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- Proving Our Point: Image Comics’ Workers Union Quickly Goes to War
- ‘Halo’ Trailer: Mixed Reactions to Paramount’s VideoGame Adaptation
- The Flash’s Ezra Miller Sends Bizarre Threat to Non-Existent KKK Group
- Happy Birthday Diamond Comic Distributors: Celebrating 40th Years Today
- Are Today’s Comic Readers Rejecting DC’s “Woke” Superman?
- Ghost Recon Future Soldier Foreshadowed Media’s Fixation on Russia & ‘Ultranationalists’
- Grant Gustin Negotiating Deal for Season 9 of CW’s The Flash
- Paw Patrol: The Movie Fetches Over $100M+ in International Box Office
- Spider-Man: No Way Home Nearing $2Billion Globally… Without China
| Proving Our Point: Image Comics’ Workers Union Quickly Goes to War Posted: 01 Feb 2022 01:10 PM PST
Less than a week after ratifying their Comic Book Workers Union, Image Comics’ new labor union for office staff quickly turned combative and filed a legal complaint with the National Labor Relations Board against the publisher. In the filing, Image Comics is accused of engaging in “unfair labor practices,” retaliating against union members, and interfering with the exercise of employees’ rights by knowingly disseminating false information, according to the petition.
Even before the union was ratified, the CBWU was quite aggressive and combative with Image Comics. The legal documents are published below.
If it’s not already clear, this is demonstrative of why most companies do not welcome labor unions and illustrates exactly what we warned about three weeks ago. Comics by Perch speculates on where this goes from here:
The business of comic book publishing just got very restrictive and expensive at Image Comics. How long before this spreads throughout the industry? The post Proving Our Point: Image Comics’ Workers Union Quickly Goes to War appeared first on Bleeding Fool. |
| ‘Halo’ Trailer: Mixed Reactions to Paramount’s VideoGame Adaptation Posted: 01 Feb 2022 11:30 AM PST
Master Chief is finally gearing up for action, but some fans are still skeptical.
Paramount Plus has unveiled the official trailer for its highly anticipated science fiction series "Halo." The first look footage also revealed a premiere date of March 24.
Based on Xbox Game Studios' best-selling series of first-person shooter video games, "Halo" is set in the 26th century and focuses on the adventures of Master Chief (Pablo Schreiber), a cybernetically enhanced super-soldier known as a Spartan that defends humanity under the orders of the United Nations Space Command. While plot details of the live-action series are being kept under wraps, most games in the "Halo" franchise focus on the UNSC's war with an alien theocracy known as the Covenant.
Many fans cheered the new trailer, but some responses were mixed:
It looks like responses are very mixed, particularly among hardcore fans of the property. Where do you land?
Halo starts streaming on Paramount+ on March 24.
via Variety
The post ‘Halo’ Trailer: Mixed Reactions to Paramount’s VideoGame Adaptation appeared first on Bleeding Fool. |
| The Flash’s Ezra Miller Sends Bizarre Threat to Non-Existent KKK Group Posted: 01 Feb 2022 09:15 AM PST
First it was Superman Smashes the Klan. Now it’s The Flash vs. the Ku Klux Klan.
Last week, Ezra Miller, who uses they/them pronouns, is best known for starring as Barry Allen in the DCEU movies, and is set to lead his own superhero movie, The Flash, later in 2022. A few days ago, the actor posted a cryptic Instagram selfie video in which he appears to make threats to a group he refers to as the Beulaville chapter of the North Carolina Ku Klux Klan.
In the video, the actor says the following: “Hi, this is Ezra Miller, a.k.a. the Bengal Ghouls, the Mad Goose Wizard, and this is a message for the Beulaville chapter of the North Carolina Ku Klux Klan,” the star said. “Hello! First of all, how are ya’ll doing? It’s me. Look, if ya’ll wanna die, I suggest just killing yourselves with your own guns, OK?”
Miller then adds, “Otherwise, keep doing exactly what you’re doing right now—and you know what I’m talking about—and then, you know, we’ll do it for you, if that’s really what you want. OK. Talk to you soon, OK? Byeeee!”
Along with the video, Miller wrote in the caption, "Please disseminate (gross!) this video to all those whom it may concern. This is not a joke and even though I do recognize myself to be a clown please trust me and take this seriously. Let's save some live [sic] now ok babies? Love you like woah."
Is this boy on drugs?
Miller was very clearly calling out a group he labelled “the Beulaville chapter of the Ku Klux Klan,” but it’s not clear why he chose them as the target. The town of Beulaville is found in Duplin County, NC, and has a population of less than 1,200 people. Any potential KKK groups in the town don’t appear to have an online presence, or an Instagram account. Bounding Into Comics reported that they could find no such group, and the Matrixx and Rhodes Show revealed even the SPLC has no mention of the group, or the city itself. No one is pro-KKK, but this video was just bizarre. So is this just another case of Hollywood virtue signaling, or is something else going on?
Another strange video circulated back in April 2020 that showed Miller confronting and choking a woman while in Iceland. The seven-second clip shows what appeared to be Miller saying, "Oh, you wanna fight? That's what you wanna do?" to a young woman, who appears to be jokingly preparing herself for a fight and is smiling. Miller then grabs the girl by the throat, and throws her to the ground. At this point, the person filming says, "Woah, bro. Bro," and stops shooting, with the footage ending abruptly.
Variety reported that the incident took place around 6 p.m. on April 1 at Prikið Kaffihús, a bar in Reykjavik that Miller frequents whenever he is in the area. The footage sparked immediate backlash, and Ezra Miller never commented the matter. A source confirmed to Variety at the time it was a serious altercation, rather than a joke as some had speculated.
I’m sure his agent is thrilled.
In 2020, we reported on rumors that following all the delays of his Flash solo film, Ezra Miller was out as the Flash, but the film’s delays weren’t the reason. Grace Randolph, of Beyond the Trailer had the following to say:
"I don't know about Ezra. I hear there's like… I don't know… Okay… I'll tell you a little something about Ezra," said Randolph. "I know that there might be something else about him coming out. And you know, we'll just see if it ever gets reported. It's kind of similar to how I heard that Kevin Tsujihara had something about him. I heard about that like months before that broke, that story about Kevin Tsujihara that was such a big problem for him. So I heard there is a little something similar with Ezra, and I don't know if it will ever come out. I don't even know what it is. So I can't even say what it is, 'cause I don't know. But I just heard there's something."
To my knowledge, Randolph hasn’t reported on what she heard since, but her reference to Tsujihara could be a clue. Tsujihara managed Warner Bros. for more than five years. But THR published text messages allegedly between Tsujihara and a young British actress, Charlotte Kirk which revealed that several years ago Kirk agitated for movie roles following an alleged sexual dalliance with the studio boss, according to the report.
There’s no reason to think Miller was involved in any sort of sexual harassment incident, but there appears to be something unsavory about the actor. If he keeps showing up in the weird videos, who knows what might come out next?
The post The Flash’s Ezra Miller Sends Bizarre Threat to Non-Existent KKK Group appeared first on Bleeding Fool. |
| Happy Birthday Diamond Comic Distributors: Celebrating 40th Years Today Posted: 01 Feb 2022 07:45 AM PST
Today, Diamond Comic Distributors officially celebrates its 40th anniversary, a milestone in the evolution of the company.
On February 1st of 1982, President and CEO, Steve Geppi, transitioned from local retailer to comic book distributor with one warehouse and seventeen customers. Forty years later, Diamond has grown into the largest distributor of English-language comic books, graphic novels, and related pop culture merchandise worldwide.
Geppi's accomplishments don't stop with Diamond. Over the last forty years he has built an impressive network of pop culture related companies and brands under the name, Geppi Family Enterprises (GFE). Together, these companies position GFE as a leader in the wholesale distribution, licensing, publishing, grading, and preservation of comics, games, toys, and collectibles.
"None of this would have been possible without our customers, our vendors and of course our incredible employees," said Geppi. "I am deeply grateful for the commitment to excellence and the dedication my teams bring to what they do every day. The fact that we are marking Diamond's 40th anniversary today is a tribute to their hard work and gives us all reason to celebrate!"
From the beginning, Diamond has been dedicated to the specialized needs of the Direct Market and focused on continuous improvement. Whether it's launching a new platform like PULLBOX that enables fans to manage subscriptions and order product for pick-up from their local comic shop, improving shipping boxes, providing new promotional opportunities for publishers, or supporting fan engagement through events like Free Comic Book Day, Diamond lives and breathes this industry.
"I am extremely proud of the important and proactive role Diamond and Geppi Family Enterprises have played and continues to play in this wonderful and dynamic industry," says Chuck Parker, President of Diamond Comic Distributors. "When Steve launched Diamond 40 years ago, his vision was to create a company that was a true partner to customers and suppliers, as well as a place employees would be proud to work. I have been with Diamond for almost 37 years and while I have seen many changes in our industry, Diamond has stayed true to that vision."
In addition to celebrating 40 years of service, Diamond is marking a few other key milestones this year. PREVIEWS, the definitive print source for upcoming comic books, graphic novels, toys, games, and more, premiered its 400th issue in January. This year also marks the 25th anniversary of Diamond's dedicated customer service team and 20 years in Diamond's consolidated inventory and shipping hub located in and around Olive Branch, MS.
Diamond plans to keep the celebration going all year long. Consumers and retailers can expect to see 40th Anniversary PREVIEWS Exclusives featuring commemorative logo stickers on the packaging, 40 weeks of special deals, commemorative ads inside PREVIEWS, a new look for the Diamondcomics.com homepage and more.
The post Happy Birthday Diamond Comic Distributors: Celebrating 40th Years Today appeared first on Bleeding Fool. |
| Are Today’s Comic Readers Rejecting DC’s “Woke” Superman? Posted: 01 Feb 2022 06:10 AM PST
Bounding Into Comics found sales data giving important signs that the DC Comics audience is fed up with the famous creations being exploited by ideologues to force tasteless and crude agendas down everyone’s throats:
Lee-the-leftist has been part of the problem for a long time. In all the years he rose from artist to executive, he’s done quite a bit, along with the recently fired Dan DiDio, to dumb-down everything DC’s heroes and their co-stars were all about, and they practically followed up their predecessors of the 90s normalizing jarring violence in their storytelling. It’s clear regardless of his ranking Lee doesn’t belong in this job anymore, if he cares about nothing but soulless storytelling.
Can the writers ignore violent crime carried by any of these interlopers into the USA in real life? What’s ironic about Taylor’s blather is that it’s highly unlikely he’ll ever write the son of Kal-El confronting the issue of migrant children kept in cages by the Biden staff. Which makes Taylor a serious hypocrite.
Yup, that’s pretty low as anything else is well before the turn of the century. So while DC boasted they had “unprecedented orders” made for the 5th issue, it’s clear nobody cares about these stunts anymore.
While we’re on the subject, this reminded me of a most devastating discovery I made on the Superman Homepage reviews, of the 5th issue of Son of Kal-El, where the reviewer gushed over it sight unseen, and the following is head-shaking:
Who would’ve thought a site dedicated to the first famous superhero could’ve sunk this low over many years, and their reviewers could embrace such a Mary Sue direction, where a character is devoid of flaws and/or vulnerability to physical harm? This is seriously atrocious, as is their take on one of the variant covers, a gimmick that’s become a sad staple in over 15 years:
And with this, the reviewer fails to explain why it should be with the same sex, rather than a girl. I guess they also believe the whole notion of a lady in distress from violent criminals is also thoroughly outmoded, to the point they’d rather this badly developed “successor” to the Man of Steel should only be paired with a seemingly indestructible man. After reading this, I was so colossally disappointed with the Superman Homepage site for succumbing to woke PC, I had to remove them from the external links menu here. This is just not a healthy direction they’re taking, and if that’s what they think, I can’t believe they’re really Super-fans. And in more on the subject of Superman, Newsarama’s also been fluff-coating how the death of the Man of Steel in 1992-93 changed comics and marketing “forever”, which tragically makes sense in a manner of speaking, when you consider the alarmingly repetitive depths comicdom sunk to over the past decades:
And that’s not a bad thing? Well, not in the minds of these pseudo-journalists, that’s for sure. If anybody bought into the issues more for monetary value than story merit, something’s wrong. As is the following:
And we all know what an excruciating artistic atrocity Emerald Twilight was, though even before that, lest we forget, the disgraced Gerard Jones already took GL to a much lower level within the first 18 issues of the 3rd volume, with his dreadful leftist political allusions and contrived story elements, like the Guardian Appa Ali Apsa telekinetically hauling dozens of whole cityscapes to planet Oa, so they could serve Jones’ leftist notions of metaphors for race relations and such. (And, lest we forget, Appa was turned into a sacrificial lamb in the process, which was quite repellent.)
So, do any of those speculators feel foolish in the years since? Anybody who thinks the death of a character makes a story like this so absolutely valuable it has to be treasured for speculation or monetary value is out of their minds. And look how it all served as fodder for a video game:
It’s also commonplace for divisive politics to be forced into the proceedings, as in the case of Son of Kal-El, but Newsarama’s not interested in commenting on any of that.
Well that’s the problem: a story in which a character dies – resurrection notwithstanding – is seen as one of the most magnificent ideas ever told, bar none. And nobody ever questions whether that kind of approach has become a poor substitute for more challenging storylines, science-fiction or otherwise, where the heroes could battle issues like terrorism, savagery, evil world conquests and even mad scientists and monsters. In recent times, even battles between heroes have taken up far more notice than the battle versus evil, and that too is troubling, because Batman vs. Superman is a product of such thinking. And the mainstream press never questions whether this has ruined fantasy storytelling for the sake of political correctness, and an overall disrespect for what the superhero creations were originally intended for.
So of course, is it any wonder sales have sunk so low? Nope, but the MSM won’t dwell on that. All they care about is publicity stunts, and forcing wokeness on the franchises at the expense of what made them enjoyable in the years before, sadly enough.
Originally published here. The post Are Today’s Comic Readers Rejecting DC’s “Woke” Superman? appeared first on Bleeding Fool. |
| Ghost Recon Future Soldier Foreshadowed Media’s Fixation on Russia & ‘Ultranationalists’ Posted: 31 Jan 2022 03:40 PM PST
Back in 2010, Ubisoft released its Ghost Recon Future Soldier: Future War [Europe] (it's a mouthful) trailer, which was hyping up Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier (another mouthful) video game that was eventually released in 2012. Surprisingly, that 2010 trailer has significance right now. After all, the villains in the trailer were Russian "ultranationalists." And the ruling class of today has quite a fixation on both Russia and so-called ultranationalists.
The Ubisoft trailer effectively serves as a mini-movie. Full of suspense and action, it's quite entertaining and features a look at what people in 2010 thought future warfare might look like. Also of note is how the trailer features Russian ultranationalists as villains. Even back then, the ruling class didn't hide its contempt for nationalism. And having Russians as villains was a "safe" choice. Kinda like having white, Christian Americans as villains has long been a safe choice.
Flash forward ten-plus years and we're where we are today, with the ruling class not too fond of Russia, and openly hating American patriots interested in protecting American sovereignty. So as odd as it might seem, a decade-old video game trailer is quite relevant today with regards to real-world events.
And as an aside, the trailer also features some interesting future tech, some of which is sort of here today, and others which isn't. For instance, there's a hint that the sniper fires guided bullets. And some of the troops wear helmets with mandibles and eye protection. And then there are the unmanned ground vehicles, which are getting closer to being a reality.
As for cloaking fabrics and some of the other tech? We're not quite there yet.
By the way, if you're really interested in how past predictions of future battlefield tech panned out, you can always look back at the U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems. The FCS was a much ballyhooed program that ended up being what most people would call a failure. However, some of its concepts (if not the actual systems) were more or less on-point. Check out the below mini-movie that was made in the early to mid aughts to promote FCS. (And if you want to view more, just do a "Future Combat Systems Movies" search on YouTube.)
The post Ghost Recon Future Soldier Foreshadowed Media's Fixation on Russia & 'Ultranationalists' appeared first on Bleeding Fool. |
| Grant Gustin Negotiating Deal for Season 9 of CW’s The Flash Posted: 31 Jan 2022 01:15 PM PST
The CW's flagship DC series, The Flash, is headed to a ninth season. Titular star Grant Gustin is finalizing a new contract to return as the title character in the hit show, from Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros. Television, sources said.
Deadline reports that the pact Gustin has agreed to is for one year; a multi-year offer was on the table. According to sources, the new contract comes with a sizable raise for the actor whose salary is believed to be north of $200,000 an episode. Gustin has also reportedly capped his involvement at 15 episodes next season.
With Gustin on board, The Flash is expected to be renewed for Season 9 by The CW and become the longest running Arrowverse series on the network, eclipsing anchor Arrow, which ended its run after eight seasons. It could be The Flash's final chapter.
The network usually picks up the vast majority of its current slate this time of year. Because of the potential CW majority ownership sale, the network may give early renewals to fewer shows this time, with The Flash fully expected to be on the list with continuing strong linear and digital performance.
The Flash resumes its eighth season March 9 on a new night, moving to the Wednesday 8 PM slot. The post Grant Gustin Negotiating Deal for Season 9 of CW’s The Flash appeared first on Bleeding Fool. |
| Paw Patrol: The Movie Fetches Over $100M+ in International Box Office Posted: 31 Jan 2022 10:45 AM PST
Paramount/Nickelodeon/Spin Master's Paw Patrol: The Movie has sauntered across the $100M threshold at the international box office. The Cal Brunker-directed animated action adventure now counts $100.3M to date overseas, and over $140M global. The film has been on a staggered overseas rollout, beginning in just six markets in mid-August last year, and continuing to add new hubs throughout September and more with solid holds. The pups also got a late-breaking China release on January 14 this year, making Paw Patrol one of just a handful of Hollywood titles in recent times to be approved. The film has a 9.2 on Maoyan and has grossed $8.8M so far. There are still some markets ahead. A sequel, Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie, which sees the band imbued with superpowers, was announced in November for an October 2023 release.
via Deadline The post Paw Patrol: The Movie Fetches Over $100M+ in International Box Office appeared first on Bleeding Fool. |
| Spider-Man: No Way Home Nearing $2Billion Globally… Without China Posted: 31 Jan 2022 08:20 AM PST
Even with most of the movie theaters shut down in the Northeast due to winter-storm Kenan, Spider-Man: No Way Home continues to top the box office, pulling in another $11 million on its seventh weekend. That's above the studio’s original estimates which puts the movie at $735.9 million domestically, just $24.6 million behind James Cameron's Avatar.
The film is now up to $1.74 billion globally and is estimated to be close to $610 million in profit. Spider-Man continues to be helped by the fact that not major films have opened against it other than Scream's debut weekend. Scream continues in second place with $7.35 million for the weekend and Sing 2 takes in $4.8 million for third place. The international marked is the most impressive, with Spider-Man being only the 10th film to ever break the $1 billion mark in overseas ticket sales and that is without not having been released in China.
If that ever changes then this film could skyrocket even higher. The post Spider-Man: No Way Home Nearing $2Billion Globally… Without China appeared first on Bleeding Fool. |
Wolfgang Wilcox 
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