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All-New Super Friends Hour – Season 1, Volume 2 Due in January

allnewsprfriendshr-s1v2-6275796Warner Home Video has announced a January 27 release for All-New Super Friends Hour – Season 1, Volume 2. The 32 adventures will appear on a two-disc set retailing for $26.99.

The All-New Super Friends Hour
immediately resonated with fans and became a huge ratings success for ABC. Using combined powers, cunning and wit, the Super Friends fight for truth and justice and save the day with the reminder that good will always triumph over evil. Each thrill-packed hour includes four exciting and suspenseful episodes as the Super Friends battle unthinkable dangers. Interactive segments with magic tricks, health and safety tips and puzzles, are just a few cool extras that this thrilling collection boasts!

DVD special features include:

"The Wonder Twins Phenomenon" – Over 20 minutes of bonus content with segments exploring Zan and Jayna’s impact on pop culture.

"The All-New Super Friends Hour – Season 1, Volume 2 is yet another electrifying installation to one of DC Comics’ most beloved series," said Amit Desai, WHV Vice President of Family, Animation & Sports Marketing. "Warner Home Video is thrilled to provide fans with 32 action-packed episodes of the Super Friends on their quest to save humanity."

 

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NYCC Names Living Legends Guests

The New York Comic Con has announced that it will honor artist Al Plastino, inker Joe Sinnott, and writer Marv Wolfman as “Living Legends” at the 4th annual New York Comic Con, which will take place from February 6-8 at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City.  All three Living Legends will participate in convention festivities and make limited appearances at select panel discussions and autograph sessions.
 
Al Plastino, who was born in New York City in 1921, began working in comics as an inker and penciller during the “Golden Age” of comics in the early 1940s.  In addition to inking Captain America and Sub-Mariner, he drew Green Lantern, Rocketman and Dynamic Man.  After WWII, Plastino joined DC Comics where he helped to develop Superman spin-offs such as Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes with writer Otto Binder.  In the late 1960s he began work on a succession of syndicated comic strips including Batman, Nancy and Sluggo, and Peanuts.
 
Joe Sinnott has worked for Marvel Comics for 58 years.  He is perhaps best known as Jack Kirby’s inker on the Fantastic Four, but he has enlivened a host of Marvel characters over the years and currently inks the Spider-Man newspaper strip.
 
Marv Wolfman, who is at present working on the DC online MMORPG with Jim Lee, was born in Brooklyn in 1946.  He has written comics, movies, TV shows, animation, and children’s books, and won numerous awards for his works.  Among his most famous creations are Blade and the New Teen Titans.

A Qualified Positive Notice for ‘Dollhouse’

Time magazine’s television critic,  James Poniewozik, has posted the first review for Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse, which will not air until February 13.

He wrote, “It was both better and worse than I expected, in different ways. One of my concerns about it was that — given Joss Whedon’s talent for making absorbing serials — the case-of-the-week nature of the show would make it harder to grow attached to. (I’m assuming that anyone who cares at this point knows the premise already, but in case I’m wrong: Eliza Dushku plays Echo, an "Active," which is a person who has agreed to let a secretive organization erase his or her original memories and personality and implant new ones in them for "assignments" involving rich clients.)

“Yes, this is certainly Joss Whedon trying to do What People Think Works on Broadcast TV Today—the legendary serial-procedural hybrid. But the first episode—in which Echo is imprinted with a kidnapping-negotiator’s personality to secure the return of a rich man’s abducted daughter—is well enough written to be absorbing. Writing a crime hour doesn’t seem like Whedon’s thing, but the episode is tight, suspenseful, with intriguing psychological twists and flashes of Whedonesque humor.”

He is concerned that the show “is less a series concept than an actress’ showcase, a sort of extreme version of an Alias undercover premise.”

Still, he’s optimistic about the series and its future, concluding, “But for me, the main draw now is not seeing Dushku become a different person every week, but getting to see Joss Whedon become a different writer every week.”

NBC Trims “Knight Rider’

NBC wound up trailing the other networks by a day with their midseason announcements.  Among the details is the coveted post-Super Bowl slot going to an hour-long episode of The Office.

The following day, February 2, Chuck will air it’s 3-D episode and Heroes kicks off its new volume.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, NBC has reconsidered its commitment to the underperforming Knight Rider.  Early encouraging ratings prompted the peacock network to give the show a full season pick up.  Ratings flattened once people realized the show wasn’t very good.  The producers trashed half the cast but ratings tumbled before the revamped episodes could air and now the order has been cut back from 22 to 17 with the season and likely series finale set for February 25.

After 15 years, ER closes its doors to new cases on March 12 with a two-hour finale that is said to be filled with flashbacks throughout the years to acknowledge the ever-changing cast. The following week, Kings from Michael Green, will debut with a two-hour opening installment.
 

‘The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E.’ Coming to DVD in March

Now that Warner Home Video has released the complete Man from U.N.C.L.E  in a handsome package, Paramount Home Video has announced a March release for The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E, the 1983 reunion telefilm.

Robert Vaughn and David McCallum reunited for the story which brought in fellow spy Patrick Macnee to head the espionage  agency.  George Lazenby makes a cameo, driving an Astin martin and listed as “JB”. Geoffrey Lewis and Keenan Wynn also starred.

The plot is described as “The criminal organization THRUSH steals the A-bomb H975 and demands $300,000 to be delivered within 72 hours by their former antagonist Solo. So U.N.C.L.E. has to reactivate the super agents Solo and Kuryakin after they were 15 years out of business to take down THRUSH once and for all…and save the world.”

TV Shows on DVD reports the 97-minute story will be released on March 3 with extras, if any, to be announced at a later date.

‘Smallville’ Duo to Make Directorial Debut

Al Gough and Miles Millar are experienced writers and producers but now will make their directorial debut on Disney’s Salisbury from their own spec script according to Variety.

Since leaving Smallville, they have been active including signing a first-look deal with Disney, where they just produced Hannah Montana: The Movie for the studio.  They also wrote draft scripts for Iron Man, Spider-Man 2, and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. They are at work on a movie based on the Jungle Cruise theme park attraction. For Warner, they are adapting Robotech for the big screen.

Salisbury is the name of a fictional town where the story takes place but the studio is keeping the plot to themselves after acknowledging there will be supernatural elements. The projected budget is $40 million with casting about to begin. Production should begin in 2009 with a 2010 release date anticipated.
 

ComicMix Radio: Another Zuda Bombshell

We swing over to DC’s Zuda Comics site for a talk with the guys who brought The Black Cherry Bombshells on line and to the top of Zuda’s Must Read List, plus:

  • Dark Knight already the best selling movie and it isn’t out yet
  • NY ComicCon salutes more comic greats
  • Judge Dredd lives on as an RPG

All that and more – but only when you Press the Button
 

 

And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via badgeitunes61x15dark-6162640 or RSS!

 

‘True Blood’ Updates

HBO has announced a May 12 DVD release for the first season of True Blood, the acclaimed series based on the Sookie Stackhouse novels. The five-disc set will retail for $59.99 with no extras announced.

True Blood chronicles the backwoods Louisiana town of Bon Temps…where vampires have emerged from the coffin, and no longer need humans for their fix. Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) works as a waitress at the rural bar Merlotte’s. Though outwardly a typical young woman, she keeps a dangerous secret: she has the ability to hear the thoughts of others.

Sookie’s situation is further complicated when the bar gets its first vampire patron – 173-year old Bill Compton (Steven Moye) — and the two outsiders are immediately drawn to each other.

Adapted from Charlaine Harris’ The Southern Vampire Mysteries by creator and executive producer Alan Ball the series proved to be a growing phenomenon, just the sort of thing HBO has needed.

Meantime, production on the second season is already underway with a summer return being eyed, confirmed in part by the May release of the DVD set. Entertainment Weekly’s Michael Ausiello wrote this week, “Not only is there fresh Blood on the way, there’s also fresh… um, blood. The vamp hit is on the hunt for a new series regular to play Sarah, the pleasure-seeking missus of Steve Newlin, the Fellowship of the Sun’s big kahuna. New semi-regulars are also being sought for six-episode arcs as Daphne, Merlotte’s new waitress (and Sam’s likely new love interest), and Luke, a burly twentysomething who’s as dedicated to religion as Jason is to sex.”

Michelle Forbes (Battlestar Galactica), has been upped to series regular.

Finally, Mr. Skin named Lizzy Caplan (Cloverfield) top nude actress on television for 2008 given her character Amy’s frequent naked moments.

‘Flash Forward’ Gains Cast

Casting continues for Flash Forward, the proposed ABC series based on Robert J. Sawyer’s science fiction novel.

The novel is being adapted by David S. Goyer (Blade), who will likely direct the pilot, Brannon Braga (Enterprise) and ABC Studios. The trade says the novel “chronicles the chaos that ensues after everyone in the world blacks out for two minutes and 17 seconds and has a mysterious vision of the future that changes lives forever.”

ABC has high hopes for the pilot which may become a companion series for Lost for the 2009-2010 television season according to the trade.

Joseph Fiennes (Schindler’s List) is set to play Mark Banford, “an FBI agent who is patching up his life and his marriage after winning a long struggle with the bottle. Disturbed by the harrowing premonition during his blackout, he races to unravel the mystery, fearful of the murky future that might spell disaster for himself and his loved ones,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

John Cho (Star Trek) will play “Dominic Witten, a dedicated FBI agent who is Mark’s partner and friend. His experience while unconscious was an absolute blank, which doesn’t bode well for his own future as he realizes he might be murdered.”

They join the previously announced Courtney B. Vance (Law & Order: Criminal Intent) and Jack Davenport  (Pirates of the Caribbean). Vance will play Stan Wedeck, the Los Angeles bureau chief of the FBI while Davenport will play Lloyd Simcoe, who is trapped in Northern California when the event occurs and struggles to reach his son in a Southland hospital.

Forry Ackerman Tributes

Jim Warren worked with Forest J Ackerman since 1958 and they founded Famous Monsters of Filmland together. They last appeared in public at this summer’s Comic-Con International but Warren flew west to see him one final time this month. He provided us with the following:

Forrest J. Ackerman was in a class by himself.  You don’t have to tell this to anyone who knew him or his work. You don’t have to tell anyone Babe Ruth was a great hitter.

Our fifty-year relationship was also in a class by itself. I found Forry Ackerman the man was every bit as interesting as Forry ackerman the talent. Now he’s gone. But the talent still lives. The words he wrote for Warren Publishing will be read and savored for as long as memory and words exist.

The King is dead. No other King can take his place.

Harry Knowles, Ain’t it Cool News

Uncle Forry as many Ackermaniacs referred to him, was for me, my ghoulish Santa Claus. He didn’t live at the North Pole or even the South Pole, but at a magical place called the Ackermansion – and it was my visit there in 1993 changed the direction of my life. My father and I had been life long collectors and fans of all thing cinematic – but it was Forry’s Famous Monsters of Filmland issue 2 that forever put my father on the path to all things geeky cool. He found a load of 7500 issues of Famous Monsters of Filmland in San Antonio, that were in their original shipping bundles that the San Antonio PTA pressured the local distributor not to distribute. Well those 7500 issues were stacked against my far bedroom wall as a young child – the lurid photos convinced me that I had to know what the text said and my father would sit with me, reading Famous Monsters of Filmland to me as a child. Once I could read, I read every issue I could get my hands on. BUT it was that encounter at the Ackermansion that stuck with me. All at once I looked and thought… "What a life!" Looking at the ephemera, the mementos… this wasn’t a fictional Bat Cave or Fortress of Solitude… this was a truly real location, where I real life character invented wholly by himself created a lair more fantastic than any dreamt of in fiction.

I didn’t want to live in the Ackermansion, but I wanted to be in a lair of my own construction, surrounded by the sort of things I loved and I wanted to express that passion with the equal level of unabashed love that Forry did. I’m very different from Ackerman, and so not worthy, he is and always will be one of my fondest inspirations. That final conversation I had with Forry is a warm and sad memory that I will carry with me for the rest of my days.

Jessie Lilley, Mondo Cult

When I met Forry, back in 1990 or thereabouts, I was like a kid on Christmas Morning. Stammering and making a total ass of myself I’m sure. Over the years, he and I have laughed, chatted, sung duets at conventions, danced (!) and most exciting of all for me – we worked together.

I worked with Forry when I was still publishing Scarlet Street. When I left, he asked me if this was a Warren/Ackerman sort of thing, because if it was, he’d follow me and leave SS. I told him it was personal and between Richard Valley and myself and he should stick with SS ’cause it was a good book and had a damned good editor. He laughed and said, "Well, okay Wonder Woman. If that’s the way you want it." And he and Richard worked together for all these years. After one of his birthday parties, I went back to the house and schmoozed a bit with Richard and Tom and Forry beckoned me over after awhile to ask whether the hatchet had yet been buried…. "in Mr. Valley’s head?" I almost choked. "No Forrest," said I, "nor will it be. Richard only has one head and I think he should keep it whole and where it is." Or words to that effect. He patted my hand and said, "Now you know why I continue to refer to you as Wonder Woman. What is you name, anyway?"

I also have the good fortune to have worked with Forry on Mondo Cult. He gave Brad and me a wonderful piece on King Kong in issue 1 and of course, he’s all over issue 2 as well, in photographs from The Boneyard Collection and such.

Forry and I drove to Kelly Freas’ funeral together. We talked about everything under the sun there and back again. He asked me to lunch at the House of Pies and I had to decline as I was expected elsewhere very quickly. He sighed and said, "Jessie, you have to promise me something. When you drive home from my funeral, stop and have lunch at the House of Pies for me, will you? If you don’t I’ll come back and haunt you."

Other thoughts and comments can be found at the Classic Horror FIlm Board.