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Martha Thomases: The Big Cons

women-cosplay-1513768So far this summer, it has been my privilege to only go to one comic book convention, one that was conveniently situated in my home town. I may have to go to more, because that’s what the job is, and I’m okay with that.

It’s become so much easier to be a woman at a comic convention. Sure, the lines at the bathrooms are a drag, but that’s a small price to pay for being an accepted, sometimes even welcomed part of the crowd. As I write this, I’ve read several accounts (none of which I can find now, naturally) that suggest that attendance at the major shows is at least 50 percent female.

They need us. All of them: show organizers, retailers, other exhibitors. Without us, they make so much less money.

A lot of people have done a lot of work for decades to get us to this point. We should thank them and savor their success.

And then we should try for more.

Among the women who work in comics that I’m linked to online, this article made the rounds last week. It tells how women in the tech industry, infuriated that so few women were ever asked to speak at industry conferences as anything but tokens, and what women decided to do about it. They want full parity with men on all panels at conventions and conferences.

So do we.

Quite often, convention programmers will say they don’t know any women in the industry, nor do they know how to find them. The women in the link are assembling such a list.

Women in comics are doing the same.

I realize that it will take some time for women to get equal seating on panels with men. Comic book companies are going to have to send more women. Convention organizers are going to have to invite more women. They’re going to have to think about including more women on panels of general interest, and adding women to those who star in spotlight panels.

It might not be possible, at this exact moment, to get as many women writers and artists who attract fans as men. I get that. It’s kind of circular: If women were hired more frequently, there would be more top-tier women creators. And I think that day is closer than most imagine.

However …

There have always been a lot of women working in comics. We are in the legal departments and the licensing departments and the marketing departments and the international publishing departments. We know a lot about the business of comics, and we have a lot of interesting stories to tell about the backstage part of the business.

More recently, there has been an increase in the number of women working for distributors, libraries, and opening their own stores. Again, lots and lots of good conversation.

Just because it’s going to be difficult doesn’t mean it’s not a worthy goal, meriting our time and effort. We’ve shown that women add to the fun of a convention, and add to the bottom line as well. We should use the power of our purses to push for more.

 

Star Wars Films Rereleased in Character Steelbooks

Star Wars Blu-ray SteelbooksLos Angeles, CA (August 5, 2015) – As the galaxy prepares for the next generation of Star Wars, the six epic films will each release as commemorative Blu-ray steelbooks on November 10th.  These highly collectible films will be available for a limited time only and can be pre-ordered beginning August 7th.   In addition, Star Wars: The Complete Saga will be released in newly repackaged artwork on October 13th.  The announcements were made today by The Walt Disney Studios, Lucasfilm Ltd., and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.
Each film from the Saga is presented with new character packaging allowing fans to choose their favorite or collect all six for a limited time. Characters include:  The Phantom Menace – Darth Maul; Attack of the Clones – Yoda; Revenge of the Sith – General Grievous; A New Hope – Darth Vader; The Empire Strikes Back – Imperial Stormtrooper; and Return of the Jedi – Emperor Palpatine.

In addition to the collectible steelbook packaging, each single disc Blu-ray includes existing audio commentary with George Lucas and the film crew as well as audio commentary from archival interviews with the cast and crew.

The newly repackaged Saga includes all six feature films on Blu-ray, along with three additional discs containing more than 40 hours of previously released extensive special features.

Voices From Krypton: Kevin Conroy On NOT Being BATMAN

  • News
  • August 6, 2015

Kevin Conroy may not being wearing a cape today but he is still crusading, this time as The Stinger on the Netflix original series, TURBO FAST. In this exclusive talk, Kevin explains to VOICES FROM KRYPTON how he was finally to do things here that he never could as Batman.

REVIEW: Insurgent

InsurgentThere’s a lot of action and running and fighting and things blowing up in Insurgent, the second installment of the films based on Veronica Roth’s Divergent book series. It has an attractive, well-pedigreed cast. It looks slick with top-notch CGI effects. It should be a major crowd pleaser.

Instead, it’s heartless and heartless, emphasizing but the characters and their emotions. The film opened this spring and did well enough and the Combo Pack (Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray, DVD, Digital copy) is out now from Lionsgate Home Entertainment. The film itself earned $295.2 million worldwide, just enough to greenlight the by now mandatory two-part finale, Allegiant, coming March 18 an, 2016 and March 24, 2017.

The first film introduced us to yet another impossible to believe dystopia where society has been enclosed in a walled city of Chicago and people are born into one of several classes. Those who defy categorization are called “divergents” and are hunted, ostracized or both. Our protagonist, Tris (Shailene Woodley), of course is one of those but she’s even more special: she’s 100% divergent, making a sought after gem. And much of the film focuses on the hunt to obtain her so she can obtain an object conveniently unearthed from her family home. Much as Katniss Everdeen struggles against being a symbol in The Hunger Games books and movies, Tris is a reluctant hero, forced by circumstances, manipulated by both the spectre of her dead mother (Ashley Judd) and the cool Jeanine Mathews (Kate Winslet).

She’s not alone, accompanied by Four (Theo James), who is forced to admit his love for her when both endure truth serum sessions, watched by the impassive Daniel Dae Kim.

Back to complicate matters here and there are her brother Caleb (Ansel Elgort) and troublemaker Peter Hayes (Miles Teller).

Once Tris sacrifices her freedom to stop Jeanine from killing people, she confronts her worst nightmares which turn out to be herself and the sequences are visually interesting but also too reminiscent of The Matrix to be fresh enough to sustain watching. The lack of humanity given the cast makes the film flat and boring when it should be engrossing. There’s a reason this series of books was made into a film series: they sold a ton and the reason they sold a ton is because Roth made them passionate and interesting figures.

Woodley gives the best performance given the range of emotions she goes through but Teller makes his character feel the most alive of the ensemble. Watts, Kate Winslet, and Janet McTeer lend veteran talent but are given little chance to do more than emote.

Sadly, the screenplay feels cobbled and compromised which explains the trio of credited authors, Brian Duffield, Mark Bomback, and Akiva Goldsman, who should know better. There are no surprises here, and too many climactic moments occur with predictable results, so you wonder what happened? Maybe it’s the absence of director Neil Burger, who was replaced by Robert Schwentke who did a far superior job with Red. Unfortunately, he’ll be back for Allegiant, but there’s also a chance for redemption.

The digital transfer is excellent so everything is sharp, colorful, and fun to watch at home. It is paired with a Dolby Atmos soundtrack although on my soundbar it decoded as a Dolby TrueHD 7.1 track but was just fine.

For a lackluster and disappointing film, it comes chock full of extras beginning with an Audio Commentary from Producers Doug Wick and Lucy Fisher, who offer little in the way of fresh insights. Next is Insurgent Unlocked: The Ultimate Behind-the-Scenes Access (1:56:32) letting you watch separately or as a picture in picture option. Every aspect of the production is covered, including Building a Bigger World, Creating the Big Screen Experience, Exploring the Factionless, From Factionless to Candor, A New Landscape of Weapons and Stunts, Composers and Simulators, and A Fight to the Finish. Additionally, you get From Divergent to Insurgent (5:09) as cast and crew talk about how the two connect; The Others: Cast and Characters (3:40); Anatomy of a Scene: The Train Fight (4:01); The Peter Hayes Story (2:40); and Divergent: Adapting Insurgent to the Screen (4:00).

If that’s not enough there’s the Marketing Gallery that features the HBO First Look and all five theatrical trailers. Then there are animated character portraits: Shailene Woodley (00:19); Theo James (00:19); Kate Winslet (00:19); Octavia Spencer (00:19); and, Naomi Watts (1080i; 00:17).

Tweeks: Go Go Power Rangers Dino Force!

On August 29th, Saban’s Power Rangers Dino Charge returns to Nickelodeon for another season of prehistoric-era Power Rangers excitement. Basically, in Dino Charge there are these Paragon Prisms which were given to a dozen dinosaurs for safe keeping by an alien, but they were lost when asteroids hit the Earth. So, now in present day, an intergalactic bounty hunter has come to Earth to try to find them to harness the power and, of course, destroy the world. If we are unfairly profiling, let us know, but in our experience, intergalactic bounty hunters usually tend to cause more harm than good. But thankfully, a team of Power Rangers formed to find the Prisms, use their power for good, and fight threats – such as the aforementioned bounty hunter, but other badies too.

We were excited to be invited back to the Power Ranger Power Lounge at San Diego Comic Con this year, where we got to get to know the Dino Charge cast. Brennan Mejia (Tyler/Red Ranger), Yoshua Sudarso (Koda/Blue Ranger), James Davies (Chase/Black Ranger), Michael Taber (Riley/Green Ranger), Camille Hyde (Shelby/Pink Ranger), and Claire Blackwelder (Kendall Morgan) were all super nice. But even better than that we got to bond over fandoms. Yoshua Sudarso, as you will see is a totally Tweeks approved fanboy, but we were also impressed by the other Rangers pop culture enthusiasm. You’ll have to watch to see who is as excited about the Hunger Games stars as we are and who is all about Arrow & The Flash. We also find out what to expect with the new season (new rangers, new colors, new Zords).

It’s Morphin Time….Unleash the Power!

 

Emily S. Whitten: Geeks Who Drink

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At last! Someone has come up with a TV trivia show that is completely Relevant to My Interests! A.K.A. Geeks Who Drink, the new geek trivia show on Syfy, hosted by actor and Nerd Machine founder Zachary Levi.

I first heard about the show at this year’s Nerd HQ, and was immediately excited to watch it. It’s not that I don’t enjoy trivia games that make me feel stupid for not knowing, e.g., the year the War of the Roses ended, or what countries border Estonia (although I actually do know that one now, thanks to a friend who hails from that location). But I much prefer feeling stupid during a trivia competition about geek facts, because: a) I’m more likely to know at least some answers and thus feel stupid for a smaller overall percentage of the competition; and b) even when I don’t know the answers it’s fun, because this is the type of trivia I most like to learn and retain. Why? I don’t know – probably because I’m just a big ol’ geek.

I got a chance to tune in for last week’s episode of Geeks Who Drink, and learned that this trivia show is more fun than most for me since along with Zac Levi doing a stellar job as the host, and all participants enjoying the drinking aspect of the show as they try to win, the episodes feature geek guests that I’m actually familiar with; including last week’s, which featured my awesome and talented buds voice actor John DiMaggio and geek fashionista Stephanie Pressman. It’s always more fun to watch when you have people you know to root for! (Although since they were on different teams, I was kind of hard-pressed to figure out which team to go with.)

The show, which grew out of the traveling pub quiz Geeks Who Drink, is set up like most trivia competitions, with teams (in this case, teams of three). Some rounds are your typical Q&A; but other rounds include fun geektastic action challenges like, e.g., arranging six game consoles in order from oldest to newest, or using the Force (and a little help from your team) to slash through balloons with lightsabers while blindfolded. And, of course, there are also other cool geeky touches like the names of the teams (DiMaggio’s team “On a Bender” was particularly appropriate for a drinking trivia game featuring the voice of Bender) and the little themed zingers and asides Levi throws out while hosting – elements which make the show feel like the kind of thing you’d find and appreciate with your Tribe (a.k.a. geek friends) during a Comic-Con.

Those elements, and Levi’s approachable nature and easygoing quick-witted hosting style add to the appeal of the show. And the way the show has taken off on Twitter with the @GeeksWhoDrinkTV folks and many fans interacting to share their cocktails, answers, and enthusiasm before and during each episode makes watching the show if you use social media feel more like participating in a fun group activity than just sitting on your couch with your favorite booze.

Another great thing is that with a show like this, you can also take that feeling one step further (as I plan to do shortly) by hosting your own Geeks Who Drink TV night at home with friends while watching the show (house party, whut whut!). Naturally if you do this, you will have to serve appropriately geeky drinks. I’m thinking for my party, I’ll break out my Captain America, Superman, and Batman ice cube trays, and serve my ever-popular recipe for Discworldian scumble.

And fortunately for me and anyone else who can’t always be home on a Thursday night at 11:00 p.m., the show’s scheduled timeslot, or who might want to air a few old episodes before the newest one when throwing a party, you can watch episodes you missed on Syfy. I definitely recommend you give this and Geeks Who Drink in general a try – because not only did I have fun cheering at the TV when I was able to answer questions like, “Which Marvel Comics character first uttered the phrase, ‘Avengers, Assemble!’?” (“Thor! Thor!”) and what movies Samuel L. Jackson has starred in (nobody got Kingsman: The Secret Service??), but I also enjoyed squirreling away new geek knowledge; and found myself smiling, laughing, clapping, or occasionally shouting at the TV (but in a good way) throughout the whole show.

So I suggest you join me and the ranks of trivia buffs who are getting their geek on by watching Geeks Who Drink on SyFy Thursday nights; and until next time, Servo Lectio!

 

Dennis O’Neil: Justice Society – Forward Into The Past!

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Back from a mission, the particulars of which I am not at liberty to divulge though I can reveal that it involved a food store, and… Look! Someone has deposited a package on the front stoop. A friend? An enemy? One of those uniformed people who drive around the neighborhood in trucks? Make haste! Slit the tape, fold back the flaps, and…

Well, look at that. A book. We already have a lot of those, but hey, always room for another, especially if it’s a handsome hardcover titled Justice Society of America: A Celebration of 75 Years. Seventy-five years already? They grow up so fast…

It must have been a no-brainer, all those years ago. Superman was a success. Ditto Batman. The rest of Detective / All-American Comics’ cadre of costumed do-gooders were doing at least okay, if not better, and if those mysterious beings out there beyond the office walls – call them “readers” – like superdoers in single doses then they’ll go nuts for a bunch of such heroes in the same magazine and – here comes the challenge for the editorial department – all of them working on the same problem.

The added benefit, as Roy Thomas observes in his informative and lively introduction, was that a comic book like that could showcase less prominent characters, test whether they might be popular enough to warrant further use.

So get busy! Get that new comic book, dubbed The Justice Society, out of our collective imaginations and onto the newsstands!

And so they did. The JSA, at first a quarterly, was soon promoted to bi-monthly status and continued to grace the nation’s magazine venues until 1951, when comic books as both popular entertainment and profit centers entered their dark age, a period when they barely survived as publishing enterprises.

That tale, sad though it is, had a happy ending when comic books, and particularly superhero comic books, were reinvented and began flourishing. (You wouldn’t be reading this if that hadn’t happened.) The JSA came back somewhat altered and rechristened The Justice League of America.

The JLA was one of my first assignments when I went to work for what had, by then, become DC Comics. I don’t think I knew the size of the bite I’d taken when I took the job. It can be challenging to conjure up a worthy opponent for a single super person and thus provide conflict and drama and all that good stuff. Writing a book like JLA the writer has to provide woes for seven or eight or more. But, as the volume we’re discussing proves, writers and artists have been doing that, doing it entertainingly, for three quarters of a century.

Once a year, Julie Schwartz would revive the JSA, who, you will be happy to know, were living in another dimension, and team them with their modern counterparts. I did one of those stories, which is how I come to be represented in the volume we’re discussing and why I got copies of it, and there you go, full and unnecessary disclosure.

I’m glad to see my work in such righteous company.

 

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Comics Reviews (August 5th, 2015)

From worst to best of what I bought, although I should probably buy fewer comics.

Guardians of Knowhere #2

Bendis’s run on Guardians has been a touch hit and miss for me, and that’s translating poorly to the Secret Warsified Guardians. The crux of the problem here is that this book is about the nature/identity of Yotat, a new character, and his relationship to Knowhere, the Celestial head acting as Battleworld’s moon. The answer appears to be that he’s a Peter Quill alternate, but I couldn’t articulate a reason I’m supposed to care. It’s the sort of sloppy book that includes numerous mentions of a character called Mantis, and even dialogue addressed towards Mantis, but that by the end of I couldn’t tell you who Mantis is. She (I think) appears on a couple of panels but gets no facetime, and is I think killed at the end? Maybe?

Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows #3

I think I’m just kinda bored and done with Slott on Spider-Man.

Ultimate End #4

Apparently the Ultimate Universe has one issue until it’s over. I assume the premise of this book will be clear by then. This issue does not turn out to include a barely surviving Miles Morales atop a pile of dead heroes. Or, in fact, a pile of dead heroes. Or, in fact, Miles, except in one panel. Although he’s apparently important, for reasons that might be explained along with the premise of this book. There’s even a real chance that it will be a satisfying issue when all is said and done. But this series is a hot mess.

Blackcross #5

Ellis has really been fond of backloading his series recently, establishing the premise late in the books. Charitably, this means they read better in trade, but in this case the premise just feels like Ellis-by-numbers for this particular period in his career – a horror version of what he did in Supreme: Blue Rose without any of the conceptual grandeur that made that book’s half-revealing tone sing. Here’s the big explanation, next issue is the big fight, and the previous four issues were… the big tease? I dunno. Charitably, a minor work in Ellis’s career.

Darth Vader #8

Fun; Aphra has some great bits, Vader’s in an interesting bind, and I’m still buying a Star Wars comic for no reason other than enjoying watching the way the writer’s mind works, which is a silly reason to buy a comic, but then, at the end of the day spending $3.99 for most comics is silly.

The Wicked & The Divine #13

Man, this is a tough one to review, because it’s a well-executed and very on-point comic about real issues, and any criticism of the book thus feels like a criticism of doing good work about those issues. It’s a skilled done-in-one. But… I dunno. Ultimately, I’ve followed the story of online abuse and particularly harassment of women pretty closely for a few years now, and a well-done but ultimately straightforward story about it doesn’t do a ton for me. I have no criticisms of this comic and nothing but respect for it. It’s much more of a classic for the ages than any of the three silly Marvel books I’m about to put ahead of it. But I had its number before I got to the staples.

Ms. Marvel #17

I appreciate how this series is just going to September and then relaunching calmly and clearly with many of its plots intact. It does the Ms. Marvel/Captain Marvel team-up well and with good character work. “For a while I just kind of felt weird and gross. Now I feel weird and awesome!” is one of the best lines in ages. It’s a teen superhero comic and working in all the moral platitudes that implies, but it delivers them with a big grin and an unapologetic love for them, and, perhaps more interestingly, a sense of perspective about them. The that would have been really awkward for both of us” gag at the start is indicative of the book. Good stuff.

Infinity Gauntlet #3

There’s an interesting sense of dread hanging over this book, which is a good tone for the mayfly iterations that Secret Wars tie-ins are trading on. But perhaps more to the point, this book is doing what a Secret Wars tie-in has to do to succeed, which is to make it feel like the highlights reel of a fantastic five year run on a premise. I love the Nova family. I love the way in which things like Groot are revealed within the story. It’s the best take on Marvel’s cosmic characters in years.

Siege #2

Nextwave as a tragedy indeed. Gillen, like Wilson and Weaver/Duggan, cracks the code on how to do Secret Wars with its tagline: “to waste their lives saving people who just don’t care? It’s the only thing they’ve ever wanted.” Perfect. The mayfly nature of the characters is baked solidly into the premise, and it becomes an opportunity for Gillen to do all his Marvel riffs like there’s no tomorrow, since there isn’t. And it’s absolutely crammed with easter eggs for sad obsessives who have actually read all of Gillen’s Marvel comics. Followed by a grim pun of an ending that somehow nobody’s done since Alan Moore came up with the character in the 80s. Gillen’s throwing a glorious Marvel party, and it’s ALL ON FUCKING FIRE.

Originally published on PhilipSandifer.com.

Box Office Democracy: “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation”

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Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation is a very good spy action movie. It expands and builds on the previous entries in the series although sometimes in ways I’m not entirely sure are necessary but it’s consistently compelling and visually interesting, often funny, it checks every box I would put on a hypothetical action movie checklist. Unfortunately I think the landscape for these movies have changed and being very good might not cut it anymore. Movies need to either push the genre in new or interesting directions (like a Mad Max: Fury Road) or be so consistently excellent the movie becomes a non-stop delight to sit and watch (the approach taken by the last three Fast & Furious movies) or it feels lacking to me. Tom Cruise isn’t enough by himself and Tom Cruise: Movie Superstar is all that is being offered here.

Let’s not take anything away from Tom Cruise as a movie star, because he is a phenomenal one and this is a stunning showcase for him. He is charming and magnetic and because he’s willing to do his own insane stunts the movie looks more authentic. It’s not a very active improvement, though; it’s more like appreciating how it doesn’t look like bad CGI than being particularly amazing in its own right. Tom Cruise is good in a way that makes me think “Tom Cruise is amazing” but not in a way that makes me thing “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation is an amazing movie” and that’s a problem. He’s appealing in the role but he never makes me think anything about the character, I know I’m watching Ethan Hunt but I never ascribe any character traits to him, he’s a stunningly blank character for the lead of a fifth movie in the series.

The plots haven’t advanced very far along in five movies either. For Rogue Nation the Impossible Mission Force is disgraced in the eyes of the government and Ethan and his team must work to stop the bad guys with no official support for their actions. This is exactly the same premise of the last entry in the franchise. All they did this time was change the particulars; it isn’t about stopping a nuclear missile, it’s about shutting down a criminal anti-IMF, and the force of government resistance are represented by Alec Baldwin who plays his part as director of the CIA and I can only imagine his process was deciding he was going to play Jack Donaghy from 30 Rock and the director would have to fight him for every bit of seriousness. This is not intended as a complaint; it works quite well. There are also some legacy problems due to the longevity of the series. In a world where good and evil intelligence operatives have been able to do perfect face masks to pose as others for almost 20 years, you would figure no important people on earth would have sensitive conversations without blood tests or some such. As it is you just spend the entire movie waiting for that iconic face pulling off shot and this time around I saw it coming a mile away. It hurts the credibility of the movie.

I’ve complained a lot here and while I think the film deserves it I want to emphasize that it was a perfectly enjoyable way to spend 2 hours and 20 minutes on a hot summer day. It’s fun to watch, the action spectacle is as good as Hollywood is capable of doing. Rogue Nation crosses the globe to incredible exotic locales and it’s fun to see motorcycle chases through Morocco. The supporting cast is a hoot and a half, Simon Pegg is delightful, Ving Rhames is wonderfully gruff and while he sometimes feels like he’s acting on autopilot it’s never distracting. Rogue Nation is a very good movie but I want it to be excellent, these days the genre almost demands it and it just isn’t there yet. I hope the inevitable sixth movie can push it in that direction, and with the track record of this franchise I wouldn’t rule it out.

REVIEW: Sunny Side Up

Sunny Side Up
By Jennifer L. Holm & Matthew Holm
216 pages, Scholastic Graphix, $12.99

Sunny Side UpUnlike so many of the offerings from the Scholastic Graphix line, this one requires paying attention to the structure as we jump around both time and place. The semiautobiographical memoir brings the timelines together as Sunny Lewin experiences her brother’s self-destructive nature and is packed off to Florida. There, her grumpy grandfather doesn’t seem to know what to do with her, at first. As a result, she goes wandering around the 55+ community and finally encounters Buzz.

Her developing friendship with Buzz not only gives her someone to hang out with, but also introduces her to comic books. It’s interesting to note which 1970s titles she gravitates to, starting with David Michelinie’s run on Swamp Thing before discovering Batman, Spider-Man, the Hulk and others. In time, they begin earning money finding missing cats and later missing objects and people as they glimpse what senior life holds for them.

The sunshine, swimming, comics, and odd neighbors are far more preferable than being home where her brother Teddy has chosen to enmesh himself with drugs, spiraling downward until he literally hits bottom. Also, she gets to crack through her grandfather’s tough façade and connects him better to his own community.

Interestingly, the Holm siblings explore their past with a certain level of fondness, keeping the storytelling simple without hiding the complex issues at play. They’ve previously partnered on two series: Babymouse and Squish. Here, Lark Pien provides a cheerful color palette in keeping with the title and location.

A satisfying read, the book addresses several strong issues without moralizing or dwelling on only the sad portions. Sunny’s maturity in the face of adverse conditions makes for a strong role model for the readers.

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