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entergamingxp · 5 years ago

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DualShockers’ Favorite Games of 2019 — Ben’s Top 10

December 29, 2019 4:00 PM EST

From games like Apex Legends to The Outer Worlds, 2019 proved to me that there were a huge variety of games to enjoy across all genres.

As 2019 comes to a close, DualShockers and our staff are reflecting on this year’s batch of games and what were their personal highlights within the last year. Unlike the official Game of the Year 2019 awards for DualShockers, there are little-to-no-rules on our individual Top 10 posts. For instance, any game — not just 2019 releases — can be considered.

I’m not really sure where to begin with 2019. It’s a year I’ve certainly grown a hated for, and the gaming landscape has been incredibly volatile at times. We’ve seen the Sekiro discourse send a barrage of abuse towards both disabled gamers and journalists. We’ve seen a well-known publisher hold an AMA on 4Chan. We’ve seen E3 doxx nearly every journalist that has attended the event.

However, amongst the dark days we’ve had some great games come out in 2019, and I’ve been enjoying a handful of games I never would have experienced if it wasn’t for Xbox Game Pass. I’ve also been front and center in helping to direct change to how video games are made more accessible for players, but more on that at a later date.

So, here’s my top 10 list of games that I’ve been enjoying in 2019.

10. The Outer Worlds

Originally this title from Obsidian Interactive was going to be higher up on my list, but after pondering on it I realized that it doesn’t entirely deserve to go too high. I enjoyed it, I completed it, I gushed about it for numerous weeks, and I found Parvati, a video game character I adored. But while I really enjoyed the game, it started to become a chore even thinking about picking it back up and trying to go through it all again. The combat felt groggy, the side-quests were a bit naff, and it wasn’t much of a broad open-world as I initially expected.

Saying that though, I did find the writing between the companions and the main storyline characters incredibly engaging and enjoyable to sit through. I liked how the acting reflected wonderfully on dialogue options I chose, and as a result, I found myself heavily engrossed in the story right up until the end where it told me the fate of those on my team that I may have neglected somewhat. The brilliant writing was enough for The Outer Worlds to have left an incredibly positive impression on me.

Check out DualShockers‘ review for The Outer Worlds.

9. The Orange Box

I’m going to cheat a bit here. Earlier in 2019, I went through Portal for the hell of it; another journey through Valve’s puzzler with portals and an evil robot that sings about cake. I’ve played it God knows how many times and it still never gets old. I also jumped on Team Fortress 2 when news sparked up about the game no longer being supported by Valve for the time being. Hearing the news sent me down a nostalgic trip from my many hours spent with it. Returning to it was somewhat heart-warming to be back in the world, but at the same time heart-breaking that it seems riddled with hackers now. Despite that, it was still brilliant to go back.

With Half-Life: Alyx being revealed, I wanted to spark up my memories of the Half-Life world again. So I booted up Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One, and then managed to get through Half-Life 2: Episode Two before becoming busy with this journalism lark. Safe to say, The Orange Box is by far my favorite collection of games that will always remain fun to play no matter how many years have passed, even now in 2019.

8. Ape Out

Devolver Digital’s crazy ooh-ah-ah game was one I enjoyed for hours, and still find myself picking it up every now and again. The gameplay was challenging at best, and had a soundtrack that reacted to the combat which kept me wanting to keep the fight going at all costs, even if it meant bleeding out everywhere. The sounds of the punches, gunfire, and limbs splattering were all of high-quality and kept Ape Out feeling more like a large-scale action flick rather than a small indie title.

The art style was also something I found to be the most memorable; it had a clash of gritty textures that seemed to blend in well with the vibrant orange ape. The harder modes for a bigger challenge were also incredibly frustrating but were always tempting for that “one more go” mentality. The one that stood out the most to me was the mode in which you have to break back into the place from which you escaped, but you’ve only got one life. The Metroidvania twist here left me with hours of extra fun trying to beat it.

Check out DualShockers review for Ape Out.

7. Stardew Valley

Stardew Valley is a game that I’ve always wanted to play, but one I never got round to until I got the Switch. Stardew Valley is one of those games that seems perfect for portability; I’ve always enjoyed relaxing games in which you can do simple things such as farming, but the pixel art style adds to the aesthetic that I found myself being drawn towards. I particularly enjoy the music combined with the gentle sounds of nature flittering through the world. Eventually, I found myself putting it down for a good few months, and it’s always sat there beckoning me to play it again.

It wasn’t until recently when I heard there was a new update for it that I picked it back up and jumped into an entirely new game, deleting my old farm. Upon doing so, I’ve rejuvenated my love for it and I’m glad I’m back on the scene for it. My only question is, will I continue enjoying it when Animal Crossing: New Horizons comes out, or will I abandon it for a town of overly happy animals? Time will tell.

6. Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice

Thank you Xbox Game Pass; if it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have finally tried Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. Originally, I never picked the game up because I didn’t think I’d enjoy it. There was no reason, in particular, it just didn’t draw me in. However, all the talk of how it represents mental health and how the graphics are stunning was enough for me to download it and try it out. I was blown away. The binaural sound design is really quite something to behold, especially with a good set of headphones. The character animations are lovely and the combat felt heavy and impactful.

I wasn’t a fan of the Metroidvania-theme that lingers throughout the game, but it certainly adds to the tension of trying to stay alive just so you don’t have to go through it all again. It’s certainly a game I’ve had a great time with, and am still enjoying playing it now as we wait for the sequel to arrive with the Xbox Series X.

Check out DualShockers‘ review for Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice.

5. Tetris 99

I’ve always been a fan of Tetris, the old version and any modern-at-the-time iterations. When Tetris 99 was announced, I won’t lie, I groaned: “Ugh, another Battle Royale attempt.” Little did I know that I grew to love it almost instantly. The matches can be quick, some can be lengthy and challenging. Some can be frustrating and some can leave me cocky and proud. I had started to grow fed up of it being constantly online though, and while I don’t agree that the single-player mode is locked behind a paywall, I paid for it.

The Big Blocks DLC is actually great, allowing me to play it with friends on the same system without needing to worry about 97 other players battling against us. The marathon mode is also addictive, with me racking up over 500 lines in one match. The fact that the game is still sporting a good deal of players online is also fantastic because whenever I want to jump online and play it, there’s always players there to fill 99 slots.

Check out DualShockers‘ review for Tetris 99.

4. Sea of Thieves

Sea of Thieves is still my all-time pirate game, even in 2019. I still get a lot of satisfaction from it, especially when it comes to just hanging out and having fun with friends or family. There’s always something to find, quests to do, and enemy ships to battle, but not only that, the game is continually being supported with more and more updates. These updates bring small changes and some big changes, such as the addition of fire which I find devastatingly good fun. I can’t get enough of the game, and while sailing alone can be boring, it’s still somewhat relaxing and a lovely escape from life.

Check out DualShockers‘ review for Sea of Thieves.

3. Rocket League

Okay, the new Blueprints update has kind of angered the community, and I myself am annoyed that all the items I was planning to trade are now suddenly not tradable. But it goes without saying, Rocket League is still one of my favourite titles, specifically on the Switch. I used to play it on PC, then I switched to Xbox, but I’ve found myself more comfortable with it on the Switch due to the portability and being able to lounge around while knocking my balls around (you know what I mean).

What I most enjoy about the game though is the full cross-platform play that allows me to enjoy it with friends and family on different platforms. It’s an absolute godsend and keeps the game thriving with players.

2. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

I just can’t not have a year where I don’t pick this game up. Now it’s getting even harder to ignore despite being several years old because it’s being re-released on everything. It landed on the Nintendo Switch and sparked up the whole hype surrounding it again, then just as the chatter dies down, it heads over to Xbox Game Pass too. In addition to that, the Netflix series went live this month, making 2019 a pretty big year for The Witcher fans.

I still love jumping into the game, whether it’s to carry on with my quests I still haven’t completed, or to wander the expansive world for no reason but exploration, or to just take photos with Nividia Ansel. I’ve also found myself starting the game from scratch earlier this year because I forgot where I was, but this meant I got to experience the brilliant missions towards the start of the game, especially those with the Bloody Baron. It’s a game I don’t think I’ll ever tire of.

Check out DualShockers‘ review for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

1. Apex Legends

A surprise favorite of mine. I tried getting into other Battle Royale games such as PUBG, Fortnite, Battlefield V‘s Firestorm mode, etc, but none have stuck with me. It wasn’t until Respawn Entertainment’s Apex Legends hooked me. I love nearly everything about it; the art is lovely, the way it feels to play is fluid, and the Ping system is revolutionary with me not even needing to use a headset to communicate.

The game has done well for itself since launch. While lately it has been slow on updating the game with new content, eventually the developers caught up and started introducing quality content over quantity. It’s a game I keep wanting to play, a game I continually enjoy despite dying so many times I fear my team despises me, and a game that I hope continues to be supported and inspires more multiplayer games to incorporate a Ping system.

Check out the rest of the DualShockers staff Top 10 lists and our official Game of the Year Awards:

December 23: DualShockers Game of the Year Awards 2019 December 25: Lou Contaldi, Editor-in-Chief // Logan Moore, Managing Editor December 26: Tomas Franzese, News Editor // Ryan Meitzler, Features Editor December 27: Mike Long, Community Manager // Scott White, Staff Writer December 28: Chris Compendio, Contributor // Mario Rivera, Video Manager // Kris Cornelisse, Staff Writer December 29: Scott Meaney, Community Director // Allisa James, Senior Staff Writer // Ben Bayliss, Senior Staff Writer December 30: Cameron Hawkins, Staff Writer // David Gill, Senior Staff Writer // Portia Lightfoot, Contributor December 31: Iyane Agossah, Senior Staff Writer // Michael Ruiz, Senior Staff Writer // Rachael Fiddis, Contributor January 1: Ricky Frech, Senior Staff Writer // Tanner Pierce, Staff Writer

December 29, 2019 4:00 PM EST

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2019/12/dualshockers-favorite-games-of-2019-bens-top-10/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=dualshockers-favorite-games-of-2019-bens-top-10

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blockheadbrands · 5 years ago

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High Times Greats: Fran Lebowitz, America’s Funniest Femme Fatale

High Times Reports:

Glenn O’Brien’s interview with the iconic Fran Lebowitz from the August, 1978 issue of High Times magazine.

Fran Lebowitz is 69 years old October 27. To celebrate, we’re republishing Glenn O’Brien’s interview with the living legend from the August, 1978 print edition of High Times.

At the age of 27, Fran Lebowitz has been suddenly hailed as the funniest writer to come down the pike since Dorothy Parker or, by some accounts, Oscar Wilde. There are a lot of funny people around, and a lot of writers too, but somehow the combination of great humor and great writing has become an exceedingly rare commodity in the modern world. And that’s why Fran’s first book, Metropolitan Life, has become a smash hit.

Fran began her pro writing career at 20. She had managed to infiltrate the staff of a New York underground arts magazine called Changes as an ad sales person and eventually conned her way into writing assignments. At first Fran had to sneak in her own brand of humor. Then, in 1972, she began writing for Andy Warhol’s Interview. Interview was then a film magazine, and it reviewed almost every film that was released. Fran’s column was called “The Best of the Worst”; her job was reviewing the best of the current bad films, and she worked as hard as a Variety critic, taking in two or three screenings a day. As a result, the column was the last word on Hollywood’s follies, and it was also hilariously funny, winning her a small cult of fanatical fans.

But after a while Fran outgrew the bad-flick format. She needed something bigger to disapprove of, and so her column became “I Cover the Waterfront,” and her beat became the entire universe of questionable taste. Fran took on modern manners, aesthetics and culture the way William Buckley takes on liberalism. But her crankiness betrayed a heart of gold. Although complaint was her form, the result was a celebration of practical intelligence, a kind of Dr. Atkins epicureanism.

And as Fran took on polyester, landlords, press agents and pop psychology, her reputation grew. She began a similar column (although PG rated) in Mademoiselle. And soon she had a book offer from a fan in publishing. Metropolitan Life, published by E.P. Dutton, is a collection of Fran’s columns. There’s an out-loud laugh (or more) on every page, as well as many passages destined for the quotation dictionaries, and the best epigrams written since the invention of television.

Ms. Lebowitz was interviewed by Glenn O’Brien, a longtime friend who has proposed marriage on several occasions.

High Times: What were your first words?

Lebowitz: “Daddy.” My mother taught me to say that so I would wake my father up instead of her.

High Times: Do you remember the first funny thing you ever said?

Lebowitz: No. I can’t remember the last funny thing I ever said.

High Times: Were you a behavior problem in school?

Lebowitz: I was a behavior problem as far as talking. I talked out of turn, I talked too much, I talked in class, I made jokes during the lessons, I whispered to other children. I wasn’t an interesting behavior problem. I wasn’t glamorous and rebellious. I just talked too much. My first school punishment was sitting in the corner in kindergarten wearing a Band-Aid over my mouth and holding up a sign that said “I am a chatterbox.” That was my first run-in with authority.

High Times: Did you watch television as a child?

Lebowitz: I don’t really remember it. The only shows I remember when I was a little kid are Miss Frances’s Ding Dong School, which I watched because everyone made fun of me because my name was Frances. Also a TV show that was on Sunday morning for four hours: I can’t remember the name of it, but Sonny Fox was the emcee. Children played marbles on it. There was nothing televisiony or psychological about it. It was like watching children at a birthday party. Children would get up to watch other children playing marbles and Ping-Pong and stuff like that.

I was a big fan of Sky King. I Married Joan, I Love Lucy, I loved all those situation comedies. I loved getting the measles and colds so I could sit on the couch and watch all those morning situation comedies. The Great Gildersleeve. I never watched TV at night because my mother put me to bed at 7:30 until I was 12. I went to bed earlier than anyone in the world.

High Times: What did you do in bed?

Lebowitz: Actually my main occupation in bed was book reports. In my grammar school we got extra credit for extra book reports. So I would lie in bed and make up book reports about books that I made up. These were oral book reports. I would stand in front of the class and report on a book I had made up. And at the end of the book report you were supposed to tell people where they could get the book, and I would always say. “You can get this book in the Derby Library in Derby, Connecticut, where my grandmother lives.”

High Times: What was your best subject in school?

Lebowitz: Smoking.

High Times: When did you start smoking?

Lebowitz: When I was 12.

High Times: Why did you start smoking?

Lebowitz: To be glamorous. It was really a passion with me. I loved to smoke. I would wake up and be so excited because I could smoke.

High Times: Did your mother know?

Lebowitz: I guess after about six months I started getting caught constantly. It became the major thing I was punished for. I think my most enormous smoking punishment was being grounded for a month. The day my grounding was up and I was going to be allowed to go out on Saturday I got the flu and was sick for two weeks. I was caught all the time.

Then I started getting suspended from school for smoking. At my high school they employed a woman known as the matron whose sole job was to go into the girls’ bathrooms and catch people smoking. But there was a myth about her. It was like the myth where if a girl gets pregnant and takes the boy to court, if three other boys come into court and say that they had slept with her, they would all get off scot-free.

Well, huge myths grew up around the matron at my school. Everyone thought that to actually suspend you for smoking the matron had to catch you either holding a cigarette or with the smoke coming out of your mouth. Once a girl was sitting on the window ledge smoking a cigarette and the matron walked in and the girl jumped out the window. That was on the second floor.

Another time I saw a real pretty girl standing in front of the mirror with a little tiny cigarette butt hanging out of her mouth, teasing her hair. And the matron walked in, and the girl actually swallowed it. I was caught smoking, and I didn’t have the cigarette in my hand or smoke coming out of my mouth, and they suspended me anyway, so it turned out not to be true, just suspicion was enough.

High Times: What brand did you smoke?

Lebowitz: Tareyton, because that’s what my mother smoked. I used to steal hers. When she started realizing cigarettes were missing it never occurred to her to accuse me, so she went to the supermarket where she bought her cigarettes and told the manager that the boys who worked there were stealing packs out of the cartons. She said they’d take one pack out and then move the rest up.

High Times: What brands have you smoked since then?

Lebowitz: I smoked Tareyton the longest, then I switched to Lark. Then I moved to New York and switched to exotic foreign brands. Gauloises, English Ovals, any cigarette that looked like it would annoy people. Black cigarettes, every horrible adolescent smoking gesture imaginable. I rolled my own cigarettes. After that I switched back to Larks, and I smoked those for a really long time. Then I switched to Vantage. Then to Merits. Then I switched to Carlton in an attempt not to smoke too much, and now I smoke nine times more Carltons than I ever smoked anything else.

High Times: What was the first thing you wanted to be when you grew up?

Lebowitz: A writer. It was the only thing I wanted to be except for a brief flirtation with wanting to be a cellist. I played cello in the school orchestra, but I was so horrible that I soon got over the notion of being a cellist. When I was really young I wanted to be a toll taker because I thought they kept the money. I thought they owned the roads; I always used to tell my parents I wanted to be a toll taker, and they couldn’t imagine why.

High Times: What was the first thing you wrote as a serious attempt to be a writer?

Lebowitz: I wrote a book when I was about eight called The Secret Castle that owed a lot to Carolyn Keene, who wrote the Nancy Drew books. I wrote it in a loose-leaf notebook in pencil. I had this aunt who had a book called The Night Visiters. It was written in the nineteenth century by, I think, a seven- or eight-year-old child who was the daughter of someone very rich who had this book printed. That’s why “visitors” was misspelled. I just knew an eight-year-old wrote it and it was published. I didn’t connect with the fact that her father was a lord and that he had it privately printed, and that my father was not a lord—he owned a furniture store and had no intention of having a book privately printed. So I wrote The Secret Castle and was very disappointed to discover that no one published it.

I also wrote plays for my cousins to perform at various family gatherings. I also used to write a zillion songs. I took popular tunes, like “Michael Row the Boat Ashore,” and wrote lyrics having to do with my family. I wrote a musical comedy for my grandparents’ 35th wedding anniversary. I wrote for the school newspaper. I wrote an editorial about the matron and got kicked off the paper.

Then I went to a prep school that had a paper called the Wilson Wyndowe. We went to the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Connecticut and interviewed the star of the play, and I wrote this incredibly bitchy Rex Reedish interview with her and got an outraged letter from her press agent. Maybe 20 people had read it, and he acted like it was in the Daily News. I was really very proud of that.

Fran Lebowitz/ John Beam

High Times: Tell me about your career as a poet.

Lebowitz: I don’t think I was a poet for even an entire year. I was a poet for about nine months. I started being a poet when I lived in Poughkeepsie, and I wrote a book of poetry called Poughkeepsie Blood. My first action on coming to New York was walking into Grove Press, plunking down the manuscript and demanding they publish it. Fortunately they didn’t, so it’s not around to haunt me.

High Times: What was the style? French symbolist?

Lebowitz: No. I had never really read any poetry, so it was a completely invented style. It was kind of adolescent-petulant—sulking, rebellious. It didn’t rhyme. There were maybe 40 poems, the only poems I ever wrote. There were two funny ones that were real crowd pleasers when I used to read them. During the time that I read poetry, because I was such a wonderful reader of it, people who actually had a legitimate interest in poetry would hear me and ask me to send it to them because they thought it was good. And then they would get it, and I would get these polite little letters back rejecting it. I’m happy none of it was ever published.

High Times: Where did you read?

Lebowitz: The Village Vanguard. That was actually a job. I saw an ad in the Village Voice that said “Wanted—Poets.” This really weird guy named Jack Scully, who was an ex-monk, had somehow convinced Max Gordon, who owned the Village Vanguard, that the fact that the Vanguard was empty during the day was losing him a great fortune. It wasn’t enough that he had Charles Mingus playing there every night.

So Scully put on something called Village Varieties, and he hired all these teenaged artists-to-be, and it opened at ten in the morning and closed at six. Customers paid 99¢ an hour to listen to this garbage. I’d read five or six each time I went on. And sometimes I went on at ten o’clock in the morning and read to the guy sweeping up from the night before. It’s very disconcerting to be in the basement of a night club at ten o’clock in the morning reading poetry on a stage with a spotlight on you and no one there.

But I thought it was a job. I got up every morning, brushed my teeth and went to the Village Vanguard and read poetry. They had a very weird array of people who worked there. They had one guy who was like an Elvis imitator, only he imitated Oscar Wilde. He was the only one of us to break out into the big time, because he got a job on the first gay cruise ship. We were all really jealous of him. The rest of them were mostly folksingers and blues musicians and other horrible poets. There was one 75-year-old woman who was a torch singer; she had varicose veins, and she’d get up on this stool and sing Marlene Dietrich songs, also at ten in the morning.

High Times: Were you a beatnik?

Lebowitz: I was beatnikesque. I wanted to be a beatnik. But I wanted to be a beatnik when there were already hippies. My inspiration for wanting to be a beatnik was not Allen Ginsberg or Jack Kerouac but Maynard G. Krebs from the Dobie Gillis show. The first time I ever came to New York by myself, I snuck to New York on a bus and bought a pair of bongo drums with all the money I’d saved my whole life, which was $12.

High Times: How far did you get in school?

Lebowitz: I was unceremoniously expelled from prep school in my senior year for no apparent reason. I didn’t do anything interesting. I didn’t lead a riot or set fire to the gym or do anything James Deanish. Just one day the headmaster woke up and thought. “She’s really not our type.” I was home sick when I was expelled.

High Times: Did you ever worry about not graduating from high school?

Lebowitz: I didn’t worry about it. My parents did. I was quite happy to be out. My mother and father thought that because I didn’t go to college I’d probably end up working in the five-and-ten. They had a vision of me in a pink smock with a little square badge on it saying Fran. But I did actually graduate from high school, because I took the New Jersey High School Equivalency Test. So I have a state diploma. I can’t imagine what I could have done with it. I guess I could have gotten into driving school.

High Times: What jobs have you had besides writing?

Lebowitz: I’ve had a number of interesting, colorful jobs. I drove a taxi. I was a chauffeur for Johnny and Edgar Winter. I answered Steve Paul’s telephone and was a general schlepper and errand girl for him, and I drove for him. Steve paid me excessive amounts of money to answer his telephone. It was charity really. I sold belts on the street.

And I participated a lot in market research. I got on this list, and I went and discussed products. They would give you $15 and a sandwich. I watched 400 Bayer aspirin commercials. The most interesting one I went to was for a company that wanted to make a vodka for women. This guy came in and showed all these fake advertising campaigns and fake brands of vodka. One was called Catherine the Great, and it had a picture of her on the label. I wanted to know what a vodka for women meant. I guess it didn’t go.

I also cleaned people’s houses, specializing in Venetian blinds. During that period I had stripes cut on my hands. I never had any skilled jobs because I never had any skills. I still can’t type.

High Times: I remember telling you you’d never make it as a writer until you learned how to type.

Lebowitz: I’ll never make it as a typist. I think I will learn to type. I now dread the getting-it-typed part as much as I dread the writing part. I finish things now, and I think, “Who was the last person who typed for me? Who hasn’t typed for me in a long time?” I could probably get a secretary for what I spend getting my friends to type for me. “I’ll take you to 21 if you type for me.” I’ve typed some of my columns. The last one took me 11 hours to type. I could have written a trilogy in 11 hours.

High Times: What was it like being a cab driver?

Lebowitz: I was 19 at the time, so I thought it was entertaining. I got a lot of tips. I didn’t have any adventures. I picked up two famous people: one was Dr. Joyce Brothers, who undertipped me, and one was Rod Steiger. I met some very interesting taxi drivers. I met one who used to go to Kennedy Airport, to the terminals where people were coming from Florida, and there were a lot of Puerto Ricans who had never been to New York; he used to have a bathroom scale in the taxi, and he would tell these Puerto Ricans that in this country taxi rates were by weight and that it was a quarter a pound or something like that. And he would weigh them. He was the most inventive cabbie I ever met.

High Times: What writers have inspired you?

Lebowitz: I don’t know if any inspire me. I know who I like. I like that Oscar Wilde. I like Thurber. I like Dorothy Parker. I like lots of writers, but now I can’t think of them.

High Times: How about comedians?

Lebowitz: I like Marshall Brickman. He writes for the New Yorker. I like Woody Allen. Don Rickles. I used to like this guy Milt Kamen. I like Mel Brooks, especially the 2,000-year-old-man records with Carl Reiner. I love Richard Pryor. But I will go see any comedian. Especially really horrible ones. I’m always sorry when I see that someone has tried out 11 new comedians and I wasn’t there.

One of my all-time favorite funny people was Jack Douglas. He wasn’t a comedian, but he was the funniest talk-show guest. He wrote a lot of books. I read How to Be a Naked Bus Driver and My Brother Was an Only Child. The first sentence of one of those books was, “It was autumn in New York; you could tell it was autumn because chorus boys all over town were losing their leaves.” I thought that was the most hilarious thing I’d ever read. At the foot of his driveway in California, Jack Douglas had a sign that said “Have you called these people?” I also thought Oscar Levant was hilarious. I couldn’t imagine knowing someone who was that funny.

High Times: What are your favorite magazines?

Lebowitz: Sepia is my all-time favorite. I like Ebony too, but it’s no Sepia. I like Family Circle, Ladies Home Journal, anything with recipes that use marshmallows and American cheese in the same dish. I like Rock Scene, Jet, Bronze Thrills, Interview, Italian Baby Vogue, Used Planes. Used Planes comes out every single month. I like Richie Rich comic books. And I even have the Richie Rich home game. I also have the Family Feud home game, but I can’t figure out how to play it.

High Times: Did you ever smoke pot?

Lebowitz: Yes, but not with much zeal. It was unavoidable. But I never liked pot much. I was more of a drinker. I did once smoke an ounce of marijuana in one day and ended up in the emergency ward at Mass. General in Boston.

High Times: Why did you smoke an ounce of marijuana in one day?

Lebowitz: Because I was 19 years old. Because I was stupid. Because I had an ounce of marijuana. I was at that time living on the floor of a friend’s room at Boston University, and I knew that if I didn’t smoke that ounce of marijuana, someone else would. In those days you smoked whatever pot you had that day, so rather than share with others I smoked as much as I could humanly smoke.

When I got to the hospital they did not believe that I had smoked marijuana, I was so smashed. They thought I had taken acid, and I couldn’t convince them it was marijuana. Their antidote to this was giving me about 22 Thorazines. I think I got to 2, and then I slept 22 hours. It was a very terrifying experience because when I started to flip out having smoked this much pot I was in a room with people who had also smoked this much pot and no one would help me out.

At that time colleges had these hotlines, and you could call up and say, “My friend just ate 14 pounds of acid,” and some graduate student would drive over in his little Chevy and rescue you. On the Boston University phone you dialed N-E-E-D and a concerned Jewish graduate student came over and took me to Mass. General with two other people who were also smashed out of their minds. On the way he started to drive into a tunnel, and I decided they might be going into a tunnel but I wasn’t, so I tried to jump out of the car. When I got to the hospital I was restrained.

And I was really distraught. I had been spending all of my time with drug-addict college students. I really wanted someone to save me. I wanted to see Robert Young. But this was the ’60s, and there were all of these Harvard medical students there learning to be doctors, so all the doctors in the hospital had hair down to their shoulders and granny glasses. It was terribly disconcerting because I knew that they weren’t going to cure me. I thought they’d probably just give me another joint.

They made me wait three hours to see the psychiatrist, and by that time I was starting to come down. The person who checks you in and takes your name and insurance came over to me and actually said, to me, “Why did you choose Mass. General?” And I said, “Because I liked your clever ads.”

At that point one of the boys I was with realized I was feeling better and got really mad at me for insisting on going to the hospital, and he screamed at me, which made me perfectly crazy by the time I got to see the psychiatrist. The psychiatrist also had shoulder-length hair and Levis under his white coat, and I spent ten minutes arguing with him over whether I’d taken acid or smoked pot. So he gave me enough Thorazine to put the entire college to sleep.

High Times: Have you ever taken acid?

Lebowitz: No. I was never interested in having such interesting experiences. I didn’t want to have my consciousness expanded, I wanted to have it restricted. I wanted consciousness-restricting drugs; that’s why I used to like liquor. Now I hate the smell of pot. I’d rather have people shooting up in my apartment; at least I don’t have to smell it. Unless they die.

High Times: When you were writing “The Best of the Worst” what was the best bad movie you ever saw?

Lebowitz: I don’t remember. American International made so many great movies that they’ve all melted in my mind into one great A.I.P. movie.

High Times: Did A.I.P. ever react to your devotion to their product?

Lebowitz: Not Samuel Z. Arkoff or anyone, but the press agent there loved me. I remember one of the best days of my life was an all-day A.I.P. screening with three movies and lunch. One of the movies was The Thing with Two Heads, starring Ray Milland and Rosie Grier. Ray Milland’s head was on Rosie Grier.

One of the other ones was a Manson-type film, a hippie death cult. A.I.P. had one incredible movie after another. Truckstop Women was one of my favorites. The title song was sung by a truck. I have a great collection of A.I.P. press handouts. Maybe I’ll donate them to one of those film schools in Los Angeles for a tax write-off.

High Times: Did you ever get any bad reactions from your bad movie reviews?

Lebowitz: Not from the people who made the movies. But John Springer banned me from his screenings. He was the only person who took me seriously enough to ban me. And at that time he had every important movie, and that ended my movie-reviewing career. He had only the biggest movies, and he acted like I was affecting the box office. But he was very nice, and in the letter that banned me he told me how much he liked me. I do remember that the worst movie I ever saw was called Four Flies on Gray Velvet, with Mimsy Farmer, one of your great loves. But to this day I have never seen a worse movie.

I saw a lot of movies that were never released because people knew of my interest in that sort of movie, so I often went to distributors’ screenings and sat with 12 men with cigars. I liked it better than critics’ screenings because they didn’t sit there trying to think of entertaining comments; they just sat there with their cigars, trying to figure out how much money they could make on it. I reviewed lots of movies that never opened in New York, only in drive-ins. My whole movie consciousness was based on movies no one else had ever seen. They thought I made them up.

I saw a group-therapy movie—and the whole thing took place in redwood hot tubs with people screaming their problems at each other. And I was once ejected from the Whitney Museum for making comments during a film about baking.

High Times: Tell me about your books before Metropolitan Life?

Lebowitz: What books?

High Times: Didn’t you write some pornographic books as a struggling artist?

Lebowitz: I only wrote one by myself. I don’t remember who published it. I also did some subcontract work for porn writers. I knew about four or five people who wrote porn books at the time that I was a poet. The one I wrote myself was called House of Leather. I published it under the name of the headmaster who threw me out of school. I remember I got $500 for it. I just talked it while a speed freak typed it. It was the most money I’d ever made.

They were terrible. They told you what to write. They told you what kind of sex to put in it. What you couldn’t have at the time was male homosexuality, because the only books with male homosexuality were for male homosexuals. They had a style sheet that was kind of the opposite of the New York Times. You have to say fuck, you have to have these kinds of sex. It was incredibly boring writing that stuff. As boring as reading it.

High Times: Tell me about your writing habits.

Lebowitz: My writing habits are basically nonwriting habits. I sulk for several days. Then I start thinking that maybe somewhere in the house is a column that I never turned in. This has never occurred. Then I try to bargain with them to wait until I get to the absolute edge of the deadline. I wait until the editor says, “Unless it’s in tomorrow morning at ten o’clock we can’t run it.” Then I stay up all night and do it.

High Times: Do you ever think you can’t do it?

Lebowitz: Every single time I’ve ever written I thought I couldn’t do it. But I’ve never missed a deadline. If I know it’s the last day, I always do it. And I always start writing very late at night. I used to start at midnight, but that’s gotten pushed up, so now it’s common for me to start at three in the morning. I get tired, but fear keeps me awake. I used to be able to do it without feeling it, but now I’m in bed for three days afterward.

The whole time before I write I spend on the phone begging people for ideas and solace and sympathy. My favorite thing to do is to call another writer who has a deadline, because they will stay on the phone with you. Your friends who don’t write will not stay on the phone with you, because they have other real things they want to do. If someone else has to write, then you know you have a willing companion to talk to on the phone for hours and hours while they put off their writing.

But now, as I’ve grown up, all my friends have developed much more mature writing habits. They all say, “Oh I did it this afternoon,” or, “Oh, I’m finished. I’m going out.” I’m the only person left who is this irresponsible. Now I call up friends during the day and they’re writing. That never used to happen.

I also have several writing habits necessitated by living in this apartment. I have to take the TV off the chair. I have to move the lamp to the desk. I have to take all the junk off the desk and wash the desk. That’s good for at least an hour of not writing. I’ll also invent things, like I have to clean the entire apartment before I write. And now I eat a steak before I write, like a prizefighter.

High Times: If someone offered you an hour TV special that you could do anything with, what would you do?

Lebowitz: I’d like to have a talk show with no guests. I’d just sit at a desk and talk. Or I would call people on the telephone and have their responses broadcast. I think Brigid Polk did that once. She rented a theater and sat on stage and called people up and didn’t tell them. That’s what I’d like to do. I’d call it “Hello, This is Fran.”

High Times: Do you answer your fan mail?

Lebowitz: I have to say I have only written back to important people, people in the publishing business. The idea of writing something without publishing it is too horrifying to me. I never write anyone letters. One of my resolutions is that I am going to start answering my mail. Once I wrote a column for Interview called “Send This Girl to Camp” where I set myself up as some sort of fresh-air-fund child and announced that I wanted to go to camp: I invented a camp called “Camp Sensibility” and asked people for contributions to send me there. And people sent in money. But then I found out it was fraud or something and I could go to jail, so I sent the money back and wrote to the people who sent it to me.

High Times: Have you gotten any marriage proposals?

Lebowitz: I’ve gotten some marriage proposals, but I don’t think they were serious. I’ve gotten lots of date proposals. Someone once told me they were sending me 14,000 roses and 12,000 Chinese concubines, but they never showed up.

High Times: What hours do you keep?

Lebowitz: I see no reason to get up before one o’clock except to watch Family Feud. When it was on at 1:30 I saw no reason to get up in the morning, but now it’s on at 11:30, so sometimes I wake up to watch it. I don’t like to go out during the day—it’s too crowded.

High Times: Do you watch anything else on TV besides Family Feud?

Lebowitz: I went through a period of watching $20,000 Pyramid, but it was too frustrating because every day I won $20,000 and I have no money. I also went through a period of watching Name That Tune.

Oh, now I remember my favorite TV show from my childhood. It was The Modern Farmer. It was actually a show for farmers. I don’t know why it played in Morristown, New Jersey. It went on at five-thirty or six in the morning. As a child I kept the opposite hours. The Modern Farmer came on before Sunrise Semester, and it was about farming. One day they would show you how to plant tomatoes, the next day they’d show how to raise chickens, the day after that how to can peas.

I was mesmerized by The Modern Farmer. I used to sneak out of bed to watch it. I wish it was still on, except now I guess it would be too modern. I think there should be an oldies TV station like there’s an oldies radio station, with Dobie Gillis and Life of Riley and all those great shows. Richard Robinson thinks there should be a TV station that’s only the best commercials.

High Times: Did you ever have any pets?

Lebowitz: I had a parakeet when I was four called Polka Dotty, and I killed Polka Dotty by eating its food. Polka Dotty ate seeds and celery tops, and my mother would give me Polka Dotty’s food, and I would go downstairs and eat it. I did not connect eating with staying alive, so I didn’t think anything of eating the food. Then one day Polka Dotty was found dead. But my mother didn’t tell me. One day I went downstairs to eat Polka Dotty’s food, my mother told me that Polka Dotty had flown south for the winter.

I have two animal theories. One is that deers are rats. I once read that deer are in the rodent family, and I still believe this. The other is that horses are hands. Because someone once told me that horses’ legs are actually like fingers and that their hooves are actually fingernails. So I evolved the theory that horses are hands. But I really don’t like animals at all. I would rather have a typist.

TO READ MORE OF THIS ARTICLE ON HIGH TIMES, CLICK HERE.

https://hightimes.com/culture/fran-lebowitz/

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nothingman · 6 years ago

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Writers and artists took this weekend to condemn harassment and bigotry in the comics community

High-profile creators in the American comics industry have been slow to condemn the rise of Comicsgate, a campaign to “save” the comics industry by reducing the diversity of comics both behind the scenes and on the page. But this weekend, a wave of harassment aimed at a legendary creator’s widow prompted a number of writers and illustrators to rally together in making statements standing against intolerance in the comic book community.

On Aug. 21, a Twitter user posted a clip from an interview with deceased comics legend Darwyn Cooke — best known for his work on DC: The New Frontier — and tagged it #comicsgate. This caught the attention of Cooke’s widow, Marsha Cooke, who thoroughly denounced the movement. Her response provoked a string of threatening tweets, some going as far as to imply that her objection to her husband’s name being linked to Comicsgate was some sort of false flag that she had been “coached or bribed” into making.

Like Gamergate, Comicsgate has its prominent personalities associated with it, among them Ethan Van Sciver, a former DC Comics artist who regularly collaborated with former DC Comics chief creative officer Geoff Johns on titles like Green Lantern and The Flash. Van Sciver has a history of online bullying which has been documented extensively, and has used his YouTube channel to promote his interviews with controversial figures in genre media, including Vox Day, a writer who led several successive campaigns to game the voting of the Hugos, and prominent Comicsgate voice Richard C. Meyer, who runs the ironically named Twitter account Diversity and Comics. Meyer also hosts a YouTube channel on which he has made numerous racist and transphobic statements in regards to comics creators, including Ta-Nehisi Coates (Black Panther, Captain America) and Magdalene Visaggio (Eternity Girl). (Disclosure: In this writer’s own experience, I’ve clashed with prominent Comicsgate figures in the past, and have been on the receiving end of harassment campaigns as a result.)

After Marsha Cooke asked Van Sciver and his followers to tone down their transphobic attacks, Van Sciver dodged the issue and recommended she mute the tweets. He then called on “SJWs” to apologize for the harassment she was receiving.

Marsha Cooke’s experiences and Van Sciver’s response seemed to be the motivation that many high profile comic creators needed to speak out about Comicsgate for the first time. Jeff Lemire (Black Hammer, Sweet Tooth) was among the first, saying “Comicsgate is based on fear, intolerance, bigotry and anger.” Bill Sienkiewicz, legendary New Mutants artist and co-creator of the X-Men character Legion, followed with a Facebook post which denounced the movement and referred to Comicsgate’s ideology as promoting “hateful, misogynistic and plain-old-ugly dogma.”

After Sienkiewicz’s post, other high profile creators joined in. Many copy-and-pasted a phrase from a viral tweet crafted by Tom Taylor (X-Men Red, All-New Wolverine, Injustice 2) — “There is no place for homophobia, transphobia, racism or misogyny in comics criticism.” — along with their own words, sending more of a personal message than a simple retweet would.

As of publication, the list of those who shared Taylor’s message include Fabian Nicieza (co-creator of Deadpool), Gail Simone (Birds of Prey), Nicola Scott (Wonder Woman), Jordan D. White (head editor of the X-Men line at Marvel), Cullen Bunn (X-Men Blue) and Jamal Igle (Firestorm), among others. Some creators, including Gerry Duggan (Infinity Wars), Jody Houser (Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows) and Michael Lark (Lazarus), chose to modify it to remove the word “criticism.”

Others chose to use their own words entirely, like Aleš Kot (New World) and Ramon Villalobos (Secret Wars, Border Town):

Yeah, #comicsgate is a white supremacist patriarchal hate group developed and maintained to further those designs by the means of organized harassment and abuse. It capitalized on mainstream comics creators largely ignoring queer voices speaking up about being targeted for years.

— Aleš Kot (@ales_kot) August 26, 2018

now that the light is on and we're all kind of publicly talking about comicsgate and how trash it is to be a white supremacist hate group, i have a few thoughts.

— Mr. Vertigo Comics (@RamonVillalobos) August 26, 2018

Only two comics publishers have addressed Comicsgate officially; last year, Vault Comics released a statement, while Alterna Comics’ founder and publisher refused to do so.

These statements come at at time when Comicsgate-related harassment has been a presence in the social media circles of comics professionals for several years. The use of the term itself began in Sept. 2014, during the nascent days of Gamergate, when a controversy surrounding a Spider-Woman #1 variant cover by European comics legend Milo Manara led to cries of censorship, and the term “Comicgate” was born. (The earliest uses of “Comicsgate” with an “S” were from Twitter users mocking the movement.)

In his 2014 ICv2 piece “If Comicsgate Ever Happens, It Will Be Catastrophic,” Rob Salkowitz made eerily accurate predictions of how the movement would eventually coalesce around points of controversy or criticism in comics, including Frank Cho’s “outrage covers” inspired by Manara and a Marvel artist publically comparing “Social Justice Warriors” to Nazis. In Aug. 2017, the event often listed as the inciting incident of Comicsgate occurred, when a group of female Marvel staffers became the targets of a wave of harassment after posting a photo of themselves celebrating the life of the then-recently departed Flo Steinberg with milkshakes. However, the main ringleaders of Comicsgate had already begun their attacks on trans creators, queer creators and creators of color well before the #MakeMineMilkshake incident.

The enduring animosity of Comicsgate is one of the reasons that some fans, critics and even creators — including those who have endured its harassment — aren’t happy that creators have chosen this moment to respond to it, or how they’ve chosen to respond to it. Most creators who spoke out declined to specifically use the word “Comicsgate” in their condemnation of bigotry within the comics community. Many folks also took issue with framing Comicsgate as “criticism,” like in Tom Taylor’s much-spread tweet.

One of the most high-profile people to speak out against Comicsgate was Batman writer Tom King, who stated that comics “is the medium of the outsider and the outcast, the nerd who won’t fit in.” His remarks were met with pushback that they could just as easily apply to Comicsgate supporters as they could to those affected. Cullen Bunn’s statement “I *might* go so far as to say most of the people associated with [Comicsgate] aren’t bad people,” drew criticism for ascribing positive motivations to those knowingly participating in a campaign built around harassment.

Marsha Cooke herself pointed out what many Twitter users were saying this weekend, noting “it is annoying that people didn’t get on board the reality of what these idiots are doing until it was a white wife attacked.” The two times the industry has rallied together against Comicsgate has been when harassment was publicly focused on women connected to comics’ most mainstream centers, like Marvel Comics and a decades-beloved artist like Darwyn Cooke with many in-industry friends.

Comicsgate eruptions come at a booming time for diversity and inclusivity in comics. Titles such as Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur don’t do great numbers in monthly issues, but more than make up for that via Scholastic book fairs. DC Comics is expanding into the young readers’ market with the upcoming DC Ink and DC Zoom imprints, following the immense success of DC Superhero Girls. Meanwhile, many traditional superhero stories that Comicsgate enthusiasts would like to see more of are the ones struggling to find a place in the market, and Marvel’s most recent blockbuster crossover Secret Empire was the second-worst selling event in Marvel’s history.

Criticism is a vital part of any mature art form, but the biggest voices in Comicsgate aren’t comics critics. In many cases, such as Van Sciver and Meyer, they’re creators themselves, and as Tom Taylor himself later addressed, Comicsgate doesn’t stem from “comics criticism.” As journalist, comics critic and podcaster Jay Edidin said in a thread on the nature of art criticism this weekend:

Criticism isn't editorial feedback. It's not for the artist (although artists can and do make use of it as they proceed). It can intersect with lobbies or campaigns, but that's not what it is at its core.

— (((Jay Edidin))) (@RaeBeta) August 27, 2018

Kieran Shiach is a Salford, U.K.-based freelance writer and one half of Good Egg Podcasts. He is on Twitter, @KingImpulse. He wishes in the past he tried more things ’cause now he knows being in trouble is a fake idea.

via Polygon - Full

#IFTTT #Feedly #Nothingman uses feedly

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barbosaasouza · 6 years ago

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Dragon Quest 11: Echoes of an Elusive Age Pre-E3 2018 Preview: A Dashing Hero

It hasn't been easy being a Dragon Quest fan in North America. While there have been various spin-offs and re-releases in recent years, there haven't been many all-new entries in the series released to North America. That's about to change with Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age. This will mark the first new entry in the series to reach North America since the Nintendo DS' Dragon Quest IX in 2011 and the first to release on home console since Dragon Quest VIII hit PlayStation 2 in 2005.

Dragon Quest XI is a standalone tale of an unnamed protagonist, who learns that he is the reincarnation of an ancient hero. And as a legendary hero, he ventures out to save the world from an ominous, unknown threat. While Square Enix has previously revealed footage of Dragon Quest XI at PAX East, showing off early footage of Cobblestone, Shacknews recently had the opportunity to check out something a little more recent.

But before venturing off, it's a good time to introduce the party members present during this demo:

Unnamed Protagonist: The hero can be named by the player and is the only character who does not have any kind of voiceover. He's a mute.

Erik: A rogue thief who fully believes in the ancient legends, which makes him more than eager to tag along. He fights with his knives.

Veronica: A diminutive, yet powerful fire mage, sworn to protect the hero. She's able to attack with fire magic.

Serena: Veronica's companion, who a bit flighty. Nonetheless, she's the healer of the group and will more often than not keep the party standing.

The mysterious hero and his party began the demo in the fields of Gallopolis, a trail filled with danger, just outside a nearby castle town. After avoiding most of the monsters, it was time to explore the town, filled with shops, inns, and stables full of horses. But while it's easy to get distracted by the horses, there is a purpose for visiting the town and that's to have a chat with the Sultan about a vital item for the main quest. That leads into the other part of this main quest branch, as the hero gets dragged into helping the Sultan's hapless son, who is looking to trick his father into believing him a worthy prince. While that segues into a horse racing side activity, it quickly escalates into a hunt for the demo's big boss.

This demo becomes noteworthy because it offers up the first introduction to Sylvando. Sylvando is a traveling performer, in town to dazzle denizens with feats of magic and trickery. He quickly tags along with the party, not so much to help the hero fill his destiny, but more because he comes across as a guy looking for a lark. Sylvando is a charismatic fellow who eventually starts to fit in with the party, despite inviting himself into the group, and is helpful on the battlefield with his blades and his agility. Sylvando enters as a fifth member of the party, but it's implied that following his initial quest, he'll eventually need to be swapped in and out to keep the party at an even four members. Having a fifth wheel in Sylvando is immensely helpful against the demo's boss, the Slayer of the Sands, which asserts itself with heavy area-of-effect attacks and hard-hitting direct attacks.

Those who have played the Japanese version of Dragon Quest XI will find that this version is no mere port. The developers at Square Enix have worked to add several quality of life improvements to the North American version of the game. One thing to note is that the art is said to be enhanced and it's hard to argue with that. Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama's characters look bright and gorgeously rendered, both in cutscenes and on the battlefield.

While graphical enhancements and UI overhauls are noticeable, the biggest change is the addition of the Dash button. The ability to dash is incredibly helpful for anyone looking to get from objective to objective in a shorter time, but also for anyone looking to avoid combat. The fields of Gallopolis are filled with monsters and will look to initiate a battle on sight, but many of them won't be able to catch a dashing player. It should be noted that the dash function does cut out a lot of the unnecessary filler that JRPGs are known for, but there's still a lot to do here. Even as I skipped a lot of the side content, due to time constraints, this demo still took well over an hour, between cutscenes, combat, and main quest tasks. There's a lot for fans to be excited about and plenty to keep players busy.

It won't be long before North America gets its hands on a new Dragon Age. Dragon Age XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age is set to release September 4 on PC and PlayStation 4, with PS4 getting a physical retail release.

Dragon Quest 11: Echoes of an Elusive Age Pre-E3 2018 Preview: A Dashing Hero published first on https://superworldrom.tumblr.com/

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aion-rsa · 8 years ago

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Image Comics Solicitations for July 2017

Image Comics has released solicitation information and images for new books and products shipping in July 2017. When you’re through checking out these solicitations for new Image releases, be sure to visit CBR’s Image Comics forum to discuss these titles and products with fellow readers and fans.

Image Comics Solicitations – Last Six Months

Product shipping June 2017

Product shipping February 2017

Product shipping January 2017

Product shipping November 2016

Product shipping October 2016

Product shipping September 2016

MOONSTRUCK #1 – GEM OF THE MONTH

STORY: GRACE ELLIS

ART: SHAE BEAGLE/KATE LETH

COVER: SHAE BEAGLE

JULY 19 / 32 PAGES / FC / E / $3.99

A NEW ONGOING SERIES from Lumberjanes creator GRACE ELLIS and talented newcomer SHAE BEAGLE that tells a story of monsters, romance, and magical hijinks! The first arc also includes an additional short story with artist KATE LETH!

Fantasy creatures are living typical, unremarkable lives alongside humans, and barista Julie strives to be the most unremarkable of all. Normal job, normal almost-girlfriend, normal…werewolf transformations that happen when she gets upset? Yikes!

But all bets are off when she and her centaur best friend Chet find themselves in the middle of a magical conspiracy. Will Julie and Chet be able to save their friends? Is Julie’s dogged determination to be normal a lost cause? Who’s going to watch the coffee shop while our heroes are out saving the world?? These questions and more will be answered in MOONSTRUCK, coming July 19 from Image Comics.

SACRED CREATURES #1 – GEM OF THE MONTH

STORY: PABLO RAIMONDI & KLAUS JANSON

ART: PABLO RAIMONDI

COVER A: PABLO RAIMONDI

COVER B: KLAUS JANSON

COVER C (1 IN 25): FRANK MILLER

JULY 5 / 72 PAGES / FC / M / $4.99

When the supernatural forces maintaining the fragile balance of power in this world start to unravel, Josh Miller, a young college grad and expecting father, is caught in the middle of a vast conspiracy threatening to tear apart the foundations of humanity as we know it. As myth and reality collide, Josh finds himself on the frontline of a battle against an enemy dating back to the beginning of time itself.

Comic legends KLAUS JANSON (Daredevil, Dark Knight Returns) and PABLO RAIMONDI (X-Factor, Book of Doom) proudly present SACRED CREATURES, their first-ever creator-owned series, with a monster-sized first issue featuring 66 pages of color art!

BALSAMIC: A SKETCHBOOK AND ART COLLECTION HC

STORY / ART / COVER: GIANNIS MILONOGIANNIS

AUGUST 16 / 200 PAGES / FC / M / $19.99

ADVANCE SOLICIT

Collecting the best of five years worth of drawings, BALSAMIC is a deep dive into GIANNIS’ (PROPHET, Old City Blues, G.I. Joe) sketchbooks and comics!

BLOODSTRIKE #1 REMASTERED EDITION

STORY: ROB LIEFELD

SCRIPT: ERIC STEPHENSON

ART: DAN FRAGA, DANNY MIKI & ROB LIEFELD

COVER A: DAN FRAGA

COVER B: ROB LIEFELD

JULY 26 / 32 pages / FC / T+ / $3.99

1993’s original BLOODSTRIKE #1. Celebrate the 25th anniversary of Image Comics with a bloody delightful remastered edition of 1993’s BLOODSTRIKE #1, illustrated by DAN FRAGA and DANNY MIKI over layouts from ROB LIEFELD, dramatically recolored by color wizard THOMAS MASON (X-Men)!

BY CHANCE OR PROVIDENCE TP

STORY / COVER / ART: BECKY CLOONAN

COLOR: LEE LOUGHRIDGE

JULY 26 / 128 PAGES / FC / T+ / $14.99

BY CHANCE OR PROVIDENCE collects BECKY CLOONAN’s award-winning trilogy: WOLVES, THE MIRE, and DEMETER, with lush colors by LEE LOUGHRIDGE and a sketchbook/illustration section. These stories cast a spell of hypnotic melancholy, weaving their way through medieval landscapes of ancient curses and terrible truths that will haunt you long after you’ve set them down.

CURSE WORDS, VOL. 1 TP

STORY: CHARLES SOULE

ART / COVER: RYAN BROWNE

JULY 19 / 168 PAGES / FC / M / $9.99

A wizard has appeared in present-day New York! His name is Wizord, and he’s here to save us all from dark magical forces bent on our destruction. He’s the best wizard of all time! Or…he’s not, and he’s lying to everyone, and secretly is the dark magical force, but wants to hang out in our world for a while because it’s so much nicer than the hellhole he comes from.

Secrets, and spells, and talking koalas—CURSE WORDS is a gonzo dark fantasy from CHARLES SOULE (Daredevil, Letter 44, Star Wars) and RYAN BROWNE (GOD HATES ASTRONAUTS).

Collects CURSE WORDS #1-5

THE DARKNESS: DARKNESS / BATMAN & DARKNESS / SUPERMAN 20TH ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION TP

STORY: GARTH ENNIS / SCOTT LOBDELL & JEPH LOEB / RON MARZ

ART: MARC SILVESTRI / DAVID FINCH & CLARENCE LANSANG / TYLER KIRKHAM

COVER: MARC SILVESTRI

JULY 5 / 264 PAGES / FC / M / $19.99

Celebrating the 25th anniversary of Image Comics and the 20th anniversary of THE DARKNESS, this special volume collects THE DARKNESS ORIGINS (Issues one through six and Preview), THE DARKNESS/BATMAN, and THE DARKNESS/SUPERMAN! This is a one-time printing in honor of the anniversaries, so don’t miss out!

GENERATION GONE #1

STORY: ALEŠ KOT & ANDRÉ LIMA ARAÚJO

ART / COVER: ANDRÉ LIMA ARAÚJO & CHRIS O’HALLORAN

JULY 19 / 56 PAGES / FC / M / $4.99

America, 2020. Three young hackers with nothing to lose. A secretive scientist with a plan. One final job.

What happens when you’re poor, angry, and get superpowers you never asked for? Skins + Unbreakable = GENERATION GONE, sort of— if you also include multiple trips to the sun, weird black goo, a breakup fight inside a nuclear factory, love, hate, anger, loss…and survival. GENERATION GONE is for every kid struggling out there. It’s about what it means to be young in the USA, 2017.

GOD COUNTRY TP

STORY: DONNY CATES

ART / COVER: GEOFF SHAW

AUGUST 2 / 184 PAGES / FC / M / $14.99

ADVANCE SOLICIT

SOUTHERN BASTARDS meets American Gods in a high-stakes fantasy series that masterfully blends high-octane action and jaw-dropping worldbuilding.

In GOD COUNTRY, readers meet Emmett Quinlan, an old widower rattled by dementia. Emmett isn’t just a problem for his children—his violent outbursts are more than the local cops can handle. When a tornado levels his home—as well as the surrounding West Texas town—a restored Quinlan rises from the wreckage. An enchanted sword at the eye of the storm gives him more than a sound mind and body, however. He’s now the only man who can face these otherworldly creatures the sword has drawn down to the Lone Star State… In GOD COUNTRY, salvation is a double-edged sword.

“So much fun to watch creators find that next level. Go, Cates, go!” —BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS

Collects GOD COUNTRY #1-6

LAZARUS: X+66 #1 (OF 6)

STORY: GREG RUCKA & ERIC TRAUTMANN

ART: STEVE LIEBER

COVER: MICHAEL LARK

JULY 19 / 40 PAGES / FC / M / $3.99

FIRST ISSUE

In the wake of “CULL” and setting the stage for “FRACTURE,” the sixth storyline of the critically acclaimed LAZARUS, this series takes us into the year +66 with six separate stories. Casey Solomon has caught the eye of the Lazarus, but gaining the Family’s attention can be as much a curse as a blessing. Will Dagger Selection destroy Casey, or will survival mean something worse?

LOW, BOOK ONE HC

STORY: RICK REMENDER

ART / COVER: GREG TOCCHINI & DAVE McCAIG

OCTOBER 4 / 440 PAGES / FC / M / $49.99

ADVANCE SOLICIT

Millennia ago, mankind fled the Earth’s surface into the bottomless depths of the darkest oceans. Shielded from a merciless sun’s scorching radiation, the human race tried to stave off certain extinction by sending robotic probes far into the galaxy to search for a new home among the stars. Generations later, one family is about to be torn apart in a conflict that will usher in the final race to save humanity from a world beyond hope.

Dive into an aquatic fantasy like none you’ve ever seen before in this oversized hardcover, packed to the gills with concept art, design sketches, original script, and more hidden treasures, as writer RICK REMENDER (DEADLY CLASS, SEVEN TO ETERNITY) and artist GREG TOCCHINI (LAST DAYS OF AMERICAN CRIME) bring you a tale of mankind’s final hour in the cold, deathly dark of the sea.

Collects LOW #1-15

MAGE: THE HERO DENIED #0

STORY / ART / COVER: MATT WAGNER

JULY 12 / 16 PAGES / FC / T+ / $1.99 (?)

MATT WAGNER returns with the third and final volume of his epic fantasy trilogy—MAGE: THE HERO DENIED. This long-awaited conclusion follows the adventures of the reluctant everyman hero Kevin Matchstick, who, after encountering a shaggy and beguiling wizard, discovers he is the reincarnation of the legendary Pendragon and able to wield the power of the mystical weapon, Excalibur. The story picks up several years after the fateful climax of THE HERO DEFINED and finds Kevin beginning to once again doubt the virtue of his actions and the course of his destiny.

This introductory, half-sized issue #0 continues MAGE’s tradition of an “Interlude” short-adventure, bridging the gap between this series and the previous storyline. It also acts as a perfect jumping-on spot for new readers.

MAGE: THE HERO DISCOVERED, VOL. 1 TP

STORY: MATT WAGNER

ART: MATT WAGNER & SAM KIETH

COVER: MATT WAGNER

JULY 12 / 224 pages / FC / T+ / $19.99

The first of two volumes reprinting the classic early issues of creator MATT WAGNER’s epic fantasy trilogy. THE HERO DISCOVERED reveals the fledgling adventures of the reluctant everyman hero, Kevin Matchsick. After encountering a shaggy and beguiling wizard, Kevin soon discovers that he is more than he ever imagined.

This seminal work has found an enduring popularity with readers for decades and marks creator MATT WAGNER’s emergence as a powerful story-teller. With the release of the final part of the MAGE trilogy, this series will spark interest with new readers and older fans alike.

THE OTHER SIDE SPECIAL EDITION HC

STORY: JASON AARON

ART / COVER: CAMERON STEWART

JULY 26 / 144 PAGES / FC / M / $19.99

THE OTHER SIDE SPECIAL EDITION is a hardcover collection of the Eisner-Award nominated miniseries that started it all for writer JASON AARON (SOUTHERN BASTARDS, THE GODDAMNED, Scalped)! With amazingly visceral artwork from CAMERON STEWART (MOTOR CRUSH, Fight Club 2) and vivid colors from DAVE McCAIG (American Vampire), THE OTHER SIDE tells an unforgettable Vietnam War story from the point of view of two young soldiers on both sides of the conflict.

THE OTHER SIDE SPECIAL EDITION will not only showcase this powerful war story but also include loads of extra materials straight from the files of both writer and artist. CAMERON STEWART was so committed to this project that he traveled to Vietnam to do preliminary research, and this collection will feature pictures, drawings, and journal entries from that trip.

Collects THE OTHER SIDE #1-5

SOLID STATE TP

STORY: JONATHAN COULTON & MATT FRACTION

ART / COVER: ALBERT MONTEYS

JULY 26 / 128 PAGES / FC / T / $19.99 / 10”x10”

From musician, singer-songwriter, and internet superstar JONATHAN COULTON comes the graphic novel accompaniment (in square-bound, 10″ x 10″ format) to his new concept album, SOLID STATE.

Two guys, connected by a name and hundreds of years, somehow stand at the end of man’s beginning, and the beginning of man’s end. But…it’s funny? Also kind of a nightmare. But mostly funny? A funny science FACTion nightmare about the end of everything, but how that’s all kind of okay.

Teaming up with MATT FRACTION, the writer of SEX CRIMINALS, CASANOVA, and ODY-C; and the award-winning Spanish artist of Universe! ALBERT MONTEYS, COULTON’s SOLID STATE is a tech mashup where 2001: A Space Odyssey meets Office Space and getting all we ever wanted might just be a terrible idea.

THE STREET ANGEL GANG HC

STORY: JIM RUGG & BRIAN MARUCA

ART / COVER: JIM RUGG

JULY 26 / 40 PAGES / FC / T / $19.99

What if Kal El had been found by the Warriors instead of the Kents? The deadliest girl alive accidentally joins a super violent street gang. Are the Bleeders the family Jesse never had, or is Jesse the child they never wanted? What? Free snacks at the gang tryout party! Also, SCANDAL—one of the Bleeders is a spy!

THE BEAUTY #16

STORY: JEREMY HAUN & JASON A. HURLEY

ART: THOMAS NACHLIK

COVER A: JEREMY HAUN & JOHN RAUCH

COVER B: SHANE WHITE

JULY 5 / 32 PAGES / FC / M / $3.99

END OF STORY ARC! The hunt for the Narcissus Killer ends as Detectives Vaughn and Foster come face to face with a career-defining enemy.

BIRTHRIGHT, VOL. 5 TP

STORY: JOSHUA WILLIAMSON

ART/COVER: ANDREI BRESSAN & ADRIANO LUCAS

JULY 12 / 112 PAGES / FC / T+ / $12.99

Born during a time of endless war, Rya will do anything to give her child a better future. Whether that’s on Earth or back on Terrenos, she fights for that future alongside her new family. Even as they all start to realize something’s not right with Mikey…

Collects BIRTHRIGHT #21-25.

BITCH PLANET: TRIPLE FEATURE #2

STORY: CHE GRAYSON, DANIELLE HENDERSON & JORDAN CLARK

ART: SHARON DE LA CRUZ, TED BRANDT, RO STEIN & NAOMI FRANQUIZ

COVER: VALENTINE DE LANDRO

JULY 19 / 32 PAGES / FC / M / $3.99

DECONNICK & DE LANDRO PRESENT: The Triple Feature! Patriarchy beware…this sci-fi kidney punch can’t be stopped! Return to BITCH PLANET for more tales from a world gone upside down…that might just be around the corner… Plus all the backmatter you can handle! 100 percent Grade A satire. Tell your friends. Tell your enemies.

BLACK CLOUD #4

STORY: JASON LATOUR & IVAN BRANDON

ART / COVER: GREG HINKLE & MATT WILSON

JULY 12 / 32 PAGES / FC / M / $3.99

Zelda’s fantasy of escape fades as her past and present collide, and she has to decide if she’ll fight for her place in the Outside.

THE BLACK MONDAY MURDERS #8

STORY: JONATHAN HICKMAN

ART / COVER: TOMM COKER

JULY 19 / 40 PAGES / FC / M / $3.99

END OF STORY ARC “UNIONIZED LABOR” The unholy alliance of money and law is formed. Dumas and Ria meet again.

BLACK ROAD, VOL. 2: A PAGAN DEATH TP

STORY: BRIAN WOOD

ART: GARRY BROWN & DAVE McCAIG

COVER: GARRY BROWN

JULY 26 / 120 PAGES / FC / M / $14.99

Having located Bishop Oakenfort on the extreme northern coast of Norssk, Magnus the Black moves in on this rogue Vatican outpost with the intent to shut it down. But as formidable a Viking warrior as Magnus is, he is still one man versus a fortress. The epic conclusion to the story started with volume one’s “THE HOLY NORTH.”

Collects BLACK ROAD #6-10.

BLACK SCIENCE, VOL. 6 TP

STORY: RICK REMENDER

ART / COVER: MATTEO SCALERA & MORENO DINISIO

JULY 5 / 136 PAGES / FC / M / $14.99

After years adrift in the chaotic Eververse, the McKay family finally reunites in their home dimension. But it’s far from the happy end they expected. To save all there is and ever will be, the Dimensionauts need to cut deeper into the Onion than ever before!

RICK REMENDER & MATTEO SCALERA present the sixth chapter of the runaway pulp sci-fi smash hit BLACK SCIENCE!

Collects BLACK SCIENCE #26-30

CANNIBAL #7

STORY: BRIAN BUCCELLATO & JENNIFER YOUNG

ART / COVER: MATIAS BERGARA

JULY 19 / 32 PAGES / FC / M / $3.99

The townsfolk of Willow go on an all-out manhunt for Danny. But to get to him, they’ll have to go through the Hansen family.

CROSSWIND #2

STORY: GAIL SIMONE

ART / COVERS A & B: CAT STAGGS

JULY 26 / 32 PAGES / FC / M / $3.99

The mind-breaking crime fantasy continues! Slick Chicago hitman Cason Bennett and mousy Seattle housewife Juniper Blue have inexplicably switched bodies and lives, and a heartless, relentless killer seems intent on killing them both. Don’t miss this edge-of-your-seat thriller by fan-favorites GAIL SIMONE and CAT STAGGS!

CURSE WORDS #6

STORY: CHARLES SOULE

ART / COVER A: RYAN BROWNE

COVER B: RYAN STEGMAN

JULY 12 / 32 PAGES / FC / M / $3.99

NEW STORY ARC “EXPLOSIONTOWN,” Part One

CURSE WORDS IS BACK!! The hit series launches its second arc. The full roster of the Demon Sizzajee’s Nine Evil Wizards is revealed! Meet the Carbuncle, Silly Bee, and all the rest…while in New York City, Wizord and his newly de-powered ex, Ruby Stitch, embark upon a most peculiar business venture.

DEADLY CLASS #31

STORY: RICK REMENDER

ART / COVER A: WES CRAIG & JORDAN BOYD

COVER B: DANIEL WARREN JOHNSON

JULY 19 / 32 PAGES / FC / M / $3.99

ARC FINALE! There’s something grand about being lame, and the lame are making moves to haunt all who imagine themselves members of the council of cool kids.

DESCENDER #22

STORY: JEFF LEMIRE

ART / COVER A: DUSTIN NGUYEN

COVER B (INTERLOCKING VARIANT): JEFF LEMIRE & DUSTIN NGUYEN

JULY 19 / 32 PAGES / FC / M / $3.99

NEW STORYLINE! “RISE OF THE ROBOTS,” Part One

THE FIRST DESCENDER EVENT STARTS HERE! Tim-22 makes his move on Telsa and Quon, Andy and Effie attack the Machine Moon, and Psius and The Hardwire have Tim-21 in their grips. As the various factions hunting Tim-21 close in, the galaxy is on the verge of all-out war. This is it! Everything DESCENDER has been building to begins to erupt in the most important and surprising DESCENDER storyline yet!

This five-part DESCENDER event will include a series of interlocking variant covers by LEMIRE and NGUYEN!

THE DIVIDED STATES OF HYSTERIA #2

STORY / ART / COVER: HOWARD CHAYKIN

JULY 12 / 32 PAGES / FC / M / $3.99

A city, devastated. A nation, shattered. A people, terrified. And the most hated man in the world…the man who got us here in the first place…is all that stands between us the next attack.

THE DYING AND THE DEAD #6 (OF 10)

STORY: JONATHAN HICKMAN

ART / COVER: RYAN BODENHEIM

JULY 26 / 40 PAGES / FC / T+ / $3.99

“CLEAR SKIES, EXPECT RAIN” The team heads to Japan to talk to ghosts. Claire leaves the hospital for good.

ETERNAL EMPIRE #3

STORY: SARAH VAUGHN & JONATHAN LUNA

ART / COVER: JONATHAN LUNA

JULY 12 / 32 PAGES / FC / T+ / $3.99

Tair and Rion discover that they share a fire power when in close proximity with one another. But will they be able to control it? And what will they do now that they’ve defied the Empire?

EXTREMITY #5

STORY / ART / COVER: DANIEL WARREN JOHNSON

COLOR: MIKE SPICER

JULY 5 / 32 PAGES / FC / T+ / $3.99

Thea has followed her father’s every order in their war against the Paznina. But how far is she willing to go?

THE FIX #11

STORY: NICK SPENCER

ART / COVER: STEVE LIEBER & RYAN HILL

JULY 12 / 32 PAGES / FC / M / $3.99

Mac is out for answers.

GRRL SCOUTS: MAGIC SOCKS #3

STORY / ART / COVER A: JIM MAHFOOD

COLORS: JUSTIN STEWART

COVER B: MIKE HUDDLESTON

JULY 19 / 32 PAGES /FC / M / $3.99

Gwen and Rita are forced to pick up the pieces after Daphne’s brutal death. Josie moves into power with the Magic Socks, quickly becoming a pop cult sensation. This third issue is stuffed to the gills with an action-packed story, bonus art, soundtrack, and sketchbook—plus, a variant cover by the mighty, mighty MIKE HUDDLESTON! Pure fun! Pure flavor!

HORIZON, VOL. 2: REMNANT TP

STORY: BRANDON THOMAS

ART: JUAN GEDEON & MIKE SPICER

COVER: JASON HOWARD

JULY 19 / 128 PAGES / FC / M / $14.99

Zhia Malen has delivered the first crippling blow to Earth. Now, Chicago braces for a super storm as she kicks off the next phase of her invasion. But the connection between her world and Earth runs deeper than she imagined, making this planet hostile to EVERY species in the galaxy.

Collects HORIZON #7-12

I HATE FAIRYLAND #14

STORY / ART / COVER A: SKOTTIE YOUNG

COVER B (F**K FAIRYLAND UNCENSORED VARIANT): SKOTTIE YOUNG & EWAN McLAUGHLIN

JULY 19 / 32 PAGES / FC / M / $3.99

“LOVE’S LABYRINTH” Gert meets a mysterious (aka super creepy) man who offers her the redemption she’s looking for if she can solve his treacherous maze. You don’t want to know what will happen if she fails! Wait…scratch that. You do want to know. Buy the book to find out.

INJECTION #15

STORY: WARREN ELLIS

ART / COVERS A & B: DECLAN SHALVEY & JORDIE BELLAIRE

July 19 / 24 PAGES / FC / M / $3.99

END OF STORY ARC. VOLUME 3, PART V

The Cold House has been opened, and the connection between the Injection and the Other World is open. And that may not be the worst thing in Brigid Roth’s life tonight.

INVINCIBLE #138

STORY: ROBERT KIRKMAN

ART / COVER: RYAN OTTLEY & NATHAN FAIRBAIRN

JULY 19 / 24 PAGES / FC/ M / $2.99

“THE END OF ALL THINGS,” Part Six. Face to face with Thragg and his new Viltrumite army, Mark and his allies must fight to survive while the fate of the whole universe hangs in the balance!

KILL OR BE KILLED, VOL. 2 TP

STORY: ED BRUBAKER

ART: SEAN PHILLIPS & ELIZABETH BREITWEISER

COVER: SEAN PHILLIPS

JULY 26 / 160 PAGES / FC / M / $14.99

Brubaker and Phillips’ bestselling series keeps on hitting, as our vigilante hero goes deeper into the darkness, and the NYPD begin to realize there’s a masked man killing bad guys all over town. Both a thriller and a deconstruction of vigilantism, KILL OR BE KILLED is unlike anything this award-winning team has done before.

Collects KILL OR BE KILLED #5-10

KILL THE MINOTAUR #2

STORY: CHRIS PASETTO & CHRISTIAN CANTAMESSA

ART / COVER: LUKAS KETNER & JEAN-FRANCOIS BEAULIEU

JULY 19 / 40 PAGES/ FC/ M / $3.99

No one has ever survived the labyrinth. Now it’s kill or be killed as Theseus leads his fellow tributes through its many horrors in a desperate bid to escape. But all paths lead to the dreaded minotaur. Each issue features 30 pages of story!

OUTCAST BY KIRKMAN & AZACETA #30

STORY: ROBERT KIRKMAN

ART / COVER: PAUL AZACETA & ELIZABETH BREITWEISER

JULY 26 / 32 PAGES/ FC / M / $2.99

“THE COMING STORM” The forces of evil are closing in.

PAKLIS #3

STORY / ART / COVER: DUSTIN WEAVER

July 26 / 32 Pages / FC / T+ / $3.99

In the third chapter of Amnia Cycle, Tara Donnia crash-lands on a strange world with strange creatures and finds herself at the mercy of strangers. Meanwhile, her friends, having followed her into the Shadow Zone, find themselves caught in a battle between two warring ships. And in part four of Sagittarius A*, micro-blackholes in the brains of chimps? Animals made to depict God? Had Linus Rad’s scientist father lost his mind?

PLASTIC #4 (OF 5)

STORY: DOUG WAGNER

ART: DANIEL HILLYARD, LAURA MARTIN

COVER A: ANDREW ROBINSON

COVER B: DANIEL HILLYARD

JULY 26 / 32 PAGES / FC / M / $3.99

Edwyn takes a hostage of his own, changing all the rules of this bloodcurdling cat-and-mouse game. Will Virginia’s captors finally cut their losses and return her to Edwyn, or will there be more “death by plastic”?

POSTAL #21

STORY: BRYAN HILL

ART: ISAAC GOODHART

COVER: LINDA SEJIC

JULY 26 / 32 PAGES / FC / M / $3.99

NEW STORY ARC

With tensions at an all-time high between Laura and her son Mark, the criminals of Eden will have to learn to work together because Mark’s father and the FBI are coming to punish the guilty.

RAT QUEENS #4

STORY: KURTIS J. WIEBE

ART / COVERS A & B: OWEN GIENI

JULY 5 / 32 PAGES / FC / M / $3.99

“CAT KINGS AND OTHER GARYS,” Part Four. A harmless quest for magic ingredients leads the Queens into the belly of a dark dungeon. Of course it’s full of deadly traps, monsters, and sentient décor that all want the Rat Queens dead.

REDNECK #4

STORY: DONNY CATES

ART / COVER: LISANDRO ESTHERREN & DEE CUNNIFFE

JULY 26 / 32 PAGES / FC / M / $3.99

In an attempt to stop the chaos engulfing their family, Perry and Bartlett revisit Bartlett’s past…but digging up old wounds sometimes opens new ones. What exactly is Bartlett’s big secret?

REGRESSION #3

STORY: CULLEN BUNN

ART / COVER: DANNY LUCKERT & MARIE ENGER

JULY 12 / 32 PAGES / FC / M / $3.99

The body count is on the rise, and the blood may be on an innocent man’s hands! A dark power is haunting Adrian, terrorizing him, whispering dark secrets and ghastly promises in his ear. Unable to account for his own whereabouts…unable to trust his own senses…Adrian wonders if he is responsible for recent murders. The police certainly seem to think he knows more than he’s letting on. And now Adrian is starting to believe sinister forces are watching him…from the real world…and in the realm of his own nightmares. Meanwhile, Molly worries about her friend, not realizing that she may have become the next target of his unholy desires.

RENATO JONES SEASON TWO #3 (of 5)

STORY / ART / COVER: KAARE KYLE ANDREWS

JULY 12 / 32 PAGES / FC / M / $3.99

“THE FREELANCER,” Part Three. The true power of any Freelancer is to walk away. But when the ONEs keep dying, who is filling in for Renato Jones?

ROCK CANDY MOUNTAIN #4

STORY / ART / COVER: KYLE STARKS

JULY 5 / 24 PAGES / FC / M / $3.99

END OF STORY ARC

Well, you wouldn’t think it could get any worse for our Hobo Heroes did you? On the run from a swarm of G-Men and the Literal Devil, but well, here we are—trapped like rats in a prison?!?! Oh, what have our Sweet Boys done? How will they get to the legendary Rock Candy Mountain if they’re stuck in the clink? Is this all part of Jackson’s mysterious master plan? Can Pomona Slim survive the harsh confines? We’ll have to see won’t we? Oh yeah, and Jackson fights the entire prison.

ROSE #4

STORY: MEREDITH FINCH

ART / COVER A: IG GUARA

COVER B: DAVID FINCH

JULY 12 / 32 PAGES / FC / T / $3.99

The battle for the future of Ttereve continues as Thorne is forced to grapple with demons from his past. After a cruel betrayal from a trusted ally, Rose and Ila are separated from their companions and in a fight for their lives. Magic itself hangs in the balance as Drucilla destroys everything and everyone in her path.

ROYAL CITY #5

STORY / ART / COVER: JEFF LEMIRE

JULY 19 / 32 PAGES / FC / M / $3.99

END OF STORY ARC

The first story arc of JEFF LEMIRE’s acclaimed new series comes to its shocking conclusion as the secrets of the Pike family are finally exposed, and there will be no going back. Meanwhile, while lying in a coma, Peter Pike goes on a bizarre journey with his life hanging in the balance.

SAGA #45

STORY: BRIAN K. VAUGHAN

ART / COVER: FIONA STAPLES

JULY 26 / 32 PAGES / FC / M / $2.99

As Hazel and her family venture into the Badlands, their newest companion is left to hold down the fort on her own.

SAMARITAN: VERITAS #3

STORY: MATT HAWKINS

ART / COVER: ATILIO ROJO

JULY 26 / 32 PAGES / FC / T+ / $3.99

END OF FIRST STORY ARC! Will Sam be able to take down the president? Several major characters die as this Edenverse arc comes to a close.

SAVAGE DRAGON #226

STORY / ART / COVER: ERIK LARSEN

JULY 19 / 32 PAGES / FC / M / $3.99

SELF-CONTAINED ISSUE

“TRUMPED” When a tyrannical madman assumes command of the United States, aliens are deemed a threat to national security and targeted for elimination—and that includes Malcolm Dragon and his family! With a country turned against him, Malcolm Dragon fights as he’s never fought before!

SEVEN TO ETERNITY #8

STORY: RICK REMENDER

ART / COVER B: JAMES HARREN & MATT HOLLINGSWORTH

COVER A: JEROME OPEÑA & MATT HOLLINGSWORTH

JULY 12 / 32 PAGES / FC / T+ / $3.99

That which was pure and perfect is gone. Home, a distant memory. Some yet fight to preserve good, to resist the consumption of the whispers.

SHIRTLESS BEAR-FIGHTER! #2 (OF 5)

STORY: JODY LEHEUP & SEBASTIAN GIRNER

ART: NIL VENDRELL & MIKE SPICER

COVER A: ANDREW ROBINSON

COVER B: NATHAN FOX

COVER C: ANDREW MACLEAN

JULY 26 / 32 PAGES / FC / M / $3.99

Savage, wild-eyed bears are attacking cities across America, and only the Shirtless Bear-Fighter can stop them! But as Shirtless punches his way through wave after wave of not-so-friendly fozzies, one question looms large in his furious mind…just what is driving these bears so damn crazy? Enter…THE HILLBILLY WARLOCK!

SHUTTER #30

STORY: JOE KEATINGE

ART / COVER: LEILA DEL DUCA & OWEN GIENI

JULY 26 / 32 PAGES / FC / M / $3.99

SERIES FINALE

“CODA OBSCURA, PART TWO: SAUDADE” Thirty years later. One last adventure. One final goodbye. KEATINGE and DEL DUCA wrap up their long-running, critically acclaimed series by uncovering the mystery Kate Kristopher has searched for since the very beginning.

SNOTGIRL #6

STORY: BRYAN LEE O’MALLEY & LESLIE HUNG

ART: LESLIE HUNG & RACHAEL COHEN

COVER: LESLIE HUNG

JULY 5 / 32 PAGES / FC / T+ / $2.99

NEW STORY ARC!

From the creator of Scott Pilgrim! Lottie Person is a glamorous fashion blogger living her best life—at least that’s what she wants you to think. The truth is, she’s an allergy-ridden mess who may or may not have killed somebody! THIS MONTH: Spring is the season for mystery, madness & mucus as Lottie meets her adoring public, Coolgirl has a change of heart, and we learn more than we ever wanted to know about Cutegirl!

SONS OF THE DEVIL #14

STORY: BRIAN BUCCELLATO

ART / COVER: TONI INFANTE

JULY 26 / 32 PAGES / FC / M / $3.99

SERIES FINALE

“SACRIFICE” The stunning finale of the third arc! Travis and David go head to head, with the lives of everyone Travis loves hanging in the balance.

SOUTHERN CROSS #14

STORY / COVER: BECKY CLOONAN

ART: ANDY BELANGER & LEE LOUGHRIDGE

JULY 26 / 32 PAGES / FC / M / $3.99

“THE CRYPT DIMENSION,” Part Two. Trapped on the Southern Cross, Hazel and her crew have just as much to fear from each other as they do the alien-possessed undead that are haunting the ship.

SPAWN #276

STORY: DARRAGH SAVAGE / JASON SHAWN ALEXANDER

ART / COVER A: JASON SHAWN ALEXANDER

COVER B: TODD MCFARLANE

JULY 26 / 32 PAGES / FC / M / $2.99

“DARK HORROR,” Part One. An even darker new chapter in the SPAWN saga begins with a new creative team! Art by Eisner-nominated illustrator JASON SHAWN ALEXANDER, and story by DARRAGH SAVAGE & ALEXANDER (EMPTY ZONE).

On the other side of the world in Tokyo, a dark conspiracy is unleashed. An old enemy resurfaces. To combat this evil, Spawn will evolve NEW POWERS in order to inflict the same HORROR, pain, and destruction as Hell has done to him over the years.

STRAY BULLETS: SUNSHINE & ROSES #26

STORY / ART / COVER: DAVID LAPHAM

JULY 12 / 32 PAGES / BW / M / $3.99

Kretchmeyer takes a trip down memory lane and finds himself on a bloody stretch of bad road.

SUN BAKERY #6

STORY / ART / COVER: COREY LEWIS

JULY 26 / 48 PAGES / FC / M / $4.99

“SOUL OF SHARKNIFE,” Part Two. Sharknife’s new nemesis, a harpooning psycho named PIERCE GASHER reveals himself. Ven attempts to master his unique breakdancing abilities and conquer the copycat breaker The Biter in “FREEZE.” “BAT RIDER”‘s mysteries unfold. “DEAD NAKED” takes us on a trip across the desert. Four amazing stories continue in SUN BAKERY #6.

UNDERWINTER #5

STORY / ART / COVER A: RAY FAWKES

COVER B: JAMIE McKELVIE

JULY 26 / 32 PAGES / FC / M / $3.99

“SYMPHONY” Part Five. As the end approaches and deaths accumulate, the quartet remember what made each of them take up the art that is destroying them all.

VIOLENT LOVE #6

STORY: FRANK J. BARBIERE

ART / COVER: VICTOR SANTOS

JULY 12 / 32 PAGES / FC / M / $3.99

NEW STORY ARC

Chapter 6: BASTARDS OF YOUNG

THE WALKING DEAD #169

STORY: ROBERT KIRKMAN

ART: CHARLIE ADLARD, STEFANO GAUDIANO & CLIFF RATHBURN

COVER: CHARLIE ADLARD & DAVE STEWART

JULY 5 / 32 PAGES / BW / M / $2.99

NEW STORY ARC

“LINES WE CROSS” It is time for Dwight to step up.

WAYWARD #22

STORY: JIM ZUB

ART / COVER A: STEVEN CUMMINGS & TAMRA BONVILLAIN

COVER B: STJEPAN ŠEJIĆ

JULY 26 / 32 PAGES / FC / M / $3.99

Back in Ireland, revelations of Rori’s past and the road to Tír na nÓg…

Cover B is illustrated by fan-favorite painter STJEPAN SEJIC(SUNSTONE, WITCHBLADE)!

“Wayward isn’t just a fun and addictive read, it is cultural exchange in comic book form.” – Comic Book Resources

WAYWARD, BOOK 2: DELUXE HC

STORY: JIM ZUB

ART / COVER: STEVEn CUMMINGS & TAMRA BONVILLAIN

JULY 5 / 320 PAGES / FC / M / $39.99

Includes a special poster of the five-part WAYWARD connected cover illustration from issues #11-15!

The new gods of Japan have arrived, and a clash with the myths of old will change the country forever. JIM ZUB and STEVEN CUMMINGS combine the camaraderie and emotion of shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer with Japan’s engaging culture and mythic monsters.

Image Comics’ supernatural sensation continues in this oversized hardcover collection that includes every stunning cover illustration, design sketches, and extensive essay material on culture and mythology by monster scholars ZACK DAVISSON and ANN O’REGAN.

Collects WAYWARD #11-20

THE WICKED + THE DIVINE #29

STORY: KIERON GILLEN

ART / COVER A: JAMIE McKELVIE & MATT WILSON

COVER B: JOCK

JULY 5 / 32 PAGES / FC / M / $3.99

NEW STORY ARC

Regrets, I’ve had a few, but then again, too many to fit in the scant time I have remaining, so what’s a girl to do? The party’s over. The party never ends. A hangover that just won’t go away opens IMPERIAL PHASE (Part II). Heaven help us all.

THE WICKED + THE DIVINE, BOOK TWO HC

STORY: KIERON GILLEN

COVER: JAMIE McKELVIE

ART: JAMIE MCKELVIE, MATT WILSON, BRANDON GRAHAM, KATE BROWN, LEILA DEL DUCA, MAT LOPES, STEPHANIE HANS, TULA LOTAY

JULY 12 / 400 PAGES / FC / M / $44.99

Oversized hardcover collection of issues #12-22 of THE WICKED + THE DIVINE, including the most experimental and elating material in the critically acclaimed commercial superstar of a series so far. Collects COMMERCIAL SUICIDE and RISING ACTION with copious making-of material and extensive director’s commentary.

WINNEBAGO GRAVEYARD #2 (OF 4)

STORY: STEVE NILES

ART / COVER A: ALISON SAMPSON, STEPHANE PAITREAU & JORDIE BELLAIRE

COVER B: DAVID RUBIN

JULY 19 / 32 PAGES / FC / T+ / $3.99

Pursued by cultists, Christine, Dan, and Bobby must run through the night to stay alive.

YOUNGBLOOD #3

STORY: CHAD BOWERS

ART / COVER A: JIM TOWE

COVER B: ROB LIEFELD

COVER C: DAN FRAGA

JULY 26 / 32 PAGES / FC / T+ / $3.99

“REBORN,” Part Three. Answers lead to even more questions as the search for Man-Up continues! But Vogue’s plan to infiltrate HELP! headquarters backfires when Youngblood’s sordid legacy threatens to tear the fledgling team apart.

IMAGE+ #16

JULY 26 / 64 PAGES / FC / $1.99

THE HIGHLY ANTICIPATED FINALE TO THE HERE’S NEGAN STORY

Don’t miss this issue of IMAGE+! Read the highly anticipated conclusion to the HERE’S NEGAN! story. This final, jaw-dropping chapter will hit THE WALKING DEAD fans harder than a smack from Lucille. Don’t miss out on this collectible, unforgettable finale to the fan-favorite villain’s origin story by the New York Times bestselling team of ROBERT KIRKMAN & CHARLIE ADLARD.

IMAGE+ features in-depth interviews with creators, extended previews of upcoming titles, insightful essays, spotlights on comic shops, and everything fans want to know about what’s coming soon from Image Comics. IMAGE+ is the winner of 2016’s “Magazine of the Year” Diamond Gem Award and the go-to resource for what’s new and hot at Image Comics.

SKYBOUND PINS

Skybound and Yesterdays have teamed up to bring a new line of enamel pins to the masses. Get your pin fix today! MSRP of $10 for all pins, except Saga – Lying Cat, which is $15.

The Walking Dead – Logo Pin

The Walking Dead – Walker Head Pin

The Walking Dead – Lucille Pin

The Walking Dead – Negan Wrakk Splaugg Pin

Saga – Lying Cat Pin

Saga – Ghus Pin

THE WALKING DEAD LUCILLE BALLPOINT PEN

Price: $9.99 each

Now you can lay waste to all of your document signings with the new Lucille ballpoint pen. Each pen is 6” long and comes pre-blood splattered.

THE WALKING DEAD LUCILLE BALLPOINT PEN 16PC CS

Price: $159.84

Comes with a display box

THE WICKED & THE DIVINE SKULL ENAMEL PIN THE WICKED & THE DIVINE KLLK! ENAMEL PIN

While the road to hell is paved with good intentions, the road to lapel is paved with good merchandise. These are the first The Wicked + The Divine pins. Purchase them, with money. Wear them with pride. Or shame. Or however, really. You bought ’em, wear them how you want.

The post Image Comics Solicitations for July 2017 appeared first on CBR.

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852recordstores · 8 years ago

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2010 two CD live archive release from the Prog/Art Rock legends. This double disc collection features the audio taken from the original concert recordings used for the band's Deja Vrooom DVD. The 1995 world tour was the first undertaken by the reformed double trio line-up in the wake of the release of Thrak. 15 years on from the concerts, the benefits of perspective confirm what many fans suspected at the time; namely that this incarnation of King Crimson was a classic live line-up - no mean feat given some of it's predecessors. Panegyric Records. Disc: 1 1. Circulation Improv 2. Vrooom Vrooom 3. Frame By Frame 4. Dinosaur 5. One Time 6. Red 7. B'boom 8. Thrak 9. Matte Kudasai 10. Three of a Perfect Pair 11. Vrooom 12. Coda (Marine 475) 13. Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream Disc: 2 1. Improv (Two Sticks) 2. Elephant Talk 3. Indiscipline 4. Prism 5. Talking Drum 6. Larks' Tongues in Aspic (Part II) 7. People 8. Walking On Air 9. Tokyo Prelude Release Date: 14 Sept 2010 https://nemb.ly/p/B1f9Wmg=x Happily published via Nembol

#KING-CRIMSON #text #font #advertising #brand #screenshot

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circle111e-blog · 8 years ago

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David Bowie: Ten things we've learned since his death – BBC News

Image copyright Getty Images

Image caption David Bowie: One of the defining artists of his generation

It's one year since music legend David Bowie succumbed to cancer.

The musician died two days after his 69th birthday, having kept his illness hidden from everyone except his family and closest collaborators.

He had only just released his 25th album, Blackstar, which came to be seen as his “parting gift” to fans, reflecting as it did on themes of mortality and decay.

It was a typically adventurous and enigmatic record from a musician who maintained a sense of mystery throughout his career.

Since his death, however, fans have been afforded the occasional glimpse into his creative life – all of which elevate his status as a visionary, musical genius and humanitarian.

Here are 10 things we've learned in the last 12 months.

1) He wanted his ashes scattered in Bali

Image copyright Thinkstock

Bowie was cremated in private last January. In accordance with his wishes, no family or friends were present at the ceremony, and the whereabouts of his ashes remain a secret.

His son Duncan Jones denied a rumour they had been spread at the Burning Man festival in Nevada, adding that if his father's ashes were to be scattered in public, “it would at the Skegness Butlins“.

However, according to Bowie's will, which was filed in New York on 29 January, the star wanted his ashes scattered in Indonesia “in accordance with the Buddhist rituals of Bali”.

2) He worried about how Blackstar would be received

Image copyright Columbia Records

For his final album, Bowie dispensed with his regular band and hired a group of young jazz musicians to push his music in a new direction. It was adventurous and exciting, but the star wasn't sure how fans would react.

“He was nervous it wasn't a good album,” said Jonathan Barnbrook, who designed the sleeve.

Speaking of which…

3) The artwork for Blackstar was a comment on mortality

Image copyright Columbia Records

The title of Bowie's last album suggests a light flickering out, while the video for Blackstar features a skeleton inside a spacesuit that is “100% Major Tom,” according to director Johan Renck, who spoke to Francis Whately for the BBC Four documentary Bowie: The Last Five Years.

The album's artwork, which presents a single black star on a white background, is also loaded with symbolism.

“The idea of mortality is in there, and of course the idea of a black hole sucking in everything, the Big Bang, the start of the universe, if there is an end of the universe,” Jonathan Barnbrook explained to design website Dezeen. “These are things that relate to mortality.”

On the vinyl edition, the star is cut out of the sleeve, leaving the record exposed. “The fact that you can see the record as a physical thing that degrades, it gets scratched as soon as it comes into being, that is a comment on mortality too,” said Barnbrook.

Months after the album was released, fans discovered that holding the record in direct sunlight would make a field of stars appear on the black inner sleeve. Once removed, the stars would fade away – adding another layer of symbolism to the cover.

4) He could have been Gandalf

Image copyright Shutterstock

The list of stars who almost starred in Peter Jackson's Lord of The Rings trilogy is almost as long as the films themselves. Nicolas Cage auditioned to play Aragorn, while the part of Gandalf was offered to Sean Connery and Patrick Stewart.

Amazingly, Bowie – star of 1986 film Labyrinth – was also on that list.

Actor Dominic Monaghan, who played the hobbit Merry in the movies, said he had seen the singer enter the casting studio in 1999. “I'm assuming he read for Gandalf. I can't think of anything else he would've read for,” he told The Huffington Post.

“We approached him,” the film's casting director, Amy Hubbard, later confirmed. “I'm pretty sure it was Peter Jackson's idea [but] he was unavailable.”

5) He left $2m to his personal assistant

Image copyright Shutterstock

Bowie left an estate of around $100m (82m) to his wife, Iman, and his two children. But he also gave $2m (1.6m) to his personal assistant Corinne “Coco” Schwab.

It might seem like an extraordinary act of generosity, but Schwab was his closest confidante for 42 years.

She started working for Bowie in London in 1973 when she answered an advert in the London Evening Standard asking for a “girl Friday for a busy office”. Before long, she was his right-hand woman, looking after every aspect of his life, right down to diet. In an early Rolling Stone profile, she was depicted going to the market to buy the star some extra-rich milk, sighing, “I've got to put more weight on that boy.”

In later years, Bowie called Schwab his “best friend” and credited her with helping him kick his cocaine addiction in 1970s Berlin.

“Coco was the one person who told me what a fool I was becoming and she made me snap out of it,” he said.

6) He signed off emails with comedy nicknames

Image copyright PA

Producer Brian Eno (pictured above left with Jarvis Cocker and Bowie), who worked on Bowie's legendary Berlin trilogy in the 1970s, said he had been in touch with the singer just a week before his death, discussing new projects.

“Over the last few years – with him living in New York and me in London – our connection was by email,” he told the BBC last year.

“We signed off with invented names: some of his were Mr Showbiz, Milton Keynes, Rhoda Borrocks and the Duke of Ear.

“I received an email from him seven days ago. It was as funny as always, and as surreal, looping through word games and allusions and all the usual stuff we did. It ended with this sentence: 'Thank you for our good times, Brian. they will never rot'. And it was signed 'Dawn'.

“I realise now he was saying goodbye.”

7) Hunky Dory is the fans' favourite Bowie album

Image copyright Columbia Records

In the week Bowie died, 19 of his albums entered the UK chart. Discounting greatest hits compilations and Blackstar (a new release), the record most people turned to was his fourth album, Hunky Dory.

Released in 1971, and featuring the songs Life On Mars, Changes and Oh, You Pretty Things!, it is one of Bowie's most accessible and engaging albums, recorded with the band who would become known as Ziggy Stardust's Spiders From Mars one year later.

Posthumous sales of Hunky Dory were undoubtedly boosted by the song Kooks, which was one of the most widely-shared Bowie songs on social media in the days following his death.

A music hall pastiche, the track finds Bowie musing on fatherhood after the birth of his first son, Zowie. Awkward, warm and funny (not always common qualities in Bowie songs) it includes lyrics like: “Don't pick fights with the bullies or the cads / 'Cause I'm not much cop at punching other people's dads.”

Earlier this week, Hunky Dory was voted Bowie's best album by listeners of BBC 6 Music.

8) His version of My Way is best avoided

In 1968, David Bowie's music publisher had the then-unknown singer write English lyrics for a song that had been a huge hit in France: Claude Franois and Jacques Revaux's Comme d'habitude.

“I went, 'yeah, that'd be a good exercise,'” he recalled, “So I wrote a lyric for it, called Even a Fool Learns to Love”.

Not having a band at the time, Bowie had simply played the Claude Franois song at home and recorded his own version over the top, singing in time to the French lyrics.

But Bowie's words were rejected and Paul Anka got the job instead. His version was called My Way, and it became a global smash for Frank Sinatra.

“I was so pissed,” said Bowie later. “I thought, 'God, I could have done with that money'. And so I wrote Life on Mars, which was sort of a Sinatra-ish parody, but done in a more rock style.”

The demo for Even a Fool Learns to Love was unearthed last year and broadcast for the first time on the BBC Four series The People's History of Pop. It is not, to be brutally honest, worth seeking out.

The story of how it inspired one of Bowie's signature songs can be heard on the Radio 2 documentary Exploring Life On Mars.

9) He gave Lorde the courage to be different

Image copyright Farrell/BFA/REX/Shutterstock

Given the number of musical personas Bowie adopted throughout his 50-year career, it is hard to find an artist he hasn't inspired.

But 20-year-old pop singer Lorde – who performed a tribute to the star at last year's Brit Awards and is pictured above with Bowie and Tilda Swinton – revealed the star personally intervened in her career.

Writing on Facebook, she recalled how Bowie had asked to meet her after she played a concert in honour of Swinton's birthday in 2013.

“I've never met a hero of mine and liked it,” she said. “It just sucks, the pressure is too huge, you can't enjoy it.

“David was different. That night something changed in me – I felt a calmness grow, a sureness.

“I realised I was proud of my spiky strangeness because he had been proud of his. And I know I'm never going to stop learning dances, brand new dances.”

10) He didn't think music would be his legacy

Image copyright PA / Getty / BBC

Francis Whately's documentary, Bowie: The Last Five Years gave fans a rare glimpse of Bowie's sense of humour. He was seen larking around backstage, sticking flashing baubles to his face and attacking his band with a plastic crow.

Towards the end of the film, Whately excavated a rare interview, in which the star was asked what he wanted be remembered for.

“I'd love people to believe,” he said, “That I really had great haircuts.”

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