Tagged: Entertainment Weekly

Medium Rare, by John Ostrander

Medium Rare, by John Ostrander

  • News
  • November 29, 2007

You can learn the damnedest things in the most unexpected places

I was paging through last week’s Entertainment Weekly, the one where they anoint their entertainers of the year, and came across four women – Glenn Close, Mary Louise Parker, Kyra Sedgewick, and Holly Hunter – all grouped together by the fact that they are over 40, that they are starring in their own TV shows on cable channels, and all had a uniting reason for doing so: the work simply wasn’t out there in movies for them.

Okay, that’s not news. And that’s what wrong. Pop culture is a reflection of our society and the way that it chooses to show certain demographics of people – including sometimes their omission – says a great deal about our society and what and who we value. While the article made me think of older women, the same point can be made for other minorities. We’re talking not only of movies and television but comic books and other entertainments as well. It is not only the portrayal of these groups – to which there is some increased sensitivity – but their omission that reveals how our society sees itself.

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Too good to Biel true?

Too good to Biel true?

  • News
  • September 28, 2007

This is why we’re sometimes reticent to pass along casting call news.  Everyone beleived Variety when they said that Jessica Biel’s talks to play Wonder Woman in the upcoming Justice League movie were solid and the real thing and so on.  We even found you a photo of Biel in a WW t-shirt to seal the deal.

But noooo.  According to Entertainment Weekly‘s Hollywood Insider — and who better to know from things inside Hollywood? I mean, it’s right there in the name — Biel has given the role a pass.

So you know, we state all Obiwan-like, when we reported that she was in talks, it was the truth, from a certain point of view.  It’s like the old joke about prayers being heard: sometimes the answer is no.

But you know, it gives us an excuse to post another photo of Ms. Biel.  This was one of the tamer ones from our Google Image search.  We liked the outfit, reasoning that, if she isn’t interested in Wonder Woman, maybe someone can talk her into Isis?

ANDREW’S LINKS: Rap War on Sesame Street

ANDREW’S LINKS: Rap War on Sesame Street

  • News
  • September 11, 2007

Comics Links

The Washington Post Express interviews Percy Carey, who recently told his life story in the graphic novel Sentences. Carey, best known as an underground rapper, also appeared on Sesame Street as a seven-year-old.

Comic Book Resources interrogates Jonathan Hickman, writer/colorist of the upcoming A Red Mass for Mars.

Tom Spurgeon of Comics Reporter defends the humble comics shop.

Sequential Tart interviews Jesse Hamm, artist of Good As Lily.

Turning to the subjeect of For Better or For Worse: Lynn Johnston opens up a new front in her propaganda war to prove that Liz and Anthony are destined to be together. In other news, we have always been at war with Eastasia.

The Baltimore Sun visited the Baltimore Comic-Con.

Artist Jesse Hamm tells Comics Should Be Good about eight things he wants to see more of in comics.

Comics Reviews

Richard of Forbidden Planet International reviews The Plain Janes by Cecil Castelucci and Jim Rugg.

Dana of Comics Fodder reviews this week’s Marvels.

Warren Peace Sings the Blues reviews the first issue of Andi Watson’s new comic, Glister.

Occasional Superheroine is puzzled by the new Infinity, Inc. series.

The LA Times reviews Osamu Tezuka’s Apollo’s Song (and a Robert Silverberg short story collection from Subterranean – ha ha, SF readers! You can’t just skip over the comics links blithely, can you? It’s all good stuff, so sit back and check it all out.)

Living Between Wednesdays gets to last week’s comics just ahead of this week’s comics.

From The Savage Critics:

 

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Metal Men, Naruto, and Other Unfathomable Things

Metal Men, Naruto, and Other Unfathomable Things

  • News
  • August 20, 2007

Comics Links

Comic Book Resources looks back at the long, odd history of the Metal Men.

The Toronto Star reports on a Toronto Comic Arts Festival presentation on four wordless graphic novels from the early 20th century.

If you’re like me, and spent much of the weekend in the company of kids watching a Naruto marathon, you might also find this Paul Gravette lecture about Naruto to be useful in explaining what the heck it all is about.

Comics Should Be Good takes a look at all of Image Comics’s October covers.

Mike Sterling discovers that if you stare at a poster of Superman’s funeral long enough, the abyss also gazes into you.

Comics Reviews

Comics Reporter reviews Rian Hughes’s Yesterday’s Tomorrows.

The New York Times reviews Emily Flake’s These Things Ain’t Gonna Smoke Themselves and Jessica Bruder’s Burning Book.

Warren Peace Sings The Blues reviews Whiteout by Rucka and Lieber.

SF/Fantasy Links

Douglas Cohen responds to comments and criticisms of his drive to increase subscriptions for print SF/Fantasy magazines.

Irene Gallo of The Art Department showcases Jon Foster’s covers for Timothy Zahn’s “Dragonback” series.

The Hugo Awards now have a website of their own – just in time for this year’s awards, which will be announced at Nippon 2007 in less than two weeks.

The UK SF Book News Network lists all of the newly-published books that they’ve received in the last three weeks.

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Do I Have To Say It?

Do I Have To Say It?

  • News
  • August 13, 2007

Graeme McMillan of The Savage Critics discovers the single best panel of the week (see above) and reviews Batman #667. No, seriously – does anyone else think that looks like Halloween about three doors down from stately Wayne Manor?

Newsarama has two sets of pictures from Wizard World Chicago – mostly of people in costumes, natch.

Ain’t It Cool News reads the current script for the Thor movie, and likes it.

Your sign of the apocalypse of the day: bikini-clad stormtroopers. (Insert your own “Aren’t you too…to be a stormtrooper” joke here.)

Cory Doctorow of Boing Boing reviews the graphic novel Giant Robot Warriors by Stuart Moore and Ryan Kelly.

The Toronto Star reviews Warren Ellis’s novel Crooked Little Vein.

Movies Online interviews someone they called “Neil Gaimon” about the movie “StarDust.” I wonder if they asked him about his comics series Snadman, or his young readers novel Caroline? (And is he any relation to Charles Dickkens, the well-known Dutch author?)

Comics Reporter interviews Doug TenNapel, cartoonist of Black Cherry.

Greg Hatcher of Comics Should Be Good wants to write about the “Entwistles of comics.”

Neth Space reviews the new anthology The New Space Opera, edited by Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan.

The UK SF Book News Network talked to Chris Robertson about his new novel, Set the Seas on Fire.

Yatterings reviews InterWorld, the new novel for young readers by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves.

John Scalzi of Ficlets interviews David Anthony Durham, author of Acacia.

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Overheard at San Diego, part 5

Overheard at San Diego, part 5

  • News
  • July 28, 2007

People keep talking, and we keep taking notes…

"One guy asked me if I had my leg amputated to get the job." — Lacey Henderson, pictured at right, who’s been appearing as Cherry Darling to promote the DVD release of Grindhouse. Via USA Today.

"How did they make her look like that?" — A mother with two kids looking at Ms. Henderson working at the booth.

"How do they post for a job like that?" — ComicMix‘s Matt Raub

At the pilot screening for ABC’s Pushing Daisies:

Audience member: "There seem to a be a lot of symetric and palindromic references in this show — can you explain?"

(long pause from the writer, director, and cast)

Chi McBride: "Ummm, what?  What did you say? This is COMIC CON.  Repeat your question."

In the hall between panels: "It’s so crowded I couldn’t even get into the ballrooms for the studio panels, and I’m writing for Entertainment Weekly!"

“Hellboy plus Pan’s Labyrinth on steroids.” —Javier Soto describing next year’s Hellboy 2: The Golden Army

Introducing themselves at the GameTap Tomb Raider Re-envisioned panel:

"I’m Stan Lee." –Warren Ellis

"I’m Jack Kirby." –Brian Pulido

"I’m Peter Chung." –Peter Chung

Contributing spies: Kai Connolly, Adriane Nash.

Science-Fictional-Type Links & Things

Science-Fictional-Type Links & Things

  • News
  • July 17, 2007

Fantasy Book Critic reviews Warren Ellis’s first novel, Crooked Little Vein.

BestSF has reviewed a few magazines this week:

Don D’Amassa’s Critical Mass has new reviews on the Science Fiction page, including Blake Nelson’s young adult novel They Came From Below, Robert Charles Wilson’s Axis, and Charles Stross’s Halting State.

D’Amassa’s Fantasy page also has new reviews: Steph Swainston’s The Modern World, Charles Stross’s The Merchants’ War, and others.

And D’Amassa’s Horror page has new reviews as well: Scott Thomas’s Over the Darkening Fields, the new Tales from the Crypt #1, and more.

Nader Elhefnawy, at Tangent, goes off on a dumb Christopher Hitchens quote from Atlantic Monthly to the effect that SF has a “dearth of sex.”

Elhefnawy also had an essay at Tangent about Michael Moorcock and censorship.

The Space Review has published a transcript of the talk, and the following question and answer session, given by NASA Administrator Mike Griffin at the recent Heinlein Centennial.

The Contra Costa Times has an article on the huge science fiction collection at the University of California-Riverside.

Ben Bova’s regular column in the Naples News is devoted to talking about his own Campbell Award-winning novel Titan, Campbell himself, and science fiction in general.

The Salt Lake Tribune looks at the interesting phenomenon of Christian fantasy novels.

Neth Space is annoyed that so many titles begin with the word “the.”

SF Scope reports on editor and author Gardner Dozois’s recent quintuple bypass heart surgery. Details are few, but it sounds like he’s recovering pretty well – I certainly hope so, and send him all best wishes. (In happier Dozois news, he recently turned in a new original anthology, tentatively entitled Galactic Empires, to Rome Quezada of the SF Book Club, and I’m sure that book will be another winner.)

Cory Doctorow has another one of his periodic essays at Locus Online this week, all about different kinds of visions of the future.

The soul-searching about reviewing on blogs continues unabated into a second week, as Larry of the OF Blog of the Fallen explains why he reviews.

Similarly, Patrick, of Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist, has a long post about reviewing, book giveaways, and blogging.

 

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Here’s Your Iron Man Cast

Here’s Your Iron Man Cast

  • News
  • June 24, 2007

Entertainment Weekly just released the cast picture for next summer’s Iron Man. The line-up shows us Robert Downey Jr. as wealthy weapon-maker Tony Stark, Gwyneth Paltrow as his administrator Pepper Potts, Terence Howard as his buddy/bodyguard (and later War Machine) Jim Rhodes, and a clean-headed Jeff Bridges as mentor (and villain?) Obadiah Stane. Those of us who remember Stane’s character from Card’s Ultimate Iron Man storyline know how truly evil this character can get, and I can’t wait!

The movie, directed by Jon Favreau, drops next May, so expect to see more promotional pictures to come.

Shazam! gets thumbs up

Shazam! gets thumbs up

  • News
  • March 7, 2007

Jeff Smith does all the PR work so we don’t have to: His latest blog post links to all the mainstream (i.e., outside of the comics press) coverage given to the premiere issue of Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil, including articles from Entertainment Weekly, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Washington Post and Las Vegas Weekly. 

Vegas baby, Vegas!  You know you’ve hit the big time now, Jeff!  The second issue goes on sale in comic shops today.

Dark Tower to be filmed

Dark Tower to be filmed

  • News
  • February 20, 2007

First it was the Marvel comic — now the Hollywood Reporter tells us that Stephen King and J.J. Abrams (Lost, Alias) are in talks to bring The Dark Tower to the screen. No word as to whether it will be for movies or TV.

The article also notes that Abrams co-hort Damon (Ultimate Wolverine/Hulk) Lindelof is also a huge King fanboy, bringing along a rare first edition of "The Gunslinger," Book 1 of the series, for King to sign at a recent round-table for Entertainment Weekly.

No word how this will affect Star Trek XI or any of the other myriad projects that have Abrams’s name attached.

Previously:

The Dark Tower: Interview with Peter David

Dark Tower signing at Midtown Comics

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