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Ed Catto: Craig Yoe Gets Super Weird

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%e2%80%a2super-weird-heroes-madam-fatalLast week we discussed three books that each took a whimsical look at the sillier side of superheroes. This week, we take a deeper dive with Craig Yoe and his latest book Super Weird Heroes.

Craig is a prolific author and/or creator with a fanboy streak a mile wide. His impressive books range the gamut from Archie to Zombies and just about everything in between. Two of my recent favorites are Haunted Horror (Vol. 1) and Zombies! The Chilling Archives of Horror Comics.

Surprisingly, Yoe has never published a superhero book. “I started out reading Little Lulu and Uncle Scrooge,” said Yoe. When he outgrew characters like that, he thought he was putting comics behind him.

%e2%80%a2kangaroo-man-jpgBut when some junior high friends turned him onto early Marvel heroes, like Fantastic Four and Spider-Man, he found he was hooked on comics again. Since then, he’s always had a soft spot for them. “When I started Yoe Books,” said Yoe, “I thought superheroes were so strong… they didn’t need me.”

But then as he gathered vintage comics for his other geek culture projects, he couldn’t help but also stumble across some of the most fascinating, albeit obscure, heroes.

Yoe noted that it wasn’t as easy to get old superhero comics. Because this particular genre is so strong, so many collectors seek out these comics. To find and buy the comics, he was competing against collectors with some deep pockets.

Who’s Your Favorite?

Yoe was hard pressed to pick a favorite. But he was excited to speak about a few in particular.

%e2%80%a2bullet-girl-splashCaptain Hadacol has a fascinating story. A southern senator created the medicine, Hadacol – with at least 12% alcohol. (It may have had more). The hero, Captain Hadacol, gets his powers from drinking this “medicine!”

The Deacon was a mafia-type criminal who was crawling through the woods to escape his pursuers. When he came across a church and broke into it, he donned a priest’s outfit to become… the Deacon. And the Deacon’s sidekick was a young boy who was beaten by bullies to become… Little Nicky.

“The sidekicks are so much fun,” said Yoe.

And one of the most interesting sidekicks is Bullet Man’s ‘assistant’ Bullet Girl. In the story that Yoe features, Bullet Girl get’s fed up with Bullet Man’s chauvinist attitude – and quits! This particular story is illustrated by the legendary Ken Bald.

And to sweeten the pot, Yoe also offers readers a page of original artwork from another Bullet Man adventure.

%c2%b6super-weird-heroes-book-back-coverYoe tracked down several of the golden age creators and he found that even they didn’t remember these obscure superheroes. “I get the impression that back in the day, the editors told the writers and artists to just go and create their own heroes,” Yoe said.

These are the plucky heroes – the heroes that didn’t stick. They were often published by smaller publishers with precarious printing schedules.

The Look and Feel That’s Real

Yoe takes great strides, in all his reprint books, to present the material in all their newsprint glory. Many companies who publish vintage comics clean them up and then publish them in slick color. But Yoe Books takes the opposite approach.

%e2%80%a2super-weird-heroes-book-the-deacon-copy“We like the reader to get into the book so they feel like they are reading an old comic, maybe in the forties under a tree, purchased from a candy store,” said Yoe.

“Also, you can’t tell, but if one of the panels is blurred, we spend hours and hours and to ensure they look good and are readable. We didn’t overly correct when it’s out of register. We work to ensure they are not misprinted. We monitor every single panel and make sure the color has a nice fidelity,” said Yoe. “ We make sure the comics look old.”

Who’s it for?

These superheroes have broad appeal. Super Weird Heroes is available at brick and mortar bookstores and IDW has received major orders from bookstore chains. And there’s been strong interest from comic shops. “There’s no better retailers in the world than comic shops, right?”

superweirdheroes-%e2%80%a2“There’s something here for everybody,” proclaimed Yoe. “Hard core collectors will love this and kids will too. “

In fact, Yoe told me the tale of a shipment of books arriving at his home. “My six year old boy saw the box, grabbed one and asked ‘Will you read this to me?’”

Yoe estimated, using the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, that it would cost a collector $105,280 to acquire all the comics with these stories.

“It’s the best Holiday bargain ever,” said Yoe.

John Ostrander: Suicide Squad Redux

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Oh, you lucky kids.

As I pointed out last week in this column, there is a plethora of John Ostrander related material out there this month for you to buy. You’d think it was Christmas or something.

In the previous column occupying this space, I talked about the first volume of my Heroes For Hire series put out by Marvel. This week we’ll look at Volume 5 of Suicide Squad from DC that is coming out December 27. This one is titled Apokolips Now and the major story arc in the volume takes the Squad to the home of the nastier set of New Gods, Apokolips.

Lots of stuff happens in this volume. Three members of the team die, some walk away, some long running subplots are put to rest – including the revelation that Barbara Gordon is Oracle. By the end the volume, the Squad’s existence has been exposed and so has Waller’s running of the team… and she winds up in prison. Lots of story is crammed into this one TPB.

I want to focus for the moment on the first story in Volume 5. It’s one of the Personal Files that my late wife and co-writer, Kim Yale, and I would do from time to time. Each Personal File would center on one character and through them we would see other members of the team. There was never a mission in the Personal Files; you could think of it as an “All Sub-Plot” issue but I think they were highly effective and, as I recall, very popular with the readers.

This time we focused on Father Richard Craemer who was the spiritual adviser to the Squad. That probably sounds odd but the Squad was secretly headquartered in Belle Reve prison that had an active convict population and Craemer was also prison chaplain. In addition, Craemer was also a qualified psychological therapist and served the Squad that way as well.

Craemer is one of my favorite characters and Kim and I had a very definite agenda in creating and using him. At the time, almost every time you would get a priest or minister or preacher of what have you in comics, they were hypocrites – venal, and frankly rather despicable characters. That simply wasn’t either my nor Kim’s experience. That’s not to say those types aren’t out there and the revelation of pederasts among the clergy is well documented and, frankly, sickening. But not every member of the clergy is like that. It became a cliché, a stereotype.

However, Kim and I both had near relatives who were in the clergy. Kim’s father, the Reverend Richard Yale, was an Episcopal minister, a Navy chaplain and a counselor. My mother’s sister, Sister Mary Craemer, was an administrator at Mundelein College in Chicago and later was very active on behalf of senior citizens. Both were very good people and we wanted a character who would reflect that. And as you may have noticed, we borrowed from the names of them both to create the name of our character.

Father Craemer has a lot of humility and a great sense of humor which he needs in dealing with Waller and the members of the Squad. He listens and he treats everyone with empathy. It’s a known fact of my background that I studied to be a priest (one year, in my freshman year in high school, and my so-called “vocation” came from an overdose of Going My Way).  It’s possible that Craemer, to some extent, might be a projection of what I would have hoped I would be as a priest. Not entirely; Kim was a part of his make-up as well.

Craemer has sessions with several members of the Squad and its support staff; the session with Count Vertigo dealing with manic/depression comes to mind and I’ve heard from those in that community that it was a very accurate portrayal.

I so enjoyed Father Craemer that when he left the Squad I brought him over to The Spectre to be the spiritual advisor to the Wrath of God. Craemer never got the easy gigs.

All in all, I think Richard Craemer was a very successful character and there’s a reason for it. We thought the character through. Just don’t write the cliché. If that sounds obvious, well, a lot of basic writing rules are obvious.

So run out and get yourself a copy of the latest Suicide Squad collection. Get several. Give them out as gifts. People will thank you. And if they don’t, well… I do.

Marc Alan Fishman: Rejected!

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This past week, Unshaven Comics was once again given the most sincere and polite brush off from a show promoter to be a part of the Artist Alley. The show was ReedPop’s C2E2, in Chicago.

For the record: Unshaven Comics has never missed exhibiting at this show. We consider it our home show. But a few years back, we were denied access to the part of the floor where we feel the most comfortable. We were faced with a hard choice — pay over twice the cost to have a table in the Small Press area, or forgo the show. We bit the bullet. We sold our beards off. And we still made profit.

For the record, Unshaven Comics is not a small press company in my estimation. We’re a studio that produces a single book, penalized for having the gall to want to share a single 8-foot table.

I’m not going to lie: I’ve been bitter ever since. Bitter still now, the third year in a row I have cut a check for a larger sum of money than I’d like, to ensure our localish fans know we still are alive and well.

Am I mad at the promoter, ReedPop? No. I don’t even fear repercussions for posting this op-ed. Reed isn’t concerned about the comings and goings of a speck of dust on the outskirts of the indie comic market. For as much as I’d like to inflate my resume of comic bookery, the simple truth is if Unshaven turned off the lights in the studio tomorrow maybe a few dozen people would really notice. I’m not saying this for pity. I’m just well-aware of the beast we’re trying to slay. In the land of content, he who can only produce (at best) a book a year, is not high in demand.

ReedPop, as all show promoters, are in business to do one thing: get butts in a building, spending wads of cash. And with the advent of on-demand printing, digital publishing, and affordable content creation tools out there, the industry feels choked to the nines with creators all vying for the same spaces. Granted, some of these artists are just trying for a quick smash-and-grab, applying a few filters and a few simple style choices to produce a litany of printed kitsch meant to attract the lowest common denominator. This is a topic for a whole other piece.

At the end of the day, show promoters must choose from those who apply for their space who will best attract those aforementioned butts. Whatever their selection process may be, Unshaven Comics must adhere to the same application rules as literally every other artist in line. Whatever boxes we check or don’t check off is all in the eye of the beholder. But this article isn’t really in defense of those choices. I am not a show-promoter. I know some amazing show-promoters. They have an unenviable job in my humblest of estimations. I write this week to tell you honestly how it feels to be told we’re not good enough.

But before I do, let me dog-pile on the pity party. C2E2’s rejection of Unshaven for their Alley wasn’t the least bit surprising to me. Since we’ve upgraded to the small press area the last few years, I believe we’re earmarked as suckers who they know will pay… and so we pay. And we still make it work. So it goes. It’s the combination of their rejection compounded on being recently turned away on a pair of smaller local shows that really shook me more than I’d honestly thought they would.

To hear from shows that are in my backyard declining to offer my studio a spot while I see literally dozens of my friends and colleagues being welcomed as guests of honor leaves me feeling truly rejected. On the precipice of finishing the final chapter in our Samurnauts mini-series (seriously… it’s being colored right now. We’re so close I can almost taste it.), 2017 is a do-or-die year for me and my bearded brethren. Every show counts. Every show is an opportunity to declare victory over a beast that has taken five years to slay. And to be told we’re not good enough, while our friends are lauded with social media call-outs is a gut punch I’m finding hard to shake off.

We have an amazing fan base. That I can include people like Mike Gold, Martha Thomases, John Ostrander, and Glenn Hauman amongst them is one of those little factoids that keep my heart beating and pen moving every night. That we still have fans — strangers met at conventions who have purchased our wares and continue to support us — clamoring for Unshaven to continue to fight our way into any show that will have us? Well, it’s the lit matches I’ll continue to use every time our fire begins to dim.

And I know right now, this article may be reaching any number of compatriots in the exact same boat as my little production house. Talented, driven creators being denied access to tens of thousands of potential customers… all so the guy who just sells posters of cheesecake pinups or indie darlings whose ‘zines aren’t worth the artisanal rice paper they’re printed on can hock their wares next to the same standby medium-famous artists and celebrities that are always there. Well, to you, I say be bitter with me.

We live in a gilded age, whether you believe it or not. There are more cons out there now than ever before. So, if ReedPop says no, so be it. Take the anger and the money you would have dropped on that show and find another. And another. Take your books to the local comic shop, and offer to do a signing. Do anime shows. Book shows. Craft fairs. Flea markets. Go anywhere and everywhere. And keep making your comics and art. The more you produce, the better you’ll become. The better you become, the better your product. And eventually, the better your product, the more people will notice. Those people have butts. And those butts wind up walking into big shows. And with that…

…you just might be see the acceptance you deserve. If you don’t believe me, be my guest and quit. More room for Unshaven Comics.

The Law Is A Ass

Bob Ingersoll: The Law Is A Ass #397

HOMER SIMPSON’S NOT AN ABETTING MAN

I probably shouldn’t do this. But you know me. Even if you don’t, I know me. Know me well enough to know that, it doesn’t matter whether I should do it. Like the Mean Widdle Kid, I dood it.

(Boy, there’s a joke that you either won’t get or won’t want to admit you’re old enough to get.)

The Simpsons is a comedy show, satirical and not to be taken as an accurate portrayal of anything. The same applies to the comic books based on The Simpsons. Even if The Simpsons were supposed to be as realistic as a Rembrandt, their stories take place in Springfield, whose chief of police is Clancy Wiggum. Let’s face it, if Clancy’s the chief law-enforcement officer, then the laws he’s enforcing have probably been simplified so he can understand them. The Springfield law defining arson is probably, “Fire bad.”

So I can forgive the legal error contained in the story “In the Swim” from Simpsons Illustrated #24. But I can’t forget it. And I’m simply not going to not write about it. Hence what comes next.

In the story, Mr. Burns has invited all the employees of the Springfield nuclear power plant on a Family Fun Cruise. Turns out, however, that Burns was only throwing the party as a distraction while he illegally dumped the plant’s nuclear waste into the Springfield Channel. When Lisa Simpson pointed this out, Burns advised her not to tell anyone. “Remember, in the eyes of the law, everyone on this boat is an accomplice.”

And that’s all the set-up you need or get. Now it’s on to the meatier part of the column: the legal analysis.

So in the eyes of the law, would everyone on the boat be an accomplice to Mr. Burns’ illegal dumping?

No.

Okay, that analysis wasn’t so much meat as it was pink slime. Let’s see if I can’t get the meat content up to that of two all-beef patties hold the special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, and the sesame seed bun.

In the United States, the concept of aiding and abetting is fairly simple. Anyone who actually commits a crime is guilty as the principal offender. Anyone who aids, abets, counsels, commands, induces or procures its commission, is an aider and abettor (or accomplice) and is punishable as if that person were also a principal offender.

If I, for example, agree to drive the getaway car while you rob a liquor store, I’m helping you and am as guilty as you of the robbery, even though I didn’t actually rob it. See, that’s fairly simple. But it’s only half a beef patty. Let’s add more.

The aiding and abetting statutes also require that the accomplice be acting with the same kind of culpability as the principal offender. In other words, the accomplice has to know the principal offender is committing a crime and wants to help the principal offender commit it. So if I help you, but I don’t know you’re committing a crime, I’m not guilty as an accomplice.

In our previous example, if you ask me to pick you up in my car outside a liquor store, but I don’t know you’re robbing the store, I’m not aiding and abbetting your crime, even if I do drive your getaway car.

That principle applied to our story for a time. At first, no one knew what Mr. Burns was up to. And because they didn’t know what he was doing, they weren’t accomplices. Then Lisa Simpson had to spill the beans and tell everyone. So now that they do know what he was doing, are they accomplices to his dumping?

Ah another layer to the analysis. A little more beef. But the answer is the same as before. Even though everyone on the boat knew what Mr. Burns was doing after Lisa shot off her big mouth, no one other than Waylon Smithers. did anything to help him. They weren’t aiders and abettors, because they didn’t aid him.

The law actually has a name for this principle. We call it the Mere Presence Rule.

The Mere Presence Rule is kind of an oddity in the law, because it means exactly what it’s name implies. The rule dictates that if you are merely present when a crime is being committed, you are not guilty as an aider and abettor.

If you’re standing on a corner when that hypothetical criminal from a few paragraphs back robbed the liquor story, you’re not guilty as an aider and abettor, even if you didn’t do anything to stop him. As long as you didn’t do anything to help or encourage the criminal, you are not an aider and abettor.

If you were a passenger in the car while the robber went into the liquor store and then came out and drove away but did nothing to help him, you’re not guilty as an aider and abettor. Not even if you knew in advance that the other person was going to rob the liquor store. As long as you didn’t assist or encourage the robber, you’re not an aider and abettor.

Sure the law might question your decision not to get out of the car and tell someone what was going on when it stopped. (The law might also question your choice of friends. I mean, this friend of yours has robbed how many hypothetical liquor stores now?) However, the law does not require you to do anything to stop the crime; not even telling somebody else that it’s happening. The law only requires that you don’t do anything that actively assists or encourages the criminal.

Getting back to the Simpsons story, all of the nuclear power plant employees were merely present when Mr. Burns illegally dumped nuclear waste in the Springfield Canal. They didn’t do anything to encourage or assist him. They were too busy playing Limbo and drinking some yellow liquid with umbrellas in them. So Mr. Burns and the story were wrong to say that everyone on the boat was an accomplice to his illegal dumping.

Let’s face it, to be an accomplice Homer Simpson would actually have had to do something. And I don’t think he’s got any accomplice-ments to his credit.

Martha Thomases: Not Your Children’s Camp

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Do you like winter? I don’t. I mean, I enjoy the first few snow days when the city is clean and white, and I like to wear sweaters and other soft warm clothes. I like to curl up in a cozy chair with a book and a glass of whiskey.

What I don’t like is the darkness, and the gloomy skies that come with snowfall.

So I was delighted to discover this website, which promotes something called the Epic Nerd Camp. I need extra fantasy in my life, now especially.

Did you go to sleep-away camp when you were a kid? Did you get picked on and bullied because you wanted to read comics and science fiction instead of playing capture the flag?

I did.

But I also loved a lot of camp activities. I liked shooting arrows at the archery range and thinking that I was an Amazon warrior or a member of Robin Hood’s band. I liked paddling a canoe, and learning how to tip it over and get back in, because those seemed like useful skills if I ever had to escape from a super-villain.

And I loved making s’mores.

Epic Nerd Camp is a week-long event that takes place in Starrucca, Pennsylvania, a town with which I am entirely unfamiliar. There are two five-day programs (August 12 to 16, and August 16 to 20). Instead of the usual camp stuff that required team sports and traumatized me as a child, the emphasis is on cosplay, quidditch, swordplay, circus stuff (trapeze, high wire, unicycle, juggling etc.) and games.

Lots and lots of games. Several game publishers are among the camp’s sponsors. Since I’m not much of a gamer, this is where they start to lose me. However, at $499 for five days, four nights of food and lodging plus all kinds of activities, it seems like a reasonable price. You can also pay an extra $60 for the goodie bag.

Unlike the camps I went to as a kid, the bunks offer a certain amount of privacy. And even more unlike the camps I went to as a kid, there are co-ed bunks. And alcohol is allowed – although you have to bring your own.

Looking at the photographs on the website, Epic Nerd Camp looks like a great time. The people in the photos are overwhelmingly white, but they have all kinds of body types. The FAQ makes a point that it is an LGBT-friendly place.

On this overcast day, it is delightful to think about a week in the woods, making and using my magic wand or learning how to walk a tightrope. On the other hand, I’m not a big fan of any activities that require insect repellent.

I suppose I could take the cosplay construction classes, along with mask-making, and cover myself sufficiently to avoid any bugs. They have needlecrafts, which usually includes knitting, so perhaps there is a screened-in room for us to knit. I wonder if I could combine the knitting and the cosplay to make my superhero outfit, just like Martha Kent.

That was something my old camp never offered.

Tweeks: Tales of Hairspray Live Teenage Extras

If you think you saw us in the background at the Corny Collins Show on NBC’s Hairspray Live! last night, you did!  We were cast as extras on the best live TV musical NBC has done & we’re here to tell you all about it.

 

REVIEW: Jason Bourne

universal_jasonbourneThere is a weight and heaviness to being Jason Bourne, nee David Webb, given that your life is constantly being manipulated and/or endangered. Trust doesn’t come easily and those around him tend to get hurt. Through three films, we’ve thrilled to Matt Damon’s interpretation of Robert Ludlum’s espionage hero in part thanks to the excellent filmmaking from directors Paul Greengrass and Doug Liman.

After skipping an installment that shifted the focus to a new agent played by Jeremy Renner, Greengrass and Damon returned this summer with Jason Bourne. Things have changed since 2007’s The Bourne Ultimatum as skullduggery has increasingly gone digital so the lengths required to keep secrets buried have to go further. The film, out now from Universal Home Entertainment, explores what all that means.

Bourne has been in hiding these last few years, travelling the world as a bare-knuckled boxer, using physical pain to tamp down the metal anguish he has been dealing with. After all, he knows bits and pieces about his previous life and has questions that haunt him, notably about his father’s involvement.

jason-bourne-2One of the few people he likes and trusts, Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) unexpectedly turns up with the answers. She has chosen to go rogue, taking stolen data from the CIA, and is on the run in the hopes of exposing the US Government’s dirtiest secrets. Unfortunately, she is also being hunted by a man known as the Asset (Vincent Cassel), kicking off the first of the anticipated action set pieces the series has been known for.

There is globetrotting, there are car chases, there are fistfights, and of courses there are twists and turns. Greengrass keeps things moving, throttling back when we need some exposition and then kicking things back into high gear as Bourne gets closer to the truth and the Asset gets closer to Bourne.

jason-bourne-1Orchestrating things from Washington is the new CIA director Robert Dewey (Tommy Lee Jones), aided by an ambitious and smart analyst Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander). Bourne doesn’t know or trust them (he, like I, miss Joan Allen) and yet, he can’t be rid of them either. All the threads come together in Las Vegas for the final portion of the film and it’s an overly extended assortment of chases, fights, and betrayals.

As a popcorn film, this is a cut above as it offers up thrills and raises topical issues. Bourne is one of the few figures on screen whose mere presence makes other characters truly worried (not something you can say about Superman, Bond, or Optimus Prime). His search for identity continues to propel him and things get explained at last but there are also contrived connections that undercut the drama.

Overall, it’s fun but Bourne never seems to change and grow from these experiences and Washington’s players seem to have traded in their humanity for ambition.

The film is offered in a variety of formats including the latest version of a combo pack: 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and Digital HD (goodbye DVD). Visually, the Blu-ray transfer is very good, which it needs to be considering the constantly changing pace, setting, and lighting. The DTS:X is also very good so you can hear the gun shots, tires screeching, and eavesdropping with clarity.

Damon turns up as host for several of the film’s by-the-numbers special features. There’s Bringing Back Bourne (8:15), a brief overview of how the team reuniting for a new chapter; Bourne to Fight, a three-parter featuring Bare-Knuckle Boxing (7:55), Close Quarters (4:27), and, Underground Rumble (5:59); The Athens Escape (5:37); and the two-part Las Vegas Showdown which focuses on Convention Chaos (6:36) and Shutting Down the Strip (8:24). Overall, you get a sense of the scope and scale of the physical action but the lack of attention to theme and character is actually quite telling.

Dennis O’Neil: The CW’s Adventure In Time and Space

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The big honkin’ four-part crossover on the CW is past and I guess we have no particularly interesting reactions to it. If I were in a mood to pick nits, I might raise an eyebrow, chuckle in the manner of one who knows he is not one of the little people, and observe that it was really only a three-part crossover. Oh sure, The Flash and his friend Cisco did pop into Supergirl’s turf at the very end of the first episode, but by then the Maid of Might and her crew had solved their difficulties and all was (temporarily) well. All The Flash and Cisco did was ask for help dealing with some of their problems.

This is a crossover? Maybe by your definition (I sneer, cocking an eyebrow). Anyway, it seems that some alien invaders were causing woe on the neighboring universe, where The Flash and company hang, and so Supergirl joins The Flash in a brief migration through – here we guess – some kind of rent in the space-time continuum and for the next three hours of programming good guys from The Flash, Arrow, and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow smite the baddies, who look like something Alberto Giacometti might have dashed off after a particularly bad night.

I’m oversimplifying the story, which I kind of enjoyed. But if I were inclined to further quibble, while not rising to the level of complaint, I might ask since when did Earth – our Earth in our dimension – become a way station for extraterrestrials? I gather, from recent Supergirl episodes, that our good old terra firma is teeming with ETs, Hordes of them: Hundreds? Thousands? Hundreds of thousands? And if this is the case, Supergirl’s reality sure as heck isn’t our reality, and if that’s the case, shouldn’t there be some sort of signifiers? At least something as simple as irising doors. I mean, a few aliens, sure, but armies of them?

And on a similar note: if we humans actually made contact with beings of another dimension, without wrecking the cosmos in the process, it would be the biggest of big deals – easily the most significant event in history. Questions would get answered and some of those answers would alter our reality and perhaps finally take us where we’ve never been able to go. This would be big. Maybe even bigger than the Kardashians. So would we treat it casually, even if we were superbeings? Sure, you might not want to reveal something that would risk your secret identity, but… to hell with your secret identity and excuse me, please!

At the end of the final scene in the crossover, someone gives Supergirl a gadget that would fit in her purse and that lets her travel between dimensions as casually as I travel to get the mail. Even though – yes! – we know it’s fiction, this kind of story might diminish, ever so slightly, our sense of awe and wonder and lessens our reverence for the universe and that would be a shame.

 

Long Way North Arrives on Blu-ray in January

 

long-way-northGet ready to embark on an awe-inspiring journey to the North Pole in the visually exquisite animated feature, LONG WAY NORTH. Directed by celebrated filmmaker and animator Rémi Chayé (The Secret of Kells) and produced by Sacrebleu Productions (Oscar®-nominated Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage), Maybe Movies (Oscar®-nominated Ernest & Celestine) and Norlum Studios (Oscar®-nominated Song of the Sea), LONG WAY NORTH won the coveted Audience Award at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and the winner of Grand Prize at Tokyo Animation Festival, and is an Annie Award nominee for Best Animated Feature-Independent. This captivating animated feature, bolstered by emotionally resonant storytelling, has continued to attract universal acclaim as it enchants movie audiences and families around the world. On January 17, 2017, Shout! Factory Kids is proud to present LONG WAY NORTH on DVD, two-disc Blu-ray™+ DVD Combo Pack (with digital copy), Digital HD and iTunes.

A spirited and inspiring tale of hope and courage, LONG WAY NORTH tells the story of a young heroine persevering through a physical and emotional journey to find her explorer grandfather and his lost ship, the Davai. This award-winning animated movie offers an immersive cinematic adventure that brims with heart, action, powerful storytelling and gorgeous animation in equal measure.

LONG WAY NORTH is set in the late 19th century Saint Petersburg. Sacha, a young girl from the Russian aristocracy, dreams of the Great North and anguishes over the fate of her grandfather, Oloukine, a renowned scientist and Arctic explorer who has yet to return from his latest expedition to conquer the North Pole.

Sacha has always been fascinated by the adventurous life of her grandfather and has the same calling as Oloukine to be an explorer. But Sacha’s parents, who already made arrangements for her marriage, strongly disapprove of the idea to say the least. Defying her destiny, Sacha flees her home and launches an adventure-filled quest toward the Great North in search of Oloukine and his ship.

LONG WAY NORTH features an exceptional English voice cast of Chloé Dunn, Vivienne Vermes, Peter Hudson, Antony Hickling, Tom Perkins, Geoffrey Greenhill, Claire Harrison-Bullett, Bibi Jacob, Martin Lewis, Tom Morton, Leslie Clack, Kester Lovelace and Damian Corcoran. *French voice cast includes Christa Théret, Feodor Atkine, Thomas Sagols, Rémi Caillebot, Audrey Sablé, Fabirn Briche, Gabriel Le Doze and Boris Rehlinger.

LONG WAY NORTH DVD and two-disc Blu-ray+ DVD Combo Pack contain English and French audio tracks, English subtitles and insightful bonus content.

  • Conceptual pilot
  • Behind-the-scenes featurette
  • Interview with director Rémi Chayé and producer Henri Magalon
  • Still gallery – character design
  • Still gallery – concept art
  • Animated storyboards

Box Office Democracy: Moana

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It’s getting a little boring to talk about how consistently excellent Disney Animation’s features output has gotten.  Moana is the eighth movie Disney Animation has released since 2008 that I would recommend to anyone without any qualification.  It’s a great movie, a fun movie, and I enjoyed every minute of watching it.  It’s a safe movie, there aren’t a lot of chances taken beyond having a non-white cast, and while I’d certainly enjoy seeing Disney take some big chances on these movies, the princesses are the cash cows and I get why they can’t branch out too far.

I found the story in Moana to be perfectly charming.  The titular character (voiced by Auli’i Cravalho, a young girl with a stunning signing voice) is the daughter of the chief of a Polynesian tribe who wants to abandon the static nature of island life and push out beyond the reef, something forbidden by cultural tradition.  Like most movies about an adolescent stuck in one place, Moana ends up off the island— in this case searching for the cure to the decay that plagues her island.  She meets the demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson who is doing his best with the singing but I wouldn’t hold your breath for his solo album) an arrogant, prickly, kind of guy obsessed with his own glory and reputation.  The two struggle to get along, eventually get along and save they day.  There’s also a surprisingly good subplot about restoring the sailing traditions of the ancestors to Moana’s people who had become island-bound out of fear.

I’m always thankful when Disney puts out a princess movie and the primary thrust isn’t a love story.  Not because I don’t think there’s a place for love stories, but because young girls get a lot of media about how boys should be the center of their universes and it’s nice to see something else.  Moana turns it all the way up, there isn’t even a male character in her age bracket, and she never seems to have any interest in anything but leading her people and participating in the plot.  I’m beyond thrilled they didn’t insert any trace of romance in to the relationship between Moana and Maui as there’s absolutely no way that wouldn’t have been the creepiest thing in a movie in some time.  I’m sure the internet is already filled with art and fiction on the topic, but I’m thankful Disney didn’t do anything to lead those people on.

Disney has made some fine animated musicals in their time and Moana is no exception.  “How Far I’ll Go” and “You’re Welcome” are songs you’ll definitely find yourself humming the week after the movie.  “Shiny” is an almost Bowie-esque number that might not burn up the charts on Radio Disney (if Radio Disney is still a thing) but it will absolutely be a favorite of the Hot Topic set in your local mall— if not now, then in five years.  The songs are written by Lin-Manuel Miranda in a deal I have to believe he signed before Hamilton became the cultural force that it is.  Not because the work feels phoned-in or amateurish, but it doesn’t feel like the follow-up anyone would pick after penning the most popular Broadway show in recent memory.  This is the benefit of Disney’s famous frugalness when it comes to talent, sometimes you pick someone just before they become the biggest name in their field.

Moana is a great movie, but in the context of the eight year Disney Revival we’re in the midst of it can’t help but feel a little boring.  It’s not as thought-provoking as Zootopia was earlier in the year, neither will it be the cultural phenomenon that Frozen was.  It’s definitely unfair to mark a movie down for not being a cultural phenomenon, but isn’t it fair to ask a studio that has made eight smash hits in eight years to be a little more interesting?  Isn’t it worth the risk of stumbling and releasing a clunky movie to potentially make something fantastic?  As a film critic I want the answer to be yes but I see that the people in charge of these things would rather make the safe good movie and make all the money.

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