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Review: ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars Character Encyclopedia’

Star Wars: The Clone Wars Character Encyclopedia
DK Publishing, 208 pages, $16.99

clone-wars-encyclopedia1-3120930Ever since it was mentioned in the original [[[Star Wars]]], fans have always been curious about the events of the Clone Wars. It was a never a factor in the original film trilogy, just a nifty throwaway line to add depth to George Lucas’ mythology. Then we got to finally learn of the wars’ origins in [[[Attack of the Clones]]] (2002) and [[[Revenge of the Sith]]] (2005).

But people wanted to learn more and Lucasfilm happily obliged, first with Genndy Tartakovsky’s marvelous animated series, which ran from 2003–2005 and then the more recent 3D CGI series which has been running since 2008. Character designer Kilian Plunkett referred to the imaginative work of Tartakovsky when creating the look of this series and it visually is a good fit with the live-action films.

With a sprawling cast and campaigns occurring throughout the Galactic Empire, fans, casual and diehard alike, could benefit from a scorecard. DK comes to the rescue this month with [[[Star Wars: The Clone Wars Character Encyclopedia]]]. Measuring 9.25 x 6.25 inches, its at a smaller trim size than the more recent pop culture offerings.

There are 204 character profiles, a page apiece, covering the events of the first two seasons, all 44 episodes inclusive. Each page has a full-figure shot, vital statistics, some call outs to denote details and short paragraphs placing the character into context. Apparently, the content does not reflect events or characteristics from the first animated series.

Yes, the series airs on the Cartoon Network which has a younger audience, but since the book is described as being aimed for 8-17 years old, it also offers far too little in the way of detail. The uncredited writers should have given us some overview of the era, a brief timeline for events, and maybe a clue as to where each character made a first appearance.

Instead, we get surface details offering no greater understanding of the people and their place in the wars. Padme Amidala’s page, for example, tell us she is secretly married to Anakin and likes to look for the good in people. Nothing about her upbringing, her evolving relationship with Ani and other details to make her a more interesting and better understood character.

The CGI frame captures from episodes along with selected poses are a little too dark so details and expressions are needlessly obscured.

Much as we expected better from Lucas’ more recent efforts, so too have I come to expect more from DK. This book is pleasant to skim through but makes you want far more than is offered.

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Webcomics You Should Be Reading: Gunnerkrigg Court

  • Uncategorized
  • June 18, 2010

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“Gunnerkrigg Court” doesn’t need me to play its publicist, but then again, a little extra publicity never hurt anyone. (Unless you’re Kate Gosselin…Ahem!) This webcomic has truly earned its fame and fans. It offers a crisp look, detailed environment, fine-tuned story.. everything that ultimately captivates the audiences.

Created by Tom Siddell, “Gunnerkrigg Court” follows the adventures of Antimony “Annie” Carver, a model for calm and collected characters. After the death of her mother, Annie enrolls in Gunnerkrigg Court, a boarding school devoid of nature and saturated in artificiality. The Court is filled to the brim with friendly robots, magical creatures, secretive teachers, lively students, and mystery; don’t forget the mystery. Although Annie is more comfortable around ghosts and shadow creatures than her fellow students, she soon befriends the outgoing, techno-savvy Katerina “Kat” Donlan. Together with her companions, Annie explores the Court to unveil the truths hidden within its walls — Why are the Court and Woods divided? Who exactly is Reynardine? Where is Annie’s father?

Siddell has worked on the webcomic for over five years, and avid readers are still hanging on every update, hoping to discover answers to the mysteries that plague the Court.Siddell assures his audience that by the end of “Gunnerkirgg Court,” all major mysteries will be solved. The creator throws his readers bones (i.e. clues, hints, explanations) throughout the story, some of which you may not notice unless you’ve read through the webcomic more than once. Now don’t let all this talk about mysteries intimidate you. If you’ve developed the impression that “Gunnerkrigg Court” will leave you unsatisfied due to a lack of answers, then please don’t fret. A substantial number of answers have been revealed since the start of the webcomic, and trust me, the unanswered questions are nowhere near as frustrating as LOST’s.

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An Unshaven Interview

  • Uncategorized
  • June 17, 2010

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Way back when, at the C2E2 convention, Unshaven Comics cut itself out a little mecca within Artist’s Alley in hopes of making new fans. Across the aisle from such Alley giants like Katie Cook, and siting besides amazing guys like Leo Kohse of Bloodfire Studios… our little table did what it could to be noticed. We wore company tee-shirts. We hung an 8 foot banner with 3 ft tall smiley faces adorned to it’s white vinyl. We yelled at Dan DiDio and Tom Brevoort to buy our book (for the record, Dan did, and enjoyed the free stickers. Tom didn’t even let Kyle finish the pitch). We called in fans from far and wide across the aisle with our tracktor beam-like powers. And then we got the idea to meet awesome media-types in hopes one of them would want to know our Unshaven Backstory.

After shaking down countless not-as-cool people… we ran into the Chicago Red Eye reporter Elliot Serrano. One interview, 17 reminders, and a few under-the-table dealings later (hey… it IS Chicago, mind you) we got ourselves a little publicity! And thanks to a few bribes with the good folks here at ComicMix… here’s a tasty link for you to enjoy our interview. Now click it, and enjoy!

Is a Live-Action Blue Beetle TV Series on the Horizon?

  • News
  • June 17, 2010

 

When Geoff Johns, DC Entertainment’s Chief Creative Officer, disclosed on his Twitter page that DC and Warner Bros were “hoping to develop a live-action show” starring the Blue Beetle, the news spread aggressively quick. To alleviate fans’ growing excitement and curiosity, Johns posted photos and more news about the proposal on DC’s official blog, The
Source. The site has indeed been the source of Blue Beetle related hubbub, as screenshots of Blue Beetle’s transformation sequence have spread widely across the net. Johns and his team created a clip showing Jamie Reyes’ scarab activating his suit, a clip that Johns will showcase at the San Diego Comic-Con.

With Smallville ending after its next season, WB could replace it with another DC Universe television series. However, would a Blue Beetle live-action show be received as well as Smallville was? Superman is an iconic character, while Blue Beetle is comparatively lesser known. There is also the issue of the Blue Beetle comic book cancellations. Some speculate that if Blue Beetle comics ultimately get canned due to poor sales, then how well would a television series fare? On the other hand, Blue Beetle gained a loyal fan following after Infinite Crisis back in 2006. Reyes also made several appearances in Cartoon Network’s Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Johns tweeted, “Blue Beetle’s going to appear in most of the Brave and the
Bold’s this year,” which is promising news for the superhero. The new publicity may give Blue Beetle a chance to make it to the small screen.

Perhaps we shouldn’t get too ahead of ourselves. Johns stated in his post on The Source, “This isn’t final. This isn’t greenlit. It’s only a test that was done.
We still have a long way to go to see if we can get this off the
ground and a lot of people to jump on board.” While it’s exciting to witness superheroes come to life, maybe we shouldn’t get our hopes up just yet with this teaser alone?

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Rik Levins: 1950-2010

  • News
  • June 17, 2010

rik-levins-captain-america-cover-6543519Richard “Rik” Levins, a penciller for well over a hundred comic books, passed away June 12, 2010. He died peacefully at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida. Levins was born on October 15, 1950, in Somerville, New Jersey. He is survived by his wife Sandra, nieces Robin and Lynn, nephew Robert, and great-nephews Kenneth and Johnathan.

Before launching a career in the comic book industry, Levins worked for the US Postal Service. He later attended art school, which lead him to become a successful artist. He penciled covers and pages for titles such as Avengers, Femforce, The Shade, X-O Manowar, and many others. He is best known for penciling Captain America from 1991 to 1994, where he worked with writer Mark Gruenwald. Levins drew for several publishers, including Marvel, AC Comics, Acclaim, and Innovation.

Levins switched to working with computer art, and became a game developer and modeler. He followed this path for fifteen years, the last seven of which he spent instructing labs for Full Sail University’s (in Winter Park, Florida) gaming department. Levins never stopped contributing his time and talent to comic books, and worked on graphic novels up into his later years. Some of his final projects were Avengers: Galactic Storm, Death Hawk: The Soulworm Saga, and Nosferatu: Plague of Terror.

Relatives and friends are invited to attend a memorial service for
Richard at 5:00 PM., Friday, June 18th with visitation at 4:30 at the
Baldwin-Fairchild Funeral Home, 7520 Aloma Ave., Winter
Park, FL. 32792.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Richard’s memory to
Moffitt Cancer Center “Gifts of Memory” at www.moffitt.org/giving or the
American Cancer Society. Please sign and view the family guest book at www.baldwinfairchild.com.

Annie’s Unending Cliffhanger

  • Uncategorized
  • June 17, 2010

Damn, the old kid’s gone. And she’s taken the papers with her!

Last Sunday marked the end of the classic comic strip, Little Orphan Annie. That’s sad, but that sort of thing has been going on for a long time now and it was inevitable,
despite some first-rate work on the feature by Jay Maeder, Jay Maeder and artists Andrew Pepoy, Alan Kupperberg and Ted Slampyak. Ignobly, the syndicate ended Annie in mid-story.

Newspaper comic strips were invented for one reason and one reason alone: to give the paper a competitive edge. If you were a New Yorker and you preferred Joe Palooka and Li’l Abner to Dick Tracy and Orphan Annie, chances were you bought the New York Daily Mirror instead of the New York Daily News.

The pompous New York Times turned not having comic strips into a virtue, but in fact at the time they could not afford to color presses needed to compete with Pulitzer and Hearst.

Today there is no such thing as newspaper competition:
most towns are lucky to have one daily paper, and most all papers carry the
exact same comics. With circulation zeroing in on zero, publishers are cutting back and, since they no longer need comics to compete, they’re vaporizing.

Ironically, we live in a time when virtually every major, important newspaper comic strip is being anthologized in hardcover and is readily available at the big-box bookstores. Without the newspaper comic strip
we wouldn’t have the comic book, and without the comic book I would have had to get a real job.

So goodbye, Annie and friends. And thank you.

ComicMix
editor-in-Chief Mike Gold performs a weekly two-hour Weird Sounds Inside The Gold Mind ass-kicking music and blather radio show on The Point every Sunday at 7:00 PM Eastern, replayed three times during the week (check the website for times). Likewise, his Weird Scenes Inside The Gold Mind political and cultural rants pop up each and every day at the same venue.

Review: ‘The Illusionist’

Stagecraft gained special attention in 2005 when Neil Burger adapted Steve Millahuser’s story as The Illusionist, and weeks later Christopher Nolan brought us [[[The Prestige]]]. Both were engaging, entertaining movies as much about the characters as it was about nineteenth century magic.

Millhauser, a Pulitzer Prize winner, wrote “Eisenheim the Illusionist” in 1989 and explored an ever-growing fascination with stage magic in Vienna, prompting competitors to try and top one another to satisfy an eager and demanding audience. It was an era when people still believed more often than not in the supernatural, and took the magical feats at face value.

Eisenheim (Edward Norton) is a man jealously guarding his past from the world around him, but has also gained a fascinated fan in the form of police chief Inspector Uhl (Paul Giamatti). Uhl was also ordered to expose the man as a fraud by Crown Prince Leopold (Rufus Sewell). When Eisenheim is introduced to the Duchess Sophie (Jessica Biel), he recognizes her as the true love of his childhood, complicating his life in new and exciting ways. The infatuation infuriates the jealous prince who wants Eisenheim destroyed.

The story was a terrific road map for Burger, who had previously made a documentary, to enter feature film making. He nicely visualizes the Vienna of the past (thank you Prague), creating an atmosphere appropriate to the mystic world of the [[[Illusionist]]]. The screen adaptation nicely works with multiple themes such as one’s place in society, faith versus reality, order versus lawlessness.

Burger also seems to have a nice handle on actors, coaxing nuanced performances from his talented cast. At first, you could have trouble with Biel as a gentle upper crust woman, but she gives what may be her best work to date. Giamatti is superb, bordering on the obsessive while Norton is steely. All mix together nicely, with Sewell proving to be the straw that stirs the drink and keeps things moving.

Nolan’s offering gained more notice and had bigger stars attached but this is the far more satisfying movie and well worth seeing again or a first time if you missed it.

The movie transfers nicely to Blu-ray and given the dim lighting and moody set pieces, it sharpens up well, accompanied by a nice audio track. We’re lucky the new edition is offered as a combo set since the only extras can be found on the standard DVD, all intact from its initial release.

There is a nine minute Making Of featurette which is far less interesting than its subject matter and a perfunctory Jessica Biel Interview. Instead, the best part is Burger’s commentary, talking of how he expanded Millhauser’s story for the film which meant adding in romance and a murder mystery.  Burger has made only one film since, [[[The Lucky Ones]]], and I wish he were more productive.

The set is definitely worth watching and probably owning since it holds up to repeated viewing.

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Peter Keefe, 1953-2010

  • Uncategorized
  • June 15, 2010

voltron-6618519Peter Keefe, creator of the 80’s hit sensation Voltron, passed away May 27th, 2010. His brother Chris Keefe had said his brother passed away due to complications from throat cancer. In additional to his brothers Chris and Tony, Mr. Keefe is survived
by his wife, Pamela Mills Keefe, a stepson, James Mills; his mother, Anne Keefe,and three sisters, Lisa Keefe Updaw, Mollie Keefe
Jones, and Kitty Keefe of Cleveland.

Keefe created Voltron by way of licensing Japanese cartoons “Beast King Go-Lion” and “Armored Fleet Dairugger
XV,” which he discovered in 1983 at a merchandise licensing convention
in Japan. Give credit where it’s due kiddos. Keefe’s splicing of show content, and creating “western friendly” plot helped Americanize Voltron as the predecessor to the eventual “Power Rangers” empire in the 1990s. Keefe was said to “live and breathe Voltron”, taking over the reigns for several other iterations of the lion-led animated super-team after the well of Japanese stock footage ran dry.

After “Voltron,” Mr. Keefe continued to create television shows, including Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs, Denver the Last Dinosaur, Widget the World Watcher, and The Mr. Bogus Show. He was working on “Z-Force”, another cartoon at the time of his passing. Sadly, he wasn’t part of the production team for the forthcoming “Voltron Force” set to debut on Nicktoons later in the fall.

I’ll add on a personal note that Voltron was easily the first cartoon that resonated with me as a child growing up in the 80’s. While the plot was thin and repetitive (we get it, just form the giant robot already, and save the day already!) the show holds a soft spot in my heart. And at only 57 years old, it would seem Mr. Keefe should have had more time to help bring his vision to the airwaves. Another loss to the community of creators. Fellow Voltron lovers, place your lions at half attack mode in honor of the man who gave us the Defender of the Universe.

Review: ‘Showgirls’

When you say [[[Showgirls]]], everyone snickers knowingly, usually making some joke about it being one of the worst movies since the invention of sound recording or how it’s evolved into a midnight cult classic. With the movie’s release on Blu-ray from MGM Home Entertainment today, it seemed appropriate to see how well the 1995 film has aged in 15 years.

OK, it’s still a bad movie. And yes, the transfer to high def makes the nudity all the more entertaining (look for[[[Dancing with the Stars]]]’ Carrie Ann Inaba as a Goddess dancer).

When Joe Eszterhas gained notoriety with his sexually provocative screenplays in the 1990s, he parlayed that into a $2 million payday for this story of Las Vegas showgirls. Coupled with director Paul Verhoeven, who liked to push the sexuality in his films, it was a match seemingly made in heaven for the studios. As a result, it was allowed to run as an NC-17 release complete with full-frontal nudity and many nearly explicit sex scenes that also featured graphic language and rape.

The movie was reviled for its poor structure, gratuitous sexuality, and bad acting but it was seen as so bad as to be good and became the subject of midnight screenings and private parties where mocking it became obligatory. MGM Home Entertainment has fueled this with various box sets, notably The V.I.P. Edition which came complete with two shot glasses, movie cards with drinking games on the back, a deck of playing cards, and a nude poster of Berkley with a pair of suction-cup pasties.

But let’s look at the movie itself. In the course of the 2:11 running time, we’re given a jaundiced view of the showgirl life, the cut-throat world of topless dancers and strippers willing to permanently injure rivals in order to move up the ladder towards fame and fortune. Some have charitably called this a satire but frankly, it smacks of being a setting for Eszter has to lazily find new ways to show naked people. Everyone in the story is a jerk or a detestable example of humanity with the exception of Molly (Gina Rivera) whose innocence is rewarded with a brutal gang rape.

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