A public rift between Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures could mean big changes for popular superhero movies. Sony owns the movie rights to the Spider-Man character and just had its highest-grossing movie ever this summer with Spider-Man: Far From Home. The two studios have cooperated in recent years, with Spider-Man appearing in Avengers movies and Marvel’s Iron Man playing an important role in the Spider-Verse.
The Bodleian Library in Oxford loaned a trove of J.R.R. Tolkien’s sketches, doodles, and illustrations to New York’s Morgan Library & Museum, which calls it “the most extensive public display of original Tolkien material for several generations.” The exhibit closes May 12, and it has been packed in its final weeks, for good reason. Though the exhibit is contained in only two large rooms, I spent hours inside poring over Tolkien’s meticulous notes, maps, and paintings.
Artist Roger Blum, now 78, grew up in a troubled Seventh-day Adventist home in Northern California. That upbringing led him to register as a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War. In 1965, when he was beginning a master’s degree program and trying to establish himself as an illustrator, he received a draft notice.
Art | A treasury of J.R.R. Tolkien’s paintings and notes is on display in New York
