Category: News

Well, now we know what Catherine Hardwicke meant when she said she turned down directing the sequels to Twilight because of a "punishing schedule".

Twilight opened on the pre-Thanksgiving weekend last year and will do the same this year with sequel The Twilight Saga’s New Moon (yes, that’s what they’re named now) but The Twilight Saga’s Eclipse is now scheduled to open Wednesday, June 30, 2010, laying claim to the 4th of July weekend. That’s a fast production schedule for theatrical movies.

On the other hand, maybe they just don’t want the actors– or the target audience– to outgrow the films in the time it might normally take to make them.

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

• Hugh Jackman to Do Oscars Drunk and Nude. Okay, maybe that would deserve a post of its own, if only it were true. Still, the post from E! Online wins headline of the week around here. Also, Ricky Gervais will write some of Hugh’s Oscars gags.
   
• If you’re a fan of anime, manga and/or other Japanese pop culture in New York City, run, don’t walk to BookOff in Midtown – they’re having a 20% off sale on almost everything in the store until the end of this month.  This emporium for used Japanese language books, CDs, DVDs, manga and videotapes ALSO has a substantial selection of good-condition second-hand materials in English. Their usual US edition manga prices are around 40%-50% off  and the current sale takes the percentage off of that. They also sell $1 books and $3 CD’s, which don’t get the 20% discount but what the hey, those prices are already a steal.

  Since it’s second-hand, the selection is kind of catch-as-catch-can, but this reporter always ends up walking out of the store with SOMETHING cool. Just make sure you give yourself a strict spending limit…this reporter also has been known to get a little carried away with the bargains.

• Are your pop-culture tastes more Anglophile than Japanophile? (Or, hey, it’s OK to be both — I loves me my Monty Python as much as my Mobile Suit Gundam) you will want to keep your eyes on BBC America. Ashes To Ashes, the BBC sequel/spinoff of the  time-travel (or something) series Life on Mars (the Americanized version of which is currently airing on ABC) will begin airing on the cable network in March. Check your cable or satellite system for BBC America On-Demand — you can catch a 25-minute sneak preview of the first episode of Ashes to Ashes now.

• DOCTOR WHO MEETS THE BIONIC WOMAN! Well, no actually, it’s actually pictures from the set of the new Doctor Who Easter special, which also features Michelle Ryan, late of last year’s Bionic Woman reboot.

• And, getting back to anime, in case you haven’t heard — a new Full Metal Alchemist TV series is coming in April!  The scuttlebutt seems to be that it will explore the continuity of the manga that diverged from that of the original TV series.

Anything else? Consider this an open thread.

It’s our Official Toy Fair 2009 debriefing with some of the finest action figures we’ve seen yet including Strangers in Paradise, Dick Tracy and even The Wolfman. And by the way, someone out there forgot to buy their comics in January and the numbers showed it. Even the President couldn’t stimulate this, 

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Yes, I have a bit of history with comic books and condoms. (Go ahead, Google my name with "condom". I’ll wait.)

But even I wouldn’t have thought of this one.

Lord help us, it’s the Dr. Manhattan condom.

No, I don’t know if it glows in the dark.

And we hear another scream from Northampton, England…

Hat tip: Valerie D’Orazio’s new Comic Book Junction.

It’s been said that Barack Obama’s web-savvy would help the economy, and now we have proof.

ICv2 reports: "Marvel’s Amazing Spider-Man #583 rode President Obama’s coattails to a record-setting total of 352,953, making it the bestselling full-price periodical comic book since ICv2 began tracking sales through Diamond Comic Distributors in 2001.  Previous high numbers belong to Marvel’s Civil War #3 and Captain America #25, which each sold 290K, but unlike those titles ASM #583’s performance was the result of not just multiple variant covers, but multiple printings–in fact it appears likely that the majority of ASM’s sales came from subsequent printings not its initial run.  And, for anyone who thinks that the Obama cover was not the primary sales driver, please note that prior to the Obama story and cover image, the title had been selling south of the 70,000 mark.  The sales for this title may not be all over–the fourth printing of ASM #583 shipped in February along with the fifth printing."

Now all we have to do is get Obama to crossover into every single comic published. I bet they’re already discussing it in editorial offices across the land, though it’s going to be tough to slip him into an issue of Jonah Hex.

UPDATE 3:15 PM: Looks like President Awesome has already predicted this.

I was wondering what sort of licensing tie-ins could be possible for Watchmen, but here’s one I didn’t expect. Watchmen photographer Clay Enos has enlisted his Organic Coffee Cartel  to produce a first-of-its-kind movie tie-in coffee. Yesterday, OCC introduced Veidt Enterprises’ “Nite Owl Dark Roast,” a limited-edition confection and collectible designed for fans and organic coffee gourmands alike. A portion of the proceeds from the special roast will be donated to charity.

One side of the uniquely crafted steel can resembles artwork straight out of the Watchmen universe; the other side features Enos’ striking black & white portrait of Nite Owl, played in the film by Patrick Wilson. There will be just one run of cans produced, to enhance collectible value.

“Making an imaginary coffee into something real seemed like a fitting and fun way to honor the multi-layered world of Watchmen. And having a majority of profits go to charity seems a little like something Adrian Veidt would do,” says Enos.

Further adding to the excitement, the OCC is sponsoring a contest for one customer to win two tickets to the Los Angeles premiere and after-party for Watchmen on March 3rd, 2009. Orders must be placed before February 26th, 2009. Details and contest rules are here.

“Zack Snyder and the other filmmakers got behind the coffee idea early on and suggested the contest to me. I am so excited by the idea of making someone’s day not just with great coffee but with an opportunity to be a part of the celebration for the highly anticipated film,” says Enos.  “It’s a dream in the making.”

“Nite Owl Dark Roast” Coffee is only available online while supplies last through the OCC’s webstore. (Hat tip: Ellen Abramowitz of Mocha– er, MoCCA.)

YIVO’s “Comics and the Jewish American Dream” interview series (moderated by Danny Fingeroth) concludes tonight at 7:00 pm with Harvey Pekar, creator of American Splendor. Go and see where Joaquin Phoenix learned how to behave on Letterman.

Admission at the door has been dropped to $10. All you have to do is say the secret word: “HARVEY”.

Tuesday, February 17, 7:00 pm
The YIVO Institute For Jewish Research
15 West 16th Street / New York, NY 10011
212-868-4444

Crogan’s Vengeance
By Chris Schweizer
Oni Press, October 2008, $14.95

The Crogan family – I’m reliably informed by this book’s end-papers – has a long and storied history of adventure, with private eyes, minutemen, ninjas, biplane pilots, old West gunfighters and French Foreign Legionnaires lurking around every bend of the family tree. (Though, apparently, no women have ever been spawned by the fecund Crogans, nor, possibly, deemed necessary to birth all of these generations. Perhaps that’s what drove all of these desperately lonely men to adventure.) This particular book, first in what could easily be a long series, focuses on “Catfoot” Crogan, patriarch of the clan (or at least the earliest figure on the endpapers – I wouldn’t lay odds against Schweizer turning up a Sir Lionheart Crogan, crusader, at some future point), a pirate at the turn of the seventeenth century.

But we don’t begin directly with Catfoot; instead we get a frame story of a modern doctor telling the story to his young son – which is slightly infantilizing for a book rated “Teen: Age 13+.” Even more damning to those over thirteen, it’s a story with a lesson. So there’s immediately a disconnect: Catfoot’s story is both (according to the publisher) restricted to readers over thirteen, and suitable for a boy of about eight (as depicted in the story). The frame story is short, and charming, so it doesn’t do any damage…except among teenage boys, a major audience for a story about pirates, since they will never admit to liking charm. I can see why Schweizer has the frame story – it’s his set-up for the whole series, all of which can be family histories told to this preternaturally history-savvy grade-schooler – but it flattens and domesticizes his story in a way I don’t think he wants. (more…)