Robert Meeks: February 2009 Archives

The tour of writer Zeb Wells and artist Todd Nauck continues. Visitors can get their copies signed and meet these local comic creators from 12 to 2 p.m. at Geoffrey's Comics -- address and more details below.   

For those who cannot wait for our review next week of "Watchmen," Comic Book Resources has put their review up and it is very exact and full of SPOILERS.

Once again, If you are not game to hear about the film don't click this link to the story. I don't wanna hear: Robert, you didn't warn us this would have spoilers!

If you are not going to read about it at CBR, please check out our review next week by Ryan Riley.

Maybe the cool Rorschach image above will pacify us until then.

Not only did we overwhelmingly choose Samuel L. Jackson as our pick to be the face of Nick Fury in all Marvel films, apparently Marvel saw fit to do the same.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Jackson has been signed-on to play Nick Fury in The Avengers, Iron man 2, Thor, Captain America and maybe even a S.H.I.E.L.D flick.  And this is after reported disagreements Jackson's representatives had with the previous deals offered to the actor more than a month ago.

The article in the Reporter is here and estimates that Jackson's role could encompass nine films. NINE FILMS?!?

Yeah, that's a lot of Fury.

NEW YORK (AP) -- A rare copy of the Action comic book that launched Superman as the first superhero is coming up for auction.

Comic book expert Stephen Fishler says bidding for the comic book begins at $1 and is sure to go up, up and away. It originally cost 10 cents in 1938.

He says copies of Action Comics No. 1 in "fine" condition are worth about $126,000, but this one could sell for several times that. About 100 copies of the No. 1 edition are known to exist.

The owner, who was not identified, bought the sale magazine for 35 cents in 1950 and held onto it for 58 years. It will be on auction for two weeks beginning Friday.

Fishler and Vincent Zurzolo, co-owners of Metropolis Collectibles, will offer it on their Web site, http://www.comicconnect.com.

Say what you want to say about "300" but it looked incredible.

I have great respect for the amazing work of the visual effects team on "300" and their director Zack Snyder.  You've seen the "Watchmen" clips and there's no doubt it looks as brilliant as the adaptation of Frank Miller's Spartan epic.

Will Snyder's "Watchmen" be a great film overall?  We will see.

This video interview is courtesy of COLLIDER and Snyder raps about his next film SUCKER PUNCH and a handful of other flicks he's involved with -- GUARDIANS OF GA'HOOLE, HEAVY METAL and (I'm jealous as heck) Ray Bradbury's ILLUSTRATED MAN.

By MICHAEL KUCHWARA
AP Drama Writer

NEW YORK (AP) -- Spider-Man has conquered the movies. Now, with a little help from Julie Taymor and U2, it's Broadway's turn.

"Spider-Man, Turn Off the Dark" will open Feb. 18, 2010, at the Hilton Theatre, its producers announced Tuesday.

Preview performances begin Jan. 16.

The musical, directed by Taymor, will feature a score by Bono and The Edge, both of U2. Taymor who was the creative force behind "The Lion King," Disney's long-running musical, now in its second decade on Broadway. She will co-write the "Spider-Man" book with Glen Berger.

The story was inspired by the Marvel comic books hero and will include the story of his origins as well as new material.

No casting was announced.

Other members of the show's production team include set designer George Tsypin, who did the sets for "The Little Mermaid" on Broadway; Eiko Ishioka, costumes; Donald Holder of "The Lion King," lighting; Daniel Ezralow, choreography; and sound designer Jonathan Deans, who has worked for Cirque du Soleil.

"Spider-Man, Turn Off the Dark" is produced by Hello Entertainment/David Garfinkle, Martin McCallum, Marvel Entertainment/David Maisel, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Jeremiah Harris.

This illustration provided by Mike Lester shows a political cartoon by Mike Lester depicting President Barack Obama, right, and Michelle Obama. (AP Photo/Mike Lester, Rome News Tribune, 2009)

By JESSE WASHINGTON
AP National Writer

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz was in front of a classroom full of black and Latino kids, drawing presidents. He sketched Bush, then Clinton. Next came his favorite, the man he voted for: Obama.

"Hey, those lips are big," Alcaraz heard a black girl say from the back of the room.

Alcaraz was disturbed. "I try to bend over backwards not to make him look like a cartoon stereotype," and certainly not a racial stereotype, he said.

Editorial cartoonists are bending over backwards a lot these days, as they try to satirize the nation's first black president. And when they don't, the result is the kind of outcry that erupted this week after a New York Post cartoon featured a bloody chimpanzee -- intentionally or unintentionally evoking racist images of the past.

The problem is, cartoonists make their living by making fun of people -- especially presidents -- and exaggerating their features and foibles.

The best political cartoons are "like an X-ray machine," said Amelia Rauser, an art history professor at Franklin & Marshall College and author of "Caricature Unmasked," which examines the art form's historical role in political discourse.

"You have to deform someone facially in order to make a larger point about their character," Rauser said. "But that deformity reveals their inner truth and makes them look more like themselves."

The late Herblock often saddled Richard Nixon with an enormous cartoon nose. Liberals drew George W. Bush like a simpleton, or worse. There have been minor kerfuffles from the left about drawing Hillary Clinton as insufficiently feminine, and from the right about depicting Condoleezza Rice as servile to President Bush.

Drawings of President Barack Obama, however, must contend with America's history of degrading racial imagery, from ape comparisons to enormous "Sambo" lips. (Caricatures of the president's admittedly large ears have so far escaped scrutiny.)

Michael Cavna, who blogs about comics for The Washington Post, wrote that "an unnerving number of North America's political cartoonists are bizarrely obsessed with President Obama's lips." He followed with a detailed analysis of several cartoons where Obama's lips were large, some shade of blue, or both.

On Wednesday, the New York Post published an editorial cartoon showing a chimp shot to death by police officers. "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill," the caption reads.

Amid widespread black condemnation, the Post initially defended the panel by its longtime cartoonist Sean Delonas, saying it referred to a chimp that recently attacked its owner's friend and was killed by police. The newspaper apologized "to those who were offended" after 200 protesters picketed the Post offices on Thursday.

During the presidential campaign, The New Yorker magazine was accused of racism for an infamous cartoon of Obama dressed as a Muslim, fist-bumping his wife, Michelle, who was toting a machine gun and sporting a black-power Afro. The magazine said it was satirizing right-wing smears of the Obamas.

Scott Stantis, editorial cartoonist for The Birmingham News in Alabama, said he received several complaints this week that his Obama drawings look "simian." As a conservative in a city that's 77 percent black, Stantis has learned to consider the feelings of his audience.

"Being the typical American editorial cartoonist -- doughy, white, middle-aged -- I'm more than willing to accept that I don't know what may or may not be offensive," he said. "But editorial cartoons are supposed to be offensive, and provocative. We're entering new waters here. What can you use or not use?"

"All my characters look simian," he said. "I don't make Obama look nearly as simian as our former Gov. Fob James, who I DID draw as a monkey, on more than one occasion. And he's a white guy. ... I'm sorry, but when it comes to African-Americans, you just don't draw monkeys."

Ted Rall, president of the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists, said that Obama's race has affected how his colleagues do their jobs: "Without a doubt, people are stepping more gingerly. People are tiptoeing their way through this."

Rall, who is liberal, said it's harder to take shots at Obama because he's smart, charming and handsome, "so when you attack the personality, people suspect there's only one reason: It's gotta be his race. My conservative cartoonist friends find it very frustrating."

One of those conservative friends, Mike Lester of the Rome News Tribune in Georgia, said that when he was growing up, "if we didn't make fun of you, we didn't like you."

Perhaps race relations would improve, Lester said, if black people lightened up a bit: "They're not too good (at being) made fun of. We can all take a joke."

Lester said Rall told him before the election that an Obama presidency would be good for conservative cartoonists, but it's been just the opposite.

"I find myself having to temper my comments," Lester said. "I'm tired of it. (Obama) wants my money, he wants me to pay for my neighbor's foreclosed house that he can't afford.

"Race has nothing to do with it."

That's what Delonas said about his cartoon in the Post. So as the nation's edgy fraternity of editorial cartoonists continues to unload on Obama, lines will inevitably be crossed again.

"Being an editorial cartoonist is a high-wire act," Rall said. "If you're any good, you're taking lots of chances all the time. When you take chances, you fall and you screw up."

___

On the Web:

Lalo Alcaraz: www.myspace.com/laloalcaraz

Mike Lester: www.mikelester.com

Ted Rall: www.rall.com

Scott Stantis: http://blog.al.com/stantis

As I sparked a conversation with friends about what's hot on TV, I heard a few things about every show except one in particular. 

ME: "How about that Battlestar Galactica episode last week?"

FRIENDS: "Oh yeah, man. That was crazy! What do you think about all that Cylon $#*%?"

ME: "You catch Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Friday?"

FRIENDS: "Yes I did, that's a very good show, Robert, thank you for asking."

ME: "What do you think about the latest episodes of Heroes?"

FRIENDS: (Cue the flatline tone).

This is the official Heroes Watch SPOILER mention in case you're saving episodes like frakking walnuts and not watching because you had better stuff to do (I admit I am guilty of saving a couple episodes on TIVO). All the fun continues after the jump. (Or image as the case may be.)

By NICOLAI HARTVIG
Associated Press Writer

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- "Dragonball" fans can expect an older, fiercer version of hero Goku in the Hollywood adaptation of the famed Japanese cartoon series about two magic-wielding rivals who compete for seven orange spheres that will grant the holder a perfect wish.

The filmmakers behind "Dragonball Evolution" added 10 years to its hero to give the movie a grittier look, actor James Marsters said at a press conference Wednesday.

In the comic book series, "Goku is 7 years old and fighting midgets all the time," said Marsters, who plays Goku's rival, Lord Piccolo. "We muscled it up."

Justin Chatwin, the 26-year-old Canadian actor who plays the teenage Goku in the movie, said the cast learned several different martial arts styles for the movie. He initially was worried about taking the role because of his slender physique.

"I was looking in the mirror, going like, 'I'm a beanpole, how can I pull off this role?'" said Chatwin, best known for playing Tom Cruise's son Robbie in "War of the Worlds" and a teenager stuck in limbo after an attack in David Goyer's "The Invisible."

But while Goku was given a more adult interpretation, director James Wong said he toned down another key character -- Roshi, a flirtatious, Hawaii-shirt wearing martial arts master -- to appeal to a broader audience.

Roshi, played by veteran Hong Kong actor Chow Yun-fat, is "a little tamer than he is in the manga," Wong said.

Wong said condensing the dozens of "Dragonball" manga books that have already been published was a tough task.

"All that we hoped to do was to preserve the essence of Dragonball -- the fun, the thrills the adventure," he said.

"Dragonball Evolution" will be released in Asia in March and in the U.S. on April 8.


Canadian actor Justin Chatwin speaks to press during a media event announcing his new film "Dragonball Evolution" in Taipei, Taiwan.  (Photo By Wally Santana/Associated Press)

I can't make this stuff up — B-movies are back. ELVIRA, where are you?

See the extended international trailer here.

This combination of undated photos released by Teshkeel Media Group shows a selection of artwork from the comic book series "The 99", published by Teshkeel Media Group.


By TAREK EL-TABLAWY
AP Business Writer

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Abu Essam's footsteps echo loudly as he walks through the narrow alleys of Damascus' old city. Around him in 1930s Syria, tall stone buildings block the scorching sun.

Cautiously, he walks on. Around the next corner he could find the key to the gate to free prisoners captured by Syria's colonial ruler, France. Or he could face a shot from a French soldier's rifle. As he turns the corner, a shot rings out -- but it is the soldier who is dead.

This is not Syria of 75 years ago, however. It is a rolling, 3-D video game on Wael El-Zanaty's cell phone, and his thumb is a blur of motion as he navigates the alleys and fires at soldiers.

"The best thing about this game is that this is something that Arabs can relate to," said El-Zanaty, the technical director for Egypt's Good News Group, which developed the game "Bab el-Hara" based on a hit television series that airs during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

"It's about part of (Arab) history -- the resistance to the French occupation."

From video games like "Bab el-Hara" to a Kuwaiti entrepreneur's comic book empire featuring Muslim superheroes, the Arab world's private sector is leading a push to provide Muslim and Arab youth with homegrown heroes, something sorely needed as a bulwark against the trend toward radical Islam throughout the Middle East.

Clearly, heroes in games or comics won't offset all the problems that stoke radicalism -- anger at corrupt Arab regimes and at Israel over its treatment of Palestinians -- but El-Zanaty said he hoped these pop culture characters could give young people a sense of hope and a positive image of themselves as Arabs.

"We wanted something that reflected our culture .... developed with an Arab perspective," he said.

In Kuwait, Naif al-Mutawa had a similar vision. The Teshkeel Media Group founder, a psychologist, drew some inspiration for his comic book empire from treating Iraqi soldiers suffering trauma after the first Gulf War in 1990. Some of these men told him they'd been raised to view Saddam Hussein as an Arab hero, .

"What kind of message are we sending to our children about what a hero is, and what a hero does?" al-Mutawa asked, seated in his Kuwait City office.

His "The 99" -- as the comic book series is called -- draws from the heyday of Muslim civilization. Each hero is named after one of the 99 qualities the Quran attributes to God, such as "The Powerful" and "The Loving."

While Teshkeel has yet to turn a profit, al-Mutawa has raised about $23 million from investors, including a Bahrain Islamic bank. The company also recently signed a multimillion dollar deal with Dutch media giant Endemol -- behind hit shows like "Big Brother"and "Power Rangers" -- to animate "The 99" for global distribution.

Al-Mutawa's stories are based on a pivotal moment in Islamic history: The 1258 Mongol invasion of Baghdad that left the city in ruins and led to the dumping of books from its famed library into the Tigris River, with the ink by legend turning its waters black.

In his stories, some librarians escape and are able to place special stones in the river to suck up wisdom otherwise lost.

Hundreds of years later, the 99 stones are found in different corners of the world by heroes who come from 99 different countries, including the United States, Saudi Arabia, Portugal, Hungary and Indonesia.

Jabbar, the Saudi hero, is a Hulk-like figure whose name means "The Powerful." The American hero, Darr, or "The Afflicter," is a young man paralyzed from the waist down when a drunk driver crashed into his car, killing his family. His power is to take away or inflict pain.

While al-Mutawa used Islam as the basis for his comics, none of the heroes prays or reads the Quran. There is no mention of religion, and the characters are roughly divided between men and women -- one of the main figures is Noora, an 18-year-old woman -- and only a few of the women in the comics wear the Islamic headscarf.

Such moves were calculated, said al-Mutawa.

"Our (Islamic) story has become (more) about what not to do, than about what to do," he said. "I wanted to ... go back to the same sources others have pulled out a lot of negative ideas from, and pull out positive, tolerant, multicultural, accepting ideas.

"I'm not trying to sell religion here. I'm trying to sell the idea that at the values level, we're all the same."

The message has resounded in the Muslim world and beyond. About 1 million of the comics are distributed monthly in several languages. The first of six theme parks built around "The 99" is to open in Kuwait later this year, and the superhero characters will appear on water bottles under a deal signed with Nestle SA and at an Arab arts festival next month at Washington's Kennedy Center.

While his comic books are broadening their reach, the computer games developed by Egypt's Good News Group also have a potential for a widespread audience.

Across Cairo, small storefronts and apartments are converted into video game salons, where an hour in front of an LCD TV hooked to a Playstation 2 console costs $1 to $5 an hour, doing brisk business day and night.

"What else is there to do?" 22-year-old Mustafa Abdel-Rahman said when asked why he was playing a soccer video game at 3 p.m. on a weekday. "I've put in applications, but still haven't found work."

Youths like Abdel-Rahman can be found in large numbers in much of the Middle East where sluggish economies do not provide nearly enough jobs to keep up with fast-growing populations. The situation provides a healthy market for the Good News Group's video games, said Ayman Shoukry, the company's managing director.

In Egypt alone, a country of about 78 million, "there are 40 million mobiles," said Shoukry, referring to cell phones. "We don't have 40 million (other types of) devices anywhere in Egypt. Not 40 million TVs, not 40 million washing machines."

Shoukry declined to reveal any revenue figures from the games, saying only that they had registered "hundreds of thousands of downloads."

Al-Mutawa, also the author of a prize-winning children's book, said part of the motivation for his comics was to introduce Arab youths who have grown up in a world dominated by the West to heroic characters similar to those from the Arabs' glorious history.

"I really think that we (Arabs) limit ourselves with this catastrophic thinking that the world is controlled by others and there is nothing we can do," said al-Mutawa. "I think this is rubbish."

Associated Press Writer Diana Elias contributed to this report from Kuwait City.

Quentin Tarantino and everybody else have been talking about this flick forever so here's the trailer courtesy of Variety.  While vibrant dialogue is Tarantino's forte, this film looks like more action and less chat. However, the speech from the character played by Brad Pitt is something to see and hear.

There are some violent parts so this may not be office or kid safe.

The MTV Movies Blog has brief piece on the unveiling of the new Bumblebee Camaro and its appearance at the Chicago Auto Show.

Check out the link to the Chicago show gallery, and if you are so inclined, see some of these cars in action again from when "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" was shooting here in Long Beach last summer in the video above.

Anyone know the names of all of the Transformer characters for these vehicles?


Related:
Why Megan Fox is a cool geek
Even more from the 'Transformers 2' set
GM responds to unveiling of Chevy Volt in 'Transformers 2'


Editor's note: If the link to the gallery doesn't work it should only be temporary.

The posthumous honors for actor Heath Ledger continued last weekend with his supporting actor win from the British Academy of Film & Television Arts.

The BAFTA'S are often described as the "British Oscars" and honors achievements in film from around the world.

Ledger's turn as the Joker in "The Dark Knight" has been recognized by the Screen Actors Guild and The Golden Globes.

With only two weeks to go before the Academy Awards, many are calling Ledger the favorite to win the best supporting actor prize against Robert Downey Jr. (TROPIC THUNDER) and Philip Seymour Hoffman (DOUBT).


(Editor's note: I tried to keep a lid on this but... I hope Ledger wins.)  

Police released this surveillance photo of the suspect, holding a double-ended weapon which resembled one used by Klingons in "Star Trek." (Colorado Springs Police)

By Kieran Nicholson
The Denver Post

A man wielding a "Star Trek Klingon-type sword" robbed two Colorado Springs convenience stores early this morning, police said.

The first robbery happened at about 1:55 a.m. at a 7-Eleven at 145 N. Spruce St., Colorado Springs police said in an incident report. The second robbery happened at about 2:20 a.m. at a 7-Eleven store at 2407 N. Union Blvd.

Witnesses told police that a man wearing a black mask, black jacket and blue jeans entered the stores carrying a sword. The armed robber took an undisclosed amount of cash and fled on foot from both stores, police said.

Officers searched the area but didn't find the robber or the weapon, which was described as a "bat'leth." 

Yes, I said Kyle Baker.

I have become used to his usual "cartoony" style, but I also remember the work he did before that artistic evolution. One thing I learned about Baker is that he is a true artistic chameleon.

And he's taking on Hawkman -- a "warrior" with wings -- so the word that this book will be "violent" is no surprise.

Check out some of Baker's stuff, it is a style of work we haven't seen from this artist in awhile.  It's nice.

Go to Baker's site to see two pages from the comic  here.