Comic Books

The latest film from Blue Sky, the animation studio behind the Ice Age films, Robots and Rio, is Epic. And, yes, it’s also rather epic. The film was adapted from William Joyce‘s book The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs but it beca...
The latest film from Blue Sky, the animation studio behind the Ice Age films, Robots and Rio, is Epic. And, yes, it’s also rather epic. The film was adapted from William Joyce‘s book The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs but it became an intensely cinematic experience in translation. I definitely think it’s Blue Sky’s best piece of filmmaking to date, and when I met up with the director, and the studio’s head honcho, Chris Wedge, I had a lot of questions about the many clever and effective tricks employed to pull it off. If you haven’t seen the film’s trailer, I would recommend you watch it before reading on. Click here to view the embedded video. Now, here’s some of Wedge had to tell me. This gets a little technical, but I think it really does underline the consideration that went into making this story come to life for audiences. In English our film is called Epic. This title was always meant to be used ironically because it’s a big story in a tiny world. When I started thinking about the movie, and this was over a decade ago, the idea was that you’d find this world in the forest, hidden by virtue of scale, and when you get down in there, the forest is transformed into something familiar but alien. I wanted to find all sorts of ways to create the experience of something we’re familiar with becoming fantastic. There’s a powers of ten transition, a fractal transition into this world where the detail becomes more immersive as we get in deeper. Fern trunks become tree trunks, pebbles are rocks, water works at a different viscosity and speed. When trying to explain the logic of how this world works and why we can’t see it, I was standing at my kitchen sink one day and a bird came up to make nest under the eaves of the house. But it was moving so fast, its wings were moving so fast, I thought “That’s it. They just move too fast to see.” There could have been a man riding on that bird it was just too fast for me to see him. When you watch a hummingbird, sometimes it stops just long enough, but when they fly in a straight line, they’re just gone. The inverse of this in the film is that when the leaf men look at us, they just see these big, slow giants. When we go down to their scale – and the audience isn’t always aware of this – the whole world is moving slower. That helps with the changing of our world into an alien world. Crickets sound like Loons off in the distance, echoing, and the wind sounds thicker, the ambience sounds fatter, and that’s how we get that sense of scale even though we’re tiny. You can see a character get thrown violently into water and what comes up looks like a chess pawn, a little splash that goes up and down and sounds huge and sloshy. That’s the kind of macro photography that I wanted the leaf men to live in. There were a lot of decisions to make about lenses and depth of field and the speed of things in the background. I decided that when we’re in with the leaf men we would use normal lenses, normal to them, and shoot it as though the camera was to their scale. The depth of field we used was normal, how audiences are used to seeing it, so in the wide shots, focus is deep and in the close ups, we focus on faces. This gave us much more control over our eye tracing from shot to shot, which we needed, as usual. But in the transitions is where we had to great creative. There are moments where we transition from big world to little world and the camera actually moves from a human character to one of the leaf men, or vice versa, and that’s where we had fun, changing lenses mid-shot. There are all sorts of zooms hidden in there, zoom dollies, and depth zooms in 3D. There’s a moment in the movie, a big set piece where the two worlds get together, and the transition is happening not just spatially, between being two inches tall and six feet tall, but also in timespace. There was a lot of sound design in there, helping to accentuate the perspective shifts, and a lot of lens changes. In
27 minutes ago
Okay, there’s the one with Superman, Wonder Woman and the Invisible Man. But Batman doesn’t get a look in on that one. Anyway, Chris Burnham seems to have been pushing it with glee this week. The new Batman Inc #11 written by...
Okay, there’s the one with Superman, Wonder Woman and the Invisible Man. But Batman doesn’t get a look in on that one. Anyway, Chris Burnham seems to have been pushing it with glee this week. The new Batman Inc #11 written by Burnham is a Batmanless look at the Batman of Japan, his associates and his villains. It is completely ridiculous, in a quite wonderful fashion and will in all likelihood blow away people’s expectations from a copy of Batman Inc. Including a rather familiar bunch of female Power Rangers-via-Akira with a side turn in abuse. “Flang” is pretty clear, as are the schoolyard insults that fly. Breast size, promiscuity, penis size and then… well, it appears comparing one’s vagina to the Doctor’s time machine of choice, due to its dimensionally transcendent properties. Reminds me a little of how Neil Gaiman got “felching” past the DC censors, as a euphemism for “fucking”. Unless of course, everyone was in on it together… Comics courtesy of Orbital Comics, London, currently exhibiting the response-to-Lichtenstein galley, Image Duplicator. Is This The Dirtiest Joke Ever Told In A Batman Comic? From Batman Inc #11…
34 minutes ago
PENDLETON WARD SKETCHED SIGNED AND NUMBERED GRAPHIC NOVEL Forbidden Planet will be at MCM Expo this weekend – selling ONLY Adventure Time. We’ll have toys, t-shirts and graphic novels – and we’ll have a limited number of the Adventure Ti...
PENDLETON WARD SKETCHED SIGNED AND NUMBERED GRAPHIC NOVEL Forbidden Planet will be at MCM Expo this weekend – selling ONLY Adventure Time. We’ll have toys, t-shirts and graphic novels – and we’ll have a limited number of the Adventure Time: Mathematical Edition – each of them signed and numbered, and featuring individual illustration by Pendleton Ward. The Mathematical Edition is a hardback edition of the first Adventure Time graphic novel with additional ‘behind the scenes’ artwork. These will retail at £60, and will be limited to one per customer – with half of of that being a donation to Great Ormond Street Hospital. We will also be launching our range of brand new Adventure Time t-shirts – which you can find here - http://forbiddenplanet.com/picks/adventure-time-launching-mcm-expo/ It’s algebraic! WWW.FORBIDDENPLANET.COM – Danie Ware Social Media & Marketing
about 1 hour ago
Well, I guess today was going to arrive whether we wanted it or not. Nothing left to do but to say… Quit goofing around on the internet. Go read The Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Man #20 in stores today! This is the final issue of...
Well, I guess today was going to arrive whether we wanted it or not. Nothing left to do but to say… Quit goofing around on the internet. Go read The Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Man #20 in stores today! This is the final issue of series, with story and pencils by Dan Jurgens, finished ink art by Norm Rapmund, and colors by Hi-Fi! If you can’t get to the comic shop right now (what’s wrong with you?!?!), then head over to iFanboy.com to check out a five page preview! Click here to check it out! SPREAD THE WORD Please join the #FirestormFarewell social media send-off! By my count, over 100 people have already changed their avatars across Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, and Tumblr! For those participating, please be sure to generate some posts today about our favorite Nuclear Man! On Twitter, I recommend using the hashtag #FirestormFarewell. Also, you may wish to tag various Firestorm writers and artists letting them know you appreciate their work on the character over the years. Heck, go ahead and tag DC Comics and Dan DiDio, just play nice. Let’s not bite the hand that feeds us our favorite superheroes. Support Firestorm! Fan the flame
about 1 hour ago
So I've been getting into Warehouse 13 these past couple weeks (yes, I know I'm late to the party) and am already up to the start of Season 3. I've started dreaming in terms of chasing down artifacts, so I really need to purge the imager...
So I've been getting into Warehouse 13 these past couple weeks (yes, I know I'm late to the party) and am already up to the start of Season 3. I've started dreaming in terms of chasing down artifacts, so I really need to purge the imagery via the blog. How about a discussion on some favorite artifacts from each season?Most WantDimensional Conversion Camera (Resonance)A camera that temporarily turns people into cardboard cut-outs? What's not to like? It's a neat, harmless weapon (well, so long as someone doesn't put a match to your cut-out, I suppose) and I bet it takes good pictures too. I'd use it sparingly to get some peace and quiet from time to time. Oh, who am I kidding? If I'd use it for that, I'd be using it ALL THE TIME. I wonder who it belonged to and how it became an artifact?Coolest But Way Too DangerousLewis Carroll's Looking Glass (Resonance, Duped)You look into it and your reflection is gifted with independent action. It can even play ping-pong against you! That's because your reflection is actually animated by a psychotic Alice Liddell, trapped for our own safety inside the mirror. You really don't want her to switch places with you. Unless you have to go to a ping-pong tournament. She's got mad skills. I bet she's good at croquet too.Cleverest/CraziestPersonnel Quarters Archive (Burnout)Inside the Warehouse is a huge mechanisms that can store and retrieve the bed&breakfast rooms of every agent that ever died or was otherwise "lost" on the job. The entire ROOM. You'd think this gimmick would only be good for a single, very specific case, but the show's used it several times, so I guess it's a good investment. How rooms are transferred from the B&B is a mystery and only adds to the craziness.It's a Curse - Keep It Away From MeFarnsworth (every episode)I'm sure the two-way video phone with unhackable frequencies and an apparently unlimited power supply is very handy for Warehouse agents, but you're reading the words of a man who 1) never turns on his webcam, and 2) doesn't own a phone - neither land line or cel. Throw in an annoying buzz-ring and you've got a gadget I never want to see in my house. If I were an agent, I guess I'd want to carry the Tesla. No ifs and buts about it.Throwaway Most Worthy of Its Own EpisodeTraining Flight 22 (Pilot)An aircraft pulled from the Bermuda Triangle, and the Triangle has been trying to pull it back ever since. How about our agents discovering the truth of this unnatural phenomenon when they board the craft and get pulled to warm tropical waters? Sounds like a cool episode to me!What are your choices from Season 1? Tell me about them while I start thinking about next week's Season 2 artifact selection!
about 1 hour ago
Posted On Today at 05:00:27 am EDT by Richard L [Reply] [Quote] [New] I don't think it made sense at the time or now. Perfect clones don't melt and Kaine had degeneration and when he was killed his body stayed intact. Clones d...
Posted On Today at 05:00:27 am EDT by Richard L [Reply] [Quote] [New] I don't think it made sense at the time or now. Perfect clones don't melt and Kaine had degeneration and when he was killed his body stayed intact. Clones don't melt post death unless they die of degeneration. All this proved to me at the time was that another clone had died, not Ben. It may be lame but the way they wrote it was. It was unnecessary to have Ben melt unless dead clones do that and they don't. THE FREAKIN SKELETON IN THE SMOKE STACK SHOWED THAT FOR PETE SAKES! I think he died a hero but he should have stayed as Spidey and not been killed off. Ben as Spider-Man was my favourite run of Spidey stories ever and the mad rush to get Ben out and Peter back in was a totally gutless move by editorial. Having Peter back just brought back all the reasons why they got rid in the first place and brought us the horror of OMD and OMIT. Seriously, they dropped the ball. They blinked. Now? I still want Ben back, if only out of a sense of justice to the poor guy.
about 2 hours ago
Sometimes you stumble across some very odd artifacts when perusing older comics. Below is an oddball little "Robin" short story that was surreptitiously tucked into the pages of what seemed to be yet another semi-regular BATMAN reprint v...
Sometimes you stumble across some very odd artifacts when perusing older comics. Below is an oddball little "Robin" short story that was surreptitiously tucked into the pages of what seemed to be yet another semi-regular BATMAN reprint volume, the kind that were common in the late 60s! In this take on the Boy Wonder's beginnings, the editors and writers take past stories, including Robin's original 1940 origin tale, and pick-and-choose the best parts, making one "canonical" final version, a practice most newer fans believe to be only a recent innovation! This senses-staggering story also features odd art by Ross Andru, later to become a long-haul SPIDER-MAN artist for rival Marvel Comics! Ross seems to have been instructed to invoke the look and feel of the "Golden Age" Batman, resulting in some strange drawing of a huge-jawed Caped Crusader and Bruce Wayne, his alter ego! Click below to enlarge each little-seen page! Those two Batman and Robin figures that flank the title are very impressive, and show Ross can certainly draw the "modern" Dynamic Duo as they appeared then! Dig that Batman! Remember that, in 1969, artists were not encouraged to offer wildly differing interpretations of Batman, so imagine how this odd Golden/Silver Age look seemed to readers at the time! As artist Andru looks back to the original and more "serious" Batman for this tale, he's unknowingly predicting the "Dark Knight" version that's about to return to comics, thanks to Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams! But, that's not all from this great treat-filled treasure! Even the letter columns were unique then! Dig that first letter, detailing the importance of DC's mags to one stressed family, caught in the midst of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.... One of the many reprints in the same '68 issue was "the Origin of Clayface," which originally ran in 1961, the same year as the debut of the FANTASTIC FOUR comic from Marvel! Note the similarities of Clayface to the FF's main man-monster, the Thing! Hmmmm... BONUS! Look below to view the captivating cover that fronted this amazing overstuffed issue! At first glance, the cover art seems to be made up of vignettes direct from each story, but it's really all-new custom artwork by Bill Draut!
about 2 hours ago
"There's nothing worse than a peasant with indigestion. Makes them quite rebellious."TECHNICAL SPECS: First aired Nov.29 1980.IN THIS ONE... The Doctor and Romana meet the vampires and discover the Tower is actually a spaceship. Aukon ma...
"There's nothing worse than a peasant with indigestion. Makes them quite rebellious."TECHNICAL SPECS: First aired Nov.29 1980.IN THIS ONE... The Doctor and Romana meet the vampires and discover the Tower is actually a spaceship. Aukon makes Adric his "Chosen One".REVIEW: It strikes me how much of a capable draftsman writer Terrance Dicks is, maybe because craftsmanship has been hard to come by in the past couple of seasons. Elements, once introduced, tend to pay off (like they should). For example, one of the rebels was once a guard, so he can sneak into the Tower to try and rescue the Time Lords. Dicks also doesn't rely on characters acting stupidly to move his plot forward, so the rebels actually debate and come to a compromise instead of some fool rogue plowing ahead with his plans no matter what. And most importantly, Dicks has thought his premise and its consequences through. The Lords of the Tower's names changed over the centuries through consonantal shift (educational!) and the Doctor can find his way inside the Tower because he's conversant with the type of ship. The pilot room has been left untouched because no one goes there or uses it, while the fuel tanks have been filled with blood to feed "the Great One". The vamps obviously plan to create of themselves, but they've bred the peasants to be sheep, with none of the qualities needed to become "Lords", so cocky Adric looks like a good prospect. This world MAKES SENSE.Its characters do too. The village headman can't bear to hear his wife talk about their son Karl, and she just won't shut up about him. All completely natural, and you almost wish their Karl really was inducted in the Tower guard instead of winding up among those bloodless husks down in the bowels of the ship. The technophile rebels are reasonable. The head guard is quick to offer excuses. Lord Aukon springs a surprise "selection" at the inn in case the previous day's planned visit was staged to only offer the dregs of the village (from the extras lined up, I could believe me - me, I'd probably avoid the inn like the Wasting). The vampires have the somewhat clichéed moment where a character cuts themselves and they show a little bloodlust, but it's nice to see they're not the same person written twice over. The Queen is obviously smarter than her husband, though she perhaps has less self-control, and the King lets slip the vital clue about the "ship of state" (he hasn't lost his old vocabulary).As in Part 1, the leads get to be witty and though Lalla Ward tends to look bored in isolated moments (working AND living with Baker can be straining), their chemistry still provides fun moments reminiscent of their relationship in City of Death (which I'd call their high point). Baker gets to use his story telling skills and that marvelous voice of his to give some creep factor to his musings on the universality of vampire legends. The beating of a hideously large heart certainly helps give the subsequent scenes atmosphere. Adric... Adric is mostly used as an exposition receptor, and his insolence isn't particularly entertaining compared to the Doctor's, but he's got a good entranced scene where the vamps swing a knife close to his eyes and he doesn't react. This is an serial that doesn't mind going dark, but never crosses the line into needless, shocking violence.REWATCHABILITY: Medium-High - Maybe I'm starved for competence - I do require all stories to feature worlds that are well thought-out and characters with proper motivations - but State of Decay is more than competent. It's got a strong script AND effective execution.
about 2 hours ago
* there's a lengthy catch-up with Mike Diana here. It seems stupid from the vantage point of 2013 that people were once so horrified by Diana's art, which was clearly full of pretty basic symbolism and taboo-tweaking; it seems downright ...
* there's a lengthy catch-up with Mike Diana here. It seems stupid from the vantage point of 2013 that people were once so horrified by Diana's art, which was clearly full of pretty basic symbolism and taboo-tweaking; it seems downright insane that 20 years ago people were being prosecuted and convicted for making art like that. * Matt Derman on The 'Nam #8. Justin Giampaoli on The Massive #12. KC Carlson on Walt Disney's Donald Duck: The Old Castle's Secret. Grant Goggans pokes around more Legion Of Super-Heroes. J. Caleb Mozzocco on Batman, Incorporated's first volume. Richard Bruton on Blood Blokes #3 and Thunder Brother: Soap Division #5. Kelly Thompson on Batwoman #20. * Rob Clough takes another look at mentoring as practiced at Center For Cartoon Studies. * Chris Mautner would like to see Swan collected. I always think of that stuff as already collected the way it's published, but I'm all for that material showing up in whatever form Chris would like. * Alex Dueben talks to Peter Bagge. Steve Morris talks to Kate Brown. Casey Gilly talks to Kieron Gillen. I guess there's something in that Gillen interview about people objecting to a scene where teenagers are shown having casual sex...? That seems totally bizarre to me at this late date. * not comics: here are some robot benches from J. Chris Campbell. * finally, every time you think the comics industry sucks balls, it may help to remember it used to suck mega-balls.
about 2 hours ago
Publisher: Blue Water ProductionsNick Jonas may be the youngest member of the mega successful teen group, the Jonas Brothers, but hidden behind his boyish smile lies a devastating disease he fights with every day of his life. See how he ...
Publisher: Blue Water ProductionsNick Jonas may be the youngest member of the mega successful teen group, the Jonas Brothers, but hidden behind his boyish smile lies a devastating disease he fights with every day of his life. See how he inspires millions with not only his talent but also his courage and dedication. Watch his rise to fame as he overcame adversity.Price: $1.99
about 3 hours ago