SOMETIMES IT takes a collision of images to virally pierce the popular consciousness. Take the mash-up video by Deadspin video editor Tim Burke, who told The Washington Post’s Paul Farhi that Sinclair Broadcast Group has, as Farhi writes, “turned its many local newscasts into a national megaphone for its corporate views.” Burke’s video stitches together […]

FIFTY YEARS ago this week, Stanley Kubrick’s epic “2001: A Space Odyssey” opened, first in Washington and then New York. The influential film, which won an Oscar for its pioneering special effects, has been called Kubrick’s “crowning, confounding achievement” and a “quantum leap” in technological achievement by film critic James Verniere, who notes that Steven Spielberg […]

Note: This post 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 event in history,” […]

THE HUGO AWARD nominees were announced over the weekend by Worldcon 76, and one key takeaway from the comics nominees is this: Emil Ferris‘s year of coronation has arrived. As we enter the first stages of the book awards season, Ferris’s debut graphic novel, “My Favorite Things Is Monsters” (Fantagraphics), will try to make good on […]

DOES THE White House have 20/20 vision when it comes to changing the 2020 Census? The Trump administration, as The Washington Post’s Karen Tumulty writes, “proposes to corrupt the process … by requiring every household to report the citizenship status of its members.” Post columnist Marc Thiessen, on the other hand, opines that “there is nothing […]

NO FATHER and son have ever both won the esteemed Reuben Award. That could change this May. Over the weekend, the National Cartoonists Society announced that Oscar-winning animator Glen Keane is one of five finalists for its annual Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year. Thirty-six years ago, his father, “Family Circus” creator Bil […]

EVEN FOR a high-news-metabolism White House, it was a very busy week that was. The personnel turnstile continued to whirl like a dervish, as former ambassador John Bolton was named the new national security adviser, and President Trump tapped his personal physician, Ronny L. Jackson, to head up Veterans Affairs. Meanwhile, questions about where Trump’s […]

BuzzFeed News reported Thursday “Ren and Stimpy Show” creator John Kricfalusi “preyed upon” two fans when they were teenagers, making him the latest Hollywood leader to be accused of sexual misconduct in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein allegations. Both women, who were fans of “Ren and Stimpy” in childhood, say Kricfalusi promised them his […]

Harley Quinn and the New Gods will come face-to-face this summer. DC Comics has announced that writer Sam Humphries (“Nightwing,” “Green Lanterns”) will be the new writer on the “Harley Quinn” comic book series beginning in July with issue No. 45. The series will be illustrated by fan-favorite Harley Quinn artist John Timms and see […]

SOME COUPLES are just better hosts than everyone else in their circle. Their beguiling homes beckon, they cue up the perfect music to set the mood, and the enchanting art that hangs in their homes says something fascinating about the owners. The authors who created and curated the new graphic-novel anthology “Bizarre Romance” (Abrams) most […]

BECAUSE PIXAR’s track record with successful animated shorts is as impressive as its feature-film trophy case, word of each new short merits high anticipation and expectation. So it is with news that “Bao”, an eight-minute short about an “empty-nesting Chinese mom,” will screen at Tribeca Film Festival next month, according to the event’s site, before […]

IT’S A story that practically channels Jim Carrey’s savanna-set “Ace Ventura 2″ with the midnight sense of mission worthy of Jerry Maguire. The creative result fresh from Donald Glover’s gifted mind is a topically hilarious fake script that at times reads like superhero Mad Libs by way of Google News — yet with an acid bite reminiscent of […]

“CREATIVE DIFFERENCES” can’t catch much of a break these days. The term, seemingly as old around Hollywood as “points” and “back-end” and “television residuals,” used to have a particularly ominous tone, resonating with the gravitas of conflict so intractable that a linguistic paint job was needed to allow both sides to save face. Thing is, […]

It’s not too early to start dreaming up the next generation of Avengers. There are plenty of reasons to think the next two Avengers movies (April’s “Avengers: Infinity War” and 2019’s still untitled sequel) will be the last ride for this original cinematic crew of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. There’s the Infinity Gauntlet-wielding threat of Thanos […]

DISNEY PIXAR MOVIE MADNESS! pic.twitter.com/u73fEcTqUf — AP (@yeeitsanthonyy) March 22, 2018 HOW DOES a Disney fan debate go viral? Well, in recent days, it took one case of perfect timing and two levels of inexplicable fan behavior to strike just the right spark. Last week, the Twitter user @yeeitsanthonny tweeted his own blank Disney Animation […]

NOW THAT “Black Panther” has passed the domestic gross of the first “Avengers” movie (without adjusting for inflation), the question on the horizon becomes: Can the next “Avengers” movie beat it? Ryan Coogler’s cultural phenomenon — which won five straight weekends — grossed $16.7 million at this past weekend’s domestic box office, according to studio […]

“WE WILL be the change because you couldn’t be.” So reads one billboard message from a Texas student group as part of the signage surrounding the “March for Our Lives” protest of gun violence Saturday in Washington. Ariel Hobbs, a college sophomore at the University of Houston, teamed with three area high school students to write […]

BILL MURRAY and Scarlett Johansson have been here before, of course, 15 years ago this summer, when they starred in Sofia Coppola’s “Lost in Translation.” But it’s illuminating to see how much has changed in the critical waters between that film and their newest, Wes Anderson’s mostly acclaimed “Isle of Dogs,” which was co-written by Sofia’s […]

A Way Out Developed by: Hazelight Published by: Electronic Arts Available on: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One In terms of sheer storytelling moxie, one of the brightest lights in today’s video game industry is the brash Lebanese-born filmmaker turned video game designer Josef Fares. Fares, a writer and video game director, has led teams that […]

PERCEPTIVE IN their political message. Deceptive in their visual simplicity. And clever and engaging as a “memorable portfolio.” So deemed the Overseas Press Club of America‘s judges in choosing Clay Bennett, of the Chattanooga Times Free Press and Washington Post Writers Group, as this year’s recipient of the Thomas Nast Award for international-affairs cartoons. Bennett’s […]

ANOTHER WEEK, another trailer appearance of Josh Brolin as a Marvel villain. It looks to be a very Brolin summer, in fact, at the superhero box office. Last week brought the latest trailer for Disney/Marvel’s “Avengers: Infinity War,” featuring new shots of Brolin as the toweringly powerful Thanos, who’s bent on wiping out half of humanity. […]

Now that we know a “New Gods” movie is on the horizon from Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment, and that it will be directed by Ava DuVernay, it is not too soon to start thinking about what we will see in the film. DuVernay is now in possession of a very important part of the DC […]

WE AMERICANS now live in a nation where we cannot go a week before a student-led gun-violence protest without another act of gun violence amid students. On Tuesday, one month after the shooting in Parkland, Fla., students were critically injured at Great Mills High School in Southern Maryland. That gun violence comes just days before the March […]

WITH EVERY wave of Facebook news in recent days comes a status update about just how to characterize this sprawling controversy. The news, of course, is that the data-science firm Cambridge Analytica, which worked for the Trump campaign, harvested and employed the Facebook information of about 50 million users, as reported by the New York Times […]

by Nate Beeler / Columbus Dispatch (CagleCartoons.com) 2018 AS VLADIMIR PUTIN cruised to presidential victory Sunday, the name that trailed him more closely than distant runner-up Grudinin was Novichok. Communist Party challenger Pavel Grudinin couldn’t muster 13 percent of the vote after most of the ballots were counted, according to the Central Election Commission; Putin garnered more than 75 […]

“BLACK PANTHER” just achieved something that had occurred only twice before in two decades. Ryan Coogler’s cultural event of a film won its fifth consecutive weekend at the domestic box office, according to Sunday’s studio estimates. The Disney/Marvel movie grossed $27 million over the weekend to top the new “Tomb Raider,” which grossed $23 million. […]

LAST WEEK, The Washington Post brought you news of “Marlon Bundo’s A Day of the Life of the Vice President,” the furry new tale about the real White House pet rabbit. The children’s book, which lands Monday, is illustrated by second lady Karen Pence and written by daughter Charlotte Pence. And now, on “Last Week […]

From the very beginning of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the plan has been to build to Thanos. Ten years after the MCU’s birth with 2008’s “Iron Man,” we have almost arrived at that moment. So it’s fitting that in the final trailer for “Avengers: Infinity War,” the Marvel Studios movie that will finally unleash the […]

Darkseid is … under the direction of Ava DuVernay. The “A Wrinkle in Time” director will reportedly direct the film version of “New Gods,” one of DC Comics’ most cherished properties, created by comic book legend Jack Kirby in 1971. The “New Gods” universe features some of DC Comics’ most popular characters outside of its famed […]

FROM SEN. MARCO RUBIO to Stormy Daniels, vocal figures in President Trump’s orbit haven’t been shy about attempting to expose the commander in chief. Now, New Yorker artist Barry Blitt gets a shot at fleshing out his perception of Trump and his “stormy relationship” with the press, as he described it to the magazine. For the […]

St. Louis-based comic book publisher Lion Forge is joining the relief efforts to assist those still in need in Puerto Rico after the destruction of Hurricane Maria. All profits from Lion Forge’s just-released “Puerto Rico Strong” anthology, written and illustrated by some of the top Puerto Rican and Latino talent in the comic book industry, […]

“SAVE YOUR energy Rex,” President Trump tweeted last fall, in publicly drubbing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s diplomatic efforts toward Pyongyang. This week, Trump tweeted that he really wanted Tillerson to save his energy. Only this time, the public drubbing was cast in the language of: “Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service!” As the […]

Hawkman will be flying into his own new comic book from DC Comics later this summer. The new series, partly inspired by Hawkman’s role in the current mini-series “Dark Knights: Metal” and DC’s desire to once again make the character a major player in the DCU, will debut in June and will be written by […]

You can’t save the world alone — and Ultra High Definition can’t save “Justice League.” The far-from-heralded DC Comics-inspired film is now available to purchase on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD (it has been available digitally since Feb. 13). If you decide to reach for your utility belt to drop some cash so you […]

KAI TEXEL vividly recalls the lockdown drills staged at her New Jersey high school. “We’d hide under desks, turn out the lights and lock the doors,” she said. “I remember having surprise ones multiple times a year. It was a part of life.” Texel, who graduated from High Point Regional High School in Sussex County […]