It’s not only the swelling music and the voice of Ian McKellen that makes this thing feel particularly Lord of the Rings-y, I don’t think: X-Men: Days of Future Past is inspired by one of the most beloved stories in all of the 48 billion X-Men comics, and director Bryan Singer, no doubt eager to […]
Comic Books
Posted inComic Books
The First Trailer for Robert Redford’s Captain America 2
As my review of All Is Lost in this week’s paper strongly indicates, I’m a shameless, gawping fan of Robert Redford. Had the whole Marvel-taking-over-Hollywood thing happened a few decades earlier, it’s hard to imagine they wouldn’t have tried to cast Redford as Captain America—and now that’s in his late ’70s, he’s the perfect guy […]
Posted inComic Books
Shelley Short’s Band of All-Stars, and Adam Selzer’s Graphic Novel
In March, Shelley Short got together a group of local ace musicians to play a batch of covers, recorded live at Type Foundry studio over the course of a day and a half. Despite the hastiness, the results are fantastic—Shelley Short and the Sure Shots’ Wake the Dreamers is a warm, wonderful collection with a […]
Posted inComic Books
A Great Interview with Bill Watterson
Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson doesn’t give interviews very often, but Mental Floss has one, and—from what they’ve put online, at least—it’s great. Watterson is always an interesting dude (as you’d expect from a guy who casually admits that “Calvin and Hobbes created a level of attention and expectation that I don’t know how […]
Posted inComic Books
Matt Fraction, Suicide, and Tumblr: "Can't there be someone out there who genuinely is tired and doesn't want to continue."
If you don’t read comics, you might not be aware of the fact that we’ve got some serious hotshots living in town: brilliant, genre-busting, hilarious writers who also happen to write the characters that Marvel movies are based on. If you haven’t read Matt Fraction’s spy thriller Casanova, start there—you’ll like it, I promise, and […]
Posted inComic Books
"I Am Willing to Make Other People Uncomfortable so My Daughter Won't Have To"
Things in mainstream superhero comics can get better for women and minorities, as this Atlantic profile of Marvel Comics writer Kelly Sue DeConnick attests. Marvel is trying, slowly, to bring more female characters to the forefront. “I think that the message is that no one is ‘other,’ that white males are not the ‘default human […]
Posted inComic Books
Dark Horse Comics Reboots ALIEN Universe (and Predators, too)
Part of the reason PROMETHEUS disappointed so many was due to the richness of the universe it was playing in. ALIEN is considered one of the best horror movies ever made due to its design, its atmosphere, the shudder-inducing nastiness of its titular fanged penis-monster. And PROMETHEUS just took a lot of the potential for […]
Posted inTV
YOU’VE BEEN STERANKO’D!
From Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. by Jim Steranko In this week’s Books section, I reviewed the obnoxiously punctuated S.H.I.E.L.D. by Steranko: The Complete Collection, a 300-plus-page collection of a whole bunch of Nick Fury-centric stories, the majority of which are both written and drawn by Jim Steranko. (Early on, the stories are written by […]
Posted inSports
Things I’m Really Excited About Right Now: The Videogame, Film, Comic Book, Cabaret, and Roller Derby Edition
A hot mess of delightful and entertaining starches. This week has been rich with goodness—a steady stream of really awesome entertainment flowing straight into my face. Here, I’ll share the wealth. (And by “wealth, I mean “recommendations,” not cash money, because there’s a dusting of moths currently living in my wallet.) 1. Videogame: Play Gone […]
Posted inComic Books
Giant Top Shelf Comics Sale
From now until September 27, Top Shelf Productions—the locally based comics publisher responsible for such great titles as Craig Thompson’s Blankets and Jeff Lemire’s Essex County—is offering some incredibly good deals on titles in their catalog. The sale is part of their annual push to, in their words, “help spread the word about our incredible […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Hot Damn, a Queen & Country Movie Series
Portland novelist and comics writer Greg Rucka (Lazarus, Stumptown) is one of the best in the business*—and one of this best comics is Queen & Country, published by Portland’s Oni Press. Now it looks like the acclaimed spy drama might be headed to the big screen, with Variety reporting Ellen Page is in negotiations for […]
Posted inComic Books
Creators Quit Comic Book When DC Comics Refuses to Publish a Gay Wedding
This news is all over the nerd internet. Here’s Rob Bricken’s summary at io9: J.H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman have announced they’ll be leaving as the [creative] team on Batwoman, citing DC’s editorial interference and in particular, the publisher’s refusal to allow characters Kate Kane/Batwoman and her partner Gotham City police officer Maggie […]