the flush of his success in America with Sandman. He met with producer Lenny Henry during England’s annual Comic Relief event and they began talking about a story. Lenny imagined a society below London and that was enough of a spark to get Gaiman going.

He conjured up a fully realized fantasy world and used the character of Richard Mayhew, a thoroughly typical citizen, who does a good deed and is rewarded with being plunged into this realm. The story of Neverwhere has been told and retold, first as a BBC miniseries, complete with 1996 novelization by Gaiman, and then, years later, a comic book adaptation from Vertigo. There’s been a steady stream of talk of a film version but it remains trapped in a realm of its own called Development Hell.

The BBC at the time treated it like any of its other broadcasts, giving the fantasy a budget fit for a situation comedy and then insisting it be produced in thirty-minute installments coupled with the even odder demand that it be shot on video not film. The result was an unsatisfactory event that has left Gaiman and fans demanding a Redo.

Instead, the BBC is releasing a fifteenth anniversary DVD edition of the miniseries on Tuesday. They had a Region 2 edition around for some time now but this is a first official release in the States. (more…)

GUEST REVIEW-CHARLES SAUNDERS’ DAMBALLA!

  • News
  • November 2, 2011
DAMBALLA!
A Review of Airship 27’s Damballa
by Andrew Salmon
We’ve all been thrilled and enthralled by Classic Pulp. It has influenced so much of pop culture today. However for all its ability to be of its time yet ahead of its time, there is one black mark in the history of the form – racism. Now I am of the camp that believes it is not fair to judge the work of decades past with modern sensibilities. The great pulp yarns of yesteryear were products of their time, written for their time and should be read as such regardless of their faults however offensive they may be.
The New Pulp movement, however, allows us to revisit those bygone days and tell adventurous stories based in the past yet geared for the modern reader. And, more importantly, affords us the opportunity to correct the mistakes of pulp’s forefathers.
Enter: Damballa!
All of the wondrous trappings of pulp are here in this incredible work: action, adventure, evil scheming Nazis and a hero determined to foil their plot to embarrass the United States, politically, in the boxing ring – the key component here is that Damballa is a black man.
Given the classic pulp elements present in the novel, it would have been easy for Saunders to just trot out a pulp archetype and just changed the color of hero’s skin but an author of his skill and ability would not be limited to taking the easy way out. Instead Damballa has deep, African roots and an intriguing origin and supporting cast, the surface of which has only been scratched by this first adventure.
Some of you may be thinking, ‘Okay, Damballa makes history as the first black pulp hero, so what? I read pulp to be entertained. Is the book any good?’ All right let’s get down to brass tacks and tackle some questions:
What is the book about? Is it pulp?
Let’s tackle that first one, shall we? Set in 1938, Damballa gives us a fictional retelling of the real boxing re-match between Joe Louis and Max Schmelling. The real life bout had both political and racial ramifications as the German, Schmelling, went toe to toe with African-American Louis at a time when the world was on the cusp of WW2 and the Nazis were keen on proving their racial superiority. In the novel, the fighters are Jackhammer Jackson and Wolf Krieger but the stakes are the same. Thing is, the Nazis are cheating as only they can and it’s up to Damballa to level the playing field before disaster strikes. What follows is an engaging action yarn peopled with characters of every shade of gray. One of the wonderful, telling, modern touches Saunders brings to the pulp form can be found in one scene where Damballa, no slouch in the disguise department, has to masquerade as a white man to enter certain parts of 1930s society unmolested in his quest to stop the Nazis before it’s too late.
Yeah, but is it pulp?
Damballa is a pulp novel and a very, very good one. Punctuated by short, staccato chapters, Saunders keeps the story moving while layering in wonderful historical details that recreate the time period to perfection. Within this framework he inserts memorable characters, crackling dialogue, mysteries and a compelling hero for the ages. By arming Damballa with a wealth of African lore and real science to go along with brains, brawn and physical ability, Saunders introduces us to a costumed hero bad guys do NOT want to mess with. And one adventure fans won’t be able to get enough of. The book features an atmospheric cover by Charles Fetherolf and moody interior illustrations by Clayton Hinkle – the end result is one of the best looking, best reading pulp books of the year.
Damballa is one of the shining lights in the New Pulp movement, a truly exceptional novel you cannot afford to miss.

Jungle Jim’s African Adventure!

  • Uncategorized
  • October 30, 2011

Treacherous mermaids in the Sargasso Sea, mysterious death in Accra, an alien race beneath Mombasa and Voudou sorcery in Haiti? All this and more inside….
Jungle Jim is a bimonthly African pulp fiction magazine featuring genre-based writing from all over Africa. This inaugural issue contains three stories and the first part (in a series) of The White Darkness – a real-life account of cult film-maker Richard Stanley’s extraordinary experiences in Haiti as recorded in his private diaries while filming a documentary on Voudou for the BBC.
Issues 1 – 5 are now available on Kindle through Amazon UK. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jungle-African-Pulp-Fiction-ebook/dp/B0055SW5NW/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1309464363&sr=8-10

In the United States, you can purchase the Kindle edition for $2.99 at http://www.amazon.com/Jungle-African-Pulp-Fiction-ebook/dp/B0055SW5NW/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1320017518&sr=1-1.

The Jungle Jim editors are constantly looking for writers and illustrators to join their galactic quest. You can learn more about African Pulp Fiction by visiting Jungle Jim at http://www.junglejim.org/. You can also join them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pages/Jungle-Jim-Magazine/172831502768519.

Meet The Panthans

  • Uncategorized
  • October 3, 2011
Cover Art: Mark Wheatley



Cover Art: Matt Wagner
Cover Art: Neil Vokes
The National Capital Panthans, founded in September 1996, are the Washington D.C., Baltimore, Annapolis and Northern Virginia area Chapter of the Burroughs Bibliophiles. Meetings are generally held on the firs…t Sunday of the month and are hosted by various members in their homes.

There are approximately 50 members from around the United States and one each from England, Canada and Germany. The Panthans hosted the 1998 Burroughs Bibliophiles Dum-Dum, the 1999 and 2003 ECOF Gatherings, and will again host the 2006 ECOF in Rockville, MD. Generally so many members go to ERB fan conventions hosted by others that the Panthans can be counted on to assist with registration. The Panthans have published a book, entitled “ERB – The Second Century,” which includes fan-produced fiction, scholarly deductions and many great illustrations!

To become a member and receive a monthly newsletter informing you about Panthans activities send your annual subscription fee of US $15.00 to:

John Tyner, Treasurer
5911 Halpine Road
Rockville, Maryland 20851-2410

For further information check their Web site at: www.taliesan.com/panthans/cover.htm

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