The Mix : What are people talking about today?

MARTHA THOMASES: More fun

MARTHA THOMASES: More fun

In her book No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Kniting, Anne Macdonald describes the Puritan roots of our country and how getting together to knit, quilt or sew was one of the few ways colonial women could get together to socialize. The only way they could justify the pleasure they took in each other’s company was to do some “productive” work.

In other words, our culture hates pleasure.

This might seem to be a strange thing to say when everything from beer to detergent is being sold with sexy commercials. But, see, that’s the point. Pleasure is being used to sell. It’s not being celebrated for its own sake.

Which brings us to comics and the lack of respect they get in our modern world. Comics are fun. Denny O’Neil says that comics are one of the few media that engage both halves of the brain, providing a buzz unavailable from movies or books. Even if that didn’t happen, comics are uniquely joyous. Anything can happen in the pages of a comic. Dogs can talk. Pigs can fly. The universe can be compressed into a ball, or be the staging ground for an epic battle. The battle can be between Galactus and the Avengers, or talking dogs and flying pigs.

Comics don’t have to be silly to be a pleasure. I’ve had a fine time reading Frank Miller’s Sin City, Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home, and Will Eisner’s A Contract with God, to name just a few, disparate titles. The pleasure comes from the books ability to get me to leave my own head and get into someone else’s, to try on another life and walk around.

Which brings us back to politics.

Back in the day (and by that, I mean the 1960s and 1970s), we thought that sex and drugs and rock’n’roll could change the world. We thought that if we showed how much fun there was in the counter-culture, no one would want to go to war.

We were right.

Comics were a major part of the counter-culture. Robert Crumb, Trina Robbins, Howard Cruse, S. Clay Wilson, Skip Williamson, Spain Rodriguez and many others blew away the straight world’s idea of what comics were about. They made comics about motorcycle demons, stoner cats, fabulous furry freak brothers, girl fights and lots of other stuff that wasn’t superheroes or expanded newspaper strips. They told silly stories that ridiculed the power structure and celebrated pleasure.

The war in Vietnam ended for a lot of reasons. Public opinion turned against it, and the troops came home. Comics helped.

There’s another war on now, and yet there are remarkably few comics that offer an alternative vision. We need them. We need more fun.

Green Hornet stings again!

Green Hornet logoThe Green Hornet has been optioned for feature films once again. Columbia picutres announced yesterday that they have optioned the one-time radio and television hero from Neal H. Moritz of Original Film. Moritz, in turn, picked up the rights from Green Hornet Inc., and will serve as producer along with Ori Marmur.

The property has been under repeated option since the 1990s. At one point, George Clooney was ready to portray Brit Reid, newspaper magnate and secret crimefighter, with Jason Scott Lee as Kato, his faithful manservant. In 2004, Kevin Smith was signed to write and direct the film with Jake Gyllenhaal and Jet Li in the main roles. Smith then backed off the directing aspect and in 2006 announced he was no longer attached to the property.

The Green Hornet debuted on WXYX radio in Detroit back in January 1936 and quickly went network. The creation of George W. Trendle and Fran Striker, the two already had a hit with The Lone Ranger. In addition to the long-running radio show, the Green Hornet has appeared in movie serials, a long running and a frequently reprinted newspaper comic strip distributed by King Features and later revived under the pen of Russ Heath. The feature also enjoyed numerous comic book runs, last seen in the popular series from Now Comics. The television series on ABC lasted one season but gave the world Bruce Lee. The theme music, "Flight of the Bumblebee" (the television version was recorded by Al Hirt) has continued to thrill movie-goers, as most reccently heard in Kill Bill: Part 1.

Next Nexus

Next Nexus

Via Heidi MacDonald at The Beat, we see that new adventures of Nexus, our favorite interstellar killer of mass murderers, will be coming out in July.

Clearly, this leaves us with a large hunk of questions over here at ComicMix. After all, if Nexus can come back in this day and age, complete with the original creators, what could possibly be next?

John Ostrander and Timothy Truman on GrimJack?

Mike Grell doing new Jon Sable Freelance?

Del Close coming back from the grave for new Munden’s Bar stories?

Obviously, if we have any information about any of these properties, we’ll let you know.

Soon.

Unless something else comes along to eclipse that news.

ELAYNE RIGGS: My life with Lulu

ELAYNE RIGGS: My life with Lulu

Back when my ex-husband and I were first getting heavily involved in online comics fandom and attending lots of conventions, there weren’t a lot of women con-goers, so we all tended to stand out a bit and more or less gravitate towards one another. As I recall there weren’t a lot of "booth babes" in those days, so the women con-goers consisted mostly of either readers (what we would call "fangirls" today but which term hadn’t even come into vogue by that point) or comics creators’ spouses, with the very occasional industry pro like Colleen Doran and Maggie Thompson and Heidi MacDonald.

As I was an avid reader with professional writing aspirations, I fit the first category but hoped to also fit the last — that I’d wind up in the second as well I could not have foreseen — and as most of the active industry pros seemed to be around my age and I’d already "met" so many of them online, that’s where I hung out.

And that’s where I first heard about a new organization called Friends of Lulu, named in honor of the comics character created by Marge Henderson Buell, which Heidi and a few others had conceived of at the 1993 San Diego convention to address the gaping chasm between women’s status in comics and that of their male colleagues. I’d been an active feminist since college, and the idea of a comics industry group formed to redress injustice and give visibility to the marginalized appealed to me.

At the time, the internal debate amongst the founders was whether to even admit non-professionals; fortunately they decided to open an organizational gathering (and membership) to non-pros, so I attended my first FoL meeting in San Diego in 1994. Now, as many will attest, I don’t have the best memory for specifics, so what follows are mostly general recollections and feelings, supplemented by my collection of FoL member newsletters from Volume 1 #1 (June 1995) through the summer of 2004.

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Creators are fans too

Creators are fans too

By and large comics aren’t the best-paying gig around for writers and artists, so people who make a living telling comic book stories are primarily doing it for the love of the medium.  There’s far less of a dividing line between fan and pro than there is in other entertainment media — in comics it’s always been more of a continuum.

And thus we have some nifty posts by professionals talking about the comics they love.

Colleen Doran discusses the new Legion of Super-Heroes cartoon and, erm, a missing element.  Becky Cloonan talks about her love/hate relationship with an old X-Men story as a way of reminding us that "Comics is a teeny TEEENY tiny industry. Anything you say (especially on the Internet) will get back to you."  And Chris Weston presents his sugestions of five artists whom he thinks would be perfect for Judge Dredd, and illustrates why.

Superman sequel shelved to make way for JLA?

Step-sister site Cinematical (say that three times fast) reports on the rumor that the next Superman film may be put on the shelf for a while to make way for Brandon Routh appearing in the Justice League film. "According to Moviehole (who have some pretty good inside studio sources), the highly-anticipated Superman Returns sequel (currently titled The Man of Steel) might be placed into turnaround so that Brandon Routh (and the Superman character) can be used in the upcoming Justice League flick instead."

Well, now. That’s one way to make the merchandising people happy. And with Wonder Woman already delayed, this could solve a few problems at WB.

Marvel to build billion dollar theme park in Dubai

Marvel to build billion dollar theme park in Dubai

Crain’s New York Business is reporting that Marvel has teamed up Al Ahli Group to develop a $1 billion theme park in Dubai based on Marvel superheroes. Think Island of Adventure, but with a lot more sand.

Crain’s notes: "The agreement marks the first major deal completed by Marvel Studios’ new Chairman David Maisel, who was named to the post earlier this month amid a shakeup of the company’s feature film business. Michael Helfant, who had been president and chief operating officer of Marvel Studios, was ousted."

The park is scheduled to open in 2011, and will be the first global destination theme park in the Middle East. I, for one, look forward to the new fanboy question replacing "Who’s stronger, the Thing or the Hulk?" with "Does the Invisible Woman need to wear a burqa?"

New Miyazaki film announced

New Miyazaki film announced

Studio Ghibli and Toho Films have announced that Hayao Miyazaki’s next movie project is slated for theatrical release in Japan in July 2008.  Gake No Ueno Ponyo, which translated into English means Ponyo On A Cliff, is an original screenplay which, according to the movie’s producer, is somewhat based on the childhood experience of Miyazaki’s oldest son. The movie follows the story of Ponyo, a goldfish princess who wants to be human, and her friendship with Sousuke, a five-year-old boy.  The movie will feature simple child-like drawn pictures and no computer generated animation.

Miyazaki is best known in this country for films like Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, and Princess Monomoke, which was translated into English by Neil Gaiman.

Turtles disrupt traffic

Turtles disrupt traffic

Here’s one you probably won’t see in most news reports.  I only heard it second-hand on the radio during my morning commute.  The traffic reporter commented about slow-downs on the upper level of the George Washington Bridge in New York City because folks dressed up like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were doing something or other on the bridge’s pedestrian walkway, and thus all the cars were slowing down to look.  He had no idea why the Turtle characters were there, but I blame viral marketing (what we used to call a "publicity stunt" in the old days — in this case, for this Friday’s opening of the TMNT movie). 

Oh well, it could be worse — it could be Moomins.

Jimmy Olsen and the new ComicMix Podcast

Jimmy Olsen and the new ComicMix Podcast

We preview this week’s new comics and DVDs and tell you how you can see some of the new television pilots, we reveal brand new Marvel mini-madness and tell you all about the return of Pirates without pirates, and we tell you what Joss Whedon is up to! Plus – the lowdown on Jimmy Olsen: will he really be the next Captain America?

The ComicMix Tuesday Podcast springs out of your computer… when you press this button: