The Mix : What are people talking about today?

Crime writer to tackle Hellblazer

Crime writer to tackle Hellblazer

The Scotsman is reporting that Ian Rankin, writer of the extremely popular Inspector Rebus crime fiction series, will be doing a six-issue run on DC’s Hellblazer.

Rankin approaches the venture with appropriate trepidation: "Let’s wait and see if I can do it; maybe it will turn out that I can’t. It is much more like a screenwriter’s skill than a novelist’s skill. You have to use very few words, and a lot of the writing is just instructions to the artist."

A good observation for other famous "mainstream" authors with comic book aspirations to bear in mind!

Sunday reading catch-up

Sunday reading catch-up

You know you’re a geek when you go away-from-keyboard to spend the day with your cousins at a nifty local mall and your first thought upon seeing a Lego keychain display is, "Ooh, Batman and Robin and the Joker, this would make a cute photo for ComicMix!"

And so it goes (apologies, etc. etc.).  Now for your weekly all-in-one post of our regular columns from this past week:

As for me, I’m going to catch up on Mellifluous Mike Raub‘s latest podcasts:

I’ll also be reading comics.  Have I mentioned today’s a good day to read comics?  Heck, what day isn’t?

Who’s on top again?

Who’s on top again?

With the Doctor Who episode, "Gridlock", airing last night in the UK, the show has retaken the lead from Star Trek with 727 produced episodes over a 44 year history, exceeding all of the Star Trek series combined. Well done, lads and ladies.

GLENN HAUMAN: Arguments should be good

CBRJoe Rice disgraces himself and Comic Book Resources with one of the worst cases of paralogia and argumentum ad hominem I’ve seen since the Peter David/Todd MacFarlane Great Debate. His argument can be reductiod to the following absurdum:

  1. I like Fantagraphics products.
  2. Harlan Ellison is suing Fantagraphics for reasons I don’t even pretend to address or understand.
  3. Therefore, Harlan Ellison is a "petty old sci-fi writer" and "a tired old hack" and he’s suing because "in truth, because his widdle feewings were hurt at how they descwibed him".

Yes, Joe, comics should be good– and so should your arguments. I didn’t think there could be a Rice who could make worse arguments than Condoleezza…

Happy birthday, McDonald’s

Happy birthday, McDonald’s

Fifty-two (there’s that number again) years ago today, the first McDonald’s franchise opened up in Des Plaines, IL, just north of Chicago’s O’Hare Airport.

It’s still there, but now it’s a museum – complete with 1955 cars in the parking lot.

On behalf of what you’ve done for the bodies of millions of comic book fans across America, we’d just like to say: Thanks heaps.

(Comic Book Guy artwork © Fox. All Rights Reserved.)

MATT RAUB on Painkiller Jane

MATT RAUB on Painkiller Jane

Hey gang, Matt Raub back again for another TV review for the newest comic and Hollywood hybrid show, Painkiller Jane. The show is based off of Jimmy Palmiotti and Joe Quesada’s comic from the 90s about a government agent who can’t die. The episode stars Kristanna Loken, the robot hottie from Terminator 3 and another remarkably popular comic book movie, Bloodrayne.

Going into the show, I knew nothing about the comic book. All I knew is that Palmiotti knows how to draw very attractive female characters, which I sometimes reason enough to read a book, just not this time. So the episode was a fresh start for me, being an origin story of sorts.

The episode starts with one of my least favorite plot sequences, where we start the episode halfway through the plot, and then we jump back two days or so. I consider this the “J.J. Abrams” episode format, because there was a point in the last season of Alias where every episode would do that. I long for the days when we started at point A and ended at point C, without going all Sam Beckett on us and confusing the story.

After getting over that little issue of mine, I found the episode to be a little too dumbed-down for the same audience that has been taking in episode after episode of Battlestar Galactica. There were little flashbacks to things that happened six minutes ago in the episode, which I found to be unnecessary. An argument for this could be that the director of the pilot was going with a Tony Scott feel for the episode, using quick cuts and flashbacks. Either way, it felt as if they were treating an audience who lives in the land of intelligent television like they have never seen an hour long science fiction show.

Going into the story, D.E.A. officer Jane Vasko stumbles across a secret government operation that hunts “Neuros,” which are people with neurological powers, and that means a whole ton of freaks of the week. On Jane’s very first mission, she gets pushed out of a window 44 floors up. She’s pronounced dead and after a very trippy flashback sequence of everything that happened thus far in the episode, she wakes up without a scratch on her. From this point on, Jane is able to heal any of her wounds that she comes across almost instantly. You may be asking yourself the same questions I was during this episode, such as: Did she know she could heal her whole life? Why did it take falling off a building to work? Or has anybody noticed the fact that this show is a lot like Torchwood? Great questions, but I unfortunately don’t have any of the answers.

So while we have the sultry Loken as our invulnerable star, and a fresh and funky visual style that should capture the MTV audience, I don’t think this show has much of a lifespan.  It is too simplified for a Sci-Fi audience and people today need more than a name and a comic book tie to continue to watch a show. Anybody else remember Blade: The Series?

But to satisfy my fans, I still need to rate this pilot. Due to the fact that the show could have been a lot worse, I give it a 6/10, but I don’t know how much more of the show I can handle.

Let’s get Squashy!

Let’s get Squashy!

In case you thought Zippy was kinda normal, King Features will be launching a new strip, My Cage, on May 6th.

My Cage is a twist on "MySpace," except that it has a bit of a manga-style influence. Drawn by Melissa DeJesus and written by Ed Power, My Cage is about Norman, a young 20-something platypus who wanted to be a world famous writer. Like all too many writer wannabees, he is stuck in a crappy middle-management job. However, he does have a  girlfriend, a pet amoeba named Squashy, and the usual compliment of oddball co-workers.

Some 30 newspaper have picked up the feature, including the Houston Chronicle, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Chicago Sun-Times, St. Paul Pioneer Press and Madison (WI) Capital Times. No doubt you’ll be able to check it out at the Post-Intelligencer‘s website, one of the best places for the online reading of newspaper comic strips: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/fun/

Galactus Voiced and Fantastic Four 2 Tested

Galactus Voiced and Fantastic Four 2 Tested

Now that Tim Story has confirmed that we will see the towering Eater of Worlds, Galactus, in this summer’s Fantastic Four 2: Rise of the Silver Surfer, it is now on good authority that the voice will be lent by Laurence "don’t call me Morpheus" Fishburne. It seems after narrating the very popular TMNT Fishburne is going back to his less serious roots. Let’s hope this can only end with a revival of his Cowboy Curtis character from Pee Wee’s Playhouse.

On more depressing note, Fox held a test screening for Story’s FF2 in Seattle and the crowd was less than impressed. One quote from an audience member is that the film was "sooo bad that they felt dirty and wanted to write letters of complaint." This is pretty discouraging to hear after the excitement that followed the trailer for the film earlier this year. With a response like this and a release date of June 15, it seems that Tim Story and his crew may need to hit the cutting room quickl

Steranko speaks to ComicMix!

Steranko speaks to ComicMix!

Grab your pencil and connect the dots between Howdy Doody, The Fugees, sold out GI Joes and Teri Hatcher! Confused? You won’t be after you take a break to join us on ComicMix PodCast #27 filled with our usual weekend fun – including the first of our ComicMix Comic Book Masters series, featuring a rare interview with Jim Steranko.

Just put your thumb on the button… right here!

MARTHA THOMASES: Girls’ Powers

MARTHA THOMASES: Girls’ Powers

Why do we like superheroes?  There are many theories.  The one that makes the most sense to me is that they arise from our frustrations with our own bodies.  As someone who was once the mother of a two-year old (as well as once a two-year old myself), I’ve seen how the rage and frustration of an infant gets transformed with words into imaginative play, with storylines so complicated they would baffle Grant Morrison.

We want to fly and we can barely walk.  We want to lift cars over our heads, yet we struggle to pull up our pants.  We want to leap buildings with a single bound, but the monkey bars at the playground are too scary.  No wonder we are drawn to superheroes.

Since most comic books have been written by men and purchased by boys, we can make fairly educated guesses about what most frustrates the male of our species.  They want to be stronger.  They want to be faster.  They want to be more powerful.  They want to be able to physically and mentally dominate. 

What about women?  Do we want the same things?  Do we want something different?  If women controlled the superhero comic book market, would other kinds of characters be more successful?

May I suggest the following:

Metabolism Lass – The woman you love to hate, she is able to eat anything at all, even cans of frosting, without gaining weight.

Multi-Task Mistress – She can tend to a screaming baby, a demanding boss, a helpless husband, all while explaining to her mother, on the phone, how to use the Tivo.

Invisible Girl – No, not Sue Richards.  This I-Girl is able to walk past a group of construction workers, Wall Street traders or street kids without rousing any whistles.

Couture Queen – Sick and tired of clothes designed for people with no hips or thighs, she has the power to create clothes that actually fit, look good and feel comfortable on adult women.

Manicure Maid – It’s a cliché of modern times that if you want to show a character is spoiled, you make her complain about a broken nail.  Hey, it hurts to break a nail!  Despite the pain it causes, Manicure Maid uses hers as weapons, firing cuticles like bullets at badguys.

Princess IRA – Our heroine can stretch a pension check from here to Pluto, which is a useful power when women live longer than men, but earn less.

Guilt Girl – Doing amazing feats on your own is great, but she completely understands that you don’t have time to help her overcome the monstrous evil she faces.  Really, it’s okay.  She’ll get by.  Don’t trouble yourself.

Have ideas of your own?  Put them in comments!