Now more than ever, representation matters. When we see ourselves in stories, the feeling is nothing short of magical. I’ve put together a short list of graphic novels featuring black, brown, and queer readers that are worth looking into. This of course, is just the tip of the iceberg. Stay tuned to learn about more comics featuring people of color in leading roles. For now, happy reading!
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We CAN Do Better
Hey everyone, 2020 has been a wild ride. Although there has been a lot of bad, we are starting to see some good. But we are not done yet. While it hasn’t felt right to post anything new here, I wanted to check in and let you all know that I have been active in my community to make sure that my community leaders and state officials know that BLACK LIVES MATTER. As this is Pride month it is important to say that ALL BLACK LIVES MATTER. If you are still looking for ways to help out during this pivotal time but can’t make it out to a protest check out this list of things you can do right now: https://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-you-can-help-black-lives-matter-protesters-if-you-cant-attend-in-person/
Let’s lift each other up!
Stay Safe. Stay Healthy. Stay Strong.
#StayHomeSaveLives
‘The Ludocrats’ #1 Is Ludicrous, And I Love It
‘Ludocrats’ #1
Writers: Kieron Gillen and Jim Rossignol
Illustrator: Jeff Stokely
Published: April 1, 2020
‘The Ludocrats’ promises to be a story so astonishingly outrageous that it will chase boredom away faster than a shadow ninja chasing a T-Rex on a solar-powered hoverboard. Strap yourselves in friends because ‘The Ludocrats’ takes place in a world where people fought in the Hemispheric Boredom Wars in order to bring about the Ludicrous Revolution. Naturally being boring and predictable became an offense so terrible that it could lead to one’s death. Seventy-Nine Eldritch Hyper Pope’s later, something is amiss and the future of the Ludocratic dynasty is at stake.
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Slowest Man Alive: ‘The Flash’ Movie Finally Has a Release Date
The Flash is heading to the big screen sometime this century. Shocking, I know. After years of delays and set backs, the Scarlet Speedster will star in his own feature film in 2022. There are not a lot of details about the script at the moment, and we don’t know who the big bad might be, but that’s okay. We’ve waited this long for The Flash to be green-lit, we can wait a little longer to find out what the plot points will be.
Throwback Thursday: Mo Willems
Mo Willems published his first children’s book, Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, in 2003. Since then he has become a staple in preschools across the nation. Today, Mo Willems has been hosting Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems in order to bring a bright spot to families during these uncertain times. Cheers to you Mo!
Change is coming
‘Unpresidented’ Will Be Available in April 2020 For Your Reading Pleasure
Just ahead of election season, the fan-favorite political cartoons of creator Kieron Dwyer (Last of the Independents, LCD: Lowest Common Denominator) will be collected into a hardcover titled, Unpresidented, and available from Image Comics this April 2020.
Taking aim at hypocrisy, greed, stupidity and cultural chaos in the age of Trump, Unpresidented features a wide range of sharp-witted illustrations lampooning the bizarre course of American politics and culture since the fateful escalator ride of 2015.
“Even as a young kid, I’ve always been drawn to editorial and political cartoons, both in style and substance. The exaggerated and loose qualities of them appealed to me much in the same way that the work of Mort Drucker and Jack Davis did in MAD Magazine,” said Dwyer. “The economy of information in an excellent editorial cartoon is, in my opinion, the highest form of graphic storytelling. In most ways, that is what I strive for in all my illustration work: simplicity and essence, true communication. Even before my professional comics career, my first published works were the editorial cartoons I did for my high school newspapers, both the official one and the anti-establishment underground one put out by myself and several friends. I feel I’ve just been refining that storytelling craft my entire life, but events over the last few years have had a catalytic effect on me and compelled me to express my feelings in this particular medium.”
Fans of political humor and social commentary should not pass Unpresidented by.
Unpresidented (ISBN: 978-1-5343-1587-7) will be available on Wednesday, April 29 and in bookstores on Tuesday, May 5. It can be pre-ordered at your local comic book shops on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, IndieBound, and Indigo.
Unpresidented will also be available for purchase across many digital platforms, including the official Image Comics iOS app, Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, comiXology, and Google Play.
Key West Film Festival Announces Golden Key Award Recipients
Florida’s Key West Film Festival announced that Kimberly Peirce and Tom Skerritt will receive the prestigious Golden Key Awards at this year’s festival, running November 20-24, 2019.
Peirce, a Florida native, will be honored on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the release of the groundbreaking film Boys Don’t Cry. The festival will screen the film on Friday, November 22, and Peirce will join Eugene Hernandez from Film at Lincoln Center for a discussion at the screening.
To mark the 40th anniversary of the seminal sci-fi film Alien, fellow honoree Tom Skerritt will have a Q&A with Rolling Stone’s David Fear at the Thursday, November 21 screening.
The film will be preceded by a screening of the award-winning short film The Phantom 52, which premiered at Sundance 2019 and stars Mr. Skerritt. Director Geoff Marslett will also be in attendance.
Michael Tuckman, Director of Programming of the Key West Film Festival, commented: “We are beyond thrilled and humbled to be able to honor both Kimberly and Tom on major anniversaries of two films that broke boundaries and rules for their genre and paved the way for so many future voices to express their creativity. And both mean so much to Key West, as evidenced by its thriving and active LGBTQ community and the constantly creative forces on display through events like Fantasy Fest, which is going on right now.”
Past Golden Key Award winners include: Burt Reynolds, Marisa Tomei, Paul Verhoeven, Alan Cumming, Harmony Korine, and Lois Smith.
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The Popularity of Marvel Movies Are a Reflection of Difficult Times
Cinema or Child’s Play? That is the question Marvel Studios has had to face recently. This month Marvel fans were dealt a one-two punch at the hands of Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola. At that start of the month, Scorsese compared the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) to theme park rides. Coppola backed this sentiment while being interviewed by journalists in France by claiming that “we expect to learn something from cinema, we expect to gain something, some enlightenment, some knowledge, some inspiration.” Coppola went on to say that Marvel films never fulfill those promises of real cinema and are, therefore, “despicable.” Ouch.
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Bookish Gamer Gal 