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J.J. Abrams’ Overlord Attacks Home Feb. 5

Press Releases
January 10, 2019

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. – Produced by J.J. Abrams and directed by Julius Avery (Son of a Gun), the “wild and fantastically fun thrill fest” (Molly Freeman, Screenrant) OVERLORD lands on Digital February 5, 2019 and on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD February 19 from Paramount Home Media Distribution.

Embraced by critics, OVERLORD is Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and was hailed as “wonderfully tense and truly exhilarating” (Jonathan Barkan, Dread Central). The wildly entertaining genre mash-up boasts a stellar ensemble cast, non-stop action and plenty of wild twists you have to see to believe.

Fans can go even further behind enemy lines with nearly an hour of explosive bonus material on 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack, Blu-ray Combo Pack or Digital*. The 4K Ultra HD disc and 4K Ultra HD Digital release** feature Dolby Vision^® HDR, which brings entertainment to life through ultra-vivid picture quality. When compared to a standard picture, Dolby Vision can deliver spectacular colors, highlights that are up to 40 times brighter, and blacks that are 10 times darker. The film also boasts Dolby Atmos® audio mixed specifically for the home to place and move audio anywhere in the room, including overhead***. In addition, both the 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray Combo Packs include access to a Digital copy of the film.

Nothing can prepare you for the mind-blowing mayhem that is OVERLORD, an insanely twisted thrill ride about a team of American paratroopers who come face-to-face with Nazi super-soldiers unlike the world has ever seen.

OVERLORD stars Jovan Adepo, Wyatt Russell, Pilou Asbaek, John Magaro, Bokeem Woodbine and Mathilde Ollivier.

BONUS FEATURES ON 4K ULTRA HD COMBO, BLU-RAY COMBO & DIGITAL*:

The Horrors of War

Creation
- Death Above
- Death on the Ground
- Death Below
- Death No More
- Brothers in Arms

The OVERLORD DVD includes the feature film in standard definition.

PARAMOUNT PICTURES Presents

OVERLORD

Street Date: February 5, 2019 (Digital)

February 19, 2019 (4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD)

U.S. Rating: R for strong bloody violence, disturbing images, language, and brief sexual content

Canadian Rating: 18A, brutal violence, gory scenes

*Availability of bonus content varies by digital retailer

**4K Ultra HD, Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision are available at select digital retailers

*** To experience Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos at home, compatible devices are required

PARAMOUNT PICTURES Presents

A BAD ROBOT Production “OVERLORD” JOVAN ADEPO

WYATT RUSSSELL PILOU ASBÆK JOHN MAGARO BOKEEM WOODBINE

Visual Effects and Animation by INDUSTRIAL LIGHT & MAGIC

Music by JED KURZEL Costume Designer ANNA B. SHEPPARD Edited by MATT EVANS

Production Designer JON HENSON Director of Photography LAURIE ROSE, BSC FABIAN WAGNER, ASC, BSC

Executive Producers JO BURN JON COHEN CORY BENNETT LEWIS

Produced by J.J. ABRAMS, p.g.a. LINDSEY WEBER, p.g.a.

Story by BILLY RAY Screenplay by BILLY RAY and MARK L. SMITH Directed by JULIUS AVERY

OVERLORD

Street Date: February 5, 2019 (Digital)

February 19, 2019 (4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD)

U.S. Rating: R for strong bloody violence, disturbing images, language, and brief sexual content

Canadian Rating: 18A, brutal violence, gory scenes

*Availability of bonus content varies by digital retailer

**4K Ultra HD, Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision are available at select digital retailers

*** To experience Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos at home, compatible devices are required

Reimagined Robin Hood Targets Home Video in February

Press Releases
January 9, 2019

SANTA MONICA, CA (January 8, 2019) – The action-packed epic adventure Robin Hood arrives on Digital February 5 and on 4K Ultra HD™ Combo Pack (plus Blu-ray and Digital), Blu-ray™ Combo Pack (plus DVD and Digital), DVD, and On Demand February 19 from Lionsgate. Directed by BAFTA Award Winner Otto Bathurst (2014, Television Craft – Director – Fiction,“Peaky Blinders”), this rich story is brought to life for today’s audiences using stunning special effects, thrilling battle sequences, and mind-blowing fight choreography. Robin Hood stars Taron Egerton (Kingsman franchise, Sing, Upcoming: Rocketman), Jamie Foxx (Django Unchained, Law Abiding Citizen, Ray), Ben Mendelsohn (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, The Dark Knight Rises, Ready Player One), Eve Hewson (Bridge of Spies, Blood Ties, Enough Said), and Jamie Dornan (Fifty Shades franchise, The Fall, Anthropoid).

Returning home from the Crusades, Robin of Loxley (Egerton) finds his country oppressed by the evil Sheriff of Nottingham (Mendelsohn). With the help of Moorish warrior Little John (Foxx), Robin transforms into the heroic outlaw Robin Hood, taking up arms to fight the sheriff and win the heart of his love, Maid Marian (Hewson).

The Robin Hood special features include an in-depth, never-before-seen, 7-part documentary; multiple outtakes; and deleted scenes, all of which show what it took to put a new spin on everyone’s favorite hooded hero. Experience four times the resolution of full HD with the 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack, which includes Dolby Vision^® HDR, bringing entertainment to life through ultravivid picture quality. When compared to a standard picture, Dolby Vision can deliver spectacular colors never before seen on-screen, highlights that are up to 40 times brighter, and blacks that are 10 times darker. The 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack also features new HDR10+ technology, making for an enhanced viewing experience on next generation displays by using dynamic tone mapping to reflect frame by frame variations in brightness, color, saturation, and contrast. Additionally, the 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack and Blu-ray feature Dolby Atmos^® audio mixed specifically for the home, to place and move audio anywhere in the room, including overhead. The Robin Hood 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack,Blu-ray Combo Pack, and DVD will be available for the suggested retail price of $42.99, $39.99, and $29.95, respectively.

4K UHD / BLU-RAY / DVD / DIGITAL SPECIAL FEATURES

“Outlaws and Auteurs: Reshaping Robin Hood” (7-Part Documentary)
Outtakes
Deleted Scenes

PROGRAM INFORMATION

Year of Production: 2018

Type: Theatrical Release

Rating: PG-13 for extended sequences of violence and action, and some suggestive references.

Genre: Action, Adventure

Closed-Captioned: N/A

Subtitles: Spanish, English SDH

Feature Run Time: 116 Minutes

4K Ultra HD™ Format: Dolby Vision, HDR10+, 2160p Ultra High Definition, 16×9 (2.40:1)

BD Format: 1080p High Definition 16×9 (2.40:1) Presentation

DVD Format: 16×9 (2.40:1) Presentation

4K Audio: English Dolby Atmos, English Descriptive Audio, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Audio™

BD Audio: English Dolby Atmos, English Descriptive Audio, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Audio

DVD Audio: English 5.1 Dolby Audio, English Descriptive Audio, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Audio

Win a Halloween Combo Pack

News
January 9, 2019

Laurie Strode is back as is Michael Meyers! The sequel to the classic Halloween is coming to home video on January 15 and our friends at Universal Home Entertainment have provided us with one Blu-ray combo pack (Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD)

To win this, all you have to do is describe for us your scariest Halloween night. Be truthful and detailed.

Submissions must be submitted by 11:59 p.m., Monday, January 14. Open only to residents in the US and Canada. The decision of the ComicMix judges will be final.

BONUS FEATURES ON4K ULTRA HD, BLU-RAY, DVD& DIGITAL:
Deleted/Extended Scenes
Extended Shooting Range
Shower Mask
VisitoJog to a Hanging Dog
Allyson and Friends at SchooloCameron and Cops Don’t Mix
Deluxe Banh Mi CopsoSartain and Hawkins Ride Along Back in Haddonfield: Making Halloween
The Original Scream Queen
The Sound of Fear
Journey of the Mask
The Legacy of Halloween

The film will be available on 4K Ultra HD in a combo pack which includes 4K Ultra HD Blu-rayTM, Blu-ray and Digital. The 4K Ultra HD disc will include the same bonus features as the Blu-ray version, all in stunning 4K resolution.

MOVIES ANYWHERE is the digital app that simplifies and enhances the digital movie collection and viewing experience by allowing consumers to access their favorite digital movies in one place when purchased or redeemed through participating digital retailers. Consumers can also redeem digital copy codes found in eligible Blu-rayTMand DVD disc packages from participating studios and stream or download them through Movies Anywhere. MOVIES ANYWHERE is only available in the United States.

FILMMAKERS:
Cast:Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, Will Patton, Virginia Gardner
Casting By: Terri Taylor CSA, Sarah Domeier CSA
Music By: John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter, Daniel Davies
Costume Designer: Emily Gunshor
Editor: Tim Alverson
Production Designer: Richard Wright
Director of Photography: Michael Simmonds
Executive Producers: John Carpenter, Jamie Lee Curtis, Danny McBride, David Gordon Green, Ryan Freimann
Produced By: Malek Akkad, Jason Blum, Bill Block
Based on Characters Created By: John Carpenter and Debra Hill
WrittenBy: Jeff Fradley, Danny McBride, David Gordon Green
Directed By:David Gordon Green

TECHNICAL INFORMATION
4K ULTRA HD
Aspect Ratio:Widescreen 16:9 2.39:1
Rating: Rated R for horror violence and bloody images, language, brief drug use and nudity.
Video: 2160p UHD /HDR 10
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish and French
SubtitlesLanguages/Sound: English DTS:X and Dolby Digital 2.0, Spanish and FrenchDTS Digital Surround 5.1
Run Time:1 hour 45 minutes

TECHNICAL INFORMATION
BLU-RAY
Aspect Ratio: Widescreen 16:9 2.39:1
Rating: Rated R for horror violence and bloody images, language, brief drug use and nudity.
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish and French Subtitles Languages/Sound:English DTS:X and Dolby Digital 2.0, Spanish and French DTS Digital Surround 5.1
Run Time: 1 hour 45 minutes

TECHNICAL INFORMATION DVD
Aspect Ratio: Anamorphic
Widescreen16:9 2.39:1

Rating: Rated R for horror violence and bloody images, language, brief drug use and nudity.
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish and French Subtitles Languages/Sound:English DTS:X and Dolby Digital 2.0, Spanish and French DTS Digital Surround 5.1
Run Time: 1 hour 45 minutes

The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle Season 2 drops on Friday

News / Press Releases
January 7, 2019

DreamWorks Animation Television is delighted to share the season 2 trailer for The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle in celebration of the second season debuting January 11^th only on Amazon Prime Video!

From executive producer Scott Fellows, the world-famous talking moose and flying squirrel are back in season 2 of The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, a serialized comedy divided by unique arcs about two goofball best friends who routinely find themselves thrust into harrowing situations but end up saving the day time and again. The series was recently nominated for three Annie Awards, two for Character Design in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production and one for Production Design in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production.

The first arc of the season, “Almost Famoose” has Rocky & Bullwinkle go viral as famous rock stars followed by their lofty treasure hunting plans in “The Legends of the Power Gems” arc, and last but not least the duo embarks on their biggest adventure yet in and as “Amazamoose and Squirrel Wonder!” As always Rocky and Bullwinkle’s innocent and silly ambitions end up dovetailing with Fearless Leader’s sinister plans to take over the world, our heroes are set on a collision course with notorious super spies Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale. The thirteen episode season also includes special voice guests Mark Hamill, Mario Lopez, Weird Al Yankovic and Lil Rel Howery!

To: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment; Re: “The Grinch™”

Columns / News / Press Releases
January 7, 2019

To: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
Re: “The Grinch”

Dear U.P.H.E., we got your press release...
Afraid we can’t run it, thanks to legalese.
For as much as we might want to promote “The Grinch™”
The Seuss folks won’t budge here, not even an inch.
See, Dr. Seuss™ sent us a cease and desist
An action which, you understand, has us… peeved.
They told us, “Use any Seuss IP? No more!”
Not just Seuss/Star Trek mashups; Grinch™ hype too! Then... war.
They proceeded to sue us, making wild claims
of willful infringement, a charge that defames.

We're not sure that we’d want to, in any case,
assist making money they'll shove in our face
as they continue to file legal motions
and otherwise show very hostile emotions.

Our defense costs us thousands, and now you beseech:
“Please use your platform, extend Seuss's reach!
Help them make more moolah, which they’ll utilize
to stifle your speech so you can’t criticize!
Push their retelling! Please help us to coax!"
Their chutzpah is stunning. The nerve of these folks.

We don’t hold it against you, we know that it’s rough—
pushing “Grinch™” weeks after Christmas is tough.
We’d normally help; after all, ’tis the season
but we obviously can’t and now you know our reason.

If you’ve just heard about this suit, and if you think
that you’d like to contribute, please do! Here’s the link.

We’re now in the summary judgement last stages,
the judge has the filings with which she engages.
Our request for judgment should stand on its own,
the facts are all in, there’s no need to postpone.
Our motion is clear for the trained legal reader
although we admit that it’s not done in meter.
We think our case strong, we trust the judge concurs,
and fervently hope that our win she confers.

And to everyone following our long fair use fight:
Thanks for all your support... and to all a good night.

Book-A-Day 2018 #371: Saga, Vol. 9 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

Reviews
January 7, 2019

If you know anything about Saga, you know there’s a big change at the end of this book, and that the series is now on a longer hiatus than usual. If you know nothing about Saga, you might just have been living in a hole for the last seven years, and nearly anything I could say would be a spoiler for the first fifty-some issues and nine volumes.

But that’s always the issue with writing about a long-running media thing: there are the people who follow it passionately, who know everything you could possibly tell them, and the ones who have ignored it, who won’t get any of the backstory. What I try to do is write down the middle — for the people who know the thing exists but aren’t uberfans, who might be caught up or might not, since life is complicated and this media thing isn’t going to be everyone’s biggest priority.

That brings me to Saga, Vol. 9 today. It’s written by Brian K. Vaughan and illustrated — pencils, inks, colors, the whole deal — by Fiona Staples, as all of the issues to date have been and all of the issues to come are supposed to be. If you want to remind yourself of how we got here, you could check out what I wrote about the previous books: one , two , three, four , five , six , seven , eight .

It’s a soft-SF epic, set in a a universe influenced by Star Wars but full of its own quirks and specifics. Two soldiers from opposite sides of a very long-running war — their people are set up to be opposites in as many ways as Vaughan could manage — met before the series began and fell in love. The first issue depicted the birth of their daughter Hazel; Saga is meant to be her story, and she’s been narrating the comic more and more as she’s gotten older. Now she’s somewhere in the middle of what we’d call her elementary-school years — maybe six, maybe eight. She and her parents, and various helpers, have been on the run her entire life, and have been chased by various others, on and off, the whole time. There are a lot of moments of peace, but the war is always in the background: both sides would very much like to capture and/or kill both parents, and do that or worse to Hazel.

Vaughan and Staples have been clear from the beginning that Saga is Hazel’s story, not that of Marco and Alana, her parents. But she was a baby for the first twenty or thirty issues, so that message wasn’t as clear as they might have thought. And, frankly, even now she’s not old enough to have a story really separate from her parents and keepers — the emphasis on Hazel in the interviews around the most recent issue and hiatus seem to me to be signposts to say “Saga is going to run for a lot of issues — well over a hundred,” given how long it’s taken to get Hazel to this age and how little agency she has had so far.

I don’t mind long stories, as long as they are stories. Saga has a lot of serial comics in its DNA, but I think it still has the bones of a single story. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Saga come back after the hiatus with a time-jump, bumping Hazel up to an age when she really can affect events. Maybe not, though: maybe I’m just trying to hurry along something that will continue to go at its own pace.

Saga is still a very strong, humanistic work of SF, a story of people in danger and how they react to various stresses and demands and threats. Not all of them do what we’d hope they would, just like life. But they’re all real, and they’re what keep Saga worth reading.

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

Once Upon a Deadpool gets Quick Jan. 15 Release

Press Releases
January 6, 2019

LOS ANGELES, CA — From the studio that brought you Anastasia and Ever After comes a fairy tale that doesn’t go by the book. Everyone’s favorite disreputable Super Hero returns with a twist on Deadpool 2 that the whole gang can enjoy. Watch Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) as he teams up with Domino (Zazie Beet), Cable (Josh Brolin) and the rest of the X-Force to prove that family is not an F-word. With over 20 minutes of new footage and jam-packed with surprises, you’ll wonder why the fudge they even bothered with the original version.

Not only does Once Upon a Deadpool help you deliver on that pesky New Year’s Resolution to spend more time with your family, you can also feel all warm and fuzzy about the fact that Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment will be donating $1 from every Blu-ray™ Purchase or Digital Buy or Rent from January 1 to January 28, 2019 to Fudge Cancer (US only. Minimum donation of $100,000). Fox also donated $1 for each ticket purchased during the film’s festive theatrical release.

Once Upon a Deadpool will be available on Digital with Movies Anywhere, as well as on Blu-ray™ January 15.

ONCE UPON A DEADPOOL TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
Street Date: January 15, 2019
Screen Format: Widescreen 2.39:1
Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
Total Run Time: 1:57:41 minutes
U.S. Rating: PG-13

Book-A-Day 2018 #370: Paper Girls, Vol. 5 by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang

Reviews
January 6, 2019

Hey! The time-cops finally get named in this book! They’re called WATCH — we don’t know what that stands for, but baby steps, man, baby steps — and the old guy who runs them is Jahpo Thapa.

And our heroines learn more than his name, which I won’t spoil: they learn who he is and how he matters to them.

So, just maybe, Paper Girls Vol. 5 sees this series moving on from throwing out ideas at random and is now finally starting to knit them together into something coherent that can move towards an ending. I’m not holding my breath, but the signs are getting better.

(See my posts on the earlier volumes: one , two , three , four. )

As always, this story of a complicated (and not actually explained, even now) intergenerational time war focuses on four tween girls who were delivering newspapers early in the morning of November 1, 1988 when one piece of that war erupted into their home town of Cleveland. They’ve been to prehistory and several versions of the future — including the amazing world of Y2K! — but this time they’re in an actually futuristic future some fifty or sixty years up the line.

(Bad news for me: this locks down the stupid leet-speek future talk to that era, which is even more stupid than when I could pretend in my head that it changed over a few centuries. But it’s still Wicked Rad Kewl, which is the real point.)

So Erin, Mac, K.J., and Tiffany — plus the Y2K version of Tiff they picked up in the last volume — are stranded in dystopian future Cleveland, with a population in stylish jumpsuits and headgear and the occasional flying murderous police. But they head to the library, and actually piece together a few bits of the backstory in between fighting library golems, being shot at by the aforementioned flying cops, and interrogating senile old women.

They learn that they’re considered criminals, maybe because of the kid terrorist time-travelers we’ve seen before and maybe just because everybody is completely confused about the real origins of the time anomalies and war. That doesn’t help much, since they’re still a bunch of twelve-year-olds stranded in a city with no way home, among people who talk like particularly stupid members of the gang from Dark Knight Returns.

And, in the end, there’s another big problem for the four of them, and they’re all stranded in time again. I hope it won’t take another five volumes to learn what’s the vague deal of the junior combatants in the time war, but I’m not going to hold my breath. My sense is that Paper Girls, like any good serial comic, is going to spin out its central conceit for as long as the audience is willing to keep paying for it. Since I like time-war stories, I guess I’ll just keep giving it one volume at a time, and keep up with it as long as there’s still something new and interesting in each volume.

But I’d still rather have a real ending rather than endless recomplication.

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

Book-A-Day 2018 #368: Michael Moorcock’s Elric: The Balance Lost, Vol. 1 by Roberson, Biagini, and Downer

Reviews
January 4, 2019

I looked at a Michael Moorcock “Eternal Champion” comic — primarily by other hands — a couple of months ago, and noted that Moorcock made several attempts overt the years to end that series. Well, I’m back with another EC book, from 2011. And that era is, as far as I can tell, well after the point when Moorcock realized the EC would outlive him, and that he only needed to give it as much attention as he felt like at any moment.

What I mean is: he seems to have given up on closing out the series, which is all to the good. What sense does it make to have an ending for the Eternal Champion?

This series is titled for the most popular (and first) incarnation of the EC, Elric, but he’s joined by several others — Dorian Hawkmoon, Corum of the Silver Hand, and a guy from what I probably shouldn’t call Earth-Prime named Eric Beck — to make this another multi-EC story like Sailor on the Seas of Fate and several others. Writer Chris Roberson is clearly a serious Moorcock fan, so he knows these characters and does them all well.

But what I have here is just the beginning. As I understand it, Elric: The Balance Lost ran for twelve issues, and this Vol. 1 just reprints the first four issues (plus the prologue from a Free Comic Book Day giveaway). So the very last pages here see those four heroes, each holding a big pointy sword, probably about to meet through some interdimensional hoo-ha of the kind the Moorcock Multiverse is so full of.

But it hasn’t happened quite yet.

So this first volume is all set-up: Elric is wandering between worlds, somewhere in the middle of his career [1], and Hawkmoon is suspicious that his insect-helmeted enemies are resurgent somewhere, and Corum saves his old companion Jhary-a-Conel, and Eric gets caught up in the street thuggery of the Law Party. All are told by a companion that the Balance — the comic force that keeps either Law and Chaos from completely taking over — has been endangered, and may be capital-L Lost.

We see that some worlds are overrun by Chaos, and those are full of bizarre monsters and about to collapse into nothingness. Others are overrun by Law, filled with fascists like the ones we learn are led by Eric’s evil twin Garrison Bow. And both of those things are Bad, so our four heroes will eventually need to band together to hit things with swords to make the universe better.

For now, though, they’re each out on their own, in different worlds, hitting things with swords individually, under the care and tutelage of various mentors, friends, and mysterious personages. Some of them are hitting Law-things, some of them are hitting Chaos-things, but it’s all part of the same problem, and eventually — around the end of Volume 3, I expect — they’ll manage to find one big thing they can all hit with their swords at the same time and save the balance.

Eternal Champion stories do get pretty formulaic: that’s just the way they are. It’s fantasy adventure of a particular kind, and generally quite entertaining. Roberson clearly has a deep knowledge and affection for the Moorcock Multiverse, and throws in a lot of little bits from other stories to show that this is one of the big stories that effects everything. Artist Francesco Biagini does the script justice, though I do think he has the standard problem of making Elric look too strong and powerful — Elric can barely stand up without his sword, and only survives because of it.

So Elric: The Balance Lost is a good EC story, with lots of Easter Eggs for long-time Moorcock fans — or, lat least, this first third is. Let me see if I can find the other pieces to find out how it comes out in the end….

[1] Elric’s timeline is a little muddled because Moorcock wrote his death first and has been filling in middle ever since. There probably is someone — maybe even Roberson — who knows how all of the Elric stories are related in time, but that person is not me.

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

Book-A-Day 2018 #365: Love and Rockets, Vol. 4: Issues 1-6 by Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez

Reviews
January 1, 2019

This is not a book; this post breaks one of my silly self-imposed rules. (I’m just noting that up front. I’m not going to do anything about it.)

The fourth run of Love and Rockets returned to a magazine size and a periodical publication: there have been six issues since it was launched in 2016. So, to close out I Love (And Rockets) Mondays for the year, I thought I should look at the most recent material, to see what the Locas and Luba’s family are doing with themselves right now.

Each issue has 32 pages of comics (plus four pages of ads or other editorial matter; there’s usually a letters page), so, as of about a month ago, there are 192 pages of new Hernandez Brothers comics, roughly the size of one of the individual graphic novels.

Like New Stories, or like any serialization, this is work in progress, mostly middles of stories. The only major break from New Stories is the new logo (seen to the left; it changed slightly for issue two and later) and the altered credit line — Gilbert and Jaime finally get their first names on the cover after thirty-five years. (And it has been consistently alphabetical, or maybe age order, for all six issues to date.)

As with New Stories, they alternate covers. Like the classic magazine series, the other brother contributes a back-cover. For the new century, though, there are also variant covers — several for the first issue, and a Fantagraphics-exclusive for all of them to date. (If I were a retailer, I would not be happy at all if a publisher had a cover only available for purchase directly from them, and so I’m happy I’m not a retailer.)

The stories continue from New Stories as well: Jaime finishes up the Maggie-and-Hopey-go-to-a-punk-reunion in the sixth issue, has a little more with Tonta and her gang, and continues the baffling and now apparently standalone adventures of Princess Anima in space. Gilbert milks the lots-of-Fritz-clones story for the first couple of issues, and then drops it to focus on Fritz’s long-unknown twin daughters. (Unknown to the reader, unknown to each other, but one was, retroactively, not unknown to her mother.)

I’m finding the Jaime material of this era generally more successful — the Maggie and Hopey story is another strong one, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it comes together in a single book. Tonta and her friends are still goofballs, though, and their stories are, I guess, more slice-of-life than anything else: they don’t seem to be going anywhere. And I think the Princess Anima stuff needs to have an ending before I have any clue what it’s going to be: it feels to me like Jaime is doing a Gilbert-style id-fueled SFnal story, without long-term plots and driven by immediate momentum. There are interesting bits, and he as always draws wonderfully, but I’m not sure if there’s a there there.

Gilbert, on the other hand, is doing a lot of quirky things with his drawing, not all of which are immediately working: using heavier borders for flashbacks, for example, which he felt he needed to explain in the stories. I also noticed some deliberately stiff layouts and “camera” movements: there’s one sequence where Killer and Jimmy stand stock still for several panels while the viewpoint rotates around them one quadrant at a time, and a number of places where he lines up faces repeatedly. As in the late New Stories era, he’s also spending a lot of time in these stories having his characters face each other and talk through the same things over and over again — Killer is now a singer, let’s run through the top 10 Fritz impersonators for this issue, Baby/Rosario and Rosalba are twins and here’s how they were separated, Fritz has never done porn but there are rumors she has, and so on and on and on.

I suspect he’s been getting letters about some aspects of this — or maybe somewhat different complaints — because he has stories titled things like “Fritz Haters Will Just Have to Be Patient” and “More for the Haters.” He’s also drawing “must be 18” censor-boxes over the naked chests of his female characters a lot, sometimes in art on the walls — which I thought was a quirky, fun choice; maybe a comment on the art-world — but also sometimes in characters actually in the stories, which is more metafictional. Jaime has drawn nipples in the same issue, so it’s not an obvious issue of censorship — just another artistic choice that isn’t quite clear yet.

But Gilbert wrote his way out of the swamp of Too Many Fritzes, and the last couple of issues sees more lightness to his work, as it opens out to more of the cast and shows changes in their lives. He’s still doing the people-standing-still-and-talking-at-each-other thing, but it wouldn’t be Gilbert without some odd artistic choices.

Love and Rockets the periodical was always like that, though. The books organize and coral the material, putting all of the wild-hair ideas into separate volumes and allowing the larger stories to stand alone. But the ongoing comic, in whatever format, is full of pieces of story in any era — Tonta or Rocky, Errata Stigmata or Mila — and those don’t always turn into anything nicely book-shaped. We read Love and Rockets because both Gilbert and Jaime are great cartoonists, with a few touchpoints in common, and because even if we think what one of them is doing this year isn’t all that great (Too Many Fritzes, Adventures of the Ti-Girls), it’s always going to be at least an interesting, unique failure.

It’s been going thirty-five years so far, in various formats. I can hope for thirty-five more, can’t I? To see what ninety-something Jaime and Gilbert will be doing?

Note: this is day 365, but it’s not the end of Book-A-Day. Look for a post-mortem tomorrow listing the whole series…and about fourteen more daily Book-A-Day posts running through mid-January, since there’s stuff I read in 2018 that I haven’t gotten into that format yet.