Batcave Companion interview with Kronenberg

Their publisher has a podcast interview with the two authors - "TwoMorrows Tune-In #19: Michael Eury and Michael Kronenberg (The Batcave Companion)," April 1 2009. The direct link is http://twomorrows.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/19_rt_me_mk_090401.mp3

Another Batcave Companion interview

See "Batman in the '60s & '70s: 'The Batcave Companion'," By Zack Smith, Newsarama 20 March 2009.

Kronenberg interview on Batcave Companion

Here's another interview with the former DC-ite, and now telecommuter, Michael Kronenberg on his new book:

Sheriff, Amanda. 2009.
Inside The Batcave Companion.
Scoop (March 6): http://scoop.diamondgalleries.com/public/default.asp?t=1&m=1&c=34&s=265&ai=80649

New Batman book written by local DC guy Kronenberg

In "HOLY INFO! EURY & KRONENBERG BATMAN COMPANION," by Jennifer M. Contino, Comicon's The Pulse February 24 2009, the interview with the two writers ends with "MICHAEL KRONENBERG: I’m primarily a graphic designer. I just wrapped up the designs for Batcave Companion and Hopalong Cassiday: An American Legend for Russ Cochran. I’m currently designing Grailpages: Original Comic Art and the Collectors for TwoMorrows publishing. I’m also the ongoing designer for the EC Archives, Twomorrows’ Rough Stuff magazine, and I’m Michael’s cover designer for Back Issue. Like Michael, I do have a day job; I’m the art director for a large environmental firm in Washington, DC." Another unsuspected local comics laborer revealed! Check out the whole interview for more details on the book - I like most of TwoMorrows productions because they're so obviously labors of love.

Dark Knight story in Post a few days ago

THE BACK STORY: A 'Dark' Day When His Business Was Booming, Washington Post (February 22, 2009): M8, is about the movie's special effects.

Comics Articles in Today's Free Papers UPDATED

And there's an online-only Aqua Teen Hunger Force bit at the Express today - "Hunger Forced: 5 Ridiculous Moments From 'Aqua Teen's' Shake."

Porter, Christopher. 2008.
Noisy, brutal genius: The second season of 'Metalocalypse' is a hilarious headbanger.
[Washington Post] Express (December 23): 17

Greenberg, Rudi. 2008.
Just keeps getting quirkier: The sixth volume of 'Aqua Teen' is as whacked as ever.
[Washington Post] Express (December 23): 15

Associated Press. 2008.
Batman and Japan: In a new book, perfect together.
Washington Examiner (December 23); 18

Punisher and Bat movie bits from today's papers

Unsurprisingly, nobody appears to fond of the Punisher: War Zone movie. I must confess that I don't understand the popularity of the character, but I'm sure it ties into a thread that runs through the Shadow to Dirty Harry to the Mack Bolan novels and then into the comics. Anyway, here's some articles.

"A Comic-Book Avenger Strikes," By A. O. SCOTT, New York Times December 5, 2008.

"A Glut of Punishment," Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post Friday, December 5, 2008; Page WE28.

"DVD's Lack Of Ledger May Leave Fans Cold," By Jen Chaney, Washington Post Friday, December 5, 2008; Page WE32 on "The Dark Knight" Batman movie.

And surprisingly enough, New Yorker and New York Times (Science section, on Tuesdays) cartoonist Victoria Roberts did the cover of the Post's Weekend section. No pic online that I see.

Zadzooks reviews

"ZADZOOKS: Comic book reviews of Dear Dracula and The Joker; Boy seeks Dracula's assistance," Joseph Szadkowski, Washington Times Thursday, November 13, 2008.

Joker pumpkin pattern

Yesterday's USA Weekend, distributed in the Examiner, had this in it: Download The Joker stencil for your pumpkin carving, USA WEEKEND October 19 2008. The stencil looks rather hard actually...

Zadzooks on Batman Lego and Bennett's Best

Okay, I can understand the appeal of making your own stop-action animation film using LEGO Batman toys. But a videogame? Can anyone explain this to me? Zadzooks reviews it anyway in "ZADZOOKS: Dynamic Duo must save city in LEGO Batman: The Videogame," Joseph Szadkowski, Washington Times Wednesday, October 15, 2008.

And in "Bennett's Best for the week of October 5," By Greg Bennett, Zadzooks blog October 15 2008, Greg recommends DC apes and UK World War 1 stories.

Comic bits in the NY Times

There are two good pieces in today's NY Times. Superhero fan Lethem returns from media purgatory in Maine and maps The Dark Knight onto American Politics in - "Art of Darkness," By JONATHAN LETHEM, New York Times September 21, 2008.

In a story that ties in locally, the Muppets are featured in the paper (much as they are in the Smithsonian for another month) in
"Fuzzy Renaissance," By BROOKS BARNES, New York Times September 21, 2008. I'm sure Barnes' story about Disney attempting to rejuvenate the characters is tied into the traveling exhibit - many of the video clips on the Times' website are the same ones running in the Smithsonian exhibit - and we're talking fifty year old commercials.

NY Times on Frank Miller's latest

In "Arts, Briefly: A Superhero Glitch," By GEORGE GENE GUSTINES, New York Times September 12, 2008, he reports that DC has called for the destruction of shipped issues of All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder #10 due to language. Black bars were printed over top of Batgirl's profanity. Gustines says, "Unlike other series that are aimed at an older readership, this Batman title does not have a “Suggested for Mature Readers” label," but given the copy that I saw, DC wouldn't have published some of these words in any of their lines. This also begs the question of 'why letter them in, if you're going to suppress them?' It's not like they appear magically - somebody has to put them there and then sanitize them.

I rail against censorship in the comic strips in this blog, but there's only one word for Miller's writing here. Ridiculous.

Time-Warner about to get it wrong again?

An extensive article discusses possible plans by Time-Warner, the behemoth that owns DC Comics as well as Batman - according to this article "Holy Cash Cow, Batman! Content Is Back," By TIM ARANGO, New York Times August 10, 2008, they're suddenly convinced that owning content and not distribution systems is the way to make money.

The article, and perhaps the chief executive, seem to miss the point. First we read:

For now, Mr. Bewkes is staking the company’s future on three big content providers: Warner Brothers, Turner Broadcasting (which includes TNT, TBS and CNN) and HBO. To ramp things up on the entertainment front, he’s also been overseeing internal discussions about acquisitions in film and television — including a possible takeover of NBC Universal, should its parent, General Electric, decide to sell, according to executives and bankers who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose details of the discussions.

and then this follows:

It is less clear how the Time Inc. unit, which publishes magazines like Time, People, In Style, Fortune and Sports Illustrated, meshes with Mr. Bewkes’s strategy. According to Time Warner insiders, the company is likely to shrink the publishing unit to just a handful of the most profitable titles. Some analysts predict that Time Warner might try to sell the publishing unit en masse, but only if market conditions improve.

I'm not sure what that means for DC Comics, but I think it's worth noting that Warner Bros. wouldn't have had Batman to make a movie about if it wasn't for the comic book company. They've already sold Warner Books, presumably another source of content and one that is doing graphic novels now.

Pay me a few million dollars and I'll come up with some good ideas like making cable companies profitable by providing good service and shows people want to see.

Current Onion is comic book issue

The Onion that appeared on the stands last Thursday is the annual comic book issue.

The cover features "Al Gore Places Infant Son In Rocket To Escape Dying Planet" a story you won't want to miss!

"Drawing-board confessional: 22 unflattering moments from autobiographical comics," by Jason Heller, Noel Murray, Leonard Pierce, Tasha Robinson, Onion July 28th, 2008. This is the extended version - in the July 31 paper it's 6 moments.

"Random Roles: Adam West," By Noel Murray, Onion July 31 (online July 29th,) 2008 reviews his Batman and animation work. This is the longer online version, of course.

"Comics Panel: August 1, 2008," Reviewed by Noel Murray, Keith Phipps, Tasha Robinson, August 1st, 2008, is online only, but reviews one of my favorite comics, Tom Beland's True Story Swear to God.

Also the Mignola and Feiffer articles previously linked to here are published in the physical paper.

Batman reviews and what-have-youse in the DC papers

Couldn't get into the 8 pm showing, so we went to a bar instead. The NY Times's extremely favorable review is added to the bottom of this post.

Nate Beeler had a funny Batman editorial cartoon in Friday's Examiner.

Now showing: Batmania as 'The Dark Knight' opens
MEGAN K. SCOTT, ASSOCIATED PRESS, July 17, 2008.

"The Dark Knight Owns Midnight,", by JULIE BLOOM, New York Times July 19, 2008.

"Gotham City's war on terror: Christopher Nolan takes Batman in a darker direction," by Sonny Bunch, Washington Times Friday, July 18, 2008

"This Joker Holds All the Cards; Heath Ledger's Clown Gives 'The Dark Knight' Its Power," By Stephen Hunter, Washington Post Staff Writer, Thursday, July 17, 2008; C01.


And, like Space Chimp, "This movie has been designated a Critic's Pick by the film reviewers of The Times." "Showdown in Gotham Town," By MANOHLA DARGIS, New York Times July 18, 2008.

Zadzooks on Batman movie toys

"ZADZOOKS: Batman goes after the Joker," Joseph Szadkowski, Washington Times Thursday, July 17, 2008.

Links to reviews from the DC papers to follow soon.

Cavna's Wednesday blog, quickly

Celebrates Batman: The Killing Joke, one of my least favorite Alan Moore stories. I left a snarky comment.

Takes a shot at Sally Forth's artwork.

And asks "The E-Mailbag: When to Hold a Feature's Funeral?" Or should a comic strip die with its creator?, which has 43 comments as of this writing.

Cavna blogs Trudeau, Joker, rise-and-shine comic strips

That new Comic Riffs blog at the Post is busy, might busy today, July 15 2008.

Today's stories:

Garry Trudeau: The Interview, by Michael Cavna.

The Countdown: The Joker Gets The Last Laugh - about Frank Miller's bringing an aging Joker back and having him kill David Letterman's entire audience. Boy, was that refreshing in its day (1986) and tiresome now.

The Morning Line: The Cat Also Rises compares storylines from Zits to Garfield.

Batman on the History Channel this week

Batman Unmasked: The Psychology of the Dark Knight

History Channel
Wednesday, July 16 09:00 PM
Thursday, July 17 01:00 AM
Monday, July 21 10:00 PM
Tuesday, July 22 02:00 AM

Post runs on about the Joker

"The Joker's Onto Us: What Does It All Mean When Batman's Enemy Is More Interesting Than the Dark Knight Himself?" By Hank Stuever, Washington Post Staff Writer, Sunday, July 13, 2008; M01. I think it means the problems in creating fiction that Milton raised in print haven't been solved in four centuries, but that's just me.