Monthly Archive: February 2017

Joe Corallo and The Golden Guard

This week will see the launch of a Kickstarter campaign for a new comics project, The Golden Guard, by Vito Delsante, Charlie McElvy and Carlos Caballero. I got a chance to talk with Vito Delsante the other day.

JC: I think it is fair to say you’re a big comics fan, and particularly of legacy superheroes. What is it about them that makes you want tell their stories?

VD: I think it’s less about the legacy and more about how the most current person in the line handles the responsibility of the mantle. Like, if you’re the most current Phantom (Lee Falk’s character) and you’re 24, let’s say, your reality, your Africa/Bengalla, is totally different than your grandfather’s. So, there’s a real chance, as a storyteller, to push the idea of legacy further. That’s what Sean and I try to do with Stray; there’s a reason why he’s not Doberman III or the Rottweiler. He chose a different path.

JC: How do you apply that passion uniquely to your new creator-owned title, The Golden Guard?

VD: Well, instead of taking the idea of the legacy hero, the one who has been almost genetically predisposed to being the latest in the line of heroes, we bring a few of the characters to the present to see exactly what the impact of their individual legacies are. There are four characters in particular who are in the present and they find out they’re actually dead, or in the case of Kid Viper, MIA during the Vietnam era. So, if you’re able to come 30 or 40 years beyond your death, and you are able to, for lack of a better word, “shape” your own personal history, how do you do it? What will you truly be remembered for? That’s the aspect of legacy we’re playing with.

JC: Tells us a bit about your collaborators, Charlie McElvy and Carlos Caballero. How did you all decide to work on this together and what’s everyone’s responsibilities on the project? Is anyone else involved?

VD: Originally, this was going to be a story that Ray-Anthony Height and I wrote with Sean Izaakse doing layouts. My Prisoner Of None co-creator, David Bednarski, provided a lot of the initial designs that Carlos would eventually play with. I’m not sure if we ever got to a point where we knew who would do the finished art, but that was who I was working with when initially conceived. After a while, Ray couldn’t do it; he decided that his efforts were best put towards finishing Midnight Tiger, and I agreed. So, I turned to Charlie. Charlie and I “met” over a shared interest in Sean; Sean designed a lot of characters for his Watchguard comic/RPG. And truth be told, it was seeing Sean’s work with Charlie (on DeviantArt) that drew me to his art (and the rest is history).

So, there was a bit of professional envy, I think, on my part. I met Charlie at Baltimore Comic Con, bought a few of his books and somehow, somehow, I “fell in love” with the dude. Loved where his head was at, and loved what he was building. Charlie doesn’t realize what a big influence he has on me, and that’s probably going to make him laugh when he reads this. Fast forward, and Charlie and I are working on a Watchguard/Aegis (my superhero team from Stray) crossover that could still see the light of day someday, and I just convinced him to tackle Golden Guard with me.

Oh, I need to say this here…hat tip to Lan Pitts who gave me the name “the Golden Guard.” Because what happened next doesn’t happen without the team being named.
So, we’re being pretty blatant and we’re talking about the team and comic that doesn’t even exist on Facebook. Carlos had already been in my head as a potential artist to work with because I once carelessly said, again on Facebook, “I know who would write a TeenAegis spin-off (Caleb Monroe), but who would draw it?” Carlos was one of a few artists that chimed in with, “me!” and I looked at his work and said, “I have to keep him in mind.”

So, Charlie and I are “flaunting” Golden Guard, and at roughly the same time Carlos posts fan art of the Justice Society. I sent a private message to Charlie and said, “I didn’t realize we were holding auditions, but I think this dude won the part!” Turns out, Carlos and I have history. I met him at San Diego Comic Con in 2006 and shortly after, I emailed him saying, “Let’s start brainstorming an idea!” He never replied! Hahaha! But, everything happens for a reason. He says he wasn’t ready for that kind of work, and I surely wasn’t the writer I am today. And it all just…the three of us talk daily on Facebook Messenger. We’re extremely tight. Carlos and I shared a table at NYCC last year and it’s really the most perfect three-person combo since Nirvana. We complement each other really, really well.

JC: Legacy superheroes are at the heart of another creator-owned title of yours, Stray. What makes these two properties stand out from each other?

VD: Stray is about one man’s quest to find himself and find the hero inside of himself. I’ve said for a long time that it’s about identity and choosing the person you want to be. Stray is me at my most Joseph Campbell-ian. The Golden Guard is really pushing the idea of history and legacy forward, but we realized this week that it’s really bigger than that. We knew Americana would be the leader, and Cadmus, once Carlos designed him, just became our favorite character. And as we kept going further into it, and developing more characters, we started to see that our favorite characters, our story linchpins, were all the…best way to say this is, non-white male (but not quite; stay with me) characters. And this week, I realized that what we made was a team comprised of marginalized minorities. A woman, a black man, a gay man, a handicapped (mute) man, two teenagers…even the elderly. It wasn’t until this week that we realized just how special the book is and can be.

JC: You’ve gone the Kickstarter route for other projects of yours before The Golden Guard. Why do you feel Kickstarter is the best avenue for this project?

VD: Let me be perfectly honest with you… Kickstarter is not the perfect avenue. Having a publisher pay our page rates and publish the book and pay us a ridiculous amount of money in royalties would be the perfect situation. But, that’s not happening and it’s kind of by choice. I don’t think that every retailer would support this book. We’re talking about a team book that more or less points an accusing finger at the recently elected administration, and I distinctly remember in the past few weeks seeing the headline “Keep Your Politics Out of My Comic Store.” If retailers won’t support the book, then a publisher won’t publish it. And the three of us agreed that the thing we wanted to do the most was connect directly to our audience. And that’s why Kickstarter is… if it’s not the perfect avenue, it’s the next best one.

JC: As a father, I imagine comics accessible to a younger audience is important to you. What age range would you recommend The Golden Guard to?  Can you share your thoughts about the importance of younger comics readers, both to you and the industry as a whole?

VD: I think that pre-teens and tweens are a safe age range for TGG, but we’re not putting sex or drugs or anything like that in the book, so you could go as young as 7. There’s a big historical component to the book, and I think that will appeal to a lot of readers, of all ages.

I think superhero comics are easily maligned. People still make the case that it’s unhealthy (male?) power fantasy made accessible to children, but my daughter, who just turned four, is currently watching DC Superhero Girls. Do you know what lesson she gets out of it? Be a good friend. Be brave. Being smart is as important as being strong. Superhero comics, and movies, should be saying that.

This is what is so frustrating about things like Batman V Superman; you’re assuming that because the comic audience is predominantly male and roughly 24-50, that the best representation of these characters is a Frank Miller book from the 80s. And that’s not a slight against Frank or The Dark Knight Returns. I’m 43 and I remember a time when the mantra in comics was, “They’re not just for kids anymore,” and the result of that was chasing kids away. And the industry has spent 30 years trying to get them back. Thankfully, things like Squirrel Girl, Lumberjanes and the like exist. There’s still plenty of “grim and gritty,” but the industry has proven it can support both.

For me, my goal is to enforce the idea that “all-ages” doesn’t mean “kids.” Ideally, parents will sit and read my books with their kids, and I know a few who have. Stray, which is literally rated T for Teen, has drug usage and a hero who is flawed. I think that’s something a 9-year old should see… they should see that you can make mistakes but if you’re inherently a good person, if you are sorry for the mistakes you’ve made or the bad you’ve done, you can be a hero. My goodness, that is such an important lesson for… for everyone!

JC: The Golden Guard will be featuring a wide range of characters including Black Viper, an anti-hero. How big of a role will these side characters have and can you tell us about the importance of anti-heroes to you in comics?

VD: I have to be careful because I can say too much. The core team is made up of Americana, the aforementioned leader; Cadmus, her second in command; King Jaguar, the devil-may-care swashbuckler; Silent Shield, the former G-man turned crimefighter; Honorata, Charlemagne’s thirteenth knight; and Kid Viper, the first sidekick of the Golden Age. They meet up with their teammate in the modern world, Theo Concord, a.k.a. Captain Scarab, who is now in his 70s or 80s. Readers will meet the entire team at the beginning of Chapter One, but by Chapter Two, this will be the team.
JC: Sidekicks will also have a role in the TGG story, which is similar to the focal point in your prior work, Stray. What’s the importance of Sidekicks and their legacy to you, and what makes them important to The Golden Guard?

VD: They’re not incredibly important to the larger story in The Golden Guard, but I wanted to make sure that we had one represented (or three, when you see the finished book). And that’s probably because the concept of the sidekicks is important to me. As a kid, I wanted to be Robin, and I’ve always felt that Dick Grayson, as Robin, Nightwing or even Batman, is the character that I relate to the most. I’m currently wearing a “Grayson” t-shirt! Kid Viper is thought to be, in this universe at least, the proto-sidekick. And if that’s the case, you have to tell his story. Like I said, we’re taking marginalized minorities, and in this case, the idea of millennials (which he technically isn’t, but he will end up representing).

JC: As someone whose been published by many publishers over the years and has worked on both established properties and creator-owned work, what kind of advice would you give to writers trying to get their work out there and what do you want to see coming from the comics industry as new creators come in?

VD: I usually tell writers to just keep writing. Get all the bad pages out and just keep your head up. I think the days of trying to break into the Big Three or Four or whatever it is… well, that’s indicative of the fact that all things are kind of equal now… but I think those days are over. There are so many avenues available now that you don’t have to break in the same way as someone else. Save your money, find an artist to pair up with. Go.

JC: Before we wrap up, what else should we know about The Golden Guard?

VD: I think backers and casual observers might be surprised to find out that we’re one, putting out a magazine, two, putting it out annually, and three, also including a tabletop roleplaying game with the characters (including a pull-out map!). In the spirit of creating a relationship with our readers, we wanted to make something they could rely on. So, if we’re successful in March (and I have a lot of faith that we will be), every subsequent March (2018, 2019, etc), we will put out a new Golden Guard story which will also expand the RPG. Eventually, we’ll crowdfund a collection for both the comic and the RPG. And we’ll take the same amount of time to make it, and put it out by October. Every. Year. We’re just trying to stand apart from what we’ve seen, and make something we want to own.

JC: That sounds great! Thank you so much for chatting with me, Vito! Follow The Golden Guard on Facebook to get all the latest updates and don’t forget to check out the Kickstarter when it launches this Thursday, March 2nd.

Box Office Democracy: “Get Out”

I am going to spend a lot of time telling you how scary Get Out is, but I want to take a moment at the top of this review to tell you how fresh it is.  Jordan Peele is a first time director and he’s made a movie that isn’t like anything I’ve seen before.  He seems to understand his actors so well he gets performances that are frankly unbelievable.  I could spend an entire afternoon trying to describe the range of emotions in a 30 second sequence of this film and still feel inadequate, so I don’t know how you get someone to do it on camera.  Horror movies are about metaphor and tempo control, and both are handled here in ways I’ve never seen before— and while I’m not enough of a horror maven to guarantee it’s never been done before I sure see a lot of movies.  I generally do not care for horror movies, and I loved Get Out.

Get Out is a simple enough story: Chris, a black man, (Daniel Kaluuya) is nervous about his white girlfriend Rose (Allison Williams) taking him home to meet her parents when they don’t know he’s black.  He meets them and a slew of microaggressions from her father (Bradley Whitford), and some prodding about his smoking habit from her mother (Catherine Keener) make him uncomfortable.  All of the black people his sees in this town behave strangely, and it spirals out from there into a story I don’t want to spoil (but one of the trailers sure seems to have the whole thing) because if you can see it clean it’s really worth it.  It functions as a great parable about the dangers of more insidious forms of racism, or you could ignore all of that and simply appreciate it as one of the freshest horror movies we’ve seen in some time.  Hell, just by having the protagonist be an able-bodied young man it’s well outside the norm for a modern horror movie.

It’s hard to say exactly why Get Out is so scary, because it isn’t scary in typical movie fashion.  There are jump scares, but they’re used sparingly compared to what modern horror has prepared for us.  Neither is the horror some kind of monster or disgusting creature.  Get Out traffics in the horror of realizing you are in a very bad situation and that you perhaps should have left some time ago.  It’s a movie about growing unease and slowly inching yourself towards the edge of your chair.  We’re all probably familiar with Jordan Peele from his comedy work, and there are some good laughs here but I can’t help but suspect they’re helped along by the general unease and need for release it builds in the audience.  That said ,the backyard gathering scene is one of the funniest things we’ll see all year.  The character of Rod functions as kind of a Greek Chorus and also gets a lot of good material just sort of commenting on the absurdity of the whole situation.  Those are easier laughs but no less genuine.

I want to call Get Out the best horror movie I’ve seen in years, but I keep coming back to Crimson Peak and what a fantastic movie that was.  In a lot of ways they aren’t remotely the same thing.  Crimson Peak was made by a director who has been working for decades, cost $55 million dollars to make, and is anchored but these massive shots of haunting vistas and expensive looking sets.  Get Out is a first-time director spending $4.5 million for a movie that gets most of the terror out of small moments of unease.  The shot that will stay with me from Crimson Peak is Mia Wasikowska walking in to the door of that house for the first time to discover there are holes in the ceiling and a sinking floor; my most incredible moment in Get Out is when Chris tells Georgina that he gets scared when too many white people are around and we watch her go from terror to crying to laughing it off.  Both are haunting, both are incredible and both are sublime triumphs of slightly different kinds of craft.  This is a long way to say: who cares what the best horror movie is, as long as we get so many excellent ones.

I am, of course, not the best person to talk about the racial politics of this movie— my analysis is going to be facile compared to the myriad critics you could find who actually have to live with the prejudices this movie plays on.  I will say that this movie plays on some of the fears instilled in me as a child when my father warned me that as a Jewish man I should never go on a road trip through the American south.  That isn’t what this movie is about, but it certainly made me afraid of big expanses of nothing filled with a certain kind of polite white people in it.  That is nothing like being black in America and should not be read as trying to make this film about me, rather just trying to explain why it worked on me the way it did.  If you’ve read all the way this far please go find and read two reviews of this movie written by black critics.

REVIEW: Doctor Strange

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been very careful and deliberate as it introduces mass audiences to over 75 years of comic book continuity and conventions. Wisely, we had a handful of super-heroes before we had a team and after some hints about outer space, we had a specific look with Guardians of the Galaxy. Sooner or later, once “Stephen Strange” was name-checked in Captain America: Winter Solider, we knew a peek at the supernatural side was coming.

When Doctor Strange finally arrived last November, it was an amazing visual triumph that nicely walked us through some of how magic worked while offering up an origin story that showed a man’s hubris turned into something better. While the broad strokes make Strange and Tony Stark nearly identical, their journeys are vastly different with the former far slower to accept the consequences of his actions.

But the film, out now on disc from Disney Home Entertainment, is also the study of conflicting ideals as Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) comes to accept his new role and responsibilities while an ally, Karl Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor), sees things vastly differently and sets up a future conflict.

The film, from writers Jon Spaihts and Scott Derrickson & C. Robert Cargill and director Scott Derrickson, leavens the heavy supernatural with doses of humor, usually offered up by Wong (Benedict Wong). We also get to see how much Strange has changed and how accepting denizens of Marvel Earth have come to accept the fantastic through Strange’s colleague and former lover Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams).

While drawing much from the early Stan Lee-Steve Ditko issues of Strange Tales, there are pieces unique to the film, from Palmer to the silly sling rings needed to remain in another location. Disappointingly, the relationship between Strange and his teacher, the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton), is all-too-brief.

Strange’s search for healing is also one of redemption, counterpointed by Kaecilius’s (Mads Mikkelsen) fall from grace. He and his cypher disciples seek enlightenment and power from the Dark Dimension, exposing the connections the Ancient One has with its ruler, the Dread Dormammu (Cumberbatch). There are rich complexities in the story even if Kaecilius’ personality is two-dimension in comparison with so many of the other characters.

The visually sumptuous production fits in nicely with the rest of the MCU although it is let down by a rote Michael Giacchino score that doesn’t enhance the story nearly enough.

The post credits sequence with Thor (Chris Hemsworth) firmly connects this film to the greater MCU and apparently sets up his appearance in November’s Thor Ragnarok and next summer’s Avengers Infinity War. How supernatural, mythology, and super-science blend should be interesting.

The film has been released in a variety of formats but the Blu-ray has a fine high def 1080p transfer. Given how much goes on through visual effects, it’s good to be able to discern all the detail. The DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 lossless soundtrack is a fine companion and makes for a good viewing experience.

The amount of bonus features is pleasantly surprising starting with the commentary. There’s a multipart look at the making of the film that is a little more surface than depth but has good information and BTS footage including A Strange Transformation (9:42), Strange Company (12:37), The Fabric of Reality (12:32), Across Time and Space (13:21), and The Score-Cerer Supreme (9:51).

There is also a brief Marvel Studios Phase 3 Exclusive Look (7:28) that tries to put things into perspective with a distinct lack of specificity.

For those who liked the Team Thor short, we now get Team Thor: Part 2 (4:38), the best being Thor explaining Civil War to an elementary school class.

There are some interesting Deleted & Extended Scenes (7:52) and a nicely edited Gag Reel (4:12).

Mindy Newell: Maybe You Haven’t Been Keeping Up, But…”

Bill Maher may be claiming that he’s responsible for kicking Milo Yiannopoulos off of Breitbart and out of the CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) convention – or whatever the hell their annual party is called – but the truth is I did it. Yep, those words I “uttered” last week did it. Di pen shist erger fun a fayl, which is the Yiddish way of saying that the pen is mightier than the sword. Okay, for you purists out there, the actual translation is The pen stings worse than an arrow.

Well, Milo might be gone – and don’t let the door hit you on the ass your way out, luzer (Yiddish for “loser) – but the hate just keeps on coming. In a bar in Kansas, a piece of drek (Yiddish for “shit,” and I promise to stop with the Yiddish already) who had been asked to leave for using racial slurs came back with a gun, shouted, “Get the hell out of my country,” and then shot two men, both from India. One was killed, the other wounded.

Anti-Semitism is clearly on the uptick, with – you’re not going to believe this – 19,253 tweets against Jewish journalists since you-know-who started his campaign, over 70 bomb threats made over the phone to Jewish community centers in the two months since the election, and the desecration of Jewish cemeteries in Philadelphia and the St. Louis areas. Attacks against Muslims are spiking, too; in my own city a jerk named Jonathan Hussey was arrested by the police for writing “Fuck Muslims,” “Fuck Allah,” “Fuck Arabs” and “Donald Trump” on the recently opened Muslim Community Center. In Queens, New York a Moroccan Uber driver caught the driver of an SUV on film yelling “Trump is president, asshole, so you can kiss your fuckin’ visa goodbye, scumbag, we’ll deport you soon, don’t worry, you fuckin’ terrorist” at him. Mosques have been vandalized and set on fire.

Overall the Southern Poverty Law Center has been kept busy since President Trump – I still shiver whenever I put those two words together – was inaugurated, tracking 700 incidents like the above, not only against Jews and Muslims, but also against Latino, immigrants, African-Americans, and the LGBTQ community. He took office on January 22. Today is February 27. That’s one month and six days.

“Oh, dear Lord Jesus, this ain’t happening, man…This can’t be happening, man! This isn’t happening!”

Private Hudson uttered those words in Aliens; the man who played him, Bill Paxton, 61, died on Saturday (February 25) from, according to his family, “surgical complications.”

I loved Bill Paxton. I loved him in Aliens, I loved him in Titanic, in Twister, and Apollo 13, on Big Love on HBO and on the 2014 season of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., in which he played S.H.I.E.L.D. agent John Garret, a Hydra mole.

His other credits – over 80 of them – include Weird Science, Tombstone, Predator 2 and the History Channel’s “Hatfields & McCoys” mini-series, for which he won an Emmy for his Randolph McCoy. There was something so personable and real about Paxton’s acting – like every great character actor, he was able to project the “average Joe” as a doppelganger for us, the audience. C’mon, wouldn’t you have reacted like Private Hudson if you were trapped on a planet where the mission turned sour?

I’ll leave you with one more quote from Bill Paxton as Private Hudson in Aliens:

“Is he fuckin’ crazy?”

Yes, he is. At least you won’t have to suffer the indignities of the coming years.

Our headline atop this week’s column is a quote from Bill Paxton as Private Hudson in Aliens (1986).

Rest in peace, Mr. Paxton.

The staff of ComicMix offers our most heartfelt condolences to Mindy on the loss of her father, WWII fighter pilot Meyer Newell. Mindy often spoke of him here in this space, and our respect, admiration and gratitude knows no bounds.

 

Ed Catto’s Comic-Con Conversation with Graham Nolan

I can’t agree with fans that hate big crowds at big comic conventions. I tend to like big crowds. And I am always astonished by the way the San Diego Comic-Con takes over that town. I’m also in awe that the New York Comic Con is the biggest convention held in New York City’s Javits Center. The massive attendees at every big comic-con are both testaments to Geek Culture, and virtual victory laps for all fans everywhere.

To be honest, I also enjoy smaller comic conventions. There’s something special about being able to just wander up to a favorite creator and engage in a conversation with him or her. And at smaller shows, it’s empowering to be able to casually flip through a long box of comics to search for treasures, without elbowing your way through a crushing wall of other fans searching for their own treasures.

I’ll never forget a great experience I had at a smaller show years ago. A local comic con decided to expand with a second show. They decided to hold this spinoff convention in in the open area of a mall. Attendance was abysmal, but that worked out in my favor. Jim Shooter, the headlining professional, very patiently answered all my young fanboy questions for hours and hours. There was no one else waiting to speak to him, after all. I don’t think I talked for 24 hours straight, but I’m sure it seemed that way to Jim. And you know what? That was a kindness I’ve never forgotten.

So it’s no surprise that I’m very excited for Syracuse’s Salt City Comic-Con in June. I’ve recently moved from metro New York to the Finger Lakes, and we’re finding so many cool things going on up here. This convention looks to be a very substantial comic-con with a small show feel.
One of my favorite artists, Graham Nolan, will be a guest at this year’s show. Part of why I like his art so much is that he’s been involved with so many of my favorite stories. I fondly recall the introduction of Bane, the first villain to soundly defeat Batman. And the adventure of two immigrants from Thanagar assimilating to American culture in the Hawkworld series was fascinating and fresh.

But the other part of why I enjoy his work is that Nolan’s always been able to deliver solid artwork with a flair for the dramatic. It’s grounded, but it’s fantastic. Every Graham Nolan page is an example of fine draftsmanship, but also always infused with a thrilling level of action and adventure.

So, unable to wait until the convention in June, I wanted to have a one of those
substantial convention conversations with this fine artist. I reached out to Graham Nolan for this pre-con conversation:

Ed Catto: You were an early graduate of the Joe Kubert School. What are your fondest memories of that experience?

Graham Nolan: Actually, I never graduated from Kubert’s. I ran out of money for the third year. The two years I did attend were a great experience though. I learned a lot and was surrounded by people that shared the same passions as I did.

EC: We tend to revere Joe Kubert around here – what was it like learning from him?

GN: Joe was a force of nature. He had a presence that few have. When he spoke, you listened. He made everything he did seem so damn easy.

EC: You worked on Power Of The Atom, an Atom reboot, with CNY-er Roger Stern. Those were exciting times and it seemed to shine through in that series. What stands out in your memory about that series?

GN: It was a fun series that I wish I had been on from issue #1

EC: Our regular readers know how enamored I am with your Hawkworld series. Can you tell us a little about that series, what you were looking to achieve with it, and what your thoughts on it today are?

GN: That was a tough act to follow. I was passed the reigns from the popular mini-series by Tim Truman and Alcatena. I wanted to capture the feel of that series but add my own sense of storytelling dynamism to it.

EC: Follow-up question – Any thoughts on following in the footsteps of Joe Kubert on Hawkman?

GN: Not really. Hawkworld was so far afield from Joe’s work I felt like I was following Truman and not Kubert.

EC: You spent so much time working The Phantom – with fantastic results. Was that a labor of love for you?

GN: I always loved The Phantom. When Don Newton did the art for the Charlton books, I really flipped over the character. The Phantom was my Mom’s favorite character growing up. I regret that she passed before getting to see me take over the character.

EC: Comic strips like Rex Morgan, M.D. don’t seem to get the same fan appreciation at comic conventions. Do you find that frustrating?

GN: Comic strips don’t seem to get fan appreciation anywhere! The newspaper is a dying delivery device for comic-strips. They are so small these days that there are some strips I can’t even read!

EC: Monster Island was your own property. How different is it work on something like that as opposed to big company characters?

GN: Everything has to be created from scratch vs. it being established by others. But the creative freedom is wonderful.

EC: Let’s look ahead – can you tell us what you’re working on now?

GN: I’m currently doing my weekly humor strip, Sunshine State for GoComics.com and Chuck Dixon and I are back at DC working on a 12 issue Bane project called Bane: Conquest.

EC: Sounds like fun stuff, Graham, really looking forward to it all.

For more information on Graham Nolan, check out his site here, and for more information on Syracuse’s Salt City Comic-Con, check out their site here.

John Ostrander: The Face in the Mirror

The most recent issue of Entertainment Weekly featured an article about and interview with Emma Watson, playing Belle in the upcoming live-action Disney version of Beauty and the Beast. She may be best known for playing Hermione in the Harry Potter films. In addition to being very talented, Ms. Watson is also very smart and very articulate. As the article notes, she has also been a leader in feminist causes.

In the article, she’s asked why it is hard for some male fans to enjoy a female hero. (Witness the fanboy furor at the all-female remake of Ghostbusters and the female leads in the last two Star Wars films.) She replied: “It’s something they [some male fans] are not used to and they don’t like that. I think if you’ve been used to watching characters that look like, sound like, think like you and then you see someone [unexpected] up on the screen, you go ‘Well, that’s a girl; she doesn’t look like me. I want it to look like me so that I can project myself onto the character.’. . .for some reason there’s some kind of barrier there where [men] are like: ‘I don’t want to relate to a girl.’”

That sounds right to me. We’ve seen that attitude prevalent not only in movie fans but comic fans as well. There’s a wish fulfillment, a fantasy fulfillment, in comics and comics-related TV and movies, in fantasy as well and we want to be able to easily project ourselves into that. For some male fans, a woman doesn’t cut it. The bias also can extend to seeing someone of a different race as the hero. I think it’s certainly true about sexual identity as well. To appeal to a certain demographic, the hero, the lead, cannot be female, or black, or gay. And heaven forbid they should be all three; tiny minds might explode.

Why is that? A good story takes us out of ourselves, expands our notions of who we are and who we can be. Why the resistance to that with some of the white male audience? Why the insistence that the character be as they are?

It comes down to how we define ourselves. Just as an artist can use “negative space” to define objects, so we define ourselves often not only by who and what we are but by who and what we are not. It becomes very black-and-white thinking; that which is me or like me is right and that which is not me or not like me is wrong, is less, is inferior. This is becoming a crucial issue not only in the stories we tell but in what we laughingly call “real life.”

Are you Arab? Do you wear a turban? Are you black? Are you gay? Are you female? Then you are not like me, you are “Other.” And that is inherently dangerous. We cannot be equal. It comes down to “zero-sum thinking” which says that there is only so many rights, so much love, so much power to be had. If I have more of any of these than you, I must lose some for you to gain.

Some of the people feel they don’t have much. I remember a line from Giradoux’s one-act play The Apollo of Bellac: “I need so much and I have so little and I must protect myself.” Sharing is not gaining; sharing is losing what little you may have.

Except it’s not. If for you to keep your power intact, you must deny someone else the power to which they have a right, it’s not really your power. It’s theirs and it’s been stolen.

Pop culture has its part to play. Putting women, blacks, gays, Latinos, and others in the central role helps normalize the notion of equality. Mary Tyler Moore did it; Bill Cosby (gawd help me) did it, Rogue One does it. However, pop culture can – and has – also re-enforced negative stereotypes. So – how do we engage it for more positive results?

Denny O’Neil, many years ago, when he was editing a special project I was working on told me, “You can say anything you want but first you have to tell a story.” That’s your ticket in. “Tell me a story” appeals to the very roots of who we are as human beings. It’s how we explain and codify our world. If you want to open a closed mind, go through the heart. Don’t lecture; engage. Show, don’t tell. Showing women, blacks, LGBTQ, Latinos, Asians, and so on as heroes, as something positive, normalizes the notion. If I can be made to identify with them then The Other is no longer strange; they are me and, thus, not other.

So I’m looking forward to Belle in Beauty and the Beast. And after that?

Bring me my magic lasso.

Marc Alan Fishman: Retail Me Not!

Once again, I have been sought by my good friend and comic retailer Shawn Hilton (of Comics Cubed in Kokomo, IN, don’t-cha-know) to cover a comic cash calamity. Per his post to me:

Amazing Spider-Man #25 from Marvel was originally solicited for $3.99, but now has been changed to a $9.99 price tag.

In the past Marvel has had a few Deadpool comics weighing in at $9.99 for a normal numbered issue. Is this price gauging?

As a retailer who directly benefits from these sales I’m always excited about the potential to bring in more cash to the register, but as a fan I don’t think fondly of these more than double priced issues in the middle of a normal run.

A normal comic buyer may forgo a stand-alone one shot or an annual that has a hefty price tag, but for someone collecting Amazing Spider-Man passing on a normal issue like #25 means missing out on a major part of the story.

I’d also be interested in seeing if this issue has a higher digital theft rate. I don’t know if digital theft is a thing or not, but I bet several people look for a way to read it online instead of forking out $10.00 for a book.

Plenty to cover there, Shawn. Let me preface my opinion with a fact: I am not a comic retailer. I am merely a fan. A fan with a strong opinion muscle, a very short attention span, and a tight wallet. With that in mind, here’s my take:

Is the jump from a four-dollar book to a ten-dollar book price gauging? I don’t think so. If the team on the book is solid, the story benefits from the added pages (assuming the hefty price tag comes with additional content), and the issue itself is significant in the numerology (#25 would assume the book itself is now entering its third year in publication per this volume). If Marvel – or any publisher – doesn’t make it a habit of supersizing their issues without distinct cause, I personally don’t see it as price gouging.

But you better believe that if I were to be a normal subscriber, the week a book more than doubles in price means a week I choose to leave a few books in my box. As was often the case when I regularly subscribed to various series, some weeks would be heavier than others. What I oftentimes would do is simply profess to spend the same amount weekly on my books (say 12-15 bucks, if I recall when I was in the thick of it). If I was subscribing to several Marvel titles, the week they drop a double-sized issue on me is the week I’m dropping something else from my take home bag.

The larger question would be why Marvel, or any publisher for that matter, would make the jump in size. My guess is they only do these supersized treatments on high selling pulp. It makes little sense to deliver a ten-dollar experience on Great Lakes Avengers unless it’s consistently being scooped up in the top twenty monthly titles. Again, this is merely my opinion. As a fan I’m always willing to give the benefit of doubt to the creators. Assuming editorial assigns their creative team a mega-issue, they do so knowing that the writers and artists behind the book can fill the pages with meaningful and worthwhile content.

Should the bigger issue not add to the current storyline ­­– and be peppered with clear filler like interviews, essays, pin-ups, and the like ­– then you’d better believe I’d be an unhappy camper. The Mephisto is in the details, so they say.

What of digital theft? Well, only now do I personally own an iPad that sees regular use. With that in mind, you bet your sweet bippy I’ve downloaded ComicBlitz as well as ComiXology to eventually load up on comics during my lengthy day-job jaunts around the country. Because of the ubiquity of these apps, combined with my being an adult with disposable income, digital theft seems somehow below my purview.

But if I were to put myself back in the more Bohemian mindset of CollegeMarc, the idea that content could be procured sans-capital most certainly would be tempting. I hardly believe if I were otherwise subscribing to a paper title, I would specifically lift a single issue due to a heftier price tag. Simply put, if the book is enjoyable, as a fan, I’m in for a penny and therefore in for the pound.

Ultimately it’s quality of product that determines the bristling of my brow. If a comic book makes me dig deeper into my pocketbook, but delivers a satisfactory punch of prose? Then, drain my bank account. As my long-standing rule over comics continues to apply: when the book goes south, seek refuse in a better book. Should a book more than double its price but not deliver a worthy experience? Consider that strikes one and two in this subscriber’s book.

I, as always, open the floor to discussion. Who amongst my readers has a dissenting opinion? Voice it here, loud and proud.

Bob Ingersoll: Captain Marvel Fails At Being Civil

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The Law Is A Ass Installment # 401

Despite Marvel’s claims about Captain Marvel being a human-Kree hybrid, she must really be an X-Man… because she certainly x-acerbated the whole Ulysses Cain problem.

Civil War II is a series about said the Inhuman Ulysses Cain and the problems he caused for the Marvel Universe. Ulysses, you see, was a seer; able to predict the future. He used mathematics to, “determine, to within a fraction of a percent, the probability that certain events are going to take place.” Kind of like Isaac Asimov’s psychohistory, only more refined. In Dr. Asimov’s Foundation series, Hari Seldon used psychohistory – a discipline that combined history, sociology, and statistical analysis – to make general projections about the future acts of very large groups of people. Ulysses’s brand of mathe-magic let him make specific projections about the future acts of specific people.

And why am I dragging the good Doctor into this? Foreshadowing. Psychohistory contains “psycho.” In comic books, has anything good ever come from something with psycho in its name? Or Civil War in the name, for that matter.

Iron Man overreacted to what Ulysses could do. Ulysses predicted that Thanos was going to invade. Captain Marvel heeded that prediction and sent a superhero team to Thanos’s predicted landing point, so heroes would already in place when Thanos put boots on the ground. Iron Man’s best friend, War Machine, died fighting Thanos. And the Shinola hit the fan. Iron Man kidnapped Ulysses and tortured him to find out how his powers worked. That’s how Iron Man overreacted.*

*(See last week’s column, Boisterous Bob.)

But let’s not spend all our time criticizing Iron Man. It’s not like Captain Marvel didn’t pull out the cooling rods on her own overreacter.

Captain Marvel saw Ulysses as having more potential than stopping random alien invaders. Ulysses could predict when people were about to commit crimes. Captain Marvel realized that if she acted on those predictions, she could “stop tragedies before they happen.”

So Captain Marvel went up to the people who were about to commit crimes and said to them, “Hey, I know you’re about to [insert whatever Ulysses predicted the person would do here]. Don’t do it. Because if it happens, I’m coming right back and arresting you.” Right?Unfortunately, no. That’s only a little onerous. Not nearly bad enough. Think bigger.

Captain Marvel assigned some superhero or government agent to follow the predictive baddie around very noticeably, until the time window for the prediction was over, to make sure the bad guy didn’t do whatever it was Ulysses predicted would happen? That might be a little sword of Damoclesian, but still not nearly authoritarian enough. Think even bigger.

What Captain Marvel did was…

Assembled the Cadets, a “predictive justice” task force composed of volunteers with “unique skill sets.” Then in Ms. Marvel Vol 4 # 8, put the Cadets under the supervision of Ms. Marvel. And not any of the first three Ms. Marvels, you know the adult versions. No Captain Marvel put the current Ms. Marvel in charge. The one who’s still in high school. What’s the matter, Captain Marvel, no supervisors in their terrible twos available?

And why did Captain Marvel think her Cadets needed a teenage mutant ninja babysitter? Well, as Captain Marvel put it, “Until we understand exactly how Ulysses’ powers work, [the Cadets] need to stay within the law.”

In Ms. Marvel Vol 4 # 9, we learned exactly how Captain Marvel and her Cadets stayed within the law. By physically rounding up all the people Ulysses predicted would commit crimes and imprisoning them in a makeshift jail in Jersey City until the time frame for their predicted future crimes had passed.

That’s staying within the law the way a kid with a coloring book stays within the lines.

Captain Marvel was an operative of a defense agency which was overseen by a multi-national Board of Governors, so she was an operative of several governments, America included. For our purposes, how many governments doesn’t matter. Just as long as she was an operative of the American government. The government which is, itself, governed by the United States Constitution.

That Constitution says that when a government locks people up for something they haven’t done yet, it denies those people of their liberty without due process of law. The pre-crime detainees haven’t committed a crime yet so, obviously, they haven’t had a trial, let alone been convicted of anything. Nevertheless, they’re being imprisoned. It’s like that old Dostoevsky novel in reverse, Punishment and Crime. Or worse, punishment without crime.

By imprisoning people without due process of law, Captain Marvel was acting unlawfully. People who unlawfully restrain people aren’t the luckiest people. They’re criminals. After all, New Jersey may have been willing to look the other way over Snooki, but it actually has a law against false imprisonment.

So, good job of staying within the law, Captain Marvel. When you were a kid, did you keep secrets by saying, “Daddy, we didn’t go get ice cream today?”

Look, I know this sort of thing happened in the past. During World War II, thousands of Japanese Americans were interned without trial for fear of what they might do. But that was decades ago. Has anything like that has happened more recently? Guess I’ll have to Gitmo .

However, just because something that was wrong happened once before, or twice before – or probably more times than any of us really want to know about before – doesn’t mean it’s right for that same wrong to happen now. Two wrongs don’t make a right. Two 45̊ angles do.

And, yes, I know Captain Marvel had good intentions. Doesn’t matter. Because it wasn’t just Dostoevsky that got flopped. Captain Marvel’s road to good intentions was paved with hell.

Martha Thomases: Pedophilia Means What?

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Once again, we seem to be having the problem of defining what we mean when we use the terms “free speech,” “censorship” and “political correctness.” The problem is embodied by alt-right critic, Milo Yiannopoulos. My pal, Mindy Newell, alluded to it here. Since she wrote that, there have been some new wrinkles to the story.

Mr. Yiannopoulos is the latest in a long line of bitchy queens. This homophobic stereotype is one of my favorites, and has been since before I knew what homosexuality was. Paul Lynde was my first exposure. Later, I would enjoy the (now terribly dated) film The Boys in the Band, feeling really daring and bold to attend such a movie in 1970 Youngstown Ohio. By the time I actually met out-of-the-closet queer people, I was predisposed to think them all brilliant… which, I think, is a form of homophobia, but more well-intentioned than most.

Milo takes the bitchy queen stereotype to its logical, self-loathing conclusion. He makes incredibly gross racist and misogynistic statements, and then, like Ann Coulter before him, insists he is only kidding. His attacks on Leslie Jones incited his fans to barrage her with racist insults and even death threats on Twitter, and he insisted he couldn’t be racist because he has a black boyfriend.

At least since Howard Stern (and certainly well before him), straight white men have insulted people who are not straight white men and then screamed about censorship when some of us didn’t like it. They claim to be the inheritors of Lenny Bruce and George Carlin, although unlike those heroes, they tend to make fun of the powerless and not the powerful. If you find Stern and his ilk funny, I’m happy for you. We need more laughter. I just don’t think it takes courage to piss on poor people.

Yiannopoulos is the queer variation of this type. With Breitbart News, he found a home that indulged him in his bigotry. He used his platform to build a fan-base. And he used his fan-base to build an outrage machine.

This reached its peak when a group of college students rioted outside a hall where Yiannopoulos was scheduled to speak. For public safety reasons, the college canceled the event. A martyr was born.

There are very few people in this world as insufferable as a newly radicalized college student. I know — I’ve been one. I set an impossibly high standard for political purity, and angrily castigated anything that didn’t measure up. I would not compromise with anyone no matter what the reason, because any compromise would be a betrayal of my pristine ideals. And if you didn’t share my ideals in exactly the same level of intensity and with the same priorities, you were part of the problem.

I don’t think I’m such a purist anymore, although some might still find me to be insufferable. I don’t regret it. Being passionate about my issues not only gave me a sense of purpose, but also a way to understand, in time, people who felt strongly about different things. I wouldn’t be the person I am today if I had not been that person in college.

If the 1975 version of Milo had been invited to speak on my campus, I would have demonstrated against him.

However, I wouldn’t have rioted. I’m non-violent. In general, I’m against the destruction of property. There are times when I think it can be worth it — pouring blood on draft files, for example. However, in this case, and so many others, rioting only succeeded in making Milo a martyr. Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi nailed it here when he said “A favored tactic is to direct his audiences toward some overemotional sap who has made the mistake of calling for him to be banned, at which point he triumphantly declares himself a champion of liberty, and his enemies censors and authoritarians.”

Our Tweeter-in-Chief backed up Milo, threatening to cut off federal funds to the university. Milo got a book deal from Simon & Schuster. Milo was everywhere on television. He was scheduled to speak the keynote address at CPAC, the conservative political action committee.

This didn’t happen in a vacuum. Roxane Gay pulled her book from S&S in protest. People debated about whether it was effective to boycott the publisher or if this might end up hurting authors more than a corporation.

Friday, as Mindy noted, Milo was on Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO. To his credit, Maher includes a lot of conservatives on his talk show. Unfortunately, when he does, he often lets them run the conversation, perhaps because he doesn’t want to seem to be rude to them. In the Overtime segment (presented online), Milo again took over, this time insisting that Leslie Jones is illiterate, that people who disagree with him are stupid, yada yada yada.

Luckily, comedian/writer/producer Larry Wilmore was there to show him how a real adult argues. Watch the clip. It’s brilliant.

I miss seeing Larry Wilmore on my television every day. Please, someone, bring him back.

Over the weekend, a conservative group found videotape of Milo talking about how great it was to have sex with 13-year old boys, especially for the boys. He stated “…there are certainly people who are capable of giving consent at a younger age. I certainly consider myself to be one of them… Pedophilia is not a sexual attraction to somebody 13 years old, who is sexually mature. Pedophilia is attraction to children who have not reached puberty. Pedophilia is attraction to people who don’t have functioning sex organs yet who have not gone through puberty.”

This was the last straw, or the smoking gun, for some of those who hired him. Simon & Schuster cancelled his book contract. CPAC cancelled his speaking gig.

Milo says his words were taken out of context. Milo says that he was making a joke. Milo says that he is being censored. But here’s the thing: No one is entitled to book contracts. No one is entitled to speaking gigs. If you write a book and it gets published, you are not entitled to talk-show appearances.

As Roxane Gay said, “This is yet another example of how we are afforded the freedom of speech but there is no freedom from the consequences of what we say.”

CW Seed’s Vixen gets Collected onto Disc in May

BURBANK, CA (February 23, 2017) – From executive producers Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim and Andrew Kreisberg, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment brings you the animated feature, VIXEN: The Movie, on Digital HD on May 8, 2017, and on Blu-ray (including Digital HD copy) and DVD on May 23, 2017. VIXEN: The Movie is priced to own at $19.98 SRP for the Blu-rayTM and $18.94 SRP for the DVD.

VIXEN: The Movie combines the first two seasons of the CW Seed digital series into a single uniform story and includes 15 minutes of all-new, never-before-seen content. The special features include a brand new featurette and two Vixen-focused episodes of Justice League Unlimited handpicked by super hero animation icon Bruce Timm.

Produced by Warner Bros.’ digital studio Blue Ribbon Content, VIXEN: The Movie features Megalyn Echikunwoke (CSI Miami, The 4400, Damien) as the voice of Vixen/Mari McCabe. She is joined by the voices of Stephen Amell (Green Arrow), Grant Gustin (The Flash), Emily Bett Rickards (Felicity Smoak), Carlos Valdes (Cisco Ramon), Katie Cassidy (Black Canary), Victor Garber (Martin Stein) & Franz Drahmeh (Jax) collectively as Firestorm, and Brandon Routh (The Atom), reprising their roles from Arrow, The Flash and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.

Originally from Africa, Mari McCabe grew up an orphan after her parents were killed by local greed, corruption and wanton violence. But Mari refuses to succumb to the terrors surrounding her. Inheriting her family’s Tantu Totem, Mari can access the powers of animals – anything from the strength of a gorilla to the speed of a cheetah. As Vixen, she fights valiantly to protect the world from threats like those that claimed her family.

“VIXEN: The Movie gives fans the action sequences and the characters that they all fell in love with in Arrow and The Flash,” said Rosemary Markson, WBHE Senior Vice President, Television Marketing. “We are very excited to release VIXEN: The Movie for fans of the hit series and DC collectors, featuring never-before-seen content available exclusively to owners of the Blu-ray, DVD or Digital HD.”

With Blu-ray’s unsurpassed picture and sound, VIXEN: The Movie Blu-ray release will include 1080p Full HD Video with DTS-HD Master Audio for English 5.1. The 1-disc Blu-ray will feature the Blu-ray disc and a Digital HD copy of the movie.

VIXEN: The Movie is produced by Blue Ribbon Content and is based on DC characters. Executive producers are Greg Berlanti (Arrow, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, The Flash, Supergirl), Marc Guggenheim (Arrow, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow) and Andrew Kreisberg (Arrow, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, The Flash, Supergirl). James Tucker (DC Universe Original Movies, Batman: The Brave and the Bold) is the producer; Tucker and Curt Geda (Beware the Batman, Batman Beyond) are the directors. It was written by Wendy Mericle (Arrow), Keto Shimizu (Arrow, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow), Brian Ford Sullivan (Arrow), Lauren Certo (The Flash), Nolan Dunbar (Arrow), Sarah Tarkoff (Arrow) and Marc Guggenheim, with Guggenheim and Shimizu serving as story editors. VIXEN Season 1 debuted on August 25, 2015 on The CW’s online streaming platform, CW Seed. Season 2 debuted on October 13, 2016.

BLU-RAY & DVD FEATURES

  • Vixen: Spirit Animal featurette
  • Bruce Timm’s Top Picks:
    • Episode from Justice League Unlimited, “Hunter’s Moon”
    • Episode from Justice League Unlimited, “Grudge Match”

DIGITAL HD

Vixen: The Movie will be available to own on Digital HD. Digital HD allows consumers to instantly stream and download the film to watch anywhere and anytime on their favorite devices.  Digital HD is available from various digital retailers including Amazon Video, CinemaNow, iTunes, PlayStation, Vudu, Xbox and others. A Digital HD copy is also included with the purchase of specially marked Blu-ray discs for redemption and cloud storage through participating UltraViolet retail services including CinemaNow, Vudu and Flixster Video.

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