Category Archives: sci-fi
TIFF 2017: High Fantasy
Jenna Bass’s latest film, High Fantasy, is a fascinating glimpse into the lives of South Africa’s multi-cultural youth. Appearing as a sort of homemade travelogue, High Fantasy is filmed as if collected from a group of friends’ various iPhones and then officially edited together afterwards.
BBP! Guide To Fan Expo Canada 2017: Day 3 #FXC17
Two days of Fan Expo Canada have passed, and you’ve been a good little pop culture soldier.
Perhaps you’ve got a full weekend pass. Perhaps this is your first day in line. Either way, today is giant-sized Saturday – and the Metropolitan Convention Centre kicks it up into its highest gear today!
Certainly the busiest day of the four day convention, Saturday, Day 3 of Fan Expo Canada, offers up a whole host of challenges and opportunities. Your adrenaline, for one, will be coursing through your body like you’ve never experienced. But you’ll need to be a pro, and temper that enthusiasm with the knowledge that you’ll most likely be in some long lines. It’s a natural occurrence and the real test is how you can deal with that pressure.
Pro Tip: go to the bathroom early. 10 AM to 7 PM makes for a long day.
Still, it’s all worth it, as you’re bound to bump into friends you know, and the exhibitors start talking with an aim to sell product. Some of the biggest programming events are today as well – and you can find all of them here in Day 3 of Biff Bam Pop’s Guide to Fan Expo Canada!
BBP! Guide To Fan Expo Canada 2017: Day 2 #FXC17
So, how did things go yesterday? Did you find what was on your Holy Grail list?
Thursdays are meant to be a sort of Fan Expo Canada scouting mission – getting the lay of the land, what the price ranges are for the goodies you want, and meeting up with some friends…some of whom you haven’t seen in a long, long time.
Remember, it’s not a race – Fan Expo Canada is a four-day marathon.
But things really start to get heated today!
Still got those comfortable shoes on? Today’s a longer day, starting at 10 AM and running until 7 PM. So, loosen up those hamstrings and follow us into the fray of Friday’s Day 2!
Here are some of the things Biff Bam Pop! thinks you need to experience today!
#FXC17 Exclusive Interview: John Bolton On Horror, His Art & His Graphic Novel: Shame
Artist John Bolton has had a long and storied career in comic books and sequential art. He made the jump from working in English magazines such as Warrior, to burgeoning American periodicals like Epic Illustrated, in the early 1980’s. He’s been working in and around the mainstream comic book industry ever since, as comfortable drawing superheroes as much as he is painting fairies, vampires and demons.
Drawn to the genres of fantasy and horror as both an illustrator and painter, Bolton has worked alongside some of the greatest writing names the comic book industry has known, including Chris Claremont on Marada The She Wolf and Black Dragon, both for publisher Epic Comics. With Neil Gaiman in The Books of Magic for DC Comics, he created the look of the reluctant boy-wizard, Timothy Hunter, based on his eldest son. His acclaimed graphic novel series, Shame, alongside writer Lovern Kindzierski, is where Bolton’s efforts most currently dwell, with the first three acts being recently complied into a single hardcover volume.
There’s a sense of wonder, amazement, power, and sexuality inherent in Bolton’s work, combined alongside an overt menace that makes a viewer full of trepidation. Even when his sense of horror is not manifest, nothing is ever as it seems in Bolton’s completed visual offerings.
On the eve of an infrequent visit to Toronto via the 2017 edition of Fan Expo Canada, JP Fallavollita caught up with John Bolton in an exclusive interview via email, and asked him about his process, his female-driven subject matter, and his recent work on Shame.
BBP! Guide To Fan Expo Canada 2017: Day 1 Of #FXC17
It’s Day 1 of Fan Expo Canada 2017. Are you prepped?
Let’s run through your pre-game checklist:
- A hardy breakfast and lunch
- Comfortable shoes
- A backpack
- A visit to the cash machine
- Your list of pop-culture themed heart’s desires
If you haven’t got those five items checked off yet, what are you waiting for? This is Day 1! You plan to make it through to Day 2, don’t you???
Follow us down pop culture lane! Biff Bam Pop! is making it’s way to the Metropolitan Toronto Convention Centre and, between the hours of 4 PM and 9 PM today, there are a number of things to do and see…and tips you need to know.
Let’s not dally another minute…here we go!
#Kirby100 Lives On In “The Black Racer And Shilo Norman Special #1” On The Wednesday Run
This past Monday, August 28th, would have been the “King” Jack Kirby’s 100th birthday!
The comic book legend has had a hand in creating or co-crating pretty much all of the major pop culture superhero icons that you know and love today. I’m not going to get into that list – it’s extensive. But you can find it right here.
Go ahead. Be blown away by all that creativity.
In any event, Biff Bam Pop! has been celebrating #Kirby100 all summer long. You can find a list of all of our fascinating articles and commentaries right here. Of course, this particular column has gotten into the celebrations every week this month, highlighting:
Today sees the last “heads up” in The Wednesday Run #Kirby100 celebrations. At least for this month!
Today sees the release of the compelling, action-packed, sci-fi, philosophical meta story – and absolute fun of The Black Racer And Shilo Norman Special #1!
BBP! Guide To Fan Expo Canada 2017: Preview #FXC17
There’s a well-known, partly tongue-in-cheek saying, that every Torontonian knows: The City of Toronto sees two seasons – winter and construction.
With the gut-bursting pop culture excitement of this coming long weekend, I’m wondering if we can’t add a third season into the mix, even if it is a relatively short one! Canada’s largest and most anticipated pop culture experience that ranges from comic books to movies and television to anime to gaming to toys…and so much more… is finally back!
Fan Expo Canada 2017 is here!
After waiting through twelve months of winter and construction, the most eye-popping weekend of the year begins on Thursday at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre and runs through Sunday afternoon. And, of course, Biff Bam Pop! will be there!
Here, then, is our prelude to all the sights, sounds, symposiums, breakout sessions, photo-ops and merchandise you need to experience over the coming four days…
With an expectation of over 129,000 people in attendance this year, make sure you hydrate, wear comfy shoes, and follow us around the pop culture floor of Fan Expo Canada 2017!
#Kirby100 Goes All In With “The New Gods Special #1″ On The Wednesday Run
You might have heard by now – this month marks what would have been the 100th birthday of “The King” Jack Kirby.
August 28th to be precise.
We here at Biff Bam Pop! are big fans of the “The King”. How could we not be?
If you’re a fan of comic books and all those movies they’ve produced over the last few decades based on them, then you’re a fan of Jack Kirby, whether you know it or not. The man created pretty much all of your favourite heroes – especially if you’re a Marvel Comics fan.
Captain America, Fantastic Four, X-Men and the Hulk are just a small smattering of Kirby’s imaginative pop culture creations during the middle part of the last century.
But for a time, he worked at rival publisher, DC Comics, as well – and created an entire world of heroes and villains and long-lasting characters that some say could have rivaled the ones he created at Marvel in popularity, if not for decades of poor marketing and company indifference.
DC Comics is celebrating #Kirby100 all month long with a series of special publications – the first of which drops today in the form of The New Gods Special #1.
Let’s get on it!
A Trip To Your 8-Bit Fountain Of Youth With “Centipede #1” On The Wednesday Run
Today’s a great day!
It’s July 12th and that means that it’s my birthday! Yes! Thank you for all the birthday wishes…twenty-nine years young forever, I say, although it’s been “forever” for a number of years already.
But that’s one of the great things about being interested in, a fan of, and a part of, the pop culture community: you never really do grow old. With the comic books, movies, television programs, board and card games, toys, music, cartoons, and video games, you always seem to find a way to stay youthful.
At heart, at least.
And if you were to subtract twenty nine years from today’s date, and then subtract a few more, and then a few more for added measure, you’d have one of the greatest years of my youth – as well as many of you out there!
It’s the early 1980’s.
And you’re hanging out at the local arcade.
And your hair is long.
And it’s on purpose.
And you’re playing Centipede.
And it’s awesome!
Relive that youthful glory with today’s comic book-styled modern release of Centipede #1!
American Politics Are Out Of This World In ‘Saucer State #1’ On The Wednesday Run
I would have thought we’d have heard something “official” about alien encounters by now.
And by “official” I mean something on social media – from the sitting President of the United States. If anyone were to read government classified material and leak it at 2 a.m. via Twitter, it would be Trump, don’t you think?
But that hasn’t happened. Yet.
Maybe he’s been too busy hiring and firing.
Maybe he’s been too busy with his own office shenanigans.
Then again, maybe that classified material we all think exists – doesn’t after all. And what a major disappointment that would be.
Still, while waiting for that late-night tweet, there’s a government-alien-conspiracy comic book we should all be reading…and the first issue of a brand new volume drops today with Saucer State #1!
