Author: Mike Gold

One of the very few entry portals to the world of comics is coming to an end.

Disney Adventures, the monthly supermarket digest magazine containing a huge chunk of original Disney-related comic strips, will be ending its 17 year run with its November issue. This comes despite an increase of ad pages and a circulation of 1,200,000 copies – making Disney Adventures one of the highest circulation comics magazines in America.

Disney has had some success with their occasional comics-only Comics Zone editions, and one hopes this might continue. The publisher says they will be adding a new title or two to their line-up.

There are very, very few ways young readers come across comics; outside of Disney Adventures, only the sundry Archie digests come to mind. Once again, we’re left wondering how the next generation of Americas are going to discover the comics form.

Perhaps… the Internet?

As the next season of Doctor Who is prepping up for shooting, casting information is flowing fast and furious. London’s News of the World reveals Joan Collins, of Dynasty and Star Trek fame, will be playing arch-villain The Rani.

The Rani appeared in the classic series twice, first with Colin Baker in "The Mark of the Rani" and later with Sylvester McCoy in "Time and the Rani." She was played by Kate O’Mara who, coincidentially, played Joan Collins’ younger sister in Dynasty.

The Rani marks the third Gallifreyan to survive obilvion by the Daleks. The News of the World calls Collins’ Rani as "Alexis Colby with a sonic screwdriver."

No word yet on when Series Four is expected to start, but it is likely it won’t begin until late April or May, after Series Two of Torchwood has completed its run.

Long-time Batman fan Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont will be appearing in next year’s movie The Dark Knight.

This isn’t the first time the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee has been involved with the character, having done voice acting on the Batman cartoons and having written the preface for The Dark Knight Archives Volume One (his piece was ghost-edited, by the way, by ComicMix’s editor-in-chief). His compensation will be donated to charity.

No word on whether Leahy’s been signed to any sequels.

According to Outpost Gallifrey, at a convention in New Zealand the Seventh Doctor, Sylvester McCoy, stated Peter Davison, the Fifth Doctor, is going to appear in a multiple Doctor episode this coming season. He did not say that he, McCoy, would be appearing, nor did he say that any of the other surviving Doctors (other than David Tennant, of course) would be in attendance.

As usualy, the BBC has no comment. The original series offered at least three shows where previous incarnations of the Doctor popped up to help save – and/or confuse – the day.

Thanks to our pal Lisa Sullivan for the lead.

The London Sun reports Oscar winning Sir Ben Kingsley is in "final" negotiations to join Doctor Who this coming season to play Davros, the man behind (and later inside) The Daleks.

Kingsley’s credits include Schlindler’s List, Twelfth Night, and Gandhi, for which he won the Oscar.

Ha! Make you look!

Mark Gordon, the man who’s making the Green Arrow and Masters of the Universe movies, is also hard at work bringing Voltron to the big screen. Gordon’s the exec behind such stuff as Grey’s Anatomy, Saving Private Ryan, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.  Fox’s New Regency hopes to squeeze a new franchise out of the deal. Justin Marks (Fast Forward, The Unbroken) is writing.

Hmmmm. Do you think Transformers‘ success had anything to do with it? Two more Transformers movies are in the works.