AMC’s 80s computer drama, HALT AND CATCH FIRE, is back for a new season and Mackenzie Davis is here to talk about how her character has a big challenge ahead. Plus he is called one of the most original comics of our time. Michael Blackson is the African King Of Comedy, but how did he get it all started?
We’re back at the start of the week with a look at UNREAL, the new drama that blows the lid off what really goes on with reality TV.
Tomorrowland didn’t do as well as expected this weekend in theaters. Some people celebrated this fact, apparently believing that the movie was the brainchild of George Clooney and that it was a propaganda film about climate change.
They must have seen a different movie than I did.
I’ll admit that, like the Big Hollywood website, I went to the theater with my own set of assumptions and biases. Tomorrowland is my favorite area in the Disney parks, the first place I wanted to go the first time I went (in 1979). I love the work of director Brad Bird, and have since The Family Dog. 
And, yeah, I have the hots for George Clooney and I think climate change is an issue deserving action. Only the first of those affects my ticket-buying decisions.
So, the Disney nerd in me loved the movie. But, more important to this column, so did the comics fan.
Because I love the future. I remember when everybody did.
You see, one of the themes of Tomorrowland is that we, as a society, have become too enthralled with pessimistic stories and fleeting fads. Instead of wallowing in disaster movies (like this) or dystopian dramas (like this), we should work together to make the future better.
Look, it’s really normal for adolescents to be drawn to the “grim’n’gritty” dystopias. And, by “normal,” I mean that I did it. For me, devastated that I was not only the center of the universe but my parents weren’t all-powerful and my body was doing strange things that involved icky fluids, it seemed that pessimism was the more sophisticated viewpoint. I wasn’t a little kid anymore, with bright colors and flowers and candy. No, I wore black and I was sullen. If the cool kids (the jocks and the cheerleaders) wouldn’t have me as one of their own, I was going to act as if I rejected them first.
And then I grew up.
Look, I still like a lot of things that can seem pessimistic. Blade Runner remains one of my favorite movies, based on the work of Philip K. Dick, a rather depressing writer whom like a lot. I like punk rock and Lou Reed and Leonard Cohen. I like Transmetropolitan and The Dark Knight Returns.
The older I get, however, the more I want hope. And that hope lies in the future.
Comics helped me with this. Adam Strange not only engaged with an alien world, but fell in love and married an alien. The Legion of Super-Heroes posited a time when the whole universe would band together to make life better.
A lot of today’s best comics come from a hopeful place. I’d include Saga and Sex Criminals and even Bitch Planet as works that rouse the spirit.
Another science fiction writer I enjoy, William Gibson, is sometimes credited as one of the founders of the cyberpunk movement, which often painted a bleak future. His most recent book, The Peripheral, has it’s share of dystopian prophecy, but ends up (SPOILER, maybe?) making the case that we can change the future. We can make the world better.
A better world is worth the effort. Especially if it includes George Clooney.
Frank Beddor’s The Looking Glass War series, a dark fantasy look at Alice In Wonderland, has had a strong spinoff life in comics with Hatter M, the story of Hatter Madigan who is the bodyguard to the Queen of Wonderland and head of the elite security force known as the The Millinery.
Beddor has debuted a new Young Adult prose series at BookExpo America, Hatter Madigan, which shows his early days at the Millinery. And to mark the occasion, fan of the series Whoopi Goldberg will be highlighting the series and characters on The View on Friday. Beddor literally brought his characters to life on The View by inviting a team of cosplayers dressed up as his characters to appear on the show. “The audience exploded when they saw them come out. Fantasy rules reality. The reaction was amazing.”
The new book, Hatter Madigan: Ghost In the H.A.T.B.O.X, is a prequel to the existing Looking Glass Wars time line and will hit stores in March of 2016.
But we know what some of our readers really care about is the cosplay. Well, fear not– we got our hands on some photos for of the behind-the-scenes of the costumes…
How to be a Superhero
By Mark Edlitz
Bear Manor Media, 586 pages, $42.95/$29.95
Longtime readers of pop culture magazines have no doubt read interviews with actors who have donned capes, cowls, spandex, and prosthetics to portray heroes and villains drawn from comic books. I certainly was involved in my fair share of such interviews working at Starlog Press and its successors have continued, especially contemporary online outlets which are enjoying a bonanza of options.
Most of those interviews tend to be about the most immediate project with little insight or context about an actor’s association with a media property or being the latest in a long line to play the same role. And certainly, these interviews are sandwiched between news, features, and other topics. So, it’s a bit of a surprise that such a collection has not been attempted before.
Mark Edlitz, a hardworking writer with credits including The Huffington Post, Los Angeles Times’ Hero Complex, Moviefone, Sirius/XM Radio’s Slice of SciFi and Empire magazine online, has collected nearly four dozen interviews he’s conducted through the years and is releasing on June 1, How to be a Superhero. It’s not a guidebook or a real “how to” but provides an interesting glimpse into the performers who brought four-color idols to life.
Organized into eight categories, Edlitz introduces you to Caped Crusaders, Heroic Women, Antiheroes, Sidekicks, Supervillains, and so on. There’s even an Appendix that includes the performers he could not interview himself, culling choice quotes from a variety of sources so this is as complete a source as one might hope to find.
Edlitz’s overlong introduction sets the stage and clarifies to us who he considers to be a superhero, which feels like a justification to wax nostalgic about James Bond and including interviews with George Lazenby and Roger Moore. Additionally, he includes an out-of-left field, not terribly useful interview with Leonard Nimoy about Spock.
Overlooking those, the remainder of the book is treasure trove of interesting conversations with actors from Noel Neill and Jack Larson during the nascent television days through Clark Gregg, the coolest hero in a black suit on prime time today. In between, we get everyone you would expect and then some. Edlitz gets credit for speaking to the first Fantastic Four – Alex Hyde-White, Carl Ciafello, Rebecca Staab and Joseph Culp, who played Doctor Doom – in the never-released Roger Corman produced adaptation. Similarly, we also hear from Chip ZIen, who voiced Howard the Duck from that eponymous disastrous production.
Given how slightly defined the heroes were in film and on television in the 1940s-1960s, the actors themselves attempt to fill in the gaps and explain their work process. Then there’s Yvonne Craig who pretty much admitted she didn’t put much thought in to Batgirl given how little she was given to work with.
On the flipside, some of the book’s best comments come from Michael Rosenbaum, exploring the events that shaped Lex Luthor on Smallville. Kevin Conroy and Tim Daly, who voiced the World’s Finest heroes, also have some strong comments about what it means to be a hero.
Behind the camera, Tom Mankiewicz, who wrote for Bond and the Man of Steel, provides an informative glimpse into how 1970s fare was conceived while Ken Johnson talks adapting the Hulk to the small screen, mostly avoiding the horrible telefilms that tried to create a Marvel televised universe.
What would have helped the book was providing some context for exactly when each interview was conducted so we have a better idea how the performers were influenced by contemporaneous comics publishing and film competition. He also asks each subject for a question to ask the next one but they run in a chaotic order so it feels jarring rather than delightful.
As interesting as the words are, the pictures leave something to be desired, mostly public domain press pictures and far too few of them. Still, these are minor quibbles in what is an enjoyable reading experience.
With 20-something superhero pictures to come in the next few years, this book is a fine encapsulation of the pioneers who paved the way for today’s fare. Dealing with stereotyping, poor special effects, meager budgets, and ridiculously tight production made it hard to stand up for truth, justice, and the American Way so they are to be saluted and thanked for their contributions.
It’s profoundly irritating just how lifeless Tomorrowland is. I’m not even talking about how in the grand climax there was clearly no budget for extras so it just seems like three people fighting in a bunch of cavernous empty sets. I mean that one of the biggest movie stars of a generation joined forces with a director that could seemingly do no wrong and they made a movie that always seems like the next scene is the one where things are finally going to kick in to high gear, but instead it just sits in neutral and slowly sinks in to the mud. Tomorrowland is a promise of a future never fulfilled and I wish I could believe that was a really deep metaphor and not a punchless script.
There’s one really fantastic sequence in Tomorrowland set in the 1964 World’s Fair with a young boy presenting his entry in to an invention contest and proposing a thesis on the virtue of imagination and technology’s role in inspiring people to dream, we then get some coverage of the fair followed by our first peek in to the titular Tomorrowland. It’s a killer sequence, it’s funny, it’s compelling, it feels consistent with the ideas behind the theme park the inspired this film. Unfortunately, this is the first ten minutes of the film and it never gets back to that level again. Maybe we shouldn’t even be making movies inspired by theme park sections.
The remaining two hours of movie are just so spirit-destroyingly bland. Plucky young NASA fanatic Casey Newton is a character desperately in need of a character trait deeper than “really likes science” or maybe just a visual aesthetic more complex than “wears a hat.” Then there’s Athena, the young precocious British girl who exists solely to dole out secrets at the appropriate times and not get in the way at others. I’m getting quite sick of the precocious British children cliché and maybe the trope should be discarded completely if you feel the need to have the emotional climax of your film to be a prepubescent girl explaining what love means to a man in his 50s. It gets a little creepy. George Clooney is fine, I suppose, he only ever really performs grumpy and somewhat less grumpy but he has enough raw movie star magnetism to steal every scene he’s in. It feels like a waste of his talents but it also feels a bit like he got tricked in to being in this movie, like he met Brad Bird at a party and gushed about how much he loved Iron Giant and signed a blank contract. There’s no chance that’s the real story but I can’t believe Clooney either liked this script or needed this money.
Tomorrowland is disappointing most of all because it is the first misstep from Brad Bird. He’s had a 16-year run of directing exclusively excellent movies (ok Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol is only pretty good) and I wanted to believe he could do that forever. That’s the way I identify most with this movie: the same way George Clooney feels let down by the future utopia that never came, I feel like I’ve been let down by my idealized version of Bird. There are no cities with elevated multi-level pools and ample municipal jet packs, just as there are no Spielbergs who never made Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. We can’t live in a perfect world but we can try to live in an interesting one, and that is not one that includes Tomorrowland.
One of our favorite parts of attending cons is watching the cosplayers. We know that not everyone is a fan, and that’s too bad, because it’s such a creative way to show fandom. Though maybe after watching the documentary, Cosplay Dreams 3D, those who haven’t embraced cosplayers will. The film focuses on cosplay celebrities as well as those who just do it as a fun hobby. It’s the stories about the people under the costumes that really make the movie. Though the 3D effects and really cool costumes don’t hurt either.
At WonderCon, we not only got to see a screening of the movie, but we also had a chance to interview the filmmakers Christine and Gulliver Parascandolo (who are San Diegans like us — so we get why they would be inspired by Comic Con to make this movie). It’s very much Tweeks-Approved and once you watch our review, we know you’ll want to watch.
If you want to see Cosplay Dreams, you can find out where it’s playing on their Facebook Page. Upcoming showings are at the LVL UP Expo in Las Vegas on May 31st or on the opening night of the New Media Film Festival in LA.
“This weekend’s Denver ComicCon came under fire when attendees discovered that a Women in Comics panel had only male panelists. While a representative of DCC has defended the panel as “not about current women creators or anything to do with industry bias,” it seems odd that a convention with Trina Robbins, the eminent historian of women as creators and characters, as a guest would not invite her to join in on a discussion of the history of women in comics. While the misstep here is primarily on the panel organizers, it also raises a question of what obligation conventions have to moderate and comment on panels that are accepted.”
Read the whole article at ComicAlliance
I must have been aware of Camelot 3000 back when it was appearing in 12 parts, from 1982 to 1985, me being a honkin’ big comics pro and all, and there were a lot of comics strewing my life. And, by then, I’d known the series writer, Mike W. Barr, for years. But I don’t know how many of the installments I read, if any. As mentioned above, there were a lot of comics around me and though I was a pretty dedicated reader of things in general, I might have skipped over any comic book in which I had no professional interest. If I did miss Camelot 3000, my bad.
A few hours ago, Mari and I were watching a video course offered by The Teaching Company – let us simultaneously bow our heads and cheer – taught by a charismatic professor named Dorsey Armstrong. It dealt with a subject we don’t know much about, so sure, we were happy to learn something. We’re glad we did. If you think I’m recommending the course, you’re right, and so you should know its title. Happy to oblige: . Dr. Armstrong had reached the section of her presentation that deals with the twentieth century Arthur and spoke of Marian Zimmer Bradley’s Arthurian novels – you might know The Mists of Avalon – and then she began to talk about Mike Barr’s comics. I perked up.
Before we get to the paeans, an observation:
The inclusion of a comic book series in a course devoted to “capital L” Literature is yet further evidence that comics, as both a narrative form and a commercial enterprise, have reached full parity with all other media. (That doesn’t mean that comics, or any other print medium, assembles the mountains of money that the movies adapted from them do. But without comics, those adaptations wouldn’t happen. Duh.)
Comics are an accepted part of college curricula. Live with it, scoffers.
So what is Dr. Armstrong’s opinion of Mike Barr’s comic books? In a word: praiseworthy. She briefly discusses the plot and Mike’s take on the characters and makes the whole shebang sound both interesting – a good read – and a worthy addition to a renowned series of tales, some of which have survived for centuries.
I assume that DC Comics’ excellent library survived the company’s recent monster trek west and that it includes Camelot 3000. And I assume that somebody is in charge of reprints, though I have no idea who that might be. But whoever has that job might want to have a look at Mike Barr’s old maxi-series and consider offering it to a generation of fans who may be totally ignorant of it.
Glee lost me when it veered further and further away from its core concepts and refused to take its eyes off their initial stars and their forays into a magical version of New York City. I avoided the final season and from the recaps, it appears to have gone into gonzo land with little effort to ground the show in any sense of reality. As a result, I knew I wasn’t the one to fairly review the final season so I turned to a true Gleek, one of my Creative Writing students, and here’s what she had to say.
By Rachel Watson
Glee has many meanings and definitions that the thought of losing the series or saying goodbye is almost impossible. But all good things must come to an end and knowing Glee, it will end in a big musical number that we will remember.
The sixth, truncated and final season of the series is out now in a box set courtesy of 20th Century Home Entertainment. It opens with Rachel Berry (Lea Michele) learning that she is being fired from her TV show, causing her to return home to Lima, Ohio. Kurt (Chris Colfer) also returns newly single and together the two friends prepare to start a new glee club at McKinley High.
Despite there only being thirteen episodes, Brad Falchuck and the writing staff managed to fit in a wedding between not one couple but two as the expected lovebirds Kurt and Blaine (Darren Criss) finally tie the knot and in somewhat of a surprise, so do Santana (Naya Rivera) and Brittany (Heather Morris). Fans from the Brittana and Klaine fandoms were happy and tearful that their favorite homosexual couples were walking down the aisle to their loves in the view of their friends and family.
That it was two gay couples getting married speaks to the series’ overall strength and value. Of all prime time television, it was the one to consistently and bravely explore what it means to be a homosexual teen, coming out to friends and/or family, and enduring the same travails as their heterosexual friends experience.
Like every other season, the characters learn a lesson that better prepares them to become their adult selves. Rachel learns to conquer her fear, Kurt learns that love is worth fighting for, Santana learns to follow her own choices and even their adult guru, Mr. Schue (Matthew Morrison) learns that you can do things by the bend of a bow and the power of an arrow.
The music, as always, is enjoyable, the stroylines, over the top as they were this season, easy to follow and the best effort was “Dreams Come True”. Here, Rachel earns a Tony and says, “Being a part of something special does not make you special. It’s special because you are a part of it.” Hearing those words just brings tears to my eyes, but what brings warmth to my heart is when nearly the entire series cast appear on stage to christen the school stage as the Finn Hudson Auditorium in 2025 and then sing One Republic’s “I Lived”.
Glee may be over as a television series, but not as a fandom and family. We learn that we are different but all the same thing. Heart. We are the new New Directions each with a special song to sing. With every broken bone, we lived and Glee changed our lives through characters who were going through the same things we were.
Goodbye, Glee. You will be missed but your lessons will be shared for generations.
The four disc standard DVD-only set comes complete with the usual assortment of extras, the Juke box, and some farewell notes. Best are the final features on disc four: Glee: The Final Curtin and Looking Back Video Yearbook.
With the possible exception of the Black Panther, no other black franchise has garnered as much “it’s going to be a major movie or TV show” hype within the fan rumor mill than Static Shock. Finally the Black Panther is going to happen. As for Static Shock … kinda.
In 2018 the Black Panther movie will be released from what is now the best superhero moviemaker bar none, Marvel Studios. Static will make his way to the Internet as part of Warner Bros’ Digital arm later this year.
I find that rather disappointing.
More than any other black property, Static pretty much already owns the Internet. The massive amount of love Static has on the net is nothing short of extraordinary. In the 22 years since Static burst on the scene the admiration for the character has only grown and at no point shows signs of waiving.
That’s simply remarkable and considering the half of a half ass way Warner Bros. has “supported” the franchise. Unbelievable. I will concede, on one hand it makes perfect sense to exploit the immense allure Static enjoys on the net.
But…
On the other hand, Static is the only African American superhero with the overwhelming popularity created by African Americans and boy would it be nice to see him with a couple zillion dollars budget on the big screen or just a billion dollar budget on television.
Two white guys, Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan created Blade and I’m happy to say, Marv’s like family. I said as much to a sold out crowd at The Magic Johnson Theater on Blade’s opening night. When his name appeared in the credits, I could not control myself (story of my life). I leaped up and clapped like a maniac.
“What you clapping for?” Said a rather large black guy who was not amused at my outburst. Imagine that, someone pissed in a black theater over a loud outburst! Silly me, I should have remembered to only shout out during the movie.
“I know him.” I said, while eyeing the exits.
“Yeah? Is he a brother?” He retorted. Then I realized everybody black was now paying attention and except for a white girl some idiot had brought with him, everybody was black. Shit, I had to think fast…
“Yeah.” I said trying to sound hard. “He’s my brother.”
Big smile from the big guy and cheers from the audience. I sat down and my date put her arm around me. “Yo, white girl, what you doing?” I said as I took her arm from around my neck and whispered, “Hey, here’s some cash, take a cab back to my place.”
What?
Todd McFarlane created Spawn…Oh! Some of y’all didn’t know Spawn was black? Yep. Al Simmons, Todd’s black pal, was the real life inspiration for Al Simmons a.k.a. Spawn. I guess that means Spawn is no longer in the running for the Tea Party’s favorite comic book character.
Todd’s a friend, and as far as I know still white. Cyborg is another character from my brother Marv and George Pérez. George’s a great guy also a friend and he’s Latino. That’s close, but not black.
Luke Cage was created by Archie Goodwin and John Romita Sr. Both white guys, both part of comic book, each a dear friend. Archie gave me my first professional job in comics and when I met John I quickly forgot how I planed to kidnap him and hold him until Marvel brought back Gwen Stacy, my second love after Laurie Partridge.
What??
So, I had a thing for white girls! Get over it. I did!
Archie died in 1998, leaving a comic book legacy that will stand forever. He’s still widely regarded as the best-loved comic book editor, ever.
Sabre was created by Don McGregor and Paul Gulacy. Both white guys … sort of. Don’s so cool he could be black.
Don means the world to me so much so I’d take a bullet for him. He’s a wonderful writer (one of the best) and just as wonderful a person. I’ve never met Paul but he’s on a very short list of artist I wanted to draw like at one time.
There’s a few more famous black superheroes but trust me all were created by white guys, the grand daddy of them all, the Black Panther having sprung from the two coolest white boys, nah, scratch that, the two coolest creators in comic book history, period.
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
Stan was and still is the man and Jack will always be the king. Stan and I used to have lunch a couple times a week. His office at Marvel productions a floor above mine at Showtime in the Westwood Los Angeles office tower at which both companies were housed. I became friends with Jack a few years before the king of comics left the building forever. Sad, sad day.
Unless one of those fantastic creators are hiding a past which includes a white sheet and a southern drawl, African Americans had no better friend in comics. Much like those in Hollywood who dared create movies and TV shows around black people that were not bellboys, slaves or servants these men fought our fight before we were allowed on the battlefield.
Imagine the sheer balls it took Columbia Pictures to green light and then distribute the ground braking film, Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner? That film, a love story about a black man and white women, is still not shown in certain parts of the south. Released in 1967 during the height of the C=civil rights movement more than a few death threats were issued.
Now, imagine its 1966 a year after the assassination of Malcolm X. There’s another side emerging from the civil rights movement. The Reverend Martin Luther King’s non-violent approach was being challenged by those who cultivated Malcolm’s original “by any means necessary” doctrine.
No group was more ready to go to war against there oppressors than the Black Panther Party.
With that as a back drop Stan and Jack create the Black Panther in 19stillhanganiggerincertainpartsofAmerica66. That takes the kind of balls reserved for those few men and women with a sense of purpose, a goal, and selfless heart.
In a very real way the sons of Stan and Jack created Static Shock. Co-created by my former Milestone Media partners and I a great deal of our inspiration was the Black Panther, Luke Cage and Stan and Gene Colan’s Falcon. As a kid seeing those Black superheroes I have no doubt they brought us where we are today, African American comic book creators.
Static Shock may not be as well known as those black heroes but without a doubt it’s the most well known black superhero created by black people. It’s time that black kids see fully what they are capable of.
Any positive black face on television or in a film is important but we all know people of color are still the stuff of, “wow there’s a black (fill in the blank)” or “the (ditto) now has a black (ditto, ditto).”
Shock and awe still accompany way too many occurrences in America when a person of color is placed in a station denied until then. Kids of color need for those occurrences to become as commonplace as images of the black thug, lazy welfare mom or absent father.
That, my friends is my long-winded reason I find a live action Static Shock debuting on the net rather disappointing. The most successful black superhero created by black people will be seen in media outlets where black kids have less access than any other group.
Not a whole lot of MacBooks in the hood. Hell, not a whole lot of any book or computers. If there is a computer the odds are it’s the family computer. Everyone having their own is about as realistic as Ted Cruz giving a fuck about poor people.
Why Warner Bros. Consumer Products never made Static Shock toys when the cartoon was a mega hit is just as curious to me as to why Static has never been a movie or why a live action version can’t be on television.
Speaking of the live action version, there’s been a pretty hot rumor flying around that Jaden Smith will be playing Static Shock. People are losing their damn minds, clearly hating on the kid because of his off screen antics or secondly saying he can’t act and he will kill the show.
Bullshit. Jaden Smith will do fine.
Reggie Hudlin is the show runner and a better person to spearhead Static I can’t think of. If Jaden sucked (he does not) there is no way he would have that gig, Will Smith or not, Reggie wouldn’t cast someone not right.
I’m amazed people who call themselves fans of Static want that kid to fail.
Newsflash, fan boys and girls. If he fails so does Static.
I know a bit about Static.
Trust me, I should know, I’m not just a co-creator I’m the lead creator having created the Static Universe as part of the Milestone Dakota Universe. Static’s world is based on life and family growing up.
Despite what you’ve read as few so-called entertainment “journalists” do any background vettes Static’s my baby. Funny, an entire lying myth has been created, a lie, based upon lazy journalism printed somewhere else and copied over and over has now become reality to most.
That “reality” doesn’t make it true.
I’m the lead creator of Static Shock. I based him on my family and my life. That’s the truth. A lie may prevent most from knowing but like global warming the truth won’t go away and neither will I.
Jaden Smith is a good actor his personal life doesn’t make him a bad actor.
That’s also the truth. Hating him for no other reason except his idiosyncrasies is the stuff of simpleminded fools. He’s not playing himself, he’s playing Virgil Hawkins, A role he was born to play, in my opinion.
The problem with Jaden isn’t his off screen antics or his haters. The problem is a great many kids he was created for won’t be able to see him until some genius at the WB realizes just how important Static is.
That may take another kind of Static.
Columns / Glenn Hauman / News
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