After receiving nearly 1,400 submissions from across Africa, South African studio Triggerfish chose 8 projects for further development.
The post Triggerfish’s Story Lab Announces 8 African Winners appeared first on Cartoon Brew.
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After receiving nearly 1,400 submissions from across Africa, South African studio Triggerfish chose 8 projects for further development.
The post Triggerfish’s Story Lab Announces 8 African Winners appeared first on Cartoon Brew.
Add a CommentTake flight with DC's new Supergirl Digital Comic, coming early next year!
'Long Live the Royals' is Cartoon Network's second original miniseries following Patrick McHale's Emmy-winning fantasy, 'Over the Garden Wall.' No pressure!
The post Sean Szeles Spoofs Kings and Punks On New CN Miniseries ‘Long Live the Royals’ appeared first on Cartoon Brew.
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The new episodes will air on Adult Swim next year.
The post Cartoon Network Nabs Genndy Tartakovsky, New Season of ‘Samurai Jack’ Announced appeared first on Cartoon Brew.
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Because I enjoy eating and living indoors, I have a day job.
I’m in the marketing and communications departments of a regional health system. Part of my job involves media relations. Most weeks, that means interacting with reporters from local television, radio and print media. Recently, we had calls from reporters Cosmo and the Huffington Post, but that was a weird week!
What does all this have to do with you, my little parfait? Well, because I arrange interviews, I also help to prepare the interviewees, many of whom are new to the experience and naturally nervous. Since there may be interviews in your future, I thought why not share these tips with you?
TV interview
well and do more of that!
Radio interview
Phone interview
For any type of interview
It’s easy to get flustered. Make yourself a cheat sheet with basic information so if your mind goes blank, all you have to do is read–
And finally . . .
It’s not uncommon for an interviewer to wrap up an interview with a question like, “Is there anything else you’d like to say?”
Think about using this as an opportunity to promote someone else’s book. David Sedaris does this every time he goes on tour for his own newest book. Isn’t that a beautiful, generous gesture? It’s a delightful chance to pay it forward for an author or illustrator who has been especially supportive of you.
Now, if you have an agent, publicist or your publisher’s marketing team advising you, please listen to them and learn. Use my suggestions when/if they seem useful to you. Most of all, no matter how an interview turns out, remember you, my little blueberry scone, are still one of the coolest, most talented people on ten toes.
You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’ You must do the thing you think you cannot do. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
What is all around us, terrifies a lot of people, but adds enormously to the quality of life? Answer: chemistry. Almost everything that happens in the world, in transport, throughout agriculture and industry, to the flexing of a muscle and the framing of a thought involves chemical reactions in which one substance changes into another.
The post The case for chemistry appeared first on OUPblog.
The surreal '80s cartoon classic recently rolled out an all-star reboot across the pond.
Add a CommentOne of only two female directors currently at Disney Television Animation, Aliki Theofilopoulos speaks frankly about the ups and downs of her career in the animation industry.
Add a CommentIt's a cold cold world we live in.
This past weekend, we noticed an unusual number of superheroes, cosplayers, and characters from our favorite TV shows flooding thesubways, buses, and streets of New York City. Did we unknowingly fall into an alternate universe?
Turns out that it was just New York Comic Con, the annual pop culture phenomenon dedicated to comics, graphic novels, anime, video games, movies, and television. The first convention was held in 2006 and it has continued to grow steadily over the past several years, bringing an ever-growing number of comics and pop-culture fans to New York City. And not only has Comic Con continued to grow, but so has programming dedicated to issues of diversity and diverse creators. We were lucky enough to get a pass for LEE & LOW staff. Below, three staff members share their highlights from the show:
Keilin, Marketing and Publicity Associate
Oh Comic Con. What a crazy event to go to, but definitely worth every minute!
I went to a Geeks of Color Meetup, hosted by Diana Pho (editor, Tor Books), and featuring Shelley Diaz (editor, School Library Journal), and author Melissa Grey (The Girl At Midnight). It was great to mingle with other “geeks” and to get to know Diana and Shelley.
The greatest thing about the Meetup was seeing the diversity in the room. There was one group of people that I joined that was talking about the new Star Wars movie coming out, and it didn’t matter that we were all from different backgrounds because we all could geek out about something we were all collectively excited for. Diana often hosts these types of meetups for people of color, and if anyone is interested, you can contact her on her website, Beyond Victoriana.
After the Geeks of Color Meetup, I booked it over to the Asian American Comics and Creators panel, which unfortunately was full. On the positive side, that just meant that there was a full house to participate in a discussion on Asian Americans in the comic book industry. While the depictions of Asian Americans in comic books has improved, there is more that can still be done.
The thing I like most about conventions like these is that it shows you the wide spectrum of people within fandoms, whether it’s seeing a black Wonder Woman or an Asian Peggy Carter. Nerding out is for everyone!
Rebecca, Marketing and Publicity Assistant
Thanks to things like the We Need Diverse Books campaign, diversity has been on people’s minds more than ever before. Last year, we saw one of the most diverse television seasons we’ve gotten in a while. It’s no surprise that diversity in comics and geek culture was on a lot of people’s minds at New York Comic Con! I attended 4 panels focused on various aspects of diversity at the show this year.
At the Pushing Boundaries panel, there was a discussion about representation. Author Marjorie Liu spoke about the burden that authors of color often face when they are the only ones representing entire cultures. They have to make sure that their characters are “perfect” and not stereotypical; however, trying to tell a “perfect” story gets in the way of an authentic narrative. This is the danger of a single story: one person from a marginalized or underrepresented group can’t represent everyone from that group.
Some of the other panelists, like Jeremy Whitley, the creator of Princeless, spoke about using their work to fill a need. Jeremy Whitley’s daughter is a person of color, so he wanted to write a comic where a young black girl would see herself as a princess that went on adventures. Geek Out was started as a space for LGBT+ fans of comics. At one point in the discussion, the panelists spoke about bad representation. Is bad representation better than no representation? There was no clear answer, as one panelist said he preferred bad representation to none at all. But author Marjorie Liu said, “As a woman of color, I’m allergic to bad representation.”
The pervading feeling at the “Geeks of Color: Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” panel was that while people are paying more attention to diversity and things with diverse content, we still have a long way to go. Industries need to diversify from within as well as to seek out diverse creators. Diversity naturally happens when there are a variety of people creating things.
Authors Melissa Gray, Daniel Jose Older, Sara Raasch, and Kim Harrison discussed what made the protagonists of their novels “kick ass.” Melissa Grey (The Girl at Midnight) discussed how female characters are never allowed to be unlikable, like male characters often are. They’re usually expected to be “nice.” Daniel José Older wants his books to show the diversity in Brooklyn, because a book should be like a friend and tell you the truth.
At the Women in Geek Media panel, the panelists encouraged the room full of people to create their own works. Everyone, they told us, has a unique story to tell. Many of the women talked about having to create their own spaces and writing with a unique voice, which is what made them stand out. They also encouraged everyone there who was fed up with the lack of representation of women, people of color, and other marginalized groups in media to channel their anger thoughtfully and to hold content creators accountable.
All the panels I attended were full almost to capacity. It was great to see how much people are clamoring for more diverse representation. But the real highlight of Comic Con was meeting Amandla Stenberg!
Stacy, Publisher of TU BOOKS
On Thursday night of Comic Con, I went to the #BlackComicsMonth panel moderated by Dean MizCaramelVixen. It was an all-star lineup, including Chad L. Coleman (who played Tyreese on The Walking Dead), who is producing a new comic that stars his likeness, and comics artists and writers Scott Snyder, David Walker, Mikki Kendall, Shawn Pryor, Steve Orlando, Christine Dinh, Mildred Louis, Jeremy Whitley, and Afua Richardson. If you want to see the whole panel, you can view it on YouTube.
The panel started out by talking to a standing-room-only crowd of at least 300 people about what “diversity” meant to them. Christine Dinh spoke about how there are more young women reading comics—that kids are more diverse than ever. Another panelist talked about how what it means to be black could mean so many different things, and that all those representations were important—that there is no one way to be black.
Everyone on the panel emphasized how important the voices of people of color are in comic books. Kendall said, “If you don’t see yourself out there, put your stuff out there.”
Later that night was a fangirl panel (“She Made Me Do It: FanGirls Lead the Way”) discussing how important women are not only in the creation of art but also in the appreciation of it. On the panel were Jamie Broadnax, who created Black Girl Nerds; Rose Del Vecchio and Jenny Cheng from myfanmail.com, a site that sends fandom products to subscribers; and Sam Maggs, author of The Fangirl’s Guide to the Galaxy and writer for The Mary Sue.
One of the main topics of the panel was discussing how women and girls get challenged to show their “credentials” as geeks. “I’m so over the cred thing. You don’t have to prove anything to show your passion for fandom,” Broadnax said. Maggs agreed and went on to discuss how those fans should also be reflected in the stories they consume, saying, “A range, diversity of stories can only mean better content for everyone. Why can’t white dudes look up to a black girl protagonist and have her be their role model?”
On Sunday, the We Need Diverse Books panel focused on the hashtag #IAmNotYourSidekick, discussing the importance of narratives that center the experiences of characters of color. On a personal note, the panelists discussed the first time they’d ever seen a “mirror” of themselves in a book. Some never did, at least until adulthood. Dhonielle Clayton, a Harlem Academy librarian and WNDB VP of librarian services, mentioned that she had mirrors, but only about slavery and civil rights, not fun books. Variety in representations of marginalized people is so important, she said.
The panel also discussed the importance of opening doors for writers of color, talking about the quotas of some houses (“we already have our ‘black book,’” even if the topics are completely different), and how writing cross-culturally is possible to do well, but how it must be done responsibly. Daniel José Older pointed out that too often white writers want to jump on the bandwagon of “diversity” as if it were a trend, but, he asked, “We talk about writing the other, but can you write about yourself? Can we write about whiteness?” (Older wrote an excellent article on this topic last year at BuzzFeed.)
Everyone on the panel agreed that the way to fix the problem was to talk up diverse books. “Buy diverse books!” YA author Robin Talley said. “The more you do, the more there will be.” Older also noted not to assume that a traditionally published book that stars a diverse character will have a million-dollar marketing campaign. “It likely won’t!” he said. Panelists agreed that word of mouth is one of the most important marketing tools for diverse books—sharing them with friends, talking about them on social media, and requesting them from libraries and bookstores were all mentioned as important methods of helping diverse books grow in the market.
To see pictures from Comic Con, check out the TU BOOKS Facebook page and the LEE & LOW Facebook page.
According to Hollywood Reporter, FX has a Y: the Last Man TV series in the works. Written by Brian K. Vaughan and illustrated by Pia Guerra, the Vertigo comic was Vaughan’s breakout success and led to his producer role on ABC’s Lost. Vaughan is slated to be joined by Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson from Color Force, a studio […]
Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko's animated series convincingly broke Nickelodeon's dudebro mold. Will they be the last?
Add a CommentThe last time these shows aired, memes, emojis, and GIFs were barely dreams in the dotcom industry's internetworked brain.
Add a CommentIn two weeks, we’ll be getting some quality time with the cast of Netflix’s next Marvel Defenders series, Jessica Jones, at New York Comic Con. The followup to the incredibly lauded Daredevil, the series will focus on the titular metahuman, portrayed by Krysten Ritter, as she attempts to salvage her life as a detective after a brief […]
She’s dead, Jim! Back in 2006, when the first season of the NBC superhero drama Heroes was debuting to rave reviews and mass audience acclaim, the show managed to turn its tagline, “Save the Cheerleader, Save the World,” into a meme. It was incredibly prolific, albeit a little nonsensical– describing the show perfectly. It looks like the […]
Not only are we living in a Golden Age of television, it also feels in many ways like we are living in a Golden Age of diverse television. While TV may still be more segregated than we’d like it to be, both in front of and behind the camera, 2014-2015 saw the emergence of several critically and commercially successful shows with lead characters of color.
A few years ago, we published an infographic and study exploring the diversity gap in the Emmys and on television. Today we’ve updated that infographic and tried to answer the question: Has the Diversity Gap in Television decreased?
The Good:
Last night Viola Davis made Emmys history by becoming the first woman of color to win an Emmy Award for Lead Actress in a Drama Series!
In the most moving moment of the night, she directly addressed the discrimination that people of color face in Hollywood, saying:
The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity. You cannot win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there.
The 2015 Emmy nominees were an exceptionally diverse crowd by Hollywood standards and happily Viola Davis was not the only talented person of color to go home with an Emmy in hand. Actors Regina King (Supporting Actress, Limited Series or Movie), Reg E. Cathey (Guest Actor, Drama), and Uzo Aduba (Best Supporting Actress, Drama) all went home with Emmys in hand. This also makes 2015 the first year that women of color won Emmys in the Drama category for both Best Lead Actress and Best Supporting Actress.
Last night also saw several women honored in the directing category, an area usually dominated by men. Jill Soloway took home the Emmy for Best Director for a Comedy Series for Transparent, making her the third woman in a row to win this category. Lisa Cholodenko also took home a Directing Emmy for her work on the Limited Series Olive Kitteridge. In other words, two out of four Best Directing Emmys this year went to women.
The Bad
While last night saw some groundbreaking firsts, it’s not time for Hollywood to pat itself on the back just yet. Despite this year’s big win for Viola Davis, it’s important to remember that in the last 25 years, only one person of color has ever won in each of the four Lead Acting categories. There were no people of color nominated this year in the categories of Lead Actor in a Drama Series, Lead Actress in a Comedy Series or Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.
In addition, it’s worth noting that all of the people of color nominated in Acting categories this year were African American, with the exception of Louis C.K. (who is half Mexican). Asian, Latino, Middle Eastern, and Native actors still don’t have enough roles, leading or supporting, to be represented in any meaningful way at the Emmys. When Hollywood’s definition of “diversity” is reduced to Black or White, everyone still loses.
When it comes to gender representation, things are improving but some categories haven’t budged. 96% of winners in the Best Director of a Drama Series are still men, although one woman (Lesli Linka Glatter, Homeland) was at least nominated this year.
What Remains to Be Seen
It was clear this year that diversity was on people’s minds, and some big wins proved that it was on people’s ballots, too. But a good year, or even a few good years, are just a drop in the bucket when it comes to boosting opportunities and visibility of people of color and women in Hollywood. It may feel like progress is being made, but looking at our 2012 and 2015 infographics back to back, we can track whether that’s actually the case:
In some categories we do see improvement, but in most categories the percentage of winners who are people of color has actually decreased as the total number of years we track increases. While some people may dismiss this as a numbers game, it demonstrates an important point about diversity: it requires a conscious effort to change the status quo. If you do nothing, the numbers actually get worse.
Host Andy Samberg hit on this point in his opening monologue by congratulating Hollywood on such a diverse list of nominees:
The big story this year, of course, is diversity. This is the most diverse group of nominees in Emmy history, so congratulations Hollywood. You did it. Yeah, racism is over. Don’t fact check that.
Racism isn’t over and neither is sexism, but let’s hope that we’re moving into an age where both issues are treated by Hollywood as more than just a punchline.
In October, Nickelodeon unveils a new programming block dedicated to '90s standouts like "The Ren & Stimpy Show," "Doug," "Hey Arnold!" and "Rugrats."
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Television, like other media, has a terrible diversity problem, and unfortunately, last year’s Emmys weren’t very diverse.
However, there were some great and popular diverse offerings during the 2014-2015 television season, like black-ish, Jane the Virgin, Fresh Off the Boat and Empire.
This year, we can only hope that the talent of more diverse actors, women directors and writers gets the recognition it deserves.
Without further ado, here are this year’s Women and POC Emmy nominees!
Lead Actress in a Drama Series
Taraji P. Henson (Empire) starred in the movie Baby Boy. She has also been in many other TV shows including Boston Legal and Person of Interest.
Viola Davis (How to Get Away With Murder) got her start in theater. In 2011, she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as Aibileen Clark in The Help.
Best Director for a Comedy Series
Louis C.K. ( Louie) is a comedian who got his start writing for other comedians like David Letterman, Conan O’Brien and Chris Rock. He is the creator and director of Louie, which he also stars in.
Phil Lord (The Last Man on Earth) is one half of the team known for directing and writing films like Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and The Lego Movie, with Christopher Miller.
They met at Dartmouth College.
Jill Soloway was inspired to create Transparent after her father came out as transgender. She directed the film Afternoon Delight and wrote for the show Six Feet Under.
Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series
Jill Soloway (Transparent)
Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series
Semi Chellas (Mad Men) is known for her work on Restless Spirits. She is nominated with Matthew Weiner for her work on Mad Men.
Good luck to all of the nominees! Who do you hope takes home a trophy?
The cinema fell upon its prey with immense rapacity, and to this moment largely subsists upon the body of its unfortunate victim. But the results are disastrous to both. The alliance is unnatural. Eye and brain are torn asunder ruthlessly as they try vainly to work in couples. The eye says: 'Here is Anna Karenina.' A voluptuous lady in black velvet wearing pearls comes before us. But the brain says: 'That is no more Anna Karenina than it is Queen Victoria.' For the brain knows Anna almost entirely by the inside of her mind -- her charm, her passion, her despair. All the emphasis is laid by the cinema upon her teeth, her pearls, and her velvet. Then 'Anna falls in love with Vronsky' -- that is to say, the lady in black velvet falls into the arms of a gentleman in uniform, and they kiss with enormous succulence, great deliberation, and infinite gesticulation on a sofa in an extremely well-appointed library, while a gardener incidentally mows the lawn. So we lurch and lumber through the most famous novels of the world. So we spell them out in words of one syllable written, too, in the scrawl of an illiterate schoolboy. A kiss is love. A broken cup is jealousy. A grin is happiness. Death is a hearse. None of these things has the least connection with the novel that Tolstoy wrote, and it is only when we give up trying to connect the pictures with the book that we guess from some accidental scene -- like the gardener mowing the lawn -- what the cinema might do if is were left to its own devices.
—Virginia Woolf, "The Cinema", 1926
Vanessa Bell by Duncan Grant |
"Regular Show: The Movie" will debut on digital platforms and DVD before it airs on Cartoon Network.
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Yo guys, you know about this group. Yes?
https://plus.google.com/communities/107257763192976411126
“Unlike most DC digital-only series thus far, Adventures of Supergirl will not be physically printed in single issue format.” I have no idea what DC’s marketing strategy is — which, I’m assuming, puts me up there with DC’s marketers. NO single-issue format? At a time when books like Ms. Marvel, Batgirl, etc. are bringing in young female fans — and the TV series has a great following — DC is opting for a digital- and trade-only approach? Why? Even if the single issues aren’t huge sellers, they can serve as physical marketing devices to lure people into comic stores, so retailers can show off their various Supergirl product (from whatever era). Has DC just lost it’s will to even compete in the face of a Disney/Star Wars-backed Marvel?
I’m guessing “supergirl” will be back before too long on CBS. I really like the show!
Bruce Lather
I’m guessing “supergirl will be back on CBS before too long? I really like the show!
Bruce
That is a beautiful page! I was really hoping that my daughter would like Supergirl, but so far she deems it “too scary.” Go figure. I’ve really enjoyed what I’ve seen.