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Supernatural Law & Magical Law: Separated At Birth?
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Independent,
I really enjoyed reading this article about a new TV series in development at Fox. The working title is Magical Law and according to the article “the would-be hour-long Fox show takes place in a Harry Potter–esque world where supernatural beings are part of the fabric of everyday life.”
I thought that was a cool idea for a show - a logical extension of the popularity of Harry Potter, Twilight, The Walking Dead and others since TV loves to make shows about cops, lawyers and doctors when it's not obsessed with dancing.
I also thought it was a cool idea because I’d read Batton Lash’s Supernatural Law, a comic book series (created back in 1979) that “features the law practice of Alanna Wolff and Jeff Byrd, who specialize in serving the legal needs of monsters and other supernatural beings, or those who find themselves in conflict with such beings.”
I’m not the only one who sees similarities, either. The A.V. Club also weighs in.
You can check out some Supernatural Law over at Webcomics Nation.
As the tag line to Lash’s series notes: “Beware the creatures of the night - they have lawyers!”
[Artwork: Supernatural Law © Batton Lash]
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Kudos to Rich Johnston at Bleeding Cool for locating three new job opportunities at DC Comics before I got to them. (That guy must never sleep!)
He mentioned the jobs by title only and didn't include the link with all the pertinent deets, so here goes:
Creative Services Coordinator: This one is located in Burbank and you'll "assist Creative Service Manager & Executive Director in organizing and cataloging all incoming materials from editorial, theatrical, television, WHV, WB Games, WBCP and with high discretion and security distribute to the appropriate departments." In other words, you're going to get to see all the cool stuff long before anyone else."
Senior Secretary: Sadly, this doesn't mean helping old people write their memoirs while keeping track of how many kids violate the sanctity of their lawn. Also based in Burbank, you'll be assisting the "Executive Director in the Creative Services department by managing executive calendars, meeting schedules, answering phones, maintaining logs, placing calls, and sending emails and faxes as needed.
Click to continue reading Comic Book Jobs: DC Comics
Mr. Natural and Fritz The Cat (Robert Crumb). Cheech Wizard (Vaughn Bode). Dirty Duck (Bobby London). Wonder Wart-Hog (Gilbert Shelton).
All of them are great underground comic book characters. But they're not my favorite. For my money, cartoonist Bob Foster created one of the greatest underground comic characters of all time, Myron Moose.
Foster published Myron Moose Funnies in the early 1970s and they were later re-published by Fantagraphics in the late 1980s, along with Moose strips that originally appeared in Marvel's Crazy.
Foster's also had the kind of career that a lot of people would look at and go "cool!"
He's been an animator for Hanna-Barbera (among others), lived in Europe where he wrote tons of comics - including Donald Duck - for Walt Disney Publishing and later was the editor of Walt Disney's Comics & Stories, and other Disney-based titles.
Click to continue reading President Bob Foster And Myron Moose
I’m always the last to know.
I knew of Peter Steiner’s work as a cartoonist because he’s had something like 400 cartoons published in The New Yorker over the years. And I’ve probably seen most of them. He has a loose, fun style that’s classicly New Yorker-ish and his gags are very funny.
Then I found out that he’s also a writer of books as well. Only he’s not writing comic novels about summers in Connecticut or the party crowd in the Hamptons. He’s doing a 180 from his cartooning and he’s writing, wait for it, spy thrillers.
And he’s got not one, not two, but three of them, including his latest that came out earlier this year called The Terrorist. It shouldn’t surprise me, but maybe I’m a cartoon bigot who expects cartoonists to only do funny things.
I’m over that now, and I accept that cartoonists can also be writers of thrillers, science fiction novels, and historical mysteries, or even drive cabs or fix leaky drains. I certainly didn’t complain when I found out that New Yorker cartoonist Bruce Eric Kaplan (BEK) was writing for Seinfeld and producing Six Feet Under.
Click to continue reading Peter Steiner: Cartoonist & Thriller Writer?
Weekend Reading: Gene Day, Wonder Woman and Old Indiana Jones
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Conventions, Editorials, Television, DC Comics, Image Comics, Marvel Comics,
It’s been a great internet this week, so let’s take a look!
Comics & Media: There’s someone out there who believes that The Walking Dead comic books and trade compilations won’t see a boost in sales despite the tremendous success of the new TV series. Dirk Deppey delivers the smackdown and makes me wish I could write like that. (Scroll down a little.)
I only have anecdotal “evidence” about the book’s success from this year’s San Diego Con. I saw The Walking Dead booth doing tremendous business, and by Friday afternoon, they’d sold out of all the Volume 1 compilations they’d brought to the show (which still had more than two days to go).
And speaking of smackdowns, Lynda Carter tells Megan Fox to STFU.
P. Craig Russell: Want to have a sneak peek at his upcoming digital comic, The Gift of the Magi? I know you do.
Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Gene Day, Wonder Woman and Old Indiana Jones
iPhone Apps That Sound Like Marvel Characters
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Marvel Comics,
Can you imagine if iPhone apps were named after characters from the Marvel Comics Universe? I can...and here they are:
Doctor Bong - A constantly updated map of medical marijuana clinics and how far they are from you right now, man.
Fin Fang Foom - A restaurant locator for sushi bars, steakhouses and White Castles.
Impossible Man - An app for ladies with low self esteem. Automatically uploads photos of wealthy, handsome and available men who just aren’t that into you.
Mr. Fantastic - Lets you enhance photos of your junk before you email them to women you find attractive. Also known as The Favre.
Click to continue reading iPhone Apps That Sound Like Marvel Characters
Boom! Floyd Gottfredson And Mickey Mouse
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Independent,
Boom! starts January off with a bang. I haven’t seen this get the attention it deserves so I’m going to give it a shout-out here. Boom! Studios, as part of their Boom! Kids division, has been publishing the Disney Comics for a while now and the results have been impressive.
Now, in January 2011, with Mickey Mouse And Friends #304, they’re publishing something that’s driving me nuts with anticipation.
In that issue, part of their 70 Years of Walt Disney Comics celebration, they’re reprinting a classic Mickey story written by Bill Walsh (go ahead, check out his IMDB credits; I'll wait) and illustrated by Floyd Gottfredson.
It’s “The Pirate Ghost Ship!” and this will be the first time it’s been printed since 1944. This special 40-page issue also features two other stories, another Gottfredson classic called “Laundry Blues” and a Goofy story by Romano Scarpa.
Click to continue reading Boom! Floyd Gottfredson And Mickey Mouse
You know that thing you do with your comic book/action figure/DVD collection? No, not that thing. The thing where you categorize them, memorize them, shelve them and keep track of where everything is. And then take pictures of your shelves to post on Facebook.
You’re an amateur “asset coordinator” and believe it or not, there’s a department at Time Warner (the parent company of DC Entertainment and DC Comics) in their Turner Broadcasting division that wants one of their very own.
Based in Atlanta, GA, the Asset Coordinator needs a Bachelor’s Degree and 5-7 years experience in asset management, plus proficiency in the usual software suspects: Photoshop, Illustrator, PowerPoint, In-Design, Excel and MS Word. (Really? Because isn’t MS Word so prevalent in the world that chimpanzees can now use it to pull ants from a nest?)
Click to continue reading Comic Book Jobs: Turner Broadcasting
Unless there’s an iPhone app for X-Men continuity, there’s no way I can keep track of what’s going on. Who’s dead, who’s alive, who’s good, who’s bad, who’s banished, who’s lost their power or gained new ones. I can’t rattle off the names of the current X-Men or the books they appear in.
That’s not a criticism. Plenty of people know all that and more, and more power to them. As I’ve gotten older, I like the books that pop up on the fringes, usually with apes or zombies or alt cartoonists.
However, I still like the X-Men characters and will still occasionally pick up a title outside of continuity where I don’t have to know a lot going in. (I was like that with my college courses, too.)
Coming in January 2011, Marvel’s got something that fits my interest. Howard Chaykin is writing a one-shot X-Men tie-in book, Magneto.
I’ve made no secret of my fan-crush on Howard Chaykin’s work. I love how he’s able to bounce between his own projects and corporate work with relative ease, as a writer, an artist and sometimes both.
Click to continue reading Howard Chaykin: Magneto #1
Comic Book Jobs: Comixology
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Dark Horse Comics, DC Comics, Image Comics, Marvel Comics,
Remember that whole digital thing that’s supposed to knock off the printed comic book? Oh wait, that’s still happening!
If you want to be part of the industry now that we’ve passed “peak comic book,” ComiXology the “digital comics leader” is looking for a couple of new people.
First up is a LAMP Developer, someone with “2+ years of experience with Linux, Apache, mySQL and PHP. Additional experience with AJAX/JavasScript/HTML5 (jQuery), XML, HMTL, XMLRPC, SOAP and other development environments is preferred.”
Click to continue reading Comic Book Jobs: Comixology
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