Category: News

MoCCA karaoke (no, it’s not a new yaoi title)

(Cue the citizens of Tokyo running in the streets and screaming AIEEEEEE!)

This Saturday, June 6, sing your heart out after MoCCA at Live Rock N
Roll Karaoke, presented by the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund & The Beat!

The
party starts at 7 PM at M1-5 in Tribeca. Rock Star Karaoke NYC provides
the live backing as you belt out your favorite Karaoke tunes. For a
full song list visit: http://rockstarkaraokenyc.com/songlist.html

A donation of $5 – $10 is asked for admission. Show your current year CBLDF member card and get a free poster!

Heidi sez, “With a proud tradition of unorthodox karaoke choices, we
look forward to the first annual ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ Mocca Sing
Off!'”

What: Live Rock n Roll Karaoke
When: Saturday, June 6, 7 PM to 10 PM
Where: M1-5, 52 Walker Street, between Church & Broadway
Why: Support Free Speech & Sing Your Heart Out After MoCCA!
How Much: $5 to $10 suggested donation
How To Get There: Take the 6; J, M, Z; N, Q, R, W, A, C, or E to Canal St

And if you’re really lucky, you’ll hear me sing too. (Cue the screaming Japanese again.)

David Carradine: 1936-2009

David Carradine,
best known as the star of the 1970s TV series Kung Fu who also had a wide-ranging
career in the movies, has been found dead in the Thai capital, Bangkok. News reports said he was found hanged in his hotel room and was believed to have committed suicide. He was 72.

Since every other obituary is going to mention his role as as Kwai Chang Caine in the 1970s television series Kung Fu and the 1990s spinoff Kung Fu: The Legend Continues as the grandson of his original character, and every other genre site is going to mention his role as Frankenstein in the original Death Race and his role as Bill in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill, we’d like to take a moment and remember him for a different role– as Woody Guthrie in the Hal Ashby film Bound For Glory:

Marvel vs. DC: E3 Edition!

In case you’ve been under a rock, or don’t pay any attention, this week the Electronic Entertainment Expo has been showcasing some fancy new titles due out soon for the current generation (that being the Sony Playstation 3, and Microsoft Xbox 360… sorry Wii-Heads) of video game systems that should tickle comic lover’s thumbs.

From DC’s mighty utility belt comes Batman: Arkham Asylum. Produced by Rocksteady Studios, and published by the fine folks who gave the world Lara Croft’s shapely rear end life, Arkham Asylum lets wanna-be detectives put on the digital cape and cowl for a rousing round of villain destruction. Falling somewhere between Splinter Cell‘s stealthy kill-em-up, and God of War‘s thumb-destroying beat-em-up, the game features an original take on the Grant Morrison penned graphic novel. Players will take Bats through multiple levels (all inside the aforementioned loony bin) in what appears to be a final fracas with the clown prince of crime. Voice actors from Bruce Timm’s seminal animated series provide audible lift to what easily appears to be the best iteration of the Dark Knight’s digital gaming experience. While hands on reports mention some sloppy camera work still be worked out, the game is slated for release at the tail end of August… giving them enough time to work out the kinks. Let’s just hope there’s no multiverse twist at the end, eh?

From the House of Idea’s comes another sequel in the celebrated ‘dungeon-crawler’ epic: Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2: Electric Boogaloo. OK, it’s not an electric boogaloo… but what UA:2 is, is a continuation of Vicarious Vision’s long running franchise that’s looking to make the true leap to the next generation from its Playstation 2 / Xbox roots. UA:2 takes place in the current-ish comic storyline (Civil War anyone?) and allows players to take the reigns on some of Marvel’s most popular characters. Want to smash and bash as the Hulk? Go ahead. Want to pilot some mighty armor as Iron Man? Hit the X button pal. Not a fan of the classics? No problem. UA:2 brings Matt Gargan’s Venom, Deadpool, and the mighty Juggernaut as potential playable characters. Players will get to make their own teams, and take them into battles across several Marvel stalwart environments, from Latveria to the Barack Obama-Spider-Man-fist-bumping Washington D.C.. While Activision is hush-hush on an official street date for now, look for the Ultimate Alliance 2 to hit your local gaming emporium in the fall.

For more information on E3, and the scads of games being played by people more important than us, feel free to head to the official site.

BBC America goes HD July 20 with lots of SF, including ‘Torchwood: Children Of Earth’

BBC Worldwide will launch BBC America HD, the hi-def simulcast of BBC America, on July 20– and they’ll be rolling out a lot of science fiction during their first week:

  • The five part Torchwood: Children of Earth will debut July 20 at 9 PM and air Monday through Friday.
  • That Saturday, July 25, Primeval has its third season finale at 8 PM and Being Human premieres at 9 PM.
  • Then on Sunday, the first of the last four David Tennant Doctor Who specials runs at 8 PM.

So if you can’t make it to San Diego, you get a few things to compensate. And if you are going to San Diego, you better hope your hotel has HD and BBCA HD.

Comics-Op

How ungentlemanly of me. I’m late in pointing out the new column by the Occasional Superheroine Valerie D’Orazio over at Comixology, the new Comics-Op. She’s actually doing something new for comics blogging, it’s called “interviewing the principals in a news story for a column”. I think it might catch on.

The Point – Pat Cooper Sez Comedy Sucks!

For over four decades, PAT COOPER has made audiences laugh, but when it comes to the state of comedy today, Pat isn’t amused. His no-holds-barred opinion on today’s comics is red hot plus DOCTOR WHO gets a companion at last and something BIG is going on with CAPTAIN AMERICA #600!

PRESS THE BUTTON to Get The Point!

And be sure to stay on The Point via badgeitunes61x15dark-4419971, RSS, MyPodcast.Com or Podbean!

Bleeding Cool debuts

So. The longest running comics column on the internet has now become the newest comics blog on the internet, Bleeding Cool.

If we bloggers were truly as high school as everyone claims we are, we’d be taking the new transfer student’s lunch money. And while that’s tempting, we shall refrain. Rich Johnston will have enough grief learning how the blog will become a 24-hour a day time suck, eating up every last piece of his life until there is nothing left, lurching around as a shambling mass that will make his former sickly British constitution look like a California muscle man in comparison. Not that we know anything about that, hack cough wheeeeze.

I mean, if he’s already resorting to mentioning Susan Boyle on the first day, just to get Google traffic…

We will, however, pick on his logo. Black bleeding? Have you been rereading Frank Miller’s Elektra again? It doesn’t cost anything extra to print red on the Internets.

BookExpo America 2009 recap

As with any convention, a lot of fast, disjointed thoughts kicking around. In no particular order:

  • The most action at the con was in the Diamond Comics aisle and the e-publishers area. Other areas seemed quieter.
  • There seemed to be fewer freebies this year. A lot, in fact. When asking about getting on the press list, most publicists were relieved when I asked for PDFs over paper copies.
  • One paper copy I did get was a preview of IDW’s upcoming adaptation of The Hunter by Darwyn Cooke, taken from the Richard Stark (Donald Westlake) Parker novel. Having read the thing and knowing that they haven’t printed the final version yet, they should just save time and print “Future Eisner Award Nominee” on the cover now. Barnes & Noble is going to move a lot of these babies. (Disclaimer: IDW will be publishing the print version of ComicMix projects, and they picked up the tab for lunch on Friday. We tried, but Ted Adams insisted.)
  • DC did not have an official presence at the con, which considering the amount of backlist books they do is very surprising. Marvel and Diamond did, and seemed to be well rewarded for their efforts, with many people showing up for signings and even more showing up later on Saturday for the finger food and drinks. (Sorry you missed it, Alan.)
  • Lines for comics creators were very long. Neil Gaiman made a “surprise” appearance at the Harper Collins booth signing The Graveyard Book and handing out previews of Odd And The Frost Giants (I say surprise because I don’t remember seeing it on his blog).
    Marvel’s signings for Peter David and Chris Claremont went strongly, Chris estimated that he went through about two and a half boxes of X-Men Forever. I lost track of how many Oz books Skottie Young and Eric Shanower went through.

  • Over at the Image booth, Frank Cho and Chris Giarusso moved a lot of copies of their books as well.
  • The crowd seemed a bit older, even for BEA. Not sure if it’s an actual age difference, or if the young folks got fire from publishing houses, or if everyone at traditional houses were just muted this year.
  • There will be photos surfacing of me and Torsten Adair. I will not say which of us is the evil twin.
  • I had two publishers who knew me from my days as an e-publishing pioneer come up to me and say that their sales in paper were flat and the only bright spots were in e-publishing. Nice to know I’m remembered as a prophet, even if it’s taken a while to get there.

All in all, a decent, if not spectacular, trade show. Always fun to see many of my colleagues in a much less frenzied venue than San Diego or even Wizard World. Hopefully I’ll be recovered in time for MOCCA this weekend. Oy.

Oh, one final shot– this is from Thursday’s CBLDF party, with Denis Kitchen, Heidi Macdonald, Milton Griepp, and ComicMix alumnus Rick Marshall ordering a drink– no doubt steeling himself for the upcoming hell week starting with the MTV Movie Awards and ending with his name being pinned to an idiot in a major motion picture. Pray for him.