SANTA MONICA, CA (July 26, 2017) – Fear knows no limits when the suspenseful horror-thriller It Comes at Night creeps its way onto Blu-ray™ (plus Digital HD) and DVD September 12 from Lionsgate. From acclaimed writer/director Trey Edward Shults (Krisha), It Comes at Night tells the story of a man who will do anything to protect his family, no matter who or what the threat might be. Theatrically released by A24 and starring Joel Edgerton (Loving), Chris Abbot (A Most Violent Year), Carmen Ejogo (Alien: Covenant), and Riley Keough (American Honey), the Rotten Tomatoes Certified Fresh It Comes at Night is an “all-consuming and deeply disturbing chiller” (Collider) that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
Heart-pounding suspense and razor-sharp tension highlight this highly-acclaimed thriller. 17-year-old Travis, secure within a desolate home with his protective and heavily armed parents (Joel Edgerton and Carmen Ejogo), watches his world abruptly change with the arrival of a desperate couple (Christopher Abbott and Riley Keough) and their young child. Panic and mistrust grow as the dangers of the outside world creep ever closer… but they may be nothing compared to the dangers within.
The Blu-ray and DVD releases feature an all-new featurette called “Human Nature: Creating It Comes at Night.” The It Comes at Night Blu-ray and DVD will be available for the suggested retail price of $24.99 and $19.98, respectively.
BLU-RAY/DVD SPECIAL FEATURES
“Human Nature: Creating It Comes at Night” Featurette
I’m pretty much stuck at home these days because of the fractured ankle. Can’t go to my day job for six to eight weeks, per my orthopedic surgeon, and even with the walking boot, the orders are to stay off of it as much as possible. The first couple of weeks I probably walked and stood more than I should have, but as I will snarkily tell my doctor when I see him on August 10 that that’s what happens when your mom dies. Amazingly, there was barely any pain, though perhaps that was a function of the Advil and the Pinot Noir at dinner afterward. Yes, we had a Jewish version of a Christian repast at my mom and dad’s favorite Italian restaurant. (And perhaps my mom was intervening.)
But the other day, right after the almost week-long heat wave in the NYC metropolitan area broke, it was just gorgeous out, and I said to myself, “Self, I have just got to get out and enjoy this weather,” so instead of having my groceries delivered I walked down the block to the supermarket, but I forgot to figure in the walk around the store plus the walk back up the block to my apartment building, a walk hindered by the added burden of my food-laden tote bags – leave it to say that I hobbled my way back home. And once home, I remembered that I had clocked it once wearing a pedometer, and the total distance is actually close to ½ a mile. Oops.
I haven’t repeated that exercise.
So what have I been doing? As I mentioned two weeks ago, “I’m working on a story for a major project thatComicMixhas put together that we’ll be announcing in a bit over a week. And I’m also putting together a proposal for a graphic novel,” and as it turns out, it’s a good thing that I do have lots of time, because I’m learning about myself as a writer, even at this late stage:
(1) I am not the most patient writer in the world;
(2) I am too much of a goddamn perfectionist; and
(3) I am terribly guilty of the most common illness found in the demographic known as writers – procrastination.
But I’m also learning “how to deal.”
Procrastination. I tend to wake up early without setting an alarm clock – 7:30 at the latest. And I am developing the habit of getting out of bed, going to the kitchen, making my “cuppa tea,” and sitting down to write. And it’s working! I write straight through to 11 or 12 and take a break. If I break at 11 I watch The Price is Right because I really like Drew Carey – if I break at 12 I usually eat a salad for lunch and then read or log on to Facebook to express my opinions on all things Il Tweetci the Mad, or do a crossword puzzle or stream something on the television or computer. The hard part is getting back to work. But I’m getting there. Even if the end result is only another paragraph or a bit of dialogue, I’m disciplining myself to get back to the job at hand.
Being too much of goddamn perfectionist. That means I can get stuck rewriting a sentence, a word, a paragraph more times than is good me. Literally, I can cut and paste for an hour. (Hell, I’m doing it right now.) I really have to discipline myself not to revise and rework sentences, words, and paragraphs left over from yesterday – or even an hour ago. That’s harder.
Patience. Patience, for me, is hard. Really hard, because I’ve never been a particularly patient person. When I want to know something, when I want to do something, I tend to want to know it, to do it, now – which is probably the reason I love spoilers, by the way. But writing demands patience; waiting for the right phrase, the right dialogue, the right action to come. It’s not a race, I keep having to tell myself. (Well, except for deadlines.) And then there are the times when I just get stuck. And that’s the hardest time to have patience.
I have always tended to write straight through the story, i.e., begin at the beginning and keep going to the end. (Impatient.) But two days ago I decided to try something new.
The middle of my story for the ComicMix project isn’t entirely clear in my head – oh, it’s there, but it hasn’t yet worked its way down from my brain to my fingers and keyboard. But the ending has been there right from the start – it was the flame that lit the fuse.
So instead of struggling with the portion that was being stubborn, I decided to write the climax. There’s not much I can do about my perfectionist streak – I need for it to be “just right,” so I am switching and shifting words and sentences and paragraphs – but to my delight, this method is also clearing the logjam. Here’s a metaphor:
When I was a kid growing up on Staten Island, my father would drive us over to Fort Wadsworth to watch the construction of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge between the Island and Brooklyn. First, one tower went up, then the other. Then they strung the cables between the towers. With these pieces in place, they began the construction and placement of the roadway, the actual bridge between the “beginning” and the “end.”
Get it?
Many writers use this “connecting the towers” method, but it’s new for me. Is it making me a better writer? Will my story be more cogent and stronger because of it? Perhaps. I think so.
There’s a common refrain from longtime fans that San Diego Comic-Con isn’t about comics anymore. I understand that point of view, but I don’t really believe it. In fact, I’m developing a theory that San Diego Comic-Con is really about a lot of different things, but each and every one is so big and boisterous that they eclipse comics. But that doesn’t mean that comics aren’t there.
With that in mind, here are a few comic discoveries from this year’s Comic-Con:
New publisher Black Mask had a modest booth, but it was bursting with talent and creativity.
Black – Jamal Igle was a friendly face in the Black Mask Booth. He’s a tireless creator and was proud of his latest comic, Black. It’s a super hero comic that takes place in a reality where only black people have superpowers. It’s gutsy and compelling.
Galaxy of Brutality – I also purchased the first issue of Galaxy Of Brutality by Alexis Ziritt and Fabian Rangel, Jr. The art grabs you by the throat in a grindhouse way. If Mike Allred had a bad boy cousin, this is what his art would look like. It’s full of coarse language and in-your-face adventure.
There’s Nothing There is another new series that was previewed in the back of Galaxy of Brutality #1. I’m glad I was exposed to it. This is an intriguing series that goes into the “note to self: pick-this-one-up” category.
The publisher Humanoids’ upbeat booth and knowledgeable booth workers were very focused on comics. It’s evident their staff at SDCC believe in their product and have had some sales training. And for anyone who was open to trying something new – they were ready. I ended up snagging two gorgeous graphic novels:
Miss is a film noir crime thriller. Ed Brubaker’s impassioned forward was the thing that ended up selling me. Miss is a gritty story with rough characters doing nasty things.
Olympus is a story originally created over ten years ago by American creators Geoff Johns, Kris Griminger and Butch Guice. It’s an adventure story featuring two gorgeous sisters studying abroad. And wouldn’t you know it? They stumble into a mythological adventure.
TwoMorrows Publishing
I’ve recently started writing for one of TwoMorrow’s comics-focused publications, Back Issue Magazine, and I’m happy to report that the current issue sold out at Comic-Con. Their booth was bustling the whole time, and I was particularly intrigued by a couple of comics-focused publications:
Kirby 100 is another celebration of Jack Kirby’s Centennial. One hundred top creators are interviewed and discuss their Kirby influences. It’s by John Morrow, a soft spoken Tarheel and a 2017 San Diego Comic-Con Guest of Honor and Jon B. Cooke. This book brings to life exactly how Kirby’s vast body of work influenced a diverse line-up of creators in so many different ways.
Reed Crandall: Illustrator of Comics is a look back at another one of the Golden Age’s greatest artists. He’s always been a favorite of mine. This new publication is a great way to enjoy his work again and learn a little more about the man.
Titan Merchandise & Titan Comics
Titan’s booth always has a plethora of fascinating licensed merchandise, and this year was no exception. At the heart of it, Titan Merchandising’s Andrew Sumner is a major fan who wants to create top-notch stuff for other fans. And beyond merchandise, Titan’s robust line of comics continues to grow.
Fighting American – They’re relaunching the classic Kirby & Simon character, Fighting American in a new series by Gordon Rennie and Duke Mighten. The #0 issue debuted at San Diego Comic-Con and was a lot of fun. I look forward to the ongoing series.
Indy Creators
I remember reading one time about Mark Evanier’s strategy to walk through the Independent Creator’s aisle at conventions. The goal would be to discover new things. He’d plan for a set amount to spend. I’m not always disciplined enough to make this strategy part of my convention routine, but I try. This year I stuffed a few extra bucks in my shirt pocket and went on a little walkabout.
Native Drums – This is a self-published comic by Chuck Paschall and Vince Riley. These dedicated, drinking-the-Kool-Aid creators were working the aisle. They were a figurative “Exhibit A” to the truism that you need both talent to produce a comic and marketing to get it out there. Native Drums is an apocalyptic thriller with a strong female lead.
San Diego’s hometown publisher, IDW, had so much going on. Scott Dunbier’s newest Artist Editions were gorgeous and the display copies at the IDW booth gave every fan the chance to feel like they were actually handling original Kirby or Simonson artwork. After hours, Dirk Wood’s band rocked it downtown in a truly memorable party.
But comics-wise, I was really impressed with Ger Apeldoorn and Craig Yoe’s new collection, Behaving Madly, published by IDW. It’s a celebration of all the MAD second-tier knock-offs. These were the short-lived imitators that weren’t as successful as Crazy or Cracked. The book is chock-full of funny stuff from great comics artists like Severin, Ditko and that guy named Kirby.
It’s not really that insightful to write “Comics are still at San Diego Comic-Con.” But it was easy to zig and zag through the hype machines and find some outstanding comics. I’m still busy reading them all.
AMERICAN HORROR STORY: ROANOKE
Life imitates grisly reality TV in one of television’s edgiest and most acclaimed shows ever! Told in gripping true-crime documentary style, “My Roanoke Nightmare” — this season’s show within the show — chronicles shocking paranormal events. Hoping to begin a peaceful new life in a rustic North Carolina farmhouse, Shelby and Matt Miller (Emmy® winner Sarah Paulson and OSCAR® Winner Cuba Gooding Jr) flee Los Angeles, only to find murder, mayhem and madness! From a girl ghost to a swine monster to murderous nurse sisters to a sadistic cult leader known as “The Butcher” (OSCAR® Winner Kathy Bates), the couple’s home is filled with nonstop terrors.
Blu-ray and DVD Bonus Features Include:
The Paley Center for Media: Q&A with Cast and Creative Team from PaleyFest 2017
Collection of American Horror Story: Roanoke Promos
Blu-ray Specifications:
Street Date: October 3, 2017
Screen Format: 16:9 (1.78:1)
Audio: English DTS-HD-MA 5.1, French DD 5.1, German DTS 5.1
Subtitles: English for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Spanish, French, German
Total Run Time: 398 minutes
U.S. Rating: TV-MA
Closed Captioned: No
DVD Specificiations:
Street Date: October 3, 2017
Screen Format: 16:9 (1.78:1)
Audio: English DD 5.1, Spanish DD 2.0 Surround, French DD 2.0 Surround
Subtitles: English for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Spanish, French, Portuguese
Total Run Time: 398 miutes
U.S. Rating: TV-MA
Closed Captioned: Yes
The unique romantic comedy with a paranormal twist, Warm Bodies, arrives on 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack (plus Blu-ray™ and Digital HD) for the first time ever on October 3 from Lionsgate. In this story about the power of human connection, Nicholas Hoult stars as an unusual zombie who forms a special relationship with a human girl as they struggle to survive during a zombie epidemic. Rounding out the all-star cast is Teresa Palmer, Emmy® winner Rob Corddry (Actor in a Short Form Comedy or Drama, “Childrens Hospital,” 2008) and two-time Academy Award® nominee John Malkovich (Best Supporting Actor, 1993, In the Line of Fire, and 1984, Places in the Heart). 4K Ultra HD provides over four times the resolution of Full HD and includes Dolby Vision™ high-dynamic range (HDR) to deliver the brightest, most vivid and realistic color with the greatest contrast. Written for the screen and directed by Jonathan Levine (The Night Before, 50/50) and based on the best-selling novel by Isaac Marion, the Warm Bodies 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack will be available for the suggested retail price of $22.99.
OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS
A funny new twist on a classic love story, Warm Bodies is a poignant tale about the power of human connection. After a zombie epidemic, R (a highly unusual zombie) encounters Julie (a human survivor), and rescues her from a zombie attack. Julie sees that R is different from the other zombies, and as the two form a special relationship in their struggle for survival, R becomes increasingly more human – setting off an exciting, romantic, and often comical chain of events that begins to transform the other zombies and maybe even the whole lifeless world.
4K ULTRA HD/BLU-RAY/DIGITAL HD SPECIAL FEATURES
Featurettes
o “Boy Meets, Er, Doesn’t Eat Girl”
o “R&J”
o “A Little Less Dead”
o “Extreme Zombie Makeover!”
o “A Wreck in Progress”
o “Bustin’ Caps”
o “Beware the Boneys”
o “Whimsical Sweetness: Teresa Palmer’s Warm Bodies Home Movies”
o “Zombie Acting Tips with Rob Corddry”
Audio Commentary with Screenwriter/Director Jonathan Levine and Actors Nicholas Hoult and Teresa Palmer
Deleted Scenes with Optional Audio Commentary by Director Jonathan Levine
“Shrug & Groan” Gag Reel
Theatrical Trailer
CAST
Nicholas Hoult Mad Max: Fury Road, X-Men franchise, About a Boy
Teresa Palmer Hacksaw Ridge, Lights Out, I Am Number Four
Rob Corddry Hot Tub Time Machine, “Ballers,” “Childrens Hospital”
John Malkovich Dangerous Liaisons, Being John Malkovich, Burn After Reading
On Friday I learned that one of my childhood heroes died. June Foray passed on at the age of 99.
Ms. Foray was a voice actress working in animated features all her long career, as well as in comedy shorts and appearances on Johnny Carson and with Stan Freberg, Daws Butler, and Frank Nelson. She was the voice of Grandmother in Mulan, of Betty Lou Who in How the Grinch Stole Christmas and, most important to me, she was the voice of Natasha Fatale and Rocky the Flying Squirrel on the various Rocky and Bullwinkle shows created by the legendary Jay Ward.
Rocky and Bullwinkle had a huge impact on me as a kid. All of Jay Ward’s stuff had a combination of sophisticated and low-brow humor. There were elements of satire combined with a lot of really bad puns.
Originally, the dimwitted Bullwinkle was the sidekick to the plucky hero Rocket J. Squirrel but the moose became the main character and Rocky became the plucky sidekick. As a kid, that irritated me. Don’t get me wrong; I love me some Bullwinkle but Rocky was my hero. He may have been small but he was clever, he was courageous and he could fly. If anyone was going to get him and Bullwinkle out of the traps devised by Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale, it would be Rocky.
I identified with him, so it bothered me when his BF took over the lead billing. I saw it as sort of an act of betrayal. Stupid, I know, but that’s how my kid’s brain saw it and some of that brain still rests inside me. (They talk about “primal lizard brain;” I’ve got “primal kid brain.”) It didn’t seem to bother Rocky, though. Of course, it wouldn’t. He was not that kind of guy to hold a grudge.
I got the Rocky and Bullwinkle comics when I was a boy; they were oversized and cost a whopping 25 cents when everything else was a dime. But they delivered. They had the same skewed sensibility as the TV shows did. And they sort of had the voices; when I read Rocky in the comics, I “heard” June Foray’s voice. The animation was always rudimentary on the shows; it was the writing and the voices that truly made the shows live. When I heard June Foray had died, for me that sort of meant Rocky died as well.
Ms. Foray got a lot accomplished in her life. She helped get the Motion Picture Academy to create an award category for Best Animated Feature in 2001. She has her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
One last thought struck me the other day and it’ll make some of you crazy but here goes. June Foray voiced Rocky; June Foray was female. Could Rocky have been female all these years? Rocky wears the sort of flying helmet and goggles I’ve seen on pictures of Amelia Earhart. Bullwinkle is frankly too dim to notice. So – maybe.
Either way – Rocky is still one of my heroes. And so is June Foray.
So, spoiler alert. The comic industry as we know it is going to die. Well, according to Dan DiDio and Jim Lee it is. At the San Diego Comic Con – which I clearly didn’t attend because I already knew comics were dying – the DC honchos all but shook their rain sticks at the assembled retailers to eulogize the industry before revealing how they would save it.
Forgive me. You no doubt heard the thundering cacophony of my right eyebrow arching high on my face at a speed worthy of Barry Allen. The speed at which it jutted there clearly broke the sound barrier in a reflex akin only to those meta-humans with the ability to transcend space and time.
There’s literally too much to unpack from all they blabbed on about for me to fit in a single column. And rather than present evidence how the comic industry isn’t dying at all, I’d like to specifically snark back on one particular point DiLeeDoo made.
“Comic books have become the second or third way to meet characters like Batman and Superman, and we want to change that.”
Uhh… Why?!
The statement itself is a bland platitude at best. It’s big-wigs trying fluff up their retailers – as well as comic fans – into believing their medium is purer than the first or second ways fans meet their heroes. That somehow, DC’s publishing arm will find a way to get kids into the comic shop before they see any licensed character on TV, movies, or frankly… the Internet. Of all the laughable things said at this panel – forgetting the whole part where they confirmed Dr. Manhattan made Rebirth happen – trying to pit comics against their motion picture counterparts takes the cake and crams in a pie to boot.
I am 35 years old. The first time I ever saw Batman? It was Adam West on the campy syndicated re-runs, in between episodes of Happy Days. Superman? Learned about him second-hand on any number of references dropped during episodes of Muppet Babies, or an errant episode of Challenge of the Superfriends. And while I would eventually seek the printed page for more mature and significant adventures of those (and all other) characters, the tent-pole flagship Trinity of DC Comics was met in motion long before the pulp.
Furthermore, as a Gen-X/Gen-Y/Millennial/Whatever I’m classified as these days, my generation learned and loved superheroes first via these extraneous ways, because the comics themselves were mired in the muck of massive continuities. As I’ve long detailed in this space previously, when comics peaked my interest it was because of an adaptation of an X-Men cartoon I’d seen the week prior. Investigating at the local Fiction House stressed me out when I saw an actual X-Men comic was on issue 568 (or whatever), and the shop keep made no qualms telling me he wouldn’t even know where to start me out if I was wanting to collect the book.
Times have since changed aplenty, but that doesn’t mean the same issues still exist if we are to take to heart Dan and Jim’s sentiment.
A 9-year old girl goes and sees Wonder Woman with her mom. She falls in love with Diana of Themyscira and begs her mom to learn more. They venture into the local comic shop, and what then? If the cashier is worth her salt? She’ll have a great big display of the now Eisner-Award WinningWonder Woman: The True Amazon ready and waiting. But peer over to the rack, and where does our 9-year old go? Is the current issue of Wonder Woman ready and waiting? And where is Batgirl, and any other female-driven comics all set and ready for their newly minted fan?
And beyond that, how on Gaea’s green Earth would you ever suppose you’d find a way to get this 9-year old girl into the shop before she’d been enticed by the multi-million dollar blockbuster action film. Simply put, that’s proudly brandishing a knife in a nuclear bomb fight. It’s dumb to even think it, let alone declare it like a campaign promise.
To this point, credit where it’s due: Dan DiDio denoted the need for more evergreen books – titles that live outside any common continuity to tell great one-off stories – to specifically meet the needs of fans who come in (or come back) to comic books. The truth of the matter is no book will ever compete with a big release movie or a weekly television show. Video killed the radio star for a reason. And the Internet murdered the video star and put the snuff film on YouTube. To cling to printed fiction as some form of hipper-than-thou solution that could wage war with more ubiquitous platforms all in the name of changing the way the public meets their heroes is a dish I’ll never order, even if I’m starving.
To declare this was all in part to save the industry … well Dan: is it fair to have cultivated the problem only to turn around and say now you’ll save us from the very issues you created? That is some Luthor-level vertical integration if I ever did hear it.
Save me, Dan DiDio. You’re my only hope. Well, barring Image, Boom!, Lion Forge, Valiant, Aw Yeah, Oni Press, IDW, Dark Horse, Action Lab, and Unshaven Comics.
The Mystery Tweens are solidly becoming Mystery Teens in The Case of the Forked Road
, which means the boys have all seemingly lost 50 IQ points and keep punching each other for no reason. [1] So any mystery solving will be left to the girls, this time out.
Since this is a volume seven, before I go any further, there are two notes. First is that you don’t need to know anything going into this book. Well, OK: these are kids in a secondary school in Tackleford, the oddest town in England. You can pick that up from the book, and it’s all you need to know. Also, this is a collection of a webcomic
, so you can always read as much of it as you want online.
But, if you do want to know more, let me direct you to my posts about Bad Machinery books one
, two
, three
, four
, five
, and six
. You may also be interested in the pre-Bad Machinery comic Scary Go Round
, also set in Tackleford, which led to the comic-book format Giant Days, of which there have been several collections so far: onetwothreefour
.
The book version of The Case of the Forked Road, as usual, is slightly expanded from the webcomics version, with some pages redrawn a bit and others added to aid the flow. It also begins with a new page introducing the main characters and ends with several related old Scary Go Round pages — both of those introduced and narrated by Charlotte Grote, Allison’s current troublemaking smart-girl character (following a string of such in the past).
As usual, Allison is great at capturing speech patterns and the half-fascinated, half-oblivious attitude of teens — the girls discover a mystery this time, in the suspicious activities of a elderly lab assistant they call “Grumpaw.” But they have no idea what this guy’s name is, and have to go through convolutions just to get their investigation started.
They do, of course, and eventually find a fantastical explanation to the question of Grumpaw and the mysterious and strangely ignorant schoolboy Calvin. And the dangers they have to deal with this time out are directly related to the stupid violence of some male classmates. (Though the cover shows that it’s not the boy Mystery Teens; they stay offstage most of the time, and are useless when they’re on it.)
Allison writes smart stories that wander interestingly through his story-space and gives his characters very funny, real dialogue to say on every page. And I think his stories are best when he draws them himself: his line is just as puckish and true as his writing. That makes the Bad Machinery cases the very best Allison books coming out now.
One last point: if you’ve complained that previous Bad Machinery volumes — wide oblong shapes to show off the webcomic strips — were physically problematic, then you are in luck. The Case of the Forked Road is laid out like normal comic-book-style pages, just as these strips appeared online. So you no longer have that excuse, and must, by law, buy Forked Road immediately.
[1] If you think this is some kind of sexist nonsense, my currently sixteen-year-old son can tell you a story of some of his fellow students on his recent trip to Germany and Italy. These young men got into trouble because they were throwing some “hot rocks” around — as you do when you discover some rocks that are warmed by the sun, in a nice hotel in a foreign county — until, inevitably, windows got broken. There are boys who avoid the Enstupiding and Masculinizing Ray of Puberty, but they are few and beleaguered, and the general effects of the ray hugely debilitating.
The Eisner Awards were handed out last Friday, and I have to say, I’m feeling just a little bit smug.
No, I didn’t win anything. There is no Eisner Award for the Best Procrastinating by a Writer. However, quite a few of the prizes went to people and projects that I championed as an Eisner judge this year, selecting the nominees.
I’m not going to tell you which ones I’m talking about because to do so implies that I met with resistance. (You’ll have to get me drunk the next time we’re together.) As I said before, talking about the selection process the committee used, “I can say that none of us got all of our first choices, but all of us got some of them.” In other words, we had different tastes and different criteria, and that is as it should be. We talked, calmly and respectfully, about why we liked the things that we liked. We worked it out. You should send us all to Congress.
But a lot of my tastes and criteria meshed with those of the people who voted for the final awards. And that makes me feel like I have my finger on the pulse of Pop Culture Fandom.
Yay, me!
So many different kinds of books won awards. Some of this is a result of the categories because a superhero story isn’t going to win a best nonfiction award, nor will DC or Marvel win an award for Best U. S. Edition of International Material. The inclusion of several different categories for younger readers means that there will be prize-winning books for children.
Although I might not know you, Constant Reader, I feel confident in saying that there is at least one book on this list that you’ll enjoy.
This expansion in the audience for graphic story-telling is a wonderful thing, decades in the making. It should be an opportunity for all sorts of publishers. You would think that DC and Marvel are in the best position to take advantage of this since they own characters known to the entire world. They should be, but, according to this, at least one of them does not. The link describes a panel at SDCC with DC’s Jim Lee and Dan DiDio, talking about how they plan to navigate the future of comics.
They say a few things with which I agree. There should be excellent graphic novels about the characters that customers might know from the movie. These books should contain stories that are accessible to new readers, people unfamiliar with decades of continuity. I’ve been arguing such a position for decades, so I’m glad to see that there is at least lip service in that direction.
However, when DC actually publishes a book like that, Jill Thompson’s Eisner-winning Wonder Woman: The True Amazon, there is very little promotion when it first comes out, and it isn’t included in the ads that tied into the movie release.
Lee and DiDio also think that resurrecting the Watchmen universe and integrating it into the DCU will draw in newcomers. Leaving aside the morality of this (given series co-creator Alan Moore’s resistance), and only talking about it in marketing terms, I still think this is a terrible idea. The movie is nearly a decade old and does not seem to have been successful enough to earn out. The characters require a lot of explaining, which is only a disadvantage if you’re trying to sell them to people who don’t read a lot of comics.
If I had been a new comics reader today, I’d have problems wading into the Big Two waters. It would be much more appealing to me to check out Valiant or Lion Forge if I wanted a connected universe because I wouldn’t have so much to catch up.
I still think the way to draw in audiences who want to sample comics after seeing the movies and television shows is to create multiple imprints. There can be a line for geeks like me, who’ve been reading comics since the Fifties, and a line for younger readers and a line of self-contained short stories. There can be all sorts of other lines that I haven’t yet imagined. These can be tested through digital sales, to keep development costs down, and then published in paper if there is demand.
And, yes please, a line of Super-Pets.
• • • • •
Flo Steinberg died this week. She was part of the original Marvel Bullpen, Stan Lee’s assistant back in the days when that was the best job a woman can get in comics.
I met her soon after I moved to New York in the late 1970s, and since I wasn’t a big Marvel fan, I didn’t know enough about her to be intimidated. To me, she was the kind of kooky New York character I’d moved to New York to meet. She had a funky cadence to the way she spoke (at least, to this Ohio girl), and she was outgoing and enthusiastic in a manner discouraged by the prep school I attended. Flo was one of the best people you could invite to a party.
My two favorite Flo stories don’t have much to do with comics.
1) When I worked in the events department of a New York department store, I had to hire extra people to be entertainers during the holiday season. One job was to dress up like a Teddy bear. The costume was really hot and smelled after a while, but the job paid $20 an hour, a fortune back then. I was able to hire Flo for this gig a few times, and from her, I learned how many children like to punch costumed characters in the chest. Also, we called her “Flo Bear,” the kind of joke Ivory Tower elitist East Coasters love.
2) A few years later, I had another job, and I was telling her about a place I would go to get lunch. They had a salad bar, and every day, I would stare at the barbecued spare-ribs, tempted by their dripping sauce, but too worried about the fat and calories. Really, I would dream about these ribs. Finally, one day, I ate one. Later, talking to Flo, I confessed my sin. It went like this:
Me: So I finally ate one of the spare-ribs. It wasn’t very good. Definitely not worth it.
Flo: Well, at least you tried it.
Because that is who she was. She didn’t talk about life in terms of denial and defensiveness. She talked about life as something worth trying.
If you are not already watching Wynonna Earp, there’s no excuse! Season 1 is on Netflix, we’re half way through an exciting Season 2 on Syfy and the big news at San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday was that Season 3 is go.
Maddy was able to talk to the cast – Melanie Scrofano (Wynonna Earp, herself), Shamier Anderon (Agent Dolls), Tim Rozon (Doc Holliday), Dominique Provost-Chalkley (Waverly), Katherine Barrell (Officer Nicole Haught), Varun Saranga (Jeremy), Tamara Duarte (Rosita Bustillos), Wynonna Earp creator Beau Smith & show runner Emily Andras at Comic-Con and it was really fun. And while it’s mostly all the questions a feminist teenager wants to know (though we didn’t have a lot of time — so it wasn’t ALL the questions we wanted answered), we have to warn you there might be some spoilers if you aren’t caught up with the current season.
You can tell in the interviews how genuinely nice and amazing everyone is on this show. Is it because they are Canadian? Or is it because such they are just so happy to be one of the best shows on TV right now (maybe of ever)?
SANTA MONICA, CA (July 26, 2017) – Fear knows no limits when the suspenseful horror-thriller It Comes at Night creeps its way onto Blu-ray™ (plus Digital HD) and DVD September 12 from Lionsgate. From acclaimed writer/director Trey Edward Shults (Krisha), It Comes at Night tells the story of a man who will do anything to protect his family, no matter who or what the threat might be. Theatrically released by A24 and starring Joel Edgerton (Loving), Chris Abbot (A Most Violent Year), Carmen Ejogo (Alien: Covenant), and Riley Keough (American Honey), the Rotten Tomatoes Certified Fresh It Comes at Night is an “all-consuming and deeply disturbing chiller” (Collider) that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
