The force will be strong on devices across the nation today as Mark Hamill’s Pop Culture Quest comes to Comic–Con HQ. Mark Hamill has been collecting comic books, original artwork, toys and other mementos since the early 1970s and now he gets to share his passion and enthusiasm for collecting in his new web series.
“I’ve been a collector all my life,” said Hamill. “This show is a natural outgrowth of that passion. Now I have an opportunity to collect other people’s collections! I can’t wait to see what’s out there and share it with the world. Collectibles are a living history of who and what we are, so we just might learn something…but there’s no doubt we’re going to have fun!”
This series kicks off at the DC Comics headquarters with the legendary Jim Lee, as the co-publisher and Mark trade favors and end up with their very own pieces of pop culture history. Join Mark throughout the season as Mark Hamill’s Pop Culture Quest uncovers comic book memorabilia, film props, Godzilla, pinball machines and beyond with special guests including monster amasser Scott Zilllner, famous collector Bob Burns and many more!
Hamill will once again team with his friend and Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi producer Howard Kazanjian. Kazanjian was Executive Producer on Raiders of the Lost Ark and served as VP at Lucasfilm during the dramatic expansion of the company in the 1980s. Producer Darren Moorman, whose film Same Kind of Different as Me will be released next year, and longtime collector and vintage show promoter Scott Kinney will round out the producing team as Executive Producers on the series.
San Diego Comic-Con is only once a year, but Comic-Con HQ is year-round! The new subscription video – on – demand destination is available at Comic-ConHQ.com via web browsers, iOS/Android devices, Roku, AppleTV and Amazon Channels, with more to come.
To celebrate, the first episode is available to fans worldwide via DC Comics. In the pilot episode, “Joker’s Favor,” Mark Hamill heads to DC Comics Headquarters, home to one of the greatest collections of comic book memorabilia and one of the most celebrated artists in the world, Jim Lee. Join them as they share their stories of pop culture collecting and trade favors to end up with their very own pieces of pop culture history.
Mark Hamill’s Pop Culture Quest: Episode 1 – Joker’s Favor
With Mark Hamill as your guide, explore the most exclusive pop culture collections in the world! Join Mark on his weekly quest to track down the rumored rocket-firing Boba Fett, the original Time Machine, the last surviving armature model used to animate the original 1933 King Kong, the 1992 Batmobile, and so much more! Mark travels inside pop culture’s vaults to uncover why we are so fascinated with collecting and what our passions say about us
Tune in next week on Comic-Con HQ as Mark’s affinity for Godzilla and giant robots leads him to collector Scott Zillner, whose passion transcended his home – filled with thousands of monsters and robots – and led to the creation of Power Morphicon!
You won’t be returning to Westeros for new adventures until summer 2017 but our friends at HBO are offering up a copy of the forthcoming Game of Thrones: The Complete Sixth Season. In order to win the prize, you need to tell us which of the many lands or Houses you would most want to live in and why.
Entries must be posted no later than 11:59 p.m. November 20. The contest is open to United States and Canadian readers only. The decision of ComicMix‘s judges will be final.
Digital HD Download
Bran’s Journey – A nine-minute feature delving into the shocking and revelatory journey Bran Stark took in Season 6.
The Dothraki World – Behind-the-Scenes featurette bringing viewers up to speed on the Dothraki culture, not seen since Season 1.
Inside Game of Thrones: Prosthetics – Behind-the-Scenes featurette detailing what goes into the show’s prosthetics creation.
The Game Revealed – Five-part series covering the creation of Season 6’s most epic set pieces and scenes.
Blu-ray™ with Digital Copy – includes all DVD features plus:
In-Episode Guide – Dig deeper into the show with thisin-feature resource that provides background information about on-screen characters, locations, and relevant histories.
Histories and Lore – Learn about the mythology of Westeros and Essos as told from the varying perspectives of the characters themselves in 18 history pieces.
The Old Way: narrated by Euron Greyjoy (Pilou Asbæk)
The Kingsmoot: narrated by Euron Greyjoy (Pilou Asbæk)
The Sunset Sea: narrated by Euron Greyjoy (Pilou Asbæk)
War of the Ninepenny Kings: narrated by Brother Ray (Ian McShane)
The Great Tourney at Harrenhal: narrated by Meera Reed (Ellie Kendrick)
Robert’s Rebellion: narrated by Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau)
Vaes Dothrak: narrated by Jorah Mormont (Iain Glen)
The Dothraki: narrated by Jorah Mormont (Iain Glen)
Northern Allegiances to House Stark: narrated by Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner)
Children of the Forest vs. the First Men: narrated by the Three-Eyed Raven (Max von Sydow)
Brotherhood Without Banners: narrated by Thoros of Myr (Paul Kaye)
Oldtown: narrated by Grand Maester Pycelle (Julian Glover) and Qyburn (Anton Lesser)
House Dayne: narrated by Young Ned Stark (Robert Aramayo)
The Little Birds: narrated by Lord Varys (Conleth Hill)
Knights of the Vale: narrated by Petyr ‘Littlefinger’ Baelish (Aidan Gillen)
House Tarly: narrated by Randyll Tarly (James Faulkner)
Riverrun: narrated by Brynden ‘the Blackfish’ Tully (Clive Russell)
Great Sept of Baelor: narrated by the High Sparrow (Jonathan Pryce)
DVD:
The Battle of the Bastards: An In-Depth Look – Behind-the-scenes piece examining the production challenges of creating this epic event, including explorations of VFX, stunts, and interviews with key cast and crew.
Recreating the Dothraki World –Behind-the-scenes piece looking at the creation of Vaes Dothrak and its importance to Dany’s evolution.
18 Hours at the Paint Hall –Follow all three shooting units as they converge in this behind-the-scenes snapshot of a day in the life of the largest show on television
Audio Commentaries – The most commentaries ever recorded for Game of Thrones, featuring:
Episode 601: Director Jeremy Podeswa, Director of Photography Greg Middleton, and Daniel Portman (Podrick Payne)
Episode 602: Writer Dave Hill, Michael McElhatton (Roose Bolton), Iwan Rheon (Ramsay Bolton), Liam Cunningham (Davos Seaworth), and Ben Crompton (Dolorous Edd)
Episode 603: Director Daniel Sackheim, Production Designer Deborah Riley, and Dean-Charles Chapman (Tommen Baratheon)
Episode 604: Nathalie Emmanuel (Missandei), Iain Glen (Jorah Mormont), and Jacob Anderson (Grey Worm)
Episode 605 (2 commentaries): Gemma Whelan (Yara Greyjoy), Pilou Asbæk (Euron Greyjoy), Ellie Kendrick (Meera Reed), and Kristian Nairn (Hodor); Prosthetics Supervisor Barrie Gower, Camera Operators Chris Plevin and Ben Wilson, and Executive Producer Bernadette Caulfield
Episode 606: Director Jack Bender, Director of Photography Jonathan Freeman, John Bradley (Samwell Tarly), and Hannah Murray (Gilly)
Episode 607: Producer/Writer Bryan Cogman, Ian McShane (Septon Ray), and Natalie Dormer (Margaery Tyrell)
Episode 608:Director Mark Mylod, Essie Davis (Lady Crane), and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister)
Episode 609 (2 commentaries): Director Miguel Sapochnik, Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark), and Kit Harington (Jon Snow); Director of Photography Fabian Wagner, Visual Effects Producer Steve Kullback, and Visual Effects Supervisor Joe Bauer
Episode 610 (2 commentaries): Executive Producers/Writers David Benioff & D.B. Weiss, Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister), and Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister); Special Effects Supervisor Sam Conway, Camera Operator Sean Savage, and Producer Chris Newman
Deleted Scenes –Four deleted scenes.
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.
I used to play the guitar. I never had any really talent for it, and soon put it away. But there was one song that I did learn. I did a pretty good job with it, too.
This land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the New York Island,
From the Redwood Forest, to the Gulf stream waters,
This land was made for you and me.
As I went walking that ribbon of highway
And saw above me that endless skyway,
And saw below me the golden valley, I said:
This land was made for you and me.
I roamed and rambled and followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts,
And all around me, a voice was sounding:
This land was made for you and me.
Legendary folk artist and social commentator Woody Guthrie wrote This Land Is Your Land in 1940, reacting to Kate Smith’s recording of Irving Berlin’s God Bless America, which was played everywhere and constantly during during the Great Depression; he thought it purposely complacent about the terrible injustices being suffered by most of the American public which he had witnessed first-hand after leaving his native Oklahoma to travel the rails across America, eventually ending up in California, where the Dust Bowl refugees – “Okies” – who had migrated hoping to find a better life, and instead finding only more suffering and cruelty – see John Ford’s The Grapes of Wrath, or, even better, read the book by John Steinbeck – while the government did nothing
Why do I bring up this up? Because, when Guthrie recorded it in 1944 for Moe Asch at Folkways Records in New York City, Asch left out one particular lyric:
Was a high wall there that tried to stop me
A sign was painted said: Private Property,
But on the back side it didn’t say nothing –
This land was made for you and me.
Which, of course, made me think of our President-Elect.
And then, while doing a bit of research for this column, I found this from the New York Times, written on January 25 of this year by reporter Thomas Kaplan:
“More than a half-century ago, the folk singer Woody Guthrie signed a lease in an apartment complex in Brooklyn. He soon had bitter words for his landlord: Donald J. Trump’s father, Fred C. Trump.
“Mr. Guthrie, in writings uncovered by a scholar working on a book, invoked ‘Old Man Trump’ while suggesting that blacks were unwelcome as tenants in the Trump apartment complex, near Coney Island.
“‘He thought that Fred Trump was one who stirs up racial hate, and implicitly profits from it,’ the scholar, Will Kaufman, a professor of American literature and culture at the University of Central Lancashire in Britain, said in an interview…[who] about his findings … for The Conversation, a news website.
“In December 1950, Mr. Guthrie signed a lease at the Beach Haven apartment complex, Mr. Kaufman wrote in his piece. Soon, Mr. Guthrie was ‘lamenting the bigotry that pervaded his new, lily-white neighborhood,’ [Mr. Kaufman] wrote, with words like these:
‘I suppose / Old Man Trump knows / Just how much / Racial Hate / he stirred up / In the bloodpot of human hearts / When he drawed / That color line / Here at his / Eighteen hundred family project’
“Mr. Guthrie even reworked his song ‘I Ain’t Got No Home’ into a critique of Fred Trump, according to Mr. Kaufman:
‘Beach Haven ain’t my home! / I just can’t pay this rent! / My money’s down the drain! / And my soul is badly bent! / Beach Haven looks like heaven / Where no black ones come to roam! / No, no, no! Old Man Trump! / Old Beach Haven ain’t my home!’
“Mr. Guthrie died in 1967, and in the 1970s, the Justice Department sued the Trumps, accusing them of discriminating against blacks. (A settlement was eventually reached; at the time, Trump Management noted the agreement did not constitute an admission of guilt)…
“Mr. Kaufman, the author of ‘Woody Guthrie, American Radical,’ said Mr. Guthrie would be repulsed by the presidential candidacy of Donald Trump. He pointed to Mr. Trump’s comments about Mexicans and Muslims, and contrasted the candidate’s sentiments to those of Mr. Guthrie in his song ‘Deportee,’ written about a plane crash that killed Mexican farm workers…
“‘Woody was always championing those who didn’t have a voice, who didn’t have any money, who didn’t have any power,’ Mr. Kaufman said. ‘There’s no doubt that he would have had maximum contempt for Donald Trump, even without the issue of race.’”
So…
What now?
As someone posted on Facebook, maybe Superman can start fighting the Klu Klux Klan again.
Star Trek Beyond, Paramount Pictures’ third installment in the rebooted series, has received a poster from Mondo, executed by artist Matt Taylor to celebrate the Digital HD and Blu-ray release of the film, which came out this week.
This limited edition poster is not for sale so fans will have to look for contests or other opportunities to acquire a copy. ComicMix was provided with one, which will be auctioned off for charity at Farpoint in February 2017.
Star Trek Beyond, starring Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, was directed by Justin Lin and was critically acclaimed as a much needed course correction after the disastrous Star Trek Into Darkness. The $185 million production underperformed at the box office although a fourth film in the series has already been announced, with Chris Hemsworth returning as George Kirk, father to Pine’s James T, Kirk. No screenwriters, director, or other details have been released. With Anton Yelchin’s tragic death, it is expected to have Chekov not be recast but removed the Enterprise crew. At the earliest, fans should expect this film to be released in 2019, following the three to four year pattern since the 2009 Star Trek from director J.J. Abrams, was released.
Friday’s latest plot twist in this year’s Presidential campaign – the announcement that the FBI was reopening its investigation into Hillary’s e-mails based on some suspicious correspondence found on Anthony Weiner’s computer – had all of us spinning our heads like Linda Blair in The Exorcist…sans pea soup vomit, I hope.
Well, none of us knows yet the results of the election – now only eight days away, as the media would say in its annoyingly obsessive countdown – but one more immediate result was that it had me thinking about great fictional plot twists that none of us, or at least most of us, didn’t see coming, the ones that made go Whoa, Nellie!!!!
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
Darth Vader: “Obi-wan never told you what happened to your father.”
Luke: “He told me enough. He told me you killed him.
Darth Vader: “No. I am your father.”
Im-not-so-ho, the greatest plot twist ever. Search your hearts, you know it to be true.
Planet of the Apes
Taylor: “Oh, my God. I’m back. All the time, it was…we finally really did it.”
Taylor: “You maniacs! You blew it up! God damn you! God damn you all to hell!”
The original, not the remake. Oh, definitely not the remake.
And definitely the second-best twist ever. Imho, of course. YMMV.
The Sixth Sense
“I see dead people.”
The story of Cole Sear, a boy whose ability to see ghosts has sent him into a deep depression and an alienation from the world and from his desperate mother, and of Dr. Malcolm Crowe, the child psychologist who tries to help him, is a film whose plot twist totally sent the public’s head spinning – some people may have vomited pea soup from some of the gorier and emotionally upsetting scenes – in 1999.
The beauty of the film is M. Night Shyamalan’s writing and direction, for as an audience we became involved in the story unfolding before our eyes, which on the surface was a modern-day family drama with some, uh, creepier aspects, and totally missed the clues so beautifully woven into the storyline and superb cinematography of Tak Fujimoto – the color red, absent from movie’s pallet except when the “afterlife” is intersecting with our world; the drop in temperature whenever a ghost is around (Cole’s mother complains about the house being cold, we can see Cole’s breath in the red tent when the little girl visits him; Cole’s mother never interacts with her son’s psychologist; and Malcolm never interacts with his environment (touching or moving objects) except around Cole. Well, until the end of the movie, and that red doorknob.
The twist – that Malcom is dead – should also have been as plain as the noses on all our faces when Cole, in the hospital, tells Malcolm “…They only see what they want to see. They don’t know they’re dead.” But we were all so caught up in Cole’s personal trauma that we, collectively, only thought that Malcom was helping Cole by getting him to admit what was at the heart of his, uh, troubles.
The Others
Grace: “If you’re dead, then leave us in peace. Leave us in peace!”
Mrs. Mills: “And suppose we do leave you, ma’am, do you suppose that they will?”
Grace: “Who?”
Mrs. Mills: “The intruders.”
World War II has ended, and on the Isle of Jersey Grace Stewart and her two children are awaiting the return of her husband from the front. Her daughter Anne insists that she has seen “others” in the house, and when three servants appear on Grace’s doorstep in answer to her advertisement, other strange and creepy occurrences start to happen; curtains are taken down, the piano, dusty and out of tune, is heard being played in perfect resonance, Grace hears voices, and her son reports meeting a boy named Victor who told him that he (Victor) lives there with his family.
The twist: Stricken with grief upon the news of her husband’s death in the war, Grace went mad and smothered her children in their sleep, and then shot herself. Waking up the next morning to find her and the children still alive (the kids are pillow fighting) Grace believes that she has been given another chance by God to prove herself to be a good mother. But the real truth is that it is Grace, her children, and her servants who have been haunting the current occupants of the house – Victor and his family. It is they who took down the curtains, who played the piano, whose voices were heard by Grace. The family leaves the house, unable to exorcise Grace and her children, and as they drive off, we see Grace and the children watching them from a window as Grace promises the children that they will never leave their home.
Other great movies with great plot twists not seen coming include:
Chinatown:
“Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown.”
Evelyn Mulwray reveals to Jake Gittes that her sister is actually her daughter; she has had an incestuous relationship with her father, Noah Cross.
The Usual Suspects:
“Who is Keyser Soze? He is supposed to be Turkish. Some say his father was German. Nobody believed he was real. Nobody ever saw him or knew anybody that ever worked directly for him, but to hear Kobayashi tell it, anybody could have worked for Soze. You never knew. That was his power. The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist. And like that, poof. He’s gone.”
Keyser Soze is Verbal Kint.
Primal Fear
Martin Vail: “So there never… there never was a Roy?”
Roy: “Jesus Christ, Marty. If that’s what you think, I am disappointed in you, I don’t mind telling you. There never was an Aaron… counselor! Come on, Marty, I thought you had it figured, there at the end. The way you put me on the stand like that? That was fucking brilliant, Marty! And that whole thing like “act-like-a-man”? Jesus, I knew exactly what you wanted from me. It was like we were dancing, Marty!”
Aaron Stamper never existed, never had multiple personality disorder. It was always Roy.
Let me know what you think. Is Empire’s reveal better than Planet of the Apes? What have I left off the list? Did you guess the twists before they occurred, or did you just “say” you did around the water cooler?
When Finding Dory was released in movie theaters earlier this year, the stunning sequel to Finding Nemo was an instant smash. The aquatic adventure has since splashed past $1 billion at the global box office and is currently the fifth highest-grossing animated movie of all time. The film hit Digital HD channels this week.
The blockbuster swims home in time for the holidays when it is released on Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray, DVD and On-Demand later this month, when audiences can watch Dory’s hilarious and heartwarming quest to find her family. Fans will also be able to continue the underwater story with hours of immersive bonus features featuring the creative talent of Pixar and the all-star cast.
To celebrate the in-home launch, we dive deep into the kelp to find out more about the making of the film as we chat to Ty Burrell and Kaitlyn Olson, who provide the voices of Bailey and Destiny in Finding Dory…
Finding Dory is an amazing underwater adventure. How much do you love the ocean?
Ty Burrell: I am a big fan of the ocean. I didn’t grow up near the beach – but every summer, we would go to the beach and I would swim in the sea for a couple of weeks at a time. I grew very attached to the ocean. Being underwater is something I did for almost all of my growing up. I try to bring my kids to the water as much as possible, so that they grow up around it, too.
What about you, Kaitlin? Are you a fan of the sea?
Kaitlin Olson: Well, I’m not a big fan of boats. I am the person in the car who will always get car sick, so I do not care for being on a boat – but I like swimming in the ocean. And I love fish. I haven’t been to an aquarium for a long time, but we went to Fiji on our honeymoon and we spent a lot of time in the ocean there. We snorkeled and looked at the coral reef, which was really special. I’m not a big fan of cold water, but I’ll swim all day long in warm water. To me, that’s bliss.
What do you love the most about your quirky underwater characters in Finding Dory?
Kaitlin Olson: I love the fact that Destiny is sweet and lovable because she’s insecure about not being able to swim very well. I love her little brother/sister relationship with Bailey, too. For me, it was really nice to play a really sweet character.
How does your eyesight compare to Destiny’s?
Kaitlin Olson: My eyesight is perfect. Thank you for asking! Although I’m sure it’s headed downhill for me pretty soon…
What do you love the most about Bailey, Ty?
Ty Burrell: I don’t play a pessimist in my day job on Modern Family. Phil Dunphy is an indefatigable optimist, so it’s fun to play a character who is as neurotic as Bailey in Finding Dory. Bailey is a nice, well-intended whale who is very flawed and full of doubt. He’s probably much closer to me than Phil.
How much fun did you have in the recording booth for Finding Dory?
Kaitlin Olson: It was a lot of fun in the recording booth. Working with [Finding Dory director] Andrew Stanton was great. He’s a real actor’s director, so it was a wonderful experience.
What was the funniest thing to happen to you in the recording booth?
Ty Burrell: Bailey is a Beluga whale and when I researched the animal online, it looked like Belugas are heavily congested. Just look at their heads and you’ll see what I mean. I came into the recording booth with the idea that Bailey would have a really congested voice, like he had a bad cold. When I finished my first scene, there was a long stretch of silence. They were super, super nice about it – but they said, “Well, now let’s try a different voice. Why don’t we try your voice for the whole film?” That worked out much better.
What funny experiences in the recording booth can you share, Kaitlin?
Kaitlin Olson: For me, the craziest thing was when they decided that my character doesn’t swim very well, so they wanted me to sound like I was swimming off-balance. I think they assumed it would be hard to do, so they brought in this weird balancing board that I was supposed to try and stand on whilst saying my lines. It was so weird! I was like, “Let’s just get rid of this board and let me act it out instead.”
Did you try the balancing board?
Kaitlin Olson: I tried it for two hours, but I wasn’t really off balance. Apparently, my balance is impeccable because I was doing fine, so I had to pretend to be off-balance and that was even worse. We ended up getting rid of it quite quickly, although I had some amazing ab strength the next day. It was definitely great for that.
Have your thoughts on underwater life changed since working on Finding Dory?
Kaitlin Olson: Definitely. The movie’s made me think a lot about rescue and rehabilitation for ocean animals, as well as ocean conservation. We’ve got to make sure our planet is still here for our children, so that’s very important to me. I’m very focused on making sure that we keep our oceans clean and that we take care of everything down there. We need all of those species. They all serve a purpose.
Ty Burrell: I agree. I love the way that Pixar creates a whole universe that audiences haven’t really experienced before. We’ve never really spent that much time underwater, but we have now with Finding Dory. Today, I see the ocean a little differently. In a weird way, I see it more as a little community down there – but it’s a community that we have to make sure survives.
What excites you the most about the in-home release of Finding Dory?
Kaitlin Olson: I’m really excited about the in-home release because my four- and five-year-olds are addicted to Finding Dory. We’ll be watching it over and over and over and over again! Sometimes it’s hard to take your kids to the movie theater and not every age can sit and watch a whole film. In my house, the greatest thing about watching a movie is that my older kid can sit there for the whole film and the little one can get up and go to the playroom for a bit if he gets antsy – and then he can come back to watch the rest.
How much do you enjoy watching movies at home, Ty?
Ty Burrell: As a family, we love movies. In fact, we have a movie night every Friday at home. Finding Nemo was part of that, and now Finding Dory will be involved. My kids saw the movie at a screening and they loved it. That won’t be the last time they’ll want to see it!
Why does the world love Dory so much?
Kaitlin Olson: The world loves Dory because she is fallible. She’s a really sweet character who is funny because she’s masking an insecurity. I think a lot of people can relate to being a little imperfect, just like her.
Ty Burrell: For me, I don’t know if Ellen DeGeneres gets enough credit for her acting skills in the movie. Ellen is a really talented voice actor and Dory is lovable because Ellen makes her lovable. She’s great.
What would you like to ask Dory if you met her in the ocean?
Ty Burrell: Boy, that’s a good question! I’d ask her, ‘How do you stay so positive? How do you keep that much optimism in your life?’
Kaitlin Olson: Yes, how does she maintain that optimism? That’s a real skill. Dory doesn’t let anything get her down and that’s impressive. She, “Just keeps swimming.” I think we can all learn from Dory in that respect.
Pixar animators love to hide Easter eggs and secret movie references inside their films. Do you ever pause and try to find them?
Kaitlin Olson: This is all very new to me, but I heard how they like to hide things in Toy Story and its sequels. I can’t wait to try and find them in Finding Dory. I haven’t spotted the Pizza Planet truck yet, but I will soon. My son will help me. He’s a good spotter.
Ty Burrell: You know what? I think I know one of the Easter eggs. You can correct me if I’m wrong, but my friend was saying that she thought she saw a character from Inside Out looking through the glass in the Marine Life Institute. That might be one! I can’t wait to try and find more…
SCREAM QUEENS – SEASON ONE
Get hooked on TV’s mischievous and addictive new series – SCREAM QUEENS – that will make you scream with delight! In the thrilling new series, a mysterious “Red Devil” killer wreaks havoc at
Wallace University’s Kappa Kappa Tau sorority, putting every pledge on edge. Tension mounts as it becomes clear that anyone could be the murderer – or the next victim! Meanwhile, Dean Cathy Munsch (Jamie Lee Curtis) forces Kappa’s tyrannical fashionista president, Chanel Oberlin (Emma Roberts), to accept anyone who wants to join the sorority. Also starring Lea Michele, Keke Palmer and Abigail Breslin, “SCREAM QUEENS” is “whip-smart and wickedly funny” (Andrea Cuttler, Vanity Fair). Get all 13 outrageous season one episodes — along with more killer moments and special features that grant you access into Kappa House – with the arrival of Season One on DVD.
As an added bonus, fans can channel their inner “SCREAM QUEEN” with limited edition nail wraps, available as a gift when purchasing the Season One DVD while supplies last!
“SCREAM QUEENS” – SEASON ONE DVD Special Features Include:
Rush Kappa
Between Two Queens
Style Queens
“SCREAM QUEENS” – SEASON ONE DVD
Street Date: December 6, 2016
Prebook Date: November 2, 2016
Screen Format: Widescreen 16:9 (1.78:1)
Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH/Spanish/French
Total Run Time: 570 minutes
U.S. Rating TV-14
Closed Captioned: Yes
Last week, Marvel Studios selected the latest winner of their STEM-based internship program in conjunction with the theatrical release of Marvel’s Dr. Strange on 11/4. The theme of this most recent program was The Magic of STEM, challenging girls to explore science and technology that may have once been considered “magic.” The winner of the internship was 16-yr-old Ashley Qin, whose project revolved around wearable biosensors and how they can function as non-invasive glucose monitors.
This is the 4th challenge that Marvel Studios has put forth to elevate and celebrate inspirational young women who are interested in STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics), with each activity tailored to the themes of different Marvel films. Since 2013, thousands of girls across the country have taken part, submitting projects ranging from the creation of hybrid solar thermal collectors to a study of the origins of prosthetic limbs.
Earlier this year, Maia Dua took part in the Girls Reforming the Future Challenge on behalf of Marvel’s Captain America Civil War (now on Blu-ray & Digital HD). Her project was the creation of an affordable “seeing eye-bot,” which uses ultrasonics to “see” objects and help the visually impaired navigate their surroundings.
Maia shares her experience in this inspiring video, where she recounts her visit to the Siggraph 2016 Conference, spends time with the Disney Imagineers, and shadows Victoria Alonso, Executive Producer of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
DETAILS ON MARVEL’S S.T.E.M. PROGRAM
MARVEL STUDIOS S.T.E.M. based programs for girls began in 2013 with MARVEL’S THOR THE DARK WORLD ULTIMATE MENTOR ADVENTURE. The ULTIMATE MENTOR ADVENTURE was supported by: Dolby Laboratories, Underwriters Laboratories, the Discovery Science Center, the Science and Entertainment Exchange, a program of National Academy of Sciences, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. The ULTIMATE MENTOR ADVENTURE challenged high school age girls to go out into the real world and ask successful women in science, technology, engineering, or math related fields about what they do, how they got where they are today, and how to follow in their footsteps.
10 girls were selected, from over 300 applicants to travel to California for the premiere of MARVEL’s THOR THE DARK WORLD and to spend a week meeting incredible women working in all areas of STEM. The girls and a parent met with over 30 amazing women while getting behind the scenes experiences at Dolby Laboratories, Scarborough Farm, Silver Lake Farms, Underwriter’s Laboratories, Discovery Science Center, Wildlife Learning Center, Disneyland, the set of MARVEL’s Agents of Shield, and the Disney Studios.
In 2015 MARVEL STUDIOS presented the ANT-MAN MICRO-TECH CHALLENGE as their next program to promote STEM to young girls. The MICRO-TECH CHALLENGE was a nationwide competition challenging teenage girls to use readily available micro-technology components to design and build a DIY project that could inspire other young girls to develop an interest in STEM and STEM careers. The CHALLENGE was supported by: Dolby Laboratories, Visa Signature, and Raspberry Pi.
The CHALLENGE winners came to California to attend the premiere of ANT-MAN and to participate in a specially designed technology workshop predominately presented by female designers, engineers, artists, and managers from across The Walt Disney Company. The winners returned to their communities and lead workshops for local girls, sharing their experiences and teaching the next generation of girls to build their projects.
MARVEL STUDIOS CAPTAIN AMERICA CIVIL WAR GIRLS REFORMING THE FUTURE CHALLENGE was the most recent challenge. This CHALLENGE, supported by Dolby Laboratories, Broadcom Masters, and the Science & Entertainment Exchange, a program of National Academy of Sciences, sought to inspire young girls to create positive world change for their generation and beyond through science and technology. The challenge invited girls nationwide, ages 15 – 18 to submit innovative STEM-based projects that had the potential to change the world. Each applicant was asked to submit a short video demonstrating her project and explaining how her science and technology-based project could make the world a better place. Over 1000 girls applied and five finalists were selected to come to California and present their projects to a panel of experts. One exceptional young woman, Maia Dua, was selected to receive a one-week internship with Marvel Studios.
All five finalists had the opportunity to inspire other young girls around the world by participating in a LIVE global Broadcom Masters webinar during which the girls discussed how their STEM skills enabled them to create their projects and become a finalist of the Captain American Civil War: Girls Reforming the Future Challenge. The webinar gave girls everywhere a peak into STEM skills in action outside the lab and the classroom.
In September 2016, Marvel launched the newest Challenge…Marvel, Dolby Laboratories, & Synchrony Financial sought out inquisitive female superheroes to find the secrets of science once thought to be magic for a chance to win a trip to the world premiere of Marvel Studio’s DOCTOR STRANGE and an opportunity to be mentored by members of the Walt Disney Company’s digital team.
While watching the baseball game Saturday night, it occurred to me that the difference between pop culture and geek culture is sports. Sports are part of our pop culture but not generally thought of as a component of geek culture.
Our cohort Martha Thomases might say (I haven’t asked, but this seems to follow her logic) this is because when we were in high school the cool kids were into sports and the uncool kids were into comic books and science-fiction stuff, and we, the latter, were the ones who were called geeks. In recent years that line has been blurred significantly.
For example, take the ComicMix crew. Adriane Nash and I are hockey fans. Adriane and Robert Greenberger are New York Mets fans. Mindy Newell is a fan of the New York Giants football team and she is tired of my proselytizing that since they play in the Meadowlands they really should be called the New Jersey Giants. Marc Alan Fishman is a WWE fan, as is Mike Raub. Arthur Tebbel is a Yankees fan, or at least he used to be the last time the subject came up – which was about 15 years ago. Bob Ingersoll is a Cleveland Indians fan. John Ostrander and I are Chicago Cubs fans.
Oh, oh. Well, it looks like Mr. Ingersoll, Mr. Ostrander and I will minimize our conversation for the next week or so… election notwithstanding. Then again, John and I were raised in an environment where politics and sports were indistinguishable.
John Ostrander and I are both Chicagoans, as is Marc Alan Fishman. John and I were raised on the north side, which means that being a Cubs fan is a matter of birthright as well as choice. And we both had a hell of a Saturday night, watching the Cubs win the National League pennant for the first time since, as Steve Goodman sang, “You know the law of averages says anything will happen that can… but the last time the Cubs won a National League pennant was the year we dropped the bomb on Japan.”
Not only did our beleaguered Cubbies win, but they won on a double-play and shut out the Los Angeles Dodgers with five runs. That’s the way to do it.
I’ve waited 71 years for this moment, which is five years longer than I’ve been alive. The only people who can readily appreciate that logic are comic book and Doctor Who fans (and John and I are both), scientists with degrees in theoretical physics, and Cubs fans.
As the game started the ninth inning, the cameras caught quite a number of people in the stands who were crying. Adriane later told me she was as well, and she’d only been to Wrigley Field two or three times – and one of them was to see a New Year’s Day hockey game (for which I shall remain forever grateful, but that’s an entirely different story). My own thoughts drifted over to my late aunt, Francis Goldberg.
Aunt Fran was born about a year after the Cubs had last won the world series; she lived 94 years. We were close, as everybody who knew her was close. She was smart, funny, and affable; the most worthy of role models. She was also the greatest Cubs fan I had ever met, and that says a lot. The last time I saw her was at a family function perhaps a year or so before her death. By this time she had succumbed to Alzheimer’s and she didn’t really recognize anybody in the room. However, she was no less intelligent, funny or affable
So I tried something. I asked her if she still followed the Cubbies. Aunt Fran took mock umbrage, as if I had asked her if she were still a woman. She began to rattle off how the Cubs did that season, proud that they had won the won the National League Central Division championship. And she went back through Cubs history, comparing contemporary events to earlier happenstance. I distinctly remember that if I had more time, she would probably take me back to the days of Albert Spalding, Cubs pitcher / manager / co-owner and sporting goods macher, circa 1876.
That, my friends, is a fan.
The story of the Chicago Cubs is the story of hope and promise. That’s always a vital story, that’s always a saga for our time, no matter when that time might be. I infuse that story with the spirit of my Aunt Francis Goldberg, who missed seeing the Cubs clench the pennant by a dozen years but never, ever had any doubt they would do just that.
Sequart Organization is proud to announce the publication of The Best There is at What He Does: Examining Chris Claremont’s X-Men, by Jason Powell.
The X-Men franchise is a sprawling comics mythology, to which hundreds of creators have contributed over the past 50 years. The period from 1975 to 1991 is special, however, as the X-Men universe was guided by the voice of one writer, who wrote every single issue of The Uncanny X-Men during that span. His name is Chris Claremont, and he made the X-Men what it is today.
The Best There is at What He Does is an appreciation of the long-term narrative Claremont lovingly crafted month after month, over the course of nearly 17 years. Proceeding chronologically through the issues, this exhaustive overview analyzes the trends, arcs, and themes that emerge throughout his landmark comics opus.
The book is available in print and on Kindle. (Just a reminder: you don’t need a Kindle device to read Kindle-formatted books; you can download a free Kindle reader for most computers, phones, and tablets.) It runs 296 pages and features a foreword by Geoff Klock and a cover by Steven Legge. Find out more on the book’s official page.
The force will be strong on devices across the nation today as Mark Hamill’s Pop Culture Quest comes to Comic–Con HQ. Mark Hamill has been collecting comic books, original artwork, toys and other mementos since the early 1970s and now he gets to share his passion and enthusiasm for collecting in his new web series.
