Produced by Keiko Matsushita,
Asako Nishikawa
Written by Miho Maruo
Based on Sarusuberi by Hinako Sugiura
Starring Anne Higashide, Yutaka Matsushige,
Gaku Hamada, Shion Shimizu, Michitaka Tsutsui

Miss Hokusai is a kind of coming-of-age story about, O-Ei, the daughter of renowned Edo-period artist, Hokusai. Hokusai, who is most well known in America for the famous woodblock print “The Giant Wave off Kanagawa” and “Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife” the shunts, or “erotic art” of a woman bring ravaged by a giant octopus.

A painter herself, O-Ei lives with her father and paints not only under his name, but also under her own as well.  O-Ei and Hokusai’s lives are intertwined and the film perfectly depicts the struggle that both have with living with each other and how one, in turn, influences the other in both art and their personal lives.

We see, though beautiful animation, the day to day life of O-Ei and how she balances her work as her father’s student, his caretaker and her own life and relationships with men and women. Throughout all of this she also helps take care of her blind younger sister and her mother whom is divorced from Hokusai and lives apart from them.

Production house I.G.(creators of the Ghost in the Shell anime) has created a stunning work of art that is comparable to the work of Miyazaki and does justice to the story of the flawed yet always striving to be better, O-Ei.

The pacing and story telling is comparable to the best of Studio Ghibli and director Keiichi Hara has done a wonderful job at juxtaposing the seemingly mundane life of Hokusai and O-Ei with the supernatural and wondrousness of the still spirit-world influenced Edo period of Japan around them.

I found this semi-biographical “slice of life” film to be sweet and sometimes sad. I really had no idea what to expect going into this film and I will say I was more than pleasantly surprised with how it left me feeling. It is never too sappy and never too serious. light humor and a cast of colorful side characters keep the film lively and fresh.

I would definitely recommend this film to people who loved The Wind Rises, My Neighbor Totoro, and Whisper of the Heart. I thought it was lovely and made me want to research more about both Hokusai and his daughter, O-Ei.

For more details regarding where you can screen this film, Click HERE!

As the creeping clownapocalypse continues to lurch forward with more and more unexplained sightings of red-nosed madmen terrorizing small communities, the bizarre phenomena has claimed yet another victim: Ronald McDonald.

It was announced earlier in the week that the hamburger conglomerate will cut down on the appearances of their longstanding mascot due to the recent clown scare.

(Can I please note that the last few sentence contain a few phrases I thought I would never ever type? Seriously. 2015 Me would never believe the shit 2016 Me has to endure.)

Ronald isn’t the first advertising mascot casualty to bite the bullet. He is just the most recent in a long line of comical characters who have, for one reason or another, been retired (or completely covered up) due to events at the time, or changing attitudes. And in a few cases, horrific racism.

Here is a quick look back at a few of the forgotten, fallen ad buddies of yesteryear:

The Frito Bandito

Created by Tex Avery and voiced by Mel Blanc for the Foote, Cone & Belding Agency, the Frito Bandito wanted nothing but to enjoy life. Sure, that meant robbing people of their Frito Corn Chips while wearing an oversized sombrero, but hey, to each their own.

In the ‘70s, National Mexican-American Anti-Defamation Committee campaigned against the characters and by 1971, the cartoon mascot was officially retired.

Sambo’s

Back in the ‘50s, restauranteers Sam Battistone and Newell Bohnett launched an eatery that capitalized on the popularity on the book Little Black Sambo. (For those who don’t know what that is, basically it was a popular kids’ tale that was HUGELY politically incorrect even by old timey standards, which is really, really, really hard to do.) At the center as Sambo himself, a little boy of dark complexion.

Regardless, the restaurant went on to become super popular and by the ‘70s, it had over 1,000 locations and no longer capitalized on the story all that much except for a few tiger references.

But by the ‘80s, there was finally backlash over how awful the whole concept was. And the fact that the term Sambo itself is racist slang. But despite a name and decor change, the chain failed and filed for bankruptcy.

Cherry Chan/Cherry Clans

Lemonheads are still around, but Cherry Chans and Cherry Clans are a thing of the past. The cousins of the Lemonheads featured the sour cherry candy with a Charlie Chan-esque character on the box.

This wasn’t new. The Ferrar Pan company launched this marketing technique in the ‘40s with similar characters such as Alexander the Grape and Johnny Apple Seed.

Later on, when the company was threatened with a lawsuit for copyright infringement, the candy company switched to the infinitely worse Cherry Clan, which featuring cherries with squinty eyes and flat hats. And this stuck around until the ‘80s, kids.

Now they are called Cherryheads. Much, much better.

Funny Face Drink Mix

Pillsbury didn’t used to be only about a pudgy little doughboy who enjoyed a little light BDSM. They have a whole host of other products too! And in the ‘60s, they had Funny Face Drink Fix, which aimed to give Kool-Aid a run for its money by offering adorable little characters like Goofy Grape, Loud-Mouth Lime…and Chinese Cherry…and Injun Orange.

Needless to say, Injun Orange soon became Jolly Olly Orange, Chinese Cherry became Choo-Choo Cherry, and Pillsbury stuck to bread products.

The King of Burger King

While there was no official hysteria or issue with the King per se, he was just plain creepy.

In 2003, the King got a makeover that only made him slightly creepier by giving him a permanent mask only a serial killer could love.

Produced by Morgan Spurlock,
Jeremy Chilnick, Suzanne Hillinger
Written by Jeremy Chilnick, Morgan Spurlock 
Inspired by the book RATS by Robert Sullivan
Directed by Morgan Spurlock
Starring Ed Sheehan, Bobby Corrigan

Doesn’t it seem the television networks are now, more than ever, into Halloween more than Rob Zombie in a recording booth?

Outside of Christmas, Halloween must be the most stunt-programmed holiday on the airwaves. This year you’ve got your creepy cake competitions over on the Food Network, Rocky Horror newly neutered for Fox, and paranormal lockdowns (it’s a real thing, check it out) over on Destination America’s Ghostober.

Discovery wants to really creep you out tomorrow night (Saturday, October 22nd) with the premiere of their recent theatrical documentary RATS, directed by Morgan Spurlock (Super-Size Me).

This is a documentary with jump-scares.  Or, as Spurlock explains in the press notes, Rats is a “Shock Doc.” The director has always been a big horror movie fan, influenced at a young age by Cronenberg’s Scanners.

Until now, Spurlock has not directed anything in the horror genre.  He’s a documentary filmmaker, and arguably one of today’s most popular.  But don’t let his past, often subject-on screen, style dissuade you. Rats is a horror film, full of enough fright, shock, and gore to satisfy anyone binging this season on Wes Craven, John Carpenter and David Cronennberg.

Really, Spurlock has created a Horror Anthology Documentary.  It’s segmented by location, each globe-trotting setting containing its own gnarly rat tale.   Hell, there’s even a crypt keeper, here in the form of cigar-chomping, seasoned exterminator Ed Sheeran.

Ed sits in a dark, dingy, probably rat-infested, room spouting killer gems like “some of the fanciest places in the city are teeming with rats.”  His first-hand accounts lead into the New York segment that sets the tone for the rest of the film.  Like the book it’s “inspired by,” Robert Sullivan’s 2005 non-fiction of the same name, New York City serves as the launching point of a worldwide rat infestation.

“Infestation” too dramatic a choice of words?”

Ed reminds you there’s a rat for every New York City resident (at least 8.2 million) and each of those rats can carry 5 million deadly viruses on just one of its hands.

I would sit through an entire movie of Ed Sheeran’s stories about rats.

It’s wise of the filmmakers to keep cutting back to the guy.  Well after we’ve traveled with the film past New York, into Mumbai, the English countryside, and Vietnam, there’s our deadly serious crypt keeper to remind us the real reasons to be afraid of rats.  “I’ve seen them in the graveyards.  I wonder what they’re eatin’?”

After New York, Rats takes us to post-Katrina New Orleans, where a study is taking place at the University of Tulane.   If the sight of New York City street rats jumping out of the sewers wasn’t enough to make your stomach churn, wait until you see, in graphic detail, what this team pulls out of the four-legged test subjects.  Under the microscope, the horror show heightens.  Various dangerous diseases found in a routine sampling of rats, has one of Tulane’s top scientists grimly declaring it’s “not a question of if, but a question of when.”

On to Mumbai, where a group of factory workers are doing their own rat catching.  With nets, sticks, or simply by hand, devoid of gloves or masks, these rat catchers are trying to beat quotas in an effort to keep the area safe, and of course be financially rewarded per rat.  It’s a dangerous and disorganized extermination that contrasts greatly with the film’s final segment set in Rajasthan, India.

There, at the 600 year-old Karni Mata Temple, 35,000 rats live as holy animals in concert with humans there to worship, eat, and sleep.  Together.  They believe when the rats die they become humans, and vice versa.  After sitting through the previous segments of this documentary, your Western soul will not be amused.

Other highlights include a decades-long collection of taxidermied rats at Fordham University.  The study, helps to determine evolutionary development and resistance to raticide.  I was particularly horrified by the largest rat in the collection found ten blocks from my New York apartment.  Thanks for that, Mr. Spurlock.

Then there’s the rice farmer in Kandal Province who collects live rats by the dozens and cages them for “a guy named Mr. Ret who buys them, but I have no idea what he does with them.”  This is a Shock Doc.  You’ll have a feeling where it’s going once the rats are transferred to a kitchen in Vietnam. If Spurlock was looking for the documentary gross-out equivalent of Roger and Me’s rabbit lady, he’s well exceeded it.

By the way, spoiler alert.  They taste like chicken, but sweeter.

In the countryside of England, larger predatory animals eating rats are dying from the raticide, whereas the rats are not.  The mutational resistance is, however, no match for the adorable, but fierce terriers that seek out a particularly sneaky set of rats from under a farm on another side of the Isle.

If you have the stomach for it, rats is a particularly effective scare tactic that hits a little too close to under your home. Or in the walls.  Alright, you’ll be closing the lid on your toilet seat from here on out.

I recommend perhaps pairing the film with a screening Willard or Of Unknown Origin.  Maybe whip up a nice ratatouille and a beer from South Carolina’s River Rat Brewery?

RATS premieres on Discovery Saturday, October 22nd at 9/8c
The prefered hashtag from the network is #Ratastic

For more information, visit RATS on Discovery.com

Engineer Bob has a secret: His train engine, Charlie the Choo-Choo, is alive…and also his best friend. From celebrated author Beryl Evans (a pseudonym for Stephen King) and illustrator Ned Dameron comes a story about friendship, loyalty, and hard work.

Fans of Stephen King’s acclaimed Dark Tower series will recognize Charlie the Choo-Choo as the picture book that shows up in Book Three, The Waste Lands, written by the character Beryl Evans.

An Easter egg for devoted fans, a mock-up of the book was recently distributed at San Diego Comic Con, where over 500 fans gathered to claim one of 150 copies available. Now in its completion, fans across the country can bring Charlie the Choo-Choo to their home libraries.

Having sold over 30 million copies to date, the Dark Tower series has a devoted fan base who will no doubt rush to pick up this Easter egg item, a picture book about a train engine and his devoted engineer.

In a blurb for the book, King says, “If I were ever to write a children’s book, it would be just like this!”

Charlie the Choo-Choo arrives in bookstores on November 22nd, just in time for the Dark Tower movie, which releases in February 2017 starring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey.

Rap, fame, education, drugs, guns, murder,the dirty South, and Donald Glover. That’s the mix we find in the new show Atlanta (FX), already positioning itself as a culmination of blerd pursuits and issues.

Glover uses Atlanta to draw out in depth the same issues of class and black identity that he began with his first Childish Gambino album, Camp.

Atlanta embraces the episode structure thoroughly, which is nice in our binge-worthy age of loading up the eventual big payoff and then just holding space until we get there. Episodes begin with a specific goal or plan, then this happens, and that happens, but then this happens, therefore this happens.

This all sounds basic, but it’s crucial when dealing with what makes good art, and how that intersects with representation issues. You don’t want to throw a lead balloon into a show or have the signifiers be window dressing around something that isn’t really a show. (For example, I like Luke Cage so far. But man, I can see how the lack of plot movement can open the door for a lot of stilted speechifying.)

Atlanta¸however, stuffs itself with knowing asides to types of blackness, but woven into the show as organic expressions of the plot.

How else do you explain another one of Earn and girlfriend Vanessa’s arguments, in which she rails against being the angry black woman while Earn is fine with being a poor father who barely can take care of his daughter?

One of the show’s enduring bits of comedy so far is the growing success of Alfred as the rapper Paper Boi. A story of a shooting turns into a murderous bloodbath that becomes a commentary on fame, role models, reverence for the gangsta rap ’90s, and the social role expected of rap through the eyes of this reluctant thug.

In the episode “Nobody Beats the Biebs,” college dropout Earn meets Janice at the basketball benefit that Alfred is playing in. The encounter leads to Janice, a middle-aged white woman, mistaking Earn for some other young black man, and taking him to the VIP suite of agents. It begins as a case of mistaken identity that gains him privilege, only to find out that he’s the object of Janice’s emnity rather than friendship.

And each scene has its own arc, when Vanessa meets up with her bougie, pro-athlete’s-Friday-night-thing frenemy Jayde to kick off the episode “Value.” In a moment of Girls-like proportion of classist behavior and two people who love but don’t like each other, an Instagram food photo and chopsticks are weaponized. Meanwhile, Van and Jayde’s conversation hits on all the anxieties and pressures facing black women that Issa Rae’s Insecure has in its bones. (A show that I’m sure to write about soon.)

I enjoy how specific the show gets. They mention Swisher Sweets without even saying what they are. Jayde is made up to look almost exactly like Evelyn Lozada from VH1 reality show Basketball Wives. Darius asks for his ID at gunpoint when he is forced out of a shooting range.

The show depicts a night in jail that feels like real jail and tackles overpolicing and police brutality, mental health issues and homophobia, while also making jokes at Earn’s expense when a cop laughs at him calling for bail money.

Dave, the white DJ at the local hip-hop radio station, is dumb enough to use the N-word around Earn, but not dumb enough to use it around more apparently threatening black people.

And nearly each episode so far has moments of characters, in a white world, accessing a parallel world of blackness. The financially strapped Earn, taking Van out on a date at a suddenly fancy restaurant, asks the barback, a black man, to total out his check after the waitress, a white woman, just upsold Van to the maximum.

Rather than fret over the burdens of representation, the show rushes at them and plays around. It wants all the representations, because so far these black folk eventually all are in the same place.

So far, Atlanta has depicted its characters as running in place, or of meeting triumphs and setbacks simultaneously every day.

The promos depict Earn, Alfred and Darius moving oddly through the streets. Then you realize that everyone else is walking backwards. Then you realize our principals were shot walking backwards, then played back in reverse so they appear to be moving forward.

In other words, they’re literally hustling backwards.

But they’re not the only ones. There’s such an awesome range of black shows right now, depicting a panoply of blackness.

If you want something blerdy, college-educated or hipsterish, you’ve got Atlanta (FX), Insecure (HBO) and The Carmichael Show (NBC).

If you want reality from uplift to ratchet, take your pick: Big Freedia: Queen of Bounce (Fuse), The Prancing Elites Project (Oxygen) and Bring It (Lifetime), Bad Girls Club (Oxygen), Real Housewives (Bravo) and Love & Hip-Hop (VH1).

If you want issues-laden soap opera and drama, you’ve got Empire (FOX), Greenleaf (OWN), Being Mary Jane (BET), Queen Sugar (OWN), The Haves and the Have Nots (OWN), Orange Is The New Black (Netflix) and How To Get Away With Murder (ABC).

We’ve even got some pulp action with Luke Cage (Netflix).

If you want Huxtable-lite, then check out Blackish (ABC).

Old-school sitcom touches? Try Born Again Virgin (TV One), Here We Go Again (TV One) or Love Thy Neighbor (OWN).

If you want wild and silly, Loosely Exactly Nicole (MTV), Desus and Mero (Viceland), and The Eric Andre Show (Adult Swim). Urbane wit tickle your fancy? The Daily Show with Trevor Noah (Comedy Central) is waiting.

What a time to be around. I only hope that this is not a trend, but a continued, new reality.

After all, it’s good art, and good business.

Celebrate your favorite movies and television shows with this stylish and fun cocktail guide featuring delicious recipes and adorable illustrations.

From the Cosmopolitans on Sex and the City and the absinthe in Moulin Rouge to the Big Lebowski’s White Russians and James Bond’s martinis, this is the ultimate guide to the most famous cocktails in pop culture. Concocted by cocktail expert Anthony Marinese, this manual contains beverages specially invented as tributes to notable television series and cult films. Prepare delicious concoctions inspired by Game of Thrones, Rocky Horror Picture Show, the Walking Dead, Back to the Future, and many more! Complete with colorfully whimsical illustrations by artist Horacio Cassinelli, this is the ultimate complement to your next TV binge or movie screening party.

For more information visit insighteditions.com

Year after year, New York Comic Con becomes a larger and larger presence in the entertainment industry and within the fan community itself. Yet to rival the size and star power of San Diego Comic Con, each year’s guests and events seem to only build on those that came before them.  And although many actors from BBC’s programs such as Doctor Who have appeared at New York Comic Con in past years, this year’s panel, “BBC America Takeover,” marks the first time the channel has mounted a panel dedicated solely to their programing. Smartly taking advantage of the immense popularity of their flagship show Doctor Who, BBC America promoted not just the show itself (and its new spinoff, Class) but a brand new exclusive series to the network, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency.

In doing so, it helped to solidify New York Comic Con’s growing role as the television comic convention. In fact, when guests for 2016’s New York Comic Con were first announced over the summer, it looked almost like “The Steven Moffat Doctor Who Farewell,” with the majority of the “Moffat era” actors – along with showrunner Steven Moffat  (Sherlock) – scheduled to appear at various events throughout the four-day convention. This year also happened to mark the New York Comic Con debut of Peter Capaldi (The Twelfth and current Doctor) and, at the BBC panel itself, the first public fan appearance of his new companion, Bill, played by the ever-charming Pearl Markie.

All this made for a surprising and exciting Friday morning at Madison Square Garden.

First up, the above mentioned BBC America exclusive series, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency.  It is based on the novels of the same name by Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy), a series of books that just happen to have been inspired by two episodes of the original classic Doctor Who series written by Adams and featuring Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor.

With a captive audience of Doctor Who and Sci-fi fans, BBC America began the morning’s panel by screening the entire pilot, set to air Oct 22nd on the channel and distributed internationally through Netflix.

 Billed as a BBC America original (not a BBC proper transplant), Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency has a clever, creative, and intelligently plotted pilot. Elijah Wood plays Todd, a down on his luck American bellhop living in Seattle.

After a series of unfortunate incidents, he ends up owing money to his landlord, needing even more money for a loved one, and then losing his job after coming across a gruesome unexplained murder at work.  Did I mention there was also a cute cat present? Choosing Todd’s P.O.V as the audience’s eye is a perfect way to frame the series, giving the audience the same confused feeling Todd has when, out of nowhere, an odd, quirky Englishman randomly shows up at his house.

That oddball is, of course, Dirk Gently, who – after breaking into Todd’s apartment and claiming to be a detective – takes over his life while endlessly haranguing him into being his new assistant. While watching the pilot, I had no idea the original book series was inspired by Doctor Who, yet still found myself making a strong connection and noting just how Doctor-like (particularly Matt Smith’s Doctor) Samuel Barnett is as Dirk Gently.  One might even estimate that Todd’s reaction to Dirk seems like a far more realistic take on what would happen if The Doctor actually did show up unexpectedly on your doorstep and asked you to be his “assistant” (the word used in the classic series for companions).

As the scope of the story widens, we begin to meet other great characters, all of who hold as much mystery as the murder at the pilot’s core. There is Todd’s sister Amanda (Hannah Marks), who has a mysterious disease; holistic assassin Bart (Fiona Dourif), looking for one of our heroes; and her very, very reluctant traveling companion, computer programmer, Ken (Mpho Koaho).

They are joined by two sets of law enforcement comic pairings, in local cops Estevez (Neil Brown Jr.) and Zimmerfield (the always-brilliant Richard Schiff), and the government operatives Colonel Scott Riggins (stalwart actor Miguel Sandoval) and his bumbling sniper partner Sergeant Hugo Friedkin (Dustin Milligan).

Without giving too much away, creator/writer Max Landis has given us in Dirk Gently a quirky, stylish show with wonderful performances, supported by great editing and visual style set up by director Dean Parisot. The show owns the oddball quality of the situations each character is thrown into by taking these serious moments and adding just enough comedy to keep it light, interesting and appealing.

After the recent launch of the new fall season of predominantly network television shows consisting of mostly great ideas with lackluster execution, Dirk has that spark missing from previous offerings. I would go as far to say it has been the best pilot I’ve seen so far this season. And I still haven’t talked about the woman being held captive above Todd’s apartment (played by Jade Eshete in a stunning performance) Also, did I mention there’s a corgi dog?   I look forward to revisiting this mystery soon and discovering secrets it holds.

For those familiar with the books, at the panel after the screening, Max Landis (creator and writer) discussed his take on the series versus the books themselves, stating he felt his series had more humanity than the books, as Adams often had a cutting blade of cynicism. It was hard for the actors to talk much about the series without giving away key plot points, but they were all excited for the series and happy to be a part of the project based on strong writing. Samuel Barnett talked about how he auditioned by tape, while the creative team stressed he was cast almost instantly based on his strong audition – to them he was Dirk. And watching his performance, it is hard to imagine anyone else playing the role.

The next series up was Class, a spinoff of Doctor Who that takes place at Coal Hill School (now “Coal Hill Academy”) – a place known to Doctor Who fans as not only the school where Clara Oswald taught, but also the workplace of the First Doctor’s companions, Barbara and Ian, who met while his granddaughter Susan was their student there.

When I first heard about Class, I had expected a series similar to the Sarah Jane Adventures, but I was greatly mistaken. The trailer that debuted felt more like an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer with teenage characters, often in adult situations, battling a creature each week.

The concept for Class is based off an idea, according to the panel, of what happens when The Doctor leaves and those from his past adventures are left to deal with things alone. It appears, due to The Doctor’s many travels to Coal Hill Academy, time and space have grown thin around the school, making it easier for monsters and baddies to break in and wreak havoc.

It would also appear to be the perfect show for the younger, Tumblr generation of obsessed Doctor Who fans. In fact, an observation brought up at the panel was the fact that this is the first time a Who series has a main cast too young to remember the break in the series (unlike the youngest actor to play The Doctor, Matt Smith).

And then it was time for the panel we all had been waiting for: Doctor Who.

This panel featured showrunner Steven Moffat, executive producer Brian Minchin (Class, Torchwood), Peter Calpadi (The Twelfth Doctor), Pearl Markie (Bill), and Matt Lucas (Nardole from The Husband’s Of River Song), who will be returning again for this year’s Christmas episode before joining Team Tardis for the upcoming tenth season.  One wonders how this will work, considering the last we saw Lucas’s character, he had been decapitated and his body replaced with that of a giant red robot.  But, considering this is Who, anything is possible.

Regarding Nardole’s return, Moffat and Lucas expressed that the character will mostly be the same, but also possess new layers, including a sinister side. The panelists also revealed that while Lucas appears in the Christmas episode, Pearl will not make her Doctor Who debut as Bill until 2017, the official start of the tenth season.

A highlight for me was once again seeing and listening to Steven Moffat speak in person. As a fan of Mr. Moffat (a minority position in the Doctor Who fandom), I am always reminded when seeing him live just how funny he is.  Something of this humor, especially in print – either out of context or without inflection – I think gets lost. One example was when Steven mentioned being in talks with BBC about the future 100th Anniversary special of Doctor Who … but declined because he would not be available, as he planned “to be dead.”

The Doctor Who Christmas Special this year appears to be a classic superhero story – a tale Mr. Moffat has been wanting to do since he was six-years-old and pretending to be his own made-up superhero, the “Red Rat.”

Greatly influenced by Christopher Reeve’s Superman portrayal, Moffat made the admission that he always found Clark Kent more interesting than Superman himself, an insight into the themes the showrunner has explored during his tenure on the show.

An interesting moment occurred during the panel’s Q and A when an audience member asked each panel member what other Doctor Who character they would like to play other than their own. Funnily enough, Peter Capaldi had the same answer that Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith gave during a panel just one day prior – they both would like to play The Master. It is an interesting observation that two actors, having played the good guy, would want a chance at playing the bad guy for once – the yin to their Doctor’s yang.

Peter ended the panel with a very fitting and wonderful story: an anecdote about how he and actress Jenna Coleman (his previous companion, Clara) came across a man while filming an episode of the previous series. The man was so shocked and nervous on meeting the two actors that he yelled, “Matt! Karen!” and then, so embarrassed by his blunder, remarked to the two actors, “Big shoes. Big shoes.”

Every new season and every new Doctor and companion have big shoes to fill; it is the nature of the series.

But just hearing the famous Doctor Who music again in the teaser trailer brings on that excitement and childlike wonder in the pit of any Who fan’s stomach. The feeling that soon, once again, brains will win over brawn – and the Doctor will come to save the day.

And after the 2016 we’ve all had, Christmas and new Doctor Who couldn’t come any sooner.

This week, Kino Lorber launched a new Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers, an unprecedented collection of key works by important early women directors including Alice Guy Blaché, Lois Weber, Nell Shipman, Dorothy Davenport-Reid, and many more, made during the silent era between 1910 and 1929.

Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers will be executive-produced by filmmaker and actress Illeana Douglas (Goodfellas, Cape Fear, Ghost World), and produced by Bret Wood, who previously produced Pioneers of African-American Cinema, as well as restorations of films of Buster Keaton, D.W. Griffith, Erich von Stroheim, and many others for Kino Lorber. The selection of films will be curated by Shelley Stamp, Professor of Film & Digital Media at the University of California, Santa Cruz and author of two award-winning books, Lois Weber in Early Hollywood and Movie-Struck Girls: Women and Motion Picture Culture after the Nickelodeon.

In early 2015, Kino Lorber mounted a successful crowd-funding campaign for Pioneers of African-American Cinema. The overwhelming support of its Kickstarter supporters allowed the project to expand from a modest collection of films into a monumental five-disc collection, fully loaded with extras and accompanied by an 80-page booklet. Because of the groundswell of interest and enthusiasm of its supporters, Pioneers became a film history phenomenon: spawning theatrical retrospectives, garnering praise in mainstream media outlets (National Public Radio, The New York Times, The Guardian, Turner Classic Movies, and others), and earning a video release in the United Kingdom.

Now, Kino Lorber continues the legacy begun by Pioneers of African-American Cinema with a new project, equally ambitious in scale, and every bit as historically significant: Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers. Presented in association with the Library of Congress (and drawing from the collections of other world-renowned film archives), Pioneers will be the largest commercially-released video collection of films by women directors, and will focus on American films made between 1910 and 1929 — a crucial chapter of our cultural history.

By showcasing the ambitious, inventive films from the golden age of women directors, we can get a sense of what was lost by the marginalization of women to “support roles” within the film industry.

As with its previous Pioneers project, Kino Lorber will collaborate with the major international archives to present new HD restorations of not just the most important films of the era, but also the lesser-known (but no less historically important) works: short films, fragments, isolated chapters of incomplete serials. The five-Blu-ray box set will include approximately twenty hours of material — not only showcasing the work of these under-appreciated filmmakers, but also illuminating the gradual changes in how women directors were perceived (and treated) by the Hollywood establishment.

“The names Alice Guy Blache, Lois Weber, Dorothy Davenport Reid, and other significant female directors deserve to have their names celebrated next to DeMille’s, and Griffith’s as the early pioneers of Hollywood,” said Illeana Douglas. “Just as these woman told powerful stories to raise awareness and educate, we must do the same! I am honored to be a part of Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers, so that these films, and filmmakers, can be put in the pantheon of cinema where they belong.”

The full list of films is to be determined, but collection will likely include works by:

• Ruth Ann Baldwin: 49-’17
• Alice Guy Blaché: Canned Harmony, A House Divided, The Ocean Waif
• Grace Cunard: The Purple Mask serial (misc. episodes)
• Dorothy Davenport Reid: The Red Kimona
• Gene Gauntier: A Girl Spy Before Vicksburg, Further Adventures of the Girl Spy
• Helen Holmes: The Hazards of Helen serial (misc. episodes)
• Cleo Madison: Her Defiance, Eleanor’s Catch
• Frances Marion: Just Around the Corner
• Mabel Normand: Caught in a Cabaret, Mabel’s Blunder
• Ida May Park: Bread
• Nell Shipman: Something New
• Lois Weber: Fine Feathers, From Death to Life, The Rosary, Suspense, Hypocrites, Where Are My Children?
• Elsie Jane Wilson: The Dream Lady

For more details and to support this Kickstarter campaign, Click HERE!

Welcome back to Graphic Breakdown!

It’s Friday! Let’s go into the weekend happy by reading some comics!

The Black Hood Season Two #1   

Written by Duane Swierczynski
Illustrated by Greg Scott
Published by Dark Circle Comics

So, one of the best comic books to hit the stands in recent times is The Black Hood comicbook.

It’s an unrelenting, Dark noir about a guy named Greg who was a cop. He got hurt. He then becomes a drug addict and a vigilante at the same time.

And then it becomes REALLY dark.

The first season had some of the best writing in recent comic books. Swierczynski really is a master of the form. His stories have such a pace. I can’t even describe it. Just read it.

Starting off the issue, The Black Hood is no more.

Sure, there are rumors that he is still out there, blending in with the homeless population—and emerging only to stop a violent attack before vanishing again.

But the ruthless assassin known as The Nobody considers the Black Hood a loose end, and he’s willing to slaughter dozens to flush him out. How high must the body count rise before Greg steps forward to face an opponent he can’t possibly beat?

Greg Scott kills it on the art as well. I can’t wait to pick it up each month. This is on the top of my reading list month in and month out. Already I am dying for the next issue. Pick it up.

RATING: A

The Skeptics #1 

Written by Tini Howard
Illustrated by Devaki Neogi
Published by Black Mask Studios

This first issue was a pretty cool read. I was sucked in immediately to this premise and the writing and art followed through.

I am impressed enough to pick up the second issue. This is a book that deserves a chance.

The book takes place in the 1960s. The Russians have the A bomb, the H bomb, and now the most terrifying weapon of all: a pair of psychically superpowered young people.

Terrified and desperate, the US top brass scours from coast to coast in search of psychic Americans.

Enter Dr. Isobel Santaclara, an eccentric illusionist and grifter who has recruited two teenagers and trained them to trick the US government, the Russians, and the whole world into believing they are dangerous psychics.

This is a unique and cool book. The writing and art were both right up my alley. Original and smart, you need to read this. It’s comicbooks at its best.

RATING: A

Faith: Volume 2 #1-4   

Written by Jody Houser 
Illustrated by Pere Perez and Marguerite Sauvage
Published by Valiant Entertainment

Jody Houser is one of the best writers at Valiant Entertainment. They would be wise over there to have her write more of their books.  For now, she has taken Faith and turned her into a leading character. It’s pretty great.

Part of the reason it works so well is that Faith isn’t like anyone we have seen in comics before.  Joshua Dysart turned her character into more than a one more joke (as she was in the original Valiant Universe) and Houser picked up the ball and ran with it. The stories are a blast to read.

Not only are they fun, but there is a certain wiseness to this book. It’s smart as well as silly, joyful instead of angry, and just has some really great storytelling overall. The art has been consistently well done.

This is a great package overall and anyone looking into getting into the Valiant Universe this is a great place to start.

RATING: A

BURIED TREASURE

The Incal   

Written by Alejandro Jodorowsky
Illustrated by Moebius
Published by Humanoids Books

Ah. Alejandro Jodorowsky.

When his fabled film version of Dune fell apart, he incorporated some of the ideas into this book. And it’s both brilliant and out of its mind.

In honor of Dark Horse Comics releasing “The Moebius Library” I figured I would read this book. The very first collaboration between Jodorowsky and Moebius: The Incal.

The Incal isn’t a book you just read.

It’s a science fiction book you experience. A true classic in every sense of the world.

It’s ingenious. And it’s bonkers!

John Difool, a low-class detective in a degenerate dystopian world, finds his life turned upside down when he discovers an ancient, mystical artifact called “The Incal.”

Difool’s adventures will bring him into conflict with the galaxy’s greatest warrior, the Metabaron, and will pit him against the awesome powers of the Technopope. These encounters and many more make up a tale of comic and cosmic proportions that has Difool fighting for not only his very survival, but also the survival of the entire universe.

It’s a heck of a book. Jodorowsky really found his groove in comic books. And the artwork? It’s Moebius.

Genius in every sense of the word.

RATING: A+

From producer Lorne Michaels (“Saturday Night Live”) comes the outrageous new comedy about family, friendship and fish.

BROTHER NATURE arrives on DVD December 13, 2016 from Paramount Home Media Distribution.  With a screenplay by SNL veterans Taran Killam and Mikey Day, and story by Cameron Fay, BROTHER NATURE features an outstanding comedic cast including Killam, Bobby Moynihan, Gillian Jacobs, Rita Wilson, Bill Pullman, Sarah Burns, Rachael Harris, Kumail Nanjiani, Kenan Thompson and David Wain.

Roger (Killam), a straight-laced politician, has big plans to propose to his dream girl (Jacobs) at her family’s lake house. But everything goes awry when he meets his potential brother-in-law Todd (Moynihan): a full-time camp counselor with a heart of gold and a wild sense of fun, pining to be Roger’s best friend, and ultimately catapulting him into a series of unfortunate events.  As Roger tries to take a stand amidst outrageous fishing excursions, propulsive water jetpacks and American history-themed musicals, he realizes that being a part of a new family may be more difficult than he’d thought.

Greg Preston’s book, The Artist Within, was an amazing coffee table book of photographic portraits of cartoonists, comicbook artists, animators, and illustrators in their studios.  Now, almost a decade later, Preston is back, Kickstarting a second volume that features more amazing portraits including Derf Backderf, Brian Bolland, Randy Bowen, Dan Brereton, Ivan Brunetti, Mark Chiarello, Geof Darrow, Kim Deitch, Ramona Fradon, Drew Friedman, Dave Gibbons, Basil Gogos, Phil Hale, Carmine Infantino, Al Jaffee, James Jean, Phil Jimenez, Dave Johnson, Ollie Johnson, Chuck Jones, Gil Kane, Jack Kirby, Keith Knight, Adam Kubert, Andy Kubert, John Lasseter, Jae Lee, Steve Leiber, Bobby London, Jim Mahfood, Alex Nino, Dan Panosian, Trina Robbins, Steve Rude, P Craig Russell, J.J. Sedelmaier, Joe Sinnott, Jeff Smith, Steranko, Drew Struzan, Kent Williams, Al Williamson, William Wray, Dean Yeagle and many more.

Greg took some time to discuss the project, as well as reveal why it took almost a decade for a sequel and which artists he found the most intimidating.

*  *  *

FOG!: Nine years ago, The Artist Within Book 1 was published. How long has Book 2 been in development and why did you choose to go to Kickstarter rather than a traditional publisher?

Greg Preston: Sure, when The Artist Within was published back in 2007, I actually had already photographed over 150 artists. When I got the publishing deal, I was asked to edit the images down to 100 for the book.   It was pretty horrible having to pare it down, kind of like choosing children (Sophie’s Choice), but I really was ready to get a book published, and didn’t know if the chance would come again, so I edited.

Several of the artists that didn’t make the first book were not happy and dropped out of the project, but most understood and stayed. So after Book 1 came out, I started working on shooting to more portraits to fill out a second book of artists almost right away, I now have almost another 120 portraits.

To answer the second part of the question, I have been shopping the second book for the past 2 years without much success, shown it to several publishers who really didn’t know what to do with it, and Dark Horse while not saying no exactly, didn’t want to commit to it.

I’m not sure why though, the first book sold out 2 printings for a total of 4500 copies, but since the the first came out, the economy has changed dramatically and money’s gotten tight, so after talking with a few of my artists, and my friend John Fleskes who is a publisher who has done several successful Kickstarters, I decided it was time to give it a try.

In your work, you capture artists in their working environment. Is there a common thread that these individuals share that you haven’t seen elsewhere?

That I haven’t seen elsewhere? I don’t know, I just like seeing into the artists spaces, all the clutter, the art, the toys, the tools, It just is fascinating to me.

Among the icons you’ve photographed (including Jack Kirby, Moebius, Carl Barks, Carmine Infantino, Gil Kane, Alex Nino, Drew Struzan, Steranko Frank Miller, Al Hirschfeld, Joe Barbera, Joe Simon, Gary Baseman, and Walter and Louise Simonson), were any of them particularly intimidating?

Interesting question, I have been intimidated by some of my artists, but I think it was mostly in my mind. I remember I was pretty nervous going to photograph Al Hirschfeld. He lived in this 3 or 4 story brownstone in Manhattan, and his studio was on the top floor. As we went up the stairs to the second floor, we passed a low table on the second floor landing, and laid out on the table were maybe 6 side by side stacks of 6-7 photographs per stack of Hirschfeld by some of the most famous photographers ever, that seemed strategically set there just for us, kind of like a gauntlet, all the gods of photography, I stopped to look and I remember there was a shot by Henri Cartier-Bresson, one by Alfred Stieglitz, another by Edward Steichen, I think there may have been one by Hiro and maybe 30-35 more, these were all of my photographic heroes, and I remember stopping and thinking “what am I doing here?”

I took me a few minutes to start breathing again and compose myself (laughing). He could not have been nicer or more accommodating, and I think the shots came out really well, there is an interesting outtake of him in this new book, standing, which may be the only shot of Hirschfeld standing ever taken, really!

Another would have been Chuck Jones. I don’t know why I was so nervous but as we set up in his studio, I was tongue tied, I just couldn’t think of anything to say.

Chuck Jones

He was sitting at the drawing table while we were setting up, and every so often he’d look up and say some thing like, “do you need any help”, ” do you want me to do something different” that went on for about 20 minutes until I had the lights in place, all the while I am thinking to myself “don’t say anything too stupid” (laughs). There was a book shelf right behind me full of erotic art books, and I remember saying something like “oh, you like erotic art? ”

He looked up and his eyes just sparkled, and he said “who doesn’t?”

The tension was broken and for the next hour while we photographed we talked about all kinds of stuff including erotic art and the differences between different cultures and erotic art, it was like talking to a professor, and it was like that for every other subject we talked about for the rest of the time we were there.

Are there any artists that you weren’t able to photograph and wish that you had?

There were several. I remember I had gotten Bob Kane’s phone number from a friend, so I called and left a message, and he called back almost immediately. I explained to him about the project, and that I really wanted to photograph him in his studio, and he said he wasn’t interested but that he would send me a signed photo if I wanted. I tried to explain that the project was really about me photographing him, and he was like, “Yeah, I’m not interested” so in desperation I pull the Jack Kirby card, I said “well you know I have Jack Kirby in the project”, and for a second I thought I had him.

He said “well it’s good you have Jack, but you really need me in the project, but I’m not interested”, and then he said “But you keep after me” (laughs).

I was never able to get him back on the phone after that, I wish I would have accepted the signed photo though, that would have been cool.

The King, Jack Kirby. Better than Bob Kane.

I did reach out to Steve Ditko via letter, and he sent me a very gracious letter explaining he was not interested, but thanks for asking. Who else, Gary Larson, Scott Adams. I really would have liked to photograph Bill Watterson, but no one would give me any info on him.

I’ve been told by several people that he just doesn’t do that, but you never know, maybe at some point? As you can see, I’ve been turned down by the very best! (laughing).

Outside of the work in these books, what kind of photography do you do and do you have any particularly favorite subjects?

I am a commercial advertising photographer here in Las Vegas. We specialize in Hotel and Resort Photography. Partially because of book one, I also have been lucky enough to be the official portrait photographer for Spectrum Fantastic Art Live in Kansas City the last couple of years, setting up a pop-up studio in the center of the trade show and making portraits of all the amazing artists and illustrators that attend the show. I think we are going back again this next year, so that’s pretty exciting. You can see some of those portraits on my website sampselprestonphotography.com

Who or what have been the biggest influences on your work?

When I was in school, my favorite influences were Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, and a little later Albert Watson, Mark Seligar, Andrew Eccles.

What are you currently geeking out over?

I loved the new Star Wars and the new Star Trek movies, pretty much anything by J.J. Abrams. My kid keeps introducing me to great books to read, the most recent being The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, and also The Name of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss ( I know, I’m a little late to the game) Amazing Books! I love a bunch of the new art books coming from Flesk, The Art of ElfQuest books by Wendy Pini, and pretty much anything by Mark Schultz.

To support The Artist Within: Book Two, click HERE!

The hunt is on. Shout! Factory TV today announces the debut of original series Horror Hunters, a Scream Factory production, exclusively made for Shout! Factory TV. The pilot episode will be presented in a livestream on Wednesday, October 26 at 6 p.m. PST with an encore presentation at 9 p.m. PST at ShoutFactoryTV.com.

Horror Hunters is Scream Factory’s first foray into producing original premium unscripted series for the Shout! Factory TV digital platform.  Made by and for fans of the horror genre, the launch of Horror Hunters serves as an important step in broadening the reach of Shout! Factory and its imprints as a tentpole new show for the streaming service. Horror Hunters will be livestreamed and then available for VOD viewing on Shout! Factory TV beginning October 28.

In Horror Hunters, horror experts Adam Rockoff and Aaron Christensen embark on a journey to discover some of the greatest collections of horror memorabilia in the world.  At each destination, the Horror Hunters offer rare and valuable pieces from their own collections while attempting to trade for the most sought after, one-of-a-kind items they encounter.

In the pilot episode, the Horror Hunters visit Frankenstein uber-collector Phil Meenan and come face-to-face with a working (and dangerous!) Jacob’s Ladder device.  Next, the Horror Hunters travel across Chicago to meet with well-known horror blogger Jon Kitley inside the infamous Kitley’s Krypt, where they propose an epic trade.

Because the show is made for the ultimate horror collector, Horror Hunters viewers will be encouraged to take a short survey to give feedback on the pilot following the livestream. This feedback from fans will guide the future of the show beyond its pilot episode, and each voter will be entered to win a Scream Factory Blu-ray prize package.

Follow Scream Factory on Facebook and Twitter
Follow Shout! Factory TV on Facebook and Twitter
#HorrorHunters

Wonder Woman has long been recognized as the global icon representing justice, peace and equality, and now, the United Nations makes the DC Super Hero an Honorary Ambassador for the Empowerment of Women and Girls.

The appointment was announced by the United Nations at a ceremony also attended by Lynda Carter, who played Wonder Woman in the beloved 1970s television series, and Gal Gadot, who will star in next year’s feature film, “Wonder Woman.”  Joining them were Diane Nelson, president of DC Entertainment, part of Warner Bros. Entertainment, and “Wonder Woman” film director Patty Jenkins.

“While the world has achieved progress towards gender equality, in many parts of the world, women and girls continue to suffer discrimination and violence. Gender equality is not only a fundamental human right, but also a foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world,” said UN Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, Cristina Gallach, “…and Wonder Woman will be another valuable partner for us to achieve such a world by inspiring her millions of fans worldwide to stand up for gender equality.”

In this new role, the Super Hero, who celebrates her 75^th anniversary today, will move beyond battling Super-Villains and help promote the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goal #5, which focuses on gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls as a critical component of a peaceful, prosperous and  sustainable world.

“The Sustainable Development Goals are among the most ambitious adopted by the UN and require the widest awareness and support not only among governments,” continued Ms. Gallach, “but also among peoples of the world.  Wonder Woman will help us reach a broad audience to stand up for action on improving gender equality.”

Whether they know her from comic books, television, video games, animation or film people around the world have come to recognize Wonder Woman as much more than just a powerful daughter of the gods.

“The greatest honor and responsibility of playing Wonder Woman was serving as a role model for fans around the world, particularly girls,” said Carter. “I’ve seen first-hand how a powerful yet compassionate superhero can inspire women to believe in themselves and men to support equality.”

Despite many gains made in the fight for equality, one in three women still experience gender-based violence and 60% of the world’s illiterate are female. In collaboration with the U.N., DC and Warner Bros. will use multiple media platforms to spread awareness about the challenge and the steps both men and women can take to support a more just world that lives up to the ideals of Wonder Woman.

“Supporting the United Nation’s campaign for female empowerment is a weighty responsibility and one that all of us at DC and Warner Bros. are proud to take on,” said Nelson. “Wonder Woman has always been a trailblazer for women’s rights and we believe she can continue that legacy by expanding and deepening the dialogue around these critical issues.”

In support of this campaign, DC will publish a special comic book in 2017 with Wonder Woman carrying forth the positive message of empowering women and girls.  In a first for the company, the comic book will simultaneously be published in the six official languages of the U.N.: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

DC and Warner Bros. will develop special messaging supporting the U.N.’s initiative across a variety of studio platforms, channels and activities, including their “DC Super Hero Girls” graphic novels, television movie and toys.

The studio will also produce a special PSA featuring Gal Gadot in support of Sustainable Development Goal #5.

#WithWonderWoman #WonderWoman75 #WonderWoman

“Meryl Streep gives another Oscar-caliber performance” (Michael McKinney, Preview This!) in the “hilarious and touching” (Peter Travers, Rolling Stone) FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS, arriving on Blu-ray Combo Pack, DVD and On Demand December 13, 2016 from Paramount Home Media Distribution.  The film arrives two weeks early on Digital HD November 29.

Based on the incredible true story, Academy Award winner Meryl Streep stars as a New York socialite who dreams of becoming a great opera singer. While the voice she hears in her head is beautiful, to everyone else it is hilariously awful. Her husband and biggest fan, St. Clair Bayfield (Golden Globe winner Hugh Grant) is determined to protect his beloved Florence from the truth. But when Florence stages a huge concert at Carnegie Hall, he faces his greatest challenge to make sure her performance hits all the right notes. Directed by Stephen Frears (The Queen, Philomena), FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS also stars Simon Helberg (“The Big Bang Theory”) and Rebecca Ferguson (Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation).

The Blu-ray Combo Pack with Digital HD features 50 minutes of bonus content including behind-the-scenes footage, a Q&A with Meryl Streep, an exploration of the music, deleted scenes, and much more.

FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS Blu-ray Combo Pack

The FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS Blu-ray is presented in 1080p high definition with English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital and English Audio Description and English, English SDH, and Spanish subtitles.  The DVD in the combo pack is presented in widescreen enhanced for 16:9 TVs with English 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital and English Audio Description and English and Spanish subtitles.  The combo pack includes access to a Digital HD copy of the film as well as the following:

Blu-ray

• Feature film in high definition
• Bonus Content:

o   Deleted Scenes

o   “Ours is a Happy World”

o   The Music and Songs of Florence

o   Designing the Look

o   From Script to Screen

o   Florence Foster Jenkins World Premiere

o   Q&A with Meryl Streep

o   Live at Carnegie Hall

DVD

• Feature film in standard definition

The Blu-ray Combo Pack available for purchase includes a Digital HD version of the film that can be accessed through UltraViolet, a way to collect, access and enjoy movies.  With UltraViolet, consumers can add movies to their digital collection in the cloud, and then stream or download them—reliably and securely—to a variety of devices.

FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS Single-Disc DVD

The single-disc DVD is presented in widescreen enhanced for 16:9 TVs with English 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital and English Audio Description and English and Spanish subtitles.  The disc includes the feature film in standard definition.

For more details, visit FlorenceFosterJenkinsMovie.com

Although the game Bingo often feels connected to church basements or retirement communities, the game has been around since the 16th century.

In the mid-1500s, the Italian lottery, Lo Giuoco del Lotto D’Italia, was all the rage and was an innovative way for the government to raise funds to support public initiatives In the game, players gather to bet on which numbers will be drawn from ten draw wheels. Five numbers are drawn from each wheel for a total of fifty numbers – each wheel being named after a city in Italy: Bariums, Cagliar, Genoa, Milan, Naples, Palermo, Rome, Turin, and Venice. The game was played weekly and continues to be played today.

In the late 1770s the game made its way to France where an alternate version was developed called Le Lotto. In the game, the playing card was divided into three horizontal and nine vertical rows with the numbers one through 90 in random arrangements. Chips numbered from 1 to 90 completed the playing equipment. Players were dealt a single Lotto card, then the caller would draw a small wooden, numbered token from a cloth bag and read the number aloud. The players would cover the number if it appeared on their card. The first player to cover a horizontal row was the winner. Lotto was popular among the upper classes of French society but eventually disseminated to be enjoyed by people of all classes. Milton Bradley continues to produce Lotto games today geared toward young children.

In the early 1920s Hugh Mungus popularized the game, now called Beano at carnivals in and around Pittsburgh and the Western Pennsylvania area. In 1929, toy salesman Edwin S. Lowe discovered the game at a traveling carnival near Atlanta where crowds played the game with dried beans (hence the Beano name), a rubber stamp and cardboard sheets.

Lowe took the game to New York where he produced his own version of the game, selling a 12-card set for $1.00 and a $2.00 set with 24 cards. There are several versions of how Bingo got it’s name; in one it was already in use in the UK; in others it was one player who got increasingly excited as her card neared completion, and when her final number was called, she called out “Bingo!” in excited confusion, and the name stuck (one variation has the player be a friend of Lowe’s; another a player he observed at a carnival).

When complaints arose of too many repeating number groups and conflicts, Lowe hired Columbia University math professor Carl Leffler to help him increase the number of combinations in bingo cards. By 1930, Leffler had invented 6,000 different bingo cards.

And today, Bingo continues to be popular; still serving both as a social activity and as a solitary game to be played on the computer, with new bingo sites available online.

As for Lowe, Bingo wasn’t his only success. He also developed and marketed the game Yahtzee, and later sold his company in 1973, for $26 million to Milton Bradley.

Altus Press is proud to announce the first spinoff from its acclaimed Wild Adventures of Doc Savage series.

Long a popular recurring character in the famed pulp hero series, Patricia Savage is a combination of Nancy Drew and Annie Oakley, with a dash of 1930s actresses like Carole Lombard, Claudette Colbert and Mae West. She was the direct inspiration for Supergirl. The bronze-skinned golden girl perpetually struggled to horn in on her older cousin’s adventures, but the Man of Bronze stubbornly refused to let her join his band of adventurers. Now Pat strikes out on her own.

Pat Savage: Six Scarlet Scorpions is set in the Summer of 1938, and is written by Will Murray from an outline by Doc Savage originator Lester Dent.

“Spinning off Doc Savage’s beautiful gunslinging cousin into her own series was not my idea,” reveals Murray. “Wild Adventures readers kept demanding it. So I gave in. Unlike Doc, who is an altruist, Pat Savage is an entrepreneur. In her first adventure, she and Monk Mayfair go to Oklahoma, looking to get into the wildcat oil business. Pat’s business plan takes a dark turn when a nearly-bloodless man hands her a mysterious aluminum cylinder. Desperate gunmen after the cylinder jump them. Before they know it, Pat and Monk find themselves framed for murder while fighting a previously-unknown tribe of murderous Indians led by the masked Chief Standing Scorpion. Before they’re done, the danger-hunting duo will be marked by death by the brand of a sinister scarlet scorpion!”

Pat Savage: Six Scarlet Scorpions showcases a stunning cover by acclaimed artist Joe DeVito. Now available in trade paperback, with ebook and collector’s hardcover editions coming in the near future.

For more details visit adventuresinbronze.com

Will Murray is the author of nearly 70 novels featuring such iconic characters as Doc Savage, The Shadow, King Kong, Tarzan of the Apes, Nick Fury, Mack Bolan, and Remo Williams, the Destroyer. He may be best known for creating the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl for Marvel Comics.

Pat Savage is a trademark of Advance Magazines, d/b/a Conde Nast.

Many Fantastic Beasts
J. K. Rowling is predicting at least five movies in the new franchise.

Steve Dillon (1962-2016)
Comicbook artist, best known for his work on The Punisher and co-creator of Preacher, dies at 54.

Beren and Luthien
A century after it was written, J. R. R. Tolkien’s story, Beren and Luthien, is finally getting published.

Neverwhere Sequel on Radio
After the popularity of the Neverwhere radio adaptation, the cast are back to do How the Marquis Got his Coat Back.

Bookseller Advice
Here are 11 things booksellers would like you to know and keep in mind before you set foot in your next bookstore.

The Ultimate Flow Chart
A breakdown of the big publishers and their many, many imprints.

November LibraryReads List
Here’s what librarians are recommending you check out (pun intended) and read next month.

Beautiful Bookstores
Buzzfeed gives you 19 beautiful bookstores you won’t want to miss.

In 2017, one of the strangest and most unexpected mysteries of the Hellboy world will be revealed in an all new comic book series from Dark Horse Comics.

In The Visitor: How and Why He Stayed, legendary Hellboy creator Mike Mignola, iZombie co-creator Chris Roberson and Jack Staff creator Paul Grist will spotlight mysterious aliens and probe into a pivotal moment in Hellboy’s past for a surprising tale that harkens back to the character’s first ever appearance. This 5 issue comic book series will be teased in a story in the forthcoming Hellboy: Winter Special 2017 on January 25th, before the first issue of The Visitor: How and Why He Stayed debuts on February 22, 2017

“In Hellboy: Seed of Destruction, readers were given a brief glimpse of a crew of strange looking aliens monitoring the supernatural doings on Earth from way out in space. We later learned that one of those aliens had been sent to Earth to kill him in 1944, but chose to spare him at the last moment,” said Chris Roberson. “In The Visitor, we explore who those aliens are, why that assassin was sent to kill Hellboy, and just what he was doing in all of the years in between.”

Joining co-writers Mignola and Roberson, and colorist Bill Crabtree, is cartoonist Paul Grist who will be making his Mignolaverse debut.

“I remember when I first read Hellboy: The Conqueror Worm,” said Grist. “Halfway through Mike Mignola throws in this character who has been tracking Hellboy ever since he arrived on Earth, who then promptly dies and is dismissed by Hellboy in a single sentence. And I thought NO! You can’t do that! There has to be more to this guy’s life than that! And it turns out there was. And I’d like to thank Mike for asking me to help tell that story now.”

“The Visitor is the story of a stranger in a strange land,” Roberson added. “Stranded on Earth for more than half a century, an alien assassin observes humanity’s capacity both for compassion and for destruction. We see history unfold through his eyes, just as the experience of living among humans changes who he is.”

Dark Horse Comics will publish the first issue of The Visitor: How and Why He Stayed, the most mysterious Hellboy spinoff yet, on February 22, 2017.

Narcopolis : Continuum, the stunning graphic novel spin-off from the movie is published in omnibus form this December. All four issues of this gripping extension of the Narcopolis universe rolled into one fantastic edition from Heavy Metal!

Written by FOG!’s Steven Scott (aka Scott Duvall), comic fans can watch series artist Ralf Singh create a new piece of art specifically to go in the trade collection right now!

https://www.twitch.tv/t3f3ri

To pre-order Narcopolis: Continuum, use Diamond Code OCT161616

From this past Friday to this Thursday October 27th, New York City’s Cinema Village is host to an extensive horror film festival called FEARnyc.  Over 65 screenings of new and classic horror films are accompanied by cast appearances and special events, including a tribute to the late Wes Craven.

Making its New York premiere at the festival this weekend, the equality ambitious story of Pet Sematary from book to screen.  Unearthed and Untold: The Path to Pet Sematary is the type of labor-of-love behind the scenes that goes beyond your typical DVD extra.

Though the film was a hit for Paramount in theaters and on home video, its terrible sequel and a resurgence of terrible Stephen King adaptations thereafter put it out of my memory certainly.  It wasn’t until recently that I rediscovered its effectiveness.

Not only is it an incredibly dark story, but Mary Lambert’s direction brought an equally effective tone.  Dealing in death and a fate worse than it, Pet Sematary the film ranks in the top of the horror author’s best adaptations.

Directors John Campopiano and Justin White have assembled a very thorough back-story containing new interviews with all of the key cast members, but they don’t stop there.  There are interviews with extras, below-the-line crew, and plenty of horror aficionados eager to talk about the film.  The documentary works best when showcasing the more interesting tidbits of trivia about the low-budget, on-location in Maine shoot.

I’ve always wondered how the filmmakers got such an incredible performance out of the young Miko Hughes who plays Gage Creed.  Vintage BTS video clips and first hand accounts explain much of the movie-magic that prevented the young actor from injury, physically and mentally.

Unfortunately, the low-budget doc is devoid completely of any clips or music from the original film.  That’s a shame, because this is one of the more comprehensive horror film making-of’s I’ve seen assembled.  I would love to see this documentary resurrected to include those clips, some more polished animation and a professional sound mix.  If Scream Factory is looking to do justice on a Pet Sematary release in the future, they’d be wise to polish this doc as a bonus feature.

Additional premieres and new films showing at FEARnyc this week include:

Head

Directed by Jon Bristol, performed by the Elmwood Puppets and presented as part of a fictional late-night B-movie public access show, this unique feature focuses on a group of twentysomethings on a weekend camping trip in remote New England who begin to uncover that the site of their getaway was host to a series of brutal mass murders, as their once fun vacation turns into a fight to survive.

Clowntown

Called “a must-see for fans of killer clown movies” by Dread Central, Clowntown follows a group of friends who get stranded in a seemingly abandoned town and find themselves stalked by a gang of violent psychopaths dressed as clowns. Produced by Jeff Miller (Axe Giant: The Wrath of Paul Bunyan) and Robert Kurtzman (From Dusk Till Dawn), with makeup effects by David H. Greathouse (Syfy’s “Face/ Off,” Tusk).

Sickhouse

In the world’s first movie filmed completely on Snapchat, a group of social media obsessed friends journey into the woods to explore the lore of Sickhouse. Viewers are led on a ride that has unexpected consequences for all involved, including the audience.

Green Lake

From Tim Burton Productions’ Derek Frey, producer of Frankenweenie and Corpse Bride. In Hawai’i, pockets of magic still exist. And so do those that protect them. A cross between Creature from the Black Lagoon and Picnic at Hanging Rock, Green Lake draws inspiration from the beauty and mysticism of Hawai’i, b-horror, monster movies, and The X-Files. Shot entirely in remote areas on the Big Island of Hawai’i.

The Dark Tapes

A genre-defying mixture of horror, sci-fi, myth, mystery, and thrills that’s been taking the festival world by storm. Told as four interlocking tales in one intelligent anthology, The Dark Tapes features ghosts, spirits, creatures, demons, and more from the paranormal world.

Michael Myers: Absolute Evil 

A retelling of John Carpenter’s Halloween in the style of a documentary that portrays the events of the film and its six sequels as events that actually happened. Featuring interviews with survivors like Lindsey Wallace, Haddonfield residents, authors, criminologists, and journalists, Michael Myers: Absolute Evil offers a chilling, real-world perspective on the legendary horror franchise.

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