Fantasy- JK Rowling has a great idea for a Harry Potter theme park and there are several groups who want to help her make it, but her idea for the main entrance sounds a bit bottleneck-ish. Hope they can work out the details; I'd love to visit the place she's imagining.
- Josh Ortega sent out an email newsletter about the crazy success of the Death Dealer comic he wrote. "I was completely blindsided this month when Frank Frazetta's Death Dealer became the most successful series launch for Image Comics in over a decade, and one of the biggest independent comic debuts in recent history … heck, the book even sold out nationwide in six hours!" And not only that, but, "Frank Frazetta and his family absolutely love the book, and now there are talks of sequels, other Frazetta projects, slipcase hardcover collections, action figures, even a film … looks like the beginning of something big!" Congrats to Josh and artists Nat Jones and Jay Fotos. I definitely want to see a Death Dealer movie.
Science Fiction
Superheroes
- I've been wanting to try out Marvel Adventures: The Avengers for a little while now. Partly because I'm thirsty for a more light-hearted superhero comic than I'm getting from the usual Marvel/DC stuff lately; partly because it's got Dumb Hulk in it and I love Dumb Hulk. Knowing that every four issues are collected in digest format, I wanted to wait until issue #13 came out to start buying the single issues, but unfortunately for that plan, issue #12 was all about Ego the Living Planet's macking on the Earth and I got impatient. Especially after reading this scene that didn't make it into the final version. So, yesterday I broke down and bought issues 1-8 in digest form and 9-12 in single issue form. So weak-willed. I'll try to do better about easing into Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four.
- I wasn't sure how much I was going to like the material reprinted in it, but after reading Dan Kelly's post about it, I'm definitely getting Showcase Presents: Shazam!.
- After Marvel's movie producer Avi Arad made an offhanded comment about how the new movie version of the Hulk would have a "new color" (in addition to new everything else from the first film), fans began posting wildly about whether or not that meant the Hulk would be gray, as he was when he first appeared in comics. Arad later told Empire that folks needed to settle down. "Here’s what it was. There were 30 people around a table, and they said 'is there going to be a grey Hulk?' And I was thinking about it and I said, 'who knows?' It was one of those moments. I had just got back from Japan and I was trying to talk about Spider-Man and this guy was pushing me on The Hulk so I thought I’ll be coy. I don’t know what colour it is, and all of a sudden it’s headline news." He went on to explain his original "new color" comment: "It’s a different shade of green, but the colour is not like the old Hulk." I'm guessing that the "old Hulk" there refers to the one in the Ang Lee film.
Other Comics
- I mention this mainly because they're going to be publishing that King Kong comic and I don't want to lose track of it, but Markosia Publications is merging with its sister company [browse for "25-04-07 - AAM MERGES WITH MARKOSIA" if it's not at the top of the page anymore] Associate Arts and Media and may get a name change.
Stuff Nobody Cares About But Me
- One of my biggest influences as a guy who reviews comics is Roger Ebert. His reviews are always entertaining and thoughtful, but most of all I love how he judges movies based on what they're trying to achieve, not on what he wishes they'd be. Seeing his attitude after having much of his jaw removed due to cancer, he's gone from Influence to Hero. Get well soon, Mr. Ebert.
4 comments:
* Even without having seen the details, I think Potter Park sounds like something that could work. Not for me, of course, but I'm sure plenty of fans would dig it.
* That deleted scene. Oh, my.
So, did you dig the ish?
* I didn't know that about Ebert. Wow.
That's also an interesting way to review media. On some level, it's a "duh," kinda thing, but it requires "knowing" the creators' intent. Sometimes, that's not so easy.
Yeah, it's not easy, but I find that it's totally worth it. You have to think a little harder about what you're reviewing.
It's like Ang Lee's Hulk movie. What I wanted it to be was a giant Hulk-SMASH! festival and I was disappointed that it wasn't that, but a serious drama with some action bits scattered around.
But it was obvious that Ang Lee intended it to be a serious drama and not an action movie at all. So, if I were to review it, I'd certainly mention that I wished it were something else, but it wouldn't be fair for me to spend the whole review harping on the fact that it wasn't. I'd need to review it as a drama (which I'd still find serious flaws in, incidentally).
Oh... I meant to say more about the rewards of taking that approach.
I've had several creators express appreciation and outright joy that I "got" what they were trying to achieve in a work. It's a great feeling to realize that you've gone past your initial reaction and thought deeply about something, and in the process truly connected with the artist who created it.
Oh... Part Two.
I haven't read the Marvel Adventures: Avengers stuff yet, but I'll definitely blog about it once I do.
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