§ Nice art: Comics Workbooks is offering pre-orders for Portraits by Connor Willumsen, a magazine sized 16-page album of illustrations.
§ It was a big week for pop culture events masquerading a comic-cons conventions across the globe. Here’s a round-up of media stories.
§ The big one, of course was Wizard World Chicago, a four day festival of guns and cosplay. Blastr offers 5 Things We Learned Saturday at Wizard World Comic Con Chicago and non of them involve comics, but this one did surprise me:
Best known for playing the enigmatic Cigarette Smoking Man in The X-Files, actor William B. Davis is also an elite water-skier who has held several Canadian stunt records in the “masters” age group.
§ A beautiful headline: Stormtroopers raise eyebrows in Glasgow shopping centre
Marketing manager for intu Braehead, Christine Macdonald said: “You never know who you’ll bump into when you visit intu Braehead – family, friends, neighbours and the odd stormtrooper, from the galactic empire who decided to do some shopping.
§ There was a comic con in Newark, NJ and the aptly named Newark Comic Con, now in its second year, but the report included this unexpectedly blunt assessment:
D-list celebrities were also in attendance at the event including Fred “The Hammer” Williamson, King Kong Bundy and Rocky Johnson.
§ The Florence Comic Con is upcoming in Florence, SC, but they have high hopes:
Each year the event draws thousands of people from across the Pee Dee and outside the state. Its growth comes purely from fan support, he said. “Like I said, being a part of it as long as I have been, it’s just gotten better and better. It truly has,” he said. “It is mind-blowing that the Florence area has been able to make something like this happen.”
§ Speaking of cons, ICv2 has details of Urban Expositions acquisition of Leftfield Media, which puts on Playfair, AwesomeCon and other pop culture shows. (Disclosure: I am a consultant for Leftfield.)
§ Joey Weiser’s Mermin Book 3: Deep Dive was selected as a 2016 Children’s Book All Young Georgian’s Should Read. Nice!
§ Director James Gunn has become the commentator of record on issues regarding superhero movies, and he had a sound post on the controversy over Zendaya being cast as Mary Jone. My favorite comment was actually in a comment on the piece:
I don’t always agree with charges of white washing, but there is a difference between changing one of the very few minority characters into yet another white person and changing one of the almost-all white people into a minority.
Also, as I tweeted, Queens is (like much of New York City even in this day and age) a vast multicultural swirl, and the spunky, attractive Zendaya reflects that reality.
§ KD Greens “This is Fine” Plush Dog Kickstarter has raised $375,148 so far.
§ Double Tae has signed with Atlas Books for bookstore distro.
Launching a “new comic book universe” on September 28, 2016, 2T will be publishing 10 graphic novel titles whose stories are set in the world established by the 1968 cult classic horror film, Night of the Living Dead. Each of the 10 titles will stand on their own; however, they will be connected in a shared universe that includes hordes of walking dead, teams of teen super heroes, angry scientists, and attractive aliens. The stories will also contain interesting factoids about the 1960s, including medical procedures from the era and “Then & Now” pages featuring all things popular from 1966: recipes, TV shows, and then cutting-edge technology.
Tom Hiddleston and @chrishemsworth on set. pic.twitter.com/tFFSaYHr8J
— Anthony Lee (@AnthonyLee59) August 22, 2016
§ A Brisbane man snapped some street shots of Chris Hemsworth and Tim Hiddleston on the Thor set, aka the streets of Brisbane, and thousands of Tumblrs exploded. There was also a report this week that Taylor Swift had unfollowed Hiddleston on Instagram (the two are dating) but the report proved false thank god.
