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The Green Knight Comes to Disc in October

The Green Knight Comes to Disc in October

The bold new take on the 14th century medieval story of “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, comes home! The Green Knight arrives on 4K, Blu-ray™, DVD, and Digital October 12 from Lionsgate. From acclaimed writer-director David Lowery (Petes’ Dragons, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, A Ghost Story), this fantasy re-telling of the classic 14th century medieval tale stars Academy Award® nominee Dev Patel (2017, Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, Lion), Academy Award® winner Alicia Vikander (2016, Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role, The Danish Girl), Golden Globe® nominee Joel Edgerton (2017, Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama, Loving), Sarita Choudhury (Blindspot, Jessica Jones, Little Fires Everywhere), Sean Harris (The King, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, Tresspass Against Us), Kate Dickie (Prometheus, The Witch, Filth), and Ralph Iverson (The Witch, Brahms: The Boy II, The Accidental Medium). The Green Knight will be available on 4K + Blu-ray™ + Digital Combo , Blu-ray™ + DVD + Digital Combo, and Blu-ray™ for the suggested retail price of $42.99, $39.99, and $29.96, respectively.

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS

An epic fantasy adventure, The Green Knight tells the story of Sir Gawain (Dev Patel),

King Arthur’s reckless and headstrong nephew, who embarks on a daring quest to confront the eponymous Green Knight, a gigantic emerald-skinned stranger and tester of men. Gawain contends with ghosts, giants, thieves, and schemers in what becomes a deeper journey to define his character and prove his worth in the eyes of his family and kingdom.

SPECIAL FEATURES

  • Boldest of Blood and Wildest of Heart: Making The Green Knight
  • Practitioners of Magic: Visual Effects
  • Illuminating Technique: Title Design
  • Theatrical Trailer

CAST

https://youtu.be/9Pe4uOEJI4Y\

Dev Patel                                Slumdog Millionaire, Lion, The Personal History of David Copperfield

Alicia Vikander                        Tomb Raider, Ex Machina, The Danish Girl

Joel Edgerton                          The King, Boy Erased, It Comes at Night

Sarita Choudhury                    Blindspot , Jessica Jones, Little Fires Everywhere

Sean Harris                             The King, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, Tresspass Against Us

Kate Dickie                             Prometheus, The Witch, Filth

Ralph Iverson                          The Witch, Brahms: The Boy II, The Accidental Medium

PROGRAM INFORMATION

Year of Production: 2020

Title Copyright: © 2021 Green Knight Productions, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Type: Theatrical Release

Rating: R for violence, some sexuality and graphic nudity

Genre: Fantasy, Adventure

Closed-Captioned: N/A

Subtitles: Spanish, English SDH

Feature Run Time: 132 minutes

4K Format: 2160p Ultra High Definition, 16×9 (1.85:1) Dolby Vision

Blu-ray Format: 1080p High Definition, 16×9 (2.39:1) Presentation 

DVD Format: 16×9 2.40:1 Presentation

4K Audio: English Dolby Atmos, English Descriptive Audio

Blu-ray Audio: English Dolby Atmos

DVD Audio: English 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio

DC FanDome Programming Teased

DC FanDome Programming Teased

BURBANK, Calif. — Get ready to suit up! DC FanDome, the ultimate global fan experience, will return on Saturday, October 16 at 10 a.m. PDT, with an all-new, epic streaming event. The free virtual event will once again welcome fans from around the world to immerse themselves in the DC Multiverse at DCFanDome.com and celebrate the stars and creators of their favorite feature films, live-action and animated television series, games, comics, home entertainment releases, and more. DC FanDome 2021 will also be available on Twitch, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, giving fans more ways to watch the events unfolding in DC FanDome’s Hall of Heroes. Additionally, DC Kids FanDome will launch the same day with a special kid-friendly experience accessed separately at DCKidsFanDome.com.

Ann Sarnoff, Chair and Chief Executive Officer, WarnerMedia Studios and Networks Group, said: “DC FanDome 2020 was a first-of-its kind global virtual fan experience and showcased every aspect of the DC Universe with unprecedented scale and access. This year, we’re taking everything that people loved about DC FanDome and supercharging it to super-serve fans with even more exclusive first-looks, breaking news, in-depth interviews and insight from the stars and creative teams of their favorite DC content.”

World’s Greatest Super Heroes — and Super-Villains

DC FanDome will feature an unrivaled gathering of casts and creators behind fan-favorite DC games, comics, movies, and TV shows. Expect breaking news, exclusive trailers and announcements, never-before-seen footage, revealing conversations, and more surprises in the DC FanDome:

  • Warner Bros. Pictures will showcase six highly anticipated titles with an exclusive new trailer for The Batman, new content from DC League of Super-Pets, a first look at Black Adam, a sneak peek at The Flash, and behind the scenes looks at Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and Shazam! Fury of the Gods.
  • Warner Bros. Television will offer a look at new seasons of Batwoman, The Flash, Superman & Lois, and Sweet Tooth; a farewell tribute to Supergirl as it approaches its epic conclusion after six seasons; a celebration of 100 episodes of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow; a first look at forthcoming new drama Naomi; and a sneak peek at an upcoming episode of DC’s Stargirl.
  • Warner Bros. Games will feature new reveals from the highly anticipated Gotham Knights , developed by Warner Bros. Games Montréal, and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, developed by Rocksteady Studios.
  • DC publishing will honor the legacy of one of the world’s greatest Super Heroes and icon of truth and equality, Wonder Woman, with a showcase of three upcoming books. DC explores her history with the DC Black Label miniseries Wonder Woman Historia, expands the Amazon mythos with Nubia and the Amazons, and honors the inspiration she has provided to women around the world with the original graphic novel Wonderful Women of the World. Additionally, DC will share details about the next installment of the epic, universe-spanning Batman/Fortnite comic crossover, and fans can also expect to hear more about the upcoming Batman: Fear State, the new six-issue Black Manta series, the return of the Milestone Universe, and much more.
  • HBO Max will unveil an exclusive look at the upcoming series Peacemaker and limited event series DMZ. The streamer is also debuting more surprises and sneak peeks from new series as well as returning favorites such as Titans and Doom Patrol. All four series hail from Warner Bros. Television.
  • Warner Bros. Animation will feature a look at the upcoming limited series Aquaman: King of Atlantis; provide a sneak peek at season three of the adult animated comedy series Harley Quinn and share what’s in store for #HarlIvy; deliver a very early look at the next animated chapter of the Dark Knight in the all-new upcoming series Batman: Caped Crusader; and give fans a preview of Young Justice: Phantoms (warning: there will be spoilers!).
  • Warner Bros Home Entertainment will preview two upcoming original DC Animated Films: a sneak peek at Superman and the rest of the Justice League in Injustice, an all-new animated movie inspired by the popular games and comic, as well as the premiere of the trailer for the all-new animated heist movie Catwoman: Hunted. Both movies are produced in association with Warner Bros. Animation.
     

DC FanDome Around The Globe

All DC FanDome programming will be captioned in multiple languages, including Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, and Spanish. And DC FanDome will again be completely free to all fans worldwide. Adding to the worldwide DC FanDome experience, fans in China will be able to enjoy the global content plus a variety of exclusive and engaging local DC content.

DC Kids FanDome

Once again, DC FanDome is going to be a family affair, serving the youngest DC fans with their own special experience in the DC Kids FanDome. Kids and their parents around the world can explore the DC Multiverse alongside their favorite DC Super Heroes, catch sneak peeks of upcoming DC animated adventures like BatwheelsDC Super Hero Girls and Teen Titans Go!, and immerse themselves in at-home digital activities all in a safe, kid-friendly environment at DCKidsFanDome.com.

All Access DC FanDome

In addition to joining the DC FanDome at the main DCFanDome.com destination, fans will be able to watch the event via Twitch, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. DC FanDome will be fully accessible on phones, tablets, laptops, or desktops, allowing fans to take DC FanDome with them wherever they are. For all the latest scoop on DC FanDome, please be sure to visit DCFanDome.com regularly for news and updates. By registering at DCFanDome.com (it’s free!), you’ll get DC FanDome news directly in your inbox and gain access to members-only exclusives. And please follow the #DCFanDome hashtag on social media and the DC social channels on FacebookInstagram, and Twitter.

DC FanDome Shop

Beginning today and running through the end of October, Warner Bros. Consumer Products will launch the DC FanDome Shop in the U.S. with additional territories around the world to follow, allowing fans from across the globe to stock up on DC FanDome apparel, accessories, collectibles and more. Featuring exclusive, only-available-here DC Comics merchandise, the DC FanDome Shop will drop new items every week leading up to the main event on October 16.

Legion of Brand Super Heroes

WarnerMedia Ad Sales has recruited a Legion of Brand Super Heroes to join the action at DC FanDome 2021. Ally and Unilever have come on-board as official sponsors and brand collaborators. With Ally’s commitment to The Milestone Initiative and Unilever’s support of Believe in Wonder, these franchise-first partnerships will allow each brand to align with DC’s IP to drive impactful change across the advertising and entertainment industries, as well as fans worldwide.

DC UNIVERSE INFINITE

Leading up to DC FanDome and the event day itself, DC UNIVERSE INFINITE will be releasing more than 300 comics and graphic novels available to read for FREE with registration. New titles will be available each week, starting with the complete storyline of “Flashpoint”, fan-favorite series “Injustice: Gods Among Us Vol. 1” and, available for the first time on DC UNIVERSE INFINITE, “The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes”!

Legacy

DC FanDome 2020 was the first-of-its kind global virtual fan experience and brought together the largest gathering of talent, announcements and content reveals in DC history. DC FanDome: Hall of Heroes and DC FanDome: Explore the Multiverse supercharged the worldwide fanbase, generating over 22 million global views across 220 countries and territories with more than 150 million views of trailer content.

Gloomtown by Lewis Trondheim

Lewis Trondheim has done a lot of comics, in lots of different styles and modes. The ones that come closest to major US comics genres – funny books for kids, dark fantasy adventure , autobio stories – have been the most likely to be published well on my side of the Atlantic and to succeed here. The rest…well, publishers keep trying, but some things haven’t really clicked yet.

His first big popular series in his native France, nearly thirty ago now, was Les formidables aventures de Lapinot, a loose series of ten books which all had the same “characters” (anthropomorphic animals, in roughly the same roles in the story and with roughly the same personalities) in which those “characters” often played different roles, as if they were actors cast in movies with each other a lot or the members of a repertory theater company.

Some time ago, Fantagraphics published two of the books in that series – Harum Scarum and The Hoodoodad  – in paperbacks matching the size of the original French albums. Both were part of the contemporary “plotline” (as I recall, they didn’t really connect with each other), and I read and enjoyed them quite a while after it was clear Fanta wasn’t going to make what they called “The Spiffy Adventures of McConey” happen.

Well, time marches on, and publishers are enthusiastic about books for a living, so Europe Comics (a newer publisher of graphic novels) jumped in and published three McConey books in digital formats in 2018: Slalom, and Gloomtown, and The Hoodoodad (again). They have slightly modified the series title – Lapinot/McConey is now having “marvelous” rather than “spiffy” adventures, perhaps because it is no longer the late ’90s – and seem to be be planning to do the whole series in initial-publication order, if everything goes to plan.

(Note: there’s been no sign of the remaining seven books in the three years since this first batch, so my guess is that the plan is just as busted as last time. Maybe the next attempt will start from the other end, and translate some different books.)

Gloomtown  was published in French as Blacktown, which title gives different expectations in English these days than I gather it did in French in 1995. It’s a Western; McConey (who I don’t think ever gets a name in this book; he’s just “the stranger”) is an Easterner, on the run from a vicious gang for reasons we don’t know as the book opens. He lands in a small town, expecting to spend the night and get out quickly the next morning.

But the town is corrupt and the requisite Old Prospector type has just wandered into town with a big bag of gold, so McConey gets caught up in a battle to find and control the vein of gold somewhere nearby, plus being assumed to be a criminal just because he’s a stranger, plus the subsequent arrival of the very angry ex-Rex Logan Gang. (Logan being ex is the main reason for their anger, at least towards McConey.)

This is an album, so it all has to happen and hit a moderately happy ending in 48 pages, and it does — luckily, being an album, they’re large pages, so Trondheim has room for a lot of dialogue and action and takes advantage of that space. Complications pile on complications, characters race around town and outskirts at high speed, often pursued by each other or by bullets, and more than one character meets a sudden unexpected death.

The tone is similar to Dungeon: not 100% serious, but mostly straight. Trondheim likes to use genre tropes while winking a bit about them at the reader, as if to explain that he likes them, and is happy to exploit them, but doesn’t believe in them.

So I still think the McConey books are fun, and will read as many of them as I can get my hands on. But I do see why they’ve been a harder sell in the USA: Americans, as a class, are allergic to irony, and there’s no throughline of a larger McConey story to keep a reader coming back for the next one.

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

Trots and Bonnie by Shary Flenniken

In memory , the past is moments. We slot in memories to specific points in time: that was when I was living there, remember when Y was five years old and started doing Z?, that was the Christmas when A had that crazy hat.

But time is more fluid than that. Anything we remember was more than a moment: it was a period, an era, an epoch. It’s true for our own lives, and it’s true for a lot of art.

Especially comics, which are the great serialized art form of the American 20th century. I might rhapsodize about Saga of the Swamp Thing #21, the famous Alan Moore “Anatomy Lesson” story that upended that series and gave corporate comics a new template to exploit for the next few decades, and peg it to February 1984. But Moore started writing Swamp Thing one issue before, and “Anatomy Lesson” is full of the loose ends of the previous stretch of stories – and the reason we look back at it in the first place is what came afterward. It lived up to its promise, so we remember it.

Shary Flenniken lived up to her promise in Trots and Bonnie . More than that, she made radically different, larger, stronger promises than almost anyone else in comics: some other women were aiming in the same direction, but Flenniken’s work was purer, more precise, and consistent over a much longer period.

That’s the memory-moment issue again. I think of Trots and Bonnie in the context of the height of National Lampoon in the 1970s, as a burst of feminist energy in the middle of that very sophomoric, boyish humor. But Flenniken produced Trots and Bonnie strips for more than twenty years, from 1972 to 1993, spanning not just the Lampoon height of the ’70s but its declining years in the ’80s and its eventual implosion. Flenniken was one of the most consistent things about Lampoon for those years: a page of female concerns and anger in the middle of some of the most male-oriented humor imaginable, a context that got steadily blander and more derivative as those ’80s wore on.

That’s the wonder of it: that Trots and Bonnie existed at all, that it lasted almost the entire life of the Lampoon. Some editor at the Lampoon (OK: it was Michel Choquette) saw Flenniken’s early work – the first four Trots and Bonnie strips collected here predate her Lampoon years, and she did some other work as well – and said “my audience of college-aged sex-obsessed boys needs a comic strip about a thirteen-year-old girl obsessed with sex in very different ways.” He was right. And his successors, who kept the strip running, were just as right.

This book is the first time the Trots and Bonnie strips have been collected together in English; there was a previous collection only published in France, for whatever reason. It is not complete: for all that some of these strips are shocking and norm-breaking – the Lampoon prided itself on breaking norms; Flenniken chose different, more central norms than most of its contributors – there are some unspecified number that are too much to be republished. Flenniken says they were omitted because “Oh, that might hurt somebody’s feelings or something.”

I suspect it’s a bit deeper than that. But that’s how Flenniken works. That heavily-socialized voice of mid-century womanhood comes easily to her, even if the reader isn’t sure if she’s using it to tell the truth, to mask her intentions, or to set up her next attack on its sexist assumptions and crippling control of women.

But know that, no matter how shocking some of the strips here are, there are some Flenniken left out. She’s thinking about your poor shocked sensibilities, oh eighteen-to-twenty-four-year-old boys, the same way she was for the twenty years she made these comics. She’s thinking about those sensibilities, but maybe mostly about how to pop them most effectively and quickly.

Bonnie is a thirteen-year-old girl. She reads a bit tomboyish on the page: Annie-style blank eyes, always wearing pants, usually in a dark pullover sweater over a white shirt, like a school uniform. But she’s obsessed with sex, because she is thirteen. The great secret of Trots and Bonnie, for even the dull boyish readers who didn’t get any further into it, was that girls (and, if they realized it, by extension women) were as interested in and fascinated by and eager to learn about sex as boys were.

Of course “as” covers a wide range in both populations: that’s the point. But Flenniken, in the sex-obsessed Lampoon, gave those boys a window into the ways girls could be sex-obsessed, the ways they might talk about boys, might have their own concerns and worries and demands. Girls in most of the rest of the pages of Lampoon were objects – pretty naked bodies to adorn a joke in Foto Funnies, the targets of lust in most of the written pieces – but in Trots and Bonnie they were central, and active, and in control.

Trots is Bonnie’s dog: in best classic-comics fashion, he can talk, at last some of the time. He gets the punch lines a lot of the time, because that’s the deal with talking animals: they don’t have the hang-ups and fears and interpersonal problems of humans. They can just do; they don’t have to be self-conscious about it.

The third main character of Trots and Bonnie is the one who isn’t in the title: Pepsi, Bonnie’s best friend and inciting influence. Where Bonnie is questioning, Pepsi is demanding. Where Bonnie is concerned, Pepsi is outraged. Where Bonnie is interested, Pepsi is fascinated. Pepsi’s angers and enthusiasms and appetite drive a lot of the strips.

Flenniken wraps those three characters, a few others that recur at least a few times (perpetually smiling boy-next-door Elrod, Bonnie’s clueless and complaining parents), and a whole lot of one-offs into a series of stories, most usually single-pagers, that are all about sex. Sometimes it’s sex as in the old in-out (or the desire for same, more specifically), sometimes sex as an advertising campaign, sometimes sex as in women. There are strips about menstruation, abortion, and rape: Flenniken is not here to be happy and nice for your entertainment.

In retrospect, the Lampoon was a great home for this work. It was an outlet obsessed with pushing boundaries. Flenniken was pushing in an entirely different direction – I’d argue a better, more important direction – but just that she pushed so hard must have appealed to the Lampoon editors.

Trots and Bonnie is not dated. Not in the slightest. The details of the lives Bonnie and Pepsi lived in these stories are of their times, but their mental lives are still current. (Sadly, I guess. We should have gotten beyond this by now.) Even the classic early-20h-century style art just makes it seem more eternal and current.

I still think boys need to read Trots and Bonnie more than girls do – and I use the diminutive forms of both deliberately – because girls already know all of this. (Maybe not consciously, all of them: we all know different things. But I expect it’s already in their heads, one way or another.) So I’m very glad to see that it’s available again, and I hope the thrill of sex will induce some of the right readers, the boys who most need to learn that girls are people, to read it, and to laugh, and to achieve enlightenment.

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

The Law Is A Ass #455: In An “Almost Family” Way

Okay, here’s the part of our entertainment that no one wants to see; Bob Ingersoll dances.

We’re not talking Bob does a Viennese waltz or trips a light Japanese Chakkirako. I’m not performing any other shaking and shimmying the sight of which would make you want to Polka sharp stick into your eyes. No, I’m dancing my way around certain indelicacies.

Our topic, you see, is the Fox Network TV series Almost Family.

You say you’ve never heard of Almost Family? Wouldn’t surprise me. The show debuted in October of 2019 and performed so poorly that after the original thirteen episodes Fox ordered ran, Fox didn’t want to pick up the back nine. Kind of like how I feel halfway through a round of golf. Almost Family disappeared forever in February of 2020, which proves that something good did happen in 2020.

It was the story of the Bechley family. Dr. Leon Bechley, the patriarch of the family, was a fertility doctor with a clinic in Manhattan. Julia Bechley, Leon’s daughter, was the communications director of the clinic. Edie Palmer and Roxy Doyle were some of Leon’s other children and some of Julia’s half-siblings; family no one knew about, because, in a plot inspired by the real-life case of Dr. Cecil Jacobson, Dr. Bechley used his own sperm to impregnate several of his female patients.

I don’t know why Dr. Bechley used his own sperm, especially without his patients’ knowledge or consent, but I have a suspicion. From comments Dr. Bechley made, I suspect he wanted a son and, after not having one through his marriage, decided to try for a son by, uhh, playing fast and loose with his personal juice. (Like I said, I’m dancing here!)

I don’t know if my suspicion is correct. I watched one episode of Almost Family and dumped it even faster than Fox. I didn’t see if the show offered an explanation for Leon’s pecker-dillos.

I can tell you this, the pilot episode ended with Dr. Bechley being arrested while the assistant district attorney in charge of the case said her office determined that his acts constituted sexual assault. So Dr. Bechley would be charged and tried accordingly.

Except he wouldn’t. There is no such crime as “sexual assault” in New York. There are many sexually oriented offenses in New York all of which would constitute sexual assaults, but none of them are actually called “Sexual Assault”.

Dr. Bechley could be charged with a felony sex offense. Which one requires examination of the elements of New York’s sex offenses.

He couldn’t be charged with rape. Rape offenses in New York require the defendant to have sexual intercourse with the victim. NY Penal Law § 130.00, the law that defines some of the terms used in setting out New York’s sexual offenses, did not define sexual intercourse, per se. All it said was that sexual intercourse, “has its ordinary meaning.” Now conversation is an ordinary meaning of intercourse, but you can’t get charged with rape for talking dirty. Rather it’s what happens when… Well, when, “a mommy and a daddy love each other very much.” As Dr. Bechley didn’t have sexual intercourse with any of his patients in it’s “usual meaning,” he didn’t commit rape.

New York has a series of crimes called Criminal Sexual Act offenses. They require that the defendant have had “oral sexual conduct” or “anal sexual conduct” with the victim. NY Penal Law § 130.00 did establish what specific acts would constitute either type of “sexual conduct.” Rather than to quote them in graphic detail here, let me just say they also have their “ordinary meaning.”

New York also has crimes called Sexual Abuse. They require that the defendant have “sexual contact” with the victim. The statute defines sexual contact as, “any touching of the sexual or other intimate parts of a person for the purpose of gratifying sexual desire of either party.”

When he artificially inseminated his patients, Dr. Bechley probably used one of the two most-commonly used methods, intracervical insemination or intrauterine insemination. Intracervical insemination involves introducing semen into the vagina using a needleless syringe. Intrauterine insemination involves introducing semen into the uterus with a catheter.

If Dr. Bechley used either technique, he would definitely have touched the sexual or intimate parts of his patients. So could he could be charged with one of New York’s Sexual Abuse crimes because he had “sexual contact” with the victim? Possibly, but proving him guilty would be tricky.

Remember, the prosecution would not only have to prove sexual contact but also that said contact was done to provide sexual gratification to Dr. Bechley or his patients. Dr. Bechley artificially inseminated his patients to make them pregnant. I doubt his patients got any sexual gratification out of it. Dr. Bechley might have gotten gratification out of it, but could the prosecution establish that he acted for that reason instead of to make his patients pregnant? As I said, a Sexual Abuse prosecution would be very hard to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.

Where New York probably could prosecute Dr. Bechley is under one of the Aggravated Sexual Abuse crimes , specifically Aggravated Sexual Abuse in the Fourth Degree. According to the pertinent parts of NY Penal L § 130.65-A, that crime happens when a defendant “inserts a foreign object in the vagina… of another person and the other person is incapable of consent by some reason other than being less than seventeen years old.”

There can be little doubt that artificially inseminating someone would consist of inserting a foreign object into a vagina. But didn’t Dr. Bechley inseminate with the patient’s consent?

No.

Remember, the patients didn’t know Dr. Bechley was going to use his own semen. It is doubtful the patients would have consented to the artificial insemination, if they had known this. So, while the patients did consent to the procedure, that consent was obtained by fraud. The patients were, therefore, incapable of giving a proper and meaningful consent, because of the fraud perpetrated in obtaining that consent.

The statute does state that “Conduct performed for a valid medical purpose does not violate the provisions of this section.” If, for example, a doctor had to perform an act which would violate the statute as part of an emergency procedure on an unconscious patient, the doctor would not be guilty of the crime. That defense does not apply to Dr. Bechley.

When Dr. Bechley inseminated the women using his own semen without their permission, he violated medical norms and practices; not to mention his patients. His acts would not be considered a valid medical purpose.

By the way, it was not my intention to make light of a serious subject. As I said, I was trying to dance around some of the more explicit aspects of this column and fell back on my old standby of humor. It’s a psychological defense mechanism, like projection. Call it a deflect in my personality.

2021 Ringo Awards Ballot Announced

2021 Ringo Awards Ballot Announced

The final ballot from one of our favorite awards (for somewhat obvious reasons) has been announced — the 2021 Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards final ballot is out! The nominees were selected by the combined efforts of jury and public voting. The final ballot voting is restricted to comic book industry creative community — anyone involved in and credited with creating comics professionally.

The Ringo Awards , the Fan-Only Favorites from the nomination ballot, and The Hero Initiative Lifetime Achievement Award and The Dick Giordano Humanitarian Award will be presented at the Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards ceremony on Saturday, October 23 as part of The Baltimore Comic-Con. We’ll be there, and hope to see you too!

2021 RINGO AWARDS NOMINEES

BEST CARTOONIST (WRITER/ARTIST)

  • Derf Backderf
  • Mongie
  • Stan Sakai
  • Rachel Smythe
  • Adrian Tomine
  • Sophie Yanow

BEST WRITER

  • Penelope Bagieu
  • Anthony Del Col
  • Jason Douglas
  • N.K. Jemisin
  • Marjorie Liu
  • James Tynion IV
  • Ram V

BEST ARTIST OR PENCILLER

  • Josh Adams
  • Jamal Campbell
  • Elsa Charretier
  • Hanza Art
  • Sana Takeda

BEST INKER

  • Sanford Greene
  • Brett Hobson
  • Jjolee
  • Gabriel Hernandez Walta
  • Tonci Zonjic

BEST LETTERER

  • Deron Bennett
  • Aditya Bidikar
  • DC Hopkins
  • Micah Myers
  • Chas! Pangburn

BEST COLORIST

  • Toyin Ajetunmobi
  • Laura Allred
  • Tamra Bonvillain
  • Aladdin Lee Grant Rutledge Collar
  • Jacob Phillips
  • Joe Todd-Stanton
  • Christian Ward

BEST COVER ARTIST

  • Gian Carlo Bernal
  • Stephanie Hans
  • Maan House
  • Steve Lieber
  • Peach Momoko
  • Kevin O’Neill
  • Joe Todd-Stanton

BEST SERIES

  • The Department of Truth, Image Comics
  • Far Sector, DC Comics
  • Lore Olympus, WEBTOON
  • My Deepest Secret, WEBTOON
  • Usagi Yojimbo, IDW Publishing
  • Wonder Woman: Dead Earth, DC

BEST SINGLE ISSUE OR STORY

  • All-America Comix #1, Image Comics
  • Firefly: The Outlaw Ma Reynolds (BOOM! Studios)
  • Marcy and the Riddle of the Sphinx, Flying Eye Books (US) / Nobrow Press
  • “Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin” from Ice Cream Man Present Quarantine Comix Special #1, Image Comics
  • The O.Z., self-published
  • Parallel, Source Point Press

BEST ORIGINAL GRAPHIC NOVEL

  • Buried But Not Dead, Source Point Press
  • Kent State, Abrams Books
  • The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist, Drawn & Quarterly
  • Moms, Drawn & Quarterly
  • Pulp, Image Comics

BEST ANTHOLOGY

  • Be Gay, Do Comics, IDW Publishing
  • Hey, Amateur! Go From Novice to Nailing It in 9 Panels, IDW Publishing
  • Maybe Someday: Stories of Promise, Visions of Hope, A Wave Blue World
  • Pandemix: Quarantine Comix in the Age of ‘Rona, self-published
  • Votes for Women: The Battle for the 19th Amendment, Little Red Bird Press

BEST HUMOR COMIC

  • Akissi: Even More Tales of Mischief, Flying Eye Books (US) / Nobrow Press
  • ArkhaManiacs, DC
  • Billionaire Island, AHOY Comics
  • Love and Capes: The Family Way, Maerkle Press/IDW Publishing
  • Metalshark Bro 2: Assault on Hamzig Island, Scout Comics
  • Moms, Drawn & Quarterly
  • Wicked Things, BOOM! Studios

BEST WEBCOMIC

BEST HUMOR WEBCOMIC

BEST NON-FICTION COMIC WORK

  • Banned Book Club, Iron Circus Comics
  • Chasin’ the Bird: Charlie Parker In California, Z2 Comics
  • Come Home Indio, Street Noise Books
  • Dancing after Ten, Fantagraphics Books
  • Grateful Dead – Origins, Z2 Comics
  • Kent State, Abrams Books
  • We’ll Soon Be Home Again, Dark Horse Comics

BEST KIDS COMIC OR GRAPHIC NOVEL

  • Akissi: Even More Tales of Mischief, Flying Eye Books (US) / Nobrow Press
  • Cat Kid Comic Club #1, Scholastic Graphix
  • Jupiter Jet and the Forgotten Radio, Action Lab Entertainment
  • Max Meow: Cat Crusader, Random House
  • The Perhapanauts: First Blood, Scout Comics
  • Twins, Scholastic Graphix

BEST PRESENTATION IN DESIGN

  • Crescent City Monsters, Dream Fury Comics
  • Dave Cockrum’s X-Men Artifact Edition, IDW Publishing
  • The Harrowing of Hell, Iron Circus Comics
  • Heavy Metal #300, Heavy Metal
  • Impossible Jones, Volume 1: Grin & Gritty, Panic Button Press
  • Marcy and the Riddle of the Sphinx, Flying Eye Books (US) / Nobrow Press

Black Orchid by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean

It’s a cliché now: the superhero story that makes a startling new origin or explanation for a character. But there was a time when it was new. There was even a time when it was reserved for minor, unimportant characters – it was too much of a risk to radically change anyone important.

We’re very far from that world now: it’s been gone for almost thirty years. Perpetual transformation of the most profitable characters is the standard. I assume the Big Two have wall-sized whiteboards to keep track of who’s currently dead, when they’re coming back, which are swapping races or genders or powers or doing heel/face turns, just so they don’t trip over themselves.

And if they don’t have whiteboards like that, they should. They need them.

But 1988 was the other side of that wave: it had just started. Alan Moore had done it with Swamp Thing, most obviously. And the glimmerings of the all-crisis-all-the-time world, of eternal reboots, was faintly visible in the passel of Secret Wars and John Byrne Superman. And the conveyor belt of all-new! all-different! minor characters was just starting.

One of them was Black Orchid , a three-issue series in the newly hot Prestige Format (forty-eight pages, perfect-bound, on fancy paper with a fancy price tag to match) by two British creators making their American debut: writer Neil Gaiman and artist Dave McKean.

Black Orchid was a definitively minor character: she didn’t even have an origin, she hadn’t had a comic named after her before. She was some kind of mob-infiltration expert, a mistress of disguise with some other powers (flight, toughness, giving and taking punches – the usual stuff). So she was perfect for the soon-to-be standard British Creator Makeover — there was very little to worry about.

So Gaiman killed Black Orchid in the opening pages. (Spoiler, I guess, for the set-up of a thirty-five year old story. Citizen Kane is about an old rich guy who owned newspapers; Star Wars is about this space farmboy named Luke; The Usual Suspects are criminals.) He connected her to a bunch of other DC characters, mostly through the Alan Moore Swamp Thing (probably because that was the current model of “treating superheroes seriously” or “making comics for adults”), giving her an origin that’s not a million miles away from Swampy himself.

Oh, the first Black Orchid was dead. And the woman she was based on was dead long before that. But you grow orchids. It’s not like there’s only one of them in the world.

There are supervillains doing supervillainy and some vague ecological stuff in the background, but this is mostly about new Black Orchid trying to figure out who the heck she is and what the heck she’s supposed to do. (In the end, it will be: fight crime in a skintight costume that shows off her tits, because DC wants to sell more comics. But that’s after this series is over.)

In some ways, Black Orchid is “The Anatomy Lesson” writ large, with the General Sunderland role broken up into several people, the “principle” one a much more important DC character. This is all origin story for a character we didn’t realize needed an origin.

It is lovely and mostly thoughtful: the adventure-story hugger-mugger sometimes tonally clashes with the “as a newborn plant-woman, who am I?” soul-searching. Gaiman admirably keeps his heroine from violence for the course of this story. (I have no idea what happened afterward: I assume she used her plant-based barely-covered tits to batter miscreants into submission like every other female superhero with strategic cutouts in her outfit.)

These days, Black Orchid is most interesting as a warm-up for The Sandman, which began soon after. It shows that Gaiman was already eager to dive into the obscure corners of DC lore, and that he wasn’t happy with the obvious story choices that universe provided. And McKean’s art is simply stunning: this was the high point of his realistic style, fully painted and drop-dead gorgeous in every panel, just as stunning as the better-known Arkham Asylum.

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

F9 Races for Home with Director’s Cut

F9 Races for Home with Director’s Cut

Universal City, California, August 17, 2021 – The Fast family returns in the latest adrenaline-charged installment with a never-before-seen Director’s Cut of F9.  The blockbuster film has generated more than $600 million worldwide and now fans can own the global box-office phenomenon that features “unbelievable, jaw-dropping action” (io9) on Digital September 7, 2021 and on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray™ and DVD on September 21, 2021 from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. Featuring the original theatrical release, the Director’s Cut and more than an hour of exclusive bonus content – including a behind-the-scenes look at the gravity-defying stunts and nitro-charged cars, a gag reel and even more justice for Han – fans can now add F9 to their collection to watch again and again!

Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) thought he’d left his outlaw life in the rear-view mirror, but not even he can outrun the past. When his forsaken brother Jakob (John Cena, Bumblebee) unexpectedly resurfaces as an elite assassin, the crew comes back together to help Dom confront the sins of his own past and stop a world-shattering plot. Franchise veteran Justin Lin returns to the director’s seat for F9 and delivers this supercharged version of the hit film. From extended action to spectacular scenes that weren’t shown in theaters, F9: The Director’s Cut explodes with additional content that can only be experienced on home entertainment!

F9 also stars returning franchise cast members Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jordana Brewster and Sung Kang, with Helen Mirren and Charlize Theron. The film is directed by Justin Lin, who helmed the third, fourth, fifth and sixth installments of the series.  Based on characters created by Gary Scott Thompson, the story is by Justin Lin & Alfredo Botello (consultant, Star Trek Beyond) and Daniel Casey (Kin). The screenplay is by Daniel Casey & Justin Lin. The film is produced by Neal H. Moritz, Vin Diesel, Justin Lin, Jeffrey Kirschenbaum (xXx: Return of Xander Cage), Joe Roth (Maleficent franchise), Clayton Townsend (Bridesmaids) and Samantha Vincent (xXx:Return of Xander Cage).

BONUS FEATURES on 4K UHD, BLU-RAYTM, DVD AND DIGITAL:

  • GAG REEL
  • F9: ALL IN: The Fast family invites you to be part of the crew as they give you an intimate look at how F9 propels this epic franchise to even greater heights. This bonus feature, with more than 46 minutes of content, includes returning characters, new cast members, huge stunts, big surprises, and so much more.
  • PRACTICALLY FAST: When it comes to stunts, it seems each film in The Fast Saga outdoes the last. In this piece, we examine how Justin Lin and his team go to great lengths to shoot as many stunts as they can in-camera and practically, giving the film an authenticity that cannot be achieved solely through visual effects or CGI.
  • SHIFTING PRIORITIES: We first met many of these characters when The Fast and the Furious was released in 2001. In the 20+ years since, not only have the characters themselves grown and evolved, but so have the actors that portray them. Art often imitates life, and we look at how that’s particularly true in F9.
  • JUSTICE FOR HAN: Han is back! Sung Kang and Justin Lin discuss the genesis for the return of this beloved character, while the cast reveals how much it means to them to have Kang back along for the ride.
  • A DAY ON SET WITH JUSTIN LIN: The job of a director on any movie production is huge. The job of a director on a production the scale of F9 is immeasurable. Spend a day with Justin Lin and see just how demanding it is to navigate a production day when you’re the one with all the answers.
  • JOHN CENA: SUPERCAR SUPERFAN: John Cena is a real-life car expert, and no franchise does cars like Fast. Watch John jump from exotic car to exotic car like a kid in a candy store, giving you a true fan’s look at some of the rarest and most expensive automobiles in the world.
  • FEATURE COMMENTARY (THEATRICAL AND DIRECTOR’S CUT) WITH PRODUCER/CO-WRITER/DIRECTOR JUSTIN LIN

F9 will be available on 4K UHD, Blu-ray, DVD and Digital.

  • 4K Ultra HD delivers the ultimate movie watching experience. Featuring the combination of 4K resolution, the color brilliance of High Dynamic Range (HDR) and HDR10+, which delivers incredible brightness and contrast for each scene and immersive audio for a multidimensional sound experience. 
  • Blu-ray unleashes the power of your HDTV and is the best way to watch movies at home, featuring 6X the picture resolution of DVD, exclusive extras and theater-quality surround sound.
  • Digital lets fans watch movies anywhere on their favorite devices. Users can instantly buy or rent.
  • The Movies Anywhere Digital App 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-rayTM and DVD disc packages from participating studios and stream or download them through Movies Anywhere.  Movies Anywhere is available only in the United States.

FILMMAKERS

Cast: Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges, John Cena, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jordana Brewster, Sung Kang, with Helen Mirren with Kurt Russell and Charlize Theron

Music By: Brian Tyler

Costume Designer: Sanja Milkovic Hays

Editors: Dylan Highsmith, Kelly Matsumoto ACE, Greg D’Auria

Production Designer: Jan Roelfs

Director of Photography: Stephen F. Windon ACS, ASC

Based on Characters Created By: Gary Scott Thompson

Produced By: Neal H. Moritz p.g.a., Vin Diesel p.g.a., Justin Lin p.g.a., Jeffrey Kirschenbaum p.g.a., Joe Roth, Clayton Townsend p.g.a., Samantha Vincent

Story By: Justin Lin & Alfredo Botello and Daniel Casey

Screenplay By: Daniel Casey & Justin Lin

Directed By: Justin Lin

TECHNICAL INFORMATION DVD:

Street Date: September 21, 2021

Selection Number: 1961211331 (US) / 1961211759 (CDN)

Layers: DVD 9

Aspect Ratio: Anamorphic Widescreen 16:9 2.39:1

Rating: PG-13 for sequences of violence and action, and language.

Languages/Subtitles: English, French Canadian and Latin American Spanish

Sound: English (Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital 2.0 for Bonus Content), French Canadian (Dolby Digital 5.1), Latin American Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1)

Theatrical Run Time: 02:22:50

Director’s Cut Run Time: 02:29:53

 

TECHNICAL INFORMATION BLU-RAY:

Street Date: September 21, 2021

Selection Number: 1961211332 (US) / 1961211764 (CDN)

Layers: BD 50

Aspect Ratio: Widescreen 16:9 2:39:1

Rating: PG-13 for sequences of violence and action, and language.

Languages/Subtitles: English, French Canadian and Latin American Spanish

Sound: English (Dolby Atmos, Dolby Digital 2.0 for bonus content), French Canadian (Dolby Digital 7.1), Latin American Spanish (Dolby Digital 7.1)

Theatrical Run Time: 02:22:41

Director’s Cut Run Time: 02:29:44

TECHNICAL INFORMATION 4K UHD:

Street Date: September 21, 2021

Selection Number: 1961211333 (US) / 1961211765 (CDN)

Layers: BD 100

Aspect Ratio: Widescreen 16:9 2.39:1

Rating: PG-13 for sequences of violence and action , and language.

Languages/Subtitles: English, French Canadian and Latin American Spanish

Sound: English (Dolby Atmos, Dolby Digital 2.0 for Bonus Content), French Canadian (Dolby Digital 7.1), Latin American Spanish (Dolby Digital 7.1)

Theatrical Run Time: 02:22:41

Director’s Cut Run Time: 02:29:44

Young Shadow by Ben Sears

Sometimes a creator’s different instincts and plans don’t always play nice with each other. For example, a costumed-hero story has certain standard tropes: the hero can always leave the bad guys tied up with a nice note for the authorities and the reader knows that means justice has and will be done.

But if the same creator wants to do a story about corrupt cops in what seems to be a deeply corrupt city, tying up those cops will not have the same expected result: it just means their compatriots will untie them, maybe make fun of them, maybe get angry on their behalf. Frankly, it would just annoy Certain People even more: that’s an event for the middle of the story, not the end.

So I’m not as happy with Ben Sears’s new graphic novel Young Shadow  as I was with the last book of his I read, House of the Black Spot . Black Spot had villains who could be dealt with by mostly offstage Forces of Justice, and heroes whose modus operandi was a bit more complex and nuanced than the costumed-hero standard of “run around the city at night , asking people if there’s any trouble, and then get into fights with people whose look you don’t like.” That’s very close to Young Shadow’s exact words: he’s the hero, so the book says he’s right to do so, but his actions are exactly those of a bully or criminal gang: find someone doing something you object to (in this case, “rebel against your rich parents by drinking in the park and not bathing”), use violence on him.

If I were being reductionist, I’d say Young Shadow is “the Jason Todd Robin in an ACAB world.” We don’t know what Young Shadow’s real name is, or his history: we meet him on patrol, in Bolt City. He’s in tactical gear, with a domino mask, and he’s good at violence but signposted to be on the side of righteousness – the first time we see him fight, it’s to help a maltreated dog. Sears’s rounded, clean art style isn’t great at communicating this, though: Shadow says the dog is malnourished and dehydrated, but Sears draws him exactly the same then as later in the story, or like any other dog, just with his eyes closed most of the time.

Shadow doesn’t appear to have any real home. Maybe a bolt hole or three where he sleeps, or stashes gear, or keeps whatever other stuff he has. It’s not a “this guy is homeless” situation; it’s just not important. What he does is patrol as Young Shadow. What he does is protect the city. Anything else he does is not even secondary.

Shadow has a network of friends, or maybe informants. They’re the people of this neighborhood, or maybe multiple Bolt City neighborhoods. A number seem to be the owners of small businesses: a “lantern shop,” places that look a lot like bodegas, an animal shelter. They would tell Shadow about miscreants in their areas, we think – but, in this book, they don’t talk about nuts dressed up like wombats planning elaborate wombat-themed crimes, but instead about the night shift of the Bolt City Police Department. Those cops are acting suspicious, searching for things in a more furtive way than usual for cops. It’s not super-clear if there are elements of the BCPD, or any aspect of Bolt City governance, that is generally trusted by the populace. My guess is no. There is definitely some generalized “never talk to the cops about anything” advice, as with similar communities in the real world.

We do get some scenes from outside Shadow’s point of view, to learn that there are Sinister Forces, and that they encompass both the young malcontents Shadow beat up in the early pages and those crooked cops. (Well, maybe not crooked: they’re not soliciting bribes. We don’t even see them beat up or harass anyone. It’s just that Young Shadow is set in a world with people who totally mistrust cops for reasons which are too fundamental to even be mentioned.) There is an Evil Corporation, as there must be, and both a villain with a face and a higher-up Faceless Villain. Their goals are pretty penny-ante for an Evil Corporation: get back a big cache of crowd-control weapons and tools, get some more pollution done quickly before the law changes.

Shadow spends a lot of time wandering around looking for these people. I’m not sure if Sears is trying to make the point that this is not a useful tactic, or that Shadow is good at the violence stuff, but not so much at the finding-appropriate-avenues-for-violence stuff. I thought he did make those points, deliberately or not. Eventually, another vigilante appears: Spiral Scratch. (At first in a closed helmet, which I was sure meant it would be a character we’d seen before. But nope.) The flap copy calls SS the sidekick of Shadow, but the opposite is closer to the truth: Scratch is more organized and planful, and Shadow wouldn’t get much done alone.

In the end, our two forces of righteous violence find the thing the Forces of Evil are searching for, and dispose of it with the aid of an order of robot nuns. (I do enjoy the odd bits of Sears’s worldbuilding.) And they tie up some of the henchmen, which, as I mentioned way up top, will probably not lead to anything like punishment for them.

So I’m left wondering if there’s going to be a sequel: it feels like this story isn’t really over, that our vigilante heroes haven’t actually solved any underlying problem by punching a few people. And I also think I like Sears when his characters are detecting and talking rather than punching. But I like that in general, so that’s no surprise. People who like more punching in their comics may have a different opinion, and God knows they’re very common – if you’re one of them, give Young Shadow a look.

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

Catch the Red Band Trailer for Night of the Animated Dead

Catch the Red Band Trailer for Night of the Animated Dead

The animated recreation of George A. Romero’s 1968 horror classic is coming September 21, 2021 to Digital and October 5, 2021 to Blu-ray Combo Pack & DVD from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.

In Night of the Animated Dead, siblings Barbara and Johnny visit their father’s grave in a remote cemetery in Pennsylvania when they are suddenly set upon by zombies. Barbara flees and takes refuge in an abandoned farmhouse along with stranded motorist Ben and four local survivors found hiding in the cellar. Together, the group must fight to stay alive against the oncoming horde of zombies while also confronting their own fears and prejudices. 

Night of the Animated Dead features the voice talents of Josh Duhamel (Jupiter’s Legacy , Transformers), Dulé Hill (The West WingPsych), Katharine Isabelle (Ginger Snaps), James Roday Rodriguez (A Million Little Things, Psych), Katee Sackhoff (The Mandalorian, Battlestar Galactica), Will Sasso (MadTV), Jimmi Simpson (Westworld) and Nancy Travis (Last Man Standing).