When I was a lad growing up on the mean streets of Beamsville, Maple Grove Public School was an elementary school with an alternative-learning bent. Times have changed, though. Now, rather than being a school for gifted youngsters or an estate winery which will never host its celebrity owner, the old Maple Grove building is home to the Bench Brewing Company.
Bench Brewing is the realized dream of Matt Giffen who saw the Niagara region as a great place to set up a “terroir” brewery. The fact that the term “terroir” is traditionally associated with fine French wines should give readers a sense of how dedicated Giffen and his team, including brewmaster Mark Horsley, are to brewing high-quality beer that’s a product of its environment. As usual, though, all this discussion of breweries is making me thirsty. So, stand back as I reconnect with my Beamsvillian roots and try Bench Brewing’s Citra Grove Dry Hopped Sour.
Bench Brewing Co: Citra Grove Dry Hopped Sour – First Sip
Citra Grove pours a very cloudy pale yellow colour. A thick layer of foam develops around the top of the wineglass that I’m drinking from as per the bottle’s pictorial instruction. I learn too late that, according to Bench’s website, I should’ve used a Belgian tulip glass. The foam dissipates quickly, leaving about 1/2″ of head that sticks around. I pick up a strong citrus aroma as I take my first sip, and enjoy a mouth-puckering tartness that’s full of lemon and semi-ripe orange flavours. With relatively lazy bubbles, Citra Grove provides a crisp and watery mouthfeel enhanced by its sour flavour — check out the gose I reviewed earlier this week if you’re a fan of sour beers.
Bench Brewing Co: Citra Grove Dry Hopped Sour – Last Sip
Learning from my mistake, I make sure to enjoy my second glass of Citra Grove from a Belgian tulip glass. And, since Citra Grove comes in 750-mL bottles, there was a lot left over after my first glass. I don’t notice much of a taste difference when I drink from a Belgian tulip glass rather than a wineglass. I do notice its citrus-y aroma more. If you don’t have a Belgian tulip glass or a wineglass, ensure you pour it into something. Citra Grove’s aroma is not to be missed.
You probably think you know all about the Black Plague: rats, masks, and a ravaged Europe. The usual. Oh, and also the first unrecorded zombie infestation and black ops Vatican teams. Pestilence, a new creator-owned series at AfterShock Comics from Frank Tieri and Oleg Okunev, explores this “untold” history. We caught up with the Frank about his new series, medieval zombies, Church conspiracies and more!
Art by Oleg Okunev / AfterShock
Monkey Fighting Robots: It’s not a stretch to say that this is a unique story; how did you come up with the premise for Pestilence?
Frank Tieri: Actually, it was AfterShock who initially approached me with the idea—“What if the Black Plague in actuality was a previously undisclosed zombie apocalypse that was covered up by the Church?”– and then I came in and further developed and expanded on it. But you’re right, it’s certainly unique…it’s the type of thing that has everyone’s ears perk up as soon as you tell them what the tagline is.
So yeah, it’s not your typical zombie story. And if it was, I wouldn’t have agreed to do it, to be honest.
MFR: What story are you trying tell with Pestilence?
Tieri: Well, right off the bat, like I said… yes, this is a zombie story. But with zombie stories — with The Walking Dead, Resident Evil, World War Z, etc. — well, let’s just say the zombie genre has been done to death (No pun intended… ah fuck it, pun intended). So this had to be different, this had to have something else going on for it — and we def believe that it does.
Our story follows an ex Crusader named Roderick Helms who leads a sort of medieval black ops team of knights — think of them as a kind of medieval Dirty Dozen — called Fiat Lux. They’re basically the “cleaners” for the Church of that era. So in other words, if the Church wants someone whacked, these are the guys doing the fucking whacking.
So when the zombie apocalypse breaks out? You guessed it, these are the guys who get the call — although what they find along the way is that zombies are not their only problem. There are those within the Church itself who may have known about what was going on all along — and they may ultimately be the bigger problem in the end.
MFR: Why was Oleg Okunev the perfect choice for art on this book?
Tieri: We needed a guy with this series that could nail huge fight scenes with lots of zombies getting sliced up and bodies getting torn to shit and your basic massive fucking chaos—and we saw that in Oleg. And honestly, he’s gotten even better and better as the series has progressed. Trust me when I say Oleg is a guy you’re going to start hearing more and more about after this.
MFR: The solicit for the book calls you “the master of violence, gore, and mayhem.” Pestilence is certainly no exception. What about the setting of Pestilence allows you to use violence in a new or unique way?
Tieri: Yeah…“the master of violence, gore, and mayhem”, they write. Thanks, AfterShock. Now I’m going to have fucking cops pulling me in for questioning and digging up my backyard next week, for crissakes. Dicks.
But all joking aside, yeah, sure I’ve done lot of stuff with violence, stuff with horror—and there’s no shortage of any of that here. Trust me when I say there’ll be plenty of kick ass, gory, over the top knights vs zombies fight scenes in different and unique situations from the Holy Land to all over Europe. If you like seeing knights chopping the shit out of massive amounts of zombies and zombies eating and killing and eating some more, then this is your book.
And then of course, there’s the zombies themselves. Yes, they start off as your typical “walker” type zombies. But let’s put it this way…they might not necessarily end up that way. And we’ll just leave it as that.
MFR: What can we expect from Pestilence in the future?
Tieri: I mean, hey, we’d like to do a sequel. And to that end, ultimately, as we’ll see, the conspiracy within the Church may actually turn out to be the bigger danger than the zombies themselves. And really, it’s exploring that conspiracy that Roderick uncovers that has plenty of potential as far as possible sequels go. Not to spoil anything, but I def leave the series in a place where there can be more… so it’s up to the fans, really. If you show us you want more PESTILENCE, more of Roderick and his band of zombie killing brethren… then there will be more.
Get your armor ready because Pestilence comes shambling in to wherever you buy comics starting tomorrow, May 3.
PESTILENCE #1 / $3.99 / 32 pages / Color
writer: Frank Tieri
artist: Oleg Okunev
colors: Rob Schwager
letters: Marshall Dillon
cover: Tim Bradstreet
NEW SERIES!
It’s the late 14th Century, and a Great Pestilence—the “Black Death”— is sweeping across Europe, killing over 100 million people. BUT, what if history as we know it was a lie? What if, in reality, this was no straightforward plague, but the FIRST non-recorded Zombie Infestation of man? Ex-Crusader Roderick Helms and his fellow “black ops” agents for the Church, Fiat Lux, must seek out the cause of this undead outbreak and vanquish it before mankind ceases to exist!
Written by the master of violence, gore, and mayhem, Frank Tieri (Marvel vs Capcom, Wolverine, Deadpool), with spectacular art from Disney illustrator, Oleg Okunev, and covers by Eisner Award-nominated artist Tim Bradstreet (The Punisher, Hellblazer)!
Excited about Pestilence? Let us know why in the comments!
Robert Downey Jr., who plays Tony Stark (a.k.a. Iron Man) has teamed up with Omaze to offer fans the chance to visit the set of the highly-anticipated Avengers: Infinity War this summer, according to Collider. The lucky winner and a friend will get flown out to Atlanta where production is taking place, put up in a 4-star hotel and enjoy unprecedented access to the set and cast, including RDJ himself and his co-stars.
This is the next in a new and frankly awesome trend of new blockbuster movies helping to support charity organizations. This particular Omaze campaign funds the Random Act Funding grant, founded by Susan and Robert Downey (yup), which offers financial support at local, national and global levels.
Downey Jr. appears in the campaign video with co-star Tom Holland, the young British sensation who plays Peter Parker/Spider-Man. It even offers a sneak peak of the production, showing the pair of actors fully wrapped in motion capture suits on a set familiar to anyone who watched the first behind-the-scenes footage released by Marvel way back in February. Check it out:
No synopsis has yet been released, but everyone is fairly confidently assuming that Avengers: Infinity War will follow a story in which the Avengers and the Guardians will go up against Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet, thanks to comments from Marvel boss Kevin Feige.
Avengers: Infinity War stars Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Tom Holland, Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Benedict Cumberbatch, Benedict Wong, Scarlett Johansson, Brie Larson, Cobie Smulders, Elizabeth Olson, Jeremy Renner, Sebastian Stan, Peter Dinklage, Chadwick Boseman, Chris Hemsworth, Karen Gillian, Bradley Cooper, Samuel L. Jackson, Paul Rudd, Josh Brolin, Paul Bettany, and Mark Ruffalo. It is due for release on May 4, 2018.
In the meantime, you can catch Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Holland in Spider-Man: Homecoming on July 7, this year.
One of the better shows on television today is the SundanceTV series ‘Hap & Leonard’ starring James Purefoy and Michael Kenneth Williams based on the Joe R. Lansdale’s novels.
SundanceTV announced Monday that the darkly comic swamp noir would return for a six-episode third season and be based on Lansdale’s 1995 novel The Two-Bear Mambo, according to Deadline. Season three deals with the racial conflict in East Texas, police indifference, the KKK and a missing ex-lover of Hap’s.
“At once darkly funny and socially relevant, there’s no other series like the Southern noir Hap and Leonard, and we couldn’t be prouder that it will continue for another season on SundanceTV. James and Michael bring new depth and dimension to the buddy-action genre, and Joe Lansdale’s brilliant work continues to be in excellent hands with John Wirth and company,” said Jan Diedrichsen, GM of SundanceTV and Sundance Now.
‘Hap and Leonard’ is SundanceTV’s highest-rated original series, averaging 450,000 viewers per episode.
Hap and Leonard are one of the weirdest pairings of best friends ever. Hap Collins is a white working class laborer who spent time in federal prison as a young man for refusing to be drafted into the military and serve in the Vietnam War, and Leonard Pine is a gay black Vietnam vet with serious anger issues.
Marvel Entertainment, IMAX, and ABC have released the first official poster for Marvel’s Inhumans, which will premiere on IMAX screens. The image doesn’t offer a look at any of the characters and is more of an artistic poster to tease the project. Looking at the poster, it has obviously been inspired by one of the Inhuman characters, Black Bolt. The logo presented on the poster looks identical to the costume worn by the character in Marvel Comics.
Check out the first poster for Marvel’s Inhumans below!
“After the Royal Family of Inhumans is splintered by a military coup, they barely escape to Hawaii where their surprising interactions with the lush world and humanity around them may prove to not only save them, but Earth itself.”
Marvel’s Inhumans stars Anson Mount as Black Bolt, Serinda Swan as Medusa, Iwan Rheon as Maximus, Ken Leung as Karnak, Eme Ikwuakor as Gorgon, Isabelle Cornish as Crystal, Mike Moh as Triton, and Sonya Balmores as Auran.
The series will premiere on IMAX screens September 1, 2017, and run for two weeks, before premiering on ABC on September 26, and airing eight episodes.
Collective Arts Brewing has been a welcome addition to the craft brewing scene since it opened. Almost as concerned with promoting local and independent artists as they are with brewing tasty beer, Collective Arts Brewing provides not only artisan brewers but also musical and visual artists an opportunity to display their work for an interested public. Check out my review of their Ransack the Universe IPA for more information on their brewery. Today I’m reviewing Collective Arts’ Prophets & Nomads Gose. I’ve never reviewed a gose, so I’m excited to give it a shot.
Collective Arts Brewing: Prophets & Nomads – First Sip
Prophets & Nomads pours a cloudy yellow colour with a thick layer of foam that dissipates over time to a thin film. I smell a faint lemony aroma as I take my first sip. Prophets & Nomads’ flavour matches its aroma: this brew is quite tart at first, giving way to a comparatively sweet finish. The salt and coriander are just noticeable, providing a subtle kick. And, with its tart flavour, Prophets & Nomads doesn’t need a lot of fizz to give it a smooth and crisp mouthfeel.
Collective Arts Brewing: Prophets & Nomads – Last Sip
At times tasting more to me like a Sprite or 7-Up than a beer, this brew probably isn’t a good pick for the lager-only scene. Prophets & Nomads is a great beer for somebody looking to expand their beer repertoire: I know I sometimes get sick of my usual APAs and pilsners. At 4.5% ABV in 473 mL cans, this is a great brew to have a couple of. And, with its surprisingly tart flavour, you might be looking to switch to something a bit sweeter after the one or two you have. I recommend enjoying Prophets & Nomads with some dark chocolate, savoury meats, or some old cheeses. Its sour taste goes best with other strong flavours.
Praise Wednesday! Praise Technical Boy! The television adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s fantastical opus American Gods finally made it to the small screen. The Bone Orchard, the first of the eight-episode first season, is nothing short of faithful and dazzling.
From its opening moments, The Bone Orchard is crafted with care and precision, thanks to the masterful storytelling capabilities of showrunners Michael Green (Heroes, Kings) and Bryan Fuller (Pushing Daisies, Hannibal).
Every scene in the first episode of American Gods is like something out of a painting. We open with a “coming to America” sequence, written and narrated by Thoth – the Egyptian God of wisdom – composing his story in a well-decorated study. He writes of a group of Vikings, the first to arrive in America, hundreds of years before Leif Erikson and Christopher Columbus.
The Vikings are welcomed to this new land by an onslaught of arrows, insects, hunger, and utter uncertainty. Eager to return home, they find themselves stranded, as their ship won’t sail due lack of wind. The Vikings make a number of sacrifices to their God, the All-Father Odin. This includes burning out one of their eyes with a red-hot blade, burning one of their own alive, and a bloody and grotesque battle royale. Finally, the Gods answered, and the wind has returned. The Vikings leave the new world, never to return again. However they have left their mark, leaving a wooden sculpture of Odin on the beach.
The old Gods have arrived in the new world.
From there, the world-building begins quickly and boldly, handled with a style that is next to impossible to describe. You just need to go and watch it for yourself.
We are introduced to Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle), who is days away from getting out of prison and reuniting with his wife Laura (Emily Browning). Whittle gives Shadow an emotional weight right off the bat, as everything good in his life is taken away in an instant. Laura dies in a horrific car accident alongside his best friend, who had a job waiting for him.
Shadow has to go home for his wife’s funeral and gets on his first plane ride and meets the enigmatic, smooth-talking Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane). He makes Shadow an offer he cannot refuse — yet he somehow does.
And then – “somewhere in America” – we meet Bilquis (Yetide Badaki). A Goddess who leads a scene that is eye-popping. Jaw-dropping. It’s a sex scene that was a tad difficult to visualize if you read the book. Now that it is brought to life on the small screen, it’s still hard to comprehend.
Back to the main story, Mr. Wednesday finds Shadow at a bar, struggling to pay for a meal. He once again tries to woo Shadow into his employ. After a botched coin toss (never bet against a God), Shadow caves and is hired as Mr. Wednesday’s driver, bodyguard, and aide-de-camp.
Mad Sweeney (Pablo Schreiber), a drunken, seven-foot-tall Leprechaun shows Shadow a coin trick of his own. Sweeney says he will reveal the secret to the trick, if Shadow fights him. Moon refuses, but is provoked by the deranged Irishman. The two brawl in the bar, ending with Shadow waking up in the back of Mr. Wednesday’s car, on the way to Laura’s funeral, with no memory of how the fight ended, and one of Sweeney’s gold coins in his pocket.
Shadow finally makes it to his wife’s funeral only to find out that she died in the car with his best friend, Robbie, with whom she was having an affair. After the funeral, Audrey (Robbie’s wife and Laura’s best friend) offers revenge sex to Shadow on her husband’s freshly dug grave. He refuses and, after a few solemn words with his deceased wife, throws Sweeney’s coin on Laura’s grave.
On his way to rendezvous with Mr. Wednesday, Shadow is kidnapped by Technical Boy, a pipe-smoking, pompous wunderkind of a New God, who knows he’s working for Mr. Wednesday. Wanting to know what Mr. Wednesday is up to, Technical Boy threatens Shadow by having him deleted. Shadow, employed by Mr. Wednesday for only a few hours, doesn’t know a thing. This still pisses off Technical Boy, who commands his faceless thugs to beat the piss out of Shadow and lynch him.
The episode ends with Shadow saved by an unknown entity.
The episode isn’t perfect, but pretty darn close. There’s a lot to unpack in this one episode. There are pacing issues, and you might find yourself a bit lost if you have not read the book. Still, the unique visuals and clear setup of things to come should make you clamoring for the next episode.
American Gods does not hold back any punches. The Bone Orchard has made that abundantly clear. Director David Slade helps Gaiman’s tale come to life, taking you through a trippy trip of striking visuals, compelling performances, and the start of a most epic story. It’s horror, fantasy, and mythology, with wildly imaginative storytelling and unconventional narrative. And it’s one of the biggest strides in the evolution of cinematic television in years.
What did you think of The Bone Orchard? Let us know your thoughts about the series premiere of American Gods.
Does the new footage get you any more excited for the movie? Sound off in the comments below.
’Wonder Woman’ hits movie theaters around the world next summer when Gal Gadot returns as the title character in the epic action adventure from director Patty Jenkins. Before she was Wonder Woman, she was Diana, princess of the Amazons, trained to be an unconquerable warrior. Raised on a sheltered island paradise, when an American pilot crashes on their shores and tells of a massive conflict raging in the outside world, Diana leaves her home, convinced she can stop the threat. Fighting alongside man in a war to end all wars, Diana will discover her full powers…and her true destiny.
Wonder Woman stars Gal Gadot as the title character, Chris Pine, Robin Wright as Antiope, David Thewlis, Danny Huston, Elena Anaya, Connie Nielsen, Ewen Bremner, and Lucy Davis.
In theaters now, Their Finest is a broad look at how the United Kingdom attempted to raise the morale of it’s people.
Summary
This picture takes place during the most destructive span of the Blitz in World War II. The United Kingdom’s film department is given the task of creating pictures that are uplifting and raise the morale of a besieged nation. Catrin (Gemma Arterton) is a Welsh woman who is in desperate need of steady work and applies for what appears to be secretarial position in the office. Her boss (Richard Grant) sees that she had experience as a newspaper copywriter and hires her as a writer of “slop” – an old school term referring to dialogue between woman. Catlin isn’t too thrilled at the offer but her husband (Jack Huston) is an unsuccessful artist and they are in desperate need of money. The Ministry of War challenges the film department to create pictures that are both authentic but are filled with optimism. Basically, create a film about World War II but don’t highlight how bad off they are. They eventually agree to do a film about the rescue at Dunkirk and Catrin is paired with a screenwriter by the name of Buckley (Sam Clafin). Buckley appears to be bitter for many different reasons – the war, not finding the right woman, and pretentious actors. Buckley and Catlin eventually find common ground as casting begins for a film they haven’t written. Ambrose Hillard (Bill Nighy) begrudgingly accepts the role as the drunk uncle who dies during the rescue at Dunkirk. Hillard has enjoyed a great deal of fame over the years but now is in the twilight of his career and this film about Dunkirk is his last chance to reclaim old glory.
Acting
Atherton, Clafin, and Nighy form an unlikely ensemble but they certainly navigate the narrative with ease. Atherton’s character reminded me of those Rosie the Riveter posters as she set out to show the men that she could keep up with them. Sam Clafin’s Buckley is more of a realist and initially sets out to remind Catlin that this type of job is only temporary for women. Predictably these two go from being at odds to being extremely close. By far the best performance of the film has to go to Bill Nighy’s portrayal of Ambrose Hillard. Nighy’s Hillard is an egocentric pompous ass who cares more about the customer service at his local Italian restaurant than the bombed out buildings right next to it.
Writing/Directing
Screenwriter Gaby Chiappe manages to balance some of the more farcical elements of Lissa Evans’s novel with the reality of nightly bombings and smoldering piles of rubble on the street. At times the narrative came off as a little too easy going. While it was funny to see Catlin squabbling with politicians over what hair color the twins should have in their movie ‘Dunkirk’, it shifted the focus away from what was transpiring around them. It was like looking at World War II through rose colored glasses.
Director Lone Scherfig’s ability to strike the right tone stood out to me most of all. Scherfig doesn’t rush through the countless scenes of destruction and devastation which allows the proper reverence to be paid. She also knows to pick up the pace during its most lighthearted moments. At its core, Their Finest is a broad retelling of what took place and never seeks to be some historically centric film.
Overall
Their Finest is a fine film that could have easily been a great film had their been better writers behind the project. It’s easy to see a scenario where a film like this one will get lost in the madness that will be Guardian of the Galaxy: Vol 2. However, don’t let the throngs of Marvel fans deter you. While Their Finest is far from perfect, it’s one of the most enjoyable times I’ve had at the theater in 2017.
It took a lot of hard work, dedication, love, passion, and luck to create Savior and bring its protagonist “Little God” to life. In 1959, Fidel Castro and his band of not-so-merry rebels took over the island nation of Cuba. For the next 60 years, the island’s communist leader was in a standoff with the United States. Without getting much deeper into the convoluted history and politics, long story short, Cuba existed all this time in a sort of partial isolation. But that didn’t stop Josuhe Pagliery from creating a video game.
Savior’s side-scrolling gameplay is smooth, with rich, layered graphics that feel old-school but new.
Our interview with Josuhe took place in two parts. First, we at the Miami Maker Faire and got a chance to play Savior, and later we chatted via email. Our conversation started with what Savior is about: “‘Little God’ is living inside a collapsing video game. To save the world, Little God is trying to connect with the Great God who departed for an unknown place.”
Though not a conscious attempt at being for LGBT rights, Little God is a “kind of androgynous” protagonist. It suits the game’s old-school feel which harkens to a simpler time before everything became politicized. Savior’s side-scrolling gameplay is smooth, with rich, layered graphics that feel old-school but new.
The influence of games like Super Castlevania or Symphony of the Night is apparent. But Josuhe explains that the overall gameplay is closer to stuff like “Earthworm Jim or Legend of the Mystical Ninja.” As for other influences, “MDK, Final Fantasy, Breath of Fire, Vagrant History, Shadow of the Colossus, 8 Eyes, Wizards & Warriors, and many, many more!”
As for other influences outside of video games, Josuhe says “I am a huge fan of the movies of Lars von Trier and David Lynch, also old Disney animated movies … bands like Nirvana, Blood Brothers, The Locust and I used to like LOST and Berserk the anime.”
Over the years, Josuhe started “evolving the idea” of Savior.
As an isolated nation, one of the first challenges for Josuhe was getting his hands on games. “Back in the 80s or 90s, video games in Cuba were very uncommon …” But there’s nothing like family, “My older cousins had an old Atari with games like Burger Time and Demon Attack. For me, it was love at first sight.” The story of all gamers, right? “that feeling only got deeper as I was growing up.”
Savio’s savior, Little God vs. a Boss
Josuhe’s love with video games was a drama with antagonists: “Having games at that time was super-hard in Cuba … the few kids who had consoles weren’t exactly the nicest people in the world.” But, the community came together to overcome [Video games] were “a very social thing …” that involved “giving your cassette to other kids for a certain amount of time in exchange for a game you want.”
Naturally, some games were a hot commodity: “Games like Top Gear or Street Fighter 2Turbo was at the top of the ranking.” Joshua’s tastes were a little more offbeat. As a fan of RPGs, “that kind of video game wasn’t so popular among the vast majority of kids. So, lucky me!”
Over the years, Josuhe started “evolving the idea” of Savior. “But at the time in Cuba, the technology needed [to create a game] was simply impossible to have.” A creator at heart, Josuhe turned to what he had available to him. “As an artist, I made lots of videos utilizing a video game aesthetic and later I was interested for a little time in … experimental video games. But I discovered that I don’t want to that, so I started developing the concept of Savior, and here we are today.”
Josuhe hopes this is the start for the Cuban video game industry, but he’s realistic about what needs to happen.
Josuhe’s love-affair with video games keeps him playing. Some of his favorite modern games: “Demon Souls, the Dark Souls series, Bloodborne, The Last Guardian, Inside.” With a wide smile, Josuhe says “There are a lot of good vide games out there.”
Back to Savior, Josuhe tells us when the Little God will land on Earth for the rest of us. “We launch the playable demo in the next two months, maybe easier, and then start applying … to game festivals and see what happens.” In true indie fashion, the only plan right now is to promote the hell out of Savior. “We don’t have any other game in the making. Only if I split myself in two pieces could I manage to try and develop two games at the same time!”
Josuhe hopes this is the start for the Cuban video game industry, but he’s realistic about what needs to happen. “I think we first need a Cuban video game with some international success and then all things will start to come after that first milestone. Let’s hope this first … will be Savior!”
