By ‘UK Correspondent’ Steve Morris
The last-ever Eagle Awards have just concluded here in good ol’ Blighty (that means Britain), with the ceremony due to switch names over to “The MCM Awards” in 2013. End of an era, awards-fans! In lieu of us not liveblogging the awards ceremony Oscars-style (complete with a drinking game in which you have to down a pint every time Scott Snyder wins something), here is the complete list of winners:
All too often, super-hero origin stories happen to one person and we follow their journey. On rare occasions, usually involving Jack Kirby creations, we have a handful of people gain extraordinary abilities and we see how that alters the dynamics. In film, the focus has tended to be on singular characters so it’s somewhat refreshing to see Chronicle attempt something different. Effectively a YA super-hero novel brought to film; director Josh Trank explores what it might mean if three teen boys suddenly gain telekinetic powers. He has merged this familiar coming of age tale with the film trope of “found footage” (see The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield) keeping things fresh and interesting. Thanks to Max Landis’ script, the film and its characters feel contemporary and relevant.
There’s little wholly original about the movie – now out on home video from 20th Century Home Entertainment — as you feel elements of other similar tales so it all comes down to the execution and here, the film succeeds. It tells its story, makes its point and ends, leaving the audience entertained and largely satisfied.
The footage comes mainly from Andrew Detmer (Dane DeHaan), a high schooler trying to find meaning in life. He has a mother slowly dying from cancer and an alcoholic father, making him feel isolated, alone, and powerless. Some of life’s meaning is explained by his cousin Matt (Alex Russell), a philosopher quoting Jung and Schopenhauer, conveying the film’s message in a not-so-subtle manner. When they and class president candidate Steve (Michael B. Jordan) wind up underground, they are exposed to an unexplained red-glowing crystal, they all gain telekinetic powers. Being teen guys, they pull the expected pranks on one another from tossing balls to raising skirts (reminding us of the similar 1980s comedy Zapped!). (more…)
A long time ago… 35 years, to be precise… what were you doing?
On May 25th, 1977, theaters across the country premiered a little film that you might have heard of… and thereby saved the comic book industry. After the Star Wars comic came out, Marvel sold millions of copies, going back to press for numerous reprintings and outselling Marvel’s best-selling title Amazing Spider-Man by a factor of five.
So thank you, George Lucas, Roy Thomas and Howard Chaykin, for that six issue miniseries that staved off the Marvel Implosion.
For more information, read Jim Shooter’s take on how Roy Thomas saved Marvel, and the more detailed history at io9.
If you haven’t already seen this video, rush right over here and listen to Neil Gaiman give a commencement address at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia last week. In his inimitably charming manner, Neil advises the new graduates on how to approach a life in the arts.
He is wise and he is insightful, and he inspires me to riff on a few of his tenets. And, because I’m me, I’m going to quibble with another.
The best thing he says is the scariest: Fail. You can’t be an artist if you don’t fail, frequently and spectacularly. You have to make mistakes, and you have to make them in public, or it least in front of an editor or a curator or a choreographer or a director who will be a witness. If you don’t make mistakes and fail, you don’t test your limits, you don’t discover who you are and what kind of art you are capable of creating.
It’s not enough to just make mistakes, or we would all be successful artists. You also have to learn from the mistakes you’ve made. Sometimes the lesson isn’t obvious – Neil describes how he misspelled the name “Caroline” as “Coraline” and thus was born a brilliant story – but if you don’t learn, you’ll keep making the same mistake, expecting it to suddenly produce success. And then you are an executive in the DC marketing department, not an artist.
He also talks about not taking jobs just to make money, which is a fearless thing for a young artist to attempt. Money is important, especially when you don’t have any. It pays for rent and food. It allows you to clothe yourself so you are presentable and can get other jobs. Sometimes the artist has children at home, and a hungry baby really doesn’t understand why artistic integrity is a thing. Like making mistakes, this is where the true nature of the artist is revealed. You can make the sacrifices for your art, and learn from them, as you learned from your failures. Maybe you’ll learn that the life of the artist isn’t for you.
That’s no disgrace. That’s real life.
And now, here’s my quibble. Neil tells the kids in the audience that, whatever happens to them, they should “make good art.” If the cat dies, “make good art.” If you lose a leg, “make good art.” If you can do it in the bad times, you can do it in the good times.
I’m in favor of good art. There should be more of it. However, one of my personal demons, when I sit down to write, is the fear that my work isn’t good enough. I’m much better off attempting to make art, without sweating whether or not it meets anyone’s standard of “good.” A writer writes because she has to write. An artist makes art because she has to make art.
“Good” comes with luck, practice, inspiration and skill.
SATURDAY: Marc Alan Fishman
The Hunger Games stunned the Hollywood prognosticators when it opened with huge box office numbers back in March. Its stunning success has been easily eclipsed by The Avengers but the adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ best-selling YA novel remains a noteworthy success story. Now they are trying to seize the spotlight once more with a clever marketing scheme for the home video release late this summer. Here are the details:
SANTA MONICA, CA, May 23, 2012 –Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games juggernaut will arrive on home entertainment at 12:01 A.M. on Saturday, August 18, as the first film in Lionsgate’s (NYSE: LGF) The Hunger Games franchise, which has already grossed nearly $400 million at the North American box office and is approaching $650 million at the worldwide box office, debuts on 2-disc DVD (plus digital copy), 2-disc Blu-Ray (plus digital copy), VOD and digital download with three hours of previously unavailable bonus materials in the biggest home entertainment launch in Lionsgate’s history, the Company announced Wednesday. (more…)
There really is no easy way to write an obituary, but it seems even harder to write one for a man who might be best known for going to comic book conventions in a banana suit.
Yet, sadly, we have to.
A.J. Confessore, comedian and rock and roll interviewer, died this week at the age of 43. A staple of the New York City comics scene since his days at NYU, he is perhaps best known to many comics fans as CC Banana, who would attend comic conventions in attire not unlike what we have pictured on the right. I remember him most recently dressed up as a Wolverine banana– presumably a banana that sliced itself.
“A.J. was one of the most creative and driven people I had ever known,” said Manhattan Comics & More’s Robert V. Conte. “While working at Village Comics in the early 1990s, I recognized his ambition and talent. We became friends quickly sharing our love for comics, Kiss and Star Wars. That friendship lasted almost 21 years.”
“A.J. was one of a few whom, I believe, could handle anything thrown at him, ” says Conte. “Unfortunately, he was unable to conquer some unusual inner demons that plagued him for years. It’s a shame because A.J. had so much more to offer this world. I’ll miss him deeply.”
So will we all.
In [[[SUPERMAN VS. THE ELITE]]], Superman’s effectiveness as a super hero comes into question when a new group of super powerful crusaders, known as “The Elite,” appear on the scene. As super heroes, the Elite know no bounds, and are more than willing to kill, even on a massive scale, to stop villainy — putting them on a collision course with the ever-ethical, yet preferably non-lethal Man of Steel.
The all-new, PG-13 rated film is scripted by award-winning comics writer Joe Kelly and the story is adapted from his original 2001 DC Comics release, “What’s So Funny About Truth, Justice and the American Way?” The single-issue comic, Action Comics #775, was lauded by Wizard Magazine as the “Greatest Superman Story of All Time,” and ranked the epic tale at No. 21 on its list of the “Top 100 Comics of the last 30 years.”
George Newbern (Father of the Bride) reprises his Justice League animated television role as Superman, and primetime television star Pauley Perrette (NCIS) provides the voice of Lois Lane. Downes steps in as Manchester Black, leader of The Elite. David Kaufman (Justice League: Doom) also reprises his Justice League TV series role as Jimmy Olsen.
The film is directed by Michael Chang (Batman: Brave and the Bold). Bruce Timm (Batman: Year One) is executive producer, and Alan Burnett (Green Lantern: Emerald Knights) is producer.
The Disney marketing machine is geared up and in full throttle for next month’s debut of Pixar’s Brave. The focus this week appears to be on the music for the film.
Take a look at “Freedom Broch” – 19 Classic Bagpipe Hits in One Compilation!
[youtube]http://youtu.be/nIWZT8YAXjE[/youtube]
Then check out this press release regarding the soundtrack:
BURBANK, Calif. (May 21, 2012) – Disney•Pixar’s epic fantasy adventure Brave harnesses the magic of ancient Scotland, weaving the rich natural setting throughout the story and bringing it to life with sophisticated filmmaking and extraordinary performances. But it’s the music of Brave that ties it all together, elevating the authenticity with a fresh and contemporary approach to Oscar®-nominated composer Patrick Doyle’s score, as well as two original songs performed by lauded Scottish Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis. A third original song plays during the film’s epilogue and is performed by UK singing sensation Birdy with British folk rock band Mumford & Sons. Directed by Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman, and produced by Katherine Sarafian, Brave hits theatres on June 22, 2012. The film’s soundtrack from Walt Disney Records will be available June 19, 2012. (more…)
The faithful among you may recall that last week we did a backflip through time to the sixties and beheld a young journalist taking a test and being offered a comic book job that changed virtually everything about his life forever. But this same journalist, now wizened and hard of hearing and just a bit crotchety around the edges, said that no comics aptitude test exists. Eh?
That was then and this is now. To the best of my knowledge, I am the only Marvel Comics employee, past or present, to take the test. I got to know both my predecessor and my successor in the job, and neither mentioned pre-employment testing.
But people do get hired by comics companies. So – how? Darned if I know. When I sat behind an editor’s desk, I did my share of job-giving, both to hopefuls applying for staff gigs and to freelancers, and usually my choices were pretty good-to-excellent. If I had a secret, I don’t know what it was. Something to do with hunches and intuition, maybe.
But there were things I liked to see in applicants. First: simple literacy. Does this person know that the big letter goes at the beginning of the sentence and the little dot goes at the end? (Don’t laugh. Instead, ask any middle school-and-up teacher you know if all his/her pupils have this competence.) Has s/he read a book or two? Did s/he enjoy reading the book or two? Second: interest in writing (and/or editing) per se? Not just writing comics – storytelling! Until I’m proven wrong, which could happen any second now, I’ll believe that most good comics writers are writers who have a liking or aptitude (or, ideally, both) for this particular medium and if comics didn’t exist, the person would be doing poems or plays or short fiction or novels or whatever.
We’ll take a paragraph break here, mostly because I feel like doing it, and move on to third: willingness to learn. Nobody knows it all, and that includes you and me, and nobody will ever know it all, but you can know more than you do now and if you want to get good at this job, or any job, you should. (Besides, its fun to know stuff. But don’t tell the no-child-left-behind crowd.)
And finally, fourth: Does the job applicant seem to be a reasonably adult human being? Willing and able to deliver on promises? Willing to accept compromise? Able to play well with others? Respecting but not worshipping the rules, whatever they may be? Having a closetful of Brooks Brothers suits and Hermes ties?
Just joshing about that last one.
I’m tempted to add a fifth: loyalty. But that’s something you learn about someone over time and so it’s hard to detect during a job interview and anyway, my veneration of it is probably rooted in my own insecurities.
Recommended reading: Crazy Wisdom Saves the World Again! by Wes Nisker
FRIDAY: Martha Thomases, Neil Gaiman, and Failure
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