Archive Page 2185

October 2023

The 14 X-Men Movies – Forbes

The article argues that the X-Men movies accomplished several important things in regards to superhero films which made the genre itself more viable at the box office.

X-Men presented superheroes in toned-down screen versions of their costumes, in a relatively realistic world setting but with big VFX action sequences filled with superhuman powers, and incorporate humor and terrific ensemble chemistry centered around key characters in a fairly bright digital-filmed shared universe..."

Marvel is relaunching Transformers book – Block Club Chicago

Article talks about the new series and also artist Daniel Warren Johnson.

Jason Momoa Aquaman prequel comic coming – Comicbookmovie

Comic book stores in Iowa keep moving forward despite national sales lag – Daily Iowan

Kevin Smith Hollywood Hills home is listed for sale

Story and pix at Yahoo News [English]

Property is also the former home for Ben Affleck, Dolores del Rio, Bela Lugosi, Gore Vidal, Charlize Theron, Felicity Huffman, William H. Macy, Ben Stiller, Winona Ryder, and David Lynch.

Due to travel, updates to Comic Book Brain were temporarily paused. We now intend to resume daily updates, as we are back at headquarters.

The Good Ole Days: 1948, Comic Books are a Menace – Yahoo News

There's a possibility that certain comic books deemed by youth authorities to be a bad influence on the children of America might be banned in Anniston, following Birmingham's lead in banning 52 such magazines last week. Anniston Mayor E. D. Banks said he would take the matter under advisement. The "comic book problem" is creating something of a furor all over the nation.

Seattle comic book store burglarized twice in six weeks – Yahoo News

Millions of dollars of rare comic books stolen from collector's home shortly after his death

Story at KPTV Portland MSN

Robbers broke into the home eight times in the following days.

What's the hold up on an MCU X-Men movie? – AV Club

Graphic novels or comic books, what's the difference? – IGN

Are they the same thing? "This is an incredibly complex question with a relatively simple answer."

How much research goes into a comic book panel? – Owlcation

The essential non-superhero comic books and their movie versions – Forbes

Shortest Marvel superhero movie? The Marvels clocks in at 1 hour, 45 minutes – Superherohype

Are we now seeing the return of traditional action film lengths on coming hero films? The regular complaint of "too long" as been laid at the doors of both Marvel and DC for a lot of recent movies.

A restored version of the 1968 Luchador film classic "The Batwoman" has been completed – NY Times – "This Caped Crusader Wore a Bikini"

Though there are obvious costume similarities, the 1968 Mexican wrestling film "The Batwoman" is a non-Batman character that is obviously derived from the Adam West American TV show and contains mostly a one-woman fight against a mad scientist, starring Maura Monti.

Monti’s life could be a biopic in and of itself. Born in Genoa, Italy, Monti went to Mexico with her mother, and according to García Besné, right away had a cinematic stroke of luck: a winning lottery ticket. She started modeling, then acted in a string of genre films (first role: Maria Magdalena). Handpicked by the director René Cardona for "The Batwoman," she reveled in the role, staying in her bikini-and-boots costume to stroll around town. But despite the star turn, her film career petered out. García Besné attributed the fade-out to her marriage to a producer — "producers from the era did not want their women to be working," she said — while Venkatesh speculated that Monti wasn’t interested in the nude-leaning roles that became more popular in the 1970s. Whatever the case, Monti stepped into a new professional identity — journalist — and didn’t look back. She wrote for magazines and co-hosted an arts program for television...

"

"My family would say [The Batwoman] was shot in Mexicolor — they would just invent words," she remembered of her producer relatives. "But I said, ‘How would Mexicolor look like?’” The results: rich blues for the Batwoman’s outfits, and an ominous red for her nemesis, the fish-man Pisces (who might remind some viewers of the creature in Guillermo del Toro’s "The Shape of Water"). Today, the unpretentious fun of "The Batwoman" feels all the more precious in comparison with many of today’s lumbering superhero franchises..."

Batman and Joker: brothers? – Superherotype

Delving into the phantasy of the Todd Phillips' Joker movie in which Arthur Fleck's mother, Penny, made him believe that he was the illegitimate son of Thomas Wayne.

General Zod series coming from DC – Comicbook

"James Gunn Kills ‘Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom’ In Its Cradle" – Bounding into Comics

The Aquaman movie of 2018 made $1.15 billion in international box office, but how long ago was this measured in superhero movie years now that 2023 has been full of flops and flubs? 2018 is a long time ago.

Cartoonist Cheeming Boey writes apology and protest after his comic book When I Was A Kid 3 was banned in Malaysia – MSN Malay Mail

Boey explained how when he was a kid, his father disapproved of him reading comic books, and so when he embarked on the series, his goal was to write books that would educate people about life back home, and to write books his father would be proud of. According to Boey, When I Was A Kid 3 was released in 2014, it was an instant hit, and he was invited to schools nationwide to talk about it..."

A protest in Indonesia at the Malaysian embassy over Boey’s comic book led to the comic book getting banned. The protest against the book concentrated on a page which the accusation is made that it denigrated a Malaysian maid who had climbed a coconut tree, and Boey has said that it is a misinterpretation of events within the comic.

Top Ten Batman "runs" – Yahoo News

What's discussed: they talk about the Doug Moench and Kelley Jones run; Paul Dini's stretch; the "New Look" Batman of John Broome, Gardner Fox, and Carmine Infantino; the Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers Batman stories; the Tom King Batman, Frank Miller's work on Batman; the Jeph Loeb Batman with Tim Sale; Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's recent long Batman run; the Grant Morrison Batman; and finally their "number one run" of Batman comics are the Neal Adams and Denny O'Neil books.

Lists like this are pretty subjective, and this list is obviously turned in a direction to accommodate the tastes and probable depth of knowledge of a 21st century Batman aficionado. A nice highlight of the article is a quick discussion of why Frank Miller's Batman, which I think any fair analysis will recognize as probably the most influential "version" of Batman since the 1980s, is only given a mid-tier position. The article explains why by saying it is based upon not just looking at Batman Year One and of course the enormous impact of The Dark Knight Returns, but by considering Miller's various sequel runs on Batman which followed and have been, shall we say, uneven.

Personally, in terms of quality, any list without Archie Goodwin's one year run on Detective Comics is incomplete, and any list without isolating a string of Bill Finger issues is simply ignoring reality.

The article, though, has reasonable arguments for the composition of it's "top ten" and in general presents a good Greatest Hits of Batman centered on highlighting the creative teams instead of stories or eras.

Giant-Size Marvel comics coming back for 50th Anniversary one-shot series – Superhero Hype MSN

Disney, Netflix and HBO Max forming a "streaming business trade alliance" – Hollywood Reporter

The trade alliance is to put an organized effort into lobbying for federal and state policies that best benefit the streaming industry.

Martin Scorsese says directors like Christopher Nolan lead the fight against "Comic Book Movie Culture" – Deadline Hollywood

The danger there is what it’s doing to our culture," Scorsese said of comic book films during a GQ interview. "Because there are going to be generations now that think movies are only those—that’s what movies are."

Fresno Comic book stores closure after 30 years – ABC Fresno MSN News

Owner Dave Allread says the current landlord wants to increase rent by 70 percent, which is something he can't do."

Affectionate "adieu" obituaries on comic book store closings are becoming more frequent.

Inflation across the board is wreaking havoc for small businesses where the margin to weather cost increases are small. Inflationary rising costs are tipping those that survived the pandemic over the edge, and adding to the already high level of commercial property vacancies, a kind of vicious cycle that could get significantly worse.

Original page October 10, 2023