POP-CULTURE COLUMN: Disclosure Day better be a CE3K sequel
By Dan Brown They say there are too damn many sequels. I don’t agree – in at least one case. If Disclosure Day isn’t a sequel to Close Encounters of the Third Kind, I’m gonna be pissed. The new Steven Spielberg-directed motion picture about aliens is set to land in theatres on June 12, and I so want it to be the second part of 1977’s Close Encounters. CE3K was the first Spielberg movie I saw in a movie theatre. It blew my nine-year-old brain. Although UFOs were a big deal in the 1970s, it was about more than that: The mystery of the unknown, obsession, belonging, asserting the right of the individual to leave their family. I was sold. So I’ll take a Close Encounters sequel any way I can get it. It doesn’t even have to be a particularly great movie! You may be wondering: How come Dan doesn’t know if Disclosure Day is a sequel or not? You would think, since its debut is only a few days away, I – along with the general public – would understand that much about the plot. But the team behind Disclosure Day is being cagey. No one has said it’s a direct sequel to Close Encounters. However, we do know from the trailers it’s about aliens coming to Earth in flying saucers. And some people connected with the film have been dropping enticing hints. “There are definitely questions posed by Close Encounters that are answered in Disclosure Day,” Emily Blunt told the movie magazine Empire. Blunt, by the way, has been getting positive advance notices for her performance as a TV weather girl who gets up in an unraveling conspiracy. Also, there’s at least two shots in the Disclosure Day trailer that evoke Close Encounters. One has a UFO emerging from a bank of clouds hat, to me, looks like an homage to the climax of CE3K, when the giant mothership descends in full view on Devil’s Tower in Wyoming. There’s also a white house in the woods that looks an awful lot like the one where the little boy gets abducted in Close Encounters. Some are speculating that Disclosure Day is a spiritual sequel – in the same way 1982’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was a spiritual sequel to Close Encounters itself. But that’s not enough for me. You may recall how Star Wars hit theatres about six months before Close Encounters back in the 1970s. I was so jazzed by the combination of these two event movies in close proximity, the combined impact literally changed my life. But looking back, I realize just CE3K on its own would have been a game-changer for me. It sparked my imagination. The characters were so compelling. It made me fall deeper in love with movies. It felt plausible. And it made me . . . optimistic. The message that aliens were here to help us, not hurt us, ran counter to every other alien flick I’d seen by that point. I see more movies at home these days than in the theatres. But a Spielberg film about aliens is a premise I'm not able to resist – and if it’s a sequel, my prayers will have been answered. Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 33 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly graphic-novel group.
My report from abroad
By Dan Brown Just got back from a couple weeks in Europe. Consider this my report from the Continent on the state of the union of as far as overseas comic shops go. Sure, I got plenty of high culture in my diet: I saw Michelangelo’s David in Florence and spent time in Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum. But as I’ve said before in this space, comic emporiums are my happy place, so I checked out as many European specialty retailers as I could find. Here’s what I saw. And yes, this is a totally subjective list based on my observations alone. The first type of vendor is those that aren’t all that different from the fine establishments here in London, Ontario that sell comics, gaming supplies, and collectibles. Zurich’s Kabooom belongs to this category. It didn’t take a lot of imagination to picture this merchant, not in Switzerland, but Canada. That’s because it features displays with the current DC and Marvel titles, all in English, as well as offerings from smaller publishers (eg. Dark Horse) represented in the same proportion to how they are featured in Canadian stores. There was also a gaming section with tables set up for playing RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons. These products are not at all different from the wares offered by L.A. Mood. I didn’t buy anything there since I can pick up North American comics at home, they would have just taken up valuable room in my already-bulging suitcase. The second kind is a slight (but also important) variation on the first type of vendor. These merchants look much like our homegrown stores, too. At Starshop in Rome, Marvel and DC were the main event. There were columns of Funko Pops piled from the floor to the ceiling. It was modern and bright, something like what a comic outlet built by Ikea would look like. The crucial distinction: Not a one of the comics is in English. So Italian Marvel fans would be reading Il Mortale Thor, not The Mortal Thor. And other readers would pick up Il Migliore del Mondo instead of World’s Finest from DC. The owner of Starshop explained to our little group of travelling sequential enthusiasts that domestic translations are more affordable. However, there is a group of diehards in nations such as Italy who prefer to enjoy the adventures of mainstream superheroes as they were written, in English, even though those versions cost three times as much. I bought half a dozen comics, titles like I Fantastici Quattro and Eccezionali X-Men. Comics Shop Keller in Zurich is an example of the third kind we came across. They focus on European characters and creators. The top floor of this homey store contained books in German, the French titles were in the basement. I probably got the most out of this joint because the products are so different from what I’m used to seeing in the Forest City. I bought a French book about Gallipoli with anthropomorphic dogs in place of Australian soldiers – I don’t even know if it exists in English. Also in French, I got a Blake & Mortimer collection, plus a forlorn Jack Kirby New Gods anthology. In German, I got the final, unfinished Tintin book, Tim und die Alpha-Kunst. There are also bookstores in Europe much like our own Indigo stores, with large sections devoted to graphic-novels and comic anthologies. In the Netherlands there was a standard merch pop-up in the cineplex where we saw The Mandalorian & Grogu. So that’s what jumped out at me on my European sojourn. I’m heartened that the comic industry, based on what I saw, has plenty of supporters judging by the numerous businesses feeding their habit. Have you ever visited a comic shop in another country? What was it like, compared to the ones here? I would love to hear all about it in the comments! Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 33 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly Graphic-Novel Group book club.
Ted Turner Invented CNN, and Changed My Life
By Dan Brown CNN is partly responsible for me becoming a journalist. Which means Ted Turner – the hard-driving businessman who launched the Atlanta-based all-news channel in 1980 – is partly responsible for me being a journo. Turner died Wednesday at age 87. Media reports described how, among other accomplishments, he was the driving force behind CNN. Keep in mind, the 24-hour news format was a novel one at the time it began broadcasting. The only all-news outfit I can recall predating CNN was the CKO radio network here in Ontario. As a little kid, it took me a while – even though I delivered The London Free Press in the 1970s – to wrap my head around the idea of a radio station, then a TV channel, airing nothing but news. Who would watch that? Well, I started watching CNN when my family got a grey-market satellite dish. A lot of rural families, like ours, were early adopters since they didn’t have access to cable. There wasn’t a lot to watch out in Coldstream. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, that huge black metal dish was my gateway to the world, introducing me to channels like MTV, Comedy Central, and HBO. Then, with its coverage of the first Gulf War in 1990-91, CNN became must-watch TV. Such CNN journalists as Peter Arnett refused to leave Baghdad before the U.S. assault on Iraq, and as has been stated elsewhere, often brought viewers the news of attacks and military maneuvers before they were announced by the Pentagon. For an audience raised on traditional network coverage, it was an exciting time. The channel’s derisive nickname, Chicken Noodle News, disappeared quickly after that conflict. I had been a “news junkie” up until then, reading every newspaper and magazine I could find. CNN opened up a whole new world of possibilities to me. If the plucky news channel had a personality like a human being, it was a can-do, anti-establishment vibe. By the time of the O.J. Simpson trial a few years later, I was a full-fledged CNN fan and well into my two years at Ryerson University’s journalism school. I loved CNN’s little quirks, like how there were multiple on-air personalities with alliterative names, including Catherine Crier, Sherri Sylvester and Valeria Voss. I landed an interview with chief political correspondent Candy Crowley a few years into my career, and she conceded Ted Turner might’ve shown a preference for journalists with monikers like his own. Eventually, my career took a bit of a left turn from newspapers and I had the opportunity to work for a satellite network myself. As a senior writer, I toiled at NewsWorld International, headquartered in Toronto, which served world news to an audience of American viewers. The rumour at the time was then-defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld had one of the TVs in his Pentagon office tuned to us. Now, readers perusing this column in 2026 may feel that CNN is too slanted in its coverage. If you want to slam the network Turner started, go ahead. I don’t watch it much now, haven’t for years. The change in my viewing habits has nothing to do with CNN being left wing or right wing. It has to do with the proliferation of panel shows – CNN is more like a chat network than one that sends reporters out into the field to find interesting stories in far-flung locations. Most of its programming involves partisan talking heads. In the old days, panelists on those shows were typically experts who covered a specific subject matter. They have been replaced over the years by experts who don’t want to describe reality as it is, but instead seek to create a new reality by means of their punditry. Recently, I saw someone on X saying CNN should launch a panel-free version of its service. That is actually what it did at the outset and for many years after, time enough for me to fall in love with broadcast journalism as deeply as I already was with print. Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 33 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly Graphic-Novel Group.
The very best of FCBD 2026
By Dan Brown Free Comic Book Day came and went on May 2. Before the annual giveaway unfolded at L.A. Mood, I published a preview of some of the freebies that were going to be handed out to customers. Now that the event has passed, I’ve had a bit of time to sort through the rest of the sampler comics I picked up on the weekend. Here are a few additional thoughts, including my very fave of the bunch! That would be Tales of a Gen-X Nothing, which comes from London creator Jeff McClinchey. It is a slick, entertaining mini-comic about . . . how to make mini-comics. The art is vivid. The writing is funny and crisp. Even better, it might inspire some youngster in Southwestern Ontario to try her or his hand at creating their own comic stories. You might recall in my preview column I mentioned how, among this year’s free comics, there was a strong theme of comic education. That is, as a group, the books handed out this year were designed to help new readers understand how the conventions of comics work – with the unabashed goal of making kids into fans. In his own eight-page, black-and-white sampler, McClinchey goes one additional step by showing readers how they can take an idea, then turn it into a piece of sequential art with all the requisite beats. “Hi, I’m Jeff and I make comics,” his cartoon self (who looks kinda like the Dude from The Big Lebowski) explains on the introductory page. McClinchey’s goal, he tells readers, is to “create a series of zines to encourage making comics.” Borrowing from comic pros like Brian Azzarello and using cinematic lingo (wide shot, full shot, close-up, et cetera), McClinchey gets into basic panel theory. “Pro tip: Ask creators how they create,” he advises in one square box with a block border. Tales of a Gen-X Nothing (a borrowed title that echoes Judy Blume, a Generation X touchstone if there ever was one) is clean and expressive. I’ve been collecting comics for decades but even I got excited by McClinchey’s advice. He also preaches patience, telling young creators not to try making an epic in the first go. “Give yourself a fighting chance!” he cautions. I look forward to future releases with more of McClinchey’s advice! Other notable FCBD titles include: Conan: Tides of the Tyrant King: It feels like there’s an FCBD tradition in recent years of publishing one freebie with an evocative cover featuring Conan. This year, it comes from Roberto de la Torre and shows our favourite barbarian baptized by a waterfall in which the bodies of recently dispatched enemies float. The Cimmerian: Kuthal of the Dusk: I recommend this one for the precise lines from artist Stevan Subic that put me in the mind of Esteban Marato. What is the difference between this title and the Conan comic mentioned above? The stories under the Cimmerian banner include more adult content with uncensored violence and sex. Flash Gordon: If you liked Princess Leia’s torture droid from the first Star Wars movie, you’ll dig this issue, which sees the storied pulp hero busting out of a prison on Planet Death manned by many-armed synthoids, who keep Flash docile with forced injections. Artist Will Conrad’s lines convey action better than almost every other creator involved with FCBD this spring. This one is jumping! Aquamanatee: Aimed at early readers (5-7 years of age), this DC joint is mostly a goof on all of Aquaman’s previous sidekicks. There’s Meg the Megaladon, Super Squid, Clawdius the Lobster and on and on. I guess no one takes Aquaman as a superhero seriously, so why should kids? Let's start the scorn early! I would love to read your mini-reviews of this year’s FCBD releases, and hear your thoughts about the upcoming stories being teed up in these mini-comics. Meet you in the comments! Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 33 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly Graphic-Novel Group book club.
POP-CULTURE COLUMN: The Bad News Bears are Stoics
By Dan Brown You may not remember the ending to The Bad News Bears, released 50 years ago this month. You might have faded, jumbled memories of the film about a group of rough-and-tumble kids playing baseball concluding with an on-field celebration in which 11-year-olds dump bottles of beer all over each other. Maybe you’ve even convinced yourself the ending was a happy one, that it ends with an impromptu party on a dusty baseball diamond in Southern California because the scrappy misfits beat the odds to triumph over a squad of bullies and their bully coach. You’d be wrong. The Bad News Bears ends with the lovable losers – losing. And that’s the main reason it earned its place in movie history. If Bad News Bears ended with a final-inning, come-from-behind victory, as so many baseball movies do, it likely wouldn’t be considered a masterwork, a classic of the genre. Nor would it have spawned two sequel features, a network TV series and a 2005 remake. If you don’t think I’m being straight with you, go back and watch it again with adult eyes. It’s true the motley crew do slowly turn their losing season around, performing well enough to secure a spot in the last game of the summer for a chance at the youth-league title. But, like the title character in Rocky (which came out a few months later in 1976), the Bears don’t have what it takes to win. They fall short. Like Rocky, they have to settle for a moral victory. So The Bad News Bears is a movie about losers made for losers – which is most of us, because life isn’t about winning big. It’s about doing your stoic best in the face of unfairness. “Everybody on my team gets a chance to play,” Coach Buttermaker (Walter Matthau) snarls in the final inning of the climactic game. Not just the elite players. Not just the stars. All of us. I’ve always thought there’s an even more instructive scene about the spirit in which Bad News Bears was made, earlier in the story. It’s when Tanner Boyle (he’s the kid famous for his bigoted rant against pretty much every minority) gets a burrito at the same stand as Timmy Lupus, his fellow Bear. The pathetic Lupus attracts the attention of two players from the rival Yankees, who steal the cap off his head, then put it back on him after they’ve filled it with ketchup and other condiments. Tanner sees all of this from another picnic table, and even though he considers Lupus a “booger-eating spaz” he rises to his weaker teammate’s defence. Tanner smashes his burrito into the one bully’s face to avenge Lupus’s honour. But that’s as far as he gets, because the bully – who is a much larger boy – then stuffs Tanner into a green plastic garbage can, ending the fight. On one level, it’s just a funny scene. On another, it’s an example of stoicism. There’s no way Tanner was going to get the better of the bullies, but he fights on regardless. He knows he’s going to lose, he’s fully aware he doesn’t have the size to beat them, but when he sees injustice he presses on anyway. In this way, Tanner is an illustration of Ernest Hemingway’s dictum that, “The world breaks everyone, and afterward many are strong at the broken places.” You may think of it as a dumb 1970s comedy about sports and kids and baseball and swearing and drinking, but the real message is simply, “Be stoic” We can all do that – just like the Bears – when the odds are stacked against us, no matter that we’re grinders rather than marquee players. In common with other classic sports pictures, it’s a metaphor for this crazy thing we’re all trying to get through called life. Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 33 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly Graphic-Novel Group.
GRAPHIC-NOVEL COLUMN: Latest Volume of Palookaville is Classic Seth
By Dan Brown Palookaville 25 is classic Seth. The newest book from the father of Canada’s autobiographical comics school has three parts. It opens with the latest instalment in Nothing Lasts, based on Seth’s coming of age in Southwestern Ontario, then eventual move to Toronto. Next is a section about a sculpture Seth fashioned that sits by a bus stop just outside the Art Gallery of Guelph. It ends with Owen Moore, a fictional account of Dominion’s most celebrated painter, which originally appeared in serial form in the Walrus. You may know by now how Dominion is sort of like Seth’s version of the Marvel Universe. It’s a Canadian city of the 1950s that never existed, yet which we can all recall fondly. It’s the playground for the comic creator's imagination and nostalgic impulses. You might think, because the bookends of this volume are one true story and one fictional tale, that they have little in common. Fact is, they are both equally constructed. Nothing Lasts kicks off with an affair Seth had with an older woman at a Tilbury restaurant where he worked in his teen summers. It then transitions into a reflection on how he felt when he first moved to Toronto in 1980. The mostly small, cramped panels narrating his doomed puppy love give way to larger, more open frames that reflect the vibe of the big city. And funny thing, when Seth relocates to the Big Smoke he stops obsessing about his summer romance, if you can call it that, as he falls for Canada’s biggest city. What I especially appreciate about this chapter of his life story is the manifold footnotes he includes at the bottom of each page. They remind me of the explanatory material Marvel was notorious for packing into its comics in the 1970s to keep readers informed of connections they may have missed between other characters and plots. He also points out that the act of putting his memories on the page is fraught with complications. “I remember nothing,” he mentions at a crucial point in his narrative. He questions his own recollections at another point by saying, “It’s a muddle.” He contradicts himself, expands and explains his memories, revises them, then invites the reader to stop reading if they don't like his fragmented style. “Here, in this comic memoir, I can ramble as much as I want. Digress to my heart’s content,” he concludes. “And if you don’t like it, well, don’t let the door hit you on your way out.” In Owen Moore, which is made up of 10 one-page chapters, Seth creates an equally detailed history – of a person who never existed. Moore, we learn, painted Dominion street scenes. He had little success when he was alive, and by the time he had been discovered he was too far gone in his mental decline to provide answers for eager interviewers. Seth informs readers that Moore grew up in Corktown, a satellite community that was eventually swallowed up as Dominion grew. The character became an artist after experiencing a “vision of cosmic mundane perfection” while sick as a child in 1909. He grew up to be a Sunday painter who worked as a streetcar ticket taker during the week and was devoted to his indifferent mother. “He never married,” the narrative voice tells us, “That is, if his diaries are to be trusted.” None of this is real or true, of course. Just the result of Seth’s pure imaginings. Seth sets up Owen Moore as Dominion’s most famous artist, but the truth is much more complicated than that because it’s Seth himself, and not any of the characters he’s created, who is the most famous artist to come from Dominion. Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 33 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly Graphic-Novel Group.
