Star Wars, volleyball, Sinatra and more weekend events
7pm Friday, 160 S. High St. Free!
Pro tip: Bring your own chairs or blankets — and snacks!
🎤 Fly to the moon with the music of Frank Sinatra by Tony DeSare and the Columbus Symphony at the Riffe Center's Davidson Theatre.
8pm Friday and Saturday, 77 S High St. $34-77.
⭐️ Use the force at Unofficial Galaxies, COSI's exhibition of one of the largest Star Wars fan collections in the world.
Saturday through Sept. 1, 333 W. Broad St. $15, in addition to COSI admission ($23-30). Kids under 2 free!
🏐 Spike your weekend at the NCAA men's volleyball championship hosted at Ohio State's Covelli Center, with games and activities outside.
Matches 5pm and 8pm Saturday before the championship at 7pm Monday, 2640 Fred Taylor Drive. $50-65 for all three games.
♻️ Celebrate sustainability at Worthington's Green on the Green festival, featuring activities, exhibits and displays that encourage sustainable living.
9am-noon Saturday, downtown. Free!
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Los Angeles Times
6 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Movie memories take hold as film art awareness is raised in ‘Rewind' at O.C. Fair
There are so many ways to watch digital content now that it has become an exercise in memory to recall what it was like to anticipate a release date. Stars of the screen have long been cemented in popular culture, some forever tied to iconic roles. Can you see Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly checking his watch in 'Back to the Future?' How about Mark Hamill leading a band of rebels against an evil empire as Luke Skywalker in the original 'Star Wars' trilogy? Well, there's more remembrances where that came from when one walks back through time in 'Rewind: A VHS Revival.' It's a debut exhibit at the Orange County Fair largely dedicated to the people and processes behind the artwork of the movie poster. After a couple of years of shows that focused on the music industry, including larger-than-life likenesses of the performing artists and then reproductions of well-known album covers, this new theme has emerged from the Art of Music Collection. 'I think a lot of people don't realize that somebody puts in that time and energy and refines a process through working with certain materials to create an image that becomes etched in people's memory,' said Joy Feuer, co-founder and curator of the exhibit. 'It evokes going to the movies with family or friends, a date night. … On the music stuff that we did, listening to an album or remembering a concert and being there with somebody. 'It's such a touchstone, and I think it's so important to note that it's not just the record companies or the movie companies that bring that to you, but it's these human beings who create an image. They're often not credited, and I have a huge soft spot in my heart and in my mind to bring those people into the spotlight and give them their due.' The career of the late John Alvin is explored in 'Creating the Promise of a Great Experience,' a standalone section that illustrates the steps taken to produce lasting images, such as the touching fingertips in 'E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.' Several examples of his concept art are included, among them 'Aladdin,' 'Batman Forever,' 'Blade Runner' and the aforementioned 'Star Wars.' Alvin's widow, Andrea, said they met in art school at the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena. In working with the film industry, the designer's projects were often subject to conditions. 'Oftentimes, the most creative work comes out of the most restrictions because you're forced to come up with something … that meets all of these requirements,' Andrea Alvin said. 'In essence, that's what illustration is. It's not just illustration, but you have to be creative within the confines of what you are trying to say in the painting. 'I wrote a book about John called 'The Art of John Alvin,' … and my idea with it was to show the process, so I had everything from very rough sketches and some of our little notes and things on legal pads, all the way to finished art,' she continued. 'That was what Joy really connected with, and that was what she tried to show in the exhibit.' In some cases, studios did not want to have the designer sign their work. In 'Rewind,' Leslie Combemale, who represented Alvin's work, sees a means of bringing recognition to the artists who contributed to the success of movies. 'This is iconic and important work artistically but also a part of the making of a film,' said Combemale, owner of ArtInsights Gallery of Film and Contemporary Art. 'We want people to be more aware of that, and in general, more aware of below-the-line artists who have such an impact on the finished product of a film and how integral they are to a film's success.' Dawn Baillie, known for her work with 'Dirty Dancing,' 'Silence of the Lambs' and 'Little Miss Sunshine,' also grabs the designer spotlight in an exhibit called 'Anatomy of a Poster.' Also displayed are works produced by J.C. Backings, a scenic backdrop company founded by John Harold Coakley and his son, John Gary Coakley, in 1962. Backdrops utilized in the filming of 'The Sound of Music' and 'Logan's Run' are included in the show. 'It's a family-run business,' Feuer said. 'The great-grandfather was the one who had the vision. He saw this need, that Hollywood needed these really large-scale, hand-painted backdrops to create that cityscape, or mountain range, or whatever the scene was. They were an artistic family, so they started painting and doing it. 'They have in their possession a really vast archive, and so we rented two of their backdrops for the show, and those are the original ones. … They're not replicas. These are exactly what the film shot certain scenes from.' When fairgoers walk into the Huntington Beach building through the entrance on the east side, they are hit with a rush of nostalgia due to a display of videotapes on the racks. Blossom Marshall, visiting the fair from Riverside, said the video store setup reminded her of the 'Blockbuster days.' A whole section was dedicated to classic Disney animated movies. Film fanatics also took advantage of opportunities to grab photos with cutouts of the crew from 'The Wizard of Oz,' as well as a chance to strike a pose on the dance floor under a shimmering disco ball like John Travolta's Tony Manero in a 'Saturday Night Fever' set. Those who wanted to get off their feet were able to collapse into chairs that appeared to have come straight from the cinema, some of which provided a front-row seat to live painting reproductions of famous movie posters. Angel Acordagoitia spent the opening week of the fair, which runs through Aug. 17, working on 'Bride of Frankenstein.' It's his third time in the show in as many years, he remarked, reminiscing about painting album covers of Queens of the Stone Age and the Offspring the past couple of summers. Interacting with the public comes with the territory. Acordagoitia was open to comments and questions, adding that he is always with people as a DJ, a muralist and a tattoo artist. 'Since I was a kid, I always wanted to draw and paint,' said Acordagoitia, a Whittier resident who has branded himself as the Night Artist. 'Luckily, my parents have always encouraged me. … I know it's hard, but if you have the drive [and] make connections, that's what you need.' Scotty Roller, Jeff Lee and TerriLee Holm are also participating as painters of movie posters during the fair. A stone's throw from them is yet another interactive exhibit. Visitors to the 'Magic of Matte Painting' need a partner to fully enjoy it. One can walk through a set — their movement captured on camera against a city street backdrop — while their companion takes in the full picture on another screen. Betty Carlos of Upland, one of the vendors at the fair, called the movie-focused showcase a 'nice surprise' and a refresh for returning audiences. 'It's always lovely because they did such an amazing job, but having something new, we have a lot of season passholders who are looking for something new every time,' said Carlos, who counted a bar themed after 'Moulin Rouge' among the unexpected sightings. 'Therefore, having this new experience was definitely a refresher and an exciting new exhibit.'
Gizmodo
8 hours ago
- Gizmodo
The Most Amazing Cosplay of San Diego Comic-Con 2025, Day 1
It's that time of year again; San Diego Comic-Con is upon us and is off to a festive start for the biggest fan party of them all. Between the convention floor bustle and the packed panels, all of nerdom comes to represent their genre favorites for the annual celebration of all things pop culture and comics. Five Nights at Freddy's 2 reigned supreme on the first night along with Toxic Avenger, and South Park but it was the fans who came decked out in their fandom's finest who always stole the show. Many of whom dressed to impress as icons represented in films, television, and more that were at the con to showcase the latest. Let's jump into it with a look at some of the characters we spotted in cosplay form on Day 1, from merry Marvel mutants, to Harley Quinn cats, to Star Wars faves and much, much more! Stay tuned to io9 for even more coverage of San Diego Comic-Con 2025 (and, of course, plenty more cosplay). Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what's next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
Time Magazine
8 hours ago
- Time Magazine
How the Fantastic Four Shaped the Future of Superheroes
When The Fantastic Four: First Steps premieres this week, it will mark the return to prominence of four heroes not just foundational to Marvel and its ever-expanding empire of comics, movies, and television shows, but to modern pop culture and storytelling. The Fantastic Four, a tight-knit family with strange powers, were created by comic industry veterans Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1961. The comic, with its bickering heroes and setting in New York City, defied genre conventions and offered a radically different vision of superheroes than the staid, righteous Superman and Batman. Immediately successful, the Fantastic Four birthed modern Marvel comics and its vast, interrelated web of heroes and villains spanning more than 35,000 issues to date. It also created the template for the modern superhero—irreverent and wise-cracking, but flawed and vulnerable. From the Fantastic Four, the Marvel style of superheroics multiplied, yielding Spider-Man, the Hulk, the X-Men, and Iron Man, among many others. Inevitably, the Marvel brand of superhero narrative leapt from the printed page to other media, first cartoons, then television and on to the movies. The Fantastic Four didn't just pave the way for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a 37-film behemoth that has grossed $31.9 billion, but also seven Superman movies ($2 billion and counting), 13 X-Men movies ($2.49 billion), the Dark Knight Trilogy ($1.12 billion) and dozens of others. Beyond the superhero genre, it's hard to watch franchises like Star Wars and the Fast & the Furious, with their bickering, misfit heroes, without seeing traces of the Fantastic Four's DNA. 'The Fantastic Four were always the heart and soul and center of the Marvel universe and the Marvel universe has inspired so many creative people in so many different ways,' says Tom DeFalco, the former editor-in-chief of Marvel who wrote 60 issues of the Fantastic Four comic in the 1990s. On and off the silver screen For characters so integral to Marvel and its history, the Fantastic Four has been noticeably absent from its cinematic universe. That's largely a result of misguided deals made in the 1990s, when a cash-strapped Marvel sold off the movie rights to its top-tier characters, including Spider-Man, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four. While Spider-Man and the X-Men both enjoyed some success in their early 2000 movies, Fantastic Four fans were not as fortunate, with a pair of joke-heavy movies released in 2005 and 2007 to mostly poor reviews, and a disastrous 2015 reboot that made the first two shine in comparison. The Fantastic Four comic has also faded in and out. Starting out as Marvel's flagship comic in the 1960s, it sputtered in the 1970s before taking off again in the 1980s. The comic drew critical acclaim under writer Jonathan Hickman in the early 2010s, before disappearing entirely from 2015 to 2018, allegedly to deny Fox any free publicity for its movie. Marvel regained the rights to the Fantastic Four (as well as the X-Men) when Disney acquired Fox's film studio in 2019, and the comic, currently written by Ryan North, has been on a recent upswing. Despite that checkered history, C.B Cebulski, Marvel's editor-in-chief, says the company has never wavered in its commitment to the Fantastic Four comic and the title will enjoy extra attention in the wake of the movie release. 'From my point of view, the FFs been the core,' Cebulski says 'They've been the core in publishing. What's happened outside of publishing was never really a concern to me. But we've always focused our best efforts on making sure those four —Reed, Johnny, Ben, and Sue — were somehow featured in the best possible light every year since I've been at Marvel and before.' The story of the Fantastic Four It's hard to imagine now, in this era of superhero ubiquity, but there was a time when costumed crusaders had all but vanished from the cultural landscape. Modern superheroes were born in comic books in the late 1930s and they headlined dozens of titles throughout the 1940s. Fueled by patriotic stories, circulations soared, with some titles selling more than a million issues annually. But by the mid-1950s, super heroes had all but vanished from newsstands, a result of changing tastes and a paranoid, Cold War-fueled campaign to protect children from harmful influences. The catalyst was Seduction of the Innocent, a 1954 book by psychiatrist Frederick Wertham that argued American children were being led into juvenile delinquency by lurid and violent comics. Wertham's book led to a Congressional inquiry, led by Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee, best known for his investigations into organized crime, and the blacklisting of dozens of comic creators. It also led the comic book industry to create the Comics Code Authority, a self-regulating body that prohibited titles with the words 'Horror' and 'Terror,' banned any mention of the occult, and insisted that in comic books, law enforcement must always be treated with respect and crime should never pay. As part of this self-censoring regime, comic publishers purged their lines of most superheroes, leaving western, romance, and humor comics. A handful of heroes remained, mostly stalwarts like Superman and Batman, but their stories were wan and gimmicky, far from the action-packed tales of the previous decades. Out of this parched environment, came the Fantastic Four. Unlike their relatively simple origin in the comic—a brilliant scientist, his best friend, his girlfriend and her kid brother go into space and are bombarded by cosmic rays—the creation of the Fantastic Four title is shrouded in mystery, controversy, and litigation. One version says Marvel's publisher, inspired by the success of rival DC's newly launched team book, the Justice League of America, demanded his own version. Another says Stan Lee, frustrated by years of toil churning out uninspiring comics, was prompted by his wife to try something new that would excite him. Another version assigns all the creative credit to Jack Kirby, a brilliant artist and storyteller who shunned the spotlight as much as Lee craved it. Most industry observers agree both Lee and Kirby made important contributions, but precisely who did what remains unknown. But for the next 101 issues, the two would work together, with Kirby largely coming up with plots and drawing the stories, while Lee added his distinctive dialogue and feverishly marketed the title. The eventual addition of legendary inker Joe Sinnott completed the package. For all that was revolutionary about the Fantastic Four, there is little about the characters' powers that is original. Mr. Fantastic's stretching ability mimicked Plastic Man, the Human Torch was a retread of a 1940s character with the same name, the powers of the Invisible Girl (as she was first known) date at least to H.G. Wells, and the Thing resembles any number of monsters. And collectively, as a team of uniformed adventurers with cool sci-fi gizmos, they looked a lot like the Challengers of the Unknown, a team created by Kirby for DC in 1957. Instead, the inventiveness came from the characters and their interactions. In the first issue, the Thing, (understandably) dismayed at becoming a monster, lashes out at the others. By issue three, the teenaged Human Torch quits the team in a huff. In issue eight, it's the Thing who quits. There's also humor, pop-culture references, and lots of action. For young comic readers, this was a radical departure from what they were reading elsewhere. 'The DC characters embraced authority, they were do-gooders, like the police who would come to your school and give a lecture,' says Jim Salicrup, who edited the title in the 1980s. 'There was a certain primal quality to Marvel characters.' Making the Fantastic Four unique among super teams is their family dynamic. While the members of other teams come and go, the Fantastic Four are, for better or worse, stuck with each other. 'They all are really closely tied together, by the original events that conspired to make them into the Fantastic Four. And they all went through it and they all got handed different cards in the deck,' says Walter Simonson, who wrote and drew the comic in the early 1990s. 'They're not people or characters from different origins and different places that get together and say, 'Hey, let's fight crime.'' According to Hickman, who wrote the Fantastic Four from 2009 and 2012, early drafts of the First Steps script missed that critical element. 'One of the notes I gave the studio was, 'This is excellent. It's very cool. I love this story, but here's the problem: It's about a superhero team and not a family.'' (He says subsequent drafts fixed it). After the initial success of the Fantastic Four comic, Lee quickly began adding new superheroes to the Marvel lineup, often working with Kirby, and busily cross-pollinating the titles. A year after the Fantastic Four debuted, they appeared on the cover of Amazing Spider-Man No. 1. The Hulk appeared in Fantastic Four 12. The Avengers brought five heroes together. The comics all contained letter pages, where fans debated the finer points of plots and characters, while Lee's monthly columns relentlessly promoted the lineup. A fan club soon followed. Readers ate it up. 'It was like joining a benevolent cult,' Salicrup says. By the end of the 1960s, the Marvel style of storytelling had spread to DC, whose heroes began to wrestle with real-world issues like racism and drug addiction. And Lee and Kirby continued to crank out their stories, introducing characters as varied and memorable as the Black Panther, Dr. Doom, Nick Fury, and Thor. That sustained decade of creativity is unmatched in comics, and was the result of the alchemy between Lee and Kirby, says Hickman. 'There are people who believe that you should swing for the fence every time,' Hickman says. 'That ideas are not a non-renewable resource, that it's a self perpetuating machine, that the more that you add to it, the more you get out of it. And I think people like that are prone to be able to do massive sprawling works of art. Those guys just happen to be those kinds of creators at the origin of what is a North American superhero industry. And we are so fortunate that we had those guys at the helm of the ship.'
