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The Growth Company has been assisting owners, managers and employees since 1978. Offering a comprehensive list of services, our consultant team offers over 110 years of combined expertise in the areas of human resources, strategic planning, complaint investigations, employee training, and mediation. Our mission at TGC is to heal the work place, one business at a time.
President of The Growth Company, Inc., Lynne Curry brings her clients a track record in management consulting; Board, manager and employee training; human resources and organizational strategy consulting.
Curry has provided more than 55,000 consulting projects to more than 3,700 organizations in Alaska, Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, California, Connecticut, Arizona, Washington D.C., Illinois, New York, Arizona, Texas, Japan, Korea, China, Guam and England.
Curry's clients include a diverse variety of private sector companies (oil & gas; construction; finance; medical & dental; real estate; retail & hospitality; professional services firms [legal, engineering, architectural, accounting & other service firms]); utilities; Alaska Native corporations; governmental organizations (federal, state, municipal & tribal) and non-profit corporations and agencies.
Curry's clients attest to her professionalism, her results-orientation and her commitment to exceeding client expectations. In addition to her doctorate, Curry has a Senior Professional in Human Services certificate.
The following organizes Curry's background in specific areas.
Curry provides dynamic, professional, results-oriented training sessions in more than 200 areas including: leadership; management and supervision; Board of Directors' work; training, presentations, facilitation and mediation; coaching; marketing, sales and customer service; personal and professional development; memory; time and stress management; team-building; diversity; GenX/Y/Z; media; ethics; communications, conflict management and negotiation; motivation and change management. Curry has been awarded the Trainer of the Year award multiple times by the Anchorage chapter of the American Society of Training and Development.
Curry teaches facilitators and also provides facilitation, meeting management and team-building for a large variety of organizations.
Curry and her team provide HR On-call (a la carte HR) services. These include HR trouble-shooting; 360 reviews; employee surveys; recruitment (hiring & reference checking); disciplinary and termination assistance; performance review & coaching assistance; legal aspects of management assistance and leadership development.
Dr. Curry has testified at trial and served as an expert witness in legal cases involving sexual harassment, downsizing, management response, age and sex discrimination, wrongful discharge, overtime, grievance channels and many more issues.
Dr. Curry regularly provides neutral third party investigative services in the areas of sexual harassment, fraud, union/management relations, and other workplace issues. She has completed several hundred investigations.
Dr. Curry has provided multiple presentations to the Alaska Bar Association, the Alaska Academy of Trial Lawyers, the Alaska Association of Legal Administrators and more than twenty-five law firms.
Curry has provided over 30,000 strategic planning, change management, facilitations and mediations to clients in both public and private sector organizations.
Curry's unique strategic planning process, Results, has produced solid, detailed strategic plans for organizations ranging in size from small professional service companies to large governmental agencies (including key groups with the U.S. Army and state organizations).
Curry teaches mediators and also provides mediation services to private sector clients (managers/employees, co-worker/co-worker) and attorneys with clients interested in settlement. She has successfully - from both parties standpoint - mediated more than 450 situations. Curry's mediation style has been described as professional, objective and impartial.
Curry coaches CEOs, COOs, managers, supervisors, professionals, employees and individuals in a wide variety of industries.
Curry has authored four books, Managing Equally & Legally (McFarland & Company, 1990); Solutions; Won By One; A Supervisor's Desk Manual on Performance Appraisal.
Curry's "Dear Abby of the Workplace" business column has been published since 1983 in the Anchorage Daily News, since 1999 in the Tri-city Herald (Washington) as well as in the Morris Daily Herald (Illinois), the Anchorage Times and the St. Petersburg Times (Florida).
Her articles have been featured in more than 100 publications including Entrepreneur, Yahoo!News, CBS MoneyWatch, and Supervision. Curry is a weekly columnist for HRC Suite.
Curry provides client surveys; organizational audits, process improvement and organizational and marketing strategy.
Richard brings with him twenty years of trial experience representing the California Department of Transportation and its engineers; three years in the legal field of environmental remediation; nine years of criminal investigation experience; and, two years conducting investigations for the Alaska State Commission for Human Rights.
Birdsall brings TGC clients years of legal experience with special emphasis and training in legal compliance, risk assessment, settlements, mediation and alternative dispute resolution. He has served as a court appointed mediator in large litigation cases. He is particularly skillful and adept ferreting out troublesome HR problems and then finding creative ways to solve them.
Birdsall also brings considerable experience as a law instructor at the college and professional levels. He loves teaching with an interactive model promoting student participation and involvement using hypothetical fact patterns to make it fun, real and practical. This skill set offers TGC's clients cost effective team building, training and coaching.
An organizational and talent development consultant, Karen's expertise in leadership success, team dynamics, corporate culture transformation, conflict resolution, transitional change, transparency, goal alignment, and organizational performance optimizes increased agility for diverse and challenging workplaces.
A seasoned professional, Karen has worked with Alaska Native Corporations, oil and gas entities, federal, state and local government agencies for more than 30 years. She has facilitated classes for clinics/behavioral health providers, law firms, engineering, oil support services, resource management, tourism, trade associations, nonprofits and others. Experience as a faculty member, business executive, government lobbyist, and television producer in a myriad of cultural settings in her multi-faceted career, Karen creates employee engagement building long-term partnerships and referrals from clients.
Casanovas spearheaded Alaska Airlines' training programs for market expansion to rural communities and routinely counsels others in team-building, communication, accountability, leadership, motivation, resiliency, capacity development, sustainability, enterprise architecture, customer relations and mediation. She provides hands-on consulting through effective coaching and mentoring while aligning core competencies, values and goals. Her ability to get to the heart of the matter, offer strategies and tools with realistic solutions, results in turnarounds and immediate effective outcomes.
Karen graduated from Alaska Pacific University; attended Pacific Lutheran University's School of Business; and is a Fellow at the Institute of Coaching, McLean Hospital, Harvard University affiliate. Ms. Casanovas is educated through the Coaches Training Institute and helps clients learn focused value systems, gain an understanding of self-defeating influencers, make action-grounded commitments, find a powerful work-life balance, develop purpose, and create a higher level of impact and professionalism. Additionally, she holds professional graduate certificates in Nonprofit Management from University of Alaska, Anchorage and a course certificate on Contemporary Issues of Aging through the Society of Certified Senior Advisors. She has served on numerous nonprofit boards, the Travel and Tourism Advisory Board for Alaska Pacific University, and the Aviation Advisory Board for the University of Alaska, Anchorage. Karen was also selected to serve on the Senior Citizens Advisory Commission enhancing and supporting the quality of life for older adults, and is currently a member of the Association for Talent Development (ATD) and the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).
A former member of the Circumpolar Infrastructure Task Force as part of the Northern Forum and the Arctic Council, Karen was also part of the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center team during the 9/11 crisis. She is trained in safety and emergency preparedness, and was a presenter at the Governor's Safety and Health Conference. Casanovas was an Anchorage Federal Executive Association Civilian Leadership award nominee, and was a Robert J. Collier award recipient presented by the National Aeronautic Association. She was also honored with the Visionary Award from the Federal Aviation Administration, and guides organizations in initiative and policymaking.
Ms. Casanovas has worked on films with Nicolas Cage, John Cusack, Drew Barrymore, Jon Voight, Kristen Bell, Ted Danson, John Krasinski, Vanessa Hudgens, Dean Norris, Teri Polo and Brett Baker, and on television commercials and docuseries. A life-long student of Alaska Native culture, she's lived in Nome, Fairbanks, Kodiak, and has traveled to nearly every corner of Alaska collecting artifacts from the beach and photographing historic landmarks.
Karen's articles and opinions on human resources, aviation and the television industry have been published in numerous outlets and sources including Alaska Dispatch News, The Peninsula Clarion, The Fairbanks Daily News Miner, The Juneau Empire, Alaska Magazine, The Alaska Journal of Commerce, The Anchorage Daily News, The Washington Monthly, The Arctic Council, The Northern Forum, United States Army Alaska's Stationing & Training of Increased Aviation Assets, Center for Disease Control (NIOSH) Survey and Analysis of Aviation Safety, Aero News, Reel Alaska and other national, federal and state media outlets.
Veronica Jackson serves as the Director of Marketing & Business Development for TGC. Her experience in communication, marketing, public relations, and business development has helped create a unique platform for her to provide TGC with a creative edge. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Communication from Texas A&M University. Veronica specializes in developing and managing TGC's marketing efforts some of which include campaigns, social media presence, branding, and business development. She believes in the value of building relationships with clients to understand their needs and provide them with service excellence.
Veronica is a Texas native who has embarked on a new journey with her husband by moving to Alaska. She enjoys the beautiful views and cooler weather that Alaska has to offer. Veronica's previous experience involved developing and growing business portfolios, performing market analysis and campaigns, and strategic public relations planning in which she served as an advocate for hospital pharmacies within the pharmaceutical health industry. You can follow Veronica and the TGC team on what The Growth Company can offer YOU on Facebook, twitter, and LinkedIn.


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Denise Eagan
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Tag Archives: revolutions
The Liars, not really victorian. At all.
Posted on September 2, 2015 by Denise Eagan
I'm tired. But I finished my dystopian book that I started in March in a fit of insanity. It is now up on Amazon. I'll put it up on other platforms within the next couple of weeks. Did I mention … Continue reading →

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The 12 Discs of Christmas 2012 #9
by Garry Ferrier
(Capitol 72202; 1965)
Here's a curiosity from the Great White North, an attempt to cash in on Beatlemania by Toronto DJ Garry Ferrier, from the nation's top pop station, CHUM Radio. The "MAPL" you see written at the top of the label indicates the record has been cleared as "Canadian content," a ruling that came into effect in the early '70s that stated radio stations must play roughly 30% Canadian music. MAPL stands for music/artist/production/lyrics, and a record needed to accommodate at least two of those requirements to qualify as CanCon. The end result was lots of airplay for Anne Murray, Bachman Turner Overdrive and Bryan Adams (who later criticized the regulations, despite the fact they'd helped make him a millionaire).
That's probably more information than you needed about Canadian broadcasting regulations, so why not just enjoy this barely Beatlesesque Xmas tribute to the Moptops.
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The series is: 12 Discs of Christmas
1 comment:
- Timmy said...
Oh, my mercy, hallalucinagenics! Great number, here... I finally saw Ringo & his all-star band a few months ago. Heard songs sung live taht night that I never had before & never will again...
- December 22, 2012 11:26 AM
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Two trees which are self-intersecting when drawn simultaneously
Kaufmann, Michael and Vrt'o, Imrich and Geyer, Markus (2006) Two trees which are self-intersecting when drawn simultaneously. In: Graph Drawing 13th International Symposium, GD 2005, September 12-14, 2005, Limerick, Ireland , pp. 201-210 (Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/11618058_19).
Full text not available from this repository.
An actual topic in the graph drawing is the question how to draw two edge sets on the same vertex set, the so-called simultaneous drawing of graphs. The goal is to simultaneously find a nice drawing for both of the sets. It has been found out that only restricted classes of planar graphs can be drawn simultaneously using straight lines and without crossings within the same edge set. In this paper, we negatively answer one of the most often posted open questions namely whether any two trees with the same vertex set can be drawn simultaneously crossing-free in a straight line way.
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The silver lining: Brad Bird is returning to animation.Add a Comment
Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: John Carter, Most Recent at Top [Help]
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Blog: Cartoon Brew (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Business, Disney, Disneyland, The Incredibles, Franchises, Finding Nemo, Bob Iger, Brad Bird, John Carter, Andrew Stanton, The Lone Ranger, Tomorrowland, Finding Dory, Add a tag
Blog: PW -The Beat (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Dynamite, Vampirella, Walt Simonson, Top News, John Carter, dave cockrum, e carmine infantino, gil ka, jose gonzalez, Battlestar Galactica, Add a tag
Battlestar Galactica art edition? Why yes, when Walt Simonson drew it. Dynamite is adding to its oversized Art Editions line with Simonson's BSG book, Jose Gonzalez' Vampirella and Marvel's John Carter Warlord of Mars series which had art by Gil Kane, Carmine Infantino, Dave Cockrum and more. Tasty!
Dynamite Entertainment proudly announces the expansion of their Dynamite Art Edition line to include three new high-end collections that meticulously reproduce the actual storyboard and cover artwork from classic 1970s comic books. Jose Gonzalez's Vampirella Art Edition and Walter Simonson's Battlestar Galactica Art Edition celebrate the seminal work of two master storytellers, while the Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter: Warlord of Mars – The Marvel Years Art Edition showcases the artistry of numerous industry legends, including Gil Kane, Carmine Infantino, Dave Cockrum, and many more. Scanned in high-resolution color and printed at the original size of the artwork, these gorgeous hardcover collections preserve every detail of the prestigious artists' meticulous skill and hard work.
The process of creating each oversized Art Edition format involves high-resolution color scanning of original storyboard artwork, capturing the look of the artwork as originally illustrated, with all blue lines, corrections, pasted letters, editorial notes, and other distinctive creative elements intact. Each scan is then printed on heavy stock paper to give readers the most realistic experience of what it would be like to hold actual storyboard pages.
Jose Gonzalez's Vampirella Art Edition honors an illustrator whose mesmerizing and macabre interpretation of the raven-haired heroine established him – in many readers' minds – as the definitive Vampirella artist. Introducing an unparalleled level of sophistication to the visual storytelling of Warren Publishing'sVampirella Magazine in the 1970s, Gonzalez transformed the one-time horror hostess into a layered protagonist and industry icon. Longtime fans will thrill to see his mesmerizing and macabre artwork in the Art Edition's high-quality reproductions, representing ten complete stories selected from throughout his entire body of Vampirella work, including "Resurrection of Papa Voudou" (as written by Archie Goodwin), "The Blood Queen of Bayou Parish" (Steve Englehart), "An Eye for an Eye" (Bill DuBay), "Spawn of the Star Beast" (Rich Margopoulos), and more.
"For me, the initial exposure to Jose Gonzalez's lush artwork was eye opening. The reproduction of the original stories in black and white allowed for a subtlety which was never approached in four color comics. I was lucky enough to be able to acquire a number of stories from the original series over the years. I am looking forward to Dynamite Entertainment's efforts to expose new readers to the artwork that I love and to give longtime fans access to the work as it was originally created." Steven Morger of Big Wow Art.
Walter Simonson is one of the most prolific artists ever to work in the comic book medium, a universally admired innovator whose work – whether it be onManhunter, The Fantastic Four, The Mighty Thor, Jack Kirby's Fourth World, the list goes on – leaves a mark in the hearts and minds of readers for years afterwards. Walter Simonson's Battlestar Galactica Art Edition commemorates the master draftsman's senses-shattering work on the Battlestar Galactica comic book series, published by Marvel Comics from 1979 to 1981. Truly, the adventures of brash pilots Apollo and Starbuck were never so epic as they were under Simonson's skillful hand, as demonstrated in the scanned storyboard art of the complete stories contained therein. While Simonson himself assumes writing chores in many of the Art Edition contents, contributing writers also include Steven Grant, Roger McKenzie, and Bill Mantlo.
"Marvel's Battlestar Galactica comic will always hold a special place in my heart. I'd been penciling the series for a year in the late 1970s when I was given the opportunity to write a few issues. It was my first professional writing gig, and I loved it. I wrote four of the title's last five issues. I knew the characters as they had developed in the comic quite well, and as a fledgling writer, I had no idea what I was doing, and consequently, no fear. I got reference from every Galactica book or magazine I could find at the time, and I studied video tapes of the episodes my pal, Allen Milgrom, had made on what have been one of the earliest home video tape machine. The late Archie Goodwin, one of the finest writers and editors the comics business has ever seen as well as a friend, was very complimentary about the writing and offered me my next writing gig when Galactica wrapped. My career as a writer/artist in comics had been launched, thanks in large part to Adama, Apollo, Starbuck, and the rest of the doughty crew of the Battlestar Galactica and their bitter enemies, the Cylons. Thanks, guys. I don't know that I could have done it without you." States Artist (and writer on final issues) Walter Simonson
The John Carter: Warlord of Mars – The Marvel Years Art Edition is the product of a recent and comprehensive licensing agreement between Dynamite Entertainment and Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., a fruitful arrangement that opens the vaults of the Burroughs library for the enjoyment of science fiction and fantasy fans everywhere. This Art Edition collects high-end reproductions of stellar artwork from a huge assembly of industry pioneers, including Gil Kane, Rudy Nebres, Bernie Wrightson, Alan Weiss, Ernie Chan, Sal Buscema, Larry Hama, Ernie Colon, Carmine Infantino, Dave Cockrum, Alex Nino, George Perez, John Byrne, Bob McCleod, Ricardo Villagran, and Mike Vosburg. The cover artwork and interior pages are drawn from throughout the 1977-1979 run of John Carter: Warlord of Mars originally published by Marvel Comics.
"We are very pleased that our new licensing agreement with Dynamite Entertainment not only creates a fully new John Carter: Warlord of Mars comic book line, but also encompasses the reproduction of the rich, vibrant art of earlier periods by many masters of the medium", said James Sullos, President of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. "These are some of the legendary artists who contributed so much to comic art. I know that fans everywhere will want to add this beautiful edition to their collections".
"I was thrilled to hear that Dynamite is doing a John Carter of Mars art edition. I have a great fondness for the original novels and the Marvel comic book series was released shortly after I had finished reading the books. The series boasted work by some of the true giants in the industry and seeing the original art at its full size will be such a treat. I acquired my first John Carter original art page more than 30 years ago and continue to collect to this day. I am happy to be sharing art from my collection and I am also looking forward to seeing all of the other contributions." Tom Fleming of Fanfare.
"Words cannot begin to express how delighted I am that we're able to announce the expansion of our Art Edition Program. With timeless classics like Dynamite's Vampirella, with the first series focusing on incredibly talented artists, with the first being Jose Gonzalez, to one of my heroes, Walter Simonson on one of his earliest works, Battlestar Galactica, where you can see he was always destined to be one of the greats. Add to that Gil Kane, Carmine Infantino and many other great artists in the Warlord Of Mars Marvel Years Art Edition," States Dynamite CEO/Publisher Nick Barrucci. "These are great high end collectibles for fans, and just the tip of the iceberg for what we have in store for 2015!"
The Dynamite Art Editions are solicited for retailer orders in Diamond Comic Distributors' Previews catalog, the premiere source of merchandise for the comic book specialty market. Comic book fans are encouraged to place preorders through their local comic book retailers or online booksellers.
Jose Gonzalez work on Vampirella is one of the reasons I love that character. His art and Archie Goodwins scripts. I'll probably buy that artist edition.
Blog: Cartoon Brew (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Disney's John Carter, a live action film, was the first VFX movie to be directed like a keyframed feature animation. Animator Patrick Giusiano put this interesting video together, showing the process involved with animating his shots.
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Blog: JohnnyMackintosh.com (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Book news, History, Science, Doctor Who, Space, Viking, NASA, Ray Bradbury, JPL, Steven Moffat, arnold schwarzenegger, David Bowie, Carl Sagan, Total Recall, Battle for Earth, John Carter, Len Wiseman, The Martian Chronicles, Edgar Rice Burrows, Mars Curiosity, Mars Sojourner, opportunity rover, spirit rover, Add a tag
This morning at 6.31 am (British Summer Time), Johnny and Clara Mackintosh (and their Old English sheepdog, Bentley) made history: thanks to NASA and its Mars Curiosity rover, they became the first literary heroes to literally land on another world. And all broadcast live in Times Square – wow!
The descent was scary (I wrote a piece about it for Bookzone4Boys) – even NASA had described it as "seven minutes of terror". Eventually the Mars Science Laboratory landed by "skycrane" in Gale Crater, a perfect location to examine millions of years of Martian geology in one go. Onboard was a microchip onto which had been etched the names of some of the people of Earth, the very first ambassadors to land on another planet. And among those names were:
- Johnny Mackintosh
- Clara Mackintosh
- Bentley Mackintosh
I confess I'm delighted to say "Keith Mansfield" was also included.
Some great fictional stories have been set on Mars, but the paper or celluloid that tells them remains firmly grounded here on our island Earth. John Carter may have disappointed in cinemas lately, but Edgar Rice Burroughs' series of "Barsoom" books are classics. A film that brought the red planet properly to life saw the now-Governator of California star as Doug Quaid in Dutch director Paul Verhoeven's 1990 masterpiece, Total Recall. Why anyone feels the need to remake a movie that was originally so stunning is a mystery, but I'll reserve judgement until I've seen Len Wiseman's remake.
As a child I grew up reading the late, great Ray Bradbury, whose thoughtful Martian Chronicles helped inspire the stories I've written. In the first two Johnny Mackintosh books there are mentions of Mars and Johnny and Clara always intend to go there, yet somehow they never quite get round to it. In Battle for Earth they finally make the trip (I won't spoil it for future readers by saying whether or not they find Martians).
David Bowie famously sang "Is there life on Mars?" and in a fun Doctor Who tribute, Steven Moffat christened the first fictional human settlement "Bowie Base One". I've written a few pieces on whether or not there's life of some kind on the red planet over at my Keith Mansfield website.
We've always found Martian exploration difficult. On page 3 of Johnny Mackintosh: Battle for Earth we read:
"Johnny and Clara had been planing their first ever visit to Mars, with Johnny telling his sister about all the probes scientists had sent to the red planet, but which had mysteriously failed to arrive."
and then, a little later on page 61:
"Early space probes had taken intriguing but inconclusive photographs of the Martian surface, showing what were called the Pyramids of Elysium, next to what appeared to be a gigantic human face gazing upward. Johnny had always meant to visit and see for himself. For his part, Alf was curious to hear about the probes that had gone missing, so Johnny repeated the conversation he'd had with Clara, in a little more detail. Given the great expense of space exploration, the failure rate for Mars was unusually high. It wasn't only Beagle 2 that had bitten the dust as it neared the planet. Over the years, around half the missions launched had failed for one reason or another."
Of course the "giant face" is no more than an optical illusion, but sometimes you can't let details like that get in the way of a good story. I first came across the pyramids through Carl Sagan's Cosmos and these don't only feature in Johnny Mackintosh – Total Recall also centred around the mysterious "pyramid mine".
Nowadays we know a huge amount about this near neighbour, not least because there are actually three satellites in permanent orbit around the red planet. In the 1970s we sent the twin Viking landers to search for life (you can see a third in the Smithsonain Air and Space Museum in Washington DC). These tantalized, but also frustrated. Given the track record of previous Mars missions, this one played it relatively safe so the spacecraft set down in what proved rather dull areas – and that's where they remained. The great thing about Curiosity is that it's mobile.
We've come a long way in a short space of time with Mars rovers. The first was Sojourner, a little add on to the Pathfinder mission that landed in 1997. It was the size of a remote-controlled child's toy and could only travel a few metres from the main landing station, getting up close and personal with a few interesting nearby rocks. Sojourner started the ball rolling, and the momentum was magnificently maintained by another pair of twin landers, the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity, which set down early in 2004.
Larger, more independent and mobile, it was hoped these two would function for around 90 days. Spirit lasted fully five years, becoming immobile on 2009 and finally ceasing communication in 2010. Opportunity is still going! These two have shown that we are more than capable, not just of landing on Mars, but traversing its surface.
Curiosity is in a different league altogether. Weighing nearly a tonne, it's around the size of a small car. It doesn't move quite as fast, travelling at what's almost literally a snail's pace, but wherever it goes, Johnny, Clara and Bentley will go with it. I hope they and I are able to move across the surface of this faraway world for many years to come.
Buy the first book in the series, Johnny Mackintosh and the Spirit of London.
Buy the third book in the series, Johnny Mackintosh: Battle for Earth in which Johnny and Clara visit Mars.
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Blog: Cartoon Brew (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Emanuele Pavarotti, How-To, Educational, Double Negative, John Carter, Add a tag
I still haven't seen Andrew Stanton's John Carter, but that didn't lessen (and perhaps enhanced) my enjoyment of this nifty character animation reel put together by Emanuele Pavarotti, who worked on the film at Double Negative. Pavarotti has organized the reel nicely to give a sense of how his scenes progressed from video reference to blocking to final animation, and finally, FX/cloth/compositing passes. He even drops in comments throughout the reel to explain how certain shots evolved. Emanuele has recently been working at Blue Sky Studios on Epic and the forthcoming Rio 2.Add a Comment
Blog: PW -The Beat (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: tarzan, Dynamite, edgar rice burroughs, Top News, John Carter, Add a tag
While the best known of Edgar Rice Burroughs' creations are now in the public domain—Tarzan and John Carter among them—not all the books in those series are out of copyright and trademarks remain. Thus it was that Dynamite's books such as Lord of the Jungle and Dejah Thoris roused first ire and then legal firepower at ERB, Inc, which filed a lawsuit a couple of years ago claiming trademark infringement. Dynamite responded but kept publishing their books, and the lawsuit dragged on. But now everything is happy as, as with the many times that Batman and Captain America have fought, they have eventually realizes that they are on the same team. And thus ERB and Dynamite have buried the hatchet and announced a publishing PARTNERSHIP that will see Dynamite publish books with the titles John Cater Warlord of Mars, and Tarzan and so on. It's also because after the massive floparoo of the John Carter movie, Disney/Marvel has let go of the rights.
Good times for everyone! More money for publishers and less for lawyers one hopes.
BTW, if you read my above link, you'll see some smart law types chiming in saying that the original suit had some pretty important IP rulings at its heart. Looks like they won't be settle this time.
Click below the PR for a gallery of ERB's greatest comics hits.
Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., the company founded by the author to protect and maintain his literary creations, and one of the comics industry's leaders, Publisher Dynamite Entertainment, announced today a comprehensive agreement that will see the return of Burroughs' original "John Carter: Warlord of Mars" to the pages of comic books, comic strips and graphic novels. The agreement allows for the world-wide publication of the John Carter universe as well as "Lord of the Jungle" and ERB's library of archival material.
The initiative comes on the heels of the reacquisition of comic book rights by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. that had been held by Walt Disney Pictures and its Marvel Entertainment subsidiary, as well as a recent legal settlement with Dynamite that cleared the way for Dynamite to introduce key characters and plot elements from the John Carter backstory that were, until now, absent from recent comic book interpretations.
"It was important to us that we reacquire the comic book and comic strip rights from Marvel Entertainment so we could reintroduce them in the market place. We're excited to see the exploits of Edgar Rice Burroughs' first science fiction adventure hero brought to life in their fullness by the passionate creative talents assembled by the folks at Dynamite," said James Sullos, President of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. "They're true fans - and it shows on every page and in every idea they've shared with us. Now fans everywhere will be able to appreciate the original adventure stories that later spawned Flash Gordon, Superman, Star Wars and Avatar."
"Working together with Jim and the team at ERB, we will be taking the worlds of John Carter and The Lord of the Jungle publishing initiatives to a new level. There's a rich history, and an incredible amount of archival material in the ERB library, and we're looking forward to bringing it to the fans around the world. This is the beginning of a great relationship." states Nick Barrucci, CEO and Publisher of Dynamite Entertainment. "I can't express how happy and excited everyone at Dynamite is to be working hand in hand with everyone at ERB, Inc".
John Carter debuted in 1912 as the lead character in Edgar Rice Burroughs' first novel, serialized as Under the Moons of Mars in the pulp magazine, The All-Story, and later published as a complete novel retitled A Princess of Mars. The character excited the imagination of readers and quickly imprinted onto the public psyche. As many literary and popular culture scholars attest, John Carter served as the template for a litany of adventure heroes to follow, from Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, and Superman to the Jedi knights of Star Wars fame and most recently, Avatar.
In planning for a late 2014 relaunch, Dynamite Entertainment confirmed that the new comic book series will be titled John Carter: Warlord of Mars. Dynamite will also republish other John Carter assets, going back as far as the early 1940s comic strips by John Coleman Burroughs, the son of Edgar Rice Burroughs.
In a related development, new John Carter: Warlord of Mars "adventure strip" episodes will make their online debut in early summer as part of the Edgar Rice Burroughs Digital Comic Strip Service at www.edgarriceburroughs.com/comics. Written by the legendary Roy Thomas, with art by Pegaso (Rodolfo Perez Garcia) of Mexico City, this series will invite readers to accompany John Carter and his compatriots on exciting adventures that delve into the rich, storied history of Barsoom (as the inhabitants of Mars refer to their planet). As with the other nine series featured on the site, including Tarzan and Carson of Venus, the first four episodes of John Carter: Warlord of Mars will be viewable at no charge.
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Why do those last six images look like a Deadhead's best-and-worst nightmare rather than like the four-color illustrations and paintings that they actually are?
Are these cmyk colour images instead of rgb? It reminds me of times when I didn't change one image type to another.
Yep they were CMYK instead of RGB. Which is really weird since they are web images?
Anyway, JUST A REMINDER — some browsers and graphics programs (like Graphic Converter which I use to resize etc images) CANNOT HANDLE CMYK IMAGES for the web. They need to be RGB to be posted.
[…] (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); BTW, if you read my above link, you'll see some smart law types chiming in saying that the original suit had some pretty important IP rulings at its heart. Looks like they won't be settle this time. Why do those last six images look like a Deadhead's best-and-worst nightmare rather than like the four-color illustrations and paintings that they actually are' Read full article […]
So, does Dark Horse still have the license to reprint ERB in archival editions?
I think that's their second-longest license, after Star Wars, publishing titles since 1996.
[…] Heidi McDonald, writing for The Beat, reports on Dynamite Entertainment and Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. resolving out-of-court the […]
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Straight from the Super Bowl, the extended version of the John Carter spot.
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The trailer looks awesome. Hope the actual movie lives up to the source material.
I hope they promote the hell out of this flick. I was the only person at our Super Bowl party (of about 30) who had ever heard of John Carter at all, movie or otherwise. I was actually asked whether it is based on a graphic novel. Nobody knew it's a 100 year old character from the same creator as Tarzan.
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Too little, too late?
Do not count out Andrew Stanton and Pixar!
How'd they get him to jump so high?
"It's amazing that a movie that hasn't been released yet is already being classified as a flop."
That's because most people can do basic math, when the word is out that the pic will need to do Avatar-like opening numbers just to break even on its bloated budget costs.
I remember seeing the preview for thr very first Star Wars and people laughed thru it. So I don't make comments until the movie is released.
Didn't they run the same "NOBODY WANTS TO SEE THIS" campaign with WALL-E?
"Didn't they run the same "NOBODY WANTS TO SEE THIS" campaign with WALL-E?"
This is the first time I have even heard of such a fantasy. Pixar's original trailer for that film played like a 'greatest hits' revue.
This is the first time I have even heard of such a fantasy. Pixar's original trailer for that film played like a 'greatest hits' revue.
Really…you don't remember a whole lot of stories popping up in the film/fan press before Wall-E came out, all saying stuff like, "The company thinks nobody will want to see this because it too adult" and "They think it plays more like an 'art film' so they are real worried that nobody will want to see it" — Geez: you don't remember a whole lot of that… was only 4 years ago?
That's not to say that it might not actually be true this time :)
I have a friend who is a film critic and he said the best litmus test as to what studios think of a film is how far in advance they show the film to critics. He saw Ghost Rider 2 a couple of weeks ago — the preview was the night before the movie opened.
John Carter press screening? TOMORROW.
Never bet against Tim Riggins, fools.
They've done a good job. I really am rooting for the film.
When and if I see decent reviews or acceptable grosses I will feel a sense of relief.
A final memory / food for thought:
I remember reading an issue of Variety (back when it was all finger-dirtying B&W newsprint) and the cover story was about various tentpole movies revving up production for release the following summer.
At the head of the list: "PRINCESS OF MARS" directed by John McTiernan and starring Tom Selleck.
I think it was 1988 or 89?
I don't care how this movie does. I think it looks enjoyable and I will go see it in the theater. I hope I have a good time. ^_^
I just don't get what all negativity is about — this movie looks amazing. There's a whole crew of us in Red Bank who are counting the days until this film comes out.
"Really…you don't remember a whole lot of stories popping up in the film/fan press before Wall-E came out, all saying stuff like…"
I said NO, and I mean NO. I never saw ANY of this stuff you are talking about. On the other hand, Disney ALREADY KNOWS that their marketing on JOHN CARTER has been a schizophrenic mess from the get-go, which is why some folks have already been fired. Also, it's why they're hastily scrambling to get the critics on board with a early press screening. However, it still won't help when they've only got a two-week window before a real phenom like THE HUNGER GAMES sweeps in and takes all their business.
Hey, it's all right for you to be emotionally invested in the JC material, but I'm talking about some hard reality in the numbers here. And more heads are going to roll at Disney for the JOHN CARTER debacle before this is over.
eallengd, I also remember thinking during the first Matrix trailer "Keanu Reeves?! This movie is doomed!" and had really low expectations going in to the theatre to see it. Obviously we all know how THAT worked out! :)
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An animated film led the US box office for the second week in a row: Illumination Entertainment's The Lorax dropped 44% from its first week for an estimated earning of $39.1 million. Its two-week total now stands at $122 million, making it the top grossing film of the year to date. It is currently pacing $3.5 million ahead of Illumination's biggest hit Despicable Me, which went on to earn $251.5 million domestically.
This weekend also saw the debut of John Carter, the first live-action feature from Pixar director Andrew Stanton (WALL·E, Finding Nemo). The megabudget sci-fi film, with a reported production cost of $200-300 million and marketing costs of $100 million, was positioned as Disney's next "tentpole" property, along the lines of the Pirates of the Carribean franchise. It opened weakly, as expected by most industry observers as well as the Disney studio itself, with an estimated $30.6 million, on a par with the opening for Disney's Prince of Persia, which opened with $30.1 million. It trailed the debut of last year's sci-fi Cowboys & Aliens which opened with $36.4 million. The film's saving grace may be its overseas performance, where it has opened powerfully, especially in Russia, and has already racked up over $70 million.
One can't even begin to imagine the pressure that Stanton is under, but he hasn't been particularly graceful in dealing with the film's critical reception. In interviews, Stanton has been defensive about the film's budget, and over the weekend, he wrote an oddly worded tweet that blamed moviegoers as "jaded" if they didn't enjoy his film:
Studio Ghibli's The Secret World of Arrietty added an extra $402,000 boosting its US total to $17.6 million. It is the fourth highest-grossing anime film ever released in the US, behind only Pokemon: The First Movie, Pokemon: The Movie 2000, and Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie.
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Well, it's official, JOHN CARTER is being labeled a disaster, a flop, an "Ishtar" and anything else that signifies profit-and-loss ratio infamy. The media decided a while ago that this movie was going to be a disaster for Disney, and after finishing #2 for the weekend with barely $30 million—despite making over $100 million worldwide—every ill omen has been seen as sagacious.
And the hate is baffling. Although it has only 50% on Rotten Tomatoes, if you read the reviews, the good ones read about the same as the bad ones. Critics weren't wildly enthusiastic about the movie, but it didn't suck.
In fact, the word of mouth is good. People who went in with an open mind seem to have been entertained.
I saw JOHN CARTER Thursday at an IMAX 3D and I loved it. It was no THE DESCENDANTS, but it was a well-made yarn, filled with wonder. Yeah I said it. WONDER. The John Carter books are hardly the Lord of the Rings — I didn't need every klunky archaic line used. And screenwriter Michael Chabon and Andrew Stanton knew that. So they weren't afraid to tinker and modernize many things.
What they did keep intact was the unbridled imagination of the original, a vision unencumbered by anything that reeks of marketing or focus groups. Here is a passage from the second book, THE GODS OF MARS, that sums up everything I like about Barsoom:
Its hairless body was a strange and ghoulish blue, except for a broad band of white which encircled its protruding, single eye: an eye that was all dead white–pupil, iris, and ball.
Its nose was a ragged, inflamed, circular hole in the centre of its blank face; a hole that resembled more closely nothing that I could think of other than a fresh bullet wound which has not yet commenced to bleed.
Below this repulsive orifice the face was quite blank to the chin, for the thing had no mouth that I could discover.
The head, with the exception of the face, was covered by a tangled mass of jet-black hair some eight or ten inches in length. Each hair was about the bigness of a large angleworm, and as the thing moved the muscles of its scalp this awful head-covering seemed to writhe and wriggle and crawl about the fearsome face as though indeed each separate hair was endowed with independent life.
I mean COME ON, how can you not want to see that brought to life? The Carter books were so original when written…now, having been ripped off for a hundred years, they seem like pale imitations.
But then, this has been a story that people have been trying—and failing— to bring to the screen since at least 1936. Nearly 80 years. In that year, animator Bob Clampett worked on a proposed animated version for…Walt Disney.
As others have written here, had this film actually been made—instead of SNOW WHITE—what a different world we would live in. John Carter would have had to be an animated movie. What has stymied people for years was the technology to make it.
The more recent attempts at making a movie — from Robert Rodriguez, to Kerry Conlan to Jon Favreau and so on—all faltered for probably the same reasons the movie that did get made has been vilified: too weird and yet too
"The media isn't some organized collective working together; it's a generic name for a large assortment of people trying to find interesting angles in any story."
And as previously referred to, that large assortment is frequently caught up in a groupthink that dictates the sort of media coverage given to any event or occurance.
Man, I think the sell-line could have been as easy as emphasizing "from the director that brought you Finding Nemo and Wall-E." I think an audience can trust that the man who slam-dunked those two unusual premises could deliver on an old pulp adventure format.
And I agree with Simon– this is a film you can take your whole family to. Barely one iota of cursing, low gore (not counting the blue stuff), and aside from Dejah's "too vulgar for my tastes" wedding gown, not even that much to worry about in the way of sex. Sons can learn to reject apathy and embrace a cause, and daughters can learn that being smart, tough, beautiful, and vulnerable can all be part of the same package.
Honestly, it's a Pixar movie with real skin on it. I think it's this year's "Scott Pilgrim" in terms of under-ratedness. And that said, I'm hoping Bill's prediction proves correct.
I saw it Friday in 3-D and enjoyed it enough that I'll probably go see it somewhere else in 2-D.
I think Disney shot itself in the foot by naming it simply "John Carter" — which gives the casual filmgoer absolutely no idea what the film is about. I understand that after the debacle "Mars Needs Moms," Disney executives were scared of any title with the word "Mars" in it — but that was a silly, irrational fear. I'd have titled it "Warlord of Mars" or somesuch.
As far as the dismissal by some here that the news media was not at all complicit in the weak opening of the film, all I can say is you're kidding yourself. The media sharks were in a veritable feeding frenzy about "John Carter," and if one was paying attention at all to film news and industry-related social media during the past three weeks, one could not help being tainted by all of the "warnings" — warnings which were almost entirely the fuel for the film's strong negative buzz.
But some at Disney were also at fault here — leaking out "concerns" regarding the film's appeal to certain demographics, and leaking out concerns about the film's ability to generate enough revenue to cover its costs. Here's an idea for Disney and any other studio: If you're worried that a film may not make X dollars in the box office, how about lowering the budget so that it has a reasonable chance at meeting expectations? "Green Lantern" is a great example. If that film about a second-tier (and arguable third-tier) DC character had only cost, say, $80 million to make, no one would have been grousing about a "poor box office showing." Its $219 million world-wide box-office take would have been considered a hit.
About the merits of "John Carter," the film, there's a lot of truth to the tweet above stating that the film was better than the last four Star Wars films.
The good news for "John Carter" is that it took in a strong $70 million overseas, so it will not be the bomb so many in the media warned us of.
Agree with MBunge!!
And as previously referred to, that large assortment is frequently caught up in a groupthink that dictates the sort of media coverage given to any event or occurance.
A few years ago Bill Moyers had a PBS program where the producers of Oprah admitted, on camera, that they had stacked the show with experts claiming that Saddam had WOMD — because, as the Oprah producers stated, on camera, they believed if they did otherwise they might loose their jobs.
That is not "groupthink."
Like I said last week, we need a Nerdtrevention on this one…!
I woke up Friday and told the family we were going to see John Carter. My wife and five kids had no idea what the movie was. (Bad marketing – okay one of them is only four months old and couldn't be expected to know). But we went anyway and had a great time. (Fun movie). Nobody, even my wife who isn't into the geeky stuff like me, left disappointed.
Add mine to the voices saying that this is a fun, enjoyable film with some great ideas on display.
I've no love for Disney, but I hate to see this film fail due to bad press and, as more than one person said above, "groupthink" on the part of journalists and reviewers.
The media does not need to be a cohesive, organized group to suffer from that. And it frequently does … I'm amazed at times how it almost seems like someone has set the "big story" for the week, and all the outlets follow along. The latest was the gas price "pain at the pump" story. Sure, it was a story, but it seems like coverage of it was out of control (until the next "big story of the week" came along).
Anyhow, I don't recall if I ever read a John Carter book and I've never read the comics, so I didn't go see it for that reason (even though I fall into the "old fart" group, i.e. "over 25″). But I like Flash Gordon- and Buck Rogers-type adventure, so I figured it might be fun. I did catch in in 2D. I sure enjoyed this one more than the preachier "Avatar!" And yeah, the last few Star Wars movies blew chunks compared with this!
As a result of seeing this, I now want to read the books, and I've got the Jesse Marsh comics compilation coming in the mail.
This is Iron Giant on much larger scale — if your own studio isn't behind you, how can your film succeed?
As with Iron Giant, the idiots at the studio didn't know a classic when it was right in their hands.
As someone who's published a volume of ERB's works, I have to say right off that a) I am a fan of his work, and b) this was not the movie to launch a John Carter franchise…
While the press made up their mind long before actual screenings took place, this was due to the abysmal marketing job Disney attempted with this movie. This was their attempt to try and make something they didn't quite understand into something they thought would appeal to a modern audience. They failed.
But beyond that, JOHN CARTER is a movie with characters we care very little about. Yes, there were moments, but I felt no connection to JC or Dejah the same way someone might have felt for the characters in the first HARRY POTTER movie (to use the novel series to movie analogy).
I also didn't have the same sense of wonder and awe that is so present in the JC books. My feeling is the production design and the direction kept undercutting the visual stimulation we were supposed to feel. Many angles looking down just doesn't give the actors, the scene and the set the importance they deserve. It actually minimized their importance…
A PRINCESS OF MARS was a novel of action, adventure and visual excitement woven together with characters we cared about. JOHN CARTER isn't that – not by a long shot. It should have been at least as good as the first STAR WARS – I don't think anyone can honestly say this movie reached anywhere near that height of excitement.
I enjoyed it fairly well and reviewed it here:
I agree with Bill. Saw the movie Sunday in Imax 3D. The 3D added nothing to the film. Not a bad movie, but not a great movie either. As some others have stated, it did sort of remind me of the "Flash Gordon" movie from the 80's only not as campy. I guess my biggest complaint is that the movie had no style. It looked like every other sci-fi movie of the past decade. I think everyone involved needs to go back and take another look at "Citizen Kane" for a refresher course in how to make a film.
@horatio weisfeld and @mbunge
If you guys honestly think reporters are getting together and conspiring to create stories to make people believe false things…you have been reading too many comic books. ^_^
The media has only one bias: laziness. Most reporters are just like people at any job. They'll copy anything that seems to be working and no one's going to risk looking foolish by saying the emperor has no clothes. Further, it was the White House that was the source of the store Iraq had WMDs. The White House…*the* primary source for news. You can hardly fault people covering international news for believing the White House. What were the reporters going to do? Fly to Iraq and look around for themselves? Up until that point, the idea of the White House open face lying to justify a unilateral attack on a country wasn't conceivable.
The media doesn't have a horse in the race with what movie makes money and which doesn't. Quite frankly, the story of an extremely expensive movie looking to bomb is as old as movies. Titanic had similar stories written about it before it opened and look how that turned out.
You guys crack me up – The big, bad media wants to destroy this movie!
BTW – Isn't it possible, just maybe, that most people didn't want to see John Carter or Scott Pilgrim or whatever?
No one has any interest in very accurate 70's spy movies based on acclaimed books, so why would they want to run out and see a sci-fi movie about a guy fighting on Mars?
And I say this as someone who wants to see the movie. But stop blaming everyone in sight when movies you like don't rock the world. Niche genre stories are niche for a reason.
"The big, bad media wants to destroy this movie!"
It's easy to always be right when you just make up both sides of the argument in your head. Nobody is saying there was some conspiracy out to destroy John Carter. We're really just expanding on your point of media laziness. They looked at the huge budget and Disney's poor marketing and decided the movie was going to bomb long before it came out, which became the lazy template for every single story about the film.
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If you still haven't had your fill of "Why John Carter Failed" articles, then don't miss New York Magazine's lengthy read "The Inside Story of How John Carter Was Doomed by Its First Trailer." The piece goes to excruciating lengths to absolve Disney marketing of any wrongdoing over the film's US box office performance, and lays the blame squarely at the feet of Andrew Stanton:
While this kind of implosion usually ends in a director simmering in rage at the studio marketing department that doomed his or her movie, Vulture has learned that it was in fact John Carter director Andrew Stanton — powerful enough from his Pixar hits that he could demand creative control over trailers — who commandeered the early campaign, overriding the Disney marketing execs who begged him to go in a different direction.
The article, juicy as it is, should be taken with a grain of salt. Much of the information in the article appears to be sourced from public statements by Stanton, and only one anonymous "Disney marketing insider" is identified as having been interviewed. There are factual errors too that made me question the piece's accuracy—the writer claims that Disney marketing approached the New Yorker in September 2011 to profile Stanton, when in fact, if you read the New Yorker piece, the writer of that piece said he'd been working on it since April 2011. At best, NY Mag's takedown offers one version of how the film's marketing plan derailed. The real story is likely far more complex, and won't be understood until some point in the future.
A more insightful piece is the aforementioned New Yorker profile of Andrew Stanton, which has finally been posted online. Unlike an earlier New Yorker piece about Pixar that left me unimpressed, this profile sheds much light on Stanton's personality and his collaboration with the lauded Pixar "Braintrust." In spite of the profile's positive tone, Stanton comes off as overly self assertive and oblivious to the effect of his comments, like:
"We came on this movie so intimidated: 'Wow, we're at the adult table!' Three months in, I said to my producers, 'Is it just me, or do we actually know how to do this better than live-action crews do?' The crew were shocked that they couldn't overwhelm me, but at Pixar I got used to having to think about everyone else's problems months before all their pieces would come together, and I learned that I'm just better at communicating and distilling than other people."
(Illustration by Luis Grañena)
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As Ward Kimball's biographer, I am obligated to share with you this post on Progress City, U. S. A. that talks about the time Ward oversaw the animation of John Carter of Mars as part of his TV special Mars and Beyond.
It's a matter of personal taste whether you prefer Ward Kimball's vision of a thoat:
Or Andrew Stanton's vision of a thoat:
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In a rare trifecta, animation artists ruled the top three spots at the box office this weekend. The number one spot, with an estimated $35 million, belonged to the TV adaptation of 21 Jump Street. It heralded the live-action feature directing debut of Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who were the co-creators of MTV/Teletoon's Clone High and the directors of Sony's Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Second place went to Illumination Entetainment's The Lorax which earned an estimated $22.8M in its third weekend, pushing its total to a robus $158.4M. Rounding out the top three was Andrew Stanton's John Carter, which dropped 55% from its first weekend to an estimated $13.5M. The Disney flop's two-week total is $53.2M and is headed to a final domestic tally of $90-100M.
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Disney's John Carter, a live action film, was the first VFX movie to be directed like a keyframed feature animation. Animator Patrick Giusiano put this interesting video together, showing the process involved with animating his shots.
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Arcade Fire soundtrack — check — but the remake by Peter Gabriel? "My body is a cage." So this is a remake of AVATAR?
Yes it is! White man comes to savage land as savior and leads them against six-armed green guys and rescues atmosphere!
But — no Woola? A brief glimpse of Tars Tarkas. Incomplete grade.
Likes: Taylor Kitsch looks good. Lynn Colllins looks great as Dejah Thoris but she is wearing lots of clothes and the red Martians don't look very red.
Unknown if like or unlike: Looks like Pixar is playing this very straight, which I guess you would have to. And considering that Avatar is the highest grossing movie ever — and was pretty much a rip-off of John Carter — its success made making this finally possible and so we have come full circle IP wise.
Are they going to use the Pixar brand on this? I didn't see it in the trailer or on the movie's website.
Congratulations are best pixar
Dominic West ftw
*meh* can I say that?
To alistair:
No, no you may not. Nothing but sighs and triumph, please and thank-you.
I think that was a brief glimpse of Sola not Tars. I'd have cast JC a little older and more rugged, with hair like Andrew Jackson rather than a guy from a grunge band circa 1992.
Pixar didn't make this film, although it's Andrew Stanton, it's Disney– Pixar did some initial designs for the Martian lifeforms in the early stages. I believe that's the extent of their involvement.
This is the only US film I am looking forward to seeing in the next 12 months.
We've been waiting for this since Bob Clampett's attempt to bring "Princess" to life in 1935. Sighs and triumph x 10; this is going to be freaking AMAZING.
Lance Roger Axt
The AudioComics Company
The Gabriel track is from his You Scratch My Back album from a few years ago, so it wasn't recorded specifically for the movie. Might just be placeholder music.
I still think Hugh Jackman is the best choice (currently)to play John Carter.
And as for the incomparable Dejah Thoris? That's tough.
Demi Moore?
And to play Tars Tarkas?
Jim Shooter :-)
It looks like the studio is going with red henna like patterns to make up for the lack of red skin on the Martians. I could ignore this if the story works.
Looks very nice and totally intriguing. But doesn't look anything like John Carter to me… I was thinking more of an Indiana Jones type adventure movie, bright, sexy and violent. This looks gritty, dirty and full of pathos.
I really want to see how this is going to be received by people who don't know anything about the books.
Stanton can definitely direct live action.
I guess I'm disappointed in this because I saw an inhouse 10 minute promo film made by Paramount when they had A Princess of Mars in pre-production. The film showed dozens of spectacular paintings of Barsoom, its cities, people and warcraft. There was even test CGI of the Tharks and a speech by Tars Tarkus, and it all put this trailer to shame. But Paramount's contract on the material expired after several years and to renew it would have cost $2 million. When they offered ERB Inc 10% of that to renew it, ERB Inc refused and it ultimately was picked up by Disney (again) who had previously had the property and let it go.
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We don't usually post trailers for live action films but have, when time to time, one is closely related to our field (Brad Bird's Mission Impossible, Cameron's Avatar and Disney's The Muppets come to mind). Pixar's Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo, Wall-E) has been working on a live action adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' The Princess of Mars for the past few years, and the trailer has just been unveiled. There's plenty of CG character animation involved (did Pixar animators do it?) and lots of action. The movie will be released in March – and I'm crossing my fingers for its success.
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Fresh off his success with his self published SACRIFICE – already sold out and a second printing on the way — Sam Humphries has a gig writing JOHN CARTER: THE GODS OF MARS for Marvel, an all-ages five issue mini-series which is apparently based on the second Mars novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The art is by Ramon Perez, fresh off TALE OF SAND, his Jim Henson adaptation for Archaia. This is a team we can get behind! The cover is by Julian Totino Tedesco
"Gods of Mars is going to be a blast — tons of action and intrigue in a fantastic environment," said Humphries. "From Landridge and Andrade to Edgar Rice Burroughs himself, there's an impressive foundation of awesome John Carter stories to build on. Combined with Marvel having the most exciting comics going on right now, and most talented editors in the industry – I can't wait to get myself to Mars."
The book goes on sale in March.
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JacketFlap tags: Adaptation, MTV, The Hobbit, The Hunger Games, Robert Pattinson, Don DeLillo, The Avengers, Paul Giamatti, Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, John Carter, The Dark Knight Rises, David Cronenberg, brawl, Cosmopolis, Snow White & the Huntsman, Celebrities, Add a tag
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Over at MTV News, sixteen upcoming movies were pitted against one another to determine the winner of the "MTV Movie Brawl 2012." In the final round, almost four million votes were cast and Cosmopolis (a Don DeLillo adaptation starring Twilight actor Robert Pattinson) emerged victorious over The Hunger Games (starring Oscar-nominated actress Jennifer Lawrence).
In an interview with MTV, director David Cronenberg explained how he first learned about the brawl: "Cosmopolis, while I think in terms of what it is as cinema is pretty hefty, but in terms of budget and promotion, it's an underdog compared to something like the Dark Knight franchise. I really didn't think we would have much of a chance. That really got my attention."
In the video embedded above, MTV caught up with Cosmopolis actor Paul Giamatti to get his reaction on the movie's win. Several of the Movie Brawl film are literary adaptations including John Carter, The Avengers, Snow White & the Huntsman, The Hobbitand The Dark Knight Rises.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.Add a Comment


text: Find The Similar Sites: To find the similar sites manually is really a very tough job for everyone of us. But there are some search engine sites by which we can easily find out the similar sites. By a site we can do a lot of things. Commercially it is really very much necessary to…Continue Reading


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in Love: Menages a Trois from Ancient to Modern Times
by Barbara Foster, Michael Foster, and Letha Hadady
HarperSanFrancisco, 1997
Editor's Note: This book is now available through iuniverse.com and the authors have created a web site threeinlove.com
This book was not at all what I expected. Based on a New York Observer article I had read, I anticipated a lightweight, mostly titillating romp. Instead, Three in Love turned out to be a serious investigation into historical "threesomes" from a fairly rigorously-researched perspective.
Right off the bat, let me make clear that there is no "how to" information in this book, whether with regard to relationships or to sex itself. The three authors, who themselves form a romantic partnership of three, describe their relationship in a brief series of paragraphs in the Preface and then drop the topic for the remainder of the book.
Three in Love devotes itself to a triad-positive investigation of "menages a trois" throughout history, beginning with Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar and ending in 1997. All the historical threesomes I had ever heard of are discussed, and it appears that the authors have discovered many more.
There is a definite slant in this book towards threesomes consisting of artists and the wealthy. The authors attribute this to the fact that artists and the wealthy tend to write about themselves or encourage others to write about them, hence giving us a record of their lives. I find this plausible. However, I also suspect that part of this slant may be part of an effort to "legitimize" an alternative form of sexuality by showing that it's also practiced by the rich and highly-educated. The upper class, in other words. In this regard, I found Three in Love to be reminiscent of some of the fiction published by Libido Magazine (not that I'm criticizing Libido Magazine for this...)
For the most part Three in Love was a very interesting read. I must confess, though, to having experienced a bit of weariness and "blur" as I made my way towards page 429; Three in Love throws so many historical threesomes at the reader, often without lengthy development, that it can become a bit overwhelming. As a historical record, it is fine, but for the sake of people who are actually interested in practicing this lifestyle a bit of depth over breadth would have been appreciated.
I also find it interesting that the authors didn't investigate or acknowledge any non-celebrity, modern-day threesomes or polyamory organizations. It's true that these don't have the "glitz factor" going for them, but talking to the threesome which was at the core of the Church of All Worlds, talking to Ryam Nearing and Dr. Deborah Anapol, and discussing the current wave of Polyamory conferences, ZEGG, and the Loving More organization would have been appreciated. I see these folks as being at the intellectual core of modern polyamory, much more so than David Bowie (whom the authors devote considerable attention to).
I also would have appreciated at least a little bit of information on how to create and thrive in a romantic triad. This book leaves the readers no clue on how to do that, despite the fact that the book's three authors are themselves a functioning triad. In fact, not a single "how-to" book on polyamory is listed in this book's bibliography, nor a single web page. The reader is left to fumble in the dark, so to speak.
So, in that respect I must conclude that this book DOES serve largely to titillate, although in a much more sincere and well-researched way than we usually expect. However, if what is "holding back" polyamory from gaining further acceptance is that it is "unknown", then all-in-all this book should have a positive effect.
And that's the point I'm going to conclude on. Let's keep in mind that this book was published by HarperSanFrancisco, a division of the influential publishing giant HarperCollins. It's a high-quality, regularly published book, with a fine binding, dust jacket, and quality typeface. Plus, the authors were already published writers or college professors, with the cachet that comes from living among the "upper-middle-crust" New York intellectual community. I don't know how well this book is going to sell, but if it starts climbing the best-seller lists that could be a significant factor in changing our society's level of interest in multi-partner relationships.
And finally, this book could pave the way for other authors who wish to write more "instructional" books on the mechanics and challenges of real-life multi-partner sex and relationships.
Although this is not the ideal book for people in a triad who are having relationship troubles, it would be fascinating reading for people whose triads are functioning well or for for people intrigued by the lifestyle but not ready to participate in it just yet. Within its niche, it's a fine and welcome addition to the polyamory literature.
If you're new to this site, we recommend you visit its home page for a better sense of all it has to offer.


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The Art of (Non) Cinema #49:
The April Fools' Edition
This was posted by swac
|your thoughts:
The series is: Art of Cinema
2 comments:
- swac said...
Ah, the days before Photoshop...when all we had were photocopiers and Letraset. And we liked it!
After having this image for years in some art school publication, I just realized that the King and the King of the Monsters are duking it out over the Moulin Rouge!
There must be a Belmondo cameo in there somewhere...
- April 01, 2005 2:28 PM
- pako said...
Well this is the best picture I have seen. the people that did this made it sound so realistic.
- December 04, 2007 9:31 AM
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text:
Publisher: Soldak Entertainment
Genre: Action / Role-Playing Game
Players: 1-N/A (No limit)
Reviewer: Philip Smith
Overall: 8.5 = Excellent
P4 1.5 GHz / Athlon 1.7 GHz, 256MB RAM, GeForce 2 (or equivalent), 200MB HD
In Drox Operative, the latest open-world action-RPG by Depth of Peril and Din's Curse developer Soldak, you face off against the many dangers of deep space in pursuit of the greatest of glories: your victory. But how you achieve your intergalactic triumph depends on just what kind of mercenary you want to be—an intriguer, a privateer, or a one-ship empire-destroyer. Regardless of whether you take the cloak-and-dagger approach or prefer a more overt route, Drox Operative offers plenty for fans of the genre.
Unlike most role-playing games, or most games in general for that matter, Drox Operative isn't about going on an epic quest to save an empire, unite disparate allies, or free an oppressed people. Instead, it's about doing whatever you want, however you want, whenever you want. As a fabled Operative, you are an elite gun-for-hire being courted by multiple factions as they vie for galactic supremacy. Each of the dozen primary races and their altered offshoots has their own traits and agendas, ranging from the forceful ogre-like Brunt to the energy-based chaotic Fringe. A web of alliances, non-aggression pacts, and mutual protection pacts emerge throughout play and shift the balance of power as factions rise and fall, all while you support insurrections, steal technology, and spread destabilizing rumors in order to topple those whom you deem unworthy of rule.
If all of this sounds exciting, it's because it is. I've played few games like Drox Operative—only Armada for the Dreamcast and Solar Winds and Space Rangers for PC come to mind—with its mixture of loot-dropping addictiveness and skill-based combat. With movement mapped to WASD and attacks to the numerical keypad, I was controlling my little ship as if I was at the helm, dropping mines, swooping in to launch unguided projectiles, and desperately trying to outrun homing missiles as my flak cannons auto-fired away. While the game can be played with a more traditional control scheme—clicking on a location to move—I found the hands-on approach to offer not only a great arcade-style experience, but one that is quite unique. And despite not looking like one in the screenshots, Drox Operative is definitely an action-RPG. Amongst the debris, tattered treaties, and bribes are piles of graded loot, a leveling system, a skill tree, and swarms of monsters to grind.
Each randomly generated sector offers several ways of winning. After choosing which of the 10 races' ships you wish to pilot and setting the starting monster level, the pace (the faster it is, the more experience earned), the size of the sector, and difficulty level, you are thrown into the wilds to go about achieving whichever end you desire. Victory can be attained by successfully meeting criteria from one of five routes: Military, Diplomatic, Economic, Fear, and Legend. The handful of choices runs the gamut of play styles, making any approach a viable option for success, whether it's all-out warfare, money hoarding, conniving, or questing. All of this is malleable, though, and adjustments can be made as the situation changes—maybe you're so effective at combat you'll forego niceties and opt to crush everyone and everything. This sort of in-flux approach is a key component to Drox Operative because, as with other Soldak titles, everything takes place in a dynamic world.
The systems that comprise each sector will pass between hands several times during play. As you make your way through each, accepting quests and battling squads of marauding NPCs (re: monsters/fodder), a news box will continually update with the latest galactic happenings. This will keep you up to speed on new alliances, invasions, thefts, and everything in-between. It can be easy to miss some info because so much goes on, but it's important to keep up to date as there's nothing quite like arriving at a fledgling colony with a shipment of super fertilizer only to find it's already been wiped off the planet. Then again, you're sometimes the one doing the wiping. As you complete quests, destroy enemies near a claimed planet or ships, and trade, your relationship improves with the faction involved. This is fairly easy going in the beginning, when everyone is happy to see an Operative in the area, but can eventually become problematic as your dealings come to light. Travel between systems is done via Starlanes, Wormholes, and Jump Gates, and navigation can become especially tricky for those down-on-their-luck mercenaries who lack the credits (or activated gate) to take the local system-skipping Jump Gate to warp safely around enemy-controlled systems. Factions can even control and sale gates. Fortunately, deteriorating relations can be repaired, though often only after you've had a few close calls, barely making it away in an escape pod before respawning back in your home system—or sans the pod and left to work off an experience debt as a clone.
Such nerve-wracking moments are often the result of run-ins with monsters, given how leveling tends to make your ship strong enough to withstand a few hard scrapes once you really dive into the machinations of empire-building. Systems aren't just filled with ships but all sorts of wonders, such as anomalies to investigate, derelict ships to loot, ancient stations to replenish shields, mines to evade, and massive planets that can suck you into their gravity wells and slow you down at the worst times. There are even the occasional solar storms that can drain shields and batter the final layer of metal that lies between your precious circuitry and the harsh environs of space. As you survive and thrive in your sturdy ship, you really come to appreciate the little workhorses, even if many of them do look a bit silly.
Instead of controlling a mighty warrior, an anemic necromancer, or a roguish rogue, your one and only avatar is a spaceship; you don't even get a portrait. Each ship type has different traits, which are a combination of stat boosts and race-specific bonuses (e.g., extra item slots); however, despite the many options, the difference between each isn't drastic. Each ship has four component slots (heavy, medium, light, and race-specific), as well as cargo bays to hold loot. A Power Load serves as a check against kitting out ships with nothing but powerful weapons and engine add-ons, with most items requiring a certain amount of power to use effectively. To put it in more traditional terms, the components are the weapons, armor, and items, and the Power Load the weight. Your first ship has a limited amount of component slots, with the race-specific ones being determined by whatever bonuses that ship type allows. What goes into those slots varies greatly in name and stats but generally breaks down into a handful of category types: lasers, mines, shields, metal plating, circuitry, projectiles, escape pods, and crew. Cargo Bay slots can be fitted with additional bays that hold extra items, which serve the functions of pouches in more traditional role-playing games. As with ship types, the various weapons, armor, and gear appear to offer more variety than they actually do, and for all of the weird names and lists of stats, the actual gameplay doesn't vary greatly between loadouts. Still, all of the items make for an involved balancing act between power and gear, and ensuring that your ship is optimized for combat and performance becomes a constant struggle.
Ships level as experience is gained, but they don't always change. Experience points are allocated to six different areas: Tactical, Helm, Structural, Engineering, Computers, and Command. Crew slotted into the Light Component category also level up during play, but the process is automatic. Each area offers ways to not only increase speed and energy (for weapons) and shield regeneration, but also general upgrades that allow for more powerful gear to be equipped. The only way to get a new ship is by allocating points to Command, which builds towards a threshold that once reached causes Drox High Command to upgrade your current ship to the next class. New ships aren't always the best choice, though, as their additional component slots and ship-type stat bonus are offset by a defense penalty and an increased weight. This shift in stats might seem unimportant, but ignoring some of the upgrade categories can lead you to be unable to properly maneuver the larger craft due to the right parts being too advanced to equip. Of course, sacrifices should be expected if you're looking to fit a new Budget Nuclear Power Plant IV for an increased Power Load or a Cheap Supercomputer I for defense and attack boosts. The system can take some time to get used to, and the divvying up of points between skill and ship upgrades can make progression sluggish, but it allows for you to experiment with everything between speedy mine-layers to slow juggernauts bristling with Ram Accelerators, Cheap Nuclear Missile IVs, and Superior Fighter Bay Is.
Ensuring that your ship is up to snuff becomes even more important whenever relationships break down and the end game approaches. In my experience, it was pretty common for one faction to break away fairly early on, which leaves you with the choice of trying to align with them or work with the remaining races to bring them down. I admit that I had no problem cozying up to the dominant faction by liberally bribing them and taking on whatever quests they had on offer, whether that was dropping off crates of weapons to put down civil unrest on a new colony or stealing technology from a rival. Bribing can be a bit too easy at times, with most factions always near bankruptcy and my 5,000 credits being more than enough to sway the hesitant. I say bribing, but the credits were technically a monetary offer sent in addition to my pact and alliance overtures—but we both know what it was. It didn't always work, but it was a pretty reliable way for me to work up the chain of pacts. Relationships aren't just built on cash and chores but also on how well you've protected a faction's colonies and ships, how you've treated their friends and enemies, how their demands and trade offers have been handled (ignored or rejected), if you've spied on them, what rumors have been spread about you, as well as a nebulous Other category. There is even a natural decline, with built-up goodwill slowly eroding over time without direct involvement. That said, building up a positive rapport can also lead to extra benefits, such as the odd gift of credits and the option to repair gear and heal crew at friendly colonies.
The AI isn't always consistent when it attempts to negotiate with you. While not bad by any means, I did notice some strange behavior that goes beyond the computer simply being eager to win over the mighty Operative. Factions that I was at war with would randomly send threatening messages for me to break off a fruitful alliance with nothing extra on offer to sway me, while others would gift me 30 credits right after I had gifted them what little they had in their meager coffers. Diplomacy is notoriously difficult for AI to handle properly, as evidenced by the years of erratic behavior in the Total War games, so I'm not entirely surprised that some strange behavior cropped up now and then. While diplomatic interactions might not be refined, they get the job done—and, truth be told, are handled better than in most other titles just by virtue of the fact that diplomacy actually functions.
What I really like about Drox Operative are the small touches. For instance, quests do not have to be accepted in order to be completed. Hitting 'R' to bring up the Relationship screen and seeing the green exclamation marks indicating solved quests was a small thrill because it meant an influx of experience, cash, and relationship bonuses for something I didn't even set out to do. A list of the sector's open quests is also available by hovering over the sector name in the top-right corner, and in a keen display of economy, the color of the system's name indicates which factions are in control or fighting for it. Non-usable items destined for a colony also detail in their descriptor pop-up which colonies, if any, require them for you to solve a quest. How nice is that? Information is also handily displayed through the use of large fonts, charts, and icons, which, while a bit garish at times, convey a lot of information with surprisingly little searching and squinting. The program was also rock solid: whether playing in full screen or window mode (which autopauses once you move the cursor outside the window), or even alt-tabbing, there was not a single crash. In fact, the only thing I wasn't crazy about were the sound effects and music, which can be abrasive. Save for the odd ill-targeted foe or tendency for monsters to focus their attention on you—though they do fight amongst themselves and the other factions—I found a lot to like during my time as an Operative.
Cooperative multiplayer play is also offered, but I was unable to find active servers in time for this review. There are options to search for Internet games in East and West US, Europe, and Other, but none were available. Hosted local and Internet play is also supported.
Overall: 8.5/10
Drox Operative is a fantastic action-RPG that manages to do a lot with a little. The customization options might not provide as varied an experience per ship as they would initially appear to, but the open system allows for multiple play styles to be utilized as you rip across a dynamically evolving galaxy. The action-oriented control options make this a more hands-on title than most others in the genre, and as a result, it's both unique and highly engaging. A few rough spots aside, PC gamers should do themselves a favor and try out Soldak's latest; it's definitely worth checking out.
(This review is based on a retail copy provided by the publisher.)


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by Ashley Killough
(CNN) — A former senior adviser to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign skewered some of the GOP nominee's surrogates Wednesday, saying it was "stunning" how they preened for administration positions when they thought Romney would win but then turned on the candidate as soon as he lost the election.
Dan Senor recalled an anecdote at the large rally held in Ohio the Friday before Election Day earlier this month. He said some of the event's major headliners were praising the candidate backstage and had begun engaging Romney's transition team.
"I won't mention their names, but they're talking about Romney like he's Reagan. You know, 'The debate performances were the best debate performances of any Republican nominee in presidential history. This guy—he's iconic.' They were talking about him because they believed he was going to win in four or five days," Senor said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
"In fact, some of them were already talking to our transition to position themselves for a Romney cabinet," he added.
Still not naming names, Senor said the tone dramatically changed in the days following Romney's loss, as many top GOP leaders conducted post-mortem analysis of the campaign.
"I won't say who they are. They know who they are. They were on television. I mean, it was unbelievable. It was five, six days later, (they were) absolutely eviscerating him," he said.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has been perhaps the highest-profile surrogate to lambast Romney since Election Day. The Republican governor sharply took issue with Romney's post-election comments in a phone call with donors, in which he said Obama won the election by offering policy "gifts" to constituencies in his base, such as Hispanics, young people and African Americans.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham also railed against Romney for the comments.