The Mix : What are people talking about today?

ROBERT GREENBERGER: Death be not proud

ROBERT GREENBERGER: Death be not proud

The rule of thumb used to be that the only characters that stayed dead are Uncle Ben, Bucky and Barry Allen.

Some version of Uncle Ben is running around in Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man; Bucky turns out to have survived and is now the Winter Solider; and if you believe Dan DiDio’s “slip” of the tongue, Barry Allen may be here soon.

It used to be a big deal when a character died. Amazing Spider-Man #121’s cover, as Spidey faced those nearest and dearest to him with a cover blurb promising one was going to die compelled us to buy that month’s issue. It worked, sales spiked, the status quo was different and people were buzzing.

In 1985, I participated in the planning and, ahem, execution of Crisis on Infinite Earths. One of the key housecleaning elements had to be the elimination of both major and minor figures, heroes and villains, civilians and loved ones. The hit list, as seen in the Absolute edition, evolved as editors and management weighed in. Killing the Flash and Supergirl were the shockers while few cared if the Bug-Eyed Bandit survived or not. Still, these deaths were supposed to be permanent changes to the DC Universe, although few of them have remained dead 20 years later.

By the time Superman died in 1992, the freshness had long since worn off as deaths had been faked (Professor X, Foggy Nelson), undone (Jean Grey, Iris Allen), or were too minor to care (I Ching).

Since then, characters have continued to die and come back with stunning regularity. As a result, the death of a major figure has been more of a blip than a major event, making one wonder what it will take to get people really stirred up.

Much has been made of Captain America’s death and I was among those scoffing at the permanence of his condition. Less has been said about the return of their first Captain Marvel, plucked out of the time stream before his death from cancer (as wonderfully told in a Jim Starlin graphic novel), an altogether new kind of cheat.

Marvel isn’t the only company wheeling and dealing with the Grim Reaper.

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Warner Bros. loves men….Metal Men!

Warner Bros. loves men….Metal Men!

It looks like Warner Bros. Pictures  has greenlit Metal Men and looking to get the final pieces in place. So far, Eric Champnella is slated to write the script. You may or may not remember Champnella’s last picture about Bernie Mac attempting to break his own baseball record while wise-cracking at a bunch of "nuckle-headed kids" in Mr. 3000. I personally can’t wait for a jive talking Iron slapping around the rest of the Metals and calling Platinum his "beeyotch," but they might be going for a different approach.

Slated to produce the picture is Lauren Shuler Donner, who was responsible for bringing X-Men to the big screen as well as the Keanu Reeves movie Constantine. Fingers crossed on this one!

Mary Lynn Rajskub, Geek goddess

Mary Lynn Rajskub, Geek goddess

Mary Lynn Rajskub, known to most as Chloe from 24 but beloved by hardcore fans as Chloe from Veronica’s Closet, is the cover girl on the current Geek Monthly, looking very much like she’s auditioning to take the role of Lara Croft away from Angelina Jolie.

But that’s not why she’s a geek goddess, nor is it because you can apparently talk to her for hours on a mobile phone without draining the battery – it’s that she’ll be appearing in the season finale of The Simpsons this year.

And no, we don’t know if there’s an unresolved cliffhanger in the season finale that leads into The Simpsons movie. We would just never believe that there could be that much advanced symmetry between Fox propertie – hmm. That’s weird. While I was writing this post, an ad for Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer just popped up at the bottom of my screen. Go fig.

Mike Grell on Bond 22

Mike Grell on Bond 22

Cinematical had a good piece a short while ago about the script for Bond 22, the sequel to Casino Royale. We know that it will be a direct sequel to the film, and that  screenwriters Neal Purvis and Robert Wade are reportedly basing their script on four of Ian Fleming’s short stories: The Hildebrand Rarity, The Property Of A Lady, Risico, and 007 In New York. Writer Patrick Walsh mentions in his piece, "I’m not a Bond expert, but some online research revealed that bits and pieces from these stories have made it into previous Bond films already."

Luckily for us, we happen to have a Bond expert handy — Mike Grell, creator of Jon Sable Freelance, Warlord, and the James Bond miniseries Permission To Die. How much of an expert? He actually drew Bond to look like Hoagy Carmichael. Take it away, Mike:

"Ian Fleming wrote 12 James Bond novels and 8 short stories, which Hollywood — so far — has turned into 21 Bond films without even touching some of the Fleming stories. Indeed, some of the adaptations (Moonraker and The Spy Who Loved Me, for instance) have borne precious little resemblance to the source material, while others have combined elements of several of Fleming’s short stories with the screenwriter’s own take on what a Bond movie should be.

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ELAYNE RIGGS:The impersistence of memory

ELAYNE RIGGS:The impersistence of memory

As many readers doubtless know by now, my father recently died due to injuries he sustained in a car crash. Dad always said that Las Vegas drivers were the most dangerous in the country, and he was right. While I’d be happy to talk about Dad at length in person, I won’t take up ComicMix space by expounding on anything at length here.  It’s all been too draining.

I’ve just returned to the outside world from a week spent with my mom and youngest brother at his home in NJ (not far from where Dad is buried), engaged in the Jewish tradition of "sitting shiva" where friends and relatives visit to pay their respects and remember the lost loved one.

One of those visitors was my remarkable childhood friend Rachael, whom I discuss at greater length in my personal blog. Rachael’s sharp recollection of our bygone play days highlighted my mounting frustration at a condition I’ve been noticing for awhile now — my fading memory.

My uncle analogizes what’s happening to a locked file cabinet for which I’ve misplaced the key, and I agree. The memories are stored in my brain somewhere, I’ve just temporarily lost the ability to access them. And so I’ve learned workarounds.

Take pop culture, for instance. Unless I keep meticulous records of the comics I read (which I did during my Usenet days when I reviewed lots of books each week), I don’t vote in any annual polls of the year’s best. We received our Harvey Awards nomination ballot in the mail today, which went right into the circular file. It’s not that I didn’t want to nominate folks, and it’s certainly not that there weren’t any outstanding comics and tremendous talents around last year. It’s that I wouldn’t be able to call any to my brain; nothing sticks with me. Which doesn’t really bother me — it’s not that important that I retain fiction in my head, because it still exists independently of my mind in an accessible, tangible form. I can always pick up an old book or rewatch a DVD, and if by some chance I make the time to re-experience any bit of fiction, I’ll be delighted by the details all over again.

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Trolling Emerald City Con

Trolling Emerald City Con

When you go to a comic con, it’s always a good idea to have a gimmick or two – some unique stamp that distinguishes you from other fans, makes you easy to remember, etc.  For Laura Gjovaag, one of her best hallmarks (aside from her sparkling personality) is Torvald the Troll.  You can read about Torvald’s origin here.

Laura was very busy taking Torvald around to, and snapping photos of him with, various comic pros and movie stars attending the Emerald City Comicon this past weekend.  The great thing about these photos is how posing with Torvald often brings out the personality of the person in the shot.  At right is Laura’s photo of Torvald and Margot Kidder.

You can read Part 1 of Laura’s Emerald City con report here.

MATT RAUB loved 1/2 of Grindhouse!

MATT RAUB loved 1/2 of Grindhouse!

Matt Raub, back again with more faux knowledge about moving pictures and the land that makes them. I wish this visit could be more joyful, seeing as how I my summer was based around seeing Grindhouse, but sadly, I’m only half as excited as I had hoped to be.

Before we start, a little background on what the grindhouse is really all about. I’ve come across too many people in the past few months that haven’t a clue about the title, and I only fear the punch line will only go over those peoples’ heads. The idea of a grindhouse is when local theaters would screen cheap B movie pictures or exploitation films together in order to gain a larger audience. Such films had low-budget special effects, lack of plot, and amateur acting all summed up with a catchy, yet impressively bad title. Titles like Assault of the Killer Bimbos, Lobster Man from Mars, and I Dismember Mama.

Now Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, two modern cult-cinema directors decided to take sort of a low blow at exploitation movies. Taking $50 million, they both wrote and directed two 90-minute exploitation films: Rodriguez’s Planet Terror and Tarantino’s Death Proof. They slapped them both together in a big chunk, including a handful of fake b-movie trailers by guest directors Rob Zombie, Eli Roth, and Edgar Wright.

Now because this is essentially two films, I will give them both the respect they demand and review them separately, starting with Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror. This film held everything I wanted it to. The emotion, the cheesiness, and the random, unnecessary deaths. From titles to credits, I was either laughing, cringing in a good way, or both.

The premise of the film is that an evil army general (Bruce Willis) and a nutty biochemist (are there any other kind?) unleash a toxic gas on an unsuspecting Texas town, killing some and turning the rest into crazed infected cannibals, not zombies! There are only a few who are immune to the gas: a one-legged stripper (Rose McGowan) and her ex-boyfriend with a mysterious past (Freddy Rodriguez) and a handful of others.

The film is action packed with random explosions and ultra violence. But while it keeps the content very similar to classic exploitation films, the most important element is that the style is done to replicate the gritty, cheap, film stock that was what gave original grindhouse movies their flavor. This includes but is not limited to: poor voice dubbing, gritty, unfocused shots, missing frames, and even entire missing reels. By far, this was the one thing that kept the film together and kept the audience entertained.

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Classic comic, classic cartoon

Classic comic, classic cartoon

Late last year, Fantagraphics released the first in their series of books reprinting E.C. Segar’s work on Popeye, one of comics’ greatest creations. This summer, Warner Home Video will be releasing something of a companion volume: Popeye The Sailor 1933 – 1938, as produced by Max Fleischer under the direction of Dave Fleischer.

It took three classic creators and one classic creation to birth a true American icon.

The Warners box set is expected to contain all 60 Fleischer cartoons produced during this period in their original and uncut form, starting with Betty Boop Meets Popeye The Sailor, our hero’s cinematic debut. The set will also include extras and documentaries, including histories of both Popeye and of the Fleischer Studios.

Because the cartoons will be unedited from their original form, the box set is likely to carry a "This Compilation is Intended for the Adult Collector and May Not Be Suitable for Children" disclaimer, according to tvshowsondvd.com/ Popeye 1933 – 1938 will retail at $65 and is expected to be out on July 31.

New UK Top Ten Film Lists

New UK Top Ten Film Lists

Over 3000 readers of the UK-based SFX magazine have chosen their Top Ten all-time classic science fiction movies and, in a surprise to many, Joss Whedon’s Serenity has knocked George Lucas’ Star Wars off its reigning pedestal, garnering 61% of the vote to SW’s 28%.  The poll results were met with much skepticism in the comments section of the news item, which did not specify what controls were in place to prevent vote tampering.

Also out of the UK, The Shiznit has announced its picks for Top Ten movie monkeys.  As with comics, there must be a school of thought in movieland that says you can’t go wrong with an ape on the poster.

There are two crossovers between the two lists (there might have been more if anyone had voted Raiders of the Lost Ark or King Kong into the Top 10 sf movies), and one amusing choice on the second list which isn’t an ape or a monkey.

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Beetles Blue, Doctors Three, and Adams Neal

Beetles Blue, Doctors Three, and Adams Neal

A new week and a new line up of surprises, including a peek at the big Blue Beetle Companion, 50 or 60 ways to spend money on comic books and DVDs, and we dissect The Doctor’s third season opener. Plus – the ComicMix line-up of what’s been delayed and when it’s going to happen. Plus – Neal Adams is all over Timeline.

As always, you can hear the ComicMix Podcast by clicking on this very button: