AS THE embargo lifted Tuesday on film reviews for Disney/Marvel’s “Avengers: Infinity War,” the stream of early verdicts began to accumulate toward critical consensus: The mega-movie fairly succeeds on many fronts, but a mission this massive is bound to expose some structural flaws. Ahead of Friday’s official opening, here is how film critics’ impressions are […]

CLAY BENNETT’s fruitful season of awards continues. On Monday, the Society of Professional Journalists announced that Bennett, of the Chattanooga Times Free Press, had won its Sigma Delta Chi Award for editorial cartooning at a large-circulation outlet. “It was yet another nice surprise in a season of nice surprises,” Bennett told The Washington Post’s Comic […]

ON MONDAY night’s episode of Disney-owned “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” the late-night host asked his five guests promoting “Avengers: Infinity War” who might die in the new film, which officially opens Friday. After all, Kimmel noted, someone has to perish in a war. The cast members stayed mum, but their nervous laughter only seemed to confirm […]

by Olivia Jaimes / United Uclick / Andrews McMeel 2018 FOR MOST of its 85 years, “Nancy,” that hailed masterpiece of formal minimalism, has felt as much like stripped comic than comic strip — a bare-bones visual enterprise that could have been set nearly any time in the 20th century. Now, however, “Nancy” is getting an update. The feature about […]

Note: This post, which has been updated, is best read while listening to Simple Minds’ “Don’t You (Forget About Me).”  Marvel touts the greatness of its upcoming “Avengers: Infinity War” like a teenager bragging about their birthday party. All the most popular kids in the MCU have RSVP’d to what the studio refers to as “the most ambitious crossover […]

Who is going to be the next Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Of all the mysteries surrounding the coming mega-movie event “Avengers: Infinity War,” the potential for a new Captain America is perhaps the most buzz-worthy — even for a film that is supposed to be all about major MCU villain Thanos and his acquiring […]

IS THIS the year that Marvel finally tops Star Wars? Judging by early box-office figures and a new Fandango movie poll, this could indeed be the turning point when the Avengers prove more popular than the Rebel Alliance. Ever since Disney-owned Lucasfilm rebooted the space movie franchise in 2015, the biggest Star Wars film of […]

DARRIN BELL is especially adept at rendering his resonant opinions through the medium of emotion. And sometimes, when doing so, he finds inspiration in drawing upon the personal, such as what it’s like to be approached by police as a black man in America. “If you can talk about people being treated poorly or denied equal […]

THE ENCOMIUMS have poured in for Barbara Bush since her death Tuesday, at age 92. Some have praised her steeliness and moral rectitude as the matriarch of a political dynasty. Others have noted just how rare that role was, sharing it as she did with only one other woman in American history, and another person […]

“So dark. You sure you’re not from the DC Universe?” Those are the latest words from Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds — who else?), as he’s being beaten with vicious fists and insults by Cable (Josh Brolin) — and they’re perhaps the best meta-punchline ever delivered across the superhero cinematic universes. The final “Deadpool 2” trailer was […]

What stands out when looking at the cover of the new, once-in-a-lifetime 1,000th issue of “Action Comics” is that 80 years after giving birth to the superhero genre, Superman hasn’t changed much at all. The spit-curl, the S, the cape flapping in the wind, and yes, even the red trunks are back in time for this anniversary issue. Even […]

IT WAS just three summers ago that Steven Spielberg was speculating about the death of the superhero movie, assuring that it would go the way of the Western. Now the legendary director seems to see creative life near where he once envisioned a funeral. Warner Bros. and Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment announced Tuesday that they would produce […]

FORMER FBI director James B. Comey has a book to promote, which means doing a lot of prominent TV spots. Which really means that President Trump will surely be near the screen, drawn like a moth to the inflamed feud. Comey’s “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership” hits stores and e-shelves Tuesday, but already […]

THE ANNOUNCEMENT Monday afternoon that an “electronic comic book” had received the Pulitzer Prize sent shock waves through some corners of the cartooning community. In nearly a century of Pulitzer jurors honoring editorial cartooning, the award — much as with such sister categories as commentary and criticism — had never been given to multiple creators for […]

Harley Quinn has a director. Deadline is reporting that Cathy Yan will direct a movie set to star Margot Robbie in a return to her “Suicide Squad” role of Harley Quinn, presumably with other big-name female DC Comics characters set to appear alongside her. The announcement confirms that a movie with Robbie as Harley Quinn in […]

A DUTCH PAINTING that David Hockney first saw more than six decades ago in London is the resurgent inspiration for the art that graces this week’s New Yorker. “I’ve always loved it,” Hockney, 80, tells the New Yorker’s art director, Francoise Mouly. “It’s a beautiful painting, the original.” That original is Meindert Hobbema’s 1689 work […]

FOR POLITICAL cartoonists, it was only a matter of time. Nearly a decade after the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning was awarded to an animation-only portfolio for the first time, the Pulitzer committee on Monday marked another first: It gave the award to an “electronic comic book.” “Welcome to the New World,” a long-form visual narrative […]

SOME LEGACY comic strips are the inky equivalent of the more Mesozoic members of Congress: After being around for eons, they seem to still have a daily perch largely out of habit, name recognition and comfortable familiarity. Yet “Nancy,” starring a title character who’s been around for 85 years — sprung from a strip nearly […]

FOCUSING ON Wonder Woman has been the strongest recent move for the DC film universe. Now, the Incredibles are rolling out a similar strategy. We “need to change people’s perceptions about superheroes,” telecomm mogul and huge superhero supporter Winston Deavor (voiced by Bob Odenkirk) tells the family at the center of the film, “and Elastigirl is our […]

Valiant has been one of the top comics publishers outside the big two of Marvel and DC Comics since its rebirth in 2012. And now Joe Illidge, who just took over as executive editor, thinks it’s poised for an even bigger breakout moment — especially as it gears up for this summer’s “Harbinger Wars 2” and future entertainment deals with […]

“IT’S AN attack on our country in a true sense. It’s an attack on what we all stand for,” President Trump said in response to the probe led by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III on Monday — the day FBI agents raided the office and residences of longtime Trump attorney Michael Cohen. Trump added […]

EVEN AS “Black Panther” began to rack up the box-office numbers, Marvel fans knew it was all building to this. For an entire decade, Marvel Studios has rolled out its battle plans, phase by phase, with the precision of Napoleon and the swagger of Patton: Introduce and amass superheroes for an ever-escalating cosmic showdown. Now, […]

WHEN THE iconic comic “Cathy” comic strip ended in fall 2010, the final panel bid farewell by introducing a third generation: Cathy announced that she was pregnant with a girl, and Cathy’s mother fell to her knees, celebrating the realization she was becoming a grandma. In her own life at that time, cartoonist Cathy Guisewite was […]

WITHIN COMICS, Mike Peters is known as an ageless wonder who seemingly dips his creative pen in the Fountain of Youth. Now the National Cartoonists Society recognizes his tireless output from last year with twin nominations for its divisional awards. The Reuben Award-winning Peters, 74, is nominated in the editorial cartoons and newspaper strips categories, […]

WHEN THE iconic comic “Cathy” comic strip ended in fall 2010, the final panel bid farewell by introducing a third generation: Cathy announced that she was pregnant with a girl, and Cathy’s mother fell to her knees, celebrating the realization she was becoming a grandma. In her own life at that time, cartoonist Cathy Guisewite was […]

“I’VE WAITED a long time for a shot like this.” Well, young Han, break up the narrative carbonite and board your Falcon, because your shot has arrived. The second trailer for “Solo: A Star Wars Story” landed late Sunday, and the undercurrent to the two-minute-plus clip seems to be: Let’s assuage your concerns, dear viewer, […]

ON SUNDAY night, “The Simpsons” responded with snapshot brevity to the most recent criticism that one of its longest-running characters is culturally insensitive. Last fall, Brooklyn standup Hari Kondabolu debuted his documentary “The Problem With Apu,” in which the comedian of Indian heritage weighed whether the Fox show’s Indian-born convenience-store clerk, Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, did “more harm than […]

WITHIN COMICS, Mike Peters is known as an ageless wonder who seemingly dips his creative pen in the Fountain of Youth. Now, the National Cartoonists Society recognizes his tireless output from last year with twin nominations for its divisional awards. The Reuben Award-winning Peters, 74, is nominated in the Editorial Cartoons and Newspaper Strips categories, […]

FOR MORE than eight decades, Nancy, the bushy-haired, red-bowed comic character, has been rendered by a man. This week, Nancy’s syndicate will change that. On Monday, Andrews McMeel Syndication will announce that the cartoonist Olivia Jaimes has inherited the iconic strip and will provide a “21st-century female perspective,” says John Glynn, Andrews McMeel’s president and […]

Larry Hama has been writing “G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero” comics since the series’ days at Marvel Comics. He wrote most of Marvel’s first 155 issues back when the series began in the early ’80s and later returned after IDW took it over in 2010. “I was amazed at how easy it was for me […]

Larry Hama has been writing “G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero” comics since the series’ days at Marvel Comics. He wrote most of Marvel’s first 155 issues back when the series began in the early 80s, and later returned after IDW took it over in 2010. “I was amazed at how easy it was for […]

  “Why must fireflies die so young?” — Grave of the Fireflies (Isao Takahata 1935-2018) pic.twitter.com/UQ7HDEeUF5 — Studio Ghibli (@GhibliQuotes) April 5, 2018 IT IS the animated war masterpiece that still moves men and women to tears. It ranks right at the top as “the saddest film ever made,” “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” writer-director […]

Far Cry 5 Developed by: Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft Toronto Published by: Ubisoft Available on: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One For over a decade, the Far Cry series has been known for sending players to locations that would seem exotic to all but the most globetrotting Westerner: the savannah, the tropics, the Himalayas. Even without placing […]

A year before signing his major deal with Netflix, comic-book creator Mark Millar was still being courted by multiple Hollywood studios. There were dinners and business meetings that had Millar wondering where his creator-owned, comic-book gold mine Millarworld would go next. Hits like “Kick-A–” and “Kingsman: The Secret Service” proved Millarworld had bite at the box […]

“DID YOU grow up in her shadow? No, I didn’t. I grew up in her light.” So are the illuminating words spoken in the past by Guy Johnson, who is among the featured speakers in Wednesday’s Google Doodle celebrating the legendary writer-activist Maya Angelou, who was born 90 years ago Wednesday in St. Louis. Johnson is […]