Day 1 of Pokemon Go Fest 2020 has wrapped up, but there’s still a lot happening in the game this weekend. The nefarious Team Go Rocket are taking over the second day of the Pokemon Go event, and they’ll have a few Shadow Legendaries in their possession. Here’s what you can expect.
Team Go Rocket Takeover
Team Go Rocket are making their presence felt during Day 2 of Pokemon Go Fest 2020. The villainous team will be appearing in their Rocket balloons and taking over PokeStops much more frequently than normal throughout the day, and all players–even those who haven’t purchased a Go Fest ticket–will have a chance to battle them.
Fittingly, the Pokemon Go Fest confetti raining down on the map will be replaced by Team Go Rocket confetti during Day 2. On top of that, you’ll be able to use Charged TMs to replace Frustration with a different move. This apparently will only be possible for a limited time during Team Go Rocket takeovers, so take advantage of the ability to do so while you can.
Shadow Articuno, Zapdos, And Moltres
Rocket grunts won’t be the only ones out in full force during Day 2 of Pokemon Go Fest 2020. Go Rocket Leaders Arlo, Cliff, and Sierra will also be making an appearance, and it seems they’ll have different lineups of Shadow Pokemon, including Shadow versions of the Legendary birds Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres. You can see each leader’s team below:
Cliff: Shadow Pinsir, Tyranitar, and Articuno
Sierra: Shadow Beldum, Houndoom, and Zapdos
Arlo: Shadow Mawile, Scizor, and Moltres
Team Rocket head honcho Giovanni will show up as well during Day 2, and he’ll likewise have a different lineup of Pokemon at his command. If you manage to defeat him, you’ll have a chance to catch his Shadow Persian.
Special Research
Players who have a Go Fest 2020 ticket will gain access to a new Special Research quest line during Day 2 called “Rocket Straight to Victory.” The Special Research will be available throughout the entire day of the event, from 10 AM to 8 PM local time, and will focus on driving back Team Go Rocket. Among the rewards you’ll receive for completing the Special Research quests are Pokemon that will be helpful in battle against the Rocket Leaders.
Additionally, Go Fest ticket holders will earn twice the normal amount of Stardust and Mystery Components for defeating Rocket grunts during the day. Niantic also teases that some “unwanted guests” may photobomb snapshots you take, and Professor Willow may discover the source of “great energy” that he was feeling during Day 1–perhaps the new Mythical Pokemon that was previously teased to be debuting during event. You’ll be able to follow updates about Team Rocket’s activities on Pokemon Go’s Twitter account and the Pokemon Go Fest virtual lounge.
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On Saturday evening of Comic-Con@Home, director/writer/pop culture mascot Kevin Smith held his annual An Evening With Kevin Smith panel, where he talked for an hour about his life, movies, and whatever. And he got bleeped (almost) every time he cursed, which was a lot.
In total, throughout the 57 minute and 41 second panel, Smith was bleeped a total of 113 times. If you’ve ever been to one of these events, you know that Smith doesn’t censor himself while talking. He lets the curses fly, and why shouldn’t he? He’s made a living crafting fantastically fun moments of dialogue revolving around 37 acts of fellacio (in a row?), overweight men in Batman costumes “flying,” and transactional songs for purchasing marjiuana that open with numerous mentions of slang for coitus.
And even though YouTube doesn’t have guidelines for cussin’, Smith was bleeped every moment a four or five or twelve letter swear word came out of his mouth. Within the first two minutes of his panel, Smith was bleeped seven times, averaging 3.5 bleeps per minute (BPM) or 210 beeps per hour. At 11 minutes, Smith wracked up 36 bleeps, and he had slowed a bit to 3.27 BPM.
Moving into the section where Smith discussed his current projects, the auteur ramped up a little at the 16 minute mark at 57 bleeps, with a cruising speed of 3.56 BPM. However, when mentioning the Netflix Masters of the Universe: Revelations series he’s producing, Smith slowed down a bit. Between minute 20 and 23, he was only bleeped once, coming in a total of 62–and his BPM at this point was 2.69.
Don’t worry, things picked up again after the MOTU talk. And Smith hit his 69th bleep at 26 minutes and 37 seconds. It was very nice. His BPM was about 2.5 at the time.
However, when Smith was talking about the Jay & Silent Bob Reboot Iron Bob Funko Pop, he swore, but was not bleeped. The audio just went quiet. This was not counted in our final count, nor was the time Smith let the word “s***” slip past the audio editor during that segment as well. Another one slipped by at the 35 minute mark, while Smith discussed the Mooby’s pop-up restaurant.
At 44 minutes, Smith had been bleeped 94 times, which translates to 2.13 BPM or 128 BPH. Obviously, his rate of swearing had slowed down quite a bit. However, the crowning moment came at 46:12 when Smith reached 100 bleeps. There was no grand moment, no confetti, or a “we did it sign.” However, Smith did debut a trailer for the upcoming movie Kilroy Is Here, which you can check out below at the 48:16 mark.
Smith explained that he’s been working on it for a few years, and the film features Chris Jericho–one of the GameSpot wrestling podcast Wrestle Buddies‘ favorite wrestlers. Jericho plays the GaterChaser.
The trailer did have four bleeps in it, but that was not part of the final count, as it wasn’t Smith being bleeped. Interestingly enough, the trailer was incredibly gory and violent, but that wasn’t censored.
Maybe I’m splitting hairs though. Two more curses were silenced and not bleeped as Smith reminisced about Comic-Con’s past. They were not included for the final count.
Smith closed out the panel discussing Twilight of the Mallrats, a film about Brodie Bruce, then discussing breaking his intermittent fast and hit a grand total of 113 bleeps, 3 s*** slips missed by the editor, and 4 audio drops where bleeps should have gone.
EA’s UFC franchise is back this year with UFC 4 and it’s shaping up to be a punishingly powerful entry in the series. EA is making a series of major changes to the gameplay this year, improving and expanding on striking, grappling, takedowns, and the clinch game. Additionally, UFC 4 brings in EA’s own Real-Player Motion technology from Madden, FIFA, and NHL to provide a more authentic representation of MMA cage matches.
GameSpot recently caught up with creative director Brian Hayes, who dove deep into the numerous gameplay improvements this year. He says the changes to the clinch game will be immediately recognizable and very impactful, while players should appreciate the improvements that EA has made to submissions and striking, Hayes said.
Also in the interview, Hayes spoke about why UFC has parted ways with commentator Joe Rogan, who calls fight in real life for the UFC. “He hasn’t been shy about saying this on his own podcast like he hates doing it,” Hayes said.
Be sure to check out the full interview below, as Hayes also speaks about the benefits of launching at the tail-end of the console cycle and more.
UFC 4 launches on August 14 for PS4 and Xbox One. Those who pre-order get the exclusive fighters Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua:
What are some of the biggest changes and improvements the gameplay this year?
Probably the single biggest change that we’ve implemented/undertaken this year was just completely overhauling and rewriting the clinch game, taking EA Sports, real player motion or RPM tech, as we call it, and just expanding that from beyond just locomotion and striking into an all new clinch system. So the clinch game is much more accessible, fluid–your ability to get into it and out of it using locomotion, throwing strikes inside of the clinch transitioning to different positions and actually doing trips and takedowns, it’s just a completely new system. So the part that’s unique about it is that previously on other iterations of the game, the clinch was essentially an extension of what is the ground game.
And you were essentially playing the ground game standing up, you know, in the clinch. Now, it’s actually more like the closest possible range of stand up fighting and striking. So it’s just much more accessible and fun in that way. It’s from playing the beta on a weekend or you know, earlier this week, just you know, quickly grabbing somebody in single collar and throwing some uppercuts before they break away, it just completely changes the way that clinch factors into every single fight compared to previous iterations of the game.
“If you’re trying to throw a spinning side-kick to the head you don’t have to hold down as many buttons to pull it off as it used to in the past.” — Hayes
So that’s the most significant change we’ve made. But then it’s also been the addition of grapple assists controls to just make the existing ground game more accessible to more players. And we’ve updated the stand up striking controls with sort of dynamic striking inputs. So there’s a tap/hold mechanic to make every single strike not only more responsive, but make some of the more complicated ones previously more accessible to throw. So if you’re trying to throw a spinning side-kick to the head you don’t have to hold down as many buttons to pull it off as it used to in the past.
What about subtle changes?
Some subtle things we’ve done is actually adding levels to some of the strikes. So for a lot of, of the more sort of hardcore fans like that, being able to see that when you’re, if you’re in career mode, or if you’re a a licenced UFC fighter that doesn’t have like high striking ability. The technical prowess with which a fighter throws some strikes will be different based on whether or not it’s a level one or level two strike or level four or level five strike.
So as some strikes get higher and level, they are actually thrown with more technical prowess as I said, so that’s a nice subtle nod that we, we actually hope to expand on moving forward. But it’s a nice little touch to see that like, yeah, this guy isn’t really a great kickboxer. He’s got kind of sloppy looking leg kicks, as opposed to guys like Edson Barboza. Like he’s got some good looking like kicks.
There’s elements inside the submission game like being able to strike. I mean, it’s not really it’s not subtle when somebody punches you in the face when you’re, you know, they’re trying to put an arm bar on you but like, it’s something that’s never existed before in our series. So like when adding new elements like that to the submission game. The big thing is that there are two new submission games, one for choke submissions and one for joint submissions. But so are instances depending on what submission you’re in, where you’ll get the opportunity either as the defender or the attacker to throw hammer fists or different strikes at your opponent to try and mess them up during the submission games, different ways to escape from submissions to like, some slam escapes opportunities that will arise during those experiences.
And then, I mean, I think there’s a lot of subtlety within the clinch game–it is an overhaul obviously, like a technical thing, but the positions, the transitions that occur the, you know, the fluidity with which the players sort of change positions and navigate across the octagon when you know when they’re in the clinch. There’s a lot of subtlety in that like, it’s not just a it’s not just it’s not just a big ticket feature. It’s really something that’s the sum of a lot of parts.
How has the implementation of Real-Player Motion tech impacted UFC 4?
Well, we’ve expanded our use of Real-Player Motion technology and the two biggest areas would be that complete clinch changes. But then also an overhaul of how takedowns are done in the game. So yeah, clinch game has seen a complete overhaul. So there are new takedown inputs as part of a new dynamic, striking control. So you actually attempt takedowns with button inputs now rather than analogue stick inputs, but then there’s the opportunity for there to be battles for takedown, so I might shoot for a takedown and if your defence is decent, but not perfect, it will actually end up into a situation where you can continue to drive for the takedown and with locomotion to try and steer me toward the cage and get the finish where I can use my locomotion to try and sort of escape from the takedown by countering what you’re doing against me that sort of idea of a takedown battle is something we never had before and that is accomplished by the expansion of RPM tech into the takedown system. And then there’s there’s also a whole whole list of new takedown animations in the game just depending on context–if I time it’s super well and you have low stamina it’ll be just a dynamic like driving spear straight to the ground.
There’s high impact slams, where do you like Daniel Cormier guy up on your shoulder and basically put them ass over teakettle, pardon my French, and slam him on his head. So real player motion tech, basically the two biggest things the extension of that from not just striking locomotion, but overhauling the clinch game and then rewriting the takedown system as well.
In terms of feedback, how much of the changes this year are based on what fans told you about previous games versus your own game design ideas?
I think that a lot of the a lot of the big ticket ideas or a lot of the big things will be based more on sort of internal sort of concepts like looking at at broader sets of data, and then a lot of like the nuance changes …. there’s a lot of tuning and balancing that happens in terms of like, how much how much vulnerability should a fighter have when they’re leaning this direction and their opponent throws a hook. Those kinds of changes and tweaks and tuning and balances are things that when we are sharing the game via like an internal test environment with our community. That’s where a lot of those conversations are driven.
In terms of balancing the minutiae, the subtlety, the nuance of like, very, very sort of, like deep meta changes and rebalances. So if we’re looking at in terms of code change, it probably skews heavily towards like, you know, a lot of the code change is stuff that the team comes up with, but a lot of like the the tuning changes stuff that we partner with with that, that sort of core community so if that makes sense.”
You’re releasing UFC 4 at the tail-end of this console cycle; what are you doing to make the most of the new systems?
Just doing everything we can basically– it’s not an easy thing to … especially coming out on the tail end and with the recent announcement of [PS5 and Xbox Series X], to make a big wow but we’ve always been a title that prides ourselves on strong visuals. And we’ve just done whatever we can to sort of squeeze the most out of our existing technology to create a compelling visual and gameplay experience. So there’s a lot of things that we’ve done with regards to updating gameplay cameras, sort of updating, lighting and shaders to give the characters sort of more shape. Sort of make their their musculature sort of come through in ways that hadn’t in the past. And then there’s just new experiences with things like career mode, having a new onboarding experience with a bit more of an introductory cinematic narrative, introducing characters to help you sort of get onboarded to the experience, but for the most part … we’ve been pretty good at making games on the current generation. You know, this being our fourth, our fourth one on Gen 4, so there wasn’t necessarily a great deal of like now we, we kind of already knew what we were doing by UFC 3. So this was more of a, how can we create new experiences given our knowledge of creating games on Gen 4? How can we just create new experiences rather than necessarily something that’s pushing the technology into a place that has never been before.
“We’ve always been a title that prides ourselves on strong visuals.”– Hayes
For the commentary team this year, you’ve moved away from Joe Rogan. Can you talk about that?
He hasn’t been shy about saying this on his own podcast like he hates doing it. If you’re not a person that you just mentally get into that space, then I can see how it could be a very, you know, challenging, you know, potentially mind numbing experience for a certain type of individual. And he just hates he hated doing voiceover then that was something we knew from from UFC 1. He was open with us from from the very beginning that he hated his experience of doing voiceover on previous iterations of other UFC games, and things were no different for us. He hated doing voiceover on these games as well. That has nothing to do with with us in particular, or, you know, our games versus other games. He just, he does not like sitting in a booth reading lines for hours at a time.
Saturday during a very special What We Do In The Shadows panel for Comic-Con@Home, executive producer and writer Paul Simms teased some things fans can look forward to for the show’s upcoming Season 3–and, unsurprisingly, it sounds both hilarious and ridiculous.
“Everyone in the show has had their various dealings with love,” prompted moderator Haley Joel Osment, who guest starred in Season 2 as a familiar-turned-zombie-turned-corpse (RIP). “Can we expect to see something like that for Nandor in the future?”
“It’s almost as if he’s looking at the big bulletin board that I’ve got right in front of me,” Simms joked, referencing something just out of view of his webcam. “Obviously Nandor is lonely.”
Simms continued, elaborating on “searches” that other characters may have in their future. “Nandor might be searching for love. Colin Robinson still doesn’t know how he became an energy vampire–and he’s just rolled with it for all these years, so that might be a search that he goes on.”
Osment then asked if we can expect to see more magical creatures added to the fold for Season 3, continuing Season 2’s trend of adding monsters like trolls and zombies to the mix. “Definitely,” Simms said, before executive producer and writer Stefani Robinson teased “there are some creatures that live on edifices” coming up.
She’s most likely talking about gargoyles, which famously exist on the sides of buildings to scare away evil. Maybe if we’re extremely lucky we’ll even get a shout-out to the cult-classic animated TV series about Goliath and his pals.
Simms went on to tease the vampires getting a “hell hound to protect them,” though this comment came right after actor Kayvan Novak, who plays Nandor, “turned himself into a cat” by bringing his pet into frame on the Zoom chat, pivoting the conversation to pets. So we may want to take that one with a grain of salt.
Unfortunately, there are no dates set for What We Do In The Shadows Season 3 to begin production or premiere, but you can binge watch all of Seasons 1 and 2 right now with FX on Hulu.
The wait for the new Guillermo Del Toro produced horror movie, Antlers, may be longer than expected thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the film’s Comic-Con@Home panel helped to take the edge off, if only a little. Before the panel got started in earnest with both Del Toro and director Scott Cooper, fans were treated to a behind-the-scenes featurette that dug deep into the mythology and creation of the movie’s monstrous antagonist: The mythological Wendigo.
While the most prominent representation of a “Wendigo” in pop culture may be the skeletal (and entirely metaphorical) creature in NBC’s Hannibal, the actual folklore behind the creature reaches much deeper. Born from Native American history, Wendigos are allegorical spirits that “come to reconcile what people are doing incorrectly,” First Nations consultant Chris Eyre explains in the video. Take a look at the featurette–and the complete panel–bellow.
“All this rage, all this abuse, incarnates. It’s like an invocation for this creature,” Del Toro added. “It’s truly powerful, what we do to nature, what we do to each other. It is a metaphor made flesh.”
Also featured in the clip was just a taste at some of the horror that fans can expect to see in Antlers, including some disgusting mutilated bodies, animal carcasses, and, of course, just the slightest hint of the Wendigo itself.
Antlers is based on the short story The Quiet Boy, by Channel Zero showrunner Nick Antosca–but Del Toro was quick to point out during the Q&A portion of the panel that the film will deviate from the source material considerably. “You made it quite different,” he said to director Scott Cooper. “You made it like [part of] the Scott Cooper universe.” Del Toro then likened the movie to Cooper’s 2013 drama, Out Of The Furnace, about a veteran unable to adjust to civilian life. “Which is great,” Del Toro praised.
Cooper continued by explaining that Antlers will be his first experience with supernatural stories. “I wanted to be on unfamiliar ground because I think risk is one of the great pleasures of making art, or making films. I think horror is a great way for people to confront the darkness inside them indirectly. It can provide a great way for people to escape.”
“I wouldn’t have made the film if Guillermo wasn’t producing,” Cooper said. “And I said to him at the very beginning–I want this movie to be disquieting, to be tense, and for it to be absolutely terrifying. My hope is, if people happen to see my films more than once, is that there’s something very subtle here that will come to the foreground that maybe they missed the first time around.”
Keanu Reeves joined director Francis Lawrence and producer Akiva Goldsman at Comic-Con@Home today to look back at the original live-action version of the Hellblazer himself for Constantine’s 15th anniversary. It’s hard to believe it’s been 15 years since the DC character was first realized in live-action — long before the DCEU was even a twinkle in Warner Bros. execs’ eyes. The reunion panel was a lot of fun, with Reeves in top “the world loves you, Keanu” form. Several interesting tidbits were revealed during the session, including how the team talked a lot about making a sequel at one time.
Read on for the highlights from the Constantine panel, which was hosted and organized by Collider.com‘s editor-in-chief Steven Weintraub. Watch the Constantine reunion panel in its entirety below:
Goldsman recalled that during the making of the 2005 film a potential sequel was frequently discussed.
“Yes, oh my God, yes,” he said. “[It] endlessly came up. Boy, we wanted to. We wanted to make a hard R [rated] sequel, we wanted to … I think we could probably make it tomorrow. Yes, we tried a lot of different ways to find [a way]. It was always, to the studios who made it, which was Village Roadshow and Warner Bros., a little bit of a feathered fish.”
Goldsman feels the studio didn’t quite know what to make of the film’s “oddness.”
“I do think [that] is one of the most lovely things about the film, the way it’s equally comfortable in a character scene between Keanu and [co-star] Rachel [Weisz] as it is with demons flying, hurling themselves at a man who’s going to light his fist on fire and expel them,” he continued. “It’s odd, right? It’s not really action-packed. It just has a bunch of action. And this movie isn’t exactly a thing, it’s kind of a few things, which is what I think is beautiful about it. Those seem to get harder and harder to make. And even then, as much as we wanted to, and we’ve talked about it and we’ve had ideas… [sighs] I like that one where he wakes up in a cell and he has to identify the prisoner, that was Frank’s idea, remember? And it was Jesus! … Yeah, we talked about it!”
Lawrence, who made his feature directing debut on Constantine, said that the creative team thought about a potential sequel or sequels more than the studio did. He thinks they always “loved it” more than the studio did, but the director is gratified by what he sees as an ever-increasing fanbase for the film in the years since it was released.
“You know, the movie did fairly well,” said Lawrence. “And this was also still a time when people sold DVDs, and so I think it did decently at the time. But it wasn’t a knock-out success, and it also wasn’t really sort of critically acclaimed by any means at the time. I mean, the kind of cool thing for me about this movie is just in the 15 years since it released, every time I do a movie and go out and travel the world and do junkets, I am signing Constantine DVDs more than any other movie that I’ve done. Over the years, different countries… people really, really love this movie. And I think that it’s found a sort of a new life in a weird way.”
Could Keanu Have Played a Blond, British Constantine?
The character from the comics is of course blond and British, which caused some small amount of controversy in fandom when the distinctly brunette and American Keanu Reeves was cast in the role for the movie. When asked during the panel whether or not there were discussions about Reeves maybe going with the blond hair and a British accent for Constantine, his answer was simple.
“No, no,” he smiled, without elaborating further.
Lawrence confirmed that they never even discussed the matter.
“And then I remember in costumes too the one other big change for the Constantine character was the coat,” said the director. “And we did try the sort of Constantine coat and wound up going with the black one, which is different from the one in the comics and the graphic novels. We wanted to do what was right for what we were doing.”
Constantine the Movie’s Origins… With Nicolas Cage
Goldsman discussed how this was the project that helped him to break into producing. There had been a script “laying around that was really compelling,” and so a package was put together with Tarsem Singh (The Cell, Immortals) as director and Nicolas Cage as star. Prep on the movie started, and then it stopped and then it “went to sleep for a while.” Cage’s involvement with the project ended when Singh parted ways with the studio.
Keanu Reeves impersonates the film going “to sleep for a while.”
“And surely but slowly, the idea was durable enough — like any interesting scripts — to outlive whatever struggles it had,” he continued. “And there was this video director who was really something.”
He’s referring, of course, to Lawrence, who got his start as a director making music videos. By 2002, Reeves was also attached to the project, although he recalls that he wasn’t familiar with the character at the time.
“I hadn’t read Hellblazer or seen any of the [creator] Alan Moore stuff in Swamp Thing,” he said. “So I didn’t know the character.”
The group laughed about how Reeves was “one of the gauntlets” that Lawrence had to pass to get the job on Constantine. Their meeting happened just days after Reeves had returned to the U.S. from Australia, where he had been shooting the Matrix sequels.
“I really loved the script,” continued Reeves. “And then I did some research on the character and I was, not hesitant, but I’m not English and I’m not blond. And the character is, and so I had to reconcile that, and part of that was what is the base of the character. What could I bring to the character? Why even do it? And it’s such a beautiful character, this kind of humanitarian cynic. Tired, world-weary, tired of all the rules and morals and ethics and angels and demons, but still a part of it. And I loved his sense of humor.”
And Nic Cage got to play Ghost Rider a few years later anyway.
Other DC or Vertigo Characters
The team was asked during the panel whether or not other DC or Vertigo characters were ever considered. Vertigo Comics, of course, was DC’s long-running imprint of adult-leaning titles that often had a more supernatural slant to them. Constantine was a key part of Vertigo back in the day. But Reeves jokingly took exception to this question.
“Wait, you got Midnite, you got Chas!” he smiled. “What are you talking about?”
Djimon Hounsou played Papa Midnite, a Hellblazer supporting character, and Shia LaBeouf played Constantine sidekick Chas Kramer in the film. But today’s superhero films obviously are often focused on world-building and shared universes, a concept that was not prevalent on the big screen in 2005. Lawrence said that for as long as he was on the project, there was never any talk about bringing in other familiar faces.
“The focus was on Constantine and Constantine’s world,” said the director. “So all the characters that surround him, but not weaving in the other kind of classic DC heroes.”
Best Wrap Gift Ever
At one point during the panel, Lawrence whipped out the Holy Shotgun prop from the film, much to Reeves’ delight. It turns out it was a wrap gift from Reeves to his director, and he actually had the props department make a replica of the piece from the shoot.
Made of bronze, the gun weighs “probably 35 pounds.” Unfortunately, when asked if he has the original, Reeves said he doesn’t. Which sounds like the perfect reason to finally make Constantine 2…
Legendary television host Regis Philbin has died at the age of 88.
Philbin passed away on July 24, 2020, and his family gave a statement to People;
“We are deeply saddened to share that our beloved Regis Philbin passed away last night of natural causes, one month shy of his 89th birthday. His family and friends are forever grateful for the time we got to spend with him – for his warmth, his legendary sense of humor, and his singular ability to make every day into something worth talking about. We thank his fans and admirers for their incredible support over his 60-year career and ask for privacy as we mourn his loss.”
Philbin made his big break in 1988 as one of the hosts of Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee alongside Kathie Lee Gifford. In 2001, the show became Live! with Regis and Kelly, and Philbin co-starred with Kelly Ripa.
He left the show in 2011 after 23 years on-air and was replaced by former New York Giants star Michael Strahan.
Philbin was also the original host of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? from 1999 to 2002, and also appeared on Million Dollar Password, the first season of America’s Got Talent, and was a reoccurring co-host on Rachael Ray.
Born on August 25, 1931, Philbin was raised in the Bronx and graduated from Cardinal Hayes High School in 1949 and earned a sociology degree in 1953 from the University of Notre Dame.
He also served in the Navy, and made his first appearance in front of the camera in 1961 with The Regis Philbin Show, a local talk show in San Diego.
His accolades include winning a Daytime Emmy Award for outstanding talk show host for Live! in 2001 and 2011, and one for being an outstanding game show host for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Furthermore, he received his Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 2003 and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Daytime Emmy Awards in 2008.
He is survived by his wife of 50 years, Joy Philbin, and his daughters J.J., Joanna, and Amy. His first wife was Catherine Faylen and they had a son, Daniel Philbin, who passed away in 2014.
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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.
The winners of the 2020 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards have been revealed. Essentially the comic book industry equivalent of the Oscars, the ceremony was again held (albeit virtually) during Comic-Con, this year hosted by actor Phil LaMarr.
G. Willow Wilson and Christian Ward’s Invisible Kingdom was among the big winners this year, taking home awards for Best New Series and Best Painter. Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O’Connell’s graphic novel Laura Dean Is Breaking Up with Me also won big, taking home the awards for Best Publication for Teens, Best Writer (with Tamaki also being recognized for her work on Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass and Archie) and Best Penciller/Inker.
David Walker, Chuck Brown, and Sanford Greene won Best Continuing Series. George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steve Scott and Harmony Becker’s graphic novel They Called Us Enemy won Best Reality-Based Work (it also won IGN’s Best Original Graphic Novel of 2019). And the massively popular Guts by Raina Telgemeier won Best Publication for Kids and Best Writer/Artist.
It was also a very noteworthy year in terms of creators being inducted into the Eisners Hall of Fame. Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson was among those honored, along with Nell Brinkley (The Brinkley Girls), E. Simms Campbell (Cuties), Alison Bechdel (Fun Home), Howard Cruse (Stuck Rubber Baby), Louise Simonson (X-Factor), Stan Sakai (Usagi Yojimbo) and Comics Buyer’s Guide creators Don and Maggie Thompson.
Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations, by Mira Jacob (One World/Random House)
Grass, by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim, translation by Janet Hong (Drawn & Quarterly)
Kid Gloves: Nine Months of Careful Chaos, by Lucy Knisley (First Second/Macmillan)
Moonbound: Apollo 11 and the Dream of Spaceflight, by Jonathan Fetter-Vorm (Hill & Wang)
My Solo Exchange Diary, vol. 2 (sequel to My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness), by Nagata Kabi, translation by Jocelyne Allen (Seven Seas)
They Called Us Enemy, by George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott, and Harmony Becker (Top Shelf)
Best Graphic Album—New
Are You Listening? by Tillie Walden (First Second/Macmillan)
Bezimena, by Nina Bunjevac (Fantagraphics)
BTTM FDRS, by Ezra Claytan Daniels and Ben Passmore (Fantagraphics)
Life on the Moon, by Robert Grossman (Yoe Books/IDW)
New World, by David Jesus Vignolli (Archaia/BOOM!)
Reincarnation Stories, by Kim Deitch (Fantagraphics)
Best Graphic Album—Reprint
Bad Weekend by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips (Image)
Clyde Fans, by Seth (Drawn & Quarterly)
Cover, vol. 1, by Brian Michael Bendis and David Mack (DC/Jinxworld)
Glenn Ganges: The River at Night, by Kevin Huizenga (Drawn & Quarterly)
LaGuardia, by Nnedi Okorafor and Tana Ford (Berger Books/Dark Horse)
Rusty Brown, by Chris Ware (Pantheon)
Best Adaptation from Another Medium
Giraffes on Horseback Salad: Salvador Dali, the Marx Brothers, and the Strangest Movie Never Made, by Josh Frank, Tim Hedecker, and Manuela Pertega (Quirk Books)
The Giver, by Lois Lowry and P. Craig Russell, (HMH Books for Young Readers)
The Handmaid’s Tale: The Graphic Novel, by Margaret Atwood, adapted by Renee Nault (Nan A. Talese)
HP Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness, vols. 1–2, adapted by Gou Tanabe, translation by Zack Davisson (Dark Horse Manga)
The Seventh Voyage, by Stanislaw Lem, adapted by Jon Muth, translation by Michael Kandel (Scholastic Graphix)
Snow, Glass, Apples, by Neil Gaiman and Colleen Doran (Dark Horse Books)
Best U.S. Edition of International Material
Diabolical Summer, by Thierry Smolderen and Alexandre Clerisse, translation by Edward Gauvin (IDW)
Gramercy Park, by Timothée de Fombelle and Christian Cailleaux, translation by Edward Gauvin (EuroComics/IDW)
The House, by Paco Roca, translation by Andrea Rosenberg (Fantagraphics)
Maggy Garrisson, by Lewis Trondheim and Stéphane Oiry, translation by Emma Wilson (SelfMadeHero)
Stay, by Lewis Trondheim and Hubert Chevillard, translation by Mike Kennedy (Magnetic Press)
Wrath of Fantômas, by Olivier Bouquet and Julie Rocheleau, translation by Edward Gauvin (Titan)
Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia (tie)
BEASTARS, by Paru Itagaki, translation by Tomo Kimura (VIZ Media)
Cats of the Louvre, by Taiyo Matsumoto, translation by Michael Arias (VIZ Media)
Grass, by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim, translation by Janet Hong (Drawn & Quarterly)
Magic Knight Rayearth 25th Anniversary Edition, by CLAMP, translation by Melissa Tanaka (Kodansha)
The Poe Clan, by Moto Hagio, translation by Rachel Thorn (Fantagraphics)
Witch Hat Atelier, by Kamome Shirahama, translation by Stephen Kohler (Kodansha)
Best Archival Collection/Project—Strips
Cham: The Best Comic Strips and Graphic Novelettes, 1839–1862, by David Kunzle (University Press of Mississippi)
Ed Leffingwell’s Little Joe, by Harold Gray, edited by Peter Maresca and Sammy Harkham (Sunday Press Books)
The George Herriman Library: Krazy & Ignatz 1916–1918, edited by R.J. Casey (Fantagraphics)
Krazy Kat: The Complete Color Sundays, by George Herriman, edited by Alexander Braun (TASCHEN)
Madness in Crowds: The Teeming Mind of Harrison Cady, by Violet and Denis Kitchen (Beehive Books)
Pogo, Vol. 6: Clean as a Weasel, by Walt Kelly, edited by Mark Evanier and Eric Reynolds (Fantagraphics)
Best Archival Collection/Project—Comic Books
Alay-Oop, by William Gropper (New York Review Comics)
The Complete Crepax, vol. 5: American Stories, edited by Kristy Valenti (Fantagraphics)
Jack Kirby’s Dingbat Love, edited by John Morrow (TwoMorrows)
Moonshadow: The Definitive Edition, by J. M. DeMatteis, Jon J Muth, George Pratt, Kent Williams, and others (Dark Horse Books)
Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo: The Complete Grasscutter Artist Select, by Stan Sakai, edited by Scott Dunbier (IDW)
That Miyoko Asagaya Feeling, by Shinichi Abe, translation by Ryan Holmberg, edited by Mitsuhiro Asakawa (Black Hook Press)
Best Writer
Bobby Curnow, Ghost Tree (IDW)
MK Reed and Greg Means, Penny Nichols (Top Shelf)
Mariko Tamaki, Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass (DC); Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me (First Second/Macmillan); Archie (Archie)
Lewis Trondheim, Stay (Magnetic Press); Maggy Garrisson (SelfMadeHero)
Jean-Francois Beaulieu, Middlewest, Outpost Zero (Image)
Matt Hollingsworth, Batman: Curse of the White Knight, Batman White Knight Presents Von Freeze (DC); Little Bird, November (Image)
Molly Mendoza, Skip (Nobrow)
Dave Stewart, Black Hammer, B.P.R.D.: The Devil You Know, Hellboy and the BPRD (Dark Horse); Gideon Falls (Image); Silver Surfer Black, Spider-Man (Marvel)
Best Lettering
Deron Bennett, Batgirl, Green Arrow, Justice League, Martian Manhunter (DC); Canto (IDW); Assassin Nation, Excellence (Skybound/Image); To Drink and To Eat, vol. 1 (Lion Forge); Resonant (Vault)
Jim Campbell, Black Badge, Coda (BOOM Studios); Giant Days, Lumberjanes: The Shape of Friendship (BOOM Box!); Rocko’s Modern Afterlife (KaBOOM!); At the End of Your Tether (Lion Forge); Blade Runner 2019 (Titan); Mall, The Plot, Wasted Space (Vault)
Clayton Cowles, Aquaman, Batman, Batman and the Outsiders, Heroes in Crisis, Superman: Up in the Sky, Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen (DC); Bitter Root, Pretty Deadly, Moonstruck, Redlands, The Wicked + The Divine (Image); Reaver (Skybound/Image); Daredevil, Ghost-Spider, Silver Surfer Black, Superior Spider-Man, Venom (Marvel)
Emilie Plateau, Colored: The Unsung Life of Claudette Colvin (Europe Comics)
Stan Sakai, Usagi Yojimbo (IDW)
Tillie Walden, Are You Listening? (First Second/Macmillan)
Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism
Comic Riffs blog, by Michael Cavna, www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/comics/
The Comics Journal, edited by Gary Groth, RJ Casey, and Kristy Valenti (Fantagraphics)
Hogan’s Alley, edited by Tom Heintjes (Hogan’s Alley)
Inks: The Journal of the Comics Studies Society, edited by Qiana Whitted (Ohio State University Press)
LAAB Magazine, vol. 4: This Was Your Life, edited by Ronald Wimberly and Josh O’Neill (Beehive Books)
Women Write About Comics, edited by Nola Pfau and Wendy Browne, www.WomenWriteAboutComics.com
Best Comics-Related Book
The Art of Nothing: 25 Years of Mutts and the Art of Patrick McDonnell (Abrams)
The Book of Weirdo, by Jon B. Cooke (Last Gasp)
Grunt: The Art and Unpublished Comics of James Stokoe (Dark Horse)
Logo a Gogo: Branding Pop Culture, by Rian Hughes (Korero Press)
Making Comics, by Lynda Barry (Drawn & Quarterly)
Screwball! The Cartoonists Who Made the Funnies Funny, by Paul Tumey (Library of American Comics/IDW)
Best Academic/Scholarly Work
The Art of Pere Joan: Space, Landscape, and Comics Form, by Benjamin Fraser (University of Texas Press)
The Comics of Rutu Modan: War, Love, and Secrets, by Kevin Haworth (University Press of Mississippi)
EC Comics: Race, Shock, and Social Protest, by Qiana Whitted (Rutgers University Press)
The Peanuts Papers: Writers and Cartoonists on Charlie Brown, Snoopy & the Gang, and the Meaning of Life, edited by Andrew Blauner (Library of America)
Producing Mass Entertainment: The Serial Life of the Yellow Kid, by Christina Meyer (Ohio State University Press)
Women’s Manga in Asia and Beyond: Uniting Different Cultures and Identities, edited by Fusami Ogi et al. (Palgrave Macmillan)
Best Publication Design
Grunt: The Art and Unpublished Comics of James Stokoe, designed by Ethan Kimberling (Dark Horse)
Krazy Kat: The Complete Color Sundays, by George Herriman, designed by Anna-Tina Kessler (TASCHEN)
Logo a Gogo, designed by Rian Hughes (Korero Press)
Madness in Crowds: The Teeming Mind of Harrison Cady, designed by Paul Kopple and Alex Bruce (Beehive Books)
Making Comics, designed by Lynda Barry (Drawn & Quarterly)
Rusty Brown, designed by Chris Ware (Pantheon)
Best Digital Comic
Afterlift, by Chip Zdarsky and Jason Loo (comiXology Originals)
Black Water Lilies, by Michel Bussi, adapted by Frédéric Duval and Didier Cassegrain, translated by Edward Gauvin (Europe Comics)
Colored: The Unsung Life of Claudette Colvin, by Tania de Montaigne, adapted by Emilie Plateau, translated by Montana Kane (Europe Comics)
Elma, A Bear’s Life, vol. 1: The Great Journey, by Ingrid Chabbert and Léa Mazé, translated by Jenny Aufiery (Europe Comics)
Mare Internum, by Der-shing Helmer (comiXology; gumroad.com/l/MIPDF)
Tales from Behind the Window, by Edanur Kuntman, translated by Cem Ulgen (Europe Comics)
Best Webcomic
Cabramatta, by Matt Huynh, http://believermag.com/cabramatta/
Chuckwagon at the End of the World, by Erik Lundy, https://hollowlegcomics.tumblr.com/chuckwagon
The Eyes, by Javi de Castro, https://www.javidecastro.com/theeyes
Fried Rice Comic, by Erica Eng, https://friedricecomic.tumblr.com
reMIND, by Jason Brubaker, https://is.gd/T7rafM
Third Shift Society, by Meredith Moriarty, https://www.webtoons.com/en/supernatural/third-shift-society/list?title_no=1703
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Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
