NOC Recaps Game of Thrones: Bloody Hell
Oh, my sweet summer children. You had no idea THAT was coming, did you? Even as someone who has read the books twice, last night’s Game of Thrones was difficult to watch; in some ways, I wonder if it was worse for us readers because we knew exactly what would happen and this time, we’d see it fleshed out. Gouged out. Squeezed out. But I am getting ahead of myself. Ahead, yes a… head. A ruined head. A bloody mess of a head. Too soon, oh it’s too soon to contemplate that nightmare. Let’s start at the beginning, shall we?
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Game of Thrones: Bloody Hell”
R.I.P. Yuri Kochiyama: For All The Free by Jef Castro
Last night, news broke across social media that legendary human rights activist Yuri Kochiyama had passed away. Official news sources were slow to confirm, but sadly, it was true. The world had lost another titan of history — less than a week from the day Maya Angelou was taken from us, no less. The universe can be cruel sometimes.
As part of the digital comic I edited in conjunction with the Smithsonian‘s touring “I Want the Wide American Earth” Asian American history exhibit last September, I commissioned my fellow SIUniverse alum Jef Castro to create bookend pieces for the book that were inspired by the Carlos Bulosan poem from which the exhibit drew its name.
Continue reading “R.I.P. Yuri Kochiyama: For All The Free by Jef Castro”
Maleficent is Seldom What it Seems
Beware ye who may read this, for there be slight spoilers ahead.
In an embarrassment of riches as far as summer movies go, there was one that I had no intention of missing in the theatres. Maleficent was that movie.
As you would expect, this is a retelling of a story that you only think you know. Like the mega-popular Broadway musical Wicked did for The Wizard of Oz, Maleficent retells the tale of Sleeping Beauty from another point of view. Oh, and what a tale it tells! But that is also where I had the most problem with the movie.
I Kill Giants, Free Music, and the Donation Drive
by Adam WarRock | Originally posted on tumblr
I had the pleasure of meeting Joe Kelly yesterday, author of the wonderful Image Comics graphic novel, I Kill Giants. He was an amazingly nice and supportive person, and I had the chance to perform my “I Kill Giants” track for him, which made the house a bit misty eyed. It was a great moment for me, and if you haven’t had the chance to read the book, or hear the song that I made, please take a second to check it out!
Continue reading “I Kill Giants, Free Music, and the Donation Drive”
My Daughter’s Preschool Class Sang “Let It Go”
I’m sure that by now you’ve seen the video in which young Jathan Muhar answers the perennial graduation-time question of “What do you want to be when you grow up?” with an answer to warm any NOC’s heart. He wanted to be Batman. [Ed. note: I guess kindergarteners are a superstitious, cowardly lot. Also, somebody should warn the kid’s parents to never walk down any dark alleys at night. Just sayin’.]
In one short day, it’s been everywhere from Break.com to Gawker to The Huffington Post to the Facebook page of the Ellen DeGeneres Show. But I saw it before it went viral — I saw it live because my 5-year-old daughter was a classmate of his, graduating with him this past Wednesday.
Continue reading “My Daughter’s Preschool Class Sang “Let It Go””
Feminism is our Superpower
by Marjorie Liu
What can I add that hasn’t already been said? Not much, I suppose. There’s been an amazing symphony of voices on the internet, keeping alive the reality, the truth, that so many would prefer to ignore: that misogyny continues to thrive in every corner of the world. It is reflected back on us women every day, in a million different ways, and while it’s easy to point the finger at other countries and say, “Look at the way they treat women!” we all must know, deep down, that here in America we put into practice the same patterns of hate and ownership, and entitlement.
A pregnant woman was just stoned to death in Pakistan for marrying a man against her family’s wishes — but that happens here in America, all the time, with just slightly different players. Google “boyfriend kills pregnant girlfriend” and you’ll see a list of unending deaths. We read in horror about how rapists in other countries are let off easy by “corrupt authorities,” but what about our legal system? It’s just as monstrous towards victims of sexual assault. Check out this imagined, but very real, conversation — what if mugging were treated like rape is in the eyes of the law — found at the @femusingsteam twitter feed:
Revisiting The Boondocks Part Two: The Show
Yesterday, we ran through a brief history of the characters that inhabited The Boondocks comic strips that I loved. That roll call was all prelude to why I don’t love the animated “adaptation” on Adult Swim.
When I first heard of a ‘Docks cartoon, I was elated. If I could never have a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon, I was owed a ‘Docks one, right? Like damn near all my friends, I was glued to the television. The first episode, “The Garden Party,” started off promising with a Huey Freeman voice over: “I’m not a prophet. But sometimes I have prophetic dreams; like then one when I was at a garden party.” Huey walks out on stage at this lily-white garden party, and drops the following jewels, “Jesus was black. Ronald Regan was the devil. And the government is lying about 9/11.” A riot ensues. The white folks can’t handle the truth. Despite my finding the anime/manga style stilted, this scene was rendered well. What a way to launch your first episode.
Continue reading “Revisiting The Boondocks Part Two: The Show”
R.I.P. Maya Angelou
We are all saddened by the loss of Maya Angelou, who has passed away at the age of 86. Upon hearing about Angelou’s passing, I immediately thought about Life Doesn’t Frighten Me, a book published in the mid-1990s that paired her poetry with the art of Jean-Michel Basquiat.
X-Men and the Oscars of Future Past
A while back, I shared a couple of lists I curated of DC superheroes and their Academy Awards. It’s a hobby I picked up a bunch of years ago because I’m as much of an Oscars junkie as I am a superhero movie one. I hinted that I would tackle a similar list featuring the actors of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but instead, I decided to take on the Oscar winners and nominees from that other multi-movie Marvel megafranchise: the X-Men.
Part of the reason is because X-Men: Days of Future Past just shattered a ton of Memorial Day box office numbers on its way to a $111 million opening. Also, with seven movies spanning fourteen years under its belt, the X-Men franchise is just as deep as the Batman and Superman oeuvres, though the mutants have far less noms and wins than DC’s big two.
Some more stray observations after the jump.
Revisiting The Boondocks Part One: The Strips
The inter-webs — and my crew — are all a-chatter about how the fourth and current season of Adult Swim’s The Boondocks signals the demise of a once great animated property. With the series creator Aaron McGruder no longer involved, people are arguing that the magic is gone. While his presence and involvement during the last two seasons is debatable, having it publicly confirmed that McGruder is no longer associated with his creation seemed like the proper invitation for folks to start shitting on the show. The shitting should have happened a long time ago as the demise of this property started when it first jumped from strip to screen.
Before we get into everything wrong with the show (that’s for tomorrow), let’s first look back at what was right with the strips.
Continue reading “Revisiting The Boondocks Part One: The Strips”
Top Ten Asian Pacific American Comics Characters
by Gene Yang | Originally posted at Tor.com
Happy Asian Pacific American Heritage Month! Er… did you know that May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month? Well, now you do. And I hope you have a happy one.
All over cyberspace, folks are celebrating in all sorts of ways. Wall Street Journal columnist Jeff Yang (no relation) kicked things off with an article that asks if the APA community is one or many (and graphically compares it to Voltron). CAPE (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment) launched a campaign of YouTube videos with several prominent APA entertainers talking about their career paths.
I’m doing my part by sharing with you my Top Ten Favorite APA characters in comics. They aren’t listed in any specific order, but they all meet these requirements: They’re in comics, they’re of Asian or Pacific Islander descent, they’re American, and they make my heart happy. Continue reading “Top Ten Asian Pacific American Comics Characters”
Does Anyone REALLY Care About Diversity in Comics?
Originally posted at BadAzz MoFo
I’m starting to feel like I’m going crazy — as if there is something seriously wrong with me — when the sad truth of the matter is that it is not me at all. It is you. And by “you” I don’t necessarily mean you, the person reading this, but I do mean someone other than myself — the crazy person running around pointing out the truth that You (though not necessarily you) don’t want to face. And the truth that I’m talking about is the simple fact that for all the complaining about the lack of diversity in comics — specifically as it relates to black creators — You don’t really want diversity. Instead, You want to sit around, writing blog posts and articles and leaving comments here and there about how few black creators are working in comics, and how You are so righteously indignant to the plight of struggling black creators who aren’t being given a chance to work for major corporations like Marvel (owned by Disney) and DC (owned by Warner Brothers).
Continue reading “Does Anyone REALLY Care About Diversity in Comics?”
Pub Deal Announcement: Shadowshaper
Originally posted at Ghoststar.net
In January 2009, I decided to write a book. I’ve always written, always made up strange worlds and sent characters hurdling into them, always dreamt of monsters. But until that day, I was scattered: a screenplay here, a few essays there. Some poems. None of ‘em went very far.
I’d read all the Harry Potters and loved them, loved how they immersed me in the world so thoroughly and stayed grounded and exciting. And I wanted something more… I’d just finished Junot’s Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and Walter Mosley’s Six Easy Pieces and the combined ferocity of those two singular and relentlessly truthful voices lit a fire inside me. Octavia Butler’s work stoked that fire and Stephen King’s On Writing reminded me that writing a book was something that can be done, long as you sit down and do it.
So I did.
Godzilla, the World’s Most Famous Japanese American
by Gil Asakawa | Originally posted at Nikkei View
Although Hollywood has been making monster movies since the original 1933 King Kong, the monster with the most staying power and screen incarnations didn’t come out of California, but from Tokyo. Godzilla is back with another cinematic reboot produced by Hollywood featuring the usual array of mega-special effects, including a digitized monster instead of a man in a monster suit. Whether costumed or computer-generated, Godzilla is the most famous Japanese American in the world. He’s starred in 28 movies, stomping his way through cities on both sides of the Pacific.
Godzilla, or the Japanese pronunciation, Gojira (a combination of the words for “gorilla,” gorira and “whale,” kujira) made its first Japanese appearance 60 years ago, in 1954. The film was edited and had scenes starring Raymond Burr as an American journalist inserted for its 1956 release in the U.S. as Godzilla, King of the Monsters. I always thought this was to make the movie more palatable to American audiences, but now I realize there was a more political reason for the reworking of the first film.
Continue reading “Godzilla, the World’s Most Famous Japanese American”
Marvel and Disney Go Big with Big Hero 6
If you haven’t seen it yet, Disney and Marvel just released the first trailer to this winter’s upcoming Big Hero 6.
I first was introduced to Big Hero 6 while interviewing artist David Nakayama in July 2008 at San Diego Comic Con. I had asked Nakayama what he was working on for his next project, and he told me about the Big Hero 6 mini-series he was working on for Marvel in a story written by one of his all-time heroes, Chris Claremont. Set in Japan featuring a group of Japanese superheroes, Nakayama provided details about how they really wanted to emphasize a lot of Japanese style into the art of the five-issue mini-series. I was excited to hear about Big Hero 6, and picked up issue #1 a few months later when it was released.
Where the New Black Comics Writers Are
The other day, one of our favorite websites, Bleeding Cool, posted a column by Devon Sanders bemoaning the lack of black writers in comics — or more precisely at the Big Two (i.e., DC and Marvel) as well as the mid-major publishers like Dark Horse and Boom. Since its publication, the article has been making its way around the comics blogosphere and message boards sparking some much-needed conversation about the lack of diversity in comics.
The question posed is focused primarily on the lack of black comics writers, and not artists such as Shawn Martinbrough, Jamal Igle, Kyle Baker, or Rob Guillory whose mainstream comics work have all developed quite a following. In the article, Sanders says:
This is the writer’s name, the one you see above everyone else’s and when you count black writers actively working for Marvel, DC, Image, Dark Horse, etc. it comes down to less than the number of digits on Nightcrawler’s hand.
Now while the thesis of the article is the lack of black writers at the big publishers, the column’s title posited the question “Where are the New Black Comics Writers?” The answer to that particular question would be to look beyond the Big Two. Just ask our own Brandon Easton who recently received an Eisner nom for his work on the spectacular Watson and Holmes.
Man of Steel 2 Should Have Just Stayed Untitled
Remember how — despite all my trepidations — I started actually getting excited for the Man of Steel sequel I refuse to call Batman vs. Superman? It was just last week.
Well, that didn’t last long.
Seems like all the good will Warner Brothers engendered from their sneak peek at Ben Affleck under the cowl has been squandered away with the reveal of the dumbest superhero movie title in the history of dumb superhero movie titles.
That’s right, Man of Steel 2 is now, officially, Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice. Ugh.
Continue reading “Man of Steel 2 Should Have Just Stayed Untitled”
Superman of Earth-23 Will Lead The Multiversity
Grant Morrison has been teasing it for years, but the epic Multiversity storyline will finally be hitting comic shop shelves later this summer. If you needed more proof, DC Comics’ The Multiversity graces the coveted front cover of the June edition of PREVIEWS, Diamond Comic Distributors’ monthly catalog of items it ships to stores, which will be available next week.
First envisioned in 2009, Morrison’s take on alternate universe versions of the Justice League will finally be told in a 10-issue series debuting in August. Though each issue of the series will take place in a different part of the Multiverse, it looks like the Superman of Earth-23 — who first appeared in Final Crisis #7 before having an Action Comics issue dedicated to him in 2012 — will be one of the breakout characters, as he is prominently featured on the cover (along with Captain Carrot, no less).
Take a peek at the PREVIEWS cover after the jump.
Continue reading “Superman of Earth-23 Will Lead The Multiversity“
GameCenter CX: Kachou On!
Video games have been part of my life ever since I was a little kid. Ever since I was five, I have had a console in my room or living room, waiting to be played every day. I have a lot of memories of playing the NES. While I had some games, I played the majority of them either by borrowing some from friends or renting them at the local video store. You basically had to judge what kind of game you were going to get by the cover and the back of the box. It really was a crapshoot, but that was half the fun of it. After that you would gather your friends and/or siblings to enjoy it for the weekend until you had to return it.
The majority of the games were very difficult to beat and required endless trial and error. You had to have a ton of patience if you wanted to get anywhere. However, once you cleared a level you weren’t able to or finished a game you had sunk hours in gave you the greatest feeling in the world. Or, you would run out of time and say “Screw it, I can’t do it for now,” and return the game. And then it was on to the next one. That was my childhood in a nutshell when it came to games. I miss those days. I miss those old retro games and just the feeling of trying to conquer the random titles I was given for the weekend. I wish more people could experience the feelings I had as a game-loving kid. But how?
Enter GameCenter CX.
Godzilla: King of Nitpicks
by Oliver Wang
A quick introduction: I enjoyed Godzilla. A lot. I wanted spectacle; it delivered. In the end, whatever MUTO-sized plot holes or character shortcomings weren’t that big of a deal in terms of my enjoyment. But I found so much of the film completely inexplicable on some very basic logic levels that I wanted to have fun with those. So I invited friends to join in with their “huh?” moments from a film that we all agreed was quite fun. If it helps, imagine hearing this being read by the Red Letter Media guys.
(These are in loose chronological order based on events in the film. Also, spoilers).
NOC Recaps Game of Thrones: Don’t Push Me Cuz I’m Close to the Edge
When we last saw Tyrion, he was spitting righteous vitriol at his trial. The seventh episode “Mockingbird” shows a softer, more introspective man: basically, he knows he just signed his own death certificate and merely wants to make amends before his trial by combat. He admits to Jaime that he fell in love with a whore, and he chose not to cooperate with the deal Jaime made with their father out of spite. At his most powerless, Tyrion was still able to take away some happiness from Tywin, who was thisclose to having Jaime back as his heir. Tyrion goes on to tease Jaime about his foibles and penchant for incest, and oh, by the way, Jaime, will you be his champion?
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Game of Thrones: Don’t Push Me Cuz I’m Close to the Edge”
We’re Ready to Ride the Lightning with The Flash
At the beginning of the recently concluded television season, the creators of Arrow announced they were going to produce a spin-off based on Barry Allen, aka The Flash. Last month on Hard N.O.C. Life, we had the privilege to pick the brain of Andy Poon, the concept illustrator behind the costumes on Arrow and Smallville, and we had an intriguing discussion about Barry Allen. Most of us here at the NOC have been watching Arrow, and I voiced my enthusiasm about the episode (“The Scientist”) in which Barry — as played by Glee’s Grant Gustin — first appears.
As always we were skeptical, but knowing that the creators of Arrow were involved, I had hope. It also helped that the producers seemed to be filling out the cast with plenty of people of color. Then images of The Flash’s costume were leaked, and I seriously began to have doubts.
Continue reading “We’re Ready to Ride the Lightning with The Flash“
It’s More Than Okay To Be George Takei
Last night, I had the distinct honor to attend a screening of To Be Takei — the new documentary about Start Trek actor, civil rights activist, and social media maven George Takei — as part of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center‘s ongoing Asian Pacific Heritage Month celebrations. Bookended by remarks from Smithsonian APAC Director Konrad Ng and a Q&A with the film’s subjects, the entire evening was a celebration of one of our culture’s most trailblazing icons.
Having made its debut at Sundance in January, To Be Takei was recently acquired by Starz for digital and theatrical distribution later this year. In advance of its formal theatrical release, the film has been doing the festival rounds and made its Washington, DC premiere at the Warner Brothers theater inside the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. I was lucky enough to check it out with the homie (and fellow NOC) Patrick Michael Strange.