Tag: Fiction

Over 90 Letters Containing Suspicious White Powder Sent To Kansas Lawmakers

Authorities are investigating nearly 100 letters containing a mysterious white powder that were addressed to several Republican lawmakers in Kansas, with the sender referring to themselves in the letters as “your secret despirer.” What do you think?

“Do they want us to reach out to our representatives or not?”

Brett Gaines, Panda Tagger

What Makes Anna So Beautiful In The Moonlight?

“There’s something so quaint and personal about a hand-written threat these days.”

Bella Augusto, Automat Manager

“Relax, maybe it’s a good suspicious white powder.”

Damien Rogers, Unemployed

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June 21, 2023
Concept Art From A Canceled, Live-Action Robotech Movie

For 15 years now, people in Hollywood have been trying to get a live-action Robotech movie made. Specifically, a movie based on Robotech’s first and most popular season, which was a Western repackaging of Japanese masterpiece Macross.

Robotech’s original animated intro

In 2007 it was Tobey Maguire leading the charge for a Warner Bros. production that ultimately went nowhere. Eight years later Sony took a swing, with Aquaman director James Wan attached, but it too would eventually wind up cancelled. Now we’re getting a third and more recent attempt, with Sony trying once again, announcing in 2022 that Hawkeye director Rhys Thomas will be trying to get the adventures of Rick Hunter and friends on the big screen.

This third try might have a better chance of actually getting made; aside from regular Hollywood politics and economics, previous attempts were also plagued by a long-running legal standoff that had stymied Western releases of Macross products for decades. They were largely resolved in 2021, clearly paving the way for Sony’s renewed attempts at getting a Robotech movie made.

Anyway, enough background! This is an art feature, not a history lesson. But I needed to spell all that out so that we’re clear about what’s being showcased tonight: a collection of art from that middle project, Sony’s aborted first attempt that, after suffering a big setback in 2018 when Wan bailed to make Aquaman, was quietly cancelled in 2019.

Most illustrations focus on the SDF-1, Macross Island (whose vibes Price absolutely nails here) and redesigned Veritech fighters, though there are also some works showcasing original plot elements (like the oil rigs) that would have been new for this particular film.

These pieces were all done by veteran artist Col Price, who has contributed to series like WipeOut and Battlefield, and whose work we’ve featured on the website previously. You can see more of Col’s stuff at his personal site and ArtStation page.

Luke Plunkett

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June 15, 2023
Cormac McCarthy, lauded author of ‘The Road’ and ‘No Country for Old Men,’ dies at 89

SANTA FE, N.M. — SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Cormac McCarthy, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist who in prose both dense and brittle took readers from the southern Appalachians to the desert Southwest in such novels as “The Road,” “Blood Meridian” and “All the Pretty Horses,” died Tuesday. He was 89.

Publisher Alfred A. Knopf, a Penguin Random House imprint, announced that McCarthy died of natural causes at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

“For 60 years, he demonstrated an unwavering dedication to his craft, and to exploring the infinite possibilities and power of the written word,” Penguin Random House CEO Nihar Malaviya said in a statement. “Millions of readers around the world embraced his characters, his mythic themes, and the intimate emotional truths he laid bare on every page, in brilliant novels that will remain both timely and timeless, for generations to come.”

McCarthy, raised in Knoxville, Tennessee, was compared to William Faulkner for his expansive, Old Testament style and rural settings. McCarthy’s themes, like Faulkner’s, often were bleak and violent and dramatized how the past overwhelmed the present. Across stark and forbidding landscapes and rundown border communities, he placed drifters, thieves, prostitutes and old, broken men, all unable to escape fates determined for them well before they were born. As the doomed John Grady Cole of McCarthy’s celebrated “Border” trilogy would learn, dreams of a better life were only dreams, and falling in love an act of folly.

“Every man’s death is a standing in for every other,” McCarthy wrote in “Cities of the Plain,” the trilogy’s final book. “And since death comes to all there is no way to abate the fear of it except to love that man who stands for us.”

McCarthy’s own story was one of belated, and continuing, achievement and popularity. Little known to the public at age 60, he would become one of the country’s most honored and successful writers despite rarely talking to the press. He broke through commercially in 1992 with “All the Pretty Horses” and over the next 15 years won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer, was a guest on Oprah Winfrey’s show and saw his novel “No Country for Old Men” adapted by the Coen brothers into an Oscar-winning movie. Fans of the Coens would discover that the film’s terse, absurdist dialogue, so characteristic of the brothers’ work, was lifted straight from the novel.

“The Road,” his stark tale of a father and son who roam a ravaged landscape, brought him his widest audience and highest acclaim. It won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for fiction and was selected by Winfrey for her book club. In his Winfrey interview, McCarthy said that while typically he didn’t know what generates the ideas for his books, he could trace “The Road” to a trip he took with his young son to El Paso, Texas, early in the decade. Standing at the window of a hotel in the middle of the night as his son slept nearby, he started to imagine what El Paso might look like 50 or 100 years in the future.

“I just had this image of these fires up on the hill … and I thought a lot about my little boy,” he said.

He told Winfrey he didn’t care how many people read “The Road.”

“You would like for the people that would appreciate the book to read it. But, as far as many, many people reading it, so what?” he said.

McCarthy dedicated the book to his son, John Francis, and said having a child as an older man “forces the world on you, and I think it’s a good thing.” The Pulitzer committee called his book “the profoundly moving story of a journey.”

“It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, ‘each the other’s world entire,’ are sustained by love,” the citation read in part. “Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation.”

After “The Road,” little was heard from McCarthy over the next 15 years and his career was presumed over. But in 2022, Knopf made the startling announcement that it would release a pair of connected novels he had referred to in the past: “The Passenger” and “Stella Maris,” narratives about a brother and sister, mutually obsessed siblings, and the legacy of their father, a physicist who had worked on atomic technology. “Stella Maris” was notable, in part, because it centered on a female character, an acknowledged weakness of McCarthy’s.

“I don’t pretend to understand women,” he told Winfrey.

His first novel, “The Orchard Keeper” — written in Chicago while he was working as an auto mechanic — was published by Random House in 1965. His editor was Albert Erskine, Faulkner’s longtime editor.

Other novels include “Outer Dark,” published in 1968; “Child of God” in 1973; and “Suttree” in 1979. The violent “Blood Meridian,” about a group of bounty hunters along the Texas-Mexico border murdering Indians for their scalps, was published in 1985.

His “Border Trilogy” books were set in the Southwest along the border with Mexico: “All the Pretty Horses” (1992) — a National Book Award winner that was turned into a feature film; “The Crossing” (1994), and “Cities of the Plain” (1998).

McCarthy said he was always lucky. He recalled living in a shack in Tennessee and running out of toothpaste, then going out and finding a toothpaste sample in the mailbox.

“That’s the way my life has been. Just when things were really, really bleak, something would happen,” said McCarthy, who won a MacArthur Fellowship — one of the so-called “genius grants” — in 1981.

In 2009, Christie’s auction house sold the Olivetti typewriter he used while writing such novels as “The Road” and “No Country for Old Men” for $254,500. McCarthy, who bought the Olivetti for $50 in 1958 and used it until 2009, donated it so the proceeds could be used to benefit the Santa Fe Institute, a nonprofit interdisciplinary scientific research community. He once said he didn’t know any writers and preferred to hang out with scientists.

The Southwestern Writers Collection at Texas State University-San Marcos purchased his archives in 2008, including correspondence, notes, drafts, proofs of 11 novels, a draft of an unfinished novel and materials related to a play and four screenplays.

McCarthy attended the University of Tennessee for a year before joining the Air Force in 1953. He returned to the school from 1957 to 1959, but left before graduating. As an adult, he lived around the Great Smoky Mountains before moving West in the late 1970s, eventually settling in Santa Fe.

His Knoxville boyhood home, long abandoned and overgrown, was destroyed by fire in 2009.

___

Retired AP reporter Sue Major Holmes in New Mexico was the primary writer of this obituary. AP National Writer Hillel Italie reported from New York.

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June 13, 2023
Cormac McCarthy, lauded author of ‘The Road’ and ‘No Country for Old Men,’ dies at 89

SANTA FE, N.M. — SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Cormac McCarthy, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist who in prose both dense and brittle took readers from the southern Appalachians to the desert Southwest in such novels as “The Road,” “Blood Meridian” and “All the Pretty Horses,” died Tuesday. He was 89.

McCarthy died of natural causes in Santa Fe, New Mexico, publisher Alfred A. Knopf said.

McCarthy, raised in Knoxville, Tennessee, was compared to William Faulkner for his Old Testament style and rural settings. McCarthy’s themes, like Faulkner’s, often were bleak and violent and dramatized how the past overwhelmed the present. Across stark and forbidding landscapes and rundown border communities, he placed drifters, thieves, prostitutes and old, broken men, all unable to escape fates determined for them well before they were born. As the doomed John Grady Cole of McCarthy’s celebrated “Border” trilogy would learn, dreams of a better life were only dreams, and falling in love an act of folly.

McCarthy’s own story was one of belated, and continuing, achievement and popularity. Little known to the public at age 60, he would become one of the country’s most honored and successful writers despite rarely talking to the press. He broke through commercially in 1992 with “All the Pretty Horses” and over the next 15 years won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer, was a guest on Oprah Winfrey’s show and saw his novel “No Country for Old Men” adapted by the Coen brothers into an Oscar-winning movie. Fans of the Coens would discover that the film’s terse, absurdist dialogue, so characteristic of the brothers’ work, was lifted straight from the novel.

“The Road,” his stark tale of a father and son who roam a ravaged landscape, brought him his widest audience and highest acclaim. It won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for fiction and was selected by Winfrey for her book club. In his Winfrey interview, McCarthy said that while typically he didn’t know what generates the ideas for his books, he could trace “The Road” to a trip he took with his young son to El Paso, Texas, early in the decade. Standing at the window of a hotel in the middle of the night as his son slept nearby, he started to imagine what El Paso might look like 50 or 100 years in the future.

“I just had this image of these fires up on the hill … and I thought a lot about my little boy,” he said.

He told Winfrey he didn’t care how many people read “The Road.”

“You would like for the people that would appreciate the book to read it. But, as far as many, many people reading it, so what?” he said.

McCarthy dedicated the book to his son, John Francis, and said having a child as an older man “forces the world on you, and I think it’s a good thing.” The Pulitzer committee called his book “the profoundly moving story of a journey.”

“It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, ‘each the other’s world entire,’ are sustained by love,” the citation read in part. “Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation.”

In 2022, Knopf made the startling announcement that it would release McCarthy’s first work in more than 15 years, a pair of connected novels he had referred to in the past: “The Passenger” and “Stella Maris,” narratives on a pair of mutually obsessed siblings and the legacy of their father, a physicist who had worked on atomic technology. “Stella Maris” was notable, in part, because it centered on a female character, an acknowledged weakness of McCarthy’s.

“I don’t pretend to understand women,” he told Winfrey.

His first novel, “The Orchard Keeper” — written in Chicago while he was working as an auto mechanic — was published by Random House in 1965. His editor was Albert Erskine, Faulkner’s longtime editor.

Other novels include “Outer Dark,” published in 1968; “Child of God” in 1973; and “Suttree” in 1979. The violent “Blood Meridian,” about a group of bounty hunters along the Texas-Mexico border murdering Indians for their scalps, was published in 1985.

His “Border Trilogy” books were set in the Southwest along the border with Mexico: “All the Pretty Horses” (1992) — a National Book Award winner that was turned into a feature film; “The Crossing” (1994), and “Cities of the Plain” (1998).

McCarthy said he was always lucky. He recalled living in a shack in Tennessee and running out of toothpaste, then going out and finding a toothpaste sample in the mailbox.

“That’s the way my life has been. Just when things were really, really bleak, something would happen,” said McCarthy, who won a MacArthur Fellowship — one of the so-called “genius grants” — in 1981.

In 2009, Christie’s auction house sold the Olivetti typewriter he used while writing such novels as “The Road” and “No Country for Old Men” for $254,500. McCarthy, who bought the Olivetti for $50 in 1958 and used it until 2009, donated it so the proceeds could be used to benefit the Santa Fe Institute, a nonprofit interdisciplinary scientific research community. He once said he didn’t know any writers and preferred to hang out with scientists.

The Southwestern Writers Collection at Texas State University-San Marcos purchased his archives in 2008, including correspondence, notes, drafts, proofs of 11 novels, a draft of an unfinished novel and materials related to a play and four screenplays.

McCarthy attended the University of Tennessee for a year before joining the Air Force in 1953. He returned to the school from 1957 to 1959, but left before graduating. As an adult, he lived around the Great Smoky Mountains before moving West in the late 1970s, eventually settling in Santa Fe.

His Knoxville boyhood home, long abandoned and overgrown, was destroyed by fire in 2009.

___

Retired AP reporter Sue Major Holmes in New Mexico was the primary writer of this obituary. AP National Writer Hillel Italie reported from New York.

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June 13, 2023
Diablo IV Druids, Do This ASAP To Unlock Some Powerful New Abilities

Read more…

Eric Schulkin

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June 9, 2023
Author Haruki Murakami says pandemic, war in Ukraine create walls that divide people

TOKYO — Japanese writer Haruki Murakami says walls are increasingly built and dividing people and countries after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic fueled fear and skepticism.

“With feelings of suspicion replacing mutual trust, walls are continually being erected around us,” Murakami said in late April at Wellesley College. That speech, “Writing Fiction in the Time of Pandemic and War,” was released Wednesday in The Shincho Monthly literary magazine published by Shinchosha Co.

“Everybody seems to be confronted with a choice — to hide behind the walls, preserving safety and the status quo or, knowing the risks, to emerge beyond the walls in search of a freer value system,” he said.

Like the protagonist in his new novel.

“The City and Its Uncertain Walls” was released in April in Japan and an English translation is expected in 2024. The protagonist, as Murakami described, faces a tough choice between two worlds: an isolated walled city of tranquility with no desire or suffering, and the real world beyond the walls filled with pain and desire and contradictions.

The novel is based on a story he wrote for a magazine soon after becoming a novelist but was never published in book form. He said he knew it had important ideas and put it aside because he wanted to rewrite it.

Some 40 years later, he discovered “this tale fits perfectly with the age we live in now.”

Murakami started rewriting the book in March 2020, soon after COVID-19 began spreading around the world, and finished it two years later, as the war in Ukraine passed its one-year mark.

“The two big events combined and changed the world in dramatic ways,” he said.

The sense of safety that came with a common belief in globalism and mutual economic and cultural dependency “crumbled with Russia’s sudden invasion of Ukraine,” Murakami said, spreading fear of similar invasions elsewhere. Many countries, including his home Japan, have since bolstered their military preparedness and budgets.

As the war continues without an end in sight, so do the high walls being built around people, between countries and individuals, Murakami said. “It seems to me that the psychic condition — if someone isn’t your ally, he is your enemy — continues to spread.”

“Can our trust in each other once more overcome our suspicions? Can wisdom conquer fear? The answers to these questions are entrusted to our hands. And rather than an instant answer, we are being required to undergo a deep investigation that will take time,” Murakami said.

He says that, while there’s not much a novelist can do, “I sincerely hope that novels and stories can lend their power to such an investigation. It’s something that we novelists dearly hope for.”

Murakami has made other efforts to encourage people to think, combat fear or tear down walls. He hosted the radio show “Music to put an end to war” a month after Russia’ invaded Ukraine. His Japanese translation of “The Last Flower,” former New Yorker cartoonist James Thurber’s 1939 anti-war picture book, will be released later this month from Poplar Sha.

Did the protagonist stay inside the walls? “Please try reading the book yourselves,” Murakami said.

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June 7, 2023
Spider-Man 2 PS5 Will Be Darker Than The Tobey Maguire Movie

The developers of the upcoming PlayStation 5 sequel Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 say that the game will try to strike a balance between humor and heart while respectfully depicting the darker tones of Peter Parker when he is using his Venom symbiote suit.

The Best Marvel Snap Deck For Winning With Agatha Harkness

During Sony’s hour-long PlayStation Showcase last week, we saw over 12 minutes of new gameplay footage of Peter Parker and Miles Morales in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 to close out the show. The upcoming PlayStation 5-exclusive action game looked to be going for a similar mix of web-slinging traversal, kinetic fight scenes, and palatable humor as its predecessor, but with the added bonus of Parker being pretty aggressive while wearing his new Venom symbiote suit.

Read More: Spider-Man 2 PS5 Gameplay Shows Kraven Villain, Symbiote Suit

Peter’s internal battle with Venom will be like battling an addiction

While one side of the internet churned out memes comparing the edginess of the Spider-Man 2 game’s Parker to Tobey Maguire’s “Bully Macguire” performance in 2007’s Spider-Man 3 movie (which was a camp masterpiece), another group of fans was in awe of Peter Parker voice actor Yuri Lowenthal’s Sasuke Uchiha-esque performance as a newly jaded web-head under the Venom symbiote’s alien influence.

Speaking with Eurogamer, Spider-Man 2 creative director Bryan Intihar revealed that Parker’s internal battle with the black parasitic space goop that’s making him so aggro in the game will be akin to a person battling addiction. Unlike the more camp depiction of director Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 Venom, Intihar said Peter getting bonded to the symbiote suit is “not something we want to make fun of.”

“The theme of addiction is prevalent, especially because of the symbiote. We did a lot of research, not only on previous stories with the symbiote, but also just looking at when [Peter] is bonded, what can that feel like? Not to go into too many things about how it plays in the narrative, but we want to treat it very seriously,” Intihar said. “So, it’s about really playing into those themes of addiction, how that can impact someone’s personality, impact the people around them, and you’re going to see that it’s not just how it’s impacting Peter on his own, but also those close to him. You’re going to see that play out throughout the game.”

Read More: Oh No, The PS5’s Spider-Man 2 Game Has A Silly ‘Puddlegate’ Controversy

Insomniac Games

Miles Morales will give Spider-Man 2 players a symbiote-angst break

While in the PlayStation Showcase footage it is definitely jarring to see Lowenthal’s Parker go from wise-cracking about being New York’s “Spider-Cop” and meekly goading the stoic Silver Sable into giving him a high five to dumping rescued civilians to the ground and doing whatever this is to Kraven’s goons, Intihar and game director Ryan Smith told Eurogamer that Spider-Man 2 won’t be entirely about Peter being an asshole because playing as Miles Morales will offset the game’s darker moments with a bit of levity.

“I think you saw that in the gameplay reveal,” Smith said. “We have the moments with Ganke and Miles and the Falcon that he’s trailing behind—the Talon drone—and then at the very end, you get that line about Peter changing and Miles saying, ‘You know, he’s never like that,’ right? So we have those human elements, both on the serious side of where we see the symbiote affecting Peter, but also on the lighter-hearted side.”

Read More: Let’s Rank All The Spider-Man Games, From Worst To Best

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been pretty hit or miss with serious scenes, with a tendency for humor to abruptly rob them of their weight. Time will tell whether or not Spider-Man 2 will succeed in balancing its heart and humor with its darker moments, but Intihar is confident that the game landed on the right ratio of wit and drama.

“What we’ve talked a lot about is—whether it was Marvel’s Spider-Man or Miles Morales—our games are all about still having heart and humor,” Intihar said. “It’s really finding that balance between those darker themes and characters, but also delivering that very human story where there’s a lot of heart and humor… I think that’s what was tricky. But I do think we found that nice balance at the end of the day.”

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 launches later this fall.

Isaiah Colbert

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June 1, 2023
Bulgarian writer wins International Booker Prize for darkly comic memory novel

LONDON — Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov and translator Angela Rodel won the International Booker Prize on Tuesday for “Time Shelter,” a darkly comic novel about the dangerous appeal of nostalgia.

The book beat five other finalists to the prize, which recognizes fiction from around the world that has been translated into English. The 50,000 pounds ($62,000) in prize money is divided between author and translator.

“Time Shelter” imagines a clinic that recreates the past, with each floor reproducing a different decade. Intended as a way to help people with dementia unlock their memories, it soon becomes a magnet for people eager to escape the modern world.

Gospodinov, 55, said he began writing his book about “the weaponization of nostalgia” in 2016, the year of the election of Donald Trump and the U.K.’s Brexit referendum. He said it was a time when “anxiety was in the air.”

“I wanted to write a novel about the monster of the past,” he said. “Because you can see in this time … that populist politics, actually, they paid us with the empty check of the past.”

French novelist Leila Slimani, who chaired the judging panel, said it was “a brilliant novel full of irony and melancholy.”

“It’s a very profound work that deals with a contemporary question and also a philosophical question: What happens to us when our memories disappear?” she said.

“But it is also a great novel about Europe, a continent in need of a future, where the past is reinvented and where nostalgia can be a poison.”

Gospodinov is one of Bulgaria’s most-translated authors. “Time Shelter” has also won Italy’s Strega European Prize for literature in Italian translation.

The International Booker Prize is awarded every year to a translated work of fiction published in the U.K. or Ireland. It is run alongside the Booker Prize for English-language fiction, which will be handed out in the autumn.

The prize was set up to boost the profile of fiction in other languages — which accounts for only a small share of books published in Britain — and to salute the underappreciated work of literary translators.

Last year’s winners were Indian writer Geetanjali Shree and American translator Daisy Rockwell for “Tomb of Sand.”

Rodel said she was grateful to the prize for rejecting the belief that that “if you’re a good translator, maybe you shouldn’t even be noticed.”

“This is a creative process,” she said. “This is a definite collaborative work of art that we’re creating with our authors. I’m just endlessly grateful to the Booker for putting that out in front in this award.”

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May 23, 2023
Bulgarian writer wins International Booker Prize for darkly comic memory novel

Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov and translator Angela Rodel have won the International Booker Prize for “Time Shelter,” a darkly comic novel about the dangerous appeal of nostalgia

LONDON — Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov and translator Angela Rodel won the International Booker Prize on Tuesday for “Time Shelter,” a darkly comic novel about the dangerous appeal of nostalgia.

The book beat five other finalists to the prize, which recognizes fiction from around the world that has been translated into English. The 50,000 pounds ($62,000) in prize money is divided between author and translator.

“Time Shelter” imagines a clinic that recreates the past, with each floor reproducing a different decade. Intended as a way to help people with dementia unlock their memories, it soon becomes a magnet for people eager to escape the modern world.

French novelist Leila Slimani, who chaired the judging panel, said it was “a brilliant novel full of irony and melancholy.”

“It’s a very profound work that deals with a contemporary question and also a philosophical question: What happens to us when our memories disappear?” she said.

“But it is also a great novel about Europe, a continent in need of a future, where the past is reinvented and where nostalgia can be a poison.”

Gospodinov is one of Bulgaria’s most-translated authors. “Time Shelter” has also won Italy’s Strega European Prize for literature in Italian translation.

The International Booker Prize is awarded every year to a translated work of fiction published in the U.K. or Ireland. It is run alongside the Booker Prize for English-language fiction, which will be handed out in the autumn.

The prize was set up to boost the profile of fiction in other languages — which accounts for only a small share of books published in Britain — and to salute the underappreciated work of literary translators.

Last year’s winners were Indian writer Geetanjali Shree and American translator Daisy Rockwell for “Tomb of Sand.”

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May 23, 2023
New York City Sinking Due To Weight Of Its Skyscrapers

A new study has found that New York City is sinking 1 to 2 millimeters each year in part due to the extraordinary weight of its skyscrapers, worsening the flooding threat posed to the metropolis from rising seas. What do you think?

“Sorry, but Midtown needs 50,000 perpetually vacant apartments.”

Laszlo Gibbs, Allium Specialist

Goofy Beats Ron DeSantis To Death With Crowbar

“I remember 50 years ago when we were floating 3.94 inches above sea level.”

Bradley Nelms, Systems Analyst

“It’s a good thing they’re so tall.”

Ophelia Andresen, Lunch Consultant

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May 22, 2023
Our Favorite Cosplay From C2E2 2023

The Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo, better known as C2E2, was held a few weeks back and brought in nearly 100,000 attendees over its three days.

There were some cosplayers among them, of course, some excellent cosplayers, and as usual all photos and video here are provided by Mineralblu (you can check our way more of his stuff at his Facebook page). Also as usual, every photo has a watermark on it detailing the cosplayer’s social media information and the character they’re cosplaying as.

Note that, like our last cosplay gallery (from Marchs WonderCon), there’s a lot of Zelda here, despite the game still being weeks away from release. People were just that psyched!

Oh, and if it feels like we only just ran a C2E2 gallery, that’s because we did! The 2022 show took place much later in the year than usual—September vs March/April—since it was making a post-pandemic comeback. Next year’s show will run in April 2024, marking a return to a more traditional calendar.

THIS IS C2E2 CHICAGO COMIC CON 2023 BEST COSPLAY MUSIC VIDEO CHAMPIONS AX BEST COSTUMES ANIME EXPO

Luke Plunkett

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May 21, 2023
Martin Amis, British novelist who brought a rock ‘n’ roll sensibility to his work, has died at 73

NEW YORK — British novelist Martin Amis, who brought a rock ‘n’ roll sensibility to his stories and lifestyle, has died. He was 73.

His death on Friday at his home in Florida, from cancer of the esophagus, was confirmed by his agent, Andrew Wylie, on Saturday.

Amis was the son of another British writer, Kingsley Amis. Martin Amis was a leading voice among a generation of writers that included his good friend, the late Christopher Hitchens, Ian McEwan and Salman Rushdie.

Among his best-known works were “Money,” a satire about consumerism in London, “The Information” and “London Fields,” along with his 2000 memoir, “Experience.”

Jonathan Glazer’s adaption of Amis’ 2014 novel “The Zone of Interest” premiered Saturday at the Cannes Film Festival. The film, about a Nazi commandant who lives next to Auschwitz with his family, drew some of the best reviews of the festival.

The Holocaust was the topic of Amis’ novel “Time’s Arrow” and Josef Stalin’s reign in Russia in “House of Meetings,” examples of how his writing explored the dark soul.

“Violence is what I hate most, is what baffles me and disgusts me most,” Amis told The Associated Press in 2012. “Writing comes from silent anxiety, the stuff you don’t know you’re really brooding about and when you start to write you realize you have been brooding about it, but not consciously. It’s terribly mysterious.”

Amis was a celebrity in his own right, his life often chronicled by London tabloids since his 1973 debut, “The Rachel Papers.” His love life, his change of agents, even his dental work were fodder for stories.

“He was the king — a stylist extraordinaire, super cool, a brilliantly witty, erudite and fearless writer and a truly wonderful man,” said Michal Shavit, his editor in England. “He has been so important and formative for so many readers and writers over the last half century. Every time he published a new book it was an event.”

Critic Michiko Kakutani wrote of Amis in The New York Times in 2000 that “he is a writer equipped with a daunting arsenal of literary gifts: a dazzling, chameleonesque command of language, a willingness to tackle large issues and larger social canvases and an unforgiving, heat-seeking eye for the unwholesome ferment of contemporary life.”

“We are devastated at the death of our author and friend, Martin Amis,” Amis’ publisher, Penguin, tweeted. “He leaves a towering legacy and an indelible mark on the British cultural landscape, and will be missed enormously.”

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May 20, 2023
Martin Amis, British novelist who brought a rock ‘n’ roll sensibility to his work, has died at 73

NEW YORK — British novelist Martin Amis, who brought a rock ‘n’ roll sensibility to his stories and lifestyle, has died. He was 73.

His death on Friday at his home in Florida, from cancer of the esophagus, was confirmed by his agent, Andrew Wylie, on Saturday.

Amis was the son of another British writer, Kingsley Amis. Martin Amis was a leading voice among a generation of writers that included his good friend, the late Christopher Hitchens, Ian McEwan and Salman Rushdie.

Among his best-known works were “Money,” a satire about consumerism in London, “The Information” and “London Fields,” along with his 2000 memoir, “Experience.”

Jonathan Glazer’s adaption of Amis’ 2014 novel “The Zone of Interest” premiered Saturday at the Cannes Film Festival. The film, about a Nazi commandant who lives next to Auschwitz with his family, drew some of the best reviews of the festival.

The Holocaust was the topic of Amis’ novel “Time’s Arrow” and Josef Stalin’s reign in Russia in “House of Meetings,” examples of how his writing explored the dark soul.

“Violence is what I hate most, is what baffles me and disgusts me most,” Amis told The Associated Press in 2012. “Writing comes from silent anxiety, the stuff you don’t know you’re really brooding about and when you start to write you realize you have been brooding about it, but not consciously. It’s terribly mysterious.”

Amis was a celebrity in his own right, his life often chronicled by London tabloids since his 1973 debut, “The Rachel Papers.” His love life, his change of agents, even his dental work were fodder for stories.

“He was the king — a stylist extraordinaire, super cool, a brilliantly witty, erudite and fearless writer and a truly wonderful man,” said Michal Shavit, his editor in England. “He has been so important and formative for so many readers and writers over the last half century. Every time he published a new book it was an event.”

Critic Michiko Kakutani wrote of Amis in The New York Times in 2000 that “he is a writer equipped with a daunting arsenal of literary gifts: a dazzling, chameleonesque command of language, a willingness to tackle large issues and larger social canvases and an unforgiving, heat-seeking eye for the unwholesome ferment of contemporary life.”

“We are devastated at the death of our author and friend, Martin Amis,” Amis’ publisher, Penguin, tweeted. “He leaves a towering legacy and an indelible mark on the British cultural landscape, and will be missed enormously.”

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May 20, 2023
Review: Tom Hanks’ novel shares inside look at moviemaking

There may be no one better suited to tell the tale of how a movie gets made than Hollywood icon and master of the motion picture Tom Hanks

ByKIANA DOYLE Associated Press

This image released by Knopf shows “The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece” by Tom Hanks. (Knopf via AP)

The Associated Press

“The Making of Another Motion Picture Masterpiece,” by Tom Hanks (Knopf)

There may be no one better suited to tell the tale of how a movie gets made than Hollywood icon and master of the motion picture Tom Hanks.

His debut novel follows the life of a story from its inspiration to when it hits the silver screen. The fictional tale captures the magic of the process, yes, but also the crawling, detail-packed moviemaking step, presented just so in the bulk of the novel.

The first act takes place in the ’70s, introducing readers to Robby Anderson, a 5-year-old with a knack for drawing comic strips, and his hero and Marine veteran uncle, Bob Falls. When Uncle Bob exits Robby’s life as quickly as he entered it, all Robby has left of him is a comic likeness he drew of his uncle as a World War II flamethrower superhero.

Robby grows up to create a fully fledged comic strip based on said character, and after fast-forwarding to present day, the strip is discovered in a collection of old comics by genius movie director Bill Johnson, who’s seeking inspiration for a Marvel-esque superhero movie he’s itching to make.

From there, the novel takes readers by the hand through the ins and outs of moviemaking. Straying from the plot frequently to delve into the many, many characters involved, not a detail is spared. Readers leave each lengthy introduction knowing the character’s drink of choice, relationship history and sense of humor.

Perhaps at its heart, this novel acts as a thank you to the unsung heroes of movie production. Drivers, makeup artists and personal assistants alike all get a shot in the spotlight, sometimes at the expense of some semblance of any story progression.

At one point, Bill’s agent says his script has “too many scenes, too many characters, too many pages and not enough conflict.” The same could be said for this novel, but if you have the patience to sit back and get to know each lovingly crafted character as much as Hanks wants you to, you can learn some interesting aspects of moviemaking and get a glimpse of what it takes to make a motion picture masterpiece.

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May 16, 2023
Cult Mech Game Hawken Is Coming Back From The Dead

Screenshot: Hawken Reborn

Back in 2011, a mech combat game was announced that blew the internet’s socks clean off. With a Maschinen Krieger-inspired aesthetic and fast-paced, stomping robot action, Hawken looked like one of the coolest video games the world had ever seen.

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That launch week would prove to be the high water mark for the game; while it would eventually be released as a free-to-play multiplayer shooter and got some live-action adaptation attention, the game itself wasn’t as interesting as its aesthetic, and in 2018 its servers were closed down.

But, man, it looked so good, and a lot of people remember and love it for that, so it’s perhaps not a huge surprise that 505 Games have decided to bring the franchise back, announcing Hawken Reborn earlier today:

Hawken Reborn – Reveal Trailer

“Bring it back” might be a little unfair here: this isn’t a rehash of the original but an all-new game, ditching the player-vs-player combat of Hawken for a singleplayer PvE game that will have missions and a “narrative”. Which will be a lovely surprise not just for fans who were into Hawken’s universe more than its actual gameplay, but also for anyone who is into Titanfall and is at peace with the fact we’re probably never getting another Titanfall.

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Perhaps the only downside in all this is that, in coming back, the edges seem to have been sanded off the game’s aesthetic, with Hawken Reborn’s mech and world designs lacking the original’s bristling homage to Kow Yokoyama’s Maschinen Krieger.

Hawken Reborn is already up on Steam, with an Early Access release planned for May 17. “Play a part in the next chapter of mech warfare in the Hawken Universe with six opening missions to complete in this initial Arc”, the game’s description reads. “Venture out in your mech and fight alongside new characters to discover all new storylines hidden deep in Illal that will continue to evolve in the future.”

Luke Plunkett

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May 15, 2023
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Is Really That Good, Seriously

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is really, really good. You’ve probably heard this already. Our own review and other reviews of the game have praised it quite a bit. But this isn’t a review. Instead, this is just us reaffirming that, yeah, it really is as good as so many other people have claimed. In fact, some of us at Kotaku are already penciling it in for our Game of the Year list.

The Week In Games: Return To Hyrule

The Week In Games: Return To Hyrule

And don’t worry, no spoilers below.

For those just tuning in, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is the follow-up to 2019’s Jedi: Fallen Order. And just like before, in this latest adventure from Respawn and EA, players take on the role of Cal Kestis, a Jedi who survived the purge as a young boy and who now hangs out with his ragtag found family of misfits as they try to free the galaxy from the Empire. Oh and also try not to get caught by all the people hunting them down. (And there are a lot of people after them.) To bring down the Empire, outrun their enemies, and save the day, Cal has to do a lot of jumping, sliding, climbing, fighting, and exploring. And in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor all of this—every jump, lightsaber swing, wall climb, and more—feels great.

Jedi Survivor is one of those games that just feels fantastic to play. Controlling Cal quickly becomes effortless while either platforming or fighting. You stop thinking about pressing buttons or whatever and instead Cal feels like a natural extension of your own body. And to be clear: The first game played really well. But Survivor just feels more honed in, with every part of the game seemingly built to be fun and satisfying to play.

EA / Lucasfilm

Whenever folks playing the game at Kotaku talk about Jedi: Survivor, it usually evolves into people just gushing about the latest sequence they experienced or just trying to describe how awesome combat or platforming felt during their last play session. A lot of the time people don’t even say full sentences, instead going “Ahhh, man… so good” or “Uhhh it’s sooo great” or making other noises that aren’t words but convey how much they are enjoying it.

I’ve heard some complaints about how animations look in the game, and I get that sometimes they might look janky, but this is just because Respawn has clearly prioritized input and feel over how it looks. So yes, watching someone play as Cal as he jumps around platforms might look odd, but playing it feels heavenly. I’m not sure about others, but I rarely fast-travel in this game because moving around the planets you visit is such a blast that fast traveling often feels like I’m missing out on one of the best parts of Jedi: Survivor. When simply moving and jumping in a game feels this good, you know you got something special.

Jedi: Survivor Is Way Better Than Just A Star Wars Game

It can be easy to assume that all the hype around this game is just because it’s Star Wars, but even some non-Star Wars fans around these parts are having a blast with the game. Again, when you start to drill down into why, it ends up coming back to how mechanically satisfying and fun Jedi: Survivor is to play. You don’t need to know or care about the Clone Wars or Jedi or the Force to enjoy Cal sliding down a cliff, leaping into the air, force-dashing further, and then grabbing onto a distant rope to swing over a group of enemies that you eviscerate in seconds with your laser sword. That’s just universally cool stuff.

And while I just said it’s great not just because it’s a Star Wars game, it’s still an awesome Star Wars game. I’ll have more to say about this in the near future, but something I appreciate about Survivor is just how Star Wars-y this game truly is. Crusty alien cantinas, weird but loveable characters, dangerous bounty hunters, cute droids, excellent music, genuinely charming friends, cool ships, and all the perfect sound effects.

EA / Lucasfilm

This is Star Wars at its finest (and weirdest), and an example of how AAA games can be big and yet still feel like each aspect was designed with care. In other words, they can still be incredible if done right. Other devs, take note of sequences like everything leading up to and directly following the moment you get the crossguard stance, or the amazing escape sequence on Jedha. More of this, please!

Sure, the game has some performance issues, but even those can’t stop us (and the rest of the internet) from playing and enjoying this latest and possibly greatest Star Wars video game. Good luck to everything else coming out in 2023!

Zack Zwiezen

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May 9, 2023
Star Wars’ Mantis Is Such A Good Ship

In Respawn’s Jedi series, one of the constants across both games is the Mantis, a starship that’s kinda yours, but also not yours, but you use it enough that it may as well be. And I think, more than the combat or the jumping or the surprisingly Star Warsy tone of the games, it’s my favourite thing about them. At least in terms of what it brings to the table.

The Week In Games: Return To Hyrule

The Week In Games: Return To Hyrule

Partly because it’s such a cool ship! Just look at it. It’s got a kind of “weird design presented in a surprisingly functional way” thing that Star Wars does so well, like a B-Wing but bigger, only it’s a “wing” that’s also kinda like a keel or a sail that pivots “upright” while in flight (there’s no upright in space, I know, but it’s upright relative to the rest of the ship) and then rotates flat when landing. A little excessive, I know, but it used to be a luxury yacht, so it’s allowed a big flourish or two.

STAR WARS Jedi: Fallen Order Stinger Mantis Interior

That “surprisingly functional” thing continues through to the details and interior of the ship. Despite its premium heritage it’s a heavy and dense vehicle, with cables and pipes and vents everywhere, and landing gear that would look more at home on a bulk freighter than an Old Republic Roadster. The inside, meanwhile, is as far from luxury yacht as you can get; it was designed with the series’ rugged adventures in mind, with a team of Respawn and Lucasfilm artists looking to old submarines and the Millennium Falcon for that mix of adventure and cramped practicality.

I mostly love the Mantis, though, because of the way it ties the games together. The Jedi games are based across distinct levels, and it would have been the easiest thing in the world to simply shuffle the player from planet to planet with nothing but a loading screen in between.

Instead, moving between levels in the Jedi games is a whole process. You end up at your ship at the conclusion of a stage, from where you can walk onboard, do some stuff, check out some relics and chat to your friends. Then you walk up to the ship’s map, select where you want to go (you don’t really have a choice, but the illusion helps here) and you’re away. The ship will take off—in real-time, leaving the completed world behind, which always looks cool—and then zoom into hyperspace. Only when the player sits down in their co-pilot’s chair will the ship exit lightspeed, the new planet will fill the windows and you’re ready for your next adventure.

Stars Wars: Jedi Fallen Order Traveling To All Planets On The Stinger Mantis Ship 4K UHD

It sounds so pedestrian, but I am 1.5 games into this series and it has been an absolute delight every time it happens, no matter how repetitive it threatens to become. The simple act of turning the end/beginning of a level into a whole thing, rather than just a cutscene, transforms the game. I don’t feel like I’m moving from one set of video game challenges to the next; I feel like I’m on an adventure, one that’s truly galactic in scale.

I sometimes, in the dead of night, wonder why I like the Jedi games as much as I do. When I break them down into individual components I’m not really a huge fan of almost anything that goes into them. I hate Souls games, the Tomb Raider/Uncharted stuff is fine but again, far from my favourite video gaming space, and I’m nowhere near as into Star Wars as I used to be.

But then I think about this ship, and the way it speaks to stuff I am very into, like Elite and Mass Effect and Privateer and Wind Waker (and even Assassin’s Creed’s ships and trains), games that have a central focal point for your journeys that serves as everything from a transport to a conversational hub. There are no Jedi games without Mantis, because so much of the game’s story, character and action revolves around it. Kinda like that whole ship revolves around that one, weird wing…

Luke Plunkett

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May 8, 2023
Please Watch This Amazing Overwatch X Dallas Mavericks Video

Last night I was scrolling through TikTok in the midst of an edible comedown, and I stumbled upon something so ridiculous, so cringe, so brilliant, that I couldn’t believe I had yet to see it before. It’s called Maverwatch, and it’s a 2018 hype video for the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks that features its star players doubling as Overwatch characters.

This Wacky Magical Girl Anime Is Studio Trigger-Coded To Perfection

Read More: NBA Star Luka Doncic Is A Grandmaster Overwatch Player, Mains Zarya

Edited to look like an Overwatch play-of-the-game clip, which highlights a particularly gnarly play (usually a multi-kill) at the end of every match, this minute-long video feels like something my high brain cooked up in a daydream. But it’s not. This clip is real, and every second is transfixing, a strange mix of car-wreck tragedy and knee-slapping comedy. You can’t deny, however, that the editing is top-tier, with the all-too-familiar ding sounds indicating an Overwatch kill, the Overwatch font showing off “eliminations” of rival players getting stunted on, and the in-game music swelling in-between each wooden NBA player delivery of a hero’s line.

Athletes are, by and large, not known for their acting and line-reading skills. In the rare chance that you get an athlete with a glittering personality who can actually say dialogue without sounding like a kid forced to read out loud during class, teams will push them to the forefront of marketing materials and commercial opportunities (Eli Manning, Tom Brady) or even let them play the lead in a film (LeBron James, Michael Jordan). I can say with some confidence that none of the 2018 Dallas Mavericks players have the same je ne sais quoi as James or Brady, but that only makes the Maverwatch experience better.

The man behind Maverwatch

The clip begins with Dirk Nowitzki aping Soldier: 76’s ultimate ability line (“I’ve got you in my sights”) while pretending to activate an imaginary visor before cutting to clips of him sinking threes.

“Dirk got Soldier because he’s the rugged old leader of the team,” Austin Guttery, former in-game media creator for the Dallas Mavericks and creator of Maverwatch, told Kotaku via email.

The second player highlighted is former Mavs center Deandre Jordan, who pretends to pop a Lucio ult (“oh, let’s break it down”) under the nickname “Shootscio.” Help me. “Jordan got Lucio because of his great defensive plays and his ability to keep the team alive,” Guttery explained.

But when it came time to assign Mavericks point guard and Grandmaster Overwatch player Luka Doncic a character, things got a little heated. “Luka actually reeeeeally wanted to be Hanzo, since that’s who he usually plays, but there was a player on the team, Wes Matthews, who was known for pretending to shoot a bow and arrow after each shot during the games, so naturally we HAD to make him Hanzo,” Guttery said. “I picked Luka to be Junkrat because of his blonde hair. Luka was the tiniest bit salty and tried to talk us into making him Hanzo, but we had already shot Wes’s part, and we only got one quick shot with each player every year.”

“Luka actually reeeeeally wanted to be Hanzo”— Austin Guttery, video creator

The other players were assigned based on any connections Guttery could make between them and an Overwatch hero—or if he thought they could manage to pull off a good enough mime of a character’s moves. No, I cannot stop laughing at Luka pretending to pull a Junkrat RIP-Tire.

Aside from the drama that came with assigning Mavs players their Overwatch counterparts, Guttery says that it took ages for him to get the video approved because his boss “didn’t actually know what Overwatch was.” But telling him that Doncic was a huge Overwatch fan “really helped sell it.” The clip was shot during the team’s media day, and aired on the in-arena screens during a lull in gameplay to a “pretty good reaction” from fans.

But when Guttery shared the video to Reddit, which is presumably where this TikToker found it, he got in a fair bit of trouble.

“I almost got fired!” he related cheerily. “After our videos air in-game, we usually don’t put them out online until after the season, or unless we get permission from [owner Mark] Cuban to run them. But I was so excited about how this one turned out, I really wanted to see how the Overwatch community would react to it. So I posted it on Reddit and within the day it BLEW UP…It eventually caught the eye of my boss who got, um, pretty upset that it was out there, and he was afraid that if Cuban saw this, we wouldn’t be making videos for them anymore, so I removed it. Luckily Cuban never got wind of it, so it was a non-issue.”

But Overwatch developer Blizzard did indeed see the video, and sent Guttery a “really nice Widowmaker figure” that the team kept on display at the office. And now, that very same video is making the rounds on social media yet again. Time is a flat circle, but Luka Doncic is no longer a Hanzo main. It’s Zarya now.

Alyssa Mercante

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May 5, 2023
It Sounds Like Overwatch 2 Is Still Trying To Figure Lifeweaver Out

Lifeweaver has been in Overwatch 2 for just under a month, and already the plant-based support hero has had some pretty significant reworks in both his control scheme and abilities. Personally, I’ve had a much better experience with the character since his last update, but it sounds like Blizzard is planning more changes as it tries to figure out where the character should fit into its popular hero shooter.

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In a new post on the Overwatch website, director Aaron Keller talked about the team’s mindset regarding Lifeweaver moving forward. While they’ve made some improvements to his healing output (he now has one of the higher ones in the game), the team says changes like tightening the spread on his offensive alt-fire Thorn Volley haven’t had much effect on his kill rate. On the bright side he also has one of the lowest death rates of any support hero, so I’m glad to hear you all took my advice and are keeping your distance from the fight.

All that said, Keller says the team is still looking to better figure out Lifeweaver’s intended role in the game, which is exactly what I’ve been trying to do since he joined the roster. Before Lifeweaver, Baptiste and Brigitte were my go-to support characters depending on my team’s makeup and the map type, but Lifeweaver feels like this very situational character that I mostly run just because he’s new, I like him as a character, and his kit is fun, rather than because his utility feels objectively better than the other options.

His abilities—like Petal Platform, which raises a player to high ground, or the controversial Life Grip, which pulls an ally to Lifeweaver’s position—are best used within a coordinated team. The trouble is, most randos online don’t understand or don’t care about how they can create effective plays, and it feels like most just want support players to act as heal bots, rather than leaning into more varied support abilities. It feels like my teammates, and sometimes myself, don’t know how to coordinate around Lifeweaver, so I can see why Blizzard hopes to make his ideal role clearer in Season 5.

Keller continued:

When it comes to future changes for Lifeweaver, here’s what we are thinking. We want it to be clearer why players may select Lifeweaver over other heroes. If your current hero pick isn’t working for some reason (whether it be the map or enemy team comp), what’s a strong incentive for swapping to Lifeweaver? We may make other changes along the way, such as lightly buffing his Thorn Volley and reducing hit volumes, but ultimately, we’ll have changes targeted at further pronouncing Lifeweaver’s strengths and clearly defining his role on your team. This could be leaning harder into his healing effectiveness through a new passive or bringing additional benefits to some of his utility-focused abilities. With a defensive-based hero, we have to be careful how far we go in terms of buffing raw healing and defensive abilities – too far can negatively disrupt the overall flow of an engagement. These are some of the early things we’re iterating through, hope to have our next set of changes ready for Season 5.

Even when Lifeweaver first debuted, I figured he would be a character that would evolve a great deal over time, similar to Symmetra, whose moveset has changed more than once since she debuted at the original Overwatch’s launch. As someone who’s already put over a dozen hours into Lifeweaver, I’m hopeful whatever changes come will help him be the effective support character everyone wants him to be, as Overwatch 2’s beleaguered support players could really use some wins.

Kenneth Shepard

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May 5, 2023
Hollywood Screenwriters Strike Over Pay In Streaming Gig Economy

Thousands of film and television writers who are members of the WGA are on strike for the first time since 2007, a move that could bring an immediate halt to the production of many television shows and possibly delay the start of new seasons of others later this year. What do you think?

“Typical self-centered behavior from Hollywood’s penniless elite.”

Shannon Hickel, Bassinet Weaver

Police Officers Explain Why They Are Resigning En Masse

“Jobs weren’t intended to be something you could live off of as an adult.”

Bart Watts, Unemployed

“Barely making enough money to survive is a small price to pay for being tenuously employed at your dream job.”

Caspar Thomas, Freelance Clarifier

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May 3, 2023