WOMEN SELDOM get Golden Globe nominations for directing animated films. It had been four years since a woman received such a nod — co-director Jennifer Lee was recognized for 2013’s “Frozen” — after “Arthur Christmas’ ” Sarah Smith became the first female directing nominee in 2011. But 2017 is giving women a bit more of their […]

ONE OF the more hotly debated comic strips this week is “Baldo,” as the teenage title character’s best friend, Cruz, recounts his immigration story. “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals has made things easier,” Cruz says of DACA, “but the fear has never really gone away.” This week’s narrative arc could not be timelier. Three months […]

IN ANY direction that cartoonists have looked this week, it seems, there has been another satirically rich target. In the American West, President Trump was massively cutting back protected lands at Utah national monuments. In the Mideast, Trump was recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, setting off protests and clashes during a “day of […]

I don't know who made this, but thank you. #MaximumEffort pic.twitter.com/nH1ywqeshN — Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) September 22, 2016 RYAN REYNOLDS could well end up with a second major film franchise adapted from popular graphic characters. The “Deadpool” star has signed on to top-line the live-action “Detective Pikachu” and will begin shooting next month, the Hollywood […]

TODAY, Sen. Al Franken is scheduled to deliver an announcement, surely as to his fate on the Hill. As the number of women accusing the Minnesota lawmaker of sexual misconduct climbs, so, too, does the number of his fellow Senate Democrats calling on him to resign. “We as elected leaders should absolutely be held to a higher […]

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus Developed by: MachineGames Published by: Bethesda Softworks Available on: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One The last Wolfenstein game I played, “The Old Blood,” came out in 2015 — an eon ago, or at least it feels that way. Two years ago, who would have thought that white supremacists would be […]

Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment recently revealed the first look at Brenton Thwaites suited up as Robin for the upcoming series “Titans,” which will debut in 2018 as part of a new digital streaming service from DC. The image answers the question many fans had when Thwaites’s casting was announced back in August: Would he […]

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Developed by: Monolith Soft Published by: Nintendo Available on: Nintendo Switch The world of Japanese role-playing games contains a cornucopia of cultural influences, not the least of which is anime and its saucer-eyed, empathetic heroes. In addition to featuring characters with emotive eyes and childlike faces, the genre often showcases an assemblage of blazingly […]

GAEL GARCIA BERNAL, who voices a leading character in “Coco,” is impressed with how the Pixar film even seeks to build cultural bridges with those who might speak against Mexicans and Mexican Americans. In “Coco,” the path to and from the afterlife involves a border checkpoint, and those trying to cross illegally — including Hector (voiced […]

ON THURSDAY EVENING, Jimmy Kimmel, speaking to his ABC viewers during his monologue-as-personal challenge, joined the growing roster of left-leaning humorists who have been trying to put Alabama candidate Roy Moore more squarely in their satiric crosshairs. Here is how some of the nation’s cartoonists have been skewering the Alabama politician’s candidacy for Senate amid […]

2017 was another bountiful year for video games. One of the biggest success stories over the past several months has been the Nintendo Switch. A succession of well-received exclusives for the new platform, beginning with “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild,” elevated the Kyoto-based company back into the spotlight. Meanwhile, Sony’s PlayStation 4 […]

SINCE THE unmasking of Harvey Weinstein, the names of other celebrities accused of sexual misconduct have followed with the regularity of a drumbeat growing louder. November brought forth such entertainment and media celebrities as Charlie Rose and Louis C.K., and the month ends with a flurry of such figures as Matt Lauer. Garrison Keillor. Russell Simmons. Boom. Boom. […]

SINCE “COCO” was released last week, fans have been vocal in their vitriol for the 21-minute featurette, “Olaf’s Frozen Adventure,” running before the film. And the hue and cry has largely been over what a disservice the short is to viewers. Yet Walt Disney Animation might also be doing a creative disservice to “Olaf.” Most […]

SINCE ITS release 22 summers ago, Disney’s animated hit “Pocahontas” has sparked divisive opinions. On one hand, the G-rated film took extreme narrative liberties, painting the 17th-century teenage icon’s brutal story as romantic, kid-friendly fare. On the other hand, the studio received praise for finally — after six decades of fictional, uniformly pale princesses — depicting a […]

ONE OF these years, Seth MacFarlane, as a cartooning crooner, is going to bag a Grammy Award that can rest next to his row of Emmys. And on Tuesday, MacFarlane again showed that his best shot at landing a Grammy might come from interpreting midcentury standards from the American songbook. The “Family Guy” creator received […]

PATRICK McDONNELL’S comic “Mutts” often offers poignant moments for a good cause, such as the “Shelter Stories” strips that benefit the Humane Society. So the cartoonist told Comic Riffs that it was quite organic for him to draw in support of hurricane relief. Now, comics fans are agreeing as they vote with their wallets. Last Thursday, […]

On the way to developing one of DC Entertainment’s biggest hits, animated or otherwise, the makers of “Teen Titans Go!” frequently heard the voices of doubters. That’s because the doubts were coming from the mouths of the voice actors they’d cast. “Teen Titans Go!,” which debuted on Cartoon Network in 2013, was a lighter, funnier reboot of the original […]

NATALIA CORDOVA-BUCKLEY is a voice actor in the new Disney/Pixar movie “Coco,” but it was her voice that led her to first experience the trauma of sexist taunts. She was bullied because she spoke with a low tone — deeper than her father’s by age 6, she says — that was judged to be less than feminine. “Machismo harmed […]

IF YOUR comics pages look a little different to you Thursday, it’s for a good cause. More than 125 cartoonists are donating their original art to benefit the victims of recent hurricanes and other U.S. disasters, including in Puerto Rico. The auction campaign, called Thanks + Giving, includes such syndicates as King Features, The Washington […]

Note: Spoilers ahead for “Justice League.” There was one question lingering in audiences’ minds after watching “Justice League”: Do the two very cool and surprising post-credits scenes mean anything for the future of DC on the big screen, especially after the film’s sub-$100 million opening weekend? The first after-credits scene was mostly just a nod to hardcore fans: The Flash (Ezra Miller) and […]

The role of Cyborg in “Justice League” is Ray Fisher’s first performance in a major motion picture, but he does have experience playing legendary characters. Before filming his first movie, Fisher was a theater actor, performing as the Duke of Burgundy in an Oregon Shakespeare Festival production of “King Lear,” and as Muhammad Ali in […]

It has been almost a year to the day since Geoff Johns helped lead DC Comics to one of its most successful relaunches with the new “rebirth” era. Johns is again asking for fans to believe in him while he takes care of some of their most sacred characters. The first issue of “Doomsday Clock,” a 12-issue […]

Imagine buying a new chess set. Chess is your favorite game. Also you love “Star Wars.” It’s a Star Wars chess set! Now imagine playing your friend who spent $200 for the random chance that his pawns obtain the board-clearing powers of a queen. Plus his king looks like Darth Vader and yours still looks like […]

As Jon Bernthal began preparing to shoot the first season of “The Punisher” (now streaming on Netflix), he noted the textured approach that writer-producer Steve Lightfoot was taking to depict Frank Castle, who’s otherwise known as Marvel’s most lethal vigilante. When Bernthal debuted as the Punisher last year during the second season of Netflix’s “Daredevil,” he […]

THE HAIRIEST PROBLEM with “Justice League,” which opens today, is cleanly represented by the great and disturbing case of the missing whiskers. Because Superman, who died at the end of last year’s “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” inevitably appears in flashback in the new film, it is no plot spoiler to comment on Henry […]