STARLIGHT TPB (Image Comics, by Mark Millar - review) - at FORCES OF GEEK

Starlight
Written by Mark Millar
Art by Goran Parlov
Colors by Ive Svorcina
Cover by John Cassaday
Published by Image Comics
ISBN 978-1-63215-017-2
Diamond Comic order code DEC140693
Available via Comic Stores 2/11; Bookstores 2/24


Some creators, musicians and authors have a knack for cranking out hits. Stephen King, Tom Petty, you get the idea.

And like those gentlemen, Mark Millar’s work is often imitated but never surpassed. An upstanding member of a Bill and Ted-esque order of chivalry—Most Excellent Order of the British Empire—the Scotsman’s latest trade paperback is Starlight, another gold record to put on the wall.

With Goran Parlov (Punisher MAX) on art, this sendup to pulp heroes, Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, John Carter and Adam Strange is a pop-art celebration of comics, serials and retired superheroes.

[READ MORE AT FORCES OF GEEK]

Slamdance 2015: BATKID BEGINS: THE WISH HEARD AROUND THE WORLD (review) AT FORCES OF GEEK

Review by Clay N Ferno
Produced by Liza Meak, Dana Nachman
Written By Dana Nachman, Kurt Kuenne
Directed by Dana Nachman
Featuring Miles Scott, Natalie Scott , Nick Scott,
Teresa Clovicko, Audrey Copper, Katie Cotton,
Ama Daetz, Mike DeJesus, Ej Johnston, Sue Graham Johnston, Mike Jutan


Having just returned from San Francisco, I can safely say that the city is intact, largely thanks to a brave little boy named Miles Scott aka Batkid.

By thwarting The Riddler and The Penguin and saving not only a lady on the trolley tracks but also SF Giants mascot Lou Seal, Miles was given the Key to the City from Mayor Ed Lee on November 15, 2013.

The Make-A-Wish Foundation made Miles’ dream come true and in turn, a city was transformed into a heroic playground for the leukemia survivor.

Batkid saved the day, took over our social media for the afternoon and everyone from fellow Batmen Affleck, Kilmer and Keaton to President Obama thanked him for his service.

Batkid Begins documents the small town of Tulelake, CA family’s battle with cancer and the redeeming qualities of community based action. What was meant to be perhaps 100 volunteers turned into an entire city playing a small background character in a real life Batman Movie starring our Batkid, a five-year-old Miles Scott.

I remember ‘Batkid’ Day.

We’re three hours ahead so here on the East Coast this was prime twitter time for me. It was unavoidable. Even Facebook’s algorithms couldn’t stop that which was the heart of this thing.

It was all over everywhere, and I shared and retweeted as much as I saw from #SFBATKID on Twitter, reading about this amazing story.

Batkid Begins tells the story of Miles and his parents and their struggle since Miles was diagnosed at 18 months. Can cancer just stop it already? I mean that villain goes after a young kid that just wants to play with his toys all day and run around in a cape. Actually, as clarified near the beginning of the movie, 18 months is old enough to qualify for the amazing work of Make-A-Wish, but the parents smartly waited until he was a bit older and he fought his own battles and became more of a person before asking Miles what his wish would be.

Naturally, putting anyone, let alone a kid, through countless draining hours of treatment can take its toll. Steroids, chemo, the whole stinkin’ lot of it is the pits. What comes out of that is a spirit of being a fighter. And that is around the time Miles’ Dad Nick introduced him to Adam West on TV as Batman. Our little Bruce Wayne fell head over heals for the Caped Crusader and demanded his own cape for dress-up.

[READ MORE AT FORCES OF GEEK]

Dig Boston and League Podcast Comics Picks of the Week for Wed. JANUARY 28, 2015

COMICS

Image keeps on reaching milestones. This week, Todd McFarlane’s Spawn hits #250, bucking trends to renumber everything! This celebration of all things Spawn includes the return of Al Simmons! …Creature Cops: Special Varmint Unit #1 comes from Rob Anderson featuring cute but dangerous panda-dogs! If we’re lucky, Mud Man #8 & 9 ship this week from Paul Grist. Kick off your boots before you come in here! … Picks this week from LeaguePodcast.com!

Dig Boston and League Podcast Comics Picks of the Week for Wed. JANUARY 28, 2015

COMICS

Image keeps on reaching milestones. This week, Todd McFarlane’s Spawn hits #250, bucking trends to renumber everything! This celebration of all things Spawn includes the return of Al Simmons! …Creature Cops: Special Varmint Unit #1 comes from Rob Anderson featuring cute but dangerous panda-dogs! If we’re lucky, Mud Man #8 & 9 ship this week from Paul Grist. Kick off your boots before you come in here! … Picks this week from LeaguePodcast.com!

CREATURE COPS Creator Rob Anderson Takes a Walk on the Cosmic Treadmill at FORCES OF GEEK

Back in July, IDW Publishing and online comic book college Comics Experience penned a deal to publish creator owned books.

The first of these is Creature Cops: Special Varmint Unit by Rob Anderson.



Rob joins us today to talk about the hybrid critters in the book and the cops that wrangle with them!

FOG!: Rob, thanks for joining us! Tell us about Comics Experience & IDW’s publishing collaboration, Creature Cops! Are you the first book?

Rob Anderson: Creature Cops is, indeed, the first book coming out of the recently announced publishing alliance between IDW and Comics Experience. I’m pretty excited to be first out of the gate.

Creature Cops: Special Varmint Unit is about animal control officers in a near-future world similar to our own, where gene-spliced animals are commonplace.

It’s an ensemble-style police drama, where the animal cops just happen to be dealing with panda dogs, gator-snakes…and griffins!

Comics Experience is an educational company and runs an online community for comic book creators called the Creators Workshop.

I developed Creature Cops in CE courses and the Workshop, and all the creator-owned books IDW/CE will be published are coming out of that “talent incubator” (as CE founder Andy Schmidt likes to call it).

[READ MORE AT FORCES OF GEEK]

AGENT CARTER reviews S1 E01, S1 E02, S1 E03 - [GUEST POST] STACEY B. RIZOLI at FORCES OF GEEK

Congrats, Stacey! These are great!

As a long time comic lover, and female, I am very pleased to see that Agent Carter has found a home on ABC.

This show is the perfect balance of action, wit, explosions, social commentary, and touch of humor.   

Personally, I think Agent Carter was an unexpected choice of characters to carry a series from Marvel, with all of The Avengers movies I would have bet money that a Black Widow and/or Hawkeye would have been the next side project (which I would definitely support, for the record)  but I can safety say that this show has far exceeded my expectations.

[READ MORE AT FORCES OF GEEK]

AMERICAN SNIPER (movie review) at FORCES OF GEEK

Bradley Cooper stars in the Clint Eastwood directed American Sniper. A sure-shot for Oscar winner, with a total of six nominations, this heartbreaking war picture astounds with it’s scale.

From hearing the sniper’s heartbeat quicken to the plucked the heartstrings on the home-front, the true life story of Navy Seal Chris Kyle’s life brought to the big screen may be a crowning accomplishment for both Cooper and Eastwood. The story unfolds between tours as ‘The Legend’ returns home and Kyle is forced to adjust to civilian life and the effects of the thousand-yard stare of a true American hero.

Sienna Miller costars as Taya Kyle — Chris’ wife forced to stay at home and raise kids while her husband — the greatest sniper in the world — agrees to multiple tours fighting the War in Afghanistan.

Eastwood and Cooper were highlighted in two of my favorite films of last year, Jersey Boys and Guardians of The Galaxy. These movies, one a musical and the other a comic book action romp could not have been more different a movie than we are given with American Sniper.  

Sniper marks the first time these strong leading men worked together, and markedly this is a very serious film and shift in tone for both.

As a director, Eastwood has been taking audiences on a more introspective and serious ride in his later years with movies set in the present day like Million Dollar Baby, Gran Turino all the way back to Mystic River to name a few. He’s taken on the horrors of war with period pieces Iwo Jima and to some extent in J. Edgar.

By basing this film on the autobiography of Chris Kyle (American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History - with Scott McEwen & Jim DeFelice), the realism is ramped up to such intensity that only seeing the film in theaters will do it justice.

From the accuracy of the SEAL sniper training to the small moments at home where men can not express feelings or emotion about doing their job abroad will chill you to the bone.

[READ MORE AT FORCES OF GEEK]

BLACKHAT (movie review) at FORCES OF GEEK

BLACKHAT (review)

Review by Clay N Ferno
Produced by Thomas Tull, Michael Mann, Jon Jashni
Written by Morgan Davis Foehl, Michael Mann
Directed by Michael Mann
Starring Chris Hemsworth, Tang Wei, Viola Davis,
Ritchie Coster, Holt McCallany,  Yorick van Wageningen,

Chris Hemsworth leads the cast as convicted white collar hacker Nicholas Hathaway enlisted by the FBI and the Chinese to take down a globe-spanning network of criminals threatening the safety of the world’s economy and nuclear energy in Blackhat.

Divisive director Michael Mann (Heat, Public Enemies) gets on the cyber-hacking bandwagon nearly twenty years too late, but the movie does have some great action moments if you can start to follow the logic of the thing.

Co-star Tang Wei (Lust, Caution) delivers a great performance as Lien Chen, partner to the furloughed Hathaway, though she could have easily been given more to do as a female leading lady by Mann or the story architects.

Blackhat is a named after a hacker term for someone who can decode high level security. How that translates to the screen is often hum-drum and at times this is where the movie dictates its own very slow pace. Close-up shots of USB flash drives, 1’s and 0s scrolling across the screen a la The Matrix all look cool — for a second — but this sets the tone as being a bore from the intro.

The movie opens on one computer terminal, follows the signal down to the Tron-like circuit board and into a CPU.

[READ MORE AT FORCES OF GEEK]

Cosmic Treadmill: FOG! Chats With the SECRET IDENTITIES Creative Team of Joines, Faerber and Kyriazis - FORCES OF GEEK

Imagine a land where a ragtag group of heroes with miss-matched powers are thrown together to avenge and seek justice.

That’s right, that world exists and it’s called Canada!

Let’s back up a few steps here.

Image Comics delivers Secret Identities #1 in February, and we’ve assembled our own globe trotting squad — the talented creative team for one of those awkward roundtable conferences with our masks still on!



Writers Brian Joines (Imagine Agents) and Jay Faerber (Copperhead, Graveyard Shift, Gemini) are joined by artist Ilias Kyriazis to give us the skinny on your favorite new superhero team that is almost ready to implode!

FOG!: Thank you guys for joining us to talk Secret Identities #1! I’m a sucker for a good team book — what sets this one apart?

Jay Faerber: A couple things. For one thing, this is a creator-owned book where literally ANYTHING can happen. We don’t have to put the characters back the way we found them. We don’t have to make sure so-and-so is back in costume in time for his big movie.

If you like super-hero books but are tired of the repetition at Marvel and DC, this is the book for you.

[READ MORE AT FORCES OF GEEK]

]

Dig Boston and League Podcast Comics Picks of the Week for Wed. JANUARY 14, 2015

COMICS

Today we tip a hat to one of our own! Matt Dursin’s Robin Hood: Outlaw of the 21st Century was kickstarted into creation in September 2013! This Sherlock’d version of Robin and his merry band scour the town of Sherwood for medical supplies to steal, and give them to those in need. Now FINALLY available on ComiXology! … Star Wars #1 from Marvel is from Jason Aaron and John Cassaday! ‘Nuff Said! … One of Matt’s heroes is Terry Moore - Rachel Rising Vol. 5 hits shelves today, getting us to the bottom of who is Rachel’s killer! Picks this week from LeaguePodcast, natch!

Dig Boston and League Podcast Comics Picks of the Week for Wed. JANUARY 7, 2015

COMICS

Marvel released the Paul Rudd Ant-Man trailer during it’s Agent Carter series last night. Here’s the new series Ant-Man #1 from one of our favorite writers Nick Spencer! … Lady Killer #1 from Dark Horse puts a 60’s housewife into the fray as a killer for hire! … Mortal Kombat X returns to game systems as well as the comic book rack with a new #1 published by DC Comics, collecting the Digital series. … Picks this week from LeaguePodcast.com!

BEST OF 2014 LIST - CLAY N. FERNO for FORCES OF GEEK!

CLAY N. FERNO
@claynferno | leaguepodcast.com

Best Movies: Guardians of The Galaxy, Chef, Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier, Edge of Tomorrow (Live Die Repeat), X-Men Days of Future Past, The LEGO Movie
Best TV Shows: True Detective, Arrow, Flash, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The Newsroom, Orange is the New Black
Best Books (fiction):  Prince Lestat by Anne Rice  
Best Books (non-fiction): So Anyway by John Cleese 
Best Video Game: The Last of Us Remastered
Best Songs: ‘All About That Bass’ by Meghan Trainor, ‘Yellow Flicker Beat’ by Lorde 
Best Albums: ‘Sheezus’ by Lily Allen, ‘The Voyager’ by Jenny Lewis 
Best Music Video: ‘Crime’ by Real Estate (directed by Tom Scharpling) 
Best Comic Books / Graphic Novels: Death of Archie, Saga, Sex Criminals, The Flash, Leaving Megalopolis
Best Blu-ray/DVD Release: Guardians of the Galaxy iTunes HD, X-Men: Days of Future Past iTunes HD
Most overrated thing about 2014? Comic book convention coverage
Most underrated thing about 2014? Fargo (TV)
Thing that you were most excited about in 2014? The Flash (TV)
Thing that disappointed you most in 2014? Racism
Thing that you’re most looking forward to in 2015? Fresh vibes, the end of Mad Men, Avengers: Age of Ultron and please another Flash/Arrow crossover episode.

Clay N Ferno writes the columns Cosmic Treadmill and Triple Shot for Forces of Geek.

[READ MORE AT FORCES OF GEEK.COM]

DIGBOSTON & LEAGUEPODCAST COMICS PICKS OF THE WEEK FOR DECEMBER 31, 2014

COMICS

Get your hands off me, you damn dirty Klingon! It was hard to not spend all morning coming up with a tag line for Star Trek/Planet of the Apes #1 coming out this week! … Mark Waid brings Agent Coulson and a helper monke to headlines with a brand new S.H.I.E.L.D #1! …All Ages pick from award winning Roger Landridge this week is Abigail and the Snowman #1. Abigail is the new kid but befriends a Yeti named Claude in this all ages adventure! … Picks this week from LeaguePodcast.com!

THE GAMBLER (movie review) at FORCES OF GEEK

Review by Clay N Ferno

Produced by Irwin Winkler, Robert Chartoff, 

Mark Wahlberg, Stephen Levinson, David Winkler

Screenplay by William Monahan

Based on The Gambler by James Toback

Directed by Rupert Wyatt

Starring Mark Wahlberg, John Goodman, 

Brie Larson, Michael K. Williams, Jessica Lange, 

Emory Cohen, George Kennedy, Richard Schiff

Mark Wahlberg stars in a remake of 1974’s The Gambler directed by Rupert Wyatt (Rise of the Planet of the Apes, The Escapist). No, not Kenny Rogers as The Gambler, that came out in 1980!  Wahlberg takes on the role of Jim Bennett, a college professor with a knack for getting in deep with the wrong kinds of people while feeding his gambling habit. 

The rest of the cast features heavy hitters Jessica Lange as Jim’s long-suffering rich mother, John Goodman as Frank the whale and one of our favorite actors from HBO’s Boardwalk Empire and The Wire, Michael Kenneth Williams.

Brie Larsen (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) is Amy Phillips, a literature student working off her student loans nights at an upscale underground Hollywood casino. Amy knows her professor’s secret but is not the only student to be affected by the Bennett’s actions—mirroring points in the original film.

There is more than debt resolution and distracted teaching in this film, however. Wahlberg delivers a serious performance of a man bordering on being out of control with his habits but not an addict.

There may be more to what we see behind Jim Bennett’s blackjack face.

Some other reviewers and I were all invited to what could best be described as a meet and greet with director Rupert Wyatt when he was in town. There, we cozied up and in the least formal way imaginable—over tea sandwiches and soup in the lobby of a Boston hotel—to take advantage of a rare opportunity to talk to the director in an intimate setting. Being on the opposite coast of such regular occurrences, I took full advantage of this and broke bread with Mr. Wyatt and we all picked his brain about working with hometown Hollywood anti-hero Wahlberg his experiences making this movie. Martin Scorsese was once attached to The Gambler, but Rupert was the final directorial choice.

[READ MORE AT FORCES OF GEEK]

BIG EYES (movie review) - at FORCES OF GEEK

Review by Clay N Ferno

Produced by Tim Burton, Scott Alexander, 

Larry Karaszewski, Lynette Howell

Written by Scott Alexander, Larry Karaszewski

Directed by Tim Burton

Starring Amy Adams, Christoph Waltz,

 Danny Huston, Jon Polito, Krysten Ritter, 

Jason Schwartzman, Terence Stamp

Set in the sixties, Tim Burton’s Big Eyes, is based on the life of artist Margaret Keane (Amy Adams) and her shyster husband, Walter (Christoph Waltz). This is a sidestep from Burton’s previous work while still maintaining some of his signature weirdness. Supporting cast includes Jason Schwartzman, Krysten Ritter, Terence Stamp, Danny Huston and a host of others. 

The title comes from Margaret’s ‘waif’ paintings, you’ve seen these and knockoffs for years, perhaps in your grandma’s sitting room.

The unfortunates look sad and look through you, and Big Eyes means to set the record straight about who is behind the brush.

I’m surprised at the PG-13 rating for this one, as the subject matter is tame and a bit of a departure from what you might expect from a Tim Burton movie. Other reviewers have been comparing this to 1994’s biopic Ed Wood. Needless to say, where Burton shines are in locations where you may expect to see him — in Halloween Town or Wonderland. The only real fantasy we get is in the supermarket where everyone is taken over by Big Eye syndrome among 60’s pop art exaggerated product branding straight from the cover of The Who Sell Out.

The styling, costumes and the set pieces are very much of the time — we’re trained to expect a certain throwback to the same era after seven seasons of Mad Men — and the overall palette of the picture is as bright as you may expect. 

[READ MORE AT FORCES OF GEEK]

SHE MAKES COMICS (movie review) - at FORCES OF GEEK

Review by Clay N Ferno

Produced by Karen Green, Patrick Meaney, 

Jordan Rennert, and Marisa Stotter

Executive Produced by, Julian Darius and Mike Phillips

Directed by Marisa Stotter

Starring Ramona Fradon, Trina Robbins, Karen Berger,

Joyce Farmer, Karen Berger, Kelly Sue DeConnick, 

Becky Cloonan, Wendy and Richard Pini, 
Jenette Kahn, Marie Severin, Paul Levitz

She Makes Comics is the latest film by the Sequart Organization funded by Kickstarter and available for sale and digital download for comics fans of any gender.

Marisa Stotter directs this documentary produced in association with Respect! Films that delves into the history, present and future of female fandom, lady creators and what it means to be a fan of comics today. A true celebration of the medium, She Makes Comics puts the spotlight on key contributors, editors and cosplayers to encourage young girls and women to embrace what they love.

It seems like you can’t swing a longbox these days without running into some internet discourse or open letter about gamergate, cosplayers at conventions or fan backlash about new costume designs for female heroes (looking good, Batgirl and Spider-Woman)!

As a straight white male (boring, I know!) checking my privilege seems to be something I do without such reminders but I’m grateful to have the opportunity to review great films like this.

We need more movies like She Makes Comics! 

Not only are we given a history lesson about comic books, a subject that I’ve quite literally worn the leather of my armchair reading up on, but we get to learn and listen to important lessons in this documentary. I watched this with my girlfriend, also a comic book fan and we were high-fiving throughout! Mostly when Kelly Sue DeConnick was speaking, because she’s just so cool.

Scanning the indicia (you know, the tiny print on the inside of comic books, usually page 1) and the credits was something I always did while reading comics as a kid (didn’t everyone? No?).

Some of my favorite books were by ladies and I thought nothing of it, I mean anyone can write and draw a book, right? There were Mary Shelley and Anne Rice for example. Until I grew into an adult, I had NO IDEA what kind of struggle an Ann Nocenti, Louise Simonson or Lynn Varley might be dealing with just because they were female. I saw them just as creators — and most of the time I thought they did a better job than their male counterparts.

[READ MORE AT FORCES OF GEEK]

FOG! Chats With ERIK LARSEN About SAVAGE DRAGON #200! at FORCES OF GEEK

A heavy book hit the shelves this week! Savage Dragon #200 is weighing in as a ‘100-Page Super Spectacular’ and also carries with it the legacy of Erik Larsen’s career, where he has stayed with Dragon and now Malcolm as the titular character.

From the Image Revolution to the age of digital comics, you can rarely find a more ingrained creator or publisher in the industry.

He is able to playfully tip his hat to the Silver Age and Jack Kirby while moving his own book and stories into the future. 

The Image Comics CFO took the time to talk his milestone issue with us—and for that we are grateful and wish him and Dragon many more milestones in the future! 



FOG!: Erik - thank you so much for taking the time! When we saw #200 was hitting shelves, our fins went straight up! Thank you for so many awesome issues! What does this milestone mean to you? 

Erik Larsen: Every issue is a milestone, really. Each one is another number reached and another issue under my belt. The big ones, 50, 100, 150 and 200 are just that much sweeter because I pull out all the stops and involve a number of others to join in the celebration but I don’t think of any issue as ordinary, really. 

In my mind they’re all a big deal. 

[READ MORE AT FORCES OF GEEK]

Dig Boston and League Podcast Comics Picks of the Week for Wed. December 24, 2014

COMICS

The penultimate issue of She-Hulk is here at #11. Order in the court at Jennifer takes on former Master of Evil Titania! … Come on, grab your friends for Adventure Time #35 — the last from the creative team of Ryan North, Shelli Paroline, and Braden Lamb. The fun will never end (or will it)! … Robin turned Nightwing is now super spy Grayson in Spyral. Somehow he gets Grayson Annual #1 with only five issues under his utility belt? How does it work? Who knows, but the issue reveals the Secret Origin of The New 52’s Helena Bertinelli — so that’s something! Picks this week from LeaguePodcast.com!

DIG BOSTON AND LEAGUE PODCAST COMICS PICKS OF THE WEEK FOR WED. DECEMBER 17, 2014

COMICS

The Simpsons’s Last Action Movie Hero Rainier Wolfcastle fulfills his promise to be back — in McBain (One-Shot) #1 from Bongo Comics this week! … Stumptown is code name for the west coast Portland and the title of one of our favorite Rockford Files inspired murder mystery books! Greg Rucka and artist Justin Greenwood put our leading lady Dex in harm’s way to get to the bottom of a soccer murder in Stumptown V.3 #4! … Time is steadily running out in Sandman: Overture #4 of 6 from Neil Gaiman and J.H. Williams III. Savor these last morsels of the Dreaming. … Picks this week from LeaguePodcast.com!

Dig Boston and League Podcast Comics Picks of the Week for Wed. December 10, 2014

 

COMICS

Dragon is broken out of prison putting Malcolm in the Middle of some hot action! Celebrate all that is right with comics these days for Erik Larsen’s Savage Dragon #200! The only Image founder to stay as the main creator for his book since 1992! Fins UP! Kelly Sue DeConnick (Captain Marvel) gives us Bitch Planet #1 for a sci-fi prison planet type affair for the feminist in everyone. Finally! … Harley Quinn Holiday Special #1 pits our mallet bearing clown against department store Santas, Natch! … Picks this week from LeaguePodcast.com!