The J&STAC Holiday Gift Guide

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-J. Michael Bestul is a writer for the Addison Recorder. Stephanie Ruehl is an artist who works in a comic book shop. They’re married and have a lot of discussions about comic books and graphic novels. Combine all that into a biweekly feature and you get “J. & Steph Talk About Comics.”

If there’s someone on your holiday shopping list who like comics, or books, or art here’s a list of our favorite comic book recommendations, most of which Steph has already shoved in peoples faces and shouted READ THIS! [Read more…]

ALL The Genres: The 2015 Album of the Year Nominees

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Here’s one of the biggest surprises of 2015 for me: one of the organizations best reflecting the American people is the NARAS. The five nominees for the Album of the Year Grammy each come from a different genre: pop, rock, rap, country, and the blend of soul and electronica that Abel Tesfaye creates. Moreover, for the first time in the three years I have written this round-up, every nominee topped the Billboard album charts. What you’re about to read is truly populist representation. You might agree it’s among the best of the world’s music. You also might find some of it pandering, annoying, or unlistenable. Me, I would have added Florence + The Machine, Father John Misty, and the first bootleg of the Grateful Dead’s Soldier Field shows—but who wants to carry the mantle of American taste on their shoulders?
That said, comments welcome!

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STAR WORDS: Tales From a Galaxy Far, Far Away

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The latest release from Del Rey’s line of Star Wars novels is a quartet of short stories by Landry Q. Walker collected under the more-than-slightly cumbersome heading of Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens: Tales From a Galaxy Far, Far Away. I will call them Tales for ease of reading. The quartet is available only in e-book format, look for it online from your e-book seller of choice.

Each story in the collection features characters from the imminently released film. What’s fun and interesting in this selection of stories is the wide variety of genres on display. Walker’s four tales rely on and reference wildly different sets of tropes, from horror to Western. [Read more…]

The Awards Season Cometh – 2015 Edition

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Alex: Ready or not, it is Oscar season. Earlier this week, the National Board of Review (Best Film: Mad Max: Fury Road) and New York Film Critics’ Circle (Best Film: Carol)both gave out their annual awards.  So, Andrew, that means it is high time for you and I to dive into this season and have a chat about what the race looks like right now and what we’re rooting for.

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J&STAC: Re-envisioned

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-J. Michael Bestul is a writer for the Addison Recorder. Stephanie Ruehl is an artist who works in a comic book shop. They’re married and have a lot of discussions about comic books and graphic novels. Combine all that into a biweekly feature and you get “J. & Steph Talk About Comics.”

Modern comics are a medium of iconography and archetypes, whether reinforcing or re-inventing them (or re-booting them, or cashing in on them…). The Bat-symbol carries worlds of meaning to countless fans, but which version of the symbol? Is your Iron Man the Tony Stark of Kirby & Lee, Fraction & Bendis, or Robert Downey, Jr.? What’s your opinion of the last Superman flick? Do you have a think-piece on all the differences between Jessica Jones in the comics and on Netflix?

While we have thoughts on those questions, we decided it would be more fun to focus on the re-imaginings, re-interpretations, and re-envisionings that piqued our interest over the years. [Read more…]

Mr. Rostan at the Movies: A Throwback to the Fifties

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Andrew Rostan was a film student before he realized that making comics was his horrible destiny, and he’s never shaken his love of cinema. Every week, he’ll opine on current pictures or important movies from the past.

This piece goes up the day after Thanksgiving. Chances are, fair reader, you’re home with your relatives or your relatives have come to you. There’s a few lazy days following the turkey consumption and people may feel like seeing a movie. However, almost every choice has pitfalls. You need a film that won’t provoke a rant from your relations, and doesn’t require watching three previous films, and isn’t from a franchise you find archaic, and is still new enough that people aren’t sick of hearing about it.

Brooklyn is 2015’s grand prize winner for “movie to see with your older relatives.” It is a movie with nothing objectionable in it. It is also beautifully made and a serious Oscar contender thanks to the figure at its center.

Romance

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STAR WORDS: Hyperspace Troopers

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Twilight-Company

Video game tie-in novels are typically of dubious quality. Shadows of the Empire was never great storytelling as prose or pixels. It came as a surprise to me how much I enjoyed Battlefront: Twilight Company and how grounded the series felt. Freed was clearly inspired by the long history of military science fiction and the hard-hitting reports of wartime journalism so prevalent in the last decade. What we get is a gritty, grimy, soldierly look at war on a galactic scale from the perspective of a boots-on-the-ground grunt. And somehow the book maintains the optimism inherent in Star Wars. It’s a refreshing look at Star Wars and brings to mind Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath in many ways – the action has an immediacy that pulls the reader into the world, caring about one character rather than the fate of a galaxy.

Johnny Rico, meet Namir

The novel follows Namir – a veteran sergeant of the 61st mobile infantry, Twilight Company – as he rises through the ranks during the darkest days of the Rebellion. He’s a jaded soldier fighting for the Rebel Alliance because fighting is all he knows. There is no patriotism in him, no love for the cause. As he is thrust up the chain of command he must grapple with his own doubts and whether he can serve the soldiers under his command if he is not a true believer. [Read more…]

Who Watches the Mockingjay?: Thoughts on the Finale of the Hunger Game Franchise

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Jennifer Lawrence in Mockingjay Part 2

Box office numbers are coming in for the past weekend, which saw the wide release of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Pt. 2, the fourth and final installment of The Hunger Games film franchise. They’re typically ginormous – buoyed by hordes of fans who poured out for the latest event movie of the season (see Bond, James and that upcoming space opera movie for other similar event movies).

And yet, there’s already a sense of disappointment going around the Internet at the cumulative take.

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Recapturing the Magic “W/ Bob and David”

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Poster

HBO aired the final episode of Mr. Show with Bob and David in December 1998, by which time, as the DVD boxes pointedly state, the network was regularly bumping it from the schedule in favor of Real Sex. Seventeen years later, David Cross and Bob Odenkirk are two of the most respected and influential people in comedy and Mr. Show survived early cancellation and a disastrous film version to become a beloved cult classic. Now the duo are on Netflix for the reunion sketch comedy series W/ Bob and David. At four episodes it is an easy binge-watch, but if it is a necessary binge-watch is a matter for debate.

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