RedRaven

Lots of good Western recommendations here. I will add one that is often overlooked. The Long Riders - Wikipedia Long Riders is noted for casting four sets of brothers to play the four sets of brothers in the James/Younger gang... David Carradine Keith Carradine James Keach Stacy Keach Dennis Quaid Randy Quaid Christopher Guest Nicholas Guest And for those who haven't seen Open Range, best shootout in any Western movie. If you disagree you are wrong

Director: Tim Burton

I've seen "Roger the Stan Lee Experience" on X-Play. It's the definitive Stan Lee documentary. This one is redundant.

My wife got me hooked on Mrs Maisel. One of the few TV series I have enjoyed over the last several years (I am apathetic to most everything I watch it seems). Brosnahan was great in the series but Alex Borstein stole the show IMO.

Bladerunner was the watershed moment in my childhood / young adulthood where I left Star Wars behind. It reshaped my expectations for cinematic Science Fiction.

I feel like this is a missed opportunity as a live action Creature Commando movie seems like something that would suit Gunn perfectly.

Agreed. Norem is my quintessential cover artist for SSOC with Ernie Chan getting the interior nod.

The development surge was also great for established writers — at least at first, as the new economics of streaming made it easier than ever to cash in fast. Under the old TV model, if a show was a success, its creator stood to get rich on the back-end profits. With all of linear TV’s revenue streams combined (ads plus syndication plus overseas rights), a studio might bring in $3 for every $1 in costs on a hit. The problem for writers was that most shows flopped, so there was no back end to get a piece of. Streamers offered something different. Their model, called “cost plus,” might pay $1.30 to $1.50 up front, making every show a winner — just not a very big one. To make up for the lost back end, streamers floated performance-based incentives. Schur describes a scenario in which a platform might promise a showrunner a $100,000 bonus for season one, $250,000 for season two, $500,000 for season three, and $1.7 million for season four. “So you’re like, Holy mess. This is great!” he says. There was a catch. Many seemingly successful series began to vanish after just a couple of seasons. “What no one saw coming was they’d just kill the show before they ever had to pay that money out,” Schur says. “They kind of tricked everybody. Now if you get to 20 episodes, it’s a miracle.”

TV’s Streaming Model Is Broken. It’s Also Not Going Away. (vulture.com) “Everything became big tech — the Amazon model of ‘We don’t actually have to make money; we just have to show shareholder growth.’ Everyone said, ‘Great. That seems like the thing to do.’ Which essentially was like, ‘Let’s all commit ritual suicide. Let’s take one of the truly successful money-printing inventions in the history of the modern world — which was the carriage system with cable television — and let’s just end it and reinvent ourselves as tech companies, where we pour billions down the drain in pursuit of a return that is completely speculative, still, this many years into it.’”

REF: Last Galactus Story... The Last Galactus Story: A look at John Byrne's unfinished epic | SYFY WIRE

Just noticed that Doc Savage cover artist (bantam books etc, and western artist) James Bama had passed away almost a year ago. He also painted the covers for the Aurora monster kits. Acclaimed Doc Savage Artist James Bama Dies at 95 (cbr.com)

Been the case for a looooong time. I paid a premium for a high grade collection around 2000 and I doubt I could recoup more than 1.5X that cost today (except on the early issues if I sold ad-hoc). The Conan magazine action is solely centered on Savage Tales 1. We need a revival in Conan to stimulate prices across all mags and our best bet is a streaming service creating the right product at the right time (not holding my breath). As @LowGradeBronze stated, now is a good time to buy reader and collector copies.

Lest we forget...

You are definitely following the arrow of time in the wrong direction in regards to the pursuits of Tupennova.

Heads up for Harvey Pekar fans: I had wanted to read his Michael Malice graphic novel for several years but the book is out of print and way too expensive for someone who just wants a reader. I stumbled across a version on the internet archive that is freely available. https://archive.org/details/harvey-pekar-ego-hubris-the-michael-malice-story-restored/mode/2up

Older data but I assume the trend continues... https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ex-asml-employee-accused-data-175352799.html

For those that are into retro-gaming AND comic books, this may tickle you. I like my themes a bit cleaner but he really nailed the aesthetic..

It may be game based but that game has a well developed lore (over 150 novels spanning 30 years) which exists as a standalone experience in itself. To characterize the Warhammer fanbase and how they experience the product, there are three groups fans fall within... Those that consume the lore and novels. Those that paint miniatures. Those that play the game. Of course, overlap occurs between these interests but the point is that the lore is so developed/baroque that there is a substantial fanbase that exists solely to consume and analyze the lore. Given this, and with Cavill at the helm, the hope is he will understand the prior art and fashion a product for TV which respects and builds on the existing universe in such a way that the core fanbase is pleased and new fans are captured. It won't be easy. 40k is bat-poop dark and depressing and there really are no true good guys. Cavill has a personal interest in The Emperor of Man and his Adeptus Custodes legions. IMO this would be one of the least interesting aspects of the universe to base a series on. There are many characters that would make for more compelling stories (Ibram Gaunt for instance, Basically Sharpes Rifles in space). Eisenhorn would probably be the easiest to adapt and my personal choice. The problem with 40k will not be a dearth of lore but instead, drowning the audience from the firehose of lore that already exists. It will be a balancing act which would best be achieved by focusing on a single strong character and introducing the universe slowly and naturally, as that character's narrative plays out in the foreground.

I think removing Cavill from the DCU would be a mistake. Affleck not so much. Cavill has the charisma to tentpole the DCU around, going forward. Tons of goodwill from male and female fans alike.

Fernando approves. If the spectacle can be framed correctly, even a subjectively terrible movie can be enjoyed once. Viewing the Force Awakens on actual film and projected on a domed IMAX for instance. I look forward to Avatar but purely because my expectations are centered around the visual/audio experience with zero expectations for the characters and story. I am sure I will enjoy it once.

I followed this thread for a while and it made me reflect a bit on why I bailed on the MCU, even before end-game, and what the possible future holds for the genre taken as a whole... Warning: ramblings of a grumpy old man follow... Nothing lasts forever and that is doubly true of movie genres. Even within genres fans will come and go as the genre changes or the fans own motivations change. My interest in comic movies was primarily driven by the nostalgia of my childhood. Nostalgia is a limited resource. There is only so much to spend before the item purchased with that currency must return something beyond a warm feeling of an idealized past. Comic book movies are not art. They are a commodity to be purchased and enjoyed for a brief amount of time. Some of the movies are serviceable exercises in filmmaking (Joker, Winter Soldier) but for the most part they are assembly line productions designed to appeal to a broad customer base. The popularity and appeal of the original Marvel arc which culminated in Endgame will not be repeated. The broad world-building and interconnected characters which characterized these phases was novel and captured audiences who wanted to be along for the ride. It cannot be overstated how important the near miracle of casting Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark served as the lynchpin around which the public anchored themselves to this journey. The strength of that character and the charisma that Robert Downey lent to it allowed Marvel to succeed with a host of inferior characters and actors who only had relevance to the larger story. Now that the original story has reached its conclusion we are left with pieces. Marvel/Disney has been clumsily trying to build on these fragments to recapture something of the original success. They won’t. Flooding media with content seems counter productive. An audience still needs a singular strong character on which to focus. Something from which all the other aspects of the universe can be taken in context. There is no Tony Stark currently. Even if Marvel/Disney recalibrated their efforts to one of a more focused character driven approach with less content they still have the problem of me and viewers like me. The MCU had bored me by the time of the first Doctor Strange movie. I had spent all my currency/nostalgia and I was noticing that the movies were not terribly good. I simply didn’t want to watch Super Hero movies anymore. Lots of other viewers burn out for other reasons. Of course Disney knows this as well and has spent a lot of effort recalibrating to capture a new audience. Some of this has led to a criticism that the movies are too Woke. I see it more that Disney is trying to capture a new audience knowing that their older audience will only evaporate as time moves forward. Whether or not you agree with their efforts is inconsequential if the audience materializes. So far, based on the trending audience numbers, it hasn’t. I honestly don’t think there is anything Disney can do here. The genre is aging and the product is stale. Comic book movies will not die, just like westerns won’t die. My favorite genre remains the American Western. We have resurgences every few years or so with some well crafted pieces which I enjoy (1883, Old Henry) but for the most part the genre slumbers. Super hero movies will enter a similar state eventually and, at this point, that is the best thing that could happen to the genre.

After watching David Suchet perfect the role over two decades and forty-three outings as our favorite Belgian detective, I find it impossible to watch anyone else play the part.

I think there is a better case to be made for a movie adaptation in comparison to fan club mags (FOOM) or promotional publications (Marvel Age). But, all things being unequal, an appearance in a running title with stories continued or external from the original material is just far more attractive IMO. Technically the first appearance but collectors vote with the pocket book.