Author Archives: Jonathan Williams

Tim Burton pays tribute to ’70s supernatural soap opera “Dark Shadows”

Anyone who’s ever seen the late ’60s/early ’70s gothic TV show Dark Shadows knows that it transcended the trappings of other soap operas by focusing on ghosts, monsters and a vampire named Barnabas Collins. But that doesn’t mean it was devoid of the melodrama and who’s-screwing-whom scandals that are synonymous with soap operas. And with an aesthetic sense similar to that of the British Hammer Films releases, Dark Shadows was hokey and enchanting, which was really a big part of the appeal for the cult following it garnered.

Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp) returns in "Dark Shadows" (photo by Peter Mountain)

All that being said, Tim Burton seems like the perfect person to resurrect Collins and his cohorts for a new generation in much the same way he revamped Ed Wood, Batman, Sleepy Hollow, Alice in Wonderland and other stories. And with Burton-favorite Johnny Depp filling in the fangs and pasty pallor of Barnabas, all the pieces appeared to be in place. Until we saw the trailers, which heavily implied that the dramatic theatrics had been buried by slapstick goofiness.

Thankfully, that is not the case with Burton and Depp’s new Dark Shadows movie. Though there is some Beetlejuice-like comedy, Burton’s film maintains the gothic feel of the original series with a touch of the whimsy that has made many of his films so magical. And for those who feel like Burton lost his touch after Ed Wood or Mars Attacks!, Dark Shadows could be the kooky comeback many of his fans have been awaiting for more than a decade.

When Depp’s version of Barnabas is accidentally awakened by Collinswood construction workers in 1972, he immediately returns to Collinwood Manor, the mansion his family built upon their arrival in the New World in the 1700s. But a lot has changed in the 200 years that Barnabas has been napping, and he doesn’t quite know what to make of things like the illuminated golden arches of a McDonald’s sign or the paved roads now leading him back home. And upon his return to his now-ailing manor, the dysfunctional descendents don’t quite know what to make of Barnabas, with his outdated fashion sense and ages-old colloquialisms.

Every soap opera needs a big secret or few, and it doesn’t take long for the scheming Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Michelle Pfeiffer, who always makes a dramatic entrance from the top of a staircase) to make Barnabas agree to keep his blood-sucking ways from the rest of the family long enough for him to return the Collins name to prominence. It turns out that while he was away, Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green) – the heartbroken witch who turned Barnabas into a vampire – has usurped the Collins family’s fishing business and created her own empire in this small Maine town.

Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green) is a scorned witch in "Dark Shadows" (photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)

Barnabas’ plot to get the family business back on track is interrupted by pill-popping in-house therapist Dr. Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter), who takes full advantage of doctor-patient confidentiality, Elizabeth’s rebellious teenage daughter Carolyn Stoddard (Chloë Grace Moretz) and the arrival of wide-eyed Victoria Winters (Bella Heathcote), a haunted young woman who bears a striking resemblance to Barnabas’ long-lost lover. Burton injects a lot of groovy ’70s humor, but otherwise sticks to the cheesy supernatural soap opera formula as everyone looks to carry out their own agendas while Barnabas and Angelique one up each other.

Burton always likes to give a nod to his influences, which he does here with a cameo by Hammer legend Christopher Lee and by having Alice Cooper perform at the Collins fundraising ball (to the confusion of Barnabas, who thinks Cooper is the ugliest woman he’s ever seen). And in one of the best uses of a song in a movie, Cooper’s “Ballad Of Dwight Fry” serves to further the story in an appropriately emotional way as the various subplots reach their climax.

Once the final nail is hammered into Dark Shadows‘ proverbial coffin, it has a little bit of everything to please Burton fans and followers of the original series. It’s cheesy, comical, dark, sappy, scandalous and supernatural without every overdoing any particular aspect and without diverting too much from the feel of the old show. It’s also everything people have come to love about Burton’s work, so hopefully the naysayers who were disappointed with his interpretations of Planet of the Apes, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Sweeney Todd will be open-minded enough to give him another chance.

Dark Shadows. Directed by Tim Burton. Starring Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Eva Green, Helena Bonham Carter and Bella Heathcote. Rated PG-13. www.darkshadowsmovie.warnerbros.com.

KRK Ryden helps create the world of Wrestling with Pop Culture

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I first met KRK Ryden at the opening of his Globoid Fun show in Atlanta at the end of 2008, which served as the Rabbit-Hole Gallery’s final show. When I was introduced to him, the experience quickly became about as surreal as one of his colorful works of art. Having read a preview of the show I had written for Stomp and Stammer magazine, Ryden told me it was the best description of his art he had ever read. (To show you just how weird this guy is, he even asked me to autograph his copy of the magazine.) When he found out I was going to a Gwar concert later that night, he said he had never seen Gwar and asked if he could tag along.

Cover art for “Not Necessarily Beautiful But Mutated: Volume 10”

What kind of artist leaves his own art opening to go see Gwar? Well, the same kind of artist whose work juxtaposes wholesome ’50s imagery such as astronauts and quaint homemakers with monstrous gloops and globs, subversive overtones and ominous potatoes (whose multiple eyes are always watching). Turns out, Ryden’s work and Gwar’s show (which had a pro wrestling them on that tour) aren’t all that different, aesthetically speaking. I suppose that makes sense considering that Ryden has also illustrated Devo‘s Brainwasher, played theramin for Devo (as Ken the Magic Corner God) and whose brother is another famous pop surrealist named Mark Ryden. I ran into Ryden again more than a year later, this time at the grand opening for Atlanta’s ABV Gallery featuring the Ryden-curated show The Panelists. Somewhere along the way I mentioned to Ryden that I was thinking of starting an online magazine about wrestling that would focus on its more absurd aspects and pop cultural relevance. Before I knew it, Ryden had drawn up what would become the Wrestling with Pop Culture logo. With several other projects in the works (including the upcoming WPC comic strip), Ryden talks to me yet again about his upcoming releases, working with Devo and having Gorgeous George teach him to stand on his head.

When you originally offered to do the artwork that would become the Wrestling with Pop Culture logo, you told me a story about your connection to a wrestling icon. Remind me of the details of that story.

This is something that happened around ’64 when I was ten or 11 years old. My dad had a body shop on Mission Blvd. in Hayward, California. Next door was a muffler shop and he was waiting to get some stuff done and Gorgeous George was there. The guy at the muffler place had his phone ringer turned up really high so he could hear it. The phone rang really loud and Gorgeous George jumped like he was ready to get in the ring and start fighting. So that’s how my dad met him and that was at the peak of his career. My dad’s Swedish and Gorgeous George called him “the Swede.”

Anyway, my dad took me to his apartment, this nice clean apartment, and he was the friendliest guy I ever met. I wish I had met him more than one time. While I was there, he was showing me how to stand on my head by putting my elbows on my knees and raising up. I’ll never forget it, but I doubt I can actually still do it.

Not many people can say they learned to stand on their head from Gorgeous George.

I know, not many. I’m glad I got to meet him. He was one of the most famous guys in wrestling history.

And one of the most flamboyant and colorful.

He sure was. I remember that hair. Both he and my dad had really white hair. Personally I am a sports hater. I hate all sports except for wrestling. Wrestling has an aesthetic value to it that is appealing to me. Those Mexican wrestling movies from the ’60s and stuff were just so cool. It goes beyond sports. I think it’s almost a crime to call it a sport. I used to wrestle when I was a kid and that was one of the few physical things I did as a kid. The only time I ever went to a wrestling match was many years ago. I saw Jake “The Snake” Roberts, which was really cool because he was one of my favorite guys, and Junkyard Dog. I really liked that guy. It seems like that’s a part of wrestling history that has really changed now, all that flamboyance.

There’s plenty of that in the Wrestling with Pop Culture logo you drew. What was the inspiration behind that image?

That lucha mask was inspired by Mark Mothersbaugh from Devo. Since back as far as 1983, he’s had some really cool lucha masks. It was kind of a rare thing to see those things at that time, but now it’s gotten so popular you see them everywhere. In fact, the only portrait that Mark Mothersbaugh ever drew of me, he drew me in a lucha mask.

But your logo is pure surrealism based on those ’60s movies and stuff, with the volcano going off, the mystery cave, sexy ladies, robots and stuff. All the campy, colorful and cool parts of the wrestling world.

Speaking of Devo, how did you get involved with the band and what all have you done with Devo?

I met Mark in 1981. I was doing cover art for the second biggest bootleg record guy in the country. I had done some work on a Devo bootleg, but it never got to the bootlegger guy because he got busted by the FBI for selling unauthorized recordings and bootleg records. So I took that artwork to a small shop in southern California called Atomic Zorro’s. They printed these cool posters and this friend of mine took one to a party where Mark was at and Mark contacted me and we started working on a project called the Brainwasher, which was a newsletter fanzine for Devo.

He had two girlfriends at the time. One of them was Laraine Newman of Saturday Night Live fame. He invited me to Hollywood and I initially met Mark at her house. We discussed the Brainwasher and they were just getting ready to do their Oh, No! It’s Devo tour. I remember watching Laraine Newman, who was so sexy, wash dishes and thinking, “Rich people still have to wash their own dishes.” So I did that and we’ve been friends ever since. We still do occasional things and there’s a cool project we’re working on with these Jocko Homo heads.

You have a lot of other projects in the works. What can you tell me about some of those?

The big thing I’m doing is finishing up a children’s book called Double Talk and it’s being published by my brother’s company Porterhouse. It’s a book about homographs, which are words that are spelled the same, but have two different meanings and pronunciations. So I’m supplying images for each of these words.

I’m also designing a rifle game and a pinball machine with a guy named Wade Krause. He’s helped with these Jocko Homo heads at WWA Gallery, so we gave these heads to Mark Mothersbaugh and Jerry Casale from Devo and Jerry wanted to see each band member represented wit heads like that. So that’s a project Wade and I are really looking forward to doing. The rifle game is going to be outer space themed, which will be a totally surreal and wigged-out game. Wade takes old pinball machines and converts them and reproduces them.

Another thing I’m working on is a logo for a band from Florida called Ryden. I haven’t heard them yet, but I’m looking forward to doing the logo since they are such big fans of me and my brother’s art.

Then there’s the DEVOtional, which happens every year in Cleveland, in August. I go there and do stuff with Devo and lots of cool Devo-ish bands always show up. And I do my band, Ken the Magic Corner God, where I play theramin. I curate a touring art show called The Panelists, which features a lot of underground artists like Mark Mothersbaugh, where each artist is assigned to do a single panel of a comic book page that is six feet high. It’s all assembled into a complete story and it’s been shown in three cities so far. And there’s a group show in June that I’m a part of at the WWA gallery called Wasted. Wasted is about getting wasted, so I’m really looking forward to doing that.

Aren’t you also working on a graphic novel of some sort?

Yes. I did a story called “The Haunted Hearse” for Devon Devereaux‘s Tales of Hot Rod Horror: Volume 2. Hopefully that will be out this summer. Dark Horse has all the artwork, so it’s all up to those guys. “The Haunted Hearse” is a fun story about a hearse that’s haunted by different people. As you’re reading it, there are cues at the bottom of the pages to play certain music. We’re going to try to include a disc of the four songs that go with it and one of the songs is “Born Too Lose” by Johnny Thunders and The Heartbreakers.

Another thing I’m working on, which is really exciting, is a vinyl toy for 3DRetro of a character called Moe Hawk, which is a little hardcore kid in a leather jacket and a huge Mohawk on a skateboard. He always has a joint in his hand and you’ll be able to remove the joint. So,that’s the Moe Hawk toy.

For more information, go to www.krkryden.com.

Triple H discusses the end of one era and beginning of another for WWE

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WrestleMania XXVIII is out today on DVD and Blu-ray, and there’s no doubt that one of the matches people will be re-watching repeatedly is the End of an Era match between Triple H and the Undertaker. As Matt Hankins points out in his review of that match, the outcome definitely gives WWE‘s next generation a chance to usher in a new era in wrestling. And Triple H couldn’t agree more, not only as one of the guys passing the proverbial torch, but also as WWE’s Executive Vice President, Talent. Here he talks to Wrestling with Pop Culture about eras past, present and future, all of which are represented on the WrestleMania three-disc DVD set.

Courtesy WWE

This year’s WrestleMania was anchored by veterans of the industry. The End of an Era match in particular encapsulated that idea more than any of the others. What do you think that means moving forward after WrestleMania, especially for some of the younger guys that are now getting some exposure?

I think it’s a good time for them. Right now the business in primed for young guys to make an impact. That’s kind of what I do in my day job is try to find new guys and help them get to that position where hopefully they’re the guys in the big key matches at WrestleMania. Sometimes things just end up the way they do and that’s kind of where it ended up this year. But if I was a young guy looking at the business right now, I would be saying, “End of an era? Well, that means beginning of an era.” So jump on and make a name for yourself, guys. Don’t wait for anybody to do it for you. Everybody sits around thinking, “Oh, I’m going to wait for the office to get me there.” We don’t get anybody there. They get themselves there and we just follow for the ride.

The champions going into WrestleMania this year – CM Punk and Daniel Bryan – are perfect examples of that. They both developed personas for themselves after years in the indies and have made it to the top of WWE.

Right. And you look at Daniel Bryan, who was in the warmup match last year for WrestleMania, and a year later he was going in as the World Heavyweight Champion. Anybody that says there’s a glass ceiling in the business or there’s a cog in the system is ridiculous. The opportunity is there for everybody that wants to take that opportunity and run with it. It takes time for everybody. I think time creates stars. The overnight sensation ends up being the one that’s done pretty fast, too. Time, earned respect and all the things that come with that make big stars and that’s what these guys have to look forward to. Just spending the time and making it happen.

Are there any guys currently in developmental that you think have the potential to be the next stars?

We have a lot of guys right now. I’m asked all the time how I feel about the future. When I look at our developmental system I’m very happy. We have a very bright future coming and I think, to my point earlier, the end of an era means the beginning of an era. I would tune in going forward because I think you’re going to see a lot of new faces with a lot of new impact.

There was recently a rumor that Florida Championship Wrestling was closing…

Courtesy WWE

Yeah, it was a rumor. I heard about it in the morning and by mid-afternoon there was full-blown panic escalating amongst our developmental talent. But we assured them that not only was that untrue, but the exact opposite is happening. In the next few months you’ll see some major changes to our developmental. The quality of the product and the quality of the training they’re receiving will be second to none. We’re getting bigger and better every day.

The Four Horsemen, who were a big influence on you and who were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame the night before WrestleMania XXVIII, came up during an entirely different era where people like Lex Luger and Sting became stars because of their association with the more experienced members of that stable. Speaking of an end of an era, how do you think that era of wrestling compares to how WWE is developing new talent now?

I have this theory that the wrestling business is kind of like music; what you grow up with and what hits you as a teenager will always be your favorite, no matter what music is good today. For a lot of people that grew up in that time frame – I grew up with Ric Flair and the Four Horsemen – there will never be another era like it. You step out of that and you go to the Attitude Era, there will never be another Attitude Era. But we’ll come up with something better. Without the Four Horsemen there would have never been a DX, there would have never been an Evolution, there would have never been an NWO, there would never have been all those things. So it was a very important time. But it’s nothing we want to recreate. We want to create something that’s brand new and no one’s seen before and for the people watching today, create something they’ll never forget.

For more information, go to www.wwe.com.

Georgia Wrestling Now welcomes The Exotic Ones and “The Temptation” Shaun Tempers

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On this week’s edition of Georgia Wrestling Now, Wrestling with Pop Culture, Team All You Can Eat’s Matt Hankins and “The Human Hand Grenade” dany only spoke to current South Georgia Championship Wrestling Tag Team Champions and former Peachstate Wrestling Alliance Tag Team Champions The Exotic Ones, Simon Sermon and Tommy Too Much. We also heard from National Wrestling Alliance North American Heavyweight Champion and NWA Anarchy Heavyweight Champion “The Temptation” Shaun Tempers.

The Exotic Ones' Simon Sermon (photo by Harold Jay Taylor)

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“Repo!” creators return with new macabre musical “The Devil’s Carnival”

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When director Darren Lynn Bousman (best known for his work on Saw II–IV) and writer Terrance Zdunich took the dystopian musical stage show they had been working on and put it to film, the result was 2008’s Repo! The Genetic Opera. With an unlikely ensemble cast including Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s Anthony Head, Skinny Puppy‘s Nivek Ogre, opera singer Sarah Brightman, Goodfellas‘ Paul Sorvino, The Devil’s Rejects‘ Bill Moseley, Paris Hilton and Zdunich as the GraveRobber, Repo! became a cult hit despite lack of support from Lionsgate. The film’s success was due in large part to the touring road shows Bousman and Zdunich put together, encouraging fans to arrive in costume, sing along Rocky Horror Picture Show style and expect more than just a movie screening.

Bousman and Zdunich are taking a similar approach with their new film The Devil’s Carnival, a surreal story that follows a repentant father (The Boondock Saints‘ Sean Patrick Flanery), a kleptomaniac (Briana Evigan) and a naive teenager (Canadian songstress Jessica Lowndes) to hell. But the hell Bousman and Zdunich have created is a surreal Fellini-esque carnival with Zdunich himself presiding as Lucifer. Though some of the Repo! cast has returned (Sorvino plays God, J. LaRose is The Major, Moseley is a Magician and Ogre is The Twin, for example), it also features a new eccentric ensemble that includes theatrical songstress Emilie Autumn, Slipknot percussionist M. Shawn “Clown” Crahan (who, ironically, does not play a clown), Five Finger Death Punch‘s Ivan Moody (who does play a clown) and a dwarf named Mighty Mike from the MiniKiss dwarf tribute band.

In true sideshow fashion, The Devil’s Carnival hit the road last month to help spread the devil’s morality tales (based on famous fables). Eschewing the typical Hollywood formula, Bousman and Zdunich are funding most of the film and tour themselves, which is a risky, yet confident move. With a week left on the tour, Zdunich talks to Wrestling with Pop Culture about the differences between making Repo! and The Devil’s Carnival, what fans can expect from the live experience and his self-published comic book The Molting.

Ivan Moody as The Hobo Clown

With Repo! you did road shows like this one out of necessity since the studio wasn’t doing much to promote that film. Did you just decide to bypass a studio altogether with The Devil’s Carnival when planning this tour?

With Repo! it was reactive whereas with this it’s proactive. With Repo! we had no idea that was the road we’d be taking until we got some horrible reviews and Lionsgate said it was going to go straight to the bottom of DVD bins. We knew that it was meant to be seen live with a crowd, so we just decided on a whim to do a small tour. With this we decided to just lead with what worked, get it in front of the audience we think will enjoy, but do it much more ambitiously this time. We’re doing 33 cities in five-and-a-half weeks. Our shows end around 1 a.m., then we hop in a van and drive straight to the next city. It’s crazy, it’s nonstop and we haven’t really had a day off yet. It’s starting to show with my voice. I’m glad I don’t have to sing every night and I just have to speak.

The Devil’s Carnival is a musical like Repo…

Yeah. I hate that word just because I think it conjures up something that we’re kind of not. But, yes, there is music and people are singing. But it’s not an opera. With Repo, a majority of it was music and songs. This is about a 50/50 mix of spoken dialogue and songs. Unlike traditional musicals, in this people aren’t singing their emotions, they’re not suddenly having a feeling and bursting into song. The characters are carnies, so all the songs are in the context of a performance. They’re either barking down attendees to play a game or what have you, but all the songs function as actual performances. It helps you buy into that world a little easier than “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning” or something like that.

Terrence Zdunich as Lucifer

You worked with a lot of the same people on Repo and The Devil’s Carnival, yet there are also a lot of new faces such as Emilie Autumn, Slipknot’s Clown and others in this film. How did you go about casting this film?

It’s a mix. Some of it is you want to work with your friends, especially if they’re talented and right for the roles. With some of the Repo alumni that was certainly the case. But Darren and I are fanboys at heart, so we want to work with people that we dig. Emilie Autumn, for example. I’m a huge fan of her work, so I still have to pinch myself a little bit and not be a fanboy when I’m trying to work with her and be professional. But we’ve been very fortunate with everyone that’s gotten involved. You mentioned Slipknot, that dude sells out gigantic amphitheaters and he’s willing to do our little indie horror musical. And not just do it, but he’s been on the road with us for a couple of stops, he came out in Iowa and it really does feel like a family affair. I think, or I like to believe at least, that’s because the project is cool and we’ve created an environment where people feel like we’re doing art. So they’re responding to that instead of what is typical in Hollywood, which is a paycheck or career-launching opportunity or something like that. I think the point here is that they feel creative about it and I think it shows in the final product. The entire film and the road tour was done for $300, 000. But when you watch it, no one would ever assume that. It looks like $10 million. That’s because everyone involved felt passionate about it and really went way beyond what should be expect for what we were paying them. From the makeup to the costumes, the production value is humongous and I’m very proud of it.

You have about a week left on the tour. How has the reception been so far?

So far it’s been a success. Every night has been a great performance and some have been greater than others in terms of audience attendance. But we haven’t had a night where people haven’t come out and acted like lunatics and that’s what we want to be a part of.

Emilie Autumn as The Painted Doll

Aside from showing the film, what else is going on on this tour?

Every stop is a little different. But the basic lineup is we have some sort of local performer open up with either burlesque or we’ve had knife jugglers, glass eaters and other sideshow carnie stuff. We have a live MC that travels with us and she sort of narrates a portion of the evening, which includes a ten-minute featurette of Repo stuff no one’s seen. It kind of shows how we, at least, make dark musical films. It’s a look behind the process which, of course, leads into The Devil’s Carnival. Then Darren and I do a Q&A at the end, then we hang out and meet some of our fans. Every night is an event, not just a film, which is what we aim to do.

Do you plan on releasing this on DVD or will you just keep touring small theaters with it?

Eventually, yes. We’ve had a lot of discussions about that the future really is dependent on how this tour goes. Right now it’s going well. We’re trying to create an event that can’t be downloaded, not just because we don’t want people stealing our shit, but because it’s something you want to be here for. You wouldn’t want to just watch it on your phone or however you choose to listen to music and watch movies now. So we’re trying to create an event that makes you want to go to the theater. As such, right now we’re keeping it very exclusive. Ultimately, of course we’re going to have some other form where people that aren’t here can see it. But we’re trying to figure out some way to package the event. I don’t know if that’s going to resemble something like the Blue Man Group, where this thing goes on, or if it’s going to be a DVD experience that somehow tries to be as unorthodox as what we’re doing. I think “here’s the disc, go spend 20 bucks on the DVD” would sort of be missing the point of what we’re doing with it. Once we have it figured out, we’ll let people know.

Is there a studio involved with it at all at this point?

It’s completely independent. We have Darren’s production company and some investors in Florida called the Film Funding Alliance who are responsible for financing. This thing is conceived as a series, sort of our anti-Glee, but I’d like that to be a Glee that’s on the road where we come out maybe a couple of times a year and the story continues. I haven’t seen anything like that, so not only as an artist, but as a fanboy, that’s something I want to see. So that’s what we’re working and if some more formal Hollywood-type system gets behind it, we’re not opposed to that. But I think they wouldn’t know what to do with this.

When you refer to it as a series, do you mean you have plans to do sequels or do you mean the live experience will change with the same film being shown?

Sean Patrick Flanery as John, a grieving father

This is actually part one and it’s a mythology that centers around Aesop’s Fables. So it has that sort of Tales from the Crypt-esque element where the universe is set up in such a way that you can keep using music to explore more than 600 fables, with the heaven-and-hell mythologies wrapped around it. It’s one part film series, one part rock concert.

In between this and Repo you’ve been doing a comic book series called The Molting. What are your plans for that story?

I’m through issue 7, but there’s been a bit of a hiatus because of The Devil’s Carnival. It’s an independent project and I’m not only writing it, but illustrating it. It’s a gigantic undertaking. Right now I think I’m about 350 pages into what will ultimately be a 600-page graphic novel. I’m going to continue doing that. The releasing of issues might be a tad sporadic, but unless my hands get chopped off I’m going to keep plugging away at that.

I’ve been doing it my way and there are pros and cons to that. The biggest con is money and outreach, of course. I’m actually printing it as opposed to making it an online comic because there’s something about reading something tangible and smelling the ink that I suppose gets me off, so I’ve been resisting letting it go a different way. But I’ll probably look into finding a distributor to bind it and help me deal with that larger format because it really is written as one complete work.

The Devil’s Carnival. Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman. Starring Sean Patrick Flanery, Briana Evigan, Jessica Lowndes, Terrance Zdunich, Emilie Autumn, Ivan Moody, Marc Senter, Bill Moseley, Nivek Ogre, Dayton Callie and Paul Sorvino. Not rated. www.thedevilscarnival.com.

“The Avengers” assemble for stellar superhero team-up

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After years of solo stories, post-credit appearances by Samuel L. Jackson and enough speculation to fuel a comic con’s worth of nerdgasms, The Avengers have finally assembled for a 3-D spectacle that brings together some of Marvel‘s greatest heroes in ways they’ve never been seen before. And the fact that this ensemble of superheroes is directed by Joss Whedon only amps the geekdom up that much more.

Captain America (Chris Evans) prepares to suit up in "The Avengers." Photo by Zade Rosenthal

With the pieces all put in place over the past few years with The Incredible Hulk, both Iron Man movies, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger, not much backstory is needed for The Avengers. Which leaves Whedon with the task of introducing the characters to each other and explaining how and why they have all come together. In steps Loki (Tom Hiddleston), the nemesis of Thor (Chris Hemsworth), to steal the powerful Tesseract, an extraterrestrial power source in the possession of S.H.I.E.L.D., the government agency directed by Nick Fury (Jackson), which forces Fury to launch the abandoned Avengers Initiative.

Realizing the fate of the entire planet is at stake, Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Dr. Bruce Banner (this time played by Mark Ruffalo instead of Edward Norton) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) agree to work together (reluctantly in most cases) in order to save the planet. Thor randomly shows up in a flash of lightning after they capture Loki, which leads to one of the film’s first big battle scenes as Iron Man, Captain America and Thor duke it out until they all realize their powers would be put to better use if they were combined rather than used against each other.

Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.) and Captain America (Chris Evans) join forces in "The Avengers"

With Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård) under Loki’s control (not to mention that Loki is Thor’s adopted brother), the individual Avengers also have personal investments in this battle, which only adds to the suspense. Even though the story of a disagreeable group of heroes preventing the world from being taken over by alien forces is nothing new, Whedon is quite used to making otherwise tired concepts interesting again (remember what he did for vampires years before the Twilight craze and, more recently, for horror with The Cabin in the Woods?). And The Avengers has Whedon written all over it (quite literally, considering that he also co-wrote the script) with distinct egos, conflict amongst the team members and incredibly witty dialogue (he seems to have particular fun with the Captain’s wholesome anachronism, which makes sense considering Whedon’s best known for his clever stories about centuries-old vampires).

That being said, The Avengers also has a couple of the continuity flaws typical of most of Whedon’s previous works. For instance, it’s not clearly explained how Thor shows up, which is pretty important considering that the last time we saw him he was stuck on Asgard after the space bridge to Earth was destroyed. Nor is it explained why Banner’s Hulk goes from being an uncontrollable monster to being able to harness that rage (just when they need him the most, no less). But given the inevitability of additional sequels to all these movies, these are things that could easily be explained in subsequent Marvel Studios releases.

Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) smash in "The Avengers"

Until then, we’ll just have to be content with these heroes putting their differences aside long enough to stop the monsters attacking New York City through the portal Loki has opened from atop Stark’s skyscraper. Between the outstanding 3-D visuals (see it in IMAX if you can), the attention-grabbing dialogue, Alan Silvestri‘s bombastic score and just enough character development to keep the audience engaged, The Avengers is the big superhero team-up film comic book geeks and action movie fans alike have been waiting years to see. Now if only they can figure out a way to work Spider-Man into the next one (a post-credit scene proves there will be a next one, and another post-post-credit scene is added for an extra laugh), the universe will truly be a better place.

The Avengers. Directed by Joss Whedon. Starring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston and Samuel L. Jackson. Rated PG-13. www.marvel.com/avengers_movie/.

“Ring of Hero” recaps Chris Hero’s Ring of Honor career

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Before he was winning Superstar of the Week honors as Kassius Ohno in Florida Championship Wrestling, Chris Hero was one of Ring of Honor‘s most intriguing wrestlers, both in singles and tag team competition. And in one of the latest in a recent surge of releases spotlighting current and former ROH talents, Chris Hero: Ring of Hero features two discs with more than a dozen of his best ROH matches against the likes of Kenta, El Generico, Kenny Omega and Eddie Kingston.

Perhaps best known as one half of ROH’s longest reigning World Tag Team Champions the Kings of Wrestling with Claudio Castagnoli (who made his WWE television debut as Antonio Cesaro on the April 27 edition of SmackDown), Hero arrives in ROH as anything but a hero on Jan. 14, 2006, taking on then-ROH World Champion Bryan Danielson as part of a Combat Zone Wrestling invasion. Though he fails to win the title, and is clearly not a favorite of the ROH fans, Hero proves that he’s capable of hanging with the best ROH has to offer. In fact, after several months of disrupting ROH shows while still part of the CZW roster and engaging in chaotic and bloody feuds with ROH stars like Samoa Joe and Adam Pearce, Hero inadvertently earns a spot on the ROH roster when he and Castagnoli defeat Austin Aries and Roderick Strong at Glory by Honor V on Sept. 16 to become the ROH Tag Team Champions.

The seeds are planted for a Kings of Wrestling/Briscoe Brothers feud as the two tag teams do battle at International Challenge on Dec. 22 and Final Battle on Dec. 23, with new manager Larry Sweeney assisting the Kings. But not long after their loss to the Briscoes at Final Battle, Hero rises to the top of Sweeney’s Sweet & Sour, Inc. faction, leaving Castagnoli behind in favor of singles action. Sweeney and his stable (Sara Del Rey, Tank Toland and Bobby Dempsey) become instrumental in Hero’s singles success, including a tap-out victory over Nigel McGuninness (considered by many to be the best wrestler in the world at the time) at Death Before Dishonor V on Aug. 10, 2007). But it’s at Survival of the Fittest 2007 two months later that Hero truly proves his worth by defeating Aries, Castagnoli, Strong, Rocky Romero and the Human Tornado to become “the fittest man in all of Ring of Honor” (as he states in a post-match Las Vegas celebration, where he and Sweeney also start a “Chris is awesome” chant). And Hero wins by using both wrestling skill (he makes Castagnoli pass out from the hangman’s clutch to win the match) and ring psychology (after Strong is paid off by Sweeney to help Hero, Hero pins Strong and takes the money back).

When watching Ring of Hero, it becomes clear just how much the ROH fans come to respect Heros work, even though he often resorts to dirty tactics to win. And just a month after his Survival win, he gets another shot at the ROH Championship at Glory by Honor VI. Hero once again makes McGuinness tap out, but the referee restarts the match because McGuinness’ foot was on the ropes and McGuinness goes on to make Hero tap out. Hero’s momentum carries over into 2008 as he and McGuinness whip the Breakout crowd into a frenzy as they battle inside a steel cage on Jan. 25. Hero proves yet again how innovative he can be as he puts McGuinness in a half crab while sitting in a steel chair for leverage. A bloody Hero almost wins the title yet again as he exits the cage door as McGuinness climbs the other side of the cage and makes it to the floor for the win.

From there we see another phenomenal display as Hero defeats Full Impact Pro Champion Strong at Battle for Supremacy on June 27 in a non-title match that sees Hero employing his signature rolling elbow, eventually earning him the moniker of “That Young Knockout Kid.” Hero also shows how agile he is when he’s Irish whipped into the barricade outside the ring, only to jump onto the barricade and hit Strong with a back elbow.

Courtesy Ring of Honor

Hero goes on to prove his worth against veterans like then-ROH Champion Jerry Lynn at Never Say Die on May 8, 2009 (where he comes up just short despite using his infamous loaded elbow pad) and with a victory over Lance Storm at Death Before Dishonor VII on July 25. Ring of Hero brings things full circle as Hero takes on Danielson in Danielson’s last ROH main event before heading to WWE on Sept. 18. The DVD includes Hero’s boxing training leading up to this big match, and after all these two men have been through since Hero’s ROH debut almost four years earlier, Hero is finally able to defeat Danielson.

Aside from showing exactly why Hero has earned his spot as a future WWE star in the ring, Ring of Hero also includes several vignettes proving that Hero is just as astute when it comes to getting himself over on the mic (including some pretty funny stuff where Sweet & Sour tries to inspire the rotund Dempsey to get in better shape). Considering that Hero’s last ROH match was in January of this year, and none of the Kings of Wrestling’s most recent ROH success is included here, there’s still plenty of great Hero footage to be seen. But with Castagnoli already on WWE TV, I can only speculate that ROH is saving some of these matches for a future Castagnoli or Kings of Wrestling release.

For more information, go to www.rohwrestling.com.