The Mix : What are people talking about today?

Martha Thomases: The Solution

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Once again I’m going to talk about the sexism in the comic book industry. Yeah, I’m kind of sick of it, too. However, this week, in a wave of optimism, I’m going to suggest a solution!

The subject is in the news once again because DC Entertainment finally issued a statement about the continuing charges that members of its editorial staff engage in sexual harassment.

As far as I know, there are no new charges this week. Instead, the pressure of fan reaction online and in the press must have finally reached the attention of someone at Warner Bros. corporate HQ, and the issue could no longer be ignored. It’s obvious that DC would like this to be ignored, and as evidence, I offer the fact that they released their statement on Friday afternoon, a time well known to publicists as a dumping ground because journalists, like everyone else, like to get a head start on their weekend.

I’m starting to feel bad for Eddie Berganza. He screwed up — badly — several years ago, and he accepted a demotion and did all the other things that the HR department demanded. He’s not the only person in comics to behave badly, but he got caught and he has paid at least a part of the price. Everything else that has happened since, up to including the alleged edict to ban women from working in the Superman office, is a mistake committed by management.

If Eddie really can’t control himself enough to work with women, he needs professional help. If there is a provable pattern of discrimination against women in the Superman department, that is a criminal offense whose blame goes to the people who enforce it. Unless publishing has changed monumentally in this century, editors — not even Senior Editors or Executive Editors — cannot ask a company to break the law on their behalf.

The solution is not to ban women from the Superman office (or the Spider-Man office or the Hellboy office, etc.) but to hire more women. Fill the place with women. Make acceptable and respectful behavior towards women something that happens all the time, every day.

I realize this is a radical concept, and it may be a lot to expect DC Entertainment to change when all of Hollywood behaves differently. Except that Hollywood, or at least a tiny part of it, is changing.

, the people who made the new movie, Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising, which opens today, were afraid they would be unintentionally sexist in their depiction of a modern-day sorority. To avoid this, they hired two women to consult about the script and the female characters.

Before the poor, oppressed straight cis men out there start hyperventilating about “censorship” or “political correctness,” thats not what’s happening here. The women are both writers and professional comedians. They were there to make sure the characters were real and funny, not bimbo stereotypes or delicate virgins.

I’m not suggesting that DC bring in consultants to vet every script or every page of art. Movies are a different medium, with one script (which may be rewritten constantly) and one production schedule. DC publishes more than 50 titles a month. Movie productions tend to each be a specific project, often with its own corporation or partnership, while comics are a continuing process from one legal entity.

Still, I think diversity consultants could be useful. In fact, I think there is an opportunity for just such a business. It would include people of color and people from other continents and people of diverse ages and sexualities and gender identities.

I think this company’s holiday parties would be so much fun.

If this works, it might be more efficient for DC to hire an actual Chief Diversity Officer. Yeah, it sounds like more bureaucracy, but companies are always adding new C-level executives. When I worked at DC, there was no such thing as a Chief Creative Officer. Now, DC and Marvel both have them.

Creativity and diversity go together. The sooner comics (and movies and music and television and theater and dance and publishing) realize this, the sooner we can talk about something other than Eddie Berganza. And won’t that be nice?

Tweets: Check, Please! Review

Hi Everyone! This week it’s just me, Maddy! And because it’s just me, I’m going to share with y’all my favorite web comic, Check Please by Ngozi Ukazu.

Eric Bittle is a pie-baking Georgia boy on an ice hockey scholarship at Samwell University in Massachusetts. That’s all you need to know….go read it! Actually, watch the video first, then go read it!

Oh, but wait….for our younger Tweeks fans or those who can’t abide “strong language” — this is about college hockey players, so there’s some questionable vocabulary in the comic and in the video.

Dennis O’Neil: The Boys Who Film Batman

Boy Who Loved BatmanMessrs. Pisani and Uslan, step into the spotlight, center stage and take a bow!

But before we deliver the plaudits, we should perhaps tell you who they are. Of course most of you already know, but there are always a few… well, I don’t want to call them “retards” because that is not politically correct and a crummy thing to say besides, so let’s just identify them as folk who choose not to mingle either physically or intellectually (by acquiring new information) and thus may not be acquainted with the existence of the gentlemen named above.

Mike Uslan is the possessor of the world’s only doctorate in comics, He is a professor at his alma mater, Indiana University, the recipient of a Daytime Emmy, a writer who once worked at DC Comics and he has a producer credit on every Batman movie released since 1989. (For more information, see Mike’s autobiography, The Boy Who Loved Batman, available from Amazon and other book stores.) Trust me – I could go on.

I don’t know exactly how to identify Ken Pisani. I met him a decade or so ago when Marifran, a camera guy, and sound guy and I joined him on a cavernous sound stage in lower Manhattan. The occasion was Ken’s interviewing me for a History Channel documentary on comics. The interview was extraordinarily good and Ken and his lovely wife Amanda have been friends ever since. I’d like to see Ken’s resume because I’m pretty sure he’s done a lot I’m not aware of – he does keep busy being a TV producer, a comic book writer/creator, a screenwriter, a novelist, an art director, a cartoonist…once upon a time, he even worked for Phil Seuling, the man who virtually invented the comic book direct sales market. Amanda knows the full catalog of Ken’s accomplishments. I, alas, do not.

Anyway, that’s Mike and Ken, and I hope they’re taking that bow.

The reason I mention them now is that Ken recently sent me some DVDs from a TV series that ran on Turner’s movie channel. The subject under discussion was the relationship of comic book to early movie serials. The format was the master of ceremonies talking with the comics expert who was – aw, you guessed it – our own Mike Uslan. After a few minutes informative conversation the MC screened two chapters of the serial we’d just heard Mike commenting on. The shows were educational and entertaining – more feathers for the Uslan cap – and they may have taught us comics geeks stuff that we didn’t know. This kind of historical background may not help us do stories, us creator types – I really haven’t decided about that – but it’s kind of nifty to know it.

By the way, in case you’re really out of touch… movie serials were short films shown with main features telling a story over 12 to 15 chapters, each chapter ending with the hero or other good guy in some kind in some kind of horrible quandary. The idea was, you’d return the following week to see how the hero escapes the quandary. Theoretically, you could return to see the hero squashed like a bug, but I don’t think that ever happened. At least, Mike didn’t mention it.

(Editor’s Addendum: Mr. Uslan has been back at writing comics every once in a while, and once again has given us some of the best stuff on the racks. His six-part Lone Ranger / Green Hornet series will be released by Dynamite Comics in July.)

Box Office Democracy: Money Monster

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If your internet life is anything like mine you probably saw one too many articles this week on Money Monster and what it meant for the election, or what it meant that George Clooney made this movie and is a Hillary supporter, or why this movie exists when The Big Short already came out. I found it completely exhausting and it wasn’t representative of what this movie actually is. Money Monster isn’t a real piece of analysis about any kind of systemic flaws in our financial system; it’s John Q but with algorithmic trading instead of health care bureaucracy and George Clooney instead of Denzel Washington. It’s a fantasy and an understandable one, but one that feel light on substance and, ultimately, a little garbled.

The big problem Money Monster has is with its casting. George Clooney is a proven commodity as the slick huckster with a heart of gold, and throwing in some Jim Cramer caricature makes it so much better. Julia Roberts is the quintessential put-upon hard-working career woman and she’s firing on all cylinders reunited with Clooney to do a slightly less sexually charged version of their shtick from Ocean’s Eleven. Clooney and Roberts are fantastic but they pull focus from the character the movie should be about, the guy who is so angry with the injustice of the financial system he needs to take hostages, Kyle Bludwell. Kyle is played by English actor Jack O’Connell, who you might know from his turn on the British drama Skins or his medium-sized part in 300: Rise of an Empire, but who you probably don’t remember from anything. He does a good job and is honestly acting his ass off at certain points in this film, but even in those big moments it’s hard not be transfixed by the bigger stars on the screen. It makes Kyle’s rage about the injustices of our system and the lack of accountability seem like the less important problems than the dining habits of a TV host, and that seems antithetical to the movie’s message.

If we ignore the central political issue, and it sort of feels like the film wants us to, there’s perfectly good filmmaking in here. The studio hostage scenes are tense and it especially does a good job focusing on the fear and menace that the gun represents. The mystery elements feel sufficiently twisty and surprising, although my fiancée pointed out in the car home that it all really gets solved by one person asking one question to the right regulatory body and maybe it all would have come out without the events of the film but I can let that go. There are even some good moments of levity, which can be hard to balance with a film that wants to be on the edge of overwrought all the time. It’s nice to see Jodie Foster back directing features and she gets good work out of her actors, it’s just a shame to see the parts add up to less than a coherent whole.

There’s no way anyone in Hollywood sat in their office and said, “we’re going to make a movie about the financial crisis and we’re going to cast George Clooney and Julia Roberts and it’ll get middling reviews and open in third place in mid-May.” That’s just not how anything works. The previews we saw before this movie were prestige films with festival accolades and pre-made awards pitches, and it was like seeing the potential Money Monster was going to fail to live up to. This could have been a powerful statement on any number of topics, but instead was okay with being a good thriller and an offbeat character piece. Money Monster wants to be a big and important movie but it doesn’t get there, it doesn’t have a strong enough point of view or clarity of vision.

Molly Jackson: The Big Con!

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Did you hear all those panicked screams yesterday? The cold yells of people feeling their hopes dashed before their very eyes?

Yes, yesterday New York Comic Con announced that they were once again altering their ticket sales process. This changes nearly every year (just like DC’s logo!), so every time it happens it shouldn’t be a surprise… but it always is. The big steps are always taken to help the ever-growing hordes to buy tickets and make sure that they don’t game the system.

The newest hoop is the addition of fan verification for anyone who could potentially buy a NYCC ticket. What it really boils down to is this is just NYCC having everyone register on the NYCC website in advance. So if I and my three friends want to go, we need to pre-register. The other change is there will no longer be any VIP tickets or tickets sold at retailers. Everything will be online and announced to members through their email that they verified with. San Diego Comic Con has done the same thing for years, so this isn’t news to serious con goers.

Yet, this small step has built up a lot of discourse amongst fans. Now there are cries of despair and confusion about the system. Now people are convinced that they will never get tickets again and, therefore, the world will end. OK, I might be exaggerating a bit but you get my point. Truth is, this is going to fix things with attendance. Yes, you can’t sit on a line outside Midtown Comics for 10 hours to get a ticket, but that also means the 30 ticket scalpers ahead of you can’t do the same. Will some scalpers still find a way? Yes, of course they will. But NYCC has gone pretty far to make it harder for them.

The big problem with this is that it doesn’t go far enough. As of their announcement, all tickets are non-returnable, non-transferable, non-resalable and non-upgradable. I understand the need to keep tickets non-resalable and non-upgradable. Making tickets resalable flies directly in the face of stopping scalpers, so that is pointless to have. I doubt anyone (except scalpers) would disagree. I can also understand the non-upgradable. There are a limited amount of each ticket to appease the great fire marshal! If you anger the fire marshal, his wrath will rain down upon us all! Oh, and the con will be closed down. Let’s not piss him off.

Now, on to non-returnable and non-transferable. The same scalper warning could be put onto non-transferable. This could be abused by the exact people they are trying to stop. But, if you limited how many tickets could be transferred, like 1-2 by the original credit card holder, it could help fans manage the planning in advance. One argument I saw was for disabled persons that need someone to assist them. If the pass could be easily transferable if the assist person changes last minute, which would be a big help for the disabled fans in attendance. Most likely though, this would not be a change NYCC would make.

NYCC needs to make tickets returnable. If you want me and my party of four to commit almost five months out, give me a small safety net. As NYCC likes to tell us repeatedly, they are as big as or bigger than SDCC. Well, SDCC lets tickets be returned. If I can return my tickets, then why not let me? Put it on me to pay shipping if I already received it and then do a last minute sale online in September. Give fans a chance to go if they couldn’t get through the slog of people trying to buy tickets in June. Look at the fear and panic already. There will be no danger in not selling out.

At the rate all of the conventions are growing, soon a lot of fans will be locked out of conventions. That is a truth we can’t ignore. Geekdom has grown out of the basement and I don’t think it will ever be going back. How conventions react to this growth boom is a different story. They need to remember that their fans are still everyday people, who are incredibly passionate about their fandoms. Giving those loud, excited and social media savvy fans some wiggle room can only help conventions grow more.

Joe Corallo: Darwyn Cooke – A Personal Remembrance

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As many of you know Darwyn Cooke, beloved comic book industry icon, passed away Saturday May 14th after a battle with lung cancer. He was 53 years old. I could go into all of the facts, his accomplishments and merits in animation, illustration, and writing, but many of you already know them all or could easily gain access to them on the plethora of websites covering this tragedy. So in lieu of listing off his accomplishments, I’m going to talk about what Darwyn Cooke means to me.

darwyn-cooke-1-6260517My earliest memories of Darwyn Cooke’s work was from Marvel’s X-Statix. Peter Milligan, Mike and Laura Allred crafted an incredible pop art critique of the direction we were going in our fame obsessed culture using mutants as the metaphor of choice. One of the artists that also worked on this was Darwyn Cooke. My younger brother James was not quite a teenager as this was coming out, but he knew right away that it was something special. It took me a little longer than James to really appreciate just how incredible artists like Darwyn, the Alfred’s and Paul Pope are, but not that much longer.

From there I would see Darwyn Cooke’s work pop up time to time. I was always attracted to it, but never really know where to jump in. For a few years I found myself travelling the country working on different political or advocacy campaigns and my comic reading was sporadic at best. One of the artists I fell in love with at that time was a collaborator of Cooke’s, Tim Sale.

Once I really settled back in New York in 2010, I delved into working on comics myself. By NYCC 2011, I had enough comic work done where I decided to get a table with my then collaborator Bob Wulff. This would end up being more of a learning experience than anything else, but we did end up having a table diagonally across from Tim Sale. More than a few times when he had a lull I’d walk over, chat with him, and get a couple of books signed, including Absolute Batman Long Halloween, the only Absolute edition I owned at the time. When I asked Tim what other Absolute editions he would recommend, he said without missing a beat, The New Frontier.

Not long after I picked it up and was blown away by how gorgeous the art was and how he lovingly and seamlessly crafted such a complicated and continuity heavy story in just the right way to make it all feel so straightforward and simple.

I would soon be given a copy of the first of the Richard Stark’s Parker graphic novel adaptation from IDW, The Hunter, by my friend Mike Bradley. He owned and operated Collectors Kingdom for over two decades before his sudden passing on April 6th, 2015. He was 48 years old. For a while I would stop in at least once a week to pick up comics, chat with Mike and the regulars there, and exchange recommendations. I thought of his love of Darwyn Cooke and how he gave me that book when I heard of his passing, and now Darwyn Cooke’s passing has brought this all full circle for me.

For NYCC 2012 it was announced that Darwyn Cooke would be one of the guests. I was excited at the prospect of meeting someone whose art I had grown to adore. Shortly before the convention, however, he had to cancel. This left me disappointed, but I figured it wouldn’t be too long until I’d get a chance to see him. After all, it’s not like he was going anywhere.

One year later at NYCC 2013 he was again announced as a guest and unlike the previous year, he remained as a guest. This time I would get to meet him. Darwyn Cooke didn’t have a table in artist alley, which made things more difficult. I saw that he had a panel on his life and career moderated by Paul Levitz on the last day of the con in the last time slot, and 4pm. Paul also wrote a heartfelt post on Darwyn Cooke’s passing you can read here. I planned my day around making sure I could attend.

Before I headed over to the panel, I dropped by artist alley to pick up a Superman sketch from my friend John Broglia. We chatted about the show, and it eventually came up that I was going to the Darwyn Cooke panel. John’s eyes lit up and he turned to his bag to dig out a copy of one of Darwyn’s Parker adaptations. John told me that every con he attends that Darwyn Cooke is at he tries to get a comic signed by him, and asked if I could get that signed for him. Having no idea if I’d even be able to get a signature from Darwyn Cooke at this panel, I said yes.

The panel was everything I hoped it would be. Paul Levitz facilitated a wonderful, engaging conversation about how Darwyn got his start in comics. Afterwards, the modest sized panel audience mostly dissipated as a handful of people stuck around, including myself. When it was my turn to talk to Darwyn Cooke, I didn’t do or say anything special. It was mostly niceties and a declaration of how much his work means to me.

I had three books for him to sign: the Parker book Mike Bradley gave to me, the one that I was getting signed for John Broglia, and copy of Absolute DC: The New Frontier. He signed the Parker books first. When it came to the Absolute, I told him that Tim Sale had told me about it a couple of cons back. After hearing that, he looked up at me and with a big smile on his face asked me my name. He proceeded to sign the book to me and did a quick head sketch. We shook hands, still with that big smile on his face, and I rushed back to artist alley to get John his book back as I ignored the loud calls from volunteers that the show was over.

There were at least a couple of other chances I had to see Darwyn Cooke again, but I didn’t. Some conflict or another would arise, and I’d think to myself how it’s more important that someone else who hasn’t met him yet got the opportunity to anyway. After all, it’s not like he was going anywhere.

Darwyn Cooke and his work in comics mean a great deal to me and countless other people. The brightness, optimism, and heart in his storytelling often seemed like the last stand of a losing war in mainstream comics against darkness, cynicism, and hate. Though others still work on combating this bleakness, to me he has been their greatest champion. Because of the work he has done, he’s left countless other people in his place to champion these ideals in his stead. Some of them you’ve heard of, some of them you’ll hear of soon, and I’ll bet some of them won’t even come into being until all of us here now are gone.

My condolences to his family, his friends, and to all the lives he’s touched. The world of comics is a darker place for now, but it won’t be for long.

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REVIEW: ID4 20th Anniversary Edition

ID4 Blu-rayTwenty years ago, our summer films were big budget and fun, with just a dollop of seriousness to give them weight. They didn’t take themselves too seriously and more often than not delivered good performances, fine special effects, and plenty of bang for the buck. In many cases, they were original efforts that weren’t serialized or drawn from comic books despite their “comic book” feel.

One of the best of that bunch was Independence Day which, honestly, didn’t hold up to a lot of examination but gave us popcorn thrills and was really a 1950s disaster pic updated for the ‘90s. It’s a guilty pleasure and one we invariably stop to watch whenever we find it on television. A lot of credit goes to cowriter Dean Devlin and cowriter/director Roland Emmerich. It was well cast and kept moving, interweaving numerous threads that culminated in a terrific dog fight across America.

Looking back, we adore Bill Pullman’s rousing “let’s win one for the Gipper” speech right before the climactic battle or Will Smith punching out an alien and saying, “Welcome to Earth” before chomping on a stogie. You have fun character bits from Judd Hirsch and Harvey Firestein and this catapulted Viveca A. Fox to notoriety and a blossoming bromance between Smith and quirky Jeff Goldblum.

Does it hold up to story scrutiny? Considering the alien threat is stopped by a human-written computer virus delivered via an Apple laptop, I would say no.

Does it hold up watching 20 years later? Yep.

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment serves up a remastered 1080p high definition transfer and two Blu-ray discs worth of goodness. The film is a treat to see with fresh eyes as the colors pop and all the details are evident. This is clearly the best it has looked since the theater.  Promises of better aside, the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless track that accompanies the visuals is just what you want.

Disc one comes with the theatrical release and an extended cut, clocking in at 2:33:33. The special features carry over many of the elements from the previous Blu-ray edition such as the dual audio commentaries.

The second disc does come with Independence Day: A Legacy Surging Forward (30:40) which reunites cast and crew to look back and reminisce. You also get Original Theatrical Ending (4:16), showing how Russell Casse (Randy Quaid) saves the day. We also receive a Gag Reel (2:05); Creating Reality (29:19); ID4 Invasion (21:57), with fake news coverage, The Making of ID4 (28:29), Jeff Goldblum guides us on  a behind-the-scenes look; Combat Review (Random Destruction Clips) — AWACS Plane (0:14), Welcome Wagon (0:12), Los Angeles (0:36), New York (0:24), Washington, D.C. (1:12), Los Angeles Tunnel (1:19), Dogfight 1 (1:27), El Toro (0:17), Canyon (0:56), Dogfight 2 (0:42), Russell the Kamikaze (1:21), Mothership (0:18), and Random Destruction; Monitor Earth Broadcasts (Video Playback Newscasts), News clips created for the film — Static Report (1:35), Blue Acolytes (0:44), Sky News Russian (3:05), Team 1 Russian (3:46), Vox News Germany (0:47), Katja Scholl, Berlin (2:45), Farsi Report (2:52), Fields/Dunphy (2:54), Press Conference 1 (2:05), Press Conference 2 (1:38), Chinese Broadcast (1:40), Post-Conference (1:00), Engel on Fox (2:44), Hal Live: Modelmaker (2:48), Traffic Report (1:30), Russell Casse Arrest (1:58), U.N. Report (2:30), Alien Lovers (1:07), Rooftop Parties (0:35), Fields/Engel Debate (3:40), Welcome Wagon Report 1 (4:35), and Welcome Wagon Report 2 (4:40).

There are extensive Galleries covering Welcome Wagon Storyboard Sequences, Destruction Storyboard Sequences, Biplane Ending Storyboard Sequences, Alien Beings Conceptual Artwork, Alien Ships Conceptual Artwork, Sets and Props Conceptual Artwork, and Production Photographs.

Finally, we have three Teaser Trailers and the Theatrical Trailer followed by the various TV Spots — Super Bowl TV Spot (0:32), Apple Computer TV Spot (0:32), 15-Second TV Spot (0:17), 30-Second TV Spot 1 (0:31), 30-Second TV Spot 2 (0:30), 30-Second TV Spot 3 (0:31), 30-Second TV Spot 4 (0:31), and 30-Second TV Spot 5 (0:31).

Mindy Newell: Baa, Baa, Black Sheep

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“If I were to run, I’d run as a Republican. They’re the dumbest group of voters in the

country. They love anything on Fox News. I could lie and they’d still eat it up. I bet my

my numbers would be terrific.” – Donald Trump, People Magazine, 1998

“It is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep.” – Benito Mussolini

Perhaps this is “bad business,” but before you do anything else, I want all of you to go over to Michael Davis World – yes, that Michael Davis, who happens to be my loooong time friend and fellow ComicMix columnist – and read Martha Thomases’s latest piece, entitled “Trump Card.” Then sit and think. Then read it again.

Then be afraid. Be very afraid.

I know I don’t often get political – oh, c’mon, who the hell do I think I’m kidding? – but this time I have to tell you that I am more consumed with fear for this country than even when the Bush administration sold the American public a bill of goods, the Brooklyn Bridge, a mule they swore was a horse, and lied us into the Iraq War. Which, if you understand history and current events, you’ll be able to follow the timeline that has brought us to the cliff on the edge of the abyss that is Donald Trump.

Ronald Reagan was called the “Teflon President,” but never in all my life have I seen a truer description of the “Baby Man,” as Jon Stewart calls the presumptive Republican Presidential candidate – no matter what he says, no matter what he does, no matter what is revealed, nothing touches Trump; criticism and truth slides off of him the way a well-cooked omelet slides out of a sauté pan, be it insults, lies, racial slurs, gender insults, religious attacks, or back-tracking.

No matter what they have previously stated on the record about never endorsing Trump, just about every Republican still in office or up for re-election in the fall is falling into line behind him, forgetting their oath to this country to protect it “against all enemies, “foreign and domestic.”

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan hems and haws and hems and haws, and I am actually disappointed in the man. Although I am unlikely to ever agree with his policies, there is no denying that Mr. Ryan is not stupid. But instead of having the balls to stand up and say “there is no way I am ever going to endorse this guy, there is no way this phony in an expensive suit is suitable for the office of the President of the United States, there is no place for a loose cannon like Donald Trump in the White House,” Mr. Ryan, like too many of his fellows, looks only to his own future. He could have simply laughed at the suggestion that Trump will fire him from the position of Speaker of the House if Ryan doesn’t go along with him – that alone shows how ignorant Donald Trump is about the workings of our government, as the Speaker of the House is not a contestant on “The Apprentice,” and cannot be fired by the President. He can only be fired by his fellow Republicans in the House… if they maintain the majority in the November election.

There are Republicans currently in office who are refusing to support Trump:

John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsay Graham (R-SC) being the two biggest names, though both claim it is because he does not have “conservative bona fides.” Of course McCain is obviously worried about the Hispanic and Latino vote in Arizona, as he’s running for re-election in his Latino-heavy state. Hey, while I’d rather hear them both say it’s because he’s a loon, I’ll take it. However, there are more conscientious Representatives and Senators out there:

Rep. Scott Rigell (R-VA) loses points because he is planning to retire at the end of his current term, but he did send a letter out to his supporters which urged them to vote for anybody but Trump: “My love for our country eclipses my loyalty to our party, and to live with a clear conscience I will not support a nominee so lacking in the judgment, temperament and character needed to be our nation’s commander in chief. Accordingly, if left with no alternative, I will not support Trump in the general election should he become our Republican nominee.”

Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL) said, early in the campaign “This man does things and says things that I teach my six- and three-year-olds not to say. I could never look them in the eye and tell them that I support someone so crass and insulting and offensive to lead the greatest nation in the world.” You go, sir! That’s what I want to hear! Representative Curbelo has also said that he will back either a third-party candidate or a write-in.

And yes, there are many Republicans whose names are not familiar to the national public, but are on the inside of Washington politics who are open about their opposition, such as Elliot Cohen, counselor to the State Department during George W. Bush’s administration, who tweeted “…I will oppose Trump as nominee. Won’t support & won’t work for him for more reasons than a Tweet can bear.” He also wrote an open letter to Trump, signed by 60 members of the GOP National Security committee which said: “Mr. Trump’s own statements lead us to conclude that as president, he would use the authority of his office to act in ways that make America less safe, and which would diminish our standing in the world. Furthermore, his expansive view of how presidential power should be wielded against his detractors poses a distinct threat to civil liberty in the United States.”

Max Boot, foreign policy adviser to Sen. Marco Rubio, and a fellow on the Council on Foreign Relations told the New York Times that “I would sooner vote for Josef Stalin than I would vote for Donald Trump. There is no way in hell I would vote for him. I would far more readily support Hillary Clinton, or Bloomberg if he ran.”

I don’t know if the “Republicans for Hillary” movement will gain any ground, at least in public, but I do think – and many people have derided me for thinking this – that a lot of them will quietly take advantage of our “secret ballot” system to indeed pull the lever or push the button or pencil in the box for the Democrat who would be our first woman President…or will “feel the Bern.” Maybe this isn’t brave of them, as they will be protecting their own Republican asses, but at the least they will be doing the right thing for the country. In fact, I will go so far as to say that I wouldn’t be afraid to bet that the Bushes (all of them, including the wives, kids, and assorted family members old enough) will be voting the Democratic Presidential ticket, whether it’s Hillary or Bernie, though I wouldn’t bet that on that outcome when it comes to their Senate, Representative or local races.

Last February the website Gawker punked Trump by sending him quote by Benito Mussolini, the fascist Italian dictator, which Trump retweeted. The quote was: “It is better to live one day as a lion than one hundred years as a sheep.” When confronted about it by Chuck Todd on NBC’s Meet The Press, and if the candidate wanted to be associated with a dictator, Trump said:

“Chuck, it’s OK to know it’s Mussolini. Look, Mussolini was Mussolini. It’s OK to – it’s a very good quote, it’s a very interesting quote, and I know it. I saw it. I saw what – and I know who said it. But what difference does it make whether it’s Mussolini or somebody else? It’s certainly a very interesting quote… I want to be associated with interesting quotes. And people, you know, I have almost 14 million people between Instagram and Facebook and Twitter and all of that. And we do interesting things. And I sent it out. And certainly, hey, it got your attention, didn’t it?”

That answer is pure Trump.

As for those 14 million followers on “Instagram and Facebook and Twiiter and all that?” As I told our editor Mike Gold today after seeing Captain America: Civil War, “Those yahoos think Trump is talking about a pizza parlor in New York called ‘Mussolini’s’.”

Open all night.

Oh, yeah. And Civil War rocked!!!!!!

 

Ed Catto: Geek Culture Wins with an Intramural Pickup Game

avengers-annual2-5293175justice-league-of-america-56-1050315It’s been a month of big wins for Geek Culture, both domestically and internationally. Last weekend, we celebrated the 15th Year of Free Comic Book Day. FCBD was sparked by Joe Field’s sweet tooth and love of Free Ice Cream Cone Day and has now grown into a worldwide phenomenon. In anticipation of it all, there were articles like this from the Guardian helping Brits find the best Free Comic Book Day Comic Shops in the UK. And you might have read my column last week. I covered the enthusiasm of thousands of FCBD fans in metro NYC.

The other big news was the astounding box office results for the new movie, Captain America: Civil War. This picture’s opening weekend was $181.8 million, making it the best debut of any movie this year, and ensuring it will be one of 2016’s biggest successes. Worldwide, it’s a similar story, and the international box office embraced the picture with an additional $496.6 million.

Much has been written about Warner’s Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. The distinguished competition tried to steal a few pages from Marvel’s cinematic playbook and they enjoyed strong box office revenue. But they also suffered through fan backlash and critical analysis.  Many feel that like a car crash, there was an urge to slow down and check it out. Did fans begrudgingly see the movie? One critic nailed it with the phrase “The Cinema of Obligation.”

avengers-ssc-4816914my-little-pony-vs-adenture-time-4685169This third Captain America movie debuted as the U.S. is coming to grips with a contentious national election. So many voters complain that they don’t like either presidential candidate, and the negative ratings that pollsters report confirm that.

But Geek Culture has known a secret for a long time. You don’t have to hate the “other guy” during an argument. In comics, you can call it a Civil War or you can call it an unfortunate misunderstanding. In Geek Culture when the good guys fight, it’ s more likely there’s been some miscommunication that leads to a short-term conflict. But in the end, they patch up their differences and their friendships supersede their temporary conflict.

The visual of super heroes, who are usually friends, squaring off against one another was a central part of this movie’s marketing. These visuals have been around for a long time. I’ve peppered this article with a few favorites.

avengers-ssc-4816914ordway-jla-vs-jsa-1493719Last week, actor Bryan Cranston was educating Bill Maher (!) on how a generation ago, Washington’s social events would routinely include folks from both sides of the aisles. They’d duke it out all day on issues like segregation, then get together for cocktails (with their spouses) and exchange stories about their families. They became friendly off the battlefield of politics.

That’s kind of the way it has always worked in comics, and I wish people passionate about politics would learn a thing or two.

NY Times critic A.O. Scott observed that Captain America: Civil War was less of a civil war and more of an intramural basketball pickup game. He was right. And that’s what makes it so much fun and so successful.

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