the Addison Recorder – Page 9 – Pop culture dispatches from the Great Lakes

J&STAC: Summertime #1s

July 15, 2015 by -J. Leave a Comment

-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.”

It’s been a while since we did a recap of recent #1 releases, in part because of the re-booting brought on by Secret Wars and Convergence. The summer has brought us a plethora of new and re-launched stories, and we start with a classic comic that looks very, very new.

Archie #1

words by Mark Waid, art by Fiona Staples, published by Archie Comics

Synopsis: The reboot of Archie finds the titular character giving the reader a tour of his high school, introducing his friends, and now ex girlfriend Betty.

Steph: I loved this. The Waid/Staples combo is just so fun to read. [Read more…]

“We will get by, we will survive.” The Last Concert of the Grateful Dead

July 7, 2015 by Andrew Rostan Leave a Comment

They were there for hours that hot summer day and I know because I was there for hours, too, walking through the greenery by the Field Museum and the south parking lot. I saw people begging for spare tickets holding up signs reading “I need a miracle.” I saw people in dirty khakis sitting on the grass playing acoustic guitars and selling everything from bottled water to jerk chicken burritos, from jewelry to bowls. I saw tailgaters who gave anyone who liked their little set-up a free beer. I saw elementary school girls bravely dressed in teddy bear costumes. I saw more tie-dye and vintage T-shirts (not thrift store vintage but owned and lived in for years, cherished vintage) then I’ll ever see in one place again.

It was the largest audience in the history of Soldier Field – 71,000 people – and they had gathered to see history that was not just Chicago’s but America’s. They came to see the last performance of the Grateful Dead.

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Mr. Rostan at the Movies: Restoration Dramas, or, Ten Picks for the Gene Siskel Film Center’s “Recently Restored” Festival

July 3, 2015 by Andrew Rostan Leave a Comment

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 two weeks, he’ll opine on current pictures or important movies from the past.

If the rest of the summer film season offers nothing that looks like it could match Fury Road and Inside Out, then the Gene Siskel Film Center at State and Randolph is here to help, with a festival whose calendar made me pant with excitement. The Recently Restored series, running from July 3 (or today) to August 16, showcases films from around the world, carefully returned to how both their original audiences saw them (in the finest picture and sound quality) and as their makers intended them to be seen (with the return of cut, damaged, or previously lost footage). It is a wonderful opportunity to see intriguing pictures you’ve never heard of before or check some masterpieces off your list.

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J&STAC: The Autumnlands, volume 1

July 1, 2015 by -J. Leave a Comment

-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.”

When the first issue came out last fall, the series was titled Tooth & Claw. Today sees the release of the first trade collection of the series under its new name, The Autumnlands vol. 1: Tooth and Claw, and it’s an action-packed book that blends fantasy and sci-fi in a world of animals.

The Autumnlands, volume 1: Tooth and Claw

words by Kurt Busiek, art by Benjamin Dewey, published by Image Comics

Synopsis: In a world of anthropomorphic animals and floating cities, the one form of true currency and power — magic — is fading. In a last ditch effort to resurrect it, Gharta the wizard works a massive spell to bring forth the Great Champion in the hope that he will restore their magic to what it once was.

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A Song of Human Empathy: Reflecting on The Apu Trilogy’s Restoration

June 19, 2015 by Alex Bean Leave a Comment

Everything I’m going to write here pales in comparison to Roger Ebert’s great insight in that clip above. He calls movies “a machine that generates empathy.” That’s an idea that’s stuck with me for a long time and through many movies. It might not be the first thing that leaps to mind when I consider something like Mad Max, but it’s always there. No matter how poorly crafted or cynically conceived, every movie has the capacity to connect us with the experiences of others. Most of the time that’s engaged simply to get us cheering for the protagonist and jeering at the antagonist, but our capacity for empathy can go far beyond that. It can make us stare without blinking at our own awful past. It can make us consider the furthest stretches of our capacity for love and connection. Or it can make us sit down, eat some popcorn, and see a way of life that is both utterly foreign and thoroughly recognizable. That’s exactly what I did last week when I took in the sterling 4K restoration Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy at The Music Box Theatre.

I wrote the above paragraph on the night of Tuesday, June 16th. The next night a white supremacist terrorist took nine innocent lives in Charleston, South Carolina because he hated them for their skin color. That attack has shaken me up and brought about a significant rewrite to the rest of this piece.

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Mr. Rostan at the Movies: “Inside Out” and Pixar’s Ambitions

June 19, 2015 by Andrew Rostan Leave a Comment

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

One of the most indelible memories of childhood moviegoing was twenty years ago, watching a cartoon the likes of which I had never seen before called Toy Story. Since that day in 1995, Pixar has given the world a gift of extraordinary all-ages films from studio chief John Lasseter, Brad Bird, Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton, and others that have redefined both the style and substance of modern filmmaking. However, Pixar post-2010 has fallen into a rut, mostly producing films of lesser quality. Inside Out, the new feature from Docter (who also helmed Monsters, Inc. and Up), is a sign that this trend is about to change.

[Read more…]

the Fifth Line: Second City Triumphant

June 18, 2015 by -J. Leave a Comment

When shall we three meet again?
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
— Macbeth, Act I, Scene I

Those were the exact words I thought as we skipped down Addison Street the moment Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final concluded. Two years ago, a trio of us celebrated the Blackhawks’ second Stanley Cup win this decade by running down to Wrigley Field to celebrate. Monday night, we re-enacted that ritual for Cup #3.

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We even happened upon the Recorder’s editor-in-chief, already celebrating (despite the fact that he’s wild for the Wild).

Monday was a day of hurly-burly in Chicago. Tornado warnings blanketed the city and its suburbs, sirens blared as rain pelted the area, flooding side streets and major thoroughfares alike. Amidst the meteorological chaos was the excitement and hope for Chicago sports fans: our team had a chance to clinch the Cup on ice for the first time in almost a century.

Oh, and the team they were facing seemed way too apropos for the weather. Amidst the raging storms, the Blackhawks strove to defeat the Lightning — the fates were asking for the purplest of prose. The perfect encapsulation of Chicago’s excitement could be found in the channeling of Snoopy / World Famous Author.

It was a dark and stormy night when the Blackhawks WON THE STANLEY CUP!

— PK Sullivan (@pk_sullivan) June 16, 2015

Since the Fifth Line is hanging up the skates until the start of next season, permit me this victory lap around the rink before I do. [Read more…]

J&STAC: the Lingo

June 17, 2015 by -J. Leave a Comment

-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.”

As any industry or medium grows, it develops jargon — language that fans, practitioners, and others “in the know” understand, but can be an obstacle for new fans and practitioners. As someone who works in a comic shop, and who is an advocate for bringing in new fans, Steph wants to ensure that such technical terminology isn’t a barrier.

Here, then, are a few pieces of jargon that can help potential new fans and readers. [Read more…]

The Tired Nostalgia of ‘Jurassic World’

June 15, 2015 by Travis J. Cook 1 Comment

First of all, spoiler alert.

The Jurassic Park franchise has historically been a major draw. The original 1993 film was the largest grossing movie of all time until Titanic came along four years later. The second film, though largely sub-par when compared with the first, held the record for the largest opening weekend until 2001, when some movie about a little boy wizard came along and took over. These were original event pictures, massive draws that were required summer viewing for the young millennial generation. Dinosaurs are cool, and people love seeing dinosaurs.

That seems to be holding true for Jurassic World, the latest entry in the series. Originally forecast to make something in the vicinity of $125 million in its opening weekend, the movie made nearly that on Friday alone. Early reports have the movie taking in an opening weekend haul of $204 million, which puts it at the third best opening of all time. Meanwhile, across the world, the film took in a staggering $511 million dollars, an all time world record. People still love their dinosaurs.

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Welcome to Jurassic World: A Dino-Primer

June 12, 2015 by Travis J. Cook Leave a Comment

By now, you might have heard of a certain movie opening in wide release. Jurassic World proposes itself to be a return to the glory days of Jurassic Park, a time when CGI was a cutting-age technology, and dinosaurs roamed the screens of the world. Since then, the franchise has suffered its share of ups and downs…but the dinosaurs remain an ever present fixture in popular culture.

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