Sunday, November 19, 2017

Pheaturing Phile Alum Richard Rivera



Hey there, welcome to the Phile on a Sunday from Clermont Comic Con for the second year. In case you didn't know my super power is always looking where the nearest restroom is.
I'm sure there are some Harry Potter fans here... From young Pope to young Dumbledore... Thursday morning, Warner Bros. gave Harry Potter fans some updates on the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them sequel. As reported by "Entertainment Weekly," the film is called Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, and it will open on Nov. 16th, 2018. The first official cast photo was also revealed... and the Internet cannot stop focusing on Jude Law as young Dumbledore. Because not only is he young Dumbledore, but he's also hot young Dumbledore.


And much like when "The Young Pope" was announced, Twitter is in shock at just how hot young Jude Law as Dumbledore is. No offense, but it's hard to tell how an elderly man would have looked 100 years ago.
A photo from the Justice League film showing the Amazon women who recently appeared in this summer's Wonder Woman is making the rounds on Twitter because everyone hates it. Okay, not everyone, but there's a major difference that's got people talking. In Patty Jenkins's Wonder Woman the Amazonians wore armor that covered their torsos. In directors Zack Snyder and Joss Whedon's Justice League (Whedon took the helm from Snyder during post-production for family reasons), the Amazonians wear bikinis. In addition to having a female versus male directors, Wonder Woman had Lindy Hemmings for costumes, while the Justice League had Michael Wilkinson. Kimi from the website The Golden Lasso succinctly summarized the major issue with these costume changes, with photo stills showing that the bikini armor is worn in battle in Justice League. "An evolution of style would be appropriate but the Amazons would not plan to go into battle with their vital organs exposed," Kimi wrote. "My problem is a millennia-old military culture wearing bikinis into battle because they are women. My problem is a wise civilization that was created by the gods to protect the world thinking that soft leather is armor." One of the Amazonian ladies, Brooke Ence, spoke to "USA Today" about the outfits. She said, "the girls on set, we never thought of [the new costumes] as a sexy version. It felt a little more glamorous, if anything, because we had bigger, beautiful hair, which I loved." Ence is a Crossfit champion aka a real-life Wonder Woman. She added that perceptions of her body actually made this outfit special for her. "[Usually] I can’t wear anything without someone commenting about my [muscular] body. So for me, it was actually really cool to be able to show it and not immediately feel masculine, but still very feminine." That is very great, though the idea of exposed stomachs in battle still does not make sense for the whole survival thing.
On Tuesday the Ohio Rep. Wes Goodman resigned from his seat after he was confronted by House speaker Cliff Rosenberger about "inappropriate behavior." While the sexual liasion had been going on for months, it wasn't until Tuesday that Rosenberger was alerted to Goodman's "inappropriate behavior related to his state office." In non PR language, allegedly the married and politically anti-LGBT Goodman was caught having sex with another man in his office. After Rosenberger was alerted of the "inappropriate behavior" he confronted Goodman, who admitted the allegations were true before officially stepping down. According to Rosenberger's spokesman Brad Miller, the interaction was consensual and happened several months ago. As of yet, Miller indicated it didn't constitute sexual harassment and no complaints of harassment by Goodman were made during his time in the House. While the optics of a married man having an affair with another man would look bad no matter what, Goodman's outspoken Conservative platform lend him to further scrutiny. His wife, Bethany Goodman, is the assistant director of the annual anti-choice rally known as March for Life. Goodman started his political career working as an aide to U.S. Representative Jim Jordan, a highly conservative, anti-LGBT Republican. He was even listed in the 2014 Hall of Shame by The Human Rights Campaign (a large LGBTQ advocacy group) after attempting to block marriage equality in the District of Columbia. His campaign website, which is now removed, touted "strong Christian values" and claimed that heterosexual families were the cornerstone of morality. It read, "Healthy, vibrant, thriving, values-driven families are the source of Ohio's proud history and the key to Ohio's future greatness.The ideals of a loving father and mother, a committed natural marriage, and a caring community are well worth pursuing and protecting." Goodman has formally issued an apology and asks for privacy at this time. Perhaps, he should have considered privacy before he actively advocated against the right for gay couples to marry each other.
Last week the actress Aurora Perrineau filed a police report accusing the "Girls" writer Murray Miller of sexual assault, which Miller strongly denied through his attorney on Friday. While Miller's denial of the accusations hardly comes as a surprise, the "Girls" co-showrunners Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner also sent a statement to The Hollywood Reporter on Friday night that strongly defended the writer. They even cited the dangerous and statistically miniscule existence of false rape accusations as part of their defense. Considering the fact that Dunham has branded herself as an outspoken feminist, the decision to not believe another woman's assault story feels both tone deaf and revealing. Unsurprisingly, people were both disappointed and angered by Dunham's lack of support for Perrineau. She has a huge platform and she used it to spread the promote the concept of false rape accusations while defending Miller just because he's been good to her. If we have learned anything from the past few weeks, it should be that predators are master manipulators and treat their friends very differently than the people they assault.
Know what would be a sweet gift for the holidays? A giant teddy bear with spindly white legs, disproportionate to the rest of the body, that could creepily sit on a bean bag chair in the kitchen and have its legs flop into the dining room. I know that's exactly what you're looking for. So don't be concerned that the Amazon product photo looks like this...


The bear's torso is outrageously disproportionate to the legs. "I feel like there should have been more emphasis on the lower portion of the teddy bear," said one commenter, who called the bear "freakishly terrifying in [when photographed in] portrait." "It appears to be some sort of bipedal giraffe bear hybrid. After we took him out of the box with my daughters, I expected it to hop up and sprint away down the street with a fingerless fist raised in victory." Actually, this review is worth reading in full...


In all seriousness, the legs are so long they stretched from a humble Amazon product page all the way to Twitter, where they took one jump and skyrocketed to viral fame. If you want your very own nightmare daddy long legs bear, you can head over to Amazon and buy it for the low low low price of $129.99 plus shipping. If you haven't heard, it's got long legs. I have not acquired this masterpiece yet but excited to get one because of the legs. Please keep pumping out those Spongebob from prom looking bears please and thank you! Some people are into that.
Hey, it's Sunday... I should be listening to this instead of hanging out at a comic book convention...


Disney, the greatest company to work for ever, sometimes likes to change around their characters before they releases the movies. Take a look at this scene from The Lion King to see how some of th characters looked like originally...

I like the way Rafiki looks. You know one thing that is so great about the Internet that a lot of people here at the con don't know about probably is you can easily see porn. But the problem with that is you might get bored with this blog and go and look at porn. So, I thought I should show a porn pic here... but then you might get in trouble if you're at work. So, I came up with a solution. Comic book fans might like this...


Ummm... maybe not. Comics nowadays are a lot different then they were back in the day. 


So, you know the new Star Wars movie will be called The Last Jedi, but it had a different name at first... 


What a stupid name. Speaking of Star Wars, here's an original sketch of Jabba the Hutt and Slave Leia... 


Hahaha. Speaking of Jabba the Hutt, I accidentally Googled jabascript" and was not disappointed with Google's suggestion...


I'm a big fan of the '66 "Batman" show, but I totally didn't know Batman was on "Star Trek."


I bet that was a good episode. Hey, I have an exclusive pic from the next Star Wars movie...


Ugh! And now from the home office in Port Jefferson, New York...


Top Phive People or Groups of People Who Went To See Justice League
5. Matt Damon, who's still obligated to see all of Ben Affeck's movies die to a 1991 pinkie-swear.
4. Roy Moore... who finds that a matinee of a superhero movie is the perfect place to meet a... certain type of constituent.
3. Confused jurisprudence aficionados, wondering where the hell Ruth Bader Ginsberg is.
2. Guppies, swordfish, largemouth bass and other close personal friends of Aquaman.
And the number one person who went to see Justice League...
1. Al Franken, desperate for a break from the swirling shit storm that has become his life.




If you spot the Miondphuck let me know. Okay, so, you know there's Captain America, Captain Britain, Captain Caveman, Captain Marvel... but there's another Captain you might not know of that's a superhero and that is Captain Clermont. So, being at the Clermont Comic Con I thought I'd invite him here. Please welcome to the Phile...


Me: Hi, Captain, welcome to the Phile. So, what is your super power?

Captain Clermont: The power to waste time reading about pointless superpowers when I could be doing something productive.

Me: Ummm... that makes no sense. Is that it?

Captain Clermont: I have the power to bleed every month for 3-5 days a month.

Me: That's not a very good power, Captain.

Captain Clermont: I also have the power to be invisible when no one is looking at me.

Me: That is not a super power. Anymore?

Captain Clermont: The power to believe it's not butter.

Me: Get outta here! You're wasting my time! Captain Clermont, everybody!






The 70th book to be pheatured Phile's Book Club is...


Ack! This is so cool. Kevin will be a guest on the Phile next Monday. I'm so fucking excited!



Malcolm Young 
January 6th, 1953 — November 18th, 2017
Finally lost his long-running battle with American thighs.



Today's guest is a Phile Alum who is the creator and writer for the fantastic comic book "Stabbity Bunny." Please welcome back to the Phile... Richard Rivera.


Me: Hey, Richard, welcome back to the Phile from Clermont Comic Con. How are you?

Richard: I'm doing well, thanks! We've been in overdrive this month trying to spread the word about being in Diamond Previews.

Me: So, this con is small compared to some others that you have been too... NYCC and SDCC are wayyyy lot bigger. Hahahaha. How do you compare those experiences, Richard?

Richard: Each convention is its own thing. A smaller convention like this is still busy, but allows for easier access to fans. 

Me: Do you have a favorite con you have been to and favorite con experience?

Richard: Recently, I've had such great chats with fans of the series. It's the whole reason for putting the story out there and knowing that it has entertained a few people is so fantastic.

Me: I guess you don't get to walk around the cons when you are working them, right? 

Richard: Very rarely. Ninety-eight% of the time I'm behind the table.

Me: Do you see a lot of celebrities at the cons? I wonder of anyone has seen your books...

Richard: I haven't had much interaction with the celebrities, not about the comic.

Me: I like seeing the costumes and one of my favorites you posted on Facebook was this kid dressed as Chucky holding the "Stabbity Bunny" book.


Me: You like to get people holding your books, right? That's smart.

Richard: If it is a cosplayer who catches my eye or one that has purchased the series, I do try to immortalize it, when time allows.

Me: We'll talk about "Stabbity Bunny" in a minute... you are working on a book with Phile Alum Alex Lobato, who you introduced me to at last years Clermont Comic Con... what can you tell us about that book?

Richard: "Shadow Play" is going to be an awesome series. The story has really developed into something special and the artwork by Clara Meath is epic.

Me: I love the Stabbity Bunny plush. It's so cool. You took it to England and took pics with it all over the place, right?

Richard: Yes, thank you, he enjoys travel.

Me: Was it a business trip?

Richard: It was a mix of business and pleasure.

Me: I'm from London, soI have to ask what dod you think?

Richard: London is always terrific! The number of stores they have and the diversity of the stores it's like a collectors dream. Rumor has it there are even some cool non-comic sites as well. Stabbity visited a number of them and we have pictures to prove it!


Me: Do you get people sending you pics of Stabbity all over? I will send Stabbity all over and take him everywhere. 

Richard: Just occasionally, but I hope that increases. I look forward to seeing the pics. 

Me: So, let's talk about "Stabbity Bunny," Richard. You are up to issue 5, am I right? No, you're are past that. How many issues so far? 

Richard: There are 6 issues now. 

Me: How many planned? 

Richard: There will be three arcs of twelve. 

Me: I was thinking it would make a good children's novel... did you ever think that? 

Richard: Yes, I have thought about that and a cartoon series.

Me: Also, I have to tell you that I think action figures would be amazing. Stabbity Pop Vinyls. Haha. 

Richard: I would love to see those. 

Me: So, I know you're into comics, but what TV sows do you watch? My son and I are watching the Arrowverse shows. Do you ever get influenced by TV and movies for your writing? 

Richard: It's so amazing that we live in a world with so many series based on comic books. I love it. I don't draw a lot of influence from them, at least not consciously. 

Me: Hey, congrats on having a mention in "Previews." That's a big deal, am I right, Richard? 

Richard: Being a comic book featured in "Previews" is incredible! I have to think Scout Comics for that. Now any comic book store who orders from Diamond can get "Stabbity Bunny." It's an international distribution. 

Me: So, how often do you write? 

Richard: I am always jotting down ideas for stories or characters. I do find that I have to fight for time in my schedule to have an extended period to write. However, just like anything else, if you make time for it, it happens. 

Me: Do you have to get into a mind set to write or does it comes easy? 

Richard: Fortunately, I'm way ahead of any deadlines, so I haven't had to force it. I don't know if it comes easily, but it does seem to come naturally. 

Me: Do you have a notebook where you write notes down when you come up with ideas? 

Richard: I have many many notebooks and cardboard boxtops and napkins and pieces of paper and boxes and files and drives. 

Me: What's the hardest thing about writing, Richard? 

Richard: While I do a pretty good job of maintaining focus, it can be tempting to get distracted by the next idea, but setting it aside in the form of a few notes, usually works. 

Me: So, what's next for you, Richard? Anything cool planned with the bunny? 

Richard: I think 2018 will be spent promoting the comics and trying to expand the number of people who know about the bunny and have access to the bunny. 

Me: I'm so glad you could come back on the Phile. Mention your website and I'll have you back here soon. Continued success. 

Richard: Our site is stabbitybunny.com, we do our best to keep that up to date, but for the freshest news, definitely check out our Facebook page. Thank you for having me. It's always a pleasure. I look forward to seeing your future interviews.

Me: Cool, Richard. Enjoy the con and I love the plush!





That about does to for this entry. Thanks to Richard and everyone at the Clermont Comic Con. The Phile will be back tomorrow with Phile Alum Chris Nelson. Spread the word, not the turd. Don't let snakes and alligators bite you. Bye, love you, bye.

































Not if it pleases me. No, you can't stop me, not if it pleases me. - Graham Parker

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