At the Movies: Transformers:Dark of the Moon

Michael Bay is one of those polarizing directors thanks to big budget action films which are characterized by fast edits, stylistic visuals and substantial special effects. Films like Bad Boys, The Rock, Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, Bad Boys 2, The Island, Transformers and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, have definitely packed movie theaters and earned mountains of cash for the studios, but Bay himself constantly receives scorn for his signature directing style.

The boys over at Ain't it Cool News, seemed to like his latest franchise film, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, but even then they just couldn't resist taking potshots at him for perceived misogyny, due to the way his depictions of women tend to come across on-screen. English model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley is introduced to audiences in a sequence that shows off her buff physique in a semi-risque way, and I've gotta say that this didn't bother me at all. I'm an unrepentant chauvinist, and she is so smoking hot that I say, "why not". If this young lady doesn't make you forget all about Megan Fox from the previous two films, you may need to have your blood pressure checked. Wow!

The AICN critics also dissed the comedic elements in the film in characterizations by everyone from John Turturro to John Malkovich to Ken Jeong to Kevin Dunn & Julie White (as the Witwicky parents). Someone over at Harry's website specifically mentioned a quote made by Mrs. Witwicky that although it is a double-entendre, isn't used at all in reference to Sam's (Shia LaBeouf) new girlfriend, as they mistakenly suggested.

Look, Transformers 3 is a summer blockbuster flick. That is what it is, and what it is meant to be. The implied sexuality is primarily geared towards the young hormonal crowd and the humor - at least from the performers in question - is an established part of their characterizations. The laughs are well-done, and funny as hell! They also don't take up very much of the two and a half hours of the flick, so armchair critics really need to chill out on this matter.

I won't spoil anything further, but I will say that this flick is better than the previous two movies put together. The latter portion of Dark of the Moon is a massive extended battle between Autobots and Decepticons on the streets of the Windy City, so if you've got a grudge against that town, you don't wanna miss this film. Chicago really gets hammered! Returning cast members Shia LaBeouf, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson and John Turturro all have moments to shine. Frances McDormand, Alan Tudyk and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley are all great additions to the ensemble. Since this IS a Transformers film, the voice cast MUST receive their due with Peter Cullen returning as the voice of Optimus Prime and Hugo Weaving returning as the voice of Megatron, plus Robert Foxworth, Frank Welker, Charlie Adler, Jess Harnell, Tom Kenny, James Remar and Reno Wilson. Leonard Nimoy joins the voice cast as Sentinel Prime, former leader of the Autobots; and genre geeks can expect some peculiar dialogue snippets that homage his famed turn as Mr. Spock in Star Trek.

This is a fun feature film and there really isn't anything wrong with it that's worth complaining about. Recommended!

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"Gal" Friday! Gwyneth Paltrow

Actress and singer Gwyneth Paltrow has portrayed supporting, as well as lead roles, in films such as Hook, Se7en, A Perfect Murder, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Bounce, The Royal Tenenbaums, Shallow Hal, Austin Powers in Goldmember, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, and of course, Iron Man, Iron Man 2 and she is currently part of the large cast filming Marvel's The Avengers (reprising her role of Virginia "Pepper" Potts; bottom photo).

The 1998 Best Actress Oscar winner (for Shakespeare in Love) has already more than earned a space in the Catacombs as this weeks official "Gal" Friday choice, but as overdue as this dubious honor may be, she certainly aided my arbitrary selection process this week with her topless photo session in Vanity Fair magazine.

It's funny to me that the whole point of her pictorial spread is actually to promote Louis Vuitton jewelry. Now tell me, isn't the very "first" thing that you notice in that photo (above; right) are a few sparkly baubles? No.

I didn't think so.

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Jungo the Man-Beast in "The Giant Jaguar" (Holyoke;1946)

Jungo the Man-Beast makes an overdue return visit to the Catacombs in this untitled story from Sparkling Stars #17 (Sept.1946); originally published by Holyoke. The writer and/or artist is also unknown. Phil Gant was famous for his movie serial role of "Jungo" until a blow on the head convinced him that he actually was the very jungle lord that he had been portraying. Previously Jungo and his girlfriend, Gloria Dean, were cast adrift in the hold of a cargo ship on the verge of sinking. Don't you just love those old cliffhanger endings that aren't really endings?

The Catacombs is grateful to Don "Zu-Gogo" Falkos for providing the scans for this story. Note: The copyright for this issue, its contents and artwork belong to the original publishers and/or the creators and is reproduced here solely for entertainment purposes.

Enjoy!

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Top 10 Defunct Comic Book Publishers: Kitchen Sink Press

For the next ten Wednesday's, I'm going to feature a series of posts that take a fond look back at my personal picks for the "Top 10 Defunct Comic Book Publishers" of all time. Given that Wednesday is the standard "new comics" day for incoming stuff in direct market shops around the USA, it seems like the exact day of the week in which to recall some of the great publishers of the past who helped carry the torch in days gone by.

As you'll see, some of these companies specialized in specific content or genres, some practiced the fine art of licensing properties from other media outlets for adaptation to the four-color world, and some simply marched to the beat of their own peculiar drummer. I do not intend to rank the publishers that will be spotlighted in any particular order, so without further ado, let's get down to business.

Kitchen Sink Press was founded by Denis Kitchen way back in 1969. Kitchen owned and operated the company for an impressive thirty years until it folded in 1999. Kitchen Sink Press was a pioneering publisher of underground comix including Bijou Funnies, Bizarre Sex, Cherry, Dope Comix, Grateful Dead Comix, Mom’s Homemade Comics and Snarf. Kitchen Sink Press also released numerous republications of classic comic strips in both hardcover and softcover volumes, reminding fans new and old of the joys of Alley Oop, Flash Gordon, Li’l Abner and Steve Canyon, among many others. One of Kitchen's greatest accomplishments was the first total reprinting of Will Eisner's The Spirit first in magazine format and later in color.

Taking full advantage of the rise of the direct market in the 1980's, Kitchen Sink Press introduced new characters, concepts and creators in such series as Atomic City Tales, Black Hole, Death Rattle, Megaton Man, Omaha the Cat Dancer and Xenozoic Tales.

A small sampling of industry legends and talents whose work appeared under the Kitchen Sink banner includes Howard Kruse, Kim Deitch, Will Eisner, Justin Green, Harvey Kurtzman, Scott McCloud, James O'Barr, Trina Robbins, Art Spiegelman, Reed Waller, S. Clay Wilson, Kate Worley and Denis Kitchen.

Denis Kitchen also ushered in The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which first began as a means to pay for the legal defense of Friendly Frank's comic shop manager Michael Correa, who was arrested in 1986 on charges of distributing obscenity (primarily titles published by Kitchen). Kitchen Sink Press carved its own niche in the world of undergrounds, independents and direct-only comics & "comix" over a three decade run that was highly entertaining and unique among its peers; it definitely deserves a place among the best comic book publishers of all time. Consider Kitchen Sink Press "gone, but not forgotten".

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Ghanga the Elephant Boy in "The Free Folk" (Buster Brown Co.;1949)

This golden age story called “The Free Folk” starring Ghanga the Elephant Boy is taken from Buster Brown Comic Book #16 (Summer 1949); originally published the Buster Brown Shoe Co. and written by Hobart Donavan and beautifully illustrated by the great Dan Barry. In this tale, young Ghanga could certainly show Tarzan a thing or two about how to effectively tame the wild beasts of the jungle.

The Catacombs is grateful to Don "Zu-Gogo" Falkos for providing the scans for this story. Note: The copyright for this issue, its contents and artwork belong to the original publishers and/or the creators and is reproduced here solely for entertainment purposes.

Enjoy!

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1980's Flashback: Maus

Maus: A Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman, is a memoir of Art Spiegelman listening to his father, Vladek Spiegelman, a Polish Jew and Holocaust survivor, retelling his story. The graphic novel alternates between portions of Vladek's life in Poland before and during the Second World War, and his later life in the Rego Park neighborhood of New York City. The entire work took thirteen years to complete, originally serialized in underground comics of the 1970s and then published in two volumes released in 1986 and 1991. It has since been integrated into a single volume.

The graphic narrative depicts Jews as mice, while Germans are depicted as cats. Other animals are used to represent other nationalities, religions, and races. Almost all the characters of a single "nationality" were drawn identically, with only clothing or other details helping to distinguish between them individually. It is the only comic book ever to have been awarded a Pulitzer Prize.

In particular, Art Spiegelman portrays Vladek's difficult personality and Art's attempt to make sense of it. He was exceedingly stingy and made life very difficult for both his first wife Anja (Art's mother, a concentration camp survivor who committed suicide) and his second wife Mala (also a concentration camp survivor). Art contrasts the contemporary Vladek with the historical Vladek, whom he only knows indirectly through his research. He comments about the difficulties of presenting Vladek's story accurately.

Maus is also the recipient of the Angoulême International Comics Festival Award, the Urhunden Prize, Eisner Award, Harvey Award and been nominated twice for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

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Profile Antics: A Chat with Bridgit Scheide!

Bridgit Scheide describes herself as a fidgety illustrator residing in Charlotte, NC. Her favorite activities include occasional aviation and frolicking astronautics, and she claims that she is mostly never caught burgling art supplies or small chocolates. I'll have to take her at her word on that, and also add that in addition to being a talented young lady, she's very easy on the eyes. Bridgit has been appearing at many of the regional comic shows that I attend and I'm grateful that she agreed to "sit" for this interview.

Q) As a blog, “Bridgit All Digital” [see my links section] looks like it might have style, but you don’t seem to stop by very often. Any chance your fans may see some regular art samples, personal opinions or con appearance news there anytime soon?

I always forget I have a blog! I have friends who remind me every now and then that it’s there. It’s true… I don’t post too often. For this reason, I linked my deviantart.com/bridgitalldigital page and twitter to it, which I do use on a regular basis. My deviantart page has my entire portfolio on it, for the most part, and is updated frequently. It also has a link to my webcomic Brother Nash, which I’m finishing up right now. A blog to me is like a journal, and I just find that I don’t have much to say right now other than rambling on about projects I could just show you. Maybe once I figure out my internet voice I’ll be able to write interesting enough updates that make my blog worthwhile to read.

Q) Give me some insight into the kinds of stuff you personally like in comics and have those preferences changed from when you were younger – relatively speaking? Whose stuff did you gravitate towards as a fan?

As a kid X-Men - and the titles based off of it like Gen-X and Excaliber - was my hook into comic books. I loved, and still love, the characters… there seems infinite possibilities to their creation as long as the suspension of disbelief is managed efficiently. And the fact that the environment these powerful mutants live in consists of a society that hates them, the storylines were always about so much more than fighting the bad guys.

I was hooked into comics again in high school by Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel Maus, a seriously amazing piece of non-fiction. Since then, my comic knowledge consists mostly of more recent work. Watchmen made me realize just how in-depth comic construction can go… Alan Moore’s writing is mind-blowing. I must’ve looked through Gabrielle del’Otto’s painterly work in Marvel’s 2006 Secret War series hundreds of times. Horror comics like Hellboy and 30 Days of Night satisfy my love for the horror genre while at the same time establishing Mignola and Templesmith as two major influences for me, though I’m not sure if it’s apparent at all in my work. I can look at Mark Brooks’ artwork, literally, for hours.

Doug TenNapel is most recently a new, huge favorite. The way he cranks out pages to his stories and the expressive use of his inks are all things I can learn from. There are also people who I’m lucky to be surrounded by in my daily life who are super talented, which I’m try not to take for granted… most of these friends are involved in Sketch Charlotte. I’m constantly learning from them. I’m also learning a lot about their own influences, I feel like everyday I’m getting yelled at for not know who someone is! Haha! But seriously, it’s all good. There is so much to discover… which is good.

Q) What was the inspiration behind your web comics, The Kindle Kind and Brother Nash? How has the online reception for these projects been?

The Kindle Kind didn’t start out being a webcomic. It was actually a single issue that I sold locally. Later, when I started making Brother Nash, I uploaded them all onto webcomicsnation.com. I’m not sure if the Kindle Kind is still there, I might have taken it off. Brother Nash is only a webcomic right now because I wanted viewers to be able to follow along with me as I created the story. Probably because I was trying to show my friends that I had a reason for being a recluse, that I really WAS making something! Haha. And, because of going to school and working last year, or working two jobs at different points this year, I’m not sure the webcomics format was ideal for people following the story, just because the rate at which I finished pages was a bit slower than the norm. But some people seem to be really into it, so that’s good! They’re just suffering a bit because they’re waiting longer than most webcomics readers for the next page.

Q) What’s the most daunting aspect of producing web comics?

I wouldn’t say there’s anything about webcomics that’s “daunting”. It actually might be the other way around. From the start, I’ve thought of Brother Nash in terms of being a single, 48-page story, printed as a one-shot issue. I didn’t really ever think of it as a webcomic until people started pointing out the obvious, “It’s a comic. It’s on the web. It’s a WEBCOMIC.” But if anything, I put it online to motivate me to complete it. When you’re writing, drawing, and coloring your own comic, you are the whole team. You are all you have, most of the time, to push YOURself towards YOUR goals. The accountability provided through the excitement of the readers is awesome, but they aren’t in charge of your work schedule or how many hours of sleep you’re getting each night. Seeing pages put together into a nearly completed format, to where I can view them and read them in sequence is motivating for sure, keeps my head thinking about the end goal. And it keeps the time it takes to get there from being too overwhelming… or daunting.

Q) Do you have any career goals in printed comics or do online web comics suit you better?

Like I said, I never really think of my comics as being webcomics. The intention is always for them to be in printed format. I would love to do comics for a living, though I’m not sure if that’s too lofty of a goal in my head right now. I know it’s possible, I’m just not sure where I’m heading… I’m just going to keep making comics, it’s what I love to do and what I feel natural doing. Whether I’m working as creator or as an artist collaborating with a writer… it’s pretty open I think. I’m going to SDCC this year to submit a lot of my work to different publishers, just to see if I can get linked up with anything. A lot of people told me it doesn’t work too well that way, but we’ll see. If anything does happen, I’ll just consider any propositions as I encounter them, I suppose!

Q) How does a lone “gal” manage to rein in a rowdy gang of dudes in something called “Sketch Charlotte”?

Oh man, I love Sketch Charlotte. Haha. I’m not the only girl in the group… I’m one of three I think? But yeah, Sketch Charlotte’s like a big family of comic dorks, I love it – it gets me through the week. We all meet up at a Shomars across from Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find, talking and munching and drawing together. It’s awesome because there are people interested in all different aspects of comics, who have completely unique comic backgrounds and influences. I learn so much from them, and they’re all really fun people. Tons of laughs… it’s a good kind of rowdy, haha!

Q) I’ve seen photos of you performing on stage and in what appears to be a recording studio. What kind of music skills have you got and do you stick with a specific kind of genre, folk, rock, country, blues, etc.?

I play guitar and sing, mostly, but I was in a pop/rock band in college where I played keys and did backing vocals. We toured a bit, and they got signed a little after I left. I’ve also been playing solo around Charlotte since 2007, just acoustic and earlier on with a little harmonica. I was in a folk/rock band about a year or so back called Pennies for Thieves, which was a lot of fun and focused mainly on vocal harmonies, but we didn’t do too much outside of the local scene. After that, I wouldn’t say I’ve stopped playing music, but I definitely don’t play out much anymore. It’s hard to find the time to even do comics when you’re already working full time, so trying to turn a hobby into a legit gig… I can just picture hours of practice cutting into my drawing time. Haha… so I guess performing music really is a guilty pleasure!

Q) You live in Charlotte now, but are you a native Tarheel?

I was born in Wheaton, Illinois… most of my extended family lives near there. We moved to Indiana before I started school and then moved back to Illinois when I was in first grade. Then I moved to Matthews, NC when I was in second grade, and it’s where I’ve been ever since!

Brother Nash art by Bridgit Scheide

Q) How does one effectively combine aviation and frolicking?

It’s occasional aviation and frolicking astronautics. I’d say as long as you don’t jump out of any given planet’s gravitational pull, frolicking astronautics is the most fun out of the two. You should try it.

Well, that was fun, and I hope that you all get an opportunity to visit with Bridgit at one of her convention appearances. She's full of energy, multi-talented, and no matter which path she takes, I wish her the very best in her budding career. Thanks for everything, Bridgit!

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