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Joe Corallo: Kick(start) Out The Jams!

Last week here I wrote about the Kickstarter that’s currently running for Unmasked Volume 2. It’s still going strong, so check it out if you haven’t yet.

This week is all about the Meatspace Universe Omnibus Collection on Kickstarter. It’s a video game revenge thriller in a cyberpunk setting written by Josh Gorfain with various artists including Andrew MacLean. This Kickstarter will be funding an ambitious expansion of the Meatspace-Verse including a prequel volume and a sequel volume illustrated by one of my favorite artists, Sean Von Gorman. They currently have a little under three weeks to raise another $12,000 to reach their goal.

I got the chance to chat with Sean and Josh about this Kickstarter the other which you can read below.

JOE: Sean, Josh, what are your elevator pitches for Meatspace Volume 2?

SEAN: Full Body Amputee turned Cyborg fights for Internet fame and sometimes Crime/ Occasional Detective trying to solve the biggest Mystery of all… LOVE.

JOSH: Well, the second volume takes place six months after the first the first volume. Lance has settled into his new life as a celebrity and a member of one of the top guilds in the game of DungeonWorld. We find life catching up with his new girlfriend, Rebecca and we also find out what’s up with The Sentinel…the guardian that Johnny set up to protect his secrets.

JOE: I’m a big Andrew MacLean fan. Apocalyptagirl is one of my favorite stand alone graphic novels. How did Andrew get involved with Josh Gorfain to design such great characters?

JOSH: I was introduced to Andrew through Jamie Gambell (creator of The Hero Code) back in 2011. I knew back then he was destined for greatness.

SEAN: Andrew’s work on the 1st issue is part of what made me fell in love with the project all those years ago. I’m really excited to help bring it back and play in the world he helped to make. And that facial hair, WOOF. You can get lost in there.

JOE: The issues of Meatspace you’ll be illustrating make up the second volume. The first volume was described as a self-contained three issue arc. What does this new volume bring to the table that readers of the first arc need to come back?

JOSH: A bit more world-building; and a big shake up. I always like my stories to go big. I feel disappointed when a comic is just one conversation and a half of a fight. I want important stuff to happen! This volume builds upon Meatspace and the prequel (which I am also doing at the same time) GameSpace (which is also being offered in this Kickstarter. It’s a huge undertaking but it’s all coming together!

JOE: This Kickstarter will also be funding Gamespace, the prequel to Meatspace. Are there big tonal differences between the two? What can readers expect?

JOSH: In GameSpace, we find out where The Sentinel come from and why he’s the way he is. Surprisingly, this has kind of become The Sentinel’s story…sort of like how Star Wars was really Darth Vader’s story despite having Luke as the main character.

SEAN: I for one am super happy to see “Gorfainverse” expand like this. A Shared Comic Universe is something that to my knowledge has not yet been seen in Comics, and I think will change the way we look at the Medium.

JOE: Sean, you’ve been involved in quite a few high profile projects these past few years. As an artist taking on projects like this is very time consuming so I know you pick these projects with care. What about Meatspace appeals to you as an artist?

SEAN: I have been very lucky to get to work on some Amazing stuff in the past few years like the now Eisner Award Winning Love is Love Anthology from DC/IDW. Part of my favorite things about working in comics is when I get to work with friends, and now I am contractually obligated to refer to Josh Gorfain as a friends. Which completes on of my Contractually Obligated calling Josh a Friend. Just 2 more to go then the Court Appointed “Hang Sesh” with ‘ZA,

I like Josh and I like Meatspace. Josh has been working very hard to get this project out to a wider audience and I’m happy to help

JOE: If I could follow up on that question with you, Sean, who’s your favorite character in Meatspace to draw and why?

SEAN: Lance 100% It’s been fun adding my own flavor to a slightly updated design from Andrew’s to show how Lance has grown and where he is now in Vol. 2

JOE: Why is Kickstarter and by extension Phoenix Dreams Publishing the best place to take Meatspace?

JOSH: Noel and the Phoenix Dreams team has believed in Meatspace since day one! Honestly, I was ready to put this behind me when Noel came to me and proposed a second volume and this Omnibus. His confidence in this project has made all this happen!

JOE: Josh, you’re also working with Phoenix Dreams Publishing on a tabletop rpg for the Meatspace-Verse, adding some extra flair to the Kickstarter. Do you know what people might expect if they pledge to be part of the playtest group?

JOSH: An epic story that will have a direct impact on the future of the Meatspace-verse. I know where the (hopefully) next chapter will go and this game will set it up. I’m very excited about this game as it tries to do something that hasn’t really ever been done in gaming (that I can recall) before; and thanks to the old is new RPG system, it’s actually possible

SEAN: I should point out that Josh is really committed to making this project happen. As of this writing he has agreed to literally put his money where his mouth is but adding some REALLY exciting Kickstarter reward involving his body. My favorite Reward being Josh will offer his body up to Science to become a Cyborg like Lance in Meatspace for only $50,000. The Backer would have to provide the Technology and cover Medical Costs to finish the project. Other rewards include Clean Urine from Josh for Job Interview Drug Tests, and his hand in a Green Card Marriage.

JOE: Before we wrap this up, is there anything else you’d like to plug?

SEAN: Amy Chu’s Girls Night Out Kickstarter Gold Edition, which will collect the stories that launched Amy’s prolific Career as we’ll as new stories including BATFREAK an ALL NEW story from Me and Amy which I’m excited to see in print. The Kickstarter has a few days left so everyone needs to get on that and kick in some $$$ to expand the Chu Dynasty.

JOE: Thank you both so much for taking the time to talk with me! And all of you reading this please check out their Kickstarter and consider helping them reach their goal to make this omnibus collection of Meatspace possible.

Black Panther and Lexus Partner for Campaign

SAN DIEGO, CA – JULY 21: Chadwick Boseman attends the Marvel and Lexus Black Panther Party at Comic-Con San Diego on July 21, 2017.

Lexus and Marvel have announced a collaboration to pair the first-ever 2018 Lexus LC with Marvel’s dynamic Black Panther character in the highly anticipated film, Marvel Studios’ Black Panther, slated to hit theaters on Feb. 16, 2018.

Directed by Ryan Coogler, and starring Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan and Lupita Nyong’o, the film follows T’Challa, who, after the events of Marvel Studios’ Captain America: Civil War, returns home to the isolated, technologically advanced African nation of Wakanda to take his place as King.

“Marvel continuously captures audiences through charismatic characters and inspiring stories — the ideal fit for Lexus’ mission to craft amazing, engaging experiences,” said Brian Bolain general manager, Lexus marketing. “And the LC’s aggressive styling, high performance and agile handling are a perfect fit for the Black Panther’s quick, cat-like reflexes and superhuman feats. We’re excited to see the duo in action.”

To accompany the collaboration between Lexus and Marvel, Lexus also teamed with Marvel Custom Solutions to create an original graphic novel, with storytelling driven by famed writer Fabian Nicieza and cover illustrations by emerging graphic artists Scott “Rahzzah” Wilson and Szymon Kudranski. Centered around the balance between human and machine, the comic features the Lexus LC 500 with a new, Wakandan spin and its role in helping the Black Panther defeat a legendary villain.

SAN DIEGO, CA – JULY 21: Chadwick Boseman attends the Marvel and Lexus Black Panther Party at Comic-Con San Diego on July 21, 2017.

Lexus and Marvel will celebrate their collaboration during Comic-Con after-hours at an exclusive Black Panther-themed event on Friday, July 21,  with special performances by DJ Lulo Café and a surprise headliner. During the invite-only event, six variant covers for the graphic novel will be revealed to industry guests and comic enthusiasts.

“This campaign clicked from the get-go,” said Mindy Hamilton, Marvel’s SVP of global partnerships. “We have this bold, sophisticated hero stepping into the spotlight for the first time, and it’s been a blast to work with the Lexus team to build out a story that’ll familiarize fans with T’Challa as well as his advanced home nation of Wakanda.”

Lexus’ collaboration with Marvel is being coordinated by Lexus’ multicultural advertising agency, Walton Isaacson.

Ushering in a new era of design and engineering at Lexus, the LC 500 is expressive and stylish, with enhanced dynamic capability and performance. Additional information on the flagship coupe can be found here.

Mindy Newell: July 18, 2017


When the father of quantum mechanics, Erwin Schrodinger – he of Schrödinger’s Cat fame – told a Dublin audience in 1952 that “…his Nobel equations seemed to describe several different histories, these were ‘not alternatives, but all really happen simultaneously,’ it was the first time that the multiverse was addressed as a scientific theory and not just science fiction.

So Editor Mike texted me on Saturday to let me know that Adam Strange – I don’t mean an actor, I mean the DC character–is going to be a regular on the new Krypton series on SyFy sometime in 2018, if everything stays on track – and how often does that happen?

For those not in the know, and that’s all of you, because I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned it here, Adam Strange was my first “comics crush” back in the day, and I continue to love him. And I don’t mean any modern interpretation of him, but the original science fiction personage created by Julius Schwartz, with a costume design by Murphy Anderson, and who first appeared in Showcase #17, cover-dated November 1958. (I was five years old.)

I texted him back:

“Adam Strange has nothing to do with Krypton.”

Mike: “Well, he does now. This series, which lives in a universe separate from the comics, the movies, and maybe even the other teevee [sic] serieses [sic], is set in both the deep past (on the planet Krypton, no longer extant) and in the present day. But let us remember that Superman does not exist on the teevee [sic] Earth where Flash, Green Arrow, and the Legends live.”

Me: “Part of the multiverse.”

Mike: “Sure. Aren’t we all?”

And then, I wrote this back to him:

“Maybe that’s what death is. I mean the ‘near death’ experiences that people talk about…that white light…some kind of “wormhole” event horizon connecting us to the next life in the next universe, the one that is ‘second star to the right and straight on to morning’…And that’s why people have reincarnation experiences and/or déjà vu…They are glimpses of the multiverse.”

Quantum leaping.

•     •     •     •     •

Not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. So don’t be afraid… Matthew 10:29, 31

Driving down to Cherry Hill with Alixandra to see my mom last Sunday – somewhere in my heart I knew this would be the last time – we hit traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike. Not enough to slow down completely, but the speedometer was reading 45 or 50 mph. All of a sudden, a sparrow landed on the passenger side-view mirror. It just sat there for a few seconds, maybe five, looking at us through the window. And then it flew away.

As in an M. Knight Shaymalan movie, there are signs everywhere.

My favorite line in Ben-Hur:

“The world is more than we know.”

•     •     •     •     •

mom-and-dad-300x234-1084743mom-and-dad-1-300x378-3224083Today, as I write this, is Sunday, July 23, 2017.

It has been six days.

Four since the funeral.

Yet somehow it feels like forever.

And at the same time like it didn’t happen at all.

I guess that is as good as any definition of grief.

 

Ed Catto: From the Front Lines of Comic-Con

denialle-von-fitch-oblong-box-150x135-6833162blues-brothers-bluesmobile-150x113-5204680As I write this, the Annual Nerd Prom is underway. This year the San Diego Comic-Con seems to be a little more relaxed and a little more joyous. There’s an upbeat mood and every attendee I’ve spoken with is just thrilled to be here. Exhibitors and the professionals tend to be a little more world-weary.

A part of the exuberance might be the novelty of it all. I was surprised to learn that one big domestic comic convention has an incredible churn; over 50% of their attendees are first timers each year. I’m not sure how that shakes out at SDCC, but it bears further investigation.

Everyone Grabs Their Chance

alan-and-jay-150x138-9009685green-lantern-daffy-duck-300x292-1163689I don’t think the Romans used the phrase “shameless promotion,” but the Latin equivalent to that should be emblazoned on every San Diego Comic-Con badge. There are so many ideas, brands, companies, retailers, and creators all elbowing one another to get in front of consumers. And there’s a lot of money behind many of these efforts.

On the other hand, not everyone has the big budgets. And that means that many creatives get by with just a little grit and cleverness. Here are three determined and impressive entrepreneurs I met:

  • Alan Truong is a young cartoonist working hard to break in. His strip is called The Missing Digit. Alan attended First Comics News annual “How to Get Press Panel,” where I was a panelist, and made it a point to chat me up afterward. I was impressed with his clever self-promotion. Along with his business card, he offered a comic bag & board (I can never find ‘em when I need ‘em at a comic-con) with his strip printed on the board.
  • Jay Latimer from TomCat comics is excited about his new graphic novel Burrito Apocalypse. He’s meeting as many folks as possible and offers a firm handshake and a great smile. His book is a humorous look at what might happen in the world of politics and society if Aliens came to visit Earth. Chapter One is up on his website, along with other free comics.
  • The Oblong Box is an online retailer, but during the week of the convention, owner Denialle Von Fitch tried something different. It’s obvious that she likes to sew and has a creative vision. Booths on the exhibition floor at San Diego Comic-Con are hard to get. In fact, there’s a waiting list. So Denialle opened up a pop-up apparel store right in the Gaslamp district.

sdcc-superman-car-150x113-8552979sdcc-batman-car-150x113-8386748Car Cosplay

One more thought: I didn’t know Car Cosplay was a thing. I probably should have known when I saw that Captain America on his motorcycle at Cosplay Invades Auburn earlier this summer.

But Car Cosplay is alive and well on the left coast. The first morning of SDCC I was treated to the Bluesmobile blaring the Blues Brothers soundtrack from their trademark oversize speaker. (I wish I caught them playing She Caught The Katy; that’s my favorite song on from that movie). Later I saw a Superman car and a Batmobile.

Both were stuck in traffic.

 

 

 

John Ostrander: Woo Who!

This week fandom was set on its ear by the announcement of the newest person to play the Doctor on BBC’s venerable sci/fi TV show, Doctor Who. (If you don’t already know, the Doctor is a time-traveling alien with the ability to regenerate himself into an entirely new body and persona when his current body is on the point of dying.) There have been 12 such regenerations so far; Jodie Whittaker will be the 13th and the first woman to play the part. Joanna Lumley was a female Doctor for a sketch some years back – written by Steven Moffet, no less – but that is not considered canon.

Predictably, there has been some negative fan reaction, although the bulk that I have seen has been overwhelmingly positive. This kind of change often provokes this kind of reaction. When it was announced that the captain on the next Star Trek series coming out (Star Trek: Discovery) was going to be a woman, there was similar booing and hooing.

I can sort of understand. Fans can be conservative; they want what they like to be the same but different only not too different. There have been times when, as a fan, I was somewhat resistant to change. A prime complaint has been that young boys are losing a role model and there aren’t that many heroes who depend on their wits and smarts rather than their fists. Even one of the actors who played an earlier Doctor, Peter Davison, has voiced this objection. However, my feeling is that these young boys have 12 other incarnations to use as a role model. Young girls have been expected to use the male Doctor as a role model; giving them one who looks like them after fifty years of the show being broadcast doesn’t seem to me to be unreasonable.

My late wife, Kim Yale, was a huge Doctor Who fan (as am I) and she used to dress as Tom Baker’s Doctor to cosplay at conventions before cosplay was a big thing. She would have been over the moon about this. My partner, Mary Mitchell, certainly is and has pointed out that having the 13th Doctor be a female is very appropriate since 13 is a “female number” as there are 13 moon cycles in a year.

To me, what ultimately matters is what character do they create and how good are the stories that they tell. When you’ve worked for a long time on a given project, as a writer you look for ways to shake things up and make them fresh. On my book GrimJack, I once killed off the main character and then brought him back and later on, replaced him with an entirely different incarnation (yes, I was a big Doctor Who fan at the time and, yes, that influenced the change a lot). I intended to keep doing that from time to time. And one of the later incarnations I had planned was a female GrimJack. That probably would have incited some comment as well. We just never got to it.

So I’m very pleased with the selection of the new Doctor and hopefully the stories that will come of it. I hope the new showrunner will explore the change and what it means.

One last interesting note: I read that Ms. Whittaker will be paid the same salary as the actor who preceded her, Peter Capaldi. No wage disparity in the time vortex.

Way to go, Beeb.

Lost and Found: 1969-2003 by Bill Griffith

If you keep going long enough in a creative field, eventually someone will collect your stuff. If you’re reasonably successful, they’ll even collect the oddball stuff — the one-offs and blind alleys and test-beds and experiments that you made as you were working towards (or in between) the works that you were better known for.

Yes, you too can be the proud creator of an odds and sods collection, if you live long enough and work hard enough and get lucky enough. If your name is Bill Griffith, congratulations! That book was published by Fantagraphics in 2011 as Lost and Found: 1969-2003 .

Griffith has spent most of his career aiming his Zippy the Pinhead character, and associated folks, at whatever Griffith’s current obsessions were. It’s a good model for a cartoonist, actually: if you have a malleable character that you own, and a flexible, large cast around him, you can keep producing work that gives your audience continuity while telling the stories and working with the ideas you really want to in that moment. It’s not coincidental that the major outlet for Zippy stories for the last three or four decades has been a syndicated comic strip: that’s been the model for a huge number of successful comics creators for over a century, a way to reach a large audience with work that can, for the right person, be personal and idiosyncratic.

But that’s what’s not in this book. It has one sequence from the Zippy strip, but it’s mostly comic-book-formatted pages, and it’s mostly from anthologies and magazines and other people’s comics — the stuff he was doing when he wasn’t making Zippy strips and purely Zippy comic-books.

Zippy’s in a lot, though. Griffith developed his cast early, and has used them across all of his cartooning formats. But he’s definitely not as central here as he is in most of Griffith’s work. Lost and Found is heavily weighted towards the early part of Griffith’s career — the 1970s is by far the largest section — and so this is a book in large part showing how that cast first appeared and developed.

Mr. Toad was the original central character in Griffith’s stories, starting off as an Everyman type but quickly becoming the raging id (loosely modeled on Griffith’s father, as he acknowledges later in this book) he was meant to be. So he’s the first main character the reader meets, soon accompanied by some one-off folks from Young Lust (the sex-filled parody of romance comics that Griffith co-edited).

Frankly, the early comics are very “underground” — rambling and navel-gazing in turn, clearly drawn by someone who is still learning his craft and doesn’t have any strong models or guidelines for what he’s doing. To be more pointed, they’re not very good. They’re interesting for people who like the mature Zippy stuff — you can trace the development of Claude Funston pretty clearly, and obviously The Toad — but the first hundred pages of Lost and Found is a bit of a slog for anyone not already seeped in ’60s counterculture.

(As they say, if you can remember the ’60s, you weren’t there. I don’t remember them, but I wasn’t there, either.)

The back half of Lost and Found is more impressive, with one-off stories set in the Zippy universe that appeared various places during the ’80s and ’90s, including an extensive color section. This is the part of Lost and Found that most readers will be looking for: I almost recommend that folks start here, and only dip back into the ’70s section randomly  as they have the inclination. (I don’t actually recommend that, because I’m a fiend for doing things in the right order.)

But, again: this is an odds and sods collection. There will always be sods. It’s the nature of the beast. You gotta take them with the odds. And some of this is quite odd.

Reposted from The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent.

Marc Alan Fishman’s ComicMix Six: Marc’s Top Marvel Studios Movies!

To date, Marvel Studios has 16 released films in their shared universe. And while I have an affinity for all of them (truly, there isn’t a bad one in the bunch) it’s fair now to see the cream rise to the top. Having just finished Spider-Man: Homecoming this past weekend – yes I’m a suburban dad who no longer prioritizes movies as a need-to-see-on-release-day – I think I’m within bounds to pluck out my top five… until I mentioned this idea to EIC Mike Gold who denoted “We have a logo” for picking six. Natch. So, without any further preamble, here are (ranked from bottom to top) my most favoritest Marvel(ous) movies.

Definition time: I’m specifying movies only within the “Marvel Cinematic Universe.” This excludes the X-Men movies, the Fantastic Four movies, the Blade trilogy (which was awesome, honestly) any previous Spider-Man flicks, and sadly Deadpool who would have been #3 on my ranking.

  1. The Avengers

It’s funny enough to me that this film – the quintessential tent pole of the MCU – arrives in this bonus spot on my list. When the dust settled for me on The Avengers I remain in love with the concept, less the execution. Because Joss Whedon is so adept at creating great team dynamics there’s rarely any downtime in the flick, which is its saving grace. Ultimately, the plot is barely logical, with Loki aligning with Thanos because reasons and it’s all an excuse for a huge CGI fist fight. That the film never abandons the damage New York takes because of the epic Midtown massacre again harkens why The Avengers made my list in the first place. Amidst the cacophony, humanity still remains at the heart of the film. Even if Agent Coulson’s death was retconned almost immediately.

  1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

All of Cap’s movies are infinitely watchable to me. Somehow the cock-sure asshat that was one of the only saving graces of the terrible Fantastic Four films (you know which ones) truly adopted and adapted his talents to fully realize Marvel’s big blue boy scout. And in his performance, Chris Evans balances the fish-out-of-water aspects of the character perfectly with a soldier’s grit and heroism in the modern age. While The First Avenger did all the expository heavy lifting to sell us on Steve Rogers the man, The Winter Soldier proved that “superhero” films could be far more than large set pieces and quips. The Directing Russos took their love of 70s political / conspiracy fiction and married it to the modern day in a way that felt bombastic but real. I still remain in awe watching Rogers chase down his former best friend amidst the chaos of the biggest Holy Watcher! moment of the MCU – the reveal of Hydra’s long-simmering subterfuge. Pair that with the late-in-the-movie tête-à-tête with Nick Fury over proactive protection over reactive super heroics and you get a heavy flick that leaves you wondering why it took this long to see something this good.

  1. Spider-Man: Homecoming

The only thing I could honestly nitpick about the flick was the avidity for late-night fight scenes, is a boon to the first Spider-Man film to truly nail the character as I’d always imagined him to be. Our believably-baby-faced Peter Parker steals the show (fitting given it’s his film) in what amounts to an homage to 80s teen rom-coms with a running thread of super-heroics. And, amongst literally all the movies I’ll be listing today, none had me more on the edge of my seat than the car ride discussion between Peter and his date’s daddy. That a superhero movie had me captivated without thwipping a single web is a testament to its depth and brevity. Oh, and somehow, the movie made a mort like Vulture into a believable badass. Case. Closed.

  1. Captain America: Civil War

Take everything that was said above, copy, and paste it. But magnify it by two or three. Civil War took big swings at the politics of being a super hero, weaved in a deeply personal conflict, and then set it all against a global backdrop. The movie owned the space Avengers: Age of Ultron should have, all while taking those initial beats of young Steve Rogers and bringing them home to roost. That they could tell all of this, drop our jaws with the airport sequence and make both sides of the equation nuanced in their actions and opinions only drove the point home harder how Marvel could make mature fiction against the flashy colors and CGI bombast.

  1. Guardians of the Galaxy 2

Guardians of the Galaxy was Marvel’s way of raising two gigantic middle fingers at DC while simultaneously mooning them. For a bit of perspective: Batman v. Superman earned (essentially) the same amount of money as the first GotG movie, but came out two years later. So, a movie where a loose Indiana Jones / Han Solo rip-off pilots Firefly alongside a talking raccoon and animated tree earned the same amount of money. But that’s truly beside the point. Guardians 2 took everything amazing from its first iteration – the comedy, the space-action, the brilliant visuals, and an astoundingly wide scope of the universe at large – and somehow improved upon it. Kurt Russel’s Ego is a massive villain whose plot (for once) feels earned. All the performances were beyond exemplary… but nothing truly hit this father harder than a blue dude with a red Mohawk literally defining fatherhood amidst an intergalactic chase and war sequence.

  1. Iron Man

Iron Man was a no-brainer for the top of my list. While other actors across the MCU have grown into their roles… none of them hold a candle to Robert Downey Jr. – who doesn’t so much as perform Tony Stark as he simply exists as a surrogate so close to the source material he bleeds ink. While other Marvel films have woven more intricate plots, delivered better (a few, if we’re being picky) villains, or provided us with better battles… none compare to the total package quite so well as the original kick-off to Marvel Cinematic Universe. Here, our introduction to what the general pop-culture lexicon would consider a “B” lister, Jon Favreau drags right to the top of the A list in the cold open. Tony Stark – as massively, untouchably talented and wealthy as he is – becomes our surrogate POV character for nearly every Marvel film he’s subsequently been in. And while his personal politics and actions have led him to morally gray areas ever since… it’s all the work done here in his origin that allows us to believe every action that has occurred. All that and the movie made this millennial truly believe a man could fly. In a suit. Of space-age material, designed by a genius living with an electromagnetic reactor in his chest that powers it.

Vikings Season 4 Volume 2 Comes Ashore in October

LOS ANGELES  (July 18, 2017) – New loyalties are formed and old ones are challenged when Vikings Season 4 Volume 2 arrives on Blu-ray and DVD October 3rd from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.

Battles, treachery and power grabs rage on in Vikings Season 4, Volume 2. Ragnar’s return to Kattegat following his shameful defeat in Paris escalates tension among his sons. Determined to save what remains of his legacy, Ragnar recruits Ivar for a perilous voyage to England, where he plans to attack the Saxons. Meanwhile, a prophecy that a woman will one day rule Kattegat deepens Aslaug and Lagertha’s feud.

With its fascinating plot twists, seething emotion and spectacular effects, this breathtaking series continues to conquer. Go behind the scenes to view more action, more lust and more excitement!

Vikings is an international Irish/Canadian co-production by World 2000 and Take 5 Productions. HISTORY broadcasts domestically in the U.S. MGM Television brought the series to the network and brings “Vikings” to the global audience, serving as the worldwide distributor outside of Ireland and Canada. “Vikings” is produced in association with Corus Entertainment, and the series also airs on HISTORY in Canada.

VIKINGS: SEASON 4 VOLUME 2 Special Features Include: 

  • Extended International Versions of Every Episode (Blu-ray Exclusive)
  • Extended/Director’s/Unrated Episodes
  • Deleted Scenes
  • Behind the Scenes – The Queen & the Shieldmaiden (explore the beloved and powerful women within this world.)
  • Behind the Scenes – King, Valhalla and the Legacy of Ragnar Lothbrok (Follow a stunt player as he is outfitted, coached through fight moves, and ultimately plays his death in battle before the cameras)

VIKINGS: SEASON 4 VOLUME 2
Street Date:  October 3, 2017
Screen Format: 16:9 (1.78:1)
Audio:  DVD: English DD 5.1; BD: English DTS-HD-MA 5.1; BD Extended Episodes: English DTS-HD-MA 6.1, Spanish DD 5.1, French (Parisian) DTS 5.1, Castilian DTS 5.1, Portuguese (Brazilian) DD 5.1
Subtitles: DVD: English SDH, Spanish, Quebecois; BD: English SDH, Spanish, Quebecois BD Episodes: English SDH, Spanish (Latin) + txt, Quebecois, French (Parisian) + txt, Castilian + txt, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, Portuguese (Brazilian) + txt, Swedish.
U.S. Rating: TV-14

Win a Valerian: City of Alpha Limited Edition Mousepad

  • News
  • July 21, 2017

The much-anticipated epic space adventure Valerian: City of Alpha is now live on iOS and Google Play. And thanks to our friends at STX Films, we have one of their limited edition mouse pads to give away.

It is the official mobile game of Luc Besson’s upcoming sci-fi movie Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets starring Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne. The legendary director is famous for creating sci-fi blockbusters including The Fifth Element and Lucy.

All you have to do is tell us what most excites you about the game and why. We want your responses no later than 11:59 p.m., Friday, July 28. This contest is open to readers only in North America. The decision of ComicMix‘s judges will be final.

The film has been described as visually spectacular and the mobile game creates an engaging experience that will draw players into the Valerian universe. Valerian: City of Alpha was built from the astonishingly intricate backstory created for the movie. Gamers get to explore that super cool universe for themselves.

“Spil Games has successfully captured our movie in a mobile game,” says Virginie Besson-Silla, the movie’s producer. “What we see is an immersive experience that Valerian fans will have fun with.”

The movie is set on the astonishing City of Alpha — an ever-expanding metropolis where species from all over the universe have converged over centuries to share knowledge, intelligence and culture with one another.

The mobile game begins 590 years earlier when Alpha is still just a space station. The aim is to explore and discover the aliens and planets that will come to be featured in the movie. Players must complete exciting missions, connect with alien species and come up with strategies to help them create the knowledge-sharing metropolis. The ultimate objective is building for themselves the biggest and best version of the City of Alpha.

Much more than just a game of a movie

  • Revel in stunning artwork
  • Explore the entire universe in which the movie is set
  • Connect with mind-blowing alien cultures and snag their technologies
  • Create the Alpha metropolis — your imagination is the only limit
  • A unique combination of city building, exploration and diplomacy

Notes:

Valerian: City of Alpha is free to play on iOS and Google Play. It has been produced and is published by Spil Games under license from EuropaCorp. Spil Games is a fast-growing and agile games publisher and producer, already reaching huge audiences across the web and mobile. In the last two years, it has ramped up its mobile business to 250m installs. This growth is mainly organic.  Its target is 1 billion downloads.

Many recognize Spil Games as an up-and-comer in the mobile gaming industry. For example, Nolan Bushnell, the godfather of video games, is developing his first ever mobile game with Spil Games.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets will launch in the United States in 2D and 3D beginning 21 July 2017.  Spil Games has been selected to create the exclusive mobile game for the movie.

About the Film:

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is the visually spectacular new adventure film from Luc Besson, the legendary director of The Professional, The Fifth Element and Lucy, based on the ground-breaking comic book series, created by Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mezieres, which inspired a generation of artists, writers and filmmakers.   Valerian is one of the top five biggest selling Franco-Belgian comics titles of its publisher, Dargaud.

In the 28th century, Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne) are a team of special operatives charged with maintaining order throughout the human territories. Under assignment from the Minister of Defense, the two embark on a mission to the astonishing city of Alpha—an ever-expanding metropolis where species from all over the universe have converged over centuries to share knowledge, intelligence and cultures with each other. There is a mystery at the center of Alpha, a dark force which threatens the peaceful existence of the City of a Thousand Planets, and Valerian and Laureline must race to identify the marauding menace and safeguard not just Alpha, but the future of the universe.

REVIEW: Ghost in the Shell

While fully aware of Japan’s Ghost in the Shell and its impact as a Manga and Anime, I never experienced any version of it. As a result, I watched the recent live-action film version without preconceived notions. I knew all about the casting controversy but until there’s an actress of Japanese descent who can open a movie wide, casting decisions, such as this, will continue. So get over it.

Masamune Shirow created an interesting meditation on where humanity is going as he, like Ray Kurzweil, foresees the day when man and machine blend into a singular being. It won’t be overnight, nor will it be neat and easy. As a result, the question of what does it mean to be human permeates the film as written by Jamie Moss, William Wheeler, and Ehren Kruger and directed by Rupert Sanders.

The story centers on Major (Scarlett Johansson), an accident victim who awakes to find her brain has been wired to an android body. She now serves Section 9, a counter-terrorism operation, currently tasked with hunting down the killer known only as Kuze (Michael Carmen Pitt). Along the way, she is seeing images making her question not only her humanity but her memories. While searching for the killer, she searches for her own identity.

This is a brilliantly designed and realized world so I wish we were more fully immersed in it rather than seeing it as colorful window dressing. The Section 9 agents operate in and around an urban society but we have no real feel for how this world works nor how the general populace feels about these cyborgs and androids living among them. What is real and what is acceptable? We’re given merely hints.

Instead, sadly, we have running, jumping, fighting, and way too much shooting. Additionally, Sanders has everyone underplay their parts, muting the emotions and robbing the characters of range. The movie is drab and dull, perfunctory, wasting the grand themes raised and world built in favor of the same old.

Johansson has certainly proved herself capable of both acting and action thanks to her Marvel work and Lucy so she shines here. While everyone else is robbed of color, she shimmers as she comes to realize she was the first successful ghost placed in a machine, but far from the first. Her confrontations with her designer, Dr. Ouelet should have crackled but are instead downplayed. Juliette Binoche, in a change of role, brings warmth and humanity to the character but doesn’t get to do enough with it.

Similarly, the Section 9 team is made up of an interesting variety of international actors but other than Pilou Asbæk as her partner Batou, none of them are seen enough for the audience to care.

By the time the Major gets answers, Kuze’s predictable rationale is revealed, and things are settled, we’re long passed caring, preferring a nap or the source material.

Ghost in the Shell comes in a variety of formats including the standard Combo Pack of Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD code. The film’s high definition transfer to Blu-ray is stunning, capturing the colors and shadows perfectly for home viewing. The Dolby Atmos soundtrack is a solid match for the visuals.

There are just three interesting Special Features: Hard-Wired Humanity: Making Ghost in the Shell, a multi-part Making Of feature that properly credits the set designers and WETA’s visual effects team for bringing the original to life. We look at the under-utilized Section 9: Cyber Defenders and then you finish with the Man & Machine: The Ghost Philosophy that talks a more interesting game than the film manages to deliver.

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