Monthly Archive: February 2009

Today’s list of quick items that don’t fill a full post on their own:

• This online TV thing really is taking off: Lost Finds 1.4 Million Viewers On ABC.com. Read the entire thing and get a look at how the TV landscape is changing, and more importantly, how the new rules don’t apply any more.
   
• With newspapers downsizing, even Clark Kent can be laid off. See Robert Cass, Rob Tornoe, Matt Manochio, and David Willis.
   
• Spent some time poking around PODcomix, which does fine art prints from a number of comics pros. Here’s where you can buy the Nexus painting.
   
• A Giant Midwest Mecca of Action Figures in Oklahoma from Wired. Also: How Comics Can Save Us From Scientific Ignorance.
   
• And sadly, Chuck Crayne, a major figure in the history of science fiction conrunning, passed away on Monday, February 16, on his 71^st birthday. File 770 has a great writeup of who he was and what he accomplished.

Anything else? Consider this an open thread.

Today’s list of quick items that don’t fill a full post on their own:

• If you haven’t read it yet, you simply must: about DIGITAL COMICS by ~Balak01 on deviantART. Now this is the way to think about digital comics, none of this clutch cargo animation going around. Marvel, take note.
   
• Matt Smith locked into Doctor Who role with £600,000 deal. And most importantly, it’s a five year deal.
   
• Missed this one: Two more actors reported to be in line for The Flash — and one of them is Neil Patrick Harris, who already voiced the Flash in New Frontier.
   
• And speaking of Neil Patrick Harris, Trinity College in Connecticut is running live performances of Dr. Horrible. Everybody, sing along!
   
• “Spider-Man” Arrested In Israel:
  

  “Cops were called to the scene after receiving a flurry of calls from gridlocked commuters near the Rosh Ha’ayin intersection who reported a man in a Spiderman costume throwing ropes at cars, the improvised lassos presumably meant to substitute for the web-crawler’s famous mechanical web-shooters.”

  When the individual woke up in the hospital, he said that he had no idea where the costume came from.

  Clearly, this is going to be the evil costume’s fault. Via Haaretz
  

• My favorite non-comics story of the day: Police: TV exec beheads wife who filed for divorce.
   
• Joss Whedon to receive SFWA Bradbury Award. Created in 1992 by then-President Ben Bova and named after famed author and screenwriter Ray Bradbury, the Bradbury Award is a special president’s award presented for outstanding genre-themed work in a dramatic medium. "Like everyone who picks up a pen, I was a rabid Bradbury fan and as greatly influenced by him as any other writer I read," Whedon said. "To receive the award named for him is an honor I’d not dreamed of. In my defense, it didn’t exist back then. What did exist were the very lovely, very twisted and very human stories that warped my impressionable mind, and that I have tried, in whatever medium they will let me, to measure up to." Whedon will be honored during the Nebula Awards Weekend in Los Angeles, California, April 24-26, 2009.

Anything else? Consider this an open thread.

NY-based web producer For Your Imagination announced a major marketing deal with Warner Bros. theatrical arm to promote Watchmen. As part of the 6-figure deal FYI will integrate the movie into the storylines of a quartet of shows including Abigail’s Teen Diary, The Retributioners, HungrymanTV’s Phistophicles and the latest installment of Kyle Piccolo: Comic Shop Therapist. Take a look at the first of three new episodes:

Michael from FYI mentioned to us: "As part of our integrated sponsorship with Warner Brothers new film ‘Watchmen’ we have embedded easter eggs throughout the video that will lead viewers to more cool Watchmen content. The easter eggs, powered by Innovid, appear throughout the episode and are the beginning of what we think will be a revolution in terms of how we create video for the internet. Of course the show itself includes all sorts of Watchmen references and images too."

Today’s list of quick items that don’t fill a full post on their own:

• Cartoon Network has committed to 26 episodes of Marvel Super Hero Squad, to begin broadcasting in late 2009.
   
• Apparently, the classic romantic comedy of manners is just not considered to be of sufficient interest anymore. First, Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy were battling zombies; now, they’re facing an alien invasion. Where’s the reverse of this trend? When do they put “Mars Attacks—and Hosts an Afternoon Garden Party” on the schedule?
   
• The BBC plans to put Doctor Who on stage.  (Wow, and it worked out so well for that other beloved British property, The Lord of the Rings. Heck, maybe Coraline will prove me wrong.)
   
• Dragonball purists will no doubt be disappointed to learn that Goku will be played by a 26-year-old in the live-action film Dragonball Evolution. However, fans of James Marsters—who’s portraying Goku’s foe, Lord Piccolo—are probably salivating at the slashy opportunities that this choice offers. Let’s face it, slash is a fine manga/anime tradition; plus, that episode of Buffy Season 6, in conjunction with that episode of Torchwood Season 2, suggest that Marsters is making a career of playing characters who confuse fighting with foreplay (and that’s definitely not a bad thing…).
   
• Cardiologist needed at the Satellite of Love (or its current equivalent), stat! Mike Nelson, formerly of MST:3K, now of RiffTrax, is spending the month of February on an all-bacon diet.  He’s not allowed to add any sauces or condiments to the bacon, either, which seems an unwarranted restriction, because how can you go on an all-bacon diet without trying Bacon Explosion?

Anything else? Consider this an open thread.

Amy Goldschlager is an editor for FindingDulcinea.com.