The Mix : What are people talking about today?

John Ostrander: Holding Out For A Hero

Bill Maher, noted iconoclastic and increasingly misanthropic host of Real Time on HBO, announced about ten days ago that he was taking July off because, after six months of President Trump, he really needed it. I sympathize. Not before he took what I regard as some ill-informed and gratuitous swipes at comics, comic book movies, sci-fi/fantasy books, movies and TV and anything else I assume that he considers intellectually lowbrow.

Among his gripes that the stupid summer movies were increasingly infiltrating into fall, the time for more serious, adult movies. His biggest gripe is that they make us, the unwashed public, stupider because it makes us want a savior, someone who will descend from on high and rescue us instead of getting off our duffs and doing what needs to be done (i.e. deal with Trump) ourselves.

Except they’re not.

What bothers me about Maher’s criticisms is that he really doesn’t know what he’s talking about. I have severe doubts Mr. Maher has seen any of the superhero films, let alone read a comic book. It reminds me of the people who used to criticize Harry Potter films and books (which Maher also dislikes) as Satanic without ever having seen a film or read a word of the books. Somebody told them they were Satanic and that’s all they needed.

I can’t entirely blame Maher for thinking that films such as Man of Steel present the superhero as a godlike being descending to save the masses. The director, Zack Snyder, appeared to make the same mistake, presenting Supes in various Jesus like images. However, Superman is more like Moses than Jesus. Moses comes as a baby in a basket floating down the Nile to the Egyptian princess; baby Kal-El comes to Earth in a small rocket to the Kents in Kansas. Moses grows up as an Egyptian; Kal-El grows up as part of the Midwestern farming community.

However, Superman is neither. One of the key moments in the first Christopher Reeve Superman movie is the first time he takes off his glasses and opens his shirt to reveal the iconic S.

Not only does he become Superman: we become Superman.

That’s one of the big keys to the success of Superman over the decades. It’s part of the myth. Yes, we may seem meek and mild-mannered like Clark Kent but, if we took off our glasses and opened our shirts, people would see we were Superman.

It’s the same thing in the Wonder Woman movie, the first time Princess Diana shows up in the Wonder Woman regalia. [SPOILER ALERT!] It’s a great moment as she climbs out of the trench and starts determinedly to stride across No-Man’s Land. She deflects the murderous gunfire of the Germans. She has been outraged by the suffering of innocents and she’s going to do something about it. The Allied troops, inspired, join her and drive the Germans from the suffering village.

At that moment, Wonder Woman is us. Male and female, we identify with her. We become her. That’s the power, not only of the movies but of the story in general. We identify with that hero. They can inspire us to become our best selves.

That is what Bill Maher doesn’t get.

I don’t dislike Maher. He speaks up on topics and takes positions with which I agree – such as climate change. In doing that, he speaks for many people. It’s why I listen; to hear what I think and feel put into words. That’s why it’s frustrating to hear Maher denigrate the field in which I work and that so many worldwide really enjoy. The global revenues on these films are greater than the U.S. take. This suggests that the films speak to people outside our shores and, I suspect, for much the same reasons. It’s not simply the special effects; it’s how they make us feel.

It does make me question. If Maher is so blind on this, how much else is he blind about and that I ignore because they fall into my own prejudices and beliefs.

I hope Maher comes back from his time off refreshed and ready to do battle again. I don’t expect him to backtrack from his previous statements. I’d just like to see him leave comics alone.

Because, Bill, you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.

Marc Alan Fishman: A Con-nundrum

This weekend finds the Unshaven lads amidst the fine folks adjacent to our hometown at the Anime Midwest convention at Rosemont’s always-lovely Donald E. Stephens Center. The show itself marks our fourth time attending. I’d be lying if I said this particular anime show was our top choice; Anime Central for all intents and purposes is a bit larger fish by comparison to this mid-summer affair. Getting a table at A-Cen however, is like getting a job with the city of Chicago. As my Uncle Howard once lamented: “You have to know someone, owe them a favor, and then hold on to it for dear life.”

Uncle Howard’s version of that quote was far dirtier than presented. But I digress.

This show itself is fine and dandy – boasting an always energetic crowd who attend with money in their pockets and a song (that we can’t identify) in their hearts. That it’s our fourth year attending should no doubt quell any lingering fear of us being tepid on purchasing a table. And with no small press areas to be dubiously placed you won’t hear me complain about any sundry logistic issues.

No, instead you’ll hear me complain about an issue brought to our attention that has me in a dilly of a pickle.

Anime Midwest, along with a collection of several other mid-sized similarly themed conventions are helmed by one Ryan Kopf. I would like for you to go ahead and google “Anime Midwest Ryan Kopf.” Go ahead. I’ll wait.

See where things get prickly?

For those too lazy to google, I want to tread lightly here. Suffice it to say, Mr. Kopf sets off more than a few alarm bells when placed into the ole’ search engine. He is connected to a large trail of word salad the includes creep, stalker, and several more I choose not to repeat here. Neither I nor anyone in Unshaven Comics knows Mr. Kopf personally. None of us, to our knowledge, have even met him. The folks we’ve worked with in conjunction with the con have always been genial and easy to work with. As attendees, they have given us access to a con suite with free ramen noodles, and their volunteer staff has always been helpful and friendly. But beyond those niceties comes now this blow to our decision to attend the show.

The sheer amount of anecdotal evidence that places Kopf in a litany of angry and spiteful feelings are enough to make Unshaven Comics think twice about attending this show – be it this year or any other in the future. Sadly, the table is paid for, the books ordered, and merch ready to go; to not attend is to derail necessary cash flow into our always-by-the-bootstraps-budget of our li’l studio. We have to be here, and you better believe we’ll sell the hell out of our wares until the show floor closes tomorrow afternoon.

But beyond that? We’ll be ghosts in the wind. Next year, when it comes to Chicago-based Anime Conventions, it’s A-Cen or bust.

The conundrum to this all… what irks me most… is the Devil’s Advocate that sits on my shoulder. Kopf is merely a piece to a puzzle that works without him. And should all that surrounds him be as accurate as my gut tells me it is (suffice it to say whilst doing research this week, several folks I know who know the man are quite clear in their agreement with much that Google identifies), well, can’t Unshaven Comics enjoy a good show in spite of him?

Certainly, the attending public either don’t know or don’t care. Converging with one another to enjoy a convention is one of the truest joys in comic bookery. Take Dragon Con; despite plenty of now-documented-and-accurate police action taken on the former leader of that Con, Atlanta’s crown jewel of geek fun continues to be a dominant gem for conventioneers abroad. One man, no matter the level of entrenchment he has at an event, necessarily sullies the entire show. The show goes on. Attendees come, revel, make memories, and leave without a single worry of who necessarily takes home the bag of cash at the registration desk.

It is my hope that Anime Midwest may seek to oust their would-be show-runner in much the same fashion as the aforementioned Dragon Con. There’s a gaggle of good people connected to this show Unshaven Comics absolutely wants to see happy and throwing one heck of a show every year. Conventions are hard business. It would be a shame to see one fall because a single bad apple sits at the top of an otherwise fine tree.

But as I said above: between my personal connections to those who vouch for the nature of Kopf, and the, shall we say, Bill Cosby-level of indictment that swirls around the man, Unshaven Comics need not argue with the Devil to make up our minds. There are plenty more fish in the sea. And until this particular piece of chum is removed from the hull of the show he created, our lines will be cast in cleaner waters elsewhere.

30 Film Collection Celebrates DC Universe’s Animated Originals

BURBANK, CA (JUNE 28, 2017) – Warner Bros. Home Entertainment and DC Entertainment celebrate a decade of heroic animation with the release of the DC Universe Original Movies: 10th Anniversary Collection, a comprehensive box set of all 30 films, 5 animated shorts, new special features and exclusive collectible items coming November 7, 2017 to Blu-ray™. The entire 30-film set will also be available on Digital starting August 15, 2017.

Launched in 2007 with the landmark release of Superman Doomsday, the DC Universe Original Movies are based on or inspired by storylines and/or characters from within the ever-expanding DC library. Produced by DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation, the stories range from films based upon iconic DC Super Hero stories (Superman Doomsday, Justice League: The New Frontier, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Batman: The Killing Joke) to films inspired by themes from within DC history (Batman vs. Robin was inspired by “The Court of Owls,” Superman vs. The Elite was inspired by “What’s so Funny About Truth, Justice and the American Way?”) to original stories (Justice League: Gods and Monsters, Batman and Harley Quinn).

The DC Universe Original Movies: 10th Anniversary Collection will include all 30 films – from Superman Doomsday to the all-new Batman and Harley Quinn, as well as newly released commemorative editions of Wonder Woman and Justice League: The New Frontier. The 32-disc box set will also include all five DC Showcase animated shorts – The Spectre, Green Arrow, Jonah Hex, Catwoman and Superman/Shazam: The Return of Black Adam. The details of the special features will be announced later this summer.

“It’s been an amazing journey from the initial concept of bringing comic book pages to screen to the completion of 30 animated films spotlighting the mesmerizing characters and stories of the DC library,” said Mary Ellen Thomas, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Vice President, Family & Animation Marketing. “We are proud to celebrate this first decade of filmmaking with an impressive box set filled with exciting extras beyond these stunning films themselves.”

The 30-film DC Universe Original Movies: 10th Anniversary Collection (Blu-ray) will include:

  1. SUPERMAN: DOOMSDAY
  2. JUSTICE LEAGUE: THE NEW FRONTIER
  3. BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHT
  4. WONDER WOMAN COMMEMORATIVE EDITION
  5. GREEN LANTERN: FIRST FLIGHT
  6. SUPERMAN/BATMAN: PUBLIC ENEMIES
  7. JUSTICE LEAGUE: CRISIS ON TWO EARTHS
  8. BATMAN: UNDER THE RED HOOD
  9. SUPERMAN/BATMAN: APOCALYPSE
  10. ALL-STAR SUPERMAN
  11. GREEN LANTERN: EMERALD KNIGHTS
  12. BATMAN: YEAR ONE
  13. JUSTICE LEAGUE: DOOM
  14. SUPERMAN VS. THE ELITE
  15. THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, PART 1
  16. THE DARK KNIGHTS RETURNS, PART 2
  17. SUPERMAN: UNBOUND
  18. JUSTICE LEAGUE: THE FLASHPOINT PARADOX
  19. JUSTICE LEAGUE: WAR
  20. SON OF BATMAN
  21. BATMAN: ASSAULT ON ARKHAM
  22. JUSTICE LEAGUE: THRONE OF ATLANTIS
  23. BATMAN VS. ROBIN
  24. JUSTICE LEAGUE: GODS AND MONSTERS
  25. BATMAN: BAD BLOOD
  26. JUSTICE LEAGUE VS. TEEN TITANS
  27. BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE
  28. JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK
  29. TEEN TITANS: THE JUDAS CONTRACT
  30. BATMAN AND HARLEY QUINN

Ellis & Hamner’s Red & Red 2 get 4K Ultra HD Treatment in Sept.

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

Relive the action-packed adventures of retired and extremely dangerous special agents in the most amazing picture quality available today when both RED and RED 2 arrive separately on 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack (plus Blu-ray™ and Digital HD) on September 5 from Lionsgate. RED features an all-star cast including Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren and Mary-Louise Parker. In the film’s sequel, RED 2, Anthony Hopkins, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Byung Hun Lee join the franchise.

Both movies are available for the first time on 4K Ultra HD, which provides over four times the resolution of Full HD and includes High Dynamic Range (HDR) to deliver the brightest, most vivid and realistic color with the greatest contrast. The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray will also feature Dolby Vision™ high-dynamic range imaging and Dolby Atmos immersive audio. Dolby Vision transforms the TV experience in the home by delivering greater brightness and contrast, as well as a fuller palette of rich colors. Together with the captivating sound of Dolby Atmos, consumers will experience both cutting-edge imaging and state-of-the-art sound technology for a fully immersive entertainment experience. The exhilarating thrillers RED and RED 2 will be available separately on 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack for the suggested retail price of $22.99 each.

RED OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS

Frank (Willis) is a former black-ops CIA agent living a quiet life alone…until the day a hit squad shows up to kill him. With his identity compromised, Frank reassembles his old team – Joe (Freeman), Marvin (Malkovich) and Victoria (Mirren) – and sets out to prove that they still have a few tricks up their sleeves. Stand back and watch the bullets fly in this explosive action-comedy.

RED 2 OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS

Retired black-ops CIA agent Frank Moses (Willis) reunites his unlikely team of elite operatives for a global quest to track down a missing portable nuclear device. To succeed, they’ll need to survive assassins, terrorists and power-crazed government officials, all eager to get their hands on the superweapon.

RED 4K ULTRA HD/BLU-RAY/DIGITAL HD SPECIAL FEATURES

  • Audio Commentary with Retired CIA Field Officer Robert Baer
  • Deleted and Extended Scenes

RED 2 4K ULTRA HD/BLU-RAY/DIGITAL HD SPECIAL FEATURES

  • “The Red 2 Experience” Featurette
  • Gag Reel
  • Deleted Scenes

RED CAST

Bruce Willis                                          Die Hard Franchise, The Fifth Element, Armageddon
Morgan Freeman                  The Shawshank Redemption, Se7en, Million Dollar Baby
John Malkovich                    Dangerous Liaisons, Being John Malkovich
Mary-Louise Parker                             “Weeds”, “Angels in America”, “The West Wing”
Helen Mirren                                        The Queen, The Debt, The Hundred-Foot Journey

RED 2 CAST

Bruce Willis                                          Die Hard Franchise, The Fifth Element, Armageddon
John Malkovich                    Dangerous Liaisons, Being John Malkovich
Mary-Louise Parker                             “Weeds”, “Angels in America”, “The West Wing”
Catherine Zeta-Jones           Chicago, The Terminal, Ocean’s Twelve
Byung Hun Lee                     The Magnificent Seven, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
Anthony Hopkins                  The Silence of the Lambs, Red Dragon, The Elephant Man
Helen Mirren                                        The Queen, The Debt, The Hundred-Foot Journey

Martha Thomases: Superhero Summer Love

Summertime summertime sum-sum-summertime. Long days. Sultry nights.

Summer is hot. Literally. We are very aware of our bodies, and the bodies of those around us. We wear lighter clothes. We wear sunglasses and/or glamorous hats.

Love is in the air, or at least lust.

Naturally, I asked myself, “What do superheroes do about this?”

I mean, skin-tight costumes are hot. Literally. And while certain superpowers like invulnerability might make it easier to wear synthetic fabrics or leather, that still doesn’t explain how a Batman can get through a humid Gotham summer.

I guess he’s had his mind on other things. Last month, he proposed to Catwoman Selina Kyle, on a rooftop, both dressed in their superhero outfits.

Neither one of them appeared to be sweating. Although it’s raining, so maybe that made a difference.

I like the Batman/Catwoman romance. I liked it in the old comics I read as a kid, and I liked it in The Dark Knight Rises. I loved it. I loved the Alan Brennert story, The Autobiography of Bruce Wayne, where they got married the first time.

I’m not sure I love this Batman and this Catwoman together.

There are a lot of iconic relationships in comics. Because some characters have been in existence for more than 75 years, these relationships have gone through a lot of ups and downs. If you’re a continuity geek (and sometimes I am, but not about this), you can make yourself crazy with the seeming contradictions over the years. Is Lois Lane a jealous snoop, or an independent professional dedicated to her craft? Is Carol Ferris a stuck-up heiress or a lonely little rich girl? Is Iris West a busybody nagging busybody or simply a person who doesn’t like to be lied to? Is Steve Trevor a macho man or a wimp?

Instead, I choose to see these relationships as reflections of both their times and the people (usually men) who write them. This is especially obvious in stories from the 1970s and 1980s when the modern day feminist movement achieved its first successes. You can tell that the writers (and, probably, editors) know something is happening, but they aren’t sure what they are supposed to do about it. So you get a lot of female characters proclaiming themselves “women’s libbers” while wearing hot pants.

(Note: I’m not saying no feminist ever wore hot pants, or that wearing hot pants is anti-feminist. I’m just saying it wasn’t as common in real life as it was in say, Metropolis.)

Today, with movies and television as well as comics, we have a lot of different versions of the same relationships from which to choose. I enjoy Lois and Clark in the Superman comics, who are comfortable being married and being parents. I enjoy Barry Allen and Iris West on the television Flash, mostly because Candice Patton is so refreshingly straightforward. I thought the Wonder Woman/Steve Trevor dynamic in the new Wonder Woman was totally believable, way more than it has been in the comics for decades.

I’m not so sure about the current versions of Batman and Catwoman. Bruce Wayne has been through even more trauma than usual lately, what with losing Tim Drake and everything. If I were his shrink, I would advise him to wait at least a year before making any life-changing decisions. I know he’s hurting, but divorce would hurt even more.

At least until the next ret-con.

The Complete Peanuts, 1999 to 2000 by Charles M. Schulz

This is the end; this is not the end.

This volume finishes up Fantagraphics’ decade-plus reprint project covering the entirety of Charles M. Schulz’s fifty-year run on Peanuts, with the last full year of strips and the few in early 2000 that Schulz completed before his health-forced retirement and nearly simultaneous death. (Sunday strips are done six to eight weeks early; his last strip appeared on the Sunday morning of February 13, and he died the evening before, in one of the most perfectly sad moments of timing ever.)

So that’s the end.

It’s also the beginning: also included in this book are all of the Li’l Folks strips that Schulz created for the St. Paul Pioneer Press from 1947 through early 1950, and which he eventually quit when his attempts to move it forward were turned down, freeing him to rework much of these ideas (and even specific gags) into what would become Peanuts.

But it’s also not the end: there is one more book in the Fantagraphics series, the inevitable odds & sods volume with advertising art and comic-book strips and several of those small impulse-buy books from the ’70s and ’80s that Schulz wrote and drew featuring his Peanuts characters.

So The Complete Peanuts, 1999 to 2000 is the end of Peanuts. And it’s the pre-beginning of Peanuts. But it’s not the end of The Complete Peanuts.

Since we’re talking about a fifty-year run by one man on one strip, and a publishing project that spanned more than ten years itself, perhaps some context would be useful. Luckily, I’ve been writing about these books for some time, so have a vast number of links back to my prior posts on the books covering years 1957-1958 , 1959-1960 , 1961-1962 , 1963-1964 , 1965-1966 , 1967-1968, 1969-1970 , 1971-1972 , 1973-1974 , 1975-1976 , 1977-1978 , 1979-1980 , 1981-1982 , 1983-1984 , 1985-1986 , 1987-1988 , 1989-1990 , 1991-1992 , 1993-1994 , the flashback to 1950-1952 , and then back to the future with 1995-1996 and 1997-1998 .

By this point in his career, Schulz was an old pro, adept at turning out funny gags and new twists on stock situations on a daily basis.  But maybe his age had been catching up to him: there’s a wistfulness to some of the gags from the last few years of the strip, and something of a return to the deep underlying sadness of the late ’60s and early ’70s. But Peanuts was always a strip about failure and small moments of disappointment, and that kept flourishing until the end.

And, if his line had gotten a bit shaky in the last decade of Peanuts, it was still expressive and precise. And there’s no sign of his illness until in the the very last minute: the third-to-last daily strip, 12/31/99, suddenly has a different lettering style in its final panel — maybe typeset based on Schulz’s hand-lettering, maybe done by someone else in his studio to match his work. Then the 1/1/00 strip is one large, slightly shakier panel with that different lettering. And 1/2/00 is the typeset farewell: Schulz, as far as we can see in public, realized he couldn’t keep going at the level he expected of himself, and immediately quit. There was no decline. (The last few Sunday strips, which came out in January and February of 2000 but were drawn earlier, don’t show any change at all until that final typeset valedictory — the same one as the daily strip to this slightly different audience.)

In the book, that loops right back around to the earliest Li’l Folks, which had typeset captions. And then we can watch Schulz take over his own lettering and get better at it over the three years of that weekly strip, hitting the level he maintained for fifty years of Peanuts after not very long at all.

We can also see Schulz’s art getting crisper and less fussy as Li’l Folks goes on, as he turned into the cartoonist who would burst forth with Peanuts in the fall of 1950. Li’l Folks is minor, mostly — cute gags about kids and their dog, mimicking adults or pantomiming jokes based on their shortness — but there are flashes of what would be Peanuts later. And I mean “flashes” specifically: Schulz re-used many of the better ideas from Li’l Folks for Peanuts, so a lot of the older strip will be vaguely familiar to readers who know the early Peanuts well.

Perhaps most importantly, putting Li’l Folks at the end keeps this 1999-2000 volume from being depressing. It’s already shorter than the others, inevitably, but putting the old strip back turns the series into an Ouroboros, as if Schulz was immediately reincarnated as his younger self, with all of his triumphs ahead of him (and heartaches, too — we can never forget those, with Schulz and Peanuts).

Peanuts was a great strip, one of the true American originals. And it ended as well as any work by one creator ever could, having grown and thrived in an era where Schulz could have control of his work. (If he’d covered the first half of his century, that probably wouldn’t have happened: Peanuts is the great strip that ended partly out of historical happenstance and partly because Schulz and his family wanted it so.) So there is sadness here, but there’s a lot of sadness in Peanuts anyway: it’s entirely appropriate.

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

Alien: Convenent Hits Disc in August

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment presents Ridley Scott’s return to the universe he created, with ALIEN: COVENANT, the newest chapter in the groundbreaking ALIEN franchise, arriving on Digital HD August 1 and on 4K Ultra HD™, Blu-ray™ and DVD August 15. Limited Edition Exclusives will be available at Walmart, Target, and Best Buy.

The crew of the colony ship Covenant, bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, discovers what they think is an unchartered paradise, but is actually a dark, dangerous world. When they uncover a terrifying threat beyond their imagination, they must attempt a harrowing escape.

Featuring an all-star cast including Academy Award Nominee Michael Fassbender (X-Men franchise, Steve Jobs), Katherine Waterston (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them), Billy Crudup (Jackie), Danny McBride (This Is The End) and Demián Bichir (The Hateful Eight), ALIEN: COVENANT is loaded with bonus material including a making-of documentary, deleted and extended scenes, commentary by director Ridley Scott, an inside look at “David’s Lab,” crew fear tests, and much more.

Fans can also pick up exclusive editions of ALIEN: COVENANT at Walmart, Target and Best Buy!

    • Walmart – Alien Day fan art designed t-shirt (4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray formats)
    • Target – 36-page book packaging featuring an inside look at David’s Lab and the creatures of Alien: Covenant, PLUS behind-the-scenes photography and concept sketches (Blu-ray format)
    • Best Buy –Alien baby Xenomorph steelbook (4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray formats)
BONUS FEATURES

  • Deleted and Extended Scenes
    • Prologue (Extended)
    • Walter in Greenhouse
    • Oram and Daniels (Extended)
    • Walter Visits Daniels
    • Daniels Bedroom Flashback
    • Jacob’s Funeral (Extended)
    • Ledwards Fall
    • Crossing the Plaza (Extended)
    • Daniels Thanks Walter
    • Rosenthal Prayer
    • Walter Reports Back
    • Stairs to Eggroom (Extended)
  • USCSS Covenant
    • Meet Walter
    • Phobos
    • The Last Supper
  • SECTOR 87 – PLANET 4
    • The Crossing
    • Advent
    • David’s Illustrations – Image Gallery
  • Master Class: Ridley Scott  – Documentary on the making of Alien: Covenant
  • Director Commentary by Ridley Scott
  • Production Gallery

ALIEN: COVENANT 4K Ultra HD™
Street Date:                             August 15, 2017
Prebook Date:                         July 12, 2017
Screen Format:                       Widescreen 16:9 (2.40:1)
Audio:                                      English Dolby Atmos / English Descriptive Audio 5.1 / Spanish DD 5.1 / French DTS 5.1
Subtitles:                                 English SDH / Spanish / French
Total Run Time:                       Approximately 122 minutes
U.S. Rating:                             R
Closed Captioned:                   No

ALIEN: COVENANT Blu-ray™
Street Date:                             August 15, 2017
Prebook Date:                         July 12, 2017
Screen Format:                       Widescreen 16:9 (2.40:1)
Audio:                                      English DTS-HD-MA 7.1 / English Descriptive Audio 5.1 / Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 /French Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles:                                 English / Spanish / French
Total Run Time:                       Approximately 122 minutes
U.S. Rating:                             R
Closed Captioned:                   No

ALIEN: COVENANT DVD
Street Date:                             August 15, 2017
Screen Format:                       Widescreen 16:9 (2.40:1)
Audio:                                      English DD 5.1 / English Descriptive Audio 5.1 / Spanish DD 2.0 Surround / French DD 2.0 Surround
Subtitles:                                 English / Spanish / French
Total Run Time:                       Approximately 122 minutes
U.S. Rating:                             R
Closed Captioned:                  Yes

Tweeks: Maddy Reviews The Wendy Project

On July 18th, Super Genius will be releasing what I think could be the best graphic novel you read all year! The Wendy Project is a modern take on J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan illustrated by Veronica Fish (Archie, Spider-Woman, Slam!) and written by Melissa Jane Osbourne.

It’s about Wendy Davies, a 16-year-old who crashes her car into a lake in New England while her little brothers are in the backseat. When she wakes up in the hospital, she’s told her youngest brother, Michael, is dead, but Wendy insists that he’s alive and with Peter Pan. The story then follows her to her school where she has to walk the line between reality & fantasy. And during all of this she’s given a sketchbook by her therapist to document the transition between her two worlds. You will love this book. Trust me!

Catch the Failed Saint Pilot on VOD Next Week

Directed by Ernie Barbarash, The Saint is an all-new reboot of the pop culture phenomenon which spanned decades. Staring Adam Rayner (Tyrant) as THE SAINT, along with Eliza Dushku (Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dollhouse TV), and featuring a cameo from the late Sir Roger Moore who starred in the original 1960s TV series, The Saint is a mystery spy thriller for a new generation. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment celebrates the digital release of The Saint on Digital HD/VOD on July 11, 2017.

With a new cast and new plot, The Saint, a modern-day Robin Hood, faces 21st Century challenges. Simon Templar is The Saint, and the stakes are higher than ever. His latest adventure involves $2.5 billion in African aid funds, a persistent FBI agent, and an innocent girl held hostage.

With a history of intrigue, from the original novels in the 1920s, to the movies and a TV series in the 60s, THE SAINT is sure to delight new, and tried and true fans. A must-own for any crime drama connoisseur!

The Saint Digital HD/VOD:
Street Date: July 11, 2017
Screen Format: Widescreen 16:9 (1.85:1)
Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1, English Descriptive Audio 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English / French / Spanish
Total Run Time: Approximately 126 minutes
U.S. Rating: Not Rated
Closed Captioned:  Yes

Glenn Hauman: Is Binge-Reading Bad For Comics?

On a whim the other day, I decided to go re-read some old Warlock comics.

It was an extremely mind-blowing experience, and not for the usual reasons when reading Warlock.

The issues blurred by in a smear— or maybe that was the old crappy printing. The seams in the stories were much more visible than I remembered. Things that seemed deep and profound just came off as silly and obvious. Even Adam Warlock himself, instead of being the tormented golden child trying to find his place in the universe, sounded and acted like a whiny brat.

Why? What happened? Was this book hit by the suck fairy?

No, that wasn’t it. It was because I was taking it in waaaay too fast. These books were simply not designed to be consumed one after the other so quickly.

You may have noticed this phenomenon yourself.

Scott McCloud spends a chapter in Understanding Comics about the way time flows when you read comics, how time is perceived, and the relationship between time as depicted in the comics by the creators and how it’s perceived by the reader. But, amazingly, he missed one important unit of time— the gap in time (and therefore reading) imposed from publishing.

We’ve talked for a long time about comics being written for the trades — that moment where we gather up six or so issues at a time, every six months or so, and put them together for a single unit of consumption. But for a lot of history, comics weren’t like that. There were no trades to be had. There were just single issues that you had to wait a month for. (Or, depending on where you grew up, you waited a week for 5-8 page chunks of stories, either in The Spirit section of the Sunday paper or something like 2000 AD.)

There were gaps of time. Cliffhangers. Come back next issue, kids!

Comics creators in the past used those intervals at the same time they were constricted by them. Chris Claremont was mocked for years for reintroducing all the X-Men every single issue, but he knew that every issue was going to be somebody’s first, while other readers were just going to have forgotten who was who over a month’s time. (And over time, X-Men became the most popular title Marvel published. He had to be doing something right.)

The biggest beneficiary of this gap? I claim it was Watchmen. Readers were tossed into a such a deeply detailed world where we were trying to just get more – we had to read the back matter of the issues, the non-comics stuff which hinted at a much larger world because there was nothing else to read. And fans would pore over it and discuss and argue while waiting, waiting for the next issue.

Around 400,000 readers read Watchmen episodically, you can tell who was screaming over the three-month gap between issues #10 and #11. But since then, there’s been the Watchmen collected editions, which is the way most people have read it in the three decades (yikes!) since with a total print run well over 4 million copies at this point.

And I really have to wonder… how are the new folks reading it? Are they going straight through? Are they skipping over the text pieces, and maybe coming back later? I don’t know, but I do know that they don’t have to wait for the next installment… and that has to change how the book impacts you.

What do you think?

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