#jim mccann

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[joezy27]

HAWKEYE - Clint Barton

Origins Of Marvel Comics (2010) #1 by Jim McCann, David López, Álvaro López & Tom Smith

[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in Irish History | 5 March:

In the liturgical calendar, today is the Feast day of St. Kieran, sometimes listed as ‘Kevin the elder’. 1389 – Thomas Mortimer is appointed Justiciar of Ireland. Mortimer was an English soldier and nobleman. He moved to Ireland as a deputy to his brother Edmund after he was made Lord of Ireland. 1716 – Martin Bladen, soldier, politician, civil servant, gambler and writer, is given leave in the…

[samasmith23]

Damn! This Elseworlds Marvel WHAT IF? one-shot certainly elevated Kitty Pryde & Emma Frost’s normally hilarious rivalry to a much darker & disturbing level!

From What If? Astonishing X-Men (2009) #1 by Jim Mccann, Matteo Casali, Kai Spannuth, David Yardin & Mike Getty.

[a-bucky-a-day]

| NEW AVENGERS: THE REUNION (2009) #1

By Jim McCann and David López

[bringbackwendellvaughn]

[nickfuryagentofsword]

Fear Itself: Sin's Past 1 (2011) by Jim McCann & Stefano Landini 

Cover: Stephanie Hans

Fear Itself

[vertigoartgore]

2010's Hawkeye & Mockingbird #4 interior art by David López. I'm actually one of the few (if not the only one) who prefer this run (by McCann & López) to the next one (way more popular) by Fraction & Aja. Probably because I always preferred what those two did on Immortal Iron Fist (along with Ed Brubaker at the start).

[9kmovies-biz]

This AI-Powered Robot Arm Collaborates With Humans to Create Unique Paintings

Photo: Carnegie Mellon University A new AI robotic arm was created to paint compelling artwork and is now coming to the forefront as a revolutionary entity. FRIDA (Framework and Robotics Initiative for Developing Arts) is a robotic arm created at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science and is the newest addition to the university’s art world. The AI arm is named after iconic…

[seachranaidhe]

The families of the New Lodge Six are held in the highest regard.

They have campaigned for Truth & Justice in a dignified manner for many years. Today they still await a date for an inquest into the unlawful killings of their loved ones. Will you stand alongside them tomorrow? The families of the New Lodge Six are held in the highest regard. They have campaigned for Truth & Justice in a dignified manner for many years. Today they still await a date for an…

[winterfieldfrontiers]

All Characters in Sonic Cinematic Universe

Sonic The Hedgehog

Miles Tails Prower

Knuckles The Echidna

Tom Wachowski

Maddie Wachowski

Wade Whipple

Doctor Robotnik

Agent Stone

The Buyer

Rachel

Pistol Pete Whipple

Wanda Whipple

Randall Handel

Agent Willoughby

Agent Mason

Sonic Cinematic Universe

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[augustusaugustus]

13.151 Twanky (Part One)

SKASE: Certain similarities between Tosh and Shakespeare. They’re both bald Brummies with ‘tashes and they’ve both done sod all for hundreds of years.

(In two parts, because who could limit this to just 30 pics?)

[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in 2012 – Death of Bernard Noël 'Banjo Barney' McKenna, a musician and a much-loved founding member of The Dubliners.

Barney McKenna was the last surviving founding member of the Irish folk group the Dubliners. With Luke Kelly’s powerful voice and force of nature on stage, Ronnie Drew’s gravelly memorable vocal sound, it was McKenna’s playing of the tenor banjo, coupled with John Sheahan’s fiddle, that gave the Dubliners their original instrumental quality. In the process, McKenna redefined the role of the banjo…

[nomilkinmyteaplease]

Blurry and facing away but nevertheless

[dannyreviews]

Affliction (1997)

One of the hardest things to do when making an original piece of art is portray the real life surroundings of its plot. The film that goes above and beyond that encapsulation is the Coen Brothers' "Fargo" which is as perfect a film as you can get. But that's not the topic of this post. The following year came a film that has the desolate look of "Fargo", but in a more straightforward Hollywood fashion. Paul Schrader's "Affliction" is a competent piece of cinema that gets its strength more on its substance, but not in the plotting.

In the snowy hills of New Hampshire, officer Wade Whitehouse (Nick Nolte) has a lot of emotional baggage. He's in the middle of a messy custody battle with his ex-wife (Mary Beth Hurt), his friend (Jim True-Frost) is a suspect in the death of a Massachussetts businessman (Sean McGann) during a deer hunt, he is conflicted as to whether to marry his girlfriend Marge (Sissy Spacek) and is still haunted by his abusive childhood at the hands of his father Glen (James Coburn). When Wade's mother dies, he and his brother Rolfe (Willem Dafoe) must confront their personal demons while also getting to the bottom of a mystery involving the deceased businessman and his boss Selectman Gordon Lariviere (Holmes Osborne Jr.) pertaining to a dodgy real estate deal.

"Affliction" has the appearance of a film steeped in mystery and intrigue, but very little of it actually bears any real suspense. The story involving the businessman's death is treated as an ordinary subplot rather than the main story. Another criticism is how the town and its citizens are shown. The desolate nature of the small town lacks any real interest for its urban legends and old wives' tales. The characters are all creations of Hollywood from their mismatched accents (Minnesotan sounding people from New Hampshire) to costumes that look like a JCPenney catalog. It was those characteristics done right in "Fargo" that elevated that film to legenday status, the idea of a mystery being given full treatment, the characters speaking freely in their own dialect and the spontaneous flow of life going at a natural pace. In "Affliction", it's more like make-believe.

The one part of "Affliction" that is done well is its most important aspect, that of a father and son relationship in turmoil. Schrader's succeeds in showing us flashbacks that look like home movies down to the graininess of the film. We understand why Wade is not an effective parent, why he cannot commit to marriage and why he is on the brink of insanity. The narration by Rolfe connects the dots in showing the relevance between the Whitehouse family and the businessman's death, despite the latter's less than stellar use in the plot. When we find out the real story in the epilogue, we've stopped caring.

Nick Nolte gives one of his most effective performances as Wade. He's the guy you hate because of his callousness but the same time feel sorry for him because of his childhood scars. His rugged nature mixed in with his sensitivity is worn all over his face. James Coburn, in a well deserved Oscar winning performance, makes Glen Whitehouse into the Father From Hell, a lowlife with the most disdain for the human race. The final scene between the two is a testament to their acting chops and the lengths they can go to churn out characters with dimension. The rest of the cast (Spacek, Dafoe, Osborne, True-Frost) are also terrific in otherwise thankless roles. The one acting performance that was off-putting was that by Brigid Tierney as Wade's daughter Jill, which was all whining and no human dimension. Her scenes come off as cheap, direct to video family theatrics, not an R-rated Hollywood indie film directed by a Hollywood legend like Paul Schrader.

In addition to Coburn's Oscar win for Best Supporting Actor, the only other nomination was a well deserved one from Nick Nolte in the Best Actor category. "Affliction" could have been a masterpiece like "Fargo" if it only adhered more to the urban legend mentality and breathed life into its surroundings with more visual and characteristic subtlety. As it is now, "Affliction" is "Fargo-lite".

7.5/10