Podcasting about Bond

DC COMICS GOES APE

DC recently announced this fascinating gem.

DC COMICS GOES APE

Written by Otto Binder, John Broome, Gardner Fox and others; Art by Carmine Infantino, Wayne Boring, George Papp, Ross Andru, C.C. Beck, Jim Starlin and others; Cover by Arthur Adams

You'll go bananas for this new title collecting simian stories from SUPERBOY #76, SUPERMAN #138, THE FLASH (VOL. 1) #127, DETECTIVE COMICS #339 and 482, HAWKMAN #16, WONDER WOMAN #170, STRANGE ADVENTURES #201, SHAZAM #9, SUPER FRIENDS #30 and THE FLASH (VOL. 2) #151!

DC Universe | 168pg. | Color | Softcover | $19.99 US

On Sale October 1, 2008

As a well known ape aficionado, this collection interested me as I began wondering how many of these stories I've actually read.

• Superboy #76 "The Super-Monkey from Krypton!" I've read this cute tale. It's an odd choice to start with.

• Superman #138 "Titano the Super-Ape" Perhaps the most famous Superman-Titano story of them all. The second appearance of Titano with the classic King Kong-homage cover of Titano climbing the Daily Planet building. This is often reprinted, most notably in the classic DC Super Special #16: Super-heroes Battle Super-Gorillas

• The Flash (VOL. 1) #127 "The Reign of the Super-Gorilla!" Perhaps the finest Gorilla Grodd story ever. Another one reprinted in DC Super Special #16.

• Detective Comics #339 "Batman Battles the Living Beast-Bomb!" The oft-reprinted tale that introduced Carmine Infantino's new look to the Batman franchise. This one was in DC Super Special #16 as well.

• Detective Comics #482 "Night of the Body Snatcher" I've never seen this one, but with story/pencils by Jim Starlin and inks by P. Craig Russell, I'm looking forward to it. I only wish they were reprinting the entire double-sized Batman Family issue. Luckily the Michael Golden-drawn Bat-Mite adventure was reprinted in The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told (another great collection).

• Hawkman #16 "Lord of the Flying Gorillas!" One of the inspirations for my story "I Was the Bride of Rothro, King of the Giant Flying Vampire Gorillas From the Earth's Core" (Negative Burn #47, drawn by John Lucas).

• Wonder Woman #170 "Wonder Woman... Gorilla!" THE Wonder Woman-gorilla tale. Reprinted in the classic DC Super Special #16.

• Strange Adventures #201 "The Mod Gorilla Boss!" This odd cross of DC's poor understanding of sixties pop culture, apes, and mobs lead to one of the most unusual Animal Man stories of all. I actually own this. I'd be a tad ashamed for me.

• Shazam #9 "The Day Captain Marvel Went Ape!" Surprisingly, this is not even the best Captain Marvel ape story. That's reserved for the delightful Marvel Family #85 "The Marvel Family Battles the Primate Plot", reprinted in both Limited Collector's Edition #C-21 and The Greatest Shazam Stories Ever Told.

• Super Friends #30 "Gorilla Warfare Against the Humans" I've never read this one but it features a tale using Grodd and Giganta (in apparently her first Earth-1 appearance).

• The Flash (VOL. 2) #151 "Territorealis" Another story I haven't read. Apparently, a Teen Titans flashback story.

Of the eleven stories, I've read all but three. I'm both proud and ashamed.

The War of the Worlds Book Cover Collection

While researching the new Nexus Graphica column, I ran across this very impressive collection of some 350 War of the Worlds book covers. Images range from 1898 to the present and in a variety of languages.


The site contains the cover to the 1976 Marvel Classics edition that first introduced me to this classic. It appears that this version of the novel has been reprinted several times and in several different languages.













And my absolute favorite: The War of The Worlds/Star Trek hybrid. Funny, I don't remember the Enterprise in WotW.

Interview with The Damned

Creators, that is. My latest Baker's Dozen for RevolutionSF is with The Damned writer Cullen Bunn and artist Brian Hurtt.

It's been said the in order to get anything published, you must sell your soul. How much of Eddie comes from your personal and professional life experiences?

BH: The process of doing this comic has been entirely painless. We have a great relationship with Oni (I’d done several projects with them prior to this) and when they said yes to the pitch they more or less cut us loose on the book. Their input has been minimal and always put forth as questions rather than edicts. The Oni philosophy has always been to hire the creators they like and trust and then let them do what they do. It’s a great way to work.

Eddie is a bitter, tired, and pessimistic soul. He’s entirely based on Cullen.

CB: I tried to sell Brian’s soul on eBay, but the highest bidder failed to pay. I didn’t get a single bite on it when posted to Craigslist, either. I finally gave his soul away on Freecycle so it wouldn’t clutter my garage.

Working on The Damned seems a bit surreal, because it has been so easy, and I’m grateful every day for the experience. Brian and Oni Press are great to work with. My only fear is that I’ve been spoiled by how well this has gone. I can only hope that all the other projects I work on will be as rewarding.

Continued...

Tales of the Black Freighter Coming To DVD

According to the New York Times, the "Tales of the Black Freighter" segments from Watchmen will be released as a direct-to-DVD release.

The second film, tentatively called “Tales of the Black Freighter,” follows a side “Watchmen” storyline about a shipwreck and will arrive in stores five days after the main movie rolls out in theaters. The DVD will also include a documentary-style film called “Under the Hood” that will delve into the characters’ backstories.

The Times sees this as an attempt to boost lagging DVD sales. Of course to us geeks, it's just cool that the pirate story will be shot at all.

I Want To Believe!

I've never been a big UFO conspiracy guy myself, but it's fun to listen to rants from people who are. Anyway, the British government just released its UFO classified documents in a futile attempt to get the UFOlogists off its back. Their National Archives gives a nice overview. Make sure you take a look at the Ministry of Defence documents themselves. Great fun to read the chase for potential alien life visiting our planet translated into shimmering bureaucratese.

The Alpha Geeks

While I don't always see eye-to-eye with David Brooks, his New York Times op-ed piece about the ascendancy of the geek is right on, albeit a little late. The change actually occured some 5-10 years ago.

He begins with an interesting bit about the origin of the word "nerd".

In 1950, Dr. Seuss published a book called If I Ran the Zoo. It contained the sentence: “I’ll sail to Ka-Troo, and bring back an IT-KUTCH, a PREEP, and a PROO, a NERKLE, a NERD, and a SEERSUCKER, too!” According to the psychologist David Anderegg, that’s believed to be the first printed use of the word “nerd” in modern English.

He, also, does a good job defining the difference between a nerd and a geek.

Among adults, the words “geek” and “nerd” exchanged status positions. A nerd was still socially tainted, but geekdom acquired its own cool counterculture. A geek possessed a certain passion for specialized knowledge, but also a high degree of cultural awareness and poise that a nerd lacked.

Geeks not only rebelled against jocks, but they distinguished themselves from alienated and self-pitying outsiders who wept with recognition when they read Catcher in the Rye. If Holden Caulfield was the sensitive loner from the age of nerd oppression, then Harry Potter was the magical leader in the age of geek empowerment.

He even acknowledges the inherent geeky-sex appeal of Tina Fey and the group's influence on fashion.

Tina Fey, who once was on the cover of Geek Monthly magazine, has emerged as a symbol of the geek who grows into a swan. There is now a cool geek fashion style, which can be found on shopping sites all over the Web (think Japanese sneakers and text-laden T-shirts). Schwinn now makes a retro-looking Sid/Nancy bicycle, which is sweet and clunky even though it has a faux-angry name. There are now millions of educated-class types guided by geek manners and status rules.

Perhaps most importantly (and accurately) Brooks reflects on the geek influence on the Presidential race.

The news that being a geek is cool has apparently not permeated either junior high schools or the Republican Party. George Bush plays an interesting role in the tale of nerd ascent. With his professed disdain for intellectual things, he’s energized and alienated the entire geek cohort, and with it most college-educated Americans under 30. Newly militant, geeks are more coherent and active than they might otherwise be.

Barack Obama has become the Prince Caspian of the iPhone hordes. They honor him with videos and posters that combine aesthetic mastery with unabashed hero-worship. People in the 1950s used to earnestly debate the role of the intellectual in modern politics. But the Lionel Trilling authority-figure has been displaced by the mass class of blog-writing culture producers.

It's hard to imagine a group who enjoys spending their Friday nights playing Kung Fu Fighting, tinkering with Linux, and deconstructing the latest Indiana Jones film as cool and trendy, but there you have it. At least as reported by The New York Times.

Twice the Indy...

My review of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is now available at Revolution SF.

As in the seminal Raiders of the Lost Ark, the relationship between Indy and Marion drives the story. Their ceaseless bickering never tires, though disappointingly often interrupted by the abundance of action. The absence of this interaction weakened both the dreadful Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and the excellent Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. This latest adventure all but destroys George Lucas's contention that featuring a different leading lady in each Indy story strengthened the series. Any Indiana Jones project without Marion Ravenwood immediately begins with a handicap.

Continued...

Also in the current Austin Chronicle is my review of Indiana Jones: The Adventure Collection.

By way of 1930s movie serials, exotic locales, and witty scripts, the Indiana Jones films introduced one of the most popular and exciting action heroes of the 20th century. The whip-wielding archaeologist Indiana Jones, portrayed by the rakish Harrison Ford, challenged world-dominating Nazis and power-hungry Kali worshippers through three highly successful, rousing adventures: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). In anticipation of the fourth installment, Paramount has reissued the three movies as Indiana Jones: The Adventure Collection, available separately or as a set.

Continued...

African Comics

With a tip of the cap to Newsarama, the Africa Museum in Berg en Dal, Netherlands, is presenting an exhibition on African comics. Their website features appetite whetting examples from artists whose work seems unique while also influenced by European--especially French--styles. I see a lot of Herge here. If only someone with experience in making foreign comics available to the American audience could get some of this work reprinted in the US. . . .

James Bond - Swedish Style

As part of the ongoing research for my upcoming JAMES BOND: The history of the illustrated 007 (Yes, that was a shameless plug.) I've been spending a lot of time in recent days digging into the the original James Bond stories produced by Swedish publisher SEMIC during the 1980s and have grown to really appreciate the "pulp paperback" style covers they used..

1982

1984

1986

1987

Dr. No on the Radio

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of Ian Fleming's birth, on May 24th the BBC's Radio 4 will present an adaptation of Dr. No. In addition, they'll run a documentary titled Amis, Amis, and Bond featuring Martin Amis (bleh) discussing his father Kingsley Amis "obsessive" interest in Bond. I remember reading Colonel Sun years and years ago. but honestly can't recall whether it was any good or not. Anyway, this sounds like a must listen.

Shamless Plugs

Three new Klaw pieces to mention:

My review of Iron Man is up at RevolutionSF.

The film never forgets that Downey and his CG suit of armor are the stars. Downey deftly portrays the womanizing Stark -- a bit of an asshole both in the comics and on the screen. He smirks, flirts, and fights like an American James Bond. Downey's Iron Man is one of the best Marvel character-to-screen transitions to date.

Continued...

The latest edition of "Graphica Nexus" appears at SF Site.

A medium and not a genre, comic books differ little at the creative writing level from movies and plays. If "one professionally produced dramatic script" allows for membership then there should be no debate about comic book writers. The technical variances between these types of scripts is negligible. Is a playwright or a screenwriter less of a "real" writer because someone else enacts their words? This is no different then an artist envisioning a comic book script? It's not.

Continued...

And lastly, Steampunk with my original essay "The Steam-Driven Time Machine" should either be on the stands or out any day now.

Some twenty years later, pop culture has embraced steampunk. Publishing, film, and even the Internet embolden the term as a branding tool. Nary a week goes by without Boing Boing (www.boingboing.net), the venerable group blog, posting about some sort of steampunk inspired gadget, cartoon, or essay. A search of their archives generates almost 1500 articles. Subjects vary greatly: laptops, keyboards, watches, Transformers, planes, Car Wars, submarines, and so on. Many articles showcase functioning modern technology using steampunk methods and materials. Others present actual working machines from the 19th century. Images presenting artistic depictions of steampunk, paintings, sculptures, architecture and the like. Reinterpretations of popular shows such as Star Trek and Star Wars litter the listings. Original short films featuring steampunk tropes offer many amusing and sometimes exciting diversions.

Continued in Steampunk.