Odd Brodsky is a film for anyone who has ever wistfully dreamed of Hollywood greatness. At its screening at Dances With Films on Saturday night, writer/director Cindy Baer admitted that the movie comes at least somewhat from her own experiences—but that this wasn’t entirely intentional. They’re the experiences of a person trying to pursue a career in Hollywood against greater odds, and, for anyone who has done so, those experiences tend to be universal.
There was a great article in LA Weekly a couple of weeks ago about how Tom Cruise’s appearance on Oprah Winfrey’s coach a few years back effectively killed his career as a movie star. One of the first videos to go viral (Youtube had launched literally just a few weeks prior.) and edited within an inch of its life (Cruise never actually jumps up and down on the coach as people often misremember.), the clip made Cruise seem genuinely unhinged to the public, and, suddenly, it became trendy to say you hated Tom Cruise. That’s sad to me for a lot of reasons, the least of which is, for 25 years or so, Cruise had gone out of his way to work with truly great filmmakers on interesting projects and pushing himself as an artist. Oliver Stone, Martin Scorsese, Ridley Scott, Paul Thomas Anderson, Francis Coppola, Brad Bird, Barry Levinson, Brian DePalma, Robert Redford, Steven Spielberg (twice), Sydney Pollack, Neil Jordan, Cameron Crowe (twice), John Woo, and Michael Mann make for an impressive list of collaborators; however, it was Cruise’s willingness to give over 18 months at the height of his earnings potential for the never-ending shoot of Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut that gives him a lifetime pass from me. He also gets bonus points for standing guard over Kubrick’s possibly unfinished cut of the film after the legendary director unexpectedly passed away.
The following is an interview with writer Gavin Hignight (Nickelodeon's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Freak Table) and artist James Emmett (Ex Occultus: Seal of Solomon), the creative team behind the sci-fi web comic The Concrete World, which is nearing its 200th released page. In this interview, Fanboy Comics Managing Editor Barbra Dillon chats with Hignight and Emmett about the initial inspiration for the web comic, the process of compiling the creative team, the upcoming plans for the story's final act, and the other projects on which they are currently working!
The anime series Ouran High School Host Club, based on a manga of the same name, debuted in Japan in 2006 and was released in the US in 2009. The show is currently licensed through Funimation, and all twenty-six episodes can be streamed through their site, as well as numerous streaming services. I had heard about it many years ago, but I simply had so many things I was trying to read and watch that I didn’t get around to it. What a loss! This comedic series is one of the most fun and unique shoujo (marketed to teenage girls) anime I have come across in a long time.
The creators behind Penguins vs. Possums: Volume One discuss the differences between the two species, as well as the main characters of the comic.
The Knuckleheads are back again and still at it, haphazardly trying to save the day and getting mixed up way over their heads in misadventures of minuscule, and galactic, proportions. And, they’re still doing all of it with an insane amount of wit and cleverness, making them one of the most entertaining superhero teams around . . . even though only one of them actually has superpowers . . . which he doesn’t really quite know how to control. But, that’s okay, because writer Brian Winkeler and artist Robert Wilson IV are in complete control of their story and characters and in this, the sixth Knuckleheads issue, they are moving their heroes, Trev, Lance, Guy, and Emma, way outside of their comfort zones, but not before Trev makes friends with a particularly vocal Welsh Corgi. It is obvious from this issue that Winkeler and Wilson IV plan to prove that in outer space, everyone can hear you laugh.
Regular readers of Fanboy Comics know that I'm a huge fan of the occult mystery noir comic series Sparrow and Crowe: The Demoniac of Los Angeles from Hermes Press. The series recently wrapped up its five-issue run and is now set to come out in trade for August. I had the pleasure of speaking with David Accampo, one of the writers of the series, about the comic, the inspirations behind it, the cool additions we can expect in the trade, and the importance of pre-ordering for an indie project like this.
Comic book publisher BOOM! Studios will soon be releasing Bee and Puppycat #2 on Wednesday, June 11th, written by Natasha Allegri and Garrett Jackson, as well as illustrated by Allegri. The publisher has been very generous to the Fanboy Comics staff, as we are now able to share an exclusive advance preview of Issue #2, along with variant covers by Allegri, Zac Gorman, and Jeremy Sorese!
Thanks to the ingenuity of Toy Story, humans have caught on to the hijinks that toys and stuffed animals have been causing right under our noses. No longer will we be fooled by their cute and fluffy exteriors. Now, thanks to comic book writer Brett Uren and a host of other comic book creators, we will get a more in-depth look into the dark and gritty lives of toys when they are left to their own devices. Today, The Kickstarter Report will be highlighting Torsobear: Yarns from Toyburg, a collection of eleven grisly crime stories written in the style of film noir and set in a world of toys. What happens to the toys when they are not being played with? Do they have cute adventures like in children’s books, or is there something more sinister afoot? You can get a peek into the dismal world of Toyburg by taking a look at the Kickstarter campaign for this upcoming comic book anthology.
What is God? Does he exist as an actual entity or merely as a concept in religious doctrine? And, if God does exist, then why do bad things happen to good people? These are just a few of the questions raised by Frank vs. God, which premiered at Dances With Films on Friday night.
