animation, comics, exhibits, events, etc!

In Media Madness, Matt. Murray reviews, revisits and rambles about comics, cartoons and their interactions in and with related media.

I read some disappointing news over at Dark Horizons last week — rumor has it that Hayden Christensen will be playing Mandrake the Magician in some Criss Angel style adaptation of the Lee Falk comic strip of the same name.  Ugh.

While I’m not adverse to updating and playing with what is clearly a dated concept and character, I am frightened and saddened by choosing uber-douche Angel as the mold to recast the hero in (he evidently has a cameo as well) and then there’s casting Dork Vader himself to carry the production… In the words of Patton Oswalt doing his impression of Nick Nolte as Han Solo: Aw Hell, Chewbacca!

How the hell does this guy still get work? Has no one been to the movies in the past ten years? This kid buckled under the weight of the second Star Wars trilogy and was outperformed by the special effects and Billy Fu@%ing Elliot in Jumper. He can barely sustain the illusion of having an emotion on screen, how are we supposed to buy into the fact that he’s the world’s greatest illusionist and escape artist?

(In better news, Djimon “Give Us Us Free” Hounsou is in it too.  I’m assuming he’s playing Mandrake’s African sidekick Lothar as he’s absolutely perfect casting in that department.   So here’s hoping that maybe the producers and director aren’t complete shortbussers.)

In honor of this disgusting piece of casting that will no doubt amount to a staggering disappointment, and the death of another potentially cool classic comic franchise (The Phantom and/or Spirit, anyone?), I’ve assembled a list of the 5 worst performances in movies adapted from comics in the past 10 years or so.

Disclaimer: Enjoy the list, but by no means don’t watch the films. Really. You shouldn’t. Not only are they horrible performances but these people will get paid in some way, shape or form if you pick up the disc or watch it via some other legal means. Don’t encourage crap kids, it only begets more!

Read more

On alternating Tuesdays, Allan “Doc” Dorison operates on a specific part of popular culture.

by Allan Dorison

When I was a wee lad, of about five or six years old, I wanted to be a superhero. My parents used to take me to Quick Check and pick me up comic books. Every Friday night they used to plop me in front of the TV and we watched The Incredible Hulk with Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno. I loved that green guy — breaking s#!t up and saving people. If fact, I wrote my first letter to Mr. Rogers when the Hulk appeared on his show. A few weeks later, I received an autographed picture from Mr. Rogers and my hero, Lou Ferrigno. Later on that summer, I was at a Jamesway and ripped my shirt off pretending to be the Hulk.

As I got older, around seven or eight, my love for comics and becoming a hero progressed. My mom got a job working for the North Bergen Police Department as a violations clerk. It was awesome!!! I got to meet all these cops. It was a dream come true. It was like meeting real-life superheroes. They wore uniforms just like Batman and Spider-Man. They stopped bad guys just like the Hulk and they carried guns like… um, like guys who were bad a$$. This was a good thing and a bad thing. I used to stand in the middle of the street pretending to direct traffic. I got yelled at quite a bit by both of my parents. It was also pretty funny that I used to ask random people if they were crooks. Most of the time they would say “yes”.

Read more