Produced by Juzo Itami,
Yasushi Tamaoki, Seigo Hosogoe
Written and Directed by Juzo Itami
Starring Tsutomu Yamazaki, Nobuko Miyamoto,
Koji Yakusho, Ken Watanabe, Rikiya Yasuoka

I’m a foodie.

It’s a term sometimes derided, but one which I gladly embrace. I not only enjoy good food, but I find the epicurean experience a sublime one. I’ve never had a bad bowl of Brunswick stew, but a truly good bowl of Brunswick stew can change my day from simply being good to being the best.

Should I ever end up in the hospital for any length of time, a properly prepared rainbow trout with pecan crust will speed up my recovery three-fold. A certain jar of marmalade will allow me to see through time and space.

And I would happily commit crimes for a good–a really good–bowl of ramen.

That may be why a movie like Juzo Itami’s 1985 cult classic Tampopo speaks to me so.

It’s not just a movie about making noodles–a “noodle western”, as it is sometimes called. It’s a film about food as art, food as a rite of passage, and food as a character-developing experience. This is laid out almost right at the beginning as a nameless old man teaches his student the art of eating noodles and frames much of the experience in terms of showing affection and gratitude to the contents of the bowl.

On the surface, the film tells the story of truck driver Gorō (Tsutomu Yamazaki) who stops at a small roadside noodle shop and agrees to train the young widowed owner, Tampopo (Nobuko Miyamoto), in the fine art of Japanese noodles. Together, they train physically, work on fundamentals, and examine the methods of both local competitors and acknowledged noodle masters. Along the way they pick up various experts and specialists to help transform Tampopo into a first-rate noodle chef. There are some rough types who hang around Tampopo’s shop to add some tension, but even they are devotees of fine ramen, and that devotion transcends any animosities. It’s a fascinating journey for the main characters, and a joyful movie overall.

While the main plot has elements of classic American westerns (stranger comes to town to help the put-upon widow and son, challenging locals, unexpected allies, winning over the townspeople, a Quiet Man-style showdown, riding off into the sunset, etc.), interspersed among these scenes are a multitude of vignettes that explore the food experience in other ways. There is the brace of Japanese businessmen who each place uninspired orders at a fancy French seafood restaurant–save for the young, brave junior assistant who shames his elders with an extensive knowledge of the menu (written in French). There is the class in which a very straight-laced woman attempts to teach a group of young women the “proper” way to eat Italian-style pasta–silently and neatly, but fails as a Western gentleman on the other side of the restaurant joyfully slurps his spaghetti and sauce. There is the gang of homeless who are all well-versed in regional cuisine and vintage wines, and break into empty kitchens for a touch of fancy cooking. There is the dying woman who makes one last meal for her family as an act of love.

And that’s just a few. Tampopo is full of such scenes. Furthermore, the story is framed by a subplot involving a gangster type and his girlfriend who, like nearly everyone else in the movie, are dedicated epicureans, although in their case there are themes of sex and violence involved as well. When the various threads of vignettes and subplots are joined, the inevitable bloody death of the gangster includes his appreciation for yam sausages. Moist poignant, however, would be the closing credits scene of a child breastfeeding.

This is Tampopo.

It is a masterpiece of a film. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out its excellent use of lighting in the most significant scenes, and a lively orchestral soundtrack from composer Kunihiko Murai (Shogun Assassin, Lone Wolf and Cub).

Juzo Itami (1933-1997), who both wrote and directed Tampopo, made an instant splash with his first film, The Funeral (Osōshiki) in 1984, a comedy about a family having to organize a funeral following the sudden death of a husband and father. All of Itami’s films lean heavily on social observation and satire.

In 1992, following the release of his anti-yakuza film, Minbo, Itami was attacked and slashed in the face by members of the Gotogumi yakuza clan. They also claimed responsibility for Itami’s supposed suicide in 1997 by forcing him to jump from the roof of a building or be shot in the face.

While Itami may have only had ten movies to his name as director–all of which are highly acclaimed in Japan–his international legacy is solidly assured with Tampopo.

A 4K restoration was recently shown at New York’s Film Forum, and a pop-up ramen stand appeared for a night in Brooklyn. This all served to whet the appetite for a new Criterion Collection edition which seems all but inevitable now.

Keep your eyes open for that or at your local art house theater where it’s currently playing.

So, if you’re hungry for a great cult classic, you can’t go wrong with Tampopo. If you love good food, this is your film. Just in the writing of this review, I’ve watched the film three times, from old, choppy VHS pirate copy to ultra-clear HD digital video, and each time I find something new to love about it.

In fact, I’m hungry now. Sadly, the nearest noodle shop worth the name is over fifty miles away, so I’m going to break out a home-made Swedish rye and some orange champagne marmalade, then figure out how I can get more noodles in my life.

Cheers!

The 4K restoration of Tampopo is currently playing in theaters.

In his latest book, Aleister & Adolf, media theorist Douglas Rushkoff (Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus, Life, Inc.: How the World Became A Corporation and How To Take It Back) weaves a mind-bending tale of iconography and mysticism.

During the Second World War, the legendary occultist Aleister Crowley develops a powerful and dangerous new weapon in the conflict against the Axis powers. But this unconventional new form of warfare could cast the world into Armageddon.

Douglas and his collaborator, artist Michael Avon Oeming (Powers, The Victories, Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye), took some to discuss Crowley, the genesis of the book and their current pop culture obsessions.

*  *  *  *  *

FOG!: For those unfamiliar with him, who is Aleister Crowley?

Douglas Rushkoff: Aleister Crowley was the quintessential English adventurer and mage—an occultist deeply involved in ceremonial magic, mysticism, tarot, astrology, secret societies, and sigils. He wrote poetry, took drugs, engaged in sex rituals, and traveled through alternate realities. He was the very center of the occult scene of the twentieth century.

Many considered him to be the evilest man in the world, in part for the supreme moral code he promoted: “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.” He is the occultist who inspired everyone from Jimmy Page and Timothy Leary to Jack Parsons and L. Ron Hubbard. He had temples and followers and masks and robes and sex and drugs and poetry and propaganda.

What was the genesis of Aleister & Adolf?

D.R.: I’ve been thinking about it for a long time, and it was inspired simultaneously from several different places. I think it started when I was writing Testament, a Vertigo title that reenacts the Bible in a near-future dystopia. And I remember someone at DC telling me that there was a company rule that stated you weren’t allowed to put Jesus and a superhero in the same panel. That idea stuck with me, and I started to imagine ultimate X vs. Y books.

Meanwhile, I was very interested in doing something on how the image and branding sensibilities of the Nazis have trickled down to us in the form of advertising today. In essence, as I’ve written in some of my nonfiction books, like Life Inc, the fascists won the war. We have a fascism of false choice in America (McDonald’s or Burger King? Coke or Pepsi? Apple or Android?), where we have lots of decisions we get to make but they all involve getting money from the same places and giving it to the same shareholders.

And—since engaging with Leary and William Burroughs and playing with Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, I’ve been aware that corporate logos are an extension of sigil magic—these are “charged” symbols that spread through culture and amplify the perceived power of the corporations they represent. And all that came originally from Aleister Crowley’s magical techniques. So how did Crowleyan magic end up the go-to methodology for American corporations? And what did this have to do with World War II and the Nazis?

So I decided to put Aleister and Adolf into the same book, as a way of exploring how their two sensibilities merged into what we’re living today. Plus, I really wanted to write something that had crazy magic, orgies, distorting reality, and other cool stuff. I wanted to have a book that was like a portal into another world.

How did Mike get involved with the project?

D.R.:I saw Mike’s pages and knew instantly he was fated to do this thing.

There’re other artists who can do over-the-top magical realms, but not many who can keep the participants human throughout. These characters are having really complex emotions, and he’s just so able to depict them with a minimum of lines. Mike’s also fantastic in black and white, which was critical to me. WWII happened in black and white.

Michael Avon Oeming:  I’ve always been interested in the strange and fringe, ever since I was a kid watching In Search Of… with my mother. I remember the “satanic panic” of the eighties—talk show hosts going on about occult images on Proctor & Gamble products and running over to my sink to look at the labels. So I love this stuff. I wrote about a lot of the ground we covered in my other Dark Horse creator-owned book, The Victories, including Crowley. I’m so fascinated by this stuff, the occult, UFOs, ancient lost civilizations in the works of Graham Hancock. His is the most grounded. The rest isn’t something I believe or not—I find it a sort of existential thought exercise. Maybe that is why I’ve never had any big personal experience in this fringe stuff—maybe I’m too objective to be affected by the psychology of it, which I think is a big factor in these subjects. I don’t mean that in a negative way.

Mike, were you familiar with Douglas’s work and Crowley in general?

M.A.O: With Crowley, I was only aware of the wider things—that he wanted to be seen as the evilest man on earth, even if he was only trolling society. I knew of his attachments to L. Ron Hubbard (whom he never met), Jack Parsons, the JPL, and NASA, but I was totally unaware about the spy stuff with Ian Fleming and Knight. So as much as I knew about him, I learned tons more working with Douglas. I had already been exposed to Douglas’s work, but I never tied together that some of his films, like Winnebago Man, and his PBS Frontline documentaries were one and the same guy. Now I’m a big fan of not just the work, but the man himself.

The book is based in some capacity on real life. Why do you think the occult was such a focus for both Crowley and Hitler?

D.R.: It’s based almost entirely on real life. This stuff happened. Crowley used magic against Hitler in WWII. He invented Winston Churchill’s “V is for Victory” hand gesture as a countersign to the Nazi swastika.

And the go-between was none other than Ian Fleming. That’s not a conspiracy theory. He delivered falsified star charts to Hitler’s astrologer to try to get Hitler—who was basing his military decisions on star charts—to make bad moves.

Hitler was obsessed with magic but took it way more literally than Crowley. Crowley understood—I believe, anyway—that a whole lot of magic is the psych-out. It’s what people believe. Almost like hypnosis. Propaganda.

You utilize a slightly different style than in your previous work, using lots of negative space. Was the book always intended to be in black and white? Were there any visual influences in particular for this project?

M.A.O.: Wow, drawing this was such a blessing. I’ve wanted to work in black and white again for years, but finding the right project to do it is difficult. This was perfect. It not only allowed me to play more with negative space but to use Zipatone (those dot patterns in the modern sections) and wash tones for the magic stuff. I really got to spread my wings. My influences are worn on my sleeve: Alex Toth, Bruce Timm, and Mike Mignola. I’m still trying to simplify my work, but it is shockingly hard. I still use too much detail for my own taste.

What kind of research did you do for this book? Was there anything that you came across that surprised you?

D.R.: It was over a year of research for me. What surprised me was that the story was true. I had initially based it on a “what if,” but then learned that Crowley had been enlisted in an effort to beat Hitler through occult means. What we’ll never really know is if the British intelligence agencies believed in magic, or simply believed that Hitler could be spooked and disempowered by stealing back the Sword of Destiny, messing with his star charts, and other mischief.

I was surprised to learn that Crowley interrogated Rudolf Hess in the Tower of London after the Nazi deputy führer flew to Scotland on a peace mission. They had fooled him into coming to the UK; he thought he was going to meet Churchill and arrange a compromise. But they grabbed him, gave him psychedelics, and tried to get him to share Nazi secrets.

M.A.O.: The research was tough for me. Real tough. We cover some of the worst, some of the strangest atrocities committed by the Nazis. I thought I was pretty well educated on this, but good lord, the things they did. We are sadly used to—or at least prepared for—certain images, piles of bodies, piles of shoes, living skeletons…but it was the more specific stuff that sent me into a dark spiral while doing research. The medical experiments, like attempts at swapping out body parts for amputee soldiers. Photos of women missing a leg next to vats of legs awaiting transplant, animal parts, and worse—but I did get to enjoy some really fun art stuff. Researching the buildings and fashions of the time was very enjoyable, and I always like reading about symbols and what they mean, their origins, and how they are used today.

What are your upcoming projects?

D.R.: I’d love to do a sequel to this book. Show how the magical memes continued through the human-potential movement of the 1960s and ’70s, and how the self-interested advertising culture happened. Then, a final book looking at the way sigil magic has migrated online into algorithms. Algorithms are the contemporary form of sigil magic.

I’ve also just started a podcast (Has everyone?) called Team Human which is looking to promote human agency in an increasingly digital and corporatized age.

M.A.O.: I’m currently still working on Powers and I’m drawing Cave Carson for DC Comics. You can keep up with all my projects at MichaelAvonOeming.com.

What are you currently geeking out over?

D.R.: Not a heck of a lot. There’s something that flipped in me, that makes me see all this stuff as the same. I stopped watching The Walking Dead, which was a big turning point for me. Just not wanting to fill myself with that hopelessness. So I am watching Black Mirror, which is awfully good. Maybe not masterpieces, but effective enough. I watch Mr. Robot, though I fear they got a bit lost at the end of season 1. I’m watching Westworld, but more as a fellow creator seeing how they move through the material than as a fan. But sometimes I’m sucked in a bit.

My problem is with series that are based on spoilers and withheld plot points rather than truly deep ideas. Shakespeare and Shaw didn’t need spoilers to keep audiences interested. It feels to me as if spoilers are a consequence of a very IP-driven entertainment landscape. Yes, it’s nice to be surprised. Or fooled. But it’s not the most communicative or highly dimensionalized form of fiction.

I’m watching a lot of Deepak Chopra right now. Watching the YouTube videos where the mean scientists reveal his lack of understanding, his misuse of quantum terminology. He’s playing off the same supernatural memes as the magicians of the last century, but refusing to acknowledge them as metaphorical, like Crowley did. I enjoy seeing people unmasked, and at the same time, I feel for them—because we are all faking it to some degree. That’s part of the fascination with Trump. We are all scrambling like that in so many conversations.

I’m reading Julian Barbour, and other good physicists, on the nature of time. And Merlin Donald and Karl Pribram on the human mind. So I guess I’m geeking out most on true geekery about the nature of consciousness.

M.A.O: I’m with Douglas on a lot of what he said about entertainment. I guess I’m at the age where I’ve seen so much material that most of what I see is recycled or expected ideas. Not that I can always do better; being a creator and being a consumer are very different things. I wish I could only have original ideas, but I don’t, so I do the best I can with them, which seems to hold up. But as a consumer, I’ll watch a show, and maybe it feels like a good network show. Then I realize, wow, I’ve either seen too much or I’m jaded. Also, the lack of time is a problem for a comic artist. Like, I love The Knick or The Killing and Hannibal but I feel like I’m ingesting negativity while watching those…feeding my soul with the wrong stuff. I’ve been watching a lot of British comedy—Chewing Gum is so fun and I can rewatch Peep Show any day.

I just read The Fix by Steve Lieber and Nick Spencer and loved it. Of course, Bitch Planet and Sex Criminals are always at the top of the list. Lastly, I listen to a lot of podcasts, and Fade to Black with Jimmy Church is my favorite show about the strange and the fringe. YouTube always keeps me busy, usually watching Time Team, which is so nerdy to draw comics to it isn’t even funny.

Aleister & Adolf is available now

It’s time to talk turkey—cinematic turkey, that is! Shout! Factory continues its revival of the beloved MST-ie Thanksgiving tradition with a newly curated Mystery Science Theater 3000  Turkey Day Marathon. Hosted by show creator Joel Hodgson and Season 11 host Jonah Ray, the marathon will feature the six most popular classic MST3K episodes of all time.

Starting at 9 am PT / 12 pm ET on Thursday, November 24^th, the marathon will showcase the six most popular classic episodes as chosen from the recent fan survey of the 100 Most Popular Classic MST3K Episodes, as well as brand-new episode intros. Visit ShoutFactoryTV.com to partake in the Turkey Day festivities and participate in the event on Twitter by using the hashtag #mst3k.

Following the record-breaking Kickstarter campaign to #BringBackMST3K in 2015, 14 new episodes of MST3K will be airing on Netflix in 2017.  Season 11 will feature comedian Jonah Ray as the next host (“Jonah Heston”), actress and comedian Felicia Day as the next Mad (“Kinga Forrester”), actor and comedian Patton Oswalt as the next evil henchman (“TV’s Son of TV’s Frank”), comedians Baron Vaughn and Hampton Yount as the newest voices of “Tom Servo” and “Crow T. Robot,” respectively, and of course, more cheesy movies to riff.

For updates on the Turkey Day Marathon and Mystery Science Theater 3000, follow @MST3K, @JoelGHodgson and @ShoutFactory on Twitter, “Like” on Facebook, and follow @MST3K on Instagram.

This December, the City of Angels has a new guardian angel. Load your quivers and nock your arrows, True Believer because there’s a new archer in town when the all-new HAWKEYE #1 comes to comic shops and digital devices everywhere! Kate Bishop is flying solo in a brand new series courtesy of rising comic stars Kelly Thompson (A-Force) and Leonardo Romero (Doctor Strange). Kate’s back on the west coast with nothing but her bow, some arrows and her P.I. badge in tow. There’s crime to fight and she’s the best archer to handle it! It’s Kate Bishop like you’ve never seen her before – in a can’t-miss new series that really hits the mark! Be there when HAWKEYE #1 comes to comic shops and digital devices everywhere on December 14^th!

HAWKEYE #1 (OCT160797)
Written by KELLY THOMPSON
Art by LEONARDO ROMERO
Cover by JULIAN TOTINO TEDESCO
Variant Covers by MARGUERITE SAUVAGE (OCT160799)
And DAVID AJA (OCT160798)
Design Variant by LEONARDO ROMERO (OCT160800)
Hip-Hop Variant by MARCO RUDY (OCT160801)
ICX Variant by MIKE MCKONE (OCT160802)
Blank Cover Also Available (OCT160803)
FOC – 11/14/16, On-Sale – 12/14/16

To find a comic shop near you, visit www.comicshoplocator.com
or call 1-888-comicbook. 

The most-watched series in HBO history and a worldwide TV phenomenon, Game of Thrones returns with another power season. This year, after the shocking developments at the end of Season 5 – including Jon Snow’s bloody fate at the hands of Castle Black mutineers, Daenerys’ near-demise at the fighting pits of Meereen, and Cersei’s public humiliation in the streets of King’s Landing – survivors from all parts of Westeros and Essos regroup to press forward, inexorably, towards their uncertain individual fates. Familiar faces will forge new alliances to bolster their strategic chances at survival, while new characters will emerge to challenge the balance of power in the east, west, north and south.

And we’re giving away a copy!

To enter, please send an email with the subject header “GOT6” to geekcontest @ gmail dot com and answer the following:

What is the connection between GOT stars Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke and actress Linda Hamilton?

Please include your name and address (U.S. Residents only. You must be 18 years old).

Only one entry per person and a winner will be chosen at random.

Contest ends at 11:59 PM EST on November 27th, 2016.

Regularly cited by critics, film directors, and audiences alike as one of the greatest films of all time, TAXI DRIVER won the prestigious Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival (1976) and was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture (1976). The film stars Robert De Niro in Martin Scorsese’s unforgettable tale of a psychotic New York cabbie driven to violence by loneliness and desperation. The acclaimed cast also includes Jodie Foster, Albert Brooks, Harvey Keitel, Peter Boyle and Cybill Shepherd.

A mentally unstable Vietnam War veteran (De Niro) works as a night-time taxi driver in New York City where the perceived decadence and sleaze feeds his urge for violent action, attempting to save a preadolescent prostitute (Foster) in the process. Directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Paul Schrader, TAXI DRIVER was produced by Michael Phillips and Julia Phillips.

And we’re giving away two copies!

To enter, please send an email with the subject header “TAXI DRIVER” to geekcontest @ gmail dot com and answer the following:

Prior to Taxi Driver, director Martin Scorsese made this film with Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel?

Please include your name and address (U.S. Residents only. You must be 18 years old).

Only one entry per person and a winner will be chosen at random.

Contest ends at 11:59 PM EST on November 27th, 2016.

Highlander, the epic action/adventure fantasy film starring Christopher Lambert and Sean Connery, will expand its legacy next year as a comic-book miniseries from IDW Publishing.

Scottish fantasy writer Brian Ruckley will spin a new tale chronicling the events that led up to the opening of the classic 1986 feature film while casting new light on the battle between immortals throughout time.

“In the 30 years since its release, Highlander has inspired a massive cult following that craves new stories based on the original film,” senior editor Denton J. Tipton said. “Many have tried, to varying degrees of success, but Brian has crafted an exciting narrative that will honor and bolster the underpinnings of Highlander. Also, epic sword fights!”

Brent Marlis, licensing agent at Creative Licensing, expressed “we are thrilled for this partnership with IDW, as they have a tremendously talented team who will be creating a story that is both authentic to the original Highlander film and innovative to attract new fans alike.”

Joined by artist Andrea Mutti (Rebels), Ruckley will explore Connor MacLeod’s journey, both physical and internal, that led him to become humanity’s immortal champion. From medieval Scotland to Civil War-era Pennsylvania to mid-century Manhattan, readers will meet compelling new characters, such as immortal Osta Vazilek, and revisit fan favorites.

The battle for The Prize begins anew in February!

This is the movie I’ve only been waiting about 35-40 years to see.

I grew up on the 1960s Batman television show starring Adam West and Burt Ward. Watching their adventures in the late 1970s and early 1980s, they seemed timeless—I couldn’t even conceive of the fact that the show itself was filmed in the Sixties and that Ward was on the verge of hitting middle-age.

Now I’m on the verge of middle-age, and it’s a very odd feeling to be holding the Batman: Return Of The Caped Crusaders DVD in my hand. Setting aside the actual content of the animated movie for a second, this sort of “awe” over seeing your heroes “back in action” is a big factor in its favor. They are indeed the voices of West, Ward, and “Catwoman” Julie Newmar in animated bodies that look like dead ringers for their original incarnations.

Uncanny imitations of the other classic villains’ voices (especially The Joker, as if Cesar Romero indeed came back from the dead via perhaps another Romero’s machinations), plus the those of the rest of the “Batman ’66” cast, make you feel as if you’ve traveled back through time. Your childhood (assuming said childhood was back when phones were rotary) has been restored to you more or less intact, via those folks at Warner Bros Animation.

Great. Mission accomplished.

Now, to the content.

It’s…like a superior version of those Hanna Barbara action cartoons you might have watched from the same time period. The animation designs are “on model,” as they say—but a little stiff. The combination of obvious 3D computer modeled animation (vehicles and backgrounds) plus the more traditional looking stuff (figures) is a style that’s been used with a lot of more “budget” cartoons and movies lately…and it just doesn’t work for me. I feel it should be all 3D, or all traditional (pick a side, people!!!). I “get” that such a technique saves a lot of time and $—and that without it, WB Animation couldn’t produce as many original movies as they do. There just needs to be a more “seamless” process here.

The story, featuring a ray that produces “multiple Batmen” and a potion that makes Batman Prime a complete jerk, is visually fun and gives West a chance to act like the heel for once.

And the “Bad Batman” stuff is pretty creepy. It’s like when Harrison Ford turned bad in What Lies Beneath level creepy. And that’s cool! That’s stuff you never normally see.

You also get a bunch of cool in-jokes (such as when Batman, hit in the head, sees Catwoman in “triple”…I’ll just let you discover the rest!), and cameos by a bunch of highly obscure Batman TV villains (Louie the Lilac, anyone?). West quotes Michael Keaton. I mean, crazy stuff happening!

But the movie itself is a little on the long side, and I feel Catwoman’s “arc” was kind of shoe-horned in. An in-joke regarding the Dynamic Duo possibly doing something “secret” with each other, via a nosy Aunt Harriet, seems a bit dated in today’s climate. And then there is the Joker farting (why? Why is this the “hip” thing to do with every animated movie now?). There is this whole pointless slapstick sequence where the Joker ends up in a circus for seemingly no apparent reason…and the only reason I can think of is that somebody up high in the WB said “we need more Joker.” And I have no problem with “more Joker,” but what transpired felt out-of-character for him (I did like the nod to the 70’s-era Joker design on his car, however).

The sum balance of it all is, I liked Batman: Return Of The Caped Crusaders, though a lot of that hinged on the fact that I waited 35-40 years to see it happen. I mean, there was no way I would not have seen this movie! Now, how would it “play” to a person not familiar with the concept of “Batman ’66?” That’s debatable. But I believe certain “products” have certain audiences. The sequel to this movie is going to have William Shatner as Two-Face, so it is highly likely I will see that one as well.

My last thought is: too made they didn’t start doing Man From U.N.C.L.E. movies like this. It would have been great to see Robert Vaughn as Solo one more time.

Batman: Return Of The Caped Crusaders is currently available on DVD and Blu-ray, as well as digital purchase/rentals.

The motto of The Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity in Comics comes from Dwayne’s own words, “From invisible to inevitable.”

“The Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity in Comics is the very first award ever established in my husband’s name,” said Dwayne’s widow, Charlotte (Fullerton) McDuffie, “and we are tremendously proud that in just its third year, both the comic book and animation industries are already beginning to see some evidence of the DMAD’s powerful mission statement demonstrably influencing reality by helping a more diverse range of outstanding creative voices finally find some inclusion in the media, with the careers of our first two winners and finalists starting to take off at major entertainment companies. To paraphrase Dwayne: Everyone deserves to see themselves represented in the media. And everyone deserves to participate in telling their own story.”

To commemorate his vision and contributions, the new Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture, grand opening September 24th, has invited Dwayne McDuffie to be included for posterity.

“Everyone has heroes, but most people never get the chance to ensure that their hero’s legacy will endure,” said Watkins. “Dwayne McDuffie was my hero, and for the last two years I’ve been honored to be on the selection committee for an award in his name that promotes diversity and inclusion in the comic book industry. This year I’m doubly honored to be the award’s director, and my efforts to ensure Dwayne’s legacy endures will be nothing short of heroic.”

“Long Beach Comic Con and Long Beach Comic Expo are committed to celebrating diversity in comics,” said Martha Donato, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Long Beach Comic Expo, on the eve of Long Beach Comic Con. “This is not a fad, this is not an isolated moment. We are committed to diversity in storytelling. Last year, the number of submissions were three times that of the first award last year–and a third of those were from women. This is the future.”

Dwayne McDuffie, photographed by Seth Kushner

The deadline for completed submissions for the third annual Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity in Comics is December 31, 2016 and the guidelines for how to submit are here.

The winner will be announced at a reception on  February 18, 2017, in Long Beach, CA during the Long Beach Comic Expo.

I was fortunate to grow up in the Seventies when comicbooks were virtually everywhere; convenience stores, bookstores, grocery stores, gas stations, etc.  And even more amazing was the variety; funny animal, humor, superhero, horror, science fiction, war and plenty of familiar characters licensed from other media.  My love of reading comics encouraged me to make my own comics and create my own characters.  Without the modern conscience of having to be realistic or even make sense, I had created a pantheon of my own Super Weird Heroes!

Craig Yoe is not only one of the most important figures in modern publishing in introducing readers to the history of the comics medium, but also produces some of the best looking volumes you’ll find on any bookshelf.  Craig and I became friends several years ago; he’s a hard person not to like.  We have a mutual love of the medium and he’s been a frequent and vocal supporter of the site.

And there’s nothing that gets me more excited about comics than a new book with Craig’s name on it.

His newest book, Super Weird Heroes: Outrageous but Real! is not only yet another feather in his overstuffed cap, but also is the perfect primer for anyone, of any age, that loves the superhero genre.  And let’s be serious, anyone who dons a union suit and a cape and swears to fight the forces of evil has got to be a little bit nutty.

Craig took some time to discuss his own personal history of superheroes, why they matter and gives us some more details of both this book, and upcoming Yoe Books publications.

* * * * *

FOG!: Craig, in your introduction to Super Weird Heroes: Outrageous but Real! you mentioned that you were only allowed to read Dell Comics as a child and had little exposure to superheroes. Did this increase your interest in the genre or did you find the “safer” funny animal comics fulfilling?

Craig Yoe: Oh, good question, Stefan! I definitely loved the Dell comics! Carl Barks’ Donald Duck stories with their rollickin’ adventures. Mom didn’t realize that the domestic war between Donald and his nephews probably sowed the seed of my later adolescent rebellion. And the engrossing stories of Little Lulu by John Stanley pulled me in and maybe had a nihilistic undercurrent to them that has plagued me to today. Lulu WAS a terrific feminist role model. Reading her in the fifties may have also radicalized me a bit, wanting to see a more egalitarian society, too.

Meeting Barks and becoming very close to Stanley years later was a lifetime thrill!

I didn’t feel little Craig was missing anything without having superhero comics in his life. But, sure, when I did rarely think about superheroes, when I’d see the DC comics at my friend’s house or something, they were intriguing. The forbidden fruit thing has always been strong for me. But, it was really a moot point. As a child, Mom successfully kept the superheroes completely away from me so I didn’t know anything about them.

But, I didn’t really feel unfulfilled, not with the other superlative comics I was immersed in. And those Barks and Stanley time-bombs created in me a life-long love for the comics medium and helped shape me into the unfit for proper society wonderfully fulfilled person I am today.

You went on to mention that you did later become an early Marvel fan. Were the Marvel titles the first superhero characters that you were exposed to?

In junior high school a few friends like Dave Scroggy, now with Dark Horse (we do the Syrocco comics character states with him) and a couple other school chums, started obsessively collecting Marvel comics. They turned me on to these Stan Lee-helmed mighty masterpieces. This was from the beginning of the modern-age Marvel superheroes. We all built up complete or near-complete collections of all the first titles: Spider-Man, Hulk, Thor, X-Men, Daredevil, Fantastic Four, etc.–everything! Not actually easy because there were no comic shops or the internet and you had to put miles on your bike tires every week going around to numerous drugstores, cigar stores, dusty used bookstores and sleazy downtown newsstands around Akron to keep up on them all.

Spider-Man was the cornerstone of our love for the Marvels, for sure. I was and am crazy about Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s Spidey and their Dr. Strange, too.

The forbidden thing came in again, too. Not only was mom scornful of superhero comics when I was a little kid but now of all comics being acceptable fare for a teenager who was supposed to be growing up. And then socially you didn’t dare let your classmates know that you read comics. They would have thought you were a “baby” and the jocks would have pounded your ass in the school parking lot to give concrete expression to their feelings about you. The bullies and especially the girls would think you were some kind of social anathema to be punished, or worse yet, ignored.

I liked that I had a secret identity as a 15 year-old comic book reader and collector though I lived in mortal fear of being found out.

I eventually moved on from superheroes I never thought they were the whole thing in comics and did think they we’re only for the young going through hormonal changes. But I’ve come back around and, after all, I may be getting to be a old fart but I can be immature forever.

Craig, what do you think is so appealing to readers, and specifically children, about the superhero iconography?

That would be the secret identity thing. In real life… an outcast, a weakling, bumbling around girls, but actually, secretly, a hero with muscles on his muscles adored by the public, especially women.

My gay friends may have had a different experience. For them there might be the added appeal of the homosexual aspect of these spandex-clad do-gooders with their capes and boots. And even for me, an eventual straight, as a adolescent figuring out my sexual identity, there was probably some soul-searching, grappling, wonderment in the caped crusaders. Some of the super weird heroes undoubtedly had a LGBTQ appeal with their scanty costumes.

Now days many of the super hero costumes look like bad-ass head-to-toe armor.

Off-putting!

Back in the Golden Age many super-duper-doers looked like they were going half-naked to a masked artist-and-model ball.

Approachable! Give me the latter! Fun!

Your new book, Super Weird Heroes: Outrageous But Real!, profiles 32 characters. How did you choose the characters that you included and was there any criteria that you used that deemed the heroes as eligible?

My eyes had to zooooom out and my jaw had to drop to the floor like Tex Avery’s wolf when I saw the hero and read their story. There’s a WTF and LOL aspect of each and every one of these super weird heroes. The heroes had to have a ludicrous, yet thoroughly enjoyable aspect about them that would make you be astonished. And make you want to share about the super weird hero with your friends.

There’s a sense of creativity and imagination in many of these stories and characters that still resonates. They are exciting and engaging. What do you find appealing about these characters and do you think there’s an energy to them that’s missing in modern comics?

I might be the wrong guy to ask, Stefan. From what little I’ve observed flipping through modern comics a couple of times, I don’t really have a clue what is going on in them. They may have an energy, I wouldn’t know. I do know this… In the 1940s and on into the 50s, funny books were a throw-away medium. Golden Age creators didn’t take comics seriously. Crackling fun art and stories that were a gas happened as a result. It was the beginning of the medium and there were no rules, no norms—anything went! And you’ll see all that in Super Weird Heroes!

Because the main audience in comics’ first big decade was kids or young soldiers on the run, the stories were simple and direct. The art and the coloring weren’t overwrought but were strong, engaging and clear (well, the coloring was often off register, but I think that gave the comics a verve and sense of motion and a prop-punk aesthetic, too.) There wasn’t moral ambivalence in these superheroes of those times. It was good vs. evil. Not that I subscribe to the abhorrent Ayn Rand philosophy that Ditko embraces. But as a kid and now the unabashed good guys vs. bad guys approach appeals to me.

When I was with Nickelodeon, we had a show, Kids’ Court. Like a Judge Judy for kids. At the end of each case—a sister borrowing a shirt and getting chocolate stains on it—stuff like that, the kid jury would shout a verdict, either, “FAIR!” or “UNFAIR!” I saw how my first set of kids loved this and shouted along. Kids like a sense of black or white justice. They find comfort in it. And I long for more justice in the world, too.

The characters and their peers in the Golden Age, especially these weird ones, had zilch logic in regards to their powers and their M.O. And their outfits were equally ridiculous. The mind-fuck absurdity in the super weird heroes stories terribly appeals to me. Especially the super weird heroes’ way-out costumes. From what I’ve seen when I see a shot from modern superhero movies they are now trying to make the costumes look subdued, sophisticated, cool. Phooey on that! Give me the explosion-at-the-paint-factory-colored, dare-to-bare costumes of the super weird heroes!

Super Weird Heroes seems to embrace the silliness of the whole superhero concept and in many ways makes these characters incredibly endearing. What do you think makes the characters profiled in Super Weird Heroes so appealing?

They’re the runts of the super hero litter. Who can resist loving that cute little puppy pushed out by the others?! The Justice League or The Avengers probably wouldn’t even grant these wannabes an Associate Member status. We all, and especially geeks, feel a little marginalized at times, awkward, maybe even rejected. The super weird heroes celebrate their weirdness and plunge on to victory over the miscreants! I have a silly costume and a dubious power? Yeah, but look how I mow down legions of Nazis! The super weird heroes’ bravado is an inspiration to do your own thing and not worry about what others think. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead! We all can all become superheroes, even if it is the weird variety. Or maybe ESPECIALLY if it’s the weird variety—in my book and in THIS book, that’s actually better!

We’ve been friends for a while and I know that the modern superhero genre in general holds no interest for you. You’ve shared a number of pictures of your young children Griffin and Gracie dressed up in masks and capes. As a father, what do you think attracts kids to superheroes?

Ah, another good question. I wanted Griffin when he came along to experience the joy of all old classic comics. I knew at his age the superheroes could be the gateway. So I read to him nearly every night from a stack of the wacky DC comics of the 60s with their silly Bizarro stories, surreal Jimmy Olsen tales where he becomes a human porcupine or turtle, etc. He and I can both enjoy this fare at bedtime.

And little Gracie likes these superhero comics, too. That excites me because I want her to be a smart, strong, kick-ass woman in addition to her good looks that she has when she grows up. And superheroes can help foster all that, give her role-models. She’s well on her way! She had a ball being a pink Spider-Girl this Halloween—perfect!

We read Donald Duck and Little Lulu, too, but I do like the kids reading superheroes with me. We have a grand time!

Of course I read to Clizia Gussoni’s and my children the adult and kid-friendly books we’ve done. We revel in the twister-sock Popeye collections, the scrumptious Walt Kelly’s Fairy Tales, and the dizzying Klassic Krazy Kool Kids Komics, too. These comics are all stupendous because adults and kids together have a blast and a half with them.

Craig with Clizia Gussoni, their children Gracie and Griffin and a Luke Skywalker cosplayer.

But Griffin doesn’t on his own pick up any of our books that are lying around. Alas, he’s more drawn to video games when he comes home from school to relax before hitting the god-awful stack of homework the schools give to a mere 1st grader each night. Video games are ok, Griff enjoys them and feels a sense of accomplishment from them.

But when the Super Weird Heroes books came in I saw him putting the games aside and eyeing the candy-colored cover and then paging through the collection. He was obviously quite intrigued. I was so happy! There IS an undeniable, powerful draw with superheroes. But the wackier the better in our household!

Do you have a favorite Super Weird Hero?

Phantasmo, Master of The World and The Brazilian Wax

Oh, gosh, Stefan, don’t make me choose! The Hand. He’s a giant hand! The Cobra and the Cobra Kid bashing baddies with giant snakes! Rainbow Boy with his LGBT-friendly costume. Spider-Widow, the beautiful “Grandmother of Terror!” Captain Hadacol whose superhero mission is to get kids liquored up!

What about Kismet, Man of Fate, the first Muslim superhero created by two Jews and maybe a black artist?

Speaking of religion there’s the cringe-worthy Deacon, a guy that dresses up in a priest’s outfit, and Mickey, his young boy sidekick whom he lives with in an old abandoned church.

Talking about inappropriate, how about Phantasmo who floats around bare-assed with nothing more than a little red ribbon around his loins?

You can’t go wrong with Fantomah, Fletcher Hanks’ pre-Wonder Woman superheroine. We present a story of hers carefully reproduced from the uber-rare, never-before-seen, original art in my collection. I laugh at Yellowjacket who uses bees to fight the underworld thugs and Nightshade who uses his shadow! —what th’!?!

I love ALL 32 of these oddball runts of the superhero litter!

What do you have coming up next, Craig?

Well, we’re working on a sequel to Super Weird Heroes: Outrageous But Real! That will be Super Weird Heroes: Preposterous But True!

Yes, Stefan, there’s even more out there and this next batch is even more…well…out there! I suppose because they ARE superheroes, which the public is crazy for, and because these books are so darn fun and entertaining, they are going to be our most popular best selling books by far. People that have got advance copies of the first one are wildly loving it. And the process of assembling the two collections HAS caused ME to fall in love with superheroes again. At least the vintage weird ones!

We are bashing on with our very popular collections of Pre-Code horror comics. The next one is Jay Disbrow’s Monster Invasion. Jay’s out-there style in his 1950s horror comics is like the bat-crazy Fletcher Hanks or Basil Wolverton outsider comic art. Jay is one of the small handful of Golden Age artists still with us and I was privileged to sit down with him and interview him for this book.

The Weird Love collections of kookie romance comics of the 1950s and ‘60s are our favorite project to work on.

Steve Banes has combined our vintage Pre-Code horror comics and romance comics collections, Haunted Horror and Weird Love, into the unholy spawn of the two titles: Haunted Love.

The Haunted Love hardback from Yoe Books/IDW will be out for that horror-love holiday, Valentines Day!

Popeye, the ORIGINAL super weird hero, gloriously sails on every month. Bud Sagendorf was an adventure and humor genius with his own surrealism and it’s wonderful that people are discovering his delightful comics.

Mike Howlett is coming up with some more ideas for us to follow his way-cool recent Snake Tales collection of retro horror comics.

And then we’re totally stoked about our first OGN, original graphic novel, coming up: the brilliant, award-winning illustrator Dave Calver has created a full-color graphic novel, Limbo Lounge, that matches our publishing sensibilities with his surreal, unusual, quite different approach! It’s gonna kill! People are going to love it! Dave’s book will be the strong launch of our YoeGN line with Top Shelf and IDW.

We’re talking to other cool-ass writers and artists now about other titles for this new Yoe Books-style Graphic Novel initiative. It’s uber-exciting!

What are you currently geeking out over?

Stefan, putting together books of cool comics with Clizia and raising our adorable kids takes all my time except when I’m Little Craig Yoe in Slumberland. I have no energy for anything else.

I’m into reproduction: making kids and books about comics is my whole life from dawn to dusk 24/7/365. I know this is super weird, but I love it!

Super Weird Heroes: Outrageous but Real! is available now!

For more details visit yoebooks.com

Arrival is one of those Hollywood films that catches critics by surprise for a number of reasons.  It’s smarter than the average “alien invasion” film, but even smarter than the average output of “science fiction” from major studios.

I was impressed by Arrival’s trailer’s ability to pull off an impressive task.  It fills its two and a half minutes with enough intrigue, plot points and eye-candy.  But, strangely enough, it primarily pulls from the film’s first half-hour.

I can’t recall the last time a trailer felt to give away the entire film’s plot in an attempt to hook an audience, only to discover that there’s so much more in that entire film.

These days, we need more movies, especially studio movies, like Arrival, because we certainly don’t ever expect them.  These are the actual movies that The Player lampooned (and foreshadowed) we need now more than ever!

Everything old is new again.  And again.  And again.

Today’s box office is a barrage of sequels, remakes and reboots.  Franchises offer sure bet returns for studios, while even the slightest risk of “original” material contains an ounce of familiarity.  That’s a given that I podcast about (blatant plug for Forces of Geek Presents OH NO THEY DIDN’T, available free on iTunes and Google Play).

Arrival’s key character Lousie (aided by very controlled performance from Amy Adams) experiences increasing flashbacks, memories, and visions related to her work in communicating with the aliens.

But so much of what we’re seeing as an audience, especially in that first half hour, is too a flashback of the past science fiction we’ve celebrated.  The “canary in a coal mine” caged bird brought on-board the ship, and the subsequent removal of protective uniform, comes from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  The alien ships positioned over multiple parts of the world is familiar from V.  The aliens themselves appear from a menacing mist on tall multi-pod legs like, well, The Mist.  And so on, and so on.

Familiarity breeds contempt with wiser movie audiences, and tries (sometimes too hard) to satisfy the average movie-goer.  While the first half of Arrival delivers on the promise of its trailer, it morphs into a film of great depth and mind-bending originality.  That’s pretty risky.

I’m not saying the majority of audiences will feel the rug’s been removed from their Earth vs. The Flying Saucers expectations, but it’s likely.

Cinemascore movie polling has audience sentiment for Arrival at a B.  That’s below the average for the Transformers franchise, or even the recent (and god-awful) Inferno.  It’s equal to moviegoers sentiment of Independence Day: Resurgence.   

Though moderately budgeted compared to Independence Day: Resurgence, Arrival will not have the equal overseas box-office, not did it have an equivalent domestic opening.  Though its $24 million take this past weekend was impressive, the movie’s smart science-fiction is likely to, um, alienate audiences that gave the bigger Cinemascore to Almost Christmas, Trolls, Dr. Strange and so on.

But, at the end of it all, Paramount Pictures was wise to put this film into their holiday/awards slate.  Though it was a risky adaptation of an original short story, the studio has embraced the critical reaction to the movie and I wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t end up snagging multiple award nominations in the coming months.

But money talks, and Paramount already claimed a $500 Million loss for this and next year’s slate that includes the big bomb Ben Hur, lackluster returns on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, Zoolander 2 and Star Trek Beyond, and the cringeworthy how-did-this-get-made future dud Monster Trucks.

Ironically, two of this year’s best genre films, in my opinion, are Paramount films – Arrival and 10 Cloverfield Lane.  The later being the studio’s biggest box-office performer so far.  The Cinemascore rating on it, however, a B-.

So what does it all this mean for the future of smart science-fiction from big studios?  Probably nothing.  Films like this emerge from Hollywood rarely, but even rarer do they make the same money (all-in with worldwide gross) than their dumber box-office brethren.

We can always expect indie films to deliver more on smart-sci fi, and there have been outstanding examples in recent years—Under the Skin, Primer, Ex Machina.  And we can always expect them to have a lower Cinemascore than a Transformers sequel.

Occasionally there’s a big budget genre thrill that takes audiences money and acclaim—The Martian and Gravity.  But neither of these films carried the intelligence, or certainly the reliance on non-linear storytelling, that Arrival loads.

For the studios that want to have both brains and box-office, those expecting more from an audience’s embrace are best to be patient.  Arrival is a step in the right direction, opening, and lingering, on the minds of moviegoers past its viewing.

The language of cinema can be messy, and sometimes seen as a weapon against their expectations or a tool to expand them.  This is certainly a film that could get average Cinemascore moviegoers to understand the difference.

It’s all about the action this week!

Cave Carson is on a rescue mission with Wild Dog, while Green Arrow tries to get everyone off a killer train. The ring of Simon Baz is on a mission to kill the Justice League while Cyborg must save the life of the Variant by creating new life but at what cost?

Is it the right direction for the books?

The jury is out right now as some books work far better with a slower pace while others have needed an injection of adrenaline to keep the audience invested. It’s a tall order to really impress the reader to keep coming back.

This is my look into the DC Universe this week!

CAVE CARSON HAS A CYBERNETIC EYE #2

Headaches
Writers: Gerard Way & Jon Rivera
Artist: Michael Avon Oeming
Cover: Michael Avon Oeming
Variant: Matt Taylor

We flashback to the old days and a mission underground that led to Cave Carson encountering a tiny drone that attacks him replacing his eye with the cybernetic one.

After the attack at his home Cave visits EBX and inspects the Might Mole Mark II and discovers it has been secretly programmed to travel to Muldroog unfortunately his tampering with the vehicle doesn’t go unnoticed and he is escorted by security to Borsten’s office.

Cave demands to know why after twenty years without contact, a Muldroogan visited him and his last words were ‘EBX’.

Borsten then reveals that EBX has been in business with Muldroog secretly for years. Furthermore Muldroog is in danger, the King has gone into hiding abandoning his kingdom leaving his daughter in charge Princess Mazra has died.

Cave then reveals that Mazra was secretly his wife Eileen who had left Muldroog to be with him and raise their daughter Chloe. Only a Royal is allowed to unlock the secrets of the kingdom. Borsten smiles now that he knows Chloe is a princess he tells Carson that EBX has already initiated an extraction.

Cave activates an explosive and races to the Might Mole to rescue Chloe but he needs help first and enlists the help of Wild Dog.

EBX breaks into Choe’s dorm and tries to kidnap her but she manages to escape and jump into her car with her would be kidnappers in pursuit. Chloe calls her father and triangulating her position the Might Mole appears as if out of nowhere with Wild Dog firing a flurry of bullets to help Chloe escape.

The EBX employees swallow a glowing green pill and they all begin to merge into a giant fungus beast that begins to pursue them along the highway!

To Be Continued…

ART: 5/5
Is the Young Animal line for youngsters?

I don’t care because it is visually all about sitting back and getting immersed in the fun. Michael Avon Oeming has given the character a new lease of life just in the artwork alone.

COVER: 3/5
I am not a massive fan of the covers, I personally prefer a literal cover than the abstract. That isn’t to say it doesn’t look good as a piece of art, just that I would have liked to see a scene from the interior bursting onto the front cover.

ISSUE RATING: 5/5
The first issue was so good, how to follow?

It’s like a sequel but thankfully we were given the equivalent of The Empire Strikes Back as opposed to Grease 2.

I was really puzzled by the imprint Young Animal, that was until Wild Dog yelled “What’s up, shitheads?” before obliterating a car and its passengers in a violent barrage.

I love this book, I really do.

BACK UP FEATURE:

SUPERPOWERS #2

Wonder Twins Part 2
Written and Illustrated by Tom Scioli

The Sea Devils, a group of undersea divers, explore some ruins and find a hieroglyphic message that reads ‘Anti-Life Forever’ dodging an attack from a giant three headed dog one of the divers finds  an entrance to the Rock Of Eternity but lighting a torch reveals the wizard who passes on a message that one of the deadliest sins has broken free. He has also nailed Freddy Freeman to the rock and not even the wizards magic can free him.

Elsewhere Gleek is unwell so the Wonder Twins decide to take him back to the jungle so he can be with his family. However when they arrive the others of his species spurn him and Gleek tells them that they are his family now…

STORY: 3/5
Now six pages in I’m more confused than ever.

The narrative no longer makes sense.

With three pages you do want more but only so you can make some sense of what’s going on. What was that panel about Mr Miracle about? Why the attack on Gotham last issue?

ART: 3/5
At style was endearing last issue more for the nostalgia but coupled with the format in storytelling, it now only adds to the confusions.

CYBORG #5

The Imitation of Life – Part 5: Regeneration
Writer: Steve Orlando
Artist: Brian Ching
Cover: Brian Ching & Michael Atiyeh
Variant: Bengal

In Baghdad, a Muslim female  is racing through the city streets. She requests a rescue and is told a helicopter is on its way but just as she’s trying to board it exploded burning her alive.

In the hideout Silas Stone relives the death of his wife in a nightmare. Screaming himself awake, Silas is greeted by a strange half tank, half man who is assisting his jailer.

Elsewhere, Blue, the jazz singer has asked Cyborg to assist him while he passes through a particularly busy neighbourhood.

The journey is an enlightening one for Vic who finds that a blind man sees more then he does in the people.

A young boy crosses their path and to many he looks guilty, racing through the neighbourhood even Cyborg scans him for data but he’s surprised with Blue lets him continue. A police car stops them and instead of treating them with respect and asking for their assistance the police refer to Vic and Blue as jamokes. They’ve been chasing the boy and when Blue tells them they haven’t been approached by the boy the police turn hostile until Vic removes his hood that is.

They arrive as the Ross Veterans Disability Center where Vic discovers he is the guest of honour and that Blue had known he was Cyborg all along.

As Vic mingles with the guests he is taken aback when they tell him he is an inspiration for disabled people.

Meanwhile back in the hideout, Silas is forced by his captor to watch what his doppelganger is doing to ruin his reputation via hacked CCTV.

In S.T.A.R. Agent Burch has approach Dr Morrow, Silas and Sarah requesting that the fallen agent, named Scarlett Taylor be resurrected with the technology that Silas used on Victor as she hold vital information about a terrorist attack on the US.

Burch tells them he has a Mother Box for them to use but it is damaged. Silas shocks the team by agreeing to help much to the despair of he real counterpart. His captor tells Silas that access to the Mother Box and learning more about how Victor survived the Cyborg process is exactly what his master needs.

Vic arrives in the lab and is shocks and apprehensive to what his ‘father’ is asking him to do but after some persuasive sweet talking Vic agrees. Despite the Mother Box warning Victor that it doesn’t have the full coding to proceed, Silas forces it to with some programming of Vic original data.

The process works but instead of the Mother Box simply healing the agent it is completely replicating Vic creating a female Cyborg!

To Be Continued…

ART: 3/5
I’ve made no secret that I dislike switching artists mid arc but an unforgivable sin is switching mid story. The change is so abrasive and as part of the arc yet another change I feel pulled out of the story. Neither of the artists work is at fault, had either done the issue as a whole I might feel differently, of course I’m not privy to why it happened and there may be good reason but without such knowledge I have to go with my gut that it’s not for me.

COVER: 5/5
This looks great, the parallels with the painting ‘The Creation Of Adam’ are brilliantly illustrated and Darkseid overlooking everything leads to a feeling of dread. What could be in store for Vic now?

VARIANT: 5/5
A really strange yet equally symbolic cover.

It’s a very captivating image and makes me want to find out more about Scarlett Taylor and her secrets.

ISSUE RATING: 4/5
This is a story of two halves, the first of which gives us a story of the heart and one that reveals he is a symbol of hope and bravery for disabled people.

It’s a really touching story and then as we hit a faster pace we see the second half of the book focus on action and the expansion of the mystery surrounding Silas and his captor.

Both halves are brilliantly written, enjoyable and revitalise the story somewhat.

The art aspect is what lets it down, I hope we hit a steady pace with the art as we continue through this arc.

GREEN ARROW #11

Murder Incorporated
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Juan Ferreyra
Cover: Juan Ferreyra
Variant: Neal Adams & Alex Sinclai

Oliver & Dinah make a run for it in hopes to catch the real assassin.

Unfortunately for them, the assassin, Eddie Fyers, kills the driver of the maglev and pulls the brakes.

Black Canary stays back to fight the authorities sending Ollie to catch Fyers who has climbed onto the trains roof. However when Oliver catches up to him, Fyers shows no mercy beating Green Arrow down then using the bow and arrow to launch an explosive device into the maglev tunnel.

Diggle catches up to Canary in the driver’s car and they attempt to reboot the system so the maglev will begin running again. The train hums back to life, but not before Fyers races past them in a stolen car then activating the explosive which causes serious cracks in the undersea tunnel.

The train’s last carriage is locked onto the tracks so Dinah races back with Ollie in tow to uncouple it. They manage to but are left behind by the train so Canary hunts inside the carriage and luckily discovers a motorcycle.

The tunnel collapses flooding with the sea while everyone in Seattle is at the station waiting for the maiden voyage of the train to complete and Amin Mustafa to help with the peace talks. Amongst the crowd is the Secretary of State and Mr Broderick, the new head of Queen industries.

First, Fyers zooms out of the tunnel and away in the sports car, then the train derails and crashes into the station, many injuries but luckily no fatalities; the Broderick is seemingly more concerned that the ‘War Machine’ is alive.

Madam Secretary swears to honour Amin’s memory with the peace talks despite the actions of his assassins. As if on cue Green Arrow and Dinah burst from the tunnel to greet everyone.

To Be Continued…

ART: 5/5
You know when you flick through a comic and whisper expletives when you read it? No? You’re reading the wrong book. Juan Ferryra creates twenty pages of the most amazing art. Green Arrow truly hasn’t looked better. The splash (pun intended) on page fifteen rivals the canary cry of last issue. Fantastic stuff.

COVER: 5/5
Last issue I didn’t rate it very highly and that was an injustice, thankfully this issue we get a cover more than worthy of the pages inside. It covers everthing that happens inside but with a slick montage, and South Park tells us everyone loves a montage… so yeah.

VARIANT COVER: 5/5
Nothing to do with the interior but this dark and brooding Green Arrow really gives you a feeling he means business and is good at what he does.

It’s a very dark palette, but it really adds to the atmosphere.

ISSUE RATING: 5/5
I can’t praise this title enough.

I never liked Green Arrow ; if I’m honest, he just never appealed to me as a kid, more fool me as its one of the greatest books spinning out of Rebirth.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #9

Outbreak – Part 2
Writer: Bryan Hitch
Artist: Neil Edwards
Cover: Fernando Pasarin, Matt Ryan & Brad Anderson
Variant: Yanick Paquette & Nathan Fairbairn

The Batcave has been obliterated, thanks to an explosion prompted by whatever was in the code, and Bruce goes to work immediately to discover its origins. He suggests to Alfred that they contact Cyborg; unfortunately ,Victor and the League have their own problems!

San Francisco has become a battleground whatever was in the code has infected Vic and is forcing his system to lock up while it has transmitted to Simon’s ring. The Oan tech is now disregarding Simon’s instructions instead creating elaborate constructs to fight the League.
Wonder Woman has to fight off mythical beasts, Aquaman must fight behemoths of the deep while Flash is being chased by lasers.

Diana takes on her foes in sword to hand combat, Arthur swims to the depths of the ocean and Flash races as fast as he can trying to shake of his relentless pursuers.

Back at Wayne Manor, Bruce has deciphered the root of the code and recognises it as the work of Robert Palmer, aka super hacker ‘Jesse James’ who blames the League for the death of his wife.

Unable to shake the virus, Vic opts for ripping cables out of a nearby lamppost and electrocuting himself, it works and Vic reboots. Diana makes a comment that these constructs only exist while the ring has a wearer and that she’d regret killing Simon Baz to stop them.

Flash hearing this on the comms formulates a plan and races back asking the League to join him in an attack to kill Simon. As they launch into a killing blow each, the emergency protocols of the ring activate knocking everyone back but in the process cleansing the ring as Flash had theorised.

Batman radios the team and they all arrive at Palmer’s house to confront the grieving husband and father.

To Be Continued…

ART: 4/5
Some stunning art here overpowered just a tad by all the digital effects. Considering the issue is essentially one long action sequence it relies heavily on the art, it looks like a lot of hard work was put into the visuals. The glowing effects detract from the skill which is a shame as Neil Edwards & Daniel Henriques didn’t hold back on the art chores.

COVER: 4/5
Threat level is through the roof, flashy, explosive, fraught with danger and exactly what you want from a Justice League cover. Looks superb.

ISSUE RATING: 4/5
Ever watched a Michael Bay movie? Thought to yourself, its one long action sequence chock full of cgi? Team books are notoriously difficult to create as each personality vies for a moment in the spotlight.

Happily this wasn’t the case here as Bryan Hitch was able to balance the action with drama and character moments. There is some smart dialogue and the inevitable triumph over adversity moment but before that we see the torment of the Palmer family and that the League’s actions caused a ripple effect that they now have to deal with.

Outbreak still needs some fleshing out so I’m looking forward to next issue and the creative team raising the bar even higher.

To battle unparalleled supernatural forces, Batman must combine efforts with a new team of heroes – led by occult specialist John Constantine – in the next DC Universe Original Movie, Justice League Dark. Produced by Warner Bros. Animation and DC Entertainment, the full-length animated film arrives from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on February 7, 2017.

Justice League: Dark will be available on Blu-ray Deluxe Giftset ($39.99 SRP), featuring an exclusive Constantine figurine; Blu-ray Combo Pack ($24.98 SRP); and DVD ($19.98 SRP). The film will be available to own on Digital HD ($19.99 HD, $14.99 SD) starting January 24, 2017.

When innocent civilians begin committing unthinkable crimes across Metropolis, Gotham City and beyond, Batman must call upon mystical counterparts to eradicate this demonic threat to the planet.

Enter Justice League Dark, reluctantly led by the Hellblazer himself, John Constantine. Like Batman, Constantine is a cunning, often cynical loner who is the best at his chosen profession – but quickly realizes the sinister forces plaguing the planet will require help from other supernatural alliances. Forming a new “league” with sorceress Zatanna, otherworldly Deadman, and Jason Blood and his powerful alter ego Etrigan the Demon, this team of Dark Arts specialists must unravel the mystery of Earth’s supernatural plague and contend with the rising, powerful villainous forces behind the siege – before it’s too late for all of mankind.

Actor Matt Ryan, who set the standard for the role of Constantine on the Warner Bros. live-action television series, returns to the role in animated form alongside Jason O’Mara (Terra Nova, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) as Batman, Camilla Luddington (Grey’s Anatomy) as Zatanna, Nicholas Turturro (NYPD Blue) as Deadman, Ray Chase (Final Fantasy XV videogame) as Jason Blood/Etrigan, Roger R. Cross (24, Arrow) as John Stewart/Swamp Thing, Jeremy Davies (Justified) as Ritchie Simpson, Rosario Dawson (Daredevil, Sin City) as Wonder Woman, Jerry O’Connell (Stand By Me, Crossing Jordan) as Superman, Enrico Colantoni (Flashpoint, Veronica Mars) as Felix Faust, and Alfred Molina (The Da Vinci Code, Spider-Man 2) as Destiny.

Justice League Dark is directed by Jay Oliva (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns).  Story by J.M. DeMatteis and Ernie Altbacker (Green Lantern: The Animated Series) and teleplay by Ernie Altbacker.  Sam Register is Executive Producer.  Benjamin Melniker & Michael Uslan (The Dark Knight trilogy) are co-executive producers.  James Tucker (Batman Bad Blood, Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders) is Supervising Producer.

“The chance to bring to life these amazing, complex characters–Constantine, Zatanna, Deadman and Swamp Thing – and the potential for their future adventures makes Justice League Dark a very exciting entry into the DC Universe Original Movies canon,” said Mary Ellen Thomas, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Vice President, Family & Animation Marketing. “We are especially excited and honored to have Matt Ryan reprise his TV role as Constantine in this animated film.”

Justice League Dark Enhanced Content

Blu-ray Deluxe Giftset and Blu-ray

• A Sneak Peek at Teen Titans: The Judas Contract: An advance look at the next DC Universe Original Movie, Teen Titans: The Judas Contract.
• The Story of Swamp Thing (Featurette): Born out of the imagination of Len Wein and artist Bernie Wrightson, Justice League Dark’s Swamp Thing had his own solo adventures throughout the history of DC. This documentary reveals the rich history of this fan favorite.
• Did You Know?: Constantine origin, Color of Magic, Black Orchid, and Deadman Casting (Featurette): The creators of Justice League Dark will reveal surprising behind-the-scenes tidbits about the characters – and the actors providing their voices – during production of the film.
• 2016 NY Comic Con Panel (Featurette): A look inside Justice League Dark’s panel at New York Comic Con.
• Sneak Peek at Justice League: Gods and Monsters
• Sneak Peek at Justice League: Doom
• From the DC Vault – Two Bonus Episodes – Batman: The Brave and the Bold, “Dawn of the Dead Man!”Batman: The Brave and the Bold, “Trials of the Demon!”

DVD

• A Sneak Peek at Teen Titans: The Judas Contract: An advance look at the next DC Universe Original Movie, Teen Titans: The Judas Contract.

As both a writer and artist, Matt Kindt is a force to be reckoned with.  Since breaking out fifteen years ago with his graphic novel, Pistolwhip, Kindt has written and illustrated stories across all genres.  In addition to writing such well known properties as Spider-Man and Suicide Squad, he’s also been one of the architects of the current Valiant Universe, writing Rai, Unity, Divinity, Ninjak, Book of Death and 4001 A.D..

His creator owned material includes Sweet Tooth (with Jeff Lemire), Revolver, MIND MGMT, Super Spy, and 3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man.  His newest series, Ether with artist David Rubin (Battling Boy), asks the question, “Can science solve murder by magic?”

Matt took some time to discuss the series, working with David Rubin and the book’s influences.

* * * * *

FOG!: Matt, what was the genesis of Ether?

Matt Kindt: I hate super natural and magical stories. That’s really where it started. Since I was a kid. I loved how Dr. Strange looked but I always felt like the magic was too convenient. Ultimately it ends up being a way to cheat the story or it’s so grounded that magic wielding ends up like using a gun or a sword in physical combat…so why bother with magic.

But that got me to thinking – if someone made me write a comic about magic, or with magical elements, what the heck would I do? How would I handle it? And that’s where Boone (the protagonist in Ether) came from. He was sort of my surrogate – my way into the story. A sort of Sherlock Holmes mind-set that gets thrown into a magical realm and has to cope with a place where nothing seems to make rational sense.

Then he gets called upon to solve a murder in the Ether – seeing as he’s scientific and rational. He is the best candidate to solve this crime. The problem is, what happens when the detective, who doesn’t believe in magic, is solving a murder perpetrated by a literal magic bullet? And that’s what made this the most fun I’ve had writing in a long time. That friction between the rational and the unexplainable.

David Rubin’s artwork is amazing.  How did he get involved in the project?

Ether was on my list of projects I wanted to do next…when I was writing it, there were so many fun things I was seeding into it because I was looking forward to drawing it.

But, as a creator, I have a problem. I’m like a starving kid in a candy store. I want ALL of the candy – but the reality is my stomach is only so big. And my time that I can dedicate to projects is limited as well. I can’t draw more than one monthly comic (Dept. H) which is going to keep me occupied for the next couple of years.

But I really was excited to get Ether going anyway. And David was available. I am a huge fan of his work. His book Hero is just amazing. He’s an artistic genius. And honestly, his availability convinced me to give up the idea of drawing Ether myself – since I knew what he was turning in would be better than anything I could do. The choice was easy.

Ether mixes magic with science.  But it’s also a mixture of science fiction with fantasy.  Were there any particular influences when developing the book?

I’m really pulling from all mythology from all times. The idea is that “Ether” – the magical realm where a lot of the series takes place, is a place created by humanity and our desire to create other worlds and after-lives. So every place and most of the characters are at the very least inspired by something that humanity has invented.

I’m pulling from all cultures and religions and time periods – we’ll see aboriginal gods, renaissance wizards, really angry faeries, La Ciudad Blanca, the legendary White City of Honduras, Cloud Cuckoo, Baltia (home of the immortals). The idea is to world-build a place where all of these things exist in burrows – nestled next to each other – and then have fun with the friction of those places and characters bumping into each other.

And on top of it, throw in a main character who doesn’t believe any of this is real.

The heart of Ether is a procedural, but reading the first two issues, I found the story to feel more like a journey than an investigation.  Part of that is simply because as a reader, we’re learning about a completely new environment.  When writing the story, how important is it for you to explore the world versus solving the mystery, or is the pace intentional for the audience to learn as Boon Dias does?

Mysteries are like genres to me. They’re the hook to get you in to the story. The thing that keeps you motivated to turn the pages and it has to be good. It’s what I need as a reader and it’s fun to write, but ultimately, this story isn’t as much about the mystery as it is about the journey of Boone and his sort of growth as a human being that thinks he has an answer for everything being placed into a world that doesn’t necessarily want to be answered or classified or labeled.

It’s what makes Sherlock Holmes such an enduring character. It wasn’t the fantastic nature of the mysteries he was solving that made the stories so great. It was the characters – the interplay between Watson and Holmes and his clients that makes the stories enduring.

You’ve written comics in virtually every genre for every major publisher.  Are there any particular collaborators that you haven’t worked with yet that you want to?

That’s honestly a pretty tricky question. I think as a creator, I have a lot of artists and writers that I’m a big fan of, but I don’t have a desire to work with them. I think that kind of happens organically. You meet someone and get to talking and hit it off. Most of my collaborations have happened that way.

The worst-case that I’m always afraid of is working with someone who’s work you love, and then there’s some kind of friction or creative difference and then it sort of colors how you feel about their work. It’s really hard for me to separate the creator from the work. So a little afraid to even meet some of my favorite creators that I’ve been reading for years. It’s a risky prospect I think.

Why should a reader check out Ether?

Well. I promise you’re going to see some crazy stuff that you have never seen in comics, books, or movies before. I mean…some really insane things.

A wizard giant, a 12-year-old-girl who happens to be a  magician/scientist and Boone’s worst nightmare. An army of oxidized copper robots, a city of insane, perverted immortals, and a mythical Manhattan at the center of the earth.

What are you currently geeking out over?

Loving (Jeff) Lemire’s Descender, just picked up Dave McKean’s Black Dog which I can’t wait to read as well as the new Twin Peaks book.  TV – Westworld and Bloodline (Netflix). Most of my reading is research which I also love. Just read Hero of the Empire (Winston Churchill) and D-Day Through German Eyes. And finished Seveneves by Neil Stephenson which was narratively a little crazy and (good) sci-fi. And music – hardly every go out to see live music anymore (too busy working) – but went to see Kishi Bashi and he put on an amazing show. Makes me want to start playing violin again – the things he can do with that…!

Ether #1 is available in stores and via digital today.

Welcome back to Graphic Breakdown!!

Let’s dive right in to look at some DC releases this week!

Aquaman #11  

Written by Dan Abnett
Illustrated by Phillipe Briones
Published by DC Comics

This issue wasn’t half bad.

Abnett is writing a decent enough tale. It’s nothing mind blowing but it is at least entertaining enough. The characters are being developed and quite nicely at least.

Aquaman’s mission to unite the sea and surface has taken a great leap forward. But N.E.M.O.—the secret terrorist organization—has other ideas.

Black Manta deploys the agents of N.E.M.O. to provoke hostilities between Atlantis and America. The Deluge—the prophesied, all–out global war—is about to begin.

Abnett again does a great job with the characters, particularly Mera. He writes her very well and may have one of the best takes on her.

The art is passable…as I’ve said many times, the art has changed hands so many times it makes it inconsistent from issue to issue. Still, not too bad.

This is a solid enough book coming out…sometimes better than others but all around decent. If you’re an Aquaman fan, pick it up for sure. Overall not too bad.

RATING: B-

Batman #11   

Written by Tom King
Illustrated by Mikel Janin
Published by DC Comics

The ominously title “I am Suicide” storyline continues on in this issue as Batman and a ragtag team (including Catwoman!) hunt down the Psycho Pirate and confront Bane.

And it’s a pretty nifty issue for a few reasons.

King has made a decision just how he is going to write Batman for this storyline: gruff, passive aggressive, and very monosyllabic. It’s not a bad thing,  just a take on the character. It’s effective in this issue as Batman continues on his quest.

I actually thought King’s take on Catwoman was much stronger and I loved that. He made her the character I remember: fun, devious, and deadly. It’s a very strong take.

The star of the book was supposed to be King.

It honestly has turned out to be be Janin. His art is gorgeous and only improves every issue. It makes the book soar.

This was a much stronger issue than last. Let’s hope to can keep it going, and keep it consistently good. This wasn’t bad at all.

RATING: A-

Doctor Fate #18 

Written by Paul Levitz
Illustrated by Brendan McCarthy
Published by DC Comics

Holy wow. Paul Levitz and Brendan McCarthy are so damn good working together. It’s a shame it’s only for this short a time. I was looking forward to this actually after reading the last issue…then sad when it was over because it was so damn good.

This issue is the series finale. They decide to go out on a high note rather than not. They end with the best issues of the series. It’ll inevitably be relaunched but for now this is great.

Doctor Fate is captive on the world of the Dreamspinners as their threads of doom reach out to threaten Earth. Can Khalid find the power within himself to survive in a mythology not his own?

The writing is crisp and the art is great. These are two old pros at the top of their game. Read it. Love it. Enjoy it.

It’s the stuff comic book dreams are made of.

RATING: A

Nightwing #9 

Written by Tim Seeley
Illustrated by Marcio Takara
Published by DC Comics

Some issues have been better than others in the Nightwing world. This issue isn’t as good as the others have been. It feels half-hearted at best on both writing and art.

And that’s a shame.

Nightwing seems to be fighting a villain named Kobta in this book.

And I have to be honest, I got so bored I started tuning out while reading it. I wanted to like it and I just couldn’t.

The writing feels rushed and the art is just  meh. I can’t recommend this book…and I hope the next issue helps this title.

Even guest spots by Batman and Superman couldn’t save this. Meh indeed.

RATING: C –

Superman #11   

Written by Peter J. Tomasi
Illustrated by Patrick Gleason
Published by DC Comics

This is another of the DC books I feel like I should be enjoying but I’m just not. I LOVED issues 8 and 9, but then it just went back to being just okay.

And that’s this issue: just okay.

Superman and Batman are up against the ropes, and it’s up to Superboy and Robin to save the day— but can they work together long enough to get the job done?

It’s cute enough but it doesn’t add up to much more than feeling like a fill in, both in story and art.

It’s not terrible, but you find yourself wishing for much more.

I certainly did.

RATING: C+

Raven # 3 

Written by Marv Wolfman
Illustrated by Alison Borges
Published by DC Comics

Thank God for Marv Wolfman.

He’s a classic comic book writer who continually writes solid books. Time in and time out, this guy just has it. He has done it again in this issue.

San Francisco goes on high alert when a strange, glowing orb begins to consume the city itself! Can Raven save her new friends and her new home from this mysterious and powerful force?

Wolfman has developed the characters in this book so well, you knew them after the first issue. Likewise, Borges is a find, and does wonderful work here making this series look fantastic.

This is a completely accessible book. It’s strong, smart and well done. Worth the price of admission for sure.

RATING: B+

Suicide Squad #6 

Written by Rob Williams
Illustrated by Jim Lee and Carlos D’Anda
Published by DC Comics

Every month I pick this title up. Every issue I hope it will be good. Every issue I am sorely disappointed.

And why?

It comes down to the story they are telling. And it’s a story that is really not at all compelling.

Another problem is that of Jim Lee. Lee, I feel, is hacking out the work.  Sure he only has to do 12 pages an issue…but they feel rushed. There’s nothing new going on in the artwork.

The first story is a bore, and the second one with a focus on Killer Croc is slightly better. The artwork is actually better on that one. As is the story.

Still, it doesn’t add up to much. And yet another issue has come and went…and it’s nothing new or too great.

Maybe next month.

RATING: C

And the rest…

Green Lanterns #11
Written by Sam Humphries
Illustrated by Robson Rocha
Published by DC Comics
A surprising and unnerving tale about Green Lantern Frank Laminski who is a new Green Lantern…and how he becomes power mad. This was actually pretty awesome.  More please.
RATING: A-

He-Man: Thundercats #2
Written by Rob David and Lloyd Goldfine
Illustrated by Freddie Williams III
Published by DC Comics
I shouldn’t enjoy this title, but I do. It’s terrible guilty pleasure fun. But I love it. It’s like eating too much candy all at once. Freddie Williams III should Illustrate all the toys from my childhood.
RATING: B+

Trinity #3
Written by Francis Manapul
Illustrated by Clay Mann
Published by DC Comics
I honestly couldn’t figure out what this book was about. I just wasn’t interested. It felt very forced. But the art is spectacular. So I’ll give it a higher grade!
RATING: B-
Lucifer # 12
Written by Holly Black
Illustrated by Lee Garnett
Published by DC Comics
Again, this is a book I have no idea what is going on. I came in too late. The story seems good and the art is pretty awesome. I need to go back and read this whole thing but for now if you read it, I think you’ll like it and if you don’t you may be lost.
RATING: B

Scooby-Doo: Where are You? #75 
Written by Sholly Fisch
Illustrated by Walter Carson
Published by DC Comics
Finally, a Scooby-Doo book you can enjoy from DC Comics!!! This was great! Nothing earth shattering but wonderful nonetheless.  Thank God.
RATING: B

Mark your calendars – your trip to Riverdale has been booked.

Everyone’s favorite teenagers, Archie, Betty and Veronica, Jughead and more, will take over Thursday nights starting January 26th at 9pm ET with the premiere of ‘Riverdale’ on The CW. The one-hour live-action drama based on the classic Archie Comics characters will be followed a week later in comic shops by a special one-shot comic book that ties into the show. The Wednesday, February 1 release will provide previously-unknown backstory for key members and storylines on the show.

“This is a historic moment for Archie Comics – and it’s been a long time coming,” said Archie Comics CEO and Publisher Jon Goldwater. “Partnering with Roberto, Greg Berlanti Warner Bros. and The CW has been a wonderful experience, and it’s been stunning to see the show bring our iconic characters to life, adding to the mythos and legend of Archie and his gang. You will be hooked from the first scene, I promise you.”

The show will be written by Archie Comics Chief Creative Officer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and produced by Warner Brothers Studios and Berlanti Productions and has been described as a subversive take on the classic Archie mythos. Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schecter, Jon Goldwater, and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa serve as executive producers.

The live-action series offers a bold, compelling take on Archie, Betty, Veronica, and their friends, exploring small-town life and the darkness and weirdness bubbling beneath Riverdale’s wholesome facade. The show will focus on the eternal love triangle of Archie Andrews, girl-next-door Betty Cooper, and rich socialite Veronica Lodge, and will include the entire cast of characters from the comic books—including Archie’s rival, Reggie Mantle, and his slacker best friend, Jughead Jones.

‘Riverdale’ stars KJ Apa as Archie Andrews, Lili Reinhart as Betty Cooper, Camila Mendes as Veronica Lodge, Ashleigh Murray as Josie McCoy, Luke Perry as Fred Andrews, Cole Sprouse as Jughead Jones, Madelaine Petsch as Cheryl Blossom, Ross Butler as Reggie Mantle, Casey Cott as Kevin Keller, Mädchen Amick as Alice Cooper, and Marisol Nichols as Hermione Lodge.

For more information about ‘Riverdale’, visit the official Archie Comics website and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

RIVERDALE #1 (ONE-SHOT) Cover by Alitha Martinez with Steve Downer On Sale 2/1/17

BBC Worldwide North America and Fathom Events announce their last theatrical event of 2016, the Doctor Who Christmas Special, “The Return of Doctor Mysterio,” in movie theaters nationwide for two nights only on Tuesday, December 27 and Thursday, December 29, 2016 at 7:00 p.m. local time both days.

The event will include the full 60-minute special plus two exclusive bonus features, A New Kind of Superhero, giving a special inside look at Doctor Who’s concept of a modern superhero, and a special Christmas Doctor Who Extra, showing the making of this year’s special, with appearances by stars Peter Capaldi and Matt Lucas, and showrunner and executive producer Steven Moffat.

Tickets for the 2016 Doctor Who Christmas Special can be purchased online beginning Friday, November 18, 2016 by visiting www.FathomEvents.com or participating theater box offices. The event is expected to show in nearly 400 movie theaters through Fathom’s Digital Broadcast Network. For a complete list of theater locations visit the Fathom Events website (theaters and participants are subject to change).

Join the Doctor, played by Peter Capaldi, as he teams up with an investigative journalist, played by Charity Wakefield (Wolf Hall, The Player), and a superhero to save New York from a deadly alien threat. Written by Steven Moffat, the special stars Justin Chatwin (Orphan Black, Shameless) as Grant, along with Matt Lucas (Alice in Wonderland, Bridesmaids), Adetomiwa Edun (Lucifer, Bates Motel), Aleksandar Jovanovic and Logan Hoffman.

“’The Return of Doctor Mysterio’ will be an excellent way for fans to celebrate the holidays in true Whovian style,” said Soumya Sriraman, EVP, Franchise and Digital Enterprises, BBC Worldwide North America.

“Doctor Who fans are one of our most dedicated audiences, and we expect they will show up in full force for this holiday special,” said Fathom Events Vice President of Programming Kymberli Frueh. “There’s no better way to enjoy this content than on the big screen and among fellow fans.”

The Doctor Who Christmas Special will air on BBC AMERICA on Christmas Day. It is executive produced by Brian Minchin, produced by Peter Bennett, and directed by Ed Bazalgette (Poldark). It was shot in Cardiff at BBC Wales Roath Lock Studios. Doctor Who is produced by BBC Studios Wales.

What did the television look like? You know, the one on which grandfather watched, It’s a Wonderful Life for the first time? While the movie is a timeless classic, the way we consume it is anything but.

Family time is not entirely dead. But it is on life support. Sitting around a table and eating a meal, then taking up places in the family room to watch TV is almost unheard of. Some kids have never experienced it. And others who have hardly see the point.

It is not that families are broken as older generations might assume. It is just that families are different. And there is nothing wrong with different. Families come in a lot more configurations than they did 50 years ago. Housing is different, the economics of family is different.

Each family member is more empowered than ever before. Families still consume content. But they don’t necessarily do it at the same time and on the same devices. Christmas movies are alive and well. This is how modern families watch them:

Timely Notifications

Remember the days when schedules dominated television viewing? You had to know exactly what station and time your program would be aired. If you are a chord-cutter and get OTA broadcasts, you may still be in the position of having to wrangle schedules. OTA DVRs are not yet common appliances.

But we have a number of devices that can help us keep up with all kinds of schedules apart from the computer in the office. A quick look at such sites as smartwatches.org will introduce you to a vast array of wrist wearables that among other things, can keep you notified of just about anything you want to know in the most natural and unobtrusive way possible.

Wrist wearables, also known as smartwatches, are one of the best ways to track all kinds of bite-sized information from weather to your next appointment. Apple does not make the only smartwatch you won’t be ashamed of wearing. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and from a variety of vendors at a variety of price points.

Regardless of how you watch the show, you never have to miss a moment when you have a smartwatch that can keep track of a lot more than time.

On Demand

Few people have the luxury of being in a certain place at a certain time to consume a particular piece of entertainment. The situation becomes impossible if your top 5 Christmas movies are on at the same time. Fortunately, this is mostly a solved problem for the modern geek.

All you need is some type of On Demand service. There are a number of them from which to choose. Among the most popular are:

• Netflix
• Hulu
• Amazon Prime Video
• PlayStation Vue

While not a streaming service, iTunes has one of the largest electronic repositories of TV shows and movies that you can watch at any time on almost any Apple product with a screen. DirecTV is close to putting out a streaming service that does not require a traditional cable subscription. DirecTV even has an Apple Watch app for added convenience. These days, a good On Demand service is a must.

On the Go

There is a good chance your kid will be in one of those lopsided sports matches where the losing team does so in epic fashion. Not saying that would be the best time to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas. But there are worse things you could be doing, like trying to pay attention to the game.

Three of the top 10 tablets have iPad in the name depending on who is keeping the tally. The mini might actually have the best mix of screen size and portability for content consumption. But there are plenty of less expensive Android tablets out there that can handle the job just fine.

Today’s jumbo-sized smartphone will likely be tablet enough for most mobile movie watchers. Wide color, insanely long battery life, and always-on LTE makes iPhone 7 Plus class devices an excellent choice.

The modern family still enjoys the classics. They just do so with the aid of a smartwatch, an On-Demand service, and a mobile tablet.

Produced by David Heyman, J. K. Rowling,
Steve Kloves, Lionel Wigram
Written by J. K. Rowling
Based on Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
by J. K. Rowling
Directed by David Yates
Starring Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston,
Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller,
Samantha Morton, Jon Voight, Carmen Ejogo,
Colin Farrell, Ron Perlman, Ronan Raftery

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them finds Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling penning her first feature screenplay, teaming with director David Yates, who helmed the final four films in the franchise.

The film also found me, sitting, anticipating, eager to experience a new world. This, I’m sure, will be the case with innumerable others in my generation—Millennials raised on Rowling’s words and the cinematic adaptations that followed.

Stemming from this history, the hardest thing about Fantastic Beasts (for this critic at least) was finding an inherent attachment to the characters on screen. There wasn’t any.

No, these characters had to earn it.

These weren’t personalities captured within the imaginative words and chapters and hundreds upon hundreds of hardcover-bound pages adding up to seven, adolescence-spanning novels. These were new faces, being brought to life through visual storytelling, rather than visual adaptation. This is a new story from the mind of Rowling, told in a wildly different way, and what comes to surface after 133 minutes of adventure, danger, fantasy and frolic is a simple fact … this woman knows how to spin a damn good yarn.

By the film’s finale, admirations were wholly earned in efforts that downright charm and enchant with each passing moment. Does the film earn the right to have four additional chapters follow in its footsteps? That fact is still to be determined, but if this opening undertaking is any indication, Rowling has plenty of tricks up her sleeve in capturing the wizarding world once more.

The film follows writer Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), who penned the titular textbook, read by students at Hogwarts in Rowling’s original stories. This is Scamander’s own adventure, set nearly 70 years before Harry Potter was even a twinkle in his father’s eye—1920s New York. It’s an interesting shift to see the wizarding world brought to both a different era and country, with the magical mechanisms of this time period resembling a kind of steampunk sorcery. People gab like they’re in a black-and-white talkie, while the costumes and production design capture the atmosphere of prohibition, politics and the Jazz Age. If anything, the film’s attention to detail is fairly impeccable in its polished presentation. If director David Yates is good at anything, it’s making Harry Potter films.

Oh, there are also beasts … lots and lots of beasts, arguably fantastic and running amuck about the city after an incident of switched suitcases and slapstick. The visual effects run eye-popping havoc in Fantastic Beasts due to its plot nature, multitude of creatures and endlessly imaginative flow.

One could reason that the special effects in this film alone are more impressive than anything in all eight of the Harry Potter films combined. That being said, I did find myself imagining from time to time what a film of this nature would look like in the hands of 1980s Jim Henson using puppetry and practical effects. But, hey, CGI done right can be gold, and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them proves to be a treasure trove of optical amusement.

But back to the characters. Along with Redmayne, we are introduced to sidekicks, love interests, villains and more played by an ensemble cast that includes Katherine Waterson, Dan Fogel, Colin Farrell, Ezra Miller and Samantha Morton, just to name a few.

By the final credits, these characters left me craving more. Where Rowling once left readers on a book’s last page, only to open up the first page of another, she has now replaced the pages with scenes, credits and closing production cards.

Sometimes the magic of unadulterated and inspired storytelling is all you really need, and Rowling’s control of this craft is something fierce.

Consider me spell struck.

Produced by Bruce Cohen,  Chad A. Verdi,
Emma Tillinger Koskoff,Noah Kraft,
Pamela Thur, Ben Younger
Story by Pippa Bianco, Angelo Pizzo, Ben Younger
Written and Directed by Ben Younger
Starring Miles Teller, Aaron Eckhart,
Katey Sagal, Ciarán Hinds, Ted Levine

It seems almost impossible to create a boxing story without including a comeback storyline. But to pull off a comeback story inside of a comeback story? Bleed For This attempts to give us a 2-for-1 deal, but the audience may be left wishing that one storyline was given top billing.

The film follows the true story of local Rhode Island boxer Vinny Pazienza who, after losing a major boxing match, jumped up weight classes and was able to claim a new title. Now this would have been enough fodder for a traditional sports film, but soon after winning Pazienza was in a near fatal car crash that left doctors and family not knowing whether he would walk again, let alone fight.

The tale of how he rebuilds himself without the support of his loved ones from a physically and personally beaten state to a form that will allow him to defend his title is where the best part of this Ben Younger (writer and director) movie lies.

The physical transformation of Miles Teller into a believable boxer is admirable. The form in the ring is somewhat clunky, but sparring scenes and training montages work. The most amazing change, however, goes to Aaron Eckhart as the pot-bellied balding trainer Kevin Rooney. He is nearly unrecognizable and gives a terrific performance as a gruff out-to-pasture foil to Teller’s earnest and cocky turn as Paz.

While Eckhart is completely believable in character, there is a nagging feeling that Teller never shakes of wearing rather than becoming the round-the-way guy that makes Pazienza’s story so likeable. He is a talented actor but the character of blue-collar working class cannot be thrown on like a pair of boxing shorts. However, the emotional turn in the center of the film works incredibly well with him at the helm.

Katey Segal is excellent as his worried Catholic mother, chain smoking and praying in a closet of porcelain iconography during the fights. The way she walks the line between fear of seeing her son get hurt but desperately needing to know what is happening onscreen would have been worth expanding.

Ciarán Hinds was appropriately allowed to grow from fierce and cocky manager-first to a remorseful father worried his son’s fate was the result of his endless pressure. Hinds’ Angelo Pazienza is a joy to watch. But even this does not do enough to explain to the audience how Paz got so incredibly single-minded about boxing. The movie could have used context from flashbacks or even a simple monologue about childhood to add some depth to the more predictable arcs.

While these types of films trend towards formulaic, the period of recovery in the center of the film takes an uncommon look at what happens when the body cannot be counted on. Here the movie shifts into its best, going from a traditional boxing story to a strong character study of determination.

Paz’s passion is the focus and boxing just happens to be the driving mechanism. Watching him languish but then find himself again is powerful. Sneaking down in the middle of the night to train in the basement after months of family dinners around a cramped Italian-American working class table where time seems to stand still is worth the full 120 minutes.

Younger only gives us about 45 of it, capping each end off with a Boxing Comeback 101 story. Seeing the capability and range of the actors in the middle somewhat cheapens the beginning and end, which would normally be perfectly serviceable fare.

Each movie could have stood on its own, a story about a comeback after a public and embarrassing fight in Vegas or the battle to regain control of one’s life after a horrific accident. But in trying to do both Younger gives us too much formula and not enough heart.

You’ll enjoy the show, but don’t expect to be knocked out.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5