The Mix : What are people talking about today?

The last internet argument

The last internet argument

One of my favorite web cartoonists, August Pollak, hits a home run with his Some Guy with a Website strip called "Internet Argument."  If you ever want to explain the world of blogs to anyone, you could do much worse than this strip.

DENNIS O’NEIL: Who knows what evil lurks…?  Part 2

DENNIS O’NEIL: Who knows what evil lurks…? Part 2

Suddenly, the air was full of bats!

The “air” here is metaphorical and if you’d allow me to fully ripen the trope, possibly to the point where it emits a faint odor, it might read, The air of popular culture in the 30s and 40s was full of bats.

Let’s see.  There was a Mary Roberts Rheinhart novel and an early talkie adapted from it, both called The Bat, and there was a pulp hero also called The Bat and, a bit later, another pulp do-gooder who labeled himself The Black Bat.  Am I forgetting anyone…?  Oh yeah.  A comic book character that was introduced in Detective Comics #27, dated May 1939, as Batman.  Like an estimated eighty percent of your fellow earthlings, you may have heard of him.

And, again metaphorically, standing behind the Batman and maybe some of the others was one of the greatest pulp heroes, The Shadow.  The writer of the early Batman stories, Bill Finger, made no secret of his admiration for the Shadow novels.  He went so far as to admit that the Shadow’s influence on his batwork was extremely direct when he told historian (and author and artist and publisher) Jim Steranko, “I patterned my style of writing Batman after the Shadow.”  And: “My first script was a take-off on a Shadow story.”

Which brings us to Anthony Tollin.  Remember him?  I introduced the two of you a couple of weeks ago in this very feature. I told you that a company Anthony owns has been issuing reprints of the Shadow books. Recently, he sent me an early copy of one of those books, titled Partners of Peril, and suggested that I might want to compare it to the first Batman adventure, The Case of the Chemical Syndicate. 

Of course there are differences.  After all, the Shadow novel is probably around 50,000 words long and Batman’s debut is six comic book pages.  But there are also similarities.  I won’t even try to describe them all – see Robert Greenberger’s ComicMix article, or Anthony’s text piece in the book itself – but they are manifold.  In a phone conversation a few hours ago, Anthony mentioned the most obvious, among which are:

  • Both are about a – yes! – chemical syndicate.
  • The heroes of both get involved in the proceedings while visiting a law-enforcing friend.
  • Both feature virtually identical death traps, which each hero beats in the same way.
  • Both heroes offer the same whodunit-type explanation at the adventure’s end.
  • Both heroes spend a lot of time on a rooftop after a safe robbery.
  • The denouements of both stories are, again, virtually identical.

Et cetera.

As I wrote in the earlier column, anyone with even the dimmest interest in pop culture or comics history, or who just wants to sample the kind of entertainment that kept pops or granddad reading by flashlight under the covers, or who’s just in the mood for capital-M Melodrama combined with capital-H Heroics, might want to see if the Shadow has anything for them.

For me, the stuff has another aspect, one which is as modern as hip-hop. But that’s for next week.

RECOMMENDED READING: Awww…you know.

Dennis O’Neil is an award-winning editor and writer of comic books like Batman, The Question, Iron Man, Green Lantern and/or Green Arrow, and The Shadow, as well as all kinds of novels, stories and articles.

The Secret is out

The Secret is out

I’ve been rooting for Pulp Secret to flourish ever since their executive producer, my old college friend David Levin, first gushed to me about it.  And in the short time they’ve been around the site has branched out from their 5-minute video news segments to a weekly talk and interview show to David making good on his vow to give away items in his prized comic book collection on a regular basis.

But for me, there was still something missing.  And some of it had to do with me not being able to tell the three young white male self-amused hosts apart.  I’m sure they’re nice guys and all, but it was (as the Brits say) much of a muchness.

Now finally, with webcast #18, the video news segments have a female face.

She’s Ana Hurka-Robles, a director and writer from NYC who’s been behind the camera until now.  Says AHR, "I’m part of a small crew that produces the episodes, so I get a chance to direct, shoot, write, research, and edit. I know that film degree would come in handy some day!"  (I think someone else may have "edited" her name up there.)  You can catch her on-screen debut here, at about 3:45 into the webcast, but she narrates capsule reviews in webisodes 10 and 15 as well.

Thanks, David & co., for expanding PS to include the other half of the population!

Early word catches the spider, man

Early word catches the spider, man

Mark this down in your Week-At-A-Glance: If you’re hankering to get the early word on Spider-Man 3, Ebert and Roeper will be reviewing the movie on their hit teevee show the weekend of April 28th.

As of this writing we don’t know who Richard Roeper’s guest critic will be – Roger Ebert is recovering from cancer surgery and whereas he will be making an appearance at his "Forgotten Movies" film festival, he is still at least one operation away from getting his voice back. However, he does stand ready to review silent movies.

Ebert and Roeper airs at various times in sundry markets;  you can use their "station finder" (http://bventertainment.go.com/tv/buenavista/ebertandroeper/) to discover the local whens and wheres. This show will air sometime between Friday, April 27th and Sunday, April 29th.

 

Rosenbaum redux

Rosenbaum redux

A couple months ago we reported Michael Rosenbaum’s confirmation that the next season of Smallville will be his last.  Now in an interview with JewReview’s Shmuel Reuven, Rosenbaum reveals more news of the show and talks about his character.

"It’s a great year, the ratings are consistently high," Rosenbaum notes. "Our show’s ratings are just as high as the first couple seasons. We’re creating more and more fans… Next year is going to be the biggest year of all; it’s the final year and everyone’s going to see what Lex Luthor is really capable of."

Rosenbaum also expressed his interest to follow up Smallville with roles in more comedies.  The full interview will be up in a couple of weeks.  I’m still not over the idea of an "entertainment website for The Chosen People."

INTERVIEW: Harlan Ellison, part 1

INTERVIEW: Harlan Ellison, part 1

Harlan Ellison is a force of nature.

For more than 50 years he’s published stories and novels, written for television, movies, and comics, created an award-winning CD-Rom, lectured widely, performed TV voice-overs and spoken word recordings, and been an all-around pain-in-the-ass curmudgeon. This month alone, Deep Shag Records issued his newest CD, On the Road with Harlan Ellison (Volume 3, no less) and a 105-minute theatrical documentary about him, Dreams with Sharp Teeth, will have its premiere at the Writers Guild in Beverly Hills on Thursday, April 19 (for information about all of this, and to get tickets for the Guild Event, go to www.harlanellison.com).

Dark Horse Comics just released Harlan Ellison’s Dream Corridor Volume Two, a book ten years in the making, with contributions from Gene Ha, Curt Swan, Martin Nodell, Gene Colan, Jay Lynch, Eric Shanower, Tony Isabella, Richard Corben, John Ostrander and more.

I first heard Ellison speak more than 25 years ago, at an event to which ComicMix sensei Denny O’Neil brought us. I no longer remember precisely what he said, but do remember being so angry about it that I was awake all night, arguing with him in my head. Ten years later, when the rabbi’s sermon provoked a similar response, I knew I’d found the synagogue for me. Jews are like that.

Reb Ellison is still schooling. Our interview started off awkwardly, as we called to arrange a schedule and Mr. Ellison wanted to go with no notice. After a pause while we ran out to buy batteries for our antique cassette recorder, we began.

HE: I live my life principally by one adage – Louis Pasteur: Chance favors the prepared mind. Thus, if you call me, you should have batteries. Now we know we’re running. Now you can interview me. Go ahead.

CoMx: You have a new graphic novel, you have a new CD, you have this movie coming out. Why now?

HE: Because though I’m incredibly humble and shy, I am, nonetheless, famous … I’m a cultural icon. Everyone gets their 15 minutes, and if they have some talent they get their 15 minutes repeatedly. My 15 minutes have been going on since about 1955.

One finds, at this age, the most annoying thing you have to worry about is cultural amnesia. For most of the little imbeciles today who live on the Internet, for whom nostalgia is what they had for breakfast, all the golden things and evil lessons of the past have no significance, no meaning, no understanding that whatever they do would not be possible had not the world, its artistic heroes, villains, done what they did before their smug, ignorant li’l asses were born. They know nothing, and are arrogant that they know nothing. “Bite me” is their mantra. They don’t even know the name of who won on American Idol last year or who came in second or who won the Academy Award, much less who Sojourner Truth was, or Lanny Ross, or Tris Speaker, or Subotai, or Klimt or Frank Buck, or Eddie Condon, or … or anything earlier than Sanjaya Malakar and Beyonce’s thong.

But they are quick to label geezer and old coot everybody who did anything the day before they were born. I consider myself very lucky still to have a large following and a loyal following in these parlous times, and I think, some interesting enemies, too.

(more…)

Spidey fame for your favorite kid

Spidey fame for your favorite kid

Looking for a gift to get the child in your life who’s just wild about Spider-Man?  Why not look into getting a personalized photo CD of a Spider-Man cartoon with said child’s photo digitally mapped onto the space where Spidey’s face goes, for a full-length cartoon?

Sayeth Kideo, "This 26 minute action packed animated adventure DVD includes bonus features such as a photo personalized music video featuring the1960’s theme song, as well as an educational tutorial on spiders in a segment titled ‘Learning with J. Jonah Jameson’." 

Because really, who’s more obsessed with spiders?

A look at Sunderland

A look at Sunderland

Forbidden Plant International leads us to another glowing review of Bryan Talbot’s amazing Alice in Sunderland by Steve Flanagan. The catch is that Flanagan’s review is illustrative, done in the style of the book it’s discussing.

Flanagan’s 7-part comic strip review discusses Talbot’s presumed influences for this book, his stylistic choices, perceived structural weakness and subject matter.  Pretty heady stuff, and Flanagan’s not afraid to puncture his own pomposity.

It works better, of course, if you read the book first.  By that time maybe the traffic will have died down from Flanagan being BoingBoing’ed.

Marvel’s fun with numbers

Marvel’s fun with numbers

Marvel editor Tom Brevoort mentioned he had a problem with the way certain parties referred to the Marvel Universe as "Earth 616" — a designation he mistakenly credited to Alan Moore.  He promptly followed up by passing along the actual origin of the appellation, courtesy of Alan Davis, who notes, "Although credited to Alan Moore, like much of the other Captain Britain folklore it was in place before he joined the book."

Interesting background reading for people who like behind-the-scenes stuff, and far easier for me to follow than Alan D’s analysis of who owns Miracleman

A sticky videogame

A sticky videogame

Via Wil Wheaton, it took a team of 10 engineering students at UCSC five hours and 6400 sticky pieces of paper to re-create the first level of the arcade game Donkey Kong.  Here’s a silent time-lapse video of the assembly:

And here’s what it looks like in the daytime:

 

I hope they got extra credit for this!  The work is visible at the E2 building at the university until the beginning of May.