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§ Nice Art: Francesco Francavilla gave us the Thing vs Thing team-up we’ve all dreamed of on Twitter.

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§ Nice art supplemental! Takashi Miike has made a movie based on the manga JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure and it looks insane!

This is the guy who was somehow able to make us laugh at a scene depicting a hitman slicing off his own tongue in Ichi the Killer, after all. The JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure manga by Hirohiko Araki debuted in 1987 and chronicles the adventures of the Joestar family across several generations as they use their unusual powers to tackle a variety of supernatural threats. With around 100 million copies in print, it’s the bestelling horror manga of all time and also one of the bestselling manga series overall. Judging from the trailer, Miike’s adaptation will feature highly stylized visuals and colors, so we should be in for an incredible cinematic experience when Toho and Warner Bros. co-distribute the film in Japan on 4 August 2017. It stars Jun Kunimura, Nana Komatsu, Mackenyu, and Takayuki Yamada.

Bestselling horror manga? Whoa. Here’s the teaser trailer:

And the character posters! So manga!

 

§ Alison Bechdel has drawn a few new Dykes to Watch Out For comic strips, and it might be about a certain orange toned president.

§ Tom Spurgeon interviewed Ron Wimberly about Prince of Cats and the rest:

It’s such a shit show, the human brain. We think the way we remember things, that’s how it truly happened. Photoshop has been great because we’re now even more aware how fake everything is. [laughter] It’s just perception. Now that it doesn’t require someone that’s great at gouging, or working on something with a knife, now that a teenager can put Hillary Clinton’s face on Snoop Dogg’s body, we know everything’s fake. Karen Green asked me something. She had read the book. When I’m thinking of names, I always give myself a game or a problem to solve to come up with answers. So the tape at the beginning, at first they were listening to the Stooges or something. Then I was like, “No that contextually doesn’t make any sense.” What would they be listening to? How is this tape a microcosm of the entire world? What if Milton, a contemporary of Shakespeare: he had written this poem about Shakespeare when he died. So Rammellzee and Milton, I mashed them together, and that’s what in the tape in the tape deck. But I totally forget about that! I had come up with a name pulled from one of the prior authors of a Romeo & Juliet. Karen, being the genius she is, is like, “Oh, that’s such a great thing you put in there. I can’t believe you did that.” And I was like, “Oh, yeah. Thanks.” [laughter] I totally forgot I had done that!

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§ Someone PLEASE MUZZLE FINN JONES. The Iron Fist star just keeps digging a deeper and deeper grave with every interview where he attempts to explain why Iron Fist reviews are so awful and people don’t like the whitewashing. First it was “it’s for the fans” then he blamed Trump. Here’s his take in Vulture below. A couple of things: Jones is British and they have a slightly different approach to racial issues than we do in the US. No excuse, but probably why he keeps blabbing. Second, he’s an actor. A young actor. And not everyone can be Cole Sprouse. So please, someone…teach him how to listen and acknowledge. It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.

There’s so much outrage in the internet these days, right? Why don’t people just — look, the issue is that people are judging before they’ve even seen the show. And that’s problematic. C’mon. Don’t get angry and start a mob when you don’t even — you haven’t even seen the show! You don’t even know what we’re doing with it. It’s unjust. It’s unfair. Whatever issues they have may be true of the comic books; it was written in the ’70s. It was a very different time to where we’re at now. Very, very different. I get it. There needs to be more diversity in film and television, in all fucking aspects of life. There needs to be more diversity, period. Unfortunately, this show was picked, for whatever reason. I don’t fully understand, really, but what I say is, Watch the show. Watch the show, then make your opinions.

 

§ Paste magazine has the picks for comics on sale tomorrow and it’s a good week!

§ Vanity Fair chatted with 96-year-old Al Jaffee who is still cartooning and still amazing.

§ Image is holding a Homecoming Dance at Rose City Comic Con again. Details below:

Back by popular demand, Image Comics is pleased to host a very special formal Fall Homecoming dance for the comics community during the Rose City Comic Con festivities. The dance will be held on Saturday, September 9th from 8:30 p.m. – 12:30 a.m. at The Evergreen. This event will be 21+ only. IDs will be checked at the door.

Tickets to the Image Comics Fall Homecoming Dance are on sale now.

Image Comics’ Fall Homecoming will be in the style and spirit of a traditional high school dance and all comics fans and industry members are encouraged to come mix, mingle, and dance the night away.

Image Comics Fall Homecoming ticket tiers:
$20: Entry ticket
$45: Add-on pack, including an Image t-shirt, variant cover comic, commemorative pint glass, and enamel pin
$79: VIP pack—ticket to the party, add-on pack items, and access to special VIP area at the venue (limited quantity, only 100 VIP tickets available)

§ Britt Hayes reviewed Atomic Blonde, the new comic book movie and liked it:

In one of the most striking cinematic introductions in recent memory, we meet Theron’s Lorraine Broughton, covered in bruises and soaking in an ice bath. She sits on the edge of the tub and plunks ice cubes from her bath into a glass, filling it with Stoli and gulping it down without the slightest wince. If you’ve been waiting for a female 007, she’s here — and she might be even cooler than Bond with all his ridiculous gadgets.

§ But Valerie Complex of Nerd of Color saw a preview for Ghost in the Shell and it was Worse Than We Thought:

On February 28, I saw a 15-minute sneak peek of the Hollywood adaptation of Ghost in the Shell. From the announcement of the project, this has always been a bad idea. But the announcement of the cast and story has made things much worse. Most noticeably, Hollywood adaptations of Japanese anime have yet to be successful. Either their stories veer too far from the source material, the director isn’t a good fit or the casting makes no sense. You would think Hollywood would learn, yet here we are, on the precipice of another anime-adapted flop.

§ Good news for Valiant! The Russo Brothers (Civil War) have signed on to make a Quantum and Woody TV show .

The team behind “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and “Captain America: Civil War” will develop “Quantum and Woody,” about the world’s worst super-duo, with Valiant Entertainment. Anthony and Joe Russo will be executive producers alongside Mike Larocca and Valiant’s Dinesh Shamdasani.

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§ Another graphic novel is coming to the screen! Days of the Bagnold Summer was a hilarious and sad graphic novel about a 15 year old heavy metal music fan forced to spend the summer with him mum. Created by Joff Winterhart, it was shortlisted for the prestigious COsta Award in the UK, and now it’s going to be a movie, directed by Simon Bird, a well known Brit comic known for The Inbetweeners. Some good comic fodder there.

§ Vox runs down why people are so upset about Marvel, Magneto, and Nazis, explained:

For people who aren’t comic book readers or casual fans, the vocal fight over the origins of fictional characters can seem confusing, or even trivial, considering real life white supremacists have become fixtures in the current national political conversation, and bad fiction happens all the time. But the fight goes beyond the comic book history of Captain America and Magneto and deeper into the significance of art’s connection to morality. It’s an embodiment of how powerful fandom can be, and the ever-challenging question of who owns art: the artists creating it or the fans purchasing it.

I know Marvel got locked into this storyline long ago, thinking that the old good guy turns bad switcheroo was a comics book staple, but those days are over now.

§ Also over maybe, line wide events? This article at CBR suggests so.

We’ve come to expect that every year the seeds for an event will be planted to culminate in a crossover that summer. Now, it seems like the only thing that makes these stories different from one another are the principle cast members. It doesn’t help that Marvel touts each crossover as a universe-altering incident that will have repercussions for years to come. How can this be true if the following year’s incident will change the status quo that had been established just a year prior?

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§ Finally, this photo from the set of Logan got punked on the internet and now Snopes had to explain that, no it isn’t a photo of a man who got mugged on his way to buy comics for his daughter. Fake news. It’s everywhere.

16 COMMENTS

  1. Fixed it for you:

    “why Iron Fist reviews are so awful and people don’t like the WHITE PRIVILEGE”

    Come on, Heidi, you know you can’t whitewash a character who was always white.

  2. When non-whites start whining about a white character created by white people for a white audience…who is guilty of cultural approbation?

    Mike

  3. Mbunge, I think you mean “appropriation.”

    I will note that I’ve seen the IRON FIST show accused of “whitewashing Asian themes” to get around the fact that the central character was always white, and maybe that’s what Heidi referenced. Still, it’s dubious as to how much the trope of the “lost Asian land where people learn great secrets” is an actual creation of Asians. I assume the trope existed in Asian culture, whether it was rooted in fiction or in legend, but was James Hilton referencing any of these when he wrote LOST HORIZON in 1933? Or was he just making up his lost land out of whole cloth, and grafting it onto Tibet because Tibet was conveniently out of the way?

  4. “Ghost In The Shell: Worse Than We Thought

    On February 28, I saw a 15-minute sneak peek of the Hollywood adaptation of Ghost in the Shell.”

    Look, I’m sure the movie is horrible, but can we wait until someone has seen the whole movie until we claim it to be “worse than we thought”.

  5. To paraphrase the old quote: The secret to cultural sensitivity is sincerity. Once you can fake that you’ve got it made.

  6. While I am kinda sick of this “Whirewashing” thing myself (white male, me, “Liberal” but 2 Decades too old to be keeping up with the status quo), I think you fellows commenting here are mis-focussing.
    I think the “Whitewashing” issues with Iron Fist and Ghost In The Shell are not about the character identities as much as about things that are a little less specific.
    On Iron Fist: White kid subsumes “ethnic” abilities and skills until he is a master is an old “Pulp” trope from the days when White Privilege was our accepted way of life. Is that trope the “right” thing to put on American TV now, when minority representation is still lacking and White status is so intensely politicized? Remember, White representation may look like it’s endangered, but that is only because we had 100% of the representation to begin with!
    On Ghost: Again, why THIS story now? Regardless of narrative content, the action sequences present a White person heroically kicking evil Asian ass over and over. That is another trope that is an affront to the pro-diversity camp.
    I am sure that lots of people are NOT upset about this, despite Heidi’s hype-lines, but I can see why lots of people are upset. I think that if you all think twice, you can see it too. Maybe I am being patronizing… ummm mansplaining, amiright?

  7. I think we can assume that the cultural-appropriation set would have no problem with a story where some woman enters a traditionally male preserve and is better at it than all the guys.

  8. The adventures of Heidi MacDonald, Cultural Enforcer!

    This self-satisfied stroking is what took The Beat from a daily visit, to a weeky visit, to every month or so to check the monthly sales posts (which appear to have ended in 2016), see what Brian Hibbs has to say, and otherwise remind me why I don’t bother.

    You are vanishing, orobourous-like, up your own backside.

  9. Since no one’s going to speak to the question of “Who If Anyone Owns the Tropes,” I’ll confine my remarks to saying, contra Seth, that I don’t think I’m worried about whites being underrepresented.

    I worry more about creators being told what they have to do by the Diversity Police.

  10. “I worry more about creators being told what they have to do by the Diversity Police.”

    THAT, right there. Hammer meet head-of-nail.

  11. Heidi MacDonald said: “The white male fragility in these comments is truly crantastic!”

    Maybe someday they (and Finn Jones) will see GET OUT and learn something about race in America.

  12. To repeat what I said re: legendsL “I assume the trope existed in Asian culture, whether it was rooted in fiction or in legend, but was James Hilton referencing any of these when he wrote LOST HORIZON in 1933?’

    I’d heard of the K’un Lun legend, and I assume that Thomas and Kane knew it as well. But that doesn’t get to the heart of the matter about whether these tropes belong to just one culture or not.

    Same thing with the system of kung fu. If it’s inauthentic for Caucasians to be martial arts masters, why isn’t it inauthentic for every non-East Asian to be one? Is this a rule that applies only to Caucasians as payback for imperialism and related sins? Well, OK, if an artist feels that way, it’s his right to reflect that in his work.

    But if an artist doesn’t feel that way– what then?

  13. Not sure how encouraging someone to be silenced is a productive solution. Although it is a popular choice of dictators and bullies. Apparently free speech is only worthwhile if you agree with what Finn Jones says.

    It’s a shame that he cares enough about his work that he wants to explain and defend it. Usually bullies and abusers don’t want their victims to publicly defend themselves.

    And Daniel Kaluuya might strongly disagree with the assumptions you make about racial issues in British culture. Usually making assumptions about other cultures without taking time and effort to understand them is part of the inherent problem with cultural appropriation.

    And using the term “muzzling” usually invites a comparison — intentional or otherwise — to a person being like a dog. Dehumanizing individuals is usually a strategy of casting a person (or group of people) as the other.

    Heidi, I don’t think you are taking the moral high ground as much as you are jointing in a mobbing. Unless you honestly believe that the ends justify the means.

    If you disagree, then I ask you these questions: How much do you know about Finn Jones interactions with and beliefs about other cultures outside of the Iron Fist “controversy”? When is Finn Jones allowed to speak his mind? Is it only after everyone else tells him how horrible he is? Did you even ask yourself those questions before you wrote your article? And when does silencing someone, dehumanizing them, and make potentially unwarranted assumptions of them the morally right thing to do?

Comments are closed.