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REVIEW: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2

mj2_bd3d-e1453923121876-2836647That resulting thud you hear is the disappointing opening weekend numbers for Allegiant, the third part of the four part adaptation of the Divergent trilogy. Its arrival coincides with Lionsgate’s release of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 as a Blu-ray Combo Pack. The commercial demands that the final book of a series be broken into two films made sense for the final Harry Potter novel but certainly not for Mockingjay as witnessed by the poor critical reception Part 1 received in 2014.

Now we have the finale and while stronger, continues to lend credence to the argument it didn’t need to be two separate films (and the year’s wait, in retrospect, was probably a mistake).

The bloom may be off the YA Dystopian rose as the films rushing to the screen in the wake of The Hunger Games’ well-deserved respect failed to measure up. What many of the authors and filmmakers neglected to do was create a protagonist with as many layers as poor Katniss Everdeen.

Fortunately, screenwriters Peter Craig and Danny Strong have not sanded off Katniss’ (Jennifer Lawrence) edges and she remains the most reluctant protagonist in the recent memory. All she wanted to do was protect her sister and bit by bit, page by page, volume by volume, she was dragged kicking and screaming (sometimes literally) into becoming a symbol.

This final installment wavers between her being the focal point of the rebellion against President Snow (Donald Sutherland) and the residents of decadent District 1 and being part of something greater. We see her swearing she will kill Snow and sneaks out of District 13 to make her way to District 2 but then she’s part of Unit 451 and taking orders from others. She is not in the forefront of the fighting, in fact the unit is made of photogenic icons, survivors of previous games and therefore representing the fight against the cruel treatment of Panem’s residents.

720x405-MCDHUGA_EC105_HShe suffers and is made to suffer as those around her manipulate her mother (Paula Malcolmson) and sister Prim (Willow Shields), her friends Peeta Josh Hutcherson) and Gale (Liam Hemsworth), twisting the Mockingjay to their own purposes. At no point does she really stand up and take control of her own fate and make the demands necessary to be the hero we expect her to. And that is Suzanne Collins’ brilliance in her trilogy, that Katniss remains a heroine thrust into situations by circumstance and struggles to survive, but rarely getting to choose how.

Of the adaptations, this one has the most substantive changes from the source material as the violence is toned down to maintain the PG-13 rating and various threads are dropped or truncated in favor of action, mayhem, and tears. As a result, some characters get short-shrift, notably mom, Prim, and Haymitch (Woody Harrelson). Poor Philip Seymour Hoffman lost his life before filming a key scene towards the end but Plutarch’s hand remains strongly felt throughout. Snow and President Coin (Julianne Moore) deliver indelible performances that help remind us of the political stakes. The screenwriters smartly elevated the role played by Commander Paylor (Patina Miller) so her later participation makes sense.

Director Francis Lawrence makes up for the slog that was Part 1 with a tauter paced tale with sweep and scope. He coaxes nice performances from his cast and delivers a satisfying conclusion to the epic.

President-Snow-Mockingjay-Part-2-Velvet-Red-BLazer-1433898326The high definition transfer is excellent, preserving the colors and allowing us to see the shadows, notably in the sewer sequence. We can luxuriate in the rich colors of the costumes, explosions, and details in the final scenes. It is well-matched with the Dolby Atmos soundtrack.

The Blu-ray offers up Audio Commentary from Lawrence and Producer Nina Jacobson.

Additionally, we get the right-part documentary Pawns No More: Making The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2which is 2:30 of detailed behind-the-scenes footage from every possible angle and is fascinating at time. There is also The Hunger Games: A Photographic Journey (10:12), which examines still photographer Murray Close’s career; Cinna’s Sketchbook (10:00), which explores the costuming for the final films; Panem on Display, focusing on the traveling museum exhibits and Jet to the Set, a contest.

Lionsgate has simultaneously released a box set of all four films which boasts 14 hours of bonus content including previously unseen deleted scenes.

REVIEW: The Creeps: The Trolls Will Feast!

The Creeps: The Trolls Will Feast!
By Chris Schweizer
Amulet, 122 pages, $17.95/$9.95

The Creeps 2Last August, Amulet introduced us to Chris Schweizer’s middle school gang The Creeps. Their inaugural appearance, Night of the Frankenfrogs, was packed and didn’t entirely work so I was curious to see how he would deepen the characters or expand their world in his sophomore book.

To my pleasant surprise, Schweizer offers up a far more satisfying effort. The kids start off already in trouble with the local constabulary in Pumpkins County but quickly we get the impression bigger problems are developing. Something is interfering with electronic signals so cellphones and Wi-Fi connections are not working. And there’s something about Jock Brogglin that makes him more than just a troublemaker.

In short order, the kids learn from Jock that he is the last survivor of a previous generation of troll fighters and now, after too short a hibernation period, the trolls are ready to attack and feast on the inhabitants. One problem: no one can see the Trolls.

The Creeps need intel and here we learn more about the bizarre beings that are a part of their universe; not just the trolls, but also Mitchell’s older brother. While we still haven’t met their parents, we at least know they are not a collection of single children. Actually, the absence of parental figures rings false as the book opens with the kids in police custody, having their mug shots taken. As minors that would demand parental involvement.

Be that as it may, the four kids – Carol, Mitchell, Jarvis, and Rosario – prove tight and functional with distinctive personalities being rounded out. What seems like a throwaway bit, a video of Rosario singing (very badly) that has gone viral, prove pivotal later on.

Schweizer also gives us Jock, proving not every adult in the books (teachers last time, police this time) are idiots, which is refreshing.

Each of his 122 pages is packed with six to eight panel pages proliferating throughout. At times the pacing is a little off, especially towards the end where it feels like he was cramming things in to finish the story, but it’s all clearly laid out and colored so it makes for a good reading experience for the young adult reading audience.

This is a stronger offering and shows greater command of the characters and their setting so the series is taking on a nice shape.

Glenn Hauman: Should The Never-Ending Battle Have Casualties?

 

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With the imminent arrival of Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn Of Justice, a lot of the old arguments generated from the previous film are being taken out and argued. Most prominently on one side of the argument is Mark Hughes filing at Forbes, he other is most eloquently represented by Mark Waid, who has the advantage of, y’know, actually having written the character numerous times. (for starters) and Kevin Powers.

Regular readers of this site can probably guess where we come down, and yet, we still understand the conflict leading so many to wondering. A strange visitor with godlike powers that was sent here by his father from above is known all over the world for his great deeds, constantly watching over us and protecting us from great evil while walking among us, and yet people say it isn’t enough– he doesn’t reflect the world we live in today. The man on the street can’t identify with him, and so his story must be changed to become relevant to a mass audience. In light of this, it seems only fair to ask…

Should Jesus kill?

Oh, wait. That probably should have read “Superman”.

Surely you can understand the confusion. People go every week to a special spot and plunk down money to hear stories about his life and teaching by example, be entertained, and hopefully enlightened.

jesusrifle090915-6441568And yet, it does seem that we’re hearing a different version of those types of stories a lot lately, doesn’t it? “Superman should kill people, and fight only for Americans!” “Jesus would take a submachine gun to those Roman soldiers trying to put him on the cross, and then haul ass after Judas!” “Superman will protect our way of life by any means necessary!” “Christ commands us to hate gays!” “Kindergarten teachers should carry guns!” “Soldiers should waterboard family members!”

The people who say those things are fundamentally missing the point. And what they say shows not only that they don’t understand, but that they are crude, materialistic, self-serving, cruel, and antithetical to the teachings of their stories. Rather than aspire to their level of goodness and hope, they insist on dragging the hero down to their level after a quick mud bath for good measure, because it’s what they would do themselves.

All of this would be bad enough, but it gets worse. Because lately, these same sorts of people who say Superman should kill have also been using another phrase about someone else:

“He says what I really believe. He says what everyone wants to say.”

Yeah, that’s what worries us… that many people really have been having thoughts like that, and have been all along, along with other thoughts they wouldn’t dare say out loud, and they were just waiting for someone to come along and let them express their innermost desires. A man of wealth and taste, who doesn’t feel ashamed about flaunting it.

As it turns out oh-so-conveniently for the theme of this column, there’s a comic book character who’s been making a splash in other media who does the exact same thing.

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Maybe you’ve heard of him. Hope you guessed his name.

Joe Corallo: Netflix Is Our Friend

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Last week, fellow columnist Molly Jackson and I had a conversation about binge watching on Netflix. Specifically about Young Justice, which she wrote about here. The reason it came up was because people have been encouraged to binge watch Young Justice in order to convince Netflix to pick up the show to give it another season. Young Justice is far from the only example of this at the most popular streaming service around.

Netflix has been breaking new ground lately by not breaking any new ground at all. By that I mean they’ve been at the forefront of offering people a whole hell of a lot of what we already know we like, but, technically, it’s new now! Even when they give us something “new” it’s almost always a vehicle for an already well established, accomplished actor, comedian, or creator with a long resume. I understand that this is an arguable point, but it’s the point I’m making.

They’ve been giving us exactly what we want: copious amounts of the entertainment equivalent of junk food, forgivingly referred to as nostalgia. However, unlike high fructose corn syrup and trans fats we can act like entertainment junk food is perfectly healthy to binge on without the societal pushback. We even use the word binge to describe this behavior without any of the negative connotation. Probably because people can’t necessarily make broad generalizations about your physical appearance or your worth as a human being based on what you watch.

Nostalgia is the junkies’ quick fix. It feels good, don’t get me wrong, but it will never compare to that feeling of falling in love with a TV show, movie, book, or play the first time around. Maybe it’s partly an age thing. Maybe it’s partly an experience thing. Either way, nostalgia is merely a substitute for the original. It’s a hollow smile at the realization that you aren’t alone in the world. It’s a cup of coffee with an ex long after the fall out that doesn’t quite go anywhere, but gives you fuzzy feelings of the old times. Okay, this is getting dark now so let’s move on.

Everyone’s nostalgia is different too. We all had different experiences growing up. I got the chance to see New Order at Radio City Music Hall on March 10th and when they played <a href=”

Love Triangle I thought of being a kid in the car with my aunt when she first played it for me. Other people have different songs from New Order that mean a hell of a lot more to them than Bizarre Love Triangle. Some people don’t care about New Order at all. Hopefully no one I know.

Netflix has been trying hard to hit a wide variety of different people’s nostalgias and it seems to be effective. I don’t have warm and fuzzy feelings for Full House, but Fuller House was a hit for them despite the mixed reviews. They did get me with Pee-wee’s Big Holiday though.

Pee-wee was a big part of my childhood. I spent many hours watching Pee-wee’s Playhouse both when it came on TV and on different VHSs of the show off recorded off TV. Lucky for me, my parents endorsed my love of Pee-wee by getting me many of the toys in my younger years.

My journalistic integrity led me to calling my mom before writing this to confirm to me that she did in fact go crazy in her hunt for the Pee-wee’s Playhouse Playset over two decades ago. This included multiple trips to the Toys R Us not too far from where we lived, getting to the store when it opened on Tuesdays as that’s when they would get the new shipments, and hope that she’d be one of those privileged enough to walk out of the store with one. Her efforts required multiple visits before success. We lamented that perhaps Amazon.com would have been nice back then for that reason.

In recent years I’ve gone back to rewatch Pee-wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special. It’s served as a reminder to me of how queer Pee-wee’s Playhouse was. Yes, I get it, it’s really pretty damned obvious. Still though, there is a difference between queer innuendos and <a href=”

Jones basically performing burlesque in your children’s Christmas special. It also reminded me how important Pee-wee was to me and countless other people.

Recently, when I heard that Netflix was going to make a new Pee-wee movie, Pee-wee’s Big Holiday, and I was happy enough to hear it. I wouldn’t say excited so much as pleasantly curious. Like seeing an old friend who’s in town. You’ll always have those old memories, the stories, the good times, but you’re not the same person you were all those years ago and neither are they.

I watched Pee-wee’s Big Holiday right when I got home from work this past Friday. Similar to what some reviewers have said, while Pee-wee’s Big Holiday is by no means a bad time to be had, it isn’t the same. It feels more like empty entertainment calories than a healthy filling entertainment meal. The edginess at the time isn’t quite there. It’s not as ludicrous as Pee-wee’s Playhouse most of the time or the many shows it inspired since then. Or maybe it might be and it just all seemed more ludicrous to me as a kid. In a way, however, Pee-wee’s latest outing is more queer.

Pee-wee’s sexuality is never brought up or called into question other than the fact that he’s assumed straight by all those around him while he never really confirms or denies this. He does have arguably romantic feelings for Joe Manganiello, and Joe feels the same towards Pee-wee. As I talked about in a previous column of mine, it’s very possible for someone to be homoromantic without being homosexual. The character of Pee-wee could easily be asexual. He certainly seems to be portrayed that way for the most part. It never really dawned on me in the past that Pee-wee could be asexual and homoromantic (or that could even be a thing until only the past few years in my life), but it does make sense and seems to fit the character.

Pee-wee was an important show for me, to be able to see someone like his character being portrayed on TV. Even if I didn’t quite get it all at the time or understand why exactly it was important to me, it all eventually came together. For that I’ll always be grateful for Pee-wee. Even though Pee-wee’s Big Holiday didn’t exactly make me feel like a kid all over again, maybe it’ll help another kid feel comfortable in their own skin like it did for me. And if nothing else, this new Pee-wee outing was just the kind of entertainment junk food I was craving.

Nothing else big came out on Netflix last weekend that a comic book loving nerd like myself should be watching, did it?

Amazon Prime Nabs the TARDIS

  • News
  • March 21, 2016

Variety just broke the news that Amazon Prime has scooped up the exclusive United States rights to doctor-who-e1458598390240-9464662 as part of a multi-year deal with BBC Worldwide North America. The popular series had been available through Netflix, though that deal expired in February.

The deal includes the first eight series of the revived series in addition to the holiday specials and viewers subscribing to Amazon Prime can begin watching next week, on March 27. Season nine, the most recently completed series, plus “The Husbands of River Song”, will be available later in 2016.

Amazon Prime has been competing with Netflix and Hulu for rights to popular fare in addition creating their own series. Subscribers can pay $99 a year for access to their books, music, and video offerings.

The tenth season of Doctor Who with Peter Capaldi and an as-yet-unannounced new companion, is expected in 2017. Showrunner Steven Moffat has also said this will be his final season so change is most certainly in the wind for the Time Lord oo=n a variety of fronts.

 

The Revenant Hits DIgital HD on Tuesday

revenant_re_select_3_thumbAlejandro G. Iñárritu’s riveting cinematic masterpiece, THE REVENANT, arrives on Digital HD Tuesday, available on iTunes, Vudu, Mgo, and Google Play.

While it’s not a horror title, per se, the film can get pretty gruesome so we purveyors of pop uclture wanted make certain you were aware.

Leonardo DiCaprio stars in one of the most talked about films of the awards season with THE REVENANT, arriving on Digital HD March 22 and on 4K Ultra HD™ Disc, Blu-ray™ & DVD April 19 from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.  Taking home three Oscars® including Best Actor, Best Director and Best Cinematography, THE REVENANT captivates audiences and was one of the most critically-acclaimed films of the year, garnering over $380 million worldwide at the box office.

DiCaprio gives “a virtuoso performance” (Peter Travers, Rolling Stone) in Oscar® Winner Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s (Birdman) cinematic masterpiece.  Inspired by true events, THE REVENANT follows the story of legendary explorer Hugh Glass (DiCaprio) on his quest for survival and justice.  After a brutal bear attack, Glass is left for dead by a treacherous member of his hunting team (Tom Hardy; Mad Max: Fury Road).  Against extraordinary odds, and enduring unimaginable grief, Glass battles a relentless winter in uncharted terrain. This “boldly original” (Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch) epic adventure captures the extraordinary power of the human spirit in an immersive and visceral experience “unlike anything you have ever seen” (Jake Hamilton, FOX-TV).

In addition to the honors at the Academy Awards®, THE REVENANT also garnered, three Golden Globes, five BAFTA Awards, a DGA Award for Best Director (Iñárritu) and SAG Award for Best Actor (DiCaprio), among many other accolades.  The film features stunning cinematography by three-time-consecutive Academy Award® winner Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki (Gravity, Birdman) along with outstanding supporting performances by Hardy, Domhnall Gleeson (Brooklyn), Will Poulter (The Maze Runner) and making his big screen debut, newcomer Forrest Goodluck.

Mindy Newell: Marvel Or DC?

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The other day I was talking with editor Mike Gold about the political state of our country – Mike and I have marathon conversations about politics – and I asked him if he had seen and/or heard the nomination of Judge Merrick Garland of the D.C. Circuit Court by President Obama for a seat on the Supreme Court. “He’s into comics,” I said. Or was.

So how do I know about the comics connection? Just in case you missed the nomination or haven’t read it somewhere, here is the relevant part – at least for readers of comics and ComicMix – of the transcript of President Obama’s introduction of Judge Garland to us, the general public:

“He was born and raised in the Land of Lincoln, in my home town of Chicago, my home state of Illinois. His other volunteered in the community. His father ran a small business out of their home. Inheriting that work ethic, Merrick became valedictorian of his public high school. He earned a scholarship to Harvard, where he graduated summa cum laude.

“And he put himself through Harvard Law School by working as a tutor, by stocking shoes in a shoe store, and in what is always a painful moment for any young man, by selling his comic book collection. (laughter)

“It’s tough;” the President added. “Been there.” (laughter)

Which also means, in case you didn’t catch it, that President Obama also read and collected comics. And is still a fan. (According to Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic, our President has used Heath Ledger’s Joker as an analogy to what ISIS is doing:

 “After isis beheaded three American civilians in Syria, it became obvious to Obama that defeating the group was of more immediate urgency to the U.S. than overthrowing Bashar al-Assad.

 “Advisers recall that Obama would cite a pivotal moment in The Dark Knight, the 2008 Batman movie, to help explain not only how he understood the role of isis, but how he understood the larger ecosystem in which it grew. ‘There’s a scene in the beginning in which the gang leaders of Gotham are meeting,’ the president would say. ‘These are men who had the city divided up. They were thugs, but there was a kind of order. Everyone had his turf. And then the Joker comes in and lights the whole city on fire. isil is the Joker. It has the capacity to set the whole region on fire. That’s why we have to fight it.’”

By the way, Judge Garland, President Obama, and editor Mike Gold all come from Chicago. (Must be something in the water.) And there’s another little tidbit of “Six Degrees of (Comics) Separation,” which I will leave to Mike to tell you.

Do you think that Judge Garland and President Obama still read comics when they’re not (in Garland’s case – no pun intended) reading briefs, sitting on the bench, and deciding cases; or (in Obama’s case) dealing with the many and awesome responsibilities of the Presidency, like being the first President since Theodore Roosevelt led the Rough Riders over San Juan Hill to visit Cuba. But Teddy wasn’t President then, and Jimmy Carter was not a sitting President when he went to Cuba in 2011. Hmm, just checked. It’s been 88 years (January, 1928) since President Calvin Coolidge arrived on Cuban shores via the battleship U.S.S. Texas for the Pan American Conference – which, among other things, led to our perpetual lease of Guantanamo Bay, which is now home to America’s infamous terrorist detention center and naval base… ironically commanded by Jack Nicholson in “A Few Good Men,” the movie in which Nicholson told Tom Cruise “You can’t handle the truth!”

Back to the point, I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if there were at least three comics or graphic novels somewhere in Garland’s house – or the White House. We already know, thanks to Goldberg’s interview with the President, that Obama has seen The Dark Knight. I would guess that Judge Garland has seen Nolan’s work, too.

With my writer’s mind concocting scenarios, I can imagine the judge and the President, after talking about the Supreme Court nomination, sitting down in the White House media room and watching both Avengers movies, or Captain America: The First Avenger and Captain America: Winter Soldier. Maybe they binged on Daredevil or Jessica Jones. Or maybe they caught up on Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., or Flash, or Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow. And I can easily see Obama inviting Malia and Sasha to join them for Supergirl. (Superman Returns and/or Man of Steel? Not so much. But that’s my own prejudice at work.)

Meanwhile the Repugnanticans are up to their usual obnoxious tricks. Led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who continues the party’s bigoted refusal to accept Obama as President, the bastards are vowing not to confirm any Supreme Court nominee until after the 2016 election. “Let the people decide,” they are saying. Well, first of all, we the People do not vote for Supreme Court justices. Secondly, they seem to putting all their eggs into one basket, that basket being that a Republican will win the Presidency. Thirdly, Merrick Gardner has previously been “approved” by Republicans when he was nominated to the D.C. circuit court, for example:

Orrin Hatch (R-Utah): “Merrick B. Garland is highly qualified to sit on the D.C. circuit. His intelligence and his scholarship cannot be questioned… His legal experience is equally impressive… Accordingly, I believe Mr. Garland is a fine nominee. I know him personally, I know of his integrity, I know of his legal ability, I know of his honesty, I know of his acumen, and he belongs on the court. I believe he is not only a fine nominee, but is as good as Republicans can expect from this administration. In fact, I would place him at the top of the list.”

I love it when the Repugnanticans get caught in “black-splatter,” a perfect term, coined by Bill Maher, for what’s really been going on in Congress since 2009.

But let’s say the Repugnanticans are unable to stop the process. Let’s say that I’m a member of the Senate Judiaciary Committee, and I am going to question Judge Merrick Garland on his legal views and leanings.

This would be my very first question:

Marvel or DC?

Ed Catto: It is Balloon!

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There are many ways to secure a seat at the big Geek table. Young fans often start by scribbling in their sketchbooks with dreams of drawing the adventures of their favorite characters. Cosplayers create costumes and attend conventions through the year. Today’s on-ramps include drawing, writing, coloring, publishing, retailing, reporting and cosplay…there’s a myriad of ways to participate in the grand Geek tapestry.

gene ha drawingHere’s a fan who has found a fascinating seat at the table. He talks to his favorite creators about his favorite things – and then lets us all listen in. And it’s great entertainment. The Word Balloon is an interview podcast hosted by a bright guy and with a lot of ideas named John Sinters and I wanted to find out how what drives him and how he created this podcast.

John’s a guy who loves all facets of comic culture. He was born just a smidge too late to fully embrace the debut of Batmania in ‘66, but definitely enjoyed the long tail and quickly leapfrogged into comics. “My allowance was 50 cents, and so each week I could buy two 20 cent comics.”

John drifted out of fandom a couple of times. When an inevitable interest in dating took hold in high school, he lost interest, only to be drawn back during college. “A local comic shop was giving away Xeroxed copies of Watchman.” It was short hop over to Frank Miller’s Batman opus, The Dark Knight Returns and mainstream comics.

John Siuntres in a Spider-Man comicBy the mid-nineties, he had drifted away once more, but hearing that Kevin Smith’s new Daredevil was just as good as Frank Miller’s mid-80s run, he jumped back into the pool and will probably never climb out.

John always loved radio. Having started as a disc jockey, he quickly shifted to talk radio. “Talk will always endure. I gravitated towards Sports Talk Radio first.”

In the early 2000, John was working for CBS’s The Score and then Sporting News Radio, owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. The company always encouraged ideas that would leverage Allen’s other holdings. Siuntres realized one of Allen’s other holding was the Science Fiction Museum in Seattle Washington. (It has since been rebranded as the EMP museum.)

He suggested that Sporting News Radio create an audio podcast to help promote this Science Fiction museum. Management declined, but thought the idea had great potential and suggested, “Why don’t you just do it yourself?”

Word Balloon originally started as a documentary. But when those plans fell through, John turned to the local Chicago scene and creators like Brian Azzarello (100 Bullets) and Max Collins (Ms Tree, Road to Perdition). The movie Batman Begins was in production locally and Moonstone was a local comics publisher ramping up at that time.

In the early days, he used a lot of elbow grease to get the word out. “I’d just post on CBR and various message board communities,” said John. “I started with Azzarello – very early on. I liked the Jeff Parker’s The Interman and at the time he was just getting Marvel work.”

He posted that interview and then clearly recalls getting a message from comic artist Mike Wieringo, who asked for help downloading the podcast. John quickly invited him onto Word Balloon as a guest.

principal siuntresJohn really enjoyed the conversations, and fans did too. “By that point, I was doing Chicago radio for about 12 or 13 years. I was interviewing Chicago athletes in the fields, at the games. I had my 10,000 hours of experience in that,” said John, referencing Malcolm Gladwell’s contention that 10,000 hours of practice is needed to achieve mastery in a field.

He was inspired by magazines like The Comics Journal and Amazing Heroes. And in music, magazines like Rolling Stone were focusing on the creators and creative process. “Those were great,” he recalls. As the era of creator owned comics dawned, an interview show like Word Balloon made all the more sense.

“I’ve got an audience and it keeps getting bigger. People are becoming more Podcast savvy. In 2010 they said it was the end of podcasting, but it keeps on going,” said Siuntres.

attachmentWhat’s his secret? “I make it very social. lt’s like spending an evening with someone I wanted to get to know better anyways,” said John.

Siuntres does have concerns about today’s comics. He gives a lot of thought to the amount of time it takes to tell a story. “An hour long (TV) episode of The Flash tells a whole story. But a comic reader just gets part of story and has to come back.” It might take five or six weeks to read a complete story. He feels the big two have to really look at the competition for storytelling.

Siuntres also has an opinion on the upcoming changes to DC’s publishing. “DC is about to do another rebirth. The wheels have come off the wagon, “ he said. “I don’t think a lot has happened <since the last reboot>. The chess pieces haven’t moved that far. The recent Superman story was bloated. It didn’t have to be that bloated.”

I asked John what was coming up next. Like a gleeful child the week before Christmas, he became even more animated. He teased me and told me to stay tuned for his with interviews with comic writer Rick Remender, Maria Carbado on her documentary Better Things: The Life and Times of Jeffery Catherine Jones and Joe Henderson, the showrunner for Fox’s Lucifer.

“I’m excited for the now and for the next five years,” said John. “It’s kind of like a one-on-one cocktail party.”

Take a listen here: http://wordballoon.blogspot.com

Line art sketch of John Sinters drawn by Chicago’s own Gene Ha.

Win a Copy of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2

mj2_bd3d-e1453923121876-9034556In celebration of the closing of the final chapter of the Hunger Games film franchise, we’re offering our readers a chance to win a Blu-ray copy of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2.

All you need to do is tell us which district you would most like to live in and why. All entries must be submitted here by 11:59 p.m., Monday, March 28. The contest is open only to readers in the United States and Canada. The decision of ComicMix‘s judges will be final.

May fortune ever be in your favor.

SANTA MONICA, CA and VANCOUVER, BC (January 27, 2016) – Four years after Jennifer Lawrence first appeared on the big screen as Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games, Lionsgate’s (NYSE: LGF) critically acclaimed series based on Suzanne Collins’ best-selling book trilogy comes to a thrilling resolution in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, arriving on Digital HD March 8 and on Blu-ray Combo Pack + Digital HD, DVD + Digital, and On Demand March 22, the company announced today. In addition, for the first time ever, The Hunger Games Complete 4-Film Collection will be available on Blue-ray and DVD on March 22.

With $647 million worldwide box office and counting, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 set the world on fire and enthralled millions of devoted fans across the globe. With a critically acclaimed cast including Academy Award® winner Jennifer Lawrence (Best Actress, Silver Linings Playbook, 2012), Josh Hutcherson (Journey to the Center of the Earth), Liam Hemsworth (The Expendables), Academy Award® nominee Woody Harrelson (Best Actor, The People vs. Larry Flynt, 1996), Emmy® nominee Elizabeth Banks (TV’s “Modern Family”), Academy Award® winner Julianne Moore (Best Actress, Still Alice, 2014), Academy Award® winner Philip Seymour Hoffman (Best Actor, Capote, 2005), Golden Globe® winner Jeffrey Wright (HBO’s “Angels in America”), with Academy Award® nominee Stanley Tucci (Best Supporting Actor, The Lovely Bones, 2009), and Golden Globe® winner Donald Sutherland (Citizen X), The Hunger Games franchise is a worldwide phenomenon earning over $2.9 billion at the box office worldwide.

Jennifer Lawrence stars as Katniss Everdeen, who began her journey fighting to survive the brutal Hunger Games, and rose to lead the rebellion against Panem’s tyrannical president (Donald Sutherland). Now, Katniss and a team of rebels from District 13 prepare for the epic battle that will decide Panem’s future.

Based on the third novel in Suzanne Collins’ trilogy, the must-own limited edition Blu-ray release is packed with over five hours of special features, including the “Pawns No More: Making The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2” 8-part documentary – an in-depth look at the making of the film from production design, costumes, hair, make-up, stunts, special effects and post production. The documentary also includes a touching piece – from the last day of shooting – in which the cast reflects on their experience shooting the four films. Also included is a detailed look at Cinna’s sketchbook and a walk through the on-set photography along with audio commentary by director Francis Lawrence and producer Nina Jacobson. The Blu-ray is encoded in Dolby TrueHD and features a Dolby Atmos® soundtrack, which delivers captivating sound that places and moves audio anywhere in the room, including overhead, to bring entertainment alive all around the audience. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 Blu-ray and DVD will be available for the suggested retail price of $39.99 and $29.95, respectively.

Also available for the first time as a set on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD, The Hunger Games Complete 4-Film Collection includes The Hunger Games, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 with all of the special features from each film’s initial release plus hours of all-new exclusive content including 13 never-before-seen deleted scenes from The Hunger Games and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and two all-new featurettes: “Picturing Panem” and “Capitol Cuisine.” The Hunger Games Complete 4-Film Collection will be available on Blu-ray and DVD for the suggested retail price of $64.97 and $54.98, respectively.

THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY – PART 2 BLU-RAY / DVD / DIGITAL HD SPECIAL FEATURES*

  • Audio Commentary with Director Francis Lawrence and Producer Nina Jacobson
  • “Pawns No More: Making The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2” 8-Part Documentary**
  • Walking Through Fire (Concluding the Saga)
  • Real or Not Real (Visual Design)
  • High-Value Targets (The Acting Ensemble)
  • From Head to Toe (Costume, Make-up & Hair)
  • Navigating the Minefield (Production in Atlanta, Paris & Berlin)
  • Collateral Damage (Stunts, Special Effects & Weapons)
  • Tightening the Noose (The Post-Production Process)
  • A Different World (Reflections)
  • The Hunger Games: A Photographic Journey
  • Cinna’s Sketchbook: Secrets of the Mockingjay Armor
  • Panem on Display: The Hunger Games: The Exhibition
  • Jet to the Set**

*Subject to Change

**Exclusive to Blu-ray/ Digital HD

THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY – PART 2 PROGRAM INFORMATION
Year of Production: 2015
Title Copyright: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 © 2015, Artwork & Supplementary Materials TM & © 2016 Lions Gate Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Type: Theatrical Release
Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, and for some thematic material.
Genre: Action/Adventure
Blu-ray Closed Captioned:  NA
DVD Closed Caption: English
Blu-ray Subtitles: English and Spanish, English SDH
DVD Subtitles: English and Spanish
Feature Run Time: 137 minutes
Blu-ray Format: 1080p High Definition 16×9 Widescreen (2.40:1)
DVD Format: 16×9 Widescreen (2.40:1)
Blu-ray Audio: English Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD Compatible), English 2.0 Dolby Digital Optimized for Late-Night Listening, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, English Descriptive Audio
DVD Audio: English 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio, English 2.0 Dolby Digital Optimized for Late-Night Listening, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, English Descriptive Audio

John Ostrander: Brandon Sanderson’s Brave New (Super)World

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SPOILER ALERT: In discussing Brandon Sanderson’s Reckoners trilogy, I may reveal one or two of its secrets. I tried really hard not to, but it may be unavoidable here and there. You are warned!

Creating a superhero universe is difficult. It needs to be coherent and make sense within itself; to obey its own rules. You don’t want it to be like established superhero universes (Marvel, DC, and so on) but it will need to follow certain tropes. You want to give the reader the thrill of discovering something new but not so unfamiliar, so alien, that they can’t identify with it. You need to attract the superhero fan but you also need to get a wider audience. It has to work as a straight forward action / adventure / suspense story and still feel super-hero-y. It’s trickier than you might think.

It’s also tougher if you’re trying to do it in prose sans the illustration. Isn’t the art the main component for a good superhero story?

Maybe. Maybe not.

I recently finished reading Calamity, the third and final novel in The Reckoners trilogy by Brandon Sanderson. (The first two books were Steelheart and Firefight.) The metahumans are called Epics and just about all of them all supervillains. An entity dubbed Calamity showed up orbiting the Earth like a small red sun and ordinary humans acquired extraordinary powers. That which gave them strange new abilities also turned them nasty. They kill wantonly, sometimes randomly, and rule different cities, often warring between themselves and utterly indifferent to the carnage they wreak on the humans living there.

The Reckoners are a group of ordinary humans who are fighting a Resistance type action against Epics. Their intent is to kill those that they can but the really powerful ones, the “High Epics”, seem out of reach. The group is joined by David Charleston who is also our host and narrator. David’s father was killed about ten years before the story starts by the Epic Steelheart who rules Newcago (formerly Chicago) as the series starts.

There’s lots to like in this trilogy. David, who has been obsessively studying the Epics most of his life, figures out that each metahuman’s weakness is tied to their nightmares, to their fears. I like that. It ties the weakness into character which is better than something arbitrary like kryptonite. It ties very deeply into the final resolution in the last book.

There’s a strong streak of science fiction in the books as well; there are three cities, one for each book – Chicago (Newcago), New York (Babilar) and Atlanta (Ildithia). Each one is re-imagined in the light of this post-apocalyptic world ruled by Epics.

The books are not perfect. The naming of the Epics is hit and miss; sometimes it’s right and sometimes it makes me go “Huh?” I’m also not sure why the metahumans are dubbed “Epics”. I understand the desire to avoid the words “superhuman” or even “metahuman” but why would anyone call them “Epics”?

Mr. Sanderson (our author) also has a habit of ending chapters of some sort of cliffhanger. A twist can’t be unexpected if you know it’s coming. There’s a temptation to peek ahead to the last sentence or so of the chapter you’re reading to see what’s coming. That said, the twists do move the story along smartly and they are effective. In fact, all three books are page-turners. They’re well written, the characters are sharp and engaging, and there’s some thought put into ‘em. The trilogy ties up the main story by its conclusion but I wouldn’t mind going back to the world Sanderson has created.

Even if it isn’t in four-colors.

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