Nerdy Nuggets of News: February 2006 Archives

One of my favorite shows about the movie industry is on IFC (Independent Film Channel): Dinner For Five. Hosted by Jon Favreau (Swingers), it's like have dinner with five people in Hollywood. The guest list changes each week and includes people in both television and movies. One week Michael Chiklis was a guest, along with producer Michael De Luca. De Luca, obviously a big fan of the Shield, starting asking Chiklis about Aceveda's sexual assault and if this was planned from the very beginning of that season. Just last Friday, a very cool episode was shown with Kevin Smith taking over Favreau's place as dinner-boss, and the guests included Stan Lee, J.J. Abrams, Jason Lee, and Mark Hamill. Abrams told fascinating stories about how he sold his first movie scripts while in college (one of them was Regarding Henry), and how he started "dating" Tom Cruise (after he watched the first two seasons of ALIAS on dvd) and became director of Mission Impossible 3.

Stan Lee's told a story regarding Marvel Super Special #1, featuring KISS. This was a big event at the time. Marvel put Steve Gerber (Howard the Duck) on the book, who wrote a wild tale about KISS fighting Doctor Doom. Marvel obviously hoped this would lure rock fans to their superhero line. On the cover, it actually says: Printed in real KISS blood. Lee said that he took an airplane trip with all the KISS members to the printing plant, which was most likely Sparta, Illinois. They were met at the airport by the police, who escorted them all the way to the factory. Roads were blocked off and traffic was halted so that Gene Simmons and company could shed a few drops into the printing ink. As Lee said, and as Don King would say, Only in America! I wonder what Stan the Man could possibly discuss with the KISS gang on the airplane flight? Nuff said.

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Today is Herb Tarlek's birthday! Or it's the birthday of the actor who played him on WKRP In Cincinnati, Frank Bonner. According to IMDB, he's 64. I loved WKRP and it's zany crew: Dr. Johnny Fever, Venus Flytrap, and newsman Les Nessman, who drew imaginary walls around his desk. My favorite will always be ass-kissing Herb, who was forever scheming to get into Jennifer's skirt--since it belonged to 70s pinup queen, Loni Anderson. Herb had his faults: he always thought of himself to be smarter than everyone else, and he was quite selfish. Yet when the chips were down, he had a heart of gold. I'll always associate Herb with the Internet boom. When I worked at Pandesic (a startup in Folsom), we called Friday at 5pm the "Herb Tarlek hour". Herb always kept a bottle of whiskey in his desk. We kept up the tradition with a bottle of Captain Morgan's. Morgan's and Coke, a very fine tradition. Raise a glass to Herb and Frank today. Nuff said.

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Newsarama is covering the New York Comic-Con and they have an interview with Jim Lee about his latest project: designing characters and environments for the DC Comics Online MMORPG. Back in June 2005, I speculated on this, and it seems like my dream is coming true:

JL: Imagine getting to create your own unique superhero, give it a name, choose a physique, a costume, a set of powers and then dive into the DC Universe where you get to meet and ally with Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and the entire pantheon of heroes. Imagine getting to team up with friends and other players from around the world and take on the likes of the Joker, Lex Luthor and Deathstroke. Imagine getting to use your network of contacts to go on missions and adventures to incredibly diverse environments. Imagine gaining fame and notoriety, forming leagues of superheroes to battle one another or to take down Darkseid himself. It's not hard to see how awesome a game like this would be and it's really the chance to play around and do so many different things in the DCU that is the big draw to gamers and comic book fans alike.

Sony has the good sense to get Jim Lee involved in the design. Many of the current DC writers are gamers as well, so maybe they would also get involved in the storyline. What if current DC events were reflected in such a game? Newsarama asked that question...

NRAMA: So this will be a full functional, albeit "alternate" DCU in cyberspace. Will it in any way impact or reflect the monthly comic continuity?
JL: I can't get into too much detail about this at this moment...

Imagine playing in this world and suddenly you hear a Boom Tube exploding--Darkseid invades Earth. Or look up and see a red sky--Crisis is on the way. Nuff said.

External Link:
Newsarama: Jim Lee on the DCU MMORPG

Frank Miller made quite an impression at Wondercon, with a couple of articles appearing this week after it ended. Peter Hartlaub at the San Francisco Chronicle talked to Miller and extracted more information about the new Batman graphic novel that Miller is drawing. It's going to be titled "Holy Terror, Batman" and it's going to be a whopper at 200 pages. Miller has finished 120 pages so far; previous rumors indicated it was going to be black and white, like Sin City. Batman isn't going to fight Republicans any more...

"I wish the entertainers of our time had the spine and the focus of the ones who faced down Hitler," Miller said. "I just think it's silly to have Batman out chasing the Riddler when you've got al Qaeda out there."

Yeah, but the minute you make superheroes enter into real world conflicts, it's just not realistic. Batman could invade Iraq all by himself. The Flash could find Osama Bin Linden in a few minutes of super-speed searching and bring him to US Navy aircraft carriers in the Gulf. That's why Roy Thomas wrote that story about the DC heroes not being able to go to Europe or Japan during World War 2.

I am constantly confused by Miller's politics. Is he liberal or conservative? He bashed Reagan in Dark Knight Returns and took swipes at big corporations (Starbucks) in Dark Knight Strikes Again. Yet Miller loves punishing criminals mercilessly through his characters, and now he's going after al Qaeda.

Miller also made an appearance in Berkeley for a screening of Sin City that benefited the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. There are some good behind the scenes info on Newsarama about how Miller worked with Bruce Willis and Mickey Rourke.

External Links:
Who needs comic-book villains when real ones lurk? Not Batman.
SPACE Channel Video showing Holy Terror pages
CBLDF's Benefit Sin City Screening Report.
Frank Miller Wondercon Spotlight Part 1
Frank Miller Wondercon Spotlight, Part 2

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Rich Johnston's Lying in the Gutters column is out today, and he makes an interesting comment about Infinite Crisis #6 in a section titled "State of the Industry". It's mostly analysis with a little rumor thrown in, but I think the analysis part is right on target. DC and Marvel can't afford to throw away aging fanboys with lots of disposable income. Identity Crisis, Countdown, and Infinite Crisis are homing in on our wallets like heat seaking missiles. If what Rich says is true, DC is making plans for the multiverse to return, since we responded so well to Earth-2's return.

Why did the multiverse ever go away? The thought in the 1985 was that so many parallel DC Universes were confusing, as well as alienating, younger readers. Now it seems like you can't get younger readers back at all, but if they do come back, parallel universes will entice them rather than repel. The main competition to comic books are video games, and going to multiple universe is nothing compared to visiting different worlds or regions. It wasn't a big deal to see the alternate universe version of Buffy where Willow and Xander were evil.

I see the whole multiverse complaint during the 80s as one of many excuses: Superman doesn't sell because he's too powerful and there are too many Kryptonians. Flash doesn't sell because he runs too fast. Bullshit. If the multiverse is confusing, you didn't explain it well. Just look at well they did it Infinite Crisis. If Superman's too powerful, come up with a villain that plays mind games. If there are too many Kryptonians, put them in the Phantom Zone until you have a story. If Flash runs too fast, maybe you should invent a villain who runs faster, like Savitar. Nuff said.

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Yeah, you could read a lot of this news on various web sites, but then you'd miss my wonderful and smarmy comments...

Grant Morrison is the new regular writer on BATMAN. Yes! Paul Dini on Batman and we've got the strongest year for Batman since the O'Neil\Adams years.

Morrison said that he's already plotted 15 issues, and in his first issue alone, he has 15 ninja man-bats as well as Talia, and the story is called "Batman & Son". Morrison said Batman coming out of 52 OYL will be a more of a "fun guy, more healthy", more like the "Neal Adams, hairy-chested, love-god" version of Batman.

Morrison starts on Batman after Robinson's eight part story finishes. Hmm...the purpose of Robinson's story is mysterious. Is it a bridging arc that takes on Dick Grayson as Batman and returns us to Bruce Wayne?

Wally West is not dead. The $20 that I paid for my little nephew, Alfalfa, to go to Wondercon was really worth it:

During the Q&A, a young boy asked if "Wally Flash" was dead as a result of the events of Infinite Crisis #4 (garnering a collective "awwww" from the crowd).
Rucka looked to Johns saying, "Don't break his heart", and Johns gave in to the boy, confirming that "No", Wally does not die in Crisis.

The biggest new book that has really surprised me is the new Checkmate series from Greg Rucka. I am going to give this one a chance, just look at the cast:

Rucka then outlined the characters from the cover of issue #1. The Black Queen is Sasha Bordeaux, the White Queen is Amanda Waller, Fire is the Black Queen's knight, and the White King behind the podium is … wait for it …Alan Scott…

Golden Age Green Lantern as the White King? Does he still have his GL ring? Scott has had his powers taken away and restored so many times, it's boring, but DC's writers may want to do it again because the GL Corps are back.

Howard Chaykin was at Wondercon and spoke briefly about Hawkgirl. The preview pages that Newsarama posted yesterday looked really good. His comments instantly aroused my attention, making me hope for a superhero series intermingled with Black Kiss. I love Chaykin, he's never afraid to mix in a little sex with his characters...

Kendra is someone who has relationship problems with the world and other people Chaykin said, adding that to address this Kendra will be "dating most of the DC Universe".

"Just the boys?" Rucka asked immediately.

"That's an issue. That's something we've discussed," replied Chaykin.

"It's going to be a book that's sly, funny, sexy, and have a great deal of airborne violence," he added.

Damn. Now I will spend the next week thinking about what DCU chick outta be Kendra's first lesbian fuck. Nuff said.

External Links to News sources:
Newsarama DCU 2006: The Best is Yet to Come
CBR: DC 2006 The Best Is Yet to Come
Pulse: DCU 2006 Best is Yet to Come
Silver Bullet Comics: DCU 2006
Grant Morrison Spotlight
Mark Waid Spotlight

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Wondercon is taking place right now in San Francisco, only a BART train ride away from my house. I'm not going as it is my wife's birthday--what kind of present would it be to say, let's go hang around Kevin Smith all day? (Although if you are there, you must attend Smith's session, as he is so goddamn funny in a room full of comic book geeks.) Nowadays you get all the news from cons anyway, so here are the highlights, which I'll update throughout the weekend...

WONDERCON '06: THE ARCHITECTS OF THE DC UNIVERSE PANEL
CBR: ARCHITECTS OF DCU PANEL
PULSE: MODERN ARCHITECTURE OF DCU
Lots of 52/Crisis news courtesy of Newsarama (most complete and source of all quotes here), Pulse, and Comic Book Resources. If you're a fan of Metal Men and Ambush Bug, then get ready, they are coming back in 52. A lot of characters are coming back. In that double page spread from Titans 32, Changeling remembered all the different incarnations of the Doom Patrol. You have to laugh thinking of John Byrne, who had hated Grant Morrison's version of Doom Patrol with a passion. Think you can just imagine it all away, John, just you like did to Krypto, Streaky, and the Weisinger Krypton? Johns, Waid, and Morrison are like the Ghostbusters, they are gonna take control:

When an audience member stated that Morrison's Doom Patrol run had been written out, or shunted from DCU continuity as he asked the question by an audience member if, given the post-Crisis streamlining of the DCU, creators would be able to tell "experimental stories" as easily, Johns cut the questioner off, saying, "Not any more!" Clearly implying that Morrison's Doom Patrol would somehow be a part of the DCU proper after Crisis.

A few months back, I wrote about Dr. Fate and the possibility of Kent Nelson returning (although I estimated the Corrigan\Spectre thing incorrectly):

When it was pointed out that, recently, Dr. Fate has been like the drummer in Spinal Tap, that is, a role that's not filled by one person for long, Johns said that a return to a more iconic, even perhaps a Kent Nelson Dr. Fate might be coming.

On the subject of magic, we have more of a clue on this whole new Tenth Age of magic business:

Morrison, when asked, said that he wouldn't be doing much with magic in his upcoming work, noting that Michael Moorecock had written the "Magic Bible" for the DCU and that the author's ideas for how magic works, and how magical characters interact in the DCU is very interesting. Wacker added that, with magic in the DCU, the idea now is not to use it as a plot device or a ghost in the machine, but rather to show, as with everything else, there's a cost associated to using magic.

This would be a positive change if there is a cost to using magic. Magic has always been a cheap device at both Marvel and DC. And to have Moorcock design a system for DC is a clear indication of good judgment. Didio for President.

Nuff Said for now.

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According to the Comics Continuum, Justice League Unlimited is back on Cartoon Network this Saturday. The new episode is called "Flash and Substance". Yum, yum, an all-Flash episode with his Rogues Gallery: Mirror Master, Captain Cold, and the Trickster are slated to appear. Plus they worked Linda Park in there. Now, what is really funny is that over on Ain't It Cool, people in the UK are watching the penultimate episode of JLU already! For once, our friends across the pond get to watch something ahead of the United States. This means...that all these JLU episodes are already torrented. Yep. Nuff said.

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I finally started listening to Ricky Gervais' podcast. Everyone said it was hilarious, and I was like, yeah, right. But I listened to the first episode, where Ricky chats with his buds Karl Pilkington and Steve Merchant. Karl starts talking about how NASA sent monkeys into space during the late 50s and early 60s. Pilkington starts inventing his own pseudo-science around the space monkeys; he thinks NASA invented a banana machine for Pavlovian responses to button mashing. Gervais and Merchant are flabbergasted at Pilkington's total disregard for history and science. I think the Guardian website sums it up:

Karl Pilkington, unencumbered by any meaningful degree of intellect, continues to elicit exasperation and exultation in equal measure from Ricky Gervais and Steve Merchant.

I have to wonder if all this is for real. Do they rehearse this at all before they sit down to record the podcast? They have a monkey segment each episode, so they must come up with a list of topics or news. Please reply if you know the inside scoop. Whether it's real or not, this is the funniest podcast ever made. I was listening to it in my office and I had tears streaming. Nuff said.

External Link:
Guardian Unlimited: Ricky Gervais podcast
Ricky Gervais Website

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Newsarama has a very thorough interview with Geoff Johns. It covers everything I could possibly think of: his job with Richard Donner, how he got his start with DC Comics, his love of super-villains, and his work on DC's weekly comic 52. On the latter subject, the working relationship between Johns, Mark Waid, Greg Rucka, and Grant Morrison sounds very interesting:

We're literally working on every issue together. But it's really fun. It's very different than anything people have seen. Grant described it as a TV show, and it really is. It's more like a TV show following characters every week. I get to work with Grant, Mark, Keith and Greg -- and Steve has a tremendous line of artistic talent starting with Joe Bennett. Everyone brings something very different to the table. Mark just wrote this scene that blew me away and it was very much in his style. Just very fun… a twist on a convention. I can't wait until people read #12.

Over at Word Balloon, Keith Giffen has a talk with John Siuntres about his long comics career. Justice League, Legion, Defenders--all covered--as well as 52 and the new Blue Beetle series.

External Links:
Geoff Johns Newsarama Interview Part 1
Geoff Johns Newsarama Interview Part 2
Keith Giffen Word Balloon Interview

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What If...Back to the Future was a story about gay love?

Really amazing what you can do with movie editing software. Please, someone do the same thing for Desperate Housewives! Nuff said.

A Sony employee named Josh Robinson was recently let go for making less than positive comments about the forthcoming Playstation 3. It originally appeared on a website and was removed at Sony's request, but on Jan. 12th, Kotaku reprinted the original text:

We received one of 5 PS3 dev kits in the United States some time ago. Several companies in the US as well as companies over seas were given the daunting task of creating a demo in less than 9 weeks on a first generation dev kit. Now I'll be honest with you. What most companies do is fake the entire demo. I mean they come up with some great visuals and neat tricks and scripted events. In the end however, its not a real time demo and its not running ON the actual box...Now in my opinion it doesn't matter how good the PS3 is. If the XBOX 360 is better, then it doesn't really matter how the cell processors work or how good they say it is. Realistically one of them will be better over all. Now I've spoken with people who are on the technical side of the PS3. I've also talked with people on the technical side of the XBOX 360. The consistent comment I am hearing from people on my end is, "The XBOX 360 is better".

Wow, he's a Sony employee and he doesn't think those comments will lead to him getting fired? He's nuts! If you're on a team, you have to play to win, and that means supporting your side no matter what. Apparently Robinson is doing just fine with a new job--you can read what happened to him here on ps3week.

There's no way the PS3 will ship in Spring 2006 if these comments are true. I've read predictions that it will ship in Fall 2006 with limited software support. That gives Microsoft a one year lead in the console race. Sony has various strengths, but so far I haven't seen that they understand software (or supporting developers with good tools and documentation) very well. The Playstation Portable is a wonderful device for movies, music, and games, but Sony missed the boat in not bundling it together a free software product like ITunes. I'm not counting Sony out, not by a long shot, but part of their success for the PS3 will have to come from developing a competitor to XBox Live. Nuff said.

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Newsarama has an interview with Stephen Wacker, the editor of Legion, JSA, and the upcoming weekly comic, 52. (How did he get through high school with that name?) The promo line Wacker wrote for 52 is: "A year without Superman. A year without Batman. A year without Wonder Woman...but not a year without heroes." That is tantalizing. 52 has some core characters that we will follow, all C-list stars: Booster Gold, The Question, Renee Montoya (from Batman & Gotham Central), Ralph Digby (Elongated Man), and Steel. That's a tough sell, but I guess if Day of Vengence sold--with Detective Chimp and Nightstalker--just about anything connected to Crisis will do reasonably well. It's an interesting experiment to see how Morrison, Waid, Johns, Rucka, and Giffen collaborate.

Newsarama really tries to make Wacker reveal the fate of the JSA and Earth-2:

SW: I'm not going to be coy or cute about it. The JSA is around One Year Later and their membership is unchanged.
NRAMA: On the same Earth as the rest of the DCU titles?
SW: On the same Earth as many of the other DCU titles. Nice try

Go ahead and tease me. I knew girls like you in high school. Nuff said.

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