BY HEIDI MACDONALD
Robert Kirkman’s Secret History of Comics has been airing Mondays on AMC with a full parade of comics personalities and experts (including The Beat’s own Jeffrey Trexler) looking at comics history, and episodes covering Marvel, Wonder Woman, Superman and comics after 9/11.
Next Monday’s episode, airing on 12/4, is called “The Color of Comics” and it looks at the rise and fall of Milestone Media. Starting in 1992, the company, founded by the late Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan, Derek Dingle and Michael Davis presented a line of comics featuring superheroes of color. Teen superhero Static proved to be the breakout Milestone star, but all the characters found an audiance, mixing authentic voices with rsing stars as creators.
As with many long gone comics companies, the story of Milestone has ups and downs, twists and turns. And it’s poised for a (controversial) return sometime next year as Earth M, a new branch of the DCU, with new characters as well the returning Milestone stalwarts. Excerpts from the Secret History episode were even shown at the Milestone panel at NYCC in October, and Kirkman made an apperance on the panel.
To get you warmed up, here’s an exclusive clip from the episode, in which Cowan, Davis, and former DC publisher Jenette Kahn talk about Icon and Rocket.
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“What I loved about the script when I read it is it didn’t feel like I had to know who Thurgood Marshall was in order to enjoy the story,” said Chadwick Boseman of what attracted him to the lead role in Marshall.
“Once I saw that, I was like, now I have a certain amount of freedom to explore who was he in this time period,” the star of the upcoming Black Panther added of his 1940-set performance as the future Supreme Court Justice.
Onstage at Deadline’s 7th annual The Contenders awards-season event at the DGA Theater, Boseman was joined by Marshall director Reginald Hudlin, producer Paula Wagner and songwriter Diane Warren.
The Open Roads-distributed Marshall takes place 14 years before the lawyer’s barrier breaking Brown v. Board of Education case, with Boseman’s Marshall in Connecticut trying to defend a black chauffeur accused of raping his white employer. With a justice system that is stacked against him even speaking in court, Marshall has to combat prejudice and the insidious manner it infects almost all.
Released on October 17, the film also features Sterling K. Brown, Josh Gad, Kat Hudson and Dan Stevens, and James Cromwell.
Take a look at the video above to see more of my conversation with the core creatives of Marshall and how this historically powerful drama came to be.
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Other multiple film nominees include ‘Detroit’ (up for four awards) and double nominees ‘Roman J. Israel, Esq.,’ ‘Everything, Everything,’ ‘Crown Heights,’ ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ and ‘Mudbound.’
by THR Staff
The nominations for the 49th NAACP Image Awards were announced Monday, with Marshall, Get Out and Girls Trip dominating in the film categories, receiving five nominations each.
Additionally, Marshall star Chadwick Boseman will vie for entertainer of the year, and the film’s “Stand Up for Something” original song, performed by Common and Andra Day and written by Diane Warren, is up for two awards.
Other multiple film nominees include Detroit (up for four awards) and double nominees Roman J. Israel, Esq.; Everything, Everything; Crown Heights; Thor: Ragnarok; and Mudbound.
Marshall, Get Out, Girls Trip, Detroit and Roman J. Israel, Esq. will face off in the outstanding motion picture category.
In the best motion picture actor category, Roman J. Israel, Esq.‘s Denzel Washington will compete against Algee Smith (Detroit), Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out), Boseman (Marshall) and Elba (The Mountain Between Us).
Marshall is additionally nominated in the categories of best supporting actor (Sterling K. Brown), supporting actress (Keesha Sharp) and directing (Reginald Hudlin).
Get Out is also nominated for best supporting actor (Lil Rel Howery), and Jordan Peele earned noms in both the writing and directing categories.
Girls Trip received two supporting actress noms (for Regina Hall and Tiffany Haddish), one for writing (Kenya Barris and Tracy Oliver) and one for directing (Malcolm D. Lee).
In terms of individual nominees, Mary J. Blige and Jay-Z lead with five mentions each, followed by Bruno Mars, Issa Rae, Kendrick Lamar and SZA with four apiece. Charlie Wilson, Elba and Ledesi received three noms.
Jay-Z will contend in the entertainer of the year category with Boseman, Mars, Rae, Ava DuVernay and Chance the Rapper.
From a distributor perspective, Universal, which released Get Out and Girls Trip, has 10 noms, followed by Detroit‘s Annapurna and Marshall‘s Open Road Films, with five mentions each.
The 2018 NAACP Image Awards, hosted by Anthony Anderson, will air live Monday, Jan. 15, at 9 p.m. ET on TV One.
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