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The influences of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird are well established at this point. Many fans likely know the influence Frank Miller and Jack Kirby had on the duo, but the Tmnt creators recently revealed another influence that hasn’t been talked about nearly as much: underground comix.

When Eastman and Laird unleashed their multimillion dollar Tmnt juggernaut on the world, it was initially as a black-and-white, self-published indie comic with a print run of just over 3,000 copies. Both creators wore their influences on their sleeves right from the beginning: the cover of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 is a clear homage to Frank Miller’s Ronin. That same issue also paid tribute to Miller’s work on Daredevil, suggesting that the radioactive material that mutated the Tmnt was the very same that gave Daredevil his radar senses. However, in addition to those famous works, Eastman...

The new documentary feature "Bad Attitude: The Art of Spain Rodriguez" explores the art and life of the late 1960's underground cartoonist, illustrator, directed by his wife Emmy-nominated filmmaker Susan Stern, including interviews with Robert Crumb, Art Spiegelman and a whole lot more:

"...'Bad Attitude' is a love letter to my partner in art and life, 'Spain Rodriguez'," said Stern.

"...but it is also a love letter to all activists, especially artist-activists.

"I hope 'Bad Attitude' creates a space for conversation about the art and social justice we are trying to make...

"...the ways we fail, and how we can be forgiven..."

Click the images to enlarge...

Today, New York independent distributor Film Movement Classics unveils the brand-new poster for Takeshi Kitano’s 1990 film “Boiling Point,” designed exclusively for retrospective screenings by comic book artist Benjamin Marra. Marra designed the film’s one-sheet with a colorful, stylized illustration highlighting baseball and the Yakuza. Check it out below.

Read More: Review: Takeshi Kitano’s ‘Beyond Outrage’ Blows Up The Standard Gangster Movie Template

The film follows Masaki (Yûrei Yanagi), an unassuming gas station attendant who is a member of the losing sandlot baseball team The Eagles. After he runs afoul of a belligerent yakuza, The Eagles manager, an ex-yakuza himself, gets involved, setting Masaki on a haphazard quest for guns in Okinawa with his friend Kazuo (Duncan). There they are befriended by the extremely eccentric yakuza boss Takashi (Takeshi “Beat” Kitano), leading them straight into the tangled web of organized crime.

Benjamin Marra is best known for “Night Business,...

Odd List Ryan Lambie Simon Brew 5 Dec 2013 - 06:54

Our voyage through history's underappreciated films arrives at the year 2001, and a vintage year for lesser-seen gems...

Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C Clarke may have seen 2001 as the year we'd head off to meet alien intelligences in the depths of space, but in reality, its cinematic landscape was dominated by fantasy rather than extra-terrestrials. Rowling and Tolkien dominated the box office, with Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone and The Fellowship Of The Ring earning almost $1bn each, while Monsters, Inc and Shrek thrilled old and young audiences alike.

At the other end of the spectrum of success, 2001 was such a vintage year for movies that we had to whittle our usual selection of 25 films down from an initial selection of more than 40. This is why the decision was made - with heavy heart - to exclude some of our favourite films,...

Fantagraphics co-publisher Kim Thompson died at 6:30 this morning, June 19, at the age of 56. “He was my partner and close friend for 36 years,” said Fantagraphics co-publisher Gary Groth. Thompson was born in Denmark in 1956. He grew up in Europe, a lifelong comics fan, reading both European and American comics in Denmark, France, and Germany. He was an active fan in his teen years, writing to comics — his letters appeared in Marvel’s letter columns circa early 1970s — and contributing to fanzines from his various European perches. At the age of 21, he set foot, for the first time, on American soil, in late 1977. One “fanzine” he had not contributed to was The Comics Journal, which Groth and Michael Catron began publishing in July of 1976. That was soon to change. “Within a few weeks of his arrival,” said Groth, “he came over to our ‘office,’ which was the spare bedroom of my apartment,...

Cartoonist Spain Rodriguez has died at the age of 72. The Trashman creator and underground comics legend passed away yesterday after a long battle with cancer. The Comics Reporter announced the death of the cartoonist, who made his name working on The East Village Other in the late '60s. "It is with great sadness that I inform you of the passing this morning of Spain Rodriguez," said Ron Turner in the email. "He passed at home with his daughter and wife at his bedside at about seven this morning. "He had been fighting cancer (more)...

Frank Forte has announed that Asylum Press will re-release Robert Steven Rhine’s massive graphic horror anthology Satan’s 3-Ring Circus of Hell through Diamond Comics Distributors, Scb Distributors, all major wholesalers, and Tony Shenton Distribution for a Halloween release.

This giant-sized horror anthology is loaded with tons of gore and humor that any hardcore horror fan will enjoy – especially fans of Tales from the Crypt, Eerie and Creepshow. It features 43 stories illustrated by 43 of the top horror comic book artists including: William Stout, Tim Vigil, John Cassaday, Hilary Barta, Spain Rodriguez, Jeff Gaither, Steve Bissette, D.W. Frydendall, Jim Smith, Frank Forte, Tone Rodriguez, David Paleo, Kevin Colden, Nenad Gucunja, John Howard, David Hartman, Eric Pigors, Mike Sosnowski, Kevin Colden, Tommy Castillo and Steve Mannion and many others. Cover art is by Frank Forte.

Four years in the making, this classic collection of sick and twisted short stories is a true labor of blood.

Forgot those circuses known as the Rnc and DNC, and take a trip to Satan's 3-Ring Circus of Hell instead as Robert Steven Rhine’s massive graphic horror anthology gets a re-release from Asylum Press just in time for Halloween.

Synopsis:

This giant-sized horror anthology is loaded with tons of gore and humor that any hardcore horror fan will enjoy - especially fans of Tales from the Crypt, Eerie, and Creepshow. It features 43 stories illustrated by 43 of the top horror comic book artists including: William Stout, Tim Vigil, John Cassaday, Hilary Barta, Spain Rodriguez, Jeff Gaither, Steve Bissette, D.W. Frydendall, Jim Smith, Frank Forte, Tone Rodriguez, David Paleo, Kevin Colden, Nenad Gucunja, John Howard, David Hartman, Eric Pigors, Mike Sosnowski, Kevin Colden, Tommy Castillo and Steve Mannion and many others. Cover art by Frank Forte.

Some of the twisted tales include: “Spare Parts,” a nasty E.C. Comics-inspired opus...

by David Harkness, MoreHorror.com

Fans of horror comics and graphic horror literature will be thrilled to know that Robert Steven Rhine's king-sized anthology Satan's 3-Ring Circus of Hell will once again be gracing the shelves of booksellers and comic stands everywhere... just in time for Halloween. Enjoy bone-chilling tales and stunning artwork from the likes of Frank Forte, Kevin Colden, Steve Bissette, and many more. Check out the official press release below for even more gruesome details.

........

Aug. 28, 2012 (Los Angeles) Frank Forte announces that Asylum Press will re-release Robert Steven Rhine’s massive graphic horror anthology Satan’s 3-Ring Circus of Hell through Diamond Comics Distributors, Scb Distributors, all major wholesalers, and Tony Shenton Distribution for a Halloween release.

This giant-sized horror anthology is loaded with tons of gore and humor that any hardcore horror fan will enjoy - especially fans of Tales from the Crypt, Eerie and Creepshow.

DVD Release Date: March 20, 2012

Price: DVD $29.99

Studio: Zeitgeist

The ladies talk it over in !Women Art Revolution.

The 2010 documentary film !Women Art Revolution illuminates the under-explored feminist art movement through conversations, observations, archival footage and works of visionary artists, historians, curators and critics.

Starting from its roots in 1960s antiwar and civil rights protests, !Women Art Revolution details developments in women’s art through the 1970s and explores how the determination of the the pioneering artists of the time resulted in what is now widely regarded as one of the more significant art movements of the late 20th century.

The film was directed by artist/filmmaker Lynn Hershman Leeson (Teknolust), who tapped her archive of some 40-plus years of interviews she conducted with her contemporaries and molded then into a feature-length portrait.

Popping up in the movie are such female artists as Miranda July (The Future), The Guerilla Girls, Yvonne Rainer,...

This interview was conducted by Jim Batts on November 11th, 2011.

Bill Plympton is one of the most creative and prolific artists to emerge out of the independent animation shorts film arena of the late 1980′s. His short Your Face was nominated for an Academy Award and follow-up shorts like How To Kiss and How To Quit Smoking became the highlights of several traveling animation compilations and festivals. He soon branched out into feature films with The Tune and set up a New York animation studio to produce commercials and music videos along with more features and shorts. Recently Plympton has helmed several live action features. He’s here in St. Louis to accept the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 20th Annual Stella Artois St. Louis International Film Festival. Mr. Plympton was kind enough to take time out of his busy schedule to speak with me by phone.

Wamg: My name is Jim Batts with WeAreMovieGeeks.

After the feast of design from the 1920s and 30s over the past two weeks I thought it was time to return to the present and look at a few of the more interesting new and recent posters out there. First up, two terrific optical illusions for two of the most anticipated serious-minded films of the fall (each premiering in Venice): George Clooney’s The Ides of March and Tomas “Let the Right One In” Alfredson’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Ides, the story of a Presidential candidate and his ambitious young press secretary, puts a clever spin on the Big Head poster and nicely solves the problem of having to give equal wall space to both Ryan Gosling and George Clooney. I like the way the last letters of Time magazine puts a big Me over the candidate’s face. The Tinker, Tailor poster, best seen up close,...

The American Splendor author was a humane and masterful storyteller who saw through the artifice of the Us mainstream

Harvey Pekar carved a unique niche for himself within the spandex world of comics, often working with material from his own life against the backdrop of his native Cleveland. Pekar was arguably the first and best to use the medium to illuminate foibles, flaws and failures. With his death this week at the age of 70, visual literature bids farewell to a true American anti-hero.

Pekar was no artist – he was a writer through and through, as blue collar and geographically territorial as Charles Bukowski, and as idiosyncratic as Robert Crumb. It was a shared love of jazz that would lead Pekar and Crumb to first form a friendship and then a creative partnership that gave Pekar the break he needed. It was his stories, and not the crudely-drawn stickmen that accompanied them,...

The Oregonian is reporting that S. Clay Wilson, “one of the seminal figures in the underground comix movement, suffered a "severe brain injury." Wilson’s partner, Lorraine Chamberlain, stated on Sunday, "I just talked to the neurologist a few minutes ago. He's in a decline because of the pneumonia. They can't seem to stabilize him."

The 67-year-old Wilson was originally thought to be the victim of a mugging when he was found but doctors now theorize that he may have repeatedly fallen given his medical condition. He’s been at San Francisco General since Saturday.

"That's what we think now, that he fell several times and hit his head," Chamberlain said. "He has a fractured orbital bone in his eye and he fractured his neck. He looks like he's been kicked in the face and beaten up. But if he'd been beaten up, he would have been robbed. There's no way to know.