There and Back Again: The Grand Canyon

When I was growing up, my parents made it a point to take a summer vacation somewhere around the country every year, but one place we never made it to was the Grand Canyon. I’m glad to say that I finally made it to this must-see national park with my own family (including my brother).

We had a terrific trip. Although it’s no doubt a cliché, words and photos do little justice to the experience of actually being at the Grand Canyon. Viewing it in person is absolutely breathtaking and awe-inspiring.

Get Your Kicks on Route 66

We opted to take a popular Grand Canyon Railway package, which starts in Williams, Arizona, a town that touts itself as “the last town to be bypassed by Route 66.”*

Located 65 miles from the Grand Canyon, Williams today serves as a gateway to the Grand Canyon for those traveling west by car and or opting to take the Grand Canyon Railway, which takes tourists daily to and from the Grand Canyon. Operating since 1901 and tied historicallyto the development of the Grand Canyon as a tourist spot by the Santa Fe Railroad, the railway closed in the late 1960s but was resurrected in 1989 as a dedicated tourist train serving the national park. (The development of the Grand Canyon as a tourist resort is also closely tied to the rise of the Fred Harvey Company, one of the first chains of hotels and restaurants, famous for its “Harvey Girls.”)

The operators have quite shrewdly also positioned the railway as a “green” alternative to driving and polluting the Grand Canyon, claiming that it is responsible for keeping 50,000 cars from the park. These efforts—which also encouraged the use of reusable water bottles—is in line with the park’s efforts to promote green living and preserve the natural wonder of the Grand Canyon.

Though Williams is nearly a straight-line north-westerly drive from L.A., rather than take the 7.5-hour drive, we opted to fly to Las Vegas, stay there for a few days, then drive to Williams in a rented car. Vegas is about three-and-a-quarter hours from Williams and Phoenix is about an hour closer, being the closest major airports to Williams and the Grand Canyon.

Our railway package began with a night at the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel at Williams (which is right next door to the Williams Train Depot); a two-and-a-quarter hour train ride to the Grand Canyon the next morning; an overnight stay at the Grand Canyon at one of the lodges inside the park’s tourist village and resident community, the Grand Canyon Village; and a return trip to Williams the following afternoon, with one final night at the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel. Given that the package included two breakfasts and dinners at the buffet restaurant at the Williams railway hotel, the train trip and entertainment, and a brief coach bus tour at the Grand Canyon, I have to say the cost of the trip was certainly very affordable. The company took care of our luggage the whole way, transporting them from one hotel room to the other the entire way, so we never had to worry about them. The package also included a cowboy gunfight at Williams and a “train robbery” on the way back–which featured the train robbers running alongside the train on their horses. All the employees on the tour were incredibly nice, welcoming and upbeat.

The Grand Canyon

As mentioned, our package included a coach bus tour of the Grand Canyon upon arrival. Frankly, now that I have a better understanding of the park, the bus tour was probably unnecessary, but it was nevertheless a good way for first-time visitors like ourselves to get oriented and learn about the park. After that, we were on our own.

The reason I say the bus tour was unnecessary is because the Grand Canyon has a great shuttle system consisting of three lines—one that serves the Grand Canyon Village which is the visitor nexus for the park and two that take visitors on round trips around the South Rim with stops at various key viewing spots on the rim. Anyone wishing to hike (or bike) can certainly do so, but the shuttles are obviously a great way to see the sights if you have limited time or energy. Each vista point offered as spectacular view as the last.

The canyon is about 277 miles long, 18 miles wide at its widest, and about a mile deep. No doubt one reason the Southern Rim of the canyon is the most developed and visited is because of the trails you can take down to the bottom: the Bright Angel Trail and the South Kaibab Trail. They are about 9 miles down, taking you more than 4,000 feet (the canyon’s elevation is about 7,000 feet). Hikers are not advised to attempt the hike in a day, especially since one has to remember the hike back is uphill. Hikers have the option of staying at a lodge called the Phantom Lodge at the bottom (or, presumably, camping). But you can certainly go as far down on the trail as you like and then turn around and come back.

The first day we stayed out long enough to watch the sunset—understandably a popular pastime as many people settled down around us to do the same. Returning back to the village, we found the “upscale” restaurants had 90-minute waits and decided to just hit the food court at our lodge. Not as good as a sit down restaurant meal, but at least we were able to order food quickly and replenish ourselves.

On the way back to our building, we found another advantage of being a little bit outside civilization—the night was so clear that we were able to easily find the North Star, the Big and Little Dippers, and Orion’s Belt!

The next day we spent exploring the western side of the Canyon. It was at that time that my brother, son and I (while my wife and daughter slept in) discovered we were within walking distance of the rim and the main trail heads.

We visited at the perfect time—it was spring break for my kids and the weather was clear and comfortable, being neither too warm or too cold. While there were many people there, I wouldn’t consider it crowded. I can only imagine what it’s like in the summer at the height of tourist season—I overheard a bus driver say that the park had 17 permanent suttle drivers and, during the summer, employed as many as 54 to accommodate the crowds.

I’ve never had love of heights—while it’s not debilitating and being at the Grand Canyon wasn’t a particular problem for me, I certainly wasn’t as brave as some folks who were able to rather non-chalantly go fairly close to the edge. Nevertheless, I have to admit, just starting down one of the trails was enough to bring my heart to my mouth—and in any case my son refused to start down anyway. (My daughter was more than game, but since no one else was willing, she was denied the chance—I told her she could do it on her own trip!)

At least I can say I’m not alone because there were at least three instances while I was there of people horsing around in such a way that made others nearby literally scream—after witnessing one such incident involving a young man who leaped high from the edge for a good picture, one rather burly gent muttered to me “I must be getting old.”

While there are fences or walls at the main vista points, some of them would offer little protection for young children; and the main trails and other points have no such protection at all. But it’s all a matter of common sense and a little bit of caution. (Googling such incidents, I found that the park averages about 3-4 deaths a year from falls, and another 8-12 or so a year from “environmental factors” like dehydration and sunstroke).

Hoover Dam

On the drive back from Williams to Vegas, we stopped at the Hoover Dam since it was on the way. I’m really glad we did. When we got close to the dam area, there were only a few cars ahead of us in the security check line for vehicles; I can imagine that during the summer the service road can get quite a bit backed up. Plus, once we entered the dam area, a sign almost immediately pointed us to parking right there and we quickly found a parking space.

While there are several levels of tours visitors can take, we simply opted for the museum tour which includes a room that offers a nice overlook of the dam. And, of course, we made sure to walk across the dam that includes the state line dividing Arizona and Nevada.

As the pictures accompany this blog show, the area also provides a spectacular view of the Mike O'Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, opened in 2010 and built for security concerns.. I’ve since learned it’s the second highest bridge in the U.S. after the Royal Gorges Dam in Colorado—and since we drove across the memorial bridge and I’ve walked across the Royal Gorges Dam Bridge (it’s a pedestrian tourist bridge that was the highest in the world until 2001), I can say I’ve traversed the two highest bridges in the U.S.!

The Hoover Dam was, in its way, as breathtaking and impressive as the Grand Canyon. Completed in the midst of the Great Depression, it is truly an engineering marvel (it was even completed two years ahead of schedule) that represents an apex of American ingenuity and industriousness that has stood the test of time.

Visiting the Hoover Dam also proved to be a nice bookend to our Grand Canyon trip since, of course, the Hoover Dam straddles the Colorado River, so it was a treat to point out to the kids that we were seeing the same river we saw at the Grand Canyon.

In all, our trip went smoothly and safely, and was a memorable vacation as American as apple pie!

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* Historical Route 66, made famous by legend, song (and TV), was displaced with the rise of the Interstate Highway System and Route 66, which runs through the town, was the last leg to be replaced by the I-40 in 1984. Route 66 was officially decommissioned in 1985. My wife reminded me that Santa Monica, California, near where we live in West L.A., was the west coast terminus of Route 66. Signs and souvenirs at the Santa Monica boardwalk capitalize on this connection.)


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Below are additional photos from our trip:

To see all the photos, visit the following links:

• Las Vegas leg
• Grand Canyon
• Hoover Dam

You can see a mule train of riders in the center of this photo

More Favorite Apps

I’ve written in the past about some of favorite apps and websites, including Clearcheckbook, Mint, Xmarks, DropBox, and GoogleDocs. Here are a few more that I’ve found indispensable:

SplashID Save

SplashID Safe is a secure password storage/manager app and desktop program that keeps all my website log in and password information close at hand via a password-protected app on my iPhone (it’s also of course available on other devices). Just as importantly, it syncs with a desktop version of the program, making it available on my desktop and safely backed up should anything every happen to my device. (The desktop program can also act as a stand-alone product.)

While SplashID stores my various usernames and passwords for my online email, banking, and social media accounts, it’s also designed to store other sensitive information and is easily customized. As a result, it’s a great convenience to store information like social security numbers and other private information of family members, credit card numbers, combinations, insurance numbers, vehicle information, etc., that I often have to access when doing things like filling out forms while out and about at places like the doctor’s office or traveling.

I’ve used SplashID for many years, dating back to my PalmPilot days. While there are several popular rivals to SplashID—most notably 1Password and LastPass—I’ve stuck with SplashID since it was easy to transition the data from the PalmPilot to my iPhone. There was a brief period when I considered other options, primarily because SplashID for a time was acting a bit buggy which caused me to worry about its dependability, but upgrades since then have restored stability and my confidence in the app.

SplashID and most other similar apps offer other features that I don’t use, such as the ability to generate strong passwords, securely save passwords in the cloud (a leap I haven’t made yet), and to auto-fill blank lines online. I’ve never used these additional bells and whistles, but as it stands, SplashID is definitely one of my most used and functional apps.

ToDoist

There are tons of “To Do” apps out there, so it’s rather surprising that it’s taken me so long to find one that works just right for me. Of course, the plethora of options makes it difficult to test all of them and each one has its own strengths and weaknesses.

Anyway, I recently discovered and starting using ToDoist and it seems to fit the bill. It is a mobile device app that syncs with the cloud and links to a dedicated desktop app that is also linked to the cloud. So I can add tasks and reminders (with or without deadlines) and check them on both my mobile device or desktop computer, and strike items as I do them. You can view tasks on the fly either for the day or the next 7 days. And, of course, you can organize the tasks and reminders into different categories. It has quickly become a useful app I use every day.

TaxAct

Back in the early aughts, I received a free CD copy of the tax preparation software TaxCut (apparently now renamed H&R Block Tax Software)—they were very smart because I found it very useful and used the software for several years due to familiarity and the ease of transferring data from one year to the next.

As tax preparation and filing moved more to the Web, based on a recommendation, I went to TaxAct, which I have been now using since 2007.

It’s the only web-based tax preparation software I have ever used, so I don’t have a point of comparison, but it’s a product I certainly recommend. It carries over a lot of personal information for me from year to year so that I don’t have to re-enter the data every year (another incentive to stay with the same program). It’s step-by-step entry program is fairly straightforward and intuitive, though sometimes going back to earlier entry screens can be tricky and a bit confusing because they are often nested within sections. Other than that, it’s fairly straightforward and allows the user to submit their federal and state tax forms for one price under $20 (additional state forms cost extra).

Plus, when you file online, users usually receive tax reimbursements much quickly -- usually in about a week or so, versus the several weeks if you are waiting for a check!

A Look Back: The Year of Living Dangerously (1982)

This is the first of occasional posts about some favorite films…

When the Year of Living Dangerously was released, it made quite an impact on me. I’ve always enjoyed smart political and newsroom dramas (films like Three Days of the Condor, All the President’s Men, and Shattered Glass come to mind). Adding to the appeal of this film was its exotic locale, Indonesia.

Though the movie was a U.S.-funded production (MGM/UA) that featured American actors in prominent roles (such as Sigourney Weaver and Michael Murphy), the film is otherwise thoroughly Australian, with Aussie director Peter Weir at the helm and, in the lead role, a young Mel Gibson, who had already gained international attention for the first two Mad Max films and Gallipoli, but was not yet a superstar. (Though born in the U.S., Gibson was raised and trained as an actor in Australia.)

Of course, one of the film’s most memorable performances is delivered by actress Linda Hunt, as cameraman Billy Kwan, a male character. Hunt deservedly received the Academy award for best supporting actress for her performance.

Based on the novel of the same name, the film follows a green but ambitious Australian journalist named Guy Hamilton on his first overseas assignment in the early 1960s. Set against the backdrop of real-life historical events, the country of Indonesia is on the verge of Civil War, as Communists threaten to topple a government that is dominated by the military and Islamists.

Actress Linda Hunt earned an Oscar for her portrayal
of male television news cameraman Billy Kwan

On the surface, the film is somewhat in the same category as Casablanca—a love story mixed with foreign intrigue, where a journalist must choose between his ambition to break a big news story and his love for a British embassy worker/undercover intelligence agent (Weaver). But this being a Peter Weir film, the addition of Hunt’s character—as a half Asian-half European dwarf—and the backdrop of Indonesia lends the film an otherworldly “magic realist” quality that is greatly accentuated by the film’s score by Greek composer Vangelis (who also scored Blade Runner).

As I mentioned up front, this movie greatly influenced me. As anyone familiar with my work on Rob Hanes Adventures knows, stories of foreign intrigue set in exotic locales are a favorite genre of mine.

In fact, one of my earliest stories–”The Assassin”—which appears in the Rob Hanes Archives trade paperback collection of the series’ early zine adventures—was very much influenced by this story, partly in its ambiance and particularly in the “protagonist” of the story, Jacoby, who was based somewhat on Gibson’s appearance in the Year of Living Dangerously.

A few other tidbits: when I first watched the film, I was surprised that I understood some of the "Indonesian" spoken in the film. I was aware the movie was mostly filmed in the Philippines, where my parents are from, but assumed they were speaking Indonesian. (Many of the Indonesian roles are played by Filipino actors.) It turns out, of course, that the characters are simply speaking their natural Filipino dialects, most likely Tagalog.

In addition, after I saw the movie, I was anxious to read the book. Surprisingly, at the time, the book was no longer in print in the U.S. As a result, since this was well before the Internet (let alone Amazon), I was left with ordering the book from overseas and having to get a cashier's check in Australian dollars that also covered a postage fee that was was more than the price of the standard paperback book I was ordering. Nevertheless, I ordered the book and enjoyed it, so never regretted the outlay of money and effort it took to get it. It's still a valued part of my home library.

This film was one of the first I purchased on VHS and in widescreen format. The film only relatively recently has been finally made available on DVD in widescreen format.

REVIEWS: Al Capp: A Life to the Contrary

I’ve mentioned in prior posts that the increased mainstream interest in comics has led to an explosion of serious, in-depth biographies and documentaries focused on cartoonists like Hergé (Tintin), Charles Schulz (Peanuts), Will Eisner (The Spirit), Milton Caniff (Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon), and Alex Toth.

A recent such book that I read awhile back and am finally getting around to reviewing is Al Capp: A Life to the Contrary by Michael Schumacher and Denis Kitchen. Capp is the creator-cartoonist of L’il Abner, a hillbilly comic-strip that ran from 1934 to 1977, which often satirized American culture and politics, and reflected Capp’s rather cynical view of the world. I grew up with L'il Abner in the pages of the New York Daily News during the 1960s and '70s, and, as an early avid student of comics history, was well aware of the history of the strip. (The following is a review of the Kindle edition of the book.)

Though now partly obscured by the passage of time, at his peak, Capp was a media celebrity, partly because, like many of the most successful of newspaper cartoonists, he was a master self-promoter. He was among the first cartoonists to become wealthy merchandising his characters and he successfully leveraged his syndicated comic strip into other media, including a still-staged Broadway musical based on his comic strip. Capp himself was a popular public speaker and often appeared on television, including the Tonight Show.

Even if you never heard of Capp or aren’t familiar with his work, many of the characters and settings that sprang from his imagination—L’il Abner, Daisy Mae, Pappy and Mammy Yokum, the town of Dogpatch—have become part of iconic mainstream American lore. His strip also gave us Sadie Hawkins Day and the Shmoo.

Capp also had a legendary dark, misanthropic and curmudgeonly streak that ultimately proved to be his undoing, which has somewhat cast a shadow over his achievements.

To partly understand the man is to know that Capp lost one of his legs in a trolley accident at the age of 9. While the ambitious Capp early on refused to let it define him, his very determination to do so no doubt colored much of his personality. To his credit, this made Capp, to a degree, a model and advocate for people with disabilities. The book movingly tells of his work in reaching out to amputees, especially children, to assure them that they could continue to have normal, successful lives. During World War II, he produced a comic-strip pamphlet for war amputees that drew on his own personal experience.

Capp came from a home with an absentee salesman for a father and a mother who doted on him but always struggled to make ends meet. Due to his father’s absence, Capp was forced to be the “man of the house” at an early age, but he also had a streak of independence and rebellion. As a youth, he hitchhiked across much of the country and soon realized that his artistic talent was his ticket to fame and fortune.

Capp never shied away from a fight and several such scrapes brought him notoriety:

Best known is his legendary bitter feud with fellow cartoonist Ham Fisher, creator of Palooka Joe, for whom Capp once worked as an assistant. Capp chafed at Fisher’s claims that the concept of L’il Abner originated in his strip, while Fisher resented the success of his once assistant. The feud became very nasty, with Fisher accusing Capp in court surreptitiously placing pornographic images in his comics; in turn, Capp taunted Fisher and turned his cartoonist peers against Fisher. The incident led to Fisher being humiliated and ostracized, and his eventual suicide.

There is also Capp’s infamous 1969 public encounter with John Lennon and Yoko Ono in a Montreal hotel room, during the couple’s famous “bed in” for peace during their honeymoon. The incident coincides with Capp’s seeming political shift from bleeding heart liberal to arch conservative during the 1970s. At the risk of over-simplifying, much of this shift could be attributed to the generation gap. While Capp always sided with the “little guy,” his poor background and hard scrabble upbringing made if difficult for him to sympathize with the hippie youth movement, particularly since, in his eyes, many of these young people were privileged college kids. Capp went all out in going to the other side, embracing people like Nixon and Spiro Agnew, taunting student audiences at his college appearances, and even considering a run for the Senate against Ted Kennedy. (Capp at one point received serious encouragement from the GOP establishment, including the White House.)

The ego and ambition that led him to fortune and power also was his undoing. As the book shows, Capp was likely a serial sexual predator, often using his celebrity and power to bed women. While Capp always found willing partners who, as social climbers or would-be starlets, were often willing to trade favors with Capp, he also apparently often preyed on co-eds at the university campuses he frequently visited. (Actress Goldie Hawn has acknowledged that she was the victim of one of Capp’s “casting couch” encounters, but she walked out on him.) While some of his college age victims simply let it slide (or the colleges, in those less enlightened times, simply asked him to leave town), serious charges were eventually brought against him that proved to be his undoing. While never charged, the notoriety put a chill on his work and reputation. (The Capp family initially cooperated with the authors of the biography; though they initially understood the writers would necessarily cover some of the darker aspects of Capp’s life, the family apparently became less cooperative once they saw the extent of the coverage of these incidents in the early drafts.)

In the meantime, Capp’s complex relationships with his family and money also added to his problems. Though he genuinely loved his family and took seriously his obligations to support them once he attained a measure of affluence (including his siblings, who helped him with his business dealings, and his mother), he nevertheless still felt resentment and enormous pressure, which manifested itself in frequent feuds, health issues, and at one point, even a suicide threat. In addition to his serial affairs, Capp also had a longterm affair with an entertainer; though he and his wife considered divorce, Capp ultimately could never bring himself to end the marriage.

While Capp left behind a legacy and an estate which continues to control his creations (he was one of the few cartoonists to gain ownership of his own characters in his lifetime), he nevertheless died a somewhat lonely, broken man, having been ill equipped to enjoy or handle the wealth and fame his cartooning brought him.

REVIEW: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

I’ve often mentioned at this blog my love for Lord of the Rings (LoTR). While I’m admittedly not nearly as well steeped as Tolkien superfan Stephen Colbert in all things Hobbity, I’ve still got pretty good bonafides. Tolkien’s work hit the mainstream in the U.S. in the 1970s when I was in junior high school, a perfect age to discover the books. One of my prized possessions is a boxed edition of the Hobbit and the trillogy that I received as a Christmas present in the early ‘70s, which I have read in their entirety numerous times. I have an early edition of his “prequel” work, the Silmarillion, and excitedly watched the Rankin-Bass adaptations of the Hobbit (and, later, the Return of the King) when they first aired on TV, as well as Ralph Bakshi’s ill-fated animated film adaptation of the first half of the trilogy when the film debuted in theaters.

So, of course, like all LoTR fans, I was thrilled by Peter Jackson’s epic film adaptation of the trilogy. Co-scripted by Jackson with screenwriting partners Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, Jackson’s film faithfully interpreted the spirit and poetry of Tolkien’s masterwork. Tolkien was able to create a rich and believable Middle Earth because, as a linguist, he understood that language, culture and history were intertwined—details that Jackson and his design team incorporated into their work to breathe life into the movies.

While I don’t doubt Jackson’s sincerity in tackling the Hobbit, the prequel trilogy nevertheless has felt a bit more calculated and less spontaneous than the original LoTR trilogy. Warner Brothers, understandably, was anxious to continue the franchise and no doubt thrilled by Jackson’s request to turn what is essentially a children’s story of dwarves, magical rings and goblins into a full-fledged Middle Earth epic. Jackson now likely had all the means and resources at his disposal, and more freedom, to do the films as he saw fit.

With that said, I have to admit I was left a bit cold by the first two Hobbit films. While I certainly felt they were well done I felt that Jackson’s desire to surpass the early trilogy with even greater spectacle and special effects turned it more into a roller coaster ride and somewhat overwhelmed the original story and its characters.

With the set up of the first two films now out of the way, the Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies rushes headlong into an extended climax to the story. Unlike the other films dating back to the original LoTR trillogy where Jackson took time to use the opening sequence to ease the audience back into the story, the story picks up at full tilt from where the Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug left off, with the re-awakened dragon, Smaug, on his way to wreak havoc on Laketown. People not familiar with the book may be surprised at how quickly Smaug is dispatched, leading to the real climactic conflict of the Hobbit, as the humans of Laketown and the elves of the Woodland Realm seek redress and recompense from the dwarves who provoked the dragon. Thorin, beginning to show the same obsession for treasure that drove his father and grandfather to madness, refuses to be extorted. Bilbo, while loyal to Thorin, nevertheless tries to broker peace by turning over to Thorin’s besiegers the one item he values over all else: a rare jewel called the Arkenstone, the heart of the dwarven kingdom under the mountain. As Thorin prepares to go to battle, however, all the armies of the free peoples soon find themselves attacked by armies of goblins and orcs, led by Azog the Defiler.

Although the last installment is action-packed, for me, the trilogy ended on a positive, strong note. The time Jackson spent at the beginning of the film (following the Smaug sequence) and in the previous films to develop the characters finally pay off. The resolution to the Tauriel/Kili romance ends on a moving note and the battle scene near the beginning of the film between Galadriel, Elrond, Sauron, and Gandalf against Sauron is a particular treat. Thorin’s final battle with Azog is perhaps a bit too drawn out and represents one of Jackson’s most extensive digressions from the original book, but like the extended closing sequence of the earlier trilogy, Jackson has earned the right to end the series on his own terms.

My only complaint is that I wish the film spent a little time showing the surviving dwarves make peace with the people of Laketown and the elves at the end. Aside from that, the final film was a satisfying end to the sprawling telling of the original Hobbit novel and becomes a fitting “prequel” to the Lord of the Rings trilogy that follows chronologically.

Entertainment Roundup for 2014

As I do every new year, here is my annual list of films, books, TV shows, comics, and other entertainments I took in this past year.

The list of television shows I watch always tends to be a bit thin since I don't always do a good job of keeping track of what I watch. I follow few shows regularly, partly because many modern television shows require a level of commitment I don't have the time to give. This makes shows with relatively few shows per season—like "Downton Abbey" and "Sherlock" —more appealing to me.

As usual, family and other obligations prevented me from seeing as many films as I did in my youth, but among those I caught, the ones I really enjoyed were Gravity, Grand Budapest Hotel, Captain America: Winter Soldier, Laggies, Begin Again, Belle, Big Hero 6, and The Hobbit: Battle of Five Armies. (With the children getting older, at least we've graduated beyond animated fare!) The year in films ended strongly for me since I really enjoyed the latter films, particularly Laggies, Begin Again, and Belle. Films I thought were fine but a bit overrated critically: the Lego Movie and Guardians of the Galaxy.





As to other distractions, I greatly enjoyed Andy Weir's hot novel, the Martian, Robert M. Edsel's Monuments Men, Cary Elwes' As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of Princess Bride, and B.J. Novak's collection of short stories, One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories.

And now without any further ado...

Films:

Spy Games (HBO)
Rocketeer - Netflix streaming (1/4/14)
Iron Lady - Neflix (1/11/14)
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - HBO (1/18/14)
Good Ol’ Freda - DVD (1/21/14)
Gravity (1/26/14)
The Campaign - HBO (2/6/14)
This is 40 - HBO (2/6/14)
Mother - Netflix streaming (2/7/14)
To Rome with Love - DVD (2/8/14)
42 - HBO (2/11/14)
Ride with the Devil - HBO (2/14/14)
Admission - HBO (2/16/14)
The Lifeguard - Netflix streaming (2/21/14)
The Lego Movie (3/9/14)
Grand Budapest Hotel (3/29/14)
Muppets Most Wanted (4/2/14)
Captain America: Winter Soldier (4/5/14)
The Emperor - Netflix (6/1/14)
Don Jon - Netflix (6/1/14)
How to Lose Friends and Alienate People - Netflix (6/2/14)
X-Men: First Class - DVR/FX (6/8/14)
Little Big League (6/9/14)
Haunted Mansion (6/20/14)
Guardians of the Galaxy (8/3/14)
Letter to Momo (9/1/14)
The French Minister (9/3/14)
Jiro Dreams of Sushi (10/11/2014)
Belle - Amazon Streaming (10/19/14)
Laggies (10/25/14)
Begin Again - Amazon Streaming (10/26/14)
Cuban Fury - Netflix Streaming (11/3/14)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail - DVD (11/8/14)
Big Hero 6 (11/9/14)
Sherlock, Jr. - TCM (11/10/14)
Faded Gigolo - Netflix (11/15/14)
Theory of Everything (11/23/14)
The Duchess - Netflix (11/25/14)
Penguins of Madagascar (11/27/14)
It Happened One Night - TCM (11/28/14)
Il Sorpasso - TCM (11/28/14)
Tootsie (11/29/14)
Horrible Bosses (11/30/14)
A Dangerous Method - Ovation (12/11/14)
Tower Heist (12/20/2014)
The Hobbit: Battle of Five Armies (12/21/14)

Theater:

Into the Woods (12/13/14)

Television:

Arrested Development Season 4 - Netflix (1/15/14)
Downton Abbey
Sherlock (2/2/14)
Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Baseball
Holy Flying Circus

Books:

The Making of Star Wars by J.W. Rinzler (1/3/2014)
The Martian by Andy Weir (2/21/2014)
Five Came Back by Mark Harris (3/7/14)
Monuments Men by Robert M. Edsel (7/9/2014)
As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of Princess Bride by Cary Elwes (10/24/2014)
One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories by B.J. Novak

Happy Holidays from WCG Comics

Thanks to everyone for a great 2014 and best wishes for a happy and healthy 2015.

This past year was a banner year for WCG—Rob Hanes Adventures #15 was released and we exhibited once again at the San Diego Comic-Con in July.

In addition, WCG marked its 20th anniversary publishing and, in July, Rob Hanes Adventures debuted at Comixology, marking the series’ debut in digital format. The first two issues are now available there, with more on the way as the entire series becomes available at the site. But not to worry—the print edition will continue as always!

Yes, it’s been a busy year—in fact, we have really big plans for 2015, but we’ll save that news until after the holidays!

Until then, have a happy holiday season and new year!

Click here to view holiday greetings from years past...