Christopher Mills recently mentioned on his blog that he and Eduardo Barreto have a Sinbad comic they want to do. That’s the fourth one that I’ve heard about lately, but you know what? The more the merrier. Swashbucklers are cool and Sinbad is one of the best. As long as the comics are good – and I’m confident that Mills and Barreto’s will be – there’s room for all.

And isn’t it a ripe time for an Islamic hero? I’d love to read a Sinbad comic created by someone with an Islamic faith, but until that happens I’m happy to check out what’s available. Unfortunately, of the four Sinbad comics I know about, I’ll likely only check out two of them.

One that I won’t be reading is BlueWater’s Sinbad: Rogue of Mars. As cool as it is to have a line of comics inspired by Ray Harryhausen stories, BlueWater’s Ray Harryhausen Presents comics are a case of too-good-to-be-true. The stories I’ve read aren’t very exciting and the color palettes they use are offensively dull and ugly. It’s a shame, because I was really looking forward to that line.

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“Fringe Benefits” has a double meaning this week. As usual, it means that we’re talking about cool comics you can find on the fringe of the mainstream. But today it also means that one of the side benefits to having this column is that I can occasionally talk about my own stuff.

For instance, If you’ll look in this month’s Previews, the one with this cover:

And if you’ll turn to page 326:

You might see a blurb like this:

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Last I’d heard, the Creature from the Black Lagoon remake had been tabled after Guillermo del Toro realized he didn’t have time to do it. Breck Eisner (Sahara) is the guy in charge now and he’s found his shooting location: the actual Amazon. Eisner says:

I want it to be authentic; I want it to be a sea of green rather than CG … We had a crew in the Amazon in Peru … We found a place called the Forest of Mirrors, because you can see [from] overhead [that] there are so many lagoons on a thousand-mile green-carpet river, and we found the lagoon we’re going to shoot in.

Also:

It is certainly easy to update the story. It was shot in modern times at the time it was originally made, and this will be shot today in the Amazon. We are updating the tone of the original.

I’ve always thought that Creature from the Black Lagoon – as awesome and perfect as the original is – would be a prime candidate for remaking in modern times. You’d barely have to change the script; just update the effects and maybe some slang.

You’d absolutely have to have Jennifer Connelly play Kay though.

The Abominable Charles Christopher follows the adventures of a dim-witted yeti through a forest full of colourful animal characters.

Who is Charles? Where did he come from? Where is he going? He knows about as much as you do – probably much less, actually – and his adventure is just beginning.

The Children of the Phoenix, Volume 1
Written by Radi Lewis; Illustrated by Mike Borromeo and Barry Cervantes
Chameleon Creations; $9.95

The Children of the Phoenix is an interesting idea; amateurishly produced. It’s about a couple of secret races that battle each other through history. One is a race of shape-changing demons called the Jin that wants to harm humanity; the other is a family of continuously reincarnated people who protect us from the Jin.

That’s not an entirely original idea, but Lewis does some cool things with it. He focuses a lot on the family and spends some good time introducing us to them and fleshing them out as unique characters. They feel like a family and you’re rooting for them by the end of the book.

He also humanizes the Jin by making them more than stock, hive-mind kind of creatures. He doesn’t spend a ton of time on them, but we see that they have individual personalities and that there are fundamental differences within their group about how to deal with the Phoenix family.

Finally, Lewis throws in an unexpected twist at the end that leads into a pretty good cliffhanger. I’m very curious to know what happens next, if only the package of the next volume is more professional than this one.

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This is just too cool. Over on her message board, Gail Simone is giving big thanks to Phil Jimenez, Greg Rucka, and other former Wonder Woman writers for helping her develop “a cohesive vision of Wonder Woman that says definitely who she is, but doesn’t throw out all the great stuff that came before.”

According to Simone:

A lot of times, these great writers didn’t get to finish their major plots and subplots as they had hoped. Fortunately, I’ve been able to ask them directly.

It’s amazing how uniformly gracious and helpful they have been. I think it shows that whatever else, Diana has been blessed with some really generous, good-hearted writers who really care about how she is portrayed. I have never yet had a former writer not respond to my questions or fail to be helpful. Everyone from George Perez, to John Byrne, to Trina Robbins, to Allan Heinberg, to Jodi Picoult has been right there every time I ask a question. They’re all busy, busy people. They don’t have time to waste discussing books they no longer work on, and yet, every time I’ve asked, a few hours later, I get a great response in the mail answering my question and offering to help again if it ever comes up.

THAT, my friends, is VERY VERY COOL.

Indeed it is.

I’ve seen this from a few different sources including Josh Fialkov and Warren Ellis, but Image has put together a helpful press release, so I’m just going to post that. Josh Medors is a pal of mine and the sweetest comics professional I’ve ever met. It breaks my heart that he’s having to go through this:

23 April 2008 (Berkeley, CA) – Unknown to the general public, FRANK FRAZETTA’S SWAMP DEMON, RUNES OF RAGNAN, WILLOW CREEK, GI JOE and 30 DAYS OF NIGHT artist Josh Medors has been fighting cancer for the past several months. In his time of need, Image Comics and Frazetta Comics have stepped in organize an auction with all proceeds going straight to Josh.

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Christopher Mills is a pal of mine, but it’s an acquaintanceship born out of my fondness for his work. I hesitate to call him a pulp writer because I have some connotations that go with “pulp” that aren’t all positive. As fun and thrilling and yes, good as the best pulp can be, there’s a large percentage of it that just feels hacked out. The very name “pulp” refers to the cheapness that was associated with the original work in the genre and – rightfully or not – I’ve always connected that with stories that were more or less disposable. And that’s not Mills.

It’s not Lovecraft or Howard or Bradbury either, so I know my prejudice isn’t exactly fair, but I’d still hate for someone to hear me describe Mills as pulp and assume that he just wrote exploitative, sensationalistic stuff without any thought given to things like story and character.

My first experience with Mills’ work was his Gravedigger webcomic (later published in book form by Rorschach Entertainment). I wrote at the time that it “was not inspired by the pulp fiction of the ’30s and ’40s. It was inspired by the Pulp Fiction of 1994.” I was kind of spellbound by the main character and loved how, though he’s a villain (not even an anti-hero) and almost completely without morals, Mills gave me just enough to like about him that I could root for him anyway.

Femme Noir – coming in June from Ape Entertainment – isn’t as dark as Gravedigger. It’s got more of the traditional, pulp elements too. It takes place in Port Nocturne, a corrupt, perpetually rainy city with more than its share of organized crime, mad scientists, femme fatales, and mysterious vigilantes. One of the femme fatales doubles as a vigilante and there you’ve got your premise.

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A couple of weeks ago I talked to Jai Nitz about his Spanish issue of Blue Beetle. Now the nice folks at DC have been cool enough to let me announce right here, for the very first time, the new, regular writer of Blue Beetle: Matt Sturges. Matt kindly took the time to talk to me about his writing style, his wardrobe, and of course his upcoming run on Blue Beetle, including the controversial subject matter of the first arc.

I’m a big fan of Matt’s very funny work on Jack of Fables, so I knew I’d enjoy our conversation. I was right.

Michael May: How did you get the Blue Beetle gig?

Matt Sturges: Well, I’d just recently finished up a couple of projects: Salvation Run, Shadowpact, and Countdown to Mystery all wrapped up on my end about the same time, and I was letting editors know that I was looking. Rachel Gluckstern, who’s the new editor on Blue Beetle, had read my work on Jack of Fables and liked it, and that’s how we started talking.

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Blue Beetle #26 comes out on April 30 and its a special, all-Spanish issue with the English translation of the script in the back matter. There’s a story reason for presenting the issue that way and since it has to do with differences in culture – a subject I’m kind of fascinated by – I asked writer Jai Nitz some questions about the issue, what he hoped to achieve with it, and his own experiences with mixing cultures.

Michael May: First, some housekeeping. How do you pronounce your first name?

Jai Nitz: My first name is pronounced with a hard “J” sound and a long “I” sound. Like “eye” with a J in front of it. It is not “hi,” nor is it “jay”.

MM: For those who aren’t aware of it, can you briefly describe the story in Blue Beetle #26?

JN: Blue Beetle takes Traci 13 to his family reunion where his family only speaks Spanish. Traci doesn’t speak Spanish, so you have the fish-out-of-water angle. During the reunion, Blue Beetle has to battle the Parasite who has drained members of the Posse (local Mexican anti-heroes in the BB comic)—so Parasite knows all about Jaime’s secret identity.

MM: You grew up in South Texas right on the Mexican border, right? I read in another interview where you all spoke English in your house, but that South Texas/Mexican culture was a big part of your family. Was that the way it was in the rest of your community too?

What I’m wondering is, culturally and linguistically, was your family fairly representative of the rest of your community or did you grow up feeling like an outsider to the community the way Traci does in your Blue Beetle story?

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Happy April Fools, I guess.

Sorry this week’s column is late. I’m being a swell joe and honoring an “embargo” on the first item I’m talking about. Lord knows why.

April Fools is my least favorite “holiday” of the year, mostly because of all the stupid fake news stories that come out around this time. Like the press release I got from Mohawk Media proclaiming, “Having recently launched their Mr. T: Limited Advance Edition Graphic Novel, publisher Mohawk Media have decided to celebrate April Fool’s Day with the announcement of Mr. T Versus, a series of comic magazines which see Mr. T doing battle with other famous characters.” The characters they tease on their website include Doctor Who, Wolverine, and Dracula.

The saddest part for me is that I’d actually really like to read a comic about Mr. T vs. Dracula. Instead of dreaming up an April Fools Day hoax with fake covers, why couldn’t they have just made some cool comics? That’s what the rest of these people did.

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I apologize for not posting this earlier in the day. I’m planning a trip to Haiti and have been busy making sure I have enough zombie repellent.

Indy TV ad

Something’s wrong here, because the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull TV ad is even better than the theatrical trailer.

Tikiware

You do like the Tiki, don’t you? Tell me you like the Tiki. Because if you do, a) we can be friends, and b) illustrator/designer Kevin Kidney is going to make you very happy.

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Madagascar: The Crate Escape

I might be stretching my mandate a bit here, but dang it, by six-year-old is going to be thrilled. And, in fact, so will I, because Madagascar ruled. David Schwimmer talks about the upcoming sequel (this November) and offers some spoilers:

“[Melman] gets to kind of confess his love for Gloria [Jada Pinkett Smith]. Ironically, he becomes a doctor, and he’s the one who’s always ailing. They’re on a new island, and he finds himself becoming the local doctor for all these people. It’s really fun.”

In the sequel to the 2005 hit Madagascar, Alex the lion (Ben Stiller), Marty the zebra (Chris Rock), Gloria the hippo and Melman make their way to the African plains, where they encounter hunters, romantic rivals and other members of their respective species.

Why the new Bionic Woman failed

None of these.

Didn’t you love that American Godzilla movie starring Matthew Broderick? Me either.

Did you know that four years before that movie there was a different script for the project, but it was rejected? Okay, maybe you knew that part, but I didn’t.

Wanna know what that script was like though? Todd Tennant’s here to tell you. In comic book form! Go, go, Godzilla.

Via.

Checker Book Publishing Group brings the latest collection of old comic strips to remind us that some of the stalest funnies of today actually used to be really good.

From the press release: “The book will feature the Beetle Bailey daily and Sunday comic strips, syndicated by King Features, which were published between when the comic strip first appeared in September of 1950 and December 1952.

“Beetle Bailey made his comic strip debut on September 4, 1950. In the beginning, the comic strip was set on a college campus. The main characters were based on Walker’s fraternity brothers at the University of Missouri.

“It was not until during the Korean War, when Walker decided to enlist Beetle in the U.S. Army that the comic strip took off and became immensely popular. Beetle enlisted in the US Army on March 13, 1951. None of the characters from Beetle’s university days came with Beetle when he joined the Army. Instead Walker created a whole new quirky set.”

Checker plans to release the book in May/June 2008.

Mort Walker’s Beetle Bailey 1950-1952 (Mort Walker Writer/Illustrator )
$24.95, ISBN:978-933160-71-9, 280 pages, Hardcover, b/w and color illustration throughout

Okay, maybe not. But DC doesn’t have to tell the story because Caleb Mozzocco’s already done it for them. And just wait to you see Batman get poor Jonah confused with someone else.

Sometimes there’s awesome stuff outside the world of comics. Here’s where I talk about it.

Star Wars mash-up toys

Endor Express has an exclusive look at the Muppets and Disney characters as Star Wars and Indiana Jones figures. My favorite is definitely Mickey as Indiana (complete with golden mouse idol), but a close second is Stitch as Yoda.

War Eagles

Robert Hood looks at a movie that almost was, and now might be again: Merian C. Cooper’s War Eagles. Had it been made it would’ve included “giant eagles, dinosaurs, vikings, Nazi-types and zeppelins over NY.” According to IMDB (for what that’s worth), someone’s trying to do something with the concept. And outside of movies, someone definitely is. Hood reminds us that BlueWater Production has got a comic version planned.

Scott Mills has poked his head up from working on Space Devil to share some art. Space Devil was originally a webcomic on ModernTales, but Scott’s been reworking it into a 3-issue mini-series.

Hey, as long as it’s got Frank in it, I’m there.

The Forbidden Kingdom

Went to 10,000 BC the other night (not good, by the way) and saw a huge lobby display for The Forbidden Kingdom. The display made it look like a bad video game movie except that it has both Jackie Chan and Jet Li in it. That’s worth gambling on right there even if it ends up sucking.

Fortunately though, the trailer makes it look really good, like it’s sort of combining the humor of Chan’s movies with the artsy fartsiness of Li’s.

Automatons

This is how humanity dies. Holy crap, that looks cool as hell.

Outlander

And it just gets better. Vikings vs. Aliens.

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I’ve almost made the complete switch to waiting for collected volumes of my favorite comics. Now that they’re released about six minutes after the final issue of the series comes out, they just make too much financial sense not to go that way. But there are exceptions.

One is my regular DC and Marvel superhero comics, but that’s because we’re not guaranteed trade collections for every series I like. Yeah, chances are that Wonder Woman will keep getting collected, but Green Arrow and Black Canary? I’m not so sure. But even if I knew a trade was coming for those, I’m not sure I’d give up buying the single issues. Maybe it’s just pure nostalgia, but when it comes to a certain kind of story – like superheroes – I like getting small, monthly doses.

And that applies to a very few, other adventure comics too. It has nothing to do with my ability to patiently wait for a collection. I’ve proven to myself that I can do that. The stories are just as good even if I don’t get to talk about them online the day after they came out. But damn it if there’s not something just thrilling about the format of a short, compact, little comic you can read and be done with in fifteen minutes or so. What I’ve lost patience with are the comics that aren’t making the best use of that format.

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