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Grindhouse Gossip

Grindhouse Gossip

In response to recent inquiries about the production of Grindhouse, a spokesperson for Troublemaker Studios, the production entity co-founded and co-run by Robert Rodriguez and Elizabeth Avellan, released the following statement:

"Elizabeth Avellan and Robert Rodriguez were separated long before the Grindhouse production began. Their separation and subsequent divorce were very amicable and they opted to continue as planned, and to produce the film together — a decision they informed Bob and Harvey Weinstein [co-chairmen of The Weinstein Company, distributor of Grindhouse] about prior to the start of production. Robert and Elizabeth plan to produce Sin City 2 together — with Robert directing — for Dimension Films in the coming months. The hiatus during the production of Grindhouse had nothing to do with Robert’s personal life.

"On April 10th, 2006, after shooting for five weeks, Robert completed principal photography of the first phase of his segment of Grindhouse. He took a hiatus from shooting to assemble the footage he had already shot and determine his next steps in the production, which is the same successful approach he utilized with Sin City when he shot the film in two parts."

On a completely unrelated note, we saw Grindhouse yesterday and think the Tarantino part was awesome.

Speedy recovery, Carla

Speedy recovery, Carla

Carla Speed McNeill, writer and artist of the "aboriginal SF" comic Finder, will be undergoing surgery in a couple weeks for what she describes as "moderate-to-severe carpal tunnel syndrome" in her drawing hand.  As someone who can’t remember the last time I woke up without hand numbness, my thoughts are with Carla during this frustrating time, and ComicMix would like to extend our best wishes that all goes well and she’ll soon return to drawing without pain.

Colleen Doran  notes that "Many people in the creative arts struggle with this painful and debilitating condition," and passes along some helpful advice to help prevent its onset.

Inking digitally demonstration

Inking digitally demonstration

Something to noodle around with this weekend: you, too, can learn how to ink digitally. Skull the Troll – okay, Scott Kurtz in a Skull hat – shows exactly how he inked this PVP strip:

Now you can do it yourself!

Not included: a $2500 Cintiq monitor.

MICHAEL DAVIS: The Emperor’s New Clothes

MICHAEL DAVIS: The Emperor’s New Clothes

I don’t really have a subject for this week, which explains why I’m writing this on Thursday afternoon with a Friday morning deadline. Sorry, Mike. Nothing really ticked me off or got me excited this week. That’s an issue for me because when I took this gig I made a promise to keep it current and to always have a definitive point of view.

Well, what follows are some random thoughts that I may as well get off my chest. None of these things really warrant an entire column (yet) but they all have my interest,

Remember the story of the Emperor’s new clothes?  Well that seems to be what is going on with American Idol. Major newscasts like the Today Show (who made my greatest list last week) are all saying that this kid Sanjaya Malakar can’t sing.

HELLO!!!!!????

Even before America stared to vote this kid beat out thousands of other singers to make it to the show. Now everyone is saying he can’t sing. Why? Because one person said he could not sing after one bad performance and now everybody is saying it. What is up with people? People are just sheep! He is clearly not the best singer on the show, but the kid can sing. Why are people such sheep? Why, why, why?

Sheep, sheep, sheep!

In other random thoughts, in case anyone is interested I will be speaking at the Biola Media Conference April 21st at Biola University and at Cal State Northridge on April 23rd. Maybe the person who sent me the angry email will want to come down and heckle me.

What angry email? The angry email that I was sent in response to The Black Panel article I wrote. They told me “You are a Uncle Tom who does not care about Black People. We have a right to be represented and you should let any black person on the panel who wants to be there.” They also said that I was…” one of those uppity (N-word) who only dates white woman!” (My Asian lady loved that one.)

Well, fellow and or gal (I don’t know what you are because you sent the email anonymously – how brave, by the way), if you are feeling strong come on down and take your best shot. Hey wait. Why don’t you speak at the conference or at Northridge. I’m sure they will just let you walk in off the street and talk about your work or whatever you want to talk about. I mean you are entitled right? Wait! Now that I think about, it why don’t you just walk on to the Tonight Show? I’m sure they will just let you be a guest. Wait! What am I thinking?? Why doesn’t ABC just do a special on you? I mean you have certainly earned the right to have your own show right?  Wait, wait wait!!! Not a show –you deserve your own NETWORK!!! I mean why not? Wait, wait wait, wait, why don’t they just hand you your own galaxy? 

(more…)

Another comic book movie for Nic Cage

Another comic book movie for Nic Cage

AP is reporting that Nicolas Cage has signed to star in the movie adaptation of the Virgin comic The Sadhu.  The movie’s script will be written by self-help maven Deepak Chopra, the father of Virgin’s chief creative officer Gotham Chopra, and is slated to be directed by Indian filmmaker Shekhar Kapur (The Four Feathers).

Chopra the younger says, "Our goal is to start filming in India in early 2008," and explains a little about the title.  "The sadhu is an iconic character. He is an Indian equivalent of the samurai. He is the spiritual warrior of the mind."

No word on whether flaming heads or motorcycles will be involved.

The Christmas Cottage movie

The Christmas Cottage movie

I never, never, never want to hear another complaint about adapting film from dumb comic books ever again. And if you’re tired of articles with headlines like "Pow! Zap! Wham! Comics movies aren’t just for kids" you don’t either. But now, you have a trump card to play – Hollywood is adapting movies from paintings.

Yes, paintings. Not painted comic books. Paintings.

First Showing shows us that Lions Gate is making a film based on a single painting by Thomas Kinkade, "painter of light" in the same way that Michael Jackson is the "king of pop," called The Christmas Cottage. Peter O’Toole has been cast in it. They note: "The film is partly biographical and based on events that led American painter Kinkade to become an artist." No word on whether they’ll include the FBI investigations or sexual harassment allegations – if Peter O’Toole’s in it, I suppose there’s a chance.

It’s shooting this month for the obvious December release, because this will be the film that gets O’Toole his Oscar.

Master of pulp fiction? It’s The Spider, man!

Master of pulp fiction? It’s The Spider, man!

O.K. If this is a review, it’s of The Spider Chronicles, published by Moonstone Books, released this week, and written by all kinds of wonderful people including Steve Englehart, John Jakes, Ann Nocenti and Robert Weinberg – all under a nifty introduction by ComicMix columnist and gadfly-about-town Dennis O’Neil.

Having a full-time job right here at ComicMix, I’ve only had time to read half the stories thus far, but all were worthy of the task: translating into short story form the most bizarre and over-the-top hero of all time, period.

The concept can be barely contained in the novelette-length stories of the 1930s. In case you’re not familiar, let me ramble off some of my favorite story titles: King of the Red Killers. Slaves of the Murder Syndicate. The City That Dared Not Eat. Machine Guns Over The White House. Hell’s Sales Manager (I think I had that job once.) And my all-time favorite, The Mayor of Hell.

How can you beat titles like that? Only with execution that make those titles seem lame.

There’s usually one madman who pretty much looks like Charles Lane. We may or may not know who he is at the outset, but within several chapters he’s managed to paralyze the city (usually New York or Washington or both), if not indeed the whole quadrant of the nation, if not indeed the entire nation itself. By chapter six, the death count is enough to fill Yankee Stadium to the brim.

Only three people stand in the madman’s way: Nita Van Sloan, a woman as tough and clever as they come; Ran Singh, loyal, faithful assistant to The Spider and an ace at cutlery; and finally, wealthy playboy Richard Wentworth who likes to play the violin, not take advantage of the adoring Nita, and dress up in a variety of disguises – most notably in the monstrous visage of The Spider.

Wentworth’s the one who does the heavy lifting. He doesn’t mind killing each and every person he and he alone deems worthy of killing.

If you could hook your hybrid into a Spider story, the energy would drive you coast-to-coast and back again. Imagine the Kree / Skrull War with all the Kree and all the Skrulls on one side, three people on the other side, and all the battles taking place in an area no bigger than your bedroom. 

There have been any number of Spider reprint projects going on, most notably the double-story ventures similar to Anthony Tolin’s Shadow and Doc Savage reprints (see Dennis O’Neil’s column here at ComicMix this week) as published by Girasol Collectibles (www.girasolcollectables.com/). They’re worth checking out.

But our friends at Moonstone have boldly ventured where no one’s gone for quite a while by commissioning these short stories by such famous authors. Given their length they might be sedate by “Grant Stockbridge” standards (the pseudonym under which all but the first novels were written). Pick up The Spider Chronicles. It’s the heroic ideal taken to its most bizarre limit.

Guy’s Choice Awards to air June 13

Guy’s Choice Awards to air June 13

Because men have so little power in modern life, Spike TV will provide them a safe place to express their opinions this year when they present the first-ever Guy’s Choice Awards.  Categories will include Best Asskicker (that’s what it says in the press release), Ballsiest Band, Hottest Girl on the Planet (Saturn Girl is not eligible), Luckiest M.F. (sic, again), Luckiest Bastard, Most Dangerous Man.  They also promise to deliver a prize they call The Brass Balls Award to a legendary action hero.

Unlike any other program ever on television, Spike TV dares to feature what they describe as "unbelievably foxy trophy girls."

If you’re a guy and you never, ever get to have an opinion, vote, run for office, or run a branch of government, you can make yourself feel powerful by voting at www.spiketv.com.  However, you’ll have to wait until May 1.  All this authority goes away when voting closes on June 1.

The official sponsors are American Express, Cingular, Jeep, Pizza Hut, Snickers, Southern Comfort and the U.S. Army. 

Berke Breathed helps police in murder investigation

Berke Breathed helps police in murder investigation

The Associated Press reports that cartoonist Berkely Breathed is helping police in an unsolved 1979 murder of a young musician.  Authorities believe the killer may have burglarized Breathed’s home when Breathed was a student at the University of Texas in Austin.

The cartoonist’s drawing of the burglary scene will be aired Saturday night on Fox’s America’s Most Wanted. "I had forgotten about it for many years," Breathed said Thursday in a telephone interview. "Once ‘America’s Most Wanted‘ called, I got angry about it all over again."

Cahill, 28, was shot to death April 13, 1979, when he confronted a burglar leaving his apartment with his guitar. The University of Texas dropout worked as a cook, but his main pursuit was a music career.

Driving up to his home with friends, he saw a man walking away with his guitar in its case. He jumped from the car, chased the man and was shot to death in his driveway. The killer escaped and was never identified.

Investigators believe the same person who shot Cahill had just broken into the apartment of a photographer in the same building.

Breathed, who now lives in Southern California, believes he surprised the intruder during the break-in at his Austin home about a week after the shooting. He said the burglar had stacked albums by his door, including Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd.

"The house was turned upside down, and it took a few minutes to understand what happened," he said.

Like similar break-ins at the time, the perpetrator seemed to be focused on a few selected items.

"He ended up killing a musician, and he was stealing music as well as photographs and photographic equipment," Breathed said. "There was this odd connection between the music and photographic community."

Happy Birthday, Hijinx

Happy Birthday, Hijinx

In 1982, Mike Gamble opened a comic book store in Willow Glen, California.  Today, owned by Dan Shahin and renamed Hijinx Comics, the store is still open, still selling comics, and still entertaining the community.

Shahin started working at the store in 1986,when he was eleven years old.  Paid in store credit, he sorted baseball cards and filed back issue.  "Back when I first started working comics were 60 cents each and weren’t taxed, and Mike marked them down to 50 cents after a week to make sure they sold. That meant I was earning four comic books an hour to hang out in the greatest store I’d ever seen. I was in kid heaven," said Shahin. "Fast forward 20 years and I’m right back in the place where I was always happiest. I took what I learned from high tech and applied it to comics retailing. It’s the best decision I ever made 

Shahin credits the store’s focus on customer service and broad selection as being the key to getting and retaining new customers in the face of competition from chain bookstores as well as multiple area specialty shops. Hijinx also features a book club program allowing customers to earn store credit for every book they purchase. Hijinx also recently launched www.comicbookshelf.com, a website devoted to reviewing, categorizing and selling graphic novels featuring

free domestic shipping or in-store pickup.

ComicMix applauds any comic book store that survives in today’s tough market, especially one that adapts and prospers.