Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by Steve Bennett of Super-Fly Comics and Games in Yellow Springs, Ohio. This week, Bennett points out some Disney superhero action you may have missed, along with more on Disney, a couple of movie comments, and some mop-up.
Disney's interest in superheroes extends beyond its deal with Marvel; Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, India announced that their first live action Hindi feature film is going to be Zokkomon. It sounds like a new Pokemon card but actually it's an "action adventure film about an ordinary boy who rises to meet extraordinary challenges" and "discovers the hero within and begins his epic journey of adventures and transformation to become Zokkomon". Given the subject matter and age of the protagonist Zokkomon seems to have positioned itself, intentionally or otherwise, as the family friendly version of Kick-Ass.
It's scheduled for a May release and if you're interested in seeing it and live near a major metropolitan area there's a good chance you can. For years companies have brought over just-released Bollywood movies and shown them in theaters in major cinema chains to audiences of Indians and Americans of Indian descent. So come May, Google "upcoming movies in your area"--or just visit a nearby Indian restaurant; you'll likely find a poster for it there.
And a final bit of Disney/superhero news, according to TV Guide in tonight's second season premiere of Aaron Stone (the Disney XD series about a tween that becomes a real life game avatar) his civilian identity Charlie applies for his dream job at a comic book store. I don't know if this is an example of the Disney/comic book synergy I've wanted to see (see "Confessions of a Comic Book Guy--The World That's Coming Is Coming For You" from 9/30/2009) but at the very least the producers believe their audience will consider working in a comic book store the coolest job in the world. Which as we all know it is.
They've started to show commercials for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland; I could reflect upon how the Lewis Carroll literary classic has been given an extreme Goth makeover and has become a tween skewing epic fantasy that somehow makes a hero out of The Mad Hatter. But instead it seems to confirm what I've long suspected: Johnny Depp mainly chooses movie roles by the criteria of (a) do I get to wear a big, funky hat and (b) do I get to keep it?
February 16th marked the passing of writer Jim Harmon from a heart attack, a name that most likely won't mean much to today's comics fans but I've read and reread his book The Great Radio Heroes and his contributions to All In Color For A Dime. It's hard to believe I know but back then there wasn't a whole lot in print on either subject and I think it's fair to say I probably wouldn't be in this industry if it wasn't for pioneers like Jim.
Movie reviews are outside my purview I know but so you won't have to I bit the bullet and watched Princess of Mars from The Asylum.* Surprisingly, it's not that bad a movie; oh, it's not any good either but for someone with a finely honed appreciation for bad movies like me I was more than a little disappointed that it wasn't worse. Oh sure, I've seen more energetic sword fights on playgrounds and once again inexplicably alien technology is indistinguishable from a boiler room but it made the best of a meager special effects budget and I was amazed at the crystal clear cinematography (bad movies are by definition almost always murky). Not that it does any favors for poor Traci Lords, the close-ups are particularly unforgiving, though for those who care she does look rather fetching in her generic belly dancer costume.
And finally a confession; last week I wrote that Milton Fago drew some of the Ziggypig and Silly Seal comics; while he was an editor at Timely the stories were more likely drawn by his brother Al.
* A company that may in time become a worthy successor to Charles Band's Full Moon Features, though The Abyss specializes in "mockbusters," legally non-actionable direct-to-DVD versions of much more expensive movies. The company's website refers to the hero of their upcoming movie The 7 Adventures of Sinbad as "the original Prince of Persia" so I know what I'm getting into but I still kind of want to see their version of Sherlock Holmes. In it he fights monsters and Spring-Heeled Jack.
The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.
