Tag: Mythology

Setting Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology #2 up for Ragnarok

With only two more issues and at most five more stories to tell, I’m curious in which of the eleven tales will get adapted

Norse MythologyBy Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Dark Horse Comics
Available Now

The god Loki is front and center in issue #2 of the adaptation of Neil Gaiman‘s Norse Mythology. Following the events of the last issue, a contest of the champions is in order. Two dwarven master metalsmiths are to fashion three gifts to the Gods. Loki’s head is the prize between two rival clans. Norse justice is harsh. The trickster god needs to be punished because Sif lost her hair in the previous issue.

Loki knows his fate is sealed unless he thwarts the construction of these magical items. I remember Snorri Sturluson’s Skáldskaparmál from the Prose Edda, and this comic book treatment is a different and faster read. Though we don’t see the details in how the dwarves created these treasures of the gods, I can certainly say they burned no black holes out in creating Mjölnir or the other devices. Well, maybe the sun was captured for Sif’s hair. These tales are nothing like the Marvel Cinematic Treatment.

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Too Fast and Not As Furious? On Jiang Ziya: Legend of Deification

The book Investiture of the Gods where the idea of Jiang Ziya: Legend of Deification takes inspiration from is not in verbatim.

Jiang Ziya Legend of Deification Original Movie PosterAlthough American studios aren’t giving Jiang Ziya: Legend of Deification (姜子牙) the fanfare it needs for an Autumn 2020 release, word of mouth is barely enough to announce to the world that the sequel to Ne Zha is as colourful and visually spectacular. (2023 Update: Well GO USA has this film available across various streaming channels, like Amazon Prime).

Eventually, fans of this shared universe will see the heroes we are being introduced to embark on a combined adventure. Here, this former general of the celestial army was banished from Kunlan, a city in the clouds which represents one of several heavens, because he disobeyed his lord’s order to kill Su Dajin, who is possessed by Nine-Tailed (Ji Guanlin), a fox demon. But before he could execute her, she showed how her supernatural life connects to a mortal, Xiao Jiu (Yang Ning), a young girl. He can’t destroy a soul at the cost of another. Continue reading “Too Fast and Not As Furious? On Jiang Ziya: Legend of Deification”

LAAPFF 2020 The Power of Myth, Healing & Kapaemahu

The art style is simply fantastic. The sepia tones evoke a dream-like quality to contrast the past to the present. As the tale shifts from a quiet watcher to that of a child being told of his heritage, I firmly believe what’s presented here is a far better tale than Disney’s Moana. Both are terrific in its regard of what Polynesian culture represents, but if I had to choose which is more respectful in its production, it’s with Won-Kalu’s work!

Norse MythologyBy Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Available to watch in the continental United States via LAAPFF till Oct 31st.

The animated short, Kapaemahu, is a contender for the Academy Awards and I can easily see why after seeing it as part of the 36th annual month-long Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. It played at Tribeca, and if you love the power of myth as I do, this mystical work is worth seeking out. Not only is Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, Dean Hamer and Joe Wilson’s work an alluring mystical retelling of the origins of the healing stones located in Waikiki Beach, but also it recounts the history of Hawaii quite well.

It’s almost easy to forget the conflict when the Europeans came in to colonize this paradise in the latter acts. Instead, part of this work’s charm is in how four tall and mysterious figures helped do more than bring together the natives from the region. They are transgender and recognized as benevolent beings. Their arrival is compared to the Europeans, and that’s where we get an excellent look at how this island nation’s civilization changed over time. As with Canada now respecting the nations that first occupied this land before any event, we are shown where we all came from.

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TheNFB at the 2020 Vancouver Film Fest!

TheNFB Logo Black and WhiteThe world premiere of Sundance award-winning Vancouver filmmaker Jennifer Abbott’s new feature doc The Magnitude of All Things (Cedar Island Films/Flying Eye Productions/NFB) tops a powerful lineup of National Film Board of Canada (NFB) produced and co-produced documentary and animation at the 2020 Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF), taking place September 24 to October 7.

Two NFB feature docs by acclaimed creators are also making their BC debuts:

  • Inconvenient Indian by Michelle Latimer, a filmmaker, producer, writer and activist of Algonquin, Métis and French heritage.
  • John Ware Reclaimed by Cheryl Foggo, a Calgary-born filmmaker, author and playwright whose work often focuses on the Black Canadian experience.

The festival is presenting two NFB animated shorts:

  • The Great Malaise by Quebec animator and illustrator Catherine Lepage.
  • The Fake Calendar by Meky Ottawa, from the Atikamekw Nation in Quebec, produced through the Hothouse program.

TRAILERS:

The Magnitude of All Things by Jennifer Abbott 

(World Premiere) When Jennifer Abbott lost her sister to cancer, her sorrow opened her up to the profound gravity of climate breakdown. The Magnitude of All Things draws intimate parallels between the experiences of grief—both personal and planetary. We are getting tories from the frontlines of climate change in Northern Canada, Australia, Ecuador, Sweden and England merge with recollections from the filmmaker’s childhood on Ontario’s Georgian Bay. What do these stories have in common? The answer, surprisingly, is everything.

BC-based Abbott has been making films about urgent social, political and environmental issues for 25 years, including co-directing the 2003 Sundance award-winning The Corporation. She’s also back at VIFF this year with The New Corporation: The Unfortunately Necessary Sequel, co-directed with Joel Bakan.

The Great Malaise by Catherine Lepage

In the voiceover for this animated short, a young woman attempts to describe herself, casting her life in the ideal light that society expects. The film’s imagery, however, tells a different story, poignantly illustrating the intense anxiety that comes with the quest for perfection and the pursuit of happiness. A film that’s both funny and moving, and above all, profoundly human.

Nicnevin and the Bloody Queen is Ready for the UK! An Interview with Helen Mullane

It’s these incredible old TV movies like Robin Red Breast from the era that plays with the pastoral idyll of the British countryside which make the world seem freaky and threatening in Nicnevin and the Bloody Queen.

Helen MullaneUK Release Date
August 20, 2020
Available to purchase on Amazon USANorse Mythology

For our readers who are unfamiliar with your work, could you please introduce yourself?

Sure. Hello! I’m Helen, a comic writer and dog musher from London who now lives in Swedish Lapland. I wrote the folk horror graphic novel Nicnevin and the Bloody Queen. I used to work in the film industry in London and produced the documentary Futureshock! The Story of 2000AD, and worked on the release of a lot of great anime and genre cinema before that.

When handling the releases of many works from Studio Canal and eOne, does film distribution also involve you becoming intimately knowledgeable in the movies you’re helping to promote? What were some of your favourite movies?

You don’t necessarily need to love every film you work on (it helps!) but a good release strategy depends on an intimate understanding of what someone else might love about it. You need to get into the headspace of the film’s potential fans, to understand how and where to reach them.

I worked on so many amazing films at both StudioCanal and EOne. I managed the release of Ponyo and a lot of home entertainment Ghibli releases. But my favourite projects were often the older movies I got to sink my teeth into and make new extras for–I made a pop up box set of Guillermo Del Toro’s Spanish language films, a special edition of Quatermass and The Pit with a cover by Ollie Moss and a Hardware special edition with a Kevin O’Neill Futureshock in that I am particularly proud of.

My favourite ‘new release’ campaign was for The Losers because it was through that I got to know Jock and Andy Diggle. Quite apart from the fact that they’re both cool dudes and awesome creators, that relationship eventually led to the dream of The Bloody Queen eventually becoming a reality!

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On AH Comics Bringing Jewish Comix Anthologies 1 & 2 to Life

SCI-Jewish-Comics-Anthology-Volume-2-Cover
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By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

This week is a time for many cultures to make be merry. Whether it’s with Solstice, Hanukah or Christmas or another tradition, it really does not matter. Some may even prefer to cozy up with a good book to read instead. That’s what I normally do when the rest of the world is ready to hunker down for the holidays (and play video games). I marvelled at how well put together SCI The Jewish Comics Anthology Volume 2 is.

The writing and artwork by all the various contributors (David Mack, Ty Templeton and Michael Norwitz are just a sampling of the 26 talents recruited), make this collection a worthwhile add to any science fiction enthusiasts collection. I also had the opportunity to speak with Andy Stanleigh, the President of Alternate History Comics Inc who published this series.

I see on Amazon, the first volume encompasses various genres–from adventure to horror. Why make volume two all about science fiction?

Volume one was unique in that it was, at the time, one of the largest collections of Jewish-themed comic book works. It included original stories and republished works by some of the largest creators in the industry–Will Eisner, Art Spiegelman, Robert Crumb, and even a story originally edited by Stan Lee.

In the years since, with the resurgence of Star Trek, Star Wars and other sci-fi properties in mainstream media (and of course, in all the decades prior), “sci-fi” has become a category by itself, which contains sub-genres of romance, horror, comedy, drama, etc. Within the genre of sci-fi, many stories can be told. This was the connecting thread that we were looking for when planning Volume 2.

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