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ELAYNE RIGGS: Forward into the past

ELAYNE RIGGS: Forward into the past

The comics industry stands at an exciting crossroads. International acceptance of graphic literature is starting to have a positive effect on how Americans see non-superhero genres, as manga saturates teen audiences and award-winning autiobiographical novels like Fun Home and Persepolis enthrall adults. When you factor the geek contingent into that, as even the superhero genre (the one most non-comics readers associate and conflate with the medium itself) gains mainstream acceptance in blockbuster movies and hit TV shows, it would seem to be another Golden Age for the artform. The future of print and online comics looks healthier than ever.

So why is so much of the comics industry still mired in the past?

Take Previews, for instance. Now, Diamond Comics distribution and comic book retailers do many things right. Diamond’s comic store locator provides a valuable service, and Free Comic Book Day (this Saturday, don’t forget to peruse your local store with someone "new" to comics!) has become a much-anticipated event. And I suspect Previews isn’t as much a problem as a symptom of a wider dilemma facing brick-and-mortar specialty stores caught in the timeline between the demise of newsstand and mom-and-pop outlets (where many of today’s adult readers bought their first comics) and the promise of mainstream bookstores and targeted online purchasing.

Personally, I think the root of the problem is non-returnable product.

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Tom Artis, R.I.P.

Tom Artis, R.I.P.

Comics artist Tom Artis died of complications from diabetes today at his home in Springfield, Illinois.

Tom had been hospitalized off and on for the past several years. According to his friend, fellow artist Doug Rice, Tom had been in a hospice since the beginning of the year. His wife Kim and children, Duke and Hope, were there with him when he died.

Tom’s many credits included Judge Dredd, Aliens vs. Predator, Justice Society of America, She-Hulk, The Spectre, Green Arrow, and his own creation for DC Comics (with friend and writer Peter Gillis), Tailgunner Jo.

I had the honor of working with Tom for several years; he was a talented artist and a good man. He will be missed greatly.

Second Sight to big screen

Second Sight to big screen

According the IMDB.com news wire, Universal may be making Second Sight into a feature film.  The series, which originally starred Sin City’s Clive Owen, is about a detective who wants to solve one last case before he loses his sight, all the while keeping his condition a secret from his colleagues.  There are, as yet, no stars attached to the film.

Play MSTie for me? Sort of.

Play MSTie for me? Sort of.

Three of the good folks behind Mystery Science Theater 3000 – Kevin Murphy, Bill Corbett and Mike Nelson – have done some work in various media as The Film Crew. On July 10th,  they’ll be reuniting for a series of D2DVDs distributed by the Shout! Factory label.

According to the official MST3K news site Satellite News, here’s the premise: Determined to provide a commentary track for every movie, the guys settle into the dank basement of an office building, where, each day, their boss, entertainment mogul Bob Honcho, calls them on speakerphone and tells them which bad movie they will riff. There’ll be breaks in the riffing action for sketches and, best of all, no worries about whether they can eat and breathe!

First up from The Film Crew: Hollywood After Dark, the 1968 blockbuster starring Rue McClannahan, later of Golden Girls fame. Warning for the prudes and the peculiar: Rue’s got a strip scene. Three more "episodes" are in the can and will be released in upcoming months:  Giant of Marathon (1959, starring Steve Reeves), Killers from Space (1954, starring Peter Graves) and The Wild Women of Wongo (1958).

Retail price will be $19.99.

Spider-Man, Heroes, and Free Comics… Oh My!

Spider-Man, Heroes, and Free Comics… Oh My!

If there ever was a best week ever in Pop Culture, this is it! Spider-Man 3 is moments away from opening, Heroes is heating up and Free Comic Book Day rolls in on the weekend! 

The ComicMix Big Broadcast for Tuesday starts out with a full shopping kist of comics and DVDs you can’t miss, ranging from the end of 52 to the Best Of Fletch – plus news on Magneto on the big screen, Adult Swim expanding on the small screen and Scarface in the comics. We also trip back in time to when Jed Clampett was a private eye!

Please note: The Heroes review contains spoilers. It comes at the end of the podcast, so if you TiVo’ed it, you might want to bail at the sound of Matt’s voice.

Press The Button – Save The World!

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Citizen Kane anniversary

Citizen Kane anniversary

Sixty-six years ago today, Citizen Kane premiered in New York.

We mention this because not only is it one of the greatest films of all time, nor because it’s been the basis for everything from Andy Helfer and Kyle Baker’s Shadow Annual #2 to the unproduced screenplay for I, Robot by Harlan Ellison, nor even that without Orson Welles, we don’t have that great scene in Ed Wood or even the Brain or possibly the radio version of The Shadow.

No, because after two thirds of a century, we can now officially dispense with SPOILER WARNINGS and talk freely about the plot of the film and its amazing ending.

And man, I would never have suspected that Rosebud was really Luke Skywalker’s father.*

So let’s raise a glass and toast, Jedediah, to love on our own terms.

And if you don’t want to watch Kane tonight, watch RKO 281 instead. A great behind the scenes story, and everybody in the cast is great– yes, even Melanie Griffith.

* You think I’m kidding. Orson Welles was actually considered for the voice of Darth Vader.

Free Online Gaming

Free Online Gaming

The San Jose Mercury News website reports that GameTap, a subscription online game service, will offer free games starting May 31. 

The site currently offers more than 850 games to people who pay fees ($9.95 a month, or $6.95 a month if one buys a year in advance).  The free games will be in addition to the games available to subscribers.  Among the subscription games are Sam and Max (based on the Steve Purcell comic) and Myst Online: Uru.

How will they make money by giving away games?  Advertising.  According to Stu Snyder, senior vice president, "We view this is as the next evolution of GameTap. Clearly, the Internet is a growing force as an advertising medium. Our heritage at Turner is we always aggregate content, re-popularize it, and make it available in different ways to consumers.”

Interesting idea, that.

DENNIS O’NEIL: Tribute to a true master

DENNIS O’NEIL: Tribute to a true master

Kurt Vonnegut is gone.

I’d like to say that I was a bit ahead of the crowd in discovering that, while he was a science fiction writer, he was also much more, but by the publication of Cat’s Cradle in 1963 a lot of people had found this wise, sad, funny man – particularly disaffected young people.

He was often likened to Mark Twain and the comparison’s apt. But while I unstintingly admire Mr. Twain (maybe such admiration is in every Missouri-born writer’s DNA), I think Vonnegut’s quality average may be a bit higher. True, he did not write as much as his predecessor – Twain was astonishingly prolific – but he always seemed to be at or near his best. I can’t remember reading any Vonnegut piece that I thought was second-rate.

He was pessimistic without being sour, famous without egotism, and he had compassion completely devoid of sentimentality. Like Mark Twain, he could voice unpopular opinions without offending those who disagreed with him.

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