deerstalker
After losing the woman of his dreams, Merlin moves to Las Vegas to pursue work as a magician, only to get hired as the frontman in a revival of the notorious Black male stripper crew, The Chocolate Chips. Led by Luther – now broke and broken – the older, out-of-shape Chips put aside former conflicts and reunite to save the hotel they used to perform in while helping Merlin win back his girl.
Cast: Tiffany Haddish, Kevin Hart, Wesley Snipes, Gary Owen, JB Smoove, Faizon Love, Spence Moore, Bill Bellamy, Raigan Harris, and Colleen Camp.
Back On The Strip is in theaters April 21st.
Michael Mumbauer is the founder and CEO of Liithos, which has partnered with a who’s who of comic book artists — including Paul Pelletier (Aquaman, Guardians of the Galaxy, et al.), Brett Booth (Backlash, Gunslinger), and Eisner Award winner Tony Harris (Starman, Ex Machina) — to launch an all-new comic book series of the same name that will be written by Garvin. Launching this March, fans can visit Liithos.com to get physical, digital, or NFT versions of the new comic book.
BGN chatted with Mumbauer over Zoom to discuss the use of social media, his action goals with Liithos, and creating new methods to launch comic book projects and video games.
Share with us what Liithos is doing for the entertainment industry, and what you’re setting out to achieve with the studio.
I want to continue the journey that I was on at PlayStation but be a little bit more experimental. Being in a big, big, big company, it’s harder to do quirky things. So I’m doing this TikTok series. I’m not sure that that would have been an easy path to deliver at any big major company because it’s a very strange platform. And the way I’m using it is very odd.
Liithos is about me being able to take the risks that I want to take in terms of the opportunities, experimental areas, and new markets. TikTok is one of the biggest platforms in the world. I think that is not entirely understood. I don’t think it’s good or bad. I just think it’s not entirely understood. And I think it is a platform that we can leverage and create new kinds of storytelling opportunities.
It’s not that I want to make a company to make TikTok videos or games, but the idea was to be able to have the freedom to experiment on these platforms and drive them back to the game. The game is our core focus, but what I want to do on the periphery of the games are in the areas of experimentation and storytelling. So those kinds of experimentations in storytelling led to The Last of Us.
You have a project called Ashfall, which is a comic right?
It’s a game and a comic! And now it’s a TikTok series. I would say, it’s a transmedia IP, which now The Last of Us is. The Last of Us was a comic series at its release of the first game as well. I think anything that’s more than just the game ultimately can sit in a bucket called transmedia. Rather than wait for the release of the game, let’s explore the IP while working. That also means we’ll look at the difference in the variations of the character, which we released in June. We released some images of a character in June as the protagonist for the series in the game, and it’s evolved.
Are you doing short narrative pieces in TikTok form to do this long lead launch into the game?
Yes, some almost think of it. It’s something totally different, like the Batman: The Animated Series. If they’re making a Batman game, it doesn’t necessarily lead to the game. But this is about the spirit of the IP being explored in a space that’s very, very new. I love short-form. I love episodic content. Are you a comic strip fan? Are you a comic strip nerd?
Absolutely.
Not comic books. I’m talking comics strips.
Oh yeah, Garfield, The Family Circus, and Curtis are just some I remember reading back in the day.
When was the last time you watched or read a Sunday comic?
It’s been years. I don’t even get the paper anymore.
So what you just described is what happened to Sunday comics, which is a bit tragic, right? We don’t read the newspaper in that format anymore. I’m not sure who you know who goes to see Sunday comics.
But as a child, to be honest, I was obsessed with Sunday comics. I would get the paper and cut all of the comics out and make my own books of the comics. They had to tell stories in six to eight panels. How do you tell a story weekly in that? Comics, they give you eight panels, and you come back next week to find out what happened.
The whole medium was completely different. What if we were going to take a Sunday comics format and apply that to TikTok as live action? Has anybody even done that? Comics for an entire new generation, if that makes sense.
I don’t know if we’ll be successful. But narratives that are kind of exciting and fun and I want to know what happens because there’s a cliffhanger. That’s the key. Every one of these TikTok episodes has a cliffhanger. That’s what we did in Sunday comics. That’s what we’re trying to do. It’s just a fun experiment in a new IP.
Have you found that because of social media and how users are engaging with these platforms that TikTok influencers have far more reach than, say, partnering up with a TV or movie celebrity?
I think that’s the experiment. We’re gonna find out. Michael Le is doing this experimental series, and he has 53 million followers. If we try to visualize what 53 million followers look like, that’s the state of California, the state of Oregon, and the state of Washington combined. If we can capture 1% of that audience, it’s an amazing achievement, just on a social platform of engagement. If we can get 10%, that’s 5 million people. And if it grows beyond that, it’s amazing.
So that’s the experiment. Will people resonate with this? I don’t know. I think celebrity means a very different thing today. I think that Mr. Beast and Michael Le are just as powerful as any film or music celebrity I can think of.
To stay up to date on this and all things Liithos: visit https://liithos.com, or follow them on Twitter at @liithosent, or join their Discord at https://discord.gg/liithos.
Winnie Harlow took the fashion world by storm as soon as she sashayed her way onto the scene. The 28-year-old Jamaican-Canadian beauty got her big break on the 21st cycle of America’s Next Top Model in 2014.
Instantly, she became a standout contestant and fan favorite who refused to let vitiligo, a chronic skin condition and auto-immune disease, hinder her from pursuing her dreams.
Following the show, Harlow was tapped as a brand representative for Desigual and appeared in advertising campaigns for Fendi, Marc Jacobs, Tommy Hilfiger, Diesel, Swarovski, and MAC. She also made history as the first model with vitiligo to walk in the coveted Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in 2016 and went on to grace countless magazine covers, including Vogue, Harper’s Baazar, and Elle.
Now, after redefining the face of beauty, the 5’9 supermodel is making her mark in the beauty industry with her new skincare line, Cay Skin, which promises to protect all skin tones and shades from sun damage.
“I created Cay Skin to ensure that everyone has access to clean sun care, no matter their skin color, condition, or type,” Harlow told BLACK ENTERPRISE in an email. “It was important for me to create a brand formulated for people who, like me, dislike the feeling of heavy sunscreen, with pore-clogging ingredients, and the white cast it leaves.”
Harlow says she was inspired to launch Cay Skin last year after getting a severe sunburn during a tropical photo shoot back in 2018.
“I had a two-day shoot in the Bahamas from sunup to sundown, and I was asked to skip sun protection to avoid the awful white cast that traditional sunscreen would leave on my skin. I ended up severely sunburned and was forced to seek emergency medical care for extreme pain and severe inflammation,” she said.
In addition to enduring physical pain, the sunburn permanently altered her vitiligo pattern. “That experience changed my life, and, since then, it became my mission to create superior products for everyone—skincare that is sun care—with no compromises.”
Cay Skin includes SPF-enriched body and face products packed with nourishing ingredients like sea moss, a nutrient-rich seaweed containing 92 minerals; hydrating tropical plant nectar; and Kakadu Plum, a rich source of vitamin C and a powerful antioxidant that brightens skin. Some of the most popular products from the line include the Isle Glow Face Lotion SPF 45, Universal Mineral Face Lotion SPF 55, Isle Body Oil SPF 30, Isle Lip Balm SPF 30, and Deepwater Body Créme.
BLACK ENTERPRISE spoke to Harlow about her entrepreneurial journey and the importance of diversity in the beauty and fashion industries. See what she said below.
BE: What inspired you to become an entrepreneur?
My experience on that shoot really empowered me to make a change in the industry. Growing up visiting my dad in Jamaica, sunscreen has always been something that’s been really important to me, and I was determined to create a solution for the issue of it leaving a white cast. I want people to feel comfortable and beautiful showing their skin while also being protected from the sun. This process has been unlike anything else in my career because every step of the way, I am involved, so while it’s been a lot of work, it’s been the most rewarding because it’s a product that I truly created from scratch.
BE: You’ve raised $6.5 million from investors to start this company. What was that process like?
The fundraising process was unlike anything I’ve done before! Looking back, I think my passion and my belief in this brand was truly the most successful tactic. It’s so easy to slap your name on a product, but when you really believe in your product, it’s so much easier for others to believe in you, too.
BE: What would you tell young people struggling to embrace their differences?
I was bullied and taunted so much growing up, so I understand firsthand how it feels to struggle to embrace your differences, but these differences don’t define us. Headlines and reports have often referred to me as someone who “suffers from vitiligo.” I don’t suffer from this; I am a model. And I happen to have vitiligo. And it’s important to remember that our differences are what make us unique and beautiful.
BE: Why are diversity and representation important in the fashion and beauty industries?
I think often people look at diversity and representation as a box to check. We are all unique and different, and if we don’t embrace that, what do we have? I often hear the term “new norm” around inclusion and diversity, but really, this is the norm and always has been; it’s just finally coming to the surface. Avoiding tokenism or one-off trends is really important to me—I want to use my diversity to help make meaningful and impactful changes that truly open doors and change the beauty landscape.
BE: You’ve graced the cover of countless magazines, launched your own beauty brand, and changed the face of beauty. What’s next for Winnie Harlow?
I am constantly on the move between my modeling work, fashion appearances, and work for my brand Cay Skin—and I don’t foresee myself slowing down anytime soon. We have new products launching for Cay Skin in 2023, and I can’t wait for everyone to see them. There’s still so much I would like to develop for the brand, and it’s been such a fantastic journey; I can’t wait to see what happens next!
This interview was lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
For 13 years, Michael Mumbauer was the senior director of visual arts for PlayStation. He co-developed key PlayStation intellectual properties such as “The Last of Us,” “Uncharted,” and “God of War.” The Last of Us, now adapted into a live-action HBO series, is currently one of the more successful game to TV adaptations pulling in higher numbers each week.
BGN sat down with the executive, who is now the founder and CEO of Liithos, to talk about the series, its success, and his opinions of how fans will receive Season 2. To offer some context, “The Last of Us 2” (which Mumbauer worked on), was quite divisive among fans and even review bombed. Mumbauer talks about that and more in this brief interview BGN conducted over a Zoom call with his baby daughter sitting in on his lap.
Can you explain what your role was at PlayStation?
In 2007 it was a group that was established for the early PlayStation days. If you played any old games back then, all the cinematics were pre-rendered at the time. I got there in the PS3 era, when rendered cinematics were starting to phase out.
That group was almost about to close because it didn’t really serve where the PlayStation was headed necessarily. I came in and revamped the group with a new vision of doing more code development. I had a vision of the group kind of being like the ILM [Industrial Light and Magic], right? If you know ILM, for Lucasfilm — I had a vision. I had a vision of being a key partner for dev teams.
The first dev team that I really wanted to tackle was Naughty Dog. I started there and started building up an animation team — after “Uncharted” is when I got there. “Uncharted” was a smaller team, and then everything started to expand in terms of resources and all the games started doubling in size at PS3, so I got started building an animation team that mimicked what I learned on the film side.
I kind of brought a film level production process that Naughty Dog really appreciated that we started there. And then I started building performance capture pipelines and promo capture. Which means instead of just capturing bodies, you’re actually developing the space to be more of an acting space. Then I built what ended up being the code of “Last of Us Part I” team.
In a nutshell it was my vision [for my team] to be the ILM of video games and relatively speaking, I think that we achieved it. I think that it’s still pretty effective, in terms of supporting all these triple A-cinematic productions that PlayStation is known for.
You worked on “The Last of Us” video game as well as “Uncharted” — both very popular video games adapted into live action IPs. However, each was received differently critically, and I’m curious to know why you think that was? I know you work on the gaming side, but I just want your opinion on it.
It’s rare to see things like “The Last of Us” get that level of critical achievement both in the game and film side. I think what you see on film in a movie like Uncharted feels more consistent with what you normally see in films. Critics are a little bit harsher. Look at the reviews you get on things like Fast and Furious, they don’t rate high but they’re billions of dollars in success. What do you rate success as? Critical success or financial success?
“Uncharted” [the video game] was an amazing financial success for Sony. So I think it was very successful. In terms of like why The Last of Us [the TV series] [did better], I just think it’s the material. And it’s an HBO drama. When you put a show on HBO, you already know it’s gonna be amazing.
The other thing is people come in with high expectations, but they also know that HBO is likely going to do the material very well. Look at Game of Thrones. I think that it was intelligent for Sony to align with HBO because of that expectation. I’m just giving you a fan opinion basically saying that I think it’s a smart move to make a show on HBO.
HBO announced that there’s going to be a Season 2 of the live action series. The second game came with some very mixed reviews. Do you think that they may do some course-corrections or changes based on gamer feedback?
I mean pure speculation, to be honest, I think that the team had a clear vision for what they wanted to do. I think that because it was hitting some social hot button issues, that it was inevitably going to get some accelerated discussions. And I think it’s a good thing.
From my perspective, I think that the challenge that video games have as an industry is that we’re not comfortable yet. We’re slowly getting more comfortable telling stories with characters that are more diverse, which we shouldn’t be uncomfortable about. I think that the hope is that this [diversity] becomes more normal.
I think representation is a good thing. I think we need more of it. It’s just tough when you’ve got an industry that is traditionally, if I’m being honest, white male protagonist driven. It’s a tough transition. I wish it wasn’t to be honest.
Do I think they will “course-correct”? I don’t think there’s anything to course-correct. I think that “The Last of Us 2” is one of the most awarded games of all time. It’s hard to think about course correcting something that is already a massive success. I don’t think if they were trying to pander to a different base, they would have made that game. I think fortunately for us, they didn’t think that taking a brave step is maturing the industry.
What are you most proud of so far from seeing the success of HBO’s The Last of Us as someone who was involved in the development of this game?
I’m just proud for the teams. I’m proud of my old team at Visual Arts who had a hand in the creation of something that I think will be remembered in pop culture for a very long time, maybe beyond our lifetimes.
Like what The Godfather did in film. I always believed that “The Last of Us” had that impact in games. It became The Godfather of gaming. And I think it’s maturing the industry in a positive way. And I am just so proud of the team that helped to bring that to the world and so thankful they’ve gotten to work with Naughty Dog, who is one of the best game developers on Earth. I’m just so thankful for them that they’re getting this reception. They make incredibly high quality art and people appreciate it and that’s a good thing.
The Last of Us airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. on HBO and HBO Max.