This is my blog, I guess, where I'll tell you about the things I think are cool and interesting. I love comic book superheroes, comic art, sci-fi, fantasy, movies, and TV shows. You know, all the cool shit we waste our time on.
I thought this might be a place for information about all those things, but now I think it's just a place to get it all out of my head so I don't go crazy.
If that interests you, stick around. If not, there's a whole big internet out there to get lost in. Bye!
@gitano_dpla Very cool, and nice to see you using traditional media. Love seeing original art in person done with Ink and paper. And once you get noticed, itโs not bad for the bank account either.
Is Wildwood the last great stop-motion movie before AI takes over?
Laika's Wildwood hit theaters yesterday, and it might be the most handmade movie of the year. Travis Knight directed it, and it took 16 years to get here. The studio built 231 puppets and 136 sets, some big enough for the crew to walk through. Every puppet got a new 3D-printed face on every single frame, more than 140,000 faces in all. One golden eagle puppet has about 9,000 feathers, all put in by hand.
Critics are loving it: 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and an A CinemaScore. The opening is soft, though. It's tracking around $11-13M, right about where Kubo opened. Time Out called it "the perfect handmade antidote to AI."
That's why I'm rooting for it. Stop motion goes back to the very beginnings of animation. Someone moves a tiny figure a fraction of an inch, shoots a frame, and does it again thousands of times. That takes real dedication.
Knight was asked whether AI could have sped the process up. He said "That very notion fills me with rage." He also told The Verge: "A pencil is technology, a paintbrush is technology, a 3D printer is technology... But all of these things have meaning and value when you put them in the hands of an artist." His line is that when the tech does the artist's work, "there's no soul, there's no spirit."
I'm with him. I'm not completely against AI, but I'm for the artist. I know it's on the horizon, and at some point it's going to be unavoidable. Knight even admitted he can only say Wildwood is AI-free "as far as I'm aware," because big VFX houses don't always say what they use. That's exactly why a movie like this matters. It's proof of what people can make with their own hands, time and heart.
Knight is one of the most creative filmmakers working today. He made Kubo and the Two Strings and Bumblebee, and I really liked Masters of the Universe this summer. We need more voices like his, not endless AI slop from prompts that all looks the same. Stories should come from people.
So go see it. Will handmade movies like this survive, or is Wildwood the last of its kind?
https://t.co/b26f9QNMsO
For today's covers, I'm going to do a little rundown of these four covers. This was a four-issue run in New X-Men centered around Weapon plus and Fantomex, by Grant Morrison and penciler Chris Bachalo, who drew the hell out of these four issues. His art is so dynamic and interesting that I encourage everyone to check it out.
New X-Men #142
New X-Men #143
New X-Men #144
New X-Men #145
I'm thinking it may be Julia Louis-Dreyfus who plays Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Val). She is always doing some underhanded thing involving superhero tech. She was maybe involved in this version of Vision from the start and wants him back, or is trying to acquire him for the tech. Just a guessโwe shall see.
Magic: The Gathering is finally coming to Netflix, and I'm kind of looking forward to it.
Full disclosure: I've never been a huge Magic guy. I played it briefly, collected a few cards, and never really got into it. But I love fantasy and fantastical worlds, so for me this is just one more world to get lost in.
Here's what we know. Hasbro's CEO just told CNBC the animated series should debut at the end of next year, so late 2027. Netflix first announced it back in 2019 with the Russo brothers producing. It got written, recorded, and then scrapped. In 2024 Netflix brought it back with Terry Matalas as showrunner (the guy who gave us Picard Season 3) and Oscar winner Patrick Osborne as supervising director. The story centers on Chandra, the fire mage, with Ajani and Jace as main characters too.
So do fans care about the lore? Some really do. There's a passionate group of true lore lovers. But most players seem to want the vibe and the feel of Magic done right. As one Redditor put it: "I don't care about the lore at all, but the general tone or thematic identity is very important." Another said they'd love for it "to be the next Arcane." Matalas building it around one character and bringing in others "one by one" sounds like the right way in.
I'll be honest, I have my doubts with Netflix. They've leaned into message over story more than once. But they're in a rough patch right now. They just laid off about 1,000 people, around 6% of the company. Their chief content officer, Bela Bajaria, is out after nearly 10 years, and former Disney TV chief Peter Rice is taking over. Their stock just hit a two-year low after earnings, and co-CEO Ted Sarandos admitted "we could do better." A shake-up at the top could change things, for better or worse. We don't know yet. Maybe this is where they right the ship.
Could Magic compete with Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones? CBR thinks it could. The fan base is huge, and the multiverse gives it endless places to go. But a lot of those fans are jaded and tired of being treated like what they want doesn't matter. Win them over and this could be massive.
I'm hoping for the best. Give us great characters, wild worlds, and a story that respects the people who've loved this thing for 30 years.
Would you watch it? Which Planeswalker do you want to see first?
https://t.co/VhcqZuOvM7
@DCUAlert You know, umm, I like Glen Powell. I recently enjoyed his Chad Powers on Hulu. But I don't think he has enough gravitas and grittiness to pull off the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman.
Wasn't trying to stick it to anyoneโjust thought he was missing some context that would help fill out his opinion on the show. I always try to come from a place of honesty and stay away from tribalistic thinking. If I think something is well done, regardless of who made it, I'll say so (same when something sucks), but always with a respectful take and not in a mean, confrontational way. We need more bridge builders in these times.
Ellison handed Paramount+ to HBO, and I'm not sure that adds up.
When David Ellison took over Paramount, he said "I don't want to politicize this company. We're an entertainment company first." He told the FCC there'd be no DEI programs, he put an ombudsman at CBS, and he made Bari Weiss editor-in-chief of CBS News. TheWrap even reported that under Ellison, Trek's "unabashedly progressive stance" is out and Yellowstone-style shows are in.
Then the WBD merger closed, and who's running all the streaming content? HBO's Casey Bloys. Paramount+'s head of originals is gone, and every top exec under Bloys is from HBO, including the head of HBO Max originals, who now runs Paramount+ originals too. Ellison has said publicly that "HBO should stay HBO" and should operate "with independence."
So is Ellison actually anti-woke? Honestly, the record is mixed. His dad Larry is the big Trump backer: WSJ reports he gave about $45M to a pro-Trump group in 2024. David himself gave nearly $1M to Biden's reelection fund that same year. To me, Ellison reads more like a businessman than a culture warrior. He makes the moves that get deals approved and hires the people who win awards.
To be fair, HBO's shows do pull viewers. Lanterns drew 9.3M viewers in its first 3 days, and critics loved it. But I'd bet most of those viewers never read the comics, because the fans who did mostly walked away disappointed. Metacritic users gave it a 5.2. The actors gave it everything they had. The problem was the story. It traded the cosmic wonder of Green Lantern for a gritty True Detective mood, and by the end Hal and John looked more like criminals than heroes. That's not Green Lantern.
My issue isn't politics in stories. Themes are fine when they serve the story. My issue is when the message comes first and the entertainment comes second. Most of us watch to escape for a while, not to get lectured.
Ellison's line is "If you're breathing, you're our audience." The next Trek show will be the real test of that. Give us episodic exploration, a great crew and real dilemmas, and I'm in.
People roll their eyes when you bring up "woke," like you're just being negative or nitpicking. But woke used to mean something good. It meant being awake to the problems in the world and wanting to do something about them. That's not what it is anymore. Now it feels like an ideology being pushed on us, one that's trying to change who we are instead of telling a good story. It leans toward collectivist politics and a constant focus on sexuality and identity, and it shows up on screen far more than it does in real life. You can be concerned about that without being a hater. Caring about what our culture puts in front of us isn't nitpicking. It matters.
A lot of people are saying woke is dead. I don't think it's dead. I think it's changing its form: new owners, new titles, the same people deciding what stories get told.
So what's the future of entertainment? Will we ever get back to stuff that just entertains, or is it more of the same cultural manipulation and propaganda?
If you need something to get the bad taste of HBO's Lanterns out of your mouth and your mind, And for those of you who liked the show, these books will show you what you missed and what was left out. Maybe then you'll see why people like me were extremely disappointed with it.
Add these two to your list of things to buy. They're a great reminder of what makes Green Lantern good.
Green Lantern Rebirth: DC Compact Comics Edition. It's 352 pages for just $9.99, with an Alex Ross cover. Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver brought Hal Jordan back the right way: a cocky, fearless test pilot taking on Sinestro and the Manhunters. It's cheap, affordable and the perfect starting point. Coming out in 2027, but other versions can be found on amazon now.
Green Lantern: Blackest Night Compendium. It's 1,480 pages of Johns' epic for $59.99, out March 16 2027, with art by Ivan Reis, Doug Mahnke and Patrick Gleason. It covers the whole emotional spectrum, the Black Lanterns and the entire saga in one book. Not a bad deal for 1,480 pages if you ask me.
I'll be picking these up for myself.
This is Green Lantern with heart, huge cosmic scale and real respect for the lore. It's everything the show completely lacked.
In brightest day, in blackest nightโฆ