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RICK RUBY ANSWERS READER QUESTIONS.

  • Uncategorized
  • October 18, 2012
Art: Rob Moran

Art: Mark Wheatley

Star of Airship 27 Productions’ The Ruby Files, pulp p.i. Richard “Rick” Ruby took some time out of his hectic caseload to answer another reader’s question.

Sweet Thing in New York wants to know if Rick ever plans to settle down and get married?

Read Rick’s response at http://rickruby.blogspot.com/2012/10/rick-ruby-takes-your-questions-2.html

Want Rick to answer one of your questions? Leave a comment at Belle’s online.

THE RUBY FILES VOL. 1 is still available for purchase at any of the following booksellers:
Createspace paperback
Amazon paperback
Indy Planet paperback
Airship 27 Hangar ebook

The Ruby Files created by Bobby Nash and Sean Taylor.

The Ruby Files returns in 2013.

REVIEW: Moonrise Kingdom

You have to credit director Wes Anderson with having a unique vision, one that is slightly off kilter compared with most of his fellow filmmakers. As a result, his films tend to visually interesting and highly stylized, getting notably quirky performances out of his cast. Moonrise Kingdom, his oddly sweet summer confection, is the latest such offering. He revels in dysfunctional groupings, in this case a family and local community, set in 1965, on the cusp of dramatic changes to society as a whole. This tale features two twelve year olds who run away as a storm looms over New Penzance, an isolated island off the coast of northern New England and has a kid’s book feel to it. In many ways, it reminded me of having fairy tale similarities to the hyper-realized rainbow bright Pushing Daisies.

You laugh at the oddball characters, marvel at the mannered performances from a stellar cast, and find your expectations upended time and again. You root for the kids, Sam Shakusky (Jared Gilman) and Suzy Bishop (Kara Hayward), to find happiness. To them, it’s a love story. He abandons his scout troop and she runs away from home, and you would too given her dazed dad Walt (Bill Murray) and adulterous mother Laura (Frances McDormand).

Sam is an orphan and his foster family doesn’t want him back so it falls to the local sheriff (Bruce Willis) and the scout master (Edward Norton) to mount the hunt. With the storm approaching, things are ratcheted high enough to snag the attention of Scout commander Pierce (Harvey Keitel) and Khaki Scout chaplain Cousin Ben (Jason Schwartzman) along with Social Services (Tilda Swinton); and yeah, that’s the character’s name.

While the storm and the missing children are whipping the adults up into a stylized frenzy, the two kids are innocent, unaware, and wholly devoted to one another. While every adult is flawed and mostly unlikable, the kids are fresh-faced and worthy of rooting for. What’s interesting is watching the effect their unseen devotion to one another is having on the adults as the film progresses. One by one, love transforms (or at least softens) the adults, the authority figures who are thinking of punishment and retribution.

The story is charming and riveting in its simplicity, a testament to Anderson’s skill as a storyteller. The movie is lovingly transferred to Blu-ray so the soft colors, a palette that works so well as an element, are well captured. The audio is also superb.

Amazingly, there are but three three-minute featurettes included on the disc: A Look Inside Moonrise Kingdom, Welcome to the Island of New Penzance, and Set Tour with Bill Murray.

Dennis O’Neil: Green Arrow and Lance Armstrong

  • Uncategorized
  • October 18, 2012

Okay, sue me. Last week I blathered on about trying to know as little as possible about movies and television shows before seeing them. So comes Wednesday, the day the new Green Arrow series, catchily titled Arrow, was to debut and what to my wondering eyes should appear, in the arts section of the New York Times, but a review of that same series. What the hell, right? I read the piece and very favorable it was, too, and later I was in front of the set, tuning it to the CW, waiting for the latest incarnation of the emerald archer. And waiting. And waiting. Because what I was seeing was two hours of programming about football.

Football?

I mulled scenarios. Somebody screwed up getting Arrow and the show scheduled to follow it to the various broadcast outlets? Something in both of them outraged some easily offended poo-bah with enough clout to kill hundreds of thousands of advertising dollars? The football lobby got the shows pulled so it could hype images of big dudes bumping into each other?

The next morning, Mari met a friend at the swimming pool she frequents. Friend told Mari how much she’d enjoyed Arrow. Friend lives in our area.

Time to get seriously paranoid. I was having an acid flashback and I only imagined I was watching sports…The universe was punishing me for not keeping faith with the ComicMix readers…

Maybe not. But then, what? As of right now, I don’t know. If any explanation of the hijacking of the archer by the gridiron mob has appeared, I missed it.

But I did see a story about another hero that appeared on the front page of the Times and jumped to the sports section. It concerned a real-life American athlete who won cycling’s most prestigious event, the Tour de France, seven times.

And doped himself for at least two of those wins and maybe more.

And pressured his teammates to use performance-enhancing drugs.

And lied.

Lance Armstrong, take a bow, and try not to moon the crowd while you’re doing it.

So I missed Arrow and that might be a bigger cause for lament than it, at first glance, seems to be. Because maybe fictional heroes are the only ones we have left. The people we once admired – priests, law-enforcers, athletes, lawyers, and especially politicians, both in and out of office – seem to have feet of clay up to their eyebrows. Admire them? Hell no. Despise them, maybe.

Green Arrow wouldn’t have done what Lance Armstrong did. Unless he was a real human being and the pressure to compete,, to win, was so great that he virtually had to use any means necessary. Then he might go seeking an affable pharmacist. You might be right behind him and I’d be there, too, holding your coat, waiting my turn.

RECOMMENDED VIEWING: The Teaching Company is my favorite business organization. Wiggly, mind-wandering me has never been easy in classrooms – unless I’m standing at the front of them professoring, in which case I enjoy them ­but I kind of like knowing things. So, with its Great Courses program, The Teaching Company fills a vacuum for me. At very modest cost, it sends me audio and/or video recordings of the teachers you wish you’d had doing what they do best. The range of courses is long and large, and most of those I’ve sampled were terrific. I particularly want to recommend Big History: The Big Bang, Life on Earth, and the Rise of Humanity. Presented by David Christian. Absolutely the best course I’ve ever taken, in or out of school.

FRIDAY: Martha Thomases

 

REVIEW: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

  • News
  • October 17, 2012

Your first thought at seeing this review is: “Why on earth is ComicMix reviewing this?” First of all, we’re a pop culture site; but more importantly, this is a film filled with marvelous British actors we have enjoyed in countless genre offerings. They deserve to be seen in just about anything they do and when you put them all together, it’s a British version of The Expendables, the geriatric edition. When you have Judi Dench (the current Bond films), Maggie Smith (Harry Potter, et. al.), Bill Nighy (the Pirates of the Caribbean series), and Tom Wilkinson (Batman Begins) acting together, you sit down and pay attention.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is a charming, well-written, well-acted film that is actually about something. It was directed by John Madden (Shakespeare in Love) and based on Deborah Moggach’s novel These Foolish Things. The cast is fortunate to still be working, but many of their peers – and many of us – are not working as we age, and our future has come into question. The film follows these Brits as they decide to relocate from their homeland to a more affordable retirement community in India. They were suckered into believing the glossy brochure, without stopping to investigate. The reality, of course, is far worse than imagined and now they have to deal with the decisions they have come to make.

The film, now out on DVD from 20th Century Home Entertainment, plays things with a light touch while the subject matter is fairly heavy and resonates with our aging elders here, too. There’s Dench as a recently widowed woman who finds 21st Century technology baffling, and Wilkinson, who lived in India as a young man and has desired for a return. Nighy and Penelope Wilton (Shaun of Dead) blew their retirement savings on funding their daughter’s failed start-up so make this move out of desperation. And there’s Smith, playing a racist who only came to India for a quick and cheap hip replacement operation. It’s not all bleak as Ronald Pickup plays a retiree hoping to score with some of his compatriots, his ardor still running hot.

Sharp contrasts are drawn between the characters and their motivations for making such a major move so late in life. How they react to the decrepit hotel, run by the charming, enthusiastic and overwhelmed Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire) propels much of the story. Jaipur, where the story takes place, is beautiful and squalid, a composite of modern day India.

The film follows the characters and over time we watch some adjust, some struggle, and many fight. It’s a school of fish out of water, prompting a lot of cultural miscues and comedy, but it overlays a poignancy that this stellar cast projects in a nice, subtle way. They learn things from the local people, and each other, while they also teach Sonny a thing or two, letting him finally take the belated steps towards a mature adulthood.

The film has its predictable moments but you’re smiling through most this and you want a happy ending for all concerned, which you (for the most part) get. It’s immensely satisfying and worth a look.

The transfer to Blu-ray is good, not great, and has fine audio. There are a handful of perfunctory extras that are too short for the subject matter, such as Behind the Story: Lights, Colors and Smiles (2:34) and Casting Legends (3:55). The exotic and picturesque locales get their due in Welcome to the “Real” Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2:55) and Trekking to India: “Life is Never the Same” (2:45).

YOU TOO CAN BLOG FOR AMAZING STORIES!

  • News
  • October 17, 2012

For Immediate Release

Amazing Stories Seeks Bloggers
Amazing Stories, the World’s First Science Fiction Magazine, is preparing for its return and is now seeking experienced bloggers with interests in science fiction, fantasy and horror, their sub-genres and their impact on or relationship to film, television, gaming, anime, comics, audio works, visual arts, fandom, publishing and science.
 Since completing two well-received Volume Zero Relaunch Prelaunch issues (required for Trademark registration & to honor our friends)  the Experimenter Publishing Company has been notified by the USPTO that it will be granted its marks; during that same time work was begun on the first stage of the Amazing Stories website, Frank Wu has completed the artwork for Amazing Stories’ first new cover in over seven years and numerous other great things have been happening.

In anticipation of the forthcoming roll out of the new website, Amazing Stories is now seeking the assistance and participation of fans and bloggers from across the genre spectrum.

If you think you might like to write for Amazing Stories, now is your chance.  Please email (Steve.Davidson33@comcast.net Amazing Stories and request an information packet.  

Visit the website and the blog and watch Amazing Stories grow!  Http://www.AmazingStoriesMag.com  Blog.AmazingStoriesmag.com

The Experimenter Publishing Company

FORTIER TAKES ON ‘MYTHICAL’!

  • News
  • October 17, 2012

ALL PULP REVIEWS- by Ron Fortier
MYTHICAL: Heart of Stone
By C.E. Martin
ISBN # 9781479128372
239 pages
The explosion of self-publishing has flooded the reading world with thousands upon thousands of new works by unknown writers.  For the most part, logic and literary tradition dictates 95% is crap.  One percent is great and the other four percent is made up of really good stories worthy of being sought out and enjoyed.   C.E. Martin’s “MYTHICAL : Heart of Stone,” is very much part of that delightful four percent.  This is a superior action/adventure fantasy which mixes the superhero genre with lots of mythological magic.
Colonel Mark Kinsler is the leader of a squad of stone soldiers known as Detachment 1039.  When their attempt to capture and destroy a terrorist shape-shifter goes horribly awry, Kinsler is the only survivor.  His body, petrified in stone, is dumped in the Arizona desert where it is discovered by a group of five high school seniors on a final jaunt before graduation.  The only girl among the group, Josie, is somehow personally drawn to what she believes is a bizarre stone sculpture of an Adonis like figure. When she inadvertently helps Kinsler heal and regain his human form, she soon finds herself caught up in a fantastic world of spies and ancient superbeings.
Kinsler, having suffered temporary amnesia, initially relies upon Josie and her four male companions to help him sort out his current predicament.  Eventually, as his memories slowly return during their trip to Vegas, he soon realizes his target is planning on killing the visiting vice-President and assuming his place in the government.  Unsure as to whom he can trust, Kinsler has to rely on Josie and the boy named Jimmy to see him through his mission.
Martin writes amazing action sequences that race across the pages effortlessly.  They are so well delivered with sophisticated attention to the smallest details.  His skill pulls the readers into the middle of these slugfests and brilliantly allows them to experience each vicariously. Very few writers have this storytelling gift so well realized.  Oh, sure, there are some clichéd plot devises, but they never seemed forced and become integral parts of the narrative from beginning to end.  What the book does is open the doors to a unique world that is much like our own and yet very, very different. But Martin is wise enough not to overwhelm us with those differences too quickly and deftly reveals them gradually so that by the book’s climax, we’ve been fully introduced to this other Earth; one I very much want to revisit again real soon.
“MYTHICAL : Heart of Stone,” is something old made new and a true pleasure to discover.  And it’s only the first step in what I predict is going to be an amazing series.  Buy your ticket and get on board now!

Mike Gold: Little Ole New York Comic Con

ComicMix associate editor Adriane Nash and I knew we were in for it when, on Thursday morning last, there were nine other people waiting for the same commuter train who clearly were headed not to work but to the New York Comic Con. Trains run every half-hour, and ours is but one of a great, great many such stations. Do the math.

In total… one hundred thousand people. Some of whom bathed.

Sure, San Diegoans might smirk at a mere 100,000, but there are major differences between the two shows. First, it only took NYCC six years to reach the 100,000 mark. Second, the Javits Center is smaller and much more out of the way than the San Diego Convention Center. Third, the NYCC has a lot more to do with comic books than the SDCC. Actually, the SDCC barely has anything to do with comic books, despite its title and its not-for-profit mission statement. And finally, NYCC has more European artists and writers while SDCC has more Asian. Of course, this is neither better nor worse, but it is an interesting difference.

For me, there’s another important difference: I don’t have to fly from sea to shining sea to get there.

I’ll gleefully admit six years ago NYCC really, truly and totally sucked. I said so right here in this space. It was the worst planned, worst programmed, worst run major show I’d ever been to, and I started going to New York conventions back in 1968 (I cosplayed Swee’pea). It improved, slowly, and achieved adequacy in its third or fourth year.

This time around the show was very well run – although I agree with Emily’s comments about their panel programming decisions being less than knowledgeable. They should endeavor to overcome this problem.

My biggest complaint – they’re called “issues” now, aren’t they? – was rectified mid-way through the show. They had the exits blocked off, forcing the mass of humanity through narrow corridors back to the small entrance way, making it dangerously difficult to leave, particularly for those who were mobility-challenged. This policy was enforced by a part-time minimum wage crew and, while I sympathize with their difficult job, there was no reason for them to lie to us – they weren’t upholding fire laws; quite the contrary – and there was no reason to act like Cartman without his truncheon. On Thursday and Friday some acted as though it was their job to put the oink in “rent-a-pig,” but on Saturday the rules were changed and you could actually exit through some of the doors marked “exit.”

The New York Comic Con was totally and completely sold out well before the show started. While there was some confusion about the changes in registration procedures (particularly for pros, but we’re an easily confused lot), most of us who followed the rules received our badges in the mail several weeks before the show and therefore were saved from the agony of lines long enough to cause a riot at LaGuardia Airport. I don’t know how you legitimately limit the audience size and 100,000 people can barely fix into the venue; there’s some construction going on at the Javits right now so I hope they procure more floor space next year.

Personally, I had a great time. Sure, most of it was work (ComicMix had nine people there, a third focused on cosplay coverage for our Facebook and Twitter feeds) and because of the nature of my work I spent most of my time in and about Artists’ Alley, the only room that routinely had sufficient oxygen. But I saw a lot of friends – a lot – and, when all is said and done, we could take whatever energy we had left and wade into the bowels of Manhattan, which is always an entertaining and unusual experience.

A rough estimate reveals the New York Comic Con contributed over a quarter billion dollars to the local economy. We’re not just legitimate. We’re big business.

 (Our columnist would like to thank Ed Sullivan for the loan of the head.)

THURSDAY: Dennis O’Neil

 

‘South Park’ Creators Sued Over Lollipop King In ‘Imaginationland’

  • News
  • October 16, 2012

Step 1: Sue Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park, for copyright violation.

Step 3: Profit!

Lollipops are meant to remain wholesome. This according to Exavier Wardlaw, creator of the children’s show “The Lollipop Forest,” who slapped Matt Stone and Trey Parker of “South Park” with a lawsuit claiming the show ripped off his lollipop character and defiled it.

TMZ obtained the details of the copyright infringement lawsuit against “South Park” filed by Wardlaw. The lawsuit alleges that the “South Park” character Lollipop King is a hack version of Wardlaw’s “Lollipop Forest” character Big Bad Lollipop. Wardlaw claims that his wholesome show was defiled when his character was exposed to “unwholesome language and sexual innuendo.”

Three episodes of “South Park” from 2007, entitled “Imaginationland,” featured Lollipop King and showed the candy being choked by a Storm Trooper, witnessing a suicide bombing and watching Kyle and Cartman engage in oral sex, TMZ notes. Still, “Imaginationland” scored an Emmy in 2008 for Outstanding Animated Program for a show one hour or more.

Wardlaw was seemingly unimpressed.

via ‘South Park’ Lawsuit: Creators Sued Over Use Of Lollipop King In ‘Imaginationland’.

Boy, this could really suck. Or blow, depending on the type of lollipop.

Win a Copy of The League Season 3

  • News
  • October 16, 2012

While we’re almost halfway through the current football season, hard to believe, fans who cannot get enough of the sport should know that season three of The League is now out on home video.

We have two Blu-ray copies to give away courtesy of 20th Century Home Entertainment. The semi-improvised hit comedy is about a fantasy football league, its members, and their everyday lives.

To be a fan of The League, you don’t need to know much about fantasy football, or sports at all. You just need to have friends that you hate. The ensemble comedy follows a group of old friends in a fantasy football league who care deeply about one another – so deeply that they use every opportunity to make each other’s lives miserable.

Taco lost the Shiva Bowl in season three so what advice would you give him for the current season? The two best answers received by 11:59 p.m., Sunday, October 21 will be winners. The judgment of ComicMix will be final and the contest is open to readers only in the United States and Canada.

The box set includes the following Special Features:

●   The Lockout – Extended Episode

●   The Sukkah – Extended Episode

●   The Au Pair – Extended Episode

●   Ol’ Smoke Crotch – Extended Episode

●   Bobbum Man – Extended Episode

●   Deleted Scenes

●   Camenjello – Extended Episode

●   Thanksgiving – Extended Episode

●   The Out of Towner – Extended Episode

●   St. Pete – Extended Episode

●   The Funeral – Extended Episode

●   Alt Nation

●   Taco Tones

●   Gag Reel

 

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