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route22ny · 4 years

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By Timothy Snyder

Published Jan. 9, 2021 - Updated Jan. 10, 2021, 10:12 a.m. ET

Even when he won, in 2016, he insisted that the election was fraudulent — that millions of false votes were cast for his opponent. In 2020, in the knowledge that he was trailing Joseph R. Biden in the polls, he spent months claiming that the presidential election would be rigged and signaling that he would not accept the results if they did not favor him. He wrongly claimed on Election Day that he had won and then steadily hardened his rhetoric: With time, his victory became a historic landslide and the various conspiracies that denied it ever more sophisticated and implausible.

People believed him, which is not at all surprising. It takes a tremendous amount of work to educate citizens to resist the powerful pull of believing what they already believe, or what others around them believe, or what would make sense of their own previous choices. Plato noted a particular risk for tyrants: that they would be surrounded in the end by yes-men and enablers. Aristotle worried that, in a democracy, a wealthy and talented demagogue could all too easily master the minds of the populace. Aware of these risks and others, the framers of the Constitution instituted a system of checks and balances. The point was not simply to ensure that no one branch of government dominated the others but also to anchor in institutions different points of view.

In this sense, the responsibility for Trump’s push to overturn an election must be shared by a very large number of Republican members of Congress. Rather than contradict Trump from the beginning, they allowed his electoral fiction to flourish. They had different reasons for doing so. One group of Republicans is concerned above all with gaming the system to maintain power, taking full advantage of constitutional obscurities, gerrymandering and dark money to win elections with a minority of motivated voters. They have no interest in the collapse of the peculiar form of representation that allows their minority party disproportionate control of government. The most important among them, Mitch McConnell, indulged Trump’s lie while making no comment on its consequences.

Yet other Republicans saw the situation differently: They might actually break the system and have power without democracy. The split between these two groups, the gamers and the breakers, became sharply visible on Dec. 30, when Senator Josh Hawley announced that he would support Trump’s challenge by questioning the validity of the electoral votes on Jan. 6. Ted Cruz then promised his own support, joined by about 10 other senators. More than a hundred Republican representatives took the same position. For many, this seemed like nothing more than a show: challenges to states’ electoral votes would force delays and floor votes but would not affect the outcome.

Yet for Congress to traduce its basic functions had a price. An elected institution that opposes elections is inviting its own overthrow. Members of Congress who sustained the president’s lie, despite the available and unambiguous evidence, betrayed their constitutional mission. Making his fictions the basis of congressional action gave them flesh. Now Trump could demand that senators and congressmen bow to his will. He could place personal responsibility upon Mike Pence, in charge of the formal proceedings, to pervert them. And on Jan. 6, he directed his followers to exert pressure on these elected representatives, which they proceeded to do: storming the Capitol building, searching for people to punish, ransacking the place.

Post-truth is pre-fascism, and Trump has been our post-truth president. When we give up on truth, we concede power to those with the wealth and charisma to create spectacle in its place. Without agreement about some basic facts, citizens cannot form the civil society that would allow them to defend themselves. If we lose the institutions that produce facts that are pertinent to us, then we tend to wallow in attractive abstractions and fictions. Truth defends itself particularly poorly when there is not very much of it around, and the era of Trump — like the era of Vladimir Putin in Russia — is one of the decline of local news. Social media is no substitute: It supercharges the mental habits by which we seek emotional stimulation and comfort, which means losing the distinction between what feels true and what actually is true.

Post-truth wears away the rule of law and invites a regime of myth. These last four years, scholars have discussed the legitimacy and value of invoking fascism in reference to Trumpian propaganda. One comfortable position has been to label any such effort as a direct comparison and then to treat such comparisons as taboo. More productively, the philosopher Jason Stanley has treated fascism as a phenomenon, as a series of patterns that can be observed not only in interwar Europe but beyond it.

Like historical fascist leaders, Trump has presented himself as the single source of truth. His use of the term “fake news” echoed the Nazi smear Lügenpresse (“lying press”); like the Nazis, he referred to reporters as “enemies of the people.” Like Adolf Hitler, he came to power at a moment when the conventional press had taken a beating; the financial crisis of 2008 did to American newspapers what the Great Depression did to German ones. The Nazis thought that they could use radio to replace the old pluralism of the newspaper; Trump tried to do the same with Twitter.

Thanks to technological capacity and personal talent, Donald Trump lied at a pace perhaps unmatched by any other leader in history. For the most part these were small lies, and their main effect was cumulative. To believe in all of them was to accept the authority of a single man, because to believe in all of them was to disbelieve everything else. Once such personal authority was established, the president could treat everyone else as the liars; he even had the power to turn someone from a trusted adviser into a dishonest scoundrel with a single tweet. Yet so long as he was unable to enforce some truly big lie, some fantasy that created an alternative reality where people could live and die, his pre-fascism fell short of the thing itself.

Some of his lies were, admittedly, medium-size: that he was a successful businessman; that Russia did not support him in 2016; that Barack Obama was born in Kenya. Such medium-size lies were the standard fare of aspiring authoritarians in the 21st century. In Poland the right-wing party built a martyrdom cult around assigning blame to political rivals for an airplane crash that killed the nation’s president. Hungary’s Viktor Orban blames a vanishingly small number of Muslim refugees for his country’s problems. But such claims were not quite big lies; they stretched but did not rend what Hannah Arendt called “the fabric of factuality.”

One historical big lie discussed by Arendt is Joseph Stalin’s explanation of starvation in Soviet Ukraine in 1932-33. The state had collectivized agriculture, then applied a series of punitive measures to Ukraine that ensured millions would die. Yet the official line was that the starving were provocateurs, agents of Western powers who hated socialism so much they were killing themselves. A still grander fiction, in Arendt’s account, is Hitlerian anti-Semitism: the claims that Jews ran the world, Jews were responsible for ideas that poisoned German minds, Jews stabbed Germany in the back during the First World War. Intriguingly, Arendt thought big lies work only in lonely minds; their coherence substitutes for experience and companionship.

In November 2020, reaching millions of lonely minds through social media, Trump told a lie that was dangerously ambitious: that he had won an election that in fact he had lost. This lie was big in every pertinent respect: not as big as “Jews run the world,” but big enough. The significance of the matter at hand was great: the right to rule the most powerful country in the world and the efficacy and trustworthiness of its succession procedures. The level of mendacity was profound. The claim was not only wrong, but it was also made in bad faith, amid unreliable sources. It challenged not just evidence but logic: Just how could (and why would) an election have been rigged against a Republican president but not against Republican senators and representatives? Trump had to speak, absurdly, of a “Rigged (for President) Election.”

Trump’s electoral fiction floats free of verifiable reality. It is defended not so much by facts as by claims that someone else has made some claims. The sensibility is that something must be wrong because I feel it to be wrong, and I know others feel the same way. When political leaders such as Ted Cruz or Jim Jordan spoke like this, what they meant was: You believe my lies, which compels me to repeat them. Social media provides an infinity of apparent evidence for any conviction, especially one seemingly held by a president.

It’s not just that electoral fraud by African-Americans against Donald Trump never happened. It is that it is the very opposite of what happened, in 2020 and in every American election. As always, Black people waited longer than others to vote and were more likely to have their votes challenged. They were more likely to be suffering or dying from Covid-19, and less likely to be able to take time away from work. The historical protection of their right to vote has been removed by the Supreme Court’s 2013 ruling in Shelby County v. Holder, and states have rushed to pass measures of a kind that historically reduce voting by the poor and communities of color.

The claim that Trump was denied a win by fraud is a big lie not just because it mauls logic, misdescribes the present and demands belief in a conspiracy. It is a big lie, fundamentally, because it reverses the moral field of American politics and the basic structure of American history.

When Senator Ted Cruz announced his intention to challenge the Electoral College vote, he invoked the Compromise of 1877, which resolved the presidential election of 1876. Commentators pointed out that this was no relevant precedent, since back then there really were serious voter irregularities and there really was a stalemate in Congress. For African-Americans, however, the seemingly gratuitous reference led somewhere else. The Compromise of 1877 — in which Rutherford B. Hayes would have the presidency, provided that he withdrew federal power from the South — was the very arrangement whereby African-Americans were driven from voting booths for the better part of a century. It was effectively the end of Reconstruction, the beginning of segregation, legal discrimination and Jim Crow. It is the original sin of American history in the post-slavery era, our closest brush with fascism so far.

If the reference seemed distant when Ted Cruz and 10 senatorial colleagues released their statement on Jan. 2, it was brought very close four days later, when Confederate flags were paraded through the Capitol.

Some things have changed since 1877, of course. Back then, it was the Republicans, or many of them, who supported racial equality; it was the Democrats, the party of the South, who wanted apartheid. It was the Democrats, back then, who called African-Americans’ votes fraudulent, and the Republicans who wanted them counted. This is now reversed. In the past half century, since the Civil Rights Act, Republicans have become a predominantly white party interested — as Trump openly declared — in keeping the number of voters, and particularly the number of Black voters, as low as possible. Yet the common thread remains. Watching white supremacists among the people storming the Capitol, it was easy to yield to the feeling that something pure had been violated. It might be better to see the episode as part of a long American argument about who deserves representation.

In the four decades since the election of Ronald Reagan, Republicans have overcome the tension between the gamers and the breakers by governing in opposition to government, or by calling elections a revolution (the Tea Party), or by claiming to oppose elites. The breakers, in this arrangement, provide cover for the gamers, putting forth an ideology that distracts from the basic reality that government under Republicans is not made smaller but simply diverted to serve a handful of interests.

At first, Trump seemed like a threat to this balance. His lack of experience in politics and his open racism made him a very uncomfortable figure for the party; his habit of continually telling lies was initially found by prominent Republicans to be uncouth. Yet after he won the presidency, his particular skills as a breaker seemed to create a tremendous opportunity for the gamers. Led by the gamer in chief, McConnell, they secured hundreds of federal judges and tax cuts for the rich.

Trump was unlike other breakers in that he seemed to have no ideology. His objection to institutions was that they might constrain him personally. He intended to break the system to serve himself — and this is partly why he has failed. Trump is a charismatic politician and inspires devotion not only among voters but among a surprising number of lawmakers, but he has no vision that is greater than himself or what his admirers project upon him. In this respect his pre-fascism fell short of fascism: His vision never went further than a mirror. He arrived at a truly big lie not from any view of the world but from the reality that he might lose something.

Yet Trump never prepared a decisive blow. He lacked the support of the military, some of whose leaders he had alienated. (No true fascist would have made the mistake he did there, which was to openly love foreign dictators; supporters convinced that the enemy was at home might not mind, but those sworn to protect from enemies abroad did.) Trump’s secret police force, the men carrying out snatch operations in Portland, was violent but also small and ludicrous. Social media proved to be a blunt weapon: Trump could announce his intentions on Twitter, and white supremacists could plan their invasion of the Capitol on Facebook or Gab. But the president, for all his lawsuits and entreaties and threats to public officials, could not engineer a situation that ended with the right people doing the wrong thing. Trump could make some voters believe that he had won the 2020 election, but he was unable to bring institutions along with his big lie. And he could bring his supporters to Washington and send them on a rampage in the Capitol, but none appeared to have any very clear idea of how this was to work or what their presence would accomplish. It is hard to think of a comparable insurrectionary moment, when a building of great significance was seized, that involved so much milling around.

The lie outlasts the liar. The idea that Germany lost the First World War in 1918 because of a Jewish “stab in the back” was 15 years old when Hitler came to power. How will Trump’s myth of victimhood function in American life 15 years from now? And to whose benefit?

On Jan. 7, Trump called for a peaceful transition of power, implicitly conceding that his putsch had failed. Even then, though, he repeated and even amplified his electoral fiction: It was now a sacred cause for which people had sacrificed. Trump’s imagined stab in the back will live on chiefly thanks to its endorsement by members of Congress. In November and December 2020, Republicans repeated it, giving it a life it would not otherwise have had. In retrospect, it now seems as though the last shaky compromise between the gamers and the breakers was the idea that Trump should have every chance to prove that wrong had been done to him. That position implicitly endorsed the big lie for Trump supporters who were inclined to believe it. It failed to restrain Trump, whose big lie only grew bigger.

Trump is, for now, the martyr in chief, the high priest of the big lie. He is the leader of the breakers, at least in the minds of his supporters. By now, the gamers do not want Trump around. Discredited in his last weeks, he is useless; shorn of the obligations of the presidency, he will become embarrassing again, much as he was in 2015. Unable to provide cover for their gamesmanship, he will be irrelevant to their daily purposes. But the breakers have an even stronger reason to see Trump disappear: It is impossible to inherit from someone who is still around. Seizing Trump’s big lie might appear to be a gesture of support. In fact it expresses a wish for his political death. Transforming the myth from one about Trump to one about the nation will be easier when he is out of the way.

The big lie requires commitment. When Republican gamers do not exhibit enough of that, Republican breakers call them “RINOs”: Republicans in name only. This term once suggested a lack of ideological commitment. It now means an unwillingness to throw away an election. The gamers, in response, close ranks around the Constitution and speak of principles and traditions. The breakers must all know (with the possible exception of the Alabama senator Tommy Tuberville) that they are participating in a sham, but they will have an audience of tens of millions who do not.

Trump’s coup attempt of 2020-21, like other failed coup attempts, is a warning for those who care about the rule of law and a lesson for those who do not. His pre-fascism revealed a possibility for American politics. For a coup to work in 2024, the breakers will require something that Trump never quite had: an angry minority, organized for nationwide violence, ready to add intimidation to an election. Four years of amplifying a big lie just might get them this. To claim that the other side stole an election is to promise to steal one yourself. It is also to claim that the other side deserves to be punished.

Informed observers inside and outside government agree that right-wing white supremacism is the greatest terrorist threat to the United States. Gun sales in 2020 hit an astonishing high. History shows that political violence follows when prominent leaders of major political parties openly embrace paranoia.

Our big lie is typically American, wrapped in our odd electoral system, depending upon our particular traditions of racism. Yet our big lie is also structurally fascist, with its extreme mendacity, its conspiratorial thinking, its reversal of perpetrators and victims and its implication that the world is divided into us and them. To keep it going for four years courts terrorism and assassination.

To be sure, this moment is also a chance. It is possible that a divided Republican Party might better serve American democracy; that the gamers, separated from the breakers, might start to think of policy as a way to win elections. It is very likely that the Biden-Harris administration will have an easier first few months than expected; perhaps obstructionism will give way, at least among a few Republicans and for a short time, to a moment of self-questioning. Politicians who want Trumpism to end have a simple way forward: Tell the truth about the election.

America will not survive the big lie just because a liar is separated from power. It will need a thoughtful repluralization of media and a commitment to facts as a public good. The racism structured into every aspect of the coup attempt is a call to heed our own history. Serious attention to the past helps us to see risks but also suggests future possibility. We cannot be a democratic republic if we tell lies about race, big or small. Democracy is not about minimizing the vote nor ignoring it, neither a matter of gaming nor of breaking a system, but of accepting the equality of others, heeding their voices and counting their votes.

Timothy Snyder is the Levin professor of history at Yale University and the author of histories of political atrocity including “Bloodlands” and “Black Earth,” as well as the book “On Tyranny,” on America’s turn toward authoritarianism. His most recent book is “Our Malady,” a memoir of his own near-fatal illness reflecting on the relationship between health and freedom.

***

Essay copied & pasted here in its entirety for the benefit of those stuck behind the paywall. Follow the link for the accompanying photos and captions.

#trump coup #american abyss #timothy snyder #fascism in america

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 4 years

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Timothy Snyder [don't miss a word]

When Donald Trump stood before his followers on Jan. 6 and urged them to march on the United States Capitol, he was doing what he had always done. He never took electoral democracy seriously nor accepted the legitimacy of its American version. Even when he won, in 2016, he insisted that the election was fraudulent — that millions of false votes were cast for his opponent. In 2020, in the knowledge that he was trailing Joseph R. Biden in the polls, he spent months claiming that the presidential election would be rigged and signaling that he would not accept the results if they did not favor him. He wrongly claimed on Election Day that he had won and then steadily hardened his rhetoric: With time, his victory became a historic landslide and the various conspiracies that denied it ever more sophisticated and implausible.

Of course this did make a kind of sense: If the election really had been stolen, as senators and congressmen were themselves suggesting, then how could Congress be allowed to move forward? For some Republicans, the invasion of the Capitol must have been a shock, or even a lesson. For the breakers, however, it may have been a taste of the future. Afterward, eight senators and more than 100 representatives voted for the lie that had forced them to flee their chambers.Post-truth is pre-fascism, and Trump has been our post-truth president. When we give up on truth, we concede power to those with the wealth and charisma to create spectacle in its place. Without agreement about some basic facts, citizens cannot form the civil society that would allow them to defend themselves. If we lose the institutions that produce facts that are pertinent to us, then we tend to wallow in attractive abstractions and fictions.

Truth defends itself particularly poorly when there is not very much of it around, and the era of Trump — like the era of Vladimir Putin in Russia — is one of the decline of local news. Social media is no substitute: It supercharges the mental habits by which we seek emotional stimulation and comfort, which means losing the distinction between what feels true and what actually is true.Post-truth wears away the rule of law and invites a regime of myth. These last four years, scholars have discussed the legitimacy and value of invoking fascism in reference to Trumpian propaganda. One comfortable position has been to label any such effort as a direct comparison and then to treat such comparisons as taboo. More productively, the philosopher Jason Stanley has treated fascism as a phenomenon, as a series of patterns that can be observed not only in interwar Europe but beyond it.

My own view is that greater knowledge of the past, fascist or otherwise, allows us to notice and conceptualize elements of the present that we might otherwise disregard and to think more broadly about future possibilities. It was clear to me in October that Trump’s behavior presaged a coup, and I said so in print; this is not because the present repeats the past, but because the past enlightens the present.Like historical fascist leaders, Trump has presented himself as the single source of truth. His use of the term “fake news” echoed the Nazi smear Lügenpresse (“lying press”); like the Nazis, he referred to reporters as “enemies of the people.” Like Adolf Hitler, he came to power at a moment when the conventional press had taken a beating; the financial crisis of 2008 did to American newspapers what the Great Depression did to German ones. The Nazis thought that they could use radio to replace the old pluralism of the newspaper; Trump tried to do the same with Twitter.

This lie was big in every pertinent respect: not as big as “Jews run the world,” but big enough. The significance of the matter at hand was great: the right to rule the most powerful country in the world and the efficacy and trustworthiness of its succession procedures. The level of mendacity was profound. The claim was not only wrong, but it was also made in bad faith, amid unreliable sources. It challenged not just evidence but logic: Just how could (and why would) an election have been rigged against a Republican president but not against Republican senators and representatives? Trump had to speak, absurdly, of a “Rigged (for President) Election.”

The force of a big lie resides in its demand that many other things must be believed or disbelieved. To make sense of a world in which the 2020 presidential election was stolen requires distrust not only of reporters and of experts but also of local, state and federal government institutions, from poll workers to elected officials, Homeland Security and all the way to the Supreme Court. It brings with it, of necessity, a conspiracy theory: Imagine all the people who must have been in on such a plot and all the people who would have had to work on the cover-up.Trump’s electoral fiction floats free of verifiable reality. It is defended not so much by facts as by claims that someone else has made some claims. The sensibility is that something must be wrong because I feel it to be wrong, and I know others feel the same way. When political leaders such as Ted Cruz or Jim Jordan spoke like this, what they meant was: You believe my lies, which compels me to repeat them. Social media provides an infinity of apparent evidence for any conviction, especially one seemingly held by a president.

On the surface, a conspiracy theory makes its victim look strong: It sees Trump as resisting the Democrats, the Republicans, the Deep State, the pedophiles, the Satanists. More profoundly, however, it inverts the position of the strong and the weak. Trump’s focus on alleged “irregularities” and “contested states” comes down to cities where Black people live and vote. At bottom, the fantasy of fraud is that of a crime committed by Black people against white people.It’s not just that electoral fraud by African-Americans against Donald Trump never happened. It is that it is the very opposite of what happened, in 2020 and in every American election. As always, Black people waited longer than others to vote and were more likely to have their votes challenged. They were more likely to be suffering or dying from Covid-19, and less likely to be able to take time away from work. The historical protection of their right to vote has been removed by the Supreme Court’s 2013 ruling in Shelby County v. Holder, and states have rushed to pass measures of a kind that historically reduce voting by the poor and communities of color.

The Democrats, today, have become a coalition, one that does better than Republicans with female and nonwhite voters and collects votes from both labor unions and the college-educated. Yet it’s not quite right to contrast this coalition with a monolithic Republican Party. Right now, the Republican Party is a coalition of two types of people: those who would game the system (most of the politicians, some of the voters) and those who dream of breaking it (a few of the politicians, many of the voters). In January 2021, this was visible as the difference between those Republicans who defended the present system on the grounds that it favored them and those who tried to upend it.In the four decades since the election of Ronald Reagan, Republicans have overcome the tension between the gamers and the breakers by governing in opposition to government, or by calling elections a revolution (the Tea Party), or by claiming to oppose elites. The breakers, in this arrangement, provide cover for the gamers, putting forth an ideology that distracts from the basic reality that government under Republicans is not made smaller but simply diverted to serve a handful of interests.

But the president, for all his lawsuits and entreaties and threats to public officials, could not engineer a situation that ended with the right people doing the wrong thing. Trump could make some voters believe that he had won the 2020 election, but he was unable to bring institutions along with his big lie. And he could bring his supporters to Washington and send them on a rampage in the Capitol, but none appeared to have any very clear idea of how this was to work or what their presence would accomplish. It is hard to think of a comparable insurrectionary moment, when a building of great significance was seized, that involved so much milling around.

The breakers and the gamers then saw a different world ahead, where the big lie was either a treasure to be had or a danger to be avoided. The breakers had no choice but to rush to be first to claim to believe in it. Because the breakers Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz must compete to claim the brimstone and bile, the gamers were forced to reveal their own hand, and the division within the Republican coalition became visible on Jan. 6. The invasion of the Capitol only reinforced this division. To be sure, a few senators withdrew their objections, but Cruz and Hawley moved forward anyway, along with six other senators. More than 100 representatives doubled down on the big lie. Some, like Matt Gaetz, even added their own flourishes, such as the claim that the mob was led not by Trump’s supporters but by his opponents.Trump is, for now, the martyr in chief, the high priest of the big lie. He is the leader of the breakers, at least in the minds of his supporters. By now, the gamers do not want Trump around. Discredited in his last weeks, he is useless; shorn of the obligations of the presidency, he will become embarrassing again, much as he was in 2015. Unable to provide cover for their gamesmanship, he will be irrelevant to their daily purposes. But the breakers have an even stronger reason to see Trump disappear: It is impossible to inherit from someone who is still around. Seizing Trump’s big lie might appear to be a gesture of support. In fact it expresses a wish for his political death. Transforming the myth from one about Trump to one about the nation will be easier when he is out of the way.

As Cruz and Hawley may learn, to tell the big lie is to be owned by it. Just because you have sold your soul does not mean that you have driven a hard bargain. Hawley shies from no level of hypocrisy; the son of a banker, educated at Stanford University and Yale Law School, he denounces elites. Insofar as Cruz was thought to have a principle, it was that of states’ rights, which Trump’s calls to action brazenly violated. A joint statement Cruz issued about the senators’ challenge to the vote nicely captured the post-truth aspect of the whole: It never alleged that there was fraud, only that there were allegations of fraud. Allegations of allegations, allegations all the way down.The big lie requires commitment. When Republican gamers do not exhibit enough of that, Republican breakers call them “RINOs”: Republicans in name only. This term once suggested a lack of ideological commitment. It now means an unwillingness to throw away an election. The gamers, in response, close ranks around the Constitution and speak of principles and traditions. The breakers must all know (with the possible exception of the Alabama senator Tommy Tuberville) that they are participating in a sham, but they will have an audience of tens of millions who do not.

If Trump remains present in American political life, he will surely repeat his big lie incessantly. Hawley and Cruz and the other breakers share responsibility for where this leads. Cruz and Hawley seem to be running for president. Yet what does it mean to be a candidate for office and denounce voting? If you claim that the other side has cheated, and your supporters believe you, they will expect you to cheat yourself. By defending Trump’s big lie on Jan. 6, they set a precedent: A Republican presidential candidate who loses an election should be appointed anyway by Congress. Republicans in the future, at least breaker candidates for president, will presumably have a Plan A, to win and win, and a Plan B, to lose and win. No fraud is necessary; only allegations that there are allegations of fraud. Truth is to be replaced by spectacle, facts by faith.Trump’s coup attempt of 2020-21, like other failed coup attempts, is a warning for those who care about the rule of law and a lesson for those who do not. His pre-fascism revealed a possibility for American politics. For a coup to work in 2024, the breakers will require something that Trump never quite had: an angry minority, organized for nationwide violence, ready to add intimidation to an election. Four years of amplifying a big lie just might get them this. To claim that the other side stole an election is to promise to steal one yourself. It is also to claim that the other side deserves to be punished.Informed observers inside and outside government agree that right-wing white supremacism is the greatest terrorist threat to the United States.

Gun sales in 2020 hit an astonishing high. History shows that political violence follows when prominent leaders of major political parties openly embrace paranoia.Our big lie is typically American, wrapped in our odd electoral system, depending upon our particular traditions of racism. Yet our big lie is also structurally fascist, with its extreme mendacity, its conspiratorial thinking, its reversal of perpetrators and victims and its implication that the world is divided into us and them. To keep it going for four years courts terrorism and assassination.

When that violence comes, the breakers will have to react. If they embrace it, they become the fascist faction. The Republican Party will be divided, at least for a time. One can of course imagine a dismal reunification: A breaker candidate loses a narrow presidential election in November 2024 and cries fraud, the Republicans win both houses of Congress and rioters in the street, educated by four years of the big lie, demand what they see as justice. Would the gamers stand on principle if those were the circumstances of Jan. 6, 2025?To be sure, this moment is also a chance. It is possible that a divided Republican Party might better serve American democracy; that the gamers, separated from the breakers, might start to think of policy as a way to win elections. It is very likely that the Biden-Harris administration will have an easier first few months than expected; perhaps obstructionism will give way, at least among a few Republicans and for a short time, to a moment of self-questioning.

Politicians who want Trumpism to end have a simple way forward: Tell the truth about the election.America will not survive the big lie just because a liar is separated from power. It will need a thoughtful repluralization of media and a commitment to facts as a public good. The racism structured into every aspect of the coup attempt is a call to heed our own history. Serious attention to the past helps us to see risks but also suggests future possibility. We cannot be a democratic republic if we tell lies about race, big or small.Democracy is not about minimizing the vote nor ignoring it, neither a matter of gaming nor of breaking a system, but of accepting the equality of others, heeding their voices and counting their votes.

#trump #donald j #political #NYTimes #insurrection #January 6 2020 #corrupt GOP #Criminal GOP #analysis #sedition

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wrathfullightning · 5 years

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Okay so given that Last Knight on Earth is a Snyder/Capullo story and how they love to find a way to get the Court of Owls into anything they write, I really should’ve seen this inclusion coming. But somehow I was still taken aback by the fact that A) the Court now seems to be some sort of resistance group in Omega’s cyberpunk fascist Gotham City rather than the bird themed ninja death cult of Bat-Cthulhu worshipping rich people they’ve always been (Maybe I’m misinterpreting this but judging by the language used it sure seems like they’re a resistance group mistaking Bats for Omega rather than jackbooted fascist thugs making an arrest but I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m wrong) and B) that they stopped beating around the bush and actually made Dick a straight up Talon rather than just undercover in the Court.

Either way, fuck me I love this story.

#last knight on earth #spoilers #last knight on earth spoilers #this latest issue was nuts

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alluringcliche · 6 years

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let me try to remember my buffy/angel episode feelings as i rewatch because i have a bad memory -- one-two sentences per ep @ezrisdax @feelsandotps

I started at 1x12, skipped most of 1. Btw my faves are still Cordelia & Buffy, and my problematic fave is Spike, there it is. I felt like S3 was my fave, but I really appreciate the Spike in S4, so there’s that -- I think 4 has some great eps and 2 of course does as well.

SEASON 1

12. Prophecy Girl - Buffy dies, ouch, but Xander has a heroic moment (?), I think Buffy’s already depressed and it’s S1.

SEASON 2 1. When She Was Bad - See, Buffy’s already depressed and angry but everyone should cut her some slack SHE DIED, SHE’S TRYING. 2. Some Assembly Required - Oh I already forgot about this one, but it was fun because they tried to kill Cordelia and she was great and I adore Cordelia 3. School Hard - SPIKE is here and Spike/Dru are amazing. Also parent teacher night honestly Joyce&Buffy so far is ouch in general. 4. Inca Mummy Girl - This one’s the other kind of ouch like you did a pretty bad job with portraying people who aren’t white, come on. 5. Reptile Boy - Oh the one with the demons in the frat boy basement, nice team scenes, nice metaphor for the patriarchy (yeah I’ve been listening to Buffering the Vampire Slayer, did I mention that). 6. Halloween - Def a S2 favorite they all turn into their costumes Buffy’s helpless, Cordelia’s normal, Xander’s in the army, the whole Willow ghost thing, Spike’s there, it’s great. 7. Lie to Me - The one with the cult who wanted to be vamps. Not much memory of this one except like...the guy had cancer which was sad, not a fave. 8. The Dark Age - First Ripper stuff so that’s fun! 9 & 10. What’s My Line, Part 1/2 - Kendra! Angel tied to a cross! Spike! A fun plan where we save them as a Team. What’s not to like? 11. Ted - Ah, Joyce’s robot boyfriend. Odd, but memorable and like...really dark...when she gets arrested. 12. Bad Eggs Oh yeah, there’s like a monster under the school and everyone’s possessed. Joyce&Buffy is still ouch. 13. Surprise I like when Cordelia jumps out of the cake...but anyway...this is a good though PAINFUL arc, not a Bangel fan. 14. Innocence Ouch Angelus and sad Buffy, but they use a rocket launcher in a mall which is cool. 15. Phases Oz! I never realized he got bit by like his baby cousin? LOL. Touching arc in this ep though! 16. Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered Everyone loves Xander, I liked that there was a Cordy focus. 17. Passion OUCH. JENNY. 18. Killed by Death The kind of out-of-normal-context one where Buffy’s in the hospital with ghostly kids! Well done though, has Cordelia’s “tact is just not saying true stuff line” 19. I Only Have Eyes for You I was creeped out by the fact that it was a teacher student relationship and no one cared? Good writing though. 20. Go Fish Haha, Xander and the swim team. I like Cordelia’s monologue about Xander. 21. Becoming, Part 1/2 KENDRA :( BUFFY :( Oh also some great Spike scenes (with Joyce). And of course the ENNNND ouchhh. I’m not fine.

S2 Faves: Halloween, School Hard, Becoming, Passion (ouch!)

SEASON 3 1. Anne - BUFFYS DEPRESSED SOME ONE HELP HER 2. Dead Man’s Party - BUFFY’S DEPRESSED STOP BEING MEAN TO HER 3. Faith, Hope and Trick - Hi, Faith. Didn’t like Faith as much last time, she’s grown on me. 4. Beauty and the Beasts - Another good expansion of Oz’s arc and some Bangel emotions. 5. Homecoming - GREAT I love Buffy and Cordelia and they are together and it’s amazing. Cordelia’s speech at the end is quality. 6. Band Candy - GREAT I mean Joyce and Giles and Snyder as teens it’s so funny and well-paced, nice. 7. Revelations -- This one has an evil British watcher and Xander/Willow (plus Xander being kind of a jerk), not a fave. 8. Lovers Walk -- GREAT. Painful ending. Love Spike & Willow. GREAT. SPIKE/BUFFY/ANGEL WORKING TOGETHER I LOVE THIS. 9. The Wish - GREAT. Ouch. Alt!Buffy. NICE. 10. Amends -- Like, Angel’s past is kind of awful? Give me Angel-the-show dorky Angel please! 11. Gingerbread -- Haha the one where the Sunnydale people try to kill witches I mean again @Joyce&Buffy, ???? not the greatest relationship ??? 12. Helpless GREAT OUCH GREAT...the Watcher’s Council tests Buffy, GILE’S DILEMA, BUFFYS BETRAYAL ouch 13. The Zeppo I mean I like Xander’s arc about believing in himself more, despite him not being great all the time, I still like him overall, glad he got a chance to shine. 14. Bad Girls Faith stop corrupting Buffy! This show has more like very heavily implied Faith/Buffy than I remembered. OUCH @ the ending. 15. Consequences OUCH @ the whole episode with Faith, especially the Xander bit, rougher than I remembered 16. Doppelgangland VAMP!Willow. Willow trying to be vamp!Willow was funny. Another one where I remember good team stuff. 17. Enemies OUCH I totally forgot and thought Angel was really Angelus. Heartbreaking and well done. 18. Earshot I love this one! Jonathan! “Are you planning on killing anyone tomorrow? It’s for the yearbook.” 19. Choices Everyone should let Buffy live basically! 20. The Prom Xander/Cordelia is nice, but isn’t Xander poor? Wesley/Cordelia is creepy? WILD HORSES. BUT YEAH THE UMBRELLA AND I CRY. 21. Graduation Day, Part 1/2 I LOVE THE WHOLE SCHOOL COMING TOGETHER NICE NICE

S3 Faves: Homecoming, Band Candy, Lover’s Walk, the Wish, Helpless, Earshot, Prom, Graduation Day...and a few more I also like a lot, that’s why I really like this season

SEASON 4

1. The Freshman - Buffy's having a hard time in college someone help her! 2. Living Conditions - Buffy’s roommate is a demon, a bit overdone but pretty fun! 3. The Harsh Light of Day - Like the Spike/Buffy banter is great but Parker is awful and honestly Spike is awful too, some of the end fight scene comments are BAD. Also Spike should treat Harmony better. 4. Fear, Itself - Haunted house fears, nice Halloween ep. 5. Beer Bad - I honestly like drunk!Buffy it’s fun! 6. Wild at Heart - Ouch, Oz & Willow OUCH. 7. The Initiative - Buffy/Riley really had a whole fight and didn’t recognize each other? Still I don’t hate Riley so far. 8. Pangs - Look there were some problematic things but I thought the dialogue and episode arc was SO well done and so funny. And they made an attempt to address something, they did a bad job but they tried. Team!Thanksgiving is <3 and perfectionist!Buffy and Spike tied to a chair, Xander/Anya etc. etc. lots of good stuff, I think it’s still a s4 favorite. 9. Something Blue - Ah, cursed!engaged Spuffy NICE.

SEASON 1 ANGEL

1. City Of Look I LOVE ANGEL tbh just the opening and the noir tone and CORDELIA it’s great it’s nice AND DORKY angel and cordelia knows the guys a vamp it’s great! DOYLE.

2. Lonely Heart I don’t love Kate and this demon was weirdly like an STD as well.

3. In the Dark Cordy/Doyle got to feature, and Spike. Not really sure why Angel destroyed the thing (makes him more tortured?)

4. I Fall to Pieces That was actually a pretty creepy stalking episode. Well done bringing attention to how violence against women can be overlooked.

5. Rm w/ a Vu Love this one! CORDELIA IS AMAZING. CORDELIA. IS AMAZING. Dennis is nice too!

6. Sense & Sensitivity I love dorky!Angel, I love when dorky!Angel has to speak his feelings! Poor Kate!

7. Bachelor Party Doyle/Cordy were so close! Definitely a fun one with everyone working together. I’m just having a lot of Angel&Cordy&Doyle feelings

8. I Will Remember You Look I skipped this one for now tbh, I’m just not in a Bangel mood, haha.

So yeah I looked up the next episode and...I thought that was the S1 finale?? That’s...ouch.

#rewatching buffy #btvs #gpoy #personal

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eddycurrents · 6 years

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For the week of 4 February 2019

Quick Bits:

Archie #702 sees Sandy Jarrell and Matt Herms pitch in for much of this issue as Betty and Veronica try to figure out who Archie’s seeing now. It goes about as well as you’d expect. Nick Spencer is still delivering some humorous dialogue and the opening sequence from Marguerite Sauvage is as beautiful as ever.

| Published by Archie Comics

Archie 1941 #5 is pretty heavy, dealing with the the grief, remorse, and emotional devastation of loss experienced during the war. Peter Krause and Kelly Fitzpatrick’s artwork has been wonderful throughout this entire series and they nail the conclusion.

| Published by Archie Comics

Avengers #14 sparks the fuse of the vampire civil war from Jason Aaron, David Marquez, Justin Ponsor, Erick Arciniega, and Cory Petit. There’s some really nice world-building going on here with the Legion of the Unliving and a rather interesting development with Ghost Rider.

| Published by Marvel

Batman #64 begins “The Price” crossover with The Flash from Joshua Williamson, Guillem March, Tomeu Morey, and Steve Wands. Outside of the tie-ins throughout the DC titles, I haven’t been reading Heroes in Crisis, but this ties in as well, spotlighting some of the strain that Batman and the Flash have been under. Something definitely feels off about the situation.

| Published by DC Comics

BPRD: The Devil You Know #13 feels like shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic at this point, with all of the pieces moving into place, and we’re just awaiting the inevitable end of everything. Stunning artwork from Laurence Campbell and Dave Stewart.

| Published by Dark Horse

Champions #2 fills in the hole of what happened during the battle with Zzzax last issue and, boy, is it a doozy. Jim Zub, Steven Cummings, Marcio Menyz, and Clayton Cowles set up something interesting, and possibly horrifying, to come down the line.

| Published by Marvel

Conan the Barbarian #3 maintains its high bar of excellence as the one-off stories building up Conan’s past continue from Jason Aaron, Mahmud Asrar, Matthew Wilson, and Travis Lanham. The art from Asrar and Wilson is just perfect.

| Published by Marvel

The Curse of Brimstone #11 is the beginning of the end in the first of this two-part finale for the series from Justin Jordan, Denys Cowan, John Stanisci, Rain Beredo, and Wes Abbott. It’s great to see Cowan’s art here as he, Stanisci, and Beredo make the beginning of this final fight look absolutely gorgeous.

| Published by DC Comics

Daredevil #1 is a very impressive debut from Chip Zdarsky, Marco Checchetto, Sunny Gho, and Clayton Cowles. It picks up from Matt’s recovery in Man Without Fear and, well, things are messy, unfocused, and he’s having a hell of a time getting his feet under him again. But, beyond that, there’s a real depth to the story here. Though there’s a ton of action, it also goes deep into character building and flashbacks of Matt’s time as a kid getting morality lessons from his priest. This is damn good, taking cues from Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s “Born Again”, but it also feels influenced by Mike Grell’s “The Longbow Hunters”. There’s also a back-up written and illustrated by Zdarsky himself with an interpretation of how Daredevil “sees” and the digital edition gives a smattering of back-up material including covers, art comparisons, and sketches. I highly recommend this.

| Published by Marvel

Deathstroke #40 concludes the “Arkham” arc with Slade killing Hugo Strange and then slaughtering a bunch of homeless men. Maybe. Depends on which truth you believe. In doing so, Priest sets up the seeds for the upcoming crossover with Teen Titans.

| Published by DC Comics

Die #3 peels back another layer of the onion of this world as Kieron Gillen, Stephanie Hans, and Clayton Cowles give us a story of how the various regions work. All through an allegory of war between Eternal Prussia and Little England, Tolkien re-adapted to a kind of explanation on his own allegory. It’s interesting, especially when coupled with the essay Gillen pens in the back that explains the whole construct. That said, it also works great as just an extremely pretty adventure where a party of adventurers fights a dragon. I’m loving what this series is doing.

| Published by Image

Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor #4 concludes the opening arc with the Hoarder from Jody Houser, Rachael Stott, Erica Eren Angiolini, Viviana Spinelli, Richard Starkings, Sarah Jacobs, and John Roshell. I still love the inventiveness and ornate quality to the Hoarder’s design.

| Published by Titan

The Empty Man #4 gives a bit more insight into the disease ravaging the planet, as more of the strange skittering monsters appear and the kids from the original mini-series return. Cullen Bunn, Jesús Hervás, Niko Guardia, and Ed Dukeshire are crafting something very dark and weird with this series, but also very, very good.

| Published by BOOM! Studios

Female Furies #1 isn’t a bad start from Cecil Castellucci, Adrian Melo, Hi-Fi, and Carlos M. Mangual. I quite like Melo’s art here, as she’s adapted it somewhat to highlight influences from some Fourth World luminaries like Jack Kirby, Keith Giffen, and Walt Simonson.

| Published by DC Comics

The Freeze #3 delves deeper into the early days after the Freeze as the awakened look into the serial killings, and we get more mysteries in missing people (who may or may not be the same as those murdered) and the revelation that Ray is being manipulated. Really great work here from Dan Wickline, Phillip Sevy, and Troy Peteri.

| Published by Image / Top Cow

GI Joe: Sierra Muerte #1 sees Michael Fiffe bring his kind of retro charm to the Joes in the beginning of this series. It’s actually played pretty straight and reminds me of the loving care that Tom Scioli also takes to these properties. Great art and a story that reminds me of the original GI Joe cartoon.

| Published by IDW

Giant Days #47 intertwines Daisy learning to drive, McGraw’s brother dropping in on him and Susan, and Esther taking care of an illicit adorable puppy. All the usual humour and character building you’d expect from John Allison, Max Sarin, Whitney Cogar, and Jim Campbell.

| Published by Boom Entertainment / BOOM! Box

The Girl in the Bay #1 is an intriguing debut from JM DeMatteis, Corin Howell, James Devlin, and Clem Robins. It jumps headlong in to some of DeMatteis’ favourite themes and topics as spiritualism, reincarnation, and coming of age (particularly in Brooklyn) and presents a compelling world and mystery for the seemingly dead, then strangely awakened fifty years later Karen Sartori. Very nice artwork from Howell and Devlin.

| Published by DC Comics / Berger Books

The Green Lantern #4 may yet be the most beautiful issue to date, with Liam Sharp and Steve Oliff elevating the impossibly high bar of their artwork to an even greater level. The character designs, page layouts, panel transitions, and sheer storytelling in the artwork is incredible.

| Published by DC Comics

Gunhawks #1 is another of the revived title one-shots in celebration of Marvel’s 80th anniversary, this one a western from David & Maria Lapham, Luca Pizarri, Neeraj Menon, Rachelle Rosenberg, and Travis Lanham. It’s gritty, bloody, and the art from Pizarri, Menon, and Rosenberg is very impressive.

| Published by Marvel

Immortal Hulk #13 concludes the descent into Hell in an issue that is probably as epic as the Avengers beatdown from #7. Al Ewing, Joe Bennett, Ruy José, Belardino Brabo, Rafael Fonteriz, Paul Mounts, and Cory Petit continue to deliver one of the best series on the stands today.

| Published by Marvel

Justice League #17 follows on from the annual and the revelations in the “Escape from Hawkworld” arc in this single issue story of Martian Manhunter’s past from Scott Snyder, Jim Cheung, Mark Morales, Walden Wong, Tomeu Morey, and Tom Napolitano. Some fascinating developments in J’onn’s history here, with gorgeous artwork, and the funny truth that Batman’s really a concerned bat-dad.

| Published by DC Comics

Killmonger #4 wages a pitched battle with Die #3 and The Green Lantern #4 for most beautiful art in a comic this week. Juan Ferreyra’s work is stunning, giving the book depth, character, and an immense re-readability just to stare at the imagery again. There is a wonderful sequence of blood pooling up the page as the violence and body count increases and the design for the cat goddess is gorgeous. As to that latter, Egypt isn’t for want of multiple cat deities and, though Sekhmet is probably the easy answer, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the older and somewhat lesser known Mafdet. Bryan Hill, Ferreyra, and Joe Sabino continue to deliver one hell of a solid story with this series.

| Published by Marvel

Oberon #1 is off to a fantastic start with this tale from Ryan Parrott, Miloš Slavković, and Charles Pritchett. It strikes a nice balance between fantasy and the mundane as Bonnie finds out she, and the world, aren’t exactly what she thought. Gorgeous artwork from Slavković.

| Published by AfterShock

Old Man Quill #1 kicks off a Guardians tale set in the “Old Man” universe from Ethan Sacks, Robert Gill, Andres Mossa, and Joe Caramagna. I liked the recently concluded Sacks-penned Old Man Hawkeye series as well and Star-Lord appears to be taking on that same kind of beaten-down sardonicism of Clint.

| Published by Marvel

Prodigy #3 sees Crane and Agent Straks racing across the globe to find out information on the cult aiding the alternate dimension insurgents. The artwork from Rafael Albuquerque and Marcelo Maiolo continues to be the main attraction, delivering some amazing action sequences.

| Published by Image

Self/Made #3 gives us another twist as Rebecca and Amala attempt to take down Bryce for control of Amala’s code. This story continues to evolve in some very interesting ways, while including some of the toxicity inherent in some game development studios, with some beautiful artwork from Eduardo Ferigato and Marcelo Costa.

| Published by Image

Shadow Roads #6 returns with Brian Hurtt stepping in for the line art and it’s great to see him back illustrating within the Sixth Gun world. Really nice, weird designs for the Bone Plains and interesting hints as to what’s next for the new/old threats seeping back into the world.

| Published by Oni Press

Star Wars: Age of Republic - Anakin Skywalker #1 spotlights a moral quandary for Anakin from Jody Houser, Cory Smith, Wilton Santos, Walden Wong, Java Tartaglia, and Travis Lanham. It’s still interesting to see Anakin as “General Skywalker” during the Clone Wars and how different he was from what he’d become.

| Published by Marvel

These Savage Shores #3 is almost a perfect comic, actually it may well be a perfect comic. The craft and care that goes into creating this work is astounding. Ram V, Sumit Kumar, Vittorio Astone, and Aditya Bidikar are elevating the art form each issue. With the compelling intertwining of history and horror. With the epistolary narrative approach perfectly befitting the vampire sub-genre. With the attention to detail in how dialogue and narration are presented visually. With the variations on the 9-panel grid to guide pacing and keep the reader visually interested. With the consideration of the colour washes and tones to amplify the mood and atmosphere of the tale. This series is incredible.

| Published by Vault

United States vs. Murder Inc. #6 is kind of a weird conclusion to this series as the larger plot of the predicament the families currently find themselves in is left to the next series and, like last issue, we instead get more of Valentine’s family history. Great art, though, from Michael Avon Oeming and Taki Soma. The art really reminds me of some of Darwyn Cooke’s in his Parker adaptations.

| Published by DC Comics / Jinxworld

Vindication #1 is an interesting crime drama from MD Marie, Carlos Miko, Dema Jr., Thiago Goncalves, and Troy Peteri. I love the shades of grey and uncertainty in motivation and truth in this story.

| Published by Image / Top Cow

Wasted Space #6 returns with all the humour, violence, and madness that Michael Moreci, Hayden Sherman, Jason Wordie, and Jim Campbell brought to the first arc. I love Sherman’s designs for the gods, they remind me a lot of Ted McKeever’s work.

| Published by Vault

The Wrong Earth #6 ends season one of the series with Dragonfly and Dragonflyman adapting somewhat each to their new Earths, showing a bit of equivocation of the characters as the environment changes them. This has been an interesting story from Tom Peyer, Jamal Igle, Juan Castro, Andy Troy, and Rob Steen and there’s ample threads to bring me back when the series resumes.

| Published by Ahoy

Young Justice #2 continues the adventure in Gemworld in the present, while we get a focus on Wonder Girl in the past. There’s something weird going on here with time and continuity that still feels like a story beat more than Brian Michael Bendis just playing fast and loose with what he wants. Great art from Patrick Gleason, Emanuela Lupacchino, Ray McCarthy, and Alejandro Sanchez.

| Published by DC Comics / Wonder Comics

Other Highlights: Asgardians of the Galaxy #6, Atomic Robo & The Dawn of a New Era #2, Battlestar Galactica: Twilight Command #1, Black AF: Devil’s Dye #2, Cemetery Beach #6, Curse Words #20, The Dreaming #6, Feathers, Gasolina #15, GI Joe: A Real American Hero #259, LaGuardia #3, Marvel Action: Avengers #2, Noble #15, Project Superpowers #6, Red Sonja #1, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #5, Star Wars #61, Tony Stark: Iron Man #8, The Umbrella Academy: Hotel Oblivion #5, Unnatural #7, Vampirella/Reanimator #2

Recommended Collections: Betrothed - Volume 1: Love or Die, Big Trouble in Little China: Old Man Jack - Volume 3, BPRD: The Devil You Know - Volume 2: Pandemonium, Ether - Volume 2: Copper Golems, Lowlifes, Noble - Volume 3: No One Man, Optimus Prime - Volume 5, TMNT: Bebop & Rocksteady Hit the Road

d. emerson eddy sometimes feels like his old bones should light out for the wastelands.

#This Week in Comics

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funbuzzblog · 5 years

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Erin Foster Wore a Danielle Frankel Dress With a Statement Sleeve at Her New Year’s Eve Wedding in Nashville

“We met at the gym! Not a sentence I ever thought I’d say,” jokes writer, performer, and all-around funny girl Erin Foster of how she and Simon Tikhman, the CEO and co-founder of The Core Entertainment, a partner of Live Nation, first got to know each other. “We were on the same schedule, and after seeing him every Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 8 a.m., I decided to slide into his DMs like the old-fashioned romantic that I am.”

With her sister Sara Foster, Erin created the TV series Barely Famous, a mockumentary of reality TV that first aired back in 2015 and became a VH1 cult classic. Now, the two are the creative heads of Bumble and collaborate on the clothing brand Sub Urban Riot. (Erin, Sara, and their stylist sister Jordan are all daughters of record producer David Foster and model Rebecca Foster. David is now married to Katharine .)

Erin and Simon had been dating for a year when he proposed. “It was so well executed and thought out,” Erin recalls. “He told me we were going to his friend’s vow renewal in Napa. A detailed invitation for it actually came in the mail to our house. When we checked into the hotel, the front desk gave us an envelope from the bride and groom with directions to the ceremony. I had no clue!” Erin and Simon walked into the Napa Valley Reserve, and there were signs for the renewal everywhere. “He had even staged a conversation

with a woman who greeted us, so she explained that everyone just went on a wine tour. Then we walked to an area to wait, and he got down on his knee,” Erin says. “My first reaction was that we were at someone else’s wedding! But then he explained that it had all been a decoy, and there was no wedding. After I said ‘yes,’ both of our families came walking out to us. I was blown away!”

After Erin had a chance to fully process the surprise proposal, she started to focus on wedding plans. The couple decided to have a quick engagement, planning their wedding for four months away. “We were trying to pack all the stress into a shorter time frame,” Erin says. “Simon thought New Year’s Eve

would be fun, and we randomly picked Nashville because it’s fun and different, and easy to get to.”

Erin’s friend Marc Rose was in the process of opening the new Graduate Hotel in Nashville, and they devised a plan to open it early for the wedding so they could take over the whole hotel, turning it into a full-on summer camp with everyone’s name on their door, community wellness stations, bands playing in the lobby, and kids running around freely. “It solidified us picking Nashville,” Erin says. “Also, Nashville is surrounded by farmland, and I’ve always wanted to get married in a rustic setting.” Simon took a trip down South to scout places, and Saddle Woods Farm was exactly what they were looking for. He booked it without Erin ever even seeing it in person. “Simon is better at details and planning than I am,” she notes.

In light of this, they decided the best thing to do was to get a local planner in Nashville who knew the city inside and out. “I asked everyone I knew who lived there—Reese Witherspoon, Lily Aldridge, Simon’s business partner Chief Zaruk—and they all said Hugh Howser of H Three Events was who we had to hire,” Erin says. “They were right.”

Erin worked with her sister and stylist Jordan on all aspects of her wedding wardrobe. “Erin decided to plan her wedding in only four months, so from the get-go, we knew we had to act fast,” Jordan says. “Initially, she had zero idea what she wanted to wear, so I made her go to a bridal salon and try on literally 50 dresses, so she could point out things she liked and disliked from

each one.” From there, Erin and Jordan started to create the ideal dress. They were originally going to have it custom-made. “But by the time her final fitting came around, she just didn’t feel like it was right for her,” Jordan remembers. “She slept on the thought and woke me up early the next day to tell me she had decided overnight to go in a new direction, that she had changed her flight, and that we needed to find a new dress that day. Luckily, she had fallen in love with a wedding dress she had tried on during her reception dress fitting with Danielle Frankel.”

“Danielle is young and fresh and making a name for herself since being a finalist in the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund,” Erin explains. “I walked into her showroom,

and it felt so romantic and special. I tried on her samples and found two amazing wedding dresses that were perfect.” One, she wore to the ceremony, and the other was cut shorter and turned into the reception dress. Erin complemented the dress with Martin Katz jewelry—“He made my engagement ring that I am still in shock over and wake up every day staring at,” she admits—and ivory Saint Laurent heels.

Simon wore a Todd Snyder tux. He worked with his friend Jason Rembert on his entire wedding day look, and together they opted for an ivory jacket, Tom Ford bow-tie, and Lanvin shoes.

On New Year’s Eve, the bride walked down an aisle illuminated by candlelight, escorted by her father. “I always wanted to get married at night inside a barn. A beach wedding would never have been my vibe,” she says. “But because it was cold we couldn’t have the ceremony and the reception inside the barn, and had to build a tent for the ceremony. I was worried it wouldn’t have that intimate feeling I wanted, but Hugh made the tent feel like a barn with wooden floors and candles everywhere.” Erin chose to get married in the round so that no one felt too far away or like they had a bad seat. “I converted to Judaism after Simon and I got engaged, so we had a reformed Jewish ceremony,” she explains. “The rabbi who converted me, Rabbi Shapiro, is so cool and made the ceremony feel so personal and relatable instead of being generic. We laughed and cried through our personal vows.” At the end of the ceremony, Simon stepped on the glass, and a local gospel choir sang “Signed, Sealed, Delivered.”

For the reception, the barn was transformed with greenery climbing up the walls and floating candles hovering over the dance floor. Rustic farm tables were covered with warm neutral flower arrangements by Flwr Shop. “Simon is Russian, and it’s customary to have alcohol bottles on the table for people to make their own drinks so every table had Ketel One Botanical vodka, Don Julio 1942 tequila, and proper Russian caviar on it,” Erin notes. “My stepmom Katharine [McPhee] sang two songs for us after we begged her to, and she killed it. Simon also surprised me with a choreographed dance he had secretly been working on with my niece Valentina. It was unreal!”

The newlyweds danced to Leon Bridges’s “Beyond,” which they had listened to on the way home from their first date. Simon found singer Nathan Davis Jr. on

Instagram and convinced him to fly to Nashville to perform the song at the wedding. “In the middle of our first dance, my nine-year-old niece Valentina walked up and interrupted us,” Erin says. “She had to tell us that Nathan is apparently a massive TikTok star.”

The evening was punctuated with fireworks at midnight, followed by lots more dancing before everyone returned to the Graduate Hotel to sing karaoke at the Cross-Eyed Critters Watering Hole until 6 a.m.

Post-wedding, the newlyweds headed to the Bahamas to celebrate. “Planning is so much more intense than you realize it’s going to be,” Erin admits. “You say you won’t be that bridezilla who obsesses over every detail, but you become her so fast and just want everyone to be happy with all your choices. We are so ready to sleep-in and lay around on a beach, and never look at a seating chart ever again!

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aion-rsa · 5 years

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The Best Comics of the Decade

https://ift.tt/368Hmgo

We've read a TON of great comics in the last 10 years, and we picked out the 100 best for you to passionately disagree with.

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What a century this last decade has been.

Seriously, the pace of change over the last 10 years has been steadily rising, and has been somewhere between “dangerous” and “murderous” for the last 3, and that isn’t just about geopolitics: the comics world of today is certainly recognizable to a time traveller from 2010, but it would look extremely weird.

- Webcomics and medium press publishers are EVERYWHERE now.

- Marvel has embraced multiple restarts of its line.

- DC has rebooted its universe at least twice.

- Comics are for kids again.

- Nerds rule culture, for all that’s good and bad.

These changes have been catalysts for some very, very good comic books, and we wanted to give you a list of some of our favorites. Here are a few guiding principles to our list:

I am one person who can’t possibly read everything. There’s some stuff that won’t be on this list because I didn’t have time to get to it. Please share what was missed in the comments!

It’s also an exercise in opinion! I didn’t want to be redundant and talk about the same creators or characters over and over again, though there are some repeats. I ranked these according to what I enjoyed, and not some externally objective measure of what is the finest art. If anything, I’m biased towards what was interesting - books that have stuck with me for years, stuff I still think about or reread or recommend. That said, for longer runs like Scott Snyder’s Batman or Criminal, I tried to pick arcs that were symbolic of the entire run, or the best stories within a bigger picture.

And finally, it’s imperfect. I’ve been fiddling with a good chunk of this list for a month and a half, and every time I look, I realize something I forgot, or something I could move, or something that shouldn’t be ranked lower than something else. But ultimately, I’m pretty happy with everything here, and I’m willing to bet you’ll find something interesting you’ve never considered before in it, even if I’ve missed a few glaring stories.

With that in mind, Den of Geek is proud to unveil our empirically sound, objective, and absolute BEST COMICS OF THE 2010S

100. Batman & Robin

Pete Tomasi, Patrick Gleason, Mick Gray, John Kalisz (DC Comics)

Tomasi and Gleason’s run never got the attention it deserved because it ran alongside huge ones - Grant Morrison’s Batman and Batman Inc. to start, and Scot Snyder and Greg Capullo’s monster New 52 series later. But I might like this one more: Tomasi writes hands down the best Damian Wayne I’ve ever read, and Gleason and Gray do bulky, shadowy Bat people perfectly. The high point is an issue around the middle of this run, post-Damian’s death but before he came back, when Batman is teaming up with Two-Face, and it might be my favorite single issue of Batman of all time. It’s such a perfect take on Two-Face that I come back to it every couple of years. Give this era of Batman a shot, I bet you love it.

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99. Black Science

Rick Remender, Matteo Scalera, Moreno Dionisio (Image Comics)

Black Science is a comic full of Rick Remender’s fears and worries. Scalera and Dionisio turn them into bright, colorful, wildly creative visuals as Grant McKay bounced around the Eververse trying to find a way at first to express his anarcho-scientistism, and then to save his family. It wrapped up earlier this year, and Remender and the team did an elegant job landing the plane on one of the best books from a wave of big name creator owned books that launched back in 2014.

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98. Black

Kwanza Osajyefo, Tim Smith 3, Jamal Igle, Khary Randolph (Black Mask Studios)

Osajyefo, Smith, Igle and cover artist Khary Randolph’s comic about what would happen in a world where only black people got superpowers stripped the “mutant” part from “the mutant metaphor” and also the “metaphor” part, and gave us a story about black people being treated like exploitable resources by the US government. Igle’s black and white art was terrific, and the story is rough when you explain the plot, but rougher when it plays out on the page in front of you.

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97. Assassin Nation

Kyle Starks, Erica Henderson (Image Comics)

Starks and Henderson are both gifted comics creators on their own. Pairing them together gave us something beautiful - a book that’s about the world’s greatest assassins banding together to fight for their lives. It’s got unique characters with distinct voices and ridiculous, over the top action.

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96. Boundless

Jillian Tamaki (Drawn & Quarterly)

Time has sped up immensely in the last three years. Things that feel momentus happen and are forgotten four hours later. Trends are microtrends, fads are localized without geography, and entire 24-hour news cycles are compressed to the space between weathers on the 1s. So it’s really weird how a collection of in-the-moment short comics drawn (presumably) in 2016 feels extremely relevant and timely now. Tamaki takes a bunch of quick stories - about a mirror Facebook that shows you what might be in a parallel world; a Twilight Zone-esque cultural phenomenon mp3; a porn sitcom from the ‘90s gaining more than a cult following 25 years later - and uses the characters to say something interesting about them or us or our world. It’s a great book.

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95. Imperium

Joshua Dysart, Doug Brathwaite, Scot Eaton, Cafu, Khari Evans, Ulisses Ariola (Valiant Entertainment)

Toyo Harada is a underratedly great villain, and Imperium is the story of him trying to impose his will on the world. Valiant books have, since their return early this decade, been pretty tightly intertwined, but most of their central narrative has revolved around Harada. He’s a great choice for that. He’s as big an egomaniac as Lex Luthor or Dr. Doom, but he’s got the benefit of operating in a world where the political rules are more like those of ours, which enhances everything good and bad about his character. Dysart and the art team give us an outstanding story about megalomania here.

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94. X-Men: Second Coming

Matt Fraction, Zeb Wells, Mike Carey, Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost, David Finch, Terry Dodson, Greg Land, Mike Choi, Ibraim Roberson, Rachel Dodson, Sonia Oback (Marvel Comics)

Second Coming is the payoff to my favorite era of X-Men books so far, the Messiah Era. It starts out blazingly fast, and then plays out over the course of 14 issues and somehow speeds up as it goes along. It’s a straight up summer blockbuster action movie in comic form that does an excellent job blending voices, art styles and ongoing plots with the overall narrative of the crossover without losing any momentum.

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93. Ultimates 2

Al Ewing, Travel Foreman, Christian Ward, Dan Brown (Marvel Comics)

Al Ewing is well on his way to stardom because of how good The Immortal Hulk is, but the cool kids all knew where he was going after he teamed up with Foreman and Ward to tell a story about the self-aware multiverse and cosmic entities of the Marvel universe in The Ultimates/Ultimates 2. This book is weird and gorgeous, and even if it leaned towards implying some big changes for the greater Marvel cosmology without ever seeing those changes bear fruit, it was still a terrific story on its own right.

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92. Adventure Time

Ryan North, Shelli Paroline, Braden Lamb (BOOM! Studios)

A licensed property like Adventure Time is tough to get right. The cartoon is so inventive that even if you match what shows up on the screen, it’s still just a pale shadow because the creativeness of the ideas is the point. So it was a huge surprise when the comic nailed it - it was every bit as wild as the show, only it also captured the voices of the characters perfectly and delighted in being a comic in a way that made it a celebration of the medium. This was the first time North managed to get rollover text into a printed comic, and it works, man.

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91. The Divine

Boaz Lavie, Asaf Hanuka, Tomer Hanuka (First Second)

The Hanukas do two things really, really well in The Divine. They do great scale shifts. The camera zooms from pulling in really close on an eye about to bleed to pulling waaaay back to show giant beasts roving what looks like a fantasy countryside, and each decision about where to put the camera serves the story well. And the coloring adds to the surrealness of the story. It’s bright and full of greens and pinks almost to the point of being disorienting, which is I think the goal of that palette choice. The story is excellent too, about Burmese (or I guess Myanmarese now) child soldiers defending the land of their gods from resource extractors.

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90. Ivar, Timewalker

Fred Van Lente, Clayton Henry, Brian Reber (Valiant Entertainment)

Ivar is surprisingly emotional and a ton of fun. Tonally, it’s one of the most distinct Valiant comics - it threads the needle of Quantum & Woody comedy, X-O Manowar high adventure and Eternal Warrior mythmaking. Van Lente takes pieces from all of those genres and knits them together with a ton of humor to make a super entertaining comic. What’s not to like about a book that starts with the main character throwing up his arms and shouting “LET’S KILL HITLER!”?

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89. Virgil

Steve Orlando, JD Faith, Chris Beckett, Tom Mauer (Image Comics)

What I liked most about Virgil is how little it felt like Orlando and Faith were shading the story. It’s simultaneously about how reprehensible Jamaica is towards gay people; crooked cops; and a love story; and a revenge story, and no one aspect overrules the others. Virgil is a dirty cop in Jamaica and also a gay man who loses his love and goes on a rampage. Every part of the story is given equal attention, and the final result is really, really good comics.

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88. Memetic

James Tynion IV, Eryk Donovan (BOOM! Studios)

It’s shocking how prescient Memetic feels. It’s genuinely creepy horror work from Tynion and Donovan, but it’s also about a meme and the homogenization of culture, and it landed like, 3 years before those ideas really penetrated the cultural zeitgeist. Donovan’s art manages the tricky feat of nailing the genuine horror of the situation, from the shock on the characters’ faces to the gross-out body horror later in the book, but it’s also genuinely funny at times. That damn sloth meme has been stuck in my head for five years.

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87. The Manhattan Projects

Jonathan Hickman, Nick Pitarra, Jordie Bellaire (Image Comics)

Some books need long explanations to justify inclusion on a best books of the decade list. Some just need you to say “Richard Feynman and Albert Einstein gun down a space station full of FDRobots.” Guess which one Manhattan Projects is.

read The Manhattan Projects on Amazon

86. O.M.A.C.

Dan DiDio, Keith Giffen, Scott Koblish, Hi-Fi (DC Comics)

O.M.A.C. is secretly the best New 52 launch title. Honestly, though, this book is and will always be an underrated gem: it’s DiDio, Giffen, and Koblish trying to do Jack Kirby with modern sensibilities. And it’s extremely, beautifully Kirby in so many different ways. I can’t believe it worked.

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85. All-New Wolverine

Tom Taylor, David Lopez, David Navarrot, Nathan Fairbairn (Marvel Comics)

One of the best X-Men comics from the last ten years is also one of the most unexpected: it’s a Marvel book that steals DC’s traditional schtick about how to be a great legacy hero. Laura Kinney takes over Logan’s mask after her clonefather dies, and decides to make it a more outwardly and publicly superheroic mantle. Spoilers: she’s GREAT at it. Taylor gives her real growth as a character, and uses the best new character of the last 10 years (Jonathan the Wolverine and also Scout nee Honey Badger) to great effect. I was stunned at how much I loved this comic.

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84. Assassination Classroom

Yusei Matsui (Viz Media)

I’m not sure how I would briefly describe this book, and that’s part of why I love it. A monster destroys ¾ of the moon and says more is coming. But he gives mankind an out: Kill him inside of a year, and he’ll leave them alive. Then, and this is where it gets nuts, he takes over as homeroom teacher for a group of misfit teenagers and starts teaching them how to kill him. It’s basically Bad News Bears with a little more murder and some great manga art from Matsui.

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83. Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Robert Hack (Archie Comics)

The best thing about Chilling Adventures of Sabrina isn’t that it spawned a great TV adaptation on Netflix. The best thing about it is how faithful to the comic the TV adaptation is. Part of Archie’s horror renaissance, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is a genre anachronism that revels in its horror story trappings and delights in placing wholesome Archie characters in it. It’s drawn well and smart and a lot of fun from start to finish.

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82. Uber

Kieron Gillen, Canaan White, Digikore Studios (Avatar Press)

Early on in Uber’s run, Gillen recommended Antony Beevor’s comprehensive history of World War II as something he leaned on heavily when constructing this book. It shows: Uber reads like a military history, rather than your typical comic about “What if they had super powers in World War II?” The supersoldiers are treated like any other military technology - resources to be deployed, depleted, exploited and overcome. This is probably the most interesting treatment of super powers I’ve seen in a comic in the decade.

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81. The Spire

Si Spurrier, Jeff Stokely, Andre May (BOOM! Studios)

Simon Spurrier does two things better than almost anyone in comics: he chooses incredible artists to work with, and he (and the artists) put together some stunning worlds for their characters to live in. The Spire is a murder mystery set in a fantasy city with a rigid class structure, and he and Stokely make a city that I felt immersed in immediately upon starting the book. One other thing Spurrier and crew do really well: wreck their main characters and break your heart, and The Spire is some of his best work.

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80. Aliens: Dead Orbit

James Stokoe (Dark Horse Comics)

James Stokoe could have drawn 100 pages of character models and it would be on this list. He’s an incredible artist who draws incredibly detailed everything. Everything! Rubble. Ribcages. Control panels. Inner mandibles. Giving him an Aliens book is the no-brainer of no-brainers - this is what HR Geiger would have drawn if he was raised on anime.

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79. Shade the Changing Girl

Cecil Catellucci, Marley Zarcone, Kelly Fitzpatrick (DC Comics)

It takes a really gifted eye to see the absurdity in everyday life and expose that to your readers with only a modest tweak to reality. Zarcone and Castellucci use dropping Rac Shade’s madness vest and Loma the alien bird into the body of a comatose mean girl as their way to show just how silly teenage life can be, and it’s beautiful. Shade the Changing Girl and its follow up, Shade the Changing Woman, both do magnificent work of using insanity to take you through a rollercoaster of emotions.

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78. Wuvable Oaf

Ed Luce (Fantagraphics)

I think the best part about Wuvable Oaf, the indie book about black metal San Francisco bears is just how nice it is. It’s a really sweet, funny courtship story about an ex-underground wrestler starting a relationship with a small, blood-drenched metal singer. I find myself recommending this book to a surprising amount of people.

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77. Upgrade Soul

Ezra Claytan Daniels (Lion Forge Comics)

Ezra Claytan Daniels went for messed up, twisty sci fi right out of the gate, and it was a home run. Upgrade Soul is an ugly body modification story about trying to prolong one’s life unnaturally, and what happens if that’s not all really well thought out beforehand. It’s drawn really well: even now, the scene with the gauze coming off layer by layer, the pacing of it and the skill of setting that sequence up, is amazing.

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76. Strong Female Protagonist

Brennan Lee Mulligan, Molly Ostertag

“What if superheroes were real” is usually an exceptionally stupid premise for a comic, but there are plenty of ridiculous components to the superhero conceit that are worth examining. One of them is the value of superheroing - does flying around punching shit really actually fix anything? In Strong Female Protagonist, Alison Green asks that question, decides it doesn’t, and quits capes for college and activism in New York. This is a great story well told, but what I enjoy about it now is how New York it feels. It’s a really thoughtful take on superheroing, but it’s also a really good story that transports you to an age and a place.

read Strong Female Protagonist here

75. Journey Into Mystery

Kieron Gillen, Doug Brathwaite, Ulises Ariola & others (Marvel Comics)

Journey Into Mystery shouldn’t have been successful. Loki wasn’t quite at the height of his powers yet, and while he was getting there, even now he can’t really carry his own book. It was also a legacy numbered relaunch coming out of a big summer crossover event. And yet, Kieron managed to take new kid Loki and use him to tell a story about stories and fate and myth that stands up there with some of the greatest Asgard stories ever told. What he does with the trickster god is actually sad and moving (and also generally hilarious - he writes a really fun Loki). it It’s one of my favorite things he’s ever written.

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74. Kinski

Gabriel Hardman (Monkeybrain Comics)

Sometimes, a comic is just plain good. Sometimes, a comic prominently features the GOODEST BOY on a cover. Sometimes, as is the case with Kinski, a comic does both. Hardman is a master of the form, and Kinski is one of his most underrated works. It’s the story of a guy bored with his life and trying to save a black lab puppy - not especially complicated or deep, but enough to hook me in, especially with the VERY GOOD BOY on the cover. But his art is magnificent. It’s black and white, and Hardman uses just about every inking style and manner to help tell the story. It’s virtuoso stuff. I loved it.

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73. The Sheriff of Babylon

Tom King, Mitch Gerads (Vertigo Comics)

With a list like this, sometimes it’s not the full sweep of a story that gets it on, but the remembered moments. I’ve seen King and Gerads work together a hundred times since then (or at least it feels like that - time has no meaning anymore). It’s all been spectacular, but the scene with Chris and Fatima in the Saddam’s old pool sharing a bottle of vodka talking about pointlessness still stands out hard for me. The Sheriff of Babylon has gotten better with age, and it started out really, really good.

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72. Genius

Marc Bernardin, Adam Freeman, Afua Richardson (Image Comics)

If you call a book Genius, it damn well better be brilliant. Fortunately for us, it was. Bernardin, Freeman and Richardson told us the story of Destiny, a precocious and brilliant military mind born into South Central and using her strategic genius to bring down the corrupt cops who have been terrorizing her neighborhood. It feels like it was timely when it came out, but it doesn’t read like a political statement. It reads like a really good revenge story. Richardson’s art was sharp and well laid out, and is a huge part of why Genius was so good.

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71. Judas

Jeff Loveness, Jakub Rebelka (BOOM! Studios)

This book came out of nowhere for me. Loveness and Rebelka expanded on the story of Christ and Judas in a fascinating way. Judas is a whip smart comic that thinks around a lot of the unspoken corners of Jesus’s story. And it’s gorgeous: Rebelka draws the hell out of Hell. His backgrounds and settings are every bit as impressive as the storytelling accomplishment. Judas turned out to be an outstanding story.

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70. Midnighter

Steve Orlando, ACO, Hugo Petrus, Romulo Fajardo, Jr & others (DC Comics)

Sometimes I just want to see a man punch his own ears off to stop from hearing a killing word.

read more: The Best TV Episodes of 2019

What might be the most shocking part about it is how much of this run endured in continuity through the years: Viv Vision is showing up left and right, and Victor Mancha’s fate here is a big plot point in Rowell and Anka’s wonderful Runaways relaunch.

read The Vision on Amazon

32. 4 Kids Walk Into A Bank

Matthew Rosenberg, Tyler Boss (Black Mask Studios)

This one is all about the patter. Rosenberg makes the kids sound so entertaining and makes their interpersonal dynamic so engrossing that you get wrapped up in the world of 4 Kids Walk Into A Bank easily. Tyler Boss’ art is terrific, selling the exaggerated expressions that kids make, where a smile often starts in their legs, and landing all the humor just as comfortably. It’s a comic that could have ended up as nostalgic tripe, but instead, 4 Kids Walk Into A Bank turned out great.

read 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank on Amazon

31. Kid Gloves

Lucy Knisley (First Second)

Kid Gloves is amazing for a lot of reasons. It’s informative and moving and personal, with a lot of history and politics that I think are really important components to a larger conversation that the book can be part of. Here’s the thing about it for me, though: I started reading it at the library. About halfway through, I put it back on the shelf, walked up the street to a book store and bought a copy. I knew from how much I was talking to the book while reading it that it was something I wanted to keep on my shelf and refer back to in the future. And I feel really good about that decision.

read Kid Gloves: Nine Months of Careful Chaos on Amazon

30. XKCD

Randall Munroe (Webcomic)

It didn’t inspire any stirring condemnations from legendary filmmakers, but I wonder if Randall Munroe’s half webcomic/half infographic didn’t have the biggest low key impact of any comic in the last decade. I feel like you’re vastly more likely to see an XKCD strip on someone’s desk, or tacked to the door of an office, or passed around on social media, than you are anything from Marvel or DC that isn’t designed to trigger the internet outrage cycle.

This is because Munroe is really good at cartooning. I mean, okay, he’s not going to paint you a Rembrandt, but his stick figures have a way of sneaking emotion up on you, through their shoulders and their heads. And he’s whip smart, too, but his comics help present his knowledge in an accessible, open way. XKCD has been in every iteration of blog reader I’ve had since 2010, and I’ll be checking in on it until it ends, because it’s terrific.

read XKCD here

29. Two Brothers

Gabriel Ba & Fabio Moon (Dark Horse Comics)

Ba & Moon do some amazing work in this adaptation of a novel from their native Brazil about two brothers, their doting mom, and the woman who comes between them. The artwork in Two Brothers is stunningly good and improves on the source material by taking some of the novels most impactful scenes and making them visually striking. Two Brothers isn’t a splashy comic, but it’s a damn good one, one that will stick with you for a long time.

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28. Lumberjanes

Noelle Stevenson, Shannon Watters, Grace Ellis, Brooke Allen, Carolyn Nowak, Carey Pietch, Maarta Laiho & more (BOOM! Studios)

Lumberjanes takes a lot of what worked about The Goonies and makes it smarter in a different way to give us one of the most fun and purest adventure comics in recent memory. It’s no surprise that Stevenson is kicking so much ass on She-Ra.

The book has been going for some time now, so the creative teams have shifted, but the art is remarkably consistent through the volumes, and it’s clear, sharp cartooning that’s exaggerated in all the right ways for a woodsy, camping adventure tale like this. Lumberjanes is another book with a huge cast that’s well managed, and it’s a lot of fun to read through.

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27. Showa: A History of Japan

Shigeru Mizuki (Drawn & Quarterly)

Technically, Showa is like, 30 years old. But it took 25 of those years for it to be released in the States, and there are no rules to this list, so I’m counting it.

Mizuki is one of the fathers of manga as a form, and as someone who came to his work after reading folks like Otomo and Urasawa, and decades after becoming familiar with anime, his work feels quaint and unsophisticated. Which is a really interesting pairing with the subject matter - Showa is a history of Japan in the Showa era, spanning the ‘20s through the late ‘80s, a period of massive transition for Japan that I mostly knew from broad strokes. He switches back and forth between a hyper-detailed realistic style that looks like (and sometimes is) tracing, and the cartoony manga style he uses to illustrate personal moments that tie into that history. It’s an incredibly effective storytelling technique and a useful way to bring the reader’s attention past the big picture and down to the regular peoples’ perspective of that big change. Showa is an incredible history book, and a masterpiece of the form.

read Showa on Amazon

26. Copra

Michel Fiffe (Bergen Street Comics/Image Comics)

It’s still amazing to me that Copra can even get made. It started out as a...spiritual sequel to Ostrander/Yale/McDonnell Suicide Squad in that it was almost an actual direct lift of Ostrander/Yale/McDonnell Suicide Squad only with Doctor Strange and Clea added in. But it was done with weird indie linework and colored pencil coloring, with a big zine aesthetic that made it immediately compelling. And once I got into it, I realized that Fiffe had captured everything great about that Suicide Squad run but turned it into something dstinctly his own, and I’ve loved it ever since.

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25. Afterlife with Archie

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Francesco Francavilla (Archie Comics)

This comic should not exist. It should not be good. It certainly shouldn’t be one of the best comics I’ve read in the last decade. And yet, Afterlife with Archie remains incredible. In fact, it might be the purest, finest zombie story I’ve experienced in a while. The slowly building tension is a masterclass in mood. Aguirre-Sacasa does a great job of taking Riverdale’s existing dynamic and plopping it into a zombie horror story so you get something that is recognizably both things at the same time. Francavilla’s art is probably the least surprising part of the equation, in that it is incredible. And the fact that you can probably draw a straight line between some of the themes here and what ended up on your screens in Riverdale is...pretty insane. And amazing.

read Afterlife With Archie on Amazon

24. Scalped

Jason Aaron, R.M. Guera (Vertigo)

The best thing about Jason Aaron and R.M. Guera’s Scalped is the cast. It’s a HUGE book, about an FBI investigation into corruption on a reservation that sends Dash Bad Horse back home undercover to investigate. Everyone Dash encounters, and everyone who’s conspiring to make life in Pairie Rose garbage, is a full character within two sentences. They all sound different, move different, look different. They carry the weight of a rough life in their posture and their cadence.

Superhero comics developed the distinctive costumes so artists could distinguish between characters easily. It’s hard to draw distinctive, consistent, recognizable people in street clothes, but Guera is amazing at it, and Aaron puts so much care and character into everyone who sets foot on the page that Scalped is impossible to put down.

read Scalped on Amazon

23. Nancy

Olivia Jaimes (GoComics)

“Sluggo is lit” isn’t quite the cultural phenomenon it was when Olivia Jaimes, the pseudonymous cartoonist, first introduced it to the strip she took over in 2018. But it’s still damn funny. I’ll admit, I completely blew it on Nancy in 2018 - it hadn’t registered with me because I don’t get print newspapers and only have a passing knowledge of their comic strips anymore. But when I first saw it, I died laughing.

And then I took a closer look at some of the comics - the one where Nancy steals the cookies from the top of the fridge by tossing them between panels to herself, or the joke about filler where the last panel is mostly an empty word balloon - and I realized that Jaimes, in addition to being funny as hell, really gets how to screw with the flow of information from comic to reader. She’s exceptionally talented, and Nancy is amazing work.

read Nancy here

22. The Hard Tomorrow

Eleanor Davis (Drawn & Quarterly)

The Hard Tomorrow stressed me out, and then lifted me up at the end. It’s very much a comic about our current moment (and by “current moment,” I mean the singularity that the last four years have compressed into). It doesn’t capture the terror that some groups might feel, but it does a great job of conveying that background hum, like a cultural migrane, that makes everything more difficult in the world. And then, intentionally or not, it swings the story back around and pumps you full of hope and meaning with the last ten pages. It’s incredible comics work from Eleanor Davis, an amazing talent.

read The Hard Tomorrow on Amazon

21. My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies

Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, Jake Phillips (Image Comics)

You can read any Criminal comic and come away happy. Okay, maybe not “happy” per se - My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies is an extremely unhappy comic, about a girl who meets a boy in rehab, gets him back on drugs with her and then goes on a trip with him, framed around her pretentious love of drug addicted musicians. It would be obnoxious if it wasn’t so incredibly well done and packed in with a twist at the end that makes it go from messed up to REALLY messed up. Everything Brubaker and Phillips have done together, back to Sleeper, has been superlative, but from the last ten years, I really feel like this is their best work.

read My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies on Amazon

20. Through the Woods

Emily Carroll (Margaret K. McElderry Books)

I don’t think there’s anybody doing slow, creepy, gothic horror like Emily Carroll right now. Through the Woods is a collection of short stories that’s full of dark blacks and loose line work, the letters worked into the art organically to amplify the creepiness and the stories built to scare. She comes at normal relationships and injects them with something horrific, but paces it so incredibly well that you barely notice it until the end, when something happens to finally make your skin crawl. Carroll is a gifted storyteller, and Through the Woods is some of the best horror stuff out there.

read Through the Woods on Amazon

19. The Flintstones

Mark Russell, Steve Pugh, Chris Chuckry (DC Comics)

Anytime a comic can get a physical reaction out of me, it’s usually a sign that it’s a very successful storytelling endeavor. I think The Flinstones’ hold music on the suicide hotline joke is the loudest I’ve shouted “holy shit” at a comic in a decade. Mark Russell is the best satirist working in comics right now, and certainly in the past decade. Steve Pugh was equal to the task of packing every joke and sly look and absurdity implied by the dialogue. The Flintstones is one of the funniest books you'll ever read.

read The Flintstones on Amazon

18. Atomic Robo & Other Strangeness

Brian Clevenger, Scott Wegener, Ronda Pattison (Webcomic)

I love Dr. Dinosaur. I will buy anything Dr. Dinosaur is in, contribute to any crowdfunding campaign that gets me Dr. Dinosaur goods, and I will take every opportunity I can to share that “the light is for ambiance” page.

Clevinger and Wegener have created a near-perfect, accessible, entertaining adventure story with Atomic Robo. The writing is smart and sharp and Wegener does some outstanding action sequences. I don’t think there’s any comic I’ve been dedicated to for longer - I think I’ve been regularly reading Robo longer than I’ve had Batman on my pull list - and there’s no comic I recommend more frequently. Other Strangeness has two amazing Dr. Dinosaur stories and Jenkins, but you can pick up any volume and get the same high quality action adventure comics.

read Atomic Robo here

17. The Private Eye

Brian K. Vaughan, Marcos Martin, Muntsa Vincente (Panel Syndicate)

Vaughan, Martin, and Vincente made a beautiful, compelling comic book that was uncomfortably prescient.

Sixty years from now, the cloud bursts - all of the private data stored on the cloud gets released to the public. It destroys lives and relationships, and triggers an anti-internet backlash. And an anti-journalist one. It then follows an unlicensed journalist as he travels around solving a mystery in a world where everyone wears masks to throw off facial recognition tech.

The Private Eye was cyberpunk that inverted some cyberpunk formulae - it was bright and warm and shiny, distrustful of tech and very human, but it was still a grimy near-future full of people navigating a world that sucked. It was an incredible read and one of the comics I think about most, even five years down the road.

read The Private Eye here

16. Secret Wars

Jonathan Hickman, Esad Ribic, Ive Svorcina (Marvel Comics)

I’m using Secret Wars as a stand in here for all of Hickman’s prior Marvel work from the decade, and really the entire story that started in Fantastic Four and paid off with the final Doom/Reed battle at the end of this story. “Epic” doesn’t even begin to describe a story that starts with the council of Reeds, breaks the Avengers, destroys the multiverse, then reforms it again out of a love of adventure. I reread these comics more than any in my collection because they’re beautiful and immersive and impossibly grand.

read Secret Wars on Amazon

15. Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye

James Roberts, Alex Milne, Josh Burcham (IDW Publishing)

I still can’t believe how much I love this run of comics. I am even more flabbergasted at why: it was one of the most surprisingly thoughtful comics about sexuality and romantic relationships that I’ve ever read, and it came as part of a broader Transformers story (when paired with the story in Robots in Disguise) that had some of the best takes on gender identity and politics that I can remember.

Every word of that paragraph still makes no sense to me. I am continually delighted by this fact.

More Than Meets the Eye follows Rodimus and a group of breakaway Transformers as they search the universe for the lost Knights of Cybertron. It features a fascinating and touching relationship between Rewind and Chromedome (with Cyclonus as a third-wheel/homewrecker WHAT IS HAPPENING), and it has a deep dive into Ultra Magnus’s history as Cybertron’s premiere stick in the mud. Honestly, just take my word for it: this comic was incredible.

read Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye on Amazon

14. The Multiversity

Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely, Nathan Fairbairn & Others (DC Comics)

The Multiversity still contains my single favorite page of comic art from the decade: Frank Quitely breaking down Peacemaker kicking the hell out of a great lawn full of soldiers outside the White House. I can’t even begin to describe how technically fascinating that issue was or how breathtaking it still is to see. The rest of the series brought me great joy, but that issue might be the best single issue of comics I’ve read in the last 10 years.

read The Multiversity on Amazon

13. My Favorite Thing is Monsters

Emil Ferris (Fantagraphics)

Everything about Emil Ferris’ debut work is absurd. The production value of the book is stellar. Her deft storytelling made me feel literally dropped into the comic several times, overwhelming me by the world she brought me into. And that this was her first published work is still, what feels like an eon later, ridiculous to me. My Favorite Thing is Monsters will make you feel like a ten year old girl, whether you’ve ever been one before or not, and that is some magical work.

read My Favorite Thing is Monsters on Amazon

12. Here

Richard McGuire (Pantheon Books)

Here started out as a comic strip in 1989, and got blown out into a full graphic novel in 2014, and both are incredibly interesting experiments with the form of comics storytelling. It sets the “camera” pointed at the corner of a room, and then spins time out in both directions, showing us what that corner looked like 2000 years in the past, hundreds of years in the future, in the 1950s, today, and a bunch of other times. And the way that McGuire manages to tell a coherent story under those restrictions is masterful work.

read Here on Amazon

11. Hellboy in Hell

Mike Mignola, Dave Stewart (Dark Horse Comics)

There’s something beautiful about Mignola spending 25 years weaving just about every mythological cosmology from human history together, and then ending that whole story by having Hellboy walk across Hell, into his childhood home, and just disappear. It’s a very quiet, peaceful ending for what had at times been a loud comic in the past, but it’s a beautiful end that refers back to other work of Mignola’s, which lends the ending a kind of peacefulness that cuts through the sadness of the loss of this story. Hellboy in Hell is a really great ending.

read Hellboy in Hell on Amazon

10. Thor: God of Thunder

Jason Aaron, Esad Ribic, Dean White & others (Marvel Comics)

There is actually some debate in my mind as to whether or not Jason Aaron’s Thor run, stretching from the stunning God of Thunder through The Mighty Thor and War of the Realms and into King Thor, is better than Walt Simonson’s Thor. It’s probably still Simonson’s run, but the fact that there’s an open question should tell you how good Aaron’s story has been. The best Thor stories have a bigger point than “Can Thor beat up the Hulk?” Aaron’s has been “What responsibilities does being a god bring with it; how do they carry them out; and how does that impact us?” It’s masterful work drawn by a collection of incredible artists.

read Thor: God of Thunder on Amazon

9. Saga

Brian K. Vaughan, Fiona Staples (Image Comics)

The best thing about Saga to me is that the characters have grown with me. That’s not necessarily why it’s one of the ten best comics of the decade - Fiona Staples is an utterly incredible artist who without fail puts something singularly amazing into each issue - but it’s why I care about it so much. Hazel, Marko and Alana have all grown beautifully as characters since issue 1, and the world is so inventive and different from what you always get in science fiction that it’s a joy to read every time a new issue drops.

read Saga on Amazon

8. Richard Stark’s Parker: The Outfit

Donald Westlake, Darwyn Cooke (IDW Publishing)

Darwyn Cooke is one of the most talented people to ever work in the comics industry. He’s still, years after his passing, an enormous influence on how people conceive of the DC universe because of The New Frontier. But it’s his adaptations of Westlake’s ‘60s crime novels starring Parker that might be his best work. The Outfit is the second and my favorite, but all of them are amazing pieces of comics storytelling. Cooke’s storytelling techniques bounce all over the place, but all work amazingly well. He especially excels at showing complicated heists - the way Cooke plays with time and sequencing makes these books an amazing read.

read Richard Stark's Parker: The Outfit on Amazon

7. Prince of Cats

Ron Wimberly (Image Comics)

Wimberly’s Prince of Cats is pretty close to a perfect comic. Repurposing and adapting Shakespearean dialogue and patter to a hip hop aesthetic is, strangely, exactly what I want out of a story. Wimberly’s art is stylish as hell, with fantastic layouts and odd angles, and it is colored beautifully. It’s the story of Tybalt from Romeo and Juliet, but set in a city that’s a mishmosh of all five boroughs, in a time that’s anywhere from the mid ‘80s to present day. It’s a little bit Shakespearean tragedy, a little bit samurai anime, a little bit Planet Rock, and ultimately an amazing piece of comic book art.

read Prince of Cats on Amazon

6. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl

Ryan North, Erica Henderson, Derek Charm, Rico Renzi & others (Marvel Comics)

I love how Unbeatable Squirrel Girl never talked down to readers, and in a wonderful example of what superhero comics could be (and occasionally were), how Doreen was always trying to find a way to solve problems that didn’t involve violence and would endure. Her supporting cast was terrific, guest characters were phenomenal, and Henderson has impeccable comic timing. And the book was surprisingly experimental and innovative - the zine issue and the choose your own adventure issue are two of the best single issues of comics I’ve read this decade, but even without them, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl will go down as one of my favorite comics of all time.

read The Unbeatable Squirrell Girl on Amazon

5. Hark! A Vagrant

Kate Beaton (Webcomic/Drawn & Quarterly)

Beaton is one of the smartest, funniest cartoonists out there. Hark! A Vagrant catches the best of the early decade webcomic ethos - it’s loose and fast, about anything and everything and just funny as hell. She’s got bits about Tesla, a ton of jokes about Austen and classic literature, idiot Victorian chimney sweeps. All of it lands because Beaton’s got a sharp eye and a strong voice for absurdity. I think my personal favorite remains Straw Feminists.

read Hark! a Vagrant here

4. Hip Hop Family Tree

Ed Piskor (Fantagraphics)

I’ve watched several documentaries since reading this and interrupted them, going “oh shit, I already knew this from Hip Hop Family Tree.” Piskor’s brief history of the birth and first couple of phase transitions of one of my favorite art forms is informative, smart, funny, and informed deeply by his love of comic book culture, which only enhances some of the stories he tells about early hip hop, which was also deeply informed by comics. And in retrospect, the fact that HHFT ended up circling back on superhero comics, giving us X-Men: Grand Design is too perfect for words.

read Hip Hop Family Tree on Amazon

3. Mister Miracle

Tom King, Mitch Gerads (DC Comics)

I’m pretty sure Mister Miracle is the best comic I’ve ever read as it came out. This is King and Gerads operating in peak form. Everything about it, from the content to the pacing to the characterization, was absolutely perfect. And the ambiguity of the ending, how it showed a way forward in dealing with trauma and how it inadvertently turned into a poignant love letter to the (at that time recently) departed old guard just made it all stick even harder. I loan this out to friends having kids, because I love Mister Miracle and I want everyone else to find their way to loving it, too.

read Mister Miracle on Amazon

2. Smile

Raina Telgemeier (Graphix)

I came to Raina’s world late. I have a niece who’s brilliant, and I was looking for a way to get her into comics so I’d have someone at family gatherings to talk to about this stuff. I knew that these books were popular, so I grabbed one at a bookstore and started on it. Twenty minutes later, I was walking out of the store with Smile and Sisters, and my niece finished both of them in about six hours and started asking for more. Raina tells a hell of a story, and Smile deserves to be on this list just based on craft, but it’s this high because she’s single-handedly hooking a new generation into our favorite medium. I will always appreciate that.

read Smile on Amazon

1. March

Rep. John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell (Top Shelf Productions)

I don’t think I could have landed on a different comic here if I tried. March is a unique combination of craft, relevance, and timelessness. Powell’s art is staggeringly good, full of gorgeous storytelling. And when I think about moments from comics that have stuck with me the most, I keep coming back to the bombing of the Freedom Riders’ bus at the end of volume 1. I knew it was historical and that still scared the hell out of me. Kudos and thanks to Rep. Lewis, Aydin and Powell for making an incredible book.

read March on Amazon

Read and download the Den of Geek Lost in Space Special Edition Magazine right here!

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angelofberlin2000 · 8 years

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Keanu Reeves opens up about a lifetime of playing iconic badasses, why he must eat steak before a big fight scene, and how he's managed to stay fit into his 50s

The always-guarded actor talks about his life, his past hits, his latest project ('John Wick: Chapter 2'), and how he's still ready to kick lots of ass.

by David Katz

February 10, 2017 3.32pm

Do you like action movies?” asks Keanu Reeves, unable to contain his excitement, as he leads me on a tour of 87Eleven Action Design, a cavernous gym, production company, and choreography studio located in an industrial park near LAX that is arguably the white-hot center of modern movie fighting. “It’s like a training school, a dojo for stunts,” he says, clearly pumped to be back at what was his “second home” while he prepped for the cult action movie John Wick (2014) and the next installment, John Wick: Chapter 2, in theaters now.

Reeves’ youthful enthusiasm is a little surprising, and not because the guy is officially 52 years old. (In his mod black jacket emblazoned with “Arch”—the motorcycle company he co-founded—he doesn’t look anywhere near that age.) And it isn’t because I expected Reeves to be a jerk, either. The truth is, I had no idea what to expect, because Keanu Reeves—a star for more than a quarter century, a guy whose films have amassed nearly $2 billion at the box office—has achieved something miraculous in today’s celebrity-obsessed world: He’s preserved some mystery about himself.

“I’m not looking for a red carpet to walk, and I’m not trying to have a celebrity footprint,” he says when I mention that it’s rare to see his name flashing across TMZ, and it’s even rarer for him to sit for an extended interview like this one. And while so many actors in Hollywood are focused on building their online “brands,” Reeves seems totally fine with letting the world of social media entirely pass him by. “I can see the appeal—it’s just not to my taste,” he says.

Before I meet him, I know a few basic facts: He’s unmarried, with no kids. (“I’m an unsuccessful representation of the species,” he jokes.) Also, I know that much of my impression of Reeves is formed by his work, notably his tendency to play stoic heroes—like the Zen-like savior, Neo, in the record-shattering The Matrix trilogy—so I half expect to encounter a quiet, impenetrable monk.

Instead, Reeves is more like a high-energy action-movie fanboy, rattling off some of the films that 87Eleven co-founders—veteran stuntmen David Leitch and Chad Staheleski—have choreographed: The Bourne Legacy, Fight Club, and, of course, The Matrix, on which Staheleski served as Reeves’ stunt double. Fifteen years after that movie’s smash success, he knew those guys aspired to direct, and Reeves brought them a project he was developing about a retired assassin who goes on a bloody revenge spree after a group of thugs off his dog.

Reeves would star, and they would direct.

“Just good clean fun,” he says of the movie, with its super-stylized violence, insane body count, and wry tone. (“It is funny,” Reeves admits. “But not ha-ha funny.”) It was an odds-defying hit: Made on a small, $20 million budget, it grossed $86 million worldwide, cementing Reeves’ status, once again, as one of Hollywood’s most appealing and bankable action heroes.

In 2017, it’s easy to forget that Reeves is an unlikely badass. He first hit it big in comedy, in 1989, with the ridiculous Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, about two bodacious, underachieving California teenagers traveling through time in a phone booth. Not only was Bill & Ted Reeves’ first (but hardly last) surprise hit, earning a sequel, but nearly 30 years later people still talk about a reunion—an effort Reeves supports. “It would be absolutely fantastic and ridiculous to play those roles again,” he says. “Bill and Ted in their 50s?! Excellent. Bodacious!” (Yes, a writer is currently working on a script.)

For his sudden transformation into ass-kicking leading man, however, Reeves credits director Kathryn Bigelow, now known for war movies The Hurt Locker (2008) and Zero Dark Thirty (2013), but then starting out with Point Break, in 1991. Bigelow cast a 26-year-old Reeves as an FBI agent embedded with a band of bank-robbing surfers led by Patrick Swayze. It was another ridiculous premise, another huge hit for Reeves. “It was pulpy, it had a real energy,” says Reeves (who hasn’t seen 2015’s failed remake). “I’ve met people over the years who said, ‘I started skydiving because of that movie,’ or ‘I started surfing because of that movie.’”

“Before a fight sequence. I still eat a steak. It started on ‘The Matrix’. It’s totally psychological.”

Reeves jumped from a plane once during production to get a taste of what it’s like, but he says that his co-star, Swayze, really caught the bug. “I think he had 30 jumps while we were filming,” he says. “The insurance company was, like, no. Eventually, he got a cease-and-desist from the production company.”

Whether it was because of the surfing, the long hair, or the laid-back delivery, Point Break stereotyped Reeves as the ultimate SoCal underdog—an image only bolstered by the blockbuster Los Angeles freeway thriller, Speed (1994)—which still persists today.

The irony is that Reeves isn’t a native Californian, or even an American. He was born in Beirut, Lebanon, to a British mother and Chinese-Hawaiian father (his name means “cool breeze” in Hawaiian) and spent his formative years in Toronto with his costume designer mom and her eclectic group of friends, including singer Alice Cooper. Reeves still identifies as Canadian, even if he’s lived in L.A. since he was 20 years old.

“Those were my formative years, from like, 7 years old on,” he says. He explains his attachment to his home country as “like the imprimatur of youth, that early sapling that grows into a tree.”

As he leads me up the stairs to 87Eleven’s annex, we get a bird’s-eye view of the place. Most of the floor space is taken up by a huge blue mat overhung by cables used for “wire work,” the suspended choreography that allows actors to dodge bullets midair and pull off impossibly high roundhouses. Today it’s being used by a stunt team from Logan, Hugh Jackman’s final Wolverine film, and Reeves looks on with jealousy. “I always want to work out here,” he says, “just come in and get some more training.”

For Wick, that meant he had to learn an entirely new discipline: judo. “I had a little experience in movie fighting,” he says, with typical (and sincere) modesty. “But I’d never done judo.”

He says the form is tricky to fake onscreen because, unlike throwing punches, “you really gotta throw someone.”

Reeves adopted a former MMA fighter named Eric Brown as his sensei. “At the beginning, I didn’t even know where to put my feet,” he says. “So it was a lot of me learning the basics.”

By the time he flew to New York and Rome to shoot John Wick: Chapter 2, which expands the mythology behind Wick’s order of assassins and reunites Reeves with The Matrix co-star Laurence Fishburne, he was a bona fide judo expert. “Keanu is the most persistent, non-giving-up guy you’ll ever meet,” says Stahelski. “He doesn’t want to act out the part. He wants to be the part.”

Reeves loves pushing himself during his action sequences, though he rejects the word “stunt” for anything he does himself. “There’s an incredible stuntman who doubles John Wick,” he says. “They hit him with a car. He’s standing there, and they hit him—that’s a stunt. Me? I’ll shoot some guns, flip some people—and that’s action. So, yeah, I do as much action as I possibly can, because I love it—and I love the opportunity to bring the audience along.

Which is one of the reasons why Reeves never enjoys stepping aside for the sake of his safety. “I hate that, it’s always a drag,” he says. “I want to be able to do everything. Since The Matrix, I’ve used this term, ‘superperfect.’ As in, ‘Can we get it superperfect?’” On a huge-budget studio movie that can afford infinite takes, that means doing it until it’s right. On a leaner film like Wick, where fights that could have been allotted five days might get two, it means no room for error. “But that’s part of what makes [a great action film] a pressure cooker,” he says. “It’s the intensity of just trying to do the best you can in the circumstances that you have.”

Looking back, he credits Point Break for making him think about his body more. “It was life-changing for me,” he says. “It introduced me to fitness and training.” He began working with Denise Snyder, who has remained his main fitness guru for more than 25 years, and has overseen his body throughout his career.

“He can get huge,” says Snyder. “That worked for Speed. But usually I don’t think for him massiveness works. On John Wick, it’s about his presence, and it can’t come from size. It’s got to come from structure. It’s really about pulling his shoulders back.”

Reeves says that meant not having “huge traps.” “I wanted to have that back,” he says, “to look like if I grabbed you, you were in my world now.”

Reeves isn’t slowing down his exercise regimen these days, though he admits that the biggest difference between playing an action hero at 52 versus 25 is the wear and tear on the knees. “I can’t do stairs as fast,” he says. “But if you say ‘action,’ I’ll go.” His recovery is a little slower, but his endurance is solid. His training diet is still simple. “Low sodium, low fat, and the night before a big fight sequence, I still eat a steak. It started on The Matrix. I was like, ‘Gotta go eat a steak, Carrie-Anne [Moss, his co-star].’ It’s totally psychological.” He prefers a nice New York cut, with a little fat on it.

With Wick behind him, Reeves says he has some “civilian living” ahead of him before he chooses his next project. During these periods, he takes it easy. “Steak. Red wine. A nice single malt with a big ice cube. Ride a motorcycle.”

Reeves plans to keep the great action movies coming. “You just gotta find the right one,” he says. “You can’t just do it to do it. Unless you need the dough, which is a good enough reason.”

Of course, Reeves, who allegedly took in millions for his work on The Matrix movies alone, doesn’t need the dough. “Well, I do,” he insists, declining to elaborate too much. “It’s a long story that I don’t want to share with you.” Though later he offers a clue: “When you’re friends with someone, you want to help them, you sign something that turns into something else, and that comes back to haunt you.” Still, he says, money is a bad way to make career choices, and his résumé bears that out. (See: 1991’s My Own Private Idaho, 1993’s Little Buddha, and 2012’s Side by Side, a documentary he produced about Hollywood’s conversion from traditional film to digital.) He’s also the guy who started a motorcycle company five years ago.

In fact, Reeves actually showed up today on one of his bikes, a gorgeous Arch KRGT-1, what he calls a “performance cruiser.”

Arch is more than a vanity project, he says. He’s involved in every facet of the company, from design and testing to administration. The project fits perfectly into what Reeves sees as the guiding philosophy of his life: “You’re gonna die—make stuff.”

http://www.mensfitness.com/life/entertainment/keanu-reeves-opens-about-lifetime-playing-iconic-badasses-why-he-must-eat-steak

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trendingnewsb · 7 years

Text

How Mad Men Star Kit Williamson Made His Own Gay Soap Opera

The problem, says Kit Williamson, is that EastSidersthe Emmy-nominated LGBT soap opera he created in 2012almost shares a name with EastEnders, the well-known BBC soap opera currently in its 32nd year.

And so when Williamson recommends people check out his drama about handsome LGBT Los Angelenos living, loving, screwing up, and doing what people on soap operas are wont to do, they end up going down totally the wrong rabbit hole on YouTube, and finding instead a group of East Londoners doing their own variation of the same, if at a much louder volume.

youtube

My recommendation: Watch both.

Season 3 of EastSiders, released on Nov. 28 digitally and on DVD, takes the shape of a cross-America road trip, complete with stunning skies and endless horizons, beginning with Douglas/Gomorrah Rey (played by Willam Belli) having a blow-up row in full drag and 116-degree heat beside the side of a highway, as his boyfriend Quincy (Stephen Guarino) tries in vain to pacify the situation.

Bellis heels melted in the heat, and Williamson, 32, directed the action clad in cooling wet towels. The glamor of independent web TV, he says, laughing.

Williamsons character, Cal, and partner Thom (Van Hansis) are heading back west after their sojourn in New York City, and have an encounter with a drifter played by model and porn star (and Donald Trump supporter) Colby Keller. Also returning for the third season are John Halbach, Williamsons real-life husband, and Constance Wu, Williamsons longtime buddy, as straight couple Ian and Kathy. (To confuse you even more, a leading mother-son duo in EastEnders is called the same.)

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I wanted to create characters that I didnt really see on television, Williamson, who played Ed Gifford on Mad Men, told The Daily Beast. I think you see a lot of cautionary tales in LGBT representation and then hyper- morally-upright representations. Youre either in a couple, living in the suburbs with 2.5 kids, or youre a drug addict in the 1980s. Its rare that LGBT characters are allowed to operate in between, like all human beings operate.

Williamson is heartened by the growing diversity of representation in the TV shows of Shonda Rhimes and on cable, and hopes his EastSiders characters have flaws, make messes, and pick up the pieces, just like straight characters on TV.

EastSiders has been mostly financed through Kickstarter funding, raising $250,000 across three seasons. The third season is also partially funded by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and Impulse Group Global, and the show incorporates both organizations safer sex messaging.

Its incredibly moving, says Williamson of the publics generous financial support for the show, which makes him even more determined that the show does its fans justice. EastSiders aims to be as culturally mixed as a small cast and limited number of episodes can allow. Inclusive storytelling should be everybodys goal, says Williamson.

If Williamson has a dream, it is that one day television will be able to sustain having two LGBT-themed shows on at the same time; or even that there will be LGBT lead characters on TV, whose sexuality or gender identity is part of their identities, rather than defining them.

Until that rainbow shines, we have a smattering of characters and shows like Queer as Folk, The L Word, and Looking, which flicker into life, cause their controversies and debates, then go. The capriciousness of LGBT representation on our screens is down to the capriciousness of mostly straight-run broadcasters.

Hansis himself found fame as Luke Snyder on CBS daytime soap As The World Turns, as a landmark gay character whom fans clamored to be allowed to kiss his boyfriend, Noah (Jake Silbermann). (Oh, have you seen their horsing-around towel wrestle? You must see the towel wrestle.)

EastSiders refers geographically to the parts of East Los AngelesSilver Lake, Los Feliz Echo Park, DTLAwhere the characters live, a boho-y, very different sort of vibe to the muscle boys of West Hollywood, although (as their social media accounts reveal) the extremely handsome and charming Williamson and Halbach look just as hot as any WeHo guy.

Some scenes in the show are filmed at the mens home, and looks attractively ruffled and laid-back, filled with vintage furniture, mismatched cushions and twinkly lights.

Williamson had problems getting straight actors to play gay when EastSiders first began, even though there were no sex scenes in the first two seasons. Any show with gay content is immediately presumed to be exploitative, Williamson notes.

The road trip of Season 3 was filmed on the road itself, with cast and crew starting out in Woodstock, upstate New York, and ending up in Los Angeles, trundling across the vast expanse of America in a vintage camper trailer and another vehicle.

It took two weeks, with an extended stay in Idaho to scout locations and shoot scenes. It was exciting, invigorating and harrowing, says Williamson, laughing. Its no small undertaking taking two carloads of people across the country, and making sure theyre in bed at a reasonable hour.

The team ran afoul of a runaway tire that put a dent in the camper early on. They were snowed out of Yellowstone National Park. They shot on the fly, and in some places permits allowing them to film were withdrawn when it was revealed that it was a gay-themed TV show.

We started telling places where we wanted to film that it was called Go West, and just said it was about two friends driving across the country together, Williamson says.

The Black Hills of South Dakota were especially breathtaking, he says. You owe yourself ten minutes off the main drag to see the Badlands (National Park in South Dakota). I could have explored it all day if I had the chance. I am a huge lover of mountains. Even though it was terrifying driving that fucking camper trailer up and down mountains it was still breathtaking, even if I nearly killed everybody two or three times.

Williamson concedes that he is biased about California where he lives, but recommends the eastern part near Nevada for that big sky feeling, and that moment you get to the coast after weeks on the road to arrive at the Pacific Ocean and put your feet in the sand. It felt like a cool homecoming for the characters and the crew.

It was a really challenging place to grow up gay, and I also grew up very religious which didnt help matters.

Williamson himself grew up in Mississippi, where the countrys most anti-LGBT law, HB 1523, has just taken root. He is surprised as to how little attention the law has garnered nationally, compared to the outcry over similar laws in North Carolina.

I think a lot of people write off Mississippi as a lost cause, says Williamson, who emceed a Pride celebration there two years ago. I understand why, but its still sad to me as a person who grew up there. I really want people to understand there are great people living in Mississippi fighting for their own rights and fighting for their neighbors.

There was a lot of homophobia when he was growing up, says Williamson. It was a really challenging place to grow up gay, and I also grew up very religious which didnt help matters. It was definitely a challenge for my family to understand me.

His whole family are employed in the area of law, and he surprised all of them by wanting to act. They were supportive of me, even if part of them thought Hell get over this eventually and enter the family business. I tell them, One day Ill play a lawyer on TV. Thats all I can guarantee.

As a boy, Williamson was a big nerd. I read a lot of fantasy novels. I had a mullet. I was very socially awkward, and it was difficult at school to be friends with other people. It was really hard for me. I knew I was different, I didnt know why. I was savagely bullied as a kid, people were terrible to me.

Williamsons older sister modeled herself on the cult animated character, Daria. I thought the way you handled bullies was being sarcastic and funny, he says. It didnt turn out well.

He and Halbach once compared notes on childhood bullying. I was Gay Kid and he was Gay Boy. We both had really unoriginal bullies. Williamson laughs softly. Little did they know that Gay Kid and Gay Boy were going to get together.

I didnt really think growing up that it would be possible wed have gay marriage nationally, he adds. To be able to take advantage of it as a citizenhe and Halbach married last yearhas been so incredibly moving to me.

Williamson and Halbach met in March 2007. Williamson was then a bartender at NYC theater-land hangout Angus McIndoe, and the men were introduced by a mutual friend who told each of them separately, Hes single and not crazy. It was a perfectly judged match. That night, the men stayed talking until the bar closed.

Williamson had underplayed the significance of marriage equality because the possibility seemed so far off, he adds. When the Supreme Court ruled, it hit us both. Wed been denying ourselves something that we really did find meaningful. Im so glad we did it.

Williamson has worked successfully as a filmmaker and actor for years. Making Mad Men was a masterclass, he says, watching both those in front and behind the cameras. The sexy pictures on his Instagram account are in service of promoting his work and LGBT rights, he insists, adding with another laugh, and in shamelessly promoting ourselves. Instagram is a tool for good and evil, and we try to use it for good, for the best of possibilities.

Williamson chuckles that the idea was to use social media to direct people to EastSiders and the mens other work, promoting fashion and fitness influencers and LGBT destinations, but now people recognize him and Halbach from social media itself.

How EastSiders fans respond to the inclusion of Colby Keller remains to be seen. His scenes were shot before he revealed his support of Donald Trump.

I was really surprised and caught off guard when I saw that, says Williamson, who, a Hillary Clinton supporter, had been shocked when Trump triumphed in last years presidential election. I was driving to Idaho when the gay blogs erupted in fury over his (Kellers) political leanings. We did make the choice not to replace him. I havent talked to him about what happened.

When it came to keeping Keller in the season, Williamson asked himself whether he would work with Susan Sarandon, another Clinton naysayer who backed Bernie Sanders.

I think were living in really, really divided times, and I dont want to do anything to add to that divide, says Williamson. I also dont think we should be casting people out of the village. Its complicated. A lot of my family members support Trump, not for ideologically pure reasons beyond really liking the guy and what he stands for.

Keeping Kellers role in EastSiders intact presented an interesting dilemma, and I dont have the answer to it, Willliamson admits.

I ask, had he known that Keller was a Trump supporter, would Williamson have still signed him up?

I dont know. When we were planning the season we were 99 percent sure Hillary Clinton was going to be president. Faced with the reality of working with an active Trump supporter right now in 2017 my answer would be no. Its just too much of open wound for me, and friends I know who are afraid of being deported. I do think its a very serious situation.

If Hollywood is to have any leg to stand on in shaping the culture we need to own up to the abuses of power that are very real.

Williamson recently posted on social media his experience of sexual harassment when he was starting out in the entertainment industry.

At 18, he was invited to a party at an agents house. He proceeded to tell me not to come out if I wanted to be an actor, to stay in the closet, and then tried to put his hand down my pants, Williamson recalls. It was this one, two punch of harassment and homophobia that was a bitter pill to swallow, and it soured me on Los Angeles for a couple of years.

He did not suffer any graver sexual assaults, as allegedly committed by the likes of Harvey Weinstein and Kevin fucking Spacey. I think its really important we have these conversations. If Hollywood is to have any leg to stand on in shaping the culture we need to own up to the abuses of power that are very real.

What his experience also shows, again, is Hollywoods powerful gays seeking to keep the closet intact, part of a historyfor Willliamsonof different groups acting as their own morality police and oppressors.

Its very sad and true. Theres still not been a gay movie star. Look at a lot of people who have succeeded on television. Most come out after their big break. Im not here to judge: Its brave to come out at the height of your success, but in 2017 I think we need to look at the paths other people have blazed for us and be brave enough to walk down them without fear.

Next for Williamson may come more EastSiders. He is also writing a series about queer thirtysomethings set in New Orleans.

Id love to get to a place where the leads of a show can be gay where that is normal and not extraordinary, says Williamson, and where the storylines can be both unique to us and more universal in the same breath; where we are allowed to be doctors, husbands, wives, crazy, not crazy, parents, single, slutty, and settled.

The whole incredible range of human experience should allowed to be represented in LGBT characters, where we are not defined solely by our sexuality.

The open road Williamson and his crew traveled for Season 3 of EastSiders perhaps says it all.

The third season of EastSiders will be released on DVD by Wolfe Video and digital platforms on Nov. 28. More details here.