"... Another challenge for the Green Hornet, his aide, Kato, and their rolling arsenal, The Black Beauty. On police records, a wanted criminal, the Green Hornet is really Britt Reid, owner/publisher of The Daily Sentinel... His dual identity known only to his secretary and the district attorney. AND NOW, to protect the rights and lives of decent citizens, rides The Green Hornet..."
After surviving the personal double whammy that was my birthday as well as Father's Day (yes, I belong to BOTH clubs, thank you...), I personally want to say thank you all for the well wishes and support you have given, as well as acknowledge the fact that the pirate blogcast has swelled its ranks in such a short period of time--- to all of you, allow me to personally welcome you to PLANET GRIFFIN!
When George W. Trindle first developed the show as a companion piece to the mega successful Batman series back in 1966, even he would never have imagined the impact his creation would have decades later. Come JANUARY 14, 2011, Trindles' vigilante hero returns with Seth Rogen, Jay Chou, Christoph Waltz, Cameron Diaz, Edward James Olmos, and Tom Wilkinson. From the looks of the newly released trailer, this flick looks to be a winner!
Man, if you folks aren't paying attention to this NEXT 100 member, it'll cost you! PLANET GRIFFIN covered the introduction of ASARU MUSHAVU over a year ago (don't believe me? check here), and within that time, he's been tucked away in the lab, putting the finishing touches on his latest weapon of mass construction: The fearsome femme fatale known as TEFLON.
The finished piece above made it's debut yesterday, and already the blogspace has been buzzing of his arrival on the scene--- of course, if you've been keeping up with PLANET GRIFFIN and THE NEXT 100 scene, you'll have long been anxious to see what Asaru's been cooking on that art table! Check out his gallery over at DeviantArt to see more, and stay tuned to the Planet for more upcoming news on the new gun in town!
As a side note, today's post makes for an interesting present as yours truly, the Infamous RodBuddah, celebrates yet another birthday, so if you get a chance, raise a toast for me!
GEOFF JOHNS has really been proud of his latest character over at DC--- so much so, that he's anxious to unveil AQUALAD not only in the upcoming BRIGHTEST DAY 4 storyline, but also his animated debut in YOUNG JUSTICE on Cartoon Network... Now, this image, while it looks great, is raising the hackles on a lot of fanboy necks, further adding fuel to the current DC fire... What is that you ask? Welcome back to PLANET GRIFFIN.
There has been a growing rumble concerning the 'whitewashing' of DC Characters (Chris Sims over at Comics Alliance referred to this as 'Regressive Storytelling'), where ethnic characters are being killed off, or seriously 'misplaced', to replace them with their original white counterparts. At this past HeroesCon, Senior story editor Ian Sattler was asked about the dilemma---
"It's so hard for me to be on the other side because it's not our intention. There is a reason behind it all. We don't see it that way and strive very hard to have a diverse DCU. I mean, we have green, pink, and blue characters. We have the Great Ten out there and I have counter statistics, but I won't get into that. It's not how we perceived it. We get the same thing about how we treat our female characters."
--- Needless to say, the overall impression gave many in the audience a reason to pause. Many DC fans centered their attentions on DC's Creative Director Geoff Johns himself, who was primarily responsible for taking characters like Green Lantern, The Flash, The Atom, Legion of Super Heroes, and Aquaman back to 'the good old days'--- attempting to recapture those nostalgic memories creators fondly remembered as kids. Sims says '...We're in an industry right now that wants to constantly reset itself, running on nostalgia rather than innovation, moving backwards instead of moving forwards, it seems to be what the majority of comics readers want...' I agree.
Strange it seems that while Johns' is not considered racist in his motivations, he's rushing to PROVE that he's not racist in giving us his latest creation (the latest addition to the animated series, as told by one source, was actually last minute to the staff during pre-production), which puts him in that position of 'damned if you do, damned if you don't'. The subject of race in comics is nothing new, neither is the treatment of the subject nothing new--- in fact, it's considered business as usual... Which also explains why the industry's been in a drag for so long. The only thing that needs to be kept in it's proper place is the idea of nostalgia itself.
Everything else should be dragged, kicking and screaming, into the future.
Rummaging through the recent news, I came across an announcement from MARVEL concerning the upcoming release of the 80 page INVINCIBLE IRON MAN ANNUAL #1 by Fraction and Giandomencio... Marvel's idea is to release the print edition and the digital app the same day of release. Now, while some bloggers are touting this as '... taking the BIG TWO battle to another level in serialized comic distribution...', it does come with a slight hitch (and while some may see this as nitpicky, the economy gives us all a reason to pause)...
In it's printed version, the book will retail for $4.99 (like standard issues aren't expensive enough), in it's digital version, it will come in 3 parts via the Marvel app at a standard price of $1.99 per chapter, making the app more expensive than the print copy. While the advantage in digital distribution makes books supremely less expensive, Marvel's additional charges kinda defeats the purpose of wanting to support their new digital initiative. While this is only one title, this is definitely a precursor of what's coming.
From a business standpoint, the entire Marvel initiative makes sense: Disney owns Marvel... Steve Jobs, that creator of fine iPad technology, sits on the Board of Disney Directors (due to the sale of Pixar)... Marvel saddles up for the 'new digital frontier'(via the Apple iPad store) to charge more for 'less expensive distribution'--- which also explains why the winning the lawsuit against the Kirby heirs is so vitally important--- but that is another story.
Hi, PLANET GRIFFIN here, following up on all the chatter out there concerning this little piece of High Friction Science Fiction--- back in mid May, a little company known as BLACK SUN ENTERTAINMENT released a CGI concept short called AZUREUS RISING. Produced and directed by DAVID WEINSTEIN, the short has recently won Best Short Film from the Malibu Film Festival--- basically, this is high concept sci-fi that ROCKS!
Looks like Lion-O may get the last laugh after all... Warner Bros. announced today that an all new THUNDERCATS series will debut in 2011 as Anime house Studio 4°C will create a 'reimagining' of the popular Rankin/Bass show which ran from 1985 to 1990. WBA says that though the show will remain true to the original in some ways, it won't be another carbon copy of what came before... If so, then CARTOON NETWORK may have struck new gold in a previously mined out spot!
