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August 25, 2017

HELLBOY’s Angel of Death Comes to Life in This Intense Costume

What does it take to make a creature that represents Hellboy‘s personal death? Glad you asked because Amanda shared details of making her seven foot replica of the Angel of Death from

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Published on August 25, 2017 16:00

The One Detail You Missed About THE LAST JEDI’s Star Destroyer!

It’s hard to believe, but the next installment in the Star Wars saga—The Last Jedi—is less than four months away and we still haven’t seen a new trailer. That’s an unusual amount of restraint out of Lucasfilm and Disney, but that intentional drought of content may be coming to an end soon. It’s probably not a coincidence that The Last Jedi‘s Porgs, toys, and even Star Destroyers have been thrust into the spotlight. But there may be more to the First Order’s fearsome ships than we initially believed. Today’s Nerdist News is consulting the Jedi Holocron for details about what it could mean for The Last Jedi!


There are potential spoilers ahead for Star Wars: The Last Jedi! It’s not yet time for the Jedi to end, so you may want to avoid this theory. You’ve been warned!



Join host and Hammerhead Corvette pilot, Jessica Chobot, as she takes a look at the next generation of First Order technology: the AT-M6 walker and the Dreadnought warship. While the AT-M6 is definitely a step up from the classic AT-AT models, the Dreadnought dwarfs the biggest Star Destroyers from the original trilogy. It’s a massive creation, but it may also be hiding a key detail in plain sight. In a new interview with StarWars.com, Lucasfilm Design Supervisor Kevin Jenkins revealed that The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson specifically requested that the new battleship have a flat surface with gun turrets on it.



Admittedly, it’s a cool design. But if Johnson framed the flat surface as a function of the story, then it seems likely that the Resistance will be making the first live-action space walk in the franchise’s history. Until now, only characters on Star Wars‘ animated series have attempted to go out into space with just a life support space suit. We’d also guess that this spacewalk is something Finn and his new friends will be heavily involved in. Perhaps the only way to destroy the Dreadnought is send a team under the ship to sabotage it.


What do you think about our Dreadnought theory? Share your thoughts in the comment section below!


Curious About What Else is Happening with The Last Jedi? Read these:

Could PORGS (yes, porgs) be the key to The Last Jedi?
Here’s how Star Wars may keep Leia’s legacy alive.
And speaking of ships, here’s Kylo Ren’s newest!

Images: Lucasfilm

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Published on August 25, 2017 15:00

PHASMA Author Shares MAD MAX and STAR WARS Reading Playlist

Force Friday II is almost upon us. In addition to The Last Jedi toys galore, Star Wars fans will also get to dive into new stories as part of Journey to Star Wars: The Last Jedi publishing program. One of those tales is all about Captain Phasma, the shiny silver enigma introduced in The Force Awakens. Delilah Dawson’s Phasma goes into the character’s history and how she encountered the First Order and left her homeworld. And to help put you in the mindset of the kickass warrior that is Phasma, Dawson has shared a reading playlist stacked with selections from Mad Max: Fury Road and Star Wars films.


As soon as you open the book on September 1 and start reading, press play and let the music of Junkie XL, John Williams, and Michael Giacchino fill your ears:



If you can’t wait and you need to digest some of the book right this very minute, StarWars.com has an excerpt detailing Phasma’s first meeting with a representative of the First Order. She runs into none other than Brendol Hux, the father of General Armitage Hux and the man responsible for creating the First Order’s trooper training program. His ship crashes on Parnassos, Phasma’s home. The first paragraph from the excerpt:



“Phasma and her warriors began making preparations the moment they saw the explosion high overhead. As the ship’s remains streaked across the sky, Phasma tracked it with her quadnocs, taking careful note of the direction in which it fell. At the very least, ships like this could be pillaged; at most, there was always a hope that they could be salvaged and used to get off-planet. No one alive had seen such ships do anything but fall and crash, but they were evidence of the larger galaxy beyond Parnassos, of a future that had been denied them. It was painful, living on such a treacherous planet with so many re­minders of the ease and technology that had once been taken for granted. At the very least, there would be metal, tech, clothes, medicines, food, and possibly working blasters scattered around what was left of the ship. These were the greatest riches in Phasma’s world.”


Just from that passage, you learn Phasma came to the First Order with that name, that she’s already a warrior, and that she’s from a primitive setting. This brief glimpse illustrates how she’s gone from someone who doesn’t even have access to technology to someone who has position and power in the First Order. I’m guessing she’s a fast learner. And that also maybe she saves Brendol’s life.


Read the entire excerpt at StarWars.com.


Are you surprised to learn Phasma comes from the equivalent of a small, off-the-grid town? Tell us your Phasma theories in the comments.


Need More Star Wars? Try These Stories on For Size:

Could PORGS (yes, porgs) be the key to The Last Jedi?
Here’s how Star Wars may keep Leia’s legacy alive.
And speaking of ships, here’s Kylo Ren’s newest!


Images: Lucasfilm/Disney, Del Rey

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Published on August 25, 2017 14:30

VOLTRON: LEGENDARY DEFENDER Returns to Comics This Fall (Exclusive)

Earlier this month, the extremely shortened third season of Voltron: Legendary Defender premiered on Netflix, along with word that the fourth season is coming on October 13th. But that’s not the only good news for fans of the revived series. We here at Nerdist are thrilled to exclusively announce that Lion Forge Press has a new Voltron: Legendary Defender comic book series launching this fall from two of the series’ writers.



Tim Hedrick and Mitch Iverson will co-write the new Voltron: Legendary Defender comic, which will be drawn by Jung Gwan Yoo and Rubine. It’s not currently clear when the comic will take place within the timeline of the show, but the new series will be released bi-weekly to comic stores. And that means the opening two-part tale, “The Pilgrimage,” will have both installments out in the month of October.


Lion Forge has also passed along a brief description of the first issue, which throws the spotlight on Hunk:


“Voltron responds to a distress call, and discovers a group of alien settlers on a mining planet under attack by Galra. While Voltron escorts the convoy of rescued settlers to their new home, Hunk finds himself the center of attention and our team encounters the first challenge: a horrifying monster that requires an unusual solution.”



Additionally, we are exclusively debuting several covers from the first five issues of the series, which you can see in our gallery below.


Are you excited about the new Voltron: Legendary Defender comic? Form the head in the comment section below and let us know what you’re thinking!


Need More Voltron in Your Life?

We’ve got a clip that explains its origins and history.
Here’s a look at Prince Lotor.
And finally, the 6 things to look forward to in season 3.

Images: Lion Forge Comics


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Published on August 25, 2017 13:30

Is a Night Queen Coming to GAME OF THRONES?

Editor’s Note: the following post contains potential spoilers and tons of speculation about Game of Thrones. Don’t read on if you don’t want to know and don’t say we didn’t warn you (because we did! Just now)!


The night is dark and full of terrors — but what if the worst has yet to come? Sure, Game of Thrones has revealed its Big Bad to the rest of the Realm, and now the game is truly on. However epic and menacing the Night King and his horde may be, it doesn’t mean things aren’t going to get much, much worse in the final six episodes of the series. But how much worse? We’re talking evil lady walker worse. Like Cersei as the Night Queen worse.


It would take a lot to get there but, frankly, not that much and if it happened it not only would be batshit insane, it would elevate Cersei and the evil of the series further than ever before. But how? And who the heck is the Night Queen?



First thing’s first, the Night Queen is a legendary figure, which makes the legitimacy (and literalness) of her existence sketchy at best. According to lore, the Night Queen was an alleged White Walker or reanimated corpse that, after capturing the heart of the 13th Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch (the man who would become the Night King, an alleged Brandon of House Stark), ruled the North alongside her lover at the Nightfort for 13 years before being defeated in the Long Night. But if you follow the bran-is-all-brans theory—meaning most legends are more likely warnings Bran sent forward before getting trapped in the body of the Night King, reverberating through time—the existence of the Night Queen in legend could mean she’s not something from the past, but something that will happen in the future.


After all, as the legend goes, it wasn’t until Brandon the Breaker, the King of Winter—another Brandon of House Stark, ahem—and Joramun, the King-Beyond-the-Wall (which sure does sound a LOT like Tormund, doesn’t it? Just saying…), joined forces to take down the Night King and his undead queen and ultimately end the Long Night.


To accomplish this, Cersei needs to die—or at least be captured by the Night King and reanimated with ice blue eyes, meaning Cersei must either head north to the Wall or, gulp, ol’ King Blue Eyes will need to make it to King’s Landing. Based on Dany’s vision of the Red Keep decimated and covered in snow (back in season 2), it feels safe to assume that he will make it farther south than we ever anticipated.



And honestly, if this is the plan, it would make sense that Game of Thrones never did the Lady Stoneheart storyline; it would diminish the impact of an undead Cersei being raised from the dead to wreak havoc upon the realm of the living. Lady Stoneheart, filled with vengeance and violence, is certainly scary, but you know what’s scarier? If Cersei was the one doing it, her lust for power and protection of her family at all costs is MUCH stronger and more nefarious than Catelyn Stark ever was, upping the ante that much further—a dread that looms far larger, elevated by the mind of a viciously undead person with a vendetta-and-a-half to motivate her to lay waste to Westeros and beyond.


Which is exactly why we need it to happen. Because, you know what’s scarier than Cersei and/or the Night King separately? THOSE TWO TEAMING UP AND BECOMING A DOUBLE-HEADED UNDEAD MONSTER RIDING ATOP AN ICE DRAGON, that’s what.


The stakes need to be raised after this largely exciting but also not terribly great season. The stakes are gone, and even with the dread of The Wall coming down, we now know the easy way to solve the problem of the dead: destroy the Night King and everyone falls. But if Cersei gets reanimated by the Night King after the valonqar (Jaime, we’re lookin’ at you, kid) murders her, it could be even more impactful than Lady Stoneheart (and a great reason as to why they never used that trick). Because she’ll have her dead kids, Ned Stark, and everyone else who’s died in King’s Landing (and elsewhere) at her side with vengeance in their undead hearts — with an ice dragon to help her end the Realm of the living.



And that would be truly the most terrifying level-up of all.


But what do you think? Let us know in the comments below.


WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON IN GAME OF THRONES?

Conleth Hill insists that Varys is not a merman.
Every question we need answered by the Game of Thrones finale.
No, Jon Snow’s Longclaw did not blink!


Images: HBO


Alicia Lutes is the managing editor, host of Fangirling, and chief khaleesi of House Nerdist. Find her on Twitter!

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Published on August 25, 2017 13:00

Queens Of The Stone Age Reinvent Themselves on VILLAINS (Review)

In the universe of Queens of the Stone Age, the only constant is change. They keep one foot firmly planted in rock ‘n’ roll while pivoting into new styles and tones. It’s not dressed up or overblown, it’s just the right amount of swagger, sex, and sizzle. With Villains, the band’s seventh studio album, there’s a heavy influence on upbeat, danceable tempos. Frontman Josh Homme’s recent work with Iggy Pop on the stellar Post Pop Depression has clearly helped channel a new sound for the band as they ease into their legacy status. It’s a sexy record that wants you to shake your hips and bang your head. Those two things need not be mutually exclusive.



This album showcases one of Queens of the Stone Age’s greatest strengths: adaptability. As a band, they have evolved over the years while still keeping their core sound intact. Villains is firmly rooted in the band’s history; the riffs and harmonies on tracks like “Feet Don’t Fail Me” and “The Evil Has Landed” are vintage Queens. Heavy, guitar driven numbers find a rhythm and drive endlessly throughout Villains, but the record manages to sound like nothing the band has ever done before. It’s bigger, confidently filled with more hooks and harmonies than Homme has ever managed.


Perhaps this is related to the band’s first ever collaboration with producer Mark Ronson. Though Ronson usually brings a recognizable sound to his collaborations, his trademark vibes are muted here, allowing the band to explore funkier ideas on their own terms. If you are worried that Queens of the Stone Age would be delivering an “Uptown Funk” redux, rest easy, that’s not the case. There are some funky jams on this record though: lead single “The Way You Used To Do” is a stuttering guitar jam filled with hand claps and an upswing beat. But Queens of the Stone Age have always had an ear for grooves. For every “Feel Good Hit of the Summer” there was a “Make it Wit Chu” or “Leg of Lamb.” The only difference is that on Villains, Homme and crew are leaning hard into that groove. There are less stoner desert riffs, but more overt greaser attitude and Elvis inspired snarls.



Lyrically, this is Josh Homme at his dreamiest; his usual affinity for puns and darkness has given way to spacier musings. Instead of lyrics like “if ignorance is bliss then I’m in heaven now” we get “you could be young again, frozen in pose.” Perhaps Homme maxed out on shtick during Era Vulgaris because Villains relies less on humor and wit in song construction. When Homme croons “if ever your fortress caves, you’re always safe in mine,” you can feel him tapping into something new. But on the next track, “Head Like a Haunted House,” we get the line “with Xanadus and Xanadon’ts” which is 100% Queens of the Stone Age cheese.


There’s room to try something new while still peppering in what we’ve always loved about the band. “Fortress” sounds like a Bowie tribute. You can hear his influence in the guitar tones all throughout the album. The distortion is dialed back and spacier reverb and flangers take prominence along with icy synths. Homme also sings more than ever before. Previous records brought in guests, like frequent collaborator Mark Lanegan, to contribute harmonies, but Homme handles them himself here. Lanegan’s dark, brooding melodies are replaced with Homme’s high end and falceto. It gives the whole thing an upbeat ‘70s dance feel.



Villians sounds very little like any of Queens of the Stone Age’s previous records. It doesn’t have the stoner jams of Rated R or the hard edge of Songs for the Deaf, maybe signaling that the band has no interest in repeating themselves. Instead, we’re getting Queens of the Stone Age filtered through a ‘60s or 70’s kaleidoscope. In dark times, we don’t need an onslaught of angry riffs, we need to dance. Queens of the Stone Age get that.

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Published on August 25, 2017 12:00

GAME OF THRONES’ Most Exciting Season Has Been Its Worst (But We Know How to Fix It)

Game of Thrones seventh season started with one of the most powerful scenes in show history. It looked like retribution for the Red Wedding would be limited to Arya killing Walder Frey, so watching her poison those responsible exceeded even our wildest expectations. Unfortunately that incredible scene was not a harbinger of things to come, because while this season has arguably been Game of Thrones‘ most exciting, it has also been its worst.



The show’s creators have made plenty of mistakes over the years (some major), but these bad decisions and episodes of poor judgment felt more like swing-and-a-miss-es, not bona fide laziness. Through the first 60 episodes, only two things stood out as being either unforgivably inane or bad TV tropes: Jaime and Bronn’s absurd plot to sneak into Dorne, and a lot of “The Battle of the Bastards.” They stood out because of how rare those illogical moments were from the show.


But poor writing has defined this current season, with a consistency of characters acting irrationally when convenient for the plot. When Robb Stark was an idiot and broke his sacred oath to Walder Frey, that was Robb the character being dumb, not the writers. When Jon decided to go hunting with a tiny force for a wight, despite what he’d experienced at Hardhome, it was upsetting because it didn’t ring true to his character. They didn’t even take horses. They didn’t take one horse. Stark men do stupid things because they are naive, not because they’re morons.


But the problems with this season go far beyond characters making illogical decisions; the normally stellar writing, honesty, and pacing of the show have fallen short too. The list of problems is long…



NO SENSE OF SPACE OR TIME

Easily the biggest complaint this season has been the penchant of characters to travel huge distances in what feels like a few hours or days, when those journeys should–and used to–take weeks or months. The show’s exact timeline has always been nebulous, but it wasn’t hard to understand that scenes within episodes could be weeks apart, and substantial stretches time usually passed between episodes. That started to fall apart in season six when Varys seemingly traveled back and forth across the world like he had his own Learjet. We all opted to let this one slide, confident the timeline was still consistent and they were just skipping over his travels. (Plus, he’s secretly a merman.)


But ignoring a questionable timeline has been impossible this year. An entire Dothraki horde sailed to Westeros and surprised an army from one scene to the next, an army that itself marched hundred of miles in an instant. The Iron Fleet sailed from King’s Landing around the south of Westeros to Casterly Rock on the opposite side like they crossed the street. Jon traveled from Winterfell to Dragonstone, then back to the Wall, like he took a spaceship. Or at least a supersonic raven.


The sense of space and time the show took years cultivating–it used to take full seasons before two armies came together–has been absolutely thrown out the window a la Bran. Neither exist now, so the writers can cram more plot in. Euron needs a thousand ships so he can be a new powerful Cersei ally? Boom. In–at most–a few months time, he got his wish, despite him not having the men or resources on the Iron Islands to do so.


When time and geography are ignored because the writers don’t want to deal with them, it exhausts your suspension of disbelief. Some defend the show by mocking viewers who accept magic, dragons, and ice zombies, but not fast travel. I’ll believe in dragons, but not in ones that can apparently fly a thousand miles-per-hour, which is only slightly faster than the quick ravens of Maester Plotconvenience.



LACK OF CONSEQUENCES/FAN SERVICE

There’s a misconception that Game of Thrones is special because lots of characters die. But what has always made it great has been that it tells an interesting, honest story. And in this kind of story, people would logically die all the time. Ned Stark did dumb things and lost his head over it. It sucked, it was painful, but it was honest. No one wanted to see Oberyn die either, but his desire for vengeance made him vulnerable. There’s a reason those two deaths didn’t feel gratuitous and had such an impact.


And the show had another one of those awful, sad, perfect deaths set up during the Loot Train Attack. Bronn’s desire for wealth put him in the middle of a dragon attack. He lost his sack of gold, and if he was going to ever get his castle he needed to get to the scorpion bolt. All of this took place as a distraught Tyrion watched the carnage.


Here it was–one of our favorites was going to die because of his vulnerability, and Tyrion was going to watch it happen and know he was culpable. I was devastated watching it develop. Then Bronn simply jumped out of the way at the last second… yay? Then he saved another fan favorite, Jaime, from certain death, so… double yay?


No one we knew or cared about died during a dragon attack. But perhaps a wight army could wipe out a few beloved characters? Not quite. Yes, Thoros of Myr died in “Beyond the Wall,” but he was easily the least important member of the seven characters featured in this death-promising sequence. A few nameless, faceless redshirts, who couldn’t get a single line of dialogue in an extra long episode that might have made us feel anything for them also bit it, but the people we love were fine thanks to a deus ex dragona.


Tormund wasn’t dragged under the water, Jorah didn’t fall off Drogon. In the past major characters couldn’t survive weddings and trials, but now they can survive dragon and zombie attacks, The show didn’t get to be the most popular in the world because it gave viewers what they “want.” Who wanted to see “hold the door?” I’ll never recover from that, but it bothers me less than Jorah, one of my favorite characters, being rendered invincible.



UNEARNED CHARACTER CHOICES BORN OUT OF PLOT SERVICE

Jon and Tormund saw the army of the dead at Hardhome, but somehow thought they were capable of capturing one single wight away from a hundred thousand dead soldiers. That makes them look like two of the dumbest people alive. But did they suddenly take crazy pills? No, the show needed them to get a wight so they could justify the upcoming big meeting in King’s Landing, and they wanted to create a scenario where Daenerys would come to the Wall so the Night King could kill a dragon–in other word, plot convenience.


Then there’s the conflict between Sansa and Arya in Winterfell, which relies on the two of them not taking five minutes to talk about what has happened to each of them, which would make clear to both that Baelish was playing them. But the show needs a Northern conflict beyond “all the Lords of the North are big babies,” so it needs the Stark girls to act like weirdos.


Want to keep everyone on that rock alive? Just make sure the wights never check the strength of the ice. Need Daenerys to lose her ships? The Unsullied can forget to check for an attacking fleet in broad daylight, and Euron can sneak up on veteran Iron Born sailors and capture his niece and Ellaria (because he inexplicably knew the one ship they were on). The massive Dothraki horde can sneak up on the Lannisters because no army alive has lookouts or scouts anymore.


Think this is harsh? I’m using the show’s own established rules. When Robb captured Jaime he did that by sending five thousand men to their deaths as a dummy force, all so he could fool the Lannisters. That was the cost of a sneak attack in Westeros. Now you just snap your fingers and say, “Abracadabra–bring me to the Reach,” shocking everyone. Viewers included.



Add to all of that other absurd scenes and decisions this year–one scorpion bolt for three dragons; not keeping Jorah for observation for even a day, then him touching everyone; Jaime and Bronn swimming a mile under water, the Night King somehow having a massive chain collection–and the show is starting to feel dumb. Worse, it’s starting to feel lazy, and nothing exemplified that like the development of Jon and Daenerys’ relationship.


What’s more, Game of Thrones is breaking the simplest of rule of storytelling: “Show, don’t tell.” They’ve stopped working on trying to earn these emotional connections between characters and the audience. (When they even bother with them, since the show has focused so much on rushing through plot it has abandoned the reason we care at all–the people involved.) That last scene with Jon and Daenerys, with its obvious romantic overtones, didn’t have honest emotional punch because the show didn’t earn it. Just because Davos or Tyrion said Jon had been making googly eyes at her didn’t make it true. We’re watching. We know that didn’t happen. You can’t just tell us it did and think that makes it so.


Think about the anguished final moments between Arya and the Hound, when she wouldn’t kill him even though he was begging for it. It’s one of the best scenes between characters with a complicated relationship, and they earned that moment by exploring their partnership for years. We wouldn’t have cared about Jaime and Brienne’s emotional goodbye when he sent her off with Oathkeeper if all we knew of their past was Bronn saying, “You two sure did become good friends on your travels we barely saw.” But now, after Jon and Daenerys had a few awkward conversations where she only insisted he bend the knee, we’re supposed to buy they are into each all of a sudden? Nope, that’s not how it works. You have to earn those moments.



And that’s the real problem with this season–it hasn’t earned anything. Characters don’t have to worry about physical distance, they just get there. Characters act stupidly not because they are, but so we can have conflict and impressive looking battles. People survive impossible odds because the show wants to make us happy, not because it was actually possible to escape. Two people fall in love because we’re told they did.


A lot of exciting, jaw-dropping things have happened this season, and yet it’s far and away been the worst season of the show. I don’t say that because I’m a “hater” or “never happy,” I say that as someone who loves and obsesses over this show, and does so because of how fantastic it has been. And that’s important to remember, because while this year’s problems have made it a bad season, that doesn’t mean Game of Thrones has always been bad like some claim. One season doesn’t undo all the great, powerful work of the first six. But if these problems continue into the eighth and final one it might.


Next season it needs to have its characters drive the plot and not vice versa, with logical, believable, honest motivations, who can still suffer real consequences no matter how hard they are for us to take. That’s why people love Game of Thrones, not great CGI during implausible battles. Hopefully in its final season the show remembers it has always earned greatness.


But what do you think? Are we way off? Has this season been good, or has it missed the mark? Share your thoughts in the comments below.


Images: HBO


WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING IN GAME OF THRONES?

The Nerdist staff casts Game of Thrones season finale predictions
This 250-foot tapestry depicts every episode of Game of Thrones
“Beyond the Wall” confirmed how Game of Thrones‘ dragons breathe fire

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Published on August 25, 2017 11:30

HELLBOY Funko POPs Are Sure to Raise Heck

Better make space on your overstuffed shelves collectable fans because once again Funko is here to make you part with your hard earned cash. After Mean Girls, Big Bang Theory, Sons of Anarchy, and pretty much every other popular property you can think of, they’re returning to their sequential storytelling roots with a brand new line of Pops inspired by cult classic comic Hellboy. Just in time for the new Neil Marshall helmed version of Hell’s Hero, this collection delivers a whole bunch of Mignola-verse goodness for fans of Big Red and the BPRD.


From a chibi rendering of Big Red to a more deep cut cutie with New York’s pulp hero/vigilante Lobster Johnson, Funko is really gunning for Hell (fan)boys everywhere with this collection of classic characters.



Raised from the depths of Hell by occult-loving Nazis, Hellboy was saved and brought up by his adopted father Professor Broom and became the heroic red-hued hero we know and love. Hellboy purists are covered with this classic rendering of the Hell-Demon with heart, complete with his signature trench coat and beloved revolver, “The Samaritan.”



For the collectivists out there, Funko has delivered the Hellboy chase POP!, Hellboy with Horns. This vinyl rarity showcases Big Red with some Tim Curry-in-Legend style headgear, a fun bit of fan service for those who love the comics.



The B.P.R.D.’s on-again off-again leader and powerful pyrokinetic, Liz Sherman, discovered her unusual skillset at age 10 and was taken in by the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense after accidentally leveling a city block with her fiery powers. Liz has her flame on in this rendition and she’s not here for any of your nonsense.



Langdon Everett Caul was an occult hobbyist and Victorian scientist before his curiosity ended with him becoming an amphibian humanoid called an Icthyo Sapien, though you probably know him as Abe. Hellboy’s regular collaborator and B.P.R.D. colleague, Abe Sapien is ready for field duty in a new look straying slightly from his usual Creature From The Black Lagoon-looking glory.



A hero is nothing without good villains and Funko has delivered those too, including none other than Rasputin himself. With a new comic book announced at SDCC, this deathless wizard is looking like a cutesy Crowley complete with some sleek inverted pentagram robes.



The starring lady of the upcoming Hellboy film, the Blood Queen, also has her own POP! figure now and she’s killing it with her triple raven-headed crown and tiny little skull-bearing hands. Nimue (her real name) will likely be a huge part of the new movie so expect this to be a POPular choice.



A cult pulp hero from the comics, Lobster Johnson lived a secret double life as a real vigilante in 1930s New York. A sometime Nazi fighter and all time badass, Lobster is known for his violent tactics and ability to end paranormal threats. Looking sinister in his trademark goggles, Lobster Johnson is a must for hardcore Hellboy fans.


With the movie on the way these couldn’t come at a better time. But which one will you be grabbing? And which of your beloved Hellboy characters did Funko not include? Hit up the comments and let us know!


Images: Funko



More Hellboy!



A comics history of the Blood Queen
Mike Mignola on killing his darling
Everything we know about the Hellboy reboot
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Published on August 25, 2017 11:00

Ireland Has 250-Foot GAME OF THRONES Tapestry Featuring Every Episode

This Sunday, Game of Thrones’ penultimate season will wrap up and leave us dying (not as literally) for the final, six-episode season to arrive. But even after it’s gone, George R.R. Martin‘s epic fantasy series turned TV show is going to be remembered for elevating the genre with its unforgettable characters and twists. It’s already immortalized in the very place much of it was shot — we’ll be able to relive Game of Thrones’ most memorable moments with a 250 foot-plus tapestry in Ireland.


Via Entertainment Weekly, every episode of Game of Thrones has been incorporated into an incredibly impressive tapestry, on display in Northern Ireland at the Ulster Museum in Belfast. According to Ireland.com, the tapestry was created to celebrate the series, which has been partially filmed in Ireland since the very beginning. Almost every major moment from the story has been accounted for, from Ned Stark’s untimely fate at the Sept of Baelor, to the Red Wedding, and even the Battle of the Bastards.


A new section of the tapestry has been added for every episode of season, including this sequence that depicts Lady Olenna Tyrell’s final moments and the Lannister army’s disastrous battle against Daenerys and her dragon:



Each illustration was hand drawn before being recreated digitally to map out a weaving guide. From there, expert weavers used a Jacquard loom while incorporating Northern Ireland linen and the fabrics/textiles from the show’s costumes. It’s straight-up majestic, but you don’t have to travel to Ireland to appreciate its beauty. The entire thing can be seen on Ireland.com, along with a selection of music from the series and context for each scene.


What do you think about the Game of Thrones tapestry? Weave your thoughts in the comment section below!


Images: Ireland.com


Need More Thrones Before the Season Finale?

Breaking down the controversial Bran/Night King theory.
How fast those Dragons really had to fly in “Beyond the Wall.”
What can we learn from the Season 7 finale photos?


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Published on August 25, 2017 05:00

August 24, 2017

Nerdist Podcast: Michael Cudlitz

Michael Cudlitz (The Walking Dead, Southland) talks to Chris about being married for over 30 years, raising kids and how he got into acting. He also talks about working on 90210, his time on Southland and what it was like when he first got the part of Abraham on The Walking Dead!


Image: Jamie McCarthy / Getty


The Walking Dead: The Complete Seventh Season is available now on DVD, Blu-ray and Digital HD!

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Published on August 24, 2017 18:15

Chris Hardwick's Blog

Chris Hardwick
Chris Hardwick isn't a Goodreads Author (yet), but they do have a blog, so here are some recent posts imported from their feed.
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