HAS ANY AMERICAN, professionally and personally, ever more greatly embodied the concept of “better living through chemistry”? Time and again and again and again, Percy Julian — the grandson of slaves and the father of Julian Laboratories Inc. — used his brilliance and perseverance and innovation in science to overcome obstacles raised before him […]
IN DECEMBER OF 2012, comiXology co-founder and CEO David Steinberger told me: “Comics is big enough to be interesting, but not enough for bigger [digital publishing] companies to spend the time to do it right. We’re the only multiplatform provider of this type of material that [gives comics] the care and love they deserve.” Now, […]
(Courtesy of 20th Century Fox/Blue Sky Studios/Peanuts Worldwide) CAN A DRAWN LINE feel so warm and fuzzy that it calms countless anxious onlookers? Because with one peek at Charlie Brown’s new round noggin last month — as his computer-generated head debuted like a monument in full movement — long-worried fussbudget fans beheld the […]
MARVEL HEROES continue to mint money with each new rollout. This time, it’s Cap who’s back to conquer America, as his sequel “The Winter Soldier” grossed $96.2-million in the weekend North American market, according to studio box-office estimates Sunday — giving it the biggest domestic debut ever in April. The April record-holder had been 2011′s […]
Steve Rogers/Cap (Chris Evans) and Natasha Romanoff/the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) bring adult depth to “The Winter Soldier.” (Zade Rosenthal/Disney-Marvel) “CAPTAIN AMERICA: The Winter Soldier” is a game-changer. Not only is “The Winter Soldier” a superb adaptation of the Marvel Comics storyline of the same name, but it also may just be the best movie […]
WHEN ARCHIE COMICS CEO Jonathan Goldwater took a look at the Archie Comics universe that he had inherited from his father, he decided it wasn’t just Archie, Betty, Veronica or Jughead that needed a reboot, but rather the entire town of Riverdale itself. High-speed Internet, social networks and smartphones were a part of […]
DUELING FOR the lead among top documentaries on iTunes this week is Justin Bieber, Lance Armstrong, Mick Jagger’s backup singer and… A bunch of comic-strip cartoonists? Many of them from the back pages of newspapers? Yes, “Stripped,” Dave Kellett and Frederick Schroeder’s love letter to comic strips, has hit iTunes this week, and is […]
IN THE BACK of his new book “The Harlem Hellfighters,” bestselling author Max Brooks notes some of the real history that forms the basis of his riveting graphic novel about an undersung all-black infantry regiment from World War I. There staring back at us across time, among the gallery of true heroes, is Henry Lincoln […]
IN YESTERDAY’S “Pearls Before Swine,”, creator Stephan Pastis used his characters to engage in a playful dialogue over word choice. In the strip, Rat is talking to Goat about how certain words fall out of favor for more politically correct or gender-neutral terms. The culturally obsolete terms, Rat says, include “maid,” “stewardess,” “secretary” and “midget.” […]
FOR THE twin-princess powerhouse of a film, it really is Disney World. Boosted by opening in its final overseas market of Japan over the weekend, Disney’s “Frozen” has just become the biggest animated film ever. It’s now “Frozen’s” world; we’re just singing it. “Frozen” — which already has set sales records and won Oscars […]