The Mix : What are people talking about today?

Captain America big news

Captain America big news

You’d think that, what with the Libby verdict and the ongoing Walter Reed scandal and the presidential campaign horse race in full swing a year and a half before the general elections, it wouldn’t be that slow a news day.

You’d be wrong.

Everybody who’s anybody in mainstream news out there in the Real World seems to have grabbed onto the "shocking event" that Marvel is planning to kill off Captain America.  Here’s the CNN take, complete with a tiny spoiler alert intro which appears about a half inch above the actual revelation.  There’s also a pretty thorough Q&A with Joe Quesada about comic character death.  Watch out, retailers — this could be the biggest thing to hit the "real" news world since… the death of Superman!

Fellowship of the comic strip

Fellowship of the comic strip

It’s trippy, surreal, beautifully rendered and found in newspapers such as The Guardian and The New York Press and magazines such as Maxim, but is still one of the webcomics world’s best secrets — until now.  Nicholae Gurewitch, creator of The Perry Bible Fellowship, sat down for an interview with Associated Content to discuss his "deliciously twisted" strip and upcoming book collection (out in September).

John Ostrander: Now… now… now

John Ostrander: Now… now… now

There are some things they don’t tell you how to do. Sometimes it’s things no one can tell you; you just have to experience it for yourself. Sometimes it’s just stuff people don’t like to talk about. Stuff like death and grief.

I’m going to tell you what I know. Obviously, I can’t talk about what it is to die; I haven’t walked that road yet and I hope not to for a while. I can tell you, however, what it’s like to deal with death and with grief — at least, what it was like for me. As they say on the car commercials, your mileage may vary.

There are all kinds of death that you experience in your lifetime. Some are not physical — the death of friendship, the death of a dream or hope, the death of an ideal. These are no less real; the grief we feel for any of them may be no less than experiencing a physical death. However, they are different.

Perhaps the first real sense of my own mortality happened when I was about eight; it was one Saturday in late spring and I was outside on my bike. Our house was actually across the street from our church and I watched a funeral procession come up the street to the church’s front door. As I watched, I was hit with the thought that one day I would be in a casket and a boy on a bike would be watching me pass. With that vision came the realization that the world wouldn’t end with my death and that, consequently, it hadn’t begun with my birth. The axis of my own private earth shifted. I pedaled away but I have never pedaled far away enough.

This all comes to my mind because it is the tenth anniversary of the death of my wife, Kimberly Ann Yale. She died of breast cancer in March of 1997 — too soon, as many have noted. Here’s some of the hard facts I learned from that experience.

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Taking license

Taking license

Let’s face it, we live in a hyper-capitalist society.  Everything’s a commodity, and the worlds of business and entertainment are so inextricably linked that items about business deals have all but become entertainment in their own right.

And that’s cool when a spinoff of a story is also another form of that story, as with the Superman: Doomsday DVD or the upcoming DVD coming out from Eagle One Media based on the Voltron: Defender of the Universe comics from Devil’s Due and utilizing those books’ content from the comic books from Devil’s Due Publishing. (Apparently Voltron is big business — not only is the "animated digital comic production" DVD due in June, but World Event Productions is developing "a new interactive series and the release of the first-ever OVA," and there’s even talk of a for-really movie.)

But when Marvel Entertainment decides it’s going to "own 2008" with tie-in products for the Iron Man and Hulk movies due out next spring, and signs deals with Hasbrow, Hallmark, Fruit of the Loom and other companies that make all sorts of stuff that isn’t storytelling — well, it just makes one hope that kids (and adults) who buy the stuff are busy making up their own scenarios as they’re being owned.

King David animated

King David animated

Heck with the Spider-Man 3 preview. Yes yes, it took forever to download and was more or less worth it because, hey, who doesn’t like James Franco? But what really got me excited was this

Kyle Baker is interpreting his masterpiece King David into animated form!  Check it out before you dot another i!  I even forgive him for using Carmina Burana for the background music, because he does it so well.

Late for the Legion

Late for the Legion

Must-read blogger and actor Wil Wheaton has an amusing anecdote about almost missing his latest stint doing voice work as Cosmic Boy in the Legion cartoon.  He also teases, "Sadly, I can’t say anything specific about the episode. Warner Brothers is incredibly serious about protecting the content of the shows, and I’d really like to keep working on them, so I’ll just say, once again, that the level of talent, commitment, professionalism, and ultra-nerdy love for this show at all levels — writers, producers, directors and actors — is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. [Actor’s name redacted] just blew me away today."

Eisner group bids $385.4 million for Topps

The Sporting News and AP reports that a buyout group that includes former Disney CEO Michael Eisner and Chicago private-equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners LLC. has paid over a third of a billion for the Topps Company, the makers of sports cards, Garbage Pail Kids, Wacky Packages, the classic Mars Attack! series, and even the occasional comic book.

The deal drew immediate opposition from Topps director Arnaud Ajdler, who said Tuesday he had not yet been in touch with other major shareholders. He thought the deal should be abandoned because negotiations did not go through a proper process and that the Eisner-led offer undervalues the company.

The board approved the deal in a 7-3 vote, with Ajdler and two others opposed. The company said it will solicit better offers over the next 40 days. The deal requires regulatory approval and a vote by Topps shareholders.

Jae Lee speaks, IFC goes anime

Jae Lee speaks, IFC goes anime

The Flash gets a new artist, the 2007 24-hour-comics-day is disclosed, this week’s new comics are previewed, Jae Lee is interviewed, IFC’s anime maven speaks… and… where is Buffy hiding?

Mike Raub has the lowdown on ComicMix Podcast #10 — available right now, right here:

Running the Mickey Mouse outfit

Running the Mickey Mouse outfit

The New York Times has a long article on John Lasseter, who has been tapped to become the chief creative officer of animation for the Walt Disney Company after founding Pixar. Good reading, particularly with Lasseter reviving the 2-D animation department – with a strong focus on story.

Yes, story. The New Disney. It ain’t just pretty pictures anymore.