Bleeding Fool |
- Watch: ‘Scream’ Legacy Sequel’s Final Trailer Drops Online
- ‘Gotham PD’ May Feature More Batman & Joker Than We Thought
- First-Ever Live Action NFT Series Casts Star of ‘Hawkeye’ & ‘Van Helsing’
- How the CBWU Will Undoubtedly Harm Image Comics’ Bottom Line
- Review: The CW’s Naomi is an Unoriginal & Boring Superhero Drama
- Making a Move? Here are the Best Tips to Make it Smooth
| Watch: ‘Scream’ Legacy Sequel’s Final Trailer Drops Online Posted: 12 Jan 2022 03:25 PM PST
The final trailer for this week’s Scream hypes up the thrills with the help of glowing critical reviews. January might typically be a slow month for movies, but one of the most anticipated films of 2022 arrives in theaters this Friday.
Scream looks to revitalize the long-running slasher franchise with an original take that still holds ties to the previous films. It’s the first movie in the series to not be directed by the late Wes Craven; instead, Ready or Not filmmakers Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett are taking over. Based on the early reactions to Scream, they’ve been quite successful in their efforts.
The new film returns to the tragedy-prone town of Woodsboro, where something evil is afoot once more. A new Ghostface killer is slashing up victims, and only those who faced that familiar mask before are equipped to face them. That means original Scream trio Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), Dewey Riley (David Arquette), and Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox) all assemble to help the newest generation of potential victims survive their encounters with Ghostface. Said new generation includes Jack Quaid, Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega, Mason Gooding, Dylan Minnette, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Kyle Gallner, Sonia Ben Ammar, and Mikey Madison.
Scream hits theaters Friday.
via Screen Rant The post Watch: ‘Scream’ Legacy Sequel’s Final Trailer Drops Online appeared first on Bleeding Fool. |
| ‘Gotham PD’ May Feature More Batman & Joker Than We Thought Posted: 12 Jan 2022 01:15 PM PST
A new rumor claims The Batman’s Gotham PD spinoff series will prominently feature both the Dark Knight and the Joker.
A post on the SuperHeroHype forums from user Fearlessbat claims the series will mix elements of Gotham Central, Batman: Year One and Batman: The Man Who Laughs and feature the Joker as the main villain. Batman, for his part, will have what the poster describes as “a bigger role then [sic] expected.” The poster also claimed Harvey Dent/Two-Face would not appear in Season 1 and is instead being saved for Season 2. Skins and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales actor Kaya Scodelario is also said to be “in talks for a mysterious role.”
At this time, these rumors are not confirmed and should be taken with a grain of salt. Some of the claims made here have either been heavily alluded to or outright referenced by those involved in the production in the past. Additionally, it’s not clear just how reliable of a source the poster will end up being.
In 2020, The Batman director Matt Reeves was confirmed as helming an HBO Max series focusing on the Gotham City Police Department from his upcoming film. Reeves later confirmed the untitled Gotham PD spinoff would serve as a prequel to The Batman. Otherwise, plot details about the project are scare. However, there are reports the show’s working title is “Arkham,” leading to speculation the show will involved Arkham Asylum in some way.
Directed by Matt Reeves and written by Reeves and Mattson Tomlin, The Batman arrives in theaters on March 4. At the time of this writing, there’s no confirmed release date for a Gotham PD spinoff.
via CBR The post ‘Gotham PD’ May Feature More Batman & Joker Than We Thought appeared first on Bleeding Fool. |
| First-Ever Live Action NFT Series Casts Star of ‘Hawkeye’ & ‘Van Helsing’ Posted: 12 Jan 2022 10:55 AM PST
Hawkeye and Van Helsing star Aleks Paunovic is set to star in and executive-produce sci-fi NFT series GenZeroes, Deadline reports.
The project is among the first live action NFT series and is being set up to include 10 episodes that will be augmented by motion graphic comic books. Providing finance comes through, episodes are due to begin releasing in early March.
The project is set 200 years after an alien invasion has left the world devastated, where ten factions fight to control the future of humanity.
Van Helsing writers Matt Venables and Jeremy Smith will serve as showrunners. They will also executive-produce with Neil Stevenson-Moore. Kimani Ray Smith is director. Canadian company House of Kibaa is producing. Additional casting is underway.
To watch the GenZeroes series viewers will need to purchase an NFT via the House of Kibaa website. The "GenZeroes Universe" includes a live-action series, comics, and collectibles. Each level of NFT ownership will endow different benefits with the top level allowing fractional ownership of the series.
The post First-Ever Live Action NFT Series Casts Star of ‘Hawkeye’ & ‘Van Helsing’ appeared first on Bleeding Fool. |
| How the CBWU Will Undoubtedly Harm Image Comics’ Bottom Line Posted: 12 Jan 2022 09:15 AM PST
Last week on Twitter, Comic Book Workers United (CBWU) declared that they had won their vote to unionize Image Comics. Twelve employees participated in the election, according to the tweets, but three ballots were disputed by Image and remained unopened. Nonetheless, by a supermajority of 7 to 2, the remaining employees decided to unionize, causing Image Comics to become the first comics publisher in the United States to do so. In the aftermath, Image must now acknowledge the union as a result of the vote. The CBWU went on to announce that they will collaborate with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) to negotiate a “strong, fair, and exemplary first contract for comic book industry workers.”
Image Comics officially commented on the news by saying, “Everyone at Image is committed to this process and we look forward to continuing to work together on this.”
In a statement on the CBWU website, the group states: "For years, comics publishing workers have watched our professional efforts support creators and delight readers. Sadly, we have also watched that same labor be taken for granted at best and exploited at worst." They added that "the comic book and publishing industry as a whole, is overtaxed and undervalued," and that "our labor is integral to the comic book industry. It requires specialized skills, dedication, and makes quality publishing possible."
They continue: "We love what we do. But loving what you do doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t ask for improvements to your working conditions. It is with this in mind and with great hope for the future of Image Comics and the comic book industry itself that we announce our intent to form a union and request voluntary recognition."
CWA was certainly open to helping the CBWU get organized. What organization doesn’t want to collect monthly dues? The group confirmed back in November that they were prepared to assist whichever comics workers were prepared to organize — and didn't see the industry's historical lack of organization as an issue. "Management in every industry in the United States has been hostile to union organizing — the comic book industry is no different," a CWA rep says in a statement to THR. "What is different is that workers are fed up and ready to use the power they have when they join together to make real changes. When workers are ready to organize, we are ready to help them."
The announcement of the union spurred a wave of support on social media by supporters across the industry, congratulating the ten Image Comics staffers involved in the effort—whose positions range across production, editorial, accounting, marketing, and sales. They are Emilio Bautista, Ryan Brewer, Leanna Caunter, Marla Eizik, Drew Fitzgerald, Melissa Gifford, Chloe Ramos, Tricia Ramos, Jon Schlaffman, and Erika Schnatz. None of them are writers, pencillers, inkers, colorists, or letterers. These are all what would commonly be called “support staff”.
But although none of these staffers are on the creative side, mainstream comic book press outlets, who are overwhelmingly progressive at their core, were quick to cheer the move and frame this as a natural progression for Image Comics, being that the company’s origins are that of an independent house founded by comics artists looking for more creative control and ownership of their creations:
“Following in the footsteps of the company's founders, the employees of Image have formed Comic Book Workers United… the first of its kind in the comic book industry… a natural evolution for the creator-owned publishing company.” …”as other creative and adjacent fields around it have come to embrace unions, CBWU is currently a rarity.” Source: Gizmodo “The Image Union Is the Future of Comics: We hope this is just the beginning of a tidal wave of unionization in this country. It's long overdue." Source: Vice “Image Comics unionizing is a huge step for the industry…the first ever legally recognized comic book union. For an industry with a shameful past of mistreating both freelancers and staffers, it's a move that recognizes the many gains that the industry had made since it began…” Source: The Beat
Those who embrace the need for a union in the comic book industry seem to be convinced that labor unions are primarily concerned about the wage earners. And many are convinced that a labor union can be the only thing that stands between the typical wage employee and a life of poverty, punishing work hours, and horrific working conditions. These people ignore the critical importance of falling prices in order to increase incomes. Most people believe that a higher pay scale is all that matters, especially in Joe Biden’s America, where we have chronic inflation and prices aren’t falling anywhere.
Real pay increases can only come from increased profitability, which is best done by increasing the output of each employee, which in turn increases the supply of goods and services produced relative to the supply of labor.
But how profitable is Image Comics right now? Or the comic book industry as a whole? When you ignore the high sales of imports like manga in the US, the Western comic book industry is in a slump. After all, comic books are literally discretionary items for consumers, and consequently, the drivers affecting the industry revolve around consumer choices and affordability. In an age of handheld computers, streaming movies, and online video games, comic books haven’t been able to hold their once esteemed ubiquitous position on the menu of preferred forms of entertainment for most consumers.
Who’s actually reading comic books today? Is it teenagers? Nostalgic adults? Investing collectors? People who saw the Marvel movies first? (If you’re 12 years old, are you going to read some comic book, or watch The Avengers?) Comic books now also have to compete with incredibly immersive videogames, virtual reality, and a gazillion cellphone apps — not to mention social media, and even online fan fiction.
As research outlets like IBISWorld point out, following the global pandemic and its effects on the economy, the publishing business, in fact the overall economy, is not likely to rebound for many years, if at all. Even before the pandemic, print advertising spending was already experiencing chronic decline, and is expected to continue to make a very sharp decline in 2022 which will keep print advertising levels depressed for the remainder of the year. Publishers are going to see even further reduced revenues from advertisement from their monthlies.
So as comics are becoming less popular and the publishing industry as a whole continues to remain depressed amidst a global recession, the challenge for Image Comics working with a newly formed employee union will do nothing to increase their profitability. In its strictest sense, it will decrease profitability and make their ability to become profitable more difficult. The central forcing function of a union is their strategy of restricting the number of workers in a company to drive up the remaining workers’ wages. This approach will delay any recovery Image Comics hopes to achieve in the current recession. And naturally the support staff’s higher wages are going to be passed on to Image’s readers through higher cover prices, while Image Comics earns even less profit. So while a union often benefits its members, they can also hurt consumers with the resulting increased prices.
It cannot be overemphasized, when a union is formed in a company, the prices go up. Unions argue that they can raise their members’ wages, but few Americans understand the economic theory explaining how they do this. Unions are “labor cartels,” in that they work by restricting the supply of what they produce so that consumers will have to pay higher prices for it. It’s really that simple. In Detroit, the UAW, like all unions, helped its members at the expense of the rest of the economy. Detroit automakers passed along the cost of inefficient work rules and higher labor costs by raising their prices, that is until the automakers were forced into bankruptcy proceedings in 2008.
Of course, the CBWU only represents Image Comics staffers, and has no control over independent contractors, freelancers, or creators. And officially, freelancers can’t unionize, but they may create guilds, and getting the combative and diverse comics business to agree to any type of unionizing attempt has proven useless over the years. Since several artists and colorists don’t even live or work in the U.S., that proposal is never going to work. It has never worked before, and it won’t work now.
In the case of Image Comics in 2022, if they are currently struggling to make a profit, even the CBWU members are not likely to see a wage increase any time soon. Unions don’t typically negotiate higher wages for newly organized workers. No, the unions save those “higher wages battles” for employees at companies with existing competitive advantages that allow them to pay higher wages, such as successful research and development (R&D) projects or capital investments. So even though Image Comics may be the third biggest comics publisher in America, they only have around a 10% market share, which doesn’t mean they have a competitive advantage, particularly in an industry that isn’t seeing much profit overall to begin with.
Over the past few years, Image’s maximum full time staff was only around 24, and they had to lay off 4 of those during the pandemic. And if Image still maintains their original pattern of only charging flat fee rates to creators for publishing fees, they really aren’t netting a lot of money. The publisher is currently offering 42 titles for sale, and a few of those are reprints. The last published sales figures we have are from late last year, and not counting manga (which is trouncing American comics) Image only had two comics in the top twenty, and those were both Spawn comics from Todd McFarlane and other than McFarlane’s books, they had no books in the top 40 sales chart.
But there are other reasons for Image to be concerned about unionized staffers. The company is headquartered in In Portland, Oregon, which is not a right to work state. In fact, the governor signed a bill recently that allows union member employees to be given paid time off to engage in union related activities, which can include strikes.
As demonstrated just last week in Buffalo, NY, the only unionized Starbuck’s in the country was held hostage by their recently unionized employees. After barely being unionized a full month, most of the staff walked off the job Wednesday, saying they lacked the resources to work safely amid surging COVID-19 cases. Six employees who had been scheduled to work formed a picket line outside the Buffalo store, leading Starbucks to close the coffee shop for the entire day.
And under the new law signed by the governor of Oregon, if this happens at Image Comics, those employees are still getting paid while they strike. So Image would be forced to pay its employees to stand in opposition to the company, rather than paying them to work.
That’s not all. Even to the most reasonable and rational person, while the new union’s list of demands are initially not problematic, their final demand borders on the absurd.
“a collective voting option to immediately cancel publication of any title whose creator(s) have been found to have engaged in abuse, sexual assault, racism and xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, ableism, etc. until such time as said creators have engaged in meaningful reparations toward affected person(s).”
Basically this means that if this group of production staff decides a creator on a book is “problematic,” they can immediately decide to cancel that book, even though the owners of Image had already decided to publish it. Isn’t this kind of judgment relative to the beholder? It recalls the incident a few years ago when one of the covers to the acclaimed Howard Chaykin series Divided States of Hysteria depicted a minority being lynched and his genitals cut off, staffers at Image had a meeting with management to discuss their problems with the comic, but that time it didn’t go quite the way they hoped.
"We were like please, if we’re gonna do this kind of work, it has to have artistic value, give us a heads up. Like, we’re affected by this," David Brothers, an editor for comics publisher Viz who worked at Image Comics from 2013 through 2017, told Motherboard.
In the aftermath, Chaykin has tried to explain he is an ally of trans, but only wished to depict a tragic outcome in the story, but he has been effectively blackballed from the industry nonetheless. So how will the CBWU determine if a creator or comic is allowable at Image Comics. Will they scour every creator’s social media history for racial epitaphs? You can count on it. What if that creator voted for Trump? Of course! Will this new union of less than a dozen people people find openly bigoted creators like Gabby Rivera more or less problematic than Howard Chaykin? Would Dan Slott be more or less problematic than Mark Waid? Would they find Ethan Van Sciver more or less problematic than Ta-Nehisi Coates? I think you know where this is going. More gatekeeping. But shouldn’t it be up to the owners of a company which creators and what products they want to bank on in order to show a profit?
So what are Image Comics’ options here? Obviously they are going to try to work under these new conditions. A bunch of left wing ideologues who are artists don’t set up shop in Portland, Oregon and not tow the line when it comes to supporting unions. Their COO treats Joe Biden like a god in his own creator owned title (when it isn’t featuring hardcore and child sex). But their only other options are hoping new employees won’t join the union, which is VERY unlikely given the environment. They could just sell the company to new owners who may or may not like the idea of buying a company that has a union contract and can pass the “substantial continuity” test, but I don’t think Image’s board would ever swallow their pride in order to sell off their creation. And their final option is nuclear… the company goes under and files for bankruptcy which may their only path to get rid of the union.
Why isn’t the cheerleading media asking questions like “How can unionizing help an industry that’s no longer profitable? How can a union help a company like Image Comics who’s becoming less profitable year after year?” And why aren’t they asking readers if they’re ready to accept higher costs attached to those comics? I suspect it is because the mainstream comics press all subscribe to the same narrative embodied in their progressive, liberal political stances.
“Workers of the world, unite!” Let these staffers get more pay for less work! What's not to like? Until they run the company into the ground of course.
For their part, Image initially tried to ignore this, hoping it would just go away, but it didn’t. And no one here at Bleeding Fool ever really expected a bunch of lefties in Portland were ever going to push back very hard against a union. That’s just not how they roll up in Portland. In fact, Erik Larsen, the company’s COO, is ideologically against everything we stand for at Bleeding Fool. He’s a virulent progressive that’s openly and aggressively agnostic, and has repeatedly exploited his own creation (Savage Dragon) to stump for liberal politics when he isn’t featuring disgusting pornographic imagery that would make a Tijuana bible publisher blush. So why should we care if their company goes down the toilet?
After all, it’s their company to run into the ground if they like. And you can bet, some Image staff member, or even the COO himself, will read this article and think “we’ll show those Nazis! Those ‘gaters! Those trolls… that we can make a union work and Image Comics will set the example for workers in the industry to unite!”
Literally willing to cut off their nose to spite their face. Personally, I hope they can manage to make it work. I like a few of Image’s titles, and would hate to seem the company go away.
 One-time BF contributor Wes Daugherity has a slightly more hopeful take here.
So while readers like me who currently enjoy some of the output at Image Comics can continue to hope the company’s leadership can somehow manage to maintain a profit and support their new staffer overlords, it’s still very, VERY unlikely that the outcome is going to end up that way. In the meantime, more skeptical fans of the medium can only hope this doesn’t become a destructive chain of events that upends the comic book industry forever.
But even if it does, there’s always crowdfunding.
The post How the CBWU Will Undoubtedly Harm Image Comics’ Bottom Line appeared first on Bleeding Fool. |
| Review: The CW’s Naomi is an Unoriginal & Boring Superhero Drama Posted: 12 Jan 2022 07:45 AM PST  Entertainment is flooded today with superheroes these days, and that means we’re going to continue to get superhero origin stories where the protagonist happens to be in the right place at the right time. The CW’s latest offering ‘Naomi’ is no different. Developed by Ava DuVernay and based on the relatively recent 2019 comic series of the same name by Brian Michael Bendis, David F. Walker, and Jamal Campbell, the new CW show Naomi is the origin story of a superhero who doesn’t exist yet. Developed by Jill Blankenship, “Naomi” ties peripherally into Superman, even though this is reportedly a very different take on the Man of steel. The fact that Tyler Hoechlin isn’t portraying this version of the Kryptonian makes its scheduling alongside “Superman & Lois” an odd decision.
Kaci Walfall plays the titular character as a nerd, but not in the awkward, anti-social sense associated with that word when Stan Lee and Steve Ditko were first creating Peter Parker. No. She comes off more as a younger version of the CW’s Supergirl, at least in her earlier season. We first meet Naomi in the middle of a party, where her classmates are taking brief breaks from dancing to congratulate her on website dedicated to Superman.
“Naomi” joins the list of teen-with-a-destiny dramas — “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” comes to mind, where the audience either buys into the teen angst drama or fast forwards to get to the good parts. For those who lean toward the latter, first impressions suggest this new DC series is going to be a slog. Building “Naomi” around a Black teenager certainly ticks the inclusion checkbox that DuVernay is usually focused on, but this show really needs to pick up the pace, and get into the superheroing portion of the story, if it wants viewers to hang around long enough to see the transformation. Eventually, Naomi meets two mysterious adults played by Alexander Wraith and Cranston Johnson, who seem to know what’s really happening and how she is another “chosen one”. But these little, mysterious details told in riddles, while vaguely referencing other things in the DC universe, seems like a gip. If you like the usual cheesy dialogue we’ve come to expect from The CW drama offerings, particularly one that tries so hard it’s cringe, then this may be the show for you, as long as you don’t care whether or not it crosses over with the rest of the Arrowverse. New episodes of Naomi premiere on Tuesdays at 9/8c on The CW. “Unidentified Flying Object” will air on Tuesday, January 18th, but if you’re interested, The CW has released a preview for “Unidentified Flying Object”, the second episode here. The post Review: The CW’s Naomi is an Unoriginal & Boring Superhero Drama appeared first on Bleeding Fool. |
| Making a Move? Here are the Best Tips to Make it Smooth Posted: 11 Jan 2022 07:00 AM PST
Shifting the house, whether it's a street away, a state away, or to a new country, doesn't have to be a stressful event. Most people looking forward to moving to a new country like the US, have to be a little more careful about their packing since several rules are applicable in Customs. Those looking to travel to the US to marry their fiancés must get all their documentation and paperwork ready before they can book tickets and start the shifting process.
The visa for those traveling to the US to marry their fiancé(e) must apply for a k1 visa. This visa type will allow you to travel to the US and get married within 90 days of arrival. Once married, a status adjustment to permanent residence is possible. However, this process needs to be done with the help of reputable family visa solicitors, so you get the expert help required for a smooth move. Once you've started the visa documentation and have consulted professional immigration lawyers about the insurance, passports, paperwork, and more, you should begin winding down your home.
Let us help you with a few tips and tricks that will make the shift a little easy. Many people also prefer hiring professional packers and movers to ship their belongings to the US. While this is an excellent option for any bulky items like furniture, white goods, and more, it is best to take stock of everything you want to keep and discard before the packers arrive.
Preparing for the Move:You should start by making a checklist (either on paper or using any free app) and include a timeline of all the necessary things. You should also factor in the cost of the shifting (budget), including the fees of the packers and movers, freight forwarding, taxes, charges, and more. Since you are moving countries, there are hidden charges you may be unaware of and should keep a higher approximate as part of the budget. One critical factor that people forget is to send out notices about the move. You will need to inform the local authorities, police, electricity board, municipality, and more. You may also want to sell or end the lease on your house. Informing friends, loved ones, and family members is also extremely helpful since you could do with additional emotional strength, support, and assistance with packing.
Packing Tips:
Moving Day Tips:
The post Making a Move? Here are the Best Tips to Make it Smooth appeared first on Bleeding Fool. |
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