Happy 87th birthday, Ricardo Montalban!
Khaaaaaaaaan!
(What, you thought we were going to go with a Mr. Roarke reference? Get real.)
Happy birthday to the man, the myth, the Montalban. And yes, those really were his muscles in Star Trek II.
Author: Glenn Hauman
Happy 44th birthday, Doctor Who!
On this day in 1963 on BBC television at 5:15 pm, viewers saw a notice about the assasination of John F. Kennedy, and then saw something not unlike this:
…and with that, Doctor Who began its 44 year hold on England’s psyche, racking up the title of longest running science fiction television series, and after a brief respite it shows no signs of slowing down. No longer a victim of creative low budget special effects, the show’s addictive formula, excellent casting and impressive cameos have made it a household favorite across the pond, and a closet favorite at home.
Happy birthday, old man.
Happy Thanksgiving!
And while Santa Claus is toodling down Broadway and we start playing Alice’s Restaurant, we bring you the wise words of Warren Ellis:
Don’t forget, my Yanqui readers, the true meaning of Thanksgiving: give your neighbours an infected blanket this Thursday and then move into their houses after they’re dead.
Eat hearty, give thanks, and if the Lions game bores you, take some time and read some comics.
Happy 87th birthday, Stan the Man!
No, not Stan Lee, his 87th birthday isn’t until December 2009. Today is the birthday of Hall of Famer Stan Musial, #6 for the St. Louis Cardinals with a .331 lifetime batting average, and a man so respected in the game that Brooklyn Dodgers fans never booed him at Ebbets Field.
Happy birthday to the Donora Greyhound!
When Black Friday comes…
This week it’ s all about the shopping (and maybe that eating thing, too, but…) – ComicMix Radio kicks it off with our preview of new comics and DVDs that hit your stores even before the bird is stuffed or the parade kicks off, plus:
- Valiant keeps bouncing back – this time with some new X-O Manowar
- Captain Marvel and Mice Templar both go *poof*
- Tim Burton & Disney bring back Alice
- Coming Soon – 3-D without those annoying glasses
We’ve even got a link to a sneak peek of Black Friday deals on books & DVDs – so Press The Button!
ComicMix on the con circuit
This weekend, you’ll be able to see a number of ComicMix folks at the National convention in New York City. No idea where we’ll be exactly, but you should be able to recognize us by the old-school ComicMix shirts (or as I like to think of it, the Earth-2 version of our logo). Stop by and say hello, particularly if you’ve got any good stories.
Meanwhile, I’ll be down at PhilCon in Philadelphia, appearing on a number of panels (the favorite so far looks to be "Ninja, Pirate, Mad Scientist, Robot!") and hyping my new book, Star Trek Corps of Engineers: Creative Couplings. I just received a copy of it from Simon & Schuster, which means it should be available for sale any day now, and it makes a lovely Christmas present for that Star Trek fan in your life. (Buy heavily. Daddy needs a new passenger side mirror for his car.)
And contrary to popular belief, it’s not true that the reason I’m going to PhilCon instead of the National is because Hayden Pantierre took out a restraining order against me. Get your scurrilous Internet rumors right, people. Kristen Bell did.
Then next week, a large number of us will be heading to Mid-Ohio Con, where we’ll be making some announcements about some upcoming projects. Watch this space…
More on Marvel’s subscription service
In an interview between ICv2 and Marvel president Dan Buckley, the following exchange takes place:
Do you plan to put up all new issues of the titles that are on the "Current Favorites" or "Young Reader Series" lists?
No, we do not plan on putting up the new issues of "Current Favorites" nor do we plan on keeping complete runs of top selling trades like Astonishing X-Men up on the site for prolonged periods of time.
Did you catch that? We don’t plan on keeping complete runs up for prolonged periods of time. In other words, they plan to remove titles after you’ve already paid for your subscription. If those titles are too successful, you should go out and buy the trade in addition to the money you’ve already paid for the subscription. Nice.
And from our earlier article about Marvel’s new online archive, we quoted Marvel president Dan Buckley from USA Today saying "We did not want to get caught flat-footed." What he should have said is that Marvel didn’t want to get caught flat footed with the Internet again.
Marvel has never been the fastest company to adopt to the Internet. They weren’t the original registrants of marvel.com, for starters. That had already been registered by a software company in Washington by 1995, and later had to be acquired by legal manuverings. Nor were they the original registrants of what the obvious fallback name was, marvelcomics.com.
I was.
Happy 38th birthday, Sesame Street!
On this day in 1969, the National Educational Television network premiered a show from the Children’s Television Workshop, with songs, animation, Carol Burnett, and Muppets. Thirty-eight years later, Sesame Street has become the longest running American children’s program, having helped educate generations of children worldwide.
The effect of the show is so powerful and widespread, this song made it up to #16 on the Billboard charts in 1970:
Happy 35th birthday, Rebecca Romijn!
On this day in 1972, Rebecca Romijn was born in Berkeley, California. After a successful career as a swimsuit and lingerie model, she made the transition to acting, appearing in such movies as Femme Fatale and Rollerball, as well as The Punisher and all three X-Men films as Mystique.
Currently, she’s appearing on Ugly Betty as a– well, never mind, it’s too preposterous. And I’m saying that after watching her do backflips in full-body blue makeup.
Happy birthday to a woman many have referred to as the Jolly Blond Giant. I don’t know why, she seems like a nice normal height to me…
