Tennis and sex get all tangled up in the lives of three promising tennis players in Challengers.
Tashi Duncan (Zendaya) is the true star athlete of the trio, getting endorsements from Adidas as a teen and having the world in awe of her skills. She decides to go to Stanford, even though it means waiting a few years until she turns pro, and the crowds at the university turn out for her wearing “The Duncanator” T-shirts.
Fellow tennis player Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor) thinks the reason she’s going to Stanford is to build up anticipation for her pro career. While Patrick’s longtime friend and doubles partner Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) is wowed by Tashi’s game play, Patrick is more wowed by the Zendaya-ness of Tashi. When they first meet — at a party thrown by Adidas for Tashi at a multiday tennis tournament — both boys ask for Tashi’s phone number, basically at once, in front of her. Tashi says she isn’t a homewrecker, though she does show up at their shared hotel room later that night and makes it clear that she attracted to both boys — and we see that there is a strong something between the two of them as well. She declares that she will give the winner of the next day’s match between Art and Patrick her phone number. Patrick wins and we see her dating him while she’s at Stanford and he’s on tour.
But that was years earlier. The movie starts with Tashi as a coach and wife to Art and with the men preparing to meet once again on the court after years of not really speaking. Tashi is as laser-focused and aggressive as a coach as she once was as a player — coaching being really her only way onto the court. As the trailers give away, she suffers a devastating injury before she is able to turn pro.
This movie serves you a lot of sexiness. Some of it feels like perfume ad sexiness, a lot of skin and close-ups of hot people and implied nudity (as well as actual nudity, all of the dude variety, which is a nice change of pace) without a whole lot of emotional impact. The movie does have fun with the melodrama of those moments, though — Challengers has sort of a smirky sense of humor throughout that keeps everything grounded.
The real heat is actually in the tennis, both the literal game played between Patrick and Art that winds through all the movie’s flashbacks and the figurative games related to the friendship between the two men and their mutual desire for Tashi as well as Tashi’s hunger for competition in general. Actually, Tashi is all tennis — the volley, the quick decisions for how to respond, the attempts to psy-ops your opponent, the excitement of being in the mix of things. Even when she can’t play the sport of tennis anymore she seems pretty eager to bring the vibes of tennis into her life, no matter how messy it makes things.
Zendaya brings a crazy intensity to Tashi that makes this movie compelling even when it feels like a prep school soap opera. It’s a fun soap opera with characters I enjoyed watching, especially when they’re being less-than-great people. You believe that these two at-times goober-y dudes would fall hard for this woman who extremely out-classes them both in tennis and in life. Zendaya is even able to make you believe that the talented but frustrated Tashi enjoys the strange dynamic of her relationships with each man.
The movie may have the plot points of a sexy drama but it has an energy that almost makes it feel like an action movie — and I think the Art-Patrick tennis game and the way the movie shoots it is a big part of that. I don’t really know anything about tennis but the movie keeps giving us the emotional backstory to this game, which plays as a friends-turned-rivals showdown, that makes each point have some resonance. B+
Rated R for language throughout, some sexual content and graphic nudity, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Luca Guadagnino with a screenplay by Justin Kuritzkes, Challengers is two hours and 11 minutes long and distributed in theaters by United Artists.
Every year since 1998 the New Hampshire Gay Men’s Chorus has performed a series of concerts. This year they invite the audience to go behind the scenes and see how the program is chosen, in an evening of music laced with theater called Putting It All Together. Luc Andre Roberge, NHGMC’s Artistic Director, said in a recent Zoom interview that the chorus will portray the path from brainstorming songs to turning them into a show.
“Let’s get the audience to experience what it’s like to put this whole thing together,” he said. This year they will again perform four shows, one each in Concord, Manchester, Nashua and Stratham, along with several outreach shows across the state at assisted living facilities and other places.
Selections in the upcoming concerts include Ike & Tina Turner’s version of “Proud Mary,” with the slow-groove first part performed in the program’s early set and the rocked-up “nice and rough” section in the second half. The program also has “A Million Dreams” from The Greatest Showman, a medley from Hamilton and Dear Evan Hansen, and a song most will recognize from The Big Bang Theory, Barenaked Ladies’ “The History of Everything.”
The show closes with “Why We Sing,” a song that NHGMC President John McGeehan called “very meaningful” during the same interview. “Even when you don’t understand someone’s language, you can still get the emotion and the feeling and the expression through their music,” he said. “There are few things out there that are like that. I think that’s a really powerful statement to leave our audience with.”
Though it’s a musical entity, NHGMC has higher aims.
“Part of our mission statement is to share the joy of music with the residents of New Hampshire, but also to be representatives of the LGBT community, give it a positive image,” McGeehan said. “I think that’s really important, especially now.”
Roberge noted that at the chorus’s first performance, some members asked that their names not be listed in the program, while others wore dark glasses or hats to obscure their identities.
“It was a very different world in 1998 than the one we live in now,” he said. “People didn’t go about telling people that they were gay. One didn’t really even come out, certainly not in the state of New Hampshire.”
Thankfully, that’s changed. The Granite State legalized same-sex marriage in 2010. In 2018 Gov. Sununu and Rep. Chris Pappas joined to celebrate NHGMC’s 20th anniversary. Last year Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig signed a proclamation declaring New Hampshire Gay Men’s Chorus Day in the city. And one recent fact in particular stands out for Roberge. “Less than half of all our concert attendees identify as gay,” he said. “That says there’s a lot of acceptance in the state.”
Roberge was a charter member of NHGMC and became Artistic Director in 2000. He co-leads the chorus with Principal Accompanist Gary Finger. Among Roberge’s memories of his tenure, the one that stands out as his favorite isn’t musical. While in his 30s, he came out to his parents, urged by fellow chorus members who thought they should see him sing a solo rendition of “Old Man River” at an upcoming concert.
Though he had a good relationship with them that included strong support for his music, Roberge worried that telling them his truth would damage it. His mother cried upon hearing the news, but not for reasons he’d feared.
“‘How many concerts did I miss?’ was her question to me,” he said. “She was so upset that she’d missed all that time — five years with the chorus at that point.”
Immediately, she and her father left the house for a series of face-to-face visits, ultimately inviting 30 friends to the concert. “And all of them came,” Roberge said. “It truly meant it was a non-issue. It was a very moving and touching experience. Not just for myself, but for the chorus, and anyone that attended that concert.”
The wonderful affirmation still makes him smile.
“I ended up, living in the state of New Hampshire, having an excellent coming out story, with an organization that believes we need to show that we are just average people,” he said. “That’s a very positive experience that I had with the chorus.”
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical When: Fridays, 7:30 p.m., Saturdays, 2 & 7:30 p.m., Sundays, 2 p.m. through May 12 Where: Palace Theatre, 80 Hanover St., Manchester Tickets: $28 and up at palacetheatre.org
Featured Photo: Austin Mirsoltani and Rachel Gubow in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.
Saturday, May 4, is a double celebration for comic book and pop culture fans — it’s May the Fourth (the annual celebration of the Star Wars universe) and Free Comic Book Day, the annual celebration of all things comics-related. We take a look at local plans for this day as well as next weekend’s Kids Con New England on Saturday, May 11, in Concord — a comic book convention for the younger comic book fans. We also talk to a few artists about their work and get advice on how to get started drawing your own comics.
Return of Free Comic Book Day
These are the comic books you’re looking for
By Zachary Lewis zlewis@hippopress.com
On Saturday, May 4, comic book stores across the globe will celebrate Free Comic Book Day to honor Marvel, DC, Dynamite and all things pop culture related to the medium. The free comic books that eager participants can acquire include titles from X-Men, Hellboy, Jonny Quest, Pokemon, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Spiderman, Archie Comics, Popeye, Doctor Who, Flash Gordon, and Star Wars, just to name a few.
Locally, Double Midnight Comics, which has stores in Manchester and Concord, and Jetpack Comics and Games in Rochester will be hosting elaborate shindigs for fans, Merrymac in Merrimack will host some artists and shops like Collectibles Unlimited in Concord and Pop Culture in Raymond, among others, will have selections from the Gold- and Silver-tiered free comics available for the holiday as well as lots of sales. Depending on where you are and what level of party you want, New Hampshire has your Free Comic Book Day fix covered.
Double Midnight Comics
Double Midnight Comics is ready to use their Willow Street location in Manchester at the Factory for Free Comic Book Day.
“They gave us free rein of the whole campus so we’re just going to have fun with it,” said Chris Proulx, co-owner of Double Midnight Comics along with his brother, Scott, and best friend from high school, Brett Parker.
“We’ve all been big comic book guys. Scott and I got into comics in the ’80s. Marvel had a G.I. Joe and a Transformers comic book that tied into the cartoon, which was tied into the toys, so we got sucked into that and eventually made our way into the Marvel Universe. I met Brett in high school and he was like, ‘You’ve got to read the X-Men,’ and I was like, ‘OK,’ and then became obsessed with the X-Men.”
Naturally all three are excited for the annual celebration that started on May 4, 2002.
“Over the years [it’s] turned into a big party … have a lot of fun, geek out over the day. Up in our region the fans are pretty blessed to have some awesome stores that do it big…. We like to have fun with it.”
Weekly events that occur on Saturday will still go on, “but they’ll kinda be shrunk down for the day.”
So which comic books are free? Can I get that Superman Action Comics First Edition behind adamantium-infused glass for free?
“I’ll have people go, ‘I can get that $3,000 comic book for free?’ No, no, no, they [comic book publishers] make specific books for the day meant to be something new readers can get into. A full list of the comics can be found on freecomicbookday.com. We usually have extras that we throw in,” Proulx said. “We get people that travel from out of state for this.”
Comic book storylines are a lot like Legos. Sure, there is the preset factory-made form, which is a lot of fun, but the ability each new comic book has to morph characters into different versions of themselves, such as a Batman in Victorian-era London, offers endless possibilities and is the perfect treat for the imagination and allows readers to really make the stories their own, and is one of the reasons why so many people become enamored with the limitlessness of the medium.
Fans are so enamored that people start lining up the day before.
“It’s our busiest day of the year. One of the fun things that happened over the years is people started camping out for it…. It’s a cool little community event that happens there. The first person in line gets a special prize. The first 10 people in line get prizes. There are prizes for being in line. We’re pretty generous with it because we know if you’re going to spend a day waiting, you don’t want to be like, ‘Here’s an extra comic book,’ like, it’s pretty substantial,” he said.
On top of the possibility of winning cool swag just for standing in line, there are more activities than you can shake a magic-imbued stick at. These include lightsaber training on the lawn, and cars from movies that could take you back into the future or away from running T-rexes along with other signature vehicles throughout the complex. There will also be droid racing, live music from the Clemenzi Crusaders, face painting, representation from New England Kids Con, and a mobile video game truck called Gamer Sanctuary as well as a costume contest. Participants can even learn to shoot as poorly as a Stormtrooper.
Free Comic Book Day would not be complete, though, without a cinematic universe’s allotment of comic book artists.
“They will have tables, some of them will be sketching, some of them will have comic books for sale, some of them will have art prints for sale. It varies by artist. Some of them will have free things to give away,” Proulx said. Artists scheduled include Misty Martell, Ed Smith, Erica Fog, Craig Holland and others. A full list of artists and vendors — there are more than 40 — can be found on their website.
Getting to dress up like your favorite character is another aspect that is a huge plus for fans, even if they are not competing for the glory of best cosplay.
“We do encourage people to come in costume. Kids, if they want to dress up, if you want to dress up your dog, just come have fun. Families coming together in costume, it’s really neat,” he said. There will be prizes as well, although walking around as the Mandalorian all day is already a win.
Another win is that the non-stop comic book action occurs all day, from 10 a.m to 4 p.m.,and the labor involved is totally worth it for Double Midnight Comics.
“It’s our favorite day of the year. It’s a lot of work…. We love doing it, we love getting the community out together. Bringing another positive event to the city and we just love our new home here at the Factory because they get it and they let us have fun with the event,” he said.
Merrymac Games and Comics
Artists attending include Tabatha Jean D’Agata, Todd Dezago, Craig Rousseau, Jesse Lundberg, Mike Norton, Joseph Schmalke, Chrissie Zullo Uminga and Christopher Uminga.
“They’ll be here from 10 to 3 signing books, doing sketches,” Bob Shaw, manager of Merrymac Games, said. Apart from personal projects, some titles they have worked on include stories from Marvel, DC, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Star Wars, among others.
The store will be handing out comics and having a small sale, 20 percent off most things in the store besides Magic Products.
Jetpack Comics and Games
In Rochester, Jetpack Comics and Games will be blasting off with the celebration as well.
“We definitely do Free Comic Book day a little bit different than a lot of places. I know at one point we had the biggest one in the world because we spread it out all over town,”said Rich Brunelle, manager of the store. They, “try to make it bigger every year.”
“These days we end up having it all around town where we have a list online, a big map of all the businesses that are involved where you can take a trip to each one and get some additional free comics, which is a neat idea.” In comic book town, every establishment holds a possibility to find your next favorite comic, or even your first.
This will be the last year Jetpack Comics organizes the event for the whole town. The owner “wants to mix it up and try something different,” Brunelle said. They want to put more focus on bringing in artists and the other great aspects of FCBD, but they hope businesses around Rochester still decide to take part. With great power comes great responsibility.
Jetpack Comics. Photo by Stolen Soul Photography.
“It gives a good chance for all the local businesses to get some new eyes on them. It’s definitely an interesting way to do it because the town has definitely embraced it over the years. There are signs on the edge of town and every road leading to downtown warning folks a week ahead of time of Saturday, May 4, there’s going to be costumed heroes and villains in the streets. So everyone knows that that’s a big day in Rochester here. We usually bring in at least a few thousand people to downtown,” Brunelle said.
Their biggest year was when they had Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, the creators of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, signing together at the event. Although that record may get broken this year.
It all starts at 10 a.m. but there is a way to start sooner and bypass the inevitable line by opting for a VIP pass.
“In addition to getting you a big bag of stuff right off the bat, you also get to skip the lines. Those VIP customers get to come in an hour early,” Brunelle said. “It’s pretty cool for them because for a little bit extra cash you don’t have to wait in a big line, and our line is definitely pretty long on Free Comic Book Day, but we have it down to a science these days where even times when the line goes from the shop and wraps all the way around the block where it’s like hundreds of people we have a great system that moves them through the shop really fast and an awesome crew that knows what they’re doing so we get people through the line incredibly fast these days, it’s pretty awesome.”
A large amount of action goes down at the Governor’s Inn, where participants can interact with comic book artists and vendors, live music will be played, and the ever popular cosplay contest happens at 4 p.m.
“Over the years that’s become a huge thing for us,” Brunelle said.
First, second, and third place winners will be chosen from categories that range from 0-17 and 18 and older. “All the prizes are different denominations of Jetpack Comics gift cards and we have a judges choice and host choice as well,” he said.
The construct and build of the attire runs quite the gamut.
“We have everything from people that have spent thousands of dollars to get a movie-accurate costume to kids that have literally built theirs with stuff at home. We realized pretty early in this [that] it’s not quite fair … we try to break it up and have a whole bunch of categories so that everyone gets spotlighted, a bunch of prizes, and it’s so fun,” Brunelle said.
“We had an almost realistic Master Chief from Halo a couple of years ago. We had some great Thors, there’s always a bunch of awesome Harley Quinns, Deadpools that show up as well as characters from popular animes these days. There’s been some spectacular Demon Slayer cosplays the last couple years…. It’s always cool to see what people come up with because our folks down this way are quite creative. We get some interesting costumes every year,” he said.
Before the caped crusaders take the stage for the contest a band composed of Jetpack Comics interns called Spectre Moose will perform to welcome in the attendees and contestants. They’re also podcasters — the band members, that is.
“They do a show called the Geek Gossip Podcast and they are like superstars, they’re teenagers, they do everything,” Brunelle said. Another band will perform after the cosplay contest for the afterparty.
A common thread these comic book stores share is the sense of belonging and understanding. “We have a lot of people who come in that don’t have any people in their life that want to talk comics or movies or TV shows and so they come in here and they know they’ve got a community they can chat with. I probably read way too many comics but all my customers like recommendations and like to know what’s good and what they should be reading so I try to keep up on a ton of it,” Brunelle said.
An older cousin introduced him to comics, but it was a major event like FCBD that led Brunelle to that comic book life.
“The Death of Superman was what got me into comic shops every single week. Back in the ’90s they tried to do all kinds of crazy events that would drag people in and that’s like one of the craziest ones of all time,” he said.
“We have like a mini-convention hall over there so we have a bunch of local guests as well as big-name guests that work on mainstream comics, and that ends up being a big focal point for everyone during the day … you get to meet some folks that are doing the comics you love,” he said.
“We have Paul Pellitier here this year. He’s well known for working with DC and Marvel … currently working on some of the new G.I. Joe stuff.” Others include Chris Campana, Gregory Bastianelli, Jeannine Acheson, Tom Sniegoski, Rich Woodall (who, “may be the hardest-working man in comics,” according to Brunelle), Vero Stewart, Jeremy Robinson, Mark Masztal and Jeff Kline. More information about these artists can be found on Jetpack’s website.
“This year is just the widest berth of different genres,” Brunelle said.
No matter which comic book party you attend, the organizers say, you’re going to have a good time.
“I honestly think this is the best year of Free Comic Book Day books in the history of the event…. People are pretty excited. It’s a great free day for the whole family and if you want to take a nice walk around town you can end up with a giant bag of free stuff, all kinds of comics to read,” Brunelle said.
Free Comic Book Day
Find a list of comics, some with previews of their FCBD book, additional locations, and more at freecomicbookday.com.
Collectibles Unlimited 25 South St. in Concord, collectiblesunlimited.biz, 228-3712 When: 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The store will have the free comics to hand out with no need to purchase anything, although the store will be open for regular business.
Diversity Gaming 1328 Hooksett Road in Hooksett, diversitygaming.store, 606-1176 When: 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. They’re collaborating with the Hooksett public library by giving them free comics to hand out. The store itself will have a big mix of free comics, a storewide sale on 700 Funko! Pop figures for $5 and a Star Wars sale as well, according to Diversity Gaming.
Double Midnight Comics 252 Willow St. in Manchester; dmcomics.com, 669-9636(XMEN) When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 341 Loudon Road in Concord; dmcomics.com, 715-2683 When: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Jetpack Comics and Games 37 N. Main St. in Rochester; 330-9636(XMEN), jetpackcomics.com When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. VIP passes range from $15 to $54.99
Merrymac Games and Comics 550 D.W. Highway in Merrimack, merrymacgc.com, 420-8161 When: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Pop Culture 66 Route 27 in Raymond, popculturenh.com, 244-1850 When: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Free comics that are offered for Free Comic Book Day. There will be multiple sales on graphic novels, Pokemon cards, magic cards and more. All non-framed posters will be two for $25. All statues will be half-off, Board games will be 25 percent off, any comic books that are $10 or more will be 25 percent off and all cornhole sets (featuring the Hulk, Spiderman — “we have nerdy ones, all that stuff”) will be $50 off the listed price, according to Pop Culture.
For the younger fans
Kids Con brings in today’s readers, tomorrow’s creators
By John Fladd jfladd@hippopress.com
Photo from Kids Con New England.
Emily Drouin is the creator, organizer, owner and promoter of Kids Con New England’s, which hosts a spring event in New Hampshire and a fall event in Maine.
This year’s Kids Con NE in Concord will feature a exhibitors, cosplayers, authors, artists and more.
“It’s a fun-filled one-day show,” Drouin said. “Parents know that this is a safe place and that all the material is family-appropriate.”
A dozen writers, illustrators and cartoonists will lead workshops like “Learn to Draw Robots,” “Sketch to Superhero Creation,” “Draw Anime Chibi-Style Characters,” “Superhero Mask-Making,” “Pokemon Crafts” and many others. Perhaps the biggest name among the guest authors and artists is William Patrick Murray, the creator of Marvel Comics’ The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl.
Other Kids Con activities include “Jedi Training with Calm Passion,” a magic show and a rock concert, which is followed in turn by “Superhero Training.” (Drouin said that Jedi Training is the runaway favorite among children.) There are also storytimes and sing-alongs and children’s improv classes. Drouin’s favorite part of the day — as well as most parents’ — is a cosplay contest.
Cosplay — when a fan dresses up as their favorite character — is one of the highlights of adult comic conventions. For kids, it is a dress-up dream come true. Given the scope of children’s imaginations, costumes can run the gamut from your standard Captain Americas and princesses in pink to indescribable alien life forms or whole families dressed to a theme.
“I am in awe of the costumes in the Cosplay Contest,” Drouin said.
For children who get too wound up, there are supervised areas outside where they can run around and scream.
“That’s really popular after Jedi Training,” Drouin said.
In addition to all this, there will be tables set aside for table-top games, a trailer to play video games in, and the vendors drawing caricatures, painting faces and selling toys, children’s books, comic books, posters and memorabilia, and more.
Kids Con NH 2024 Where: Everett Arena, 15 Loudon Road, Concord, 228-2784 When: Saturday, May 11, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets: $15, $12 for seniors 65+ and military. Children under 5 get in free. Kids under the age of 18 must be accompanied by an adult guardian. Tickets can be purchased at the door or through Kids Con’s website. More info: kidsconne.com
Telling a visual story
Ed Smith discusses his projects
Ed Smith is a comic book artist from Bedford who will be at Double Midnight Comics on Free Comic Book Day (Booth 27). He has worked on numerous titles including Tellos, Danger Team, a Giant Girl Adventure Series spin-off, and a project with his wife called Skies Over Gutenberg, among many, many others.
Is there a difference between working on commissioned work versus a personal project?
Ed Smith. Courtesy photo.
When you’re working on commission work usually it turns out that the client gives you free rein. You should always have your own individual set of standards so ideally doing commission work to someone else’s standard is only going to be slightly different than working on your own projects. There’s always that level of personal investment, you know — when you’re working on something near and dear to you it’s going to be a little bit different than if you’re working on something that’s near and dear to someone else. It really depends on the individual artist’s ethics. Mine personally, I find there really should not be a difference. I always do my best to involve myself in projects that I would want to be proud of in the future. I try to bring that same level of emotion to every project that I work on.
Do you have a specific color scheme you like to use?
Not particularly. Honestly it depends on the project. I try to use the colors that will work best for what the mood of the overall project is. You want to match colors that are in line with what it is that you’re working on. You don’t want to use drab and sad colors for something that’s supposed to be bright and cheery and make everybody smile. I do my best to kind of read the script or understand what the project is about and choose my colors accordingly.
How did you get into comics?
That’s a really good story. I grew up liking to draw. I grew up watching a lot of cartoons. I actually found my first comic book when I was a little guy. I found it when I was at school having breakfast one morning and ever since then I got more or less hooked because it was a Batman comic book. At the time I watched a lot of the Super Friends, so seeing Batman in a comic book just having adventures that were different than what I was seeing on the screen where he was surrounded by other superheroes, it just seemed a lot more adventurous to me. It was a lot more personal. I don’t know if I drew parallels from it or what have you, it was interesting to see Batman having his own individual adventures and it just inspired me and energized me to pick up my crayons and my pencils and whatever was around the house and just draw. My mom at the time kinda saw what I was doing and she would sit me down at the kitchen table and she would cut open paper grocery bags and we would use markers, industrial markers that my dad had brought home from work and she would show me how to draw things. The standard cube, turn the cube into a house, and then the house had the chimney with a curlicue of smoke, the three circles for Mickey Mouse’s ears, little flowers, things of that nature, she would teach me to draw them and I just kept going at it and over time it just developed into a little bit of skill. I just really kept at it. It was something that made me happy, drawing pictures, making everybody else smile while I’m drawing pictures. That’s really where it went.
Do you have any particular favorite screen adaptations of comic book stories?
Man, you know there are so many that I just can’t choose one…. Not because I’m trying to be wishy-washy and I realize that this article is going to go to print and different fandoms have different volatile reactions or supportive reactions to choices, but there are a lot of movies out there that you just wouldn’t believe were comic books and they are great cinematic movies. 300. 300 is a Frank Miller book that was based on old Greek legends and history. Road to Perdition with Tom Hanks, that was a really good graphic novel. There are just so many that people overlook as being true comic book movies that it’s hard to choose just one. I like what they’ve done with the Tom Holland Spiderman movies. They took old Steve Ditko and Stan Lee’s premise of Peter Parker being this high school nerd and they’ve made it really contemporary. They took it and really put him in today’s society…. A huge fan of Captain America, so I like what they did in the Captain America movies. I like Shazam as well and I think Zachary Levi does a great interpretation of a child being given some pretty great powers and having to deal with those…. I can’t put my finger on just one of them honestly.
What do you like about Free Comic Book Day?
People will show up for free books and they’ll be introduced to things they’ll grow to like and get attached to, and they really don’t understand that all of that harkens back to cave paintings. When you’re a comic book artist one of the things you strive for is to be able to tell the story without the word bubbles or the sound effects. You really want to be able to make a visual story that doesn’t need words but the words support the pictures. That goes back to when cavemen didn’t have a fixed language and they communicated on cave walls to record their history…. When you pay attention to comics, they’re pretty deep, they’re pretty in depth. There’s a lot of psychology that goes into really good comics. There’s a lot of visual representation and subtlety in storytelling that people just overlook. It’s great to watch little kids come in and unknowingly just become fans of something that’s a lot bigger than them and it’s actually a part of history and modern culture. — Zachary Lewis
Meet Ed Ed Smith will be at Double Midnight Comics in Manchester (Comic Con Booth 27) on Free Comic Book Day. See dmcomics.com.
DIY comics
Marek Bennett explains how to make your own
By John Fladd jfladd@hippopress.com
The thing about drawing comics, Marek Bennett said, is it’s more about leaving things out, rather than putting them in.
Bennett — a cartoonist, the author and illustrator of the Freeman Colby series of graphic novels, and art educator — frequently teaches cartooning workshops to adults and children. Working with children is usually more straightforward than it is with adults, who get self-conscious and intimidated, he said: “It’s much easier for adults to make comics if there are a few kids scattered around the room.”
“Older people end up using simpler pictures,” he said, often stick figures. “I have to remind them that even if a comic uses stick figures, it’s still a narrative.”
Children, on the other hand, feel less restricted about what they include in their comics. “[When I work with children] I start with a stick figure and ask the kids to suggest three details to add to it.” Because Bennett is often a novelty in a classroom full of children, many times they want him to draw himself. He will start with a stick figure. “Then when I ask them for three details, they always name the same three — a hat, a beard, and glasses.” That gives them a framework for their narrative.
The simplicity of the comic medium, he said, is what makes it so powerful and accessible.
“It allows an idea to be as clear as possible,” he said. “A sequence of images is exponentially more powerful than individual pictures. It’s more than the sum of its parts. By limiting the amount of detail, we open ourselves to a more intimate understanding of each other through our art work.”
One of the reasons comics are so well-suited for kids, Bennett said, is that there is such a low barrier to entry. “Unlike video games, sports, or musical instruments, kids and their parents don’t have to invest any money on something a kid won’t be interested in the next week.” If they have a brown paper bag and a crayon, they can make a comic.
Comics make sense to kids, he said. “All my life, I’ve drawn pictures. I would show them to adults or other kids, and they’d ask, ‘What happens next?’ So I’d draw a picture of what happened next, and then what happened after that. The next thing I knew, I’d have a complicated, sequential narrative. That’s a comic.”
The best way to start cartooning, Bennet said, is to put together a booklet and draw a series of boxes on the pages. “Start with a box at the beginning, and a box at the end, then work with them to fill in the details in the middle. Start with a simple character — a rabbit, or a stick figure, or whatever. I had a kid tell me once that he wanted the story to be about him and he said, ‘I want to be a dolphin!’ I asked him why, and suddenly he had a narrative.”
If all that is a little overwhelming for a particular kid, he said, break it down even further. “Use a sketchbook or a drawing pad and have them draw one picture per page.” Then, like the adults in Bennett’s life when he was a kid, guide them along with “What comes next?” questions. “They’ll end up with something like a flipbook. That’s still a story told with sequential pictures; it’s still a comic.”
Bennett said that when he works with groups of children, they will often start with eight-page mini comic books. With minimal guidance kids quickly start addressing some fairly sophisticated concepts.
“They’ll break into pairs or small groups,” he said, “and ask each other who their readers will be and what kind of story will those readers like. It’s empowering; they get to try ideas out on test readers and how to refine artwork and tailor it for the community.”
One of the powerful aspects of comics for kids as creators is the immediate feedback they get and a sense of achievement, Bennett said.
“They see themselves as part of a reading community. Making comics is an entry into graphic novels, which is an entry to reading anything.” If you told a child that they could write a 500-page graphic novel, he said, “they’d be completely intimidated. But if they draw a page a day, with six panels to a page, that’s 3,000 images to tell a story.”
Ultimately, Bennett said, comics are a way to know someone better. He tells a story about leading a cartooning workshop in the United Arab Emirates. The adults he worked with were confused at first; comic art is not a traditional part of their culture. As Bennett led them through the “What next? What next?” process, they became more and more enthusiastic. “One of them told me, ‘This is a way to understand somebody’s heart.’”
More Marek Find out more about Bennett’s works and where he is headed to teach and talk comics at marekbennett.com.
More from the Vampiverse
Jeannine Acheson and Tom Sniegoski discuss their new work
Massachusetts-based Jeannine Acheson and Tom Sniegoski, the writing duo behind Vampirella: Dark Reflections from Dynamite Comics, which has a release date scheduled in June, discuss their process.
What comes first — the picture or the words?
Jeannine Acheson. Courtesy photo.
Jeannine Acheson: The ideas come first, the story comes first, I think in my head anyway. And we start by writing everything out. The plot, the characters, we start with that and it’s kind of a step-by-step process. Now we’re working on a graphic novel and we’re laying things out and that’s where the pictures come in, for me anyway. Although, I feel like you’re [Tom] more fluid in that.
Tom Sniegoski: When I think of an idea, a lot of the time, especially for comic ideas, imagery is what drives the process. It’s kind of like, ‘Oh, that would be really cool. This could be a good moment in this kind of story if you had this kind of thing.’ There’s a lot of that, but what Jeannine says, we do sit down with a notepad. In the earlier stages it’s just notes. It’s just ideas. It’s almost like a gigantic puzzle that slowly starts to get pieced together so you’re in your proper order by the time you get all your ideas, hopefully, you see the logical story progression and then from there it will go to the next stage … breakdowns, stuff like that.
Tom Sniegoski. Courtesy photo.
How did the collaboration for Dark Reflections, which is coming out in June, come about?
JA: That one was born from the Vampiverse, which we did for Dynamite in 2021 or 2022.
TS: Yeah, I think that’s 2022.
JA: And that is one of the stories from the many threads of the fabric that are the Vampirella stories in the Vampiverse, and this one focuses on a downtrodden Vampirella and Lilith, a daughter of Vampirella, of a Vampirella. It just kind of came up from there because we thought she was an interesting character [and] we wanted to explore what she had to say.
TS: The concept of the Vampiverse is the fact that the character, Vampirella, exists in many different realities and different forms so there’s like, we call them the threads, so every thread is a different story and a different Vampirella. So you could have a western Vampirella and a sci-fi Vampirella, an animated cartoon Vampirella, all these different stories. What it does is allows us to tell as many stories as we can think of with these different kinds of Vampirellas while keeping things fresh. It’s not the same character, she’s slightly different in all of these worlds. Dark Reflections is just another Vampirella in her world interacting with that character who is actually her daughter of a deceased Vampirella. It was fun to do. It allows us to do so much. We’re not completely rooted to continuity, a specific continuity. It allows us to play with that continuity if we wanted to, or ignore certain aspects of that continuity. It’s fun.
What draws you to a particular story?
TS: What draws Jeannine is that I say, ‘Hey, I got an idea.’
JA: Exactly, I can do that.
TS: ‘What is it this time?’ Honestly, you never know. A lot of the times, things just kind of click. You might see something in the news, you might read something in a newspaper, you might be walking around your kitchen and you trip and all of a sudden there’s just this germ of an idea that you then see if it’s worthy. You give it a poke, kick the tires and you start to expand on that idea. A lot of the times, Jeannine will get a text that just says, ‘got an idea,’ and I’ll give her a sentence and I gauge her reaction on the sentence whether we should probably continue to try to develop it or not.
JA: Sometimes it feels like things that come to fruition are things that keep coming up for us. They kinda won’t leave us alone. We have another comic coming out in July and that idea was born about four years ago and it just kept coming back to us and every time we’d be working on something else, this idea would just come back to us and we’d say, ‘Oh, remember that one that we talked about, that old lady living in the nursing home?’ and they just keep coming back and kind of keep expanding. We think about new facets to the character or different things that they could be involved in. The ideas get insistent, they have to be told I think.
TS: You know it’s a good one when it won’t leave you alone and you should pay attention to it. As a writer, here’s some writerly advice: If it keeps coming back it’s probably good and you should keep developing that idea.
Is there an IP or storyverse that you’d like to work on that you haven’t yet?
TS: The thing is, my dream character was Hellboy and I write Hellboy now, so I got that one out of the way.
JA: I don’t know if I have a dream one. Honestly, I think since I started writing with Tom my life has been a series of ‘yeses.’ There’s nothing that I’ve said no to with respect to writing. ‘You want to write Vampirella?’ Well, I’ve never written that before but sure, why not? We finished a novel together during the pandemic. For me, I’m very new to this whole world of comics and writing so I come along for the ride, I say yes to everything.
How does collaboration work between you two?
JA: Most of the time we work in Google Docs over Skype. A couple a days a week I go to his office on the South Shore but all the other times I’m here at my home office on the North Shore. We generally, I would say like 99 percent of the time, work on things together in real time. Occasionally Tom has work outside of our work and I have a little bit of stuff myself. Occasionally he’ll have to go to a meeting and I’ll say I’ll try laying out these few pages and finish up this scene. Sometimes it works OK, sometimes it has to be revised, but I’m still learning. Most of the time it’s literally a team effort. Somebody will write a sentence, somebody will tweak it, somebody will write another sentence, somebody will tweak. It’s very much in real time, writing together, almost all the time, everything.
TS: It’s interesting. I’d never worked that way before. I was solo for many, many, many, many years, so it’s very interesting to spend as much time working on so many different things with Jeannine. I’ve worked with Chris Golden, I’ve worked with Mike Mignola, I’ve worked with all kinds of people. Those relationships are kind of like, you discuss the project, you kinda know what you’re doing and everybody goes to their separate corner and does their own thing. Whereas working with Jeannine, and I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that she’s still learning a lot of this stuff since she’s so new to comics and book writing that we spend a lot of time talking about the process….
If someone stops by your booth on Free Comic Book Day, what can they expect to encounter?
TS: Jeannine will most likely be asleep.
JA: No, you’ll probably give them a hard time.
TS: Never.
JA: Honestly, this will be our third or fourth [FCBD] together at Jetpack Comics in Rochester. Hey Ralph! For me, It’s so exciting just to meet people that enjoy comics. It’s so cool. I think the first Free Comic Book Day we gave out, did we give out posters?
TS: Yeah, we had Vampirella, Vampiverse posters.
JA: Yeah, and that was so cool. It was so exciting to see people who were excited about Vampirella and loved the character and liked the new take we had to come up with. I think it’s exciting for me just to talk to all the people who are interested in comics. We have stuff for sale, but, you know.
TS: We bring like stock of stuff and people buy it, we autograph it and it’s fun. It’s very fun.
JA: It really is, it’s wild. I especially love seeing the families that come in. Parents with their younger kids or like grade-school kids, I think that’s fabulous. I think that’s so cool. Training the next generation. — Zachary Lewis
See Jeannine and Tom Jeannine Acheson and Tom Sniegoski will be at Jetpack Comics’ event at the Ballroom at the Governor’s Inn in Rochester. See jetpackcomics.com.
On Friday, April 26, Gov. Chris Sununu announced that Andrew Flockton of Milford was selected as the 2024 Governor for a Day competition winner, meaning that Andrew acted as Governor for a Day on Wednesday, May 1, and joined the governor for the entire day at the Statehouse and on the road, according to a press release.
Andrew is a seventh-grader at Milford Middle School, where he is a member of the school’s student council and student newspaper, the Granite Town Tribune. Andrew wrote about his interest in local government, business and tourism. In his submission, he said, “If I were Governor for a day, I would want to learn about the state government and learn more about business and tourism in New Hampshire. I am fascinated with the inner workings of government and being Governor for a day would be a good way to expand my knowledge of government. I would like to represent the next generation of New Hampshire citizens by being Governor for a day.”
The “Governor for a Day” initiative was launched in 2018 to foster civic education and promote youth participation in government. It invited all middle and high school students across the Granite State to submit a 250- to 500-word essay completing the sentence, “If I were Governor for a day, I would…,” according to the release.
In a statement, Sununu said, “Andrew’s submission captured the importance of civic engagement and the Live Free or Die spirit that makes our state so special.”
Hatching news
As of just before noon on Tuesday, April 30, two of the four peregrine falcon eggs at the Brady Sullivan Tower falcon nest in Manchester had hatched. The nest is viewable via livestreaming Peregrine Cam, provided by the New Hampshire Audubon with support of Peregrine Networks and Brady Sullivan Properties, according to nhaudubon.org, where you can find links to the live feeds. According to the daily log, which you can find a link to in the chat of the YouTube feed, the names of the eyasses are Whit (for Walt Whitman) and Thor (for Henry David Thoreau), names voted on by viewers.
Trails grants
The New Hampshire Division of Parks and Recreation’s Bureau of Trails announced in an April 22 press release that it has opened its Fiscal Year 2025 Recreational Trails Program grant round and that three informational workshops will be taking place in May. Any qualified organization wishing to apply for Recreational Trails Program grant funding must attend at least one workshop session, the release said. Grant applicants are open to nonprofit organizations, private groups or government entities and funds are available for motorized, non-motorized and diversified trails, according to the release. The first two workshops occur on Wednesday, May 8, at 1 and 6 p.m. at the New Hampshire Department of Natural and Cultural Resources at 172 Pembroke Road in Concord, and the third will be on Friday, May 24, at 6 p.m. at the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources at 629 B Main S. in Lancaster. Attendees need to register in advance by contacting RTP Program Coordinator Jay Scarborough via email at jay.a.scarborough@dncr.nh.gov since space is limited, according to the press release.
Applications for Fiscal Year 2025 grants are due on Friday, June 14, by 4 p.m. with selected projects to have funding available in late spring 2025. The Recreational Trail Program is funded by federal gas tax dollars paid on fuel purchases for off-highway recreational vehicles and snowmobiles, according to the release. More information about the Recreational Trails Program is available at bit.ly/3JihN1p and nhstateparks.org or by calling 603-271-3556.
Funds in the sun
According to an April 26 press release, the New Hampshire Department of Education (NHED) has disbursed more than $1 million in scholarships for Granite State children to attend camp this summer through a program titled ReKINDling Curiosity.
Frank Edelbult, the state’s Education Commissioner, in a statement said, “our ReKINDling Curiosity program has grown each year, providing hundreds of families that may need financial assistance with the opportunity to enroll their children in an engaging camp program,” These awards totaling about $1.1 million will continue to be distributed until Covid relief funding is exhausted and will allow at least 1,777 students to participate in a summer camp experience at about 170 different camps, according to the press release.
In a statement, Susan Miller Hild, President of the New Hampshire Camp Directors Association, said, “ReKINDling Curiosity has afforded camps an opportunity to bring in a more diverse camp population. It allows camps that may not have an established scholarship program an opportunity to offer a camp experience for more families from New Hampshire.” For more details on the program, or to apply, visit rekindlingcuriosityeducation.nh.gov.
Deadly fires
Last week was an unusually active week for fires across the state, with nine major fires, and fatalities at four of them. “I’ve been in the state fire marshal’s office for the last six years, and I can’t think of a week [that] we’ve had that much tragedy relative to fires in our state,” said State Fire Marshal Sean Toomey, as reported by WMUR in an online story on April 28. According to the New Hampshire Division of Fire Safety (firemarshal.dos.nh.gov), there were fatal fires in Nashua, Concord, and Manchester over the past 10 days. Three individuals died in fires that occurred in residences, such as an apartment or a house, and one individual died in a crash that also involved a fire, according to the report on WMUR. According to statements on the Division of Fire Safety’s website, investigations of all four fatal fires are “active and ongoing.”
The Manchester Urban Ponds Restoration Program holds its final cleanup of the spring at Black Brook / Blodget Park (Front Street and Dunbarton Road) on Saturday May 4, from 9 to 11 a.m. Find the “Most Interesting or Unusual Piece of Trash” and win an award, according to the website. Visit manchesternh.gov/Departments/Environmental-Protection/Pond-Restoration.
The Manchester City Library (405 Pine St.) is screening the original theatrical version of The Empire Strikes Back on Saturday, May 4, at 11:30 a.m. Visit manchester.lib.nh.gov.
The New Hampshire Audubon is holding a beginner bird walk in Epping on Saturday, May 4, starting at 7 a.m. at the kiosk at Gate 3 (just east of 74 Mast Road). The Southeast Land Trust’s Mast Road Natural area in Epping totals 531 acres of wetlands, an active beaver pond, and early succession forest, and the trip is limited to 20 participants, according to Audubon’s website. Children are welcome with an adult, and participants are encouraged to bring binoculars, water, insect repellent and sunscreen. Visit nhaudubon.org/event/bbw-mast-road-natural-area-may-2024.
There’s history between guitarists Jeff Beck and Johnny A.
The two jammed together multiple times, beginning a few years back in Portland, Maine, when Beck invited Johnny A onstage after his band opened for him. Later, the Massachusetts-born axeman toured with the re-formed Yardbirds, Beck’s (and Jimmy Page’s) first band, playing all the guitar parts. Heady stuff for a guy who’d said if he could jam with anyone in the world, it wouldn’t be Jimi Hendrix or his idol John Lennon; it’d be Jeff Beck.
However, when asked in the weeks after Beck died last year to put together a band to remember him, Johnny A declined — firmly.
“I said, I’m not really into doing tribute things, first of all, and b, the guy is not really copyable,” he recalled in a recent phone interview. “He [the promoter] called me again and I turned him down. Then he called me again.”
By then, he’d thought more about his time playing songs like “For Your Love” and “Shapes of Things,” and conceded the tireless promoter might have a point. “He said, ‘Hey, listen, you played in the Yardbirds for three years. The reviews I’ve seen of you capturing that era of music with those guitar players were always very, very positive.’”
He agreed to consider putting a band together but made clear it would not be a tribute.
“I’d approach it like I approached the Yardbirds … pay respect to the artist, don’t really try to copy, try to conjure the spirit of the music, and keep my own personality injected in there somehow,” he said.
The result is Beck-Ola, a band named after the guitarist’s second solo album. It includes the rhythm section from his trio, drummer Marty Richards and bassist Dean Cassell, singer Mike Gill (Beyond Purple) and keyboard player Steve Baker. The latter is a great fit for Beck’s jazz fusion era, having played with Stanley Clarke, Billy Cobham and Allan Holdsworth.
The two-week tour, which will include a Saturday, April 27, show at the Flying Monkey in Plymouth and a Sunday, April 28, show at the Nashua Center for the Arts will focus exclusively on Beck’s solo career.
“We’re doing 21 songs from different albums that go all the way back to Truth; nothing really from the Yardbirds,” he said. “I’m calling it ‘A Celebration of the Music of Jeff Beck,’ because we’re trying to capture the spirits of different eras.”
He plans to follow the guitar legend’s unique approach to his material.
“He never really played melodies the same way twice, they were always interpreted like a singer would sing a song, differently every time,” he said. “Even though it’s really the same melody, the inflections and the nuances and the phrasing are altered.”
It’s an approach he’s had since taking up guitar in the mid-1960s.
“I’m influenced by a lot of people but it’s more about what makes them tick,” he said. “If you can conjure up that little spark … maybe re-imagine that energy and bring it to your own playing. Maybe it echoes the personality that you’re trying to, I wouldn’t say emulate, but pay tribute to.”
The final two nights of the brief tour will be special, as Beck-Ola co-headlines with Journeyman, an Eric Clapton tribute led by young phenom Shaun Hague.
“Fans of British blues rock guitar will get their fill,” he said, adding, “I think people will like it, if they come out and have an open mind and they like the music of Jeff Beck, and they miss it.”
Songs will span from the days when Rod Stewart sang lead on “Morning Dew” and “Ain’t Superstitious” to the revelatory instrumental albums Wired and Blow by Blow, and beyond. But Johnny A. re-affirmed that costume changes won’t be part of the show.
“I’m not getting a shag haircut and I’m not wearing metal arm bands,” he said. “It’s going to be a band that’s paying homage, hopefully respectfully, to a great artist and iconic guitarist.”
British Guitar Blowout – Beck-Ola and Journeyman When: Sunday, April 28, 7 p.m. Where: Nashua Center for the Arts, 201 Main St., Nashua Tickets: $29 and up at etix.com
Guy Ritchie does an Inglourious Basterds by way of Operation Mincemeat and gets The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, which is based on a true story from the nonfiction book by Damien Lewis.
As with the 2021 Netflix film Operation Mincemeat, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare gives us a young Ian Fleming (Freddie Fox) during World War II, working here for a senior officer “M” (Cary Elwes), getting mixed up in wartime spycraft that uses cunning and misdirection to defeat a seemingly better-situated German military. In this case, the plan — Operation Postmaster — is to destroy the ship that supplies the German U-boats that are making it difficult for the British to get food and military reinforcements from America. The ship is in the Spanish-controlled port of an island off the Atlantic coast of Africa. Gus March-Phillips (Henry Cavill), a British officer known for breaking rules and not following orders, is charged with putting together a small crew to sail to the port and blow up the ship — but, like, quietly and unofficially in a way that won’t put the British in open conflict with Franco’s Spain. His basterds include Anders Lassen (Reacher’s Alan Ritchson, playing the same kind of mountain-sized butt-kicking robot here), Geoffrey Appleyard (Alex Pettyfer), Henry Hayes (Hero Fiennes Tiffin) and Freddy Alvarez (Henry Golding — who is my fave in this movie’s collection of “men who could be the next James Bond”). In the port town, British agents Heron (Babs Olusanmokun) and Marjorie Stewart (Eiza Gonzáles) wine and dine and generally distract and pull information from the various Nazis, the ickiest of whom is Heinrich Luhr (Til Schweiger). When the night of the big event arrives, Heron also enlists the help of local Kambili Kalu (Danny Sapani, who also feels like a pretty good Bond candidate).
There is an overall shagginess that slows the movie down and a flatness to the characters that I feel is not uncommon when you’re dealing with a real-world story filled with lots of real people you don’t want to leave out. There is nothing particularly new here; the movie has a “serviceable cover of a decent radio hit” feel overall.
But the group of rascalness-inclined heroes makes for a mostly fun bunch of people to hang out with for two hours. The caper elements are probably the movie’s most interesting and while I wish they were maybe a little sharper, they provide enough energy to keep the last part of the movie in particular buzzing along. B-
Rated R for strong violence throughout and some language, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Guy Ritchie with a screenplay by Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson & Arash Amel and Guy Ritchie based on a book of the same name by Damien Lewis, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is two hours long and is distributed in theaters by Lionsgate.
Abigail (R)
A kidnapping gig goes hilariously wrong for a group of criminals in Abigail, a horror movie?
I mean, Abigail has the fixings of a horror movie — big creepy house with passageways and cobwebs and a gang of untrustworthy types who don’t know each other and a “maybe the killer is in here with us!” situation. But this movie is laugh-out-loud hilarious and wonderfully hammy.
The “no names” rule by boss Lambert (Giancarlo Esposito) is why the gang of kidnappers calls each other Joey (Melissa Barrera), Frank (Dan Stevens, chewing all the scenery as he does what feels like a Nic Cage impression), Rickles (William Catlett), Sammy (Kathryn Newton), Peter (Kevin Durand) and Dean (Angus Cloud). They didn’t even all know that the person being kidnapped is a child, Abigail (Alisha Weir), or who her father is. Joey, a nurse charged with taking care of Abigail, promises the young girl she’ll keep her safe and get her back to her father as soon as the ransom is paid. Abigail appreciates that and tells Joey she’s sorry about what is about to happen to her.
A shaken Joey goes back to the group — who is this girl’s father and what kind of trouble are we in?
The trailers to this movie spell out exactly what kind of trouble the group is in and it is delightfully bonkers. We first see Abigail as she dances ballet to “Swan Lake” and she spends much of the movie in a ballerina outfit, bringing big M3gan vibes to everything she does. The criminal characters mostly play it straight — they are after all being picked off one by one — while still acknowledging the unreality of their situation. The movie nicely blends the tropes of a haunted house-style horror and an unreliable criminals caper with its silly-but-great central premise for an overall fun time. There are some jump scares and a significant amount of explodey, chunky gore but otherwise this is definitely a horror movie that delights in the campiness of its genre more than its frights. B,maybe even a B+ for the overall sense of glee
Rated R for strong bloody violence and gore throughout, pervasive language and brief drug use, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett with a screenplay by Stephen Shields and Guy Busick, Abigail is 106 minutes long and distributed in theaters by Universal Studios.
Featured photo: The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.
