The real, true director’s cut of this seminal and prophetic film is coming:

This current “Final Cut” version, Scott said, comes closest to what the film could have been and, in his mind, should have been.

“It’s quite a thing to come back to this film now, after all this time, after a quarter of a century,” said Scott, whose résumé includes “Thelma & Louise,” “Gladiator” and “Black Hawk Down.”

“This is a film that, in many ways, has echoed throughout popular culture in a very special way.”

The film also seems to have been a career landmark for just about everyone involved.

“I was never on another movie set quite like that one,” said Daryl Hannah, who portrayed the sexualized android called Pris. “I was very young, and every day it felt the way you fantasize that making a movie would be — like you’re stepping into another world.”

NPR’s On The Media looks at the cultural impact of manga:

Manga is Japan’s ubiquitous art form; a kind of comic book equivalent that illustrates everything from tax preparation to hard-core fantasy. But it is its growing success outside Japan that’s highlighted its new utility, what Japanese politicians are calling ‘manga diplomacy.’ Roland Kelts, author of Japanamerica, explains why politicians are recognizing the form as a powerful cultural export.

[Thanks to Kevin for the link.]

Roland Kelts, author of Japanamerica, has thoughts on manga as a feminist issue, in comparing the number of “strong female characters” in anime and manga with real life gender roles:

Indeed, a foreign fan of manga and anime might be forgiven for assuming that Japan, creative nerve center for the artwork itself, is a global leader in gender equity.

Yet just last month, The New York Times ran a damning indictment of Japan’s actual treatment of women in the workplace, noting that in 2005, women held a mere 10.1 percent of all management jobs in Japanese companies and government. (The U.S. figure is 42.5 percent.) In the United Nations index of gender empowerment, a survey of 75 countries, Japan ranks 42nd, far below Asian neighbors such as Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines. The article predicts dire consequences for a nation with an anemic birthrate and looming labor shortages.

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Pretty much everything of interest in the Nate Fisher/Eightball case has been said, until Fisher himself speaks, perhaps, but a few late comments are worth noting. We found these through our own trackbacks (Our story got Boing Boinged yesterday, sending our hits and trackbacks through the roof.) but if anyone knows of any other USEFUL commentary, send us a link.
First, Eric Reynolds has his final say on the matter. We encourage everyone to read it for themselves, as its quite thoughtful. Nut kernal:

I appreciate any parent wanting to protect their children, but in this case, would the child be any less protected if a solution that didn’t include a police investigation and/or immediate resignation had been pursued? To me, that’s the fundamental question.

Another interesting perspective is from a blog called Minivan Diaries, which the sidebar tells us, is written by a mother of four who once planned to be a children’s advocate:

However, at what cost and to what extremes do we go to protect our children? Isn’t it also our job to be good role models for our kids, especially when they are teenagers and they judge our behavior so scrupulously? By rushing to the police, and notifying school officials, she denied the teacher any opportunity to explain himself. He was guilty way before he even had a chance to prove his innocence, or at least his poor judgement. This was a perfect opportunity for a Parental Teaching moment — to demonstrate how adults work out differences by gathering facts, communicating, trying to understand both sides of an issue, and in this case, realizing that people, even teachers are human and they make mistakes.

After reading all of the hullabaloo, it’s pretty clear that mistakes were made on every side. I don’t think anyone would question the right or duty of parents to protect their kids. Hopefully the next time something like this happens, more private discussion will occur before the media decides to have its own field day.

The New Haven Register weighs in with actual news story about the story of a Connecticut teacher who resigned after parents complained about him giving a 13-year-old a mature reader comic to read. The story confirms that it was, indeed EIGHTBALL #22 which is the book in question. The book shows a topless women and a man putting his hand up a woman’s skirt. Of course, there is much more to the story — it seems the student has been hazed in person and on Facebook*** because the teacher was very popular with other students.

The parents of a freshman student whose teacher resigned after he gave her a sexually explicit illustrated book said Wednesday their daughter has been the target of harassment from fellow students, and they want the school district to do more to clarify the issue with other parents.

The girl’s father, who asked that his family remain anonymous because it has already been the target of criticism, described the graphic novel that English teacher Nate Fisher gave the student as “borderline pornography.”

The book, one of a series of comic book novels by Daniel Clowes, is called “Eightball #22.” It includes references to rape, various sex acts and murder, as well as images of a naked woman, and a peeping tom watching a woman in the shower.

“It’s not even like a gray area,” the father said. “It’s clearly over the line.”

CBLDF head Chalres Brownstein is quoted throughout the story. Reading between thelines, all we can say is that we’re glad that dad wasn’t our dad. That said, it is up to parents to choose what their kids read. While we may think that the Clowesian brand of “rape and…murder” is fine, it may not be fine for all kids.

As for whether the teacher in question can be prosecuted…well, Clowes’ new comic strip running in the NY Times and general reputation as a respected literary figure would certainly make any legal action very interesting. In fact, EIGHTBALL #22 was eventually collected by Random House as the grahpic novel ICE HAVEN, making prosecution seem crazy mad. But sadly, worse things have happened in these United States. If nothing else, this small town tale of a very protective father, a well liked teacher, and a girl harassed by her schoolmates could be something out of…A DANIEL CLOWES COMIC!

If you watch the various news reports up on the internet, it’s clear that the media is making a meal out of this, with the sensational aspects played up. We’ve predicted this before, but we’ll predict it again: once someone who wants ratings actually reads a yaoi manga, we’re in for it.

***Facebook is the devil’s work by the way.

PR on a new issue of UVC magazine spotlighting a little seen group in comics:

Since its debut in February 2007, UVC: The Urban Voice in Comics has provided news, information and opinions about black comics and creators for all readers. This fall, UVC takes a closer look at a small but significant segment of the comics industry - black women.

Among the features in the November/December 2007 issue include the following:

· feature articles on black women creators and industry figures, including Barbara Brandon-Croft, Spike, and The Ormes Society founder Cheryl Lynn Eaton
· a listing and analysis of the major black women characters at both Marvel and DC Comics
· selective listings of significant black women characters in other comics, past and present, real and fictitious

In addition, this special issue will also include articles about black women in science-fiction film and television, in animation, and as science-fiction/fantasy novelists.

It is the goal of the staff at UVC to provide a greater awareness of the contributions black women have made to not only comics, but pop culture at large, as well as to encourage black women elsewhere to take an interest in comics, whether as a fan or as a creator.

UVC is available through Diamond Comic Distributors and the November/December 2007 issue can be found on page 386 of the September 2007 Previews catalogue.

Playing video games erases the spatial acuity gap between men and women at least according to one study where men and women participated in an “off Man Out” game in which men scored much better than women. However, then video games entered the picture.

They asked some of their volunteers to spend ten hours playing an action-packed, shoot-’em-up video game, called “Medal of Honour: Pacific Assault”. As a control, other volunteers were asked to play a decidedly non-action-packed puzzle game, called “Ballance”, for a similar time. Both sets were then asked to do the odd-man-out test again.

Among the Ballancers, there was no change in the ability to pick out the unusual. Among those who had played “Medal of Honour”, both sexes improved their performances.

That is not surprising, given the different natures of the games. However, the improvement in the women was greater than the improvement in the men—so much so that there was no longer a significant difference between the two. Moreover, that absence of difference was long-lived. When the volunteers were tested again after five months, both the improvement and the lack of difference between the sexes remained. Though it is too early to be sure, it looks likely that the change in spatial acuity—and the abolition of any sex difference in that acuity—induced by playing “Medal of Honour” is permanent.

Mark Evanier on WHAT IF JOE MANEELY HAD LIVED. Maneely was Stan Lee’s favorite artist and might have had a interesting influence on the early years of Marvel had he not been killed in a freak subway accident:

First off, if Maneely had lived, Atlas/Marvel would have been a very different company. Actually, between him and Kirby and Ditko (Stan’s other favorite artist), there would have been little room for anyone else to draw for the firm. It’s apparently true that rising sales on Kirby-drawn comics — the ones Steven mentions but especially the western, Rawhide Kid — encouraged Goodman to keep publishing comics at a time when he was considering the abandonment of that marketplace. As I wrote in a recent Jack Kirby Collector, “Would it [Rawhide Kid] have gained readers if Stan had put Maneely on the book? Who knows? Sometimes, it’s not a matter of having a good artist but of having the right good artist and the right chemistry.”

§ Nadia Oxford at Mania.Com wonders if Manga Burnout is waiting in the wings

Will manga ever fall away from mainstream American culture? Elder members of the human race are fond of rattling off every fad that’s come and gone throughout their lives; hula hoops, Slinkies, Cabbage Patch dolls. It’s tempting to heap the likes of Pokemon on that pile, but can manga and anime be similarly filed away as faded memories?

Thankfully, her answer is “No.”

§ Jason Rodriguez begins video podcasting about POSTCARDS.

§ ACLU comics.

The rumor that manga-lovin’ Japanese pol Taro Aso (above, clothed) may be replacing Shinzo Abe as Prime MInister sent manga shares soaring believe it or not!

Shares of companies linked to the Japanese style cartoons known as “manga” jumped Wednesday on speculation that a big fan of the genre may become the country’s next prime minister.

[snip]An avowed fan of “manga” and Japanese animation known as “anime,” Aso has argued that warm feelings for Japanese cartoons can translate into warm feelings for Japanese foreign policy.

“We didn’t develop manga, karaoke and conveyor-belt sushi just because we wanted to win praise overseas,” Aso, a former foreign minister, wrote on his Web site. “We just loved them, and we did our utmost inventing them.”

Azo already established a manga prize; it is unknown whether he goes to the manga shop every Wednesday or what condition he likes his books in.

Grant Woolard, a cartoonist for the University of Viginia’s Cavalier Daily has been forced to resign after a controversy erupted over one of his cartoons, entitled “Ethiopian Food Fight” which showed emaciated African men fighting with chairs and other objects.

The drawing prompted strong condemnation from the university’s black community. On Wednesday evening, nearly 200 people staged a sit-in outside the paper’s office in Newcomb Hall, demanding an apology and for Woolard to be fired.

The managing board met that first demand on Thursday with an apology published in the paper’s lead editorial. Woolard also apologized.

“This is settled now,” the dean of African-American Affairs, Maurice Apprey, said on Monday. “Also, we now have the opportunity for better dialogue between student groups and the Cavalier Daily.”

“I think the young man who wrote the cartoon was operating under the principle that there can be multiple meanings to a cartoon. But what he did not seem to understand is that what you intend is not necessarily how something will be received. That shows immaturity on his part and I think this is an important lesson for him,” Apprey said.

Woolard is still in fighting mode over his dismissal, and says that his editors approved the strip; three other cartoonsits have quit to protest his firing. It was not Woolard’s first brush with controversy, however. Last year he drew criticism for a cartoon showing Christ being crucified on Cartesian X and Y quadrants (above), which would be funny if anyone could understand it.

We don’t know about you, but Occasional Superheroine has been slaming it out of the park on a regular basis and is definitely on our absolute must-read list on a daily basis now. Following her trip down to Baltimore, Val took a look around what is a charming but “mainstream” con:

The truth was that the sense of willingness to try new things on the part of the attendees — seek out new books and talent — was relatively small. At least much smaller than San Diego or New York.

Some webcomics creators expressed frustration about the con, noting this lack of attendees who were even receptive enough to take their flyers.

“In a few cases they actually gave my flyer back and refused to look at it” one webcomics exhibitor reported. “In all the many conventions I’ve been to, that has NEVER happened.”

The same exhibitor noted that their success in anime conventions has been far greater, even though their webcomic is not related to manga. “Anime fans just have much more of an adventuresome energy, and want to try new things.”

While we wouldn’t wnat to fault the Balitmore show — it’s truly a relaxing oasis in a summer of tensions and anxiety, and everyone has a good time — the comment about anime cons is very interesting. We had quite a few conversations at the retailer summit about whether manga fans would make the reverse commute to read Occidental comics. Are they more open minded? Any anecdotal evidence from the peanut gallery?

super friends let it all hang out.

DO not click on this link unless you are ready for a very, very disturbing image with superheroic undertones, but no underwear at all.

Edit: The page is gone. If you saved the picture, let Heidi know. — MLC

According to the Taipei Times, Japan’s 24 hour manga/internet cafes are giving rise to a small population of refugees who live in them.

Internet cafes and “manga” comic cafes are omnipresent in urban Japan, offering couches, computers, soft drinks and comic books to stressed businessmen or commuters who missed their train.

But a government survey found that an estimated 5,400 people have virtually moved in to the 24-hour cafes.

It said some 80 percent of Japan’s “net cafe refugees” are men and that 52.7 percent said they decided to live in the lounges because they lost their jobs.

Controversy is growing over the above cartoon by Ed Gamble of the Florida Times Union. Gamble says his intent was to criticize the “no snitch” custom; and he knew the cartoon would be controversial:

“I find the word ‘ho’ very offensive and think it is tearing away the moral fabric in the Black society and degrading to the women who are the pillars in this society. Now the ‘No Snitch’ rule of law that is spreading is causing more harm. This is not an Imus racist thing. This is a cartoon showing that someone can murder and that no snitch is the ticket and that (rap music billboard) disrespect for the Black women is common among these thugs.

However, several groups. including the NAACP, think Gamble needs to apologize:

In a letter sent to all Jacksonville television stations as well as the newspaper, the Jacksonville Leadership Coalition called the cartoon “racist, culturally insensitive and degrading to African-American women.”
In addition to the apology, the group also called for the firing of cartoonist Ed Gamble, the hiring of a person of African-American descent for the newspaper’s editorial board and a meeting with black leaders to “resolve the issue.”

The letter quotes the Rev. Rudolph McKissick Jr., who described the cartoon as “insensitive to African American women, children and the community.”

Long thought an endangered species, Klingons have been spotted lately in Texas, giving hope that this rare and beautiful species may still make a comeback from the brink of extinction.

When the Klingons walk into the Krispy Kreme on Cooper Street in Arlington, the doughnut makers try not to gawk. The 10 or so officers of the Imperial Klingon Vessel, Melota, have long hair and ridged foreheads. They wear elaborate leather and metal armor.

Mark ‘Qel’ogh-wI’ Alcala, captain of the IKV Melota, got Pat Burke’s help getting ready for the recent Klingon Ball, which raised $600 for SafeHaven of Tarrant County. Everyone in the room is curious what the Star Trek characters are doing here. They are eating doughnuts and drinking milk.

Another newspaper, another favorable review of the Minx line (along with other comics):

The hip Minx series is consistently cranking out some of the sassiest, fun-to-read comics this year. The top-rate talents attached to it never talk down to the readership, and they address heady topics - death, Sept. 11, racism, partying - without being preachy.

Every month I receive a Minx title, I move it to the top of my comic books pile at home. After reading one, you’ll understand why.

The story is written by one “Randy Myers” which could theoretically be a female, but a little googling shows it’s a guy. Which is fine. The Minx line is a nice little line of books. We know from our link farms that it has touched the fancy of thirty-something male comics writers across the land. Our question is, do we know if any actual girls are reading these? The female blogosphere hasn’t been all that supportive of the line, but some have read that as sour grapes over the lack of female writers.

We’ve heard of a few bits of anecdotal but we’re still curious. Buehler?

As long as we’re picking on DC, Marc-Oliver Frisch looks into his crystal ball and what he sees is…clouded.:

At DC Comics, the future holds… well, more of the same, really. Which in itself isn’t a bad thing, unless you realize that 2007 so far hasn’t been going desperately well for them. So, more of the same? Well, not ideal. In Salvation Run, an upcoming seven-issue limited series by Bill Willingham and Sean Chen, mysterious forces are conspiring to ship the DC Universe’s villains off to some nasty prison planet for good, instead of going through the hassle of putting them on trial and such. In fairness, the concept seems workable enough and it’s a solid creative team. On the other hand, of course, Salvation Run is another Countdown spin-off title, and it’s apparently connected to everything else DC are putting out. So that’s two big strikes against it which might make it a bit of a hard sell, given the less than impressive sales Countdown itself has been generating so far.

Platinum teams with iTaggit, an online indexing system for collectors, and the result is a press release of even greater than normal vagueness.

iTaggit, the leading social collecting and personal asset management service, today announced its partnership with Platinum Studios (http://www.platinumstudios.com/), an entertainment media company that controls one of the world’s largest independent libraries of comic book characters. As a result of the unique relationship, iTaggit is making significant additions to their site in an effort to further support an increasing user group of comic book fans and collectors alike.

A specific Platinum Studios category on iTaggit contains information on Platinum-owned titles, pertinent comic book industry information, and links to Platinum Studios’ stores and sites. Comic users are also able to import information from a Platinum Studios catalog containing background on current and feature releases for quick item adding into their collections.

(more…)

A few lifetimes ago when we were finishing reading HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, as we walked home from Madison Square Park, we spotted an odd sight for a Saturday afternoon: a rather muscular, shirtless man with a mullet, wearing a dog collar and camouflage pants walking slowly, yet deliberately out of a coffee shop. He had both the mein and the attire of a Chippendales dancer who had gone home the previous night with someone sporting a wad of greenbacks and a personal limo and then had quite an adventure involving midgets and crocodiles, and was now setting off for home at 4:30 in the afternoon.

We confess to finding the whole thing so odd that we trailed him all the way to 3rd Avenue, when our paths diverged and seemliness required that we mind our own business.

Well, now it turns out that this same fellow has been dubbed “He-Man” and was spotted in the Union Square area for several days — there is even a website devoted to tracking his whereabouts: Find He-Man. The blog has some photos of him in his native garb. It seems every night involved midgets and crocodiles for this chap.

This is all so bizarre that the only person who could possibly have stated this blog is He-Man himself. Indeed there is something odd and fishy about all of this. Is He-Man the new Lonelygirl15? Is it a promotion for MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE? Or is life just THAT connected that every random street sihting must now become a web site? Does He-Man have a Twitter account?

[Spotted via Urbaniak, who quite rightly points out that He-Man looks even more like Brock Sampson than He-Man.]

Let’s face, when you hear the word “Thailand” you think of a swinging anything goes kind of place, where the rules that other people have are pretty much left by the wayside. So what would offend in such a place? What could bring shame? Well, it turns out that the one thing people fear is Hello Kitty:

Police chiefs in the Thai capital, Bangkok, have come up with a new way of punishing officers who break the rules - an eye-catching Hello Kitty armband.

The armband is large, bright pink and has a Hello Kitty motif with two hearts embroidered on it.

From today, officers who are late, park in the wrong place or commit other minor transgressions will have to wear it for several days.

The girly armband is designed to shame those who must bear it, officials say. Frankly, we think wearing an armband of The Turds or the Bratz would be more humiliating, but every society has its own mores. Who are we to judge?

[Thanks to Martha C. for the link.]

Immigration Official TELLS IT LIKE IT IS to Tony Lee:
There was one concern while I was in customs - when asked why I was there, I explained that I was going to the San Diego Comic Con, no, I mean superheroes, not comedians - and the customs officer goes ‘You know about solvent abuse?’

Now, what the hell am I supposed to say here? Did I look like some kind of deviant comic professional? Should I reply with ‘I’m from London, mate - we invented glue sniffing’?

I make a vague agreeing motion, wondeing what the hell I’ve brought into the country in my luggage - am I about to be deported back? But no. The customs guard wants to inform me that one of the current ‘trends’ in California is that when people who have severe solvent abuse addiction well, die - their possessions are put up for public auction, and many of them have boxes of comic books, usually sold off at a dollar a box. I tried to sound vaguely interested in this (as opposed to horrified) and escaped into the terminal where I had a burger. Of course, it’s now

CBR starts a comprehensive series by Emmett Furey:

Parts I and II will introduce the nine participants. Part I features Marc Andreyko, Lillian Diaz-Przbyl, Devin Grayson, Terrance Griep and Mark Millar, and part II introduces Allan Heinberg, Scott Lobdell, Alan Moore and Greg Rucka. In addition to biographical materials, each introductory segment will also include the participant’s musings on their own comics work that features GLBT characters and themes.

Parts III and IV will be the article proper, in which the participants address a wide range of topics. In part III, the participants discuss the Comics Code, the stigma of comics as a children’s medium, whether homosexuality is a lifestyle choice or a genetic predisposition, and the tendency for fictional GLBT characters to be defined by their sexuality. The topics for part IV include the “gay retcon,” the participants’ picks for well-informed portrayals of GLBT characters in comics, and the state of the union of homosexuality in comics.

Very interesting reading, both for the personal insights and the attitudes towards GBLT characters.

A new study backs up the idea that older folks just don’t think things are as funny as the whippersnappers:

It’s no laughing matter: a new study suggests older adults have a harder time getting jokes as they age. The research indicates that because older adults may have greater difficulty with cognitive flexibility, abstract reasoning and short-term memory, they also have greater difficulty with tests of humor comprehension.

Researchers at Washington University tested about 40 healthy adults over age 65 and 40 undergraduate students with exercises in which they had to complete jokes and stories. Participants also had to choose the correct punch line for verbal jokes and select the funny ending to series of cartoon panels.

Although the evidence sounds compelling, the cartoon exercise involved finding a funny ending to a Ferd’nand comic strip. Why didn’t they just make the old-timers rhyme “month” and “orange” while they were at it?

Happy Holiday, y’all. Hope you get to see some wizard fireworks!

(more…)

According to one survey, almost 1 in 4 Japanese men between 30-34 is a virgin:

“There are 11 percent of people who gave an invalid answer to the survey and I bet you the vast majority of them would be virgins. And though there is also 65 percent who said they have had sex, that also includes the guys whose only experience is a single session at the brothel and nothing since, so there are a lot of virtual virgins in amongst them, too,” Watanabe says.

The Japan Cherry Boy Association currently boasts of 517 members whose ages range from their teens to their 40s. Many join the association in the hopes that women will visit its website and try to pick them up. Some members, albeit only a few, actually succeed in “graduating” from the club by successfully experiencing sex.

Some have found comfort in works of fiction:

Conservative virgins argue that they’ve had enough of real women and would prefer two-dimensional types such as those found in manga and anime, who are also not going to lead them to the pain of rejection.

We’ve been poking around lately trying to figure out if things like NYMPHET are normal fun for the whole family or outlets for more dysfunctional aspects of Japanese society; answering such a question is far beyond the scope of one little blog. However we have heard repeated mentions of a Japanese “sex crisis” as in many young women and men not having any. We also are reminded that lots of shojo(girls) comics are actually read by young men. (And girls read shonen.) Anyway, we dont’ have any answers…just throwing that out there.

[Found via Simon at Icarus]

Old Disney Rejection Letter via Boing Boing.

UPDATE: to those who thought this was not a form letter — nope, it was SOP.

Damn if that name hadn’t already been taken for a blog we would so steal it! Anyhoo, our ongoing study of the state of Thunderbirds fandom was picked up by a site which asked When is a fandom dead? and the comments waxed philosophical.

I would personally define a fandom as being “dead” when one fan can no longer get on their computer and be able to find another fan to connect with and share their love for the work with. I’d say even if things are slow on all the sites, if there is any LJ community or message board where someone can get on and say “I was watching some old episodes and feeling nostalgic today…” and start some kind of discussion, then that fandom isn’t dead. I find the essence of fandom to be communication between fans of the same thing, not necessarily all the creating of fanfic and art and stuff that will usually die down once the canon is done.

Indeed! And the Thunderbirds fans aren’t dead. They exist as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Thunderbirds fans! It would be as dreary as if there were no Beat. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Speaking of “fans” some crazy wack job claims to have spoiled Harry Potter #7.

The mystery surrounding the end to fictional boy wizard Harry Potter’s saga deepened on Wednesday with a computer hacker posting what he said were key plot details and a publisher warned the details could be fake.

The hacker, who goes by the name “Gabriel,” claims to have taken a digital copy of author J.K. Rowling’s seventh and final book, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” by breaking into a computer at London-based Bloomsbury Publishing.

Computer experts say the hack is unlikely but we say .. DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND DON’T READ THESE SPOILERS! We are keeping a wide berth from ANYTHING that might possibly ruin our enjoyment of DEATHLY HALLOWS on the day it arrives, and not a day sooner. That’s how we roll, and we like it that way.

Wait here’s one more: Unhappy ‘Transformer’ Fans Threatened Michael Bay’s Life:

Movie mogul Michael Bay received death threats from Transformers fans when he was announced as the film’s director. The blockbuster movie maker was not a popular choice to take charge of the first Transformers film and fans of the toys and animated TV series made sure he knew how they felt.

Bay says, “I did get a lot of flak from fans on the internet. They’d be like, ‘Michael Bay wrecked my childhood. Michael Bay, you suck. We’re gonna protest this at your office.’ Some did - they protested at my old office, apparently. But it was the death threats that really freaked me out.”

Come on now, kids, they’re only toys!