Since 1977 the St. Louis area convention Archon has become one of the Midwest’s premiere science fiction and fantasy convention events. After canceling its event in 2020 for the pandemic and holding only a partial event in 2021, Archon 45 begins today and it promises a return with its full slate of festivities including its internationally recognized cosplay masquerade, extensive gaming arena, and 250 scheduled events over its three days, September 30 through October 2.
The Guests of Honor headlining Archon 45 are Edgar Award-winning mystery and Morris Award-winning fantasy author Elizabeth C. Bunce and Artist Guest of Honor, the award-winning fantasy artist and actor R. Cat Conrad. Past Guests of Honor include George R.R. Martin, Tanith Lee, Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, Ray Harryhausen, Forrest J. Ackerman, Robert Jordan, Connie Willis, and Barbara Hambly.
Let’s face it. The “turn of the century” was eighteen years ago. Are you happy with the styles that define this decade? Why not re-define what the new ‘twenties are going to represent, and why not start with how you want to look? Timeless, a new book by fashion makeup artist Louise Young and film industry hairstylist Loulia Sheppard, provides readers with a step-by-step guide in photos and instructions to recreate the most memorable styles from the silent screen era forward. So not only is it an obvious tool for cosplay and theater, it’s a way to bring the golden age of women’s fashion to everyday lifestyles.
Young and Sheppard also recreate actual style icons, and provide the steps for anyone to follow suit. Readers will find not only how they can recreate styles, but what materials were available for contemporary women to make the look they are after. Models reflect many memorable looks in Timeless, including Louise Brooks, Clara Bow, Ginger Rogers, Myrna Loy, Betty Grable, Rita Hayworth, Ava Gardner, Lauren Bacall, Gene Tierney, Grace Kelly, Lucille Ball, Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Farrah Fawcett, Julia Roberts, and many more.
Timeless is not your typical makeup and hair book. The creators have decades of experience in film creating any and every look imaginable. Louise Young has created makeup designs for celebrities in movies including Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange, Spectre, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Wonder Woman, Murder on the Orient Express, Pride & Prejudice, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Clash of the Titans, Jack the Giant Slayer, and The Avengers. Loulia Sheppard has created hairstyles for several award-winning productions, including Gosford Park, The Phantom of the Opera, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The Last Samurai, Jane Eyre, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, RED 2, Guardians of the Galaxy, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Victor Frankenstein, and Murder on the Orient Express–and most recently the looks of Keira Knightley and Scarlett Johansson.
This month Abrams Books releasedThe Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers, an account of Fred (you know him as Mr.) Rogers, his show, and his lifetime of good works, written by Maxwell King, available now here at Amazon. As part of the roll-out of the book, instructions to make a cardigan sweater like the famous one Mr. Rogers wore on his show is now available to download for a limited time. From the publisher: The Good Neighbor, the first full-length biography of Fred Rogers, tells the story of this utterly unique and enduring American icon. Drawing on original interviews, oral histories, and archival documents, Maxwell King traces Rogers’s personal, professional, and artistic life through decades of work, including a surprising decision to walk away from the show to make television for adults, only to return to the neighborhood with increasingly sophisticated episodes, written in collaboration with experts on childhood development. An engaging story, rich in detail, The Good Neighbor is the definitive portrait of a beloved figure, cherished by multiple generations.
Abrams Books is releasing another book next month,Amy Herzog’s Ultimate Sweater Book, which ties nicely into the Mr. Rogers biography. A big plus for Mr. Rogers’ fans: It will include directions for a sweater like Rogers wore on his show. You can pre-order Herzog’s book now here at Amazon, and we’ve included a preview of the book below. He wore several sweaters and different colors on the show over the years, but has anyone counted the number of times he wore a sweater?
Knitters (and friends of knitters) should take note: For a limited time you can download the complete pattern and instructions from Herzog’s book to make your own cardigan, just like the one Mr. Rogers had. Who better to cosplay than America’s most beloved icon?
Fans of pop culture and comics have one more day to attend the fourth annual Wizard World Comic Con in Des Moines this weekend. Held at the Iowa Events Center in downtown Des Moines, thousands of attendees from Iowa and neighboring states toured the halls and giant celebrity autograph and photo-op room, many in cosplay garb Friday and Saturday. Even more people are expected to turn out for the show Sunday as Wizard World rolls out a “bring a friend free” promotion. The show continues today 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Check out the event website here for more information. Wizard World continues its national presentation of comic book and pop culture conventions next week as the show moves on to Columbus, Ohio. After the success of the first two days of this year’s event in Des Moines, the fifth Wizard World Des Moines show is already being planned by show organizers for next year, to be held May 10-12, 2019.
Doctor Who’s David Tennant and Black Panther’s Winston Duke, and many other celebrities talked with fans in the show’s celebrity row signing area. Comic book creators talked about books, and autographed books and art for fans. We loved this new Green Arrow print from guest comic book creators Phil Hester and Ande Parks (with color by Mouse Baumann):
Even more than 20 years after the last episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, James Marsters (Spike) maintained a steady stream of fans waiting in line to meet him all day Saturday:
Star Trek icon Nichelle Nichols returned to the Midwest. Here she is being interviewed at the event for a local radio station:
Genre actor Jim Beaver (Supernatural, The X-Files, Deadwood, Enterprise) met and signed autographs for crowds of fans:
Nationally-known comic book creators were well-represented at this show. Artist Phil Hester returned to Wizard World–here he is featured on the creator stage demonstrating illustration techniques:
For the fourth consecutive year, Wizard World will be invading the Iowa Events Center this June, bringing comic book writers and artists and celebrity guests to meet thousands of attendees for Iowa’s largest comic and pop culture convention. Wizard World Comic Con Des Moines will again feature non-stop live entertainment, gaming, panels with celebrities, and cosplayers. Celebrity guests scheduled to attend the show include Winston Duke (Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War),James Marsters(Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Nichelle Nichols (Star Trek), Charisma Carpenter (Buffy the Vampire Slayer),Matt Ryan(Legends of Tomorrow, Constantine), Jim Beaver (Supernatural, Deadwood), Lisa Berry (Supernatural), Gregg Sulkin (Runaways, Faking It), hosted by Kato Kaelin.
Comic book creator guests include Phil Hester (Green Arrow, The Bionic Man, Shipwreck, The Irredeemable Ant-Man), Ande Parks (Green Arrow, Capote in Kansas, The Lone Ranger),Chad Hardin(Harley Quinn, Justice League),Tom Cook(Masters of the Universe, Smurfs), and dozens of other writers in artists in the event’s Artist Alley. Purchase books, sketches, and other original art, and get autographs from dozens of creators and entertainers.
Even more celebrity guests and creators are expected to be announced in advance of the event.
Wizard World Comic Con events bring together thousands of fans of all ages to celebrate the best in pop culture movies, television, gaming, live entertainment, comics, sci-fi, graphic novels, toys, original art, and collectibles.
Show hours are Friday, June 1, 2018, 4-9 p.m.; Saturday, June 2, 2018, 10 a.m.-7 p.m.; and Sunday, June 3, 2018, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Kids 10 and under are admitted free with paid adult admission.
YouTube attempts to crack down on misinformation and conspiracy
Facebook officer reportedly leaving over misinformation dispute
The headlines this week speak for themselves–the time seems right for a new understanding of misinformation. The subject has been written about before and from different angles, and author and journalist Rex Sorgatz includes dozens of references to those previous books that inspired his new treatise. Part An Incomplete Education, part In Search Of…, part Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader, a new book coming from Abrams Image is also a useful Guide to Living in the Modern World. It’s The Encyclopedia of Misinformation: A Compendium of Imitations, Spoofs, Delusions, Simulations, Counterfeits, Impostors, Illusions, Confabulations, Skullduggery, Frauds, Pseudoscience, Propaganda, Hoaxes, Flimflam, Pranks, Hornswoggle, Conspiracies & Miscellaneous Fakery. It’s a smart, compelling mix of information you would find in updates and appendices to college textbooks on advertising, public relations, psychology, criminology, politics, journalism, futurism, and current affairs, with a dose of pseudoscience and other quackery.
For most, The Encyclopedia of Misinformation will get readers caught up on what everyone else has been talking about, or in some places, defining a thing you already know with a succinct word or phrase. The author puts his own spin on nearly 300 concepts–some terms may be familiar, some newer ideas may be defined with more recent turns of phrase. Sorgatz discusses many more concepts than the core defined terms as he fleshes out each alphabetized key word. Happily for any reader, this book does not read like an actual encyclopedia. Instead Sorgatz interconnects concepts with a series of visual hotlinks that aren’t really links (it’s a printed book, after all), including citations to words not specifically defined in the book. But it’s very clear that were a reader to read the book cover to cover and actually look up all the linked terms he/she doesn’t know already, that reader would be pretty caught up with current affairs. Although the author suggests bouncing around and reading whatever seems interesting, The Encyclopedia of Misinformation is one of those indispensable, unputdownable non-fiction books that easily can be read straight through in two or three sittings.
So this book’s for you if you don’t know alien space bats, that an auto-tune has nothing to do with the radio, that canned heat isn’t hot, the difference between modern catfish and Chilean sea bass, who was or still is Tony Clifton, if you can’t tell a cryptid from capgras, what’s a deep state and how you doublethink, that false flags and foreign branding are not the stuff of international relations, the difference between a honeypot and a honey trap, that lorem ipsem is not Latin, if you don’t know the Mandela effect and are concerned you haven’t visited the moirologist lately, what’s a noddy and what’s a nonce, what the heck is pareidolia, plandids, and retconning, sampuru and simulism, or why you should know Zardulu. Do you want to know how a fake band beat Dylan, Aretha, Elvis, Jagger, Bowie, Iggy, Janis, McCartney, and Lennon for the biggest hit of 1969? How can the author explain the inclusion of cyborgs and cosplay as misinformation terms?
Over the past 20 years movie and TV props have become less and less expensive to build, and far easier to fabricate compared to props of science fiction movies from the 1950s through the 1970s, especially considering the realism modern audiences demand. Just as Hollywood studios have used modern tech to make props easier and cheaper, even toy replicas look as good as their screen-used source material. In the Star Trek Enterprise series, as an example, the studio found it cheaper in later seasons to use the licensed Art Asylum commercially available toy replicas on set. That’s right, the toy replaced the need for an original for the studio. Now, many cosplayers create their own props via home 3D printers, a new idea for making movie props when we first discussed 3D printers here at borg.com back in 2011.
The look of Star Wars props, the realism, the incorporation of real-world gadgetry in seemingly “real feeling” ways via adding on odds and ends from model kits and parts from electrician shops and auto garages (called “greeblies”) all goes back to Star Wars art designer Roger Christian, who created the look that would be replicated in every other science fiction movie created since. (Check out his autobiographical account previously reviewed here at borg.com if you missed it). Just as many other props from Star Wars were based on real-world weapons, the standard Stormtrooper blaster, the BlasTech E-11, was built from a British-made Sterling L2A3 sub-machine gun.
Disney released one particularly well-suited toy Stormtrooper blaster that has a size and look that will make cosplayers at any level proud, easily modifiable for the classic Star Wars trilogy and this month’s prequel movie Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which incorporates the classic troopers with only minor modifications as seen in the trailers. The toy blaster fits–and more importantly is easily removable from–any replica Stormtrooper holster, and can also be used to supplement any Imperial uniform costume. It also comes with lights and sound that can be preserved as part of a needed modication from its white toy design to the black version used onscreen. The recommended toy E-11 Stormtrooper blaster is no longer being produced but it is still available in small quantities here at Amazon.com. It is typically available from $25-30 and with a can of flat black spray paint and some silver paint for weathering, it’s an inexpensive and quick way to sport a professional looking prop for your Star Wars cosplay, especially when many builders on the Web will try to sell you custom versions for hundreds of dollars that would be indistinguishable from the modified toy to most anyone seeing you in Stormtrooper armor. The following is a brief tutorial to get you there:
Tomorrow is the big day–Halloween 2016! If you have one of those transient Halloween shops nearby or even if you don’t, here’s a quick idea for you or someone for a current sci-fi character when you haven’t done much planning.
First off, one of the more fun of all the classic Star Trek books about the television series and movies is Michael Westmore and Alan Sims’ Star Trek: Aliens & Artifacts, available here at Amazon.com. It won’t help you this Halloween if you don’t already have a copy, but if you do you’ll find three amateur make-up suggestions at the back of the book. Along with great information on Star Trek make-up designs from make-up supervisor Michael Westmore and a brief review of props from property master Alan Sims, you’ll find rudimentary instructions on making up yourself as Seven of Nine, Lt. Commander Data, a Klingon, a Ferengi, a Romulan, and a Vulcan. Note that this isn’t detailed, production quality work, but something for kids or quick Halloween party projects.
As almost a follow-up to Aliens & Artifacts, Paramount Studios has released a Halloween how-to make-up video to create the face of Sofia Boutella’s beautiful alien Jaylah, the guest star of this summer’s most recent Star Trek movie, Star Trek Beyond. Make-up designer Joel Harlow and lead make-up artist Richie Alonzo walk you through the quick version of make-up applications using readily available make-up materials.
The third day of Kansas City Comic Con wrapped with attendees making last-minute purchases, obtaining remaining autographs and photos with celebrities and cosplayers, and picking up sketches and comic books from the hundreds of creators on site throughout the weekend. No doubt the weekend was a success for vendors, and visitors had a great time.
And as promised yesterday, we have more photos from the weekend.
It wouldn’t be a Kansas City Con without a merry duo of those Nausicaan cousins, the Predators. As with prior years Elizabeth C. Bunce (above) hunted them down, this time as iZombie’s Liv Moore (seriously, this keeps happening–check this out).
What makes for great cosplay? Surprises. Characters that are classic or iconic that you’ve never seen before are a real treat. Like this spot-on Beetlejuice cosplay–Wynona Ryder’s Lydia Deetz:
Superb! And while we’re in 1980s mode, wait ’til you get a load of this: We spotted the very best Joker cosplay we’d ever seen, Jack Nicholson’s Joker from the 1989 Batman movie (above).
The rest of the cosplay we singled out mainly followed the superhero genre. Like the dynamic indigo X-Men duo pictured under the headline above. We’ve seen Mystiques before but this was the best constructed outfit and Beast’s make-up was excellent.
We saw two great Wonder Woman outfits, first from the new movies and then a classic comic book variant:
Kansas City Comic Con 2016 kicked into high gear today at the Kansas City Convention center at Bartle Hall. Probably the largest assemblages of writers and artists in the region, literally several hundred with tables on display, are coming back once again today to share their work with fans. The big themes this year seemed to be 101 fun variants of Deadpool, Suicide Squad Harley Quinns walked every aisle with the classic version sadly absent, some great Wonder Woman cosplay creations, and Star Wars was alive and well. I can’t wait to see what cosplay comes after Rogue One is released in December. I’ve seen plenty of professionally crafted costumes of Rebel pilots but the above X-Wing fighter pilot from The Empire Strikes Back was the best I’ve seen, built by the cosplayer’s older brother. Below are more photos with Star Wars cosplayers–come back tomorrow as we round out even more great cosplay we saw this year at the show.
On a personal note, I had a one-of-a-kind day today walking the floor as Luke Skywalker with his pal R2-D2, a fully-functional radio-controlled droid perfectly re-created by Chris Rice from the KC R2 builders group. There was no doubt about the joy brought to Star Wars fans young and old as we walked the floor and stopped for photos. It was among the most photos and hugs I’ve been apart of since cosplaying in Kansas City and a great feeling to spread around and share with others, from little kids wanting to hug R2 to adults wanting to share in a photo. What a strange thing to get home and learn of Kenny Baker’s passing away at 81. Elizabeth and I were lucky to meet him and his wife years ago. What we all shared today at KCCC was a real tribute to Mr. Baker and the character he helped to create and the enduring legacy of Star Wars.
With Padme, Leia, Mara Jade and Obi-Wan from Another Castle Creations.
Luke and Rey–are they related? We won’t find out until 2018. What a great Rey!
We also caught up with friends and met some celebrities…
