The new FOX TV series Dollhouse starts off on a creepy, creepy premise: the main character is an operative from an agency that provides people to do almost any service imaginable–from sex to rescuing hostages–and wipes their mind clean after each time.

In essence, they are human dolls, programmed and deprogrammed. This might seem like a strange story from the creator of Buffy, demigod among female genre fic fans, Joss Whedon. But because it’s Joss, we assume that he’s got a point to all this creepiness, right?

It’s a provocative trick to start a show with a cast of untrustworthy characters and let you try to figure out with whom you’re supposed to identify. It expects a lot of the viewer for them to get that the characters you’re immediately presented with are not the ones you like.  Echo is the obvious heroine, played by Eliza Dushku, but since she doesn’t know who she is at any given time, it’s hard to get a grip on her. It takes a certain kind of actress to be able to play this role–to be able to change personalities several times an episode and yet retain enough of herself for you to follow her through a TV show where everyone else is a bad guy.

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To build off Caleb’s post below, as well as something I’ve written about before, today, Here and Now on NPR featured cartoonists talking about Obama and race.

Wednesday’s New York Post cartoon has sparked a national conversation about the role of race in cartooning. On Monday – two days before the Post cartoon came out – three editorial cartoonists shared their views on race in cartoons in a forum at the JKF Museum. We hear a piece of their conversation and then check in with one of the cartoonists, Joel Pett, to see if his opinion has changed in the light of the Post cartoon.

The audio is available on the site, and the segment on the cartoons comes in at 29:25. Pett notes that part of the reason to interpret the cartoon in a negative light is, frankly, the reputation of Delonas, the cartoonist.

“The guy was either so insensitive as to not be able to anticipate this reaction or he anticipated it and just didn’t care. Either way it’s a terrible cartoon.”

“There’s a difference between free speech–you can draw a stupid racist cartoon and walk around the streets showing it to people. But that doesn’t mean that you necessarily get a place in the profession and get paid for it. If you do that, you gotta expect to be held to some kind of standard of decency.” (more…)

Headed to San Francisco for Wonder Con next weekend? Have experience writing? Looking to make a bit of money?

Can you see where this is going?

Newsarama is looking for a few writers to help with the lifting on covering panels at Wonder Con. Responsibilities would include covering panels and writing up what happened in a clear and coherent manner. Writing experience is a must. This is a paid position.

If you’re interested and are looking for the adventure of covering comic book, movie and television panels, please write Matt Brady a note at mbrady@imaginova.com

Thanks!

In a time when every day seems to bring new news of another political cartoonist being laid off, asked to accept a buy out or simply being dropped from newspapers, I suppose it’s somewhat heartening to see people getting worked up over the occasional political cartoon, whether it’s a cartoonist comparing Obama to Jim Jones or a mugger/murderer, or simply someone drawing a tasteless picture of a dead chimpanzee.

These cartoons aren’t all well drawn, and I don’t think any of them are funny or, you know, good, but still—they provoked a reaction, and that in and of itself is something, isn’t it? At least they demonstrate that political cartoons are not just part of the white noise of newspapers that everyone ignores, you know?

Of the three, the Sean Delonas dead chimpanzee picture is the one that received the most attention, perhaps in large part because of who was expressing outrage over it, and the fact that he was presuming to be expressing outrage on the behalf of the president of the United States.

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A New Experience

Comics XP is a new website that wants to be the premiere distribution hub for comics online. It’s clear from their site that not only will they work to bring as many comic titles as possible to the web but as many people as possible to read them. The site boasts a weekly Ezine, free to subscribers that will be filled with industry news and articles about the titles in their ever-growing library. What else do we know about Comics XP?

We know the site is a bit bare and their software isn’t in beta yet. We know this because instead of launching full bore with guns a blazin’, Comics XP has chosen to make the launching process public and transparent with their status updates accessible through their forum. It’s certainly an unconventional approach, especially in these fast-paced, strike while the iron is hot, times where if word of your “next big thing” gets out you run the risk that someone else with the know how and a faster crew can beat you to the punch.

So which punch is Comics XP throwing? The concept of eComics isn’t a new one; Marvel has been distributing its comics online for a fee since Nov 2007. Independent publishers have been releasing .PDF downloads for years. DC’s got Zuda and iVerse has comics on the iPhone and now the Google Android. It’s hard to know without more information and something better than a thumbnail image to figure out what Comics XP wants to do with their comic reader software.

Here’s what I hope Comics XP (or any of the other hopefuls on the digital comics frontier) will be able to give me :

· A universal file format or one that can be converted easily with their software or website (.cbr, .cbz, etc…)
· A catalog that includes my favorite titles from mainstream companies
· A submission policy just as open to independent and unknown publishers
· Unlimited re-downloads (incase my hard drive fails and I lose my downloads)
· A decent free preview system
· A free monkey with every eComic purchase

Except for the last one, Comics XP addresses a good part of my wish-list. They certainly look like a very promising distribution option, especially for creator-owned independent titles. We don’t expect to see anything from either Marvel or DC up on there catalog anytime soon, if ever. Both companies are too large to be submit themselves to splitting profits with a third party developer. However, if this proves a successful model, it wouldn’t be a surprising move for the both of them to develop similar services. Once more content is released on the site we’ll do a follow up and get a better picture of where Comics XP fits into the digital comics universe.

Here’s one last thing, a wishful fantasy; picture one website with the same selection as your local brick and mortar store, with never a title out of stock. Likely it wouldn’t have EVERY title. It would b e more like Hulu.com fused with an iTunes-like library browser but for comics with a decent amount of big names as well as small, new and old.

And all of it free.

That’s what I want. No matter how unrealistic it seems. Eventually, someone is going to get close enough.
Thanks for reading this installment of BRAINSTORMING: Digital Comics. You can email Kyle and myself at brainstormingcomics@gmail.com with questions or comments.

I’ve been buying Trinity every week since the series began. The lure of seeing Mark Bagley draw darn near the entire cast of the DCU after spending his entire career at Marvel was too much to resist. I was worried at first that I would lose interest and stop following the book after the first couple of months, since I gave up on 52 after twenty issues and never even bothered with Countdown. But that hasn’t happened, as I’ve been very faithful to Trinity.

So perhaps you can understand how pissed off I was to see this little tidbit in DC’s May 2009 solicits:

TRINITY VOL. 1 TP
Written by Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza
Art by Mark Bagley, Scott McDaniel, Mike Norton, Tom Derenick, Art Thibert, Andy Owens, Jerry Ordway and Wayne Faucher
Cover by Mark Bagley & Art Thibert
DC’s hit weekly series arrives in its first collected edition from writers Kurt Busiek (ASTRO CITY, JLA, Marvels) and Fabian Nicieza (X-Men, ROBIN) and a legion of artists including the sensational Mark Bagley (Ultimate Spider-Man)! Features TRINITY #1-17 as a devastating cosmic force targets Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman! Featuring stunning covers by Carlos Pacheco, Andy Kubert and Jim Lee & Scott Williams, this is the first of three volumes collecting the series.
Advance-solicited; on sale June 3 • 416 pg, FC, $29.99 US

WTF, DC? I’ve been supporting Trinity every week from the very beginning, and there are tens of thousands of other fans who have as well. Fifty-two issues at $2.99 each works out to a $155.48 commitment over a twelve month period to collect the entire series in pamphlet form.  But apparently, had I just waited for the trades, I would only need to spend $89.97 to read the entire series in three volumes and saved myself $65.51.

Does that seem fair? It’s too late for me to switch formats from single issues to the trades. Marvel has been getting a lot of heat from fans about the number of $3.99 books they’ve been pushing lately. As annoying as the four-dollar price tag can be, it’s not nearly as annoying as the way DC is screwing me over with Trinity.

Lloyd Dangle, the cartoonist behind Troubletown and one of the contributors to Greg Palast and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Steal Back Your Vote comics anthology last year, is holding a contest on his website, and giving away an original piece of Troubletown art drawn to commemorate the first thirty days of the Obama Administration (yes, yes, I know–insert groans here about yet another Obama comic).

The rules and like that are below, and a Facebook group for the contest can be found here.

I’ve been having a grumpy day. Rather, a series of grumpy days. There’s a lot of Very Serious Stuff that I should be dealing with and writing about, but I’ve got a responsibility to my Blog@ folks too. So I was eating dinner and thinking–what can I write about that will put me in a better mood, and my readers, too?

And then it hit me. A highly subjective list of my favorite comics characters! I don’t claim to have read everything out there, or even a decent cross-section. So this list contains no superheroes, only one super-villain, and is mostly drawn from Vertigo. I will not apologize for that–it’s what I like. But I WOULD love to hear everyone’s favorite characters and why they love them. There will be no “right answer” here.

Everybody ready? OK….

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It speaks either to the strength of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen series, or the weakness of the comics industry in the years since (the industry, not the medium, which has never been stronger), that decades-old Watchmen is one of the best-selling graphic novels at the moment.

Either way, Watchmen is clearly a special work, and finding another Watchmen, or a next Watchmen is no easy feat, or else DC and every other publisher would be cranking them out as fast as they could (God knows the trade shelves at your local comics shop are choked with attempts at Watchmen-like comics).

This week, DC announced a rather interesting promotion to try and seize civilian enthusiasm for Watchmen and direct it toward some more of their comics.

The program is called “After Watchmen, What’s Next?” and it will highlight five books, each of which “reflects an aspect of Watchmen’s appeal,” which is defined in the PR as either being by Alan Moore, being science fiction, sophisticated or a post-modern superhero action. The five books will be “a great entry point for both new fans just discovering graphic novels and established readers looking to try something new.”

The specials will all sell for just $1.

Let’s take a closer look at the five books, shall we? And, by “take a closer look” I mean, of course, “second-guess” and “nitpick.”

Second-guessing, nitpicking and some unsolicited suggestions for what other DC-owne books people who liked Watchmen might like to read, after the jump.

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Corona Coming Attractions posted the actual casting call for the role of Thor today.

Male MUST BE MID-LATE 20′S and SIX FEET OR TALLER. LEAD.

Physically powerful, very handsome, occasionally egotistical, petulant, and wild. A natural warrior with a quick charming wit who must be genuinely and severly humbled before becoming the compassionate, mature hero of our film.

Candidates, readers?

While I don’t think the Commander in Chief will be sprouting adamantium claws anytime soon, he certainly has been getting his fair share of comics coverage. Well, there’s more!

Dean Trippe and Evan Bryce have announced the release of their new webcomic, President Awesome. In the authors’ own words: “President Awesome is a weekly political comic about President Barack Obama! Basically, it’s The Daily Show meets The Far Side, but you know, way better.”

By Jimmy Palmiotti

Just got back from the New York Comic Con [took some days off after] and had a blast. Want to say thanks to everyone that came by and said they read the blog and especially to the awesome fans at the show that made it all interesting for me. Did a few panels, a few hundred interviews and got to enjoy some decent warm weather while there, unlike the usual February weather that I am used to in N.Y.C.

Coming back to Florida was a mixed bag for me because I love seeing all my friends when in N.Y, but at the same time I couldn’t wait to get back to Florida and dig in to my work, especially since a lot of my projects are all hitting deadlines this week. Yes editors, I know you are reading this.

On with the headlines…

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On today’s Morning Edition, Susan Stamberg profiled Hollywood production designer J. Michael Riva, who is currently working on the sequel to last year’s Iron Man movie:

Eight weeks before shooting began on Iron Man 2, J. Michael Riva had just gotten the first real script.

But he did have a list of sets and plot points. The first item on the list read: “Tony, in the Iron Man armor, pukes in a toilet.”

You can listen to the piece, or read the text version of it, here.

If you like what’s you’ve read so far totally check out more super cute comics at:www.sosuperduper.com!

New York Times-bestselling investigative journalist Greg Palast–author of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and Armed Madhouse (and co-author, with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and three political cartoonists, of the recent Steal Back Your Vote comics anthology), issued this statement today, giving the million-plus readers who follow his work or watch him on BBC Newsnight a chance to look at the introduction he’s written for the newest trade paperback volume of Brian Wood’s brilliant Vertigo comic DMZ. Along with a look at the introduction, Palast (who runs a nonprofit and does fundraisers like this pretty regularly) will be offering readers and fans an opportunity to purchase a copy of the trade paperback from his website, signed by Palast and Wood. Check it out:

The occupied territory of Manhattan is supposed to be a demilitarized zone – as long as you ignore the blown-apart corpses in front of the bodegas and Trustwell Corp assassins infiltrating the block parties.

I don’t review other writers’ books. Mostly, because I don’t like what I see. But this graphic novel, DMZ by Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli, is too good to let go by unheralded.

Click on the image to get a feel for it.

DMZ is New York in the future, and it looks uncomfortably too much like America today. There’s a phony war on terror, a hunt for illusory insurgents and troublemakers which becomes the trigger-point excuse for crushing the heaving, rising underclass.

Except here, in the comic, America’s culture war and class war has moved to its inevitable bloody conclusion: a corporate junta pretending to provide safety to war-torn New York while using high-tech military intelligence and scum-bag death squads to hold on to power.

In the center of the story is a half-assed but earnest journalist Matty Roth on the Lower East Side whose need to voice the story of the voiceless is at war with his reasonable cowardice. Tell me about it.

Reporter Roth is sent in to find and cover a charismatic street leader, Parco Delgado, who declares his candidacy with explosives. Is Delgado a greasy, piece-of-crap thug or a savior in a dirty T-shirt? What makes creators Wood and Burchielli such smart storytellers is that they don’t make the answer simple, but they don’t fail to give the answer. If the story sounds weird it’s because any story that’s real is weird.

I’m writing this after filing my own story from Eight Mile in Detroit. One foreclosed home after another, weeds to the roof. This guy in the last unemptied house on the street told me his son was shot dead in his back yard. There’s several foreclosure notices on his dinner table. He’s working seven straights to keep his kids from having to live in a homeless shelter. But he’s screwed and he knows it. He doesn’t stand a chance. America is a fixed casino.

DMZ is a brilliant news report from inside America’s skull dreaming into the future – when the “stimulus” has worn off and reality eats our young.

***

I’ll make you a deal. Buy the book - DC Comics brought it out this week – and make Brian and Riccardo happy. Or better, click here to buy the book from this journalist on the Lower East Side, by making a tax deductible donation of $75 or more, and I’ll send you a copy signed by gracious author Wood, and I’ll sign it too. (My excuse for adding my name to their effort is I wrote the intro to the book.)

Maybe it’s a bit weird to end a review with a request for money. But it’s like this: two-dimensional journalists live on ink and imagination, but three-dimensional ones live on falafel sandwiches, re-heated coffee and the un-tender mercies of dead-broke publishers. Truly, the Palast Investigative Team needs your support. We’ve laid off staff, we’ve cut back on falafel – but we cannot continue to report from the front lines of the economic wars without your help. And that’s the non-fiction here on the Lower East Side of the new reality.

I want to thank those who supported the Palast/Bobby Kennedy investigations of the elections theft over these past years. But now we need to take on a bigger story. We are snaking our way into the file cabinets of the financial vultures who are turning worldwide Depression into a profit center. But Con Ed wants its pound of flesh monthly. They won’t take “hope” as payment. Help us. Investigative reporting is needed now more than ever.

Sincere thanks,
Greg Palast

Greg Palast is the author of Armed Madhouse and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. He reports for BBC Television Newsnight and Air America Radio’s Clout! At the Palast Investigative Fund store you can also donate for our Best Democracy Money Can Buy poster with art by Winston Smith and pick up some of the remaining copies of the Steal Back Your Vote! Investigative Comic. Join us on MySpace, friend us onfacebook and follow us on Twitter. You can also watch our latest BBC and Democracy Now! Reports by subscribing to our YouTube channel.

Rock Band may not be “genre” in the sense we usually speak of here, but just about everybody has played it or its competitor, and they are games nearly universally liked, so I thought this bore a mention here. So often, in an economic downturn, charity is forgotten. As bad as things may be for some, it is always relative. That makes it especially nice to hear that MTV Games and Harmonix have made a donation of 650 Rock Band bundles to hospitals and Starlight Children’s Foundation Great Escape events. In addition, they’re providing funds for families with chronically or terminally ill children to attend Rock Band Tour concert events, and are sponsoring more Great Escape events for the kids and their families to get away for awhile and enjoy activities that take a back seat when medical bills are in the forefront, including behind-the-scenes looks at the already released and upcoming games. The “minimum $50,000″ donation may not sound like much, but that makes for quite a bit of fun, distracting gaming for hospitalized kids across the U.S. Bravo, MTV and Harmonix. Rock on.

Watching the casting news and rumors for upcoming Marvel films is not for the faint of heart.

Or those who get motion sick easily.

According to New York Magazine’s Vulture column, Mickey Rourke isn’t looking like a lock for Iron Man 2. “Right now, we’re not doing Iron Man 2,” he told the column. Rourke was slated to appear as the film version of the comic book villain Whiplash – or the Crimson Dynamo.

For those keeping track at home, Rourke’s (as of now) departure from the film is the latest for the film, as Terrence Howard was replaced by Don Cheadle, and Samuel L. Jackson has hinted strongly that he will not be appearing in any future Marvel films as Nick Fury due to Marvel not bringing enough money to the table. The last time Rourke was in the news with Iron Man 2 was last month, when the odds-on favorite for the Best Actor Oscar reportedly turned down Marvel’s “lowball” offer of $250,000, according to Variety.

Most recently, Scarlett Johannson has been rumored to be joining the cast as the Black Widow, replacing Emily Blunt, who was at one time reported to be filling the role. Blunt withdrew from consideration, it should be noted, due to other work.

Prism Comics, a non-profit organization supporting LGBT comics and creators, will be hitting San Francisco February 27th – March 1st for the 2009 WonderCon! Prism has sent us a listing of their panels for the weekend, as well as an announcement for the 2009 Queer Press Grant:

*  “The Birth of ‘Gay Comix” is the first of Prism’s three panels, taking place on Friday, February 27, 5:30–6:30pm, in Room 236-238.  The panel celebrates the 1980 publication of San Francisco’s groundbreaking comic book, “Gay Comix,” edited by Howard Cruse and San Francisco artist Robert Triptow, and published by Kitchen Sink Press.  Meet Robert Triptow and other seminal LGBT cartoonists including Burton Clarke (Gay Comix), Vaughn Frick (Gay Comix), Jeff Krell (Jayson), Lee Marrs (The Further Fattening Adventures of Pudge, Girl Blimp), Trina Robbins (It Ain’t Me Babe, Wimmen’s Comix) and Mary Wings (Come Out Comix) in a fascinating trip back to the beginnings of the queer comics movement, moderated by Justin Hall (Hard to Swallow).

* The second panel, a homage to Alison Bechdel’s legendary comic strip, is “More Dykes To Watch Out For: Queer Women In Comics”, and takes place on Saturday, February 28, 1:30–2:30pm, in Room 232-234.  Meet the most talented and creative LGBT women working in comics today.  Moderated by Patty Jeres, Prism Comics Co-President, the panel features Paige Braddock (Jane’s World), Greta Christina (Best Erotic Comics), Joey Alison Sayers (Thingpart), and Leia Weathington (Bold Riley).

* Have an LGBT comic book idea and want to publish it yourself?  Then the third panel, “Self-Publishing Queer Comics”, on Sunday, March 1, 2:00–3:00pm, in Room 220-224, is for you!  Panelists Brian Andersen (So Super Duper), Paige Braddock (Jane’s World), Justin Hall (True Travel Tales), Andy Hartzell (Fox Bunny Funny, Monday), Johnny Nolen (Gravity Faggot) and Sean Z (Myth) will lend their experience and expertise as they discuss the nuts and bolts of creating your comic, promoting it, and getting it into the stores.  Moderated by Zan Christensen (Mark of Aeacus).  During the panel, Prism will be announcing the winner of their 2009 Queer Press Grant!

In addition to all this, among the creators present at Prism’s table at the con will be Eric Shanower (Marvel’s Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Age of Bronze), Paige Braddock (Jane’s World), Robert Triptow (Gay Comix), Jeff Krell (Jayson), Trina Robbins (It Ain’t Me Babe, Wimmen’s Comix), Brian Andersen (So Super Duper), Justin Hall (Glamazonia the Uncanny Super Tranny), Tommy Roddy (Pride High), Ed Luce (Wuvable Oaf), Mark Padilla & Johnny Nolan (Gravity Faggot), and Charles Zan Christensen (Mark of Aeacus).

For those of you erudite enough to be listening to NPR, there was an interesting segment up today about comics and animation on the iPhone.

According to the piece, a group called Catastrophic Comics are among the forefront for bringing new content to the iPhone crowd. There was also some discussion about Watchmen and Marvel… click here to check it out!