The Mix : What are people talking about today?

MIKE GOLD: Death to Floppy!

MIKE GOLD: Death to Floppy!

I was combing through the Diamond catalog, placing my family’s orders for whatever month I’m ordering for. Oh, yeah: it’s April, so I’m looking at the March catalog do order stuff coming out in May, if at all. People who grew up at comic book cover dates have a hard time working a calendar.

As every month, I am struck by the impossible number of “alternate covers” being produced by the publishers. Of course, only a fraction of them are actually solicited: some publishers slap on new covers for subsequent reprintings. This sorta makes you wonder how they knew they’d sell out early enough to commission those new covers.

I don’t have a problem with alternate covers. Whereas I rarely indulge, there are enough collectors out there to make the gimmick work, and that’s fine by me. I collect all sorts of weird stuff myself – I’ve been trying to get Denis Kitchen’s Betty Boop blow-up doll for 30 years. Certainly there’s nothing wrong doing an alternate cover stunt to celebrate a truly significant issue. But it’s being done on damn near everything these days, on routine issues of routine books, just to turn the sucker into a collectible.

Therefore, while I see nothing wrong with alternate covers, I do feel they portend the end of the world as we know it.

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Infinite Crisis goes audio

Infinite Crisis goes audio

Doctor Who fans have been getting all-new full-cast audio adventures for years. Recently, Dark Shadows has been invited into the club. And now, GraphicAudio has signed DC Comics up for the ride.

Purveyors of full cast audio adaptations of such well-known action paperback series as Stony Man, The Destroyer and The Executioner, the Graphic Audio corporation will be releasing DC’s Infinite Crisis miniseries in two box sets, each containing six hours of programming. The first will be released in May, the second in June. They describe the plot thusly:

"Superman, the Man of Steel. Wonder Woman, Amazon Princess. Batman, the Dark Knight. Together, they are the greatest super heroes of all. But they have turned away from each other in Earth”s hour of greatest need. As space is ripped apart, super-villains unite, and four mysterious strangers threaten reality itself. Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman must put aside their differences to save the world, but even the combined might of all Earth”s heroes might not be enough to stop the coming crisis…"

Actually, the CD sets are an adaptation of Greg Cox’s novelization of Infinite Crisis, buy why quibble. I’m a fan of such original audio shows, and I’m looking forward to reviewing the series. GraphicAudio CDs are widely available at truck stops and Interstate rest areas, and through the manufacturer.

Who’s a Christmas present?

Who’s a Christmas present?

Australian pop star Kylie Minogue will be making her return to acting in this December’s Doctor Who Christmas special… as a Cyberwoman.

According to the British newspaper News Of The World, singer with acting credits as diverse as Moulin Rouge, Beavis and Butt-Head, and Street Fighter: The Movie will be co-starring as a Cyberwoman with rather peculiar designs on The Doctor, David Tennant. Executive producer Russell T. Davies will be writing the episode.

This Doctor is no stranger to working with big-name pop stars, as his first companion was Billie Piper.

Super Librarian is coming!

Lots of comic shops are gearing up for May 5’s Free Comic Book Day, but NJ is doing them one better — the New Jersey State Library system is sponsoring Super Librarian Free Comic Book Day statewide on May 5.

NJSL and INFOLINK (the Eastern New Jersey Regional Library Cooperative) are working with youth service librarians to conduct a statewide public awareness campaign, which includes the release of the Super Librarian comic book on FCBD. (This teaser video celebrates super librarians in NJ and elsewhere.)  Local libraries will also have teens plan events highlighting how their libraries are meeting the needs of young adults in their communities and distribute free copies of the comic in Spanish and English versions.  FCBD will also kick off a YouTube comic contest, where teens can create a video or draw a comic about why they love their library, with one lucky entrant winning an mp3 player.

The librarians’ organization says, "We will be working with Diamond Comics to promote the entire event statewide and will be creating press pieces designed to give greater visibility to how our NJ libraries are meeting the needs of teens," and it looks as though this venture is already paying off.  For instance, the Courier News reports on how the Comic Cafe store in Warren will be supplying free comic books for the Bernardsville Public Library to give away on FCBD.  Let us know if you see any other local articles.  As for us, we’ll probably be in Rockland County for FCBD, but no reason we can’t drive over the border and check out some comic stores — and libraries — there!

Roddenberry, Scott, Emsh, & Wolfe: Hall of Famers

Roddenberry, Scott, Emsh, & Wolfe: Hall of Famers

Did you know there was a Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle? Maybe it has something to do with the Space Needle, or the underground city, or the fact that you’ve got to do something while on all that coffee.

One of the things you might be able to do on June 16th is attend their annual Hall of Fame awards. This year, Master of Ceremonies and author Neal Stephenson will be inducting artist Ed Emshwiller, teevee / movie producer/writer Gene Roddenberry, director Ridley Scott  and author Gene Wolfe. They will be joining such people as Stephen Spielberg, George Lucas, Ursula K. Le Guin, Mary Shelley and Isaac Asimov.

Tickets for the June 16 induction ceremony will be available for purchase on Monday, April 30 for EMP/SFM members ($40) and Monday, May 7 for the general public ($50). The evening will include a seated dessert reception and ceremony.

Down to Earth catch-up

Down to Earth catch-up

Happy Earth Day!  Hope you’re all recycling your comics at your nearest libraries, hospitals, etc.  And speaking of recycling, here are our regular columns from this past week:

I’m going to listen to Mellifluous Mike Raub‘s latest podcasts at my Mom’s house here in the wilds of the Jersey shore area:

Mom may be reading the Sunday paper today but I’ll take Earth-friendly pixels any time; save me them trees!

MIKE BARON on writing

MIKE BARON on writing

Writers are people who have to write. They write every day. They don’t talk about it, they do it. People who don’t write every day are not serious writers. All right. Five days a week, minimum. This is about writing comic books, but it applies to all fiction.

You must know your craft, the rules of grammar, how to conjugate a verb. Don’t get nervous. Most of you already know this without the fancy labels. I see, you see, he sees. It is part of your instinctive grasp of English. Everyone needs a little book of rules. For the writer, it is Elements of Style by Strunk and White. This slim volume has been in continuous publication since 1935. It takes an hour to read and is quite droll. Buy a used copy. Do not get the illustrated version. It has been bowdlerized in the name of pc.

All good fiction, whether comics or otherwise, is built around character. We humans are mostly interested in our own kind. The more interesting your protagonist, the better your story. Stories start with people. The TV show House on Fox is a perfect example. Hugh Laurie’s character is so thorny and unpredictable people tune in week after week out of fascination with his personality. Same thing with Batman, since Denny O’Neil straightened him out. Prior to O’Neil, Batman wandered from mood to mood, often “humorous,” seldom entertaining. Denny made Batman a self-righteous obsessive-compulsive. Obsession is always interesting.

While it’s possible to grow a great story out of pure plot, sooner or later it will hinge on the characters of your protagonists. “Character is destiny” holds true in fiction as well as life. Know who your characters are before you start writing. Some writers construct elaborate histories for each character before they begin. It is not a bad idea. Start with people then add the plot. Get a bulletin board. Write each character’s name and salient characteristics on a 3 x 5 card and tack it to the bulletin board. You can do the same with plot points. You can move characters and plot points around to alter your chronology.

What is plot? It’s a dynamic narrative with a beginning, middle, and end. It’s like a good pop song. It has to have a hook. Sometimes that hook is simply the narrator’s voice. Huckleberry Finn succeeds mostly on the strength of Huck’s voice, by which I mean the way he presents words. In other words, it’s not the meat, it’s the motion. It’s not what you say, it’s the way that you say it. Huck comes alive through his words, which are fresh and immediate. We feel we know Huck. Same thing with Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe. It’s that world-weary, cynical with a heart-of-gold voice whispering in your ear. “He looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food.” Chandler also said, “A good story cannot be devised, it has to be distilled.” In other words, start with character and let character find the plot.

Comic writers think visually. No matter how bad our chops, we can pretty much describe what we see in words. Some of us can even draw a little bit. I used to write comica by drawing every page out by hand – everything – all the tiny details, facial expressions, warped anatomy, half-assed perspective, all word balloons and captions. Editors and artists loved it. Why? Because they had everything they needed on one page instead of spread across three pages of single-spaced type. Some of the most successful writers in the industry write very densely. Each script is a phone book.

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Neal Adams does the ComicMix Big Weekend Broadcast

Neal Adams does the ComicMix Big Weekend Broadcast

The weekend is here – and the ComicMix Pop Culture Buffet is wide open with healthy servings of sold out Marvels, stuffed bookshelves from DC, a sprinkling of Michael Ian Black, Neal Adams laying claim to Batman, farewell to Rourke & Tatoo and a bit of hard love from the guy we loved as Lamont Cranston, "clutching forks and knives, to eat the bacon…"

Lots of Wonder Woman from the 40s and the black-and-white 50s, revisit one of Superman’s various deaths, and we put some uncomfortable music to the Dark Knight. All this and all that, by pressing this button:

Happy 70th Birthday, Daffy!*

Happy 70th Birthday, Daffy!*

It was seventy years ago that Tex Avery’s masterpiece Porky’s Duck Hunt premiered in theaters, featuring the world premiere of a certain bouncing black duck that we all dubbed as Daffy. It was also the first cartoon that Mel Blanc did the voice of Porky Pig.

Mike’s wife Linda would never let us hear the end of it if we didn’t pay tribute to her favorite character of all time. So, for your dining and dancing pleasure and after a brief ad, here’s a colorized version of the very first Daffy Duck cartoon, Porky’s Duck Hunt

* Okay, the film premiered on April 17, 1937, so it’s a few days late. You expected respect at this date in the game?