NEWS: Comic related news/comments for September 3, 2001
Ken Dreger
articles that are accessible as links at http://www.comicgeek.ca
September 3, 2001 - E-workers follow new muse, "Mark Alessi, who sold
his technology company for a hefty sum a few years ago, is using his
business building skills--not his tech acumen--to create a new company
that produces and distributes a product he has collected for years:
comic books." and "Mark Alessi already has left technology behind. In
1989, Alessi started a Tampa-based company called Technical Resource
Connection. TRC dealt in technical implementations for object-oriented
environments, working with such companies as Sun Microsystems and
backing the UNIX operating system and C programming language as a
business platform. This approach worked well for Alessi, and mirroring
Sun's growth curve of the early '90s, TRC grew to have annual revenue
in the $25 million to $35 million range with more than 200 employees.
In 1996, TRC was sold to Perot Systems Corp. for a sum "less than $100
million and more than $10 million," Alessi said. The sale was followed
by a two-year IRS audit, which Alessi is happy to report required no
corrections. After the sale, Alessi retired. In Chicago, notable
entrepreneurs who have sold a technology company for a tidy profit,
such as Andrew "Flip" Filipowski and Bill Lederer, have jumped back
into new technology ventures, with mixed results. Time to regroup Not
Alessi."
More discussion on 'digital actors'. Venice Festival Gets Serious with
Animation Cinema, "The idea that animated cinema is just for children
is being overhauled at the world's oldest film festival, where
cartoons are being taken seriously. For the first time in the long
history of the Venice Film Festival, an animation film, ``Waking
Life'' by American director Richard Linklater, entered the prestigious
Golden Lion competition. Festival director Alberto Barbera told
Reuters it would not be last, as this annual cinema showcase
increasingly toys with innovative film-making techniques such as
digital video using real actors who are then painted over, which were
used to produce ``Waking Life.'' ``We have no prejudices on this type
of cinema,'' Barbera told the Italian daily Il Sole 24 Ore, calling
digital cinema ''the new aesthetic frontier.''."
RIP Brian O'Toole, "Liverpool cartoonist and painter Brian O'Toole
died on Saturday, September 1st, of cancer. As well as appearing in
various small press publications in the UK, Brian was a regular
contributor to Irish listings magazine "In Dublin" throughout the
eighties. In the nineties his cartoons and short comics appeared in
"The Crack" and "The Yellow Press" in Ireland, and in "Inkling" in the
UK. For several years he worked as a stone engraver, and his images
can be viewed in all the best cemeteries in Liverpool. Earlier this
year he had a major exhibition of paintings at the Unity Theatre,
Liverpool. With writer Stephen Walsh he created a series of short
comic strip fantasies about James Joyce and Samuel Beckett, titled
Shem & Sam. They can be seen online here:
http://www.sadiethepilot.com/kellie/special.htm."; Thanks to 'kellie'
As per Dark Horizons, "The Matrix Reloaded: The Sydney Morning Herald
reports that the "Matrix" sequel production is looking for hundreds of
Australian men under 50 years old with heights between 183-188cm
(6"-6"2') for roles in the action blockbuster which will be shooting
in Sydney for at least the next four months. Open auditions will be
held in Newtown on Saturday. Men in Black 2: Some lucky LA people got
to go on a set visit the other day and there's teaser details at 13th
Street Scooby Doo: Actress Michala Banas talked a bit about her work
in the upcoming live action movie to NW Magazine: "I play Carol, who's
leaving the island - we're all looking really dull, and all the other
people arriving are very excited. Kristian Schmid comes up to me, and
I pick him up and throw him on the ground! That sort of initiates the
whole investigation into what's going on at the Island. I did actually
grab him by the balls for one take, so he's got this genuine look of
shock on his face". Thanks to Moviehole. Script Review: "Wonder Woman"
(Mixed/Negative, Minor Spoilers)"
DisneySea? Shades of Adult Swim? What's this with a water theme?
Oriental Land Bets DisneySea to Defy Japan's Slump, "Atsuko Kida left
the kids at home during her third preview visit to Tokyo's DisneySea
in less than a month. ``I really enjoyed the shows and I'd come back
again just to watch the dancers,'' said the housewife, watching
serenading Italian gondoliers ply on a recreated Venice canal. That is
just the feedback Oriental Land Co. wants for its second Disney theme
park in Japan. The company bet $2.8 billion that a Mediterranean
carnival, a Broadway musical and a steamship bar will attract adults
who never dreamed of visiting the home of Mickey Mouse and Donald
Duck."
BORDERLINE - SEPTEMBER 2001
Now that I have my file server up and running I've gotten the latest
issue of BORDERLINE rar'd up for those of you who either don't want to
read it online or are dialup and find the size of the issues to much.
Borderline has two version of its PDF magazine - the 6.5meg high
resolution version and a 2.7meg low resolution version. If you have a
dialup account and those files are too large for a single download -
for your convenience here is each file split into 5 parts (rejoin and
extract using winrar).
Next- The brawn drain?, "Someone tell Sheila Copps: Our national
symbols are disappearing. CBC's once commercial-free The National is
drowning in ads. Universal health care is in dire straits. After seven
glorious years, Canada is pushed from the top spot in the UN Human
Development Index. Yet it now seems those terrible events were mere
prologue to a genuine national nightmare. Next week, Canada might face
the loss of our greatest symbol of national pride ever to stride
across the world stage: Wolverine." and "But next week, Marvel Comics
will roll out the first chapter of Origin, a six-part monthly
miniseries that will yield the untold story of Wolverine's beginnings.
And Marvel isn't making any promises that Wolverine's Canadian
nationality will survive the exposure. "You know us selfish
Americans," says a snarling Joe Quesada, editor-in-chief of Marvel
Comics. Perhaps it was the poor telephone reception, but Quesada
sounded distinctly villainous when pressed on the details of
Wolverine's background that he and a team of writers developed over
the last year. "We're capable of anything." The telephone line
squawked with an unsettling cackle." Thanks to Calum of
www.strangeadventures.com for the link!
Entertainment: Summer movies disappoint Hollywood expectations,
"Pretty much everyone in Hollywood expected the relentless stream of
blockbusters such as "Pearl Harbor," "Planet of the Apes," "Lara
Croft: Tomb Raider" and "Jurassic Park III" to shatter the summer 1999
record of just under $3 billion. Who knew a cartoon ogre would
out-perform the heavy hype of "Pearl Harbor," and that a buddy-cop
sequel would beat the return of dinosaurs and talking apes?"
MARVEL AGE OVER?, "Klasky Csupo is probably the most influential cell
animation studio in the '90s. They transformed the way viewers look at
programming, the way producers think about programming, and the way
broadcasters consider what is appropriate for kids to watch. Every
decade has a look and a feel. We had Hanna-Barbera. We had Marvel. Now
we really have the age of Klasky Csupo."
This item is dated September 10th...? Corporate comics, "Comic-book
villains aren't always goggle-eyed scientists or multitentacled
aliens. Sometimes the baddies wear suits and ties. In fact, corrupt
World War II arms manufacturers were among Superman's first foes. But
the Man of Tomorrow never pounded businessmen-gone-bad the way Rob
Walker and Josh Neufeld do in Titans of Finance: True Tales of Money
and Business, a new comic book out this week from independent
publisher Alternative Comics. Walker writes and Neufeld illustrates
Titans' dissections of executive arrogance and mismanagement. Among
their Rolex rogues gallery: "Chainsaw" Al Dunlap, the cost-cutting,
employee-firing CEO; Jay "Jaybird" Goldinger, who advised caution as a
market pundit while investing clients' money in risky derivatives; and
billionaire Ron Perelman, who took over Marvel Comics in the early
1990s, loaded it with debt, and unloaded his stake for a cool $200
million."
Watching the the Watchers, ""The Comics Journal," America's only
magazine dedicated exclusively to the advancement of comix as an art
form, has just turned twenty-five years old, to the disgust of the
vast majority of comicbook readers and the indifference of everyone
else. Too bad. The "Journal" stands out as the only comix-related
periodical worth reading, if you can read it. The "Journal"'s closest
competition, the weekly "Comics Buyer's Guide" and monthly "Wizard"
put their focus on comicbooks as collectible commodity, with huge
valuation charts taking up the bulk of pages. Hopelessly tied up with
this volatile market, their editorial content works like the "fluffer"
on pornographic film sets, trying desperately to keep the spent
mainstream superhero books going for one more round. They are worse
than worthless. They perpetuate a view of the medium as a form of
childish investment, a dead end, rather than a foil for adult,
artistic expression with endless possibilities."
Borgman roast, "Mr. Borgman, 47, a Price Hill native, joined the
Enquirer after graduating from Kenyon College in 1976. His editorial
cartoons appear in about 200 newspapers. Zits, the adventures of teen
Jeremy Duncan, has grown to nearly 1,000 newspapers worldwide in four
years. Mr. Borgman has won every major award in his field, including a
Pulitzer Prize (1991). The National Cartoonists Society has named him
the “best editorial cartoonist in America” four times (1987-89, 1994).
His fellow cartoonists also presented their highest honor, the Reuben
Award for outstanding cartoonist of the year, to Mr. Borgman in 1993.
Zits twice has been voted “best comic strip” by the National
Cartoonists Society."
Ghost in the Shell 2, Matrix Revisted, Daft Punk, "NeoCode sends tons
of juice starting with "Ghost in the Shell creator, Masamune Shirow,
has talked about a sequel to GITS in a recent interview. The director
of the original is working on GITS2. The Matrix Revisted is
essentially a prequel to the original Matrix movie. My guess is that
the anime story might be along the lines of the Matrix comics that are
on their website. Anyways, here are some tidbits about the Matrix
anime. And lastly, CartoonNetwork has a interviewed Daft Punk about
their anime video and their anime" I saw the Daft Punk (as well as all
3 Gorillaz!) videos on Toonami last friday. Had to immediately hit
Cheap CDs and buy the album. (Yes, I'm buying CDs again. I ended my
boycott now that Napster battle is over) I thought it was just Gap
commercial soundtracks, but those are sweet videos."
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