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Osamu Tezuka & Astro Boy
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Dark Horse Comics, IDW Publishing,
It’s here! After a long and seemingly painful production process, the new Astro Boy CGI feature is in theaters. You can find clips and cool stuff over on the official Astro Boy website. If you want to find out about all things Astro Boy, my favorite go-to place is Astro Boy World. They’re dedicated to “everything Astro Boy, the works of Osamu Tezuka, and other related anime & manga.” They’ve got video, news, factoids, lots of great graphics, and more.
Astro Boy was created by Osamu Tezuka (the “God of Manga” and “The Walt Disney of Japan”) and debuted back in the early 1950s under the title Tetsuwan Atomu (The Mighty Atom). It later became an animated TV series in Japan in 1963. Since then, Astro Boy’s made a lot of comic book appearances here in the US, as recently as right now. Let’s take a look.
IDW: The gang over at IDW released two brand-new Astro Boy comic book series this year. One was a 4-part prequel to the Astro Boy movie and the other was an adaptation of the movie. You can probably still grab individual copies. Better still, they’ve already collected both of them in trade paperbacks that came out last month: Astro Boy: Movie Prequel and Astro Boy: Movie Adaptation.
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BRITISH COMICS: 2000AD Prog 1643: Judge Dredd & Zombies!
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Reviews, DC Comics, IDW Publishing, Independent,
Whenever I’m in London, which is where I am this week, I like to check out the local comic books. And I don’t mean the repackaged American comics that Marvel does, or the magazine-sized comic books like Star Trek and Terminator: Salvation that feature quizzes, puzzles and games inbetween a repackaged American comic. (Although the UK Star Trek comic does a very nice job of repackaging IDW’s Star Trek comic with an assortment of photos and features on the new movie.) I’m talking about the stuff the Brits do for themselves, specifically for the newsstand. Stuff like…Judge Dredd.
I’ve been a casual Judge Dredd fan for years. Back in the 90s, I worked my way through the collections from Titan Books with all that great Brian Bolland and Mike McMahon artwork, I read the DC Comics mini-series and I saw the godawful Judge Dredd movie with Sylvester Stallone and Rob Schneider. So I have some familiarity with the Judge and his colleagues, which led me to pick up 2000 AD, Prog 1643 from July 8, 2009.
The cover is a nice zombie-baby horror from Leigh Gallagher, tying into this issue’s final story.
Click to continue reading BRITISH COMICS: 2000AD Prog 1643: Judge Dredd & Zombies!
The new Star Trek film will be hitting theaters May 8, 2009. As I’ve stated in previous blogs here on Comix 411, I’m very excited about this and the trailer looks good. IDW Publishing is the current comic book company which owns the rights to publish Star Trek comic books. I’ve never really been one to read Star Trek novels or comics. I primarily stick to the television shows and the movies. However, I decided to take a chance on “Star Trek: Countdown” because it was being presented as prequel to the upcoming film.
This first issue of this mini-series was pretty good. If you are a big time Trekker, I would pick it up, but if you are a big time Trekker, you probably already have. The story revolves around Spock in the “present” world of Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) continuity. Spock has been living on Romulus and has been working towards the unification of the Romulan home world and Vulcan. This mission of Spock’s was first introduced in the classic TNG episode “Unification”.
In that episode, the movement towards unification was an underground movement. In this issue, we find out that the movement is now out and in the open and Spock is now a legal resident of the Romulus. Spock addresses the Romulan Senate and informs them of a supernova that that is occurring in a near by star system which could spread and destroy Romulus if they do not act immediately. The Senate does not believe Spock and some believe that this some sort of Vulcan trick.
Click to continue reading IDW Review: Star Trek: Countdown #1
Although growing up I was more into Transformers and Voltron, I’ve always been a GI Joe fan. I think the Marvel series had some of the best stories and most compelling characters in comics history, and was thrilled when Devils Due not only revived, but continued the story begun by Larry Hama. Last year when Devils Due lost the license they ended the story begun by Larry, allowing the new license holder, IDW to reboot the franchise. I can honestly say after reading IDW’s GI Joe # 1, I can relate to Superman fans after their favorite character rebooted in 1986’s The Man of Steel - I have feelings of both excitement and skepticism.
Click to continue reading Yo Joe
Q&A: Dean Mullaney on Noel Sickles, Milton Caniff and Eclipse Comics
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Interviews, IDW Publishing,
Dean Mullaney is one of the true pioneers of comic book publishing and, I confess, an old friend. He launched Eclipse Comics, one of the first comic book companies that specialized in not only giving creators a refuge from the corporate underwear heroes at DC and Marvel, but also in giving them ownership of their creations. Eclipse folded back in the early ‘90s and Dean disappeared into non-comics pursuits (as everyone in comics knows, once you leave the industry for something else, you disappear).
Now Dean’s back at the helm of the Library of American Comics, a series of classy comic strip reprint hardcovers he’s designing and editing for IDW. In his first year back, he won the Eisner Award for “Best Archival Collection” for his collection of Milton Caniff’s Terry And the Pirates. I caught up with him at the end of last year and asked him to spill about my favorite book of his, “Scorchy Smith And The Art of Noel Sickles.” Naturally, I strayed off-topic, too.
Click to continue reading Q&A: Dean Mullaney on Noel Sickles, Milton Caniff and Eclipse Comics
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