You’ll be hard-pressed to find another character like Boba Fett.  As merely one among innumerable creations of George Lucas, his own Man with No Name cultivated his own mystique and fans elevated him to cult status.  Those who grew up with Star Wars as I did first met Boba Fett on the front cover of an action figure package, an image of a freebie toy you could mail in to receive for saving the little proofs of purchase off the back of the packages.  If you ordered early, like the kid up my street did, you might get not only one but two rocket firing action figures and you could sit across from each other and fire away.  The most fun action figure ever made, Kenner quickly decided to glue in the rocket for safety concerns.

Boba also appeared on a holiday Star Wars special many prefer to forget (not me).  One of several of Lucas’s BF characters (like Bob Falfa in American Graffiti and Bib Fortuna in Return of the Jedi), there is no reason kids should have flocked to him like we did.  His appearance in The Empire Strikes Back was for mere minutes of film.  He was left to a cruddy death scene in Return of the Jedi, one of the reasons I saw Return of the Jedi in the theater once vs. having seen Star Wars in its original theater run ten times.

Boba Fett was so popular Lucas brought his image and armor back in his prequels in the form of his father, Jango Fett, even establishing that every Stormtrooper in the Empire was a clone of his father, and the early clone troopers became an early in-universe variant of Boba’s Mandalorian armor.  This wouldn’t have happened but for this unique status fans brought to this character.  Regardless of why we like him and think he is the epitome of all things cool, it’s hard to deny his incredible worn and damaged armor is a key part of his appeal.  Created by Joe Johnston it stands out among the best creations of any sci-fi character in any franchise.

So it is a superb pick for the subject of this year’s big charity event at Star Wars Celebration VI.  Working with the Make a Wish Foundation, the As You Wish Helmet Project is a charity event that invites designers and other artists to take a plain vanilla Boba Fett or Clone Trooper helmet, supplied by an entrepreneurial costume creation house called  The Dented Helmet, and turn the helmets into something unique.

More than 40 artists have signed up and are providing the finishing touches on their creations this week.  The final results will be displayed in the Dented Helmet booth at Star Wars Celebration VI beginning this Thursday, August 23, 2012 to Sunday, August 26, 2012, in Orlando, Florida.  After the Celebration is over, the Make-A-Wish Foundation will auction off all of the helmets on eBay, with 100% of the proceeds going to the charity.

Although it’s not a contest, you can’t help but recognize how the artists put all their passion into these creations, which are being previewed as they are finished on Facebook.  And with that, we’ve included several helmets above that will hopefully fetch some good bids for a good cause, including one that was re-created by original designer Johnston, shown above at the top of this article.  My favorite is the creation of my friend Tom Spina, who provided a stunning, inspired mash-up of the original Total Recall and our favorite bounty hunter, complete with life-like Arnold Schwarzenegger life-mask.  Like Spina’s creations in this year’s Super Bowl ad where he re-created the famous Star Wars cantina scene, here again he went all out and the result is as cool as Fett himself.

Mark your calendar for this auction.  It’s not every day that a Joe Johnston Boba Fett helmet is available to the public and even though it’s not screen-used, you know you want one.  With creations from Spina, WETA Workshop, ANOVOS, Sideshow Collectibles and dozens of other artists, this event will be sure to turn heads.  Check out the links above for images of other inspired works of sci-fi art.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

We have reviewed many incredible books about movies here at borg.com.  Beginning with Special Effects: The History and Technique and its master class in film study to the book on movie posters The Art of Drew Struzan, to the recent Syfy Channel Book of Sci-fi, we have discussed a variety of the very best books on films and filmmaking, but also the best books on specific productions that the market has to offer.  If you missed them, here are links to some of the best books out there:

• For Star Wars, Dressing a Galaxy: The Costumes of Star Wars.
• For The Empire Strikes Back, The Making of The Empire Strikes Back.
• For Star Trek movies, we discussed the best here.
• For Star Trek TV series, we discussed the best here.
• For The Princess Bride, The Princess Bride: A Celebration.
• For classic Doctor Who, The Barry Newbery Signature Collection.
• For Firefly, Firefly: A Celebration.

Each of these books had great content and a great way of sharing it with the reader, making for an immersive experience for the true fan.  And there are even more great books in our review pile, from Raiders of the Lost Ark and even more from Star Wars.  Then we laid our hands on The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Chronicles: Art and Design, thanks to the folks at Weta.  In my view Weta is the best magic and fantasy shop in the world.  Where we once were dazzled by the spectacles created by Industrial Light and Magic as the coolest, newest cutting edge movie factory, since The Lord of the Rings trilogy ILM has been replaced by the artists, the painters, designers, sculptors, modelers, costumers and builders at Weta studios in New Zealand.  Their elaborate sets, props, costumes, make-up–you name it–in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey made for the most incredible fantasy world put on film.  Ever.  So it’s awesome that Weta put together a book that not only highlights The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’s wondrous creations, but the actual artists that made it all happen.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Chronicles: Art and Design was compiled by Weta Workshop senior concept designer Daniel Falconer.  In itself it has the look and feel of a prop from the film, from its finely tooled cover to its pull-out, glow in the dark Thorin’s map inside the front cover to the three page fold-out of Bilbo’s contract.  It’s the first book in a series to cover different artistic aspects of The Hobbit movies.  Containing 1,000 images of concept art, sketches, a cross-section of the 9,000 paintings created for The Hobbit, props, costumes, hair designs, and sets, it reveals the vision behind the Weta departments that created them.  Unlike any book I have seen before, it has a key code that credits each department, designer, or artist that developed what you see in the photos.  Some of these are tried and discarded face applications and wigs, like this one for the dwarf Oin:

Other pages focus on characters’ props, including pencil designs, paintings, and detail that any cosplayer would love to delve into for his or her favorite character, like these hand props for the dwarf Ori:

Other pages show the elaborate costume designs.  And all include commentary by the artists who came up with concepts and designs.  Production designer and Academy Award winner Dan Hennah sums up why this focus on the artists make so much sense: “Film is a collaborative medium and requires the complete attention of every person involved to find the images that will make the final cut.  Each artist is encouraged to bring their individual vision to the project and work it in with others to make a cohesive part of the big picture…. For a fantasy movie to succeed, it must transport the viewer into a totally believable world where Dwarves, Dragons, Wizards, Elves, Goblins, Orcs, Trolls and hobbits all exist in a seamless mix of complimentary environments.”

The book begins with views of Hobbiton, which had to be re-created from The Lord of the Rings in exacting detail and fleshed out for expanded use in The Hobbit.  We find Bilbo and his costume designs and concept art for Bag End.  It moves on to Thorin and his band of dwarves in comparison art showing final designs down to each dwarf’s boots.  Dwarf by dwarf we’re given access to trial shots of each dwarf, all used to develop the final look for the film.  Each belt, purse, sword and shield is shown for each character, again, with explanations why one design was chosen over others from Dan Hennah, “3 foot 7″ Costume Designer Ann Maskrey, Academy Award Winners Peter King, and “3 foot 7″ Make-up and Hair Designer and Weta Workshop’s Design and Special Effects Supervisor Richard Taylor.

The book then turns to the flashback scenes of historic dwarves, of ancient battles and armor designs.  We get an introduction to Radagast the Brown, the new wizard we meet in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.  Two chapters turn to environments chosen, from real life cliffs modified digitally for scene use to a revisit to the elf town of Rivendell.  And we get to see up close trolls, stone giants, and goblins, including the thoughts behind the development of the hideous Great Goblin, and a look at the familiar Gollum.

The book showcases the art of concept art directors Alan Lee and John Howe, and work from the several artists of the film’s “3 foot 7″ Art Department, Costume Department and Weta Workshop–dozens of creative filmmakers who live and work in Wellington, New Zealand.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Chronicles: Art and Design  can be purchased from Weta at their website here.  Their second volume, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Chronicles: Creatures and Characters will be published in April 2013 and we will preview it here at borg.com.  It can be pre-ordered now here.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

If you haven’t seen the incredible bestselling book The Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey Chronicles: Art and Design, check out our earlier review here at borg.com.  It’s a superb behind the scenes look at the artistry of the real-life wizards at Weta Workshop in New Zealand.  Weta hones in on the development of various species and beasts of Middle Earth in their new companion book in the Chronicles series: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Chronicles–Creatures & Characters.  As with the earlier book in the series, Creatures & Characters features first-hand accounts from the actors, makeup artists, digital effects specialists, dialect coaches, prosthetics technicians, movement coaches, and other artists and designers from the production.  High quality, close-up and detailed photos of every major character in the film will make this a must-have for Middle Earth cosplayers.

Weta Workshop designer Daniel Falconer has created a book equal to the first volume he created in the series while taking a different approach to the film’s subject matter. Where the first volume highlighted costumes, props and set design, the second volume focuses on make-up, prosthetics and hair creation, casting the actors for the differing Middle Earth races, stunt and movement work, and dialect creation.  As compared to The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, The Hobbit expanded its use of digital characterization, freeing up the production to create new fantastical scenes beyond what was possible before.  Actor and second unit director Andy Serkis and Gollum’s co-creators discuss the character’s role in the story and Serkis’s creation of the character compared to his work in the original trilogy.

Each creature group and race gets its own chapter: hobbits, wizards, dwarves, trolls, elves, stone giants, goblins, orcs and other beasts, with a chapter entirely about Gollum.  The actors share insights on the characters they played, giving a unique look at character development for film.  Particularly interesting because of J.R.R. Tolkien’s exploration and use of language in his stories, the production’s dialect experts discuss their rationale for using real-life language influences and even casting decisions to form the final look and feel of key characters.

You can order The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Chronicles–Creatures & Characters directly from Weta New Zealand here.  If you missed the original volume in the Chronicles series, you can find it here at Amazon.com frequently along with combination purchase deals.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Art designers or aspiring art design students will want to pick up Mark Salisbury’s new look at creating sets, costumes and props for a world of the future in Elysium: The Art of the Film.  Incorporating commentary from the up-and-coming science fiction director of the geo-political sci-fi thriller District 9, Neill Blomkamp, this new large format hardcover delves into the creative process from early ponderings to the imagery that made it to the final film cut.

Like listening to the first demo tapes of your favorite band or scanning the rough sketches of your favorite artist, taking a peek at the development of Hollywood magic through various aspects of a film can teach you a lot about a designer.  Watching the development of a cyborg exo-skeletal costume from inception to final crafted piece challenges the reader to agree or disagree with what is cut and what isn’t.  What physical elements, like utilitarian tubes and pipes, plastics or metals, make us think of the visual “future”?

Blomkamp’s work brings with it a signature questioning of wealth and poverty, the powerful and the powerless, and he does this with the backdrop of a science fantasy posing as science fiction.  It may be Blomkamp’s own street cred–having one of the only science fiction films nominated for an Academy Award on his resume–that allows him to get away with creating an impossible orbital station without explaining how it could possibly work.  Blomkamp says he sees himself first as a visual artist more than director or writer, and he credits bringing together the right creators to help implement his vision.  With his new film Elysium that meant bringing in the team from the Weta Workshop, famous for their designs in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit films.  The book includes concept art from Weta designers Christian Pearce, Aaron Beck, Ben Mauro, Leri Greer, and Stuart Thomas.  Also notable is the contribution to Elysium by Blomkamp idol and classic sci-fi designer of Blade Runner and Tron, Syd Mead.

Being a book highlighting the visual, Elysium: The Art of the Film has relatively little text, but what it contains by way of development of hand weapons, scouting for locations, revealing how star Matt Damon ends up as a borg, and what makes a cool-designed robot and slick future cars, all make for an interesting compilation of ideas.  It very much mimics an artist’s notebook or idea log.  One two-page spread highlights advertising logos used to create the feeling of reality for moviegoers, and each looks like it really could be a trademark for some technological–or mundane–future business.  The book is smartly segmented by Earth and Elysium, mirroring the story elements that divide the bleak future from the utopian future–and all seem to be carefully crafted and well-planned.

Add Elysium: The Art of the Film to your film “behind the scenes” library.  Elysium: The Art of the Film is available directly through Weta here or via Amazon.com here.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

It could go down as the best auction of The Lord of the Rings props and costumes ever sold at auction simply from four of its offerings.  Called “The Trilogy Collection–Props and Costumes from Middle-Earth,” Julien’s is offering several items on the auction block next month.  The key items being auctioned belong to a group of screen-used props that were given away as part of a Hasbro Toys/New Line Cinema contest to promote the release of the third LOTR installment, the 2003 Academy Award winning best picture The Return of the King.  Described as “one of eight main character props used heavily in The Lord of the Rings,” look for Aragorn’s sword, Frodo’s “Sting” sword, Eowyn’s sword, and Gimli’s battle axe, each expected to fetch prices ranging from $30,000 to $70,000, with Frodo’s sword expected to sell between $100,000 and $150,000.  These four pieces are the true headliners of the Julien’s auction, and by themselves would make for a great auction.  Although it raises the questions: Why didn’t these props get dispersed to fans in the sweepstakes, and if they were given away how did four of the props end up in the same place?

It’s because collector Troika Brodsky is selling his collection of four of the sweepstakes prizes he tracked down and bought from prizewinners discussed here.  He refers to the Frodo sword in the linked article as a stunt prop, based on wear and damage.  An interview about his entire collection being auctioned can be found here.

The bulk of the most visually stunning props and costume components in the auction, according to the catalog, were “created from molds taken from the original hero prop and… hand-painted and weathered by the skilled craftsman at Weta Workshop during the production of The Lord of the Rings.”  The descriptions of many also state “This prop was part of a collection of authentic production-created movie props procured by official New Line Cinema licensee, United Cutlery directly from Weta Workshop and Three Foot Six Productions between 1999-2004 for reference in producing a collectible replica version for fans of the film franchise.”  In other words, the props and costumes were made by the Weta Workshop, but from the catalog it is difficult to know whether they are production-made replicas or could be something else.

So buyer beware–if you decide to bid on any of the following, do your own research and bid with the knowledge that it is not known for certain whether any of the actors listed likely ever handled these items, and whether any were actually used on-screen and in what capacity: John Rhys-Davies’ Gimli’s helmet (expected to sell for $40,000 to $60,000), the High Elven Warrior Helmet ($15,000-$25,000), King Elendil’s helmet ($10,000-$15,000), the Shards of Narsil ($25,000-$50,000), Christopher Lee’s Saruman’s wizard staff ($40,000-$60,000), Sean Bean’s Boromir sword and scabbard ($15,000-$25,000), Bernard Hill’s King Théoden sword ($8,000-$12,000), the Witchking crown ($12,000-$20,000), Ringwraith Nazgul sword ($20,000-$40,000), David Wenham’s Faramir helmet ($10,000-$15,000), Faramir’s sword ($15,000-$25,000), Ian McKellen’s Gandalf the White wizard staff ($50,000-$70,000), Witchking warmask ($30,000-$50,000), Sauron’s helmet ($40,000-$60,000), and Sauron’s gauntlet ($25,000-$50,000).

Replica Gimli helmet produced by United Cutlery from the production-made Gimli helmet in Julien’s auction, selling on eBay for $350.

Are these auction estimates simply too high if these are only production-made replicas?  In comparison, production-made replicas for various Star Trek TV series and movies might sell for $1,000 apiece today.  The replicas that Weta made from the above pieces molded from The Lord of the Rings props stated above still sell in the neighborhood of only $1,000 or even less in the aftermarket.  However, if the pieces are indeed stunt or hero pieces, then a higher auction estimate is certainly warranted.

Other items at auction are several Hobbit ears and prosthetic feet, some Weta-designed life-sized displays that incorporate stunt and hero costume elements, filming miniatures, minor weaponry, and nine prototypes of “the One Ring”–including the final design master that is expected to sell between $50,000 and $80,000, with the rest of the rings estimated at $10,000 to $20,000.  Unfortunately the rings include no script-inscribed text, but fortunately they also come with no dark powers.

Julien’s “The Trilogy Collection–Props and Costumes from Middle-Earth” auction takes place Thursday, December 5, 2013, and more details are available at their website.  The catalog is available for $60 including shipping and an online flipbook version is available at the auction house website.

EDITOR’s UPDATE:  We received a detailed response from the auction consigner and updated the article above at his request.  As happens many times, auction companies don’t fully explain in their catalogs all they could about the provenance of an item.  Usually it is promising too much.  This may be a different case here.  We stand by the article as originally written based on the plain language of the auction catalog, which gave viewers reason to believe that many of the props and costumes were, at best, production-made replicas.  We encourage potential bidders (1) to do their own research, and (2) contact the auction house or consigner directly with any questions before bidding.  Thanks to consigner Troika Brodsky for supplying his response.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

We tried on for size almost every new book that was released from comic book publishers like Dynamite Comics, Dark Horse Comics, IDW Publishing, Archaia/BOOM!, and Image.  We tried to sample the best of all that Marvel and DC Comics had to offer, too, and although we didn’t have enough time to review everything we did try to put out there for your consideration those titles we thought our readers might like to check out, especially those with a sci-fi, fantasy, or retro bent.  Our pull list included issues from Afterlife with Archie to Django Unchained, from Liberator to Larfleeze, and from Velvet to The X-Files.  This past month we have reviewed the year-long run of the best of these titles, as we narrowed our selections to 21 of the very best entries in genre entertainment outside of TV and movies, which we revealed here yesterday.  So here are the rest of our picks for the Best of 2013.

Best Borg Appearance — Kane Starkiller, The Star Wars.  Borgs showed up everywhere this year, from the lead characters on Almost Human, to Doctor Who, to countless comic book series including Justice League and RoboCop.  Our favorite appearance came from the young mind of George Lucas as he created the original script that would later be edited into the original Star Wars trilogy.  And through Dark Horse Comics’ The Star Wars monthly comic book event we learned one of his best ideas was merged into other roles and one of his best characters entirely cut.   That character was Jedi Kane Starkiller, who would reveal his cyborg chest implants that kept him alive, later to heroically give up this life-saving technology to save his friends.

Best Comic Book Series — Miss Fury, Dynamite Comics.  A uniquely crafted tale, a compelling and seductive superhero, great action panel after panel, sourced in a long-shelved classic character of the Golden Age of comics.  Rob Williams and Jack Herbert’s Miss Fury is a carefully rendered update that rings true to the edgy spirit of the world’s first female superhero.  Beautiful panels set up an ever-changing time and place and pull readers along for the ride.  And stuck-out-of-time Marla Drake and her alter ego Miss Fury could not have looked better, whether carving out her place in the 1940s or as she was teleported into the future.  It’s a series no one should miss.

Best Comic Book Writing – Matt Fraction, Hawkeye.  Last year revealed one of the best comic book series we ever read, focusing on that “other” superhero archer, the second tier Marvel Comics superhero Hawkeye.  Matt Fraction gave us the most interesting set-up and look into the daily life of a superhero who isn’t Captain America or Iron Man.  This year he kept up the momentum in his Hawkeye monthly series, providing stories that challenged readers, each issue taking a different peek into Clint Barton, another costumed superhero called Hawkeye, and their trusty dog.

Best Comic Book Art – Mike Mayhew, Rain Beredo – The Star Wars.  We still don’t know how an artist can create so much world building in a single year.  And how do you re-imagine something as iconic as the original Star Wars design and give us something  to rave about?  Mayhew’s pencils in the limited series The Star Wars are pretty much second to none (and Beredo’s color choice is superb as well) and we can’t wait to see how they wind up their adaptation of George Lucas’s original script for the beloved Star Wars universe.

Breakout Comic Book Writer of the Year — Aaron Gillespie, Bionic Man.  Gillespie quietly rebuilt the Bionic Man franchise this year as he took over the reboot of Steve Austin, The Six Million Dollar Man, launched by Kevin Smith and Phil Hester.  In doing so he offered up an interesting update to the 1970s original borg hero, and brought along plenty of humor and retro fun.  We think Gillespie is the writer to watch in the coming years.

Breakout Artist of the Year – Greg Smallwood, Dream Thief.  It blew us away that a new comic book artist could bring along so much original style in his first major published comic book series.  Smallwood’s layouts on the Dark Horse Comics limited series Dream Thief and his cool and gritty anti-hero left us eagerly awaiting what he has up his sleeves next.

Best Single Comic Book Issue — Hawkeye, Issue #11, Marvel Comics. Although Afterlife with Archie, Issue #1 also blew us away with its creepy twist on the classic characters, the best single issue of any comic book series we reviewed was Hawkeye, Issue #11 written by Matt Fraction with art by David Aja.  Check out our review here of this great issue told entirely from the perspective of Clint Barton’s sleuthing dog Lucky.  Pure awesomeness.

Best Comic Book Marketing Event — Lenticular Villain One-shot Month, DC Comics.  We can’t get enough of all things retro and what is better than lenticular images?  How about taking 52 monthly titles and devoting them to a litany of villainy and giving each a 3D lenticular cover?  A genius of an idea, DC Comics’ villains vandalized the regular monthly series for one month this year and the result was loads of fun.  And we can’t stop listening to the return of that high-pitched sound from our youths as those books scrape against each other.

Best Comic Book Cover Artist — Alex Ross.  Last year we were able to pull out the best covers for 2012.  This year we found ourselves arguing over the best Alex Ross cover of the year.  As just a sample, Ross created noteworthy cover art for Star Wars #1-4, Battlestar Galactica #1-3, Grimm #1, Dream Thief #1, Miss Fury #1, Django Unchained #6, Fantastic Four #1, Masks #1-8, The Owl #3, The Shadow #4 and 13, The Shadow: Year One #1-6, and Flash Gordon: Zeitgeist #10.  Plus Astro City, Doc Savage, Pacific Rim, Peter Cannon, and Lords of Mars covers!  The man must never sleep!  He produced so much, each of which could be a year’s best, that we’ll have to run down his best of 2013 on a later day.

Best Comics Collected Edition: Mouse Guard: The Black Axe, Archaia.  Putting aside Archaia’s unique book format for the world of Mouse Guard, David Petersen’s unique one-two-punch of storytelling and artistry in his world of mighty mice continues to entertain readers with the gripping and personal trials of these heroes on their latest epic quest.  Petersen may have offered up his best work yet this year in Mouse Guard: The Black Axe, a harrowing and bittersweet account of the last of a breed.

Best Use of Comic Book Medium — Liberator, Black Mask Studios.  Matt Miner’s Liberator mini-series took a hard-nosed look at animal rights this year through its vigilante heroes, expanding the knowledge of readers lucky enough to get their hands on the series.

Best Comeback – Mike Grell, Howard Chaykin.  It’s not like these guys really went anywhere but we just wanted to say how fun it is after all these years to walk into a comic book shop and to be able to buy new books drawn by Grell and Chaykin.  With Grell on the Arrow series and Chaykin with projects like Satellite Sam, fans of classic styles can get their fix and new readers can get introduced to work from the old pros.

Best Non-Fiction Genre Work — The Hobbit Chronicles, Weta Workshop.  Reviewed here at borg.com earlier this year here, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Chronicles: Art and Design provides an unprecedented look at last year’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, through lavish photos of art design, sets, costumes, and props, by the folks at Weta.  With coffee table books released and re-released in 2013 including Star Wars Frames, Firefly: A Celebration, Princess Bride: A Celebration, and Bazooka Joe, it was a great year for books about movies, TV, and other genre properties.

Best Reviewed Book – Johnny Alucard, Kim Newman.  Although Stephen King’s new book Joyland was also a great read, Kim Newman’s new Anno Dracula series novel Johnny Alucard, in his parallel universe of vampires living amongst us, was deep in world building and complex relationships with fictional and non-fictional characters throughout, as Newman’s anti-hero Johnny rises to power.

Best Retro Reviewed Book — Nothing Lasts Forever, Roderick Thorp.  Just like we enjoyed Martin Caidin’s original novel Cyborg that inspired The Six Million Dollar Man TV series, Thorp’s original work, Nothing Lasts Forever, which was turned into the movie Die Hard, was a great window the hard-working cop who saves the day.  Fans of the Die Hard series left wanting after the new movie this year need only check out this book for some great fun.

Best Auction and Catalog of the Year — The Lord of the Rings Trilogy Auction, Julien’s.  This December the first and maybe last auction of screen-used props and costumes from a private collection hit the auction block.  The Trilogy/Middle Earth catalog itself was a feast for the eyes of fantasy fans–a sourcebook in its own right for close-up photos of these rare pieces.  The auction results included the sale of one of Gimli’s axes for $180,000.

Best Album — Smash Mouth, Magic.  Plenty of good music hit the airways this year, including Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories, the Skyfall soundtrack, and the extended Night Visions album from Imagine Dragons.  But our favorite was the long-awaited release of the next Smash Mouth album, Magic.  Including remixes of several of the songs, it added another great party album to the band’s catalog of great tunes.  Check out our review here.

Best Song/Best Video — Space Oddity, Cmdr. Chris Hadfield.  Sure, there were great songs on the airwaves this year, including Adele’s Skyfall, and Daft Punk’s Get Lucky, but was anything cooler than astronaut Chris Hadfield recording and filming his own cover of David Bowie’s Space Oddity in outer space?  We don’t think so.  Twenty million viewers on YouTube would agree.

Best New Tech —  3D Printing.  It was the year everything could get printed, from human organs to bones to edible pizzas.  It’s the next big thing.  3D printing took off and tricorders are on their way in 2014.  The future is now.

Best Toy Line — Honey Trap Army, Gentle Giant.  At several hundred dollars per figure, these toys were not for everyone, but if they’d only produce a mass market version we think everyone would get a set.  A direct-to-toy series that was not based on any existing property, the sculpts for Gentle Giant’s incredible femme fatale fighting team, the Honey Trap Army, were simply beautiful.  Check them out here to see what we mean.

Best Action Figure — 12-inch Retro Rocket Firing Boba Fett.  Gentle Giant’s line of 12-inch action figures based on the Kenner line of 3.75 inch figures from the 1970s and 1980s was nothing short of brilliant.  No toy series was more nostalgic to fans who grew up with the original trilogy, so when they issued a rocket-firing Boba Fett based on the unreleased prototypes, the result was toy gold.  Check it out here.

So that’s our list.  Don’t forget to check out the first part of our Best of the Best list for 2013 here.

And have a happy new year!

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Although The Amazing Spider-man 2 has received mixed reviews, as with last year’s sci-fi flick Elysium, the Weta Workshop was one of the special effects companies that added another dimension to the look of the film.  Weta continues to establish itself as the creative team coming up with cutting edge costumes and props that often surpass the story being told.

Weta created the make-up and Green Goblin suit worn by actor Dane DeHaan, the Electro suspension rig worn by Jamie Foxx, and several other props for this latest Spidey flick.

This week Weta released this montage video of the creators and creations behind The Amazing Spider-man 2.  Check it out:

Does anyone else think it’s cool that one of the costumers has a tattoo of scissors on her hands?  And check out the 3D printer printing the Green Goblin suit components.

The Amazing Spider-man 2 is in theaters now.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Fans of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit series and fantasy cosplayers take note:  Weta in New Zealand is offering some cool new costume and prop pieces from last December’s The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.  Whether you plan to make an appearance as Legolas or Bilbo, you can only get screen-accurate replica representations from the same people at the Weta Workshop that fabricated the props for the films, and many can be found in moviegoer’s price range.

If Legolas is your guy, you can purchase leather vambraces like the ones Orlando Bloom is wearing in The Hobbit series.

If you don’t want to try making yourself a pair, you can get a set of the vambraces from Weta for under $200.

If you’re a fan of Evangeline Lilly’s elf warrior Tauriel, then you might want a pair of Tauriel’s daggers to grace your office wall.

These prop daggers are available for $149.

The biggest catch of all may be a set of the prop coins that represented the piles of gold guarded by the dragon Smaug himself.

Nicely punched like coins of our own ancient past, you can get the full set of five types to carry around in your pocket for less than $35.

Some of the other props and costumes from The Hobbit films that were created by Weta and released last year are still available.  If you’re a fan of old keys how about the gaol key from Mirkwood?

Or Thorin Oakenshield’s key to Erebor?

Each is available for less than $30.

For the collector of high-end replica props, one of the best pieces from Weta is the Staff of King Thranduil.

The Elfking’s staff is available from Weta for $179.

Props and costumewear from Weta often sell out, so don’t pass up your chance to get these while you can!

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

We thought we’d share some of the best exclusives and other offerings scheduled to be available at San Diego Comic-Con International this weekend for those of you who just can’t decide what to spend your money on.  There’s too much to be able to see everything at the big Con, so we’ve listed booth numbers so you can make sure you don’t miss out on those toys, posters, and comic books that you simply must have.

But first, how about some early SDCC reveals, like this image of Roy Harper’s new Arsenal costume from CW’s Arrow:

and this great new SDCC 2014 exclusive poster for the final installment of The Hobbit trilogy, The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies:

And what’s better than news of a new comic book series tie-in from IDW Publishing for Orphan Black?

Now on to the exclusives:

From the Weta Workshop (Booth #3613) you can get this Smaug scales T-shirt inspired by The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies:

and a pre-release copy of the new book The Art of Film Magic, signed edition:

From Alex Ross Art (Booth #2419) pick up original comic book art or limited prints, or this great 10-print edition portfolio of some of Alex Ross’s Marvel Comics work:

BOOM! Studios (Booth #2229) will be selling several exclusive cover variant comic books, including RoboCop #1:

Planet of the Apes: Contagion #1:

Big Trouble in Little China #1 (great Adam Hughes cover!):

or Issue #1 of the popular and critically acclaimed Bee and Puppycat:

Entertainment Earth (Booth #2343) has too many exclusives to list, but check out these great color edition figures from the regularly black and white The Twilight Zone retro figure line:

For all those Adventure Time fans, Entertainment Earth has this lunchbox set:

Mondo, the poster company, is now producing toys and their first toys will be revealed at Mondo’s booth (Booth # 835), including this Iron Giant figure:

and this wacky Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtle:

Titan Comics (Booth #5537) has exclusive Doctor Who #1 comic variant covers for The 10th Doctor and The 11th Doctor:

Top Shelf (Booth #1721), is selling copies of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume 3 signed by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill:

Star Trek novelist Kevin Dilmore is promoting the new Hallmark Star Trek ornaments among other new items at the Hallmark booth (Booth #2913):

At the Peavey booth #2401 you can register for this Peavey Limited Edition 2014 Comic-Con Eastman/Laird Rockmaster Glow-in-the-Dark TMNT Guitar:

From NECA (Booth #3145), you can buy an exclusive 3-figure jaeger pack from Pacific Rim:

From Disney (Booth #3635) the Big Hero 6 first release action figure “Baymax” from the November 2014 release:

Quantum Mechanix (Booth #3245) three-poster set of Ant Lucia’s DC Bombshell prints:

The new annual Overstreet Price Guide is out today, and sold at the show each year:

Gentle Giant (Booth #3513) has several exclusives, including this great droid statue:

This AWESOME Rocket Raccoon statue from Guardians of the Galaxy:

and this large-sized series retro AT-AT driver from The Empire Strikes Back:

ThinkGeek (Booth #3849 has this cool Star Wars droid car adapter:

and an inflatable sword from Bee and Puppycat:

Finally, pick up the new comic book from the Vikings series from The History Channel:

The comic book will be available in limited numbers at the “On the Set” display from the series at 450 2nd Avenue across from the convention center.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Review by C.J. Bunce

How often have you wished you had access to detailed photographs of the costumes and props of your favorite sci-fi or fantasy franchise?  Maybe for making your own costume, or maybe just to see up close what it might be like to be the actor wearing that cloak or holding that sword?  Covering both The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Weta Workshop has managed to top its previous accounts of the making of The Hobbit series with its fourth deluxe hardcover work, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Chronicles: Cloaks & Daggers.

Daniel Falconer, Weta Workshop senior concept designer and creator of this latest behind the scenes account of Peter Jackson’s version of Middle-earth, first brought us The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Chronicles: Art & Design, then The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Chronicles: Creatures & Characters, and earlier this year, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Chronicles: Art & Design.  But this fourth book in the series is even better–packed full of photos and commentary by the art designers, costume designers, prop makers, costumers, actors and other crew members that created each new set, room,  world, civilian clothing, soldier armor, and each prop, be it elaborate or necessarily mundane.

Costume designer Ann Maskrey recounts acquiring and modifying hundreds of fabrics for use when writer J.R.R. Tolkien may have given only little indication as to what an individual character or entire race of creatures should be wearing.

Bilbo and the Hobbits of the Shire, the Wizards Gandalf and Radagast, Thorin and his band of dwarves, Elves, Orcs and Humans, and key locations from the story–Mirkwood, Lake-Town and Dale–each gets several pages to highlight the detail required to visually build a world to make the fantastical believable.

Hand-written letters, books, maps, and signage of various fonts, food, tables, rugs and chairs, purses, swords, hats, buttons and clasps, cloaks and boots, staves, belts and buckles, vambraces, lanterns, instruments of all kinds, knits and macramé, pipes and axes, armor and maille, helmets, wigs, and beards, metalwork, glassware, silks, and saddles, rings and The One Ring–every element is covered by subject, and yet even this exhaustive volume only scratches the surface of what was required for the films, according to the book’s contributors.  And endless close-ups of fabric swatches and the actual costumes, giving readers an almost hands-on experience with the design, construction, and fabric selection process.

Because of the nature of The Hobbit tale and its many named Dwarves, the Dwarves get the most elaborate costumes of any race of the five Middle Earth movies created thus far.  The designs on each piece of armor, each metal fitting, scale maille, and leather work is simply stunning.  And if you’re a fan as much as we are of Sylvester McCoy’s wizard Radagast, you’ll be amazed to learn how his seemingly ripped, worn, and ratty apparel actually includes multiple layers of the finest fabrics, embroidery, and exquisite trim.

Originally released just weeks ago in a limited signed edition, the same exact edition minus the autographs can be purchase through Weta in New Zealand directly here and through Amazon.com here.  The last entry in the Peter Jackson six-film Middle-earth saga, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, will be released in theaters December 17, 2014.

Review by C.J. Bunce

To learn what advancements are happening in technical moviemaking, you can always turn to Weta Workshop and Weta Digital.  For the latest in cutting edge film work, you need only turn to the latest book on The Hobbit film series from Weta, its step by step chronicle of the development of the greatest dragon in all of fantasy, Smaug: Unleashing the Dragon.  As a supplement of sorts to their grand Chronicles series detailing the creative story of The Hobbit, Smaug: Unleashing the Dragon is the first look at a single element of the franchise, peeling back the development of one character in all its tiny details and from all vantage points.

A smaller dimension book at 8×10 inches compared to the double size and thickness of the Chronicles series, this format is well suited for similar spin-off works–perhaps a single book on each race in Middle-earth one day?  But like its counterparts, Smaug: Unleashing the Dragon is dense in both text and photos.  Every designer, art director, sculptor, modeller, texture artist, and animator that provided new ideas and elements to arrive at the final creature offer commentary about their thought process and their collaboration with others.

And that collaboration is the key theme of this book.  Everyone from voice actor Benedict Cumberbatch to Paul Tobin, to John Howe to Marco Relevant to Leith McPherson to Christian Rivers notes the freeing environment that allowed not only Smaug to be built but an entire classic novel to be adapted into three films.

You’ll learn why Smaug went from four legs to two legs, how his eyes were developed, how concept art designers used animals and real biology to inspire Smaug’s appearance, how his scales and facial features changed over time, and his dialect, sounds and movements all came together to give us the biggest and baddest dragon to hit the big screen. You’ll also see how the two halves of Weta–Weta Workshop and Weta Digital–came together to infuse all their ideas to this singular character.

Smaug: Unleashing the Dragon was written by Chronicles author and Weta Workshop Designer Daniel Falconer, and includes a foreword by Benedict Cumberbatch.

Sure to provide enjoyment to fans of the films, of dragons, of fantasy, and of moviemaking, Smaug: Unleashing the Dragon is available now, directly from Weta here and via Amazon here.

The last day of the year is finally here, and with that the last of our reviews of the best content of 2014.

We’ve previewed comic books each month thanks to publishers like Dynamite Comics, Dark Horse Comics, IDW Publishing, BOOM! Studios, and Image.  We sample the best of all that Marvel and DC Comics has to offer, too, and although we don’t have enough time to review everything we review those titles we think our readers might like to check out, especially those with a sci-fi, fantasy, or retro angle.  And we read plenty of books–sci-fi and fantasy, pulp and spy novels, movie and TV tie-ins, even Westerns and steampunk, as well as non-fiction books about movies, TV, and other genre topics.  This past month we have looked again at these titles, as we narrowed our selections to what we think are the very best.  So here are our picks for Best in Print for 2014.

Best Comic Book Series — Black Widow, Marvel Comics.  We were wondering early on what would take the place of Fraction and Hollingsworth’s Hawkeye series for the most satisfying superhero fix.  It didn’t take long to see this other Marvel series looking at another superhero in a similarly personal–but very different–way.  It was a standout in a great year of comics.  Phil Noto’s art and colors were incredible and Nathan Edmondson’s story didn’t let up once.  Full of action, espionage, and intrigue.  A great series to catch-up on in a trade edition.  See our reviews of the series here and here.

Best Comic Book Mini-Series — Afterlife with Archie, Archie Comics.  Who would have guessed someone could make Archie and friends so accessible to any demographic in the 2010s?  And whose brilliant idea was doing it via a horror genre story of zombies taking over Riverdale?  Smart writing by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and spooky atmospheric illustrations by Francesco Francavilla made for a sumptuous series like no other.  Not technically a mini-series, it feels like one because of its staggered release.  See our earlier raves about the series here.

Best Comic Book Writing – Dan Abnett, Wild’s End, BOOM! Studios.  Abnett’s Wild’s End really caught us by surprise.  An incredible fantasy read that is truly unique from BOOM! Studios.  Anthropomorphic characters with incredible archaic dialogue that’s witty and smart.  A crazy mash-up of War of the Worlds, Christopher Robin’s neighborhood, and the dark edge and high stakes of Revival.  We can’t wait to see what’s in store for the rest of this series.  Check out our earlier review here.

Best Comic Book Art – J.K. Woodward, Star Trek: Harlan Ellison’s The City on the Edge of Forever, IDW Publishing.  J.K. Woodward seems to be able to do anything with a paint brush.  Movie tech has not yet perfected a way to create new films interspersing actors from the past digitally, but Woodward is able to take a cast from a 40-year-old TV series and make them come alive.  We thought his Star Trek/Doctor Who crossover series was awesome, and he’s not letting up with each new project.  Check out our review here.

Best Single Comic Book Issue — Guardians of the Galaxy Annual #1, Marvel Comics.  It’s not easy to find a single issue that stands by itself in a year of good reads.  Then in December Brian Michael Bendis and Frank Cho’s Guardians of the Galaxy Annual #1 one-shot arrived and we had our winner.  Fun, unexpected, quirky and nice visuals.  What more could you ask for?  Here’s our review from a few weeks ago.

Best Borg in Comics — The Six Thousand Dollar Man, Legenderry, Dynamite Comics.  Bill Willingham’s seven-issue Legenderry series was a welcome surprise with a brand new pantheon of great steampunk characters.  Pulling from Dynamite Comics’ handy pile of licenses, Willingham came up with the most fun we had with steampunk in comics.  And his Six Thousand Dollar Man was just a brilliant idea, a Bionic Man of a different era, as rendered in a very cool way by artist Sergio Fernandez Davila and character costume designer Johnny Desjardins.  Check out our review of Legenderry here.

Best Comic Book Event — Ant Lucia Bombshell covers, DC Comics. We can’t get enough of all things retro and this year DC Comics smartly latched onto Ant Lucia’s 1940s pin-up-inspired characters.  They gave him an entire month where he took over the covers to the monthly DC Comics titles–a great way to obtain his poster art, in miniature form, and try out a new series.  Check out how he took over DC Comics in June here.

Best Comic Book Cover Artist — Adam Hughes.  Adam Hughes’ run on one of the last Star Wars series for Dark Horse Comics tipped the scales for us this year.  His beautiful cover art of Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Chewbacca and Star Wars-themed backgrounds were the stuff of great wall posters.  And his Life with Archie cover to issue #36 was a good send-off for the death of the character.  Hughes created noteworthy cover art for Axis #9 variant, Big Trouble in Little China #1 variant, Life with Archie #36, Star Wars Rebel Heist #1-4, and Sirens #1 NYCC variant covers.

Best Comic Book Cover — Avengers & X-Men: Axis #1 Variant – Mike Mayhew.  If we had to pick one cover that was the most fun for the year it was Mike Mayhew’s Avengers & X-Men: Axis #1 variant cover for Midtown Comics.  It featured the best design–the queens of good and evil with a flip cover–Polaris on one side and Scarlet Witch on the other.  There’s a 52-card deck out there begging to be made.

Best Sci-Fi Fix — Copperhead, Image Comics.  Fans of sci-fi Westerns like Firefly should take note.  There’s a great sci-fi series released by Image Comics–Copperhead.  It features one of the best new women characters of 2014, the tough new Sheriff Bronson, large and in-charge in an off-world, sparsely populated town.  Writer Jae Faerber and artist Scott Godlewski created an instant hit complete with plenty of alien crime.  Check out our review of the series here.

Best TV/Movie Tie-In — The X-Files: Year Zero, IDW Publishing.  Of all the books, fiction, comic books series, etc. we read this year, including great reads in the worlds of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Planet of the Apes to Firefly and Alien, we found the voice that was the truest to the original series was The X-Files: Year Zero by IDW Publishing.  Not only did it include Mulder and Scully working together better than we last saw them in the movies complete with perfect dialogue, the series was expanded with two new characters from the past history of the actual X-Files, giving an entirely new potential area for expansion of the franchise’s stories.  Writer Karl Kesel and artists Greg Scott and Vic Malhotra nailed it with this series.  We raved about it earlier here.

Best Graphic Novel — Toshiro, Dark Horse Comics.  A steampunk robot samurai.  And Civil War era zombies.  Jai Nitz and Janusz Pawlak wove a story that was a mash-up of so many things we lost track.  Pawlak’s rich Quentin Tarentino-esque artwork and Nitz’s spaghetti Western plot about a Japanese robot in England made for a truly unique work like no other graphic novel we read in 2014.  Check out our review here.

Best Marketing — Vandroid, website and faked vintage extras, Dark Horse Comics.  Vandroid should be made into a movie to air on the El Rey network.  A “grindhouse flick that never was” was the hook for this fun retro fix from Tommy Lee Edwards, Noah Smith, and Dan McDaid.  Outside of the comic book mini-series were mock-ups of ads and ephemera to help reel readers in to the mystique of the story and play along.  Vandroid was a great ride.  Check out what we had to say about it earlier here.

Best Comics Collected Edition: The Star Wars, Dark Horse Comics.  An easy pick for best hardcover and trade edition is the variety of compilations of last year’s The Star Wars from Dark Horse Comics.  Released as a trade paperback and in two high quality hardcover editions, this bestselling work is a must for Star Wars fans.  J.W. Rinzler’s adaptation of George Lucas’s original treatment for his vision of the galaxy far away and Mike Mayhew’s great artwork make this a book you’ll want to share with friends.  A superb deluxe hardcover edition includes nice extras.  Check out more about the series here.

Best Genre Non-Fiction — The Hobbit Chronicles: the Desolation of Smaug Cloaks & Daggers, Weta Workshop.  The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Chronicles: Cloaks and Daggers provides an unprecedented look at Peter Jackson’s Hobbit series even better than the stellar prior volumes in the Chronicles series.  No better book of high-quality photographs of props and costumes from a film or series is in print.  If you want to learn the details of what goes on behind the scenes of a huge production, this is the book for you.  Check out our review here.

Best Genre Fiction (New Release) — Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: Firestorm, Greg Keyes.  We read and reviewed more fiction here in 2014 than ever before.  Greg Keyes’ memorable bridge novel between the latest Planet of the Apes movies provided a character study of the apes like we hadn’t seen before, especially in its rich development of Koba the chimpanzee.  Great insight and interesting characters put this at the top of the year’s tie-ins and a great read.  Check out our review here.

Best Genre Fiction (Re-Release) — All You Need is Kill, Hiroshi Sakurazaka.  The re-release of Sakurazaka’s hit alien invasion story was timed to the release of its big screen adaptation, Edge of Tomorrow–our pick for best film of the year.  Sakurazaka’s heroine Rita Vrataski is exactly the kind of female lead readers can’t wait to find.  Even more exciting than the movie, this sci-fi and war novel is the stuff of sci-fi classics you’d read from the likes of Clarke, Heinlein, or Asimov.  See our review here.

Best Reviewed Genre Retro Read — From Russia With Love, Ian Fleming.  In our ongoing review of all of Ian Fleming’s original James Bond novels, there have been plenty of hits and misses.  So coming across the best of Fleming’s spy novels was a welcome treat.  From Russia With Love gave us a great Bond girl with Tatiana Romanova and an unusual but great Bond villain with the vile Colonel Klebb.  Full of intrigue and spymastery, it’s no wonder this was one of JFK’s favorite novels.  See our review here.

So that’s our list.  Don’t forget to check out the first part of our “Best of the Best” list for 2014 here and here.

And have a happy new year!

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Review by C.J. Bunce

A wealth of concept art for The Hobbit can be found in the fifth volume of Weta’s Chronicles series: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies Art & Design.  Writer and Weta artist and designer Daniel Falconer again delivers a stunning hardcover account of the behind-the-scenes artistry that forged the last of Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth series.

Including much more pencil sketchwork and inspirations for the cities of The Hobbit than prior volumes, this edition showcases many designs that made it into the final film but also many that did not.  It’s those pieces that did not make it to the final cut of the film that form a rare treasure trove here.  As costume designer Bob Buck writes in he book, “The designs that were never realized are as important as the ones that were, being part of the process and representing the elimination or germination of an idea that grew into the visuals as seen on the screen.”  Buck provides valuable insight into the ideas behind many of the costumes in the film along with many other Weta designers and special effects artists, including concept art director John Howe.

Highlights of this volume give a detailed look at concept sketchs and paintings from Weta Digital, 3Foot7, and Weta Workshop of Galadriel’s Maxfield Parrish-esque costume design development from her descent into Dol Guldur, and the ghostly dead Ringwraith kings and the Necromancer, who at many times appeared as if he could have been designed by Bernie Wrightson or Frank Frazetta.  Costume designs featured include the elegant Thranduil, Elven soldiers, Bard, an unused but brilliant set of armor for Stephen Fry’s mayor of Lake-town, and every angle and type of Dwarf you could imagine.  Not surprisingly, it is the culture and artistry of Dwarves that fill the bulk of the pages here.

Detailed full-color photographs of prop artwork include Dwarf weapons and personal effects, Radagast’s staff and bird’s nest, the vast weaponry of Lake-town and Dale, sketches of goblets of Erebor, the Arkenstone, the sleek Elven swords and knives, and our final look at Bilbo and Bag End.

In contrast to prior movies of Middle-earth is The Five Armies’ extensive use of CGI effects over three-dimensional model work.  The Orc and key battles scenes are examples of this.

As with each prior volume of Chronicles, this work includes a special insert–this time a removable printed art plate by Weta Workshop Concept Artist Gus Hunter of the Necromancer in flames.  And consistent with each uniquely designed volume, this edition has a finely textured cover with gilt trim, sporting a sharp Dwarven armor theme.

Originally released only weeks ago in a limited signed edition, the same exact edition minus the autographs can be purchase through Weta in New Zealand directly here and through Amazon.com here.

Review by C.J. Bunce

The best thing about reading a book about the making of a film, without first watching the film, is that your view of the book is not skewed by your opinion of the film.  If you knew nothing about The Great Wall, the new behind-the-scenes look in The Great Wall: The Art of the Film will prompt you to want to see it.  Not only will you find incredible concept art, set design, costumes, and props, the book itself is unique.  In the past five years “making of” film and art books have vastly improved in quality.  Abbie Bernstein’s new book from Titan Books features the best quality images, the best layouts, and the best book design of any book yet reviewed at borg.com–the book itself has a traditional Chinese book binding and gilded edges.  It also features an element left out of many film books these days–it includes images of the entire film, and doesn’t remove spoiler elements, such as, in this case, detailed images of the film’s monsters and ending (the art book for Star Wars: The Force Awakens provided no final image of Luke Skywalker and several costumes and props, as an example).

An icon of China cinema, the man behind several “art house” films in China and the opening ceremony at the Beijing Olympics, director Zhang Yimou discusses in the book why The Great Wall is unique and how it became the biggest production in China film history.  If you have watched stunning Chinese film work over the years and aren’t a fan of dubbed or subtitled films, the barrier is language–how can you connect U.S. and Chinese film audiences?  Yimou intended just that by making a Hollywood-esque film as a Chinese production in English with a cast and crew from dozens of nations, including more than 100 on-set translators.  Beyond that goal, the powerful imagery of the film as displayed throughout The Great Wall: The Art of the Film, is the stuff of Academy Award-winning costume design and art design.

Along with interviews with Zhang are chapters featuring producer Peter Loehr, actors Matt Damon, Pedro Pascal, Jing Tian, and Willem Dafoe.  The most visually stunning chapters detail The Nameless Order, with Zhang’s color coding of each fighting corps, including the royal blue Crane Corps–the fighting unit consisting entirely of women.  We see frosted plastic pages displaying each corps symbol, and poster quality designs highlight each leader, along with their shields and weaponry.  Detailed sections feature the creation and design of the film’s monsters–the mythical Tao Tei–and how WETA and Industrial Light and Magic created them.  And each key sequence of the film is revealed with photographs of special effects and the actors in action.

So back to the book design.  The book includes gold foil cover art and insert pages to protect the ink of certain pages that feature full-color photographs.  Each chapter begins with a transparency page introducing the subject matter followed by a page featuring a symbol from the film.  Fold out pages detail maps and concept art.  A tipped in letter envelope tied together with a string containing pages from the Hall of Knowledge is a nice quality replica prop from the film that will help take readers into the film’s story.

Marketing-wise The Great Wall–the movie–could have used some clarity.  Was it supposed to be obvious this was a giant monster movie fantasy steeped in the ancient mythology of China?  Most of the audiences that have seen the movie have given it a favorable rating.  Yet, like many a movie before it, other factors eliminate entire segments of audiences, for good or bad.  Take, for example, movies like The Golden Compass (boycotted by religious groups), Ender’s Game (boycotted because of the politics of the writer of the novel), Doctor Strange (boycotted for “whitewashing” a traditionally male Asian role now played by a Caucasian female), and the soon to be released Spider-man: Homecoming generated early flak (because Mary Jane may not be played by a caucasian as in the classic comic story).  For The Great Wall, the objection of some is Matt Damon’s lead role, a Caucasian lead in a medieval, epic story about China–whitewashing as discussed with respect to Doctor Strange–similar to criticisms when Tom Cruise was the lead in a Japanese-focused story in The Last Samurai.  Ultimately, moviegoers will decide. 

The Great Wall: The Art of the Film may cause readers to overcome any preconceptions they may have about the film.  The superb showcase of the film’s incredible artwork, its style, and its design, make this book among the decade’s best books about the making of a film.  It is available now here at Amazon.com.

Review by C.J. Bunce

Rarely has anyone been able to create a single work that includes so much information in such spectacular fashion about such an epic body of work.  Writer Daniel Falconer has done just that with Middle-earth: From Script to Screen–Building the World of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, his new 512-page, exhaustive, encyclopedic chronicle of the making of both of director Peter Jackson’s trilogies adapting J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.  Never before seen photographs, never before published recollections of cast and crew of the films that all-told would add up to nearly 24 hours of award-winning cinema, garnering seventeen Academy Awards for The Lord of the Rings films and seven nominations for The Hobbit.  Weta Workshop’s Daniel Falconer, who has written some of the best-reviewed books we have looked at here at borg.com, catches up The Lord of the Rings to the coverage he has documented in his books on the making of The Hobbit trilogy, without providing any redundant content from his prior books, including The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Chronicles: Art and Design, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Chronicles–Creatures & Characters, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Chronicles: Cloaks & Daggers, The Hobbit, Smaug: Unleashing the Dragon, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies Art & Design, and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, The Art of War.  In doing so he has created the definitive resource for fans of the films, and fans of the Tolkien books now have a visual, fully-realized geographic resource guide to Middle-earth.

Beginning with a fabulous map of Middle-earth that includes cross-references to the pages of the book where each location is discussed, the reader can take his or her own tour across the film (and book’s) fantasy realm and real-life New Zealand filming locations.  The journeys of Frodo and the Fellowship of the Ring from The Lord of the Rings and Bilbo, Gandalf, Thorin and the other Dwarfs in The Hobbit are overlaid so that the reader’s tour sweeps across the landscapes and environments created entirely by concept artists, artisans, and skilled workers of every imaginable category, required to faithfully reflect Tolkien’s and Jackson’s visions.  Even more exciting are accounts, including descriptions and photographs, of places that Jackson filmed, but did not make it to the final cut of the film.  The weight of this task–the task of creating the films and also in creating this hefty document–are reflected in the artistry and organization of every single page.

Along with the primary narrative focusing on selection, planning, building and filming each environment, readers will discover several sidebars covering topics like key characters, races, and creatures, and a veritable how-to guide to making an epic film series that takes readers through breaking down a script, set conceptualization, set drafting, use of “big rigs”–a twist on forced perspective filming, sound design, location scouting, art direction, set construction, set decoration, cinematography, performance/motion capture, building model miniatures, previsualization, aerial and scenic photography, organic sets, the greens department (charged with plant life set dressing), talismans and props, set and prop finishing, post-production, color grading, lighting, shooting on location, using locations responsibly, and creating digital environments.

Throughout the book readers will learn what materials and settings could be re-used from The Lord of the Rings for The Hobbit.  Initially environments were not built to last, but after the success of various filming locations in New Zealand as tourist attractions when filming wrapped on The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, many sites were rebuilt to survive past production for The Hobbit films.  This included the creation of 44 Hobbit holes that can be visited today among many other sites.  The journey across the map of Middle-earth will take readers to The Shire, Lands of Arnor, Rivendell, The Misty Mountains, Khazad-dûm, Wilderland, Mirkwood, Lothlórien and the River Anduin, Realms of Rhovanion, Rohan, Enedwaith & Calenardhon, Realms of the North & Wastes of the East, Ithilien & the Morgul Vale, and Mordor and the Shadowed South.

Key contributors to the book in addition to Falconer include Peter Jackson, actors and artisans, as well as art production and other key staff, such as Alan Lee, Dan Hennah, John Howe, Grant Major, Brian Massey, Simon Bright, Philippa Boyens, David Whitehead, Ben Milsom, Ra Vincent, John Callen, David Farmer, Joe Letteri, Matthew Wear, and Richard Taylor.

A foreword was provided by Peter Jackson and additional contributions by K.M. Rice.  Although the book is certainly a treasure trove of information, a great supplement to Middle-earth: From Script to Screen–Building the World of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit would be a digital version–not merely a standard e-book edition–but a digital version that allows the smaller imagery found throughout each two-page spread (sometimes only about two-by-two inches or less in size) to be increased in size to fill a computer screen, for additional in-depth study.  The vast majority of the photographs in the book are sufficiently large to see details, but many readers and future Tolkien scholars might want to investigate further those images that are not.

This week Amazon announced a new Middle-earth television series is in development. Next month the six-film franchise celebrates its 16th anniversary, and it has been 20 years since Jackson began work on the saga.

This is the book fantasy fans, Tolkien fans, and Peter Jackson fans, have been waiting for.  Epic in scope and worthy of the franchise, Middle-earth: From Script to Screen–Building the World of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit is available in hardcover for pre-order now here from Amazon at a significant discount off the release price.  It is scheduled to be released November 21, 2017, from HarperCollins.

Consider this your moment of San Diego Comic-Con zen.

This weekend I got a chance to visit Weta Workshop’s booth at the San Diego Convention Center.  Lucky for me I was there the same time as Mythbusters and Tested’s Adam Savage.  I got to marvel at Adam while he got to marvel at one of the many incredible artisans from New Zealand’s Weta Workshop, presenting at their booth before one of Adam’s panels (the Weta folks gave him his own sword of Boromir from The Lord of the Rings).  This is what genuine curiosity looks like.  Adam often attends the show incognito, so actual sightings are a bit rare, and he was quite fun to watch being another one of us at the Con.

Then a funny thing happened.

I found myself standing next to a star of one of my favorite films, The Princess Bride…

Yep, Fred Savage, star of The Wonder Years, and more recently The Grinder with Rob Lowe, currently starring with Cobie Smulders, Keegan-Michael Key, and Annie Parisse on Season 2 of Netflix’s Friends from College.  

As far as I was able to discover, Adam and Fred aren’t related.

So I’ll leave you with this.  I then walked over to visit one of my favorite comic book cover artists and comedy writer, Frank Cho.

Frank created the Marvel Comics series Savage Wolverine.

Now back to regular programming.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Review by C.J. Bunce

Using a meticulously designed new robot from Weta Workshop, the Australian science fiction movie I Am Mother has all the components of a good story steeped in the classic sci-fi of the 1950s.  It takes place on Earth after an apocalypse that could easily be interwoven into the Cyberdyne/Genisys destruction from the Terminator series, and has that futurism straight out of a Philip K. Dick short story.  What’s left are robots running everything, some on the surface, but one in particular inhabits what looks like a space station buried beneath the planet’s surface.  This robot is called Mother, voiced seamlessly by X-Men series co-star and Australian actor Rose Byrne.  She has preserved several of the last bits of humanity–embryos–in order to repopulate the species via rapid-growth technology.  The production, the design, the light-up props, and the pacing all create the right framework for a significant sci-fi film.  Unfortunately the story is single-threaded, building opportunities for subplots that get left ignored, much like January’s direct-to-Netflix sci-fi release Io.

The build-up is nicely rendered by first-time movie director and script writer Grant Sputore.  The common theme of this genre, as much sci-fi horror as merely sci-fi, is “things aren’t what they seem.”  Or maybe they are.  The audience sees Mother raise a single child from the bank of embryos stowed on the facility, a girl known simply as Daughter, played first by young Tahlia Sturzaker, then for the bulk of the movie by Clara Rugaard, both giving fine performances.  We believe the humans are long gone outside, until a woman arrives, played by two-time Best Actress Academy Award winner Hilary Swank.  She’s been shot, and whether she was shot by humans or robots becomes a mystery for Daughter to solve.  Both Swank and Rugaard look so much alike, their likeness simply must be a plot point:  Are they related, and if so, how?  Sisters?  Clones?  Same hair color and length, eyes, bone structure.  Was Swank’s lost human a former captive in the underground bunker?  How many times has Mother created Daughters or Sons?  How many years from Armageddon is this story really happening?  It’s the answers–or lack thereof–to these questions, and the ultimate payoff Sputore delivers that doesn’t match the rest of the film.

Part of the legitimacy of the film as something more than mainstream popular sci-fi is the amazing body movement work of Luke Hawker acting inside the robot suit he helped design and build with the Weta team.  How rare is it that the designer of the tech is also the actor, who is featured in 90% of the scenes of the film?  The added surprise is this was not a CGI motion capture process, but a practical effect that had to be created with real-world materials.  There is some actual chemistry between Daughter and Mother, and Mother is a pretty great mother to see in action.  It’s like watching young Will Robinson interact with his Robot in Lost in Space.  Add to the believable robot the cold and lonely tenor of the film and you have something like New Zealand’s low budget 1985 sci-fi marvel The Quiet Earth.

The better movie telling a similar story can be found in another film introduced to U.S. audiences via Netflix, the Spanish 2017 science fiction masterpiece Orbiter 9, a better sci-fi horror study can be found in Ex Machina, and a better ending and payoff can be found in 2016’s genre bender Midnight Special.  Audiences don’t need to make the decision of whether to see I Am Mother in the theater or instead of these other films.  It’s pretty much a closed set piece so nothing visual introduced would compel anyone to see this on a big screen, if that were an option.  But as another of the hundreds of new releases available with a Netflix subscription, the decision to give it a try is a no-brainer.  Most of the two-hour running time is worth it.  You just might be left wishing for more of the ideas raised in the film to actually be allowed to play out.

But the “science” part of the science fiction here is vacant, beginning with the well-adjusted grown girl, the idea that a handful of humans could hope to re-populate Earth, the likelihood a single robot would last long enough to utilize all those embryos–all of these things are ignored.

For fans of Weta Workshop and anyone wanting to see more about the Mother robot, check out this feature:

Fans of classic sci-fi stories should enjoy I Am Mother.  It attempts well enough to be like many short stories adapted to screen from the minds of writers of the past including Philip K. Dick, Arthur C. Clarke, Ray Bradbury, and Isaac Asimov, even if it misses its mark.  I Am Mother is now streaming on Netflix.

Fans of director Yimou Zhang′s international mega-production The Great Wall didn’t need to go all the way to the Great Wall of China to have a chance at obtaining a piece of the 2016 film this past week.  Auction house Prop Store′s Los Angeles location joined with Legendary Entertainment to offer 477 lots of both key and background costumes, armor, prop weaponry, and set pieces from the first partnering of the United States and China on a giant blockbuster film.  The Great Wall is a Chinese dynasty fantasy set at the famous landmark, merging giant battles and action with the mega-sized monster genre, pairing China’s biggest stars with an international cast, backed by a crew from 100 countries.  Although the movie received mixed reviews from critics, what can’t be denied are the visual concepts and craftsmanship of New Zealand’s Weta Workshop and Mexican costume designer Mayes Rubeo, who designed imagery for the film never seen before.  Check out our review of the movie here at borg back in 2016, along with Abbie Bernstein’s ground-breaking book The Great Wall: The Art of the Film (reviewed here).

Weta Workshop kitted out the armies of The Great Wall with an arsenal of color.  The workshop design studio rendered more than a thousand concepts for the film, with 6,000 final weapons used by the key cast and 600 extras, including shields, spears, axes, daggers, crossbows, swords, and arrows featured in the auction.  Mayes Rubeo, known for her designs in Thor: Ragnarok and Avatar (and she created costumes for both the original Total Recall and the halted Mouse Guard live-action movie), utilized historic Chinese fabrics, textiles, techniques, hand embroidery and applique, and leathers in each costume with about 18 components per person, all featuring an animal and unique color combination: the blue crane corps, red eagle corps, gold tiger corps, black bear corps, and purple deer corps.

It should be no surprise that the top costume sales went for the two stunning, blue, armored costumes worn by the film’s Chinese star Tian Jing as Commander Lin Mae.  Featuring sheathed swords, helmets, leg daggers, feathered suit and hard armor, they sold for slightly more than $9,000 and $17,500 each.  Other hero costumes that sold included Matt Damon as William costume variants ($1,687, $2,625, $4,375 and $5,125), The Mandalorian actor Pedro Pascal′s character Tovar’s costumes ($937, $1,625, and $1,687), Willem Dafoe′s character Ballard ($344, $531, $875, and $1,437), General Shao’s (Zhang Hanyu) black armor ($2,187 and $4,500), Commander Wu’s (Eddie Peng) gold armor ($2,750 and $4,250), Commander Chen’s (Kenny Lin) red armor ($2,250 and $3,875), Commander Deng’s (Xuan Huang) purple armor ($1,625 and $3,875), and Strategist Wang’s (Andy Lau) costumes ($1,000 and $2,500).  A variety of historically-inspired, ornate hero (lead actor-used) swords ranged from $400 to $3,875 for one of the swords unique to Tian Jing.

Altogether the auction took in roughly $425,000 in sales (about $85,000 reflecting the auction’s buyer’s fee).

Best of all, there was something for everyone from nearly any price bracket, with hero daggers selling at $55.  Several complete suits of armor by Weta and Rubeo that cost the studio thousands of dollars to make per unit sold for as low as $687.  Dozens of shields featuring bears, tigers, and eagles sold for as low as $250 to an average of $400.  Some giant set piece weapons sold for as low as $625.  Keep in mind these are professionally designed by world-renowned award-winning professionals, with many hand-crafted components and modern technologies and components, so many buyers got some great deals as the auction wrapped lot by lot between 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern Friday.

If you have any doubt as to the quality of the costumes, take it from Mythbuster and “guru of all things cool” Adam Savage in this video, where he unboxes one of Prop Store’s suits of armor and shield (his box would have cost a buyer at the auction about $1,500):

The rarest grouping and most sought-after pieces went to the blue crane corps costumes–the elite Cirque de Soleil-esque wall-rapelling team and only women’s armor in the film, selling as high as $3,750 each.

Here’s a brief Weta look at its work on the film:

Check out the Prop Store website here to follow all of its forthcoming TV and movie memorabilia auctions.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg

Following the designs created under Daniel Falconer, art director and senior concept designer for Weta Workshop, the famed creation house of all things forged and fantastical, is releasing a new line of statues and replicas from The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, similar in style, look, and feel to Weta’s highly collected products from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.  Many of these items will not be released until next year, but online collectible store Entertainment Earth is taking pre-orders now.  The statues and replicas are every bit the quality you’d expect from the company, known for matching the items seen on the screen with the products it delivers to the public.

First out will be four 1:6 statues, including Rian and Hup, both by Weta Workshop sculptor Steven Saunders.  Maudra Fara’s eyepatched companion Baffi the Fizzgig was created by Weta Workshop sculptor Jane Wenley.  The vile Skeksis Emperor is as creepily real, as sinister, and scary, as anything we’ve seen from Weta.  This statue is by Weta Workshop sculptor Hao Wang, and includes all four arms, plus a metal prosthesis for his rotting nose!  If you’re interested, you’ll want to pre-order the Skeksis Emperor now here at Entertainment Earth, as it will be limited to only 400 units worldwide.  The intricacy on this piece is unparalleled, and it will no doubt go down as one of Weta’s finest high-end statues.

A 1:1 scale prop replica of the Essence vial is crafted from glass and resin, with LED lighting to replicate the radiant essence seen on screen (operated via battery).  The Dark Crystal necklace is based on 3D scans provided by Netflix, shaped to be an exact replica of the Crystal seen on screen, its draconic claw is inspired by the Skeksis clasp system in the Castle of the Crystal.  It is a resin pendant complete with gunmetal-plated brass claw, includes a 20-inch stainless steel chain, and is encased in a gift box.

Find more information and learn how to pre-order any now from Entertainment Earth at the links above. Check out several high quality images below, courtesy of Weta Workshop:

The three different sized circular bases that are part of the 1:6 scale statues represent the three suns in the skies of Thra: the dying sun, the rose sun, and the great sun.  Iconography from the floor of the Crystal Chamber is featured around the outside.

One of the best features is the absence of any logo for the show, a branding addition that too often takes away from the appearance of collectible items from films, series, and franchises.  Weta Workshop notes that the prototypes pictured may vary somewhat from the final production pieces.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg

Review by C.J. Bunce

It’s been three years since the arrival of Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049, the sequel to Ridley Scott’s 1982 sci-fi cult classic, Blade Runner, itself based on Philip K. Dick’s novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?  At last fans of the franchise, sci-fi, and futurism have a worthy tribute to the artwork behind the production with Tanya Lapointe’s Blade Runner 2049 Interlinked–The Art, now available from Titan Books.  A companion piece to the author’s 2017 book, The Art and Soul of Blade Runner 2049, published in 2017, which focused more on the entire production than the ideas behind the look of the film, this new book is packed with more reproductions of concept artwork than text, a journey for anyone thinking about the next Syd Mead–who will he/she be, and what the world they create might look like.

The challenge for the visionaries behind Blade Runner 2049?  Finding the right fit between nostalgia and innovation–piecing together architecture, technology, and design to reflect 1982’s vision of the future updated with today’s vision of tomorrow.  Artists were interviewed and discuss their inspiration and ideas, accompanied by hundreds of full color photographs.  Readers will see the beginning, middle, and final ideas for the futuristic cars called spinners, weaponry like those bulky blasters, future landscapes and cityscapes, cyborg corporate logos, the look of residents of the future, and locations: the memorable bar and casino, K’s apartment, the Wallace corporation, and Deckard’s apartment.

Readers will learn of several Easter eggs they probably missed that the creators sneaked into the film, found in corners of the screen on objects like license plates and within corporate logos, and they’ll get a better understanding of what the production team intended to convey via the use of tricks like changes in color as well as explore concepts that didn’t make the final cut.

The core creators from the film who participated in this book includes the initial brainstorming team of senior conceptual designer George Hull, concept artist Scott Lukowski, concept designer Victor Martinez, concept illustrator Emmanuel Shiu, WETA Workshop artist Steve Jung, and researcher Allison Klein.  Even more players fill in the blanks for the rest of the book, including production designer Dennis Gassner, production consultant Aaron Haye, concept artists including Dan Walker, Sam Hudecki, Carlos Huante, Peter Popken, and Kamen Anev, concept designers Tibor Lazar, Kim Frederiksen, Mike Hill, Ed Natividad, and Zsolt Tarnok, graphic designer Laura Dishington, and WETA Workshop artists Leri Greer and Paul Tobin.

See the future as foreseen in the early 21st century.  Check out Blade Runner 2049 Interlinked–The Art, available now here at Amazon.  Would you like to know more?  Catch up with The Movie Art of Syd Mead, reviewed here at borg, Space Utopia, reviewed here, and Typeset in the Future, reviewed here.